Agricultural insurance products have been piloted in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to address climate related risks faced by farmers. However, these products in general face low rates of adoption in SSA. Factors and challenges that may explain the low uptake of index-based insurance products in SSA are reviewed in this paper with the objective of assessing and documenting (i) the insurance products available to farmers, (ii) factors influencing farmers to purchase insurance products, (iii) challenges limiting farmers ...

Milk production is a socio-economically relevant activity for many small-scale family farms in southern Brazil. The objective of this study was to analyse their production and marketing strategies. A questionnaire was administered to 199 farm households in Rio Grande do Sul State to collect information on farm assets and activities, and particularly on the contribution of milk sale to farm income. Through categorical principal component analysis and two-step clustering, farmers were classified into three types: farmers ...

To promote pro-poor payments for environmental services, it is necessary to identify institutional options that reduce transaction costs and organisational problems associated with establishing and maintaining contracts with small-scale environmental service providers. This study examined the dual functionality of state forest enterprises (SFEs) in the implementation of the Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) Program in Vietnam. We considered whether SFEs’ involvement in the programme could reduce ...

Smallholder supply chain participation remains low despite the potential welfare gains that would result from choosing a market-oriented production. Yet, studies on determinants of market participation for commodities with underdeveloped value chains are scanty. Employing a double-hurdle model, this paper examines factors determining households’ participation in cavy marketing among cavy farmers from Sud-Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We find that wealthier households participated less in cavy ...

Social grants are an important instrument of social protection in South Africa, reaching millions of the poor each month. Although social grants have been found to reduce poverty and promote human development, considerable uncertainty remains about some of their incentive effects. This study uses a sample of 984 rural households selected from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to investigate the potential incentive/dis-incentive effects of social grant-dependency on rural households’ participation in farming activities. ...

Fumonisin B1 (FB1), a contaminant of agricultural products, particularly maize worldwide is known to be consumed by farm animals and has been documented to cause various physiological responses in animals. A 15-week trial on the ameliorative potential of vitamin E on the negative impacts of FB_1 on reproductive performance of rabbits was conducted. Forty-nine female rabbits aged 16 to 18 weeks weighing 1.65 to 2.0 kg body weight were assigned to seven experimental feeding groups: the control group received a diet ...

In order to promote poultry farming in resource-limited rural areas, the effects of feeding restriction with cassava flour on the carcass composition of broilers was studied. After three weeks on a restrictive diet (step 1), the broilers were re-fed during four weeks according to their physiological needs (step 2). In total, 75 four-weeks old chicks were randomly divided into three lots of 25 subjects. Lot I (control) is fed without cassava flour. The lots II and III are fed with diets containing respectively 10 and ...

Numerous pests and diseases of yams are perpetuated from season to season through the use of infected seed material. Developing a system for generating healthy seed material would disrupt this disease cycle and reduce losses in field and storage. The use of various pre-plant treatments was evaluated in field experiments carried out at three sites in Nigeria. Yam tubers of four preferred local cultivars were cut into 100 g setts and treated with pesticide (fungicide + insecticide mixture), neem extract (1 : 5 w/v), ...

This paper studies access to, and adoption of improved seed, as well as the diffusion of improved seed information in a remote area of central Madagascar. The analysis is based on panel data gathered from 2012 to 2014 from 390 households in three villages. In 2013, a randomised control trial was applied. Half of the 390 households were randomly assigned to receive improved lima bean seed (Phaseolus lunatus), which were specifically bred for dry regions. Of the seed-receiving households, 50 % were randomly assigned ...

This study focused on the production outcomes for five crops cultivated in Senegal: upland rice, lowland rice, groundnut, maize, and pearl millet. Technical efficiency (TE) of the production of each crop was estimated using data envelopment analysis, and the determinants of TEs were assessed using generalised linear regression analyses. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews with 66 farmers in the Kaolack region of Central Senegal during November 2011–February 2012. Average TEs for upland rice, lowland rice, ...