AJAD Volume 16 Issue No. 2 December 2019

Rice production in Myanmar is constrained by biophysical and socioeconomic factors. Nonetheless, efficient farm practices can enhance productivity, farmers’ profit, and the price and quality of marketed rice. This study analyzed the profitability and efficiency of rice production in the Ayeyarwaddy Region of Myanmar and identified the influencing socioeconomic characteristics and farm-specific characteristics. Primary data from 130 randomly sampled farmers in the Ayeyarwaddy Region were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and Tobit regression analysis. According to the average overall technical efficiency, farmers have an additional rice yield potential of 25 percent that can be attained by improving input utilization. The best practices benchmarked in the region showed that technical inefficiency is caused by excessive use of inputs, especially herbicides and animal power. Most rice farms in this study suffer from allocative and economic inefficiencies resulting from wrong combinations of input usages. The average economic efficiency level indicates that farmers can increase their profitability by 57 percent if they adapted to reduce input costs. Moreover, efficiency was significantly higher for farmers who were younger, better educated, more experienced, had access to agricultural extension services, and cultivated the Aye Yar Min variety. Efficiency can be improved by setting up farmers’ cooperatives to increase the scale of operations. Moreover, the government should intervene to reduce input prices, control the quality of input seeds, and install an appropriate financial crop insurance mechanism. Effective and systematic agricultural extension services should be widespread to improve the efficiency and decision-making skills of rice farmers in the study area.

This study aims to measure the performance of communal irrigation systems (CIS), using cropping intensity and farm yield as indicators. In particular, the study focused on the importance of collective action and how it affects the performance of CIS as a form of irrigation system in the Philippines. The unit of analysis used is the irrigators’ association (IA) that manages a CIS across the province of Bohol, Philippines. Analysis of variance was used to determine whether there are significant differences in the performance indicators among the three IA classifications. Likewise, Tobit analysis and ordinary least squares estimation method were used to determine the significant factors that influence cropping intensity and farm yield as performance indicators. The results showed that excellent-rated associations have significantly higher cropping intensity and farm yield than the satisfactory- and fair-rated associations. With respect to the determinants of the performance indicators, labor contribution as a proxy of collective action, has a positive and significant influence on the performance of the irrigation system. Likewise, farm size and farm location have significant and positive effects on cropping intensity and farm yield. However, firmed-up service area and age of the association is statistically significant in farm yield only. To improve the performance of CISs, the study recommends that both monetary and labor contributions must be promoted among farmer-members of each IA.

This study analyzes the consumption patterns of agricultural households in Indonesia using the 2013 first quarter data of the Indonesian National Socioeconomic Survey (Survei Sosial Ekonomi Nasional [Susenas]) and the quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) approach. Indonesian households’ food expenditure is mostly on rice, vegetables, and fish. Rice expenditure is a top priority particularly in agricultural household spending in Indonesia. Agricultural households consume more calories and carbohydrates, but less protein and fat, than nonagricultural households do. The expenditure elasticities of agricultural and nonagricultural households are significantly different only in the following commodities: milk, other foods, meat, fruits, and rice. The differences in the price elasticities of the two household groups are found in non-rice staple, other foods, rice, and milk. The expenditure elasticity of nutrients of agricultural households tend to be higher.

One of the critical policies to encourage oil palm development in Indonesia is the Nucleus Estate Smallholders Project. This project involves engaging farmer organizations in operating and managing oil palm plantations. However, there are gaps in the organizational performance of plasma farmer cooperatives, which consequently affect oil palm productivity and farmers’ welfare. This paper analyzes the income gaps among oil palm plasma farmers who are associated with state and private companies in Musi Banyuasin regency, South Sumatra, Indonesia. The results of the analysis show that the income of plasma farmers from the private company is higher than that of the state company plasma farmers. The type of nucleus company has a significant effect on the plasma farm households’ income due to the differences in the organizational performance of the private- and state-sponsored cooperatives and the differences in the nucleus-plasma farmer relations. The cooperative that operates in a private company performs well, whereas the cooperative in a state company has ceased its operations. This research also found out that the number of household working members, income share from oil palm production, and land area have significant effects on the income of plasma farm households.

This paper focuses on tilapia aquaculture production in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. Primary data were collected from a field survey. Apart from investigating the effects of technical efficiency variables (e.g., operator’s experience, age of fishpond owner, and frequency of visits of the manager) on the production frontier, this study also incorporated social capital variables (e.g., social network and trust) as additional factors affecting the frontier. A cross-sectional analysis of 202 fishpond operators from the 10 municipalities in the province was conducted using stochastic frontier analysis, where the error component consists of both the usual two-side random shocks and the one-side technical inefficiency shocks. Results suggest that social network has an indirect but significant relationship to aquaculture harvest. On the other hand, harvest is significantly influenced by community trustworthiness, which implies that fish farmers who do not readily lend money to members of their community are able to increase their harvest because they can devote their funds to production activities.

As the Vietnamese government continues to seek appropriate actions to move the national action on climate change forward, the emergence of grassroots sustainability initiatives has the potential to promote sustainability from the ground up. This paper reviews the current concepts of transformative learning (T-learning) and its importance through which some substantial linkages between T-learning and sustainability can be identified. It outlines the environmental changes in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, which appear to serve as “disorienting dilemmas” that force the local people to learn and gradually transform their behaviors and lifestyle choices to align with a lowcarbon and sustainable development. In an ideal T-learning approach, the major beneficiaries are the small-scale farmers, women, and ethnic groups (learners). They learn by doing under the supervision of educators (experts) in field-based schools that offer real-life experience and encourage learners to shift from traditional farming practices to modern, eco-friendly agricultural models that promote local economic self-reliance and biodiversity conservation. The paper sheds new light on how a critical approach to education for sustainable development through T-learning is an appropriate form and why T-learning should be acknowledged as an important part of the broader approach to self-help, climate resilient development in vulnerable communities.