scholarly journals Production Efficiencies of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) Insured and Non-NAIC Insured Livestock Farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria

Author(s):  
Ojetunde Babatunde Stephen ◽  
Emmanuel Egbodo Boheje Odum ◽  
Adewumi Olaniyi Matthew

This study used structured questionnaire to randomly collect data from livestock farmers insured under the NAIC scheme and their counterparts not under the NAIC scheme in Kwara State. The study comparatively examined their socio-economic characteristics and production efficiencies using The Stochastic Frontier Analysis and t-test. Results from the study showed that not enough youths participate in livestock production in the study area and it is a male dominated activity. A lot of non-beneficiaries of the NAIC intervention scheme are not members of cooperatives and losing out in the benefits of cooperative membership. The insured farmers are more efficient compared to those that were not insured with both having potentials for increasing their efficiency of production at the moment. The study therefore recommend that youths of ages 35years and below be encourage and provided some incentives to participate in livestock farming as well as women to check the gender imbalance of male dominance. Awareness of NAIC intervention schemes is created for livestock farmers who are not registered for the scheme while beneficiaries are made ambassadors of the scheme to have it promoted to non-beneficiaries. Livestock farmers that do not belong to any cooperative are recommended to form or belong to one so as to access the benefits of belonging to a cooperative group. The study also recommends that stakeholders in the Nigerian Agricultural insurance subsector develop strategies that will encourage much participation in their insurance interventions and also create more awareness among farming households to encourage participation in the program.

2021 ◽  
pp. 146499342110317
Author(s):  
Hayatullah Ahmadzai

In this article, I present empirical evidence on the extent of crop diversification and assess its merits as a strategy for improving production efficiency in Afghanistan. The transformed Herfindahl–Harshman index is used to measure the scale and magnitude of crop diversification. I find a compelling evidence that diversifying production portfolios significantly improves production efficiencies. This finding is critical, given that the data show that nearly a third of the farm households do not diversify, achieving, on average, about 52% of potential revenues. The estimated efficiency scores reveal that, on average, the farm households in our analytical sample of over 7,000 households achieve 74% of potential revenue, with nearly 15% of households realizing less than 50% and about 23% between 50% and 70% of potential revenue. These results infer that there exist substantial inefficacies in agricultural production that can be eliminated by employing improved management practices without having to use additional inputs and production resources and rising cost of production. Our results are robust to potential endogeneity bias in crop diversification; I account for the endogeneity problem in the stochastic frontier analysis, by employing a recent estimation approach, using instrumental variable techniques. Mapping the spatial distribution of crop diversification index and estimated efficiency scores across the country revealed that districts with higher diversification levels correspond to higher efficiency indices. Aside from crop diversification, other socio-economic factors also have critical implications for efficiency; households with access to farm assets (such as land, cattle, oxen and tractor) and extension services appear to realize substantially higher production efficiencies. A direct policy recommendation that can be generated from the findings of this study is that crop diversification should be given more recognition by policymakers to enhance productivity and resilience in agriculture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
João Vasco Silva ◽  
Pytrik Reidsma ◽  
Frédéric Baudron ◽  
Moti Jaleta ◽  
Kindie Tesfaye ◽  
...  

AbstractWheat yields in Ethiopia need to increase considerably to reduce import dependency and keep up with the expected increase in population and dietary changes. Despite the yield progress observed in recent years, wheat yield gaps remain large. Here, we decompose wheat yield gaps in Ethiopia into efficiency, resource, and technology yield gaps and relate those yield gaps to broader farm(ing) systems aspects. To do so, stochastic frontier analysis was applied to a nationally representative panel dataset covering the Meher seasons of 2009 and 2013 and crop modelling was used to simulate the water-limited yield (Yw) in the same years. Farming systems analysis was conducted to describe crop area shares and the availability of land, labour, and capital in contrasting administrative zones. Wheat yield in farmers’ fields averaged 1.9 t ha− 1 corresponding to ca. 20% of Yw. Most of the yield gap was attributed to the technology yield gap (> 50% of Yw) but narrowing efficiency (ca. 10% of Yw) and resource yield gaps (ca. 15% of Yw) with current technologies can nearly double actual yields and contribute to achieve wheat self-sufficiency in Ethiopia. There were small differences in the relative contribution of the intermediate yield gaps to the overall yield gap across agro-ecological zones, administrative zones, and farming systems. At farm level, oxen ownership was positively associated with the wheat cultivated area in zones with relatively large cultivated areas per household (West Arsi and North Showa) while no relationship was found between oxen ownership and the amount of inputs used per hectare of wheat in the zones studied. This is the first thorough yield gap decomposition for wheat in Ethiopia and our results suggest government policies aiming to increase wheat production should prioritise accessibility and affordability of inputs and dissemination of technologies that allow for precise use of these inputs.


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