Assessing the performance of a nucleus estate and smallholder scheme for oil palm production in West Sumatra: a stochastic frontier analysis

In this paper, we study the performance of smallholders in a nucleus estate and smallholder (NES) scheme in oil palm production schemein West Sumatra by measuring their technical efficiency using a stochastic frontier production function. Our results indicate a mean technical efficiency of 66%, which is below what we would have expected given the uniformity of the climate, soils and plantation construction among the sample farmers. The use of progressive farmers as a means of disseminating extension advice does not appear to have been successful, and more rigorous farmer selection procedures need to be put in place for similar schemes and for general agricultural extension in future. No clear relationship was established between technical efficiency and the use of female labour, suggesting there is no need to target extension services specifically at female labourers in the household. Finally, education was found to have an unexpectedly negative impact on technical efficiency, indicating that farmers with primary education may be more important than those with secondary and tertiary education as targets of development schemes and extension programs entailing non-formal education. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Participatory approach for the identification of dairy industry needs in the design of research, development and extension actions: Australian and Brazilian case studies

In both Australia and Brazil there are rapid changes occurring in the macroenvironment of the dairy industry. These changes are sometimes not noticed in the microenvironment of the farm, due to the labour-intensive nature of family farms, and the traditionally weak links between production and marketing. Trends in the external environment need to be discussed in a cooperative framework, to plan integrated actions for the dairy community as a whole and to demand actions from research, development and extension (R, D & E). This paper reviews the evolution of R, D & E in terms of paradigms and approaches, the present strategies used to identify dairy industry needs in Australia and Brazil, and presents a participatory strategy to design R, D & E actions for both countries. The strategy incorporates an integration of the opinions of key industry actors ( defined as members of the dairy and associated communities), especially farm suppliers ( input market), farmers, R, D & E people, milk processors and credit providers. The strategy also uses case studies with farm stays, purposive sampling, snowball interviewing techniques, semi-structured interviews, content analysis, focus group meetings, and feedback analysis, to refine the priorities for R, D & E actions in the region.

Efficiency effects of agricultural economics research in the United States

Allocations of research funds across programs are often made for efficiency reasons. Social science research is shown to have small, lagged but significant effects on U.S. agricultural efficiency when public agricultural R&D and extension are simultaneously taken into account. Farm management and marketing research variables are used to explain variations in estimates of allocative and technical efficiency using a Bayesian approach that incorporates stylized facts concerning lagged research impacts in a way that is less restrictive than popular polynomial distributed lags. Results are reported in terms of means and standard deviations of estimated probability distributions of parameters and long-run total multipliers. Extension is estimated to have a greater impact on both allocative and technical efficiency than either R&D or social science research.

Farming under constrained budgets: Practices of agricultural credit users in central Lombok, Indonesia

There has been a long dependency on credit by Indonesian farmers as a result of the lack of capital to apply proper farming practices. This paper describes the farming activities applied by agricultural credit users in Central Lombok, Indonesia. A survey was conducted during July 2001- March 2002 of 65 farmers making use of government or private credit in three villages within the Regency. Data from the farmers were collected using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. Survey results indicated that on average, farmers had some 20 years experience of farming, were aged 40 years, but lacked of formal education. Their main asset was cropping land with average landholding of 0.69 ha. As a consequence of their capital constraints, farmers were commonly making use of credit to finance their farming activities, including both production of rice as the main crop and secondary crops. Farmers generally applied less than recommended amount of inputs in their farming practices, since the amount of credit they obtained was limited. As a result, their farms become less productive and their repayment capability of loans diminished. Of 65 farmers interviewed, 54 could earn extra income by engaging in a variety of non-farm activities, which contributed on average some 36% to family incomes of over Rp 5 million (A$ 1 thousand). The average credit repayment rate made by agricultural producers was 60%. The repayment made did not always reflect farm production capacity, being sometimes supported by other borrowings. The greater role of credit is not in increasing agricultural production or improving farmers’ income, but in helping them to sustain farm production and their living. Farmers need a bigger amount of credit to make an impact on their livelihood. This should be accompanied by extension services for farmers to enable better use of credit and to change their attitude towards it. As well, farmers require to be equipped with technical and market skills to run a business. Interdisciplinarity, holistic analysis, and an expansion of traditional ‘agricultural’ interests to embrace the span of interests included in rural livelihood, are each critical features of revision of the existing system.