Impact of direct payments and non-financial support on smallholder income from environmentally friendly agriculture in Tohoku region, Japan.

In the face of climate-related challenges in agriculture, Japan's 'Direct Payment for Environmentally Friendly Farming' policy stands as a proactive effort to incentivize sustainable practices among smallholder farmers. This study evaluates the policy's impact on smallholder farmers' net farm income within the Tohoku Region, employing a propensity score matching (PSM) methodology to analyze survey data encompassing household-specific attributes and engagement with the policy. Our results indicate that participation in the direct payment scheme enhances farmer income, averting an estimated reduction of 125 thousand JPY per annum. While direct payments demonstrated a positive effect on smallholder income, our findings surprisingly revealed that skill training, a key non-financial support, had a negligible impact on household earnings. The findings highlight the policy's efficacy in promoting practices that decrease reliance on chemical inputs and increase organic farming, thereby contributing to carbon emissions mitigation. Notably, our analysis suggests that subsidies directed towards integrating renewable energy on farms may have a less immediate financial impact compared to other forms of support. This research underscores the complex interplay between agricultural subsidies, environmental sustainability, and farmer income, revealing that direct financial incentives are pivotal in fostering climate-conscious agricultural practices among smallholders.

Evaluation of the proper use of medication available over the counter by subsistence and emerging farmers in Mbombela Municipality, South Africa.

South Africa has two types of animal farming systems, being the commercial industry and subsistence farming in more rural areas, with commercial farmers having more access to veterinary services. To cater for the absence of sufficient veterinary service, the country allows farmers to access certain over the counter medications (stock remedies), as a way to assist them to farm sustainably and profitably. However, with any drug use, their true benefits are only realized following correct use. The aim of this study was to describe and assess the adequacy of the current use of veterinary drugs by rural-based farmers. A scheduled structured questionnaire with close-ended questions and direct observation was employed. The most important finding was the absence of proper training in the area, with 82.9% not receiving any training related to livestock production or use/handling of stock remedies, highlighting the urgent need for proper training. Of interest, a large proportion of the farmers (57.5%) left the care of their animals to herders. Concerns were also noted in the application of withholding periods, transport of medication, disposal of medication, calculation of drug doses, correct route of administration and carcass disposal with no difference in response between farmers receiving training and those who didn't. These finding not only indicates the importance of farmer training, but shows that for such training to be effective, information should not only cover farming activities but must include primary animal health care and an understanding of information contained in package leaflets. It would also be important to ensure that herdsmen are also included in such training initiatives as they are the primary careers of the animals.

Does climate-smart agriculture improve household income and food security? Evidence from Southern Ethiopia.

Climate change threatens African countries' economic development and affects agriculture and food security. Ethiopia is especially vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change because its economy is dependent on climate-sensitive livelihoods that have limited potential for adaptation. Emerging evidence indicates that climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and increase agricultural productivity, thereby enhancing household income and food security. In the study area, different CSA practices have been adopted to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and improve agricultural productivity, income, and food security. Therefore, this study examines the impact of CSA practices on household income and food security in southern Ethiopia. A total of 385 households were selected using multistage sampling. Primary and secondary data were used, and propensity score matching with different types of matching algorithms, such as nearest neighbor, kernel, and radius matching, was employed to quantify the conditional impacts of CSA intervention on farm income and food security. In comparison with non adopters farmers that have adopted CSA practices had a higher food consumption score between 6.27 and 8.15, which was statistically significant at the 1% level. Overall, 34.55% of interviewed households had acceptable food consumption scores, 44.68% had borderline, and 20.77% had poor food consumption scores. Furthermore, households that adopted CSA practices had a 20.30% higher average annual farm income per hectare than non-adopters. The study suggests that effective extension services, accurate climate information, and sound policy support are required to promote and scale up CSA measures in the study area to improve farmers' adaptive capacity, farm income, and food security.

Farm-Level Effects of Emissions Tax and Adjustable Drainage on Peatlands.

Drained agricultural peatlands emit significantly higher amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per hectare than mineral soils. GHG abatement costs for representative cereals (CF) and dairy (DF) farms in southwestern Finland were estimated by integrating an emission-based tax together with an option to invest in a subsidized adjustable drainage system on peat soils in a farm-level dynamic optimization model. With an average 10% share of peat soils from overall farm area, emissions tax rates over 15 (CF) and 19 (DF) €/tCO2e triggered adjustable drainage investments with a significant reduction in GHG emissions per ha, when assuming no crop-yield effect from the adjustable drainage. Abatement costs for emissions tax rates €12-50/tCO2e/ha were €16-44/tCO2e (CF) and €26-51/tCO2e (DF) for whole farm-soil emissions, depending on the share of peatlands on the farm, on the yield effects of adjustable drainage, and on crop prices. High emissions tax rates imply higher abatement costs since farms have a limited capability to adjust their production and land use. Thus, emissions reductions from peatlands can be achieved at reasonable costs when investing in adjustable drainage on peatlands. The income losses due to emissions tax, however, are high, but they can be compensated for farmers by lumpsum payments independent of their production decisions. Since existing agricultural policies such as the EU CAP system may have limited effectiveness on GHG emissions, the emissions tax and adjustable drainage on peatlands could promote GHG abatement significantly on farms and areas with abundant peatlands.

Application of the Farm Simulation Model approach on economic loss estimation due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Bangladesh dairy farms-strategies, options, and way forward.

The objective of this paper is to quantify the economic loss of the dairy farms due to the pandemic novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection by analyzing the real-time data of two typical farms (BD-2 and BD-14 cow) in Bangladesh and propose a strategic plan of action to make policy decisions in order to support the dairy industry. The International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) Farm Simulation Approach and Technology Impact Policy Impact Calculations (TIPICAL) model was used considering with Corona (WC) and without Corona (WOC). The Integrated Dairy Research Network (IDRN) database (January 2019 to July 2020) was used for simulation of IFCN two typical farms. The milk price is decreased by 17% and feed price is increased by 3.7% due to COVID-19 in March which was used as the base for farm simulation. This resulted in a decrease in milk yield by 7.9% and 8.9% for small household and family farms, respectively. The cost of milk production increased by 19.10% and 10.9% for household and family farms, respectively. This has an overall negative impact on farm income which accounted for national economic loss from dairy farms in Bangladesh to 4.43 million USD/day (36.84 crore BDT). This loss has been fluctuated from April onward and was higher in June (3.83 million USD/day) due to a combination of COVID-19, flood, and seasonality effect on lowering milk production. At the same time, the farmers' response to the resilience capacity (liquidity, operating profit margin, and financial performance) to combat COVID-19-induced situation has been declined substantially. Based on this, we conclude that the government might take a strategy to support farmers by providing financial support for increasing the operating capital and decreasing the cost of milk production. The outcome of this study is expected to be beneficial for policymakers, farmers, and processors in Bangladesh and similar other countries elsewhere.

Cost structure and profitability of Assaf dairy sheep farms in Spain.

Twenty dairy sheep farms of Assaf breed, located in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla y León and included in a group receiving technical support, were used to study their production cost structure and to assess their economic profitability during 2009. On average, farms had 89.2±38.0 ha (own, 38%), 592±63 ewes, yielded 185.9±21.1×10(3) L/yr (i.e., 316±15 L/ewe), and were attended by 2.3±0.2 annual working units (family, 72%). Total annual income was €194.4±23.0×10(3)/yr (€1.0=$1.3) from milk (78.6%), lamb (13.2%), culled ewes (0.5%), and other sales (0.8%, wool and manure), and completed with the European Union sheep subsidy (6.9%). Total costs were €185.9±19.0×10(3)/yr to attend to feeding (61.6%), labor (18.2%), equipment maintenance and depreciation (7.6%), finances (3.0%), animal health (2.5%), energy, water and milking supplies (2.2%), milk recording (0.5%), and other costs (4.4%; assurances, shearing, association fees, and so on). Mean dairy sheep farm profit was €8.5±5.8×10(3)/yr (€7.4±8.3/ewe) on average, and varied between -€40.6 and €81.1/ewe among farms. Only 60% of farms were able to pay all costs, the rest had negative balances. Nevertheless, net margin was €31.0±6.5×10(3)/yr on average, varying between €0.6 and €108.4×10(3)/yr among farms. In this case, without including the opportunity costs, all farms had positive balances. Total annual cost (TAC; €/ewe) and total annual income (TAI; €/ewe) depended on milk yield (MY; L/ewe) and were TAC=161.6 + 0.502 MY (R(2)=0.50), and TAI=78.13 + 0.790 MY (R(2)=0.88), respectively, with the break-even point being 291 L/ewe. Conversely, farm TAC (€/yr) and farm TAI (€/yr) were also predicted as a function of the number of ewes (NOE) per flock, as TAC=18,401 + 282.8 NOE (R(2)=0.89) and TAI=330.9 NOE (R(2)=0.98), with the break-even point being 383 ewes/flock. Finally, according to the increasing trend expected for agricultural commodity prices, it was calculated that a 10% increase of concentrate price will require 5.2% milk price increase for constant profit. Similarly, a 10% increase of forage price will require 2.0% milk price increase to maintain profitability. Under these scenarios of increasing the commodity prices of key feedstuffs, a change of flock feeding should be expected to compensate the losses in farm profitability. Most Assaf dairy sheep farms studied were economically profitable, with flock size, milk yield, and feeding costs key for their profitability.

Bush encroachment control and risk management in semi-arid rangelands.

We study the role of bush encroachment control for a farmer's income and income risk in a stochastic ecological-economic model of grazing management in semi-arid rangelands. In particular, we study debushing as an instrument of risk management that complements the choice of an adaptive grazing management strategy for that sake. We show that debushing, while being a good practice for increasing the mean pasture productivity and thus expected income, also increases the farmer's income risk. The optimal extent of debushing for a risk-averse farmer is thus determined from balancing the positive and negative consequences of debushing on intertemporal and stochastic farm income.

Effects of adoption of ecological farming practices on farm income in rural households: Evidence from Central Kenya.

Farmers have adopted ecological farming to overcome the adverse effects of climate change and conventional agriculture. However, the performance of ecological approaches, especially the economic outcomes of ecological practices adopted as a package, has yet to be widely documented in Kenya. This paper aims to fill this gap and generate pertinent information on the implications of adopting different ecological practices bundles on farm income. The study considers five ecological practices: crop diversification, composting, mulching, minimum tillage, and integrated pest management (IPM). This study employed a multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model to capture the effect of adopting different combinations of ecological practices on farm income. The results reveal that 15.3 % of the surveyed households adopted a bundle combining composting, crop diversification, and IPM. Households that adopted a comprehensive package (comprising all five ecological practices) had the largest positive impact on farm income, increasing it by 9.2 %. This package replaces chemical inputs with locally available resources, restores degraded soils and diversifies production risks to increase food production and farm income. Farming experience, off-farm activities, farm size, perceptions of the effects of conventional agriculture, and drought and floods significantly influenced the adoption of the comprehensive package. This study's findings imply that policymakers and related stakeholders should provide timely weather-related information, enforce sustainable land use laws, and establish targeted extension services and information campaigns to heighten the adoption of all five ecological practices and enhance household welfare by increasing farm income.

Unraveling determinants of integrated farming systems adoption for sustainable livelihood and dietary diversity.

Introduction: Over the years, smallholder farmers have faced more vulnerability to risk and uncertainty in India due to their dependence on cereal crops. One way to reduce this risk is through diversified agriculture, integrating different practices for efficient resource utilization, and adopting a farming systems approach. An integrated farming system (IFS) is one such technique that provides year-round income from different components of enterprises. However, the decision to adopt IFS may be determined by several characteristics of farmers, which needs to be delineated through impact analysis to harness the benefits of a systems approach. Methods: This study analyzes the economic effects of integrated farming systems and assesses their determinants, as well as the dietary diversity patterns of farmers in two states of southern India, i.e., Kerala and Tamil Nadu. A multistage sampling technique was used to obtain cross-sectional data from 367 farmers randomly chosen from one district in Kerala and two districts in Tamil Nadu. The participants have Crop + Horticulture + Animal husbandry (45.45%) as their major system, whereas non-participants have Crop + Animal husbandry (44.35%) as their predominant system. Coarsened exact matching and logit regression methods were used to evaluate the economic impacts of IFS and its influencing factors. Results: The findings of the study indicate that age, education, livestock holding, access to credit, and plantation area have a positive and significant effect on participation by farmers in the program. The matching results show that adoption of IFS resulted in a significant economic impact, generating an additional gross income of Rs. 36,165 ha-1 and a net income of Rs. 35,852 ha-1 and improving the dietary diversity of farm households by 8.6% as compared to non-adopters. Discussion: This study suggests that IFS is a promising approach for improving farmers' livelihoods, economic gains, and nutritional security. Therefore, the integrated farming systems models need to be upscaled through the convergence of government schemes in other regions of India to support smallholder farmers' farming.

Non-farm income and environmental efficiency of the farmers: Evidence from India.

In the face of various agro-climatic shocks when agricultural income becomes highly volatile, farmers often undertake multiple jobholding and engage in non-farm activities for income smoothing. The earnings from these activities are often used to purchase productivity enhancing agricultural inputs. In this context, the impact of non-farm income on intensification of agricultural inputs and the consequent impact on over-all farm efficiency is well documented in the literature. However, with a rapid rise in usage of agricultural inputs with environmentally detrimental impact, very little is known about whether non-farm income has any impact on farmers' environmental efficiency-ability to reduce the amount of polluting inputs to the largest extent possible without reducing the amount of agricultural production. Our study fills the gap in the literature by analysing the impact of non-farm income on environmental efficiency of the farmers. We first estimate the environmental efficiency scores adopting the non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and using a household level panel data from Village Dynamics of South Asia project on Indian states for a span of five years (2010-2014). We then estimate the impact of non-farm income on environmental efficiency using Instrumental Variable Tobit Model. Our results show that average environmental efficiency of the Indian farmers was 46 % during the study period indicating the fact that a reduction in polluting agricultural inputs by 54 % was possible without compromising the level of farm production. We also find that for 1 % increase in non-farm income, environmental efficiency of farmers rises by around 4 %. This reflects the environment friendly behaviour of farmers as a channel through which non-farm activities affect usage of environmentally linked inputs. These results provide vital policy insights in terms of how non-farm activities could be integrated with policies related to farming, in order to ensure sustainable agricultural practices.

Impacts of thyme and/or garlic oils on growth, immunity, antioxidant and net farm income in Damascus goats.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of thyme and/or garlic oil administration on growth performance, immunity, antioxidant, biochemical parameters, and net farm income of Damascus goats. Forty weaned Damascus goats were allocated into four groups. The first group was the control without oral administration, while the 2nd (Th), 3rd (Gr), and 4th (ThGr) groups were orally administrated by (2 ml/goat/day) of thyme oil, garlic oil and their mixture (1:1), respectively during the whole experiment period. The final body weight of goats orally administered oil mixture was the heaviest group, it was 10, 4.5 and 3.5% than the control, Th. and Gr. groups, respectively with better feed conversion ratio and high net farm income. Goats of ThGr. group revealed the best immunity, antioxidant and general health condition than the control group with 50% reduction of MDA. Liver (AST, 33% and ALT, 38%) and kidney (creatinine, 88%) functions improved by oils mixtures orally administration compared with the control group. LDL, triglyceride and cholesterol were reduced by 47, 33 and 21% compared with the control group, respectively. Thus, mixture oil administration (thyme and garlic at the ratio of 1:1, 2 ml/goat/day) improved growth (10%), antioxidant status (MDA 50%), liver (AST, 33% and ALT, 38%), kidney function (creatinine, 88%), the FCR (17.4%) and net farm income (21%), of Damascus goats.

Factors Influencing Rooibos Tea Certification and Quality Control for Smallholder Farmers in South Africa.

This study aimed to identify factors that influence the decisions of rooibos farmers in South Africa to implement certification and quality assurance systems. The study was conducted in the Western Cape region of South Africa. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 300 farmers in the form of interviews. In addition, an analysis of previously published data was also used. Results showed that membership in an association, land tenure, rooibos tea farm size, and education level were the main determinants of implementing certifications and quality assurance systems. Membership in the association and land tenure significantly negatively affected the adoption of certification. In contrast, farm size and level of education, translating to knowledge of certification systems, tended to have a significant positive effect on adoption. Continuous education, awareness of the process of certification and quality assurance systems, and the formation of farmers' support systems are recommended to improve the impact of smallholder rooibos farmers in the industry.

The adoption impact of wheat-chickpea double cropping on yield and farm income of smallholder farmers in Central Highlands of Ethiopia: the case of Becho district.

This paper examines impacts of adoption of wheat chickpea double cropping on yield and farm income of smallholder rural farmers in Becho district, South West Shewa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. The study used cross-sectional data collected from 203 smallholder farm households selected randomly through two-stage stratified random sampling technique. Propensity score matching was employed to analyze the impacts of adoption on yield and farm income. The result showed that adoption of wheat-chickpea double cropping has significant impact on yield and farm income of the group of adopter households compared to the group of non-adopters. With regard to yield, adopters harvested average wheat yield of 2120 kg/ha, while the non-adopters harvested average wheat yield of 1420 kg/ha. In addition, the treated households earned average annual farm income of about 709.125 Euro per year from sale of both wheat and chickpea as adopters; while the non-adopters earned average farm income of 129 Euro from sale of wheat. These results imply that scaling out of wheat-chickpea double cropping contributes to food security and rural livelihood improvement through yield and farm income increment. Hence, encouraging farmers towards adoption of wheat-chickpea double cropping is essential for improving livelihoods of rural households by properly addressing factors such as access to improved seeds, training on double cropping, involvement in non-farm income activities, access to broad bed maker (BBM), ownership of tropical livestock unit (TLU) and access to fertilizer.

How indebted farmers perceive and address financial risk in environmentally degraded areas in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, the recent uncontrolled growth of industries near farmland and unplanned urbanization made the agricultural sector the most vulnerable and a massive threat to the food security of the country. Agricultural farms near to industrial zones face high production costs (poor air-water-soil quality, high labor cost) and low-profit margin (poor crop yield and crop loss due to frequent natural hazards). The government policy in this matter is not proper due to a lack of information. As a consequence, many of these farm owners adopt agricultural credit by themselves to manage the production cost. Basically, credit itself creates some other financial risks and the farmers needed to adopt different measures to handle these financial risks. In-depth research on this matter is important to improve the situation by providing relevant information that policymakers can plan an efficient policy framework. However, previous literature has overlooked this area of research. In this study, the researcher collected data on 400 rice farmers (debtors) from six different districts in greater Dhaka division (most degraded area in Bangladesh) and adopted probit model to analyze the influential factors affecting farmers' financial risk management adoption decision and to identify the correlations between these decisions. The empirical findings indicate that education, access to technologies, household income, savings, and distance from the industrial areas are the major factors that affect farmer's adoption choice and most of the farmers are risk-averse. Moreover, the adoption choice of one risk management tool may motivate farmers to adopt another.

The farm level economic and environmental contribution of Intacta soybeans in South America: the first five years.

This study assesses the economic and environmental impacts that have arisen from the adoption and use of genetically modified (GM) herbicide tolerant (HT) and insect resistant (IR) soybeans in South America in the five years since first planted in 2013/14. A total of 73.6 million hectares have been planted to soybeans containing these traits since 2013/14, with farmers benefiting from an increase in income of $7.64 billion. For every extra $1 spent on this seed relative to conventional seed, farmers have gained an additional $3.88 in extra income. These income gains have arisen from a combination of higher yields (+ 9.2% across the four countries using the technology) and lower costs of weed and pest control. The seed technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 10.44 million kg (-15.1%) and, as a result, decreased the environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide use on these crops (as measured by the indicator, the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ)) by 30.6%. The technology has also facilitated important cuts in fuel use and tillage changes, resulting in a significant reduction in the release of greenhouse gas emissions from the GM cropping area. In 2017/18, this was equivalent to removing 3.3 million cars from the roads.

Economic Risk of Bee Pollination in Maine Wild Blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium.

Recent pollinator declines highlight the importance of evaluating economic risk of agricultural systems heavily dependent on rented honey bees or native pollinators. Our study analyzed variability of native bees and honey bees, and the risks these pose to profitability of Maine's wild blueberry industry. We used cross-sectional data from organic, low-, medium-, and high-input wild blueberry producers in 1993, 1997-1998, 2005-2007, and from 2011 to 2015 (n = 162 fields). Data included native and honey bee densities (count/m2/min) and honey bee stocking densities (hives/ha). Blueberry fruit set, yield, and honey bee hive stocking density models were estimated. Fruit set is impacted about 1.6 times more by native bees than honey bees on a per bee basis. Fruit set significantly explained blueberry yield. Honey bee stocking density in fields predicted honey bee foraging densities. These three models were used in enterprise budgets for all four systems from on-farm surveys of 23 conventional and 12 organic producers (2012-2013). These budgets formed the basis of Monte Carlo simulations of production and profit. Stochastic dominance of net farm income (NFI) cumulative distribution functions revealed that if organic yields are high enough (2,345 kg/ha), organic systems are economically preferable to conventional systems. However, if organic yields are lower (724 kg/ha), it is riskier with higher variability of crop yield and NFI. Although medium-input systems are stochastically dominant with lower NFI variability compared with other conventional systems, the high-input system breaks even with the low-input system if honey bee hive rental prices triple in the future.