Estimating yield of food crops grown by smallholder farmers: A review in the Uganda context

Precise agricultural statistics are essential for planning and evaluation of agricultural investments to improve the productivity and profitability of smallholder farming systems. However, accurately estimating crop yields is never easy and is even more of a challenge in the context of African farming systems that are characterized by smallholder farms that produce a wide range of diverse crops. With specific reference to yield estimation for food crops under smallholder farming conditions in Uganda, this paper evaluates the various methods that are available to estimate crop production and cropped area in such farming systems. A description and summary tables from a database of estimated crop yields in Uganda that was collated from a large set of field studies over past decades are also provided.agricultural statistics, crop yield, Data Collection, smallholder farming,

Resilience of Organic versus Conventional Farming Systems in Tropical Africa: The Kenyan Experience

In Kenya, agriculture is largely carried out by smallholder farmers, in a mixed farming noncommercialised setting where application of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides is minimal. Agricultural production is low and constrained by declining soil fertility, pest and diseases and increasingly unpredictable weather due to global warming. This calls for more resilient farming systems

SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN MALAWI

In this paper we analyze the factors that influence the productivity of maize among smallholder farmers. We use farm-household survey data in order to compare the productivity of smallholder maize production under integrated (ISFM) and chemical-based soil fertility management using a normalized translog yield response model. The results indicate higher maize yield responses for integrated soil fertility management options after controlling for the intensity of fertilizer application, labour intensity, seed rate, land husbandry practices as well as selected policy factors. The estimated model is highly consistent with theoretical conditions. Thus we conclude that the use of ISFM improves maize productivity, compared to the use of inorganic fertilizer only. Since most farmers in the maize-based farming systems are crowded out of the agricultural input market and can hardly afford optimal quantities of inorganic fertilizer, enhancement of ISFM is likely to increase their maize productivity. We finally highlight areas of policy support needed to enhance ISFM uptake in smallholder maize-based farming systems.Malawi, smallholder agriculture, soil fertility management, yield response model, Farm Management,

Alternative Soil Fertility Management Options in Malawi An Economic Analysis

In this paper, we analyze the factors that influence t he productivity of maize among smallholder farmers, given that unfavourable output and input market conditions throughout the 1990s have compelled smallholder farmers into unsustainable agricultural intensification. We use farm-household survey data in order to compare the productivity of smallholder maize production under integrated (ISFM) and chemicalbased soil fertility management using a normalized translog yield response model. The results indicate higher maize yield responses for integrated soil fertility management options after controlling for the intensity of fertilizer application, labour intensity, seed rate as well as land husbandry practices a s well as selected policy factors. The estimated model is highly consistent with theoretical conditions. Thus we conclude that the use of ISFM improves maize productivity, compared to the use of inorganic fertilizer only. Since most farmers in the maize-based farming systems are crowded out of the agricultural input market and can hardly afford optimal quantities of inorganic fertilizer, enhancement of ISFM is likely to increase their maize productivity. We finally highlight areas of policy support needed to enhance ISFM uptake in smallholder maize-based farming systems.smallholder agriculture, yield response model, soil fertility management, Malawi, Land Economics/Use,

Livelihood diversification and the expansion of artisanal mining in rural Tanzania: drivers and policy implications

This paper provides an extended analysis of livelihood diversification in rural Tanzania, with special emphasis on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Over the past decade, this sector of industry, which is labour-intensive and comprises an array of rudimentary and semi-mechanized operations, has become an indispensable economic activity throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, providing employment to a host of redundant public sector workers, retrenched large-scale mine labourers and poor farmers. In many of the region’s rural areas, it is overtaking subsistence agriculture as the primary industry. Such a pattern appears to be unfolding within the Morogoro and Mbeya regions of southern Tanzania, where findings from recent research suggest that a growing number of smallholder farmers are turning to ASM for employment and financial support. It is imperative that national rural development programmes take this trend into account and provide support to these people

Farming Differentiation in the Rural-urban Interface of the Middle Mountains, Nepal: Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)Modeling

This article investigates the dominant factors of farming differentiation in the rural-urban interface of the densely populated Kathmandu Valley, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) modeling. The rural-urban interface in the Kathmandu Valley is an important vegetable production pocket which supplies a large amount of the vegetables in the city core. While subsistence farming in the rural area is characterized by a system which integrates livestock and forestry with agriculture, the intensification in the urban fringe is characterized by triple crop rotations and market-oriented intensive vegetable production. Seven factors which were supposed to cause farming variation in the interface were incorporated in the AHP framework and then subjected to the farmers’ judgment in distinctly delineated three farming zones. These factors played crucial yet differing roles in different farming zones. Inaccessibility and use of local resources; higher yield and accessibility and agro-ecological consideration and quality production are the key impacting factors of subsistence, commercial inorganic and smallholder organic farming respectively. The quantification of such factors of farming differentiation through AHP is an important piece of information that will contribute in modeling farming in the rural-urban interface of developing countries which are characterized by a high diversity of farming practices and are undergoing a rapid change in the land use pattern

Profitability of Organic Agriculture in a Transition Economy: the Case of Organic Contract Rice Farming in Lao PDR

Poverty is prevalent among smallholder farmers in transition economies where market failures prevail and where the capacity of the public sector is limited. This study assesses the potential of organic contract farming as a private sector institutional arrangement to reduce rural poverty. Contract farming appears to facilitate market linkages for smallholder farmers to produce organic rice for export markets while providing necessary technical supports. Using an endogenous switching regression model to assess the profitability of organic contract farms and conventional farms in Lao PDR, it was found that organic farmers under contract earn significantly higher profit than conventional farms. The findings also showed that organic contract farming tends to provide the greatest increase in income to farmers with below average performance. These findings suggest that contract farming can be an effective mechanism to facilitate the development of organic agriculture and an effective tool to improve the profitability and raise incomes of small farmers, thereby reducing poverty in rural areas with limited market development

Opportunities and challenges for integrating dairy cattle into farms with certified organic pineapple production as perceived by smallholder farmers in Central Uganda

A study was conducted in 2013 to assess opportunities and challenges of integrating dairy cattle into organic pineapple production in Uganda. Thirty organic pineapple farmers were interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire. The main dairy cattle management systems were tethering (73%) and zero grazing (27%). Average landholding was 1.74 ± 1.06 and 3.75 ± 2.70 ha for zero grazing and tethering systems, respectively. All farms were diversified with various livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens and crops including pineapples, maize, coffee, bananas, beans, sweet potatoes, and cassava. The level of integration of dairy cattle into pineapple production depended on the distance of crop fields from the livestock enterprises. More farms (83%) with pineapple fields closer ( 0.5 km). The distance to the homestead did not influence 30% of the farmers who used crop residues for feeding dairy cattle. Farmers perceived cattle diseases and feed scarcity to be the major challenges in dairy farming. The sources of risk on the farms were perceived to be erratic rainfall, limited knowledge, and market for organic products. Majority of farmers (77%) expressed willingness to convert to organic dairy production. Availability of markets for organic dairy products (36%) and reduction of external input use (26%) were the main reasons for farmers’ willingness to convert. Integrating dairy cattle with pineapple production is an opportunity for closed nutrient cycles and income diversification. However, knowledge, access to inputs, and organized markets are needed as incentive for conversion to organic dairy production

Typology of rubber based farming systems in Cameroon: lessons for future plantings

The rubber smallholder sector in Cameroon was developed in different zones, periods and conditions. As a result, the diversity of the rubber farms is important. So, a typology of the farms, mainly based on the strategy for the development of the farming system, is proposed. Four different groups were identified: mini estate farms, family farms with continuous capitalisation of their income in plantations, family farms without capitalisation and emerging rubber family farms. The analysis of the rubber practices during the different stages of a rubber plantation development shows that the four groups present some specificities concerning the choice of the planting material and the strategy of tapping. On the other hand, no difference was noted for the management of the plantation during the immature period. Although the rubber smallholder sector in Cameroon is still limited compared to other African countries, it was possible to reveal that many farmers are interested in rubber. The diagnosis identified some difficulties that smallholders met for rubber cultivation. They have to be taken into consideration for the future plantings. (Résumé d'auteur