Do institutional arrangements influence the speed of adoption of laser-land leveller technology in the irrigated farmlands of Punjab, Pakistan? A discrete-time duration analysis

Governments and international donors are actively promoting laser-land leveller (LLL) technology to produce environmental benefits (i.e., avoid soil salinity, minimize soil erosion risk, and groundwater security) that could lead to sustainable agricultural production and averting land degradation. We investigate the adoption process of laser-land leveller (LLL) technology in Punjab, Pakistan during the period 1985–2018 using survey data from 504 farming households. A discrete-time duration model is used to investigate factors that could influence the speed of adoption of LLL technology and an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to evaluate its impact on groundwater usage. It is found that about 70% of the surveyed households had adopted the technology. The key determinants of the speed of adoption include strong legal land entitlements, farm size, and farm location along the watercourse. Information acquired through formal and informal sources and exposure to the technology potentially reduce adoption time. The adoption of LLL reduces groundwater use by about 23% in wheat crop. These results highlight the need for improved institutional arrangements such as extension services, technology exposure, and establishing legal property rights over land to enhance uptake of LLL technology.

Poverty Reduction Effect of New-Type Agricultural Cooperatives: An Empirical Analysis Using Propensity Score Matching and Endogenous Switching Regression Models

Agricultural cooperatives have been found to effectively alleviate poverty in developing countries because of their specific socioeconomic functions that allow poor households to overcome marketing and production constraints. However, cooperative evaluations are inevitably influenced by other poverty alleviation measures and rarely consider the characteristics of specific ethnic groups. Using cross-sectional surveys in Southwest China and employing propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous switching regression (ESR) models, this paper analyzed the participation of poor households in New-type Agricultural Cooperatives (NACs) in ethnic areas and assessed the income impacts of NAC membership by eliminating unobserved biases and group heterogeneity. This study detected heterogeneous policy perceptions and behavioral differences between the member and nonmember groups, and the PSM and ESR model results indicated that, overall, participation in the NACs had a positive effect on household income. The ESR model was found to be more plausible as it was able to reveal the significant income gaps under a counterfactual inference framework. Local policymakers need to focus on the policy perception and behavioral and earning capability differences between groups and increase the balanced policy implementation.

Does agricultural cooperative membership help reduce the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides? Evidence from rural China

The overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (CFPs) has negatively impacted the environment and human health. It is an urgent issue that should be addressed. In this study, we investigate whether agricultural cooperatives can serve as an institutional arrangement that helps reduce the consumption of CFPs, using the data of 2012 family farms from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. Various approaches, including instrumental variable based two-stage residual inclusion approach (2SRI), endogenous switching probit (ESP) model, and endogenous switching regression (ESR) model, are utilized to help address the endogeneity issues of the cooperative membership variable. The results show that agricultural cooperative membership significantly increases the probability of reducing fertilizers and pesticides of the family farms and improves net return per yuan CFPs. Our findings highlight the importance of promoting the development of agricultural cooperatives to support green agricultural production in China.

Estimating and Decomposing Groundnut Gender Yield Gap: Evidence from Rural Farming Households in Northern Nigeria

Poverty among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa has been associated with low agricultural productivity emanating from gender yield gaps among other factors. Using data collected from smallholder groundnut producers in Nigeria, we analyzed the gender yield gap by applying the exogenous switching regression (ESR) model and Oaxaca–Blinder (OB) decomposition framework. Results from the two complementary approaches showed a significant gender yield gap in favor of male headed households (MHHs). The main and significant source of the gap was differences in resources/endowments. We found that involving female headed households (FHHs) in prerequisite yield augmenting activities like technology validation trials, testing, and demonstrations is critical in closing the existing yield gap.

The impact of access to irrigation on rural incomes and diversification: evidence from China

PurposeThe objective of this study is to estimate the impacts of access to irrigation on farm income, household income and income diversification.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to address the selection bias arising from both observed and unobserved factors and analyze cross-sectional data collected from Fujian, Henan and Sichuan provinces in China. The authors use the Simpson index to measure household income diversification. The propensity score matching (PSM) model and control function approach are also used for comparison purpose.FindingsAfter controlling for the selection bias, the authors find that access to irrigation has a positive and statistically significant impact on rural incomes and diversification. The treatment effects of access to irrigation are to increase farm income, household income and income diversification by around 14, 10 and 107%, respectively. The positive effects of access to irrigation are confirmed by the estimates of the PSM model and control function approach. Further analysis reveals that the irrigation effects on rural incomes and diversification are heterogeneous between small-scale and large-scale farmers and between male-headed and female-headed households.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings suggest that the government should continue to improve irrigation infrastructure construction in rural China to promote smallholder farmers' water access and at the same time facilitate farmers' access to better agronomic and irrigation information. There exist gender and farm size related income and diversification effects of access to irrigation, and the irrigation access is associated with farm location. Thus, when developing regional irrigation programs consideration needs to be taken of whether the rural farming systems are dominated by male/female household heads and land fragmentation/consolidation issues.Originality/valueAlthough a large body of literature has investigated the effects of irrigation development in rural areas, little is known about the impact of access to irrigation on income diversification. The selection bias associated with unobserved heterogeneities is usually neglected in previous studies. This study provides the first attempt by examining the impacts of access to irrigation on rural incomes and diversification, using the ESR model to address both observed and unobserved selection bias.

Health and environmental effects of adopting an integrated fruit fly management strategy among mango farmers in Kenya

Integrated pest management (IPM) has been promoted globally as an alternative approach to the widespread broad-spectrum chemical insecticidal application for the control of pests and diseases in agricultural production to minimise the harmful effects of the chemicals on humans and the environment. This study examines the impact of an IPM strategy developed to control mango fruit flies on humans and the environment. Using a random sample of 371 mango farmers from Meru County in Kenya, health and environmental outcomes were measured using the environmental impact quotient (EIQ) field use and causal impacts, which were estimated using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model. The results indicate that the adoption of the IPM strategy reduced pesticide use and pesticide toxicity. Policy efforts therefore should focus on promoting and disseminating fruit fly IPM to improve the livelihoods of rural mango farmers, but also reduce human health and environmental threats as a result of pesticide use.

Brain Plasticity in Human Lifespan Development: The Exploration–Selection–Refinement Model

Plasticity can be defined as the brain's capacity to achieve lasting structural changes in response to environmental demands that are not fully met by the organism's current functional capacity. Plasticity is triggered when experiential forces interact with genetic programs in the maturation of species-common functions (e.g., vision), but it is also required for less universal forms of learning that sculpt individuals into unique members of their species. Hence, delineating the mechanisms that regulate plasticity is critical for understanding human ontogeny. Nevertheless, mechanisms of plasticity in the human brain and their relations to individual differences in learning and lifespan development are not well understood. Drawing on animal models, developmental theory, and concepts from reinforcement learning, we introduce the exploration–selection–refinement (ESR) model of human brain plasticity. According to this model, neuronal microcircuits potentially capable of implementing the computations needed for executing a task are, early in learning, widely probed and therefore structurally altered. This phase of exploration is followed by phases of experience-dependent selection and refinement of reinforced microcircuits and the concomitant gradual elimination of novel structures associated with unselected circuits. The ESR model makes a number of predictions that are testable in humans and has implications for the study of individual differences in lifespan development.

Inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives: recent evidence from Ethiopia

Purpose Using a recent rural farm household survey, the purpose of this paper is to investigate inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a logit model to examine inclusiveness and an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives. Findings The results show that agricultural cooperatives are less inclusive of land-poor and illiterate households. On the other hand, the estimated results indicate that cooperatives effectively improved agricultural performance and welfare of its member households – i.e. membership in cooperatives increases yield and income by 1.37 quintal/hectare and 1,804 birr, respectively. Moreover, the result shows that marketing cooperatives effectively increased marketed surplus of their members by 34 percent. Research limitations/implications The study has important implications regarding the ways to improve the effectiveness and/or inclusiveness of agricultural cooperatives. Originality/value While accounting for the collective behavior of cooperatives, this study uses multiple outcome variables in examining the effectiveness of cooperatives in Ethiopia. Furthermore, this paper employs the ESR model and accounts for potential problems in estimating impact using non-experimental data.