The main objective of this research is to analyze the perceptions of local communities on climate change and its impacts on livelihoods in Central Mali. A survey data collected using multistage random sampling methods have been used for that purpose. From the result, the multinomial logit analysis, shows that households in Central Mali are well aware of climate change, its different manifestations (change in temperature, in precipitation duration and amount, in wind etc.) and the related adverse effects on their livelihoods. However, they face considerable challenges in adapting to those changes in climate. Lack of funds and credit facilities, lack of access to timely weather information, lack of technologies (physical infrastructure, technical material and equipment), lack of knowledge regarding adaptation technics (required human skills, e.g., applying specific planning and management approaches and methods), lack of appropriate seeds have been identified as the major critical barriers to climate change adaptation in the region. These constraints probably explain why individuals often resort to poor but more affordable adaptation strategies which are conflict sensitive and likely to disrupt social cohesion between local communities. In this context, implementing policies aiming at improving the effectiveness of extension services in supporting households to better adapt to climate change could be of great importance.
Philippines is known for the vast plantation and seat of one of the most valued crops, the Pili nut. A study was conducted to determine the demographics of 192 Pili farmers and their production capacity from selected provinces of Bicol region, Philippines. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents with structured interview, focused group discussion and key informant survey conducted to gather data. Results of the study showed that demographic parameters such as gender, age, educational attainment, income and family structure are important and necessary information in order to understand the production capacity of Pili farmers. Pili production is generally profitable with high financial return of 127% to farmers. Farm areas in the region are sufficient where farmers can grow Pili to satisfy the local and global demand for this high-value crop. The financial stability and income of Pili key players can be increased given the proper attention and investment in production processes. The valuable support and assistance of the government especially local government units is crucial to ensure the optimistic future for the Pili industry. Likewise, it is imperative to address all the critical needs of farmers not only in the production process but in the various links along the supply chain as well in order to raise the overall sector revenue and household income of Pili farmers. In doing so, the country is assured of a more dynamic, sustainable and competitive Pili industry.
Food insecurity is a major global challenge that is more prevalent in developing nations like Nigeria with varying degrees of impact on households and demanding immediate attention from policymakers. This study assessed the level of insecurity among farming households in Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) approach. The data for the study was collected from 140 farming households selected using a two-stage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics were employed to characterize the socioeconomic attributes of the farming households and the coping strategies adopted during periods of food shortages, and the binary probit model to examine the determining factors of the food security status of the households. The HFIAS analysis result revealed that 83.7% of the households were food insecure at varying levels. The binary probit results revealed that household size, annual household income, cooperative membership, and access to extension services are the key determinants of household food security status in the study area. Given the study findings, we recommended the need for increasing the awareness of rural farming households on the use of family planning for enhancing household food-nutrition security. Farming households are also encouraged to diversify their livelihood to improve their income and participate in cooperatives and farming groups so that they can have access to resources that can aid to improve their productivity. Additionally, extension services should be made accessible to rural farming households as this will help to improve their productivity and hence, household food security.
In an economy where resources are scarce and opportunities for new technologies are lacking, efficiency studies able to show the possibilities to raise productivity by improving efficiency of farms without increasing the resource base or developing new technology. This study investigated Economic Efficiency of Onion Production in East Shewa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary source of data were used. Semi- structured questionnaires were used to collect data from Lume, Bora and Dugda districts. Totally 94 respondents randomly selected from each districts based on sample size determination. A stochastic production frontier function was fitted to the sample households. Tobit model was applied to determine factors affecting economic efficiency of onion production. The result revealed that the mean Technical, Allocative and Economic efficiency of onion production was about and 67.60%, 98.99% and 66.91% respectively. The tobit model result revealed that Onion Technical and Economic efficiency were positively and significantly affected by Experience in Onion production, frequency of Extension contact and Non- and off income activities while land allocated for Onion production affect Technical and economic efficiency negatively and significantly. District office of Agriculture, stockholders and concerned bodies should focus on extension service regarding of full package of production, provision of technical support and farmers should practice different Non-and Off-fam activities to improve his/her income that contribute to the improvement in efficiency of Onion production in the study area.
Aims: The paper tries to examine the effectiveness of the minimum support price (MSP) policy based on empirical data on price deviations as well as the procurement of paddy crops by various agencies. The cost and gross margin of cultivation are also analysed to add further reliability to the overall assessment of MSP policy.
Data and Methodology: The effectiveness of price policy is examined by studying farm harvest price (FHP) with respect to MSP of Paddy. We have calculated the deviations of FHP of paddy from MSP for the entire study period of 1996-2016, where the positive deviations are taken as an indicator of the effectiveness of price policy. Our study has analysed the procurement data published by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare. We also used the unit-level data from the ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households’, 2012-13 of NSSO.
Results: The MSP policy is found to be effective in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab but ineffective in other major rice-producing states across the country. And in states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, a vast majority of the medium, semi-medium, and small farmers sell their paddy to private agencies, thus making MSP policy for paddy in those states a complete failure. In states such as Haryana and Maharashtra, large farmers are found selling a significant portion of their total marketed surplus to processors.
Conclusion: Overall, at the national level, procurement by government agencies (which stands at 17.2 percent) is far from satisfactory. The policy implication calls for enhancing paddy procurement by government agencies across the farming groups rather than concentrating only on medium and large farmers.
Smallholder dairy farmers account for up to 80% of total dairy producers and 56% of total milk production in Kenya. The reduction of farm level milk losses at the farm level is a critical point in the milk supply chain where improvements can contribute to increased income.
The target population included 840 accessible smallholder dairy farmers and 120 dairy farmers who were purposefully sampled as study respondents during the baseline survey. Thirty farmers were purposefully chosen to participate in focus group discussions. A structured questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion guides, and a Key Informant Interview schedule were used to collect data. Focus Group Discussions and Expert Interviews yielded qualitative data. The data's reliability was then estimated using Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient, a measure of internal consistency. Data analysis required the application of both descriptive and inferential statistics. T-tests and the Pearson chi-square test of independence were used for inferential statistics, while measures of central tendency, dispersion and proportions analysis were used for descriptive statistics. According to the findings of the study, the most common milk losses included spillage (30%), excessive consumption by the calves (22%), spoilage (19%) and non-collection of milk due to free-range grazing (17%). Furthermore, most of the farmers (67%) used plastic milk containers. This is worrying because despite a wide variety of plastics existing it is only a few of them that are food grade approved. Microbial contamination through calf suckling is predominant with (71%) practicing free suckling methods which is known to reduce milk yield through milk rejection. The purpose of the study was to assess the current status of milk production and farm-level milk losses among smallholder dairy farmers in Mogotio Sub-county, Baringo County.
A lot of indigenous knowledge had been lost through the deaths of elderly persons since there is no formal documentation of such knowledge. Old pests and diseases are beginning to resurface due to cropping patterns and adverse climate change impacts. It is in view of this that the study examine the effects of indigenous farming practices on maize production in Ondo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 120 maize farmers in the study area. Data was collected using validated questionnaire and were analyzed using means, frequencies, percentages, chi-square and Pearson product moment correlation. Findings from the study revealed that majority (80.8 percent) of the farmers were males, (86.7 percent) above 50 years of age, (87.5 percent) married, (87.5 percent) had formal education, (64.2 percent) were Christians, (25.8) followed by Muslim and (10 percent) traditionalist. A large percentage (75.8 percent) received information on indigenous control methods from their parents and grandparents. The result from the study revealed that there was a significant association between marital status (χ² = 10.06, p < 0.04), religion (χ² = 8.05, p < 0.02), membership of social group (χ² = 14.31, p < 0.00) and the perceived effects of indigenous farming practices of the respondents. Similarly, findings revealed that there was a significant association between income (r = 0.45, p 0.05), farm size (r = 0.13, p 0.05), farming experience (r = 0.11, p 0.05) of the respondents and the perceived effects of indigenous farming practices. There was no significant relationship between extension visitation (χ² = 0.04, p 0.62) and farmers use of indigenous knowledge. There was no significant relationship between indigenous farming practices (r = 0.04, p 0.65) and farmers production practices.
This study assessed the activities of GIZ (German International Corporation) intervention technology on shea nut processors in Niger State, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling technique was adopted for the study. The first stage involved a purposive selection of 15 Local Government Areas of GIZ’s intervention. The second stage involved a proportionate random selection of 297 beneficiaries constituting 10% processors in the GIZ profile list. Also, in the same LGAs, snow-balling technique was used to randomly select 297 Shea nut processors that were GIZ non-beneficiaries, thereby making a total sample size of 594. Data were collected through interview schedule and were analysed using percentages and mean and multiple regression analysis. The study revealed that majority (75.1 %) of the respondents had non-formal education, 76.6 % were between 41-60 years with mean age of 48.1 years. All the respondents (100.0 %) were female and married with average of experience of 15.5 years. The most severe constraints were; inadequate funding (=1.875), poor market channels (=1.737) and inadequate extension contact (=1.542), and there was positive relationship between some selected socio-economic characteristics and the level of adoption of GIZ’s technologies (F=23.59, p <0.001). The results from this study showed that the processors were constrained by inadequate fund, poor market channels and inadequate extension services because the gap from the existing one is lower before the intervention of GIZ Shea nut technology due to high quality of production of premium shea butter produced by the beneficiaries which attracted income. The continuity of the GIZ’s intervention with effective extension services and provision of credit facilities to ameliorate the problem of inadequate fund is highly recommended.
The present study was carried out in 2021-2022, to estimate the socio-economic characteristics and the Knowledge level of the Litchi growers regarding Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. The study was conducted in the Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab in India. From each district, two blocks were selected having the maximum number of litchi growers and from each selected, 25 respondents were selected randomly from the procured list of litchi growers from the horticulture department to make a sample size of 100 respondents. Results revealed that respondents above the age group of 50 years are more involved in litchi growing. The majority of the respondents were educated. Maximum respondents had attended training but had low mass media exposure regarding IPM. More than half of the respondents had a medium to high level of knowledge and very few respondents had a low level of knowledge.
The research aims to study outreach of microfinance in Lucknow district of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. With the objective of studying outreach the study aims to explore how effectively microfinance is reaching to target population. According to the interpretation, microfinance benefits a lot of poor households, but not considerably rural women who are living below the poverty line. It also has a short affiliation with microfinance, few loan cycles, and no connection to poverty. Ex-post facto research design was used for conducting the research. The outreach of microfinance is question and impact and commitments to reduce poverty seems wage when institutions do not reach the actual target population. Population above poverty cannot be a good indicator for the efficiency of microfinance, while it poses greater questions on the positives impacts of microfinance.
