The role of plant-breeding R&D in tractor adoptions among smallholders in Asia: Insights from Nepal Terai
The role of plant-breeding R&D in tractor adoptions among smallholders in Asia: Insights from Nepal Terai

Author: Takeshima, Hiroyuki

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2018-04-20

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13:

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Combining agricultural census data from Nepal from 2001 and 2011 with various spatial agroclimatic data, we show that increase in yield potentials due to the introduction of high-yield technologies (particularly improved seed varieties) plays an important role in smallholders’ tractor adoption in Nepal Terai. We use a novel instrumental variable, agroclimatic similarity between farmers’ and plant breeding institutes’ locations, to instrument the adoption of improved seed varieties. To our knowledge, our study offers the first direct evidence that mechanization growth among smallholders is partly induced by the introduction of high-yield technologies.

Geography of smallholders’ tractor adoptions and R&D–Induced land productivity: Evidence from household survey data in Ghana
Geography of smallholders’ tractor adoptions and R&D–Induced land productivity: Evidence from household survey data in Ghana

Author: Hiroyuki Takeshima

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2019-10-10

Total Pages: 51

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Despite the urbanization and gradual rise of medium-to-large scale farming sector, smallholders without substantial mechanization remain central to agriculture in countries like Ghana. Significant knowledge gaps exist on the adoptions of agricultural mechanization among smallholders for whom the scope for exploiting complementarity with land is limited. We test the hypotheses that high-yielding technologies, which potentially raise total factor productivity and also returns to more intensive farm power use, are important drivers of adoptions of agricultural mechanization among smallholders. Using the three rounds of repeated crosssectional, nationally representative data (Ghana Living Standard Surveys 2006, 2013, 2017), as well as unique tractor-use data in Ghana, and multi-dimensional indicators of agroclimatic similarity with plant- reeding locations, this paper shows that the adoption of rented agricultural equipment and tractors in Ghana has been induced by high-yielding production systems that have concentrated in areas that are agroclimatically similar to plant-breeding locations. These effects hold for mechanization adoptions at both extensive margins (whether to adopt or not) and intensive margins (how much to adopt). These linkages have strengthened between 2006 and 2010s, partly due to improved efficiency in supply-side factors of mechanization.

An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?
An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?

Author: Diao, Xinshen, ed.

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 0896293807

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Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Mechanization growth and declining farm size in South Asia: Exploring the role of biological technologies in Nepal Terai
Mechanization growth and declining farm size in South Asia: Exploring the role of biological technologies in Nepal Terai

Author: Hiroyuki Takeshima

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2019-08-31

Total Pages: 5

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The agricultural sector in developing countries including those in South Asia, like Nepal, faces dual challenges of the persistent dominance of smallholder-based farming, and at the same time, rising labor costs due partly to growing non-farm sectors. The underlying factors that lead to the co-existence of these seemingly conflicting patterns are not yet clear. However, an important consequence is that inclusive agricultural transformation requires increased agricultural capital use like machines among these smallholders that remain in the agricultural sector. Studying the experiences in lowland Nepal (Terai zone) which has seen significant growth in tractor use since the mid-90s, despite the continuous decrease in average farm size, offers useful insights into what induce the adoptions of mechanization among smallholders who naturally lack the scope for exploiting the scale economies due to complementarity between machine and land. We test the hypotheses that high-yielding technologies, which potentially raise returns to more intensive farm power use, are important drivers of adoptions of agricultural mechanization among smallholders. We do so by using two-rounds of Agricultural Census data in Nepal, as well as Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS), and indicators of agroclimatic similarity with plant-breeding locations within Nepal.

Farming Systems and Poverty
Farming Systems and Poverty

Author: John A. Dixon

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9789251046272

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A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.

Crop Residues in Sustainable Mixed Crop/livestock Farming Systems
Crop Residues in Sustainable Mixed Crop/livestock Farming Systems

Author: C. Renard

Publisher: Cabi

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

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Technological constraints and opportunities in relation to class of livestock and production objectives; Trhe influence of socioeconomic factors on the availability and utilization of crop residues as animal feeds; Crop residues in Tropical Africa: trends in supply, demand and use; Cowpea and its improvement: key to sustainable mixed crop/livestock farming systems in West Africa; Dynamics of feed resources in mixed farming systems in Southeast, South Asia; West/Central Asia-North Africaand Latin America; Crop residues as a strategic resource in mixed farming systems; Alternatives to crop residues as feed resource in mixed farming systems; Alternatives to crop residues for soil amendment; Crop residues for feeding animals in Asia: technology development and adoption in crop/livestock systems; The national perspective: a synthesis of country reports presented at the Workshop.

Mechanization for Rural Development
Mechanization for Rural Development

Author: Josef Kienzle

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13:

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This publication gives a wide-ranging perspective on the present state of mechanization in the developing world, and, as such, constitutes a solid platform on which to build strategies for a sustainable future. Farm mechanization forms an integral plank in the implementation of sustainable crop production intensification methodologies and sustainable intensification necessarily means that the protection of natural resources and the production of ecosystem services go hand-in-hand with intensified production practices. This requires specific mechanization measures to allow crops to be established with minimum soil disturbance, to allow the soil to be protected under organic cover for as long as possible, and to establish crop rotations and associations to feed the soil and to exploit crop nutrients from various soil horizons. This work is the starting point to help the reader understand the complexities and requirements of the task ahead.

Asian Rice Bowls
Asian Rice Bowls

Author: Prabhu L. Pingali

Publisher: Int. Rice Res. Inst.

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0851991629

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Introduction: the state of rice in post-green-revolution Asia; Rice productivity growth: the case against complacency; Sustaining farm profits through technical change; Intensification-induced degradation of the paddy resource base; Erosion, pollution and poison: externalities and rice; Asian rice market: demand and supply prospects; GATT and rice: impact on the rice market and implications for research priorities; Agricultural commercialization and farmer product choices: the case of diversification out of rice; Strategic look at factor markets and the organization of agricultural production beyond 2025; Post-green-revolution seed technology for intensive rice systems; Fertilizers and pesticides: higher levels versus improved efficiencies; Dealing with labor scarcity: mechanical technologies.