45 research outputs found
Wealth-related inequalities in adoption of drought-tolerant maize and conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe
© 2019, International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V. This paper concerns Drought-Tolerant Maize (DTM) and Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices that were introduced into smallholder maize-based farming systems in Zimbabwe to enhance the productivity of maize and food security under a changing climate. Although these technologies are technically appropriate, there are difficulties with their use by smallholder farmers of relatively low socio-economic status, as measured through ownership of farm or household assets and endowments. Thus, we sought to quantify and explain wealth-related inequalities in the adoption of DTM and CA in smallholder farming communities and discuss their implications for food security. The analysis used cross-sectional household-level data gathered from 601 smallholder farmers from four districts in Zimbabwe. We found evidence of a pro-rich distribution of inequalities in the adoption of DTM and CA that were mostly explained by differences in household wealth, access to agricultural extension services and size of farm land. No meaningful differences in DTM adoption disparities were found across districts. Significant gender differences were observed for CA, and meaningful differences by district were noted. Results suggest the need for decision makers to consider implementing policies that focus on the poorer segments of the farming society to alleviate differences in the adoption of such agricultural technologies. For example, subsidizing the uptake of improved maize varieties including DTM and prioritizing equitable land distribution, coupled with specialised extension services for the poor in a cereal-based CA farming system, could reduce the observed gap between rich and poor in the uptake of these innovations and consequently improve food security
INFLUENCE OF MULTI-STAKEHOLDER INNOVATION PLATFORM APPROACH ON SMALLHOLDER FARMERS MARKETING DECISIONS
One of the very numerous decisions that smallholder farmers face world
wide relates to market participation in agricultural markets and,
consequently choosing the appropriate marketing channel for their
agricultural produce. Such decisions impact on their incomes and
subsequently on their welfare. The objective of this study was to
determine how a multi-stakeholder innovation platform approach
influences pigeon pea ( Cajanus Cajan L.) marketing decisions in
smallholder farming in Malawi. The study relied on primary data
collected from 115 households in Balaka District in Malawi during an
impact survey done in November 2014. Results confirmed that the
multi-stakeholder innovation platform approach improves decision making
in pigeon pea marketing. Variables such as access to transport services
and market information, improved extension, capacity building through
farmer training, adoption of conservation agriculture and membership to
farmer groups influenced marketing decisions.L\u2019une des plus nombreuses d\ue9cisions auxquelles les petits
agriculteurs font face g\ue9n\ue9ralement est relative \ue0 la
participation aux march\ue9s entre les march\ue9s agricoles et, par
cons\ue9quent choisir les canaux appropri\ue9s de commercialisation
pour leur produits agricoles. De telles d\ue9cisions impactent sur
leurs revenus et ult\ue9rieurement sur leur bien-\ueatre.
L\u2019objectif de cette \ue9tude \ue9tait de determiner comment
l\u2019approche de la plate-forme d\u2019innovation multipartite
influence les d\ue9cisions de commercialisation du pois
d\u2019angole ( Cajanus Cajan L.) chez les petits exploitants
agricoles au Malawi. L\u2019\ue9tude s\u2019est bas\ue9e sur des
donn\ue9es primaires collect\ue9es sur 115 m\ue9nages dans le
district de Balaka au Malawi au cours d\u2019une enqu\ueate
d\u2019impact conduit en Novembre 2014. Les r\ue9sultats ont
confirm\ue9 que l\u2019approche de la plate-forme d\u2019innovation
multipartite am\ue9liore la prise de d\ue9cision de la
commercilisation du pois d\u2019angole. Les variables tells que
l\u2019acc\ue8s aux services de transport et au march\ue9
d\u2019information, am\ue9liorent la vulgaristaion, le renforcement
des capacit\ue9s \ue0 travers la formation des producteurs,
l\u2019adoption de l\u2019agriculture de conservation et les
groupements de producteurs ont influenc\ue9 les d\ue9cisions de
commercilalisation
COLLECTIVE MARKET PARTICIPATION FOR IMPROVED INCOME AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMING HOUSEHOLDS: A CASE OF BALAKA INNOVATION PLATFORM IN MALAWI
Collective market participation can reduce transaction costs and
information asymmetries, which can build up market power. The objective
of this study was to evaluate decisions to participate in collective
marketing and its effect on household income among smallholder farmers
in an Innovation Platform (IP). This study targeted the Balaka IP in
Malawi. Collective marketing identified as critical for improving
households\u2019 incomes, is one of the activities that Balaka
Innovation Platform has been addressing since its formation in 2009.
The study involved a sample of 115 randomly selected households from
Balaka Innovation Platform. The odds of participating in collective
marketing by smallholder farm households in Balaka was significantly
influenced by gender, education level, access to social capital through
membership in farmer groups that form the Innovation Platform, farming
experience, adoption/practice of conservation agriculture and
possession of assets e.g. cellphone and bicycle. Moreover, results
indicate that functions of IPs such as organising farmers to market
collectively, promoting crop diversification, improved extension
service, credit access through linkages to microfinance, communication
and market linkages, positively influence income. Thus participation in
multi-stakeholder IP activities highly influences collective marketing,
which in turn impacts positively on smallholder farming
households\u2019 income.La participation collective au march\ue9 peut r\ue9duire les
co\ufbts de transaction et les assym\ue9tries d\u2019information;
lesquelles peuvent constituer un pouvoir du march\ue9.
L\u2019objectif de cette \ue9tude \ue9tait d\u2019\ue9valuer
les d\ue9cisions \ue0 participer \ue0 la commercialisation
collective et leur effet sur le revenu des m\ue9nages entre les
petits exploitants agricoles dans une Plate-forme d\u2019Innovation
(IP). Cette \ue9tude s\u2019est focalis\ue9e sur le Balaka IP au
Malawi. La commercialisation collective identifi\ue9e comme
essentielle pour l\u2019am\ue9lioration des revenus de m\ue9nages,
est une des activit\ue9s que la Plate-forme d\u2019Innovation de
Balaka a toujours abord\ue9 depuis sa mise en place en 2009. Cette
\ue9tude a utilis\ue9 un \ue9chantillon de 115 m\ue9nages
al\ue9atoirement select\ue9s dans la Plate-forme d\u2019Innovation
de Balaka. Les chances de participation des petits exploitants
agricoles \ue0 la commercialisation collective au Balaka \ue9tait
significativement influenc\ue9es par le genre, le niveau
d\u2019\ue9ducation, l\u2019acc\ue8s au capital social \ue0
travers les groupements de producteurs qui forment la Plate-forme
d\u2019Innovation, l\u2019exp\ue9rience agricole,
l\u2019adoption/la pratique de l\u2019agriculture conservative et la
possession d\u2019actifs eg. t\ue9l\ue9phone cellulaire et
bicyclette. De plus, les r\ue9sultats montrent que les fonctions des
IPs telles que: organiser les agricultures \ue0 commercialiser
collectivement, promouvoir la diversification de culture, le service
am\ue9lior\ue9 de vulgarisation, l\u2019acc\ue8s au credit en
liaison avec la microfinance, la communication et les liens
commerciaux, influencent posistivement le revenu. Ainsi, la
participation multipartite aux activit\ue9s de l\u2019IP influence
la commercialisation collective, qui en cons\ue9quence impacte
positvement sur le revenu des petits exploitants agricoles
Estimation and characterization of bean seed demand in Angonia district of Mozambique
This report highlights findings of a study that was carried out to characterize and estimate the demand for common bean seed in Angonia District of Tete Province in Mozambique. The study gathered information on the area planted to the common bean annually, engaged key informants and surveyed of 332 households in eight Localidades between April and May 2015. According to the study, 99.7 % heads of households depend on agriculture as the main occupation; working on average family farm size of 1.4 ha, often augmented with 0.06 ha available through leasing annually. In addition to family-owned farms, husbands and wives solely own 30% and 26% respectively. The main crops grown in Angonia District in descending order of prevalence, were maize (97%) common bean (94%), soybean (59%) and groundnut (45%). Other crops grown included Irish potato, cowpea and tobacco. The common bean has a long history of cultivation in the district; mean bean production experience of participating farmers was 16 years
The impact of adoption of conservation agriculture on smallholder farmers’ food security in semi-arid zones of southern Africa
BACKGROUND
In southern Africa, conservation agriculture (CA) has received a lot of research and promotional support from various organizations in the past decades. Conservation agriculture is largely promoted as one of the few win–win technologies affordable to farmers, in the sense that potentially it improves farmers’ yields (in the long term) at the same time conserving the environment. This is because conservation agriculture reduces nitrogen loss in the soil, promotes water and soil conservation and improves agronomic use efficiency of applied nutrients. However, some concerns have been raised over the feasibility of conservation agriculture on smallholder farms given constraints imposed by the biophysical and institutional realities under which smallholder farmers operate. The main aim of this study is to answer the question whether conservation agriculture is resulting in tangible livelihood outcomes to smallholder farmers. The counterfactual outcome approach was used to estimate ex post impact of conservation agriculture adoption on one of the key livelihood outcomes—food security.
RESULTS
The study that utilized a data set covering 1623 households in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique found no significant impact of conservation agriculture adoption on Food Consumption Score of farmers in Zimbabwe and Malawi. Possible reasons for the insignificant of CA impact on food security in Zimbabwe and Malawi could include the small land areas currently devoted to CA, and the failure to implement the full complement of practices necessary to set off the biophysical process that are expected to drive yield increases. In Mozambique, conservation agriculture significantly improved the Food Consumption Score for farmers exposed to the technology. A possible reason for effectiveness of CA in Mozambique could be due to the fact that often CA is being promoted together with other better cropping management practices such as timely weeding and improved seed varieties, which are poorly practiced by the generality of farmers in a country just emerging from a war period.
CONCLUSION
This paper provides one of the few ex post assessments of the impact of conservation agriculture adoption on household livelihood outcomes—food security. Given the mixed findings, the study suggests that conservation agriculture farmers in the three countries need to be supported to adopt a value chain approach to conservation agriculture. This entails the introduction of commercial or high-value crops in the conservation agriculture programmes, value addition on farmers produce, access to the necessary support services such as markets for seed, fertilizer, herbicides and equipment as well as reliable extension. We believe that under such circumstances conservation agriculture can effectively reduce food insecurity and poverty in the medium to long term
Household Welfare Effects of Stress-Tolerant Varieties in Northern Uganda
This study assessed the adoption of stress-tolerant varieties and their effect on household welfare, measured by net crop income per capita in Nwoya District, Uganda. The stress-tolerant varieties were considered to be climate-smart because they stabilise and increase crop income in the presence of climatic shocks. However, the uptake of the stress-tolerant varieties was still low in northern Uganda, due to bad past experience in terms of the performance of other improved varieties. Using data from a random sample of 585 households, a logistic model was estimated to assess the drivers for adoption of stress-tolerant varieties. In addition, a propensity score matching model was employed to assess causal effects. The second model was estimated because it controls for unobserved heterogeneity caused by self-selection bias. Results showed that adoption of stress-tolerant varieties was positively influenced by household size, access to information from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the perception of future climate change, the number of years an individual had lived in the village, and the number and type of assets owned as an indicator of household well-being. Average treatment effect from results showed that stress-tolerant varieties can increase crop income within a range of United States Dollars (USD) 500–864 per hectare per year, representing an 18–32% increase in crop income. The findings offer justification for scaling up stress tolerant varieties among smallholder farmers in northern Uganda to improve their welfare
The impact of prenatal care quality on neonatal, infant and child mortality in Zimbabwe: Evidence from the demographic and health surveys
© The Author 2016. The impact of the quality of prenatal care on child mortality outcomes has received less attention in sub-Saharan Africa. This study endeavoured to explore the effect of the quality of prenatal care and its individual components on neonatal, infant and under-five mortality. The empirical analysis uses data from the three most recent waves of the nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey for Zimbabwe conducted in 1999, 2005/06 and 2010/11. The results indicate that a one-unit increase in the quality of prenatal care lowers the prospect of neonatal, infant and under-five mortality by approximately 42.33, 30.86 and 28.65%, respectively. These findings remained roughly the same even after adjusting for potential mediating factors. Examining the effect of individual prenatal care components on child mortality revealed that women who receive information on possible complications arising during pregnancy are less liable to experience a neonatal death. Similarly, women who had blood pressure checks and tetanus immunizations were less likely to experience an infant or under-five death. We did not find any statistically meaningful impact on child mortality outcomes of blood and urine sample checks, iron tablet consumption, and the receipt of malarial tablets. Overall, our results suggest the need for public health policymakers to focus on ensuring high-quality prenatal care to enhance the survival prospects of Zimbabwe's infants
The causal effect of increased primary schooling on child mortality in Malawi: Universal primary education as a natural experiment
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd The primary objective of this analysis is to investigate the causal effect of mother's schooling on under-five health - and the passageways through which schooling propagates - by exploiting the exogenous variability in schooling prompted by the 1994 universal primary schooling program in Malawi. This education policy, which saw the elimination of tuition fees across all primary schooling grades, creates an ideal setting for observing the causal influence of improved primary school enrollment on the under-five fatality rates of the subsequent generation. Our analysis uses data from three waves of the nationally representative Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 2000, 2004/05, and 2010. To address the potential endogeneity of schooling, we employ the mother's age at implementation of the tuition-free primary school policy in 1994 as an instrumental variable for the prospect of finishing primary level instruction. The results suggest that spending one year in school translated to a 3.22 percentage point reduction in mortality for infants and a 6.48 percent reduction for children under age five years. For mothers younger than 19 years, mortality was reduced by 5.95 percentage points. These figures remained approximately the same even after adjusting for potential confounders. However, we failed to find any statistically meaningful effect of the mother's education on neonatal survival. The juvenile fatality estimates we find are weakly robust to several robustness checks. We also explored the potential mechanisms by which increased maternal schooling might help enhance child survival. The findings indicated that an added year of motherly learning considerably improves the prospect of prenatal care use, literacy levels, father's educational level, and alters fertility behavior. Our results suggest that increasing the primary schooling prospects for young women might help reduce under-five mortality in less-industrialized regions experiencing high under-five fatalities such as in sub-Saharan Africa
Interceding role of institutional extension services on the livelihood impacts of drought tolerant maize technology adoption in Zimbabwe
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The study investigates whether access to agricultural extension services enhances the well-known positive impact of adopting Drought Tolerant Maize (DTM) technology on livelihood outcomes; maize yield, output per capita, consumption and sales using a representative dataset of smallholder farming households from Zimbabwe. The empirical analysis adopts an instrumental variable regression model that incorporates an endogenous interaction term to capture the intermediary role of institutional extension services. Results reveal that access to agricultural extension services enhances the relationship between DTM adoption and maize yield, output per capita, and consumption but appears to weaken the association between DTM adoption and the amount of maize set aside for sale. In exploring the potential reasons why access to institutional extension services might enhance the DTM adoption-livelihood outcomes relationship, the results suggest mechanisms related to the use of basal fertilizers, use of organic manure, access to agricultural credit, use of certified DTM seed, access to general production and marketing information, weeding frequency and disease control which are more likely to be influenced by access to agricultural extension services. The findings suggest that policies targeted at improving DTM adoption as a climate-smart agricultural technology to improve resilience of smallholder maize farming households to climate variability and change must be complemented by revitalized agriculture extension services. Revitalization of extension services may come through capacity building of extension institutions, and their personnel, improving agricultural extension infrastructure, mobility of extension personnel, and increased financing to such institutions