Smallholder Rice Farmers Research Articles

An Assessment of the Influence of Socio-Economic Variables on Credit Accessibility by Smallholder Rice Farmers in Cameroon: A Case of the West Region of Cameroon

An Assessment of the Influence of Socio-Economic Variables on Credit Accessibility by Smallholder Rice Farmers in Cameroon: A Case of the West Region of Cameroon

Improving rice-based rainfed production systems in Southeast Asia for contributing towards food security and rural development through sustainable crop production intensification

Continuing degradation of the environment and the cumulating food, energy, water and financial crises have led to a situation where many people’s access to sufficient, nutritious food is affected as well as their livelihoods, income, and ultimate food and nutrition security. In the wake of these stresses and crises, there is an emerging interest to find efficient, easily accessible and sustainable approaches that can address these crises. One candidate for this is the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) with its “less can produce more” prescription. A regional collaborative project currently underway is being implemented in rainfed areas of the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB) countries. This involves smallholder rice farmers, researchers, extension personnel, and development professionals, together with staff of relevant government ministries (http://www.sri-lmb.ait.asia/). The project objective is to produce healthier and profitable rice crops under rainfed conditions using SRI methods, evaluated and refined through farmers’ participatory action research (FPAR). As part of the action-research, more than 120 sets of field experiments have been carried out at 60 FPAR sites in Cambodia and Thailand, directly involving 3600 farmers. The experiments have ranged from the integration of many SRI principles with farmers’ current local practices or improved practices which was termed as “SRI-transition” to full demonstrations and assessments of SRI methodology, i.e., SRI demonstration. The initial calculation of yields has showed an average paddy yield of 5.03 t/ha with SRI-transition, whereas with SRI-demonstration the average yield was 6.41 t/ha. These yields were 60 and 100% higher than the average baseline yield in the region, 3.14 t/ha, for the same farmers and same locales. Productivity gains (dollars gained/dollars spent per ha) were calculated for both rainfed and irrigated production areas. In comparative terms, the economic gains for farmers were found to be higher in rainfed areas when using the new methods. This paper addresses the potential of new strategies to promote food security in rainfed areas in the LMB region by managing household and natural resources more productively.

Technical efficiency and its determinants in smallholder rice production in northern Ghana

Agriculture remains a dominant economic sector in many developing countries including Ghana. Agricultural production is however dominated by smallholders who are usually classified as being resource-poor. Ensuring that smallholder farmers make efficient use of scarce resources in their production activities is therefore very important to help raise the level of productivity at the small farm sector. Improving agricultural productivity also requires an understanding of the current productive capacity of farmers given the level of technology as well as the factors affecting their efficiency. The current study was therefore carried out to estimate the technical efficiency of smallholder rice farms in Northern Ghana as well as the determinants of inefficiency using data from a cross-section of 300 smallholder farm households. A multi-stage stratified random sampling approach was used to collect data which was fitted to a stochastic frontier production function incorporating an inefficiency effects model. A quadratic form of the production function was specified to represent the production frontier of rice farms based on a preliminary test of the appropriate functional form. The study revealed that the mean technical efficiency of rice farms was 63.8 percent, indicating that farmers are producing below their maximum potential at the current level of technology. Hence without increasing the current level of input use, producers in the study area can potentially increase their efficiency by 36.2 percent at the current level of technology. Apart from seed, all the conventional inputs were significant in their influence on rice output. The determinants of technical efficiency were gender of the farmer, years of formal education, membership of farmers’ association and specialization in rice production. Male farmers as well as less educated farmers were more efficient in production. Similarly, farmers who belonged to a farmers’ organization as well as producers with higher degree of specialization in rice production were found to be more efficient. Irrigation shifted the production frontier upwards indicating higher productivity with irrigation use. Similarly, farmers who double-cropped their fields and farmers in the Northern Region were located on a higher production frontier. The study recommends the expansion of irrigation access to farmers as well as incentivizing farmer-based organizations to enhance the efficiency of farmers in the study area. Access to irrigation will also facilitate double cropping leading to improved rice production in Northern Ghana. Furthermore, specific factors limiting production efficiency of farmers in the Upper East Region require investigation and remedies to improve the efficiency of farmers in that area.

Assessing the diversity of smallholder rice farms production strategies in Sierra Leone

Summary In Sierra Leone, several international organizations are trying to help the government improve the productivity of its rice farms, which currently have the lowest rice yields in West Africa. However, the various programmes attempting to increase rice production, and consequently rice self-sufficient food production, are handicapped by an absence of thorough studies explaining the way rice farmers take the available socio-economic, technical and natural production factors into account when making their decisions. The purpose of the current article is to assess rice production performance on smallholder rice farms in Sierra Leone. To achieve this goal, an agronomic and socio-economic survey was carried out among 180 rice farmers in the district of Bombali in Northern Sierra Leone. The survey, combined with a specific statistical analysis, made it possible to assess production strategies for rice farms according to various discriminant parameters (family size and composition, fallow duration, seeding density, labour availability, ecosystems, share of oil palm, distance from field to farm…). This analysis revealed that the rice smallholder farms that perform best are those growing rice under two ecosystems together with oil palm. Those farms have more income to purchase rice seed in years when production is low or if they have large families to feed. However, subsistence rice farms with one exclusive ecosystem will probably not be sustainable and they will not be able to satisfy their households’ future rice needs.

Biogeochemical impacts of silicon-rich rice residue incorporation into flooded soils: Implications for rice nutrition and cycling of arsenic

Soil incorporation of Si-rich rice residues may aid smallholder rice farmers in improving crop yields and may affect As uptake. Here, the biogeochemical impacts of rice residue incorporation into flooded soil without plants were evaluated. Various particle sizes of fresh rice straw (FS), fresh rice husk (FH), rice straw ash (RSA) and rice husk ash (RHA) residues were incorporated into soil (1 % w/w) in a flooded pot experiment. Pore-water chemistry was monitored weekly and dissolved CH4 concentrations and genes specific for methanotrophy and methanogenesis in DNA extracts of soil were evaluated. FH-amended soil had the highest level of dissolved Si, followed by FS and then ash (RHA or RSA). Particle size had little effect on the dissolved Si concentration for any residue tested. No amendments had any substantial effect on pore-water pH. FS-amended soil had much higher As, Fe, and CH4 concentrations in pore-water compared to ash and FH, and its extracted DNA also had higher amplifications of genes indicative of methanogenesis. FH, RHA, or RSA are attractive amendments for smallholder rice farmers to increase plant-available Si without exacerbating CH4 emissions, which may improve rice nutrition through the beneficial impacts of Si on combating biotic and abiotic stress including decreased arsenic uptake.

English

Weeds are the most widespread biotic production constraint of rice in Africa and one of the major factors limiting grain yield. An efficient breeding strategy could be particularly important for improving weed management in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because most smallholder rice farmers use few external inputs. To understand rice weed competitiveness, experiments on reciprocal interspecific crosses derived from FKR19 (Oryza sativa) and CG20 (Oryza glaberrima) were carried out to estimate gene effects and heritability of traits: plant height at five leaves, plant height 30 days after transplanting, plant height at maturity, number of tillers at 30 and 60 DAT, number of fertile tillers, width of leaves at 80 DAT and at maturity, and length of leaves at 80 DAT and at maturity for rice–weed competitiveness. Six generations – P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1F1 and BC2F1 – were raised and subjected to generation mean analysis. The lowest heterosis of F1 was obtained in both crosses (CG20/FKR19 and FKR19/CG20), except for plant height at 30 days after transplanting and leaf width at maturity in the CG20/FKR19 cross. The majority of traits displayed higher dominance gene effects (H5_L, H30 and L_80 for CG20/FKR19; W_mat and L_mat for FKR19/CG20) than additive gene effects; the latter were slight and non-significant for the majority of traits. Duplicate epistasis was observed for the number of tillers 30 days after transplanting and leaf length at maturity and plant height at maturity. Additive genetic variance values were higher in CG20/FKR19, revealing that the CG20 variety can be used as a donor parent. Plant height at maturity, length of leaves at 80 DAT and at maturity showed high narrow-sense heritability (hn2>0.70), influencing weed competitiveness. Key words: Additive, dominance, heritability, rice, variance components, weed competitiveness.

English

This paper explores access to agricultural microcredit in Ghana using household survey data collected for the 2013/2014 farming season. The study approaches the access to microcredit from two angles pertaining to the factors influencing access to loan and when accessed, the determinants of loan size. Since these two choices are related, the Heckman selection model was chosen as the analytical tool for addressing the possible presence of sample selectivity bias in the loan size regression. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select 300 smallholder rice farmers from three irrigation schemes in Northern Ghana who were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study revealed that the following factors influence access to agricultural microcredit in Northern Ghana: gender, household income, farm capital, improved technology adoption, contact with extension, the location of the farm, and awarenes s of lending institutions in the area. Gender, household size, farm capital, cattle ownership and improved technology adoption were the significant factors determining loan size. The study recommends the improvement of extension service delivery to smallholder farmers to enable them to access microcredit facilities for agricultural production. Key words: Agricultural microcredit, binary probit model, Heckman selection model, loan size, Northern Ghana, smallholder farmers.

Factors Influencing Pesticide Use in Smallholder Rice Production in Northern Ghana

Rice production is an important economic activity among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana serving as source of income and household food security. The production of rice is often associated with the use of pesticides to control harmful pests of rice, a practice which also poses environmental and human health risks. The study sought to investigate the factors which influence smallholder rice farmers’ use of pesticides in rice farming in northern Ghana. Rice farmers were selected from three irrigation schemes in northern Ghana, namely the Botanga, Tono and Vea Irrigation Schemes. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to identify 300 rice farmers who were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. A probit model was used to study the determinants of pesticide use. The study showed that farm size, farm income, mechanization, extension contact, distance to source of pesticide and production system were the influencial factors in rice producers’ choice to use pesticide in rice farming. The study recommends extension education to farmers on pesticide use in order to avoid misuse and the risks factors associated with improper application.

Limits to adaptation to interacting global change risks among smallholder rice farmers in Northwest Costa Rica

In this paper, we discuss the theoretical relationships among interacting global change risks, valued livelihood goals, and adaptation limits. We build from research on the impacts of multiple and interacting global change risks in lesser-developed countries and seek to understand household adaptation limits in agrarian communities. We ask: What are valued livelihood goals among smallholder farmers in Northwest Costa Rica? How do socio-economic determinants of adaptive capacities determine their ability to meet these goals in the face of the impacts of interacting global change risks? Our data were based on focus groups, interviews, survey responses from 94 smallholder farmers, government statistics, and published literature. We analyzed our data using qualitative content analysis and quantitative logistic regression models. Our analysis showed that farmers perceived rice production as an identity, and that they were being forced to consider limits to their abilities to adapt to maintain that identity. We found that farm size, cattle ownership, years spent farming, and household income variety were determinants of their abilities to remain in rice production while maintaining sufficient levels of livelihood security. We also showed that for those households most vulnerable to water scarcity, their ability to successfully adapt to meet valued livelihood goals is diminished because adaptation to water scarcity increases vulnerability to decreased rice-market access. In this way, they become trapped by the inability to reduce their vulnerability to risks of the interaction between global changes and therefore abandon valued identities and livelihoods.

Empowering smallholder rice farmers in Tanzania to increase productivity for promoting food security in Eastern and Southern Africa

Despite low rice yield levels in Tanzania, the country is the leading producer in Eastern and Southern Africa. Given that this business is dominated by smallholder farmers and that the country is endowed with extensive landscapes suitable for rice production coupled with a high domestic and foreign potential market, there is an urgent need to enhance the yield as a key to promote food security from household to national and international levels. This paper seeks to demonstrate the importance of empowering smallholder farmers as a strategy for identifying and applying improved rice husbandry technologies in a holistic and integrated manner by employing a Farmer Field School (FFS) approach. The study was conducted in two sample villages, namely Kipera Njiapanda in the Morogoro region and Bwawani Visegese in the Pwani region, where culturally and ecologically rice is grown. The FFS approach was applied with the involvement of smallholders and local authorities to develop innovative ways to increase yield and promote food security. Data and information on current rice farming practices were collected using FFS participants and qualitatively analyzed at each rice production stage. Findings revealed that farmers’ socioeconomic conditions varied, thus reflecting differences in farm size, crop husbandry and associated yield as well as in non-market production along with consumption and/or market exchange. The FFS approach demonstrated that community participatory processes have the capacity to create conducive conditions for empowering smallholders to identify their rice production problems and opportunities related to access to technical and financial support in the realm of seedbed preparation and irrigation, including pest and disease control and crop marketing. The FFS approach is a robust tool for the identification of problems/challenges as well as pertinent opportunities to increase rice yield and promote food security. The paper calls for support from development partners in managing the rice production systems at all stages in the production cycle given the current potential of both the smallholder farmers and the arable land to increase rice yield, reduce poverty and promote food security at household, national and international levels.

NERICA Adoption and Impacts on Technical Efficiency of Rice Producing Households in Ghana: Implications for Research and Development

In an effort to enhance agricultural development in Ghana, rice producers have witnessed myriads of improved agricultural technology development and dissemination. Notably among them is the Multi-national NERICA Rice Dissemination Project (MNRDP). However the empirical evidence linking these technologies to productivity indicators is limited. This paper uses cross sectional data which were collected from 200 smallholder rice producers from major rice growing districts in Ghana, to examine whether adoption of NERICA rice varieties have impacted on technical efficiency. Taking into account the endogeneity of technology adoption and assuming that impact is heterogeneous across the population, Original Research Article American Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 4(3): 244-262, 2014 245 The propensity score matching approach was usedto estimate average treatment effect (ATE) on technical efficiency. Theanalyses revealed an adoption rate of 68 per cent among sample rice farmers. The data further suggest an average technical efficiency of 69.1 per cent. In addition, adoption of NERICA rice varieties was found to have a positive and significant impact on technical efficiency of rice producing households in the country. Besides NERICA adoption, other factors that significantly influenced technical efficiency include; education, household size, gender and non-farm income. The result also highlighted a positive influence of institutions such as NGOs and extension services on technical efficiency. The findings suggest that access to improved varieties is an essential factor to consider in promoting interventions aimed at improving technical efficiency of smallholder rice producers. Further, continuous provision of training through establishing and strengthening linkages between farmers and these institutions is recommended to enhance the smooth transformation of adoption efforts into efficient rice production among smallholder rice farmers in Ghana.

The impact of seed vouchers on poverty reduction among smallholder rice farmers in Nigeria

AbstractIn response to the global food crisis of 2008, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded an emergency rice initiative (ERI) program to boost rice production in Nigeria. The supplementary seed voucher program, implemented alongside the ERI adopted a randomized control trial to grant randomly selected farmers access to subsidized certified improved rice seed using the seed voucher system (SVS). In this study, we provide a consistent estimate of the impact of the SVS on Poverty reduction, using mixed methodologies such as inverse propensity score weighing (IPSW) and the local average treatment effect (LATE) estimation techniques. Results show that the SVS has a positive and statistically significant impact on annual household income and per capita consumption expenditure. This study shows that availability of good quality seed at an affordable price can raise agricultural productivity, increase household income and contribute to poverty reduction.

Pesticide use among smallholder rice farmers in Tanzania

In an interview study conducted among smallholder rice farmers in Rufiji, Tanzania coastal mainland, and in Cheju, Zanzibar, farmer’s pesticide use and risk awareness were assessed. The farmers generally lacked knowledge or possibilities to manage the pesticides as prescribed by the manufacturers. Few farmers knew what kind of pesticides they were using and had never seen the original packages, as pesticides were usually sold per weight or already diluted without labeling. Protective equipment was rarely used since they were not aware of risks associated with pesticides or did not know where to purchase protective gear. Only half of the farmers were aware of pesticides’ health hazards and few associated pesticides with environmental problems. The pesticide use was relatively low, but based on farmers’ pesticide handling and application practices, health risks were a major concern. Most farmers did not believe in successful rice cultivation without using pesticides to control pests. However, estimated yields did not differ between pesticide users or farmers using conventional methods or neem tree extract. To avoid negative effects on human health and the environment, the farmers need basic education and better assistance in their farming practices and pesticide management.

Allocative efficiency, employment and rice production risk: An analysis of small holder paddy farms in the Upper East Region of Ghana

A production function analysis was used to investigate resource use efficiency by smallholder rice farmers in the Upper East region of Ghana and its impact on employment. Data was collected from a random sample of 440 farmers during the 2001/2002 cropping seasons. Empirical results show that smallholder rice farmers are allocatively inefficient in the use of labour, bullock and fertilizer. Non-irrigators created more job opportunities in the study area than irrigators. Smallholder farmers have developed coping mechanisms in order to minimize the negative impact of rice production risks. A programme to accelerate the provision of education and credit is needed. The education programme should include both formal and non-formal elements. This is important for the improvement of farmers' abilities to retrieve and process information regarding modern agricultural technology. Effective farmer-centered technical training programmes are needed to build the capacities of small-scale farmers in resource mobilization and use. Research is also needed in areas of reducing rice production risks. Ghana Journal of Development Studies Vol.1(2) 2004: 142-163

Rice Growth and Yield in Waste-Amended West African Lowland Soils

The use of organic materials as an alternative to or in combination with inorganic fertilizer is being advocated for use by small-holder rice farmers in sub-Saharan Africa as way to reduce the cost of inputs and stabilize yields of modern varieties grown in the lowlands. In this study, the effects of humified sludge (HS), poultry manure (PM), cattle manure (CM), a mixture of humified sludge and poultry, and cattle manures (MM), and inorganic fertilizer (IF) were evaluated on growth and yield of rice during the dry and wet seasons. Three lowland soils, Eutric Vertisol (EV), Eutric Fluvisol (EF), and Haplic Gleysol (HG), were amended with 90 kg N/ha from the above nutrient sources. Organic materials incorporation was done four weeks before transplanting with 21-day-old rice seedling whereas IF was split-applied as basal and at panicle initiation. Soil was flooded until 10 d before harvest. Plant height, number of tillers and panicles, days to 50% flowering, 1000-grain weight, biomass, and grain yield as well as harvest index were recorded. Soil electrical conductivity (EC) and pH were measured before amendments and at maximum tillering, flowering, and maturity stages during the wet season. Soil amendments with manure or fertilizer improved the growth and yield of rice. Flowering was delayed more than 7 d in Vertisol without organic amendment. Humified sludge, PM, and IF significantly enhanced tillering and plant height more than did other nutrient amendments, especially in Vertisol. Mean grain yield in the wet season was 17.4% better than in the dry season. For the dry and wet seasons, nutrient amendment effect on grain yield was ranked HS > PM > MM > IF > CM > Control and HS > PM > IF > CM > MM > Control, respectively. The superiority of HS and PM to the chemical fertilizer may be attributed to balanced and gradual release of plant nutrients, which were synchronized with demand at various growth stages of the rice plant.

Rice–fish culture: an option for smallholder Sawah rice farmers of the West African lowlands

The introduction of Asian-based Sawah 1 1 Sawah: The term Sawah refers to leveled rice field surrounded by bund with inlet and outlet for irrigation and drainage. farming system through an ecotechnology approach has opened a new frontier for diversification of the rice-based cropping system in West Africa. On-farm rice–fish culture experiments were conducted at Biemso under irrigated Sawah and Nobewam irrigation project sites in Ashanti region, Ghana, during the main cropping season of 2000. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the effect of fish on performance of rice and to assess relative economics of concurrent rice–fish culture and rice monoculture under lowland. The results indicated that the presence of fish did not significantly depress the yield of rice. The size of the fish increased from an initial weight of 25–80 g at Nobewam and to 90 g at Biemso site during the culture period of 100 and 120 days, respectively. The net return from the rice–fish culture ranged from US$ 1106.90 to 1233.80 whilst that of rice monoculture ranged from US$ 1046.40 to 11108.60. Percentage increase in revenue from the rice–fish system over the rice monoculture ranged between 5 and 11%. These results suggest that rice–fish integration could be a viable option for diversification for smallholder rice farmers in lowlands with soil and water conservation structures and reliable source of water for irrigation.

Smallholder Technical Efficiency: Controlling for Environmental Production Conditions

Smallholder agricultural production depends heavily on environmental production conditions that are largely exogenously determined. Yet few data sets collect necessary, detailed information on environmental production conditions. This oversight raises the spectre of likely omitted variables bias because farmers' input choices typically respond in part to environmental conditions. Moreover, because environmental production conditions are rarely symmetrically distributed, the omission also generally leads to upward bias in estimated technical inefficiency and to biased estimates of the correlates of estimated technical inefficiency as well. Using panel data from 464 traditional rice plots in Cote d'Ivoire, we show that controlling for heterogeneous environmental production conditions significantly changes inferences, perhaps especially with respect to smallholder rice farmers' estimated technical inefficiency.

Smallholder technical efficiency controlling for environmental production conditions

Smallholder agricultural production depends heavily on environmental production conditions that are largely exogenously determined. Yet, few data sets collect necessary, detailed information on environmental production conditions. This oversight raises the spectre of likely omitted variables bias because farmers' input choices typically respond in part to environmental conditions. Moreover, because environmental production conditions are rarely symmetrically distributed, the omission also generally leads to upward bias in estimated technical inefficiency and to biased estimates of the correlates of estimated technical inefficiency as well. Using panel data from 464 traditional rice plots in Côte d'Ivoire, we show that controlling for heterogeneous environmental production conditions significantly changes inferences, perhaps especially with respect to smallholder rice farmers' estimated technical inefficiency.

Smallholder Technical Efficiency with Stochastic Exogenous Production Conditions

There is a large literature on the estimation of frontier production functions, much of it applied to low-income agriculture. However, much of this literature largely ignores nature's role in agricultural production. Because exogenous, natural production conditions (e.g., rainfall, soil quality, pest infestation, plant disease, weed growth) are rarely uniform or symmetrically distributed within a population or a sample thereof, this omission generally leads to downward bias in producers' estimated efficiency and to biased estimates of both the parameters of the production frontier and the correlates of true technical inefficiency. Using panel data from 464 traditional rice plots in Cote d'Ivoire, we show that controlling for stochastic, exogenous, natural production conditions in estimating the production frontier significantly increases smallholder rice farmers' estimated efficiency, whether estimated using parametric, stochastic or nonparametric, nonstochastic methods. The resulting frontier parameter estimates are also more consistent with theoretical predictions than are those of a frontier estimated without controlling for exogenous production conditions. Conventional estimates of technical efficiency may then mislead policymakers' perceptions of overall efficiency levels and of the sources of such inefficiency.

Structural Adjustment and Economic Efficiency of Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana

Structural Adjustment and Economic Efficiency of Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana