AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS (M.Sc, Ph.D)

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS (M.Sc, Ph.D)

Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension are primarily aimed at developing the appropriate high level manpower required to fill academic, managerial and leadership positions in the administration of agricultural development programmes and policies in the agricultural sub-sector of the global economy. The programmes also aim at developing the research skills and knowledge necessary for the sustenance of growth in the academic disciplines subsumed in Agricultural Economics with various options in:

• Agricultural Resource Economics
• Farm Management and Production Economics
• Agricultural Marketing
• Agricultural Co-operatives
• Agricultural Finance
• Agric-Business

Course Work: Students would be required to register for a minimum of 34 credit units (which includes seminar& thesis). The courses to be registered for will be from the following groups:

FIRST SEMESTER

Compulsory Courses

Course code               Course Title                           Units

AEC701          Micro – Economic Theory                3

AEC702          Advanced Statistics                           3

AEC703          Research Methods                            3

AEC710          Seminar                                              2

 

Optional Courses

Course code	Course Title	Units
AEC704	Advanced. Agric Resource Economics	3
AEC705	Advance Agric Production Economics	3
AEC706	Agric Credit and Finance	3
AEC707	Agric Marketing & Business Finance	3
AEC708	Advanced Agricultural Cooperatives	3
AEC709	Agricultural Insurance	3

 

SECOND SEMESTER

Compulsory Courses

Course code	Course title	Units
AEC711	Advanced Quantitative Analysis	3
AEC712	Macro-Economic Theory	3
AEC713	Advanced Econometrics	3
AEC720	Thesis	10

 

 

Optional Courses

Course code	Course title	Units
AEC714	Management of Agricultural Enterprises	2
AEC715	Water Resource Economics	2
AEC716	Agricultural Development & Policy	2

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AEC717	Advanced Project Appraisal & Planning	3      |
AEC718	International Trade In Agricultural Commodities	2
AEC719	Agricultural Price Analysis	2

 

Note:  Candidates will be required to register at least two courses from among the courses prescribed in the respective options:

Agricultural Resource Economics

Advanced. Agric Resource Economics	(AEC704)
Advance Agric Production Economics	(AEC705)
Water Resource Economics	(AEC715)

 

Farm Management and Production Economics

Advance Agric Production Economics	(AEC705)
Agric Credit and Finance	(AEC706)
Management of Agricultural Enterprises	(AEC714)
Advanced Project Appraisal & Planning	(AEC717)

 

Agricultural Marketing

 

Agric Marketing & Business Finance	(AEC707)
International Trade In Agricultural Commodities	(AEC718)
Agricultural Price Analysis	(AEC719)

 

Agricultural Cooperatives

Agric Credit and Finance	(AEC706)
Agric Marketing & Business Finance	(AEC707)
Advanced Agricultural Cooperatives	(AEC708)
Agricultural Development & Policy	(AEC716)

 

Agricultural Finance

Agric Credit and Finance	(AEC706)
Agric Marketing & Business Finance	(AEC707)
Agricultural Insurance	(AEC709)
Advanced Project Appraisal & Planning	(AEC717)

 

Agri-business

Agric Credit and Finance	(AEC706)
Agric Marketing & Business Finance	(AEC707)
Agricultural Insurance	(AEC709)
Management of Agricultural Enterprises	(AEC714)

 

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

AEC701 -Micro Economic Theory (3 Units)

Theory of consumer behaviour; theory of supply and demand; theory of the firm; market structure and competition theory of price and distribution; general equilibrium analysis; fundamentals of welfare economics.

AEC702 -Advanced Statistics (3 Units)

Probability and random variables – independent and joint distributions and their expectations; central limit theory; analysis of variance; multiple comparisons and economic application of stochastic process; principles of sampling theory as developed for use in sampling surveys – sampling procedures (simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, systematic sampling, cluster sampling, nested sampling); Sources of errors in sampling-surveys; construction of economic models for empirical analysis; linear and curvi – linear models; regression and correlation analysis.

AEC703 – Research Methods (3 Units)

Steps in the research process and their application; Evaluation treatment of economic data in agriculture with emphasis on methods of analysis and relations among variables. Sources of data and data collection procedures; research designs in social research; data generation with emphasis on field surveys; analyzing data and reporting results elements of computer programming.

AEC704 -Advanced Agricultural Resource Economics (3 Units)

Economic analysis of agricultural resources including availability, exploitation, pricing, evaluation, conservation and management with particular reference to those relating to agriculture such as energy (both urban and rural), land resources, water resources, environmental management for urban and rural recreation.

AEC705 -Advanced Agricultural Production Economics (3 Units)

Theories of production; agricultural production functions; resource returns and production in agriculture; agricultural cost and supply functions; optimization of production and farm equilibrium; farm planning and linear programming; efficiency and innovation in agriculture.

AEC706 -Agricultural Credit and Finance (3 Units)

A surveys of the place of credit and rural finance in Agricultural development strategies; income statement, the balance sheet and cash flow statement, flow of fund analysis. Financial leverage. Compounding, discounting and capital budgeting. Cost of capital. Financial analysis and control. Financial markets and agricultural lending. Formulation and appraisal projects.

AEC707-Agricultural Marketing & Business Finance (3 Units)

Marketing – scope, concept and meaning. Agricultural marketing in the context of global economic development. Supply and demand aspects of agricultural products. Marketing margins and marketing structure and institutions, consumer behaviour, international trade in Agricultural products, agricultural price analysis, pricing decisions and policy, advertising and promotions; marketing institutions – co-operatives, marketing boards and other organizations, financing agricultural marketing institutions.

AEC708-Advanced Agricultural Co-operatives (3 Units)

Evaluation of Co-operative theory, doctrine and principles; structure and types of modern co-operatives; members interest, goals and participation in co­operatives. Concepts and policies for the promotion of co-operatives. Management and Administration of co-operatives; cooperative financing; trend in co-operative law.

AEC709- Agricultural Insurance (3 Units)

Nature of risk and uncertainly in agriculture; alternative risk management techniques in agriculture, insurability of agricultural risks, objectives and types of crop insurance schemes, importance and forms of livestock and other farm enterprises, farm property and farm engineering insurance, personal and liability insurance for farmers. Principle, procedure, organization and operation of the Agricultural Insurance Schemes Method of premium and indemnity calculations.

AEC710 – Seminar (2 Units)

Independent paper to be presented by the candidate on any problem of interest to the student. Paper should address contemporary problems and issues in agricultural economics in any developing country.

AEC711-Advanced Quantitative Analysis for Agric Economics (3 Units)

The nature of mathematical economics, variables, numbers, functions, relations and graphs. The concept of set. Rules of differentiation, differentials. Integration, Linear model and matrix algebra. Partial market equilibrium. Comparative static analysis. Optimization problems.

AEC712 – Macro-Economic Theory (3 Units)

The mechanics of national income determination; demand for and supply of money; investment demand, classical prince level; monetarists view of income and employment; wage-price dynamics, growth theories and theories of technical progress; general equilibrium systems and welfare theory.

AEC713 – Advanced Econometrics (3 Units)

Basic concepts in Economics; simple linear regression model, violation of basic assumptions, consequence and remedies. Multiple regression and correlation, simple equation problems. Formulation and estimation of special models; models with binary variables; models with restricted coefficients, non-linear models etc. simultaneous equation system. Special problem area and seminars.

AEC714 – Management of Agricultural Enterprises (2 Units)

Advanced treatment of establishing farm business ventures and management principles; the theory of the firm production, plant management and location analysis, layout planning and material handling; purchase and inventory. Production and marketing analysis, distribution channels; consumer analysis, production marketing planning and control, government regulation services and public policy. (Case studies)

AEC715 – Water Resource Economics (2 Units)

Water resources management including irrigation, transportation. Taxonomy of Fisheries: Marine and fresh water fishery resources, Economics of fish farming, yields from aquatic resources – maximum sustainable yield; sea and freshwater fishery degrees.

AEC716-Agricultural Development and Policy (2 Units)

Analysis of policy processes; Barriers to change – economic, sociological and political. The role of agriculture in World economy systems of agriculture. Theoretical models of agricultural development. Constraints to development. Approaches to development. Techniques of economic analysis for agricultural development. Agricultural policy.

AEC717-Advanced Project Appraisal and Planning (3 Units).

Definition and classification of project and project evaluation, concept of investment, project evaluation, stages and forms of project formulation and evaluation, evaluation of project from the standpoints of private enterprise and national economy, inter-relationships among projects, project evaluation and macro planning, accounting prices and shadow prices; alternative methods of evaluating Agricultural projects. Treatment of environmental accounting.

AEC718 – International Trade in Agricultural Commodity (2 Units)

The concepts comparative advantage terms of trade, inter-regional specialization and balance of payments; Analysis of price trend, volume, value and composition of trade of major agricultural commodities; Tariffs and other restriction on World Trade in Agricultural Commodities; effects of major regional grouping on world trade in Agricultural commodities.

AEC719-Agricultural Price Analysis (2 Units)

Principles of price determination; Demand for agricultural products including demand elasticity’s and price flexibility coefficients; Supply relationships in agriculture; Price determination in theory and practice; Price differences and variability; Marketing margins for farm products; Price differences associated with quality; Spatial price relationships; Price differences associated with services; Price variation through time including the cobweb model; Bahaviour of aggregate farm prices pricing institutions; Mechanism for establishing farm prices; Commodity futures markets; Government intervention in pricing farm products; Empirical price analysis; Price indices including parity prices; Price forecast based on observed trends, seasonal cycles, moving average, the balance sheet, graphs and empirical demand and supply relationship.

 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) PROGRAMME

The Ph.D Degree program is research oriented and aimed at preparing candidates for research careers in institutions of higher learning and higher valued agricultural enterprises. To qualify for admission into any of the programmes the candidate must possess the M.Sc. Degree in the relevant field of study from Prowess University or any other accredited university recognized by the regent.