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We examine the national regulatory framework in Turkey and its interactions with actors at various levels that set the stage for the shift from a Fordist economy to a post-Fordist one. Industrial maize production expanded in the 2000s in the face of a decline in agricultural employment and state-supported conventional crop production. We use the corporate maize industry as a case to demonstrate the change in regulation and its impacts.

Utilizing a strategic-relational approach, we analyze descriptive statistics on agricultural markets, news, sector reports, and archives of national regulation related to agricultural production and the agri-food industry to identify key actors shaping the transformation of maize production.

Actors influencing the national regulatory framework come from international and national regulatory institutions, and transnational and national agri-food corporations. Local maize farmers have actively participated in the transformation, thereby offering consent to the process. The Turkish state manages maize production through its national regulatory regime, but the agri-food industry drives the trajectory.

Adopting a strategic-relational approach contributes to our understanding of the dynamics at work in economic restructuring by shedding light on the interactions between political authorities and economic actors. Following a post-Fordist mode of regulation, the Turkish government uses particular political devices in a strategically selective manner, not overtly to enhance the short-term interests of the agri-food industry, but according to the long-term goal of promoting adaptation of agricultural commodity producers to the post-Fordist capitalist accumulation regime.

State institutions utilize the tools of political intervention in markets to ensure the long-term sociopolitical consolidation and legitimation of the post-Fordist accumulation regime.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impacts of storage losses and market development on the maize-selling behaviours of rural households in China.

Based on the survey data of 543 households from nine major maize production provinces in China, the authors introduce storage losses to a household's maize-selling decision-making model and use fractional logit model and ordered probit model to empirically analyse the impact of maize storage losses and market development on household maize-selling decisions in China. To overcome potential endogeneity problems, the authors select the weather at drying (whether bad weather occurs during the drying process) and harvest loss as instrumental variables and re-estimate the model.

The results show that increased storage losses prompt farmers to increase the proportion of maize sold within three months after harvest and sell maize in advance. Meanwhile, the degree of market development has a significant impact on farmers' maize-selling decisions. Other factors, such as the maize output, non-agricultural employment and awareness of loss control, also affect farmers' maize-selling behaviours.

The government should promote advanced storage facilities, reduce household storage losses, decrease the phenomenon of centralised sales after harvest and help farmers freely choose the suitable time for sales. The government also needs to strengthen market information releases and publicity, reduce transaction costs and help farmers make reasonable sales decisions.

The authors introduce storage losses as a separate variable in a farmer's grain-selling decision model to empirically analyse the impact of storage losses on farmers' grain-selling behaviours. Moreover, the authors analyse the impact of market development on household grain-selling behaviours in China. These findings can help avoid oversupply in the market during the harvest season and alleviate the pressure on the market from the supply and demand imbalance. These results are also beneficial for farmers waiting for a higher price and increasing their income.

Productivity and production risks affect the use of agricultural production practices and inputs, particularly in developing countries. This paper aims to investigate the effects of adopting drought-tolerant maize varieties (DTMVs) on farm productivity, yield variance and downside risk exposure of maize growing households of Zambia.

The study uses household survey data collected from 11 maize producing districts of Eastern, Southern and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia using a structured questionnaire. The Antle’s flexible moment-based approach was used in specifying, estimating and testing a stochastic production function. The study further applied an endogenous switching regression model to control for both observable and unobservable sources of bias.

The study revealed that DTMV adoption increases maize yield by 15 per cent and reduces the risk of crop failure: reducing yield variance by 38 per cent and exposure to downside risk by 36 per cent.

This study establishes the benefits of DTMV adoption in Zambia with regards to productivity, yield stability and downside risk in the face of climate change. Results from this study underscore the need for more concerted efforts to scale-out DTMVs for both maize productivity enhancement and for risk mitigation against weather shocks.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of access to credit on maize productivity in Mali, by identifying the determinants of credit market participation and maize yield, and then estimating the impact of credit on maize yield.

This study analyzes the impact of credit on maize productivity using data from the World Bank 2014 Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) on Mali, and the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model.

The results suggest a positive effect of credit on maize yield in Mali. Farm size, production shocks and the female gender exert negative effects on credit market participation, unlike education, intercropping with cotton, male family labor and fertilizer use which show positive effects. Farm size has a negative effect on maize yield, but both male family labor, and fertilizer use exert positive effects. Although the use of credit improves agricultural yields, the results show a greater potential effect for rationed producers, than credit users.

These results suggest that implementing a credit strategy that allows those currently excluded from the credit market, to participate, could substantially increase productivity and maize production output in furtherance of the country's food security strategy. Gender-based targeting is needed to bridge the gender gap in access to credit.

As far as the authors are aware, this study is the first to explore the credit-farm productivity links in Mali, while addressing selection bias.

Child undernutrition is a persistent problem in Africa, especially in areas where the poor largely depend on starchy staples with limited access to diverse diets. The purpose of this study was to determine the protein quality, growth and rehabilitating potential of composite foods made from quality protein maize.

Four composite diets were prepared from quality protein maize, namely quality protein maize-soybeans; quality protein maize-soybeans-cowpeas; quality protein maize-soybeans-common beans and quality protein maize alone. A fifth diet was prepared from common maize alone. The control diet (Chesta®) was made from maize, soybeans, fish, bone and blood meal. The formulations were made to meet the greatest amino acid score and the desired amount of energy and fat according to the FAO/WHO (1985) recommendation for pre-school children. Albino rats were used in evaluating the protein quality of the formulations.

The food intake was significantly different (p < 0.05) among diets; with a trend of intake decreasing from quality protein maize-based to conventional maize alone diets (apart from the control diet). Protein efficiency ratio and net protein ratio varied significantly (p < 0.05) across the experimental diets. Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) was 80 per cent (quality protein maize-soybeans-cowpeas), 87 per cent (quality protein maize-soybeans), 103 per cent (common maize alone), 98 per cent (quality protein maize), 80 per cent (quality protein maize-soybeans-common beans) and 53 per cent (control).

Two diets, namely quality protein maize-soybeans-common beans and quality protein maize-soybeans-cowpeas, showed the greatest potential to support growth and rehabilitation of undernourished rats. Human trial is proposed to validate the findings.

Despite adoption of quality protein maize in several parts of the country, there are no studies that have been done to determine the potential of quality protein maize to support optimal growth and rehabilitation of undernourished children. The objective of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the protein quality, growth and rehabilitating potential of composite foods made from quality protein maize.

The paper aims to examine impact of adopted maize seed technology on farm profitability. It assesses both the revenue and cost implication of the adopted technology on farmers' welfare. The study aims to expand the domain of farm investment assessment analysis by including a broader range of production outcome indicators than is normally found in the adoption impact on farm profitability literature.

The paper opted for an empirical study using field survey data. A structured questionnaire was used to interview 400 maize farmers across four regions of Ghana. The survey was complemented with focus group discussions in each region with participants representing male and female farmers cultivating maize on a commercial basis. The data captured detail household level (i.e. demographic and socioeconomic characteristics) as well as farm-level information on maize production (i.e. input use and farm output).

The paper provides empirical insights about maize farmers' perception on the adopted maize seed technology and the factors influencing adoption. It also shed light on the fact that maize farmers do not base their adoption decisions solely on farm output and revenue indicators alone, but mainly on the return on their investment and the cost associated with the maize seed technology adopted.

Because of data limitation, the influence of some important actors (market power) could not be directly captured in the analysis; this may lead to over simplification of a very complex situation in the maize sector. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to future investigate the influence of such important phenomenon on farm profitability.

Improving maize productivity and farm profitability across the sectors is important in order to improve farmer income. This study, therefore, highlights the effect of adopted seed technology and its impact on farm profitability.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how investment cost in maize seed technology affect farm profitability.

The purpose of this paper is to discover an effective maize price for trading and policy-making reference by assessing the price transmission of the US spot and futures maize prices to Chinese counterparts.

The authors apply a systematic, quantitative method to analyze the integration between US and Chinese maize markets. Based on the residuals of the variables through error correction model, the directed acyclic graph (DAG) among six price variables is conducted. With consideration of the dependence on and direction of six price variables, the variance decomposition of each variable is calculated.

This paper shows that the vertical price transmission passes from wholesale price to farm-gate price. The horizontal price transmission ranges from spot price to futures price at the domestic market and from the American spot price to domestic spot price, from the American spot price to domestic futures price and from the American futures price to domestic futures price. The American maize spot and futures prices, and in particular the spot price, have greater effects on domestic maize prices contemporaneously. It also indicates that the American spot price is the leader price in the long run at both maize markets.

This paper contributes by using the DAG method in this paper. It also contributes by helping policy makers and market participants find the leading prices and offers insight into ways of gaining power of price setting in the maize market.

The purpose of this study is to examine the biophysical and socioeconomic impacts of climate change on maize production and food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) using adapted improved maize varieties and well-calibrated and validated bioeconomic models.

Using the past climate (1950-2000) as a baseline, the study estimated the biophysical impacts of climate change in 2050 (2040-2069) and 2080 (2070-2099) under the A1B emission scenario and three nitrogen levels, and the socioeconomic impacts in 2050.

Climate change will affect maize yields across SSA in 2050 and 2080, and the extent of the impact at a given period will vary considerably between input levels, regions and maize mega environments (MMEs). Greater relative yield reductions may occur under medium and high-input intensification than under low intensification, in Western and Southern Africa than in Eastern and Central Africa and in lowland and dry mid-altitude than in highland and wet mid-altitude MMEs. Climate change may worsen food insecurity in SSA in 2050 through its negative impact on maize consumption and reduction in daily calorie intake. However, international trade has the potential to offset some of the negative impacts.

The study calibrated and applied bioeconomic models to estimate the biophysical and socioeconomic impact of climate change on maize production at fine resolution. The results could be used as a baseline to evaluate measures that will be applied to adapt maize to the future climate in SSA.

This research investigated the economic feasibility of using maize as feedstock to produce bioethanol in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to generate economic data from a maize-fed bioethanol plant and use it to perform a comparative analysis between the profitability that is generated by the maize exports to Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and the profitability generated by the bioethanol plant in South Africa.

This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data. The mixed method approach was chosen owing to the nature of the study which required an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data in order to achieve its objectives.

The findings from a qualitative instrument indicated that a majority of respondents were in favour of the decision of excluding maize for bioethanol production made by the South African Government. Findings from quantitative analysis revealed that the profitability of the bioethanol plant was largely influenced by the prices of feedstock and bioethanol.

This research was a deterministic feasibility study which ignores the risk associated with price fluctuation of raw materials and products. A probabilistic feasibility study was recommended (Monte Carlo simulation). Such economic data can also help policymakers and investors to make informed decisions.

The study recommended the need to produce bioethanol from the maize cultivated in available arable soils in South Africa, thus alleviating the cost burden of importing oil and obnoxious environmental effects.

Since the start of seed and other market reforms in the 1990s, the annual number of improved varietal releases for maize in Kenya has increased substantially. Prior to the reforms, private firms were restricted in introducing new varieties, could not protect their intellectual property and farmers had to rely exclusively on improved seeds developed and marketed by the public sector. Reforms have resulted in not only private firms entering the market and releasing improved varieties, but also an increase in varietal releases by the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the key policy reforms related to maize in Kenya, and their impacts on varietal development and yields.

The authors estimate a yield model that relates national maize yields to a number of input policy variables. The authors employ a two-stage least square regression, as one of the explanatory variables – the number of varietal releases – is likely endogenous with yield. The authors use policy variables such as public R&D, the number of plant breeder’s rights issued, and the years since private varieties have been introduced as instrument variables to estimate their influence new varietal releases directly, and then new varieties, inputs and other policies to measure their impact on yields.

The results show that policy changes such as the introduction of intellectual property rights had an important impact on the number of improved maize varieties released. However, the outcomes of the policy change such as the number of varieties and the share of area under improved varieties has no impact on increasing maize yields. The authors argue that this is because farmers continue to use older improved varieties because of the dominance of a parastatal in the maize, seed market and that newer improved varieties may not have the assumed yield advantage. Future policy and programs should be directed toward increasing the adoption of improved varieties rather than simply releasing them.

This paper provides evidence that while policy change may lead to new varietal development and release, its aggregate productivity impacts may be limited without additional reforms and intervention.