Technology transfer in the poultry industry: An examination of supply factors and externalities associated with increased production

Growing populations and rising per capita incomes have led to an increasing worldwide demand for livestock products--in particular poultry. Most countries have attempted to meet this demand by raising domestic production. This dissertation investigates the types of policies that have been used to enable countries to meet this demand, and second the effect of rapid growth in terms of the environment. A supply response function is used to relate poultry supply to a vector of input and output prices and supply shifters related to technology, research, and institutional factors for a group of thirty-six countries over thirty-two years and it is estimated in fixed effects. These analysis indicate that the rate and direction of technology change in the poultry industry appears to reflect the relative factor scarcity of inputs such as the price of meat relative to the price of corn, as well as access to new technologies (hatching eggs and compound feed) and institutional services such as veterinary care. A problem associated with increased production is increased manure, the improper disposal of which may lead to water and air pollution. To determine the extent of the problem, future growth in the livestock industry was extrapolated to the year 2005. From this, total nutrient deposition from livestock and chemical fertilizers in terms of nitrogen (N) and phosphate (P$\sb2$O$\sb5$) was estimated to determine the assimilation capacity for these nutrients on permanent agricultural land for each country. The analysis indicated that a group of countries will face acute problems in absorbing the manure that will be produced by the year 2005 given permanently available agricultural land. A survey of manure mitigation strategies is reported and a wide range of institutional mechanisms that some countries have implemented to mitigate potential problems are discussed. The work concludes with the application of a three-stage induced institutional framework, following the work of Hayami and Ruttan (1985) and Runge (1987) to the historical developments of the poultry industry so as to aid policy makers to understand the trade-offs between increased poultry production and the environment