Determinants of Artificial Insemination Use by Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Lemu-Bilbilo District, Ethiopia

Despite Ethiopia possessing the highest number of livestock in Africa, its benefit to the country and smallholder farmers is small as more than 99% of the cattle are indigenous breeds with low yield. Though the government introduced Artificial Insemination (AI) technology to improve this condition, the adoption rate by smallholder farmers is still low. The objectives of the study were to determine factors affecting adoption and the extent of adoption of among smallholder dairy farmers in Lemu-Bilbilo district of Ethiopia. Data from 196 smallholder dairy farmers was collected using semi-structured questionnaire. The study utilized double-hurdle model for analysis where the two stages were run separately as Probit and truncated regression, respectively. Contacts with extension agents, access to credit, income from milk sales, feeding concentrate to cows and family size influenced the probability of adoption without affecting the extent of adoption. While membership in dairy cooperatives and off-farm income positively affected the probability and extent of AI adoption, distance from AI station and access to crossbred bull services influenced both variables negatively. Education level and efficiency of AI service had positive impact on the extent of AI use; whereas experience in keeping cross-breeds and years of using AI had negative influence on same. Much work should be done to improve the accessibility of AI service by expanding AI stations throughout the district, by training more AI technicians and by encouraging private involvement. Adult education and education in farmers training centres can be the way forward to improve educational status of farmers. Bureau of Agriculture must work to improve access to credit and extension services; established dairy cooperatives have to be strengthened and more need to be established. Keywords: adoption, artificial insemination, double hurdle mode

Factors Influencing Commercialization of Horticultural Crops Among Smallholder Farmers in Juba, South Sudan

This paper aims at analyzing socio-economic and institutional factors influencing the commercialization of horticultural crops among smallholder farm households in Juba, South Sudan. The study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to select a sample of 151 respondents. The survey was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires to collect primary data. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a Tobit regression model by STATA analytical software. The results from descriptive statistics indicated that 77.48% of the farmers are female, 36.65% have access to land, 37.09% have access to education at the primary level, 96.69% have no access to market information, 74.17% do not have group membership and only 54.97% have access to irrigation facilities. The findings further revealed that the mean household commercialization index (HCI) was 74.81% and the specific HCI for the selected vegetable crops; tomato, okra and cowpeas were 74.92%, 72.96%, and 74.84% respectively. The results from the Tobit regression model revealed that commercialization of horticultural crops is influenced by the age of the farmer, farming experience, type of land acquisition, the quantity of crop produced, group membership, total variable costs, total farm revenue, and access to irrigation facilities. The finding revealed that the age of a farmer, types of crop produced, type of land acquisition, and group membership are negatively significant whereas, farming experience, total variable costs, total farm revenue, and access to irrigation facilities are positively significant. The study suggests that further evaluation of the factors influencing the commercialization of indigenous and exotic vegetables would be required in rural and peri-urban settings of South Sudan. This study provides an insight for policymakers to formulate appropriate policies that can promote domestic production and accelerate the transition of smallholder farmers from subsistence to the market-oriented production system. Keywords: Commercialization, Horticultural crops, Peri-urban areas, smallholder, Tobit regression model DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-14-05 Publication date:July 31st 202

Determinants of Participation in Value Addition Activities Among Farmer Groups in Ntchisi District, Malawi

This research is based upon work supported by the United States Agency for International Development, as part of the Feed the Future Initiative, under the CGIAR Fund, award number BFS-G-11-00002, and the predecessor fund the Food Security and Crisis Mitigation II grant, award number EEM-G-00-04-00013 Abstract The study was carried out to better understand the determinants of the decision to participate in value addition among the beneficiary and non-beneficiary groups of Deepening Enterprise Development (DED) in Ntchisi District, Malawi. Data was collected from 100 farmer groups. Results indicated that location, project participation, type of farming enterprise, number of enterprises and gender composition significantly influenced the farmer’ decision to engage in value addition. The study, therefore, recommends that development strategies should focus more on implementing initiatives that encourage and support farmers to engage in value addition activities. Stakeholders should also help in creating an enabling environment to improve smallholder farmers’ participation in advanced levels of the livestock value chain. Furthermore, stakeholders should encourage farmers to engage in a vertical form of diversification by adding value to their commodities rather than a horizontal form of diversification that requires advanced management capabilities. Keywords: Value addition, Deepening Enterprise Development, probit model, Malawi

Technical Efficiency of Sugarcane Monoculture and Sugarcane-Soybean Integration among Smallholder Farmers in Awendo Sub-County, Kenya

The demand for sugar in Kenya has been rising with low farm level productivity and high cost of production of USD 870 per MT. The ability of smallholder sugarcane farmers to improve sugarcane output levels and attain sustainable production depends on efficient farm practices, hence technical efficiency. The study analyzed technical efficiency of sugarcane-based cropping systems among smallholder farmers in Awendo Sub-County, Kenya. Primary cross-sectional data were collected from 246 randomly selected sugarcane farmers using multi-stage sampling method. The study identified two sugarcane-based cropping systems, namely; sugarcane monoculture which accounted for 62.6% of the cropping systems and sugarcane-soybean integration which accounted for 37.4 % of the cropping system, indicating that sugarcane monoculture dominated sugarcane based enterprise in the study area. The analysis employed Cobb Douglas stochastic production frontier model to estimate technical efficiency levels. A two-limit Tobit model was used to examine the factors influencing technical efficiency. Results indicated the highest output elasticity for land size (0.532) followed by herbicides (0.051). Fertilizer quantity and sugarcane cuttings had output elasticities of 0.029 and 0.015 respectively. The sum of the partial elasticities in the estimated model was 0.583. Results also showed that sugarcane-soybean integrators were more efficient than sugarcane monoculture farmers and land was found out to be the single most important variable in influencing the farmer’s efficiency. The mean technical efficiency of 62% and 64 % showed that the potential exist to increase output by 38% and 36% for non-integrators and integrators respectively with the present technology. This study recommends that sugarcane farmers be encouraged to allocate part of their land to production of soybean to enhance food security and improve household income. It further recommends that there is need for training sugarcane and soybean farmers on optimum utilization of farm inputs the study area. Keywords: Technical efficiency, Sugarcane monoculture, Sugarcane-Soybean Integration, Smallholder farme

Socioeconomic Factors that Influence Smallholder Farmers’ Membership in a Dairy Cooperative Society in Embu County, Kenya

Smallholder dairy farmers produce the bulk of total marketed milk in Kenya. Dairy cooperatives are one of the avenues for these smallholder farmers to harness markets for their milk. The paper sought to find out the socioeconomic factors that would influence these farmers to join dairy cooperatives in Embu County, Kenya. Systematic random sampling and simple random sampling were used to select a total of 236 smallholder farmers. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and the binomial logit model. The results show that age, gender, household size, herd size, distance to the nearest market, access to credit and milk sold influenced the decision to join cooperative societies. The study recommends further study whether cooperatives are improving the incomes of smallholder farmers. Keywords:Dairy cooperative society, smallholder farmers, Binomial logit mode

Awareness and Attitude towards Mango Infesting Fruit Flies and Adoption of an IPM Strategy: A Panel Data Analysis in Elgeyo Marakwet, Kenya

This study aimed at understanding farmers’ awareness and attitude towards mango infesting fruit flies, the adoption of an IPM strategy, and the determinants of farmers’ knowledge and perceptions on fruit fly infestation and management. We utilized panel data collected from 608 mango farmers in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. Descriptive results show that eighty four percent of farmers reported high damage caused by fruit flies. The most common identified fruit fly symptoms were infected fruits that contain maggots and fruits falling off the plant prematurely. Fruit fly traps and orchard sanitation by feeding infested fruits to animals and burying infected mangoes were well-known and adopted IPM strategies among the farmers. The principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to develop the knowledge and perception index that was subsequently used in multiple regression analysis. The regression estimates indicate that farmers’ awareness and attitude towards fruit fly infestation and management is positively associated with gender of the household head, training on IPM, contact with an extension officer, membership to a mango cooperative, and experience of pesticide intoxication, while age of the household head and mango income negatively influenced farmers’ awareness and attitude on fruit fly infestation and management. We emphasize on the role of rural institutions and associations in enhancing farmers’ knowledge and perceptions on fruit fly infestation and management through improved product-specific training, access to farmer cooperatives and extension services on non-pesticide methods of suppressing fruit flies. Keywords: Mango fruit fly; Integrated pest management; Knowledge and perceptions; Principal component analysis DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-18-01 Publication date:September 30th 202

Economic Analysis of Spatial Integration of Pulse Market in Ethiopia; A case of Selected Pulse Market in Ethiopia

In order to solve the problem of food insecurity the Government of Ethiopia has adopted different strategies since the introduction of agricultural extension services in the early 1970s, to improve the performance of the agricultural sector. However, most of this strategy has focused on how to increase agricultural productivity at the farm level through the dissemination of improved production technologies, while the marketing aspect has been given less attention.  Considering this, in order to improve the market efficiency, significant numbers of empirical studies have been conducted on market integration but they focused mainly on cereal[1] market while pulse market has not been given adequate attention. Yet pulse is the third largest export crop in the country and generates USD 232.5 million annually and it has been showing a significant growth in export and production in the last decade. The study assesses the price transmission of selected pulse market in Ethiopia using monthly wholesale price data in Birr/Quintal covering the period January 2003 to December 2013 for Horse beans and Chickpeas from Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise. The stationarity of the price data was tasted using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron tests. To test the co integration level Engle and Granger (Engle and Granger, 1987) test were applied. To identify which market price change will cause a price change in other market, Granger Causality model was used. The selected markets are Addis Ababa as a central market; Adama as closest market based on distance form central market; Diredewa as remotest both for Horse beans and Chickpeas. While Desse and Gonder as main producing market of Horse beans and Chickpeas respectively. The finding indicates that all the selected markets are co integrated. However, Addis Ababa- Desse for the case of Horse beans and Addis Ababa- Gonder for Chickpeas markets have strongly integrated.  Concerning causality, Addis Ababa - Desse, Addis Ababa - Adama, Desse - Diredawa markets are unidirectional while Desse - Adama are bidirectional for horse bean. However, for Chickpeas, all the selected markets do not Granger Cause each other in both directions except between Diredawa - Adama which were unidirectional. This implies that there is a need of improvement in market information systems especially to producing markets, and also timely accurate price information for trade participant to distribute commodities from surplus area to deficit markets. Key Words: Pulse, Ethiopia, Granger Causality, price transmission [1] Studies focused mainly on cereal market: Maize, Wheat, Sorghum and Teff (Negassa, 1998; Negassa et al., 2004; Getnet et al., 2005; Getnet, 2007; Tadesse and Shively, 2009 and Sinishaw, 2013)

Growth of Tobacco Exports in Zambia: An ARDL Approach

Exports are a vital component of a nation’s balance of payments as they are source of foreign exchange and economic growth. Much of the economic growth in Zambia has been driven by copper exports which have suffered from external shocks such as plummeting prices on the world market. It is against this background that the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has devised a number of measures to promote export diversification to non-traditional exports with a view to reducing heavy dependency on copper and stabilise foreign exchange earnings. The non-traditional exports have recorded growth averaging about 30 percent during the period. However, the key determinants of the growth of the non-traditional exports are unknown. This study therefore endeavored to determine factors that affect the growth of the main non-traditional export commodity in Zambia; Tobacco. The study employed annual time series data that spans a period of 34 years from 1980 to 2014. The ARDL approach to co-integration revealed that tobacco exports are co-integrated with foreign direct investment, real effective exchange rate, real GDP of trade partners, real interest rate and world price. The ARDL analysis revealed that tobacco exports are significantly affected by real effective exchange rate, real income of the trading partner and foreign direct investment in the short-run while only real effective exchange rate and the real income of the trading partner affect the growth of tobacco exports in the long-run. Apart from creating an enabling environment through diverse export incentives that increase influx of foreign direct investment, there is also need to maintain a stable exchange rate by the government if export diversification is to be realized. Keywords: Growth, Non-traditional Exports, Co-integration, ARDL, Zambi

Analysis of Market Integration: A Case of Sugar in Selected Markets in Kenya

Market integration is one of the most important aspects that can be used to assess the impacts of market development and liberalization policies. In the study areas, there was thin knowledge whether the sugar markets were integrated or segmented. Therefore, this paper seeks to determine the existence of integration among the selected sugar markets. Secondary data was obtained for average monthly prices of sugar from January 2008 to December 2012. Data was analyzed using Co-integration model. The result revealed that road networks, communication networks, consumers’ purchasing power and the distance between the markets greatly influenced market integration. Based on the findings the policy implication was drawn to enhance sugar market integration in the study areas. Key words: Co-integration model, market integration, selected market

Determinants of Market Participation among Small-Scale Pineapple Farmers in Kericho County, Kenya

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is one of the major cash crops grown in Kericho County, Kenya specifically Bureti district. In the study area, pineapples have been perceived to have high market value, resulting in tradeoffs with staple food. Despite pineapples market value, its market participation has not been studied and quantified. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the factors influencing market participation and its extent. A simple random sampling approach was used to select a sample of 150 small-scale pineapple farmers and primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaires. The data was analyzed using the descriptive statistics and Heckman two-stage model. The results showed that age, gender, education level and pineapple yields significantly influenced the decision to participate in pineapple marketing. Further, gender, price information, group marketing, marketing experience, vehicle ownership and marketing under contract significantly influenced the extent of market participation. Based on the findings policy implication was drawn for improving the household income in the study area. Key words: Heckman two-stage model, market participation, small-scale pineapple farmers