Investment In Rural Infrastructure Research Articles

Agricultural Transformation in Indonesia: Evaluation of Policy Implementation and Challenges Faced

This article aims to evaluate the implementation of agricultural policies and identify the challenges faced in the agricultural transformation process in Indonesia. The background of the study revolves around the importance of agricultural development in achieving sustainable economic growth, food security, and poverty reduction in the country. The study's objective is to assess the effectiveness of policy implementation and understand the key challenges hindering the agricultural transformation process. To achieve the research objective, a qualitative approach was employed. Qualitative interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including government officials, farmers, and agricultural experts, to understand their perspectives on policy implementation and identify challenges faced at the ground level. The findings of the study reveal both positive outcomes and challenges in the implementation of agricultural policies in Indonesia. The policy implementation has led to increased investment in agricultural infrastructure, technology adoption, and productivity improvement in certain regions. However, challenges such as limited access to credit and markets, inadequate extension services, and climate change impacts have hindered the desired transformation. The study underscores the need for improved coordination between government agencies, increased investment in rural infrastructure, targeted support for smallholder farmers, and climate change adaptation strategies to overcome these challenges.

Rural Infrastructure Investment and Agricultural Dilemma

Rural Infrastructure Investment and Agricultural Dilemma

Rural mistrust of public health interventions in the United States: A call for taking the long view to improve adoption.

Rural mistrust of public health interventions in the United States: A call for taking the long view to improve adoption.

Rural Infrastructure Access and Household Welfare in Ogun State

The study was carried out to determine the effect of access to rural infrastructure on household welfare in Ogun State. A three-stage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 442 selected respondents. The study was based on primary data obtained through questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression. The study revealed that majority of the respondents were male (62.3%), married (80.1%), aged 48.1±11.5 years, with years of formal education, household size and farming experience of 7.3±4.7 years, 7.2±2.8 persons and 13.7±10.4 years, respectively. The MPCHHE was ₦7,152.10. The proportion of households with access to potable water, primary school, health centre, market and agro-centre were 89.1%, 88.5%, 43.9%, 64.5% and 33.7%, respectively. More households had high access to infrastructure (52.8%). Many of the households had high welfare (43.9%), while 24.4% had medium welfare and 31.7% had low welfare. High household welfare was explained by age (β=-0.32), male-headed households (β=0.51), non-farm income (β=0.20), ARI (β=-0.49), access to credit (β=0.39), educational level (β=0.25) and labour size (β=0.34), while age (β=0.15), male-headed households (β=- 0.12) and ARI (β=0.18) explained low household welfare. Based on these findings, it was recommended that policies that would increase public investment in functional rural infrastructure must be given high priority by the government.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: What to do with Philippine Agriculture

Compared with our ASEAN neighbors against whom we usually benchmark ourselves, the Philippines is making the least progress in providing a better life for its people. While they have significantly brought their poverty rates down, poverty among Filipinos has persisted at a painfully embarrassing rate of 26%, most of that poverty is found in the countryside, among farmers and fisherfolk. The 1.7% rate of growth of agriculture, which does not even match our population growth during the last five years (2011-2015), is symptomatic of this malaise, yet the ingredients to make agriculture move forward and be more productive, competitive, sustainable, and economically rewarding to our millions of small farmers and fisherfolk are largely in place. Our moderate tropical environment and rainfall with irrigation make year-round growing possible. Our vast and carefully-managed fisheries resources should provide a sustainable supply of affordable and quality animal proteins in our diets. We have a fairly educated workforce and a modest but working higher education and scientific research infrastructure in agriculture. We have an established and increasingly competitive food and beverage manufacturing subsector. Progressive legislations are in place with the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1997 and the Fisheries Code of 1998, and a palpable improving political will to support agriculture is established, as manifested by the expanding congressional appropriations for the Department of Agriculture (DA). What should we do with agriculture in 2016 and beyond to move it forward? Beyond generalities, what do we specifically want to see done by the government and those with a stake in agriculture to help farmers and fisherfolk attain a better standard of living for themselves, for all of us, now and in the future? There is no single magic bullet that will cure all the ills of Philippine agriculture. We need to come together, marshal, and direct our resources along four major platforms of reform, namely (a) reform the bureaucracy of the Department of Agriculture; (b) meaningful participation of stakeholders in the governance of agriculture; (c) continuing investments in rural institutions and infrastructure; and (d) closure on a few important but contentious issues such as a rice-centric agriculture.

The impact of rural infrastructural investment on farmers' income growth in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and verify the influence mechanism of various kinds of infrastructure investment on farmers' income in rural China. It further analyzes the effect of rural infrastructure investment on rural economic transformation.Design/methodology/approachThis research is used to GMM model to verify the relationship between infrastructure investment and farmers' income; furthermore, the mediating effect model is used to verify the linear conduction mechanism, and panel threshold model is used to verify the nonlinear conduction mechanism.FindingsThe results show that: (1) Rural infrastructure investment can indirectly affect farmers' income by changing land efficiency and land use structure; (2) The impact of infrastructure investment on farmers' income is nonlinear; (3) Increasing infrastructural investment of productivity and transportation will contribute to accelerating the transformation of rural economy.Originality/valueThis paper expands the research on the impact of rural infrastructure investment on farmers' income; it analyzes the inner mechanism and enriches the research contents in this field; the influence of various infrastructure investment on rural economic transformation is further discussed; it provides policy suggestions and theoretical basis for accelerating the transformation of China's rural economy.

English

The focus of this research was to identify the role played by agricultural cooperatives in rural development in the era of liberalization in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon. Primary sources were used for data collection. Questionnaires were administered to 329 respondents from 52 agricultural cooperatives in 40 villages with a response rate of 78.7% in the North West Region and 21.3% in the South West Region. Agricultural cooperatives and government officials were interviewed in both regions. Findings from the field show that 80% of the respondents agreed that agricultural cooperatives play a role in rural development especially in the areas of trainings, increased output production, the provision of inputs and marketing of farmers produce. Agricultural cooperatives can effectively and conveniently handle only two major roles in its rural development efforts: Improved Agricultural Production and Capacity Building. Seventy percent of the respondents declared that they were satisfied with the role agricultural cooperatives play in rural development despite the socio-political crisis in the study area. The government should increase investments in agriculture and rural infrastructure and create an agricultural bank to enable agricultural cooperatives play its role fully in rural development. Key words: Agricultural cooperatives, rural development, liberalization, Cameroon.

Ground truthing the cost of achieving the EAT lancet recommended diets: Evidence from rural India

In this paper, we quantify the divergence in the cost of current diets as compared to EAT Lancet recommendations at the subnational-level in India. We use primary data on food prices and household food purchases, and secondary data on food expenditures for a period of 12 months in 2018–19. The cost of the EAT Lancet dietary recommendations for rural India ranges between $3.00- $5.00 per person per day. In contrast, actual dietary intake at present is valued at around $1.00 per person per day. In order to get to the EAT Lancet recommendations individuals will have to spend nearly $1.00 per person per day more on each of meat fish poultry, dairy foods and fruits. The deficit in current diets relative to recommendations is marked by seasonal variations driven by volatility in the underlying food prices. This paper extends the evidence base for the affordability of the EAT Lancet diet to a subnational-level in India, using the most recent data on prices and expenditures, over time. We highlight the need for tracking rural markets at the subnational level, over time for their nutritional quality and ability to provide affordable, nutritious diets to the poor. Crop diversification, investments in rural infrastructure and well-functioning markets can move rural India towards more nutrition sensitive food environments.

Rural Transformation in Various Ecosystem in Indonesia

The agricultural and rural sectors in Indonesia have experienced a dynamic transformation. This process of transformation reflected the changes in employment and income structure. This paper analyzes the changes in employment, income structures, and dietary patterns in various ecosystems, namely wetland paddy, dry land secondary, vegetables, and plantation. We use micro panel data collected from 1,155 rural households in 8 provinces, and 33 villages in Java and off-Java in 2007-2012 and 2016 -2018. The results showed that the share of agriculture employment decreased from 89.1 % in 2007 to 56.7 % in 2016 in the wetland paddy ecosystem, and the reverse was true for non-agricultural employment. Household income from agriculture was still dominant but showed a decreasing trend. The share of agriculture income declined; the most significant decline is in the wetland paddy ecosystem. Furthermore, a nonfarm income also tends to increase. Share of cereal consumption expenditure tends to decrease while processed foods and instant drinks tend to grow. For accelerating agricultural and rural transformation, government policy should focus on investment in rural infrastructure, promote labor and land markets, and build capacity building based on the need for a different ecosystem of the rural population.

Does Internet use reduce chemical fertilizer use? Evidence from rural households in China.

Although numerous studies have explored various impacts of Internet use, few have investigated the linkage between Internet use and chemical fertilizer use in developing economies. This study examines the influences of Internet use and related promotion policy on chemical fertilizer use based on a nationwide dataset including China's 7766 rural households. The baseline regression results show that Internet use reduced chemical fertilizer use significantly. The mechanism analysis unveils the mediation role of human capital; Internet use increased farmers' human capital and then reduced chemical fertilizer use. In addition, the difference-in-difference method is employed to examine the effects of Internet promotion policy and the findings reveal that the promotion policy could help reduce farmers' use of chemical fertilizer. Finally, both propensity score matching-DID model and a two-stage instrumental variable model are used to address potential endogeneity issues associated with Internet use, and results indicate that the empirical results are robust. Our findings suggest that improving the availability of broadband access in a rural area, promoting Internet-related training and education, and more government's investment in rural ICTs infrastructure can contribute to the reduction of chemical fertilizer use.

Coastal City Infrastructure Investment Forecast Based on Gray System Theory

Song, J. 2019. Coastal city infrastructure investment forecast based on gray system theory. In: Gong, D.; Zhu, H., and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 629–633. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.In the context of the increasing gap in infrastructure construction between developed and undeveloped areas of coastal cities, the practical of investment and financing projects, especially investment and financing of infrastructure construction in economically undeveloped areas of coastal city, are important issues to be solved urgently. Moreover, the use of forecast will be conducive to investment and financing decisions. This paper proposed a gray GM (1, 1) model based on gray system theory, and used the panel data of coastal city infrastructure investment from 2010 to 2014, to forecast the amount of investment in Guangzhou from 2015 to 2018. The forecast results show that the gray system theory has high accuracy in forecasting urban and rural infrastructure investment and can provide decision support for managers.

Collective influence of household and community capitals on agricultural employment as a measure of rural poverty in the Mahanadi Delta, India

The main determinants of agricultural employment are related to households’ access to private assets and the influence of inherited social–economic stratification and power relationships. However, despite the recommendations of rural studies which have shown the importance of multilevel approaches to rural poverty, very few studies have explored quantitatively the effects of common-pool resources and household livelihood capitals on agricultural employment. Understanding the influence of access to both common-pool resources and private assets on rural livelihoods can enrich our understanding of the drivers of rural poverty in agrarian societies, which is central to achieving sustainable development pathways. Based on a participatory assessment conducted in rural communities in India, this paper differentiates two levels of livelihood capitals (household capitals and community capitals) and quantifies them using national census data and remotely sensed satellite sensor data. We characterise the effects of these two levels of livelihood capitals on precarious agricultural employment by using multilevel logistic regression. Our study brings a new perspective on livelihood studies and rural economics by demonstrating that common-pool resources and private assets do not have the same effect on agricultural livelihoods. It identifies that a lack of access to human, financial and social capitals at the household level increases the levels of precarious agricultural employment, such as daily-wage agricultural labour. Households located in communities with greater access to collective natural capital are less likely to be agricultural labourers. The statistical models also show that proximity to rural centres and access to financial infrastructures increase the likelihood of being a landless agricultural labourer. These findings suggest that investment in rural infrastructure might increase livelihood vulnerability, if not accompanied by an improvement in the provisioning of complementary rural services, such as access to rural finance, and by the implementation of agricultural tenancy laws to protect smallholders’ productive assets.

Are Investments in Basic Infrastructure the Magic Wand to Boost the Local Economy of Rural Communities from Romania?

This article investigates if public investments in rural basic infrastructure represent the best strategy for boosting the local economy of rural communities from Romania. The article focuses on one specific program implemented under the Cohesion policy in the framework of the National Plan for Rural Development, called Measure 322. Geographically, the research included a sample of rural communities from the North-Western Region of Romania. Moreover, the study also looks at other determinants of local economic development (LED), rather than infrastructure investments, with a focus on certain features characterizing Romanian rural communities such as population size, isolation from urban centers, connection with European and national roads networks, educational stock, etc. The research included three steps, namely the construction of the LED Index, a cvasi-experimental research, and a regression model. Our main findings seem to suggest that, while investments in infrastructure do help, the development gap between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries remains relatively the same. In terms of determinants of LED level, percentage of population with a university degree and connection to a European road are the most significant in the Romanian rural context.

Thoughts on the Construction of “Village to Village Roads” in Rural areas

The phrase “to be rich and to build road first” fully expresses the eager expectation of farmers for the construction of rural highways, rural revitalization, agricultural economic development and farmers’ fortunes. In recent years, china has gradually increased its investment in rural infrastructure and implemented a series of policies for benefiting the farmers and benefiting the people. Among them, the rural Village to Village Roads policy has provided convenience for farmers and promoted the new rural economy. Now it is proposed to build a “Four Good Rural Road”. “Four Good Rural Road” is a major livelihood project personally proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping. It is a people-centered project and a German government project. However, there are still some problems in the implementation of the policy. Through the consideration of these issues and suggestions, we hope to further improve the policy of “Village to Village Roads”, allow rural farmers to enjoy the fruits of reform, opening up, economic and social development.

Factors affecting the marketing of perishables agricultural produce in Minna metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria

The study examined some of the factors affecting the marketing of perishable agricultural crops in Minna. A simple random sampling was used to select 100 respondents from three major markets. Data were obtained through interview with the use of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results revealed that 70% of the marketers were within the ages of 31 to 50years and the marketing of these perishable crops is dominated by the female gender (69%). Analysis also show that 71% of the marketers had no contact with extension officers and consequently 73% had no access to credit facilities in the study area. Furthermore, majority of the marketers (61%) had marketing experience of between 6 to 15years. The marketers recorded most losses (58%) during transportation and 60% during loading and offloading. Using Tobit regression model, it was discovered that the t-value shows among other variables that four (4) were significant: education (X3), credit (X8), and cooperative (X9) positively influences marketing, indicating that a unit increase in any of the variables will have a positive impact in agricultural production. While transportation cost (X6) had a negative coefficient implying that the amount spent on transporting these crops creates a marketing margin. The sigma t-value = 14.142, implies that the overall model used is significant at 1%. The study concludes that small holder farmers are responsible for producing the nation’s food, but are faced by various constraints in marketing of these produce, hence it is recommended that farm household should be encouraged to have access to education, favorable credit condition, increased investment in rural and market infrastructure by the government and sensitization of the importance of cooperative membership by NGO’s among others.

Principal-agent relationship between urban and rural infrastructure investment

This paper analyzes the principal-agent relationship between urban and rural infrastructure investment. The government and urban-rural operator’s response function was constructed respectively before the signing of the contract. On this basis, a dynamic game model and a static game model between government and urban-rural operator were constructed. This paper constructs the revenue function of government and urban and rural operators after the contract was signed. On the basis of this, a revenue matrix model of the game between the government and the urban-rural operator is constructed, and the Nash equilibrium solution under the hybrid strategy is obtained. Based on the analysis of the game relationship between the government and operators of urban and rural areas, this paper constructs the safeguard measures based on the integrated urban and rural infrastructure management mode of urban and rural operators.

Tackling Income Inequality: What Works and Why?

This article reviews the most recent and relevant evidence on key domestic policy interventions that are effective in reducing income inequality in developing countries, the benefits they generate, the choices that need to be made regarding their design and implementation, and the trade-offs that are associated with them. It focuses on a few policy areas in which there is a sufficient body of rigorous evidence to draw useful lessons with confidence: early childhood development, including breastfeeding; universal health care; good-quality education; conditional cash transfers; Investments in rural infrastructure; and taxation. The review concludes that there are many pathways to reducing inequality, from narrowing gaps in income generation opportunities to narrowing the potential for inequalities in human capital development before the inequalities emerge, smoothing consumption among the most deprived, and Redistribution in favor of the poor. Many interventions are simultaneously associated with equalizing outcomes, improved competition, and economic efficiency. Good interventions combining equality promotion and efficiency are possible in all settings and at different times; this includes interventions disproportionately benefiting the poorest in low-income countries during periods of crisis. Despite the significant increase in knowledge about equality interventions, the article makes a strong call for more microeconomic data and better—more precise—analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.

Law as a Tool for Ensuring Contributions of Small-Scale Women Farmers to Food Security in Nigeria

Abstract The paper discusses the role of law in ensuring that the agricultural productivity of small-scale women farmers in Nigeria is not encumbered by cultural practices and absence of extant laws and policies. Employing the feminist theory, it examines the existence and enforcement of equality rights for women to access productive assets including land, credit and agricultural extension services. It explores the specific challenges women encounter from perspectives other than limited access, including gender-based violence and gender-specific roles. The aim of the paper is to challenge some ubiquitous sociocultural practices that hinder the active participation and contribution of small-scale women farmers in agriculture and food security in Nigeria. It suggests how laws and policies can help increase this productivity. It concludes with recommendations on adequate legal frameworks, policy awareness, a commitment to promote women’s rights, as well as increased public investment in rural infrastructure to promote production of adequate, affordable and safe food in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.

Global and Regional Perspectives of Food Economy and Policy

Despite progress in much of the world, food insecurity remains high, especially in Africa and South Asia. Significant challenges to progress on food security remain, including rapid population growth and urbanization leading to changing diets, climate change, and increasing water scarcity. This paper describes the status and challenges to food security and models the impact of policies and investments to make better progress in reducing hunger. The results indicate that significant reductions in hunger can be made by boosting crop and livestock productivity through enhanced investment in agricultural research; increased investment in rural infrastructure, including roads and electricity, to reduce post‐harvest losses and improve value chain efficiency; and investments in irrigation and water use efficiency.

PROTOCOL: The effects of road infrastructure, and transport and logistics services interventions on women's participation in informal and formal labour markets in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

PROTOCOL: The effects of road infrastructure, and transport and logistics services interventions on women's participation in informal and formal labour markets in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.