Reaching for the low hanging fruits : one health benefits of joint crop-livestock services for small-scale farmers

The benefits of joint health service delivery remain under-explored in One Health. Plant clinics are known to provide; ad hoc; , undocumented advice on animal health and production to farmers. To understand the scope of this activity, 180 plant doctors (extension workers) in Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Peru and Costa Rica were surveyed and a workshop involving key stakeholders was organized in Uganda. Most (81%) plant doctors regularly received queries from farmers on livestock topics. This shows that the single sectoral approach to service delivery often does not match small-scale farmers' needs. There is growing interest among service providers, ministry officials and researchers to improve integration of farmer services to reduce operational costs and make better use of existing capacities. The workshop supported the proposal for the first 'crop-livestock clinics' to be trialled and evaluated in Uganda. This will inform other countries on the potential of joint services to mixed crop-livestock farming communities

Derived demand for African indigenous vegetable seed: implications for farmer-seed entrepreneurship development

African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) hold potential to address food security and nutrition in Africa. Their production and consumption remain constrained by lack of quality seed. Efforts to promote commercial seed production lack information about the effective demand of AIV seed. This study estimated derived demand for input seed in central Uganda using trans-log production model. Own-price and cross-price elasticities for production inputs were estimated using marginal approach. Seed demand analysis showed that farmers would utilise seed from market sources of approximately 32 tons per year, against current formal supply of 4.4 tons. Estimated price elasticities showed that purchased seed was less sensitive to its own price, implying less significant effect of price change on the quantity of seed demanded over time. Seed production exhibited higher gross margins and returns to labour day compared to vegetable production, suggesting prospects of profitability and sustainability of farmer-seed enterprises as an alternative source of quality seed for farmers. </jats:p

Derived demand for African indigenous vegetable seed: implications for farmer-seed entrepreneurship development

African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) hold potential to address food security and nutrition in Africa. Their production and consumption remain constrained by lack of quality seed. Efforts to promote commercial seed production lack information about the effective demand of AIV seed. This study estimated derived demand for input seed in central Uganda using trans-log production model. Own-price and cross-price elasticities for production inputs were estimated using marginal approach. Seed demand analysis showed that farmers would utilise seed from market sources of approximately 32 tons per year, against current formal supply of 4.4 tons. Estimated price elasticities showed that purchased seed was less sensitive to its own price, implying less significant effect of price change on the quantity of seed demanded over time. Seed production exhibited higher gross margins and returns to labour day compared to vegetable production, suggesting prospects of profitability and sustainability of farmer-seed enterprises as an alternative source of quality seed for farmers

Derived demand for African indigenous vegetable seed: implications for farmer-seed entrepreneurship development

African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) hold potential to address food security and nutrition in Africa. Their production and consumption remain constrained by lack of quality seed. Efforts to promote commercial seed production lack information about the effective demand of AIV seed. This study estimated derived demand for input seed in central Uganda using trans-log production model. Own-price and cross-price elasticities for production inputs were estimated using marginal approach. Seed demand analysis showed that farmers would utilise seed from market sources of approximately 32 tons per year, against current formal supply of 4.4 tons. Estimated price elasticities showed that purchased seed was less sensitive to its own price, implying less significant effect of price change on the quantity of seed demanded over time. Seed production exhibited higher gross margins and returns to labour day compared to vegetable production, suggesting prospects of profitability and sustainability of farmer-seed enterprises as an alternative source of quality seed for farmers

The role of agro-input dealer certification in promoting sustainable pest control: insights from Uganda

ABSTRACTPesticides are crucial for increasing agricultural productivity, but they have also been linked to a range of health and environmental risks. In this paper, we used nationally representative data from 557 agro-dealers in Uganda to assess the role of agro-dealer certification in improving knowledge and practices related to environmentally-friendly pest control. We found that almost half of the sampled agro-dealers were not certified or accredited by regulatory bodies, even though this is a prerequisite for selling pesticides in the country. Results further showed that only 16% of the agro-input shops were selling biopesticide products, largely due to a lack of awareness, access and demand from farmers. Regression results showed that certified agro-dealers were 9–12 percentage points more likely to know about biopesticides and integrated pest management, and 8–10 percentage points more likely to sell biopesticide products, compared to their non-certified counterparts. Our findings imply that agro-dealer certification courses can play an important role in raising knowledge and stimulating the supply of environmentally-benign pest control products. We identified regulatory enforcement, a decentralized certification system and agro-dealer associations as some of the potential pathways for incentivising compliance with certification requirements, thereby promoting lower-risk pest control products and strategies

Mobilising knowledge sharing in the agricultural advisory system

This chapter reports on the functioning of online chat groups in the context of agricultural advisory services. We draw insights from the experiences of the Plantwise programme, led by the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), embracing online chat groups to support frontline advisory staff, and national and international plant health specialists. Emerging as a spontaneous bottom-up innovation initiated by frontline advisory staff, these chat groups have matured into avenues for knowledge-sharing to support plant health systems. Through continuous monitoring, backstopping, and rapid diagnosis of emerging pests the groups played a key role in providing timely pest diagnoses, quality advice of measures, and served as an early warning system. However, to sustainably structure, embed, and support the functioning of these monitoring and backstopping chat groups, we study and reflect upon the composition, interaction, and complementary role of Plantwise and other chat groups in the pluralistic agricultural advisory systems of Africa. Using the lessons learnt we then consider how they can be more deliberately used and integrated to support service delivery

The impact of ICT-enabled extension campaign on farmers' knowledge and management of fall armyworm in Uganda.

This study evaluates the unique and combined effects of three complementary ICT-based extension methods - interactive radio, mobile SMS messages and village-based video screenings - on farmers' knowledge and management of fall armyworm (FAW), an invasive pest of maize that is threatening food security in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Building on a survey of maize farmers in western Uganda and using various selection-on-observables estimators, we find consistent evidence that participation in the ICT-based extension campaigns significantly increases farmers' knowledge about FAW and stimulates the adoption of agricultural technologies and practices for the management of the pest. We also show that exposure to multiple campaign channels yields significantly higher outcomes than exposure to a single channel, with some evidence of additive effects. These results are robust to alternative estimators and also to hidden bias. Results further suggest that among the three ICT channels, radio has greater reach, video exerts a stronger impact on the outcome measures, and greater gains are achieved when video is complemented by radio. Our findings imply that complementary ICT-based extension campaigns (particularly those that allow both verbal and visual communication) hold great potential to improve farmers' knowledge and trigger behavioural changes in the identification, monitoring and sustainable management of a new invasive pest, such as FAW

Definition and summary statistics of covariates.

Definition and summary statistics of covariates.</p