Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa
Commercialisation of agriculture has long been considered an important driver of intensification, production, food security and farm incomes in Africa. This article investigates whether commercialisation is able to increase the intensification and yield of banana and legumes in central Africa. The s...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
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Informa UK Limited
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/92069 |
| _version_ | 1855537174011707392 |
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| author | Ochieng, Justus Knerr, Beatrice Owuor, George Ouma, Emily A. |
| author_browse | Knerr, Beatrice Ochieng, Justus Ouma, Emily A. Owuor, George |
| author_facet | Ochieng, Justus Knerr, Beatrice Owuor, George Ouma, Emily A. |
| author_sort | Ochieng, Justus |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Commercialisation of agriculture has long been considered an important driver of intensification, production, food security and farm incomes in Africa. This article investigates whether commercialisation is able to increase the intensification and yield of banana and legumes in central Africa. The study utilises survey data from 480 smallholder farmers in selected regions in rural Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The findings show a positive effect of commercialisation on improved seed varieties use and food crop yields, even after controlling for an endogeneity problem. There is no strong evidence of commercialisation effect on fertilizer use among the sampled farm households. Apart from commercialisation, better education, larger farm sizes, access to markets and credit facilities, good roads and extension contacts are necessary for farmers to increase input use and crop yields. Overall, these findings suggest that programmes targeting to increase smallholder farm productivity through commercialisation will only work if they consider production and marketing conditions surrounding the target households. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace92069 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| publisherStr | Informa UK Limited |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace920692024-07-01T13:36:10Z Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa Ochieng, Justus Knerr, Beatrice Owuor, George Ouma, Emily A. food security markets Commercialisation of agriculture has long been considered an important driver of intensification, production, food security and farm incomes in Africa. This article investigates whether commercialisation is able to increase the intensification and yield of banana and legumes in central Africa. The study utilises survey data from 480 smallholder farmers in selected regions in rural Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The findings show a positive effect of commercialisation on improved seed varieties use and food crop yields, even after controlling for an endogeneity problem. There is no strong evidence of commercialisation effect on fertilizer use among the sampled farm households. Apart from commercialisation, better education, larger farm sizes, access to markets and credit facilities, good roads and extension contacts are necessary for farmers to increase input use and crop yields. Overall, these findings suggest that programmes targeting to increase smallholder farm productivity through commercialisation will only work if they consider production and marketing conditions surrounding the target households. 2016-10 2018-04-12T19:31:22Z 2018-04-12T19:31:22Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/92069 en Open Access Informa UK Limited Ochieng, J., Knerr, B., Owuor, G. and Ouma, E. 2016. Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa. Agrekon 55(4):458-482. |
| spellingShingle | food security markets Ochieng, Justus Knerr, Beatrice Owuor, George Ouma, Emily A. Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa |
| title | Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa |
| title_full | Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa |
| title_fullStr | Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa |
| title_short | Commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity: Evidence from smallholders in Central Africa |
| title_sort | commercialisation of food crops and farm productivity evidence from smallholders in central africa |
| topic | food security markets |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/92069 |
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