ABSTRACT Agriculture is an intrinsically spatial production process. Where on the landscape agriculture occurs affects the environmental (e.g., soil, water, climate) factors that have large output and production risk consequences. The location of agriculture also has substantial logistic, policy and market performance implications. To facilitate analysis of the spatial dynamics of agriculture, we developed a collection of new ADM 2 boundary files whose geographical dimensions and naming standards map directly to the 18 agricultural censuses that report farm inputs, outputs and related statistics for South African agriculture over the period 1918–2017. The statistical aggregates – representing Magisterial and Municipal Districts –, changed in number, area size and boundaries over time. Cross-referencing these changing statistical aggregates to our newly digitised census boundaries, is an essential step for any geospatial assessment of the causes and (productivity and environmental) consequences associated with the changing physical footprint of South African agriculture over the past century.

ABSTRACT Since innovation is regarded as a source of a firm's development, productivity, and competitive advantage, the identification of the drivers of innovation activities is important for businesses and governments. Based on a case study of 35 emerging sugarcane growers in KwaZulu-Natal's North Coast, South Africa, this study employed the Nossal and Lim framework, which utilised the criteria and methodologies described in the Oslo Manual to measure the innovation activities of firms. The Ordered Probit Model (OPM) was utilised to estimate the factors impacting the innovation activities of the emerging sugarcane farmers. The study findings show that majority of farmers (57%) are highly innovative, with process innovation being the most popular type of innovation. Furthermore, the OPM results revealed that several socioeconomic, institutional, and farm level factors are statistically significant in explaining farmers’ capacity for innovation. Therefore, it is essential for farm managers and policymakers to consider and incorporate these range of elements that have a positive link with innovation and are crucial for new farming ideas.

ABSTRACT The study applies the conjectural variations approach to determine whether Ugandan rice traders exercise oligopsony power in the market for domestic rice. The trader margin for milled rice is found to be 10.20% on average. Using an econometric system of four equations, the null hypothesis of competitive behaviour holds at different price elasticities of farm supply, ranging from inelastic to elastic supply. This implies that there is no evidence that rice traders apply oligopsony power when procuring milled rice from farmers. However, since the study does not examine the existence of trader bargaining power, we cannot completely rule out the existence of market power at this node of the value chain. Therefore, future studies should examine trader bargaining power to be able to ultimately determine if there is need to intervene at this segment of rice value chains to ensure competitive behaviour.

ABSTRACT This article identifies the determinants, crop productivity, and household welfare impacts of adopting certified seeds of improved cassava varieties (c-ICVs) in Uganda. The determinants were identified using the two-part model while the crop productivity and household welfare impacts were assessed using the endogenous switching regression model. The data came from 609 farm households in Uganda’s three major cassava-growing regions (Eastern, Northern, and mid-Western). The results showed that adopters of c-ICVs experienced a considerable increase in productivity (stem and root yields) and improvement in welfare outcomes (cash income and consumption expenditure). The results provide evidence of the effectiveness of the country’s seed certification and genetic improvement efforts over recent years and justify increased investments in genetic improvement and seed certification.

ABSTRACT Climate change poses a significant threat to the sustainability of agricultural production among smallholder farm households in Ethiopia. To reduce the adverse effects of climate risks, farm households have sought to adopt different adaptation strategies. This study investigates factors influencing farm households’ choice of climate adaptation strategies and associated effects on their food security in Ethiopia using data collected from 516 farm households from three regions. A multivariate probit and propensity score matching models were used to analyze data. Major adaptation strategies adopted by the farm households in the study area are planting drought-tolerant crop varieties (60%), changing the planting dates (53%), growing diversified crops (49%), and diversifying the sources of household income (45%). Results suggest that older farm household heads are more likely to use drought-tolerant crop varieties to reduce climate risks. Farm households with larger farmland size and those with more years of experience in farming are more likely to use drought-tolerant crop varieties and crop diversification strategies. Farm households with larger family size are more likely to use crop and income diversification strategies and change the planting dates against the backdrop of a high risk of climatic shocks. Membership in input supply cooperatives, frequency of contact with extension agents, and access to information on expected rainfall and temperature are positively associated with different adaptation practices adopted by farm households. Farm households who have adopted climate adaptation strategies have higher food security status (by 2.3–2.8%) compared to those who have not. Thus, the farm households’ climate adaptation practices have positive food security effects in Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT Agricultural economists have continuously raised questions about their role in the wider economy and society since the discipline's establishment. This led to continuous reinvention, development and stretching of the discipline's boundaries. We have seen the same critique by scholars in other disciplines; many of these evolved to thrive or regressed to die. This begs the question, is the agricultural economics discipline evolving and adapting to change or regressing and facing extinction? To answer this evolutionary question, I use the three key pillars that make up the hereditary material of a discipline as a conceptual framework: research, teaching and association. I use several data sets to diagnose the health of each of these pillars to ultimately comment on the health of the discipline. Our findings indicate the weakest pillar as the association. Although our research and teaching pillars are not as strong as we want them to be, we are in the process of reinforcement. In conclusion, the agricultural economics discipline is not in crisis, at least not yet. I also acknowledge that the emergence of crisis does not always lead to the end of a discipline, but it promotes educational reflection and reform to lead to disciplinary evolution.

ABSTRACT Most food insecurity studies in developing countries, including Ethiopia, use a single food security indicator to determine the food insecurity status, thus overlooking the multidimensional nature of food security. Using cross-sectional data collected from 408 households in three districts of East Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia, this study combined two food security indicators namely calorie intake and Food Consumption Score (FCS) so as to gain more insights on the multidimensional nature of food security and to categorise households into different food insecurity groups. The study further sought to identify factors influencing the households’ food insecurity status. The research findings based respectively on the per capita calorie intake and the FCS indicate that 36.03 and 49.02 percent of the sampled households were food insecure. However, the findings reveal that when the two indicators were combined, 22.06 and 40.93 percent of the households were completely food insecure and transitory food insecure respectively. These findings also suggest that the 40.93 percent (26.96 and 13.97 percent) of households categorised as food secure based on single indicators (i.e., per capita calorie intake and FCS respectively) was unrealistic. Furthermore, findings from the bivariate probit model indicate that food insecurity incidences decreased with the adoption of soil and water conservation, access to irrigation, livestock, access to fertilisers, and household income. It increased with the age of the household head, the household size, and the coping strategy index. Therefore, policies and strategies combating food insecurity should consider a combination of food security indicators.

ABSTRACT Global wheat yields must increase to meet current and rising global demand despite the increasing threats to production resulting from climate change. One climate change adaptation strategy in wheat production in the Western Cape of South Africa is conservation agriculture (CA). Using a data set of 1,043 plot-level wheat observations collected at Langgewens and Tygerhoek research farms from 2002 to 2020, this study conducts a stepwise Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental and economic impacts of switching from conventional wheat production to CA’s zero tillage (zero-till) and no-tillage (no-till) systems. The results indicate that CA is more profitable and has a higher environmental efficiency, than conventional tillage wheat production. In Langgewens, zero-till and no-till are respectively 113% and 55% more efficient than conventional tillage when comparing the environmental impact of producing one kg of wheat. Findings also suggest that, compared to 100% conventional tillage wheat production, the adoption of CA systems has led to reductions in environmental damage valued between R269.2 and R402.5 million in the Western Cape.

ABSTRACT It is well established that improving livestock productivity has the potential to boost food security, income, and employment for rural communities. While the technical efficiency of the livestock sector has been extensively studied in both developing and developed countries, few studies have analysed total factor productivity (TFP) and its components (technical change, technical, scale, and mix efficiency changes). To fill this gap this study specifically analyses the TFP growth of 26 beef cattle producing districts in Botswana using the Färe-Primont index. This index does not only allow us to understand how TFP varies amongst the districts but also how it has changed over time (between 2007 and 2014) as well as examining what has been driving that change. We also employ a feasible generalised least squares estimator for panel data to identify sources of productivity and efficiency growth. Results show that livestock TFP increased during the study period, and that this was driven by technological change, whilst efficiency change (TFPE) decreased. Further, we found that the decline in scale-and mix efficiency change (OSME) was largely responsible for the slowdown of TFPE, with a relatively smaller decline in technical efficiency change (OTE) also contributing. Districts with foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks and restricted access to export markets had lower TFP growth whilst proximity to livestock advisory centres (LAC), off-farm income, education and herd size were shown to enhance productivity and efficiency growth.