The scientific case for system of rice intensification and its relevance for sustainable crop intensification

Over the past decade, considerable empirical evidence regarding the relevance of the system of rice intensification (SRI) to pro-poor development has become available. However, concrete leads into the potential of SRI and its scientific foundations have not been adequately pursued. Instead, a few individuals, with very limited funding, have taken on the task to validate and provide a scientific basis for SRI, an approach that has been spreading at an increasing pace, particularly among smallholder farmers in India. This paper reviews the information currently available that provides the scientific, agronomic and plant physiological foundations of SRI and explores its significance for the wider future orientations of agricultural research and development in general.     

Impact of training on the intensification of rice farming: evidence from rainfed areas in Tanzania

Agricultural development is indispensable for poverty reduction and food security in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). This study investigates the impact of rice production training in a modified version of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) on the performance of small‐scale rice farmers in a rainfed area of Tanzania. Utilizing the plot level variation, we employ propensity score matching (PSM) to assess the impact of training on technology adoption, productivity, and profitability. We also estimate a difference‐in‐differences model with plot fixed effects using recall panel data covering the periods before and after training. We found that trainees achieved an average paddy yield of 4.7 tons per hectare and rice profit of 191.5 USD per hectare on the plots where new technologies were adopted, which is higher by about 1.3–1.8 tons and 119–137 USD per hectare than on the other plots. Our study suggests the high potential of transforming favorable rainfed rice growing areas in SSA so as to achieve a rice Green Revolution through training in modern input use and improved agronomic practices.     

Formal and informal contract farming in Mozambique: Socially embedded relations of agricultural intensification

This paper explores the role of contract farming arrangements in agricultural intensification in sub-Saharan Africa, combining secondary literature and original case material from Mozambique. The paper extends the scope of “contract farming” beyond the formal contracts between large companies and small-scale producers to include less formal credit agreements between farmers and traders. It argues that such informal contract arrangements are evidence of farmers' agency in “real markets.” In the studied cases, farmers use contract farming opportunities to intensify agricultural production by investing in irrigation and inputs. While informal contracts typically concern locally consumed crops, thus with more possibilities for side selling than formal contracts for export crops with company-controlled markets, informal contract compliance reflects closely knit social ties between the contracting parties. In both formal and informal contracts, purchasers tend to seek out producers who are already irrigating, thus obtaining gains from farmers' earlier investments. This also implies contract farming as a mechanism for accelerating social differentiation arising from unequal access to irrigation. The paper argues that the significance of informal contracts in the studied cases raises the possibility that informal contract farming by local traders plays a more important role in agrarian transformation in Africa than formal contract farming by large companies.     

The political ecology of rice intensification in south India: Putting SRI in its places

The system of rice intensification (SRI) has been promoted across Asia as a means to improve rice yields while decreasing water use and external inputs. It is argued to be a generalisable means by which to revalidate smallholder livelihoods and improve food security across the region. Current debates about SRI, however, remain predominantly technical in scope, focusing on field‐level outcomes. To more adequately understand the potential of SRI for smallholder farmers, we argue that it is necessary to situate SRI within a political ecology framework that addresses how the adoption and practice of SRI is shaped by uneven access to key assets including labour, water, and extension networks. Fieldwork conducted in Mahabubnagar district in Telangana, south India—where SRI had been widely disadopted despite the achievement of higher yields—is used to illustrate why agronomic analysis must engage directly with the complex social contexts in which farmers operate.     

Contractual Practice and Land Conflicts: The ‘Plant & Share’ Arrangement in Côte d'Ivoire

This paper tackles the broad issue of agrarian contracts, property rights and conflicts in the context of rural Côte d'Ivoire. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a new type of contractual arrangement has been developing rapidly: the ‘Plant & Share’ contract. Through such a contract, a landowner provides the land to a farmer who develops a perennial tree crop plantation; when production starts, the plantation, the plantation and the land, or the product is shared. The aim of the paper is to discuss the conflictive features of the arrangement. I argue that this contract, in spite of its potential for tensions and conflicts, constitutes an alternative to the much more conflictive land sales that currently dominate extra‐familial land transfers in the country.     

Gender differentials in farming efficiency and profits: The case of rice production in the Philippines

Women make essential contributions to the agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries. Rural women are involved in a variety of production and farm management activities. In the Philippines women engage more intensively in agricultural work than men. However, Filipino women’s actual contribution to food production and the rural economy remains undervalued, if not invisible. Using the average treatment effect and farm-level data from the Philippines, this study investigates the effect of gender on farming efficiency, profits, and costs of rice production. Results indicate that female-headed farm households, despite having limited access to land, have higher values of rice production than their male counterparts. However, female-headed households have higher fixed, seed and labor input costs, consequently earning lower profits. In addition, female-headed farm households have lower irrigation costs. Findings from this study also indicate that women are less efficient in farming, but are more likely to adopt improved seed varieties.     

The role of knowledge,attitudes and perceptions in the uptake of agricultural and agroforestry innovations among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

Despite the great potential of agricultural innovations, the uptake by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa seems to be slow. We reviewed existing theories and frameworks for the uptake of agricultural innovations and found that these tend to emphasize the role of extrinsic factors such as the characteristics of the adopter and the external environment in the decision-making process. In this paper, we argue that intrinsic factors such as the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of the potential adopter towards the innovation play a key role, but this has been less studied. We present an analytical framework that combines both extrinsic and intrinsic factors in farmers' decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies and apply the framework to agroforestry adoption as a case study. We review the literature on agroforestry adoption in sub-Saharan Africa and identify the extrinsic and intrinsic variables affecting the uptake of agroforestry technologies. We conclude that the uptake of agricultural technologies is a complex process influenced by both extrinsic and intrinsic variables, and recommend that future studies aiming to understand the adoption process of agricultural innovations take into account both sets of variables. A mechanistic understanding of how intrinsic and extrinsic factors interact and drive adoption can help in targeting technologies appropriately to ensure sustainability.     

Scaling and institutionalization within agricultural innovation systems: the case of cocoa farmer field schools in Cameroon

The farmer field school (FFS) concept has been widely adopted, and such schools have the reputation of strengthening farmers’ capacity to innovate. Although their impact has been studied widely, what is involved in their scaling and in their becoming an integral part of agricultural innovation systems has been studied much less. In the case of the Sustainable Tree Crops Programme in Cameroon, we investigate how a public–private partnership (PPP) did not lead to satisfactory widespread scaling in the cocoa innovation system. We build a detailed understanding of the key dimensions and dynamics involved and the wider lessons that might be learned regarding complex scaling processes in the context of agricultural innovation systems. Original interview data and document analysis inform the case study. A specific analytical approach was used to structure the broad-based exploration of the qualitative dataset. We conclude that scaling and institutionalization outcomes were impeded by: the lack of an adaptive approach to scaling the FFS curriculum, limited investments and genuine buy-in by extension actors, a failure to adapt the management approach between the pilot and the scaling phase, and the lack of strategic competencies to guide the process. Our findings support suggestions from recent literature that pilots need to be translated and adapted in light of specific contextual and institutional conditions, rather than approached as a linear rolling-out process. These findings are relevant for the further spread of similar approaches commonly involved in multi-stakeholder scaling processes such as innovation platforms.     

Introduction to the special issue on the role of nonfarm income in poverty reduction: evidence from Asia and East Africa

In this special issue, we present seven studies that collectively attempt to investigate the role of non‐farm income in long‐term and short‐term poverty reduction in Asia and Africa. The first four studies out of the seven use long‐term panel data over two decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. These studies show drastic increases in non‐farm income shares and corresponding declines in poverty levels over time, especially in the Philippines and Thailand. Education levels of household members and returns to education also increased significantly in these countries. The remaining three studies use cross‐sectional and short‐term panel data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. These African studies show high proportions of poor households and low shares of non‐farm income that are somewhat comparable to the situation in the 1980s described in the Asian studies. Without the Green Revolution that provided stable farm income and potential financial resources to invest in children' education in Asia, it is not clear if African farm households can follow the Asian examples.     

Impact of land fragmentation and resource ownership on productivity and efficiency: The case of rice producers in Bangladesh

The paper analyzes the impact of land fragmentation and ownership of resources on productivity and technical efficiency in rice production in Bangladesh using farm level survey data. Results reveal that land fragmentation has a significant detrimental effect on productivity and efficiency as expected. The elasticity estimates of land fragmentation reveal that a 1% increase in land fragmentation reduces rice output by 0.05% and efficiency by 0.03%. On the other hand, ownership of key resources (land, family labour, and draft animals) significantly increases efficiency. The mean elasticity estimates reveal that a 1% increase in family labour and owned draft animal improve technical efficiency by 0.04% and 0.03%, respectively. Also, a 1% increase in the adoption of modern technology improves efficiency by 0.04%. The mean technical efficiency in rice production is estimated at 0.91 indicating little scope to improve rice production per se using existing varieties. Policy implications include addressing structural causes of land fragmentation (e.g., law of inheritance and political economy of agrarian structure), building of physical capital (e.g., land and livestock resources), improvements in extension services and adoption of modern rice technology.     

The effects of agricultural policy on supply and productivity: Evidence from differential changes in distortions

Incentives in agriculture are highly distorted. It has long been argued that these distortions were a key explanation for differences in supply and productivity across countries, but the empirical evidence is limited. We revisit this issue using data on policy distortions across 63 countries for the period 1961–2011. We estimate the effects of differential changes in agricultural distortions across countries on supply and productivity. We highlight concerns in our analysis and previous work about endogeneity that biases the estimated effect downward—countries that lose comparative advantage are likely to increase support for agriculture. We address these concerns by including country and region-time fixed effects, along with a rich set of controls. Overall, we find evidence that enhanced incentives through policy changes can increase the rate of production growth, with about half of the increase due to productivity increases. This result is strongest in Sub-Saharan Africa where anti-agricultural policies on exports were reduced and in Europe where pro-agricultural policies on imports were reduced, driven largely by external pressure. Endogeneity appears to be strongest in Asia where countries have followed the typical pattern of raising support for agriculture during industrialization due to a rising farm-urban income gap.     

Assessing the potential of SRI management principles and the FFS approach in Northeast Thailand for sustainable rice intensification in the context of climate change

The paper describes the facilitated learning process of farmers, its results and implications in addressing the low productivity of Jasmine rice in northeast Thailand using the SRI-FFS approach in a collaborative action research. Other involved included rice traders, millers, researchers, government and non-governmental organizations. Working through an inclusive process of dialogue, observation, diagnosis, experimentation and exposure to different types of innovative agronomic crop management (IACM) practices resulting from the SRI–FFS approach, participants made a thorough analysis of the current management practices and evaluated various IACM practices for their productivity and profitability. The results confirmed the potential of IACM in enhancing crop and water productivity along with soil fertility with relatively low input-use (seed, water and fertilizers) and higher net farm-income compared to existing crop management practices. However, factors such as (i) the age of the farmers and (ii) off-farm employment opportunity are key drivers that affect the crop management decision-making process. Therefore, exploration of value-added production alternatives and favourable policies is required to sustain IACM that can benefit farmers, consumers and the environment. The participation of policy-makers at the action research continuum is essential for effective follow up, scaling up and sustainability of such environmentally sound practices.     

Neoliberalism and the revival of agricultural cooperatives: The case of the coffee sector in Uganda

Agricultural cooperatives have seen a comeback in sub‐Saharan Africa. After the collapse of many weakly performing monopolist organizations during the 1980s and 1990s, strengthened cooperatives have emerged since the 2000s. Scholarly knowledge about the state–cooperative relations in which this “revival” takes place remains poor. Based on new evidence from Uganda's coffee sector, this paper discusses the political economy of Africa's cooperative revival. The authors argue that donors' and African governments' renewed support is framed in largely apolitical terms, which obscures the contested political and economic nature of the revival. In the context of neoliberal restructuring processes, state and non‐state institutional support to democratic economic organizations with substantial redistributional agendas remains insufficient. The political–economic context in Uganda—and potentially elsewhere in Africa—contributes to poor terms of trade for agricultural cooperatives while maintaining significant state control over some cooperative activities to protect the status quo interests of big capital and state elites. These conditions are unlikely to produce a conflict‐free, substantial, and sustained revival of cooperatives, which the new promoters of cooperatives suggest is under way.     

Agricultural sustainability of fadama farming systems in northern Nigeria: the case of Karshi and Baddeggi

Nigeria is endowed with underground and surface water reserves, rich pastures and favourable agroecological conditions in the country's low-lying plains with alluvial deposits, popularly referred to as fadama lands. The 3,000,000ha of fertile soils with residual moisture offer attractive opportunities for the arable farmers to grow both season and off-season high-value crops. The potential and importance of fadama agriculture for food production and economic development is crucial, given rising food prices, climatic changes, environmental risks associated with ‘modern’ agriculture, modelled farming systems and population growth. Fadama areas are therefore of critical importance to the survival and economic development of millions of rural dwellers. This research surveys and analyses the sustainability of fadama farming systems in semi-arid northern Nigeria. Findings reveal a delicate interaction and negotiation across the formal and informal boundaries where traditional agricultural practices, based on an understanding of the particular physical reality and exploitation of natural synergies, are combined with inputs typical of conventional agriculture. African agriculture thus stands poised at a crossroads: whether to abandon tradition in favour of entirely ‘modern’ methods and export markets as often advocated in certain circles or to depend on time-tested indigenous knowledge systems and grassroots-defined development vision which combines popular livelihoods with respect for nature's systems.     

The right place to grow rice for the Japanese market: comparative analysis of greenhouse gas emissions of rice cultivation in Japan and the United States

One consequence of increasing agricultural trade is a shift of geographic location of agricultural activity to more economically productive countries. Whether or not the economic efficiency translates to environmental efficiency for agricultural goods is an open question. To examine environmental implications of shifting agricultural location, we analysed the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of rice production in Japan and the US for the Japanese market in a comparative manner. This paper presents the life-cycle assessment of brown japonica rice. Our computation of GHG emissions of rice production in Japan and the US were 3.54 and 2.99?kgCO₂-eq kg-rice^?1, respectively. With respect to harvested area, the emissions were 18.4 in Japan and 27.8?tCO₂-eq ha^?1 in the US. For Japan to be environmentally competitive with the US production, fundamental restructuration of field size is necessary to increase yield. In conclusion, economic efficiency does not translate to environmental efficiency with the case of rice production. Importing rice is both economically and environmentally viable option for the Japanese market.     

Trade liberalisation and greenhouse gas emissions: the case of dairying in the European Union and New Zealand*

The link between trade and the environment has aroused considerable interest both in terms of the impact of trade liberalisation on the environment, and also the impact of environmental policy on production and trade. Of key environmental concern at present is global warming and its association with greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture is a sector of the economy that both contributes to, and will be affected by, climate change. This paper models the impact of agricultural trade liberalisation on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture around the world, focusing particularly on the effects on New Zealand, a small economy highly dependent on agricultural trade. A partial equilibrium agricultural multicountry, multicommodity trade model is used for the analysis, extended to include physical production systems and their greenhouse gas emissions. Two simulations are performed: removal of agricultural policies in the EU and in all OECD countries. The results indicate that although producer returns in New Zealand increase, greenhouse gas emissions also increase significantly. EU producers face lower returns but also lower greenhouse gas emissions.     

Labour Migration and Gendered Agricultural Relations: The Feminization of Agriculture in the Ejidal Sector of Calakmul,Mexico

We examine the nature of the ‘feminization of agriculture’ in the semi‐subsistence, peasant production sector of southeastern Mexico, as associated with male labour out‐migration. Presenting findings from empirical work with smallholder producers, we discuss the impact of men's migration to the United States on women's participation in agriculture and gendered relations of agricultural production. In 2007, we conducted a survey of 155 semi‐subsistence, smallholder households in six ejidos. This survey was supplemented by ethnographic research in a single ejido. Our findings demonstrate the need to distinguish between farm labour and management in this sector, and the potentially significant (but focused) changes in the local relations of agricultural production wrought by gendered patterns of labour migration – specifically in tenure, land‐use decision‐making and the management of hired labour.