Browsing by Person "Zeller, Manfred"

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A microeconomic analysis of household forest plantation in the northern uplands of Vietnam : contributions to payments for environmental services policy
(2014) Manasboonphempool, Areeya; Zeller, Manfred
It is uncontested that forests are imperative for environmental conservation and economic development. Benefits from forests are immense and multidimensional: Forests can support local livelihoods, assist poverty alleviation, and provide environmental services for local communities and greater society. Over the past 50 years, about half of the worlds original forest cover has been lost. Vietnam is among the countries where forest degradation is a serious issue. Several measures have been implemented to alleviate forest degradation, including forest land allocation and forest plantation programs. The current and growing international interest of civil society and governments in the acknowledgement of forest environmental services has become mainstream: Vietnam is among several countries who appreciate the need for payment or compensation to local communities for forest values through the payment for environmental services (PES) mechanism. Since 2010, Vietnam has officially introduced a payments for forest environmental services (PFES) scheme to pursue conservation and development goals. However, there is still a lack of knowledge for farmers preferences for policy design and implementation. In spite of a number of studies examining the impacts of forest policies in northern Vietnam, there is limited research on incentive and forest management at the household level. Such an analysis would provide insightful information and entail implications for PES policy, especially in terms of effective participation and cost efficiency. This dissertation attempts to fill this research gap by examining farmers behavior on forest management and their experiences with forest policies that are necessary for determining effective incentives that can bring about changes in behavior related to forest conservation practice in a mountainous area. The research is based on two survey rounds of 300 representative households in Da Bac district, located in the upstream area of the Hoa Binh reservoir in the northwestern region of Vietnam. As previous afforestation programs are based on a top-down approach, this dissertation contributes to the limited research on the potential demand for and farmers preferences in forest management. The analysis provides policy implications for a PES scheme where voluntary participation and cost efficiency are crucial for its success. This dissertation also contributes to a small but growing body of literature on choice experiment application to the field of forest conservation schemes in developing countries. In addition, the analysis of Transaction Costs (TCs) borne by households under the forest management scheme can contribute to the limited number of studies that have empirically analyzed private TCs, particularly in developing countries. The results of our research underline the inadequacy of previous forest plantation support and recommend that when land is limited, higher financial incentives are needed to make forest conservation attractive in a PES scheme. Depending on the contract, there exists a potential demand for forest conservation with a small subsidy or even without a subsidy if extra land is allocated. This suggests that policymakers should integrate land allocation into PES policies to obtain better cost efficiency. As the results indicate that households have different degrees of willingness to participate in forest conservation programs, we recommend that policies target PES campaigns to households who have less interest in forest conservation, such as households with livelihoods that depend mainly on agricultural production, who have not previously joined the forest programs either due to their ineligibility or distrust in local government authorities, and who have limited market access due to poor road conditions. In addition, given that the security of forests influences the decision to plant forest, strengthening monitoring mechanism or introducing insurance to reduce the risk of plantation failure is recommended as another option to promote participation. This dissertation reveals that the amount of incentives that farmers are willing to accept to plant and conserve forest instead of engaging in farming activities is higher than previous subsidies. In mountainous areas where ethnic minorities still live in poverty, a higher subsidy is expected to achieve both environmental conservation and poverty alleviation outcomes. Nevertheless, a critical question arises as to whether a higher subsidy can lead to sustainable household forest management. This question should be addressed by future research by examining longitudinal data on household livelihood and forest management under a PES scheme. It has not been possible to empirically measure TCs of farmers engaged in community-based forest management where such information would provide interesting results on this matter. The implications on this study could be developed further by expanding the survey and gathering data from participants of community-based forest management. Further research on the comparison of TCs associated with community and individual management is recommended to provide information to policymakers and researchers.
Agrofuels, large-scale agricultural production, and rural development : the case of Jatropha in Madagascar
(2019) Bosch, Christine; Zeller, Manfred
Agrofuel production in marginal areas can contribute directly to creating employment and improving local livelihoods. Indirectly, through increasing household purchasing power and relaxing financial constraints of smallholder farmers, it can contribute to greater food production and/or food consumption and rural development. These benefits depend, however, largely on the feedstock crop and its processing, land and labour requirements, the business model, value chains and institutional frameworks. Jatropha, a feedstock crop with more benefits than first-generation energy crops like maize, experienced a spike in popularity in the early 2000s due to its value in the biofuel markets of industrialized countries. The majority of plantations and outgrower schemes could not survive what followed: disappointing yields, pests and disease, low oil prices, the 2007/2008 food price crisis, negative narratives, and inadequate funding for further research activities. Despite these challenges, large-scale land investments and new Jatropha projects continue to be undertaken. Madagascar is a country characterized by severely eroded and degraded pasturelands, low agricultural productivity, high vulnerability to climatic shocks, and overwhelming poverty and food insecurity rates. It is hypothesized that the use of marginal lands for labour-intensive agrofuel feedstock cultivation, in otherwise neglected areas, through both public and private investment, will have positive impacts through the provision of wage work in large-scale plantation schemes. Although a number of studies have investigated the rural livelihood impacts of participation in Jatropha cultivation, there is little evidence that quantifies the long-term and indirect effects on smallholder food production and household food security. Against this background, large-scale Jatropha cultivation lends itself well to studying the complex interplay between feedstock and food production, as well as the potential for agricultural and rural development. Such analysis would provide useful insights and implications for cost-effective rural development policies to target poor farmers in remote areas. Drawing on a conceptual framework that highlights the role of smallholder farmers’ livelihood strategies like off-farm employment and agricultural intensification, and livelihood outcomes like food security, this thesis explores the contribution of large-scale agrofuel feedstock cultivation on marginal land. Three important outcomes, namely household food security, information and innovation spillover effects, and agricultural input use, are studied empirically in three articles, using a comprehensive household panel data set. The data was collected in six survey rounds between 2008 and 2014, in three villages near a large-scale Jatropha project in the Haute Matsiatra region, located in Madagascar’s Southern Highlands. The first article examines the relationship between wage work for a Jatropha project and household food security. Jatropha cultivation on marginal land is labour intensive and does not compete with food production. Therefore, incomes earned can contribute to increased food security directly as well as indirectly through increased or diversified food production. Using five rounds of household panel data, results show that labour demand from the plantation declined substantially after the build-up phase and Jatropha incomes were mostly used for food and other necessities. Fixed effects models show that Jatropha work contributed significantly to an improved dietary diversity. Despite the possibility to earn income during the lean season, Jatropha work did not lead to a reduction in the more subjective lack of food and led to reduced rice stocks. Both food production and consumption were highly influenced by drought shocks and locust plagues, indicating that complementing income creation strategies with agricultural development strategies might have further positive effects on food security. To shed light on the impact pathway from Jatropha work to agricultural production, the second article explores information dissemination through social networks and through Jatropha workers who are more exposed to modern technologies than control households. In addition to institutional factors, a lack of knowledge and limited extension services for improved agricultural technologies are considered barriers to information dissemination. Using two rounds of the dataset, which contains rich information on social capital and networks as well as knowledge and innovations, determinants of production-relevant knowledge like extension services, credit and marketing opportunities are estimated. Accounting for potential endogeneity with lagged and instrumental variables, the relevance of this knowledge to the adoption of innovations and the cultivation of a formerly taboo legume, as an example of diversification, is tested. The results indicate limited access to information, little knowledge on investment and marketing opportunities, and low adoption of innovations. Knowledge is relevant for both innovation performance and the cultivation of the Bambara groundnut, highlighting the need to increase and improve public extension services and information dissemination in rural Madagascar. Adoption is not only encouraged by knowledge, but also directly motivated through informal social networks. Bambara groundnut spillovers from the biofuel project can be observed, relaxing some of the constraints farmers face concerning access to information, social learning, and cultural norms. The third article explores one specific hypothesized spillover: access to and use of agricultural inputs. Given the very low use of improved inputs in rural areas in Madagascar, this study explores whether improved seed and seed information distributed to farmers encourages farmers to cultivate the seed. The analysis is based on household data gathered between 2012 and 2014 from 390 households in three villages. To investigate the adoption of improved seed, as well as the diffusion of information regarding improved seed, a randomized control trial was applied in 2013. Half of the 390 households were randomly assigned to receive the improved lima bean seed (Phaseolus lunatus), which is specifically bred for dry regions. Of the seed-receiving households, half were randomly assigned to receive information on how to store, plant, and cultivate the improved seed, as the variety was unfamiliar in the region. The control group and the two treatment groups are compared with respect to baseline characteristics, bean cultivation, information exchange with other farmers, legume consumption, and willingness to pay (WTP) for improved bean seed. To account for non-compliance, contamination, and spillover effects, local average treatment effects (LATE) are estimated. Of the seed-receiving households, 54% cultivated the seed, reaping an average yield of 6.3 kg for each kilogram of seed obtained. Seed information did not lead to higher yields. A small significant positive impact of seed distribution on legume consumption is found. WTP is 171% of the local market price for bean seed; provision of free seeds and information did not result in a higher WTP. Based on these findings, this thesis contributes empirical evidence that large-scale agrofuel feedstock production on marginal land can enhance rural livelihoods by offering alternative livelihood strategies especially for poorer households and contributing to improved livelihood outcomes. Accounting for the indirect effects shows important impact pathways on the livelihood strategies of farmers in a remote area. The provision of incentives for private investors, complemented by more public intervention in rural areas, as well as more investment in agricultural research and extension to reduce agricultural production risks, might enhance these spillovers.
An analysis of gender in intra-household decision-making as an important socio-economic factor in agriculture-nutrition linkages
(2021) Sariyev, Orkhan; Zeller, Manfred
In 2018, almost 2 billion people around the globe experienced severe or moderate levels of food insecurity. Poverty is strongly linked with food insecurity, and most of the extreme poor live in rural areas where agriculture is the main livelihood. Thus, agricultural and rural development have profound implications for rural households. Agricultural produce is consumed or marketed or both; when marketed, the generated income can be used for (safe and nutritious) food purchases and non-food expenditures, including medical expenses and investments in sanitation. Some income may not be consumed directly but saved or invested in the form of physical, social or human capital. Moreover, considering that the end goal of development should be an environment in which people can be creative and freely enjoy a long and healthy life, rural and agricultural development will have implications for all elements of human development: health, education, poverty, environment, security, women’s status, and finally, food and nutrition. The effect is seemingly more direct and profound in terms of its contribution to a healthy household environment and food security, which together determine nutritional outcomes. However, this seemingly straightforward linkage between agriculture and nutrition is challenged by numerous socio-economic factors. This dissertation concentrates on the gender dynamics of intra-household decision-making as an important socio-economic factor in the agriculture and nutrition framework. Here, I refer to gender dynamics as the interactions and relations between men and women that can strengthen or confront the social norms of a society. Thus, the main objective is to examine the gender dynamics of decision-making as an important component of agriculture-nutrition linkages. There are three sub-objectives that concentrate on selected linkages within the framework. Given the high concentration of women’s empowerment literature in social contexts in which females are underprivileged, the first sub-objective is to investigate the implications of women’s empowerment in contexts in which women historically experienced equality or favoritism. Second, concentrating on the role of women’s empowerment in the agriculture and nutrition framework, the next objective is to study the implications of women’s empowerment on varietal adoption, diversified production, and consumption. The third objective is to examine the viability of production diversification as a strategy to improve household diets. The findings of this dissertation are based on data collected from Bhutanese and Ethiopian households. The survey in Bhutan employed multistage random sampling; it was implemented in November 2017 and covered 251 households in two central districts of Bhutan: Tsirang and Dagana. The survey in Ethiopia was conducted in 2014 and 2016 and covered 390 Ethiopian households located in a radius of circa 150-200 km around the town of Hawassa. These households were randomly selected from a sample of farmers from a survey that was conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) for the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) in 2012. This dissertation has five chapters. The first chapter gives a general overview and provides a conceptual framework that helps to describe the research topics and questions investigated in the following chapters. The three following chapters are scientific papers that have been prepared for publication in scientific journals. The second chapter deals with the first sub-objective. It investigates women’s participation in crucial domains of intra-household decision-making and its implications for dietary quality in Bhutanese households. The third chapter studies the effect of the main female’s risk preference on the adoption of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) conditional on the dominance of female preferences declared in domestic decision-making. The fourth chapter explores the association between women’s participation in decision-making and both agricultural production and dietary diversity. The final chapter concludes the dissertation, highlights main limitations, and gives recommendations for future research and policies. Chapter 1 discusses the agriculture-nutrition linkages and interacting socio-economic factors of interest in the conceptual framework of the dissertation. Chapter 2 investigates the implications of women’s participation in domestic decision-making processes for dietary quality in Bhutanese rural households. Bhutan was selected as the country of interest for this chapter because polyandry and matrilineal succession were still observed in some ethnic groups through the 20th century. We employ a mixed methods research approach to investigate women’s participation in domestic decision-making processes and its implications for dietary quality at the household level. Considering the historical presence of matrilineal succession in Bhutan, we also check for any association between women’s land ownership and participation in domestic decision-making using non-parametric tests. Quantitative analyses and in-depth interviews reveal no lack of participation in crucial domains of domestic decision-making for Bhutanese women. We observe a positive association between women’s participation in decision-making and their property rights; thus, it is plausible that the matrilineal succession might have provided for women’s empowerment over time. Moreover, we find that gender equality in decision-making results in better dietary diversity in Bhutanese households. Given the results, we recommend that social programs focus not merely on women’s empowerment, but gender-equal human development in general. The findings contribute to the gender literature and emphasize the importance of gender equality. Considering that females are generally found to be more risk averse than males and that risk aversion hinders technology adoption, in Chapter 3, we study the importance of the main female decision-maker’s risk preference for the adoption of HYVs in Ethiopia. Most often, food security is the ultimate goal for the rural poor in Ethiopia. Their risk preferences are likely to determine their willingness to trade some short-term security for a greater potential income and security in the future. Rural households are disinclined to adopt new varieties as they are unfamiliar and present a risk of failure. The number of female decision-makers in a household is assumed to reflect the dominance of female preference declared in household decision-making. The main female decision-maker is assumed to be empowered to express her preferences more strongly and freely when the decision-making processes involves more female members. In this case, the impact of her risk preferences is likely to be more profound. To the best of my knowledge, this hypothesis has not been investigated before. Considering that rural households are constrained differently, we want to study both adoption and intensity of the HYV adoption. The results show no effect of the main female’s or male’s risk preferences on the adoption of HYV seeds. It is observed that the adoption decision is mostly determined by access and availability, which are captured by wealth, access to extension, and all-weather roads. We observe a positive association between the main female’s risk preference and the intensity of the adoption at higher levels of women’s participation in decision-making. As hypothesized, the conditionality of the effect of female risk preference on the level of female dominance in decision-making is observed. Given these results, we conclude that the main female’s risk preference matters for the intensity of HYV adoption. Given the potential risk of crop failure when adopting HYV, a risk-taking female is willing to risk her household’s short-run security to a potential learning effect from the new variety and potentially gain a higher income and more security in the long-run. The findings from this chapter contribute to the gender and technology adoption literature. The study interacts female risk preference with a proxy that measures female dominance in decision-making in an HYV adoption study. The results of our analysis of the role of the main female’s risk preferences in agricultural technology adoption signify the importance of a gendered lens to intra-household decision-making and risk preferences for future empirical studies. Nutrition sensitive agricultural development programs consider diversified farm production as a promising strategy to achieve better dietary outcomes for rural poor who are mostly subsistence oriented. In Chapter 4, we mainly question the viability of this strategy for rural Ethiopian households. Furthermore, considering that both household-level production diversification and consumption choices are outcomes of intra-household decision-making, we investigate the implications of women’s participation in the domains of decision-making for both outcomes. Thus, there are two objectives in Chapter 4. The first is to estimate the association between production diversification and household dietary diversity in various settings, and the second is to examine the association of female participation in decision-making with both livelihood outcomes separately. We find that on-farm diversification can be a feasible strategy to improve the diets of those who are mostly subsistence oriented and therefore highly dependent on agricultural production and those who live a great distance from markets. These results were obtained by employing and carefully interpreting multiplicative interaction models. We find that women’s participation in decision-making regarding which crops are grown is associated with more diversity both in terms of food groups and the number of different livestock and crop species produced. Nevertheless, we do not find any association when both evenness and richness of crop species are considered together as an indicator of diversification. This is due to the fact that sampled Ethiopian women are observed to be involved in decision-making on small plots, such as kitchen gardens, which contribute to the richness of species but not to the evenness in terms of the cultivated area. Furthermore, we estimate a positive association between women’s decision-making regarding household expenditures (that include food, clothing, and household and agricultural assets) and dietary diversity indicators. In light of these results, we conclude that development programs could promote production diversification in remote rural areas where markets and non-farm income are hardly accessible, but even then, the viability of this strategy is very questionable due to the marginal effects that demand mostly unrealistic changes. We recommend that more attention and effort be directed toward gender-inclusive social and economic development policies together with infrastructural and market development projects to achieve sustainable returns to nutrition. We contribute to the agriculture and nutrition literature by highlighting an important covariate, that is gendered decision-making, and calling attention to an in-depth approach to the analyses of this kind to better assist practitioners. Overall, the main contribution of this dissertation is that the gender dynamics in intra-household decision-making is an important socio-economic factor in the agriculture and nutrition framework. The findings prove that gender sensitive policies and programs will contribute to this component and sustain the linkages between agriculture and nutrition in rural areas. It is observed that women’s empowerment in farming and household-related decision-making positively contributes to various components like varietal adoption, diversification, and household-level dietary diversity in the agriculture and nutrition framework. However, extensive contextual knowledge is necessary to ensure that gender bias is correctly approached and treated to yield positive and sustainable outcomes in different societal settings.
An economic analysis of fish demand and livelihood outcomes of small-scale aquaculture in Myanmar
(2021) Aung, Yee Mon; Zeller, Manfred
Given that capture fishery production has either remained stagnant or declined globally, aquaculture has been responsible for the massive growth in the supply of fish to fulfill increasing demand and has also improved livelihoods. The development of the fishery sector, particularly aquaculture, has the potential to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). New technologies and effective fishery management policies play critical roles in achieving this sectors contribution to the SDGs. Although aquaculture in Myanmar is dominated by large-scale fish farming, a larger number of small-scale aquaculture (SSA) households exist either legally or illegally because profitability and employment opportunities have enticed them to enter the sector. However, the potential of SSA farmers and their challenges are still overlooked. Even though Myanmar is one of the major consumers of fish and producers of aquaculture fish worldwide, to date, a holistic approach that considers the demand and supply side of Myanmars aquaculture sector is rare. The thesis focuses on two main topics. One topic is an analysis of the disaggregated fish demand system. Empirical evidence on whether the aquaculture sector can meet household demand through adequate availability of and accessibility to fish is vital to ensure household food and nutrition security and understand the future of the fish demand. The second main topic focuses on the two aspects of production based on SSA farms; production efficiency and impacts on welfare outcomes from the adoption of sustainable aquaculture (SA) technologies. To fulfill fish demand by increasing the supply of fish from farms, production efficiency of the farmers needs to improve to generate profitable in the face of lower fish prices that will accompany an increase in supply. In addition, traditional aquaculture production practices are risky and are not a long-term option for SSA farmers. Therefore, renewing or modifying productive resources and implementing new technologies may play critical roles in the development of a sustainable SSA sector. The study on the fish demand analysis in Chapter 2 relies on nationally representative data from the "Myanmar Poverty and Living Conditions survey (MPLCS) in 2015,". For the production side analysis in Chapters 3 and 4, primary survey data originate from 440 SSA households collected in three townships in Phyapon District, Ayeyarwady Delta region, Myanmar. Chapter 2 estimates the demand parameters differentiated by fish supply sources (aquaculture, freshwater capture, marine capture, and dried fish) and household groups (wealth group and household location) in Myanmar using a three-stage budgeting framework, combined with a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS). The results reveal that fish demand from all sources of fish and household groups increases with income because fish is the second most crucial food commodity after rice in Myanmar. A substantial share of the increasing demand for all sources of fish is likely to come from poor and rural households with growing incomes due to their higher-income elasticity for all sources of fish. Moreover, less elastic price elasticity of demand in most cases for poor and rural households indicates that those households have less animal protein substitutes for fish available and accessible because fish is the cheapest form of an animal protein source in Myanmar. Due to the income responsiveness of aquaculture fish, its demand will grow faster than that of other fish sources. This study confirms that the rapidly growing aquaculture sector can compensate for the concurrent stagnation of capture fisheries production to fulfill the increase in the fish demand. The studys findings suggest that effective management policies and new technologies are essential to sustain the fish supply from capture fisheries and aquaculture. Intervention programs that sustainably increase aquaculture production will generate the most effective and significant effects on securing households food and nutrition security in the long-run. Chapter 3 analyzes the current technical efficiency level of SSA farms and the link between womens level of participation in decision-making (WPDM) activities and the technical efficiency of fish farming using the two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. The results show that most SSA farming households are not technically efficient, performing in a range of 45%-60% below the production frontier. All the inputs used contain slacks, such that all of them are over-utilized in inappropriate ratios. This study reveals that while some of the households socio-economic and production characteristics are significant shifters to enhance efficiency of fish farming, decision-making power of women at the household-level is found to significantly improve the level of technical efficiency through its effects on the ability of household members to allocate and organize resources optimally. This study highlights the vital need to promote intervention programs targeted at improving the technical efficiency of SSA farming households. Policies and intervention programs aimed at increasing productivity in the aquaculture sector would benefit by including women empowerment programs to reduce gender inequality and promote equity. Chapter 4 evaluates the determinants and the impacts of SA technologies adoption on SSA households’ welfare outcomes using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model. The significant value of the correlation coefficients between the error terms of the adoption decision and the outcome equations, as well as heterogeneity in the outcome variables between adopters and non-adopters, confirm that the ESR model is more appropriate than data pooling in a regression model. The models actual and counterfactual results highlight that the adoption of SA technologies increases the SSA households welfare outcomes, measured by fish yield per ha, Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), and Total Food Consumption Score (TFCS). However, the actual adopters would benefit the most in terms of fish yield per ha and TFCS from adopting SA technologies because the average treatment effects of adoption on adopters are larger than that of non-adopters for these variables. The results highlight that household knowledge about aquaculture production and information sources are main drivers for the adoption decision and improving welfare outcomes. Therefore, appropriate policies targeting SSA development should emphasize the promotion of farmers awareness and adoption of SA technologies by providing improved extension services. This thesis findings contribute to the current debate that the development of the aquaculture sector can help achieve some of the SDGs. In particular, aquaculture can help end hunger through increased food security by making fish more widely available and accessible by increasing the supply of fish. Moreover, aquaculture can improve gender equality and women’s empowerment through creating employment opportunities linked to the aquaculture sector. Given the lower technical efficiency level and positive welfare impacts of SA technologies, it is recommended that the government and other development organizations disseminate information on the improved aquaculture practices and suitable input use through improved extension services to SSA farmers. Due to the dominance of a single fish species in the aquaculture sector, the government needs to support research and development programs in the hatchery sector for a new generation of species. Another recommendation is to reformulate the current "Farmland Law 2012" because it puts restrictions on converting agricultural land to fish ponds, which is preventing farmers entering the aquaculture sector legally. The above policy recommendations are crucial to achieve growth in the SSA sector and increase women’s intra-household decision-making power, thereby opening the door to improve livelihoods.
Analysis of factors driving differences in intensification and income from agriculture among smallholder farmers in Northern Vietnam
(2021) Ufer, Susanne; Zeller, Manfred
Challenged by difficult topography, remoteness, high ethnic diversity, low levels of infrastructure, high poverty, and high dependency on upland farming systems the well-being and incomes of ethnic minorities and the poorest in the Northern Uplands of Vietnam, like in many upland areas in Southeast Asia, are still predominantly linked to agricultural productivity. At the same time agricultural commercialization, the introduction of modern agricultural technologies, higher input use, and stronger agricultural specialization have increased the demands on households’ ability to adequately invest in agricultural intensification and to protect themselves from agricultural income risks. In the Northern Uplands, one of these extensively cultivated, highly commercialized, and highly specialized upland crops is maize. A crop that needs high levels of inputs and is predominantly grown for cash income from poor and non-poor farmers alike. Given the low asset levels of households, it is therefore of particular interest which differences in challenges farmers may face regarding the improvement of maize production dependent on their wealth level. Yet, no detailed research exists that analyses how the level of asset endowments with natural, human, physical, financial, and social capital as well as risk aversion impact technology adoption, maize intensification, and maize productivity of farmers of different household wealth. This doctoral thesis seeks to fill these knowledge gaps by investigating the following research topics: (1) the level and short-term changes in agricultural input use and productivity in maize production by household wealth, (2) the impact of risk aversion on fertiliser use in maize production by household wealth, and (3) the impact of household asset levels and the return to assets on productivity differences in maize production between households of different wealth. Research analysis builds on a quantitative dataset collected from a random panel sample of 300 rural households in Yen Chau district, Son La province, in the Northern Uplands of Vietnam in the period from 2007 to 2010. The research area is relatively poor, ethnic diverse, with a high dependency on upland agriculture, crop income, and maize income in particular. Econometric analysis is carried out firstly by organizing households by wealth through a composite asset-based indicator derived from principal component analysis (PCA) and secondly by applying extensive descriptive analysis, regression analysis, and econometric decomposition-based techniques to the so differentiated dataset. Results from the first research topic (1) “Level and short-term changes in agricultural input use and productivity in maize production by household wealth” show that average numbers on maize input use, maize productivity, and maize income hide important wealth-related differences. While adoption rates of modern maize seeds and mineral fertilisers are widespread and very similar by wealth terciles over time, input use intensity of fertilisers, maize yields, and maize incomes differ significantly between the poorest tercile and the wealthier maize farmers. While a substantial share of the poorest household tercile uses fertiliser quantities well below recommended levels, households of the middle and wealthiest terciles are about twice as likely to apply fertilisers according to average or above-average fertiliser recommendation levels. Moreover, between approximately one-tenth and one-quarter of households from all wealth terciles overuse fertiliser, too. The poorest tercile further buys despite the lower use of fertilisers more often seed and fertiliser inputs on-loan than households from higher wealth terciles. Consequently, the poorest households have to pay relatively higher input costs at otherwise mostly similar market prices for seed and fertiliser inputs and maize output. Yield, input price, and output price risks are high in the research area for all households. However, the poorest tercile of households suffers somewhat more from risks due to fluctuations in yield, output price, and maize income. Results from the second research topic (2) “Impact of risk aversion on fertiliser use by household wealth” show that the fertiliser quantity applied to maize is affected by the risk aversion of the household head in the poorest one-third of households and not affected by the risk aversion of the household head of the wealthier households. The results remain valid when different empirical risk aversion measures (i.e. self-assessment scale and lottery game) are considered, when instead of total fertiliser quantity, the quantity of NPK, urea, or total nitrogen are considered, as well as when different measures of household wealth are considered (i.e. asset-based wealth index, household per-capita income, and household per-capita consumption expenditure). Results from the third research topic (3): “Impact of household asset levels and the return to assets on productivity differences in maize production between households of different wealth” show that quantity-based assets effects are more important for the size of the maize income gap per hectare between the poorest one-third of maize farmers and maize farmers of higher wealth than the return-based assets effects. Quantity-based asset effects significantly account for more than two-thirds of the entire maize income gap, while return-based assets effects are on the contrary not statistically significant at all. From the quantity-based assets effects, credit limit, ethnicity of the household head, and upland land value have large and significant effects. Farm size, value of buffalo and cattle, and household head age have smaller and less constant effects. Credit limit is the most important and most consistent driver by size, showing that financial access for poor minority households is still a defining obstacle to agricultural productivity. Ethnicity of the household head has a strong and positive but decreasing impact on the maize income gap, showing that ethnicity-related soft factors, such as differences in location, agricultural practices, and traditions, should be taken more into acknowledgement. From the significance of the upland land value, we conclude that environmental factors, such as the prevention of soil erosion, the protection of soil fertility, and considerations of long-term sustainability, should gain more emphasis. Other minor factors driving the maize income gap are discussed in more detail in the thesis. From the results of the doctoral thesis, we draw the following main conclusions for the development of pro-poor strategies for the improvement of upland agricultural productivity. Firstly, agricultural research and extension should pay more attention to identifying bottlenecks households face dependent on their wealth level to avoid overseeing the specific obstacles poor and non-poor farmers face that may result in the perpetuation of poverty traps, increased inefficiency, and the waste of resources. Consequently, more emphasis is needed on research and extension that incorporate wealth-related agronomic, financial, and risk-related aspects, that better account for the efficient use of inputs, and that place increased emphasis on the adaptation of technological innovations to the farm systems and needs of upland minorities. Secondly, more emphasis should be placed on helping poor households to deal with risks. While all households face yield, input and output price risks, risk aversion affects input intensification decisions in the poorest one-third of households. Hence, especially for the poorest more emphasis should be placed on the expansion of risk management options that account for the lower risk-bearing capacity and higher risk aversion of the poor, and the often higher transaction costs. This includes measures such as improving the financial literacy of households, allowing households to borrow for consumption, linking credit with insurance or saving options, decreasing transaction costs and the complications linked with successfully applying for loans, as well as, if possible, developing innovations like improved seeds or agricultural management systems that have the capacity to lower the downside risks of production. Thirdly, assets should be considered an important driver of agricultural productivity differences between poor and non-poor farmers. Based on the findings that the quantity-based effects of assets are the major and only significant driver of the maize income gap between the poor and non-poor maize farmers, we conclude that the poorest households can have the same productive agricultural potential as the non-poor if they would have the same level of assets. Supporting households to get access to and accumulate assets should be therefore an important policy goal. This is particularly true about assets that can be influenced by agricultural research, improved agricultural extension, and targeted development policy. Based on our research findings this concerns the improvement of access to credit, the support of ethnic minority households, and efforts to increase the sustainability of upland agriculture. Fourthly, investing in the long-term suitability of maize production and upland farming systems is recommended. While maize can be a very profitable cash crop in the short run, the results of this doctoral thesis also show that a strong specialization in maize production may embody multiple short-term and long-term economic as well as sustainability related livelihood risks. This includes the possibly limited extent of the profitability of additional credit and inputs as well as a strong dependency on the quality of natural resources. In consequence, policies should focus on directly improving the conditions for maize productivity as well as improving the conditions for long-term development. Such measures include supporting households to invest more in profitable on-farm and off-farm diversification, the improvement of infrastructure and extension to increase the profitability of unused cropping choices, the development of profitable soil protection measures, and investments in education and the development of off-farm job alternatives.
Consumer acceptance of iron biofortified varieties of staple food crops
(2019) Pérez, Salomón; Zeller, Manfred
Micronutrient deficiency is one of the most common forms of malnutrition worldwide. Iron deficiency alone affects 2 billion people worldwide. Since 2004, HarvestPlusis working on the development of new staple crop varieties with higher micronutrient content using conventional breeding methods. This strategy is known as “biofortification.” According to the trait that has been bred into a biofortified crop, these are classified into visible and invisible nutritional traits. A crop with an invisible nutritional trait represents a challenge in terms of acceptance by target consumers since these invisible traits target an invisible nutritional problem. Micronutrient deficiencies are also called hidden hunger, due to the invisibility of their consequences. Iron- and zinc-biofortified crops might be considered credence goods, i.e., goods characterized by the fact that although consumers can observe their utility, these derive from ex-post goods, and therefore, they cannot judge whether the type or quality of the good they receive is the ex-ante they needed. Further, one of the main characteristics of these products is the asymmetric information between producers and sellers on the one hand, and consumers on the other hand. For example, producers might not be aware of a particular trait as their seeds and plants do not show any visible feature, and conversely, consumers might not be aware of the needs and utility of what producers are offering to them. Subsequently, nutritional information should play an essential role in reducing the asymmetric and imperfect information characterizing iron- and zinc-biofortified crops and creating a growing market for them. To this end, this cumulative dissertation consists of four interrelated papers. The first article, entitled “Consumer acceptance of an iron bean variety in Northwest Guatemala: The role of information and repeated messaging,” analyzes the acceptance of different organoleptic attributes and the willingness to pay for an iron-biofortified variety compared with a popular local variety. It addresses the first research question: What are the impact of nutritional information and its repetition on consumer’s acceptance on the main organoleptic attributes of an iron bean variety in rural Guatemala and the willingness to pay for these varieties compared with the most popular local variety? The impact of receiving information about the nutritional features and the benefits of the biofortified variety and its repetition on the valuation of the attributes tested and on the general acceptance was evaluated. The second paper, “Identifying socioeconomic characteristics defining consumers’ acceptance for main organoleptic attributes of an iron-biofortified variety in Guatemala”, addresses the second research question: Which socioeconomic factors define consumers’ attitudes towards some specific attributes of an iron-biofortified bean variety in rural Guatemala? This article provides a deeper analysis of how consumers’ preferences towards some specific sensory attributes, such as color and taste, are defined by consumers’ socio-demographic characteristics. This is the first time that the socio-demographic characteristics predicting consumers’ preferences for the main sensory attributes of a biofortified variety are analyzed. This analysis allows understanding how those preferences are formed based on respondents’ characteristics and of the differences in consumer acceptance of similar varieties. According to the literature reviewed, men are less interested in health-promoting behaviors, and healthier lifestyle patterns, so nutritional information is expected to have a lesser impact on men’s acceptance of the iron-biofortified varieties tested. A promotion strategy of a biofortified variety based on nutritional information addressed to women could be more cost-effective compared to one addressed to men, as women are generally the primary caretakers of children and they influence food purchase decisions and intra-household distribution of food. Based on this scientific evidence, the third article, “The impact of nutritional information on consumer acceptance of nutritious foods: A gendered analysis of iron-biofortified foods in India, Guatemala, and Rwanda”, addresses the third research question: Which role do gender aspects plays in the impact of nutritional information on the acceptance towards iron-biofortified crops? Another socioeconomic characteristic evaluated is consumer market participation. There is empirical evidence that respondents’ acceptance of a new agricultural product –as a new variety– depends on whether its main role in the market is as a consumer or as a producer. Those with higher participation as a producer will be more interested in those market-oriented attributes, such as size, color, and texture. On the contrary, those that are more consumer-oriented will be interested in attributes, such as taste and time required for cooking. In this same direction, all the consumer acceptance trials with biofortified crops carried out have used grains, and respondents are in most of the cases producers who might be more interested in testing seeds instead of tasting grains when evaluating agronomic attributes. In this sense, the fourth article, “Role of respondent’s market participation on consumer acceptance towards seeds and grains of an iron bean variety” addresses the fourth and final research question: Are respondents’ primary role as consumers or producers and their participation in markets play a significant role in how iron-biofortified crops are evaluated?
Contract farming and its impact on production efficiency and rural household income in the Vietnamese tea sector
(2011) Saigenji, Yoshiko; Zeller, Manfred
Over the last two decades, Vietnam accomplished rapid economic growth under the transitional economy. Significant developments in the agricultural sector brought in by the renovation policy have propelled the country to the rank of the second largest rice exporter in the world. The steady economic growth along with increasing population has led to a rise in demand for agricultural products in the domestic market. Furthermore, Vietnam?s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 is seen to have boosted the country?s economic reforms resulting in greater integration with the global economy. Despite these massive political and economic changes, Vietnam is still struggling with high poverty levels, particularly in the remote North West region. The country?s income poverty rate stands at 15.5% while its reaches a 39.4% in the North West Region of the country (GSO 2007). The North West region, with its mountainous topography and temperate climate, is one of the main and historical tea cultivation areas in Vietnam. Its surrounding big cities offer steady demand for high quality tea produced in this region. In 1999, the Vietnamese government implemented a development plan for tea production for the period of 2005-2010 (Decision 43/1999 QD-TTg) with an aim to increase production, export and create employment. The implementation of this policy was expected to alleviate poverty in the uplands tea producing areas, which are often poor mountainous regions with small scale farming, and limited off-farm income opportunities. Other important public policies measures adopted by Vietnam to stimulate the development of the tea value chain and promote greater access to market for the rural poor farmers include ?the law of Private Enterprise? which was promulgated in 1990, and ?the Enterprise Law? which was enacted in 1999 and revised in 2005. In addition to such public policies, vertical coordination in tea supply chain is required to ensure greater small-scale farmers participation to market. Tea being a perishable agricultural commodity which needs early processing after harvesting, vertical coordination can reduce production and marketing risk faced by small-scale farmers. Contract farming is a type of vertical coordination that encourages small-scale farmers? participation in tea production. It refers to an arrangement between producers and processors to exchange inputs and outputs with pre-agreed price, time, quality and quantity (Singh, 2002). It is also applied widely in the tea sector of North-Western Vietnam. The role of contract farming as a rural development tool has been discussed in many empirical studies. One major thread of that literature is that contract farming permits to link producers with agricultural markets especially in less developed countries. It is argued that contract farming offers advantages for small-holder farmers in ensuring their access to inputs, credit, insurance, information, technology and markets. In economics theory, particularly in the framework of new institutional economics, contract farming is often explained as an institutional response to market failures such as information asymmetric with respect to price and/or quality and the incompleteness or imperfections in the markets for credit, inputs and agricultural services. Transaction cost is one of the important elements in the analysis of market institutions. Empirical studies reveal that high transaction costs discourage small-holders to participate in markets. In tea production, sunk costs associated with high initial investments, and commodity?s perishable and time specific processing characteristics, heighten their asset specificity. This high degree of asset specificity in tea production emphasizes the need for contract farming. Furthermore, contracting is one way to divide risks associated with production and marketing between the firm and the producer. In short the method of contract farming provides a foil for the shortcomings in both parties. The objective of this study is to investigate the importance of income from tea production for the household income of poor small-holder farmers in North West Vietnam. More specifically, given the importance of vertical coordination in agricultural production, the study?s main focus is to investigate the involvement of small-holder farmers in the integrated agro-food channels and evaluate its impact on their livelihood. There are three specific research questions included in the study: 1. Does contract farming enhance production efficiency compared to non-contract farming? 2. What are the differences in socio-economic characteristics of contract and non-contract farmers? 3. How strong is the impact of contract participation on household income? For this study, Moc Chau district, one of the traditional tea producing areas in Vietnam, was selected as the research site. The district has 3,200ha of tea producing area with a total of 6,726 households engaged in tea production. Moc Chau is located 950m above sea level, and has tropical monsoon climate, which is ideal for tea production. Three types of organizational arrangements are found in terms of production and marketing where tea producer were involved: 1. via state-owned enterprise 2. via private company 3. and via direct spot market The population is stratified into four clusters: 1. tea farmers contracting with state-owned enterprise (SOE) 2. tea farmers contracting with private firms or cooperative 3. tea farmers with no contract 4. and non-tea farmers A sample of 40 households was randomly drawn from clusters 1 and 2 each. A larger sample was obtained from each of the clusters 3 and 4, since they serve as control groups with higher heterogeneity and variance with respect to socio-economic and farming characteristics. Overall the samples from the four clusters consisted of 245 farm households. The survey questionnaire included modules on household demography, other socio-economic characteristics and tea production. The socio-economic modules of the questionnaire were based on Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS) methodology. These modules aim to measure and understand the living standards of households. The tea production modules aim to obtain information on production, costs and production efficiency, and the market module consisted with the questions on contract participation associated with socio-economic characteristics of households. In addition, quantitative and qualitative surveys at the village level and on a few selected tea firms were conducted to understand institutional changes in the village and to investigate socio-political factors influencing tea production. The entire survey was conducted during the period between June and November 2007. The first research question was investigated using the Stochastic Production Frontier Function (SPFF) model to estimate the technical efficiency associated with socio-economic characteristics of households, and to assess the difference among the clusters. The results showed high coefficient estimates of partial production elasticity associated with land size and material costs (a sum of costs of fertilizer, manure and pesticide). The SPFF model also identified significantly higher technical efficiency estimate of the group which is in contract with the SOE by applying non-parametric tests. This observation is associated with three different household characteristics: age, education and number of farm income source. Contrary to our initial expectation, living standard of households was not a determining factor for achieving higher technical efficiency. This result threw light on one concern: there might be a selection bias if contract participation is associated with household characteristics. To deal with the problem of homogeneity in the model, a treatment effects model was applied to control selection bias, and estimate and assess the technical efficiency with reduced-bias samples. The second research question was investigated using the Binary Outcome model to find the probability of participation. Ten variables obtained from household survey were included in the model to determine contract participation in a contract farming scheme. The results revealed that six out of ten variables associated with household characteristics are statistically significant determinants of participation in contract farming. The six variables are average age of adults, squared average age of adults, proportion of adults who finished secondary school, years of experience in tea production, number of years of residence in the village, and number of memberships in organizations of adults. The results indicated that older farmers participate more in contracts than younger farmers; perhaps to avoid risks associated with marketing and production. Also, those farmers who have more experience in tea production tend to participate more in a contract farming scheme. Access to information also might be one of the important determinants for farmers to decide to participate in a contract. Longer residence in the village negatively affects contract participation because it broadens farmers? social networks where they can acquire more market information which enables the establishment of their own marketing channels. On the other hand, farmer?s membership in any kind of organizations positively affects contract participation. By being members of an organization, farmers are more exposed to positive information on contracting which might enhance their participation. To assess the impact of contract farming participation on income, the propensity score matching method was applied to reduce the bias in the estimation of the treatment effect of contract farming participation. The estimation revealed a statistically significant, but very small impact of contract farming participation on daily per-capita income of about 900 Vietnamese Dong (VND). The technical efficiency estimate after matching revealed a statistically significant difference between farmers who contract with SOE and non-contract farmers, but there was no statistically significant difference between farmers who contract with private firms and non-contract farmers. Hence, it can be assumed that the SOE provides more precise and experienced extension service or technical advice than the private firms. The empirical study shows that production efficiency and income of households could be increased through participation in contract farming. It also highlights that government can play a crucial role in linking resource-poor farmers to market, particularly in developing countries.
Drought impacts and related risk management by smallholder farmers in developing countries : evidence from Awash River Basin, Ethiopia
(2010) Zeller, Manfred; Keil, Alwin; Murendo, Conrad
Climate risk studies have largely neglected household coping and adaptation strategies. In this paper we analyze drought impacts, drought risk management, and resulting drought resilience in Awash River Basin of Ethiopia based on socio-economic data collected from 43 randomly selected Peasant Associations. We find that severe drought periods have led to a significant depression of crop yields and to widespread death of livestock in the past. Drought periods have drastically increased the proportion of food insecure households and lengthened the duration of food insecurity in the area. Since, with climate change, drought periods are predicted to become more frequent in this region in the future, the problem of food insecurity is likely to become even more severe. Ex-ante adaptation strategies are widely practised in Awash River Basin and include the storage of crop residues as fodder for livestock, the rearing of drought tolerant livestock, mixed cropping, the use of short duration crop varieties, and the adoption of soil and water conservation practices. Ex-post coping strategies utilized to manage the consequences of drought include the sale of assets and the reliance on consumption loans and support offered by informal networks. Therefore, suitable policies are urgently needed to strengthen farmers? capacity to adapt to and cope with drought. Training farmers in the production and conservation of livestock fodder as well as in soil and water conservation practices appear to be key policy options relevant in the area. Moreover, improving farmers? access to climate related information, especially drought forecasts, could improve the timely adoption of effective adaptation measures.
Economy-wide policy modeling of the food-energy-water nexus : identifying synergies and tradeoffs on food, energy, and water security in Malawi
(2017) Schünemann, Franziska; Zeller, Manfred
Food, energy, and water are essential goods for human survival. The three goods are intrinsically connected through economic consumption and production linkages as well as ecological processes. All three are dependent on limited resources which are threatened by global drivers in the form of economic growth, population growth, and climate change that are particularly affecting developing countries. Therefore, a nexus perspective that simultaneously encompasses food, energy, and water has become crucial to avoid resource inefficiencies and to ensure the provision of the three goods for the most vulnerable people. This dissertation contributes to the research on the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus approach through first developing integrated modeling frameworks that capture the linkages between food, energy, and water, in order to secondly identify those policy measures that maximize the synergies for food, energy, and water security and minimize the tradeoffs. To this end, three studies analyze four policies – biofuels production, irrigation expansion, improved cookstoves and agroforestry – that directly affect food, energy, and water security and provide a large scope for realizing synergies. The empirical findings of this dissertation show that policy measures indeed produce some tradeoffs between FEW security, but that – if policies are designed correctly – the tradeoffs can be minimized while simultaneously maximizing the synergies. These findings are an essential contribution to the literature through proving that even in a world with enormous pressures on limited resources, prudent policy making can provide FEW security for all people. Finally, the results demonstrate that the development of integrated modeling frameworks is vital for quantitative analyses of policies that simultaneously affect the economic, social, and environmental spheres to identify the synergies and tradeoffs. This dissertation makes an important methodological contribution to integrated environmental-economic modeling of developing countries and may serve as a starting point for future research on linking the economy and the environment in models.
Fertilizer quality and its impacts on technical efficiency and use intensity in the North China Plain
(2014) Khor, Ling Yee; Zeller, Manfred
There has been a significant increase in agricultural output in the past 50 years. A major factor of this growth is the rise in input use such as fertilizer, especially during the beginning of this period. However, the trend is not uniform throughout the world. Even though there are still regions where fertilizer can contribute greatly to the increase in yield, this input is so overused in some other places that its marginal productivity is no longer significant. In this case, not only is it a waste of valuable resources, it also leads to environmental degradation and pollution that is detrimental to human health. To make matters worse, the quality of the agricultural input itself has been of increasing concern lately. It includes problems such as normal seed being sold as hybrid seed, pesticide that is mixed with less effective chemicals, or fertilizer which contains less nutrient than that labeled on the package. We focus our research on the North China Plain, a region with both fertilizer overuse and fertilizer quality problems. The issue of low fertilizer quality is however not confined to this region only, as recent news reports have indicated that substandard or fake agricultural input is a problem in other countries as well, for example Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Vietnam. In addition, although the analysis presented in this dissertation concentrates on fertilizer, some of the methodology can also be extended to examine the impact of other agricultural inputs with questionable quality, such as seed and pesticide. The main theme of our study is split into three subtopics: efficiency, wealth effect, and use intensity, with each of them focusing on a different aspect of the impact from low quality fertilizer. The main contribution of this dissertation is that despite the widespread problem of fertilizer quality, we believe we are the first to examine its impact both theoretically and empirically on efficiency and use intensity. The theoretical contribution includes deriving the bias that exists if one were to ignore the quality aspect in the estimation of production functions and technical efficiency, especially if the research area is located at one of the places with fertilizer quality problems, such as China and the other affected countries. We also provide a theoretical framework that reconciles the different findings in the literature on the direction of wealth effect on fertilizer use. It offers a consistent explanation on why the wealth effect can be different when we are looking at regions or farmers of different wealth levels. Empirically, the dissertation quantifies the magnitude of estimation bias in input elasticity and technical efficiency in our research region of North China Plain. It also supports our theoretical derivation and shows that the direction of wealth effect is not fixed across farmers of different wealth levels. Finally, the integration of fertilizer testing into a household survey allows us to look closer at the link between perceived and true fertilizer quality, as well as how they affect the fertilizer use intensity of the farmers. The worsening fertilizer quality issue in the North China Plain is of great concern because - as this dissertation research shows - it leads to an increase in fertilizer use, which is already excessive in the area. This is not only a waste of valuable resources reducing economic efficiency but also causes environmental and health problems, e.g. through pollution of ground water. The currently implemented policy of subsidizing the fertilizer manufacturers is a double whammy in this regard because by keeping the price of the product low, it encourages the usage of an input that is already overused. It also makes the quality control of the fertilizer in the market more difficult, with the presence of so many small scale producers that are inefficient. In view of these deficiencies, it would be better to shift the policy focus from price reduction to quality improvement. A suggestion is to facilitate the award of quality labels to satisfactory products with regular third-party testing of the fertilizer to ensure that its quality does not deteriorate after receiving the label. The honest producers in the industry could also help set up a sector-wide monitoring body to prevent their image from being tarnished by the less responsible manufacturers. An additional recommendation is to increase the resources and staff available to extension service in order to increase the information flow between policymakers and farmers.
Impact evaluation of improved rice varieties and farmer training on food security and technical efficiency in The Gambia
(2016) Dibba, Lamin; Zeller, Manfred
This dissertation aims to evaluate the impact of improved rice varieties and farmer training programs that have been introduced to boost local rice production in The Gambia. Rice is the main staple crop of The Gambia. The per capita consumption level of rice is estimated at 117 kg per annum, which is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. The annual consumption of rice is estimated at 195, 811 metric tons, out of which only 51,137 metric tons are produced nationally. This huge deficit is met through imports, at an estimated cost of about US$ 50 million annually. As a result, the government is committed to attaining rice self-sufficiency. To achieve this objective, currents efforts have concentrated on the introduction of yield increasing improved rice varieties and farmer training programs. To evaluate how such improved rice varieties and farmer training programs are contributing towards the achievement of rice self-sufficiency in The Gambia is the main focus of this dissertation. To evaluate the impact of improved rice varieties and farmer training programs, this study has obtained a country-wide data from rice growing communities and households that were selected through a multi-stage stratified random sampling procedure. Data were obtained during 2006 and 2010 rice cropping seasons. The data collected were used to address three research topics: (1) How accessibility to seeds affects the potential adoption of an improved rice variety: The case of The New Rice for Africa (NERICA) in The Gambia, (2) The impact of New Rice for Africa (NERICA) adoption on household food security and health in The Gambia, and (3) The impact of agricultural training on technical efficiency of smallholder rice producers in The Gambia. These research topics are the main pillars of this dissertation. The aim of the first research topic was to assess the population adoption rate of NERICA and its determinants. The NERICA is a high yielding rice variety that was officially introduced in The Gambia in 2003. The introduction of NERICA was an attempt taken by the government to increase rice production and productivity in the country. This study focuses on two main constraints that limit the adoption of NERICA: awareness and access to its seeds. We used the treatment evaluation technique to address these constraints and estimate the true population adoption rate of NERICA in The Gambia. The results of our analysis show that the NERICA population adoption rate could have been 76% instead of the observed 66% sample estimate in 2010 provided that every rice farmer had been aware of NERICA’s existence before the 2010 rice growing season. However, further investigation finds that if all the rice farmers had been aware of and had access to NERICA seeds, adoption would have been 92%. The results further show that if awareness had not been a constraint, 16% of farmers would have failed to adopt NERICA due to lack of access to NERICA seeds. We found farmer contact with extension services and access to in-kind credit as significant determinants of access to and adoption of NERICA varieties. The policy implication of these findings is to increase farmer contact with extension and facilitate access to in-kind credit services like improved seeds to all the rice farming communities. This is likely to increase awareness and access to NERICA seeds, which can help to significantly close the population adoption gap of NERICA in The Gambia. Moreover, when efforts are made to make the entire rice farming population aware of the existence of NERICA varieties and also make the seeds of NERICA accessible to all rice farmers, then it will not be meaningful for future research to attempt to further estimate population adoption rate of NERICA in The Gambia. Under such circumstance, a more meaningful estimate of adoption is given by assessing the intensity of technology use among adopters. For the case of NERICA varieties, it will be more interesting to know the share of total rice area famers are allocating to NERICA varieties. This will give a better picture regarding the desirability of the NERICA technology by the target rice farming population. The second research topic attempts to identify improvements in household food security and health outcome indicators that can be attributed to NERICA adoption. We used food consumption scores (FCS) and sick days per capita among farm households’ members as outcome indicators of food security and health, respectively. Since NERICA adoption is a decision made by rice farmers, we assume that this selection decision is partly based on unobservable factors, for example, farmers’ attitude towards work. Therefore, we used the instrumental variable approach to identify causal effects of NERICA adoption on food security and health. The results of our analysis show significant differences in some key socio-economic and demographic characteristics between NERICA adopters and non-adopters. These adopting households. However, the results of our analysis have shown no significant impact of NERICA adoption on health. This could be attributed to the fact that we used information on all household members to create number of sick days per capita. Given the limited scope of the survey data regarding health, more precise indicators of health, such as detailed individual recall data on specific diseases, anthropometric data, or other health indicators were not available. Number of sick days per capita is a highly noisy indicator which tend to be negatively correlated with household size. When one individual respondent reports on the health status of all households members, it can lead to under estimation if the household is large. For this reason, we recommend that future studies that intend to identify the impact of NERICA adoption on health should focus on individual recall data, which may be a better outcome indicator. Finally, the third research topic aims to identify improvements in technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers that can be attributed to agricultural rice farmer training programs introduced in The Gambia to increase rice production and productivity. Technical efficiency is a measure of how the use of best rice farming practices affects the total yield of rice farmers. Technical efficiency is achieved when it is not possible to increase output without increasing inputs. Due to technical inefficiencies, there is a huge gap between actual and potential yields of rice farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. For instance, the rice yield of upland farmers, in sub-Saharan Africa, is estimated at 1 t/ha whereas the yields at research stations ranges between 2.5 to 5 t/ha. This yield gap is mainly attributed to inappropriate farming practices and lack of farmers’ access to modern inputs that influence efficiency in farmers’ fields. As a result, this study assesses how the introduction of best agricultural rice farming practices, through agricultural training programs, affects the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in The Gambia. In the first stage, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique to estimate technical efficiency scores for each sampled household and used Tobit regression to identify factors influencing technical efficiency. In the second stage, we employ propensity score matching to assess program impact on participants using technical efficiency scores as our outcome indicator. The results of the analysis indicate that agricultural training significantly increases technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers by 10 percent. This translates to rice yield increase of 260 kg/ha, which results in net social and private benefits per annum of US$ 43700 for 900 rice farming households and 30 extension agents, and US$ 53 per household, respectively. Our analysis of investment on agricultural training yields a Net Present Value (NPV) of US$ 195816, a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 5.3 and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 99%. These results justify increased investment on agricultural training programs to boost rice production and productivity. Further analysis to identify determinants of technical efficiency show farmer’s contact with extension workers and a farmer’s association membership as significant factors influencing technical efficiency. The significance of farmer’s contact with extension and association membership in determining technical efficiency indicates that extension contact and association membership could be important impact pathways to improve technical efficiency among smallholder farmers. The policy implication of these findings is to encourage rice farmers, through agricultural extension services, to be members of rice farmers associations and motivate them to meet regularly to exchange ideas and information about new developments within and outside their rice farming communities. Moreover, we define agricultural training as participation in at least one rice farmer training program. Since some training programs are likely to be more effective than others, defining participation as receipt of at least one training on rice cultivation practices is likely to underestimate the impact of highly effective training programs. Consequently, we recommend that future studies that intend to assess the impact of agricultural training on technical efficiency should identify specific training programs and assess their impact on technical efficiency separately.
Impacts of fertilizer subsidy on farm-level productivity and food security : a case study of rice-producing households in Northtern Ghana
(2015) Wiredu, Alexander Nimo; Zeller, Manfred
Subsidies are policy tools that support specific sectors of an economy with the intention of revamping performance or protecting a sector. They are often criticized as ineffective policy tools since they can lead to dependency or even crowd out the private sector. Depending on the implementation strategy and the situation, policies can be beneficial, destructive, or have no apparent impact. Despite the debate about their appropriateness as policy tools, input subsidies have been re-introduced in sub-Saharan Africa with the initial intention of mitigating the effect of global food price hikes, which peaked in 2008. The new generation of subsidy programs are expected to improve access and use of fertilizers, increase agricultural production and productivity, and ultimately improve the well-being of arable crop farmers. So far, evidence only available for countries in eastern Africa, suggests that the programs have largely succeeded in increasing productivity, production, incomes, and food security. Between 2008 and 2013, the Government of Ghana spent over United States Dollar (USD) 215 million on 724,005 metric tons (MT) of subsidized fertilizers. Justification of these expenditures is therefore necessary. This research is motivated by the quest to provide evidence on the impacts the new subsidy programs in Western Africa. The research identifies and assesses the impacts of the Fertilizer Subsidy Program of Ghana on farm-level performance and food security of rice-producing households in the northern part of the country. Rice-producing households are the focus since rice is a commodity of strategic economic importance in Ghana, as well as in Africa as a whole. This is because domestic demand for rice in Ghana is far higher than domestic supply, causing a gap which is filled by imports. The cost of importing rice is paid for with scarce foreign currency. This situation may threaten national food security. The fertilizer subsidy is an imperative component of the national rice development strategy as it seeks to improve access to fertilizers with the aim to enhance productivity and production. Northern Ghana contributes about 30% of the nation’s rice production and has the potential to increase this share. Meanwhile, agriculture in northern Ghana is rain-fed and farmers struggle with declining soil fertility, which negatively impacts productivity and food security. Increasing fertilizer use through the subsidy could greatly improve the livelihoods of rice-producing households in northern Ghana. This research begins with an exploratory study on determinants of fertilizer adoption among 330 smallholder farmers. This exploratory study is, however, less robust since the sampled households were likely to be beneficiaries of a soil health project from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and, selectivity bias associated with participation in the subsidy program was not accounted for. The study however shows that fertilizer adoption decisions are in two stages. It recommends the need for regular training of members of farmer based organizations as a way of improving farm-level performance through the adoption of fertilizer. This recommendation is more general as it does not analyze any specific agricultural production system. The study provides useful insights on the design of activities and on analytic procedures which address the core questions of this research. Chapter 3 contains a more in-depth study of fertilizer use in rice-growing households. It examines the role of the fertilizer subsidy program in fertilizer adoption decisions based on data from a cross-section of 820 systematically selected rice-producing households. The analyses show that these rice-producing households use different combinations of fertilizers. Overall, nearly 67% use at least one type of fertilizer and 44% use a combination of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) and ammonium (NH4) fertilizers. Using Cragg’s two-step regression models, the fertilizer subsidy program is shown to increase the probability and intensity of fertilizer adoption. The study shows that effective adoption of the recommended combination of NPK and NH4 fertilizers can be achieved by linking farmers to training programs on good agricultural practices. Moreover, enhancing access to information and complementary technologies can improve adoption of the recommended fertilizer combination. Chapter 4 assesses the impact of the program on farm-level productivity and computes partial factor productivity of land and labor using the same database as the previous chapter. The average land productivity of rice, 1,309 kg/ha, is still below the national and global average of 2,539 kg/ha and 4,548 kg/ha, respectively. Correcting for endogeneity of participation in the fertilizer subsidy program, the estimated local average treatment effect (LATE) impact parameters show that the fertilizer subsidy increases land productivity modestly and decreases labor productivity. Increased access to fertilizers requires the use of additional labor for fertilizer application. The negative impact of the subsidy program on productivity may be because yield increases are not enough to compensate for the extra labor employed. Including the provision of labor saving technologies and intensive training in productivity enhancing techniques as part of fertilizer subsidy programs may help unleash the full benefits of the program. Chapter 5 examines the impact of the program on food security. More specifically, a sample of 740 rice-producing households is used to compute the amount of calories, proteins, and fats consumed in the abundant, normal, and lean periods of the year. The results show that at any point in time, some households are food insecure. The incidence of food insecurity is highest during lean periods and lowest during periods of abundance, implying instability in household food security throughout the year. Most households have adequate access to calories and proteins, although the majority does not have access to an adequate amount of fats. Improving the crop mix to include crops that can provide adequate access to these nutrients is recommended to improve food security. This part of the research also used the LATE procedure to estimate the impact of the subsidy program on food security. The results show a positive impact of the subsidy program on the nutritional value consumed food and the effect is highest during the lean period. In conclusion, this thesis shows that the fertilizer subsidy program is effective at increasing the adoption of fertilizers. The program increases the land productivity of rice, but decreases labor productivity. The subsidy leads to significant improvements in the food security of rice-producing households. Linking fertilizer subsidy programs to productivity enhancing interventions and the availability of complementary technologies is necessary to maximize its impact. Technology adoption studies should endeavor to consider technologies as a package, instead of individual components. Going forward, it is recommended that the Government should compare the cost effectiveness of the subsidy program to alternative policy options, such as rice importation, to guide the allocation of scarce financial resources. The focus of this study on lowland rice-ecologies in northern Ghana limits the ability to extend the recommendations to other rice ecologies and to the country as a whole. Nevertheless, the recommendations may be useful for neighboring countries which have similar ecologies, such as Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.
Institutional change in Cuba's agricultural sector
(2010) Jaffe Lopez, Mercedes Isabel; Zeller, Manfred
Cuba has a low agricultural production and depends on costly food imports. The partial reforms advanced by the government during the 1990s seem to have failed in increasing productivity or output. Due to a lack of primary research in the agricultural sector, little is known about the incentives and constraints that producers face. This dissertation seeks to contribute in the reduction of this knowledge gap and proposes a new way of understanding the transition in the agricultural sector in Cuba. The role of the institutions governing this sector is studied in order to evaluate the main problems of different producer types and the possibilities and constraints of reform towards a more productive agriculture. The dissertation is organized around three papers. The analyses presented in these papers use quantitative and qualitative data collected during two field trips in 2007-2008 and 2009, as well as secondary data from publications, news and official statistics. The first paper describes the sector?s institutional framework and compares the performance of different producer types that include state farms, semi-independent collectives, and private producers. These producers differ in their access to illegal markets, and in their property rights for land and cattle. Private farmers have more incentives to produce due to their stronger user rights, resulting in a better productive performance when compared to state and state-dependent collective farms. The results cast doubt on the prevailing idea that production problems result from technical or resources deficiencies. The second paper deals with the largest producer type described in the first paper, by exploring poverty and food access of collective farm households with the use of principal component analysis and other methods. It is found that relative poverty and food security depend on the household?s access to individual and collective resources for subsistence production. The main productive activities and the economic performance of the state-dependent collective farms have no correlation with the poverty status of their workers, exposing incentive problems at worker level. The third paper investigates the constraints that have led to the failure of adopting economically efficient institutions by evaluating the historical political power dynamics in Cuba?s agricultural sector. It is found that the institutions adopted aim to limit the accumulation of political power by private producers. Economic crises that threaten the political elite have caused the partial and temporary adoption of free markets and the distribution of state land to private farmers. These reforms, however, have been blocked by the bureaucrats as they lose political power. The papers show that the incomplete and insecure property rights regime in Cuba results in low overall productivity caused by incentive and other problems. In the case of the state-dependent collective farms, this increases the poverty and food insecurity of the workers, while hurting the supply of rationed food to the general population. The institutional setup is a result of power dynamics where the elite, using the bureaucracy, tries to minimize the political threat of organized private producers by limiting their accumulation of wealth. Successful reform of the agricultural sector would require a redefinition of the power bases and relationships between the government and political stakeholders such as the bureaucracy and other groups (for example the civic society) by allowing participation of these stakeholders in the shaping of the reforms. The dissertation concludes by presenting an outlook for research and the international development organizations working in the country.
Land titling policy and soil conservation in the uplands of Northern Vietnam
(2008) Dung, Pham Thi My; Saint-Macary, Camille; Keil, Alwin; Zeller, Manfred; Heidhues, Franz
In Vietnam, a quasi private property regime has been established in 1993 with the issuance of exchangeable and mortgageable long term land use right certificates. Using primary qualitative and quantitative data collected in a mountainous district of Northern Vietnam, this paper investigates the role of the land policy in the adoption of soil conservation technologies by farmers. This issue is of crucial importance in the region where population growth and growing market demands have induced farmers to intensify agricultural production. While poverty has been reduced, environmental problems such as soil erosion, landslides, and declining soil fertility have become more severe over the past years. Among the abundant literature on the impact of property rights and formal land titles in developing countries, only a few studies have focused on the adoption of soil conservation technologies: an important element in sustainable development strategies of fragile agro-ecological areas confronted with increasing population densities. Our findings suggest that soil conservation technologies are perceived as being economically unattractive; therefore, most upland farmers continue to practice the prevailing erosion-prone cultivation system. Focusing on agroforestry as one major soil conservation option, we estimate household and plot level econometric models to empirically assess the determinants of adoption. We find that the possession of a formal land title influences adoption, but that the threat of land re-allocations in villages discourages adoption by creating uncertainty and tenure insecurity. We conclude that more efforts are needed from decision-makers to promote and support the adoption of conservation practices and to clarify objectives of the land policy in order to secure land tenure and foster sustainable development in fragile areas.
Landslides in mountainous regions of Northern Vietnam : causes, protection strategies and the assessment of economic losses
(2008) Zeller, Manfred; Saint-Macary, Camille; Pham, Van Dinh; Nguyen, Minh Duc; Keil, Alwin; Heinke, Antonia; Frör, Oliver; Ahlheim, Michael
Landslides are a severe problem during the rainy season in many mountainous regions in Asia where forests have been cut so that mountain slopes are destabilized. In this study we analyze the extent and causes of landslides in a mountainous area in Northern Vietnam as viewed from the perspective of the concerned population. We also scrutinize the ideas of these people regarding suitable landslide protection measures and their willingness to contribute to the practical implementation of these measures. It shows that nearly all people living in this area feel highly concerned about the frequent landslide events and that they support the idea of government programs to mitigate the danger of future landslides. We measure the utility they expect from such a landslide protection program, i. e. the social value of such a program, in terms of their willingness to contribute personally to its implementation. Since budgets are tight in these rural areas where subsistence farming still prevails we also analyze the possibilities to measure these expected utility gains in terms of people's willingness to contribute working time instead of money to the proposed landslide protection program. The prospect of employing such an alternative means of contribution is, however, seen rather critical.
Linkages between poverty and sustainable agricultural and rural development in the uplands of Southeast Asia
(2008) Zeller, Manfred; Beuchelt, Tina; Fischer, Isabel; Heidhues, Franz
Most of the upland areas of Southeast Asia are characterized by insufficient infrastructure, low productivity in smallholder crop and animal production, mounting environmental problems such as soil and forest degradation and loss of biodiversity, increasing population pressure, and widespread poverty, particular in rural areas. While some upland areas in South East Asia have been experiencing considerable progress during the past twenty years, others have stagnated or even declined with respect to economic, social and environmental objectives of development. The purpose of the paper is to describe major trends regarding sustainable development in the upland areas of selected countries in South East Asia, and review explanatory approaches for the observed trends based on case studies from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The conceptual framework for this paper builds on the critical triangle of sustainable rural development. Here, equity or poverty alleviation, economic growth, and the protection of the environment are the three major policy objectives. We further distinguish three explanatory approaches for land use change and agricultural and rural development. Apart from the market approach and the population approach, we suggest that future studies should focus more on governance issues as a major driving force of land use change. The governance approach appears particularly relevant for upland areas which are often politically and institutionally marginalized. The paper begins with a review of definitions of sustainability, and proceeds with a conceptual analysis of the two-way linkages between poverty and the environment, and poverty and economic growth in rural areas. This is followed by empirical findings from research on agriculture and forestry as the major land uses in upland areas of selected South East Asian countries. Based on the results of different case studies from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia, we seek to contrast stories of relative success with those of failure. The paper concludes with implications for rural and agricultural development policies, and suggests future areas of research.
Maize boom in the uplands of Northern Vietnam : economic importance and environmental implications
(2008) Zeller, Manfred; Saint-Macary, Camille; Keil, Alwin
In Vietnam, the demand for meat products has grown dramatically due to rapid economic growth and urbanisation and is expected to further increase in the future. Being the primary source of feed for the country?s livestock and poultry industry, maize has become the second most important crop after rice. While this maize boom has the potential to reduce rural poverty, it promotes the expansion of agricultural cultivation into fragile agro-ecological zones, often leading to deforestation and soil degradation, especially in the uplands. Using empirical evidence from mountainous Yen Chau district in north-western Vietnam, the objective of this paper is to investigate the current economic importance and environmental implications of maize cultivation. Furthermore, particular emphasis is placed on the identification of factors influencing farmers? decision how much area to allocate to maize in order to derive research and policy recommendations. Maize is the dominant crop in Yen Chau, covering most of the uplands and generating the lion?s share of households? cash income. Although farmers are well aware of soil erosion on their maize plots, effective soil conservation measures are rarely practiced. Maize is attractive to farmers from all social strata, notably the poor, and through marketing arrangements with traders its cultivation is also not constrained by poor infrastructural conditions. Access to low-interest credit should be enhanced to mitigate farmers? risk of being caught in a poverty trap when maize revenues plummet due to pests, diseases, price fluctuations, or adverse weather conditions. To address the problem of soil degradation in the maize-dominated uplands, research is needed on soil conservation options that are economically more attractive than those promoted thus far.
Microeconomic analysis of policies addressing food security, water and energy trade-offs in Malawi
(2017) McNulty, Emily; Zeller, Manfred
The increasing pressure from the world’s population on limited natural resources has reached an urgent level. The global demand for water, food, and energy is unsustainable, and poses a threat to human health, political stability, and environmental well-being. The poor in developing countries are most vulnerable to the negative effects of the exploitation of constrained resources, and the segregation of development programs by sector means that policy interventions do little to help. Currently, development policies are created in isolation from one another, within their own sectoral realms, and inter-sector coordination is rare. Policy interventions that affect more than one sector are key to holistic, sustainable development, but because they face an ownership issue, not falling under any one sector’s jurisdiction, they often go unaddressed. The alternative to the status quo is the use of a nexus perspective, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of sectors and seeks to implement policy interventions with the best net outcomes. Policy makers are encouraged to adopt “systems thinking”, to resist over-focused investments and interventions, and to seek regulatory cooperation. The body of nexus literature is growing mainly with the establishment of theoretical frameworks and macroeconomic studies that model outcomes of nexus interventions. This thesis contributes to the pool of nexus literature with microeconomic studies that are evaluated from the perspective of the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus. Microeconomic analysis is valuable to the nexus perspective not only because it informs macroeconomic models, but also because it provides empirical evidence of nexus forces at work. The subjects of the three studies contained in this thesis are smallholder farmers in Dedza, Malawi. The first study investigates the farmers’ willingness to invest in communally-owned irrigation schemes and the household socioeconomic characteristics that determine that willingness. The study is intended to inform Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) programs, to help smooth the process of the transfer of irrigation scheme ownership from the government to local stakeholders. The promotion of IMT programs is considered a FEW nexus intervention because irrigation affects not only the water sector, but also the energy and food sectors. The second study in this thesis elicits smallholder farmers’ preferences for a conditional cash transfer (CCT) over a fertilizer subsidy coupon, with the intent of presenting policy makers with an alternative to Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP). The narrow focus of the FISP, combined with its astronomical budget and disputed impact, indicate that it is time for an alternative, nexus-oriented intervention. The conditionality of a CCT means it can be targeted directly at certain sectors, and because beneficiaries are free to spend the cash as they choose, the impact will be spread over all three sectors. The third study in this thesis explores smallholder farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for improved cookstoves (ICS) and the socioeconomic characteristics that determine their WTP, to assist ICS promoting programs with pricing and targeting. Widespread sustained ICS adoption and the resulting fuel savings would directly affect the food and energy sectors, and indirectly affect the water sector. The high morbidity rates caused by reliance on biomass fuels for cooking would decline with sustained ICS adoption and proper use, resulting in human health improvements that would affect all three nodes of the nexus. There would be further indirect effects on all three sectors resulting from advancements in gender equality and climate change mitigation. While the findings of these studies have interesting implications for the FEW nexus, the interventions in question should be applied in an economy-wide model to determine the nexus effects. Such coordination of micro- and macroeconomic research, coupled with the inter-sector perspective, characterize the nexus approach and the future of development policy.
Microeconomic impacts of institutional transformation in Vietnam?s Northern uplands : empirical studies on social capital, land and credit institutions
(2012) Saint-Macary, Camille; Zeller, Manfred
Vietnam's economic achievement over the last two decades is frequently regarded as a successful case of development. The Doi Moi reform program enacted in 1986 gradually led the transition from a centrally-planned to a market-oriented economy. In rural areas, reforms entailed a deep transformation of institutions and were aimed at placing back farmers at the center of decision making as a way to boost agricultural production and alleviate poverty. Agricultural markets were gradually liberalized, user rights were transferred to smallholder farmers for most of the agricultural land, and anti-poverty programs were implemented. At the national level, the high economic growths in all sectors of the economy have permitted a drastic reduction of poverty. These successes however did not take place evenly through the country. Mountainous regions and its inhabitants have lagged behind in the process. The poverty incidence in the Northern Uplands was still twice as large in 2008 than in the rest of the country. In addition, the rapid population growth combined with the intensification and expansion of agricultural systems into fragile ecosystems have considerably increased pressure on natural resources. This accentuates the risk for resource-based economies such as Vietnam?s mountainous regions to get trapped in a vicious circle whereby environmental degradation and poverty mutually reinforce each other and durably undermine economic development. The existence of complex relations between poverty and environmental degradation in fragile ecosystems implies that equity, economic growth and environmental sustainability cannot be treated as separate objectives but must jointly be addressed to ensure sustainable development. Drawing on a conceptual framework that highlights the determinant role of institutions in the poverty-environment nexus, this thesis investigates to which extent the current institutional framework addresses objectives of equity, economic growth and environmental sustainability. It focuses on three critical dimensions: the definition of property rights, the functioning of intertemporal markets, and social capital. More specifically, the thesis addresses the following research questions: (i) Has the individualization of land access and land titling policy enhanced tenure security, and thereby increased the adoption of soil conservation practices? (ii) Has a land market emerged in the study area? (iii) Is the credit market equitable and efficient? Does state intervention induce a more equitable and efficient allocation than other sectors? (iv) Does ethnic diversity undermine collective action and the formation of social networks? These questions are investigated empirically in the six chapters of this thesis. Analyses build on a rich and primary quantitative household- and village-level dataset collected in 2007/2008 in Yen Chau, a mountainous district of the Northern Upland region, as well as on qualitative information gathered in the field through focus group discussions and informal discussions with local stakeholders. Successes of the land reform lie in its egalitarian character which enables most farmers to cultivate land with long term user rights. Yet, results show that tenure security is not fully guaranteed and land reallocations conducted by the government as well as its indecision regarding the prolongation of land use rights at the end of their term have created mistrust and uncertainty. The incertitude is found to impede the adoption of soil conservation technologies and to hamper the land market, depriving the local economy from potentially important equity and efficiency gains, and threatening environmental sustainability. The credit market, thanks to good levels of social capital, is found to function relatively well and enable all farmers including the poor to finance agricultural input and consumption through loans. The state-governed formal sector, despite offering competitive contract terms remains a secondary credit source, particularly for the poor. The costly micro-credit program of the government fails to reach the poor and is found to have only limited impact on welfare. This inefficiency causes an important leakage of state resources. Finally, we do not find as predicted by the literature, that ethnic heterogeneity undermines participation in local organizations and the formation of social networks. This impact appears to depend on the political nature of organizations, and the public nature of goods managed. Moreover, evidence shows that heterogeneity encourages bridging connections among farmers and constitutes as such a factor that can foster innovations and economic development. The contributions of this thesis are twofold. First, it identifies sources of success and failure in the current institutional framework to promote sustainable development in Vietnam?s mountainous areas from which we derive policy recommendations. Evidence in this thesis highlights limitations of the top-down approach that dominates public intervention in mountainous areas. These interventions are usually costly and not always successful in enhancing equity, efficiency and the environmental sustainability of resource use. This stresses the need for the Vietnamese government to further enhance the functioning of incentive-based mechanisms in the economy as a complement to current policies. In this perspective, the clarification of the land reform objectives, the development of a land market, the promotion of independent and financially sustainable financial institutions, the reinforcement of the legal system, and the support of the emergence of an independent civil society are all measures that may support sustainable development in Vietnam?s mountainous regions.
Nachwachsende Rohstoffe : entwicklungspolitisch einmal anders gedacht
(2011) Zeller, Manfred; Breuer, Thomas; Henckes, Christian; Loos, Tim K.
Steigende Agrarpreise, und damit steigende Nahrungsmittelpreise, beleben die Diskussion über die Notwendigkeit der ?Non-Food?-Nutzung (Anbau von Energiepflanzen, aber auch Pflanzen für die stoffliche Nutzung, z.B. Holz oder Kautschuk) von Agrarrohstoffen. Dieses Diskussionspapier betrachtet die allgemeinen Brennpunkte der Debatte und erörtert speziell die Möglichkeiten von Biotreibstoffen als Triebkraft für Investitionen in Infrastruktur und Marktzugang im ländlichen Raum und als Treiber der Nachhaltigkeitsdiskussion im Agrarsektor der Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländer. Auf lange Sicht ist die konkurrierende Nutzung von Land für Energie- und Nahrungsmittelpflanzen differenziert zu betrachten. Kurz- bis mittelfristig jedoch ist die energetische und stoffliche Nutzung von Agrarprodukten eine alternative Markt- und damit auch Einkommensmöglichkeit für die Landwirtschaft. In den Industrieländern bietet der Anbau von nachwachsenden Rohstoffen die Möglichkeit, Überschussproduktionen einzudämmen und Exportsubventionen abzubauen. Damit wird auch deren preissenkender Einfluss auf den Weltmarkt abgebaut. In den Entwicklungsländern könnten sich dadurch Produktionsanreize im Agrarsektor ergeben, die, ausgelöst durch landwirtschaftliche- und außerlandwirtschaftliche Beschäftigungseffekte, eine Armutsreduktion induzieren könnten. Zusätzlich besteht die Möglichkeit, den lokalen Energiebedarf mit ökologisch nachhaltigen Ressourcen zu unterstützen und damit den Kleinbauern neben dem Marktzugang auch die Möglichkeit zur lokalen Veredelung zu bieten. Allerdings würde sich die Situation für Erzeuger in Entwicklungsländern noch zusätzlich verbessern, wenn Industrieländer nicht die Erzeugung von nachwachsenden Rohstoffen (NawaRo) subventionieren, sondern auf tarifäre und nichttarifäre Importbarrieren für Agrarprodukte, inklusive der nachwachsenden Rohstoffe, verzichten würden. Im Zusammenhang mit der Förderung von nachwachsenden Rohstoffen stellen sich der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit verschiedene Herausforderungen. Um eine breitenwirksame Armutsminderung zu erzielen, muss vor allem die kleinbäuerliche Landwirtschaft unterstützt werden. Hierzu sollten Ansätze verfolgt werden, in denen die bäuerlichen Produktionssysteme, wegen ihrer Beschäftigungseffekte, mit agro-industriellen Verarbeitungsmöglichkeiten kombiniert werden. In diesem Zusammenhang besteht die Notwendigkeit und die Möglichkeit, die sozialen (inkl. breitenwirksames Wachstum) und ökologischen (Erhalt und Förderung der natürlichen Ressouren) Bedingungen der Produktion aller Agrarrohstoffe nachhaltig zu gestalten.