Agricultural Management Economics: Activity Analysis and Decision Making

Rather than describing production economics and then presenting analytical approaches, this text on agricultural management and decision-making presents the processes of agricultural production and their management in terms of activity analysis, permitting greater integrations of theory and practical evaluations. Analytical tools developed in the book involve the construction of spreadsheet models and readers are able to construct their own PC spreadsheets from the book’s examples and case studies. It presents economic principles which assist in improving the design of agricultural processes and technologies, in guiding their appropriate combination in a business setting, and with the making of decision through time and in recognition of noncertainty. Activity analysis models that allow the design and combination of agricultural activities to be optimized are also discussed. These include single versus multiple objective models, investment models, and approaches that allow decision to be optimized under conditions of noncertainty. The text is aimed at advanced students of agricultural economics, business and management.