The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop

The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop PDF Author: Minten, Bart
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896292835
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Considerable poverty and food insecurity in Ethiopia, combined with the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, make agricultural transformation a crucial development goal for the country. One promising improvement is to increase production of teff, the calorie- and nutrient-rich but low-yielding staple. The Economics of Teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s Biggest Cash Crop examines key aspects of teff production, marketing, and consumption, with a focus on opportunities for and challenges to further growth. The authors identify ways to realize teff’s potential, including improving productivity and resilience, selecting and scaling up new technologies, establishing distribution systems adapted to different areas’ needs, managing labor demand and postharvest operations, and increasing access to larger and more diverse markets. The book’s analysis and policy conclusions should be useful to policy makers, researchers, and others concerned with Ethiopia’s economic development.

Identification of Factors Which Influence the Technical Inefficiency of Indian Farmers

Identification of Factors Which Influence the Technical Inefficiency of Indian Farmers PDF Author: Tim Coelli
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The agricultural production of Indian farmers is investigated using a stochastic frontier production function which incorporates a model for the technical inefficiency effects. Farm-level data from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are used. Variables considered in the model for the inefficiency effects include the age and level of education of the farmers, farm size and the year of observation. The parameters of the stochastic frontier production function are estimated simultaneously with those involved in the model for the inefficiency effects. This approach differs from the usual practice of predicting farm-level inefficiency effects and then regressing these upon various factors in a second-stage of modelling. The results indicate that the above factors do have a significant influence upon the inefficiency effects of farmers in two of the three villages considered.

Cost and Production Functions

Cost and Production Functions PDF Author: R.W. Shephard
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642515789
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
This study is the result of an interest in the economic theory of production intermittently pursued during the past three years. Over this period I have received substantial support from the Office of Naval Research, first from a personal service consulting contract directly with the Mathematics Division of the Office of Naval Research and secondly from Project N6 onr-27009 at Princeton Univer sity under the direction of Professor Oskar Morgenstern. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the ·Office of Naval Research for this support and to Professor Morgenstern, in particular, for his interest in the puolication of this research. The responsibility for errors and omissions, how ever, rests entirely upon the author. Professor G. C. Evans has given in terms of a simple total cost function, depending solely upon output rate, a treatment of certain aspects of the economic theory of production which has inherent generality and convenience of formulation. The classical approach of expressing the technology of production by means of a production function is potentially less restrictive than the use of a simple total cost function, but it has not been applied in a more general form other than to derive the familiar conditions between marginal productivities of the factors of produc tion and their market prices.

The Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction

The Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction PDF Author: Luc J. Christiaensen
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural Development
Languages : en
Pages : 49

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Book Description
The relative contribution of a sector to poverty reduction is shown to depend on its direct and indirect growth effects as well as its participation effect. The paper assesses how these effects compare between agriculture and non-agriculture by reviewing the literature and by analyzing cross-country national accounts and poverty data from household surveys. Special attention is given to Sub-Saharan Africa. While the direct growth effect of agriculture on poverty reduction is likely to be smaller than that of non-agriculture (though not because of inherently inferior productivity growth), the indirect growth effect of agriculture (through its linkages with nonagriculture) appears substantial and at least as large as the reverse feedback effect. The poor participate much more in growth in the agricultural sector, especially in low-income countries, resulting in much larger poverty reduction impact. Together, these findings support the overall premise that enhancing agricultural productivity is the critical entry-point in designing effective poverty reduction strategies, including in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, to maximize the poverty reducing effects, the right agricultural technology and investments must be pursued, underscoring the need for much more country specific analysis of the structure and institutional organization of the rural economy in designing poverty reduction strategies.

Accelerating technical change through video-mediated agricultural extension: Evidence from Ethiopia

Accelerating technical change through video-mediated agricultural extension: Evidence from Ethiopia PDF Author: Abate, Gashaw T.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
Despite a rapidly growing enthusiasm around applications of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to smallholder agriculture in developing countries, there are still many questions on the effectiveness of ICT-based approaches. This study assesses the effects of videomediated agricultural extension service provision on farmers’ knowledge and adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices in Ethiopia. The study focuses on a program piloted by the Government of Ethiopia and Digital Green and poses three questions. First, to what extent does video-mediated extension lead to increased uptake of improved agricultural technologies and practices by smallholder farmers? Second, is video-mediated extension targeted at both spouses of the household more effective than when only targeted at the (typically male) household head? Third, how cost-effective is a video-mediated approach to extension provision? The study explores these questions with a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the video-mediated approach as applied to three priority crops (teff, wheat, maize) and three technologies (row planting, precise seeding rates, and urea dressing). The trial was implemented in 347 kebeles (village clusters) during the 2017 meher (rainy) season in Ethiopia’s four most agriculturally important regional states. Analysis of data from our surveys of 2,422 households and 896 extension agents indicates that the video-mediated approach is more effective than the conventional approach in achieving several key outcomes. Specifically, we find that videomediated extension reaches a wider audience than the conventional approach and leads to higher levels of agricultural knowledge and uptake of technologies in those kebeles randomly assigned to the program. While our results do point to greater participation and greater knowledge of female spouses in kebeles where both male and female spouses were targeted by the program, we do not find clear evidence that the more inclusive approach translated into higher uptake of the subject technologies and practices. Finally, we find that the video-mediated approach becomes less costly as the scale of operation increases.

Ethiopia's agrifood system: Past trends, present challenges, and future scenarios

Ethiopia's agrifood system: Past trends, present challenges, and future scenarios PDF Author: Dorosh, Paul A., ed.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896296911
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Ethiopia has experienced impressive agricultural growth and poverty reduction, stemming in part from substantial public investments in agriculture. Yet, the agriculture sector now faces increasing land and water constraints along with other challenges to growth. Ethiopia’s Agrifood System: Past Trends, Present Challenges, and Future Scenarios presents a forward-looking analysis of Ethiopia’s agrifood system in the context of a rapidly changing economy. Growth in the agriculture sector remains essential to continued poverty reduction in Ethiopia and will depend on sustained investment in the agrifood system, especially private sector investment. Many of the policies for a successful agricultural and rural development strategy for Ethiopia are relevant for other African countries, as well. Ethiopia’s Agrifood System should be a valuable resource for policymakers, development specialists, and others concerned with economic development in Africa south of the Sahara.

A Practitioner's Guide to Stochastic Frontier Analysis Using Stata

A Practitioner's Guide to Stochastic Frontier Analysis Using Stata PDF Author: Subal C. Kumbhakar
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316194493
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
A Practitioner's Guide to Stochastic Frontier Analysis Using Stata provides practitioners in academia and industry with a step-by-step guide on how to conduct efficiency analysis using the stochastic frontier approach. The authors explain in detail how to estimate production, cost, and profit efficiency and introduce the basic theory of each model in an accessible way, using empirical examples that demonstrate the interpretation and application of models. This book also provides computer code, allowing users to apply the models in their own work, and incorporates the most recent stochastic frontier models developed in academic literature. Such recent developments include models of heteroscedasticity and exogenous determinants of inefficiency, scaling models, panel models with time-varying inefficiency, growth models, and panel models that separate firm effects and persistent and transient inefficiency. Immensely helpful to applied researchers, this book bridges the chasm between theory and practice, expanding the range of applications in which production frontier analysis may be implemented.

A Comparative Analysis of the Technical Efficiency of Rain-fed and Smallholder Irrigation in Ethiopia

A Comparative Analysis of the Technical Efficiency of Rain-fed and Smallholder Irrigation in Ethiopia PDF Author: Makombe, G.
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN: 9290907401
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
Agriculture is the most significant contributor to Ethiopia’s economy. Most of the agricultural production is under rainfed conditions and thus extremely sensitive to rainfall variability. Irrigation development, including smallholder irrigation, is used by the Ethiopian Government to attempt to mitigate the effects of rainfall variability. In this study, we look at smallholder irrigation – modern and traditional irrigation systems. A detailed description of the cropping patterns is given. The stochastic frontier production function approach is used to estimate technical inefficiency, and constraints to production are analyzed. Since the traditional system is found to be efficient but on a lower production frontier, the study shows that significant gains can be made by raising the frontier of the traditional systems and increasing the efficiency of the modern systems. Among the production constraints studied were land preparation, soil fertility, weed control, pests and diseases, soil erosion, input access and moisture deficiency. The most significant constraints on the irrigated systems were input access and moisture deficiency.

Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia

Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia PDF Author: Paul Dorosh
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812208617
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The perception of Ethiopia projected in the media is often one of chronic poverty and hunger, but this bleak assessment does not accurately reflect most of the country today. Ethiopia encompasses a wide variety of agroecologies and peoples. Its agriculture sector, economy, and food security status are equally complex. In fact, since 2001 the per capita income in certain rural areas has risen by more than 50 percent, and crop yields and availability have also increased. Higher investments in roads and mobile phone technology have led to improved infrastructure and thereby greater access to markets, commodities, services, and information. In Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia: Progress and Policy Challenges, Paul Dorosh and Shahidur Rashid, along with other experts, tell the story of Ethiopia's political, economic, and agricultural transformation. The book is designed to provide empirical evidence to shed light on the complexities of agricultural and food policy in today's Ethiopia, highlight major policies and interventions of the past decade, and provide insights into building resilience to natural disasters and food crises. It examines the key issues, constraints, and opportunities that are likely to shape a food-secure future in Ethiopia, focusing on land quality, crop production, adoption of high-quality seed and fertilizer, and household income. Students, researchers, policy analysts, and decisionmakers will find this book a useful overview of Ethiopia's political, economic, and agricultural transformation as well as a resource for major food policy issues in Ethiopia. Contributors: Dawit Alemu, Guush Berhane, Jordan Chamberlin, Sarah Coll-Black, Paul Dorosh, Berhanu Gebremedhin, Sinafikeh Asrat Gemessa, Daniel O. Gilligan, John Graham, Kibrom Tafere Hirfrfot, John Hoddinott, Adam Kennedy, Neha Kumar, Mehrab Malek, Linden McBride, Dawit Kelemework Mekonnen, Asfaw Negassa, Shahidur Rashid, Emily Schmidt, David Spielman, Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, Seneshaw Tamiru, James Thurlow, William Wiseman.

Innovation Africa

Innovation Africa PDF Author: Pascal Sanginga
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136562958
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
'Innovation by with and for farmers in Africa is one of the major contemporary challenges of development. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in these issues.' Professor Ian Scoones Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex UK 'This book takes the theme of innovation and its mainstreaming in research and extension a major step forward. I am impressed by the wide range of subjects and the diversity of authors.' Chris Reij Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands Agricultural research extension and education can contribute greatly to enhancing agricul.