The relative commercial orientation of smallholder farmers in Nigeria: Household and crop value-chain analyses - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The relative commercial orientation of smallholder farmers in Nigeria: Household and crop value-chain analyses write by Benson, Todd. This book was released on 2020-11-25. The relative commercial orientation of smallholder farmers in Nigeria: Household and crop value-chain analyses available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Increasing the productivity of commercially oriented smallholder farming households in Nigeria results in greater incomes for their households, which, in turn, can drive an expansion in local nonfarm employment opportunities and raise incomes across rural communities. Appropriately targeting agricultural development efforts towards commercially oriented farming households has important second-round development benefits for rural economies. We use nationally representative data from the Nigeria General Household Survey Panel to examine the characteristics of households and their context that determine their level of commercial orientation in 2015/16. We then use the same dataset for crop-specific analyses of the factors associated with a household choosing to produce a specific crop, to sell any of their harvest of that crop, and, if they sold any of the crop, whether they sold more than half of their harvest. Twelve crops are examined. We find that the commercial orientation of most smallholder farming households in Nigeria is not strong. One-third reported not making any crop sales, relying instead on household enterprises or wage employment to meet their cash needs. Another one-third reported selling less than one-third of the crops they harvested by value. For these households, any crop sales made seem to reflect the limited other options they have to obtain cash, rather than being part of a strategy of commercial production. A subsistence orientation still drives most crop production by smallholder farming households in Nigeria. The crop-specific analyses confirm that crop sales for many households are driven to an important degree by their lack of other income sources, rather than by actively seeking to produce significant commercial surpluses of a crop. That this is the case reflects a range of deficiencies in the production and marketing of many of the crops. Improved crop production technologies are not commonly used, may not be readily available, or, if available, may prove challenging to employ profitably. Nigerian crop markets remain risky with no assurances that farmers will find buyers offering remunerative prices when they bring their produce to the market to sell. Continued investments to increase crop productivity and to improve the performance and reliability of crop value chains are needed if commercial considerations are increasingly to drive the crop choices of smallholder farming households, to provide incentives for higher crop productivity, and, through the increased crop income of commercially oriented farming households, to motivate expansion in local non-farm sectors and to raise incomes for all households in rural Nigerian communities.
Impacts of COVID-19 on food security: Panel data evidence from Nigeria
Impacts of COVID-19 on food security: Panel data evidence from Nigeria - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Impacts of COVID-19 on food security: Panel data evidence from Nigeria write by Amare, Mulubrhan. This book was released on 2020-08-11. Impacts of COVID-19 on food security: Panel data evidence from Nigeria available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This paper combines pre-pandemic face-to-face survey data with follow up phone surveys collected in April-May 2020 to quantify the overall and differential impacts of COVID-19 on household food security, labor market participation and local food prices in Nigeria. We exploit spatial variation in exposure to COVID-19 related infections and lockdown measures along with temporal differences in our outcomes of interest using a difference-in-difference approach. We find that those households exposed to higher COVID-19 cases or mobility lockdowns experience a significant increase in measures of food insecurity. Examining possible transmission channels for this effect, we find that COVID-19 significantly reduces labor market participation and increases food prices. We find that impacts differ by economic activities and households. For instance, lockdown measures increased households' experience of food insecurity by 12 percentage points and reduced the probability of participation in non-farm business activities by 13 percentage points. These lockdown measures have smaller impacts on wage-related activities and farming activities. In terms of food security, households relying on non-farm businesses, poorer households, those with school-aged children, and those living in remote and conflicted-affected zones have experienced relatively larger deteriorations in food insecurity. These findings can help inform immediate and medium-term policy responses, including social protection policies aiming at ameliorating the impacts of the pandemic, as well as guide targeting strategies of governments and international donor agencies by identifying the most impacted sub-populations.
Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia
Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia write by Abay, Kibrom A.. This book was released on 2021-06-28. Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Lack of accurate information about soil nutrient requirements coupled with limited access to appropriate fertilizers could lead to mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications. Such anomalies and mismatches are likely to have important implications for agricultural productivity. In this paper we use experimental (spectral soil analysis) data from Ethiopia to examine farmers’ response to soil nutrient deficiencies and its implications for yield responses. We find that farmers’ response to macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) deficiencies is not always consistent with agronomic recommendations. For instance, we find that farmers in our sample are applying nitrogen fertilizers to soils lacking phosphorus, potentially due to lack of information on soil nutrient deficiencies or lack of access to appropriate fertilizers in rural markets. On the other hand, farmers respond to perceivably poor-quality soils and acidic soils by applying higher amount of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers per unit of land. We further show that such mismatches between fertilizer applications and soil macronutrient requirements are potentially yield-reducing. Those farmers matching their soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer application are likely to enjoy additional yield gains and the vice versa. Marginal yield responses associated with nitrogen (phosphorus) application increases with soil nitrogen (phosphorus) deficiency. Similarly, we find that farmers’ response to acidic soils is not yield-enhancing. These findings suggest that such mismatches may explain heterogeneities in marginal returns to chemical fertilizers and the observed low adoption rates of chemical fertilizers in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, these findings have important implications for improving input management practices and fertilizer diffusion strategies.
Farming Systems and Poverty
Farming Systems and Poverty - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Farming Systems and Poverty write by John A. Dixon. This book was released on 2001. Farming Systems and Poverty available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.
Targeting vulnerability hotspots along the agrifood system
Targeting vulnerability hotspots along the agrifood system - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Targeting vulnerability hotspots along the agrifood system write by Letta, M.. This book was released on 2024-05-29. Targeting vulnerability hotspots along the agrifood system available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. We leverage the multi-stressor nature of the COVID-19 generalized disruption as an opportunity to test the out-of-sample forecasting accuracy of both theory-based and data-driven vulnerability prediction models for the ex ante targeting of preventive interventions. [Author] Taking advantage of the World Bank multitopic surveys for Ethiopia and Nigeria, the two most populous African countries, our retrospective evaluation assesses the models’ ability to anticipate households and agrifood system actors experiencing food insecurity and income losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. [Author] The results are disappointing: we document that, despite considerable heterogeneity across data and methods, both models do not achieve satisfactory out-of-sample forecasting performances. [Author] Our findings are robust to the use of different data, estimation methods, and several heterogeneity analyses and sensitivity checks. [Author] This evidence calls for a refinement of current profiling methodologies and for interoperability efforts to close existing microdata gaps. [Author] Such efforts would enable policymakers to implement more effective early-warning systems of vulnerability hotspots and improve the cost-effectiveness of development interventions aimed at targeting groups vulnerable to future food crises. [Author]
