Farming with Hand and Hoe over the Last Millennia: Traditional Terracing and the Agricultural Economy in Konso Zone, Southern Ethiopia

This paper reviews various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector. The survey points out that the tendency of many studies to consider innovation adoption in dichotomous terms (adoption/nonadoption) may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range. More attention needs to be given to the socio-cultural and institutional environment in area studies so that their interrelation with economic factors affecting adoption can be inferred. The presence of several interrelated innovations is another aspect that needs to be considered more carefully in future research, since a number of simultaneous decisions may be involved. Furthermore, the possibility of regular sequential patterns in adopting components of a new technological package should be specifically addressed in future studies. Finally, the impact of differential adoption rates on land holding distribution merits attention in future research.

This article focuses on the link between agricultural productivity and health and nutrition status of peasants in Ethiopia. The data come from the first round of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey conducted in 1994. The sites selected were those in which farmers practice ox-plow cultivation of cereals. A stochastic frontier approach was adopted for the agricultural production. The findings of the study show that the distance to the source of water as well as nutrition and morbidity status affect agricultural productivity. The market wage rate is also very responsive to the weight-for-height as well as the body-mass index and height. In a context where separability between consumption and production decisions of the household is rejected elasticities of labor productivity with respect to nutritional status are noted to be strong and similar in technology estimates and wage equations. Moreover returns to investment in nutrition are clearly high in the Ethiopian context. Overall the results indicate substantial loss in output due to technical inefficiency even after accounting for the health and nutrition of workers.

The Evolution of Property Rights: A Study of the American West

two preoccupations are not mutually exclusive. Superficially, they share the common concern that liberalization is insufficient to resolve the subSaharan food crisis. At a deeper level, the two preoccupations are more intimately interrelated via the correspondence that links initial wealth to risk exposure and to behavior in both production and asset accumulation. A number of recent empirical studies of risk in low-income countries find that households are able to employ their accumulated assets to smooth consumption in the face of adverse agricultural production shocks. 3 Missing from these studies is explicit attention to the fact that the effective risk from which households insulate consumption is not that of production shocks directly, but of those shocks as socially articulated by institutions and property rights. This article explores the creation and distribution of effective risk, estimating how environment, technology, and social factors interact to construct it endogenously. 4 Put differently, this article develops the notion that the risk from which households ex post try to insulate consumption is not an immutable natural or technical feature of the landscape. As Michael Watt’s contrast between precolonial and colonial Nigeria forcefully demonstrates, the effective risk presented by an unchanged set of environmental and technical circumstances can

Previous articleNext article No AccessTransaction Costs of Credit to the Small-Scale Sector in the PhilippinesKatrine Anderson Saito, and Delano P. VillanuevaKatrine Anderson Saito Search for more articles by this author , and Delano P. Villanueva Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 29, Number 3Apr., 1981 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451275 Views: 23Total views on this site Citations: 19Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1981 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:K. Vidyarani, T. Maheshkumar Determinants of Access to Formal Credit for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in India: An Inter-regional Analysis, SEDME (Small Enterprises Development, Management & Extension Journal): A worldwide window on MSME Studies 49 (Jun 2022): 097084642211062.https://doi.org/10.1177/09708464221106273Salman Wahab, Adnan Safi, Zeeshan Wahab, Nawaz Ali Shah, Xibao Zhang Choice between formal and informal financing in cottage industry firm: The application of robust regression, Journal of Public Affairs 22, no.11 (Aug 2020).https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2241Meenakshi Rajeev, B. P. Vani, Veerashekharappa Group lending through an SHG bank-linkage programme in India: transaction costs and social benefits, Development in Practice 30, no.22 (Aug 2019): 168–181.https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1508418Christian Masiak, Joern H. Block, Alexandra Moritz, Frank Lang, Helmut Kraemer-Eis How do micro firms differ in their financing patterns from larger SMEs?, Venture Capital 21, no.44 (Apr 2019): 301–325.https://doi.org/10.1080/13691066.2019.1569333Guye Gelgelu Deksiso Assessment of the factors affecting the performance of micro and small scale enterprise: The case of Wolkite town, Guraghe zone, Southern Ethiopia, Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics 10, no.66 (Jun 2018): 192–199.https://doi.org/10.5897/JDAE2017.0899Daniel Domeher, Godwin Musah, Kwasi Poku Micro determinants of the extent of credit rationing amongst SMEs in Ghana, International Journal of Social Economics 44, no.1212 (Dec 2017): 1796–1817.https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-03-2016-0089Yuko Nikaido, Jesim Pais, Mandira Sarma What hinders and what enhances small enterprises’ access to formal credit in India?, Review of Development Finance 5, no.11 (Jun 2015): 43–52.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rdf.2015.05.002Yuko Nikaido, Jesim Pais, Mandira Sarma What Hinders and What Enhances Small Enterprisess Access to Formal Credit in India?, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2015).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2557900Nelson F. Souza-Sobrinho Macroeconomics of bank interest spreads: evidence from Brazil, Annals of Finance 6, no.11 (Sep 2009): 1–32.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10436-009-0131-0I. Hashi, V. Z. Toçi Financing Constraints, Credit, Rationing, and Financing Obstacles: Evidence from Firm Level Data in South Eastern Europe, (Jan 2010): 62–97.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230302211_4S. Safdar Hosseini, Mohammed Khaledi, Richard Gray An analysis of transaction costs of Islamic banks in rural Iran, Agribusiness 25, no.33 (Mar 2009): 291–313.https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.20211Machiko Nissanke, Ernest Aryeetey Institutional Analysis of Financial Market Fragmentation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Risk-Cost Configuration Approach, (Jan 2008): 112–145.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230594012_6Anjali Kumar, Manuela Francisco Enterprise Size, Financing Patterns and Credit Constraints in Brazil: Analysis of Data from the Investment Climate Assessment Survey, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2007).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.960152Barrie Pettman, Gamini Herath Analysis of the potential and problems of new institutional economics for third world development, International Journal of Social Economics 32, no.1010 (Oct 2005): 877–892.https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290510618515Martin Petrick Empirical measurement of credit rationing in agriculture: a methodological survey, Agricultural Economics 33, no.22 (Sep 2005): 191–203.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2005.00384.xJohn DEVEREUX, Raymond P. H. FISHE AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF GROUP LENDING PROGRAMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, The Developing Economies 31, no.11 (Mar 2007): 102–121.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1049.1993.tb00995.xAlbert Berry, Dipak Mazumdar Small-Scale Industry in the Asian-Pacific Region, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature 5, no.22 (Sep 1991): 35–67.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8411.1991.tb00048.xDennis Anderson Small industry in developing countries: A discussion of issues, World Development 10, no.1111 (Nov 1982): 913–948.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(82)90034-1Shazida Jan Mohd Khan, Abdul Rahim Anuar Access to Finance, (): 92–111.https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2835-7.ch006

Editorial Volume 8 Issue 1 (January 2022)

This paper examines empirically the markets for formal and informal credit in Egypt. Using a dataset specifically collected for the purpose, it examines what factors determine whether or not a person borrows from the informal sector using a probit analysis. The paper then conducts a similar exercise for the informal financial sector and seeks to examine whether any link between borrowing in the formal and the informal financial sectors exists. Conclusions are then drawn as to the role of informal financial markets in the development process. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Parts of southern Ethiopia were form 1983 to 1985 affected by drought and famine. This study describes the prevalence of marasmus and kwashiorkor in four drought-affected regions: Bale, Sidamo, Gamu Gofa and southern Shoa. An analysis of 37,511 children in the 1-5 year age group representing 212 communities has been performed. The study demonstrates that both marasmus and kwashiorkor are facets of drought. The epidemiologies of kwashiorkor and marasmus differ: marasmus is the most common form of acute malnutrition in all areas, while kwashiorkor is found in a limited number of communities only. These latter communities have a subsistence farming economy, most often in ensete-growing areas. In the lowland semi-arid regions, which have an agro-pastoralist economy, kwashiorkor is virtually absent. These epidemiological findings are discussed in relation to different theories of the aetiology and pathogenesis of kwashiorkor.