Empirical Studies on Ethiopian Smallholders
Ethiopia’s economy is predominantly agrarian. Much of the country’s agricultural production activities are rainfed. As a result, fluctuations in weather conditions have serious implications on the overall wellbeing of smallholders. Furthermore, there is a growing concern that climate change is increasing the frequency of these fluctuations. Using a panel dataset of rural farm households covering fifteen villages of Ethiopia during 1994-2004, this book is concerned with assessing the impact of rainfall variability on smallholders’ food security and examining how households adjust their participation in off-farm activities to cope with weather risk. Moreover, the book attempts to empirically explore the role of social capital in the economic wellbeing of households. In Ethiopia, given that the rural population is endowed with few productive assets and markets are not well developed, social networks may play essential roles in households’ resource access and risk management thereby promoting households’ overall wellbeing. Based on the insights gained from the results of the study, the book provides several policy conclusions and wider implications which are pertinent for rural households in Ethiopia as well as other places with a similar socio-economic setting.
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A Case Study of Peasants in Chui, Osh and Jalal-Abad Regions
One central problem in the efforts to increase rural productivity and reduce poverty is insufficiency of production capital. There are high expectations that credit can help to enhance farm income. This book investigates the relation of agricultural credit on farm development in three regions of Kyrgyzstan. It is widely contended that capital shortages significantly constrain the productivity of peasant farmers and as such they remain within the group with the lowest income in the society. Credits are needed by peasant farmers to be able to invest in fertilizers, improved seeds quality, and modern farm machinery to enhance their productivity. While the inadequate infrastructural facilities, which limit the access to improved inputs and extension services by peasant farmers, and raise transportation costs for both inputs and produce, are one of the main constraints on the realisation of production potential. Therefore, in order to improve present situation of peasant farms during transition period needed to develop appropriate finance institutions for rural areas with low interest rate, low transaction costs and simplify application procedures. The current study has brought into focus a salient research problem that is yet to be addressed so as to gain more knowledge on the possible ways of enhancing agricultural development and alleviating the problem of poverty. This study has looked into the determining use and productivity of the different factors of production by peasant farmers also the credit lending policies. The financial services are financing insufficiently in order to increase farm production because the demand for credit for agricultural purposes is weak due to marketing problems as reported by farmers. A detailed study on marketing is needed to show that the availability of marketing services will stimulate the demand for credit for agricultural purposes and thus increase productivity. Therefore, further research is necessary to understand in detail the conditions and existing transactions.
An Empirical Study on Rice Sector
Organic agriculture is one of several approaches to sustainable agriculture. In most developing as well as developed countries, the share of organic farming is increasing. It has commercial viability and may provide solutions to the current problems in conventional agriculture. Though only a small percentage of farmers are participating in organic projects. This leads to the general question about what is the way forwards and the right place of organic farming in Thai agriculture and also in the whole economy. This book attempts to assess the farm performance and socio-economics of organic and conventional farms. Several economic and social criteria were considered. Quantitative and qualitative parameters are applied in order to understand the driving forces towards development of organic farming through lesson of organic rice in Thailand. The study covers problem realization, farming techniques, guidelines of agricultural policy, and extension tool as well as market development of organic farming.
The Case of Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia
Land degradation is among the major problems threatening productivity growth especially in developing countries where agriculture remains the largest sector in the economy. Ethiopia is among the Sub-Saharan countries which are reported to suffer severe land degradation. Reversing the deterioration of crop productivity resulting from land degradation, and ensuring adequate food supplies to the fast growing population is a formidable challenge in the country. Effective decisions against poverty, household food insecurity, and land degradation require, among others, a careful assessment of the complex relationships among land management strategies, agricultural productivity, and rural income levels. This book systematically addresses these linkages and factors affecting components of the linkages. It uses data collected from Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia and employs advanced econometric tools which are beyond single equation regressions. Important results include a negative reciprocal relationship between fertilizer and manure applications; interdependence of the seemingly unrelated intercropping and conservation tillage; the difference in decisions on adoption of stone-terraces and on the amount of labor devoted for that; positive effect of terraces on per capita income and insignificant effect of income on adoption of terraces; and many others. The book finally highlights important policy implications.
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The co-existence of both (bio)-physical environment and socioeconomic problems might lead to the relationship proposition between the availability of rural resources and the livelihood development of farming families in mountain area. Since farming families are distributed in different locations along the gradual line of mountain areas, their characteristics are also different. This book provides a spatial assessment of rural resources and livelihood development by emphasizing on the land availability and socioeconomic analysis of past and current development of resource utilization, both at family and spatial levels. Spatial assessment is carried out by utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing through three approaches, i.e.: linking, interpolating, and relating. The linking approach is aimed to generalizing data into the same unit of analysis, i.e.: spatial unit. Interpolating approach is necessary to generate data spatially from collected sample points where data is not available for the whole area. Meanwhile, spatial relationship between socioeconomic and physical environmental characteristics is resulted from the relating approach. The study indicates three different results, i.e.: spatial differentiation, socioeconomic zones, and spatial based income modeling in the study area which is divided into three sub study areas, i.e.: higher, middle, and lower area. This book also shows how GIS and Remote Sensing can be contributed in a farming system research on a spatially explicit model as well as on a regional basis.
An Analysis of Oil Seed Farming and Biodiesel Production in the Brazilian Savannah
The biofuel production has been greatly deliberated in Brazil. This has led the country to develop new policies and implement the Brazilian program of biodiesel use and production (PNPB) in 2004 aiming at fostering rural and regional development and at the same time promoting a new and clean source of energy. In this context, the book contributes to the better understanding of different stages of biodiesel production in the Brazilian savannah, showing the linkages between the oil seed activity and the social inclusion, income generation, food security and climate change. For this purpose, the fuzzy set logic was applied to support the assessment of linkages between oil seed production and the inclusion of poor farmers in the biodiesel chain. Scenarios comprising the current and potential food production were established to estimate the impacts of oil seed production on local food security. Moreover, scenarios were also established to estimate the impacts of oil seed activity on climate change, mainly through CO2 emissions due to deforestation of native forests. The book also points out the implications of oil seed production on rural and regional development under different policy strategies and scenarios. A linear programming, as well as positive mathematical programming were applied, at farm and regional level, respectively, to estimate the impacts of oil seed activity on resource allocation and farmer’s income. The biodiesel production in the Brazilian savannah can now be better gauged in other parts of the Brazilian Legal Amazon region since the book highlights one of the most discussed topics about bioenergy: oil seed production taking precedence over the sustainable development.
The most of the peri-urban farmers in the Middle Mountains of Nepal are smallholders and their farm size is declining due to rapid population growth, unsustainable land management practices and pro-production government policies. Imprudent use of agro-chemicals in farming is pervasive among the farmers in the peri-urban areas of the Kathmandu Valley. Rural-urban interface of the valley possesses diverse farming practices, which are basically due to the farmers’ experiences on resource degradation owing to indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals, diversified need of the urbanites, resources availability and market accessibility among others. This book presents the socio-economic and spatial aspects of the different farming systems in and around the peri-urban areas of the valley. It gives a comprehensive and comparative picture of the three farming systems, which are located near to each other but with different mode of operation. Relevance of the prevalent farming practices is dealt with using Analytic Hierarchy Process modeling. As organic farming is a new endeavor in Nepal, this book presents a complete overview of organic farming starting from history to the market response analysis of the organic vegetables. Preferential assessment of the consumers to different attributes of the vegetables is done through conjoint modeling. The book also presents the spatial integration of socio-economic information to find the spatial relevance of the farm-family resources and its effects on farming development. Future developments of the smallholder peri-urban farms are dealt with by critically evaluating several potential strategies at the family level using GAMS and at regional level with spatial explicit modeling.
The study examines linkages among rural poverty, land management practices and agricultural productivity. In separate chapters, the book covers several issues. In the introductory part, it touches upon the magnitude of poverty, land degradation and low agricultural productivity both at international and local levels. The book deals with theories concerning poverty-land degradation linkages. A major emphasis is also placed on rural development policies and land tenure systems in Ethiopia, in general and the study area, in particular. Using data collected from 254 randomly selected farm households, the book considered three agro-ecological zones. It then analyzes poverty incidence and major triggering factors. It also analyzes the major factors affecting the use of sustainable land management practices. Last but not least, the study gauges technical efficiency level of farmers and identify factors causing inefficiency.
The book explicates that the above-mentioned problems are in a quagmire of causality as far as the study area is concerned. This implies that poverty, land management practices, and low agricultural productivity influence one another and are jointly influenced by several independent factors. Findings in this book suggest that the usual assumption of targeting poverty per se does not help much. Instead, efforts should be made to target both land management issues and agricultural productivity simultaneously. In fact, given the bulk of the population dwelling in rural areas (earning incomes directly from agriculture), agriculture is an essential component in the fight against poverty. In this regard, both short-term productivity gains and long-term transformation issues need to be considered.
A comparative analysis
Concepts of economic approaches in farming and rural development in developing countries often focus on the decision-making in farms assuming a single decision-making body. Reality has shown that decision-making processes are more complex in three ways. First, in family farms the farm is often related to household, processing and off-farm activities. This requires to not only look into the farm as a technical unit but also the other sectors of the family living sphere. The interrelationship between farm, household, processing and off-farm activities brings the economic and social problem of allocating the family resources between these family sectors in the center of a family based system concept. This publication gives special interest to the involvement of women in the decision-making process. Second, these activities are not only carried out by different persons of the family but also the decision-making is involving many people. This requires including the family as the decision-making body. Special role is given to the husband and the wife in the family as well; sometimes the older persons of the family as well as younger generation may have an important impact in the decision-making. This publication gives special interest to the food security aspect of the household and women’s activities in the complex system of farm/household/off-farm and off-household activities and decision-making. Third, decision-making in rural areas has a third dimension which is in a vertical line from individual family to the society, such as to the village society, the clan and the institutions in rural areas and decision-making bodies for the rural infrastructure. This part is not explicitly dealt with in this publication, but is of equal importance to understand and influence the multi-faced process of decision-making in rural areas.
A New Institutional Economics Perspective
A rapid growth of high value crops in the international trade is becoming an incentive for a significant rise in production and export of these crops, especially in developing countries. In the Ethiopian case, given the declining export earnings from traditional exports, policy makers as well as donor agencies have shifted their attention towards diversification of export crop production for potential income growth. To this end, major rural development strategies of the country envisage significant scope for achieving greater diversification and commercialization of smallholders. The move towards high value crop production and marketing, however, requires a huge role of markets and institutions. This study investigates the Ethiopian banana market from a New Institutional Economics (NIE) perspective by using both econometric and mathematical models in order to identify intervention points that accelerate market integration. The result among others reveals that the market is characterized by existence of high transaction costs related to information and search, negoitations and bargaining, as well as monitoring and enforcements. It is learned that households with better bargaining power, better access to transporation, information, as well as members of farmers of organizations are better off in terms of income generation. Result from a mathematical programming model also showed that farmers‟ current market channel choice decision is sub-optimal. Hence, enhancing high-value crops production and marketing and in turn improving the livelihood of smallholders highly depends on minimizing the market inperfections. This may require policy makers to focus on: establishing appropriate institutions, improving market information systems, developing rural infrastructure, strengthening farmers organization, resolving financial constraints through credit, enhancing value added capacity, encouraging competition, as well as encouraging investment that accelerate future vertical and horizontal integration.
Migration is an important livelihood strategy followed by the farm households in the hills of Nepal. When labour forces migrate from the farm sector it is expected to impact not only the farm production but also the household food security and the farm lifestyles. This book investigates empirically the factors determining international migration decision of farm households and their impact on farm production, household food security and the lives of those left behind. The research focuses on two distinctly different regions with different migration portfolios. It uses various econometric tools in its empirical analysis. The results show that migration on its own is unable to commercialize the farming sector. And its impact on subsistence farming in the two regions under study differed based on the remittances that the migrant households receive. When the remittances are high, it has negative impact on the subsistence farming practices of the households and vice versa. However, migration has an overall positive impact on the household food security situation irrespective of the amount of remittances received. The book also highlights some important policies towards migration-development interlinkages.
In Vietnam, beef is in a high national demand. A majority of the cattle population is raised in household farms. The Northern provinces are encouraged to improve beef production in quantity and meat quality. Developing beef production must take into account bio-economic performance of cattle under conditions of varying farming systems and their specific purpose. This study investigates cattle production under three stratified farm types in northern mountainous region of Vietnam, including: prevalent smallholder mixed farms (small farms); smallholder mixed farms with a tendency to increased herd size and collective use of natural pastures (medium farms); and specialized beef-breeding farms (large-scale farms). The study compares the relation of poverty level and resource endowment between cattle keeping and non-cattle keeping farms and between farms of different remoteness and ethnic groups. This book aims to compare the suitability, efficiency and sustainability for beef production of the different farm types. The potential for developing beef production is assessed in a stratified sample of farm types and in a survey on a random sample of smallholder farms in the study region. The study was carried out in Son La province, a northern mountainous province of Vietnam. Results revealed that the differences in animal productivity, farm organization and economic success of household farms were related to the region. Household farms raised cattle at low input levels. The total revenue from cattle depended on the use of non-market functions of cattle on the household farms. The less poor farmers had more advantages than the poorer in allocating different resources for keeping higher numbers of cattle together with other livestock species. High economic losses were observed on all large farms due to the lack of professional management, high feed costs and low animal performance. The most promising type of farm for profitable beef production in the study region was the medium mixed farm, where the farmers could increase their cattle production on the basis of available fodder resources from pastures with limited use of supplemental feed. The spontaneous formation of farmer groups could be developed towards co-operative beef raising and marketing. The support of the province for implementing appropriate policies and credit programs to provide initial capital and connection to markets is necessary. Development of the medium farms could be a contribution to the beef market and poverty reduction in the region.
The need for promoting smallholder market participation has been increasingly recognized in efforts to bring about agricultural transformation in developing countries and is nowhere as evident as in Sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa subsistence or the so called smallholders face several barriers that make it difficult for them to gain access to markets and productive assets. In marketing their agricultural produce, smallholder farmers find themselves at a major disadvantage. Many do not well understand the market, how it works and why prices fluctuate; they have little or no information on market conditions and prices; they are not organized collectively; and they have no experience of market negotiation. This book investigates the underlying factors behind farmers’ market participation decisions and level of commercialisation of South African small scale farmers with a particular emphasis on transaction costs using econometric modelling approach. The result show that while both transaction costs and output prices are equally important for market entry, institutional innovations –such as belonging to farmers group, cooperating with white commercial farmers and owning transport facilities are also emerging to mitigate the costs of accessing markets. Moreover, access to extension services and production and liquid assets, such as land and non farm income, are the major determinants in increasing the level of commercialization. The policy requirements include: dissemination of market information to the small-scale farmers, strengthening of Farmers Organization and co-operatives, investment in Physical and institutional infrastructure and speed up or accelerating sustainable land reform, consider the possibility of increasing livestock production scale and expansion of livestock identification equipments for small-scale farmers.
As in other Himalayan regions, soil degradation is a serious threat to agricultural sustainability in Nepal. Increased anthropogenic activities in an inherently fragile ecosystem with unstable geology, steep slopes and intense monsoon rains have accelerated various processes of soil degradation and caused loss of soil and its fertility. This book comprehensively analyses the soil degradation issues in mid hill region of Nepal and assess strategic management options from biophysical as well as socio-economic perspectives. It coherently integrates biophysical process model, Soil Change under Agro Forestry (SCUAF) and economic analysis under the framework of bio-economic modelling. The core of the analysis is assessment of the status quo of soil resource use by examining soil nutrient balances as an indicator of sustainability and evaluating long term performance of various soil conservation and fertility management technologies to achieve sustainable agriculture production. The results reveal that there is imbalance in soil nutrients status of farms whereby it shows surplus of nitrogen and deficit of phosphorus and potassium implying unsustainable pattern of production. It further suggests that such negative trend can be ameliorated by various soil conservation and fertility management technologies such as minimum tillage, hedgerow technology, legume integration and improved nutrient management techniques. More specifically, these technologies are found efficient in reducing soil erosion, maintaining soil fertility and thus sustaining crop yield with their varying impact over time. However, there is trade-off between short term and long term economic returns of these technologies, which demands for external intervention to support farmers in minimizing such tradeoffs and achieve the goal of sustainable food production in the region.
This book describes the context of the swine industry in Thailand and reviews the theoretical framework of risk attitudes and risk management strategies. The research employs cross-sectional primary data on swine producers in northern Thailand in order to examine attitudes toward risk using two different approaches, one based on economic models and one based on non-economic models. The relationship patterns between risk sources and risk management strategies are identified using factor analysis. The association of socio-economic and demographic characteristics, farm organisation status, and farm practices with the risk sources and the risk management strategies are examined using OLS regression analysis. The book confirms the importance of risk to commercial swine producers and demonstrates that the most important factor causing the pig cycle phenomenon is the price and production risk factor, a factor which can be managed at the farm level by applying appropriate farm organisation and farm management practices. The five main risk management strategies applied by the swine producers include farm specialization, farm responsiveness, animal husbandry improvement, farm finances and farm reserves.
Analysis of Trade Policies, External Shocks, and Economic Bans in a Computable General Equilibrium Approach
Similar to many sub-Saharan African countries, Sudan has inherited a dual economy in the immediate post-independence era where a large agriculture-based rural traditional sector coexisted with a small non-agricultural modern sector. This functional dualism remained until the first oil shipment from the country in 1999. In addition, the inexperienced institutions that took over the management of the economy led to severe interdependent structural problems that slowed growth especially during the 1970s. In addition, the agricultural policies, which have been followed since the mid 1960s, favored the expansion of cash crops, motivated by their high export value, and overlooked the important contribution of food crops cultivation in ensuring food security. To tackle these problems, consecutive governments launched series of development plans the majority of which were either adjusted or terminated due to policy failure or government change. Apart from the planning problems, the recurrent drought, civil conflicts, and recently economic sanctions have aggravated the situation. Against this background, this book provides comprehensive assessment and deploys analytical tools that simulate various policy options for Sudan taking into account all these interrelated problems. The book takes up these issues in a framework of single country and global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Models together with their detailed Input/output Table (IOT) and Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). The analysis proved the appropriateness of these tools for simulating a wide range of policy interventions and external shocks, including trade liberalization, exchange rate devaluation, taxation, agricultural efficiency improvement, drought, and economic sanctions. This value added is particularly evident in light of the shortcomings of other approaches that were employed for similar goals, and their lack of the analytical depth of CGE models reflected in their inability to capture intersectoral forward and backward linkages.
Recently, the interaction between natural resources and agriculture practices has been appreciated as highly significant in natural resources management. Population growths, urbanization, in addition to the dramatic fluctuations in rainfall are defined as dynamic factors affecting natural resources management and sustainability in farming. This interaction had imposed additional pressure on land in the marginal areas in Jordan. In these areas, the farming family struggles to cultivate crops and raise livestock irrespective to the mentioned factors. Accordingly, land degradation is linked by a chain of cause and effect with rural family practices and their level of income in these areas.
This book represents a comprehensive description of different rural families in the marginal areas, regarding their resource use and living standards. Later, the analysis was proceeded to define the socio-economic factors that affect family decisions on land management and conservation, linking farm income to the family perception and decisions for land management and conservation. Following this, different future strategies were applied and assessed to measure their impact on family income and resource use and allocation at the family level.
The results showed the importance of farm income on the perception and the decisions of families in land management and conservation in a causal nexus relation. In that line, the suggested future strategies related to land conservation and management showed a positive impact on the family income, which would promote the importance of the integration between family objectives for having higher income and the proper decisions in land management for sustainability.
A Socio-Economic Analysis
The decline in the area of the natural forests due to degradation and deforestation in many developing countries is a critical problem and dominate the policy discourse on sustainability. Forest loss adversely affects the livelihoods of the communities dependent on these forests and leads to the loss biodiversity. The sustainable management of these natural forests is very important from environmental as well as its welfare aspects at the household level. Pakistan like many other developing countries is experiencing a very high rate of deforestation, and most of the country natural forests are under the threat of depletion especially in the North West Frontier Province (N-W.F.P). The rapidly changing demographic structure at the households level, socio-economic characteristics, households’ asset endowments and several institutional constraints at the local level affect the sustainable use of these forests. Poor socio-economic conditions, lack of physical assets, access to off-farm employment opportunities and the prevailing problems in the tenure over the forest ownership leads to unsustainable use and high economic reliance on the natural forests. This book looks at the relationships among households’ socioeconomic characteristics, demographic composition, asset endowments and households’ tenure status and forest economic reliance as well role of the natural forest in households’ welfare. The analysis highlights the crucial role of the households’ socio-economic, demographic composition and access to physical and human capital, off-farm opportunities as well as households’ property rights play in forest use, extraction and economic reliance. The objective of sustainable management of the natural forests in the region can be realized through the socio-economic development, improved access to off-farm jobs, improvement in the human capital and resolving the issue of tenure insecurity through granting secure property rights to the communities living on the forest frontiers.
A Farm Household Modelling Approach
A critical task in developing nations is to transform the underdevelopment mode of production from subsistence agriculture into a commercialized system. The foundation of this book is that broad agriculture sector policies lie at the heart of development and poverty reduction programs in the Sudan. We believe that the faulty agricultural policies in the Sudan are one of the root causes of instability and underdevelopment in general and agriculture in particular. In this book a mathematical programming model was used to investigate the impact of the agricultural policy on farm household decision of resource allocation for market versus subsistence production. This study provides an empirical evidence to support the neoclassical theory that farm households in developing nations behave in rational way by responding to market incentives. However, their responses are restricted by structural and institutional factors, above all the lack of infrastructure, the failure of inputs and capital markets and the low attractiveness of enhanced production technologies. These restrictions are determined or at least influenced by agricultural policy. Therefore, these restrictions are subject of scenario model runs.
Perspectives on the demand-driven Agricultural Technology and Information Response Initiative (ATIRI) in Nakuru District, Kenya
This study offers the opportunity to assess and evaluate the influence of the demand-driven approach to technology facilitation upon target communities. It also enables the enactment of a feedback mechanism in which lessons learnt from implementation of the ATIRI programme, can be used in future, to support development objectives. Data analysis was done through descriptive statistics, principle component analysis (PCA), multiple linear regression and binary logistic regressions.
The gum belt area in Northern Kordofan state of Sudan faces successive drought and desertification arising from climatic variation and human use of land. The consequently there is deterioration of natural resources, exhibited by soil erosion and creeping desert. Although measures to rehabilitate the gum belt area and control the desertification exist, the problem of land degradation in the area had intensified. This book evaluates the socioeconomic and financial dimension of the gum belt rehabilitation program for desertification control. The book also seeks to establish the factors that influence farmers’ decision to rehabilitate the gum belt area. A survey of 173 household conducted in 20 villages of Northern Kordofan state in 2003 using questionnaire elicited primary data. Logistic regression model was used to analyze the probability of the farmers’ decision to adoption gum trees to combat desertification and conducted a Costs Benefits Analysis to analyze the economics and financial profitability of gum trees replanting. The financial and economic analysis demonstrate that gum arabic production is financially less profitable comparing with others field crops and the price paid to gum producers is lower than what otherwise would have been paid if producer price was freely set to world market. The adoption analysis reveal that economic status, access to other source of income and more frequent contact with extension services as well as land security increase the probability that hashab replanting as a measure for combating desertification is adopted. To promote gum arabic reforestation, real gum producer price should be maintained;
Conservation agriculture is often promoted to address land degradation problem. However the key question is; can conservation agriculture restore the chemical and biodiversity? Does the resotation translate into meaningful for the participating households?. This book answers these questions with emperical data from eastern Uganda.
Imperical data indicate that there is an improvement in the soil biodiversity in soil cover and slashed plots as indicated by a diversity of weed population. There are also improvements in soil properties in terms of organic matter and soil pH. There were no improvements in Nitrogen availability.
On the socioeconmic aspects improvements were recorded on the ownership and quality of assets, food supply, household savings and value of marketing. As a recommendtion, the author proposes scaling out the benefits of conservation agriculture to other areas experiencing degradation and reduced fallow periods.
The growing demand of water supply, combined with limited water deposits and their irregular spatial and temporal distributions lead to serious problems with social and economic consequences. The degradation of water resources is often accelerated by farm support policies, which makes these problems more and more difficult. India has the highest withdrawal of water for irrigation purpose compared to the other developing countries. Despite of the higher withdrawals state governments are offering subsidies for agricultural sector to extract the groundwater. This book investigates the impact of subsidized electricity policy on groundwater extractions, crop production and its influence on the economic values of groundwater as a supplementary source. On one hand, the subsidized electricity prices have a positive impact on total water application and production. On the other hand it influences the value of groundwater and stabilisation value of groundwater under conjunctive use. Hence, the book is mainly focused on the supplementation values of groundwater due to lower electricity prices and stochastic surface flows. In order to reduce the stochastic surface flows, it also deals with the management options and its impact on the values of groundwater. In addition, it also shows the impact of community participation on the management of irrigation of systems and the major driving forces that influences collective and non-collective action for conserving the common pool resource.
Brazil’s contribution to climate change scenario has been remarkably due to greenhouse gases emissions from land use and land use change activities. In particular case of Brazilian Amazon, changes in land use affect the amount of carbon held in the vegetation and soil. This book contains research findings from a study designed to understand the financial performance of alternative land use and forestry activities to small landholders in Brazilian Amazon with the target of enhancing carbon content in cleared and non-produc- tive areas. Different structures of agroforestry systems as options for carbon sequestration services are analyzed, particularly in relation to income generation for small farmers. Further, specific scenarios were used to explore the impact of some economic and ecological risks that may presumably affect systems’ feasi- bility. The study concludes that agroforestry systems provide a viable combination of carbon storage through enhanced growth of fruit and woody trees. In addition, the results support the view that the presence of carbon payments would contribute to alleviate the losses from decreased yields. The study ends with some policy recommendations for the implementation of carbon programs for small- holders in rural areas in Brazilian Amazon.
Land tenure security plays an important role in economic performance, income distribution, and natural resource management in all economies. Vietnam implemented its land reform in 1993 to improve land tenure security by privatizing farm land and legalizing its free exchange with the provision of land titles. This book investigates the impact of land reform on farm households in the Northern Uplands of Vietnam using a panel data set with different analytical techniques. The results show that land reform has a positive effect on crop production of farm households in terms of crop inputs and outputs. It also has a strong and positive influence on the participation of farm households in farm land markets, which can promote economic structural change. The operation of farm land markets in the study area has both efficiency and equity effects. It means that it promotes both economic growth and equity. Additionally, forest management in Vietnam, which had been in the hands of the State, has been decentralized through land reform. Farm households become an important agent in forest management after the land reform. Land privatization and titling positively influence the intensity of afforestation by farm households. The economic incentive of farm households to afforest is proven by the fact that the return of this activity choice is higher than that of the most recent alternative of agricultural crop. This means that when designated forest land is endowed to farm households, their economic incentive drives afforestation. The policy implications derived from the findings include: speeding up the implementation of the land reform, securing private property rights of farm households over land, eliminating obstacles to the functioning of farm land markets, revising the efficiency of different forest land users, providing farmers with credit opportunities, promoting economic growth in non-farm sectors, and improving education.
Diese Publikation stellt die Ergebnisse einer Forschungsarbeit dar, die im Rahmen eines umfassenden Forschungsprogramms im Nahen Osten durchgeführt wurde.
Das Program besteht aus zwei Forschungsschwerpunkte in den Gebieten «Bedouins and land use in the steppe of the Middle East» und «Water resources and water policies». Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit von Frau Salwa Almohamed gehört zum Komplex der «Water resources» mit spezieller Berücksichtigung der
Methoden zur Projektevaluierung. Die Arbeit erfolgte in Zusammenarbeit mit der Universität Aleppo, Syrien.
The uncertainties surrounding the climate and consequences on livelihood in Sub-Saharan Africa is of contemporary interest to researchers and policy makers. This book examines aspects of this in Nigeria. It is a collection of studies and papers by researchers and academics working and residing in the region. In twenty chapters, the dimensions, causes, trends, direction and consequences of climate change are examined. The book presents some adaptation mechanisms and consequences for livelihood.
Many families in large dry areas in lowland and mountain zones in Nicaragua and Honduras are at a subsistence level and live under unstable conditions. Traditional farming practices and poor efficiency in the use of livestock capital impede the opportunities to improve their living standards. Families with small landholdings or landless farm workers with limited assets and livelihoods that cannot make their living from farming only, they also face great limitations in off-farm sectors. This book seeks to explain the development and determinants from subsistence to market orientation in livestock farming systems and the potential for future development and higher living standards. Farming system approach was applied to analyze family resources use and capacity, and measurements of living standards. Results indicated that the bigger farm size, cattle herds and resources availability, the better living standards of the families. Econometric modeling was applied to explain market participation, market orientation, off-farm sector impacts on farming development, and the development from low income to higher income levels. Linear programming techniques with and without risks modeling was applied for the impact analysis of future development strategies on living standards of families. Strategies identified and tested included diversification of farm income, livestock intensification, and improvement of outputs prices. The study was carried out in a lowland area in Choluteca, Honduras, in a lowland area in Somotillo, Nicaragua, and a mountainous area in Estelí, Nicaragua. Book provides methodological concepts relevant for dealing with farming development in similar and different biophysical and administrative environments as well as income and market relation levels.
Evidences from Southeast Nigeria
The issue of population pressure and food production has attracted the attention of researchers for centuries. This book is based on a long term study, over three decades, of communities in southeast Nigeria. The book validates the extant theory of positive relationship between population pressure and food production through a process of intensification, increased technology use and enhanced market orientation. However this process can be aborted through external factors including global macroeconomic framework, migration, urbanization and stagnant technologies, factors which were not considered by preceding theorist on this subject. These factors are shown to have halted, and may have reversed the predicted development path of farming systems having similar characteristics. This is a contribution to the theories in this field of study, and explains the subsisting food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in areas with similar conditions.
Der Übergang zur Marktwirtschaft erfordert in ehemaligen Ländern der Sowjet-union umfangreiche Investitionen, die neue äußere Finanzquellen benötigen. Es wird offenbar, dass dieses Problem der ukrainischen Wirtschaft ohne äußere Kapitalanlagen sehr schwierig zu lösen ist. Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit besteht darin, die ausländischen Direktinvestitionen (ADI) im ukrainischen agrar-industriellen Komplex zu untersuchen und ihre positiven und negativen Auswirkungen anhand einer empirischen Analyse auszuwerten. Außerdem werden die Auswirkungen der ADI zusammen mit den wichtigsten makroökonomischen Kennzahlen auf die Wachstumsrate des Bruttoinlandsproduktes pro Kopf analysiert.Die Umsetzung dieser Zielvorgaben erfolgt durch empirische Analysen, die auf einer Unternehmensumfrage in den Gebieten von Kiew, Kharkiw, Donezk, Odessa und Lwiw basieren. Mit den Methoden der Feldforschung wurden quantitative und qualitative Daten ermittelt. Die Befragung wurde von 420 ernährungs- und landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben mit ADI und 422 ernährungs- und landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben ohne ADI durchgeführt. Die vorliegende Untersuchung hat zunächst versucht, die Auswirkungen von ADI auf die wichtigsten Kennzahlen abzuschätzen. Mit Hilfe der durchgeführten ökonometrischen Analysen, und zwar der Regressionsanalyse der Unternehmen, wurden empirische Ergebnisse ermittelt. Der Analysebefund zeigt, dass die ADI direkt und indirekt auf die wichtigsten Kennzahlen der ausländischen und einheimischen Betriebe einwirken können. Die ADI wirken positiv auf die Arbeitsproduktivität, Exportvolumina, Steuerzahlungen und Beschäftigung. Als wichtiges Ergebnis ist festzuhalten, dass Dank der ADI die Wachstumsrate des BIPs pro Kopf gesteigert wird.
With its vast potential for agriculture, Sudan is still underutilizing his resources. Agricultural finance has been a subject of concern to bring agriculture to its novel epoch. The book attempts to develop a finance conceptualization approach using a consistent conceptual framework that tackles all its multi-faceted aspects in a more holistic manner. The author tries to adjunct the agricultural development objectives e.g. increasing production and yield, poverty alleviation, sustainable livelihoods and food security to the availability of adequate resource funds and finance loans to boost agriculture. The focus of the book is on identifying policies, structures, mechanisms and procedures needed to ensure better capacity and access to effective financial services for the agricultural sector and its sub-sectors. Revising the success factors, constraints, and looking for challenges and future prospects in agricultural finance, the book describes a strategic pathway to efficiently handle agricultural finance problems and gives an outlook to the ways out of the finance inadequacy vicious circle in the Sudan The book is considered an important step in the direction of awareness creation among decision makers/ takers, private sector farmers, international organizations and donors. The book goes beyond seeds and tools to macro level policy analysis on agricultural credit in the Sudan and adds positively to the many scientific contributions in agricultural financing to achieve food security and resource management.
The existence of substantial agricultural risk poses severe implications for farmers. Farm families that are heavily dependent on few crops/farm activities are much more vulnerable to the effects of agricultural risk relative to the more diversified farmers. This book seeks to explain the dynamics surrounding agricultural risk and individual farm diversification status faced by farming households, and to measure their impact on household living standard. Fuzzy theory was found to be attractive for the purpose of this study given the presence of categories that are either imprecise, and/or complex in their construction as is the case of the core areas in living standard and agricultural risk. Fuzzy theory is useful in that it provides a mathematical framework for handling categories that permit partial membership or membership in degree. Its application therefore allows for the systematic handling of the vagueness associated with living standard and its explanatory variables, particularly agricultural risk. Several strategies targeting the agricultural risk factor were identified and tested using a linear programming approach. Given however the uncertain environment in which farm planning decision making is undertaken, a fuzzy linear programming model was applied in order to capture the fuzzy nature of this environment. The method involves the resolution of the linear programming problem where all the parameters are fuzzy numbers reflecting the uncertain nature of these variables.
To understand these issues, this book first focussed on analysis of family resources capacity and use and thereafter investigated living standards measurements of the farm families and finally dealt with future impact analysis of various strategies on family income. The farming systems approach was applied to analyse the family resources capacity and use. Some of the living standards measurements assessed included economic success, economic security, food supply and security and household expenditures of farm families. Data analysis was done by applying different statistical and econometric methods. Results indicated a positive contribution of tea and coffee production to relative food security in both zones.
Impact analysis of future development strategies was done through simulation with dynamic models at family level based on linear programming. Strategies tested in this study included changes in tea prices, improvement of capital availability among coffee farmers, changes in land utilisation and management and control in utilisation of tea payments.
The Case of Northern Gaza
Water scarcity is a major problem in the Middle East. The use of treated wastewater in the irrigated agriculture has the potential to save the fresh water for the other sectors. This book is dealt with the socio-economic assessment of using treated wastewater in agriculture. The evaluation of the potentials of this alternative water resource requires a multi-stakeholder analysis, i.e. analyses on different social and managerial levels. The treatment process, as a first level, includes financial and ecological analyses of different treatment methods. The management as a second level focuses on decisions in water pricing and legislation. The third level is the farming population, where analyses include the current state of resource endowment, with special emphasis on water resources, and the contribution of the resources to the living standard. Another element on this level for investigations is the perception towards the use of treated wastewater for irrigation and the factors affecting the related decisions. The fourth level comprises the consumers of agricultural products and requires analyses of their level of acceptance and willingness to pay for products irrigated with treated wastewater. The results of these analyses in Northern Gaza allow for the set-up of linear programming models for different farming systems classes and the formulation of several scenarios with regard to the probable future use of treated wastewater. The results of impact assessment at both family and regional levels indicate the relevance and importance of including the four levels when designing a regional plan to use treated wastewater in irrigation. This book presents a conceptual framework for the assessment of using treated wastewater in irrigated agriculture.
Compendium on the occasion of 15 years Ph. D. Program “Agricultural Economics and Related Sciences” for Students from Developing Countries. Volume II
The compendium Volume I and Volume II are published on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of our cherished “Ph. D. Program in Agricultural Economics and Related Sciences” and the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Justus-Liebig-University
Giessen, Germany. Both volumes contain quite a large number of collections of papers pertaining to the issues and challenges in rural development from former and present students of the program as listed below.
The first volume consists of twenty two papers organized under five broad sub-headings (1st-5th) contributed by the personnel mentioned in contributors’ list below. The first group of papers are in General Equilibrium modelling, which basically deals with
the role of Agriculture in the macro economy using CGE approach. The second block presents agricultural sector models dealing more specifically the agriculture sector. The third section is all about impact assessment of development interventions and socioeconomic status of the beneficiaries in rural areas. Correspondingly, the fourth subsection deals with efficiency and productivity of agricultural production focusing on efficiency variations between one farm and regions applying Frontier Production Function and Data Envelope Analysis. And finally, the fifth chapter highlights different methods and practices about conservation and management of natural resources in order to mitigate environmental problems thereby reducing the hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
The second volume is comprised of nineteen papers organized under six major chapters (6th-11th). Section six contains six papers directly/indirectly analyzing agricultural markets, marketing activities, technology adoption and commercialization.
Accordingly, the seventh section basically analyzes the factor markets and efficient allocation of available resources. The eighth chapter is about rural finance and credit, a major production constraint faced by the farmers especifically in rural areas of developing countries. More critical and catchy issues are included in the ninth chapter “poverty and food security issues”. Topics regarding education and extension in relation to agriculture are presented in the tenth section. And it ends up with the most commonly spoken issue women’s role and capacity to cope with household shocks.
Compendium on the occasion of 15 years Ph. D. Program “Agricultural Economics and Related Sciences” for Students from Developing Countries. Vol. I
The compendium Volume I and Volume II are published on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of our cherished “Ph. D. Program in Agricultural Economics and Related Sciences” and the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. Both volumes contain quite a large number of collections of papers pertaining to the issues and challenges in rural development from former and present students of the program as listed below.
The first volume consists of twenty two papers organized under five broad sub-headings (1st-5th) contributed by the personnel mentioned in contributors’ list below. The first group of papers are in General Equilibrium modelling, which basically deals with the role of Agriculture in the macro economy using CGE approach. The second block presents agricultural sector models dealing more specifically the agriculture sector. The third section is all about impact assessment of development interventions and socio-economic status of the beneficiaries in rural areas. Correspondingly, the fourth sub-section deals with efficiency and productivity of agricultural production focusing on efficiency variations between one farm and regions applying Frontier Production Function and Data Envelope Analysis. And finally, the fifth chapter highlights different methods and practices about conservation and management of natural resources in order to mitigate environmental problems thereby reducing the hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
The second volume is comprised of nineteen papers organized under six major chapters (6th-11th). Section six contains six papers directly/indirectly analyzing agricultural markets, marketing activities, technology adoption and commercialization. Accordingly, the seventh section basically analyzes the factor markets and efficient allocation of available resources. The eighth chapter is about rural finance and credit, a major production constraint faced by the farmers especifically in rural areas of developing countries. More critical and catchy issues are included in the ninth chapter “poverty and food security issues”. Topics regarding education and extension in relation to agriculture are presented in the tenth section. And it ends up with the most commonly spoken issue women’s role and capacity to cope with household shocks.
The Case of the Eastern Jordan Valley
Water for irrigation is a central element of agriculture in the Jordan Valley. Its availability and the individual farming systems' access to this scarce factor decides on the success of production as well as on the therefrom depending living standard of farming families. This book tries to answer the question about consequences for and potential reactions of the different types of farming systems in the realm of the Jordan Water Authority (JVA), i.e. Jordan's executive body for water distribution in the Jordan Valley, to changes in water supply. Analyses of data from a stratified random sample of 141 families revealed four major classes of farming systems with significant differences in major characteristics of resource endowment, economic success and the role of agriculture in families' economic activities. The collected information allowed for the socio-economic description of the farming systems and the set-up of models for the calculation of expectable future impacts from changes in water supply. The model-based impact analyses focused on the most probable future developments, which include decreasing water availability in the Northern part of the Valley, increasing water availability due to rising quantities of recycled water in the Southern part and changes in water prices due to the rising competition for water from other sectors of the economy. Results indicate amongst others that decreasing water quantities in the north would engender a nearly linear decrease in family incomes for about 66% of the farming systems. Increasing water quantities in the south would help to augment family incomes in particular for farming systems from the class with lowest incomes. Rising water prices would affect the family income in all farming systems, whereby families from the class with lowest income would have to bear the strongest consequences, but would not lead to a reduction of the area under cultivation. The results advocate the distinguished consideration of impacts from changes in the water situation according to the specific situation of families and farming systems in the Jordan Valley.
Non-Parametric Frontier Approaches
The sugar industry is of great economic importance to the regional economies in the areas where sugarcane is grown in Kenya, and also for the whole economy. However, this industry is faced with economic and environmental problems at the farm level, processing (factory level) and at the marketing level. This book investigates problems at the farm level. Four indicators, which were considered important, were chosen for analysis. These are profitability, economic efficiency, total factor productivity, and environmental performance (efficiency). Three regions (sugar schemes), with different institutional setups (management styles) were chosen. The analyses were carried out mainly by using non-parametric frontier (mathematical programming) approaches. Regarding profitability, the centrally planned region (Mumias) emerged superior, with no cases of negative returns, whilst the other two regions (Chemelil and West Kenya) recorded some losses. In all the schemes, we found that, it is possible to improve the efficiency levels and achieve higher outputs. The TFP levels increased marginally in Mumias, but declined in the other two regions. Finally, environmental problems are dichotomous, with Mumias having nutrient excesses, while the other two regions were mining nutrients from the soil. Different policy recommendations have been suggested in order to correct the shortfalls analyzed for the different indicators.
This book attempts to analyze the socio-economic development of indigenous people in an changing environment and to assess the future potential for a sustainable socio-economic development in the frame of the cultural settings. The specific objectives are (1) to understand and explain the relations between resource availability and use, as well as the living standard of indigenous families in different ethnic groups; (2) to assess the economic efficiency of resource use and define the development potential of resources under sustainability conditions; (3) to determine the factors affecting decision-making about resource use of indigenous families and the degree of flexibility in decision-making about resource use at the family level; and (4) to estimate and simulate the future development of different indigenous groups and different farming systems of them in order to assess the impacts of future strategies on farming activities and on the living standard of indigenous families.
Mustafa, Rajaa Hassan: Risk Management in the Rain-fed Sector of Sudan
The rain-fed mechanized agricultural sub-sector of the Sudan has high potential of building a national food stock and foreign exchange earnings, which could contribute substantially to agricultural development and hence the development of the whole economy as well. However, the agricultural production in this sub-sector is generally characterized by a high degree of instability which arises from the nature of the agricultural production that is dependent on uncontrollable weather conditions and unpredictable input and output prices, resulting in instable farm income. It is argued that the adoption of the recommended improved technologies in the rain-fed mechanized sub-sector of Gedaref in Eastern Sudan can increase farm income while diversifying by introducing sheep and gum arabic enterprises to sorghum monoculture may lead to farm income stability. Under these arguments in favor of diversification and use of the improved technology, this book therefore, evaluated different management strategies in this sub-sector under uncertainty. The financial feasibility of different investment and management strategies was evaluated under both; the current traditional and some improved cultural practices. The stochastic budgeting technique using the NPV of farm income as a measure of performance was used in this study to simulate production and market risk over a twenty-years planning horizon on an average farm in Gedaref area. Empirical results showed that the introduction of forest and livestock activities contribute substantially to farm income stability with very low probability of loss at the end of the planning period while the adoption of the new recommended technology also stabilize farm income and guarantee the profitability of the business at the end of the same planning period.
A Microeconomic and Household Modelling Approach
Increasing foreign exchange problems and the deteriorating prices of traditional export commodities in developing countries are leading agricultural policy makers and donor agencies to seek diversification in export crop production. In Ghana, horticultural crops such as pineapples, mangoes and papaya appear promising because of their high labour intensity and the expanding demand for fruits in industrialized nations. This book investigates the impact of the introduction of non-traditional horticultural exports on food security and livelihood of farm households in southern Ghana using a combination of econometric and mathematical programming modelling approaches. The results show that households engaged in export horticulture are better off than those that do not. Notwithstanding, the chronically poor households are structurally impeded from seizing the opportunities resulting from the export boom due to poor resource endowment and liquidity constraints. Horticultural exports as a source of livelihood among smallholder farmers thus depends on factors that narrow or widen the imperfections in rural markets. Specifically, access to local institutional services, technological know-how, policy environment, trends and stability in international markets and most importantly, their interplay with livelihood adopting strategies are the major determinants of success. The policy requirements include: establishment of more export-oriented agro-processing industries, improving infrastructure to enhance input and market access, encouraging the formation of farmer groups and strengthening of exporter-producer associations, and a policy review on arable land distribution.
Agriculture remains very important for India. Facing the problem of steadily increasing population, India confronts the permanent challenge of food security. Increasing crop productivity (in monetary terms) through better market access is one of the ways to reach this goal. Applying panel econometric analysis, this book investigates the implications and the influence of market access determinants (road and market densities) on the aggregate crop productivity. The results of the analyses at district, state, and regional level are presented.
It was found that the aggregate crop productivity might be largely improved merely through prompting the states (districts, farmers) to allocate their resources in a more efficient way, without even using more inputs. It is shown, however, that increased use of inputs would be adding to that positive effect considerably. Therefore, this book renders useful quantitative insights into what could be improved, where the state and national governments could step in financially to get a desired feedback from increasingly scarce public investments.
A Case from Lake Nasser Region in Egypt
The impacts of the agricultural development policies on the environment are of major public concern, in both developed and developing countries. Understanding these impacts requires information on the relationship between agriculture, the environment and sustainable development. In Egypt, the agricultural development policies have embarked on desert land reclamation to establish new settlements by extending the cultivated area. The main destinations of the new settlements are potential areas such as the Lake Nasser region. This book presents a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of such development activities in Lake Nasser area on the settling farmers and the surrounding natural environment. The analyses proceeded in three steps. It started by analyzing the socio-economic settings of the farmers which allowed for better understanding of their resource capacities, problems and resource management approaches. The second step investigated the impacts of the current development activities on the successful establishment of a sustainable farming community in the area. It relied on a group of indicators that were developed using the properties of the agroecosystems and the main dimensions of sustainable development. The indicators cover the environmental, economic and social properties of the farming systems and emphasize their most potential components and interactions. The book is concluded by suggesting strategies that could improve the socio-economic status of the farming families while alleviating the negative impacts on the natural resources. The empirical results of this book contribute in the operationalization of the concept of the environmental, economic and social evaluation of the sustainable development of agricultural activities.
China is in the process of growing its integration into the international trading system. At the same time, Chinese government is changing its agricultural policy from taxing agriculture to subsidizing it and paying more attention to increasing the farmers’ income. There is increasing demand for the information of the possible impacts of policy proposals. In this context a Chinese agricultural sector model has been developed in the present study. There are several distinguished features of the present model from other similar models. The model consists of 31 provinces with each province as a market. Inter-provincial trade is analysed. The mixed complementarity programming (MCP) formulation is used to solve the spatial equilibrium problem. The production analysis is based on the positive mathematical programming approach combined with the maximum entropy estimation methods and incorporated into the MCP structure. The model is used to simulated different policy scenarios including shocks from demand, production, trade and regional transportation costs. The model applications show its aptitude and usefulness as a policy analysis tool to support the decision making process in agricultural sector in China.
Serious soil degradation has great social, economic and environmental impacts, undermining the sustainable development of Inner Mongolia. The conflicts between enormous soil conservation task and limited government budget require soil conservation projects to be implemented in a cost-effective way. But phenomenon such as abandon of soil conservation practices after project term and low voluntary adoption rate have been often observed. The study focuses on the soil conservation measures of converting steep cropland by tree and/or grass planting. This book conducts an economic evaluation of the introduced soil conservation measures to find out their on-site benefits at the farm household level. The profitability of soil conservation measures from farmers’ perspective is a necessary condition for the adoption, but is not sufficient. An adoption model is then developed to examine the main economic, institutional, social and physical factors that affect farm households’ adoption decisions. To promote the revegetation in Inner Mongolia, cautiously designed subsidies for tree planting might be needed for poor farmers and where the land potential is low. But removal of the institutional disincentives and using enabling incentives will have greater and long-term effect.
A Case Study of the Coastal Region of Quangtri Province, Vietnam
As many parts of the world, soil erosion and land degradation in Vietnam in general and in the coastal area of Quangtri province in particular is an increasing threat to the sustainability in agriculture. Combating soil erosion and land degradation is among the top actions to sustain agricultural production and the livelihood of the rural population. The effectiveness of soil conservation relies mainly on the appropriateness of soil conservation measures and the adoption of the local people as well. This book describes the impacts of soil conservation measures on the sustainability in agriculture and factors affecting farmers’ adoption of soil conservation measures in the coastal area of Quangtri province. A survey was conducted on 144 farm households in 2003. The impact analyses show that applying soil conservation measures positively influences economic, ecological and social dimensions of the sustainability in agriculture. The financial analyses demonstrate that applying soil conservation measures is much more profitable in the long run than without applying. The adoption analyses reveal that more frequent contact with extension services, better perception of soil erosion and land degradation, larger plot size and shorter distance from plots to the homestead, more available labour and higher farm income significantly increase the probability that soil conservation measures are adopted. To promote soil conservation adoption, the extension network should be improved; the suitable plot size should be allocated; indirect incentives such as titled land and appropriate credit programs should be available.
Farmers have numerous concerns and preferences for variety attributes. Their preferences for the attributes result in variety choice decisions since they value varieties by considering the attributes they embed. Ultimately, farmers’ decisions for variety choice will determine the level of crop diversity. Despite farmers having numerous varietal concerns, most of the experimental works in crop improvement evaluate varietal performance often using yield as sole criterion. Understanding farmers’ preferences for variety attributes is important in the implementation of on-farm conservation and variety adoption strategies. To this end, this book aims to analyze the farmers' perceptions on and preferences for rice varietal attributes and their effect on technology adoption in the Terai region of Nepal. The analytical tools include both descriptive and econometric models. The results show that farmers’ preferences are driven by the need for production, tolerance to stress, consumption, marketing and management considerations. There are important variation in the preference for attributes depending upon the economic status of the farmer, geographic locations and his/her farming objective. Also more than 50 percent of the listed attributes were valued as important by the farmers. This suggested that farmers demand varietal diversity, since it is unlikely that a single rice variety will be good at supplying all of the attributes they value. The results show that the farmers’ perceptions of the technology attributes are important variables in addition to the conventional variables in determining the adoption of modern varieties. It is also revealed that the land heterogeneity, risk considerations, market participation, and preference for attributes are important variables contributing to varietal diversity. As the farmers are the eventual consumers of the product of agricultural research such as variety, their knowledge of the production system and preference for varietal attributes would be valuable input for breeding priority setting, on-farm conservation and the adoption of generated technology.
Cotton crisis in West African countries is not only a matter of trade but also sustainability and gender equity. The introduction of organic cotton in Benin, while offering a mood of solution to the problems faced by the cotton sector in terms of gender equity, generates new dilemmas at household level regarding land and family labor allocation between husband and wife. In the present thesis, the author analyses the determinant factors of the adoption of organic cotton by household and how profitable is cotton production on men and women’s field related to the intra-household productive resource (land and family labor) sharing mechanism in central Benin. Through some simulation exercises by using a nonlinear programming model, the author came to the conclusion that, there are still some possibilities to improve gender equity in income distribution in cotton producers’ household by reallocating the household’s land resource in favour of women. For this land reallocation policy to be more effective, some credit facilities should be given to organic cotton farmers, especially to women.
Economic and Environmental Analysis in Cameroon
The management of urban household waste constitutes one of the most immediate and serious environmental problems facing the municipality of Yaoundé-city in Cameroon. On the other hand, the mineral fertilizer is entirely imported at an increasing rate in the country. Thus, this book suggests the composting of household
waste as an option which would allow at the same time to clean the Yaoundécity at lower cost, to improve global environmental conditions and particularly to reduce mineral fertilizer use and imports. Hence, the book analyses the substitution possibility between compost and mineral fertilizer as well as the impact of
using compost on the producers of rural areas and on the consumers in the city and surrounding villages in order to find out the optimal compost use and distribution. The field survey results show that composting household waste is beneficial both environmentally (reducing frequency of diseases or pollution costs) and agronomically since compost use leads to higher crop yields. Results from the Cobb-Douglas production function prove that compost use is statistically significant in explaining the yield variation of the main field crops and more importantly, compost is the most productive input for the total farmers group. Using the von Thünen model, it is proved that the household waste management problem in the Yaoundé-city could be solved by just processing the waste into compost in order to be distributed and used for agricultural production in villages surrounding the city. In that way, the compost could substitute mineral fertilizer helping thereby to save part of the imported mineral fertilizer quantity and the total import expenditures in Cameroon.
A Household Level Analysis
Conducting any research on women’s empowerment in order to reduce poverty as well as promote gender equality is of utmost significance in the context of Bangladesh as well as elsewhere. This book contains empirical research findings from a study conducted in Bangladesh to highlight the marginalisation of rural women at household level. It examines the nature and extent of rural women’s empowerment and the basic socio-economic factors influencing it. Six constructs of women’s empowerment in three dimensions were chosen to develop a cumulative empowerment index (CEI). A stepwise multiple regression was also performed to explore the effects of several socio-economic factors on women’s empowerment. The study concludes that education, training, media exposure and spatial mobility of rural women have the potential to empower them. Specific interventions and coordinated efforts by the government, non-government and women’s organisations as well as rural society for the advancement of rural women’s empowerment sum up the strategy proposed in this book.
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