Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Dairy Farmers in the Central Ethiopian Highlands

Despite having the second largest livestock population in Africa and favorable climate, the contribution of the livestock, especially the dairy sector to the Ethiopian economy is minimal. The per capita consumption of dairy products of 16 liters is one of the lowest in the world. With increasing income and urbanization, the demand for dairy products is expected to increase. A number of studies have examined the potential of the dairy sector to satisfy existing as well as future demand for dairy products. Most of the studies, however, focus on technological constraints such as poor genotype of indigenous animals, tropical animal diseases, availability of feed and other related services and recommend costly technological solutions aimed to alleviate those constraints. Yet there is evidence of inefficiency and significant post harvest losses of milk. We used a Cobb- Douglas stochastic production function to analyze the inefficiencies of a random sample of 74 smallholder dairy farmers in the Central Ethiopian Highlands. Results show that forage and concentrate feed, number of cross breed cows and expenditures on veterinary services are significant determinants of milk output. We also found evidence of systematic inefficiency in dairy production associated with farmers' educational level and livestock training that explains almost 90% of the variation in milk production. The average efficiency score of farmers in the sample is 79%. Thus milk output can be increased on average by 21% with existing technology by training farmers in modern management practices in feeding, calving, milking, storing, processing and marketing.Smallholder dairy, technical efficiency, stochastic production function, Ethiopia, Livestock Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,

Foreign Development Assistance to Agriculture and Food Security in Africa in the last Decade: Lessons for Tomorrow

There are well-founded fears that it is unrealistic to expect Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and to halve the proportion of people who suffer hunger by 2015. Recent efforts of African governments to meet the MDG1 have resulted in a number of initiatives including the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) framework that calls for 6% agricultural growth rates, the Maputo Declaration calling for 10% of total public spending to be on agriculture, and the 2006 Abuja Declaration calling for an increase in fertilizer use from 8 – 50 kg/ha by 2015. CAADP estimates that an average investment of US$18 billion/year will be required to trigger sufficient agricultural growth rate to meet MDG1. Meanwhile, budgetary allocation to agriculture in many African nations is low and an analysis of trends in foreign development assistance to Africa over a 10-year period (1995-2004) showed that the annual commitment to agriculture out of the total assistance of US$230 billion declined from 11% in 1995 to 6% in 2004. This decline could be traced to the frustration of donors and African governments alike at the failure of agriculture to achieve sufficient progress towards food security and poverty reduction. Nevertheless, there is evidence from the past that where projects have been successful, governments provided political leadership and financial support; organized farmers groups actively participated in decision-making; and that close public-private-partnership existed. Based on the lessons learned from previous projects and the subsequent more favorable rules of engagement of donors with beneficiaries, the paper concludes that the challenges and responsibility for getting agriculture back to the front-burner of the development agenda is largely that of African governments.Africa, Millenium Development Goals, Agriculture, Farmer, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

Livestock and resource management policy: Issues and priorities for research. Proceedings of the research planning workshop

This workshop was convened to help ILCA develop priorities and plan for research over the five year period, 1994-1998. The purpose of the workshop was to identify issues and priorities for research and training in the general areas of livestock and resource management policy, appropriate methodologies for research in these priorities, the role of ILCA in policy research and opportunities for collaboration with national and international institutes. The workshop addressed topics in the areas of trade and macro-economic policies, technology, policy, markets and institutions, and resource management policy

Strategies for sustainable agricultural development in the East African highlands:

Low agricultural productivity, land degradation and poverty are severe interrelated problems in the East African highlands. While the proximate causes of such problems are relatively well known, the underlying causes are many and complex, and depend upon many site-specific factors that vary greatly across the diverse circumstances of the region. In this paper, we argue that the appropriate strategy for sustainable development depends greatly upon the “pathways of development” that are feasible in a given location. We argue that such development pathways will be largely determined by three factors determining comparative advantage: agricultural potential, access to markets, and population density. We conclude the paper with hypotheses about the priorities for policy intervention to achieve sustainable development in the East African highlands. Among these, we suggest that the highest priority for road and irrigation development should be areas close to urban markets with high agricultural potential; that development of input and output markets and credit systems will be most critical in such areas; that increasing food security through increased food crop production or other means is likely to be a key to realizing the potential for more commercial production; that subsidies on the costs of transporting fertilizer to remote, high-potential, food deficit areas should be considered as a lower cost alternative to food aid; and that intensified and more private use of hillsides and grazing areas for sustainable uses such as tree planting may have potential to achieve more rapid and sustainable development of lower potential areas.Land degradation, Sustainable agriculture, Population density,

Measuring Male-Female Productivity Differentials in Ethiopian Agriculture: Policy Implications for Improving the Livelihood of Female Farmers

An understanding of the efficiency with which women farmers are operating, particularly where they account for the largest share of the labor force required for agricultural production, is essential for designing appropriate policies to improve the overall performance of agriculture as well as the livelihood of women farmers. This paper contributes to the gender productivity debate by drawing on crop production data collected in three districts (Ada, Akaki and Gimbichu) in East Shoa, Ethiopia during the 1999/2000 cropping season through detailed multi-visit surveys of 80 farm households of which 39 were female-headed households. Using the Tornqvist-Theil index, Total factor productivity (TFP) is measured to analyze crop production efficiency differentials between male and female headed households. The analysis demonstrates that there is little evidence that male-female differences per se account f or productivity differentials in crop production. The results imply that the variation in overall TFP can only arise due to differentials in access to the quality of human and physical resources and services, and differential control of the benefits from output by women versus men. Hence, appropriate institutional frameworks that reduce cultural and social barriers associated with women farmers' access to such resources and benefits should be developed. Policies targeted towards increasing female farmers' access to education, extension services, credit, adequate amount of quality land and other resources including control over the benefits, will improve the overall productivity and livelihood of female farmers.Agricultural efficiency, total factor productivity, gender, Ethiopian agriculture, Labor and Human Capital, D2, Q12, Q18,

Adoption of dual purpose forages: Some policy implications

Livestock, especially ruminant, production is an important component of farming systems in upland areas of the Philippines. Moreover, since upland agriculture is becoming unsustainable because of soil erosion and productivity of crops is limited by poor soils, livestock production is a particularly valuable source of income to complement crop production. Farmers rely heavily on livestock to provide a source of savings, cash income, draft power and nutritious food. Nevertheless, scarcity and poor quality of feed are major constraints to improved livestock productivity in upland areas. Introduction of planted forages in these systems has the potential to increase substantially the quality and quantity of available forages, thus providing fodder to supplement low-quality naturally occurring forages and crop residues; concurrently, forage plants promote sustainability by improving soil quality and reducing soil erosion. Adoption of forages by smallholder farmers in the rainfed upland areas of the Philippines is conditioned by the dual-purpose role of forage plants. A number of forage species have been used as contour hedgerow species for the reduction of soil erosion. These include Gliricidia sepium, Leucaena leucocephala, Setaria spp., napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides). These species were chosen as hedgerow species because of their value as fodder for livestock, in addition to their roles in reducing soil erosion, controlling weed growth, and improving and stabilising fallow areas. A number of constraints affect the widespread adoption of forages for use as hedgerow species by smallholder farmers in the Philippine uplands. These factors include: the limited availability of seed; high mortality amongst the forage species planted; a lack of collective action; and the high initial cost of investment. Insufficient attention has been given to policy and socio-economic factors affecting adoption of forages. For example, the effects of socio-economic factors such as human capital (education, age), income and access to institutions (e.g. credit and extension) have not been studied in association with the adoption of forage species. Therefore, policy and technology options to address these issues are warranted. This paper uses an econometric approach (i.e. probit) to identify the factors affecting adoption of forages by smallholder farmers in the upland areas of the Philippines, using data from a survey conducted in 1996 by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The survey examined farmers who had adopted contour hedgerow technology at 2 upland sites, Cebu, Visayas and Claveria, Mindanao, the Philippines

Research and technology transfer for livestock development

A framework for international action to support livestock development is presented and discussed. The goal is to help achieve increased and sustainable food production and generate revenue for improved food security in low income countries. This goal conforms to the global mandate of ILRI which, although its main function is research, cannot ignore the linking of research to technology transfer if it is to make an impact. Issues related to the role of livestock research in strategies making up the action framework and especially effective linkage with technology transfer are discussed. Africa is the focus, because, although it is not unique in facing the problems of low income countries, it provides the greatest challenge to the global agricultural development community

Modelling the Impact of Credit on Intensification in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems: A Case Study from Ethiopia

Access to credit is one strategy for promoting the adoption of yield-enhancing technologies. However, advancing credit to smallholder farmers for encouraging technology adoption is a complex policy issue. The objective of this paper is to identify appropriate and sustainable credit repayment policies to encourage intensification in the Ethiopian Highlands. Using a household model, we analyze the impact of advancing in-kind credit in the form of fertilizer and seed to smallholder farmers in the Ethiopian highlands and alternative credit repayment strategies. The results indicate that in kind input credit of fertilizer and seed provided to farmers in the highland of Ethiopia increased the value of household crop output moderately and hence allowed the household to increase its consumption. This scheme requires borrowers to sell their crop immediately at harvest to repay their credit. An alternative repayment scheme of extending the repayment period to allow households to capture seasonal price variation is proposed. The amount repaid is also tied to yields of wheat.Agricultural Finance,

BAYES' ESTIMATES OF THE DOUBLE HURDLE MODEL IN THE PRESENCE OF FIXED COSTS

We present a model of market adoption (participation) where the presence of non-negligible fixed costs leads to non-zero censoring of the traditional double-hurdle regression. Fixed costs arise due to household resources that must be devoted a priori to the decision to participate in the market. These costs-usually a cost of time-motivate two-step decision-making and focus attentions on the minimum-efficient scale of operations (the minimum amount of milk sales) at which market entry becomes viable. This focus, in turn, motivates a non-zero-censored Tobit regression estimated through routine application of Markov chain Monte Carlo Methods.market participation, fixed costs, double-hurdle model, censored regression., Financial Economics, O1, O11, C34, O13, Q16, D1,