eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 3 12 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.3-12 -1 article Wofai Onen OBETEN Elizabeth Samuel EBUKIBA Moradeyo Adebanjo OTITOJU Research background: Poor pest management decisions in crop production highly pronounced in most developing countries including Nigeria, result in huge crop losses, human health challenges and environmental degradation, detrimental to sustainable agriculture, food sufficiency and security. Identifying the factors influencing pest management decisions among maize farming households and providing effective solutions by relevant stakeholders can reduce crop losses and reduce the harmful effect to human health and the environment due to harmful pest management practices. Purpose of the article: The research was carried out to determine the factors influencing pest management decisions among maize farming households in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, in order to provide effective and appropriate solutions capable of enhancing pest management decisions and invariably reducing crop losses due to pests, as well as reduce the harmful effect to human health and the environment caused by harmful pest management and control practices. Methods: Multistage sampling technique was the sampling method used, where 324 maize farmers were correctly sampled as respondents for this study. Primary data were collected from the respondents using a well-structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multinomial probit model. The multinomial probit model was used to identify factors that influence pest management decisions. Findings, value added & novelty: The study revealed the use of chemical pesticides as the most used pest management practice among maize farming households in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, while the use of integrated pest management practices was about the least used. Also, result from multinomial probit analysis of the study showed that gender, access to extension services, age and level of education were significant factors that influenced pest management decisions. The study, therefore, recommends the need for relevant non-governmental organisations and government ministries/agencies to engage in the provision of educational facilities and incentives to crop farmers, more robust agricultural extension programmes, input subsidies and farmer field schools, targeted at enhancing pest management decisions in crop production, which can be vital to sustainable and maximized agricultural production, human health and the environment. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Obeten_et_al.pdf pest management decisions multinomial probit maize farming households integrated pest management eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 13 29 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.13-29 -1 article Endale DIFABACHEW Jema HAJI Belaineh LEGESSE Mengistu KETEMA Research background: Participatory Forest Management program (PFMP) is initiated to manage forest resources and promote household participation to enhance their livelihood. In contrast, the long-term evaluation of many programs' timing remains low attention. Thus, it is vital to measure livelihood impacts on membership duration associated with the PFM program in Ethiopian farm households Purpose of the article: To evaluate the impact of membership duration in participatory forest management on livelihoods of program participating households in south-western Ethiopia. The results of the program's periodic assessment data were analysed on the long-term effect of the activities of forest management members. Methods: The study applied the generalized propensity score method. The research depends on cross-sectional survey data collected in mid-2018 from 267 farm households from Sheka and Kafa zones of south-western Ethiopia. The procedure matched families with similar covariates with different years of membership duration in the participatory forest management program. The technique was used members' annual per capita expenditure as an indicator outcome variable for measuring rural livelihood. Findings, value-added & novelty: Impacts studies of PFMP on heterogeneous effects across different groups of membership duration are scarce, and there is a research gap on how membership duration affects outcomes. Our study addresses this gap by measuring the long-term evaluation of program outcomes and their impacts on the participatory member households. Furthermore, the result revealed that the program's effects were initially low but positively affected when approaching an optimum year of membership dose. The program's optimal duration of the membership dose was 11-12 years, and 4263.75 birrs were the optimal level of yearly household per capita consumption spending. Recommendation: The results recommend more work on the participating household members by encouraging new forest-related income sources and integrating the socio-economic network more closely with the forest's ecosystem services. Although the relationship among participating members of households' longevity and income is substantial, the program has been focused on the medium and longer duration of the forest program participating. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_2_2022_Difabachew_et_al.pdf membership duration participatory forest management generalized propensity score dose-response function consumption expenditure eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 30 41 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.30-41 -1 article Justice G. DJOKOTO Charlotte BADU-PRAH Ferguson K. GIDIGLO Francis Y. SROFENYOH Kofi Aaron A-O. AGYEI-HENAKU Akua A. AFRANE ARTHUR Research background: Many studies have reported the relationship between farm size and productivity. Whilst some meta-regressions on efficiency have been published, none has addressed the issue of farm size efficiency relative to the dimensions of productive efficiency and its variants. Purpose of the article: We investigated the effect of farm size on productivity in Ghanaian agriculture within a meta-regression framework. Methods: Using data on 93 primary studies with 177 observations on efficiency in agriculture in Ghana, the Ordinary Least Squares estimator was applied in estimating the meta-regression model, a form of meta-analysis that specially formulated to assess empirical economics research. The farm size–efficiency effects were computed based on the Wald. Findings, value added & novelty: The results were mixed. Whilst no farm size-efficiency nexus was established for allocative and scale efficiencies, the inverse effect was confirmed in the case of the cost-economic, profit, technical and metafrontier technical efficiencies. Improved technology would be compatible with reduced farm size, reduction of the technology gap that would move farmers closer to the metafrontier. We contribute to the farm size-efficiency debate as we performed a quantitative review of the farm size-efficiency relationship. We addressed the farm size-efficiency relationship within the meta-regression framework and accounted for the full range of efficiency measures. Unlike other meta-regressions that used the standard error of the estimates, we obtained additional effect size, that for farm size-efficiency, our key result, from the specified model. We then dissociated the effect size into the range of efficiency measures reported in the primary studies. The paper covers data on farming in Ghana. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Djokoto_et_al.pdf meta-regression metafrontier technical efficiency scale efficiency eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 42 54 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.42-54 -1 article Clement Y. LAMPTEY Nashiru SULEMANA Samuel A. DONKOH Abraham ZAKARIA Shaibu Baanni AZUMAH Research background: Adoption of improved rice varieties remain paramount in fighting food and nutrition insecurity across sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). A lot has been done in the space of the adoption of agricultural innovations and food and nutrition insecurity. However, studies on the drivers of improved rice variety adoption and its effect on rice output, considering time and location-specific factors, are limited. Purpose of the article: This study estimated and examined the drivers and effect of improved rice variety adoption on rice output in the northern region of Ghana. Methods: A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 404 rice farm households in the northern region of Ghana. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach was used to analyse the data. Findings, Value added & Novelty: This study provides literature on drivers of improved rice variety adoption and its effect on rice output, by jointly considering time and location-specific factors. The empirical results revealed that adoption of improved rice varieties has significant positive effect on rice output of farm households. This could translate into reducing food and nutrition insecurity and the importation of rice into Ghana. Similarly, improved rice varieties adoption is positively and significantly affected by family labour, membership in FBO, farmers’ perception of rainfall, awareness of government rice policy, telephone ownership, and closeness to input markets. However, the adoption of improved rice varieties bears a significant negative relationship with the age of a farmer and mechanization. To enhance rice productivity and food security outcomes, the study recommends that the development of enhanced rice varieties responsive to current climatic situation. Dissemination and promotion of the varieties should be given priority among stakeholders in the rice value chain. Farmers should be encouraged to join or form farmer-based organisations (FBOs) and support their farm work with family labour to minimize rice production costs due to external payments. Access to market by farmers should be enhanced by improving rural road networks, especially in the rural areas where rice production takes place. Government policy towards rice production should be well designed and communicated to rice farmers since awareness of government rice policy stimulates improved rice varieties adoption among rice farmers. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Lamptey_et_al.pdf adoption improved rice varieties propensity score matching logit Northern Ghana eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 55 64 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.55-64 -1 article Esther NG’ANG’A Raphael GITAU Eliud BIRACHI Research background: Beans form a substantial part of the household diet in East and Central Africa and are consumed by most households. They are alternative low-cost proteins for less endowed people in a society and can contribute towards nutrition, food security, and employment. In Homa Bay County, beans are staple food grown by a vast majority of farmers. Choice of market outlet is the most significant decision for farm households to sell their produce to the different market outlets, which has a more substantial impact on household income. Purpose of the article: Factors influencing the choice of market outlets among smallholder bean farmers in Homa Bay County, Kenya Methods: Data collected were analyzed using a Multivariate Probit. Multi-stage sampling was used to collect data from 362 farmers, which constituted 181 participants and 181 non-participants of Public-private partnerships (PPPs); data was collected using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Findings & value added & novelty: The market outlet choices available in the study area for sales of beans included consumers, brokers, retailers, and wholesalers; however, retailers and wholesalers constituted more than half of the market outlets. Experience in bean farming, farm size, access to training, credit, and partnership participation positively and significantly influenced selling to these market outlets. Farmers who participated in PPP participated more in bean farming than non-participants; this might be attributed to the benefit acquired from partnerships, such as training farm inputs, among others. Thus, PPP could be an effective way of improving smallholder livelihood; policies that include mechanisms that create or secure markets for smallholder farmers will see to it that they get increased returns. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Nganga_et_al.pdf market outlets multivariate probit public-private partnership smallholder farmers eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 65 72 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.65-72 -1 article Benjamin Tetteh ANANG Research background: The challenge of resource limitations requires that farmers make judicious use of resources to maximize output and profit levels. This can be achieved through assessment of resource-use efficiency of farmers by estimating the level of technical efficiency and the determining factors. Purpose of the article: This paper compared the results of alternate DEA methodologies and applied different estimators to measure the influence of exogenous factors on technical efficiency of groundnut farmers in northern Ghana. Methods: The study used the traditional and double bootstrap DEA approaches to estimate technical efficiency while in the second stage, OLS, Tobit and double bootstrap techniques were used to estimate the influence of exogenous factors on efficiency. Findings & Value added: The double bootstrap DEA approach produced a mean technical efficiency of 51 per cent compared to 70 per cent for the traditional DEA approach. Concerning the determinants of technical efficiency, the DEA with Tobit (DEA+Tobit), DEA with OLS (DEA+OLS), and Simar and Wilson’s double bootstrap DEA (SW-DEA) procedures produced very similar results. The findings shed light on two-stage DEA estimation as well as the modelling of the influence of exogenous factors on the DEA scores. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Anang.pdf technical efficiency two-stage DEA double bootstrap OLS Tobit model eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 73 86 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.73-86 -1 article Hiwot HAILU Degefa TOLOSSA Research Background: Access and consumption of adequate food are essential components of development goals. Agriculture is expected to play an important role in ensuring food security by increasing the availability of food at the household level. Ethiopia is attempting to enhance agricultural production and productivity to combat food insecurity. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of adopting improved wheat varieties on food security in Girar Jarso Woreda, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Methods: First multistage sampling techniques were used to select a target sample of 192 households, 90 adopters, and 102 non-adopters. Three kebeles were selected at random from Girar Jarso Woreda based on wheat crop cultivation. Primary and secondary sources were used to acquire both qualitative and quantitative data. The data was gathered through a household survey, key informant interviews with sample farmers, focus group discussions, and a review of reports. The researchers utilized a logit model to identify factors influencing wheat variety adoption, and the Household Food Balance Model (HFBM) was utilized to calculate net available food at the household level. A Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique is also employed to quantify the impact of improved wheat varieties on households' food security. Findings, Value-added & Novelty: The findings demonstrated that education level, involvement in training, demonstration, and field day events, distance to market, access to market information, and farmer cooperative membership all had a substantial impact on the adoption of improved wheat varieties. Hidase, Digelu, Dandeha, and Kubsa were improved wheat varieties planted by adopters in the study region during the 2017/2018 crop year. Adopting improved wheat varieties has the potential to increase food availability at the household level, which is a good indicator of food security. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Hailu_Tolossa.pdf impact improved variety grain crop household food security eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 87 93 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.87-93 -1 article Jack Odhiambo MALIT Mary Wairimu Kiiru MATHENGE Augustus MULUVI Research background: The trend in aquafarming has been increasing over the years, thereby meeting the deficit in fish production caused by capture fisheries. Aquafarming is a source of income and food for most Kenyan populations. Despite the increased fish production, postharvest losses in fish production have remained a challenge over the years. These postharvest losses resulted from high transport costs, poor preservation methods, inadequate storage facilities, and poor handling and mismanagement. The postharvest losses result in quality and quantity losses in fish production, thereby affecting the income received by farmers. Purpose of the article: This paper analyses the effects of postharvest losses on household welfare among aquafarmers in Kenya. Methods: Primary data was collected in Kiambu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kakamega and Siaya Counties in Kenya. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect the data on a sample size of about 300 farmers. This study used a two stage least square was used to analyse the effects of postharvest losses on household welfare. Access to preservation facilities and distance to the market were considered instrumental variables in the model. Findings & Value added: Results indicated that postharvest losses were negatively significant on household welfare. On the other hand, farmer’s age, ownership of land, and the size of land under crop were also significant on household welfare. Due to inaccessible markets, postharvest losses result in to decline in farmers' income, hence welfare loss. The study recommended investment in preservation facilities and road infrastructure to reduce the number of postharvest losses in fish in an attempt to improve the welfare of farmers. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Malit_et_al.pdf aquafarming household welfare postharvest loss eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 94 103 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.94-103 -1 article Eric Obedy GIDO Research background: Vegetables are important sources of nutrition to many households. Understanding the household demand system of leafy African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) in Kenya could enhance designing strategies to increase their consumption levels. Purpose of the article: The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of demographic variables on budget shares for commonly consumed leafy vegetables and to generate vegetable demand elasticities. Methods: A stratified multi-stage sampling approach selected 168 and 282 respondents in rural and urban areas, respectively. The study used primary data, and a Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System was estimated using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression method. Findings, value & novelty: Own-price elasticities indicated that leafy AIV crops are normal goods. Cross-price elasticities indicated leafy AIVs are more complementary to each other and can be substituted for the consumption of exotic vegetables. The price effect could substantially contribute to changes in demand than would income. Vegetable demand could still increase with a future increase in household income. Expenditure elasticities classified cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) and spider plant (Cleome gynandra L.) as necessary vegetables. Results can be used to develop strategies for increasing demand for leafy AIV crops, thus enhancing consumption of healthy diets. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Gido.pdf consumer demand Kenya LA/AIDS vegetable consumption eng Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra and the Association of Agricultural Economists in Slovakia Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics 1336-9261 2022-03-31 25 1 104 112 10.15414/raae.2022.25.01.104-112 -1 article Benjamin Tetteh ANANG Adinan Bahahudeen SHAFIWU Research background: Maize is the most important cereal crop produced by most households in Ghana for income and household food security. Despite its economic importance, not much study has been carried out on maize profit efficiency in Ghana, hence this study. Purpose of the article: This study estimated profit efficiency of maize farmers in the Sagnarigu municipal of Ghana to understand producers’ profit efficiency level and its determinants as well as the challenges faced by maize producers. Methods: Data was sourced from small-scale maize producers while stochastic frontier analysis was applied to estimate a Cobb-Douglas profit function that simultaneously identified the sources of inefficiency. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to analyse the constraints facing maize producers. Findings, Value added & Novelty: The findings indicated that maize farmers produced at 71% profit efficiency. This is one of very few studies on profit efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers. The result means that 29% of the achievable maximum profit was forfeited as a result of production inefficiency. Educational attainment and access to agricultural extension service decreased the level of profit inefficiency while age, herd ownership and membership of farmer organization increased profit inefficiency level of farmers. The most critical challenges reported by farmers were financial constraints, high cost of ploughing and difficulty in acquiring chemical fertilizer. The study recommends that access to agricultural extension service should be improved to cover more farmers while efforts should be made to expand educational access in rural areas to enhance the profit efficiency of farmers. https://roaae.org/wp-content/uploads/RAAE_1_2022_Anang_Shafiwu.pdf profit efficiency maize stochastic frontier analysis smallholder farmers Ghana