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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:

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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.


Risk and sustainable crop intensification

Risk and sustainable crop intensification
Author: Van Campenhout, Bjorn
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2016-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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To feed a growing and increasingly urbanized population, Uganda needs to increase crop production without further exhausting available resources. Therefore, smallholder farmers are encouraged to adopt sustainable crop intensification methods such as inorganic fertilizer or hybrid seeds. However, these farmers perceive these new technologies as risky hence adoption will depend on how well they can manage this additional risk. This paper documents patterns observed in socioeconomic data that suggest risk is an important barrier to sustainable crop intensification practices among Ugandan smallholder rice and potato farmers. In particular, we find that households that engage in risk management strategies, such as investing in risk-reducing technology or engaging in precautionary savings, are more likely to practice intensified cropping. However, our data also show only limited yield risk associated with the use of fertilizers or pesticides, suggesting part of the problem is related to perception. We also discuss the consequences for policy.


A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Understanding Ugandan Farmers' Decision Process for Fertilizer Adoption Or Rejection

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Understanding Ugandan Farmers' Decision Process for Fertilizer Adoption Or Rejection
Author: Chandler Reid Mulvaney
Publisher:
Total Pages: 684
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

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Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are projected to be the second breadbasket of the world, behind the United States (Chahed, 2018). With a rising global population increased food and fiber, production is imminent (FAO, 2015). Literature suggests that agricultural input (i.e. fertilizers) adoption will lead to an increase in agricultural production in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries (Barrett & Sheahan, 2017). As agricultural scientists and producers continue to search for methods to feed the growing global population, Uganda has been overlooked as a country with only 3.2% of its farming population having adopted mineral fertilizers (Barrett & Sheahan, 2017). With a limited understanding as to why farmers in Uganda have yet to adopt input innovations, there is a need to examine 1) What Ugandan farmers' experiences are regarding the adoption or rejection of mineral fertilizers and 2) How mineral fertilizers can be integrated into the Ugandan culture of social norms to increase adoption. phenomenological inquiry was employed to better understand the experiences and relationships among fertilizer use and farmers' perceived barriers. Thirty farmers were interviewed in Uganda following phenomenological research design. The data were analyzed by (give some details here). According to participants and the observations of the research team, the essence of using mineral fertilizers according to the Ugandan farmers was that of the endless ladder. Farmers are unable to use fertilizers due to a series of poverty traps caused by several factors including, 1) high costs to purchase the input, 2) inability to access fertilizers from the market, and, 3) a lack of knowledge and training regarding fertilizer application rates and timing. The essence of high-hanging fruit was used to inform recommendations for the establishment of an original model that outlines recommended interventions for in-country extension and outreach organizations such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's), non-profits and the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) to facilitate the adoption of mineral fertilizers among Ugandan farmers.


Fertilizer Use in African Agriculture

Fertilizer Use in African Agriculture
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN:

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"Fertilizer Use in African Agriculture : Lessons Learned and Good Practice Guidelines summarizes the findings of a major study undertaken by the World Bank to Identify promising policy options for promoting increased fertilizer use in Africa, with the ultimate goal of boosting agricultural productivity in smallholder farming systems and reducing poverty. The book summarizes lessons learned from past efforts to promote fertilizer in Africa, provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about technical aspects of fertilizer use in Africa, and presents good practice guidelines for promoting sustainable increases in fertilizer use. The good practice guidelines - which form the basis of an interactive policymaker's tool kit included on a CD accompanying the book - relate not only to the more focused problem of encouraging increased fertilizer use by farmers, but also to the broader challenge of creating the type of enabling environment that is needed to support the emergence of efficient, dynamic and commercially viable fertilizer marketing systems."--Résumé de l'éditeur.


Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia

Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia
Author: Abate, Gashaw T.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2017-03-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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Adoption of quality-enhancing technologies is often driven largely by farmers’ expected returns from these technologies. Without proper grades, standards, and certification systems, however, farmers may remain uncertain about the actual financial return associated with their quality-enhancing investments. This report summarizes the outcomes of a short video-based randomized training intervention on wheat quality measurement and collective marketing among 15,000 wheat farmers in Ethiopia. Our results suggest that the intervention led to significant changes in farmers’ commercialization behaviors—namely, it prompted farmers to adopt behaviors geared toward assessing their wheat’s quality using easily implementable test-weight measures, assessing the accuracy of the equipment used by buyers in their kebeles (scales, in particular), and contacting more than one buyer before concluding a sale. The training also led to improvements in share of output sold, price received, and collective marketing, albeit with important limitations. First, farmers who measured their wheat quality received a higher price, but only if their wheat was of higher quality. Second, farmers who found that their wheat was of higher quality were more reluctant to aggregate their wheat (that is, sell their products through local cooperatives) than those who found that their wheat was of lower quality. Lastly, the training intervention led to better use of fertilizer in the following season. Our discovery that a short training intervention can significantly change farmers’ marketing and production behavior should encourage the development of further interventions aimed at enhancing farmers’ adoption of improved technologies and commercialization.


Chinese investment in Ghana’s manufacturing sector

Chinese investment in Ghana’s manufacturing sector
Author: Tang, Xiaoyang
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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This paper uses Ghana as a case study to illustrate the extent to which Chinese manufacturing firms are driving manufacturing in an African country. Through a combination of desktop and field research, the author finds that the total number of Chinese manufacturing investments in Ghana indeed increased during past decade, but quite a few projects have been abandoned or not implemented because of the unfavorable investment environment. Small and large manufacturing projects can be found in different sectors, such as plastics, steel, pharmaceuticals, and others. All of the manufacturing investments target local or regional markets, either taking advantage of local raw materials or seeing opportunities in a market with little competition. Transitioning from trading to manufacturing investment and clustering are identified as the main patterns by which Chinese investors establish themselves in Ghana. Chinese firms source simple raw materials from local suppliers but import industrial supplies from abroad. Learning from Chinese business models, a few local businessmen have started their own manufacturing projects, mostly in the plastics recycling sector, but a lack of capital appears to keep some local players from moving up the value chain. Ghana’s weak economy itself is limiting technology transfer and local linkages between Chinese firms and Ghanaians.


Nutrition incentives in dairy contract farming in northern Senegal

Nutrition incentives in dairy contract farming in northern Senegal
Author: Bernard, Tanguy
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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Health-related incentives to reward effort or commitment are commonplace in many professional contracts throughout the world. Typically absent from small-scale agriculture in poor countries, such incentives may help overcome both health issues for remote rural families and supply issues for firms. Using a randomized control design, we investigate the impact of adding a micronutrient-fortified product in contracts between a Senegalese dairy processing factory and its seminomadic milk suppliers. Findings show significant increases in frequency of delivery but only limited impacts on total milk delivered. These impacts are time sensitive and limited mostly to households where women are more in control of milk contracts.


Institutional versus noninstitutional credit to agricultural households in India: Evidence on impact from a national farmers’ survey

Institutional versus noninstitutional credit to agricultural households in India: Evidence on impact from a national farmers’ survey
Author: Kumar, Anjani
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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A goal of agricultural policy in India has been to reduce farmers’ dependence on informal credit. To that end, recent initiatives have been focused explicitly on rural areas and have had a positive impact on the flow of agricultural credit. But despite the significance of these initiatives in enhancing the flow of institutional credit to agriculture, the links between institutional credit and net farm income and consumption expenditures in India are not very well documented. Using a large national farm household–level dataset and instrumental variables two-stage least squares estimation methods, we investigate the impact of institutional farm credit on farm income and farm household consumption expenditures. Our findings show that in India, formal credit is indeed playing a critical role in increasing both the net farm income and per capita monthly household expenditures of Indian farm families. We also find that, in the presence of formal credit, social safety net programs such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) may have unintended consequences. In particular, MGNREGA reduces both net farm income and per capita monthly household consumption expenditures. In contrast, in the presence of formal credit, the Public Distribution System may increase both net farm income and per capita monthly household consumption expenditures.


Improving the targeting of fertilizer subsidy programs in Africa south of the Sahara: Perspectives from the Ghanaian experience

Improving the targeting of fertilizer subsidy programs in Africa south of the Sahara: Perspectives from the Ghanaian experience
Author: Houssou, Nazaire
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2017-03-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

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This paper assesses whether fertilizer subsidy programs can be better targeted to resource-poor farmers using the case of Ghana and proxy means test approaches. Past fertilizer subsidy programs in the country have not been particularly targeted to the poor, even as targeting poor and smallholder farmers has become key in the program implementation guidelines. As a result, many poor farmers have not benefited from past programs. Our results show that targeting approaches based on proxy means tests that use the correlates of poverty to select beneficiary farmers can potentially improve the poverty outreach and costeffectiveness of Ghana’s fertilizer subsidy programs. Therefore, we propose that the proxy means test approach should be considered for implementing Ghana’s fertilizer subsidy programs, first in a pilot project involving a few communities, and later, if found successful, in a full-scale program.