Why liberalization alone has not improved agricultural productivity in Zambia : the role of asset ownership and working capital constraints

The authors use a large panel data set from Zambia to examine factors that could explain the relatively lackluster performance of the country's agricultural sector after liberalization. Zambia's liberalization significantly opened the economy but failed to alter the structure of productionor help realize efficiency gains. They reach two main conclusions. First, not owning productive assets (in Zambia, draft animals and implements) limits improvements in agricultural productivity and household welfare. Owning oxen increases income directly, allows farmers to till their fields efficiently when rain is delayed, increases the area cultivated, and improves access to credit and fertilizer markets. Second, the authors reject the hypothesis that the application of fertilizer is unprofitable because of high input prices. Rather, fertilizer use appears to have declined because of constraints on supplies, which government intervention exacerbated instead of alleviating. (Extending the use of fertilizer to the many producers not currently using it would be profitable, but increasing the amount applied by the few producers who now have access to it would not be.) Policies to foster accumulation of the assets needed for agricultural production (including draft animals and implements) and to provide complementary public goods (education, credit, and good agricultural extension services) could greatly help reduce poverty and improve productivity.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Agricultural Research

Asset distribution, inequality, and growth

With the recent resurgence of interest in equity, inequality, and growth, the possibility of a negative relationship between inequality and economic growth, has received renewed interest in the literature. Faced with the prospect that high levels of inequality may persist, and give rise to poverty traps, policymakers are paying more attention to the distributional implications of macroeconomic policies. Because high levels of inequality may hurt overall growth, policymakers are exploring measures to promote growth and equity at the same time. How the consequences of inequality are analyzed, along with the possible cures, depends partly on how inequality is measured. The authors use assets (land) rather than income - and a GMM estimator - to examine the robustness of the relationship between inequality and growth that has been observed in the cross-sectional literature, but has been drawn into question by recent studies using panel techniques. They find evidence that asset inequality - but not income inequality - has a relatively large negative impact on growth. They also find that a highly unequal distribution of assets reduces the effectiveness of educational interventions. This means that policymakers should be more concerned about households'access to assets, and to the opportunities associated with them, than about the distribution of income. Long-term growth might be improved by measures to prevent large jumps in asset inequality - possibly irreversible asset loss because of exogenous shocks - and by policies to facilitate asset accumulation by the poor.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Services&Transfers to Poor,Inequality,Governance Indicators,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Achieving Shared Growth

ASSET OWNERSHIP AND WORKING CAPITAL CONSTRAINTS IN A POST-REFORM ENVIRONMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR SECOND GENERATION REFORMS IN ZAMBIA

Using a 5,000 household panel from Zambia, we find that asset ownership, but not access to fertilizer, has an extremely important impact on output and that investment in oxen would yield returns above the market rate. Policies should thus focus on asset ownership more than on short term working capital.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics,

Getting Institutions 'Right' for Whom: Credit Constraints and the Impact of Property Rights on the Quantity and Compostiton of Investment

The effects of property rights on investment are typically hypothesized to occur through a security-induced investment demand and a collateral-based credit supply. Using a two period model, this paper shows that for farms that are constrained in their access to liquidity, the investment demand effect will itself induce an increase in the endogenous shadow price of liquidity. Other things equal, this induced increase in the price of liquidity will discourage capital accumulation, and that the desired stock of expropriation-immune movable capital may decrease with tenure security. Empirical analysis of farm-level data from Paraguay corroborates this proposition and reveals that the underlying pattern of wealth-biased capital access creates a world in which property rights reform has differential effects across producer wealth classes and gets institutions "right" and agriculture moving for only for a wealthier subset of producers.

Managing Economic Insecurity in Rural El Salvador: The role of asset ownership and labor market adjustments

Rural households often rely heavily on short-term readjustments in labor supply between wage and self-employment in farm and non-farm activities as an essential strategy to protect consumption and the value of productive investments against unexpected shocks and to take advantage of changing economic opportunities. The efficacy of such coping strategies, and hence a householdÂ’s vulnerability to shocks, may in turn be affected by that householdÂ’s ownership of land or other assets. This paper employs a two-round panel survey of 494 rural households in El Salvador to study the impact of a 1997 weather-related downturn in economic activity and agricultural labor demand on household incomes and welfare. Examining the changing pattern of household labor supply and poverty, reveals that the loss of wage labor hours was a primary determinant of the rise in poverty in this period, and that landless agricultural laborers were particularly vulnerable. Panel regression analyses suggest that households that owned even small amounts of land or other productive assets were better able to protect the marginal return to household labor in the downturn year. The results lend support to the view that in response to shocks, households fall back on farm and non-farm self-employment activities were productivity was determined by their ability to intensify the use of land and other owned assets. Controlling for other factors, ownership of land and other assets also helped households to maintain children's school enrollments.

The Yellow-­crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea (Aves: Pelecaniformes: Ardeidae) in the Azores and Madeira Archipelagos: a new species for the Western Palearctic

This paper presents and describes the first confirmed occurrence of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea in the Azores, which also represents the first record for Europe and the Western Palearctic. We also present and discuss subsequent reports of the species in Macaronesia. Several hypotheses may help to explain the occurrence of this species in this part of the Atlantic, including disorientation caused by strong winds and increasing observation pressure. However, further studies are necessary to assess the part played by the different factors in the occurrence of new vagrant individuals/species in Macaronesia

EVA nanocomposites based on South African Koppies clay

South African Koppies bentonite was organo-modified with single tail and double tail alkyl ammonium cationic surfactants with the latter intercalated both below and above the clay CEC. Corresponding poly(ethylene-co-vinylacetate) nanocomposites were prepared by twin-screw melt compounding. Transmission electron microscopy indicated the presence of mixed nano- and micron-sized clay morphologies. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the crystallinity of the particles improved and that the d-spacing values increased on incorporating the clays in the polymer matrix. It is postulated that, rather than indicating polymer co-intercalation, this is caused by further intercalation of either excess surfactants or surfactant residues that were released by shear delamination of the clays during compounding. Improved mechanical properties were realized especially when using the clay containing the longer double tail surfactant intercalated at levels in excess of the cation exchange capacity of the clay. The nanocomposites showed improved tensile modulus and elongation at break values at the expense of a reduction in impact strength while tensile strength was about the same as for the neat polymer.The Institutional Research Development Programme (IRDP), the South Africa/Mozambique Collaborative Programme of the National Research Foundation (NRF), and the Mozambican Research Foundation (FNI)http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1548-05852015-09-30hb201

Avaliação de danos de Erinnvis ello (Linné, 1758) em viveiro de seringueira

The damage caused by the caterpilar of Erinnyis ello (Linné, 1758) in stock nursery at different levels of infestation (0, 4, 8 and 16 caterpilar/10 plants) was evaluated. For evaluation, the plants were protected by cages made from nylon screen and wood. It was observed that the damage was significant only at 16 caterpilar/10 plants or more. At this level, only 52.2% of the plants reached good grating condition when compared to the control.Foram avaliados os prejuízos decorridos do ataque da Erinnyis ello (Linné 1758) em plantas de seringueira (Hevea spp.) enviveiradas, protegidas por gaiolas de madeira e tela de náilon, em diferentes níveis de infestação (0, 4, 8, 16 larvas/10 plantas). Verificou-se que os prejuízos passam a ser significativos a partir da infestação de 16 larvas/10 plantas. Neste nível, 52,2% das plantas não alcançaram condições de enxertia, em relação à testemunha

Selection of fungi with biocontrol potential against the black spot disease of papaya

The use of fungicides is the main control measure against the black-spot disease of papaya. The biological control is an alternative to that, being the selection of mycoparasitic fungi the first step in programs aiming at this kind of control. This study aimed to obtain and select fungi with potential to the biocontrol of the black spot disease of papaya. For this purpose, 24 isolates were collected from different regions and pathosystems, and then identified morphologically and by the ITS region sequencing. In order to evaluate the mycoparasite potential, two assessments, in a randomized block design, with three replications, were carried out in a shadehouse, being the obtained isolates inoculated on papaya leaves with black spot lesions. The average time for the appearance of mycoparasitism signs and the incidence of mycoparasitized black spot lesions were evaluated. Of the 24 isolates obtained, ten were from Hansfordia pulvinata, two from Lecanicillium lecaniium, two from Simplicillium lanossoniveum, one from Sarocladium implicatum and nine from Acremonium spp. A wide variability, concerning the mycoparasitism on black spot lesions, was observed, especially for the isolates H-611, H-613, H-614 and H-615, which showed the highest colonization averages. The results demonstrate that H. pulvinata has a great potential to be used as a biocontrol agent against Asperisporium caricae