Uptake of Improved Technologies in the Semi-arid Tropics of West Africa: Why is Agricultural Transformation Lagging Behind?

During the last 3 decades, donors and governments have invested in the development and dissemination of new technologies in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa. Though a wide range of improved technologies has been developed, adoption remains low without a significant impact on crop productivity, rural income and poverty. Agricultural transformation as occurred in East Asia has not yet occurred in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa. This paper uses data from a regional survey of rural households in 3 countries in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger) to identify the determinants of uptake of improved technologies. Limited productivity gain is found to be a major constraint to the uptake of technologies. In addition, poorly functioning institutions, lack of information or poor exposure of farmers to agricultural innovations, and poor functioning or missing markets have also hindered the uptake of many new technologies.institutions, technology, markets, road infrastructure, information, agricultural productivity, International Development,

Impacts of Inventory Credit, Input Supply Shops and Fertilizer Micro-Dosing in the Drylands of Niger

This study investigates the impacts of access to inventory credit (warrantage), input supply shops, fertilizer micro-dosing demonstrations, and other factors on farmers' use of inorganic and organic fertilizer in Niger, and the impacts on crop yields. We find that access to warrantage and input shops and participation in fertilizer micro-dosing demonstrations have increased use of inorganic fertilizer. Access to off-farm employment and ownership of traction animals also contribute to use of inorganic fertilizer. Use of organic fertilizer is less affected by these factors, but is substantially affected by the household's crop mix, access to the plot, ownership of durable assets, labor and land endowments, and participation in farmers' associations. Land tenure influences both inorganic and organic inputs, with less of both on sharecropped and encroached plots. Inorganic fertilizer has a positive impact on millet yields, with an estimated marginal value-cost ratio greater than 3, indicating significant profitability. Organic fertilizer has a positive impact on millet-cowpea yields. We find little evidence of complementarity between inorganic and organic fertilizer. Since warrantage, input supply shops and fertilizer micro-dosing demonstrations increase use of inorganic fertilizer which in turn increases millet yields, these interventions indirectly increase millet yields, although the impacts are relatively small. These findings support promoting increased input use through promotion of inventory credit, input supply shops and fertilizer micro-dosing demonstrations. Other interventions that could help to boost productivity include promotion of improved access to farm equipment and traction animals and improved access to land under secure tenure.Crop Production/Industries,

Impacts of inventory credit, input supply shops, and fertilizer microdosing in the drylands of Niger:

"This study investigated the impacts of access to inventory credit, input supply shops, fertilizer microdosing demonstrations, and other factors on farmers' use of inorganic fertilizer and other inputs in Niger and on crop yields. We found that access to inventory credit and input supply shops has increased the use of inorganic fertilizer and seeds and that microdosing demonstrations have increased the use of inorganic fertilizer. Ownership of traction animals and access to off-farm employment have also contributed to the use of inorganic fertilizer, while larger farms use less fertilizer and labor per hectare. The impacts of these interventions and technologies depend on the crop mix. Inorganic fertilizer has a positive impact on millet and millet–cowpea yields when applied using microdosing, with an estimated marginal value-cost ratio greater than 3 for those crops indicating significant profitability. By contrast, microdosing has a negative impact on yields of the millet–sorghum–cowpea intercrop, suggesting that microdosing should not be promoted when sorghum is part of the crop mix. However, better access to input supply shops has contributed to higher yields of the millet–sorghum–cowpea intercrop. The predicted effect of inventory credit on farmers' income as a result of increased inorganic fertilizer use is an increase of 5,000 to 10,000 FCFA per hectare (about US$10 to US$20 per hectare in 2005) in millet or millet–cowpea production. Similarly, being 10 km closer to an input supply shop is predicted to increase farmers' income by 3,200 to 4,500 FCFA per hectare. These benefits do not take into account the impacts of the interventions on seeds or other inputs, which are also generally positive. The positive impacts are linked to the use of fertilizer microdosing, which has increased the productivity of fertilizer use in millet and millet–cowpea production, indicating synergies among the various interventions. They are also linked to these specific crops, because we found less favorable impacts of these interventions for the millet–sorghum–cowpea intercrop and for peanuts. Other interventions that could help to boost the use of inputs and productivity include promotion of improved access to farm equipment and traction animals and promotion of higher-value crops such as hibiscus. Further research on these topics appears warranted. Research on the implications of interventions on land degradation would also be useful." from Author's AbstractFertilizer microdosing, Inventory credit, Warrantage, Input supply shops, Drylands, Land management,

Improving cereal productivity and farmers’ income using a strategic application of fertilizers in West Africa

In the past two years, ICRISAT, in collaboration with other International Agricultural Research Centres, National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems, has been evaluating and promoting point or hill application of fertilizer along with “Warrantage” in three West African countries, namely, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The hill application of fertilizers consists of applying small doses of fertilizer in the planting hills of millet and sorghum. The combination of strategic hill application of fertilizer with complementary institutional and market linkages, through an inventory credit system (known as “Warrantage”) offers a good opportunity to improve crop productivity and farmers’ incomes. Results from the two year on-farm trials showed that, on average, in all the three countries, grain yields of millet and sorghum were greater by 44 to 120% while incomes of farmers increased by 52 to 134% when using hill application of fertilizer than with the earlier recommended fertilizer broadcasting methods and farmers’ practice. Substantial net profits were obtained by farmers using “Warrantage”. Farmers’ access to credit and inputs was improved substantially through the “Warrantage” system. The technology has reached up to 12650 farm households in the three countries and efforts are in progress to further scale-up and out the technology to wider geographical area

Rotating Saving and Credit Associations in Cameroon: Contractual arrangements between members

The dissertation examines an informal financial institution in Cameroon: the Rotating Saving and Credit Association. Its describes the operational procedures. RoSCAs are associations formed by a core of individuals who willingly and regularly contribute periodically a fixed or variable amount to a fund which is awarded according to the random or bidding allocations to a sub-set of members in rotation. Its provides an atheoretical evaluation of default in Cameroonian RoSCAs. RoSCAs with large membership sizes and which operate an informal insurance fund experience more partial defaults than otherwise. RoSCAs which take place at variable location experience less defaults than RoSCAs at fix locations. Its attempts to compute the interest rates in bidding RoSCAs and highlights the determinants of the bids. Finally, RoSCAs are modeled in a dynamic stochastic framework. In the calibrated economy, it is proven that there are membership size and contribution in RoSCAs where, on average members derive ex-ante, less utility than if they would living in autarky. There are optimal membership sizes and contribution in which members derive more utility than any other RoSCA. Finally, poor members benefit relatively more from participating in RoSCAs than wealthy members.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

TOWARD UNDERSTANDING HOUSEHOLD PREFERENCE FOR MILLET VARIETIES IN THE WEST AFRICAN SEMI-ARID TROPICS

In this study, we evaluate the preference of consumers in Niger for different tuwo or couscous characteristics using conjoint analysis. Data were collected through a structured survey administered at 4 sites. Preferences are estimated for three products (couscous, fermented tuwo and nonfermented tuwo) made from 5 pearl millet cutivars. We provide relative valuation for different traits by type of product. Results show that product taste, visual characteristics, and textural attributes are important. The different valuation of characteristics across products and ethnic groups, however, suggests that signals regarding preferences may be very noisy. Consequently, it might be difficult to design pearl millet improvement programs, or food processing programs that are broadly acceptable

ELLIPTICAL SYMMETRY, EXPECTED UTILITY, AND MEAN-VARIANCE ANALYSIS

Mean-variance analysis in the form of risk programming has a long, productive history in agricultural economics research. And risk programming continues to be used despite well known theoretical results that choices based on mean-variance analysis are not consistent with choices based on expected utility maximization. This paper demonstrates that the multivariate distribution of returns used in risk programming must be elliptically symmetric in order for mean-variance analysis to be consistent with expected utility choices. Then a statistical test for elliptical symmetry is developed and demonstrated. This test enables researchers to determine when data will produce significant differences between risk programming choices and expected utility choices

ELLIPTICAL SYMMETRY, EXPECTED UTILITY, AND MEAN-VARIANCE ANALYSIS

Mean-variance analysis in the form of risk programming has a long, productive history in agricultural economics research. And risk programming continues to be used despite well known theoretical results that choices based on mean-variance analysis are not consistent with choices based on expected utility maximization. This paper demonstrates that the multivariate distribution of returns used in risk programming must be elliptically symmetric in order for mean-variance analysis to be consistent with expected utility choices. Then a statistical test for elliptical symmetry is developed and demonstrated. This test enables researchers to determine when data will produce significant differences between risk programming choices and expected utility choices.