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The study examines the synthesized influences of institutional governance and the scale effects of agricultural credits on the sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Using a sample of 840 MFIs (300 independent and 540 networked), the study applied Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Lewbel’s estimator.

Results indicate positive effects of financial structure, efficiency and agricultural credit scale on sustainability, with a non-linear U-shaped relationship between agricultural credit size and microfinance sustainability. Depending on institutional governance quality, a threshold is identified where agricultural credit scale significantly enhances the quality of Portfolio at Risk (lnPAR) in independent MFIs and Returns on Assets (lnROA) in networked MFIs.

Study suggests strengthening governance for transparency and operating within optimal size for enduring sustainable performance. While focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, future research could expand to various economies or introduce additional variables for a comprehensive analysis.

MFIs can achieve sustainability by implementing management guided by better institutional norms, innovative financial transformations better suited to financing agricultural activities and techniques and an organizational structure more aligned with their performance targets.

Broader and more reliable access to financial services, particularly in the agricultural sector, can stimulate production and alleviate poverty.

The study’s originality lies in its contribution to the literature by examining the role of institutional governance in microfinance institution performance and evaluating microfinance in a broader Sub-Saharan African context, proposing threshold limits where agricultural microcredit compromises performance.

The goal of this study was to determine the impact of access to credit facilities on financial performance among farmers of cooperative societies. The study also tested the predictive power of financial literacy.

The descriptive survey research design was used for the study while the sample size was 240 farmers of cooperative societies from South-East Nigeria. The farmers were categorised into those with access to credit facilities and those without access to credit facilities. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Data were analysed using multiple analyses of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analysis.

Farmers with access to credit facilities reported higher financial performance such as return on investment, working capital, net profit, profit margin and sales. However, those without access to credit facilities reported lower mean scores on financial performance. Also, financial literacy, like financial knowledge, attitude and awareness, significantly predicts the impact of access to credit facilities on financial performance. It was also found that the duration of repayment of credit facilities, like medium and long term, contributes more to improving financial performance.

This study has shown that even though access to credit facilities impacts financial performance, financial literacy is an important consideration. Also, the duration of repayment is a crucial factor.

This work examines the impact of institutional agricultural credit on crop productivity of some major crops such as paddy, cotton, wheat and pulses for small and marginal farmers across various social groups.

The cross-sectional field data on socio economic variables was collected from three Indian states from about 400 small and marginal farmers across various social groups using multi-stage stratified random and purposive sampling through a structured questionnaire by interviewing. The method of propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to calculate average treatment effect (ATE) and average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) by categorising sample farmers as treatment group and control group where crop productivity was considered as outcome variable and access to institutional credit was considered as treatment variable.

The PSM estimates reveal that ATE and ATET for all the selected crops are found to be significantly higher for the treated group vis-à-vis non-treated group suggesting that institutional agricultural credit has a statistically and significant positive impact on the crop productivity.

Similar study can be extended for more crops and across regions in India for a universal coverage.

The agricultural credit policy of India has been to increase the access and availability of institutional farm credit. This has led to in general increase in the flow of formal farm credit to agricultural sector. However, the impact of institutional credit and crop productivity especially for small and marginal farmers across social groups is not well recognized in India using field data. Accordingly, this field data study contributes to the existing research by providing fresh evidence from field across social groups for both kharif and rabi crops using recent survey data from small and marginal farmers which has important policy implications.

This study aims to examine the effect of structural transformation on poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries with a higher share of services as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The study specifically focuses on the value-added share as a percentage of GDP in the agricultural, manufacturing, industrial, and service sectors using time series data from 1988 to 2019.

The study utilizes the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bound test framework for estimation, based on the conclusions drawn from the augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips–Perron unit root tests, which provide evidence of a mixed order of integration.

The result reveals that agriculture value-added (AVA), manufacturing value-added (MVA), industrial value-added (IVA), and services value-added (SVA) have a positive and significant impact on poverty alleviation in both the short and long run. However, the agriculture sector is found to be more effective in reducing poverty compared to the other sectors examined in this study. Additionally, this study challenges the notion that SSA countries have undergone an immature structural transformation. Instead, it reveals a pattern of stagnant structural transformation, as indicated by the lack of growth in the industrial and manufacturing value-added shares of GDP.

To enhance productivity and reduce poverty, SSA economies should adopt a development strategy that prioritizes heavy manufacturing and industrial sectors, leading to a transition from the agricultural to the secondary and tertiary sectors.

The study contributes to the emerging literature on structural transformation by investigating which sector is more efficient in reducing poverty in SSA countries, using the value-added share as a percentage of GDP for agricultural, manufacturing, industrial, and service sectors. The study also aims to determine if SSA countries have experienced immature structural transformation due to the growing share in the service sector.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the moderating effect of digital transformation (DT) on the relationship between innovation capacity and the performance of agrifood businesses.

Based on a structured questionnaire, data on 98 agrifood small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Spain were collected. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the proposed model and study the moderating effect of DT on the relationship between the innovation capacity and performance of agrifood businesses.

The study finds support for the hypotheses and shows the existence of a direct positive relationship between the DT and performance of agrifood businesses. Developing new practices focussed on customer service and performing actions such as improving sales, promoting a new product or service and including a post-sales service influence the capacity of a business to undertake DT.

Future studies should include other factors in the analysis. For example, the impact of knowledge transfer and research and development (R&D) on agrifood businesses' performance should be studied. Education and training, as well as having a diverse network, can help develop and boost businesses' capacity to use and apply the required innovation. Networks play an important role in learning how to apply DT.

This quantitative study is the first to examine the moderating effect of DT in the Spanish agrifood sector on the relationship between innovation capacity and performance. The study examines the role of the DT of companies and explores the competitiveness and efficiency tools that digitalisation offers. Innovation capacity is crucial for the application of these tools.

Cooperatives are used as one of the strategic tools to reach smallholder farmers and reduce household poverty through augmenting access to inputs, technologies, farm productivity and markets. Our study aims to investigate the impacts of the Meki Batu Cooperative Union on reducing household poverty.

This study employed a cross-sectional survey of households in the Dugda district of the East Shewa zone in the Oromia region. A two-stage sampling design was applied, where four rural Kebeles were first randomly picked, followed by stratified random samples of 217 producers comprising 100 members and 117 non-members of cooperatives. The standard probit model was estimated with a set of observable factors. Propensity score matching (PSM), doubly robust inverse probability weighting and treatment effect estimation were performed along with matching techniques.

The results reveal that education, livestock assets, access to irrigation and extension contact positively determine participation in cooperatives. As the income-based poverty attests, the poverty gap was reduced by 5.9–6.3% and the severity of poverty by 3.7–3.8% due to the cooperative membership.

The investigation suggests the need for continued and comprehensive social services to address development challenges through the facilitation of producers’ engagement in collective actions and agribusinesses.

Existing research evidence is inconclusive with the view of impacts of collective actions on housed welfare in Ethiopia. This study empirically tested the impacts in connection to the production and marketing of high-value crops.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2024-0231

This paper proposes an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform to increase the sustainability and resilience of smallholders to face supply chain disruptions in the event of COVID-like crises. The platform facilitates interactions between smallholders and buyers, workers and freight transport companies in agri-food ecosystems. Furthermore, this research work presents the implementation of the freight transport companies’ platform module.

The research work begins with a literature review aiming at analyzing current available ICT solutions supporting smallholders and other actors in the agri-food supply chain. This analysis identifies the research gaps which have to be filled by the platform. Then, the authors proceed with the analysis of the operational scenarios of each platform actor by interacting with experts and operators working in the agri-food sector. The results of such analysis resulted in a comprehensive, unambiguous and consistent set of specification being used to define the platform structure and modules architecture. The platform modules have been developed by using the web-application framework Laravel.

Preliminary tests show that the proposed platform is usable and promises to improve the resilience and economic, social and environmental sustainability of agri-food supply chains, with a focus on smallholders.

The research work allows players in the agri-food supply chain and in particular small local producers to react and mitigate the impact of COVID-like crises through development of a platform in which smallholders, citizens (buyers and workers) and freight transport companies are simultaneously present.

With the rise of mandating climate-related disclosures (CRD), this paper aims to investigate how energy and agriculture markets are exposed to climate disclosure risk.

Using the multivariable simultaneous quantile regression and data from 1 January 2017 to 29 February 2024, the authors examine daily and monthly responses of energy and agriculture markets to climate disclosure risk, energy risk, market sentiment, geopolitical risk and economic policy risk. The sample covers the global market, Australia, Canada, European Union (EU), Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the USA.

The results show that climate disclosure risk creates both positive and negative shocks in the energy and agriculture markets, and the impacts are asymmetric across quantiles in different economies. The higher the climate disclosure risk, the greater impact of crude oil future on the energy sector in North America (Canada and the USA) and Europe (EU and the UK), but no greater effects in Asia Pacific (Australia, New Zealand and Singapore). The agriculture sector can hedge against economic policy and geopolitical risks, but it is highly exposed to climate disclosure and energy risks.

This study timely contributes to the modest literature on the asymmetric effects of climate disclosure risk on the energy and agriculture markets at the global and national levels. The findings offer practical implications for policymakers and investment practitioners in understanding financial effects of mandating CRD to diversify risks depending upon market conditions and policy uncertainty.

Agricultural banks likely respond differently to economic downturns compared to nonagricultural banks. Limited previous research has examined the performance of agricultural banks under economic crisis and in the presence of banking regulations. This study aims to explore agricultural banks' responses to economic and regulation shocks relative to nonagricultural banks.

This study uses bank-quarter level data from 2002 to 2022 for virtually all commercial banks in the U.S. In this research, the Z-score measures the bank’s default risk, the return on assets measures bank profitability and changes in amount of farm loans indicate the wider impact on the agricultural sector. Effects of the financial crisis, Basel III reforms to banking regulation and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on these banking measures are assessed using distinct empirical frameworks. The empirical estimations use various subsamples based on bank types, bank sizes and time periods.

Economic downturns are associated with fluctuations in returns and the risk of default of commercial banks. Agricultural banks appeared to be more resilient to economic downturns than nonagricultural banks. However, Basel III regulated agricultural banks were more likely to fail amidst the pandemic-related economic shocks than the regulated non-agricultural banks.

This study examines the resiliency of agricultural banks during economic downturns and under postfinancial crisis regulation. This is one of the first empirical works to analyze the effectiveness of Basel III regulation across bank types and sizes considering the COVID-19 pandemic. The key finding suggests that banking regulation should consider not only size heterogeneity but also the heterogeneity in lending portfolios.

The aim of this study is to provide an empirical investigation of the agricultural cluster’s economic, social and environmental values. By doing so, the authors aim to offer policymakers and decision-makers a strategic approach that promotes competitiveness and economic development through shared value.

The authors used AMOS software and applied structural equation modeling to achieve the study’s objectives. The study used this approach with path analysis through the Analysis of Moment Structures software.

The empirical results indicate that creating shared value (CSV) can enhance the agricultural sector’s competitiveness through clustering. Rather than enhancing competitiveness directly, CSV plays a crucial role in improving the relationship between clustering and competitiveness. The authors also examined Porter’s diamond of competitiveness and evaluated factors for creating a shared value strategy, such as factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries, strategy, structure, rivalry and the role of government.

This study focuses solely on the agricultural cluster in Qalqilya governorate and cannot be applied to other regions without additional research.

Ensuring that stakeholders in the agricultural sector are kept informed about the activities of the cluster and the benefits of their participation is crucial. Empirical findings and conclusions have demonstrated that a shared value strategy can enhance the competitiveness of this sector. To achieve this, institutions involved in developing the agricultural cluster must increase their efficiency and capacity. Consulting experts in this field and drawing on experiences from other countries can aid in achieving this goal. Additionally, enhancing farmers’ productivity should be a priority, and the Ministry of Agriculture can provide training and workshops to improve their skills and expertise.

This study suggests that Palestinian policymakers should establish effective partnerships between the government and the agricultural sector’s firms in Qalqilya to reinforce the cluster’s competitiveness. This strategy can stimulate competitiveness and promote economic and social development in Palestine.