Modernization and commercialization of the smallholder agricultural sector provides the stimulus and impetus to reducing food insecurity in developing countries. This study seeks to fill the gaps in the literature particularly by comprehensive conceptualization of the drivers of...

Improving smallholder farmer market participation (agricultural commercialization) has seen the advent of a number of initiatives from collective action, extension service provision and even programs that utilize ICT tools in the provision of market information. Collective action through farmer...

This study assessed the determinants of participation and intensity of participation in collective action initiatives. It also examined the effect of participation in such initiatives on household commercialization and on household welfare (incomes). It uses a double hurdle approach (a logit...

Although many countries have made significant progress in the last decade, poverty and malnutrition continue to be major problems in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Experts estimate that rising food prices have driven about 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since June 2010, as food...

Paper investigates the determinants of pesticide related Cost of Illness (COI), and acute symptoms, using a balanced panel of 363 farmers interviewed in 2005 and 2008. Finding shows that the incidences of pesticide-related health impairments have increased. Variation in number of symptoms and...

This paper traces the trajectories of successful commercial smallholders operating under differing sets of market institutions. Analysis focuses on maize, cotton and horticulture, three widely marketed crops with strikingly different market institutions. Maize receives intensive government input...

In this paper we examine empirically the effect of Information and Communication Technologies on the adoption of improved rice varieties and its indirect effect on productivity with focus of the rural radio in Burkina Faso. The econometrics framework adopted is the Rubin Causal Model that has...

Smallholder agriculture is not achieving its pivotal role of attaining food security in developing countries like South Africa. In rural areas, smallholder farmer’s efficiencies have always been hindered mostly by some factors beyond their control such Agro-ecological factors. The challenge is...

A Tobit model censored at zero was selected to examine factors explaining differences in production efficiency amongst resettled farmers. Efficiency scores obtained from Data Envelop Analysis (DEA) were used as the dependent variable. From the factors inputted in the model, age of household...

Maize is a main staple food in Nigeria, high productivity and efficiency in its production are critical to food security and poverty alleviation in the country. Thus, this paper estimates cropping intensification, the levels of technical efficiency of 252 maize–based farming households in...