scholarly journals Smallholder Coffee Productivity as Affected by Socioeconomic Factors and Technology Adoption

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Wambua ◽  
Bernard M. Gichimu ◽  
Samuel N. Ndirangu

Despite the increase in area under coffee in Kenya in the last decade, productivity has been on the decline. Numerous production technologies have been developed through on-station research but there has been limited on-farm research to assess the impact of these technologies at the farm level. On the other hand, smallholder farmers are endowed differently and this would positively or negatively affect the adoption of recommended technologies and hence coffee productivity. This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of socioeconomic factors and technology adoption on smallholder coffee productivity at the farm level. The study employed stratified random sampling where 376 farmers were randomly sampled from six cooperative societies which had been preselected using probability proportional to the size sampling technique. The effects of socioeconomic factors and technology adoption on coffee productivity were analyzed using the stochastic Cobb-Douglas production function. The study revealed that off-farm income, access to credit, type of land tenure, and land size had significant positive effects on coffee productivity. Therefore, coffee farmers should be encouraged to diversify their income sources and to embrace credit financing, as the government reviews land use policies to avail adequate agricultural land. The study further revealed that the adoption of recommended application rates of manure, fungicides, and pesticides had significant positive effects on coffee productivity. The adoption of these technologies should therefore be enhanced among small-scale farmers to improve coffee productivity at the farm level.

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunjeong Joo ◽  
Aditya R. Khanal ◽  
Ashok K. Mishra

Agritourism is an alternative source of farm income. We examine farmers’ participation in agritourism activities to assess the impact of participation on farm household income and return to assets using a large farm-level survey. The results reveal that older, educated, and female operators are more likely to participate in agritourism. However, government subsidies and the population of the county are negatively correlated with agritourism. Of the types of farm operations examined, small-scale farms that involved agritourism generated the greatest household incomes and returns to assets. For operators of small farms, agritourism can boost the economic well-being of farm households.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fortunate Nosisa Zaca ◽  
Edilegnaw Wale ◽  
Unity Chipfupa

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the impact of social grant dependence on on-farm entrepreneurial spirit of smallholders. A sample of 175 farmers was obtained from two communities in KwaZulu-Natal. The study employed Principal Components Analysis and Tobit regression. The entrepreneurial spirit indices were constructed from revealed preference-based questions. The study found a positive relationship between the social grant and on-farm entrepreneurial spirit. The positive impact on rural household farming activities implies that the prevailing low entrepreneurial levels among farmers are not the result of social grant dependence but lack of opportunity and other resource constraints. However, to remain effective, policy should ensure that the grant money benefits (directly/indirectly) the intended beneficiary and their households. The other factors found to be associated with on-farm entrepreneurship include age of the farmer, gender, psychological capital, access to training, access to education, access to land, inadequate farming assets, water insecurity, extension, off-farm income and group membership. The study also recommends the need for strategies that improve psychological capital and thus enhance positive on-farm entrepreneurial behaviour among smallholder farmers. Addressing institutional and farming constraints related to access to resources and services (land, credit, extension, and water) and collective action will positively contribute to on-farm entrepreneurship.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Ivan Takáč ◽  
Jarmila Lazíková ◽  
Ľubica Rumanovská ◽  
Anna Bandlerová ◽  
Zuzana Lazíková

Agricultural land is a limited natural resource with increasing economic value. This study analyses land rental relationships in Slovakia, including legal rental regulations, and identifies the impact of certain factors, such as the European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments, and geographical and economic factors on land rental prices. From the results of econometric models, it was found that certain CAP payments have an effect on rental prices, mainly the single area payment scheme (SAPS), payments for agri-environmental-climate schemes (AECS), and animal welfare, which were found to have positive effects. Other important factors found to influence rental prices are economic indicators (such as total revenue share of total costs, share of revenue from agricultural production in terms of total revenue, share of production costs as a percentage of total costs, wages, and number of employees) and geographical factors (such as region or partial production areas). However, the distance of the farm from the district city (LAU 1) and the share of farmland affected by natural constraints do not considerably affect rental prices in Slovakia. Land consolidation is a statistically significant factor according to the models; however, its impact is almost zero. Knowledge of these factors constitutes important know-how, not only for policy makers but also for the actors operating in the land rental market (e.g., landlords, tenants, experts on land valuation, and real estate agents).


Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Babendreier ◽  
Min Wan ◽  
Rui Tang ◽  
Rui Gu ◽  
Justice Tambo ◽  
...  

The impact and sustainability of two interventions that have been formulated to introduce integrated pest management (IPM) into rice and maize crops in Southwestern China, Laos, and Myanmar between 2011 and 2016, and were assessed at the end of 2017. From 22 Trichogramma rearing facilities established during the interventions, 11 were still producing substantial quantities of biocontrol agents 1.5 years after project support had ended, while seven had stopped operations completely, and four were doing stock rearing only. Through the implementation of biological control-based IPM, slightly higher yields were achieved in maize and rice (4–10%), when compared to control farmers, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, the use of pesticides nearly halved when farmers started using Trichogramma egg-cards as a biological control agent. Support from either public or private institutions was found to be important for ensuring the sustainability of Trichogramma rearing facilities. Many of the suggested IPM measures were not adopted by smallholder farmers, indicating that the positive impacts of the interventions mostly resulted from the application of Trichogramma biological control agents. The following assessment suggests that further promotion of IPM adoption among farmers is needed to upscale the already positive effects of interventions that facilitate reductions in synthetic pesticide use, and the effects on sustainable agricultural production of rice and maize in the target area more generally.


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest L. Molua

The risks associated with increasing climate variability pose technological and economic challenges to societies which are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. In Southwestern Cameroon the natural variability of rainfall and temperatures contribute to variability in agricultural production and food insecurity. This paper explores the impact of climate variability in Southwestern Cameroon on food availability. It examines farm household's vulnerability to food availability relating to climate, and reviews the interplay of climate, agriculture, and prospects for food security in the region. An econometric function directly relates farm income and precipitation, in order to statistically estimate the significance of farm-level adaptation methods. The results reveal that precipitation during growing and adaptation methods through changes in soil tillage and crop rotation practices have significant effects on farm returns. An essential precondition for food security and overall agricultural development in Southwestern Cameroon is a dynamic agricultural sector brought about both by steady increase in agricultural production and by greater efforts in farmer support, to enable farm households to take advantage of the opportunities and to minimize the negative impacts of climate variation on agriculture.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Decimavilla ◽  
Carlos San Juan ◽  
Stefan Sperlich

This paper examines agricultural land prices and the variables that affect them as a way of identifying and explaining the recent price cycle in Spain. The key variables in our panel data model are location and expected farm income as fundamental factors and housing prices and increases in irrigated areas as nonfundamental dependant variables. The price cycle is also related to regional specialization and the impact of integration in the CAP. The novelty of the paper consists in the use of panel data models to identify fundamental factors related to agricultural productivity (expected agricultural income) and location and nonfundamental or speculative factors (housing prices, irrigated areas and demographic changes) using regional data associated with land type.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 1923-1941
Author(s):  
Patrick Morrissey ◽  
Paul Nolan ◽  
Ted McCormack ◽  
Paul Johnston ◽  
Owen Naughton ◽  
...  

Abstract. Lowland karst aquifers can generate unique wetland ecosystems which are caused by groundwater fluctuations that result in extensive groundwater–surface water interactions (i.e. flooding). However, the complex hydrogeological attributes of these systems, linked to extremely fast aquifer recharge processes and flow through well-connected conduit networks, often present difficulty in predicting how they will respond to changing climatological conditions. This study investigates the predicted impacts of climate change on a lowland karst catchment by using a semi-distributed pipe network model of the karst aquifer populated with output from the high spatial resolution (4 km) Consortium for Small-scale Modelling Climate Lokalmodell (COSMO-CLM) regional climate model simulations for Ireland. An ensemble of projections for the future Irish climate were generated by downscaling from five different global climate models (GCMs), each based on four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs; RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5) to account for the uncertainty in the estimation of future global emissions of greenhouse gases. The one-dimensional hydraulic/hydrologic karst model incorporates urban drainage software to simulate open channel and pressurised flow within the conduits, with flooding on the land surface represented by storage nodes with the same stage volume properties of the physical turlough basins. The lowland karst limestone catchment is located on the west coast of Ireland and is characterised by a well-developed conduit-dominated karst aquifer which discharges to the sea via intertidal and submarine springs. Annual above ground flooding associated with this complex karst system has led to the development of unique wetland ecosystems in the form of ephemeral lakes known as turloughs; however, extreme flooding of these features causes widespread damage and disruption in the catchment. This analysis has shown that mean, 95th and 99th percentile flood levels are expected to increase by significant proportions for all future emission scenarios. The frequency of events currently considered to be extreme is predicted to increase, indicating that more significant groundwater flooding events seem likely to become far more common. The depth and duration of flooding is of extreme importance, both from an ecological perspective in terms of wetland species distribution and for extreme flooding in terms of the disruption to homes, transport links and agricultural land inundated by flood waters. The seasonality of annual flooding is also predicted to shift later in the flooding season, which could have consequences in terms of ecology and land use in the catchment. The investigation of increasing mean sea levels, however, showed that anticipated rises would have very little impact on groundwater flooding due to the marginal impact on ebb tide outflow volumes. Overall, this study highlights the relative vulnerability of lowland karst systems to future changing climate conditions, mainly due to the extremely fast recharge which can occur in such systems. The study presents a novel and highly effective methodology for studying the impact of climate change in lowland karst systems by coupling karst hydrogeological models with the output from high-resolution climate simulations.


Author(s):  
Ojo Olusayo ◽  
Ogunniyi Adebayo ◽  
Salman K. Kayode ◽  
Kehinde Olagunju ◽  
Iwinlade Ayodeji ◽  
...  

Existing literature affirms the importance of agricultural technology adoption on productivity, income and livelihood outcomes. Evidences subsist on the adoption of improved cassava varieties (ICVs) in Nigeria but little is known about its impact among the farmers. We used data from a survey conducted by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to explore this research gap.  Propensity Score Matching and Heckman’s two-stage model were the analytical tools.  Given an estimated poverty line of (₦21717.53); 52.0% of the farmers were poor.  We found that 75.6% of the respondents are adopters of ICVs. Primary occupation of household head and total non-production asset of farmers were key determinants for adoption.  Adoption of improved cassava variety has positive effect on farmers’ productivity and poverty reduction. The Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT) for productivity increased by 70 percent among ICVs farmers. Income was also higher among the adopters than the non- adopters by ₦43463.77. In the same vein, the income of the adopters increased by 17%. Furthermore, adopters of ICVs have the probability of reducing poverty headcount by 20%. The empirical results suggest that improved agricultural innovation adoption can play a key role in strengthening and impacting agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers for increased income generation and food security.


Author(s):  
Aristide Maniriho ◽  
Edouard Musabanganji ◽  
Philippe Lebailly

This study attempted to examine the role of institutions in boosting rural and agricultural development in the region of the Volcanic Highlands of Rwanda. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a random sample of 401 small-scale farmers through a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a weighted least-squares method to account for heteroscedasticity, a common issue in cross-sectional studies. Results from crop output function reveal a positive and significant effect of cooperative membership, a negative but significant effect of extension services, and a negative non-significant effect of land tenure, credit access, and market access on farm production, respectively. In terms of net farm income function, the results demonstrate that farmer cooperation, land tenure, extension services, and access to output markets have a positive, non-significant influence, but that access to finance has a negative non-significant effect. Results also point to a positive and significant effect of some household characteristics, namely family size, farming experience, land size, and farm yield, on farm production. As for net farm income, education of the head, family size, farm experience, land size, farm yield, selling price, and cattle proved to be among primary determinants. It was therefore suggested that agricultural sector programs and activities should be readapted and strengthened in order to leverage rural and agricultural development in Rwanda.


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