Search results

This essay provides evidence that the invention of agriculture was not a dramatic technological advance in the history of humankind and that agriculture was quite consistent with nomadic hunting and gathering. The available clues also suggest that exact origins of agriculture do not seem important. Rather, the crucial question is why certain societies dramatically increased their dependency on agriculture for subsistence two to ten millennia ago. Unfortunately, most of the major theories purporting to explain the neolithic revolution – either the origins or the spread of agriculture – are either untestable or inconsistent with the available evidence. What is at stake for economic historians is to rethink the process of the adoption of agriculture using a multi-causal approach.

This study was conducted to assess the socio-economic implications of climate change on the three ecological regions of Lesotho. In the view that climate change is affecting agriculture, subsistence communities are at risk. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Two villages were randomly selected from three regions of Lesotho and at least 40 households in each region. The full range of economic activities undertaken was covered to understand how climate affects the communities, and how they are. A livelihood sensitivity matrix was used to determine which resources and livelihoods are most vulnerable to different types of climatic hazards and how the different livelihood activities are impacted by different climate hazards.

A large percentage of the community (>95 percent) was aware of the changing climate and the effects on land productivity. Food crops are the most vulnerable to weather, followed by soil and livestock. Climate variables of major concern were hail, drought and dry spells which reduced crop yields.

This research is important especially to policy makers to make informed decisions in as far as climate change response strategies in Lesotho are concerned. This research thus gives a baseline on these climate change impacts on subsistence communities.

Transformation of smallholder agriculture from subsistence to more commercially-oriented production is one of the strategies advocated for improving rural households' food security and general welfare. The purpose of this paper is to assess potential differential effects of smallholder commercialization intensity on the different dimensions of food security.

Using household data from rural Tanzania, the study employed Tobit regression and Generalized Propensity Score (GPS) approaches to analyze smallholder commercialization intensity and associated food security effects.

Results show that smallholder commercialization has heterogeneous effects on the different dimensions of food security. Specifically, lower levels of commercialization are associated with lower food availability, access, utilization and stability. At higher intensities of commercialization, smallholders have higher food availability and access but modest improvements in food utilization and stability. Findings suggests that heterogeneous effects of commercialization on food security and the multi-dimensional nature of food security are important aspects to consider in the design of strategies to improve smallholder agriculture for enhanced food security and welfare.

It is important to point out that while food security is still a complex phenomenon, one that cannot be analyzed easily, so is commercialization. This study has used only one of the many definitions of commercialization.

Most existing literature on smallholder commercialization groups farmers into commercial and subsistence-oriented households. However, smallholders commercialize at various levels of intensity. This paper, conversely, analyzes the potential effects of different levels of commercialization on the various aspects of food security. Further, unlike extensive literature that focus on a narrow definition of food security, this paper expands the evidence of the implications of smallholder commercialization on the different dimensions of food security namely, food availability, access, utilization and stability.

This paper aims to highlight differences between business and non-business literature regarding base of the pyramid (BoP) and subsistence contexts and reveal discourse’s powerful role in influencing goals, solutions and outcomes.

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to review a convenience sample of business versus non-business literature on the BoP and subsistence contexts.

Discourse used in business literature on the BoP is oriented toward hegemonic Western capitalist approaches that result in the depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation and, therefore, cannot alleviate poverty.

There are two primary limitations: the study relied on a convenience sample that was not random and comparatively, the business BoP literature is not as mature as the non-business subsistence literature and, therefore, the BoP field of study is not yet fully developed.

Discourse has a powerful role in revealing assumptions and guiding actions. A change in BoP discourse toward a strength-based approach can serve as a model of sustainability and can help powerful entities enact structural and systemic change.

This paper reveals the role of discourse in business BoP literature and how it perpetuates and even exacerbates the problems they were designed to alleviate: depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation. The paper challenges researchers, economists and powerful guiding entities to reorient their discourse of the BoP to be more aligned with those of non-business researchers of subsistence markets.

In this paper I explore how members of rural Maya households in central Quintana Roo (Mexico) interact with the wider social system and cope with long-term transformations in productive relations since c. 1840. Maya householders integrate elements of capitalist and non-capitalist modes of production. Through particular cultural forms they regulate internal uses of wealth and their relationships with the larger capitalist world. Social and economic stratification is a fundamental feature of life among Maya householders today as it was in the past. While disparities between wealth strata within the local context have increased, the community is far from disintegrating into antagonistic groups.

This paper aims to produce a framework for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in the Yangambi landscape, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This would enable the authors to identify agricultural practices, assess vulnerability to climate change, identify options for improving agricultural systems from a climate change mitigation and adaptation perspective and finally provide climate-smart agricultural options.

The study used household survey methods of data collection. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire survey by interviewing 250 farm households, subdivided using three axes of the Yangambi landscape. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine relationships between two or more variables.

Results of the survey revealed that the vast majority (98%) of respondents perceived changes in temperature, rainfall and weather patterns. Reduction of crop yields and the emergence of new weed species and new crop pests are the main impacts on agricultural activities. Although 87.6% of respondents have no means of adaptation and resilience, some of them use crops rotation, fallow practice, fertilizers and bio-pesticides. A framework for CSA is proposed for the Yangambi landscape.

Policies and strategies to promote CSA in the study area should take into account local farmers' perceptions of climate change and consider first the adequacy of CSA practices for the specific conditions of the target area before its promotion. This study is thus useful for many REDD+ initiatives that are currently being promoted in DRC and particularly in the Tshopo Province.

This study is one of the first studies to focus on CSA in the Yangambi landscape, DRC. It assists the use of agriculture as a response to reducing deforestation while at the same time lowering agriculture’s carbon footprint and promoting a resilient and more productive farming system.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are in use to determine how and the extent to which the business objectives of an organization are achieved. This paper aims to evaluate the contribution of a research institute in terms of KPIs to support its process of decision-making towards, etc., innovation, sustainability and improvement.

In light of this, a systemic review was conducted on a set of relevant scholarly studies to identify the trends which shed light on the possible critical success factors to be effectively used in research institutes in association with the development of commercial agriculture. It examines whether, and if so how KPIs that are highly associated with those critical success factors are disruptive in research culture in an institute with certain organization design to promote research on innovative commercial agriculture.

The study highlighted some important aspects of commercial agriculture that showed strong links with possible critical success factors that could be used to develop a possible KPI set for a research institute. The salient features in a model performance management system with such KPIs of a research institute having strategical contribution for commercial agriculture are further elaborated.

This manuscript is a conceptual piece that advocates research institutes geared towards commercial agriculture development to begin using KPIs as part of research culture to evaluate their success. The paper suggests that commercial agriculture – perhaps, especially in developing countries – faces many challenges and using KPIs could help diagnose when and why essential processes break down. This study shows possible avenues of KPI use in research institutes that have not been very well discussed or discussed meagerly that have high potential to be integrated into successful KPIs towards innovative commercial agriculture.

This paper investigates the impact of bank credit on agricultural productivity in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) from 1990 to 2019. Studies’ results on the impact of bank credit on agricultural productivity are not conclusive. The studies demonstrate diverse outcomes which are debatable. The results are conflicting.

Agricultural value added (AGRVA) to the gross domestic product (GDP) proxies agricultural productivity while domestic credit to the private sector by banks (DCPSB), broad money supply, land, inflation (INF), physical capital (PHKAP) and labour supply are explanatory variables. The autoregressive distributed lag technique is utilized.

The co-integration test results show a long-run co-integration among the variables. The findings disclose that DCPSB, land and PHKAP impact positively on the AGRVA. Broad money supply, INF and labour impact negatively on the AGRVA to the GDP.

The results suggest that the CEMAC governments should encourage effective ways to increase bank credit flow to private enterprises in the agricultural sector through efficient bank's intermediation.

The governments should create more agricultural banks and improve the operation of existing ones to ensure direct credit to agricultural activities. The Bank of Central African Economic and Monetary Community should apply aggressive policy which eliminates all the bottlenecks undermining credit flow to the private sector in mutualism with agricultural productivity.

The commercial banks should give more credit to private sector to mutually benefit the agricultural sector and the banking sector. The governments of the CEMAC economies should expand funding into the capital market which considerably boosts agricultural productivity.

Studies’ results on the impact of bank credit on agricultural productivity are not conclusive. The studies demonstrate diverse outcomes which are debatable. The results are conflicting; some reveal positive impacts, some show negative impacts and others indicate U-shape behaviour. Hence, research is required to fill the lacuna.

This study documented adaptation strategies employed by rural women in Vhembe district as they reel with climate change impacts. Women are heavily plagued by climate change impacts than any other genders worldwide. This is attributed to their high dependence on the natural resources for survival, low adaptive capacity, illiteracy, social ascribed roles that limit their participation in climate change initiatives like men and high poverty levels. Despite the daunting fact of women's vulnerability to climate change and its vagary impacts, women are agents of social change who have not remained passive victims to climate change and its impacts.

This study adopted a qualitative methodology guided by multi-case study design. A sample of 25 participants was selected through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected using Focus Group Discussions and individual interviews and analysed thematically. Rural women and traditional leaders served as key informants and participated in the study.

The study established that the effects of climate change on rural women are real; however, there is a cocktail of strategies employed by women in Vhembe district in response to these effects. The strategies include livelihood and crop diversification, use of indigenous knowledge systems and harnessing of social capital among other household-based adaptation strategies.

The study recommends that the best way of assisting rural women in adapting to climate change is through the amelioration of poverty, enhancing capacity building for women and elimination of all systems that serve as barriers to effective adaptation.

Of all the natural disasters, drought is the most gradual and the most hard to predict. However, this insidious disaster continually affects the lives and livelihoods of farmers living in drought-affected areas. The northwestern part of Bangladesh is recognized as being more severely affected by drought than the rest of the country, as drought is a recurring event in this area. It has substantial impacts on agriculture and causes great suffering for farmers – in particular, poor and small farmers, who are more vulnerable to drought. Therefore, this study tries to illustrate farmers’ existing coping practices with regard to drought. It also addresses their prioritized adaptation practices, which are based on local context and available resources. This study not only focuses on the implementation of these adaptation practices from the national to the local level, but it also mentions various roles of stakeholders and a definite timeframe for each adaptation practice.