Do soil and water conservation practices influence crop productivity and household welfare? Evidence from rural Nigeria.

One of the most serious challenges threatening agricultural sustainability in Nigeria is land degradation. Although this issue has received little attention, soil and water conservation practices have been identified as a possible pathway out of the potential problems posed by land degradation. Therefore, the central research question that this paper tries to address is the following: Do adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices affect crop productivity and household welfare? This paper uses data collected by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) from maize farmers in rural Nigeria. We usedemploy the propensity score matching (PSM), inverse probability weighting adjusted regression model (IPWRA) approach, and the linear regression with endogenous treatment effect (LRETE) model to incorporate the typologies of SWC practices, and tested how the model affects crop productivity and household welfare. Additionally, multinomial logit was used to estimate the factors influencing the decision to adopt single and multiple SWC practices. The estimates show that education, age of the household head, access to credit, experience of drought, soil fertility, and occupational stress contribute to the decision to adopt SWC practices. The casual effect estimates reveal that both single and multiple adoptions of SWC practices had a positive and significant relationship with the crop productivity and welfare of the adopters. The results show that the adoption of combined SWC practices has a higher impact on crop productivity and welfare than single SWC practices. For instance, the adoption of a combination of three SWC practices was found to increase crop productivity and household welfare by 27.55% and 38.23%, respectively versus 13.91% and 15.11% in the case of single SWC practices. The study suggests that profile-raising agenda and efforts that focus on promoting the adoption of combination of SWC practices should be designed and implemented to enhance crop productivity and hence the welfare of the maize farming households in rural Nigeria.

Clean water, sanitation and under-five children diarrhea incidence: Empirical evidence from the South Africa's General Household Survey.

Sufficient supply of potable water, hygiene facilities, and sanitation are major factors enhancing healthy living. Using the dataset from the 2018 South Africa General Household Survey, this study employed the logistic regression model to examine the effects of accessibility to potable water and sanitation on the incidence of diarrhea among under-five children. The findings from the research reveal that the majority of children have access to safe drinking water, although a substantial percentage (32%) of the households had to pay for access. The results of the logistic regression model show that households with access to clean water, to improved toilet facilities, and to water within their residence are less likely to record incidence of diarrhea among under-five children. Moreso, the likelihood of reporting diarrhea among the children decreases with the age of children and the age of household heads. Therefore, to contribute to the designing policies targeted at reducing the incidence of diarrhea among children, this study emphasized that the availability and accessibility of clean water, water-storage facilities, and improved fecal discharge facilities among the South African households are key.

Does economic shocks influence household's healthcare expenditure? Evidence from rural Nigeria.

Health is profoundly influenced by several factors outside the traditional realm of healthcare. This paper employed a two-step Heckman selectivity model to examine factors influencing the decision to spend on health and the effects of economic shocks on health expenditure. The results from the first stage shows that the likelihood of spending on health increased with age, education, income, and decreases if the household is living in the northern region of Nigeria and uses mosquito bed-net. The findings from the second stage estimation show that a fall in the price of food items, an increase in the price of inputs for household enterprises and loss of job are the significant shocks that affect household health expenditure. Based on these findings, this study concluded that fall in the prices of major food items consumed within the household increased income available for health care among the farmers. Going forward, the study recommends the provision of holistic health-economic-welfare interventions for the marginalized rural populace in Nigeria.

Does agricultural cooperative membership impact technical efficiency of maize production in Nigeria: An analysis correcting for biases from observed and unobserved attributes.

The formation of agricultural cooperatives has been widely promoted as an agricultural development policy initiative to help smallholder farmers cope with multiple production and marketing challenges. Using a nationally representative survey dataset of smallholder maize producers from rural Nigeria, this study assesses the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on technical efficiency (TE). We based our estimation approach on the combination of a newly developed sample selection stochastic production frontier model with propensity score matching to control for possible selectivity biases from both observables and unobservables. We estimate stochastic meta-frontiers to examine TE differences between cooperative members and non-members. Our results reveal that TE levels of members are consistently higher than that of non-members. This calls for continued policy incentives targeted at encouraging farmers to form as well as participate in agricultural cooperatives.

What Drives Households' Payment for Waste Disposal and Recycling Behaviours? Empirical Evidence from South Africa's General Household Survey.

Safeguarding the environment and its citizens' health remains one of the key policy priorities of the governments of many developing and emerging countries. Using the 2017 General Household Survey (GHS) dataset, this study examines the driving factors affecting households' recycling behaviour and payment for waste disposal in South Africa. The methods of data analysis were based on descriptive statistics and a Bivariate Probit regression model. The descriptive statistics results indicate that there are 56.29% male-headed and 43.71% female headed households, with an average age of 49 years. In addition, the study shows that 89.97% of household heads had formal education with a mean monthly income of 11,099.07 ZAR/650.504 USD. The study also revealed that 22% of the households sampled had access to social grants. The results from the Bivariate Probit regression model show that household's income, access to social grants, formal educational attainment and the age of the household were significant (p < 0.01) driving factors affecting households' recycling behaviour and payment for waste disposal. The study concludes that the households' socio-economic factors affect their recycling behaviour and willingness to pay for waste management in South Africa. Actions targeted at poverty alleviation and environmental sensitization programmes are key for facilitating environmental conservation behaviours of households in South Africa in order to achieve the environmental sustainability Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of the United Nations.

Economic Viability of Adoption of Automated Oestrus Detection Technologies on Dairy Farms: A Review.

The decision for dairy farmers to invest in automated oestrus detection (AOD) technologies involves the weighing up of the costs and benefits of implementation. In this paper, through a review of the existing literature, we examine the impacts of investment in AOD technologies in relation to the profitability and technical performance of dairy farms. Peer-reviewed articles published between 1970 and 2019 on the investment viability of AOD technologies were collated and analysed. We capture the different measures used in assessing the economic performance of investment in AOD technologies over time which include net present value (NPV), milk production, Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period (PBP). The study concludes that investment in AOD technologies is not only worthwhile but also contributes to farm profitability.