12 pages, Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a pathway to sustainably intensify agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet despite decades of promotion, CA uptake in SSA remains sparse with only few analyses of its impacts on farming and rural livelihoods. This study, which focuses on areas in Central Malawi considered to have a relatively high uptake of CA, uses analyses of satellite images, field observations, interviews with farmers, extension workers and other people involved in CA promotion, as well as a household survey, to investigate how CA has been adapted. We find that the three CA principles – (1) continuous minimum tillage, e.g. no-ridging, (2) permanent ground cover, and (3) crop rotation/intercropping – were not practiced as intended. First, one-third of non-ridged land was tilled during the growing season, and half was again ridged in the following season. Second, unless crop residues were added, the soil’s surface of non-ridged plots was usually bare at planting, causing weed control problems, and an increased risk of erosion. Most farmers added large volumes of crop residues to their non-ridged plots. They collected these from the surrounding fields, but this practice severely restricted the size of these plots. Third, crop rotation/intercropping was practiced less when farmers stopped ridging. Thus overall, very few farmers practised all of the three CA principles simultaneously. CA promotion appeared to only increase yields on plots where mulch was added, but this practice is not scalable. CA promotiondoes not seem to have provided substantial benefits for overall farm productivity, labour-savings or soil cons
30 pages., via online journal., Information communication technology (ICT) and environmental innovation (EI) are
relevant waves of the ongoing technological revolution. We study the
complementarity in innovation adoption to test the research hypothesis that the higher
the diffusion and intensity of usage of ICT and EI, the higher a firm’s productivity
performance might be. However, it is not certain that the use of different innovations
stemming from different innovation paths generates higher productivity. To test our
hypothesis, we use original survey data concerning manufacturing firms in Northeast
Italy including detailed information on both ICT and EI. Empirical evidence shows
that there are still wide margins to improve the integration between EI and ICT in
order to exploit their potential benefits on productivity. The awareness of specific
synergies seems to mainly characterise the heavy polluting firms that are subject to
more stringent environmental constraints, while some trade-offs tend to emerge for
the remaining firms.
Yu Jin (author), Huffman, Wallace E. (author), and Department of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Department of Economics, Iowa State University
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016
Published:
Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10455
17 pages., Via online journal., This article provides new estimates of the marginal product of public agricultural research and extension on state agricultural productivity for the U.S., using updated data and definitions, and forecasts of future agricultural productivity growth by state. The underlying rationale for a number of important decisions that underlie the data used in cost‐return estimates for public agricultural research and extension are presented. The parameters of the state productivity model are estimated from a panel of contiguous U.S. 48 states from 1970 to 2004. Public research and extension are shown to be substitutes rather than complements. The econometric model of state agricultural TFP predicts growth rates of TFP for two‐thirds of states that is less than the past trend rate. The results and data indicate a real social rate of return to public investments in agricultural research of 67% and to agricultural extension of 100+%. The article concludes with guidance for TFP analyses in other countries.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 131 Document Number: D11321
Notes:
17 pages., Paper presented at the 8th EAAE PhD student workshop, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala,Sweden, June 10-12, 2019., Authors analyzed household behavior in adoption of chickpea as an improved crop, as well as the crop's impact at farm level and grower experiences with it.
