Effect of Different Crop Management System on Technical Efficiency in Sugarcane Production in Faisalabad, Punjab Region of Pakistan

Sugarcane plays an important role in the economic sustainability of the sugarcane growers. The high return of it attracts the farm scale to devote a part of land to sugarcane relatively to their land holdings and economic returns differs associated with crop management type such as ratoon, fresh and mixed. Therefore, the study examined the technical efficiency level of small, medium and large farmers under different crop management system as fresh, ratoon and mixed crop system. The bulk of the data were collected from randomly selected 100 sugarcane growers by using face to face interview. Cluster analysis was performed to select similar growers in terms of manager’s profile, profitability and land ownership for small, medium and large farmers. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to calculate the efficiency scores such as technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and economic efficiency. Research results showed that the education level of the large farmers was satisfactory level comparing to others. Most small farmers were illiterate. The difference among the farm size in terms of the variables of age of respondents, sugarcane experience and family members were statistically significant at the 5% probability level. The high acreages of land holdings enabled the farmers to devote the huge area to sugarcane crops. The acreages at large farms were significantly high and also keep their more acres of land under sugarcane crop by 6.49 acres out of 13.66 acres. Based on the results of efficiency analysis, the main sources of economic inefficiency was allocative efficiency in the research area, indicating that monitoring input prices in market was critical for the sample farmers. Comparative analysis showed that mixed cropping system was the worst management system in terms of efficiency scores. Farmers would increase their economic efficiency if they improved their skills through participating the extension and training programs and by monitoring the input market conditions when allocated their factors harmonious with factor prices. Keywords: Efficiency scores, Sugarcane, Farm scale, Faisalabad, Management syste

Adoption of Conservation Agriculture as a Driver of Sustainable Farming: Opportunities, Constraints, and Policy Issues

Sustainable farming is critical for rural development and global food security, but it is threatened by intensive agriculture and climate change. Conservation agriculture (CA) is a sustainable farming system developed in response to intensive agriculture, environmental degradation, and climate change caused by traditional agriculture systems. This chapter discusses the role of CA in sustainable farming and examines the factors influencing CA adoption globally through a review of previous studies. The review results indicated that CA assists farmers increase farm sustainability by influencing economic, social, and environmental dimensions through minimum mechanical soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and diversification. CA adoption aims at maintaining soil fertility, improving farm yield, and reducing the use of external inputs necessary for sustainable farming. Therefore, the number of CA-adopting countries has grown significantly over the last decade but its adoption is constrained by a variety of factors such as farmers’ demographic characteristics, farm characteristics, institutional factors, capital ownership, cognitive factors, and farm manager entrepreneurial ability. Moreover, abundance of small-scale farming and a lack of awareness about the role of CA in sustainable farming also pose a challenge to the global adoption of CA. Farmers’ entrepreneurial abilities and awareness of CA benefits should be improved to increase adoption of CA and sustainable farming

Looking up and going down: Does sustainable adaptation to climate change ensure dietary diversity and food security among rural communities or vice versa?

Sustainable food systems are essential to ensure food security and mitigate climate change. Adaptation to climate change is part and parcel of sustainable food systems. Prior literature merely documented the climate-smart agricultural practices and explored the relationship with food security of adopters without taking the period of the strategies into account. Therefore, this study explored the factors affecting sustainable adaptation to climate change and created a further link between sustainable adaptation to climate change and the food security of rural households. The cross-sectional data were collected from 384 farmers through a face-to-face survey in Pakistan, selected by a multistage random sampling method. An ordered probit model and propensity score matching technique were used to analyze the data. Education, farm size, credit access, extension services, internet use for agriculture information, women's participation in farm-related decision making, and considering climate change a significant problem for agriculture were all positively influencing the sustainable adaptation to climate change at farms. The results indicated that farmers with a higher level of sustainable adaptation to climate change consumed more diversified diets and more daily calories as compared to those with a lower level of sustainable adaptation. Similarly, farmers with a lower level of sustainable adaptation to climate change had significantly lower food security than farmers with a high level of sustainable adaptation at their farms. This research indicated that farmers can gain food and nutrition benefits by becoming more sustainable adapters to climate change. This study has important policy implications for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) of zero hunger (SDG 2) and climate action (SDG 13) in developing countries

Proceedings: 1st International Conference on Food and Agricultural Economics: AN ASSESSMENT OF DETERMINANTS RESPONSIBLE FOR LOW MANGO PRODUCTIVITY IN DISTRICT MUZZAFARGARH, PAKISTAN

Mango which is also known as king of fruits in the country is the second largest growing fruit after citrus in Pakistan. Although mango is being grown in more than hundred countries but none of them is comparable to Pakistani mango which is famous for its unique taste all over the world. Pakistan’s per hectare production is much lower than its potential. The purpose of this study was to assess those factors which are preventing mango growers from getting its potential yield. For this major mango producing area Muzzaffargarh was selected. The 110 randomly selected farmers were interviewed with well-designed questionnaire. The mango growers were divided into three categories on the basis of land holding. The Cobb-Douglas model was used to assess the effect of different factors on the productivity. The education level and age of large farmers was found highest among small and medium farmers. Large farmers were enjoying significant high profit per acre with US $519.58 as compare to medium farmers (US$ 454.15) and small farmers (US $ 395.10). The independent variables were explaining almost 89 percent variation in productivity of mango. The significant positive effect of orchard experience, access to extension services, quantity of NPK, quantity of pesticides and labour cost was found. The age and intercropping practices in mango orchard had a significant negative effect on mango production. Credit facilities must be made available at lower interest rate and the range of extension services must be enhanced to increase the productivity of mango

Knowledge, behavior and precautionary measures related to COVID-19 pandemic among the general public of Punjab province, Pakistan

INTRODUCTION: The world is facing a formidable challenge to prevent the COVID-19 global outbreak, and health care systems are under pressure globally. The governments alone cannot prevent the spread of this pandemic without creating a sensitive public opinion and cooperation. Therefore, this study analyzed the knowledge, behavior, and precautionary measures taken by the general public to protect themselves from COVID-19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: For this purpose, snowball sampling technique was used to collect data from 401 respondents through an online survey in the Punjab province of Pakistan. A Multivariate Probit Model was used to determine the factors affecting the choice of precautionary measures to avoid COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: Majority of the respondents (58.1%) belonged to urban areas in this study. The urban respondents had higher knowledge about Coronavirus disease as compared to rural respondents. Similarly, the hygienic behavior of urban respondents was better than rural respondents. But unavailability of hygienic material (mask and hand sanitizer) was the main problem faced by the general public. Public transportation was considered the most risk-prone place to COVID-19 by the respondents. Majority of the respondents perceived medium to highest risk from COVID-19, and it was found one of the most influential factors affecting the adoption of precautionary measures along with knowledge of this pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Government needs to start a comprehensive awareness campaign on social media along with the mainstream media create awareness about the importance of social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks among the general public to enhance knowledge and improve the behavior of the general public about COVID-19

Adoption of Renewable Energy Technology on Farms for Sustainable and Efficient Production: Exploring the Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Farmer Perception and Government Policies

Traditional energy consumption raises greenhouse gas emissions, which is a major concern in China. Agricultural energy consumption accounts for one third of China’s greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, current patterns of energy consumption on farms are both unsustainable and inadequate since rural communities in emerging nations have limited access to energy sources. This study explores the factors affecting the adoption of renewable energy on farms and examines the effect of such adoption on technical efficiency. The data were collected from 801 farmers selected through a multistage random and purposive sampling method in a face-to-face survey in China. Logistic regression, data envelopment analysis and propensity score matching were used to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics depicted that renewable energy technology was adopted by more than 25% of the total farmers. The logistic regression results depicted that education, farm size, government financial support, perceptions of renewable energy (usefulness, cost effectiveness, environmental friendliness and information availability) and farmer entrepreneurial orientation dimensions (risk-taking, innovativeness and pro-activeness) all significantly affected the adoption of renewable energy technology on farms. Farmers who perceived renewable energy as more useful and cost-effective than conventional energy technology were 1.89 and 2.13 times more likely to adopt it on their farms, respectively. Farmers who perceived renewable energy as more environmentally friendly than traditional energy technology were 1.54 times more likely to use it on their farms. The findings also showed that innovative farmers were 2.24 times more likely to adopt renewable energy technology on their farms. The propensity score matching results showed that the technical efficiency of adopters of renewable energy was 10% higher than that of nonadopters. The study suggests that agriculture must be transformed to fulfill the existing and forthcoming demand for food and energy in an impartial and ecologically sustainable manner

The Economies’ Ability to Produce Diversified and Complex Goods to Meet the Global Competition: Role of Gross Value Chain, Institutional Quality, and Human Capital

The theory of capabilities describes the need for a country to adopt different capabilities to enhance its productivity through the production of diversified and complex goods. These capabilities are not independent of the human, physical, institutional, legal systems, and gross value chain (GVC) of a country. Therefore, the current study analyzed the relationship between GVC, institutional quality, human capital development, and the economic fitness of different countries. This study used panel data from 131 countries for the period of 2007–2019. The generalized method of moments (GMM), fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), and quantile regression showed that GVC, institutional quality, and human capital development have a big positive effect on a country’s economic health. The quantile regression results also showed that GVC, institutional quality, and skilled human capital have a positive and significant effect on the economic fitness of all three quantiles (25th, 50th, and 75th). Overall, the study concludes that greater GVC participation, political stability, effective government, good rules of law, high regulatory quality, and good human capital all enhance the country’s capabilities to produce diversified and complex goods that increase its market share in the global competitive market. Thus, the government should formulate policies in such a way that they promote participation in GVC to overcome the limitations of resource availability and poor technology. In addition, it should be ensured that effective policy implementation is in place to facilitate business without unjust means, violence, etc

Nexus between Climate-Smart Livestock Production Practices and Farmers’ Nutritional Security in Pakistan: Exploring Level, Linkages, and Determinants

Livestock plays a vital role in humans’ food and nutrition security under rapidly changing climatic scenarios. This study investigates the nature and factors affecting livestock farmers’ choices of climate-smart livestock practices by using a multivariate probit model and then estimates the average effect of these adopted strategies on per capita daily dietary (calorie, protein, and calcium) intake among livestock herders. For this purpose, data were collected from 196 livestock farmers residing in the Punjab province of Pakistan, selected through multistage purposive and random sampling. The Simpson diversity index results revealed that farmers used diversified food in their daily diet. The results also showed that farmers consumed more protein-rich food items as compared to calorie and calcium-rich food items in their daily diet. Moreover, the average per capita calorie intake of livestock farmers was 2413.19 kcal/day. Livestock farmers adopting a higher number of climate-smart livestock practices consumed more daily per capita calories, protein, and calcium compared to those who adopted a lower number of climate-smart livestock practices on livestock farms. Moreover, climate-smart livestock practices produced more and better nutritional outcomes in combination with each other than in isolation. Livestock training was found to be positively associated with the adoption of more climate-smart practices. Therefore, livestock training is necessary to expedite the adoption of climate-smart practices and to improve the nutritional security of the farmers

PCSE linear and non-linear effect of GVC on ES of developing countries.

PCSE linear and non-linear effect of GVC on ES of developing countries.</p

Long run and short run effects of GVC and energy security system of developed and developing countries.

Long run and short run effects of GVC and energy security system of developed and developing countries.</p