Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on African indigenous vegetables value chain in Kenya

Background African indigenous vegetables are important for food security and nutrition, and income of the poor farm households. In the era of COVID-19, they are critical for boosting people’s immunity. Unfortunately, both production of and trade in these vegetables is likely to be severely affected by the pandemic. Methods This study examined potential effects of COVID-19 pandemic on production and trade of African indigenous vegetables using a cross-sectional survey of 244 farmers and 246 traders from different regions in Kenya. Results COVID-19 has a negative impact on production and trading of AIVs in Kenya. Findings indicate that 75% of the farmers are experiencing declining production due to reduced access to input, farm labour and output market. Secondly, about 98% of the traders have recorded a drop in sales volumes due to containment measures implemented by the government and personal safety precautions. In particular, farmers’ production and traders’ sales volumes declined by 39 and 65%, respectively, during the first phase of the pandemic. Conclusion The findings indicate that the sub-sector requires targeted interventions which may include input support, careful reopening and control of the open-air markets, reduced taxation and facilitated access to urban markets.

Evaluate the financial efficiency of semi-intensive prawn farming: A case study in My Xuyen district, Soc Trang province

Semi-intensive prawn farming is currently facing difficulties in both the production and consumption processes. Climate change and an unstable output market are the main causes affecting the investment efficiency of semi-intensive prawn farming. The authors carry out the study to evaluate the financial efficiency of semi-intensive prawn farming in My Xuyen District, Soc Trang Province. Research data are collected from 100 households raising prawns. The research results show that, with an average investment cost of 19.8 million VND/1000m2/crop, farmers may earn a profit of 6.5 million VND/1000m2/crop, and the profit margin achieved reaches 0.25 times. Therefore, the model of semi-intensive prawns achieves high financial efficiency and brings a great income for prawn farmers.

Inter-market Variability of Smallholder Beef Cattle Farming in East Java Indonesia

Indonesia has failed to achieve meat self-sufficiency; meanwhile, East Java is among the centers of beef cattle with a relatively high contribution in terms of GDP and employment. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze the market structure of the beef cattle commodity chain by considering the concentration ratio, Gini Index, as well as barriers to exit and entry. The study was conducted in Malang Regency and Sapudi Island, with 164 respondents, which consisted of calf suppliers, farmers, traders, and slaughterhouses. Furthermore, the analytical tools used include descriptive, concentration ratio, Gini Coefficient, and analysis of barriers to entry and exit. Based on the results, the market structures in the beef cattle commodity chain in terms of its input market was perfect competition, while the intermediate and output market was oligopoly. These results were confirmed by the concentration ratios of calf suppliers and farmers, which were lower than the ratios of traders and slaughterhouses. Although the market structures were different, their Gini Coefficients are almost similar because a value of 0.2 showed an equitable distribution. Additionally, the barriers to entry into the market were high investment with a large number of import and market problems. Meanwhile, the barriers to exit the market were a large number of potential demands, high investment, and a source of income.

Adoption of yield-increasing technologies in poorly integrated crop output markets

This paper analyzes the relationship between crop output market and the use of modern inputs of farmers in developing countries. For this purpose, we used a large-scale household dataset collected in rural Burkina Faso. We found evidence that crop output market integration matters in farmer decision to adopt modern inputs. More specifically, an increase of the spatial price dispersion by 10% is significantly associated with a decrease of the probability of using modern inputs by 4%. However, price volatility affects neither the decision to use of the modern nor the intensity of adoption. Our finding implies that in order to succeed, agricultural interventions that target the adoption of modern inputs should be accompanied with market development measures.

Marketed Surplus and Demand for Improved Groundnut Varieties: Empirical Evidence From Smallholders in Central and Northern Malawi

The quest to increase marketed surplus prompts farmers to demand high-yielding crop varieties. Understanding the farmers' challenges to increase marketed surplus would contribute to policy intervention measures that increase crop yields. Using an Endogenous Switching Probit regression (ESP) model, the study investigated the effect of marketed surplus on-demand for improved groundnut varieties and determined the factors that affect marketed surplus. The study used data collected from 416 farm households in some selected districts of central and northern Malawi. The ESP estimates showed that marketed surplus had a positive impact on the demand for improved groundnut varieties. The demand for improved groundnut varieties increased by 40% among smallholders with a marketed surplus. Conversely, the demand for improved groundnut varieties among farmers with no marketed surplus declined by 14%. Other findings suggest that increased crop productivity, smallholders' engagement in off-farm economic activities, and enhanced access to market information are critical in increasing marketed surplus. Therefore, policy intervention measures that encounter the farmers' challenges in the output market are critical for the increased marketed surplus to enhance the demand for improved varieties.

Fiscal Foresight and Real Distortions to Firm Behavior: Anticipatory Dips and Compensating Rebounds

We study the conditions under which fiscal foresight – forward-looking agents anticipating future policy changes – distorts economic behavior through undesired intertemporal tradeoffs. Somewhat surprisingly, fiscal foresight is far from sufficient for policy and incentives to perversely affect firm behavior. Three necessary conditions are identified for distorting behavior: storable output, diminishing returns, and a non-competitive output market. These conditions suggest that the estimated impacts of fiscal policies may be sensitive to underlying economic characteristics and that policies targeted to specific firms or industries with unique characteristics may not be generalizable.

The Effect of Agricultural Commercialization on Household Food Security among Smallholder Farmers in Zhombe North Rural District of Zimbabwe

Background: Achievement of food security has become one of the major challenges of most developing countries, including Zimbabwe. This study was designed to investigate the effect of agricultural commercialization on household food security. Methods: This study used cross-sectional data for the 2017/18 farming season collected from 165 smallholder farmer households in Zhombe north rural district in Zimbabwe. Instrumental variable regression model was applied for data analysis over the effect of agricultural commercialization. Agricultural commercialization was measured using the crop output market participation share (COMPS). Results: The results revealed that COMPS, household head age, household head gender, and income per capita had a significant positive influence on household food security. Conclusions: The results indicate that agricultural commercialization and socio-economic characteristics have a role to play in defining the household’s food security. Therefore, the findings recommend policies that would promote agricultural commercialization, which improve household food security in turn. The study recommends policymakers to promote agricultural commercialization, since it positively contributed towards household food security. In addition, young-headed, female-headed, and low-income earning households that were identified as the food insecure households.

Impact of agricultural commercialization on household food security among smallholder farmers in Zhombe North Rural District, Zimbabwe

Agricultural commercialization is one of the proposed strategies to alleviate the problem of food insecurity in Africa. This paper contributes to the debate on the impact of agricultural commercialization on household food security by assessing the impact of agricultural commercialization on household food security. Cross-sectional data for the 2017/18 farming season was collected from 165 smallholder farmer households in Zhombe North Rural District in Zimbabwe. A propensity score matching model was used for data analysis. Crop output market participation share (COMPS) and crop input market participation share (CIMPS) were jointly used as a proxy of agricultural commercialization of a household. Findings indicated that agricultural commercialization had a positive significant average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) of 5.25 modified food consumption scores on households’ food security. The paper recommends the promotion of agricultural commercialization as a strategy to improve household food security.