Decentralized Finance (DeFi) operating in Benin are essential for financing the agricultural sector and for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This research contributes to the debate on the effectiveness of agricultural financing models proposed by DeFi in Northern Benin. Two theoretical approaches are mobilized to assess farmers’ perceptions : Triandis’ interpersonal behaviour model (1979) and the balanced incomplete block design method for analyzing farmers’ choices. A total of 585 farmers were surveyed, including 385 financing beneficiaries, using purposive sampling. Data were analyzed with R version 4.3.0 and RStudio version 2022.02.0. The results highlight a preference for individual financing models (61.26%) over group-based models (38,74%), as they better meet the immediate needs of farmers. Regarding the impact of financing models on agricultural factors of production, farmers acknowledge the positive effect of individual financing on the purchase of inputs and equipment, but criticize the inability of group financing models to stimulate overall productivity and land expansion. The overall perception of support systems implemented after financing is negative, as they remain disconnected from farmer’s real needs. It therefore appears that while financing models satisfy beneficiaries in terms of immediate operational aspects (inputs, equipment, financial needs), and they fail to address structural expectations such as productivity growth and farmland expansion
Amar Razaq, Muhammad Asad ur Rehman Naseer, Muhammad Naseer, Saher Jabeen
Decentralization has become one of the main governance reforms through which developing economies try to make food security policy more responsive to local conditions. The reform promise is straightforward: subnational governments and community institutions may know local agroecological conditions, household vulnerability, market constraints, and social exclusion better than central ministries. Yet decentralization can also reproduce weak service delivery when authority is transferred without finance, staff, data systems, accountability, or coordination. This chapter argues that local food governance should be assessed as a design problem rather than as a general reform ideal. Effective devolution links clear functional assignments, predictable finance, capable local administration, public participation, and national standards. The chapter develops a multilevel framework for food governance, compares fiscal and institutional patterns in selected developing economies, and uses case boxes from Pakistan, India, Brazil, Kenya, Indonesia, and Ethiopia. It concludes that decentralized governance can strengthen inclusion and responsiveness, but only when local discretion is embedded in transparent institutions and coherent intergovernmental systems.
M. S. Sadiq, Invinder Paul Sıngh, Muhammad Makarfi Ahmad, Bashir Sanyinna Sani
Post-harvest losses represent a major challenge to global food systems, accounting for up to 30–50% of agricultural output losses, particularly in perishable crops such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, and fish. These losses significantly impact food security, farmer incomes, and national economies—most acutely in developing countries where infrastructure is limited. Cold storage technologies have emerged as one of the most effective solutions to address this issue by preserving the quality and shelf life of perishable produce. In recent years, agritech start-ups, driven by innovative youth entrepreneurs, have been at the forefront of deploying scalable and affordable cold storage solutions, ranging from solar-powered cooling units to mobile refrigeration systems and decentralized storage networks. This communication critically examines the dynamic intersection of cold storage innovations, youth entrepreneurship, and agricultural value chains. It explores the relevance of key theoretical models such as innovation diffusion theory, sustainable livelihoods framework, and supply chain integration theory to understand the adoption and impact of cold storage technologies. Through case studies and evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, we highlight how youth-led start-ups are leveraging technology, financing, and digital platforms to bridge critical gaps in agri-logistics. Despite these promising developments, challenges persist, including high capital costs, inconsistent energy supply, inadequate technical skills, and weak policy support. As such, this study explores enabling policy frameworks, investment opportunities, and capacity-building strategies necessary for the sustainable deployment of cold storage solutions. Emphasis is placed on the transformative potential of youth-driven innovations in shaping resilient, inclusive, and climate-smart agri-food systems.
East African countries referred to have the effective extension system in Africa. However, the agriculture sector has not shown significant improvement in production and bettering peoples’ lives in rural areas. In Tanzania, agricultural extension system remains almost entirely financed by the public sector represented by the government through the Ministry of Agriculture. Extension services provided by the Government of Tanzania are publicly funded and, thus, free for farmers employing several extension systems and approaches including the gradual improvement in farming methods, the transformation approach, the settlement scheme and the Training and Visit (T&V) system. Decentralization of extension services in Tanzania introduced with the aim of bringing services closer to farmers. However, the impact of decentralization of extension services in improving farmers’ lives has been perceived mostly with failure than with success. Additionally, performance of extension services in the country reported to be affected by numerous factors such as inefficient funding, poor organization at Local Government Authorities (LGAs), coordination and management, political interference environment, and weak linkage with research sector among others. In addition, the insufficient number of staff and poor infrastructures and facilities, government extension agents reach only 10% of the farming households, leading to dissatisfaction with rendered services among farmers. However, Government’s apparent commitment to policies and strategies in transforming the agriculture sector as it employs more than 70% of its population. Thus, recently, the central government provided motor bikes, iPad and soil scanners to all extension workers throughout the country. Hence, this review on the performance of agriculture extension services under local government authorities was conducted to articulate challenges facing the system and propose solutions to achieve the traditional ‘structural transformation’ whereby increasing agricultural production provides a platform for manufacturing and economic growth.
Whether fiscal decentralization will lead to agricultural land “non-grainization” has been widely debated in academic circles. How to improve the efficiency of financial support to agriculture and optimize the grain planting structure by clarifying the relationship between central and local powers and responsibilities is the key to ensuring food security. Based on the panel data of 170 cities in China from 2004 to 2017, this paper uses system moment estimation and a threshold effect model to explore the impact of fiscal decentralization on grain planting structure. The results show that (1) fiscal decentralization has a significant negative effect on the share of food crop cultivation in the major grain-producing areas. (2) Taking the wage level, financial support for agriculture, and land finance as the threshold variables, the test finds that there is a threshold effect of fiscal decentralization on the proportion of food crop cultivation, in which land finance dependence and rises in the wage level are conducive to mitigating the negative effect of fiscal decentralization on the proportion of food crop cultivation. (3) For the three major types of food crop varieties, the negative impact of fiscal decentralization on the share of wheat and corn crop cultivation is subject to the threshold effect of wage level, financial support for agriculture, and land finance, while the impact of fiscal decentralization on the share of rice crop cultivation is not significant. The results of the study have an important guiding role for the government to deepen the reform of the tax-sharing system, improve the long-term mechanism of stable growth of financial support for grain, and optimize the layout of the grain industry.
Innocent Pangapanga‐Phiri, Hambulo Ngoma, Christian Thierfelder
Abstract Smallholder farming systems need climate-proofing and sustainable intensification practices such as conservation agriculture (CA), are promising options. However, there is a general perception that the adoption of CA systems in southern Africa is low. Sentinel sites, where CA has been promoted for a long time, offer forward-looking new insights. This paper, thus, takes a deep dive at Nkhotakota district of Malawi to understand what could have led to the success of CA promotion and subsequent perceived high adoption. We use survey data from 620 farmers, with 298 farmers sampled from treatment areas – known to have had contact with host farmers and 320 from a control group. Overall, 31% of the farmers in both groups adopted full CA over at least a 2-year period. We also find that about 57% of farmers in the treatment area adopted full CA and only 7% of farmers in the control areas. This highlights that longer-term CA promotion with dedicated extension support can enhance the uptake of CA practices. In essence, this paper offers a different perspective to the current narrative that CA systems are too complex and knowledge intensive to be adopted despite its long-term promotion and significant investments. However, there are some nuances: sustained adoption even in sentinel sites is neither 100% nor persistent over the long term. We find an appreciable adoption decay, showing large declines from highs of 57 and 7% in adoption for at least 2 years for treatment and control, respectively, to 12% in the treatment group and practically zero in the control when we condition full CA adoption to at least 7 years. This means that fewer farmers adopted CA for a longer period and suggests some dis-adoption over time even in sentinel sites. The key adoption enablers in the sentinel sites include the availability of training, dedicated longer-term extension support coupled with farmer experiential learning through demonstration plots managed by host farmers. Based on our findings, there is need to consistently promote CA using farmer-centric approaches that include peer-to-peer learning over long periods. This allows farmers time to experiment with different CA options, enable behavioral and lasting change. At policy level, there is need to build and strengthen farmer groups to facilitate easier access to inputs like leguminous crop seeds for farmers practicing CA and to offer market-smart incentives to induce initial adoption in the short term to facilitate sustained adoption.
Promoting green agricultural production is becoming increasingly important in order to address resource and environmental issues and meet consumers’ demand for safe agricultural products. Green agriculture mainly refers to the adoption of green, smart agriculture technologies in agricultural production. Farmers are the main body of agricultural production, so guiding farmers to adopt green, smart agriculture technologies is of great significance for safeguarding the ecological environment. However, due to the combined influence of internal and external factors, the current level of adoption of green, smart agriculture technologies by farmers is not high. Contract farming can have an impact on farmers’ production behavior through various channels, such as guiding and standardizing production, and may become an internal driving force for improving the adoption of green, smart agriculture technologies. How do farmers make contract farming selection decisions? How does the choice of contract farming affect farmers’ adoption of green, smart agriculture technologies? Further research on the above issues can provide useful references for promoting the development of green agriculture and ensuring the quality of agricultural products in China. Against this backdrop, this paper, using research data about rice farmers in the Jiangsu Province of China, adopted a gradual regression method for checking the mediating and moderating effects to discover the mechanism of how contract farming influences rice farmers’ choice of green, smart agriculture technologies. The research results showed that: (1) contract farming has an evidently positive influence on farmers’ choice of green, smart agriculture technologies; (2) the high ecological value standard plays a complete mediating role in the process of contract farming influencing farmers’ choice of green, smart agriculture technologies; and (3) the moderating effect of planting rice income exists and is significant. When the income from cultivation is high, the positive relationship between the high ecological value standard and farmers’ choice of green, smart agriculture technologies is strengthened. Income from rice cultivation does have a moderating effect. Therefore, the government can actively guide farmers to participate in contract farming by increasing its publicity and support of contract farming. The implementation of the high ecological value standard in contract farming should be refined. The government should complete the mechanism for selling quality agricultural products at good prices. Contract farming can make farmers and corporations involved have deep cooperation, increase the non-agricultural income of farmers, and further enhance the overall income of their households. Through these measures, the development of green agriculture can be achieved.
The application of smart agriculture is increasingly becoming a critical force in transforming the traditional methods of agricultural production in China. This change, based on technological innovation, is essential to promoting a sustainable production system in family farms. This study is based on the resource orchestration theory to investigate how smart agriculture affects the diversity of green production technologies (GPTs) on family farms. Based on a sample of 563 family farms surveyed in 2022, this study utilizes propensity score matching (PSM) methods and instrumental variables to analyze the effect of smart-agriculture adoption on the diversity of GPTs on farms. The findings reveal that smart agriculture has significantly increased the diversity of GPTs on farms by 8.5%. Network consulting services, value-added products, and environmental monitoring services are potential impact mechanisms underlying the positive effects of smart agriculture on the diversity of GPTs on farms. Furthermore, the increased diversity of GPTs is more significant on purely plantation farms, farms without contract farming, and farms with high levels of mechanization.
Abstract Agricultural extension programs have changed significantly over the past four decades. What has changed and why? Have these changes affected adoption of innovations by farmers? What if anything should policy makers and extension agencies do differently, particularly in developing countries? Structural changes in agriculture, new types of agricultural technologies, tight public budgets, efforts to decentralize government, and emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) have led to pluralistic and, in some cases, lower‐cost extension and advisory services that combine public and private mechanisms for financing and implementing extension activities. Farmer groups and virtual networks play a growing role in technology diffusion, and extension services can exploit these networks using the latest ICT approaches .
The objective of the study was to examine financing rural industrialization and employment creation practices and possibilities in Ethiopia. In this context, rural industrialization refers to encouraging small to large industries to be established in rural areas. As rural industrialization is a new concept at a policy level let alone to the practice on the ground in Ethiopia, a full-fledged data regarding the rural industrialization and the rural financing practice is inadequate. However, attempts were made to see at least the trends in agricultural commercialization, off farm practices, the government’s policy, the financial institutions practices, and above all how other countries approached rural industrialization and financing such industries. Hence, relevant data were collected from CSA, NBE, DHS, World Bank, and Ethiopian Investment Commission and the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The major finding of the study indicates rural industrialization process is at conception stage and financing the rural strategy is still poorly developed despite the immense economic and social implications. Hence, a combination of centralized financing rural industrialization through commercial banks and a decentralized financing rural industrialization through microfinance institutions is recommended for the country to get better depth and breadth of rural industrialization.
Taking into account the limitations of official approaches for addressing agri-food research, as well as their associated policies to tackle the problems of hunger and vulnerability of agri-food systems to global change, it becomes necessary to consider new frameworks and alternative policies for research and management of agri-food systems. With this thesis we contribute to the advances of agri-food research by rethinking the way of conceptualizing the agri-food system and by designing and testing analysis tools capable to link the research process with the management dynamics found in the local territory. We focus our attention on those linked to the political paradigm of food sovereignty. To achieve this objective we adopted a deductive and inductive method of research, organized in three phases. During the first phase, and under the wider umbrella of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, we developed a conceptual and theoretical framework which integrates systemic thinking and development studies capable to analyze the political paradigm of food sovereignty. For this purpose, we linked the approach focused in the analysis of socio-ecological systems (SES) with the vulnerability approach focused in the analysis of actors¿ dynamics. As a result, we have obtained an integrate framework that address the ecological and social dimensions of agri-food systems. During the second phase, we tested the framework developed in an empirical case study of a local agri-food system of the canton of Loja, located at the Southern Ecuadorian Andean region. The case is of particular interest due to the recent consideration of comunas and barrios as basic units for citizen participation within decentralized autonomous governments; and, the parallel process of creation of new collective action organizations, such as the recently conformed Agroecological Network of Loja (RAL). Using empirical data obtained from a survey conducted between December 2013 and March 2014 based on questionnaires to households (N = 116) and interviews to key informants (N = 14). We analyzed the role of social and institutional factors on the local agri-food system configuration taking into account the pillars of food sovereignty within the analysis. The results showed the significant, but differentiated, role of institutions (Agroecological Network of Loja), social groups (Saraguro indigenous culture) and income generation strategies on the agri-food system configuration. During the third phase, we assessed the future vulnerability vs resilience of local agri-food system through a participatory scenario development process. Using data obtained from semi-structured interviews (N = 14 and N = 25) and two workshops we analyzed the future trajectories of transformation for the local agri-food system under multiple ecological, socio-economic and political drivers of change. Four scenarios were envisioned by local actors. This assessment showed how drivers of change can affect different components of the local agri-food system when it is conceptualized as SES; and, how different perspectives contribute to build different future trajectories of active transformation. Overall, the results of the research process emphasize the role played by actors (understood as an intersectional group where gender takes meaning from its intersection with ethnicity and class) and novel institutional arrangements action to star the active transformation of agri-food systems in the marginal Andes. These findings have implications in agri-food systems policy design at local level, where the local peasant initiatives of social innovation have to be seen as potential mean to achieve the materialization of the political paradigm of food sovereignty within Andean agri-food system. Frente a las limitaciones tanto de los enfoques oficiales para la investigación agroalimentaria como de las políticas asociadas para abordar el problema del hambre y la vulnerabilidad de los sistemas agroalimentarios al cambio global, se hace necesario considerar nuevos marcos de análisis y políticas alternativas para el estudio y la gestión de los sistemas agroalimentarios. Con este trabajo de tesis nos proponemos contribuir al avance de la investigación agroalimentaria repensado la forma de conceptualizar el sistema agroalimentario y diseñando herramientas de análisis que vinculen el proceso de investigación con las dinámicas de gestión encontradas en el territorio local, enfocándonos en aquellas vinculadas con la soberanía alimentaria. Para alcanzar este objetivo hemos realizado un proceso (inductivo y deductivo) bajo el paraguas de la sociología de la agricultura y la alimentación, que hemos llevado a cabo en tres fases de investigación. Durante la primera fase, hemos desarrollado un marco teórico y metodológico que integra el pensamiento sistémico y estudios del desarrollo bajo el paradigma político de la soberanía alimentaria. Con este fin hemos vinculado el enfoque centrado en el análisis de los sistemas socio-ecológicos (SES) con el enfoque de vulnerabilidad centrado en el análisis de la dinámica de los actores. Como resultado hemos obtenido un marco integrado que aborda las dimensiones ecológica y social de los sistemas agroalimentarios, tal y como lo requiere el paradigma político de la soberanía alimentaria. Durante la segunda fase, hemos aplicado empíricamente el marco desarrollado en el sistema agroalimentario del cantón Loja, ubicado en los Andes del sur de Ecuador. Este caso de estudio es de particular interés debido a la reciente consideración de las comunas y barrios como unidades básicas para la participación ciudadana dentro de los gobiernos autónomos descentralizados; y, paralelamente, a la creación de nuevos procesos de acción colectiva, como la Red Agroecológica Loja (RAL). Usando datos empíricos obtenidos de cuestionarios a hogares campesino (N = 116) y entrevistas en profundidad a informantes clave (N = 14), realizada entre diciembre de 2013 y marzo de 2014, analizamos el rol de los factores sociales e institucionales sobre la configuración del sistema agroalimentario integrando dentro del análisis los pilares de la soberanía alimentaria. Este análisis mostró el rol significativo, pero diferenciado, de las instituciones (Red Agroecológica Loja), grupos sociales (cultura indígena Saraguro) y las estrategias de generación de ingresos para dar lugar a la configuración del sistema agroalimentario local. Durante la tercera fase, evaluamos la vulnerabilidad vs resiliencia del sistema agroalimentario local mediante un proceso de análisis de escenarios participativos. Hemos analizado las futuras trayectorias de transformación del sistema agroalimentario local bajo múltiples conductores de cambio (de tipo ecológico, socio-económico y político) mediante el análisis de datos obtenidos a partir de entrevistas semi-estructuradas (N = 14 y N = 25) y dos talleres. Los actores locales visionaron cuatro posibles futuros escenarios. Nuestra evaluación muestra cómo los conductores de cambio afectan los diferentes componentes del sistema agroalimentario local cuando se lo conceptualiza como SES; y, cómo las diferentes perspectivas de los actores construyen diferentes trayectorias para la transformación activa del sistema. En general, los resultados del proceso de investigación enfatizan el rol que desempeñan los actores (entendido como un grupo interseccional donde el género se concibe a partir de su intersección con la etnicidad y la clase) y los nuevos arreglos de acción institucional para iniciar la transformación activa del sistema agroalimentario en los sectores marginales andinos.
This essay provides programmatic and administrative recommendations for the effective building of civil, governmental, and private capabilities to help implement human development driven by local communities in Morocco in light of the Arab Spring. The essay relates a human development model rooted in decentralization to situations with powerful regional implications: in Iraq, Palestine, and the Western (Moroccan) Sahara. The engine for sustainable human development depends on local communities and neighborhoods identifying, planning, and implementing the socioeconomic and environmental projects they most need. Morocco has created a number of essential national frameworks for promoting such development, but their implementation is inadequate due to a lack of financing, of effective training, and of the application of methods that promote communal dialogue and democratic planning. Human development is examined in the context of free trade, with particular attention paid to rural areas, where most poverty is concentrated.
This study explored the opinions of central level extension employees about whether the Egyptian agricultural extension system needs to be reformed or not, and the alternatives they consider to be the best-fit options for extension in Egypt. The study covered 98 extension employees at the central level; findings show that all aspects of the Egyptian extension system are good candidates for reform and possible restructuring. These aspects could be ranked as financing, policy & organizational structure, staffing, and field operations as reported by 100%, 95%, 91%, and 68% of the respondents, respectively. Concerning the overall extension system, about 91% of the respondents reported that the Egyptian extension system is a good candidate for reform and possible restructuring. Findings also show that devolution, deconcentration, and delegation were the appropriate arrangements for extension decentralization as mentioned by 85%, 82%, and 55% of the respondents, respectively. Moreover, alternatives of providing and financing extension services were suggested and prioritized.
Jan 1, 2013·Sixth International Scientific Agricultural Symposium "Agrosym 2015", Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 15-18, 2015. Book of Proceedings
Siniša Berjan, Hamid El Bilali, Mediterranean Agronomic, M. Kulina · 5 authors
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) consists of two governing entities; the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS). Agriculture employs almost a fifth of the total labor force. Around 61% of the population lives in rural areas. Easy and timely access to reliable and updated information provided by extension services is crucial for agricultural and rural development. The paper aims at analyzing the public agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) in Bosnia. In particular, it analyses governance; human resources; gender; cooperation projects; decentralization; financing; role in building social capacity as well as advisory approaches, methods and media. Some recommendations to improve the AEAS performance are made. The paper is based on a literature review and semi-structured interviews as well as focus group discussions carried out in March 2011 with agricultural advisors in the RS. Modern AEAS started to exist in BiH in 2002 and are organized on entity level: the Agency for Providing Services in Agriculture in the RS and cantonal agricultural extension services in the FBiH. The National Extension Services for BiH project helped establishing cantonal and regional offices. The Advisory Services Agency has five regional offices. Advisors use many group (e.g. lectures, seminars, field days) and individual (e.g. farm visits, phone calls) extension methods and media (e.g. internet, leaflets, posters, brochures, mass media). Advisors focus mainly on crop and animal production, processing and marketing. They also assist producers to gather in cooperatives. Advisory services face many financial, management and technical problems. The traditional top-down approach is still widely used. Bosnian AEAS should be supported by providing them with the necessary means and resources as well as technical, managerial and soft skills to fully assume their crucial role. That is necessary to develop a well performing pluralistic, participatory, bottom-up, decentralized, farmer-led and market-driven advisory system.
Regina Birner, Kristin Davis, John Pender, Ephraim Nkonya · 11 authors
The article provides a conceptual framework and discusses research methods for analyzing pluralistic agricultural advisory services. The framework can also assist policy-makers in identifying reform options. It addresses the following question: Which forms of providing and financing agricultural advisory services work best in which situation? The framework ‘disentangles’ agricultural advisory services by distinguishing between (1) governance structures, (2) capacity, (3) management, and (4) advisory methods. The framework suggests an impact chain approach to analyze the performance and impact of agricultural advisory services and discusses theoretical and empirical research methods that can be used when applying the framework. The framework shows that reforms of agricultural advisory services can combine different reform elements—such as decentralization, contracting out, using new advisory methods, and changing the management style—in different ways so as to best fit local circumstances. Using a New Institutional Economics approach (transaction costs approach), the article shows that the following sets of contextual factors need to be considered in this regard: the policy environment; the capacity of potential service providers; the type of production systems and market access of farm households; and the characteristics of local communities. The framework can be used to develop assessment tools for agricultural advisory services, to inform processes of reforming of agricultural advisory services and to guide inter-disciplinary research. The framework is unique in combining the insights from different disciplines, which have, so far, been treated separately in the literature. The framework can help policy-makers and analysts to move from ‘ideological’ discussions on reform models to an evidence-based ‘best fit’ approach.
Biodiversity conservation outcomes are closely related to the rules and institutions governing resource use. Creating local incentives for conservation through more secure resource tenure is central to conservation outcomes on private and communal lands, where the preponderance of biodiversity occurs. Conservation efforts in sub-Saharan Africa are therefore centrally concerned with governance dynamics and institutional reform processes, such as the decentralization of property rights, and how best to achieve such reforms. Traditional mechanisms for financing conservation efforts in Africa rely heavily on funds channeled through multilateral and bilateral aid agencies. The history of development aid highlights a range of constraints these aid agencies face in terms of working toward more effective resource governance arrangements and promoting reforms. Government aid agencies possess incentives for promoting large-scale and short-term projects that maximize expenditure volumes and tend to define issues in technical rather than political terms. The history of development aid suggests that these and other characteristics of aid agencies impedes their ability to influence governance reform processes and that aid funding may discourage the adoption of reforms. Greater emphasis in African conservation financing needs to be placed on flexible, small-scale investments aligned to local interests and constituencies that prioritize innovation, learning, and experimentation. Additionally, more research is required that explores the linkages between conservation funding, donor decision-making processes, and governance reforms.
Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management