Markets with high purchasing power, like export markets, offer opportunities for African smallholder farmers to move out of poverty. Logically, production for such higher value markets requires a different set of farm resources than the basic factors of production like land and labour. Yet it is not clear which other resources smallholder producers require to participate in different markets including high value markets. Using case studies from the Western Cape Province of South Africa, the authors identify resources that smallholder producers in developing countries require to increase competitiveness and sustain participation in high value markets. An analysis of the cases suggests that smallholder producers who are either in strategic partnerships or mentorship programmes with private sector firms are able to sustain their participation in high value markets. For smallholder producers who have not been integrated with high value markets yet, development of factor markets could be the first step towards achieving sustainable market access.

Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is considered a non-traditional cash crop for enhancing local development in Costa Rica and a suitable activity for small farmers. Trade of pepper has been done by using contractual agreements between producers and processors, which provides at least three functions: insurance, incentives and information. Contracts also require a high level of commitment from contracting parties to keep the equity, efficiency, and sustainability of the trade relationship. The shift of trade conditions from a competitive to a monopsony market encouraged a group of farmers to start an association that aims to bulk and process pepper from members. Breaching contracts by members of the association endanger this effort of sustainable entrepreneurship. This usually happens when temporary market conditions yield higher procurement prices by other competitors. This situation is also worsened by the lack of proper information on production and processing costs between the contracting parties, and then, the disagreement on the procurement price fixation and payment conditions. By using a mixed integer linear optimization model, we aim to identify the ‘best’ price of fresh pepper traded between both parties. We make use of primary information from 12 different farms on production costs and from the association on processing costs. The model incorporates minimum required net margins for all contracting parties, while modelling the net margins of each party, the amount of traded fresh pepper and preferred contract possibilities, given different fresh pepper price scenarios. At lower prices, some of the farmers that supply pepper, do this to just break-even. At higher prices, more is supplied by more farmers. Under monopsony conditions and individual contracts between parties, it is in the interest of the buyer to offer higher fresh pepper prices in order to buy and process more pepper, up to the point that the marginal costs of buying more pepper are equal to the marginal benefits of that extra pepper. This is because the processor has fixed costs, next to variable costs. Higher volumes reduce the average total costs of processing per kg of pepper, and thereby increase profit. When group contracts are possible, thus under bilateral monopoly conditions – farmers acting as ‘one’ seller and the processor as the only buyer – more fresh pepper is supplied at higher prices than under monopsony conditions as more farmers would have higher surpluses. At the same time the processor would have a higher profit than using individual contracts.

We use panel survey data and household event-histories to explore patterns of rural poverty dynamics in Kenya over the period 2000–2009. We find substantial mobility across poverty categories using economic transition matrices. Drawing on asset-based approaches, we distinguish stochastic from structural poverty transitions. Few households successfully escaped poverty through asset accumulation (up to 35% of the upwardly mobile), while a large proportion of households (up to 66%) declining into poverty experienced structural transitions. Using household event-histories, we find significant differences across structural poverty transition classes in livelihood strategies, household-level shocks, and other factors.

En relacion al desarrollo rural y la conservacion de recursos naturales han existido actores sociales con agendas e intereses que no son siempre compatibles. La creacion de parques nacionales ha sido un ejemplo de esta dualidad de visiones conflictivas del desarrollo rural regional. Por otro lado, la literatura reciente muestra casos donde hay compatibilidades entre una estrategia de conservacion y otra de reduccion de pobreza. La Region Brunca de Costa Rica es considerada una de las mas pobres del pais, con cantones que presentan indices de desarrollo humano muy por debajo de la media nacional y una alta tasa de migracion fuera de la region. Adicionalmente, cuenta con grandes areas de conservacion natural, incluyendo el Parque Internacional La Amistad (PILA), el mas grande de Costa Rica. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las estrategias de sobrevivencia de los hogares rurales en la zona de amortiguamiento del PILA y las interacciones con los servicios ambientales provenientes del mismo. El marco analitico que se utilizo fue el de medios de vida sostenible (MVS), aplicado a hogares rurales. Se recolectaron datos de 107 familias, de seis comunidades ubicadas en diferentes entornos del PILA. Un analisis de clusteres identifico cinco estrategias de vida dominantes utilizadas por las familias que habitan las regiones perifericas del PILA: (1) trabajo no agricola, (2) trabajadores agricolas, (3) produccion de cafe, (4) recibo de remezas, (5) mercados nicho. Por medio de modelos estadisticos no parametricos se identifica que diferentes tipos de activos son mas importantes que otros para ciertas estrategias de vida, mientras que un analisis de regresion multiple muestra distintas contribuciones de estos activos en la generacion del ingreso familiar. Finalmente, los entrevistados no perciben al PILA como un obstaculo para el desarrollo de sus estrategias de vida, sino mas bien la falta de acceso a mercados, el desempleo y la falta de financiamiento. (Resume d'auteur)

Sustainable use (in terms of nutrients) of soil resources by farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by institutions and markets. This paper explores the case of northern Nigeria, by using a combination of multi-attribute utility theory and bio-economic modelling. This approach allowed us to identify heterogeneity in production strategies and to quantify its effect on the use of soil nutrient resources.We find that farmers with larger land holdings place more emphasis on gross margins in their utility function, while those with larger holdings of fertile fadama fields place more emphasis on sustainability. Risk aversion, operationalised through variance minimization, appears an important attribute in the utility function of many farm households that are more dependent on agriculture for their overall income.A regression analysis shows that differences in production strategies significantly affect nutrient balances, but also shows that such effects are heterogeneous across locations. We find more favourable nutrient balances for some of the more market-oriented farm households who place more emphasis on sustainability. In farm plans of the most risk-averse households, the production of cereals for subsistence consumption dominates and leads to negative soil nutrient balances, especially for potassium.Farmers who place a large importance on gross margins are likely to benefit most from policies aimed at enhancing profitability through improving functioning of markets. The large group of risk-averse farmers will have the largest immediate gain in utility from policies and technologies aimed at reducing production risk in high-value crops. Additional policies aimed at creating a stronger market-oriented production by the least-endowed farm households could play a role in reducing intensity of soil fertility mining. Under these conditions, the efficient cropping pattern shifts partially from cereal cropping to high-value crops, associated with higher input use.The main results are similar to those in other studies, although some of the nutrient balances are less negative. The results do appear to be sensitive to the type of cropping activities included in the analysis, and additional methodological research is required. Extensions of the used method should further account for temporal and spatial differences in soil fertility, leading to differences in nutrient uptake and production, as well as potential temporal heterogeneity in production strategies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Policy objectives of attaining food self-sufficiency and improving the well-being of subsistence farmers while protecting the environment have stimulated the development of many improved agricultural production technologies. With a choice of technologies, farm household decisions are governed not only by productivity and profitability considerations but also by factors such as available resources and their quality, family consumption preferences and attitudes towards risks, and prevailing policies. It is therefore necessary to analyse the adoption of such technologies from a whole-farm perspective. In this paper, a farm household model is used to assess possible technology adoption behaviour of farmers in Ilocos Norte Province, Philippines. Four alternative technologies were evaluated: hybrid rice production (HYR), balanced fertilization strategy (BFS), site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) and integrated pest management (IPM). Possible impacts of price policies and infrastructure improvements on technology adoption were assessed. The results show that all four alternative technologies considered are attractive to farmers, although simulations show differential adoption rates for poor, average and better-off households. IPM and HYR appear the most attractive amongst all technologies considered. in all technology simulations, relative profitability and risks, labour and capital requirements and availabilities are decisive factors in the adoption of alternative technologies. Adoption of alternative technologies would result in higher discretionary income, higher rice production and lower biocide use and nitrogen loss. Amongst policy simulations considered, availability of low-cost credit shows the largest improvements in farmer welfare for poor and average households, but its effect on simulated adoption of alternative technologies was variable. We argue that the methodology and results presented can contribute to ex ante assessments of policies targeted at stimulating technology adoption by farmers.

In North Vietnam, in winter, forage deficits constrain the profitability of dairy farming activities. Since 2004, research has been carried out on alternative technologies, based on intercropping temperate species (mainly Avena). In 2006, 30% of the target farmers adopted Avena in their farming systems. To assess the socio-economic impact of Avena and to elucidate factors linked to the adoption process, a modelling approach is used.

Household characteristics are commonly used to explain variation in smallholder efficiency levels. The underlying assumption is that differences in intended behavior are well described by such variables, while there is no a priori reason that this is the case. Moreover, heterogeneity in farmer goals and preferences, in relation to the role of the farm enterprise, are not well documented in developing countries. This paper makes a contribution to fill this gap, by empirically determining heterogeneity in farmer goals and attitudes in Nigeria through a pair-wise ranking, supplemented with Likert scales. Factor analysis is used to reduce these data into behavioral factors. We estimate technical and allocative efficiency levels and analyze how these are related to farm characteristics and the identified behavioral factors. The models in which both intended behavior and farmer characteristics are included give a significantly better fit over models in which only household characteristics are included. These regression results suggest that the socio-economic environment affects efficiency levels both directly and indirectly, through changes in goals and attitudes. Additional research in rural areas of developing countries should establish how agricultural policies should account for this heterogeneity.

Introduction The population of Vietnam is approximately 85 million people, more than 75% of which live in rural areas and make their living depending on agriculture. Livestock make up about 30% of the total agricultural products and is a strategic policy of the Vietnamese government due to its potential contribution to employment creation and income generation. As many countries in Asia, Vietnam does not have a dairy tradition. However, with the changes of food habits, the consumption of dairy products significantly increased. The 100,000 dairy herds produced approximately 235,000 tons of milk in 2007 which satisfies 30% of the domestic consumption. Even if there are real opportunities for dairy development in Vietnam, there are still major constraints including low management skills of farmers, lack of suitable forage resources for cattle feeding and high cost of concentrated feeds. New policies and agricultural innovations are being proposed in order to solve the main issues related to the sustainability of the dairy sector. Agronomist researchers provided alternative solutions using new forage technologies based on temperate forage species. The first questions are: which are the good decisions to be implemented? How to assess and evaluate the impacts of agricultural innovations? For this type of exercise, modeling appears as an interesting decision tool because it helps to assess the complex interactions found in the farm system as well as to analyze the configuration of alternative technical innovations (Louhichi et al., 2004).

This poster presents a study on the multiplier effects in the dairy chain on Reunion Island. This Indian Ocean island is one of the French overseas departments. However, it struggles with similar problems as the developing areas in its neighbourhood, high levels of unemployment especially being a major concern. The agricultural sector justifies the state support it receives by stressing its role in the creation of employment and economic activity. Our focus is on the dairy sector of the Island, which is relatively recent and highly organized. Local milk production has increased over the years and our aim is to calculate the economywide impact of this trend. We use a social accounting matrix with disaggregated accounts for the dairy sector to calculate the impact of changes in this sector.

This paper presents the research framework of an on-going study on the dairy sector on La Reunion. This Indian Ocean island is one of the French overseas departments. However, it struggles with similar problems as the developing areas in its neighbourhood, high levels of unemployment especially being a major concern. The agricultural sector therefore justifies the state support it receives by indicating the creation of employment and economic activity. Our focus is on the dairy sector on the Island, which is relatively recent and highly organized. Local milk production has increased over the years, yet farmers are aware of future policy reforms that should liberalize the sector. The outcome for the sector is a major concern. Our research question is to what extent milk production is sustainable on La Reunion, including the question of a future without governmental subsidies. The aim of this paper is to discuss a conceptual framework, relevant research questions and methodology to answer these research questions.

El gobierno de Honduras esta cada vez mas preocupado por lo poco que se ha avanzado en la lucha contra la pobreza rural, la cual es particularmente acentuada en las zonas de ladera. Si bien tanto quienes formulan las politicas como los donantes estan bajo una fuerte presion para proponer intervenciones adecuadas, el gobierno y sus socios para el desarrollo carecen del conocimiento suficiente acerca de cuales son los motores de un crecimiento sostenible de la productividad rural. Por ende, tienen poca orientacion en torno a como priorizar gastos y definir direcciones estrategicas para el sector rural. Este informe ofrece a las autoridades encargadas de definir politicas y a las partes interesadas en Honduras informacion empirica acerca de estrategias de vida empleadas en las zonas de ladera del pais, oportunidades existentes para la reduccion de la pobreza y posibles prioridades de politica e inversion. Esta informacion se sustenta en una extensa encuesta efectuada a 376 familias campesinas, sobre 1.066 parcelas y 2.143 terrenos individuales en 95 aldeas rurales en las zonas de ladera de Honduras.