Government Policy and Performance of Agricultural Cooperatives: A Case Study in Chitwan District, Nepal

Agricultural cooperatives are producer-owned and controlled organizations to improve farmers’ livelihoods by correcting market failure. They support collective activities where individual incentives are insufficient to produce public goods. The government of Nepal has been investing economic resources in this sector, prioritizing cooperatives as part of a strategy for poverty reduction. This study examines poor farmers’ access to agricultural cooperatives and the impact of membership on farm and total household income, based on a household survey of 573 households and key informant interviews of 37 cooperative managers. The ethnicity of the family and the neighborhood, smallholder land size, distance to an agricultural cooperative, distance to the nearest local market, and distance to a motorable road are key determinants that influence cooperative membership. The analysis of the effects of cooperative membership is based on propensity score matching, controlling for a large array of household and community characteristics. The estimates imply that cooperative membership may significantly affect family net crop income, but the overall effects on total family income are modest. Agricultural cooperatives appear to be focused on financial services such as savings and credit activities but are less concerned with agricultural production, and cooperatives engage in almost no marketing activities.

Climate risk and agricultural technology adaption: evidence from rice farmers in the Ayeyarwady River delta of Myanmar

Crop income can be raised in two ways: one way is to increase crop productivity and the other is to grow high-value crops that could be sold at high prices in the market. This study evaluated the adoption determinants of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) and high-value varieties (HVVs) of rice and their associations on crop income using data collected in coastal areas of the Ayeyarwady River delta, which is prone to climate shocks such as saltwater intrusion and cyclones. We used cross-sectional data on 298 rice-producing households and 393 rice plots to conduct multinomial logit estimates, which revealed that the heights of the plots, and past exposure to saltwater intrusion negatively affected the adoption of HVVs. Our estimates also suggest that while the adoption of HYVs is not associated with high rice yield, income, or profit, HVV adoption is associated with high income and profit.

Role of agricultural cooperatives in poverty reduction in Nepal : an empirical analysis

Cooperatives refer to producer-owned and controlled organizations that improve farmers' livelihoods by correcting market failure. Policy makers consider cooperatives as an appropriate development approach for poverty alleviation of poor farmers for developing economies; therefore, the government of Nepal has been investing economic resources in this sector, prioritizing it as part of a strategy for poverty reduction. The number of coopertives have been increased substantially since 2007 and almost half of the coopertives are involved in agricultural sector. This dissertation research examines poor farmers' access to agricultural cooperatives and the impact of membership on their crop income in Nepal. This study is based on a household survey of 573 rural farm families and Key Informant Interviews of 37 managers of agricultural cooperatives. In order to make the inferences on access and income gain, probit regression, matching, ordinary least square and two-stage least squares techniqpropriate identification strategies for a cross-sectional data. This study predicts cooperative membership with household characteristics (including demographic and geographic information) and village characteristics. In addition, some of our models use village location dummies rather than village characteristics. The analysis identifies some key determinants that influence cooperative membership. Those determinants are the ethnicity of a family, the ethnicity of a neighborhood, smallholder land size, distance to agricultural cooperatives, distance to the nearest local market, and distance to a motorable road. For the second research question, our estimates imply that cooperative membership may significantly impact family net crop income but not the rotal family income. Indeed, currently, agricultural cooperatives appear to be focused on financial services like savings and credit activities but are less concerned with agricultural production, and engage in almost no marketing activities. In addition to analyses based on our sample, this study weights the sample to adjust our survey to reflect population estimates; however, there were no important changes in the direction or significance of the variables in weighted specifications compared to unweighted sample specifications. Finally, we conclude it will take some years for members to understand the cooperative guidelines thoroughly and the potential of the cooperative approach to improve economic conditions. Also, there should be a serious attempt from the government to develop the agricultural infrastructure and industry, and to execute a cooperative policy to reduce smallholders' poverty. Keywords: collective action, cooperatives, poverty reduction, net farm income

Examining the Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Net Crop Income in the Ethiopian Nile Basin: A Ricardian Fixed Effect Approach

Climate change affects crop production by distorting the indestructible productive power of the land. The objective of this study is to examine the economic impacts of climate change on net crop income in Nile Basin Ethiopia using a Ricardian fixed effect approach employing the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) household survey data for Ethiopia in 2015 and 2016. The survey samples were obtained through a three-stage stratified sampling technique from the five regions (Amhara, Tigray, Benishangul Gumuz, Oromia, and Southern Nation Nationality and People (SNNP) along the Nile basin Ethiopia. There are only 12–14% female household heads while there are 80–86% male households in the regions under study. In the regions, more than half of (64%) the household heads are illiterate and almost only one-tenth of them (12%) had received remittance from abroad from their relatives or children. Crop variety adoption rate is minimal, adopted by the 31% of farmers. Only 30% of the surveyed farmers mentioned that they planted their crop seeds in row whereas the rest 70% had not applied this method. The regression results from the fixed effect least square dummy variable model showed that literacy, household size, remittance, asset value, and total land holdings have significant and positive impacts on the net crop income per hectare. The regional dummy variables estimate indicated that all the regions are negatively affected by climate change at varying levels. Strategies to climate change adaptation have significant and positive contributions in leveraging the damaging effects of climate change. The results also showed that increased winter and summer temperature and rainfall increase net crop income per hectare. The estimated coefficient of the interaction term of spring temperature and rainfall is significant and negative. On the other hand, while the mean annual temperature is damaging to crops, annual rainfall is beneficial. It can be deduced that, while increased temperature and rainfall in summer and winter increase the net crop income, the converse is true for winter and spring seasons. The study also proposes a specific, context-dependent, farm-level adaptation analysis of how farmers cope with the different climatic impacts of the Nile Basin and maintain the income levels that they have previously enjoyed.

Impact Assessment of the Cotton YIELD Programme in Zambia

ABSTRACT This paper sought to evaluate the economic impact of the Cotton YIELD Programme on crop income of smallholder cotton farmers in Zambia. Specifically, the study sought to (a) identify factors that influence smallholder cotton farmer’ participation in the programme and (b) determine whether the Cotton YIELD Programme has increased the income of smallholder cotton farmers in Zambia. The study utilized pooled cross-section data of 300 cotton farmers, collected from two households survey (2005 and 2015) in Mumbwa district of Zambia. The Double Difference model combined with Propensity Score Matching methods were employed in the analysis. Results show that participation in the programme is positively driven by education, farm size, membership, access to credit, ownership of animal traction and media. However, distance to extension agents and market outlets negatively influence participation. Furthermore, the study found that the Cotton YIELD Programme has significantly increased crop income of smallholder cotton farmers by 38.1 percent.

Impact of Farmers Training Centers Based Training on Major Crops Productivity and Households Welfare: the case of Gurage Zone, Central Ethiopia

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of Farmers Training Centers Based Training on Major Crops Productivity and Households Welfare in southern Ethiopia. To select the respondent households applied a multi-stage stratifying sampling method. First, 3 districts Were selected purposively. Then, 3 Rural Kebeles from Fully functional Farmers Training Centers and 2 Rural Kebeles from non-functional Farmers Training Centers Were randomly selected. In the third stage, a total of 360 sample household heads (151) modular training graduates and 209 non-graduates) were selected. The interview schedule, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews were data collection tools. The result indicates the frequency of extension contact and farmers Confidence in extension service significantly affects both trained and not trained farmer’s crop productivity. I find that trained farmers have 124.27% more net cereal crop income per cultivated land size as compared to the counterfactual scenario of non-trained. I find that it increases the consumption expenditure per adult equivalent of trained farmers by about 204.83% compared to the counterfactual scenario of non-trained. The constraint which is considered by the respondents as a first-rank and important constraint was the fence problem which accounts for 21.63% of the total respondents. Farmer training center-based modular training could be considered as a key pathway that contributes to the improvement of agricultural production and Welfare of the rural community. The output of this study will give concrete information on intervention strategies to enhance the role of FTC-based training intervention strategies to improve farmers’ livelihood in surrounding rural areas.

Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania

Conservation agriculture continues to be promoted in developing nations as a sustainable and suitable agricultural practice to enhance smallholder productivity. A look at the literature indicates that this practice is successful in non-African countries. Thus, this research sought to test whether minimum tillage (MT), a subset of conservation agriculture, could lead to a significant impact on smallholder households’ welfare in Southern Tanzania. Using cross-sectional data from 608 randomly selected smallholder households, we applied propensity score matching to determine the effects of adopting minimum tillage on smallholder households’ per capita net crop income and labor demand. Our results indicated that minimum tillage adoption has positive impacts on smallholder households’ per capita net crop income. Further, it reduces the total household labor demands, allowing households to engage in other income-generating activities. However, the adoption rate of minimum tillage is in the early majority stage (21.38%). Thus, we propose the government to support household credit access and extension-specific information to improve the probability of adopting minimum tillage.

Farmer-Led Irrigation and Its Impacts on Smallholder Farmers’ Crop Income: Evidence from Southern Tanzania

Irrigation projects in sub-Saharan Africa are mostly unsustainable because of lack of maintenance by their users or government planners. By contrast, evidence shows that the smallholder farmers are developing and expanding the irrigated land, using their initiatives. Farmer-led irrigation, a revolutionary agricultural intensification approach, is already in progress with the magnitude to significantly transform the living standards of smallholder farmers. However, a rigorous assessment of its impact on household welfare to ascertain this is lacking. This paper bridges this gap by assessing factors influencing the adoption of this particular approach as well as its effects on the farmers’ per capita net crop income. Our data set consists of 608 smallholder farmers in Southern Tanzania and used propensity score matching to estimate the effects of adoption on the per capita net crop income. Our results indicate that the uptake of farmer-led irrigation practices is influenced by drought experience, water user group membership, farmer organization membership, and government extension, as well as the sex of the household head. Further, there was a positive and significant effect on the adopters’ per capita net crop income, thus encouraging the need to promote farmer-led irrigation as a complement to externally promoted innovations in achieving sustainable food security. This study, therefore, recommends that the government should support the farmers’ initiative by improving roads, removing market barriers, and helping farmers who have not yet taken up the initiative. Also, the government should enact regulations to make sure farmer-led irrigation initiatives do not harm the eco-environment such as protecting domestic water users. Finally, the government should leverage microservices to the farmers such as promoting affordable and appropriate credit facilities. It is necessary to continue pursuing this vein of research to gain information regarding the definite impact of the farmer-led irrigation on household welfare.

Towards Cleaner Production: Certified Seed Adoption and Its Effect on Technical Efficiency

The implementation of new agricultural technologies has become a driving force for cleaner production on smallholder farms. Particularly, identifying technologies could enhance the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural production, both of which are serious challenges. In this context, evaluating the adoption of certified seed and its impact on efficiency gains and waste reduction is highly fundamental for sustainable smallholder food production. This perspective was not always considered in previous studies. We address this research gap using cross-sectional data from wheat farmers in northern Kazakhstan. A multi-stage sampling procedure is employed while the sample-selection stochastic production frontier (SPF) is applied for a robust estimation. Results reveal that increased crop income, access to credit and education positively influence the adoption of certified seed while membership in cooperatives and distance from the market are negative determinants. We also find that adopters are 10.3% “cleaner in production” than non-adopters. A comparison was made between the conventional SPF and the sample-selection SPF to evaluate the credibility of the estimation. It was found that the estimates from the conventional SPF were biased by 10%. This study provides insights into two policy and scholarly questions, namely, how effective the adoption of certified seeds is in promoting cleaner production among wheat farmers and how it can be promoted among wheat farmers. Therefore, our study presents substantial empirical evidence to encourage investment in or to promote certified seed adoption in wheat production.