Accounting for the Gender Technology Gap Amongst Smallholder Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana

Narrowing the gender technology gap in agricultural production has become a critical policy issue in sub‐Saharan Africa. A better understanding of the gender technology gap is essential for policy formulation and programme planning to ensure equity in resource allocation, and household‐level food security in low and middle income countries, such as Ghana. We employ a metafrontier approach to analyse the differences in the efficiency of male and female farmers, recognising the endogeneity of some of the variables in the inefficiency effects model, in particular the credit constraints of the rice farmers under study. Our findings show that while the rice farms themselves are very similar, average yields for male managed farms tend to be significantly higher than female managed farms reflecting higher seeding and fertiliser application rates on male managed farms. However, there is no significant difference between the genders in either land used for rice or total output per farm household. We find some evidence that relative to the metafrontier, male managed farms are less efficient than female managed farms. The results further show gender technology gap amongst the smallholder rice farmers with females’ technology gap ratio being significantly greater than that of males, with females operating on a production frontier closer to the metafrontier. Policies that provide females more access to productive resources and other agricultural services could assist in the generation of relatively higher output.     

Will digital technologies transform agriculture in developing countries?

Mobile phones and the internet have significantly affected practically all sectors of the economy and agriculture is no exception. Building on a recent World Bank flagship report, this article introduces a concise framework for describing the main benefits from new information and communication technologies. They promote greater inclusion in the broader economy, raise efficiency by complementing other production factors, and foster innovation by dramatically reducing transaction costs. The article reviews the recent literature on corresponding technology impacts in the rural sector in developing countries. Digital technologies overcome information problems that hinder market access for many small‐scale farmers, increase knowledge through new ways of providing extension services, and they provide novel ways for improving agricultural supply chain management. While there are many promising examples of positive impacts on rural livelihoods—or “digital dividends”—these have often not scaled up to the extent expected. The main reason is that technology can always only address some, but not all of the barriers faced by farmers in poorer countries.     

The promise (and pitfalls) of ICT for agriculture initiatives

The widespread growth of information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) in rural areas of developing countries offers new opportunities to provide more timely and low‐cost information services to farmers, as well as assist in coordinating agricultural agents. Over the past decade, the number of public and private sector initiatives in this space has increased substantially, with over 140 deployments worldwide in 2015. While there is substantial potential for such services to address farmers’ and traders’ information and credit market constraints, economic research suggests that the impacts of such services on agricultural adoption, behavior and welfare is mixed. While this can, in part, be explained by the degree of the information asymmetry and the presence of other market failures in different contexts, research from other disciplines provides additional insights into these findings. In particular, work in the domain of human–computer interaction (HCI) focuses heavily on users’ interaction and experience with a given technology, thus explaining why users may not fully engage with ICT‐based agricultural interfaces. Furthermore, sociological and anthropological approaches study the provision of information and trust and how these may be altered by ICT platforms. Drawing upon these disciplines, we suggest that future ICT for agriculture initiatives should first seek to better understand the information and complementary market failures in a given context, in order to better understand whether information is a binding constraint. Second, even if information is missing, the information services provided should be of high quality and from a trusted source, which can be a challenge with some ICT platforms. Finally, such services should be delivered via platforms that build upon local ICT access and usage, paying particular attention to the gender digital divide.     

Assessing the effectiveness of rural credit policy on the adoption of integrated crop-livestock systems in Brazil

This study analyzes the effectiveness of rural credit policy to increase the adoption of ICLS. Analyzes are based on a survey with 175 farmers in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Our estimates suggest that rural credit has positive and relevant impacts on the adoption of ICLS. In turn, the adoption of these systems may also involve investments in fixed capital and increases in operational costs, which create additional demand for rural credit. Other factors, such as access to extension policy, production scale, ex-ante perceptions, and market infrastructure also explain ICLS adoption. The access to rural credit policy is also determined by dependence on farm income, farmer’s perception of transaction costs, and supply of credit in the municipality. The study finally discusses important implications for the devising of rural credit policies and the diffusion of sustainable production systems in developing countries.     

数字普惠金融对农村内部收入差距的影响研究——基于生计资源多元化视角的经验分析

目的 在推进农民农村共同富裕道路进程中,识别数字普惠金融缩小农村内部收入差距的作用,并从农户生计资源多元化配置视角探索其作用机制。方法 文章合并使用县域数字普惠金融指数和中国家庭追踪调查数据（CFPS）,构造衡量农户收入不平等程度的相对剥夺指数,采用面板Tobit模型考察数字普惠金融对农村内部收入差距的影响,采用中介效应模型从生计资源多元化配置视角考察其作用机制。结果 （1）数字普惠金融能够有效减缓农户的相对收入剥夺程度,进而缩小农村内部收入差距,数字普惠金融指数每上升1%,农户相对收入剥夺水平下降7.87%,通过一系列稳健性检验后该结果依然可信;（2）生计资源多元化是数字普惠金融缩小农村内部收入差距的重要作用机制,数字普惠金融缩差效应的11.85%可由该作用渠道来解释;（3）数字普惠金融对农村内部收入差距缩减效应也具有明显的异质性,男性户主和45岁以下户主的农户、非农就业占比高和兼业化程度大的农户获得的数字普惠金融缩差“红利”更大。结论 作为新型金融供给方式,政府应大力推进农村数字普惠金融发展,因地制宜实施农村数字金融政策,鼓励农户生计资源多元化配置,多渠道应对风险提高收入水平,进而缩小农村内部收入差距助推共同富裕。     

Understanding the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers: Evidence from land reform beneficiaries in South Africa

Climatic change has a negative impact on people’s livelihoods, agriculture, freshwater supply and other natural resources that are important for human survival. Therefore, understanding how rural smallholder farmers perceive climate change, climate variability, and factors that influence their choices would facilitate a better understanding of how these farmers adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. A Zero-inflated double hurdle model was employed to estimate the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of adaptation strategies and intensity of adoption at the household level in South Africa. Different socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, and experience in crop farming, institutional factors like access to extension services, and access to climate change information significantly influenced the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among beneficiaries of land reform in South Africa. Concerning intensity of adoption, age, educational level, farming experience, on-farm training, off-farm income, access to information through ICT and locational variables are the significant determinants of intensity of adaptation strategies. Thus, education attainment, non-farm employment, farming experience are significant incentives to enhance smallholder farmers' adaptive capacity through the adoption of many adaptation approaches. This study therefore concluded that farm-level policy efforts that aim to improve rural development should focus on farmers’ education, on-farm demonstration and non-farm employment opportunities that seek to engage the farmers, particularly during the off-cropping season. The income from non-farm employment can be plough-back into farm operations such as the adoption of soil and water conservation, use of improved planting varieties, insurance, among others to mitigate climate variability and subsequently increase productivity. Policies and investment strategies of the government should be geared towards supporting education, providing on-farm demonstration trainings, and disseminating information about climate change adaptation strategies, particularly for smallholder farmers in the country. Thus, the government, stakeholders, and donor agencies must provide capacity-building innovations around the agricultural extension system and education on climate change using information and communication technologies.     

Food Competition in World Markets: Some Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis of Top Exporting Countries

This paper investigates the relevance of relative prices and world income as determinants of food exports for the top trading countries in the period 1992–2012 using a panel data framework. We find that price elasticities generally take lower values for processed goods, and the opposite holds for income elasticities. Processed goods are also characterised by an inverse relationship between price elasticities and average unit values. The analysis suggests that both emerging and advanced countries can be expected to increase their export specialisation in processed goods. Furthermore, developed economies can face fierce competition from emerging countries by enhancing the quality content of their processed good exports.     

Adoption of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation as a water-saving technology in Bangladesh: Economic and environmental considerations

Managing scarce irrigation water poses a major challenge globally because of changing climate and a rising population. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is widely regarded as a water-saving irrigation technology capable of contributing to sustainable water-use. Existing literature lacks rigorous quantitative analysis of the determinants and effects of AWD adoption. In contrast, applying logit, propensity score matching and multiple regression models to survey data from two drought-prone and groundwater-depleted areas in Bangladesh, this study identifies determinants and effects of AWD adoption and explores policy implications. Age and education-level of household head, access to prior weather information, landownership, topography, and soil-type are found to be significant determinants of AWD adoption. AWD is found to be water-saving, irrigation cost-decreasing and crop yield-increasing. However, AWD adoption in Bangladesh is not widespread. Major policy implications include information dissemination about the use and benefit of AWD through farmers’ education and training for widespread adoption and diffusion of water-saving technologies. A rationally coordinated system of policy measures including significant strengthening of institutional support services, scientific research, rethinking of the cropping-mix and greater use of information technology constitute a sine qua non for achieving sustainable water management.     

Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries, yet yields in these countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields is the use of improved agricultural technologies, such as fertilizers, seeds, and cropping techniques. Public sector programs have attempted to overcome information‐related barriers to technological adoption by providing agricultural extension services. While such programs have been widely criticized for their limited scale, sustainability, and impact, the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage in developing countries provides a unique opportunity to facilitate technological adoption via information and communication technology (ICT)‐based extension programs. This article outlines the potential mechanisms through which ICT could facilitate agricultural adoption and the provision of extension services in developing countries. It then reviews existing programs using ICT for agriculture, categorized by the mechanism (voice, text, internet, and mobile money transfers) and the type of services provided. Finally, we identify potential constraints to such programs in terms of design and implementation, and conclude with some recommendations for implementing field‐based research on the impact of these programs on farmers’ knowledge, technological adoption, and welfare.     

Historical origins of persistent inequality in Nigeria

Horizontal inequality by ethnic group has remained remarkably persistent for wealth, education and access to certain public services in Nigeria. While there has been notable progress made towards improving access to, and reducing ethnic inequality in access to locally administered services like some sanitation services and potable water, outcomes are stickier for wealth, education and historically federally administered services like grid-based power access in the country. Populations in the Northwest and Northeast ethnic and geopolitical zones consistently report below national mean levels of wealth, education and electricity, while there have been significant gains made in closing the ethnic gap in access to water and sanitation over time. This paper explores different explanations for the patterns observed and puts forth the thesis that persistent ethnic inequality in access to federally administered services is partly driven by historical heterogeneous federal government policy towards different groups in Nigeria.     

Market access by smallholder farmers in Malawi: implications for technology adoption,agricultural productivity and crop income

In Malawi, maize is the major crop and food staple. Given limited off-farm employment opportunities, much-needed increases in household income for improving food security must come from gains in agricultural productivity through better technology and more profitable crops. In the past, hybrid maize and more recently, tobacco were promoted by policy for increasing smallholder income. An analysis of determinants of adoption of these two crops and related income effects is presented. Apart from factor endowment and exposure to agroecological risks, differences in the household's access to financial and commodity markets significantly influence its cropping shares and farm income.     

Industrial land price between China’s Pearl River Delta and Southeast Asian regions: Competition or Coopetition?

The planned economy system’s previous form of industrial land market control in China has led to current market failure because of a large amount of industrial land being sold at a very low price, causing extensive overuse of land and negative effects on land management. As the “World Factory”, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is well known for its rapid urbanization largely driven by Foreign Direct Investment in labor-intensive industries. A low-land price strategy has been commonly adopted by the local government in order to attract industrial investment. In the past decade, the PRD has increasingly faced the increasing competition from its neighboring competition from its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia that have established preference policies to attract FDI and foreign enterprises. Despite a growing body of literature on the internal forces of industrial land in China, little is known of the external forces involved except for the importance of FDI and the intensity of interregional competition between China and other countries in attempting to attract foreign investment. This research fills the knowledge gap by modeling the situation in the form of an international cooperative game model aimed at revealing the industrial land price formation mechanism between the PRD region and Southeast Asian regions. The conditions of industrial land in the area and several Southeast Asian countries are first analyzed for their industrial land price movements in recent years. A game theoretic model is then built that exhibits similar characteristics. The result indicates that the governments’ low land price strategy and the competition between the PRD and its neighboring countries have created unnecessarily high social and environmental costs. Policy suggestions are made to encourage a more appropriate use of industrial land in China, and the most important being the need for a mindset shift from competition towards coopetition between the PRD and Southeast Asian regions.     

Agricultural dynamics in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines

The introduction of new high-yielding varieties of cereals in the 1960s, known as the green revolution, dramatically changed the food supply in Asia, as well as in other countries. In the present paper we examine, over an extended period, the growth consequences for agriculture in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Despite geographical proximity, similar climate and other shared characteristics, gains in productivity and income differed significantly among the countries. We quantify these differences and examine their determinants. We find that the new technology changed the returns to fertilisers, irrigated land and capital, all of which proved scarce to varying degrees. Complementing technology-related changes in factor use were investments, public and private, driven in part by policy. We find that factor accumulation played an important role in output growth and that accumulations from policy driven investments in human capital and public infrastructure were important sources of productivity gains. We conclude that policies that ease constraints on factor markets and promote public investment in people and infrastructure provide the best opportunities for agricultural growth.     

Unconventional adjustment strategies for rural households in the less developed areas in Greece

International competition in agricultural production is intensifying following the implementation of the 1993 accord of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The production of conventional farm products in surplus is being discouraged by means of indirect economic disincentives. The Common Agricultural Policy has already adjusted to unprotected national markets within the European Union and greater market orientation is being achieved mainly through price reductions. Farmers in the less developed areas in Greece, where agricultural activity is still the main source of income and employment, have been responding to policy reforms by seeking part-time employment and income in non-farm enterprises. The adoption of alternative, unconventional farm enterprises that use farm resources in an innovative and quantitatively different way does have the potential for bringing in a new source of income to farm business. For the purpose of this research three adjustment strategies were recognised. The ‘conventional’ (no change) pathway is based on traditional, region-specific products, production methods and services. The adoption of the ‘new crop’ pathway refers to the redeployment of resources into new agricultural products, whereas farms on the market integration Pathway redeploy resources into new marketing services and agricultural product processing on the farm. The new crop and the market integration pathways are identified as unconventional adjustment strategies. Results derived from multinomial logit analysis highlight the major constraints and opportunities associated with the adoption of new crops and market integration practices. Farmers who have adopted unconventional practices are influenced by factors external to the farm. such as contacts with institutions, and have a high probability of having higher debts. These farmers are likely to depend heavily on seasonal labour and rented land. The fact that market integration activities are associated with smaller farms in conjunction with off-farm work signifies the importance of establishing an integrated rural development policy approach. Public policy involvement in enhancing dissemination of information concerning unconventional enterprises is emphasised.     

Analysis of export demand for Ghana's timber products: A multivariate co-integration approach

This study analyzed the factors that affect the export demand for Ghana's timber products. Export demand functions and error correction models for sawnwood, plywood, and veneer using data from 1961 to 2006 were estimated. Six categories of explanatory variables were hypothesized to determine export demand: world price of wood products, income of importing countries, Ghana's external debt, exchange rates, time-related variables, and policy changes (log export ban, reduction in annual allowable cut and the imposition of export levy on air-dried sawnwood). All variables except external debt were determined from augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root tests to be integrated of order one. The Johansen multivariate cointegration test showed that there was only one cointegration relationship in each timber product data. Exchange rates and income were significant determinants of exported timber products and had the theoretically expected positive signs. The three policy initiatives significantly reduced the exports of sawnwood, but increased the exports of plywood and veneer. Price was moderately elastic for sawnwood and plywood and had the expected negative signs in both cases, while it was positive and inelastic for veneer. The error-correction coefficients show that 68% of shocks to veneer exported is corrected in the following year, while only approximately 20% and 19% of this are corrected for sawnwood and plywood, respectively. Sawnwood and plywood face stiff competition in the international market and this has revenue and tax policy implications for Ghana's forestry sector. Policies that encourage domestic processing and restrictions on both legal and illegal harvesting would work to ensure greater value-added benefits to, and sustainable forest management in, Ghana.     

Market power and rents in global supply chains

Market power and competition policy in food supply chains has emerged as an important economic issue in economics, and a highly sensitive item on the policy agenda. Consolidation is taking place in the food industry, both in high‐income countries and in emerging economies, but the impact of concentration in global food chains on efficiency and rent distribution is more nuanced and complex than often claimed. We review the literature and extend it by developing a model which explicitly takes into account market imperfections and contract enforcement problems in supply chains. Increased competition benefits farms by improving contract conditions, but contract enforcement becomes more complicated.     

精准扶贫政策对城乡居民收入差距的影响研究——以山西省为例

[目的]实施精准扶贫政策以来,我国共减少贫困人口6 853万人。在脱贫攻坚取得重大进展的背景下,对比政策实施前后城乡居民收入的变化,对于揭示精准扶贫政策的作用具有重要意义。[方法]以贫困范围广、贫困程度深的山西省为对象,基于2010—2017年精准扶贫政策实施前后的统计数据,采用双重差分模型研究不同贫困程度县(区)城乡居民收入差距变化。[结果]精准扶贫政策的效果主要为:贫困县的城乡居民收入差距缩小幅度约为非贫困县的3倍,而其中国家级贫困县的收入差距缩小幅度约为省级贫困县的2倍;共同趋势检验和安慰剂检验的结果验证了模型的稳健性。对比采用最小二乘法(OLS)得到的精准扶贫政策效果,揭示出如果忽略城乡居民收入差距随时间的变化,则会高估精准扶贫政策效果约1.5～4倍,再次证明模型的有效性。通过引入控制变量探讨政策以外的其他影响因素,发现城镇化水平、经济发展水平、第三产业占比、人均农业产值有助于缩小城乡居民收入差距,人均土地状况会扩大城乡居民收入差距,固定资产投资和消费水平的影响不显著。[结论]精准扶贫政策对于缩小城乡居民收入差距具有显著效果,且对深度贫困地区的影响更明显。     

Electoral Experience,Institutional Quality and Economic Development in Latin America

In a panel of 18 Latin American countries from 1900 to 2007, we test the degree to which institutions and geography affect country income. Using a new instrument, we find strong evidence that both institutions and geography are important determinants of country income. However, the penalty for economically unfavourable geography is much smaller than the potential benefits from good institutions. The coefficient estimates do not vary significantly when there are changes in the number of countries included in the analysis; the results for institutions are robust to the inclusion of country-fixed effects.     

ECONOMIC REDIRECTIONS IN RECENT U.S. AGRICULTURAL POLICY

Decisions of governments around the world concerning their agriculturul sectors have taken on increasingly an international dimension. The United Kingdom with its unique economic character has shared historically a mutual concern with major agricultural countries about their policies. This study analyses recent developments in U.S. agricultural price and income policy and programmes. Though some version of these policies has prevailed in the U.S. for almost forty years, distinct redirections have appeared in the current decade following a major policy crisis in the late 1950's. The new voluntary land retirement and compensatory payment approach is characterised, its economic rationale examined, and some of its probable economic consequences are measured. There has been a shift away from a high price support and from attempts at a compulsory production control programme. Many of the problems have been eliminated or mitigated, but both remaining and newly created difficulties still plague the policy scene.     

媒介在消除知识沟中扮演的角色:三地区农村儿童的媒介使用、人际交谈与知识水平

近年来,中国农村居民可支配收入显著提高;然而,中国农村教育面临严重的资源紧缺问题,限制了儿童的知识获取。本研究的核心问题是:在城乡差异、地区差异的复杂情况下,报纸、电视、电脑、手机等媒介能否显著提升农村儿童的知识水平,并最终消除不同家庭条件儿童之间的知识沟?本研究以知识沟理论为框架,调查了浙、赣、黔三地的935名农村儿童,通过建立OLS回归模型和混合效应模型,探讨了农村儿童的媒介使用、人际交谈和地区差异对知识沟的影响。研究发现,不同家庭社会经济地位的农村儿童之间确实存在知识沟;不同地区农村儿童的知识水平和知识沟存在显著差异;电视和电脑不显著地扩大了知识沟,报纸和手机不显著地缩小了知识沟,人际交谈对知识沟没有显著影响。实质上,报纸和手机更可能是知识沟消除过程中的“知识提供者”,而非直接推动者;作为“知识提供者”的报纸和手机确实难以减弱“绝对知识沟”,但可以有效地缩小“相对知识沟”,缓和社会矛盾。