AJAD Volume 18 Issue No. 1 June 2021

Thailand is ranked among the top 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change, and its farmers have faced the risk of natural disasters almost every year for nearly 30 years. However, those affected by climate change have also been the largest contributors to climate change, increasing the risks they will face in the near future. The intensive use of chemical pesticides in conventional agriculture has harmed not only the environment and biodiversity but the health of both users and consumers. Responding to these problems, several policies have been put in place over the past decades to reduce pesticide usage as well as to encourage farmers to switch to low-carbon and low-pesticide agriculture, namely, organic agriculture.

This study reviews policies related to the development of organic agriculture in Thailand and examines whether organic agriculture is an effective adaptation and mitigation strategy to climate change that can also generate enough food. This study finds that the organic sector has been largely driven by the private sector, particularly the agricultural cooperatives and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which have provided various support ranging from technology transfer, production, financing, distribution, to marketing of organic products. Their role is vital in encouraging farmers to switch to organic farming and growing market opportunities for organic goods. Nevertheless, constraints including inconsistent policies and limited support from the government remain, which, to some extent, weakens the efforts to build sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. To improve organic farming, there is a need for the government agencies to work together with all relevant stakeholders in the organic sector, namely agricultural cooperatives, NGOs, and consumers.

Climate smart agriculture (CSA) has gained considerable attention in Vietnam due to its potential to increase food security and farming system resilience while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, several CSA practices have been introduced in rice production, the most important sub-sector of Vietnam’s agriculture. However, few studies have been done in Vietnam to produce comprehensive assessments of CSA performance in the rice sector. This research proposes a comprehensive approach to assess CSA practices through a new set of evaluation indicators. A case study in An Giang province of the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta was implemented to evaluate the performance of five CSA models versus that of the triple rice crop system (i.e., benchmarking model). Results show that rice-shrimp and rice-lotus rotations are most profitable, low-risk, and applicable at a larger scale. Given that the current study analyzed and calculated only a small number of indicators and types of CSA practices, further research is necessary to test all indicators and diversified types of CSA models.

Soil fertility conservation has become an increasing concern in Vietnamese agriculture owing to the excessive use of agrochemicals. The use of organic fertilizers is considered an environment-friendly practice for sustainable agriculture. Although environmental awareness has emerged and production technologies of organic fertilizers have been introduced in recent years, their adoption remains limited among farming households. This study focuses on the causal effects of information acquisition on the use of organic fertilizers from agricultural extension services and from peers of farming households. The estimation results show that land size, land tenure, educational level, family labor endowment, and household wealth are significantly associated with the likelihood of using organic fertilizers. Information acquisition through both information sources positively affects the use of organic fertilizers. However, information acquisition from agricultural extension services has a greater marginal impact than that from peers. Despite its lower influence, information acquisition from peers plays a supplemental role in incentivizing farming households to use organic fertilizers as an environment-friendly agricultural practice among rural communities in Vietnam.

A total of 124 garlic farmers were selected and interviewed to evaluate the productivity and competitiveness of garlic farming in Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte,
Philippines. The Technical efficiency (TE) was estimated using a stochastic frontier analysis or SFA based on the Cobb-Douglas production functional form, while the competitiveness of local garlic production was determined based on the ratio between import parity price and domestic resource cost ratio. 

The mean TE was 81 percent while the estimated gamma value was 0.92. These values indicate that 92 percent of the variation in garlic output is due to inefficiency factors and that total garlic output can further be increased with efficient use of resources. The analysis further revealed that seed rate and insecticides were statistically significant production factors. The results also show that group membership, farm size, and distance to the farm-to-market road (FMR) were statistically significant. Inefficiency factors and distance to the FMR have positive relationships while group membership and farm size have negative relationships with the garlic output.

Price and cost ratios show that garlic from Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte could not yet compete with imported garlic from China in 2018. However, simulations show that if the Philippines can increase its national average by at least 20 percent (4.08 mt/ha), it can have a competitive advantage in garlic production. 

The results of the analyses highlight the need to revisit the output and input policies and programs of the government to increase the productivity and competitiveness of garlic farming in Ilocos Norte. These programs include investing in quality seed, joining farmers’ organizations, and providing better farming infrastructure.

Recent reviews on the use of experience-based food insecurity scales in the Indian context suggested the addition of "how often" related items to food insecurity modules to avoid overestimation of food insecurity, especially in underprivileged communities. Following this recommendation, we adapted the 8-item Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), an official tool for measuring access to food within the Sustainable Development Goals (target 2.1), and assessed its validity and reliability in socially-backward communities in the Indian context. The polytomous Rasch model was successfully applied and soundly integrated within the probabilistic methodology already in use for the FIES, allowing the computation of comparable prevalence of food insecurity at different levels of severity and related measures of uncertainty. Data from the SWABHIMAAN programme survey, which collected information on food insecurity from mothers of children under two years of age in three Indian states (Bihar, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh), was used for analysis. Results suggest that the proposed adapted version of the FIES can be considered as a proper tool for measuring food insecurity in underprivileged communities, since it satisfies requirements of internal and external validity and reliability. Individual determinants and protective factors of food insecurity were also investigated within this methodological framework and results suggest that education, economic wealth, and homestead kitchen garden can act as a buffer against food insecurity, while the number of pregnancies seems to exacerbate a situation of food insecurity.

Fish remains among the essential diet components in a typical Filipino household. As fish consumption rises, the manner of how it is caught is in question as it affects the quality of the fish. This study aims to analyze the importance of the two credence attributes of environmental sustainability and food safety in fish and fishery products in Davao City, Philippines. Conjoint analysis was used to analyze consumer preference by estimating the consumer’s utility function. From the preference model, the relative importance of the considered attributes in descending order are food safety certification, sustainability practice information, and the extent of good animal welfare for target and non-target species. Three major segments of seafood consumers (N = 300) were clustered in terms of policy preferences. These are consumers who preferred policies on food safety certification and traceability system (77%), consumers who preferred policies regarding food safety certification and environmental sustainability certification (16%), and consumers who highly preferred only food safety certification (7%). Using multinomial logistic regression, the factors affecting preferences were found to be average price per kilogram for capture fishery products, barangay (i.e., village) classification, household size, retail outlet choice, sex, frequency of buying, beliefs and practices regarding environmental sustainability and environmental concerns, age, years of education, and frequency of buying fish. The study showed the potential of environmental sustainability and food safety attributes in influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers.

Although the public extension system in India is known to be one of the largest in the world, it still lacks coordinated effort in managing the links between research, extension, and farmers, resulting in non-uniform distribution of agricultural knowledge and technology. A vast majority of the population earning their livelihood through agriculture remain small and marginal farmers. Lack of computerized networks in agricultural extension departments, inadequate skilled manpower for disseminating agricultural information, and increasingly diverse needs of farmers across the Indian sub-continent pose hurdles in effective information transfer to the farming community. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) tools exerts a positive impact on agriculture worldwide by aiding speedy and effective dissemination of agricultural information. Increased awareness of modern ICT tools and their usage will contribute substantially to strengthening the extension network and expand its scope. This study explored the ICT preferences of personnel from agricultural extension organizations employed in public extension organizations in the north-eastern region of India. It found that electronic media
is ranked below the conventional extension contact modes of print media and personalized contact regarding its use for disseminating agricultural information by the extension personnel. Demographic characteristics of the personnel from agricultural extension organizations such as sex, age, education, specialization, designation, and work experience were significantly associated with the pattern of ICT use specifically experience with ICT, frequency of use, training, and voluntary use.