Adoption of soil and water conservation technology and its effect on the productivity of smallholder rice farmers in Southwest Nigeria

Value chain interventions for improving women's economic empowerment: A mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis: A systematic review

Background

Value chain interventions have become widespread throughout the international development sector over the last 20 years, and there is a need to evaluate their effectiveness in improving women's welfare across multiple dimensions. Agricultural value chains are influenced by socio-cultural norms and gender dynamics that have an impact on the distribution of resources, benefits, and access to opportunities. While women play a critical role in agriculture, they are generally confined to the least-valued parts of the value chain with the lowest economic returns, depending on the local, social and institutional contexts.

Objectives

The review assesses the effectiveness of approaches, strategies and interventions focused on women's engagement in agricultural value chains that lead to women's economic empowerment in low- and middle-income countries. It explores the contextual barriers and facilitators that determine women's participation in value chains and ultimately impact their effectiveness.

Search Methods

We searched completed and on-going studies from Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection (Social Sciences Citation Index [SSCI], Science Citation Index Expanded [SCI-EXPANDED], Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science [CPCI-S], Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Science & Humanities [CPCI-SSH], and Emerging Sources Citation Index [ESCI]), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, EconLit, Business Source Premier, APA PsycInfo, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane, Database of Systematic Reviews, CAB Abstracts and Sociological Abstracts. We also searched relevant websites such as Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR); the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); AgriProFocus; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF); Donor Committee for Enterprise Development; the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the Netherlands Development Organisation; USAID; the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; the International Food Policy Research Institute; World Agroforestry; the International Livestock Research Institute; the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; the British Library for Development Studies (BLDS); AGRIS; the IMMANA grant database; the 3ie impact evaluation database; Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA); The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL); the World Bank IEG evaluations; the USAID Development Data Library; Experience Clearinghouse; the proceedings of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy conference; the proceedings of the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) Conference; the proceedings of the North East Universities Development Consortium (NEUDC) Conference; and the World Bank Economic Review. The database search was conducted in March 2022, and the website search was completed in August 2022.

Selection Criteria

The review includes value chain interventions evaluating the economic empowerment outcomes. The review includes effectiveness studies (experimental and non-experimental studies with a comparison group) and process evaluations.

Data Collection and Analysis

Two review authors independently assessed studies for inclusion, extracted data, critically appraised the studies, and synthesised findings.

Results

We found that value chain interventions are successful in improving the economic conditions of their intended beneficiaries. The interventions were found to improve women's economic outcomes such as income, assets holdings, productivity, and savings, but these effects were small in size and limited by low confidence in methodological quality. The meta-analysis suggests that this occurs more via the acquisition of skills and improved inputs, rather than through improvement in access to profitable markets. The qualitative evidence on interventions points to the persistence of cultural barriers and other constraints. Those interventions implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are consistently more successful for all outcomes considered, although there are few studies conducted in other areas of the world.

Conclusions

The review concludes that value chain interventions empower women, but perhaps to a lesser extent than expected. Economic empowerment does not immediately translate into empowerment within families and communities. Interventions should either moderate their expectations of empowerment goals, or they should be implemented in a way that ensures higher rates of participation among women and the acquisition of greater decision-making power.

Gender preferences for multiple attributes of soil and water conservation in Northern Rwanda

Despite the dominance of female labor in agricultural production, female-controlled farm plots have lower efficiency compared to plot managed by male-headed households, which indicates a huge gender disparity in agricultural productivity. Overlooking gender preferences when designing interventions that promote the conservation of soil and water resources might face challenges in adoption and could result in ineffective policies to close the gender gap. This study seeks to analyze gender-specific preferences regarding attributes of soil and water conservation (SWC) in northern Rwanda. A best-worst survey was conducted among 653 respondents, comprising 253 males and 400 females, representing 422 households surveyed between September and December 2019. The analysis of BWS data involved assessing attribute-level relative importance, Pearson correlation, and maximum difference scaling using multinomial logit (MNL). Findings from attribute-level importance analysis revealed significant gender-based disparities in preferences across three important SWC attribute scenarios: the high scenario (between 65 % and 100 %), the moderate scenario (between 50 % and 65 %), and the basic scenario (with <50 % relative importance). The study identified heterogeneity in preferences regarding the relative importance of SWC attribute levels. Pearson correlation analysis revealed substantial synergies among attribute levels linked to land consolidation, improved land tenure, and joint SWC decision-making between genders. Additionally, the study identified trade-offs among multiple levels of SWC attributes, including households' SWC decision-making and physical and structural measures. The results from MNL regression show that both males and females exhibit positive preferences for multiple levels of SWC attributes, but show negative preferences when it comes to household decisions involving multiple SWC strategies. The study highlights the importance of equal opportunities for males and females' participation in agricultural transformation through the adoption of SWC technologies as a fundamental step towards sustainable agricultural intensification. It advocates for gender transformational approaches to incentivize the scaling up of SWC practices and promote packages with lower uptake rates. Additionally, the study suggests enhancing knowledge and extension education in SWC to better understand diverse needs and preferences of female farmers.

Willingness to adopt green house gas mitigation measures: Agricultural land managers in the United Kingdom

Rapid uptake of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures is central to reducing agricultural and land use emissions and meeting the UK Net Zero policy. The socioeconomic challenges and barriers to uptake are poorly understood, with yet unclear structural pathways to the uptake of GHG mitigation measures. Using an online survey of 201 agricultural land managers across the UK, and applying multiple linear regression and stepwise regression analysis, this research established farm and farmers' factors influencing perceptions and willingness to adopt GHG mitigation measures. The results consistently show that farm sector, farmers' business perception, and labour availability influence willingness to adopt GHG mitigation measures. Based on the farmers' qualitative feedback, other barriers to adoption include costs and concerns for profitability, lack of flexibility in land tenancy contracts, poor awareness and knowledge of the application of some GHG mitigation measures, perception about market demand e.g bioenergy crops, and scepticism about the future impacts of adopting varying GHG mitigation measures. In the midst of the ongoing net zero transition, this study identifies existing barriers to the uptake of GHG mitigation measures, and specifically, a substantial gap between farmers and the science of GHG mitigation measures and the need to incentivise a farm and farming community-led policy interventions to promote adoption of GHG mitigation measures.

Assessing soil erosion and farmers' decision of reducing erosion for sustainable soil and water conservation in Burji woreda, southern Ethiopia

Inadequate conservation practice affects the sustainable production of agricultural watersheds due to erosion and fertility decline. Understanding soil erosion and implementing site-specific conservation practice could enhance agriculture-based rural development. The study was aimed to document soil erosion problem and soil and water conservation effort. The specific objectives of this study were to assess soil erosion severity, practices to reduce erosion, and determinants of the decision to reduce erosion. Data were collected by interviewing 198 farm household heads, undertaking four focus group discussions, and assessing rill erosion in 10 farm fields in Morayo and Wacho sub-watersheds of southern Ethiopia. Descriptive statistics and binary logit model were applied to analyze the data. Results indicated that many of the farm households, 63% in Morayo and 83% in the Wacho sub-watershed, perceived moderate to severe soil erosion, which is characterized by big rills and small gullies on the farmlands. Rill densities of 231.4 m ha-1 and 84.1 m ha-1 in the Morayo and Wacho sub-watersheds were observed, respectively. The estimated annual soil loss due to rills was 61.2 and 23.4 Mg ha-1 in the Morayo and Wacho sub-watersheds, respectively. The soil erosion from rills alone exceeds the expected tolerable soil erosion (11 tons ha-1 year-1). Due to erosion, about 90% of farmers perceived farmland degradation as described by a progressive decline in crop yield. Farmers used to practice traditional techniques to reduce erosion and government introduced conservation measures such as soil and stone bunds. However, many farmers did not use well-promoted conservation measures such as bunds, which could have negative impact on long-term erosion control effort and sustainable implementation of the conservation options. Among the assessed explanatory variables, educational level, farm distance from home, slope of the cultivated land, and frequency of extension contact were significantly affected (p < 0.05) farmers' sustainable use of conservation measures. Development planners and policy makers are advised to consider site-specific and innovative approaches to implement conservation measures in sustainable approach in the smallholder crop-livestock mixed agriculture system.

Integrated soil-fruit-climate management system to improve apple production stability

Unstable agricultural systems, such as unreliable fruit production, threaten global food security and could negatively impact human nutrition. However, methods of maintaining a stable fruit supply have received little attention. Therefore, this study explored the impact of a systematic service model on the establishment of an integrated soil-fruit-climate management (ISM) approach and stabilization of apple yield based on a fixed-effects model using sample data from Fuji apple farmers in China for six consecutive years (2016-2021). The results showed that the systematic service model dramatically improved the adoption of ISM-based technology. By 2021, the rate of ISM technology adoption among farmers reached 84.4 %, especially pendulous branch-fruiting technology and Osmia pollination, which increased by 82.2 % and 37.8 %, respectively, compared to that in 2016. With the adoption of the ISM approach, apple yields and tree loadings stabilized over time. For example, the yield change rate and tree loading change rate were 14.8 % and 7.3 % lower, respectively, in 2021 than in 2016. We demonstrated through a fixed-effects analysis that the ISM approach exerts a fully mediated effect on the mechanism of action of service measure quantity disclosure, which positively impacted the rate of change in yield and tree loadings. This finding indicated that the six-in-one systematic service model of soil testing, pest and disease diagnosis, course training, meteorological monitoring, on-site guidance, and experimental demonstration established by the Science and Technology Backyard model resolved the information, goal, and hardware gaps that limited the adoption of this technology by farmers and promoted the construction of an integrated soil-fruit-climate management approach, which in turn has stabilized the apple production system.

Low-carbon transformation of China's smallholder agriculture: exploring the role of farmland size expansion and green technology adoption

Farmland size and green technology have a significant impact on agricultural carbon emissions. However, more research needs to consider the impact of their interaction on agricultural carbon neutralization. In this paper, the impact of farmland size on the net carbon effect and its underlying mechanisms from the perspective of green agricultural technology adoption were empirically examined using a tracking survey of 2600 farming households. The results show that farmland size expansion at both household and plot levels can increase the net carbon effect of the planting industry, which is more pronounced for grain crops than cash crops. Specifically, a 1% increase in the total area of household farmland or the largest contracted plot area can increase the net carbon effect by more than 3%. Green technology also plays a mediation effect in their relationship. Increasing farmland size can generate sufficient economic incentives to encourage green technology adoption, contributing to carbon sequestration and emissions reduction and increasing the crop's net carbon effect. Furthermore, we find that farmland expansion can significantly encourage the adoption of efficiency-enhancing technologies but not environmentally friendly technologies. Our findings suggest that promoting farmland expansion and green technology extension is effective for the low-carbon transformation of Chinese agriculture. The government should make distinct promotion policies for various green agricultural technologies and differentiating incentives and support policies for different-sized farmers. Our study provides insights into the path to Chinese-style agricultural modernization in the context of a smallholder economy.

Farmers' adoption behavior of conservation tillage technology: a multidimensional heterogeneity perspective

Adopting conservation tillage technology can promote sustainable agriculture development. There have been many studies on all farmers' conservation tillage behaviors, but few studies are based on a farmer's multidimensional heterogeneity perspective. Given the background, we conduct an empirical evaluation using micro survey data from 819 households in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River Basin. This paper uses the entropy method to classify farm households into three types: economically dominant, resource dominant, and socially dominant. Furthermore, we use the Heckman sample selection model to discuss the factors that affect the adoption of conservation tillage technology by different types of farmers. The results show that land fragmentation degree can inhibit economically dominant farmers conservation tillage technology adoption behavior. Social relations can positively influence resource dominant farmers. The share of non-farm income will positively impact socially dominant farmers. This paper further proposes policy implications, based on the findings that different types of farmers have various factors influencing conservation tillage technology adoption behavior.

Modelling Techniques to Improve the Quality of Food Using Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI), or AI/machine vision, is assuming an overwhelming part in the realm of food handling and quality affirmation. As indicated by Mordor Intelligence, AI in the food and refreshments market is required to enlist a CAGR of 28.64%, during the conjecture time frame 2018–2023. Artificial intelligence makes it workable for PCs to gain as a matter of fact, investigate information from the two data sources and yields, and perform most human assignments with an improved level of accuracy and proficiency. Here is a concise gander at how AI is expanding sanitation and quality activities. This exploration has along these lines tried to furnish policymakers with a way to assess new and existing strategies, while likewise offering a reasonable premise through which food chains orders can be made stronger through the thought of the executive’s practices and strategy choices. This survey centers on the AI applications according to four mainstays of food security that is food accessibility, food availability, food use, and strength.