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on Development |
| By: | Conti, Gabriella (University College London, Department of Economics); Ginja, Rita (University of Bergen, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We present the first comprehensive evidence on the health impacts of the introduction and expansion of a large non-contributory health insurance program in Mexico, the Seguro Popular (SP). SP provided access to health services without co-pays to individuals with no Social Security protection. To identify the impacts of the program we use its staggered rollout across municipalities between 2002 and 2010. Our intent-to-treat estimates show that SP reduced infant mortality by 10% in poor municipalities. We are unable to detect program impacts on mortality for children ages 1-4, adults or elderly. The decline in infant mortality is driven by reductions in deaths due to perinatal conditions, congenital malformations, diarrhea and respiratory infections. Also in poor municipalities, the introduction of SP is associated with an immediate 7% increase in obstetric-related hospital admissions and with a 6% increase in hospital admissions due to diarrhea and respiratory infections among infants. The decline in infant mortality attributed to SP closes 84% of the gap in infant mortality rates between poor and rich Mexican municipalities. |
| Keywords: | Health Insurance; Child Mortality; Health Care Utilization; Mexico |
| JEL: | H10 I12 I13 J13 O18 |
| Date: | 2017–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2017_018&r=dev |
| By: | Costa, Lorena Vieira; Helfand, Steven M.; Souza, André Portela Fernandes de |
| Abstract: | Public policies frequently are implemented simultaneously rather than in isolation. We estimate the impacts—and possible synergies—of a rural development project (Pro-Gavião) and the Brazilian conditional cash transfer program (Bolsa Família). In partnership with the State Government of Bahia, Pro-Gavião was an IFAD-supported rural development project in 13 contiguous municipalities between 1997 and 2005. Census tract level data were extracted for the analysis from the 1995-96 and 2006 Agricultural Censuses. The evaluation uses propensity score matching to construct a control group of untreated census tracts, and a difference-in-differences estimation to identify impacts. The outcomes analyzed include land productivity, agricultural income and child labor. Although Pro-Gavião involved significant investments in the region, the results suggest little if any program impact, or synergies between the two programs. The unexpected null findings are robust to alternative approaches to identifying the treated census tracts, matching techniques, and heterogeneity of impacts by initial level of poverty. We show that the lack of impacts is not driven by adverse rainfall in the treated communities, or the influence of other programs in the control communities. Alternative explanations for the null results are explored. |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:489&r=dev |
| By: | Mullally, C. |
| Abstract: | International migration is an important source of employment and remittances for households in the developing world. In a male-dominated international migration system, females are more likely to head households after the exit of a migrant. In this study, we decompose impacts of international migration into effects attributable to a change in the gender of the household head and effects attributable to other mechanisms. We use an unbalanced panel dataset collected over fourteen years from 2000-2014 in Bangladesh, where international migrants are almost all men. Combining instrumental variable estimation with causal mediation methods, we find that sending an international migrant reduces household participation in crop farming, livestock production, and non-farm businesses at the intensive and extensive margins. However, the average impacts of changes in the gender of the household head due to migration show an opposite effect. We find similar results for input expenditure, capital stock, and time allocation in farming, livestock, and business activities as well. Results show that migration increases household expenditures in food and non-food items, but the newly formed female-headed households induced through migration spend less on food and non-food items and invest more on productive activities. Acknowledgement : We are grateful to BRAC for providing us the data set and to Mr. Mahafuzur Rahman for his support during the study. We would also like to thank Marc Bellemere, Spiro Stefanou, Pilar Useche, Hector Sandoval, Charles Moss, Dianne Cothran, and seminar participants at the AAEA Annual Meeting in Chicago and the University of Florida for their comments and suggestions. The standard caveats apply. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:276993&r=dev |
| By: | Carol Newman; Finn Tarp |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impact of exposure to uninsured risks on the investment decisions of farmers. We distinguish between households’ perceived exposure to uninsured risk, measured as past exposure to deviations in average rainfall levels, and the actual realization of shocks. We examine how households cope with the latter in terms of consumption smoothing and the depletion of assets. We also consider the interaction between past weather-risk exposure and the actual realization of weather shocks to ascertain the extent to which the investment strategies of risk-exposed households ‘pay off’ by buffering them in the face of actual shocks. We use panel data on rice farmers in Viet Nam for the 2008–16 period and match this to annual rainfall data. Our results show that households that are exposed to risk invest more in unproductive assets to avoid the downside risk associated with exposure to flooding. This translates into lower income levels. The investment in these assets does not appear to pay off once actual risks are realized. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-122&r=dev |
| By: | António Santos; João Amador |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the contribution of employment, capital accumulation and total factor productivity (TFP) to economic growth in African countries over the period 1986-2014. The methodology consists in the estimation of a translog dynamic stochastic production frontier for a set of 49 African economies, thus allowing for the breakdown of TFP along efficiency developments and technological progress. Although the heterogeneity amongst African countries poses a challenge to the estimation of a common production frontier, this is the best approach to perform cross-country comparisons. The results of our growth accounting exercise are more accurate for the contribution of input accumulation and TFP to GDP growth than for the separation between contributions of technological progress and efficiency. We conclude that economic growth patterns differ across African countries but they have been almost totally associated to input accumulation, notably in what concerns capital. The experience of Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa - the three largest African economies - confirms this pattern. |
| JEL: | C11 O47 O55 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w201820&r=dev |
| By: | Kilic, T.; Djima, I. Yacoubou; Carletto, C. |
| Abstract: | Research has provided robust evidence for the use of GPS as the new, scalable gold-standard in land area measurement in household surveys. Nonetheless, facing budget constraints, survey agencies often measure with GPS only plots within a given radius of dwelling locations. It is, subsequently, common for significant shares of plots not to be measured, and research has highlighted the selection biases resulting from using incomplete data. This study relies on nationally-representative, multi-topic household survey data from Malawi and Ethiopia with near-negligible missingness in GPS-based plot areas to validate the accuracy of a Multiple Imputation (MI) model for predicting missing GPS-based plot areas in household surveys. The analysis randomly creates missingness among plots beyond two operationally-relevant distance measures from the dwelling locations, conducts MI for each artificially-created dataset, and compares the distributions of the imputed plot-level outcomes, namely area and agricultural productivity, with the distributions of their true, observed counterparts. MI procedure results in imputed yields that are statistically undistinguishable from the true distributions with up to 82% and 56% missingness, respectively for Malawi and Ethiopia, for plots located more than 1 kilometer away from dwellings. The study highlights the promise of using MI for reliably predicting missing GPS-based plot areas. Acknowledgement : The authors thank Tomoki Fujii and Alberto Zezza, Heather Moylan for their comments on the earlier versions of this paper. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277734&r=dev |
| By: | Anand, Paul; Behrman, Jere R.; Dang, Hai-Anh H.; Jones, Sam |
| Abstract: | Inequalities in the opportunity to obtain a good education in low-income countries are widely understood to be related to household resources and schooling quality. Yet, to date, most researchers have investigated the contributions of these two factors separately. This paper considers them jointly, paying special attention to their covariation, which indicates whether schools exacerbate or compensate for existing household-based inequalities. The paper develops a new variance decomposition framework and applies it to data on more than one million children in three low-income East African countries. The empirical results show that although household factors account for a significant share of total test score variation, variation in school quality and positive sorting between households and schools are, together, no less important. The analysis also finds evidence of substantial geographical heterogeneity in schooling quality. The paper concludes that promoting equity in education in East Africa requires policies that go beyond raising average school quality and should attend to the distribution of school quality as well as assortative matching between households and schools. |
| Keywords: | inequality of opportunity,education achievement,decomposition,household,school,sorting,Africa |
| JEL: | D6 H0 I2 O1 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:270&r=dev |
| By: | Mattos, Enlinson; Mazetto, Débora |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to assess the short run effects of the More Doctors Program, launched by the Brazilian federal government in 2013. Using differences-in-differences approach with municipal data collected between 2010 and 2015, we confirm that MDP has two correlated impacts. First, it has increased health service attendance on treated municipalities. We document that appointments, consults, referrals, and home visits have increased by 5.9%, 9.4%, 12.3%, and 29.7%. Second, we find a negative impact on hospitalization. We argue that intensification on health service access have reduced general hospitalization (4.6%). However, it does not seem to have been able to reduce mortality in the municipalities, in line with Carrilo and Feres (2018) and Fontes et al. (2017). We argue that increase in referrals and appointment with specialists can be interpreted as quality improvement, since a more precise diagnostic, can reduce hospitalization due to faster health recovery without an impact on mortality. |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:494&r=dev |
| By: | Grote, U.; Nguyen, T.T. |
| Abstract: | Human induced degradation of land due to over-extraction of water and forest resources is a threat to sustainable development in many developing countries. Solving this requires an understanding of the factors affecting the extraction and its impacts on rural welfare. In this study, we determine the factors affecting the extraction of and dependence on forest and water resources and examine the impacts of the extraction on rural household welfare in Laos. We address our research questions with an econometric framework that models the extraction and its implications simultaneously. We use the data of 430 rural households from a survey undertaken in 2013 in 38 villages of Savannakhet province. Our findings show that extraction is a shock-coping strategy of rural households but contributes to reducing household income inequality. For extracting households, extraction increases household income, consumption and food security. However, for non-extracting households, although extraction would increase food security, it would reduce their income and consumption. We suggest that promoting rural education and off-farm employment opportunities, enhancing investments in physical infrastructure, and developing livestock rearing would reduce the extraction of and the dependence on the resources of extractors and prevent non-extractors from being forced to extract the resources. Acknowledgement : We thank the farmers in Savannakhet province for their support and cooperation. We also acknowledge the support and appreciate the efforts of our partners in Lao PDR as well as all our colleagues at the Leibniz University Hannover for data collection. |
| Keywords: | Food Security and Poverty |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277061&r=dev |
| By: | Bahru, B. |
| Abstract: | Climate change poses a serious challenge to achieving the SDG2 of ending hunger by 2030 and leaves billions of people at risk of food insecurity, illness, and malnutrition. This paper analyzes the long-term impacts of climatic shocks on the nutritional status of 1,911 sample children in Ethiopia. To this end, the study employed a linear mixed effect model, random intercept probit model, and structural equation modeling. Accordingly, climatic shocks are negatively associated with child nutrition. Moreover, early life exposure to climatic shocks is negatively associated with nutritional status at later age. Therefore, if appropriate measures are not taken, the predicted increase in the frequency of extreme events might slow down the secular progress in reduction of child undernutrition in Ethiopia. The role of other covariates was also analyzed. Accordingly, despite their biological and behavioral advantage, girls were more likely to be stunted than boys. This finding highlights the need for a gender-sensitive intervention and the role of intra-household food allocation during shocks. This study also revealed that program participation by drought-affected households has a positive association with child nutrition. Therefore, programs targeted to shock affected households might have a potential to smooth the impact of climatic shocks on child undernutrition Acknowledgement : The data used in this study come from Young Lives, a 15-year study of the changingnature of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam (www.younglives.org.uk). Young Lives is funded by UK aid from the Department forInternational Development (DFID). The views expressed here are those of the author(s). They are not necessarily those of Young Lives, the University of Oxford, DFID or other funders. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277297&r=dev |
| By: | Stifel, D.; Headey, D.; You, L.; Guo, Z. |
| Abstract: | Reducing undernutrition requires improving access to goods and services from a wide range of economic and social sectors, including agriculture, education and health. Yet despite broad agreement on the multisectoral nature of the global burden of undernutrition, relatively little research has analyzed how different dimensions of accessibility, such as urbanization and travel times to urban centers, affect child nutrition and dietary outcomes. In this paper we study these relationships in sub-Saharan Africa, a highly rural continent still severely hindered by remoteness problems. We link spatial data on travel times to 20,000 person cities to survey data from 10,900 communities in 23 countries. We document strong negative associations between nutrition indicators and rural livelihoods, but only moderately strong associations with remoteness to cities. Moreover, the harmful effects of remoteness and rural living largely disappear once education, wealth, and social/infrastructural services indicators are added to the model. This implies that the key nutritional disadvantage of rural populations stems chiefly from social and economic poverty. Combating these problems requires either an acceleration of urbanization processes, or finding innovative cost-effective mechanisms for extending basic services to isolated rural communities. Acknowledgement : This paper was funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under the project Advancing Research on Nutrition and Agriculture (ARENA), Phase II, as well as the CGIAR program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). We thank Marie Ruel for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277147&r=dev |
| By: | Loos, T.; Sariyev, O.; Zeller, M. |
| Abstract: | Empowering women is considered to affect households livelihood outcomes both directly through emphasizing expenditure for food or social aspects (health, education), and indirectly through higher adoption rates of agricultural technologies increasing productivity, thus raising on-farm food availability and agricultural income. Drawing on women s intra-household decision-making power, the possibility of all (adolescent) household members actively participating in family decisions is widely ignored or undervalued in the literature. Therefore, this article applies a new decision-making index that allows all household members to be considered in decision-making processes. It investigates how women s bargaining power influences livelihood outcomes through different pathways: (i) the direct effect is measured as impact on social expenditures; (ii) the indirect effect is measured as impact on adopting crop rotation leading to higher agricultural productivity. Using data of 378 farming households living in a 200 km radius around Hawassa town, we estimate the effects by employing Tobit and log-linear regression models. Our findings suggest that women s participation in decision-making positively influences livelihood outcomes directly, reflected in higher social expenditures; and indirectly through increasing the adoption of crop rotation practices, thus improving farm productivity. Therefore, we conclude that households with higher women empowerment are likely to achieve higher livelihood outcomes. Acknowledgement : The financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is kindly acknowledged. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277120&r=dev |
| By: | Kumar, A.; Saroj, S.; Thapa, G.; Joshi, P.K.; Roy, D. |
| Abstract: | The demand for compliance with food safety measures (FSM) at farm level, an integral component of food security, is increasing. Yet, literature on the assessment of FSM at the farm level is scarce, especially for developing countries. To bridge the gap, this study investigates the status, estimates the cost, identifies the determinants, and analyzes the impact of compliance with food safety measures (FSM), using cross-sectional data from a survey of 684 dairy farmers in India. We use an ordinary least square (OLS) regression to examine the drivers of FSM adoption and we use the dose response function (DRF) technique to estimate the impact of FSM adoption on milk yield and profitability. The empirical results reveal that compliance with FSM at the farm level is low, with wide variations among milk producers. Drivers of FSM adoption include education, income, training, herd size, landholding, proportion of self-consumed milk, and households' perception of food safety. The DRF estimates reveal the positive impact of FSM adoption on milk yield and milk profitability. Keywords: food safety, compliance cost, dairy profitability, dose response function, Bihar, India Acknowledgement : We are grateful to the United States Agency for International Development for extending financial support to conduct this study through the Policy Reform Initiative Project (PRIP) in Nepal. We express our sincere thanks to all the dairy farmers who provided the needed information for the accomplishment of this study. |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277176&r=dev |
| By: | Muricho, G.; Kulundu, D.; Sule, F. |
| Abstract: | Welfare implication of agricultural commercialization in developing countries is not clear. Particularly not clear is its effect on household food security. Using panel data collected from smallholder farmers in Kenya, we analyze the impact of agricultural commercialization on household food security by fitting endogenous switching regression model in a correlated random effects framework. The results show that agricultural commercialization significantly improves household food security. Food security probability of commercialized and non-commercialized households was 62% and 32%, respectively. This 30% food security gap between the two groups of households could be reduced by 39 percentage points (12% gap) if non-commercialized households could be as efficient as commercialized household in their resource use. The other 61% percentage points (18% gap) emanated from differences in resource amounts between commercialized and non-commercialized households. The implication of these findings is that policies that stimulate and enhance agricultural commercialization are critical in improving household food security. Acknowledgement : This study was supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Australian International Food Security Research Centre (AIFSRC) through International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) led Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program, and Adoption Pathways Project. The views expressed here are those of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the donor or authors institution. The usual disclaimer applies |
| Keywords: | Food Security and Poverty |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277325&r=dev |
| By: | Khan, M.T.; Joshi, P.K.; Khurana, R.; Kishore, A. |
| Abstract: | Watershed development helps reduce farmers vulnerability to droughts and increase their incomes by rehabilitating the productive capacity of the land through water and soil conservation techniques. We estimate the impact of India s largest watershed development program called Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP) in four of the most drought affected districts of Maharashtra, India. We collected data from a random sample of 800 farmers in the four districts. Watershed programs may not show any impact on crop area or yields in years of normal of high rainfall. We, therefore, collected recall data on cropped area and yields for the last 4 years from our respondents. Our analysis shows that cotton yields were 11-32 percent higher and soybean yields were 12-25% higher for farmers whose land received watershed treatment. Four years recall data on crop area and yield, also allows us to look at the effect of IWMP on resilience of agriculture to droughts. We find that drought led to 30-40% yield loss in soybean and cotton compared to the yield in a normal year. However, watershed treatment reduced the yield loss due to drought by more than 30 percent. Acknowledgement : The authors would like to thank the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security for its generous financial support of research that led to this paper. We also thank the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for providing partial research funding. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277385&r=dev |
| By: | Lind, Jeremy; Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel; Hoddinott, John F.; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum |
| Abstract: | In the Ethiopian highlands, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is a successful social safety net intervention in terms of both targeting and impact. By contrast, existing studies situated in the country's lowland Afar and Somali regions suggest that PSNP targeting is beset with difficulties. This is deeply concerning given that these predominantly agro-pastoral and pastoral areas have some of the country's highest levels of poverty and food insecurity and that there is an absence of viable livelihoods outside of pastoralism in these localities. In this paper, which draws on three rounds of household survey data from 2012, 2014, and 2016, we show that there has been no meaningful improvement in targeting performance since 2010. We assess five explanations for this – resources and under-coverage; the involvement of traditional leaders in targeting; insufficient training; attitudes of program implementers; and transparency – adducing that norms regarding fairness and a lack of transparency are the most likely explanations for continued poor targeting. The PSNP experience calls into question the effectiveness of technocratic fixes as well as the appropriateness of targeting transfers in pastoralist societies. |
| Keywords: | ETHIOPIA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA ; pastoralism; food insecurity; households; poverty; program evaluation; social protection ; social transfers; targeting; Productive Safety Net Programme |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:esspwp:124&r=dev |
| By: | Dalemans, F.; Muys, B.; Maertens, M. |
| Abstract: | Agroforestry-based biofuel production has recently been proposed as a rural development strategy in the South. However, there exists a complete lack of empirical evidence on farmer adoption rates and determinants for these novel systems. This study describes adoption rates of oilseed tree mixtures on smallholder farms in Hassan district, South India, and quantifies how these rates are determined by a biofuel extension program (BP) and farm(er) characteristics. This is done through a set of regression-based analyses, addressing various forms of selection bias. The findings reveal that although 60% of the farmers cultivate oilseed trees, oilseed collection rates are generally low (13%), and the adoption of both practices is driven by different determinants. More specifically, BP activities are found to stimulate tree cultivation and therefore agroforestry establishment, but not seed collection and biofuel production. This calls for a better understanding of adoption profitability in function of the opportunity costs of land, labour and capital involved, and conditional on these results for intensifying BP activities and value chain development. Acknowledgement : Thanks go to the UAS Bangalore Department of Agricultural Extension and all individual enumerators for their assistance in data collection and data entry. We would also like to thank the Biofuel Park Hassan staff for their scientific support and for their assistance in data collection. This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) [Aspirant PhD grant]. |
| Keywords: | Resource/Energy Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:276990&r=dev |
| By: | Kristi Mahrt; Andrea Rossi; Vincenzo Salvucci; Finn Tarp |
| Abstract: | We analyse the multidimensional wellbeing of children aged 0–17 in Mozambique and find that 46.3 per cent can be considered multidimensionally poor. A substantial divide exists between urban and rural areas and between northern and southern provinces. We compare Mozambican children’s wellbeing with that of children in other regional countries. Despite impressive gains in some indicators, multidimensional child poverty in Mozambique still substantially exceeds that in neighbouring countries. Targeted policies considering the specificities of child welfare are needed to ensure that the national-level growth and poverty reduction experienced by the population as a whole translate into better living conditions for children. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-108&r=dev |
| By: | Faisal Buyinza (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria); Jakob Kapeller (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of household electrification on educational outcomes in Uganda using household panel data and employ a probit model. The findings indicate that electrification increases school enrolment at all education cycles. Also, education level of household head, marital status, gender and good housing increase education outcomes. Our results provide insights on the existing gaps in designing supportive policies for increased access to electricity for rural households where there are high disproportionately poor education outcomes. The results suggest that policies to eliminate all barriers to access to electricity will greatly enhance educational outcomes in Uganda. |
| Keywords: | Household electrification, education outcomes, gender, panel data, Uganda |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:85&r=dev |
| By: | Muriithi, B.; Gichungi, H. |
| Abstract: | Improved technology or production strategies increases returns in agriculture. This escalates women loss of control to agricultural production and marketing due persistent gender disparities in access to productive resources. The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) developed an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy for suppression of mango fruit flies among smallholder mango farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the impressive direct impacts of the icipe s fruit fly IPM strategy, no study had been conducted to determine whether adoption of the strategy has any influence on gender roles in mango production and marketing decision-making. A sample of 600 households from Machakos County was used to investigate the impact of the fruit fly IPM strategy on the gender roles in mango production and marketing decision making. The results showed thatthe proportion of women involved in decision making decreased in 9 of the 13 mango production and marketing decisions. Female spouse access to training, membership to a mango production or marketing group, access to credit, proportion of investment in mango production significantly influenced theirdecision making index. Acknowledgement : The authors would like to acknowledge the Department for International Development (DFID) for financial support. We are also thankful to the African Fruit Fly Programme (AFFP), International Center for Insect Psychology and Ecology (ICIPE), and all farmers who volunteered information and enumerators for their effort. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277398&r=dev |
| By: | Akuriba, M.; Haagsma, R.; Heerink, N.; Dittoh, S. |
| Abstract: | Small-scale irrigation schemes constructed for poverty reduction in developing countries are mostly managed by Water User Associations (WUAs). Users contributions in terms of labour towards resource maintenance is critical in sustaining the schemes. The amount of labour contributed depends on many factors, including users perceptions of the governance of WUAs and users willingness to cooperate in collective activities. In this paper we assess the effects of users governance perceptions and cooperativeness on maintenance contributions in northern Ghana. We use household survey data to create indicators of six governance dimensions, and estimate user s cooperativeness through lab-in-the-field experiments. OLS and Tobit regressions are used to respectively assess determinants of labour contributions and cooperativeness. We find that positive governance perceptions and cooperativeness generally affect labour contributions positively. Specifically, perceptions of transparency & cooperation affect labour contributions directly; and accountability and sustainable use both influence labour contributions directly and indirectly as mediated by the cooperativeness of users. Conflict management however has a negative impact on cooperativeness, and through that on labour contributions. We conclude that although better governance perceptions generally influence labour contributions to the maintenance of irrigation schemes positively, different dimensions differ in their direct as well as indirect contributions. Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277280&r=dev |
| By: | Rudolf, K.; Romero, M.; Wollni, M. |
| Abstract: | Palm oil expansion in Indonesia is associated with both a reduction in biodiversity and ecosystem services, and livelihood improvements for smallholder farmers. While this dichotomy highlights the importance of sustainable management options, empirical evidence on which policies are effective in stimulating biodiversity-friendly plantation management is relatively scarce. This paper addresses this gap by presenting results from a Randomized Controlled Trial implemented in Jambi province, Sumatra, in 2016. We focus on tree nuclei planting in oil palm plantations as one sustainable management option. To test whether information and input provision affect smallholders tree enrichment activities, two treatments were designed: the first provided information about tree planting in oil palm, while the second combined information and input delivery. We model adoption in a double-hurdle framework where farmers first decide whether to adopt or not and then how many trees they plant per hectare. Our results suggest that both interventions are effective in stimulating tree planting in oil palm. While input provision in combination with information leads to a higher probability of adoption, farmers plant on average relatively few trees per hectare. In contrast, in the informational treatment, few farmers enrich but they plant more trees per hectare than farmers who received saplings. Acknowledgement : We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) who funded the data collection in the framework of the collaborative German-Indonesian research project CRC990. |
| Keywords: | Research Methods/ Statistical Methods |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277366&r=dev |
| By: | Janssens, C.; Van Den Broeck, G.; Maertens, M.; Lambrecht, I. |
| Abstract: | While an important share of the rural population in Sub-Saharan Africa owns a non-farm enterprise (NFE), it is unclear how these businesses, especially among female owners, contribute to rural development. This study investigates the missing link between rural NFEs and children s education in developing countries. Using nationally representative data for Ghana and instrumental variable regressions that pass weak and overidentification restrictions, we estimate the impact of mother s non-farm entrepreneurship on the propensity of child secondary school enrolment. We find a strong significant positive effect of 10.6% points, corresponding to a relative increase of 27.2%. We find a positive effect on Junior High School enrolment but not on Senior High School enrolment, which relates to lower expenses and a better spread in payment for Junior High School education. The school-improving effect of mother s NFE is equally strong for boys and girls and for high- and low-educated mothers, and stronger for poorer households. While most of NFEs are small-scale and informal, our results show that even these businesses result in increased investments in child schooling and directly contribute to development. The results imply that NFEs can stimulate schooling among children of low-educated and poor mothers and thereby reduce inequality in rural education. Acknowledgement : We gratefuly acknowledge the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Accra, Ghana for the support provided in the field research and VLIR-UOS for the travel grant for the research stay in Ghana. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277038&r=dev |
| By: | Chrisendo, D.N.; Krishna, V.; Qaim, M. |
| Abstract: | Oil palm has been claimed as one of the major drivers for the land-use change in Indonesia. Research regarding the environmental degradation and biodiversity loss because of oil palm has been performed massively. However, how the land-use change influence the household nutrition and gender roles are still limited known. We analyze the association between land-use change in Jambi, Indonesia with dietary quality and gender roles of smallholder farm households. Results show that oil palm liberates women and men from the on-farm employment, but it only increases the men s participation in off-farm employment. It is the education - of both men and women in the household - which increases off-farm employment for women. We find positive effects of oil palm adoption on the household nutrition. However, it is not achieved through women empowerment while women participation in off-farm could help increase the household nutrition significantly. This suggests that improving household wealth and promoting women s participation in the off-farm sector could have a significant impact on household s dietary quality in Jambi, Sumatra. Keywords: oil palm cultivation, smallholder livelihoods, women s role, gender, nutrition, dietary quality, Indonesia Acknowledgement : This study was financially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the framework of the collaborative German-Indonesian research project CRC990, the University of G ttingen. The authors also thank the Indonesian government who give the scholarship to the first author through the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education scheme. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277267&r=dev |
| By: | Raghunathan, K. |
| Abstract: | Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of advice they provide is poor. We investigate whether another platform that of women s self-help groups could be an effective way of improving access to information, women s empowerment in agriculture, improved agricultural practices, and production diversity. We used cross-sectional data on close to 3000 women from 5 states in India, and employ nearest-neighbor matching models to match SHG and non-SHG women along a range of pre-determined characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women s access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes. Other constraints like income and social norms could be limiting the translation of knowledge into practice. Since SHGs are uniquely placed to change even these constraints, it is important to identify and account for them when advocating the use of these groups in improving agriculture and livelihoods. Acknowledgement : This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). The opinions expressed here belong to the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of A4NH or CGIAR. We acknowledge the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the research project Women Improving Nutrition through Group-based Strategies, OPP1132181. The authors would also like to thank Purnima Menon for useful feedback on this paper. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277537&r=dev |
| By: | Hirvonen, Kalle; Hoddinott, John F. |
| Abstract: | Economists typically default to the assumption that cash is always preferable to an in-kind transfer. We extend the classic Southworth (1945) framework to predict under what conditions this assumption holds. We take the model to longitudinal household data from Ethiopia where a large-scale social safety net intervention – the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) – operates. Even though most PSNP payments are paid in cash, and even though the (temporal) transaction costs associated with food payments are higher than payments received as cash, the overwhelming majority of the beneficiary households prefer their payments only or partly in food. However, these preferences are neither homogeneous nor stable. Higher food prices induce shifts in preferences towards in-kind transfers, but more food secure households and those closer to food markets and to financial services prefer cash. There is suggestive evidence that preferences for food are also driven by self-control concerns. |
| Keywords: | ETHIOPIA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA ; food aid; food security; poverty; food prices ; social protection; food transfers; cash transfers; Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP); in-kind transfers |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:esspwp:125&r=dev |
| By: | Bopp, C.; Engler, A.; Poortvliet, M.; Jara-Rojas, R. |
| Abstract: | This article examines the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, as well as the interplay between the two, on the adoption intensity of soil conservation agriculture (SCA). It seeks to understand the drivers of SCA among annual crop farmers using three conservation practices subject to be financed by an economic incentive for degraded soils in Chile; namely conservation tillage, stubble incorporation, and use of organic manure. The incentive to conservation represents an extrinsic motivation, while intrinsic motivations was represented by several beliefs about SCA based on the Planned Behavior Approach. To account for selection bias on unobservable factors between the incentive and behavior, a two-step model was performed to estimate the intensity of SCA adoption. Farm/farmers characteristics and control variables were also included in the model. Results of the econometric analysis show that attitudes and the exogenous incentive are both significant, but also the interaction with each other. Farmers with low intrinsic motivation are heavily dependent on extrinsic motivation to adopt SCA, while those intrinsically motivated seem to act in a sustainable way regardless the existence of external rewards. Finally, soil degradation was also found to play a key role on the intensity of SCA adoption. Acknowledgement : This work was supported by the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT), through its Programme Becas Chile for Phd studies 2016. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277300&r=dev |
| By: | Patrick GUILLAUMONT (Ferdi); Phu NGUYEN-VAN (FERDI); Thi Kim Cuong PHAM (FERDI); Laurent WAGNER (Ferdi) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a model of aid allocation which aims to equalize the opportunity between recipient countries to reduce the poverty. The model takes into account the natural growth deviation which is defined by the gap between the growth rate required to reach a development goal and the growth rate observed in the recipient countries. The resulting optimal aid allocation is computed using the estimation of a growth equation. Said equation includes effects of aid and structural handicaps to growth in recipient countries (which are represented by the economic vulnerability index and lack of human capital). To illustrate the interest of our approach, we perform a simulation which shows a substantial difference between the aid allocation obtained with our multi-criteria principle and the observed allocation. Moreover, we also shed light on the impact of the donors’ sensitivity with respect to the natural growth deviation on the optimal aid allocation. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, equity, development aid, growth deviation, vulnerability |
| JEL: | D63 F35 I30 O19 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fdi:wpaper:4575&r=dev |
| By: | Padmaja, S. Surendran; Kondapi, S. |
| Abstract: | We used treatment effect models to assess the effect of the women-centric community-based programme on intra-household decision making in agriculture. Using the data collected from an intra-household survey of 815 targeted and non-targeted households of a programme, we assessed the impact of women membership in a Self Help Group on dynamics of 14 farm and household related decisions by the primary decision maker and SHG member in the household. The study shows that though the role of women in decision making increased (8-10%), the effects vary according to the level of intervention and type of decision. Our results show that unlike micro-finance based SHGs, the conflicts were lesser in seed SHGs. Our study concludes that engagement of women in agriculture-based interventions could encourage joint decision making. Our finding suggests that development agencies engaged in interventions targeted to empower women should engage them in enterprising activities. Acknowledgement : We would like to acknowledge the funding support provided by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to RGMVP for the project. We acknowledge Pooja Trivedi, Neelakshi Mann, P.S. Mohanan, K.S. Yadav, Yadavendra for helping us in understanding the project and designing the study. We appreciate the team members at RGMVP especially Vivek, Samarth, Somanath, Uma, Vineet and 20 enumerators involved in the primary survey. We would also sincerely thank Mamta, Prakashan, Dhandapani, Taj, and Araty for their intellectual support and guidance in analysing the data. We also whole-heartedly thank the household members for sparing their valuable time for the study. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277394&r=dev |
| By: | Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L.; Edeh, Hyacinth |
| Abstract: | Agricultural mechanization has often been characterized by scale-effects and increased specialization. Such characterizations, however, fail to explain how mechanization may grow in Africa where production environments are more heterogeneous and diversification of production may help in mitigating risks from increasingly uncertain climatic conditions. Using panel data from farm households and crop-specific production costs in Nigeria, we estimate how the adoption of animal traction or tractors affects the economies of scope (EOS) between rice, non-rice grains, legume/seed crops, and other crops, which are the crop groups that are most widely grown with animal traction or tractors in Nigeria. The results indicate that the adoption of these mechanization technologies is associated with lower EOS between non-rice grains, legume/seed crops, and other crops, but greater EOS between rice and other crops. An increase in EOS for rice is indicated in both primal and dual analytical approaches. Mechanical technologies may raise EOS between crops that are grown in more heterogeneous environments, even though it may lower EOS between crops that are grown in relatively similar environments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows the effects of mechanical technologies on EOS in agriculture in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | NIGERIA; WEST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; agricultural mechanization; crop production; rice; diversification; innovation adoption; production economics; tractors; animal resources; economies of scope (EOS); inverse probability weighting |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:nsspwp:53&r=dev |
| By: | Mittal, S.; Hariharan, V.K.; Kumar, A. |
| Abstract: | The participation of women has been increasing in agriculture, especially as agricultural labour in the farms. Thus, it is important to understand the role that women play in the production system. As per the literature, increased cost of labour and out-migration of men to urban locations is leading to increased participation of women labour in cultivation and specially in wheat which is the man staple crop in India. But it is also envisaged that her role in decision making is still limited. This is mainly constrained by the cultural and social barriers, low bargaining power and gender gap in terms of education, and access to knowledge. Empirically there is limited information about gender disaggregated labour use information, by crop, especially for cereals like wheat, which is one the important staple crop for India and contributes to the food security. Thus, using the household survey of wheat producers conducted in three states of India- Haryana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the paper analyses the extent of involvement and proportionate time a woman spends at different stages of wheat production as compared to men. Further the paper analyses the role of women in decision making linked to wheat production and examines the socio-economic factors which impact her participation in the decision making. Acknowledgement : The authors duly acknowledge the support from CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) for funding the household level survey which is used for analysis in this paper. We are also sincerely thankful to the colleagues Christian Boeber, Meeta Punjabi Mehta, Subash S.P for their inputs on this paper and Soumik Kundu, and Birendra Pun for help in data collection. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277065&r=dev |
| By: | Kabunga, N.; Bizimungu, E. |
| Abstract: | Agricultural productivity is still very low in Africa largely due to low use of improved agricultural technologies. Existing adoption studies are marred by univariate analyses, often focusing on single technologies over a limited scope while assuming uniform effects of the explanatory variables across farm households. In this study, we use a large dataset that covers a wide geographical and agricultural scope to describe use-patterns of improved agro-technology in Uganda. Using latent class analysis, and over 12,500 households collected across the four regions of Uganda, we classify farmers based on the package of improved agro-technologies used. We find that the majority of farmers (61%) do not use any improved agricultural practices ( non-users ) while only 5% of the farmers belong to the class of intensified diversifiers , using most of the commonly available agro-technologies across crop and livestock enterprises. Using multinomial regression analysis, we show that education of the household head, access to extension messages and affiliation to social groups, are the key factors that drive switching from the non-user reference class to the other three preferred classes that use improved agro-technologies to varying levels. Results reveal that different farmer categories with different agro-technology needs, which may have implications for optimal targeting. Acknowledgement : The authors would like to thank the International Institute for Impact Evaluation (3ie) for financial support. This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). |
| Keywords: | Livestock Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277007&r=dev |
| By: | Blakeslee, David (New York University, Abu Dhabi); Chaurey, Ritam (The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School); Fishman, Ram (Tel Aviv University); Malik, Samreen (New York University, Abu Dhabi) |
| Abstract: | Like many developing countries, India features a variety of land-use restrictions that make it difficult to establish industrial firms on agricultural lands. Such policies have received some of the blame for the slow pace of industrialization, and there is widespread agreement on the need for reform. Traditional agrarian economies, however, have many features that may serve as barriers to industrialization, making it unclear that land-use reform would be sufficient for promoting manufacturing growth in rural areas. To better understand the role played by such regulations, we study the effects of the Industrial Areas (IAs) program in India, which facilitated the establishment of industrial firms in areas that had previously been restricted to agriculture. We find that IAs caused a large increase in the number of firms and employment, and that there were substantial spillovers to neighboring villages. Furthermore, IAs trigger a classic "structural transformation" of the economy, with a shift of workers from agricultural to non-agricultural employment, and the creation of numerous small manufacturing and agricultural firms. |
| Keywords: | industrial areas, spillovers, labor market |
| JEL: | O12 O25 R2 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11886&r=dev |
| By: | Monica Martinez-Bravo (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros); Andreas Stegmann (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros) |
| Abstract: | In July 2011, the Pakistani public unexpectedly learnt that the CIA had used a vaccination campaign as cover during the operations to locate and capture Osama Bin Laden. This episode lent credibility to conspiracy theories against vaccines that had been spread by the Taliban. We evaluate the effects of these events on immunization by implementing a Difference-in-Differences strategy across cohorts and regions. We find that vaccination rates declined 9 to 13% per standard deviation in Islamist parties' support. These results suggest that the disclosure of information discrediting vaccination campaigns can negatively affect trust in health services and demand for immunization. |
| Keywords: | Vaccines, demand, propaganda, trust, Pakistan. |
| JEL: | I15 D74 D83 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2017_1713&r=dev |
| By: | Kishore, A. |
| Abstract: | Would the households get to buy more of subsidized grains from a food safety-net program if the difference between the price in the program and in the open market were to increase? This is an important question for safety-net programs anywhere in the world, but particularly so for the Public Distribution System (PDS) of grains in India. The standard economic intuition suggests that price controls distort signals and create incentives for unintended transactions. Dreze and Sen (2013), however, posit an opposite entitlement effect where an increase in arbitrage potential increases the value of PDS entitlement. Increase in the stake in the PDS for the eligible beneficiaries results in increased accountability and ultimately an increase in household purchase of grains from the PDS. We test these two competing hypotheses using the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) panel data and find evidence for both kinds of effects. In states where welfare programs are better governed, the Dreze and Sen (2013) conjecture holds, but in states like Bihar and Jharkhand where welfare programs are poorly run, the opposite pattern holds as households purchase of subsidized grains declines with increase in arbitrage. Acknowledgement : This paper was undertaken as a part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), led by IFPRI and benefited from financial support from the Technical Assistance and Research for Indian Nutrition and Agriculture (TARINA), joint initiative between IFPRI and Tata Cornell Initiative supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The opinions expressed here belong to the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of PIM, IFPRI, CGIAR, or BMGF. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277073&r=dev |
| By: | Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L.; Mavrotas, George; Maikasuwa, Mohammed Abubakar; Aliyu, Abdulrahaman |
| Abstract: | Rcent studies on food prices in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) found that food price seasonality in SSA remains an issue. In addition to it causing price risk, and, hence, limiting market participation among farmers and traders, the continued existence of substantial price seasonality implies that interventions that improve food market development are needed. Using a dataset that is unique for Nigeria, we contribute to this literature through measurement of the extent of seasonality in grain prices in a set of markets in Kebbi state. We believe that our focus on seasonality at the state, rather than country or continental, level can provide needed insights that are useful for identification of areas deserving stakeholder focus for rural development related initiatives. A main contribution is that we find that there are large enough differences in price behavior across the assessed markets to justify this more localized analysis. |
| Keywords: | NIGERIA; WEST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; seasonality; market structure; food prices; rural development; grain crops; grain prices |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:nsspwp:51&r=dev |
| By: | Guy Abel (School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University); Michael Brottrager (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University); Jesus Crespo Cuaresma (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Raya Muttarak (School of International Development, University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | Despite the lack of robust empirical evidence, a growing number of media reports attempt to link climate change to the ongoing violent conflicts in Syria and other parts of the world, as well as to the migration crisis in Europe. Exploiting bilateral data on asylum seeking applications for 157 countries over the period 2006-2015, we assess the determinants of refugee flows using a gravity model which accounts for endogenous selection in order to examine the causal link between climate, conflict and forced migration. Our results indicate that climatic conditions, by affecting drought severity and the likelihood of armed conflict, played a significant role as an explanatory factor for asylum seeking in the period 2011-2015. The effect of climate on conflict occurrence is particularly relevant for countries in Western Asia in the period 2010-2012 during when many countries were undergoing political transformation. This finding suggests that the impact of climate on conflict and asylum seeking flows is limited to specific time period and contexts. |
| Keywords: | forced migration, climate change, conflict |
| JEL: | F22 Q54 D74 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp272&r=dev |
| By: | Ayinde, O.E.; Fatigun, O.; Ogunbiyi, K.; Ayinde, K.; Ambali, Y.O. |
| Abstract: | Agriculture is a major source of livelihood and the main engine of economic growth in developing countries therefore the development of agricultural production is a public priority but most farmers are poor, hence there is gap in cash resources which blocks the adoption of new technologies innovation and credit is needed to fill the gap in Nigeria .Therefore, this study was carried out to assess anchor borrower s programme a central bank of Nigeria's intervention on rice production in Kwara State, Nigeria. Data for the data were sourced primarily from rice producers with the aid of a structured questionnaire. The findings reveal that 88.1% of the beneficiaries breached the agreement and refuse to deliver their produce to the Anchor Borrowers Programme due some reasons and their average estimated yield per hectare of paddy rice for all beneficiaries was 3.94 metric tons per hectare. Anchor Borrowers Programme had a positive effect on the income of the beneficiaries. Therefore the study recommended that the governments must intervene with subsidized lending (seeking no profit, amortizing high transaction costs, spreading the risk on a national basis),since most borrowers in rural areas are small farmers (i.e. poor), low cost credit responds to poverty alleviation considerations . Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277429&r=dev |
| By: | Ghebru, Hosaena; Amare, Mulubrhan; Mavrotas, George; Ogunniyi, Adebayo |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the role of land access in youth migration and employment decisions using a two wave panel data set from the Living Standards Measurement Study—Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) from Nigeria. Overall, the findings show that the size of expected land inheritance is significantly and negatively associated with long distance migration and migration to urban areas, while a similar impact is negligible when a broader definition of migration is adopted and when migration is deemed as temporary. A more disaggregated analysis by considering individual characteristics of the youth shows that results are more elastic for older youth and those that are less educated, while we find no difference when comparisons are made by gender. Similar analysis on the influence of land access on youth employment choices shows strong evidence that the larger the size of the expected land inheritance the lower the likelihood of the youth being involved in non-agricultural activities and a higher chance of staying in agriculture or the dual sector. The results further reveal that youth in areas with a high level of agricultural commercialization and modernization seem to be more responsive to land access considerations in making migration and employment decisions than are youth residing in less commercialized areas. Finally, the results from the differential analysis suggest that rural-to-urban migration and the likelihood of youth involvement in the dual economy is more responsive to the size of the expected land inheritance for less educated youth as compared to more educated ones. |
| Keywords: | NIGERIA; WEST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA ; land access; migration; youth; employment; rural urban migration; land inheritance |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:nsspwp:58&r=dev |
| By: | Barrett, C.; Jagnani, M.; Liu, Y.; You, L. |
| Abstract: | Does heat affect agriculture in regions where temperatures are not high enough to directly, adversely affect crop growth? Combining daily weather data with a qualitatively rich, longitudinal survey of Kenyan agricultural households in rural maize-growing areas where daily average temperatures are well below 30C, we find that higher temperatures early in the growing season increase the use of pesticides, while reducing fertilizer use, with comparatively modest effects of temperature later in the growing season. Suggestive evidence indicates that greater heat increases the incidence of pests, crop diseases and weeds, compelling farmers to divert investment from productivity-enhancing technologies like fertilizer to adaptive, loss-reducing inputs like pesticides. Acknowledgement : Tim Johnson and Yating Ru provided excellent research assistance. We thank Nicholas Flores, Teevrat Garg, Ariel Ortiz Bobea, Cynthia Lin Lawell and Vis Taraz for helpful comments. We are grateful for feedback from seminar participants at Cornell University and the International Food Policy Research Institute, as well as conference participants at the 2017 CU Boulder -- Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop, and the 2017 Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Annual Meetings. Funding support came from the African Development Bank through the Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) project. All errors are our own |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277019&r=dev |
| By: | Behura, D.; Haldar, S.; Pal, A. |
| Abstract: | Rice yield underperformance coupled with production instability in Odisha is primarily due to low irrigation potential, the spatiotemporal disparity in rainfall pattern and relentless confrontation with biotic and abiotic stresses. System of rice intensification (SRI) was introduced in the state during early 2000 with the promises of higher production horizon. However, the present scenario of patchy adoption pattern has necessitated comprehensive study on dynamics and determinants of adoption of SRI. Increased SRI area allocation is observed at the expense of reduced number of adopting farmers. Economic scarcity of skilled labour, difficulties in transplantation and mechanical weeding, low irrigation potential and poor on-farm water management were major constraints as experienced by SRI adopters as well as dropouts. Farmers compliance in following different resilient SRI components that also varied spatiotemporally has resulted in realized incremental yield. Irrespective of severe drought during 2015-16, SRI yielded significantly higher than conventional one with a considerable decline in hazardous and environment polluting chemicals usage. Probit analysis indicated that active social involvements of NGOs, on-farm training and demonstrations, and realized incremental rice income influenced SRI adoption. Further SRI area expansion hindered mainly because of infeasible land topography, area saturation and lack of farmers interest. Acknowledgement : Authors acknowledge Tata Trusts for funding this study under Systematic Approach to Research and Adoption of SRI (SARAS) project in East and North East India |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277448&r=dev |
| By: | Tufa, A.H.; Alene, A.D.; Manda, J.; Akinwale, G. |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the impacts of adoption of improved soybean varieties and agronomic practices on soybean yields and net crop incomes in Malawi using data collected from over 1200 soybean growing households. The yield and crop income effects were analyzed using stochastic dominance analysis (SDA), propensity score matching (PSM) and inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA). The results from the SDA show that the cumulative distribution functions for soybean yield and net crop income for the adopters of improved soybean varieties and agronomic practices significantly dominate those of the non-adopters. This indicates if randomly chosen, there is a higher probability that the adopters will on average have higher soybean yield and net crop income than the non-adopters. The results from the PSM and IPWRA show that adoption of improved soybean varieties and agronomic practices increase soybean yields by 193-198 kg/ha and net crop income by 24 USD/ha. This implies that adoption of improved soybean varieties and agronomic practices increases soybean yields by 20% and net crop income by 19%. The results point to the need for further scaling up of seeds of improved soybean varieties and complementary agronomic practices for greater adoption and impact on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Malawi. Acknowledgement : The authors are grateful to USAID and IITA for the financial support. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277239&r=dev |
| By: | Ahmed, M.; Gautam, M.; Sen, B. |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the drivers of rural poverty and their evolution in Bangladesh over the last two decades. It uses four rounds of a nationally representative rural longitudinal survey from 1988 and 2008. Using the standard Probit approach, the analysis identifies the factors most likely to distinguish, first, the households that managed to escape poverty from the chronic poor, and second, the households that fell into poverty relative to the never poor households to understand the characteristics likely to explain the causes of descent. The results indicate that different factors are associated with the ascent and descent of households, and they also vary over time periods. Labor endowment, land ownership, education, shocks, and non-farm work play nuanced roles in helping movers escape poverty or protecting the vulnerable from falling. For example, in the 2000s, the results show a heightened role for non-farm sources of income, helping households with better labor endowment escape poverty. Education, on the other hand, is associated with protecting the non-poor from falling over the same period. Improved connectivity is found to reduces vulnerability while migration and land ownership are associated with helping the movers as well as protecting the vulnerable. Acknowledgement : The authors are grateful to Dr. Mahabub Hossain for making the longitudinal survey data avaiable for this analysis. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work |
| Keywords: | Food Security and Poverty |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277340&r=dev |
| By: | Fernanda Brollo; Katja Maria Kaufmann; Eliana La Ferrara |
| Abstract: | We study spillovers in learning about the enforcement of Bolsa Familia, a program conditioning benefits on children’s school attendance. Using original administrative data, we find that individuals’ compliance responds to penalties incurred by their classmates and by siblings’ classmates (in other grades/schools). As the severity of penalties increases with repeated noncompliance, the response is larger when peers are punished for “higher stages†than the family’s, consistent with learning. Individuals also respond to penalties experienced by neighbors who are exogenously scheduled to receive notices on the same day. Our results point to important social multiplier effects of enforcement via learning. |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_050_2018&r=dev |
| By: | Wineman, A.; Jayne, T. |
| Abstract: | Although the inverse farm size-productivity relationship (IR) is sometimes used to motivate arguments in favor of smallholder-led agricultural development, it remains unclear what drives this relationship. It may be attributed to market imperfections that compel small farms to use land more intensively than large farms. Using a three-wave longitudinal household survey from Tanzania, we examine whether the intensity of the IR is related to local factor market activity for land, labor, credit, and animal and machine traction. The IR is evident in Tanzania, although it disappears when family labor is valued at the prevailing local agricultural wage rate. This suggests that labor market imperfections (possibly linked to other market failures) drive the IR. Furthermore, the IR is significantly weakened in the presence of relatively active markets for most factors of production. This suggests that the IR is at least partly driven by imperfections in rural factor markets, underscoring the importance of strategies to improve the functioning of these markets. Acknowledgement : The authors are grateful for the encouragement and support of the Food Security Group in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics of Michigan State University. This work was supported by the USAID/Bureau for Food Security through the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Cooperative Agreement with Michigan State University, and by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Africa grant to Michigan State University. |
| Keywords: | Marketing |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277030&r=dev |
| By: | Wongnaa, C.A.; Awunyo-Vitor, D.; Mensah, A. |
| Abstract: | The study analysed the factors influencing profit and its efficiency for smallholder maize farmers in Ghana. The data used was collected from 576 maize farmers in Ghana s four main agro ecological zones using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and the stochastic frontier translog profit function were the methods of analysis employed. The results showed that generally, an increase in the prices of fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, seed and labour decreased the profitability of maize production in Ghana. Also, an increase in farm size by Ghanaian maize farmers decreased their profit levels. Furthermore, the maize farmers were found to be seriously profit inefficient as the mean profit efficiency was 48.4%. Maize farmers in the transitional zone of the country were also found to be more efficient in their profit levels than those in other zones. Finally, male gender, formal education, extension contact, access to good roads and credit as well as uses of fertilizer, pesticides and improved seeds were found to be positively related to profit efficiency of the farmers. Recommendations aimed at improving profit efficiency of maize farmers are suggested. Acknowledgement : We are especially indebted to the staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the West Mamprusi, East Gonja, Nkoranza, Ejura Sekyedumase, Fanteakwa, Sekyere South, Gomoa and Ketu districts/municipalities of Ghana for the information they provided about the maize crop and also assisting in the data collection. We are also grateful to the respondent maize farmers in the aforementioned districts/municipalities without whose co-operation the study could not have taken place. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277009&r=dev |