Stimulating agricultural technology adoption: Lessons from fertilizer use among Ugandan potato farmers

Stimulating agricultural technology adoption: Lessons from fertilizer use among Ugandan potato farmers
Author: Nazziwa-Nviiri, Lydia
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2017-02-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

In the context of a growing population in an already densely populated area, agricultural yields will need to increase without putting additional stress on the environment. The adoption of modern inputs by smallholders is an important ingredient of agricultural transformation. In this study we explore plot-level, household-level, and institutional-level characteristics associated with agricultural technology adoption behavior among smallholder farmers. The aim is to uncover correlations that can guide the design of policies and incentives that are likely to increase adoption. We explicitly differentiate between fixed costs that are likely to affect the decision to use the technology and variable costs that are more relevant for the decision regarding use intensity. In addition, we examine how the importance of each of these characteristics differs with asset status. To do so, we use data from about 1,880 potato plots cultivated by 500 randomly selected potato growers in southwestern Uganda. We first categorize households into poorly endowed and well-endowed asset classes based on their access to productive assets. We then estimate double-hurdle models for take-up and use intensity of fertilizer for each group. The results show that the factors associated with the decision to use fertilizer are often different from those associated with the decision about how much fertilizer to use and that the characteristics correlated with fertilizer adoption differ between asset-poor and asset-rich farmers. For instance, asset-poor female-headed households are less likely to use fertilizer, but if they do, they use more of it than male-headed households. Our results also suggest fertilizer packaging and distribution are important factors in fertilizer adoption decisions due to their impact on costs related to both indivisibilities and uncertainty about the quality. We derive a range of policy recommendations.

GEOValue

GEOValue
Author: Jamie B. Kruse
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2017-11-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1351650688

Quantifying the social and economic value that geospatial information contributes to modern society is a complex task. To construct reliable and consistent valuation measures requires an understanding of the sequence of processes that starts with data acquisition, and leads to decision-makers’ choices that impact society. GEOValue explores each step in this complex value chain from the viewpoint of domain experts spanning disciplines that range from the technical side of data acquisition and management to the social sciences that provide the framework to assess the benefit to society. The book is intended to provide foundational understanding of the techniques and complexities of each step in the process. As such it is intended to be assessable to a reader without prior training in data acquisition systems, information systems, or valuation methods. In addition, a number of case studies are provided that demonstrate the use of geospatial information as a critical input for evaluation of policy pertaining to a wide range of application areas, such as agricultural and environmental policy, natural catastrophes, e-government and transportation systems.

Technology Choice

Technology Choice
Author: Kelvin W Willoughby
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2019-07-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000314162

This book attempts to provide a theoretical framework for answering difficult questions evoked by the concept of technology choice primarily by conducting a review of the Appropriate Technology movement and its ideas and experiments.

Crop Selection and International Differences in Aggregate Agricultural Productivity

Crop Selection and International Differences in Aggregate Agricultural Productivity
Author: Jorge Alvarez
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 35
Release: 2019-08-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513511599

A large share of cross-country differences in productivity is explained by differences in agricultural productivity. Using a combination of sub-national agricultural statistics and geospatial datasets on crop-specific potential yields, we study the main drivers of this variation from a macroeconomic perspective. We find that differences in geographically-induced crop-specific comparative advantages can explain a substantial share of the variation in yields across the world. Data reveal substantial gaps between potential and observed yields in most countries. When decomposing these within country gaps, we find that crop selection gaps are on average larger than those induced by input usage alone. The results highlight the importance of understanding the interaction of geography and crop selection drivers in assessing aggregate agricultural productivity differences.

Urban proximity, conflict, and agricultural development: Evidence from Myanmar

Urban proximity, conflict, and agricultural development: Evidence from Myanmar
Author: Steinhübel, Linda
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2023-07-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Urbanization and violent conflict have been two global trends gaining more and more momentum in recent years. This has important implications for agricultural development, which unfortunately are still not well understood. Urban proximity is generally associated with agricultural intensification and improved market participation, while farming systems in remote areas are characterized by larger shares of subsistence production. Such differences along the remoteness gradient likely also play a role in how conflict exposure affects agricultural production. That is, we must assume that the effect of conflict on agricultural development is location-dependent—a fact that is generally neglected in empirical analysis. We address this gap by drawing from a unique nationally representative data set of 2,292 paddy farmers in Myanmar and estimating the effect of conflict exposure and travel times on agricultural production during the monsoon season of 2021. By applying multivariate additive models, we allow for nonlinear and interacted effects of conflict exposure and urban proximity, thereby explicitly exploring spatial variation in the effect of conflict exposure. We find strong positive effects of urban proximity on paddy rice intensification and sales, while conflict exposure has disproportionately negative effects in direct proximity to urban centers and very remote areas. For agricultural development—and smallholder incomes in general—this means that productive areas, on the one hand, and the poorest areas of the country, on the other hand, are especially affected by conflict.

Secondary towns, agricultural prices, and intensification: Evidence from Ethiopia

Secondary towns, agricultural prices, and intensification: Evidence from Ethiopia
Author: Vandercasteelen, Joachim
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 23
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Urbanization is happening fast in the developing world and especially so in sub-Saharan Africa where growth rates of cities are among the highest in the world. While cities and, in particular, secondary towns, where most of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa resides, affect agricultural practices in their rural hinterlands, this relationship is not well understood. To fill this gap, we develop a conceptual model to analyze how farmers’ proximity to cities of different sizes affects agricultural prices and intensification of farming. We then test these predictions using large-scale survey data from producers of teff, a major staple crop in Ethiopia, relying on unique data on transport costs and road networks and implementing an array of econometric models. We find that agricultural price behavior and intensification is determined by proximity to a city and the type of city. While proximity to cities has a strong positive effect on agricultural output prices and on uptake of modern inputs and yields on farms, the effects on prices and intensification measures are lower for farmers in the rural hinterlands of secondary towns compared to primate cities.

The Transformation of Rural Africa

The Transformation of Rural Africa
Author: T. S. Jayne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429833466

Contemporary discussions of Africa’s recent growth have largely interpreted such growth in terms of structural transformation, based mainly on national- and sectoral-level data. However, the micro-level processes driving this transformation are still unclear and remain the subject of debate. This collection provides a micro economic foundation for understanding the particular growth processes at work within the region’s rural areas, and in so doing provides important insights for policy action. The book provides valuable household- and farm-level evidence about the drivers of rural labour productivity, improvements in access to markets, investment in food value chains, and indeed the role of rural economic growth in Africa’s ongoing rural transformation processes. Some of the features of Africa’s ongoing rural transformation are similar to those of agricultural transformation as experienced in Asia and elsewhere. However, other features of Africa’s rural transformation are unique, and pose important challenges for development policy and planning. Together, the studies compiled in this volume provide an updated, evidence-based, and policy-relevant understanding of where African countries are in their developmental trajectories and the region’s prospects for achieving inclusive forms of development over the next several decades. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Development Studies.

Detox Development

Detox Development
Author: Richard Damania
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2023-06-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1464819173

Clean air, land, and oceans are critical for human health and nutrition and underpin much of the world's economy. Yet they suffer from degradation, poor management, and overuse due to government subsidies. 'Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies' examines the impact of subsidies on these foundational natural assets. Explicit and implicit subsidies--estimated to exceed US$7 trillion per year--not only promote inefficiencies but also cause much environmental harm. Poor air quality is responsible for approximately 1 in 5 deaths globally. And as the new analyses in this report show, a significant number of these deaths can be attributed to fossil fuel subsidies. Agriculture is the largest user of land worldwide, feeding the world and employing 1 billion people, including 78 percent of the world's poor. But it is subsidized in ways that promote inefficiency, inequity, and unsustainability. Subsidies are shown to drive the deterioration of water quality and increase water scarcity by incentivizing overextraction. In addition, they are responsible for 14 percent of annual deforestation, incentivizing the production of crops that are cultivated near forests. These subsidies are also implicated in the spread of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, especially malaria. Finally, oceans support the world's fisheries and supply about 3 billion people with almost 20 percent of their protein intake from animals. Yet they are in a collective state of crisis, with more than 34 percent of fisheries overfished, exacerbated by open-access regimes and capacity-increasing subsidies. Although the literature on subsidies is large, this report fills significant knowledge gaps using new data and methods. In doing so, it enhances understanding of the scale and impact of subsidies and offers solutions to reform or repurpose them in efficient and equitable ways. The aim is to enhance understanding of the magnitude, consequences, and drivers of policy successes and failures in order to render reforms more achievable.

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

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
Author: Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2018-10-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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.