May 2020

Technical efficiency of rice farmers in Anambra State value chain development programme

The study is aimed at determining the technical efficiency of rice farmers in Anambra State value chain development programme. A well-structured questionnaire was administered to elicit information from 372 rice farmers from the five participating Local Government Areas (Ayamelum, Awka North, Anambra West, Anambra East, and Orumba North) after which only 337 respondents were fit for the study. Cobb Douglas stochastic...

Author(s): Obianefo Chukwujekwu A., Nwigwe Cecilia A., Meludu Theresa N. and Anyasie Ikechukwu C.  

May 2020

Performance analysis of Nigerian agricultural credit guarantee scheme: Bounds test approach to cointegration

This study examined the performance of the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) which is the major credit policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It was established in 1977 but started operation in 1978. Time series data from 1978-2014, extracted from the 2014 bulletin of the National Bureau Statistics were used for the study. Total volume and number of loans given were used to proxy the strength of the...

Author(s): Akinrinola, O. O. and Okunola, A. M.  

May 2020

Integration of post-harvest management in agricultural policy and strategies to minimise post harvest losses in Lesotho

Despite global efforts to increase food availability and curb high incidence of malnutrition in Africa, there are concerns with regard to high post-harvest losses in Africa. Lesotho like most countries in sub-Saharan Africa faces documented challenges with food insecurity and nutrition. Food availability could be increased by reduction of post-harvest losses without further exploitation of resources. Mitigation of...

Author(s): Brian Muroyiwa, Liako Shokopa, Puselesto Likoetla and Montoeli Rantlo  

June 2020

Analysis of economic efficiency among smallholder sorghum producers in Kenya

This study used Cobb-Douglas Stochastic Profit Frontier to analyze economic efficiency of sorghum farmers in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya. Using a multi-stage stratified sample of 259 farmers, results depicted a wide range of profit efficiency between the best (0.96) and the worst (0.12) farmer with a mean of 0.17. The actual and potential profit was USD 164.88 ha-1 and USD 969.87 ha-1 respectively. This indicates that,...

Author(s): Backson Mwangi, Ibrahim Macharia and Eric Bett  

June 2020

Adoption of artificial insemination service for cattle crossbreeding by smallholder farmers in Laelay-Maichew district, Tigray, Ethiopia

Adoption of artificial insemination (AI) in Ethiopia is low and there is paucity of information in documentation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify the determinants of smallholder farmers’ adoption of AI technology in Laelay-Maichew district. Multi-stage random sampling technique was employed to select 155 sample respondents for the study. The primary data were collected through individual interviews...

Author(s): Berhe Abraha, Muluken Gezahegn and Jemal Yousuf