This study is designed to assess the factors that affect smallholder rice farmer’s participation in market. In addition it also examines the effect of commercialization on the welfare of smallholder farmers. The method of Heckman two-stage model is used to obtain the desired objectives. Random sampling technique is used to collect data from 249 smallholder farmers. Result of the study indicates that gender of the household head, age, number of family member who assist in farming, household size, vocational training, and the farmer being landlord and farm size were the major determinants of market participation. The welfare of the farmer depends whether the farmer participate in the rice output market. The result also indicated that rice output, off-farm income, access to credit, and income from the sale of rice were important factors influencing the welfare of the household. The participation in market can be increased by providing subsidized prices for their production, cold storage houses, vocational training, introducing new technology, increasing contact with extension agent and providing genetically modified seeds.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that affect rural household food security in northern area of Pakistan. The random sampling technique was applied to collected data from 294 rural households through a face to face interview. A binary logistic regression technique was used to determine the factors that influence household food insecurity. The results of our study revealed that age, gender, education, remittances, unemployment, inflation, assets, and disease are important factors determining household food insecurity. Moreover, gender played a dominant role in food insecurity as female headed household were food insecure while male headed household were food secure. The policies should be set to promote education, more focus on female headed household and encourage the inflow of remittances.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of information & communication technology (ICT) and e-governance in health sector of Pakistan, where these facilities are at initial stage of development. This study utilizes primary data collected from 170 patients in both public and private hospitals of district Peshawar Pakistan. This is an exploratory study and descriptive statistics are being used for the analysis of the data. The result of the study shows that the use of e-governance in health sector is at a rudimentary stage in the study area. Few people use ICT for medical purposes but the overall level is low. There is need of awareness. In addition, the facilitating conditions for the adoption of e-governance in health sector include infrastructure, electricity, proper user interface and data privacy & confidentiality. The government needs to initiate practical steps for the implementation of e-governance in health sector. This will improve the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of the system. Moreover, it will also speed up the service delivery system. The study is valuable as it explored the role of ICT and e-governance in health sector of Pakistan for the first time. Therefore, this study contributed to literature in a positive way.

This study is an attempt to examine the income and price elasticities of crude oil demand in Pakistan using annual data from 1981 to 2013. The short-and long-run relationship was analysed by autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. The results reveal that income and exchange rate show significant positive relationship with crude oil demand in short run as well as in long run. The analyses also show that crude oil price and domestic production have negative effect in both short and long run on crude oil demand. The income is found to be a strong determinant of crude oil demand in both short and long run. This study suggests that strategies would be formulated and adopted which may control the demand of crude oil without affecting the economic growth of Pakistan.

The importance of solar energy has been accepted worldwide for the generation of electricity, but unfortunately, Pakistan has yet to exert efforts on the development of this source of energy. The purpose of this research is to explore the public acceptance and interest in solar home system (SHS). Moreover, the expectations of the public towards SHS development in Pakistan and the difficulties they face in SHS usage are identified. The result of the survey indicates that about 81% of the respondents show higher interest in SHS. However, many respondents claim that some hindrances obstruct them from using SHS which includes; high cost of solar panels, lack of information and trust on solar panel providers. Almost 60% of the respondents expect that government provision of incentives could be the best way to boost the usage of SHS countrywide. For the successful implementation of new SHS policy, the government of Pakistan needs to establish solar power plants, increase installation of solar panels, provides funding and full information for conducting independent research. In addition, almost 90% of the respondents believe that government should take the lead in developing the SHS sector. Therefore, this study provides some valuable references for SHS promotion in Pakistan.

The situation of electricity is deteriorating in Pakistan and load shedding prevails in all parts of the country which not only affect the general life but also leads to lower agricultural productivity in rural areas. The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence the acceptance of solar water pump (SWP) technology. For this purpose, a SWP technology acceptance model was proposed based on technology acceptance model (TAM) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. Six variables were used to assess the model which includes; perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, facilitating conditions (FC), cost tolerance (CT), awareness and attitude towards SWP usage. Data were collected from 450 rural farmers employing structured questionnaire through face to face interviews. The questions were orally translated to farmers due to lack of education. The method of structural equation modeling was used to test and confirm the hypothesized model. Results indicated that out of eight hypotheses, seven were supported while one was not supported. Moreover, the results show that better predictors of SWP technology usage were gender, age, education awareness, CT, FC, ease of use and usefulness. The study is valuable as it applied TAM to study the factors influencing the acceptance of SWP technology for the first time in the context of Pakistan.