14 pages, via online journal, Designing effective policies for economic development often entails categorizing populations by their rural or urban status. Yet there exists no universal definition of what constitutes an “urban” area, and countries alternately apply criteria related to settlement size, population density, or economic advancement. In this study, we explore the implications of applying different urban definitions, focusing on Tanzania for illustrative purposes. Toward this end, we refer to nationally representative household survey data from Tanzania, collected in 2008 and 2014, and categorize households as urban or rural using seven distinct definitions. These are based on official administrative categorizations, population densities, daytime and nighttime satellite imagery, local economic characteristics, and subjective assessments of Google Earth images. These definitions are then applied in some common analyses of demographic and economic change. We find that these urban definitions produce different levels of urbanization. Thus, Tanzania's urban population share based on administrative designations was 28% in 2014, though this varies from 12% to 39% with alternative urban definitions. Some indicators of economic development, such as the level of rural poverty or the rate of rural electrification, also shift markedly when measured with different urban definitions. The periodic (official) recategorization of places as rural or urban, as occurs with the decennial census, results in a slower rate of rural poverty decline than would be measured with time-constant boundaries delimiting rural Tanzania. Because the outcomes of analysis are sensitive to the urban definitions used, policy makers should give attention to the definitions that underpin any statistics used in their decision making.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 202 Document Number: D12020
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Obituary online from the Ames Tribune via legacy.com. 4 pages., Described the career and life of this 31-year communications faculty member at Iowa State University.
9 pages, via online journal, Economists have touted partnerships between smallholders and agribusiness firms that cultivate high-valued export crops as a means of raising smallholder incomes and achieving rural development. However, some case studies show that such partnerships can deny smallholders the ability to benefit from their lands. This essay examines how this dynamic occurs by comparing the experiences of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the Davao Region of the Philippines. The paper finds that contracts which deny ARBs the benefit of their holdings are those that deprive them of key abilities such as determining who can use land and withdraw it from a partnership. Such contracts arise when ARB groups lack attributes that enhance their capacity for collective action, information gathering, and legal advocacy.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11768
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Report from Agri-Pulse received online via AgriMarketing Weekly. 6 pages., Report of a letter to Capitol Hill and the White House from a new American Connection Project Broadband Coalition calling for a "robust federal investment in broadband internet connectivity." Letter (attached) signed by 40 ag, tech, and healthcare groups.
10 pages, Low agricultural productivity remains one of the main factors influencing poverty and food insecurity among smallholder farmers in many developing countries. Among the key interventions assumed to influence agricultural productivity of smallholders is the provision of agricultural extension services to farmers. Access to agricultural extension however remains low in most developing countries thus slowing down agricultural productivity growth. This study therefore sought to determine the labor productivity effects of agricultural extension in northern Ghana using data from a cross-section of 300 smallholder farm households. The results of a binary probit model indicated that participation in agricultural extension increased with farming experience, farm size, access to irrigation and group membership but decreased with years of formal education and household size. Regression estimates of a labor productivity model revealed a positive and statistically significant relationship between agricultural extension and labor productivity. Also, labor productivity increased with farming experience, household income, access to irrigation, degree of specialization in production and the level of conventional inputs used per man-day of labor but decreased with participation in off-farm work. The authors recommend an increase in agricultural extension coverage to ensure that more farmers are reached with information on modern technologies to enhance their labor productivity. Furthermore, farmers need access to inputs such as seed and fertilizer to improve the productivity of labor.
14 pages, via online journal, We combine nationally representative household and labor force survey data from 1992 to 2016 to provide a detailed description of rural labor market evolution and how it relates to the structural transformation of rural Vietnam, especially within the agricultural sector. Our study adds to the emerging literature on structural transformation in low-income countries using micro-level data and helps to answer several policy-related questions. We find limited employment creation potential of agriculture, especially for youth. Rural-urban real wage convergence has gone hand-in-hand with increased diversification of the rural economy into the non-farm sector nationwide and rapid advances in educational attainment in all sectors’ and regions’ workforce. Minimum wage laws seem to have played no significant role in increasing agricultural wages. This enhanced integration also manifests in steady attenuation of the longstanding inverse farm size-yield relationship. Farming has remained securely household-based and the family farmland distribution has remained largely unchanged. Small farm sizes have not obstructed mechanization nor the uptake of labor-saving pesticides, consistent with factor substitution induced by rising real wage rates. As rural households rely more heavily on the labor market, human capital accumulation (rather than land endowments) have become the key correlate of improvements in rural household well-being.
21 Pages, Purpose: The article examines the implementation and effects of the model farmer-based approach of farmer-to-farmer extension delivery that is in use in Ethiopia.
Methodology: The study used mixed methods, combining focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a household survey.
Findings: The model farmer approach has increased extension coverage, improved the possibility for information and technology dissemination, and enabled the inclusion of virtually all farming households in extension and advisory networks. Simultaneously, the approach has become a mechanism for the top-down control of farmers, for the identification and favouritism of better-off farmers, and those with political commitments.
Practical implications: The findings show that there is a need to critically reflect on who model farmers are, how they are selected, what their historical and current roles and impact have been, as well as follower farmers’ feedback on the approach in order to avoid perpetuating the misuse of the approach.
Theoretical implications: The article argues that the Ethiopian context that rewards rapid increase in production and productivity, modernisation of agriculture, competitive commercialisation, and a context that allows the continued entanglement of extension delivery with politics have enabled such misuse of the approach to proliferate. The article questions the extent of applicability of the core farmer-to-farmer extension principles that relate to social ties, reciprocity, collaboration, and minimal social hierarchies in such a context.
Originality/value: The study generates important insights about the effects of model farmer-based extension approach, its political dimensions, and the importance of context for successful farmer-to-farmer extension.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11769
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Online from BroadbandNow, a registered trademark of Centerfield BBN LLC. 3 pages., Whereas the FCC reports that broadband is unavailable to 21.3 million Americans, BroadbandNow Research analyzed FCC Form 477 data and estimated that 42 million Americans do not have the ability to purchase broadband internet. This is an additional 6.5 percent of Americans beyond FCC estimates.
