scholarly journals What role can small-scale irrigation play in promoting inclusive rural transformation? Evidence from smallholder rice farmers in the Philippines

2021 ◽  
Vol 243 ◽  
pp. 106437
Author(s):  
Daniel Higgins ◽  
Aslihan Arslan ◽  
Paul Winters
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Rural Transformation ◽  
Rice Farmers ◽  
Small Scale Irrigation

scholarly journals Behavioral Responses to Climate Information: A Case of Small Scale Rice Farmers in Vulnerable Communities in Leyte, Philippines

2014 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Rotacio Gravoso ◽  
Remberto Patindol ◽  
Canesio Predo
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Climate Forecast ◽  
Crop Failure ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Rice Farmers ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Cropping Season ◽  
Climate Forecasts ◽  
Recent Developments

As in many developing countries, the advent of extreme climatic events, including El Niño and La Niña phenomena has exposed the livelihoods of small scale Filipino farmers to climate vulnerabilities. Recent developments in climate prediction suggest that seasonal climate forecasts (SCF) have potentials for alleviating the vulnerability of farmers’ livelihoods. In the Philippines, however, farmers’ uptake of SCF is low. This study pilot-tested SCF dissemination and examined if small rice farmers from communities vulnerable to flooding and drought would use the information in their farming and management decisions. Farmers then participated in a seminar on the basic concepts of climate and were advised of the climate forecast for the July 2012 cropping season. Focus group discussions were conducted four months after, that is, during the harvest season. Respondents assessed the SCF as “accurate” but in making farm decisions, they relied on their experiences on the onset and amount of rain. For some farmers, the shortage of rainfall in the middle of the cropping season led to crop failure. Thus, they resorted to growing other crops. Results of this study highlighted the need to inform farmers of the onset, amount, and duration and distribution of rainfall for the incoming cropping season. Overall results indicate the need for the meteorological agency to improve the skill and to down-scale (localize) the climate forecast.

scholarly journals Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 246
Author(s):  
Markose Chekol Zewdie ◽  
Michele Moretti ◽  
Daregot Berihun Tenessa ◽  
Zemen Ayalew Ayele ◽  
Jan Nyssen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Stochastic Frontier Approach ◽  
Small Scale Irrigation

In the past decade, to improve crop production and productivity, Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious irrigation farming expansion program and has introduced new large- and small-scale irrigation initiatives. However, in Ethiopia, poverty remains a challenge, and crop productivity per unit area of land is very low. Literature on the technical efficiency (TE) of large-scale and small-scale irrigation user farmers as compared to the non-user farmers in Ethiopia is also limited. Investigating smallholder farmers’ TE level and its principal determinants is very important to increase crop production and productivity and to improve smallholder farmers’ livelihood and food security. Using 1026 household-level cross-section data, this study adopts a technology flexible stochastic frontier approach to examine agricultural TE of large-scale irrigation users, small-scale irrigation users and non-user farmers in Ethiopia. The results indicate that, due to poor extension services and old-style agronomic practices, the mean TE of farmers is very low (44.33%), implying that there is a wider room for increasing crop production in the study areas through increasing the TE of smallholder farmers without additional investment in novel agricultural technologies. Results also show that large-scale irrigation user farmers (21.05%) are less technically efficient than small-scale irrigation user farmers (60.29%). However, improving irrigation infrastructure shifts the frontier up and has a positive impact on smallholder farmers’ output.

scholarly journals Accurate age estimation in small-scale societies

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (31) ◽  
pp. 8205-8210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoan Diekmann ◽  
Daniel Smith ◽  
Pascale Gerbault ◽  
Mark Dyble ◽  
Abigail E. Page ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Bayesian Approach ◽  
Age Estimation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Monte Carlo Algorithm ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Ranking Order

Precise estimation of age is essential in evolutionary anthropology, especially to infer population age structures and understand the evolution of human life history diversity. However, in small-scale societies, such as hunter-gatherer populations, time is often not referred to in calendar years, and accurate age estimation remains a challenge. We address this issue by proposing a Bayesian approach that accounts for age uncertainty inherent to fieldwork data. We developed a Gibbs sampling Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that produces posterior distributions of ages for each individual, based on a ranking order of individuals from youngest to oldest and age ranges for each individual. We first validate our method on 65 Agta foragers from the Philippines with known ages, and show that our method generates age estimations that are superior to previously published regression-based approaches. We then use data on 587 Agta collected during recent fieldwork to demonstrate how multiple partial age ranks coming from multiple camps of hunter-gatherers can be integrated. Finally, we exemplify how the distributions generated by our method can be used to estimate important demographic parameters in small-scale societies: here, age-specific fertility patterns. Our flexible Bayesian approach will be especially useful to improve cross-cultural life history datasets for small-scale societies for which reliable age records are difficult to acquire.

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