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• ACCESS TO CREDIT AND ITS INFLUENCE ON COCOA FARMERS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR EU-APPROVED PESTICIDES IN ONDO AND OSUN STATES

  Ayodeji Kehinde

  Views:

  243

  This study investigated the effect of credit access on cocoa farmers’ willingness to pay for EU-approved pesticides in Osun and Ondo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 240 cocoa farmers for the study. Data collected were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics, contingent valuation method and logit regression model. The results for the entire respondents showed average values of 46 years for age, 23 years for years of experience, 7 persons for household size, and 8.54 hectares for farm size.  The majority (83.3%) of the farmers used Redforce. Given the current standard mean price of N365 per litre, the majority (62.5%) of the cocoa farmers are willing to pay 25% (price between N 365 – N 466) more on the actual price of the EU-approved pesticides. Logit regression estimates showed that gender, age, marital status, education, extension visit, access to credit, household size, farm size, and quantity of pesticide used significantly influenced cocoa farmers’ willingness to pay for EU-approved pesticides. This study concluded that credit access is an important variable affecting cocoa farmers’ willingness to pay for EU-approved pesticides. This suggests that policy strategies aimed at improving the cocoa farmers’ willingness to pay for EU-approved pesticides must consider their credit access. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that Government and agricultural-related organisations should provide credit to farmers to boost their willingness to pay for the approved pesticides.

• EXPLORING THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF PERCEIVED USEFULNESS ON CROP DIVERSIFICATION DRIVERS AMONG SMALLHOLDER COCOA FARMERS IN TANZANIA

  Godfrey Molela

  Views:

  253

  The living standard of smallholder cocoa farmers in Tanzania was still low despite the recent transformation in marketing structure which led to the sharp rise in price. This study aimed at examining the drivers for smallholder cocoa farmers in Kilombero, Tanzania to engage in multiple crops farming as the means of poverty alleviation. Based on the cross-sectional survey design, primary data were collected from 501 cocoa farmers obtained through a random selection process that was conducted in their respective 162 agricultural marketing and cooperative societies (AMCOS) found in Kilombero. Results from covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that, cocoa market price, payment waiting time, farm size and cocoa farm income played significant roles in cocoa farmers’ decisions to invest while taking into account their perceptions of success. It was only the off-farm income factor that was found to have no statistical significance on farmers’ decision to invest while considering the mediation effect of perception. The study just assessed the investment decisions by smallholder cocoa farmers in Tanzania. Policy makers need to enhance the marketing factors such as cocoa price and payment time to boost farmers’ financial muscles. Meanwhile, farmers themselves are advised to take measures to boost production by increasing farm sizes while adopting better agronomic as per extension officers’ training.This study contributed to knowledge gap by exploring the cocoa-related factors that affect the stallholders’ decision to invest in crop diversification other than the non-cocoa factors that were investigated in previous studies.

• WHAT DRIVES FEMALE FARMERS’ PARTICIPATION IN OFF-FARM ACTIVITIES? THE CASE OF RURAL NIGERIA

  Abbas Shehu

  Jadeera Mahmood

  Sulaiman Umar

  Views:

  335

  Women often lack access to productive resources such as land and capital in most developing countries. This forces them to take part in off-farm activities to augment their little farm income. This study investigated factors that affect the involvement of women farmers in different types of off-farm entrepreneurial livelihood activities in rural Bauchi state, Nigeria. A purposive sampling method was used in selecting three local government areas in the western agricultural zone of the state and a random sampling method was used in selecting ten wards. 5% registered women farmers in each selected ward, making 134 respondents. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to women farmers in 2017. The results revealed that food processing, farm product sales, trading and tailoring are the major off-farm livelihood activities engaged in by rural female farmers. Logit regression results revealed, as expected, that different factors affect their involvement in various types of off-farm activities. Food processing and tailoring required relatively high start-up capital and access to electricity as an investment and the use of machines was needed. Thus, access to credit or remittances and to electricity increases the probability of being involved in these activities. The requirements of trading being lower and access to market increases the probability of being involved. Provision of extension services, rural credit facilitation programmes, rural electrification, road and market structure development are instruments that are appropriate to support women farmers' involvement in off-farm activities. 

• Fresh Produce Retail Price Comparisons in Trinidad and Tobago

  29-34

  C. W. Ardon Iton

  Govind Seepersad

  Views:

  323

  As the competitive landscape of the food and grocery retailing sector in Trinidad and Tobago is being transformed and consumers are separated from producers, shoppers are more reliant on price/quality cues in making their purchase decisions. The purpose of this study is to identify the retail outlet with the lowest and or highest price for a selected number of fresh produce items, in an effort to direct shoppers to relatively cheap nutritious sources of fresh produce. ANOVA and the Games-Howell test were the analytical procedures used. The ANOVA results indicated that there is statistical difference for all the items at the different retail outlets – farmers’ markets, roadside markets, public markets and supermarkets.

  The Games-Howell results obtained indicated that the supermarket mean prices were the highest for all items. Shoppers who purchased pineapple at the farmer’s market instead of the supermarket in 2016 could have potentially achieved the greatest savings of $6.52/kg.

  JEL Classification: C12, Q13, M31

• Comparing ols and rank-based estimation techniques for production analysis: An application to Ghanaian maize farms.

  125-130

  Henry De-Graft Acquah

  Views:

  373

  This paper introduces the rank-based estimation method to modelling the Cobb-Douglas production function as an alternative to the least squares approach. The intent is to demonstrate how a nonparametric regression based on a rank-based estimator can be used to estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function using data on maize production from Ghana. The nonparametric results are compared to common parametric specification using the ordinary least squares regression. Results of the study indicate that the estimated coefficients of the CobbDouglas Model using the Least squares method and the rank-based regression analysis are similar. Findings indicated that in both estimation techniques, land and Equipment had a significant and positive influence on output whilst agrochemicals had a significantly negative effect on output. Additionally, seeds which also had a negative influence on output was found to be significant in the robust rank-based estimation, but insignificant in the ordinary least square estimation. Both the least squares and rank-based regression suggest that the farmers were operating at an increasing returns to scale. In effect this paper demonstrate the usefulness of the rank-based estimation in production analysis.

  JEL CODE: Q18, D24, Q12, C1 and C67

• ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CONSUMPTION OF LOCAL DRINKS IN RURAL OSUN STATE, NIGERIA: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SMALL-SCALE FOOD BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

  Iyanuoluwa Ajibade

  Dorcas Alabi

  Views:

  6

  Locally produced drinks play a significant role in the cultural, economic and culinary lives of rural dwellers in Nigeria. However, factors influencing their consumption remain poorly understood. This study investigated these critical factors among local drink consumers in rural areas of Osun State, Nigeria with a view to suggesting policy recommendations for the development of small-scale local food business. It employed a multistage sampling procedure to select 205 respondents. Primary data collected with a structured interview schedule and in-depth interview guide were analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The study revealed that many (52.1% and 83.0%%) of the respondents were male and married, respectively, mean age was 40±12 years while mean household size was 6 persons. Zobo (100%), palm wine (99.5%), and soymilk (95.6%) were the most available local drinks in the study area. The sensory characteristics (63.45%), production (66.96%), and functional characteristics (74.03%) of the drinks were mostly considered by the consumers. The factors influencing consumption were the characteristics of the drinks, the educational background, and the economic status of the consumers. The study concluded that the identified factors were essential to the development of the local drinks industry and the small-scale food business in the study area. Policy recommendations that could provide a framework for this development were suggested based on the findings of the study.

• Sensitivity of technical efficiency estimates to estimation methods: an empirical comparison of parametric and non-parametric approaches

  67-72

  Henry de-Graft Acquah

  Views:

  332

  This paper highlights the sensitivity of technical efficiency estimates to estimation approaches using empirical data. Firm specific technical efficiency and mean technical efficiency are estimated using the non parametric Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) and the parametric Corrected Ordinary Least Squares (COLS) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) approaches. Mean technical efficiency is found to be sensitive to the choice of estimation technique. Analysis of variance and Tukey’s test suggests significant differences in means between efficiency scores from different methods. In general the DEA and SFA frontiers resulted in higher mean technical efficiency estimates than the COLS production frontier. The efficiency estimates of the DEA have the smallest variability when compared with the SFA and COLS. There exists a strong positive correlation between the efficiency estimates based on the three methods.