Farmers' willingness to pay for agricultural extension service: evidence from Nigeria

The study was undertaken to investigate how willing would farmers be to pay for agricultural extension service in Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 268 respondents. Results showed that most farmers (95.1 per cent) were willing to pay for improved extension service as long as the service remained relevant to their needs. Farmers were willing to pay N1000 annually as their own share of the service cost. The most important factors that influenced farmers’ willingness to pay were states of origin, items originally paid for, major occupation, minor occupation, number of years in school and sale of farm produce.

Farmers’ willingness to pay for a tuberculosis cattle vaccine

We use contingent valuation (CV) and choice experiment (CE) methods to assess cattle farmers’ attitudes to and willingness to pay (WTP) for a bovine tuberculosis (bTB) cattle vaccine, to help inform vaccine development and policy. A survey questionnaire was administered by means of telephone interviews to a stratified sample of 300 cattle farmers in annually bTB-tested areas in England and Wales. Farmers felt that bTB was a major risk for the cattle industry and that there was a high risk of their cattle getting the disease. The CE estimate produced a mean WTP of £35 per animal per single dose for a vaccine that is 90% effective at reducing the risk of a bTB breakdown and an estimated £55 for such a vaccine backed by 100% insurance of loss if a breakdown should occur. The CV estimate produced a mean WTP of nearly £17 per dose/per animal/per year for a vaccine (including 100% insurance) which, given the average lifespan of cattle, is comparable to the CE estimate. These WTP estimates are substantially higher than the expected cost of a vaccine which suggests that farmers in high risk bTB ‘hotspot’ areas perceive a substantial net benefit from buying the vaccine.

Cooperative patronage: The National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi in Kasungu District

This paper estimates the determinants of farmers’ decisions to join a rural producer organisation, the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM), in Kasungu District. Data for the study were collected in June and August 2003 using household-level questionnaires and stratified random sampling, where strata were membership status and gender. Probit analysis of 250 farmers shows that off-farm sources of income, distance of the farmer’s household from Kasungu District centre, age of the farmer, tobacco farming, education, household level land holding and gender determined the decision to join NASFAM. These results suggest that farmers should be informed of the potential benefits of participating in rural development efforts, and that rural communication and information infrastructure should be improved so as to reduce the costs of information access and transactions in general, if participation in organisations such as NASFAM is to be enhanced.

Effect of dairy-based protein sources and temperature on growth, acidification and exopolysaccharide production of Bifidobacterium strains in skim milk

The aim of the present study was to find out the best growing conditions for exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing bifidobacteria, which improve their functionality in yoghurt-like products. Two Bifidobacterium strains were used in this study, Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis CCUG 52486 and Bifidobacterium infantis NCIMB 702205. In the first part of the study the effect of casein hydrolysate, lactalbumin hydrolysate, whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate, added at 1.5% w/v in skim milk, was evaluated in terms of cell growth and EPS production; skim milk supplemented with yeast extract served as the control. Among the various nitrogen sources, casein hydrolysate (CH) showed the highest cell growth and EPS production for both strains after 18 h incubation and therefore it was selected for subsequent work. Based on fermentation experiments using different levels of CH (from 0.5 to 2.5% w/v) it was deduced that 1.5% (w/v) CH resulted in the highest EPS production, yielding 102 and 285 mg L− 1 for B. infantis NCIMB 702205 and B. longum subsp. infantis CCUG 52486, respectively. The influence of temperature on growth and EPS production of both strains was further evaluated at 25, 30, 37 and 42 °C for up to 48 h in milk supplemented with 1.5% (w/v) CH. The temperature had a significant effect on growth, acidification and EPS production. The maximum growth and EPS production were recorded at 37 °C for both strains, whereas no EPS production was observed at 25 °C. Lower EPS production for both strains were observed at 42 °C, which is the common temperature used in yoghurt manufacturing compared to that at 37 °C. The results showed that the culture conditions have a clear effect on the growth, acidification and EPS production, and more specifically, that skim milk supplemented with 1.5% (w/v) CH could be used as a substrate for the growth of EPS-producing bifidobacteria, at 37 °C for 24 h, resulting in the production of a low fat yoghurt-like product with improved functionality.

Benefits from Bt cotton use by smallholder farmers in South Africa

This paper describes the results of research conducted in the Makhathini region, Kwazulu Natal, Republic of South Africa, designed to explore the economic benefits of the adoption of Bt cotton for smallholders. Results suggest that Bt cotton had higher yields than non-Bt varieties and generated greater revenue. Seed costs for Bt cotton were double those of non-Bt, although pesticide costs were lower. On balance, the gross margins (revenue - costs) of Bt growers were higher than those of non-Bt growers.

Farm-level economic impact of biotechnology: smallholder Bt cotton farmers in South Africa

This paper describes the method and findings of a survey designed to explore the economic benefits of the adoption of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton for smallholder farmers in the Republic of South Africa. The study found reason for cautious optimism in that the Bt variety generally resulted in a per hectare increase in yields and value of output with a reduction in pesticide costs, which outweighed the increase in seed costs to give a substantial increase in gross margins. Thus, these preliminary results suggest that Bt cotton is good for smallholder cotton farmers and the environment.

Institutional capacity and implementation issues in farmers' rights

Armed with the ‘equity’ and ‘conservation’ arguments that have a deep resonance with farming communities, developing countries are crafting a range of measures designed to protect farmers’ access to innovations, reward their contributions to the conservation and enhancement of plant genetic resources and provide incentives for sustained on-farm conservation. These measures range from the commericialization of farmers’ varieties to the conferment of a set of legally enforceable rights on farming communities – the exercise of which is expected to provide economic rewards to those responsible for on-farm conservation and innovation. The rights-based approach has been the cornerstone of legislative provision for implementing farmers’ rights in most developing countries. In drawing up these measures, developing countries do not appear to have systematically examined or provided for the substantial institutional capacity required for the effective implementation of farmers’ rights provisions. The lack of institutional capacity threatens to undermine any prospect of serious implementation of these provisions. More importantly, the expectation that significant incentives for on-farm conservation and innovation will flow from these ‘rights’ may be based on a flawed understanding of the economics of intellectual property rights. While farmers’ rights may provide only limited rewards for conservation, they may still have the effect of diluting the incentives for innovative institutional breeding programs – with the private sector increasingly relying on non-IPR instruments to profit from innovation. The focus on a rights-based approach may also draw attention away from alternative stewardship-based approaches to the realization of farmers’ rights objectives.

The impact of substituting SFA in dairy products with MUFA or PUFA on CVD risk: evidence from human intervention studies

With the substantial economic and social burden of CVD, the need to modify diet and lifestyle factors to reduce risk has become increasingly important. Milk and dairy products, being one of the main contributors to SFA intake in the UK, are a potential target for dietary SFA reduction. Supplementation of the dairy cow's diet with a source of MUFA or PUFA may have beneficial effects on consumers' CVD risk by partially replacing milk SFA, thus reducing entry of SFA into the food chain. A total of nine chronic human intervention studies have used dairy products, modified through bovine feeding, to establish their effect on CVD risk markers. Of these studies, the majority utilised modified butter as their primary test product and used changes in blood cholesterol concentrations as their main risk marker. Of the eight studies that measured blood cholesterol, four reported a significant reduction in total and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) following chronic consumption of modified milk and dairy products. Data from one study suggested that a significant reduction in LDL-C could be achieved in both the healthy and hypercholesterolaemic population. Thus, evidence from these studies suggests that consumption of milk and dairy products with modified fatty acid composition, compared with milk and dairy products of typical milk fat composition, may be beneficial to CVD risk in healthy and hypercholesterolaemic individuals. However, current evidence is insufficient and further work is needed to investigate the complex role of milk and cheese in CVD risk and explore the use of novel markers of CVD risk.

Partial identification of spirochaetes from two dairy cows with digital dermatitis by polymerase chain reaction analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene

Specimens taken postmortem from typical lesions of digital dermatitis in two dairy cows were tested by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of a spirochaetal 16S rRNA gene. Seven different assays detected the gene in the samples from both cows. Two of the PCR products were sequenced and a comparison of the nucleotide sequences revealed that the spirochaete belonged to the genus Treponema and was closely related to Treponema denticola. A PCR specific for the detection of the digital dermatitis-associated treponeme was developed.