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The agricultural sector in developing countries plays a vital role in food security as well as providing employment opportunities to the rural population. This study examines how decent quality of ...

Promoting decent rural employment, by creating new jobs in rural areas and upgrading the existing ones, could be one of the most efficient pathways to reduce rural poverty. This article systematically investigates the impact of decent rural employment on agricultural production efficiency in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The analysis applies an output-oriented distance function approach with an estimation procedure that accounts for different technological, demographic, socioeconomic, institutional, and decent rural employment indicators. Data of the 2011 round of Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for the two countries are used, and a set of indicators is derived to proxy core dimensions of decent rural employment. The findings of our analysis show that decent rural employment contributes to agricultural production efficiency.

The agricultural sector requires a large volume of water (∼70 % of global water), which makes this sector difficult to produce enough food for the rapidly growing population demand with the existing scarce available freshwater source. As a viable alternative water source, urban wastewater reuse is a potential candidate. However, wastewater reuse and disposal before treatment pose a significant threat to human health and ecological systems. This study was aimed to treat urban wastewater using aerobic-anoxic system and then effluent evaluated to grow different vegetables. Wastewater samples collected (Arba Minch town) at nine sites during different seasons were used to characterized water quality (physicochemical and biological) parameters and feed aerobic-anoxic reactors. Health risk as a result of vegetable ingestion was investigated using HRI, THQ, and HI. Statistically significant (p 96, 92, 88, and 58 %, respectively. The order of heavy metals concentration in raw wastewater was Fe > Pb > Zn > Mn > Cu > Cd, which is lower than corresponding heavy metals in vegetables having the order Fe > Mn > Zn > Pb > Cu > Cd. The phytotoxicity effect was significantly higher for cabbage followed by lettuce and tomato. The HRI, THQ, and HI values for Cd and Pb >1.0 (exceeded WHO and FAO limits) for vegetables irrigated with wastewater, which could result in health risk in adults and children. Overall, results confirmed that wastewater after aerobic-anoxic treatment is a sustainable approach to maintain safe environmental and human health.

Background Despite some improvements towards reducing hunger, malnutrition remains to be a crucial challenge in the developing world. The objective of this paper is to analyze the interplay between production diversity and dietary diversity across different seasons in rural Nigeria. The paper also investigates the relationship across different income quantiles. Method The study uses the Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) dataset of the World Bank. We use two rounds of survey data (2010 and 2012) from Nigeria. Data were collected in two visits: at post-planting (from September to November), and at post-harvesting (from February to April). We analyze the relationship between production diversity and dietary diversity using different panel data regression tools. Result In post-harvest season, an increase in farm production diversification is associated with an increase with dietary diversity. On the other hand, production diversification does not have a significant contribution to the dietary diversity at post-planting. The analysis reveals that production diversification leads to better diet diversity for households in the second and third income quantiles. Conclusion Seasonal variation on the contribution of production diversification on dietary diversity in rural Nigeria calls for the role of seasonally targeted policies. A higher propensity of households in the poorest quantile for malnutrition irrespective of the season suggests the need for targeted and continuous public health and nutrition interventions.

Farming is at the core of the economy of Ethiopia. Agricultural market development is expected to allow farming to respond to market signals and develop market orientation and technologies for agricultural production. Input and output market development approach as a tool to enhance technological uptake was employed by Improving Productivity and Market success of Ethiopian Farmers (IPMS) project. This study evaluated the impact of market development in the Bure district. The study took a random sample of 100 participant and 100 non-participant households. The influence of different demographic, social, economic, and access to institutional support service variables on participation were examined. The Propensity Score Matching (PSM) results show that participant households are better-off in net farm income. Productivity measures of households indicate that participants are more productive. Input use of the households is different either from stock or in terms of purchased inputs and participants use. Participants are also more market oriented than non-participant households. Therefore, it is advisable to further extend and scale the approach to a wider coverage area and beneficiary farmers to enhance the uptake of improved agricultural technologies and the link of farmers to the market.

Introduction Agricultural technologies developed by national and international research institutions were not benefiting the rural population of Ethiopia to the extent desired. As a response, integrated agricultural extension approaches are proposed as a key strategy to transform the smallholder farming sector. Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers project is one of the development projects initiated by integrating productivity enhancement technological schemes with market development model. This paper explores the impact of the project intervention in the smallholder farmers’ wellbeing. Methods To test the research hypothesis of whether the project brought a significant change in the input use, marketed surplus, efficiency and income of farm households, we use a cross-section data from 200 smallholder farmers in Northwest Ethiopia, collected through multi-stage sampling procedure. To control for self-selection from observable characteristics of the farm households, we employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM). We finally use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques to estimate technical efficiency of farm households. Results The outcome of the research is in line with the premises that the participation of the household in the IPMS project improves purchased input use, marketed surplus, efficiency of farms and the overall gain from farming. The participant households on average employ more purchased agricultural inputs and gain higher gross margin from the production activities as compared to the non-participant households. The non-participant households on average supply less output (measured both in monetary terms and proportion of total produce) to the market as compared to their participant counterparts. Except for the technical efficiency of production in potato, project participant households are better-off in production efficiency compared with the non-participant counterparts. Conclusion We verified the idea that Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers’ project has contributed for the input and out market integration and/or market oriented agricultural production. Overall, we argue that these can be seen as an experimental model with a promising potential to improve the livelihood of the poor. Furthermore, we suggest that it is worthwhile to employ integrated agricultural extension programs with further targeting in the developing world.