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Following decades of isolation, Myanmar’s continuing transition to democracy, peace-building, and economic liberalisation has resulted in sustained economic growth and subsequent reductions in poverty. Although Myanmar’s economy is underpinned by its agricultural sector, agricultural productivity and profitability are among the lowest in Asia, leading to higher rates of poverty in rural areas. With almost 70% of Myanmar’s population engaged in agriculture, small-scale farms are critical leverage points for improving the livelihoods of farm and non-farm households. In 2017, the New Zealand government approved a five-year project to upgrade agri-food value chains to strengthen rural livelihoods in the Tanintharyi Region of Myanmar. Embedded within this livelihoods project, this research incorporated action research methods to select upgrading interventions that target small-scale farmers in the pork value chain. Small-scale farmers in the project’s target villages face multiple production, processing, and marketing constraints and system shocks that result in poor quality products that are not viable for higher value markets. Traditional pro-poor upgrading approaches primarily rely on qualitative and descriptive data collected through a one-time “snapshot” of the value chain. However, the search for interventions to upgrade smallholder agri-food value chains needs tools that consider the dynamic and complex nature of the chain while allowing for trade-off analysis to strengthen pro-poor decision-making. This research used participatory spatial group model building tools to engage a diverse group of stakeholders to identify and describe the dynamic processes in the pork value chain system. A quantitative system dynamics model of the pork value chain was constructed to account for critical feedback loops, structures, and relationships in the system. The model integrated modules of animal production, marketing, investment, finance, knowledge, credit, and collective action. The latter two modules represent new innovations in agri-food systems modeling. Once validated, the model was used to conduct a comprehensive ex-ante impact evaluation of potential pro-poor upgrading interventions, including trade-off analysis across diverse performance indicators, value chain actors, and temporal horizons. Results showed that technical upgrading activities implemented along with novel producer group arrangements brought sustained financial benefits to target communities and outperformed the short-term gains generated by these activities in the absence of collective action. A distinct rank order of individual technical interventions emerged: (1) establishing animal health workers, (2) microcredit, (3) technical training, and (4) artificial insemination. The model showed that a well-sequenced, multipronged approach with these technical activities enabled a larger number of poor households to benefit from pig livelihoods while also reducing risks from environmental and economic shocks. The model’s results determined the upgrading strategy of the project: establishing producer groups whose members are empowered to produce hybrid pig breeds for the burgeoning domestic premium pork market. The institutional arrangements underpinning the producer groups must be investor-friendly to encourage investment in value-adding assets and continued patronage by members. The study demonstrated how a systems dynamics model can engage the complexity within agri-food value chains using spatial group model building tools to identify critical problems and relationships in the system. Moreover, it demonstrated the merit of integrating such models into rural development projects that require ex-ante information about value chain interventions that best sustain growth in smallholder incomes.

In the last decade, in an attempt to overcome the many unique and varied problems faced by New Zealand's primary product industries, statutory Boards, mainly representing producer interests, have increased the levels of promotional support for their products, particularly those destined for the domestic market. This escalation of industry sponsored promotion has not been matched by research efforts to accurately measure the benefits that many have claimed result from such promotional efforts. This study, through the use of econometric techniques, attempts to measure the effect of industry promotion on demand for pig-meats in New Zealand over the last decade. The consumption of pig-meat is modelled through the use of both sales and market share functions, before and after significant levels of industry sponsored promotion, in an attempt to identify any changes in consumer purchasing behaviour that may have resulted. This is in contrast to many overseas studies which have directly estimated the actual promotional response function. The results lead to the conclusion that little evidence could be found to support the hypothesis that product group promotion has significantly increased the consumption of pig-meat in New Zealand. However, this must be classified as a preliminary result and the study makes detailed recommendations about further research which would lead to better management of the promotion programme.

This thesis describes an econometric investigation of the New Zealand, pig-meat market over the period 1969 to 1979. The objective of the study is to provide policy-makers within the pig industry with a model of their industry that can be used to improve their ability to anticipate and respond to problems facing the industry. In particular, the study is concerned with providing policy-makers with a tool which can be used to improve their ability to reduce instability in the pig-meat market. The transition from dairy by-product to grain ration feeding of pigs appears to have aggravated price and production instability in the industry and this problem is now major concern of policy-makers. This study describes the impact of the transition from dairy by-products to grain ration feeding of pigs as well as the causes and consequences of the associated increase in production and price instability. A 20 equation model of the market is specified that describes production, consumption, price formation, imports, exports and stock changes at various levels of disaggregation. This model is estimated using quarterly data for the period 1968 (fourth quarter) to 1979 (second quarter) and the two stage principal components estimating procedure. The estimated model is evaluated using simulation analysis. In most respects the performance of the model described in this study is satisfactory. It is able to reproduce cyclic behaviour when all of the exogenous variables are held at a fixed level. These cycles are convergent with a mean length of approximately 3.5 years. Although the model does have some problems associated with it, it is useful to policymakers in its present form. Model forecasts should be accurate enough to improve policy-makers' ability to predict many of the important market variables. The model should also prove useful in evaluating the implications of alternative future scenarios as well as the impact of alternative policy decisions on the market. The staff of the Pork Marketing Board have already begun to use the model as an aid to policy making in the industry. Over the last nine months the model has primarily been used to provide quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the impact of alternative scenarios (e.g. increases in feed-grain prices) in the slightly longer term. Interest is also being shown in using the model to evaluate alternative policies under consideration by policy-makers. Research currently underway should help to overcome some of the problems associated with the model and, therefore, extend its usefulness as a policy tool.

The reproductive efficiency of the breeding sow is a major limitation to profitability in the pork industry. Investigations on the treatment of sows with retinol proprionate or retinol palmitate and their effect on reproductive function were undertaken. The objectives of this work were to investigate the transport and storage of this vitamin after injection, the mode of action of retinol on the ovary and the embryo, and the optimal timing of treatment with retinol to increase litter size in the sow.

Among countries with high per capita incomes, the New Zealand economy has one unusual and striking feature, a large proportion of its gross national product is derived from temperate farm product exports. Of the total export income derived from farm products, revenue from meat exports contributes approximately one quarter. The meat producing industry is therefore a very important sector of the New Zealand economy. As could be expected with such an important export product, many investigations of New Zealand's major export markets for meat have been made. Little is known quantitatively, however, about the market forces which operate within New Zealand, although over one third of the country's total meat production is consumed locally. This study is an attempt to measure the impact of forces operating within the New Zealand market, thereby providing basic economic information which has not been available in the past. The usefulness of such information to those concerned with the formulation of economic policy will be sufficiently evident not to require stressing further. Because exports of meat are proportionately so large a part of total production, export meat prices have a strong influence on meat prices within New Zealand. The way in which this influence is exerted will depend to a large extent upon the institutional structure of the New Zealand meat market. It is therefore highly necessary that Chapter 1 of this study examines in broad outline the institutional framework under which meat is marketed in this country. Both the internal and export market structure, and especially their inter-relationship, will be examined in this chapter. Chapters 2 and 3 will be concerned with a postal survey of consumers. The objective of this survey was to examine in detail local consumer attitudes to meat. Chapter 2 outlines the operation of the survey and the question by question results, while Chapter 3 is concerned with the estimation of Engel curves and income-expenditure elasticity from the survey data. One important feature of the survey was that it enabled at least some market parameters to be estimated for meats for which time-series data were not available. The survey therefore provided important information which was available from no other source. In Chapters 4 and 5 the institutional framework will be considered, with the relevant economic theory, in the specification of an econometric model of the New Zealand meat market. Chapter 4 will discuss special points of theoretical importance, and published work of particular relevance to the model. Chapter 5 will detail the New Zealand model specification, and discuss its properties. There are several alternative ways in which the parameters of the New Zealand meat market model could be estimated. A discussion of these alternative procedures forms the basis of Chapter 6. At the conclusion of Chapter 6 the chosen procedures will be outlined, while in Chapter 7 the data and sources for all time-series will be discussed. Some general trends in the data will be considered. Chapter 8 will present the estimated models, and discuss the estimates of all coefficients. Following Chapter 8 a concluding section will examine the achievements of this study. All monetary figures throughout this study will be quoted in terms of £-s-d rather than dollars. This has been adhered to because the study refers to the pre-dollar period in New Zealand.