Off‐farm work,land tenancy contracts and investment in soil conservation measures in rural Pakistan

This study examines the impacts of participation in off‐farm work and land tenancy contracts on the intensity of investment in soil‐improving measures and farm productivity. A multivariate Tobit model that accounts for potential endogeneity between the intensity of investment and the off‐farm work and tenancy contract variables is estimated for 341 rural households in Punjab province of Pakistan. An instrumental variable approach is also used to analyse the impact of tenancy contract and off‐farm work on farm productivity. The empirical results show that participation in off‐farm work and tenure security tends to increase the intensity of investment in long‐term soil‐improving measures. We also find that increases in off‐farm work and tenure security exert significant and positive effects on farm productivity.     

Measuring Heterogeneous Preferences for Cattle Traits among Cattle-Keeping Households in East Africa

This study employs mixed logit and latent class models to examine preferences for cattle traits with a focus on heterogeneity among cattle keepers, using choice experiment data of 506 cattle-keeping households in Kenya and Ethiopia. The findings indicate the existence of preference heterogeneity based on cattle production systems. Highly valued cattle traits for the cropping systems include traction fitness and trypanotolerance, while traits associated with herd increase are considered important in pastoral systems. Considering heterogeneity within population segments provides a framework for adapting breeding policy interventions to specific producer segments, by integrating preferred traits in a breed improvement program.     

Allocative and scale efficiency among maize farmers in Zambia: a zero efficiency stochastic frontier approach

The commonly used stochastic frontier model assumes that all firms are inefficient. In this specification, inefficiency is non-negative, and the probability of inefficiency being exactly zero is also zero. To the extent that efficiency varies widely across farms in under-developed economies, it is important to employ techniques that account for both inefficiency and full efficiency to ensure unbiased efficiency estimates. In this study, we employ a zero-inefficiency stochastic frontier model to examine allocative efficiency and scale economies, as well as key determinants of efficiency among Zambian maize farmers. The results show that, unlike the stochastic frontier model, the zero-inefficiency stochastic frontier model successfully allows for both fully efficient and inefficient firms to be accounted for in the estimation procedure. The estimates also reveal the presence of scale economies, with the zero-inefficiency stochastic frontier model better predicting scale efficiency compared to the stochastic frontier model. The findings also show that inefficiency is explained by the level of education, access to extension services, distance to markets and access to credit.     

Land tenure differences and investment in land improvement measures: Theoretical and empirical analyses

This article develops a theoretical framework to examine the relationship between land tenure arrangements and households' investment in soil-improving and conservation measures. It then analyzes this relationship with a multivariate probit model based on detailed plot-level data from villages in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. A major hypothesis tested is that investment in productivity-enhancing and conservation techniques are influenced by land tenure arrangements. The theoretical analysis and empirical results generally reveal that land tenure differences significantly influence farmers' decisions to invest in land-improving and conservation measures. The findings also show that tenure security does affect farm productivity.     

Adoption of safer irrigation technologies and cropping patterns: Evidence from Southern Ghana

The new irrigation technologies introduced in sub-Saharan Africa aim at ensuring safer vegetable production when untreated waste water is used as irrigation water. This paper examines the adoption of safer irrigation technologies and crop choices among vegetable farmers, using cross-section data from urban Kumasi in Ghana. The study employed a two-stage conditional maximum likelihood approach to examine the impact of crop choices and farm-level characteristics on the adoption of safer irrigation technologies. The empirical results indicate that apart from household and farm characteristics such as access to extension agents, belonging to a farmer's organization and education, cropping patterns tend to influence adoption of irrigation technologies for safer vegetable production.     

Non-farm work and food security among farm households in Northern Ghana

This paper examines the impact of non-farm work on household income and food security among farm households in the Northern Region of Ghana. We analyze the impact by employing propensity score matching method that accounts for self-selection bias. The matching results show that participation in non-farm work exerts a positive and statistically significant effect on household income and food security status, supporting the widely held view that income from non-farm work is crucial to food security and poverty alleviation in rural areas of developing countries.     

Credit card ownership and usage behaviour in Saudi Arabia: The impact of demographics and attitudes toward debt

Because of the Islamic prohibition of interest, in Saudi Arabia, there has long been a debate about the acceptability of owning and using credit cards. Available industry statistics, however, suggest that card ownership and usage may be on the rise. In this study, we empirically examine the extent and nature of credit card ownership and usage in the country, and how these are impacted by consumer demographics and attitudes toward debt. Using data from a structured survey, we find inter alia that credit card penetration in the country is relatively low, female Saudis are more likely than males to own the cards, card usage tends to be selective, attitude toward debt is a significant determinant of card ownership but not usage behaviour, and evaluation of card attributes is fairly positive among cardholders. Theoretical, managerial, and public policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Agriculture's Contribution to Overall Economic Growth: An Application of Kaldor's First Growth Law to Ghana

Abstract: This paper makes use of Kaldor's first growth law to investigate the growth linkages between agriculture and the entire economy, as well as the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in Ghana. Annual growth rates data used in the analysis to examine the significance of agricultural growth to overall economic growth indicate that growth in the agricultural sector is quite essential for general economic growth. Two-Stage Least Square analysis employed to handle the issue of interdependence between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors also reveal that the magnitude of the growth linkages between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors is quite significant. Résumé: le document utilise la première loi de la croissance de Kaldor pour explorer, dans le cas du Ghana, les liens de croissance qui existent entre l'agriculture et l'économic tout entière, et entre le secteur agricole et les autres secteurs. Les données de croissance annuelle utilisées dans l'analyse pour examiner l'importance de la croissance agricole pour la croissance économique globale, font ressortir que la croissancc du sectcur agricole est une condition essentielle de la croissancééconomique générale. La méthode des moindres carrés en deux étapes, à laquelle l'auteur recourt pour traiter la question de l'interdépendance entre le sectcur agricole et les sectcurs non agricoles, révèle également la forte corrélation entre la croissance du secteur agricolc et celle des secteurs non agricoles.     

Efficiency Effects of Access to Information on Small‐scale Agriculture: Empirical Evidence from Uganda using Stochastic Frontier and IRT Models

Low power home electrical items such as radios, mobile phones and televisions are an important source of agricultural information for small‐scale farmers in developing countries. To empirically test the effects of access to information from these items on efficiency in agriculture, we formulate a stochastic frontier model augmented with a technical efficiency model that controls for an index capturing farmers' ‘ability to access information’. The index is constructed with a 2‐parameter item response theory (IRT) model based on farmers' access to the electrical items. Using six rounds of panel data on small‐scale farmers in Uganda, we find empirical evidence of a significant and positive relationship between farmer ability to access information and farm efficiency. There is also evidence that the size of these effects is larger for more literate hence better educated farmers. Greater access to information also appears to be associated with increased variance of (in)efficiency and output although the form of the increased variances is underpinned by low risk of lower efficiency and output realisations and high likelihood of higher efficiency and output realisations. Our findings imply that access to limited quantities of electricity needed to power these electrical items can have positive farm efficiency effects, and hence the importance of off‐grid electricity (e.g. standalone solar panels) for small‐scale farmers in typically isolated communities in developing countries.