Smallholders' Cost Efficiency in Mozambique: Implications for Improved Maize Seed Adoption

Maize is an important staple in Mozambique. It is also a dominant crop produced by smallholder farmers. However, the actual maize yields, currently estimated at 1.4 tons/ha, fall short of potential yields of 5-6.5 tons/ha. With population growth rate increasingly exceeding agricultural (and maize) productivity growth rate, the government of Mozambique faces a serious problem of food insecurity and poverty alleviation. This study examines cost inefficiency among smallholder maize farmers in Mozambique, and the impact of improved maize seed adoption on cost efficiency. A Translog functional form is used to estimate the frontier cost function. A cost-inefficiency function is used to examine the factors that determine cost inefficiency among farmers. Econometric techniques to control for self-selection bias resulting from endogeneity of the adoption variable are used.stochastic frontier, technology adoption, selection bias, Mozambique, Crop Production/Industries, Q12, Q16, D13, O33,

Smallholders’ Cost Efficiency in Mozambique: Implications for Improved Maize Seed Adoption

The objectives of this paper are to estimate cost efficiency and investigate factors influencing the cost efficiency of maize-growing smallholders in Mozambique. The data used in this study came from a national random sample of 4,908 smallholder farmers conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2002. Stochastic cost frontier and self-selection bias methods are used. The results indicate that twelve out of twenty factors are significantly found to be the determining factors influencing the cost efficiency. To enhance the cost efficiency of producing maize, policy makers should put more emphasis on improving rural infrastructures, providing better education, and providing access to credit.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

The Current State of Agribusiness Education and Training in Africa

To spur rural development and food security, agricultural education and training in Africa has traditionally focused on increasing agricultural productivity on the farm. More recently, development practitioners and policy makers have broadened their attention to include agribusiness or agro-industries. However, the role of Agricultural Education and Training in fostering agribusiness growth in developing countries is relatively underexplored. This paper analyses the current state of agribusiness education and training in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper is organised around five objectives. First, the paper characterises the macroeconomic environment—political, economic, social and technological—in which agribusiness development is taking place in Africa. Against this background, the implications for Agricultural Education and Training of a growing and evolving agribusiness sector are explored. With a focus on agricultural economics departments, the paper assesses the current status of agribusiness education and training offered in African academic institutions. While significant progress has been made in integrating agribusiness management into university curricula, the current offerings are far from comprehensive. Using a case study approach, new models of executive training for agribusiness being offered by non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and the private sector are benchmarked. The paper concludes by recommending strategies for developing agribusiness education and training initiatives so as to bridge the gap between current offering and industry needs.Capacity Building, Agribusiness, Agro-industries, Executive Training, Education, Agribusiness, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Adoption of Improved Maize Seed by Smallholder Farmers in Mozambique

The objective of this paper is to investigate factors influencing the adoption of improved maize seed by smallholder farmers in Mozambique. The data used in this study were obtained from a national random sample of 4,908 smallholder farmers conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2002. Using Probit and Logit models, the main factors influencing adoption of improved maize seed were identified. The results of this analysis indicate that fifteen out of twenty five factors are significantly found to be the determining factors influencing the probability of adopting improved maize seed. To increase the likelihood of adopting improved maize seed, policy makers should put more emphasis on improving rural infrastructures and providing better education.Crop Production/Industries,

Integration and Equilibrium in the Maize Markets in Southern Africa

For most countries in southern Africa, food security has been addressed through self-sufficiency, traditionally attained through widespread government involvement in the input and output markets for major food commodities. Food policies through the 1980s have been characterized by input subsidies for farmers; fixed, pan-seasonal and pan-territorial farm level pricing systems, mainly implemented through parastatal marketing boards; as well as subsidies and price controls at the wholesale and retail levels. Under Structural Adjustment Programs of the 1990s, most of those policies were abandoned for more market oriented policies. During the same period, many countries in the region joined the multilateral trading system, and on a regional level, two regional free trade agreements were ratified and bilateral preferential trading agreements continue to be negotiated. Those policy shifts have left in their wake a region characterized by a blend of food policies, with greater openness and a market-led economy in some countries, while substantial government involvement persists in others. In this policy environment, food supply volatility, price instability and weak coordination of trade policies remain fundamental problems. As the southern Africa region grapples with recurrent food shortages, reference is often made to increased intra-regional trade as an important integral component of a comprehensive food strategy. The assumption is that as countries reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, they become more integrated and more efficient, facilitating commodity movement at lower transfer costs, hence lower prices to the final consumer. In the southern Africa region, research efforts have focused on analyzing market integration at an intra-country level (Abdula 2005, Tostão and Brorsen 2005, Alemu and Baucuana 2006, Penzhorn and Arndt 2002, Traub et al 2004, Mabaya 2003, Mutambatsere 2002, Barrett 1997) . Limited work has evaluated how well integrated or efficient the food markets are at the regional level, to ascertain if in fact trade is a viable food security strategy given existing market systems. In this paper, we evaluate the extent to which maize market systems in the region have become integrated and efficient, and identify the nature of inefficiency where it exists. The analysis employs the Parity Bounds (Baulch 1997) and Barrett-Li (Barrett and Li 2002) models, in collaboration with comprehensive non-parametric descriptions of market pairs, to provide a holistic assessment of pair-wise market interaction, in the process also providing a comparison of the methods as measures of integration and efficiency. Specifically, this paper investigates pair wise spatial integration and efficiency for five central markets in southern Africa: Gaborone in Botswana, Gauteng in South Africa, Blantyre in Malawi, and Maputo and Mocuba in Mozambique. The analyses use monthly retail level data on commodity prices, trade flows, and transfer costs, for the period June 1994 to December 2004. The study seeks to evaluate the nature of price and trade relations, establish the level of regional spatial integration, and evaluate the level of efficiency in these markets. Results reveal significant frequency of market integration, indicating tradability of commodities and contestability of markets. Efficiency holds less frequently, although non-trivially; we observe that for those markets characterized by near continuous trade, returns to arbitrage are exhausted about 25% of the time. Often however, when trade is observed, efficiency appears to be weakened by insufficient arbitrage. For those markets, positive trade is occasionally observed when arbitrage returns are negative. Where trade is not observed, efficiency holds with a slightly higher frequency, so that the lack of trade is often justified by the lack of positive arbitrage returns. Here again, efficiency is occasionally compromised by insufficient arbitrage, whereby trade sometimes fails to occur even when arbitrage incentives appear favorable. In order of frequency, we observe a high occurrence of positive returns imperfect integration (regime 3 in the Barrett-Li Model) and segmented equilibrium (regime 6), followed by a regular occurrence of perfect integration (regimes 1 and 2), and irregular segmented disequilibrium (regimes 4) and the negative returns type of imperfect integration (regime 5). Our results suggest a need for public policy in the areas of improved production to take advantage of unexploited arbitrage opportunities, as well as addressing structural barriers to trade that prevent market entry especially where positive returns are currently observed. Results highlight an important contribution to the trade food policy debate for the southern Africa region: that although restrictive transfer costs are observed in enough cases, the dominant form of inefficiency in regional markets is insufficient arbitrage, likely resulting more from supply side constraints, non-cost barriers to trade (infrastructural or regulatory) and imperfect information, than from restrictive tariffs. In some cases however, the lack of trade is an efficient outcome (indicating limited or negative arbitrage profits) that probably requires no immediate policy response.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Adoption of Improved Maize Seed by Smallholder Farmers in Mozambique

The objective of this paper is to investigate factors influencing the adoption of improved maize seed by smallholder farmers in Mozambique. The data used in this study were obtained from a national random sample of 4,908 smallholder farmers conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2002. Using Probit and Logit models, the main factors influencing adoption of improved maize seed were identified. The results of this analysis indicate that fifteen out of twenty five factors are significantly found to be the determining factors influencing the probability of adopting improved maize seed. To increase the likelihood of adopting improved maize seed, policy makers should put more emphasis on improving rural infrastructures and providing better education

Role of parathyroid hormone in the phosphaturia of extracellular fluid volume expansion

Role of parathyroid hormone in the phosphaturia of extracellular fluid volume expansion. Acute expansion of the extracellular fluid volume increases the urinary excretion of phosphate. The present study examined the importance of increased plasma parathyroid hormone concentration in the phosphaturia accompanying acute extracellular fluid volume expansion (ECVE). Infusion of a calcium-free Ringer's solution into dogs was associated with increased urinary phosphate excretion and serum immunoreactive parathyroid hormone concentration (iPTH), the latter being significantly correlated with a decrease in plasma ionized calcium concentration. Prevention of the fall in plasma ionized calcium concentration by infusion of a calcium containing Ringer's solution prevented the increase in serum iPTH but the magnitude of the phosphaturia was not affected. The phosphaturia associated with ECVE was also not affected in thyroparathyroidectomized (TPTX) dogs which received a maintenance infusion of bovine PTH. In contrast, in acutely TPTX dogs which did not receive a maintenance infusion of PTH, the phosphaturic response to ECVE was significantly depressed. These data indicate that 1) the increase in serum iPTH concentration following ECVE is the result of a fall in plasma ionized calcium concentration, 2) the increase in phosphate excretion accompanying ECVE is not dependent on an increase in serum iPTH concentration and 3) in the presence of a low or falling serum PTH concentration, the increase in phosphate excretion can be significantly blunted.Rôle de l'hormone parathyroïdienne dans la phosphaturie consécutive à l'expansion extracellulaire. L'expansion aiguë du volume extracellulaire augmente l'excrétion urinaire du phosphate. Ce travail examine le rôle de l'augmentation de la concentration d'hormone parathyroïdienne dans la phosphaturie qui accompagne l'expansion du volume extracellulaire (ECVE). L'administration à des chiens d'une solution de Ringer sans calcium est associée à une augmentation de l'excrétion urinaire de phosphate et à une augmentation de la concentration d'hormone parathyroïdienne immunoréactive du plasma (iPTH). Cette dernière est significativement corrélée à la diminution de la concentration plasmatique du calcium ionisé. L'empêchement de la diminution de la concentration plasmatique du calcium ionisé par l'administration d'une solution de Ringer contenant du calcium évite l'augmentation de iPTH dans le plasma mais n'affecte pas l'importance de la phosphaturie. La phosphaturie associée à ECVE n'est pas non plus modifiée chez des chiens thyroparathyroïdectomisés (TPTX) qui reçoivent une perfusion de PTH bovine. Au contraire chez des chiens TPTX aigus qui ne reçoivent pas de perfusion de PTX la réponse à ECVE est significativement diminuée. Ces résultats indiquent que 1) L'augmentation de iPTH du plasma après ECVE est la conséquence d'une diminution de la concentration plasmatique du calcium ionisé, 2) l'augmentation de l'excrétion du phosphate qui accompagne ECVE ne dépend pas de l'augmentation de iPTH du plasma et 3) quand la concentration plasmatique de PTH est faible ou en voie de diminution, l'augmentation de l'excrétion de phosphate peut être significativement masquée

Human Response to Low-Intensity Sonic Booms Heard Indoors and Outdoors

Test subjects seated inside and outside a house were exposed to low-intensity N-wave sonic booms during a 3-week test period in June 2006- The house was instrumented to measure the booms both inside and out. F-18 aircraft were flown to achieve a variety of boom overpressures from approximately .1 to .6 psf During four test days, seventy-seven test subjects heard the booms while seated inside and outside the house. Using the Magnitude Estimation methodology and artificial reference sounds ; the subjects rated the annoyance of the booms. Since the same subjects heard similar booms both inside and outside the house, comparative ratings of indoor and outdoor annoyance were obtained. For a given metric level, indoor subjects gave higher annoyance scores than outdoor subjects. For a given boom; annoyance scores inside were on average the same as those outside. In a post-test questionnaire, the majority of subjects rated the indoor booms as more annoying than the outdoor ones. These results are discussed in this paper

Essays on Western History in Honor of Elwyn B. Robinson

This book was published on the occasion of the retirement of Dr. Elwyn B. Robinson from the Department of History at the University of North Dakota. It features articles by several different historians regarding various subjects in the history of the American West.https://commons.und.edu/und-books/1021/thumbnail.jp