scholarly journals Resource Use Efficiency as a Climate Smart Approach: Case of Smallholder Maize Farmers in Nyando, Kenya

Environments ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamud Salat ◽  
Brent Swallow
Keyword(s):  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Conservation Practices ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
The Impact

To simultaneously enhance agricultural productivity and lower negative impacts on the environment, food systems need to be much more efficient in using resources such as land, water, and fertilizer. This study examines resource use efficiency of maize production among smallholder farmers in Nyando, Kenya. The main objective is to assess the degree of technical efficiency of smallholder farmers and identify the impact of so-called “climate smart practices” on technical efficiency. The method of Stochastic Frontier Analysis is used to simultaneously estimate a stochastic production frontier and a technical inefficiency effect model. Data for 324 subplots farmed by 170 households were available for this analysis. The study reveals that maize production in Nyando is associated with mean technical efficiency of 45% and that soil conservation practices such as residue management, legume intercropping, and improved varieties significantly increase farmers’ technical efficiency. Soil carbon is found to be a critical factor of production. These results imply that there is potential to more than double production using the same resources and that soil conservation practices can be very “climate smart,” at once increasing soil carbon, production, climate resilience, and technical efficiency.

scholarly journals Resource use efficiency of maize production with and without irrigation system in Kaski, Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-295
Author(s):  
Kapil Khanal ◽  
Kalika Bahadur Adhikari ◽  
Shiva Chandra Dhakal ◽  
Santosh Marahatta
Keyword(s):  
Production Function ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Microsoft Excel ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Maize Productivity ◽  
Major Implication ◽  
Use Efficiency

The study examined the resource use efficiency of maize production in rainfed and irrigated conditions in Kaski, Nepal. It focused specially on the production function of maize, resource use efficiency and socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers. A well-structured interview schedule was used in this study. Out of the 368 households interviewed, 165 farmers cultivated maize and a total of 157 farmers (59 from irrigated and 98 from rainfed) provided useful data. The data analysis was done by using Microsoft excel and SPSS. Cobb-Douglas production function was used to determine the resource use efficiency of maize production.  Compared to rainfed system, maize productivity in irrigated system was higher despite the use of fewer input implying irrigation. Increase in seed use by 10% increased the yield by 1.9% in case of rainfed system and 0.05% in case of the irrigated system. The major implication for the study is that farmers should make proper utilization of their resources to achieve higher level of resource use efficiency.

scholarly journals Resource Use Efficiency in Maize Production by Small-Scale Farmers in Two Districts of Mwanza Region, Tanzania

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Gongwe Anne. G. ◽  
Kongolo M.
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Increasing Returns To Scale ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Soil Preparation ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Small Scale Farmers

This study investigates the resource use efficiency in the production of maize by small-scale farmers in Mwanza region. Specifically, the study seeks to determine what the resources that farmers use in maize production and also seeks to determine the challenges that farmers face in maize production in the study area. This study was conducted in two districts of Mwanza region. In each of the district, the study sampled three wards and randomly selected twelve small-scale farmers from each of the three wards selected. In total 72 small-scale farmers were selected from whom the data was collected. A Cobb-Douglas production function was used to fit and analyse the data for its good fit. The R² was 0.77, indicating that 77 percent of the variation in dependent variable was explained by the independent variables of the model. The use of inputs in the production of maize was noted to be increasing returns to scale. The results indicated that variables land (X1), labour (X2), age (X6), and experience (X8) were all positive and significant at the 1% while soil preparation (X4) variable was negative but significant at the 5%. The major constraints to maize production included lack of fertilizer (manure), finance (capital) and access to land. The study concluded that more exposure of small-scale farmers to frequent extension services is important to assist them to produce efficiently.

scholarly journals Trade-Offs between Sustainability Indicators in Response to the Production Choices of Different Farm Household Types in Drylands

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loubna El Ansari ◽  
Roza Chenoune ◽  
Yigezu A. Yigezu ◽  
Christian Gary ◽  
Hatem Belhouchette
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Farm Household ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Limited Food ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Farming Households

A lot of national and international effort has been made to promote sustainable agricultural production systems in drylands. However, success has been seriously limited due to lack of thorough characterization of the impact of the diversity of farm household types on productivity, resource-use efficiency and economic and nutritional status. This study applied hierarchical ascendant classification to a random sample of 286 cereal-producing farm households in Morocco and identified distinct household typologies. It also carried out an analysis of trade-offs between economic, nutritional and environmental factors induced by the production decisions of the different farm household typologies. Our analysis identified three dominant farm household typologies in the production system, namely: (i) intensive predominantly-vegetable farming households with high input intensities, (ii) semi-intensive cereal mono-crop farming households with moderate input intensities and (iii) extensive mixed cereal-legume farming households with low input intensities. Extensive mixed cereal-legume farming households exhibited the highest resource-use efficiency and high biodiversity. These benefits, however, came at the expense of a much lower farm income and limited food supplies relative to the other two systems. These results show that, as is the case for many dryland regions, all three farm types showed precarious conditions for one or more of the sustainability-related indicators.

scholarly journals A New Standard Area Diagram Set for Assessment of Severity of Soybean Rust Improves Accuracy of Estimates and Optimizes Resource Use

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emerson Medeiros Del Ponte ◽  
Kaique Santos Alves
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Soybean Rust ◽  
Phakopsora Pachyrhizi ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Severe Reduction ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Disease Reduction ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
The Impact

Soybean rust (SBR), caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, is the most important yield- damaging fungal disease of soybean due to severe reduction in healthy leaf area and acceleration of leaf fall. In experimental research, SBR severity is estimated visually aided/trained by a standard area diagram (SAD) developed and validated during the mid- 2000s (Old SAD). In this study, we propose a new SAD set for SBR with six true-colour diagrams following linear increments (c.15% increments) amended with four additional diagrams at low (<10%) severities, totaling 10 diagrams (0.2%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 10%, 25%, 40%, 55%, 70%, and 84%). For evaluation, 37 raters were split into two groups. Each assessed severity in a 50-image sample (0.25% to 84%), first unaided and then using either the Old SAD or the New SAD. Accuracy, precision, and reliability of estimates improved significantly relative to unaided estimates only when aided by the New SAD (accuracy >0.95). Low precision (<0.78) and a trend of underestimation with an increase in severity were the main issues with the Old SAD, which did not differ from unaided estimates. Simulation to evaluate the impact of the errors by different methods on hypothesis tests, showed that the new SAD was more powerful for detecting the smallest difference in mean control (e.g., 70% vs. 65% disease reduction) than the Old SAD; the latter required a 2-fold increase in sample size to achieve the same power. There is a need to improve some SADs, taking advantage of new knowledge and technology to increase accuracy of the estimates, and to optimize both resource use efficiency and management decisions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document