This study summarises the findings from a study investigating rural small-holding farmers’experiences on the shift from food crop to cashew in the forest/savanna transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana and its imp...This study summarises the findings from a study investigating rural small-holding farmers’experiences on the shift from food crop to cashew in the forest/savanna transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana and its impact on rural food security.Using a mix method approach,the study sampled the views of 400 farmers from 9 farming communities in the Wenchi Municipality of Ghana via questionnaire and semi-structured interview and collated statistical data on crop production to trace the nexus between climate change,agrarian land-use decisions and food security.The study found evidence of increasing shift from food crop to cashew production.This was evidenced by increasing cashew cultivation and cashew output and decreasing total land acreage for food crops and increasing food insecurity of farmers.The findings revealed that about 71%of farmers had expanded their cashew farms and another 41.0%have turned their food crops’lands to cashew production.Besides cashew production,(57.0%)has overtaken the traditional food crop-maize(25.5%)production in terms of output.Instructively,the study found that the main motivation for the shift from food crop to cashew production is not only to maximise income in bulk,but also climate change adaptability issues.The study found that the cashew crop is resilient in adapting to the changing climate and less prone to pests’invasion compared to maize in the study District.The study found that food security among rural folks had been seriously compromised by the conversion of farmlands from food crop to cashew farming.Although,the study found that female farmers have higher consciousness to food security yet less motivated to shift from food crop to cashew crop production compared to men.Worryingly,females are the hardest hit group because of their low ownership of or access to farmlands and low voices of women in farmland use decision making in a men-dominant rural extended family setting of the study District.The study concludes that climate change adaptability concern has introduced a new set of risks including crop failure due to changing rainfall pattern and increasing incidence of pest invasions forcing the rural folks to compromise innovative indigenous farming focus and practices that have helped them to navigate extreme food poverty.This study,therefore,argues for improved food crop seeds tailored to the specific climatic context and innovative farming practices that beef-up small-holding farmers’capacity to navigate climate change to continually produce food crop to ensure rural food security and sustainability.展开更多
The present study is an attempt to develop empirical evidence of transaction costs that rice farmers incur in production and other factors that affect farmers＇ demand for seed and estimating the proportion of costs a...The present study is an attempt to develop empirical evidence of transaction costs that rice farmers incur in production and other factors that affect farmers＇ demand for seed and estimating the proportion of costs accounted for by transaction costs due to quality seed in the formal and informal sectors, and analyze how these costs affect sourcing decision. An agricultural household model was developed from the study area. To test the model, information was collected in a survey of 387 households. There is now empirical evidence that transaction cost in rice seed acquisition in Tanzanian agriculture is an added cost to the farmer in the process of purchasing seed. Descriptive analysis shows that about 18% of the total seed cost is accounted for transaction cost, which is 2% of the total variable cost in farmers＇ rice farming. Econometric model was fitted to the household data to determine the factors hindering farmers to use purchased quality seed. Factors that were significant in influencing transaction cost include information search, seed source, farmers＇ seed arrangements, trust, and distance from farmers＇ homestead to the seed source, location and age of the farmer. We recommend that, policy amendments inclined towards reduction of the transaction costs can improve the profitability of the rice enterprise by increasing the demand for inputs.展开更多
The experiment was conducted on 10 small-holder dairy farmers under the administration of Dairy Promotion Organization of Thailand (DPO) in the Northeast region of Thailand. The aim of the research was to investigate ...The experiment was conducted on 10 small-holder dairy farmers under the administration of Dairy Promotion Organization of Thailand (DPO) in the Northeast region of Thailand. The aim of the research was to investigate the effect of legume (Phaseolus calcaratus, PC) as roughage mixed with Ruzi grass for dairy cows. Fours cows per farm were assigned into 2 groups including Ruzi grass (control) and PC mixed with ruzi grass (at the ratio 50:50), were given ad libitum as a roughage sources. All cows were offered a concentrate with ratio to milk yield of 1:2. The results revealed that roughage source did not affect on ruminal pH and temperature, ammonia nitrogen, blood urea nitrogen, and milk urea nitrogen concentrations. Total volatile fatty acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid proportions, and acetic acid to propionic acid ratio were not significantly different among treatments. Dry matter intake and digestibility of nutrient including dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber were not significantly different among treatments. Moreover, amount of digested dry mater was similar among treatments. However, cows received PC mixed with Ruzi grass tended to be higher on dry matter, organic matter, and crude protein digestibility and dry matter digestible nutrient intake than control group. Milk yield, and 3.5% fat corrected milk were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in cow fed with PC mixed Ruzi grass than those the control group. Milk compositions and feed cost were similar among treatments;in contrast, the income and profit from milk selling were greater in cows fed with PC mixed with Ruzi grass than the control. High quality roughage such as PC mixed with Ruzi grass could be advantages for dairy farming in the Northeast of Thailand.展开更多
文摘This study summarises the findings from a study investigating rural small-holding farmers’experiences on the shift from food crop to cashew in the forest/savanna transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana and its impact on rural food security.Using a mix method approach,the study sampled the views of 400 farmers from 9 farming communities in the Wenchi Municipality of Ghana via questionnaire and semi-structured interview and collated statistical data on crop production to trace the nexus between climate change,agrarian land-use decisions and food security.The study found evidence of increasing shift from food crop to cashew production.This was evidenced by increasing cashew cultivation and cashew output and decreasing total land acreage for food crops and increasing food insecurity of farmers.The findings revealed that about 71%of farmers had expanded their cashew farms and another 41.0%have turned their food crops’lands to cashew production.Besides cashew production,(57.0%)has overtaken the traditional food crop-maize(25.5%)production in terms of output.Instructively,the study found that the main motivation for the shift from food crop to cashew production is not only to maximise income in bulk,but also climate change adaptability issues.The study found that the cashew crop is resilient in adapting to the changing climate and less prone to pests’invasion compared to maize in the study District.The study found that food security among rural folks had been seriously compromised by the conversion of farmlands from food crop to cashew farming.Although,the study found that female farmers have higher consciousness to food security yet less motivated to shift from food crop to cashew crop production compared to men.Worryingly,females are the hardest hit group because of their low ownership of or access to farmlands and low voices of women in farmland use decision making in a men-dominant rural extended family setting of the study District.The study concludes that climate change adaptability concern has introduced a new set of risks including crop failure due to changing rainfall pattern and increasing incidence of pest invasions forcing the rural folks to compromise innovative indigenous farming focus and practices that have helped them to navigate extreme food poverty.This study,therefore,argues for improved food crop seeds tailored to the specific climatic context and innovative farming practices that beef-up small-holding farmers’capacity to navigate climate change to continually produce food crop to ensure rural food security and sustainability.
文摘The present study is an attempt to develop empirical evidence of transaction costs that rice farmers incur in production and other factors that affect farmers＇ demand for seed and estimating the proportion of costs accounted for by transaction costs due to quality seed in the formal and informal sectors, and analyze how these costs affect sourcing decision. An agricultural household model was developed from the study area. To test the model, information was collected in a survey of 387 households. There is now empirical evidence that transaction cost in rice seed acquisition in Tanzanian agriculture is an added cost to the farmer in the process of purchasing seed. Descriptive analysis shows that about 18% of the total seed cost is accounted for transaction cost, which is 2% of the total variable cost in farmers＇ rice farming. Econometric model was fitted to the household data to determine the factors hindering farmers to use purchased quality seed. Factors that were significant in influencing transaction cost include information search, seed source, farmers＇ seed arrangements, trust, and distance from farmers＇ homestead to the seed source, location and age of the farmer. We recommend that, policy amendments inclined towards reduction of the transaction costs can improve the profitability of the rice enterprise by increasing the demand for inputs.
文摘The experiment was conducted on 10 small-holder dairy farmers under the administration of Dairy Promotion Organization of Thailand (DPO) in the Northeast region of Thailand. The aim of the research was to investigate the effect of legume (Phaseolus calcaratus, PC) as roughage mixed with Ruzi grass for dairy cows. Fours cows per farm were assigned into 2 groups including Ruzi grass (control) and PC mixed with ruzi grass (at the ratio 50:50), were given ad libitum as a roughage sources. All cows were offered a concentrate with ratio to milk yield of 1:2. The results revealed that roughage source did not affect on ruminal pH and temperature, ammonia nitrogen, blood urea nitrogen, and milk urea nitrogen concentrations. Total volatile fatty acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid proportions, and acetic acid to propionic acid ratio were not significantly different among treatments. Dry matter intake and digestibility of nutrient including dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber were not significantly different among treatments. Moreover, amount of digested dry mater was similar among treatments. However, cows received PC mixed with Ruzi grass tended to be higher on dry matter, organic matter, and crude protein digestibility and dry matter digestible nutrient intake than control group. Milk yield, and 3.5% fat corrected milk were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in cow fed with PC mixed Ruzi grass than those the control group. Milk compositions and feed cost were similar among treatments;in contrast, the income and profit from milk selling were greater in cows fed with PC mixed with Ruzi grass than the control. High quality roughage such as PC mixed with Ruzi grass could be advantages for dairy farming in the Northeast of Thailand.
