Adoption Of Improved Technologies Research Articles

Evaluating the impact of improved technology adoption in traditional poultry farming on potential outcomes of farmers: evidence from rural Togo

Evaluating the impact of improved technology adoption in traditional poultry farming on potential outcomes of farmers: evidence from rural Togo

Gender-based analysis of risk management and improved technology adoption among small-scale maize farmers in Kwara State

This study examines the gender-based analysis of risk management strategies and improved technology adoption among small-scale maize farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to: compare the risk management strategies by gender; analyze the gender-based effect of the adoption of improved varieties on output and evaluate factors influencing the adoption of improved technologies among male and female farmers in the study area. A random sampling procedure was used to select a total of 250 male and female farmers in the study area. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain the data for the study. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Propensity score matching, and logit model. The findings of the study were that: early planting was the most common risk management strategy among the men (79.86%) and women (73.12%) farmers followed by diversification, use of improved varieties and bush fallowing. The result also showed that the adoption of improved varieties increased the yield (productivity) of both male and female farmers. The factors influencing the adoption of improved among the men farmers include extension access, educational level, output and labour while for the women farmers, the price of improved seed, output, herbicide and credit availability were the factors that significantly influenced their adoption of improved varieties. The study recommended that the price of the improved seed should be made affordable for women farmers, information sharing should be encouraged among male farmers and the government should empower extension agents in sensitizing farmers on risk management strategies especially the adoption of improved crop varieties and diversification into other agricultural related activities towards improving their livelihood.

MITIGATING RISKS IN SMALLHOLDER SORGHUM (SORGHUM BICOLOR [L.] MOENCH) PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

Risks in agriculture include those related to the production, market, credit, technological, institutional, and human resource sectors; hence, low output in sorghum production is attributable to poor management practices among smallholders in Nigeria. Therefore, this study evaluated sorghum production risks and mitigation measures in small-scale farms in Toro, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Primary data collected via multi-stage sampling from 145 respondents was evaluated utilizing Descriptive Statistics and Adoption Index. The results showed the prevalent sorghum production risks include low farm output (80.7%), post-harvest losses and limited technology (69.7%), flood/drought (61.4%), damage by birds (57.2%) and commodity price volatility (53.8%). Most (98.2%) of the respondents adopted mixed cropping; this practice promotes agro-crop diversity in smallholder farming systems. Other critical mitigation measures include farm enterprise diversification (80.0%), improved technology adoption (72.4%), fertilizer application (67.6%); agrochemical application (55.9%) and improved agronomic practices (51.0%). Additionally, the adoption index of 64.8% of farmers is 0.33 or less; this index of adoption of measures of mitigating production risks was low and relatively inadequate. Furthermore, the major constraints of adoption of measures of mitigating production risks include inadequate capital (94.5%), poor access to agricultural technology and credit (73.1%), cost of adaptation strategy (69.7%) and poor input supply (51.7%). Improved access to agricultural credit and farm capital; adequate input supply and technology transfer, smallholder capacity building, improved extension and financial services; and effective policy modifications are strongly recommended.

The short and long run effects of land use consolidation programme on farm input uptakes: Evidence from Rwanda

Food security remains a major concern, as efforts to commercialise and specialise in agricultural production have been constrained. This is partly due to land scarcity, compelling smallholder farmers to operate on fragmented lands. Land reforms that seek to consolidate lands and promote crop specialisation can be welfare-enhancing because they can stimulate investment in agricultural innovation. Rwanda’s 2008 land use consolidation (LUC) programme merges parcels of land and promotes crop specialisation. After more than a decade of its implementation, the beckoning question is whether LUC programme has improved technology adoption. Relying on previous three rounds of national survey data, capturing before and after the implementation of LUC programme, this paper contributes to the literature by (1) assessing the short- and long-run relationships between LUC and improved input uptake and (2) determining what conditions could influence the way LUC impact technology adoption. The result shows that the implementation of LUC leads to uptake of agricultural inputs both in the short- and long-run, but the impact is more in the long run. While in the short run, access to finance and asset ownership act as the underlying conditioning factors, in the long run, the dominant complementary factor is access to credit. These results suggest that there might be underlying structural factors that may inhibit the influence of LUC on technology adoption and hence the attainment of the goal of food security in Rwanda.

Impacts of extension dissemination and technology adoption on farmers' efficiency and welfare in Ghana: Evidence from legume inoculant technology

Examining the welfare impact of agricultural development interventions that incorporate diffusion of improved production technologies to farmers within extension delivery programs can be very challenging, because of the difficulty in disentangling the individual impacts of the production technology and the extension delivery program. Using recent farm level survey data from extension dissemination program of legume inoculant technology of 600 farmers in Ghana, we employ a recent methodological approach to investigate, simultaneously, the impact of the inoculant technology adoption and the extension program participation on farmers' productivity, efficiency and welfare. We decompose each of these impact measures into subcomponents whose causal paths can be traced to both the adoption of the production technology and the extension delivery program. We find that, in terms of yields and net revenue, direct contribution of improved technology adoption alone is 34 and 64%, respectively, and 35 and 66% indirectly due to improved farmer efficiency, leading to 36 and 74% improvement in farmers' welfare, respectively. On the other hand, direct contribution of extension delivery program participation alone is 66 and 36%, respectively, with 66 and 34% indirectly due to improved farmer efficiency, resulting in 64 and 26% improvement in farmers' welfare, respectively. Based on the findings, we recommend that policymakers should invest in research and development to produce yield enhancing agricultural technologies suitable for poor and degraded soil conditions in developing countries which can contribute immensely to poverty and food insecurity reduction. The development of new agricultural technologies must be pursued with vigorous provision of extension services to farmers to be able to exploit the full potentials of the new technologies.

Assessing the adoption rates of improved technology in traditional poultry farming: Evidence from rural Togo

The adoption of improved agricultural technologies is known to significantly improve incomes, create more wealth, alleviate poverty and contribute to rural development in many developing countries. The Government of Togo, through the National Programme for Agricultural Investment and Food Security (PNIASAN) and the Agricultural Sector Support Project (PASA), and with financial support from the World Bank and help from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), provides assistance to smallholder farmers in improved technology adoption in traditional poultry farming (ITTPF) for wealth creation, food security and poverty alleviation. However, for any technology or emerging agricultural practices, awareness and exposure are necessary conditions for their adoption. And because these two factors are not distributed randomly in the population of potential adopters, not taking them into account will lead to estimates of population adoption rates that are not informative of the true demand for the technology, and to inconsistent estimates of the parameters of the adoption model. In this study, we evaluate the adoption rates of ITTPF among farmers in Togo. Data was collected from 400 farmers in 2014, prior to the introduction of ITTPF, and again five years later. This data was then analysed using inverse propensity score weighting and parametric estimation of adoption regression models. The results of the estimates indicate that the average treatment effect (𝐴𝑇𝐸), which represents the mean potential adoption rate of the population, is 57%, the average treatment effect on the treated (𝐴𝑇𝐸𝑇), which represents the mean potential adoption rate in the exposed subpopulation, is 60%, the population mean joint exposure and adoption rate (𝐽𝐸𝐴) is 13%, and the population selection bias (𝑃𝑆𝐵) is 3%. The sample adoption rate (𝐽𝐸𝐴) implies a population adoption gap of -47% due to a lack of exposure and adoption by a sufficient size of the population. The 𝑃𝑆𝐵 is insignificant and indicates that all the sampled farmers had an almost equal opportunity of adopting ITTPF. The study reveals that the sample adoption rate does not consistently estimate the true population adoption rate. Hence, controlling for non-exposure and selection biases is a perquisite to acquiring consistent estimates of ITTPF adoption rates. The findings indicate a relatively high supply-demand gap for ITTPF that justifies investment in its further dissemination and adoption in Togo for optimal positive impact on potential outcomes and the welfare of farmers.

Determinants of Technology Adoption and Intensity of Adoption among Rice Farming Households in Ogun State, Nigeria.

Purpose: Production and productivity of the agricultural sector in SSA is low due to low technological adoption and techniques among others. One of the major goals of Nigerian agriculture development programs and policies is transition from low productivity subsistence agriculture to a high productivity agro-industrial economy through improved technology adoption.
 Methodology: A multi-stage sampling technique was used in this study to select 158 rice farming households The first stage involved the purposive selection of two Agricultural Development programme zones (Ikenne and Abeokuta zones) in the state. The second stage was purposive selection of two blocks per zone based on the concentration of rice farmers. Six farming cells were randomly selected from each block making a total of twenty-four (24) farming community, seven rice farmers were randomly selected from each farming cell giving a sample size of 168 rice farmers. A set of structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Out of the 168-questionnaire administered 158 of it were gotten and used for the study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, adoption index, tobit regression model.
 Findings: Technologies adoption was high among the young farmers than the older farmers. The household size was also a determinant factor of technology adoption. As the household increases in size, there is high probability that all the production technologies will be adopted. Access to credit facility was found to be positive and significant in all the production technologies available to the rice farmers.
 Recommendations: It was recommended that the young people should be encouraged to modern technologies available for rice production, the farmers should be educated on modern technologies in the production of rice. Credit facilities should be made available for the farm household.

Factors Influencing Adoption of Agricultural Technologies amongst African Development Bank Community Based Agriculture and Rural Development Project Beneficiaries in Nigeria

The Nigerian agricultural sector is characterized by low level of technology adoption which in turn contributes to the low agricultural productivity in the country. This is indeed worrisome given the plethora of interventions by successive governments, multi-lateral and donor agencies working to implement several programmes aimed at promoting technology adoption among farmers. This study examines factors which influence adoption of modern agricultural production technologies among African Development Bank-Community Based Agriculture and Rural Development Programme (AfDB-CBARDP) beneficiaries in Nigeria. To achieve this objectives, Multi stage sampling technique was employed where a total of 1020 farmers/Project beneficiaries across the 5 Project Implementing Units were selected. The data was estimated using the logit regression. The use of the logit model for this analysis is consistent with the literature on adoption (see for instance Griliches, 1957). Result of the maximum likelihood estimates of the Logit regression model has indicated that the relationship between income and improved technology adoption was shown to be positive and statistically significant. Farming experience was also positively related to adoption of the improved technologies and statistically significant at 1% level. The study also reveals that adoption of improved farming technologies increases with credit availability. Farm size on the other hand was negatively related to adoption of fertilizer technology but positively related to seed, post-harvest and livestock improvement technologies at 1% significant level. Correspondingly, the coefficients for improved seed and livestock technologies were positively related to the farmer’s age at 5% significant level. The findings of the study further revealed that profitability of the enterprise is the major reason for technology adoption by the beneficiaries and is considered very important (3.7*). Output/yield and product marketability was the second and most important reasons for technology adoption having a weighted mean scores value of 3.1* and 3.3* respectively. Likewise, among the bundles of technology disseminated under crop sub sector, varietal attributes related to early maturity was adjudged to be important motive for the adoption (2.7*). Inaccessibility of the technology or high cost of production were cited prominently as the main reasons for non-adoption of a particular technology (*Reason ≥2.5). These findings have important implication. The availability of modern agricultural production technologies to end users, and the capacities of end users to adopt and utilize these technologies should always be consider when scaling up innovation practices.

SPATIAL TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION AMONGST AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK COMMUNITY BASED AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME BENEFICIARIES IN NIGERIA

Improved technology adoption for agricultural transformation and poverty reduction is critical in modern day agriculture. The study examined spatial distribution of technology adoption among African Development Bank-Community Based Agriculture and Rural Development Programme (AfDB-CBARDP) beneficiaries in Nigeria. Multi stage sampling procedure was employed where a total of 1020 farmers/Project beneficiaries across the 5 project implementing units (PIU) were selected. The data was estimated using descriptive statistics. The result obtained indicated that the mean value across the states for improved seed, post-harvest, dry season and fertilizer application technologies adoption stood at 83.7%, 81.9%, 75.8% and 51.8%. Similarly, the mean adoption rates for improved livestock, and fisheries technologies were reported to be 68.7%, and 50.6%, respectively. On a state-by-state basis, the weighted mean rates of adoption for all the agricultural technologies indicated that Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and Kwara have 58.0%, 70.2%, 66.9%, 67.7 and 50.0% respectively. The findings of the study revealed that the mean adoption rate among females Project beneficiaries for post-harvest technologies like multi-purpose threshers, rice dehaulers, rice milling, groundnut extractors, hammer milling machines and grinding machines were appreciably higher having percentage values of 66.3%, 56.2%, 70.1%, 60.1%, 59.1% and 54.9% respectively. In the same vein, distribution of technology adoption reveals that adoption of seed, fertilizer and post-harvest technologies ranked highest than fishery technologies across the Project implementing units. Technology adoption on gender basis further revealed that Groundnut, cowpea, and soybean technologies were highly adopted among participating male than female farmers. Concurrently, the study indicated an appreciable level of agricultural technology adoption across the Project implementing units. However, the mean adoption rate of Artificial Insemination technologies was low (25.5%) having fell short of the 40% before a farmer is considered to be an adopter. The study recommended among others that where the overall adoption rate is lower, further research is required to identify the key constraints to adoption so that corrective measures can be found which can be used to improve adoption of future AfDB-CBARDP supported technologies.

Gains from Improved Technology Adoption in Disadvantaged Regions: Evidences from Bundelkhand Region

This paper explores the status and determinants of technology adoption in terms of shifting towards high yielding varieties, micro-irrigation and mechanization in Bundelkhand zone of the country. Bundelkhand is a water scarce area of the country and needs policy interventions in the form of efficient water utilization and enhanced production. The results indicated that despite least adoption of sprinkler in the region, micro-irrigation has resulted in water use conservation and improved yields and in comparison to conventional irrigation method. The findings revealed that, age, income from cultivation, possession of MGNREGA job card and membership of any local and village level organization had a considerable impact regarding the decision to adopt improved agricultural varieties and micro-irrigation implying that the security nets provided in any form motivates the households to adopt improved technology. Size of operated land, income from non-agricultural activities along with possession of Kissan Credit Card were the significant factors in case of farm mechanisation.

A Review on Empowering Farmers through Technology Adoption towards Poverty Alleviation in Developing Countries

Poverty alleviation is critical to improving the living standards of communities that earn less than $1 per day; the majority of them work in agriculture in developing countries. Lack of technological adoption is a significant factor influencing agricultural performance and minimizes the income of the poor rural community in many developing countries. The primary goal of this paper is to empirically validate the link between empowerment and technology adoption in the context of poverty alleviation. The current study conducted a review study to assess the influence of empowerment and technology adoption on poverty alleviation within the agricultural community in developing nations from 2010 to 2020, identified 11 studies that fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Technology adoption can empower individuals and alleviate poverty in many ways. The cumulative impact of technology interventions on empowerment is determined by how these factors interact independently and cohesively. Improved technology adoption is essential, but it is not enough to prevent poverty at the domestic level. Agriculture science and technology, community development approaches, policies, and systematic structure need to address poverty alleviation. The empowerment approach provides a holistic vision of sustainable community development. Finally, empowerment is essential for poverty alleviation through technology adoption in developing countries.

Gauging the impact of Ethiopia’s productive safety net programme on agriculture: Application of targeted maximum likelihood estimation approach

AbstractThe Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is Ethiopia's poverty reduction strategy that forms the most important pillar of the country's agricultural transformation into a more productive and competitive sector. However, the extent to which the PSNP is linked to agriculture is unclear. This paper evaluates the impact of the PSNP on a range of agricultural outcomes. We use data from the Living Standard Measurement Study—Integrated Survey on Agriculture and apply the targeted maximum likelihood estimation method. We find no evidence that PSNP participation improved technology adoption, time spent in agriculture, household‐level access to agricultural services, or women's control over agricultural assets. However, PSNP participation increased access to credit, the share of non‐farm income, hours spent on casual work, community access to irrigation water, ownership of agricultural tools, community service in crop and livestock production, natural resource management, and access to credit. We also observe that PSNP households have a lower level of endowments compared to non‐PSNP households. Given the observed lack of impact on household‐level agricultural outcomes, we recommend integrating household‐level interventions, such as increasing the transfer size and provision of productive assets, that could lift household endowments above an asset threshold that would allow the productive use of community assets. This may boost the productive impact of the PSNP at the household level, facilitate agricultural development and economic growth. To generate additional insights, we recommend further research with sufficient data on the causal pathways between safety nets and agriculture.

The impact of demonstration plots on improved agricultural input purchase in Tanzania: Implications for policy and practice.

In this paper, the authors use survey data from over 800 households to examine the impact of demonstration plots and associated activities (distribution of small packs of agricultural inputs) on smallholder farmers’ decisions to buy agricultural inputs in Tanzania. Using propensity score matching and inverse probability-weighted adjustment models, the authors estimated the effect of access to demonstration plots alone and demonstration plots combined with small packs of agricultural inputs on a household’s decision to purchase improved inputs. The results indicate that access to demonstration plots and demonstration plots with small packs increased the probability of purchasing improved inputs by 13–17 percentage points. This paper suggests that demonstration plots and demonstration plots with small packs are an effective model for enhancing improved technology adoption and are further increased when those inputs are available within a 5km radius. The results point to the importance of strengthening farmers’ organizations and last-mile agricultural input suppliers in order to enhance and facilitate access to information, appropriate production techniques, and improved inputs. The results also indicate the importance of investing in infrastructure to reduce transportation costs that limit market efficiency for appropriate technologies.

Opportunity and Constraints of Beekeeping in Horo District, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

The study was aimed at identifying potential opportunities and constraints of beekeeping in Horo district, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. Formal and informal survey methods were used to collect information of secondary data and response on structured questionnaires. For the study 30 household beekeepers from each kebele at total of one hundred eighty households were selected randomly from both highland and midland agro-ecology. From 180 household head interviewed 98.9% were male headed and the rest 1.1% were female headed households. 90% of respondents attended primary and junior school level education. The major opportunities to engage on honeybee beekeeping were presence of governmental organization and Non-governmental Organization that works on beekeeping towards its improvement, readiness of beekeepers to accept new technology, presence of huge numbers of honeybee colony, availability of lending institutions, beekeepers' experience, soil and water conservation practices of the area, abundant honeybee forages, sufficient water sources for honeybees and marketing situation of honeybee products. Whereas, the major constraints that affects beekeeping in the district were pesticide and herbicide application (17.8%), pests (16.1%), beekeeping equipment (14.4%), shortage of bee forage (11.7%), lack of improved beehive (10%), migration (7.8%), Absconding (7.2%), lack of extension services (5.6%), swarming (3.9%) and dearth of bee colony (2.2%). Generally, the high potential is manifested with abundance of honeybees, availability of honeybee flora, demand of honeybee product in market and experience of honey beekeeper in the areas. These potentials were under exploited due to existence of constraints demanding immediate intervention, particularly on improved technology adoption and frequent improvement of beekeepers knowledge and skill is mandatory.

Production, Marketing And Future Prospects of Kiwifruit in Nepal

Kiwifruit is one of the leading agriculture commodities having tremendous potential of export to the international market. Nepal offers suitable topography, climate and soil for profitable production of kiwifruit having unique taste, precocity and high nutritive and medicinal values. This study attempts to analyze the production trend, export and import, current scenario and future prospects of kiwifruit in Nepal. Findings shows that the production of kiwifruit is in increasing trend with an average annual growth rate of 46.5% from fiscal year 2014/15 to 2016/17 in Nepal. The commercialization of Nepalese kiwifruit is still in the state of infancy. Even though possessing passable shot in local and the global market, country yet produces small-scale of kiwifruit. The main challenges include inadequate scientific research on kiwifruit, lack of adoption of improved technology, insufficient investment, and poor-quality planting material, unstable prices and profit margins along with inappropriate market channels. Thus, to fortify kiwifruit subsector, it is recommended to focus on strategy of improving kiwifruit productivity with conventional mechanization, improved technology adoption, price intervention, market recognition, establishment of storage and processing centers and diplomatic relations for convenient global marketing.
 Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 8(2): 179-186

Influential safety technology adoption predictors in construction

PurposeExisting literature suggests that construction worker safety could be optimized using emerging technologies. However, the application of safety technologies in the construction industry is limited. One reason for the constrained adoption of safety technologies is the lack of empirical information for mitigating the risk of a failed adoption. The purpose of this paper is to fill the research gap through identifying key factors that predict successful adoption of safety technologies.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 26 key technology adoption predictors were identified and classified using a combination of literature review and an expert panel. The level of influence for each identified safety technology adoption predictor was assessed and ranked using the Relative Importance Index. Analysis of variance was performed as well to assess the potential difference in perceived level of importance for the predictors when the study participants were clustered according to work experience and company size.FindingsStatistical analysis indicates that 12 out of the 26 predictors identified are highly influential regarding technology adoption decision-making in construction. Technology reliability, effectiveness and durability were ranked as the most influential predictors. The participants who work for small companies and who had less than ten years of experience rated individual- and technology-related predictors significantly lower than the experienced participants working for medium and large companies.Practical implicationsThe present study provides construction researchers and practitioners with valuable information regarding safety technology predictors and their magnitude, both of which are essential elements of a successful safety technology adoption process. Improved technology adoption can enhance workplace safety and minimize worker injuries, providing substantial benefits to the construction industry.Originality/valueThis study contributes to technology adoption knowledge by identifying and quantifying the influential predictors of safety technologies in relation to different organizational contexts. The study informs the need to develop an integrated conceptual model for safety technology adoption.

English

This paper examines determinants of faba bean varieties adoption in Enda-Mehoni district using a cross-sectional data collected from 223 sample households. An interview schedule was employed to collect the data and presented using frequency, percentage and mean. We employed t-test and χ2-test statistics to see the significant difference between adopter and non-adopter and a binary logit model to know the influence of explanatory variables on faba bean varieties adoption. The findings reveal that the decision to adopt improved faba bean varieties is positively influenced by annual farm income and training obtained but negatively influenced by residents of the household heads. The study concludes that adoption decision was found to be a combination of economic, physical and institutional variables of the farmers. Hence, the understanding of the significant factors that lead farmers to adopt improved faba bean is imperative in policy design and implementation for further improved technology adoption in the area. In addition, providing appropriate training, improving the annual farm income and targeting domains of faba bean producing areas will contribute to improved faba bean varieties adoption in the district. Key words: Adoption, binary logit, faba bean. &nbsp

Practices of Low Carbon Economy in China: Challenges and Opportunities for Economic Development

Global warming is a major concern in the globalized world in the aspect of industrialization. Low carbon practices are the major strategies to control global warming. Low carbon economy is the fundamental pattern of the mainstream economy in the perspective of ecology. The aim of this study is to explore the status of low carbon economy of China through assessing low carbon practices. It also finds out the challenges and opportunities of low carbon practices for sustainable economic development. An extensive literature review with meta-analysis has been done considering various indicators of low carbon practices. The study explores that China already adopted some policy, strategy, and practices regarding low carbon economy. China already set its policy regarding control of carbon emission by 2030. Research and innovation in low carbon practices, low carbon industrial structure, low carbon technology adoption and emphasizes on environmental sustainability are the major initiatives of China for low carbon economy. Major challenges regarding low carbon practices are heavy pressure on carbon emission, heavy industrialization, extensive development stream, resource endowment, unplanned industrial structure and trade, and confusion regarding industrial transformation. This study suggests that vigorous and efficient planning in industrialization, improved technology adoption, ecological consideration in every project and sufficient finance are necessary to obtain better low carbon economy in China.

Limitations of Contract Farming as a Pro-poor Strategy: The Case of Maize Outgrower Schemes in Upper West Ghana

Summary Contract farming (CF) arrangements have the potential to address market failures and improve technology adoption, productivity, and welfare. In Ghana, government and donors use CF as a strategy for increasing adoption of new agricultural technologies and developing value chains. Yet to date, there has not been a rigorous assessment of these CF schemes. The focus in this paper is on different maize-based CF schemes in the poorest and most remote region in Ghana. It assesses the profitability and potential impact of these CF schemes, utilizing a unique plot-level dataset that covers two periods of data and two maize plots (scheme and non-scheme) per household, and employing matching techniques and an instrumental variable approach to address selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity across farmers. These are complemented by a community-level survey, in-depth interviews with scheme operators, and a series of key informant interviews. Results show that these schemes led to improved technology adoption and yield increases. In addition, a subset of maize farmers with high yield improvements due to CF participation have high profits. Maize CF schemes also enabled market coordination and consistent supply of quality maize to downstream industries. However, on average, the impact of the CF schemes on profitability is negative, even when input diversion is accounted for. Yield increases are not high enough to compensate for higher input requirements and the cost of capital under the schemes. Despite higher yields, the costs to produce one metric tonne of maize under CF schemes are higher than on maize farms without CF schemes, twice that of several countries in Africa, and more than seven times higher than that of major maize-exporting countries (the United States, Brazil, and Argentina). Sustainability of these CF schemes will largely depend on developing and promoting much-improved varieties and technologies that boost yields in order to compensate for the high input and credit costs.

Rural Poverty in Botswana: A Gendered Analysis

We model the determinants of rural poverty in Botswana by conducting an empirical analysis of household welfare using the 2009/10 Botswana Core Welfare Indicator survey (BCWIS) to identify such factors associated with rural poverty. The paper found that female headed households, especially those residing in rural areas have higher incidences of poverty than male headed households. The study also found male-headed households, education, employment, livestock ownership and access to amenities as factors that positively related with welfare for all rural households and the results were consistent across both FHHs and MHHs models, except for a few factors such as livestock ownership. Household size and dependency ratios negatively related with welfare. However, dependency ratio did not influence welfare amongst MHHs since such households are characterised by fewer dependents unlike the FHHs. characteristics variables and thus public policy should focus on such factors in addressing rural poverty, especially among FHHs. Creation of employment opportunities in rural areas is key in helping the government in its poverty eradication efforts in rural areas. The paper also concludes that FHHs in rural area must be made a special target of poverty eradication programmes, and a well focused gender specific intervention for poverty eradication initiatives is needed. Moreover, rural development strategies should emphasize the provision of agricultural infrastructure, promotion of agricultural productivity growth through improved technology adoption, as well as provision of basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity in rural areas.