This study provides empirical evidence on the effects of production risk on smallholder farmers’ adoption of farm technology, using plot-level data collected from two semi-arid districts in Kenya, Machakos and Taita Taveta. Using Mundlak’s approach (1978), the study found that...

The high prevalence of risks in low income economies makes managing uncertainty critical for productivity and survival. This paper analyzes seasonal changes in farm households’ per capita consumption and saving in response to weather and health shocks. Using a sample of 196 households in...

This study examines the widely held view that earnings from rural wage employment can help farm households overcome constraints on farm investments. It uses a panel dataset of 359 randomly selected farm households from three resettlement areas in Zimbabwe over the period 1996/97 to 1998/99. It...

In most sub-Saharan African economies, agriculture is the dominant sector and plays an essential role in rural and overall economic development. Paradoxically, sub-Saharan Africa is the sole region in the developing world where per capita food production has remained low for many years....

In this study, the Heckman procedure was used to analyze the way transaction costs affect smallholder farming households’ participation in banana markets in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. The results reaffirm that fixed transaction costs largely determine a farmer’s...

This paper analyses Malawi’s smallholder agricultural efficiency, using a nationally representative sample survey of rural households undertaken by the National Statistical Office in 2004/2005. It aims to inform agricultural policy about the level and key determinants of inefficiency in...

This paper assesses the potential economic impacts of balanced nutrient management systems technology options: BNMS-manure, which combines inorganic fertilizer and organic manure, and BNMS-rotation, which is maize–soybean rotation, in maize-based systems in the northern Guinea savanna...

This paper estimates a stochastic production using household survey data to analyze the relationship between farmers’ health impediments and agricultural production efficiency in Ethiopia. The results show that healthy farmers produce more per unit of inputs, earn more income and supply...