Microfinance Facility for Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis

Since 1990, microfinance has gained universal recognition as an essential and useful tool to address the economically productive poor and provide them with a way to come out of the vicious circle of poverty, by delivering loans and credit on flexible terms in contrast to commercial banks. Many studies from different parts of the world have shown significant economic and social uplift of recipients (both men and women) of microfinance programs. However, in recent years, some studies argue against the positive influence of microfinance and stresses that microfinance is commercialized, and it has become more of a profit generation activity than uplifting of the economically productive poor, which is one of many core objective of microfinance organizations. Many empirical studies have been done to know the effects of microfinance on the welfare of households. They are well documented, e.g., in Bangladesh and India, but only a few studies assess the microfinance effect on rural female entrepreneurs of Pakistan. The present study was carried out to empirically analyze the outcome of microfinance on Pakistan’s female entrepreneurs. Women’s empowerment is gauged using income and consumption as welfare indicators. The difference in difference method is applied to investigate the effects of microfinance on its recipients, which is considered a useful tool to tackle the selection bias problem. Our study result shows that microfinance programs that target women not just only increase income and consumption of female borrowers, making them financially stable, but in fact, many local stakeholders also get benefited from it, and in turn, it creates opportunities for the whole local community. However, our results also show that it does not reach to the poorest of poor women (extremely poor) and thus does not serve the purpose of many of its core objectives, i.e., poverty reduction of extremely poor and henceforth should not be relied upon in this perspective

Role of information & communication technology (ICT) and e-governance in health sector of Pakistan: A case study of Peshawar

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of information & communication technology (ICT) and e-governance in health sector of Pakistan, where these facilities are at initial stage of development. This study utilizes primary data collected from 170 patients in both public and private hospitals of district Peshawar Pakistan. This is an exploratory study and descriptive statistics are being used for the analysis of the data. The result of the study shows that the use of e-governance in health sector is at a rudimentary stage in the study area. Few people use ICT for medical purposes but the overall level is low. There is need of awareness. In addition, the facilitating conditions for the adoption of e-governance in health sector include infrastructure, electricity, proper user interface and data privacy & confidentiality. The government needs to initiate practical steps for the implementation of e-governance in health sector. This will improve the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of the system. Moreover, it will also speed up the service delivery system. The study is valuable as it explored the role of ICT and e-governance in health sector of Pakistan for the first time. Therefore, this study contributed to literature in a positive way

Factors affecting household food security in rural northern hinterland of Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that affect rural household food security in northern area of Pakistan. The random sampling technique was applied to collected data from 294 rural households through a face to face interview. A binary logistic regression technique was used to determine the factors that influence household food insecurity. The results of our study revealed that age, gender, education, remittances, unemployment, inflation, assets, and disease are important factors determining household food insecurity. Moreover, gender played a dominant role in food insecurity as female headed household were food insecure while male headed household were food secure. The policies should be set to promote education, more focus on female headed household and encourage the inflow of remittances. Keywords: Northern Pakistan, Food security, Logistic regression, Malakan

Climate Change and Its Impact on the Yield of Major Food Crops: Evidence from Pakistan

Pakistan is vulnerable to climate change, and extreme climatic conditions are threatening food security. This study examines the effects of climate change (e.g., maximum temperature, minimum temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and the sunshine) on the major crops of Pakistan (e.g., wheat, rice, maize, and sugarcane). The methods of feasible generalized least square (FGLS) and heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation (HAC) consistent standard error were employed using time series data for the period 1989 to 2015. The results of the study reveal that maximum temperature adversely affects wheat production, while the effect of minimum temperature is positive and significant for all crops. Rainfall effect towards the yield of a selected crop is negative, except for wheat. To cope with and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, there is a need for the development of heat- and drought-resistant high-yielding varieties to ensure food security in the country

Determinants of commercialization and its impact on the welfare of smallholder rice farmers by using Heckman’s two-stage approach

This study is designed to assess the factors that affect smallholder rice farmer’s participation in market. In addition it also examines the effect of commercialization on the welfare of smallholder farmers. The method of Heckman two-stage model is used to obtain the desired objectives. Random sampling technique is used to collect data from 249 smallholder farmers. Result of the study indicates that gender of the household head, age, number of family member who assist in farming, household size, vocational training, and the farmer being landlord and farm size were the major determinants of market participation. The welfare of the farmer depends whether the farmer participate in the rice output market. The result also indicated that rice output, off-farm income, access to credit, and income from the sale of rice were important factors influencing the welfare of the household. The participation in market can be increased by providing subsidized prices for their production, cold storage houses, vocational training, introducing new technology, increasing contact with extension agent and providing genetically modified seeds. Keywords: Market participation, Smallholder rice farmer, Heckman two-stage model, Welfar