16 research outputs found
Technical Efficiency in Seed Potato Production Systems in Uganda
This study established the level of technical efficiency and its determinants among the informal and formal seed potato producers in the southwestern highlands agro - ecological zone of Uganda. A multi- stage sampling procedure was employed to select 636 households (499 informal seed producers and 137 formal seed producers) from which data was collected for two seasons using a semi - structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using the stochastic frontier approach with a one - step approach. Maximum likelihood estimates for the efficiency parameters showed that both informal and formal seed potato producers were not fully efficient. The mean technical efficiency for informal and formal seed potato producers was 8 1 .4 and 80.4 percent respectively. In terms of yield loss, informal and formal seed potato producers respectively lost an average of 981 and 1,208 kg/acre of seed potato tubers due to inefficiency factors . Specifically, off- farm income source, scale of production, seasonal variation, access to extension services and seed producer being male positively influenced informal seed producers’ technical efficiency while producers’ level of education and seed potato variety diversity negatively influenced their efficiency. For formal seed producers, technical efficiency was influenced positively by producers’ education and negatively by household size. The study suggests that there is an opportunity to improve technical efficiency of informal and formal seed producers by 19 and 20 percent respectively. Therefore, this calls for increased investment in developing and promoting high yielding varieties, provision of extension services, input intensification and addressing gender issues in seed potato production in the context of limited arable land
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Marine protected areas in artisanal fisheries: a spatial bio-economic model based on observations in Costa Rica and Tanzania
In many lower-income countries, the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) involves significant opportunity costs for artisanal fishers, reflected in changes in how they allocate their labor in response to the MPA. The resource economics literature rarely addresses such labor allocation decisions of artisanal fishers and how, in turn, these contribute to the impact of MPAs on fish stocks, yield, and income. This paper develops a spatial bio-economic model of a fishery adjacent to a village of people who allocate their labor between fishing and on-shore wage opportunities to establish a spatial Nash equilibrium at a steady state fish stock in response to various locations for no-take zone MPAs and managed access MPAs. Villagers’ fishing location decisions are based on distance costs, fishing returns, and wages. Here, the MPA location determines its impact on fish stocks, fish yield, and villager income due to distance costs, congestion, and fish dispersal. Incorporating wage labor opportunities into the framework allows examination of the MPA’s impact on rural incomes, with results determining that win-wins between yield and stocks occur in very different MPA locations than do win-wins between income and stocks. Similarly, villagers in a high-wage setting face a lower burden from MPAs than do those in low-wage settings. Motivated by issues of central importance in Tanzania and Costa Rica, we impose various policies on this fishery – location specific no-take zones, increasing on-shore wages, and restricting MPA access to a subset of villagers – to analyze the impact of an MPA on fish stocks and rural incomes in such settings