AJAD Volume 14 Issue No. 2 December 2017

The study aimed to calculate the livelihood vulnerability of organic and non-organic rice farmers' households to climate change. The sample was determined by a census comprising 60 organic and 80 non-organic rice farmers who lived in Pematang Sawa Sub-district, Tanggamus Region, Lampung Province, Indonesia. The livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) was measured based on seven main indicators: natural disaster and climate variability, agriculture profile, food security, water security, food/rice consumption, educational attainment, and income. The results showed that organic rice farmers' households were more vulnerable in terms of natural disaster and climate variability, water security, food consumption, education, and income, while non-organic rice farmers' households were more vulnerable in terms of agriculture profile and food security. Using the LVI framework approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC), non-organic rice farmers’ households were found to be more vulnerable to climate change than organic rice farmers' households. To better observe the vulnerability of organic and non-organic rice farmers' households to climate change, future studies should be conducted in two distant locations (e.g., different regions or provinces) because different climate components could significantly influence the findings. Rice farmers' households could become less vulnerable by providing them with objective climate information that will encourage them to adopt the necessary climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Further support is needed in the form of resources aid programs, such as the provision of irrigation systems or pumping wells, as well as livestock aid to increase the farmers’ income.

This paper presents the challenges and opportunities of small-scale fisheries management in Misamis Occidental, especially in the coastal municipalities of Aloran, Jimenez, Lopez Jaena, Panaon, Plaridel, Sinacaban, Tudela, and Oroquieta City. A site diagnosis was conducted as part of the participatory diagnosis and adaptive management framework to characterize the governance of small-scale fisheries in the area and to determine the potential for adopting the ecosystem approach to fisheries. Stakeholders identified, in order of priority, the following issues affecting fisheries and coastal resource management in Iligan Bay: depleted fishery resources, lack of alternative livelihood, and limited institutional capabilities. In a united response, the local government units in the area formed the Iligan Bay Alliance of Misamis Occidental, through which they explore opportunities to address issues and to restore and sustain the fisheries in Iligan Bay.

In recent years, the Malaysian rice sector has experienced structural changes to improve its competitiveness within a dynamic environment that is influenced by political, technical, economic, and international trade challenges. Using a policy analysis matrix and a rich dataset on rice producing households in four of Malaysia’s granary areas, the competitiveness of rice production in Malaysia is analyzed. The empirical results show that rice production is competitive in three of the four granary areas, the exception being Ketara granary area. To fully understand the importance of the competitive farms, they must be identified and studied by further research using disaggregated data. The finding suggests that government policy should focus on encouraging structural changes capable of enabling the local farms to grow enough to earn sufficient income, generate social profits, and thus improve the sector's competitiveness.

This study sought to understand the determinants of autonomous adaptation of households in coastal communities in three countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) as regards climate change. The study’s main innovation is its focus on households facing a confluence of related hazards, a context that is unique to coastal communities. The study tackled the interrelated hazards of coastal erosion, flooding, and saltwater intrusion, and used a multivariate probit model to analyze the determinants. Regression results show that households adapt or respond autonomously to a combination of hazards. In  fact,  the  econometric  model  of  joint  decision  cannot  be  rejected  by  the  data.  Geographical differences  were  observed  in  adaptation  patterns, implying  that  households  react  rationally  to  the degree of threats from the hazards. Like in some literature, the study found evidence that planned adaptation may crowd out private or autonomous adaptation. Likewise, trust increases the likelihood of  self-insurance  and self-protection,  especially  against  extreme  events  that  are  either  recurring or permanent. Finally, the households’ adaptive capacity depends partly on the type of hazard and has  a  gender dimension.  In  recurrent  extreme  events,  the  abundance  of  male  labor  increases the likelihood  of  adaptation.  In  permanent  and  creeping  hazards  such  as  saltwater  intrusion, the abundance of female labor increases the likelihood of adaptation.

The study analyzed the persistence of shocks to the seasonal time series of the price indices of selected agricultural commodities in India. The seasonal unit root test procedure proposed by Hylleberg et al. (1990) and Beaulieu and Miron (1992) were used for 10 major price indices of agricultural commodities. The study covered the period January 2000 to January 2013. Overall results provide significant and robust evidence rejecting the presence of unit roots at all seasonal frequencies for cereals; condiments and spices; eggs, meat, and fish; pulses; and vegetables. For the rest of the commodities studied, evidence indicates that the seasonality present is partly deterministic and partly stationary stochastic. These findings have important policy implications for policymakers and research analysts.

The paper examines the reasons for the low growth in pulses production at the all India level in terms of profitability of the farm business and the workings of the price policy. More precisely, it looks into the effectiveness of (price) policy instruments in helping the farmers to get sufficient income to promote investment, technology and productivity. The analysis shows that agricultural price policy which aimed at providing a remunerative and stable price environment to farmers has largely been irrelevant in case of pulses and suggests reviewing the criteria of fixing the MSP for pulses by making it sensitive to prevailing market prices.

Neighborhood and spillover effects on technical efficiency were investigated among 270 randomly drawn farming households from 18 irrigated villages in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, using a two-step procedure. In the first stage, stochastic frontier production function was used to estimate farmer’s technical efficiency; in the second stage, appropriate spatial econometric models of technical efficiency were estimated. Spatial econometric models adopted in this study detected spatial dependency on technical efficiency in the error term of the spatial model across seasons and locations, which can be associated with unobserved factors that similarly influence farmers’ technical efficiencies at the same time. Farm size, income, and regular contact and consultation with agricultural technicians were found to significantly affect technical efficiency. Results of the spatial regression show that owner-cultivator status and loamy soil are associated with increased technical efficiency. The local government of Guimba can use findings of this study in formulating agricultural policies and implementing essential interventions to improve the technical efficiency of rice farmers.