CROP DIVERSITY AS THE DERIVED OUTCOME OF FARMERS' 'SURVIVAL FIRST' MOTIVES IN ETHIOPIA: WHAT ROLE FOR ON-FARM CONSERVATION OF SORGHUM GENETIC RESOURCES?

Crop genetic resources are the building blocks of sustainable agricultural development due to their relevance not only as inputs for variety development but also as indigenous crop insurance mechanisms through traditional variety portfolio management. Their continuous survival is, however, threatened by natural and human driven factors. This threat has induced the need for designing conservation measures. Among the in situ and ex situ conservation options available to conserve crop genetic resources, on-farm conservation has recently attracted enormous attention. To make this option operational, placing incentives (that link conservation with utilization) and removal of perverse incentives are believed to be crucial so that landraces of no immediate interest to farmers can be conserved. However, before designing sound incentives and/or removing perverse incentives, we have to understand farmers' motives for managing a portfolio of traditional varieties. To address our objective, we have adopted a utility based model that considers on-farm diversity as a positive externality of farmers' livelihood decisions. Accordingly, on-farm diversity is considered as the derived outcome of farmers' revealed preferences subject to their concerns and constraints. To empirically test the relationships, a Poisson regression model is estimated using rural household survey data collected from 198 sorghum growing farmers in East Ethiopia. The results have shown the most important diversity promoting factors and those factors detaching the link between farmers' 'survival first' motives and their spillover effects on sorghum diversity. Based on the results, the paper concludes outlining the policy implications of the findings.On-farm conservation, sorghum genetic resources, incentives, Poisson regression, Ethiopia, Crop Production/Industries,

Computing Opportunity Costs of Growing Local Varieties for On-farm Conservation: Illustrations Using Sorghum Data from Ethiopia

The recent shift of emphasis to on-farm conservation is driven by its diverse attractive features - participatory nature, dynamic nature, capacity to maintain not only crop diversity but the knowledge that evolves with it, the chance it offers and the challenge it brings to link conservation with farmers' livelihood. To make it operational, placing incentives and removal of perverse incentives are of critical importance. However, before placing sound incentives compatible to farmers' circumstances, the opportunity costs farmers face when using local varieties of public interest should be understood. This paper empirically examines farmers' opportunity costs of maintaining local varieties of sorghum using a household survey data collected from 198 sorghum growers in Eastern Ethiopia. Opportunity costs are generated using different homogeneous treatment statistical models and factors affecting them are further examined using switching regression model. The average opportunity costs suggest not only the size of policy incentive required for farmers to maintain local varieties of sorghum on-farm but also are useful to estimate the national costs of conserving crop genetic resources. The regression analysis shows that opportunity costs increase with access to output markets and extension, output price, access to input supply, experience in growing improved varieties, and relative importance of the crop. On the contrary, plot quality, input price and oxen ownership are reducing opportunity costs. The paper then concludes outlining the policy implications of the empirical findings to incentive design for on-farm conservation of crop genetic resources.Opportunity costs, incentive design, on-farm conservation, crop genetic resources, Ethiopia, Crop Production/Industries,

Assessing the impact of social grant-dependency on participation of KwaZulu-Natal rural households in farming: Application of the generalised propensity score method

Social grants are an important instrument of social protection in South Africa, reaching millions of the poor each month. Although social grants have been found to reduce poverty and promote human development, considerable uncertainty remains about some of their incentive effects. This study uses a sample of 984 rural households selected from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to investigate the potential incentive/dis-incentive effects of social grant-dependency on rural households’ participation in farming activities. The data are analysed using the generalised propensity score (GPS) matching method and ordinary least squares. The results showed that the effect of social-grant dependency on households’ farm participation levels varies at different dependency levels. While social grants had a negative effect on the households’ farming participation levels when social grants income contribute 20–60 %, they had a positive effect at lower ( 20 %) and higher ( 60 %) dependency levels. The positive effect of social grants at the lower and higher levels supports the hypothesis that social grant beneficiaries use part of the grant income to alleviate financial constraints in agricultural production. However, the negative effect at the 20–60 % dependency levels is consistent with the dis-incentive hypothesis, suggesting that social grants may generate dis-incentives to farm production. The study identified several policy variables that affect the participation of rural households in smallholder farming activities, highlighting the importance of expectations of farming success as a key motivator

Implementation of a science-action partnership to manage a threatened ecosystem in an urban context

Abstract: The gap between scientific knowledge and implementation of such knowledge in the fields of biodiversity conservation, environmental management and climate change adaptation, is widely recognized. The state of knowledge of urban ecosystems is generally quite poor, and there is a shortage of human capacity to implement scientifically-sound management practices at the local level, especially within institutions having the mandate of regulating land use planning. The need to bridge the science-action gap to improve decision-making for local land use planning and management, and thereby reduce the impacts of urbanization on ecosystems, has been recognized by eThekwini Municipality in the city of Durban, South Africa..

How to build science-action partnerships for local land-use planning and management: Lessons from Durban, South Africa

The gap between scientific knowledge and implementation in the fields of biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and climate change adaptation has resulted in many calls from practitioners and academics to provide practical solutions responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change, e.g., Future Earth. We present a framework to guide the implementation of science-action partnerships based on a real-world case study of a partnership between a local municipality and an academic institution to bridge the science-action gap in the eThekwini Municipal Area, South Africa. This partnership aims to inform the implementation of sustainable land-use planning, biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and climate change adaptation practice and contributes to the development of human capacity in these areas of expertise. Using a transdisciplinary approach, implementation-driven research is being conducted to develop several decision-making products to better inform land-use planning and management. Lessons learned through this partnership are synthesized and presented as a framework of enabling actions operating at different levels, from the individual to the interorganizational. Enabling actions include putting in place enabling organizational preconditions, assembling a functional well-structured team, and actively building interpersonal and individual collaborative capacity. Lessons learned in the case study emphasize the importance of building collaborative capacity and social capital, and paying attention to the process of transdisciplinary research to achieve more tangible science, management, and policy objectives in science-action partnerships. By documenting and reflecting on the process, this case study provides conceptual and practical guidance on bridging the science-action gap through partnerships

What do Farmers financially lose if they fail to use improved Seeds? Some Econometric Results for Wheat and Implications for Agricultural Extension Policy in Ethiopia

Before making any recommendation for the use of improved seeds, policy makers have to ensure that the improved seeds are superior to the local ones. To generate information on the financial viability of improved seeds, this paper computes the gross margin that farmers lose when they fail to use these inputs. Using the switching regression method, it then examines the contextual factors that affect the income foregone if farmers fail to use improved seeds.The study is based on the fifth round of the Ethiopian rural household survey data taking wheat as a case. The estimated foregone gross margin ranges from 277 to 886 Birr per hectare and the total gross margin foregone at the national level ranges from 295 million to 946 million Birr per year. On the whole, the results suggest that, even though failure to use improved seeds involves foregoing financial benefits, it varies across farmers and farming systems. Not all farmers forego equal financial benefits.The regression results show that the gross margin foregone increases with labour use, fertilizer use, farmers' experience with the extension package, wheat marketing, rainfall suitability, and wheat price index. On the contrary, it decreases with plot quality, education, input price index, oxen ownership, and chemical use. The results imply that improved seeds will have better income generating capacity when accompanied by other complementary services. Agricultural extension policy should establish targeting principles based on the comparative advantage of the respective seeds. On the whole, blanket recommendation of improved seeds for all farmers and farming systems across the board has to be re-visite

Smallholder satisfaction with the quality of agricultural information, and their preferences among the sources: Empirical evidence from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Potentially, smallholder agriculture remains a significant sector in the South African economy because of its central role in developing a healthy economy in terms of improving poor people's earnings, employment opportunities, and protecting natural resources. However, access to agricultural information that informs smallholder farmers’ decisions remains important bottleneck to this sector. Recognizing the scarcity of empirical evidence on the quality of information supplied to smallholder farmers, this study seeks to assess farmers’ satisfaction with the content of agricultural information and their preferences among the various sources. Ordered probit model was employed using data from 458 smallholder irrigation farmers around four irrigation schemes in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The results revealed that the decision to use different information channels is affected by institutional factors and farmers’ attributes. The key factors behind their satisfaction with the quality of agricultural information include gender, occupation, group membership, access to credit, community meetings, and influence from fellow farmers. It is recommended that relevant partners and stakeholders should make concerted efforts to improve the delivery, access, and use of up to date and relevant agricultural information. Moreover, farmers should be encouraged to be members of local informal groups as it is found to enhance their access to information. Finally, extension policies, strategies, and programs should be designed accounting for farmers’ information needs and preferences

Explaining Farmers’ Income via Market Orientation and Participation: Evidence from KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)

In many sub-Saharan African nations, commercializing smallholder agriculture has recently been seen as a strategy for attaining equitable growth and eliminating poverty in a sustainable manner. Despite the distinction made between market participation and market orientation, their respective impacts on farm income have not been given enough attention in the literature. In this paper, their respective determinants are analysed and each of them is linked to smallholder farmers’ income. The survey was conducted in and around four irrigation schemes in KwaZulu-Natal. Using a sample of 332 farmers, the study estimated the output participation index/market orientation index and employed the two-limit Tobit and OLS regression models. The findings show that socioeconomic, institutional and production factors influence market orientation and participation differently. In addition, market participation is more important in explaining farmers’ income compared to market orientation. Moreover, farmers had a higher rate of market participation index (83%) while their market orientation index was very low (38%). Market orientation is, therefore, not a pre-condition for market participation. In smallholder agriculture, market participation is a function, mainly, of marketed surplus. These realities are valid for smallholder agriculture and in sharp contrast with commercial agriculture. Engaging smallholder farmers more in market participation rather than market orientation would be a better strategy to improve their access to markets and eventually enhance their income. Market orientation will then become the unintended outcome of continuous engagement of farmers with the market