Enhance Farm Income Research Articles

Small Scale Irrigation Farming Adoption as a Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice and Its Impact on Household Income in Ethiopia. A Review Paper

Small-scale irrigated farming has been offered as a climate-smart agriculture technology to boost production and diversify livelihood scenarios as an option to mitigate climate change and variability. Small-scale irrigation as a climate-smart agriculture strategy is one of the most important adaptation options for increasing agricultural production in rural areas, stabilizing agricultural production and productivity, and mitigating the negative effects of variable or insufficient rainfall. The reviewed literature showed that the adoption of small-scale irrigation farming as a climate-smart agriculture practice has a significant positive influence on farming income. Small-scale irrigation practice increases the adaptive capacity of households by enhancing farm income. Small-scale irrigation users are better off in crop production that enhances household income and enables buffer against climate variability compared with non-users. Small-scale irrigation is an important strategy in reducing risks associated with both rainfall variability production of different crops twice or three times within a year and increasing income of rural farm-households. Farmers' age, distance to market, and formal employment all negatively influence small-scale irrigation adoption. Off-farm employment, irrigation equipment, access to reliable water supplies, and awareness of water conservation practices all positively promote Small-scale irrigation adoption. As a result, governments and other key stakeholders should consider strengthening small-scale irrigated farming in rural families as climate smart agriculture. Keywords: CSA, Small-scale irrigation adoption, household income, livelihood. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-17-02 Publication date: September 30 th 2021

Additional Income Generation from Cultivation of Summer Mungbean in Rice-Wheat System of Haryana

Background: Mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek], also known as green gram is cultivated on area of 4.75 million ha in kharif and rabi/ spring seasons as monocrop or intercrop in India. It serves as a major source of dietary protein for the vast majority of vegetarian people in the country. Mungbean contributed 10.03 per cent of total pulses production (23.40 million tonnes) in the country with productivity level of 494 kg ha-1 in 2018-19. The pulses cultivation in Haryana is almost eliminated in kharif season owing to deviation of area towards cotton, cluster bean and pearlmillet because of low profitability. However, the new window opens for cultivation of mungbean in rice-wheat cropping system in summer season to generate additional farm income and to improve soil health. The area under summer mungbean in state was around 64 thousand ha with the production of 50 thousand tonnes and the average productivity of 780 kg/ha during 2017-18. Although rice-wheat system provides better farm returns, but it has imposed threat to soil health, availability and contamination of ground water, weed and biotic stress management. Methods: The data pertains to costs and returns from summer mungbean cultivation was gathered from 60 mungbean cultivators of Hisar, Kurukshetra and Panipat districts of Haryana having adequate irrigation water availability adopting personal interaction approach in 2018-19. Simple budgeting technique was employed to draw practical implications which ultimately help to take favourable policy decisions for enhancing acreage of summer mungbean. Result: The inquiry profound that mungbean cultivation in summer season particularly in rice-wheat was established as additional income generation farm enterprise. The net benefits accrued from short duration varieties of mungbean over variable cost was Rs. 31831 ha-1 with time span of 60-70 days by utilizing fallow land in summer season. The B-C ratio toiled considering expenses incurred on variable resources with value of 2.99 divulges economic viability of mungbean cultivation in the study area. It is imperative from results that cultivation of short duration cultivars of mungbean is viable option to enhance farm income, restoration of diminishing soil fertility owing to adoption of continuous rice-wheat rotation by inherent characteristics of converting atmospheric nitrogen. Distinctive efforts are essential to evolve mungbean cultivars suitable to prevailing cropping system in Haryana and assure market procurement. The exploration of mungbean cultivation will reduce dependency on import and improve net availability of pulses in India.

The Role of the Common Agricultural Policy in Enhancing Farm Income: A Dynamic Panel Analysis Accounting for Farm Size in Italy

AbstractAs a multi‐objective policy, the EU Common Agricultural Policy continues to secure significant income support for farmers as one of the nine specific objectives. We estimate the income transfer efficiency of a broad set of pivotal policy measures, focusing on the effects of farm structure on income transfer efficiency. We use dynamic modelling, based on a micro‐data panel of Italian farms for the period 2008–2014, allowing for endogeneity, simultaneity bias, and omitted variables. In line with previous studies and economic expectations, we find that decoupled direct payments provide the highest contribution to agricultural incomes, followed by agri‐environmental payments and on‐farm investment subsidies. Coupled payments have no significant impacts on farmers’ income. Generally, for all analysed Common Agricultural Policy measures, large farms benefit from greater transfer efficiency levels compared with medium and small farms. These differences among instruments and across farms suggest that policy‐participation costs may play a pivotal role, together with the economic structure of farms, in determining the income transfer efficiency of CAP policies.

The Key Factors to Augment Groundnut Farm Income in Gujarat: TFP Growth and Market Support

This paper has provided insights on the returns to investment in groundnut research and sources of productivity in Gujarat state from 1990-91 to 2011-12. Two outputs and ten inputs have been used to construct total output, total input and total factor productivity index using Tornqvist Theil Index technique. Compound growth rates were worked out using semi-log trend equation. Although the area under groundnut decreased yet, the production and productivity increased significantly at the rate of 5.10 and 5.24 per cent per annum, respectively during the study period. The groundnut registered higher TFP growth of about 2.21 per cent per annum in last two and half decades resulting in annual decline of 0.27 per cent in real cost of production. The Investment on groundnut research generated 27.10 per cent IRR thus, found to be a highly paying proposition. The growth in TFP was remarkably increased in nineties largely contributed by the release of groundnut varieties viz., GG-2 in 1986, GG-20 and GG-12 in 1991, GG-13 in 1994. The government expenditure on research, extension education, irrigation infrastructure and rainfall generated significant returns. The steady growth in TFP needs to be maintained by enhancing the resources which have contributed to productivity. More public and private investments, in under developed regions of the state are needed to strengthen agricultural research and rural infrastructure. The sufficient procurement at MSP is essential to enhance farm income.

Coconut farmer producer organisation in socio-economic transformation of rural economy in Karnataka

Coconut sector consisting of small and marginal farmers with fragmented landholdings have limited collective bargaining power to realise remunerative prices. In this regard, farmer producer organisations (FPOs) are considered as one of the effective ways to enhance farmer's competitiveness and their socio-economic conditions. This paper, using a descriptive case study with analytical approach, explored socio-economic contribution of coconut FPOs in Karnataka, India to its member farmers, employees, and other stakeholders of rural areas. The statistical tests find a positive impact of social issues on curbing migration from rural to urban (1st rank), unemployment and underemployment (2nd rank), poverty alleviation (3rd rank), gender inequality (4th rank), by coconut FPOs. Similarly, the study finds a positive impact of economic concerns in realising remunerative prices (1st rank), availing inputs at economical costs (2nd rank), enhancing farm income (3rd rank), and facilitating to access credit in rural economies (4th rank). Therefore, the study recommends farmer producer organisation as an ideal mechanism to bring socio-economic transformation in the rural economy.

Coconut farmer producer organisation in socio-economic transformation of rural economy in Karnataka

Coconut sector consisting of small and marginal farmers with fragmented landholdings have limited collective bargaining power to realise remunerative prices. In this regard, farmer producer organisations (FPOs) are considered as one of the effective ways to enhance farmer's competitiveness and their socio-economic conditions. This paper, using a descriptive case study with analytical approach, explored socio-economic contribution of coconut FPOs in Karnataka, India to its member farmers, employees, and other stakeholders of rural areas. The statistical tests find a positive impact of social issues on curbing migration from rural to urban (1st rank), unemployment and underemployment (2nd rank), poverty alleviation (3rd rank), gender inequality (4th rank), by coconut FPOs. Similarly, the study finds a positive impact of economic concerns in realising remunerative prices (1st rank), availing inputs at economical costs (2nd rank), enhancing farm income (3rd rank), and facilitating to access credit in rural economies (4th rank). Therefore, the study recommends farmer producer organisation as an ideal mechanism to bring socio-economic transformation in the rural economy.

Integrated fish cum pig farming system for enhancing farm income in Assam

Integrated fish cum pig farming system for enhancing farm income in Assam

Crop + dairy + poultry farming system model for enhanced farm income in high altitude and tribal area of Andhra Pradesh

Crop + dairy + poultry farming system model for enhanced farm income in high altitude and tribal area of Andhra Pradesh

Impact of climate smart agriculture (CSA) through sustainable irrigation management on Resource use efficiency: A sustainable production alternative for cotton

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) improves agricultural productivity and enhance farm income on a sustainable basis, enhance water and nutrients use efficiency, resilient to climatic stresses, and lowering the emissions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) to a minimum level. Water-smart, energy-smart, carbon-smart and knowledge-smart practices and technologies significantly contributed directly or indirectly to improve productivity, enhance resilience and reduce GHG emission. Cotton is one of the important cash crops of Pakistan. It is a climate sensitive crop and suffered by multiple shocks as climate change and market discrepancies during the last two decades. The present paper aimed to estimate and compare the resource use efficiency including technical, economic and water use efficiency of adopters of CSA and non-adopters in cotton production. The study was conducted along Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC) irrigation system in Punjab, Pakistan. First-hand information was gathered through a well-structured and comprehensive questionnaire from 133 adopters of CSA and 65 farmers cultivating cotton with traditional methods. Input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis technique was employed to investigate the technical, economic and water use efficiency, assuming variable return to scale. The Bootstrap Truncated Regression was used to identify the factors influencing the resource use efficiency. The results showed that the adopters of CSA were using inputs more efficiently. The analysis revealed that adopters have higher cotton yield from per m3 irrigation water than non-adopters. Adopters were found to be financially sound, having easy access to credit and fast adaptation behavior towards environmental changes, and therefore, economically better off as compared to non-adopters. Bootstrap Truncated Regression analysis revealed that easy access to credit, provision of extension services, awareness regarding CSA, availability of good quality groundwater and right of ownership of tubewell were significantly affecting resource use efficiency. The finding suggested certain policy implications for creating awareness and financial support for the cotton growers to expedite the adaptation of CSA practices and technologies in the cotton growing area. This can enhance resource use efficiency, net farm income and livelihood of rural masses.

Impact of Improved Soybean Variety on Enhancing Productivity and Gross Farm Income of Smallholder Farmers in North Western Ethiopia

Adoption of improved nutrient rich industrial crops have an impact on increasing agricultural productivity, enhancing farm income, improving the nutrition and food security status of smallholder farmer in Ethiopia. The main objective of this study was to determine factors affecting the adoption of improved soybean varieties and to measure its impact on increasing soybean productivity as well as farm income of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The study applied logit regression model and propensity score matching methods (PSM) to determine the factors affecting adoption of improved soybean Variety and to measure its impact on the productivity and farm income enhancement at smallholder farmers’ level. Total 167 soybean producers (100 were local soybean producer and 67 were improved soybean producers) were taken using systematic and random sampling methods. The result of logit regression showed that member of any community leadership, training on soybean production; know peoples who planted improved soybean variety and main source of information about the production and marketing of soybean were the main factors determining adoption of improved soybean variety in the study area. The PSM result revealed that adoption of improved soybean variety showed statistically significance and positive effect on the increasing of productivity and farm income of improved soybean variety beneficiary which brought 5% and 15% of increment in income and soybean productivity over the controlled groups respectively. This research suggests that adoptions of improved agricultural technologies are a means of poverty reduction as well as ensuring economic welfare of smallholder farmers. Therefore, governmental authorities, NGOs, policy maker and planners should be focused on the expanding and addressing of these improved agricultural technologies over all the countries. Keywords : Adoption, impact, improved soybean variety, Income, productivity, PSM DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-15-04 Publication date : August 31 st 2019

Maximising farm profitability through entrepreneurship development and farmers' innovations: Feasibility analysis and action interventions

The focus of capacity building has been shifting from primarily production to agri-business, based on market-led integration and developing other value chains aiming at enhancing farmers' income. It requires identification and supporting of rural enterprises through technology and skill training, entrepreneurship training, market information, access to institutionalized credit, and other infrastructure related facilities.The need for appreciation of farmers as actors in the innovation system, and institutionalization of farmers' wisdom for their scalability has been realized at most levels. To develop farming as a business venture and to integrate the farmers' innovations and opportunities in secondary agriculture an action research study has been conducted in National Capital region of India. Institutional arrangement for facilitation of networking among stakeholders and resources was opined as the foremost requirement for enhancing farm income. The skills in social processes of group management and enterprise management were found lacking among the farmers. The entrepreneurial and technical trainings led to income generating activities. The price spread in major commercial crops showed that the longer chain reduced the producers' share in consumer rupee drastically which implies the production linkages need to be developed with involvement of all the stakeholders. Through the lessons and opinion of respondents, maximizing farm profitability was found to be interplay of entrepreneurial competencies, entrepreneurial climate, and farmers' innovations which suggest convergence and synergistic linkages.

Terrorism, military operations and farmer’s income in Waziristan (Pakistan)

This study examined the impact of military operations induced by terrorism on farmer’s income by collecting data from North and South Waziristan Agencies in Pakistan. Both regions have similar climate, lifestyle and agricultural activities but North was facing war while there was no war on terrorism in South. Data were collected from 110 respondents through interviews by using structured questionnaire. In estimated models, North Waziristan farmers’ income was significantly lower than the South Waziristan farmers due to military operation induced by terrorism. Government of Pakistan can enhance farm income by promoting education, livestock, orchard farming, market access and extension services.

Farm Mechanization in Himachal Pradesh: Constraints, Status and its Role in Augmenting Farm Incomes

The present study sought to assess the status of mechanization in the state, and the concomitant constraints and to examine its role in reducing costs and hence enhance farm incomes. The results of this investigation showed that there is proliferation of the marginal holdings in the state as marginal farmers account for about 70 percent of the total holdings with meagre average holding size of 0.41 ha. The average number of parcels per holding in the state is more than double than that at the national level. These tiny holdings limit the scope of farm mechanization. The use of electricity in agriculture, as a proportion of total energy sold, is around one percent in Himachal Pradesh. The overall extent of farm mechanization in the state in terms of the number of agricultural implements per 1000 ha of gross cropped area, increased continuously from 1.543 machines in 1972–73 to 76.817 in 2011–12. The number of tractors and power tillers per 1000 ha of net sown area also increased from 0.06 in 1972 to 17.74 till 2002. The field evidence suggests that use of power tiller led to the reduction of cost to the tune of about 95 and 208 percent over hired bullock pair and owned bullock pair, respectively for land preparation and sowing purposes. This calls for more incentives towards farm mechanization so as to boost commercial farming in the state by laying more stress on high tech, precision, labour saving, farm machinery and tools.

Economic Viability of Soil Resource Mapping and its Use in Enhancing Farm Income — A Case Study of Garakahalli Micro Watershed in Karnataka

The priority of government in enhancing farm income of historically low-yield areas in semiarid tracts of Karnataka is focused on increasing the efficiency in crop productivity and natural resource use. The land resource inventory is basically aimed at deriving comprehensive information on natural resources for designing micro-level land-use planning and for enhancing land productivity and farm income. In view of this, This paper has explored the economic viability of generating the soil survey information (1:12,500 scale) to minimize the cost of production thorough site-specific nutrient management in Garakahalli microwatershed, Karnataka. The study has shown that the per hectare cost of improved method of soil survey (using PAN+LISS III imagery) was higher at 264 over conventional method of soil survey costing 337. Improved method of soil survey can minimize the cost up to 22 per cent in field survey. The economic viability of soil map was assessed by estimating fertilizer requirement with and without soil information. The impact in change in fertilizer application of finger millet production on the basis of soil information can reduce application of nitrogen by 5265 kg and of phosphorus by 4661 kg with improvement of 1054 quintals of yield with economic benefits of 8.43 lakh in the watershed area of 527 ha. The study has found that the benefits of soil survey in site-specific fertilizer management in finger millet are reflected in the Benefit Cost Ratio 1:2.85 and the additional income due to soil management of 1600 per ha. The soil information is useful in minimizing fertilizer cost and enhancing farm income. The investment in soil survey and fertility management is economically viable at the watershed level.

Towards Doubling Farm Income: Myths or Reality for the North East Hilly Region

Farming systems in north-eastern states are complex and characterized with high degree of risk and uncertainty. At household level, particularly in upland conditions, the farming systems are highly diverse with multiple crops (mixed cropping), but at aggregate level the cropping pattern is skewed to paddy only. At the aggregate level, the extent of crop diversification appeared quite low in the north-eastern states. But, at the micro-level, the studies indicate the possibility of a very high level of crop diversification, particularly at highland regions. This dichotomy is prevailing in the north-east agriculture. Improvement of farming system through selection and promotion of suitable crop-mix in compliance with the existing socioeconomic as well as topographical situations would certainly enhance farm income. However, those crops were mostly cultivated at a very small scale and the economies of scales were restricted as those farm lands were primarily managed by the family labour and the scope of farm mechanization was limited. There is a growing need for prioritization of sub-sectors with potential of short-term as well as long-term growth and framing strategies to sustain these growths through appropriate institutional support and public- private partnership (PPP). The process will help reduce economic inequality and provide social stability where the voice of local community will be the major guiding force.

Identifying different potential areas for enhancing farm income

Agriculture has become more input intensive resulting in yield levels crossing their initial potentials, further slowing down the productivity growth. Due to input prices rising faster than output prices, economic profits have squeezed. In addition to this, the social expenditure has increased and education as well as medical care has become very expensive. Consequently, small farm holders are under severe economic stress. The present study entitled “Identifying different potential areas for enhancing farm is a review paper which reviews different studies on potential areas for enhancing farm income. This paper is an attempt to assess different potential areas viz. land reforms, soil health, quality seeds, irrigation, storage, value addition of farm produce, postharvest management, crop insurance and crop diversification, so that ways to be found to help farmers in increasing farm productivity and thus improving economic conditions. The study concludes that government is coming up with new reforms and policies in some areas. There are other areas also where government needs to come out with better solutions. At the same time, farmers should also be made aware of the reforms and policies made for them. Extension system needs to be made strong to achieve the vision of doubling farm income by 2020.

Agricultural support policy in Canada: What are the environmental consequences?

This paper reviews annual government spending on Canadian agriculture that attempts to stabilize and enhance farm incomes. Over the past 5 years, 2/3 of the $3 billion spent on agriculture went into stabilization programs to support farm incomes. However, this level of support raises questions about the environmental consequences of enhanced agricultural production. Environmental impacts from agriculture are well known and addressed in US and EU policies. In contrast, Canadian government expenditures on environmental initiatives in agriculture, as a share of farm income, are more than 10 times smaller than those in the US and the EU. Nonetheless the evidence is that Canadian programs have modest impacts on production, but that chemical and fertilizer input use may be higher than in the absence of the program. One possible course of action is to introduce cross-compliance between program payments and environmental objectives. However, there are no requirements that Canadian producers receiving support comply with environmental standards. While cross-compliance could be considered in the Canadian context, policies that directly target specific environmental issues in agriculture may have greater impact.

An optimized process of Indian farmstead artisanal cheese: Value addition for increased farm income

Taking cues from the success of homemade traditional cheeses in the western countries, the current project aimed at investigating whether cheesemaking principles can be adapted in the Indian rural environments and applied to make artisanal farmstead cheeses. Standard cheesemaking protocol was modified to suit Indian farmstead conditions using raw material, equipment and implements that are easily available on the farms. Standardised cow milk and locally available starters were used. The process modification included varying the cooking temperature and brining time. Optimization was achieved by using Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for evaluation of individual and interactive effects of different factors. On the basis of the sensory (flavour, body and texture) and physico-chemical (moisture, salt) responses, the levels cooking temperatures and brining time selected were 40-50°C and 8-12 hours, respectively. The optimised product contained 45.85% moisture, 54.16% total solids, 29.58% fat, 22.34% protein, 2.83% ash, 1.05% salt, 0.04% lactose, 54.44% fat in dry matter respectively. The sensory evaluation results indicated that cheese of acceptable quality could be made by the optimised technique and can be transferred to dairy farmers to make small scale artisanal cheeses at farm levels. The long term goal was to provide an impetus to the farmer for value addition, product diversification and enhanced farm income.

A Study on Price Behaviour of Major Cereals in Gujarat

In present study an attempt has been made to examine the price behaviour i.e. growth, instability and seasonality of major cereals in Gujarat viz. wheat, maize, sorghum and pearl millet. The weekly wholesale prices prevailing in the major three markets for each respective crop were collected from 2004 to 2014. The empirical findings had shown the considerable price fluctuation and degree of variability from year to year. The degree of instability was recorded higher in sorghum crop. Linear and quadratic models were estimated to measure the trend over the years. The compound growth rates of increase in prices of crops under study were found statistical significant during the study period. There was found moderate range of fluctuation in inter year prices of all cereals while in case of sorghum the variability was found higher, whereas prices of wheat revealed least degree of irregular fluctuations compare to other crops. The outcome of the study calls for appropriate interventions to minimise price risk and to enhance farm incomes of cereals farmers in Gujarat in sustainable manner.

Farmer education and household agricultural income in rural India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in the rural household agricultural income by farmers’ education while exploiting a nationally representative household survey data set, i.e. the India Human Development Survey-2005, in the rural Indian context. The author seeks to answer the question: how much variation in the household net agricultural income per acre of land cultivated can farmers’ education explain? Design/methodology/approach – The author has employed the ordinary least squares regression model with village fixed effects. The author also analysed the data using some exploratory statistics. Findings – The author finds that farmers’ education significantly increases the net household farm income per acre of land cultivated last year. The results are robust to the inclusion of the five educational degree categories (dummies) in lieu of the years of schooling variable. The results are also robust to its decomposition into that for men and for women separately. Women farmers’ education has an amplified impact on farm incomes. The author also confirms the inverse relationship between the household agricultural income and land area cultivated, which is consistent with the huge literature on the negative relationship between land size-class and farm productivity. Practical implications – In a developing country with a not-so-modernized agriculture sector and low adoption of newer farming technologies, this validated importance of education in explaining the differences in rural farm earnings has guiding policy implications in that a positive return to farmer schooling signals the need for increased investments in the farmers’ education and awareness so as to enhance farm incomes and productivity. The special policy thrust on education of women and women farmers is critical to ensuring higher farm incomes and outcomes. Originality/value – The literature on the impact of farmers’ education on rural household agricultural income is very sparse. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this issue has not been addressed before in the Indian context. The author explains the contribution of farmer education to farm income in rural Indian households. The author also revisits the negative relationship between farm income and land size holdings in the Indian agriculture.