scholarly journals Determinants of the Adoption of Sustainable Intensification in Southern African Farming Systems: A Meta-Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Guo ◽  
Oreoluwa Ola ◽  
Emmanuel O. Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Organic Fertilizer ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Sustainable Intensification ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
The Impact

Climate change and environmental degradation are major threats to sustainable agricultural development in Southern Africa. Thus, the concept of sustainable intensification (SI) has become an important topic among researchers and policymakers in the region over the last three decades. SI involves getting more output from less input using practices such as agroforestry, organic fertilizer, sustainable water management, among others. A comprehensive review of the literature on adoption of SI in the region identified nine relevant drivers of adoption of SI among (smallholder) farmers. These drivers include (i) age, (ii) size of arable land, (iii) education, (iv) extension services, (v) gender, (vi) household size, (vii) income, (viii) membership in a farming organization and (ix) access to credit. We present the results of a meta-analysis of 21 papers on the impact of these determinants on SI adoption among (smallholder) farmers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) using random-effects estimation techniques for the true effect size. While our results suggest that variables such as extension services, education, age, and household size may influence the adoption of SI in SADC, factors such as access to credit are also of great importance. Decision-makers should, therefore, concentrate efforts on these factors in promoting SI across the SADC. This includes increasing the efficiency of public extension service, as well as the involvement of the private sector in extension services. Furthermore, both public and private agriculture financing models should consider sustainability indicators in their assessment process.

scholarly journals Determinants of the Adoption of Sustainable Intensification in Southern African Farming Systems: A Meta-Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Guo ◽  
Oreoluwa Ola ◽  
Emmanuel Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Sustainable Intensification ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Extension Service ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
The Impact

Climate change and environmental degradation are major threats to sustainable agricultural development in Southern Africa. Thus, the concept of sustainable intensification (SI) i.e. getting more output from less input using certain practices such as agroforestry, organic fertilizer, sustainable water management etc. has become an important topic among researchers and policy makers in the region in the last three decades. A comprehensive review of literatures on the adoption of SI in the region identify nine relevant drivers of adoption of SI among (smallholder) farmers. These drivers include (i) age, (ii) size of arable land, (iii) education, (iv) extension services, (v) gender, (vi) household size, (vii) income, (viii) membership in farming organization and (ix) access to credit. We present the results of a meta-analysis of 21 papers on the impact of these determinants on SI adoption among (smallholder) farmers in Southern African Development Community (SADC) using random-effects estimation techniques for the true effect size. While our result suggests that variables such as extension services, education, age, and household size may influence the adoption of SI in SADC, factors such as access to credit is also of great importance. Decision-makers should therefore concentrate efforts on these factors in promoting SI across the SADC. This includes increasing the efficiency of public extension service as well as involvement of private sector in extension service. Furthermore, both public and private agriculture financing models should consider sustainability indicators in their assessment process.

scholarly journals Characterization of smallholder farmers and agricultural credit institutions in Rwanda

2021 ◽  
Vol 21` (01) ◽  
pp. 17343-17364
Author(s):  
Nathan K Taremwa ◽  
◽  
I Macharia ◽  
E Bett ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Agricultural Credit ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Lending Institutions ◽  
Credit Institutions

The significance of access to agricultural credit in perpetuating agricultural productivity is unquestionable, because it is a means to achieving optimal productivity. The minimization of any barriers to agricultural credit access should,thus,be a global priority. One of the most significant and current barriers to agricultural credit access is information asymmetry which results into mutual distrust between lending institutions and borrowers in this case the smallholder farmers. To address information asymmetry, both the lending institutions and borrowers need to have definitive descriptive information about either party. Without the profiling of institutions and potential borrowers, an information gap persists, thereby increasing mutual distrust. This study addresses that gap, in the context of Rwanda by characterizing smallholder farmers and agricultural credit institutions. Across-sectional survey design was used in this study with smallholder farmers and staff in agricultural credit institutions in the Eastern, Western, and Central provinces of Rwanda as the units of analysis. A multistage sampling procedure was used,with stratified sampling of administrative levels spanning from province(stage 1) to districts (stage 2) and sectors(stage 3),followed by a simple random sampling of cells per sector, and the convenience sample of households. Staff in the financial institutions were purposively sampled. The data collected was analyzed using principal component analysis and cluster analysis with the K-means statistic(SPSS version 25). The largest cluster of smallholder farmers has the following characteristics: household size of1to 5 people, farmers with education, owning arable land not exceeding a hectare, with more than five years of farming experience,earning from other off-farm activities, with no dependents under five years of age, and renting less than an acre of land. As for agricultural credit institutions, the largest cluster has following compositions:have mechanisms or measures established for managing loan defaults with the majority using refinancing, rescheduling, and collateral release, with variable loan payback options, and provide targeted agricultural credit to farmers such as agricultural input premium.The research findings are particularly pertinent for maize-and rice-growing farmers,and how to reduce the information gap and the implications of broadening access to credit to smallholder farmers were discussed. This study emphasizes the need for characterization for both parties to be better informed about the characteristics and dynamics of each other, all in a bid to lessen asymmetric information and thus improve access to credit.

scholarly journals A meta-analysis on the nutritional value of insects in aquafeeds

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
N.S. Liland ◽  
P. Araujo ◽  
X.X. Xu ◽  
E.-J. Lock ◽  
G. Radhakrishnan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Nutrient Digestibility ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Aquatic Species ◽  
Complete Representation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Maximum Threshold

A major challenge for development of sustainable aquafeeds is its dependence on fish meal and fish oil. Similarly, it is unwanted to include more plant ingredients which adds more pressure on resources like arable land, freshwater and fertilisers. New ingredients that do not require these resources but rather refine and valorise organic side streams, like insects, are being developed. Increasing evidence indicates that using insect ingredients in aquafeeds are a sustainable alternative and considerable progress has been made on this topic in the past years. The aim of this chapter is to present a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the data available on the impact of insects in aquafeeds. Systematic search, collection and selection of relevant literature from databases such as Web of Science and NCBI was performed. The literature search enabled 91 scientific papers from peer-reviewed journals, comprising a dataset of 415 experimental diets, including 35 different aquatic species and 14 insect species to be included in this meta-analysis, covering what we consider a close to complete representation of credible publications on this topic. Information on aquatic species, insect species, dietary composition (amino acids, fatty acids, proximate composition) and performance outputs (growth performance indicators and nutrient digestibility) were included in the construction of the dataset. Regression models and principal component analyses were performed on the meta-data. The results from the meta-analysis revealed a great degree of variation in the maximum threshold for insect inclusion in aquafeeds (from 4 to 37%) based on subgroups of trophic level of aquatic species, insect species used, statistical method and the output parameter. Overall, a maximum threshold of 25-30% inclusion of insects in aquafeeds for uncompromised performance is suggested. Reduction in protein digestibility, imbalanced amino acid profile and increasing levels of saturated fatty acid were identified as major factors limiting higher inclusion of insects in aquafeeds.

Impacts of improved extension services on awareness, knowledge, adoption rates and perceived benefits of smallholder dairy farmers in Pakistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (12) ◽  
pp. 2175 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. M. Warriach ◽  
P. C. Wynn ◽  
M. Ishaq ◽  
S. Arif ◽  
A. Bhatti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Dairy Farmers ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Family Approach ◽  
Knowledge Adoption ◽  
Smallholder Dairy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Extension Program

The provision of effective extension services to smallholder farmers across both developing and developed countries remains a challenge worldwide. The objective of the study is to demonstrate the impacts of improved extension services on awareness, knowledge, adoption rates and perceived benefits of smallholder dairy farmers in Pakistan. An extension program was developed and implemented in five districts of Punjab (Okara, Pakpattan, Jhelum, Kasur and Bhakkar) and two districts of Sindh (Thatta and Badin) provinces. The extension program involved the provision of research-based information on a monthly basis to smallholder farming families (FF = 523) over a 4-year period. The extension program was primarily a knowledge transfer-based system, but also relied on farmer engagement and feedback to help drive research and topics for discussion. No financial incentives were provided to the farmers for their participation. A ‘whole-family approach’ was used in the extension program, where comprehensive interdisciplinary training on the whole dairy-farming system was provided to the males, females and children of the farming household. To encourage greater participation and support different learning strategies, several information transfer media were used (including group discussions, one-on-one visits, practical demonstrations, problem-based learning techniques and videos). To assess the impact of this extension program on farms involved, data on farmer awareness, knowledge, adoption and their perceived benefits were collected using a mixed-method approach from three different groups of farmers; registered (IMPreg = 179) farmers directly involved in the extension program, non-registered (IMPnon-reg = 116) farmers indirectly benefiting from the program and traditional (IMPtrad = 104) farmers not associated with any project activities. Overall awareness, knowledge and adoption rates relating to seven different recommendations in the extension program were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the registered farmers than in the non-registered and traditional farmers. The perceived benefits of the adopted recommendations varied between the different extension messages, but farmers described that they observed increases in milk production, improvements in animal health (body condition and morbidity) and labour efficiency (time savings). These results suggest that adopting improved extension services using a whole-family approach we can significantly achieve higher adoption rates, leading to on-farm benefits to smallholder dairy farmers and their families.

scholarly journals Agricultural Credit and Extension Services: Does Their Synergy Augment Farmers’ Economic Outcomes?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3758
Author(s):  
Masaood Moahid ◽  
Ghulam Dastgir Khan ◽  
Yuichiro Yoshida ◽  
Niraj Prakash Joshi ◽  
Keshav Lall Maharjan
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
Agricultural Credit ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Net Revenue ◽  
Inverse Probability Weighted ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Farming Households

Access to credit is essential for sustainable agricultural development. This paper evaluates the impact of formal and informal agricultural credit, access to extension services, and different combinations of agricultural credit and extension services on the economic outcomes of farming households in Afghanistan. This study applies a quasi-experimental approach (propensity score matching) and inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) analysis. The data comes from a survey of 277 randomly selected farming households in the three districts of rural Afghanistan. The results show that having access to formal agricultural credit has a positive and differentiated impact on the farming costs and net revenue of farming households. However, the effects increase when a farming household has access to both formal credit and extension services. The results also reveal that credit constraints affect farming costs and net revenue. The study provides some practical implications for agricultural development policymakers. First, formal agricultural credit affects farm revenue in rural Afghanistan. Second, the impact of credit bundled with agricultural extension services on farm revenue is higher than the impact of the provision of each service separately. Therefore, a more sustainable agricultural credit arrangement should be supplemented by extension services for farmers in Afghanistan.

The impact of credit on productivity of smallholder farmers in Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Essem Nordjo ◽  
Charles K.D. Adjasi
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Treatment Variable ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of access to production credit on the productivity of smallholder farmers. Design/methodology/approach Data for the study were drawn from the Agricultural Value Chain Facility (AVCF), which was implemented in the Northern Region of Ghana. This paper uses the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to estimate the average treatment effect of access to production credit on the productivity of smallholder farmers. The rationale for the choice of this estimation technique is to control for selection bias since the treatment variable (access to production credit) was not randomised. The authors also test for the effect of hidden bias using “Rosenbaum bounds” sensitivity analysis. The study uses two control groups to examine the net effect of credit on productivity. Findings The results reveal that smallholder farmers with access to production credit increased productivity through investment in farm inputs. For the impact of credit on productivity using control Group 1, the result shows that farmers with access to credit increased their productivity by 0.170 metric tonnes per hectare and for control Group 2, the result shows an increase of 0.252 metric tonnes per hectare more than farmers who are without access to production credit. Practical implications The evidence as provided by this paper is that access to production credit is significant to meet the credit needs of smallholder farmers and therefore contributes to the policy debate on whether access to credit has impact on the productivity of smallholder farmers. Originality/value The paper shows the importance of production credit in augmenting the production function of smallholder farmers.

scholarly journals Determinants of smallholder farmers’ adaptation strategies to the effects of climate change: Evidence from northern Uganda

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Atube ◽  
Geoffrey M. Malinga ◽  
Martine Nyeko ◽  
Daniel M. Okello ◽  
Simon Peter Alarakol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Household Head ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Resistant Varieties

Abstract Background Climate change poses a threat to the sustainability of food production among small-scale rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa that are dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Understanding farmers’ adaptations and the determinants of their adaptation strategies is crucial in designing realistic strategies and policies for agricultural development and food security. The main objectives of this study were to identify the adaptation strategies used by smallholder farmers to counter the perceived negative effects of climate change in northern Uganda, and factors influencing the use of specific adaptation strategies. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to collect data from 395 randomly selected smallholder farmers’ household heads across two districts by the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the factors influencing farmers’ adaptation to climate change. Results The three most widely practiced adaptation strategies were planting of different crop varieties, planting drought-resistant varieties, and fallowing. Results of the binary logit regression model revealed that marital status of household head, access to credit, access to extension services, and farm income influenced farmers’ adoption of planting drought-resistant varieties as an adaptation strategy while access to credit, annual farm income, and time taken to market influenced adoption of planting improved seeds. Gender of household head and farm income had a positive influence on farmers’ adoption of fertilizer and pesticide use. Farming experience, farm income, and access to extension services and credit influenced farmers’ adoption of tree planting. Household size, farming experience, and time taken to market had positive influence on the use of fallowing, while size of land cultivated significantly influenced farmers’ planting of different crop varieties as an adaptation strategy. Conclusion Findings of the study suggest there are several factors that work together to influence adoption of specific adaptation strategies by smallholder farmers. This therefore calls for more effort from government to strengthen the provision of agricultural extension services by improving its climate information system, providing recommended agricultural inputs and training farmers on best agronomic practices to enhance their holistic adaptation to the effect of climate change.

scholarly journals Cereal-Legume Value Chain Analysis: A Case of Smallholder Production in Selected Areas of Malawi

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1217
Author(s):  
Giacomo Branca ◽  
Luca Cacchiarelli ◽  
Valentina D’Amico ◽  
Laifolo Dakishoni ◽  
Esther Lupafya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Value Chain Analysis ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Farmers Market ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Service Support ◽  
Market Opportunities ◽  
Basic Infrastructure

This article analyses the cereal-legume value chain in Malawi through a comprehensive VC Map, a SWOT exercise and a policy analysis. VC participation entails a number of challenges for smallholders. Limited access to land, technology and inputs, inadequate knowledge of market functioning, insufficient access to credit and extension services, combined with more general problems of poor infrastructures, often prevent smallholder farmers from accessing profitable market opportunities. The effectiveness of national policies (e.g., public extension service support, inputs subsidy system) oriented to increase smallholders’ market access is often constrained by inadequate financial capacity, an inefficient public extension services system and limited involvement of privates in the extension services scheme. VC interventions should distinguish between VC-ready farmers, namely those provided with the minimum conditions of external and internal factors, and non-value-chain-ready farmers. Market-based interventions (e.g., enhancing VC coordination) are needed for enhancing market access of value-chain-ready farmers. Conversely, while non-market-based interventions (e.g., investments in basic infrastructure, increasing extension services, credit and inputs access) prove necessary to build the minimum asset thresholds for non-value-chain-ready farmers’ participation in the market. A smallholder-friendly VC development relies on the role played by VC actors and the need to harmonise and improve existing policies to remove inadequacies, conflicts and overlaps in the various institutions charged with implementation.

scholarly journals Socioeconomic Determinants of Farmers’ Participation in Off-Farm Income Employment in Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ucha ◽  
Ume Smiles ◽  
Justin Nnaji
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Local Government Area ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Access To Credit

The socio-economic determinants of farmers’ participation in off-farm income employment in Ezza south local government area of Ebonyi state, Nigeria were studied. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers, identify the off-farm income employments participated by the farmers, ascertain the determinants of farmers’ participation in off-farm income employments and identify the limiting factors to the farmers’ participation in off-farm income employments in the study area. A multi-stage random sampling procedure was used to select respondents for the study. One hundred and twenty farmers (120) were randomly selected for the study.  Data collected were analyzed using percentage responses and frequency distribution, logistic regression and 4-point Likert scale. The findings revealed that the farmers that participated in off-farm income activities were aged, educated, well experienced, large farm size, females, married and large household size. The result further revealed that high proportion of the respondents engaged in civil service, trading, motor cycle riders, auto mechanics and tricycle riders. The determinants factors to the farmers’ participants in off farm employments were household size, education level, farming experience, farm size and membership of cooperative societies. Factors limiting farmers’ participation in off-farm activities were high level of Illiteracy, poor access to credit facility, old age, inadequate power supply, poor extension services and ill health of farmers identified. There is need to enhance farmers’ access to extension services, educational program, encouraged farmers to join or form cooperatives.

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