ABSTRACT Rice has become a staple food, just like yam, garri and beans. As a result, the marketing of rice has become very important due to increasing demand of the product. The study examined the economics of farm-gate rice marketing in Enugu State, Nigeria. Five objectives and one hypothesis guided the study. The study covered all the communities in the local government areas in the three Agricultural Zones that produce rice in the study area. The population of the study consisted of rice ...
Despite the pertinence of Agriculture to the economy, its potential has not been realized. To address this shortfall, research and training institutions have designed and generated knowledge and technologies. However, the innovations generated have hardly reached the end users. In response, Egerton University established Farm Attachment Programme (FAP) to innovatively engage small-scale farmers in 2014. Despite FAP being in operation since 2014, little is known about its effectiveness an...
ABSTRACT Nature provides ecosystem services (ESs) which benefit humans for socio-economic development. However, ecosystems degradation has impacted negatively on people’s livelihood leading to increasing global concern to rethink on sustainable conservation-livelihood mechanisms. Lake Naivasha basin has been undergoing ecosystem degradation threatening ecological functional capacity to provide ESs. As a result, it has increased food insecurity, poverty levels, decreased income and destabili...
ABSTRACT Market access is a major constraint facing agricultural commercialization in Kenya. The pressure on arable land and market changes are mainly felt by the smallholder farmers who are faced with high transaction costs such as information access and transport costs. In addition, these farmers face a number of institutional and technical factors putting their market survival at stake. To curb these challenges, formation of farmer groups and organizations has become important in bringing ...
Smallholder farmers in Southern Mali mainly in the cotton production zone are facing decreasing income over time. This constraint makes producers resort to alternative sources of income to supplement agricultural activities to sustain and secure their livelihoods situation. However, the diversified crops and having multiple sources of agricultural income constitute the significant opportunity for smallholder farmers to ensure food security and reduce over dependency on income from cotton...
Developing countries, Kenya included are mostly affected by food problems and poverty as a result of high dependence on agriculture. Agriculture in Kenya is dominated by smallholder farmers, whose production is hampered by climate variability, declining land sizes and low agricultural technologies. Agricultural intensification is aimed at solving the problem of low agricultural productivity and poverty through increasing farm output per unit land area. However it is still not clear the e...
ABSTRACT Food security is a major concern of the world, especially among the poor in developing countries. Pulses, including dry beans, play a crucial role in ensuring food security, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where over 200 million people depend on beans as part of their main diet. In Rwanda, dry beans are an important staple food and constitute the primary source of protein for about 90% of Rwandan households. Unfortunately, dry beans are a slow-cooking food, requiring a lot of time...
ABSTRACT Botswana is classified as an upper middle income country and despite having attained such economic growth, the country still faces socio-economic challenges such as poverty. The current poverty rate is 20.7% while rural poverty is 24.7% which is relatively higher for an upper middle income country. In order to address this problem, the government introduced the Poverty Eradication Programme. This study therefore, sought to assess the income, expenditure and consumption dimensions of ...
ABSTRACT The agriculture sector supports the livelihoods of the majority of the population in Rwanda. Currently, the sector is dominated by smallholder farmers most of whom are women. In order to modernize and transform agriculture to market orientation, the government has put in place agriculture sector development programs for instance the Crop Intensification Program. One of the targeted crops in the program is the common bean. Nearly all households in Rwanda produce the common bean. Thoug...
Agricultural production plays an important role in food security in many African countries. The main challenge of policy makers in these countries is how to attain food self sufficiency, and increased farm productivity and incomes. In Kenya, greenhouse production is among technologies promoted to improve farm output and income among smallholder farmers. Greenhouse production technology in Kenya has, until recently, been the confine of large scale export-oriented flower farmers. The techn...
Since 1931, Rift Valley fever (RVF) epidemics have recurred in Kenya at an average inter epidemic period of up to 10 years. The most recent epidemic occurred in 2006/2007. It resulted in losses. Estimated as KES 2.1 Billion. A post epidemic assessment recommended adoption of One Health (OH) approach to RVF management as well as implementation of livestock control strategies that offer highest benefits to both the livestock and public health sectors. Evidence to guide such decisions was i...
ABSTRACT Climate change exacerbates the already daunting challenge facing the agricultural sector, and this is particularly the case in developing countries. There are roughly 800 million food insecure people in the world today, each having this status because food is unavailable, unaffordable or they are too unhealthy to make use of it or some combination of the three. Innovations in agriculture will even be more vital in the context of climate change as they allow farmers to adapt efficient...
ABSTRACT The study investigated the economics of catfish (Clarias gariepinus) production in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The broad objective of the study was to examine the economics of Catfish production in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: (i) describe the socioeconomic characteristics of catfish farming; (ii) determine the technical efficiency of catfish farming; (iii) identify factors that influence technical efficiency of catfish farming; (iv) analyze the costs and ret...
ABSTRACT Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has been encouraging adoption of sustainable tea production, through FFS and RA certification, among small-scale tea producers west of Kenya‘s Rift Valley since 2006 and 2010 respectively. FFS was a methodology of choice because of its experiential and practical learning approach. Those organisations that had used FFS approach had reported it to be successful, whereas RA certification guarantees sustainable use of agricultural and forestry resour...
ABSTRACT In rural areas particularly arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), smallholder farmers produce mainly under subsistence system due to poor access of market. Farmers in ASALs particularly in Laikipia County depend on horticultural crop production for their livelihood and as a major source of income and rural employment. The purpose of the study was to determine factors influencing choice of market facilitators and their impact on smallholder horticultural farmers’ livelihood. Primary dat...