scholarly journals Preference for improved varietal attributes of Bambara groundnut among smallholder farmers in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Bright Owusu Asante ◽  
◽  
Richard Adabah ◽  
Kennedy Agyeman ◽  
Stephen John Ayeh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Education ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Bambara Groundnut ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Plant Type ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Yielding Capacity ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Using Data

This paper examines farmers’ preferences for an improved Bambara groundnut variety, the key attributes desired, factors influencing preference, and the number of attributes desired by smallholder farmers in Ghana. Using data collected from 113 randomly selected households growing Bambara in the Wenchi and Nkoranza municipalities in southern Ghana, we estimate the factors influencing preference decisions and the intensity of the desired attributes using probit and Poisson regression models respectively. Preference for an improved Bambara variety is influenced by experience in farming, availability of extension services, credit access, membership of farmer-based organisations, plant type, seed colour, household size and yielding capacity. The attributes desired the most by farmers are high yielding capacity, high protein content, branched plant type and seeds that are dark or brown in colour. Furthermore, key factors influencing the number of attributes desired in an improved Bambara variety include the farmer’s sex, education, years of experience in Bambara cultivation, household size, membership of farmer-based organisations and extension services. There is a need to consider these varietal attributes and the factors as integral to research and development efforts, as well as to the policy agenda, to enhance the adoption of improved Bambara varieties for increased productivity and incomes of smallholders in Ghana.

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 Adoption and Impact of Conservation Agriculture on Smallholder Farmers’ Crop Productivity and Income in Luapula Province, Zambia

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanford Nkhoma ◽  
Thomson Kalinda ◽  
Elias Kuntashula
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Smallholder Farming ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Farming Households

Despite efforts to systemically disseminate Conservation Agriculture (CA) technology in Luapula Province of Zambia, the adoption rate remains limited. Furthermore, no empirical evidence has been presented on the factors influencing adoption of the technology or the extent to which farmers’ livelihood has been influenced due to uptake of the technology. This study therefore examined the adoption and impact of CA on crop productivity and income on farming households in the Province. Using the 2012 Rural Agricultural Livelihood Survey (RALS) data, the study employed a probit regression model to identify factors influencing adoption of CA among the smallholder farmers in the Province. The probit regression analysis showed that advice on CA and access to wetlands/dambos by households increased the probability to adopt CA. The study also adopted the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach to help match the adopters and non-adopters based on observable covariates in order to assess technology impact by providing consistent estimates of the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT). The results showed a small but insignificant positive impact of CA on crop productivity and income. This suggests that adoption of CA has the potential to generate an improvement in farming households’ livelihood in Luapula Province, Zambia. Therefore, adoption of CA in Luapula Province should be explicitly encouraged. This can be further enhanced by increased access to quality extension services that incorporates promotion of CA practices among the smallholder farming households in the area.

scholarly journals Small Scale Poultry Farmers’ Choice of Adaption Strategies to Climate Change in Ogun State, Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (335) ◽  
pp. 32-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abimbola O. Adepoju ◽  
Precious P. Osunbor
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Housing System ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Poultry Production ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Poultry Farmers

Abstract Climate risks constitute an enormous challenge to poultry production and have affected the livelihoods of the people who depend on them. Thus, farmers have adopted various strategies that can help them cope with the adverse effects of climate change. The aim of this study is to examine the factors influencing small scale poultry farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies to climate change. Data used for this study were obtained from 121 representative farmers selected through a two-stage random sampling procedure. Descriptive Statistics, Likert Scale and the Multinomial Logit Model were the tools used for analysis. Results showed that the mean age and household size of the respondents were 45 years and 5 persons respectively, while the average number of birds per farmer stood at 583 birds. Majority of the respondents had a moderate perception of the impacts of climate change on poultry farming and chose management adaptation strategies in their fight against climate change. Econometric analysis showed that the age, gender and educational status of farmers, number of birds, household size, poultry experience, access to cooperative societies, poultry housing system, access to credit, access to extension services and farm size were the factors influencing farmers’ choice of climate change adaptation strategies in the study area. Therefore, policy should focus on awareness creation on management adaptation strategies through enhancing education and extension services as well as access of poultry farmers to credit facilities to indirectly insure farmers against climate change impacts.

scholarly journals Credit sources, access and factors influencing credit demand among rural livestock farmers in Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asenath Kotugan Fada Silong ◽  
Yiorgos Gadanakis
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Education Group ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Credit Demand ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Purpose Rural farmers’ access to farm credit in Nigeria has been very low, which affects farm performance, and credit providers have blamed for the problem in the sector. While this general perception persists the fact may be the case of credit demand, rather than just the risk-averse attitudes of credit providers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant factors influencing farmers’ credit demand to ensure efficient credit provision. Design/methodology/approach The research adopted mixed methods for an in-depth investigation into the problem. There were 216 research participants split into equal halves of men and women from six local government areas of Nasarawa State. Data collection methods employed structured interviews, focus group discussions, close/open-ended and key informant interviews. Analytical tools involved descriptive statistics, the logit and multinomial logit models to determine participants’ socio-economic characteristics, sources of credit, access, factors influencing credit demand generally and from the various sources of credit identified. Findings Findings reveal only 47.6 per cent of the participants accessed credit, with fewer women accessing than men. The most accessed forms of credit are from the semi-formal sources, with more men accessing from formal sources and more women from non-formal sources. Factors having significant influence on credit demand generally are education, group membership and household size. And from formal, semi-formal and non-formal credit sources are education, information on sources of credit, deposits, household size and marital status; education, deposits, group membership, household size, flock size; and education, group membership, and gender from the non-formal credit providers, respectively. Research limitations/implications Due to time constraint, this study data were collected concurrently with both quantitative and qualitative methods and did not allow for the interrogation of findings from one method with the other. In addition, the research categorised the agency of women based on marital status only as single or married and did not interrogate the agency of women further, this may be a limitation as some of the female participants are from polygamous homes. Originality/value Unlike the current concentration of Nigerian research of this kind with quantitative methods alone, this research contributes particularly to Nigerian research output and experience by triangulating both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore farmers sources of credit, access and factors determining access to credit in the study area.

scholarly journals Institutional Factors Influencing the Decision to Take Financial Credits among Small Holder Coffee Farmers in Rwanda

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iyakare Super Mpirwa ◽  
David Mwehia Mburu ◽  
Patrick Mulyungi ◽  
Ntaganira Eric ◽  
Nsengiyumva Aimable
Keyword(s):  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Agricultural Credit ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Coffee Farmers

Though, a lot of emphasis has been put to decentralize financial institutions to offer agricultural credit, access to credit in many rural households in Rwanda remains limited, so far no study done in the study area on institutional factors influencing the decision to take credit. This study investigated the institutional factors influencing the decision to take credit among smallholder coffee farmers in Gisagara District, Southern Province of Rwanda. A Multi stage sampling techniques was employed to select respondents. Primary data were drawn from222 smallholder farmers using structured questionnaires.Binary logistic regression was employed to estimate the data. The results indicated that the institutional factors which influenced access to credit were cooperative membership, extension services, information on credit use, fear take risk and distance to coffee washing station. Based on the findings of the study, recommended that in order to increase access to use agricultural credit there is need to focus in organizing coffee producers in cooperatives, strengthen the current strategies of extension, education and infrastructural services particularly for road transport.

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 Analysis of Institutional Factors Influencing Adoption of Zero-grazing Dairy Farming Technology among Smallholder Farmers in Bondo Sub County, Kenya

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
G. O. Okello ◽  
E. Saina ◽  
L. Ngode
Keyword(s):  
Group Membership ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Dairy Farming ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Zero Grazing ◽  
Dairy Technology

Adoption of zero-grazing addresses challenges faced by smallholder farmers. In Bondo Sub-County adoption of zero-grazing technology has remained low at 4-8 percent despite its introduction in the area in 1990s. No in-depth analysis has ever been conducted on the factors responsible for low adoption of this technology. The purpose of this study was to analyze institutional factors influencing adoption of zero grazing dairy farming technology. The study was carried in Bondo Sub-County, Kenya between February to November 2018. A study was conducted on a sampled population of 279 from a target population of 4253 smallholder farmers. These consisted of adopters and non-adopters of zero-grazing dairy technology. Purposive, proportionate, simple random and systematic sampling techniques were used to select households. Structured questionnaire was administered during primary data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The double hurdle model was used in the study to measure the adoption and performance of zero grazing dairy technology. Institutional factors that had significant (p-value 0.000< 0.05) influence on adoption of zero-grazing dairy technology were access to extension services, frequency of extension officer’s visits, group membership and distance to nearest market. In conclusion access to extension services, frequency of extension officer’s visits, group membership and distance to nearest market influenced adoption of zero grazing farming technology in Bondo sub County. Platforms for farmers’ training should be enhanced through employment of more extension workers. The institutions supporting dairy farming should be strengthened.

Stock Market Prediction using Data Mining Techniques

2020 ◽  
pp. 310-313
Author(s):  
Karunesh Makker ◽  
Prince Patel ◽  
Hrishikesh Roy ◽  
Sonali Borse
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
Prediction Model ◽  
Efficient Market Hypothesis ◽  
Deterministic System ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Robust Prediction

Stock market is a very volatile in-deterministic system with vast number of factors influencing the direction of trend on varying scales and multiple layers. Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) states that the market is unbeatable. This makes predicting the uptrend or downtrend a very challenging task. This research aims to combine multiple existing techniques into a much more robust prediction model which can handle various scenarios in which investment can be beneficial. Existing techniques like sentiment analysis or neural network techniques can be too narrow in their approach and can lead to erroneous outcomes for varying scenarios. By combing both techniques, this prediction model can provide more accurate and flexible recommendations. Embedding Technical indicators will guide the investor to minimize the risk and reap better returns.

Association between E-cigarette use and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in non-asthmatic adults in the USA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Godfred O Antwi ◽  
Darson L Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Sex Education ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Behavioral Risk ◽  
Cigarette Use ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Potential Link ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Background Concern about the health impacts of e-cigarette use is growing; however, limited research exists regarding potential long-term health effects of this behavior. This study explored the relationship between e-cigarette use and COPD in a sample of US adults. Methods A secondary data analysis using data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey in the USA was computed to examine associations between e-cigarette use and COPD controlling for conventional cigarette smoking status, past month leisure physical activity and demographic characteristics including age, sex, education, race, marital status and body mass index. Results Significant associations between e-cigarette use and COPD among former combustible cigarette smokers and those who reported never using combustible cigarettes were found. Compared with never e-cigarette users, the odds of having COPD were significantly greater for daily e-cigarette users (OR = 1.53; 95% CI: 1.11–2.03), occasional users (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.13–1.80) and former users (OR = 1.46 95% CI: 1.28–1.67). Conclusions Findings from this study indicate a potential link between e-cigarette use and COPD. Further research to explore the potential effects of e-cigarette on COPD is recommended.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document