Agricultural Support Services Research Articles

Rural household access to assets and agrarian institutions : a cross country comparison

This background paper points out that access to assets and agrarian institutions is of critical importance to the economic viability of rural households. Understanding the extent of this access and how it links to the ability of rural households to employ different pathways out of poverty is thus vital for designing rural development policies. This paper characterizes household access to assets and agrarian institutions through the comparative analysis of datasets from 15 nationally representative household surveys from four regions of the developing world. The authors find that the access of rural households to a range of assets (including education, land and livestock) and institutions is in general low, though highly heterogeneous across countries, and by categories of households within countries. A large share of rural agricultural households do not use or have access to basic productive inputs, agricultural support services or output markets, and in general it is the landless and the smallest landowners who suffer significantly more from this lack of access. After the introduction the remaining sections of the paper are organized as follows. Section 2 describes the RIGA database used for the analysis and discusses the approach taken in using the data for the purposes of the paper. Section 3 then focuses on household ownership of the key assets that are considered most important for escaping poverty: household labor, education, land, livestock and infrastructure. Section 4 begins the examination of agrarian institutions by analyzing the utilization of productive inputs which the authors consider as reflecting access to and functioning of markets for such inputs. This is followed in section 5 by an examination of the participation of agricultural households in output markets. In section 6 the study characterizes the support provided to rural households in terms of technology delivery, extension services and credit access, all of which are areas where governments have historically provided support to agricultural households. Section 7 presents some concluding remarks.

Dual Technological Development in Botswana Agriculture: A Stochastic Input Distance Function Approach

To improve the welfare of the rural poor and keep them in the countryside, the government of Botswana has been spending 40% of the value of agricultural GDP on agricultural support services. But can investment make smallholder agriculture prosperous in such adverse conditions? This paper derives an answer by applying a two‐output six‐input stochastic translog distance function, with inefficiency effects and biased technical change to panel data for the 18 districts and the commercial agricultural sector, from 1979 to 1996. This model demonstrates that herds are the most important input, followed by draft power, land and seeds. Multilateral indices for technical change, technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) show that the technology level of the commercial agricultural sector is more than six times that of traditional agriculture and that the gap has been increasing, due to technological regression in traditional agriculture and modest progress in commercial agriculture. Since the levels of efficiency are similar, the same pattern is repeated by the TFP indices. This result highlights the policy dilemma of the trade‐off between efficiency and equity objectives.

La traction animale et son environnement au Burkina Faso, au Cameroun et au Sénégal

Au Burkina Faso, au Cameroun et au Sénégal, la traction animale continue sa progression dans un contexte de désengagement des Etats des filières de cultures industrielles et de libéralisation du secteur agricole. Le taux d’équipement des exploitations agricoles est stable et supérieur à 95 p. 100 depuis 25 ans dans le bassin arachidier sénégalais. Inférieur à 35 p. 100, il croît régulièrement grâce à l’action de la société cotonnière au Nord-Cameroun, tandis qu’il progresse par à coups en fonction des programmes ponctuels d’appui à l’agriculture dans la Tapoa au Burkina Faso. La privatisation des services d’appui à la traction animale assurés par des structures de l’Etat est effective au Sénégal et en cours dans les deux autres situations. Cette privatisation montre que l’approvisionnement, et l’entretien des animaux et des agroéquipements sont assurés tant bien que mal par les artisans du fer et les commerçants. En revanche, les nouveaux prestataires des services (financiers, appui/conseil, actes vétérinaires) ont des difficultés à adapter leur offre à la demande. Dans les zones les plus sèches, les conditions pluviométriques nécessitent de semer rapidement et d’effectuer précocement l’entretien des cultures. Cela explique la présence des semoirs et des houes dans le bassin arachidier sénégalais, le semis manuel sans travail du sol sur les céréales au Nord-Cameroun. Dans les zones plus humides (Tapoa au Burkina et partie méridionale du Nord-Cameroun), la période favorable à l’implantation des cultures est plus longue. Les pluies précoces favorisent la levée de la végétation qui est enfouie avant les semis par le labour aux boeufs. Cette diversité d’utilisation et d’environnement de la traction animale nécessite que le développement et la recherche adaptent leurs programmes aux différents contextes.

Land reform : what have we learned?

Land reform has been a significant part of the South African agricultural agenda since 1994 with the creation of a national Department of Land Affairs to oversee and drive this process. While much has happened in the intervening years, some might argue that in many instances the results have been far from positive. The political current that winds its way through the land redistribution process has not helped matters. Using two different examples of land reform initiatives from the Western Cape and the Free State, a brief overview of how land reform has been implemented since 1996 is provided. Both cases involve aspects of the role played by agricultural support agencies, including Department of Land Affairs officials, extension, research and non-government organisations. The purpose of the discussion is to look at what can be learned from these cases, including their similarities and dissimilarities, and in light of this knowledge consider how we can possibly proceed towards land reform for agricultural development. Ultimately land reform and specifically the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme of the Department of Land Affairs must seek to ensure the appropriate identification of beneficiaries and land. Research, extension and the new national and provincial directorates of farmer settlement must ensure that the appropriate agricultural support services are available that will result in agricultural development. The land reform process and agricultural development will only be successful if the goals and objectives are realistic. The lessons from these cases provide us with some guidance for the way forward.

Assessing the profitability of using animal traction under smallholder farming conditions

A study was carried out to assess the profitability of using draft animal power under smallholder farming conditions. The study, which was carried out in the central region of the Eastern Cape Province, revealed that most smallholder farmers in the study area use draft animals as the main source of farm power. To carry out the cost benefit analysis, six scenarios were considered. These were: The use of oxen for ploughing only; use of oxen for ploughing and carting; use of donkeys for ploughing; use of donkeys for ploughing and carting; use of horses for ploughing and the use of horses for ploughing and carting. For all scenarios, the benefit exceeds the cost and the net farm income is positive and significant. The study has confirmed that draft animal power is still a realistic and cost-effective option for improving smallholder-farming systems. Since draft animal power is an alternative, complementary technology, the necessary support is required in terms of scientific research, education, training and to provide improved agricultural support services for rural communities in South Africa.

Communication and decision making among fruit growers in the Phaswana area of Northern Province

Potential farmers identified in the study were mainly males and were of a higher socio-economic status and had greater access to agricultural resources than average households. They were still living in varying degrees of poverty and lacking agricultural support services. Decision-making was mainly male dominated, but wives played a greater role in decision implementation. It was concluded that there was a proportion of small-scale farmers who had the potential to become commercial farmers, provided the necessary institutional support was available. New strategies aimed at alleviating rural poverty, and successfully involving members of disadvantaged communities in commercial agriculture need to include land reform, capacity and institution building, scientific communication planning, as well as developing appropriate farming systems, taking cognisance of socio-cultural factors.

A PROBIT ANALYSIS OF WOMEN FARMERS' ACCESS TO FARM LAND AND CREDIT IN THE NORTHERN PROVINCE / SAMEVATTING: 'N PROBITANALISE VAN VROULIKE BOERE SE TOEGANG TOT PLAASGROND EN KREDIET IN DIE NOORDELIKE PROVINSIE

Northern Province is predominantly a rural region where agriculture is the dominant sector and plays an important role in the provincial economy. Women are the majority of the poor living in these rural areas and depend heavily on farming. But their agricultural productivity is below potential as they don't have access to productive assets such as land and credit. This study based on a farm survey undertaken in the seven districts in the former Lebowa homeland in the Northern Province, attempts to identify factors which determine women farmers's access to more farming land and credit facilities. The results show that most of the women are not satisfied with the size of the land which they own and they have never used farming credit. The probit analysis results show that productivity of the staple crop (maize), more off-farm income and access to credit are the strong determinants of the desire to increase, the size of the farming land. Access to credit is influenced by the first two variables above and farmers membership to agricultural development projects. Better access to and security for farm land, targeted credit and agricultural support services are crucial in improving the quality of women farmers in the province.

The costs and benefits of providing agricultural support services to rural households in the developing areas of South Africa

The Farmer Support Programme was introduced specifically to deal with the constraints faced by smallholder farmers in the former homeland areas of South Africa. These farmers operate largely outsid...

Governmental Priorities in Irrigation Project Selection in Indonesia

Irrigation development in Indonesia is directed at both traditional economic efficiency objectives and socioeconomic objectives related to self-sufficiency in rice production, improved income to individual farmers, and the transmigration program. The criteria used to select projects in the light of these objectives are divided into two distinct categories: physical potential and sociological suitability of the project area. The sociological suitability is related particularly to the sociopolitical support for transmigration and regional development and the readiness or ability of farmers to exploit new technical irrigation schemes. The various features (such as utilization of existing irrigation schemes in the area, productivity of farmers, irrigation efficiency, use of new technologic inputs and operation and maintenance activities in those existing fields, and the level of existing agricultural support services) that contribute to assessment of physical potential and sociological suitability of irrigation projects are examined in detail in this paper. Changes in the type and location of the irrigation projects selected for implementation occurring as a result of varying the priorities on each of the objectives are described.

Technology development and adoption rates: Systems approach for agricultural research and extension

Adoption of new technology in peasant agriculture remains lower than expected. Failure to achieve expected returns is associated more with insufficiencies in the conduct of research than with external and economic factors such as price structure or lack of agricultural support services. This article sets out the case for national agricultural research and extension structures that emphasize on-farm research with a systems approach.

Are agrobureaucracies essential? The need for direct farmer research links

The expansion of agricultural extension and support services in developing countries has created large agrobureacracies. The contribution of these to agricultural development may well be relatively modest given their low efficiency and effectiveness. Historical experience indicates that agricultural extension is not essential for agricultural development. Agricultural research is much more critical, given the rapidly growing demands for agricultural products. Induced innovation resulting in the production of the types of innovation sought by farmers seems likely to operate only weakly in developing countries. Agricultural economists and social anthropologists have certain rôles in interpreting farmers' requirements to researchers but there remains a need for direct interaction between farmers and researchers. Proposals are made for teaching and development units at research stations to provide extended courses for selected groups of farmers as one means of achieving this.