Agricultural Economics Course Outline

Time given 1. Introduction

1.1. Definition and scope of agricultural economics
1.2. Specific features of agricultural production
1.3. Main attributes traditional agriculture
5 hours 1.4. Agricultural system
1.4.1. Low external input agriculture (shifting cultivation, pastoralism, peasant
agriculture)
1.4.2. High external input agriculture (the case of industrials and green revolution
agriculture)
2. Economics of agricultural development
2.1. Changing view/ perspectives of the role of agriculture since 1950
2.2. The classic role of agriculture in economic development
2.3. agricultural transformation and development
7 hours  the need for agricultural transformation
 phases of agricultural transformation
2.4. Condition for agricultural development
 Technology and innovation
 Conducive institutional and pricing policy
 Education
9 hours 3. Supply response in agriculture
3.1. The conventional supply response model
3.2. The modified supply response in the context of agriculture
3.3. The cobweb model
3.4. Hypothesis in supply response in peasant agriculture
9 hours 4. Technical change in agriculture
4.1. Source of technical change in agriculture
4.2. Characteristics of technical change
4.3. Adoption and diffusion of technologies
4.4. The economics of technical change
4.5. Induced innovation
4.6. Adoption of new varieties
5 hours 5. Agricultural marketing
5.1. Marketing characteristics
5.2. Functions of agricultural marketing
5.3. Marketing agents and enterprises
5.4. Integration and diversification of marketing
5.5. Transaction cost and marketing efficiency
4 hours 6. Agricultural finance and rural credit market
6.1. Why do people demand in rural areas?
6.2. Sources of rural credit
6.3. Characteristics of rural credit market
9 hours 7. Uncertainty and farm decision making
7.1. Sources of uncertainty
7.2. Decision making under uncertainty
7.3. Mechanisms of mitigating risks and uncertainity
7.4. Risk averse peasant
7.5. Drudgery averse peasant
7.6. The sharecropping peasant
Development planning and project analysis
Time given 1. The evolutions of development paradigm and planning
1.1. Evolution of development thinking and planning
1.2. The meaning of development planning
1.3. The rational for development planning
1.4. The need for planning in Ethiopia
1.5. Requisite for successful development planning
2. Classification of development planning
2.1. Development planning by direction and inducement
2.2. Short term, medium term and long-term development planning
2.3. Fixed and rolling development planning
2.4. Physical and financial planning
2.5. Perspectives of planning
3. Strategic planning and its application
3.1. Strategic planning definition frameworks
3.2. Strategic planning and management process
 External analysis
 Internal analysis
 SWOT analysis
3.3. Implementing and evaluating strategies
4. Quantitative development planning techniques
4.1. Characteristics of quantitative development planning techniques
4.2. Aggregate consistency planning model
4.2.1. The Harrod Domar growth model
4.2.2. Two-gap model
4.3. Disaggregated consistency planning model
4.3.1. Input-output planning model
4.3.2. Social accounting matrix (SAM)
4.3.3. Linear programming model
5. Development planning in practice
5.1. Experience from Ethiopia and other developing countries
5.2. South Asia development experience
5.3. Latin America development experience
5.4. OECD countries planning experience
International Economics