Download or read book Boserupian pressure and agricultural mechanization in modern Ghana written by Cossar, Frances and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adoption of machinery in agricultural production in Africa south of the Sahara has been far behind the level of mechanization found in Asia and Latin America. However, recent survey data have revealed high levels of machinery use in localized areas of cereal production in northern Ghana. A survey conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, in partnership with the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, found that in some areas more than 80 percent of farmers were using machinery for at least one operation. This paper considers the theoretical drivers of agricultural intensification, as outlined by Boserup, Pingali, and Binswanger, and the extent to which they are able to explain the spatial variation in machinery use found in northern Ghana. Population pressure, market access, and agroecological conditions are considered key drivers that cause farmers to find ways to increase productivity and adopt new technologies. Combining survey data with geospatial datasets, the empirical analysis finds that population growth and travel time to the local urban center explain a significant and large proportion of the variation in machinery use by farmers.
Download or read book Agricultural Mechanization in Ghana written by Nazaire Houssou and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2007, the government of Ghana has been providing subsidized agricultural machines to private enterprises established as Agricultural Mechanization Services Enterprise Centers (AMSEC) to scale up tractor-hire services to smallholder farmers. Although farmers demand for mechanization has increased in recent years, most of this demand concentrates on land preparation (plowing) service. Using the firm investment model and recent data, this paper quantitatively assesses whether AMSEC as a private enterprise is a viable business model attractive to private investors. Even though the intention of the government is to promote private sector-led mechanization, findings suggest that the AMSEC model is unlikely to be a profitable business model attractive to private investors even with the current level of subsidy. The low tractor utilization rate as a result of low operational scale is the most important constraint to the intertemporal profitability of tractor-hire services. Our findings further support the argument of Pingali, Bigot, and Binswanger (1987), who indicated that mechanization service centers supported through governments heavy subsidy are not a policy option anywhere in the world, even in the current situation in Ghana. Although the tractor rental service market is a proper way of mechanizing agriculture in a smallholder-dominated agricultural economy such as Ghana, this paper concludes that the development of such a market depends crucially on a number of factors, including increased tractor use through migration across the two very different rainfall zones (north and south), increased tractor use through multiple tasks, and use of low-cost tractors. The government can play an important role in facilitating the development of a tractor service market; however, the successful development of such a market depends on the incentive and innovation of the private sector, including farmers who want to own tractors as part of their business portfolio, traders who know how to bring in affordable tractors and expand the market, and manufacturers in exporting countries who want to seek a long-term potential market opportunity in Ghana and in other west African countries.
Download or read book Market integration and price transmission in Tajikistan s wheat markets written by Ilyasov, Jarilkasin and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-08-05 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extent of market integration and transmission of food price shocks is a major determinant of price stability and overall food security, particularly in developing countries. Few studies have examined these issues for countries in Central Asia, however. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining wheat market integration and price transmission in Tajikistan, the most food-insecure country in Central Asia. In particular, in this study we measure how well wheat market prices in Tajikistan are integrated with international and regional markets, as well as domestically with each other. Subsequently, we assess the nature of price transmission between these markets. Using horizontal price transmission analysis and asymmetric price relationships, a.k.a. rockets and feathers, we demonstrate how prices change in peripheral food-shortage markets compared to markets located in zones with abundant local production.
Download or read book Perceived land tenure security and rural transformation written by Ghebru, Hosaena and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-07-29 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tenure security is believed to be critical in spurring agricultural investment and productivity. Yet what improves or impedes tenure security is still poorly understood. Using household- and plot-level data from Ghana, this study analyzes the main factors associated with farmers’ perceived tenure security. Individually, farmers perceive greater tenure security on plots acquired via purchase or inheritance than on land allocated by traditional authorities. Collectively, however, perceived tenure security lessens in communities with more active land markets and economic vibrancy. Migrant households and women in polygamous households feel less secure about their tenure, while farmers with political connections are more confident about their tenure security.
Download or read book The distribution of power and household behavior written by Wouterse, Fleur Stephanie and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niger is a landlocked Sahelian country, two-thirds of which is in the Sahara desert. Although only one-eighth of the land considered arable, more than 90 percent of Niger’s labor force is employed in agriculture, which is predominantly subsistence oriented. Food security remains a major challenge in rural areas of Niger, and gender is a significant basis for the inequality among household members with respect to access to land. Access to land, which is a measure of the income-earning potential of an individual, is an important determinant of the distribution of bargaining power within the household. Because households may not act in a unitary manner when making decisions, the power of individuals within the household to exert their own preferences may determine welfare outcomes, such as spending on nutritious foods or healthcare. In this paper, we use new data for Niger and regression analyses to assess the importance of the intrahousehold distribution of power for the behavior of rural households. Our results reveal that men are significantly more empowered than women in rural households in Niger and that social protection programs such as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and food-for-training contribute significantly to the empowerment of women. Our findings also point to the validity of the collective approach to modeling household behavior, as the distribution of power was shown to affect household behavior. In particular, we found that an increase in power in favor of the adult female significantly increases expenditures on healthcare and reduces spending on vices (cigarettes and alcohol).
Download or read book Rent Dispersion in the US Agricultural Insurance Industry written by Smith, Vincent H. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A central, but inadequately explored issue with respect to subsidized crop insurance programs concerns the costs of delivering insurance coverage to farmers. This study examines that issue in the context of the heavily subsidized US crop insurance program which has often been put forward as a model for agricultural insurance programs in other countries. US Government programs often rely on private firms to deliver income transfers or services, which then establish their own rent-seeking lobbies, which are shared with input suppliers. This rent dispersion process is examined in the context of the U.S. agricultural insurance industry, which receives as much as one third of the annual subsidies that support the federal crop insurance program. We find that as total payments to insurance companies increased between 2001 and 2009, an increasingly large share of the agricultural insurance industry’s rents accrued to insurance agents, although in markets where insurance companies possessed some oligopsony power, agent payments are smaller. The findings also suggest that the insurance industry (companies and independent agents) would almost surely provide the same service for substantially less than the gross revenues from the subsidies and underwriting gains they received.
Download or read book Long term drivers of food and nutrition security written by Laborde Debucquet, David and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2015 Global Hunger Index suggests that despite progress in reducing hunger worldwide, hunger levels in 52 of 117 countries in the 2015 Global Hunger Index remain “serious” or “alarming.” Since achieving and maintaining food and nutrition security (FNS) remains a goal for all countries, it is important to understand the individual, national, and global factors that affect FNS. This paper proposes an analytical framework to identify and analyze the respective roles of key long-term drivers of FNS. We start by identifying what the key variables affecting FNS are at the household and country level, and then we continue by defining what the main exogenous or endogenous drivers affecting these variables are. We discuss the key drivers of both aggregated food supply and demand and therefore their impact on prices. Specifically, for aggregated food demand, we discuss demographic factors, income growth, changes in dietary preferences, aggregated domestic distortions, and overall quality of the food system. With respect to the drivers of aggregated food supply, we discuss land available for food products and the drivers behind land availability, the share of waste/losses generated by the food system, and the normalized average yield. We define yield as the amount of nutrients produced by unit of land. It depends both on the physical yield of the crop or the livestock and on the quality of the food produced. It also can be affected by the changes in production patterns linked to the different dietary patterns of the consumers and by climate change. We emphasize the fact that in many cases, key drivers may have ambiguous effects on the FNS situation of different agents. For instance, more liberal trade policies will affect real income, terms of trade, demand and supply, returns of factors, foreign direct investments, and food prices and thus may lead to the improvement of the global-level FNS, that is, the FNS of the majority of the population. At the same time, more liberal trade policies may bring food insecurity to some households. Therefore, careful quantitative assessment is needed for each policy option. Finally, we propose a typology of variables that will help modelers adapt their models to study the different drivers through both direct and indirect effects.
Download or read book United States agricultural policy written by Glauber, Joseph W. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-07-20 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the development of US agricultural policy and considers how it has affected US consumers and producers, as well as how US programs affect foreign producers and consumers within the context of the United States’ obligations under the World Trade Organization. Throughout its history, the United States has supported the farm sector through a myriad of policies affecting prices, production, and farm incomes. Although many of the policies put in place during the New Deal legislation in the 1930s were seen as temporary at the time, most have persisted in one form or another to the present day. And while many would argue that the form and function of today’s agricultural programs are less distortionary than before, the level of support provided to the sector is several billion dollars annually.
Download or read book A model of reporting and controlling outbreaks by public health agencies written by Saak, Alexander E. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When an outbreak of an infectious disease is suspected, a local health agency may notify a state or federal agency and request additional resources to investigate and, if necessary, contain it. However, due to capacity constraints, state and federal health agencies may not be able to grant all such requests, which may give an incentive to local agencies to request help strategically. We study a model of detection and control of an infectious disease by local health agencies in the presence of imperfect information about the likelihood of an outbreak and limited diagnostic capacity. When diagnostic capacity is rationed based on reports of symptoms, the decision to report symptoms or not creates a trade-off. On the one hand, rigorous testing allows one to make an informed disease control decision. On the other hand, it also increases the probability that the disease will spread from an untested area where fewer precautionary measures are taken. Symptoms are overreported (respectively, reported truthfully, or underreported) when the cost of disease control is sufficiently small (respectively, in some intermediate range, or sufficiently large). If the disease incidence decreases or infectiousness increases, symptoms are reported less frequently. If the precision of private signals increases, the extent of overreporting of symptoms may increase. For different values of the parameters it can be socially optimal to subsidize or tax requests for additional investigations and confirmatory testing.
Download or read book Can labor market imperfections explain changes in the inverse farm size productivity relationship written by Deininger, Klaus and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-06-24 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To understand whether and how inverse relationship between farm size and productivity changes when labor market performance improves, we use large national farm panel from India covering a quarter-century (1982, 1999, 2008) to show that the inverserelationship weakened significantly over time, despite an increase in the dispersion of farm sizes. A key reason was the substitution of capital for labor in response to nonagricultural labor demand. In addition, family labor wasmore efficient than hired labor in the 1982–1999 period, but not during the 1999–2008period.In line with labor market imperfections as a key factor, separability of labor supply and demand decisions cannot be rejected in the second period,except in villages with very low nonagricultural labor demand.
Download or read book Understanding compliance in programs promoting conservation agriculture written by Ward, Patrick S. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land degradation and soil erosion have emerged as serious challenges to smallholder farmers throughout southern Africa. To combat these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) is widely promoted as a sustainable package of agricultural practices. Despite the many potential benefits of CA, however, adoption remains low. Yet relatively little is known about the decision-making process in choosing to adopt CA. This article attempts to fill this important knowledge gap by studying CA adoption in southern Malawi. Unlike what is implicitly assumed when these packages of practices are introduced, farmers view adoption as a series of independent decisions rather than a single decision. Yet the adoption decisions are not wholly independent. We find strong evidence of interrelated decisions, particularly among mulching crop residues and practicing zero tillage, suggesting that mulching residues and intercropping or rotating with legumes introduces a multiplier effect on the adoption of zero tillage.
Download or read book A systematic review of cross country data initiatives on agricultural public expenditures in developing countries written by Anson, Richard and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study reviews all of the relevant data and analytical initiatives or activities that focus on or include agricultural public expenditure (AgPE) in developing and transitioning countries. In addition to taking stock of such initiatives, we carry out a comparison of relevant features, describe differences and similarities, and identify possible avenues for greater collaboration and complementarity, including the use of selected empirical examples arising from the comparative review.
Download or read book Qualitative methods for gender research in agricultural development written by Rubin, Deborah and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-27 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of mixed methods approaches to development-oriented research has brought new attention to qualitative research methods. This paper describes the use of qualitative approaches to illuminate gender relations in agricultural development research and project implementation. For gender research, qualitative methods can be particularly helpful in illuminating how men and women view their lives. Drawing on literature about social science methods and linking it to recent examples of qualitative methods employed in research and development projects, the paper argues for greater precision in key concepts of gender research, starting with sex and gender. From the many possible qualitative methods used in development work, the paper focuses on several common observational (both direct and participatory) and interview techniques, the latter including key informant and group interviews and focus group discussions. Researchers use various techniques to gather different types of information, for example, mapping techniques to understand men’s and women’s different types of knowledge about their environment and eliciting in-depth information on a single topic with key informants. In a brief discussion of the analysis of qualitative data, the paper notes that informant responses are not “the truth” but need to be assessed against other sources of data. Finally, there is a short discussion of how qualitative data have been used in comparative work. The paper concludes that the results of good qualitative research on gender relations can help identify the locally specific pathways needed to achieve gender-transformative development approaches.
Download or read book A dynamic spatial model of agricultural price transmission written by Goundan, Anatole and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spatial interactions are essential drivers of price transmission mechanisms and may significantly affect any food’s policy outcomes. However, spatial aspects seem to be generally overlooked when analyzing price transmission. This paper attempts to fill this gap by highlighting the usefulness of spatial interaction and models for market integration analysis. A spatial dynamic panel datamodel is presented and applied to Niger’s millet market. Empirical results show that (1) the millet market is partly integrated, (2) locally traded commodities (millet and sorghum) are linked by a cross-commodity price transmission, (3) most imported cereals prices, which for Niger is maize and rice, did not affect the millet market, and (4) no cross-regions price transmissionoccurred for the millet market.
Download or read book Global and regional pulse economies written by Joshi, Pramod Kumar and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-07-22 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pulse sector is undergoing dynamic changes globally and in several regions and countries to meet the challenge of growing demand in the face of sluggish production growth. Realizing the importance of pulses in the human diet, 2016 has been declared the International Year of Pulses (IYP). This report captures the dynamics of the pulse sector during the last three decades. The examination of pulse supply, demand, uses, trade, prices, and outlook would help researchers and policy makers make more informed decisions related to the sector. Pulse-based food is an important source of dietary protein and essential minerals, particularly for the vegetarian population. At the global level, the average share of pulses is only 5 percent of the total protein consumption but their contribution in several developing countries range between 10 and 40 percent. To meet the growing demand and raise their per capita availability, countries made efforts to increase production and explore trade opportunities to augment domestic supply. Overall between 1980 and 2013, pulses production at the global level grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent but there were, however, two phases of pulses production at the global level. While there was almost a period of stagnation in production of pulses during the1990s, production has sharply increased since 2005. The bulk of the increase in production came from developing countries where both area and yield growth (from a low base) contributed to the production. For developed countries—where production also grew—the center of production shifted from Europe to North America and Oceania. For developing countries, two new centers of production emerged in Eastern Africa and Southeastern Asia (Myanmar).
Download or read book Anchoring Bias in Recall Data written by Godlonton, Susan and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the magnitude and source of measurement biases in self-reported data is critical to effective economic policy research. This paper examines the role of anchoring bias in self-reports of objective and subjective outcomes under recall. The research exploits a unique panel survey data set collected over a three-year period from four countries in Central America. It assesses whether respondents use their reported value of specific measures from the most recent survey period as a cognitive heuristic when recalling the value from a previous period, while controlling for the value they reported earlier. We find strong evidence of sizable anchoring bias in self-reported retrospective indicators for both objective measures (household and per capita income, wages, and hours spent on the household’s main activity) and subjective measures (reports of happiness, health, stress, and well-being). In general, we also observe a larger bias in response to negative changes for objective indicators and a larger bias in response to positive changes for subjective indicators.
Download or read book A farm level perspective of the policy challenges for export diversification in Malawi written by Johnson, Michael E. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-08-26 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The primary goal of the study is to investigate the potential to expand oilseeds, specifically soybeans,as an alternative commercialcrop to tobacco among Malawian farmers. A principal motivation for undertaking the study at the microeconomic level is to determine, in a theoretically consistent fashion, the type of policy and economic environment under which farmers begin to shift more of their scarce resources to oilseed production.The study aims to provide recommendations to a growing demand among policy makers and development partners for a greater diversification of exports and crop production systems of the majority smallholder farmers in Malawi. Using representative farm models, the study examinesthe potential for expanding production of soybeans among typical smallholder farming systems in Malawi. The results will help guide future policies and investments targeted at promoting greater crop diversification and incomes, in order to reduce poverty and malnutrition in Malawi. Given the amount of labor and land resources allocated to maize production for food security purposes, we also consider the policy challenges that emerge for crop diversification as a result
