South African government palliative funds for agriculture amid Covid-19: Challenges of implementation and suggestions for improvements

The novel Corona virus pandemic has been extremely overwhelming at all levels causing massive economic setbacks for many countries including South Africa. The country witnessed an unprecedented scaling-down of its national economic activities, which called for an emergency response from the government. Several Covid-19 relief schemes were instituted by the government to ensure that farms of all sizes would survive. A support fund of R1.2 billion was allocated to the agriculture and food sector through the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD). The fund was primarily meant to assist financially distressed small-scale farmers to ensure continued production and food security for the country. This study collated the conditions for financial Covid-19 stimulus support required from smallholders and analysed several factors that prevented some members of this vulnerable group from benefitting from the relief funds. These factors include complexities associated with satisfactorily categorizing smallholder producers, productivity, marketing and policy challenges, glitches in formalising smallholder producer operations, the farm-business record keeping pitfall, and the exclusion of subsistent producers. The paper suggests some possible corrective measures that could allow for more inclusive support to these categories of farmers; some of which includes a simple but robust financial traceability system for the farmers, and a need to continue to push for the completion of national registration process of smallholder producers.

A new green revolution or agribusiness as usual? Uncovering alignment issues and potential transition complications in agri-food system transitions

Agri-food system transitions are a considerable challenge requiring stakeholder alignment on what changes need to be made and how. When stakeholders do not agree on the goals or methods of a transition, this can be a serious obstacle to success. This paper analyzes 42 vision documents for the future of Dutch agriculture from a broad range of stakeholders to determine stakeholder alignment using an inductive coding approach. We identified 23 issues as the main challenges for the transition in these documents. We are the first to categorize them according to a recently proposed problem-solution space for wicked problems. Stakeholders were fully aligned in recognizing the problem for the majority of issues, but showed agreement on solutions for less than a quarter. For the issues of international orientation, sector size, and farm business models, we found a lack of consensus on the problem, indicating fundamental disagreement about the type of agricultural sector desired by stakeholders. The apparent consensus on environmental and social issues provides clear societal expectations for agronomic development and innovation, while the divergence on economic issues highlights the rift between growth-oriented paradigms and more holistic paradigms like agroecology. The crucial empirical novelty of this paper is that progress on environmental and social matters is restricted by divergent views on the economic characteristics of a future agri-food system, adding further complexity to mission-oriented transition and innovation policies.

Insights into Barriers and Educational Needs for Farm Succession Programming

Planning for farm succession is vital to the longevity of the farm business. To understand the challenges with succession planning, the University of Wisconsin - Division of Extension facilitated focus group meetings across the state. These authors classified the information from the focus groups into eight codes, and each code was further subdivided into themes. The codes included Financial, Communication, Control, Change, Fair vs. Equal, Delivery, and Support, Strategies, and Educational Needs. University of Wisconsin Division of Extension Agriculture Educators utilized the information obtained from the focus groups to create a workbook that provides practical assistance when working with families planning a farm succession.

Analysis of the Layer Farm Business on BUMDes “Mandiri” and Breeder Partners in Babakan Bogor Village Kabawetan Subdistrict Kepahiang District

This study aims to analyze the income of the BUMDes “Mandiri” layer chicken farm and partner farms, as well as the size of the income earned by BUMDes “Mandiri” and breeder partners from the profit-sharing system carried out together. The research respondents were the BUMDes “Mandiri” farm manager and two breeder partners. Operating income is calculated by finding the difference between business revenues and total business costs incurred. The share received by BUMDes “Mandiri” and partner farmers from partner farm income is determined based on the percentage agreed in the partnership agreement, namely 51% for BUMDes “Mandiri” and 49% for breeder partners. The results showed that the income of the BUMDes “Mandiri” livestock business in one month was Rp. 3,668,890.00 or Rp. 3,668.89/head, while the partner's husbandry business income was Rp. 6,404,505.00 or Rp. 12,809.00/head. The portion of the partner's husbandry business income that belongs to BUMDes “Mandiri” is Rp. 3,266,295.00/month and that which belongs to breeder partners is Rp. 3,138,210.00/month.

Households’ Choices and Their Drivers to Rural Non-Farm Livelihood Diversification in West Bengal, India

There are inadequate empirical studies on non-farm livelihood choices of rural households in the state of West Bengal, India. This study aims to explore the determinants that effect the choice of households to engage in non-farm economic activities. The present study found that non-farm livelihood diversification factors are more heterogeneous and mainly depend on households’ strategic decisions. A household’s choice of non-farm livelihood activity is determined by binary aspects opportunity-driven versus distress-driven, but it is a complex transformation phenomenon. It has been noticed that within the non-farm livelihoods, share of wage labour (38.3%) is higher, followed by non-farm businesses (19.8%), service providers (18.0%), and salaried jobs (3.4%). The location and distance to the town from the households, food insecurity, and agricultural land size are more influential and statistically significant factors in choosing non-farm livelihood practices. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has negatively impacted rural non-farm livelihood activities. There is an 18% and 39% probability of reducing non-farm business and services compared to the increasing MGNREGA work opportunities. Moreover, the likelihood of non-farm business choices has increased by 56% due to rainfall and temperature-change-induced disasters.

Penerapan Digital Marketing sebagai Strategi Pengembangan Usaha Ternak Tikus Putih

Purpose: This community service aimed to provide counseling on utilizing technological advances at the Bikul Bali White Rat Farm Business for marketing purposes. Method: Thee methods applied were accompaniment counseling on technological advances, lectures, and direct practice by applying digital marketing to reach and get new consumers. Result: The Partner understands the importance of implementing digital marketing and is confident in promoting their white rats through the marketplace even though there are extra costs for promotion. Conclusion: This community service activity has a positive impact as an additional knowledge of partners in understanding digital marketing. The partner now takes advantage of the availability of the marketplace as a medium for selling as a form of application of digital marketing and starting to reach new potential consumers who are accustomed to using marketplaces in shopping.

Growth Performance and Profitability of Rice Production in India: An Assertive Analysis

This study assessed the growth trends and instability in area, production and productivity of rice in major rice growing states during the period 2001-02 to 2018-19. The study revealed that compound growth rate of area under rice was almost constant in the country during last two decades, while it was fluctuating across the states. However, growth rates of production and productivity was found positive and significant. Instability in area under rice was less as compared to production and productivity. Although production of rice has increased due to innovations and adoption of new farm technologies, but a greater instability in production, indicated the influence of irregular monsoon on production during the study period. Many of the States registered negative profitability in rice cultivation and farmers get handful returns only when the farm business income was calculated. To provide better protection to the farmers through restriction on purchasing rice below MSP or government may adopt proper mechanism to stop distress sale of farm produces particularly rice.

Financial Inclusion in Nigeria: A Gender Gap Approach

Ability to have access and use financial goods and services such as bank and mobile money accounts indicates the overall financial inclusion level of an economy and the higher the indices are in any economy, the better that economy is. Financial inclusion is important to realize inclusive growth in any country. It has direct impacts on the level of growth and development experienced by any economy. It can however, be skewed along gender lines as noticed overtime in the Nigerian economy and other developing economies. This study examined financial inclusion in Nigeria: a gender gap approach. It also determined the factors responsible for the gender gaps. The Global Findex (2014) dataset of Nigeria from World Bank database was used to analyse the aims of the study. In the study, 61% of the men were financially included, while only 43% of the female were financially included, with 18% gap. The gap in endowments accounted for the huge difference of the gap in outcomes as males seemed to be more naturally favoured by society than females. The level of education, wealth quintile, saved in past 12 months for farm/business purposes, sent domestic remittances in the past 12 months, paid utility bills in the past 12 months, and received wage payments in the past 12 months are the factors explaining the gender gaps in Nigeria. Thus the government and other relevant stakeholders should encourage females along these factors.