Agricultural Economics
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- ItemThe Impact of Agricultural Productivity on Deforestation in Central Africa(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-09-21) Bakehe, Novice PatrickThis paper examines the effect of agricultural productivity on the environment, using deforestation as an example. We examined this relationship using a sample of nine countries in Central Africa, with data from the 1990s to 2020. The econometrics results show that an increase in agricultural productivity reduced the rate of deforestation in these countries. This suggests that policies that facilitate the adoption of modern inputs and investment in technology leading to an increase in yields from agriculture could lead to a reduction in the demand for agricultural land.
- ItemThe Impact of Irrigated Agriculture on Child Nutrition Outcomes in Southern Ghana(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023-09-21) Okyere, Charles Y.; Usman, Muhammed A.Data from Agriculture-Water and Sanitation (AG-WATSAN) Nexus Project undertaken by the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and from Dr. Hermann Eiselen Doctoral Programme of the Fiat Panis Foundation, are duly acknowledged. Financial assistance (Research Grant Number: RT20520) from the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi, Kenya, for writing this manuscript, is gratefully acknowledged. Comments from Dr. Abebe Shimeles (resource person) and conference participants of the 50th, 54th and 55th AERC Biannual Research Workshops greatly improved the content of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies in terms of attribution of research findings to the funding institutions. Finally, an earlier version of the report was published in the Water Resources and Economics journal.
- ItemThe Impact of Agricultural Public Expenditure on Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria(2023-06) Alabi, Reuben AdeoluThis study analyzes the impact of agricultural public expenditure on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. The relevant time series data for the study were obtained from secondary sources. The data ranged from 1981 to 2014. An instrumental variable two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) econometric model was employed to investigate the endogeneity of public agricultural expenditure, and the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) econometric technique was used to determine the long and short-term effects of public agricultural expenditure on agricultural productivity. The study shows that 20% of agricultural public budgets were not implemented in Nigeria. On average, agricultural public capital expenditure comprised 55% of total agricultural public expenditure in Nigeria, which is lower than the recommended 60% for effective agricultural sector performance. The study also reveals that while public agricultural capital expenditure and agricultural public total expenditure are strong determinants of agricultural productivity, agricultural public recurrent expenditure maintains a weak relationship with agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Finally, the study demonstrates that agricultural public spending on irrigation has the highest impact on agricultural productivity, while agricultural public spending on subsidies has the least impact on agricultural productivity. Among other recommendations, it is suggested that the agricultural public expenditure pattern should be realigned to favour investments in irrigation, research and development, and rural development, which currently attract lower budgetary allocations in Nigerian agricultural budgets.
- ItemVarietal turn-over and their effect on yield and food security – Evidence from 20 years of household surveys in Kenya(African Economic Research Consortium, 2023) Groote, Hugo De; Omondi, Lumumba BrianAgricultural technology is key to food security in SSA, but new maize varieties are not able to replace the old, trusted ones. This study uses data from four representative household surveys conducted in Kenya over 21 years, to show that younger maize varieties have a clear, although limited, effect on yield (4 kg/ha/year controlling for fertilizer) and food security. Unfortunately, this is not sufficient to entice farmers to adopt them, and adoption rates have barely increased despite the market liberalization that brought many private seed companies and their varieties in the market, as the parastatal Kenya Seed Company continues to dominate the market. As a result, in combination with low fertilizer use, yields have stagnated for the last three decennia.
- ItemSymmetric and Asymmetric Responses of Consumer Prices Index Inflation to Exchange Rates in Nigeria(2022-06) Eregha, Perekunah B.The question whether domestic prices respond to either official exchange rate or parallel exchange rate movements is a key research issue, especially in an oil dependent developing country such as Nigeria that has rising fiscal pressures and a vibrant parallel foreign exchange market. From the monetary authority perspective, it is also imperative to know if prices respond symmetrically and/or asymmetrically to both official and parallel exchange rate movements. Consequently, this study examines the response of domestic prices to both official and parallel exchange rate movements for the period 1995.1–2019.1 using Shin et al’s (2014) non-linear ARDL approach. The results show that the magnitude of the effect of parallel exchange rates on domestic prices is more than that of the official exchange rate’s effect in a symmetric case. However, only domestic prices respond differently to the depreciation and appreciation of the official exchange rate in Nigeria. Consequently, the government needs to ensure some level of fiscal austerity, and possibly exchange rate unification when the premium grows too big, if the intention is to insulate domestic prices from fiscal pressures. Also, the Central Bank of Nigeria needs to be aware of a possible asymmetric relationship in its decisions to ensure price stability so that it does not distort monetary policy effects.