AJAD Volume 6 Issue No. 2 December 2009

This paper empirically investigates whether farmers who adopt soil conservation measures derive productivity gains. A twelve-year (1994-2006) panel data in Bukidnon, Philippines was used to quantify the indirect relationship between soil conservation technology adoption and upland corn productivity. A two-stage econometric analysis was done. First, the probability of adoption was estimated. The associated inverse Mill’s ratio obtained from the first stage was used to correct the second stage endogenous switching stochastic frontier model estimation of the determinants of corn yield.

Results showed that in normal times, upland corn productivity is positively affected by abatement of soil erosion. Results further suggest that farmers adopting soil conservation technologies become less flexible in their land use decisions during periods of drought, thereby experiencing lower yields than the non-adopters.

Obtaining land tenure contracts for rice farms is a major problem faced by farmer tenants in the province of West Java. This study aimed to analyze the type of land tenure contracts in this region and the levels of technical efficiency of each contract system. Data were collected through a survey, with respondents randomly selected from the Karawang and Subang districts of West Java. The stochastic frontier was used to determine the efficiency of each system.

Results showed that the average area being tilled was higher than land owned due to land tenure arrangements that increased farmers’ access to land. Three common land tenure contracts in this region are fixed rental, sharecropping, and mortgage. Sharecropping and mortgage coefficients were found to be less efficient, while fixed rental was more efficient compared to owner-cultivated plots. These results provided evidence to support the view that sharecropping is inefficient for the tenants. However, sharecropping is still a common type of land transaction in West Java. To improve efficiency, the local government can help farmers by enabling them to lease land through fixed rental or other more favorable arrangements.

Technical Effi ciency (TE) is an estimation of the ability of a household to produce the maximum output with the given inputs. It is usually estimated by using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Data collected from 261 rice-farming households in the Mekong Delta were used in the empirical analysis. Results show that the average TE among the surveyed households is above 76 percent in both the Constant (CRS) and the Variable Returns to Scale (VRS). The average scale effi ciency score for these rice-producing households is nearly one. The determinants of the quantity of rice or yields and of the TE for the households are signifi cantly associated with some variables such as the plot size, seed, and hired labor cost. However, technical ineffi ciency signifi cantly depends on the farmers’ farming experience and adoption of advanced farming practices. 

From a small base by the end of the 1990s, modern retail (the chains selling at least some food) in the Philippines grew very rapidly in the 2000s, at thrice the rate of the country's GDP growth. Reaching 13 billion USD of overall sales by 2010, 5.25 billion USD of this amount came from food sales. While much of the policy debate about market development focuses on export markets, we will show that supermarkets in the Philippines already sell twice the value (volume priced at export prices) of food that is exported – and modern retail is growing faster. Modern retail has reached 45 percent of urban food retail – already beyond the share of the middle class in the population, and about 35 percent of the national food market – from a tiny fraction of that figure two decades ago.

Modern food retail is itself rapidly transforming – with a rise of fresh produce sales, industry concentration, format diversification off-mall into formats that permit greater market penetration, and emerging procurement system modernization. While traditional food retail (and even most aspects of modern food retail) in the Philippines track international experience, the lack of major foreign presence even after retail foreign direct investment (FDI) liberalization in 2000 is a puzzle about which we present hypotheses. Given the already large and increasing importance of food retail modernization in the Philippines, this theme should enter the agrifood research mainstream and be the subject of systematic field survey analysis in order to start discerning its impact on consumers, farmers, wholesalers, and processors.

This paper explores the impact of water management on output, labor, and capital growth for an agriculture-based developing economy like Pakistan. According to empirical findings, capital stock and labor force in the agriculture sector significantly affect output growth. Improvement of capital stock in the form of mechanization, improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides on one hand, and labor force skills, techniques and management, on the other hand, will bring positive and significant impact on agricultural output. Any improvement in policy management by authorities will enhance agricultural production manifold. Water at farm gate, tube wells, and access to credit of farmers increase agricultural output by enhancing the productivity of capital and labor. Proper water management will result in efficient allocation of resources and has an indirect positive impact on growth of output. To increase overall efficiency, an irrigation technology that efficiently uses water for intensive crop production must be developed.

This study aimed to understand the issues associated with rainfed rice production in dry and semidry areas in Tamil Nadu, India. Farmers face risks such as input, output, market-price, and income, as these areas are prone to rainfall shortage. Secondary data about Tamil Nadu and various waterlimited rice environments were studied. A farm survey of 230 farm households in selected districts was conducted in 2001-02 and 2003-04.

Fertilizer use in rainfed areas was reduced due to rainfall shortage. In drought period, crop response to fertilizer declined, causing a decrease in rice yields. Yield variability was higher (44 percent to 60 percent) in drought-prone areas. In rainfed areas, a 10-percent increase in drought risk resulted in a 5.4 percent decline in the yield of modern varieties. In contrast, the effect on landraces was minimal. Farmers in the rainfed areas are operating at sub-optimal level of production. About 90 percent were inefficient since crop yields were lower than the optimal yield.

Farmers incurred an additional cost of Rs 899 to increase yield by 228 kg/ha. An increase in rice productivity by one ton per hectare would replace rice area by 189,208 hectares in Tamil Nadu. Area expansion under rice was noticed in the selected rainfed areas, revealing that infusing high productivity traits in drought-tolerant rice varieties enable farmers to allocate part of their land to other crops.

Traits (genetic and marketability) of widely adopted modern varieties and landraces should be considered in breeding varieties for water-limited environments to earn profits. The results confirm that drought intensity is higher during the maximum-tillering stage, therefore, continued research on development of drought-tolerant rice varieties to withstand early drought is crucial.

Finally, rice income variability in rainfed areas was explained more by variability in yields rather than prices both during normal and risk periods. In other areas, income variability was due to price variability. Yield stabilization would be more effective in keeping revenues stable in rainfed areas, while price stabilization, is an appropriate strategy for reducing revenue risk in irrigated areas.

Agricultural development in Indonesia has been changing dynamically since the country's independence. This paper reviews the rice sector as part of agricultural development in Indonesia. It is remarkable that the agricultural sector was ignored when the oil boom benefited Indonesian economy. As revenues from oil dropped significantly, the agricultural sector emerged as an engine of economic growth in the 1980s. As staple food, rice was posited as top priority. Various rice intensification programs coinciding with the Green Revolution were launched, and several institutions were established to support these programs. The result was so significant that Indonesia was able to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 1983. But with the growing critical awareness about sustainable development, the intensification programs lost their relevance. The programs were replaced with an environmentally sound policy. However, as the industrial sector grew, again, the agricultural sector was neglected until an economic crisis hit Indonesia in 1997 and rice self-sufficiency could not be sustained. Realizing the importance of the agricultural sector, it is now being developed in equal measure as other sectors. Under the current administration, an agricultural revitalization program has been implemented, and in 2008, Indonesia has achieved rice self- sufficiency for the second time.