Literate Farmers Research Articles

Assessment of horse breeding and husbandry practices in southwest Ethiopia: Its implication to design breeding program

Ethiopian horses are multipurpose horses that have socioeconomic significance for smallholder farmers. However, studies regarding their husbandry practices have received little attention. Thus, the current study was conducted to assess the horse husbandry practices in the southwest Ethiopia. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaires from a total of 196 randomly selected respondents. The general linear model and frequency procedures of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS 9.0) were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data, while indices were calculated using Microsoft Excel 2016. Most of the respondents from the Telo district were illiterate, while the percentage of literate farmers was greater in the Gesha and Masha districts. The within-household flock structure and level of importance were dominated by cattle and sheep, followed by horses. The horses were used for transport, draft power, and breeding purposes. In terms of shelters, the horses in the Telo district stayed in shelters, while the horses in the Masha district stayed in forests during both the dry and wet seasons. However, the majority of the horses in the Gesha district were sheltered during the wet season, while they were left to stay in the forest during the dry season. The respondents provided supplementary feed and water to their horses while the water point was located within a kilometer distance. Government and private veterinary shops were the primary sources of veterinary services. Farmers sold their horses at the local market. Castration was performed to minimize aggressiveness. Body size, conformation, and temperament were used as sire selection criteria. An increasing trend in horse population size due to increased farmer interest was observed. In the studied areas, horses were found to be highly important to the livelihood of the farmers. However, horse husbandry practices were led by a considerably greater number of illiterate farmers. Moreover, horse management activities, including the housing of horses, need more attention. Therefore, successive awareness-raising campaigns, including the introduction of formal schooling, are recommended to improve the horse breeding and husbandry practices. Moreover, breeding programs with the aim of genetic improvement and conservation need to be designed to optimize the sustainable utilization of the horses.

Farmers’ Perception and Practice of Soil Fertility Management and Conservation in the Era of Digital Soil Information Systems in Southwest Nigeria

This study assessed the perception and use of digital applications for soil fertility management and conservation strategies among small-scale crop farmers in southwest Nigeria. A total of 376 farmers were randomly selected across the six southwest states. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The majority of the farmers relied on perception and other non-scientific approaches such as the appearance of weeds and performance of crops in the previous season to assess soil fertility. Only 1.1% and 0.3% of the farmers assessed soil fertility through soil tests and digital applications, respectively. Most farmers adopted bush fallowing and the use of inorganic fertilizers to improve soil fertility. Although 4.8% of the farmers indicated that they had digital applications on their mobile phones, only 2.9% claimed to have used these. More than half (56.4%) of the farmers stated that a lack of awareness of the existence of digital applications and internet-enabled telephones were the reasons they have not been able to use digital applications. The majority of the farmers (97.3%) indicated their willingness to embrace the use of new farm decision digital applications which could provide more information, especially on soil fertility, if introduced. More extensive services focusing on older, less literate farmers and farmers who hitherto did not belong to any farmers’ association are advocated for in order to encourage the use of digital applications and soil fertility management and conservation practices.

Farmers’ perception of climate change and livelihood vulnerability: a comparative study of Bundelkhand and Central regions of Uttar Pradesh, India

Indian farmers are vulnerable to changing climate with unpredictable rainfall distribution, rising temperature, and complex socioeconomic conditions. The present study aims to assess livelihood vulnerability of farmers in two regions of the most populous State of Uttar Pradesh namely Bundelkhand and Central region. By using multistage random sampling technique, a total of 480 samples from 16 villages, 8 development blocks, 4 districts, and 2 regions were selected to elicit grass-root information on farmers’ perception of climate change, their sensitivity and adaptive capacity to changing climate, and determinants of livelihood vulnerability. Further, this study has adopted methodology mentioned in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth Assessment Report for the development of climate vulnerability index. The results show that farmers in Jhansi district were highly vulnerable to changing climate, while farmers in Barabanki district were relatively less vulnerable. The elevated degree of vulnerability to livelihood in Jhansi district attributed to its comparatively higher exposure and sensitivity to climatic change. The Binary Logistic Regression results show that illiterate farmers are relatively more vulnerable than literate farmers. On the contrary, higher income, assured irrigation, the use of certified seeds, and crop insurance are negatively associated with the LVI. In other words, farmers who have income from non-farm sources, use certified and recommended seed varieties, and avail themselves of crop insurance are relatively less vulnerable to climate change than those who do not have the aforesaid facilities. Hence, the present study suggests that farmers, must adapt to climate change to reduce its negative impact and reap the benefits of adaptation which can be achieved through capacity building, skill development (i.e., use of ultra-modern techniques), and capacity to strengthen the farmers’ ability to adapt. Further, there is also a need to sensitize government officials on the dangers of climate change and to provide appropriate technical support to farmers for their adaptation.

Climate change risk perception and adaptation to climate smart agriculture are required to increase wheat production for food security

Climate change poses a serious risk to wheat farmers in many regions of the world. The present study was conducted in the Sialkot District, Punjab, Pakistan, to investigate climate change trends during the past thirty years and to determine farmers’ knowledge and perceptions about climate change. The study also addresses the impacts of climate change on wheat production, current adaptation strategies, and limitations in adaptations to climate-smart agriculture (CSA) through a questionnaire-based survey. The historical weather data from the past thirty years indicated an increase in the mean annual minimum and maximum temperature and a decrease in annual total precipitation. Wheat productivity during the past thirty years showed an increasing trend but it was inconsistent. The respondents’ perception of climate change indicated that the literate farmers and those with broad farming experience were more knowledgeable about the climatic effects on wheat production. However, the survey results showed that the age of the farmers did not affect their perceptions. The current management practices are primarily based on prior experiences (70%) and traditional practices (30%). The standard management practices to increase farm productivity include an increase in fertilizer use (70%), a decrease in manure use (24%), and intercropping or switching to other crop cultivations (60%). The farmers stated that their reasons for limited adaptation to climate smart farm practices (CSFP) were due to their lack of knowledge and skills (86%), lack of modern technologies (74%), economic constraints (78%), politics (86%), and social influences (74%). Based on the survey results, the study suggests that addressing these gaps can increase farm-level wheat productivity to increase resilience. This can be achieved by introducing stateof- the-art farming practices through farmer training and by providing institutional services with a focus on climate-specific farm consultation services, leading to climate-smart agricultural practices for improved food security. Highlights - Literate farmers are more aware of climate change as compared to illiterate farmers. - The farmers emphasized the increase in both the summer and winter temperature. - Rainfall is identified as a major climate threat in the study area. - The farmers identified that the highest impact of climate change occurred during the harvest phase of wheat. - The farmers stated that the limited adoption of climate smart agricultural practices is due to lack of knowledge and technological, economic, and other gaps.

A Comparative Study on Effectiveness of Programmed Instruction and Lecture Method on Cognitive Domain of Extension Functionaries

Programmed Instruction (PI) is a self-instructional technique in which learners are presented with new subject matter in a graded sequence of controlled steps. The learners work through the PI at their own pace, and after each step, they test their knowledge by answering a question, and they can identify the right answer immediately. To compare the effectiveness of Programmed Instruction (PI) and Lecture methods in bringing desirable changes in the cognitive domain of extension functionaries on the subject, ‘Climate change, its impact, mitigation and adaptation strategies in agriculture’, an experimental study was conducted using Solomon four group design: before-after with three controls considering 240 respondents. The mean cognitive domain scores of PI and lecture method of instruction was worked out. The results of t test revealed that there was a significant difference between effectiveness of PI and lecture methods with respect to acquisition of learning on cognitive domain. The overall cognitive domain effectiveness in PI method (45.17) was significantly higher than the lecture method (32.83). In the areas of sub-domains of the cognitive domain too, the effectiveness scores of PI method of instruction was significantly higher than the lecture method. The study's conclusions suggest that the PI materials can be used most effectively to educate extension functionaries on the new agricultural technologies emerging from time to time. Furthermore, PI can be used to educate literate farmers on new agricultural technologies such as protected cultivation, secondary agriculture, and so on, which will eventually drive them to adopt these technologies.

A perceptive study of organic agriculture in Baglung municipality: farmers’ barriers to and factors influencing adoption

The process of modern organic agriculture is still nascent stage in Nepal. Though certain policies have been implemented to promote organic agriculture, the progress towards adoption is below average. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to evaluate farmers’ perceptions of organic agriculture and its associated factors. The survey was conducted in Baglung Municipality, Nepal. The municipality consists of 14 wards; the purposive sampling technique was used to select 100 registered farmers. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to present the findings of the study. The study revealed that willingness to adopt or interest in organic agriculture was found to be 2.58 times lower in illiterate farmers in comparison to literate farmers, interest in organic agriculture was found to be 1.48 times lower in females in comparison to male respondents, respondents doing commercial farming are (57.4%) more likely willingness to adopt the organic agriculture, educated respondents are (85%) more likely to adopt the organic agriculture in commercial basis, the respondent male is (65.9%) more likely willingness to adopt the organic agriculture in commercial basis. The factors were surveyed using five points Likert-scale questionnaire. The uninterested ones (37%) stated the following barriers which are ranked in ascending order of means as poor research and extension (1.20), lack of certified inputs (1.22), accredited laboratory (1.28), and technology (1.54), complicated certification (1.63), soil management problems (1.79), low production and market prices (1.97), lack of human resources (2.02). The interested ones (63%) stated the following factors which are arranged as exporting opportunity (1.45), demand (1.53), geographical advantages (1.55), employment opportunity (1.56), good exposure (1.58), development (1.66). Concerned authorities can use this survey to make major changes to establish organic farming.

An intelligent framework for prediction and forecasting of dissolved oxygen level and biofloc amount in a shrimp culture system using machine learning techniques

The present study approaches towards the feasibility of prediction and forecasting of dissolved oxygen (DO) and biofloc amount using the state of art machine learning algorithms in a shrimp culture system. The study was carried out considering; average DO and biofloc amount as target parameters in a shrimp culture system. There were seventeen numbers of culture and meteorological parameters considered and three different feature selection techniques used to create twelve different data subsets for model development. The model development was carried out using three popular machine learning algorithms viz., Random Forest, Adaboost and Deep neural network. The totals of thirty-six different models were obtained and their accuracies were evaluated with seven model validation tests and results were obtained and discussed. Out of thirty-six models, Random Forest technique applied model for prediction of dissolved oxygen with combined culture and meteorological parameters (R2value – 0.709, prediction accuracy – 98.26%, score – 0.7381) was found to be the best one for predictive model development. Moreover, exploratory data analysis was carried out for prediction and a framework for prediction of DO and biofloc amount in a shrimp based biofloc culture system was developed. The dissolved oxygen was found to be more robust in the predictive model development. The Intelligent Framework was developed based on the study conducted to understand and carryout prediction in farming system in a scientific manner. The developed framework can help the literate farmers and new entrants of shrimp farming to devise their own prediction models suitable for the farming conditions.

Pre- and Post-Harvest Practices and Varietal Preferences of Tomato in Ghana

Tailored interventions in the tomato sector require current information on production and marketing systems along with the constraints faced by the stakeholders. We conducted this study to understand the current production practices, stakeholders’ varietal preferences, tomato market trends, and challenges along the crop’s value chains. A multistage sampling method coupled with a random walk was used to identify survey locations and identify 180 respondents across seven regions in Ghana. The study showed that tomato was predominantly produced by male (81%) and literate farmers (84%). Tomato farmers were smallholder farmers generally cultivating less than five acres. Tomato was mainly cultivated under rainfed conditions. Farmers used both bought seeds and their own saved seeds for production. Farmers in Bono, Greater Accra, and the Upper East region largely cultivated improved tomato varieties, while farmers in the Bono East region cultivated local varieties. Across the regions, being a male and having access to irrigation facilities increased the probability of using improved varieties by 19% and 51%, respectively. The most important farmer and market preference criteria included high yield, medium to large fruit size and rounded fruit shape, red color, time to maturity and disease resistance. The major production challenges of tomato production included diseases, pests, and poor access to water for irrigation. The average yield of tomato varied from 6902.26 kg/ha in the Bono Region to 16,213.98 kg/ha in Bono East. Tomato was exclusively produced for fresh market. The major marketing challenges were low producer prices, low demand for produce, and competition from other farmers. This study provides key information to improve tomato value chains and guide the introduction or breeding of improved tomato varieties.

Assessment of Adoption Rate of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Kishi, Oyo State, Nigeria

Adoption of technologies is vital to sustainable livelihood and socioeconomic development of rural households. The level of Adoption of introduced climate change adaptation strategies in Kishi, Oyo State, Nigeria was assessed in this study. The study also investigated the factors influencing the adoption rate of the technologies with a view to identify the constraints vis-a-vis suggesting solutions for improving adoption. In an attempt to carry out the said objective, data were obtained through a structured questionnaire administered to 500 farmers within the study area. Descriptive statistics and multinational logit model were used to present the data and analyse the results. Result shows that gender, age educational level, number of plots access to extension services and credit facilities affect the adaptation rate of farmers to the technologies. Non adequate provision of extension services for follow-up activities may have accounted for the low adoption of the technologies. Therefore, for improved rate of adoption of technologies by farmers, agricultural extension services must be provided. Farmers are also encouraged to join farmers group for improved delivery of services by extension agents. Adequate provision of credit facilities must be provided relevant stakeholders and policy makers, targeting literate farmers, who are the major adopters of disseminated technologies for improved and sustainable food production.

An Analysis of Indonesian Farmer’s Financial Literacy

The uncertainty of income earned by farmers, namely crop failure with a very high risk, will cause financial problems in their families. The target or respondents of this study are farmers who live in Lahat Regency, South Sumatera. Initial findings indicate that the level of financial inclusion of farmers in the Lahat Regency is still quite low. The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of farmers' financial literacy, identify the components of farmers' financial literacy, and analyze the factors that affect the level of farmers' financial literacy. The research method applied is descriptive analysis and multiple regression. The analysis showed that most of the literate farmers were in the moderately literate category of 47.2 percent and the least of the farmers in the less literate category was 24.5 percent. The financial attitude component gave the largest contribution to the farmers' financial literacy index, which was 0.73. Besides, the factor affecting the level of financial literacy of farmers is education. The policy implication resulting from this research is the existence of a structured promotion and training of financial literacy for farmers by local governments. In addition, campaigning for the importance of being educated and inviting educated people to start running agricultural business activities.

Potential challenges to precision agriculture technologies development in Ghana: scientists’ and cocoa extension agents’ perspectives

This paper examines the prospects and challenges of developing and implementing precision agricultural technologies (PATs) in cocoa production in Ghana. A census of cocoa research scientists and a survey of cocoa extension agents (CEAs) in Ghana were taken. Five major challenges they perceived to pose serious challenges to the development and implementation of future PATs were: (a) farmer-demographic characteristics, (b) environmental, (c) educational, (d) economic, and (e) technical challenges. The main farmer-demographic characteristics expected to pose serious challenges to precision agriculture development and adoption in Ghana were age of farmers, farmers’ low level of education, farmers’ lack of computer knowledge, and subsistence farmers with low income. The most important environmental challenges expected to pose substantial challenge to PAT development and adoption were: lack of accessible road to farms, vegetation (mostly forest/trees) posing a challenge to the movement of some precision agriculture (PA) machinery, and undulating nature of topography of cocoa fields. Both scientists and CEAs perceived that the overall challenges to PATs development and implementation in Ghana would be substantial. There were no significant differences between scientists’ and CEAs’ perceived challenges anticipated in the development and implementation of PATs at 0.05 alpha level. This means that the overall prospect of developing and implementing PA in cocoa production in Ghana was perceived to be rather low. The study recommended, among others, the need for stakeholders to set up research unit purposely to develop PA technologies and methods taking into consideration the social-demographic and economic situation of farmers as well as environmental factors—such as soil type, vegetation and topography of arable cocoa lands in Ghana. On-station trials of PATs should begin with these research units and later on-farm trials replicated on farmers’ farm. Moreover, initial targets and training of farmers should focus on literate farmers who are more likely to comprehend and apply features of PATs.

Crossbred Cattle Adoption and its Implications on Raising Employment in the Smallholder Dairying of Rural Assam

ABSTRACT Using cross-sectional data of 245 smallholder rural dairy farmers and propensity score matching, the present study attempted to estimate the treatment effect of changing the breed of cattle (indigenous to crossbred) on changes in labour use in Assam. The analysis indicated that crossbred cattle adopters had higher herd sizes, access to extension services, membership of dairy cooperative society (DCS) and the majority of them are beneficiary of government dairy development programme. The estimation results show that crossbred cattle adopters had significantly higher labour use for selected dairy farming operations. This points out that there was a higher employment prospect in the adoption of crossbred cattle. Additionally, the study pointed out that crossbred cattle adoption was associated with higher employment effect on small to average size farms and farm households with literate farmers. The findings of the study recommend that there is a need for adequate diffusion of breeding technology such as artificial insemination (AI) or deployment of pure-breed exotic bulls in not so easily accessible areas to facilitate the small and medium farmers with crossbred cattle adoption for generating employment along with augmenting productivity and income.

Assessing Factors Affecting Moringa Production at North-western Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

Moringa is a highly valued plant that is mostly grown in arid and semi-arid areas which used for food, medication and industrial purposes. This study investigates the factors affecting Moringa plant cultivation among farmers in Northern Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to collect data from 54 farmers using questionnaire. Data were analysed using the descriptive statistics. The study identified the socioeconomic characteristics of the sampled respondents. Literate farmers were better in cultivation of Moringa plant than the illiterate one. It also reveals that land size were not the limiting factor for Moringa cultivation in the study area. This study shows that though farmers utilize Moringa, but still there is lack of knowledge on production, utilization, nutritional and economic importance of the plant. Of the total sampled 46.3% of the respondents used Moringa for human consumption. While compared to the proportion who cultivates Moringa it is relatively low. This low utilization of Moringa in the area attributed due to limited or no awareness on nutritional importance of Moringa and lack of knowledge on preparation of the Moringa utilization. The farmers mentioned that the main constraints that hinder Moringa cultivation is lack of awareness, lack of seedling availability, easily damageable by animals and attacked by termites. Based on the findings; this study recommends that the respective districts, other stakeholders and projects should take responsibilities in creating awareness regarding benefits and utilization process of the plant and offering Moringa seedlings to the society.

Determinants of credit demand of farmers in Lam Dong, Vietnam

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: to explain access to formal and informal credit in agriculture of Vietnam; and to compare the effectiveness between regular econometrics and machine learning techniques.Design/methodology/approachThe multinomial logit (MNL) regression model and the random forest (RF) technique are employed for comparison purposes. To avoid heteroskedasticity, the robust covariance matrix is computed to estimate the sandwich estimator which in turn provides an asymptotic covariance matrix for biased estimators. Additionally, multicollinearity is tested among independent variables with variance inflation factors less than 3. Adequacy approach and sensitivity analysis are used to determine relevant levels of predictors. For models comparison, statistical evaluation metrics including Cohen’sκ, mean absolute error, root mean squared error and relative absolute error are employed.FindingsThe discrepancy between sensitivity analysis and adequacy approach revealed that MNL is more compatible for explaining determinants of credit participation. Due to insignificant differences in the evaluation metrics between models, the winner of choice is undetermined. Among other determinants, collateral, farmsize, income, procedure, literacy and all risk variables stand out to be critical factors when deciding borrowing schemes. While financially literate farmers tend to acquire loans from both sources, borrowing decisions against different risk sources depend on risk type and famers’ own desire to borrow.Originality/valueResults of the MNL model are more consistent with literatures, which reinforce the role of collateral in the local credit scheme. Besides, financial literacy and farmers’ perception on different risk sources also influence how farmers’ borrowing strategies vary among sources.

The Impact of Rural Saving and Credit Cooperative on Multidimensional Poverty Status: Evidence from Rular Households in Awabel District, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Multidimensional poverty is the problem of every country in the world; hence, it needs the attention of policy makers and various development actors like cooperatives. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of saving and credit cooperative financial service on multidimensional poverty status of rural household in Awabel district. The specific objectives of the study is to examine the impact of saving and credit cooperative financial service on multidimensional poverty status of rural households, to identify determinants of multidimensional poverty status of rural households, to identify the dimension of household poverty affected by saving and credit cooperatives financial services. The study adopts a cross sectional, and quantitative research design. The target population was 4,675 actively registered RuSACCO members’ households. The sample size was a total of 380 i.e190 members as a treated group and 190 nonmembers as counterfactual obtained through multi-stage sampling techniques .The data is primary data collected through household survey.For data analysis firstly, binary logit models is used to identify the determinants of multidimensional poverty status of rural households; and the finding revealed multidimensional poverty status of rural household has negative relationship between RuSACCO membership status (-4.2%), size of cultivated landholdings (-5%), access for agricultural extension service (-4.01%), and access for road (-1.7%) and are all statistically significant at 1% level. Moreover, there was a negative relationship between experience of household head on agricultural activity (-0.15%) and statistically significant at 5% level, the risen in educational status of household head from illiterate to literate, primary to secondary and from secondary to higher education goes dawn multidimensional poverty status by-1.8%, -3% and -4.3% and all are statistically significance at 1% level It is also found that, there were positive relationship between, multidimensional poverty status of rural households and dependency ratio (0.11%) at 5% level of significance) in Awabel district. Secondly ,propensity score match model is applied to examine the impact of RuSACCO financial service on multidimensional poverty status of rural households, and the finding revealed that, financial service of RuSACCO had reduce the multidimensional poverty index of rural household by 0.082898018 on average for members .The findings also showed that the RuSACCOs financial service has reduced health dimension of poverty by 0.036242775, the educational dimension of poverty by 0.018915905standard of living dimension of poverty by 0.0152, on average for RuSACCO members compare to that of non members. It is recommended the government should give special attention for organization and promotion of cooperative. Cooperative extension workers should advice members of RuSACCO to spend their financial service on health, education and standard of livings respectively. Increase productivity per size of cultivated landholding, work hard to bring literate farmers, work against reducing young age dependency, rising road accessibility, increase the accessibility of agricultural extension workers, and experience sharing among farmers to reduce the multidimensional status of rural household’s members in Awabe district. Keywords : RuSACCOs financial service, Multidimensional poverty, Awabel district in Amahara region, propensity score matching model. DOI : 10.7176/DCS/9-9-02 Publication date :September 30 th 2019

Training Needs of Farmers and Agricultural Extensionists on Selected Information Technology Enabled Systems for Agriculture

The study analyses the training needs of farmers and agricultural extensionists of Kerala,India on selected Information Technology Enabled Systems (ITES) such as web browsing, agricultural portals, agricultural expert systems, digitized databases and on line trading in agriculture. Computer literate farmers and agricultural extensionists from the districts of Thrissur, Idukki and Malappuram of Kerala consisting of 300 farmers and 120 agricultural extensionists were the respondents of the study. Training on agricultural portals was identified as the highest training need among both farmers and agricultural extensionists. The study points to the need of imparting IT oriented training to both farmers and agricultural extensionists which would enable them to get right information at the right time for the overall development of agriculture.

Knowledge Regarding Japanese Encephalitis among Pig Farmers of Kathmandu and Morang Districts of Nepal

A study was carried out from January to December 2012 among pig farming communities of Kathmandu and Morang districts of Nepal to determine knowledge regarding Japanese encephalitis (JE) disease. In this comparative study, 100 pig farmers were surveyed in each district Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection. The research observation revealed that the pig farming communities in both districts were poor, illiterate, having no training, highly dependent on pig farming occupation and some were landless. Comparatively, Kathmandu pig farmers had better education, training on pig farming and income status but less land ownership than Morang pig farmers. Male and female respondents were equal in Kathmandu and nearly equal in case of Morang district. There was significant difference (P<0.05) regarding knowledge of JE in two districts. In Kathmandu, 42% pig farmers were aware of JE while in Morang only 25% were having knowledge of it. Study district, literacy status and gender of pig farmers were significantly associated (P<0.05) with JE awareness. Literate farmers (41.5%) were more aware than illiterate (24.5%) and males (43.5%) were much aware than females (21.7%). There was also significant difference (P<0.05) between pig as vector for zoonotic disease and knowledge regarding JE.

Coffee Production in Kavre and Lalitpur Districts, Nepal

Coffee (Coffea spp) is an important and emerging cash crop having potential to provide farmers employment and income generation opportunities. This crop is well adapted to the climatic conditions of mid-hills of Nepal. Thus, majority of the farmers are attracted towards cultivation of coffee because of demands in national and international market. Coffee is now becoming integral part of farming system in rural areas. However, information on performance of coffee and farmers response has not been well documented. Therefore, we undertook the present work to analyze demography, ethnicity, household occupation, literacy status, average land holding, coffee cultivation area, livelihood and sources of income of coffee growers, production and productivity, pricing, cropping pattern of the coffee and problesm faced by them in mid hill district of Kavrepalanchowk (hereafter ‘Kavre’) and Lalitpur Districts. All the samples were taken randomly and selected from coffee producing cooperative of Kavre and Lalitpur. Our analysis showed that the male farmer dominant over female on adopting coffee cultivation in both districts with higher value in Kavre. Brahmin and Chetri ethnic communities were in majority over others in adopting the coffee cultivation. Literate farmers were more dominant over illiterates on adopting the coffee cultivation, The mean land holding was less, ranging from 0.15 to 2.30 ha for coffee cultivation, the history of coffee cultivation in Kavre showed that highest number of farmers were engaged in coffee farming from last 16 years. The mean yield of fresh cherry was 1027.20 kg/ha in Kavre, while it was 1849.36 kg/ha in Lalitpur. The study revealed that majority of the coffee plantations were between 6-10 years old. The major problems facing by coffee farmers were diseases spread, lack of irrigation facility and drying of plants. Despite of that the coffee farming was one of the rapidly emerging occupations among the farmers in both district of Nepal.

Information needs of communal cattle farmers in conservation and transfrontier areas: Republic of South Africa

The study investigated information needs of communal cattle farmers located on conservation and transfrontier areas in the Northern part of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. For triangulation of findings, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and 241 structured questionnaires were used. During focus group discussions, key findings showed that cattle management and handling as well as veterinary information are the most needed information by farmers from both study sites. Odds ratio estimates showed that older males (odds ratios 1.906 and 1.488) and literate farmers with tertiary education required more information on cattle management (odds ratio 5.878). Both study areas had common information needs on veterinary matters, conservation of cattle feeds, cattle management and handling as well as stock theft and depredation. This excludes alien invasive species which were reported to be a challenge by dominating communal grazing lands, hence reducing forage on conservation areas. A comprehensive action plan addressing information needs for cattle farmers located in the conservation and transfrontier areas by relevant stakeholders is crucial to minimise substantial economic losses caused by cattle diseases. Keywords: Information needs, conservation, transfrontier cattle farmers

Combining Econometric, Cost–Benefit, and Financial Methodologies in a Framework to Increase Diffusion and to Predict the Feasibility and Sustainability of Irrigation Schemes: A Case Study in Kurdistan, Iraq

This paper applies ex ante econometric, cost–benefit, and financial methodologies to increase participation in an irrigation project and predict its financial feasibility and social sustainability in Shahrazoor, Kurdistan, Iraq. I investigated the socio-economic, psycho-cultural, and financial factors that determine participation. The socio-economic part of the econometric analysis showed that the project was appreciated more by poorer and economically weaker farmers who rely on agriculture than by those who rely on livestock activities. The psycho-cultural part of the econometric analysis emphasized that the project was appreciated more by literate farmers who adopt a maximization (rather than habit) approach. The cost–benefit analysis applied to the irrigation project was tailored to poorer and weaker farmers (i.e., costs of the irrigation scheme and benefits from new cultivation patterns were defined with reference to small farms) by including indirect benefits from both irrigation (e.g., flood control) and hydropower (e.g., eliminated GHG emissions), and determined a 7.1% mean internal rate of return; this was affected more strongly by uncertainty in crop prices than by uncertainty in indirect benefits. The financial analysis highlighted values for water prices, financial returns, and loan rates that met government and farmer budgets. A single framework summarized the main relevant social, economic, and financial conditions, and, by including insights from sensitivity analyses, determined the feasibility and sustainability of the irrigation project. Provided that the water price charged to farmers is between 0.32 and 0.57 USD/m3, and the loan interest rate paid by farmers is smaller than 3.0%, the irrigation project in Shahrazoor is financially feasible for 13.6% of all reliable economic solutions and socially sustainable for 35.8% of the solutions.