Household Agricultural Production Research Articles

Effects and mechanisms of armed conflict on agricultural production: Spatial evidence from terrorist violence in Burkina Faso

AbstractExtensive studies have been conducted on the link between armed conflict and agricultural production. However, the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. A better understanding of these mechanisms could unpack the subsequent effects of conflict‐induced food and welfare shortages, as well as identify promising policy interventions. We study the effects of terrorist violence on household agricultural production in Burkina Faso and explore the underlying mechanisms. To achieve this, we combine nationally representative five‐year panel data on plots and households with spatial conflict data. Our analysis reveals negative and significant effects of terrorist violence on agricultural productivity and total output. Despite reducing cereal crop output, increased intensity of terrorist violence is significantly associated with higher production of cash crops, which require fewer inputs in Burkina Faso. Further investigations uncover that the decline in household agricultural productivity results from a significant decrease in the number of farming plots, land size, and short‐term production investments, including chemical fertilisers and pesticides. These findings remain robust across various alternative empirical specifications and measures of violence, offering insights that can help policymakers faced with similarly scaled armed conflict. For instance, ensuring a secure environment and providing reliable access to essential production inputs, such as chemical fertilisers and pesticides, can help support conflict‐affected household agricultural production during and after the violence periods.

Household information and communication technology usage and post-harvest losses in Nigeria

PurposePost-harvest losses are becoming a huge issue globally and predominantly severe in developing countries. Food losses decrease farm income by 15% for about 480m small-scale farming households. With technology adoption, particularly, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage, minimising post-harvest losses will be more effective, because of its ability to build households’ human development by bridging the information gap.Design/methodology/approachThis study empirically examines the impact of ICT usage on post-harvest losses in Nigeria, utilising Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS), Integrated Survey on Agriculture (ISA). The study engages the Logit regression and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to analyse the data.FindingsThe findings show that post-harvest losses constitute about 38% of household agricultural production. In addition, it shows that the influence of ICT is statistically significant and positive in reducing post-harvest losses.Research limitations/implicationsIt implies that access to mobile phones and the Internet by households helps in developing their human capital through information access, for example, by linking them to the market and enhancing value chain participation. In addition, the implication is that mobile phone and Internet access contribute 1.87% and 2.68%, respectively, to reducing post-harvest losses. The findings suggest that there is a need for the government to improve support mechanisms for ICT usage among farming households.Social implicationsThe study contributes to the society by examining how the well-being of farmers can be improved upon in order to increase their productivity.Originality/valueThe study on the contribution of ICT to post-harvest losses is relatively sparse in the extant literature. Therefore, this study is among the very few to empirically examine the impact of different ICT indicators, using the LSMS-ISA (2019) data and engaging propensity matching, while focusing on the household heads.

Agricultural production diversity, child dietary diversity and nutritional status in poor, rural Gansu Province of China.

Research has shown mixed findings on the link between production diversity and household dietary diversity. The question is whether this link holds for children. In this study we examine the relationship between household's agricultural production diversity and child dietary diversity, and between production diversity and child nutritional status. Smallholder farm households (n = 1067) and children (n = 1067) aged 3-16 years from two then nationally designated poverty counties in Gansu Province of China were interviewed in 2019. Production diversity was assessed with the production richness score and production diversity score. Production diversity was calculated from agricultural production data covering a period of 12 months. Child dietary diversity was assessed with food variety score (FVS) and dietary diversity score (DDS). DDS was calculated based on 9 food groups using a 30-day recall method. Data were analysed using Poisson and Probit regression models. We find that both agricultural production richness score and revenue generated from selling agricultural products are positively associated with food variety score, with the relationship being stronger for the latter. Moreover, production diversity score is positively associated with children's dietary diversity score whereas negatively associated with their probability of being stunted, but not with their probabilities of being wasted or zinc deficient. Household social economics status were also positively associated with child dietary diversity.

How Does Land Rental Affect Agricultural Labor Productivity? An Empirical Study in Rural China

Due to the striking gap in agricultural labor productivity (ALP) between China and developed countries, improving agricultural labor productivity is critically important. This study investigates the effect of land rental on agricultural labor productivity from two levels including household agricultural labor productivity and aggregated village-level agricultural labor productivity by employing propensity matching methods and instrumental variables method. Mediation analysis is also applied to explore the influencing mechanism and underlying paths for household agricultural labor productivity improvement. The results analyses based on the nation-wide data sets in 2017 reveal that renting-in land has a significant positive impact on promoting household agricultural labor productivity and renting-out land has significant opposite effects. The mediation analysis indicates that renting-in land affects household ALP indirectly through the land-labor ratio, intermediate inputs, and agricultural assets investment. Moreover, from the village perspective, we further found that the development of the land rental market positively affects the improvement of aggregated agricultural labor productivity of the village. Land rental is an effective channel to stimulate land transferred from lower agricultural labor productivity to higher ones and then promote the resource allocation within the village.

Land property rights and household take-up of development programs: Evidence from land certification program in Ethiopia

• The study examines the impact of land property rights on take-up of agricultural development interventions in Ethiopia. • We find that land certification has a positive impact on the take-up of agricultural extension package program. • Land certification status significantly predicts farm household adoption of chemical fertilizer. • Secure land rights play a key role in household participation in community level land and water management programs. • The study promotes land rights as mechanism to promote agricultural development and sustainable land and water management. Access to secure land plays a key role in the socio-economic development of agricultural households. Since 1998, large-scale land certification programs aimed at strengthening the land property rights of agricultural households in Ethiopia have been implemented across regions to varying degrees. Using a three-period, large-scale nationally representative panel dataset from Ethiopia, this paper investigates the importance of access to secure land property right in the form of land certification for household take-up of agricultural development interventions that aim to improve household agricultural productivity and sustainable land use at a community level. We studied the take-up of agricultural extension packages and participation in community level sustainable land and water management programs as outcome variables. To account for potential endogeneity in the allocation of certificates and other confounding factors, we applied different panel data methods including instrumental variable approach. We find that access to secure property rights have a positive and significant effect on household take-up agricultural development interventions: agricultural extension packages and sustainable land and water management interventions. Additionally, we find that land certificates significantly predict household adoption of chemical fertilizers.

The long-term impact of the Vietnam War on agricultural productivity

• We examine the long-term effects of the Vietnam War on agricultural productivity. • We use bombing intensity data and data on the intensity of Agent Orange. • Increase in bombing and Agent Orange intensity decreases rice and total agricultural productivity. • The adverse effect of the Vietnam War on agricultural productivity decreases over time. • Economic production and social capital are channels of influence. We present causal evidence of the long-term effects of the Vietnam War on household agricultural productivity. Using bombing intensity data and data on the intensity of Agent Orange and other chemical agents used during the War, we find that spatial differences in the intensity of the War can help explain differences in long-term household agricultural productivity. Our endogeneity-corrected estimates suggest that, in the long-term, a 10% increase in bombing intensity decreases rice productivity by 2.94% and total agricultural productivity by 3.21%. Results from a fuzzy regression discontinuity design suggest that Agent Orange intensity also had a negative effect on rice productivity. We find that economic production is a channel through which the intensity of bombing and Agent Orange have adversely affected long-term agricultural productivity, while social capital is a channel through which Agent Orange is linked to lower long-term agricultural productivity.

Farmland Rental Participation, Agricultural Productivity, and Household Income: Evidence from Rural China

The rural land rental market is playing an increasingly important role in the agricultural transformation period for developing countries, including China, where rural farmland rental is highly context-specific with the implementation of the collective-owned rural land system; thus, in turn, the access to farmland rental markets for rural households has profoundly influenced their livelihood strategies and income earnings. This paper investigates the income impact differences caused by rural households’ farmland rental participation activities and explores such impact mechanisms by further evaluating the income impacts caused by rental area and household agricultural productivity. Data from the Chinese national household survey were used for estimating the empirical models. Our results show that farmland renting has positively affected households’ on-farm and total income, but there is no significant effect upon off-farm income. According to income differences across quantiles, we find households with high on-farm income are more sensitive about enlarging their farm size by renting farmland, and households with middle and upper-middle off-income may benefit more from renting out their farmland. Furthermore, the joint effects of renting area and household agricultural productivity on lessee households’ farm income is significantly positive. For lessor households, our results indicate that renting out farmland did not improve their off-farm and total income as it may have a limited effect on farm household labor distribution. Our findings suggest that engaging in farmland rental activity can enhance farming productivity efficiency and poverty alleviation among rural households. Under the collective-owned rural land system, it is urgent and necessary to initiate and design incentive policies to encourage highly efficient large farms to expand the farm size and provide smallholders with equal opportunities to engage in farmland rental activities.

Economic evaluation of an early childhood development center\u2013based agriculture and nutrition intervention in Malawi

Malnutrition is a leading cause of death and disability among children in low-income countries. Nutrition-sensitive interventions show promise in increasing food access and improving diets. There are possible synergies of integrating these programs with other sectors, improving effectiveness by leveraging resources. However, economic evaluations of these multi-sectoral programs are limited. We aimed to estimate the cost efficiency, cost-effectiveness, benefit-cost ratio, and net benefit of using community-based early childhood development (ECD) centers as platforms for an intervention promoting agricultural production and nutrition among households with young children in Malawi. The intervention was costed using bottom-up micro-costing and top-down expenditure analysis with a societal perspective and a 12-month horizon. Effectiveness estimates were derived from a cluster-randomized control trial. Premature deaths and stunting cases averted were estimated using the Lived Saved Tool. We calculated DALYs averted, and the value of three benefits streams resulting from reductions in premature mortality, increases in lifetime productivity and household agricultural productivity. We transferred the US value of a statistical life (VSL) to Malawi using an income elasticity of 1.5, and a 10% discount rate. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was conducted using a Monte Carlo model. The intervention cost $197,377, reaching 4,806 beneficiaries at $41 per beneficiary, $595 per case of stunting, $18,310 per death, and $516 per DALY averted. Net benefit estimates ranged from $507,589 to $4,678,258, and benefit-cost ratios from 3.57 to 24.70. Sensitivity analyses confirmed a positive return on investment. Implementing agriculture-nutrition interventions through ECD platforms may be an efficient use of resources in Malawi and similar contexts.

Ethnobotany of an indigenous tree Piliostigma thonningii (Schumach.) Milne-Redh. (Fabaceae) in the arid and semi-arid areas of South Omo Zone, southern Ethiopia

BackgroundTrees are important components of terrestrial ecosystems; they provide ecological, economic, and cultural services to humans. There is an urgent need for undertaking ethnobotanical investigations and documentation on the indigenous botanical knowledge of the local communities of a given area. This study was conducted to assess and document the categoric ethnobotany of Piliostigma thonningii and the associated indigenous knowledge of the local people related to use, management practices, and the threatening factors in the South Omo Zone of southwestern Ethiopia.Materials and methodsSix Kebeles were purposively selected from two districts of the zone and a total of 84 respondents were sampled, with consideration of gender, age, and wealth status. Data were collected using structured and semi-structured interviews, field observations, and group discussions. Relevant descriptive statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Ethnobotanical knowledge held by informants were computed using Pearson’s chi-square test and direct matrix ranking and pair-wise ranking was used to prioritize the uses according to community preferences and the level of the destructiveness of the reported threats.ResultsThe results showed that P. thonningii provides different functions to people’s livelihoods as shade, food, fodder, soil fertility, fuelwood, medicine, rope, multipurpose materials (e.g., Borketa for sitting and head support), huts, beehives, farm implements, chairs, fences, and timber. The indigenous knowledge of local people on the uses of P. thonningii has shown significant (P < 0.05) relationship to age groups (being higher for elderly people). The consumption practice of respondents has significant (P < 0.05) association to the Kebeles, age, and income, with higher value for Hamer, lower aged groups, and low-income families. It provides nutritious animal feed to improve browse intake, survival, and productivity of domestic animals and also improve productivity of farm through amelioration of soil fertility. The status of P. thonningii has been decreasing due to agricultural expansion, collection of the species for firewood, dry fencing, and due to browsing. Respondents’ attitude and interest to maintain and conserve the species has shown a significant (P< 0.05) association to gender, wealth, and level of education. Higher interest was observed in men than women, mid-high wealth class households than low income, and people with education than uneducated.ConclusionsThis study attempted to provide information on the multiple uses of P. thonningii. Given the key roles of P. thonningii for the people and the environment to improve household food security, agricultural productivity, and income sources and the threats to it, the need to protect it in natural forests and woodlands and optimize its uses in agroforestry systems is high. Serious consideration of this species will ultimately allow households to reap the benefits expected to accrue from it in the arid and semi-arid areas of Ethiopia where plants of this nature are usually rare.

Level of diversified feeding among school-age children in Northwest Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Background: In Ethiopia, a country of diverse agro climatic conditions, children consume a monotonous diet. This unvaried feeding culture has consequences on their nutritional status. But the reason why they are monotonous is not clearly known. Thus, the purposes of this study were to determine the level of dietary diversity among school age children. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 422 randomly selected school age children from 16 April to 15 June 2018 in Mecha woreda, Amhara regional state. The data were collected using structured questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to present the data. Variables at p<0.05 were taken as determinants for diet variety. Results: The prevalence of dietary diversity; 86.4% had good dietary diversity. Most households (89.4%) were secured for food. The determinant factors of good dietary diversity were irrigation user [AOR= 2.49 (1.11, 5.60)] and access to information [AOR = 2.29 (1.15, 4.59)]. Conclusion: Prevalence of dietary diversity was generally good in the study area. Children from households that used irrigation and access to information had better dietary diversity. Increasing maternal and child awareness through medias and increasing household agricultural production of variety through irrigation were recommended.

Gendered Roles in Agrarian Transition: A Study of Lowland Rice Farming in Lao PDR

Traditional lifestyles of lowland rice farmers of the southern provinces of Lao People’s Democratic Republic are rapidly changing, due to two important trends. Firstly, there is a push towards modernization and commercialization of farming. Secondly, though farmers still focus on rice farming as a key activity, there is an increasing move towards diversification of livelihoods. The changes have seen the uptake of non-rice crops, livestock husbandry and forest and river utilization; as well as non-farming activities. This has influenced gender relations, impacting household agricultural production decisions and amplified transitional trends. To explore the processes, we analyzed data from a study of innovation adoption amongst rice farmers in southern Lao PDR. The study revealed nuances of gender-based differences in the priorities and attitudes towards farming and off-farm activities, as well as differences in behaviour related to the adoption of new practices. Women were more focused on non-farming practices and considered engaging in the modern, non-traditional, economy more so than men. Women also reported experiencing greater challenges when engaging and trading in the agricultural marketplace. The study supports the importance of taking a gendered approach to understanding the inherent complexities within agrarian change.

‘My children are small and my husband works far from home’: juggling land and labour in a Vietnamese village

This paper explores the links between migration and changes in household agricultural production in Vietnam during the reform period (1986–2012) through a case study of Quỳnh Đôi village, Nghệ An Province. Since reforms were first introduced, many villagers have left Quỳnh Đôi to work in cities, industrial zones or to find employment abroad. The migration process has transformed labour structures and supply, leading to changes in household agricultural production across two dimensions. First, renting or exchanging agricultural land has become common between households in Quỳnh Đôi, and between Quỳnh Đôi villagers and a neighbouring commune. This renting/exchanging of agricultural land has helped redistribute land among households that would otherwise be rich in land and poor in labour, or vice versa. These transactions have not been purely market-based but carried out mainly through verbal agreements dependent on networks of social capital and trust. Second, because many farm labourers have migrated, households require additional human labour for agricultural production. Facing this situation, various forms of labour exchange have emerged. Migration has, therefore, become an important generator of change in farming.

Agriculture–nutrition linkages with heterogeneous, unobserved returns and costs: Insights from Tajikistan

AbstractAgriculture–nutrition linkages (ANLs) have been increasingly investigated in the literature. However, nutritional returns and costs of household agricultural production practices (APPs) in semisubsistence settings are poorly understood. We fill these knowledge gaps using pooled cross‐section data sets in Tajikistan, where semisubsistence farming and undernutrition coexist despite relatively good agricultural infrastructure and education systems. Agricultural diversification, yield enhancement, production expansion are positively associated with various nutritional outcomes, particularly in areas with poor food market access. Decomposition exercises suggest that nutritional returns and costs of these APPs vary across households, and the adoption of APPs is driven by the expected nutritional returns. In Tajikistan, improving nutrition through household ANLs requires growing the smallholder agricultural sector in multiple dimensions, including diversification, intensification, and expansion, while also understanding better the pathways of ANLs and addressing bottlenecks at appropriate stages of such pathways.

Does agricultural diversification build economic resilience to drought and flood? Evidence from poor households in Zambia

The adverse effects of weather extremes produce widespread damage and cause severe alterations in the normal functioning of household agricultural production in Zambia. Extreme weather events such as floods and drought are expected to increase in intensity and frequency due to climate change. Coupled with high poverty levels and limited institutional capacity, the country is highly vulnerable to the impact of extreme events. We quantify the effects of economic diversification on agricultural productivity of poor farm households with a skew-normal regression approach while accounting for drought and flood shocks. Our analysis finds that economic diversification is a strategy to increase agricultural productivity and mitigate the adverse impact of droughts and floods on agricultural households. The results also support the country's policies to encourage hybrid maize production and to provide crop seeds and fertiliser to poor farmers. This paper provides a framework to plan and inform interventions to enhance household economic resilience to weather shocks through agricultural diversification in Zambia and other countries.

Agriculture in the process of development: A micro-perspective

This paper compares national-level data from India with 40 years of household panel data from rural India to track sectoral changes in employment and income as well as examine the hypothesis of induced innovation in agricultural production. In the national data, India appears to be in the midst of a structural transformation. The share of agriculture in GDP and employment has shrunk while agricultural output continues to grow. This productivity growth appears to adhere to the induced innovation hypothesis, as productivity per hectare has increased more rapidly than productivity per worker. Many of the same patterns exist in the household data. Tracking households across time, I observe agricultural output has increased, despite more households engaging in off-farm labor. Household agricultural production is highly specialized and has increased its reliance on improved inputs. However, while agricultural income has grown, industrial and service income has remained stagnant, and the relative income of these households has declined in recent years.

Agricultural production diversity, dietary diversity and nutritional status: Panel data evidence from Tanzania

Abstract Household agricultural production for self-consumption is often highlighted by nutritionists as the main route to increasing household food security and nutritional status, especially for the poor in developing countries. At the same time, the income gains from specializing in fewer crops and selling the surplus product could be an alternate route to improved nutritional status. We use Tanzanian data to study linkages between the diversity and market orientation of a household’s agricultural production, the quality and diversity of their diets, and the nutritional status of their children. We find that diversifying a household’s agricultural production significantly increases diversity in that household’s diet, but the positive nutritional effects are small. We also find that market orientation has no clear effect on dietary diversity. At the same time, however, the nutritional status of children is not found to be linked clearly to general dietary diversity. On the other hand, factors such as education and overall income have strong and significant effects on both household dietary diversity and child nutrition. Thus, policies for increasing the quality of children’s diets, improving children’s nutritional status and enhancing the overall dietary diversity of farm households should incorporate those factors.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN SOUTH AFRICA: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) SPILLOVER

The positive spillover impacts of the efficiency of information and communication technology (ICT) and land accessibility as factor inputs to agricultural productivity are well documented in the literature. Furthermore, input-output efficiency as a measurement of factors contributing towards gross production is no exception in this regard. Few studies on agricultural production and ICT at the household level in South Africa show divergent empirical results. This study investigates the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) and land for farming in the context of household food production in South Africa. Household engagement in agricultural activities is proxy for agricultural production, farm land size is a proxy for land accessibility, telephone and internet use are proxies for ICT in this study. Household data of twenty-one thousand, six hundred and one (21,601) households on agricultural activities and ICTs were generated from the existing survey data of General household survey, 2015 by Statistics South Africa. Majority of the households are not engaging in agricultural activities due to no access to land for farming, but more than 80 percent of the households have access to at least one form of ICTs penetration i.e. mobile telephony. The logit regression shows that internet connection in the household have positive and significant impact on household agricultural production but land accessibility is indirectly related and significant to household food production in South Africa. Therefore land accessibility may be a barrier to agricultural activity involvement in South Africa. The study shows that the positive spillover impacts of ICT may not be possible due to lack of access to land for agriculture. Land for farming, CDMA telephony and internet are highly required for agricultural activities in order to promote food production, reduce cost of telecommunications, promoting agricultural research and development via internet accessibility.

Social dynamics of short term variability in key measures of household and community wellbeing in Bangladesh

High-frequency social data collection may facilitate improved recall, more inclusive reporting, and improved capture of intra-period variability. Although there are examples of small studies collecting particular variables at high frequency in the social science literature, to date there have been no significant efforts to collect a wide range of variables with high frequency. We have implemented the first such effort with a smartphone-based data collection approach, systematically varying the frequency of survey task and recall period, allowing the analysis of the relative merit of high-frequency data collection for different key variables in household surveys. This study of 480 farmers from northwestern Bangladesh over approximately one year of continuous data on key measures of household and community wellbeing could be particularly useful for the design and evaluation of development interventions and policies. While the data discussed here provide a snapshot of what is possible, we also highlight their strength for providing opportunities for interdisciplinary research in the household agricultural production, practices, seasonal hunger, etc., in a low-income agrarian society.

The links between agricultural production and the nutritional status of children in rural Myanmar

This paper seeks to analyse and test empirically the relationship between household agricultural production and crop diversity on child nutritional status in rural Myanmar, using data from the nationally representative 2013 Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) survey. We are interested in analysing if higher agriculture production and greater crop diversity in the household translates into better nutritional status among children, measured using the three anthropometric measures height-for-age, weight-for-height and weight-for-age. The primary unit of analysis was the individual child aged between 7 and 60 months for whom complete information was available for all our variables of interest. We estimated a series of regression models to explain stunting, wasting and underweight outcomes among 1037 children aged 7–60 months. Our results show that: (i) 37% of the children in our sample were stunted, with stunting more prevalent among older children (aged 31–60 months), (ii) children from households where agriculture was the main income source had a lower probability of being wasted, and (iii) there was no statistically significant relationship between crop harvest size and child nutrition outcomes among agriculture households. Our results clearly suggest that agricultural own-production is important as a food safety net, mitigating acute malnutrition, but this fades away for non-acute measures, reiterating its relative unimportance in terms of the livelihood drivers of child nutrition outcomes.

Is Larger Scale Better? Evidence from Rice Farming in Jianghan Plain

Abstract: Small-scale household agricultural production has been in conflict with China's agricultural modernization. In the context of vigorously promoting rural land circulation and moderate scale management nationwide, research on the relationship between farm size and scale efficiency has become increasingly important. In this paper, we use the “DEA-OLS” two stage method to analyze data from 368 surveys of rice farming households in the Jianghan Plain. The scale efficiency of rice farming was calculated, and the relationship between farm size and scale efficiency investigated. The results indicate that (1) the rice farm size is generally small in Jianghan Plain, with an average of 0.77 ha. The average scale efficiency is 0.88, and it is the main factor limiting an increase in comprehensive technical efficiency. Moreover, 88.32% of households are in the stage of increasing returns to scale. (2) There is a stable inverted “U” type relationship between rice farm size and scale efficiency. Considering cha...