Agricultural policy analysis

There are few things that affect agricultural production more than changes in public policy and weather. Agricultural policy and climate change are macro-level phenomena; they are “big” problems that are often seen to be outside farmers’ control. For the same reason, it can be difficult to trace the everyday effects of major changes in agricultural policy and climate, and even more difficult to understand the gendered dimensions of these changes. In this book, I explore the interaction between public policy, climate change, and gender in Saskatchewan. I draw on the experiences of 30 Saskatchewan farm women who live and work in an increasingly competitive and increasingly uncertain agricultural environment.

The changing context of prairie agriculture can be understood through two case studies. In the first case study, I examine two controversial policy changes, one historical and one contemporary, both of which have permanently altered the face of prairie agriculture. The first was the 1995 elimination of the historic and much-loved “Crow Benefit,” a transportation support program for prairie farmers that had been in place for almost 100 years. The second policy remains a priority on governmental agendas today: the expansion of Plant Breeders Rights legislation, which facilitates an international system of intellectual property rights on seed and plant varieties. Taken together, the two policies are part of a contemporary policy paradigm that promotes highly industrialized, corporate farming.

In the second case study, I examine the interaction of precarious farm livelihoods with the growing threat of climate change. The prairie region has one of the most variable climates in the world. Climatological scenarios warn of increasingly frequent and severe climate events in the future. I examine gendered forms of vulnerability and resilience in the face of extreme events such as flood and drought. Overall, these two case studies offer a glimpse into the forces of structure and agency that shape farm families’ responses to macro-level events. An understanding of these forces and their everyday impacts is essential for future public policy that will reduce the economic and human costs of climate extremes while ensuring sustainable systems of food production into the future.

Keywords: gender; farm women; Canada; Saskatchewan; agriculture; public policy; agricultural policy; climate change; climate extremes; vulnerability; adaptation; critical realism; feminist political economy; qualitative methods; coding.

This study employed the input-oriented DEA approach with variable returns to scale assumption to assess the technical, scale, allocative and economic efficiencies of 124 randomly selected tomato farmers under irrigation in the Upper East Region using data of the 2017/2018 production season. The mean technical efficiency and scale efficiency were 97.1 and 97% respectively with many farmers experiencing increasing returns to scale. The mean allocative and economic efficiencies were 42.1 and 41.5% respectively. Farmer's age, tomato land size, fuel quantity, fertilizer quantity and chemical quantity (herbicide and pesticide) were all significant determinants of technical efficiency scores whereas extension visit, tomato land size and chemical quantity significantly influenced both allocative and economic efficiencies. It is recommended that agro-inputs and fuel usage for tomato farmers under irrigation in the dry season be increased to improve technical efficiency. It is also recommended that extension education to farmers on effective inputs allocation and cost minimization strategies be intensified.

The study seeks to characterise socio-economic and farm characteristics of small ruminant farmers in three regions of northern Ghana. Two hundred and forty-nine (249) respondents were selected using multistage sampling procedure. Analytical tools included descriptive statistics and ANOVA. Majority of respondents were males (71.5%), household-heads (65.9%), married (73.5%), Muslims (62.1%) and uneducated (63.9%). Access to extension (29.8%) and credit (14.9%) services was low. Farmers’ average age (47.29±16.00 years) and sheep holdings (12.14±9.60) were similar across the regions, but family size (11.56±7.83), goat holdings (11.89±9.32), and purpose of rearing small ruminants differ significantly. Adult children and female spouses contribute meaningfully to small ruminant management
practices. Thus, socio-economic and farm characteristics offer significant input in designing effective livestock programs.

Pesticides, regardless of their known toxic impacts to human health and environment, are widely used in the rapid growing agricultural sectors of developing countries. As an agricultural country with small lands and enormous population to feed, a developing country like Bangladesh rely heavily on the uses of pesticides to increase crop yields. Nevertheless, during the past decades, Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh has experienced 26.46% decrease in total pesticide consumption. However, the presence of unregistered pesticides in the environmental samples and agricultural products has pointed out the weakness in the existing legal regime of the pesticide governance. This, in turn, is threatening the livelihood and health of the farmers, food safety and consumer health. This paper reviews the antiquity of the status of pesticide consumption, evolution and drawbacks of pesticide in the context of existing socioeconomic position of Bangladesh. A consolidated uniform system is lacking to project pesticide management in the country. Existing legal policy, rules and regulations in the context of international agreements regarding pesticide management have been reviewed and suggested for further amendment. Moreover, role of green microfinance in sustainable management of pesticides and food safety were recommended. A framework is proposed for pesticide governance with a stronger pesticide surveillance program and coordination of ministries interlinking environmental, occupational health and food safety.

Empirical evidence shows that entrepreneurship in Nigerian agribusiness value chains is severely limited by lack of access to resources such as finances, inputs, policies, infrastructures, supporting services, and markets. Drawing from the resource-based theory of entrepreneurship and with a greater emphasis on the theory's view on social networks as an access route to other resources, the study aimed to find out if the availability of resources through membership of horizontal linkage groups impacts on entrepreneurship levels of farmers and processors in agribusiness value chains. The study employed multi-stage sampling techniques in selecting 600 farmers and processors operating in the cassava, yam and plantain value chains from the five top producing states of these crops in Nigeria. Primary data was gathered using a structured questionnaire and ordinal logistic regression was used to test the hypothesis. Findings show that though horizontal linkages are not very popular in these value chains, farmers and processors who belong to linkage groups have better access to input resources and show a higher level of entrepreneurship than those who do not.

El Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social (CONEVAL) llevó a cabo la evaluación del Programa Sectorial de Desarrollo Agropecuario, Pesquero y Alimentario 2013-2018 (PS). El presente Informe es el resultado final de este ejercicio que se centró en cuatro temas, en primer lugar analizar la pertinencia entre el diagnóstico, la problemática, los objetivos y su orientación a resultados, es decir, la consistencia del Programa. En segundo, identificar si la vinculación de las intervenciones gubernamentales a cargo de la dependencia es coherente y contribuye al cumplimiento de objetivos, a lo que llamamos, coherencia en la alineación. En tercer lugar, valorar la pertinencia en la instrumentación de la política sectorial a través de los programas presupuestarios, y finalmente, identificar de qué manera se miden los avances y el desempeño del Programa derivado del Plan Nacional de Desarrollo (PND).

This study examines the effects of governance on public service delivery in the education, water and road sectors in Nigeria focusing on accountability and participation. The study shows that a decentralized governance system provides better results. Specifically, it results in positive changes in availability, access, affordability and quality of water. Information must flow freely and beneficiaries must be aware of their responsibilities. The road sector where such a framework is lacking witnessed poor service delivery. The study concludes that accountability and participation are necessary conditions for improving delivery of public services. However, they need to be fostered parri passu with effective budget process and timely release of funds in order to have any significant improvement in public service delivery. Besides, the citizens have to be empowered economically to enable them hold providers of public services accountable.