Commentary on ‘Private Sector Metrics Contributions to Social Change: Customer Satisfaction Meets Agriculture Development’

David Bonbright and Jamey Powers' IDS Bulletin article entitled ‘Private Sector Metrics Contributions to Social Change: Customer Satisfaction meets Agriculture Development’ proposes a refreshingly simple and yet profound approach to an age?old challenge. The authors suggest the application of customer satisfaction survey methods to agricultural development projects wherein the smallholder farmer is given a voice in project design, implementation and accountability. In keeping with the simple and yet elegant style of the article, this comment addresses the following three questions: (1) What is the main contribution of the article? (2) What else can agriculture development practitioners learn from private sector customer satisfaction? (3) What are the potential pitfalls of this approach?

Consumer Preferences for Organic and Fair Trade Chocolate: Implications for Sustainable Agriculture in the Developing World

This paper examines results of a consumer survey measuring consumer awareness and attitudes concerning two labels, certified organic and certified Fair Trade. These labels provide information about the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the production and marketing practices of goods imported from the developing world. Conjoint analysis is used to measure how consumers value organic and fair trade compared to other attributes like price. Results indicate favorable attitudes and value placed on these the sustainable attributes, and imply a role for these labels to provide incentives for the adoption of more sustainable practices.conjoint analysis, Fair Trade, organic, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

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,

South Africa\u27s Agricultural Sector Twenty Years After Democracy (1994 to 2013)

Abstract South Africa’s agricultural sector has undergone substantial policy reform since the dawn of democracy in 1994. Now, twenty years later, it is an opportune time to look back at this period to review key successes and failures. This article revisits South Africa’s context and policy at the start of this period, the reforms that followed, and evaluates the transformational effect (or lack thereof) on the sector. For this purpose, the article pulls from both qualitative sources and descriptive statistics to provide both a historical context and current perspective. The analysis shows that redistributive land reform and smallholder support programs have achieved limited success in transforming the sector towards greater inclusivity. Trade and marketing policy reform, however, has succeeded in transforming the sector towards greater productivity and international competitiveness. This has increased the market and climate resilience of the sector, but the limited inclusivity of historically disadvantaged persons poses significant challenges

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

Supplying Improved Seed to Farmers in Rural Kenya: The Case of Freshco Kenya Ltd.

Freshco, a small producer and distributor of hybrid maize seed and macadamia seedlings, was one of the first private companies to enter the Kenya seed market after its liberalization. Currently, the company produces and markets six high yielding maize varieties that are suited for diverse agro-ecological conditions. Despite the company’s encouraging growth in the local maize seed market, Freshco’s executives recognize the need to scale up operations to stay competitive. The company’s challenge is to recognize business opportunities and customer needs in an environment susceptible to ecological, political, and socioeconomic change.Kenya, seed industry, smallholder farmers, scenario planning, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q10, Q12,