ICT-based market information and adoption of agricultural seed technologies: Insights from Uganda

Access to ICT-based market information is crucial to the adoption of agricultural seed technologies for maize, beans and groundnut and to improve smallholder farmer yields and income. This ICT-based market information is provided by FM radio stations and by market information centers through media such as mobile phones and internet facilities, etc. Factors that positively affect the probability of access to ICT-based market information include access to microfinance loans, membership in a farmer association, government awareness campaigns, and wealth. Distance to the trading centers or district capital negatively affects this access. The likelihood of access to ICT-based market information declines with female-headed households. Access to market information has a positive and significant impact on the intensity of adopting improved seed for all crops. Adoption of improved seed has a positive and significant effect on farm yields and gross farm returns. This research shows that in order to generate meaningful improvements in food security and farm incomes, there must be commensurate efforts to promote ICT-based market information along with yield-augmenting agricultural seed technologies.     

Household Financial Savings Mobilisation: Empirical Evidence from Uganda

Panel data are used to examine household savings behaviour inUganda and the part that is played by formal financial institutionsin mobilising those savings. We show that the probability ahousehold will acquire a deposit instrument from a financialinstitution increases significantly for both rural and urbanhouseholds with improvements in several factors. Those factorsinclude the level of information that is made available to thehousehold, the degree of household access to the financial institution,the level of education of the head of household and the densityof financial institutions in the area where the household islocated. Among those households that report holding bank savingsdeposits, the level of net deposits is positively influencedby increases in the availability of credit facilities, lowertransaction costs (as reflected by the quality of financialservices provided by the institution) and higher permanent income.Relatively higher real rates of return on physical assets andhigher transaction costs (due to reduced accessibility) bothhave significant negative effects on the level of net depositsheld by households.     

Drivers of sustainable intensification in Kenyan rural and peri-urban vegetable production

Sustainable intensification promotes environmentally sound and productive agriculture. However, use of sustainable intensification practices (SIPs) is low in many sub-Sharan African countries. This study examined the adoption of SIPs in Kenyan rural and peri-urban vegetable production to understand the scale of and underlying factors in the use of SIPs. A multistage sampling technique was employed to randomly select 685 rural and peri-urban vegetable farm households. Household data was then collected and anaylsed for four practices namely improved irrigation, integrated soil fertility, organic manure and crop diversification using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. A multivariate probit model was run to model simultaneous interdependent adoption decisions. Adoption of organic manure and African indigenous vegetables (AIV) diversification was high in both rural and peri-urban areas. However, adoption of improved irrigation systems and integrated soil fertility management was low, and even significantly lower in rural areas than in peri-urban areas (p?相似文献