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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of climate smart agriculture knowledge transfers. As well as to examine the application of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) knowledge such as conservation agriculture, irrigation systems, integrated soil fertility management, bioenergy and agroforestry by smallholder farmers in Kenya.

The study applied comparative research methodology to compare climate smart agriculture knowledge application between smallholder participants in farmer field schools (FFS) and no FFS participation. This study used household data from 759 randomly selected rural agricultural households in three counties in Kenya. The study applied multivariate probit model to estimate CSA knowledge application by farmers who participated in field trainings and non-FFS participation farmers.

This study established that climate smart agriculture knowledge transfer through FFS increases farmers’ application of critical aspects of climate smart agriculture knowledge practices such as irrigation system, conservation agriculture and soil and water conservation. Such aspects have been noted as effective interventions against adverse climate change effects such as persistent droughts and flooding and soil infertility. Further findings illustrated that farmers who received CSA knowledge transfers applied agricultural insurance to mitigate rising climatic risks on their farms. Knowledge transfer interventions targeting affordability through subsidizing agricultural insurance are probable and more cost-effective measures that can be used to reduce smallholder farmers’ exposure to climate change-related risks.

This study provides information that was previously unknown about climate smart agriculture knowledge transfers and application among farmers who participated in field trainings and non-FFS participation farmers by using empirical data.

A research and development project disseminated ecological technologies to approximately 3,250 vegetable farmers through farmer field schools (FFS) in four districts of Bali and East Java provinces of Indonesia. This article aims to assess the economic sustainability of vegetable production after FFS participation.

A survey randomly sampled 500 farmers, comprised of FFS participants (50%) and non-FFS participants (50%). Based on 1,000 farm operations, this analysis employed input-saving technology as the fundamental model examined using the double-difference method. Simultaneous reduction of agrochemicals and improvement of productivity represent indicators of economic sustainability.

Results indicate that pesticide use decreased without jeopardising farm productivity; moreover, vegetable production increased. These findings indicate that the ecological technologies transferred through FFS significantly improved economic sustainability performance.

This study purposively selected farmers who grew tomato and chilli. Thus, the outcomes are not generalisable to other crops.

FFS continues to be an effective method for transferring agricultural technologies to farmer communities. Policymakers are recommended to use FFS for disseminating beneficial and sustainable technologies to broader agricultural communities.

The adoption of ecological technologies provides positive economic and ecological milieus.

This study employs a double-differences approach to verify input-saving technological progress. Therefore, the performance of economic sustainability attributable to the project intervention is theoretically justified.

Recent studies suggest extensive use of environmental resources in agrofarming degrades ecosystem significantly. In this backdrop, this study aims at assessing ecoefficiency of paddy farming. Because ecoefficiency links up between economic performances and environmental resources supporting the provision of goods and services for the society, this study further investigates the effectiveness of attending Farmers' Field School (FFS), an agroenvironmental program, in conserving environmental resources through improving farm-level ecoefficiency.

In a dataset of 200 randomly selected paddy farmers from three districts of the southwestern Bangladesh, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to compute both radial and pressure-specific (nutrient balance, energy balance, irrigation and pesticide lethal risk) ecoefficiency scores. Furthermore, propensity score matching (PSM) technique is applied to examine the impact of FFS program on farm-level ecoefficiency.

The DEA results suggest that paddy farmers are highly eco-inefficient. The computed radial eco-efficiency score is 0.40 implying farmers could reduce around 60% of environmental pressure equiproportionally even by maintaining the same level of value addition. In addition, the PSM results suggest farmers' participation in FFS program led to around 22.5% higher radial ecoefficiency and 7–25% higher environmental pressure-specific eco-efficiencies. Furthermore, simulation exercises reveal that FFS participation in interaction with farm size would lead to around 32–40% reduction of all environmental pressures.

Promoting FFS programs among paddy farmers could be an effective policy option to improve eco-efficiency through environment-friendly farming paradigm.

This study is probably the maiden effort that has examined the impact of attending the FFS program on ecoefficiency improvement in Bangladesh. This study contributes to both the concern literature by adding useful information and the policymakers by providing new insights about the reduction of environmental resource usage with maintaining the same value addition from agrofarming.

This article discusses the consequences of unethical leadership, particularly, the leader-follower relationship in the delivery of agricultural advisory services in Tanzania. It analyses the means through which ethical leadership framework can be used to address the problem of unethical leadership in this context.

The article uses a comparative case study design to explain the position of ethical leadership in the delivery of agricultural advisory services in two local governments: Morogoro Municipality in Eastern Tanzania, and Hai District in Northern Tanzania.

The research shows that the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania is guided by formal rules, which define the roles and responsibilities of local government officials and field workers. These roles and responsibilities are driven by national-level guidelines written by the Ministry of Agriculture. The guidelines define the key responsibilities of village, Ward and District level Agricultural Extension Officers. In developing the working schedule, agricultural extension workers at the village and ward levels are guided by an annual calendar that defines the seasons of the year and the relevant knowledge required by farmers. Nevertheless, the implementation of these schedules is compromised by a lack of resources and morale of field workers who in turn, cope through charging for the services, which is considered as their prime motives.

The findings can be of interest to national and local government policymakers and officials dealing with the delivery of agricultural advisory services in Tanzania.

In the developing world, the adoption of new technology in agriculture has emerged as a tool to address the problem of investment-disincentive effect of capital investment on smallholders. In Indian agriculture, which is dominated by smallholders, technological adoption becomes very essential. In this regard, along with the government, local level organizations also provide training and other support to adopt the new agricultural technique. The present study is an attempt to assess the counterfactual impact of this sort of initiative in the context of Bihar, a state in India.

The study uses field survey data which are collected from the Gaya district of Bihar. Overall, 249 sample farmers are surveyed from 23 villages of four blocks of the Gaya district. There are two groups of selected farmers: treatment and control groups. Farmers who adopted the new technique belong to the treatment group, and otherwise, the control group. For analytical purpose, a propensity score matching method has been used to estimate the counterfactual impact of the adoption of the new technique of farming on farmers' agricultural income.

The study observes a significant improvement in the agricultural income of the farmers who adopted the new technique. New agricultural techniques, propagated through the local level organization, might be instrumental to enhance farmer's skill as well as income.

This type of approach may be adopted, complementary to the government's extension initiative to enhance farmers' income through adoption of the advanced farming process, as well as to improve the human capital of agriculture production.

The study laid a framework of assessing the counterfactual impact of intervention of local level organization and adoption of new farming techniques in the context of Bihar, India.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0606

The Million Farmers School (MFS) program—also known as Kisan Pathshala was launched to impart training to the farmers by the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh (India) in December 2017. This study estimates the impact of training on agricultural knowledge of the farmers.

The study is based on household survey conducted in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India, during March–May 2019. The authors employed matching methods, the two-stage least square (2SLS)-residual and endogenous switching regression approaches to control for selection bias and endogeneity.

The results suggest that knowledge outcomes are significantly better among participants vis-à-vis non-participants. The results are robust to different model specifications. Further, the benefits are observed across different regions and social groups.

The MFS program can go a long way in enhancing agricultural know-how and the farmers' economic well-being, bringing a transformative change in the agricultural landscape of UP.

This study is based on a field survey data and analyzes various aspects of the program's impact, design and implementation, and offers implementation advice for greater efficacy in future.

This paper aims to investigate how awareness influences the adoption of positive selection (PS) technology among smallholder yam farmers in West Africa. PS has the potential of increasing yield and reducing disease incidence and severity in yam production.

This paper applies the average treatment effect (ATE) methodology to estimate the rates of awareness and adoption of the PS technology and associated factors using data from 678 smallholder seed yam farmers in Ghana and Nigeria.

The results indicate that the actual adoption rates of PS technology are 58 and 55%, while the potential adoption rates are estimated at 89.5 and 79.3% for Ghana and Nigeria, respectively, if the PS technology was fully disseminated. This leads to adoption gaps of 31.7 and 24.8%, respectively, for Ghana and Nigeria stemming from incomplete awareness of the PS among the population of yam growing farmers. The PS adoption is high among the educated young farmers who are members of farmer based organizations and participate in demonstrations.

Promotional efforts for enhancing awareness and adoption of PS should target educated youth willing to participate in field demonstrations and should focus on scaling up of PS technology to ensure quality farmer saved seed yams and enhance yam productivity in West Africa.

The introduction of PS in seed yam production is quite recent also its introduction to seed yam farmers in West Africa. Subsequently, a better understanding of what the adoption status would be should everyone in the population of yam farmers are aware of PS is vital for policy, research and development.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse factors affecting the use of pesticides in intensive vegetable farming in Java, Indonesia. Evaluating such factors is expected to provide appropriate policies to reduce pesticides, and eventually, mitigates the adverse impacts of pesticides on human health and the environment.

Data were compiled from a farm survey of randomly selected 240 vegetable farmers in three regions of Java in 2014. A concept of economic threshold was employed to analyse the pesticide use determinants, which were estimated using econometric models.

Factors leading to the increase in the application of pesticides were the number of observed insect pests, prices of vegetables, use of local varieties, and use of mixed pesticides. Conversely, factors lowering the use of pesticides were the number of observed diseases, the cost of pesticides, and area planted to vegetables. The most important factor in influencing pesticide use was farmers’ perception on the correct prediction of yield losses associated with pests and diseases.

The sample for this research is somewhat low and the analysis was based on one-year data of the quantity of pesticides in a formulation.

The use of pesticides can be reduced by training farmers on crop protection practices, which provide correct information on pests and diseases. Policies related to the price of pesticides would be ineffective, as farmers still highly relied on pesticides. These findings will be useful for reducing the use of pesticides in intensive vegetable farming in Indonesia, and in tropical countries in general.

Pesticides have two opposite properties: to increase income on the one side and to cause devastation of life on the other side. Because pesticides are generally less selectively toxic than would be desired, non-targets including humans and the environment must be protected from contamination by these agrochemicals. This study found the most important determinants for reducing pesticide exposures in Indonesian intensive farming.

Various models and approaches are implemented to provide technical assistance and support to improve cocoa farmers' welfare in Ghana. The Farmer Business School (FBS), which is analogous to Farmer Field School (FFS), is one of the few initiatives of GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD). The main aim of the initiative is to train smallholder cocoa farmers to perceive cocoa production as a business. However, there is limited or conflicting evidence as to the effect of FBS on productivity and food security, especially in Ghana. This study assessed FBS participation and the participation's impact on productivity and food security of cocoa farmers.

The study used primary data collected from 542 cocoa farmers in Central and Western North regions of Ghana and employed descriptive statistics, perception index and Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) as analytical tools.

The results, which reported an overall perception index of 0.7, indicated that the farmers had a strong positive perception on the FBS program. The results also showed that sex of a farmer, number of years of formal education, farm size, extension contact, perception, distance to extension outlet and membership of farmer-based organizations (FBOs) significantly influenced the decision to participate in FBS program. Also off-farm income, years of education and household size significantly influenced farm productivity and household food security. The results further showed that participation in FBS improved productivity and food security of cocoa farmers.

The study used data from two regions of Ghana, namely the Central region and the Western North region. Findings from studies using data covering all cocoa growing areas of Ghana could be more informative in formulating policies aimed at encouraging participation in FBS and consequently help improve cocoa productivity and food security.

This article offers insights into the welfare effects of FBS on cocoa farmers as previous similar studies are without this information.

This study aims to examine farmers' decision to use smartphone agricultural applications (SAAs) and how SAAs adoption impact their land transfer behaviors in terms of the current land transfer-in area (LTA) and the future willingness to renew land transfer-in after it expires (WTR).

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between farmers' use of SAAs and land transfer choice, using a field survey data of 752 rural farm households in 2020 from Sichuan province of China. The endogenous switching models are employed to address potential self-selection bias associated with voluntary SAAs use and to quantitatively examine the impacts of SAAs use on land transfer choice.

The empirical results reveal that SAAs significantly improves the probability of transfer-in of more land by 39.10%. We find SAAs use has heterogeneous impacts on land transfer-in choice in the groups of agricultural technology, extension service, marketing and credit. Besides, we also find that SAAs use exerts highly positive and significant impact on farmers with less land area transfer-in. Moreover, SAAs can increase the probability of farmers' willingness to renew the land transfer-in by 30%.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the quantitative relationship between the use of SAAs and farm households' land transfer choice. The findings of this work can provide policy-related insights to help government promote the development of digital applications in the agricultural sector.