Smallholder maize cultivation is prevalent in the marginal areas of India, under diverse agro-climatic conditions. Abiotic stress tolerant maize cultivars are expected to be highly beneficial in reducing the production risks and enhancing farmer livelihoods, especially in the face of climate change. Nevertheless, the adoption and production risk implications of any of the crop varietal technologies in the marginal areas of India have not been widely examined. In this paper, we analyse the case of hybrid maize adoption, using data from a survey of 340 maize-growing households from three stressprone regions in India. Hybrid maize adoption varies from 33% to 99% in these locations. A probit model is used to assess the factors determining adoption. The outcomes of hybrid maize adoption are examined in terms of yield and profitability, employing mean-variance analysis. We find a clear superiority of the hybrid technology with respect to yield enhancement, per-unit cost reduction and risk reduction only in one of the study locations. Our findings indicate significant economic potentials for developing abiotic stress tolerant maize cultivars for India’s marginal environments.
The implementation of the decentralisation policies in Indonesia, which started in 2000, has fundamentally changed the country’s forest governance framework. This study investigates how decentralisation has influenced forest governance, and links the forest governance to deforestation rates at the district level. We measure and compare the quality of forest governance in 11 districts in Central Kalimantan province in the periods 2000-2005 and 2005-2010 and relate forest governance to deforestation rate. This study shows that decentralisation has led to marked differences in forest governance between districts and that deforestation rates is strongly related to the change of forest governance. We recommend revisiting the Indonesian forest governance framework to ensure more checks and balances in decision making, better monitoring and increased transparency, with particular support for Forest Management Units as a new tool for forest management, and government support to facilitate the design and implementation of REDD+ projects.
This paper analyses the adoption of organic farming under fair trade marketing practices and its impact on household income of black pepper (piper nigrum) farmers in India. We use a set of panel data, collected from 300 smallholder farmers who plant black pepper as their main crop in 2010 and 2011.The aim of the paper is to investigate the use of panel data for adoption models using the case of organic and fair trade certified black pepper in Idukki district, Kerala, India. We compare two adoption models: (i) a multinomial cross-section logit applied for both survey years separately and (ii) a panel multinomial random effects logit model. The panel adoption model which allows capturing unobserved heterogeneity in adoption decisions was found to be superior over the cross section models. We find that farm size and market distance are the major factors that influence adoption. To measure the differential gain of adop-tion, we applied propensity score matching with multiple treatment effects accompanied by sensitivity analysis to test robustness of impact results. Results show that certified organic farmers have a significantly higher income but participation in fair trade regimes does not generate additional monetary benefits.
The study examined returns to scale in 371 dairy farms sampled from different districts in East Africa. First, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied to obtain three types of returns to scale – constant returns (CRS), variable returns (VRS) and increasing returns to scale (IRS). This revealed that 80 percent of the farms were scale inefficient. We find inverse relationship between scale efficiency and their size (measured in tropical livestock units), implying that the prevailing farm inefficiencies were not due to their small size but other farm resource constraints. Second, econo-metric analysis was conducted to explain differences among the farms across the three cases of returns to scale. Zero-grazing emerged as the most important determinant of farm efficiency. The scale efficiency based model fits the data better than the alternative CRS and VRS based econometric models.
Vegetables are sources of vitamins, minerals and income for those involved in production and marketing. Having first-hand information about vegetable production and marketing system is essential to devise appropriate strategies aimed at enhancing vegetable value chain development. It was in line with this view that a study was conducted to characterize vegetable production and marketing systems at selected sites in the humid tropics of Ethiopia. Data were collected using participatory primary survey techniques augmented with secondary data. While the area cultivated to vegetables has been increasing over the years due to increasing consumer demand, average yields are far below potential. Major vegetable production and marketing constraints include: lack of access to improved variety seeds, high postharvest losses, lack of reliable market information systems, low bargaining power of farmers, low technological know-how for value chain development and upgrading, all indicating critical areas of intervention. Increasing public awareness the nutritional importance of vegetables will critically help in reducing malnutrition while increasing smallholder household income.
This article provides some first evidence of the welfare impacts of modern peanut varieties in China using a nationally representative survey. Propensity score matching is employed to address the choice nature of adoption and identify its impacts on peanut yield and multiple sources of income. Impact on income inequality is further simulated by comparing inequality measures using observed and counterfactual income distributions. It is found that adoption of modern peanut varieties significantly boosts peanut income and total household income, but increases income inequality. Therefore, household-level welfare improvement with agricultural technology adoption may not meet the governmental goals such as inequality reduction, and complementary policies are called for.
In Benin, cashew nut represents the second major cash crop after the cotton. It is, therefore, an important source of income in rural areas. Accordingly, we investigated in this paper, the technical efficiency of producers in the management of their cashew orchards. Data were collected on 180 randomly selected producers, in the Central and Northern parts of Benin. We adopted a Cobb-Douglas functional form to estimate a production function using a stochastic production frontier approach. Results show that the cashew nut production in Central and Northern Benin was not optimal. The average technical efficiency score of cashew nut producers was to 0.63 (minimum 0.10, maximum 0.88) with a modal class of [0.70–0.80]. According to these results, the cashew nuts production system in the current settings is very extensive and could be improved through intensive use of labor and capital.
Improving market access and promoting participation in more lucrative markets among semi-subsistence farming households is crucial for poverty alleviation. This paper analyzes joint decisions about market participation and market choices among Bolivian potato farmers. First, stochastic dominance analysis is used to identify market choices that have high pay-off and limited risk; these are referred to as optimal marketing strategies. Second, a system of equations is estimated to identify factors contributing or restricting market entry, volume sold, and adoption of optimal market-ing strategies. Proportional and fixed transaction costs reduce income-generating opportunities associated with markets for all three dimensions considered in this study. Our analysis also suggests the possible existence of poverty traps since fetching higher price requires liquidity and high volume, while land and farm equipment are needed to achieve necessary volumes of production.
This study estimates the adoption gap of NERICA that exists in the population when access to seeds is a constraint. Treatment evaluation technique is applied to con-sistently estimate the potential NERICA adoption rate and its determinants using panel data from a stratified random sample of 515 rice farmers in The Gambia. The results show that the NERICA adoption rate could have been 76% instead of the observed 66% sample estimate in 2010 provided that every rice farmer had been aware of NERICA’s existence before the 2010 rice growing season. However, further investigation finds that if all the rice farmers had been aware of and had access to NERICA seeds, adoption would have been 92%. This reveals that if awareness had not been a constraint, 16% of farmers would have failed to adopt NERICA due to lack of access to seeds. Farmer contact with extension services and access to in-kind credit are significant determinants of access to and adoption of NERICA varieties.
Although theory predicts that better property rights to land can increase land productivity either through long-term investment effects and/or more efficient input use due to enhanced tradability of the land, empirical studies on the size and magnitude of these effects are very scarce. Taking advantage of unique quasi-experimental survey design, this study analyzes productivity impacts of the Ethiopian land certification program by identifying how investment effects (technological gains) would measure up against benefits from any improvements in input use intensity (technical efficiency). We adopted a data envelopment analysis–based Malmquist-type productivity index to decompose productivity differences into (1) within-group farm efficiency differences (technical efficiency effect, and (2) differences in the group production frontier (longterm investment or technological effects). The results show that farms without a land use certificate, on aggregate, are less productive than those with formalized use rights. We found no evidence to suggest this productivity difference is due to inferior technical efficiency. Rather, the reason is down to technological advantages, or a favorable investment effect, from which farm plots with a land use certificate benefit when evaluated against farms not included in the certification program.
We investigate competitiveness and price behaviour in the Israeli citrus export sector following the removal of the government export monopoly and the entry of private export companies in 1991. We identify asymmetric price transmission for some exporters even in the liberalized market which only became symmetric when a minimum price agreement was established by the government in the grapefruit market. Our findings indicate that citrus growers’ seasonal losses resulting from asymmetric price transmission amounted to as much as 4.0% of their total revenues, and a much larger share of their profits. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that the observed asymmetry in price transmission was caused by Israeli exporters exerting market power over Israeli citrus growers. Concluding, our analysis demonstrates that the liberalization of the Israeli grapefruit export market by the abolishment of the government marketing board alone was not sufficient to establish a competitive market. Rather, an additional temporary government market intervention was necessary to foster competitive pricing behaviour by the exporting companies vis-a-vis the Israeli grapefruit growers.
This research study uses a qualitative approach to examine the implementation of the ‘Five Million Hectare Reforestation Program’ (the 5MHRP) in Vietnam, and to explore the underlying reasons for local people’s participation in the program. The study also uses a transactional model to examine the private transaction costs borne by farmers when carrying out forest management activities under the program. The study reveals that: (i) the implementation of the program was generally characterized by a top-down process, (ii) the principal contribution to household benefits derived from forest management activities was the collection and sale of non-timber forest products, not the subsidy provided by the government, (iii) the main challenges faced during implementation of the program were the low and fixed subsidies provided, the improper types of trees being planted, poor access to the forest, and a lack of awareness among local people towards the benefits to be derived from participation in the forest management program, and that (iv) under the program’s community contracts, attending meetings (52%) and self-monitoring activities (35%) constituted the largest proportion of total time spent on forest management, while under the individual contracts, self-monitoring activities (98%) were the main component. Participating in the planting and protection of forests under the program brought greater benefits to households than when involved in forest protection activities alone. The main implications of this study are that an increase of payments under both types of contract, and especially the community contract, as well as the provision of higher quality seedlings and fertilizers, need to be taken into consideration in future initiatives. In addition, local communities and authorities should be further empowered, and their contribution should be taken into consideration in future programs.
This paper describes the participation of smallholders in commercial horticultural farming in Kenya and identifies constraints and critical factors that influence their decision to participate in this industry by selling their produce. The study employs panel survey data on smallholder producers of both international (export) and domestic market vegetables and controls for unobserved heterogeneity across farmers. We find that participation of smallholders in both the domestic and export vegetable markets declined and that this trend is associated with weather risks, high costs of inputs and unskilled labour, and erratic vegetable prices, especially in the international market. Different factors are at play in determining a household's market choice for the commercialisation of vegetables: credit is important only when vegetables are (also) exported, livestock ownership is negatively related to production for the domestic market, and distance to the nearest market town positively related to all pathways of commercialisation, for example.
Poverty has been intractable because policies and programmes are based on static poverty analysis in Nigeria. There is the need for a forward looking approach (vulnerability to poverty) to be adopted in poverty analysis, hence this study. This study investigated the vulnerability to poverty across geopolitical zones in rural Nigeria, using the 2004 NLSS data. The result of the 3-Stage Feasible Generalized Least Squares showed that at the standard vulnerability threshold of 0.5, vulnerability to poverty (VP) was highest in North-east Nigeria (71.0%) and lowest in the Southwest (28.8%). Male headed households (59.8%) were more vulnerable to poverty than their female counterpart (43.9%). The consumption variance index is 0.0326, 0.0481 and 0.0373 in South-south, South-east and South-west which is higher than the national average of 0.0284. While the mean consumption index is 0.0195, 0.0228 and 0.0119 in the North-east, North-west and North-central lower than the national average of 0.0585. Rural households’ vulnerability to poverty varied across the geopolitical zones in Nigeria with the northern part been worse off.
There is lack of consensus in the literature on the impact of contract farming on the welfare of smallholder farmers. Some authors argue that contact farming improves access to markets hence income, while others view contract farming as an avenue by which large corporations exploit smallholder farmers. It is hence seen as a blessing to some but a necessary evil to others. This study examines the factors influencing participation in poultry contract farming in Kenya. It then uses propensity score matching technique to assess the impact of contract poultry production. The study finds, among others, that farmer-specific factors, transaction costs and financial asset endowment affect participation in contract farming. It also finds that contracted farmers earned more net income per bird than their counterparts. It concludes that participation in contract farming practice improves the welfare smallholder poultry farmers in Kenya. The study discusses the policy implications of the findings.
This paper examines price and technology differentials between agroholdings and independent farms in two Russian regions: Oryol and Tatarstan. Both organisational forms receive on average the same product prices which indicates that they have the same market access. Moreover, their technologies are also very similar, as estimated by a risk production frontier. However, differences in the factor input between organi-sational form lead to differences in the shadow prices of the inputs, resulting from the better access of agroholdings to the input markets. The results suggest that production risk, conditions on the product market and inefficiency significantly affect agricultural production. Thus, to improve the conditions, agricultural policy is required to tackle all the issues in parallel using a mix of appropriate policy measures.
This study examines the impact of Integrated Pest Management-Farmer Field School (IPM-FFS) programs on groundnut production in Ghana. The program was conducted in the groundnut regions of Ghana with the goal to improve groundnut agriculture through the dissemination of information and technology to the producers. Several approaches are used to control for selection and endogeneity on household level data collected in 2011 from FFS famers and non-FFS farmers. The results suggest that farmers who participated in the IPM-FFS program have significantly higher groundnut production levels.
This research was carried out to provide empirical information on the relationship between agricultural production and the growth of Nigerian economy with focus on poverty reduction. Time series data were employed in this research and the analyses of the data were done using unit root tests and the bounds (ARDL) testing approach to cointegration. The result of the data analysis indicated that agricultural production was significant in influencing the favourable trend of economic growth in Nigeria. Despite the growth of the Nigerian economy, poverty is still on the increase and this calls for a shift from monolithic oil-based economy to a more plural one with agriculture being the lead sector. It was recommended that pro poor policies should be designed for alleviating rural poverty through increased investments in agricultural development by the public and private sector.
By applying the Coase theorem, this paper attempts to solve a conflict of land management between croppers producing maize on land and herders who breed cattle that needs land to graze on in the Adamawa region of Cameroon. The results indicate that, the herders commit maximum damage when their cattle destroys 3 tons/ha of maize and a compromise is reached when 1.2 tons/ha of crops are damaged. At the latter point, the socially efficient damage is achieved because the herders’ marginal benefit is equal to the croppers’ marginal damage cost (120 million FCFA/ha), so that the net social benefit is 48 million FCFA/ha. From the socially efficient damage, any one ton increase or decrease of crops’ damage would induce the net social benefit to decline from 48 to 14.66 million FCFA/ha. Hence, to safeguard a socially efficient welfare, the government should encourage negotiated solutions between herders and croppers in such region where integrated crop-livestock farming systems are common.
