Governance structures in wheat supply chains and their impacts on productivity and profitability of wheat producers in Ethiopia

This study aims to supplement the literature on the factors affecting wheat producer productivity and profitability by focusing on the role of governance structures and asymmetric information – an issue that is rarely discussed in developing countries. The study thoroughly explores the effect of governance structures and asymmetric information to model a hypothesis for Ethiopia. The study area enables an exemplary case study as it is one of the top wheat-producing areas in both Ethiopia and all of Africa. The study area has also been registered as a wheat belt region in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study used personal interviews to collect primary data from actors. Mixed sampling techniques (i.e., random, census, and purposive) were used to select sampling units. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyse the data. The results show that governance structures, Farm-gate transactions, and asymmetric information have a significant effect on wheat productivity and profitability. Asymmetric information significantly reduces the profit and yield of wheat producers. The study implies that the government should apply a policy related to institutional arrangements to enhance productivity and profitability in wheat supply chains

Assessment of the relationships between livestock production policies implementation and knowledge integration for the promotion of food security in Ethiopia

AbstractThis paper proposes a modelling approach to bridge policy gaps and provide decision-makers with a useful tool for more focused decisions in livestock supply chains. This approach, which is put into practice through institutional arrangements, has the potential to empower the role of coordination and cooperation in the livestock supply chain, link stakeholders/entrepreneurs to vertical upstream and downstream direct and indirect actors. While there are substantial contributions to the detail of this paper, one of its most important contributions lies in introducing public-private partnerships as a driver of livestock economic development. This study evaluated the impact of integrated knowledge on production, rural households’ income, and rural households’ food security using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. The database used in social accounting matrix (SAM) is also used as the base year data for policy simulations in the CGE models. The result indicates that adoption of scientific-technical breed selection and veterinarian knowledge could enable the region to obtain higher livestock production and income, thus leading to higher food security than region with indigenous and integrated knowledge adoption. The results indicate that integrated knowledge policies have more impact on livestock production, rural household income, and food security than indigenous knowledge policy implementation alone. The policies have a greater impact on the rural households’ income and food security in the merger case than in the indigenous technical simulation case. The findings imply that livestock production policies’ implementation and knowledge integration are still necessary for achieving food security, and eradicating poverty

Economic freedom, institutional quality, and manufacturing development in African countries

ABSTRACTThe study examines the long and short-run impact of different explanatory variables on manufacturing development the time span from 1996 to 2021. The results indicated that economic freedom, FDI inflows, financial development, political instability, corruption control, government effectiveness, the rule of law, voice and accountability, and regulatory qualities significantly expand industrialization at the 1% level in the short-run, whereas they significantly reduced industrialization at the 1% level in the long run. African manufacturing transformation is significantly and positively determined by income per capita in the long and short run. The study suggests that policy measures must be taken to combat corruption and improve government effectiveness to achieve manufacturing growth. Maintaining a sound individual and whole institutional quality is very crucial for manufacturing development in the short run

Potato and Tomato Supply and Yield Responses to Policy in Ethiopia

Improving the productivity and profitability of farming activity is considered the key pathway out of poverty for many rural households. Agricultural productivity can be achieved through improving technical progress and increasing irrigation practice utilization. The motivation of this study is to figure out the underlying reasons for the low inelastic potato and tomato supply responses in the short and long-run. The paper attempts to estimate the responsiveness of potato and tomato yield and supply to demand, irrigated area, technical progress and industrial policy in Ethiopia. The study uses the error correction model and VARs with the aid of time series data. The results indicate that tomato supply is found to be responsive to demand signal and industrial policy shock in the short run but not to price incentive in the short-run as predicted. Tomato yield is responsive to demand signal, price incentive and industrial policy shock in the short‐run. The numerical magnitude of error correction coefficient for potato yield is 0.88 indicating about 88% of disequilibrium is corrected in a year. The implied departure from equilibrium is about 12%. Interventions in increasing irrigated area and the technical progress in potato and tomato production impact yield and output significantly. The speeds of adjustment towards equilibrium for tomato yield and output are quite fast, it points towards the highest response to technical progress. The results give emphasis to the need to strengthen technical progress and irrigation water supply through effective policies

Governance structures and incentives in the wheat value chain in Ethiopia

Empirical studies on the effects of governance structures on incentives have still received little attention in the wheat value chain research of developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of governance structures on actors’ incentives in different functional nodes of the wheat value chain. This study used personal interviews to collect primary data from input suppliers, wheat producers, wholesalers, wheat processors and co-operatives. Mixed sampling techniques (i.e. random, census and purposive) were applied to select sampling units. Descriptive statistics and the ordered logit model were used to analyse the data. This paper found that governance structures, opportunistic behaviour, asymmetric information and trust influence actors’ incentives in each functional node of the wheat value chain. Specifically, extension services, governance structures, power relations and price information have significant and positive effects on producers’ price incentives. The study provides pioneering evidence of the effects of governance structures on incentives in each functional node of the value chain. The study adds new knowledge to the existing empirical knowledge. The results recommend government to use effective policy interventions to reduce opportunistic behaviours and asymmetric information, and to adopt incentive strategies to encourage investment, and increase productivity and profitability