We study the inclusiveness and effectiveness of land and marketing cooperatives in Rwanda. We use cross-sectional household survey data and apply propensity-score-matching techniques to estimate the effect of cooperative membership on household income and poverty. Unlike most impact studies, we look beyond mean income and poverty effects and evaluate impact heterogeneity. We find that cooperatives are exclusive to some extent but effective in increasing income and reducing poverty. Effects vary with farm size and distance to the market; which calls for strategies to promote cooperative formation in remote areas but not for increasing the inclusiveness of cooperatives towards land-poor households.

Heterogeneous impact of cooperative membership on farmers’ welfare in Rwanda

Environmentally friendly technologies have long been recognized as a widespread phenomenon working within the functions and performance of farms. Farmer’s cooperative organization might profoundly foster the environmentally friendly technologies (EFT) and availing competitive advantage to the farmer. Illustrated by the natural-resource-based view of the farm (NRBV), this study examined the influence of organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning on adopting EFT and proposed a model quantifying the impacts of these approaches towards availing competitive capabilities (i.e., cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery). The framework is empirically endorsed by employing the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the help of a household survey from a spectrum of 292 farmers of 38 kiwifruit cooperatives of Meixian County, China, from August to September 2020. The findings demonstrate that organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning positively influence EFT. Moreover, the study found EFT positively impacts product cost, product quality, product delivery, and production flexibility. Interestingly, the relationship between the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies and the competitive capabilities of kiwifruit farmers of Meixian is positively significant. The study proposes several policy recommendations emphasizing the role of organizations in the form of farmer’s cooperatives in boosting farmers to engage in proenvironmental behavior and, therefore, shifting the trends of future research directions on the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies.

Evaluations of the Roles of Organizational Support, Organizational Norms and Organizational Learning for Adopting Environmentally Friendly Technologies: A Case of Kiwifruit Farmers’ Cooperatives of Meixian, China

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Effects of access to livelihood capitals on adoption of European Union (EU) approved pesticides among cocoa producing households in Osun State, Nigeria

Background. Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the capital required to meet their needs. Whereas, social capital has been described as a vital asset for poverty alleviation since it can provide access to that which is lacking; capital. This study suggests evidences that the poor farmers could benefit more from social capital. Objective. This study was conducted to assess the impact of social capital on poverty alleviation among cocoa producing households in Southwestern, Nigeria. Methodology. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 300 cocoa-producing households for the study. Data were analyzed using social capital indices, FGT index, the Probit model and two-stage least square model. Results. The results revealed that cash contribution (0.478), labour contribution (0.556), decision-making (0.882), meeting attendance (0.920), heterogeneity (0.659) and density of membership (0.661) are the major dimensions of social capital available to cocoa-producing households. The results of the Probit model revealed that age of household head, gender, household size, years of experience, farm income, and farm size were the main determining factors of participating in SCNs. The Foster, Greer and Thorbecke index revealed that 65% of the sample households are poor. Out of the poor households, 42% are moderately poor and 23% are core poor. The results further revealed that factors including age, square of age, household size, years of education, farm income, farm size, cash contribution, labour contribution, decision making, meeting attendance, aggregate social capital and instrumented social capital significantly influenced cocoa-producing households’ expenditure. Implications. The paper adds evidence for a better understanding of nexus between social capital networks and poverty alleviations. Conclusions. The study concluded that social capital alleviates poverty among cocoa-producing households. This means that policy strategy aimed toward alleviating poverty among cocoa-producing households must consider their social capital.

https://www.revista.ccba.uady.mx/ojs/index.php/TSA/article/download/3936/1829

Social capital networks (scns) reducing the poverty on cocoa producing households: evidence from osun and ondo states of southwestern nigeria

Access to trade credit and its impact on the use of European Union (EU) approved pesticides among smallholder cocoa farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Agricultural development through technical change of adoption of improved technologies remains a vital panacea to food insecurity and poverty among rural farmers. These improved technologies include improved seed varieties, fertilizer, recommended mixed cropping, recommended spacing, and pesticides. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of access to credit and membership in farmers’ cooperatives on categories of adoption of these improved technologies in cocoa-based farming systems. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to obtain data from 200 respondents for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, adoption index and multinomial logit regression model. Descriptive statistics revealed mean difference in some socioeconomic characteristics among categories of adopters in the study area such as household size (p<0.01), farming experience (p<0.01) and farm size (p<0.01). The average level of adoption of improved technologies in the study area was observed to be 49%. There are three categories of adopters in the study area with variations in their socio-economic characteristics. About 7.5 %, 41.5%, and 51% of the respondents were non-adopters, partial adopters, and full adopters of the improved technologies, respectively. Multinomial logit estimates revealed that gender, extension visit, farm size, and access to credit significantly influenced partial adoption of improved technologies. Education, extension visit, farm size, access to credit, and membership of association significantly influenced full adoption of improved technologies. The study concluded that cooperative membership has significant influence on full adoption of improved technologies, while access to credit has significant influence on both partial and full adoption of improved technologies. Therefore, the study recommends that an agricultural development programme that ensures efficient and effective access to credit should be established in the rural areas as well as encouraging formation and strengthen of a farmers’ cooperatives for increased uptake of improved cocoa production technologies

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Effects of Access to Credit and Membership in Farmers’ Cooperatives on Improved Technologies Adoption Categories in Cocoa-Based Farming Systems of Southwestern Nigeria

J T. O Oke

Papers

Effects of Access to Credit and Membership in Farmers’ Cooperatives on Improved Technologies Adoption Categories in Cocoa-Based Farming Systems of Southwestern Nigeria