INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH MALNUTRITION: AN ETHIOPIAN CASE STUDY

Many developing regions have excellent potential agricultural resources. However, historically population has become so concentrated on such small holdings that acute poverty and malnutrition now predominate. The food scientists’ response to the chronic nutritional problem has often been subsidized bio-fortification with nutritional supplements or more recently cultivars with higher nutrient levels. Where much of the population is in this inadequate nutrition category as in highland Ethiopia, the supplements are neither financially feasible nor sustainable. The cultivars can provide a few critical nutrients but are not a comprehensive solution. To improve nutrition, it is necessary to increase income so that an increased quality and quantitative diet can be obtained. Here we evaluate a strategy to introduce new agricultural technologies where a central aspect of evaluation is combining the nutritional and income goals. This analysis is undertaken in the Qobo valley, Amhara state, Ethiopia. Using behavioralist criteria for decision making defined by the farmers, the effects of different potential combinations of technologies and supporting agricultural policies on the household nutritional gaps and farmers’ incomes are analyzed. An integrated approach involving the combined technologies of water harvesting, fertilization and Striga resistance combined with improved credit programs has the potential to increase income by 31% and to eliminate malnutrition except in the most adverse state of nature (10% probability). Both the treatment of the nutritional deficits and the decision making criteria defined by farmers are expected to be useful techniques in other developing country technology and policy analysis as well.Adoption, agricultural technologies, Striga resistance, inorganic fertilizers, tied-ridges, marketing strategies, inventory credit, nutrition, income, capped-lexicographic utility.

Production Structure, Technological Change and Scale Economies in the Saw and Planing Mills Industry in New Brunswick, Canada

The translog cost function approach is employed to characterize the production structure and to estimate the rate of technical change and technical bias in the saw and planing mills industry (SPM) in the New Brunswick Province. The findings are that the production structure of the saw and planing mills in Canada is neither homothetic nor homogenous implying potential scale induced distortion in the input mix. Morishma elasticity of substitution estimates show that in the existing technology of the saw and planing mills in New Brunswick, labor can more easily be substituted by capital than capital by labor. Moreover, the amount of round wood that is required to complement labor is higher than that required to complement energy and capital, which indicates that a labor intensive technology choice in the SPM industry is more round wood consuming than the capital and energy intensive technologies. These results coupled with the increasingly stringent environmental regulations indicate that the relative use of labor compared to other inputs is likely to decline in the saw and planing mills industry. Hence, in view of their cost minimizing behavior, the saw and planing mills in New Brunswick will sooner or latter start to replace labor with energy or capital. The saw and planing mills in New Brunswick exhibited fairly high economies of scale during the period 1965-1995, but the rate of technical change has been found to be negative.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

CGIAR modeling approaches for resource constrained scenarios: IV Models for analyzing socio‐economic factors to improve policy recommendations

International crop-related research as conducted by the CGIAR uses crop modelingfor a variety of purposes. By linking crop models with economic models andapproaches, crop model outputs can be effectively used as inputs into socioeco-nomic modeling efforts for priority setting and policy advice using ex-ante impactassessment of technologies and scenario analysis. This requires interdisciplinarycollaboration and very often collaboration across a variety of research organizations.This study highlights the key topics, purposes, and approaches of socioeconomicanalysis within the CGIAR related to cropping systems. Although each CGIARcenter has a different mission, all CGIAR centers share a common strategy of strivingtoward a world free of hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. This meansresearch is mostly focused toward resource-constrained smallholder farmers. Thereview covers global modeling efforts using the IMPACT model to farm householdbio-economic models for assessing the potential impact of new technologies onfarming systems and livelihoods. Although the CGIAR addresses all aspects of foodsystems, the focus of this review is on crop commodities and the economic analysislinked to crop-growth model results. This study, while not a comprehensive review,provides insights into the richness of the socioeconomic modeling endeavors withinthe CGIAR. The study highlights the need for interdisciplinary approaches to addressthe challenges this type of modeling faces

Agricultural resource and risk management with multiperiod stochastics: A case of the mixed crop-livestock production system in the drylands of Jordan

Generally, agricultural production involves several challenges. In the drylands, it is further complicated by weather-related risks and resource degradation. In this paper, we present a case study of the mixed crop-livestock production system in Jordan. To better capture the nature of response farming in the drylands, we develop a methodology for using crop simulation models to directly generate data for optimizing production practices of an integrated crop-livestock producing household in a dynamic stochastic context. The approach optimizes producer's adaptations to random events, such as weather, which are realized throughout the planning horizon. To ensure the sustainability of the optimized production decisions, long-term valuations of end of horizon soil attributes are included in the objective function. This approach endogenizes the tradeoff between short-and long-run productivity. Model results show that due to the limited natural resource endowments and financial liquidity constraints of the typical farm households in the study area, we find these households have limited options. To optimally respond to weather conditions during the production season, better manage risk, and achieve improvements in soil attributes, a typical household would need larger farm size, larger flock, and better financial liquidity than it currently commands. Like all such models, the farm household model used in this paper is not suitable for drawing policy implications. Therefore, targeted analysis using appropriate sectoral or economy-wide models will be needed in the future to identify and test the efficacy of different policy and institutional interventions including land consolidation, establishment of producer and marketing cooperatives, access to financial services including agricultural credit, and crop insurance in expanding the resource base of farmers-thereby positioning them for higher earnings, ensuring soil conservation, and enhancing the sustainability of the production system

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in Ethiopia: Analysis of a national serological survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a contagious viral disease of small ruminants in Africa and Asia. In 1999, probably the largest survey on PPR ever conducted in Africa was initiated in Ethiopia where 13 651 serum samples from 7 out of the 11 regions were collected and analyzed by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). The objective of this paper is to present the results of this survey and discuss their practical implications for PPR-endemic regions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We explored the spatial distribution of PPR in Ethiopia and we investigated risk factors for positive serological status. Intracluster correlation coefficients (ρ), were calculated for 43 <it>wereda </it>(administrative units).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seroprevalence was very heterogeneous across regions and even more across <it>wereda</it>, with prevalence estimates ranging from 0% to 52.5%. Two groups of <it>weredas </it>could be distinguished on the basis of the estimated ρ: a group with very low ρ (ρ < 0.12) and a group with very high ρ (ρ > 0.37).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results indicate that PPRV circulation has been very heterogeneous, the values for the ρ may reflect the endemic or epidemic presence of the virus or the various degrees of mixing of animals in the different areas and production systems. Age appears as a risk factor for seropositive status, the linear effect seeming to confirm in the field that PPRV is highly immunogenic. Our estimates of intracluster correlation may prove useful in the design of serosurveys in other countries where PPR is of importance.</p