4 pages., Via online journal., Raising the productivity of smallholders
is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and
improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most
developing countries. This increased productivity is
essential to both household food security and to
agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger
economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of
constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall,
and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to
productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also
vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture,
and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such
as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on
the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving
the information, communication, transaction, and networking
elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
Lin, Hanhui (author), Cai, Ken (author), Chen. Huazhou (author), Zeng, ZhaoFeng (author), and Center for Educational Technology, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China
School of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, China
College of Science, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, China
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, California State University, East Bay, CA, United States
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2015
Published:
International: Kassel University Press GmbH
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08179
26 pages, via online journal, Purpose
This paper is concerned with the impact of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) on regional productivity in California agriculture. UCCE is responsible for agricultural research and development (R&D), and dissemination of agricultural know-how in the state.
Method/methodology/approach
We estimate the effect of UCCE on county-level agricultural productivity for the years 1992–2012, using an agricultural production function with measures of agricultural extension inputs alongside the traditional agricultural production inputs at the county level.
Findings
Results show a positive impact of UCCE through its stock of depreciated expenditures. For an additional dollar spent on UCCE expenditures stock, agricultural productivity, measured as value of sales at the county level, improves by $1–9 per acre of farmland for knowledge/expenditure depreciation rates between 0 and 20 percent.
Practical implications
Results suggest that county differences in productivity could affect extension expenditures. The high level of contribution found in the results would be especially useful during a period of political pressure to reduce public spending for agricultural extension in the state.
Theoretical implications
Theoretical implications suggest that agricultural systems with higher level of knowledge depreciation are associated with higher resulting incremental agricultural productivity per an additional dollar spent on UCCE expenditures stock. This suggests that extension policy should consider also the agricultural system (crop mix).
Originality
We use original budgetary data that was collected especially for answering our research questions from archives of UCCE. We estimate impact of extension at the county level in California, on the value of agricultural sales (of crops and livestock). We developed an extension expenditure stock, using current and past expenditures data, and different depreciation rates, following the theory of Knowledge Production Function.
