Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2022.2032222
Kandas Cloete, J. Greyling, Marion Delport
ABSTRACT This paper explores reasons why some commercial producers in South Africa are expecting to quit and sell their farms, and others are not. Of 450 respondents to a voluntary survey, distinctly different groups of producers emerged concerning their longer-term strategic planning and how they experience and absorb current threats and challenges. Unsupervised learning on the dataset is imposed using a cluster analysis to explore the commonalities and the underlying factors why producers would expect to exit or not. Factors that we hypothesised might play a role included a producer's age and financial position, rural safety concerns, labor problems, industry-related problems, and opportunities for off-farm earnings. The factors the potentially exiting producers had in common were financial difficulty, which was uncorrelated to turnover, problems with access to dependable labor, uncertainty regarding land reform policy, and rural safety concerns. Intention to retire also played a role, although to a lesser extent. It is more often a combination of factors, rather than a single factor, that makes a producer more likely to decide to quit and sell in the future. With the exclusion of farm safety concerns and labor problems, the identified factors in this study are in step with those found internationally.
{"title":"Strategic perspectives on quitting or remaining in commercial agriculture in South Africa and why it matters","authors":"Kandas Cloete, J. Greyling, Marion Delport","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2022.2032222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2022.2032222","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores reasons why some commercial producers in South Africa are expecting to quit and sell their farms, and others are not. Of 450 respondents to a voluntary survey, distinctly different groups of producers emerged concerning their longer-term strategic planning and how they experience and absorb current threats and challenges. Unsupervised learning on the dataset is imposed using a cluster analysis to explore the commonalities and the underlying factors why producers would expect to exit or not. Factors that we hypothesised might play a role included a producer's age and financial position, rural safety concerns, labor problems, industry-related problems, and opportunities for off-farm earnings. The factors the potentially exiting producers had in common were financial difficulty, which was uncorrelated to turnover, problems with access to dependable labor, uncertainty regarding land reform policy, and rural safety concerns. Intention to retire also played a role, although to a lesser extent. It is more often a combination of factors, rather than a single factor, that makes a producer more likely to decide to quit and sell in the future. With the exclusion of farm safety concerns and labor problems, the identified factors in this study are in step with those found internationally.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"94 - 108"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43232759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.2006070
Andre Van der Vyver, Ulonka Barnard, Jean-Pierre Nordier
ABSTRACT With the inclusion of a locally traded soybean oil futures contract, that is dual-listed and cash-settled of the Chicago Board of Trade futures contract, the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) aimed to provide local soybean crushing plants, the opportunity for managing their exposure toward the variation in soybean oil prices using effective hedging strategies. Which is only viable assuming adequate liquidity, that is currently lacking in these futures contracts. The soybean oil contract used for hedging local price exposure should also reflect local import parity and/or be correlated to local price movements. Therefore, with most soybean oil usually being imported from Argentina, one would expect SAFEX soybean oil futures contracts to reflect the cost of imported soybean oil from Argentina. Hence, the research study used the Engle–Granger (1987) cointegration approach, alongside a range of diagnostic tests to determine whether SAFEX soybean oil futures contracts, that is dual-listed and cash-settled of CBOT settlement values is a misspecification and whether or not SAFEX soybean oil futures contracts should rather be based on the Argentina free-on-board soybean oil prices which is a much better representation of South Africa’s import parity and local industry prices.
{"title":"Identifying possible misspecification in South African soybean oil futures contracts","authors":"Andre Van der Vyver, Ulonka Barnard, Jean-Pierre Nordier","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.2006070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.2006070","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With the inclusion of a locally traded soybean oil futures contract, that is dual-listed and cash-settled of the Chicago Board of Trade futures contract, the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) aimed to provide local soybean crushing plants, the opportunity for managing their exposure toward the variation in soybean oil prices using effective hedging strategies. Which is only viable assuming adequate liquidity, that is currently lacking in these futures contracts. The soybean oil contract used for hedging local price exposure should also reflect local import parity and/or be correlated to local price movements. Therefore, with most soybean oil usually being imported from Argentina, one would expect SAFEX soybean oil futures contracts to reflect the cost of imported soybean oil from Argentina. Hence, the research study used the Engle–Granger (1987) cointegration approach, alongside a range of diagnostic tests to determine whether SAFEX soybean oil futures contracts, that is dual-listed and cash-settled of CBOT settlement values is a misspecification and whether or not SAFEX soybean oil futures contracts should rather be based on the Argentina free-on-board soybean oil prices which is a much better representation of South Africa’s import parity and local industry prices.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"80 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46884635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2022.2030241
F. Meyer, Johann Kirsten, Tracy Davids, Marion Delport, H. Vermeulen, W. Sihlobo, Lucia Anlich
ABSTRACT The agriculture value chain is a complex web of interactions which includes activities within the agricultural sector and various support industries less directly linked to the sector. Despite being declared an essential service when the COVID-19 regulations were promulgated and lockdown restrictions imposed, the value chain still faced multiple bottlenecks and disruptions that needed to be overcome to ensure food security through this period. This paper considers such bottlenecks and their impacts on major industries within agriculture, as well as the actions taken to address them. It highlights distributional challenges, which influenced accessibility to vulnerable groups, which was accentuated by the initial exclusion of informal traders from essential services – an omission that was later corrected. Furthermore, it notes severe impacts on non-food industries such as wine, where trade was restricted, but other sectors performed well and overall, agriculture still grew by 13% year on year and mostly keeping food inflation in check. Key to this performance was that real time communication and reporting mechanisms were put in place, allowing stakeholders to report bottlenecks quickly, from where they could be escalated and addressed through strong collaboration between government and industry.
{"title":"A sector-wide review of the COVID-19 impact on the South African agricultural sector during 2020–21","authors":"F. Meyer, Johann Kirsten, Tracy Davids, Marion Delport, H. Vermeulen, W. Sihlobo, Lucia Anlich","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2022.2030241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2022.2030241","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The agriculture value chain is a complex web of interactions which includes activities within the agricultural sector and various support industries less directly linked to the sector. Despite being declared an essential service when the COVID-19 regulations were promulgated and lockdown restrictions imposed, the value chain still faced multiple bottlenecks and disruptions that needed to be overcome to ensure food security through this period. This paper considers such bottlenecks and their impacts on major industries within agriculture, as well as the actions taken to address them. It highlights distributional challenges, which influenced accessibility to vulnerable groups, which was accentuated by the initial exclusion of informal traders from essential services – an omission that was later corrected. Furthermore, it notes severe impacts on non-food industries such as wine, where trade was restricted, but other sectors performed well and overall, agriculture still grew by 13% year on year and mostly keeping food inflation in check. Key to this performance was that real time communication and reporting mechanisms were put in place, allowing stakeholders to report bottlenecks quickly, from where they could be escalated and addressed through strong collaboration between government and industry.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"3 - 20"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41834449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2022.2034791
Johann Kirsten
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a disruptive impact on the world economy and the lives of all people. The pandemic is characteristic of a typical "Black Swan" event with unprecedented scope, characteristics, consequences and responses by governments in all countries. The legislative constraints imposed by governments in most countries on the movement of people and goods and services disrupted the global economy dramatically with large negative impacts on the growth and absolute size of economies. Although agricultural and food production across the world was deemed an essential service for the basic needs of people, the sector did not fully escape the disruptive impact of the pandemic.
{"title":"Special collection of articles on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on South African agriculture","authors":"Johann Kirsten","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2022.2034791","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2022.2034791","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a disruptive impact on the world economy and the lives of all people. The pandemic is characteristic of a typical \"Black Swan\" event with unprecedented scope, characteristics, consequences and responses by governments in all countries. The legislative constraints imposed by governments in most countries on the movement of people and goods and services disrupted the global economy dramatically with large negative impacts on the growth and absolute size of economies. Although agricultural and food production across the world was deemed an essential service for the basic needs of people, the sector did not fully escape the disruptive impact of the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"1 - 2"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49474061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-24DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.2006071
David Olson, N. Mason, L. Kirimi, J. Makau
ABSTRACT Soil fertility management (SFM) practices such as maize-legume intercropping and organic fertiliser, particularly when used jointly with inorganic fertiliser, have the potential to increase yields and yield response to inorganic fertiliser, improve soil health, and contribute to sustainable intensification (SI). However, relatively little is known about the drivers of adoption of these practices, especially for joint use. Moreover, it has been suggested that African farmers will respond to an increase in the maize price they expect to receive at the next harvest by increasing investment in their soils or altering use of SFM practices in response to input price changes. Yet previous studies largely ignore the role of prices. Using nationwide household panel survey data from Kenya, we estimate the effects of changes in crop and input prices on household use of individual SFM practices and combinations thereof. We find that Kenyan smallholders’ SFM adoption decisions are largely insensitive to changes in expected maize prices. However, when inorganic fertiliser prices rise, farmers are more likely to use organic fertiliser and use less inorganic fertiliser per acre. These results suggest that price policies alone are unlikely to be effective ways to promote SI of maize production in Kenya.
{"title":"Do changes in maize prices and input prices affect smallholder farmers’ soil fertility management decisions? panel survey evidence from Kenya","authors":"David Olson, N. Mason, L. Kirimi, J. Makau","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.2006071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.2006071","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Soil fertility management (SFM) practices such as maize-legume intercropping and organic fertiliser, particularly when used jointly with inorganic fertiliser, have the potential to increase yields and yield response to inorganic fertiliser, improve soil health, and contribute to sustainable intensification (SI). However, relatively little is known about the drivers of adoption of these practices, especially for joint use. Moreover, it has been suggested that African farmers will respond to an increase in the maize price they expect to receive at the next harvest by increasing investment in their soils or altering use of SFM practices in response to input price changes. Yet previous studies largely ignore the role of prices. Using nationwide household panel survey data from Kenya, we estimate the effects of changes in crop and input prices on household use of individual SFM practices and combinations thereof. We find that Kenyan smallholders’ SFM adoption decisions are largely insensitive to changes in expected maize prices. However, when inorganic fertiliser prices rise, farmers are more likely to use organic fertiliser and use less inorganic fertiliser per acre. These results suggest that price policies alone are unlikely to be effective ways to promote SI of maize production in Kenya.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"167 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41439116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-24DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.2007779
F. Meyer, T. Reardon, Tracy Davids, M. van der Merwe, D. Jordaan, Marion Delport, Gerhard Van Den Burgh
ABSTRACT We use a primary data set from a survey of medium and large firms and farms in the beef, citrus, and maize value chains in South Africa during March-June 2020, the early and late phases of the initial COVID-19 lockdowns. We have five main findings. (1) The initial lockdown regulations declared as “essential” the product (vertical) value chains but left as “inessential” the important “lateral” value chains delivering labour, materials, and logistics to the segments of the vertical value chains. This hurt the three vertical value chains as constraints in the laterals choked key segments of the verticals. (2) Vulnerability of the whole value chain emanated from vulnerability to shocks of critical “hotspot” linchpin segments (such as livestock auctions) or infrastructure (such as at ports). (3) Collective, industry-level “pivoting” was crucial both to organize the private sector response and to interact with government to course-correct on COVID-19 policies. (4) Responses to pre-COVID-19 challenges (such as drought and international phytosanitary rule changes) had prepared the beef and citrus value chain actors to respond collectively to the pandemic challenges. (5) Individual firm- and segment-level “pivoting” was also crucial for resilience, such as cattle auctions going on-line with the help of e-commerce firms.
{"title":"Hotspots of vulnerability and disruption in food value chains during COVID-19 in South Africa: industry- and firm-level “pivoting” in response","authors":"F. Meyer, T. Reardon, Tracy Davids, M. van der Merwe, D. Jordaan, Marion Delport, Gerhard Van Den Burgh","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.2007779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.2007779","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We use a primary data set from a survey of medium and large firms and farms in the beef, citrus, and maize value chains in South Africa during March-June 2020, the early and late phases of the initial COVID-19 lockdowns. We have five main findings. (1) The initial lockdown regulations declared as “essential” the product (vertical) value chains but left as “inessential” the important “lateral” value chains delivering labour, materials, and logistics to the segments of the vertical value chains. This hurt the three vertical value chains as constraints in the laterals choked key segments of the verticals. (2) Vulnerability of the whole value chain emanated from vulnerability to shocks of critical “hotspot” linchpin segments (such as livestock auctions) or infrastructure (such as at ports). (3) Collective, industry-level “pivoting” was crucial both to organize the private sector response and to interact with government to course-correct on COVID-19 policies. (4) Responses to pre-COVID-19 challenges (such as drought and international phytosanitary rule changes) had prepared the beef and citrus value chain actors to respond collectively to the pandemic challenges. (5) Individual firm- and segment-level “pivoting” was also crucial for resilience, such as cattle auctions going on-line with the help of e-commerce firms.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"21 - 41"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43915595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-16DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.1997773
Romanus Osabohien, O. Matthew, Hajra Maqsood
ABSTRACT This study engages panel data consisting of 15 West African countries that are members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). To resolve the possible issues of endogeneity, the system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) was applied. The data for the analysis was sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), and the World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 2005–2018. Findings show that all social protection indicators included in the study are positive and significant in explaining the level of agricultural labour outcome in West Africa. The implication of the result is that policy for social inclusion, building human resources, equity in public resource use and overall social protection coverage may increase agricultural labour outcomes by 0.77%, 0.82% and 0.26%, respectively. The study concludes that to raise labour productivity in West Africa towards the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially, SDG-1, there is a need for social protection coverage to mitigate shocks and vulnerability.
{"title":"Social protection policy and agricultural labour outcome in West Africa","authors":"Romanus Osabohien, O. Matthew, Hajra Maqsood","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.1997773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.1997773","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study engages panel data consisting of 15 West African countries that are members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). To resolve the possible issues of endogeneity, the system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) was applied. The data for the analysis was sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), and the World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 2005–2018. Findings show that all social protection indicators included in the study are positive and significant in explaining the level of agricultural labour outcome in West Africa. The implication of the result is that policy for social inclusion, building human resources, equity in public resource use and overall social protection coverage may increase agricultural labour outcomes by 0.77%, 0.82% and 0.26%, respectively. The study concludes that to raise labour productivity in West Africa towards the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially, SDG-1, there is a need for social protection coverage to mitigate shocks and vulnerability.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"229 - 238"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44196135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.1980409
J. Ateka, P. A. Onono-Okelo, M. Etyang
ABSTRACT Market trends in many developing countries indicate that selling agricultural produce to itinerant traders at the farmgate has been rising, despite criticism that the practice preys on and exploits farmers. Using a cross-sectional data set of 525 households, we investigate the factors influencing participation in farmgate trading and its effects on agricultural productivity in western Kenya. We specifically consider the role of liquidity–related variables within a context of the perennial export crops, a contribution that has received less attention in literature. Our analysis reveals that variables related to demand for liquidity at the household level are strongly correlated with the selling of tea at the farmgate by smallholder tea farmers in the study area. The results also show that the household context (farmer's age, education and residence), farm characteristics (volume of output and age of tea plantation) and institutional variables (group membership and extension) are key determinants of household selling decisions. In addition, we find evidence that farmgate selling has a positive influence on crop productivity. We recommend strengthening of mechanisms that enable farmers to engage better with the existing market channels and encourage greater competition, in place of policies seeking to curtail the operations of farmgate traders.
{"title":"Selling at the farmgate? Role of liquidity constraints and implications for agricultural productivity","authors":"J. Ateka, P. A. Onono-Okelo, M. Etyang","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.1980409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.1980409","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Market trends in many developing countries indicate that selling agricultural produce to itinerant traders at the farmgate has been rising, despite criticism that the practice preys on and exploits farmers. Using a cross-sectional data set of 525 households, we investigate the factors influencing participation in farmgate trading and its effects on agricultural productivity in western Kenya. We specifically consider the role of liquidity–related variables within a context of the perennial export crops, a contribution that has received less attention in literature. Our analysis reveals that variables related to demand for liquidity at the household level are strongly correlated with the selling of tea at the farmgate by smallholder tea farmers in the study area. The results also show that the household context (farmer's age, education and residence), farm characteristics (volume of output and age of tea plantation) and institutional variables (group membership and extension) are key determinants of household selling decisions. In addition, we find evidence that farmgate selling has a positive influence on crop productivity. We recommend strengthening of mechanisms that enable farmers to engage better with the existing market channels and encourage greater competition, in place of policies seeking to curtail the operations of farmgate traders.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"60 1","pages":"388 - 407"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41502198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.1992290
Wencong C. Lu, K. Addai, John N. Ng’ombe
ABSTRACT Agricultural intensification has been encouraged through the promotion of various agricultural technologies, but the synergies between different technologies have not been fully explored among various specific crops. Using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model complemented with the multivalued inverse probability regression model, this study determines the impacts of the adoption of combinations of chemical fertiliser, improved rice seeds, and herbicides on household welfare. Data were collected from 900 farm households in Northern Ghana. Our results indicate that the adoption of combinations of agricultural technologies is affected by various socio-economic attributes, resource constraints, institutional factors, and production shocks. We find that adopting multiple technologies improves rice yields, gross rice income, and per capita consumption expenditure. The results point out the crucial synergistic effects of the adoption of agricultural technologies on household welfare. We suggest that policies aimed at strengthening farm household welfare should encourage adopting multiple agricultural technologies in rice-producing farm households to realise the most welfare.
{"title":"Does the use of multiple agricultural technologies affect household welfare? Evidence from Northern Ghana","authors":"Wencong C. Lu, K. Addai, John N. Ng’ombe","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.1992290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.1992290","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Agricultural intensification has been encouraged through the promotion of various agricultural technologies, but the synergies between different technologies have not been fully explored among various specific crops. Using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model complemented with the multivalued inverse probability regression model, this study determines the impacts of the adoption of combinations of chemical fertiliser, improved rice seeds, and herbicides on household welfare. Data were collected from 900 farm households in Northern Ghana. Our results indicate that the adoption of combinations of agricultural technologies is affected by various socio-economic attributes, resource constraints, institutional factors, and production shocks. We find that adopting multiple technologies improves rice yields, gross rice income, and per capita consumption expenditure. The results point out the crucial synergistic effects of the adoption of agricultural technologies on household welfare. We suggest that policies aimed at strengthening farm household welfare should encourage adopting multiple agricultural technologies in rice-producing farm households to realise the most welfare.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"60 1","pages":"370 - 387"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47675884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2021.1980410
M. Magesa, Noah Nasson Mkasanga
ABSTRACT Introducing user access charges to smallholder farmers accessing agricultural market information is considered as a strategy of financing operations of agricultural market information services. This research studied smallholders' willingness to pay for access charges as a strategy of sustaining information provision operations. Using questionnaires, data were collected from smallholders, randomly selected from three regions in Tanzania. Econometric models were used for data analysis. The Probit model indicated that factors that determine mobile phone use by smallholders included age, mobile phone use knowledge, reasons for growing crops, channels to available markets, and changes in farming practices. The Ordered Probit model indicated that road condition to markets, changing farming practices, and awareness on agricultural market information usefulness determined smallholders' willingness to pay for access charges. The Censored Tobit model indicated that the premium smallholders are willing to pay depends on their mobile phone use knowledge, farming techniques practiced, changes in farming practices, bargaining ability, and awareness on agricultural market information usefulness. To boost production, smallholders need to develop capabilities in different farming practices. For best information provisions, private sector can provide platform and resources needed for platform management while the government can ensure conducive environment for agricultural marketing and of information dissemination.
{"title":"Smallholder farmers’ willingness to pay for access to agricultural market information in Tanzania","authors":"M. Magesa, Noah Nasson Mkasanga","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2021.1980410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2021.1980410","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Introducing user access charges to smallholder farmers accessing agricultural market information is considered as a strategy of financing operations of agricultural market information services. This research studied smallholders' willingness to pay for access charges as a strategy of sustaining information provision operations. Using questionnaires, data were collected from smallholders, randomly selected from three regions in Tanzania. Econometric models were used for data analysis. The Probit model indicated that factors that determine mobile phone use by smallholders included age, mobile phone use knowledge, reasons for growing crops, channels to available markets, and changes in farming practices. The Ordered Probit model indicated that road condition to markets, changing farming practices, and awareness on agricultural market information usefulness determined smallholders' willingness to pay for access charges. The Censored Tobit model indicated that the premium smallholders are willing to pay depends on their mobile phone use knowledge, farming techniques practiced, changes in farming practices, bargaining ability, and awareness on agricultural market information usefulness. To boost production, smallholders need to develop capabilities in different farming practices. For best information provisions, private sector can provide platform and resources needed for platform management while the government can ensure conducive environment for agricultural marketing and of information dissemination.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"60 1","pages":"424 - 444"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45365821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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