Assessment of Local Adaptive Capacity of Mountain Farmers: A Way Forward for Sustainable Livelihood Development

This study aims to understand the perception of mountain farmers towards the local adaptive capacity at a household level in an agro-ecological landscape. An indicator-based assessment is conducted to examine the 6 determinants and 27 indicators to give a local adaptive capacity index of the villages around Govind Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park, located in the Indian Himalayan region. The findings indicate that, though the connected and isolated villages have a low and very low adaptive capacity, respectively, the effect of various determinants on the local people varies among the village settlements, based on their socio-economic capacity. Despite the government endeavours to build the livelihood of mountain farmers through different programmes and policies, it still lacks proactive decision-making. The study suggests for an integrated assessment and sustainable enhancement of the landscape as a whole, with a focus on community-level adaptation strategies. It draws attention to the need for enhanced collaboration between research institutions, government and private sectors with the mountain community in the centre.

The Potential for Sustainable Organic Farming in Nagaland: A Case Study

In 2015, Sikkim, a North-Eastern state of India, achieved the state of being fully organic. Later, states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Goa and Kerala have declared their intentions to be fully organic. In Nagaland, more than 47% of the population is engaged in agriculture and entirely dependent on the traditional mode of farming and has used organic manure like cattle dung, dried leaves-litter and crop residues for enhancing the capacity of soil from time immemorial. Also, studies have shown that the state of Nagaland has negligible use of inorganic supplements in their fields. Thus, Nagaland has a high potential to be converted into an organic state without making any significant shifts in their existing farming practices. Shifting cultivation, locally known as Jhum-kheti, is one of the oldest forms of the agricultural process in practice in Nagaland. However, some studies regard Jhum cultivation as harmful to the environment, but there is a scope to reinvent this farming method and move towards a more sustainable form of agriculture there. This study explores the relation between traditional farming and organic farming and the benefits of state-induced organic farming methods and their effects on the farmers of Nagaland. A survey was carried out in the Mokokchung district of Nagaland to understand the role of farmers in attaining sustainability.

Implications of Land Use Land Cover Transformation for Gendered Livelihoods: Insights from Moyna Basin of Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India

The Moyna basin of West Bengal is experiencing a rapid transformation in land use and land cover (LULC) as waterbodies are rapidly increasing at the expense of low-lying agricultural lands. The transformation in the LULC pattern in Moyna basin has been studied earlier based on the focus of climate change, biodiversity and other environmental issues. However, very little is known about the implications of this transformation on gender roles, responsibilities and livelihoods. This study examines the interconnectedness between LULC transformation and its differential impact on the livelihoods and workload of men and women using an intersectional perspective in three villages across Moyna block. The data were collected using a mixed-method approach and comprised of three major sources of information—observations, photographs and interviews. Results show that the changes in LULC have occurred partly as an impact of climate change and partly due to the inclination towards aquaculture due to decline in profitability of agriculture and farming practices. In the context of these livelihood changes, a fundamental shift in gendered roles has occurred. It has been found that the switch to aquaculture has led to two prominent outcomes, that is, depeasantisation of agricultural workers and defeminisation of the overall workforce. While women and men were equally displaced from agriculture with the advent of aquaculture, women were faced with additional challenges of unequal social gender norms and limited opportunities for alternative employment. It further shows that, the impacts of land use change on livelihoods are diverse and is a complex process as factors, like—class, caste, patriarchal family relations, family structure and the nature of the labour market intersect with gender and it also makes some women more vulnerable than other men and women.

Determinants of Crop Diversification in Bangladesh: An Econometric Analysis

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence household behaviour in cultivating the diversified crops on their cultivable land in Bangladesh. Cragg’s alternative tobit model has been applied to a unique rural household level dataset to find the catalysts of crop diversification. The results obtained portrayed a mixed impression of crop diversification in the country. The estimated results have revealed that the male head of household, the accessibility of information, a greater number of farming parcels and the availability of hired labour seem to govern the decision of a farming household to participate in non-rice crop production, while factors such as the total amount of land, agricultural extension service and irrigation facilities influence rice cultivation. Moreover, the findings obtained from the same Cragg’s alternative tobit model estimation for the Aman, Boro and Aus seasons have also revealed a similar depiction of crop diversification in Bangladesh.

Impact of Rural Roads in India: A Case Study Based on Spatial Data Analysis

The Government of India launched its National Rural Roads Program known as Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to connect the 167 thousand unconnected villages in the country by all-weather roads to improve connectivity there. It is important to study the impact of such intervention on various socio-economic indicators of rural development there. This study assesses the impact of those roads on the different aspects of rural community. The assessment has been completed based on spatial visualisation of the impact created by various facility parameters in rural development using various questionnaires formed and applied on a few selected blocks. Spatial data was collected and integrated using open-source software (QGIS) and statistical analysis has been performed to understand the percentage change in socio-economic indicators related to education, healthcare, agriculture, marketing and employment opportunities which are essential elements of the integrated rural development in India. The analysis appears helpful in estimating the sensitivity of government policies in the context, and thus understanding the requirement of policy changes and implementation in rural India.

Reduction in Lifetime Fertility Through MNCS in Rural Bangladesh

This study assesses the effect of a customised Maternal Neonatal and Child Survival (MNCS) intervention in the rural areas of Bangladesh. This study attempts to estimate the lifetime fertility rate and the proportion of live births ≥3, and the age-specific lifetime fertility patterns among the women of reproductive age. This quasi-experimental study used impact evaluation data from the MNCS intervention in 2013 and compared these with the baseline data collected in 2008. We used a multi-stage, cluster random sampling technique to include 6,000 and 4,800 women in 2008 and 2013, respectively. The respondents were either mothers who had alive/deceased infants or the mothers whose pregnancy was terminated or who had living children of 12–59 months without pregnancy outcomes in the preceding year of the surveys. Based on the mean difference of live births from baseline to endline year for each intervention union, and then we compared these two areas (intervention and control unions). Overall lifetime fertility rate declined significantly in high-performing intervention unions (from 2.6 to 2.2/woman, p < .001) or in control unions (from 2.4 to 2.2/woman; p < .001). The degree of reduction of fertility increased significantly with age, and such a change was most prominent in the case of women ≥35 years old. Multivariate analyses suggest that the likelihood of having live births ≥3 reduced significantly in high-performed intervention compared to control unions. In conclusion, the probability of reducing lifetime fertility over time increases with a higher level of access, degree and duration of the customised intervention.

Measuring Technical Efficiency of the Smallholder Crop Farms Using Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

Agricultural productivity in Africa is the lowest in the world with many households not being able to feed themselves. In Africa, women play a major role in agriculture sector constituting about 70–80 per cent of the labour force there. Regrettably, their farm productivity is relatively low mainly due to their inefficient use of farm inputs, which has a serious implication for their socio-economic condition as well as health and nutrition status. With this backdrop in mind, the study investigated the technical efficiency (TE) of the female crop farmers in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Stochastic production frontier approach and ANOVA models were applied to analyse the primary data collected on the 216 female farmers randomly selected from 18 communities of the 3 states in the Delta. It has been found that the farm size and the quantity of labour positively influence TE of these farmers. However, farmer’s age shows a negative sign implying a decrease in technical inefficiency in age whereas the years of schooling shows a positive sign implying an increase in inefficiency with schooling thereby a resulting decrease in TE with schooling. Farm efficiency level in Delta and Akwa Ibom States was not significantly different. However, TE level in both Delta and Akwa Ibom States was significantly different from Rivers State. Since, the age of farmers showed positive influence on TE, farmers should form group and organise regular meetings to enable share knowledge and experiences on the efficient use of farm resources in the Niger Delta Region, Nigeria.

Farmland Lease Options in the Rural China: Key Determinants and Policy Implications

The study looks at the factors that influence farmland transfer option in Yunnan province, China. To help achieve this objective, 6,007 households were randomly selected from rural communities. The sample includes households who are engaged in lease-out, lease-in, and those who engage in neither lease-out nor lease-in. The data was analysed using multinomial probit model. The results show that farmland certification and knowledge of land tenure policy have positive impact on both lease-in and lease-out decisions relative to the reference category. Farmland size and years of schooling show negative and positive impact on lease-in and lease-out decisions, respectively, relative to the reference category. The net income of the household and crop insurance have positive and negative effect on lease-in and lease-out decisions, respectively, relative to the base category. The results suggest that price per mu has a positive effect on the lease-out decision relative to the base category. The study broadens the scope of analysis on farmland transfer by considering all the options available to a household in farmland transfer decision taking.

Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria in COVID-19 Pandemic

Microcredit is a financial service whose importance is often understated. When lack of access to microcredit is exacerbated by a public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, its real significance as an essential service in poverty alleviation becomes more apparent. The outbreak and spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to dramatic transformations of every sector of the Nigerian society including microcredit delivery system, where formal and informal actors co-exist often in an uneasy relationship. Unfortunately, strategies for inclusive microcredit delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic are lacking in Nigeria, fuelling the further exclusion of informal sector in microcredit governance and policy process in Nigeria. The paper reviews the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria and identifies policy gaps in microcredit delivery and governance mechanism. The study also highlights the linkages between COVID-19 and microcredit in poverty alleviation with a view to catalysing increased and inclusive access to microcredit and sustainability policy in Nigeria. It is argued that acknowledging the role of microcredit in informal economy and poverty alleviation is the critical first step towards framing a sustainable microcredit policy in which primary stakeholders are involved.

Determinants of Off-Farm Labour Participation and Time Allocation: Double-Hurdle Results in the Case of Fiji

This study analyses the determinants of off-farm labour participation decisions of the agricultural households in Fiji. The analysis of joint decision to participate and the amount of time allocated to work is undertaken by using the double-hurdle model based on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2008–2009. The results show that household head status, age, marital status, ethnicity and education influence off-farm participation decisions of the farm households. On the households’ time allocation decisions towards off-farm income-generating activities, the family size, remittances, income and several types of agricultural outputs influence the labour supply decisions. These households and farm characteristics are important in creating better returns, reducing risks from land constraints and natural disasters, managing income and consumption uncertainties and providing quality farm inputs. The results highlight some important policy implications that would help address low agricultural productivity and render increased support for off-farm income earning activities.