CABI agriculture and bioscience最新文献

Background: In Ethiopia, fruits pose a significant production and marketing challenge for farm households that significantly affect their farm profitability due to their perishability and unpredictable seasonal pricing. For instance, seasonally, market prices vary depending on the quality and quantity of fruit products available on the market. Stemming from this logical ground, this study is initiated with the objective of characterizing production systems and market performance of fruits in Ethiopia, focusing on apple and mango crops.

Methods: A random sampling approach was used for producers and snowball sampling for traders when selecting survey participants. A pre-tested survey questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and market margins were used for statistical analysis.

Results: Post-harvest wastage is preventing farmers from receiving anticipated revenue, implying that approximately 31.8 and 26.1% of the total mango and apple produce was lost, respectively. According to the survey results, there was no measurement consistency among farmers, local collectors, and small retailers. District level collectors received a higher margin share (42.66 and 40.18% of apple and mango, respectively) than other actors in the chain, which was unjustified given their contribution to the market chain. Farmers were comparatively hampered by the market since they earned the lowest share (33.34 and 15.08% of apple and mango, respectively) of consumer prices indicating that the apple and mango market chain performance is poor. As a consequence, these all deter farmers from producing in large quantities, quality, and also uncertainty (fair failure in the mind of farmers) in the marketing of apples and mangoes.

Conclusions: The awareness of small-scale farmers about most of the agronomic practices including insect pests and diseases were very low. Hence, this study recommended that there is an urgent need from district agricultural offices to improve mango and apple production and marketing systems in the study districts.

Women are involved in bean production and marketing, but their contribution is often invisible. This study is interested in understanding gender gaps in bean production, marketing, and decision-making powers over income and sales. A mixed method was used to collect survey data from 332 farming households and qualitative data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The respondents in the study were young men (30.42%), young women (13.25%), adult men (35.84%) and adult women (20.48%). From the results, adult men and young men owned more land than adult women and young women. Common bean had the highest median price of MZN25.00 (US$1.25) per kg over other crops such as maize at MZN7.00 (US$0.35), soybean at MZN 10 (US$0.50), groundnut at MZN 17 (US$0.85) and cowpea at MZN10.00 (US$0.50). The study revealed gender disparities in the control of bean sales and income. While there were no differences in the volume of bean grain sales between adult men and adult women, there were significant differences (p < 0.05) between young men and young women. Compared to young women, young men sold twice the bean grain volume and earned nearly twice more income, despite the two groups producing comparable volumes of bean grain. In conclusion, unlike the prevailing consensus that legumes are women's crops, the economic benefits, particularly in common bean, accrue more to young men than to any other category in this study.

Background: The African continent is known for high entrepreneurial activity, especially in the agricultural sector. Despite this, the continent's economic development is below expectations, due to numerous factors constraining the growth and sustainability of agricultural SMEs. These constraints have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to understand the pathways through which the pandemic affected agri-SMEs, with specific focus on assessing the differentiated effects arising from the size of the agri-SME and the gender of the owner-manager.

Methods: Data was collected from over 100 agri-SMEs, ranging in size from sole proprietorships with one employee to agri-SMEs employing up to 100 people, in six African countries. Mixed methods were used to analyse the data with changes in business operations arising from changing market access, regimented health and safety guidelines and constrained labour supply assessed using visualisations and descriptive statistics. Logistic regression modelling was employed to determine the set of variables contributing to agri-SME business downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: All surveyed agri-SMEs were negatively affected by COVID-19-associated restrictions with the size of the firm and gender of the owner-managers resulting in differentiated impacts. The smallest agri-SMEs, mainly owner-managed by women, were more likely to experience disruptions in marketing their goods and maintaining their labour supply. Larger agri-SMEs made changes to their business operations to comply with government guidelines during the pandemic and made investments to manage their labour supply, thus sustaining their business operations. In addition, logistic regression modelling results show that financing prior to the pandemic, engaging in primary agricultural production, and being further from urban centres significantly influenced the likelihood of a firm incurring business losses.

Conclusions: These findings necessitate engendered multi-faceted agri-SME support packages that are tailored for smaller-sized agri-SMEs. Any such support package should include support for agri-SMEs to develop sustainable marketing strategies and help them secure flexible financing that considers payment deferrals and debt moratorium during bona fide market shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.