Productivity Of Smallholder Farmers Research Articles

Determinants of microfinance credit uptake and the amount of credit by smallholder dairy cattle farmers in Maara sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Microfinance institutions play a crucial role in enhancing the production and productivity of smallholder farmers by providing them with the necessary financial resources. However, the adoption and utilization of microfinance credit in the Maara sub-county fall short of their potential benefits. Despite various credit service providers, not all smallholder dairy cattle farmers in this region have been able to capitalize on these services. Several factors contribute to the low uptake of microfinance credit among smallholder dairy farmers, including inadequate financial literacy, absence of collateral, high transaction costs, and insufficient infrastructure. Acknowledging that these factors are dynamic and can vary across different regions is and essential. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics influencing microfinance credit adoption and utilization in the Maara sub-county is lacking. This study examined microfinance credit uptake from two angles: the factors affecting its adoption and the determinants of credit size once accessed. Recognizing the interdependence of these choices, the study employed the Heckman selection model. Results indicated that factors such as years of schooling, household size, organization membership, access to extension services, and collateral availability significantly (p < 0.01) influenced microfinance credit uptake. Furthermore, schooling years, household size, and daily milk production per cow emerged as the most impactful credit size determinants (p < 0.05). The study suggests that promoting organization membership among smallholder dairy cattle farmers could enhance access to microfinance credit facilities, thereby ensuring sustainable milk production. By addressing the identified factors, the Maara sub-county could unlock the potential of microfinance credit to benefit its agricultural sector.

The African Goat Improvement Network: a scientific group empowering smallholder farmers.

The African Goat Improvement Network (AGIN) is a collaborative group of scientists focused on genetic improvement of goats in small holder communities across the African continent. The group emerged from a series of workshops focused on enhancing goat productivity and sustainability. Discussions began in 2011 at the inaugural workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya. The goals of this diverse group were to: improve indigenous goat production in Africa; characterize existing goat populations and to facilitate germplasm preservation where appropriate; and to genomic approaches to better understand adaptation. The long-term goal was to develop cost-effective strategies to apply genomics to improve productivity of small holder farmers without sacrificing adaptation. Genome-wide information on genetic variation enabled genetic diversity studies, facilitated improved germplasm preservation decisions, and provided information necessary to initiate large scale genetic improvement programs. These improvements were partially implemented through a series of community-based breeding programs that engaged and empowered local small farmers, especially women, to promote sustainability of the production system. As with many international collaborative efforts, the AGIN work serves as a platform for human capacity development. This paper chronicles the evolution of the collaborative approach leading to the current AGIN organization and describes how it builds capacity for sustained research and development long after the initial program funds are gone. It is unique in its effectiveness for simultaneous, multi-level capacity building for researchers, students, farmers and communities, and local and regional government officials. The positive impact of AGIN capacity building has been felt by participants from developing, as well as developed country partners.

Analysis of factors affecting the technical inefficiency on Indonesian palm oil plantation

Indonesia’s palm oil plantation is dominated by three actors. Among three actors, the productivity of smallholder farmers has the lowest productivity. This study aims to analyze the value of technical efficiency and factors affecting the technical inefficiency of palm oil plantations in Indonesia by using the stochastic frontier analysis based on the translog production function. The data used in this study are taken from the Central Statistics Agency (Agricultural Business Household Income Survey) in 2013. The number of samples used was 14,367 farmers. The results revealed that the average value of technical efficiency (58.32%) is still far to reach its optimal, showing that there is still to increase in the efficiency of palm oil plantations in Indonesia. The production function suggests that increasing the number of trees can help to increase the number of outputs. To enhance the technical efficiency, education, age, planting system, seed quality, extension service, and plasma farmer are the significant factors.

Adoption of Improved Wheat Varieties by Wheat Producers in the Bale Zone of Ethiopia

Wheat is a strategic food security crop in the Ethiopia. Improving production and productivity of smallholder farmers through adoption of improved wheat varieties is one of the measures presumed to bridge the persistent food gap in the country. There are several socio-economic and institutional factors that constraint farmers from adoption of improved wheat varieties and empirically unidentified in the study area. The objective of this study was to analyze the factors influencing farmer’s decision in adoption of improved wheat varieties in the study area. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods such as household survey, key informant interview and focused group discussion were utilized for this study. The probit model result showed that sex of household head, land holding size, livestock holding size, access to credit, access to market information, frequency of extension contacts, educational level of household head, membership in cooperatives and perception on yield capacity significantly influenced adoption decision of improved wheat varieties. Therefore, policy and development interventions should give emphasis towards the improvement of such economical and institutional support system so as to achieve wider adoption of improved wheat varieties, increased production and productivity of smallholder farmers.

Pre-scaling up of improved finger millet (Kako-1) variety, at Weyira district, under Halaba zone in Ethiopian

Pre-scaling up of improved finger millet variety (kako-1) was conducted in 2019/20 mehere season in Halaba Zone, two selected kebeles under Weyira District,southern Ethiopia under rain fed conditions through involvement of farmers in participatory demonstration. The demonstration was carried out with the specific objectives:to popularize and demonstrate improved Finger millet technology (Kako-1) and to collect farmers feedback on improved finger millet variety. The demonstration was conducted at layignawu Badana and kufe kebele on farmers field of Weyira Districts on 10ha land coverage totally 20 beneficiary farmers field .Site and beneficiary farmers selection criteria were conducted purposively by cooperating with woreda and kebele extension personnel by willingness to accept technology, land availability and accessibility of the area. Training was given by focusing on agronomic practices and awareness creation for all selected beneficiary farmers and concerned extension personnel. Also, all necessary inputs (10kg/h kako-1 seed,100kg/h NPSB and 150 kg /h Urea) were provided from Hawassa agricultural research center.Yield and farmers feedback data were collected and analyzed by using descriptive statistics applying on SPSS software Accordingly, 2.7 tone/ha average mean grain yield was obtained. According to farmers’ feedback, the variety kako-1 has high tilling capacity, high grain yield, early maturity, high biomass yield and quality Therefore the variety need to extended to wide area.So, all concerned bodies need to work to facilitation of further extension of kako-1 variety for Halaba zone and other similar agro-ecological zones to improve finger millet production and productivity of smallholder farmers.

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION OF RUNOFF WATER HARVESTING POND FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMING

Rainfall shortage and variability constrain crop production of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia is the main problem. For this supplementary irrigation by run off harvesting is strategic pathway to reduce poverty in rural drought prone areas for enhancing agricultural productivity and boosting farm income. For this, this study is conducted to Design, construction and evaluation of runoff water harvesting Pond for supplementary irrigation to addressing inherent crop failures under the rain fed agriculture due to mainly erratic rainfall. For this design climatic and soil data were input to determine seasonal crop water requirement (CWR) of onion and evaporation loss of water from water surface. Then the performances of water harvested verses area irrigate were evaluated. To make this study more economical the water harvester capacity decreed by two fold and water harvesting made at two times. Seasonal volume crop water requirement (CWR) of onion for farm area 2500 m2 and evaporation loss of water from water surface of 121 m2 and total volume of seasonal water need were 382.05,53.38 and 435.43 m3 respectively. The geo-membrane laminated water harvester that has capacity of 223 m3 was designed and constructed. From on field performance shows, this volume of water harvested twice can irrigate 0.25ha by supplementary irrigation using water saving irrigation technology (treadle pump) by over showering and was produced 4.2 tone/ha. The investment, operation and production costs were 63116, 1125 and 6675 ETH birr respectively. The total cost was 70,916 birr and The growth return of 0.25ha was 15,750 birr/year (1050kg*15 birr/kg). This show the farmer can return 22.21% of their investment cost. So it is recommended to the government and non-government to initiate the farmers at lower stream of the catchment to harvest run off water and use for supplementary irrigation to increase their income.

Access to finance and difference in family farm productivity in Benin: Evidence from small farms

In most of developing countries, agricultural finance is weak and there is a great constraint for family farmers to access credit. In that context, this article aims to analyze the effect of access to finance on the productivity of smallholders family farmers. Using a rich national representative survey data covering the 2016–2017 agricultural season, we estimated an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model. The results show that access to credit has a positive impact on the productivity of smallholder farmers, with a gain of 15%. Small farmers manage to achieve a 13% increase in productivity, which is a very significant performance. These findings suggest the establishment of a policy to support small farms, so that they are more productive and more favorable to agricultural growth.

Decent Rural Employment in a specialised and a diversified production system in Tanzania

ABSTRACT The agricultural sector in developing countries plays a vital role in food security as well as providing employment opportunities to the rural population. This study examines how decent quality of rural employment can be associated with technical efficiency of agricultural production of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. While labour is considered an input in the production process, various forms of labour are rarely measured in the context of employment quality. Using a latent-class stochastic frontier model, two types of farming systems are identified: a specialised crop system and a diversified farming system. The study found child labour to be significantly contributing to the inefficiency of agricultural production only in the diversified farming system, while precarious employment contributed to the inefficiency in both farming systems. Based on these findings policymaking that targets decent employment in developing countries needs to account for differences in farming systems.

Smallholder Agricultural Investment and Productivity under Contract Farming and Customary Tenure System: A Malawian Perspective

Land tenure security, especially customary residence systems, is found to influence the agricultural investment decision-making and productivity of smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa. However, as country-specific customary residence systems and farming models evolve over time, their impact on food security and livelihood remains unclear. This study investigates the impact of customary residence systems on both agricultural investment (in tea shrubs and agroforestry) and productivity among contracted smallholder tea outgrowers in Southern Malawi. A survey of 228 farmers was conducted in 2018, and a linear probability and ordinary least squared (OLS) models were used for the analysis. The results suggest that matrilocal residence practices positively influence agricultural investment. The study concluded that despite the dominance of matrilineal-matrilocal systems in Southern Malawi, there is a need for policy to address gender gaps in the region because women are still vulnerable and insecure even in these assumed women-friendly customary systems. It is recommended that future research explores other prevailing tenure security systems.

Determinants of Non-Farm Employment and Farm Production of Small Holder Farmers in Huambo District of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

Non-farm employment provides an important potential source of income for many landless and near-landless households in Ethiopia. The study identified household level determinants of non-farm activity participation in Humbo District of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia using cross-sectional data obtained from 118 randomly selected farmers in 2018 production year. To achieve this objective, a binary logit model was used to analyze the determinants of participation in non-farm activities. 14 Variables were included in the model of which 5 variables were found significant. Training on entrepreneurship & input use were significant at 1 %, credit use & cultivated land were significant at 5% significance level and Age was significant at 10% significance level. Policy implication of this study was that the rural development strategy should not only emphasis in increasing agricultural production but affiliated attention should be given in promoting non-farm activities in the rural areas, accessing training on non-agricultural sector will expand the household’s choice of non-farm activities and the rural policy would do well to provide better access to credit for the rural people by motivating micro-finance institutions. Keywords: Non-farm Employment, Logit Model, Humbo, Ethiopia. DOI : 10.7176/DCS/10-1-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

The impact of credit on productivity of smallholder farmers in Ghana

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of access to production credit on the productivity of smallholder farmers.Design/methodology/approachData for the study were drawn from the Agricultural Value Chain Facility (AVCF), which was implemented in the Northern Region of Ghana. This paper uses the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to estimate the average treatment effect of access to production credit on the productivity of smallholder farmers. The rationale for the choice of this estimation technique is to control for selection bias since the treatment variable (access to production credit) was not randomised. The authors also test for the effect of hidden bias using “Rosenbaum bounds” sensitivity analysis. The study uses two control groups to examine the net effect of credit on productivity.FindingsThe results reveal that smallholder farmers with access to production credit increased productivity through investment in farm inputs. For the impact of credit on productivity using control Group 1, the result shows that farmers with access to credit increased their productivity by 0.170 metric tonnes per hectare and for control Group 2, the result shows an increase of 0.252 metric tonnes per hectare more than farmers who are without access to production credit.Practical implicationsThe evidence as provided by this paper is that access to production credit is significant to meet the credit needs of smallholder farmers and therefore contributes to the policy debate on whether access to credit has impact on the productivity of smallholder farmers.Originality/valueThe paper shows the importance of production credit in augmenting the production function of smallholder farmers.

Livestock host composition rather than land use or climate explains spatial patterns in bluetongue disease in South India

Culicoides-borne arboviruses of livestock impair animal health, livestock production and livelihoods worldwide. As these arboviruses are multi-host, multi-vector systems, predictions to improve targeting of disease control measures require frameworks that quantify the relative impacts of multiple abiotic and biotic factors on disease patterns. We develop such a framework to predict long term (1992–2009) average patterns in bluetongue (BT), caused by bluetongue virus (BTV), in sheep in southern India, where annual BT outbreaks constrain the livelihoods and production of small-holder farmers. In Bayesian spatial general linear mixed models, host factors outperformed landscape and climate factors as predictors of disease patterns, with more BT outbreaks occurring on average in districts with higher densities of susceptible sheep breeds and buffalo. Since buffalo are resistant to clinical signs of BT, this finding suggests they are a source of infection for sympatric susceptible sheep populations. Sero-monitoring is required to understand the role of buffalo in maintaining BTV transmission and whether they must be included in vaccination programs to protect sheep adequately. Landscape factors, namely the coverage of post-flooding, irrigated and rain-fed croplands, had weak positive effects on outbreaks. The intimate links between livestock host, vector composition and agricultural practices in India require further investigation at the landscape scale.

Towards assuring food security in South Africa: Smallholder farmers as drivers

Smallholder agricultural sector in South Africa is regarded as one of the main livelihood options for the majority of people living in rural areas. As such, many of the poorest people living in rural areas regard smallholder subsistence agriculture as an important strategy to move out of food poverty and malnutrition. Food security has since been the goal that needs to be achieved by every nation given the agricultural sector reason to be productive enough to meet the food demand of each nation. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the role and potential of smallholder farmers as being the drivers of achieving food security in South Africa. The paper identifies key references backing up this claim and suggests some recommendations which could help improve the synergy between food security and productivity of smallholder farmers in South Africa.

Addressing the Challenges to Raising Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in Africa through Regularization of Rights to and Efficient use of Land Resources: Successful Model from Rwanda

Addressing the Challenges to Raising Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in Africa through Regularization of Rights to and Efficient use of Land Resources: Successful Model from Rwanda

Africa’s digital agriculture revolution

Digital technologies can improve agriculture in Africa as they have potential to significantly raise productivity of smallholder farmers, Fabian Lange, associate research officer at the Kofi Annan Foundation, tells Jarle Hetland. As part of the organization’s Combatting Hunger Programme, which advocates for the transformation of African agriculture to ensure food and nutrition security, he has seen first-hand how going digital is transforming the continent.

Characterization of Maize Producing Households in Southern Zambia

Maize is an important crop in the livelihood of Zambia’s most vulnerable populations. A huge challenge facing most of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries like Zambia is to increase maize productivity of smallholder farmers, which has remained very low over the past decades. Through various breeding programmes, more than 50 new maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties have been developed and provided to the farmers through seed companies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). However, the extent to which such varieties have been adopted remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to characterize the maize producing households and to assess adoption of improved maize varieties. Data were collected from randomly selected households in the maize- producing areas of Monze and Kalomo Districts in southern Zambia. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) on asset ownership was used to generate a wealth index used to rank the survey households. The results confirm that poorly endowed households, most of whom are female-headed, are far less likely to adopt improved varieties than their well-off counterparts. Important maize variety attributes sought by farmers include early maturity (85% of households), tolerance to water stress (83%), yield potential (79%), pest/disease resistance (56%), better processing quality (56%) and cob/grain size (50%). A larger proportion of well endowed households planted improved varieties, compared with their poorly endowed counterparts. These findings suggest that moving the poor households and female-headed households up the wealth ladder poses a considerable challenge and calls for targeting the key factors that could potentially improve their welfare.

Effects of Crop Commercial Orientation on Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in Drought-prone Areas of the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.

This paper examines the tradeoff between commercial orientation and crop productivity among smallholder farm households living in drought risk-prone areas of the central rift valley of Ethiopia. The study was built on the hypothesis that there is a one-way causation between commercial orientation and productivity. The relationship between commercial orientation and crop productivity is assessed in a censored simultaneous equation model framework. Results indicate that there is a unidirectional relationship with total factor productivity being influenced by the endogenous commercial orientation factor. The influence of commercial orientation is expounded with the addition of farm and non-farm characteristics. Thus, in priority order, number of non-oxen livestock, commercial orientation, agricultural credit and sex have been important factors positively influencing productivity whereas labor availability for farming, distance and off-farm wage labor employment have been working against increased productivity of the smallholder farm households. However, it was observed that with a shift from commercial orientation criteria to unrestricted level of market participation in crop sales, the type, magnitude and direction of determinant factors have increased emphasizing the seriousness of performance influencing factors along with market participation to the majority of the smallholder farmers. The findings suggest that programs targeted at improving market access have the potential to increase agricultural productivity.

Engendered Analysis of the Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Smallholder Dairy Productivity: Experience from Kenya

ABSTRACT The existing gap between potential and actual milk yield in Kenyan dairy farming and the need to bridge it led to the formulation of this study. The objective was to determine the socioeconomic factors including the gender variable affecting smallholder dairy productivity. The aim of incorporating gender was to capture in detail the factors peculiar to male and female smallholder dairy farmers. A sample of three hundred smallholder dairy farmers was interviewed in the Embu district of Kenya. Smallholder farm households were first categorized as male-headed and female-headed. Within these categories, dairy enterprises were further classified as male-managed, female-managed and jointly managed, depending on who was involved in the day-to-day management of the dairy activity. A multi-regression analysis was estimated using the Cobb-Douglas function to determine the relative importance of the socioeconomic factors in influencing dairy productivity in each gender category. A simulation analysis to determine which farmers would post more dairy productivity given similar resources was done. The results showed that though most households were male-headed, dairy enterprises were heavily female-managed. Male-headed households registered significantly (p = 0.012) higher mean dairy productivity than female-headed households. Simulation results showed that female-headed households would register higher dairy productivity than the male-headed households given similar resources. Overall, economic factors represented by commercialization index, monthly income and monthly expenses on livestock feeds seem to be the major determinants of dairy productivity of smallholder farmers, followed by months since last calving and the education level of the farmers. Specifically, the availability of a reliable market for raw milk (approximated by commercialization index) and access to commercial dairy feeds positively influenced dairy productivity in all gender categories of farm households and dairy enterprises. The monthly household income positively influenced dairy productivity in male and female-headed farm households, whereas access to commercial dairy meals was an important determinant of productivity in male-managed, female-managed and jointly managed dairy enterprises. The variations in dairy performance based on the gender of the farmer calls for the incorporation of gender as a variable in all efforts being made to raise dairy productivity. Mechanisms to ensure female farmers' access to dairy production resources could work to raise overall dairy productivity. The findings also suggest that improvement in the marketing systems for raw milk, particularly in terms of availability of a reliable milk outlet, would significantly enhance dairy productivity of both male and female smallholder farmers. Similarly, establishing of mechanisms through which farmers could access quality dairy feeds or alternative feeds could enhance dairy productivity.

The Stagnation of Smallholder Agriculture in the Northern Region of Zambia: Problems, Conflicts and Production Systems

Food security is seriously threatened by the low productivity of smallholder farmers, endemic poverty and widespread land degradation in the Northern Region of Zambia, The challenge is how to raise smallholder productivity at farm level in the face of developmental conflicts caused by demographic change, economic growth, strife and insecurity. The government is caught between the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) drawn up to enable it to pay off its huge foreign debt on the one hand, and the need to cushion the vulnerable sections of society (mostly smallholder farmers) from the worst aspects of the monetary squeeze on the other, Current evidence points to a dangerous imbalance, with the poor being hit hardest, but there are further steps which could be taken to support smallholders.