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EBookClubs

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Book Tractor owner operators in Nigeria  Insights from a small survey in Kaduna and Nasarawa states

Download or read book Tractor owner operators in Nigeria Insights from a small survey in Kaduna and Nasarawa states written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents results of a small survey of tractor owner-operators conducted in Kaduna and Nasarawa states in Nigeria. Following are the key findings from simple descriptive statistics: (1) owner-operators who buy tractors from the private market or from private individuals are more efficient than those who receive tractors through government programs, providing services to a greater area at lower costs, including during the off-peak season; (2) providing access to a wider range of tractor horsepowers may improve efficiency over diverse soil types; (3) similar to some Asian countries in the 1980s, tractor operations are mostly concentrated in interviewees’ local home districts, though a fraction form groups and serve in distant locations to earn greater revenues.

Book Cost and policy determinants of features of tractor markets in Nigeria  Case studies of tractor sellers in Kaduna state and tractor owners in Benue state

Download or read book Cost and policy determinants of features of tractor markets in Nigeria Case studies of tractor sellers in Kaduna state and tractor owners in Benue state written by Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-10-12 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study, we contribute to such efforts to enhance the use of tractors in Africa by describing the key characteristics of markets for tractors in Nigeria. Nigeria is among a set of countries in Africa that has both low agricultural productivity and low agricultural mechanization growth (Malabo Montpellier Panel 2018). Current understanding of the tractor market in Nigeria mainly highlights only specific aspects of mechanization issues or only delves into the application of specific emergent mechanization technologies. Consequently, many stakeholders do not have sufficient understanding of how tractor markets in Nigeria are organized both in vertical and in geographic terms.

Book Market imperfections for tractor service provision in Nigeria

Download or read book Market imperfections for tractor service provision in Nigeria written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Nigeria, despite the scarcity of tractors, average horsepower and prices of tractors appear high. These patterns are different from the experiences in other parts of the world where initially tractor horsepower was often smaller, such as Asia, or farmers were better endowed with land and wealth, such as Latin America. In Nigeria, joint ownership of tractors is rare, and formal loans are often unavailable due to high transactions costs. IFPRI’s survey in Kaduna and Nasarawa states in 2013 suggested that the spatial mobility of tractors is generally low and the use of tractors is highly seasonal. There do not seem to be plausible explanations for the seeming dominance of large tractor use based on available information on prices and soils. Nevertheless, these patterns seem driven by the own initiative of the private sector rather than by government policies. Indivisibility of large tractors and limited mobility of supplies may cause imperfections in the custom tractor hiring market. In order to distinguish the impacts of technology adoption at the extensive margin from those at the intensive margin, in the empirical analyses for the research presented here we tested these hypotheses focusing on the differences among marginal adopters of tractor hiring services and non-adopters with similar characteristics. The results are three-fold: (1) adoptions patterns of tractor services are partly explained by basic factor endowments, suggesting that the market for custom hiring is in some way functioning efficiently in response to economic conditions; (2) adoptions are, however, affected by supply-side factors, including the presence of large farm households (and thus potential tractor owners) within the district, and (3) per capita household expenditure level differs significantly between the marginal adopters and non-adopters with similar characteristics. This difference seems to arise from adoption per se, rather than the intensity of adoption, which is consistent with the hypothesis of imperfection in the custom tractor hiring market.

Book Overview of the evolution of agricultural mechanization in Nigeria

Download or read book Overview of the evolution of agricultural mechanization in Nigeria written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demand for mechanization in Nigeria is growing in a fairly consistent way predicted by economic theories. The farming system has intensified and the use of animal traction has grown at a substantial rate. Demand side factors considerably explain the low adoptions of tractors in Nigeria. Where demand is sufficient for tractors, the private sector has emerged over time as a more efficient provider of hiring services (particularly farmer-tofarmer services) than the public sector. Conditions are consistent with the hypotheses that, because of generally low support for the agricultural sector in Nigeria in the past few decades, agricultural mechanization (tractor use in particular) has remained low despite the declining share of the workforce engaged in the agricultural sector. Agricultural transformation in the form of a declining agricultural labor force has happened partly through the growth in the oil industry since the 1970s. Instead of inducing further exit from farming, tractor adoptions in Nigeria might have helped those who have remained in farming to start expanding their production scale. A knowledge gap, however, still remains regarding the dominance of large tractors and the potential effects of tractor adoptions on smallholders who have yet to adopt them.

Book An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development  How much can Africa learn from Asia

Download or read book An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development How much can Africa learn from Asia written by Diao, Xinshen, ed. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Book Proceedings of the FAO Global Conference on Sustainable Plant Production

Download or read book Proceedings of the FAO Global Conference on Sustainable Plant Production written by Telemans, B. and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FAO organized its first ever Global Conference on Sustainable Plant Production (GPC) (Rome, 2 to 4 November 2022), with a focus on Innovation, Efficiency and Resilience. Its main objective was to provide a neutral forum for FAO Members, farmers, scientists, development agencies, policy makers, extensionists, civil society, opinion leaders and the private sector to engage in dialogues around sustainable plant production. To achieve impact towards implementing the 2030 Agenda, the GPC developed 20 actionable recommendations. The recommendations encompass all the thematic areas highlighted in the GPC, with a focus on adaptation to local contexts, needs of small-scale farmers, and include cross-cutting issues to guide active innovation for global sustainable plant production systems. The recommendations clearly establish (i) priorities for targeted mobilization and pooling of scientific, technical and financial resources; (ii) evidence and knowledge sharing through the creation and management of functional technical networks; and (iii) testing and scaling evidence-based sustainable plant production practices, partnerships and policies.

Book Recent Advances in Operations Management Applications

Download or read book Recent Advances in Operations Management Applications written by Anish Sachdeva and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the select proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial and Manufacturing Systems (CIMS 2020). It presents the current scenarios and future advancements in the domain of industrial engineering under context of optimum value. Various topics covered include optimisation and its applicability in the various areas of industrial engineering like selection of designing parameters and, decisions related to conditions of optimum process/operation parameters, facilities planning and management, transportation and supply chain management, quality engineering, reliability and maintenance, system optimization, product design and development, human factors and ergonomics, project management, service system and service management, waste management, sustainable manufacturing and operations, systems design, lean manufacturing, and performance measurement. This book will be useful for the students, researchers and professionals working in the area of industrial and production engineering.

Book Understanding the context for agriculture for nutrition research

Download or read book Understanding the context for agriculture for nutrition research written by Maruyama, Eduardo and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We use data from 52 countries on child stunting, poverty, determinants of food security, environmental health, and quality of maternal and child care to carry out a cluster analysis of country typologies. The purpose is to identify where agriculture-led interventions might address binding constraints to progress in improving nutrition outcomes and to identify how existing research on the links between agriculture and nutrition in particular country contexts may or may not be representative.

Book Agricultural mechanization

Download or read book Agricultural mechanization written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2018-07-25 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper is specifically about agricultural mechanisation: the opportunities provided by mechanisation for intensifying production in a sustainable manner, in value addition and agri-food value chain development, as well as the inherent opportunities implied for improved local economies and livelihoods. The establishment of viable business enterprises agro-processors, transport services, and so forth as a result of increased agricultural mechanisation in rural areas, is crucial to creating employment and income opportunities and, thereby, enhancing the demand for farm produce. Mechanisation plays a key role in enabling the growth of commercial agri-food systems and the efficiency of post-harvest handling, processing and marketing operations, and as such can be a major determinant in the availability and accessibility of food, the food prices paid by urban and rural poor, as well as contributing to increased household food security.

Book The other Asian enigma

Download or read book The other Asian enigma written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-25 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Asia has long been synonymous with persistent and unusually high rates of child undernutrition—the so-called Asian enigma. Yet contrary to this stereotype, Bangladesh has managed to sustain a rapid reduction in the rate of child undernutrition for at least two decades. In this paper we aim to understand the sources of this unheralded success with the aspiration of deriving policy-relevant lessons from Bangladesh’s experience. To do so we employ a regression analysis of five rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys covering the period from 1997 to 2011.

Book Can market based approaches to technology development and dissemination benefit women smallholder farmers

Download or read book Can market based approaches to technology development and dissemination benefit women smallholder farmers written by Njuki, Jemimah and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rural household economies dependent on rainfed agriculture are increasingly turning to irrigation technology solutions to reduce the effects of weather variability and guard against inconsistent and low crop output. Organizations are increasingly using market-based approaches to disseminate technologies to smallholder farmers, and, although women are among their targeted group, little is known of the extent to which these approaches are reaching and benefiting women. There is also little evidence on the implications of women’s use and control of irrigation technologies for outcomes, including crop choice and income management. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study undertaken in Tanzania and Kenya to examine women’s access to and ownership of KickStart pumps and the implications for their ability to make major decisions on crop choices and use of income from irrigated crops. Results from sales-monitoring data show that women purchase less than 10 percent of the pumps and men continue to make most of the major decisions on crop choices and income use. These findings vary by type of crop, with men making major decisions on high-income crops such as tomatoes and women having relatively more autonomy on crops such as leafy vegetables. The study concludes that market-based approaches on their own cannot guarantee access to and ownership of technologies, and businesses need to take specific measures toward the goal of reaching and benefiting women.

Book Examining the sense and science behind Ghana  s current blanket fertilizer recommendation

Download or read book Examining the sense and science behind Ghana s current blanket fertilizer recommendation written by Chapoto, Antony and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper was written to help bolster the case and present visual evidence demonstrating why it is important to seriously consider spatial soil fertility variability in Ghana and to promote area-specific fertilizer recommendations. Using geostatistical analysis of soil samples collected from farmer plots in three districts (Tamale Municipality, Savelugu-Nanton, and West Mamprusi in northern Ghana), the paper analyzes spatial variations in soil fertility. The results clearly show that there are variations in soil pH, organic matter content, and available phosphorous even at the community level, supporting the need for Ghana to seriously consider location-specific fertilizer recommendations.

Book Aid effectiveness in Ghana

Download or read book Aid effectiveness in Ghana written by Benin, Samuel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-23 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper assesses the degree to which the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI) has been implemented in Ghana within the framework of managing for development results (MfDR), and to evaluate progress in various outcomes, including economic governance, agricultural growth, poverty, and food and nutrition security. The MfDR approach, which has gained widespread support globally for obtaining results, is endorsed by the government of Ghana and reflected in the Ghana Aid Policy and Strategy.

Book Assessing the economic benefits of sustainable land management practices in Bhutan

Download or read book Assessing the economic benefits of sustainable land management practices in Bhutan written by Nkonya, Ephraim M. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study was conducted with the objective of determining the returns to sustainable land management (SLM) at the national level in Bhutan. The study first uses satellite data on land change (Landsat) to examine land use change in 1990–2010 and its impact on sediment loading in hydroelectric power plants. The study then uses the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to analyze the impact of land use change and land management on sediment loading. The results from the land use change and SWAT analyses are used to assess the economic benefits of SLM.

Book Environmental migration and labor markets in Nepal

Download or read book Environmental migration and labor markets in Nepal written by Maystadt, Jean-François and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-08-08 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While an emerging literature cites weather shocks as major determinants of migration, scant evidence exists on how such migration impacts the labor markets of receiving communities in developing countries. We address this knowledge gap by investigating the impact of weather-driven internal migration on labor markets in a post-conflict country, Nepal, using household survey data in 2003 and 2010.

Book Identifying agricultural expenditures within the public financial accounts and coding system in Ghana

Download or read book Identifying agricultural expenditures within the public financial accounts and coding system in Ghana written by Benin, Samuel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper is part of four country case studies that take a detailed look at public expenditures in agriculture, and at how the data on expenditures are captured in government financial and budget accounts. The objective of these studies is to unpack the black box of public expenditure statistics reported in various cross-country datasets, and ultimately to enable the use of existing government accounts to identify levels and compositions of government agriculture expenditures, with better understanding of what these data are in fact accounting for.

Book The role of agriculture in the fast growing Rwandan Economy

Download or read book The role of agriculture in the fast growing Rwandan Economy written by Diao, Xinshen and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study assesses the future growth prospects of Rwanda. The report first focuses on broad economic growth using a rather aggregated 18-sector dynamic general equilibrium model to display the trade-off between rapid growth and structural change. The analysis shows that with the current investment pattern, rapid growth is possible but structural transformation is slow. With an overvalued exchange rate, growth in the tradable sector slows down and its share in the economy stays small. The importance of agriculture thus should be considered in the broad development strategy, for its role not only in poverty reduction but also in economic growth.