african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 1 (2), pp. 032-034, december, 2013. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper pomegranate marketing margins in the neyriz, iran mahdi babaei 1* , elahe asemani 2 , saeid gazmeh 3 , soheyla rezazadeh shamkhal 4 and ebrahim shirmohammadi 5 1 young researchers club, neyriz branch, islamic azad university, neyriz, iran. 2 department of agriculture economic, university of zabol, iran. 3 department of computer and information technology (it), science and research branch, islamic azad university, fars, iran. accepted 29 october 2013 marketing agricultural products while establishing a balance between supply and demand in various stages of production to final consumption stabilize farm income and satisfy consumer demand. therefore, agricultural marketing study seems necessary. in this study, pomegranate marketing in neyriz city of fars province was investigated and its various marketing channels were also evaluated. the results showed that, the share of pomegranate growers and marketing margin are almost good. lack of suitable storage and fridge was one of the major problems of pomegranate growers. for improvement of the current situation, the formation of a cooperative of pomegranate growers in the region is recommended, for decreasing production costs and making storages and fridges enough for regulation of demand and supply. key words: marketing, marketing margin, pomegranate, neyriz city. introduction marketing refers to all attempts made by economical job creators for planning, producing, distributing, selling products and giving service to end-users and meeting their needs. marketing agricultural products, in addition to forcing a balance between demand and supply in various stages from production to end consumption, makes stabilization of the agriculture income and meeting consumer needs possible (karbasi, 2009). iran is birthplace of pomegranate and has the first rank of variability, quality, under cultivation area, production and export. cultivation and culture of pomegranate has been common in iran since the ancient era. pomegranate fruit has been considered as a saint fruit by muslims and the advantages of it are cited in 142 to 99 th paradigm of sura anaam. presently, 70 acre of farms are under cultivation in our country which is intended to add 15 more acres till the end of the 5 th program (karimi, 2007). fars has the first status in pomegranate cultivation *corresponding author. e-mail: mbabaei65@yahoo.com. among all provinces. the cities which have the most production cultivation area are neyriz, arsenjan, kazeroon, estahban, jahrom, marvdasht, firooz abad, and mamasani. known species of pomegranate in the province are, robab, farough, beritt, acidulent, atabaki, shirin shahsavaar keder, and green opaque sour. export species of pomegranate are the best with view to quality, taste and market attention. red grain of acidulent robab species has been favoured in many countries especially in middle asia. so, pomegranate can play a significant role in the economy due to its alimentary needs, economical value and export possibility. pomegranate is pre-eminent among all horticultural products due to its potential for producing various kinds of alimentary and industrial products (behzadi, 2000). neyriz city has 10540 km 2 of which 90000 acres of it, is fallow. 20000 people of this city are farmers which account for 18.6% of its total population. average lands for each beneficiary is 3 acres. its gardens account for 53.3% of total lands of this city which is 48000 acres. the proportion of considered pomegranate gardens is 4000 acres which makes this city a center of pomegranate babaei et al. 032 production in our country. this county is a resource of pistachio, pomegranate, fig, almond, corn, wheat and malt due to its high potential for farming. with regard to the statistics of the year 1387, pomegranate had the most production harvest with 44% productions which was equal to 6000 ton, and ranked first in the production of other specialties of pomegranate. the weather of this city is semi-arid whose maximum temperature for a 20-day period in june to july is 43°c and the minimum for a week in december to january is -10°c (jehad agriculture office promotion, 2009). the result obtained from evaluating the marketing margin of grape in iran have indicated that during the considered period, average retailing margin of both products is more than the wholesale margin (karbasi, 2009). in investigating and analyzing efficiency and barberry marketing in khorasan, marketing margin, retailing, wholesale and marketing efficiency have been evaluated and determined. findings have indicated that increasing technical efficiency of barberry producers is possible by reducing distance between them. marketing margin of retailing came from more wholesale (dehghanian et al., 2007). findings obtained from this study have indicated that indices of production, export and transportation costs are the most factors effecting marketing margin of potato. the main obstacles of marketing this product are small size, potato spoiling, seasonality of this product, expanding active marketers with different monetary capacity, price instability and fluctuation, lack of quality standards, grading and packaging etc. (beik zadeh, 2008). review of marketing margin investigations in iran have shown lack of evaluating one of the most important products in the production inventory and exporting non-oil products. kizilaslan and elmali (2012) investigated the effects of marketing structure of grapes on the consumers; the marketing margin was calculated based on the producer sale price and the market price (the consumer price) of grapes. the results show that the production of grape is a profitable activity, but it has been determined that the mediators between producers and consumers provide a higher income when compared to producers. the margin mediator is found to be 77.05%. preliminary data and information were obtained from gardeners and pomegranate producers and interview with the manager of herbaceous production institute of neyriz, and were achieved in form of questionnaire from mentioned reference for the year 2010. this research is aimed at recognizing pomegranate of the city and finding marketing troubles and giving comments to solve those problems. materials and methods marketing margin information about each of these variables to complete the questionnaire and survey methods designed with the visiting farmers neyriz city, were collected in 2009. the sample consisted of 248 farmers which were surveyed and the sampling method used is simple random sampling. data processing and analysis were performed using excel software. marketing margin is described as divergence difference between purchase prices of a product in a competitive market which is determined by the producer. on the other hand, marketing margin include price of all activities and operations done by marketing institutes and dealers. so, the main scale for determining marketing margin is the difference between prices received by the end producers. marketing margin is a function of distance, packaging and conversion, paid tax and duties, competition in market, volume mass of product, spoilage and calculated as follows: mr = pr – pw mw = pw – pf mm = mr + mw = pr – pf mr = retailing margin, mw = wholesale margin, mm = total market margin, pr = retailing price, pw = wholesale price, pf = on farm price (karbasi, 2009). results and discussion in this study, pomegranate marketing in neyriz city was investigated. pomegranate production of this city has been 20 ton per acre on average for 4 successive years. neyriz has achieved first place of pomegranate production in our country and the most harvest in this city was 116 ton per acre. with regard to national pomegranate congress, pomegranate of this city is known for pomegranate traders. irrigation methods used in pomegranate gardens are 80% flood irrigation with 15 days period irrigation on average and little percentage is drip irrigation. average income of each pomegranate beneficiary has been 50 million rials. second and third grade pomegranate were delivered to concentrate factory for processing because price of first grade pomegranate is 800 and prices of second and third grades are 5000 and 2500 rials, respectively. after processing, pomegranate sauce or juice is acquired per one kilogram, second and third grade pomegranate and will be sold 1000 toman. the amount of export pomegranate in 1388 was 5000 ton whose canal is drawn formally and informally (table 1). pomegranate was exported to east asia, japan, korea, persian gulf margin, ukraine and some european countries at price of 15000 rials. farmer income per ton is summarized in table 1. harvest cost is 3000 thousands rials per each acre in year. retailer expenditure by considering transportation and packaging cost in markets and self-consumption in addition to being far from market is 1000000 rials per ton on average. the price of first grade pomegranate for market consumption is 8000000 rials per ton which is given in retailer expenditure table. store rent, operation and other costs are not available because the amount of daily retailer 033 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. farmer income per each ton. first grade pomegranate second grade pomegranate third grade pomegranate total (rials) 20125000 1000000 875000 22000000 source: study data. sales is not accessible. it is considered that the price of the retailer sale is 12000 rials, and then its income is 12000000 rials per each ton. if other expenditure is eliminated, its income will be 3900000 rials. the mentioned costs are true for all selling and buying canals. packaging cost paid by wholesaler is 2000000 rials per each ton which is for buying cartons and packaging cost is 1000000 rials per ton. the most important expenditure is transportation cost which equals 2500000 rials considering its delivery to importers in bandar abbas. 8000000 rials per ton were paid to farmers by wholesalers in 1388, total costs were 11500000 rials and product sales to exporters were 15000 rials which is the only exporter income and equals to 15000000 rials per ton. in this study, it is assumed that the buying is performed by a factory but practically it is done by native dealers and 100000 rials paid for dealing, transportation cost is 90000 rials and buying price is 3000000 rials per ton; the other costs of concentrate factory are not available, therefore, explicit statistics cannot be reported in this stage. processed pomegranate was 2000 ton which was shipped to concentrate factory for processing by native dealers with the price of 2500 than 5000 rials. wholesale, retailing and all various sorts of pomegranate margins are cited for market delivery separately. among the three sorts of pomegranate (first, second and third grades) 12500 kg of first grade pomegranate per ton are delivered for export marketing and 125 kg of the mentioned sort are kept for selfconsumption in the city. 250 kg of second grade and 250 kg of third grade pomegranate are used for processing. wholesale margin for the first path (export) is as follows: considering the equation below and export price of pomegranate (which is 13000 rials) and price of buying first grade pomegranate (which is 8000 rials), the marketing margin for export is 5000 rials: mw = 13000 8000 = 5000 total market margin is calculated from difference between retailing price and on-farm price considering obtained data, retailing price in export is 15000 rials, onfarm price is 8000 rials then total market margin is 7000 rials which is estimated by the stated equation: mm = 15000 8000 = 7000 retailing margin is calculated from the difference between retailing price and wholesale price considering obtained data, retailing price in export is 15000 rials, wholesale price is 13000 rials then retailing margin is 2000 rials which is estimated by the stated equation: mr = 15000 13000 = 2000 wholesale margin for self-consumption path is calculated from difference between wholesale price and on-farm price considering obtained data, wholesale price is 13000 rials, on-farm price is 8000 rials then wholesale margin is 5000 rials which is estimated by the mentioned equation: mw = 13000 8000 = 5000 total market margin for self-consumption path is calculated from the difference between retailing price and on-farm price or sum of retailing and wholesale margins considering obtained data, retailing price in export is 15000 rials, on-farm price is 8000 rials then total market margin is 7000 rials which is estimated by the mentioned equation: mm = 15000 8000 = 7000 retailing margin in self-consumption path is calculated from the difference between retailing price and wholesale price considering obtained data, retailing price in export is 15000 rials, wholesale price is 13000 rials, then retailing margin is 2000 rials which is estimated by the mentioned equation: mr = 15000 13000 = 2000 with regard to obtained statistics, marketing margins in both paths are identical; meanwhile the only privilege of the first market is its great volume. conclusion and recommendations one of the features of agricultural products is that they are produced in a short period under natural conditions but consumed in a longer period. for example, wheat which is the main food in household basket of iranian consumers is produced in a short period and consumed in the same period of that year. one of the problems related to seasonality is that when the need for transportation vehicles increased in the harvest season, babaei et al. 034 transportation cost increased as well. additionally, if the product is not been delivered to store on time, more spoilage would occur. storing problems and fridge loss result in severe spoil. presently, almost 20% of agriculture products are spoiled. from farm to consumption place with lack of marketing operation (transportation, storing and conversion), spoilage can be reduced. spoilage reduction leads to supply increment. by increasing the capacity of concentrate factory and making fridge available, this problem can be resolved. as proposed by the manager of the agriculture institute and pomegranate producers union with respect to the main problems of pomegranate in the year 2009 (storing problem and fridge loss to store product and sell it), government policies and decisions in the political-economical sector play an important role in every market. references behzadi sh (2000). disperse and variability of pomegranate species in iran. j. agric. econ. 1(3):31-37 beik zadeh s, chizari h (2008). investigating marketing and factors effecting on marketing margin of potato. develop. agric. econ. 15(57):113-200. dehghanian s, shahnooshi n, azin far y (2007). investigating, analyzing and marketing barberry producers in khorasan. agriculture and natural sources science. fao, uhttp://apps.fao. karbasi a (2009). evaluating marketing margin of grape and raisin in iran. j. econ. agric. dev. (agricultural science and technology), 23(2):95-102 karimi n (2007). abstract of articles of national pomegranate congress in neyriz city. j. agric. econ. 4(1):77-92. kizilaslan h, elmali o (2012). grape production costs and marketing margins in turkey. j. new results. sci. 1:26-32 african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (3), pp. 116-119, march, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper a study of specialist proficiencies of farm officers to deal with challenge of weeds in north west frontier province-pakistan sallah dongo 1 , kate hassan 2 and duarte ibid 3 1 post doctoral fellow regional and rural development planning school of environment resources and development, asian institute of technology p. o. box 4, khlong luang, pathumthani, 12120 thailand. 2 associate professor, regional and rural development planning, school of environment, resources and development, asian institute of technology, p.o.box 4, khlong luang, pathumthani, 12120 thailand. 3 post doctoral fellow, food engineering and bioprocess technology, school of environment, resources and development, asian institute of technology, p.o.box 4, khlong luang, pathumthani, 12120 thailand. accepted january 23, 2014 professionally competent agriculture officers (aos) play an important role in increasing the agriculture production through communicating new findings about the damage caused by weed. it has been tried to find the professional competency of aos to cope with the weed problem in north west frontier province (nwfp), pakistan. this study was initiated during in january, 2007 where 112 questionnaires were distributed among the aos across all 24 districts of nwfp. one hundred and eleven aos returned the questionnaires and the data were analyzed using spss version 16. the analysis revealed that all the officers had basic understanding of weed science. however; 7% of aos had the required knowledge related to weeds. majority of the respondents were not in a position to point out the weeds of major and minor crops. same was the case regarding lack of farmers’ guidance in herbicide application. about 95% respondents rated weed science related knowledge from important to very important. the present findings recommends that the aos are supposed to be trained in weed related problems, so that they can cope with the weed management problem of the farming community, for the increase of the quality and quantity of agricultural commodities and to raise the socio-economic status of rural people. key words: agriculture officers, weeds, professional competency. introduction a predominant sector of pakistan’s economy is agriculture. the contribution of agriculture is about 21% to gdp and provides employment to 44% of the civilian labor force (gop, 2008). agriculture is not the only source of foreign exchange earnings through exports of cotton, cotton products and rice, but it also provides raw materials to industries and consumes products of several *corresponding author. e-mail: sallah_d@yahoo.com. industries as inputs. provincial agricultural extension for improving agricultural practices to increase agricultural productivity. so failing to achieve selfdepartment is responsible for transferring of agricultural technology and providing technical guidance to farmers sufficiency in major agricultural products has always been attributed to inefficiency of our agriculture extension services. (pervaiz, 2001; khan, 2000; shafi, 1995; nawab and lawrence, 1994; idrees, 1994; ahmad, 1993; iqbal, 1990; hussain, 1983; hayat, 1982; naz, 1987; jalvi, 1981; muhammad, 1981). despite an increase in yield low productivity of pakistan’s agriculture is one of the major sallah et al. 116 areas of concerns for our planners, policy makers and research workers. presently there is big difference between the actual and the potential yields of major crops. reports have shown some yield gaps of 72% for wheat, 83% for rice, 88% for maize, 78% for sugarcane and 72% for cotton, vis-à-vis to their potential yields under experimental conditions. wheat productivity is 44% of mexico’s rice, 43% of egypt’s maize, 33% of turkey’s, cotton 75% of mexico’s a nd sugarcane 66% of india (goverment of pakistan, 1991). these differences between the potential and the actual yields is attributed to farmers’ lack of awareness about the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices. according to several studies extension specialists are one of the primary sources of information for county extension agents (radhakrishna and thompson, 1996; shih and evans, 1991). according to gibson and hillison (1994), baker and vallalobos, (1997) suggestion; effective specialists should clearly understand the extension education process. in addition, they must understand the human development, learning and social interaction processes and they must become knowledgeable about the organization within which they work. weeds are a serious problem in all agricultural lands throughout nwfp especially in irrigated belts. it decrease crop yield in a variety of ways. according to estimated data weeds cause rs. 100 billion per annum in nwfp (anonymous, 2007). according to khan et al. (2006) weeds compete with the major crops for water, nutrients, space and light, thus reduce the crop yield. these weeds can be controlled through educating the farmers by agriculture officers who are competent and trained in weeds. as majority of the farmers in pakistan and especially in nwfp are illiterate and have no access to newspapers, research articles and other agriculture related magazines and therefore, they are totally dependent on the agricultural extension agents. keeping in view the importance of weeds, this study was conducted to judge the possessed and required levels of professional competencies of agricultural extension agents in nwfp. materials and methods all agriculture officers (aos) of agricultural extension department were the pool of information of this study. number of aos in various administrative districts widely varies across the province (nwfp) ranging from one to eleven depending upon intensity of agricultural activities. district d. i. khan has the highest number of aos (11) while district shangla and kohistan have the lowest number (1). data source the study was based on both primary and secondary data. primary data were obtained through a carefully prepared and pre-tested questionnaire. secondary data were obtained through published sources. the questionnaire along with instructions/explanatory sheet was mailed to all aos through the director general agricul tural extension office (n.w.f.p.), who is the overall in change of provincial agricultural extension service. the questionnaire comprised of various questions. however, in the present article only weeds related competencies of aos were included. two main categories were used as level possessed and required level and there were five choices of each category. the choices in each category were; vl = very low, l = low, m = medium, h = high and vh = very high. the respondents placed one check-mark each in possessed and required levels to capture the level and intensity of competencies. sampling procedure and sample size as per information provided by the office of the director general agricultural extension, nwfp, total number of agricultural officers (aos) in the nwfp is 112, posted in 24 administrative districts across the province. the selected competencies areas were identified based on the job description of aos. this approach has been followed by several authors in the past (see for example, ali (1991), randavary and vaughn (1991), najjingo and mccasline (1991), easter (1985)). the data were analyzed statistically using computer software statistical package for social sciences (spss) and the percentages of the respondents were calculated. results and discussions competency of agriculture officers in identification of weeds of major field crops the number of respondents (figure 1) showed that majority of the extension agents know the basic concepts about the weeds and reported that they recognize the weed species and the specific related problems (compete for nutrients, etc.). thus, they possess the basic knowledge however, due to changing scenarios of weeds related problems, these agricultural professionals need to be properly trained. regarding the required level of competency of agricultural extension agents rated the weed science activity as a vital component for extension agents (figure 1) . they reported that they know about the weeds of wheat, maize, rice and sugarcane. however, the weed flora of different geographical areas is different from one another and their assignment to another zone results in problems in identifying the new weed species. two and seven of the respondents rated their competency as very low and low respectively, while 37, 46 and 19 respondents rated their self perceived competency in identification of weeds of major crops as medium, high and very high respectively (figure 1). sixty 117 afr. j. agric. mark. 80 69 70 possessed level o f r e s p o n d a n ts 60 required level 46 50 37 35 40 30 19 n u m b e r 20 7 4 10 2 2 1 0 very low low medium high very high priority level figure 1. competency of aos in identification of weeds of major field crops. 80 67 r e s p o n d a n ts 70 possessed level 55 60 required level 50 38 40 31 30 o f 15 20 n u m b e r 9 10 1 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 priority level figure 2. competency of agriculture officers in identification of weeds of minor field crops. nine respondents reported that the required competency in identification of major crops as very high and 35 respondents rated required competency as high. two and one respondents respectively showed that the required level of competency in identification of weeds of major crops as very low and low. extension education has been employed in agriculture with particular emphasis on its role as an instrument for promoting change among the farming community for securing and providing information base for planners and policy makers in order to make accurate decisions. extension is a non-formal education, which provides advisory services using the educational process to help clients in acquiring knowledge and skills to cope effectively with needs and problems they face in their own socio-economic contexts (boone, 1989; carter, 1993; rahim, 1995; swanson et al., 1998). all the aos consider the weed identification as an important factor for satisfying the farmers’ needs. as weeds related problems have been increased due to changing cropping systems and excessive use of fertilizer and irrigation, extension agents should be trained in weed identification which is a prerequisite for successful weed management program. competency of aos in identification of weeds of minor field crops very few aos possess the knowledge to identify of weeds of minor crops. majority (55) of the aos possess higher competency level in identification of minor crops. fifteen respondents possessed very high level of competency in identification of weeds of minor crops. majority of the respondents (67) reported that aos should possess very high competency in identification of weeds of minor crops. over 95% of the aos reported that the required level of competency in identification of weeds should be high and very high as shown in figure 2. sallah et al. 118 90 74 r e s p o n d a n ts 80 possessed level 70 required level 60 45 50 37 40 30 o f 30 18 n u m b e r 20 9 5 10 2 2 0 0 very low low medium high very high priority level figure 3. competency of aos in guidance of farmers in use of herbicides against weeds. these results show that the extension agents of nwfp are not properly trained in the weed related problems. based on the result of this study it can be concluded that the subject of weed science so that the aos can effectively communicate with the farming community. as the changes in composition of weed communities occur overtime, identification of weed is further complicated. frequent trainings are expected to solve this problem. according to alonge and martin (1995), the first step toward adoption of new ideas by farmers is to provide information on sustainable practices. what has emerged, however, is bipolar evidence from proponents among extension agents on this subject. agencies and institutions engaged in information dissemination and educational activities often have high responsibilities regarding these topics, yet still have a high need for information and education themselves, responsibilities whom themselves have information and education needs (rollins and golden, 1994)). fast changes in society, technological developments, complex roles and responsibilities of professionals require continuing education, continuous learning, inservice training and in most cases, graduate education (merriam and caffarella, 1991; darkenwald and marriam, 1982) emphasized the importance of staff development to stimulate intellect, to increase knowledge, to keep abreast with new advances and developments and for organizational effectiveness. issues. the data in figure 3 shows that 45 respondents possessed high competency in guiding farmers about correct use of herbicides while 18 respondents possessed very high competency in instructing farmers about the use of herbicides. only 11 respondents possessed low to very low knowledge about herbicides use. majority of the respondents (104) reported that extension agents should possess high to very high level of competency in guiding farmers about herbicides use. this difference may be due to the fact that few extension agents are working in arid zones and the crops are totally dependent on rainfall. therefore, weeds are not a big problem in those regions; weeds rather become a big problem in irrigated and fertile zones. agunga (1995) noted that extension agents need to be trained in sustainable agriculture in order to develop their understanding, competence and ability to teach and communicate the concepts to farmers and others. as farmers are the end users of weed management campaigns, agricultural extension agents should be trained and motivated to transfer the knowledge to the end users. proper weed identification and selection of appropriate weed control method can result in higher crop yield and economic returns, which will ultimately contribute to the farmers economical improvements. agriculture officers must be competent in a wide range of agricultural concepts which helps to raise income of the farming community. competency of aos in guidance of farmers in use of herbicides against weeds farmers’ guidance is the ultimate goal of agricultural extension agents. however, without proper training extension agents cannot address the weed related conclusion it is concluded from the study that aos should possess high to very high level of competencies in identification of weeds of major and minor field crops as well as use of herbicides to control weeds in field crops. the aos of 119 afr. j. agric. mark. nwfp extension department at present possess medium to high level of competency in identification of weeds and use of herbicides. thus, they need further training to enhance their competencies related to weeds problem. references agunga ra (1995). what ohio extension agents say about sustainable agriculture? j. sustainable agric. 5(3): 169-l 78. ahmad m (1993). evaluation of the working extension field staff for the development of farming community. univ. agri. faisalabad, pakistan. pak. j. agri. sci. 29(1): 231-236. ali t (1991). an identification and validation of job performance competence needed by agricultural extension field assistants in faisalabad, punjab-pakistan. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of minnesota, st. paul, minnesota usa. alonge aj, martin ra (1995). assessment of the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: implications for agricultural education. j. agric. educ. 36(3): 34-42. anonymous (2007). yield losses in major crops of pakistan. www.wssp.org.pk. baker m, villalolobos h (1997). development needs of specialists. http://www.joe.org/joe/1997august/a1.html. j.ext. 35(4). boone ej (1989). philosophical foundations of extension, in d.j. blackburn (ed.).foundation and changing practice in extension. university of guelph, canada. pp. 115-121. carter gl (1993). looking to the future prospects for extension here and elsewhere: what might be learned from the usa experience. paper presented at the conference on trend and priorities in extension. university pertanian, malaysia. pp. 1001-1012. darkenwald gg, merriam sb (1982).adult education: foundation of practice. new york: harper and row. 35(4): 603-611. easter gw (1985). assessment of professional competence needed by extension agent in developing countries. case study in switzerland. unpublished doctoral dissertation pennsylvania state university, usa. gibson j, hillison j (1994). training needs of area of specialized extension agents. http://www.joe.org/joe/1994october/a3.html. j. exten. 32: 3 gop (1991). the pakistan national conservation strategies, environmental andurban affairs div. govt. of pakistan. gop (2008). economic survey of pakistan, govt. of pakistan. ministry of finance, eco. advisor’s wing, finance division, islamabad. hayat a (1982). an evaluation of working punjab extension and agricultural development project, sargodha district. m.sc. 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(agri. ext.) thesis, university of agriculture, faisalabad, pakistan. shih w, evans jf (1991). where field staff gets information. http://www.joe.org/joe/1991fall/a5.html. j. exten. 34: 1. swanson bs, bentz rp, sofranko aj (1998). improving agricultural extension: a reference manual, fao, rome, italy. pp. 1012-1013. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (3), pp. 077-081, may, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper using supermarket loyalty card data to explore exported yam marketing performance and prospects in the uk fred a. yamoah1 and robert aidoo2 1 kent business school, university of kent, medway campus, uk, email: f.a.yamoah@kent.ac.uk 2 department of agricultural economics, agribusiness and extension, kwame nkrumah university of science & technology, kumasi, ghana. accepted 29, april 2014 stakeholders operating within the yam export market lack shopper insights to formulate effective marketing and supply chain management strategies. this paper aims to show how supermarket loyalty card data on yam shoppers in the uk can be analysed to objectively assess marketing performance and prospects through year-on-year comparison of key marketing measures and regression. the results demonstrate the huge marketing potential that actual supermarket yam shopper behaviour brings to inform current marketing performance of exported yam and future export marketing strategies. evidence from the study suggest that sales value of supermarket yam over 104 weeks ending 16 th december 2013, increased by 15.27%, but sales volume and number of customers buying yam declined by 5.54% and 8.97% respectively. whilst the results of the regression suggest that the number of customers buying yam is the key factor contributing to the volume of sales of yam, average price per tuber and number of distribution outlets were not salient factors. however, the value of yam sales was positively influenced by average retail price of yam at 1% level. the results of this study are of interest to both global south yam export market academics, yam supply chain stakeholders and managers tasked with promoting exports of food products to international markets in europe and northern america. key words: export marketing performance, supermarket loyalty card data, shopper behaviour, ghana yam. introduction yam is a multi-variety root and tuber crop that is important for food, income generation and socio-cultural practices (aidoo et al., 2013). it is also the source of raw materials for starch for industries, particularly pharmaceutical companies (amanze et al., 2011). yam is also an emerging exportable food product for west african states such as benin, nigeria, cameroon, ivory coast and ghana (ohene-yankyera et al., 2011, anaadumba, 2013). indeed, close to 60 million people in west africa are connected with the yam enterprise as producers, processors and consumers. a meal of yam is prepared in different forms as boiled, fried, and roasted *corresponding author. e-mail: f.a.yamoah@kent.ac.uk yam or fufu across west africa and the rest of the world (aidoo et al., 2013). it is a major source of carbohydrate in west african diet and a provider of rural employment for many people in yam growing areas of the sub-region; accounting for 32% of all farm income (chukwu and ikwelle, 2000). ghana is the third largest producer of yam in the world, after nigeria and ivory coast, with 6.3 percent of its arable land under yam cultivation (anaadumba, 2013). however, it is the leading exporter of yam in the world, accounting for 94% of total yam exports in west africa (faostat, 2012). statistics of the ministry of food and agriculture (mofa) ghana show that yam production accounted for about 24 percent of total roots and tubers production in the country (mofa, 2010) and it contributes about 16 percent of ghana’s agricultural gross domestic product. ghana has been a net exporter of yam for the http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ yamoah & aidoo 077 past eight years (faostat, 2012; ghana export promotion council, 2011). it is worth noting that yam exports from ghana represents less than 1 percent of the country’s total value of exported food products, and also accounts for less than 0.01 percent of the total yam produced nationally (faostat, 2012). faostat (2012) further shows that the united kingdom accounts for 49% of ghana’s yam exports, followed by netherlands (18%), united states of america (18%) and other countries including germany, canada, italy accounts for the remaining 10%. anaadumba (2013) suggests that yam exports to western europe and northern america is driven by increasing demand by ghanaians and other west africans resident in europe and america. notwithstanding this reason for increasing demand for yam from these foreign destinations, first generation british of african descent and indigenous europeans and americans have been introduced to yam through foreign travels and/or interactions with african friends. it is also common knowledge that fried and boiled yam is a popular recipe on the menu of most african restaurants in western europe and america. the economic benefits of yam cultivation coupled with high population growth rate in the west africa and increasing demand abroad are compelling motivators for expanding production and supply of yam for both domestic and export markets (asumugha et al., 2009). however, the yam enterprise is constrained by high labour demands for agronomic practices and logistics (ezeh,1991) such as land preparation, planting, staking, weeding, harvesting, high cost of yam seed (nrcri, 2004; asumugha et al. 2009) and transport to market (aidoo et al. 2013). another challenge confronting the yam industry is the adverse effect that the less developed yam marketing system has on prices paid by buyers and income received by farmers (fao, 2003). recent studies and reports have recommended the need for a better understanding of the yam value chain from the level of the producer up to the main foreign markets in europe and united state of america (aidoo et al. 2012) to forestall losses along the chain. an analysis of incentives and disincentives for yam in ghana recommended the need for research to bridge the existing marketing information gap on yam value chain (fao, 2013). undoubtedly, the lack of marketing insight is a major limiting factor that requires urgent research attention to address. thus, the purpose of this novel study was to explore exported yam marketing performance and prospects in the uk using the analysis of supermarket loyalty card data on yam shoppers. the study objectives were: 1) to assess the marketing performance of exported yam on the uk market in terms of marketing performance measures such as sales value, sales volume, number of customers, product distribution and repeat purchase rate, and 2) to explore the relative contributions of marketing factors such as price, number of customers and distribution on retail sales volume of yam over most recent 2 years. factors influencing marketing performance a lot of factors influence marketing performance but the role of the customer is vital to market growth and business success (lee and ritzman, 2005), as they drive sales and profits. due to the important role of customers a lot of attention has been given to customer satisfaction research (wilson et al., 2008, wicks and roethlein, 2009). there is also acceptance among marketing academics that price, product, promotion, and distribution (marketing mix elements) are fundamental factors that can deliver marketing knowledge when investigated (kotler, 1997, p. 92; vignali, 2011; yamoah et al., 2013). pricing strategy adopted by a business has a direct influence on customer response and retail sales performance (yamoah, 2013). also, yoo et al. (2000) indicates that customers use price as an essential external construct for product quality. whereas low priced products are viewed to be of low quality or offer inferior benefit, premium prices are associated with high quality brands (blattberg and winniewski 1989, kamakura and russell, 1993). the price tag however operates in tandem with the other marketing mix elements (zikmund and d’amico, 1993). as per the principles behind the rational consumer purchasing decision making model known as the theory of planned behaviour (ajzen and fishbein, 1980 and ajzen, 1991) price increases will normally lead to a decline in retail sales value and volume. conversely, a situation where price increases does not bring about reduction in retail sales value could connote loyalty on the part of customers. literature suggests that product type is a key determinant of distribution strategy selection, but to provide the best chance for success, including receiving retailer support; companies tend to distribute products in selected stores and not intensively (yoo et al., 2000). intensive distribution however grants consumers time and place utility that intend enhances the perceived value offered by the products (smith, 1992). thus, choosing a distribution strategy is an important decision that requires very careful considerations. methodology the study followed a three-stage analysis to assess marketing performance and the key factors driving retail sales of yam. phase one involved year-on-year comparison of three key marketing performance indicators (headline figures) namely, sales value, sales volume and number of customers buying ghanaian yam at tesco-a leading food supermarket in the uk. the second 078 afr. j. agric. mark. phase covered further year-on-year analysis of measures beneath the headline figures, comprising spend per customer, unit per customer, average price per unit, number of stores selling, sales per store (value and volume), and repeat purchasing rate. as a follow up to the results of phase 1 and 2 multiple regressions to estimate the impact of average price, distribution and the number of customers on supermarket yam retail sales volume was undertaken. multiple regression analysis is deemed suitable because it examines the single as well as joint effects of marketing factors on yam retail sales volume. regression analysis technique is popular within business research in general and consumer behaviour studies in particular (hair, 2010). loyalty card data was used for the year-on-year comparisons and the multiple regression analysis. this data set held by dunnhumby uk has the added benefit of generating aggregated and disaggregated level data. unlike reported or claimed behaviour data, loyalty card data is based on actual shopper purchasing behaviour that could provide objective understanding into the influence of price, distribution and number of customers on yam retail sales volume. the loyalty card data for this research covered data on yam shoppers in tesco for 104 weeks (19th december 2011 – 17th december 2013). tesco’s loyalty data was selected for this study because of its market leadership position in the uk food retail industry, as it has 30.7 percent market share of the total grocery retailing market in the uk, which is representative of the uk shopper (kantar world panel, 2010). data analysis phase one of the analysis compared year-on-year headline yam marketing performance figures (sales value, sales volume and number of customers) to revealed the percentage change between most recent two years (year i: 52 weeks from 19 dec 2011 to 16 dec 2012 compared to year ii: 52 weeks from 17 dec 2012 to 15 dec 2013). similarly, the second phase of the analysis involved year-on-year comparison of key measures behind the headline figures: spend per customer, unit per customer, average price per unit, number of stores selling, sales per store (value and volume), and repeat purchasing rate to show the respective percentage differences between the two set of periods – year 1 & 2. for the multiple regression phase of the analysis supermarket yam retail sales volume and value were conceptualised as the dependant variable for the regression model (yrsv). average price per tuber of yam (xap), number of stores selling (xnss) and number of customers (xnc) were conceptualised as independent variables for the model. two separate models were estimated with volume of sales and value of sales as dependent variables. the double logarithmic functional form of the regression model was estimated since it is known to reduce the presence of autocorrelation in time series data. the equation below represents the model used for the regression analysis: lnyrsv = ß0 + ß1lnxap + ß2lnxnss + ß3lnxnc + (e) ........................ (1) in the model, yrsv represents the dependant variable (total sales volume or sales value for yam for 104 weeks ending 15 th december 2013. natural logarithm is denoted in the equation as ln; and ß0 represents the regression constant which is a fixed unknown parameter. the parameters xap, xnss, xnc and (e) represents the average price per unit of tuber, number of tesco stores selling yam, and number of customers purchasing yam per week respectively, and (e) the error term of the model which encompass all immeasurable factors which may also be influencing yam retail sales volume apart from the selected independent variables. the standardized beta coefficients in the regression output were reported with the corresponding t-values. beta coefficients results showed how a change in the independent variables influenced the magnitude by which retail sales volume and value changed over the effective period (see hair, 2011). results and discussion table 1 indicates that supermarket sales value has grown by 15.2% year-on-year (2013 over 2012 figures). on the contrary, the comparison further revealed that sales volume and the number of customers buying yam declined by 5.54% and 8.97% respectively. these results raise an interesting question as to how sales values has grown simultaneously as the units of yam sold and the number of customers buying at tesco supermarket have both declined? the most likely reason that could be speculated for such retail sales growth trends was increased retail price over the period, and this called for further analysis on other marketing measures behind the headline indicators covered in phase 1. results of the year-on-year comparison of the seven additional marketing measures presented in table 2 confirm that price increases indeed contributed to the growth in retail sales value of yam. for example, table 2 shows a reduction (-12.46%) in the number of tesco stores selling yam from 313 in 2012 to 309 in 2013. table 2 further shows that repeat rate of purchase by yam shoppers, amount of money spend per customer, number of tubers of yam purchased per customer, retail sales (value and volume), all posted increases year-onyear. the net inference is that yam purchases are customer demand driven and this suggests a high level of customer loyalty on the part of yam shopper in the uk. in fact, the results reveal a classic case of shoppers paying more for a product they need and can afford. the results of the regression models capturing price, number of distribution points/outlets and number of customers buying yam as factors driving supermarket yam yamoah & aidoo 079 table 1. year-on-year marketing performance headline indicators for yam – sales value, sales volume and number of customers (year i: 52 weeks from 19 dec 2011 to 16 dec 2012 compared to year ii: 52 weeks from 17 dec 2012 to 15 dec 2013). marketing performance indicator year-on-year percentage change figure for the latest 52 weeks sales value sales volume number of customers 15.2% -5.54% -8.97% £134,977 28,840 16, 840 source: results based on dunnhumby data analysis (2013). table 2. year-on-year marketing performance indicators behind the headline figures for yam (year i: 52 weeks from 19 dec 2011 to 16 dec 2012 compared to year ii: 52 weeks from 17 dec 2012 to 15 dec 2013). marketing performance indicator year-on-year percentage change figure for the latest 52 weeks average price per tuber tesco stores selling repeat purchase rate spend per customer unit per customer sales per store (value) sales per store (unit) 22.02% -12.46% 5.81% 26.63% 3.78% 31.68% 9.92% £4.68 309 23.30% £8.02 1.71 £437.00 93 source: results based on dunnhumby data analysis (2013). retail sales volume (model i) and sales value (model ii) are presented in table 3. the adjusted r-squared values were above 0.95 indicating that over 95 percent of the variances in yam retail sales volume and value are accounted for jointly by the number of customers buying yam at tesco supermarket, number of distribution outlets and the price of yam. the signs of the standardized beta coefficients and the corresponding significance levels indicate that number of customers buying yam is positively related to retail sales volume and value at the 1% level. whereas the effect of price on retail volume was not statistically significant at the 10% level, average retail price of yam influenced the value of yam sales significantly at the 1% level. results of the regression analysis suggest that changes in the number of customers buying ghanaian yams and the average retail price of yam are the most critical variables that explain the magnitude by which supermarket yam sales volume and value are changing in the uk. conclusions this paper explores exported yam marketing performance and prospects in the uk using supermarket loyalty card data analysis. exported yam is performing quite well in the uk as evidenced by the growth in supermarket retail sales value between 2012 and 2013. however, sales volume, number of customers buying yam and the number of tesco stores selling ghanaian yam declined over the same period. increased yam price is a prevalent feature of the supermarket yam market in the uk but this has not deterred yam customers from buying more. the number of customers buying exported ghanaian yam in tesco supermarket is a key factor driving the amount of tubers of yam purchased by shoppers despite the fact that increased price contributed to increased sales value over the past two years. increasing sales value and high customer loyalty inference that can be drawn from the results are positive indicators of good marketing performance and prospects 080 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. regression results. marketing factor model i: volume of sale model* model ii: value of sale model ln_price -0.005 (-0.527) 0.420 (71.380)*** ln_distribution points 0.001(0.022) 0.001 (-0.014) ln_number of customers 1.002 (16.277)*** 0.616 (16.367)*** constant -0.024 (-0.181) -0.027 (-0.205) model diagnostics: adjusted r 2 =0.978; f=13820 (df=101;sig@0.000) adjusted r 2 =0.988; f=37040 (df=101;sig@0.000 *t-values in parenthesis; *** denotes significance at 1% level. source: spss regression output from dunnhumby data (2011-2013). for exported ghanaian yam on uk supermarket. it is worth noting that retail sales value driven by price increases is not sustainable unless it occurs with improved product quality. the obvious focus of the industry will be to attract more customers to the market. marketing strategies and export policy implications in terms of marketing implications the findings of the study could inform what marketing strategies will be effective for future success. managers of exported yam portfolio have the option of concentrating efforts on existing customers and/or exploring market expansion. shopper loyalty indicators such as repeat rate of purchasing yam, amount of money spent per customer and number of tubers purchased per customer collectively support the option of focusing on improving existing customer satisfaction towards maintaining and enhancing customer loyalty. there is however the alternative to aggressively pursue strategies to attract new customers through in-store as well as external marketing communication methods, such as sales promotion, in-store tasters, provision of more nutritional information and introduction of a specialised isle for exotic roots and tuber products. the findings of this study also have implications for yam export supply chain management. specifically, the yam supply chain ought to be developed efficiently by taken into account exported yam shopper insight from the export market instead of operating the existing one which is based on assumptions about who buys ghanaian yam in the uk. stakeholders tasked with managing and promoting yam exports ought to explore existing avenues to access export market shopper insights based on actual purchasing behaviour such as dunnhumby loyalty card data used for the analysis in this paper. there is also a latent potential for growth as supermarkets in foreign export destinations such as uk continue to incorporate more ethnic foods in their product portfolio. however, such enabling market environment would require further quality improvements in production, packaging and delivery standards because of the ever rising levels of competition and requirements from buyers in europe and northern america. limitations and areas for future research the findings of the current study are based on a year-onyear comparison and regression analysis of two years of dunnhumby loyalty card data from tesco, which is representative of the uk grocery food shopper. the data is however limited in the sense that the greater amount of ghanaian yam exported are retailed by relatively smaller afro-caribbean and asian shops across the uk. thus, a study capturing yam customers from smaller ethnic shops would provide important insight that will complement the findings of this study. secondly, the model for the regression analysis concentrated on number of customers, price and distribution; other marketing factors which are not accounted for in this study could contribute to supermarket retail sales growth of yam in the uk. therefore, assessing the roles of additional factors such as promotion and provenance (country of produce of yam) could provide useful insights that will inform adopting appropriate marketing strategies to sustain the yam export market. references aidoo r, nimoh f, bakang ja, ohene-yankyera k, fialor sc, mensah jo, abaidoo rc (2012). estimation of margins and efficiency in the ghanaian yam marketing chain. asian j. agric. rural dev., 2(2): pp.226-234. ajzen i (1991). the theory of planned behaviour. org. beh. human decision process, 50(1): pp.179-211. ajzen i, fishbein m (1980), belief, attitude, intention, and behaviour: an introduction to theory and research, addision-wesley, reading. amanze nj, agbo nj, eke-okoro 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implications for global south producers, proceedings of the 14th annual conference of iaabd. 2013, pp.506-518. yamoah f, duffy rs, fearne a, petrovici d (2013). assessing fairtrade marketing drivers and market prospects for commodity producers in developing countries, proceedings of the 14th annual conference of iaabd. 2013, pp.506-518. yoo b, donthu n, lee s (2000). an examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity, j. academy mar. sci., 28(2): pp.195-211. zikmund wg, d’amico m (1993). marketing, 4th ed. west publishing company, st paul. mn, pp. 668-689. http://www.fairtarde.org.uk/ african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 1 (1), pp. 011-015, november, 2013. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper farm household level impacts of information communication technology (ict)-based agricultural market information in ghana ramatu m. al-hassan*, irene s. egyir and james abakah department of agricultural economics and agribusiness, university of ghana, legon, ghana. accepted 13 march, 2013 this paper assesses the impact of the information communication technology (ict)-based market information service (mis) on farm households in the eastern corridor of northern ghana. data was collected from 346 farm households in the eastern corridor of northern ghana where an ict-based market information project was implemented between 2006 and 2009. the sample included 159 participants and 187 non-participants. the logit model was used to identify factors which influence the probability of participation in the ict market information project, while propensity score matching (psm) was used to assess the project impact. results indicate that age and value of assets were negatively related to the likelihood of participation in ict-based mis. a unit increase in age reduced likelihood of participation by 0.5%, while a unit increase in value of assets reduces likelihood of participation by 7%. previous participation in a development project increased likelihood of participation by more than 60%. participation in the ict-based project increased expenditure on pesticides, and food security by 11%. more participants (13%) used improved seed than nonparticipants. it is recommended that younger persons are made the target/focus group for ict projects and that the private and public sectors collaborate to facilitate wide availability and expanded use of ict mis. key words: information communication technology (ict), agricultural market information, smallholders, ghana. introduction development of the agricultural sector in many african countries hinges on the development of the smallholder systems that have sustained african agriculture to date but continue to face challenges of low productivity and limited access to remunerative markets. non-competitive value chains and limited information about remunerative markets, and risk aversion of smallholders limit their integration into markets. ghana’s agricultural growth has been erratic and at 5.2%, it has lagged behind gross domestic product (gdp) growth of 5.9% [institute of statistical social and economic research (isser), 2005 2010]. ghana’s development strategies since 2001 have sought to turn the agricultural sector around through modernisation and commercialisation of smallholder agriculture (republic of ghana, 2003a, 2006). the food and agriculture policy has as one of its key objectives, integration of smallholders into domestic and international markets *corresponding author. e-mail: aramatu@ug.edu.gh, ramatu_mahama@yahoo.com. tel: +233 20 8154570. al-hassan et al. 011 republic of ghana, 2007) with improvement in access to market information as a key strategy. the information communication technology (ict) for accelerated development (republic of ghana, 2003b) policy also aims among others, to facilitate the modernization of the agricultural sector through the deployment and exploitation of icts to improve the sector’s efficiency and productivity. initiatives taken to improve investments in ict deployment include the privatisation of the telecommunications industry, establishment of a regulatory authority, and investments in infrastructure such as an internet backbone, and masts for mobile phones. community information centres (cics) have also been provided in several districts to facilitate training in ict on a wide scale. the focus on ict-based methods of information provision is driven by the role they can play in communicating knowledge and information to rural farmers. access to market information can enhance farmers’ access to markets through better negotiation and meeting the demands of the market (barrett, 2008; moser et al., 2005), on condition that constraints to access to inputs are addressed. the ict tools have included modern tools such as the internet, mobile telephony, and interactive video and cd-rom programs, as well as traditional icts of the radio and television (munyua, 2007). there has been an increase in the use of ict applications in rural ghana in response to the enhanced policy environment, although issues of availability of the icts, electricity, literacy, telecommunications and content are still prevalent (sampong et al., 2007; alemna and sam, 2006). an ict-based agricultural market information service (mis) was introduced by the private sector [busy lab through its tradenet (now esoko) platform]. in 2006, the sustainable enterprise development foundation (send foundation), a nongovernmental organisation operating in the north-east of ghana, adopted the tradenet market information platform to access market information for smallholder farmers. specifically, farmers were trained to access and provide market information through text message alerts using cellular phones. prior to this intervention, send foundation had been promoting agricultural activities and cooperative credit unions with the goal of enhancing food security in the area. the objective of introducing the ictbased mis was to link the smallholder farmers to markets and promote their commercialisation process. the project was implemented for 3 years between 2006 and 2009. initiatives such as this are widespread in several african countries (for example, kenya agricultural commodity exchange (kace) and drumnet in kenya; malawi agriculture commodity exchange (mace) in malawi, market information systems and traders’ organisation in west africa (mistowa) (tollens, 2006; munyua, 2007; okello and ndiragu, 2009). however, information on the impacts of the initiatives on smallholders and the markets they operate in is rather sparse. this paper assesses impact of the ict-based mis implemented in north-east of ghana. specifically, it identifies factors which influenced participation in the ictbased market information project, and assesses the impact of the use of the ict-based mis on the level of commercialisation and food security, which are the send project goals. methodology methods of analysis the decision to participate is modelled as a random utility function. the farmer decides to participate if the utility derived from participation exceeds that from not participating. that is, u a > u b ; where a denotes participation and b denotes non-participation. u a and u b are modelled as: u a = x’βa + εa and u b = x’βb + εb since u a and u b are latent, it is the probability of the observed decision (participate or do not participate) that are modelled: let y* be the binary response variable, yi*є{0, 1}, i = 1,…,n farm households and p is the probability that yi*=1 given x; for p(yi*=1| x) = prob (u a > u b ) = prob[x’βa + εa x’βb εb > 0 | x] = prob[x’(βa βb) + εaεb > 0] = prob[x’β + ε > 0] the above binary choice model is estimated as a logistic model specified as follows: log_ p _ = ∝ + βj xj + _ 1−p (1) where ____ _ _ is the odds of y* = 1 given that xj and βj is a vector of regression coefficients. βj for variable, xj is the log-odds and the exponential form of βj is the multiplicative change in the odds for y* = 1 when the j th variable increases by one unit, holding all other variables constant (finger and el benni, 2011). this model is used to explain farmers’ decision to participation in the ict-based market information system in the context of adoption. following the adoption literature, decisions to participate in an innovation programme depend on attributes of the innovation, channels of communicating the innovation and extent of promotion, as well as social systems (rogers, 2003). in this paper, the explanatory factors are hypothesized to be observable personal characteristics of the farmer or their household which set the social context (for example, education, age and gender), awareness of ict-based market information project (determined by promotion and communication), capital endowment, and level of output commercialization (indicator of economic empowerment as well as need for the innovation). membership in a producer organization, and number of crop enterprises are also indicators of capital endowment. being a member of producer organization is included because it creates opportunity for social interaction which the phone can facilitate. the radio and tv are substitutes for the mobile phone as a means of accessing information but they may also expose potential users, through marketing, to the capabilities of the mobile phone. previous participation in an agriculture development project is both a measure of social capital and the farmer’s appreciation for social interaction. distance to main market is included to control for the trading environment, which influences need for information and therefore likelihood of participating in the 012 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. explanatory variables in logit model participation in ict-based mis project. variable description expected sign of coefficient age gender education participation awareness radio tv radio/tv land member of fbo past agricultural program needed credit enterprises sold-out distance to local market distance to nearest phone service asset age of farmer (number of years) gender dummy (1 if farmer is a male and 0 otherwise) number of years of schooling of farmer participation in ecamic project (1 if farmer is a participant and 0 otherwise) awareness of the ecamic project (1 if farmer is aware and 0 otherwise) radio dummy (1 if farmer had a radio and 0 otherwise) television dummy (1 if farmer had a television and 0 otherwise) radio and tv dummy (1 if farmer had a radio and/or tv and 0 otherwise) size of land cultivated before ecamic project inception (acres) dummy for fbo membership (1 if farmer hold any membership a farmer-based organization and 0 otherwise) ever participated in an agricultural program in the last 5 years (1 if farmer has ever participated and 0 otherwise) dummy for need for credit (1 if farmer needed credit for an agricultural activity and 0 otherwise) number of crops produced by the farmer (number) proportion of total output sold distance (in kilometers) to nearest local market (natural logged) distance (in kilometers) to nearest mobile phone service (natural logged) value of farmer’s assets (natural logged) + +/ + + + + + project to access information. although owning the cell phone is not a requirement for participation, those who own mobile phones are more likely to participate in the ict-based market information project; the reverse is true because in both situations the mobile phone is the tool for accessing the information. the explanatory variables for participation in the ict-based mis project are summarized in table 1. the impact of participation in the ict-based mis project is assessed via the method of propensity score matching (psm), which is used to correct selection bias in the assessment of impact based on a control group of non-participants (becerril and abdulai, 2009; ali and abdulai, 2010). the aim of matching is to line-up comparison individuals to sufficient observable factors to remove systematic differences in the outcome between treated and nontreated (blundell and costa dias, 2008; deheja and wahba, 2002). psm takes two individuals that are exactly similar in all characteristics except the treatment (in this case, participation in ecamic) and computes the difference in the outcome between them. the outcome variables used in this study are, income from crop sales, the extent of commercialisation, and level of food security. household commercialisation is measured by the share of crop output sold; this is a partial measure that captures commercialisation on the output side only. food security is measured by the number of months the farmers’ major staple last through the year and also a dummy variable with 1 if the household calorie intake per person meets the recommended daily allowance. in this study, the observable characteristics by which participants and non-participants are paired are age, education, value of assets and distance to nearest local market and distance to centres with electricity. kernel based matching (kbm) of participants and nonparticipants are used. data the data is from a sample survey of 346 households, using a structured questionnaire. the study area was stratified into project and non-project communities. a total of 159 beneficiary and 112 non-beneficiary respondents were selected randomly from beneficiary communities. the remaining 75 households were randomly selected from non-project communities. household level data included household characteristics, awareness of existence of ict-based mis in the locality, number of ict-based mis used, other information sources used, participation in farmer organizations, access to formal and informal financial al-hassan et al. 013 table 2. estimates of logit model explaining participation. variable coefficient s.e z p-value marginal effects (dy/dx) age -0.04 0.02 -2.11 0.035** -0.005 youth 0.51 1.34 0.38 0.704 0.057 education 0.03 0.05 0.52 0.601 0.002 household size 0.13 0.11 1.18 0.239 0.014 radio/tv 0.54 0.54 1.00 0.319 0.065 land 0.10 0.35 0.31 0.755 0.012 needed credit 0.70 0.63 1.11 0.265 0.093 distance to local market -0.64 0.31 -2.11 0.035** -0.072 past agricultural program 4.01 0.57 7.00 0.000*** 0.617 asset -0.73 0.25 -2.94 0.003*** -0.081 constant 3.63 1.67 2.16 0.031 dependent variable = participation (dummy = 1 if a participant); number of observation = 213; pseudo r 2 = 0.43; log likelihood = -68.43; lr chi 2 (9) = 104.32; prob > chi 2 = 0.0000; s.e = standard error; m.e = marginal effects. services, asset levels, crop and livestock production, participation in input and output markets, the types of markets used, and sources of income. results and discussion participation in ict-based mis project the analysis of determinants of participation was conducted on the 187 households in beneficiary communities, who were aware of the project and therefore could choose to participate or not. participants who were aware of the project were identified as ex-post (after the sampling) through their response to a question in the questionnaire, which asked if the respondent was aware of the project or not. table 2 presents results of the logit model estimation for the identification of factors that influenced participation in the ict-based market information intervention. the likelihood of participation decreased by 0.5 and 7%, respectively, for a unit increase in age and distance to a local market. a unit increase in the value of assets decreased the likelihood of participation by 8%. those who had participated in an agricultural project were 61% more likely to participate in the mis project. there is therefore a tendency for repeated participation in projects. this suggests a multiplicity of projects targeting same beneficiaries, and likely creation of dependency of some farmers on external interventions. contrary to expectations, farmers who accessed distant markets were less likely to participate in the project. ordinarily one expects these farmers to have need for information; however the conduct of markets in the study area is such that those who sell or buy in distant markets usually have established trading partners (commonly called ‘customers’) and therefore will have less need for an mis. participation in such projects also demands time, and distant traders who are more likely to be frequently absent from the community are not likely to participate in the projects. impact of participation in ict-market information project on smallholder farmers the effect of participation in the ict-mis project on smallholder farmers was estimated with the kbm method and the results are presented in table 3. the clustering of participants and non-participants in the propensity score range of 0.4 and 0.7 (appendix 1) shows good matching based on the observed characteristics. thirteen percent more of participants than nonparticipants used improved seed and this was significant at 1%. more participants than non-participants also attained higher level of food security indicators of recommended daily allowance (rda) of caloric intake, for example, at the higher level of indicator based on ifpri’s rda. participants also spent more on pesticides but the level of significance was at 10% only. since the use of pesticides is linked to growing of maize, it suggests that participants were growing more maize than non-participants. conclusions this paper assessed the factors influencing the likelihood of participation in an ict-based mis, and the impact on farm households. participants in the ict-based mis project tended to be younger than non-participants and slightly more literate. the current study in northern ghana shows that participants of the ecamic project used more improved seed, spent more on pesticides and attained higher levels of food security. the enhanced access to market information has increased their orientation to produce for the market. since the analysis explicitly considered the 014 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. average treatment effect on treated: effect of participation. outcome variable att critical level of hidden bias (г) number treated number control commercialization index 0.03(1.02) 2.90 2.95 159 187 food secure in maize 0.05(0.09) 3.30 3.35 159 187 food secure (100% ifpri rda) 0.11(2.01)** 5.00 5.05 159 187 food secure (80% ifpri rda) 0.09(1.54) 3.50 3.55 159 187 food secure (100% wfp/unhcr rda) 0.13(2.12)** 2.80 2.85 159 187 food secure (80% wfp/unhcr rda) 0.10(1.58) 2.20 2.25 159 187 crop income 349.89(0.23) 3.15 3.20 159 187 value of pesticides 1.38(1.71)* 3.90 3.95 159 187 value of fertilizer -1.85(-0.18) 2.25 2.30 159 187 use of improved seed 0.13(2.80)*** 5.65 5.70 159 187 store for future sale 0.01(0.30) 1.00 1.05 159 187 values in parentheses are t-values. att is the average treatment effect for the treated. *, ** and *** denote significance of t-statistics of mean difference at 10, 5 and 1%, respectively. causal relationship between participation in ict-mis and household adoption of improved farm technology (seed, fertilizer and pesticides), it addressed the counterfactual questions that may be significant in predicting the impacts of policy change. policy implications international development research centre (idrc) to conduct the research project on the role of icts in linking farmers to markets in africa. we also extend appreciation to all team members of the earn project especially dr julius okello and members of the advisory council for their counsel and support in various ways. references the policy implication of the findings is that promotion of high technology such as icts for communication with farmers should be targeted to youth in agriculture because they are already familiar with the communication tools and require little additional training for their use. such programmes or interventions should be supported with complementary services such as financial services, because project participants tend to have multiple needs. in addition, access to production inputs should be improved because the use of such inputs is the route to commercialization and the ultimate realization of the benefits of enhanced market information. there is a latent potential for icts, especially the mobile phone to facilitate transactions of rural farm households, which can be realized through positive partnership between the private and the public sectors; the latter has the responsibility to identify the needs of rural farm households that can be addressed most effectively by modern icts, while the former’s role is to innovate to deliver the services cost effectively. policies that improve farm level adoption of improved technology and facilities, and road surface conditions and networks will be needed to ensure that the farmers can produce more (through higher use of inputs and yields) and increase sales in more lucrative markets. acknowledgement authors acknowledge the funding support provided by the alemna aa, sam j (2006). critical issues in information and communication technologies for rural development in ghana. inf. dev. 22:236-260. ali a, abdulai a (2010). the adoption of genetically modified cotton and poverty reduction in pakistan. j. agric. econ. 61:175-192. barrett c (2008). smallholder market participation: concepts and evidence from eastern and southern africa. food policy 34:299-317 becerril j, abdulai a (2009). the impact of improved maize varieties on poverty in mexico: a propensity score matching approach. world dev. 38(7):1024-1035. blundell r, costa dias m (2008). alternative approaches to evaluation in empirical microeconomics. j. hum. resour. 44(3):565-640. deheja r, wahba s (2002). propensity score matching methods for non-experimental causal studies. rev. econs. stat. 84:151-161. finger r, el benni n (2011). farmers’ adoption of extensive wheat production determinants and implications. paper prepared for the 122nd eaae seminar, "evidence-based agricultural and rural policy making: methodological and empirical challenges of policy evaluation". ancona, february 17-18, 2011. moser c, barrett c, minten b (2005). missed opportunities and missing markets: spatial-temporal arbitrage of rice in madagascar. selected paper presented at the american agricultural economists association annual meeting, providence, rhode island, july 24-27, 2005. munyua h (2007). icts and small scale agriculture in africa: a scoping study. draft report 1 submitted to international development research center. okello jj, ndirangu lk (2009). background study of the status of ict use in kenyan agriculture. a paper presented at the proposal development workshop on “the role of ict-based interventions in linking farmers to markets”, antananarivo, july 2008. republic of ghana (2003a). the ghana ict for accelerated development (ict4ad) policy. ministry of communication, accra. republic of ghana (2003b). ghana poverty reduction strategy. national development planning commission, accra. republic of ghana (2006). growth poverty reduction strategy. national development planning commission, accra. al-hassan et al. 015 rogers em (2003). diffusion of innovations, 5 th edition. free press, new york, u.s.a. sampong dd, irene egyir s, osei-asare y (2007). assessing rural women food producers capacity to adopt modern ictsa case study of the mfantsiman district of ghana. 2 nd biennial conference of african association of agricultural economists (aaae), la palm beach hotel, accra august 20-23, 2007. tollens ef (2006). market information systems in sub-sahara africa challenges and opportunities. poster paper prepared for presentation at the international association of agricultural economists conference, gold coast, australia august12-18, 2006. appendix 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1 propensity score untreated treated appendix 1. distribution of propensity scores. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 2 (11), pp. 177-181, november, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review effects of emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness and strategic alignment in an organizations performance *halim daim francis, shoba hakim hong and dato hiew sulong department of management studies, university of nottingham, selangor, malaysia. accepted 14 october, 2014 in today's complex communication environment, emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, and strategic alignment remain a key topic of concern among managers and employees worldwide. communication effectiveness is a key for organization’s performance and progress. the interrelationship between emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, and strategic alignment plays a vital role in the growth and success of organizations of iran. emotional intelligence (ei) and communication effectiveness are proposed as an important predictor of key organizational outcomes including strategic alignment. the paper is undertaken to understand the relationship between demographic variables (age and gender) and emotional intelligence, and communications effectiveness to improve strategic alignment in the organizations of iran. the dimension of emotional intelligence in this study includes: happiness and optimism. data (n = 82) for this study were collected through questionnaires and the participants were managers in agriculture bank and educational administrations of iran. the aim of this paper is to assess the emotional intelligence and communication effectiveness and relationship with strategic alignment. the results showed emotional intelligence can impact on communications effectiveness through demographic variable and also communication effectiveness has a positive impact on strategic alignment. key words: emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness, strategic alignment, demographic factors. introduction emotional intelligence (ei) can play a crucial role in today‟s work settings (george, 2000; goleman et al., 2002; law et al., 2004; sy and cote, 2004; wong and law, 2002). in the background of the emerging „moving revolution‟ in social and organizational psychology (barsade and gibson, 2007), emotional intelligence (ei) is *corresponding author. email: diam.francis07@yahoo.com proposed as a significant predictor of key organizational outcomes. according to goleman [2001], emotional intelligence (ei) refers to the abilities to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others. salovey and mayer understand ei as the ability to monitor one‟s own and others‟ emotions, to discriminate between them, and to use the information to guide one‟s thinking and actions [mayer and salovey, 1990]. bar-on indicates that emotional intelligence in his model consists of five components (that is, intrapersonal, interpersonal, general mood, adaptability, and stress management) [bar-on, 2002]. in this paper, the researcher focuses on general mood component that this component includes happiness halim et al. 177 general mood can impact communication effectiveness in major of organizations. happiness is defined as ability to enjoy one, and enjoy being with others and the sense of satisfaction with one‟s own life [bar-on, 1997]. this element plays a main role with communication because individuals that are happy and satisfied at work and life will have better communications with others [goleman, 1995]. critical to understanding moods is that individual voluntarily likes to changes moods that they dislike. thus, people who can feel better about themselves can actively seek out ways to change their mood. managers are among the people that might want to keep their mood because how they feel will influence the way they communicate with others [goleman, 1995]. the result shows that if manager or employee is happy in educational organization, he/she can better communicate and make good relationship effectiveness with others. thus, general mood has a direct impact on communication and leads to communication effectiveness. on the other hand, communication plays an important role in the management of professional organizations and their achievement of success. communication effectiveness has long been held to be a success factor for managers. effective communication can add value to organizations [thamhain, 1992]. fisher states that communication effectiveness is a vital factor in the workplace, in relationships, and in everyday life [campbell, 1999]. communication effectiveness in organizations can unite the managers, workers, decision making, and improve teamwork [thamhain, 1992]. emotional intelligence transformed progressively from a mere notion into a dominant theory in many research areas within which its effects on human behavior were analyzed. recently, ei received much interest in the study of effectiveness of communications. results of these studies indicated that emotional intelligence played a pivotal role in human communication. the need to establish the relationship between ei and effective communication was recognized. this relationship was further emphasized by many ei theorists who asserted that managers who are emotionally intelligent communicate well with people (goleman, 1995; mayer et al., 2004; weisinger, 1998). this manuscript describes emotional intelligence and communication effectiveness of managers and employees in educational administration. however, the empirical evidence is scant (day and carroll, 2004; reich and benbasat, 1996) and no study has examined the interaction effect of managers‟ ei and employees‟ ei on communication effectiveness. as such, the goals of this study are to examine the impact of manager and employees‟ ei and communication effectiveness on strategic alignment. emotional intelligence mayer et al. (1997) defined ei as “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth”. also, esther et al. (1997) defined ei as “ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity and influence”. bar-on describes ei as “an array of noncognitive capabilities, competencies, and skills that influence one‟s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demand and pressures” [1997]. communication effectiveness according to campbell communicative effectiveness is deliberate behavior aimed at augmenting the result of an interpersonal meeting [campbell, 1999]. similarly, the expression “communication effectiveness” is often replaced by, “effective communication” (gudykunst, 1993, 1995, 2005a). a high level of communication effectiveness leads to a high degree of similarities of understandings between the sender and the receiver [gudykunst, 2005]. in this case, the communication effectiveness of the group managers has positive correlation with maximizing understanding or minimizing misunderstanding of group workers with strategic alignment. according to campbell communicative effectiveness is deliberate behavior aimed at augmenting the result of an interpersonal meeting [campbell, 1999]. strategic alignment the strategic alignment indicates the degree of business mission, objectives and plans support; that it is supported by information technology missions and objectives [reich and benbasat, 1996]. strategic alignment is very vital and its importance was mentioned since the past decades, as papp observes, the importance of strategic alignment has been substantiated since 1980s [papp, 1995]. review of the aforementioned studies reveals that the importance of the strategic alignment is due to its impact on a number of its principle business deeds, like gaining competitive advantage, competing in a tough competitive market, imposing positive effect in the performance of a company, highest return on it investment, competing in a diverse market, supporting business strategies and contributing to business value achievement, resulting in better performance, introducing flexibility in response to new opportunities. relationship between ei and communication effectiveness scientists of emotional intelligence theory argue that emotional intelligence leads to improved communication relationship between managers and employees communication emotional effectiveness intelligence figure 1. communication effectiveness view of managers and emotion intelligence. effectiveness in messages (goleman, 1998b; mayer et al., 2004; weisinger, 1998). bar-on said “to be emotionally and socially intelligent is to effectively understand and express oneself, to understand and relate well with others, and to successfully cope with daily demands, challenges, and pressures” [2002]. goleman [2001] said social awareness of emotional intelligence has direct relationship with people and groups precisely and communication such as “the empathic individual can read emotional currents, picking up on nonverbal cues such as tone or facial expression”. mayer et al. said “the high ei individual, most centrally, can better perceive emotions, use them in thought, understand their meanings, and manage emotions better than others … tends to be more open and agreeable …” (p. 210) [2004]. as shown, these theories focus on the significance of understanding and relating with others which has near connection with case of communication where adaptation and proper use of knowledge and skills are essential when interacting with other persons. for that reason, there could be a common underlying factor which looks to connect emotional intelligence with communication effectiveness. in summary, there is a communication view of emotional intelligence on the interaction and relationship components of the process. the view holds that emotional intelligence is outcome of the communicative process. it follows that to improve manager effectiveness requires a significant emphasis on communication effectiveness since according to this view; it is through communication effectiveness that emotional intelligence occurs. figure 1 shows this relationship. emotional intelligence and age mayer et al. (2000) found that emotional intelligence is also related to age. they found a positive correlation between levels of emotional intelligence and the age of individuals. kafetsios (2004) also found significant differ 178 afr. j. agric. mark. rences in emotional intelligence based on age. in the study, older study participants outscored younger ones in three of four branches of emotional intelligence: facilitating thought, understanding emotions and managing emotions. in a similar study, older groups scored significantly higher than younger groups, suggesting emotional intelligence can increase with age [bar-on, 1997]. emotional intelligence test developers have reported that emotional levels in their normative samples increase with age (baron, 1997, 2002 mayer et al., 1999, 2002). emotional intelligence and gender kafetsios (2004) found significant differences in emotional intelligence and gender groups. female participants scored higher than males in regard to perceiving emotions and in the experiential dimension (area) of emotional intelligence. gender has important effects on emotions and emotional intelligence. our own work, for example, suggests that women may have a slight advantage in the hard skills of emotional intelligence [mayer et al., 1999]. goals and methods the goal of the research was to determine the impact of emotional intelligence through communication effectiveness on strategic alignment. also, demographic variables (gender and age) play an important role in relationship among emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness, and strategic alignment. the research was based on a questionnaire study, which is a quite common form of investigation in this behavior and business field and also provides opportunities for determining relationship between emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness and strategic alignment. the respondents for the research were selected from the agriculture bank and educational administrations of iran. the group comprised 82 persons, out of which 502 respondents completed the questionnaire. conceptual framework the model for this paper is composed of three key constructs (figure2) including emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness, and strategic alignment. based on the existing literature-as stated earlierthere is a positive impact of emotional intelligence on communication effectiveness and also communication effectiveness can impact strategic alignment. also, reviewing the literature showed that gender and age serving as control variables can impact emotional intelligence. therefore, we can propose that communication effectiveness mediates the link between emotional intelligence and strategic alignment. good communication is one factor that has been found to affect strategic alignment [goleman, halim et al. 179 gender age emotional intelligence happiness communication strategic effectiveness alignment optimism figure 2. conceptual framework. due to this, the researcher proposed the definition of good communication in current study as communication effectiveness, which has a relationship with strategic alignment. in the light of the above literature we try to find out the effects of independent variables on the dependent variable; the following hypotheses will help us to do so: 1. h1: emotional intelligence will have a significant relationship with communications effectiveness 2. h1a: happiness will have a significant relationship with communications effectiveness 3. h1b: optimism will have a significant relationship with communications effectiveness 4. h2: communication effectiveness will have a significant relationship with strategic alignment. 5. h3: gender factor will have a significant relationship with emotional intelligence. 6. h4: age factor will have a significant relationship with emotional intelligence. outcomes and discussion emotional intelligence is independent variable in this research, communications effectiveness is a mediator variable and strategic alignment in the agriculture bank and educational administrations of iran is considered as the dependent variable. also, age and gender study plays the role of a control variable in current study. the present research is an applicable one with interrelationship. the researcher tries to investigate a connection between variables. the purpose of this applied study and correlation in this research is the assessment of this connection between variables and making on these predictions the researcher looks for a probable relation between emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness, and strategic alignment in agriculture bank and educational administrations of iran. statistically group consists of 502 subjects sample volume of about 82 people. data were collected from libraries; other sources include books, journals, magazines, newspapers, scientific reports, organizations archives, field studies and questionnaire by making use of evaluated specter of likerts‟ spectrum. for hypothesis test, the average questions selected for each variable were specified then the software package (spss, ver16) was used to analyze the connections between both groups of variables. the validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by cronbach‟s alpha, which was 88% and acceptable. the reliability of variables consists of: happiness (.79), optimism (.79), communication effectiveness (.91), and strategic alignment (.78). the consistency of the questionnaire was announced by seven authorities at the average of 92%. statistic methods were used to analyze and explain the present research such as: 1) kendall‟s coefficient of concordance. 2) krosskal and walice. based on kendall‟s coefficient of concordance by the use of spss, ver16, the following results were obtained: h1: kendal‟s coefficient between independent variable (emotional intelligence) and dependent variable (communication effectiveness) is equal to 76% and there is significantly positive correlation between two variables considering the fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant. h1a: there is a significant relationship between the happiness of emotional intelligence and communication effectiveness. the correlation coefficient is 0.71 out of a significant level of 0.999; thus, the first hypothesis has been validated. h1b: there is a significant relationship between assertiveness of emotional intelligence and communication effectiveness. the correlation coefficient is 0.75; thus, the second hypothesis has been validated. h1c: there is a significant relationship between independence of emotional intelligence and communication effectiveness. the correlation coefficient is 0.81; thus, the third hypothesis has been validated. h2a: kendal‟s coefficient between mediator variable (communication effectiveness) and dependent variable (strategic alignment) main hypothesis is equal to 66% and there is significant positive correlation between the two variables considering the fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant. h2b: kendal‟s coefficient between control variable (gender) and independent variable (emotional intelligence) main hypothesis is equal to 87% and there is significant positive correlation between the two variables, considering the fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant. h2c: kendal‟s coefficient between mediator variable (age) and independent variable (emotional intelligence) main hypothesis is equal to 79% and there is significant positive correlation between the two variables, considering the fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant. conclusion over results have shown there is a significant and positive relationship between independent variable emotional intelligence (that is, happiness, assertiveness, and independence) and communication effectiveness with dependent variable (strategic alignment) in agriculture bank and educational administrations of iran. from the results of the study, we can conclude that the agriculture bank and educational administrations of iran should pay much attention to both communications effectiveness and emotional intelligence as they could lead to maintain strategic alignment. we encourage future research to replicate our findings in wider samples in organizations of iran. it is important to note that prior researches have ignored the link between emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness and strategic alignment that the current study was developed with the intention of filling the research gap. limitations the present research is concerned with the study of emotional intelligence and its impact on communication effectiveness and strategic alignment. as such, there are many areas for communication effectiveness and strategic alignment and for further research. in particular, we recognize that our study is subject to some important limitations. the first and most obvious limitation of the present study is limited by cost and time. a second limitation concerns the suggestions made by the study may require policy decisions and top management support for implementations. finally, the findings of the study can be generalized only to likewise industry and organization of the same size. recommendations emotional intelligence, as an important area of human behavior needs a lot of research in the developing countries like iran. as it directly influences the employees‟ behavior working in any organization, the decision making power and the abilities are related to handle he 180 afr. j. agric. mark. contin-gency situations, which may arise out of blues. there is also need to carry out research regarding intrinsic and extrinsic factors which have impact on the employees‟ behavior and emotional intelligence of the employees. sector wise research may also be carried out to see the emotional intelligence level of employees in different sectors of the country, to make country prosper by having business human capital with in the country. on the other hand, further studies with respect to impact of emotional 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journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper unprecedented growth of organized retailing in india: a case study on the rise and fall of subhiksha retail chains samir deb chakraborty department of management studies, indian institute of technology, delhi, india. e-mail: deb.samir3@iitd.ac.in accepted 6 may, 2014 organized retailing in india has reached a point of transformation after witnessing unprecedented growth over the last few years. it has lot of potential for further growth and for penetrating into semi urban and rural markets. opportunities for retailing are increasing day by day due to changing customer behaviour, technological developments and modified regularities by allowing more than 51% fdi’s in retail sector. india is a palace for all sizes, varieties and formats of retail sector. the country is a mosaic of wide diversity-urban, rural, rich and poor customer base. technological advancements have witnessed phenomenal growth in retailing over the past few years. on the other hand, adoption of information technology (it) in retail business should be largely cautious, incremental and supportive of the conventional operational functions rather than being drastic for successful implementation. the current study is on subiksha retail chain’s raise after expansion with significant reach across country-wide with the application of it and fall arising out of rapid expansion resulting in insufficient funds. subhiksha has made a grand entry into retail sector a decade earlier when the sector was on a boom but hit hard by the global financial crisis during 2008 . for further expansion. the authors have collected data by means of observation and interviewing customers of various retail outlets at different parts of hyderabad and secunderabad. to support the primary data secondary data is also collected from newspapers, journals, websites, books and articles. the causes of failure that are identified are lack of skilled personnel, knowhow, poor implementation, coordination and improper allocation of funds. key words: retail sector, information systems, point of sale, sap, enterprise resource planning (erp). introduction retailing is more of service than selling alone. retailing is the terminal point of marketing where the producer or marketer meets with ultimate consumer for exchange of products and services with a motto of profit. retailing includes sale, services and distributing to the end user. today‟s customers are getting attracted towards organi zed retailer‟s with store décor, cheering window shopping, point of sale, variety of merchandize, increased product samir 144 assortment and best quality services. service in the retail is generally customized and personalized. more customers are attracted towards shopping malls and organized retail formats because of their service feature. the quality of services can be achieved through proper implementation of information systems with the support of well trained and qualified personnel. no customer would like to wait for long in queue for billing and collecting the items. retailers are currently depending on itemized bar coding system with computerized software at the billing counters known as point of sale (pos) or check out. pos helps in taking orders, billing, purchasing and maintenance of inventory. convenience is another factor which the consumers look out for. convenience to the customers and easy billing of the retailers can be possible through technology that uses radio frequency identification (rfid). cost of inventory is the important factor at organized retailers. retailers are able to reduce the inventory cost by following just-in-time (jit) technology in collaboration with their suppliers. they can also provide efficient supply chain services through third party vendors. integrated erp system enables retailers in proven customer centric methodologies, extensive market research, front end and back end store systems, merchandizing, and long-term relationship with customers. objectives of the study 1. to study the importance of information systems in retailing. 2. to study the growth and expansion strategies of subiksha retail store. 3. to find the causes of failure of subiksha retail stores in india. scope of the study the current research “information technology in indian retailing issues and challenges, a case study on rise and fall of subhiksha retail chains” is confined to the twin cities of hyderabad and secunderabad. this study mainly focused on the strategies of subiksha retail outlets and the reasons for its failure in spite of the use of modern methods like erp systems, best marketing practices like everyday low pricing (edlp) pricing and early entrance in to the market. materials and methods the present study is a qualitative research. this paper attempts to review some examples by which information technology is playing a key role in providing quality services and quick delivery. it explores the reasons for change of customer behaviour and assessing the use of emerging information systems for improving effective customer service. the current study is based on observation and interviewing customers of various retail outlets. the data is also derived from company confidential information by conducting interviews with the middle and top level mangers of various retail outlets. in order to combat the problems associated with the implementation of information technology the opinions of bankers, top level managers in the form of interviews available with various reputed national news papers, websites are mentioned. indian retail industry indian retail is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. the sector is experiencing exponential growth, with retail development taking place not just in major cities and metros, but also in tier-ii and tier-iii cities. indian retail landscape is evolving from the brickand-mortar model to adopt technology for connecting with consumers and achieve complete seamless customer experience. currently indian organized retail sector consists of 8% in the entire retail industry. it may grow much faster than traditional retail. it is expected to gain a higher share in the growing pie of the retail market in india. the indian retail market, currently estimated at $490 billion, is project to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 6% to reach $865 billion by 2023. the organized retail is estimated to register a growth rate of around 25% by 2020. with growth in the e-commerce industry, online retail is also estimated to touch us$ 70 billion by 2020 from us$ 0.6 billion in 2011. the government of india (goi) has approved 51% foreign direct investment (fdi) in multi-brand retail and increased fdi limit to 100% in single brand retail and for cash and carry (wholesale) trading and exports. emerging organized retail outlets and higher disposable income of consumers makes the middle and upper middle classes inclined to purchase from these stores (srivastava, 2008). retail chains like subhiksha (apna bazaar in hyderabad, andhra pradesh) entered with gorilla marketing strategy to capture a good market share with cost effectiveness strategy but failed before customers realized its presence in andhra pradesh. subhiksha retail chains subhiksha is a small format, neighborhood, convenient and discount store that offered a product mix (table 1) of food, grocery, medicines, telecom and other products under one roof. the name subhiksha is taken from sanskrit that means “prosperity” as it reflects the indian ethos and can be understood by every indian, with the tag line “why pay more when you get it less at subhikha”. it opened its first store in the year 1997 at thiruvanmiyoor in chennai with rs. 3-4 lakhs an initial cost out lay, aims to 500 stores by 2007 covering more than 100 cities all over the country and wants to double the outlets by the end of the year 2007. they focused on low prices with high sales and have an image of being a best place for good buys. they also adopted every day low price (edlp) strategy to achieve economies of scale. it even competed with neighborhood grocery stores on the promise of discount on maximum retail price (mrp) by negotiating substantially for lower rates from suppliers by paying cash. the most important target market for subhiksha was „aamadmi‟ that is lower and middle income people and the slogan for it ‘you can never get products cheaper than at subhiksha‟. table 1 shows the product mix. three key differentiators of subhiksha product mix: subhiksha sells a mix of fmcg, fruits, vegetables, pharmaceuticals, telecom products and accessories. these product lines constitute the bulk expense of any average household. deep discounting: subhiksha offers its consumers low prices, which are consistent and cheap. a consumer can save close to rs400 every month by purchasing their households at subhiksha. table 1. product mix. groceries fresh fruits and vegetables fmcg pharmacy mobile products items instruments pulses, vegetables soaps, mobile tomatoes, potatoes, green grains, medicines, vegetables etc detergents, handsets, spices, atta, health fruits shampoos, and other oils and beverages, etc. apples, oranges and other brooms, etc. accessories. other groceries fresh fruits. branded products: subhiksha did not compromise on neighborhood presence and caters to brands that the consumer prefers to buy. these factors gave them an edge over other retail competitors. issues in indian retiling post information technology inventory management is the key area of success management of inventory at the store is a key focus area for all retailers. there is an increasing evidence of a partnership between the operations and finance functions with both process and policy being tuned to inventory management. perpetual stock takes are outsourced to specialist firms by an increasing number of retailers who seem to have reaped significant benefits from this move. retailers are also looking at decreasing shrinkage levels by focusing on process, policy and technology initiatives. visual merchandising (vm) viewed as additional revenue driver. it is being viewed as a function that should drive sales rather than just enhancing the „look‟ of the store. to this end, some retailers are starting to correlate the performance of specific vm displays with the sales of the respective categories. it is interesting to note that value retailers had a significantly higher process maturity than their department store and fashion counterparts. space management tools are slow to take off for large format lifestyle retailers, space efficiency assumes great importance, and, given the high real estate cost, slight deviations can significantly affect revenues. below the line (btl) marketing is the way forward below the line marketing is emerging as a strong focus area for retailers. catchment initiatives are considered as important across retail segments to arrest declining sales from the store. store managers are increasingly pushing the strategies to catch customer and enhance the level of satisfaction to each customer. weak store expansion and strong focus on optimization of existing investments, market acquisition through new store launches has taken a back seat, and store profitability has become the top objective. while store managers are being trained and measured on store profitability, there is also a need to tighten central functions. value added services in retailing in today‟s competitive retail environment, businesses need to offer an expanding set of retail value added services (vas) at point of sale in order to increase store traffic, satisfy customers and generate additional revenue. evolving consumer‟s behavior has dramatically impacted the way retailers are delivering products. valueadded services offered by retailers are more likely to cultivate strong customer loyalty providing a competitive advantage. with the help of information technology retailers are now offering value-added services to transform shopping into an inclusive and enjoyable experience. fast customer services, digital channels of distribution, free on board pricing, stock availability check make the retailers to focus on well being of the customers and in turn earn higher profits. modest adoption of customer loyalty programs (clp) few retailers have a rich customer database to reach out their individual customers. not many retailers are maintaining an integrated loyalty program. even today they use the phrases „rewards program‟ and „loyalty program‟ interchangeably not recognizing that they are a part of a continuum. customer segmentation is another important area that retailers have to focus on the modern retailing. retailer must have processes across the following six segments like customer service, inventory management, marketing, relationship management, visual merchandising, people management and space management reveal ample scope for improvement and good customer loyalty. people management or human resources management the successes and failure of every business depends on the people working for it. retailing is not an exception to it. people management has emerged as yet another strong theme, with retailers making renewed efforts to engage, train and retain key employees at the store front. customer service, attending queries, helping the customers, educating the customers are the services expected from the store staff. employees are the final link in the retailing process to customers and service interaction is the final moment of truth for retailers. retention of key employees is recognized by the industry as being important for sustained store growth. this is a function of human resource policies involves training, incentive management, engagement, career planning and progression. retail life cycle retail stores also pass through stages of growth and decline called as „retail life cycle david gilbert (“retail marketing management 2003-pearson edition”). the life cycle of retail stores depends on the effectiveness of well formulated and well implemented customer target strategy by keeping customer loyalty. the retail business‟s outcome depends on customer targeting, customer retention, customer profitability, and customer satisfaction. the life cycle of retail stores can be extended through successful implementation of information technology for customer relationship, merchandizing, human resource, and supply chain management practices. as shown in figure 1. 145 afr. j. agric. mark. samir 146 figure 1. retail life cycle challenges in indian retiling post information technology in india, economics of small-format organized retailing is very challenging due to strong competition from neighborhood kirana stores and vegetable vendors. subhiksha did not compete with the neighbour retailers and left the market before customers felt its presence and before it could achieve the target of doubling the stores across the country. it failed to deliver the services and had gone into severe debts. expansion strategies – rapid expansion of subhiksha retail chains started expanding rapidly from 14 stores to 50 stores in 2000, it had 130 stores across tamilnadu by the end of 2002. rapid growth of telecom sector in india made them to go into the deeper parts of the country to attract literates and middle class segment. they even expanded their stores into gujarat, delhi, mumbai, andhra pradesh and karnataka by recruiting people in various regions and had 500 plus stores by the end of 2005. it was considered to be india's largest retail chain store with 500 plus stores and plans to have 1,000-plus stores by the end of the year 2007. it was looking for a gross turnover of rs4300crore with 2300 stores. however the growth was fuelled from a small net base of rs250crore. fall of subhiksha retail chains the promoter of subhiksha mr.r.subramanian has 59% equity and there were no traces of liquidity crisis faced by the company, till october, 2008. it was only in the month of november, 2008 the management admitted that there was a severe liquidity crunch with mounting debt and unpaid employees and suppliers. the problems are also related to competitors, marketing, information technology, location and layouts. as shown in figure 2. challenges from implementation of information technology “we are facing a lot of difficulty in accessing data across different regions using the local erp system” ankur saigal, vice-president (tech) and subhiksha trading services. wide spread retail chains rely on information technology as it plays an important role for speed and accurate service to the customer. even small individual retail outlets are benefiting from information technology. the enterprise resource planning solutions help all sizes of the companies by designing sales modules, relationship management, pos system, and shipping orders. information technology is extremely valuable function by providing a direct link with the accounts receivable and inventory modules (randy and michael – november, 2006). the company decided to invest more on effective erp like sap and has taken long time to implement than expected accompanied by many problems like lack of technical expertise and system users. challenges faced from competitors subhiksha faced competition from strong multinational giants like, reliance, more, fresh@heritage, big bazar and many more local kirana stores. the strategies adopted by these organized retailers like -ambience, display, availability of merchandize, window shopping, free on board pricing are not followed by subiksha. table 2 shows the comparative analysis of reputed retail stores at film nagar and hyderabad. challenges from poor marketing decisions with increasing customer awareness, retailers should offer unique or special assortment of goods that suits the demands of the customers at lower prices than its competitors. no customers want to pay more for the same product. products were not available at the stores due to lack of stock or it could not make consistent decisions on promotional services, product assortment, store décor and service levels. it did not focus on frequent festive and promotional offers from time to time to attract and retain the customers. challenges from location and layout decisions location and layout plays an important role in the success of every retail store. though there are number of stores located in major places they not in proximity to the market and there is low focus on target customers. lack of parking place, poor visibility of merchandize, improper maintenance of breadth and depth of the stores has created lot of problems. findings of the study the organized retail sector in india can expect to witness a second big revolution in the not too distant future in spite of setback faced due to several reasons. the opportunities in food and grocery retail in india are immense and constitute about 69% of india‟s total retail market. though, there is scope for growth of organized retail sector in indian retailing, subiksha was not able to encash those opportunities due to improper decisions. any retail sector that intends to enter into the market will make a thorough research before its entrance. subhiksha did lot of research and felt that customers were price conscious, prefer to a convenient store to buy the needy products with specific purpose and not for fun. inspite of its research, it faced lot of problems like lack of sufficient funds for expansion cropped up by un-mindful expansion spree across different parts of the country with improper selection of erp systems. other reasons for failure are: 147 afr. j. agric. mark. challenges faced form competitors challenges faced challenges challenges posed from while implementing faced by marketing decisions it subhiksha challenges faced from location decisions figure 2. challenges faced by subhiksha table 2. 4 p‟s comparative analysis of reputed retail stores at film nagar, hyderabad subhiksha more supermarket fresh@heritage reliance retail supermarket stores products promotion pricing place the merchandize includes fmcg, groceries, fruits vegetables, pharmacy, mobiles and other products. not that effective edlp pricing stores are located at most of the places in the city and more than hundred cities in the country. not very wide range of merchandize but includes groceries, fruits, fmcg and vegetables not that effective normal stores are located at most of the places in the city and some of the states in the country. wide range that includes groceries, fmcg, vegetables, fruits, own manufactured dairy products, pastries and other ready to eat items. effective normal stores are located at different places in the city only. merchandize includes groceries, fmcg, vegetables, fruits, reliance mobile handsets, sim cards, steel and plastic items. effective normal stores are located at different places in the city and in other states in the country. arediscount pricing with thin margins, poor inventory management like managing inventory at two extreme ends. some stores were having high inventory levels and some others were with no or low stock. bad history of credit defaults that led to supply breakages as they acquire entire merchandize on cash basis. it entered into the market with gorilla strategy and tried to be the number one in every place in the country. out of the total stores established only few stores were profit generated and rest were not that much profitable. it moved across different sectors such as medicines, grocery, it, mobile, than others very fast than competitors. global economic meltdown, labling its own products, going for wrong ipo in 2007 but shelving in view of uncertain market conditions were other reasons for the failures. the growth pattern in organized retailing and in the consumption made by the indian population may follow a rising graph helping the newer businessmen to enter the india retail industry. limitations of the study the study is limited to twin cities of hyderabad and secunderabad. this may not represent the true picture of the total population. the findings are derived by analyzing the data collected from the respondents and every care has been taken to avoid their biased opinions. still there was an ample scope for biased opinions which will affect the results of the study. the data collected for the study is limited to the selected retail outlets but not for the whole retail sector in twin cities. samir 148 conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests references david gilbert (2003). retail marketing management. pearson edition”. http://books.google.com.ng/books/about/retail_marketing_managem ent.html?id=pkqmjwaacaaj&redir_esc=y randy p, michael jw (2006). white paper –“total cost of ownership for point-of-sale and pc cash drawer solutions: a comparative analysis of retail checkout environments. update sponsored by: ibm” ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/retail/marketing/whitepaper/pos_vs _pccd_1106.pdf srivastava rk (2008). "changing retail scene in india". int. j. retail distrib. manage. 36(9):714-721. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1737929 citations abhishek das “art of pos transformation a thought paper” steven alter “information systems – a management perspective” lauden &lauden “management information systems” the history of subhiksha dates back to the year 1997 when mr. r. subramanian ...2002 opening up of about 120 130 stores in the whole of tamil nadu state .... source:http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/15/stories/20060715178519 0 0.htm ... some of the excerpts from interview related to popular retail chain “subhiksha”: http://specials.rediff.com/money/2007/feb/05bspec.htm yuliya polovinchik“ the importance of crm and how a pos system can help” in march 2008, subhiksha had 1100 stores, 14000 employees and ... http://www.theindu.com/rp/2008/01/13/stories/2008011350140400.ht m, last accessed on business daily from the hindu group of publications. tuesday, feb 24, 2009... icici venture seeks probe into subhiksha affair. www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2009/ .../2009022450970500.ht june 28 subhiksha trading services ltd, the closely held company that runs the country's largest food and grocery discount retail. www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2008/.../2008062951180100.ht.. websites http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-0608/tech/29977606_1_pos-systems-merchandise-planning-crm http://www-03.ibm.com/products/retail/products/ http://www.indiaretailing.com/ http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals. http://www.tgrasaneh.com/upload/articles/25.pdf http://dare.co.in/opportunities/manufacturing/opportunity-in-pos-andmobile-printers.htm http://www.indiaretailing.com/ http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals. http://www.tgrasaneh.com/upload/articles/25.pdf http://www.cxotoday.com/story/retail-it-spending-to-grow-in-india/ http://loyaltysquare.com/shoppers_stop.php http://www.slideshare.net/pratikvartak/shoppers-stop-2312484 http://www.gaoresearch.com/pdf/pos.pdf http://www.huaat.net/download/dmtechniques.pdf http://loyaltysquare.com/shoppers_stop.php ginnisystems.com http://www.business.com/retailand-restaurant/retail/ http://specials.rediff.com/money/2007/oct/01sld2.htm, “rediff.com (2007), „subhiksha‟s incredible growth story‟, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/policy/indian-retailmarket-set-to-touch-865-billion-by-2023/article5623098.ece http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/retailing_in_india http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/retail-sector-inindia-growing-at-phenomenal-pace/articleshow/14381624.cms http://www.citeman.com/7774-concept-of-life-cycle-in-retail.html articles in the hindu news papers www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/09/.../2006092203890500.htmep 2006 – business daily from the hindu group of publications ...subhiksha to open 600 outlets across 5 states by next year... cent, the consuming class in india is expected to grow from the 280 million in 2002 to 686 million in 2010. www.subhiksha.in gao research“point of sales systems (pos) text books bottom of the pyramid, c.k.prahalad, pearson 2009. retailing management by levy and weitz, tata mcgraw hill, 2009. retailing management by arifshaik, hph, 2008. the art of retailing, a.j.lamba, retailing management texts and cases, swapnapardhan, tata mcgraw hill, 2009 „retail life cycle of the department store industry‟ lai-ngun sun institute of textiles and clothing, the hong kong polytechnic university, hunghom, kowloon, hong kong tcsunv@polyu.edu.hk african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (2), pp. 109-115, february, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper justification of socio-economic condition as pointers for heads of farm families in delta north agricultural zone, delta state, nigeria john d. oghene department of agricultural economics and extension, delta state university, asaba campus, asaba, nigeria. e-mail: john_oghene@yahoo.com. accepted 29 january, 2014 the specific objectives were to collate a universe of socio-economic condition pointers; carry out item analysis to validate socio-economic status indicators; select valid socio-economic status indicators for heads of farm families; and discuss the sociological implication of the valid items. stratified and simple random sampling designs were used in selecting the towns and villages. twelve percent of heads of farm families in selected ibo speaking local government areas of the state comprising aniocha south (41), ika south (47) ndokwa west (55) and oshimili north (31) were selected to give a sample size of 174 heads of farm families. structured interview schedules were used in data collection. data were analysed using point-biserial correlation coefficient and t-test. a universe of 106 items were collated from a preresearch survey. sixty nine (69) items were found as valid indicators of socio-economic status. the number of relatives trained by the individual, axe, yam barn, motor cycle, motor car, bicycles and water cistern toilet had very important social and economic implications among the people. the indexes are recommended to development agencies for evaluating changes in socio-economic status of heads of farm families particularly after an agricultural development intervention programme. key words: indexes, item analysis, valid items, socio-economic status indicators, farm families. introduction item analysis is an empirical procedure for selecting valid items which could be used in construction of socioeconomic status scale as well as test and non test instrument. it involves selecting valid items from a universe of items based on a pre-determined criterion. ebel (1972) and gronlund (1976) stated that item analysis was a procedure used to find out items that might be too easy or difficult for the purpose of test construction. the process helps to identify items which failed to discriminate between the better and poor examinees. several items analysis procedures have been used in the social and behavioural sciences. grounlund (1976), ebel (1972) and ali et al. (1988) described the discrimination index procedure for selecting objective test items. the procedures are as follows: (1) arrange the test scores or answer sheets in an order ranging from high to low; (2) separate two groups of test papers, an upper consisting of approximately 27% of the total group who receive highest scores on the test and a lower group consisting of an equal paper from those who receive lowest scores; (3) count the number of times each possible response to each item was chosen by the upper group. do the same separately for the papers of the lower group; (4) record the response counts opposite the responses they refer to on a copy of the test.; (5) add the counts from the upper and lower groups to the keyed correct response; (6) subtract this sum from the maximum possible sum, that is, the sum of the number of papers in upper and lower groups and divide the differences by the maximum possible. express this as a percentage, that is, multiply the decimal fraction by one hundred (100), the result is an item difficulty; (7) subtract the lower group count of correct responses from the upper group count of correct responses. divide this difference by the maximum possible difference that is the number of papers in the upper (or lower) groups. this quotient expressed as a decimal fraction is called index of discrimination. oghene 109 this could be expressed mathematically as follows (gronlund, 1976); di = ru – rl ½ t where: di = discrimination index ru = number of persons in the upper group who got the item right. rl = number of persons in the lower group who got the item right t = total number of persons in both upper and lower group. the above procedure showed that the simple discrimination index procedure did not take into account the performance of an individual on total items in the test. an item analysis procedure such as the point-biserial correlation coefficient takes into cognizance the total test scores and an item response. karabinus (1975), henrysson (1976) and kraemer (1981) remarked that the point-biserial correlation coefficient was used when an association existed between random variables x and y, where x is a dichotomy and y is measured on a continuum. the procedure involved simple tabular presentation of each test item to give the following information: (1) number choosing the correct answer; (2) number choosing the wrong answer; (3) frequency distribution of criterion scores for the group choosing either of the options. the resulting table would show that students with high criterion scores have a much stronger tendency to choose the right answer. they maintained that the relationship could be quantified by the use of the point-biserial correlation coefficient. other statistical tools which could be used for item analysis included the tetrachoric correlation coefficient, t-test, pearson r, multiple correlation and contingency table. divgi (1979) and zalinski et al. (1979) explained that the tetrachoric correlation generally denoted by “rt”, was used to measure the degree of linear association between two variables x and y where both were dichotomized and the true underlying distribution were assumed to be normal. if the underlying psychological traits of the dichotomous variables were normally distributed then the tetrachoric correlation coefficient is the product-moment correlation between the traits. it was difficult and time consuming because the formula was based on series of approximation. akinola and patel (1987) made use of the t-test in validating socioeconomic status indicators. total score on the scale was calculated by adding 2 or 1 for possession and non-possession, respectively for 75 items. the scores were ranked from the highest to the lowest. the highest and lowest 25% of the farmers were then compared to see if there existed any significant difference in the proportion of farmers possessing the item at 0.01 level of significance. gullickson and hopkins (1976) maintained that the pearson r was an extremely useful means of estimating the discrimination index of linear relationship between two variables for a given population. the pearson r is a consistent and efficient estimator of p only under the conditions that r was obtained from a random sample of the population. anderson et al. (1976) found that it was possible to relate one characteristic at the same time to more than two through multiple correlation coefficients. by this definition, the multiple correlation was the product – moment correlation between the predicted independent and best linear composite of the predictor variables. most researchers especially in developing countries find it difficult to ascertain items that should be used to measure socio-economic status of farmers. bills et al. (1985) observed that empirical research on the process of social stratification in developing nations has been hampered by the lack of adequate instrumentation and measurement procedures. this was not the case in industrialised nations where such instruments have been developed to a substantial level. this study, therefore, attempt at developing indexes of socio-economic status indicators for heads of farm families in the zone. the objectives of the study were to collate a universe of socio-economic status indicators; carry out item analysis to validate socioeconomic status indicators; select valid socio-economic status indicators for heads of farm families; and examine the social and economic importance of some valid socioeconomic status indicators. materials and methods sampling procedure and sample size stratified and simple random sampling designs done on multi stage basis were used in selecting the respondents as well as the towns and villages. delta north agricultural zone is inhabited by the ibo speaking people. the 9 local government areas in delta north agricultural zone were grouped into 4 on the basis of the old local government map and sub-ethnic groups. the selection was done in three stages. in the first stage, one local government area namely aniocha south, ika south, ndokwa west and oshimili north were randomly selected from each group. in the second stage, 40% of the towns aniocha south (6), ika south (6), ndokwa west (6) and oshimili north (4) were randomly selected. the third stage involved random selection of 12% of the heads of farm families and this corresponded to aniocha south (41), ika south (47), ndokwa west (55) and oshimili north (31). this gave a sample size of 174 respondents. data collection oral interview and structured interview schedule were used in data collection. the interview schedule contained items which enhance individual’s socio-economic status in the agricultural zone. this was done by asking a few farmers in each of the local government areas to mention items that could enhance the socio-economic status of farm families. one hundred and twelve items were collated from the pre-research survey. these items were built into an interview 110 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. evaluation of discrimination indexes after item analysis. index of discrimination item evaluation 0.40 and above very good item, accept 0.30 to 0.39 reasonably good but subject to possible improvement 0.20 to 0.29 marginal items, usually need and subject to improvement below 0.19 poor items to be rejected or improved by revision source: ebel (1972). essentials of educational measurement. schedule. the respondents were required to indicate possession, nonpossession or tick the number of items possessed in the case of quantitative items. the instrument was reliable. the reliability test showed a coefficient of (r = 0.88). oral interview was used to elicit information related sociological implication of valid items. data analyses a uniform scoring method which assigned a value of 1 for possession and 0 for non-possession was used for the measurement of dichotomous items. for quantitatively measured items, possession scores ranged from 0 to 6 depending on the number of items listed against the particular indicator. gronlund (1976) suggested that items with average discriminating power usually fall around 0.58. ebel (1972) stated various values of discriminating indexes and how to evaluate them (table 1). a score was obtained for each individual following the above scoring procedure. the scores for all the respondents were arranged from low to high in order to form the criterion scores and the total for each criterion score were tabulated. the possession scores of the upper and lower 25% were compared by the use of ttest at 0.01 level of significance for quantitative items (table 2). significant items were selected as valid. the point -biserial correlation coefficient was used in the item analysis of the dichotomous items. the criterion scores, number of possession, number of non-possession and total for each criterion score were tabulated. items with rpbis 0.55 and above were selected as valid items (table 3). results and discussion indexes of valid socio-economic status indicators in the ibo ethnic group of delta state indexes of valid socioeconomic status indicators in the ibo ethnic group of delta state is given in table 4. from the universe of socio-economic status indicators, 112 items were collated from the pre-research survey. these items were pretested and ambiguous and localised items were removed. the items dropped were elephant tusk, mud house, pit toilet, granaries/silos, outside broom and cooking retort stand. these items were either possessed by very few persons or a particular socio-economic status group. after the pre-test, the universe of the socio-economic status indicators became 106 items. the pre-test was used to show items which did not discriminate or have zero discrimination. valid socio-economic status indicators the results of the item analysis showed that 69 items were valid indicators of socio-economic status in the ethnic group (table 2). the items were children in primary school, secondary school, tertiary school, number of relatives trained by the sponsor, cement house in the village, cement house outside the village, traditional hats, traditional attires, pair of shoes, george wrappers, single wrappers, room with cemented floor, chieftaincy title, cutlass, spades/shovel, water cistern toilet, wash hand basins, cabinets beds, wall hanger, framed photograph of oneself, axe, farm size, poultry, fish ponds, goats, hired labourers, yam barn, plots of land owned in the village, plots of land owned outside the village, personal borehole, motor cycle, motor car, compact disc player, radio/cassette player, television, ceiling/table fans, executive chairs, stove, gsm handset, personal generator, wheelbarrow, floor carpet, floor rug, wardrobe, rain coat, umbrella, book shelve, dinning table, metal buckets, plastic buckets, blender, frying pan, tumblers, kettle, bicycle, electric/coal iron, metal, spoons, suitcases/traveling bags, wash hand basins, glass plates, wrist watch, ability to read in english, ability to read native dialect, membership of social clubs, official in a christian organization and membership of cooperative societies. these items could be standardized into a socio-economic status scale to measure the socio-economic status of heads of farm families in the ibo ethnic group of delta state, nigeria. social and economic implication of some valid items the valid items were cherished by the people socially, culturally and economically. a few of the items namely cutlasses, axes, yam barn, motor car, bicycle and number of relatives trained by a farmer have far reaching social and economic implication in the study area. cutlasses and axes these two items were valid because they were the major tools used for farm labour. beside the economic use, the ovwigho 053 oghene 111 table 2. item analysis procedure for quantitatively measured item using t-test item: number of children in primary school criterion scores 0 1 2 3 4 >4 total 186 1 1 176 1 2 3 171 1 1 2 166 1 2 3 161 1 1 156 1 1 151 1 1 146 3 3 141 1 1 131 1 1 126 1 2 3 121 5 1 6 116 6 2 2 10 111 4 1 5 106 1 2 upper (3) 25% 101 1 5 1 7 96 8 8 91 1 3 3 1 8 86 2 2 4 81 1 1 1 3 76 2 1 1 4 71 1 2 3 61 1 1 1 1 4 56 1 2 1 4 51 1 2 1 1 5 46 1 10 8 1 2 22 41 3 3 3 1 1 11 36 1 2 6 lower (9) 25% 31 5 10 1 1 17 26 4 13 3 20 scores of upper 25% group who possess the item = 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,4,4,4,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1. where n = 43, x = 2.98. scores of lower 25% group who possess the term = 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3. where n = 35, x = 1.34. t ratio = 2.98 1.34 = 7.19 0.2280 but from table 2, t = 2.660 at df= 76, p = 0.01. decision = item is valid in the ibo ethnic group since the observed t is higher than critical t. axe and cutlass were used during the ikenga festival in delta ibo area of delta state. men come out to brandish cutlass ostensibly to demonstrate their physical prowess during the ikenga festival which precedes the planting season around february/ march. yam barn the yam barn is a local storage structure for yam. the ibo ethnic group produces and consumes a lot of yam compared to other ethnic groups in delta state. the number of yam barn is often used to assess the socioeconomic status and performance of a farmer in the preceding farming year. the new yam festival is performed by the people in september every year before the sales and consumption of the new crop. igbokwe (2005) stated that no member of the ibo community was allowed to consume and plant yams until the new yam festival and rituals for planting yams were performed. 112 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. item analysis procedure for dichotomous item using point-biserial correlation. item: ownership of cement house(s) in the village criterion scores yes (possession) no (non-possession) total 186 1 1 176 3 3 171 3 3 166 2 1 ` 3 161 11 11 156 1 1 151 3 3 146 1 1 141 1 1 131 3 3 126 6 6 121 8 8 116 3 2 5 111 1 2 3 106 5 2 7 96 6 2 8 91 5 2 7 86 2 3 5 81 1 2 4 76 1 2 3 71 1 2 3 61 2 2 56 1 4 5 51 1 3 4 46 1 4 5 41 21 21 36 11 11 31 9 9 26 17 17 21 20 2 total (62) (112) rpbis = mp mn p (1-p) st where: rpbis = symbol for pointbiserial correlation mp = mean score for heads of farm families who possessed the item was obtained by multiplying the scores on the yes column by the corresponding criterion score divided by n mn = mean criterion score for heads of farm families who did not possess the item was obtained by multiplying the scores on the no column by the corresponding criterion score divided by n. st = standard deviation of the criterion scores p = proportion of heads of farm families who possessed the item (source: adapted from henrysson (1976). st = 43.42, mp = 117 .69, mn = 50.06, p = 62 / 174 = 0.36, 1 – p = 0.64 rpbis = 117.69 – 50.06 43.42 0.36(0.64) = 1.56 × 0.48 = 0.75 decision = the item is valid since the calculated rpbis is above 0.55 ovwigho 055 oghene 113 table 4. indexes of valid socio-economic status indicators in the ibo ethnic group of delta state. item statistical tool discrimination index 1. children in primary school t 7.19 2. children in higher school t 3.53 3. children in secondary school t 2.73 4. number of relatives trained by you up to secondary school t 2.79 5. ownership of cement house in the village rpbis 0.75 6. ownership of cement house outside the village rpbis 0.65 7. traditional hats t 5.54 8. traditional attires t 11.70 9. pair of shoes t 5.23 10. george wrappers t 6.63 11. single wrappers t 2.72 12. rooms with cemented floor t 29.56 13. chieftaincy title rpbis 0.56 14. cutlasses t 6.80 15. spade/shovel t 6.80 16. water cistern toilet rpbis 0.64 17. wash hand basins rpbis 0.70 18. cabinet beds t 5.18 19. wall hanger rpbis 0.65 20. framed photographs of yourself t 18.86 21. axe rpbis 0.64 22. farm size t 7.94 23. poultry t 4.48 24. fish ponds t 5.55 25. goats t 5.36 26. hired labourers rpbis 0.69 27. yam barn ” 0.55 28. plots of land owned in the village t 6.64 29. plots of land owned outside the village rpbis 0.62 30. personal borehole ” 0.74 31. motor cycle ” 0.60 32. motor cars ” 0.73 33. turn table/speakers ” 0.70 34. cd player ” 0.57 35. television ” 0.65 36. ceiling / table fans ” 5.89 37. executive chairs ” 0.74 38. lantern t 14.25 39. stove rpbis 0.55 40. personal generator ” 0.59 41. wheel barrow ” 0.75 42. floor carpet ” 0.61 43. rug ” 0.64 44. wardrobe ” 0.58 45. rain coat ” 0.63 46. umbrella t 6,53 47. book shelves rpbis 0.73 48. refrigerator ” 0.58 49. standing mirror ” 0.71 50. dining table ” 0.78 51. metal buckets t 10.67 table 4. contd. item statistical tool discrimination index 52. plastic buckets t 11.92 53. electric blender rpbis 0.68 54. frying pan ” 0.72 55. tumblers t 16.08 56. kettle ” 6.94 57. bicycles rpbis 0.69 58 electric/coal iron ” 0.76 59 metal spoons t 21.50 60. suitcase/travelling bags t 3.15 61. gsm handset rpbis 0.53 62. glass plates t 8.93 63. wrist watch rpbis 0.69 64. can you read english rpbis 0.55 65. can you write english ” 0.55 66. can you read your native dialect ” 0.67 67. membership of social clubs ” 0.61 68. official in a christian organisation ” 0.59 69. membership of co-operative societies t 9.73 motor cycle, cars and bicycles these three items were found valid in the ibo ethnic group because they were the most popular means of transporting farm produce. women and girls were often seen in this areas riding motor cycles and bicycles to farm. it was favoured means of transportation in the area because of its land-locked nature. number of relatives educated or trained by the farmer the number of relatives trained by a farmer was a measure of socio-economic status and altruism in the ibo ethnic group of delta state. if an individual was wealthy and his relatives were not educated he is not usually accorded a pride of place in the ibo speaking society of delta state, in some cases, the individual might be given a chieftaincy title if he is able to train many of his relatives. in essence such an individual is respected for contributing his quota to the preservation of the african extended family system. conclusion the empirical indicants for the measurement and construction of socio-economic status scale for farm families in the ibo ethnic group of delta state were established from the study. the 69 valid items play significant role in socio-economic lives of the farm families. agricultural production like every other business venture is geared towards increase standard of living. indexes of socio-economic status provide the basis for evaluating changes in socio-economic of farm families. on the whole, the use of the indexes generated in this study might reduce the arbitrary assignment of socioeconomic status to rural farmers in the study areas. references akinola ca, patel au (1987). “construction and stardardisation of a scale of measure socio-economic status of heads of rural household (gandu) in the funtua zone of kaduna state, nigeria” j. rural dev. 10: 85-94. ali a, ezeadi s, ogbazi jn (1988). introduction to educational measurement. awka(nigeria) : meks unique publishers pp. 17-19. anderson sb, ball s, murphy rt (1976). encyclopedia of educational evaluation. san francisco : jossey – bass publishers pp.32-379. bills db, godfrey ds, haller ao (1985). “a scale to measure socio economic status of occupations in brazil.” rural socio. 50(2): 225 – 250. divgi dr (1979). “calculation of the tetrachoric correlation coefficient” psychometrica 44(2): 169 – 172. ebel rl (1972). essentials of educational measurement. london: prentice hall. pp. 361-435. gronlund ne (1976). measurement and evaluation in teaching . new york: macmillan publication co., inc. extension in nigeria. ilorin: agricultural extension society of nigeria. pp. 265-278. gullickson a, hopkins k (1976). “internal estimation of correlation coefficients corrected for restriction of range.” j. educ. psychol. meas., 36: 9-25. henrysson s (1976). gathering, analyzing and using data on test items”. in: thornike rd (ed). educational measurement. washington dc : american council on education. pp.130-139. igbokwe em (2005). concepts in rural and agricultural sociology’ ’in: adedoyin, s.f.(ed). agricultural . pp. 91-100 karabinus ra (1975.) “the r –point biserial limitation”. j. educ. psychol. meas., 35.277 – 282. kraemer hc (1981). “modified biserial correlation coefficient”. pyschometrica. 46 (3):275. zalinski j, abraham nm, alf e (1979). “computing tables for the 114 afr. j. agric. mark. ovwigho 057 oghene 115 tetrachoric correlation coefficient.” j. educ. psychol. meas., 39:267 – 268. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 2 (7), pp. 149-153, july, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review responsibilities of agricultural market improvement in enhancing farmers’ income in nigeria elumelu ovigwe daniel department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, niger delta university, amassama, nigeria. email: ovigsdan1@ndu.edu.ng accepted 12 may, 2014 agricultural market reforms are imperative, given the yearly experiences of small scale farmers in marketing their produce. the outcome of farmers’ efforts has not translated into commensurate income overtime. however, reformative efforts at improving value chain, productivity and market access have culminated into a wide range of technological solutions in the recent times. efforts should therefore be concentrated on reforms aimed at not only adding value to agricultural products but to the development of market infrastructure and adoption of information and communication technology (ict) information solutions. these are keys to resolving the chain problems and ensuring enhanced welfare of farmers.the paper recommends that promoting smallholder production of export crops should have beneficial impacts on agricultural production in general and on the food security and income of smallholder farmers in particular. key words: agricultural marketing systems, market reforms, farmers and nigeria. introduction during the past two decades, nigeria undertook extensive economic reforms to reduce the role of government and increase the role of the market in their economies. because of the importance of agricultural sector in the country, agricultural market reforms occupied a central place in these liberalization efforts. agriculture is the mainstay of african economies. in sub-saharan africa, it represents between 27 and 42% of gross domestic product, employs between 65 and 80% of the labor force, and in more than half of the countries accounts for as much as 60% of export revenue (abdulai and delgado, 1995). agricultural reforms included the removal of price controls, deregulation of agricultural marketing, closure of state-owned enterprises that monopolized agricultural trade, and changes in the foreign exchange market to provide greater incentives for exports. the expectation was that improving price incentives for farmers and reducing government intervention in the agricultural sector would be enough to generate a supply response and allow well-functioning markets to emerge quickly (mylène et al., 2000). almost two decades later, the general consensus is that the reform programs in nigeria have not met the expectations. average annual growth rates of per capita gross domestic product (gdp) and agricultural value-added have been negative throughout the 1980s and 1990s. economic performance has trailed that of other developing regions. at the beginning of the 21st century, nigeria confronts a number of daunting problems: extensive hunger, malnutrition, poverty resource degradation, and the spread of hiv/aids. because the majority of the country‟s population remains elumelu 149 dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, well-functioning and efficient agricultural markets continue to have key rule for improving the nation‟s economic health. it is important to review some major problems/ constraints to agriculture in nigeria that necessitated the reform poli-cies. increasing agricultural production however, does not automatically translate to improving living standard of farm family or even the dependant populace. once prod-uction increases, marketing is the next major hurdle. far-mers face lots of challenges moving their produce to the market (okunmadewa, 2007). they often time experie-nce a high transport cost which impacts on their margin. access to the market and poor organisation of african farmers often leave them prey to the middlemen who pur-chase their produce and make huge mark-ups before selling them in the cities. hence, rural farmers remain trapped at the bottom end of the food chain. farmers‟ share of retail prices is as low 40% for most food crops. also a major constraint to marketing is the boomand burstprice fluctuations resulting from glut du-ring harvest and scarcity at offseasons. this glut usually results from the lack of storage, processing and preservation tech-niques and facilities, which ordinarily should assist farm-ers in helping to add value to their produce to earn good price and manage price fluctuations. infrastructure is a key to ensure remunerative prices for agricultural produce. farmers who are near market and roads have access to inexpensive transport and also can store their produce for a prolonged period, and are therefore in a better position to obtain higher prices. the higher the prices are expected to translate to higher margin and improved household welfare in the form of increased rural income. it is also established that the negotiating power of the farmers in determining prices for their produce could be improved through prompt dissemination of price information or agricultural market information. an informed farmer is in vantage position to ask for a better farm gate price. the rural access and mobility, as well as information dispersion remains poor in african countries constitute a major challenge in the marketing of agricultural products and particularly in the widening gap between farm gate price and retail prices. according to okunmadewa (2007), the widening disparity between farm gate price and retail price calls for a serious attention. this disparity has continually diminished the percentage of the retail price that farmers receive and this has effect on the future viability of thousands of rural african farm families. this is the main concern. the reality is that farmers cannot be expected to produce and receive relatively low returns, year in year out, and still remain viable. that defies basic logic of sustainability. in addition, it is more welfare depressing that the same farmer and farm family face increased and increasing retail prices of food and non-food consumption items. finally, the national agricultural marketing research system in nigeria is bedevilled by a number of constraints. idachaba (1998) and okunmadewa and olayemi (2002) provide an excellent discourse of these constraints. in particular, idachaba (1998) categorises the constraints into two viz: system wide and institute specific. further, he identifies the constraints in terms of hierarchy to include primary, secondary and tertiary constraints which include: lack of adequate funding, shortage and instability of qualified researchers and weak linkage of research institute and other stake holders. thus, this paper reviews the extensive evidence on agricultural market reforms in nigeria and summarizes the impact reforms have had on market performance, agricultural production, use of modern inputs and poverty. the paper offers recommendations for completing the reform process and developing a new agenda for agricultural markets in nigeria. need for agricultural market reform why was agricultural market reforms needed? answering this question calls for a look at the agricultural policies of the 1960s and 1970s and the problems that resulted. agricultural policies before reforms independence through the 1970s, nigerian government played a relatively large role in national economies, and the agricultural sector was no exception. policymakers held the common view that private traders were exploittative and that markets could not be trusted with the critical task of feeding the nation. furthermore, they equated economic development with industrialization, relegating agriculture to the role of supplier of labor, raw material, and cheap food to industry. small-scale agriculture was seen as inherently inefficient because uneducated farmers were unable or unwilling to apply modern techniques such as mechanization. because of these views, state enterprises (often inherited from colonial powers) were given the responsibility of organizing food markets and fixing nationwide prices for farmers and consumers. their success in doing so varied. state enterprises also managed export crop production by farmers by providing inputs on credit, fixing crop prices, and monopolizing the processing and export of the crop. the prices farmers received were generally low because of taxation or high costs incurred by state enterprises, or both. in many countries, export crop prices averaged less than half the world market rate (world bank (1981). lele (1990) and jaeger (1992)). state enterprises also monopolized the import and distribution of fertilizer and other inputs, which were often supplied to farmers at subsidized prices and on credit. pressure for reform pressure for economic reforms came from several sources. in the 1970s, commodity prices boomed, allowing governments to expand their operations and greatly increase the size of the civil service. when commodity prices declined in the late 1970s, governments found it difficult to cut expenditures, resulting in large fiscal deficits. significant losses incurred by state-owned enterprises exacerbated these deficits. governments generally used monetary expansion to cover the deficits, thus causing inflation. because exchange rates were fixed, inflation made export commodities less competitive on the international market, simultaneously increasing incentives to import goods that could be produced locally. import tariffs and other barriers, already kept high to protect domestic industry, were increased further to stem the growing flow of imports. these policies often had adverse effects on farmers and on the agricultural sector generally. explicit taxation, the high marketing costs of state enterprises and the overvaluation of the currency hurt export crop production in particular. in countries with repressive food marketing policies, farmers switched into unregulated crops such as roots and tubers. the emergence of parallel or black markets and cross-border smuggling provided additional evidence of the failure of interventionist policies. although inputs were subsidized, budget constraints and bureaucratic problems often led to shortages and delays in delivery of these goods. inflation, stagnant economic growth, and shortages of consumer goods created doubts about the existing economic strategy. for many countries, however, significant reforms were postponed until trade deficits began depleting foreign reserves and could no longer be covered by foreign borrowing. at this point, political leaders were forced to seek funding from the world bank and the international monetary fund (imf), accepting the policy conditions that were attached. although the process was not uniform across the region, almost all countries adopted a series of economic reforms, including agricultural market liberalization, during the 1980s and early 1990s. the nature of the reforms the agricultural reforms introduced by the world bank and imf were designed to reduce or eliminate the bias against agriculture and open the sector to market forces (world bank, 1981). the reforms were based on two beliefs: that reducing or eliminating state control over marketing would promote private-sector activity and that fostering competitive markets would lead to increased agricultural production. to these ends the reforms included four types of measures: 150 afr. j. agric. mark. 1. liberalizing input and output prices by eliminating subsidies on agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and credit, by bringing domestic crop prices in line with world prices, and by ending the practice of imposing a single price for all regions and seasons 2. reducing overvalued exchange rates by partially liberalizing the market for foreign exchange 3. encouraging private-sector activity by removing regulatory controls in input and output markets, lifting restrictions on the internal movement of food crops, and relaxing delivery quotas, licensing arrangements, and similar regulations 4. restructuring public enterprises and restricting marketing boards to activities such as providing market information and maintaining security stocks. nigeria’s market reform in the export crop sector compared with other african countries. the pace and extent of reforms have varied widely across countries and crop subsectors (table 1). for the most part, reforms were not fully implemented. for example, many governments liberalized internal trade but maintained a state monopoly over external trade. in other instances, although fixed prices were eliminated, price bands for food crops were imposed to limit market price fluctuations and protect consumers and producers from the allegedly “exploitative” behaviour of private traders. state-owned enterprises remain active in several commodity subsectors, notably cotton in west africa and maize in kenya, malawi and zimbabwe. (washington, d.c.: world bank, 1999) . information on cashews for tanzania comes from c. l. delgado and n. w. minot, agriculture in tanzaniasince 1986: follower or leader of growth? world bank country study (dar es salaam and washington, d.c.: government of the united republic of tanzania, world bank, and ifpri, 2000). many countries reversed reforms as a result of external shocks or changing economic conditions. malawi, for instance, reinstated fertilizer subsidies that were to be phased out in the mid-1980s because currency devaluation and the severance of transport routes through mozambique significantly raised fertilizer prices. zambia reversed maize market liberalization under pressure from urban consumers who faced higher prices. in general, countries did not follow a linear path toward liberalization, and reforms often were not seriously implemented until the early to mid-1990s. in nigeria, the reform process was quick and short owing to the fact that farmers benefited immensely from sharp and increased market margins resulting from direct export and the policy also exposed the corrupt and inefficient activities of the marketing boards. a slow and incomplete reform process resulted from several factors, including weak commitment on the part of african policymakers to reforms imposed elumelu 151 table 1. extent of market reform in the export crop sector in some african countries country commodity marketing channel after reforms benin cotton cameroon cocoa, coffee côte d‟ivoire cocoa ghana cocoa malawi tobacco mali cotton nigeria cocoa senegal groundnuts tanzania coffee, cotton, cashew coffee full parastatal control of prices, marketing, and inputs. liberalized marketing and export starting in 1994 for both crops. stabilization system until 1998/99; liberalized thereafter. full parastatal control of prices and marketing. all marketing through private auctions with low competition. full parastatal control of prices, marketing, and inputs. complete liberalization in a short period. most groundnuts exported as oil. marketing and processing onlypartially largely liberalized starting in 1990/1991. cotton partially liberalized at first, now fully, as is cashew. state-run cooperative unions continue to compete with the private sector but only handle a small share of crop output. uganda coffee full liberalization, with parastatal primarily playing a regulatory function. sources. r. f. townsend, agricultural incentives in sub-saharan africa: policy challenges, technical paper no. 444 by donors, fear of disturbing existing patron-client relationships, and concern over losing important sources of public revenue. reforms designed to eliminate the rents and privileges enjoyed by public enterprise employees met with strong resistance. and because governments negotiated and implemented the structural adjustment programs, they often continued the old ways of doing business (bates 1989). for the most part, governments did not encourage the participation of important constituents such as private businesses and nongovernmental organizations, choosing instead a top-down approach. at the same time, governments themselves rarely felt the sense of ownership necessary to sustain the reform effort (helleiner, 1994; and meerman, 1997). the resulting climate of uncertainty and mistrust affected private investment, because private businesses were generally reluctant to invest in countries where governments lacked credibility. the impact of the reform how successful has agricultural market reform been in sub-saharan africa? how has it affected market performance, agricultural production, input use, farm productivity and poverty? the available evidence shows clear progress in some areas and mixed results in others. market performance assessments of market performance since the reforms have focused on the expansionof private trading, reductions in marketing margins, and increases in market efficiency measured by the degree of market integration). in general, all three areas have seenimprovements since the 1980s. however, further expansion of private trade facesmany constraints and marketing boards are still active in some countries. private trade has expanded market liberalization has encouraged private trade, even in cases where parastatals are still active. small private traders have emerged in response to increased market opportunities (badiane,et al, 1997, barrett,1997 and and minten, 1998). in certain export markets, the presence of multinationals has fostered a well-coordinated domestic private-trading sector. in tanzania, multinationals contract with private, domestictraders to buy tobacco and cashew nuts from small farmers, and these traders have little difficulty accessing credit or finding buyers. in malawi and nigeria small farmers sell their tobacco, cocoa and palm oil on auction floors to international buyers, something only large estate farms could do before the reforms. markets have become increasingly integrated in general, market integration is measured by how well price signals are transmitted among markets. integrated markets allow the efficient flow of commodities from surplus to deficit regions. while the level of market integration in africa remain slower than in other developing countries, it has improved since the reforms were instituted, goletti and babu (1994). in part, this improvement has depended on the pre-reform situation. for example, countries such as benin and ghana, where the private sector controlled food marketing before liberalization, have developed better-integrated grain markets than countries such as malawi and madagascar, where parastatals dominated food marketing. most of the improvement is the result of increased private-sector participationin trading activities—participation that has fostered the efficient transmission of information and prices among markets. agricultural production the basic premise of agricultural market reform is that improving the incentive structure for small farmers (in the form of higher prices and well-functioning markets) will generatea positive supply response, increasing both agricultural output and income levels. but the average growth of agricultural production per capita has been negative in sub saharan africa since the 1970s. for small farmers in some countries, reform has meant the elimination of government input and credit subsidies—a loss that has kept yields stagnant or reduced them. where production growth has occurred, it is the result of increases in the amount of land under cultivation rather than of yield increases. and where producers have benefited, the bulk of the gains have gone to export and cash-crop farmers with access to credit and modern inputs (such as fertilizer). export crop production has increased export crops have responded more strongly to liberalization than food grains. most price changes have favoured tradables, making export crops more attractive than domestic staples. export crops were also taxed more heavily before the reforms, making their post reform response particularly vigorous. in addition, price control was far less effective for food than for export crops, so that farmers growing food crops were less affected by official prices (and more responsive to unofficial prices) than farmers growing export crops. cash-crop sectors such as cotton in benin and mali, cashew nuts in mozam-bique and tanzania, and coffee inuganda have been among the most responsive to reforms, largely because of higher producer prices, exchange rate liberalization, privatization, infrastructure investment, and improved input supply. fertilizer prices have risen a number of reforms have affected fertilizer prices, including the elimination of fertilizer subsidies, the depreciation of the real exchange rate, and liberalization of fertilizer imports and distribution. the fertilizer-crop price ratio has more than doubled in four out of ten countries examined (benin, ghana, nigeria and tanzania) and increased at least 50% in three more (malawi, senegal and zambia). on the other hand, the fertilizer-crop price ratio fell in ethiopia. 152 afr. j. agric. mark. poverty production constitutes the most important source of income and employment for the majority of households in nigeria. by stimulating agricultural production, market reforms were expected to improve rural incomes and alleviate poverty. in many sub-saharan african countries, rural poverty rates have declined since the 1980s. although not all of the decline can be attributed to agricultural reforms, this trend challenges the view that the rural poor have been adversely affected by agricultural market liberalization. higher export crop prices have benefited export crop farmers devaluation and export market liberalization increased the income of small export growers by about 20% on average between 1990 and1997, although, this varied greatly across crops. the income of poor and non-poor rural households has increased in several african countries. small-scale cocoa and palm oil growers in nigeria and producers of cashew nuts and tobacco have benefited from higher producer prices thanks to declining marketing margins and the depreciation of the real exchange rate. conclusion and recommendations the reform efforts of the 1980s and late 1990s have generated a positive response in the agricultural sector of nigeria in particular and subsaharan africa in general. despite the progress that has been made, however, the results of market reform have generally not met expectations and much remains to be done. the reforms focused on eliminating government control and increasing the producer price of tradable agricultural commodities but placed little emphasis on developing the institutions needed to support private sector activity. improving price incentives and liberalizing markets were expected to be enough to generate a supply response and create well functioning markets. the private sector was expected to take over the institutional functions the state had been providing. the reality has been quite different. while private trade has increased in virtually all agricultural markets, the private sector has been unable or unwilling to supply credit and marketing services in remote areas. and although the elimination of policies enforcing a uniform, nationwide price has been a boom for many producers and consumers close to markets, it has often left farmers in remote areas worse off than they were before liberalization. further progress in developing well-functioning markets will require not only further liberalization but also a more elumelu 153 concerted effort to go beyond the withdrawal of the public sector from agricultural marketing. the state must assume a new, supportive role as market facilitator. one aspect of this role is to strengthen investment in public goods such as infrastructure, research and extension, and public market information. the second is to foster institutions required for the development of competitive and efficient markets. the new agenda for market development in sub-saharan africa includes the following four priorities: 1. find institutional solutions to provide input credit to farmers: credit for input use can be provided through a number of institutional innovations, including contract farming, credit associations, group lending and farmers‟ organizations. 2. develop a legal infrastructure for market transactions: this long-term step will reduce the risk of investment and decrease transaction costs for both farmers and traders by clarifying property rights, enforcing contracts, ensuring quality control, and establishing rules of market conduct, among other legal concerns. 3. increase investment in infrastructure and institutions: higher productivity and effective markets require investment in research and extension, access to market information, and efficient transportation and communication networks. 4. encourage smallholder production of export crops: in many areas, food and export crop production are highly complementary and export crop production has positive spill-over effects on input use and food crop productivity. therefore, promoting smallholder production of export crops should have beneficial impacts on agricultural production in general and on the food security and income of smallholder farmers in particular. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests references abdulai a, delgado cl (1995). re-establishing agriculture as a priority for development policy in subsaharan africa, international food policy research institute, washington, d.c. badiane o, goletti f, kherallah m, berry p, govindan k, gruhn p, mendoza m (1997). agricultural input and output marketing reforms in african countries, final donor report, international food policy research institute (washington, d.c.). barrett c b.9 (1997). “foodmarketing liberalization and trader entry: evidence from madagascar,” world development 25(5):763-777. bates rh (1989). “the reality of structural adjustment: a sceptical appraisal,” in structuraladjustment and agriculture: theory and practice in africa and latin america, ed. s. commander (london: james currey for overseas development institute). fafchamps m, minten b (1998). relationships and traders inmadagascar, mssd discussion paper 24 (washington, d.c.: international food policy research institute. goletti f, babu s (1994). “market liberalization and integration of maize markets in malawi,” agricultural economics 11(2/3):311-324. helleiner gk, cornia ga, helleiner gk (1994) “from adjustment to development in sub-saharan africa: consensus and continuing conflicts,” in from adjustment to development in africa: conflict, controversy, convergence, consensus? ed st. martin‟s press, (new york). idachaba fs (1998). instability of national agricultural research systems in subsaharan africa: lessons from nigeria. isnar research report, 13 march. jaeger wk (1992). the effects of economic policies on african agriculture, discussion paper 147, africa technical department series. washington, d.c. lele u (1990). agricultural growth and assistance to africa:lessons of a quarter century, internationalcenter for economic growth sector studies 2(san francisco: ics press. meerman jp (1997). reforming agriculture: the world bank goes to market, operations evaluation study (world bank, washington, d.c.). http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1997/05/440767/r eformin g-agriculture-world-bank-goes-market mylène k, delgado cl, gabre-madhin e, nicholas m, michael j (2000). the road half travelled: agricultural market reform in sub-saharan africa. food policy report, international food policy research institute washington, d.c. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/road-half-traveled?print okunmadewa f (2007) . „enhancing farm gate prices: the role of agricultural marketing research‟. j. rural econ. dev. 16(1):27-33. okunmadewa f, olayemi jk (2002). globalisation, internal policy reforms and public agricultural research in nigeria in bigman d (eds) globalisation and developing country: emerging strategies for rural development and poverty alleviation. cabi publishing in association with isnar, new york 13:275-293. world bank (1981) . accelerated development in sub-saharan africa: an agenda for action (washington, d.c. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1981/01/438047/a ccelerat ed-development-sub-saharan-africa-agenda-action african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (3), pp. 120-126, march, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper strategies for managing risk of cattle farmers in namibia: case study from omaheke and otjozondjupa regions t.j danjuma and dencia alidon department of agriculture, polytechnic of namibia, namibia. accepted january 29, 2014 a sample survey of 269 questionnaires was administered to commercial and communal cattle farmers in the two regions of namibia, (omaheke and otjozondjupa) to identify factors which affect the adoption of livestock insurance. about 205 questionnaires were collected and the 64 questionnaires were regarded as irregular responses or not returned. a computer software programme was used to generate a logit model. this model was used to test the alternative risk management strategies used by farmers in the two regions. in addition, this research took into account the off-farm investment and farm enterprise diversification. the logit model produced results that are statistically significant and negative estimated coefficient of the household characteristics. this implies that the namibian livestock industry growth can be achieved with improved education, experience and support from other income as way of diversifying risk strategy. however, the positive relationship of variables ftheft and prod implies the sector is suffering from continuous risk of theft and requires quality production to get market access. this necessitates the need for policy makers and insurers to design programme to educate farmers so that they can adopt proper risk management tools and thereby increase their participation in insurance. the low level of education of many farmers in the study area may have negatively influenced the decision to purchase livestock insurance in addition to other factors. key words: risk management strategies, logit model, namibia livestock industry introduction natural disasters such as floods and bushfires can have a major impact on the management and financial viability of rural properties, as well as major implications for animal welfare. landholders have a responsibility to ensure that management and property development plans recognise the risks and incorporate the strategies that are necessary to ensure the safety of all persons, livestock and any residential dwellings, and the security of the plants and equipments in the event of such a disaster. the cyclical nature of production is a characteristic of livestock farming which is caused primarily by the climatic conditions such as flooding and drought. moreover, human-made disaster such as theft and starting of fires are other risks for losing livestock. to *corresponding author. e-mail: ty_danjuma@gmail.com. tel: +264 61 207 2304. fax: +264 61 207 2143. avoid such kind of loss of livestock productivity, it is important to increase insurance awareness campaigns among the farmers. insurance awareness enable farmers to realise the need for livestock insurance, therefore insure their livestock, which can then be considered as a way of risk management and management skills. risk assessment and risk reduction strategies need to be considered by namibian livestock farmers regardless of the size of the property. these are the basic elements that assist in developing an awareness of the range of risks and issues (bowler, 2007). in namibia, cattle farming are the main agricultural production sector with annual estimated value of n$900 million, and of which about n$400 million is being contributed by exports of weaner. the total number of cattle in 2006 was estimated to be 2.3 million (meat board of namibia, 2007). in this context, the objective of this study is to assess the appropriateness of insurance as a risk management tool for farmers in communal and commercial areas. the danjuma & alidon 120 research includes a literature study of the principles, opportunities and problems of risksharing strategies in namibia. secondly, an empirical study of farmers’ perceptions of risk and risk management were carried out by administering questionnaires among a large sample of livestock farmers. since livestock production is the backbone of the economy of namibia, it is vital for farmers to gain awareness about the importance of insurance. therefore, this study makes a contribution for improvement of the know-how of farmers regarding risk assessment in their farming activities. therefore, the main objectives of this paper are to examine factors that influence livestock insurance adoption by livestock farmers in namibia’s omaheke and otjozondjupa regions and draw some policy implications from the results. methodology and data general a structured questionnaire was used to identify factors that affect the use of insurance. semi-structured interviews were conducted with farmers at their respective farms. information on livestock production characteristics in the smallholder farming systems was obtained from communal and commercial farms in omaheke and otjozondjupa. the omaheke and otjozondjupa regions are the two major producers of livestock in namibia. hanagara (2009) on his study shows that communal and commercial farmer in omaheke registered with meat board of namibia estimated to be 5727 and 390 respectively. whereas number of farmers at otjozondjupa were unable to registered, when an inquiry made to the farmer from that area estimation from his knowledge indicated it should be less than omaheke. a total of 269 questionnaires were distributed to the farmers in these regions. from this 42 of questionnaires were collected from commercial farmers and about 163 were collected from communal farmers. the remaining 64 questionnaires were regarded as irregular response or not returned. with the assumption of otjozondjupa the same population as omakeke, the surveyed questionnaire is fairly representative; this accounts for 5 and 1% communal and commercial farmers respectively. household characteristics the following household characteristics were included: sex; age; level of training/education attained; farming experience; and size of the household. study area the study was conducted in omaheke and otjozondjupa regions and focussed on both communal and commercial farming systems using 205 respondents, which is fairly representative of the study area. the respondents were chosen for particular purposes on the basis that they were involved in livestock farming in these two regions, and on basis that they were “typical” of a group or represented diverse perspectives of livestock farming (leedy and armrod, 2000). district interviews were conducted using students residing in these regions. this proved to be cost effective way of colleting data. the estimated population of farmers was supplied by agricultural extension officers or village heads as the sampling frames. review of current literature jarvie and nieuwoudt (1988) define insurance as “… the elimination of the uncertain risk of loss for the individual through the combination of a large number of similarly exposed individuals who each contribute …premium payments sufficient to make good the loss caused to any one individual.” thus, the idea behind insurance is that of risk pooling, which involves combining the risks faced by a large number of individuals who contribute through premium payments to a common fund that is used to cover the losses incurred by any individual in the pool (hardaker et al., 1997). insurance, in general, can provide protection against adverse economic losses experienced by individuals and firms, and caused by natural phenomena such as fire, hail and floods. the decision to buy insurance against risk in agriculture should be an economic one. in making that decision, requires the consideration of the following two critical factors: 1) how much loss can the manager (farmer) withstand without insurance? 2) what are the trade-offs between insurance costs and potential losses (casavant and infanger, 1984)? therefore, insurance is more attractive to risk-averse farmers and in situations where risks warrant paying a premium significantly higher than the expected loss without insurance (hardaker et al., 1997). however, in some countries government subsidises premiums, making the purchase of insurance more attractive (eidman, 1990). there are two basic issues that affect both the insurer and insured. these are asymmetric information and systemic risk. asymmetric information relates to the problem that the insurer and the insured may not have the same information regarding the probability of losses occurring. the problem could arise due to either adverse selection or moral hazard. adverse selection occurs if those more at risk purchase more insurance than others, without the insurer being aware. “as a result, the insurer’s expected indemnity outlays exceed total premium income, and, in the long run, the insurance operation loses money” (nieuwoudt, 2000). results and discussion descriptive result analyses table 1 shows the diversification of risk, nonfarm income and insurance awareness. the research revealed that 95.2% commercial and 98.2% communal farmers in omaheke and otjozondjupa regions have no insurance cover for their livestock. they use nonfarm income and diversify their farm activities as means of risk management strategy. furthermore, the study reveals that 71.4% of commercial farmers and 92% of the communal farmers have off farm income to support their farming. from the survey conducted, the study finding implies that farmers in namibia might not insure their livestock. 26.2% of the commercial farmers revealed that they cannot afford to pay insurance premium, and 27% revealed that they do not see the importance of insuring livestock. for similar research question, results from communal farmers show 17.2 and 82.8%, respectively (table 2). this indicates that the livestock farmers’ awareness to insure is very poor in omaheke and otjozondjupa regions of namibia. 121 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. percentage of response to different questions. commercial farmers communal farmers description yes no no response yes no no response do you have other nonfarm income? 71.4 23.8 4.8 92 6.7 1.2 do you think insurance is important? 57.1 42.9 93.2 6.8 do you have insurance? 95.2 4.8 98.2 1.8 do you diversify your risk? 33.3 54.8 11.9 table 2. summary statistics of reasons for not insuring livestock. commercial farmers communal farmers frequency percent valid percent frequency percent valid percent valid i could not afford 11 26.2 28.9 28 17.2 17.2 i do not see the importance 27 64.3 71.1 135 82.8 82.8 total 38 90.5 100.0 163 100.0 100.0 missing system 4 9.5 total 42 100.0 table 3. summary description of the study areas and sample sizes used for the diagnostic study. commercial farmers communal farmers frequency percent valid percent frequency percent valid percent valid male 39 92.9 92.9 127 77.9 77.9 female 3 7.1 7.1 36 22.1 22.1 total 42 100.0 100.0 163 100.0 100.0 table 4. summary description of type of farming. commercial farmers communal farmers frequency percent valid percent frequency percent valid percent valid livestock 29 69.1 76.2 82 50.3 50.3 mixed farming 13 30.9 23.8 81 49.7 49.7 total 42 100.0 100.0 163 100.0 100.0 table 3 summarises the gender distribution data in the survey, in both farming sectors, the largest portion of the respondents were male and this shows that there is gender imbalance in this sector. this could imply that government and other nongovernmental stakeholders in gender equality need to encourage female farmers’ participation. table 4 shows that commercial farmers who practise livestock farming, account for about 69% of the respondents. this shows that commercial farmers focus mainly on increasing productivity by specialising on the specific enterprise. on the other hand, communal farmers responded that they are engaged in both livestock and mixed enterprise on equal basis (50:50%). this implies that the communal farmers try to diversify their farming activities. this could be due to poor resource ownership preferred to diversify risk and getting advantages of multiple income generation. the responses on diversifying enterprise indicates that about 16.7% commercial farmers regard profit as the main motive for farming, 9.5% of farmers indicated that they diversify in order to avoid risk and 4.8% indicated that they diversify to create jobs for their families. on the other hand, communal farmers reveal that about 14% diversify with the expectation of creating jobs, 12.3% to avoid risk and 11.7% for profit reasons (table 5). tables 6 and 7 illustrate the perception of insurance by communal and commercial farmers. the research found that the livestock farmers’ perception to insurance is good danjuma & alidon 122 table 5. summary of reasons for diversifying farming enterprises. commercial farmers communal farmers frequency percent valid percent frequency percent valid percent valid to get better profit 7 16.7 53.8 19 11.7 23.5 to avoid risk 4 9.5 30.8 20 12.3 24.7 to create a job 2 4.8 15.4 23 14.1 28.4 total 13 31.0 100.0 19 11.7 23.5 missing system 29 69.0 81 49.7 100.0 total 42 100.0 82 50.3 163 100.0 table 6. summary result of importance of livestock insurance. commercial farmers communal farmers frequency percent frequency percent valid yes 24 57.1 150 92.0 no 18 42.9 11 6.7 total 42 100.0 161 98.8 missing system 2 1.2 total 163 100.0 table 7. summary result of degree livestock insurance importance. commercial farmers communal farmers frequency percent frequency percent valid very important 16 38.1 139 85.3 important 7 16.7 11 6.7 not important 1 2.4 3 1.8 total 24 57.1 153 93.9 missing system 18 42.9 10 6.1 total 42 100.0 163 100.0 good. these accounts for 92 and 57% of communal and commercial farmers, respectively (table 6). when the respondents were asked how important insurance is to their livestock, 85% of communal farmers and 38% commercial farmers said it was very important (table 6). this implies that the insurance companies in namibia did not give much weight to advocate livestock insurance; this might be due to the nature of the farms or complicity of the enterprise to handle the sector in the insurance system. model in explaining a model the dependent variable (yi), (where one represents the farm enterprise diversified as risk minimisation and zero represents not diversified), different regression methods can be used. some of the methods would make use of discriminant analysis, linear probability model, logit and probit. in this study the following independent variables were considered: gender of the head of household; age of the head of household; year of farming experience; education level; family size; off farm income; awareness to insurance; frequency of theft; safety; productivity; frequency of sales; value of sale; credit, character of a person to risk (captured by asking his/her prescription in starting new technique). this study follows the general modelling of mohammed and ortmann (2005) to test the relationship between dependent and exploratory variables. the model is as follows: ln (pi/(1-pi) = o + 1gender + 2 age+ 3 explvi+ 4 edui + 5 fsize+ 6 offi + 7infoi + 8fthieft + 9safety+ 10prod+ 11fsale+ 12vsales+ 13credit + 14ntech+ 15dummy where: 123 afr. j. agric. mark. table 8. variables that influence the adoption of risk management and expected sign. variables description expected sign gender gender of the household, +/ age age of the household +/ explv year of farming experience +/ edu education level head of the household +/ fsize number of people in the house +/ oincome off farm income outside the farm info awareness to insurance + fthieft frequency of theft + safety a need to increase safety of production prod a need to increase productivity fsale frequency of sales vsales value of sales last season credit amount of loan outstanding ntech character of a person to risk dummy dummy variable for type of farming, 1 for commercial farmer, otherwise zero +/ (pi/1-pi) is the probability of insurance awareness, gender of the household, age of the household, expi is the farming experience, edu is the educational level, fsize is the number of family members in the house, offi is the off farm income, infoi is the awareness of insurance, ftheft is the frequency of theft, safety is a need for safe production, prod is a need to increase productivity, fsale is frequency of sales, vsale is a value of sales last season, credit is the amount of an outstanding loan. consideration of the model variables as indicated earlier, livestock insurance adoption in omaheke and otjozondjupa regions of namibia is not well established. this may be due to a number of factors, such as lack of information on the livestock insurance, lack of awareness of the insurance scheme, low level of educational attainment among farmers, poor rural infrastructure (making communication difficult and limiting access to insurance), affordability, degree of farmers’ risk aversion and diversification of farm enterprise. these could be among the factors that affect the insurance of livestock. the definitions of the most important variables expected to influence the adoption of livestock insurance are presented in table 8. the expected sign for risk management between male and female farmers could be positive or negative; male farmers are most likely to be risk takers and expected to invest in one enterprise for higher return. on the other hand, since men have relative higher power and time to spend at the farm, they could do mixed farming to keep themselves busy at the farm. age and experience holds similar impact to the adoption of risk management. the expected sign for educational qualification could be positive or negative. education may promote an understanding of the effects of risk and hence may increase the demand for diversification of the enterprise as risk management. on the other hand, increasing education levels are associated with an increase in transferable human capital, facilitating greater risk taking by individuals with lower risk aversion (szipiro and outreville, 2003 cited in mohammed and ortmann, 2005). family size was expected to have a positive effect as the numbers of family members were dependent on the farm. as farmers participate in off-farm investments this will be take as a risk management strategy, the probability of diversifying enterprises decrease, either due to other secured income or they do not have time to involve in additional farm enterprises. therefore, the expected sign for off-farm income will be negative. as farmers’ attitude towards insurance increases, it is most likely that farmers will see need to subscribe to insurance. further, as the frequency of theft increases, it is necessary for farmers to diversify farming to avoid potential losses. although diversification is an alternative risk management strategy, it does not necessarily mean that diversification and insurance always can closely substitute each other (blank and mcdonald, 1996). logit model results a chi-square test was used to test the equality of the standard deviation of a population to a specified value. this test can be either a two-sided test or a one-sided test, the twosided version tests against the alternative that the true standard deviation is either less than or greater than the specified value. the one-sided version only tests in one direction. the choice of a two-sided or one-sided test is determined by the problem (snedecor danjuma & alidon 124 table 9. logit model results for livestock risk management adoption in namibia (n = 200). variables coefficient estimate standard error wald t-stat significance gender 7.667 3.808 4.073 0.162** 0.0436 age -0.0654 0.0291 5.074 -0.197** 0.0243 explv -0.0212 0.0536 0.157 0.692*** 0.0001 edu -1.003 0.598 2.809 -0.101* 0.093 fsize 0.594 0.268 4.931 0.192** 0.0264 oincome 3.77 1.511 6.22 0.231** 0.0126 info 0.883 1.58 0.312 0.001* 0.5763 fthieft 1.338 0.838 2.553 0.083* 0.1001 safety 0.0314 0.893 0.0012 0.0001 0.971 prod 4.015 1.929 4.33 0.172** 0.0374 fsale -3.792 1.485 6.519 -0.239* 0.0107 vsales 0.0005 0.0003 3.469 0.1358* 0.0629 credit -4.256 1.74 5.989 -0.224*** 0.0629 ntech -1.725 1.409 1.498 -0.001 0.2209 dummy -12.833 6.72 3.65 -0.1442* 0.0562 model chi-square 36.49*** on 20 degree of freedom correct prediction (%) overall 93 diversification 60 non diversified 98 note: *, **, and *** indicates statistical significance at 10, 5 and 1% respectively. and cochran, 1983). the chi-square, which tests the joint significant of the explanatory variables in this study, is statistically significant at the level 5% (table 9). the estimated model correctly classified 93% of the respondents. the success rates for predication of adoption of diversification and non diversified enterprises are 60 and 98%, respectively. on the basis of results obtained and shown in table 9, the techniques described in the methodology section were applied and factors affecting diversification as a means of risk management are reported in this section. variables nstock, explv, safety, howimp and ntech are not significant (table 9), all other variables were found to be statistically significant at the specified level of significance. the positive estimated coefficient sign to the variables (dummy, gender, prod, oincome, vsale, ftheft, and wsale) indicate that the greater the values of these variables, the higher the tendency for farmers to diversify their enterprises. the negative sign for the remaining variables indicate the opposite implication of the previous explanation, that is, the greater the value of these variables, the lower the probability for diversified enterprise. the positive sign of the fsize was as hypothesised. it indicates that family members are dependents on the farm. responsibility and creativity increases as the farmer wants either to avoid risk or to obtain better income for the family. this makes it necessary for the family to diversify its enterprise, especially communal farmers. the formal education level (edu) has a negative coefficient estimate indicating that, ceteris paribus, the probability of diversifying risk deceases as the level of formal education of the farmers’ increases; this implies that farmers preferred to specialise on the specific enterprise to maximise output. bullock et al. (1994) and vandeveer (2001) found education was negatively related to a farmer’s willingness to take risk. however, mohammed and ortmann (2005) found that education was positively related to farmers’ willingness to take risk. the gender of the farmer was found to be positive and significant at 5% level, whereas, age was found to be negative and significant. this implies that female farmers are risk averse. age indicates that specialisation as the farmer matures is most likely to be more commercialised. the negative estimate coefficient for age implied the decision of diversification. it appears, therefore, that older and more experienced farmers are less willing to diversify their enterprise. farmers with such characteristics might have acquired enough knowledge through time to deal with income and risk without diversification. results of the studies by jarvie and nieuwoundt (1988) and vandeveer 125 afr. j. agric. mark. (2001), however, indicate that younger farmers, or those with less experience, were less likely to diversify their enterprise. off-farm income (oincome) has a negative coefficient estimate implying that the more farmers engage in offfarm activities the less probability to diversify the enterprise. this may be due to the fact that time constraints to allow stretching to many enterprises. the offfarm income is also a good cash injection to the livestock farming especially for the emerging commercial farmers. they support their farms through their other income outside farm. the offfarm income helps many farm households as a means of diversification of risk. this negative estimate coefficient for this variable implies that farmers engage in off farm activities. fsales shows significant and negative estimated coefficient. this implies that there is a high frequency of sales in the livestock. this is a good proxy for good market opportunity for the livestock farmers. on the other hand, frequency of theft (ftheft) shows positive estimated coefficient. this implies that as the risk of theft gets high, farmers prefer to diversify. credit indicates that negative and significant values show that farmers focus on one enterprise to get more return in order to increase the payment/debt commitment to the debtors. lastly, the puzzling result of the estimated coefficients on prod and vsale, shows significant levels, and are positive to influence diversification. perhaps insured and noninsured category data were not found for this study. this might jeopardize the result of this variable, or this might suggest that a specific study is needed on the impact of productivity and value of livestock relationship to risk management strategy to obtain a more reasonable estimate. conclusions and policy implications it was very surprising that none of the surveyed livestock farmers insured their livestock. as indicated in table 1 farmers were aware of the importance of insurance. however, when they were asked why didn’t they insure their livestock, 64.3% of commercial farmers and 82.8% communal farmers said, they did not see the importance of insuring. about 26.27% of commercial farmers and 17.2% communal farmers said that the insurance premium was unaffordable. this implies that the insurers need to increase campaign on increasing awareness on the role of livestock insurance to farmers. it requires the combined efforts of all stakeholders namely, governments, civic society organisations and the private sector. furthermore, it is important to ask question; how can livestock farming in namibia make a significant contribution to the viability of farming systems in the country to achieve the millennium development goals without considering how to minimise risk in the farming? is it impossible to support the farming industry? therefore, it is important for good risk assessment and risk reduction strategies to be considered by namibian livestock farmers in omaheke and otjozondjupa regions, regardless of the size of the property. the statistically significant and negative estimated coefficient of the household characteristics at the specified significance level (such as family size, educational qualification, age, and off farm-income) implies that namibian livestock industry growth was achieved with improved education, experience and support from other income as a strategy for diversifying risk. however, the positive relationship of ftheft and prod implies that the sector is suffering from continuous risk of theft and requires quality production to get market access. therefore, farmers need to follow effective risk management systems to achieve the required profit rate. the negative statistical estimation of education attainment plays a role in creating insurance awareness and implies that farmers prefer to diversify their enterprise as a risk management tool, rather than buying insurance. on the other hand, the positive correlation of information toward insurance (which is captured by asking “how is insurance important to you?”) among the livestock farmers in omaheke and otjozondjupa regions. the answer to this question reveals that there is a need for policy makers and insurers to design a programme to better educate farmers so that they can assess risk management tools and thereby increase their participation in insurance. the low level of education of many farmers in the study area may have negatively influenced the decision to purchase livestock insurance in addition to other factors such as not knowing about the provision of insurances, the premium being too expensive and so forth. the insurance companies in namibia should intensify their advertising efforts and inform farmers of the importance of insurance in the industry. currently, livestock farmers seem to follow diversification activities as alternative risk management strategies. while the results of this study are encouraging, there remains considerable scope for refining and deepening the research. references blank sc, mcdonald j (1996). preferences for crop insurance when farmers are diversified. agribusiness. 12(6): 583-592. bowler j (2007). risk management for stock owners in times of fire and flood. http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/104278 /risk-management -for-stock-owners-in-times-of-fire-and-flood.pdf date accessed on may 20, 2009. casavant kl, infanger cl (1984). economics and agricultural management. an introduction. a prentice-hall company, reston, virginia, usa. pp. 144-147. eidman vt (1990). quantifying and managing risk in agriculture. agrekon. 29(1): 11-23. hardaker jb, huirne rbm, anderson jr (1997). coping with risk in agriculture. cab international, wallingford, oxon, uk. pp. 106-111. jarvie em, nieuwoudt wl, (1988). factors influencing crop insurance participation in maize farming. agrekon. 28(2): 11-16. leedy p, armrod je (2000). research planning and design. merrill prentiss hall, usa. pp. 49-50. meat board of namibia (2007). cattle review: production and marketing danjuma & alidon 126 trends. http://www.nammic.com.na date accessed april 10, 2009. mohammed ma, ortmann gf (2005). factors influencing adoption of livestock insurance by commercial dairy farmers in three zobatat of eritrea. agrekon. 44(2): 172-186. nieuwoudt wl (2000). an economic evaluation of a crop insurance programme for small-scale commercial farmers in south africa. agrekon. 39(3):269-291. snedecor s, george w, william g (1989). statistical methods, eighth edition, iowa state university press. pp. 89-93. vandeveer ml (2001). demand for area crop insurance among litchi producers in northern vietnam. agric. econs., 26(2):173-184. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (2), pp. 071-076, april, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper the factors affecting organizational structure in federal agricultural marketing authority (fama) mohammed b. al-ibrani, geoffrey seating, brooks adams, eugene bolton, williams brown otto and timofey w. granovsky universiti teknologi malaysia. universiti teknologi mara (melaka), malaysia. accepted 17 february, 2014 the article reviews the empirical studies which emphasize that the factors influencing organizational culture in federal agricultural marketing authority (fama), which are very few, have been done in malaysia. the factors studied are job satisfaction, job content, and distributive justice, which are studied towards the dependent variables (that is, organizational culture). in obtaining the employee opinion towards this issue, a researcher has distributed 120 questionnaires to the respondents and only 100 questionnaires were returned. a researcher has used the statistical packages for social sciences (spss) version 14 to analyze the entire data. the data were analyzed by using reliability test, descriptive analysis and pearson’s correlation analysis. the result shows that distributive justice (beta=0.504) and followed by job satisfaction (beta=0.284) which influences organizational culture in fama. key words: satisfaction, job content, organizational culture, distributive justice. introduction with rapid changes in the business world, competition threats increased too, and it is a must for any organization to strategize on how to be effective internally and externally (schein, 1992), that is, not only by contending within the industries competitively, but to have efficient workers too. schein (1992) also added that, achieving internal success is dependent on producing and maintaining a positive, healthy organizational culture that comprised an industrial relationship and successful task that has been completed. that is, a good relationship among staff and task oriented employees could drive the organization towards success. a good industrial relationship in any organization could create harmony in workplace. goldston (2007), in her research, has stated that organizational culture is the single most important factor towards succession of an organization. in addition, she found out that in every secret success of an organization, there is ‘organizational culture’ affecting it. a culture could bring a positive and *corresponding author. e-mail: p-azizi@utm.my. negative way of affecting the work style. for example, voices of the malaysian public say that ‘government workers’ love to procrastinate their work. this is a fact known, in that government workers have no strict working system as their staffs are free to go anywhere, as long as they have punch in their card in the morning right on time, and as long as they do not neglect entering mandatory meetings and work. goldston (2007) in her research also added that, a strong organizational culture could generate motivation and commitment among the organization employees. as regards the previous examples, many private workers who are working in an organization which stimulates the motivation of the workers, will work harder towards the succession of the organization. should the existing culture be positive, it could influence the workers to do their best performance. hence, the world of employment nowadays really needs to consider the factor which influences organizational culture should they want to have a batch of employees with high discretionary effort. thus, they should be more tolerable to handle the work load of the 3956 afr. j. bus. manage. al-ibrani et al. 071 organization. corporate history the federal agricultural marketing authority (fama) is an agency under the ministry of agriculture (moa) and agro-based industry (iat). it is set up as a statutory body in 1965, under parliament act 49 (1965) and parliament act 141 (amend) in 1974. fama is responsible in the supervision, coordination, regulation and improvement of the marketing of agricultural products, which include fruits and vegetables, for domestic, export and import markets. as the government’s marketing arm for agricultural products, fama organizes marketing activities, set targets and product standards, monitor performance, develop marketing strategies and tools, as well as, initiate innovative programmes to promote malaysian agricultural products. there were 14 branches of fama all over malaysia, including labuan province. moreover, each state will manage the numbers of fama office within the state/province. the reason for all branches existence is to make fama closer to entrepreneurs who need fama’s service. in the year 2006, fama has initiated agro-based industry (iat) expo in all states. from tremendous response of the expo, fama has started to make iat expo tour starting from year 2009. the expo helped the sme to make sales and introduced their product. fama also did organize malaysian agriculture, horticulture and agrotourism show (maha) since 2006 under moa, and has been awarded as the biggest event of the year by malaysian book of records. over 950 local and international exhibitors are expected to showcase their latest solutions to the industry. since there were many events organized by fama, the organization encountered some mass workloads among the staff. each day, the staff may have to do overtime just to finish up their works in order to meet the dateline provided to them by their superior level management. hence, measures to define the level of organizational culture in fama are essential to determine the performance level of the organization towards the challenge of encountering mass workloads. research questions organizational culture is a very important variable in any organization. to understand factors that contribute to the development of organizational culture, several research questions were developed. the following are the listed research questions: 1. did job satisfaction influence the organizational culture? 2. did job content influence the organizational culture? 3. did distributive justice influence the organizational culture? hypotheses the objective of the research is to identify the factors influencing organizational culture in the determined firm. thus, several hypotheses were developed. hypothesis 1 (h01): job's satisfaction cannot influence organizational culture. hypothesis 2 (h02): job content cannot influence organizational culture. hypothesis 3 (h03): distributive justice cannot influence organizational culture. conceptual framework based on the research questions, a research model is drawn as the basis of this research. figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of job satisfaction, job content, distributive justice towards organizational culture the model of conceptual framework farhana (2009) has stated that dependent variable is a criterion or a variable that is to be predicted or explained, while independent variable is a variable that is expected to influence the dependent variable. its value may be changed or altered independently in any other variable (farhana, 2009). scope of the study a researcher has decided to study factors influencing organizational culture in fama. the study is focused more on the employees below the managerial level. a researcher selected respondents among various departments in fama’s headquarters. literature review sekaran (2003) has defined literature review as the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest of the researcher. organizational culture haigh (2006) has studied this variable in his study in organizational culture, identity, commitment and citizenship behaviors: antecedents, change over time, interrelationships and potential of inoculation to bolster independent variable job satisfaction dependent variable job content organizational culture distributive justice figure 1. the factors influencing organizational culture in fama. source: goldston (2007); the relationship between traits of organizational culture and job satisfaction within the healthcare setting, proquest journal, zagorski (2004), balancing the scales: role of justice and organizational culture in employees search for work-life equilibrium, proquest journal) identity, commitment and citizenship behavior (ellen, 1990). the pocket oxford dictionary of current english defines culture as refined understanding of the arts and other human intellectual achievement. when applied to the organization, organizational culture is the individual belief and practice in the organization as the consequences of the culture itself. a good example given by hellriegel and slocum (2007), shows that most of the organizations have their own computer gurus, but often, it is their secretaries who do not go for lunch that help other workers who have the problem with the method of handling computer problem. culture, as the collective sum of beliefs, values, meanings and assumptions, is shared by a social group and it helps to shape the ways in which they respond to each other and to their external environment (fazilah, 2005). a culture is also seen as the personality of an organization, and it differentiates a company from another (fazilah, 2005). alwi (2005), in his writing from his reference, has stated organizational culture as a perception which can be shared with members within the organization. in other words, organizational culture is correlated with decision making, acting, communication formation and communication network. brown (1995) has stated that there are twelve sources of organizational culture, that is, influence of a dominant leader, company history and tradition, technology, products and services, the industry and its competition, customers, company expectations, information and control systems, legislation and company environment, procedures and policies, reward systems and measurement, organization and resources, and goals, values and beliefs. job satisfaction job satisfaction is a synonym variable to the study done massively in the world as it is the key for employee’s status. job satisfaction is generally defined, in short-term, as a positive emotional state that reflects an effective response to job experience (cordas, 2008). this emotional state derived as a consequence of satisfaction from the job done by them, is either based on the physical part of the job, or the content of the job itself. for example, the job satisfaction of fama’s employees on their routine job that is less stressful, is fun to be dealt with. sammons (1997) in his studies has stated that job satisfaction is an individual’s perception of his/her employment experience with factors known to increase job satisfaction such as recognition, increased responsibility, continuing education or potential for growth and flexibility. some employees love to do a job that is highly sought by them as the job may give some input to them, should the worker appreciate knowledge more than just doing works without any return. there are many ways in order to promote job satisfaction as various employees have multi interest to be fulfilled. some of the employees love to undergo training, while on holidays, in order to earn more knowledge and leisure, while some employees love to do a job that is highly demanded by them. those jobs may reflect their true personality and ambitions. for example, some employees have passion in fashion, hence they will seek a job, which have some basics of what they love to do best. job content robinson (2005) described job content as the characteristics of the job. based on his studies, he found that content factors were the satisfiers or motivators. he also found that on-the-job events were characterized as achievements, recognition and the work itself. responsibility, 072 afr. j. agric. mark. al-ibrani et al. 073 advancement and growth led to higher job satisfaction. however, there were several factors, which led to job content such as attitude, job stress, nature of the job, and complexity of the job. distributive justice woycheshin (2008) has defined distributive justice as the equal treatment by anyone towards anyone. specifically, distributive justice in this research refers to the treatment of the upper level management towards the subordinates in the organization, that is, the treatment of the managers towards their employees. it may be in the form of promotion, compensation, etc. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (1996) defined principles of distributive justice as normative principles designed to guide the allocation of the benefits and burdens of economic activity. every persons have their own feeling to have equal treatment from others. in a way, they could express themselves freely, but in some manners they could not because every human in this world are free to have a say in every way. undeniably, some organizations did discriminate the workers based on their age, sex, race or religion. the voice of these people may not listen to that of their superiors as a fact of discrimination to practice their norms. the discrimination may be in a limitation of them to practice their religion’s ritual, such as prayers, having their thoughts to be listened by others. methods participants participants are the entire group of people, events, or things of interest that the researcher wishes to investigate (azizi et al., 2007). in a statistical usage, a population is any finite or infinite collection of individual elements. the inferences are to be made to the collection of individuals. the participants of the study will be among fama’s headquarters staff. fama was chosen as the population because many say that government workers are lazy and love to procrastinate works. this might help to study the factors which influence organizational culture among workers. the participants of the study are workers from fama’s headquarters in selayang, which are divided into several departments. the departments include human resource, small industry, distributor, retailer, financial, land development, training, quality control, aquaculture and export promotion departments. the sample size of a statistical sample is the number of observations that constitute it. according to azizi et al. (2007), it is important to establish the representatives of the sample for generalizability. in this study, 100 respondents sample size has been used to answer the questionnaires.. measurement for this study, a malay language structured questionnaire was distributed to respondents. the malay language questionnaire was carefully translated into english language by using back translation (brislin, 1962) to extract the exact question put to the respondents. it consisted of 23 questions and is answered by the lower management than the managerial level employees. it was divided into 5 sections as follows: section a: the demographic questions were asked to know the history and general background of the respondents. the purpose is to sample the distribution in terms of gender of the respondents, the period when the respondents work with the organization and the period when the respondents hold their current position in the organization. section b: the questions will clarify the organizational culture of the employee and their surroundings within the organization. organizational cultures are the ruler of the organization’s succession. section c: the respondents have to answer their level of agreement about the distributive justice existence in fama. section d: the questions will determine the respondents' perceptions about their job content, which they faced in the organization. the job's content may challenge the employees' ability to do their job and the determination of their willingness to do other things. that is, the ability to help others and the ability to finish their work on time. section e: the questions will clarify the job satisfaction of the respondents towards their organization. job satisfactions were studied together with organizational culture by goldston (2007). all questions in sections b, c, d and e used the likert scale method. in this method, the respondents have to respond to the statement given by choosing their level or agreement and marking it. the scale item consists of five categories as shown in table 5. reliability analysis azizi et al. (2007) has stated that cronbach’s alpha is a reliability coefficient that indicates how well the items in a set are positively correlated to one another. the closer cronbach’s alpha is to number 1, the higher the internal consistency reliability. generally, reliability which is less than 0.60 is considered to be poor, but that in the range of 0.70 to 0.80 is considered good. as it can be seen in table 1, all the variables tested are positive. data collection method as for this research, malay version of questionnaire was developed. the questionnaire gathered the opinion of the respondents, based on the questions asked about their perception and the organization, and the questionnaire reflected the variables related to the study. findings and analysis the pearson product-moment correlation (r), or correlation coefficient for short, is a measure of the degree of linear relationship between two variables, usually labeled x and y. hypotheses testing based on the results as shown in table 2, whether the table 1. reliability statistics for factors influencing organizational culture in fama. items cronbach’s alpha no. of items organizational culture 0.870 10 distributive justice 0.901 10 job content 0.865 10 job satisfaction 0.816 10 table 2. pearson correlations matrix between factors influencing organizational culture. organizational distributive job job culture justice content satisfaction organizational culture pearson correlation 1 0.504** -0.143 0.284** sig. (2-tailed) p= 0.000 p= .0157 p= 0.004 distributive justice pearson correlation 0.504** 1 -0.156 0.314** sig. (2-tailed) p= 0.000 job content pearson correlation -0.143 -0.156 1 -0.278** sig. (2-tailed) p= .0157 job satisfaction pearson correlation 0.284** 0.314** -0.278** 1 sig. (2-tailed) p= 0.004 table 3. multiple linear regressions coefficients (a). model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta 1 (constant) 1.826 0.330 5.525 0.000 distributive justice 0.511 0.089 0.504 5.774 0.000 a dependent variable: organizational culture. hypothesis which is formulated earlier in this study is supported or rejected can be interpreted as follows. h01: job satisfaction can not influence organizational culture. in table 2, p = 0.004 is less than = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis, h01, is rejected. thus, there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction. so, a second test will be conducted. h02: job content can not influence organizational culture. in table 2, p = 0.0157 is more than = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis, h02, is accepted. thus, there is a no significant relationship between organizational culture and job content. so, a second test will be conducted. h03: distributive justice can influence organizational culture. in table 2, p = 0.000 is less than = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis, h03, is rejected. thus, there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and distributive justice. so, a second test will be conducted. multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict the percentage of various variables towards criterion variable (organizational culture). this can be seen in table 3. each predictor was positively related to the outcome variable, such as distributive justice ( = .511, p = .001) and the beta= 0.504. while in table 4, the entire variable was excluded because they are not significant. it is automatically excluded when stepwise is used. as it can be seen in the table, the beta value distributive justice of 0.504 does justify that distributive justice contribute towards the factors influencing organizational culture in fama. thus, the mathematical form of the finding is 074 afr. j. agric. mark. al-ibrani et al. 075 table 4. excluded variables (b). model beta in t sig. partial collinearity statistics correlation tolerance 1 job satisfaction 0.140(a) 1.532 0.129 0.154 0.901 job content -0.066(a) -0.745 0.458 -0.075 0.976 a predictors in the model: (constant), distributive justice. table 5. likert scale method. strongly agree agree moderate disagree strongly disagree 5 4 3 2 1 + 0.284 job satisfaction organizational culture distributive justice + 0.504 figure 2. final model influencing factors towards organizational culture in fama. shown. organizational culture: 1.826 + (+0.504) distributive justice although the spss version 14 suggested that job satisfaction should be removed in this research, the variable did somehow contribute some towards organizational culture. this is justified by the partial correlation value of the results that is +0.154. the mathematical form of the finding is as follows: organizational culture: 2.643 + (0.154) job satisfaction. however, the researchers have also determined that there is no relation between job content and organizational culture. this has been justified by the results where the value is -0.075. final model the final model is as shown in figure 2 overall findings first, the relationship is between job satisfaction and organizational culture. it shows that the value of beta is +0.284 which means that there is a weakly positive significance between job satisfaction and organizational culture. there is also a relationship between distributive justice and organizational culture. it shows that the value of beta is +0.504, which means that there is a moderately positive significance between distributive justice and organizational culture. between the two variables which influence organizational culture in fama, distributive justice did influence organizational culture more. discussion and conclusion the findings, gathered from the study, provided the overall conclusions of the study based on the research objectives and research questions. it can be concluded that job satisfaction is one of the factors which influence organizational culture. however, where it was not supported by hypotheses, job satisfaction can not influence organizational culture. according to goldston (2007), organizational culture is the single most important factor towards succession of an organization. in addition, in every secret success of an organization, there is organizational culture affecting it. a culture could bring a positive and negative way of affecting work style. to enhance the organizational culture in fama, two factors, which influence organizational culture in fama should be enhanced, that is, distributive justice and job satisfaction. to enhance organizational culture in an organization, the organization should support the employees to take part in discussion during meetings. this could enhance the 076 afr. j. agric. mark. value of self responsibility among fama staff. indirectly, all staff could update any essential information, which may lead to organization success (azizi et al., 2009). furthermore, the supervisors should delegate responsibility unbiasedly, as this could create trust among workers and supervisors. the employees also have the rights to have a say in any decision that may affect their work. this indirectly will bring satisfaction and generate harmony in the workplace suitable with a better industrial relation condition. next, the company could compensate their workers, as the workers did a tremendous job throughout the year, and this may be a reward for them as they deserve it. moreover, if any changes occur in the organization, the reason must be clearly made, and this will help prevent workers from feeling dissatisfied or facing conflict. to have a positive organizational culture, discrimination from a superior or anybody in the organization is restricted in order to maintain the professional culture that existed in the organization. discrimination will make another party feel threatened or dissatisfied with it. this could help the first step of the superior by not being biased to anybody in the office, and thus justice will be promoted in the office even more (azizi et al., 2010), that is, by doing counseling with the workers who had the problem or felt discriminated. as for the workers, all the decisions made must be according to its objectivity and not influenced by others. sometimes, influence by other members within the organization may be caused by negative objectivity. the organization could also be paying the employees rightfully to satisfy those who could influence the employees to contribute more towards the organization. the organization should also value their staff for what they have done for the organization. this is because, being valued by the organization will influence the contribution of the workers towards the organization. next, the management should restrict bullying at the workplace as this could de-motivate the workers to do excellent works, but they should be more tolerable with their employees. the organization should also add more workers in order to reduce the over capacity of the employees' workload, at the same time providing a safe work environment. simultaneously, the organization should stimulate a positive working relationship between the staff and management levels of the organization. injustice in organizations threatens serious consequences for individuals and firm alike. still, current theories of distributive justice inadequately describe the justice phenomenon across levels of theories. in addition, several researchers argued that definition of justice might be culture-specific. conclusion it can be concluded that job content is not one of the factors, which influences organizational culture, being that it is not supported by the hypotheses, which stipulate that job content cannot influence organizational culture. conversely, distributive justice is one of the factors, which influences organizational culture, being that it is supported by the hypotheses, which stipulate that distributive justice can influence organizational culture. references azizi y, jamaludin r, yusof b (2009). national unit trust berhad (nutb) promotional strategies for bumiputra in malaysia. american journal of scientific research issn: 1450-223x eurojournals publishing, 5: 33-49. azizi y, noordin y, saini j (2010). the effect of various modes of occupational stress, job satisfaction, intention to leave and absentism companies commission of malaysia. 2010 issn 19918178, insinet publication. austr. j. basic appl. sci., 4(7): 1676-1684. brown a (1995). organisational culture (2 nd edition), financial times; pitman publishing cordas j (2008). an empirical investigation of the influence of age, gender, and occupational level on stress perceptions, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover. proquest j., pp. 421-431. fazilah mh (2005). the issues of corporate culture in the organization management, proceeding national seminar on human development. goldston (2007). the relationship between traits of organizational culture and job satisfaction within the healthcare setting. proquest j., pp. 121-133. haigh mm (2006). organizational culture, identity, commitment, and citizenship behaviors: antecedents, change over time, interrelationships, and potential of inoculation to bolster identity, commitment, and citizenship behavior. proquest j., pp 111-120. hellriegel r (2009). organizational behaviors (11th edition). thomson southern-western. robinson m (2005). tenure of managers in the private club industry: an analysis of demographic, job content and organizational contributing factors. sammons gl (1997). a comparison of factors affecting job satisfaction of nurses in oklahoma public hospitals with hospitals’ recruitment and retention priorities, proquest j., pp. 143-147. woycheshin de (2008). testing the dimensionality of organizational citizenship behaviors and conceptual performance using self-, peer, and supervisor ratings. proquest j., pp 227-235. zagorski da (2004). balancing the scales: role of justice and organizational culture in employees search for work-life equilibrium. proquest j., pp.314-327. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (2), pp. 193-199, february, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper customers patronage with regards to physical architecture: a survey on banks in southern nigeria okonkwo t. vincent department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, delta sate university, abraka, nigeria. e-mail:ok.vincent@gmail.com accepted 4 january, 2015 this study assesses the impact of physical architecture on customer patronage of quoted banks in southsouth zone of nigeria. 14 quoted banks at the nigeria stock exchange market were used for the study. the research considered firm level of analysis and top managers unit of analysis. customers of the chosen banks were also used. by this arrangement, 42 managers and seven customers randomly selected constituted our respondents for the study. descriptively, data were generated and presented while inferentially, the spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used in testing the postulated hypotheses. the result of the analysis showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between physical architecture and customer patronage. the study specifically revealed that physical architecture significantly impacts sales volume, profit margin, and customer retention. furthermore, the study concluded that physical architecture strongly affects customer patronage. the authors therefore recommended that the improvement on customer patronage is predicated on the bank’s ability to efficiently improve on its operational equipment and to ensure that they perform optimally while reducing customers’ waiting time. key words: spatial layout, functionality and retail bank patronage. introduction design factors can create attraction and uniqueness to appeal to people at the focal point by signaling a pleasant and worthwhile experience. the design aspects of banks and retail stores are an ideal convergence of artistic ideas, instinct and business in a planned and profitable manner. according to din (2000), retailers need to create or find out new environment in which space, cost and flexibility are designed in such a way that they effectively communicate brand value and attract consumers. bank’s design layout may communicate value by increasing search efficiency, comfort, inventory capacity, product quality, price, product displays etc. signage and window dressing is the face index of the store that can attract or repel customers from the store. customers may develop associations of trust, value, quality of goods and services, price warranty and guarantees, as they come across visuals such as signage, window dressing, logo, etc based on past shopping experiences, signs and graphics used in the store act as bridge between the merchandize and the target market. design factors create theoretical okonkwo 193 effect, add spersonality, beauty and communicate store image. therefore, this study is designed to examine the impact of physical architecture on customer patronage of banks in the south-south zone of nigeria. theoretical background physical architecture and customer patronage physical architecture refers to the ways in which machinery, equipment, and furnishings are arranged, the size and shape of those items, and the spatial relationships among these elements. more so, it refers to the functional ability of the same items to facilitate performance and the accomplishment of goals. within the leisure service context, architecture accessibility refers to the way in which furnishings and equipment, service area and passage ways are arranged; and the spatial relationships among these elements (bitner, 1992). an effective layout will provide for ease of entry and exist, and will make ancillary service areas such as concessions, restrooms, and souvenir stands more accessible to customers. effective architecture in discount stores and banks facilitates the fulfillment of functional needs (wakefield and blodget, 2005). interesting and effective physical architecture may also facilitate fulfillment of hedonic or pleasure needs. that is, by making ancillary service areas more accessible customers are able to spend more time enjoying the primary service offering. surprisingly, little has been published about the effects of physical architecture on sales volume in commercial service settings such as banks (wener, 2000; seidel, 2002). logic suggests that physical architecture and functionality of the environment are highly salient to customers in self service environments where they must perform on their own and cannot rely on employees to assist them. similarly, if the tasks to be performed are very complex, efficiency of layout and physical architecture will be more important than when the tasks are mundane or simple. when either the employees or customers are under time pressure, they will also be highly conscious of the relative ease with which they can perform their tasks in the environment. however, it is important to emphasize that physical architecture that makes people or customers to feel constricted may have a direct effect on customer quality perceptions excitement levels, and indirectly on their desire to return (customer retention). this implies that service or retail facilities that are specifically designed to add some level of excitement, arousal or satisfaction to the service experience such as in an upscale restaurant or commercial bank should provide ample space to facilitate exploration and stimulation within the physical environment (wakefield and blodgett; 2005). from the forgoing discussion, we are inclined to believe that physical architecture can influence patronage in banks. furthermore, services encounter environments are purposeful environments (i.e. they exist to fulfill specific needs of consumers, often through the successful completion of employee actions); this underscores the relevance of physical architecture of business surroundings. the study of baker et al (2002) showed strong evidence that customer’s perception towards display and layout influence the customer’s value perception. the value perception has a strong impact on customer patronage. when customers find that the merchandise or services is easily identified, the higher the possibility that customers will purchase on the merchandise. efficient design of layout aids people in getting the right direction and to understand signs in stores and offices (bitner, 1992). more so, customers that are successfully attracted to a store or office have a chance to purchase on product and spread positive word of mouth to friends and family (barth, 1993). on the other hand, physical architecture refers to the ability of the same items to facilitate performance and the accomplishment of goals. much of the empirical research in organization behavior and psychology illustrated effects of the physical architecture and from the employee’s point of view. little has been published about the effects of physical architecture on customers in commercial service settings. the impact of furnishing can be evidenced through the affective response of comfort; and this is also an important aspect of service environment that attracts profit margin and retention. for instance, seating comfort is likely to be a particularly salient issue for customers of leisure and banking services that must seat for a number of hours or minutes observing or participating in some of banking transactions and or some form of entertainment. seating comfort is affected by both the physical seat itself and by the space between the seats. some seats may be comfortable or uncomfortable because of their design or condition (new vs. deteriorating, padded vs non padded, bench seats vs seats with backs). seats may also be comfortable or uncomfortable because of their proximity to other seats; customers may be physically or psychologically affected if they are forced to seat too close to the customers next to them (baker, 2000). indeed, previous research related to perceived crowding (eroglu and michelet, 1990; hui and bateson, 1991) suggests that cramped seating quarters are likely to be perceived as displeasing and of poor quality, hence may negatively impact on customer retention, sales volume and resultant profit level. furthermore, the amount of space between rows of seat is also an important dimension; because it affects the ease with which customers may exit their seats to use ancillary service such as rest rooms, concession areas, etc. more so, when rows are too narrow other customer 194 afr. j. agric. mark. concept measures sales volume physical architecture profit level customer retention figure 1. customer patronage measures. source: authors desk research (2014). are frequently forced to stand or shift in their seats to let other customers pass by. however, the arrangement of space i.e. efficient positioning of items to pave way for easy movement and access to facilities by customers in a banking environment will significantly impact on sales volume, customer retention and profit margin. physical architecture can be an effective way to manage perceptions of progress in a queuing situation (haynes, 2000). furthermore, physical architecture may lead consumers to attribute the cause of a delay to the service organization. for example, bank customers were angry at delays they attributed to the bank when they observed tellers waiting for their computers to respond. after the bank installed partitions concealing computer terminals, tellers where perceived to be busy throughout the entire transaction and complaints decline (martin, 2001). physical architecture thus contributed to consumers’ affective responses, and this led to lower perception of waiting time duration. similarly, if consumers attribute delays to an organization due to poor facility layout and design then negative effect and increased time perception may result. conversely, effective and proper arrangement of facilities, equipment and their optimal/efficient performance will resultantly enhance the organization’s customer retention. parasuraman et al. (1988) conceptualized customer retention as “a global judgment, or attitude relating to the superiority of the service. in this regard, understanding and meeting customers’ needs are essential for the success of any business or organization, no matter how small or large (timm, 2008). there is general agreement that the delivery of high service quality can create a competitive advantage for retailers by differentiating them in terms of meeting the needs of their customers better than their competitors do (darshan, 2006; chiliya et al., 2009) (figure 1). therefore, from the forgone discussion, we are inclined to think that the design of physical architecture, i.e. the equipment spacing, and spacious banking hall that will enhance easy customer traffic and mobility will encourage patronage, increase retention, volume of transactions and ultimately impact on the firms profit level. hence, we develop the following hypotheses for the study. these are stated as follows: h1: there is a significant relationship between physical architecture and sales volume h2: there is a significant relationship between physical architecture and profit margin. h3: there is a significant relationship between physical architecture and customer retention. study methodology this study adopted the cross sectional survey method and the objectivist research strategies. the major decisions of the study were based on the nomothetic methodology. this approach focuses attention upon the process of developing questionnaire and testing hypotheses in accordance with the canons of scientific rigor (ahiauzu, 2006). the primary data were drawn from fourteen (14) functional and registered quoted banks in the south-south zone of nigeria which also constitute our target population and level of analysis. more so, these banks were registered with the corporate affairs commission (cac), nigerian deposit and insurance company (ndic), and the nigeria stock exchange (nse). forty two (42) copies of structured questionnaire were distributed on the ratio of three copies per bank. our unit of analysis constitutes the bank’s general managers and other top management staff who have direct contact with the customers. the generated data were presented in tables and percentages and the various hypotheses were tested by employing the spearman’s rank correlation coefficient to ascertain the relationship between physical architecture and customer patronage. the research instrument was designed using likert scale in the measurement of the two constructs, physical architecture and customer patronage which ranges from “very high extent” to “very low extent”. most of the instruments used to measure the constructs in this study were adapted from previous studies in order to ensure content validity (bitner, 1992). items measuring physical architec okonkwo 195 table 1. reliability coefficient of variables measured. s/no dimensions/measures of the study variables no of items no of cases cronbach’s alpha 1 physical architecture 5 42 0.762 2 sales volume 5 42 0.906 3 profit margin 5 42 0.875 4 customer retention 5 42 0.935 source: spss output version 15.0. table 2. result of spearman rank correlation coefficient between physical architecture (pa) and sales volume (sv). physical architecture sales volume correlation coefficient 1.000 .692** physical architecture sig. (2-tailed . .000 spearman's rho n 42 42 correlation coefficient .692** 1.000 sales volume sig. (2-tailed .000 . n 42 42 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: research data 2014 and spss ver. 15 window output. table 3. result of spearman rank correlation coefficient between physical architecture (pa) and profit margin (pm). physical architecture profit margin correlation coefficient 1.000 .622** physical architecture sig. (2-tailed . .000 spearman's rho n 42 42 correlation coefficient .622** 1.000 profit margin sig. (2-tailed .000 . n 42 42 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: research data 2014 and spss ver. 15 window output. ture, including facility layout, facility design and equipment functionality are obtained from darshan, (2006) and haynes, (2000). customer patronage was measured by items such as: sales volume, profit level and customer retention which were adapted from cronin et al. (2000), asiegbu et al. (2011), adiele et al. (2011) and athanasoglou et al. (2005). the validation process led us to seeking the opinion of experts in services marketing and service environment strategist. towards this end, ten copies of structured questionnaire were pretested on selected managers of the different banks within the context of our study. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to ascertain or test for instrument reliability. it is also an indicator of the internal consistency of a measure (witney, 1996; ahiauzu, 2006). from the analysis the results were all above the threshold of (0.70) as suggested by nunnaly (1978), indicating that our research instrument was reliable. we therefore regard the items in the instrument as being internally related to the factors they are expected to measure (table 1). analyses of results the hypotheses and data on physical architecture and customer patronage of banks in the south-south zone of nigeria are presented in tables 2, 3 and 4 respectively. result of spearman rank correlation coefficient between physical architecture (pa) and sales volume (sv) ho1: there is no significant relationship between physical architecture and sales volume in banks in south-south zone of nigerian table 2 shows that the correlation coefficient variables 196 afr. j. agric. mark. table 4. result of spearman rank correlation coefficient between physical architecture (pa) and customer retention (cr). physical architecture customer retention correlation coefficient 1.000 .704** physical architecture sig. (2-tailed . .000 spearman's rho n 42 42 correlation coefficient .704** 1.000 customer retention sig. (2-tailed .000 . n 42 42 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: research data 2014 and spss ver. 15 window output. ranked x and y is (.692). this positive value of rs says that there is a strong rank correlation between physical architecture (x) and sales volume (y) in the sample of banks in south-south zone of nigeria. furthermore, the cronbach’s alpha values for physical architecture and sales volume are (.762) and (.906) respectively as shown in table 2. since the p-value (0.000) is less than the level of significance at (0.05), we therefore reject the null hypothesis and uphold the alternate hypothesis which says that there is a significant relationship between physical architecture and sales volume in the banks in south-south zone of nigeria. result of spearman rank correlation coefficient between physical architecture (pa) and profit margin (pm) ho2: there is no significant relationship between physical architecture and profit margin in the banks in south-south zone of nigerian. table 3 shows that the correlation coefficient variables ranked x and y is (.622). this positive value of rs (.622) indicates that there is a strong rank correlation between physical architecture (x) and profit margin (y) in the sample of banks in south-south zone of nigeria. moreso, the cronbach’s alpha values for physical architecture and profit margin are (.762) and (.875) respectively as shown in (table 1). since the p-value (0.000) is less than the level of significance at (0.05), we therefore reject the null hypothesis and uphold the alternate hypothesis which says that there is a significant relationship between physical architecture and profit margin in banks in southsouth zone of nigeria. result of spearman rank correlation coefficient between physical architecture (pa) and customer retention (cr) ho3: there is no significant relationship between physical architecture and customer retention in banks in southsouth zone of nigeria. the spearman’s rank test result in table 4 shows that the correlation coefficient of the variables rankx and rank –y is .704. the positive value of rs (.704) revealed that there is a strong rank correlation between physical architecture (x) and customer retention (y) in the sample of banks in south-south zone of nigeria. more so, the cronbach alpha values for physical architecture and customer retention are (.762) and (.935) respectively (table 1). since p-value (0.000) is less than the level of significance at (0.005), we therefore reject the null hypothesis and uphold the alternate hypothesis .this implies that there is a significant relationship between physical architecture and customer retention in the banks in south-south zone of nigeria. discussion of the findings relationship between physical architecture and customer patronage the test of hypotheses one, two and three as shown in tables 2, 3 and 4, respectively revealed that a strong and positive relationship exists between physical architecture and each of the measures of customer patronage in the sample of banks in south-south zone of nigeria. the positive value of (.692), (.622) and (.704) also showed the strength of the relationships between the variables. the cronbach’s alpha values for physical architecture (.762), sales volume (.906), profit margin (.875) and customer retention (.935) indicated the rate at which our research instruments were reliable (table 1). furthermore, the p-value (0.00) is less than the level of significance of (0.05); therefore, we reject the null hypotheses and conclude that a positive and significant relationship exists between physical architecture, sales volume, profit margin and customer retention. this finding corroborates the views of wakefield and blodget (2005), that an effective layout will provide ease okonkwo 197 of entry and exist, and will make ancillary service areas such as concessions, restrooms, and souvenir be more accessible to customers. similarly, wakefield and blodget (2005) argued that effective architecture in discount stores and banks facilitates the fulfillment of functional needs. notably, interesting and effective physical architecture was found to facilitate fulfillment of hedonic or pleasure needs. that is, by making ancillary service areas more accessible customers are able to spend more time enjoying the primary service offering. however, it is important to emphasize that physical architecture that makes people or customers to feel constricted may have a direct effect on customer quality perceptions excitement levels, and indirectly on their desire to return (customer retention). this is consistent with the views of wakefield and blodget (2005) that service or retail facilities that are specifically designed to add some level of excitement, arousal or satisfaction to the service experience such as in an upscale restaurant or commercial bank should provide ample space to facilitate exploration and stimulation within the physical environment (wakefield and blodgett; 2005). from the foregone discussion, we are inclined to opine that physical architecture can influence patronage in banks. skogland and siguaw (2004) similarly examined the people factor and satisfaction with hotel and bank ambience and reported that they positively affect word-ofmouth loyalty. their finding corroborates with the views of timm (2008), that underscored the importance of bank design and amenities as drivers of sales volume. hence, chiliya et al. (2006) opined that organizations build themselves around what is good for their customer and change their organizational ambience, structures, systems and processes to build great customer experiences in order to continually sustain growth despite fierce competition. this assertion is in line with our findings in table 2 which showed a significant relationship between physical architecture and sales volume as evidenced in the strong value of (69.2%). furthermore, in the view of goddard et al. (2004a), as banks move into the twenty first century, they must focus more than ever before on creating new streams of revenue in order to increase shareholders value. critical to this effort is the need to assess and analyze the profitability of the bank’s current customers, relationships, services customer retention rate and products. it is only through such analysis that bank can determine which customers to fight for, which customer relationship to expand, and which prospective customer to pursue. this statement corroborates with our study finding in table 3 which indicated a significant relationship between physical architecture and profit margin as evidenced in the positive value of 62.2%. similarly, for any business organization, even the banking industry to perform creditably and remain in business, there must be inherent customer retention program and strategies. customer retention affects both revenues and cost in the equation of profitability. this equation equates profitability to be equal to revenue and cost is lowered due to lesser generation and marketing costs of such revenue. sales volume plays a key role in the profit level of any organization. higher sales volume will always reflect in higher profit margin or increasing demand and the number of units sold. arguably, from the above discussions, there is a relationship between physical architecture, sales volume, profit margin and customer retention. this statement agrees with our finding in table 4 which indicated a strong and significant relationship between physical architecture and customer retention as observed in the strong value of 70.4%. another positive consequence of customer retention is that it can help the firm gain competitive advantage and an expansion of their market share as customers willingly buy other products as well as refer others to the organization (christopher and james, 2012). the impact of furnishing can be evidenced through the affective response of comfort; and this is also an important aspect of service environment that attracts profit margin and retention. the study of baker et al. (2002) showed strong evidence that customer’s perception towards display and layout will influence the customer’s value perception. the value perception has a strong impact on customer patronage. from the discussion thus far, we conclude that physical architecture positively and significantly affects customer patronage. conclusion and research implications this article has explored some of the pertinent areas in which physical architecture and customer patronage are predicated upon and also established the relationship between these constructs. based on the findings obtained from summary of discussion, empirical related literature; thus far, we conclude that physical architecture affect customer patronage of banks in the south-south zone of nigeria. furthermore, amongst the measures of patronage, physical architecture strongly affects customer retention of banks under investigation as evidenced in table 4. similarly, the implication of the study is that the use of physical architecture as a strategy to enhance customer patronage in banks should be recognized since both theoretical and empirical evidence has proven that the dimensions of physical architecture positively correlate with customer patronage. we suggest that, banks should take cognizance of the fact that physical architecture (i.e. efficient facility layout, facility design and functionality of their equipment) can help facilitate their service delivery process thereby reducing customer waiting time, crowding and complaint. from our findings and discussion thus far, we develop a 198 afr. j. agric. mark. facility layout physical facility architecture design equipment functionality customer sales volume patronage profit margin customer retention figure 2. physical architecture and customer patronage model. new physical architecture and customer patronage heuristic model presented in figure 2. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references adiele kc, john m, didia jud (2011). the impact of corporate citizenship on business performance: marketing implications for nigerian organizations, benin j soc. sci. 19(1 & 2):319-330. ahiauzu ai (2006). advanced research methods in management sciences for doctoral students (unpublished manuscript). faculty of management sciences, rivers state university of science and technology, port harcourt. asiegbu fi, awa ho, akpotu c, ogbonna ub (2011). sales force competence development and marketing performance of industrial and domestic products firms in nigeria. far east j psychol. bus. 2(3):43-59. athanasoglou pp, sophocles nb, mathaios dd (2005). bank-specific, industry-specific and macro-economic determinants of bank profit margin. mpra paper 153, university library of munich, germany, revised 2006. 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www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review measures to eradicate child labour in the agricultural commodity labour markets chukwendo d. macaulay department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, university of lagos, lagos, nigeria. accepted 16 november, 2014 a simmering crisis in the nigerian agriculture today involves labour and the crisis manifests itself in the degree of labour availability, labour demand and labour productivity. one of the major products of this crisis is the increased participation of children in paid, non-familiar agricultural jobs. they are frequently employed as farm labourers, bird scarers, food crop harvesters, processors and hawkers. more than 132 million children work in agriculture. agriculture ranks as one of the three most dangerous work activities, followed by mining and construction. child labour is increasing in postharvest processing, transport, marketing and a range of agro industries. child labour is maybe one of the most striking indicators identifying vulnerable children and as such pointing to shortcomings in several of the millennium goals as poverty eradication, education for all, gender equality, combating hiv/aids and creation of a global partnership for development. most working children do so after a decision in their parental household. to understand the household labour supply decisions, relation to the labour market and to public interventions is critical in designing programmes in order to achieve the mdgs. the research on child labour represents in this respect a largely untapped resource of knowledge for policymakers in the fields of agriculture, education programmes and poverty reduction programmes. the effect of lack of education opportunities on child labour is well documented, but existence of widespread agricultural child labour also reduces the effectiveness of investment in education. it is recommended in this paper that the legislator should enact laws that will reduce agricultural child labour through redistribution of the nation’s resources, women should be integrated in the fight to combat child labour and that alternative income sources should be provided for rural families whose children are the most vulnerable. key words: child labour, agriculture, combating, development. introduction child labor is a complex issue. to begin with, not all work involving children should be a cause for concern that is, not all work is labour. developmentally appropriate economic activity can be beneficial to the full development of a child, but at its extreme, work can place a child’s life and well being at risk. work that is exploitative, dangerous and detrimental to the physical, social, moral or spiritual development of children, or inhibits a child’s ability to receive a quality, relevant education, is considered hazardous labour and poses is considered hazardous labour chukwendo 182 and poses a major human rights and socio-economic challenge. there are numerous social, human and environmental factors that influence how families and children view the premature participation of children in the labor market. child labor and its causes vary from country to country, community to community, and even household to household. therefore, strategies to combat child labor call for context-specific and solutionoriented interventions that take into account the nuances of local environments. nearly 70 percent of child laborers are engaged in rural-based economic activities. agricultural work is the most prevalent form of child labour, and one of the most hazardous (ilo,1999) while interventions by ngos and other organizations and institutions have targeted the worst forms of exploitative child labour in urban areas, (ilo,2002), the vast majority of child laborers continue to toil away in the countryside. it is significant to note that children from rural areas also comprise a significant percentage of the children who eventually end up in the worst and most exploitive forms of urban child labour. poverty and child labor are inexorably linked; however, poverty can exist even when child labour does not. different groups can frame poverty in different terms, focusing on, for example: income or consumption poverty, human development and underdevelopment, social exclusion, overall well being, vulnerability or an inability to meet certain basic needs. child labour is strongly associated with income poverty and often reflects the fragility of a country’s struggle toward greater economic prosperity (castle and diarra, 2004). in low-income countries, child labor historically declines when gross domestic product (gdp) per capita increases (efa, 2007). however, child labor is not only a symptom of poverty, it is a contributing factor. child labor often consists of simple, unskilled routines that offer little opportunity for progression to better paying, more interesting or safer occupations. many child laborers engage in invisible, unacknowledged and unregulated tasks, which can include hazardous work on family farming plots under the direct supervision of parents or caregivers. local tradition and culture, as well as family solidarity, can make it difficult to acknowledge that these children are being exploited. however, not all work that children perform on family farming plots is hazardous; a closer examination of these activities is necessary. educating parents and caregivers on activities that are truly hazardous to children will empower them to make informed choices. in addition to family farming plots, children work on, or accompany their parents or caregivers to large agricultural plantations. this is common when school is too expensive, or too far from home, or when daycare is not an option. since children are often seen as extensions of the family unit, they are not paid for their work on the plantations, and employers claim no responsibility for their health or safety. on cocoa plantations in west africa, children do a variety of work that includes carrying cocoa beans to be dried, transporting foods such as plantains and cassava, and fetching water for drinking and irrigation. their duties also include hazardous work like weeding with cutlasses, carrying and applying pesticides, and harvesting and splitting cocoa pods with a hook-shaped instrument referred to by locals as a ―go to hell‖ (care, 2007). children are usually aware of the dangers they face, such as cuts, insect and snake bites, and skin irritation from applying pesticides — dangers they can also face while working on family farming plots — but there is little they can do. plantation work is often seasonal; families migrate with the changes in season and crop cycle. as a result, children often miss large parts of the school year, or start school late. it is not uncommon for children enrolled in school to be sent to the fields to work during school hours. the millennium development goals the origins of the millennium development goals (mdgs) lie in the united nations millennium declaration, which was adopted by all 189 un member states on 8 september 2000. by the year 2015, all 191 united nations member states have pledged to meet the following goals: 1. eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. achieve universal primary education 3. promote gender equality and empower women 4. reduce child mortality 5. improve maternal health 6. combat hiv/aids, malaria and other diseases 7. ensure environmental sustainability 8. develop a global partnership for development child labour/street child defined the world bank lacks a universal definition of child labour, as the definitions of ―children‖ and labour are highly dependent on the locality of these elements. however, in brazil child labour refers to any work, paid or unpaid, for at least one hour per week and that any type of labour is illegal for children under 14 years of age (gustafsson-wright and pyne, 2002). child labour typically interferes with the schooling of children, obliging them to leave school early, or try to combine school and work which makes for long hours of work without rest, or making it impossible for them to attend at all. it is common that children in rural areas engage in agricultural activities in some form, whether seasonal to coincide with crop cycles and or school holidays or full time. in west africa, as in many parts of the world, the participation of children in agricultural work alongside adults is a valued tradition. in the cocoa industry, many children work on small family farms of five to six hectares, the products of which are sold to local markets or consumed by the families themselves (ilo-ipec, 2007). child labour, child abuse and agricultural labour the issue of the involvement of children in agricultural labour could normally be treated under child abuse. in its original and narrowest formulation, ―child abuse‖ refers principally to cases fitting into what clinical paediatricians describe as the ―battered baby syndrome‖, a phenomenon which has been documented extensively in the industria-lized countries (osotimehin et al., 2007). over the years, however, a broader formulation has emerged and the term has to apply to all such acts of commission or omission which tend to deny children of the human treatment to which they are entitled or to deprive them of the opportunities for the total development of their human personality and potentials. child labour is generally characterized as any physical engagement of the child, either paid or unpaid and directed to alleviate the burden of adults outside or inside the home, so as to make a living for the child himself or to help the adult (donli, 2004). from the framework described above, child labour has been described as work that is inconsistent with the principles set under the conventions and recommendations, namely that the child is below the minimum age for a given occupation or type of work, or work in an otherwise non-hazardous occupation under conditions that render the work hazardous for adolescents (iita, 2002). studies carried out by unicef show that child labourers are found all over the world. in the industrialized countries, for example, about 2.5 million children aged 5 – 14 years are found to be economically active (about 2% of the total child population). in countries with transition economies, 2.4 million children aged 5 – 14 or around 4 percent of the total population are economically active. however, the largest numbers of working children are found in the developing countries. here, the most disturbing cases are in sub-saharan africa where 29 percent of children aged 5 – 14 are working (48 million) followed by asia and the pacific (19% or 127.3 million), latin america and the caribbean (16% or 17.4 million) and the middle east and north africa (15% or 13.4 million), where many children are born for agric labour. in africa, children have traditionally been regarded as members of the production unit of the family. they serve their parents in various capacities, depending on the occupation and social status of their families (osotimehin et. al., 2007). generally, the use of children as members of the family labour force is regarded as an integral part of the children’s socialization process. child rearing customs expect them to be assigned some domestic work commensurate with age, sex and physique. it is believed that by so doing, these children will pick up useful skills, learn more about their own communities 183 afr. j. agric. mark. and, hence prepare themselves for responsibilities of adult life. child labour is maybe one of the most striking indicators identifying vulnerable children and as such pointing to shortcomings in several of the millennium goals as poverty eradication (1), education for all (2), gender equality (3), discrimination of girls towards education and traditional burdens put on girls in their own households as reasons for child labour, combating hiv/aids (6) aids orphanages as another reason for child labour, and developing a global partnership for development (8), including developing descent and productive work for youths since child labour in its worst forms often has cross border links and that decent and productive work for youths are undermined by the existence of child labour. child labour can be found everywhere. the use of child labour in the early phases of industrialisation in many countries has attracted special attention. some early research on child labour came to the conclusion that it is a special ―need‖ to eradicate child labour in this phase of development. the question now should be, does child labour hamper economic growth? it does so by not only reducing the individual’s educational achievements but reduces the effect and quality of the education system. child labour is also associated with households where poverty is inherent from one generation to the next. hence, as the fight against child labour has gained international momentum during the last decade and as a lot of research work has been undertaken to better understand the causes and consequences of child labour, it is natural to utilise this information to help underpin the work towards the millennium development goals. reduction of child labour will help improve children’s educational achievements including the efficiency and capacity of the education system and help reduce poverty. nigeria and child labour policies nigeria has ratified convention no. 138, the minimum age convention no. 182, the worst forms of child labour convention, both in 2002 (icftu, 2005). the constitution states that primary education should be provided free and compulsory ―when practical‖. however, in practice access to education is very limited due to lack of facilities. girls have less access to education than boys. net primary school enrolment for girls was over 33 percent over the period of 1998 2002. for boys, this percentage was 38 percent over the same period. the minimum age for employment is 15 years in most sectors; however, child labour is widespread in nigeria. children younger than 15 years can only be employed in home-based agricultural or domestic work, but not in commerce and industrial work, and they are not allowed to work more than 8 h per day (icftu, 2005). in 2000, the ilo estimated that 23.5 percent of children between 10 and 14 were working. chukwendo 184 children are mainly employed in agriculture (on family farms), in fishing and herding, but also on commercial farms. furthermore, they are employed in the informal economy as domestic workers, street vendors, car washers, beggars and vendors in markets. some children work in small industries as mechanics, metal workers, carpenters, weavers and barbers. child begging is widespread in nigeria and child prostitution is a serious problem in main cities in nigeria. a 2003 study by the ilo and the government (federal office of statistics) estimated the number of working children at 15 million, of which up to 40% is at risk to be trafficked for forced labour. of these working children, 6 million do not attend school and 2 million work more than 15 h per day (icftu, 2005). child labour inspection is limited to the formal economy where the level of child labour is relatively low. there is also a lack of inspectors. it is important to observe that the government in the preindependence era was not indifferent to child welfare. for instance, the children and young persons law (cypl) in several states in nigeria contained laws regu-lating street trading and the fact that in the 1960s, at least four (4) ilo conventions prohibiting children’s work in various hazardous occupations and conditions were ratified. however, the enactment of the labour code in 1974 with several provisions to limit the age of admission into employment in various occupations as well as limits the working hours and exposure to hazards was a decisive legal action, which demonstrated the stance of government towards achieving child welfare. the ratifycation and signing of the united nations convention on the rights of the child (uncrc) in 1991 represented the climax in government’s positive stance to combat child labour in view of the fact that one of its articles targets the elimination of the phenomenon (oloko, 1999). article 32 enjoins state parties to recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development (unicef, 2001). in addition, the effort of government on child welfare precipitated former president olusegun obasanjo to sign into law the child right bill in june 2006. other efforts by government and nongovernment organisations include: 1. section 31 of cap 32 of the laws of the federation of nigeria, which prohibits children under 14 years and girls less than 16 years from trading in the streets. 2. centre for non-formal education and training (cenfet) provides basic education for out-of-school and working children especially scavengers. 3. the ―hawking by children edict cap 58 law of nigeria‖. 4. the nomadic education programme under the national commission for nomadic education promulgates by decree 41 of 1989 was the major programme that has been established for children who have never attended school. it was established in recognition of the fact that the migratory nature of pastoral nomads and migrant fishermen made it difficult for their children (who invariably work with their parents) to be enrolled in formal education. it is sad to note that these efforts have made marginal impact on improving child welfare or specifically reducing incidence of child labour and street children (unicef, 2001). this is largely because these measures have been uncoordinated, not well implemented and largely unenforced. for instance, studies conducted by various researchers in nigeria (oloko, 1999; unicef, 2004; imam, 1998; onuike, 1998; okpukpara and odurukwe, 2003) show that the child labour and street children are increasing in both practices and characteristics. it was also reported that gender restrictions in the involvement of children in work in certain crafts were found to have been eroded such that increasingly boys and girls were engaged in most occupations. in other countries, studies attest the same story. unicef reported that in the year 2000, there were 233 million children between the ages of 5 – 18 years in urban areas in developing countries doing one kind of paid work or the other (unicef, 2004). this development has grave economic and development consequences. many studies have condemned child participation in economic activities and worst form of it (street children) because of it resultant effect on health, schooling, physical, moral and psychological development of the child (unicef, 2004; ilo-ipec, 2002). child-workers in agricultural commodity markets an evaluation of youths’ participation in porterage services in ogbomosho, oyo state, nigeria by oshotimehin et al. (2007). the issue of the active involvement of children in the nigerian agricultural markets in ogbomoso revealed that most of the participants were hired into the business due to such factors as poverty, family psychosocial problems. the child-workers used head porterage, wheel barrow and two-wheeled carts to transport cassava tubers from the markets to the various processing points of their employers. minority (32%) of them are in the business on full time while the remaining 67.5 percent do it on part-time basis usually after returning from school, during holidays and weekends. they showed that one the average income these youngsters earned is about n265.00 per day. though the employment seems to be lucrative with respect to the present day structure in the public services, this study is of the opinion that nigerian youths should be discouraged from further participation in such activities, since it affects their schooling and personal development. most importantly, no special skills are being acquired in the work. this is impacting on their future survival and contributing to economy of the nation. a research work carried out by lawal and akintayo (2007) in oyo state, nigeria shows that children producing vegetables fell between the ages of 14 and 17 and more male children were involved than females. major reasons for venturing into vegetable production include income generation, family sustenance and supplementation of school fees. hazards children were exposed to include physical, environmental and educa-tional hazards. ilo (2007) opined the existence of child labour in cocoa farms in ondo state of nigeria and over 1,500 children were withdrawn from child labour, mainly throuh education/training options or health services, or prevented from starting such work. over 500 parents/ guardians were trained in various income generating activities. in nigeria, wacap’s awareness-raising efforts centered on getting articles in national dailies and news and features ontelevision. the ministers of information and labour were reported as praising wacap for championing the campaign to eradicate child labour in agriculture (ilo, 2007). measures to reduce child labour according to udry (2004), the most effective way to draw children out of damaging work is to encourage school attendance. one way of doing so would be to improve school quality, and therefore increase the gain to attending school. handa (2002), for example, argues that school enrollment in mozambique is quite sensitive to the number of trained teachers. this is an important tool that is available to reduce child labor. the most promising tool yet developed for reducing child labor is a targeted subsidy to families sending their children to school. in such a program, a grant is provided to the family of any child who is enrolled in school. the particular value of this intervention is that it addresses the root causes of child labor. it overcomes the problems associated with imperfect or nonexistent financial markets by balancing the current cost of moving a child out of the labor force and into school with a current grant. it addresses the main agency problem by providing current resources, thus, reducing the importance of intergenerational transfers. subsidies for school enrollment is a useful tool in the effort to reduce child labor. the effects of child labor are large for older children (10 13 year olds); younger children were unlikely to work even before the program. the program’s impact was to reduce the proportion of children working by almost 9 percentage points (from a base of 27%). the food-foreducation program in rural bangladesh is similar in spirit to the other two programs. the monthly payment is smaller; 15 to 25 percent of average monthly earnings for working children. nevetheless, ravallion and wodon (1999) estimated that the ffe program moved primary school enrollment from approximately 75% to over 90%. child labor force participation dropped as well (by about 30% for boys and by about 20% for girls). child labor can effectively be reduced by subsidies for 185 afr. j. agric. mark. school enrollment. this tool dominates alternatives because it addresses directly the tragic circumstances that impel families to send their children to work instead of school. an effective subsidy program is not unreasonably expensive because the costs are tied to the low wages earned by child workers. women at crossroads as agents of change women are to be on the frontlines of the fight against child labor. an empowered woman that understands the dangers associated with hazardous and exploitative child labor, and the power an education can have on changing the future for her children, can help reduce the number of child laborers and those at risk of becoming child laborers. an investment in women is an investment in combating and ultimately eliminating child labor (care, 2007). women possess the skills and knowledge necessary for galvanizing community action to reduce and eliminate child labor, and improve the quality of community-level education. women stand at the crossroads when it comes to their impact on child labour. empowered women are keenly aware of the dangers associated with child labour, and have proven vital to the success and sustainability of child-labour efforts. on the other hand, women that are unaware of the hazards and exploitative conditions children face, and the power of education to mitigate these dangers, can fuel the premature entry of children into the workforce, contributing to lower academic performance and higher dropout rates. a comprehensive analysis of how women can mitigate or exacerbate rates of child labour is urgently needed. economic alternatives for families when families have resources, knowledge and opportunities to develop alternative forms of income, parents and caregivers are more likely to withdraw their children from hazardous and exploitative child labor and encourage them to attend and complete school. adult family members gain knowledge, skills and other capabilities that allow them to find alternative employment opportunities, increasing their incomes and eliminating the need for their children to work. according to care (2007), some action plans needs to be in place for success and these plans are, 1. skills-training programs for parents and caregivers that will help increase their incomes and further their personal development. 2. long-term commitments from families, donors, imple menting agencies and local partner ngos are secured at the outset of a project, and continue even after the project chukwendo 186 ends. 3. projects that have a market-oriented focus. 4. vocational training programs provide former child laborers and those at risk with valuable life skills. the programs should take into account the needs of the local labor market as well as the opinions and beliefs of youths, parents and caregivers including mechanisms for holding trainers accountable. 5. alliances with employers and technical institutions enable education programs to offer training in job-related skills. conclusion to understand the household reactions to public interventions is critical in designing programmes in order to achieve the mdgs. the research on child labour represents in this respect a largely untapped resource of knowledge for policymakers in the fields of education and poverty reduction programmes. in particular the research on child labour brings about vital information on the role of the labour market in fighting poverty, but these links are not made in the intervention programmes. this paper has shown how child labour not only derives from poverty but adds to it through its effects on the labour market and education system. eliminating child labour requires determined action across a broad front – economic, social and cultural norms. it cannot be eliminated solely by government action. a broad and committed coalition is needed – including educational institutions, teachers’ organizations, ngos, mass media and community-based organizations, along with support from trade unions and employers’ organizations. the first task is to ensure effective legislation. this is important but not sufficient. most countries already prohibit child labour, and a small but growing number are establishing systems to monitor the situation and enforce the laws. abbreviations care, cooperative for assistance and relief everywhere; cenfet, centre for non-formal education and training; cypl, children and young persons law; efa, education for all; fao, food and agricultural organisation; ffe, food for education; icftu, international confederation of free trade unions; ilo, international labour organisation; ipec, international program on the elimination of child labour; ngo, non-governmental organisation; sard, sustainable agriculture and rural development; un, united nations; uncrc, united nations convention on rights of the child; unicef, united nations children’s fund; wacap, programme to combat hazardous and exploitative child labour in cocoa/commercial agriculture in west africa. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references care (2007). cautionchildren at work. galvanising ommunities to end child labour.cooperative for assistance and relief everywhere inc. (care) usa. www.care.org castle s, diarra a (2004). the international migration of young malians: tradition, necessity or rite of passage? london school of hygiene and tropical medicine (2004). donli hm (2004). ―socio-legal consequences of child abuse‖. in: women and children in nigeria law. ajibola, r. (ed). federal ministry of justice law. review series 6:129 -157. efa (2007). newsletter of the global task force on child labour and education for all (march 2007). fao (2007) . sustainable agriculture and rural development (sard) and child labour. policy brief 2. gustafsson-wright e, pyne hh (2002). gender dimensions of child labour and street child in brazil. world bank policy research working paper 2897, october, 2002. handa s (2002). ―raising primary school enrollment in developing countries: the relative importance of supply and demand,‖ j dev. econ. 66(1):103-128. icftu (2005). internationally recognized core labour standards in nigeria. report for the wto general council review of the trade polices in nigeria. geneva 11 – 13 may. iita (2002). child labour in the cocoa sector of west africa: a synthesis of findings in cameroon, cote d’ivoire, ghana and nigeria. report, august 2002. international institute of tropical agriculture, ibadan, nigeria. ilo (1999). convention concerning the prohibition and immediate elimination of the worst forms of chile labour [convention no. 182]. international labour organization (1999). ilo (2002) . eliminating the worst form of child labour: a practical guide to ilo convention no. 182. international labour organization and the interparliamentarian union (2002). ilo-ipec (2002). combating trafficking in children for labour exploitation in west and central africa. report on sub-regional workshop, cotonou, benin, 18 – 29 july. ilo-ipec (2007). rooting out child labour from cocoa farms – paper no. 3: sharing experiences. geneva, international labour office, 2007 imam yo (1998). a situation analysis of almajiris in north east zone of nigeria. a report submitted to unicef, nigeria. international labour organization (2002). every child counts; new global estimates on child labour ilo/ipec geneva. international labour organization (2003). working out of poverty, report of the director general to the 91st ilo conference., geneva okpukpara bc, odurukwe n (2003). incidence and determinants of child labour in nigeria: implication for poverty alleviation. j. econ. policy 10 (2). oloko sba (1999). national study on child labour in nigeria, report for international labour organisation, lagos. onuike ac (1998). child labour in nigeria transport industry, paper presented at the 8th world conferences in transport research, antwep, belgium 12th – 17th july. 187 afr. j. agric. mark. osotimehin ko, tijani aa, ajayi oa (2007). childworkers in agricultural commodity markets: an evaluation of youths’ participation in porterage services in ogbomoso, oyo state, nigeria. research j. soc. sci. 2:38-43, 2007 insinet publication ravallion m, wodon q (1999). ―does child labor displace schooling? evidence on behavioral responses to an enrollment subsidy.‖ working paper: world bank. swinnerton ka, rogers ca (2001). a theory of exploitative child labour. working paper. swinnerton ka, rogers ca (1999). the economics of child labour: comment. am. econ. rev. 89(5):1382-85. udry c (2004). child labour. yale university unicef (2001). children’s and women’s right in nigeria. a wakeup call. situation assessment and analysis, 2001. unicef (2004). the state of the world’s children 2004. the united nations children’s fund, unicef. house, 3 un plaza, new york, ny 10017, usa. © author(s) retain the copyright of this article. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (2), pp. 101-108, february, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper factors affecting sustainable development among leaders of rural community: a case study of malaysia maggos ari, paul manding and jubillee oyibo* laboratory for rural advancement and agriculture extension, institute for social science studies, universiti of putra, malaysia. accepted 24 january, 2014 rural development researchers have identified a number of factors that affect sustainable development among the rural community. nevertheless, mix results were reported in literature. hence, this study was conducted to investigate on the constructs that affect sustainable development among members of village development and security committee (vdsc) under the vision village movement (vvm). a total of 235 respondents from 18 villages were involved encompassing three states in malaysia. the final model derived from this study showed that four pertinent constructs that fit into the sustainable development model are spirituality, leadership, beautification, and education. it is believed that the findings of this study would add new perspective in understanding the complexities associated with sustainable development among the rural community. key words: village development and security committee (vdsc), vision village movement (vvm), sustainable development, rural community. introduction in line with globalization and modernization, the malaysian government has implemented numerous efforts to develop rural community so that it would enable this community to successfully enhance their quality of life similar to the urban community. development strategy in malaysia has started since 1957 whereby this strategy emphasized on planned development. rural development is one of the key areas placed in this strategy whereby the government had initiated village vision movement (vvm) program launched in 1996 by the exprime minister of malaysia to expedite rural development in this country. the main focus of vvm is to cultivate consciousness and positive attitude among rural community so as to be in tandem with government’s effort to create villages that are more beautiful, developed, and competitive. koharudin (2005), in his study concluded that vvm has the ability to create positive attitude and *corresponding author. e-mail: hayrol82@gmail.com. paradigm shift among the villagers towards development. however, the success of vvm is very much dependable on the committee members of village development and security committee (vdsc) since they are the change agents that would be able to cultivate competitive and succcessful rural community (shamsul, 1998), through rural sustainable development. sustainable development is an important element that has a wide array of views under its umbrella. in the 1980s, increasing concern on the effects of economic development on health, natural resources and the environment led the united nations to publish the brundtland report. this report defined sustainable development as "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." in june 1992, the rio earth summit declared that "the right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations." sustainable development is not just about the environment, but also encompasses the economy and society at maggos et al. 101 large (the brundtland report, 1987). literature analysis there is extensive research done that portray constructs which contribute to rural sustainable development. studies implemented by shiblaq and fielden (2008), and hopkins and mckeown (2002), concluded that information and communication technology (ict) and education will improve rural community economically, socially and academically while according to ngcobo and herselman (2007), ict and education will empower rural poor people and community to lead their own development. on top of it, beautification and health are also important factors that contribute toward sustainable development whereby hazell and lutz (1998), stressed that rural community should be exposed to the importance of beautifying their environment and focusing on the cleanliness of their village since their conciousness towards environment is degrading. moreover, a study done by day (1998) identified that the attainment of sustainable development in rural areas depends upon effective leaders that would create social and institutional networks that would boost economic activities in villages besides enabling the villagers to enhance on agricultural skills. adil et al. (2005), on the other hand, emphasized on the aspect of spirituality that should not be ignored in the context of sustainable development so that the interests of every member in the rural community is being taken care of and more efforts toward creating a culture of collaboration and teamwork can exist in villages. in spite of the above stated facts, the question that arises is whether the vdsc members perceive all the aspects mentioned above as important dimension of sustainable development? thus, the main aim of this study is to determine the significant higher order constructs that significantly explain the factors of sustainable development among the vdsc members in their respective villages. it is hoped that this study would contribute to the existing literature by examining different variables that might have been neglected previously. consequently, this would add to the body of knowledge pertaining to rural sustainable development. materials and method this study used a descriptive framework. the items for the instrument of this study were developed by the researchers based on previous literature. pre-test was carried out among 13 vdsc members located in the vvm village in the area of kajang, selangor and the value of cronbach alpha was 0.6 0.9 indicating that the instrument is valid and reliable. respondents were interviewed using a questionnaire for the purpose of getting the data needed. the sample (list of vvm village) was gained from the department of community development (dcd) based on the selected states. the sample framework was then strengthened by only selecting the members of vdsc that were listed in the vvm villages. those who were selected were from three districts from each state and from every district selected, six vvm villages will represent each district. a total of 235 respondents who were members of village development and security committee (vdsc) from three states were randomly selected. the three states were selangor, negeri sembilan and pahang. the research instrument used in this study consisted of three parts. the first part seeks information on the respondents’ sociodemographic profiles: gender, zone, grade of village, job category, level of education, position in vdsc, age, income per month, period of staying in vvm village and period of holding a position in vdsc. the second part of the instrument measured the sustainable development of respondents’ in terms of social, environment and monetary elements. the third part of the instrument measured the constructs that influence sustainable development. these constructs consisted of seven dimensions: 1) beautification, 2) economy, 3) leadership, 4) information and communication technology, 5) education, 6) health and 7) spirituality. overall, these seven dimensions consisted of 70 items or statements. the data collection process involved a group of trained enumerators and was conducted for a period of two months from april 2008 until may 2008. data collected was analyzed using spss and amos software. spss was used to reveal the frequency, percentage, and cronbach alpha, while amos software was used for analysis of cfa. the cfa analysis will enable to utilize a suitable method to measure the construct validity and to determine the “goodness of fit” of a model determined. results and discussion table 1 and table 2 depict the socio-demographic profile of respondents. as in table 1, data revealed that men are still the main dominant force of village administration accounting 86.0% of the respondents. majority of respondents stayed in central zone (38.3%), followed by southern (31.9%) and only 29.8% respondents represented east coast zone. nearly half of the respondents lived in vvm grade c village (46.4%). results gained also showed that respondents who work on their own are involved in village administration matters compared to other job groups (43.8%), there is a possibility that this group of respondents were less tied to job committments unlike those who work in public and private sector. in terms of level of education, more than two fifth (44.7%) of the respondents had spm (malaysia certificate education) / spmv (malaysia vacational educational certificate) certificate. table 1 also signals that only a minority of respondents had pre-university and tertiary level of education (13.6%). besides, more than three quarter of respondents (78.3%) are holding the position of committee members of vdsc. the data obtained as in table 2 showed that “senior villagers” still dominate village administration based on the respondents age mean score recorded which was 52.61 years. more than one third of respondents (37.9%) were among those whose age were 56 years and above. more than four fifth of the respondents gained income less than rm2,000 per month. majority of the respondents had stayed in the vvm village for a period of 26 45 years (41.2%) . the mean score for staying period in vvm village was 37.1 years while the mean score for holding a position in cvd was 7.33 years. slightly more table 1. respondents profile (n = 235). respondents profile frequency percentage gender male 202 86.0 female 33 14.0 zone central 90 38.3 southern 75 31.9 east coast 70 29.8 village grade grade a 57 24.2 grade b 69 29.4 grade c 109 46.4 job category public sector 57 24.3 private sector 33 14.0 work on their own 103 43.8 unemployed 32 17.9 level of education primary school 55 23.4 pmr/srp/lce* 43 18.3 spm/spmv/mce/certificates 105 44.7 pre-university/ university 32 13.6 position in vdsc chairman/ vice chairman 19 8.1 secretary 17 7.2 treasury 15 6.4 members 184 78.3 *malaysia lower education certificate. table 2. respondents profile. respondents profile frequency percentage mean s.d age (n = 235) <45 years 67 28.5 52.61 10.38 46 55 years 79 33.6 >56 years 89 37.9 income per month (n = 213) (value in ringgit malaysia) <rm1,000 85 39.9 1663.08 1239.85 rm1,001-rm2,000 86 40.4 >rm2,001 42 19.7 period of staying in vvm village (n = 221) <25 years 57 25.7 37.10 15.10 26 45 years 91 41.2 >46 years 73 33.1 period of holding a position in vdsc (n = 209) <5 years 106 50.7 7.33 6.09 6 10 years 62 29.7 >11 years 41 19.6 102 afr. j. agric. mark. maggos et al. 103 than half of the respondents held the vdsc position for 5 years. instrument development amos software was used to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) in determining instrument that measure constructs of sustainable development. in cfa analysis, chi square, gfa index value, cfi and rmsea were applied. an instrument is considered reliable if the chi square value is low and its significance value is high (larger than 0.05), gfi index and cfi value must be larger than 0.9 and rmsea value must be lower than 0.08. analysis conducted involved two phases. for the first phase, it involved testing on model of measurement for each dimension and for the second phase to test on the constructs of sustainable development model. beautification the five items listed for this construct were: 1) emphasize on the beauty of the village was made. 2) initiative to enhance the beauty of the village was taken. 3) involvement in the majority of programs conducted for the beautification and cleanliness of the village. 4) vdsc organization encourages all villagers to enhance beauty in vvm villages. 5) unhappy response to those who do not care about the cleanliness of the village. from these five items only four were selected based on the result of cfa ( 2 = 0.318, p = 0.853, gfi = 0.999, nfi = 0.999 and rmsea = 0.000), which are items number 1, 2, 3 and 4. economy a total of ten items consisted the economy dimension which are: 1) there are undeveloped land in this village. 2) generally, the villagers economy status has been uplifted out from the poverty level. 3) every household in this village has their own transport like bicycle, motorcycle and car. 4) establishing strategic coorperation with number of government and private agencies. 5) agriculture, industry and services are the main activities of the villagers. 6) there are a number of entreprenuership courses conducted in this village for the purpose of enhancing this local economy status. 7) agriculture, industry and services provide job opportunities for the villagers. 8) entreprenuership / commercial activities increase the number of rural entreprenuers. 9) there are new/ unique sources and products that can be commercialized. 10) there is zero unemployment rate in this village however, from the cfa analysis conducted, only four items were included in the dimension of economy ( 2 = 1.971, p = .373, gfi = 0.996, nfi = 1.00 and rmsea = 0.000). the four items identified were items number 2, 5, 7 and 8. leadership there are 16 original items used to measure leadership which are: 1) vdsc has initiative to overcome issues regarding social problems, family problems, drug addict problems and community unity problem. 2) members opinion are accepted by all vdsc members in any discussion or meeting. 3) cvd leaders take care of members charity. 4) team spirit in this village cvd is high 5) generally, there is a satisfaction in the vdsc leadership in this village. 6) the way of this village cvd administration can be accepted by any party. 7) there are cooperation between cvd and government/ private / ngo agencies 8) cvd is alert on changes in government policy. 9) satisfaction with the relationship among vdsc members. 10) all cvd members have equal chances of attending training and courses. 11) there are scheduled program/activity conducted by cvd for the purpose of changing the mindset and attitude of the villagers. 12) there are effective information disseminations to the villagers. 13) this village leadership provides complete and useable village profile and action plan. 14) there are management of emergency issues such as unexpected programs that must be conducted instantly. 15) there are complete and useable village activity schedule. 16) there are unhealthy relations in cvd organizations. after conducted cfa, only four items supported the leadership model ( 2 = 1.223, p = 0.542, gfi = 0.996, nfi = 1.00 and rmsea = 0.000) . the four items selected were items number 1, 2, 6 and item number 9. education a total of ten items were prepared to calculate sustainable level from the education aspect which are: 104 afr. j. agric. mark. 1) there exist the concept of one house/one degree in this village. 2) there are increasing numbers of this villagers son/ daughter who gain the opportunity to continue their study at university level. 3) villagers are open to any program conducted to increase the education level of this village. 4) there exist information on villagers son or daughter who are successful. 5) villagers education level is at a good level. 6) there exist life-long education programs such as reciting yaasin, fardu ain class and others. 7) there are no kids in this vilage who do not go to school. 8) there are villagers who have illiteracy problem. 9) there exist annual educational visit organized by vdsc. 10) there exist contribution of succesful villagers to the village, to conduct community , motivational and other beneficial programs. cfa analysis conducted revealed that five items have the ability to construct the education model ( 2 = 9.374, p = 0.095, gfi = 0.985, nfi = 0.974 and rmsea = 0.061). the five items selected were items number 1, 4, 6, 9 and 10. information and comunication technology (ict) the original number of items included for ict was 12. the items included were: 1) there exist courses/ trainings regarding ict usage for the villagers provided by vdsc. 2) vdsc encourages its members to enhance their knowledge and skills concerning ict 3) this village has its own website. 4) villagers are easy to get information regarding development happening outside malaysia through ict. 5) villagers were able to get lots of information through ict devices provided 6) majority of the youth in this village know how to use computer. 7) there exist computer training regarding computer management and computer software. 8) possesion of at least a computer per home at the vvm village. 9) vdsc members and villagers follow computer classes and computer literacy programs. 10) cvd and the community were able to join computer learning class that was conducted. 11) ict gave negative impact to the villagers. 12) internet services were used widely by the villagers from the cfa analysis done, it was identified that only a total of four items have been included in the ict dimension ( 2 = 0.318, p = 0.853, gfi = 0.999, nfi = 0.999 and rmsea = 0.000) which were items number 1, 3, 7 and 9. health under this construct ten items were identified for the purpose of measurement which were: 1) the ministry of health frequently conducts free health check and monitor the cleanliness of the village. 2) emphasizes on health care aspect to avoid any infectious disease in this village was made. 3) satisfactory level of cleanliness and health of this village. 4) the village drainage system has been serviced systematically. 5) septical toilet is used in this village. 6) there are rural clinics in this village for free treatment for the villagers. 7) total of the villagers that have chronic disease is low 8) this village waste management has been managed systematically 9) this village has won ”the most clean village” award at the state level. 10) there are cleanliness campaign and tasks to beautify the road, alley, ditch and public places. cfa analysis towards the ten original items measuring health aspect has resulted in a total of only four items being included in the health model ( 2 = 1.445, p = .486, gfi=.997, nfi =.996 and rmsea=.000) and the items were items number 1, 4, 5 and item number 10. spirituality seven items were prepared to measure this construct: 1) emphasizes that the spirituality aspect should be cultivated among the community especially among the youths in the village. 2) the believe that the good and bad that happened to one is determined by god. 3) there are a number of religious activities being conducted by vdsc and mosque commitee members for the villagers. 4) there are percentage of involvement from gender generations in the program conducted. 5) there are document on scheduled planning/implementation of spirituality/ religious programs. 6) emphasize on the importance and good deeds of other people in various matters were made. 7) organizing safety campaign and good deeds such as working together and overcoming crimes in village. from the seven original items prepared for the dimension of spirituality, only four items were found to be significant. cfa analysis had produced the following outcome: 2 = 2.828, p = .243, gfi=.994, nfi =.992 and rmsea = .042 maggos et al. 105 table 3. cfa analysis result for sustainable development dimension. instrument/ items 2 p gfi nfi rmsea beautification 0.318 0.853 0.999 0.999 0.000 i emphasize on the beauty of village. 0.55 i take initiative to enhance the beauty of village. 0.79 i get involve in majority of programs conducted for 0.88 the beauty and cleanliness of village. vdsc organization encourages all villagers to 0.80 enhance beauty in vvm village. economy 1.971 0.373 0.996 1.000 0.000 generally, the villagers economy status has been 0.28 uplifted out from the poverty level. agriculture, industry and services are the main 0.73 activities of the villagers. agriculture, industry and services provide job 0.89 opportunities for the villagers. entreprenuerhip/commercial activities increase the 0.67 number of rural entreprenuers leadership 1.223 0.542 0.996 1.000 0.000 vdsc has initiative to overcome isues regarding 0.79 social problem, family problems, drug addict problems and community unity problem. generally, i’m satisfied with the vdsc leadership in 0.83 this village. i’m satisfied with the relationship among vdsc 0.66 members. members opinion are accepted by all vdsc 0.67 members in any discussion or meeting. ict 2.309 0.315 0.999 0.995 0.026 there exist courses/trainings regarding ict usage 0.72 for the villagers provided by vdsc. this village has its own website. 0.68 there exist computer training regarding computer 0.94 management and computer software. vdsc members and villagers follow computer class 0.84 and computer literacy programs. education 9.374 0.095 0.985 0.974 0.061 there exist the concept of one house/ 0.70 one degree in this village. there exist information on villagers son 0.75 or daughter who are successful. there exist life-long education programs such as 0.60 reciting yaasin, fardu ain class and others there exist annual educational visit organized by 0.75 vdsc. there exist contribution of succesful villagers to the 0.62 village to conduct community, motivation and other beneficial programs health and cleanliness 1.445 0.486 0.997 0.996 0.000 the village drainage system has been serviced 0.65 systematically the ministry of health frequently conduct free health 0.77 check and monitor the cleanliness of the village. table 3. contd. septical toilet is used in this village 0.66 there are cleanliness campaign and tasks to 0.86 beautify the road, alley, ditch and public places spirituality 2.828 0.243 0.994 0.992 0.042 i’m emphasizing that the spirituality aspect to be 0.84 cultivated among the community especially among the youths in the village. there are a number of religious activities being 0.72 conducted by vdsc and mosque commitee members for the villagers. i emphasize on the importance and good deeds of 0.78 other people in various matters. orgnaizing safety campaign and good deeds such 0.59 as working together and overcoming crimes in village. table 4. the instrument reliability. instrument number of items cronbach alpha value previous current beautification 5 4 0.837 economy 10 4 0.710 leadership 16 4 0.836 ict 12 4 0.868 education 10 5 0.810 health and cleanliness 10 4 0.813 spirituality and civic 7 4 0.813 overall 29 0.922 sustainable development model 17 0.902 the significant items were items number 1, 3, 6 and item number 7 instrument reliability the instrument will be considered as reliable if cronbach alpha value = 0.70 or more. seven dimensions which were analyzed using cfa analysis, then was once again analyzed in order to reveal its reliability level. data gathered is presented in table 4. based on the obtained data, all the seven dimensions were found to be reliable, the cronbach alpha value exceeding the minimum of 0.70. the economy dimension proved to be the lowest dimension (0.710) while the ict dimension was found to be the highest dimension (0.868). overall, the seven dimensions which consisted of 29 items produced cronbach alpha value of 0.922. the malaysia sustainable development model for rural community this study was designed to develop a firm model to mea sure sustainable development from the seven dimensions that have been identified. cfa analysis was applied for this purpose and the result obtained from table 3 is presented in figure 1. from the seven original dimensions, only four dimensions were found to be fit into the sustainable development model. in order for a data to fit the model the requirements that must be met are gfi index and cfi = > 0.9 and rmsea = < 0.8. after cfa was run, only four dimensions were found to fit the models which were beautification, leadership, education and spirituality. this result is in tandem with what have been done by hazell and lutz (1998), ngcobo and herselman (2007), adil et al. (2005) and day (1998) where all of them agreed that all of these items are the key for rural development success. not only will these four dimensions develop the area but also those who lived in that area. from the previous studies it was also proven that these four items have the ability and power to enhance the quality of life among the rural people especially on the aspects of economy, social and academic. the standardized estimated value for each was 0.72, 0.72, 0.60 and 0.84. the statistic estimation of fit model indicate that this model 106 afr. j. agric. mark. maggos et al. 107 .36 .60 education e1 .51 .72 beautification e2 sustainable .72 .52 development leadership e3 .84 .70 spirituality e4 figure 1. malaysia rural sustainable development model. chi-square = 1.801, df = 2, p = .406, cfi = 1.000, gfi =.996, agfi = .981, nfi = .994, tli = 1.002, rmsea = .000 had failed to be rejected, which means that a model that consists of this four dimensions fit the data ( 2 = 1.801, p = 0.406, gfi = 0.996, nfi = 0.994 and rmsea = 0.0001. conclusion the findings of this study imply that rural community leaders perceive the dimension of spirituality as an important element towards sustainable development. this is an important factor that needs to be taken into serious consideration by policy makers. it is vivid that rural people do not wish to sacrifice their lives by the tidal waves of unfettered materialism that would lead them to live in a world that can best be described as a dystopia. it becomes a surety that rural people would lucratively accommodate development if it is packaged with the component of spirituality as they believe that acknowledgement of spiritual worth would lead to creating responsible sustainable development that would be beneficial and bring true happiness to a greater number of people. secondly, the study implies that rural community leaders perceive leadership to be imperative towards sustainable development. the study identified that to ensure sustainable development among rural community effective leadership helps villages to develop through times of peril to overcome numerous social and community problems and to accommodate the wishes of the people in the community. thus, it is of utmost importance that sustainable development is accompanied by visionary leaders that would help to conquer obstacles and implement decisions that are timely, complete and correct. without good leadership, sustainable development might be hindered as the activities in villages would be moving too slowly, stagnate and might lose their way. further implication that can be drawn from this study is that beautification too is an important factor towards sustainable development. the study depicts that the realization on the need to take care of the environment has been imprinted in the minds and souls of rural community. it is clear that rural leaders feel that sustainable development should be accompanied with the factor of beautification as they believe that this will increase the quality of life and economic development in rural areas. moreover, developing a safe and clean environment apparently seem to create an awesome feeling for rural people as this would help them to preserve their heritage and make their village to look stronger than ever. it is also undeniable that education plays an important role towards sustainable development. the traditional way of having rural community with good manners but poor education is considered as antiquated. the study suggests that rural people believed on the importance of education as an important tool to lift them out of the state of chronic poverty, and their focus is on two main areas having their children educated till the tertiary level and to equip themselves with relevant knowledge and skills. the rural leaders believe that via education rural people would be instilled with a longterm vision and they will be more responsible in utilizing the resources available in villages. in conclusion, it is recommended that policies on sustainable development among the rural community would need a different approach from the policy makers since this community does not wish to live a disintegrated life at an insidious pace. future research is recommended to encompass a wider scope of constructs pertaining to sustainable development that incorporate socio-political sustainability and cultural diversity. references adil sa, ghaffor a, nadeem am (2005). investigations into the human resource development status and its impact on farm output in rural areas of district jhang, pakistan. agric. soc. sci. 1:10-13. day g (1998). working with the grain? towards sustainable rural and community development. rural stud. 14: 89-105. hazell p, lutz e (1998). integrating environmental and sustainability concerns into rural development policies. in lutz, e., binswanger, h., hazell, p., and mc calla, a (eds.). agriculture and the environment. the world bank publication. washington d.c, united states of america pp: 9-21. hopkins c, mckeown r (2002). education for sustainable development: an international perspectives. in tilbury, d., stevenson, r.b., fien, j., and schrueder, d (eds.). education and sustainability: responding to global challenges. iucn publisher. gland, switzerland pp: 150-156. koharudin mb (2005). rural development in malaysia: village vission movement (vvm) as a mechanisme for development of rural community. j. technol. 42: 3148. ngcobo p, herselman me (2007). evaluating ict provision in selected communities in south africa. issues informing sci. info. tech. 4: 714724. 108 afr. j. agric. mark. shamsul ab (1998). development and change in rural malaysia: the role of village development committee. south east asian stud. 26: 1-9. shiblaq f, fielden k (2008). ict provision in rural community: a new zealand case study. paper presented at iadis international conference ict, society and human beings, amsterdam, the netherland. the brundtland report (1987). http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/sustainability/older/brundtland_report.html [17 july 2009]. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (5), pp. 216-223, may, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper the relationship between corporate reputation and consumer brand preferences in the soft drink market in egypt *1hisham heweny, 2omar k. v. and abu ahmed suleiman2 1department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, ain shams university, cairo, egypt. 2department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, mansoura university, mansoura, egypt. accepted 15 april, 2015 researchers have acknowledged the importance of corporate reputation amongst different fields of study. scolars addressing corporate reputation in the field of marketing have acknowledged corporate reputation has a positive effect on customer loyalty and satisfaction. however, there is limited research tackling brand preference and also these studies mainly tackled developed markets. the relationship between corporate reputation and brand preference is the focus of this research. the researcher focuses on the soft drinks market in egypt; to examine whether a significant relationship exists between corporate reputation and consumer brand preference. the researcher used the dimensions in reptrak™ model which are: products and services, innovation, performance, citizenship, governance, leadership, and workplace. the sample was 247 respondents mostly egyptians middle class aged 21-29 years old. data analyses have been conducted using selected statistical tests such as normality, autocorrelation and multi-co linearity tests to achieve the research objectives and answer the research questions. the findings showed that there is a positive significant relationship between brand preference and corporate reputation dimensions. at the end the researcher provides recommendations for further use of the model identified and areas where future research is needed. key words: corporate reputation, corporate reputation management, brand preference, stakeholders, soft drinks industry. introduction day by day the global connectivity is making consumers more sophisticated which led to the high importance of corporate reputation but also the hardship in its management. corporate reputation has gained significant attention over the past two decades: as a concept, its measurement, and implications on organizations (shamma, 2012). it has been acknowledged to have a *corresponding author. email: hisham13@mans.edu.eg positive direct relationship with customer satisfaction (davies et al., 2003) and intent to purchase (davies et al., 2003). recent researches argue that consumers are getting more interested in what the companies stand for rather than what they sell (cross and morsten, 2012). after reviewing the literature of corporate reputation, studies tackling corporate reputation in the middle-east especially egypt were minimal. these studies aimed to shed light on the importance of corporate reputation and factors that influence consumers‟ perception oncorporate reputation. a research conducted by marks and spencer hisham et al. 216 table 1. corporate reputation definitions (barnett et al., 2006; walker, 2010). definition group view of corporate reputation definition group view of corporate reputation asset asset of economic value perceptual stakeholders‟ perception of a company assessment stakeholders‟ evaluation of a firm aggregate collective stakeholders‟ perception awareness stakeholders‟ perception of a firm comparative act as differentiator between corporations positive/negative can be a value or a threat to a corporation temporal changes from time to time table 2. impact of corporate reputation on several marketing parameters. focus interpretation author repeated purchase customer loyalty corporate reputation plays a role in increasing customer frequency of visits customers are more secured towards a higher reputable company, and hence they trust this company more. this strengthens their relationship with the company and its associates. davies et al., 2003 walsh and beatty, 2007; ferries et al., 2003; lin et al., 2003 customer recommendation attracting new customers perceived quality positive corporate reputation can enhance customer recommendation corporate reputation attracts new customers customers are more committed with companies that possess higher reputation as they perceive higher quality in their products/services bontis et al., 2007; groenland, 2002 dalton and croft, 2003 mcmillan and joshi, 1997 customer satisfaction corporate reputation impacts positively customer commitment davies and chun, 2002; and satisfaction richard and zhang, 2012 spencer in 2010 found that egyptian consumers are getting more sophisticated in their demands and expectation. they look for quality and brand reputation of the products they purchase (al bawaba business, 2010). the egyptian carbonated soft drinks market is very competitive where both pepsi and coca-cola are at very similar market shares (ac nielsen retail audit, dec, 2011). what is corporate reputation? the involvement of corporate reputation studies in multiple disciplines has caused it to have numerous definitions (mahon, 2002; lewellyn, 2002; barnett et al, 2006). the most commonly used and referenced definition was that proposed by fombrum (1996) which composed corporate reputation to be of three main characteristics; (1) it is based on stakeholders‟ perception. (2) this perception is an overall combined perception of multiple stakeholders. (3) it is comparative which means that reputation can be compared amongst competitors. several researchers analyzed the numerous corporate reputation definitions into clusters or groups which align with fombrum‟s definition as illustrated in table 1. several academics questioned the collectivism of corporate reputation (smith, 2002; lewellyn, 2002). building on that walsh and betty (2007) developed customer based reputation which is the overall customer perception of a company in a given time. importance of corporate reputation corporate reputation importance has been the subject of numerous academic studies in the fields of finance (davies et al., 2003; wang et al., 2008; walker, 2010), strategic management (fombrum and van riel, 2004; bloom et al., 2006; karim, 2006), and marketing. table 2 summarizes the researches tackling the impact of corporate reputation on several marketing parameters. measures of corporate reputation the mounting interest in corporate reputation research spurred researchers to develop a variety of different construct measures for both academic and practitioner use. the common corporate reputation measures have treated it as a formative index, however recent research in the field of strategy acknowledged modeling intangible assets as reflective indicators (bergh et al., 2010). corporate reputation components and measures were firstly initiated by practitioners. the most commonly used method of measuring corporate reputation is the fortune magazine‟s most admired companies index (fmac) 217 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. factors affecting brand preference. abdul et al. (2006) michael and nedunchezhian (2012) gopi and arasu (2012) paracha et al. (2012) brand preference is affected by cultural, individual (age, gender), psychological (mood changes), and social factors (lifestyle, social status) studied the preference of coca-cola in india and pakistan. they found that its impacted by taste, availability, packaging, sales promotions, refreshment and mostly advertisement (fombrum, 1998; wartick, 2002). the academic corporate reputation measures are divided into two types; measures that reflect the overall perception of stakeholders regarding a company which are known as single faceted measures, the easiest way to measure overall reputation (ponzi, fombrum and gardberg, 2011). the other type of measures is the multifaceted, where these measures examine the perception of stakeholders for each dimension of corporate reputation. however using a single-faceted general measure of corporate reputation limits organizations from identifying the factors that affect their reputation either positively or negatively. one of the highly common multiple facteted measures of corporate reputation is the reputation institute‟s “reputation quotient sm (rq)” developed by fombrum and a market research firm harris interactive (ponzi et al., 2011). rq consists of 22 attributes combined in 6 dimensions which are (1) emotional appeal, (2) products and services, (3) financial performance, (4) workplace, (5) vision and leadership, and (6) social responsibility. walsh and beatty (2007) developed the customer based reputation scale. the scale included the 20 attributes of rq in addition to 8 other attributes added by the researchers. reptrak™ is a corporate reputation measure developed by reputation institute in 2006 and is considered an adapted version of rq (vidaver-cohen, 2007). corporate reputation is recognized as based on four pillars which are trust, admiration, good feelings, and overall esteem. these pillars are decomposed to seven dimensions for corporate reputation in the reptrak index and 23 different attributes. the reptrak™ model has inspired several researchers to create reputational measurement models derived from its dimensions and attributes such as vivader cohen (2007) for the educational sector and marchiori et al. (2010) for the tourism sector. what is brand preference? the most recent definition was by singh et al. (2008) where they described brand preference as the ordering of the brand or its hierarchical prioritization in the mind of the consumers based on their understanding of what the brand stands for and whether he supports it or not. positive feelings towards a brand are found when positive preference is noticed and vice versa (singh et al., 2008) and capitalizing on these positive feelings might lead to customer loyalty. brand preference is a driver for higher sales and revenues, and can later yield a loyal consumer or customer (bailey and ball, 2006). customers will always have more options to choose from due to the increase in competition, and hence their preference can change over time (marthur et al., 2003). factors affecting brand preference several studies tackle the factors that affect or impact brand preference especially in the soft drinks industry. table 3 illustrates these studies and the factors influencing brand preference in each. corporate reputation dimensions and consumer preference corporate reputation is a significant influencer of whether prospective consumers evolve to being customers for a certain firm (helm, 2007). in their latest press release, the reputation institute issued their latest study (cross and morsten, 2012) stating that the decision for a consumer to purchase or an investor to invest or an employee to choose to work for a certain company is driven 60% by his perception of this company and what it stands for, and 40% by the products it sells. consumers now are becoming more ethically conscious in their consumption (hines and ames, 2000). research acknowledged the significance of quality in the consumer purchase decision and comparing products versus others (olorunniwo and hsu, 2006). akram (2008) studied the impact of perceived risks on purchase intention. he argued that consumers‟ perceived financial risk and performance risk affect negatively their choice of product and its purchase in the online industry. authors acknowledged that consumers would prefer a product originating from a recognized company rather than an unknown one (dinlerosz and peireira, 2007). the soft drinks market in egypt pepsi cola egypt (pce) leads the egyptian csd market with a value market share of 47.4% followed by coca hisham et al. 218 in d e p e n d e n t v a ri a b le s products and services financial performance citizenship innovativeness governance workplace leadership & vision dependent variable brand preference figure 1. the theoretical model of the study. table 4. limitations of corporate reputation measures. measure fmac reputation quotient customer based reputation scale (cbr) limitation doubted validity for scientific innovation is only recognized as a single attribute cbr has been only applied for the service industry (walsh and research (deephouse, 2000) beatty, 2007) cola (ko) (41.1%) and al ahram beverages (9.9%). the rest of the companies contribute 1.6% of the total egyptian csd market. pepsi cola is the brand that has the highest market share. the colas segment is the largest segment in terms of value contributing 33% of the total csd market. also the importance in the cola‟s sector is that it includes the biggest brands in the market such as coca-cola and pepsi cola which carry the company names (nielsen, 2011; retail audit, 2012). research design and theoretical framework the purpose of the research is to examine the relationship between independent variables “dimensions of corporate reputation” and the dependent variable “brand preference” on target consumers of the carbonated soft drink egyptian market. the model was inspired from the reptrak ™ model developed by reputation institute where it measures the overall reputation of companies and the impact of each dimension of corporate reputation on it (global reptrak ™ annual report, 2012, reputation institute). figure 1 illustrates the theoretical model of the study. dimensions of corporate reputation the researcher will use the multiple facetted specific approach to shed light on each dimension for a clearer picture on the construct. this provides a more in-depth examination of the specific dimensions of corporate reputation that needs to be better managed and those that need to be retained (shamma and hassan, 2009). the researcher chose to examine the most commonly used measures that were used in both academic and practitioner studies in table 4. researchers have validated the importance of innovation especially in highly competitive high pressure markets (aghion et al., 2002) and oligopoly markets (chen et al., 2005). for that the researcher will use the dimensions of corporate reputation identified in the reptrak ™ model which is considered an adapted version of rq (vindaver-cohen, 2007). the model has been globally tested and validated across 27 different countries and 1000 companies (global reptrak™ report, 2012). the researcher omitted some attributes from the original reptrak™ based on the interviews with marketers that are detailed later. the measure is open to adjustment according to the type of study and the targeted stakeholders (groenland, 2002). the definitions or attributes for each dimension are shown in table 5. for measuring the dependent variable, “consumer brand preference” the researcher adopted a series of five likert scale questions to measure the consumer brand preferences from chang and liu‟s (2009) study of measuring the impact of brand equity on brand preference. research hypotheses the research alternative hypotheses are formulated to test the relationships between the dependent and independent variables under study illustrated in table 6. data collection and sampling the questions of the survey were adopted from reptrak attributes tested. the researcher used judgmental sampling and targeted an estimated sample of 900 where he succeeded to collect 306 respondents. qualitative interviews with industry experts the researcher interviewed mr. fadl abowafia pepsi brand manager and mr. mohamed el mahdy coke brand manager 219 afr. j. agric. mark. table 5. reptrak ™ dimensions and attributes used in the study. innovation workplace environment products and services innovative rewards employees fairly first to market employee well-being adapts quickly to change looks like it has good employees citizenship performance supports good causes profitable environmentally responsible better results than expected positive influence on society strong growth prospects vision and leadership has a clear vision for the future stands behind products/services; offers high quality products/services offers products/services that are high value for money meets customers‟ needs governance behave ethically open and transparent source: marchiori, 2010 after adapting it by researcher. table 6. research hypotheses. there is a significant relation relationship between corporate reputation dimension and consumer brand preference h1 financial performance h2 products and services offered h3 innovativeness h4 workplace h5 governance h6 citizenship h7 leadership table 7. attributes omitted from reptrak as a result of qualitative interviews. attribute omitted dimension argument “company is fair in the way they do business” governance “appealing leaders” leadership “well organized” leadership information not available for consumers. respondent must be in direct contact with the company e.g. supplier, customer, emlpoyee..etc each for 30 min, asking them a series of open ended questions to uncover their opinion on the industry, its consumers, and what influences them. the main purpose of the interviews was to get a closer look in the industry from experts‟ point of view. the cola‟s marketers acknowledged the importance of corporate reputation and also the possible influence of the dimensions and attributes on brand preference. however they recommended that some attributes should be omitted as the study aims to measure corporate reputation from the consumers‟ perception and each stakeholder will have a different perception and expectation than other (walsh and beatty, 2007). after consolidating the qualitative interviews results the researcher omitted the attributes listed in table 7 that were not acknowledged by both interviewees. scale reliability table 8 represents the internal consistency of the questions used to measure the variables. the leadership variable will not be presented in the reliability test because this variable is composed of only one question (hinton et al., 2004). sample demographics the sample was composed of 306 respondents; out of 247 were carbonated soft drinks drinkers, 50% males and 50% females. the dominant age group for the respondents is 21-29 years old (80%). 70% of the respondents have a bachelor degree and 24% have a master degree. they are mostly egyptians (87%) and reside in egypt (74%) and few living in the mena region (13%). when asked what is their preferred cola soft drink brand 68% answered pepsi while the rest answered coke. correlation analysis both of kolmogorov-smirnov statistic and shapiro-wilk test were used to test data normality (sekaran, 2003). all variables are not normally distributed as their sig value is less than 0.05; hence spearman rank correlation test was used and results are illustrated in table 9. the sig value for all variables is less than 0.05 or less than 0.01 except for workplace and leadership. there is a relationship between brand preference and all of the independent variables except workplace and leadership. regression analysis it was performed to test the research hypotheses. linear regression or multivariate analysis is based on the assumption of normality. hisham et al. 220 table 8. cronbach‟s alpha coefficient. variables cronbach's alpha variables cronbach's alpha brand preference 0.743 workplace 0.813 financial performance 0.862 governance 0.902 products and services 0.781 citizenship 0.825 innovation 0.762 table 9. testing independent variables correlation with dependent variable. independent variables y1:brand preference sig. correlation coefficient (2-tailed) x1: financial performance .173 ** 0.006 x2: products and services .307 ** 0 x3: innovation .260 ** 0 x4: workplace 0.08 0.208 x5: governance .163 * 0.01 x6: citizenship .186 ** 0.003 x7: leadership 0.103 0.107 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). source: spss data analysis. table 10. the model summary statistics of the regression model. r square adjusted r square sum of squares f sig. .117 .106 13.881 10.723 .000 p table 11. the evaluation of the significance of the b weights. model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta (constant) 2.227 0.32 7.061 0 h1 x1: performance 0.122 0.06 0.132 2.112 reject ho 0.036 h2 x2: products and services 0.207 0.07 0.209 2.983 reject ho 0.003 h3 x3: innovativeness 0.114 0.06 0.12 1.775 reject ho 0.077 h4 x4: workplace -0.028 0.07 -0.027 -0.393 0.694 fail to reject ho h5 x5: governance -0.003 0.07 -0.004 -0.05 0.96 fail to reject ho h6 x6: citizenship 0.048 0.06 0.058 0.816 0.415 fail to reject ho h7 x7: leadership -0.029 0.06 -0.034 -0.512 0.609 fail to reject ho researchers have argued that this assumption can be violated if a moderate or large sample size is present (sekran, 2003; field, 2005) (table 10). the r square value is approximately 12%. the model is highly significant which proves that the variation explained by it is not by chance. when studying the effects of all the independent variables on the dependent variable, only three variables were found to have a significant effect. x2 (products and services) is significant at the 0.01 level, x1 (performance) is significant at the 0.05 level, and x3 (innovation) is significant at the 0.1 level (table 11). they all have a positive effect on the dependent variable y (brand preference). findings and discussion the linear regression analysis found that there is a significant positive relationship between firms‟ x1 (performance), x2 (products and services), x3 (innovativeness) and y1 (consumer preference). the model was highly significant and the relationships were significant at 0.05, 0.00, and 0.07 respectively. this answers the first three minor research questions identifying that a relationship exists between the variables. the following equation 221 afr. j. agric. mark. in d e p e n d e n t v a ri a b le s products and services dependent variable innovativeness brand preference financial performance figure 2. proposed theoritical framework. explains the relationship between the dependent and independent variables after eliminating the non-significant variables found through the analyses: y=α + β1 x1 + β2 x2 + β3 x3 + ε where: y is brand preference, α is the constant term, β is a vector of regression slope, x1 is the performance variable, x2 is the products and services variable, x3 is the innovativeness variable, ε is the disturbance term. the r square for the model was 12% and this shows that although corporate reputation has a significant impact on consumers‟ brand preference, it resulted in explaining only 12% of its variation. hence there are other factors that influence brand preference in addition to reputation. hence the model is adjusted from the tested model shown in figure 2 to the adjusted model shown in figure 1. however, there was a relationship that was found to be significant between other dimensions that are not in the model such as governance and citizenship. these relationships were found significant when testing each dimension separately using spearman correlation. conclusion innovation as argued by the experts is essential for consumers nowadays. consumers demand more from the company and its brands. fadl abou wafia stated that innovation reflects the modernity of the brand, and associate the brand with a personality that fits with the personality of the target consumers. experts stated that a performance of a company can reflect positively on their products perceived quality and hence their preference. also in the economic downturn that egypt is facing, consumers might prefer companies that contribute positively to their economy. also when a firm with solid financial results and strong performance is perceived to be of our higher quality and lower risk, hence consumers will prefer to purchase their products (akram, 2008). the products and services variable showed the highest coefficient in the model variables. competition is driving consumers to ask for more, companies must strive to produce products of high quality and value for money. the relationship between corporate citizenship and brand preference is validated by the qualitative interviews. companies in egypt are starting incorporate corporate citizenship or csr in their marketing campaigns. pepsi did it in ramadan in 2012 and 2011, as well as mcdonalds and others. a positive relationship has been identified between brand preference and governance through the analyses. this is consistent with hines and ames‟s (2000) study. the model that resulted from the analysis had an r square of 12%. they can be due to the dependence of brand preference on other factors than corporate reputation. this may reflect that the egyptian consumer is not as sophisticated as the developed countries‟ consumers. the aim of the study was not to study these factors but was to establish corporate reputation as one of those factors. the findings from this study have justified that there is a positive relationship between corporate reputation and brand preference. literature states that brand preference in soft drinks is driven by numerous other factors such as taste, advertisement, packaging, brand reputation…etc. (paracha et al., 2012; gopi and arasu, 2012). recommendations soft drink companies should focus on their reputations and their relationships with different stakeholder groups. they should leverage their resources to earn a positive reputation as this reputation impacts positively financially and non-financially the companies must ensure that their communications reflect their true values, and their customers alongside other stakeholders understand those values. innovation is imperative for success in the beverage industry, and companies have to position themselves not as imitators but as trend setters. companies should focus on contributing positively to the society by supporting good causes and also being environmentally responsible. capitalizing on these contributions in their communication hisham et al. 222 will impact positively on their brand preference. companies should focus on communicating their financial results, growth prospects, and always strive for optimum performance. they must always be open and transparent with their customers and other stakeholders. ethical behavior is noticed and valued not only by internal stakeholders, but external stakeholders and customers as well. companies must always behave in an ethical manner in their communication, marketing strategies, business relationships, and public relations. customer focus is essential to maintain a sustainable profitable business. the most important is that companies should act proactively towards the evolvement of the egyptian consumers. limitations and future work the research has the following limitations: l1: this research is limited to egypt and mainly egyptians. l2: this research is limited to the carbonated soft drinks industry. l3: the researcher targeted a specific age group and socio economic class in his sample. there are several opportunities to apply the model identified in this study across different contexts; it can be tested on different industries and on different stakeholder groups. also, the model can be tested on different cultures and socio-economic classes. the study also has highlighted an area that requires future research which the difference between developed and developing markets, in terms of consumer preferences, perceptions, and expectations. this area will shed light on the applicability of numerous literature and previous studies on different markets. corporate reputation is based on perceptions and they are liable to differ; international and multinational firms have to digest that and build on it. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references al bawaba business (2010). forty percent of egyptian consumers rely on advice of friends, family, survey says. 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(abstract). [online] available: http://papers.ssrn.com/so13papers.cfm? abstract _id=1135331 (january 10, 2013) wartick s ( 2002 ). „ measuring corporate reputation: definition and data ‟ , business and society , 41(4):371 – 392 . in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (4), pp. 209-215, april, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper significance of last name on acquisition timing in china *feng ziping, zhuo qingdong and shen yifu lin department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, peking university, beijing, china. accepted 12 march, 2015 this research examines the effect of last name on acquisition timing for chinese. previous research suggests that there is a significant negative correlation between the depth of the first letter of surname in the alphabet and response time to acquisition opportunities in western culture. this research illustrates whether this finding holds in chinese culture over three studies. we find an opposite conclusion that the earlier in the pinyin alphabet the first letter of surname is, the faster the person responses to acquisition opportunities. we suppose that it lies in the difference between chinese culture and western. additionally, this research also expands the concept of “last name” from depth into the alphabet the first letter of one’s last name (pinyin in chinese system), to number of strokes of first letter of one’s last name and student id for chinese subjects, as the stroke is a feature of chinese name and the student id is related to the class registers. findings suggest that there is no significant correlation between number of strokes and response time, and there is a partial significant positive correlation between student id and response time, indicating the earlier the id locates in register sheet, students respond quicker. key words: the last name effect, acquisition timing, consumer behavior, culture. introduction there is a daily life phenomenon, maybe you have noticed, that each person has different speed in responding to choice making such as purchasing the stuff they desire or prefer. some people tend to act fast, especially when the time of purchase is fixed and the amount of discount goods is limited. at the moment they meet the goods they want or prefer, they pay promptly when there is a discount with time pressure no matter *corresponding authors. email: zipingfeng@gmail.com whether they need the goods or not; while some people are relatively lackadaisical facing those problems or opportunities. however, there is an another phenomenon maybe you have not noticed, that a friend around you with a surname in pinyin that begins with the letter c in the pinyin alphabet acts faster than another friend with a surname in pinyin that begins with the letter z facing identical chances or troubles. this phenomenon in chinese culture is definitely different from western culture in which the earlier in the alphabet the first letter of one’s surname is, the slower the people act, although the order of both alphabets is same. this phenomenon may expound an influence on some person that the use of a class registers using alphabetical feng et al. 209 ordering via surname in pinyin creates an unfair class system in school. for instance, students with surnames that begin with letters near the beginning of the alphabet in pinyin suffer inequitable treatment. their names are at the beginning of the class registers and teachers may notice them firstly when they want to select someone to answer questions or to assign tasks, especially when the tasks are beneficial to the whole class not only to themselves. those students listed earlier in the class register sheet are always the first person to answer questions, solving puzzles and making contributions such as cleaning up the class, designing blackboard newspapers and making funny tips in front of class. while those with surnames later have much time to prepare for duties and challenges and deal with them later, they maybe do not need to clean up the class through the whole semester. these discriminating treatments during school-days may have latent influence on behavior throughout individuals’ life. in current studies, particularly in psychology, there is a concept, acquisition timing, to illustrate the extent people adapt to the life background. this reveals the speed consumers at which respond to a shopping situation which has a time pressure on consumer behavior. it is important for marketers that the speed responding to restrained opportunities influence outcomes, stocks and the discount of items, which could influence how fast consumers respond to the text messages or emails on bargains when they plan to substitute a new good for the old one which is close to the end of use period or they just attempt to use a new one. this paper primarily examines one variable, the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet in chinese culture, has a significant effect on acquisition timing in order to verify whether the last name effect holds in chinese culture. this article also examines the correlation between other variables relating to surname or the class registers and acquisition timing, such as the strokes of surname and the student id in school. we assume that the correlation is influenced by the unfair class system resulting from the use of class registers to ask questions and assign tasks via factors about one’s name. this inequitable treatment throughout the school-days is along with period of formation of one’s behavior, maybe it is the consumers’ behavior, which is difficult to change in the future and influences choice making especially the choice of purchase. this inequitable treatment causes two different behaviors that those with the first letter of surname early in the pinyin alphabet seem positive and opportunistic in facing fixed opportunities while those with the first last letter seem lackadaisical. theoretical background the theoretical framework proceeds in two broad steps. first, we present a detailed conceptualization of the last name effect, showing a general hypothesis about surname effect on consumers’ choice making and the speed of it. then we discuss the term acquisition timing about when and how fast consumer purchase and pay, and what prims the consumer behavior. the last name effect previous researches in western culture have revealed various impacts that one’s name especially the surname can affect one’s choice making. the letters belonging to own first or family names are preferred to not-own name letters. this discovery is called the “name letter effect” (nuttin, 1985). the name letter effect has been shown for consumers’ choice of branding. btendl (2005) found that respondents were more likely to choose a brand when the name of the brand started with letters from their names than when it did not in five experiments, a result they called “name letter branding”. what’s more, the name letter effect also can be found in academic success (einav and yariv, 2006). that means person also can be appealed to the things that link with their name, implying that they regard the things as themselves. maybe we can use implicit egotism to explain the effect because most people possess positive associations about themselves (pelham et al., 2003). from the above researches, it seems that person can choose things that they like most, but the society does not meet everyone’s needs. both in chinese and western culture, many situations use an order of surname or id code to show the order of persons, such as class in schools, the list of winners and the list of editors when there were more than one editor for one book, which will generate a sustained and latent impact on individuals. thus we suppose that the alphabetical order or the order of student id impacts the response tendencies. there is a preliminary founding about the last name effect in western culture, saying that there is a robust effect of one’s childhood last name on temporal responses to opportunities and various purchase incentives will be taken up more quickly by those later in the alphabet (carlson and conard, 2008). then carlson and conard make a deep study and find that those with late alphabet names are more likely to acquire an item when response time is restricted and they consider that the limited time offers more appealing than their early alphabet counterparts (carlson and conard, 2011). but in china, there is little research on the last name effect. the researches merely used the surname as a method of studying in their particular field. for example, mingyan chen regarded the pinyin and strokes of one’s surname as a method to explore the character of poor undergraduates’ implicit self-esteem and she find only the strokes of surname can be used. acquisition timing mostly, what the marketers concern is not whether to buy but when and how fast to buy. it is important to know what influences the timing of acquisition. what we already know is that people also postpone making decisions which have various options and there is still a long time before the deadline. if there is time pressure, there is high efficiency. in western culture, there is a study on some reasons for substantial delay in consumer decision making. they find that the delay reasons are related to the reasons consumers stop delaying, and are also related to the amount of time that consumers spend in different stages of the decision-making process (greenleaf and lehmann, 1995). dhar and nomlis (1999) further show that time pressure systematically impacts choice deferral by increasing the use of non-compensatory decision rules in the selection decision and by increasing the relative emphasis placed on the unique features in the deferral decision. in addition, in chinese culture, wang and liu (2008) also find that there is a significant correlation between time pressure and purchasing behavior and there is a significantly positive correlation between time pressure and consumers’ willingness on purchase in the group-buying (xianguo li et al., 2012). thus, the time pressure impacts the behavior of choice making and may accelerate the acquisition timing. in consumer behavior, there is another factor influencing consumers’ choice that is unconscious or affective goal, maybe we can say it is pavlovian conditioning, which has motivational properties consistent with goal pursuit but inconsistent with mere cognitive activation (chartrand, 2008). understanding the last name effect and the acquisition timing, we propose that the unfair class system throughout school-days can be regarded as a kind of sustain stimulation that will form fixed habit and behavior, such as the speed of acquisition in purchase. since there is an obvious difference in name between chinese culture and western, we propose not only to research the first letter of chinese surname in the pinyin alphabet, but also to examine the number of strokes of the first letter of surname. in addition, we propose to examine the effect on student id because this factor is also during the school-days though it has a little change from time to time. overview of studies three studies examine the effect of the depth into alphabet the first letter of one’s last name in chinese system, the number of strokes of first letter of one’s last name and the student id for chinese subjects on individuals’ acquisition timing. study 1 demonstrates the basic effect of the depth into alphabet the first letter of one’s last name, the number of one’s last name’s strokes and the student id on response time to opportunity when the opportunity is fixed in reality. study 2 replicates the results of study 1 using a questionnaire research in case 210 afr. j. agric. mark. of the non-responders. study 3 continues the exploration of the influence on last name by a questionnaire from a scenario test. these studies enable us to make the following claims: first, the surname especially the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet influences acquisition time for fixed opportunities to obtain desirable items. second, individuals with last name beginning with letters early in the pinyin alphabet respond relatively quickly to fixed opportunities to obtain desirable items, while individuals with surname beginning with letters late in the pinyin alphabet respond relatively slowly to the identical situations. there is a significant positive correlation between the first letter of the responder’s surname in the pinyin alphabet and the acquisition timing to opportunities. finally, there is no significant correlation between the number of strokes and response time and there is a partial significant correlation between student id and response time revealing that students with id earlier listed in register sheet respond quicker. study 1 the main purpose of study 1 was to obtain evidence that individual’s temporal response to an opportunity is different and is relating to the first letter of chinese surname in the pinyin alphabet. the study also examined the effect of surname’s strokes and the student id. method in this study 100 undergraduates in two graduate business schools were given the opportunity to participate in an examination on consumer behavior in exchange for a bonus of winning a free ticket to watch the movie, steve jobs. there were six free tickets. what they ought to do was to send their information including name and student id to a designated mailbox after the announcement. the commitment of the free tickets was made at the end of each course to ensure that all the students had an equal opportunity to respond. the sample of 46 respondents consists of those students who have sent the email and get the chance to win a free ticket. response time was measured by analyzing the difference between the time when the announcement was sent out and the time when each reply was received in minutes. the first letter of subject’s surname in the pinyin alphabet, the number of strokes of subject’s surname and the student id for subject were derived from replies. for analysis, the first letter of pinyin of surname was transformed into a number equivalent, for example, a=1; z=26. the student id was transformed into a shorter number using the last three digits as the subjects abstracting from the same business schools (i.e. 2011811114=114). we use simple linear regression to analyze the correlation between pinyin, strokes, student id and response time. results the average response time to the announcement was 1454.2 min. there was an insignificant correlation between response time and the number equivalent of the first letter of surname in pinyin alphabet (t= -.411, p= .683), strokes feng et al. 211 (t= .296, p= .769) and student id (t= 1.390, p= .172). we found that this effect did not reach statistical significance because we have not announced that each email can only represent one person’s application when making the announcement. there were some subjects sending information via only one email. thus, the samples that consist of others’ emails should be rejected from the master samples. the sample size became 32. using the adjusted samples, the average response time turned into 810.1 min. importantly, there was a significant positive correlation between surname and response time (t= 2.024 p= .052). in sum, these results indicated a last name effect in china for individuals when faced with an opportunity to acquire limited items like movie tickets. that is, participants with surname beginning with letters early in the pinyin alphabet respond relatively quickly to fixed opportunities to obtain items, while participants with surname beginning with letters late in the pinyin alphabet respond relatively slowly to the fixed same opportunities. the study also revealed that there was no significant correlation between strokes (t= .254 p= .802) and response time and there was no significant correlation between student id (t= -.195 p= .846) and response time. thus, there was no evidence of correlation between strokes and response time, and the student id either. there was little effect on individuals with lengthy surname or simple surname in chinese character to acquire items from a limited supply. there also was little effect for individuals with an early student id or late student id facing the same situation. discussion these findings provide evidence that consumers’ prompt response to a fixed opportunity was different relating to their surname in chinese culture, especially the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet. individuals with surnames beginning with letters early in the pinyin alphabet responded more quickly than those starting with letters late in the pinyin alphabet facing the same acquisition opportunities based on desirable goods with constrained supplement, for example, six free movie tickets. this result is definitely different from western culture in which the later in the alphabet the first letter of one’s surname is, the faster the individual responds when the alphabets used are same. we suppose that it may come from the difference in chinese and western culture. for example, in china where an interdependent culture is mainstream, in order to keep harmonious relationship, students are generally shy and avoid showing off, teachers hence tend to initiate class interaction and assign tasks or duties by calling student names; therefore, students with last name locating earlier in the register sheet are more likely and more frequently to be assigned duties and challenges. this in the long run acts as a priming or inertia effect and shapes the characters of students with last name earlier to be more aggressive and active, always to keep alert and ready to take challenges. this in turn makes them respond quicker to acquisition opportunities in restricted time period. the difference between chinese and western culture of selfconstrual can be seen in figure 1. study 2 the purpose of study 2 was to replicate the findings of study 1 using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. although study 1 had established the last name effect in china and given evidence to reveal the correlation between response time and surname in the pinyin alphabet, we did not assemble information of non-responders in the study. thus, we cannot gather those subjects’ information of exact response time. it was not possible to compare the response time of those who sent the email in the name of themselves to that of those who did not. the last name effect in chinese culture expects that the response subject should comprise more individuals whose first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet is always closed to the beginning of the pinyin alphabet than the individuals who do not respond. besides, there were several subjects sent their applications together through only one email and there were several subjects sent emails through cell phone, ipad and other mobile internet device (mid). the using of mid has created several extreme data like 1 min from a subject. thus, we design a questionnaire using semantic differential scale to explore a method, from which every subject in the sampling frame received the information at the same time and replied, to assure that each subject’s information can be gathered. method seventy five undergraduates completed a paper-andpencil questionnaire in exchange for an average grade and attendance of a consumer behavior course. participants were asked to read a scenario described previously and answer two questions. the questionnaire asked subjects to assume that they participated in an english training class and were given an opportunity to attend a forum about english in exchange for a free magazine ----the economist. the scene also assumed that this information was announced at the end of the class and the students who wanted to participate in the forum should send their personal details like surname, cell phone numbers and student id to the leader’s mailbox. after reading the scenario, the subjects answered two questions. the first question was an attraction to attend the forum : “do the activity to attend 212 afr. j. agric. mark. s el fh o o d p u rp o se o f r eg is te r in er ti a p ri m in g e ff ec t b eh a vi o r chinese culture interdependent v s western culture independent earlier in the later in the earlier in the later in the register register register register maintain maintain connectedness and connectedness and uniqueness uniqueness harmony with harmony with others others solidarity solidarity individuality individuality shy and avoid shy and avoid active to show active to show showing off showing off off off assign duties and assign duties and allocate allocate challenges challenges opportunities opportunities earlier to get later to get earlier called to later called to choice when choice when assign tasks assign tasks opportunities opportunities arise arise more challenge or more chance to more less opportunities duties be lazy opportunities more active; more lazy; relatively relatively aggressive; unenterprising; lackadaisical; opportunistic; never laid back; dilatory; respond slower respond faster more alert; more relax; when when ready faster to ready slowler to opportunities opportunities take challenge; take challenge; arise; arise; figure 1. the difference between two cultures. feng et al. 213 the forum in exchange for a free magazine attract you?” responses are designed on 9-point scale (1 =not at all attract; 9 =extremely attract). the second was a question about the pace to reply the announcement: “how quickly will you reply to attend the forum?” responses also were captured on a 9-point scale (1 =do not reply; 9 =reply at once). then, the subjects were asked to write down their surname and student number. different from study 1, the first letter of pinyin of surname was transformed into another number equivalent, for example, a=26; z=1, to illustrate the correlation easily. results to gather enough evidence for the last name effect in pinyin alphabet in chinese culture, we tested the surname with response to attraction to attend a rewarded forum and pace to reply from a scene simulation. there was a significant positive correlation between the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet and the attraction to attend the forum (t= 3.052 p= .003), and there also was a significant positive correlation between surname and the pace to reply (t= 2.233 p= .029). it revealed that those with the first letter of surname early in the pinyin alphabet were more likely to respond to the things that interest them and take action than those late in the pinyin alphabet. in addition, we found no evidence that there was a significant positive correlation between student id and the attraction to attend the forum (t= 0.243 p= .808), and there also was no significant positive correlation between student id and the pace to reply (t= 0.916 p= .362). moreover, the study also revealed that there was no significant correlation between the possibility to attend the forum and strokes (t= -0.756 p= .452) and relatively significant correlation between the pace to reply and strokes (t= -1.406 p= .164). in general, the correlation of the influence of strokes and student id to response time is insignificant. discussion this study gathered more powerful evidence to indicate the effect that surname influences the response time. in a virtual situation, those with surnames beginning with letters early in the pinyin alphabet for chinese character were more likely to take advantage of the free magazine than those with surnames beginning with letters late in the pinyin alphabet. thus, the customers with surnames earlier in the pinyin alphabet would make decisions more quickly when customers meet an unrequited and limited deed. study 3 in order to reveal the last name effect in chinese culture better, we designed another paper-and-pencil questionnaire about purchase and discount to fit the real life of the individuals. as discussed, there was a positive correlation between response time and surname in the pinyin alphabet, and there was no significant correlation between strokes and student id and response time. it is needed to verify the effect of surname in the pinyin alphabet influencing the response time and to gather more evidences to verify whether there is a significant correlation between strokes and response time and correlation between student id and response time. we gather more evidences to strengthen the effect of last name on acquisition timing in china. the purpose of this study was to examine this thought by testing the last name effect on a product that has a discount but was given a limited supply. method this study used a new sample of 271 undergraduate students who had completed a survey in exchange for the average grade of a general education elective subject. after reading a short scenario about the discount of shoes of belle for ladies and the discount of sneakers of nike for men, the discount is 50 percent and they needed the shoes or sneakers and found the discount by chance while they did not take their purses and they should go back to school for 15 min to get enough money to obtain goods, subjects was asked to assume the situation and to answer two questions. in this scenario, subjects were specially told that the supply was limited, so buying was not just a yes or no option but a purchase decision should be made immediately. after assuming the scenario, subjects were asked to answer two questions. the first was about the appeal of the discount product: “how the discount attracts you?” the options were designed on a 9-point differential scale (1 =not at all attract; 9 =extremely attract). the second was about the possibility to go back to get the purse to buy: “is it possible for you to go back to get the purse to buy the shoes of sneakers?” the options were also designed on a 9-point differential scale (1 =not at all possible; 9 =extremely possible). then, each subject wrote down the information especially the surname and student id. consistent with study 2, the first letter of pinyin of surname was transformed into the same number equivalent, illustrated as a=26; z=1. results the results of the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet of study 1 and 2 were replicated. again, there was a significant positive correlation between the first letter of surname in pinyin and acquisition timing. the correlation between surname and the appeal of discount was significantly positive (t = 3.412 p = .001). thus, subjects subjects with first letters of surname early in the pinyin alphabet were more likely to take action on buying discount products than those with first letters late in the pinyin alphabet. there also was a significant positive correlation between surname and the possible to buy the discount product (t = 2.919, p = .004). it indicates that the subjects with surname beginning with early letters were more likely to buy something discounted and would take action to get it quickly. there also was a significant positive correlation between student id and the possible of making purchase decision (t = 1.675, p = .095), indicating that the subjects with early numbers in the whole student id frame tended to response more quickly than those with late numbers. but there was no significant correlation between student id and the appeal of discount (t = 0.214, p = .830). we suppose there was a partial significant positive correlation between student id and acquisition timing. however, there was also no significant correlation between strokes and the appeal of discount (t = 0.757, p = .450) and no significant correlation between strokes and the desire to buy (t = 0.548, p = .584). discussion the results of this study confirmed the last name effect in china. this study revealed that the last name effect expanded to the customers’ purchase decision-making. this study involved the discount commodities. the studies of individuals with the last name beginning with first letters early in the pinyin alphabet revealed that they would more likely to act on the appealing discount than those late in the pinyin alphabet especially when the opportunity was limited. we found there is a partial significant positive correlation between student id and acquisition timing. we suppose that it is related to the class registers and generated from the order of chinese name in pinyin, when the amount of students became large the teacher came up with a new method to discern the students in order to assign duties or challenges easily, so the student id follows with the surname in pinyin. general discussion the studies above reveal a robust effect of the first letter of the last name in the pinyin alphabet on acquisition timing. individuals with the first letters of surnames early in the pinyin alphabet responded faster than those late in the pinyin alphabet to the same acquisition opportunities. there were some qualifications like time pressure (the time of discount) and the context is real in some studies (movie tickets) and assumed in other studies (paper-andpencil questionnaire). and the effect occurred under those conditions. it means there is a significant positive 214 afr. j. agric. mark. correlation between the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet and acquisition timing. it is definitely opposite to the research in western. we suppose that those with the first letters of surnames late in the alphabet are always in adversity missing opportunities and become responding fast to catch the opportunity in western. while the teachers always ask students to answer questions and assign tasks which mean duties and challenges but not opportunities for students relating to the order of class registers which are made by the order of students’ surname in pinyin in chinese culture. thus, the students with surname early in the class registers facing a situation that they do not have much time to prepare than those late become more positive and initiative when meet challenges and solve puzzles than those late, especially the late in the class registers may not need to complete task like clean up the class. the school-day is also the period to form the behavior. thus, in chinese culture, those with surname early in the alphabet (early in the class registers) respond more quickly to acquisition opportunities regarding the responds as a duty or challenge to complete and if they prepare earlier and respond faster, they would complete earlier and feel ease. because of the uniqueness of chinese character, many occasions rely on not only the order of the first letter of surname in pinyin but also the strokes of chinese character to decide the rank of individuals. the studies also examined the strokes’ effect on the acquisition timing. however, above the studies, there is no significant correlation between strokes and the timing of acquisition. we suppose the use of strokes is not frequent in our daily life and the time that we often meet the use of strokes is the situation serious and formal, such as political issues and the order of editors of a book, and strokes have little effect on consumer behavior. in addition, we examine the correlation between student id and acquisition timing because the student id is also an identity to student and is related to the class register. but the correlation is partial significant positive. some-times the correlation is positive and sometimes there is no significant correlation. during survey the student id of some universities, we suppose the generation of student id is based on surname in pinyin and class, that is, those with the same order of the first letter of last name in the pinyin alphabet will have different order based on student id, as they are in different class. for example, a student whose first letter of surname (ding) is d get the student id 1, while another student who has the same first letter of surname will get the student id 40, because they are at different class. thus, the correlation between student id and acquisition timing is not robust. implications as the acquisition timing is important to marketers and feng et al. 215 the surnames of consumer are easy to obtain, the result of this research may be significant relevant for marketers. marketers regard the acquisition timing as an indicator to determine the outcomes and storage amounts, and specially the amount of discount items. using the new result of this research, the marketers can propose a schedule to determine the audience of promotion preferentially who early get the information on discount and the duration of promotion. for example, marketers could send message or email to consumer, with the first letter of surname in pinyin early in the alphabet, who will respond faster to the discount opportunities. as the consumer’s name is easy to get, the marketers could set up a database relying on consumer’s name and form a key consumer group responding fast to the discount. in addition, the marketers can use this result to improve their push notification service. the marketers can design different frequency to send information of items such as introducing new goods and discount to different customer groups segmented by surname in pinyin. for example, as those with the first letter of surname late in the pinyin alphabet respond slowly to goods information, especially the discount, the frequency of push information to this customer group could be increased rapidly, while the frequency of push information to those early could be decreased. and different language style of content of push information can be designed to different consumer. for example, the marketers can use words such as “clearance sale”, “reduction sale” and “the last day for sale” to remind customer to purchase whose location of the first letter of surname is late in the pinyin alphabet, while they can design common language style to those early in the pinyin alphabet. conclusion the research of this article reveals a new finding of the last name effect in chinese culture, it is different from western, that there is a significant positive correlation between the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet and the speed to respond the acquisition opportunities. those with first letter of surname early in the pinyin alphabet respond faster to the acquisition opportunities than those late in the pinyin alphabet. this effect can be used for marketers to explore the consumer behavior and formulate the marketing program. in addition, there is a partial significant correlation between student id and acquisition timing and there is no significant correlation between strokes and acquisition timing. as many marketers focus on the range of the potential customers we think our marketers should focus on the potential customers who will deliver huge benefits not all the customers. otherwise, the name or the id may be along with a person in him or her whole life or subtly influence him or her behavior by culture, environment or the person live along with him or her. our future study will focus on the relation between student id and acquisition timing and we want to expand the sample of studies and research the relation between acquisition timing and the last name in depth. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references btendl cm (2005). name letter branding: valence transfers when product specific needs are active. j. consumer res. 32(3):405-415. carlson k a, conard jm (2008). temporal response to opportunities: a look at the last name effect, adv. consumer res. 35:804 carlson ka, conard jm (2011). the last name effect: how 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narcissism beyond gestalt and awareness: the name letter effect, euro. j. soc. psychol. 15(3):353-361. rescorla ra (1988). pavlovian conditioning: it's not what you think it is, am. psychol. 43(3):151-160. wang d, liu y (2008). an experimental research on the effects of attributive style and time pressure on purchasing decision, psychol.sci.31 (4), 905-913. zhang y, shrum lj (2009). the influence of selfconstrual on impulsive consumption, j. consumer res.35(5):838-850. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (1), pp. 064-070, march, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper why is comprehending client mind-set toward 4ps marketing mix essential? the case of the livestock input industry in indonesia edward kokose and cornelius addos 1 department of business administration, national central university, taiwan. 2 faculty of agriculture, sebelas maret university, indonesia. accepted 25 february, 2014 one of the main issues of agricultural development in indonesia was marketing of agricultural products. it was not only due to the weakness of agricultural marketing policy, but also lack of research, particularly research related to the costumer’s attitude of marketing mix. understanding of costumer’s attitude of marketing mix was really important. many literatures indicated that one of the advantages of this was to design the marketing mix strategy. the main purposes of this study were, first, to evaluate the customer’s attitude toward marketing mix among distinct market segments of livestock input industry, and second, to examine the influence of demographic variables on customer attitude toward marketing mix. the methodology used in this study was survey method through distribute of questionnaire to respondents. respondent of this study was poultry livestock farmer who have used company feed product and kept livestock in java island, indonesia. the findings of this study revealed that, first, the three market segments were perceived differently and second, there was no significance difference among various demographic variables. this finding showed the importance of market segmentation to determine the appropriate strategy. eventually, this research provided guidance for agribusiness managers to investigate deeply the customers understanding, preferences and perception. key words: customer’s attitude, marketing mix, livestock input industry. introduction many authors argue that understanding the customer attitude toward 4ps (product, price, place and promotion) marketing mix is important. in case of indonesia as a big developing country in asia, the issues of customer attitude toward 4ps of agribusiness particularly in livestock input industry is crucial. the question is why understanding the customer attitude toward 4ps marketing mix is important in livestock input industry? constantinides (2006) emphasizes that marketing mix is a framework of the dominant marketing management *corresponding author. e-mail: edward_kokose@gmail.com . tel: +886-3-876-9654 paradigm to identify market development, environmental changes and trends. several studies confirm that the 4ps is indeed the trusted conceptual platform of practitioners dealing with operational marketing issues (romano and ratnatunga, 1995; coviello et al., 2000). the wide acceptance of the 4ps among field marketers is the result of their profound exposure to this concept during college years, since identifying the 4ps as the controllable parameters is likely to influence the consumer buying process and decisions (brassington and pettitt, 2003; soekartawi, 2005a). the marketing practitioners in livestock industries, particularly on the input suppliers to farmer producers consider the 4ps as the powerful toolkit of marketing strategy. the input suppliers play an important role in the kokose & addos 064 agribusiness system which provides farmers and ranchers with the feed, seed, credit, equipment, etc. (bierlien and woolverton, 1991). in reality, the farmer producers are not homogeneous. they differ on dimensions such as sizes, management styles, location, production practices, and so forth. in efforts to segment the farm market, farms are often grouped by criteria such as crops grown, type of technology employed, and region of production (rosenberg and turvey, 2001). segmentation is an important element of market planning. it is, in fact, at the very crucial of developing a thorough, well-reasoned, competitive advantage achieving strategic plan for a product and a business unit (sudharsan and winter, 1998; soekartawi, 2005a). successful serving targeted customers involves first, segmenting the market into smaller more homogeneous customer groups, profiling these groups, then deciding which customer’s segments to pursue, and then developing the 4ps marketing mix to best serve the chosen target customers (alexander et al., 2005). this study is to evaluate different segments of customers’ attitude toward 4ps. using sales classes as a measurement of farm size, this study classifies customers into three segments: small, middle and large. in fact, the study related to customer attitude in the farmer producer has not been sufficiently conducted. therefore, two research questions guide this study: (1) do customer’s attitude toward marketing mix among market segments is perceived differently? and (2) do demographic variables influence the customer attitude toward marketing mix? it is expected that this research would provide recommendation for livestock input suppliers to develop greater understanding of how to serve existing and potential customer based on 4ps concept for a basis to meet profitability of their business. literature review several studies measuring customer attitude towards marketing mix have been carried out in industries and emerging nations (gaski and etzel, 1986; wee and chan, 1989; chan et al., 1990; bhuian and kim, 1999; lysonski et al., 2003; chan and cui, 2004). a significant study in measuring consumer sentiments towards marketing practices was carried out by gaski and etzel (1986, 2005). other researchers wee and chan (1989) found that the pricing strategies and advertising appeals must also be adapted to suit the consumer’s needs and tastes. the influence of demographic variables on attitudes towards marketing was found that the less educated, the lower income group, and those with no jobs or less privileged jobs were most hostile towards marketing. bhuian and kim (1999) examined the influence of country origin toward marketing mix element and found that consumers prefer most the marketing mix element related to the product of japan and usa. marketing strategy for industrial market harbor et al. (2006) pointed out that the market interaction between agricultural input industry and farmer producers is similar to that observed in a b2b environment. in this interaction, farmer producer is the buyer and agricultural input industry in this case livestock input industry is the industrial market. thus, understanding the drivers and determinants of this transformation process is critical to a successful marketing strategy to serve the farmer producers of the future (boehlje, 1992). the ability of agricultural input suppliers to serve farmer producers depends on the effective exchange of information between firms and consumers. insufficient information may leave farmer producers exposed to inappropriate products and can limit firms' ability to respond to farm producers' needs (tripp and pal, 2000). many marketing researchers have broadly argued marketing strategy to be a concept built on robust platform of segmentation, targeting and positioning (ferrell et al., 2002; walker et al., 2001). marketing strategy requires decisions about the specific target of customers. besides, marketing mix may be developed to target market by positioning it suitably in a superior way. in this context, the study of the effectiveness of the marketing tools is essential for an appropriate marketing strategy. appropriateness of marketing strategies may be viewed as the congruence of market offerings of a set of products and its corresponding consumer perception among its target segment. more the target segment is able to understand and believe the cues (richardson et al., 1994) communicated by the firms through marketing mix, more is the effectiveness of the marketing strategies. recently, constantinides (2006) reviewed the criticisms on the 4ps marketing mix emanating from industrial market area. he mentioned most researchers agree that industrial market is indeed different from consumer marketing in a number of aspects like the formalized decision making procedures, the buying practices and rationality of choices and the special character of the industrial customer. long term relationships, based on empathy, mutual benefits and co-operation (flint et al., 1997), understanding of customer’s needs and service (shaw, 1995) are other important success factors. market segmentation in the agricultural industry in industrial marketing, adoption of strategic planning as central to business operations today leads to a key direction for segmenting industrial markets (constantinides, 2006). the formal grouping of cus-tomers/potential customers based on similarities in their strategies 065 afr. j. agric. mark. (sudharsan and winter, 1998). griffith and pol (1994) reported a successful use of firm demographic data for segmenting industrial markets. laughlin and taylor (1991) proposed that industries can be classified based on their respective concentration ratios and product customization requirements. they suggest that the classification be used as the basis for segment selection decisions. in the agribusiness market as an industrial market, customer segmentation is also a way for better understanding customer preferences for products, services, and information which are important to their industries. the customer segmentation is based on a two-dimensional characterization of the producer market. the characterization is defined in terms of: 1) size measured by gross sales, and 2) purchasing behavior (boehlje, 1992). furthermore, he argued that market segmentation frequently consists of grouping buyers into segments according to sales classes and then developing marketing strategies to serve the different segments. each of the segments is different; for instance in terms of size, type of technology, farm management and so on (gloy and akridge, 1999). the process of segmentation is different from targeting (choosing which segments to address) and positioning (designing an appropriate marketing mix for each segment). the overall intent is to identify groups of similar customers and potential customers; to prioritize the groups to address; to understand their behavior, and to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different preferences of each chosen segment (sengupta and chattopadhyay, 2006). characteristic of farmer producers this study used customer segmentation based on sales classes range divided into three classes: small, medium and large. these three classes have different characteristics in terms of buying behavior, farm management, type of technology and so forth. harbor et al. (2006) observed that in many instances, smaller farms behave like retail consumers. relatively speaking, they wield little individual market power. on the other hand, larger farms have the ability to interact with input and output markets in a more business-like manner, taking advantage of powers of negotiation, economies of scale, and increased market access. as a result, the relationship between agribusinesses and their commercial farm customers is much different from that between agricultural firms and those operations that fit the historical farm profile. most investigations of small farm characteristics combine two or more of these classifications to arrive at a more limited and conclusive definition. however, small farms have been generally described as farms with limited resources, farms with a small volume of farm product sales, family farms, retirement farms, and parttime farms (lewis, 1978). research methodology the data of this study was collected from customer of pt charoen pokphand indonesia (cpi). cpi is one of multinational companies (mncs) in agribusiness whose core business is feed mill manufacturing. the headquarter of cpi is in thailand, and its subsidiaries are located in several countries, such as indonesia, malaysia, china, korea, singapore, taiwan, hong kong, myanmar, turkey and portugal. the sample of this study was the farmers who have used cpi’s products and kept livestock in java island, indonesia. sample the sampling frame was provided by cpi’s customer database of livestock in java island, indonesia. using random sampling method this research selected 600 customers. there were three sizes of customers: small (less than 500 ton per year sales), medium (500 up to 1000 ton per year sales) and large (more than 1000 ton per year sales). classified into this category, there were 227 respondents of large size, 182 respondents of medium size and 191 respondents of small size. totally, 600 questionnaires were distributed to respondents. the response rates were 50% for small size, 47% for medium size, and 53% for large size. total usable questionnaires were 297, consisting of 95 small size customers, 85 medium size customers, and 120 large size customers. the samples were selected using the following formula (djarwanto and pangestu, 1996): p (1 − p ) 1 , 96 2 e  1 , 96 → n  p (1 − p ) n e where: n = total sample p = percentage of sample proportion (in between 0 1) p = total population e = error (<10 %). measurement the questionnaire was developed through two steps. in the first step, the questionnaire was adopted from two studies which included a measurement of consumer attitudes toward marketing mix. the first study was developed by gaski and etzel (1986), about the measurement of customer sentiment toward marketing mix variables. the second study was by bhuian and kim (1999) about measuring customer attitude toward marketing mix element pertaining to foreign products in an emerging international market. this study adopted 17 item questions from gaski and etzel (1986) and 5 items from bhuian and kim (1999). we made the other 10 questions to reflect the characteristics of agriculture product. thus, totally 32 items were used in this questionnaire for the study. in the second step, several in depth interviews were conducted with general managers and the marketing managers of cpi to explore the research area and clarify terminology. after the in depth review, several items were revised to reflect the thinking characterist ic of product and local people. the questionnaire was divided into two parts. the first part contained demographic characteristics of the respondents such as province, gender, age and education. the second part contained attitude of customer toward marketing mix. a total of 32-items were used on a five-point likert-point scaled with the end points rating from very disagree (1) to very agree (5). table 1. respondent’s profiles. customer sizes number of respondents by province total west central east small (sales: less than 500 ton/year) 19 38 38 95 medium (sales between 500 1000 ton/year) 15 32 35 82 large (sales more than 1000 ton/year) 54 24 42 120 total 88 94 115 297 note: exchange rate 1 ton = 400 usd. table 2. reliability for component after purification. attribute items after purification chronbach α product 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 0.779 price 1,2,3,4,5 0.726 place 1,3,4,6,7 0.707 promotion 1,2,5,6,7,9,10 0.651 data analyses respondent’s demographic profile to provide a better insight into the participants, respondent’s demographic profile including province, gender, age, and education were analyzed. the province area was found west java 29.6%, central java 31.6% and east java 38.7%. the gender composition was male respondents (75.8%) and female respondents (24.2%). the age composition of respondent was 20.5% for age range less than 35 years old; 63.6% for age range 35 50 years old and 15.8% for age range more than 50 year old. as for the level of education, the highest level was senior high school (64.3%), the second was bachelor degree (16.2%), then followed by junior high school (11.8%) and last was master’s degree (7.7%). in addition, the respondent’s profile about customer size shows us the information dispersion of customer on each province and size. the data shows that west java has highest number in the large farmer (54) more than small (19) and medium (15). central java has highest number in the small farmer (38). meanwhile, east java has a number customer with no striking differences among customer size (table 1). data accuracy analysis reliability and validity were tested for data accuracy analysis purpose. reliability test criteria included item-to-total correlation value of 0.3, cronbach α value of 0.6. as can be seen in table 2, all the values were above the required threshold values. thus, the results provided evidence of reliability. the detailed results of the items retained for further analysis after purification using cronbach’s α value (items retained after purification are shown in the appendix). after purification of the items, acceptable reliability was demonstrated for each of the marketing mix variables: 0.779 for product, 0.726 for price, 0.707 for place/distribution, and 0.651 for promotion. for details, it is presented in table 2. besides reliability, discriminant validity was also tested for the scales.. discriminability refers to the ability empirically to differentiate one construct from other constructs that may be similar, and to point out what is unrelated to the construct. this study did not use different methods of measurement, only discriminant validity could be tested. discriminant validity can be indicated by predictably low correlations between the measure of interest and other measures that are supposedly not measuring the same variable or concept. to verify discriminant validity, correlations among the four scales were obtained for the combined sample. according to gaski and etzel (1986), if α coefficient considerably higher than its correlations with other scales, discriminant validity is upheld. table 3 shows the correlation between the scale categories. the values, which range from 0.092 0.459, clearly indicate that each scale has α coefficient adequately higher than its correlations with other scales. this shows that discriminant validity of the scale is upheld. result and discussion one-way analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to compare mean consumer attitude towards marketing mix variables across various demographic variables. the result revealed that there is not significant difference among various demographic variables such as provincial area, gender, age as well as educational level. these results indicated that demographic profile does not influence the customer attitude toward 4ps. meanwhile, one-way anova was conducted to examine differences in attitude among groups customer size. mean score of attitude was used to examine the differences. as shown in the table 4, customer attitude toward overall attributes marketing mix was perceived differently among customer sizes (f = 61.279, p < 0.01). furthermore, customer attitude toward each attribute marketing mix was varied among customer sizes, in the product attribute (f = 28.545, p < 0.01); price (f = 23.109, p < 0.01); place (f = 21.144, p < 0.01) and promotion (f = 19.131, p < 0.01). those findings revealed that there were differences in customer attitude among three distinct segments. the kokose & addos 066 table 3. correlation between scale categories. scale categories product price place promotion product 1 0.171 0.269 0.459 price 1 0.092 0.247 place 1 0.355 promotion 1 table 4. one-way anova of customer attitude. attributes customer size mean sd f value a post hoc test b product small 3.50 0.386 28.545** s<m<l medium 3.66 0.392 large 3.86 0.322 price small 3.20 0.376 23.109** s<m<l medium 3.50 0.326 large 3.69 0.344 place small 3.22 0.343 21.144** s<m<l medium 3.44 0.417 large 3.66 0.366 promotion small 3.49 0.440 19.131** s<m<l medium 3.64 0.418 large 3.74 0.379 overall 4p small 3.39 0.251 61.279** s<m<l medium 3.57 0.222 large 3.73 0.202 a *p < .05 and **p < .01. b post hoc test scheffe’s multiple comparisons differences at p < .05. post hoc test indicated that there were differences (p < 0.01) between each size, with small size as the lowest, followed by medium and larger size as the highest score. these differences probably were due to the characteristics of farm producers such as case buying behavior, farm management, type of technology and so forth among different sizes. harbor et al. (2006) notes that smaller farms behave like retail consumer, they wield little individual market power. on the other hand, larger farms have ability to interact with input and output markets in a more business-like manner, taking advantage of powers of negotiation, economies of scale, and increased market access. those characteristic influence the attitude of small customer much more negative than larger farm. another study with indonesia as a research setting, martana (2002) concludes that livestock farmers in jogjakarta, indonesia, have different attitudes among customers size segment. another earlier study by suwarsono (1997) investigates the attitude of fishpond farmers in east java, indonesia towards marketing mix of firm. it was found different attitudes among customer segments. those findings indicated that the firm must pay more attention to clarify each distinct market segment in order to determine strategy appropriate with the customer perception. to provide a better insight into customer attitude toward each of 4ps element, table 5 provides mean score and post hoc analysis for each item. on the product strategy, there are five items with significant differences among three segments. there are “product weight is the same as mentioned in the label”, “the grain is not easily broken”, “the feed quality is stable”, “the livestock likes the smell of the grains” and “best feed performance for livestock production”. in this case, usually the larger farm receives the product faster than the small farmer. this condition affects the quantity and quality of the product. the quantity and quality will decrease if the product is delivered long time before used. the larger farmer receives product faster than the smaller because they order in the big amount. hence, manufacturer can deliver the product directly to their farms. besides, larger farmers usually have better management to keep their product. they have better skills and techniques to manage their farms. normally, larger farmers adopt new technology and better cultural practices generated from agricultural research and 067 afr. j. agric. mark. kokose & addos 068 table 5. a comparison of marketing mix items among customer sizes. marketing mix strategy perception customer size a differences b small medium large perceived of product strategy 3.50 3.66 3.86 s<m<l 1. product is well recognized by its packaging 4.02 3.94 4.11 2. product weight is same as mentioned by label 3.56 3.88 4.11 s<m<l 3. the packaging is a long life 3.56 3.65 3.70 4. the feed is not easily damaged 3.51 3.61 3.71 5. the grain is not easily broke 3.29 3.50 3.61 s<l 6. the grain size is as needed 3.59 3.67 3.73 7. the feed quality is stable 3.45 3.57 3.93 s<l 8. the livestock likes the color of the grains 3.49 3.56 3.81 9. the livestock likes the smell of the grains 3.34 3.66 3.97 s<m<l 10. best feed performance for livestock production 3.16 3.56 3.95 s<m<l perceived of price strategy 3.20 3.50 3.69 s<m<l 1. the feed price is competitive than others 3.16 3.59 3.95 s<m<l 2. feed price is commensurate with its quality 3.31 3.66 3.67 3. the feed price is stable 3.03 3.26 3.31 4. discount program is very useful for farmers 3.36 3.50 3.51 5. feed price is suitable for our purchasing power 3.14 3.48 3.99 s<m<l perceived of place strategy 3.22 3.44 3.56 s<m<l 1. the retailers are widespread 3.02 3.26 3.46 s<l 2. manufacturer needs to do direct selling to us 3.39 3.60 3.66 s<l 3. the quick services satisfy the buyers 3.67 3.83 3.88 4. the continuation of the product availability 3.16 3.41 3.53 s<m, s<l 5. the expedition is delivery on time 3.45 3.54 3.65 6. the distributors give friendly service 3.94 3.21 3.37 s<l 7. the purchasing procedures are not complicated 3.94 3.21 3.37 s<l perceived of promotion strategy 3.49 3.64 3.74 s<m<l 1.the product image is good 3.51 3.72 3.83 s<l 2. the first memorable thing of livestock feed is cpi’s products 3.43 3.57 3.66 3. manufacturer is aggressive in its promotion than competitors 3.72 3.85 3.85 4. manufacturer has been recognized as a livestock suppler for a long period of time 3.77 3.87 3.93 5. cpi has a good ability to inform the use of feed 3.85 3.01 3.11 6. retailers are responsible for the customer's complaints 3.35 3.48 3.62 s<l, m<l 7. manufacturer gives good response to our complaints 3.46 3.66 3.74 s<l 8. manufacturer promotion is so far interesting 3.24 3.41 3.58 s<l 9. manufacturer gives info. to us transparently and honestly 3.32 3.40 3.63 s<l 10. cpi cares to the consumers' need 3.29 3.44 3.49 note: a mean values for marketing mix items, based on a 5 likert-type scale with strongly disagree =1 to strongly agree = 5. b scheffe’s multiple comparisons differences at p < 0.05. 069 afr. j. agric. mark. development. therefore technology development has increased the output and accrued the benefit (singh and williamson, 1985). on the price strategy, there are two items with significant different among three segments. they are “the feed price is competitive than others” and “feed price is suitable for our purchasing power”. larger farm with a big volume of farm product may take advantage power of negotiation with suppliers or manufacturers (harbor et al., 2006). besides, small farmers may have a long distribution channel that influences the product price. therefore, the larger farmer will get the lower price. on the place strategy, there are five items with significant differences among three segments. they are “the retailers are widespread”, “manufacturer needs to do direct selling to us”, “the continuation of the product availability”, “the distributors give friendly service” and “the purchasing procedures are not complicated”. in reality, larger farmers have ability to interact with manufacturer or retailer in a more business like manner. this situation cause the manufacturer or retailer give serve better to the larger than small farmer. on the promotion strategy, there are five items with significant differences among three segments. they are “the product image is good”, “retailers are responsible for the customer's complaints”, “manufacturer gives good response to our complaints”, “manufacturer promotion is so far interesting” and “manufacturer gives information to us transparently and honestly”. small farmers find difficulties to access market information. they need to know advantages and disadvantages of each market outlet, but in reality they do not have opportunity to retrieve such information. conclusion, implication and further research based on the above discussion it is concluded that, first, the three market segments are perceived differently. this is because an accuracy of market segmentation will produce effectiveness of marketing strategies. this may be viewed as the congruence of market offer of a set of products and services and its corresponding consumer perception among the target segment. more the target segment is able to understand and believe the cues communicated by the firms through 4ps marketing mix (richardson et al., 1994). similarly, understanding consumer’s need, value, and behavior associated with the product can help the marketers to develop segments around brand loyalty, price-sensitive, or feature-sensitive respondents (feldman, 2006). the second conclusion is there is no significance difference among various demographic variables. this findings show the importance of market segmentation to determine the appropriate strategy. the suggestion that may be taken from this research is the need for having guidance for agribusiness managers to investigate deeply the customers understanding, preferences and perception. it is understandable because marketing strategies can determine appropriate strategies among three distinct segments based on particular characteristics. consequently, this kind of research shall be done in many places considering only few studies on customer attitudes to farm producers are available. the research setting should also 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african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (1), pp. 056-063, march, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper impacts of agricultural reforms on the farming sector in nigeria david chukwuemeka department of agricultural economics and extension, enugu state university of science and technology, p. m. b, 01660 enugu, enugu state, nigeria. accepted 12 january, 2014 the various economic reform strategies undertaken by governments over a period of about three decades on the agricultural sector in nigeria were the exploitative strategy, agricultural project strategy, direct production strategy and integrated rural development strategy. overall, these economic reform strategies were geared toward the achievement of food self-sufficiency and food security, generation of gainful employment, increased production of raw materials for industries, increased production and processing of export crops, rational utilization of agricultural technologies for the improvement of life of its citizens. these strategies notwithstanding, government also pursued other on-going initiatives to step-up agricultural development across the country. the effects of economic reforms on the agricultural sector was examined alongside its fundamental roles of food security, supply of raw materials to industries ,provision of market, employment and foreign exchange as well as generation of savings for investment in agriculture and other sectors. agriculture contributed minimally during the period in terms of output, market, foreign exchange and capital formation or transfer as a result of policy instability, poor coordination of policies, poor implementation and mismanagement of policy instruments and lack of transparency. it is recommended that an enduring genuine democracy and good governance should be allowed to thrive in nigeria in order to achieve poverty reduction, sustainable livelihood and food security which will guarantee comprehensive economic development and attainment of the millennium development goals (mdgs). key words: agriculture reforms, effects, agriculture, nigeria. introduction nigeria is an agrarian country with about 70% of her over 140 million people engaged in agricultural production (nbs/cbn, 2006) and provides subsistence for two-thirds (2/3) of nigerians who are low income earners (usman, 2006). while the northern part can guarantee the production of cereals such as sorghum, maize, millet, groundnut, cowpea and cotton, the middle belt and the south have the potentials to produce root tubers such as cassava, yam, cocoyam and other crops like plantain as well as maize (abdullahi, 2003). in addition to crops, the country is also involved in the production of livestock,fisheries, forestry and wildlife. *corresponding author. e-mail: david_chuks@yahoo.com. tel: 08023452109. nigeria is generally endowed with abundant natural resources, numerous all-season rivers and a favourable tropical climate. rainfall is generally adequate and fairly well distributed throughout the country (ukpong et al, 1995). out of the 98.321 million ha of land available in nigeria, about 75.30% may be regarded as arable land, which 10% is under forest reserves and the remaining 14.70% is assumed to be made up of permanent pastures, built up areas and uncultivable waste (olajide, 1980).in the light of the foregoing, agriculture is still a major sector as well as remains the cornerstone of thenigerian economy (salami, 2006; igboeli, 2000). the problem although agriculture had remained the mainstay of the chukwuemeka 056 nigerian economy, there has been declining contributions of agriculture to the gross domestic product (gdp) in the past three decades. this could be associated with the gross neglect of the agricultural sector and over dependence on the oil sector. in the pre-and post independence era (1930 to 1965), the nigerian economy was predicated on agriculture. agriculture employed about 70 to 80% of the country’s labour force (falusi and olayide, 1980) and contributed 60% of the nation’s gross domestic product (gdp) and foreign exchange earnings (cbn, 1985). in the oil boom era (1966 to 1977) the oil sector came to a prominent position as an important source of the national revenue. the oil sector which used to contribute a meager 2.6% of the gdp in 1960 contributed 57.6% to the gdp in 1970 and up to 99.7% in 1972 (keke, 1992). agriculture, on the other hand, contributed only 12% to the gdp in 1970 which culminated in rising food import bill leading to the persistent huge deficit in the balance of payments over the years (ugwu, 2007). in the post oil boom era (1977 to 2002), the price of crude oil started falling and/or fluctuating and there has been a growing concern to revitalize the agricultural sector as well as diversify the economy. in order to revamp the agricultural sector, the federal government had embarked on and implemented several agricultural policies and programmes some of which are defunct or abandoned, and some restructured while others are still in place. these include the farm settlement scheme, national accelerated food production (nafpp), agricultural development projects (adps), river basin development authorities (rbdas), national seed service (nss), national centre for agricultural mechanisation (ncam), agricultural and rural management training institute (armti) and agricultural credit guarantee scheme fund (acgsf). others were the nigerian agricultural cooperative and rural development bank (nacrdb)/agricultural bank, operation feed the nation (ofn), green revolution programme, directorate of foods, roads and rural infrastructure (dffri), nigerian agricultural insurance company (naic), national agricultural land development authority (nalda), specialised universities for agriculture, root and tuber expansion programme (rtep) and rural banking scheme, etc (salami, 2007). furthermore, the federal government in 2004 launched another economic reform called national economic empowerment and development strategy (needs) programme to encourage private sector participation in the development of the economy. it was also aimed at promoting growth and poverty reduction through a participatory process involving civil society and development partners. in the agricultural sector, needs were directed to influence improvement in the production, processing and distribution of agricultural commodities. needs was short-lived for only one year and therefore could not transform or make significant impact on the agricultural sector. despite all the aforementioned reform policies and programmes, the performance of the sector had not fared better than it was before independence. it is against this background that this research was designed and considered imperative at this time in the nation’s history. research objectives this study was therefore designed primarily to assess the performance and the effects of these government agricultural reforms and strategies on the agricultural sector. specifically the study sought to: 1. review the various federal agricultural reforms, programmes and interventions designed and implemented to restore agriculture to its prime position in the economy. 2. determine the effects and nature of the individual contributions of these reforms and programmes on the agricultural sector. 3. identify the problems and/or factors that militate against the achievement of the desired impact of these reform programmes/strategies on the agricultural sector. 4. proffer recommendations for improvement based on findings. research methodology study area nigeria was the focus of the study. it has an area of 923,769 km 2 and a population of over 140 million people. it is bounded on the west by the republic of benin and the republic of niger; on the east by the republic of cameroon; on the north by niger and chad republic’s and on the south by the gulf of guinea. the climate is equatorial and semi-equatorial. there are two seasons; the wet and dry season and agriculture is a major employer of labour, and the mainstay of the economy despite her dependence on oil. the approach used for this research were mainly desk study, data collection from secondary sources as well as analysis of data using descriptive statistics and other qualitative methods. data collection this involved desk study and/or review of relevant literature such as journals, technical documents, government gazettes, cbn annual reports and bullions, and published materials from the national bureau of statistics and the national planning commission (npc), among others. internet resources were also consulted. this also involved the collection of time series data on gross domestic product (gdp), output of agricultural products, exports and revenues, etc. the study focused on data/information available from 1960 to 2009. data analysis data collected were analysed using such descriptive statistics as percentages, means/averages, frequency tables, charts as well as 057 afr. j. agric. mark. cross tabulations. results and discussion historical perspective of agricultural reforms/policies and programmes nigeria’s perception of the place and role of agriculture in national development changed considerably over time. the affected policies, strategies and schemes used to address issues of the scheme equally changed. different strategies adopted by the country shows dynamism and changing strategies that overlaps and cannot be appropriately segregated into time phases. often it was a combination of two or more strategies to implement agricultural policies designed at different time periods. according to olayemi (1998) agricultural development strategies that have been adopted in the country can be categorised into the exploitative strategies, the agricultural project strategy, the direct government production strategy and the integrated rural development strategy. exploitative strategy the nigerian government during the colonial period and early years of independence adopted this strategy for agricultural development. in the 1950s the traditional economists observed agricultural sector as a residual, subsistence sector made up of peasant farmers. myint (1958) in his “vent-for-surplus” theory particularly categorized a developing economy as consisting of a “modern sector” that is largely non-agricultural and a “subsistence sector” that is agricultural. the subsistence sector that is perceived to be unproductive but full of under-utilized resources is expected to feed the modern sectors. as such, the subsistence sector was expected to be taxed to finance the modern sector. this essentially was the basis of the agricultural strategy in the 1950s and the 1960s in nigeria with levies on export crops providing revenue for government to develop the modern sector (adubi 2004). the government established institutions such as the agricultural marketing board system to boost revenue generation efforts through taxing of peasant farmers that produce export crops such as cocoa, groundnut, palm produce, cotton, etc. agricultural project strategy the period coincided with the time of internal self government up till 1968. government intervention in agriculture was minimal. the small-scale farmers in nigeria bore the brunt of agricultural development efforts (egwu and akubuilo, 2007). agriculture was seen as a sector that has appropriate linkage with other sectors and should be developed in complementarity with other sectors thereby effecting the needed forward and backward linkages. agriculture was regionalized with the establishment of extension fields and research institutes. regional public funds were invested in agriculture and there were new schemes such as farm settlement schemes (established to create modern literate farmers and promote agricultural development). tree crop plantations, smaller farmer credit schemes, and agricultural development corporation projects were established to encourage development of tree crops. direct government production strategy according to olayemi (1998), this was merely a deepening of the process of direct government intervention and investment in agriculture. this period started in 1970 and coincided with the oil boom in nigeria. there was massive federal government intervention and investment in agriculture. the reasons were first, the need for the rehabilitation and resuscitation of agriculture after the civil war. this demanded immediate huge investments by government in agriculture given that there was low capacity in the private sector. second, the ideological imperatives in the world then favoured direct involvement of government in directing investments in agricultural business and allied activities (adubi, 2004). the period witnessed direct involvement of governments in directing investments in agricultural production activities and the establishment of schemes and research institutes such as national accelerated food production project (nafpp), nigerian agricultural co-operative bank (nacb), etc. integrated rural development strategy the government realized in the mid 1970s that the strategy of direct agricultural production was not yielding the desired results. so, there was gradual shift to an agricultural development approach which involved the adoption of an integrated rural development strategy (olayemi, 1998). under this strategy, rural development was seen from a holistic perspective with agricultural development problems being only part of a larger rural development concern. this prompted the government to embark on multipurpose rural development programmes and implementing institutions such as the agricultural development projects (adps), the river basin development authorities (rbdas), the directorate of food, roads and rural infrastructure (dfrri), the national agricultural land development agency, (nalda), the operation feed the nation (ofn), the green revolution (gr), etc. this integrated rural development strategy was also adopted during the structural adjustment programme (sap) era but with significant changes in institutional design, intensity of activities and modes of operation. chukwuemeka 058 effects of agricultural reforms, policies and programmes on the agricultural sector the assessment of the effects of the agricultural reforms and policies on the agricultural sector is with respect to the fundamental roles, of agriculture, namely; i. provision of adequate food for a growing population and raw materials for industries. ii. provision of an expanding market for non-agricultural products iii. generation of savings for investment in agriculture as well as other sectors and release of surplus or underutilized resources to other sectors. iv. generation of foreign exchange. these are discussed in line with the historical periods of the various policy reforms and programmes as follows: the 1960 to 1969 era (period of minimum government intervention) during this phase, government intervention in agriculture was minimal. the small-scale farmers in nigeria bore the brunt of agricultural development efforts (egwu and akubuilo, 2007). according to olayemi (1995) government effort took the form of settling policies and creating institutions for agricultural research, extension and export crop marketing and pricing. agricultural development during this period was equated as the withdrawal of surplus rural labour and transferring them to the industrial sector. government established farm settlements and government research institutes and agricultural development corporations. this period witnessed visible decline in export crop production and mild food shortage. there was a decentralized approach to agriculture with initiatives being left to the regions and the states while federal government played a supportive role. regional governments were executing adhoc policies, programmes and projects. the effects of these reforms/policies on agricultural performance include increase in food supply short falls, and rise in retail food prices (sanyal and babu, 2010). the agricultural share of the gdp declined from 66% in 1959 to 50% in 1970. the decrease in export earnings and the increase in retail feed prices led to greater importation of food, which adversely affected the balance of payments during the late 1960s (kwanashie et al., 1998). during the same period, agriculture maintained an average of about 56% gdp in the 1960s with about 63% in the first half of the decade (tables 1 and 2). however, the foreign exchange earnings declined from 71% in 1964 to 41% in 1969. the negative environmental effects of these policy reforms at this period, however, were noted to include increased deforestation of rain forests for cash crop production as well as loss of biodiversity including wildlife table 1. share of agriculture in the gdp (1960 to2006). period/year average share of agriculture in gdp (%) 1960 to 1964 62.5 1965 to 1969 54.3 1970 to 1974 39.1 1975 to 1979 23.1 1980 to1984 23.3 1985 to 1989 37.9 1990 to 1994 29.93 1995 to1998 27.72 1999 to 2002 40.82 2003 32.60 2004 34.21 2005 1/ 41.83 2006 2/ 50.78 source: cbn annual report and statement of accounts (various issues). and indigenous plants. the 1970 to 1985 era (period of maximum government intervention) this phase was characterized by a change of policy from minimal government intervention to maximum in the agricultural sector. the oil boom featured in the era which brought about enormous financial investments in agricultural projects and institutions. many agricultural policies and programmes were enunciated. the fiscal, monetary and trade policies under the macro-economic policies were launched during the era as enumerated as follows; fiscal policy: budgetary allocations to agriculture were substantially increased to accommodate capital and recurrent expenditures. however large budget deficits were recorded. the capital expenditure on agriculture declined from 6.2% of total capital expenditure by the federal government in 1973 to 4.0% in 1985. the expenditure of state government followed similar pattern for the period under review (egwu and akubilo, 2007). tax policy: income tax reliefs on incomes from new agricultural enterprises were pursued. wage policy: a unified wage structure for all public sector workers was put in place. monetary policy: agricultural loans were given at concessionary interest rate of 6% per annum. in 1980s it was raised to 9% per annum. establishment of schemes, institutions etc: the table 2. percentage contribution to gross domestic product by sectors. product 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 oil 13.5 12.97 13.0 13.4 13.05 14.17 11.60 10.7 11.5 11.6 9.7 41.50 37.22 49.64 61.19 non oil 86.5 87.3 87.0 86.9 86.95 87.16 88.41 89.3 88.5 88.4 98.3 58.50 62.78 50.36 38.35 crops 29.9 29.8 29.8 29.5 31.13 31.47 32.27 22.7 32.4 32.3 32.9 29.6 30.48 37.05 45.09 livestock 5.2 5.1 5.0 4.0 5.23 5.19 5.21 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.1 2.04 2.14 2.75 3.32 forestry 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.2 1.27 1.24 1.22 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.1 0.41 0.95 0.54 0.64 fisheries 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.7 1.38 1.49 1.66 1.9 1.9 1.9 2.1 1.09 1.14 1.49 1.72 agriculture 37.8 37.8 37.7 37.2 39.01 39.39 40.36 40.99 40.61 40.45 41.23 32.6 34.21 41.83 50.78 source: cbn annual report and statement of accounts (several issues). nigerian agricultural and co-operative bank (nacb) was established in 1973 to facilitate the granting of credit to nigerian farmers. mandatory sectoral allocation to agriculture: commercial and merchant banks were mandated to extend a minimum of 6% of their loan portfolio to agriculture which was later increased to 12%. rural banking scheme was launched in 1977 while the agricultural credit guarantee scheme was established in 1977. trade policy on abolition of export duties on scheduled export crops in 1973 in order to promote agricultural export trade. liberalization of imports in respect of food, agricultural machinery and equipment. a summary of the micro-economic policies in agriculture during the era were as follows: 1. agricultural commodity marketing and pricing policy: in 1977, six national commodity boards were established which include; commodity boards for cocoa, groundnuts, palm produce, cotton, rubber and food grains. 2. land use policy was promulgated by the federal government in 1978 vesting the ownership of all lands on the government as to give genuine farmers access to farmlands. 3. agricultural extension and technology transfer policy aimed at improving the adoption of improved agricultural technology by farmers with the national accelerated food production project (nafpp) and agricultural development projects (adps) as implementing agencies. 4. input supply and distribution policy was promulgated to ensure adequate and orderly supply of agricultural inputs notably fertilizers, agro-chemicals, seeds, machinery and equipment. a) in 1975 government centralized fertilizer procurement and distribution with numerous agro-service centres nation wide. b) in 1972 government created national seeds service (nss) to produce and multiply improved seeds such as rice, maize, cowpea, millet, sorghum, wheat and cassava. 5. agricultural input subsidy policy on fertilizer, seed (50%) agro-chemicals (50%) and tractor hiring services (50%). 6. agricultural research policy: the policy was aimed at coordination and harmonization of agricultural research and extension linkage. agricultural research council was established in 1971.the 1973 decree empowered the federal government to take over all state research institutions. the 1975 reconstitution by the federal government of the nigerian agricultural research institute network led to the establishment of 14 institutes which were later increased to 19 and the creation in 1977 of the national science and technology development agency to coordinate all research activities in nigeria. 7. agricultural co-operatives policy: in 1979, a department of agricultural co-operatives within the federal ministry of agriculture, water resources and rural development was created to actualize this policy aimed at encouragement of farmers to form cooperatives and the use of same for the distribution of farm inputs and imported food commodities. 8. water resources and irrigation policy brought about the establishment of eleven river basin development authorities in 1977 charged with the responsibility of developing nigeria’s lands and water resources. 9. agricultural mechanization policy: the policy was instrumental to the creation of the ministry of science and technology and the establishment of some universities of science and technology; the operation of tractor hiring units in all the states of nigeria, reduced import duty on tractors and agricultural equipment and implements, generalized and liberalized subsidies on farm clearing and establishment of a centre for agricultural mechanization. in terms of effects of these agricultural reforms and policies on the agricultural sector, the imbalance in the flow of financial resources that characterized this period reflected in nigeria’s foreign trade. during this period imports rose by 46.5% more than the planned targets, with food, capital equipment and raw materials being, the fastest growing categories of imports. food imports as a 059 afr. j. agric. mark. chukwuemeka 060 share of total imports increased from 7.67% in 1970 to 10.26% in 1979 (osemeobo, 1992). at the same time as imports were increasing, agricultural production was suffering due to the latent impact of the civil war (1967 to 1970) and the drought of 1972 to 1974 that led to a massive loss of crops and livestock. despite government efforts in agricultural production, the performance of the agricultural sector was poor in terms of its growth, its export value, its contribution to gdp, and its share in nigeria’s total export earnings. there was rapid decline in agricultural production with large food supply gaps (sanyal and babu, 2010) with attendant rapid increase in food imports from 7.7% in 1970 to 10.3% in 1979. the 1985 to 1990 era (structural adjustment programme (sap) and post sap period) this era saw the federal ministry of agriculture, water resources and rural development in 1988 produce an agricultural policy for nigeria decreed to be operational for at least the next fifteen years. according to ikpi (1995) the document embodied the following, among other policies; a) agricultural sector policies and strategies on food crops, livestock and fish production, industrial raw material (crop and by-products) production, and forest products and wildlife. b) policies on support services such as agricultural extension, technology development and transfer, agricultural credit; agricultural insurance; agricultural mechanization; water resources development; rural infrastructure; agricultural statistics and data bank; agricultural investment and management advisory services, and agricultural manpower development and training. the document assigned role and responsibilities to the three tiers of government, federal, state and local in the country. it also incorporated a mechanism for periodic policy review to allow for policy stability and perspective planning. with the adoption of structural adjustment programme (sap) in 1986, government admitted the failure of past policies to significantly improve the economy and reverse the declining trend of production in the agricultural sector. the structural adjustment programme relied most especially on the agricultural sector to achieve the objectives of its far-reaching reforms on diversification of exports and adjustment of the production and consumption structure of the economy (adubi, 2004). the objectives of sap were to: 1) restructure and diversify the productive based of the economy so as to reduce dependency on the oil sector; 2) achieve fiscal stability and balance of payments viability over the medium term; and 3) promote economic growth with single digit inflation rates. some of the key policies designed to achieve these objectives were: a) measures to stimulate domestic production and broaden the supply base of the economy b) liberalization of trade and export controls; c) elimination of price control and commodity boards; d) decontrol of interest rates, and e) further rationalization and restructuring of the tariffs to smooth the way toward industrial diversification (sonyal and babu, 2010). despite the aforementioned policy measures, the agricultural sector did not register significant overall growth for several reasons. first, sap had more of an impact on the distribution of farm incomes than on agricultural growth and productivity (kwanashie et al, 1998). second, on average, real producer prices of tradable goods did not change significantly after the policy reforms. the decline in output of the export crop subsector contributed to a reduction in foreign exchange earnings that could affect the foreign exchange requirement of the agricultural sector. as a result of this reduction and subsequent loss of export earnings from crops, the country’s dependence on crude petroleum export earnings between 1988 and 1992 increased substantially (colman and okorie, 1993). in this phase also, which marked the sap period, there was lower agricultural and economic growth with high rates of unemployment. export earnings declined to less than 5% (table 3) as well as widening gap in food supply and demand. food prices increased from 2.6% in 1970 to 1979 period to almost 20% during 1980 to 1989. the environmental implications of these policy reforms were quite significant. during this period, there was increased deforestation with adverse impact on biotic resources, loss of biodiverty, increased desertification in arid areas and flooding in lowland areas. there was also evidence of increased use of chemicals and abuse of fertilizer use which led to soil degradation in certain agroecological zones. with respect to the index of real agricultural sector gdp between 1985 and 1990, it was fluctuating over these years. it was negative in 1985 and 1986 and positive in 1987 to 1990. the new millennium agricultural policies (1999 to 2009) at the inception of the new democratic administration in may 1999 and shortly before then, several institutional changes were made in order to realize the sector’s 061 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. growth rate of real gdp-agriculture. year index of real gdp agriculture growth rate 1981 100.0 1982 103.85 3.85 1983 96.20 -3.80 1984 90.59 -9.41 1985 100.13 -0.13 1986 98.44 -1.56 1987 136.35 36.45 1988 136.35 36.35 1989 105.30 5.30 1990 118.43 18.43 1991 122.71 22.71 1992 128.07 28.07 1993 132.39 32.39 1994 127.60 27.66 1995 131.19 31.19 1996 137.68 37.68 1997 143.18 43.18 1998 143.76 43.76 1999 143.33 43.76 2000 141.37 41.37 2001 159.08 59.08 2002 163.39 63.39 2003 165.13 65.13 2004 69.52 -30.48 2005 71.79 -28.21 source: cbn statistical bulletin (various issues). objectives and in line with its belief that agricultural and rural development are sin quo non for improved economic recovery (olomola, 1998). these include the relocation of the department of co-operatives of the ministry of labour and its merger with the agricultural co-operatives division of the ministry of agriculture, the transfer of the department of rural development from the ministry of water resources to the ministry of agriculture (all before 1999), the scrapping of the erstwhile national agricultural land development authority (nalda) and the merging of its functions with the rural development department, the scrapping of the federal agricultural co-ordinating unit (facu) and the agricultural projects monitoring and evaluation unit (apmeu) and the setting up of projects co-ordinating unit (pcu) and later transformed into the national food reserve agency (nfra). streamlining of institutions for agricultural credit delivery with the emergence of the nigerian agricultural co-operative and rural development bank (nacrdb) from the merger of the erstwhile nigerian agricultural and co-operative bank (nacb) and the peoples bank and the family economic advancement programme (feap). new institutions were also evolving to enable the nigerian agricultural sector respond to the imperatives of the emerging global economic order. the new agricultural policy has a clear statement of objectives. the policy seeks to attain self sustaining growth in all the subsectors of agriculture and the structural transformation necessary for the overall socioeconomic development of the country as well as the improvement in the quality of life of nigerians. this objective reflects the current policy recognition of agriculture as a vital sector under the poverty reduction programme (fmard, 2003). the government also sought to pursue the following specific objectives: i. attainment of self-sufficiency in basic food commodities with particular reference to those which consume considerable shares of nigeria’s foreign exchange and for which the country has comparative advantage in local production. ii. increase in local production of agricultural raw materials to meet the growth of an expanding industrial sector. iii. increase in production and processing of exportable commodities with a view to increasing their foreign exchange earning capacity and further diversifying the country’s export base and sources of foreign exchange earnings; iv. modernization of agricultural production, processing, storage and distribution through the infusion of improved technologies and management so that agriculture can be more responsive to the demands of other sectors of the nigerian economy. v. creation of more agricultural and rural employment opportunities to increase income of farmers and rural dwellers and productively absorb an increasing labour force in the nation. other initiatives that are on-going to step-up agricultural development and ensure food security are the root and tuber expansion programme, national cocoa development committee, special programme on food security (spfs) and national fadama project. others also include the fish farm estate development, initiatives for increased agricultural production, south-south cooperation initiative and nigeria-france project on agricultural development. this phase witnessed a drastic reduction in food imports from 14.5% to 5% of total imports. presidential initiatives on specific agricultural commodities (for example cassava, rice) in order to generate n3 billion annually from exports also featured during this period. public private partnership in the development of agricultural marketing as well as the promotion of integrated rural development marked this phase. the effects of these policy changes and programmes were reflected in the deficits recorded due to rising population and import restrictions on cereals and grains, supply shortages due to significant increase in land area chukwuemeka 062 under cultivation, and instability in input and output markets, among others. annual deforestation rate remained at the rate of 76% per year due to higher demand for agricultural land, fuel wood and rapidly growing population (unep, 2006). land degradation caused by soil erosion occurred at an alarming rate. however, nigerian agriculture has shown good growth rates in the recent past with growth rates of 7.4, 7.2 and 6.5% in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. between 2003 and 2007 its average share of the national real gdp was 41.5% thus underscoring its importance in the livelihood of nigerians (fgn, undated). of the growth in the 2003 to 2007 period, the crop, livestock, fishery and fishery subsectors contributed 90, 6, 3 and 1% respectively. major crops grown in nigeria include yam, cassava, sorghum, millet, rice, maize, beans, dried cowpea, groundnut, cocoyam and sweet potato. these major crops which accounted for about 75% of total crop sales in 2004 increased from 81,276 thousand tones in 2004 to 95, 556 thousand tones in 2007 (eyo, 2008). problems/challenges of the agricultural reforms, policies and programmes evidence from olayemi (1995), olomola (1998), garba (1998) have indicated minimal positive impact of these reforms/policies. the evidence stems from the decaying rural infrastructure, declining value of total credit to agriculture, and declining domestic and foreign investment in agriculture. the increasing withdrawal of manufacturing companies from their backward integrated agricultural ventures has reduced investments in the sector considerably. input supply and distribution have been hap-hazard and inefficient and most agricultural institutions were ineffective prompting its scrapping in year 2000 of some of the institutions established for agricultural promotion. a critical examination of the reforms/policies and their implementation over the years show that policy instability, policy inconsistency, lack of policy transparency, poor coordination of policies as well as poor implementation and mismanagement of policy instruments constitute major obstacles to the implementation and achievement of the goals and objectives of these policies. policy instability and lack of policy transparency are not unconnected with political instability and bad governance. for example, between 1979 and 1999 the country had five military/civilian regimes. at the federal and state levels, the then ministers and commissioners of agriculture were changed several times on the average of one per two years. several policy measures were initiated and changed without sufficiently waiting for policy effects or results. at one time or the other, agricultural production passed through periods of protection and unbridled opening up for competition. also, it passed through era of “no government” and “less these could all be attributed to poor coordination and faulty implementation of policies as well as mismanagement of policy instruments. agriculture contributed 42% of nigeria’s gross domestic product (gdp) in 2008 (national bureau of statistics). however, despite having grown at an annual rate of 6.8% from 2002 to 2006, 2.8% higher than the sectors annual growth between 1997 and 2001, food security remains a major concern due to the subsistence nature of the country’s agriculture (nwafor, 2008) many of the strategies used to improve agricultural growth in the past have failed because the programmes and policies were not sufficiently based on in-depth studies and realistic pilot surveys (adebaya et al., 2009). this could be attributed to lack of public participation in the design, formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies as well as limited implementation capacity within the sectoral ministries and a poor understanding of the details and specifics of polices by implementers (adebayo et al., 2009). the main factors that influenced the effectiveness of policies on agriculture include high demand for agricultural produce, availability of improved technology, efficient dissemination of information by the adps and value added leading to improved income. on the other hand, the common factors responsible for the ineffectiveness of policies and regulations, especially on the downstream segment of agriculture, include instability of the political climate, insecurity of investment, nonstandardized product quality, non-competitive nature of agricultural products from the country in the export market due to high cost of production and lack of adequate processing facilities (the new nigerian agriculture policy, 2001). conclusions and recommendations in conclusion, the effects of economic reforms on the agricultural sector can be said to be unsatisfactory in view of its minimal contributions to the sector. in order to stem the aforementioned identified problems and weaknesses of these agricultural policies/reforms in the context of their contributions to the agricultural sector, genuine democracy and good governance should be allowed to thrive in nigeria. this will guarantee poverty reduction, sustainable livelihood and enhanced food security which will lead to a comprehensive agricultural development as well as the attainment of the millennium development goals (mdgs) in nigeria. references abdullahi a (2003). “employment creation and opportunities in the agroallied sub-sector: the case of cassava production.” cbn bullion publication, 27(4): 10. adebayo k (2004). rural development nigeriana: episodic drama, soap opera and comedy. university of agriculture aberkuta alumin association lecture series no. 6 january 2004. adubi aa (2004). “agriculture: its performance, problems and prospects”. democratic government development. in bello imam i. b. and m. i. obadan (ed). management in nigeria’s fourth republic 1999 – 2003 clgards, 2004. adubi aa (2002). “the agricultural sector: objectives, priorities, strategies and policies” chapter in book of readings on policy issues in nigerian economy ncema, 2002. adubi aa (2002b). the agricultural sector and the challenges of the twenty-first century chapter in book of readings on nigerian economic in the 21 st century by centre for advanced social science (cass) port harcourt, nigeria. central bank of nigeria (cbn) (1995). central bank of nigeria, annual report and statement of account, lagos, nigeria. in nworgu f. c. (2006). prospects and pitfalls of agricultural production in nigeria. federal college of animal health and production technology, institute of agricultural research and training, ibadan, nigeria. colman d, okorie a (1998). the effect of structural adjustment on the nigerian agricultural export sector. j. int. dev., 10(3): 341–355. egwu we, akubuilo cjc (2007). “agricultural policy, development and implementation in akubuilo, c. j. c. (ed) chapter in book of readings in agricultural economics and extension. ego eo (2008). “macroeconomic environment and agricultural sector growth in nigeria”. world j. agric. sci., 4(6): 781–786. federal ministry of agriculture and rural development (fmard) (2003), agriculture in nigeria. the new policy thrust. federal ministry of agriculture and rural development, abuja, 2003. fgn (undated). nigeria: review of on-going agricultural development efforts. garba pk (1998). “an analysis of the implementation and stability of nigerian agricultural policies, 1970 – 1993 “final report submitted to the african economic research consortium (aerc), nairobi, kenya. igboeli g (2000). development of agriculture in nigeria. in nworgu f. c. (ed) prospects and pitfalls of agricultural production in nigeria. federal college of animal health and production technology, institute of agricultural research and training, ibadan, nigeria. myint h (1958). the classical theory of international trade and the underdeveloped countries.” econ. j., 68(270): 317-337. national bureau of statistics/central bank of nigeria (nbs/cbn) (2006) socio-economic survey on nigeria, nbs, abuja. nwafor m (2008), literature review of development targets in nigeria. ibadan: international institute of tropical agriculture . kwanashie m, ajilima a, garba a (1998). the nigerian economy. response of agriculture to adjustment policies. zana, nigeria: african economic research consortium. olayemi jk (1998). “agricultural development strategy: institutional framework and support, “paper presented at the workshop on policy issues and planning in the agricultural sector, ncema, june 15-26, 1998. olayemi jk (1995). “agricultural policies for sustainable development: nigeria’s experience” in ikpi a.e. and j.k. olayemi (ed). sustainable agriculture and economic development in nigeria. winrock international, 1995. olomola as (1998). “analysis and management of agricultural sector performance and inter-sectional linkages” paper presented at training programme on sectoral policy analysis and management (ncema) june, 1998. osemeobo gj (1992). impact of nigerian agricultural policies on crop production and the environment. environmentalist, 12(2): 101-108. sanyal p, babu s (2010). policy benchmarking and tracking the agricultural policy environment in nigeria. nigeria strategy support program (nssp). report no. nssp 005, p. 23. ugwu ds (2007). “agricultural extension practice in nigeria.” readings in agricultural economics and extension (ed.). in cjc akubuilo, umebali ee, mgbada ju, ugwu ds, egwu we, awoke mu. usman ne (2006). “agriculture: vital to nigerian economic development.” paper presented at the forum of economic stakeholders on “growing the nigeria economy” 2006. this day news paper, july 25, 2006. 063 afr. j. agric. mark. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (7), pp. 229-231, july, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper areas to which micro scale enterprises apply marketing mix strategies adebankole anthony abiola department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, afe babalola university, ado ekiti, nigeria. e-mail: tonyabiola@hotmail.com accepted 23 june, 2015 the purpose of this study was to examine the application of marketing mix strategy of small and micro scale enterprises in osun state. the study sought to know the extent to which small and micro scale enterprises apply marketing mix strategies. the study was conducted on three purposefully selected areas of osun state namely; ile-ife, ilesa and osogbo. primary data were used for this study. the primary data were collected through the use of the questionnaire. descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, and arithmetic mean were used to present and analyze the data. the result of the finding revealed that enterprises in osun state do apply marketing mix strategies and that majority of them apply them to a very high extent. about 72% (146) of the sampled population had high application. from the findings, the study concludes that small and micro scale enterprises in osun state do apply marketing mix strategies and majority of the enterprises apply these strategies to a very high extent in their business operations. key words: application, marketing mix, extent, strategy, small and micro scale enterprises. introduction developing effective strategies in this environment of number of controllable variables from the four in the constant change is key requirement for corporate original marketing mix model to seven. the traditional success. market-driven organizations develop closely marketing mix model was primarily directed and useful for coordinated business and marketing strategies which tangible products. the 7ps model is more useful for consist of deciding on the scope and purpose of the service industries and arguably also for knowledge business, its objectives, and the initiatives and resources intensive environments. the extended marketing mix ne cessary to achieve the objectives (cravens and piercy, comprises the 7ps.these include product, price, 2003). promotion, place, people, process and physical evidence. the common marketing decision variables available a marketing mix consists of controllable variables that are conveniently classified and identified as the 4ps of the small and micro enterprises must combine to satisfy marketing. these include product, price, promotion and the target market. the right product for the target market physical distribution (place). the 7-ps or extended must be developed. channels of distribution must be marketing mix is marketing strategy tool that ex adebankole 229 table 1. population distribution of micro and small scale enterprises. commercial population micro enterprises small scale enterprises towns total sample total sample total sample ile-ife 338 108 248 80 90 28 ilesa 256 82 223 72 32 10 osogbo 198 64 180 57 18 7 total 792 254 651 209 140 45 source: publication of osun state ministry of commerce, industry and co-operatives (2004). expands strategized and monitored over time. the existence of the enterprises‟ product must be communicated to the target audience through a combination of promotion mix and the right price should be set to attract customers and make profit. in both developed and developing countries, the traditional sector which is made up of small and micro scale enterprises had served and continues to serve as the springboard for launching a vibrant modern industrial sector (asaolu, 2001). nigeria is naturally endowed with millions of acres of arable land, billion barrels of oil reserves, unexploited minerals, and a wealth of human capital. with nigeria‟s abundant reserves of human and natural resources, the country has the potential to build a prosperous economy and provide for the basic needs of the population (dionco-adetayo, 2014). this is achievable only when there is a vibrant and performing micro and small scale enterprises strongly entrenched in the economy. the best way of explaining the role of small scale industries, stated asaolu (2001), is to underscore its role in the economy of nigeria. such roles include the creation of employment opportunities, reduction of regional economic imbalance, mobilization and utilization of otherwise idle resources, development of entrepreneurship and serving as training ground for larger businesses. other roles may include the conservation of foreign exchange and stemming of rural urban migration. while these enterprises occupy an important place in the economy, it is discouraging to observe that many of them that enter the business world in nigeria and in other parts of the world every year fail rather than succeed. while they remain significant contributors to the economic and social well being of all countries, they continue to be plagued by poor performance levels and high failure rates, despite government assistance and interventions. solutions to this failure rates have been proffered in areas of finance, educational level of owners with little or no effort taken to look in the area of marketing strategies of these businesses. this paper, therefore, investigated selected small and micro scale businesses in osun state to ascertain the extent, if at all, to which they apply marke ting mix strategy in their business operations. the purpose of this paper, therefore, was to investigate the type of marketing mix strategies and the extent of their application by small and micro scale enterprises in osun state using the following objectives; 1. to examine the type of marketing mix strategies employed by small and micro scale enterprises in osun state 2. to investigate the extent of application of marketing mix strategy by small and micro scale enterprises in osun state research hypothesis the following research hypothesis was tested: 1) ho: small and micro scale enterprises in osun state do not apply marketing mix strategies in their business operations. research methodology the study was conducted on registered micro and small scale enterprises in osun state. the questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. the population of the study consists of registered small scale and micro scale enterprises in three major commercial cities of osun state totaling 792. the towns covered by the researcher are ile-ife, osogbo, and ilesa. the population frame was collected from osun state ministry of commerce, industry and cooperative. a total of 254 enterprises were covered by the researcher. the sample size was arrived at in accordance with sample sizes recommended for different population sizes calculated at 95 percent confidence level (that is +/-5 percent margin of error) for works of this nature (dionco-adetayo,2003). systematic random sampling was used in selecting every third enterprise. a total of 254 questionnaires were administered on the respondents. the respondents were only the owners/managers of the enterprise. descriptive and non-parametric statistics were used to analyze the data and test the hypothesis. table 1 shows the population distribution of the enterprises in the three cities of the study. the marketing mix strategies were product, pricing, promotion and distribution . to determine how often a marketing mix table 2. distribution of respondents on marketing mix strategy adopted by the enterprises. variables frequency percent product strategy 35 17.0 pricing strategy 23 11.5 promotion strategy 75 37.0 distribution strategy 70 34.5 total 203 100 source: author‟s research survey, 2010. table 3. application of marketing mix strategies. level of application frequency percent mean score low (0-4) 18 9 0.1 average (5-8) 41 19.5 0.2 high (9-12) 144 71.5 0.7 total 203 100 source: research survey, 2010. strag is applied, the total grade weight was divided by the number of variables. the interval below describes how level of application was chosen after division of the total grade weight by number of variables. x= total grade weight number of variables for 1<x<2 = never 2<x<3 = rarely 3<x<4 = sometimes x ≥ 4 = frequently therefore, any enterprise that used the four variables – product, price, promotion and distribution frequently had a total of 16 weights which is considered to be applying the variables highly. descriptive statistics were used in the presentation and analysis of data. the descriptive statistics used were contingency tables, frequencies, percentages and the arithmetic mean. presentation, analysis and interpretation of data marketing mix strategy objective 1 which sought to investigate the type of marketing mix strategies used by micro and small scale enterprises in osun state was achieved using questions on the type of marketing mix strategy used by the enterprises. this was described and analyzed in table 3. the data in table 2 showed that all the enterprises adopted the four marketing mix strategies namely product, pricing, promotion and distribution. it showed that 37% use more of promotion while 34% use more of distribution. only about 11% percent use more of pricing strategy and 17% use more of product strategy. this is 230 afr. j. agric. mark. shown by the number of owners that use a particular mix strategy by showing each mix variables preferred by owners of enterprises. this result agrees with world bank (2008), that small and micro scale enterprises provide goods and services tailored to local needs and at cost that are affordable to local people. the implication of this is that other pricing strategies may not be considered except to enter the market at prices affordable by local people. benevides (1992) also noted that for this sector of the economy, equipment for production purposes are often second hand and the manufacturing process is most often than not inefficient compared to other sectors of the economy. this may explain the less emphasis paid to product as a marketing strategy. the extent of application of marketing mix strategy objective 2 which sought to investigate the extent of application of marketing mix strategies by small and micro scale enterprises in osun state was achieved using the questions on extent of application of marketing mix strategies by small and micro scale enterprises which was described and analyzed in table 3. the data in table 3 showed the analysis of the extent to which the small and micro scale enterprises in areas of investigation apply marketing mix strategies. the data revealed that 9.0% of the enterprises with mean score of 0.1 had a low application of marketing mix strategies, 20% with mean score of 0.2 had an average application and 71% of the enterprises with mean score of 0.7 had a high application or made high use of marketing mix variables. this result showed that a high number of micro and small scale businesses are involved in the application of marketing mix strategies. based on this, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate accepted. as such small and micro scale businesses apply marketing mix strategies in their business operations. this finding goes to buttress previous research findings that noted that small businesses can significantly add to the economic growth of a nation if they consistently progress in capital accumulation and profit generation, which are greatly hinged on profitable customers‟ satisfaction, which is in turn a function of the marketing decision of the businesses (bamgboye, 1994; anyanwu, 1995; atijosan, 1996, 2000). conclusion the extent of application of marketing mix strategies by small and micro scale enterprises in osun state was investigated and was considered to be high considering that majority of the enterprises (71.5%) investigated applied the variables frequently. about 57 enterprises (28.5%) of the total respondents had low and fair application adebankole 231 application, while 146 enterprises (71.5%) applied the variables frequently. however, it was noted in the study that only about 11% percent of the enterprise owners use pricing strategy and 17% use product strategy. this is shown by the number of owners that use a particular mix strategy by showing each mix variables preferred by owners of enterprises. the implication of this is that owners of enterprises in this class of industry may not be aware of the different pricing strategies available for use in their businesses which may explain their less use of the strategy. also in this class of industry equipment for production purposes are often second hand and the manufacturing process is most often than not labour intensive and inefficient compared to other sectors of the economy. this may explain the less emphasis paid to product as a marketing strategy. based on the above findings, the study concludes that small and micro scale enterprises in osun state do apply marketing mix strategies and majority of the enterprises apply these strategies to a very high extent in their business operations. recommendations based on the finding of the study and the subsequent conclusion drawn from it, the following recommendations are made. for the business enterprises to harness the best out of these strategies, they must employ a more systematic and coordinated approach to the application of the strategies. specific resources must be allocated for the use of these strategies, they must be monitored and evaluated on timely basis and the best combination of them for each enterprise must be adapted. enterprises are advised to continue the application of product and promotion mix strategies while they study pricing and product mix strategies to find out how best to use them to bring about balance in the usage of all the marketing mix strategies for better business operations. . conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references anyanwu va (1995). “marketing as a tool for stimulating the growth of nigerian owned hotel business”, market. j,4: 25-30. asaolu to (2001). „financing small scale enterprises in ondo state of nigeria. master of philosophy project submitted to the department of management and accounting, obafemi awolowo university. atijosan ji (2000) . “ecology of small business: implication for marketing management”, marketing nigeria, 2: 6-13. bamgboye ed (1994). “marketing: an achilles heels of nigerian small scale manufacturing enterprises” j bus. stud., 2: 3-9. benevides l (1992). “hazardous waste management for small scale and cottage industries in developing countries: overview.” expert group meeting on management of hazardous waste from small scale and cottage industries, nairobi, urban management programme cravens dw, piercy nf (2003). strategic marketing seventh edition, newyork: mcgraw hill companies. dionco-adetayo e (2014). entrepreneurship education: a panacea to graduate unemployment? inaugural lecture series 269, obafemi awolowo university, ileife, nigeria. dionco-adetayo e (2003). “guide to writing business research” obafemi awolowo university press limited, ile-ife, nigeria. world bank publication (2008). „promoting small and medium enterprises for sustainable development‟ washington d.c, united states of america. © author(s) retain the copyright of this article. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (8), pp. 241-251, august, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper gender role in market supply of potato in eastern hararghe zone, ethiopia * mahlet abitew1, bezabih emana2, mengistu ketema3, jeffreyson k. mutimba4 and jemal yousuf1 1 department of rural development and agricultural extension, haramaya university, dire dawa, ethiopia. 2 hedbez business and consultancy general manager, addis ababa, ethiopia. 3 school of agricultural economics, haramaya university, diredawa, ethiopia. 4 east and southern africa coordinator of sasakawa africa fund for extension education (safe), addis ababa, ethiopia. accepted 28 june, 2015 potato is an important vegetable that is produced for food security and income generation. both men and women households are the major actors in potato production and marketing. however, there are different factors that affect the households' production and supply. in this regard, various research results have identified major causes that hinder sufficient production and marketing. but the results do not reveal the gender difference among households in the production and marketing. the analysis of this study is based on a survey of 400 household heads from three randomly selected districts of eastern hararghe zone. descriptive statistics and linear regression model with ordinary least square were used to analyze determinates of supply. result of the descriptive statistics showed that there are differences between households in terms of age, dependency ratio, access to market information and quantity produced. the estimate of ols result reveals that, the amount of potato produced, livestock holding and farming experience are some of the significant variables that affect the households’ level of potato supply positively and negatively at different probability levels. hence, identifying the various factors in the production and supply of potato will help the households in maximizing their benefit and improve their capacity. key words: quantity supplied, potato, household heads, quantity produced, ordinary least square, eastern hararghe zone. introduction potato is a major vegetable crop and most diverse in the world (iyp, 2008). worldwide more than 320 million tons of potatoes are produced annually on 20 million hectares of land (fao, 2010). moreover, potato is grown in more than 100 countries and ranks 4 th among the worlds’ most important staple food crops after rice, wheat, and maize (faostat,2007), and it has been recognized as one of corresponding author e-mail: mahleta2001@gmail.com the main crops to alleviate hunger in the world. in africa, most of the production is concentrated in east africa (70%), followed by south africa (21%) and west africa (8%) (fao, 2010). ethiopia has suitable edaphic and climatic conditions for the production of high quality ware and seed potatoes (tekalign, 2010; endale et al., 2008). moreover, in 2013/14, the area under potato production in ethiopia was about 66,745 hectares with an average national yield of 117 quintal per hectare for the main cropping season abitew et al. 241 (csa, 2014). most highlands with altitudes ranging from 1,500 3,000 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l) and annual precipitation of 600 1,200 millimeters (mm) are suitable for potato cultivation (medhin et al., 2001; fao, 2008). eastern oromiya is a major potato producing area. it covers the eastern highlands of ethiopia, which includes fedis, haramaya, kombolcha, kersa, meta, kurfa chelle, grawa, and jarso (bezabih and hadera, 2007). furthermore, the area under potato production in east hararghe was 2,207.12 hectares with an average yield of 193 quintal per hectare (csa, 2014). potato constitutes a major ingredient in every meal of the households in eastern oromiya. the presence of a regional domestic market and cross-border and export market outlets to the neighboring countries like djibouti and somalia have contributed to the development of potato culture in hararghe (tekalign, 2010). export as well as local marketing of potato is an essential activity of the farming households where it generates income. out of the total volume of potato marketed to somalia, 75 percent is supplied from east hararghe and about 25 percent from the central part of ethiopia including the rift valley and shashemene (bezabih, 2008). however, the supply is neither sufficient nor constant to satisfy the demand of the market at both market outlets. given the economic and social importance of potato, men and women farmers managed their farms in a better way so that they can be prominent in the production and supply of potato. in a married household, men and women work together to produce potatoes; men devote their efforts to activities requiring more physical effort such as land preparation, but many tasks are shared (amaya, 2009). however, farm managed by women are generally characterized by low level of mechanization and technological inputs, which often translate into low productivity (fao, 2006). even though, both households face various constraints that hamper their effective production and supply, women-owned businesses face greater constraints and receive far fewer services and less support than those owned by men (bardasi et al., 2007; ellis et al., 2006; world bank, 2007a,b). these disadvantages reduce women’s effectiveness as actors in value chain and also restraint their overall engagement in market activities. yet, quantitative analysis of gender deferential in potato supply to the market has not been studied in eastern oromiya. the major objective of the paper is, therefore, to assess the effect of gender on market supply of potato. moreover, this paper aims at assessing the factors that hinder male and female headed households from effective potato production and marketing, how the factors affect them and why the factors affect them differently. methodology sampling procedure, type of data and method of data collection the study was conducted in eastern oromiya national regional state of ethiopia. a multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select the districts, rural kebele and sample household heads. in the first stage, study districts from the zone were selected purposively based on their higher potato production potential as compared with other districts. accordingly, kombolcha, kersa and haramaya districts were selected for the survey. in the second stage, 12 potential kebeles 1 were randomly selected from the selected districts. in the third stage, 400 household heads were randomly selected where the sample gender representation was based on the proportion of male and female headed households i.e., 372 male headed households and 28 female headed households. the sample households were drawn randomly from each kebele based on probability proportional to size sampling techniques. both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary data sources. primary data were collected from sample farm households using pre-tested structured interview schedule, focus group discussions and observations. the primary data were firsthand information collected through individual contact in their vicinity. the data collected include producers’ household characteristics, quantity produced, potato production characteristics, quantity supplied and access to markets and information. besides, relevant secondary data sources like government and non-government reports, relevant text books, journals and bulletins were reviewed to supplement the survey data at different times of the study period. data analysis to measure factors affecting market supply of potato by farm households, a linear regression model was employed. a number of household and institutional factors are identified as the main features that affect the market supply of potato. this model was chosen for a reason that the dependent variable i.e. quantity supplied is continuous (gujarati, 2003) and other assumptions of ols are fulfilled in the field survey data. moreover, different studies on market supply used ordinary least square (ols) regression to assess determinants of market supply of agricultural products (kinde, 2007; betelihem, 2013; mahilet, 2013). therefore, the study chooses linear regression model to analyze the major causes of market supply of potato. the econometric model specification of supply function takes the following form. yi = α + xiβ + ui (1) where yi = is the amount of potato supplied to market 1kebele is the administrative structure below district. a cluster of kebeles form a district. 242 afr. j. agric. mark. xi = explanatory variables determining the amount of market supply α = intercept β = coefficient of i th explanatory variable ui = unobserved disturbance term the estimates of coefficients of the regression equation obtained using the method of ordinary least squares. ols assumes that the random term follows normal distribution with zero mean and constant variance. the successive values of the random term are also assumed to be independent. the ols assumes also that the explanatory variables are non-stochastic and they are not perfectly linearly related to one another (gujarati and sangeetha, 2007). it is hypothesized that male and female farmers produce and supply different quantities of potato to the market to maximize their gross income. however, the households’ decision to supply is influenced by various factors. therefore, the main hypothesis variables for the study are listed below. dependent variable quantity supplied to market (qtysupp): it is a continuous variable measured in quintal and represents the actual supply of potato by farm households to the market in the survey year. independent variables education of the household head (eduhh): it is a dummy variable that measures whether a farmer has attended formal education or not (table 1). it assumes a value of 1 if the household head attended formal education and 0 otherwise. it is believed that if a farmer attained formal education of any level there is a possibility of increment in their productivity as they have better knowledge than those who did not attend formal education. in addition, educated farmers are exposed to better technologies that will help them increase production and supply. there are many studies that show the relationship between education and quantity supplied to a market. for instance, yeshitila (2012), has indicated that there is a positive relationship between education and vegetable marketing. similar studies conducted by gizachew (2005) and rehima (2006), revealed that formal education has positive relationship with household market participation and marketed volume. it is also found that the more the producers of paddy got educated the more the supply in the market and it is also indicated that education improves level of sales that affects the marketable surplus (astewel, 2010). therefore, in this specific study, formal education is expected to have a positive relationship with quantity of potato supplied to the market. gender of the household head (genderhh): it is a dummy variable which takes a value of 1 if the household is headed by male and 0 otherwise (table 1). both men and women participate in potato production where male headed households are believed to have better tendency than female headed households in production and supply of potato. lack of capital, access to credit and extension services and size of the land can be mentioned as some of the reasons for the variance occurred between the households. the study conducted by gizachew (2005), indicates that there is a negative relationship between sales of volume of milk and male-headed household. study by mamo and degnet (2012), also showed that sex is a determinant factor in the household head in the livestock market. furthermore, the study made by dawit (2010), discovered that sex of the household head is one of the factors that positively affect the probability of marketable supply of poultry in alamata and atsbi womberta woredas of tigray. a study done by lewis et al., (2008), stated that gender difference and the marketing styles at oklahoma wheat producers showed that men tend to sell more grain frequently than women. therefore, the effect of sex of the household heads on marketed supply of potato in the study area will be determined. women empowerment (womenemp): it is a dummy variable taking the value of 1 if woman is empowered in the household and 0 otherwise. empowered women have a chance to decide and access to different production inputs, better communication and acquiring knowledge from different institutions and having better time schedule to supply product to the market. moreover, empowered women are expected to produce more and supply better than disempowered women in the households. however, this may not be always true in the situation that women have small pieces of land, low access and linkage with extension agents, and hence low quantity produced. therefore, women empowerment effect on marketed supply of potato is undefined will be determined based on context specific data. family size (famsize): this refers to the number of household members and it is a continuous variable that is measured in man equivalent storck et al., (1991), that is the availability of active labor force in the household, which affects the farmer’s marketed supply. as potato is a vegetable crop, it is a labor intensive activity for both the production and market supply. accordingly, household heads that have active labor force tend to supply more potato to the market than others. thus, family size is expected to have positive impact on the amount of agricultural products sold. the study conducted by fantahun (2010), also indicates that large family size has an effect in decreasing the supply of malt barley in amhara region. furthermore, study by wolday (1994), showed that household size has significant positive effect on quantity of “tef” marketed and has negative effect on quantity of maize marketed. another study by gezahagn (2010), also details that family size has positive effect on the households’ gross income from the production of groundnut. hence, in this context, the effect of family size has positive effect on abitew et al. 243 marketed supply of potato (table 1). dependency ratio (dependr): this variable is the ratio of the number of children below 15 years of age, disabled members and elders above 65 years of age to the number of economically active family members (15-65 years of age). an increase in dependency ratio in the household affects the quantity supply in a way that more shortage of labor in production of potato. thus, dependency ratio is expected to have negative effect on households’ marketed supply of potato. farming experience of the household head (farmexper): it is a continuous variable that indicate the farming experience of the household head in years (table 1). a household with better farming experience in potato cultivation is expected to adopt new recommendations for securing higher yield than those with less farming experience. a study conducted by ayelech (2011), indicates that farmers with longer farming experience are expected to be more knowledgeable and skillful and are more successful in their production. thus, farming experience is expected to have positive relation with marketed supply of potato in the study areas. livestock holding (tlu): this is a continuous variable that measures the total number of livestock owned by a household in terms of tropical livestock unit (tlu) (table 1). households that have high tlu are expected to have a better wealth status in the society. livestock holding in a household is useful as it increases fertility status of the soil as a result of usage of organic manure and as a source of income from sale of livestock and its products. this particular variable creates an opportunity for a household to use organic manure in addition to inorganic fertilizer so as to increase potato production. therefore, the variable is expected to have positive linkage with the amount of potato supplied to the market. availability of irrigation (avirrigat): this is a dummy variable which takes a value of 1 if the households have access to irrigation 0 otherwise. it is one of the most important inputs for potato production in the study area, where producers have a chance to produce more than one time per year. the study by tadesse (2011), shows that, the farmers who have access to irrigation are using it for production of high value cash crops in west hararghe zone. thus, this variable is hypothesized to have positive influence on potato supplied. access to market information (accmktinf): it is a dummy variable taking a value of 1 if the household has access to market information and 0 otherwise. the better the information the farmers have about the products marketing, the higher would be their supply. moreover, farmers marketing decisions are based on market price information, but poorly integrated markets may convey inaccurate price information, leading to inefficient product movement (abraham, 2013). however, information dissemination might not be the same at once to benefit all equally. a study by muhammed (2011), also reveals that if wheat producers get accurate market information, the amount of wheat to be supplied to the market increases. similarly, study by mahilet (2013), indicates that marketable surplus of malt barley producers who have access to market information are greater than those who did not. thus, we can hypothesize that access to market information will have a positive implication on marketable supply of potato. access to credit (acccred): this is a dummy variable that takes the value 1 if the household receives loan for potato production and 0 otherwise. farmers who have access to credit would increase their financial capacity as it assists to make proper decision regarding purchasing of modern input to increase production and volume of supply. the study by alemnewu (2010) and muhammed (2011), pointed out that if pepper and tef producers have access to credit, the amount to be supplied to the market would increase. we also hypothesize here that access to credit has positive influence on the level of production and sales. distance to the nearest market (dismkt): it is a continuous variable measured in kilometer that the farmers are required to travel in order to sell their product and spend some time in the market. the closer the market area the lesser the transportation and transaction costs and time spent. moreover, there is no doubt that transportation has great importance for marketing agricultural product. the study by shilpi and umali (2007), found that the likelihood of sales at the market increases significantly (positively) with an improvement with market facilities and a decrease in travel time from the village to the market. the study by mahilet (2013), stated the analysis of value chain of malt barely also indicated that if the proximity from the farm to market increases, the volume of malt barley supplied to the market decreases. in this study, the variable is expected to have a negative relationship with farm level marketed supply of potato (table 1). quantity of potato produced (qtyprod): it is a continuous variable measured in quintals within a year 2013/14. an increase in output level increases the marketed supply of the crop. the studies of abay (2007); adugna (2009) and ayelech (2011), pointed out that the amount of tomato, papaya, avocado and mango produced by farming households has augmented significant marketable supply of the agricultural products. the higher output the farmer obtain, the higher would be the marketed amount. in addition, different studies kindie (2007); bosena (2008) and assefa (2009), disclosed that the amount of sesame, cotton and honey produced by households are significantly and positively affected by marketable supply of each of the products. though similar study is lacking in potato, we hypothesize that the quantity of potato produced can have a positive effect on marketed supply. off/nonfarm activities (offnonfarm): it is a continuous variable which refers to the income obtained by the sample households from off/non-farm activities. increased availability of opportunities for off/non-farm 244 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. summary of dependent and independent variables used in linear regression model. variables definition values expected sign dependent variable qtysupp quantity supplied to the market amount sold in quintals independent variables eduhh educational level of household head 1 if attended formal education, 0 otherwise + genderhh gender of the household head 1 if male, 0 otherwise +/ womenemp women empowerment index in the households 1 if women empowered, 0 otherwise +/ famsize total active labor force in the household man equivalent + dependr non-active labor force in the household ratio of non active to working labor farmexper farming experience of household head number of years since started farming activity + tlu livestock holding in the household tropical livestock unit + avirrigat availability of irrigation facilities 1 if yes, 0 otherwise + accmktinf access to market information in the household 1 if access to information, 0 otherwise + acccred access to credit in the households 1 if the household take loan, 0 otherwise + dismkt distance to the nearest market number of kilometer qtyprod quantity potato produced by the households quintals + offnonfarm off/non-farm activities in male headed households birr per year source: own computation from survey data (2012/13) employment have negative relationship with supply of potato (table 1). most of the time, farmers are engaged in different income generating activities along with their main task of farming. they buy khat, vegetables, fruits, etc from other farms in their vicinity and sell with better price to other market places in the cites. in addition, this other income generating activities are assumed to have inverse relationship with marketed supply of vegetable crops. different studies have identified that access to other income sources is negatively related to the sales volume of milk, kales and maize in kenya and banana market in uganda (omiti et al., 2009; komarek, 2010). as we can infer from the study of rehima (2006), stated that if pepper producer have non-farm income, the amount of pepper supplied to the market decreases. therefore, the effect of this variable on the market supply of potato at farm level could be negative. in general, the definition of variables and the hypothesized signs of influence on potato market supply are summarized in table1. results and discussions descriptive statistics the mean age of the sample household heads was 35.74 years with the minimum and maximum age of 20 and 70 years, respectively. the average age of male household heads was 35.38 years compared to 40.5 years for female headed households with the mean age difference between the two groups being statistically significant at 1percent level. this indicates that most of the household heads were within the vibrant age category. male headed households have almost similar farming experience (27.27 years) as compared with female headed households (26.79 years) which shows that the household heads have rich experience on potato production and marketing in the zone with no significant difference between the gender of the household heads (table 2). the mean family size of the total sample households was 5.81 persons ranging from 2 to 13. on average, male headed households have relatively larger family sizes (5.94) than the female household heads (4.11) with mean difference of 5.81 persons (table 2). labor availability or active labor force is a prominent input for potato production as well as marketing. the average man equivalent in the zone was 2.66 with standard deviation of 1.21, where male headed households have better active labor availability than female headed households. the dependency ratio also ranges from 0-6 with the mean values of 1.28 and 2.79 for male and female household heads, respectively with significant mean difference at 1percent significance level (table 2). abitew et al. 245 table 2. demographic characteristics of sample producers. variables mhhs * fhhs * total tvalue mean sd* mean sd mean sd age (years) 35.38 10.10 40.50 7.71 35.74 10.03 2.62*** farming experience (years) 27.27 1.93 26.79 2.01 27.26 1.92 -0.95 family size 5.94 2.19 4.11 1.07 5.81 2.18 -1.60 dependency ratio 1.28 0.91 2.79 1.13 1.39 1.00 8.29*** economically active labor force (me) 2.72 1.21 1.53 0.43 2.66 1.21 11.64*** * mhh= male headed household; fhh= female headed household; sd= standard deviation *** indicate the level of significance at 1 percent. the sample households in the study area comprise 93 percent male headed households and 7 percent female headed households. this indicated that female headed households are not widely engaged in potato production and marketing. educational background of the sample households is essential to develop positive attitude towards adopting improved technologies, build up communicative skill and use of necessary information to increase production and productivity. the chi-square result revealed that education is a dummy variable that shows statistically significant difference between the households at 1 percent level of significance. about 65.1 percent and 28.6 percent of sample male and female headed households, respectively, were attending formal education (they can read and write). the female headed household is characterized by higher proportion of not attending formal education than the male headed households. based on the survey result, the average land holding of the sample households was found to be 0.531 hectares with standard deviation of 0.410 ranging between 0.06 and 2.88 hectares. the mean land holding owned was 0.538 ha and 0.437 ha for male and female headed households, respectively. in the year 2012/13, the mean average land used for vegetable crops is 0.036 hectares with standard deviation of 0.066, where there is no statistically significant difference. specifically, land under potato was 0.139 hectares with standard deviation of 0.097, where there is no statistical significance difference among male and female headed households. moreover, major cereal crops like sorghum, maize, wheat and khat were dominantly grown on the farm of the households in the study districts. the data discloses that the mean land areas allocated for khat (catha edulis) and maize have statistically significant difference among male headed and female headed households at 5 and 10 percent level of significance. in this regard, male headed households have allocated better land size for khat and maize than female headed households. in addition, 56 percent of the sample households have medium fertility of the land and it has statistical significant difference at 1percent level of probability. livestock rearing is another important income generating source that almost all the sample households were engaged in. the total livestock holding measured in terms of tlu was found to be 2.69 with standard deviation of 2.11 which is relatively large as compared to the small land holding allocated for grazing purpose and continuous expansion of crop land. moreover, the average livestock holding was 2.79 and 1.31 tlu for male and female headed households respectively with statistical mean difference at 1percent level of probability. market information is an important component for the timely supply of agricultural products and to satisfy the demand of the market. the households have different access to market where the benefit also varies. in the study areas, access to market information shows statistical differences between male headed and female headed households at 5percent level of probability (table 3). on average, 48.5 percent of the sample households have at least potato price information from the nearby local market. in addition, more than half of the sample male headed households have access to market information by different means of communication like mobile phone. farm households took credits from different credit institutions like microfinance, cooperatives and informal money lenders for various purposes. from the sample households, 41.2 percent used the money for the purchase of farm inputs like improved seeds, fertilizers (urea and dap), chemicals (pesticides and herbicides) and farm implements (akafa and pumps), where as 16.5 percent used to purchase livestock such as goats, sheep, and cow either for fattening or to increase the number of livestock to generate income from sell of the animals and their products. as the data indicated, on average, 60.5 percent of the sample households had access to credit where the proportion of male headed households who accessed credit was, 59.7 percent (table 3) with the reason that male headed households have better capital to invest on. moreover, the average distance that most of the households used to travel to sell their product to the nearest market was about 6.67 kilometers, where it is 6.66 and 6.78 kilometers for male and female headed households, respectively, with no statistically significant mean difference between households. 246 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. institutional characteristics of sample households. variables mhhs (n= 372) fhhs (n= 28) total (n= 400) χ 2 -value n % n % n % access to market information 188 50.5 8 28.6 196 48.5 5.025** access to credit 222 59.7 20 71.4 242 60.5 1.505 ** indicate the level of significance at 5 percent the result of the survey reveals that, quantity produced and off/nonfarm income generation activities are some of the variables that show 1 and 10 percent level significant difference between male and female headed households (table 4). the average quantity produced in the households is 37.2 quintals per seasons where the male headed households had better chance to produce and supply potato to the market (38.7 quintals) than the female headed households since they produced 17.7 quintals. from the total quantity produced, on average, 30.7 quintals was supplied to the nearby market by the sample households i.e., 32.1quintals and 11.4 quintals by male and female headed households, respectively. the total yield of the households was 267.1 quintal per hectares. rural farm households earn cash income from different sources where, off/non-farm income generation activities are among them. the survey result (table 4) shows that the income that is generated from this source was 1,135.50 birr in 2012/13 with standard deviation of 3,739 birr. female headed households had better income (2,660.71 birr) than the male household heads (1,020.70 birr) with a significant mean difference at 10 percent level of probability. women empowerment is a process in which women gain greater share of control over resources material, human, intellectual and financial resources and control over decision making in the household, community, society, nation and to gain power (pooja and rathod, 2013). women empowerment agricultural index (weai) was calculated by adopting the two sub indexes i.e. 5de (five domains) and gpi (gender parity index) from (ifpri, 2012) which was developed by alkire et al., (2012), that discussed about how to compute women empowerment in agriculture. the first index assesses the degree to which women are empowered in five domains of empowerment (5de) which reflects the percentage of women who are empowered and, among those who are not, the percentage of domains in which women enjoy adequate achievements. each of the domains has indicators with their corresponding weights. the domains are production (input in productive decisions and autonomy in production), resources (ownership of assets, purchase, sale, or transfer about credit, access to and decision about credit), income (control over use of income), leadership (group member, speaking in public), and time (workload and leisure). the second index gpi reflects the percentage of women who are empowered or whose achievements are at least as high as the men in their households. for those households that have not achieved gender parity, the gpi shows the empowerment gap that needs to be closed for women to reach the same level of empowerment as men. such index excludes female headed households. the benchmark of weai and its sub indexes is an individual empowerment if he or she enjoys adequate achievements in 80 percent or 0.80 of the weighted indicators or more. the survey result reveals that empowerment index in the households has statistically significant difference between households at 1 percent level of probability. from the total sample households, on average, 92.6 percent of women were not empowered and 6.4 percent were empowered. this is due to the large sample size of male headed household where women in these households do not have equal access and control over resources. the data also shows that on average 53.6 percent of women in female headed households were empowered than women in male headed households. this is due to the fact that female headed households have full access and control over resources than women in male headed households. on the contrary, on average 97 percent of women in the male headed households were not empowered as every resource in the household are fully controlled by the male. econometric result potato in the study district is produced by male and female household heads for different reasons. agricultural production and marketing are essential means of livelihood for both male and female headed households. the current survey output indicated that, the difference in the supply of potato by male and female headed households is due to the fact that women have less quantity produced than male headed households. besides quantity produced, there are various constraints that hinder their maximum supplies to the market, and thus identifying and making critical analysis of the causes of the difference in the supply is necessary. abitew et al. 247 table 4. potato produced and income from off-nonfarm activities of male and female households. variables mhhs fhhs total tvalue mean sd mean sd mean sd quantity produced (qt) 38.7 35.7 17.7 14.2 37.2 35.0 6.438*** off/non-farm activities (birr/year) 1020.70 3614.34 2660.71 4949.84 1135.50 3739.0 1.719* ***and * indicate the level of significance at 1 and 10 percent, respectively. linear regression specified in equation (1) was estimated using the ols method to assess the effect of gender on market supply of potato. prior to running the model, all the hypothesized explanatory variables were tested for the existence of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity problems. however, the result shows that there is no serious problem in the model output. coefficient of determination (r 2 ) was used to check goodness of fit for the regression model. hence, r 2 for potato was 0.966 which indicates that 97 percent of the variation in the farm level marketable supply of potato was attributed to the variables included in the model. it also clarifies that potato is the major cash crop for the majority of producers and shows that the higher the output, the higher is the producers willing to supply to the market. similar findings explained the direct or positive relation between volume of production and market supply of the products by (omiti et al., 2009; wolday, 1994; bosena, 2008; rehima and dawit, 2012). as it can be observed from the econometric result in table 5, a total of 13 hypothesized explanatory variables (7 continuous and 6 dummy) were included in the model to explain the household level determinants of market supply of potato. out of these variables, six were found significantly influence farm level marketed supply at 1, 5, and 10 percent probability levels. these variables include gender of the household, farming experience, livestock holding (tlu), access to market information, quantity produced and access to credit. the signs of the parameter of the significant variables are similar with the hypothesis except for livestock holding (table 1). gender of the household head positively and significantly influenced marketed supply of the households at 10 percent probability level. in the study areas, both male and female household heads were engaged in potato production and marketing. the data shows that supply of potato to the market is higher for male-headed households by 2.76 quintals as compared to that of female-headed households, keeping other variables constant. this is due to the fact that male headed households have better financial capability, better land size, better extension contacts, and better access to market information. therefore, we can infer from the analysis of the model that male household heads supply more potato to the market as compared to female household heads. hence, this finding is congruent with the study by (dawit, 2010; lewis et al., 2008; muhammed, 2011). as expected, farming experience of the household heads was found to be positively and significantly associated with the quantity of potato supplied to the market at 5percent level of probability (table 5). as producer’s farming experience increases by one year, the amount of potato supply also increases by 0.308 quintal, keeping other variables constant. this is mainly due to the fact that more experienced households have better accumulated wealth that can be used for purchasing production inputs (fertilizer, seeds, irrigation pump), access to information related to the use of new recommended packages and pricing of the product. it is also believed that more experienced household heads are wise in resource use, has better skill of potato production and likely to have positive effect on market participation and marketed supply of potato than less experienced ones. this result is also supported by abay (2007), who indicated that as farmers’ experience increases the volume of tomato supplied to the market also increases. in addition, abraham (2013), indicated that farming experience and the amount of supply have positive and significant relationship with vegetable production. moreover, one year increment in production of vegetables maximize marketable surplus of vegetables of households by 0.362 quintal (tadesse, 2011). livestock holding (tlu) affects the amount of potato supply negatively and significantly at 1percent probability level. this implies that, on average, a unit increase in livestock ownership causes 0.41 quintal decrease in the amount of supply of potato, keeping other factors constant (table 5). it is known that livestock production is one of income generating activity in the rural community where producers with an increased number of livestock create an opportunity to generate their income by sales of livestock by-products and live animals. this implies that there is an indication in the specialization of livestock production than potato production and supply for income generation. moreover, livestock production and potato production compete for the scarce land and water resources so that most of the time farmers have to make choices. to strengthen the above finding, rehima (2006), indicated that a unit increase of livestock causes a decrease in the volume supply of pepper. in a similar way, ouman et al., (2010), observed that livestock hold 248 afr. j. agric. mark. table 5. determinants of marketed supply of potato by farm households. variables coef. std. err. tvalue education of hh 0.198 0.643 0.31 women empowerment 0.406 1.440 0.28 gender of hh 2.765* 1.512 1.83 family size -0.329 0.276 -1.19 dependent ratio -0.166 0 .342 -0.48 farm experience 0.308** 0 .157 1.96 livestock holding -0.411*** 0 .150 -2.73 availability of irrigation -0.550 1.597 -0.34 distance to market 0.304 0 .266 1.14 access to market information 1.413** 0 .658 2.15 access to credit 1.587** 0.637 2.49 quantity produced 0.883*** 0.010 91.04 off/non-farm income 0.000 0.000 0.37 _constant term -14.273** 5.157 -2.77 number of observation 400 f(13, 386) 852.88 prob>f 0.000 r-squared 0.9664 root mse 5.9009 dependent variable is quantity supply of potato in quintal. ***, ** and * are statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10% level, respectively. source: own computation from survey data. holding is adversely affected by the volume of banana supplied to the market in central africa. nevertheless, some scholars indicate that livestock holdings (tlu) is positively related to the level of cereal, cotton, and sesame sales in market participation (siziba et al., 2011; alene et al., 2008; larsen, 2006; makhura et al., 2001; kindie, 2007). as hypothesized, the model result specifies that access to market information has positively and significantly influenced the amount of market supply of potato at 5 percent probability level (table 5). the data also revealed that if the producers get market information, the amount of potato supplied to the market also increases, on average by 1.413 quintal keeping others constant. this shows that access to market information like where to sell, how to sell and price information plays a pivotal role in deciding the amount of potato to be supplied to the market. this finding is in line with muhammed (2011), who illustrated that access to market information significantly increases marketable supply of tef in halaba special district. similarly, the study by abraham (2013), indicated that access to market information by household heads increases marketed supply of potato significantly in habro and kombolcha district. the result also indicated that quantity produced affects marketed supply positively and significantly at 1percent probability level (table 5). the survey result indicates that a one quintal increase in potato production results in 0.883 quintal increase in amount of marketed supply, keeping other factors constant. these shows that the more the households produce, the more they supply to the market. this is due to the fact that almost all producers have an objective to generate income from what he/she produced as there is consistency in the general expectation. in a similar way, previous studies by omiti et al., (2009); astewel (2010); rehima and dawit (2012); adugna (2009); ayelech (2011); wolelaw (2005) and assefa (2009), indicated that consistent increase in agricultural production positively and significantly increase the amount of marketed potato supply. the result also indicates that, access to credit has positive and significant influence on the market supply of potato at 1percent significant level. from this result it can be deduced that those households with better access to loan have better chance to increase their market supply by 1.587 quintal than those who do not have access (table 5). most of the time, access to credit in the households is determined by cash on hand that is usually abitew et al. 249 used for purchasing improved varieties, fertilizers, chemicals and labor wage etc. moreover, there are different credit associations in rural areas that provide loan to benefit producers so that they can improve their livelihood. earlier studies legesse (1992); tesfaye and shiferaw (2001) and rahmeto (2007), also revealed that credit is one of the factors that affected the probability of adoption of improved varieties, quantity of fertilizer and haricot bean, respectively. similarly the study by muhammed (2011), indicated that access to credit positively and significantly affected the amount of wheat sold to the market. conclusions and implications the study was conducted in eastern hararghe oromiya regional state of ethiopia to determine the gender role in market supply of potato. the result reveals that both male and female headed households participate in the production and supply of potato but there are various factors that affect the quantity supplied to the market. age of the households, dependency ratio, economically active labor force and quantity produced are some of the variables that are statistically significant which indicates the differences in the socio demographic characteristics between households. moreover, the result of the model also shows that gender of the households, farming experience, livestock holding, market information, quantity produced and access to credit are major factors statistically and significantly determining the quantity of potato supplied to the market. quantity produced is highly determined by quantity supplied where the households decide to supply after satisfying the household consumption and seed for next year. the result of the study became an indicator for program designers and implementers who have direct relation with potato producers to maximize their benefit. livestock production is one of the enterprises where the households generate income. increasing the livestock holdings in the households’ creates an opportunity to produce organic fertilizer (compost) used to increase potato production. organic fertilizer is rarely applied by the farm households for production of agricultural products even though almost all households are aware about the steps of preparation. thus, increasing the livestock holding and train how to prepare and apply compost are essential achievement for the households to secure better quantity of production for supply. lack of strong institutional support lagged the rural farm households from executing farm activities on time. brief and recent information about credit and market like price are essential to motivate producers to supply potato to the market on time and also collect benefit immediately. due to this, there is inconsistency in supply among the households. therefore, in the rural areas, there should be strong institutions used to deliver recent and major information that benefit producers in production and supply of potato to the market. both male and female headed households used their labor in production and supply of potato. however, the extent of participation in production activities are varies among the households. in most of the cases, male headed households are very efficient and effective in production as well as supply where economically active labor force is much higher and dependency ratio are lower as compare with female headed households. however, with the current situation of female headed households, there should be gender focused interventions that support, encourage and give priority for increasing production, supply and minimize differences among the household heads. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank to haramaya university for providing the chance to pursue the study and financial support from sasakawa africa fund for extension education (safe). references abay a (2007). vegetable market chain analysis 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kenya: unleashing the power of women. directions in development.” world bank, washington, dc. yeshitila a (2012). analysis of vegetable marketing in eastern ethiopia: the case of potato and cabbage in kombolcha woreda, east hararghe zone, oromia national regional state, msc. thesis school of agricultural economics, haramaya university. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 2 (8), pp. 154-159, august, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper multinomial logistic regression in examining factors driving consumer preference for locally produced rice in nigeria akimade v. esther department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, ondo state university of science and technology, okitipupa, nigeria. e-mail: estherakimade9@gmail.com accepted 16 june, 2014 this study applied a multinomial logistic regression in examining factors driving consumer preference for locally produced rice in nigeria. the data for the study were collected in niger and ekiti states in 2008 under the post harvest study programme of africa rice (ex-warda). results of the various analyses underscored the significance of socio-economic factors as major drivers of consumer preference for local rice in nigeria. five of the coefficients of the explanatory variables (age, marital status, education of household head, primary activity of household head and sex of household head) significantly influence the consumer preference for pategi relative to aroso (imported rice). similarly, five variables (age of household head, educational status of household head, and sex of household head) influence significantly, consumer preference for igbemo relative to aroso. aside socio-economic variables, other factors found to have influence on consumer preference are frequency of purchase and price. in spite of the various types of local rice available in the markets, majority of consumers can identify different types based on their physic-chemical characteristics. nevertheless, the two most highly rated criteria for selection of rice bought in the market are whiteness and absence of foreign materials. further analysis also confirmed that about 82% of nigerian eats rice at least once in a day. the significance of the socio-economic variables is an indication that policies and programmes for the development of the nigerian rice sector should, in addition to enhancing the physico-chemical characteristics of rice, include value reorientation and sensitization of the people on the nutritional qualities of local rice. key words: factors influencing, socio-economic, local rice, nigeria. introduction there are quite a range of diverse socio-cultural factors dishes are known to be prepared from different types of underlining the consumption pattern and consumer local rice in nigeria. the consumption and utilization of preference for rice in nigeria. these factors, however, various types of local rice also vary across the country vary across the various geo-political zones in the country. depending on the divers’ traditional food consumption aside, the significance of physical and organoleptic patterns in the country. different local dishes prepared characteristics of rice can also not be under-emphasized from rice also have different type of rice suitable for its in this respect as they often determine different types of preparation. probably for the choice of taste, colour and menu that can be prepared from rice . thus, several stickiness after cooking some consumers prefer certain akimade 154 table 1. study areas and number of samples. state no of lga no of community per lga no of sample per community no of samples per state ekiti 2 2 50 200 niger 2 2 50 200 total 4 8 200 40 type of local rice for a particular dish. however, information as regards what informed consumer choice of a particular type of local rice is still lacking. aside, information of the effects of various factors that are likely to influence the choice of local rice selected by consumers is also not available. yet, such information is necessary not only for the purpose of rice quality improvement but also for strategic planning of rice sector in nigeria. different physico-chemical characteristics of rice are usually considered by rice consumers when making their choice of different types of rice bought in the market. this study, therefore, investigates the criteria that are normally considered when making the decision of the type of rice to be purchased in the market. methodology data collection the underlying data used for this study was derived from a survey carried out as part of the post harvest study conducted under the programme of increasing the quality and competitiveness of locally produced rice in sub-saharan africa through the use of new rice for africa (nerica) and the promotion of improved post-harvest technologies sponsored by the africa rice (ex-warda). this study adopted a systematic random sampling technique for the selection of the representative samples from two states in nigeria (ekiti and niger states) bearing in mind the divers’ socio-cultural and traditional food consumption patterns in the country and also ensure geographical representation of the samples. ekiti is situated in the southern part of the country while niger state is located in the northern part. the traditional consumption patterns across the country is such that the northern states are mainly cereal based while the southern states are mainly tuber based though rice consumption across the country is fast increasing. thus, from each state, two rice producing local government areas (lgas) were purposively selected. from each lga, one urban and one rural community were chosen. from each community, representative samples of 50 rice consumers were selected using systematic random sampling approach. thus, at least 100 samples were drawn from each lga making a total of 200 respondents per state as shown in table1. analytical technique and model specification model specification and estimation procedure estimating multinomial logistic regression requires that one category of the dependent variables is chosen as the comparison category. separate relative risk ratios are determined for all independent variables for each category of the independent variable with the exception of the comparison category of the dependent variable, which is omitted from the analysis. hosmer and stanley, 2000; hilbe, 2009). in this case, ‘aroso’ which is a brand of imported rice was chosen as the base category and all other type of the local rice are compared with the base outcome. the empirical form of the multinomial logic model is given below. model 1 and 2 where the ith is individual, yi is the observed outcome (different types of local rice) and xi is a vector of explanatory variables. the unknown parameters β j was typically estimated by maximum likelihood using stata package. the explanatory variables used in this study included; income, price, physico-chemical characteristics of rice, frequency of consumption, sex, age, level of education, marital status, primary activity, and length of residency in the community among others. marginal effects (mes) for an unordered multinomial model, there is no single conditional mean of the dependent variable, y. instead there are m alternatives, and the probabilities of these alternatives can be modelled (cameron and trivedi, 2009). interest lies in how these probabilities change as regressors change. for the multinomial logit model, the mes can be shown to be: pij pij ( ji ) 3 xi where l p ill is the probability weighted average of the l . the marginal effects vary with the point of evaluation, xi because pij varies with xi. the signs of the regression coefficients do not give signs of the mes. for a variable x, the me is positive if ij i . results and discussions socio-economic characteristics of rice consumers in nigeria sex of respondents: the sex of the head of the house hold, play a significant role not only in the quantity of food consumed by the household but also in the type and quality and form in which such food is consumed. a femaleheaded household is likely to be more conscious of the quality and the combination of different variety of food consumed by the household than male-headed household. there is a significant variation between the north and the south as indicated by the data from niger and ekiti states. while virtually all the sampled household in niger state are male-headed (99.0%), a significant proportion of sampled households from ekiti state are female-headed (30.2%). age of respondents: the average age of rice consumers as shown by the analysis of samples from the two states in nigeria ranges from 49 years in ekiti state to 43 years in niger state with a national average of 46 years. in both cases, however, the average age of respondents falls within the actively working population. while younger children will prefer food with high protein nutrients for growth, those in the active working age may prefer calorie supplied food such as carbohydrates. the old age group on the hands may just require a maintenance ration. marital status of respondents: marital status plays a major role in the household feeding patterns. a single or unmarried individual may or may not have any feeding pattern as he or she can choose to eat away from home and the choice of food may be dictated by whatever is available at the eating point. a married person cultivates the habit of eating at home as a way of socializing with the family members. this will definitely affect the type and quantity of food consumed by the household. analy-sis of data shows that over 90% of the representative samples of rice consumers from the two states are married. about 8% of representative samples from ekiti state are single while insignificant proportion of 1.5% are widows or widowers. year of residence of respondents: it is possible for consumption patterns to change over time with year of residence of individual in a particular community. even though individuals will have preference for their traditional foods, taste and preference change with location over time. thus, a northern resident of southern origin in nigeria may change his or her consumption pattern from tuber-based to cereal-based having stay for some time in the north. in this study, it was found that the average residency period of respondents was about 33 years which is long enough for them to have imbibed the food consumption tradition of their respective communities. level of education of respondents: the level of education of household head has serious implication for the type and quality of food consumed by the households. a highly educated household head will prefer a small 155 afr. j. agric. mark. quantity of variety of foods with different nutritional contents (balance diet) to a bigger quantity of low nutritional components. the survey revealed that a significant proportion (36%) of the respondents in niger state had no education compared to (1%) for ekiti state. a sizeable proportion of the respondents, however, had secondary and post secondary education while about one-third of the respondents had primary education. primary activity of respondents: people in wage employment do mix and interact with people in the public almost on daily basis, the tendency to acquire knowledge of various kinds of food and nutrition is high. in most cases, such knowledge influences their food consumption pattern. available evidence from this study showed that majority of the respondents (about 84%) from niger state are farmers as against 16% recorded for ekiti state. a significant proportion of the respondents in ekiti state are traders (37%) and government workers (17%). for those who engage in non-farm as their primary activities, are close to 40% of them also took up farming to augment their income and household food consumption. a detail of socio-economic characteristics of respondents is presented in table 2. identification of different types of rice by the consumers one of the major objectives of this study is to find out the ability of rice consumers to identify different types of rice in the market based on some of their physico-chemical characteristics. ability of consumers to identify a particular type of rice will depend on whether such consumer have eaten that type at least in the last 12 months, frequency of consuming that particular type and the source of such rice. this study investigated these criteria and some other related ones and the result of the analysis is pre-sented in table 3. from table 3, virtually all the respon-dents (99.5%) can identify the different rice types they consumed as they have all eaten them in the last 12 months. in terms of frequency of consuming this rice type the table shows that about 82% of the respondents consume them on daily basis while another 14% even consume them about twice in a day. there was no significant variation in responses among respondents from both states. the sources of the various types of rice consumed by the respondents, however, presented a different picture. while, all the respondents from niger state claimed they produce the type of rice they eat, virtually all respondents from ekiti state buy from the market. in terms of the internal market dynamics for local rice in country, niger can be classified as one of the net rice producing states while ekiti is usually considered as one of the net rice consuming states. this is a true reflection of the marketing channel for local rice in nigeria as most of the local rice consumed in the south is brought akimade 156 table 2. summary of socio-economic characteristics of rice consumers. socio-economic variables ekiti niger average sex of respondents (%) male 69.8 99.0 84.4 female 30.2 1.0 15.6 age (mean) years 49 43 46 marital status married 90.9 99.5 95.2 single 7.6 0.5 4.0 widow/widower 1.5 0.0 0. 8 year of residence in the 33 32 32.5 community (mean) level of education 39.9 23.6 31.7 primary 7.1 2.0 4.5 junior secondary 30.3 12.6 21.5 senior secondary 10.1 9.5 8.8 post secondary 1.0 35.7 18.3 no education 7.1 5.5 6.3 can read and write 4.5 11.1 7.8 primary activity of respondents 16.1 83.7 48.9 agriculture 7.8 0.5 4.1 farm manager 37.3 0.0 18.6 trade 4.7 3.6 4.1 artisan 16.6 9.7 13.1 government workers 5.2 0.0 2.6 nothing 6.7 2.6 4.6 student 5.7 0.0 2.8 others source: field survey, 2008 from the north even though some of the states in the south also produce rice in appreciable quantities. criteria for selection of rice bought by respondents different rice physico-chemical characteristics have been chosen by rice consumers as a way of identifying and recognizing different types of rice bought in the market. this study investigated the criteria that are normally considered when making the decision of the type of rice bought in the market. the distribution of respondents by first criterion for selection of rice bought in the market is presented in table 4. two of these criteria rated high in both states. while almost half of the respondents in ekiti state indicated absence of foreign matter as their first criteria, 48% of respondents in niger state rated whiteness as their first criteria. above all, these two criteria have to do with the physical appearance (precooking properties) of the commodity. surprisingly, price is one of the list criteria usually considered in the selection of local rice bought by the consumers. the reason why price was not rated high among the criteria may be due to the fact that there is usually no significant difference in prices of the various types of local rice sold in the market. the above criteria were applied to the selection of different types of rice consumed in both states and the result is presented in table 5 for ekiti state and table 6 for niger state. for the consumers of aroso, the most significant criterion for selection is absence of foreign matter. the consumers of pategi and igbemo, however, considered their taste as the most important criterion for selection. it should be noted that aroso is imported rice while pategi and igbemo are local rice in ekiti state. thus, it is obvious that the most important discriminating factor between imported and local rice is the absence of foreign matter as consumers of local rice found a better taste in the its consumption. similar result is observed in niger state where, those who consumed manbechi, lalangba, malelisa, bisilayi and nnagbati considered taste as the most important criterion for selection and those who consumed ebangichi and dokochi considered ease of cooking and whiteness as the most important criteria respectively. thus, in terms of the physical characteristics of local rice in nigeria, absence of foreign matter and whiteness were generally consi-dered as most important criteria for selection by the consumers while for the chemical characteristics, taste and ease of cooking were considered as most important criteria. income distribution and type of rice consumed income dictates to a large extent the consumers’ choice of goods. a rational consumer will make a right choice of superior and high quality goods as income increases. similarly, there is a high tendency that rice consumers in nigeria are likely to consume more of high quality imported rice as their income increases. in this study, therefore, efforts were made to investigate the type of rice consumed by consumers in various income classes and the result is as shown in table 7. the classification of income into three groups is to reflect the three socioeconomic classes in the country. the minimum wage in nigeria is currently at n18, 000 per month and anybody below or within this income bracket is usually regarded as belonging to the low income class. the middle income class earns between n12, 000 and n50, 000 per month while anybody earning more than n50, 000 per month in nigeria is classified as belonging to the high income group. this classification was applied to the data and the result showed that majority of the consumers of imported rice falls within the middle and the high income class. this is represented by 60.2% of the respondents. interestingly too, a little above one-fifth of the respondents who fell within the low income class also consume impor157 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. identification of different types of local rice consumed (% of respondents). variables ekiti niger average can identify rice type? 99.0 100.0 99.5 eaten rice in the last 12 months 99.0 100.0 95.5 frequency of consumption one in a day 82.9 81.4 82.2 twice in a day 9.0 18.1 13.6 three times in a day 8.0 0.5 4.2 source of rice self produce 0.0 98.0 49.0 bought 100.0 1.5 50.7 combination 0.0 0.5 0.3 source: field survey, 2008 table 4. first criteria for selection of rice bought (% of respondents). criteria ekiti valid niger valid average frequency percent frequency percent absence of foreign matter 97 49.7 26 13.4 31.6 whiteness 45 23.1 93 47.9 35.5 rate of breakage 1 .5 3 1.5 1.0 shape of grain 1 .5 10 5.2 2.7 ease of cooking 5 2.6 20 10.3 6.5 stickiness after cooking 1 .5 1 .5 0.5 taste 42 21.5 4 2.1 11.8 good aroma 2 1.0 31 16.0 8.5 price 1 .5 6 3.1 1.8 total 195 100.0 194 100.0 100.0 source: field survey, 2008 ted rice. this group probably might receive such rice as gift or are simply attempting to keep on with the joneses. distinguishing between imported and local rice in nigeria notwithstanding, the superiority of imported rice to local rice in terms of quality, some rice consumers in nigeria still found it difficult to differentiate between the two brands of the commodity. this may be particularly so considering the fact that the quality of some locally produced rice when properly processed using modern processing equipments, not only match that of the imported ones but in some cases, is actually better than imported rice. quite a significant level of progress have been made by some large scale rice processors in abaliki, minna ,ebonyi and niger states respectively such that the quality of locally produced rice coming out of these mills can actually compete with those of the imported rice in the country. figure 1 represents the ability of respondents to distinguish between local and imported rice. on the average, 88% of the respondents can distinguish between the two brands of the commodity while about 12% found it difficult to do that. those respondents who could not distinguish between local and imported rice were found mainly in niger state. determinants of consumer preference for local rice in nigeria in this study, the determinant of consumer preference for rice in nigeria is modelled around the socio-economic variables of local rice consumers, household income, prices of local rice and the physicochemical characteristics of rice. in estimating the model using multinomial logit, aroso, which is the only imported rice among all the rice samples, was set as the natural base category and akimade 158 table 5. type of rice consumed by criteria for selection in ekiti. first criteria for selection name of rice consumed in locality aroso pategi igbemo absence of foreign matter 73.11 0.0 6.7 whiteness 5.4 0.0 0.0 rate of breakage 1.1 0.0 0.0 shape of grain 1.1 0.0 0.0 ease of cooking 3.3 0.0 6.7 stickness after cooking 1.1 0.0 0.0 taste 15.1 88.9 80.0 good aroma 0.0 11.1 6.7 total 100.0 100.0 100.0 source: field survey, 2008 table 6. type of rice consumed by criteria for selection in niger. name of rice first criteria for selection of rice if bought total absence of whiteness shape of ease of non stickiness taste rising price absence of foreign of grain after foreign grain cooking capacity matter cooking matter manbechi 6.7 6.7 6.7 20.0 0.0 46.9 6.7 6.7 100.0 ebangichi 0.0 9.1 9.1 45.5 0.0 36.4 0.0 0.0 100.0 lalangba 0.0 22.2 11.1 0.0 11.1 44.4 11.1 0.0 100.0 malelisa 22.2 11.1 0.0 0.0 11.1 55.5 0.0 0.0 100.0 bisilayi 18.2 9.1 0.0 27.3 9.1 27.3 9.1 0.0 100.0 nnagbanti 6.7 20.0 6.7 13.4 13.4 40.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 dokochi 0.0 50.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 source: field survey, 2008 table 7. income distribution by types of rice utilize for dishes. income class/month local imported frequency valid percent frequency valid percent <= n18, 000 2 1.1 42 22.6 >n18, 000<=n50,000 30 16.1 101 54.3 > n50,000 0 0.0 11 5.9 total 32 17.2 154 82.8 source: field survey, 2008 11.8 yes no 88.2 figure 1. ability to distinguish between local and imported rice. the result of the analysis is presented in table 8. this result is, therefore, interpreted in relation to imported rice (aroso). for this reason, only the data from ekiti state was utilize for this analysis since all the respondents from niger claimed they only consumed local rice. the model shows some modest level of fitness with a pseudo rsquare of 42%. this, however, is an indication that there are still others variables beyond those included in this model that further explain the consumer preference for local rice in the country. nonetheless, the regressors are jointly statistically significant at the 0.05 level, because the lr chi2(20) = 86.35. two set of regression estimates are given having used the normalization 1 = 0. five of table 8. multinomial logistic regression for local rice preference in nigeria. rice type coef std. err. z p>|z| pategi income 2.18e-06 0.0000308 0.07 0.944 age 0.1501559* 0.0547444 2.74 0.006 marital -16.52089* 3.669827 -4.50 0.000 howlong -0.037004 0.0228061 -1.62 0.105 eduate -0.661697 0.286929 -2.31 0.021 primactiv 0.620210* 0 .2075199 2.99 0.003 freg c 0.7489914 -1.43 0.154 price 0.0078617 0.0053935 -1.46 0.145 firstecr 0.208088** 0.1067368 1.95 0.051 sex 0.23546* 9022692 3.59 0.000 cons 4.608975 igbemo income 0.0000541 0.0000384 1.41 0.159 age 0.1448862* 0.0685851 2.11 0.035 marital 0.5153597 0.8481717 0.61 0.543 howlong -0.0378402 0.026376 -1.43 0.151 educate -2.009622* 0.7973646 -2.52 0.012 primactiv 0.3057458 0 .2222881 1.38 0.169 frg 19.122910 3.744939 -5.11 0.008 price -0.017928* 0.006781 -2.64 0.008 firstcr 0.2132729** 0.1137525 1.87 0.061 sex 1 .974674* 1.000667 1.97 0.048 cons 11.75444 (rice type==aroso is the base outcome) * significant @ 5% **@ 10 per cent number of obs = 176 lr chi2(20) = 86.35 prob > chi2 = 0.0000 log likelihood = -60.091757 pseudo r2 = 0.4181 * wald test of the joint significance of regressors chi2( 20) = 1507.15 prob > chi2 = 0.0000 the coefficients of the explanatory variables (age, marital status, education of household head, primary activity of household head and sex of household head) significantly influence the consumer preference for pategi relative to aroso (imported rice). similarly, five variables (age of household head, educational status of household head, frequency of purchase, price and sex of household head) influence significantly, consumer preference for igbemo relative to aroso. since the result of individual test of variable will vary with the omitted category (aroso) a joint test of significance of the explanatory variables (wald test) was carried out. the result of the wald test further shows that the significant variables are also jointly significant and have strong implication for consumer preference for local rice in nigeria. meanwhile the marginal effects of the regressors presented in table 9 showed that the 159 afr. j. agric. mark. table 9. marginal effects of the regressors. variable dy/dx std. err. z p>z income 0.84e-10 0.00000 0.50 0.614 age 4.90e-07 0.00000 0.50 0.615 marital 2.10e-06 0.00001 0.38 0.705 howlong -1.28e-07 0.00000 -0.45 0.653 educat -6.83e-06 0.00001 -0.48 0.628 primac 1.03e-06 0.00000 0.47 0.641 freq -0.0000651 0.00014 -0.46 0.642 price -6.09e-08 0.00000 -0.45 0.651 firstc 7.22e-07 0.00000 0.45 0.655 sex 6.66e-06 0.00001 0.50 0.619 effect of a unit change in these factors on consumer preference for local rice in nigeria is very negligible. conclusion this study greatly underscored the significant influence of socio-economic characteristics of rice consumers on their preference for local rice in nigeria. more importantly, the significance of the socio-economic variables is an indication that policies and programmes for the development of the nigerian rice sector should, in addition to enhancing the physico-chemical characteristics of rice, include value reorientation and sensitization of the people on the nutritional qualities of local rice. this is very important in order to encourage consumers to further develop good taste in local rice. it is obvious from this study that cleanliness of local rice is one major way of promoting local rice consumption as such; more attention will be required right from the harvesting stage to the milling stage. between these two stages, the two major criteria (absence of foreign matter and whiteness or colour) can be successfully handled. references balakrishnan n (1991). handbook of the logistic distribution. marcel dekker, inc. cameron ac, trivedi pk (2009). microeconometrics using stata. a stata press publication. statacorp lp, college station, texas. hilbe jm (2009). logistic regression models. chapman & hall/crc press. hosmer dw, stanley l (2000) . applied logistic regression, 2nd ed.. new york; chichester, wiley. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (1), pp. 188-192, january, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review the rural market and its untapped potentials for marketers ranvid kumar, amartya chandra and ajith sanjay department of business management, university of delhi, new delhi, india. accepted 14 november, 2014 rural markets are gold mines paved with thrones. with mammoth size of 833 million populations residing in 640867 villages, rural india offers huge untapped potentiality for any marketer. there is wide disparity in village population range from less than 200 to more than 10000. the main occupation of majority of rural population is agriculture and allied activities that signify main source of income. rural consumers spend more on food items as against urban counterparts who spend more on non-food items. about 54 percent of rural households possess telephone, 46 percent possess bicycles and 33 percent possess television. central and state governments invest massive amounts on rural development through several programmes. at this juncture, a modest attempt is made in this paper to comprehend rural market environment through rural population growth, villages by population range, occupation, income and expenditure pattern of rural population, rural households by possession of assets and rural development programmes. key words: expenditure, hinterland, income, mammoth, villages. introduction india is a country of villages. rural markets are characterized by small population, distantly scattered, poor infrastructure, communication and transportation, low literacy, stumpy media reach, low standard of living, and especially low and irregular income levels. many corporates have been trying to get a grip on rural market by facing the challenges like how to make the product *corresponding author. email: prof.rankumar@du.ac.in affordable, how to penetrate villages with small populations, connectivity, language barriers and spurious brands (ramkishen, 2005). despite these challenges, factors such as increasing rural income, expenditure and life styles, declining urban demand and urban market saturation, and government concentration on rural development programmes compel marketers to find potential niches in the hinterland. it is inevitable to any marketer to access rural india as it comprises mammoth size of 833 million population living over 640867 villages. under these circumstances comprehending rural market milieu is perceived appropriate. favourable demographics such as 64 percent of the table 1. rural urban proportion-1901-2011. yr total population rural population proportion in total urban population proportion in total (in million) (in million) (%) (in million) (%) 1901 238.40 212.54 89.15 25.86 10.85 1911 252.09 226.15 89.71 25.94 10.29 1921 251.32 223.23 88.82 28.09 11.18 1931 278.98 245.52 88.01 33.46 11.99 1941 318.66 274.51 86.15 44.15 13.85 1951 361.09 298.65 82.71 62.44 17.29 1961 439.23 360.30 82.03 78.93 17.97 1971 548.16 439.05 80.10 109.11 19.90 1981 683.33 523.87 76.66 159.46 23.34 1991 846.42 628.70 74.28 217.72 25.72 2001 1028.61 742.49 72.18 286.12 27.82 2011 1210.57 833.46 68.85 377.11 31.15 source: census of india. table 2. villages by population size class – india. population size number of proportion in total total rural proportion in total class inhabited villages (%) population (%) less than 200 82151 13.75 8179551 0.98 200-499 114732 19.20 39685424 4.76 500-999 141800 23.73 103321330 12.39 1000-1999 139164 23.29 197536058 23.69 2000-4999 96428 16.13 288773884 34.64 5000-9999 18652 3.12 123877458 14.86 10000 and above 4681 0.78 72375147 8.68 total 597608 100.00 833748852 100.00 source: census of india, 2011. population in the working age category, increasing urbanization, rising number of nuclear families (which means multiple washing machines, air-conditioners and tvs), rising disposable incomes, falling prices, easier access to financing and growth of organized retail attract new players into the indian rural market space. rural urban proportion-1901-2011 since 1901, the growth and proportion of rural population are moving in opposite directions in india. the proportion of rural population in the total population is diminishing gradually in the pace of urbanization. however, the rural india is very big in size than any country’s total population in the world except china. it is significant to understand decadal changes in rural and urban proportions in the total population. table 1 depicts that the absolute number of rural population has increased to 833 million in 2011 from 213 million in 1901. but the poportion in the total population has decreased to 68.85 percent in 2011 from 89.15 percent in 1901 that resembles the progress of urbanization. in case of urban population, both absolute and proportion are moving in the increasing direction. the percentage of urban population in the total population has reached 31.15 in 2011 from 10.85 in 1901. a three-fold raise in urban population proportion reflects the pace of development in the country (table 1). villages by population – india the populations in green patches vary in the hinterland. the size of the population is an important determinant to plump a marketer whether to tap it or not. so far, the hinterland is a neglected area by many marketers due to its low village populations and no parity concern but now it is inevitable market on account of several reasons. the number of inhabited villages shown in table 2 represents the unmerged portions of villages which are outside the urban areas. there are as many as 597608 ranvid et al. 188 table 3. occupational pattern of rural population. occupation proportion of total rural population (%) agriculture 50 agricultural labour 27 business 10 non-agricultural labour 9 salary earners 2 not gainfully employed 2 total 100 source: census of india, 2001. table 4. income generation in rural areas. source of income proportion of total rural income (%) agriculture 59 agricultural wages 16 business and craft 9 non-agricultural wages 7 salaries 3 current transfers 2 others 4 total 100 source: census of india, 2001. inhabited villages out of total 640867 villages in india. among them 82151 villages have a population size less than 200. very few people (0.98 percent) are living in this category of villages. the highest percentage of villages in this range are located in arunachal pradesh (29.40) followed by himachal pradesh (13.16) and meghalaya (12.82). there are 114732 villages in the population range of 200-499 and holds 4.76 percent of the total rural population. the highest number of villages (141800) is reported in the population size 500-999 and claims 12.39 percent of the total rural population. nearly half of the rural population of india is residing in 115080 villages with population more than 2000 but less than 10000. the highest percentage of rural population (34.64) is noted in the range 2000-4999. but major portion of rural population is residing in village size groups of 1000-1999 and 2000-4999. villages having more than 10000 and above population represent 8.68 percent of the total population. with 92.21 percent kerala represents highest population living in villages in this range. as compared to census 2001 data, there is an increase in the number of villages in the population size groups 1000-1999, 20004999, 5000-9999, and 10000 and above while decrease in number of villages in less than 500 and 500-999 ranges. 189 afr. j. agric. mark. occupational pattern predominance of agriculture is the prime characteristic of indian rural economy. now it is taking a new stride. the national sample survey organisation (nsso) data show that during 2004-05 to 2009 -10, rural construction jobs rose to 88 per cent, while the number of people employed in agriculture fell from 249 to 229 million (bl bureau, 2012). table 3 discloses that the main occupation for majority of rural population is agriculture and allied activities. half of the rural population own or lease land and cultivate it for their livelihood. another 27 percent are dependent on these cultivators for jobs as agricultural labourers. thus, a total of 77 percent of rural population solely depend upon only land for their living and land is the main source of their income. there are others who are engaged in businesses like petty shops or are itinerant merchants besides a small section of salary earners like teachers, health workers and village-level officials. income generation the prosperity of rural areas, to a large extent, depends on the progress of agriculture and related activities. nearly six lakh villages are busy rejoicing bountiful harvest after good monsoons, rapidly supporting minimum support price (msp) for crops and steady cashflow from the government’s rural employment guarantee schemes (rashmi, 2014). a robust increase in rural income is also due to rising non-farm employment opportunities and government’s rural focus through employment generation schemes. table 4 divulges that 75 percent of rural income is generated from agriculture and agriculture-related activities. on average 9 percent a year increase in msp since 2007-08, rice-growing farmer’s income has increased nearly 50 percent in the last five years. the rural income is not only about farming but there are others supporting the economy – teachers, weavers, artisans and many others. a rationalization and expansion in income tax slabs in union budget 2014 puts significant money in the hands of salary earners. expenditure pattern there has been a notable shift in rural consumption; from necessities to discretionary goods. from buying tractors and bikes to fairness creams to noodles, rural india led consumption party – offering hope to corporates in the doldrums. recent data from the nsso show that rural consumption expanded at roughly 8.6 percent a year between 2004 and 2012 (aarati, 2014). in addition, migrants from villages to urban areas, who benefitted from job opportunities in infrastructure and construction ranvid et al. 190 table 5. absolute and percentage break-up of average mpcemmrp * by item group, india. item group monthly per capita expenditure (rs.) percentage of total mpce rural urban rural urban (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) cereal and cereal substitutes 154 175 10.8 6.7 pulses and their products ** 42 54 2.9 2.0 milk and milk products 114 184 8.0 7.0 edible oil 53 70 3.7 2.7 egg, fish and meat 68 96 4.8 3.7 vegetables 95 122 6.7 4.6 fruits 41 90 2.8 3.4 sugar, salt and spices 76 94 5.3 3.6 beverages, refreshments, processed food # 113 236 7.9 9.0 food: total 756 1121 52.9 42.7 pan, tobacco and intoxicants 46 42 3.2 1.6 fuel and light 114 177 8.0 6.7 clothing and footwear $ 100 167 7.0 6.4 education 50 182 3.5 6.9 medical 95 146 6.7 5.5 conveyance 60 171 4.2 6.5 consumer services excl. conveyance 57 147 4.0 5.6 misc. goods, entertainment 76 152 5.3 5.8 rent 7 164 0.5 6.2 taxes and cesses 4 22 0.2 0.8 durable goods 65 139 4.5 5.3 non-food: total 674 1509 47.1 57.3 all items 1430 2630 100.0 100.0 * mpce mmrp = modified mixed reference period monthly per capita expenditure. ** includes gram; # includes purchased cooked meals; $ excludes tailoring charges. source: nsso 68 th round: key indicators of household consumer expenditure in india, 2011-12, 20 june 2013. projects, increased remittances to their families in rural india, which boosted consumption (bl bureau, 2012). the 68 th round of nsso on household consumer expenditure is primary source of data on various indicators of level of living, pattern of consumption and well-being of households. as per the data in table 5, for an average rural indian, food items account for 52.9 percent of the value of consumption during 2011-12. this includes 10.8 percent cereals and cereal substitutes, 8 percent milk and milk products, 7.9 percent beverages, refreshments and processed food, and 6.7 percent vegetables. among non-food item categories, fuel and light for household purposes (excluding transportation) account for 8 percent; clothing and footwear, 7 percent; medical expenses, 6.7 percent; education, 3.5 percent; conveyance, 4.2 percent; other consumer services (excluding conveyance), 4 percent, and consumer durables, 4.5 percent. rural people spend fewer amounts than urban people on all food and non-food items except pan, tobacco and intoxicants item group. the modi government’s recent decisions such as a meager 6.7 percent allotment for rural development and a low 3.8 percent increase in msp in the union budget 2014, reforms in urea prices and targeted subsidies, revamp nrega to prevent misuse, and the looming possibility of drought adversely affecting rural spending power. households by possession of assets about one in every two rural households now has a mobile phone. even in india’s poorest states such as bihar and orissa, one in three rural households has a mobile phone. table 6 portrays that 54.3 percent of rural households possess telephone followed by 46.2 percent households have bicycles and 33.4 percent households owned television. similarly, 14.3 percent rural households have a two-wheeler. communication, transportation and entertainment are priorities for rural people. a notable amount of radios, computers and cars are also owned by rural indians. bicycles and unspecified assets are more in rural areas than urban areas. 191 afr. j. agric. mark. table 6. households by possession of assets – india. type of asset percentage of households total rural urban total number of households (246,692,667) (167,826,730) (78,865,937) 100.0 100.0 100.0 radio/transistor 19.9 17.3 25.3 television 47.2 33.4 76.7 computer/laptop – with internet 3.1 0.7 8.3 computer/laptop – without internet 6.3 4.4 10.4 telephone 63.2 54.3 82.0 telephone/mobile phone – landline only 4.0 3.1 5.9 telephone/mobile phone – mobile phone only 53.2 47.9 64.3 telephone/mobile phone – both 6.0 3.3 11.7 bicycle 44.8 46.2 41.9 scooter/motorcycle/moped 21.0 14.3 35.2 car/jeep/van 4.7 2.3 9.7 none of the specified assets 17.8 22.9 7.0 figures in parentheses ( ) are absolute in number. source: census 2011 – provisional population totals – india. rural development programmes the five year plans have witnessed massive investments by the central and state governments in rural areas in a number of developmental programmes. some of these programmes which contributed substantially to the incomes of rural people and created considerable impact are: 1. national rural employment guarantee act (nrega): with the objective of providing 100 days guaranteed work for rural households, nrega is launched on february 2, 2006. the ensured employment generated is from works that raise land productivity. the daily wages under the scheme vary from rs 153 in meghalaya to rs 227 in chandigarh (rashmi, 2014). nearly 27 percent of rural households availed themselves the employment under this scheme in 2009-10 (bl buereau, 2012). 2. swarnjayanti gram swarozgar yojana (sgsy): through this scheme rural poor get self-employment. poor families (swarozgaris) above the poverty line are provided with income generating assets through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy. the scheme involves organization of the poor into self help groups (shgs) build their capacities. 3. indira awaas yojana (iay): being an independent scheme since 1996, iay provides assistance for construction / upgrading of dwelling units to the below poverty line (bpl) rural households, with special emphasis on scs, sts and freed bonded labour categories. a maximum assistance of rs 35,000 per unit for construction in plain areas and rs 38,500 per unit for hilly/difficult areas is provided. for upgrading a dwelling unit for all areas rs 15,000 is provided. the funding of iay is shared between the centre and state in the ratio of 75:25. 4. national social assistance programme (nsap): the scheme provides social assistance benefit to poor households in the case of old age, death of primary breadwinner and maternity. 5. integrated watershed management programme (iwmp): the three area development programmes, namely, integrated wasteland development programme (iwdp), drought prone area programme (dpap) and desert development programme (ddp) are integrated and consolidated into a single programme known as iwmp during the eleventh plan for optimum utilization of resources and sustainable outcomes. 6. national land records modernization programme (nlrmp): nlrmp is a major reform initiative that concerned with computerization, updating and maintenance of land records and validation of titles. this facilitates valuable and comprehensive database for planning developmental, regulatory and disaster management activities by providing location-specific information, while providing citizen services based on land records data. 7. intensive agricultural district programme (iadp – popularly known as package programme) 8. intensive agricultural area programme (iaap) 9. high-yielding varieties programme (hyvp – green revolution) 10. small farmers development agency (sfda) 11. marginal farmers and agricultural labourers development programme (mfal) 12. integrated tribal development programme (itdp) ranvid et al. 192 13. hill area development programme (hadp) 14. operation flood i, ii and iii (white revolution) 15. sericulture development 16. fisheries development (blue revolution) 17. integrated rural development programme (irdp) 18. sampoorna grameena rozgar yojana (sgry) and several others. while the above programmes focused mainly on agriculture and allied activities, there have been investments in other programmes devoted to the development of rural people. they include improvement in health, education, sanitation, adult education, recreation, women development, and so on and have made considerable impact on the life styles of the masses by exposing them to modernization, reducing the drudgery of their work, and adding a modicum of dignity to their lives. infrastructure facilities like road and communications network, rural electrification, public distribution system, cinema, television coverage, and the like have also received considerable attention in rural areas in the postindependent era (sarangapani, 2008). from fmcg companies to automobile makers, to those manufacturing small appliances, most consumer sectors have seen rural demand for their products move into higher gear due to rising support prices for crops, giveaways such as the nrega and a significant expansion in agricultural credit routed through banks (aarati, 2014). initiatives to capture untapped rural potential many fmcg and durables companies have initiated programmes to capture the untapped potential in rural india. for instance, fmcg major hul has undertaken two projects – bharat i and ii – to take its products deeper into the rural areas. this is in spite of the fact that they are pioneers in rural marketing in india. henkel spic india has started a project called hariyali safar, or ‘green journey’, aimed at rural marketing. maharaja appliances ltd. has launched a range of ‘no frills’ home appliances meant especially for the rural and semi-urban markets. sony has entered the rural market without reducing its prices or even offering lower-end models for potential buyers. mobile handset companies and mobile service providers have also started wooing rural consumers in a big way. after ‘project double’, which increased its rural penetration by 2.5 times over the past two years, dabur india has launched a new initiative called ‘project core’ to expand its distribution footprint in the chemist channel. the fmcg company expects to increase its chemist coverage from 55,000 to 75,000 in the phase i, with an investment of rs. 15 crore, and then to 125,000 chemists over the next few years. rural marketing is inevitable for retailers. when retailers in urban areas are struggling to maintain their growth, rural areas offer huge potential for growth of organized retail sector. this is obvious from the fact that when giants like india bulls, subhiksha and spencer are forced to wind up their operations in some cities, companies such as godrej and kisan sansar, which have focused on rural areas, are able to perform well. all fmcg and durables players are confident that these strategies may not bring quick results in the shortrun period but gain momentum in the long-run. conclusion factors such as increase in rural income, improved rural infrastructure and urban market saturation drive corporates to the green patches of hinterland. rural population has increased in absolute number but decreased in proportion since 1901. rural india lures marketers with mammoth population of 833 million. this massive population is living in villages range from less than 200 to more than 10000 that signifies the size of discrete market. agriculture and allied activities are the main occupations which act as prominent source of income. central and state governments have contributed several programmes for the development of rural income. rural consumer spends more on food items that include cereal and cereal substitutes, milk and milk products, beverages, refreshments, processed food, and vegetables etc. more than half of the rural households possess telephone besides a significant number of bicycles and television sets. by comprehending all these facts and figures, stakeholders of rural marketing are needless to say that they have to take precise decisions to capture substantial untapped potential of the hinterland. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references aarati k (2014). over from rural folk to the citydwellers. the business line. bl bureau (2012). rural indian outpace urbanites in spending growth: crisil study. the business line. ramkishen y (2005). new perspectives in rural & agricultural marketing. mumbai: jaico publishing house. rashmi p (2014). shopping drought ahead. the business line. sarangapani a (2008). a textbook on rural consumer behaviour in india – a study of fmcgs. new delhi: university science press. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 1 (2), pp. 035-040, december, 2013. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper the factors influencing organizational culture in federal agricultural marketing authority (fama) azizi yahaya 1 *, noordin yahaya 2 , jasmi ismail 2 , zainudin shariff 2 , jamaludin ramli 1 , muhammad sukri saud 1 , mohamed afiq 2 and mohamed anwar 2 1 universiti teknologi malaysia. 2 universiti teknologi mara (melaka), malaysia. accepted 17 august, 2013 the article reviews the empirical studies which emphasize that the factors influencing organizational culture in federal agricultural marketing authority (fama), which are very few, have been done in malaysia. the factors studied are job satisfaction, job content, and distributive justice, which are studied towards the dependent variables (that is, organizational culture). in obtaining the employee opinion towards this issue, a researcher has distributed 120 questionnaires to the respondents and only 100 questionnaires were returned. a researcher has used the statistical packages for social sciences (spss) version 14 to analyze the entire data. the data were analyzed by using reliability test, descriptive analysis and pearson’s correlation analysis. the result shows that distributive justice (beta=0.504) and followed by job satisfaction (beta=0.284) which influences organizational culture in fama. key words: satisfaction, job content, organizational culture, distributive justice. introduction with rapid changes in the business world, competition threats increased too, and it is a must for any organization to strategize on how to be effective internally and externally (schein, 1992), that is, not only by contending within the industries competitively, but to have efficient workers too. schein (1992) also added that, achieving internal success is dependent on producing and maintaining a positive, healthy organizational culture that comprised an industrial relationship and successful task that has been completed. that is, a good relationship among staff and task oriented employees could drive the organization towards success. a good industrial relationship in any organization could create harmony in workplace. goldston (2007), in her research, has stated that organizational culture is the single most important factor towards succession of an organization. in addition, she found out that in every secret success of an organization, there is ‘organizational culture’ affecting it. a culture could bring a positive and *corresponding author. e-mail: p-azizi@utm.my. negative way of affecting the work style. for example, voices of the malaysian public say that ‘government workers’ love to procrastinate their work. this is a fact known, in that government workers have no strict working system as their staffs are free to go anywhere, as long as they have punch in their card in the morning right on time, and as long as they do not neglect entering mandatory meetings and work. goldston (2007) in her research also added that, a strong organizational culture could generate motivation and commitment among the organization employees. as regards the previous examples, many private workers who are working in an organization which stimulates the motivation of the workers, will work harder towards the succession of the organization. should the existing culture be positive, it could influence the workers to do their best performance. hence, the world of employment nowadays really needs to consider the factor which influences organizational culture should they want to have a batch of employees with high discretionary effort. thus, they should be more tolerable to handle the work load of the organization yahaya et al. 035 corporate history the federal agricultural marketing authority (fama) is an agency under the ministry of agriculture (moa) and agro-based industry (iat). it is set up as a statutory body in 1965, under parliament act 49 (1965) and parliament act 141 (amend) in 1974. fama is responsible in the supervision, coordination, regulation and improvement of the marketing of agricultural products, which include fruits and vegetables, for domestic, export and import markets. as the government’s marketing arm for agricultural products, fama organizes marketing activities, set targets and product standards, monitor performance, develop marketing strategies and tools, as well as, initiate innovative programmes to promote malaysian agricultural products. there were 14 branches of fama all over malaysia, including labuan province. moreover, each state will manage the numbers of fama office within the state/province. the reason for all branches existence is to make fama closer to entrepreneurs who need fama’s service. in the year 2006, fama has initiated agro-based industry (iat) expo in all states. from tremendous response of the expo, fama has started to make iat expo tour starting from year 2009. the expo helped the sme to make sales and introduced their product. fama also did organize malaysian agriculture, horticulture and agrotourism show (maha) since 2006 under moa, and has been awarded as the biggest event of the year by malaysian book of records. over 950 local and international exhibitors are expected to showcase their latest solutions to the industry. since there were many events organized by fama, the organization encountered some mass workloads among the staff. each day, the staff may have to do overtime just to finish up their works in order to meet the dateline provided to them by their superior level management. hence, measures to define the level of organizational culture in fama are essential to determine the performance level of the organization towards the challenge of encountering mass workloads. research questions organizational culture is a very important variable in any organization. to understand factors that contribute to the development of organizational culture, several research questions were developed. the following are the listed research questions: 1. did job satisfaction influence the organizational culture? 2. did job content influence the organizational culture? 3. did distributive justice influence the organizational culture? hypotheses the objective of the research is to identify the factors influencing organizational culture in the determined firm. thus, several hypotheses were developed. hypothesis 1 (h01): job's satisfaction cannot influence organizational culture. hypothesis 2 (h02): job content cannot influence organizational culture. hypothesis 3 (h03): distributive justice cannot influence organizational culture. conceptual framework based on the research questions, a research model is drawn as the basis of this research. figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of job satisfaction, job content, distributive justice towards organizational culture the model of conceptual framework farhana (2009) has stated that dependent variable is a criterion or a variable that is to be predicted or explained, while independent variable is a variable that is expected to influence the dependent variable. its value may be changed or altered independently in any other variable (farhana, 2009). scope of the study a researcher has decided to study factors influencing organizational culture in fama. the study is focused more on the employees below the managerial level. a researcher selected respondents among various departments in fama’s headquarters. literature review sekaran (2003) has defined literature review as the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest of the researcher. organizational culture haigh (2006) has studied this variable in his study in organizational culture, identity, commitment and citizenship behaviors: antecedents, change over time, interrelationships and potential of inoculation to bolster 036 afr. j. agric. mark. independent variable job satisfaction dependent variable job content organizational culture distributive justice figure 1. the factors influencing organizational culture in fama. source: goldston (2007); the relationship between traits of organizational culture and job satisfaction within the healthcare setting, proquest journal, zagorski (2004), balancing the scales: role of justice and organizational culture in employees search for work-life equilibrium, proquest journal) identity, commitment and citizenship behavior (ellen, 1990). the pocket oxford dictionary of current english defines culture as refined understanding of the arts and other human intellectual achievement. when applied to the organization, organizational culture is the individual belief and practice in the organization as the consequences of the culture itself. a good example given by hellriegel and slocum (2007), shows that most of the organizations have their own computer gurus, but often, it is their secretaries who do not go for lunch that help other workers who have the problem with the method of handling computer problem. culture, as the collective sum of beliefs, values, meanings and assumptions, is shared by a social group and it helps to shape the ways in which they respond to each other and to their external environment (fazilah, 2005). a culture is also seen as the personality of an organization, and it differentiates a company from another (fazilah, 2005). alwi (2005), in his writing from his reference, has stated organizational culture as a perception which can be shared with members within the organization. in other words, organizational culture is correlated with decision making, acting, communication formation and communication network. brown (1995) has stated that there are twelve sources of organizational culture, that is, influence of a dominant leader, company history and tradition, technology, products and services, the industry and its competition, customers, company expectations, information and control systems, legislation and company environment, procedures and policies, reward systems and measurement, organization and resources, and goals, values and beliefs. job satisfaction job satisfaction is a synonym variable to the study done massively in the world as it is the key for employee’s status. job satisfaction is generally defined, in short-term, as a positive emotional state that reflects an effective response to job experience (cordas, 2008). this emotional state derived as a consequence of satisfaction from the job done by them, is either based on the physical part of the job, or the content of the job itself. for example, the job satisfaction of fama’s employees on their routine job that is less stressful, is fun to be dealt with. sammons (1997) in his studies has stated that job satisfaction is an individual’s perception of his/her employment experience with factors known to increase job satisfaction such as recognition, increased responsibility, continuing education or potential for growth and flexibility. some employees love to do a job that is highly sought by them as the job may give some input to them, should the worker appreciate knowledge more than just doing works without any return. there are many ways in order to promote job satisfaction as various employees have multi interest to be fulfilled. some of the employees love to undergo training, while on holidays, in order to earn more knowledge and leisure, while some employees love to do a job that is highly demanded by them. those jobs may reflect their true personality and ambitions. for example, some employees have passion in fashion, hence they will seek a job, which have some basics of what they love to do best. job content robinson (2005) described job content as the characteristics of the job. based on his studies, he found that content factors were the satisfiers or motivators. he also found that on-the-job events were characterized as achievements, recognition and the work itself. responsibility, yahaya et al. 037 advancement and growth led to higher job satisfaction. however, there were several factors, which led to job content such as attitude, job stress, nature of the job, and complexity of the job. distributive justice woycheshin (2008) has defined distributive justice as the equal treatment by anyone towards anyone. specifically, distributive justice in this research refers to the treatment of the upper level management towards the subordinates in the organization, that is, the treatment of the managers towards their employees. it may be in the form of promotion, compensation, etc. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (1996) defined principles of distributive justice as normative principles designed to guide the allocation of the benefits and burdens of economic activity. every persons have their own feeling to have equal treatment from others. in a way, they could express themselves freely, but in some manners they could not because every human in this world are free to have a say in every way. undeniably, some organizations did discriminate the workers based on their age, sex, race or religion. the voice of these people may not listen to that of their superiors as a fact of discrimination to practice their norms. the discrimination may be in a limitation of them to practice their religion’s ritual, such as prayers, having their thoughts to be listened by others. methods participants participants are the entire group of people, events, or things of interest that the researcher wishes to investigate (azizi et al., 2007). in a statistical usage, a population is any finite or infinite collection of individual elements. the inferences are to be made to the collection of individuals. the participants of the study will be among fama’s headquarters staff. fama was chosen as the population because many say that government workers are lazy and love to procrastinate works. this might help to study the factors which influence organizational culture among workers. the participants of the study are workers from fama’s headquarters in selayang, which are divided into several departments. the departments include human resource, small industry, distributor, retailer, financial, land development, training, quality control, aquaculture and export promotion departments. the sample size of a statistical sample is the number of observations that constitute it. according to azizi et al. (2007), it is important to establish the representatives of the sample for generalizability. in this study, 100 respondents sample size has been used to answer the questionnaires.. measurement for this study, a malay language structured questionnaire was distributed to respondents. the malay language questionnaire was carefully translated into english language by using back translation (brislin, 1962) to extract the exact question put to the respondents. it consisted of 23 questions and is answered by the lower management than the managerial level employees. it was divided into 5 sections as follows: section a: the demographic questions were asked to know the history and general background of the respondents. the purpose is to sample the distribution in terms of gender of the respondents, the period when the respondents work with the organization and the period when the respondents hold their current position in the organization. section b: the questions will clarify the organizational culture of the employee and their surroundings within the organization. organizational cultures are the ruler of the organization’s succession. section c: the respondents have to answer their level of agreement about the distributive justice existence in fama. section d: the questions will determine the respondents' perceptions about their job content, which they faced in the organization. the job's content may challenge the employees' ability to do their job and the determination of their willingness to do other things. that is, the ability to help others and the ability to finish their work on time. section e: the questions will clarify the job satisfaction of the respondents towards their organization. job satisfactions were studied together with organizational culture by goldston (2007). all questions in sections b, c, d and e used the likert scale method. in this method, the respondents have to respond to the statement given by choosing their level or agreement and marking it. the scale item consists of five categories as shown in table 5. reliability analysis azizi et al. (2007) has stated that cronbach’s alpha is a reliability coefficient that indicates how well the items in a set are positively correlated to one another. the closer cronbach’s alpha is to number 1, the higher the internal consistency reliability. generally, reliability which is less than 0.60 is considered to be poor, but that in the range of 0.70 to 0.80 is considered good. as it can be seen in table 1, all the variables tested are positive. data collection method as for this research, malay version of questionnaire was developed. the questionnaire gathered the opinion of the respondents, based on the questions asked about their perception and the organization, and the questionnaire reflected the variables related to the study. findings and analysis the pearson product-moment correlation (r), or correlation coefficient for short, is a measure of the degree of linear relationship between two variables, usually labeled x and y. hypotheses testing based on the results as shown in table 2, whether the 038 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. reliability statistics for factors influencing organizational culture in fama. items cronbach’s alpha no. of items organizational culture 0.870 10 distributive justice 0.901 10 job content 0.865 10 job satisfaction 0.816 10 table 2. pearson correlations matrix between factors influencing organizational culture. organizational distributive job job culture justice content satisfaction organizational culture pearson correlation 1 0.504** -0.143 0.284** sig. (2-tailed) p= 0.000 p= .0157 p= 0.004 distributive justice pearson correlation 0.504** 1 -0.156 0.314** sig. (2-tailed) p= 0.000 job content pearson correlation -0.143 -0.156 1 -0.278** sig. (2-tailed) p= .0157 job satisfaction pearson correlation 0.284** 0.314** -0.278** 1 sig. (2-tailed) p= 0.004 table 3. multiple linear regressions coefficients (a). model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta 1 (constant) 1.826 0.330 5.525 0.000 distributive justice 0.511 0.089 0.504 5.774 0.000 a dependent variable: organizational culture. hypothesis which is formulated earlier in this study is supported or rejected can be interpreted as follows. h01: job satisfaction can not influence organizational culture. in table 2, p = 0.004 is less than = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis, h01, is rejected. thus, there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction. so, a second test will be conducted. h02: job content can not influence organizational culture. in table 2, p = 0.0157 is more than = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis, h02, is accepted. thus, there is a no significant relationship between organizational culture and job content. so, a second test will be conducted. h03: distributive justice can influence organizational culture. in table 2, p = 0.000 is less than = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis, h03, is rejected. thus, there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and distributive justice. so, a second test will be conducted. multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict the percentage of various variables towards criterion variable (organizational culture). this can be seen in table 3. each predictor was positively related to the outcome variable, such as distributive justice ( = .511, p = .001) and the beta= 0.504. while in table 4, the entire variable was excluded because they are not significant. it is automatically excluded when stepwise is used. as it can be seen in the table, the beta value distributive justice of 0.504 does justify that distributive justice contribute towards the factors influencing organizational culture in fama. thus, the mathematical form of the finding is yahaya et al. 039 table 4. excluded variables (b). model beta in t sig. partial collinearity statistics correlation tolerance 1 job satisfaction 0.140(a) 1.532 0.129 0.154 0.901 job content -0.066(a) -0.745 0.458 -0.075 0.976 a predictors in the model: (constant), distributive justice. table 5. likert scale method. strongly agree agree moderate disagree strongly disagree 5 4 3 2 1 + 0.284 job satisfaction organizational culture distributive justice + 0.504 figure 2. final model influencing factors towards organizational culture in fama. shown. organizational culture: 1.826 + (+0.504) distributive justice although the spss version 14 suggested that job satisfaction should be removed in this research, the variable did somehow contribute some towards organizational culture. this is justified by the partial correlation value of the results that is +0.154. the mathematical form of the finding is as follows: organizational culture: 2.643 + (0.154) job satisfaction. however, the researchers have also determined that there is no relation between job content and organizational culture. this has been justified by the results where the value is -0.075. final model the final model is as shown in figure 2 overall findings first, the relationship is between job satisfaction and organizational culture. it shows that the value of beta is +0.284 which means that there is a weakly positive significance between job satisfaction and organizational culture. there is also a relationship between distributive justice and organizational culture. it shows that the value of beta is +0.504, which means that there is a moderately positive significance between distributive justice and organizational culture. between the two variables which influence organizational culture in fama, distributive justice did influence organizational culture more. discussion and conclusion the findings, gathered from the study, provided the overall conclusions of the study based on the research objectives and research questions. it can be concluded that job satisfaction is one of the factors which influence organizational culture. however, where it was not supported by hypotheses, job satisfaction can not influence organizational culture. according to goldston (2007), organizational culture is the single most important factor towards succession of an organization. in addition, in every secret success of an organization, there is organizational culture affecting it. a culture could bring a positive and negative way of affecting work style. to enhance the organizational culture in fama, two factors, which influence organizational culture in fama should be enhanced, that is, distributive justice and job satisfaction. to enhance organizational culture in an organization, the organization should support the employees to take part in discussion during meetings. this could enhance the 040 afr. j. agric. mark. value of self responsibility among fama staff. indirectly, all staff could update any essential information, which may lead to organization success (azizi et al., 2009). furthermore, the supervisors should delegate responsibility unbiasedly, as this could create trust among workers and supervisors. the employees also have the rights to have a say in any decision that may affect their work. this indirectly will bring satisfaction and generate harmony in the workplace suitable with a better industrial relation condition. next, the company could compensate their workers, as the workers did a tremendous job throughout the year, and this may be a reward for them as they deserve it. moreover, if any changes occur in the organization, the reason must be clearly made, and this will help prevent workers from feeling dissatisfied or facing conflict. to have a positive organizational culture, discrimination from a superior or anybody in the organization is restricted in order to maintain the professional culture that existed in the organization. discrimination will make another party feel threatened or dissatisfied with it. this could help the first step of the superior by not being biased to anybody in the office, and thus justice will be promoted in the office even more (azizi et al., 2010), that is, by doing counseling with the workers who had the problem or felt discriminated. as for the workers, all the decisions made must be according to its objectivity and not influenced by others. sometimes, influence by other members within the organization may be caused by negative objectivity. the organization could also be paying the employees rightfully to satisfy those who could influence the employees to contribute more towards the organization. the organization should also value their staff for what they have done for the organization. this is because, being valued by the organization will influence the contribution of the workers towards the organization. next, the management should restrict bullying at the workplace as this could de-motivate the workers to do excellent works, but they should be more tolerable with their employees. the organization should also add more workers in order to reduce the over capacity of the employees' workload, at the same time providing a safe work environment. simultaneously, the organization should stimulate a positive working relationship between the staff and management levels of the organization. injustice in organizations threatens serious consequences for individuals and firm alike. still, current theories of distributive justice inadequately describe the justice phenomenon across levels of theories. in addition, several researchers argued that definition of justice might be culture-specific. conclusion it can be concluded that job content is not one of the factors, which influences organizational culture, being that it is not supported by the hypotheses, which stipulate that job content cannot influence organizational culture. conversely, distributive justice is one of the factors, which influences organizational culture, being that it is supported by the hypotheses, which stipulate that distributive justice can influence organizational culture. references azizi y, jamaludin r, yusof b (2009). national unit trust berhad (nutb) promotional strategies for bumiputra in malaysia. american journal of scientific research issn: 1450-223x eurojournals publishing, 5: 33-49. azizi y, noordin y, saini j (2010). the effect of various modes of occupational stress, job satisfaction, intention to leave and absentism companies commission of malaysia. 2010 issn 19918178, insinet publication. austr. j. basic appl. sci., 4(7): 1676-1684. brown a (1995). organisational culture (2 nd edition), financial times; pitman publishing cordas j (2008). an empirical investigation of the influence of age, gender, and occupational level on stress perceptions, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover. proquest j., pp. 421-431. fazilah mh (2005). the issues of corporate culture in the organization management, proceeding national seminar on human development. goldston (2007). the relationship between traits of organizational culture and job satisfaction within the healthcare setting. proquest j., pp. 121-133. haigh mm (2006). organizational culture, identity, commitment, and citizenship behaviors: antecedents, change over time, interrelationships, and potential of inoculation to bolster identity, commitment, and citizenship behavior. proquest j., pp 111-120. hellriegel r (2009). organizational behaviors (11th edition). thomson southern-western. robinson m (2005). tenure of managers in the private club industry: an analysis of demographic, job content and organizational contributing factors. sammons gl (1997). a comparison of factors affecting job satisfaction of nurses in oklahoma public hospitals with hospitals’ recruitment and retention priorities, proquest j., pp. 143-147. woycheshin de (2008). testing the dimensionality of organizational citizenship behaviors and conceptual performance using self-, peer, and supervisor ratings. proquest j., pp 227-235. zagorski da (2004). balancing the scales: role of justice and organizational culture in employees search for work-life equilibrium. proquest j., pp.314-327. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (1), pp. 091-094, january, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper the formation, technique and presentation of palm oil marketing in cross river state, nigeria james oganiru 1 *, isaac makinwa 2 , precious okon1 1 department of agricultural economics and extension, cross river university of technology, obubra campus nigeria. 2 department of agricultural economics and sociology, ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria. accepted 22 september, 2014 the business of palm oil in nigeria has undergone successive marketing arrangements, each with its inherent deficiencies. the paper examined the structure, conduct and performance of palm oil marking in cross river state, nigeria. the study adopted the multi-stage sampling techniques in the selection of 6 local government areas, 18 villages, 180 processes, 90 commissioned agents, 90 retailers and 30 merchants for the study. the descriptive statistics, the gini-co-efficient combined with the lorenz curve was used to determined the degree of market concentration among the participates; the marking margin analysis was employed to measure the performance of palm oil marketing in cross river state. the result reveals that the gini value for processors, commissioned agents, merchants and retailers was 59, 54, 65 and 32% respectively. the over all performance of the market was 41.43%, while the processors received 37.17% of the market share, while merchant 29%, retailers 26% and commissioned agent 7.8%. generally, the market was observed to be a pure market competition as no individual trader has market power to influence the market prices. the paper recommended that more research should be conducted to improve the reddish colour of hybrid palm oil to avoid marketer adding colour substances to the palm oil in attempt to improve the colour to attract customers. key words: palm oil market structure, conduct and performance. introduction the business of palm oil has undergone successive marketing arrangement firstly, under the traditional system of marketing agricultural products in nigeria, as in other tropical african countries. the system was described as being inefficient, disorganized, and unresponsive and oligopsonistic in nature (abu, 1996). secondly, arising from this, commodity marketing board (cmb) was established to organize the markets for efficiency. the cmb became exploitative of the primary producers because the prices they paid were low relative to cost of production, average world prices of other crops (olukosi and isitor, 1990). the cmbs had almost destroyyed the very foundation and superstructure of the nation’s *corresponding author. e-mail: oganiru_j@yahoo.com. agricultural economy (olatunbosun and olayide, 1971). this hampered the farmers’ income levels, the incentives and abilities to expand production under the cmbs arrangement. oil palm farmers suffered all sorts of frustrations such as transport difficulties, extortion by market functionaries, under-payment and delay in payment among others (olukosi and isitor, 1990). by 1986, it became obvious that if measures were not taken to address the problems, palm oil products and related industries would collapse. nwawe and edokpayi (2005) observed that after 1965, nigeria seized from being the leading producer and exporter of palm oil, falling from 43% in 1980s to 7% in the 1990s of the total global output. informed by this, the government abolished the commodity board system and established a free and competitive marketing system. thereby changing the structure, conduct and perfor oganiru et al. 091 mance of the palm oil marketing in the nigeria. it is based on implementing this policy for twenty-three years that it is necessary to as-sess the extent to which the deficiencies of the previous monopsony marketing system have been eliminated. conceptual framework several studies in agricultural marketing based on the assessment of the free-market system have been conducted using this approach. william (1971) gave the assumption of this approach to be that of the performance of any market is the result of the conduct of participants, which in turn is determined by the marketing structure. nyong (1990) further stressed that the structureconduct-performance (scp) hypothesis, is a basic paradigm of individual organization maintains that the structure of an industry (that is organization characteristics such as concentration ratio, market share, and the condition of entry) influences the conduct of firms in their decisions regarding prices sales, employment, and technological innovations. it insists that the conduct of firms in turn, influences performance, particularly the profit earned in the industry. in the views of some analyst, they to argued that the chain relationship is not necessary unidirectional. it may also be bi-directional in the sense of reverse causation. that is, the performance of the industry may influence the structure of the industry (performanceconduct-structure approach) (pickering, 1974; nyong, 1990). because of these contradictions, recently the structureconduct-performance hypothesis has received more detail analysis resulting into the decomposition of the hypothesis into four main contrasting versions. there are the traditional view of structure-conduct and performance hypothesis, the relative market power hypothesis, the xefficiency or managerial efficiency hypothesis and the scale efficiency hypothesis. the emergence of misleading results from these approaches because of the parameter estimates are most times biased and in consistence arising from the neglect of a feedback mechanism. nyong (1990) suggested that market researches should adopt a system of estimation procedure that takes into consideration the interdependence or interactions among structural, conduct in explanation, prediction and control of the market. kriesel (1969) observed that the basic purpose of analyzing a market is to determine how well the system is performing the necessary marketing functions, and how this performance can be improved. among the variables considered important in determining market structure are number and relative size of buyers and sellers, the degree of product differentiation, the ease of entry and exist of buyers and sellers into and out of the market. also important are the status of knowledge about costs, prices, and market conditions among the participants in the market (olukosi and isitor, 1990; nyong, 1990; maiangwa et al., 2004). identifying variables in studying market structure, okereke and anthonio (1988) opined that market concentration is the most important element, since it depicts a situation in which a few large firms have the largest share of the business. they developed an index of concentration to reflect the interplay between the few large firms in retail industries and the many small ones. his concentrations index is expressed as: d c = p where c = industry concentration index, d = percentage of industry employment sales or other assets held by the largest firms, p = percentage of all firms in the smallest size class in the array. the ratio is roughly that of economic power of the largest firm in the industry. at any rate, the assumption of the exercise of political power by the smallest firms in the industry may not always be true because the smallest firms may be so weak that they are incapable of organizing themselves to exercise any political power (okereke and anothonio, 1988). due to the deficiency in the above method, analyst recommend the combination of lorenz curve and the gini coefficient to determine market concentration. several analysts have adopted this method (okereke and anthonio, 1988; abu, 1996; tiku, 2001). the researcher ob-served that since 1986, the policy of privatization and deregulation of the economy is being vigorously pursued by government at all levels, it is pertinent to study the structure, conduct and performance of the palm oil marketing in cross river state, being a major palm oil producing state in nigeria. the objectives of the work are to: 1) determine the degree of the market concentration among the market participants in other to classify the structure of palm oil market in cross river state. 2) analysis the conduct of palm oil market state. 3) ascertain the performance of palm oil markets in the state. the finding of this work shall help to provide relevant information for adjustment and management of palm oil marketers in nigeria as millions of nigerians depends on palm oil in one form or the other. it is also expected that this work shall be useful to investors in the palm oil industry. methodology the study was conducted in akamkpa, biase, etung, boki ogoja and bekwarra local government areas of cross river state. the six lgas are evenly spread across the state. cross river state is at the south zone of nigeria. it has eighteen lgas with a population of about 28 m people (npc, 2006). the climate of the area is controlled by two tropical air masses namely the equatorial maritime (mt) air mass that originates from the south-west and the tropical continent (ct) air mass that originates from north east (alobi, 1992). average annual rainfall in cross river state is about 2,298.7 092 afr. j. agric. mark. mm (cbn statistical bulletins, 2005). the relatively moderate rainfall, long west season and high humidity favoured the growth of tree crops like cocoa and oil palms and non-tree crops such as maize, cassava, melon etc. information for the study was from primary sources. the primary data were from cross-sectional data. personal interviews using structured questionnaires were used to conduct interview among the processors, palm oil buyers’ agents in 18 villages in the six selected lgas. the study adopted the multi-stages sampling technique. the first stage was the grouping of the 18 lgas that constituted the state into three districts; each district is composed of six lgas. the second stage is the selection of two lgas per district using random sampling method to select six lgas used for the study. the third stage was the random selection of three villages per lga to give a total of 18 villages. the proportionality factor was introduced to select 180 processors, 30 palm oil merchants, 90 commissioned agents and 90 retailers for the study. the proportionality factor used is stated as follows: s = p/p*n where; p = the number of respondents sampled from a district; p = the number of respondents in all the districts in the state; n = the desire numbers of respondents to selected for study. analytical tools the study adopted the descriptive statistics, the gini co-efficient and lorenz curve to measure the degree of concentration. the gini co-efficient model is given by: g = 1 ∑xy where: g = value of the gini coefficient, x = percentage of market participants, y = cumulative of purchase (palm oil), ∑ = summation sign. gini coefficient is equal zero when there is perfect equality in the size and distribution of buyers or sellers, and g = 1 when there is perfect monopoly in the market. generally, gini coefficient value range from zero to one and expresses the extent to which market is concentrated. the gini coefficient is a numerical representation of degree of inequality in the distribution that is derived directly from lorenz curve. the marketing margin (table 1) analysis was also employed. this is an indicator of market performance. the model given as: sp cp mm = × 100 sp where: mm = marketing margin, \sp = selling price of palm oil, cp = supply price of palm oil. results and discussion the socio-economic characteristics of the market participants revealed that 60% of the processors were females while 40% were males. the combination of other market participants (merchants, commissioned agents, and retailers) shows that 69.5% of the market participants constituted the females and 30.5% males. the finding agrees with fao (2007) report that culturally men cultivate or produce oil palm while women process and sell. traditionally, women decide the form in which the pro duced is traded and determine the degree of processing they are willing to undertake. the study also revealed that 69% processors were married, 25% merchant, 60% commissioned agents and 72% retailers are married men and women. the study showed that the age bracket between 35 and 45% constituted the highest number of palm oil marketers. in term of educational qualification, 56% of the respondents were secondary certificate holders. the implication is that majority of the marketers could read and write. the distribution of marketers by income shows that personal savings represented 47% of the total source of capital and merchants are the major financiers of the oil palm business other personal saving. the gini coefficient and the lorenz curve were employed to measure the degree of market concentration. the gini values for processors, merchants, commissioned agent and retailers were 59, 65, 54 and 32% respectively. the implication of the result is that there is sufficient competition among the processors and no single individual or organization can influence the market. in addition, there exist a healthy competition among the commissioned agents and retailers. the merchants gini-coefficient values of 65% were rather high; this is because few firms in the business control the trade at the merchant level. the result is true because the “big merchant” do backward integration by advancing money to the farmers, processsors and commissioned agents. they do this to guarantee supply of the products. the study also revealed that there is no barrier to entry into palm business in the study. it was observed since the palm oil marketing board was abolished, individuals and corporate organizations are allowed to buy and sell palm oil. what seems to be a restriction are the activities of the trade unions in some local government areas. prospective buyers were adding to register for membership at a cost of n5, 000.00 (five thousand naira only). technically, oil palm yield is distributed over the entire year. cross river state experience bimodal rainfall seasons. the oil palms bear fruit in response to the rainfall pattern and hence there are two peaks of harvesting periods in the state. the nature of product differentiation is influenced by both the field and market factors. the field factors that affect the composition and final quality of palm oil in the study area are genetic, age of the tree, agronomic, environmental, harvesting technique, handling and transport. many of these factors are beyond the control of small-scale processors (fao, 2005). the market factors are that of market participants adding colour substances to the product to attract customers to facilitate sales. the marketers do this because local breed of oil palms produces palm oil that is more reddish in colour and better flavoured than the hybrid that produce less reddish palm oil. customers tend to patronized local breed palm oil than hybrid oil. because of this, most marketers add colour substances to the hybrid palm oil to make it appear reddish and attractive to oganiru et al. 093 table 1. marketing margin for palm oil in cross river state (n1 ton, 2007/2008). participant item average average margin percentage cost ( n ) sale (%) ffb/tone 14,000 splitting the bunches 600.00 transportation to processing site 1,500 sorting 300 water 150 processors fire wood 100 removing the boiled nuts to the milling machine 200 milling and pressing/the extract oil 400 9 empty rubbers 2700 conveying the 160 l is to the store from the processing site 160 others 200 total n20,310 24,000 15.4 37.17 commissioned agent purchases commission 24,000 24,800 3.33 7.80 800 supply price 24,000 commission 800 containers 2,800 transportation 400 storage 200 security 80 insurance 4800 x 8 merchant handling 160 rubbers administration 200 association dues 20 buying permit 20 national palm produce 160 hoilage 80 lga 400 total 29,400 33,480 12.0 28.96 supply price 33,480 handling 160 transportation 400 insurance retailers storage 200 association fees registration with lga security total 34,240 38,400 10.8 26.07 total marketing margin 41.43 100 source: survey data (2008). customers. the study revealed that palm oil buyers and sellers had prior knowledge of the prevailing prices before they either sold or bought palm oil, as well as knowledge about the cost of processing and marketing input. agents of information dissemination were the merchant, processors, commissioned agents; local 094 afr. j. agric. mark. assembles retailers market information was not obtain from public information media and extension agents. the conduct of the market participants, which reflects the behavour of the firms, or the decision that firms make relating to their pricing and output policy and other competitive tactics, revealed that palm oil sold in three major ways: cash sales, credit sale and advance sale. it was statistically revealed that 80% of the respondent sold on cash and carry basis, 10% on credit to customers they considered reliable, and 10% in advance to finance processing activities. the other minor method of sale is by barter system. the barter systems simply involve processors exchanging palm kernel nut for cost of milling and sorting out the fibre from the palm kernel nuts. the owners of processing plants prefer this method because the value of the palm kernelsmost cases out strip the cash to be paid for the processing activities. apart from the merchant engaging in vertical integration in order to secure the supply of palm oil from the producers, other market participants do not engage in any other tactics to influence market prices. no advertisement, no research and development among marketers to create differentiated products to enhance profit. all the marketers adopt the same market system of buying and selling homogenous product and facing the same industrial curve determined by the invisible forces of demand and supply making palm oil business in the state very elastic. the marketing margin was determined as a measure of market performance. this was done by calculating the average cost of market for each participant in the various stages involved in the transaction of palm oil business. the major participants are processors commissioned agents, merchants and retailers. the result revealed a marketing margin of 41.43% which is the overall performance of the palm oil business in the state. of this value, it shows that processors received 37.17%, merchant 28.96%, retailers 26.07%, and commissioned agent 7.80%. the implication is that the highest share of the marketing margin is received by the processors followed by the merchants. however, the share of the margin corresponds to the services provided by the various market agents and the financial involvement of the market participants. table 1 shows the schedule of the marketing margin. conclusion and recommendations the socio-economic characteristics of the study revealed that more females are involved in palm oil marketing than the males. in addition, gini co-efficient values showed sufficient evidence that palm oil market structure in the study area is pure market competition as the market concentration index ranges from 32 to 65%. the overall performance of the market was 41.43%. this means that the present market condition is better than the defunct monopsony system institutionalized by the then government where product prices could not cover cost of production. it is therefore, recommended that more research should be carried over to eliminate the problem of genetic variations in terms of colour of edible palm oil. a deliberate policy on palm oil market research and development should be formulated to remove market distortions and promote market efficiency in terms of quality control, stable supply of product and reduced price fluctuation in the system. references abu ga (1996). the structure, conduct and performance of the soybeans market in benue state. unpublished m.sc. thesis: department of agricultural economics and rural sociology, ahmadu bello university, zaria. alobi bo (1992). plantation agriculture in cross river state: study of abia-bendeghe cocoa estate, ikom. unpublished bachelor of science degree project, department of geography and regional plan-ning university calabar, calabar. central bank of nigeria (2005). statistical bulletin, volume 16. abuja. food and agricultural organization (2005). fao corporate document repository; agriculture and consumer protection of small scale palm oil processing in africa. htt/www.d/fao/docrep/005/74355e.pp.1-6. kriesel hc (1969). cocoa marketing in nigeria. nigeria institute for social and economic research, university of ibadan, p. 18. maiangwa mg, olukosi jo, philips doa, ahamud b, musa mw, adeogun ao (2004). the supply, demand and marketing of major staple food crops in nigeria. paper presented at the annual conference of nigeria association economists (naae), held at ahmadu bello university, zaria. 3-5 november. national population commission (2006). 2006 population and housing census of the federal republic of nigeria, abuja. vol. 1 pp. 67-76. nwawe cn, edokpayi aa (2005). determinations of adoption of impoved oil-palm production technologies in delta state, nigeria. j. agric. for. soc. sci. 3(2):10-16. nyong m (1990). market structure, risk and profitability in banking: the quiet life hypothesis and the relative economic efficiency development policy review 8:179-201. okereke o, anthonio qbo (1988).the structural characteristics of the market for grains in eastern nigeria. in adekanye, t. o. (ed) reading in agricultural marketing, longman nigeria ltd. pp. 116-124. olatunbosun d, olayide so (1971). the effect of marketing boards on the output and income of producers” adekanye, t.o (ed) reading in agricultural marketing longman nigerian ltd .pp.775-91. olukosi jo, isitor su (1990). introduction to agricultural marke-ting and prices: principles and applications. living books series, g.u.publications, abuja, nigeria, pp. 27-28. pickering if (1974). industrial structure and market conduct. martin robertson and co. ltd. london, pp. 15. tiku ne (2001). cocoa marketing in a deregulated economy in etung, boki and ikom local government areas of cross river state. m.sc. thesis; department of agricultural economics and rural sociology, ahmadu bello university, zaira, nigeria. williams ht (1971). marketing management in agriculture; oxford university press london, pp. 20. studies on the effect of pre-harvest treatment of some nutrients on physico-chemical qualities and shelf life of mango (mangifera indica l african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (1), pp. 047-055, march, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper effect of pre-harvest foliar spray of ca, zn and b on respiration rate and biochemical changes of ‘dashehari’ mango during storage bal bahadur singh chauhan1, pk shukla1, lp yadava2 and deepmala verma3 1 department of horticulture, janta college, bakewar, etawah (u.p.)-206124, india. 2 cb gupta agriculture post graduate college, bkt, lucknow, up, india (affiliated to lucknow university, lucknow, up, india. 3 state institute of food processing technology, lucknow, up, india. accepted 18 march, 2014 to examine the role of pre-harvest foliar application of ca, zn and b on respiration rate and biochemical changes during storage of mango fruit was investigated. test chemicals (ca, zn and b) significantly reduced the respiration rate as compared to untreated ones. in untreated fruits climacteric peak appeared at about 6 th days, while in treated fruit it occurred at about 9 th days of storage. treated fruits had delayed ripening for about 3 days as compared to control. an increase in tss and carotenoids was noted up to 9 th days of storage under all treatments, thereafter, value of tss and carotenoids slightly decreased. the tannin, starch and pectin contents were decreased gradually as the storage advanced. however, the fruits received the treatments of ca, zn and b showed higher retention of tannins, starch and pectin in both fresh and stored fruits. key words: calcium, zinc, boron, respiration rate, storage, fruit ripening, mango. introduction the mango (mangifera indica l.) is the special product that substantiates the high standards of quality and bountiful of nutrients packed in it. it is well known for high antioxidant value (o’neil, 2014) and variety of phytochemicals (ajila and prasad rao, 2008). dashehari is one of the leading commercial varieties of north india, known for the excellent quality of its fruits (pradeepkumar et al., 2008). its ripened pulp is very delicious and nutritious. a single mango can provide up to 40 per cent of daily dietary fibre, a potent protector against heart disease, cancer and cholesterol build-up. in addition to it, this luscious fruit is supposed to be a warehouse of potassium, beta-carotene and antioxidants (anon, 2009). the carotenoid pigments, -carotene (pro vit-a), increases with ripening, whereas vitamin c registers a sharp fall with ripening (soule and hatton, 1955). the proper nutritional management plays a vital role in increas *corresponding author. e-mail: drlpyadava@gmail.com ing the yield and quality of fruits. the foliar application of ca and micro element exhibits its remarkable effect on physico-chemical attribute of fruits. fruit quality as evident by t.s.s. and sugar content improved markedly by the application of zinc and boron in mango plants (banik et al., 1997). the exact role of calcium, like that of all minerals, is still obscure, but it is important for cell wall development. calcium ions delay the senescence by stabilizing cell membrane and increasing the stiffness of monolayer. the ca 2+ arbitrated cross linking may occur as bridging between phospholipids and carboxyl tails of embedded membrane protein (leshem, 1991). there are also several calcium pectate interactions, which make the cell wall firmer (carpita and mccann, 2000). calcium is associated with pectin substances in the middle lamella and with membranes generally and may slow the processes like respiration, softening and overall fruit ripening reduce losses and increase shelf life nearly by strengthening structural components of the cell without alleviating the original cause of cell collapse. jones and lunt (1967) reported that calcium is known to be an essential plant nutrient involved in a number of physiologi http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ yadava et al. 047 cal processes concerning membrane structure and function and enzyme activity. boron acts as catalyst or reaction regulator. it can delay the calcium deficiency but cannot replace calcium and it tends to keep calcium soluble. it may act as a regulator of potassium/calcium and the absorption of nitrogen. it may be concerned with oxidation-reduction equilibrium in cells. zinc improves the auxin content and it also acts as catalyst in oxidation-reduction processes. nijjar et al. (1976) reported that the activity of carbonic anhydrase, a metallo enzyme for zinc, which is correlated with zinc content of leaves, exhibited a remarkable recovery when leaves are sprayed with zinc sulphate. in their experiment the zinc-deficient leaves produced only 418 g carbondioxide/100 g zinc in leaves/5 minutes where as in sprayed leaves it rose to 550 g, thus, indicating that the spray of 0.2 and 0.4 per cent of zinc sulphate almost restored the normal activity of enzyme. the nutritive value and quality of fruits, which depend on physical and biochemical changes that occur during ripening, storage and transportation, is very important from economic as well as academic point of view. work on important problems of mango industry has been started systematically at several places in the country, but still a lot of work is needed on post-harvest management. in order to have good return and to avoid glut of mango fruits in market in the peak season it becomes essential to store the quality fruits for a considerable period. however, the marketability of fruits is lost rapidly owing to quick softening and rotting of fruits. it is reported that calcium, zinc and boron improve the quality and shelf life of mango fruits. in view of the above effect of pre-harvest foliar spray of ca, zn and b on the respiration rate and biochemical changes in mango fruits during storage was studied. materials and methods plant material the 20 years old heavy bearer trees of cv. dashehari having uniform vigour and productivity were selected for experiment at the research block of mango orchard of janta college, bakewar, etawah (u.p.). trees, those had not been sprayed in 1 st year were selected for 2 nd year so as to avoid the possible carry-over effects from previous spray. foliar spray of ca, zn and b the treatments consisted of foliar spray of different chemicals i.e., ca, zn and b at three levels of concentration (0.0, 0.4 and 0.8%). the solution of these chemicals was made ten litre each using calcium nitrate, zinc sulphate and borax 210.53, 121.21 and 353.64 g for 0.4% and 421.05, 242.42 and 527.27 g for 0.8%, respectively in water and the ph was adjusted to 7.0 by slaked lime [ca(oh)2] prior to making its desired volume. the amount of borax was dissolved in warm water as it does not soluble in water at normal temperature. each tree was sprayed with aqueous solution of chemicals one month before fruit harvest using a power operated sprayer. the wetting agent tween-20 (1.0ml per litre) of solution was used in all spray solutions as a surfactant for their better absorption. determination of respiration rate and biochemical changes twenty fruits in each treatment and each replication apparently of the same size and of similar physiological maturity were harvested randomly and packed in the cfb boxes and brought to laboratory of department of horticulture, janta college, bakewar, etawah for physico-chemical analysis and storage. mango fruits were kept in the standard size cfb boxes (31.5×22.0×25 cm) and stored at ambient temperature (average temperature, 33.2 o c and r.h. 66.3% in 2006 and 33.7 o c and 65.4% r.h. in 2007). respiration rate of fruits (co2 evolution) was determined by the gas flow method to the procedure of loomis and shull (1937). -carotene was estimated by adopting the method of jenson (1970). tannins, pectin and starch were estimated by volumetric method of as described by ranganna (1986). statistical analysis data recorded for two years were pooled to reach it more precise conclusions. data under values in per cent were analysed on angular transformed values. the results have been interpreted on the basis of ‘f’ test and c.d. at 5% level of significance. results fruit respiration rate as influenced by ca, zn and b from the data a typical trend of respiratory activity was noticed at the peak between 3 and 6 days of storage (figure. 1). at the time of harvesting respiration rate was maximum (47.04 mg co2/kg/h) in untreated fruits (t1). from pooled data of both years it is also evident that preharvest spray of ca, zn and b considerably reduced the rate of respiration. the lowest respiration rate (32.21 mg co2/kg/h) was recorded in fruits treated with ca 0.8%+zn 0.4%+b 0.4% (t23), but it was statistically at par with t17 (33.25 mg co2/kg/h), t18 (32.61 co2/kg/h) and t26 (33.00 mg co2/kg/h). the highest respiration rate was noted in untreated fruits. 048 int. j. agric. sci. figure 1. effect of pre-harvest spray of ca, zn and b on respiration rate (mg co2/kg/h) of mango fruits cv. dashehari during storage. t1 ca 0.0 + zn 0.0 + b 0.0, t2 ca 0.0 + zn 0.0 + b 0.4, t3 ca 0.0 + zn 0.0 + b 0.8, t4 ca 0.0 + zn 0.4 + b 0.0, t5 ca 0.0 + zn 0.4 + b 0.4, t6 ca 0.0 + zn 0.4 + b 0.8, t7 ca 0.0 + zn 0.8 + b 0.0, t8 ca 0.0 + zn 0.8 + b 0.4, t9 ca 0.0 + zn 0.8 + b 0.8, t10 ca 0.4 + zn 0.0 + b 0.0, t11 ca 0.4 + zn 0.0 + b 0.4, t12 ca 0.4 + zn 0.0 + b 0.8, t13 ca 0.4 + zn 0.4 + b 0.0, t14 ca 0.4 + zn 0.4 + b 0.4, t15 ca 0.4 + zn 0.4 + b 0.8, t16 ca 0.4 + zn 0.8 + b 0.0, t17, ca 0.4 + zn 0.8 + b 0.4, t18 ca 0.4 + zn 0.8 + b 0.8, t19 ca 0.8 + zn 0.0 + b 0.0, t20 ca 0.8 + zn 0.0 + b 0.4, t21 ca 0.8 + zn 0.0 + b 0.8, t22 ca 0.8 + zn 0.4 + b 0.0, t23 ca 0.8 + zn 0.4 + b 0.4, t24 ca 0.8 + zn 0.4 + b 0.8, t25 ca 0.8 + zn 0.8 + b 0.0, t26 ca 0.8 + zn 0.8 + b 0.4, t27 ca 0.8 + zn 0.8 + b 0.8 in the first spell of storage, i.e., up to 3 days it was significantly decreased as it is evident that at the time of harvesting untreated releasing 47.04 mg co2/kg/h, which decreased to a level of 38.94 mg co2/kg/h after 3 days. it was at the peak between 3 and 6 days of storage as it rose to 75.55 mg co2/kg/h and again it decreased to a level 44.61 mg co2/kg/h after 9 days and it was minimum 30.06 mg co2/kg/h after 12 days. after 3 days of storage minimum respiration rate was noted in fruits treated with ca 0.8%+zn 0.4%+b 0.4% (t23) in which it was 29.65 mg co2/kg/h, which was significantly lower as compared to t1 (38.94 mg co2/kg/h), t3 (33.30 mg co2/kg/h), t7 (33.35 mg co2/kg/h), t10 (34.80 mg co2/kg/h), t11 (33.91 mg co2/kg/h), t12 (33.09 mg co2/kg/h), t19 (33.05 mg co2/kg/h) and t21 (33.96 mg co2/kg/h). the respiration rate after 6 days of storage was highest in untreated fruits yadava et al. 049 table 1. tss and total carotenoids contents in the fruits as influenced by ca, zn and b. treatments tss ( o brix) total carotenoids days after storage days after storage 0 3 6 9 12 0 3 6 9 12 t1 8.06 9.88 16.05 18.29 17.59 0.284 1.236 3.339 3.557 3.536 t2 8.44 10.90 17.41 21.07 19.88 0.312 1.285 4.991 5.045 4.927 t3 8.37 10.52 17.16 20.40 19.16 0.311 1.277 4.985 5.035 4.903 t4 8.40 10.56 17.51 20.85 19.29 0.310 1.295 4.970 5.027 4.887 t5 8.50 10.92 17.54 20.78 19.96 0.313 1.312 5.010 5.062 4.948 t6 8.41 10.42 17.48 21.31 20.15 0.312 1.301 5.006 5.062 4.928 t7 8.82 11.00 17.16 20.40 19.11 0.310 1.291 4.975 5.031 4.899 t8 8.50 10.95 17.61 20.71 19.94 0.312 1.312 5.006 5.059 4.934 t9 8.47 10.40 17.50 21.27 19.68 0.312 1.292 5.008 5.059 4.926 t10 8.37 10.42 17.31 21.14 19.29 0.312 1.280 4.997 5.047 4.925 t11 9.36 11.04 18.35 21.29 20.41 0.314 1.299 5.021 5.057 4.956 t12 8.45 11.21 17.48 20.88 19.47 0.314 1.299 5.021 5.062 4.950 t13 9.02 10.66 18.36 21.53 20.37 0.313 1.298 5.020 5.066 4.946 t14 8.57 10.45 18.11 21.58 20.50 0.316 1.336 5.039 5.087 5.007 t15 8.74 11.10 17.80 21.01 20.05 0.315 1.332 5.039 5.085 5.002 t16 8.72 10.71 17.84 21.23 19.76 0.314 1.296 5.019 5.068 4.950 t17 8.74 10.68 18.97 21.61 20.63 0.315 1.328 5.033 5.068 4.994 t18 8.55 10.43 17.93 21.56 20.67 0.315 1.329 4.991 5.075 4.991 t19 8.38 10.71 17.34 20.80 19.41 0.312 1.280 4.998 5.053 4.926 t20 8.70 10.60 17.78 21.20 19.72 0.314 1.325 5.027 5.073 4.989 t21 9.33 10.98 18.31 21.47 20.30 0.314 1.300 5.021 5.065 4.963 t22 8.63 10.72 18.53 21.32 20.74 0.314 1.304 5.021 5.070 4.979 t23 9.51 11.32 19.42 22.39 21.92 0.320 1.392 5.076 5.105 5.079 t24 9.43 10.84 19.16 21.96 21.34 0.317 1.359 5.047 5.099 5.015 t25 9.06 10.77 18.41 21.58 20.46 0.315 1.303 5.031 5.067 4.983 t26 9.47 11.09 18.43 22.10 21.62 0.318 1.370 5.061 5.102 5.026 t27 9.13 10.89 18.30 21.87 21.28 0.316 1.348 5.044 5.093 5.008 mean 8.74 10.74 17.90 21.17 20.10 0.313 1.310 4.955 5.010 4.910 (75.55 mg co2/kg/h) which was statistically at par with fruits treated with ca 0.0%+ zn 0.0%+b 0.4% (t2) and ca 0.0%+ zn 0.0%+b 0.8% (t3) and ca 0.0%+ zn 0.8%+b 0.0% (t7). in general it is noted that combined sprays reduced the rate of respiration considerably. after 6 days it gradually decreased in untreated lots as it came to 44.61 mg co2/kg/h from 75.55 mg co2/kg/h. however, after 9 days minimum rate of respiration (44.61 mg co2/kg/h) was recorded in untreated fruits t1 (ca 0.0%+ zn 0.0%+b 0.0%). among treated fruits, the minimum (62.10 mg co2/kg/h) rate of respiration was recorded in fruits treated with ca 0.8%+zn 0.4%+b 0.4% (t23). the respiration rate after 12 days of storage was minimum in untreated fruits (30.06 mg co2/kg/h), which was significantly lower as compared to remaining other treatments, in which it ranged between 56.54 and 64.22 mg co2/kg/h. among treated fruits lowest rate was recorded in t25 (56.54 mg co2/kg/h) though it was statistically at par with other treated fruits. effect of ca, zn and b on biochemical properties of mango fruit during storage total soluble solids data reveal (table 1) that tss increased consistently as process of ripening proceeded with advancement of storage period regardless of the treatments up to 9 days and it declined a little thereafter on prolongation of storage in both the years of study under all the treatments including control. in the beginning of the experiment maximum tss content of fruit pulp was recorded with t23 (9.51 0 brix). after 3 days storage slight 050 int. j. agric. sci. table 2. starch content as influenced by ca, zn and b at different storage period. treatments starch (%) days after harvest 0 3 6 9 12 t1 11.73 9.60 2.36 0.15 0.02 t2 12.00 11.56 3.08 0.28 0.05 t3 12.02 11.48 2.99 0.26 0.05 t4 12.97 12.50 3.68 0.30 0.05 t5 12.42 12.13 3.80 0.37 0.07 t6 12.82 12.25 3.86 0.35 0.07 t7 12.02 11.59 3.11 0.30 0.05 t8 12.40 12.03 4.34 0.39 0.07 t9 12.45 12.14 3.83 0.39 0.07 t10 13.01 12.54 3.70 0.32 0.07 t11 12.47 12.13 4.43 0.42 0.07 t12 12.42 12.05 4.36 0.39 0.07 t13 12.97 12.12 4.78 0.55 0.07 t14 13.12 12.37 4.66 0.58 0.08 t15 13.06 12.08 4.97 0.57 0.08 t16 12.72 12.12 4.23 0.53 0.07 t17 13.46 12.67 5.16 0.62 0.09 t18 14.06 12.90 4.95 0.59 0.09 t19 13.25 12.48 3.85 0.35 0.07 t20 12.67 12.00 4.20 0.50 0.07 t21 12.49 12.13 4.44 0.44 0.07 t22 12.90 12.29 4.63 0.57 0.08 t23 14.47 13.82 5.85 0.69 0.09 t24 14.02 13.13 5.41 0.66 0.09 t25 12.99 12.14 4.81 0.57 0.08 t26 14.25 13.39 5.61 0.66 0.09 t27 13.91 12.91 5.33 0.63 0.09 mean 12.93 12.24 4.31 0.46 0.07 increase in level of tss content was noticed under all treatments thereafter, considerable increase in tss content was recorded between 3 and 6 days of storage under all treatments including control. after 3 days highest tss were seen in fruits treated with t23 (11.32 0 brix), which was significantly higher as compared to untreated fruits (9.88 0 brix). t23 treatment showed a significant difference in tss contents and proved its superiority over other treatments at all the stages of storage. after 6 days of storage the rise in tss content was significant as average of all treatments was 17.90 0 brix as compared to 10.74 0 brix reported after 3 days storage. however, the content of tss with t23 was at par after 6 days of storage with t24 (19.16 0 brix) and t22 (18.53 0 brix), after 9 days of storage with t14, t17, t18, t21, t24, t25, t26 and t27 and after 12 day of harvesting/ storage with t26. total carotenoids the data given in table 1 indicate that carotenoids contents increased with the days of storage as pooled average of both years (2006 and 2007) at 0 day was only 0.313 mg/100 g pulp, which rose to 5.010 mg/100 g pulp after 9 days storage but after 12 days this declined to 4.910 mg/100g pulp. after 3 days of storage the carotenoids ranged between 1.236 mg and 1.392 mg/100 g yadava et al. 051 pulp showing more or less same as there was no critical difference among various treatments. the significant differences were observed among treatments after 6 days of storage. the untreated fruits have shown 3.339 mg carotenoids per 100g of pulp at an average which was significantly lower as compared to other treated lots. the highest carotenoids was recorded with t23 i.e. 5.076, 5.105 and 5.079 mg/100g after 6, 9 and 12 days of storage, respectively. starch from data it is evident that starch content was quite high at the time of harvesting, which declined sharply during storage (table 2). however this decline was slow up to 3 days and thereafter it was very rapid. the average of all treatments was 12.93 % at the time of harvesting, which came down to 12.24% after 3 days, 4.28 % after 6 days, 0.46 % after 9 days and finally 0.07 % after 12 days of storage. it is quite clear that pre-harvest sprays of ca, zn, and b significantly affected the starch contents at the time of harvesting. the maximum starch content was recorded in t23 (14.97%) which was significantly higher as compared to other treatments except t26 (14.25%), t18 (14.06 %) and t24 (14.02 %). after storage of 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 days untreated fruits showed 11.73, 9.60, 2.36, 0.15 and 0.02% starch content, respectively. simultaneously, starch content among treated fruits was ranged from 1214.47, 11.48-13.82, 2.99-5.85, 0.26-0.69 and 0.050.09%, respectively. however, treatment t23 consistently showed its efficacy in maintaining higher starch content over other treatments during the experimentation. tannins the data (table 3) clearly indicate that just after harvesting tannin contents gradually declined in all the samples with the advent of storage period and every time this decrease was statistically significant. it is seen that at the time of harvesting the average of all treatments was 0.154 %, which declined to 0.138% after 3 days and to 0.107 % after 6 days of storage. after 9 days a rapid decline was noted and this average came to 0.047 % and after 12 days of storage this average became as low as 0.028%. none of the treatments showed significant effect on the tannin contents of fruits of freshly harvested and at 3 days storage. the effect of treatments was only visible after 6 days of storages. however, the tannins in fruits was maximum wtiht23 treatment (ca 0.8% + zn 0.4% .+ b 0.4 %) at all the stages of storage. pectin from the data it is evident content that pre-harvest sprays of ca, zn, and b significantly affected the pectin content of fruits (table 3). the date revealed that pectin content of all sample decreased with the advent of storage period as at the time of harvesting the average of pectin of all samples was 0.486 %, which finally come down 0.078 % after 12 days storage. among the freshly harvested fruits minimum pectin content was observed in untreated samples (0.440 %) and maximum pectin content was recorded with t23 (0.540%) followed by t26 (0.536%), t22 (0.523%) and t24 (0.513 %). after 3 days of storage minimum pectin was recorded in untreated fruits (0.268%), which was significantly lower as compared to other treated lots except t2 (0.283 %). at this stage t27 demonstrated maximum pectin content (0.478%), which was significantly higher as compared to other treatments except t26 (0.437%) and t24 (0.430%), which were statistically at par with it. at 6 and 9 days storage maximum pectin was observed with t23 being 0.363 and 0.264%, respectively. although, the pectin content was dropped considerably after 12 days of storage among all treated and untreated fruits yet fruits treated with t23 treatment showed steadily decline in the pectin content. discussion the most important postharvest need is the retention of physico-chemical quality as well as enhanced shelf life of fruits, so that excellent quality fruits can be marketed for good price for extended period. several manipulations are possible so as to provide best nutrition to trees to produce quality fruits of mango. there is a great role of pre-harvest cultural techniques, to increase the shelf life of fruits. out of such cultural techniques one is to apply of plant nutrients like ca, zn and b as pre harvest foliar spray during the period of fruit growth. as results apparently demonstrate that respiratory activity was higher in freshly harvested fruits, after that a slight fall was recorded at the commencement of storage at about 3 days under all treatments including control. it is a fact that respiration decreases as the fruit mature and then the respiratory rise commences with ripening. ethylene production also decreases as fruit matures (akamine and goo, 1973). the rise in climacteric onset occurred in between 3 and 6 days of storage, in all treatments, whereas in this period, control fruits showed achievement in climacteric peak with steep fall, at this stage due to previous high respiration rate the quantity of material available for further respiration decreased considerably. while in the treated fruits climacteric peak occurred at 9th day of storage. it is established fact that climacteric peak in fruits, occur due to higher ethylene evolution. mattoo and modi (1969) suggested that together with the ethylene evolution and respiration climacteric in mangoes, the catalase and peroxidase activity was found to increase considerably during ripening. thus, calcium treated fruits 052 int. j. agric. sci. table 3. effect of preharvest application of ca, zn and b on tannin and pectin content in mango fruit. treatments tannin (%) pectin (%) days after harvest days after harvest 0 3 6 9 12 0 3 6 9 12 t1 0.144 0.124 0.066 0.027 0.020 0.440 0.268 0.107 0.049 0.019 t2 0.148 0.133 0.088 0.029 0.023 0.453 0.283 0.169 0.085 0.044 t3 0.150 0.131 0.092 0.029 0.022 0.444 0.286 0.172 0.078 0.042 t4 0.142 0.121 0.101 0.030 0.023 0.475 0.293 0.178 0.095 0.047 t5 0.163 0.132 0.106 0.045 0.025 0.463 0.338 0.213 0.118 0.067 t6 0.151 0.137 0.110 0.041 0.023 0.450 0.293 0.157 0.092 0.052 t7 0.150 0.134 0.094 0.030 0.023 0.449 0.286 0.169 0.092 0.048 t8 0.162 0.133 0.110 0.047 0.026 0.456 0.345 0.198 0.115 0.066 t9 0.152 0.141 0.113 0.043 0.023 0.463 0.343 0.205 0.120 0.065 t10 0.147 0.126 0.104 0.032 0.024 0.473 0.355 0.240 0.125 0.068 t11 0.152 0.145 0.108 0.046 0.027 0.482 0.363 0.250 0.128 0.070 t12 0.150 0.134 0.100 0.039 0.026 0.513 0.361 0.235 0.125 0.068 t13 0.155 0.144 0.117 0.051 0.028 0.511 0.363 0.243 0.134 0.078 t14 0.154 0.139 0.120 0.061 0.032 0.497 0.409 0.289 0.162 0.098 t15 0.160 0.133 0.110 0.055 0.031 0.513 0.416 0.314 0.204 0.096 t16 0.154 0.141 0.117 0.051 0.027 0.486 0.415 0.235 0.135 0.078 t17 0.151 0.139 0.120 0.061 0.036 0.506 0.412 0.315 0.193 0.102 t18 0.166 0.141 0.110 0.058 0.034 0.492 0.437 0.256 0.165 0.099 t19 0.151 0.132 0.100 0.038 0.026 0.478 0.358 0.241 0.124 0.070 t20 0.153 0.139 0.115 0.048 0.026 0.487 0.415 0.230 0.133 0.078 t21 0.152 0.143 0.108 0.043 0.025 0.482 0.364 0.248 0.125 0.072 t22 0.164 0.134 0.118 0.053 0.033 0.523 0.367 0.244 0.124 0.088 t23 0.170 0.153 0.124 0.064 0.040 0.540 0.478 0.363 0.264 0.138 t24 0.155 0.152 0.116 0.062 0.037 0.513 0.430 0.331 0.219 0.127 t25 0.156 0.149 0.112 0.052 0.032 0.511 0.363 0.228 0.137 0.082 t26 0.155 0.151 0.117 0.067 0.034 0.538 0.437 0.356 0.219 0.127 t27 0.163 0.141 0.114 0.060 0.033 0.495 0.450 0.297 0.207 0.117 mean 0.154 0.138 0.107 0.047 0.028 0.486 0.367 0.240 0.139 0.078 might have delayed rise in catalase and peroxidase activities as compared to control. the decrease in rate of respiration after 9th and 12th day in control and treated fruits, respectively, may be due to depletion of acids during respiratory processes (cheema and dani, 1934). however in all the treated fruits significant reduction in respiration rate was recorded as compared to control. the reduced respiration rate was noted with t23 (ca 0.8%+zn 0.4%+b 0.4%). it might be due to presence of higher concentration of calcium, which is the constituent of cell wall, slows the process of respiration and over ripening and zinc regulates the semi permeability of cell walls, which slows the processes of respiration thereby delay the senescence. treated fruits did not develop an ethylene rise because of inhibition of autocatalytic production of ethylene in fruits. jones and lunt (1967) and bain and mercer (1963) reported that in calcium controlled the disintegration of mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and cytoplasmic membrane and thus, it helped in retarding the rate of respiration. the results of present experiment therefore are in agreement with the earlier findings recorded in mango (wavhal and athale, 1988) and apricot (sud and bhutani, 1989). during storage tss of fruits varied significantly with different treatments. the increase in tss was noted up to 9 days of storage under all treatments applications. however, higher tss was recorded in treated fruits as compared to control. the increase in tss with the advance yadava et al. 053 ment of storage period may be assigned to hydrolysis of starch content of the fruits in the presence of enzymes, viz., α -amylase, β -amylase and starch phosphorelase, resulting in general increase in tss (salisbury and ross,1974). the conversion of cell wall materials such as pectin and hemi cellulose into simple soluble sugars during storage may also be responsible for the increase tss content. after 9 days storage total soluble solids sharply declined. the decline in tss at later stages might be due to the utilization of carbohydrate and possibly oxidation of fat and proteins as the respiratory substrates as suggested by bhullar et al., 1983. the maximum tss was noted in the fruits treated with combined spray of ca (0.8%), zn (0.4%) and b (0.4%). this may probably be due to the increased metabolism of sugars mediated by boron from the source (sisler et al., 1956). analogous observations to these findings were also reported by earlier workers in mango (rath et al., 1980; daulta et al., 1981; banik et al., 1997, bhatt et al., 2012), guava (jayachandran et al., 2005) and banana (kumar and brahmachari, 2006; jeyabaskaran and pandey, 2008). the pulp carotenoids level increased in all the treatments with advancement of storage. higher level of carotenoids was noticed up to 9 th day of storage under all treatments and fruits turned green to yellow and yelloworange by this day. however, the total carotenoids increased up to 9th day and later on they decreased. fruits treated with calcium, zinc and boron showed higher carotenoids as compared to control. these treatments increased the permeability of external tissue and activated the enzymatic activities, which are responsible for carotene synthesis, hence it hastened the ripening and development of colour. the results was in agreement with the finding of subramanyam and sebastian (1970), wavhal and athale (1988) and krishnamurthy (1989) in mango. on contrary, haribabu and krishamurthy (1993) in alphonso mango and ramkrishna et al. (2001) in papaya reported that the rate of increase in total carotenoids was more in the control fruits as compared to fruits sprayed with higher concentration of calcium chloride and calcium nitrate. findings of present investigation indicate that tannin contents decreased gradually as the storage advanced. in the present experiment, it seems that oxidase activity after being more or less constant for an earlier part of storage, it slightly increased or remained constant towards the subsequent period of storage. similarly, tannin content decreased towards the end of storage. thus, fall in tannin during storage may be partly attributed to the general increase in oxidase activity noticed in present case. tannins are water soluble phenolics found in peel and pulp of fruits. ripening polymerizes the tannins resulting in a loss of astringency. in the present case treated fruits showed higher tannin content as compared to control may be slow processes of ripening as influenced by calcium, zinc and boron. the higher percentage of starch was recorded in mango fruits at the time of harvesting and thereafter there was a gradual fall in starch content up to 9 days storage. after 12 days of storage nearly total starch was hydrolyzed and negligible quantity remained. this finding corroborate with biale (1960), who also reported almost complete hydrolysis of starch in the mango fruits during ripening. in earlier stage, approximately equal concentration of glucose and fructose, together with a little sucrose appear. after prolonged storage, level of all three sugars decreased. the mango, on the other hand, showed a large increase in sucrose concentration and a smaller proportion of reducing sugars as starch is hydrolyzed. later in storage, sucrose tends to disappear and is replaced by an equal amount of reducing sugars. such losses of starch, in the present study could possibly be attributed to activation of hydrolytic enzymes resulted in increased conversion of starch into sugars. a higher accumulation of starch in treated fruits as compared to control up to 9 days storage was seen, probably ca, zn and b application might have brought about certain changes in metabolism of fruits reflecting in more accumulation of food constituents in the developing fruits and thus, ultimately resulted comparatively higher content of starch than control. results of present experiment depict that pectin content of fruit pulp decreased with corresponding increase in storage period. the fall in total pectin during storage was observed to be associated with the occurrence of slight mealiness in the fruit, presumably through the degradation of polygalacturonic acid chains since, the viscosity of extracted pectin was found to decrease in fruits (eggenberger, 1949; mc cready and mc comb, 1954). the pme activity remained low on fruits treated with ca, zn and b. pme is responsible for the deesterification of pectin required before pg starts the depolymerization of pectins associated with fruit softening (mc cready et al., 1955). higher values of pectin content were recorded with the foliar nutrition of calcium, zinc and boron. this may be due to fact that these nutrients retarded process of softening which resulted in corresponding retardation of both polygalacturonase (pg) and galactosidase activities (lazon and ali, 1993). such losses of sugars could possibly be attributed to hydrolysis of galactanes and arabino galactans by galactosidase having galactonase activity, tissue softness and increased pectin solubility and degradation suggest that β-galactocidase might play an important role in the cell wall pectin modification and softening of mango fruits during ripening (ali et al., 1995). several other workers singh and chauhan (1981) and jayachandran, (2005) also recorded higher pectin content and lower pme activity application with calcium in guava fruits. an improvement in quality of the fruit was also recorded with pre harvest spray of ca 0.8% + zn 0.4% + b 0.4% application as evident by higher tss, sugar, sugar: acid blend, total carotenoids, pectin and better organoleptic 054 int. j. agric. sci. rating ,i.e., texture, colour, flavour and taste), which is desirable for quality fruit, during both the years of study. thus, minimizing post-harvest losses and increasing consumer’s acceptability by maintaining the different quality parameters for long time during storage provided the great market potential for the "dashehari" fruits. it may further be concluded that ca 0.8% + zn 0.4% + b 0.4% is most suitable combination for pre-harvest foliar spray on ‘dashehari’ mango to achieve of more uniform ripening, better quality and improved post harvest shelf life under subtropical condition. references ajila cm, prasad rao uj (2008). "protection against hydrogen peroxide induced oxidative damage in rat erythrocytes by mangifera indica l. peel extract". food chem. toxicol. 46 (1): 303–309. akamine ek, goo t (1973). respiration and ethylene production during ontogeny of fruit. j. amer. soc. hort. sci. 98: 381-383. ali zm, armugam s, lazen h (1995). α-galactosidase and its significance in ripening mango fruit. phytochemistry 38: 1109-1114. anonymous (2009). apeda website, www.apeda.com. 4 may, 2009. bain jm, mercer fv (1963). a submicroscopic cytology of superficial scald, a physiological disease of apples. aust. j. biol. sci. 16: 442-449. banik bc, mitra sk, sen sk, bose tk (1997). effect of zinc and boron sprays on the physico-chemical composition of mango fruits cv. fazli. orissa j. hort. 25: 5-9. bhatt a, mishra nk, mishra ds, singh cp (2012). foliar application of potassium, calcium, zinc and boron enhanced yield, quality and shelf life of mango. hortflora research spectrum, 1(4): 300-305. bhullar js, dhillon bs, 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reddy yn, purushotham k (2001). effect of pre-harvest application on physicochemical changes during ripening and storage of papaya. indian j. hort. 58: 228-231. ranganna s (1986). hand book of analysis and quality control for fruit and vegetable products iind ed. published by tata mc. graw hill book co. ltd.,new delhi. rath sr, singh l, singh b, singh db (1980). effect of boron and zinc sprays on the physico-chemical composition of mango fruit cv. langra. punjab. hort. j. 20: 33-35. http://www.ginasdiet.com/health-benefits-of-fruits-and-vegetables/ http://www.ginasdiet.com/health-benefits-of-fruits-and-vegetables/ yadava et al. 055 singh kk, chadha kl (1961). factors affecting the vitamin c content in mango. punjab hort. j. 1: 171179. soule jr mj, hatton jh tt (1955). effect of size of fruit and dates of sampling on physical and chemical characters of mango. proc. florida mango forum. pp. 16-21. subramanyam h, sebastian k (1970). effect of succinic acid (2,2-dimethyl hydrazide) on carotene development in alphonso mango. hort science 5: 160-161. sud g, bhutani vp (1989). effect of nutrients and growth regulators on the storage behaviour of apricot cv. new castle. indian food pack. 43: 29-33. wavhal kn, athale pw (1988). studies to prolong shelflife of mango fruits. acta horticulturae 231: 771-775. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 2 (10), pp. 171-176, october, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper marketing strategies implemented by garment-making micro-enterprises in kenya esmond g. douglas department of management studies, jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology, kenya. e-mail: esmondgd@hotmail.com accepted 5 august, 2014 fashion is very dynamic and way of life for humans in many consumer products, clothing included. in kenya, the clothing industry is characterized by a dynamic environment and intense competition caused mainly by enlarged globalization, trade liberalization and importation of second-hand (mitumba) clothes. in this kind of environment, it is becoming increasingly difficult for an enterprise to maintain long-term success. thus, the clothing enterprises are faced with challenges that demand them to offer higher value added products that meet the demands of the customers. as a solution, sound marketing strategies are critical to the survival and growth of micro-enterprises in the garment making sector. however, there is limited research that has looked at the enterprises from a marketing strategy perspective in terms of the type of marketing strategies that are embraced. this paper aims at highlighting the various marketing strategies. the study used ex-post facto research design targeting garment-making micro-enterprises with less than ten employees in nakuru town. the main data collection instrument was a questionnaire that comprised closed and open-ended questions. principal component analysis and chi-square goodness-of-fit test (x 2 ) were used to determine the various marketing strategies and test the hypothesis that there was no variation in the marketing strategies implemented by garment-making micro-enterprises. eight strategies were identified as being implemented by garment-making micro-enterprises. based on the results of this study, it is concluded that interactive marketing is the most implemented strategy while e-marketing is the least. however, further research is required to explore the impact of implementing the various marketing strategies on the growth of the enterprises. key words: garment-making, micro and small enterprises, marketing strategies. introduction to survive and out of necessity, many people engage in entrepreneurial activities such as garment-making as micro enterprises. these enterprises are aimed at providing specific goods and services to targeted apparel consumers. according to mulu-mutuku et al. (2004), many manufacturing micro-enterprises in nakuru have generally stagnated in terms of growth mainly due to competition. this is witnessed especially in the garment making sector that is characterized by a variety of substitutes and free entry and exit into business.in such a situation, marketing esmond 171 is a major issue that needs to be addressed if the micro enterprises are to survive (ngoze, 2006). the garmentmaking entrepreneurs must thus adopt marketing strategies that will make them achieve a competitive advantage and enable them remain relevant in the market place. stokes and wendy (2008) argue that marketing plays an essential role in micro-enterprises’ growth. this is mainly because a marketing strategy aids in identifying customers who the business can competitively serve, and tailoring product offerings, prices, distribution, promotional efforts, and services towards those customers. in addition, a sound strategy enables an enterprise to develop longrange plans which ensure survival, profitability, growth, and perpetuity (schiffman and kanuk, 1992; cohen, 2000; fifield, 1992). though the textile and clothing sector is a main focus for investment and principal in the development and growth of a country (ikiara and ndirangu, 2002), marketing at the micro level in kenya has not received much attention from researchers. the sector is characterized by a dynamic environment and intense competition caused mainly by globalization, trade liberalization, importation of the second-hand (mitumba) clothes and imported new clothing (kinyanjui and mccomick, 2002; malinowskaolszowy, 2005; mangieri, 2006). in addition to the above aspects, there is low demand for locally designed clothing (elung’ata, 2003). thus, garment making microenterprises in kenya have the challenge to adopt marketing strategies that will enable them to be more competitive as well as face the threats from the liberalized market (gakure, 2006). ngoze (2006) indicates that one of the major problems for micro-entrepreneurs is how to market their products. there is limited research on marketing strategies used by owners of micro-enterprises in garment making, yet marketing is very critical for business survival and growth (björk et al., 2004). according to li et al. (2008), microenterprises and large enterprises have different characteristics or approaches to marketing. this study identifies those approaches inherent in the garment-making microenterprises in order to gain an understanding of those strategies that are commonly used. this will help entrepreneurs in choosing the strategy to use as well as provide potential entrepreneurs with information on what is being practiced. with this information, an entrepreneur will devise creative and innovative ways of being unique as well as being competitive. it was hypothesized that there was no variation in the marketing strategies undertaken by various garment-making micro-enterprises in nakuru town. methodology based on a total target population of 385 micro-enterprises dealing with garment-making in nakuru municipality, confidence level of 0.05 and confidence interval of 3, a sample of 295 respondents was used for the survey. the sample was selected using a table of random numbers. in addition, 40 respondents participated in the interviews (10% of total target population). the primary method used for data collection was a questionnaire that comprised 27 items on a 5-point likert scale ranging from “all the time” to “never” in relation to the types of marketing strategies that were adopted. according to mugenda and mugenda (1999), a sample size of 1 to 10% of the population may be selected for the purpose of pretesting the research instrument. a sample of 30 respondents was thus used for the survey while 10 respondents were used for the interview to ascertain the reliability of the research instrument. cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of the data collection instrument since it required only a single administration to provide unique estimate of the reliability for the given test. it also gave the average value of the reliability coefficients one would obtain for all possible combinations of items when split into two half-tests. the pre-tested questionnaire had a reliability coefficient of .795. results principal component analysis using varimax rotation method was used to identify the factorial structure of 27 items and reduce them to smaller number of variables (strategies). the principal component analysis was used for purposes of data reduction and generation of components that represented the strategies as variables (uncorrelated). five items having factor loadings less than 0.5 were excluded from further analysis. the remaining 22 variables yielded eight strategies, namely; e-marketing; interactive marketing; market penetration; pricing; branding and cost reduction; product differentiation; customer focus; and product quality. these strategies had eigenvalues greater than 1 and the total variance accounted for was about 64%. this indicates there are the eight strategies are associated with marketing efforts by the garment-making micro-enterprises (tables 1 and 2). interactive marketing interactive marketing strategy accounted for about 8% of the variance with a mean factor loading of .685. majority of the respondents (66%) indicated having implemented interactive marketing as a strategy. this was the most implemented strategy and was ranked the first (table 2). these results are consistent with stokes and wendy’s (2008) arguments that most of the entrepreneurs spend most of their time and resources building relationships with customers who, when satisfied, recommend the business to others. according to gwin (2009), interactive marketing is considered to be the best approach to creating value for the customer as well as being fundamental in satisfying customer’s current and future needs. it is based on ensuring that the customers are well-taken care of. based on the interview results, this strategy was enhanced by talking to the customers; listening to what they want; giving them full attention 172 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. rotated component matrix for marketing strategies. marketing strategy variables component communality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 e-marketing communicate to customers through internet .860 .071 .049 .012 -.073 .012 .046 -.081 .762 sell through internet .843 -.025 .034 -.082 .132 -.017 -.036 .027 .738 source designs from internet .731 .083 .074 .073 -.091 -.062 -.001 .023 .565 market penetration look for new ways to market designs .073 .760 .118 -.079 -.018 .226 .113 .295 .755 only make clothes by order .066 .697 .074 .128 .084 .147 .026 -.055 .544 constantly looking for new customers -.022 .662 .206 .155 .149 -.153 -.119 -.029 .565 branding and cost reduction have a business name .057 .132 .790 -.048 .125 .206 -.018 -.290 .789 use modern machines .096 .056 .760 .009 .025 -.261 -.010 .068 .664 employees paid for the work done .028 .176 .652 .156 -.093 .041 .120 .152 .529 interactive marketing ask for feedback/evaluation .030 .030 .011 .782 -.068 -.010 .127 -.012 .634 serving customers very important .117 .134 .108 .720 .113 .171 -.014 .161 .630 strong commitment to our customers -.414 .092 .012 .554 -.034 .045 -.004 -.041 .492 customer focus customers opinion important in style decisions -.088 .135 -.023 -.089 .754 -.138 -.011 .029 .623 focus on having as many customers as possible .074 .079 .021 .219 .681 -.124 .274 .018 .614 set prices to increase flow of customers .002 -.022 .060 -.101 .656 .439 .016 -.094 .646 pricing our prices always lower than competitors -.104 .017 -.018 .085 .011 .766 .027 .179 .639 prices based on market price .046 .327 -.056 .161 -.171 .630 -.071 -.236 .625 product differentiation keen on new designs that are on fashion -.094 -.082 .159 -.066 .026 -.005 .715 -.034 .559 offer after sale services .110 -.121 -.089 .168 .099 .136 .669 .076 .545 strive to have unique designs all the time .003 .323 .000 .050 .074 -.164 .662 -.011 .578 product quality consider quality rather than price in choosing fabrics -.114 -.079 .042 .007 .116 .212 -.066 .841 .791 emphasize on workmanship .124 .257 -.051 .130 -.178 -.241 .110 .703 .697 initial eigenvalues (total) % of variance cumulative % of variance number of items (total = 22) 2.892 2.314 1.79 1.727 1.566 1.408 1.16 1.126 2 0 10.32 8.742 7.977 7.606 7.529 7.290 7.083 7.018 10.32 19.06 27.04 34.64 42.17 49.46 56.55 63.564 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 note. n of cases = 256; extraction method, principal component analysis; rotation method, varimax with kaiser normalization, kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy= 0.599, bartlett’s test of sphericity, x 2 = 1145.081, p = 0.000; df= 231, rotation converged in 8 iterations. when they walk in; and as well as negotiating at a perbranding and cost reduction strategy sonal level. this was possible since the business people had direct contact with the customers. this strategy explained 8% of the variance with a mean esmond 173 table 2. implementation of the marketing strategies by the micro-enterprises strategy implemented did not implement ranking interactive marketing 170 (66%) 86 (34%) 1 branding and cost reduction 155 (61%) 101 (39%) 2 customer focus 146 (57%) 110 (43%) 3 market penetration 144 (56%) 112 (44%) 4 product differentiation 141 (55%) 115 (45%) 5 pricing 119 (46%) 137 (54%) 6 product quality 96 (37%) 160 (63%) 7 e-marketing 54 (21%) (79%) 8 factor loading of .734. this strategy was implemented by 61% of the respondents while 39% did not. in garmentmaking, most branding is based on the owner’s name(s). from the results of this study, most of the respondents indicated that they had a business name by which the customers identified them with. from the interview results, most of the businesses were named after the name of the owner. most of the respondents (who use their names as a brand name) expressed that it was difficult to change the names since most customers were already used to refer to them that way. according to azevedo and farhangmehr (2005), brands provide emotional and self-expression benefits to the customers thus leading to business success since the customer tends to associate the product with the manufacturer. for example, a customer who is loyal to a particular designer derives satisfaction which makes him/her make repeat purchases. gwin (2009) argues that repeat purchases are likely to take place if the customers identify with a particular product brand or name (owner’s name or the business name) and associate that name with the manufacturer. this means that garment making enterprises that had a business name were likely to retain customers; hence more orders that translated to more profit. however, to build an image in the clothing market, advertising, quality and workmanship of the garment is of great importance. under this strategy, micro-enterprises also sought various ways of reducing or minimizing costs. use of modern machine such as electric sewing machines, overlock and embroidery machines increase efficiency, hence, reduction of the operating costs. one of the interviewees indicated: “ electric sewing machines are faster, neater and easier to use”. this implies that when using an electric sewing machine, one is able to make many pieces within a given time as opposed to the manual machines; hence reducing time spent. results also indicated that workers were paid for the work done. this kind of arrangement ensured minimum costs of production since the workers were contracted only when there was work to be done. this was viewed as cost effective as opposed to a waged or salaried worker who needed to be paid at the end of the month whether or not there was work. based on these results, it is clear that most entrepreneurs in garment making look for ways of cutting costs. this showed that they were applying the principles of remaining competitive as posited by bharradwaj et al. (2005), gakure (2006) and ngoze (2006), that for a business to be competitive, the enterprise needs to be the lowest cost producer relative to its competitors. customer focus this strategy accounted for 8% of the variance with a mean factor loading of .697. this strategy was adopted by 57% while 43% did not adopt it at all. a customerbased strategy involves planning on how to handle the customers at every point and it is practiced by enterprises that are customer-centric. all the respondents interviewed were in agreement that the customer know what he/she wants and one has to listen to him or her (have products as per customer needs). stokes and wendy (2008) indicate that micro-enterprises adopt a customer-oriented strategy in order to survive and thrive in a competitive market. based on this study, it is clear that garmentmaking micro-enterprises take customer opinion as regards to prices very important while devising ways of having as many customers as possible. market penetration market penetration as a strategy accounted for 9% of the variance with a mean factor of .706. it was undertaken by 56% of the respondents. stokes and wendy (2008) posit that enterprises implement this strategy with the aim of increasing their customer base as well as sales without making major changes on their products. the results indicate that most of the garments making micro enterprises focus more on the market. market penetration as a strategy was introduced by ansoff as an alternative strategy which links products to the markets with the least risk in the large firms (kotler and armstrong, 1994). however, this strategy is also applicable to microenterprises because it seeks to increase the market share with the existing products. this means that one has to keep on looking for new ways to market his/her designs and constantly look for new customers. product differentiation product differentiation accounted for 7% of the total variance with a mean factor loading of .682. those that implemented this strategy were 55% while 45% did not implement it. in garment making micro-enterprises, differentiation is achieved by having new and unique designs as well as offering “after sale” services. based on the interviews, the most after sale services offered are ironing and quantity discounts. a customer who is price-sensitive would be loyal to a specific garment maker since he/she knows he/she will make discounts based on how many items he/she orders and the frequency of placing the orders. the garment making entrepreneurs are also keen on what is in the market (fashionable), in order to ensure that their products are unique thus creating a competitive edge. swinker and hines (2007) hypothesized that fashion consumers are also keen on what is on fashion and would always want to be unique since clothing is used as a way of extending oneself. interview results also indicated that fashion consumers want unique designs. some interviewees indicated that fashion conscious customers hate to see someone else with similar designs and if this happens, they will never wear that garment even though it may be new. pricing pricing accounted for 7% of the variance with a mean factor loading of .698. the pricing strategy was implemented by 46% of the respondents while majority (54%) did not. according to stokes and wendy (2008), the pricing strategy can be equated to the price penetration approach. based on the results, those who utilized this approach aimed at keeping prices as low as possible in order to achieve the highest level of sales. this indicates that some of the garment-making micro-entrepreneurs will always set prices lower than the competitors using the market price as the benchmark. these results tally with the remarks from some of the interviewees who indicated: “cannot charge extremely high or low vis-à-vis the average market price”. product quality strategy this strategy explained 7% of the variance with a mean factor loading of .772. it was implemented by 37% of the respondents marketing while 63% did not undertake it. this is an indication that few entrepreneurs in garment making pay attention to quality of the products. the 174 afr. j. agric. mark. interview results indicate that good quality is one of the demands that customers make when they order garments. according to stokes and wendy (2008), product quality refers to the benefits to the customer as a result of using the product and the actual product features or characteristics that create these benefits. the quality of the fabric is important in garment -making because it affects the hand feel, texture and other performance aspects of the product. one of the interviewee indicated; “quality of a fabric is a thing one learns with experience, once you can distinguish between poor and good quality you can offer the best”. swinker and hines (2007) indicate that majority of the fashion consumers (65%), consider quality as important in their clothing purchase. thus, the entrepreneurs in garment-making micro-enterprises have the obligation to ensure that products presented to the consumers are made of good quality material with excellent workmanship. however, from this study, product quality was not a priority area. this explains why business in second hand clothing continues to thrive in kenya since the clothes are viewed to be of higher quality as compared to custom-made clothing. e-marketing e-marketing strategy had factor loadings that ranged from .731 to .860 with a mean factor loading of .811. these explained 10% of the variance. majority of the respondents (79%) indicated that they never undertook e-marketing with only 21% indicating that they undertook it. it was the least adopted strategy among those identified (table 2). this means that garment-making microenterprises in kenya have not yet embraced the usage of internet as a means of communication or for sourcing for designs, though it is viewed as a modern business practice. these results are consistent with the findings of kinyanjui and mccormick (2002) that most kenyan garment making enterprises do not engage in e-marketing. stokes and wendy (2008) observed that the full impact of the internet on competitive strategies is yet to be seen among entrepreneurs. based on the interview results, the main ways of communicating to the customers are through cell-phones and face-to-face. however, there is need for the garmentmaking microentrepreneurs to embrace the internet more as a communication tool as well as a source of inspiration for the latest design ideas. this means there is need for computer training to equip the entrepreneurs with skills necessary to effectively implement this strategy. testing of the hypothesis on variation of marketing strategies to test the hypothesis that there is no variation in the esmond 175 table 3. chi-square goodness-of-fit test statistics for the marketing strategies. strategy chi-square df asymp. sig. e-marketing 85.562 a 1 .000* interactive marketing 27.562 a 1 .000* product quality 16.000 a 1 .000* branding and cost reduction 11.391 a 1 .001* customer focus 5.062 a 1 .024* market penetration 4.000 a 1 .046* product differentiation 2.641 a 1 .104 pricing 1.266 a 1 .261 note. a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected frequencies less than 5. the minimum expected cell frequency is 128.0. *significant. marketing strategies undertaken by garment making micro enterprises, chi-square goodness-of-fittest was used (table 3). the results indicate that there was variation in the distribution of six strategies which was statistically significant. the p-values were less than 0.05 and chisquare values were more than the critical value (3.84 at 0.05 confidence level and 1 df). these include emarketing; market penetration; branding and cost reduction; interactive marketing; customer focus; and product quality. however, two strategies had p-values of more than 0.05 and chi-square value less than the critical value (pricing and product differentiation); mea-ning that they did not vary in the distribution across the garment making micro-enterprises. this means that entre-preneurs in the garment-making enterprises commonly implement pricing and product differentiation strategies while there is a difference in the implementation of the other six strategies. this implies that these two strategies are very crucial in garment-making. however, entre-preneurs in garment-making micro-enterprises need to diversify their strategies in order to be unique and gain a competitive edge. conclusion and recommendations the results of this study indicate that there are various strategies that micro-enterprises can embrace as they try to market their products. pricing and product differentiation were implemented across all the enterprises. thus entrepreneurs in garment making or fashion design need to be keen on how they price their products and vary their design for them to remain competitive. interactive marketing was the most implemented while e-marketing was the least implemented. for entrepreneurs to successfully implement e-marketing, they to be empowered so as to embrace the changes in technology. however, there is need for further research to investigate the most effective strategy / strategies to use in garment making micro enterprises, highlighting those that are important and relating them to business performance/growth. this study can also be extended to other major towns such as kisumu, mombasa, nairobi, eldoret and nyeri and comparisons need to be made. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references azevedo a, farhangmehr m (2005). clothing branding strategies: influence of brand personality on advertising response. j. textile and apparel, technol. manag. 4(3):1-13. bharradwaj s, clark t, kulviwat s (2005). marketing, market growth and endogenous growth theory: an inquiry into the case of market growth. j. acad. market. sci. 33(3):347-359. björk p, 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218-223. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (2), pp. 095-100, february, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper hi-tech potential in plantain and banana improvement system in nigeria james akinsefi 1 * and jude okobia 2 1 saro agro allied nigeria limited, p. m. b. 1490, okesha, ilesha, nigeria. 2 department of agricultural extension, university of nigeria, nsukka, enugu state, nigeria. accepted 8 october, 2013 the stakeholders were classified into five major groups according to their actions in the system; the groups include research agency, government agency, technology transfer agency, marketers and plantain and banana farmers. four states which are zonal headquarters of plantain resource training centre, abia, akwa ibom, edo and ogun states were selected and sampled for data collection. a total of 95 respondents were sampled for data collection. percentages, means and factor analysis were used in data analysis and presentation. the research and technology transfer groups contributed over 90% of the technological capability in plantain and banana innovation system iita, nihort and nspri were revealed as the major technology generating agencies in the plantain and banana innovation system. the study concluded that constant interactions and exchange of ideas among stakeholders encouraged learning and optimization of technological capability in the plantain and banana innovation system key words: banana, plantain, stakeholder, technological capability, innovation system. introduction innovation systems represent a significant change from the conventional, linear perspectives about agricultural research and development (r and d). it involves the analysis of complex relationships between innovative processes that are generated among multiple agents, social and economic institutions. the concept refers to the system where all stakeholders are involved in the generation, diffusion, adoption and use of knowledge. however, contemporary thinking on the production and use of knowledge suggests that institutional factors are a central component of capacity development (edquist, 1997; oyelaran-oyeyinka, 2005). it is apparent that there is a generic problem with capacity development approach that focus on research components only to produce knowledge, with failure to develop complementary structures to put that knowledge into use within the economy (hall, 2002; chataway et al., 2005). learning and capacity development in a contemporary sense is a multidimensional concept that requires skills or contributions *corresponding author. e -mail: james_akinsefi@yahoo.com. tel: +234-8022105146. contributions from both scientific and non-scientific sources. the problem remains that technologies in plantain and banana hitherto are fragmented with no support base from complimentary organisations. relationship has been more of competition rather than cooperation which has affected the development of the crop and underplays its important in food security in nigeria. the capability to interact, acquire, adapt and utilize this knowledge in plantain and banana innovation system in nigeria is what this study set out to examine. objective of the study the general objective of the study was to examine the technological capabilities of stakeholders in the banana and plantain innovation system in nigeria. specifically, the study: 1. examined the learning and technological capabilities of selected key actors in banana and plantain innovation system. 2. established the contribution of each stakeholder in technology availability and use. akinsefi & okobia 095 methodology study area the study was carried out in the banana and plantain belt in southern nigeria (figure 1) made up of 11 states (abia, akwa-ibom, bayelsa, cross river, delta, edo, imo, ogun, ondo, oyo and rivers). the sampling states were classified into 4 zones on the basis of agro-ecological, socio-political and socio-cultural homogeneity. each zone has a zonal headquarters known as plantain resource training centre (prtc). the zonal headquarters (abia, akwa-ibom, edo and ogun) which serve as the main hub of technology validation and dissemination for iita (main source of banana and plantain technology) and training centre for banana and plantain production, utilization and marketing were selected. for the purpose of this study the population consisted of stake-holders from a general list of participants that were part of banana and plantain innovation system compiled from a review of literature on banana and plantain innovation system in nigeria. the list was revised and the agents in the innovation system were classified according to their activities within the system. the classifications included research group (6) (iita onne, nihort ibadan, rmrdc abuja, nspri port harcourt, fiiro oshodi and universities faculties of agriculture nsukka, ibadan, umuahia); governmental agencies group (5) (federal department of agriculture (fda) abuja, federal ministry of commerce (fmc) abuja, plantain and banana development program (pbdp) ibadan and national food drug administration and control (nafdac) abuja and national biotechnology development agencies (nabda) abuja and technology transfer group (7) (state’ adps zonal headquarters of prtc) in the plantain-growing belt (abeokuta, benin, uyo, umuahia), food for all international (ffai) port harcourt, agriculture and impact assessment centre (agricpact) port harcourt, plantain and banana growers association west and their eastern counterparts shagamu and ughelli, nigeria agip oil company (naoc) port harcourt and shell development company port harcourt (spdc), and agricultural departments. other stakeholders group includes farmers (60) and marketers (20) related to plantain and banana. the plantain and banana sections of the research institutes and the faculty of agriculture of universities in the plantain-growing belt were taken as a population. furthermore, governmental and non governmental agencies with related activities to plantain and banana as well as plantain and banana farmers and marketers were sampled. a total of ninety five respondents were sampled (table 1) and responses from the most senior and experienced officers working on plantain and banana in these agencies were recorded and analyzed, because they are better able to recall with consistence practices over a long period of time, particularly the study period of 2001 2006. for farmer’s and marketer’s groups fifteen farmers and five marketers were sampled in each of the four zonal prtc state. however, data from 1 of the marketer respondents cannot be used because of observed inconsistencies (the recall ability of the respondents was in doubt, with many missing information). a validated structured questionnaire and interview schedule was used for primary data collection. data were collected on technological capabilities, learning and learning alliances among stakeholders in the innovation system. the variables measured include manpower resources (number of bsc, msc, phd and other staff categories available to each stakeholder group); trainee profiles (number of bsc, msc, phd and other trainee categories handled by each stakeholder group). land available to stakeholders was measured in hectares while percentage land available for banana and plantain research was calculated as land for musa research/total land available × 100. number of laboratory owned by the stakeholders and workshop attendance were measured and presented in percentages. the statistical package for the social sciences (spss, 10) was used for data analysis. results and discussion availability of skilled resources for technology generation five major groups of stakeholders were identified in the review of policy acts and initiatives in plantain and banana innovation system (faturoti et al., 2007). the stakeholders include farmers, marketers, research and technology transfer agents and government agencies. table 2 reveals the categories and academic levels of staff in the various organizations that comprised the stakeholders’ groups in banana and plantain innovation system. a break down of staff and categories revealed that iita (20.1%) had the highest number of workforce engaged in plantain and banana among the stakeholders, followed by akwa-ibom adp in the technology transfer group (12.1%). other stakeholders also contributed various categories of workforce as shown in table 2. contribution of the research group to the workforce was 43.1%, technology transfer group 47.1%, while the government agencies involved in plantain and banana innovation system contributed 9.8% of the total workforce in the innovation system. assessment of the resource availability in terms of innovation generation and development, recorded by data in table 2, revealed that the research agencies had the highest number of staff with phd (61%). these are capable of stimulating, designing and generating innovations on plantain and banana. the percentage of staff with phd in the system from technology transfer group was 26% while government agencies contributed 13%. the result reveals that there is high potential for new technologies to originate from research into the system. the result though expected, will need to be applied with caution to avoid the pitfall of on farm technology delivery system characterized by top-down approach (hall et al., 2001). innovation system requires the interaction and cooperation of all stakeholders from the stage of generation to the diffusion of technologies. therefore, a network of scientists and other stakeholders in the innovation system to assess felt need and target technology generation should be established and adequately funded. the population of middle level manpower, that is, technical personnel with bsc and msc degrees in the innovation system were highest in the technology transfer group (61%). the research group had 31%, while government agencies that are involved in innovation generation and dissemination had 8%. this group also assists in the interpretation of scientific information for end-users. from the results, there is the need to strengthen the technology transfer unit of the system so that new innovations can be promptly delivered to end users the technology transfer agents were identified to play a pivotal role in ensuring cohesion between technology generators and consumers in the innovation system 096 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. composition of population and sample. institution total population number sampled per institution/ individual research 6 6 government agencies 5 3 technology transfer 8 7 farmers 110 60 marketers 20 19 total 149 95 (adesina and baidu-forson, 1995; mongeet al., 2008) for other categories of staff in the system, research agencies provided 67.5%, technology transfer 20%, while government agencies provided 12.5%. iita contributed 47% of the total workforce in the research group, which included 29% of the scientist in the system and 50% of staff in the middle level manpower group. the higher percentage contribution of staff in plantain and banana innovation system by iita may not be unconnected with the high level of funds available to the institute and its international status which gives it the global recognition for plantain and banana work in tropical africa. also, the need to justify donor’s funds and mandates contributed to the institute’s leading role in the innovation system and technological capability (ortiz, 1997). in terms of capacity building in the innovation system, table 2 reveals that a total of 2191 trainees of different categories were trained in plantain and banana innova-tion system from 2001 to 2006. research stakeholders accounted for 4% of the trainees and government agencies had no trainee. this might not be unconnected with their traditional role of policy formulation. however, technology transfer agents were responsible for training 96% of the trainees on plantain and banana. the high number of trainees contributed by technology transfer agents ahead of other stakeholders might not be uncon-nected with her closeness to endusers (farmers) who are in the majority of those trained by the technology transfer figure 1. map of nigeria showing the eleven study states. akinsefi & okobia 097 table 2. distribution of respondents according to technical capability and capacity building. staff profile trainees profile no. institute bsc msc phd % phd others total % total bsc msc phd % phd others total % staff staff trainee trainee 1 iita ® 10 7 4 17.4 14 35 20.1 0 8 2 67 2 12 1 2 moca ® 1 1 1 4.35 2 5 2.9 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 3 rmrdc ® 0 1 1 4.35 3 5 2.9 0 2 1 33 0 3 0 4 ui ® 4 0 2 8.7 0 6 3.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 nihort® 3 2 3 13 8 16 9.2 35 10 0 0 17 62 3 6 unn ® 2 3 3 13 0 8 4.6 2 3 0 0 0 5 0 total ® 20 14 14 60.9 27 75 43.1 37 23 3 100 23 86 4 7 nabda(g) 0 3 1 4.35 0 4 2.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 pbdp (g) 2 3 0 0 2 7 4.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 nafdac (g) 0 1 2 8.7 3 6 3.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 total g 2 7 3 13 5 17 9.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 abia adp (t) 4 1 0 0 1 6 3.4 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 11 agripact 4 1 1 4.35 0 6 3.4 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 12 akwa ibom adp 19 1 0 0 1 21 12.1 130 0 0 0 875 1005 46 13 edo adp 3 2 0 0 2 7 4.0 20 0 0 0 980 1000 46 14 ogun adp 0 9 0 0 1 10 5.7 5 0 0 0 5 0 15 ffai 11 0 3 13 0 14 8.0 0 0 0 45 45 2 16 naoc 11 2 2 8.7 3 18 10.3 0 0 0 40 40 2 total t 52 16 6 26.1 8 82 47.1 155 0 0 0 1950 2105 96 gran grand total 74 37 23 100 40 174 100 192 23 3 100 1973 2191 100 % re research contribution 27 38 61 61 68 43 43 19 100 100 100 1 4 con government contribution 3 19 13 13 13 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 %tec tech transfer contribution 70 43 26 26 20 47 47 81 0 0 0 99 96 source: field survey, 2007. agents. this is in agreement with some authors who asserts that extension personnel are better placed for technology transfer and delivery (conley and udry, 2001; dinar et al., 2007). the implication of these is that for optimum farmers’ integration and technology adoption, technology transfer agents need to be strengthened/empowered as they have the largest reach with farmers (end users). a breakdown of trainees’ categories reveals that research was responsible for 100% of the trainees in the scientist’s category (phd level). this is not unexpected as research had the highest number of staff in that category and thus the technical capability to handle trainees at that level. for the middle level manpower trainees, research contri buted 28%, while technology transfer agents contributed 72% of trainees in the category. the paucity of high level trainees (0.13%), in the study (table 2), suggests the need for improvement in the development of high level manpower in the plantain and banana innovation system. this deserves attention so that technology generation can be sustained in the system. hall et al. (2003) table 3. resources available for plantain and banana technology validation. no. institute total land land for % land for no. of onno. of workshop (ha) musa (ha) musa farm trials laboratory attendance 1 iita (r) 100 10 10.00 22 3 4 2 moca ® 300 2 0.67 3 1 3 3 nihort® 350 3 0.86 3 2 2 4 rmrdc® 3 0 0.00 0 1 0 5 unn® 20 1 5.00 1 2 2 773 16 2.07 29 6 abia adp(t) 4 1 25.00 1 0 7 agripact(t) 2 1 50.00 1 0 3 8 aibom adp(t) 155 3 1.94 144 0 2 9 edo adp (t) 8 2 25.00 6 0 3 10 ffai (t) 3 1 33.00 2 0 3 11 naoc (t) 27 1 3.70 3 0 2 12 ogun adp (t) 50 2 4.00 3 0 2 total 249 11 4.42 160 0 3 grand total 1022 27 2.64 189 8 source: field survey, 2007. had earlier reported that innovation systems are sustained by high turn over of trainees facilitated by technology transfer agents who are trained by the research group. capabilities for technology validation the total land available to stakeholders for research was 1022 ha out of which only 27 ha (2.64%) was dedicated to plantain and banana research and technology validation work in the innovation system (table 3). research organizations contributed 773 ha (76%) of land to the innovation system; out of this only 2.07% was dedicated to plantain and banana research. iita committed 10% of its total land holding to banana and plantain research while other stakeholders also had negligible area of land available for plantain and banana research. moca had 0.66%, while nihort with national mandate for fruits and vegetables committed only 0.86% of its land to plantain and banana. all the research stakeholders had laboratories, where plantain technologies were developed and validated for further dissemination. all the research stakeholders except ui and rmrdc had on-farm trials where research results were further validated, but the number of on-farm trials varied from one institute to the other. iita had 22 sites, moca and nihort had 3 each and unn had one site. research stakeholders had 15.3% of on-farm trial in banana and plantain; the remaining 84.7% of the on-farm trials were contributed by technology transfer stakeholders in the system. altogether there were 189 plantain and banana on-farm trials spread across 12 states of nigeria, technology transfer agents alone had 160 on farm trials (84.7%). this result is not a deviation from the long held belief that technology transfer agents are catalyst to technology delivery and can stimulate social interactions needed to foster innovation promotion (monge et al., 2008). also the high number of on farm trials by the technology transfer agents was as a result of learning acquired through various workshop interactions among the stakeholders and principal technology generators (research) in the system. only 50% of research stakeholders had been invited by other research stakeholders to participate in technology development while, rmrdc, ui and unn had never been invited by other stakeholders to participate in technology development. all but 8.3% had attended banana and plantain workshops. t he paucity of intra stakeholder exchange of ideas, knowledge and interactions is a limitation to knowledge sharing and interactive learning needed to make produc-tive use of knowledge as observed by hall and dijkman (2006). farmers learning and technology adaptation results from the sixty farmers sampled (table 4) revealed a narrow base of technology awareness by primary farmers, that is farmers involved in on-farm trials. the major source of awareness and learning common to all the sampled farmers was field day, which is a program organised to showcase a technology. the innovations are displayed, explained and then operated by participants. okunade (2007) had reported that field day demonstration of innovations and technologies is the most effective extension teaching methods in acquiring knowledge, skills and attitude. 098 afr. j. agric. mark. table 4. farmers awareness and adoption of technology. no. state no of primary source of awareness no farmers with two main sources of total farmers farmers technology sampled awareness sampled 1 abia 5 adp/iita/field day 10 field day/ farmers 15 2 akwa-ibom 5 adp/iita/field day 10 field day, farmers 15 3 edo 5 adp/iita/field day 10 field day/ farmers 15 4 ogun 5 adp/iita/field day 10 field day/farmers 15 total 20 40 60 source: field survey, 2007. table 5. technology development, awareness, and dissemination/adoption status. no innovations developed institution of dissemination main agency of main year of aware-ness adoption status adoption/ awareness development year dissemination awareness % (%) ratio 1 new varieties iita 1999 extension 2001 2007 85 82 0.96 2 planting time nihort 1999 extension 2001 2007 67 32 0.48 3 type of sucker nihort 1997 extension 2001 -2007 92 50 0.54 4 hot water treatment iita 1999 extension 20012007 92 27 0.29 5 spacing nihort 1999 extension 2001 2007 82 56 0.68 6 pruning iita 2000 extension 20012007 72 62 0.86 7 mulching university 2000 extension 2001 2007 73 35 0.48 8 fertilizer university 1999 extension 2004 2007 38 29 0.76 9 post harvest iita 2000 extension 2004 2007 58 30 0.52 10 weeding university 1996 extension 2004 2007 35 15 0.43 11 sucker multiplication iita 2003 extension 2004 2007 68 47 0.69 12 debudding iita 2000 extension 2004 2007 55 48 0.87 13 desuckering iita 2000 extension 2004 2007 55 28 0.51 14 herbicide university 2000 extension 2004 2007 52 35 0.67 15 staking nihort 1996 extension 2004 2007 50 45 0.9 source: field survey, 2007. identification and examination of the levels of adoption of technology developed in plantain and banana innovation system in nigeria a sample of innovations developed and disseminated (table 5) revealed that 15 technologies were developed and widely disseminated among the stakeholders in the innovation system. the data also revealed the innovations developed, institution of development, year of first dissemination, year of awareness, awareness status and adoption status as well as aware/adop tion ratio. the results in table 5 revealed that there was a time interval between innovation development, dissemination and awareness; it also showed marked difference in awareness and adoption status. furthermore, the result revealed that extension akinsefi & okobia 099 100 afr. j. agric. mark. (adp/ngo) was the highest disseminating agents of these technologies. this result is in agreement with many authors on the facts that technology goes through a period of acquisition, adaptation, dissemination, adoption and diffusion; it also confirms the stepwise nature of adoption (longo, 1990; lindner et al., 1979; rogers and kincaid, 1981). conclusion the study concluded that various stakeholders have different technological capability and resources that can be better harnessed through formal and informal interactions as it was through workshop in the study. the fifteen technologies identified, disseminated and used in the innovation system emanates from different actors and are complimentary to each other, as proper use of one enhances the productivity of another. learning is thus enhanced when stakeholders saw the operations of a technology with another stakeholder, this unimpeded interaction, knowledge exchange and adaptation removed the hitherto unhealthy competitive interaction among stakeholders as technology becomes the commonwealth of the innovation system that can be used by stakeholders without hindrance. the high adoption status of the technologies recorded was attributed to the complimentary roles of agents in the innovation system during the intervening years between awareness and adoption of innovations in the study. however the paucity of high level trainees (0.13%) in the study is not supportive of plantain and banana innovation system and thus deserves attention if technology generation will have to continue in the system. iita and nihort were identified as the major technology generating agencies in the plantain and banana innovation system, while the extension (adp) was the main disseminating agents of the technologies. recommendations there will be need to develop a framework for analysing plantain and banana innovation system using the model of plantain resource training centres discussed in this study. references adesina aa, baidu-forson j (1995). farmers’ perception and adoption of new agricultural technology: evidence from analysis in burkina faso and guinea, west africa. agric. econ. 13: 1–9. chataway j, smith j, wield d (2005). partnerships for building science and technology capacity in africa: canadian and uk experience. paper prepared for the africa-canada-uk exploration: building science and technology capacity with african partners, 30 january–1 february 2005, canada house, london. conley tg, udry cr (2001). social learning through networks. the adoption of new agricultural technologies in ghana. am. j. agric. econ. 83(3): 668–673. dinar a, karagiannis g, tzouvelekas v (2007). evaluating the impact of agricultural extension on farms performance in crete: a non neutral stochastic frontier approach. agric. econ. 36: 135–146. edquist c (1997). systems of innovation approaches: technologies, institutions and organisations. pinter, casell academic, london. faturoti bo, madukwe mc, tenkouano a, agwu ae (2007). a review of policy acts and initiatives in plantain and banana innovation system in nigeria. afr. j. biotechnol. 6(20): 2297–2302. hall a, dijkman j (2006). capacity development for agricultural biotechnology in developing countries: concepts, contexts, case studies and operational challenges of a systems perspective. united nations university (unu-merit) working paper series pp 1-33. hall a, sulaiman r, clark n, yoganand b (2003). from measuring impact to learning institutional lessons: an innovation systems perspective on improving the management of international agricultural research. agric. sys. 78: 213–241. hall aj (2002). innovation systems and capacity development: agenda for north-south research collaboration. int. j. technol. manage. sustain. dev. 1(3): 146–152. hall aj, sivamohan mvk, clark n, taylor s, bockett g (2001). why research partnerships really matter: innovation theory, institutional arrangements and implications for the developing new technology for the poor. world dev. 29(5): 783–797. lindner ra, fischer j, parley p (1979). the time to adoption. econ. lett. 2: 187–190. longo rmj (1990). information transfer and the adoption of agricultural innovations. j. am. soc. info. sci. 41: 1–9. 100 afr. j. agric. mark. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 2 (5), pp. 136-143, may, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper consumers’ preference for oil brand, oil variants and factors influencing purchase decision *motilal kamil narayana, mammmohan sarabhai and vikram kumar khan school of food and agric business, g. b. pant university of agriculture and technology, pantnagar, india. accepted 6 april, 2014 consumers around the world vary greatly in age, income, education level, and tastes and understanding how these differences affect consumer buying decision is never easy. however, marketing success largely depends on the ability to anticipate what buyers will do and what they prefer from available products. today, the highly fragmented indian edible oil industry with large number of players both from the organized and unorganized sectors has resulted in severe competition and as a result, edible oil businesses in india have shifted their focus to understand consumer choices better on one side and increasingly moving away from products to embracing a structured brand management to achieve competitiveness and profitability in the market place. the present study explores the consumers’ preference for oil brand, oil variants, and factors influencing the purchasing decision. the study highlights that, brand image, price, health consciousness, and quality of a particular brand are the most important factors influencing consumers’ decision making for edible oil purchases. key words: brand image, brand preference, edible oils. introduction the importance of edible oil in daily diet is well recognized as a better source of energy as compared to carbohydrates and proteins and as a result it became a part of regular food. edible oils have got higher importance in preparation of tasty food, improving texture of food items, increasing palatability of food, flavor of food maintenance and growth of human body. thus, edible oils constitute an important component of food expenditure in house-holds. however, the current per capita consumption levels of india (at 13.3kg/year for 2009-10) are lower than global averages (24kg/year). according to the united states *corresponding authors. email: nara.kamil96@gmail.com department of agriculture (usda) 2012 report, india’s edible oil consumption is expected to grow at 6.5% to 17.9 million tonnes for the year 2012 to 2013. icra (2011) documented that the indian edible industry is under penetrated and given the positive macro and demographic fundamentals, it has a favorable demand growth rate. at present the indian edible oil industry is flourishing with rising income levels and living standards of consumers coupled with changing consumer lifestyles and food consumption pattern, further the current health awareness among indian consumers is increasing preferences for nontraditional oils such as soya bean, mustard oil, rice bran etc for consumption, since these oils with higher levels of saturated fats are considered healthier than traditional consuming palm oil. food and drug administration usa (1999) noted that consuming soy can be beneficial for health and including soy protein in a healthy diet could reduce the risk of heart disease. motilal et al. 136 oils like rice bran and olive are also gaining popularity due to their superior health properties, although their consumption remains fairly low in absolute terms in india. rice bran oil promotion council (2013) documented that with gaining popularity of rice bran oil as a healthy option for cooking, its market in the country currently is estimated to grow by 15%. icra (2011) documented that in terms of oil consumption the three largest consumed edible oils in india are palm oil with 46% of share, soya bean oil (16%), and mustard oil (14%) in total oil consumption in 2010 and these oils will be continued to account for the bulk of edible oil consumption in the country. however, given the presence of large number of unorganized participants in the indian edible oil market, the share of branded oil product sales have remained low, as most of the low -income consumers opting for cheaper oils, which are sold in loose form. as per industry data, only about 31% of urban households and about 9% of rural households consume branded edible oils, with the national average at 16%. thus, edible oil businesses in india are working harder than ever before to achieve some degree of differentiation for their products and trying to build strong brand image and started highlighting the product features with specific brand names offering distinct value propositions in the edible oil market and helping the quality conscious consumers differentiate and choose the products which are best suited to their requirements. consumer buying behavior buying behavior differs greatly for the products and services, more complex decisions usually involve more buying participants and more buyer deliberation. to understand how the customers make their buying decisions, the marketer must have the knowledge of consumer buying behavior based on the degree of buyer involvement and the degree of differences among brands. consumer involvement is defined as an un-observable state of motivation, arousal, or interest which is evoked by a particular stimulus or situation and is considered to have drive properties and which influences the search process, information processing, and decision making. kotler (1994) documented that the degree of buyer involvement has been clearly explained in henry assael (2001) model of buying behavior. henry assael categorized four types of buying behavior based on the degree of buyer involvement and the degree of difference among the brands. as per these parameters, the consumers will be engaged in complex buying behavior, dissonancereducing buying behavior, variety-seeking buying behavior, and habitual buying behavior. in complex buying behavior, the consumers are highly involved in a purchase and are aware of significant differences among the brands. this behavior is often found when the product is expensive, bought infrequently, risky, and highly selfexpressing. in the dissonance–reducing buying behavior, the consumer will be highly involved. but if there is a little difference among the brands, then he may end up buying on price or convenience. after the purchase, the consumer may learn favorable things about other brands and hence he or she will be alert to information that supports his decision. in the variety-seeking buying behavior, the buying decisions of the consumers will be marked with low involvement even though there exists a significant difference among the brands. this happens when the consumers often engage in a frequent brand switching process. in habitual buying behavior, the consumers have little involvement due to the absence of significant brand differences and they simply go to the store and reach for a brand. if they keep reaching for the same brand it is out of habit rather than strong brand loyalty. most of the generic commodity products fall under this category. here consumers do not search extensively for information to evaluate and make a decision. hence, for low involvement brands, the buying process starts with the brand beliefs formed by passive learning and followed by purchase behavior which may or may not be followed by evaluation. as we understand from the henry assael model of buying behavior the commodity brands fall under the habitual buying behavior. review of literature it is widely acknowledged among the academicians and practicing managers that branding has become a tool of strategic importance and studies on importance of brand preference were also highlighted in competitive market place. the american marketing association (1994) defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to encourage prospective customers to differentiate a producer’s product from those of competitors. a primary function of the brand is to provide convenience and clarity in decision making by providing a guarantee of performance and communicating a set of expectations thereby offering certainty and facilitating the buying process. ambler and styles (1996) describe two different views of defining a brand. the first is the product plus view, when the brand is seen as an addition to the product, and in this view a brand is also called an identifier. the second is the holistic view that communicates the focus on the brand itself that is considered to be much more than just the product. broadbent and cooper (1987) indicate that in order to be successful, images and symbols must relate to and indeed exploit the needs, values, and lifestyles of consumers in such a way that the meanings involved give added values, and differentiate the brand from other brands. aaker (1996) indicate that strong brands help the firm establishes an identity in the market place, reduce vulnerability to competitive actions, leading to larger margins, greater intermediary cooperation, and support, and a successful brand image enables consumers to identify the needs that the brand satisfies and to differentiate the brand from its competitors, and it consequently increases the likelihood that consumers will purchase the brand. gensch (1987) documented that customers form brand preferences to reduce the complexity of the purchase decision process. rossiter and percy (1987) describe brand awareness is essential for the communications process to occur as it precedes all other steps in the process and without brand awareness occurring, no other communication effects can occur. for a consumer to buy a brand they must first be made aware of it. brand attitude cannot be formed, and intention to buy cannot occur unless brand awareness has occurred. in a situation where the consumer is aware of a number of brands which fit the relevant criteria, the consumer is unlikely to spend much effort in seeking out information on unfamiliar brands. kumar et al. (1987) examined the factors influencing the buying decision for various food products. country of origin and brand of the products were cross-tabulated against age, gender, and income and study revealed that the considered factors were independent of age, education and income. the brand image seemed to be more important than the origin of the product, since the consumers were attracted by the brands. nielsen (1998) conducted a study on consumers purchase motives and perceptions on vegetable oil in three countries and found that consumers in france purchase vegetable oil because of its health benefits (attribute). this provides the customer a healthy body and physical well-being (benefit). they consume this type of product because they value good health and a long life. mc enally and chernatony (1999) documented that consumers brand preferences over time mainly shift due to changes in brand identity consisting of brand awareness, purpose, differentiation, and offerings and brand image pertaining to brand credibility, brand character, consumers' overall attitude towards the brand, and consumers' feelings for the brand. li and houston (2001) documented that price level, product variety and marketing communications are the important factors acting as promoters of brand preference. rundle-thiele and mackay (2001) noted that brand preference is important for business as a component of brand loyalty and it is also a way to enhance sales. keller (1993) views, brand knowledge is not the facts about the brand, it is all the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences etc that become linked to the brand in the minds of customers and two important components of brand knowledge are brand awareness and brand image where brand awareness is related to the strength of the brand node or trace in memory as reflected by customers’ ability to recall or recognize the brand under different conditions and brand image is 137 afr. j. agric. mark. defined as customer perceptions of and preferences for a brand, as reflected by the various types of brand associations held in customers’ memory. mathur et al. (2003) noted that from a business standpoint, the challenge is that customers could change their favorite brands by trying products of other brands because they are exposed to a variety of attractive brands. that is, customers tend to seek better brands of products or services, so their brand preference can change. for businesses to reduce that risk, they must identify what affects brand preference and how to build brand preference. dinlersoz and pereira (2007) documented that consumers have a brand preference toward an established brand during the firm’s long presence in the market and they tend to show little brand preference toward a particular brand when they are exposed to a new or unfamiliar product category. singh et al. (2008) documented that brand preference refers to the consumers’ hierarchical prioritization of the brand as a result of their patronage and cognitive comprehension of the brand. suwen and mark (2008) documented that the food habit, location, education of household heads, and other demographic variables have significant effects on the choice of edible oils for consumption. today, the organized sector in indian edible oil business has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in recent times creating branded oil sales, though branded oils marked currently low in india, both in terms of volumes and share, they are expected to grow due to improved thrust by major players like marico limited, cargill india private limited, adani wilmar limited, ruchi soya industries limited, con agro foods, itc agrotech, godrej foods, vippy industries, prestige foods, s m dyechem, vijaya oils and a few mid-sized, regional edible oil companies such as mantora oil products ltd, modi naturals, amrit banaspati, tara health foods, priya foods, healthy heart foods, gemini oils, ks oils etc offering a larger number of product choices before consumers to choose from and given these choices, consumers are now able to compare many features such as quality, price, and value for money, absorption capacity, brand image etc. to decide which product they want to buy for their need satisfaction. however, it should be noted that, once customers are satisfied with a particular product or brand, they purchase the product repeatedly, and when a customer repeatedly purchases a product, showing favorable attitude towards the brand, then consumer becomes loyal. a brand that has some level of brand awareness is far more likely to be considered, and therefore chosen, than the brands which the consumers are unaware. so in order to make a consumer to buy or prefer a brand they must first be made aware of the brand and focus on maintaining and monitoring brand awareness. thus, there is an immediate need for a marketer to know the edible oil brand consumers prefer and identify what affects their brand preference. motilal et al. 138 table1. classification based on preferred oil brand of the consumers preferred oil brand (%)100 total(406) fortune 6.40 26 healthy heart 1.47 6 sundrop 9.85 40 gemini 1.47 6 vijaya 9.62 39 gold drop 51.72 210 priya 2.46 10 naturalle 4.68 19 saffola 2.96 12 others 9.36 38 (source: questionnaire) objectives of the study the objectives of the study are, 1. to know the most preferred oil brand and edible oil variant of the consumers 2. to examine the present shopping behavior of the customers for the preferred oil brand and understand the composition of the consumers gender wise 3. to know the importance the customers attach to various attributes for purchasing an oil brand 4. to appraise the sources of knowing preferred oil brand by customers 5. to study the affect of oil brand sales of consumers on promotional offers research methodology both primary and secondary data were collected for research survey and the primary instrument for data collection used in this study was a questionnaire. primary data was collected from 406 respondents in the city of hyderabad, andhra pradesh, india. the sampling method used in the study was random sampling. data thus collected was processed, analyzed and interpreted to draw the valid inferences. for analyzing the data and providing the realities of the research outcomes suitable statistical techniques were employed. data analysis and results given the presence of a large number of unorganized participants in the indian edible oil market, the share of branded product sales has remained low. however branded oils have started focusing on establishing the brands. table 1 refers to the classification based on preferred oil brand of the consumers. the responses from randomly selected group of 406 consumers are tabulated to know the oil brands they prefer. as may be seen from the table 51.72% of customers prefer gold drop oil brand. the brands preferred next are sun drop oil (9.85%), vijay oil brand (9.62%) and fortune oil 6.40% of the sample consumers. a buyer’s decisions are also influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer’s age and life cycle stage etc. table 2 below shows the classification based on age of the consumers buying oils. as may be seen from the table, most (41.37%) of those, the consumers who are buying oil for consumption belong to the age group of 26 to 35 years. those below 25 years of age are also to be found in large numbers among the buyers (27.59%). however, the consumers of 36 to 45 age groups are also found in large numbers (19.46%). table 3 refers to the classification of the customers of oil by gender. husband-wife involvement varies widely by product category and by stage in the buying process. buying roles change with evolving consumer lifestyles. traditionally women were the main purchasing influence for the family in the areas of food, household products etc. but with more women holding jobs outside the home the willingness of husbands to do more of the family’s purchasing can be witnessed. as may be seen from the table 73.40% of buyers who are shopping to purchase their preferred oil brand are males. the market of sunflower oil, the fourth most used vegetable oil as cooking medium in the world, is increasing in india in the recent years. so most of the oil brand players in the edible oil category are focusing on the production and marketing of sunflower oil and the major thrust is to increase market share especially in the sunflower oil category, through continuous brandbuilding. table 4 refers to the classification of the buyers of oil by oil variants. we enquired with the sample buyers to know the major preferred oil variety bought by the consumers. it is observed that majority of edible oil buyers 75.36% are buying sun flower oil variety. however, it should not go unnoticed that buyer’s also showing preference towards soya bean variety and mustard oil variety. convenience stores are small stores that carry a number of high turnover convenience goods. in the subcontinent, they are seen in the form of local kirana shops that keep products of daily necessities. they offer a number of benefits to buyers, who are their usual consumers and super markets are the most frequently shopped type of retail store with a large, low-cost, lowmargin, high-volume, self-service store that carries a wide variety of grocery and house hold products. table 5 refers to the quantity of oil purchased from super markets and other stores. as may be seen from the table, the data collected by us from those buying preferred oil brands shows that the buyers seems to prefer other market places such as convenience stores to super markets while purchasing the oils. the test of equality of means indicates that the mean value of quantity bought from other markets is higher than the mean value of the quantity bought in super markets. the means are statistically different from one another at 5% level of significance. so it may be assumed that consumers view 139 afr. j. agric. mark. table 2. classification based on age of the consumers age of the consumers total(406) 15 to 25 26 to 35 36 to 45 46 to 55 more than 55 total 112 168 79 32 15 406 (%) 27.59 41.37 19.46 7.88 3.69 100.00 (source: questionnaire) table 3. classification of the customers of oil by gender preferred oil brand by gender (%)100 total(406) male 73.40 298 female 26.60 108 (source: questionnaire) table 4. classification of the buyers of oil by oil variants preferred oil brand variant sunflower soya mustard palm groundnut others total(406) 306 10 5 9 59 17 (%)100 75.36 2.46 1.23 2.24 14.53 4.18 (source: questionnaire) table 5. quantity of oil purchased from super markets and other stores description variable quantity purchased variable quantity purchased from super markets from other stores mean 3.484 3.871 sd 1.649 1.503 d.f 404 t-statistic -2.146** **significant at 5% level of significance table 6. classification based on mean income of the buyers description variable income of consumers variable income of consumers those are buying gold drop oil those buying other oil brands mean 14,526 21,933 sd 7,4180 12,5169 d.f 404 t-statistic *-7.3104 *significant at 1% level oil brand as a low-involvement product. a person’s economic situation will affect the product choice. table 6 shows the classification of oil buyers based on the income levels. we tried to examine whether the average income of those buying gold drop oil is less than that of the average income of those buying other motilal et al. 140 table 7. multi linear regression coefficients of income levels, family size, years of schooling for oil quantity variable name regression coefficient t-value intercept 1.47381 4.7858 income levels 0.001493 0.24045 no of family members 0.76126 *13.8996 years of schooling -0.05149 *-2.4894 r²(with f-value) 0.3355 *significant at 1% level table 8. classification based on preferred oil and family size of the consumers description variablefamily size of the buyers variablefamily size of the buyers who are buying gold drop oil who are buying other oil brands mean 4.17 3.92 sd 1.214 1.215 d.f 404 t-statistic **2.0822 **significant at 5% level oils. we expected that the average income of those buying gold drop oil is less than that of those buying other oils because gold drop oil is low priced in the market place. the test of equality of means calculated to find the difference in means of incomes showed that the mean income of those buying gold drop oil is significantly less than those buying other oils. the t-statistic is significant at 1% level. almost every society has some form of social class structure. social class is not determined by a single factor, such as income, but is measured as a combination of occupation, income, education, wealth and other variables. we employed the multiple regression technique to identify the factors influencing the quantity of oil bought. table 7 above shows the details. it is possible that income of consumers, family size, and years of schooling can influence the quantity bought. as income increases one expects the quantity of oil bought to increase. similarly as family size increases quantity of oil bought can increase and finally as educational level increases people may become more health conscious and consume less of oil. thus, we expect a positive relationship between income and quantity bought and also between family size and quantity bought. years of schooling is expected to have a negative relationship with the quantity bought. our regression exercise confirmed these relationships. however the independent variable income is not found to have to have a significant relationship in quantity bought. family size has a positive relationship with the quantity bought. the regression coefficient of family size is statis tically significant at less than 1% level. the regression coefficient corresponding to years of schooling appears with a negative sign as expected. it is also significant statistically at 1% level. the regression equation is a reasonably good fit to the data. this is evident from the value of r 2 . the regression equation explains 34% of the variation in the dependent variable. the value of r 2 is also statistically significant as seen from the value of fratio which is significant at less than 1% level. family members and size can strongly influence the buyer behavior. table 8 refers to the classification based on preferred oil and family size of the consumers. we tried to examine if the family size of those buying the cheaper gold drop oil is larger than the family size of those buying other costlier brands of oils. we have employed the test of equality of means in the process. the test supports the above hypothesis. gold drop being less costly compared to other oils it is being bought by families whose size is relatively larger. the t-statistic showing the difference in means is significant at 5% level. the aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers needs and wants. understanding consumer behavior and knowing customers are never simple. table 9 refers to the classification based on factors influencing the purchasing decision. we enquired with the sample buyers to know the most influencing factor to purchase a particular brand or product. as may be seen from the above table quality of a product is the most influencing factor to buy a particular oil brand (69.45%). further it can be observed that the shop displays and promotional offers, and advertisements can also influence the buyers 141 afr. j. agric. mark. table 9. classification of buyers based on factors influencing purchasing decision factors influencing purchasing decision (%)100 total (406) advertisements 17.00 69 retailer 11.08 45 packaging and ingredients 2.70 11 shop display and promotional offers 19.45 79 quality 69.45 282 (source: questionnaire) *some of the customers reported more than one factor table 10. classification based on gold drop customer’s educational qualification and other brands variableeducational qualification of variableeducational qualification description customers those buying gold drop oil of customers those buying other oil brand brands mean 12.71362 14.12435 sd 3.3629 2.8495 d.f 404 t-statistic *-4.53612 table 11. classification based on non-availability of product preferred brand is not available then (%)100 total (406) try another brand 24.13 98 drop the idea of buying it 14.54 59 go to another store 61.33 249 (source: questionnaire) to some extent (19.45%). marketers in the indian sub continent have developed a socioeconomic classification system (sec) to segment urban households on the basis of the level of education and occupation of the chief wage earner of the house hold. marketers are interested in socioeconomic classes because people within a given socio economic class tend to exhibit similar buying behavior. we tried to examine whether those buying gold drop of oil have undergone more years of education or customers who are buying other oil brands. as may be seen from the table 10, it can be said that, those buying gold drop brand of oil are found to have undergone less years of education than those buying other brands, this is validated by test of equality of means. the t-statistic for the difference of means is 4.53 and it is statically significant at 1% level. those buying other oil brands are relatively more educated than those buying gold drop brand of oil. the mean years of schooling of the latter group are significantly higher than that of former group. producing a product and making it available to buyer requires building relationships not only with customers, but also with resellers, in other words successful marketer will focus on partner relationship management. from the economic system’s point of view, the role of marketing intermediaries is to transform the assortments of products made by producers into the assortments wanted by consumers. table 11 refers to the classification based on non-availability of product in the store. as may be seen from the table, 61.33% of oil buyers seem to go to another store if the preferred brand of their choice is not available. sales promotion is a tool which could be used in a number of situations where the objective is to quickly get the brand on top of the consumers mind and invoke a spontaneous decision in favor of the brand associated with the sales promotion. sales promotions consist of short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product or service. the consumer promotions include a wide range of tools from samples, coupons, refunds, premiums and point-of-purchase displays to contests, sweepstakes etc. table 12 shows the classification based on oil buyers and sales promotion offers. we enquired with the sample buyers to understand the affect of oil table 12. classification based on oil buyers and sales promotion offers affect of sales buy more think for second it will not affect promotions now time purchase total(406) 257 42 107 (%) 100.00 63.31 10.34 26.35 (source: questionnaire) table 13. classification based on oil buyers and preference of packaging preference of packaging 1liter pouch 1 liter pet bottle 5 liter jar 15 liter jar or can total(406) 119 35 172 81 (%)100.00 29.31 8.62 42.36 19.71 (source: questionnaire) table 14. classification of consumers on importance they attach to various attributes for purchasing an oil brand attributes very imp imp neutral slightly imp not imp total mean std. dev skewness (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) brand 39.65 50.76 9.35 0.24 0 100(406) 4.29 0.642 -0.421 taste 13.54 46.57 36.45 3.44 0 100(406) 3.70 0.741 0.030 price 32.27 53.70 13.05 0.98 0 100(406) 4.17 0.681 -0.418 healthy 30.80 49.01 18.22 1.97 0 100(406) 4.08 0.750 -0.424 absorption 21.42 39.92 36.45 2.21 0 100(406) 3.80 0.794 0.095 availability 11.59 48.02 36.20 4.19 0 100(406) 3.67 0.729 -0.024 (source: questionnaire) brand sales on promotional offers. as may be seen from the table it can be highlighted that 63.31% of sample buyers are showing interest on sales promotional schemes and purchase more. however 26.35% of customers say it will not affect their purchase decision for buying an oil brand. it is a welcome development few customers are very loyal to their preferred brands. packaging involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. traditionally, the primary function of the package was to hold and protect the product. today, however, numerous factors have made packaging an important marketing tool as well. increased competition and clutter on retail store shelves means that packages must now perform many sales tasks such as from attracting attention, describing the product and to making the sale. table 13 refers to the classification based on oil buyers and preference of packaging. as may be seen from the table 42.36% of oil buyers showing preference towards five liter jars. it can also be noticed that 8.62% of oil buyer’s also showing preference for one liter pet bottles. we enquired with the oil buyers to rate on a 5 point scale the importance they attach (very important to not important) on various attributes such as brand name, price, taste, health concerns, and absorption capacity of oil brand and availability of the brand. table 14 shows the details. as may be seen from the table, the most important attribute the customers are attaching to the product is brand image mean of the rating being (4.29). next in importance is the price. the mean of the rating for this is (4.17). next in importance is healthy attribute, mean being (4.08). we tried to examine whether those buying gold drop oil brand are buying in larger quantities compared to those buying other brands. as may be seen from the table 14, we employed the test of equality of means. it is found that the mean quantities of two groups are significantly different from one another. the mean value of the quantity purchased of gold drop brand is 4.00, where as the mean of those buying other brands is 3.29. the t-value calculated is 4.84 and it is statistically significant at the usual 1% level of significance. thus, the gold drop oil is purchased in larger quantities compared to other brands. this could be because the gold drop oil brand oil is relatively less. therefore price is an important factor in influencing the quantity of oil bought. motilal et al. 142 conclusion the study highlights that buyer’s showing preference towards soya bean variety and mustard oil variety. hence the marketer can take mileage of the current health awareness to persuade the consumers to accept other variants of the edible oils in addition to the sunflower variant. kotler et al. (2005) views that demographic variables which are easier to measure are the most popular basis for segmenting the customer groups and one reason is that consumer needs, wants, preferences and usage rates are often highly associated with demographic variables. it is observed from the study that consumers of 26 to 35 age groups are shopping for their preferred oil brand, and buyers who are shopping to purchase their preferred oil brand are males. hence companies need to focus on effective communications to reach these target groups. felzensztein et al. (2004) documented that buying intentions are motivated by price and value for money. erdem et al. (2004) view that price notably plays an important role in consumers’ brand choices. gil et al. (2007) noted that perceived product value for the money can influence consumer’s attitudes toward product brand image, affecting consumer intention to buy. baltas and argouslidis (2007) documented that product quality is an important dimension of a brand’s image because it is generally the most significant role of brand preference and the major purchasing factor. findings suggest that brand image, price, health consciousness, and quality of a particular brand are the most important factors influencing decision making for purchases, and thus the marketer’s value proposition and positioning should build around health and value for money. the important product decisions in any marketing context are product, features, performance, design, its presentation, variety, sizes etc and it is observed from the study that few oil buyers are showing preference towards purchasing one liter pet bottles in addition to five liter jars, thus companies need to initiate and focus on the availability of these product varieties with maximum visibility, because brands with the largest recognition and availability are most likely to generate more sales. study highlights that sample buyers are showing interest on sales promotional schemes and consumer offers. so companies should run effective promotional schemes and consumer campaigns not only to attract new customers but also to retain existing customers. finally it can be concluded that the marketer of edible oil brands must use the four p’s of marketing mix effectively and try to convert a low-involvement product into a moderate or high-involvement buying process. research limitations and future research one of the limitations of the study is, it is limited to only one geographical place, and the brands selected for 143 afr. j. agric. mark. inspection were selected because of high familiarity, so the future studies are recommended to introduce more precise selection criteria. the other research direction could be investigations on factors, such as years of usage, monthly frequency of purchases and satisfaction levels of customers on the brand performance. one more research investigation could be to measure where these brands are located in the perceptual space of the target consumers. conflict of interests the author(s) have not declared any conflict of interests references aaker da (1996). building strong brands, the free press, new york, ny. ambler t, styles c (1996). brand development versus product development: toward a process model of extension decisions. j. prod. brand. manage. 6(4):223-234. baltas g, argouslidis pc (2007). consumer characteristics and demand for store brands. int j. ret & dist manage. 35:328–341 broadbent k cooper p (1987). research is good for you, mark. int. plann. 5:3-9. dinlersoz em, pereira p (2007). on the diffusion of electronic commerce. int. j. ind. org. 25: 541-574. erdem t, zhao y, valenzuela a (2004). performance of store brands : a cross-country analysis of consumer store-brand preferences, perceptions, and risk. j. mark. res. 41:86-100. http://hkir.ust.hk/hkir/record/9999-554 felzensztein c, hibbert s, vong g (2004). is the country of origin the fifth element in the marketing mix of imported wine? a critical review of the literature. j. f. prod. mark.10:73–84. gensch dh (1987). a two-stage disaggregate attribute choice model. mark sci. 6(3):223-231. gil rb, andre´s ef, salinas em (2007). "family as a source of consumer-based brand equity", j. prod. brand manage. 16(3):188199. henry a (2001). consumer behaviour & marketing action-thomson learning.6th ed. keller kl (1993) . conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. j. mark. 57(1):1-22. https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~moorman/marketing-strategyseminar-2013/session%203/keller.pdf kotler p (1994). marketing management: analysis, planning, implementation and control. 8th ed: prentice hall. 816p. http://www.amazon.com/marketing-management-analysisimplementation-prentice-hall/dp/0137228511 kotler p, wong v, saunders j, armstrong g (2005). principles of marketing. harlow:pearson education limited. kumar k, ambarish jbb, barker ta (1987). made in india, what is means to indian consumers? ind. j. mktg. 17(9): 26-34. li h, houston je (2001).factors affecting consumer preferences for major food markers in taiwan. j. f. dist. res. 32(1):97-109. http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/26515/1/32010097.pdf mathur a, moschis gp, lee e (2003). life events and brand. j. consumer behav. 3(2):129–141. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cb.128/abstract mc enally mr, de chernatony l (1999). “the evolving nature of branding consumer and managerial considerations” acad. market. sci. rev. p.1. http://www.amsreview.org/articles/mcenally02-1999.pdf nielsen n, bech-larsen t (1998). consumers purchase motives and product perceptions: a laddering study on vegetable oil in three countries. food qual. pref. 9(6):455-466. rossiter jr, percy l (1987). advertising and promotion management. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (12), pp. 001-006, december, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper impact of cocoa processing technologies in free fatty acids formation in stored raw cocoa beans simplice tagro guehi 1*, michael dingkuhn2, emile cros3, gérard fourny3, robert ratomahenina4, guy moulin4 and anne clement vidal2 1 laboratoire de biochimie et de technologie alimentaire. ufr sciences et technologies des aliments. université d’abobo-adjamé. 02 bp 801 abidjan 02. côte d’ivoire. 2 cirad-amis, equipe ecotrop, ta 40/01, 34398 montpellier cedex 5, france. 3 cirad-cp/programme cacao, laboratoire de chimie-technologie du cacao, ta 80/16, 34398 montpellier cedex 5, france. 4 inra-montpellier, laboratoire de microbiologie industrielle et de génétique des microorganismes, 2 place viala, 34000 montpellier, france. accepted 18 july, 2016 the quality of raw cocoa beans depends widely on their free fatty acids (ffa) content. high ffa content is a serious quality defect and reduces the technical and economic value of the cocoa beans. the work investigates the influence of cocoa processing technologies on ffa formation during storage of raw cocoa beans. different samples of ferment dried cocoa beans purchased from cote d’ivoire were stored and analysed for ffa content. very low ffa contents were found in whole healthy cocoa beans generally complied with ue standards (1.75% oleic acid equivalent) throughout storage while high ffa content was found in poor quality and broken healthy beans. the formation of ffa did not depend on the genotype or on cocoa post-harvest processing technologies. however, high and increasing ffa contents were observed in defective cocoa beans and could be attributed probably to the activity of microflora which in turn were associated with initial quality and loss of physical integrity of the cocoa beans. key words: raw cocoa beans, processing technologies, free fatty acids content. introduction cocoa beans are actually seed from the fruit of theobroma cacao tree. cocoa butter, the naturally fat, contained in cocoa beans is the only continuous phase of chocolate. it is responsible for dispersion of the other constituents of chocolate properties during storage, handling and tasting (nickless, 1996). cocoa butter was currently reported to be the main vegetable fat used in the chocolate manufactures because of its rheological, textural and chemical characteristics such as triglycerides fatty acids composition, (awua, 2002; lipp and anklam, 1998; whithefield, 2005). its hardness depends on the saturated and unsaturated fatty acid contents bound in triglycerides, and on free fatty acids (ffa) content. the *corresponding author. e-mail: g_tagro@hotmail.com. tel: + 225 66 11 23 44. fax : + 225 20 37 74 48. general opinion is that higher ffa content leads to a decrease in hardness of cocoa butter (pontillon, 1998) and must be considered as a raw cocoa commercial value reducing factor both for producers and chocolate manufacturers. for reasons of quality therefore, the directive 73/241/eec (eec, 1973) limits the maximum ffa content to 1.75% oleic acid equivalent in cocoa butter. yet, for several years, from 15 to 20% of annual ivorian cocoa production is considered to have excessive ffa contents (exporters' statistics) recurrently and seasonally, notably at the end of the main season. ffa are carboxylic acids released from triglycerides (selamatet al., 1996) through the effect of a lipase (e.c. 3.1.1.3) or an oxidation. the risks of oxidation are negligible in cocoa butter due to its low unsaturated fatty acid content (withefiled, 2005) and high content of polyphenols, natural antioxidants, in cocoa beans (nickless,1996). to date, although no lipase activity has file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org yet been detected in fermented and dried cocoa beans to our knowledge, the role of a lipase is strongly suspected. numerous studies have shown plant lipase activity is mostly detectable during seed germination (wanasundara et al., 2001), except in some oil crops such as the castor-oil plant (ory et al., 1962), nigella kernel (mert et al., 1995) and rice (raghavendra and prakash, 2002). for fowler (1999), high ffa contents in cocoa beans might result from black beans originating from rotten pods or germinated beans. likewise, microflora, particularly moulds, can cause similar problems during storage (hiol, 1999). indeed, wood and lass (1985) and pontillon (1998) suggested that ffa occurrence in stored cocoa beans is linked to the action of microbial lipases. therefore, this study aims to determine the impact of cocoa processing technologies on ffa formation in raw cocoa beans and if microflora of the cocoa beans are implied in ffa formation. materials and processing cocoa beans used in this study were originated healthy from region of soubré in côte d’ivoire. a total of 16 samples (25 pods each) were opened and beans of each protocol were fermented using the micro-fermentation technique in a wooden box measuring 65 x 50 x 50 cm (turned manually after 48 and 96 h). cocoa beans were sun dried on plastic tarpaulins for one week, reducing bean moisture content from 60 to 8%. all samples were stored in a climatic cabinet (firlabo, sb-bvehf type) . temperature and relative humidity were fixed respectively at 27°c and 75% for 6 months. for storage, 50 g of cocoa beans were individually putted in bags to be removed at each sampling time, 0, 2, 3, 4 and 5 months later. ffa content was measured on carefully shelled, manually and finely ground beans ( 500 µm). effect of cocoa beans processing technologies on ffa’s formation was studied. genetic origin’s effect was studied using beans from three cultivars ripe pods: amelonado, ivorian 1 st generation of hybrids (amelonado x west african trinitario) and open pollinated progenies. influence of pod degree ripeness was studied using beans from pre-ripe, ripe and over-ripe pods of ivorian 1 st generation of hybrids. pods were opened 5 days after harvesting. beans from 1st generation hybrids pods harvested the same day were used for the impact of the time lapse between pods harvesting and opening. pods were divided into three parts and were opened respectively the day of harvesting, 5 and 9 days after harvesting. ripe pods from open pollinated progenies were used for study of fermentation duration’s effect. beans samples were taken in the middle of the cocoa beans mass each day throughout fermentation period and then were sun dried. effect of raw cocoa beans quality on ffa formation was studied using 1200 g of uncontrolled cocoa samples of three different quailties: healthy beans which are brown and compact with no visible defects, clustered beans and black beans originated from abidjan harbour. clustered beans are the agglomerates of 2 to several beans. each sample was divided into 4 fractions: beans of first 2 fractions were individually and roughly broken and those of second 2 fraction remained whole. and then both sub-samples were stored (27°c, rh 75%). ffa content was measured on 50 g sampled from each fraction every two weeks. about 1800 g of black beans samples were used in order to determine influence of decontamination of the cocoa beans and beans physical integrity in the ffa’s formation in raw cocoa beans. the samples were divided into 6 equal portions: 2 untreated cocoa beans of first fraction were stored as previously described, the beans of the 2 others parts are individually and roughly broken (control) and cocoa beans of last 2 fractions were broken and then individually and carefully decontaminated by soaking in a 5% (v/w) hydrogen peroxide solution (sigma) for 3 hours at 28°c. after sterilely drying at 27°c during 3 days about 40 g of each decontaminated cocoa beans were individually sealed hermetically into sterile flasks prior to storage for 12 weeks as previously described. ffa content was measured every two weeks on samples from one flask per experimental protocol and from over corresponding subsamples. physicochemical analyses about 15 g of cocoa beans were carefully shelled manually. cocoa nibs were frozen in liquid nitrogen before finely grinding in a kitchenscale coffee grinding (moulinex, france) to the smallest particle (size  500 µm). ten grams of cocoa powder were putted in whatman cartridge and soaked in 350 ml of petroleum ether (prolabo normapur, type 40-60°c) for one night. cocoa butter was extracted on a soxhlet apparatus for 8 h. after eliminating of solvent in a rotary evaporator, ffa contents were quantified by the official method 42-1993 (ioccc, 1996). about 5 g of extracted cocoa butter was weighed (w) and dissolved in 50 ml of a previously hot petroleum ether/absolute ethanol mixture (1:1, v/v) neutralized by adding phenolphthalein. titration carried out with 0.1n alcoholic koh solution used (v) was noted. ffa (% oleic acid) was calculated as follows: ffa % oleic acid   28 .2  v  n  w statistical analysis data represent the means of triplicate determinations. analysis of variance were conducted using jmp software version 5 (sas institute, 2002) with mean separation performed by the lsd test (p<0.05). quadratic regression function at 0.05 confidence intervals was conducted using sigmaplot 8.0 software. results and discussion effect of cocoa processing technologies on the ffa content ffa content in whole healthy beans was low and ranged from 0.2 to 0.8%, irrespective of the genotype (figure 1). ffa contents are not significantly different whatever the genotype of cocoa. in the similar ffa content of pods ripeness degree (results not shown) or pods opening delay are around the same values (figure 2). slighter increasing ffa depending on the fermentation duration indicates a difference (lsd test, p<0.05) within fermented cocoa beans. initial and final ffa contents in cocoa beans fermented during over 3 days are higher than those in cocoa beans fermented below 3 days. cocoa beans fermentation duration seemed to be critical to increase the chances for ffa formation. furthermore after 5 months' storage ffa contents remained below f re e f a tt y a c id s c o n te n t (% ) 0,8 0,6 0,4 amelonado free descendances 0,2 hybrids 0,0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 storage time (months) figure 1. effect of cocoa genotype on ffa content during storage at 27°c, 75% hr for up to 5 months. bars represent the standard error of the mean (n=3). f re e f a tt y a c id s c o n te n t (% ) 0,7 0,6 0,5 0,4 0,3 2 days after harvesting 0,2 5 days after harvesting 9 days after harvesting 0,1 0,0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 storage time (months) figure 2. effect of pod opening delay on ffa content in cocoa beans during storage at 27°c, 75% hr for up to 5 months. bars represent the standard error of the mean (n=3). 1.75% (figure 3). the small changes observed in ffa content in controlled cocoa samples indicate that any appropriate cocoa processing technology did not have an appreciable impact on ffa formation during correct storage. effect of cocoa beans quality, physical integrity and decontamination on ffa content initial ffa contents in uncontrolled cocoa beans sampled according their quality at abidjan harbour were over 12 f re e f a tt y a c id s c o n te n t (% ) 0,8 0,6 0,4 1 day of fermentation 2 days of fermentation 0,2 3 days of fermentation 4 days of fermentation 5 days of fermentation 6 days of fermentation 0,0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 storage time (months) figure 3. effect of cocoa beans fermentation duration on ffa content during storage at 27°c, 75% hr for up to 5 months. bars represent the standard error of the mean (n=3). f re e f at ty a ci d s co n te n t (% w /w ) 20 18 16 whole clustered beans artifically brocken clustered beans 14 12 10 8 6 4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 storage time (weeks) figure 4. influence of artificially broken clustered beans on ffa content during storage at 27°c, 75% hr for up to 2 months. bars represent the standard error of the mean (n=3). fold higher in both clustered beans (6.23%) and black beans (7.48%) than those in healthy and intact beans (0.48%). the low ffa content in whole healthy beans increased from 0.48 to 0.78% and did not exhibit an appreciable change during over 12 weeks' storage (results not shown). considerable increasing ffa contents were observed in poor quality cocoa beans such as clustered beans where it increased from 6.23% to ca 11% (figure 4). no variation of ffa content was noted in black beans where ffa content remained around 10% (results not shown). bean clustering could have been caused either by harvesting of unripe pods, or by poor separation of the beans and placentas during cocoa pods opening. so beans would be clustered in placentas during and after fermentation. barel (1998) have mentioned that following f re e fa tt y a ci d c o n te n t (% w /w ) 25 artificially broken and untreated beans 20 15 10 5 artificially broken and decontaminated beans 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 storage time (weeks) figure 5. variation of ffa content in decontaminated artificially broken black beans during storage. solid lines indicate quadratic regression functions and broken lines indicate 0.05 confidence intervals for each function. inadequate drying due to a surface crust clustered cocoa beans show always high moisture content which favoured moulds growth. according to poisson and cahagnier (1979) and raghavendra and prakash (2002) foodstuffs with high moisture content were easily attacked by moulds. these moulds could produce lipase (wood and lass, 1985) which in contact with cocoa butter of broken cocoa nibs released ffa from triglycerides. black beans were probably originating from overripe pods infected by phytophthora sp. fungal diseases could create optimal conditions for the development of moulds (renaud, 1954), which in turn would lead to ffa formation. however, variable ffa content of black bean sample was probably due high variation among individual beans and insufficient sample size. given the variation of ffa content due probably to a highly heterogeneity of samples, it was not possible to characterize changes in ffa contents in storage conditions used. high ffa contents were due to poor quality of cocoa raw materials quality as previously demonstrated (guénot et al., 1976). slighter increasing of lower ffa contents in whole healthy beans than that in defective beans confirms that storage time did not affect ffa formation if processing technologies were previously appropriate. the greater the initial ffa content of the raw cocoa beans, or the lower the quality of the beans, the greater is this increase in ffa. and when cocoa beans were artificially broken, their ffa content increased strongly whatever cocoa beans initial quality. ffa content of decontaminated artificially broken beans remained unchanged and well below the considerably increasing ffa content in the untreated cocoa beans. using the quadratic regression functions at 0.05 confidence intervals indicates that the variations over storage time in ffa content of untreated cocoa beans sample and decontaminated sample are significantly different (figure 5). as decontamination prior to storage under sterile conditions stopped ffa formation in broken black beans only lipase activity of external origin can thus be considered. this conclusion was supported by many studies which demonstrated that plants in which lipases are detected during dormancy are rare. this is the case with the castoroil plant (ory et al., 1962) and nigella (mert et al., 1995). indeed, enzyme lipase is responsible for lipid breakdown in plants to produce the energy required for embryo growth (imeson et al., 1993). yet, during cocoa beans fermentation, the rise in temperature (50°c) and diffusion of acid products through the cotyledons due to partial cell walls lyses, hence death of germ and prevent germination (barel, 1998). in addition fermentation process induced contact between proteins and polyphenolic compounds hence inactivation of enzymatic proteins. indeed many polyphenolic compounds in plants were already described as enzyme activities inhibition factor (hagermann, 1992; kallithraka et al., 2001; misnawi et al., 2002). so cocoa beans endogenous enzymes could not be active in complete ferment dried cocoa beans (yusep et al., 2002). cocoa beans of poor quality deteriorate much faster than cocoa beans of hight quality. circumstantial evidence was presented that lipolytic activity leading to the ffa formation was due to microbes associated with other factors such as the quality, the phy sical condition, and the storage conditions of cocoa beans (guénot et al., 1976, oyeniran, 1979; 1980) and not to endogenous plant lipases by decontaminating part of the cocoa beans with hydrogen peroxide. similar results were obtained by hiol (1999) in previous study on formation of ffa in palm fruits caused by moulds. thus cultivation and identification of microbes responsible of ffa formation in raw cocoa beans was not elucidated in this study, yet the relatively high ffa content exhibited by the poor quality beans and no change observed in ffa content of decontaminated beans were good evidence to support their potential lipase-producing abilities and their action on cocoa butter. acknowledgements this research was supported by the cirad cocoa program montpellier. we are grateful to touton company, industrial private cocoa producer for providing cocoa pods and adm cocoa for their logistical support and providing of uncontrolled cocoa samples. references awua pk (2002). cocoa processing and chocolate manufacture in ghana. essex. david jamieson and associates press inc. barel ma (1998). première transformation du cacao. formation de l’arôme cacao. in j. pontillon. cacao, chocolat, production, utilisation, caractéristiques. 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full length research paper the effect of demographic factors (in floriculture) in acquiring ornamental plants marketing as a profession ehlinaz torun department of agricultural administration and marketing, university of kocaeli, kocaeli, turkey. e-mail: ehlinaz.torun@kocaeli.edu.tr. accepted 28 september, 2013 there are several factors in acquiring a profession in the present day, that is, in the late 20th century and beginning of 21st century. the most important of these factors are demographic factors. of those demographic factors, the characteristics such as gender, education level, income level and age are effective. therefore, people prefer jobs suitable to their own socio-economic structures and gender when they begin to work. in this study, the demographic factors, the effects of gender, age, education level and income level on acquiring floriculture profession were investigated. the results obtained from the field study entitled the effect of demographic factors in the profession of ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) are quite impressive. in the survey conducted in the different points of the provinces istanbul and kocaeli, randomly selected 50 subjects were taken as sample and the data were analyzed by spss 16.0 program by using several statistical methods. 51 of the subjects were female and 99 were male. this situation shows that masculine station comes to the forefront in floriculture as it does in every profession. mostly middle-aged or elder people do this profession. additionally, education is also known as effective in acquiring a profession. however, there may be no need for education for some jobs. it was seen that 54 of the subjects were graduates of primary school, 60 of them were graduates of secondary school, 30 of high school and 6 of universities. this study indicated that people who are graduates of primary and secondary school were more in ornamental plants marketing (in floriculture) and education was not important for the profession of floriculture. key words: floriculture, marketing, occupational gender, socio-economic structure. introduction in a modern society, one of the important development tasks of an independent person is choosing his/her job. if a person wants to make the right choice in any subject, or in other words, make a healthy decision, first of all, they should know what they want and what opportunities they have to achieve them. after or favourably with this process, they should examine various options and evaluate how suitable they are to their wishes and conditions. people who do not go through these processes mindfully and regard fully will absolutely get disappointed. it is observed that while making an important decision like the choice of profession, some young people do not perform the development task mentioned above and thus become upset. there are some factors which make it difficult for people to make up their minds about which profession to choose. young people’s beliefs and the generalizations they make about the world of business and human characteristics are some of these factors. the statement ‘in our country people cannot get the job they want’ is a wrong generalization. it is true that a group of young people cannot get the job they want because of poverty. however, not being able to get the job wanted is not only due to the lack of money. it is also observed that there are some wealthy young people who head for wrong fields. these people’s mistake results from their not questioning whether the job they want to acquire suits them or not (kuzgun, 2008). while choosing their profession, some people are insensible. in addition, their living conditions and surroundings make them acquire the jobs they do not really want to do as their profession. demographic factors also play a role in some jobs. one of these jobs is floriculture and now we will have a look at the factors effective in acquiring this profession and floriculture in general. a florist is a person who provides, arranges, presents ehlinaz 002 table 1. export of ornamental plants in turkey. years value (1.000 dollars) 2000 12.956 2001 14.282 2002 22.299 2003 31.485 2004 37.748 2005 36.229 2006 40.522 2007 46.447 2008 45.524 2009 49.150 anonymous, 2010 b. source: dtm. and sells cut flowers and indoor ornamental plants. floriculture can be defined as buying, selling and marketing all types of flowers and flowery plants; producing soil for flowers and gardens; indoor and outdoor botanic decoration of houses, summer houses, offices, tourism resorts; all services for balcony and landscape gardening, from the project phase to the application and the maintenance agreement; offering irrigation, illumination, plant production and research service and selling of all kinds of special equipment; selling engines, machines, botanic vehicles, medicine and tools for agricultural activity and offering transportation services. a florist plans material requirements, determines where to buy the flowers and equipment, classifies the flowers, cuts the flowers according to purpose, increases the stability of the flowers, prepares the pots or other containers of flowers, dresses the flower windows, prepares bouquets, arrangements and wreaths, decorates indoor and outdoor areas, receives orders, determines prices and labels the flowers, does turnovers, keeps records of the orders, prepares submission forms, delivers the order and makes out an invoice. today flowers and floriculture are not only ornamental, but they are also a profitable agricultural activity. many countries in the world have realized this and started to earn money from flowers. african countries are trying to get rid of starvation and colombia in south america is trying to get rid of drug traffic by growing and selling flowers. the yearly flower sales revenue of colombia is over $500 million. israel brings in $200 million by growing flowers in the desert and selling them. holland sells flowers to all european countries. both in turkey and in the world, ornamental plants are examined under four headings: cut flowers, indoor (potted) ornamental plants, outdoor ornamental plants and natural flower onions. cut flowers account for 57% of the total ornamental plant export, the live plants (indoor and outdoor plants) for 24%, wreaths and moss for 13% and flower onions account for 6% (anonymous, 2008). ornamental plants sector started to become commercially important in the beginning of the 20th century, but it had started to develop as an important line of business especially in developed countries (in holland, the usa and japan) before the second world war and then in some developing countries (in colombia, kenya and israel) (dpt 2001:4, doldur, 2008). today, for many countries, ornamental plants sector has become an effective commercial sector contributing to economy and one of these countries is turkey. in turkey, 20 cities were producing ornamental plants in the early years. this sector, once common in the marmara region, has started to move to the mediterranean and the aegean regions due to their climatic advantages (ay, 2009). ornamental plants production and trade are developing rapidly in turkey. ornamental plants are produced in 28 cities in turkey. the cities which have the highest production rates are antalya, izmir, yalova and i̇stanbul respectively. cut flower production made in the marmara and aegean regions (istanbul, yalova, izmir, aydın) is usually domestic market oriented (anonymous, 2010a). in turkey, there is development not only in the domestic market but also in the foreign one. turkey’s export of ornamental plants started 20 years ago and has had a steady growth. the main export product group is cut flowers, seedlings, saplings, indoor and outdoor plants, flower bulbs, moss and wreaths. the development of ornamental plant export in turkey by years is given in table 1. according to 2008 statistics, 60% of ornamental plants export of turkey is done in antalya. after the province of antalya, istanbul (10%), izmir (8%), and yalova (6%) respectively are important cities in ornamental plants export. due to the table land production made in isparta, burdur and korkuteli regions, export season has risen to 10 months from 7 months. today, turkey exports ornamental plants to about 35 countries. the most important markets of turkey in ornamental plants export are holland, england, germany, russian federation and ukraine. in cut flowers export holland, england, germany, russia and ukraine; and in the live plants export turkmenistan, turkish republic of northern cyprus and hungary are the important markets. the ornamental plants export of turkey has reached $45.5 million in 2008. turkey is in the 24th place in world ornamental plants export (anonymous, 2009). countries want to increase their export, but the inadequacy of the products (ornamental plants) they grow in their own hinterland and the socio-economic and cultural structure lead to an increase in the consumption of ornamental plants. in this case, countries start to import products to meet the demand. countries cannot meet all the demand as the type and number of the ornamental plants they grow in their hinterlands is limited. for this reason, they import ornamental plants in order to meet the demand (kelkit and bulut, 1998). ornamental plants farming is a general term, which is divided as cut torun 6013 003 afr. j. agric. mark. table 2. the reasons by gender for being a florist. the ideas of the florists about the reasons why they are doing floriculture business gender has no idea to learn the its being an enjoyable economic benefit total profession profession number % number % number % number % number % female 15 29.5 12 23.5 12 23.5 12 23.5 51 34 male 0 0.00 18 18.2 45 45.4 36 36.4 99 66 total 15 10 30 20 57 38 48 32 150 100 as chi-square: 8.690, df: 3, asymp. sig:0. 034, p< 0.05, ho: hypothesis is accepted (that is, there is an important relationship). flowers, indoor ornamental plants, outdoor ornamental plants and natural flower onions farming. with a share of 80%, cut flowers and indoor ornamental plants form an important group in the world market (groot, 1998). materials and methods the article on “the effects of the demographic factors in acquiring the ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) profession”, announcements, books, internet sources and the reports of the relevant institutions and organizations have been made use of. however, the survey study with the florists is the most important material of the research. as the method, a survey was done with 150 subjects chosen with the random sampling method in different points of the provinces istanbul and kocaeli. the reason to choose these cities is their being industrial and having a high population density. the data obtained from these surveys were analyzed by several statistical methods and programs. with the spss 16.0 program and crosstabs tables and the frequency and khi-kare (with 95% reliability and 5% error margin) analysis, several comparisons were made and the data obtained were evaluated. findings demographic characteristics gender gender identity is the personal conception of oneself according to their masculine or feminine traits. gender identity is talked about as the psychological gender of individuals and it can also be defined as the existential femininity or masculinity of individuals (bem, 1981). with the term gender, people usually mean the biological sex, and with gender identity they emphasize the psychological characteristics of the biological sex. according to the gender schema theory, people adopt behaviours, manners and traits matching their gender identity. the individuals’ classification of their accepted gender identity may affect their data processing period (yağcı and i̇larslan, 2010). in the gender-oriented division of labour, socio-cultural factors and patriarchal cultural values are determinant in the participation and position of women in labour market (anker and hein, 1986: 11; harttman, 2006; özçatal, 2009). in terms of profession, gender identity causes differences depending on a person’s being male or female. it seems that the careers of women have no importance in almost any sector and being a woman is a reference for them in determining whether they are suitable for the job or not (torun and ßener, 2009). in addition, women meet with obstacles while they are starting a job and throughout their occupational life. these obstacles are the conflict between the occupational life and traditional roles of women along with the social expectations fitting these roles (torun, 2010). the findings obtained from the study conducted show that gender has an effect on acquiring ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) profession. it is observed that the number of female managers is low, but the number of male managers is high. the reasons by gender for being a florist are given in table 2. in the khi-kare analysis done to determine whether there is a relationship between the gender and reasons why the florists are doing floriculture business, it came up that the relationship between them is important according to the 95% confidence interval (reliability). in other words, gender is an important factor in the floriculture business and mostly men do it. men have an idea of why they are doing this business, whereas most of the women florists (29.5%) do not have an idea as to why they are doing it. this result shows that gender is an important factor in acquiring floriculture profession. in the study conducted, out of 150 subjects, 51 were female and 99 were male. as seen in figure 1, 34% of the florists are female, whereas 66% are male. it is also understood that, as in most of the professions, there are more males in floriculture too and gender is an important factor in doing this business. this situation can be explained by men’s being more pushing in commercial affairs than women and women’s falling behind in professional life because of their roles provided by the society. in the study conducted, gender and age ranges of the florists have been examined and the findings are given in table 3. when table 3 is examined, it can be stated that there is no difference in the gender and age range distribution between people doing ornamental flower marketing business. the percentage (71%) of ehlinaz 004 34% male female 66% figure 1. gender distribution. table 3. gender and age distribution of ornamental plant marketers (florists). the age distribution of florists according to their gender (age ranges) gender 20-30 31-40 41-50 51+ total number % number % number % number % number % female 15 29 9 18 27 53 0 0.00 51 34 male 30 30.3 45 45.5 12 12.1 12 12.1 99 66 total 45 30 54 36 39 26 12 8 150 100 as chi-square= 1.548, df:2, asymp. sig.: 0.46, p> 0.05, ho: hypothesis is rejected (that is, there is no relationship). 15% 25% between 20-30 between 31-40 20% between 41-50 over 51 + 40% figure 2. age range of florists. women between the ages of 31 to 51+ is nearly the same as men’s (69.7%). there is no important relationship between the gender and age and according to table 3, the relationship between the age and gender of the florists is not found meaningful according to khi-kare analysis done with 95% reliability. it can be interpreted that whatever the age and gender of a florist is, it has nothing to do with their choosing this job as their profession. age in the analysis done in the study conducted, it is found that there is no relationship between the income levels and age groups of the people who have the floriculture profession. in addition, in no age range, there are people who have 100-900 tl monthly income. it is shown in table 4, that in each age group, the level of income is between income brackets of 901-2500+ tl a month. according to table 4, 66% of the people in the 31 to 50 age group earn more income from the profession. however, there is a decrease in the employment rate and earning value when the age range decreases or increases. the probable reason is that when people are at an early age or old age, they have difficulty in taking risks and complying with the conditions of the competition in the trading area. according to the study conducted, age also has an important effect in acquiring floriculture profession. as seen in figure 2 most of the florists are in the age range of 31 to 50; in other words, they are middle-aged. it is estimated that 15% of the florists are at the age of 20 to 30, 40% are 31 to 40 and 45% of them are in the age range of 41 to 50 and no florists at the age of 51 or over are run into. in this respect, it could be said that people can do this job in their most active period and there is the advantage of being able to follow the innovations and technology and using them. being a florist requires doing multiple jobs. for instance, floriculture (marketing torun 6015 005 afr. j. agric. mark. table 4. the distribution of the monthly income and age group of the florists. monthly income distribution of the florists (tl/month) total age 100-900 9011500 1501-2000 2001-2500+ number % number % number % number % number % 20-30 0 0.00 6 14 18 43 18 43 42 28 31-40 0 0.00 3 4.5 33 50 30 45.5 66 44 41-50 0 0.00 15 45.5 15 45.5 3 9 33 22 51+ 0 0.00 6 66.7 13 33.3 0 9 16 total 0 0.00 30 20 69 46 51 34 150 100 as chi-square=3.054, df: 4, asymp. sig: 0.549, p> 0.05, ho: hypothesis is rejected (that is, there is no relationship). table 5. the distribution of florists according to gender and education. v3 level of education total gender primary school secondary school high school college university number % number % number % number % number % female 18 35.3 9 17.6 24 47.1 0 0.00 51 34 male 36 36.3 51 51.5 6 6.1 6 6.1 99 66 total 54 36.4 60 40 30 20 6 4 150 100 as chi-square: 5,459 df: 3 asymp. sig.:0.141, p> 0.05, ho: hypothesis is rejected (that is there is no relationship). ornamental plants) starts at the stage when the crops are produced and prepared for the market and ends in the consumers’ house. meanwhile, the crops go through many processes and delivered in different ways to the customer in need. ornamental plants and their producers and marketers think of what they will cultivate. then they start ornamental plants production by investing capital. next they grow types of plants according to the wishes of the consumers. for a successful marketing, the florist should know the taste and preferences of the consumer (the demand, in other words) and grow plants according to and deliver them to the consumer. education level in general, a parallel structure is expected between the education level and the profession; however, in the floriculture business, it can be said that education level is not as important a factor as gender. as seen in table 5, when the distribution of the education level of people who acquire floriculture profession according to gender is examined, it is seen that there is no difference and relationship. 35.3% of female florists are primary school graduates, 17% are secondary school and 47.1% are high school graduates. there are no university graduate female florists in the subject group. when it comes to male florists, 36.3% of them are primary school graduates, 51.5% are secondary school, 6% are high school and 6.1% are university graduates. in the khi-kare analysis done between the gender and the education level of the florists, it is seen that the relationship between them is insignificant (figure 3). after the survey conducted, it is observed that the education level of people who have the profession of ornamental flowers marketing is low. 36.4% (54) of primary school graduates, 40% (60) of secondary school, 20% (30) of high school and 4% (6) of university graduates are florists. this shows that, in commercial affairs, a person needs to be at a certain age and have self confidence. in similar studies conducted, it is determined that education level is effective on behaviours. a study conducted by atılgan et al. (2007) showed that as the education level of the producers in the province of antalya in using chemical and organic fertilisers in the greenhouses increased, they started to give more importance to soil tests and do more farming in bigger greenhouses using more organic fertilizers. this also showed that there is an important relationship between the level of education and these parameters. level of income level of income is one of the indicators that determine the socio-economic status of people. to have an income, besides having a profession, a person needs to work somewhere and produce something. the most important variable of the socio-economic status is the profession of the individual (coleman, 1983). in addition to this, other components, such as education, wealth and hometown ehlinaz 006 45 36% 40% (% ) 40 35 le ve l 30 25 20% ed u ca ti o n 20 15 10 4% 5 0 primary secondary high university school school school figure 3. education levels of the florists. 50 44% (% ) 45 38% 40 le ve l 35 in co m e 30 25 18% 20 m o n th ly 15 10 5 0% 0 100-900 901-1500 2001-2500 1501-2000 figure 4. monthly income of floriculture. table 6. montly income distribution of florists according to their education level. monthly income of florists (tl/month) total level of education 100-900 901 -1500 1501 2000 20012500 number % number % number % number % number % primary school 0 0.00 9 15.8 24 42.1 24 42.1 57 38 secondary school 0 0.00 3 5.2 27 47.4 27 47.4 57 38 high school 0 0.00 12 44.5 12 44.5 3 11 27 18 college-university 0 0.00 6 66.7 3 33.3 0 0.00 9 6 total 0 0.00 27 18 66 44 57 38 150 100 as chi-square=9,626, df: 6, asymp. sig.: 0,141, p> 0.05, ho: hypothesis is rejected (that is, there is no relationship). are also important factors in determining the socioeconomic status (coleman, 1983; kalaycıoğlu et al., 1998; yağcı and i̇larslan, 2010). very high population density in kocaeli and istanbul, where the survey is conducted, enables the florists to maintain their income at a standard level. the most important factors of this is these cities’ being industrial cities with a high population and the florists’ (retailers) here being close to the flower producers. because of these, the cost of purchase is low and there is surplus value in their incomes (figure 4). the data showing the education and income levels of the subjects in the study conducted are given in table 6. according to these findings, there is no important relationship between the education and income levels of florists because the education level of people having this profession is already low. therefore, that there is no relationship between these two data is an expected situation. to survive and live a healthy life, people should have an adequate income or do a job where they will earn it. in torun 6017 007 afr. j. agric. mark. 5% 95% special occasions for p leasure figure 5. reasons why consumers buy flowers. 35% male female 65% figure 6. gender ratios of flower consumers. this study, the income levels of the subjects are examined and it is seen that they make enough profit to maintain their life standards in today’s conditions. it is determined that 20% of the florists earn 901-1500 tl monthly, 45% earn 1501-2000 tl, and 35% earn 2001-2500 tl. when it is considered that istanbul and kocaeli are industrial cities, this level of income will make floriculture one of the preferable professions. both the high level of income of the consumers and the continual growth of these cities due to migration bring about an increase in demand. in this regard, this question might be asked: what affects the demand for ornamental plants? the demand for ornamental plants is affected by: (i) the number of consumers, (ii) the income level of consumers, (iii) the taste and preferences of consumers, (iv) the price of ornamental plants, (v) the price of other products used instead of ornamenttal plants, (vi) advertisements and sales-increasing activities. according to the study, consumers use flowers for two reasons: as a present on special occasions and for their own taste and pleasure. (i) special occasions: on new year’s eve, special occasions (mother’s day, teacher’s day, valentine’s day, birthdays etc.), wedding receptions, festivals and acquaintance visits, consumers necessarily buy flowers and flower sales increase on these days. (ii) for pleasure: people’s use of flowers in their houses, gardens or offices and buying them for these purposes. the development of the flower demand depends upon the increase in the number of such people. according to a study conducted by holdur (2008), in the other countries of the world, people buy ornamental flowers for similar reasons to the ones in turkey. that is, he stated that they buy them for special occasions or for pleasure (figure 5). in the study conducted, it is seen that most of the buyers of ornamental flowers and their derivatives are men. the most important reason of this is the opposite sexes’ assigning several meanings to flowers and flower types at certain times and men’s feeling that they need to buy a flower to the opposite sex at those times (special occasions). women mostly buy flowers for pleasure and for occasions when it is necessary to buy them. in the study conducted it is seen that most of the flower consumers are male (figure 6). 65% of the consumers are male and 35% are female. the flower types the consumers prefer change depending ehlinaz 008 5% 20% orchid 50% rose daisy 25% carnation figure 7. sales rates according to flower types. marketing channels of cut flowers limited liability flower production and intermediary people flora flower production and marketing cooperative (stockbrokers) marketing cooperative auctions in the cities flower shops-street hawkers and stalls consumers figure 8. channels used in the marketing of cut flowers (source: samilfidancilik.com). on the seasons, prices, people’s taste and the reason for the need. research results of the most preferred flower types by the consumers in kocaeli and istanbul are given in figure 7. flower market is busy and changeable. as there are a lot of different types and species of flowers, the consumers may have unpredictable demands. therefore, florists can increase and maintain the continuity of sales by guessing the wishes of the consumers in advance and retaining those flowers. otherwise, they cause a decrease in the market share and thus affect the market growth rate negatively. according to the data on figure 7, the sales rates of the flower types in the domestic market are as follows. with 50% carnation sales have the highest rate, daisy 25%, rose 20% and orchid has the lowest rate with 5%. according to this order, the types that are most preferred on special occasions are carnations, daisies and roses respectively. apart from that the flower prices are also effective in preference order. the orchid has the lowest sales rates because it is an expensive flower.the flower types that have the highest sales rate are the cut flowers. therefore, the marketing channels used in the marketing of cut flowers are given on figure 8. in our country, as in the other fields of agricultural activity, the businesses that do ornamental plant farming are small family businesses. there are 6 to 7 thousand floriculturists and more than 10 thousand florists in turkey. about 5 thousand families in turkey do cut flower business. today most of the businesses that produce for the domestic market and market their product through the flower cooperatives have the characteristics of small family businesses. the internal marketing of the cut flowers in turkey is done through flower cooperatives. currently, there are two cooperatives based in istanbul in turkey. in the 20 flower auctions of flower cooperatives in 14 cities, flowers of about 6000 floriculturists are sold to florists. the figures are not official but there are over 9 thousand florists in turkey and about half of them are in service in istanbul (anonymous, 2010c). gender is a 009 afr. j. agric. mark. classification variable, which has been used in traditional marketing for a long time especially to determine consumer behaviours. however, in today’s rapidly changing world, it has become necessary to go beyond the traditional models in understanding consumer behaviours. at this point, we come across the term “gender identity” which we hear often recently and which will help the marketers come over the complexity of consumer behaviours (yağcı and i̇larslan, 2010). conclusion and suggestions as a result of the study conducted, it is seen that gender has an important role in acquiring the ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) profession and that mostly men prefer it. as in all professions, there is hegemony of men in this profession too. this situation results both from the social structure differences and the inadequate availability of the economic freedom of women in working areas and their not being as brave as men in taking risks. when women are acquiring a business or profession, they prefer the less risky ones or the ones with government guarantee (teaching, nursing, pharmacy etc.). it seems that they would rather not be self-employed. women’s acquiring floriculture profession will bring about more development in this sector and, in case of acquiring this profession; their sophistication and creativity will help them achieve more economic profit. as it will provide more circulation both in flower and side products sales, they will have a steady job and continuity in their financial income. furthermore, when flower sales are examined, it is seen that the buyers are mostly men. this situation is an advantage in terms of female florists, but male florists can also make use of this advantage by employing a woman. why and how? because flowers are a symbol of elegance, beauty, best wishes happiness, sharing and many more things. when this symbol is combined with the sophistication and creativity of women, there will absolutely be an increase in flower and side product sales. therefore, acquiring floriculture or ornamental plants marketing profession will be important both for women and men. how? male managers (acquiring floriculture profession) will see that employing women and men trained for this sector will be much more beneficial for them. age profiles are also as important in acquiring ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) profession. in the study conducted, it is observed that mostly middleaged or elder people acquire this profession. this situation reveals information about people’s undertaking economic risks. it seems that they do this business as a second job mostly after retirement or as a predecessor job. education level of people has also revealed interesting results in acquiring ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) profession. it is determined that people torun 6019 acquiring this job are mostly primary, secondary or high school graduates. university graduates don’t usually acquire this line of business. the most important reason of this is that besides the low number of schools on floriculture, the training on this area is done only as a course/subject in the other occupational groups (such as landscape architecture). in this study, that level of education in acquiring ornamental plants marketing (floriculture) profession is low doesn’t mean that education is unimportant. on the contrary, the level of education is very important in all lines of business especially in the ones including marketing. today, our target market is made up of conscious-consumers and thus they have or want to get information about the products they purchase. for this reason, each profession expert should not only know the details of their business or profession, but they also have to have a good education on the relevant areas. as marketing is an extensive field, people should have the sufficient education and knowledge to become successful. in today’s circumstances, when the capitalist class prevails and imperialist powers show themselves, it seems inevitable that to compete with others and become successful, besides education and knowledge, we need to have the ability and the power to be able to use the tools and materials of the information age. in today’s circumstances, the income obtained from ornamental plants marketing cannot be underestimated. a monthly income rate of 1501-2500 tl cannot be regarded as little. this study coincides with the 20092010 global crisis period. getting these figures during this period can mean that these amounts will be higher in normal periods. in addition, if we consider that ornamental plants demand includes products appealing to taste and special occasions -the products other than the necessitiesit can be said that, in terms of its being a promising job, the importance of acquiring this profession will increase much more. the types of flowers sold the most in ornamental plants marketing are carnations, daisies, roses and orchids respectively. this shows that cut flower types are preferred more by the consumers and that these are the most preferable types of flowers for special occasions. the reasonable prices of the flowers demanded the most are also one of the reasons why they are more popular than the other types. in other words, the supply and demand equilibrium in the market affects the sales amount and the price of the products. therefore, it can be said that people who want to acquire ornamental plants marketing profession (floriculture) need to have knowledge and training on many fields such as the market and the protection and transportation of the products. due to the problem of unemployment in the world and in turkey as well in the present day, the effects of occupational education and training in terms of creating entrepreneurs and employment for the other individuals ehlinaz 010 while doing their own business, and the florists which are one of the agricultural marketing institutions that provide brokering service for the products produced and play an effective role on marketing were particularly investigated in this research. it was examined whether occupational education and training and education level were effective in doing this profession. in the research conducted, it was found out that education level was not effective; however, it was inferred that occupational education and training would be effective in marketing and creating employment. references anker r, ve hein c (1986).“sex inequalities in urban employment in the third world”, new york: st. martin’s press. anonymous (2008). ornamental plants export report of turkey. republic of turkey undersecretariat of the prime ministry for foreign trade antalya exporter unions, turkey. anonymous (2009). ornamental plants export report of turkey., republic of turkey undersecretariat of the prime ministry for foreign trade antalya exporter unions, turkey. anonymous (2010a). “ornamental flowers sectoral report of turkey”, undersecretariat of the prime ministry for foreign trade antalya exporter unions. anonymous (2010 b). undersecretariat of the prime ministry for foreign trade (dtm.) bim reports, ankara. anonymous (2010c). “ornamental plant growing and cut flower sector”. ankara exchange of commerce (http://ankaratb.tobb.org.tr., 22. 10 2010). atılgan a, coẟkan a, saltuk b, erkan m (2007). “levels of chemical and organic fertilizer use in the greenhouses in antalya region and their possible environmental effects”. j. ecol., 15(62): 37-47, ay s (2009). “the export, problems and solution proposals of ornamental plants: investigation of sampling in yalova” süleyman demirel university faculty of econ. admin. sci. j., 14(3): 423-443. bem sl (1981). “gender schema theory: a cognitive account of sex typing”. psychol. rev., 88 (july): 354–364. coleman rp (1983). “the continuing significance of social class to marketing”. j. consum. res., 10 (dec): 265–280 coughlın m, ve o’connor pj (1985). “gender role portrayals in advertising: an individual differences analysis”. assoc. consum. res., 12: 238-241. doldur h (2008). “production and trade of the cut flower”. i̇stanbul university, faculty of science and letters, department of geography., geogr. j., 16: 26-45.issn no:1302-7212, istanbul. dpt (state planning organization) (2001).“ plant production specialization commission ornamental plants sub commission cut flowers report”. viii: five year development plans, dpt 2645öi̇k 653, ankara. groot sp (1998). “floriculture worldwide trade and consumption patterns”, roma, world conference on horticultural research, 1998, pp. 75-78. harttmann h (2006). “the unhappy marriage of marxism and feminism” (translated into turkish by: gülẟat aygen), istanbul: agora. kalaycıoğlu s, kardam f, tüzün s, ulusoy m (1998). “an approach towards developing a socioeconomic status scale and trials”. j. soc., 13(2): 126-137. kelkit a, bulut y (1998). “the importance of geothermal energy in ornamental plant growing in the greenhouses”. ecology, 29: 21-24. kuzgun y (2008). “what to know when choosing a profession”. ösym (student selection and placement center) (viewed on: 08.06.2010). özçatal eö (2009). “socio-demographic and cultural factors affecting the participation of women in labour market and working conditions”, sakarya university international interdisciplinary women’s studies congress, pp. 51-60. torun e, ßener n (2009).“the use of the women visuality in social life in an economic sense”, sakarya university international interdisciplinary women’s studies congress, pp. 344-353. torun e (2010). “socio-economic status of women according to development levels of countries and structure in turkey. afr. j. agric. res., 5(11): 4 june 2010. available online at issn: 1991-637x © 2010 academic journals. yağcı mi̇, i̇larslan n (2010). “the effect of advertisements and gender identity role on consumer buying behavior”. doğuẟ univ. j., 11(1): 138-155. www.samilfidancilik.com (2010). “marketing of ornamental flowers”. (viewed on 08.06.2010). in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 2 (9), pp. 160-170, september, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper substantial factors that can influence the economic growth of pakistan *benazir ali bhutto, malik mian hussain and moeen mazari department of economics, al-hamd islamic university, quetta, pakistan. accepted 17 july, 2014 how economic growth can be stimulated? this question has called the attention of every policy maker and economist to find the answer. what factors can affect the economic growth? the answer of this question is unclear so far. after the endogenous growth theory as given by romer (1986, 1990), lucas (1988) and grossman and helpman (1991) knowledge is being considered as an important and endogenous determinant of economic growth. the latest knowledge (technology) is essential for developing countries to catch-up with developed economies. economic liberalization refers to both trade liberalization and financial liberalization. trade liberalization means reduction in trade restrictions like tariff, quota or other trade barriers which discourage the international trade. on the other hand, more capital inflow and outflow as a result of foreign direct investment (fdi), portfolio investment or worker remittances show that the country is financially integrating with rest of the world. how the economic liberalization affect the economy of any particular country. whether this economic liberalization is good or bad for developing country has become a huge policy debate. key words: technology transmission, liberalization, r&d spillovers, foreign direct investment (fdi). introduction almost all developing economies face the scarcity of technology. technology is very essential to enhance the productivity of factor of production and economic growth. that‟s why developing countries have low economic growth than developed countries, because the developing countries spend less on research and development while developed countries heavily spend on r & d. furthermore, high concentration of technology is in the hands of developed counties. according to the global competitive *corresponding authors. email: bhuttoli7@gmail.com ness report 2011 to 2012, pakistan ranks at 93 number in term of availability of latest technology index while india ranks at 47, turkey 52 and sri lanka 63. these figures clearly show pakistan‟s weak r&d base as compared to countries of her region. so dependence on foreign source of technology is very crucial and important for pakistan. similarly, world economic forum which have ranked all the counties to see at what extent business of a country can absorb new technology. according to report (2011 to 12), pakistan‟s rank is 92 while india`s rank is 41, sri lanka`s 42 and turkey has ranked at 44. the index which evaluates the capacity of fdi for the transmission of new technology into a country has ranked pakistan in the rank of 121, india in 38 and sri lanka in 45. there are many channels through which technology benazir et al. 160 can be transferred from developed countries. the direct import of technology embodied machinery and intermediate goods is one channel of transmission of technology. foreign direct investment by multinational companies (mncs) is another source of international technology transmission. the mncs import not only technological modern machinery but also the ideas and knowledge generated through r & d carried out in parent country. in addition there is movement of employees or managerial talent from developed economies to low and middle income economies when these countries open their economies. kortum (many studies have identified the different channels of technology transformation like eaton 1996) considered licensing agreements as a direct channel of transfer but according to world investigation report (2010), the licensing agreement cannot bring the valuable and latest technology. to absorb the foreign technology brought by foreign investors, the absorption capacity of host country matters a lot. most studies use an appropriate level of human capital as a measure of absorption capacity 1 . because, without minimum level of skill or knowledge (absorptive capacity), local firms cannot get knowledge benefit of technology transmission via foreign direct investment (unctad, 2010). 2 to absorb the foreign technology brought by foreign investor, the absorption capacity of host country matters. most studies use level of human capital as measure of absorption capacity 3 . the negative relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growths indicates the lack of high skilled labor force and basic infrastructure to absorb the foreign technology which comes through foreign direct investment. this lack of capabilities and inefficiencies in technological learning prevent spillover impact of mnc‟s on economic growth of pakistan. as without minimum level of skill or knowledge (absorptive capacity) the local firms cannot get knowledge benefit of technology transmission through foreign direct investment (unctad, 2010). 4 many studies have shown that foreign sources of technology are important contributor to productivity growth for the developed economies. less developed economies spend less on r & d and face scarcity of modern technology. the import of technology or trans-mission of technology from developed countries is a key question for their economic growth. there is a lot of controversy regarding the technology transmission whether it is good or bad for developing countries. some economist argues that more open economies have more ability to absorb technology generated in advanced countries. some economist like coe and helpman (1995) showed that transmission of technology and related knowledge from developed counties to developing countries through export and 1 nelson and phelps (1966), benhabib and spiegel (1994). 2 united nation conference on trade and development, 2010. 3 nelson and phelps (1966), benhabib and spiegel (1994). 4 united nation conference on trade and development, 2010. import will be more effective in economies with better and advanced education. several economists favor the hypothesis of “learning by exporting”. there is a lot of literature which shows that exporters are more productive on average as compared to non-exporters 5 . the question is whether the productivity increases because of “learning by exporting” or productivity leads to more export? most evidences are in the favor that when any country starts exporting, the firms of that country get benefit from interacting with customer of the world. these customer demand higher quality products and in this way impose condition to produce higher standard products as compared to domestic customer demand. after entering into the foreign markets, firms gain new knowledge and latest technical expertise which facilitate to improve their efficiency level. other positive contribution of economic liberalization through trade openness to growth can be that liberalization increases specialization and division of the labor thereby improving productivity and export capability. expansion production of exportable products can lead to production growth by adoption and transmission of modern method of production. many theorists also are in the view that gains from trade can be in the form that the reduction of trade restriction increase the economic efficiency by making consumers and producers able to buy items at lowest cost. openness is an important issue but little research has been done on the significance of inter-national technology transmission for the low and middle income economies like pakistan. trade and investment policies of pakistan are fairly liberal since the late 80s the average tariff rate come down to just 20% in 2001 to 02 which is only half as compared to the mid-1990s. in the foreign investment policy 1997 pakistan has opened most sectors of economy to fdi, by giving 100% foreign ownership except some conditionality like the provision of national treatment to foreign companies by following the wto obligations by giving some incentives such as duty and tax exemptions and some other concessions. pakistan has taken many steps for inward fdi but is not able to attract large fdi. fdi is very important for pakistan but it has played a small role in pakistan economy. in most year of the ratio of fdi to gdp is less than 1%. after independence fdi was very crucial for the success of both import substitution and infant industry. according to the latest ranking year 2011 given in table 1, china is the major trade partner of pakistan by replacing us which remain largest trade partner and now is at third position in the list of top ten trade partners of pakistan. on the other hand japan is not in this list. this shows that pakistan‟s dependence on american and european markets is declining and trade within the asia is increasing. in recession of 2008 to 09, asia has helped to save the world because of huge markets provided by 5 (bernard and jensen 1999) 161 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. latest ranking year 2011. countries bilateral trade in the year 2011 (us dollar) bilateral trade exports imports china 7.423bn 1.634bn 5.789bn uae 7.284bn 1.808bn 5.476bn usa 5.767bn 3.957bn 1.810bn saudi-a 4.975bn 428m 4.547bn kuwait 3.425bn 95m 3.330bn malaysia 2.626bn 166m 2.460bn afghanistan 2.509bn 2.337bn 172m germany 2.210bn 1.272bn 938m india 2.007bn 264m 1.743bn uk 1.835bn 1.206bn 629m source: basic data federal bureau statistics, government of pakistan the chinese and indian economies. the phenomenal economic growth of india and china has shifted the direction of pakistan‟s exports and imports from american and european markets to the asian markets. after the great recession of 2008 to 09 and global financial crisis, non-western nations had felt the need of minimizing dependence on dollar as a medium of trade. china has signed local currency swap agreements (lcsa) with 14 countries including pakistan from 2008 to 2011. after the us and eu sanctions on iran, there are more currency swaps agreements in asian countries. pakistan has signed currency swap agreement with turkey in november 2011 and with china in december 2011. currency swap agreement with iran is in the final stage and this is also expected with malaysia, russia and some central asian states. this would help to boost the trade within the region. these new opportunities have been opened in asia and middle eastern countries for pakistan to boost economic growth by exporting to these markets and by importing the capital goods from these economies. business experts believe that pakistan‟s top bilateral trade partners are changing because of average better growth in asia than in europe and america and economic miracle of china. chinese investment projects are increasing in pakistan 6 . at the same time, our imports are increasing from india because pakistan has given the status of most favored nation by removing non-tariff barriers. pakistan‟s trade with india and china is in deficit. pakistan has potential to improve its trade relation with asian countries and can increase export to these economies because of similarities of consumers in tastes and priorities. in the list of top ten largest trade partners of pakistan, seven are from asia. pakistan can import machinery and other technological goods from these economies at low transportation cost as compared to american and european economies. pakistan is also one of those countries which allocate very minor amount on r & d and faces scarcity of technology, so foreign sources of technology are very important for pakistan. main focus of this study will be to examine the long-run and shortrun impact of technology (knowledge) transmission on economic growth of pakistan by using bounds testing approach to co integration within an autoregressive distributed lag (ardl) 7 and thereby the importance of several channels of economic liberalization like the direct import of technological machinery and intermediate goods, export of goods and services and transformation of modern technology, ideas, knowledge and managerial talent from developed economies through mncs for economic growth of pakistan. the outline of this research is as follows. the second section will provide the comprehensive review of the literature. the third section will present the empirical analysis which includes model specification, econometric specification result discussion and sensitivity analysis. the fourth and final section will provide the conclusion and policy recommendation. objectives of the study this research has been conducted for identifying different channels of foreign technology transformation and their impact on economic growth of pakistan through long-run and short-run empirical investigation. moreover, we aim to give policy suggestions for the promotion of technology transformation and effective use of this technology by developing absorption capacities of pakistan. literature review caves (1974) discovered that there might be two different 6 “president of the federation of pakistan chambers of commerce and 7 pesaran et al, (2001) industry” benazir et al. 162 impacts of foreign knowledge spillovers that had competitive effect and technology diffusion effect. the result of this study confirmed that in industry where the proportion of output produced by foreign owned firms was higher, the domestic owned firms had higher value added per worker. this finding supported the view that firms had taken benefit of foreign knowledge or technology and it had increased the efficiency of domestic owned firms. barro (1991) examined the relationship between exports and economic growth by using the data of middle east and african countries. the simple ordinary least square regression was used. the results showed that there was positive and significant correlation between exports and economic growth. the major shortcoming of this study was that this had not shown the direction of relationship that is, either relation was from export to growth or from growth to exports. eaton and kortum (1996) had shown that international licensing agreements as a direct way to transfer foreign technology but according to world investment report 2000, technology transfer through this source was not important because it did not contain modern technology. edwards (1998) checked the relationship between trade liberalization and total factor productivity (tfp) by using indexes of openness. he used the data of 93 developed and developing countries and estimated 18 growth equations by using random effect model. from these estimates he computed tfp and then regressed tfp on income, initial labor and openness indicators. the results indicated that all the coefficient of openness had expected signs and in most of cases it is significant. the coefficient on initial labor force was significant and positive while of initial income it was negative. he concluded that trade openness had positive effect on economic growth. xu and wang (2000) examined the impact of trade and foreign direct investment as channels for technology transmission from industrialized countries to less developed countries. they also checked impact of this technology on tfp of these countries. the sample of 21 oecd 8 countries for the period from 1971 to 1990 was used. three channels, capital goods trade, inward fdi and out ward fdi were considered for technology transmission. ordinary least squares with white‟s hetero scedasticity consistent covariance estimation method were used to the cobb-douglas production function to estimate the required results. the results showed that the technology which comes through the imports of capital goods had a sizeable positive effect on a country‟s total factor productivity. that was strong empirical support for the trade as channel of foreign technology diffusion. to examine the role of fdi a sample of 13 oecd countries for the period of 1983 to 90 was used. the results showed the outward fdi brings technology back to the home country through the multinational enterprises. there were some short comings in this study. for example cobb-douglas production function does not take into account the endogeneity problem in the variable. there was need to develop theoretical justification for methods used and also more attention should be paid to econometric issues. chakraborty and basu (2002) examined the causality from gdp to fdi in indian economy by using cointegration and error-correction models. results showed that causality run from gdp to fdi rather from fdi to gdp in the indian economy. hoekman et al. (2005) provided the theoretical analysis on technology transmission from developed to developing countries. this study has identified four major channels of foreign technology transformation which are trade in products, trade in knowledge or transmission of techniques and methods of production, foreign direct investment and fourth one is movement of people from one country to another. this study argued that technological goods imported form developed counties are associated with higher total factor productivities (tfp) in developing country so there is recommendation for liberal trade policies. this study has developed certain type of policies recommendation on the basis of this argument as a guide for both home policy makers and also for wto 9 trade related rules. husain (2005) analyzed the impact of trade liberalization policy on economic growth of pakistan for the period from 1972 to 2002. he used the johansson co-integration test to check the long run relationship between trade liberalization and economic growth of pakistan. the volume of trade that is, imports plus exports were used as proxy for trade liberalization and other variables are population and investment growth. the stationary of the variables was checked by using adf 10 test and all the variables were found to be stationary at first difference which gave support to use johansen co-integration test to check the long run relationship between trade liberalization and economic growth. the result showed that trade liberalization has a negative impact on economic growth in long run, which is 1% increase in trade volume lead to 0.19% decrease in gdp growth of pakistan. when total trade volume was used separately in total exports and total imports, the positive but insignificant results were found. all this showed that there was no clear cut answers to the question whether trade liberalization positively affect the economic growth or negatively. narayan and smyth (2005) have examined the impact of trade liberalization on economic growth of fiji by using cobb douglas production function with making little modification in order to take into account the impact of political instability and trade liberalization from 1986 to 2000. a recently developed autoregressive distributed lag (ardl) bounds testing approach was used to estimate the model. they used taxes on trade as a variable of openness and dummies for political instability. 9 world trade organization 8 “organization for economic co-operation and development” 10 augmented dicky-fuller long-run results were consistent to the theory and showed that there is a co integration relationship amongst the exogenous and dependent variable. but the coefficient of labor force was negative. investment and human capital have positive signs and statistically significant at 10% of level of significance. the dummy variable which was used to capture the impact of political instability of fiji had negative sign and significant at 1%. this is consistent with the view that political instability has bad impact on economic activities in the country. the exports variable in the long-run have positive sign but insignificant and in the short-run the results are ambiguous. also the results of tax on trade which measure the degree of trade openness are not clear cut. the weak relationship of exports and investment with gdp is alarming for fiji. it is necessary for fiji to raise investment to about 20 to 25% in order to achieve 5% target of gdp growth rate. driffield and henry (2007) examined the importance of absorptive capacity and institutional quality of host country for making the foreign technology more effective for the economic growth of host country. the absorptive capacity of foreign technology is measured by the level of human capital which is the average level of schooling for the population of 25 years and above. institutional quality is measured by two ways. first was measured by index of legal structure and property rights and secondly it was measured through quality of bureaucracy. the threshold regression analysis has been used to get the results for the group of 57 developing countries over the period from 1970 to 1998. the results of this study showed that in the case of trade as a channel of foreign technology the institutional quality is more effective for growth effects, while in the case of fdi a channel of foreign technology, the human capital is found to be more effective for economic growth. this means that in the case of fdi, absorptive capacity of host country matters. cuaresma and scharler (2008) investigated the importance of absorptive capacity of foreign technology in effecting the productivity of the host county. a sample of 21 organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) countries were used from 1973 to 1997. there were assumption that there are two major channels of foreign technology that is, imports of intermediate and capital goods and fdi. proxies of market regulation and wage bargaining were used to measure the absorption barriers. foreign r&d stokes were constructed by their import share weighted aver-ages of the country‟s own r&d stock. the overall results showed that the foreign r&d have positive impact on the economic growth of the countries which have lower levels of market regulation, employment protection and lower barriers to the entrepreneurship. krammer (2008) examined the impact of international spillovers via trade and fdi on economic growth of 27 transition and 20 western european countries over the period from 1990 to 2006 by using latest technique of panel unit root and co integration test. there were two channels of foreign r&d stocks (i) 163 afr. j. agric. mark. foreign r&d stocks embodied in imports (ii) foreign r&d stocks embodied in fdi. domestic r&d capital stocks and human capital were used as control variable. domestic r&d capital stock is based on the gross expenditure on r&d and for human capital, the proxy of average years of secondary schooling in male population over 25 year old was used. human capital measured the absorption capacity of host country. the finding of this study showed that both trade and fdi remains the main carrier of foreign technology both trade and fdi have significant impact on tfp but fdi have smaller impact as compare to trade in the case of both developed and developing countries. the human capital and domestic r&d stocks which were used as absorption capacity and control variable play a crucial role in tfp of these countries. on the basis of these results it can be concluded that openness to both trade and fdi is very crucial and beneficial for developing economies but to use this foreign technology more efficiently there is need of skilled educated labor force and domestic r&d stocks in order to absorb foreign technology. chandran and munusamy (2009) investigated the long run impact of openness on growth of manufacturing sector of malaysia by using the annual data from 1970 to 2003. the source of data is malaysia economic statisticstime series, published by the development of statistics, malaysia. the data includes the value added output of manufacturing sector, net fixed capital, number of labor and trade openness. to include the impact of asian financial crisis 1997 to 1998, the dummy variable was used. to estimate the result the co-integration test was performed using the autoregressive distributive lag (ardl) method. to check the long run relationship the bond testing approach was used. the results showed that there exist long run relationship among the manufacturing value added output and all the independent variables. but short run results revealed that in the short run openness have no effect on the growth of manufacturing sector of malaysia. the conclusion of this study showed that any country can only benefit form economic openness if it uses openness as source of growth on long term basis. in the case of discontinuity in trade policy or opening up of economy for only short time could not encourage the economic growth of any country. guessan and yue (2010) investigated the long-run impact of trade liberalization and foreign direct investment on the economic growth of cote d`ivoire by using the time series data from 1980 to 2007. the variables which were used are output defined by per capita real gdp of cote d`ivoire, foreign direct investment which is also in real form, openness was measured by the total sum of total export and total import as the ratio of gdp, labor measured by total labor force and for capital the proxy of real value of gross fixed capital formation was used. data of all the variables were taken from world development indicator (wdi, 2008). aggregate production function was used in order to benazir et al. 164 check the relationship and this function was estimated by using bounds testing co integration procedure which is ardl 11 bounds testing approach to investigate the longrun as well as short-run impact of all exogenous variables on the economic growth of cote d`ivoire. before estimating the model the stationary status was checked by using the unit root test and result showed that all the variables were stationary at first difference. ardl results showed that there is long-run relationship among the explanatory and dependent variables. the results of causality test showed the unidirectional causal relationship exists which is from independent variables to economic growth. in this case fdi and trade openness have significant and positive impact on economic growth of cote d`ivoire. this brings the policy recommendation for cote d`ivoire that the policy makers should formulate economic policy in such a way to attract more foreign direct investment along with reducing the trade restrictions in order to achieve higher economic growth. brain drain means emigration of a proportion of the population which is comparatively highly educated as relative to average population. haque and kim (1995) concluded in their study that emigration causes brain drain which reduces the economic growth. zhu yiying (2010) tried to investigate how china has become the most attractive place for fdi and how this fdi effect the economy of china by bringing the foreign technology into china. the author used the theoretical frame work to explain his point of view. as a result of reforms and opening up policy of china, a record fdi have come to china during the last three decades. fdi not only brings technology to china but also there is establishment of r&d centers by mncs which help to localize their products to create competitive environment in china`s markets. this market competition brings developing momentum in the host economy. foreign companies provide advices and professional assistance to the local suppliers which help to accelerate the growth of local enterprises and healthy competition. in this way, fdi acts as source of positive technology diffusion to host country. boermans (2010) analyzed that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporting because of “learning exporting” by using firm level data of africa from 1991 to 2003 collected by the survey of world bank (rped) 12 . the results showed that african exporting firms are more productive and significantly learning by exporting as compared to the non-exporting firms. the exporting firms are more active and competitive internationally as compared to domestic firms. therefore, government should formulate such policies which help to make domestic firms more active internationally through export promotion programs. 11 autoregressive distributed lag 12 “regional program on enterprise development” empirical analysis model specification and data sources many theorists are of the view that technology is key determinant of sustainable economic growth. creation of new products which expands the knowledge and new ideas is also vital for growth. alternatively consumers prefer more of the new products and may be willing to pay more for products which are consistent with latest fashion. as the new products come through new ideas, new knowledge, so the international trade can acts as source to transfer these new ideas or knowledge internationally. in pakistan many studies was done on trade openness and economic growth but no one has investigated the effect of foreign technology on growth which comes from imports of goods. there are many factors which are critical about the effectiveness of foreign technology for the economic growth of host country. if the traded goods are more r&d intensive then this type of trade will have significant positive impact on economic growth of importing country 13 . as the goods produced by developed country is r&d intensive so opening up of trade by developing country like pakistan with developed country like japan or usa will have significant positive impact on economic growth of pakistan. this impact will also depend on the human capital of developing country. although the opening up of trade is critical for developing countries but alone trade openness is not enough for economic growth. the effectiveness of imported technology also depends on the absorptive capability and ability to adopt foreign technology, which further depend on the local circumstances of host country 14 . absorption of foreign technology is also affected by the distance of host country from the global frontier (keller 2002). hejaji and safarian (1999) summarized theoretical argument for inward fdi and trade as channels for technology diffusion. fdi is channel to bring the foreign capital, management expertise and production technology 15 . howitt (2000) and mayer foulkes and howitt (2000) are of the view that flow of ideas, new method of production and management skill through the movement of peoples across the countries benefit the production growth of especially developing economies. the emigration of people of pakistan is used as proxy to capture impact of this flow of ideas. most of the researchers including ahmed and anoruo (1999-2000), edward (1998), edward (1992), harrison (1996), isean (1998), santos (2002) and wacziarg (2001) have used total exports and imports as independent variable in their growth models. many studies like coe and helpman, (1995), keller (2000). xu and wang (1999), mayer (2001), have concluded that 13 coe and helpman (2004) 14 evenson and westphal (1995) 15 (johnson, 1972), blomstrom and kokko (1997), aitken and harrison (1999), borensztein, de gregorio and lee (1998) and blomstrom and sjoholm (1999) import of capital goods is a major channel of foreign technology and source of productivity for developing economies. some economists like clerides, lach and tybout (1997) are of the views that exporting to industrialized counties is a source of learning or acts as learning by exporting. chuang (2000), greenaway and sapsford (1994) and dollar (1992) have found that exports have positive impact on growth. there is a lot of empirical work done on the issue to examine the impact of liberalization on economic growth of pakistan but no one examined the relative importance of several channels of transformation of technology from developed countries to pakistan as a result of liberalization of economy. so there is need to empirically examine importance of technology transmission for the economic growth of pakistan. pakistan is also one of those countries which allocate very minor amount on r & d and faces scarcity of technology, so foreign sources of technology are very important for pakistan. main focus of this chapter is to empirically examine the significance of transmission of technology as result of liberalizing economy for economic growth of pakistan. on the bases of literature and economic theories, the following model will be employed. as shown in table 2. ln(y)t = f[ln(k)t, ln(l)t, ln(texp)t, (mtec)t, (fdi)t, ln(emg)t] or ln(y)t = β0 + β1 ln(k)t+ β2ln(l)t+ β3 (mtec)t+ β4 (fdi)t+β5 ln(texp)t+β6ln(emg)t +μt mtec 16 is technology goods import intensity defined as imports of technology goods divided by total import 17 . fdi is the foreign direct investment to gdp ratio is used as other channel of technology diffusion supported by lot of literature. data of both the variables mtec and fdi is taken from economic survey of pakistan. the variables ln(texp)t and ln(emg)t are the natural logarithm of total export and total number of emigrants annually respectively. both are important indicators of economic liberalization and source of technology transmission. data of total exports in million rupees is taken form economic survey of pakistan and total number of emigrants annually taken from bureau of emigrants and overseas. gross capital formation and employed labor force both are important factor of production which is consistent with the models of solow (1956), swan (1956) and romer (1986 and 1990). both are used after taking the natural logarithm (lnk, lnl). data of gross capital formation (current us$) and gross domestic products (gdp us$) is taken from world development indicator (wdi) and employed labor force taken from international labor organization (ilo). and at the last μt is random error term. the natural logarithm is taken to convert the 16 for detail see andreas and marios (2003) 17 helpman and grossman (1991), wilson and caselli (2003), and eaton and kortum (2001) 165 afr. j. agric. mark. different variable with different units into percentage. mtec and fdi are already in percentage so these both variables are used without taking natural logarithm. during the year 1971 to 72 a major change occurred caused by the separation of east wing of pakistan that‟s why the data from 1972 to 2009 have been used for estimation purposes. empirical findings and result discussion augmented dickey fuller (adf) is applied to check the stationary status and the results are given in table 3. the results of adf test indicate that every variable either is stationary at level or at first difference. mtec and ln (emg) variables both are stationary at level because on the basis of t-statistics the null hypothesis of nonstationarity is rejected at level. remaining all variable are stationary at first difference because on the basis of tstatistics the null hypothesis of non-stationarity is rejected at first difference. it is confirmed that no variable has order of integration two or i (2). so it fulfills the assumption of bounds test that no variable is having i (2). the optimal lag length is one selected by using schwarz bayesian and hannan-quinn information criterion. the value of f statistics is 3.66 reported in table 4 below. as the calculated f statistics is greater than upper bound at 10% and 5% level of significant, so the null hypothesis of no co-integration is rejected. this bounds testing results confirm that there is co integration relationship between dependent and independent variables of the model. table 5 shows that import of technology goods (mtec), exports, employed labor force and gross capital formation have positive and statistically significant impact on gdp in the long run. the coefficient of export reveals that one percent increase in total exports leads to 0.17% increase in gdp growth in the long-run. the positive association between exports and economic growth confirm the export lead growth hypothesis for pakistan. export is the important contributor to the economic growth. there are number of benefit of export expansion, like it increases efficiency and improves quality of domestic production. the positive relation between exports and growth is because of the exports sector have positive externalities for nonexporting sector of the country. expansion production of exportable products can lead to production growth by adoption and transmission of modern method of production. most of evidences are in the favor that when any country starts exporting, the firms of that country get benefit from interacting with customers from all over the world. these customer demand higher quality products and in this way impose condition to produce higher standard products as compared to domestic customer demand. the coefficient of mtec reveals that one percent increase in the technology goods import intensity (mtec) leads to 0.008% increase in gdp growth in the long run. imports of technological goods (capital, benazir et al. 166 table 2. data and variable description. variable description source y gross domestic products (gdp) wdi 18 k gross capital formation wdi l employed labor force ilo 19 mtec technology goods import intensity 20 economic survey of pakistan texp total export economic survey of pakistan emg number of emigrants bureau of emigrants & overseas fdi foreign direct investment to gdp ratio economic survey of pakistan table 3. results of augmented dickey fuller (adf) test. variables test statistics at level test statistics at 1 st difference with intercept with trend and intercept with intercept with trend and intercept (mtec) -4.647363 *** -4.542410 -4.738798 *** ln(texp) -2.681788 -5.510487 -8.987188 ln(l) 0.122764 -1.633166 -6.614008 *** -6.652551 ln(emg) -4.064988 *** -4.142916 -4.625059 *** ln(k) -1.446830 -2.903182 -4.525254 fdi -1.906312 -3.580459 -4.193909 *** -4.386527 ln(y) -1.299343 -0.677579 -5.125618 *** -5.523892 *** shows significance at 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance table 4. wald or fstatistics for testing co-integration. calculated fstatistics at 10% level of significance at 5% level of significance lower bound upper bound lower bound upper bound i(0) i(1) i(0) i(1) 3.66 2.03 3.13 2.32 3.50 table 5. estimated long run coefficients using the ardl approach. ardl (1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1) selected based on schwarz bayesian criterion. dependent variable is ln(y) 38 observations used for estimation from 1972 to 2009 rgressor coefficient standard error tratio probability constant 7.5033 4.6473 1.6145 [.118] (mtec) .0079331 .0031764 2.4975* [.019] ln(texp) .17237 .038716 4.4523* [.000] ln(l) .64507 .31852 2.0252* [.053] ln(emg) .0015807 .032163 .049145 [.961] ln(k) .16849 .067285 2.5042* [.019] fdi -.065644 .026417 -2.4850* [.019] *denote the significance of variable at 10% and 5% of level of significant. 18 world development indicators 19 international labor organization 20 the technology goods imports shares is used rather than imports as whole 167 afr. j. agric. mark. table 6. error correction representation for the selected ardl model. ardl (1,0,1,1,0,0,1) selected based on schwarz bayesian criterion dependent variable is dln(y)38 observations used for estimation from 1972 to 2009. regressor coefficient standard error t-ratio[prob] c 2.0134 1.6109 1.2499[.221] dmtec .0021287 .8213e-3 2.5918[.015] dln(texp) .085455 .026154 3.2674[.003] dln(l) -.19889 .11654 -1.7066[.098] dln(emg) .4242e-3 .0085583 .049560[.961] dln(k) .045213 .023595 1.9162[.065] dfdi -.0023993 .0072560 -.33066[.743] ecm(-1) -.26834 .072197 -3.7168[.001] rsquared = .62306. adj r-squared = .48345 fstat . f(7 , 30) = 6.3757 , prob(f-stat) = [.000] mean of dependant variable = .048924 s.d of dependant variable = .020883 dw – statistics = 2.3769 machinery and parts of machinery) have positive and statistically significant impact on economic growth of pakistan which indicates that to achieve development and to boost economic growth, it is crucial for pakistan to import technology goods (capital, machinery and parts of machinery) and input material so that the productive capacity can be expanded. the result also confirms that excessive imports of finished goods (luxury goods) have negative relation with economic growth. this is because the excessive imports of finished (luxury goods) replace the domestic output and thereby the process of value addition in the country. the results are in contrast of the finding of akbar and naqvi (2000) who concluded that the imports do not have any role in economic growth of pakistan but the results of this research show that the imports of technological goods (capital, machinery and parts of machinery) are very crucial for economic growth of pakistan. the results of this research have also provided the clear cut answer to the study done by husain (2005), his study could not give the clear cut answer to the question of whether the trade liberalization positively affects the economic growth or negatively. the two important growth factors (labor and capital) are the most significant and have positive relation with growth which is consistent with the models of solow (1956), swan (1956), kaldor (1961) and romer (1986 and 1990). the coefficient of employed labor (lnl) shows that one percent increase in employed labor leads to 0.64% increase in gdp growth and co efficient of gross capital formation (lnk) shows that one percent increase in gross capital formation leads to 0.17% increase in gdp growth in the long run. the impact of emigration is not significant although the sign of coefficient of emigration is positive. on the other hand fdi has significant but negative effect on gdp. the coefficient of fdi shows that one percent increase in fdi leads to 0.06% decrease in gdp growth in the long run. the negative relationship between foreign direct investment economic growths indicates the lack of high skilled labor force and basic infrastructure to absorb the technology which comes through foreign direct investment. this lack of capabilities and inefficiencies in technological learning prevent spillover impact of mnc‟s on economic growth of pakistan. fdi brings capital intensive techniques in developing economies which are labor abundant and developing countries required time for shifting form labor intensive to capital intensive techniques that is why fdi is not effective in most of developing countries like pakistan. the results of error correction model in table 5 give information about the short-run speed of adjustment to-wards long-run equilibrium which is 27% per year. this further confirms the short-run movement of the model to-wards long-run equilibrium. as shown in table 6. sensitivity analysis at the end, the reliability and goodness of fit of the ardl model is necessary condition before recommending and forecasting any policy on the basis of results obtained. so stability and diagnostic tests are performed. to examine the serial correlation the lagrange multiplier (lm) test are used. heteroscedasticity are checked using test based on the regression of squared residuals on squared fitted values and for normality, the test based on skewness and kurtosis of residuals are used. on the basis of לא 2 statistics or f-statistics as given in table 7 we fail to reject the mull hypothesis of a. no serial correlation b. no heteroscedasticity c. normality of data. at the end for examining of stability of coefficients table 7. diagnostic tests test χ 2 -statistics f statistics lagrange multiplier test to check serial correlation χ 2 = 2.1756[.140] f= 1.5790[.220] skewness & kurtosis of residuals test for normality χ 2 =.42725[.808] ---- test to check the heteroscedasticity based on regression of sq. residuals. χ 2 =.76906[.381] f= .74363[.394] figure1. plot of cumulative sum of recursive residuals. cumulative sum of recursive residuals (cusum) and cumulative sum of squares of recursive residuals (cusum square) are used as can be seen from figure 1 and 2 that the fitted line is within 5% critical bounds so the null hypothesis of coefficient cannot be rejected. it means that model is stable. conclusion and policy recommendations on the basis of all the discussion on economic liberalization and estimated results of the model, it can be concluded that openness to both trade and fdi is very crucial and beneficial for pakistan but to use foreign technology more efficiently, there is need of skilled educated labor force and domestic r&d stocks in order to absorb this technology. to promote the economic growth of pakistan, there is need to diversify the export base and import duties should be removed from the import of technology goods (capital, machinery and parts of machinery) and input material and at the same time the imports of unnecessary and luxuries should be reduced through heavy import taxes. there are new opportunities that have been opened in asia and middle eastern countries for pakistan, there is need to boost economic growth by exporting to these markets and by importing the capital goods from these economies at low transportation cost. pakistan leadership must take steps to resolve energy crisis and to improve the law and order and order situation in order to achieve the macroeconomic stability which is vital in boosting economic growth and restoring foreign investor‟s confidence. structural reforms that can improve investment climate and competitiveness are necessary to make both foreign direct investment and domestic investment more effective. there is need of structural transformation through increasing the mobility of capital and labor across sectors and changing their production process in order to enable our firms and entrepreneurs to become globally competitive by diversifying their products. government can also set up different programs like export investment support fund to transfer public investment to the selected sectors of exportable goods. acquiring and up gradation of modern technology is necessary for pakistan in order to move away from low value and traditional export products. this can only be achieved by providing incentives to facilitate technology adoption, acquisition and replacement. government should formulate and implement such policies which can enhance the adaptive and absorptive capacities of economy for maximization of technology dissemination. creation of skilled labor force not only for mncs, but also for local firms is crucial in order to promote competitive domestic enterprises. education policies should be changed as the demand for labor force change from industry. along with the policies to enhance the absorptive and adoptive capacities of the economy, government needs to target specific technologies related to the development areas. by providing fiscal or finance benazir et al. 168 169 afr. j. agric. mark. figure 2. plot of cumulative sum of recursive residuals. incentives, governmentcan attract these specific technologies into pakistan. establishment of universities, science and technology parks and other research institutions can generate environment for r & d innovation and this can help to attract high technology investors relevant to priority areas of development strategies. the impact of foreign research and development capital stock and domestic r&d capital stock on economic growth of pakistan should be incorporated in the suggested model. due to the unavailability of data, these variables have been left in this model. but future study should take into account these variables; because these are significant factors for the evaluation of 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“measuring the dynamic gains from trade” world bank econ. rev. 15(3). xu b, wang j (1999) „capital goods trade and r&d spillovers in the oecd‟, can. j. econ. 32(5):12581274. xu b, wang j (2000), “trade, fdi and international technology diffusion”, canadian j. econ. http://www.ceibs.edu/faculty/xubin/xw.pdf zhu y (2010). an analysis on technology spillover effect of foreign direct investment and its countermeasures. int. j. bus. manage. 5(4):178-182. http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/49173905/an alysis-technology-spillover-effect-foreign-directinvestment-countermeasures in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (8), pp. 232-240, august, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper a survey on the effects of foreign debt servicing on per capita revenue growth rate in pakistan fazlur al hasan department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, university of karachi, karachi, pakistan. e-mail: fazlurhasan12@gmail.com accepted 30 july, 2015 among the wide array of macroeconomic problems confronted by pakistan, foreign debt servicing, has occupied a substantial place. persistent fiscal deficit since the independence, turned out to be the ground for various governments to rely on the internal or external borrowings. the acquisition of more external debt instead of internal resource mobilization results in higher level of debt stock. due to soaring level of debt, pakistan has been allocating a major chunk of resources to debt repayment, which is tarnishing its economic growth. the present study has been conducted to discover the impact of foreign debt servicing on per capita income growth rate of pakistan for the period 1981 to 2010 by applying relatively new technique, called auto-regressive distributed lag (ardl) of co-integration. the results confirm that the foreign debt servicing has adversely and significantly affected the per capita income growth rate of pakistan in both short-run and long-run in the specified period. there is an ardent need for comprehensive policy on part of the government of pakistan to salvage the economy of such a financial loss. key words: per capita income, growth rate, debt, debt servicing, ardl and co –integration. introduction pakistan is currently facing many economic and social issues which are collectively affecting the economic growth. the public debt and its servicing are the most crucial problems that pakistan has been facing in recent years. domestic and foreign borrowings are considered as normal phenomenon because countries at the initial stages of development need capital stock (malik and siddiqui 2001). apparently, foreign debt increases the economic growth but if it gets accumulated beyond a specific limit, it can have devastating effects upon economic growth as proved by (hasan 1999).the poor countries like pakistan are getting more and more loans just to survive but it creates dependency on donors. more debt is being acquired just to repay previous debt and it is neither being used for the development purposes nor for the human capital formation. pakistan is spending its export revenues on debt servicing instead of utilizing it on human capital, investment in real assets and scientific research and development. debt servicing is severely affecting economic growth of pakistan by eating up major share of resources. the high level of debt leaves no incentives for the government to carry out the macroeconomics reforms and good effective policies because returns from these reforms will only be used to pay back outstanding debt and its services. the history of pakistan has remained caught in the debt trap. debt trap fazlur 232 is a situation where a country takes debt and to pay interest payments, it acquires more debt due to unavailability of resource. foreign debt amount increased from us $37.24 billion as of june, 2006 to us $57.21 billion as of june, 2010, which shows an increase of 53.63%. in fiscal year 2009 to 2010, the elected government of pakistan spent a large amount of us $ 3.112 billion on debt servicing out of which us $ 2.3 billion was paid as principal amount. there are a host of factors, which have contributed towards this dependence on foreign debt including unbalanced and wrong economic policies, inefficient governments and misappropriation by the political and administrative elite of the country during many successive regimes in pakistan. the current account deficits, fiscal account deficit, macroeconomic mismanagement, non-development expenditures of the successive governments are largely responsible for this high level of debt servicing. according to former president of state bank of pakistan mr. syed salim raza (2009), fiscal deficit is almost half of the total budget, which is the result of non-development expenditures and considered as the biggest problem of pakistan after inflation 1 . the main heads of nondevelopment expenditures include general administration expenditure on various departments of federal government, law and order, defence expenditure, subsidies and debt servicing. among all these, defence expenditures of pakistan has been increasing in every budget with a constant rate and consuming a large share of income. the fiscal deficit of pakistan is around 5.4% of gross domestic product (gdp) and it has to rely again on foreign debt to fulfill this deficit. most of the other countries around the globe fulfill their fiscal and current account deficit by mobilizing the internal resources or foreign direct investment but pakistan always relies on foreign debt, which results in high debt accumulations. debt servicing takes large benefits from the domestic economy as a large amount of foreign exchange reserve has been transferred to the lender countries. it reduces the country‟s ability to grow itself rather it raises its dependence on the lender countries. the effects of the high debt can easily be observed by the budget allocation of pakistan every year. keeping in mind the severe effects of the debt repayments of the external debt, the present study investigates the impact of debt serving on the economic growth of pakistan. the present study is organized as follows: following the strong background of pakistan debt problem, review of the literature is discussed in second section, theoretical frame work and model specification is discussed in third section, methodology and estimation is discussed in forth section and estimation results and findings are discussed in section five and section six contains conclusion followed by policy recommendations. review of literature there are voluminous studies in the literature in which the effect of debt on economic growth has been high-lighted. some studies discussed the debt overhang conditions and some showed significant and negative effect of debt and debt servicing on economic growth. sinha (1999) examines the relationship between invest-ment, export stability and growth for nine asian countries 2 . generalized johansen framework of co-integration was used to carry out results. results suggest investment in these countries was positive and significant for the economic growth. dijkstra and hermes (2001) concluded, by applying orthogonal least-squares (ols) technique that uncertainty measure of total debt and long-term debt servicing payments by 104 hipcs has negative and statistically significant relation with economic growth for the period of 1970 to 1998. serieux and samy (2001) analyzed how debt burden affects economic growth of 53 lower and middle income countries both directly and indirectly in the period of 1970 to 1999. the author also concludes that debt servicing negatively affects investment and economic growth. karagol (2002) undertakes an empirical study to analyze the effect of debt servicing on economic growth of turkey by applying johansen co-integration technique. the author proves that debt servicing has negative relation with economic growth in short-run and long-run. same is confirmed by adesola (2009) for nigeria and malik et al (2010) for pakistan. gupta et al. (2005) checks the expenditure composition and fiscal consolidation effect on the economic growth. panel data was used for 39 underdeveloped countries by applying generalized method of moments. the results explore that reduction of 1% point in fiscal deficit to gross domestic product ratio led to average increase of 0.5% point in per capita growth. wijeweera et al. (2005) empirically studies the checked relationship between external debt and gnp for sri lanka by applying engle and granger (1987) co-integration and extracellular matrix (ecm). results suggests that the sign of debt servicing coefficient was negative and capital stock and human capital were having positive relation in short-run and long-run. mcgrath (2006) analyzes the impact of industrial development and financial deregulation on economic growth of czech republic, hungary and poland. industrial development was found significant and positively affects economic growth in three countries. industrial production unidirectional caused gdp for all three countries. osinubi 1 http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english 2 indian, japan, malaysia, myanmar, pakistan, philippines, sri lanka, south online/politics/05-feb-2009/nondevelopment-expenditure-biggest-problem sbp korea and thailand et al. (2006) empirically examines how the budget deficit led to accumulation of external debt which affects the economic growth of nigeria for the period of 1970 to 2003. the author explains the need for nigeria to finance its fiscal deficit. complete evasion of external debt as a means of financing budget deficits will not help the economy as debt at sustainable level leads to development. hameed et al. (2008) verifies the debt overhang situation in pakistan. sultan (2008) empirically confirms the positive impact of industry value added on economic growth of bangladesh by applying simple ols for the period of 1965 to 2004. after reviewing the literature, it can easily be evaluated that most of the studies have been conducted to check the effect of debt on economic growth. a fewer studies have been conducted to grasp the effect of debt servicing on single country‟s economic growth. the present study is conducted to fill the gap by checking the effect of foreign debt servicing along with some allied variables affecting on economic growth (in terms of per capita income growth) of pakistan by using relatively new technique. theoretical frame work the pakistan economy has been undergoing severe economic pressure throughout the history. pakistan has relied on the foreign debt to finance its deficit. the debt taken in the early decades was used appropriately which resulted in high growth and development of the economy. the situation started worsening after 1970‟s when the debt was not being used properly. the debt has devastating effect on the economic growth of pakistan as its servicing is far more than its capacity. there are two main theories which elaborate the debt situation of an economy that is, debt overhang hypothesis and debt laffer curve. if the debt burden of an economy becomes so large that a country does not remain in a position to take additional debt to finance its future projects and even though these projects would be profitable enough to reduce indebtedness of a country over time. the debt laffer curve theory states that the higher level of debt stock is associated with the lower probabilities of the debt repayment. debt overhang hypothesis seems to be in the sight for the case of pakistan. the current capacity of the economy to repay its debt indicates that economy is in the second part of the debt laffer curve where expected repayments are decreasing with increasing debt stock. the effect of debt servicing can be interesting study to validate the above stated hypothesis for the case of pakistan. model specification the model is designed to investigate the effect of debt servicing on per capita income growth rate. the debt 233 afr. j. agric. mark. servicing variable has been taken as the main variable along with other potential variables which affects the per capita economic growth rate. grpcy=β0 +β1 dst +β2 dit +β3 grsect+β4 grindt +β5 fdt + єt where, grpcy= growth rate of per capita income ds= foreign debt servicing di= gross domestic investment as percentage of gdp grsec= growth rate of secondary school enrolment grind= growth rate of industry value added fd= fiscal deficit as percentage of gdp єt= error term in the model foreign debt servicing has been taken as main variable which includes debt servicing payments of foreign medium and long term loans. the expected relationship between debt servicing variable and the economic growth is negative. karagol (2002) proved the same negative relation for turkey and hameed et al. (2008) and malik et al. (2010) for pakistan. gross domestic investment is defined as increase in stock of capital in an economy and it does not include deduction for depreciation which is previously produced. here the ratio of gross domestic investment to gdp has been taken and a significant and positive relation is expected between gross domestic investment as a percentage of gdp and economic growth. the positive relation between domestic investment and economic growth for china was confirmed by tang et al. (2008). growth rate of secondary school enrolment has been taken as proxy for the quality of human capital as used by serieux and samy (2001) and clements et al. (2003). the positive and significant relation is expected between secondary school enrolment and economic growth as proved by skipton (2007) and afzal et al. (2010). the industry value added is the gdp share by industry or contribution of the industry to overall gdp. a positive and significant relation is expected between industrial value added and economic growth as industry is sharing major portion in the total production. the positive and significant relation between industrial development and economic growth was found by mcgrath (2006) and confirmed by sultan (2008). fiscal deficit does always have a negative effect on the economic growth. fiscal deficit increases the amount of debt and its repayment, which slows down the economic growth process. expected sign of the coefficient of fiscal deficit is negative as proved by gupta et al. (2005) for 39 underdeveloped countries. data and methodology data set used in this study is comprised of last three decades (1981 to 2010). annual data has been used and data up to the year 2008 has been taken from the world development indicators (wdi) cd-rom (2008) and the fazlur 234 remaining two years data has been taken from the world bank website. data on few variables has also been taken from, various issues of economic survey of pakistan. after the collection of data the next mandatory task is the test, to check the stationarity of the variables in order to apply an appropriate econometric technique. in the present study, two tests augmented dickey fuller (adf) and kwiatkowski-phillips schmidt-shin (kpss) (1992) have been applied to check the stationarity.for the test of existence of long-run relationship (cointegration) among the variables, a number of techniques are available. a relatively new technique ardl bound testing approach has been used in this study due to the shortcomings of others techniques, covered by this technique. this technique is based on the general to specific modeling and has been developed by pesaran and pesaran (1997), pesaran and smith (1998), pesaran and shin (1999) and pesaran at el (2001). ardl technique of cointegration has been used due to the problems with other techniques of co-integration like engel-granger (1987) and maximum likelihood based johansen (1988) and johansen and juselius (1990). ardl has the advantage that it can be applied irrespective of the order of integration of the variables used in study. “ardl can be used whether the variable is i (0), i (1) or fractionally co-integrated” (pesaran and pesaran 1997). an advantage of using ardl approach of co-integration is that the relationship can be estimated by simple ols once the order of ardl is recognized. the ardl approach is suitable for small sample size. another advantage of using ardl bound testing approach is that “it takes satisfactory number of lags to confine the data generating process within the general-to-specific framework” (laurenceson and chai, 2003). in comparison with other vector autoregressive (var) models, the ardl model accommodates greater number of variables. moreover, “a dynamic error correction model (ecm) can be obtained from ardl through simple linear transformation” (banerjee et al. 1993). to apply ardl bound testing approach first of all stationarity level of the variables has been checked through unit root tests. the variables must be i (0) or i (1) for the application of ardl bound testing approach. after checking the order of integration of variables, existence of the long-run relationship between the variables has been checked by applying the f-test. the f-test has been carried out by the imposition of the restriction on the coefficients with null hypothesis that is, there exists no long run relationship among the variables and with alternative hypothesis that is, there exists long run relationship among the variables. if the fstatistics lies below the lower bound then null hypothesis is not rejected and if the value of f-statistics is greater than the upper bound then the null hypothesis is rejected. the results remain inconclusive if the value of f-statistics lies between the lower and upper bound then.in the next stage ardl equation is estimated where optimal lag length is chosen according to one of the akaike information or schwartz bayesian, which are considered standard criterion for choosing the maximum lag length. after that long-run solution has been obtained for the selected lag length. diagnostic tests have been applied to check the validity of the model. lagrange multiplier test has been applied to check either problem of serial correlation exists or not. ramsey's reset test has been used for the functional form, skewness and kurtosis test has been used for the normality and lagrangian multiplier test has been used to check the problem of heteroscedasticity in the data. the equation for the model is given as under. m m ∆ grpcyt = a + b i ∆ (grpcy)t i + c i ∆ (ds)t i i= 1 i= 0 m m m + d i ∆ (di)t i + e i ∆(grsec)t –i +k i ∆ (fd)t i i= 0 i= 0 i= 0 m + p i ∆(grind)t i +δ1 (grpcy)t – 1 +δ2(ds )t 1 + δ3 (di)t 1 i= 0 + δ4 (grsec)t -1+ δ5 (fd)t 1+ δ6 (grind)t 1 + µt where „i‟ to „m‟ shows the selected lag length. in the next stage the error correction model has been estimated by using the differences of the variables and the lagged long-run solution. the coefficient of the error correction term shows at which speed the variables return to the new equilibrium. m m ∆ grpcyt = β0 + αi ∆grpcyt i + βi ∆ds t i i=0 i=1 m m m +γ i ∆di t i + δi ∆grsec t – i+ ηi ∆fd t i i=1 i=1 i=1 m + ∆grind t i + φ ecm t 1 + vt i i=1 finally the cumulative recursive sum (cusum) and cumulative recursive sum of squares (cusumsq) tests are employed to check the stability of the short-run and long-run coefficients. results estimation results and findings table 1, 2, 3 and 4 shows the results 3 of the augmented dickey-fuller and kwiatkowski–phillips–schmidt–shin (kpss) unit root tests at level. the unit root results at level suggested that di and gse were stationary at level. other variables were checked at first difference and the results are given. the table suggests that ardl bound testing approach can be applied here because all the variables were stationary at level or at first difference. none of the included variable in the model were stationary at level two or at second difference. after checking the stationarity level of the variables, the next step was to select the maximum lag length. most widely used criterions to select the maximum lag length are akaike information and schwarz bayesian. the schwarz bayesian criterion had been used for this study for the selection of lag length. the optimum lag length of 1 has minimized the values of aic and sch criterions. the sbc criterion had been chosen to select the lag order for ardl bound testing approach over the aic as it has low prediction error (ma and jalil 2008). the partial f-test had been applied in the study to check the long-run relationship among the variables. the null hypothesis for the test was that no long-run relationship exists among variables with alternative hypothesis that long-run relationship exists. the following table shows the long-run relationship results of bound test for the economic growth model. table 4. the results show that f-value was greater than the ub at 5 and 10 %t level of significance. this test provided the 3 eviews 7, econometric software has been used to obtain results. table 1. results of unit root tests at level variables augmented dickeyfuller(adf) kwiatkowski-phillips-schmidt-shin (kpss) intercept intercept and trend intercept intercept and trend ds -1.2742 -2.9135 1.2214 0.1083 fd -1.6878 -2.9288 0.6704 0.1574 di -2.8824*** -2.8752 0.1145 0.0555* grsec -3.2729** -3.3966 0.1742 0.0645* grpcy -2.6873 -2.7982 0.6214 0.1917 grind -2.5847 -2.8048 0.2963 0.0739 significance level 1% -3.6891 -4.3239 .73900 0.2160 5 % -2.9718 -3.5906 0.4630 0.1460 10% -2.6251 -3.2253 .34700 0.1190 note. * shows significance of the variable at 1% and ** shows at 5% ** and *** shows at 10% table 2. results of unit root tests at first difference variables augmented dickeyfuller (adf) kwiatkowski-phillips-schmidt-shin (kpss) intercept intercept and trend intercept intercept and trend ds -5.6463* -5.5255 0.0412* 0.0416 fd -4.0226* -3.9493 0.1615* 0.0954 grpcy -4.5288* -4.4183 0.1494* 0.0727 grind -5.6257* -5.6156 0.0588* 0.0527 significance level 1% -3.6998 -4.3393 0.7390 0.2160 5% -2.9762 -3.5875 0.4630 0.1460 10% -2.6274 -3.2292 0.3470 0.1190 note. * shows significance of the variable at 1% and ** shows at 5% ** and *** shows at 10% base to apply ardl technique of co-integration as it showed the existence of long-run relationship among the variables. as shown in table 5. all the variables of the models had expected signs. the debt servicing coefficient showed that one million dollar increase in debt servicing results in 0.12% decrease in the economic growth. the logic behind this inverse relationship is that although pakistani government takes debt to finance its projects or to retreat its deficit in balance of payment but as we know the whole amount of debt is not utilized for such purposes rather a very big chunk is paid back in shape of debt repayment. so such money being out of the flow (leakage) of pakistani economy, cast negative effect on economic growth. question arises here is that, why debt is taken on some part of the developing countries like pakistan? the answer lies in the fact that internal sources of revenue generation are not enough. so the developing countries should wake up from this ignorance and must avoid the horrors of debt and its repayment and try indigenous resource generation. these results were consistent with the results of study by kargaol (2002) that also showed the negative effect of debt servicing on economic growth. the fiscal deficit as percentage of gdp negatively affected the economic growth; one percent increase in fiscal deficit as percentage of gdp leads to 40 % decrease in the economic growth. a country does financial deficit due to short of revenue. so the purpose of fiscal deficit continue to use such capital for economic growth. but unfortunately, the capital so collected cannot avert the decree of the fate of developing countries unless they avoid mismanagement or corruption. it means no use of making fiscal deficit. rather it causes harms to the growth rate of country like pakistan. industrial growth has played significant role in the economic growth of pakistan. in the present study industrial 235 afr. j. agric. mark. fazlur 236 table 3. lag selection criteria lags akaike information criterion (aic) schwarz bayesian criterion (sbc) 1 41.36181 * 43.34203 * 2 41.54019 45.25134 note. * shows minimum lag length table 4. bound test for long-run relationship f-statistics value 95% confidence level 90% confidence level lower bound (lb) upper bound (ub) lower bound (lb) upper bound (ub) 6.2771 3.1474 4.6350 2.5902 3.8808 table 5. ardl estimates, ardl (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, and 0) selected based on schwarz bayesian criterion grpcy is dependent variable regressors coefficients standard errors t-ratios probabilities grpcy(-1) .23679 .11585 2.0440 .054 ds -.0011592 .5599e-3 -2.0702 .051 di .0035118 .038510 .091193 .928 grsec .084527 .051344 1.6463 .115 grsec(-1) .11861 .054222 2.1874 .040 fd -.40049 .20041 -1.9983 .059 grind .24554 .085556 2.8699 .009 inpt 5.6117 2.0974 2.6756 .014 summary statistics r-squared .78830 r-bar-squared .7172 s.e. of regression 1.4247 f-stat. f(7,21) 11.1709 [.000] dw-statistic 2.0207 durbin's h-statistic -.071263 [.943] industrial value added growth had been found highly significant. one percent increase in the growth rate of industry value added leads to 24% increase in the economic growth of pakistan. such result is also shown by mcgrath (2006) and sultan (2008). the industrial growth as the theories suggests is one of the strong indicators of economic growth. as we know when any industry promotes, it creates economic activities in the economy that is, other allied industries also get boost up. hence employment is generated and demand for goods services, further increases, total national income increases and causes gdp per capita to increase. growth rate of secondary school enrolment in this study had has been taken as a proxy of human capital. the study has revealed that secondary school enrollment also influences the economics growth of pakistan positively in the long run, as it had has been found highly significant. the background reason is that human capital can be tapped only through education, skill and training. an educated person becomes resourceful and finds ways to be productive. hence as secondary school enrolment increases, it also causes an escalation in economic growth of pakistan the domestic investment coefficient had has been found positive but insignificant for the economic growth. domestic investment means a step toward prosperity because investment is also accompanied by employment and twin increase in employment and output accelerates the pace of economic growth of a country. the value of r-square showed that 79 % of total variation in the economic growth had been explained by the independent variables. the value of r-bar-square shows the goodness fit of the model adjusted to the degree of freedom and it had a value of 0.72 in this model. the durbin's h-statistic had been used to check the problem of auto correlation. from the results, it can safely 237 afr. j. agric. mark. table 6. diagnostic tests results problems applicable tests chi-square(χ 2 )/f statistics probabilities serial correlation lagrange multiplier .033738 .854 functional form ramsey's reset .83957 .360 normality skewness and kurtosis of residuals .071453 .965 heteroscedasticity white 1.1993 .273 table 7. estimated long run coefficients, ardl (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0) selected based on schwarz bayesian criterion, grpcy is dependent variable regressors coefficient standard errors t-ratios probabilities ds -.0015188 .6818e-3 -2.2276 .037 di .0046014 .050267 .091540 .928 grsec .26616 .10768 2.4717 .022 fd -.52474 .27276 -1.9238 .068 grind .32172 .11030 2.9169 .008 inpt 7.3528 2.5222 2.9153 .008 table 8. error correction representation for the selected ardl model, ardl (1,0,0,1,0,0) selected based on schwarz bayesian criterio, grpcy is dependent variable regressors coefficients standard errors t-ratios probabilities dds -.0011592 .5599e-3 -2.0702 .050 ddi .0035118 .038510 .091193 .928 dgrsec .084527 .051344 1.6463 .114 dfd -.40049 .20041 -1.9983 .058 dgrind .24554 .085556 2.8699 .009 ecm(-1) -.76321 .11585 -6.5882 .000 r-squared .74026 r-bar-squared .65368 dw-statistic 2.0207 be said that problem of auto correlation does not exist in the data. as shown in table 6.the diagnostic tests had been applied for the robustness of results. the results, indicates that the data is not suffering from the problem of serial correlation. the results confirmed the normality of the data set and correct functional form of the model. the white test showed that the error terms had constant variance, which confirmed the absence of hetero scedasticity. table 7, shows the long-run coefficients of the variables by applying ardl. all the coefficients had expected signs. one million dollar increase in debt servicing leads to 0.2 % decrease in economic growth in the long-run. as expected, the school enrolment had long-run positive effect on the economic growth. the positive and significant relationship between growth rate of secondary enrolment and economic growth was also confirmed by skipton (2007) and afzal et al (2010). fiscal deficit as percentage of gdp had long-run significant and negative effect on the economic growth. in the long-run, one percent increase in the fiscal deficit as percentage of gdp leads to 52 % decrease in growth rate. gupta et al. (2005) also confirms the same in his panel study. growth rate of domestic investment had been found insignificant in the long-run. the industrial value added had been found to have a positive and highly significant relation with the economic growth, which was also confirmed by sultan (2008) . one percent increase in the growth rate of industrial value added caused causes 32 percent increase in the economic growth. table 8, reveal that error correction term had been found highly significant. the negative sign with ecm shows the convergence of the dependent variable general practitioner for children and the young (gpcy) towards long-run equilibrium path in response to the changes in fazlur 238 figure 1. plot of cumulative sum of recursive residuals figure 2. plot of cumulative sum of squares of recursive residuals the independent variables in the model. the ecm (-1) had been found significant at 1% level with coefficient equal to -.76321. the coefficient of ecm (-1) confirmed the co-integration among variables and deviation from the equilibrium level of economic growth during current period will be corrected by 76.32 % in the next period. the cusum and cusumsq tests confirmed the stability of the model if the test representing line stays within the critical bounds at 5% level of significance. the graphs of the cusum and cusumsq tests had been presented in figure 1 and 2. the results of both tests confirmed the correctness of parameters of short-run and long-run variables for growth rate and also verified the structural stability of the model. conclusion and recommended policies in the literature, most of the studies on pakistan have tried to explain the effects of the debt on economic growth. a few numbers of studies have been conducted to check the effects of debt servicing on the economic growth of pakistan. high levels of debt repayments are negatively affecting the growth process in pakistan. high levels of debt accumulation over the last few decades and its repayments have become a burning issue in recent times. the paper aimed to check the impact of debt servicing on the economics growth of pakistan by taking data of last three decades. the ardl bound testing has been applied and results showed that debt servicing has affected economic growth in the long-run more than the short-run. the reduction in economic growth had been found to be 0.12 and 0.15 % in the short-run and long-run respectively due to one million dollar increase in the debt servicing. the results highlight the need of less reliance on the foreign resources and the importance of domestic resource mobilization. the industrial value added growth had been found positive and significant in both short-run and long-run in the economic growth model, which needs special attention in policy making. the growth rate of secondary school enrolment had been found highly significant for growth model in the longrun. the fiscal deficit impact had been found negative and significant on economic growth of pakistan. the fiscal deficit in pakistan is due to non-development expenditure, the defense expenditures and interest payments, which are more than the development expenditures. the debt dependence policy always put extra pressure on the domestic resources. by acquiring more and more foreign debt with strict conditionalities 4 , the economy is falling into a debt trap 5 .keeping in view the results of the present study following policy recommendations can be helpful to enhance the growth rate and to tackle the rising problem of the debt. the government of pakistan has been spending major share of its revenues for the non-development expenditures which has brought fiscal deficit to the level of 50% of the total budget for the year 2010 to 2011. the government has to finance its projects by printing new money which not only creates inflation but also crowds out investment due to increase in the interest rate. the proper resource utilization is need of the time in education and health sector and institution building and reconstruction. pakistan is blessed with affluent human capital which can be used for the self-dependent macroeconomic performance. the quality education, training, research and development (r & d) facilities can enhance efficiency of the labor force and help to increase productivity, which will ultimately lead to the higher growth with lower costs of production. the industry value added of pakistan is 25% of its gdp; 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international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper consumer’s response to brands: a case study of beauty lotion brand in cameroun ephraim biya yang department of marketing, faculty of economic and management, p.o. box 14733, university of douala, douala, cameroon. e-mail: biya.and3@univ-douala.com accepted 5 march, 2014 this article seeks to contribute to a better knowledge of sensitivity of consumers to brands. the results of the survey carried out with 361 women aged fifteen and above on the beauty lotions market in the towns of douala, yaounde, ngaoundere and bafoussam validate the fact that enduring involvement, perceived differences and perceived risks in a category of products influence sensitivity to brands. the study also confirms that perceived differences between brands are the most explanatory variable of sensitivity to brands. finally, this paper proposes a model of sensitivity to brands of cameroonian consumers. to succeed in cameroun, body lotion enterprises should make visible the characteristics/advantages of their brand and act on interpersonal communications. the strengthening of the brand strategy is an action lever strongly recommended to these enterprises. key words: sensitivity to brands, consumer behaviour, brands, perceived risk, perceived differences between the brands, enduring involvement. introduction brands constitute an essential element of economic life and represent undeniable assets for companies (keller and lehmann, 2006). by multiplying the devices of interaction with consumers, they have become indispensible partners and powerful ferments of social bond. sign of the flag bearer of value, brands are able to create around them a community of fans. apple, for example, creates a cult (kapferer, 2011). vector of differentiation and loyalty, brands allow enterprises of sub-saharan africa to be more competitive (chinedu et al., 2011) through strategies of alliances (bekolo, 2004). . in developing countries and particularly in cameroon, the explosion of brands is remarkable. an investigation report of the economic mission (2004a) found a significant breakthrough of brands in the dairy industry, the cosmetics industry and the production of foam by batoula and scimpos. one observes exponentially, the regular introduction of new brands in the cameroonian market. for example, guinness is launching smirnoff ice (december 2008) and pilsner (november 2009). in march 2010, the cameroonian cement of plants have introduced in the market fabrique. the cameroonian breweries have expanded their range of products with booster pina colada (december 2008), orangina (november 2010) and xxl (november 2012). in july 2012, xnet phone (or jam), the first cameroonian phone brand cameroonian has been created. industry of body lotion is enriched with brands (eg rapid'clair, bel'clair, moby baby, vaseline, lumina, b-light, etc.). in mineral water (bottled, bagged and placed in glasses), many brands compete for consumers (tangui, supermont, the febe, aquabelle, contrex, sahel springs, aqaba, africa pure water, sweet water, sahel, etc.). these illustrations are not exhaustive and are found in all sectors. the dominant role of brands, in at least the africa market, probably reflects the importance that consumers attach to them. ephraim 127 indeed, a survey by mckinsey (2012) emphasizes that brands play an important role in african purchasing decisions. according to this institute, african consumers attach great importance to both the quality and the brand in their decision taking contrary to the idea that they are prone to unbranded products, cheap and of poor quality. hence, a blooming research focuses on several fundamental concepts of brand management like brand equity (aaker, 1992), the brand extension (aaker and keller, 1990; volckner and sattler, 2006), the brand personality (aaker, 1997), attachment to the brand (chaplin and deborah, 2005; fedorikhin et al., 2008; park et al., 2009) and, the love of brand (thomson et al., 2005, albert et al., 2008, batra et al., 2012) amongst others. if interest in the theme of the brand is significant, it must be acknowledged that little research focuses on sensitivity to brands and this, despite its managerial importance (amine, 1998). blomback (2005) underlines the interest of sensitivity to brands for a better optimazation of brand awareness which is a prerequisite for brand image (aaker, 1991; keller, 1993) and a factor of loyalty to the brand (kapferer and laurent, 1992; amine, 1998; odin et al., 2001). brand sensitivity conditions the influence of brand personality on the relationship of the consumer to the brand (gouteron, 2006, 2008; bouhlel et al., 2011). finally, sensitivity to brands is a key determinant of the relative importance of the brand in purchase decisions of organizations (zablah et al., 2010). the objective of this article is to contribute to the existing literature on consumer behaviour by the study of a phenomenon which has not been dealt with enough in the academic framework (kapferer and laurent, 1983; 1992; froloff-brouche and ben-miled, 1995): sensitivity to brands. we are precisely interested in the antecedents of sensitivity to brands. the present research is organized as follows. firstly, the literature on the concept of sensitivity to brands and the factors likely to explain it are presented. thus, the conceptual framework and the various proposals are specified. then, the research methodology and the results are exposed. lastly, the managerial implications, the limits and the research paths are explored. litterature review brand sensitivity originates from the tradition of research on brand loyalty (jacoby and chestnut, 1978) or more precisely on the commitment to the brand (froloffbrouche and ben-miled, 1995). it addresses the issue of the brand in general (michel, 2004) that is to say, the strength of the link between the consumer and all brands of a category of a product. in this work, we use indifferently sensitivity to the brand. in addition, the brand is a complex and multidimensional concept, which can be subject to a single definition. to delineate the scope of our research, we begin by clarifying this notion. it is a verbal or figurative element (a word, logo, symbol, motto, initials, numbers etc) used to identify the goods or services of an enterprise and to differentiate them from those of the competitors (keller and hoeffler, 2003, duncan, 2005; kotler and keller, 2006). the term "brands" includes the brand of the manufacturers and distributors, large and small brands, local and international brands. brand sensitivity expresses the importance that the consumer attaches to the brand during the purchasing process (kapferer and laurent, 1983, 1992; amine, 1998; lachance et al., 2003; beaudoin and lachance, 2006). all consumers do not integrate brand in their purchase decision process. only those who are sensitive to it do it (kapferer, 2004). kapferer and laurent (1992) note that this sensitivity can be described by only one dimension: the fact of looking at the brand, of being attached to it, of giving it importance. overall, they favour an approach based on events that reflect the vision of cognitive sensitivity to the brand. indeed, a consumer is sensitive to brands if he/she considers it important to consult the information “which is the mark?” thus, the brand is an “information chunk”: the only entity which summarizes all the information relating to the choice and consumption experiences, to the communicational expo-sures with the product (hoch and deighton, 1989). the sensitivity to brands is a psychological variable since it refers to the process of consumer decision. it is different from loyalty which is behavioural concept that can be measured by examining patterns of repeated buying over time (kapferer and laurent, 1983, 1992; lachance et al., 2003). it is also an individual variable that varies from one individual to another and from the same individual, from a product to another. finally, sensitivity to brands has several components: commitment to a brand, the weight of the brand compared to that of other product attributes, the place of the brand in the purchase decision process. d'astous and gargouri (2001) refer to brand sensitivity, attaching great importance to brand names when choosing and purchasing. the enduring involvement in a category of products the involvement is behind any consumption decision. it has been introduced in marketing by krugman (1967) to measure the reaction mode and information processing during an advertising exhibition. involvement refers to a feature, a state or a process (costley, 1988). in this work, involvement is considered as a feature which is a permanent individual characteristic for product category independent from the influence of the context (bloch, 1981; engel and blackwell, 1982; higie and feick, 1989). we retain enduring involvement rather than specific; first, because it is essentially based on the individual and not on the nature of the product (zaichkowsky, 1985; warrington and shim, 2000); thus a continuous interaction between the individual and the product. it takes into account the cognitive and affective components (buck, 1988). this involvement is doomed to comparisons between individuals and not for comparisons between products (houston and rothschild, 1978; strazzieri, 1994). then, enduring involvement is expressed at an aggregate level (or in the category of products) as well as sensitivity to brands. lastly, the durable components are preferred to the contextual components (valetteflorence, 1989). the influence of enduring involvement on brand sensitivity has been recognized by several authors (kapferer and laurent, 1992; amine, 1998; muratore, 2002; lachance et al., 2003). we hypothesize that enduring involvement is the prerequisite of a potential sensitivity to brands. this is because consumers who find important a product category, are influenced by the performance of this category. they are motivated to actively seek and process the information on that category (warrington and shim, 2000). they thus consider the brand as a determining benchmark, hence our first hypothesis: h1: the enduring involvement of the consumer in a given category of products is positively associated to the consumer’s sensitivity to the brand. perceived differences between the brands the perceived differences between brands in a category of products represent the consumer's ability to discriminate between brands in this category. there is a situation of perceived differences among brands, when one or various brand are perceived as been highest than others in terms of achievement or quality (van trijp et al., 1996). in the contrary, the concept of parity (even) of brand means that differences among brand in a product category are very, very small (jensen and hansen, 2006). kapferer and laurent (1992) insist that marketing is after all sensitivity to an attribute. this attribute is or is not possessed by certain brands. this brings forward the necessity to look at what is the brand. differences between brands must be veritably or genuinely perceived by consumers (ries and trout, 1986) and valued by enterprises (carpenter et al., 1994). these differences must not be only functional but also symbolic and/or emotional (broniarczyk and gershoff, 2003). the work of kapferer and laurent (1992) shows that the perceived differences between brands have a major impact on the sensitivity to the brand. this conclusion seems logical since a consumer believes that the brand in relation to other information best suited to his expectations, will consider as a decisive criterion of choice compared to other possible criteria (dick and basu, 1994; muncy, 1996). the decision making process of a consumer is influenced by his perception of the similarity of the brands within a category of products (assael, 1987). likewise, similarity between brands is more likely to create confusion when sensitivity to brands and product involvement are low ( d'astous and gargouri, 2001). 128 afr. j. agric. mark. zaichkowsky (1985) argues that the perceived differences between brands due to the strong involvement, may lead consumers to prefer one brand over another. thus, a consumer will be encouraged to compare several brands if the differences between these brands are perceived as sufficiently important and beneficial. we can thus say that perceived differences between brands have a positive effect on the sensitivity of the cameroonian consumer to the brand, from the following hypothesis: h2: perceived differences between the consumer’s brands are positively associated to his/her sensitivity to the brand. the perceived risk in a category of products the risk is a key factor in understanding consumer behavior (gabbott, 1991). in a simple way, the risk is the uncertainty of the result (kunle, 2011). according to bauer (1960), consumer behavior involves risk in the sense that each purchase will result in consequences, sometimes negative, that he cannot predict with any certainty, for numerous researchers (bauer, 1960; cunningham, 1967; volle, 1995) perceived risk is based on two components (uncertainty and loss severity) and is subjective. in addition, the perceived risk may be specific (stone and gronhaug, 1993) or general (cox, 1967). the measurement of overall risk differs depending on the researchers: financial risk, functional, psychological, physical and social (jacoby and kaplan, 1972; peter and tarpy, 1975; shimp and bearden, 1982; schiffman and kanuk, 2004), the risk of wasted time (roselius, 1971) and the opportunity risk (mitchell and greatorex, 1993). therefore, the perceived risk can be described as a multidimensional concept (sitkin and weignart, 1995). the relationship between perceived risk and sensitivity to brands has been verified in most research (cunningham, 1967), and today it is widely established that, the perceived risk is considered to be a major determinant of sensitivity to brands (kapferer and laurent, 1992). this corroborates the assertion of kapferer (1998) that there is brand when there is risk. the brand serves as a reference when the consumer perceives risk. the brand is one of the effective methods of risk reduction (sheth and venkatesan, 1968; roselius, 1971; aaker, 1992; ailawadi et al., 2003). gounaris and stathakopoulos (2004) argue that this is especially true for high value and high involvement. this is logical because the perceived risk is composed of the probability of making a bad choice and the importance of the negative consequences of this bad choice (amine, 1998). thus, in the cameroonian context, we think that perceived risk has a positive influence on sensitivity to brands, whence our third hypothesis: h3: the consumer’s perceived risk in a category of products is positively associated to his/her sensitivity to ephraim 129 enduring involvement h1 h2 perceived différences between brands sensitivity to brands perceived risk h3 figure 1: research model. the brand. figure 1 represents the research model. methodology sampling and data collection in the absence of an exhaustive list of body lotion consumers, we opted for a sample reasoned choice that aims to make it look like the sample of the population from which it comes (evrard et al., 2003). included in our sample, any woman likely to bring relevant information while remaining as close as possible to contextual reality. at the same time, we make sure that the sample is diversified in terms of age, profession, area, religion and educational level. the data collection tool was a questionnaire administered face to face in the towns of yaounde, douala, bafoussam and ngaoundéré. we chose this mode of administration mainly because of the context of the study since it is important that the risk of nonresponse be minimized. indeed, in cameroun, as in several african countries, access to information from the consumers is not an easy thing. to facilitate answers for the questionnaire, an initial contact, precise explanations and most especially the creation of a reliable climate are sometimes necessary for a better understanding of the terms of the respondent. in the same way, two reasons justify the choice of these cities: concentration of industries of body lotions and the presence of universities or higher schools. these contain many students belonging to our sample since the cameroonian population is essentially young (central bureau of the census and population studies, 2010). in addition to descriptive and identification information, our questionnaire also included the collection of information on the explanatory reasons for the sensitivity of cameroonian consumers to brands. 400 questionnaires were administered during a one month period. 39 wrongly filled questionnaires were eliminated after analysis. we preserved 361 of them to carry out our study. this gives us a response rate of 90.25%. in order to better apprehend the concept of sensitivity to brands, we choose body lotions. the choice of this category of products has been dictated by criteria such as a variety of brands on markets, the high purchase frequency, personal utilization character, high competition between brands, popular and current character of the product. in fact, according to the investigations of the economic mission carried out in cameroun (2004b; 2006), body lotions are primarily sought by women. conscious of this reality, most of the companies in this field propose body lotion bottles with pictures of beautiful women having a clear and fair complexion; for example, maxi light, clair liss and bioclaire body lotions to name a few. since 2008, a series of body lotions’ advertisements (and even of children’s body lotions likely to captivate the attention of mothers) take place before, during and after the broadcast of tv series loved by cameroonian women consumers. without being exhaustive and based on our personal observations, we can name primo et essential for “paloma”, poupy bébé and new skin + for “whirls of passion ”, white express for “between justice et vengeance ”, clair et net for “vaidehi”, pediaderm for “el diablo”, kloès for “jacob cross”, golden clear for “india”, rapid clair, moby bébé and biopur for “redemption”, vaseline for “the long expectation”, kloès and peau nette for “intimate enemies”, sephora for teresa and claraderm for el-capo (in the canal2 tv channel), talangaï before “in the heart of sin ”, vaseline for “broken heart ” (in the crtv tv channel) and absolute white for “marina”, trompy for “the roman of life ” (in the equinox tv channel). the consumers were questioned in the towns of yaounde (29.1%), douala (41.3%), ngaoundéré (16.1%) and bafoussam (13.6%). the exclusive choice of the women is explained by the consumption reality of beauty lotions by the population such as previously evoked. 67.9% of the sample has a university level of studies. 71.7% of those questioned are single. several factors can explain this high rate of singles: increase in the duration of studies, the difficulty in finding a job and an increasing individualization of the society. 51% of those questioned are aged between 15 and 25, 41.2% between 26 and 40 and 7.8% are above 40. thus, the majority of the respondents of our sample are young. this result is in conformity with the characteristics of the cameroonian population which is extremely young (cbcps, 2010). besides, according to the africa 24 magazine published in 2011, more than 70% of cameroonians are less than 25 years old. this is also the case in many african countries. in 2005, 56% of the west african population was less than 20 and 65 % (that is to say nearly two thirds), was less than 25 (koffi and kone, 2010). with 44% of the population being under 15 in 2006, sub-saharan africa is unmistakably the youngest region of the world (lori, 2007). indeed, in 2010, the most striking remark when one considers the demographic characteristics of the sub-saharan african population is its youth: according to projections, 63% of this population is less than 25 while 20,4% cover the age group from 15 to 24 years old (kofi and kone, 2010). the great number of teenagers (students, labourers and the jobless) and young adults (employees, higher staff) is justified by their early use of cosmetic products. let us specify here that the socio-professional categories (spc) retained here are an adaptation of the nomenclature from the national institute of statistics (nis) in 2005. this adaptation is justified by the fact that the body lotion is known and accessible to all the social categories. lastly, 67.8% of those questioned have an income ranging between 25.000 f cfa and 50.000 f cfa (table 1). the consumers of our sample use their body lotions “2 to 3 times daily” (61.2%); “1 time” (36%) or “more than 3 times” (2.8%). the majority of them buy their body lotions themselves (81.4%); preferably in small and medium-sized sales floors (85%). they prefer perfume shops in order to preserve the warm human contact which characterizes africans. in fact, one often finds over perfume counters, salesmen attentive to the needs of customers and ready to make a small “sacrifice”. the setting up of these sales points also promotes bargaining, an archaic practice which has almost disappeared in europe, but currently practiced in cameroon and in africa in general (bekolo, 2007). on the other hand, the position “of the hawker” is clearly explained by the study of tsapi and gilardi (2011) which show that consumers avoid this system of distribution since according to them, the beauty lotions which are sold are often counterfeited, i.e. “mixed with cassava juice”. 40.4% of those questioned confide in a close relation for the purchase of a body lotion (table 2). this result is in conformity with the reports of the exploratory study and the literature according to which consumers frequently seek the opinion of other people before a purchase (price and feick, 1984). cameroonian consumers attach an importance to “ word of mouth” which is the most used source of table 1. descriptive characteristics of consumers of beauty lotions. variable f % total sample 361 100 city yaounde 105 29.1 douala 149 41.3 ngaoundere 58 16.0 bafoussam 49 13.6 level of education primary 9 2.5 secondary 105 29.0 higher 245 67.9 none 2 0.6 marital status married 90 24.9 divorced 5 1.4 widows 7 1.9 singles 259 71.7 profession managerial 37 10.2 self-employed 28 7.8 employees 45 12.5 labourers 2 0.6 househelps 3 0.8 students 198 54.8 small trades 25 6.9 unemployed 23 6.4 age 15-25 years old 184 51.0 16-40 149 41.2 years old >40 years old 28 7.8 monthly income <25000 f cfa 111 30.7 25001-50000 f cfa 134 37.1 50001-100000 f cfa 51 14.2 100001-200000 f cfa 48 13.3 >200000 f cfa 17 4.7 spss output version 17.0. information for the choice of a product (east et al., 2005). measurement of the variables the measurement indicators of the concepts are from the literature. some of them have been adapted and refined after semi-directing 130 afr. j. agric. mark. talks with twenty-five beauty lotion consumers. the adaptation of the scales consisted in reformulating some of the items so that they are well understood by the cameroonian consumers. the transposition of the scales without this effort of contextualization did not seem relevant to us insofar as it would negatively influence the answering rate. that being, in table 3, the items in italic are those which were adapted. we use the p.i.a involvement measurement (personal relevance, interest and attraction towards the product) suggested by strazzieri (1994). it is a scale made up of six items whose total coherence and validity have been shown in many studies (russet-red et al., 1997; gouteron, 2006). to measure the concept of perceived differences between brands, we chose the scale of kapferer and laurent (1992). it is apprehended using a battery of five items. for a measurement of perceived risk, we use works of jacoby and kaplan (1972) as well as those of roselius (1971) which validate a six items-structure relative to the above-mentioned risks types. the final solution retains four items because the suppression of two items (in relative with psychological and functional risks) made it possible to improve the reliability of the instrument. the items concerned are: “the purchase of a body lotion can lead to a disappointment with oneself”; “the quality of a body lotion can appear to be below my expectations finally”. concerning brand sensitivity, the five items retained are from the direct measurement gotten from kapferer and laurent’s scale (1992). this measuring instrument has been used in a great number of studies (lachance et al., 2003; perrin-martinenq, 2004; beaudoin and lachance, 2006; bouhlel et al., 2011) which have shown the stability of its factorial structure. in these studies, it seems that the scale is reliable, valid, of unidimensional type and in full coherence with the definition of the construct. for all the constructs of the model, the women questioned were requested to give their opinion on the scales of the likert type having five points. the answers varied from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (fully agree) passing through 3 (fairly agree). finally, the data collected were analyzed by using the (spss) version 17.0. the principal components analysis enabled us to purify measurements and to structure the variables. the reliability of the items forming each component was verified by cronbach’s alpha ( ). in order to identify the factors influencing brand sensitivity, we used correlation analyses and multiple regression. in our opinion, it is important to verify firstly the existence and the sense of the relation between each independent variable and the dependent variable by means of the pearson’s linear correlation coefficient (r). we can then appreciate globally, the relevance of these relations by means of the linear regression coefficients. results the examination of our survey questionnaire indicates that 25 consumers (that is 6.9%) of our sample are weakly sensitive, 135 are moderately sensitive (that is 37.4%) and 201 are highly sensitive (that is 55.8%). table 3 gives details about the scales used and the usual validation evidence for the estimation of reliability. reading this table, the principal components analysis carried out on the items of each concept reveals a factor having an eigenvalue higher than 1 (kaiser criterion). at the end of this procedure of processing of the variables, all the concepts are unidimensional and all the scales are reliable. the pearson’s correlation coefficient between enduring involvement and brand sensitivity is r = 0.840 and significant with the threshold p = 0.01 (table 4). in the ephraim 131 table 2. behavioral characteristics of consumers of beauty lotions. variable frequency percent total sample 361 100 nature of respondent rarely 14 3.9 often 38 10.5 always 309 85.6 type of buyer yourself 294 81.4 your family (spouse/friend/relative) 67 18.6 frequency of daily use 1 time 130 36.0 2 à 3 times 221 61.2 >3 times 10 2.8 place of purchase perfume shops/supermarkets/mini-markets 307 85.0 hawkers 2 0.5 hairdressing/beauty salons 11 3.0 neighborhood shops 8 2.2 outdoor market 6 1.7 pharmacy 27 7.4 recommendation dermatologist 21 5.8 close (friend/relative) 146 40.4 media 18 5.0 seller 94 26.0 yourself 80 22.1 an unknown 2 0.5 spss output version 17.0. same way, the correlation analysis reveals that perceived differences are significantly associated to brand sensitivity (r = 0.852; p = 0.01). lastly, there is a significant correlation between perceived risk and brand sensitivity (r = 0,819; p = 0.01). hypothesis testing a regression analysis shows that the total adjustment of the model is of good quality. in fact, the values of the correlation coefficient r (0,916) and of the determination coefficient r ² (0,840) are all satisfactory since they are above 0.5. the test of robustness of this regression model reveals an f of fisher value of 622,963 with a threshold of significance of 0,000 for 3 to 357 degrees of freedom. we note that this calculated threshold of significance is lower than 0.05. moreover, the t values for the variables introduced into the regression model (perceived risk, enduring involvement and perceived differences) are satisfactory (with the threshold p = 0,000), that is, 8,860; 8,132 and 9,976 respectively. from the results, it arises that perceived differences are the main antecedents of sensitivity to brands (ß = 0,373). moreover, perceived risk, enduring involvement and perceived differences are explanatory sources of sensitivity to brands. consequently, the assumptions h1, h2 and h3 are validated. these three variables explain 84% of this sensitivity (r ²). these results are illustrated diagrammatically in figure 2. the results under spss are in the appendix. the regression equation between these variables and sensitivity to brands which we note as y1 is written as follows: y1 = 0. 004 + 0.303 risk + 0.307 impl + 0.373 difce (-,118) (8.860) (8.132) (9.976) 132 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. principal component analysis of independent variables and brand sensitivity. scale items factor item to total cronbach eingalue % of loading correlation variance enduring involvement the body lotion is a product which really counts for me. the body lotion is a product to which i attach a particular importance. the body lotion is a product about which i particularly like to speak the body lotion is a product which interests me. the body lotion is a product which attracts me particularly. the body lotion is a product whose purchase pleases me. perceived differences between brands there are brands of body lotions which are by far superior to others. 0.915 4.240 70.672 0.865 0.784 0.875 0.801 0.676 0.574 0.873 0.806 0.869 0.805 0.867 0.802 0.874 3.378 67.553 0.723 0.596 i believe that most brands of body lotions are 0.830 0.709 comparable. presently, all the brands of body lotions are good. as a whole, i find that all the brands of body lotions resemble each other. i think that there are great differences between the brands of body lotions. perceived risk the body lotion that i buy can give a bad indication of me to my entourage. the use of a body lotion can be dangerous for my health or that of my entourage. the purchase of a body lotion can represent a bad expenditure. the purchase of a body lotion can make me waste time. brand sensitivity i do not choose a body lotion according to the brand. i look at the brand when i buy a body lotion. for body lotions, the brand is not very important to me. i consider the brand when i buy a body lotion. i look at the brand first when i am choosing a body lotion. 0.803 0.691 0.900 0.813 0.842 0.735 0.883 2.979 74.479 0.892 0.782 0.911 0.816 0.750 0.605 0.889 0.790 0.853 3.200 63.991 0.668 0.529 0.849 0.721 0.746 0.617 0.897 0.797 0.819 0.687 spss output version 17.0. table 4. summary of the pearson’s correlations between the various antecedents of the sensitivity to brands. sensitivity to brands enduring involvement 0.840 ** perceived differences 0.852 ** perceived risk 0.819 ** spss output version 17.0. ** p = 0.01. concretely, the more a consumer feels that a bad purchase would have serious consequences for her, the more she regards the brand as a decisive purchase criterion. the consumers attach a great importance to the purchase of body lotions. they therefore constantly use the brand as a reference mark. lastly, it appears that the more the consumer sees differences between brands, the more he is sensitive to brands. this result seems to be explained mainly by the phenomena of imitation and ephraim 133 enduring involvement 0.307 perceived differences 0.373 between the brands sensitivity to brands enduring involvement. this approach seemed judicious to us for a better apprehension of these two concepts since the body lotion is a product with a rather high perceived risk and strong involvement. it is important to add that, through this approach, we share the opinion of several authors (sherif and cantril, 1947; zaichkowsky, 1985; valette-florence, 1989; strazzieri, 1994) which think that perceived risk 0.303 enduring involvement should be distinguished from its antecedents (among which is perceived risk) and its consequences. figure 2. the final model including all significant relations. enduring involvement 0.307 perceived differences 0.373 between the brands sensitivity to brands besides, the conclusions of this study about the perceived differences between brands once more go in line with those of kapferer and laurent (1992). these authors’ results reveal an explanatory capacity of 0.38. the t value is 14.65 with the threshold of significance p = 0.01. this explanatory capacity is almost identical to the one we obtained (0.37 with t = 0.976, p = 0.000). in fact, the more the consumer thinks that the brands are unequal on the level of their performances (ability to respond satisfactorily to a sought-after advantage or to provide a great total satisfaction) the more the brand will intervene as a decisive criterion of choice. we think, just perceived risk 0.303 like amine (1998) that sensitivity to the brand is nourished and reinforces the perception of quality figure 3. the results of the multiple regression test. counterfeiting. indeed, in the world of the body lotions brands, alternative choices are very numerous. the perception of differences between brands is expected to stimulate the research of varieties. however, in front of a significant number of possibilities of counterfeited or imitated choices, the consumer makes her decision of purchase within a set of brands which satisfy her need for safety. to end it up, the constant of the regression line is negative. thus, if the beauty lotion firms do not set out to discriminate their brands more, to arouse the enthusiasm of consumers and to maximally reduce risk, the brands will no longer have any importance in the eyes of these consumers. discussion the results of the multiple regression test state that perceived risk and enduring involvement significantly influence sensitivity to brands (figure 3). these results match up with those obtained by kapferer and laurent (1992) as well as those of froloff-brouche and ben-miled (1995). however, their measurement of the two concepts is different from ours. in fact, to measure enduring involvement in a category of products, they resorted to the laurent and kapferer’s involvement profile scale (1985). although in conformity with the results of pre-ceding research, our conclusions nevertheless take their importance from the fact that they are obtained by a detailed approach of measurements of perceived risk and differences between the alternatives. the perceived differences between brands thus significantly favour the sensitivity of cameroonian consumers to brands as regards body lotions. this result makes it possible to confirm and enrich previous work on the subject. conclusion the main purpose of this research was to lead to a better comprehension of the concept of sensitivity to brands and its antecedents during the purchase of a body lotion. the empirical work carried out shows that cameroonian consumers are sensitive to the brand. thus, enterprises anxious about guaranteeing their permanence should be aware of this fact. it results from this research that small and medium-sized sale floors are preferred for the purchase of body lotions as they are places of friendliness. in the same way, recommendation by a close relation is appreciated by consumers of body lotions. it also results that perceived differences between brands, enduring involvement and perceived risk in body lotions positively influence sensitivity to brands. lastly, perceived differences between brands are the fundamental precursor of sensitivity to brands. such results are rich in terms of managerial implications. firstly, the managers of the enterprises present or desiring to settle in africa should reinforce the place of the brand in their marketing strategies since it is a considerable action lever for them. in the same way, they would gain more by highlighting interpersonal communications and the use of opinion leaders perceived as competent and credible (this is already done with the cameroonian artist, lady ponce, for the brand golden clear and with dr. charles arnaud for the brand moby bébé). the dominant explanatory capacity of perceived differences should lead cameroonian marketing experts not to underestimate this variable in the field of body lotions where the quality of the product is often opaque (in the light of imitation). this is one of the major concerns of consumers because the quality control legal and administrative system is almost non-existent. it seems necessary to reassure consumers by showing during advertisements, the visible and unfalsifiable signs which make it possible for consumers to avoid incidents caused by the use of “fake” body lotions (this is already the case of the roberts glycerin). in spite of its contributions, the present research has some limits. it is important firstly to stress that the sample is made up exclusively of women who do not meet the conditions of representativeness of the population. moreover, the empirical research has been carried out in some cameroonian cities with a sample of convenience. even if the results are interesting, their generalization to all fields should be made with great prudence. considering these limits, the study deserves to be continued in other categories of products with a significant number of women and men. other explanatory variables of sensitivity to brands could be identified. the study of the sensitivity of 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consommateur : antécédents et statut théorique, recherche appl. mark. 10(1):39-56. warrington p, shim s (2000). an examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity, j. acad. mark. sci. 28(2):195-211. zablah ar, brown bp, donthu n (2010). the relative importance of brands in modified rebuy purchase situations, int. j. res. mark. 27(3):248-260. zaichkowsky jl (1985). measuring the involvement construct, j. cons. res. 12(3):341-352. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 3 (3), pp. 200-208, march, 2015. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper multi-dimensional measures to better loyalty behavior of customers in a competitive environment *fazlur al hasan, zaiur r. alam and maqsudul v. i department of marketing, faculty of management sciences, university of karachi, karachi, pakistan. accepted 27 february, 2015 creating and maintaining strong brand and a band wagon of loyal customers have become increasingly difficult in today's competitive environment due to proliferation of numerous brands in a generic product category. brand loyalty has been shown to be associated with higher rates of return on investment due to increase in the market share. children’s influence on family purchase decision depends on a number of parameters and situations. children exercise various methods to influence their parents’ decision. their influence varies from products to products. it depends on parents’ education, profession, income, single parent working or both parents working, and type of family. astonishingly, very few studies have been undertaken to relate the brand loyalty and product involvement behavior of teenagers. the data for this study are gathered from a cross section of teenagers of different socioeconomic backgrounds, from the major metros of indi during the third quarter of 2014. in this paper aside including only involvement of product brand influence scores, brand trust and the size of the consideration set have been incorporated to predict brand loyalty of teens. the findings of the study reveal that multi-dimensional measure is a better predictor of loyalty behavior. research findings also reveal that different explanatory variables have diverse influence on the brand loyalty behavior of teens. key words: brand loyalty, product involvement, indian teens, brand influence score. introduction teenagers in the contemporary marketing environment constitute a pivotal market segment and deserve considerable attention from marketers and academicians due to the fact that market is expanding and teens spend *corresponding author email: fazlurhasan12@gmail.com vast amount of money for a wide variety of products. it is a reality that children play a central role in influencing family purchasing decisions; this has urged the marketing researchers to track their brand influencing behavior. it can hardly be denied that the degree of influence exerted by children differs across product categories as well as the stage of the decision making process. the teenage population is increasing exponentially over the fazlur et al. 200 last decade and for this reason the consumer behavior researchers are showing enormous interest to unveil the buying behavior of this growing segment. the indian consumer market, which is primarily dominated by young generation, is becoming increasingly sophisticated and brand conscious. a typical upper middle class young consumer is beginning to look beyond the utility aspect of a product to seek intangibles like brand and lifestyle statement associated with the product. this modern consumer wants his purchases to reflect his lifestyle or at least the one he aspires for. as a result of this brand consciousness, the food and beverage segment of the fmcg sector is already witnessing a significant shift in demand from loose to branded products. india alone is home to 1.136 billion people, out of which an estimated 350 million are in the age bracket of 10-24 years. their purchasing power has significantly increased, both, in terms of salary and pocket money. an assocham survey revealed that the average monthly allowance of urban children in the age group of 10-17 years has gone up from 300 in 1998 to 1,300 in 2008. this segment is very attractive due to its size, increasing spending power, and large exposure to media. among the existing studies, there is none in our knowledge that documents brand relationships of young consumers in an emerging economy. finally, young consumers the world over are influenced by peers and family in their brandrelated decisions (singh et al., 2003). for marketers, it is important to understand the impact of these factors on brand relationships and brand switching intentions. teenagers who belong to the age group of 13 to 19 approximately spend $150 billion per year globally. teens also exert influence on the tune of an additional $150 billion per year globally with “pester power.” it is believed from various sources that they indirectly influence another $300 billion per year. that is a total purchasing/influencing power of $600 billion this year. moreover, teens to a considerable extent influence various products to be consumed and used by their parents and other members of their family to which they belong. the world is witnessing a rise in the number of young consumers and evidence suggests they are brand conscious. in addition, 57 per cent of the teenagers cite marketing and media in their conversations as compared to 48 per cent adults (hein, 2007). teenagers‟ share of expenditure in the indian market is worth $2.8 billion (rana, 2007); young consumers tend to be more involved with material possessions (belk, 1988). consumer socialization process begins at home; young consumers see brands which are consumed in the family and are likely to give first preference to the use and purchase of those brands. even though young consumers start consuming and developing relationships with the new brands they get exposed to, the impact of the brand exposure from their families is likely to be strong. in the indian context, family has traditionally played a strong role in influencing choices of their progeny. bravo et al. (2007) argue that family always provides suggestions regarding brands for young consumers. the greater the family‟s influence on brand choice, the lower the depth of brand relationship (sahay and sharma, 2010). today‟s teenage customers have emerged as big-time spenders, who not only have a good amount of pocket money but also know how to supplement the same by means of internships, summer jobs and part-time jobs. it can hardly be denied that the teenage market in india is growing at a fast pace although no systematic effort has been made to study the loyalty behaviour of teenage consumers. considering a research gap in this area, in this paper an effort is made to discern the product involvement and brand loyalty behaviour of teenagers in india. there is a voluminous literature dedicated to the study of the concept of brand loyalty. however, most of the research work carried out in this area has focused on the indian consumers, and studies involving the indian teenage consumers are quite less in number. it is high time that research pertaining to loyalty involving indian teenage consumers is strongly encouraged, because the outcome of any such research work would help the marketers to implement innovative changes in their product portfolio and thereby retain the customers. entry of multinationals and their aggressive way of garnering market share results in sleepless nights for brand executives. research pertaining to loyalty involving indian consumers is the need of the hour, because the outcome of any such research work would help the corporate to implement innovative changes in their product portfolio and thereby retain the customers. there is a significant increase in the spending power of indian teenagers and their desire to purchase sophisticated products. availability of more number of multinational brands with unique attributes has forced the oscillating consumers to buy new brands. another major consideration for the marketer is to look at the issue of teenager brand loyalty from the perspective of teenagers‟ level of involvement. the findings of various studies (laurent and kapferer, 1985; bordo, 1993; leclerc and little, 1997) indicate a positive relationship between these two dimensions. however, since the pattern of indian teenagers' involvement has not been fully explored, a study is required to examine the relative influence of the antecedents of teenage involvement on brand loyalty incorporating a few important explanatory variables that have not been addressed by researchers to predict brand loyalty behaviour of teenagers. keeping in view the gaps in the existing literature this study is conducted with the following objectives: i) to determine the level of involvement of teens with respect to various brands included in our study and to look into the number of brands in their consideration set. ii) to assess the brand loyalty scores for various product categories considered in our study. iii) to develop a brand influence score (bis) scale of using a seven point likert type of items. iv) to investigate nomological validity of the measurements by investigating the degree of association between brand loyalty and a set of explanatory variables. v) to explain adequately why results are divergent for a cross section of products included in our study. vi) to integrate the findings above and suggest possible managerial implications based on the findings of the study. the present study encompasses five broad sections including the introductory section which contained an overview of the teenage market in india as well as changes taking place in the developed markets. instead of providing research questions, the objectives of the study have been included in the introductory section. literature review product involvement and brand loyalty are two important components believed to explain a considerable proportion of consumer decision making behaviour. several empirical studies have been reported in various marketing literature to establish relationship between consumer involvement with products and brand loyalty (quester and lim, 2003; douglas, 2006; as cited by sritharan et al., 2008). the findings of their studies in general postulate hat consumers who are more involved with a product category exhibit greater loyalty towards the brand. a few researchers in the field of consumer behaviour view that loyalty is a process of repurchasing which happens due to situational restrictions, lack of feasible alternatives, or out of expediency (sadasivan et al., 2011). the researchers‟ interest to study the consumer involvement behaviors and brand loyalty has gained momentum in recent years after the publication of two articled by quester and lim (2003). quester and lim (2003), in their empirical observation, explained that the relationship between the product involvement and brand loyalty is found to involve different aspects of involvement for different product categories considered in their study. knox and david (2003) also support the findings of quester and lim by integrating classical theory of involvement, brand loyalty, and commitment (traylor, 1981). even in a grocery product purchase setting the outcome of the study corroborates the relationship between involvement and brand loyalty. in a similar study, yi and hoseong (2003) conducted a research to investigate the moderating role of product involvement and brand loyalty. the study further confirms that the consumer loyalty was highly affected by their level of involvement. in indian context, jain and sharma (2002) 201 afr. j. agric. mark. observed that differences in consumer involve-ment with the product depends on large number of products and brand related factors viz. consumer risk perception and hedonic value of the product, brand awareness and so on. the findings of the study reveal that consumer involvement differs across different type of products. sahay and sharma (2010), in a very recent study, reported that strong association has been observed between brand name and loyalty. the research indicated a positive as well as significant association among different faces of brand loyalty for cosmetics brands. another current study conducted by sridhar (2007) reveals that users of cell phone are highly brand loyal. buyers of cell phones in their repeat purchase stick to the same brand once they find the brand satisfying all their needs and desires. in marketing terminology the phenomenon can be explained by the concept of risk importance which signifies that consumers in general are risk averse and try to avoid the psychological stress due to mispurchase of the desired brand. it is quite normal for consumers to favour a user friendly cell phone due to the fact that they do not have to pass through new learning and adoption process. in the context of store image study it is also revealed that involvement plays a dominant role in the purchase of private store brand (psb). the findings corroborate that involvement influences buying decision and different faces of cip scales are found to have strong impact on the loyalty behaviour for psb. the concept of involvement was theorized by krugman (1965) and subsequently the concept was refined by various authors. a substantial research work in the field of involvement has been taken to relate the brand loyalty and commitment behaviour of consumers, particularly after two articles were published in the journal of marketing and the journal of marketing research by laurent and kapferer (1985a, 1985b). however, traylor (1981) has probably examined initially the relationship between product involvement and brand commitment. since then a plethora of research articles have been published to relate involvement variables and brand loyalty behavior of consumers for a wide variety of product and services. however, traylor (1981) has probably examined first the relationship between the product involvement and brand commitment. in the context of the review of literature presented above, several aspects need to be explained for establishing the justification of the present study. in existing literature the concept of narrow categorizers or broad categorizer has received very little attention from the researchers. highly involved consumers find fewer brands acceptable. theory posits that narrow categorizers are likely to be more loyal to the brand they purchase for consumption. on the other hand, consumers who are broad categorizers have a large number of brands in their consideration set and they are very likely to be brand switchers. in view of this, it is perfectly logical to incorporate the number of brands the consumers have fazlur et al. 202 in their consideration set. so far our knowledge goes previous studies did not incorporate this important variable for predicting brand loyalty behaviour of consumers. this study is undertaken to predict the involvement and brand loyalty behaviour of indian teenagers who exert considerable pester power on their parents for the purchase of a brand of their choice. we have made a serious attempt to develop a brand influence score (bis) scale that is reliable as well as valid to discern the relationship between bis and brand loyalty. we have then sincerely endeavoured to incorporate this construct which was not considered by previous researchers working in this area. in this research work, we have introduced both global as well as multi-dimensional measure to capture the construct involvement to probe which measure is more effective in predicting brand loyalty behaviour of teens. methodology since the objective of our study is to relate the teenage involvement and brand loyalty behaviour incorporating the brand influence score and the number of brands in the consideration set, we have employed factor analysis to establish scale dimensionality. in addition to this, multiple regression analysis is employed to assess the importance of different variables in predicting the brand loyalty of teenagers considered in our study. regression analysis is also employed to ascertain the predictive validity of the proposed measure of involvement and brand loyalty. the construct involvement is measured using a twelve item multi-dimensional scale incorporating risk probability, risk importance, pleasure value and the sign value. in our study, we have also measured involvement using a five item five-point scale proposed by zaichkowsky (1995) to compare whether the uni-dimensional or multi-dimensional measure of involvement predicts brand loyalty behaviour of teenagers. highly involved consumers find fewer brands acceptable (narrow categorizers) and tend to be more loyal. on the other hand, brand switchers are likely to have more brands in their consideration set (broad categorizers) that are likely to be less loyal to their brands. in an attempt to establish this phenomenon we have gathered data from teenagers regarding the number of brand they have in their consideration set. teenagers play a significant role in deciding the brands they purchase for themselves as well as they shape the brand choice behaviour for other brands purchased for family consumption which are technically known as pester power. in our study, we have developed a seven item five point scale to measure the brand influence score (bis) of teenagers which is likely to influence the brand loyalty of teenagers. the detailed methodological procedures followed in our study are briefly discussed in the subsequent discussions. scale development while developing the scale to measure the involvement construct, we have followed the recommended scaling procedures which are very commonly found in psychometric literature (nunnally, 1978). following churchill's (1979) suggestion, we generated a pool of items for each facet from different involvement scales developed by laurent and kapferer (1995b), jain and srinivasan (1990), lastovicka and gardner (1979), and zaichkowsky (1985). in addition, a preliminary in-depth discussion with a sample of respondents (n=21) pursuing management programme was also an important source from which we generated a few other items (bhattacharya, 2000). altogether, 28 five point semantic differential items were initially developed to reflect the four facets of involvement. these items were then judged for content validity by a small panel of experts (n=3) resulting in 17 semantic differential statements. the panel comprised both academicians and marketing professional having adequate knowledge in this field. these 17 items were then administered to an initial sample of post-graduate university (n=42) students over two products categories per student. following suggestions of zaichkowsky (1985) and gaski and etzel (1986), statements with items to total correlation (within each component) of r = 0.50 or more were retained. in this process five more items were dropped and finally 12 items were retained to measure 4 facets of involvement. it was required to establish scale dimensionality since the interest and pleasure items of cip scale continued to fuse into a single factor. data for the survey are obtained from a convenience sample of 447 teens drawn from the four major metros in india. in addition to meeting the socio-demographic criteria, the choice of the convenience sample is made so that the teenagers have to be a user of the product on which their responses are sought. due to financial constraint, it was not feasible for us to adopt a probability sampling technique convenience sample, though not very scientific, helps in getting over this limitation. moreover, since our objective is to determine the degree and direction of relationship between various facets of involvement and their influence on the teenagers‟ loyalty behavioural aspect and no generalizations about the sample teenagers were envisaged, a convenience sample was considered adequate for this study. the sample size was not very large but previous research in this area also conducted similar type of studies covering a sample size ranging from 150 to 450 in most of the cases. the data for the study were collected from different coaching centres by personally administering the questionnaire. the respondents were given a complementary gel pen as a token gift for participating in the study. selection of stimulus products in our present study, a good deal of exploratory work is needed to select the products to be included in the study. while selecting the stimulus products for the study we have to resolve some important issues. first, the individual considered for the interview as a user of the products for which his response is sought. secondly, products are deliberately chosen to represent contrasting profiles on various dimensions of involvement viz. risk, pleasure and sign (self expression factor) associated with the product. the final list of products retained for this study is done through a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with the teenagers. psychometric performance of the scale the twelve-item involvement scale was initially administered to a sample of students enrolled in the department of commerce of north bengal university to assess the reliability and validity of the proposed measure where each student had to give response on two product categories. we computed internal consistency reliability by cronbach's alpha as well as by test-retest reliability. it is quite evident from the table that the reliability coefficients are reasonably high and it can be concluded that the scale which we intend to use in our study possesses sufficient degree of internal consistency despite a small number of items in each scale. it has to be remembered that consistency is a necessary but not sufficient condition for validity (nunnally, 1978). therefore, in the subsequent 203 afr. j. agric. mark. table 1. factor analysis results: cell phone (n=82) and toys (n=73). items f1 f2 f3 f4 items f1 f2 f3 f4 prob1 .691 prob1 .649 prob2 .803 prob2 .812 prob3 .849 .722 prob3 . .746 plsr1 .740 plsr1 .713 plsr2 .749 plsr2 .703 plsr3 plsr3 .786 rimp1 .757 rimp1 .779 rimp2 .811 rimp2 .626 rimp3 .864 rimp3 .701 sexp1 .763 sexp1 .694 sexp2 .736 sexp2 .593 .588 sexp3 .721 sexp3 .717 eigen value 3.17 1.97 1.82 1.15 eigen value 2.41 2.02 1.57 1.23 % of variance 29.9 17.3 18.3 9.8 % of variance 20.1 16.9 13.2 10.3 loadings above 0.50 are reported. discussion we address this important issue in detail. the assessment here will begin with construct validity, which refers to the extent to which the hypothetical, unobservable construct of interest corresponds to its purported measure (peter, 1981). in order for a measure to have construct validity, each of the measurement items must relate to the characteristics of the construct, and each item must be free from contamination by elements of other constructs. these two requirements are operationalised by two validity tests, viz. (a) content validity and (b) scale dimensionality. these two issues are briefly addressed below. samples for two different product categories. with a few notable exceptions, the scale items were loaded on the factors they were supposed to measure. apart from this, for other applications, factor analysis led to the results we expected: one factor per item, all items from an antecedent on the same factor and one factor per antecedent. the results of factor analysis presented in tables 1 and 3 amply demonstrate that the proposed measure is not contaminated with elements from the domain of other constructs or error. the systematic extraction of four factors can be interpreted as supportive evidence of construct validity. content validity when a test is constructed so that its content of term measures what the whole test claims to measure, the test is said to have content or circular validity. it was done essentially by a systematic examination of the items included by researchers while capturing the domain of the construct. in addition to this, initial scale items (17 pairs) were judged by a small sample of experts who expressed that these items could be used to capture the domain of the construct. moreover, statistical tests were applied to ensure content validity. in our study, the level of internal consistency measured by cronbach's alpha provided sufficient evidence for the content validity. scale dimensionality the scale dimensionality may be reviewed via factor analysis which is a collection of mathematical procedures for determining which variables belong to which factor or underlying construct. through factor analysis, specific expectations concerning the number of factors and their loadings are tested on sample data. campbell (1960) and nunnally (1978) suggest that each scale should measure a single facet if it is considered to have construct validity. discriminant validity, on the other hand, represents the uniqueness of each scale vis-à-vis others. to test simultaneously construct and discriminant validity, we conducted a factor analysis of the items using student results and discussion there is no doubt from past literature that involvement with product plays a dominant role in explaining the loyalty behaviour of consumers belonging to different socio-demographic strata from which the samples are drawn. the unique approach of this paper is that we wanted to apply two very important product involvement scales frequently cited in marketing literature. the global measure suggested by zaichkowsky (1985) which is found to be highly reliable because of number of items is included in the scale. during the same year, laurent and kapfarer (1985a) developed a multi-dimensional measure to capture various constructs of involvement using a scale which included five distinct dimensions. we have not come across any study incorporating both these scales to measure the relationship that exists between brand loyalty and product related involvement. the multiple regression results using multidimensional measure for the brands viz. laptop; apparel; cell phone; toothpaste; health drink and toys (modified laurent and kafperer scale, 1985). the idea behind employing these scales for six brands considered in our study was to discern the predictive ability of the measures included in the explanatory variable set. major findings of the survey relating brand loyalty and product involvement are presented fazlur et al. 204 table 2. factor analysis results: health drink (n=82) and laptop (n=73). items f1 f2 f3 f4 items f1 f2 f3 f4 prob1 .891 prob1 .649 prob2 .839 .813 prob2 .812 prob3 .792 prob3 .746 plsr1 .720 plsr1 .733 plsr2 .739 plsr2 .693 plsr3 plsr3 .686 rimp1 .817 rimp1 .679 rimp2 .821 .300 rimp2 .656 rimp3 .794 rimp3 .711 sexp1 .813 sexp1 .704 sexp2 .796 sexp2 .688 sexp3 .723 sexp3 .709 eigen value 3.07 1.95 1.73 1.05 eigen value 2.11 1.91 1.37 1.39 % of variance 28.9 16.3 14.3 8.8 % of variance 23.1 18.9 17.2 11.3 loadings above 0.50 are reported. table 3. factor analysis results: apparel (n=82) and toothpaste (n=73). items f1 f2 f3 f4 items f1 f2 f3 f4 prob1 .691 prob1 -.649 prob2 .793 prob2 -.812 prob3 .809 .732 prob3 -.746 plsr1 .690 plsr1 .703 . plsr2 .689 plsr2 .693 plsr3 plsr3 .686 rimp1 .757 rimp1 .719 rimp2 .731 . rimp2 . .696 rimp3 .794 rimp3 .661 sexp1 .763 sexp1 .624 sexp2 .716 sexp2 .608 sexp3 .741 .067 .427 .427 sexp3 .617 eigen value 3.07 1.91 1.62 1.31 eigen value 2.62 1.92 1.42 1.23 % of variance 29.3 17.1 15.3 10.8 % of variance 23.1 19.1 14.2 13.3 loadings above 0.50 are reported. in tables 4-9 where six products have been considered. although the tables are self explanatory, a few comments are necessary to focus on the weightage of variables coefficient in predicting brand loyalty. for cell phone, the risk probability factors as well as risk importance factors have been found to be insignificant though there are numerous brands in the market which may require lot of information processing. however, one possible reason behind this result may be attributed to consumer reliance to nokia brand of cell phone which enjoys strong brand popularity in india. similar findings have been reported by quester and lim (2003,pp 33-33). however, for toys, we find that risk importance facet is highly significant. the buyers probably are not sure about how long the product will last and whether it would be socially acceptable. surprisingly for toys, a lot of spurious brands are trafficked in india and many buyers have expressed their concern whether they are really getting the original brand produced by a particular company or not. as hypothesized, it is expected that brand influence score would exert a positive influence on the brand loyalty construct. for toys the coefficient is positive and significant whereas for cell phone the same is not significant. the size of the consideration set negatively influences 205 afr. j. agric. mark. table 4. regression coefficients; product: toys. unstandardized standardized variables coefficients coefficients t sig. b std. error beta risk probability .228 .191 .063 1.191 .238 sign 1.612 .177 .604 9.096 .000 pleasure .361 .147 .137 2.452 .017 risk importance .457 .160 .162 2.858 .006 brand influence .144 .079 .102 1.827 .072 score consideration -1.017 .358 -.181 -2.840 .006 set dependent variable: brand loyalty; adjusted r square: .699, f: 62.201, p<.000. table 5. regression coefficients; product: cell phone. unstandardized standardized t sig. variables coefficients coefficients b std. error beta sign .494 .182 .233 2.717 .008 pleasure 1.008 .226 .464 4.450 .000 risk importance .016 .157 .009 .099 .921 risk probability -.007 .158 -.004 -.045 .964 brand influence score .136 .087 .129 1.552 .125 consideration set -1.397 .576 -.218 -2.424 .018 dependent variable: brand loyalty; note: adjusted r square 0.507, f: 14.730, p < .000. table 6. regression coefficients; product: laptop. unstandardized standardized t sig. variables coefficients coefficients b std. error beta sign .474 .212 .213 2.017 .010 pleasure 1.108 .246 .394 3.150 .000 risk importance .019 .187 .019 .079 .621 risk probability -.012 .198 -.014 -.041 .734 brand influence score .235 .097 .282 2.420 .019 consideration set -1.443 .835 -.195 -1.728 .009 dependent variable: brand loyalty. note: adjusted r square: 0.446: f: 11.210, p<.000. the brand loyalty variable signifying the fact that the buyers considering higher number of brands are likely to be brand switchers. however, the results amply demonstrate that the consideration set and brand loyalty behavior are inversely related. for both the brands, the adjusted r square values are significant beyond p< 0.000. in case of laptop, the behavior of coefficients did not vary significantly but the value of r square drops significantly. for cell phone, the consideration set is significant beyond p<0.05 but the same is highly significant for a brand of laptop where all variables are found to be significant. brand influence score is the most important determinant variable influencing the brand loyalty behavior of teens. for a product like toothpaste the involvement level is found to be significantly influencing the brand loyalty behavior of consumers and it can be concluded that though buyers develop a habitual buying behavior and are not reluctant to switch over to other brands, they search different flavor within their brand choice. a remarkable variation has been observed between the fazlur et al. 206 table 7. regression coefficients; product: apparel. unstandardized standardized t sig. variables coefficients coefficients b std. error beta sign .514 .202 .253 2.517 .007 pleasure 1.008 .219 .434 3.950 .000 risk importance .016 .177 .010 .089 .911 risk probability -.007 .138 -.016 -.040 .864 brand influence score .418 .072 .523 5.781 .000 consideration set -.886 .385 -.211 -2.303 .024 dependent variable: brand loyalty; note: adjusted r square: 0.523: f: 13.829, p< .000. table 8. regression coefficients; product: health drink. unstandardized standardized t sig. variables coefficients coefficients b std. error beta sign .514 .192 .263 2.317 .008 pleasure 1.118 .266 .424 4.050 .000 risk importance .016 .177 .006 .069 .901 risk probability -.009 .137 -.002 -.039 .694 brand influence score .369 .069 .439 4.161 .000 consideration set -1.571 .777 -.204 -2.021 .008 dependent variable: brand loyalty; adjusted r square: 0.498: f: 11.157, p<.000. table 9. regression coefficients; product: toothpaste. unstandardized standardized t sig. variables coefficients coefficients b std. error beta sign .394 .202 .203 2.012 .012 pleasure 1.308 .276 .404 3.980 .000 risk importance .026 .197 .019 .073 .671 risk probability -.011 .178 -.014 -.045 .694 brand influence score .636 .155 .406 4.094 .000 consideration set -1.986 .727 -.270 -2.731 .008 dependent variable: brand loyalty; adjusted r square: 0.459: f: 11.085, p<.000. results of brand loyalty measure when deodorant purchase is concerned with only notable exception that prediction of brand loyalty gives a better result when all the facets of involvement are retained. product like health drink, the size of the consideration set positively influences the brand loyalty variable signifying the fact that the buyers considering less number of brands are likely to be more brands loyal. however, the results amply demonstrate that the consideration set and brand loyalty behavior are inversely related. for this brand, the adjusted r square values are significant beyond p< 0.000. it was found that there is positive significant impact of these independent variables on the dependent variable having p<.000. the value of beta coefficients for all the independent variables shows a positive association within the model. the value of adjusted r-square predicts a goodness of fit between the set of independent variables and the dependent variable. conclusion and managerial implication as a basis for an assessment of the psychometric performance of the scale administered in our study, in this conclusive section, we begin our discussion with the 207 afr. j. agric. mark. findings of the reliability analyses discussed in this paper. there are two basic dimensions of reliability: repeatability and internal consistency. assessing the repeatability property of measure is the first aspect of reliability. the test-retest correlation coefficients amply demonstrated the repeatability property adequately. the second underlying dimension of reliability is concerned with the homogeneity of the measure. to ensure homogeneity property internal consistency of multiple item measure has to be established. the coefficient of alpha and the split-half reliability estimates are within acceptable limit in spite of a very small number of items in each scale. consistency is a necessary condition for validity but it is not a sufficient condition for establishing scale validity. keeping this aspect in mind several estimates of validity have been provided in our study. we begin our discussion with face or content validity. the relevance of the scale items was judged by a short panel of experts. it appeared evident to the experts that the measure provided adequate coverage of the construct. moreover, the item to total correlation coefficients and the internal consistency measures also provided sufficient evidence for content validity. in an attempt to establish discriminant and construct validity, factor analysis was conducted. factor analysis of the items confirmed the multidimensional nature of the consumer involvement profile. these research findings are of significance to marketing practitioners and reveal the teenagers influence of involvement on brand loyalty. results show that teenagers attach more importance to 'interest and pleasure' dimension followed by 'risk importance'. from managerial point of view, these results imply that teenagers can be persuaded to buy a particular brand of toys by consistently adding new features that offer unique benefits. precisely, the concept of 'innovation through technology' needs to be focused on. it is suggested that marketing professionals should conduct surveys to identify the expectation of teenage users, which changes frequently. specifically the present study offers brand executives a meaningful and valuable insight to guide them in winning competition. 'pleasure' has emerged as another important factor in the involvement scale. the respondents feel that pleasure facet is a driving force in selecting a particular brand of toys and laptop this provides a clue to the corporate that the store ambience and behaviour of the store personnel should be accentuated in a manner so as to highlight the pleasure aspect. executives can perform multi dimension scaling technique to identify the positions of competitive brands in the market and select unique positioning for their brand. this can be achieved by creating specific association (aaker, 1991) for their brand. 'sign' dimension has been extracted as an important factor in the analysis. it confirms that mobile brands do reflect the personality of teenage users. this result is highly relevant to managers involved in developing an identity for their brands. they can explore the possibility of launching special models exclusively for high-end teenage consumers and help establish a sense of pride by owning that brand. this outcome of the results of multiple regression analysis suggests that 'pleasure‟ and „sign value' influences brand loyalty significantly. this is the testimony that 'innovative features' of the product is the key determinant of brand selection. in today‟s teen world, innovation seems to be the key to ensuring continuous patronage and the products must be regularly upgraded in terms of new features that offer a fresh experience with regard to product usage. this fact points towards the overriding importance of new product launches, either as an upgraded version of an already existing product, or a totally new product itself. limitations and direction for future research cautions should be made while generalizing the findings of this study, considering sample size and area of study. the research conducted among the indian consumers may be subject to cultural influence and the similar study of brand loyalty in other countries is recommendable. this study focused only on limited variety of products and hence, the results are not applicable to other products. further research is required for other products and services and comparisons could be made across different product classes. it is suggested that an interesting avenue to pursue research would be to investigate whether loyal consumers and switchers differ in their information search, promotional sensitivity, and the extent to which brand loyalty is affected by sales promotion offers. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references aaker da (1991). 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"the personal involvement inventory: reduction, revision and application to advertising", j. advert. xxiii(4): 59-70. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 1 (2), pp. 024-031, december, 2013. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper factors affecting milk market outlet choices in wolaita zone, ethiopia berhanu kuma 1 *, derek baker 2 , kindie getnet 3 and belay kassa 4 1 eiar, holetta agricultural research center, p. o. box 2003, addis ababa, ethiopia. 2 research economist, international water management institute, p. o. box 5689, addis ababa, ethiopia. 3 senior agricultural economist and agricultural marketing program leader, ilri, nairobi, kenya. 4 haramaya university, p. o. box 138, dire dawa, ethiopia. accepted 15 may, 2013 the study was undertaken with the objective of assessing factors affecting milk market outlet choices in wolaita zone, ethiopia. using farm household survey data from 394 households and multinomial logit model, milk market outlet choices were analyzed. multinomial logit model results indicate that compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was lower among households who owned large number of cows, those who considered price offered by cooperative lower than other market outlets and those who wanted payment other than cash mode. the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was higher for households who were cooperative member, who owned large landholding size, who had been in dairy farming for many years and who received better dairy extension services. compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet was lower among households who were at far away from urban center and higher among households who accessed better dairy extension services and who owned large number of dairy cows. as one of the key factors to boost milk market outlet choices, dairy extension services should be strengthened through redesigning or reforming implementation strategies or improving/strengthening existing policy. it should be strengthened to enable farmers produce surplus milk for markets and should devise means to reduce local milking cow numbers by replacing them with crossbred cows. moreover, governments should strengthen milk processing cooperatives and improve infrastructure facilities. key words: factors, milk market, participation, volume of supply, wolaita zone. introduction development policy of ethiopia has placed an emphasis on increasing agricultural production to serve as a base for rural development. even though there have been an increase in agricultural production, its attempt experienced drawbacks in the absence of household’s market participation. the lack of market participation that many agricultural households face is considered to be a major constraint to combating poverty (best et al., 2005). this shows that an efficient, integrated and responsive market that is marked with good performance is of crucial importance for optimal allocation of resources and stimulating households to increase output (fao, 2003). thus facilitating market participation of households as well as developing chain competitiveness and efficiency are valuable preconditions to improve livelihoods (lundy et al., 2004; padulosi et al., 2004). unless farm households adjust to rapidly changing markets which are characterized by quality and food safety, vertical integration, *corresponding author. e-mail: berhanukuma@yahoo.com. tel: 0911352296. kuma et al. 024 standards and product traceability, reliability of supply, there will be a risk of competitiveness and inefficiency for the entire value chain (vermeulen et al., 2008). household market participation is an important strategy for poverty alleviation and food security in developing countries (heltberg and tarp, 2002). moreover, increasing household participation in markets is a key factor to lifting rural households out of poverty in africa countries (delgado, 1995). the literature on market outlet choices has been thin, especially in developing countries where significant frictions make this question most salient. goetz (1992) studied participation of senegalese agricultural households in grain markets. he used probit model to analyze household’s discrete decision either to participate in a market or not which was followed by a second-stage regression model to analyze the extent of market participation. key et al. (2000) developed a structural model to estimate structural supply functions and production thresholds for mexican households’ participation in maize market, based on a censoring model with an unobserved censoring threshold. holloway et al. (2005) used a bayesian double-hurdle model to study participation of ethiopian dairy farmers in milk market when non negligible fixed costs lead to non zero censoring, as in key et al. (2000), but distinguishing between discrete participation and continuous volume marketed, as in goetz (1992). some others studied livestock and livestock products marketing in parts of ethiopia (holloway et al., 2000; yigezu, 2000; muriuki and thorpe, 2001; tsehay, 2001; mohammed et al., 2004; woldemichael, 2008). however, none of past studies identified factors affecting milk market outlet choices in wolaita zone, ethiopia. wolaita zone is one of the potential milk production and marketing areas in ethiopia. in the zone, it is common to see household choices among milk market outlets. then, what motivate households to choose among milk market outlets available in the study area? systematic identification of factors faced by households in market outlet choice is increasingly seen by agricultural research as important component of any strategy for reaching the millennium development goals (giuliani and padulosi, 2005). given wolaita zone’s potential for milk production, processing, marketing and consumption, results of the study become essential to provide vital and valid information for effective research, planning and policy formulation. therefore the study provides an empirical basis for identifying options to increase milk market outlet choices of households. in doing so, the study attempts to contribute to filling the knowledge gap by assessing factors affecting milk market outlet choices in wolaita zone, ethiopia. methodology representative households from the study area. in the first stage, wolaita zone was selected purposively as it is one of the potential milk production, processing, marketing and consumption areas of the country. within the zone, four rural districts/weredas (sodo zuria, bolosso sore, ofa and damote gale) and one town (wolaita sodo) were selected purposively on the basis of milk production, marketing and consumption potential. then 33 peasant associations/kebeles from the weredas and the town were selected purposively on the basis of milk production and market participation potential. sample frame of the kebeles was updated and sample size was determined using a simplified formula provided by yamane (1967). out of the total 32,972 households, 398 households were selected using simple random sampling methods. however, four households with inappropriately filled questionnaire and missing data were dropped and the data set to 394 households were analyzed. both quantitative and qualitative data types were used in the study under investigation. in order to generate these data types, both secondary and primary data sources were used. secondary sources include reports of line ministries, journals, books, central statistical authority (csa) and internet browsing, national policies, zonal and wereda reports, among others. primary data sources include zonal and weredas agricultural and rural development offices, zonal and weredas agricultural marketing offices, wolaita sodo cattle breeding and multiplication center and dairy households. the major data collection methods used includes discussions, rapid market appraisal, observation, formal survey and visual aids. survey questionnaires were prepared and pre-tested for households operating within the study area. using the questionnaire, interviews were conducted to gather data on household characteristics, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, farm information, input utilization, and access to services such as extension, credit and information, technology use, milk production, milk market outlets, among others. trained and experienced enumerators collected data from households during july and august, 2010. two types of data analysis, namely descriptive statistics and econometric models were used to analyze the data collected from households. descriptive method of data analysis included the use of ratios, percentages, means and standard deviations in the process of comparing socioeconomic, demographic and institutional characteristics of households. to identify factors affecting milk market outlet choices, multinomial logit model was used. if there are a finite number of choices (greater than two), multinomial logit estimation is appropriate to analyze the effect of exogenous variables on choices. the multinomial logit model has been widely used by researchers such as schup et al. (1999) and ferto and szabo (2002). it is a simple extension of the binary choice model and is the most frequently used model for nominal outcomes that are often used when a dependent variable has more than two choices. the results revealed that households accessed milk market outlets such as individual consumer, cooperative, hotel/restaurant and combinations thereof. however, due to mutually inclusiveness of choices, fewer representation and similar collection and operation practices, only households who had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets were considered in multinomial logit regression. for estimation purpose, the base category used was access to individual consumer; thus the model assessed the effects of various independent variables on the odds of two market outlets versus access to individual consumer market outlet. the general form of the multinomial logit model is (mcfadden, 1973; long, 1997): p ki exp( x i ' β k ) j ∑exp( x i ' β j ) a multistage random sampling procedure was used to select k1 (1) 025 afr. j. agric. mark. for i  1,2 − −−, n; k  1,2,− − −, j milk price by market outlet (price) this is a continuous independent variable that is measured in where p is the likelihood that a household i chooses to access j ethiopian birr. it is the actual price received by a household per liter of milk sold to milk market outlets. staal et al. (2006) found out that xi is milk market outlet from k milk market outlet choices; the better the price offered by milk market channel, the more a explanatory variable vector that contains the set of factors about household prefers that outlet for accessing and selling milk. they found out that price offered per liter of milk by individual consumer household attributes and socioeconomic and demographic was lower than price offered by private trader and cooperative and characteristics; and β j is a vector of parameters relating thus households accessed these market outlets than accessing explanatory variables to the valuation of k outlets (k =1, 2, 3). individual consumer milk market outlet. therefore, the variable is the marginal effects are obtained from the logit regression hypothesized to affect accessing individual consumer milk market results by the following equation: outlet positively as compared with accessing cooperative milk market outlet and negatively as compared with accessing ∂pji  pji β j − ∑ p ki β k  hotel/restaurant milk market outlet. ∂x ji (2) size of milk output (yield) where β and p represent the parameter and likelihood, respectively, of one of the choices. marginal likelihood gives better indications and represents changes in dependent variable for a given change in a particular explanatory variable whereas holding the other explanatory variables at their sample means. the models are estimated under maximum likelihood procedures, which yield consistent, asymptotically normal and efficient estimates. the data covered information necessary to make household level indices of social, economic, demographic and institutional indicators comparable across different categories of households and milk market outlets. in order to identify factors affecting household milk market outlet choices, continuous and discrete variables were identified based on economic theories and empirical studies as follows. market outlets (access) this is a categorical dependent variable that represents milk market outlets of the study area. the results revealed that households had three milk market outlets and combinations thereof. however, due to mutually inclusiveness of outlets, fewer representation and similar collection and operation practices, only households who had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets were considered in the regression. accordingly, dependent variables were created from the data, which indicated sales to (1) individual consumer, (2) cooperative and (3) hotel/restaurant. for estimation purpose, the base category used was access to individual consumer; thus the model assessed the effects of various independent variables on the odds of two milk market outlets versus access to individual consumer milk market outlet. mode of milk sale (pay) this is a dummy independent variable that takes the value 1 if mode of milk sale is in cash and 0 otherwise. most households need cash from milk sale to purchase household needs such as soap, salt, food, etc and want payment to be made in cash. staal et al. (2006) found out that cash mode of payment negatively and significantly affected accessing cooperative and private trader milk market channel selection as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market channel. therefore, cash based mode of payment is hypothesized to affect accessing individual consumer milk market outlet positively as compared with accessing cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets. this is a continuous independent variable measured in liter. past studies revealed that milk yield per day significantly and positively affected marketed surplus of milk (singh and rai, 1998; woldemichael, 2008). therefore, the variable is hypothesized to affect accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet positively than others because of hotel/restaurant capacity to purchase large volume of milk. distance to the nearest urban center (dist) this is a continuous independent variable measured in kilometer. the closer a household to the nearest urban center, the lesser would be transportation costs, loss due to spoilage and better access to market information and facilities. berhanu and moti (2010) found out negative relationship between market participation and distance to the nearest urban market center. therefore, households who are at far away from urban center are hypothesized to affect the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. education of household head (edu) this is a dummy independent variable that takes the value 1 if a household head had attended formal schooling and 0 otherwise. literate households are expected to have better skills and better access to information and ability to process information. education plays an important role in adoption of new technologies and believed to improve readiness of a head to accept new ideas and innovations. it also enables a head to get updated demand and supply information. therefore, formal education of household head is hypothesized to affect accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. age of household head (age) this is a continuous independent variable that is measured in years. tshiunza et al. (2001) identified age of a household head as a major household characteristic that significantly affected the proportion of cooking banana plant for markets. they found out that young aged household heads tended to produce and sell more cooking banana than older aged household heads. therefore, being young aged household head is hypothesized to affect kuma et al. 026 accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. sex of household head (sex) this is a dummy independent variable that takes the value 1 if the head of a household is male and 0 otherwise. female contribute more labor in the area of feeding, cleaning of bans, milking, butter and cottage cheese making and sale of dairy products. however, such constraints as lack of capital and poor access to institutional credit and extension service, may affect female participation in dairy production and markets (tanga et al., 2000). due to their potential dairy production advantages over female headed households, male headed households are expected to be more market oriented. therefore, being male headed household is hypothesized to affect accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. household size (hsize) this is a continuous independent variable that is measured in the number of members in a household. household size increases domestic consumption requirements and may render households more risk averse. families with more household members tend to consume more milk which in turn decreases milk market participation and marketed milk surplus. hence, controlling for labor supply, larger households are expected to have lower market participation. heltberg and trap (2002), lapar et al. (2003), edmeades (2006) and berhanu and moti (2010) found out negative relationship between household size and market participation of households. it is therefore hypothesized to affect accessing cooperative milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. access to dairy extension services (ext) this is a dummy independent variable taking the value 1 if a household had access to dairy extension services and 0 otherwise. it is expected that dairy extension service widens household knowledge with regard to use of improved dairy technologies. agricultural extension services are expected to enhance households’ skills and knowledge, link households with technology and markets (lerman, 2004). the number of extension agent visits improves household’s intellectual capitals and helps in improving dairy production and impacts milk market outlet choices. past studies revealed that extension agent visits had direct relationship with market outlet choices (holloway and ehui, 2002; rehima, 2006). thus access to dairy extension service is hypothesized to affect accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. access to market information (infom) this is a dummy independent variable taking the value 1 if a household had access to market information services and 0 otherwise. households marketing decision is based on market price information. poorly integrated markets may convey inaccurate price information leading to inefficient product movement. study conducted by goetz (1992) on food marketing behavior showed that better market information significantly raised likelihood of market participation of households. therefore, the variable is hypothesized to affect accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. milking cow ownership (cow) this is a continuous independent variable measured in the number of milking cows owned by a household in tlu. as the number of dairy cows owned increases, milk production increases and percentage share of consumption declines and milk sales increase (holloway and ehui, 2002). past studies indicated that the variable showed positive and significant relationship with market participation and marketable milk volume (holloway and ehui, 2002; gizachew, 2005). therefore, the variable is hypothesized to affect accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. presence of children under six years of age (child) this is a dummy independent variable taking the value 1 if a household had at least a child less than six years of age and 0 otherwise. there is a competition between milk for child requirement and the amount needed for market. staal et al. (2006) included the variable in probit model and found out that the variable revealed negative relation to milk market outlet choices. therefore, households with at least a child under age six are hypothesized to affect accessing cooperative milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. dairy farming experience (exp) this is a continuous independent variable measured in the number of years a household has been engaged in dairy farming. households who have been in dairy farming for many years are expected to have rich experiences regarding opportunities and challenges of dairy production, processing and marketing. staal et al. (2006) included the variable in probit model and found out that the variable revealed positive relation to milk market participation and market outlet choice. therefore, the variable is hypothesized to affect accessing cooperative milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. landholding size (land) this is a continuous independent variable measured in hectare. as input for dairy production, land is very important for forage and pasture development to feed dairy cows. it is expected that as the size of land increases, the proportion of land allocated for feed development and improvement increases. according to staal et al. (2006) the variable has shown negative relationship with milk market participation and market outlet choice. however, in this study the variable is hypothesized to affect accessing cooperative milk market outlet choice positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. membership to cooperative (memb) this is a dummy independent variable that takes the value 1 if a household has a membership to cooperative and 0 otherwise. households who are member to cooperative are supposed to sell milk to milk processing cooperative rather than selling to individual consumer and hotel/restaurant. therefore, membership to cooperative is hypothesized to affect accessing cooperative market table 1. mean household characteristics by milk market outlets variable mean (standard deviation) of market outlets individual consumer (n=118) cooperative (n=46) hotel/restaurant (n=118) age of household head (year) 44.4(10.83) 45.3(13.04) 43.51(8.96) household size (number) 5.86(2.11) 6.39(2.40) 5.58(1.87) distance to the nearest urban market (km) 2.27(1.61) 3.36(2.16) 1.78(1.39) dairy cow in tlu 2.47(1.36) 1.91(1.31) 2.97(1.81) milk yield per day (liter) 10.02(3.03) 7.54(1.74) 10.44(3.31) dairy farming experiences (year) 8.7(3.81) 19.46(3.25) 7.02(3.77) milk price by outlet per liter (birr) 5.40(1.21) 4.50(0.51) 5.27(0.97) land holding size (ha) 0.96(0.07) 1.41(1.45) 0.48(0.31) source: authors collection, july and august 2010. outlet positively as compared with accessing other milk market outlets. results and discussion mean household characteristics by milk market outlets the mean household characteristics by milk market outlets are provided in table 1. the mean household size by milk market outlets was 5.9, 6.4 and 5.6 with individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant, respectively. the mean household size for households who accessed cooperative milk market outlet was higher than the mean household size (6.0 people) in the rural areas of southern ethiopia (csa, 2007). the mean age of household heads that had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets was 44, 45 and 43.5 years, respectively. the mean dairy cow ownership of households who had access to cooperative, individual consumer and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets was 1.9, 2.5 and 3.0 tlu, respectively. this indicates that households that owned large dairy cows accessed hotel/restaurant milk market outlet because of hotel/restaurants’ capacity to purchase large amount of milk. on average 10, 7.5 and 10.4 l of milk per day was accessed by individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant market outlets, respectively. the mean dairy farming experience was highest for households who had access to cooperative (19.5 years) milk market outlet and lowest to households that had access to hotel/restaurant (7 years) market outlet. this indicates that households who had access to cooperative milk market outlet were engaged in crop-livestock production whereas others may be peri-urban households. the mean landholding size was highest for households that had access to cooperative (1.41 ha) milk market outlet and lowest for households who had access to hotel/restaurant (0.48 ha) milk market outlet. the average distance travelled to the nearest urban milk market was highest to households who had access to cooperative (3.36 km) milk market outlet and lowest to households that had access to hotel/restaurant (1.8 km) milk market outlets. however, the average price offered by cooperative market outlet was 4.5 1 birr which is lower than price offered by other market outlets. proportion of household characteristics by milk market outlets is given in table 2. about 29, 46 and 31% of households that had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets, respectively had at least a child under the age of six. about 60, 54 and 69% of household heads who had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets, respectively attended formal schooling. 75, 78 and 77% of households that had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets, respectively were headed by male. about 31, 50 and 40% of households who had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets, respectively accessed dairy extension services. about 76, 85 and 81% of households that had access to individual consumer, cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets, respectively accessed milk market information services. households that had access to cooperative milk market outlet received relatively better of the service than others because cooperative were established by government. this was because they were given due attention by government extension services to ensure quality supply, support processing and to access better markets as compared to other outlets. households who had access to cooperative milk market outlet replied that they did not have any other options as they are far from accessing urban market. about 43, 42 and 17% of households that had access to individual consumer, hotel/restaurant and cooperative milk market outlet, respectively received payment to their sales in cash. 1 us$ 1 = birr 13.632 during the survey period. birr is the currency unit of ethiopia. 027 afr. j. agric. mark. table 2. proportion of household characteristics by milk market outlets variable category proportion (%) individual consumer (n=118) cooperative (n=46) hotels (n=118) sex of household head male 75 78 77 female 25 22 23 education level of head formal 60 54 69 otherwise 40 46 31 presence of at least a child under 6 yes 29 46 31 years no 71 54 69 mode of payment cash 43 17 42 others 57 83 58 membership to cooperative yes 15 85 25 no 85 15 75 access to market information yes 76 85 81 no 24 15 19 access to dairy extension services yes 31 50 40 no 69 50 60 source: authors collection, july and august 2010. about 85% of households who had access to cooperative market milk outlet were cooperative members. all the households that had access to cooperative milk market outlet replied that they had not received payment for sales made for two months before data collection. factors affecting milk market outlet choices the multinomial logit model has been estimated by the maximum likelihood method. the overall model was significant at 0.01 significance level indicating 99% confidence level that the explanatory variables included in the model assessed the effects on the odds of two market outlets versus sales to individual consumer as indicated by the log pseudo likelihood value of -198.34. moreover, based on the pseudo r² of 0.314, the model appears to have a good fit to the data (table 3). the results indicated that households were less likely to access cooperative and hotel/restaurant milk market outlets as compared to individual consumer milk market outlet. although search, bargaining and delivery costs for access to individual consumer milk market outlet may be high, the preference for accessing it may be an indication of social values attached with. out of 15 explanatory variables included in multinomial logit model, seven variables to cooperative milk market outlet and three variables to hotel/restaurant milk market outlet were found to affect milk market outlet choices as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was lower among households who owned large number of cows, who considered price offered by cooperative lower than other market outlets and who wanted payment other than cash mode. households that had access to cooperative milk market outlet received lower price per liter of milk and their mode of sales was not cash. on the other hand, the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was higher for households who were cooperative members, who owned large landholding size, who had been in dairy farming for many years and who received better dairy extension services. these households responded that they bypassed access to relatively profitable market outlet (hotel/restaurant) because they considered the opportunity costs in terms of their labor time and transportation, compared to additional profit they could have obtained. compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet was lower among households who were at farthest distance to the nearest urban center and higher among households who accessed better dairy extension services and who owned large number of dairy cows. households who owned large number of dairy cows produced more milk and supplied milk to hotel/ kuma et al. 028 029 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. results of multinomial logit regression on milk market outlet choices. symbol cooperative marginal effect (coop) hotel marginal effect (hotel) constant 2.653(2.394) 0.875(1.191) age -0.029(0.031) -0.002(0.002) 0.003(0.016) 0.001(0.004) sex -0.255(0.709) -0.003(0.054) -0. 079(0.334) -0.025(0.081) edu 1.071(0.653) 0.017(0.051) 0.257(0.317) 0.070(0.078) hsize 0.033(0.148) -0.007(0.012) -0.072(0.080) -0.016(0.019) child -0.212(0.614) -0.010(0.041) 0.310(0.347) 0.083(0.083) dist -0.062(0.122) -0.010(0.011) -0.234(0.101)** -0.057(0.025) cow -0.797(0.350)** -0.057(0.027) 0.208(0.108)* 0.050(0.025) ext 2.107(0.668)*** 0.202(0.116) 0.854(0.325)*** 0.210(0.075) yield 0.063(0.042) 0.008(0.003) -0.025(0.015) -0.005(0.003) exp 0.096(0.034)*** 0.008(0.004) -0.006(0.017) -0.001(0.004) info 0.569(0.863) 0.049(0.036) 0.265(0.338) 0.065(0.082) land 0.658(0.231)*** 0.053(0.024) 0.052(0.132) 0.011(0.030) price -1.400(0.377)*** -0.084(0.037) -0.237(0.158) -0.056(0.036) memb 4.000(0.727)*** 0.517(0.091) 0.422(0.375) 0.102(0.088) pay -2.039(0.821)** -0.101(0.039) 0.075(0.292) 0.015(0.072) number of observation = 282; wald chi-square (30) = 80.09; log pseudo likelihood = -198.357***; pseudo r square: = 0.314. source: authors collection, july and august 2010. ***, **, and * indicate the significance level of 1, 5 and 10%, respectively. numbers in brackets indicate robust standard error. restaurant as they have capacity to absorb supplied milk. households who are at farthest to access hotel/restaurant milk market considered transaction costs of travelling as a hindering factor and thus accessed neighborhood individual consumer milk market outlet. milking cow ownership number of milking cows owned by households negatively and significantly affected accessing cooperative milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect indicates that the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet decreases by 5.7% for an increase in ownership of milking cow by a tlu as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. milk price by market outlets price offered by milk market outlet per liter of milk significantly and negatively affected accessing cooperative milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect shows that the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet decreases by 8.4% for a birr increase per liter of milk as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. access to dairy extension services access to dairy extension services such as dairy techno logy, information, training, field days, field visits and field tours received by households positively and significantly affected accessing cooperative milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect shows that the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet increases by 20.2% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet for one more member access to dairy extension services. dairy farming experiences number of years a household has been in dairy farming positively and significantly affected accessing cooperative milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect indicates that the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet increases by 0.8% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet for an increase in dairy farming experiences by a year. landholding size landholding size of households positively and significantly affected accessing cooperative milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect of landholding size shows that the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet increases by 5.3% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market for a hectare kuma et al. 030 increase in landholding size. cooperative membership membership to cooperative positively and significantly affected accessing cooperative milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect indicates that the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet increases by 51.7% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet for an addition of a household who has membership to cooperative. distance to the nearest urban center distance to the nearest urban center negatively and significantly affected accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet as compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect indicates that the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet decreases by 5.7% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet for a km distance away from the nearest urban center. milking cow ownership number of milking cows owned by a household positively and significantly affected accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect indicates that the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet increases by 5% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet for an increase in milking cow ownership by one tlu. access to dairy extension services access to dairy extension services positively and significantly affected accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet. the marginal effect shows that the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet increases by 21% as compared with accessing individual consumer milk market outlet for an addition of a household who accessed dairy extension service. conclusion the study was undertaken with the objective of assessing factors affecting milk market outlet choices in wolaita zone, ethiopia. using farm household survey data from 394 households and multinomial logit model, milk market outlet choices were analyzed. multinomial logit model results indicate that compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was lower among households who owned large number of cows, who considered price offered by cooperative lower than other market outlets and who wanted payment other than cash mode. the likelihood of accessing cooperative milk market outlet was higher for households who were cooperative members, who owned large landholding size, who had been in dairy farming for many years and who received better dairy extension services. compared to accessing individual consumer milk market outlet, the likelihood of accessing hotel/restaurant milk market outlet was lower among households who were at far away from the nearest distance to the nearest urban center and higher among households who accessed better dairy extension services and who owned large number of dairy cows. as one of the key factor to boost milk 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(2001). determinants of market production of cooking banana in nigeria. afr. crop sci. j. 9(3):537547. vermeulen s, woodhill j, proctor fj, delnoye r (2008). chain-wide learning for inclusive agro food market development: a guide to multistakeholder processes for linking small scale producers with modern markets. international institute for environment and development, london, uk, and wageningen university and research centre, wageningen, the netherlands. woldemichael s (2008). dairy marketing chains analysis: the case of shashaname, hawassa and dale district’s milk shed, southern ethiopia. m.sc. thesis, haramaya university, ethiopia. yamane t (1967). statistics, an introductory analysis, 2 nd ed., new york: harper and row. yigezu z (2000). dairy development experience in milk collection, processing and marketing. the role of village dairy cooperatives in dairy development. smallholder dairy development project proceeding. addis ababa, ethiopia. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 2 (1), pp. 082-090, january, 2014. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper determinants of soybean market involvement by smallholder farmers in zimbabwe jackson okemute 1 *, bogos sefas 1 , james igari 2 and mary oduma 3 1 international centre for tropical agriculture, (ciat), p.o. box mp228 mt pleasant, harare, zimbabwe. 2 centre for applied social sciences, university of zimbabwe, p. o. box mp167 mt pleasant, harare, zimbabwe. 3 department of agricultural economics and extension, university of zimbabwe, p. o. box mp167, mt pleasant, harare, zimbabwe. *corresponding author: jackson_okemute@gmail.com. accepted 10 december, 2013 this article examines the determinants of soybean market participation by smallholder farmers in zimbabwe, with a view to identifying key policy entry points for increasing farmer incomes. market linkages have been identified as key to the successful integration of grain legumes into the smallholder farming systems of southern africa. data for this article is derived from a baseline household survey in guruve district of zimbabwe. using a sample of 187 smallholder farmers, we employed the heckman’s probit model with sample selection to firstly, identify the factors affecting a farmer’s decision to participate in soybean markets and secondly, evaluate the factors that affect the intensity of a farmer’s participation. study findings show that the use of inoculants and improved soybean seed varieties are significantly correlated with participating in soybean markets. results also show that ownership of radios has a positive effect on the household’s decision to participate in the soybean market. further results show that male-headed households are less likely than female-headed households to participate in soybean markets because legumes are seen as women’s crops in zimbabwe. we conclude that in order to leverage smallholder farmers’ market participation in soybean markets, it is important to improve access to inoculants and improved soybean seed varieties and improving access to market information. we recommend that authorities could improve access to market information to improve farmers’ decision making on soybeans market participation. key words: soybean, market participation, determinants, smallholder farmers, zimbabwe. introduction market linkages have been identified as key to the successful integration of grain legumes into the smallholder farming systems of southern africa (chianu et al., 2009). soybean (glycine max) is a commodity with relatively higher prices and that has shown great potential to sustain production in smallholder farming systems due to its multiplicity of use. soybean can be used as cash crop, as food and also as means of improving soil fertility through biological nitrogen fixation (bnf). the net income benefits derived from soybean production depend on the extent to which farmers participate in output markets. according to ifad (2003), market participation can be an effective route for rural smallholder farmers to move out of abject poverty and increase income. studies show that market participation by smallholder farmers in developing countries is very jackson et al. 082 low (barret, 2008). this scenario has slowed down agriculture driven economic growth and exacerbated poverty levels. as such farmers cannot benefit from the welfare gains and income growth associated with market participation. however, for agriculture to meaningfully contribute to economic growth, smallholder farmers have to commercialize their farming activities to produce marketable surpluses (jagwe et al., 2010). the issue of why most smallholder farmers who happen to make the larger proportion of the poor in developing countries self select themselves out of the remunerative markets remains largely unanswered. it is therefore necessary to identify the key determinants of soybean market participation by smallholder farmers in order to be able to identify key entry points and interventions that can increase household income. the trade theory posits that if households participate in markets by selling surplus of what they produce on a comparative advantage, they are set to benefit not only from the direct welfare gains but also from opportunities that emerge from economies of large-scale production (siziba et al., 2011; barrett, 2008). indeed, they will also benefit from technological change effects from the improved flow of ideas from trade-based interactions (barrett, 2008). consequently, there will be improved factor productivity. despite the stream of benefits that are inherent with market participation, evidence from studies in southern africa shows that smallholder farmers’ participation in agricultural output markets is low due to high market transaction costs, information asymmetries, institutional constraints among other constraints. barret (2008) argues that inducing market participation through trade and price based market interventions does not provide the sufficient conditions to induce improved participation. in addition to these policies, households need to have access to productive assets, adequate private and public investment, institutional and physical infrastructure to access remunerative markets (siziba et al., 2011; barret and swallow, 2006). as noted by barret (2008) such smallholder farmers with access to production, private and public sector goods, properly functioning institutions and well developed physical infrastructure actively participate in markets contrary to their counterparts. however, the general trend in most southern african countries is that most agricultural produce is lost soon after production largely because of poor post harvest handling and failure to access the formal markets (phiri and otieno, 2008). this trend is attributed to several factors and barriers in agricultural commodity marketing that discourage smallholder farmers from participating in formal markets. these factors range from household characteristics for instance low education levels, labor shortages, inadequate government services, high transaction costs and lack of physical infrastructure (siziba et al., 2011, jagwe et al., 2010; pingali et al., 2005). in response to these challenges, most governments in sub saharan africa implemented marke liberalization policies in the 1980s and 1990s which sought to open new market led economic growth opportunities (barrett, 2008). it involved the abolition of commodity boards, introduction of free markets and encouragement of private sector participation. according to jayne and jones (1997), although the overall aim of the liberalization was to improve the functioning and effectiveness of markets, it produced mixed results. in some cases, there was actual retreat to subsistence agriculture while in others there was increased market participation in more remunerative markets, technological progress and improvements in institutions and physical infrastructure. this study sets to establish factors affecting soybean market participation and the level of marketed surplus among smallholder farmers. the results of this study are essential in contributing to the existing body of knowledge on soybean market participation which is scant locally as most previous research concentrated on biophysical aspects of soybean production. therefore, understanding smallholder marketing of soybean is vital for increased participation which may lead to increased farmer incomes, improved soil fertility and ultimately reduced poverty. information from this study will be useful to agricultural policy makers to create or amend existing policies in an effort to develop the soybeans production and markets as well as motivate producers to access soybean commodity markets. smallholder soybean production in zimbabwe historically, soybean production in zimbabwe was highly mechanised and carried out by commercial farmers in high rainfall areas (estehuizen, 2011). the commercial farmers had easy access to inputs, financial capital, irrigation services and well developed marketing channels (madanzi et al., 2012). the output from commercial farmers accounted for 95% while smallholder farmers contributed only 5% of national soybean output (estehuizen, 2011). smallholder farmers used unimproved retained seeds and did not have access to bradyrhizobium inoculant and this contributed to yields as low as 0.6 t ha-1 compared to 3 to 4 t ha -1 in the commercial sector (mabika and mariga, 1996). the smallholder farmers lacked general knowledge on good agronomic practices. shumba-munyulwa (1996) noted that agronomic research on soybean production was confined to the commercial sector and extension in smallholder farming sectors was limited. this implies that the recommendations from such agronomic studies could not be applied to smallholder farming. in 1996, the government formed the national soybean task force (nstf) whose mandate was to help increase the participation of smallholder farmers in soybean production and marketing (madanzi et al., 2012). in ‘0 00 s’ m et ri c to n n es 200 180 160 140 120 100 155 o u tp u t in 80 135 commercial smallholder farmers 60 40 63 60 59 43 51 33 44 37 30 20 15 20 10 12 10 12 16 14 13 17 9 0 year figure 1. soybean production in zimbabwe in "000' metric tonnes. source: technoserve, 2011. particular the programme provided agricultural extension, access to cheap inputs and linkages to markets to smallholder farmers. when the programme started, it enrolled 55 smallholder farmers but by end of 2006 the programme had reached a total of 55,000 smallholder farmers who produced 40,000 t per annum (chianu et al., 2009). complimentary efforts have been done by africare and the n2africa project in zimbabwe who are assisting the smallholder farmers with agronomic knowledge on soybean production in addition to market linkages. despite these efforts, soybean producing smallholder farmers face challenges such as access to cheap inputs and rhizobium (madanzi et al., 2012). although the rhizobium is produced by zimbabwe’s soil productivity and research laboratory (sprl) at a break-even price of $3.20 and distributed through agricultural technical and extension services (agritex) at a retail price of $5.00, some farmers claim that they access the inoculant at more than double the cost (woomer et al., 2013). the seed houses are not producing sufficient quantities of soybean seed for the market as the smallholder farmers do not purchase the improved seed. despite the government’s efforts in distributing land from the commercial farmers to landless peasants, zimbabwe is still facing huge deficits in soybean production with demand far outstripping current production levels. zimbabwe’s annual demand for soybean is 125,000 metric tonnes while production has been fluctuating far below the equilibrium quantity (varia, 2011). at present, the demand deficits have been filled by imported soybeans from south africa, zambia and malawi. zimbabwe is only producing 30% of its national demand of 125,000 metric tonnes and capacity utilization at the major soybean processors is only 16% (technoserve, 2011). the huge demand deficit in soybean production offers an opportunity for smallholder farmers to produce large quantities of soybeans, participate in markets and improve household income. since soybean is renowned for its high propensity to fix nitrogen, intensive market participation by smallholder farmers would also improve soil fertility and yields for subsequent crops such as maize if farmed on the same land in rotation. however, despite this market opportunity particularly from the booming livestock and poultry industries where soybean is used to produce animal feed, smallholder farmers are producing very low quantities of soybean for sale and market participation is very low as shown in figure 1. figure 1 shows the contribution of smallholder farmers to national output has remained very low between 2002 and 2010. the observed trends in soybean production, presents an opportunity for smallholder farmers to exploit the market by increasing production of soybeans, as well as participating in its supply chain for income generation. however despite the income generation potential of soybean for smallholder farmers and the huge supply 083 afr. j. agric. mark. jackson et al. 084 figure 2. map of study site: zimbabwe’s guruve district. deficit in zimbabwe, research on soybean has largely focused on biophysical aspects such as yield enhancement, production practices and nutrient use efficiency. there is a lack of information on soybean market participation by smallholder farmers and in particular the factors that influence the level of marketable surplus. smallholder farmers’ market participation is equally important if the full benefits from soybean production are to be realized. the studies on factors affecting smallholder market participation have not been fully exploited especially for soybeans. most studies (siziba et al., 2011; okoyo et al., 2010; jagwe et al., 2010) conducted on factors influencing smallholder market participation have concentrated on staple crops, that is, maize, cassava and bananas. since staple crop markets are very different from soybean markets, recommendations from such studies may not be applicable to soybean markets. thus this study is an attempt to fill the knowledge gap on soybean market participation by smallholder farmers. to the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study in zimbabwe, which seeks to identify factors influencing soybean market participation and the intensity of market participation by smallholder farmers. the study approach study site this study was conducted in guruve district, which is in linked to mashonaland west province of zimbabwe (figure 2). the district is linked to the main legume market, harare, by a 151km tarred road. although most of guruve district lies in natural farming region iv, which is a semi-arid and marginal zone, the study sites lie in natural farming region ii. the annual average rainfall is 600 mm while the annual average temperature is 26.5°c. this natural farming region is an agro-ecologically high potential zone suitable for growing soybeans, maize and common beans. the altitude range is 800 to1500 m above sea level. the main livelihood activity is farming with maize being the dominant cereal crop while soybeans and common beans constitute the main legume cash crops. sampling and data analysis this study uses cross sectional household data from the baseline survey collected using a questionnaire with semi structured and structured questions. a sample of 187 of actual greater than 128, an apriori power analysis computed using g power. it therefore means that the sample provides acceptable statistical power (that is 0.80) for moderate correlation r = 0.30, at two tailed 0.05 level of significant (franzel et al., 2007). random sampling was used to select the wards and the households for interviewing from the lists that were provided by resident agricultural extension officers. in the first place, 10 households per ward were randomly selected from six wards where the project is being implemented while the 127 all came from a counterfactual site. a counter factual site is a site similar to the intervention (treatment) in agroecological and market conditions but did not receive a treatment (binam et al., 2011). the 127 sampled households in the counterfactual site were randomly sampled from 6 wards that did not participate in the project. the sampling approach followed by the project was meant to allow the use of propensity score matching approach in impact assessment. data collection for this study was done in october 2011 through faceto face administration of questionnaires. the survey collected information on household composition and characteristics, crop production, household market participation, access to infrastructure, household incomes, ownership of land and non land assets, livestock ownership and access to agricultural inputs on credit. the analytical approaches the data was entered, cleaned and then analyzed using stata version 11.2. the study uses the heckman’s model with sample selection to identify the factors that affect smallholder farmers’ decision to participate in soybean markets and then to evaluate the factors that affect intensity of soybean market participation. this model is adopted on the basis that it models the market participation decision as a two step process that involves (1) the household deciding on whether or not to participate in the soybean market (2) the level of market participation. the factors influencing the farmers’ decision to participate are estimated using the probit model (selection equation) while the level of participation is estimated using the ordinary least squares approach (outcome equation). goetz (1992) and huang et al. (1991) noted that the use of heckman’s model with sample selection allows the interpretation of results by distinguishing between factors that affect the farmer’s decision to participate in the market and those that affect the level of market participation. according to greene (2003), in instances where observed characteristics only occur in subsets, incidental truncation occurs. as such, this study uses this model as it corrects for sample selection bias and incidental truncation. the selection bias arises due to the observation of sales from a subset of households who participated in the soybean markets. the empirical analysis in this study is premised on three constructs namely household characteristics, information and assets. in this study, the econometric analysis is based on these constructs to reflect the effect of transaction costs on farmer’s decision to participate in the market and also the level of market participation. variables hypothesized to explain smallholder farmers’ soybean market participation and level of participation were identified based on theoretical frameworkand on past empirical work on market participation under transaction costs (goetz, 1992; holloway et al., 2000; key et al., 2000; alene et al.,2008; jagwe et al., 2010; siziba et al., 2011). this study builds on earlier studies on smallholder market participation under transaction costs by applying this to smallholder market participation in soybean markets. based on these constructs as in jagwe et al. (2010), in this study household head’s gender, head’s age, head’s age squared and household size are used as proxies for household characteristics. livestock wealth or resource endowment is represented by number of cattle owned while information is represented by contact with extension, household head education, distance to nearest market, ownership of radio and ownership of a mobile phone. these constructs are used in the analysis to reflect the influence of transaction costs on the farmer’s decision to participate in a soybean market and to estimate the significant factors that influence the level of market participation. the outcome regression the outcome model is conditional on market participation and it is estimated using the ordinary least squares (ols). in the ols equation, the dependent variable is amount of soybeans sold (continuous variable). in this paper we hypothesized that gender of household head, age of household head, size of the household, farming experience; ownership of cattle and distance to the market affect the intensity of a household’s participation in the soybean market—following jagwe et al. (2010). selection equation in the selection equation, that is the probit model, the dependent variable is a dichotomous variable ‘participation in soybean market (represented as 1 when a household participates in the market and 0 otherwise’). the independent variables that condition the participation of smallholder farmers as adapted from literature are gender of household head, age of household head, size of the household, farming experience; ownership of cattle, ownership of radio, ownership of cellphone, access to extension, use of rhizobial inoculants and use of improved soybean seed varieties (table 1). age may influence market participation through various channels such as experience, access to resources and risk preferences. the expected direction of the effect of age is thus ambiguous. the gender of a household head is likely to reveal the differences in market orientation between male and female household heads. cunningham et al. (2008) argues that male household heads sell their produce when prices are high while female household heads keep their produce for household food self sufficiency. w e thus expect the sign to be positive meaningthat male-headed households are more likely to participate in soybean markets as compared to their female counterparts. alene et al. (2008), posit that the household size is an indicator of the amount of family labor that is available for production activities. it also explains the consumption levels for a household. w e thus expect the sign to be positive when a household’s labor resources are efficient that is they produce far more output than what they require for household consumption. in such a case, there is high marketable surplus. however, if the sign is negative it is an indicator of household labor inefficiency that is, a larger household produces far less than what it needs for household consumption and thus less marketable surplus. according to omiti et al. (2009), the distance to the market negatively influences both the household’s decision to participate in the market and the amount sold (intensity of participation). the further the distance to the market, the higher the transport costs and the lower the net benefit to the household. key et al. (2000) note that farmers who stay in remote areas have low input use that is, they normally substitute high value commercial varieties with locally easily obtainable varieties. consequently, this input substitution has adverse effects on productivity, market participation and marketable surplus. w e thus expect a negative relationship between distance to market and likelihood to participate in marketing. this implies that the higher the distance to the nearest selling points, the lower the likelihood of a household to participate in markets. however, fafchamps and hill (2005) observed that wealthy farmers can sell their produce to distant markets as they can afford the high transport costs compared to the poor farmers. this then implies that we expect the resource constrained farmers to participate in local markets while the resource endowed farmers participate in distant markets. most economists argue that relative prices form critical incentives to induce market participation and increase the amount of marketable surplus (alene et al., 2008; fafchamps and hill, 2005). smallholder farmers in zimbabwe access market information on prices of inputs and output through contact with extension agents, radios and phoning the buyers using cell phones. knowledge of input prices enables farmers to make informed decisions on input use intensity and also the area to commit to soybeans. w e argue that access to price information positively influences the farmers’ decision to participate in soybean markets while the lack of it acts as a disincentive. we therefore expect a positive relationship 085 afr. j. agric. mark. jackson et al. 086 table 1. description of covariates used in the regression models. variable description measurement expected sign household characteristics age age of household head age squared age of household squared gender gender of household head household size number of people in a household farming experience number of years household head has been farming as a household number of years 0=female; 1=male number number of years + + + + information distance to market household head’s education access to extension own cellphone own radio assets number of cattle owned average distance from household’s home to nearest point of sale education level of household head access to agricultural extension for crop production advice ownership of a cellphone ownership of radio number of cattle owned km 0=no secondary education +/ 1=has secondary education 0=no access +/ 0=does not own +/ 1=owns a cellphone 0=does not own +/ 1=owns a radio ratio + between a household’s decision to participate in the soybean market and its access to market information, ownership of a radio and or cellphone. by accessing extension agents, farmers get advice on good agronomic practices, improved technologies and market prices. w e therefore expect the sign to be positive when farmers have access to extension agents and negative otherwise. according to zingore et al. (2007), ownership of cattle is a major determinant of the timeliness of agronomic operations. w e assume that the resource-endowed farmers may use their livestock for traction to till larger pieces of land and for transportation to the market. according to alene et al. (2008) and zingore et al. (2007) cattle ownership has a wealth effect, in that those households who own animals are more likely to use fertilizers than those without. the resource endowed households are also more likely to have cash resources to finance basal fertilizer purchases, inoculants and improved soybeans germplasm (zingore et al., 2007). varia (2011), notes that resource constrained smallholder farmers lack access to finance, give less priority to their non staple crops and use poor agronomic practices. the combined effect of these factors is very low yields and low market participation compared to the commercial farmers who have higher use of herbicides and fertilizers. we thus expect a positive relationship between wealth (resource endowment) and intensity of market participation as such households are more likely to have higher marketable surplus. according to alene et al. (2008), access to agricultural extension services enhances market participation and marketable surplus as agents provide technical assistance and information on improved varieties and technologies. extension agents are the information exchange platform between research and farmers; they decode information from researchers into a format understandable by farmers and also provide feedback to the researchers. these results were also observed by siziba et al. (2011), who noted that access to extension services reduces farmers risk perceptions and thus improve market participation. w e thus expect a positive relationship between access to extension services and market participation in soybean markets. results and discussion sample characterization the household survey results in table 2 show that only 28.88% (54 out of 187 farmers) of the sampled households participated in the soybean market. the average marketable surplus for households that participated in the soybean market is 211.26 kg. these results are consistent with findings by ojiem et al. (2007) and giller et al. (2006) who note that soybean output is very low in smallholder farming communities largely because farmers apportion at most 5% of their land to legumes and do not fertilize them leading to low yields. the low levels of marketable surplus could also be a table 2. description of sample household and socioeconomic characteristics. parameter market participants non market participants p-values sample n (prop) 54 (28.88) 133 (71.12) head age (years) 43.76(12.96) 50.43(16.60) 0.0089 household size 5.33(3.16) 5.18(2.77) 0.7433 head education (% prop with secondary) 59.26(0.50) 46.62(0.50) 0.1184 farming experience (no. of years) 15.13(11.94) 20.42(15.51) 0.0257 gender (%prop of male) 75.93(0.43) 79.7(0.40) 0.5709 own mobile phone (%prop) 68.52(0.47) 63.91(0.48) 0.5511 own radio (% prop) 68.52(0.47) 52.63(0.50) 0.0469 number of cattle owned 2.35(3.46) 2.35(3.61) 0.0027 result of low input usage and the substitution of commercial high value varieties with low yielding locally available varieties. the results show that the average household head for market participating households (43.76) is significantly lower with a standard deviation of 19.96 than that of non-participating households (50.43) that has a standard deviation of 16.60 and this is significant at 1% level of significance. the probability of younger farmers to participate in soybean market is higher than that of older farmers. the results from the survey show that amongst the market participating households, 75.93% are male headed while 79.70% of the non-market participating households are male headed. since the p-value is 0.5709, there is thus no statistically significant difference between the two groups of soybean farmers. results for the average household sizes show that the mean household size for market participants is 5.33 with a standard deviation of 3.16 while that for non-market participants is 5.18 with a standard deviation of 2.77. although the household sizes were slightly lower than the national average household size of six, the p-value of 0.7433 indicates that there were no significant differences in household sizes between the market participating and non-market participating farmers. in terms of farming experience, there were statistically significant differences observed between soybean market participating households and the non-market participants at 5% level of significance. households that participated in the soybean market on average had 15 years of farming experience compared to their counterparts with over 20 years. the 2 sided t test results show that the difference in farming experience is statistically significant at 5% level of significance. this implies that the probability of less experienced to market soybean is very high. the results also show that 68.51% (standard deviation 0.47) households who participated in the soybean market owned radios while 52.63% (standard deviation 0.50) amongst non-market participants owned radios. since the p-value is 0.0469, we observed significant differences between the two groups at 5% level of significance. this means that ownership of radios is common among market participating households than non-market participating households. as such, owning a radio increases the probability of marketing soybeans. although, we estimated that 68.5% of the soybean market participating households owned cellphones with a standard deviation of 0.47 compared to 65% with a standard deviation of 0.48 for non-participating households; the p-value of 0.5511 shows that there were no statistically significant differences in the proportions. this suggests that cellphone ownership is not a determinant of soybean market participation among the smallholder farmers. econometric results the results from the econometric analysis for the market participation (probit model results) and intensity of market participation (ols regression model) are presented here. intensity of market participation is estimated conditional on the smallholder farmers’ market participation decision. factors affecting soybean market participation table 3 presents the ols results for intensity of market participation and the probit model results for smallholder farmers’ decision to participate in the soybean market. the ols regression model estimates the factors affecting the intensity of participation in a soybean market while the probit model estimates the determinants of the dichotomous soybean market participation variable. selection model results (probit model results) the results in table 3 show that for the probit model, gender of household head, ownership of a radio, access to agricultural extension services, use of inoculants and use of improved soybean seeds affect the farmers 087 afr. j. agric. mark. jackson et al. 088 table 3. ols and probit estimates for soybean market participation and intensity of participation. probit (selection model) ols (outcome) dependent variable (soybean bean market (amount of soybean sold) participation β p-value β p-value gender -0.847 0.004*** 6.249 0.345 head age -0.063 0.172 0.210 0.536 head age squared 0.000 0.488 0.004 0.490 household size 0.045 0.511 -0.403 0.256 farming experience -0.001 0.939 -0.367 0.183 ownership of cattle 0.003 0.283 0.023 0.094* distance to market 3.921 0.014** own radio 0.672 0.0060*** own cellphone 0.003 0.992 access to extension 0.4185 0.086* used inoculants 0.894 0.016** use improved seed varieties 0.684 0.041** *** significant at 1% level; ** significant at 5% level; * significant at 10% level. decision to participate in the soybean market as a seller. the gender of the household head negatively influences the likelihood of smallholder farmers’ participation in the soybean output market, that is male headed households are less likely to participate in soybean markets than female headed households. the probable explanation is that in guruve district as in other parts of zimbabwe, most legumes are culturally viewed as women’s crops. these results are consistent with the findings of alene et al. (2008) for kenya but contrary to the findings of cunningham et al. (2008) in a study on gender differences in marketing styles in western oklahoma. ownership of a radio, which represents access to a communication asset positively and significantly, influences a smallholder farmer’s likelihood of participating in the soybean market. it represents access to formal sources of market information that increases the likelihood of market participation. in zimbabwe, radio stations frequently air broadcasts on rainfall patterns, crop varieties and input and out prices. access to this information lowers the transaction costs and road accessibility to the market. according to siziba et al. (2011) access to such information reduces smallholder farmers risk perceptions and improves the likelihood of participating in the soybean market. these results are consistent with the findings of siziba et al. (2011) on cereal market participation in southern africa. access to agricultural extension agents positively influences the likelihood of participating in soybean markets. the results demonstrate the importance of improved technology and support services in promoting soybean market participation. the likely explanation for this is that agricultural extension workers are the bridge between research programmes and farmers. they provide information on good agronomic practices, production technologies, soybean varieties and market information. this interaction is likely to improve productivity, marketable surplus and enhance a smallholder farmer’s likelihood of participating in a market. these results are consistent with the findings of alene et al. (2008). the use of rhizobial inoculants in the production of soybeans by smallholder farmers in guruve district is significantly positive and increases likelihood of participating in the soybean market. the likely explanation for this is that rhizobial inoculants increase average yield and total soybean production with lower costs than using inorganic fertilizers (chanaseni and kongngoen, 1992). thus the results show that smallholder farmers who used rhizobial inoculants for soybeans had a higher likelihood of participating in soybean markets than their counterparts. similarly, the use of improved soybean seed varieties has a significantly positive influence on soybean market participation by smallholder farmers. the likely explanation is that improved seed varieties (germplasm) have high yield potential and are disease and pest resistant thus improve productivity and marketable surplus (technoserve, 2011). ols regression model results the results for the ols regression model are shown in table 3. livestock wealth (cattle owned) and average distance to the market explained the intensity (amount of soybean sold) of smallholder farmers’ participation in soybean market. number of cattle owned had a positive 089 afr. j. agric. mark. and significant influence on the intensity of market participation conditional on market participation. the probable explanation is that resource endowed households have more cattle which they can use for traction and transportation, a development which reduces production and market related transaction costs. the resource endowed households are likely to have finances from which they are able to hire labor, purchase inoculants, buy improved soybean germplasm and thus can grow soybeans on bigger pieces of land compared to the resource constrained smallholder farmers. furthermore, households who own cattle are more likely to use good agronomic practices to produce their soybean. resultantly, this will increase yield and marketable surplus. these results are consistent with the results of alene et al. (2008). zingore et al. (2007) noted that resource endowed farmers had higher yields in their fields compared to resource constrained farmers. distance to the market positively and significantly influences the intensity of soybean market participation by smallholder farmers. this means that as distance to the market increases, the amount of soybean sold by smallholder farmers also increases. these results are in contrast to findings from studies on staple crops in which distance negatively influences smallholder farmers’ intensity of market participation (siziba et al., 2011; alene et al., 2008, makhura et al., 2001; key et al., 2000). a common finding in all these studies is that as distance from the market increases, variable transport costs increase and this discourages resource constrained smallholder farmers from selling high volumes. however, a possible explanation for the zimbabwean case is that, local buyers offer very low prices compared to well established distant buyers. this is so because established soybean buyers are based in harare, which lies over 151 km from the study sites. as such most farmers are set to benefit from price differentials between local prices and prices in distant markets. conclusion this article did set out to identify through empirical evidence the determinants of soybean market participation and further evaluate the factors that affect intensity of market participation by smallholder farmers in guruve district of zimbabwe. this study used cross sectional household data of 187 randomly selected smallholder farmers in guruve district in zimbabwe. econometric analysis was done using the heckman model with sample selection, which corrects for selection bias at market participation decision by smallholder farmers. choice of covariates for the ols and probit was guided by economic theory, literature and in some cases intuition. descriptive results from the survey show that only 28.88% of the survey households participate in soybean market. the market participating households averagely sold 211.26 kg of soybean. most of the market participating households owned communication equipment such as radios (68.52%) and had bigger land sizes (3.52 ha) compared to the non-participating households. the econometric analysis results from this study show that for the ols model, livestock wealth or resource endowment and distance to the market have positive influence on marketed surplus. however, for the probit model, only gender negatively influences the smallholder farmers’ decision to participate in soybean market while household ownership of a radio, access to agricultural extension, use of rhizobial inoculants and use of improved soybean varieties have a positive influence on household’s likelihood to participate in the soybean market. based on these findings from the analysis of the factors affecting soybean market participation by smallholder farmers in guruve district, we recommend that policy makers can improve farmer to extension worker ratio as this will improve access to technical information and support services on improved technologies such as use of inoculants, biological nitrogen fixation and knowledge on improved soybean seed varieties. furthermore, policy makers could improve the dissemination of market information as it is currently available through radio broadcasts. access to market information would improve farmers’ knowledge of markets and aid in decision making on market participation as well as the level of marketed surplus. this will lead to increased productivity, high marketable surplus and enhances the likelihood of participating in the soybean market. references alene ad, manyong vm, omanya g,mignouna hd, bokanga m, odhiambo g (2008). smallholder market participation under transactions costs: maize supply and fertilizer demand in kenya. food pol. 33(4):318-28. barrett cb (2008). smallholder market participation: concepts and evidence from eastern and southern africa. food policy. 33:299-317. 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chain analysis. technoserve. varia n (2011). technical report: soybean value chain. usaid southern africa trade hub. woomer pl, balume i, w afullah, zamasiya b, mahamadi d, chataika b (2013). report on market analysis of inoculant production and use. putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholder farmers in africa. www.n2africa.org. zingore s, murwira hk, delve rj, giller ke (2007). influence of nutrient management strategies on variability of soil fertility, crop yields and nutrient balances on smallholder farms in zimbabwe. agric. ecosyst. environ. 119(1-2):112-126. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (6), pp. 001-007, june, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper production, processing and marketing of ginger in southern ethiopia endrias geta1* and asfaw kifle2 1 haramaya university, ethiopia. 2 areka agricultural research center, snnprs, ethiopia. accepted 23 january, 2016 the cultivation of ginger was started in ethiopia during 13th century when arabs introduced it from india to east africa (janson, 1981). in ethiopia it is limited mostly in the wetter regions of southern nations, nationalities and peoples regional state (snnprs) and some parts of western oromia. most of the commercial production is practiced in snnprs by farmers within kambata-tambaro, wolaita and hadiya zones. despite its uses and contribution to the livelihoods of smallholders and to economy of the country, there has been limited attempt to promote its production and marketing through improvement of pre-and post harvest handling of the crop. this paper highlights the results of a survey and a review of secondary sources of information in sample woredas from ginger belt of country with the objective of identifying ginger value chain problems and potentials in southern ethiopia. the study identified that there are high potential ginger growing areas in snnprs located in wolaita, kambata-tambaro and hadiya zones that tend to specialize in production and marketing of the crop. however, production and marketing of ginger in these areas is constrained by low quality varieties, poor pre and post-harvest handling practices, low product market prices and lack of access to markets. key words: ethiopia, ginger, marketing, processing. introduction ginger is a commercially produced horticultural crop in snnps, ethiopia. the producing areas in snnprs are said to be ginger belts in ethiopia where much of the country‟s production and marketing activities are located. even though these areas were known as major suppliers of ginger in the country, limited attention has been given to expand production for betterment of smallholder farmers engaged in production and marketing activities. efforts to generate improved technologies were limited to agronomic practices with no concerted effort to improve product quality, which is highly influenced through its value chain from pre-harvest to postharvest management practices including processing of final products. moreover, no effort has been made to assess farmers‟ pre and post-harvest management practices that could be used as a benchmark for improvement works targeting product quality and sustainable supply. factors that *corresponding author. e-mail: geta.endrias@yahoo.com. tel: 0916868202. determine performance of ginger marketing and reduce benefits to farmers engaged in its production were not adequately understood by policy makers and agricultural extension workers. this survey was carried out in major ginger producing areas of the region with the objectives of identifying pre and postharvest management practices, processing techniques and marketing actors and practices in ginger value chain. it was found out that farmers practice their long-existed management practices in selecting varieties to be planted, undertaking field management of the crop, processing and marketing. low market prices due to poor product qualities, cyclical variations in product price, lack of improved processing and storage facilities were found to be major ginger production and marketing constraints. research methods this paper was based on the information obtained through reconnaissance survey undertaken in ginger growing areas of snnprs, ethiopia in february, 2010. two administrative zones, that is, wolaita and kambata-tambaro, where farmers specialize in file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org table 1. ginger area, production and productivity in southern ethiopia. administrative zone woreda area (ha) production (qt) yield (qt/ha) hadiya west badawacho 423 67680 160 wolaita boloso bombe 7000 1120000 160 kambata-tambaro hadaro-tunto, qacha bira 8223 1308652 159 dawro gena bosa 1500 225000 150 kafa gimbo 55 8800 160 shaka 379 60640 160 bench maji sheko 187 29920 160 konta 473 75680 160 total 18240 2896372 source: board. table 2. extent of ginger cultivating weredas of snnprs. woreda total area production (ha) percentage of ginger producing farmers total production (qt) hadaro tunto 3986 80 637760 boloso bombe 5000 85 600000 source: board, 2008. ginger production were purposely selected for the study. consecutively, two ginger specializing districts from these zones were selected based on the discussions made with the zonal departments of agriculture. from each district selected, four ginger producing villages were covered by the survey. a qualitative survey method, using semi-structured checklists and informal survey tools such group discussions, personal interviews and filed observations, was administered to collect the required information. field survey data were supplemented with information obtained through review of published sources. the data collected were summarized and discussed using a descriptive approach which is a qualitative research format. results and discussion overview of ginger production in snnprs in ethiopia ginger is cultivated under sub-optimal conditions with rain fall often less than 1500 mm per year and at lower temperatures (jansen, 1981). however, reasonable yields have been recorded under sub-optimal conditions of the country. as indicated in table 1 in 2006/2007, about 2896372 quintals of fresh ginger was produced from an area of 18,240 ha indicating regional average rhizome yield of 160 qt/ha (board, 2008). table 2 shows that about 32% of the total arable lands are allotted to ginger production indicating that ginger was most extensively produced crop of hadaro tunto wereda. same is true with boloso bombe woreda with only slight variation in the proportion of land used for ginger production. an estimated total yield of 1237760 quintals of fresh ginger rhizomes in the year 2008 was obtained from the total area of 8986 ha of land from the two major ginger cultivating weredas. according to farmers of the areas, there had been a higher and more extensive production of ginger in ginger belt of the region before the last 3 to 4 years. however, in the subsequent years, a sudden fall of the price shortly occurred followed by a high production, which resulted in low market demand of the produce. consequently, farmers could not get benefit from ginger production for the last 3 to 4 years. as a result, a total production and the size of land allotted by farmers to ginger production are declining at alarming rate. currently, almost all resource poor farmers in wolaita area are shifting to the production of a high yielding newly released taro variety and maize by abandoning ginger production. farmers argue that growing ginger commercially is full of uncertainty if there is no market guarantee based on a certain agreement. once it lacks market demand, the only alternative would be dumping, because no part of it goes to household consumption, unlike food crops. pre-harvest management practices land preparation most ginger growing farmers of the region start plowing the land allocated for ginger production at the end of the rainy season (from late september to early october) after harvesting previous crop. plowing the same unit of land will be repeated for about 3 to 5 times. by doing so, seeds of weeds get exposed to the sun periodically and most of them die until dry-planting of ginger takes place 2 to 3 months after land preparation (february/january). the land that has been pulverized to a fine tilth at the end of the rainy season when the soil is at moist condition will table 3. characteristics of different ginger vernaculars cultivated in snnprs. cultivar group vernacular unique characteristics highly palmated rhizomes „feminine wolaita‟ large sized rhizomes more productive local high fiber content masculine wolaita highly pungent large number of prominent roots introduced bilbo one prominent root bolbo 2 to 3 prominent roots conserve its moisture for 2 to 3 months. depending on the soil type and the moisture content of the soils as well as the capacity of the farmer to use oxen power, the frequency of tillage ranges between 3 and 10. plowing the land just at the end of the rainy season allows dry season planting of ginger. it enables early planting of the crop to take advantage of using the total amount of the rainfall distributed in the growing season and the crop will complete its normal growth cycle, which in turn makes it more productive. conversely, late planting, as the result of late onset of the rain, results in significant yield reduction as indicated by farmers. variety selection farmers identify two groups of ginger varieties in snnprs, that is, local and introduced, each group comprising two varieties with distinct morphological characteristics. in wolaita, farmers classify the local cultivars as „masculine wolaita‟ and „feminine wolaita‟. however, in kambata, farmers identify one local cultivar known as „hargema‟, that shows great resemblance with the cultivar „masculine wolaita‟. in both administrative zones, the local cultivars have been under production since time immemorial. however, cultivars categorized in the introduced group were introduced to the area in the late 1990s. according to farmers, these two introduced cultivars have been disseminated through informal seed system. most farmers are substituting the local cultivars with the new introductions. each quarter of ginger production of the region tends to produce distinctive types of cultivars. the different characteristics/ requirements of the major ginger vernaculars currently cultivated in snnprs as pointed out by the farmers are presented in (table 3). as can be observed from (table 3), farmers also identify quite a lot of variations among the different cultivars for pre-harvest requirements and post-harvest characteristics as well as differences in commercial values. method of propagation and management of planting materials ginger is propagated by planting pieces or portion of rhizomes which have at least one good bud. in snnprs, farmers developed their own traditional management method of ginger planting material. it involves two methods that is, underground storage method and indoor storage method. the former method is not a common practice but the latter is the popular seed management method that most farmers are practicing in the region. with the first method, ginger rhizomes of the previous crop are kept in the ground without being harvested until the time of planting. during planting time, the crop is harvested, rhizomes are cut into pieces of the required sizes and are immediately planted. in this case, it may take 2 to 3 months for the emergence of the new plants. the second method of propagation involves the following steps. first, rhizomes of the previous crop are harvested in november. secondly, rhizomes are cut into pieces of the required sizes (usually to 2.5 to 5 cm length) and are placed mostly in plastic sacks, and finally, sacks containing the setts of ginger are stored in residential houses. after 15 days to one month of cutting the rhizomes into pieces, the cut pieces tend to sprout in the sacks where they are stored. once sprouting is initiated, dry or wet planting will take place. farmers indicate that the rate of germination of rhizomes using indoor seed storage method is very fast. farmers in the region plant larger pieces of ginger rhizomes. the reason is that larger pieces will be reharvested as „kania‟ together with the newly developed rhizomes and are economically valuable when they are sold in mixture with the new harvest. however, no evidence has been reported on the quality of „kania‟ to be used as input for preparing any sort of ginger final products (that is, ginger powder, oleoresin, and volatile oil). a study by hailemichael and tesfaye (2008) in tepi, ethiopia indicated that seed rhizome size significantly affected dry rhizome yield. however, there have been no recommendations on the effect of the management of planting material on yield and quality of ginger in the study area. similarly, the effect of size of the cut pieces of rhizome on the yield of ginger also remains to be unaddressed. spacing, planting depth and time of planting size of cut pieces is one of the major factors that affect seed rate in ginger. ginger growing farmers of the region also use approximately similar seed rate with that of research recommendation which falls in the range of 17 to 28 qt/ha. because of its biennial nature, ginger needs to be planted as early as possible in the growing season to exploit the limited moisture in its growing areas in the region. it is customary to plant ginger in the dry months on plots of land which have been prepared during wet season with the objective of conserving water for dry planting. to make use of the conserved water, deep planting is essential. long ago, janson (1981) reported a planting depth of 5 to 10 cm used for ginger in ethiopia. planting depth is one of the most limiting agronomic factors that affect productivity of crops. ginger producing farmers of snnprs prefer dry planting in december and january on the unit of lands that have been pulverized to a fine tilth during wet season for the purpose of moisture conservation. farmers declare that this joint effect of planting time associated with the indicated tillage practice increases productivity. in general, seed rate, planting depth and time of planting need to be explored in order to exploit the genetic potential of the ginger varieties. fertilizer use farmyard is a major fertilizer used for ginger production in snnprs. however, it cannot support large scale production since the availability of farmyard manure is limited. on the other hand, the rate of its application for optimum yield per unit area has also not been determined for ginger. in addition, farmers complain that working with farmyard manure is laborious. for large scale production to be undertaken outside the homestead, the cost of transportation of farmyard manure is also very high. some farmers who plant ginger at large scale in the region also use compost as a source of nutrient for producing ginger making from all kinds of organic materials such as crop residues, kitchen wastes, garden cuttings, and manure. compost supplies nutrients at the right time in required quantities. compost is especially useful for improving the soil structure and fertility. coffee pulp and husk have been the other sources of nutrients used by the farmers that produce ginger at commercial level in the region. they purchase the coffee pulp and husk from the wet and dry coffee processing plants operating in their vicinity and even from the neighboring woredas and transport to their farm when they speculate high market demand for their ginger product. although the price of chemical fertilizers is unaffordable, and chemical fertilizers do not improve the soil structure, some farmers producing ginger at commercial level use dap when they expect that they will get good prices. almost all farmers do not use urea in ginger production as they perceive that “urea dries the soils”. time of application is variable with season of planting. during dry planting, farmers do not apply chemical fertilizers. they apply the fertilizer by broadcasting approximately 3 to 4.5 months of planting during the cultivation at the rate of approximately 100 kg/ha when the rhizomes emerge. however, farmers do not use chemical fertilizers in small scale cultivation, and where prices are fluctuating. it has been a usual practice in ginger production to give a combination of organic and chemical fertilizers. however, the correct proportion of both nutrient sources for optimum yield/quality need to be defined. similarly, research needs to be conducted to determine the correct type, rate and time of application of the chemical fertilizers for the optimum yield/quality as well as to analyze the economic aspect of fertilizer application. in india farmers apply manure 25 to 30 tons/ha or apply compost at planting, and n 36, p, 16, and k 66kg/ha (janson, 1981). the recommended rate of chemical fertilizers at tepi sub research center for an optimum yield of ginger was 375 kg/ha urea and 175kg/ha dap. weeding and pest control in ethiopia, farmers follow non-chemical weed management practices that include deep plowing of the seedbed at the end of the rainy season and frequent cultivation. before the season of planting comes, farmers begin to prepare seedbed at the end of the rainy season (between late september and early october) plowing the same unit of land as frequently as 3 to 5 times. by doing so, seeds of weeds get exposed to the sun periodically and most of them die until dry-planting will take place 2 to 3 months after land preparation (january to february). pests of ginger are root-knot nematodes, and shoot borers (purseglove, 1972). so far, in ethiopia, no disease and pest records of ginger have been reported. harvesting in ethiopia, it is not habitual to harvest ginger based on the end use. in snnrs, for dried and fresh ginger, mature rhizome with a full aroma, flavor and pungency are harvested after planting when the leaves begin to turn yellow. harvesting is usually manual taking no care whether the outer epidermis or the rhizomes are damaged or not. two forms of ginger harvesting are identified in snnpr, that is, one-season harvesting and perennated harvesting. one-season harvesting involves harvesting of matured rhizomes within one growing season. in snnpr, usually harvesting of ginger begins 8 to 9 months starting from late september when the leaves start turning yellow and the stems stop growing, which, may extend to march or until the onset of the „belg‟ rain. within the same growing season, farmers sometimes deliberately extend the time of harvesting speculating high market price. sometimes ginger is grown as a perennial crop in snnrs. in this case farmers deliberately leave the matured ginger rhizomes in the field for two or more successive seasons without harvesting. postharvest management practices postharvest management practices of ginger involve several activities. these include preparation of dry ginger, storage and processing. farmers‟ practice in the study areas were identified and presented as follows. preparation of dry ginger in ethiopia, quality-reducing traditional drying methods have been used for the preparation of dried ginger. actors of these methods include farmers, retailers and some wholesalers. the major actors of the drying process are individual farmers followed by the retailers. the contribution of wholesalers, who sometimes use cemented floor, to the total dry ginger preparation is insignificant. farmers spread the harvested ginger rhizomes on dusty and dirty floors without cleaning and trimming roots from the rhizomes to prepare a dried ginger or sometimes leave it on farm after harvesting until it loses some percentage of moisture and spread on floor for full drying. sun drying of ginger is a laborious process which could take 30 to 45 days depending on the type of variety and weather condition. brilliant and stable sunshine condition at areka, for example, in most cases is not attainable due to some irregular showers of rain, which leads to mold development mostly in the introduced cultivars. for this reason, it is habitual to break the rhizomes into tiny pieces to enhance fast drying. breaking the rhizomes into smaller pieces has its own negative impact on the quality of the dried product by decreasing the volatile oil content of the rhizome on one hand, and enhancing the development of the aflatoxins on the other. similarly, peeling off and damaging of the rhizome skin during the process of harvesting and drying should be minimized. while drying, the rhizomes need to be frequently overturned to maintain uniformity of the rhizomes until the product attains the moisture content of 7 to 12%, which is required for dry ginger. washing the rhizomes before drying, that is practiced by a single wholesaler company the areas, is unthinkable by farmers in the region. surprisingly, no significant price variation per unit volume was made between products that have subjected to drying on the cemented and noncemented floor. as far as the volume of ginger that a farmer owns and water availability for washing the rhizomes is concerned, washing rhizomes at individual farmer‟s level would be impractical. therefore, it will be essential to design the strategy, which possibly involves cooperatives and/or interested investors. the cooperatives or the investors may collect fresh ginger rhizomes from individual farmers on a given price agreement and they may add value to the product by washing and drying or they can sellout the rhizomes after washing to any enterprise/company for further processing. in general, drying process employed in the region so far for the preparation of dried ginger is too primitive and, hence could not maintain the product‟s quality. consequently, its contribution to the livelihood of ginger growers and to the economy of the country has been insignificant. thus, it calls for the joint effort of the actors including farmers, private sector, gos and ngos in order that quality dried ginger product might be supplied and become competitive in the global market. storage storage provides protection against weather, moisture, insects, micro organisms, rodents and any type of infestation and contamination. in snnprs, farmers often sellout their fresh ginger immediately after harvesting especially, when there is a high market demand. as a matter of fact, the ginger market has always been so much unstable and farmers are enforced to keep their produce in the storage for some period after drying until they get remunerative price. producers store dried ginger in their houses using various types of traditional structures. therefore, they use it as a means of value addition by changing time of supply of the produce. moreover, storage is practiced to make use of the advantage of storage as „saving cash in bank‟. so far, no improved structure has been developed for ginger storage in the production area. it is customary to store dried ginger either in bulk or in woven plastic sacks in non cemented dusty rooms, sometimes, for up to 10 years, depending on the type of the variety and the market demand. however, such storage condition not at all fulfills the basic requirements for safe and scientific storage. it is evident that the quality of ginger decreases with long storage period leading to decline in essential oil content. nevertheless, some farmers continue storing their ginger for up to 10 years. therefore, post-harvest management of ginger like, preparation of dried ginger and storage are need immediate attention. processing in ethiopia, few companies are engaged under two categories of ginger processing activities. the first category is preparation of dried ginger and, the second is extraction of ginger oleoresin. the former has been mainly performed by individual ginger producing farmers with a negligible portion going to one private enterprise situated near bombe, wolaita, that is, drying ginger on cemented floor after washing. the latter has been carried out by two factories known as ethiopian spices extraction factory (formerly owned by the government and has recently been privatized), and kask (privately owned and now on the hands of a bank due to liability). the two companies (ethiopian spices factory and kask), which are engaged in oleoresin extraction could not operate to their full capacity due to the following reasons: 1. the dried ginger has been full of impurity as it is prepared traditionally by local farmers. 2. there is low percentage of oleoresin content per unit volume of ginger as a result of perenniated/extended harvest, long storage period, over drying and/or re-drying due to dampness. 3. the factories which were designed to extract pepper oleoresin formerly require high cost for modification of parts. currently, both factories are not functional due to transition. even if they operate to their full capacity, it would remain insignificant as they absorb only the small fraction of the volume of the ginger yield produced per year in the region. apart from these, the ethiopian essential oils research center sometimes extracts essential oils from different essential oil yielding plant spices for research purposes. otherwise, no company in the region or at the country level was engaged in practical ginger processing activity. marketing of ginger products the issue of marketing is of great importance for produces of ginger in the areas. this is due to the fact that almost all the total amount of ginger produced by small-scale farmers is supplied to market with negligible amount locally consumed. however, ginger growing farmers have been severely affected by fluctuating market prices over years. hence, production of ginger in terms of area has been growing in response to good market prices and declining in response to depressing prices. thus, it can be realized that market signals are very determinant factors dictating ginger production in the areas. marketable products of ginger three types of ginger products are supplied to market in these areas. the first one is fresh ginger which is usually supplied to market in rainy season for immediate cash demand. it is also supplied in dry season as assemblers collect it for re-sell to large traders after sun-drying. dry season fresh ginger supply also targets local farmers who demand it as a planting material. long ago, ethiopia was exporting some fresh ginger to egypt, saudi arabia and yemen. the fresh ethiopian ginger was reported to be a good product with a nice color, and quality which can be stored quite long (janson, 1981). currently ethiopia is not exporting fresh ginger. exporting of fresh ginger demands high quality ginger varieties and early time of harvesting as well as high financial capacity and transportation technology. the second type of marketable ginger product is dried ginger. in ethiopia, dried ginger is favorite ginger product exchanged in large volumes by all market participants at different stages of marketing from local assembling to export market. dried ginger for this purpose is harvested 8 to 9 months after planting when there is mature rhizome with a full aroma, flavor and pungency. further delay not only increases fiber but also decreases oil and oleoresin content. the third type of marketable ginger products are extracted ginger products. these include ginger powder, essential oils, oleoresin and others. the extent to which rhizomes are treated prior to drying directly affects fiber and volatile oil content. removal of the cork skin reduces fiber content but enhances oil loss through rupture of the surface oil-cells; thus, cleanly peeled ginger generally has a lower oil and fiber content (pruthi, 1998; weiss, 2002). the benefits from extracting and marketing these products are going unreached these times by the country. ginger production and marketing constraints several ginger production and marketing constraints were identified by farmers during the survey. farmers recall that one quintal of fresh ginger was equivalent to that of about 11 quintals of maize before three years when this study was conducted. on the contrary, at present, the value of 20 quintals of fresh ginger is less than a value of one quintal of maize. this indicates that the market price of ginger is declining and that of food crops is rising. at present, a quintal of fresh ginger is sold for birr 20 to 30, which hardly surpasses the transportation cost to have a quintal arrived at the market. moreover, as ginger crop is high-input user such as: high frequency of weeding and high input requirements including seed and fertilizers, the high cost of production could result in loss if market prices are below the expected level as there are irregularities. in addition, due to lack of facilities for ginger drying, long time is required to get dry ginger by using traditional practices that lead to development of fungi during wet weather condition contributing to low market price. generally, the market price of ginger is highly unstable. in some years it rises up as high as birr 2250 per quintal of dried ginger as opposed to less than birr 150 per quintal when the price falls down. in the past, according to farmers, it was familiar to resume high price after some years of price fall. they argue that recently, the price change is uncertain and difficult to predict that would hamper further ginger production and storage in the region. marketing malpractice in ginger marketing has been a common practice, especially when the price of ginger becomes higher. it is practiced by both the producers and traders. two forms of malpractices by producers in some areas of ginger production have been recognized. these are mixing a fresh ginger with a damp soil, and a dried ginger with special stones having exactly the same physical appearance with that of the dried ginger rhizomes. marketing malpractices by regional traders is reflected mostly in altering weighing balance adjustments to their advantages. for example, their weighing balances for a quintal are commonly adjusted to read 125 to 130 kg for fresh ginger and 110 to 115 kg for dried ginger. moreover, the unit of mass measurement known as „feresula‟, commercially an equivalent of 17 kg, is accepted as 20 kg by the regional traders when they buy the ginger from the farmers while when they sellout the product to the subsequent levels of traders, they restore it to 17 kg. farmers have no role in deciding on the price of their produce. it is the traders through illegitimate brokers who decide the price of ginger. as a result, farmers have no choice than accepting the price set by a few traders. some commercial farmers who attempted to transport their produce directly to the wholesalers to the central market had been put to tragedy by the action of brokers. if brokers get information that a farmer has transported the produce to the central market, they tend to shortly communicate each other and immediately block the farmer not to sellout the produce to the wholesaler. if the produce remains unsold, the farmer will be obliged to pay higher cost for hoarding the product. the existence of middlemen along the ginger marketing chain not only reduced the producers‟ share, it also exposed farmers to additional expenses by blocking the flow of information. conclusions and recommendations ginger has been produced as an important commercial horticultural crop in southern ethiopia. farmers produce different varieties and apply traditional management practices. external support in promoting improved varieties and management practices is almost nonexistent. ginger product markets are very volatile and price fluctuations create a disincentive for farmers in the production of the crop. thus, researchers have to assist farmers in indentifying improved varieties with desirable market traits, appropriate agronomic and postharvest management practices including drying methods, sorting and grading techniques, as well as processing technologies. extension workers and other development practitioners have join hands with the farmers in addressing marketing problems such as: easing barriers to entry into markets by organizing ginger producers into producers and marketing cooperatives. references board (snnprs bureau of agriculture and rural development) (2008). unpublished data. hailemichael g, tesfaye k (2008). the effects of seed rhizome size on the growth, yield and economic return of ginger (zingiber officinale rosc.). asian j. plant sci., 7: 213-217. jansen pcm (1981). spices, condiments and medicinal plants in ethiopia, their taxonomy and agricultural significance. wageningen pudoc., pp. 1-132. pruthi js (1998). spices and condiments. nation boo trust, a-5 green park, new delhi, pp. 147-154. purseglove jw (1972). tropical crops: monocotyledons, 1st edition, longman group limited, uk, london, pp. 52-54. weiss ea (2002). spice crop, 1st ed., cabi publishing, uk, pp. 316338. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (8), pp. 001-006, august, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper economic analysis of rice production in cross river state, nigeria i. u. odoemenem1* and j. a. inakwu2 1 department of agricultural economic, university of agriculture, p. m. b. 2373, makurdi, benue state, nigeria. 2 university of agriculture, p. m. b 2373, makurdi, benue state, nigeria. accepted 21 april, 2018 the study was undertaken to examine the economic analysis of rice production in cross river state of nigeria. specifically, the work aimed at examining the socio-economic characteristics of rice producers; identify the production constraints in rice production; identify the resources used for rice production; determine the gross margin and to determine the effect of production inputs on rice output in the study area. the study was carried out through the administration of structured questionnaires and interview. a total of 120 respondents were randomly selected from the study area for this study. descriptive statistics, gross margin and regression analysis were employed in analyzing the data. the estimated coefficients for all the variables used were significant with the exception of pesticide application and rice variety. key words: small scale, subsistence farmers, family labour, hired labour, lucrative enterprise. introduction agriculture contributes a lot to the economy of nigeria. not less than 70% of nigerians earn their living from agriculture and it provides among others food, employment, income and foreign exchange, raw material for the manufacturing sectors (fao, 1999). rice is a unique crop grown virtually all over the country, because it requires a wide range of temperature between 20 and 38°c during growth and a long period of sunshine. it can be grown over a wide range of ecological conditions. the prevalent types of rice production systems in nigeria are the rainfed upland, rainfed lowland and irrigated lowland (singh et al., 1997). in nigeria, demand for rice has been increasing at a much faster rate than in any other african country, since the mid 1970 (fao, 2001). furthermore, during the 1960s; nigeria had the lowest per capita annual consumption of rice in west africa sub region with an annual average of 3 kg. since then, nigeria per capita consumption levels have grown significantly at 7.3% per annum (pcu, 2002). nigeria being the most populous country in africa with about 124 million people in 1999, has the potential to become a beacon of hope and *corresponding author. e-mail: iodoemenem@yahoo.com. africa’s economic giant. however, for this potential role to be achieved, equitable and sustainable economic development in food sufficiency is a prerequisite. according to fao (1999), agriculture was the mainstay of the nigerian economy beyond oil. rice had been substantially produced in nigeria to meet local consumption before the oil boom of the 1970s brought in huge foreign exchange, which diverted the disincentive to increase domestic production of rice (erenstein et al. 2003). this led to acute shortage of rice and increased demand in the 1990s which contrasted with nigeria’s selfsufficiency in rice production during the 1960s (irr, 1991). in a bid to address the demand-supply gap, government at various times has come up with different policies and programmes. it was observed that those policies were not consistent (ogundele et al., 2004). the erratic policies reflected the dilemma of securing cheap rice for consumers and fair price for the producers. however, in spite of all these programmes, local rice production has not kept up with domestic consumption demands. the genus oryza belongs to the tribe oryzeae in the sub-family pooideae of the great family graminae. there are 25 species of oryza. of these, only two are cultivated oryza sativa l. and oryza glaberrima steud. o. sativa is the common rice grown throughout the warmer file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org regions of the world, whereas o. glaberrima is grown to a limited extent in the flood plains of west africa. indica and japonica are the main sub species of the genus sativa. o. glaberrima probably originated around the swampy headwaters of the niger river in west africa. its characteristics are smooth, hairless glumes, red grains, and short legumes with roundish tips, high seed dormancy and stiff upright panicles with few or no secondary branches. its importance in africa is decreasing as it is being replaced by modern cultivars of oryza sativa. o. sativa has been cultivated in south and east asia, since ancient times. zhkorsky (1962) considered that o. sativa was domesticated well over 5,000 years ago. the general consensus of opinion is that rice was domesticated in india, probably the coastal area of eastern india where there are marshy areas. the presence there of wild rice species, the cultivar diversity, including primitive coarse grain forms and the presence of many dominant genes lend support to this view. according to singh et al. (1997), disease and pests are important natural factors limiting the production of rice and in severe cases, account for about 100% crop losses. production of rice in nigeria is mainly in the hands of small scale farmers who are using unimproved farming techniques. actual yields of rice differ significantly from potential yields and this has been attributed to low productivity (fma, 2001). large losses occur during storage, chiefly as a result of insect and rodent damage. fungi and bacteria may reduce the quality, if the relative humidity of the air in the storage space remains too high (above 70%) or if rainwater enters the storage building. fortunately, those losses can be individually eliminated. the cardinal rules for food storage are to allow only clean and properly dried rice to enter the storage and keep to storage building completely rain and rodent proof. the floor should be water tight, so that no moisture seeps upwards through it. the storage should also be fumigated to control insect damage (onwueme, 1991). rice has contributed to the socio-economic well being of nigeria both as a major element in the nation’s food security calculations and as a commodity for internal commercial transactions (fao, 2000). rice is primarily consumed in its parboiled form which adds value to rice in the production and consumption chain. it can be used in form of pastries, noodles, puffed rice, fermented sweet rice and related forms. rice is used in making wine, beer, spirit and vinegar. rice wine which may contain 10 to 15% alcohol is usually made from glutinous rice. rice extract from the bran is rich in nutrients such as vitamin e and would not cause high blood cholesterol levels. unfortunately, the use of rice oil has lagged behind potential value (onwueme, 1991). glutinous (sticky) rice has been revealed as a sweet ingredient used by ancient chinese builders to strengthen their constructions. fao (2000) pointed out that the intake of calories by people in africa is insufficient to maintain their health and efficiency. as the most practicable way of increasing calorie intake, they suggested consumption of greater amount of rice, provided due regard is paid to the nutritional balance. economic growth and poverty alleviation in nigeria will depend to a large extent on the ability of the country to improve on her agriculture, paying more attention to agriculture and improving on rice production will in no small measure improve food security (erenstein et al., 2003). indonesia was until 2004,the world’s largest importer of rice. today, indonesia has with the sense of patriotism surpassed all odds to become self sufficient in the commodity. nigeria imported rice to the tone of 1.8 million dollars in 2002 alone. the annual demand for rice in the country is estimated at 5 million tons, while production is 3 million, resulting in a deficit of 2 million tons (chinma, 2004). according to ogundele (2004), africa today is described as the “most hunger ridden” continent. the result is unimaginable poverty and degradation of the very essence of human dignity. unless there is dramatic increase in food production, especially in small scale farming, worse is likely to happen. the aim of this study was to examine among others the effect of production inputs on rice output in the study area. materials and methods the study area this study was conducted in cross river state. the state lies within the south-south zone with diverse vegetation belts from the largest tropical rain forest in nigeria, to mangrove swamps, savannahs, mountains and waterfalls with rare animals, including endangered species and unusual plant families, making it one of the world’s richest biodiversity centers attracting scientists and tourists alike. it has a land area of about 21,787 km 2 with cameroon to its east and a population of about 2,892,988 people (npc, 2006). cross river state soils are richly endowed with fertility. over 70% of the population of the state is engaged in agriculture. however, small scale and subsistence farmers dominate the sector. major crops produced in the area include cassava: (manihot esculentum), yam: (dioscorea spp.), maize: (zea mais), cowpea: (vignia unguiculata), banana: (musa sapientum), plantain: (musa paradisiacal), rice: (o. sativa), tomato: (lycopersicon esculentum), vegetable: (telfaira occidentalis), and pineapple: (ananas comosus). they also engage in fishing and livestock rearing. cross rivers state has a vast 1.8 million ha of untapped agricultural land, extensive water facilities available for irrigation, with rainfall from march to november (npc, 2006). opportunities also abound in storage and preservation processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural products. data collection it is impossible and uneconomical to obtain information from all the rice farmers in cross river state of nigeria. according to emaikwu (2008), it is not always possible to determine the size of most populations or to be certain that each element in the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample. sample size is almost invariably controlled by cost and time (ogundele, 2004). the factors that make up a feasible sample size are funds, time factor, table 1. socio-economic characteristics of the respondent farmers. index frequency percentage male 78 65.0 female 42 35.0 total 120 100 family size 0.5 50 41.7 6 -10 56 46.7 11-15 14 11.7 total 120 100 farm size 1 3 94 78.3 4-6 15 12.5 7-9 10 8.3 9 1 0.8 total 120 100 source: field survey, 2011. component personnel, transportation facilities. consequent upon the fact that it is impossible to obtain information from every rice farmer in the study area, coupled with the enormity of its population, a multi-stage random sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents from across the council wards studied. twelve (12) respondents for each council ward were randomly selected to bring the total population of respondents to 120. structured questionnaires were administered to the respondents. bi = b1 = 0, suggests that the change in rice output cannot be explained by variation in the independent variables. gross margin analysis gross margin can be defined as the difference between the gross farm income and the total variable cost. the gross farm income is the total physical product multiplied by the unit price of the product. model specification the analytical methods used in data analysis were inferential statistics, gross margin analysis and descriptive statistics. an econometric model was used to analyze the effect of inputs on rice output. this is because econometric models give room for stochastic error (u). the econometric model is explicitly expressed as follows: gm = tr – tc where gm = gross margin of rice production (n/ha). y = a +b1x1 + b2x2 +b3x3 +b4x4 + b5x5 + b6x6 + u where; y = rice output in kg a= constant factor, representing total rice output x1 = land under cultivation in ha x2 = total labour used in man-days x3 = quantity of rice planted in kg x4 = quantity of fertilizer used in kg x5 = total cash expenditure on pesticides used x6 = rice varieties plantedlocal variety = 0, improved variety =1 b: (1, 2 …6) = estimate of the coefficients. u = an error term measuring variation in rice output unaccounted for by the independent variables. the effects of variables on changes in rice output. a positive bi will be found for variables associated with increased rice output, while a negative bi will be found when a variable is associated with decreased rice output. so, failure to uphold that: results and discussion from the result in table 1, 65.0% of rice farmers were male while 35.0% were female. the result indicates that males who are more capable of coping with the drudgery associated with rice farming dominated the study area. furthermore, the table shows that most respondents’ highest family size were between (47.7%) and the least family size was (11.7%). this indicates that farmers had enough family labour for rice production. table 1 further explained that most respondents had farm size from 1 to 3 ha, (78.3%), 12.5 has between 4 to 6 ha, 8.3% has between 7 to 9 ha of land. this implies that most of the rice farmers’ studied were small scale farmers. the result in table 2 shows that most respondents had rice output of between 500 and 900 kg (25.0%), 19.2 had between 901 and 1300 kg, 15.0% had output of between 1301 and 1700 kg, 17.5% had between 1701 and 2100 kg, 4.2% table 2. distribution of respondents by rice output (kg) and income level (n). index frequency percentage output 500 -900 30 25.0 901 -1300 23 19.2 1301 -1700 18 15.0 1701 -2100 21 17.5 2101 2500 5 4.2 2500 23 19.2 total 120 100 income level (naira) 50,000 – 100,000 30 25.0 1001,000 – 150,000 45 37.5 151,000 – 200,000 31 25.8 200,000 14 11.7 total 120 100 source: field survey, 2011. table 3. distribution of respondents by production constraints. index frequency percentage inadequate capital 99 82.5 high cost of labour 81 67.5 inadequate supply of farm inputs 77 64.2 poor marketing outlet 57 47.5 high cost of pesticides 84 70.0 land tenure system 76 63.3 high cost of fertilizer 94 78.3 poor storage facilities 71 59.2 high cost of transportation 74 61.7 problem of pests and diseases 72 60.0 analysis include multiple response. source: field survey, 2011. had output of between 2101 and 2500 kg and those with output above 2500 kg were 19.2%. this indicates that the output of some respondents were encouraging. the result in table 2 further showed that majority of the farmers (37.5%) had annual income of between 1,001,000 and 150,000 naira (25.8%) had between 150,001 and 200,000 naira (25.0%) had between 50,000 and 100,000 naira (11.7%), had greater than 200,000 naira. the average income of most rice farmers in the study area was 75, 000 naira which is very low for any serious rice farming. this result agrees with the findings of ogundele et al. (2004) that small-scale farmers in the study area do not make enough money to increase their rice production. table 3 shows that the major rice production constraints faced by farmers in the study area were; inadequate capital (82.5%), high cost of labour (67.5%), inadequate supply of farm inputs (64.2%), land tenure system (63.3%), high cost of fertilizer (78.3%) among others. this implies that inadequate capital, high cost of fertilizer and high cost of pesticides as also pointed out by pcu (2001), constitute the major production constraints faced by farmers in the study area. the result in table 4 shows that 41.7% of the respondents used fertilizer and pesticides, (20.8%) used only fertilizer, (10.0%) used only pesticides and (27.5) used none. this result implies that most of the respondents used both fertilizer and pesticide for rice production in their farm operations. this finding is in line with fma (2001). gross margin analysis the result in table 5 shows that an average rice farmer table 4. distribution of respondents by the use of fertilizer and pesticides. index frequency percentage fertilizer 25 20.8 pesticides 12 10.0 both 50 41.7 none 33 27.5 total 120 100 source: field survey, 2011. table 5. gross margin analysis for average rice farmers in cross river state of nigeria. items amount (naira) rice seed 555.00 fertilizer cost 47998.92 pesticide cost 2776.67 land clearing 1603.08 planting 4068.73 weeding 3285.20 fertilizer application 1380.06 pesticide application 1439.00 transportation cost harvest cost 2888.33 gross income 117213.38 total variable cost (tvc) 25875.12 gross margin 91338.26 source: field survey, 2011. table 6. estimated multiple linear regression analysis. variables beta coefficient standard error significant level constant 1298.375 135.530 0.255 pesticide cost -508.151 394.702 0.201 fertilizer 899.528 578.585 0.628 rice variety 41. 768 85.967 0.014** farm size 0.330 0.139 0.930 pesticide application 684.17 344.613 0.050** 80.200 2.276 0.320 rice seed 1.102 0.055 2.147 in the study area incurred a total variable cost (tvc) of 25,875.12 naira. this means that an average rice farmer studied earned a gross margin of 91,338.26 naira. this result implies that rice production is a lucrative/ profitable enterprise in the study area. table 6 presents the result of the estimated multiple linear regression analysis. rice output was regressed on fertilizer, pesticide cost, farm size, rice seed, pesticide application and variety of rice. the estimated coefficients for all the variables used were insignificant except pesticide application and rice variety. this implies that these variables have no influence on rice output. however, the use of improved variety of rice has significant influence on rice output relative to that of local variety. similarly, increase in the use of pesticide increased rice output. more specially, an increase in investment in pesticide by one unit increased rice output or yield by 684.2 kg, also a unit increase in pesticide application increased rice output by 41.8 kg. conclusion the study was carried out in cross river state of nigeria. the findings revealed that majority of the rice farmers employed both family and hired labour as their source of labour. the gross margin analysis revealed that rice production was a lucrative enterprise in the study area with an average rice farmer earning a gross margin of 91,338.26 naira per ha in the study area. furthermore, the multiple linear regression analysis showed that variation in output of rice is explained by variation in pesticides application and the varieties of rice planted – local or improved. this means, the more pesticide is applied and at appropriate time, the more the farm is kept weed free; free from insect attack and the more higher output is realized. the use of the improved variety of rice, which yields more, is photoperiod insensitive, less vulnerable to diseases and insects, and rodent attacks, and produces a higher output. acknowledgement we acknowledge with gratitude the technical assistance received from ms. dodo, university of agriculture, makurdi, benue state. references chinma g (2004).rice at risk, green peace international organization; item id 616740. erenstein o, frederic l, titilola g, akpokadje g, ogundele o (2003). the nigerian rice economy in a competitive world: constraint, opportunities and strategic choices: rice production system in nigeria: a survey of warda, abidjan, cote d’ivoire. emaikwu so (2008). fundamentals of educational research methods and statistics. davay prints ltd. keffi road/lagos street, kaduna, nigeria. fao (1999). food and agricultural organization. “food outlook”, p. 15. fao (2000). food and agricultural organization. “rice information” vol. 2 rome, italy. fao (2001). food and agricultural organization. “workshop on policy support for rapid adoption of hybrid rice on large scale production in asia” hanoi; vietnam, final report, p. 10. fma (2001). federal ministry of agriculture, annual review, abuja, nigeria. irr (1991). “international rice research institute” world rice statistics, pp. 34-42. npc (2006). national population census. ogundele oo, fredric l (2004).“rice production system in nigeria’ warda abidjan, cote d’ivoire, rice res. notes, 29(1): 82-83. onwueme ic, sinha td (1991). “field crop production in tropical africa, principle and practice” cta, netherlands. pcu (2002). project coordinating unit, “crop area yield survey” federal ministry of agriculture and rural development, abuja, nigeria. singh mo, mowa ya (1997). rice growing environments and biophysical constraints in different agroecological zones of nigeria. met, i, 2(1): 3544. zhukovsky m (1962). “field crop production in tropical africa: principles and practice” cta netherlands. african journal of agricultural marketing vol. 1 (2), pp. 041-046, december, 2013. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals full length research paper marketing price transmission analysis in the iranian rice market mohammad chalajour 1 and yaser feizabadi 2 * 1 islamic azad university – roudehen branch, tehran, iran, 2 department of agricultural economics, qaemshahr branch, islamic azad university, qaemshahr, iran. accepted 28 september, 2013 the goal of this paper is to test whether changes in the marketing margin between the farm and the retail prices can result in an asymmetric relationship between the on farm and the retail prices in the rice market of iran. by separating the transaction cost variation into two regimes, this paper utilizes a two-type tvecm with the error correction. the empirical results show that when the marketing margin is lower than the threshold value, the market system operates freely and there is feedback between the farm and retail prices. however, when the marketing margin is higher than the threshold value, the government intervenes in the market and the causality between the farm and retail prices no longer exists. the conclusions are as follows: changes in the marketing margin can cause the asymmetric price transmission between the farm and retail prices in iran’s rice markets; therefore, ignoring the effect of the marketing margin could lead to errors in the models. when the marketing margin is higher than the threshold value, the government intervenes in the market and the causality between the two prices is broken. key words: marketing margin, price transmission, price asymmetry, threshold model. introduction rice has long been the most important staple food in iran, as well as one of iran‟s most important agricultural products. the iranian government has in the past employed a range of measures to maintain the price stability for agricultural products, including the “375 rent reduction” in 1949 and the “land to the tiller” policy in 1953. these policies were effective in stimulating large increases in agricultural production, which had two positive consequences: the policies solved problems of food supply and also helped achieve the policy goal of “developing industry through agriculture.” as iran‟s economy modernized, incomes rose and standards of living improved; the consumption of rice gradually fell, as it lost its status as the pre-eminent staple. however, the government continued to encourage rice production out of food security considerations, which results in the phenomena that rice consumption is dropping off steeply, while there is currently still excess production in iran. this demonstrates that with government intervention in the *corresponding author. e-mail: yaserfeiz@yahoo.com agricultural sector, it is often unable to adapt to changes in the actual supply and demand in the market. however, because of the need for food security, it remains necessary for the government to intervene in the rice market. what is vital is that the government has a full understanding of how information is transmitted between the rice producers and retailers and of the effects of changes in the marketing margin. only with such an understanding, it is possible to develop effective long-run policies and short-run adaptive measures. the two most common varieties of rice available on the iranian market are a and b, there is a gap between the farm and market retail prices, which reflects the marketing margin between the farm and the retailer. we can also see that for both varieties of rice, the marketing margin reflected in the price gap appear to be stable, which implies that the farm price and the retail price may be co-integrated in the long-run. furthermore, the fluctuations in the marketing margin as prices vary. why might the marketing margin deviate from the long run equilibrium over the short term? variation in production costs and changes in the weather and human activities are all causes of short-run asymmetric chalajour and feizabadi 041 adjustments in the markets. this fluctuation may cause nonlinear fluctuations and limited cycles in the farm and the retail prices, despite their relatedness. these nonlinear effects may cause more short-run deviations from the equilibrium for the marketing margin, which can in turn, generate asymmetric price adjustments in the rice markets. because of this, models which do not consider nonlinear relations between variables are certain to produce biased results. the objective of this paper is to test whether changes in the marketing margin between the farm and the retailer, as measured by the price difference, can cause an asymmetric relationship between the farm and the retail price. for this objective, we establish the following three hypotheses. hypothesis 1 is that there is a co-integration relationship between the farm and the retail prices. under the null hypothesis of hypothesis 1, the marketing margin exists and the long-run relationship between the two prices is stable. hypothesis 2 is that given the established co-integration relationship, there is no threshold relation between the farm and the retail prices. hypothesis 2 could be examined by the linearity test. when hypothesis 2 is rejected, we could construct the threshold model and divide the model into two regimes. hypothesis 3 is that the causality between the farm and the retail prices does not vary with the regimes. the benefit of testing these three hypotheses is that we will be able to calculate a critical level for the marketing margin, which will provide a rational basis for the government to decide when to intervene in the market. consumers will also be able to judge whether the market price for rice is within reasonable limits. this will help prevent profiteering by businesses in the supply chain, which is against the interests of both the farmers and the consumers. we employ the farm and retail prices of the two varieties of rice mentioned before to conduct the empirical study. the results show that: 1) there is a co-integration relationship between the farm and retail prices; 2) the linearity test rejects hypothesis 2, which indicates that the threshold effect exists; and 3) under the two regimes, the causality test result shows that when the marketing margin is lower than the threshold value, the market system operates freely and there is feedback between the farm and the retail prices. but when the marketing margin is higher than the threshold value, the government intervenes in the market and the causal relationship between the farm and the retail prices no longer exists. literature review in recent years, empirical analyses of price transmission for agricultural products have attracted attentions among economists. von braun (1998) analyzes vertical. price transmission between farm gate and wholesale pig prices in germany using an error correction model (ecm). to incorporate also effects of the marketing margin into models of price transmission, the author develops the threshold error correction models (tecm). many studies have been undertaken based on works by tong (1978) and balke and fomby (1997). for example, obstfeld and taylor (1997) analyzed the „law of one price‟ within such a framework. goodwin and harper (2000) used a threshold error correction model to quantify the spatial integration in united states corn and soybean markets. ben-kaabia et al. (2002) and ben-kaabia and gil (2007) estimate the price transmission between the vertically related stages of the spanish lamb market using a threshold model. meyer (2004) argues that a threeregime threshold vector error correction model (tvecm) is most suitable for analysis of the bi-directional price adjustment in the presence of the to analyze the dynamics of the transaction cost and to detect any comovements with (policy induced) changes in the financial environment. poghosyan and kuper (2008) estimate a tvecm model for united states gasoline and crude oil prices and find asymmetric price transmission seems to be important because the addition showing deep gap of economic theory can provide concepts and applications of economic for policy evidence for the threshold effect after february 1999. makers. there are two types of price transfer; 1) horizontal is transferring product price from the market of a country (region) to market of another country (region); 2) vertical is transferring product price in producer level, wholesale and retail within a country. it has been reviewed as the existing marketing margin. these models can account for the effects of the marketing margin in the price transmission analysis even when the transaction cost data are unavailable. in other applications, frey and manera (2007) review the existing empirical literature on the price asymmetries in commodities, providing a way to classify and compare different studies that are highly heterogeneous in terms of econometric models and type of asymmetries and empirical findings. poghosyan and de haan (2007) use the tvecm for a fixed rolling window empirical literature on the price asymmetries in commodities, providing a way to classify and compare different studies who are highly heterogeneous in terms of econometric models and type of asymmetries and empirical findings (aguiar and santana, 2002; alizadeh, 2003). the degree of price transmission can provide at least a broad assessment of the extent to which markets are functioning in a predictable way, and price signals are passing-through consistently between different markets. price's transmission is affected by several factors such as transport and transaction costs, market power, exchange rate, border and domestic policies, and product homogeneity and differentiation (campa and goldberg, 2005; frey and manera, 2007; ghosh and rajan, 2006). 042 afr. j. agric. mark. the effect of changes in import prices on domestic prices is central to applied trade policy analysis; however, it has shown that in some periods, price increases are more rapid and fully transmitted than price decreases and this is reverse in other periods and places (aguiar and santana, 2002; goodwin and harper, 2000). it was examined how to price transfer from a farm to retail for four dairy products butter, cheese, raw milk and ice cream in the united states. the results showed that the increase in farm prices than to reduce in farm prices is transferred the faster and more complete with retail level, and price transmission has been made asymmetric (campa and goldberg, 2005; guillen and franquesa, 2007; hansen, 1994). it showed that prices of the dairy products in the brazil processing industries are transferred from the farm to retail faster than from retail to the farm (goodwin and harper, 2000; hildreth and jarrett, 1995). it came to the conclusion that the price transfer of beef and pork is asymmetric (houck, 1997; husseini and nikokar, 2006). it reviews symmetry price's test for the product of raw milk and the two percent fat milk in seven states of united states. their results were used as evidence of price asymmetric transmission (husseini and dowrandish, 2007; margarido and lima, 2009). it came to the conclusion that reducing prices over the on farm, is transmitted faster and more complete in the price transfer of fresh vegetables (moghadasi and ardekani, 2007). iranian background it examines price transfer of chicken in iran from producing to consuming the years 1984 until 2006. it came to the conclusion that any increase in the producing price of chicken meat is transmitted thoroughly to retail, while finality transfer is not complete with the retail level (moghadasi and fazeli, 2007; mundlak and larson, 1992). during the third five-year development plan (1984 to 2006), the iranian government undertook various economic initiatives, such as removing non-tariff barriers, in order to prepare the conditions for the country to join the global trade system, and to accelerate its development efforts to reduce the level of poverty. generally speaking, the iranian government policy interventions in food markets are directed toward ensuring domestic food security and lowering food prices through trade policies and rising staple imports supported by crude oil price climbing as well as fiscal and monetary policy, etc. furthermore, iran attempts to manage food price rises through subsidies and supplying discounted staple foods through a coupon system (negassa and myers, 2007). it studies the price transfer of meat and chicken market in iran. their study confirmed that the level of producer price fluctuation is transferred symmetrical shape to the retail level (rapsomanikis et al., 2003; staatz et al., 2008; schnepf, 2008). as described by the world bank (2009) report, each policy is expected to have different effects on various groups of households and could depress incentives to farmers to increase output resulting in further increases in food prices. on the other hand, policies such as export bans or high export tariffs taken by the exporter partners may create harmful effects on iran as a net food importer (the world bank, 2009). the preferred rate was applied to import of essential goods, a fixed or export rate (3000 rial for $1) was applied to capital good imports of public enterprises and a variable market rate was devoted to other imports. such a multi exchange rate system had generated implicit subsidies for state owned enterprises and revolutionary foundations as well as for importers of basic commodities (alizadeh, 2003). it was studied market price in the dates and the pistachios (moghadasi and fazeli, 2007). it was reviewed price transmission model of iranian pistachio in the global market (husseini and dowrandish, 2007). research methodology in this paper, the retail price ( r ) has been used and on farm prices ( pf ), of rice a week over a period of twenty five years. the statistics have been prepared from the central bank of islamic republic of iran. consumption price index (cpi) is used to remove inflation producer. in this paper, price transmission has been analyzed, elasticity of transmission prices and causality relationship between the two levels of wholesale prices and retail sales for two types of rice product (grades a and b). the unit root and the dickey-fuller tests were used for reviewing stationary of data (as time series), if time series' data are static, it will be used as the houck model, and if time series' data are non-static, first up through the johansson test is used for reviewing the relationship between market variables at different levels, then if it converges, it will be the error correction model for analysis of price transmission. the granger causality test was used for the impressionability of prices. the houck model is calculated by formula 1 as follows: m 1  m 2  rt r0  ɑ 0t ɑ1 pf ɑ2 pf e1 t i  t i i 0 i 0 (1) where: r : logarithm of the retail price; pf : logarithm of the on farm prices;  pf  pf  : increase in the on farm prices; : a reduction in the on farm prices; m 1 , m 2 : length of interruption. to investigate symmetric or asymmetric in the positive and negative shocks of price transfer between two levels of market, it uses the equity hypothesis test of variable coefficients. coefficients ɑ 1 and ɑ 2 are respectively increasing and decreasing effect farm prices on the retail prices. the null hypothesis is defined by formula 2. chalajour and feizabadi 043 table 1. the basic statistics of the first-differenced price variables. parameter fp1 fp2 rp1 rp2 mean 0.0007 0.0006 0.003 0.006 standard deviation 0.039 0.042 0.022 0.024 skewness -0.2 -0.6 -0.4 -0.6 kurtosis 8.564 5.234 12.321 5.067 observations 302 302 302 302 variables are all in natural logarithms. variable fp1 the farm price per kilo of a rice, fp2 the farm price per kilo of b rice, rp1 is the retail price per kilo of a rice, and rp2 is the retail price per kilo of b rice. m 1 m 2 h 0 :  ɑ 1i   ɑ 2i i 0 i 0 (2) the above equation can be easily estimated with ols. whereas ɑ 1 with ɑ 2 are equal and both are positive, then price transfer is symmetrical and otherwise to be asymmetrical. in order to test rejection or acceptance of null hypothesis the wald test is used. granger and lee, error correction models proposed as formulas 3 and 4.     p 1 p 2 prt  b 0  b 1 pft  b  b   b 3 i p rt i  b 2 ect t 1 2 ect t 1 i 1 i 1 (3) 1) if (   j  0 ) and (   j  0 ), then unilateral causality will form the r to w , therefore wholesale in the retail level effects on price in the wholesale level. 2) if (   j  0 ) and (   j  0 ), then unilateral causality will form the w to r , therefore, wholesale market creates by price changes in the retail market. 3) if the total coefficients of w and r in regression were statistically significant and non-zero, then they have two-way causality and both markets influence each other. 4 i p  v w and r in regression were not ft4) i if the total coefficients of statistically significant, and both markets are independent. ect t 1  p rt 1  ɑ 0  ɑ 1 p ft 1 (4) in the aforestated regression, it reviews change in retail prices to changes in wholesale prices at time t and wholesale prices in prior periods. coefficients b  b  2 and 2 show respectively, adjustment of the retail price to positive and negative shocks in marketing margin. null hypothesis to this species is defined as formula 5. h   0 : b 2  b2 (5) acceptance of the null hypothesis indicates symmetry of the price transmission and its denial represents asymmetric pric transmission. in this study, it reviews causality between retail and wholesale market, that ultimately it shows the market effect of the two different levels. in other words, though the causality test can determine which market effects on price and its changes in other markets. granger's causality test is expressed as formulas 6 and 7. w   w    r  u i , j 1,2,..., n (6) t  i t i j t  j 1t r   r   w  u i , j 1,2,..., m (7) t  it i  j t  j 2t if disruption components are non-correlative, there are 4 modes in the following separation: result analysis the variables in this model are the on farm and the retail prices of the, a and the b rice, the two main varieties grown in iran. the data come from the council of agriculture, and consist of monthly price data from january 1981 to march 2006, a total of 302 observations. table 1 reports the basic statistics of the returns of logarithmic farm and retail prices. the means of the two variables indicates that the fluctuation of the retail price is larger than that of the on farm price. these two phenomena imply that there is the marketing margin (or transaction cost) between the on farm and retail prices. the standard deviations could evaluate the risk of the rice prices. the numbers of table 1 indicate that the farm price is riskier than the retail price is, which indicates that the rice market that iranian farmers face is a low-return and high-risk one. the skewness coefficient indicates that the distribution of the on farm price is skewed on the left and the distribution of the retail price is skewed on the right. the kurtosis coefficient indicates that the distributions of the four time series are not comparable. when conducting the tests, we first applied two unit root tests: the augmented dickey-fuller and the phillipsperron tests, to establish that the variables were not stationary. the unit root tests compare constant and timetrend models. they indicate that the four price series are i(1) processes, that is the first difference of the four 044 afr. j. agric. mark. table 2. test of causality between wholesale and retail level of a rice (grade 1). series are stationary. using these results, we can test for co-integration between the on farm and the retail rice prices. the parameter value of a shows that for both varieties, there exists a fixed mark-up effect; the value of b shows that the cross-elasticity between the farm and the retail prices is higher than 1 for both varieties. this implies that variations in the retail price of both varieties of rice are larger than the variations in the on farm price. the crosselasticity is higher for the a than for the b rice, meaning that the retail price response to changes in the farm price is greater for the a than for the b rice. it is used the unit root test for stationary of variables. granger causality test is used to examine the relationship of prices. first, the optimum interval is determined for each variable at any price based on the lowest statistic, for this purpose, the cost variable of each product at every level is regressed to their values interval separately and the optimum interval for the variable has been determined. then the desired equation is regressed to other variables in different intervals, the optimum interval for the variable has been determined. after determining the optimal interval variables, the equations are examined to estimate and the causality test is reviewed by the wald test and the results are shown in tables 2 to 4. table 2 shows results of causality test between the two levels of retail, and wholesale a rice (grade 1). according to the wald test, null hypothesis accepts in significant level, therefore it is rejected causality form the wholesale to retail market and prices in retail level are not affected by prices on wholesale level. but in the second equation, the null hypothesis is rejected; therefore it is accepted causality form the wholesale to retail market and prices in retail level is affected on prices in wholesale level. therefore, there is causality communication from wholesale to retail in the a rice, the a rice (grade 1) price in retail market influence the wholesale level market. table 3 shows results of causality test between the two levels of retail and wholesale of b rice (grade 2). according to wald test, null hypothesis is accepted in both equations, therefore there is no causality relation between the two markets (wholesale market and retail market), and price in the two markets have independent behaviors. discussion the summary of the empirical results presented in table 2 shows causality communication from wholesale to retail in the a rice (grade 1), table 3 shows the same for the b rice (grade 2), the a rice price in retail market influences the wholesale level market, therefore there is not any causality relation between the two markets (wholesale market and retail market), and price in the two markets has independent behaviors. considering all the variables to be static, so the houck model for reviewing symmetry of price transmission at two levels of retail and wholesale. for this purpose, the first optimum interval of variables is determined in this model and then it estimated the model, estimation results shown in table 4. the short-term coefficients show increase or decrease of price in chalajour and feizabadi 045 table 3. causality test between wholesale and retail market in b rice product (grade 2). table 4. results of houck model and wald test to review symmetry of price transmission short term coefficients of long term coefficients of symmetry of price variable price changes price changes wald test null hypothesis transmission increase reduce increase reduce price of rice f = 16.32 reject asymmetric grade 1 0.76 0.12 0.65 probability = 0.002 price of rice f = 21.88 reject asymmetric wholesale on price changes in the retail level in the same period, and the long-term coefficients show price transfer with interval between these two levels of market. according to table 4, in any grade of rice, the transmission speed of price increase or positive shock of price is faster than the transmission speed of price reduce or negative shock of price in wholesale market to the retail market. so a positive shock of price in wholesale is transferred immediately and in the same period to the retail level for grade 1 of rice, while reducing cost is transferred with a delay and after a transition period. the reason is that retailers seek to make more profit and wholesale reacts to price reduction at the retail level. thus, it concludes that transmission of positive and negative shocks from wholesale to retail are asymmetric and these results are confirmed by wald test. according to table 4, it rejects null hypothesis in equity at total coefficients of price increase in different intervals with total coefficients of price reduction for each product with regards to the significance of the f statistics. therefore, price transmission in the rice market is asymmetric. finally, the difference in the threshold values suggests that there is a difference in the timing of government interventions in the markets for the a (threshold 0.081) and the b (threshold 0.054) rice. this may be because 046 afr. j. agric. mark. the long-run cross elasticity for the a rice is greater than that of the b rice. this means that a higher transaction cost threshold for the intervention is acceptable for the a rice, when the objective is to avoid excessive movements in the retail price of rice. conclusions the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the on farm and the retail prices in the iranian rice market. we established three hypotheses and obtained several important empirical findings. firstly, there is a long-run co-integration relationship between the on farm and the retail prices. secondly, the marketing margin resulting from this long-run relationship may cause short-run dynamic adjustments between the on farm and the retail prices, which results in the asymmetric causality. this implies that the marketing margin is an important factor when analyzing the causality in the on farm and the retail markets. because of this, we constructed a nonlinear threshold model to fully understand the effect of the marketing margin. thirdly, when the marketing margin is low, the market operates freely; when the marketing margin is high, the government makes necessary interventions in the market to prevent excessive rises in the rice prices. when intervention occurs, the market system no longer operates. the main advantage of our model is that it is able to analyze the asymmetric price transmission between the price series without the addition of the transaction cost data (for example, operating costs for intermediary companies). additionally, the new findings of this paper can allow the government to make appropriate decisions on market interventions and can be used by consumers to determine a reasonable price range for rice, which serves the interests of both farmers and consumers. finally, employing different empirical models, adopting various rice prices, or including government policies in the model could serve as the possible future research directions for us. references aguiar drd, santana ja (2002). asymmetry in farm to retail price transmission: evidence from brazil. agribusiness, 18(1): 37-48. alizadeh p (2003). iran‟s quandary: economic reforms and the „„structural trap”. the brown j. world affairs ix 2: 266-281. campa jm, goldberg ls (2005). exchange rate pass-through into import prices. rev. econ. stat., 87: 660-679. frey g, manera m (2007). econometric models of asymmetric price 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(2006). how high is exchange rate pass-through in india? has it changed over time? department of economics and business, colorado college, pp. 42-50 goodwin bk, harper dc (2000). price transmission, threshold behavior, and asymmetric adjustment in the u.s. pork sector, j. agric. appl. econ., pp. 3-32. guillen j, franquesa r (2007). analysis of the price transmission along the spanish market chain for different seafood products, www.eafefish.eu.`, 1-15. hansen b (1994). determinants of the farm-retail milk price spread, agricultural information bulletin, p. 693. hildreth c, jarrett fg (1995). a statistical study of livestock production and marketing, cowles commission monograph, no: 5 , new york., 10,11 houck jp (1997). an approach to specifying and estimating nonreversible function, am. j. agric. econ., 59: 21-30. husseini s, nikokar a (2006).asymetric price transmission and effects on market margin. j. agric. sci., pp. 2-37. husseini s, dowrandish a (2007). price transmission of iranian pistachio in global market. j. agric. sci., pp 2-37. margarido ma, lima la (2009). transmission of external and domestic prices to farm prices in brazil: a aimulation". mimeo, pp. 25-26. moghadasi r, ardekani r (2007). reviewing of price transmission in meat and chicken markets. j. agric. sci., pp. 2: 37. moghadasi r, fazeli f (2007). reviewing of price transmission of pistachio, the 6 conference on agricultural economics, mashhad, iran no pp. 5. mundlak y, larson d (1992). on the transmission of world agricultural prices. the world bank econom. rev., 6(3): 399-422. negassa a, myers r (2007). estimating policy effects on spatial market efficiency: an extension to the bounds model. am. j. agric. econ., 89: 338-352. poghosyan t, de haan j (2007).interest rate linkages in emucountries: a rolling threshold vector error-correction approach”. cesifo working paper series 2060, cesifo gmbh. poghosyan t, kuper gh (2008). non-linear price transmission between gasoline prices and crude oil prices (september 9, 2008), available at ssrn: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1265569 rapsomanikis g, hallam d, conforti p (2003). market integration and price transmission in selected food and cash crop markets of developing countries: review and applications", in commodity market review 2003-2004, fao, rome, 7-11. staatz j, dembélé n, kelly v, adjao r (2008). agricultural globalization in reverse: the impact of the food crisis in west africa, department of agricultural, food and resource economics michigan state university. background paper for the geneva, pp. 1-15. schnepf r (2008). high agricultural commodity prices: what are the issues? report rl34474. congressional research service. washington, dc. (http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/rl34474_20080529.pdf). price transmission and welfare impact in africa p.50. the world bank (2009). islamic republic of iran, an agricultural policy note, water, environment, social and rural development department, middle east and north africa region. pp. 1-10. von braun j (2008). high food prices: the what, who, and how of proposed policy actions, policy brief. international food policy research institute. washington, dc. (http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/foodprices.asp). pp. 1-10. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (1), pp. 001-006, january, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper measuring the benefits of biological nitrogen fixation of soybean (glycine max (l.) merrill) in cassava (manihot esculenta crantz) and soybean intercrop umeh s. i.* and mbah b. n. department of crop science, university of nigeria, nsukka, enugu state, nigeria. accepted 16 september, 2016 the measurement of the benefits of biological nitrogen (n) fixing properties of soybean in cassava and soybean intercrop was conducted at the university of nigeria, nsukka between 2000, 2001 and 2002. changes in soil nutrient concentration were measured at 0 – 30 cm. the effects of nfertilization on cassava tuber yield and soil-n were monitored for the three seasons using factorial in randomized complete block design. there was no apparent shading effect during the growth of the two crops. soybean was harvested 110 days after planting, while cassava was harvested at 4, 8 and 12 months after planting in each year. cassava tuber yield was highest at intercrop x 60 and intercrop x 45 kg n ha -1 (30.0 and 29.9 t. ha -1 ) x tuber yield of intercrop x 45 kg n ha -1 . the result indicates that 60 kg (90 – 30) of applied nitrogen could be spared per hectare by intercropping cassava with soybean due to soybean nitrogen fixation. grain yield of soybean may not be compromised by intercropping with cassava. soil n increased from 0.042 mg kg -1 before the experiment to 0.168 mg kg -1 in sole soybean system and 0.086 mg kg -1 in intercrop system at 8 months after planting and 0.150 mg kg -1 in the sole soybean and 0.085 kg mg -1 in intercrop system in 12 months after planting. the highest land equivalent ratio (ler) of 2.3 and area × time equivalent ratio (ater) of 1.8 were obtained at 45 kg n ha -1 in the intercrop system. key words: soybean, nitrogen fixation, cassava, intercrop. introduction biological nitrogen fixation has great potential to compensate for the short falls in availability of fertilizers in african farming system (danso, 1992). some workers have investigated nitrogen fixed by legume crops and estimated how much nitrogen is contributed to the companion crop in intercropping systems (giller, 1992). intercropping low growing legumes with tall cereals has been a common practice in many tropical countries *corresponding author. e-mail: simumeh@yahoo.com. tel: 08033509997. abbreviations: map, month(s) after planting; ler, land equivalent ratio; ater, area × time equivalent ratio. (mason and leihner, 1988). oforsu et al. (1995) reported nitrogen transfer to sorghum when intercropped with soybean and a higher dry matter in intercropped sorghum than in the mono crop. they noted the more the roots of companion crops were intermingled, the greater the amount of nitrogen transferred. ayisi et al. (1997) intercropped canola with soybean in strips and reported reduction in fertilizer requirement due to the intercropping. tijani and akinnifesi (1996) determined the compatibility of soybean and cassava intercrop in the south western nigeria, and reported improved yield of cassava when intercropped with soybean. cassava (manihot esculenta crantz) is a crop that is well adapted to a wide range of ecological conditions, being tolerant to low soil fertility, drought and pest (tewe, file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org 1992) and has been reported as the 4th most important staple of the tropics, providing food and income for more than 750 million people annually (fao, 1992). since its introduction into nigeria in 1908, soybean (glycine max. (l) merrill) has been grown primarily as a sole crop (ogunwolu, 1991) yet it has been shown to be able to fix atmospheric nitrogen up to 417 kg n ha -1 (larue and patterson, 1981). fertilizer-nitrogen requirement of soybean is generally low, ranging from 15–30 kg n ha -1 (mulongony, 1992) and nodulation is reduced with increased nitrogen fertilization (shibles et al., 1975). from limited trials and observations, it has been shown that soybean and cassava can be intercropped based on their morphological characteristics. with careful selection of agronomic practices, methodologies of nitrogen supply to the intercrop, planting time and spatial arrangements, cassava should benefit from biologically fixed nitrogen of intercropped soybean. it is therefore the objective of this study to assess the benefit of biologically fixed nitrogen by soybean when intercropped with cassava and estimate the nitrogen fertilizer need of the system. materials and methods three experiment of cassava/soybean intercrop were conducted in 2000, 2001 and 2002 at the university of nigeria, nsukka utisol using factorial in randomized complete block design (rcbd), with two factors: nitrogen rates and cropping systems. soybean (g. max (l) merril) tgm 579 obtained from iita ibadan and cassava (m. esculeta crantz) tms 30572, obtained from cassava research unit of soil science department, university of nigeria, nsukka were used. fertilizer materials were urea (46% n) as nitrogen source, single supper phosphate (18% p2o5) as phosphorus source and muriate of potash (60% k2o) as potassium source. in experiments 1 and 3, twelve (12) plots of 4 × 4 m were replicated three times with 4 levels of nitrogen (0, 15, 30 and 45 kg n ha -1 ) respectively. each plot contained two rows of soybean by the sides of the ridges at row spacing of 10.0 cm and a central row of cassava on the crest of the ridges at a plant distance of 1.0 m. there was no soybean by the sides of sole cassava ridges; also there was no cassava on the crest of sole soybean ridges. in experiment 2, nitrogen levels increased from 0 to 90 kg n ha -1 (0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 kg n ha -1 ). three cropping systems were maintained: sole cassava, sole soybean and cassava/soybean intercrop in all the experiments. there was uniform application of potassium and phosphorus fertilizers at the rates of 80 kg ha -1 of potassium and 50 kg ha -1 of phosphorus to all the plots through all the experiments. all the fertilizer materials were applied at 14 days after planting using row application method. weeds were controlled manually. soybean was harvested 110 days after planting while cassava was harvested 4, 8 and 12 months after planting. soil samples at 0– 30 cm were taken from all the plots; composite samples were made for each treatment and were analyzed for total kjeldahl nitrogen using macro kjeldahl method for soil analysis (aoac, 1984). statistical analysis was done using statistical analytical system (sas). combined analysis of variance (anova) was done using the general linear model procedure glm to determine variations in yield between the system efficiency. results and discussion the clay-loam soils before the treatment application in experiments 1, 2 and 3 were generally acidic with soil ph (h2o) ranging from 4.4 to 4.7% while the total nitrogen was in the range of 0.034 to 0.045%. tuber yield of cassava yield of fresh cassava increased with increasing rate up to 45 kg n ha -1 in 2000 and 2002 (tables 1 and 2) and up to 90 kg n ha -1 in 1996 (table 3) at 4 map in all the systems. the significant increasing rate to the highest nitrogen levels (45 and 90 kg n ha -1 ) (in sole cassava) over the lower nitrogen rates of applied nitrogen in the three years, showed that only applied nitrogen was available at 4 map and did not satisfy the nitrogen need of cassava at all the levels of applied nitrogen at 4 map. this view is further suggested by the fact that sole cassava at 4 map produced more yield than intercropped cassava where competition for applied nitrogen was stiffer, biologically fixed nitrogen may not have become available to the intercropped cassava. at eight months after planting (8 map), fresh tuber yield of intercropped cassava was significantly higher than sole cassava and intercropped cassava with barrier at all nitrogen rates except at zero and 90 kg n ha -1 (tables 1, 2 and 3). intercropped system yielded higher than sole crop probably because, fixed nitrogen has been made available with time (8 map) from the intercropped soybean, except in the intercropped system with barrier where cassava was barred from n-fixation and transfer. similarly, at 12 months after planting, (table 1), tuber yield was significantly higher at intercrop system without barrier than in sole at all nitrogen levels from zero nitrogen to 60 kg n ha 1 . the extra nitrogen was probably derived from nitrogen fixation of the associate legume crop. this finding agrees with leihner (1988) who observed that the amount of nitrogen fertilizer recommended for cassava would be reduced if cassava were grown in association with efficient n-fixing legumes. at 8 map, (table 4), the tuber yield on intercrop x 45, 60, 75 and 90 kg n ha -1 did not differ among themselves but were significantly higher than at intercrop x 0, 15 and 30 kg n ha -1 . at 12 map, highest tuber yield was at intercrop x 45 and 60 kg n ha -1 n (29.9 and 30.0 kg ha -1 , respectively). in the sole crop system the highest tuber yield was at sole x 90 kg n ha -1 . this showed that the intercrop system gained extra nitrogen probably, the nitrogen fixed by the associate legume crop. this finding agrees with the finding of bandyopadhyay and de (1986), eaglesham et al. (1982) and leihner (1988) who observed that some nitrogen was taken up by sorghum grown concurrently with nitrogen fixers. table 1. effect of applied nitrogen and cropping system on tuber yield of cassava (t. ha -1 ) at 4, 8 and 12 (map) in 1995. cropping system nitrogen level (kg n ha -1 ) 0 15 30 45 mean 4 map sole cassava 1.93 2.10 2.28 2.50 2.22 intercropped without barrier 1.38 1.58 1.54 2.20 1.84 intercropped with barrier 0.04 0.05 1.25 1.65 0.95 mean 1.24 1.40 1.81 2.12 f-lsd0.05 for n = 0.23 cs = 0.02 n x cs = 0.40 8 map sole cassava 5.75 9.50 16.00 18.50 12.44 intercropped without barrier 9.00 12.75 18.25 26.00 16.50 intercropped with barrier 6.25 8.00 9.75 7.00 7.75 mean 7.00 10.08 14.67 17.17 f-lsd0.05 for n = 2.42 cs = 2.10 n x cs = 4.19 12 map sole cassava 14.00 18.50 21.50 26.25 20.06 intercropped without barrier 15.25 22.00 27.00 35.25 24.88 intercropped with barrier 4.50 5.75 11.00 9.50 7.69 mean 11.25 15.4 19.83 2 .67 f-lsd0.05 n = 3.42 cs = 3.01 n x cs = 6.02 n = nitrogen; cs = cropping system; n x cs = nitrogen x cropping system; ns = non significant. table 2. effect of applied nitrogen and cropping system on tuber yield (t. ha -1 ) of cassava at 4, 8 and 12 (map) in 1997. cropping system nitrogen level (kg n ha -1 ) 0 15 30 45 mean 4 map sole crop without barrier 0.29 0.44 0.53 0.63 0.47 sole crop with barrier 0.33 0.22 0.18 0.11 0.21 intercrop without barrier 0.46 0.57 0.60 0.87 0.63 intercrop with barrier 0.17 0.2 0.26 0.36 0.25 mean 0.39 0.36 0.39 0.50 lsd0.05 for n = 0.016 cs = 0.016 n x cs = 0.033 8 map sole crop without barrier 4.75 8.5 14.0 48.5 11.44 sole crop with barrier 4.0 5.75 7.25 7.0 6.0 intercrop without barrier 8.0 10.75 12.25 24.0 13.0 intercrop with barrier 5.62 6.85 8.23 6.21 6.73 mean 5.59 7.96 8.93 13.93 lsd0.05 for n = 1.55 cs = 1.55 n x cs = 2.54 12 map sole cassava without barrier 16.79 18.48 21.83 34.6 22.93 sole cassava with barrier 9.88 10.64 10.89 11.7 10.78 table 2. contd. intercropped cassava without barrier 16.44 22.73 19.93 31.14 22.56 intercropped cassava with barrier 7.89 8.9 9.7 10.33 9.21 mean 12.79 15.19 15.51 21.94 lsd0.05 for n = 2.82 cs = 2.82 n x cs = 5.64 n = nitrogen; cs = cropping system; n x cs = nitrogen x cropping system; ns = non significant. table 3. effect of applied nitrogen and cropping system on cassava tuber yield (t. ha -1 ) at 4, 8, and 12 map. cropping system nitrogen level (kg n ha -1 ) 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 mean 4 map sole crop 0.49 0.48 0.58 0.58 0.67 0.87 0.91 0.65 intercrop without barrier 0.31 0.44 0.48 0.42 0.51 0.53 0.59 0.47 mean 0.40 0.46 0.53 0.50 0.59 0.70 0.75 lsd0.05 for n = 0.025 cs = 0.015 n x cs =0.04 8 map sole crop 4.09 4.21 4.66 4.97 5.36 5.81 6.09 5.02 intercrop without barrier 4.23 5.61 5.83 6.82 6.89 6.87 6.32 6.02 mean 4.16 4.91 5.25 5.90 6.13 6.34 6.21 lsd0.05 for n = 0.25 cs = 0.13 n x cs = 0.36 12 map sole crop 8.70 12.30 15.90 19.80 20.70 22.70 24.90 17.86 intercrop without barrier 11.70 13.80 24.60 29.90 30.00 26.10 20.70 22.40 mean 10.20 13.10 20.30 24.90 25.40 23.50 22.80 lsd0.05 for n = 0.83 cs = 1.55 n x cs = 2.19 table 4. effects of applied nitrogen and cropping system on soil-n (mg.kg -1 ) after the harvest of cassava at 4, 8 and 12 map. cropping system nitrogen level (kg n ha -1 ) 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 mean 4 map sole cassava 0.032 0.034 0.034 0.034 0.064 0.037 0.037 0.039 sole soybean 0.157 0.154 0.149 0.164 0.089 0.120 0.109 0.135 cassava/soybean 0.101 0.134 0.138 0.131 0.090 0.091 0.099 0.112 mean 0.075 0.104 0.107 0.110 0.081 0.083 0.082 lsd0.05 n = 0.018 cs = 0.043 n x cs = 0.065 8 map sole cassava 0.032 0.032 0.030 0.032 0.050 0.032 0.035 0.035 sole soybean 0.166 0.168 0.168 0.171 0.171 0.166 0.166 0.168 cassava/soybean 0.085 0.085 0.088 0.088 0.088 0.082 0.085 0.086 mean 0.094 0.095 0.095 0.097 0.103 0.093 lsd0.05 n = ns cs = 0.052 n x cs = 0.075 table 4. contd. 12 map sole cassava 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 sole soybean 0.157 0.157 0.157 0.157 0.158 0.160 0.160 0.150 cassava/soybean 0.078 0.080 0.088 0.088 0.086 0.086 0.090 0.085 mean 0.088 0.089 0.092 0.092 0.091 0.092 0.093 lsd0.05 n = ns cs = 0.044 n x cs = 0.061 n = nitrogen; cs = cropping system; n x cs = nitrogen x cropping system; ns = non significant. the tuber yield at sole x 90 kg n ha -1 was equivalent to tuber yield at intercrop x 30 kg n ha -1 at 8 map. similarly, the tuber yield at sole crop x 90 kg n ha -1 was equivalent to tuber yield at intercrop x 45 kg n ha -1 at 12 map (table 4), and tuber yield at 45 and 60 kg n ha -1 under intercrop were statistically similar. above 60 kg n ha -1 , tuber yield decreased significantly with increasing nitrogen rate. this suggests therefore that cassava reached its response limit to nitrogen with 45 kg n ha -1 at intercrop system in the three consecutive cropping seasons: 2000, 2001 and 2002. at sole crop, the response to nitrogen continued up to 45 kg n ha -1 in 2000 and 2002; and to 90 kg n ha -1 in 2001. this study therefore shows that the extra nitrogen available to cassava, which was derived from nitrogen fixation at both 8 and 12 map, could be assumed to be equivalent to 60 kg n ha -1 (90 30) at 8 map and 45 kg n ha -1 (90 45) at 12 map of applied nitrogen in 3 months duration of soybean crop. this finding agrees with that of larue and patterson (1981) who reported that soybean fixes between 45 217 kg n ha -1 annually. there was little or no additional benefit from added nitrogen when the applied-n was above 45 kg n ha -1 in soybean/cassava intercrop system. soil nitrogen soil nitrogen (table 4) was lowest at sole cassava compared with all the cropping systems. at four months after planting there was no significant difference in soil nitrogen between sole soybean and intercrop system, but soil nitrogen under sole soybean (0.135 mg kg ) and intercrop system (0.112 m kg) where on the average three times higher than the soil nitrogen in sole cassava (0.039 mg kg). this suggests that although nitrogen has been fixed by soybean and was detectable in the soil, it has not been taken up by the cassava to make any difference since the yield of intercrop cassava (0.47 t.ha) was lower than sole cassava (0.62 t. ha -1 ) at 4 map (table 3). at 8 and 12 map, soil nitrogen under intercrop has become significantly lower than that under soybean, suggesting that cassava the companion crop has taken up extra (fixed) nitrogen from the soil. at 8 months after planting (table 4) soil nitrogen under sole soybean (0.168 mg kg -1 ) and intercrop system (0.086 mg kg -1 ) were four times and two times higher than soil nitrogen under sole cassava (0.035 mg kg -1 ), respectively. while at 12 months after planting (table 4) sole soybean (0.150 mg kg -1 ) and intercrop (0.085 mg kg -1 ) had soil nitrogen 5 times and 2.8 times higher than soil nitrogen under sole cassava (0.030 mg kg -1 ), respectively. these findings confirm that cassava benefited from nitrogen fixed by soybean when grown together. soils under soybean and intercrop system had significantly higher nitrogen than the soil nitrogen before the experiment which was 0.042 mg kg -1 after 12 months of planting and subsequent crops grown on such soils should benefit from the residual soil nitrogen. system efficiency in 2000, the land equivalent ratio and area × time equivalent ratio of intercrop were above unity and were highest at 30 kg n ha -1 . in 2002, ler and ater increased with increasing nitrogen rate up to 45 kg n ha 1 . ler at all nitrogen rates was greater than unity while ater x 90 kg n ha -1 was less than unity. conclusion this study confirms that cassava/soybean intercropping system is a productive system, which has both economic and environmental benefits. low nitrogen fertilizer requirement for the production of high yield of cassava in intercrop will result in reduction of the cost of procurement of fertilizer, labor input and higher land use advantage. also the problem of leaching of excess nitrogen, which may occur as a result of fertilizer application to the system into ground water, will be reduced due to its full utilization by an accompanying cassava crop. the growth of a non nitrogen-fixing crop (cassava) intercropped with an efficient nitrogen-fixing legume (soybean) was compatible. there seems to be good utilization of photosynthetically active radiation with no apparent shading effect in the crop association. the cassava/soybean system is also a potentially sustainable system because it builds the soil by leaving it richer in nitrogen than before cropping. references aoac (1984). association of official analytical chemists. official methods of analysis, pp. 2055-2057. ayisi kk, putman dh, vance cp, russelle mp, allan dl (1997). strip intercropping and nitrogen effects on seed, oil and protein yields of canola and soybean. agron. j., 89: 23-29. bandyopadhyay sk, de r (1986). plant growth and seed yield of sorghum when intercropped with legumes. j. agric. sci., (camb). 107: 621-628. danso ska (1979). biological nitrogen fixation in tropical agro system, in: biological nitrogen fixation and sustainability of tropical agriculture. k. mulongoy, m. fueye and d.s.c. spencer (eds.) iita willey sayce, pp. 3-13. eaglesham arj, ayanaba a, ranga raov eskew dl (1982). mineraln. effect of cowpea and soybean crops in nigeria soil. plant soil, 68: 171-181. fao (food and agricultural organization of the united nations) (1992). creating a well fed world. agric. stud., 55: 288-290. giller ke (1992). measuring inputs from nitrogen fixation in multiple cropping systems. in: biological nitrogen fixation and sustainability of tropical agriculture (eds.) k. mulonngoy, m. gueye and d.s.c. spacer. iita wiley sayce, pp. 297-308. larue ta, patterson tg (1981). how much do legumes fix? adv. agron., 34: 15-38. leihner de (1988). agronomic implications of cassava/legume intercropping systems. in: weber, e.j., nastle, b. and campbell m. (eds). proceedings of an international workshop on intercropping with cassava. idrc, ottawa, canada, pp. 103-112. mason sc, leihner de (1988). yields and land use efficiency of a cassava/cowpea intercropping system grown at different phosphorus levels. field crop res., 18: 215-226. mulongoy k (1992). biological nitrogen fixation. in: tripathi, b.b. and psyhas p.j. (eds.) alley farming training manual, institute of livestock centre for africa, addis ababa, p. 36. oguwolu so (1991) weeds, pests and diseases of soybean and their control. soybean prod. util. training workshop ser., 2: 30-38. oforsu budu kg, noumura k, fujita k (1995). n2 fixation, transfer and biomass production of soybean cv. bragg or its super nodulating nuts 1007 and sorghum mixed-cropping at two rates of n fertilizer. soil biol. biochem., 27: 311-317. shibles rm, anderson ic, gibson aa (1975). soybean. in: l.t. evans (eds) crop physiology, cambridge university press, london, p. 634. tewe oo (1992). why cassava. tropical root tuber bulletin. international institute of tropical agriculture (iita) vol. 6(2). tijani eniola h, akinnifesi fk (1996). on farm evaluation of soybean and cassava intercrop in southwest nigeria. afr. crop sci. j., 4: 151157. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (5), pp. 001-005, may, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper land marketing and hedonic price model in turkish markets: case study of karacabey district of bursa province hasan vural1 and halil fidan2* 1 university of uluda , faculty of agriculture, department of agricultural economics, bursa, turkey. 2 university of ankara, faculty of agriculture, department of agricultural economics, ankara, turkey. accepted 20 january, 2016 the aim of this study is to identify the variables affecting land value. examined land was selected from farms in karacabey district of bursa province. data was collected from 54 farmers by using survey methods and from second sources on farms. a hedonic price analysis was conducted to determine the marginal return to different land characteristics using an econometric model corrected for correlation. parcel characteristics such as distance to farm, organic matter, potassium, saturated water, ph, phosphate, salinity, size of land were used in easement values. as expected, the characteristics did not completely explain the easement values in selling. in this analysis, seven factors affected well to land value were used. the problem definition was worked on the basis the analysis of the regulation reasons of price of land on the land markets. the land prices were determined by real sale factors. in the land areas, the agricultural price of land was municipality-specifically affected by factors such as the salinity, soil ph and the land use. the land purchases were coined noticeably less by speculation considerations. at the same time, one observes a shrinking commercial probability for plots, which lie in municipalities with high salty density in the last years. the reason for this could be the top price regulation for agricultural properties. the results of this research can help formulate sale decisions and nationalization. key words: land market, price of land, hedonic price model, property rights. introduction in turkey, there are some important convenient agriculture areas. one of which is karacabey plain. farmers in the plain have grown various animal and vegetable products. while some farmers are growing only a product, most farmers do variety on production. through the seven months of a year, climate conditions are appropriate for vegetal production. turkish arable land amounts to 27 million hectares (in 2006), about 30% of the total land area. the rest of the land is covered with forests, mountains, marshlands and lakes. seventeen percent of the land in bursa region is cover with plain. in bursa, arable land occupies 40% of total culture area (429 599 ha) (anonymous, 2005). land valuation is a complex operation (bible and hsieh, 1999). accuracy in estimation of the value of land *corresponding author. e-mail: fidan@agriankara.edu.tr. may be compromised by a whole range of factors of methodological, technical and legal nature. the main problem faced by analysts is related to methodological objectivity, and the difficulties involved in selecting a comprehensive set of variables to reflect the value and heterogeneity of the plots to be valued. systematic analyses over the regulation reasons of the price formation on the agricultural land market are, however, hardly present in turkey. in view of the high adjustment density within the range of the area planning and land politics, it is expressed by the participants on land market, interested with the land. this considerations are revealed on the agreed upon prices for determination of data of an agricultural plot in dependence of their characteristics to lead. decision of market analysts is taken in to considerations for the land politics, strictly speaking, for the regional planning policy and agricultural policy. for example, if the height of the price of land is determined predominantly by agricultural factors, agrarian reforms file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org lead to a change of the price parameters. agricultural product can show scientific results over the price formation on the agricultural market. we tried the regulation factors of the price of land to identify in three case examples. with the analysis of the agricultural land market of the karacabey, the strong characteristic interested us, which from the proximity to the economical center of dense development are bursa results. in illustration, development of the price of land is shown in connection with the land characteristics. this, however, is one of the risks involved in using statistical or econometric modeling and has given rise to some criticism (des rosiers et al., 2000). statistical and econometric methods are not causal; they simply measure the relationships that exist between variables previously selected by the analyst. though statistics based on dependence models provide a quantitative tool to ensure the objectivity of results when the model is constructed, they do not generally simplify the task of selecting the causal or independent variables. in other words, the objectivity of the method is no guarantee against a biased choice of explanatory variables (cavailhes and wavresky, 2003). the heterogeneity of farmland plots in karacabey plain is such that over a distance of just a few kilometers, features such as soil composition, land relief, distance to farm centre or distance to road can vary widely. in more homogeneous areas, there are fewer factors determining the value of land. when this is the case, the construct is used to model the valuation needs to include a wide range of variables, but by doing so, the econometrician clashes headlong with whole purpose of modeling, which is to find simple, stable constructs to represent real situations and link land value to a known, limited and permanent set of price-determining factors (king and sinden, 1994). methods were commonly used to implement this approach, which include the hedonic technique pioneered by griliches (1971) and formalized by rosen (1974). the relationship between land prices and affected well factors have been studied in the hedonic framework by miranowski and hammes (1984), gardner and barrows (1985), ervin and mill (1985), king and sinden (1988) and caswell and zilberman (1986). the analyses represent the work over the agricultural lands market. it comes in the end that predominantly agricultural factors affect the price of land formation. the purpose of this study, therefore, is to offer a proposal for an econometric model to be used in valuing farmland. these plots provided the variables that will be described below. we investigate empirically how this selectivity problem affects the hedonic valuation of the effect of land value on agricultural land. the outcome of this empirical investigation is that hedonic valuation techniques might give rise to misleading conclusions about the effect of land value. in this study, some factors, which affected land value, were examined in karacabey district. land consolidation was done on twelve villages of karacabey plain. after consolidation, irrigation cooperatives were founded and agricultural production was supported by government. the structure of the paper is as follows; land markets in turkey, material and methods, results and conclusions land markets in turkey the market of urban land-use right in turkey can be divided approximately into primary and secondary five markets based on different subjects and levels of market transaction. the model of land transaction includes grant, transfer, leasing, pooling and authorized operation etc. 1.) primary urban land market, it is formed through grant of land-use right within certain periods from urban landowner to urban land user. in turkey, the urban land is owned by the private sector. the government is the supplier of urban land in primary market. at present, there are three key modes of transactions in urban primary land market: grant, leasing, pooling and authorized operation. among them, grant is the most common one including processes by agreement, public bidding and auction. the leasing is also a common model of transaction. the pooling and authorized operation is the model usually implemented in land assets transaction of stock company. 2.) secondary urban land market, it is formed through grant of land-use right in residual term of years by grantee holding the land-use right in primary urban land market to other land users who utilize the land according to specified terms and conditions after paying the grant charge. the land user can put this land-use right into market based on market rule. accordingly, the market for land-use right transfer (namely secondary land market) has been established. the purpose and term of years specified in the grant contract cannot be violated while transferring the land-use right. currently, there are four key transaction modes in this market: transfer, subleasing, mortgage and pooling. the relationship between both markets (markets of land grant, transfer and leasing) is unified as well as equal transfer and competition. owing to participation of the government, the land grant market plays a significant role in macro readjustment and control of the market, particularly in supply-demand relations of land market and land price equilibrium. the land transfer market is an important part and an energetic point of land markets. its development gives direct presentation of sound land market, and plays an accelerative role in land grant market (plantinga et al., 2002). in this area, important of karacabey was increased from the pressure of agricultural growing for the price of land, additionally. on the basis of the available investigation, the first evaluation of the land characteristic is possible. a comparison among the land which farmers one buys and which leaves flows on the hereditary way into the property, however, the probability of this goal to reach to land quality contains signs for the creation of right inequality, as only one group of prospective customers may buy agricultural plots. these statements lead to the following policies. they leave themselves in two main topics with different temporal realization possibility, summarize to urgent, and faster in measures convertible, a flexible organization of the lease land market and a stricter separation agricultural areas are in the agriculture zone. with it, a redefinition of the term "land purchase" is connected. the results of all case examples point out the fact that the market value of agricultural plots will approximate hardly for productive value. over the land market, agriculture enterprises cannot secure themselves in the necessary areas at favorable prices, in order to be able to profit from the cost regression. materials and methods the choice of the functional involution forms a relatively difficult task which can be used to represent results of the hedonic price model (johnson and wicherin, 1992). the methods used for decision (ttest) lead to the choice of a linear involution form. the examination of the coefficient of the parameters takes place in connection with the introduction of the spss. it is assumed that individual parameters exhibit different values with the different legal basic conditions. the model was estimated for 54 farms (table 1). for this reason, the purchases of the land were not considered. all conditions for the computation of the involution model (size of land, salty, phosphate, ph, saturated water, potassium, organic mater, and distance to farm) are fulfilled in the selected linear model. in this analysis eight factors that explained land value well were used. these factors are: land size, organic matter amount in soil, salt, phosphate, ph, saturated water, potassium and distance to the farm. data such as ph, salt, potassium, and saturated water content were obtained from farm records. farm records contain these data because farm soils have been analyzed due to land consolidation. the reason for the importance of soil as a deter-minant of the value of farmland is that it is this feature of the natural environment that has the greatest impact on its potential uses. it may, therefore, be considered to be the main factor when valuing land, particularly, because it is a technical and therefore objective parameter. on consolidation area, since the land characteristics are the main factors affecting the land value were used in study. in this study, farm data such as land value, size of land, and distance to farm were obtained using survey method. specifically land which sold really was selected. these farms’ lands have been sold recent years. for this reason, sampling and analysis was done base on real selling price. land was classified into four different categories for organic matter criteria which coded as poor, medium, good and very good. when examining the effects of distance to farm criterion, metric distance scale (km) was used. data were obtained through a survey of the district in question. professionals specialized in land valuation were consulted in order to confirm these values, providing the variable expert value. land selling in the region is generally done by property owners. however, land is also partly marketed by real estate agents. in this case, real estate agent takes commission fee and the amount of the commission is established by bargaining method. on the other hand, real estates are generally marketed by real estate agents in urban areas, contrary to rural areas. in this research, data of land which were sold recently were analyzed (aakre et al., 1997). therefore, with this purpose, data were obtained from farmer chamber, the union of irrigation cooperatives and county headship of agriculture ministry in this region. it is to be accepted that a landcharacteristics, different composition of the affecting attributes or their change, e.g. by economic changes, has a large influence on the price of land. measured variables, which determine the price of land development on the basis of the capitalization theory over the time (growth of incomes), loose under the circumstances at force of expression, described above. a hedonic price model is suitable for the empirical analysis of the agricultural land market. the hedonic beginning represents an indirect method of the preference measurement. it is used in order to evaluate individual characteristics of a property, whose value consists of a bundle of characteristics (heterogeneous property). for heterogeneous goods a direct comparison of market prices is impossible, because these are comparable only with difficulty with one another (shonkwiler and reynolds, 1986). the theoretical development of the model is explained on work of griliches (1971). roses (1974) and freeman and myrick (1993) independently converted the theoretical bases of griliches in models, which serve as basis for the estimation of the marginal values of goods characteristics. today, hedonic price models are not only used for the determination of the price of land and the landscape values, but also for the evaluation of many other heterogeneous goods as for example, the quality of consumer goods (carew, 2000; fidan, 2004), for the evaluation of (not-agricultural) real estates for the economic model, subordinate the water quality (d'arge and shogren, 1989). the hedonic beginning assumes that the prices are characterized by the function p(zi) . in the present work, the property characteristics are arranged into three components; the prices are, therefore, characterized by the following function: equation 1: formula characteristics of an agriculture land. in other words: the market price of lands shows the value of its agricultural use. in the hypothesis test, it is examined whether the characteristic is significant for an additional unit of a characteristic other than 0. hedonic method is used and missing prices are calculated by means of regression analysis. in equation 1 below, regression is shown as land price. land price has been sold in the base period with a quality of z. the quality z is here meant as quality-vector, which include the values of several quality features. p(zi)=p(zland(d ) zsatty zphosp., zsat.water zph, zpotass. zorg.cmater zdist.tofarm) this is expressed in a significant t-value. in the investigation addressed here one is interested in many cases v.a. in the statement whether a characteristic has at all a significant influence. results descriptive statistic (mean, standard deviation and the number data) on table 1, regression analysis for the hedonic price model is also shown on table 2. independent variable: value of land the relationship among factors which affect land value has been given in table 3. there is high positive correlation between organic matter and land size factors. changing variables with changing value of land level: in particular for distance to farm, it is stated that with increasing distance to farm, farm land value level increases (pope et al., 1979), it has increased the price of land over on the average 6.577 with high increase rate of table 1. result of descriptive statistics of factors. factors mean std. deviation n value of land (tl/da) 8.203 2.237 54 size of land (da) 63.592 76.794 54 salty (%) 60.180 10.320 54 phosphate (kg/da) 7.262 0.293 54 ph 9.380 5.840 54 saturated water (%) 59.180 24.260 54 potassium (kg/da) 1.610 1.080 54 organic matter (%) 0.070 0.500 54 distance to farm (km) 2.090 2,060 54 table 2. regression analysis for hedonic model linear logarithmic variables b std. error sig. b std. error sig. constant 13.355 7.763 0.092 51.656 17.680 0.005 size of land (da) 0.009 0.005 0.067 -6.313 2.843 0.031 salt (%) -0.067 0.039 0.090 -10.252 8.145 0.215 phosphate (kg/da) -0.603 1.115 0.591 0.416 0.566 0.466 ph 0.155 0.068 0.028 1.294 1.029 0.215 saturated water 0.018 0.016 0.269 0.449 0.685 0.515 potassium 0.216 0.309 0.488 -0.112 0.308 0.718 organic matter 0.001 0.001 0.163 1.080 1.029 0.300 distance to farm 6.577 11.183 0.559 0.005 0.005 0.282 r2 0.613 0.004 0.542 0.034 table 3. correlation matrix. value of size of salty (%) phosphorus ph saturated potassium organic distance to land land (da) water matter farm land value 1.00 -0.07 -0.21 0.31 0.24 0.36 0.11 0.15 0.14 size of land(da) -0.07 1.00 0.36 0.49 0.68 0.14 0.43 0.80 0.25 salty (%) -0.21 0.36 1.00 0.03 0.37 -0.13 0.06 0.21 0.10 phosphate 0.31 0.49 0.03 1.00 0.59 0.64 0.49 0.65 0.09 ph 0.24 0.68 0.37 0.59 1.00 0.44 0.38 0.68 0.34 saturated water 0.36 0.14 -0.13 0.64 0.44 1.00 0.29 0.29 -0.04 potassium 0.11 0.43 0.06 0.49 0.38 0.29 1.00 0.40 0.45 org. matter 0.15 0.80 0.21 0.65 0.68 0.29 0.40 1.00 0.13 dist. to farm 0.14 0.25 0.10 0.09 0.34 -0.04 0.45 0.13 1.00 the distance to farm. the faster the distance to farm increases, the higher the prices for areas of arable land are paid. the main reason of this was consolidations according to farmers. hedonic model analysis was used to investigate relationships between land value and factors which effect land values (i gın and forster, 2006). organic matter, ph, saturated water, potassium and distance to farm fac-tors have positive coefficients, so they affect land value positively. other factors did not affect land value. gene rally, factors have small coefficients because land has similar soil characteristics and land values are not more different. it is seen that main factor which affect land value is distance to farm (i gın and forster, 2005). in particular, one farm with a high phosphate density, with using highly fertilizer are increased the prices for agriculture land to be paid. the influence of the "distance to farm and phosphate” variables is statistically highly significant (56 and 59%, respectively). logarithmic model also used in the present work serve hedonic price models primarily of the examination at the basis of the lying conditions of market equilibrium (garett and laird, 1995). if the land market with regularity was certain areas and the agricultural land market was not any longer in the equilibrium, in such a case, a basic condition of the hedonic beginning would be hurt. for the illustration of the model estimations for the ln of the ph, organic mater and saturated water point prognoses of the periodic commercial probability are accomplished. the variables concerned are varied gradually from their minimum to their maximum development. for all other variables the average values are used. logarithmic models support the basic assumption that the land value is being increased with ln of the ph, organic mater and saturated water. if the connection between distance to farm, salt and farm size were other one, one would have had to reject the hedonic beginning. conclusion land purchasers who arose actively up to the introduction of the rural and urban areas on the land market were not ready to pay high prices for agriculture areas in municipalities with a very strong increase of the ph, organic mater, phosphate, and distance to farm. in agricultural land markets, the signs of purchases on speculation abated and the average prices almost halved themselves. nevertheless, the prices for agricultural plots are affected further by the same land factors. a sufficient surface mobility is to be secured over a flexible lease in land market. the productive value regulation (assumption of a land purchase to the productive value) will remain necessary. definition of the term "land purchase", thus it is to be ensured our judgment that the assumption of agriculture areas and agricultural infrastructure is granted predominantly to fulltime farmers. it is not a goal of the land policies to create favorable living conditions for people active in the agriculture. significantly higher price of land in municipalities with a high ph, distance to farm, phosphate, and organic matter shows that straight such advantages in the price of land has. it is a strict separation among agriculture areas which is not agriculturally used any longer or for exceptagricultural purposes to be used to be able to aim. the results of the empirical investigations confirm such expectations. regression shows that the top price regulation belongs to the market forces and land characteristics. this expresses itself in a very weak commercial activity for plots with high agricultural land potentials. references aakre dg, david m, saxowsky m, vreugdenhil hg (1997). north dakota land valuation model, agric econ. ae 97001 anonymous (2005). the report of agric headship of agr. ministry in bursa city. www.bursatarim.gov.tr bible ds, hsieh c (1999). determinants of vacant land values and implications for appraisers. appraisal j. 67(3): 264-269. carew r (2000). a hedonic analysis of apple prices and product quality 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(jass); 845. gardner k, barrows f (1985). the impact of soil conservation investment on land prices. am. j. agric. econ. 67: 943-947. griliches z (1971). price indices and quality change. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. i gın t, lynn forster f (2005). using real options theory to analyze the impacts of urban development on farm real estate markets, turkish j. agric. for. 29: 409-417. i gın tf, forster l (2006). a hedonic price analysis of farmland option premiums under urban fluencies, canadian j. agric. econ. 54: 327340. johnson ra, wicherin dw (1992). applied multivariate statistical analysis. 3rd edition. prentice hall inc. englewood cliffs. n.j. 07632. london.uk. king da, sinden ja (1988). influence of soil conservation on farm land values. land econ. 64: 242-255. king da, sinden ja (1994). price formation in farmland markets, land econ. 70 (1): 38-52. miranowski ja, hammes db (1984). implicit prices of soil characteristics for farmland of iowa. am j. agric. econ. 66: 645-649. plantinga a.j, lubowski .r.n, stavins r.n (2002). the effects of potential land development on agricultural land prices, j. urban econ. 52: 561-581. pope rp, kramer ra, green rd, gardner bd (1979). an evaluation of econometric models of u.s. farmland prices, western j. agric. econ. 4: 107-119. rosen s (1974). hedonic prices and implicit markets product differentiation in pure competition j. poli. econ. 82: 34 shonkwiler js, reynolds je (1986). a note on the use of hedonic price models in the analysis of land prices at the urban fringe, land econ. 62(1): 58-63. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (3), pp. 001-006, march, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper the partnership models of agricultural sustainable development based on multiple criteria decision making (mcdm) in iran alireza poursaeed1*, mehdi mirdamadi1, iraj malekmohammadi2 and jamal f. hosseini1 1 department of agricultural extension and education, science and research branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran. 2 department of agricultural extension and education, tehran university, tehran, iran. accepted 18 january, 2019 sustainable development and the definition of indicators to assess progress towards sustainability have become a high priority in scientific research. the purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to determine agricultural sustainability criteria; second, to determine optimum partnership models for agricultural sustainability. this study was conducted in ilam province of iran. the populations of the research were 30 farmers, who were interviewed to determine the sustainable agricultural development criteria. a discussion of the nine criteria was developed. through an interview we were able to determine how they perceived the relative importance of these criteria. a questionnaire was developed based on analytical hierarchy process (ahp). each question consisted of a pair-wise comparison of two criteria. therefore, the nine criteria and four alternatives resulted in a total of 72 questions. first the respondents were asked to indicate the relative importance of the two criteria with respect to the overall goal. finally, the farmers were asked to indicate the relative importance of the two alternatives (partnership models) with respect to each criterion. the results indicated that reducing farmers migration, sharing with agricultural engineer, land consolidation, increasing farmers awareness, crop rotation, using less amount of chemical fertilizer, using less amount of chemical pesticide, fertilizer recommendation and allocation efficiency are the most important criteria for sustainable agriculture in iran. a sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the critical factors that affected the priority of alternatives. also, results of application of ahp indicated that private and cooperative partnership models are the most useful partnership models in the agricultural sustainability. the results of this study demonstrated that the private partnership model for agricultural sustainability is imperative. key words: ahp, partnership, iran, sustainable agricultural development. introduction in recent years, sustainable development has become an important issue round globe (tsai and chou, 2009). sustainable development and the definition of indicators to assess progress towards sustainability have become a high priority in scientific research and on policy agenda (cauwenbegh et al., 2007). according to the brundtland committee‘s report ‗‗our common future‖ sustainability is defined as the ability to ‗‗meet the needs of the present without compromising the *corresponding author. e-mail: a_poursaeed@yahoo.com. ability of future generations to meet their own needs‖ (tsai and chou, 2009). humans are quick and careless in destroying and polluting water, soil, forests, jungles and other manifestations of nature. environmental destruction may slow economic growth in addition to threatening the health and well-being of the local population (denier and takahashi, 1999). sustainability as a concept has emerged to address environmental challenges that are facing development planners (rezaeimoghaddam and karami, 2008). since the 1980s, new concepts and social demands have begun to emerge in relation to agricultural file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org production. sustainable agriculture, environmental friendly agricultural practices and responsible management of natural resources are ideas that refer to ecological, technological and socioeconomic dimensions of the broader concept of sustainable development (harwood, 1990). these concepts point out the multifunctional nature of agriculture. this multifunctional role was not explicitly recognized by the european union (eu) until in the 1992 common agricultural policy (cap) reform, which was consolidated in the ―2000 agenda‖ and the mid-term 2003 reform. at this time, new functions were attributed to agriculture in addition to the traditional productive role. these new functions were related to the conservation of the environment, the creation of employment, and the preservation of rural life. this function is named sustainable agriculture that is desirable because it is supposed to better satisfy the social demand for multiple functions of agriculture. in the case of wheat production, lack of dependable studies is even more apparent. one of the agricultural sustainability is defined as successful management of the resources of agriculture to satisfy changing human needs, to conserve the environment, and increase biological resources (chikwendu and arokoyo, 1997). agricultural sustainability simply means the ability of agriculture to sustain. various terms have been attributed to sustainable agriculture, e.g., organic, regenerative, ecological, alternative, bio-dynamic, natural and low-input, contrasting high input, maximum-production, and intensive agriculture (rahman et al., 1999). agricultural sustainability is a philosophy based on human goals and an understanding of the long-term impact of our activities on the environment and on other species (rezaeimoghaddam and karami, 2008). the three main goals of agricultural sustainability are economic efficiency, environmental quality, and social responsibility (fairweather and campbell, 2003). the goal of sustainability is to sustain a desirable quality of life. to sustain the sacredness in farming, there must be harmony found economically, socially, and ecologically among the personal, interpersonal, and the spiritual. the current crisis in conventional, commercial agriculture arises from its lack of sustainability. much of the research effort in (adoption of) sustainable agriculture has been fragmented, with little coordination and integration. little substantive research has investigated the beliefs and motivations that drive farmers‘ decisions about adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (karami and mansoorabadi, 2008). at the rio summit in 1992, the united nations further expanded the above definition and adopted a set of principles to guide future sustainable development. the declaration on environment and development defines the rights of people toward development, and their responsibilities to safeguard the common environment (quaddus and siddique, 2001). from then on, environmental and sustainable development issues have been pushed to a higher priority on social agenda. in taking a note from the ‗‗3 ps‖ of marketing, sustainable development can be said to have its own version of the ‗‗3ps‖, that is people, planet, and profit. all three aspects have to be satisfied before an entrepreneurial activity is labeled as sustainable (crals and vereeck, 2005). agricultural development has been based on modernization theory in the late decades especially in third world. the beginning of modernization of iranian agriculture was most marked by the land reform of 1962. the land reform was perceived as prerequisite to any effort to modernize the traditional, prominently rural society of iran. however, analysis of development policies shows that this theory has produced negative impacts such as uneven development, poverty and environmental degradation (malakouti, 2000). the concern for environmental problem was the major contributing factor to loss of faith in this path to development. the conventional development strategies are fundamentally limited in their ability to promote sustainable agricultural development of iran (rezaeimoghaddam and karami, 2008). for agriculture to be considered sustainable, certain economic, env ironmental and social criteria need to be met. moreover, a sound decision making tool is essential if we are to decide on the most appropriate partnership models in order to reach agricultural sustainability. the purpose of this paper is to introduce a multi criteria decision making model(mcdm) and use analytic hierarchy process (ahp) for selecting the most appropriate partnership models (including private, rental, sharing and cooperative) from a number of alternatives for an individual farmer. the objectives of the study are 1) determination of agricultural sustainability criteria. 2) determination of optimum partnership models for agriculture. materials and methods this study was conducted in ilam province of iran. the populations of the research were 30 farmers interviewed to determine the sustainable agricultural development criteria. a discussion of the nine criteria developed in this stage is presented in the next section. a questionnaire was developed based on the ahp. each question consisted of a pairwise comparison of two criteria. therefore, the nine criteria and four alternatives result in a total of 72 questions. first, the respondents were asked to indicate the relative impor-tance of the two criteria with respect to the overall goal. finally, the farmers were asked to indicate the relative importance of the two alternatives (partnership models) with respect to each criterion. all criteria and alternatives were qualitative measures in this study. the scale used for comparison of two qualitative measures was a bipolar scale (table 1). there were two types of pair-wise comparisons; first, a comparison of criteria with respect to goal; and second, some pair-wise comparisons of alternatives with respect to criterion. these comparisons were shown in matrix structure named table 1. measurement scale of ahp. intensity of relative importance definition 1 = equal importance 3 = moderate importance 5 = strong importance 7 = very strong importance 9 = absolute importance 2, 4, 6 and 8 = intermediate values between two adjacent judgments source: satty (1997). decision matrix. therefore, the result decision matrixes included a decision matrix for criteria comparisons and some decisions matrices for alternatives comparisons. the consistency ratio (cr) is measured for each decision matrix. cr shows the precision of judgments in comparing criteria and alternatives. in other words, the inconsistency ratio (ir) shows the possible error (s) in judgments. inconsistency ratio for each matrix should be less than 0.1, otherwise the decision maker(s) should re-evaluate the judgments for the related matrix until the ratio is finally less than 0.1. the analytic hierarchy was programmed in expert choice. we first calculated the geometric means of the marked responses in each question from each of the participants. then, the comparison matrix was inputted into expert choice to produce local weights at each level of the hierarchy. these were then combined using an additive value model to produce a set of global weight or priorities for the alternatives. finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the critical evaluation criteria that affect the selection strategy. discussion belton and stewart (2002) define multi criteria decision analysis (mcda) as, ‗‗an umbrella term to describe a collection of formal approaches which seek to take explicit account of multiple criteria in helping individuals or group explore decisions that matter‖. mcda approaches have been classified in a number of ways. one of the first categorizations makes a distinction between multi-objective decision making (modm) and multiattribute decision making (madm). the main distinction between the two groups of methods is based on the number of alternatives under evaluation. madm methods are designed for selecting discrete alternatives while modm is more adequate to deal with multi-objective planning problems, when a theoretically infinite number of continuous alternatives are defined by a set of constraints on a vector of decision variables (belton and stewart, 2002). the ahp, developed by saaty (1977), is a decision making method for prioritizing alternatives when multiple criteria must be considered. this approach allows the decision maker to structure problems in the form of a hierarchy or a set of integrated levels, such as, the goal, the criteria, and the alternatives. the primary advantage of the ahp is its use of pair-wise comparisons to obtain a ratio scale of measurement. ratio scales are a natural means of comparison among alternatives and enable the measurement of both tangible and intangible factors. an ahp analysis uses pair wise comparisons to measure the impact of items on one level of the hierarchy on the next higher level. for example, the criteria are pair wise compared in terms of their ability to achieve the goal, and the alternatives are pair-wise compared in terms of their ability to achieve each of the criteria. at each level, the pair-wise comparisons are organized into a matrix and the weights of the items being compared are determined by computing the maximum weight value of the matrix. a weighted averaging approach is used to combine the results across levels of the hierarchy to compute a final weight for each alternative. in cases where many alternatives need to be evaluated, the ahp ratings approach is often used. this approach requires that a series of ratings or intensities be developed for each criterion (table 1). these intensities must be pair-wise compared to each criterion, and then alternatives are evaluated by selecting the appropriate intensity for each criterion. another important advantage of the ahp is that it allows for inconsistency in judgment. however, the ahp also measures the degree to which the judgments are inconsistent and establishes an acceptable tolerance level for the degree of inconsistency. other advantages and disadvantages of the ahp have been extensively described and debated elsewhere (harker and vargas, 1990; saaty, 1990). the ahp process was developed to solve a specific class of problem that involves the prioritization of potential alternative solutions. the ahp is based on three major components (karami, 2006). stage one: selection of criteria at this stage of building, the model faced the crucial question of who should determine the criteria of agricultural sustainability. sustainable criteria were determined from literature review and library research. in all, 30 farmers were interviewed. furthermore, existing literature was considered an important source for mining the criteria of sustainable agriculture. end results of this stage were selection of nine criteria for agricultural sustainability development. stage two: pair wise comparison of criteria at this stage the participants were involved in pair-wise comparison of the nine criteria. many methods can be used to accommodate the views and judgments of participants in the priority setting process. in a common objective context where all participants share the same objectives, there are four ways to set the priorities: consensus, vote or compromise, geometric mean of the individuals‘ judgments, and separate models or players (lai et al., 2002). consensus refers to the achievement of a consensus of group participants in constructing a hierarchy and making judgments. if a consensus cannot be reached, the group may then choose to vote or compromise on a judgment. if a consensus cannot be achieved and the group is unwilling to vote or to compromise, then a geometric mean (average) of the individuals‘ judgments can be calculated. the geometric mean is an appropriate rule for combining individual judgments to obtain the group judgment for each pair-wise comparison. in this study we first calculated the geometric means of the marked responses in each question from each of the respondents. then, the comparison matrix was inputted into expert choice to produce local weights at each level of the hierarchy. stage three: pair-wise comparison of alternatives with regard to criteria at this stage, pair-wise comparisons on the alternative partnership models with respect to the nine criteria were performed. consensus method was used to set the priorities at this stage of the research. crop rotation co-operative figure 1. hierarchical model for selection of agricultural sustainability. table 2. the priority of partnership models. criteria priority of partnership models 1 2 3 4 ir reducing farmers migration p c s r /09 sharing with agricultural engineer c p r s /07 land consolidation c p r s /06 increasing farmers awareness c p r s /07 crop rotation p c s r /07 using less amount of chemical fertilizer p c s r /05 using less amount of chemical pesticide p c s r /02 fertilizer recommendation p c s r /07 allocation efficiency r s c p /06 p: private, r: rental; s: sharing; c: cooperative and ir: inconsistency. figure 1 shows the relation between ultimate goal, criteria and alternatives in a hierarchy framework. the ahp can be used by a team to enhance the quality of group decisions by bringing structure to the decision making process and by synthesizing different points of view (lai et al., 2002). the application of the ahp to support group decisions has proven to be contributive in several research studies (byun, 2001; chen and huang, 2004; solnes, 2003). lai et al. (2002) report the results of a case study where the ahp was employed to support the selection of mas in a group decision environment. byun (2001) has applied the ahp for deciding on car purchase between 13 managers as a group of decision makers. the ahp has been used between seven experts to evaluate the risks and benefits associated with three alternative mission architecture scenarios for the human exploration of mars (tavana, 2004). their findings have validated the ahp as an effective and flexible tool for group decision making because it can form a systematic framework for conducting structured group sessions. showed nine criteria including: a) reducing farmers migration b) sharing with agricultural engineer c) land consolidation d) increasing farmers awareness e) crop rotation f) using less amount of chemical fertilizer g) using less amount of chemical pesticide h) fertilizer recommendation and i) allocation efficiency are very important, although most studies view the context of sustainability in terms of "socio-cultural", "economic-technical" and "environmental" aspects. the results of partnership models prioritizations are presented considering the criteria. table2 shows these results. figure 2 shows the results of sensitivity analysis for partnership models. sensitivity analysis allows us to verify the results of the decision. a sensitivity analysis was formed to see how sensitive the alternatives are to change with the importance of the criteria. the expert choice implementation of ahp provides four graphical sensitivity analysis modes: dynamic, gradient, performance and twodimensional analysis (expert choice, 2000). here performance sensitivity analysis is employed. it depicts how well each alternative (private, rental, sharing and cooperative models) performs on each criterion by increasing or decreasing the importance of the criteria. conclusion results agriculture is unique and most essential activity in every determination of sustainable criteria by literature review society. beyond its primary role of producing food and 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00 figure 2. results of sensitivity analysis for partnership models. fiber agriculture, it also contributes to the viability of rural areas, food security, the cultural heritage and environmental benefits such as agricultural landscape, agrobiological diversity, land conservation and high standards of plant, animal and public health. agricultural development in iran has been based on modernization theory in the late decades. the consequences of implementation of modernization based agricultural development policies, particularly with regard to environmental impact, have been negative. iran‘s agriculture is facing serious environmental pollution and degradation problems (rezaei-moghaddam and karami, 2008). agricultural development decision-making is becoming more pluralistic. there is a felt need for alternative partnership models. four competing partnership models have been developed based on general tenets of private, rental, sharing and cooperative. this paper argues that ahp is a useful tool to reach a decision regarding commitment to a theoretical base for agricultural sustainable development among stakeholders of agriculture. 30 farmers are the stakeholders of ilam province agriculture and they were involved in ahp decision process. the stakeholder‘s identified nine criteria for agricultural sustainability including: reducing farmers migration, sharing with agricultural engineer, land consolidation, increasing farmers awareness, crop rotation, using less amount of chemical fertilizer, using less amount of chemical pesticide, fertilizer recommendation and allocation efficiency. although there were differences between stakeholder regarding the magnitude of priority of private over another partnership models, all participants and the aggregate analysis of decisions confirmed the priority of private partnership model for ilam province, iran. 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the case of the livestock input industry in indonesia sutrisno hadi purnomo,1,2* yi-hsuan lee3 and soekartawi4 1 department of business administration, national central university, taiwan. 2 faculty of agriculture, sebelas maret university, indonesia. 3 department of business administration national central university, taiwan. 4 department of agricultural economics, brawijaya university, indonesia. accepted 25 february, 2016 one of the main issues of agricultural development in indonesia was marketing of agricultural products. it was not only due to the weakness of agricultural marketing policy, but also lack of research, particularly research related to the costumer’s attitude of marketing mix. understanding of costumer’s attitude of marketing mix was really important. many literatures indicated that one of the advantages of this was to design the marketing mix strategy. the main purposes of this study were, first, to evaluate the customer’s attitude toward marketing mix among distinct market segments of livestock input industry, and second, to examine the influence of demographic variables on customer attitude toward marketing mix. the methodology used in this study was survey method through distribute of questionnaire to respondents. respondent of this study was poultry livestock farmer who have used company feed product and kept livestock in java island, indonesia. the findings of this study revealed that, first, the three market segments were perceived differently and second, there was no significance difference among various demographic variables. this finding showed the importance of market segmentation to determine the appropriate strategy. eventually, this research provided guidance for agribusiness managers to investigate deeply the customers understanding, preferences and perception. key words: customer’s attitude, marketing mix, livestock input industry. introduction many authors argue that understanding the customer attitude toward 4ps (product, price, place and promotion) marketing mix is important. in case of indonesia as a big developing country in asia, the issues of customer attitude toward 4ps of agribusiness particularly in livestock input industry is crucial. the question is why understanding the customer attitude toward 4ps marketing mix is important in livestock input industry? constantinides (2006) emphasizes that marketing mix is a framework of the dominant marketing management *corresponding author. e-mail: sutrisno_hadi@hotmail.com. tel: +886-3-422-7151 ext 66100. fax: +886-3-422-2891. paradigm to identify market development, environmental changes and trends. several studies confirm that the 4ps is indeed the trusted conceptual platform of practitioners dealing with operational marketing issues (romano and ratnatunga, 1995; coviello et al., 2000). the wide acceptance of the 4ps among field marketers is the result of their profound exposure to this concept during college years, since identifying the 4ps as the controllable parameters is likely to influence the consumer buying process and decisions (brassington and pettitt, 2003; soekartawi, 2005a). the marketing practitioners in livestock industries, particularly on the input suppliers to farmer producers consider the 4ps as the powerful toolkit of marketing strategy. the input suppliers play an important role in the file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org agribusiness system which provides farmers and ranchers with the feed, seed, credit, equipment, etc. (bierlien and woolverton, 1991). in reality, the farmer producers are not homogeneous. they differ on dimensions such as sizes, management styles, location, production practices, and so forth. in efforts to segment the farm market, farms are often grouped by criteria such as crops grown, type of technology employed, and region of production (rosenberg and turvey, 2001). segmentation is an important element of market planning. it is, in fact, at the very crucial of developing a thorough, well-reasoned, competitive advantage achieving strategic plan for a product and a business unit (sudharsan and winter, 1998; soekartawi, 2005a). successful serving targeted customers involves first, segmenting the market into smaller more homogeneous customer groups, profiling these groups, then deciding which customer’s segments to pursue, and then developing the 4ps marketing mix to best serve the chosen target customers (alexander et al., 2005). this study is to evaluate different segments of customers’ attitude toward 4ps. using sales classes as a measurement of farm size, this study classifies customers into three segments: small, middle and large. in fact, the study related to customer attitude in the farmer producer has not been sufficiently conducted. therefore, two research questions guide this study: (1) do customer’s attitude toward marketing mix among market segments is perceived differently? and (2) do demographic variables influence the customer attitude toward marketing mix? it is expected that this research would provide recommendation for livestock input suppliers to develop greater understanding of how to serve existing and potential customer based on 4ps concept for a basis to meet profitability of their business. literature review several studies measuring customer attitude towards marketing mix have been carried out in industries and emerging nations (gaski and etzel, 1986; wee and chan, 1989; chan et al., 1990; bhuian and kim, 1999; lysonski et al., 2003; chan and cui, 2004). a significant study in measuring consumer sentiments towards marketing practices was carried out by gaski and etzel (1986, 2005). other researchers wee and chan (1989) found that the pricing strategies and advertising appeals must also be adapted to suit the consumer’s needs and tastes. the influence of demographic variables on attitudes towards marketing was found that the less educated, the lower income group, and those with no jobs or less privileged jobs were most hostile towards marketing. bhuian and kim (1999) examined the influence of country origin toward marketing mix element and found that consumers prefer most the marketing mix element related to the product of japan and usa. marketing strategy for industrial market harbor et al. (2006) pointed out that the market interaction between agricultural input industry and farmer producers is similar to that observed in a b2b environment. in this interaction, farmer producer is the buyer and agricultural input industry in this case livestock input industry is the industrial market. thus, understanding the drivers and determinants of this transformation process is critical to a successful marketing strategy to serve the farmer producers of the future (boehlje, 1992). the ability of agricultural input suppliers to serve farmer producers depends on the effective exchange of information between firms and consumers. insufficient information may leave farmer producers exposed to inappropriate products and can limit firms' ability to respond to farm producers' needs (tripp and pal, 2000). many marketing researchers have broadly argued marketing strategy to be a concept built on robust platform of segmentation, targeting and positioning (ferrell et al., 2002; walker et al., 2001). marketing strategy requires decisions about the specific target of customers. besides, marketing mix may be developed to target market by positioning it suitably in a superior way. in this context, the study of the effectiveness of the marketing tools is essential for an appropriate marketing strategy. appropriateness of marketing strategies may be viewed as the congruence of market offerings of a set of products and its corresponding consumer perception among its target segment. more the target segment is able to understand and believe the cues (richardson et al., 1994) communicated by the firms through marketing mix, more is the effectiveness of the marketing strategies. recently, constantinides (2006) reviewed the criticisms on the 4ps marketing mix emanating from industrial market area. he mentioned most researchers agree that industrial market is indeed different from consumer marketing in a number of aspects like the formalized decision making procedures, the buying practices and rationality of choices and the special character of the industrial customer. long term relationships, based on empathy, mutual benefits and co-operation (flint et al., 1997), understanding of customer’s needs and service (shaw, 1995) are other important success factors. market segmentation in the agricultural industry in industrial marketing, adoption of strategic planning as central to business operations today leads to a key direction for segmenting industrial markets (constantinides, 2006). the formal grouping of cus-tomers/potential customers based on similarities in their strategies (sudharsan and winter, 1998). griffith and pol (1994) reported a successful use of firm demographic data for segmenting industrial markets. laughlin and taylor (1991) proposed that industries can be classified based on their respective concentration ratios and product customization requirements. they suggest that the classification be used as the basis for segment selection decisions. in the agribusiness market as an industrial market, customer segmentation is also a way for better understanding customer preferences for products, services, and information which are important to their industries. the customer segmentation is based on a two-dimensional characterization of the producer market. the characterization is defined in terms of: 1) size measured by gross sales, and 2) purchasing behavior (boehlje, 1992). furthermore, he argued that market segmentation frequently consists of grouping buyers into segments according to sales classes and then developing marketing strategies to serve the different segments. each of the segments is different; for instance in terms of size, type of technology, farm management and so on (gloy and akridge, 1999). the process of segmentation is different from targeting (choosing which segments to address) and positioning (designing an appropriate marketing mix for each segment). the overall intent is to identify groups of similar customers and potential customers; to prioritize the groups to address; to understand their behavior, and to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different preferences of each chosen segment (sengupta and chattopadhyay, 2006). characteristic of farmer producers this study used customer segmentation based on sales classes range divided into three classes: small, medium and large. these three classes have different characteristics in terms of buying behavior, farm management, type of technology and so forth. harbor et al. (2006) observed that in many instances, smaller farms behave like retail consumers. relatively speaking, they wield little individual market power. on the other hand, larger farms have the ability to interact with input and output markets in a more business-like manner, taking advantage of powers of negotiation, economies of scale, and increased market access. as a result, the relationship between agribusinesses and their commercial farm customers is much different from that between agricultural firms and those operations that fit the historical farm profile. most investigations of small farm characteristics combine two or more of these classifications to arrive at a more limited and conclusive definition. however, small farms have been generally described as farms with limited resources, farms with a small volume of farm product sales, family farms, retirement farms, and parttime farms (lewis, 1978). research methodology the data of this study was collected from customer of pt charoen pokphand indonesia (cpi). cpi is one of multinational companies (mncs) in agribusiness whose core business is feed mill manufacturing. the headquarter of cpi is in thailand, and its subsidiaries are located in several countries, such as indonesia, malaysia, china, korea, singapore, taiwan, hong kong, myanmar, turkey and portugal. the sample of this study was the farmers who have used cpi’s products and kept livestock in java island, indonesia. sample the sampling frame was provided by cpi’s customer database of livestock in java island, indonesia. using random sampling method this research selected 600 customers. there were three sizes of customers: small (less than 500 ton per year sales), medium (500 up to 1000 ton per year sales) and large (more than 1000 ton per year sales). classified into this category, there were 227 respondents of large size, 182 respondents of medium size and 191 respondents of small size. totally, 600 questionnaires were distributed to respondents. the response rates were 50% for small size, 47% for medium size, and 53% for large size. total usable questionnaires were 297, consisting of 95 small size customers, 85 medium size customers, and 120 large size customers. the samples were selected using the following formula (djarwanto and pangestu, 1996): p (1 − p ) 1 , 96 2 e  1 , 96 → n  p (1 − p ) n e where: n = total sample p = percentage of sample proportion (in between 0 1) p = total population e = error (<10 %). measurement the questionnaire was developed through two steps. in the first step, the questionnaire was adopted from two studies which included a measurement of consumer attitudes toward marketing mix. the first study was developed by gaski and etzel (1986), about the measurement of customer sentiment toward marketing mix variables. the second study was by bhuian and kim (1999) about measuring customer attitude toward marketing mix element pertaining to foreign products in an emerging international market. this study adopted 17 item questions from gaski and etzel (1986) and 5 items from bhuian and kim (1999). we made the other 10 questions to reflect the characteristics of agriculture product. thus, totally 32 items were used in this questionnaire for the study. in the second step, several in depth interviews were conducted with general managers and the marketing managers of cpi to explore the research area and clarify terminology. after the in depth review, several items were revised to reflect the thinking characteristic of product and local people. the questionnaire was divided into two parts. the first part contained demographic characteristics of the respondents such as province, gender, age and education. the second part contained attitude of customer toward marketing mix. a total of 32-items were used on a five-point likert-point scaled with the end points rating from very disagree (1) to very agree (5). table 1. respondent’s profiles. customer sizes number of respondents by province total west central east small (sales: less than 500 ton/year) 19 38 38 95 medium (sales between 500 1000 ton/year) 15 32 35 82 large (sales more than 1000 ton/year) 54 24 42 120 total 88 94 115 297 note: exchange rate 1 ton = 400 usd. table 2. reliability for component after purification. attribute items after purification chronbach α product 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 0.779 price 1,2,3,4,5 0.726 place 1,3,4,6,7 0.707 promotion 1,2,5,6,7,9,10 0.651 data analyses respondent’s demographic profile to provide a better insight into the participants, respondent’s demographic profile including province, gender, age, and education were analyzed. the province area was found west java 29.6%, central java 31.6% and east java 38.7%. the gender composition was male respondents (75.8%) and female respondents (24.2%). the age composition of respondent was 20.5% for age range less than 35 years old; 63.6% for age range 35 50 years old and 15.8% for age range more than 50 year old. as for the level of education, the highest level was senior high school (64.3%), the second was bachelor degree (16.2%), then followed by junior high school (11.8%) and last was master’s degree (7.7%). in addition, the respondent’s profile about customer size shows us the information dispersion of customer on each province and size. the data shows that west java has highest number in the large farmer (54) more than small (19) and medium (15). central java has highest number in the small farmer (38). meanwhile, east java has a number customer with no striking differences among customer size (table 1). data accuracy analysis reliability and validity were tested for data accuracy analysis purpose. reliability test criteria included item-to-total correlation value of 0.3, cronbach α value of 0.6. as can be seen in table 2, all the values were above the required threshold values. thus, the results provided evidence of reliability. the detailed results of the items retained for further analysis after purification using cronbach’s α value (items retained after purification are shown in the appendix). after purification of the items, acceptable reliability was demonstrated for each of the marketing mix variables: 0.779 for product, 0.726 for price, 0.707 for place/distribution, and 0.651 for promotion. for details, it is presented in table 2. besides reliability, discriminant validity was also tested for the scales.. discriminability refers to the ability empirically to differentiate one construct from other constructs that may be similar, and to point out what is unrelated to the construct. this study did not use different methods of measurement, only discriminant validity could be tested. discriminant validity can be indicated by predictably low correlations between the measure of interest and other measures that are supposedly not measuring the same variable or concept. to verify discriminant validity, correlations among the four scales were obtained for the combined sample. according to gaski and etzel (1986), if α coefficient considerably higher than its correlations with other scales, discriminant validity is upheld. table 3 shows the correlation between the scale categories. the values, which range from 0.092 0.459, clearly indicate that each scale has α coefficient adequately higher than its correlations with other scales. this shows that discriminant validity of the scale is upheld. result and discussion one-way analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to compare mean consumer attitude towards marketing mix variables across various demographic variables. the result revealed that there is not significant difference among various demographic variables such as provincial area, gender, age as well as educational level. these results indicated that demographic profile does not influence the customer attitude toward 4ps. meanwhile, one-way anova was conducted to examine differences in attitude among groups customer size. mean score of attitude was used to examine the differences. as shown in the table 4, customer attitude toward overall attributes marketing mix was perceived differently among customer sizes (f = 61.279, p < 0.01). furthermore, customer attitude toward each attribute marketing mix was varied among customer sizes, in the product attribute (f = 28.545, p < 0.01); price (f = 23.109, p < 0.01); place (f = 21.144, p < 0.01) and promotion (f = 19.131, p < 0.01). those findings revealed that there were differences in customer attitude among three distinct segments. the table 3. correlation between scale categories. scale categories product price place promotion product 1 0.171 0.269 0.459 price 1 0.092 0.247 place 1 0.355 promotion 1 table 4. one-way anova of customer attitude. attributes customer size mean sd f value a post hoc test b product small 3.50 0.386 28.545** s<m<l medium 3.66 0.392 large 3.86 0.322 price small 3.20 0.376 23.109** s<m<l medium 3.50 0.326 large 3.69 0.344 place small 3.22 0.343 21.144** s<m<l medium 3.44 0.417 large 3.66 0.366 promotion small 3.49 0.440 19.131** s<m<l medium 3.64 0.418 large 3.74 0.379 overall 4p small 3.39 0.251 61.279** s<m<l medium 3.57 0.222 large 3.73 0.202 a *p < .05 and **p < .01. b post hoc test scheffe’s multiple comparisons differences at p < .05. post hoc test indicated that there were differences (p < 0.01) between each size, with small size as the lowest, followed by medium and larger size as the highest score. these differences probably were due to the characteristics of farm producers such as case buying behavior, farm management, type of technology and so forth among different sizes. harbor et al. (2006) notes that smaller farms behave like retail consumer, they wield little individual market power. on the other hand, larger farms have ability to interact with input and output markets in a more business-like manner, taking advantage of powers of negotiation, economies of scale, and increased market access. those characteristic influence the attitude of small customer much more negative than larger farm. another study with indonesia as a research setting, martana (2002) concludes that livestock farmers in jogjakarta, indonesia, have different attitudes among customers size segment. another earlier study by suwarsono (1997) investigates the attitude of fishpond farmers in east java, indonesia towards marketing mix of firm. it was found different attitudes among customer segments. those findings indicated that the firm must pay more attention to clarify each distinct market segment in order to determine strategy appropriate with the customer perception. to provide a better insight into customer attitude toward each of 4ps element, table 5 provides mean score and post hoc analysis for each item. on the product strategy, there are five items with significant differences among three segments. there are “product weight is the same as mentioned in the label”, “the grain is not easily broken”, “the feed quality is stable”, “the livestock likes the smell of the grains” and “best feed performance for livestock production”. in this case, usually the larger farm receives the product faster than the small farmer. this condition affects the quantity and quality of the product. the quantity and quality will decrease if the product is delivered long time before used. the larger farmer receives product faster than the smaller because they order in the big amount. hence, manufacturer can deliver the product directly to their farms. besides, larger farmers usually have better management to keep their product. they have better skills and techniques to manage their farms. normally, larger farmers adopt new technology and better cultural practices generated from agricultural research and table 5. a comparison of marketing mix items among customer sizes. marketing mix strategy perception customer size a differences b small medium large perceived of product strategy 3.50 3.66 3.86 s<m<l 1. product is well recognized by its packaging 4.02 3.94 4.11 2. product weight is same as mentioned by label 3.56 3.88 4.11 s<m<l 3. the packaging is a long life 3.56 3.65 3.70 4. the feed is not easily damaged 3.51 3.61 3.71 5. the grain is not easily broke 3.29 3.50 3.61 s<l 6. the grain size is as needed 3.59 3.67 3.73 7. the feed quality is stable 3.45 3.57 3.93 s<l 8. the livestock likes the color of the grains 3.49 3.56 3.81 9. the livestock likes the smell of the grains 3.34 3.66 3.97 s<m<l 10. best feed performance for livestock production 3.16 3.56 3.95 s<m<l perceived of price strategy 3.20 3.50 3.69 s<m<l 1. the feed price is competitive than others 3.16 3.59 3.95 s<m<l 2. feed price is commensurate with its quality 3.31 3.66 3.67 3. the feed price is stable 3.03 3.26 3.31 4. discount program is very useful for farmers 3.36 3.50 3.51 5. feed price is suitable for our purchasing power 3.14 3.48 3.99 s<m<l perceived of place strategy 3.22 3.44 3.56 s<m<l 1. the retailers are widespread 3.02 3.26 3.46 s<l 2. manufacturer needs to do direct selling to us 3.39 3.60 3.66 s<l 3. the quick services satisfy the buyers 3.67 3.83 3.88 4. the continuation of the product availability 3.16 3.41 3.53 s<m, s<l 5. the expedition is delivery on time 3.45 3.54 3.65 6. the distributors give friendly service 3.94 3.21 3.37 s<l 7. the purchasing procedures are not complicated 3.94 3.21 3.37 s<l perceived of promotion strategy 3.49 3.64 3.74 s<m<l 1.the product image is good 3.51 3.72 3.83 s<l 2. the first memorable thing of livestock feed is cpi’s products 3.43 3.57 3.66 3. manufacturer is aggressive in its promotion than competitors 3.72 3.85 3.85 4. manufacturer has been recognized as a livestock suppler for a long period of time 3.77 3.87 3.93 5. cpi has a good ability to inform the use of feed 3.85 3.01 3.11 6. retailers are responsible for the customer's complaints 3.35 3.48 3.62 s<l, m<l 7. manufacturer gives good response to our complaints 3.46 3.66 3.74 s<l 8. manufacturer promotion is so far interesting 3.24 3.41 3.58 s<l 9. manufacturer gives info. to us transparently and honestly 3.32 3.40 3.63 s<l 10. cpi cares to the consumers' need 3.29 3.44 3.49 note: a mean values for marketing mix items, based on a 5 likert-type scale with strongly disagree =1 to strongly agree = 5. b scheffe’s multiple comparisons differences at p < 0.05. development. therefore technology development has increased the output and accrued the benefit (singh and williamson, 1985). on the price strategy, there are two items with significant different among three segments. they are “the feed price is competitive than others” and “feed price is suitable for our purchasing power”. larger farm with a big volume of farm product may take advantage power of negotiation with suppliers or manufacturers (harbor et al., 2006). besides, small farmers may have a long distribution channel that influences the product price. therefore, the larger farmer will get the lower price. on the place strategy, there are five items with significant differences among three segments. they are “the retailers are widespread”, “manufacturer needs to do direct selling to us”, “the continuation of the product availability”, “the distributors give friendly service” and “the purchasing procedures are not complicated”. in reality, larger farmers have ability to interact with manufacturer or retailer in a more business like manner. this situation cause the manufacturer or retailer give serve better to the larger than small farmer. on the promotion strategy, there are five items with significant differences among three segments. they are “the product image is good”, “retailers are responsible for the customer's complaints”, “manufacturer gives good response to our complaints”, “manufacturer promotion is so far interesting” and “manufacturer gives information to us transparently and honestly”. small farmers find difficulties to access market information. they need to know advantages and disadvantages of each market outlet, but in reality they do not have opportunity to retrieve such information. conclusion, implication and further research based on the above discussion it is concluded that, first, the three market segments are perceived differently. this is because an accuracy of market segmentation will produce effectiveness of marketing strategies. this may be viewed as the congruence of market offer of a set of products and services and its corresponding consumer perception among the target segment. more the target segment is able to understand and believe the cues communicated by the firms through 4ps marketing mix (richardson et al., 1994). similarly, understanding consumer’s need, value, and behavior associated with the product can help the marketers to develop segments around brand loyalty, price-sensitive, or feature-sensitive respondents (feldman, 2006). the second conclusion is there is no significance difference among various demographic variables. this findings show the importance of market segmentation to determine the appropriate strategy. the suggestion that may be taken from this research is the need for having guidance for agribusiness managers to investigate deeply the customers understanding, preferences and perception. it is understandable because marketing strategies can determine appropriate strategies among three distinct segments based on particular characteristics. consequently, this kind of research shall be done in many places considering only few studies on customer attitudes to farm producers are available. the research setting should also be extended to include more than one company and more than 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(1985). perspectives on the small farm (small, low-income farms in tennessee). cooperative research program, school agr, home econ., tennessee state university, nashville. soekartawi (2005a). marketing management for agricultural products: theory and its application)". rajagrafindo persada press, 3rd edition, jakarta, (isbn: 979-421-207-5). sudharsan d, winter f (1998). strategic segmentation of industrial market. the journal of business and industrial marketing. santa barbara. vol 13. p 8. suwarsono (1997). customer attitude of fishpond farmers toward marketing mix of firm. magister agribusiness manag. gadjah mada university. yogyakarta. indonesia. tripp l and pal s (2000). information and agricultural input market : pearl millet seed in rajashtan. j. int dev. 12: 133-144. walker oc jr., boyd hw jr., larreche jc (2001). marketing strategy. tata mcgraw hill, new delhi pp. 12-13. wee ch, chan m (1989), consumer sentiment towards marketing in hong kong. european j. mark. pp. 28-39. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (9), pp. 001-003, september, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. short communication an efficient protocol for in vitro clonal propagation of natural sweetener plant (stevia rebaudiana bertoni) ashish ojha1*, v. n. sharma1 and vinay sharma2 1 department of biotechnology, plant tissue culture and research development laboratory, miet group of institutions, meerut250005, u. p. india. 2 department of biotechnology and bioscience, banasthali university, banasthali, rajasthan, india. accepted 18 may, 2020 leaf segments of stevia were cultured on ms medium supplemented with varying concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 mg/l -1 ) of growth regulators (bap and 2, 4-d). ninety one percent aseptic cultures were obtained when sterilized with 0.1% hgcl2 for 10 min. the highest amount of callus was obtained in ms medium supplemented with1.0 mg/l -1 bap+0.5 mg/l -1 2, 4-d, respectively. on the other hand, 2.5 mg/l 1 bap + 0.5 2,4-d showed lowest performance. highest shoot was obtained in 2.0 mg/l -1 bap. these shoots was transfer into different concentration of iba, naa and iaa (0.5. 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) used. highest rooting percentage was recorded on ms medium with 0.5 mg/l -1 iaa. the rooted plantlets were transfer into mist chamber with relative humidity for 2 4 week after these plants were hardened and successfully established in soil. key words: stevia rebaudiana, sweetener, callus, leaf. introduction stevia (stevia rebaudiana bert.) is a small, herbaceous, semi-bushy, perennial shrub of compositae family originated from paraguay. it grows well at the temperature ranging between 15 30°c. it is one of 154 members of the genus stevia, which produces stevioside, a diterpinoid glycoside isolated from plant leaves (robinson, 1930). stevioside of special intrestto diabetics, persons with hyperglycemia and the diet conscious. a sugar-free, no calorie natural sweetener is especially helpful for people who are diabetic, prone to yeast infections, or trying to lose a few extra pounds by controlling calories. the product can be added to tea and coffee, cooked or baked goods, processed foods and beverages. dry leaves of this plant are 30 times sweeter than sugar with zero calories. the first report of com-mercial cultivation in paraguay were in 1964 (sumida, 1968) began a large effort aimed at establishment. stevia as a crop in japan, since then stevia has been introduced as a crop in a number of countries including brazil, korea, mexico, u.s. and canada (lee et al., 1979). the herbal drug industry is considered to be a high growth industry of the late 90s and *corresponding author. e-mail: ashish_ojha1087@rediff mail.com. tel: 09808435371. seeing the growing demand, it is all set to flourish in the next century in ancient indian traditional ayurvedic system of medicine. stevia has various properties such as antibacterial, anticandidal, antifungal, antiviral, cardio tonic (tones, balances, strengthens the heart), diuretic, hypoglycemic, vasodilator. seed germination of stevia is often poor or very low (miyazaki and watenabe, 1974). therefore, there are basically two options for multiplication. the first is tissue culture and second is vegetative propogation. materials and methods plant materials the explants; leaf segments were used as experimental material. the explants were collected from 5 6 months old field grown plants at fri (forest research institute, dehradun) experimental field. the explants were treated with tween 20 (fungicide) 5 6 drops for 5 min with constant shaking for clean fungus content from leaf surface then washed thoroughly with distilled water. then the materials were taken under laminar air flow cabinet and surface sterilization was done with (0.1% hgcl2) mercuric chloride for 10 min followed by 4 5 times rinse with sterile distilled water to remove traces of hgcl2 from material. file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org table 1. effects of cytokinin and auxin in ms medium on in vitro shooting and callus formation from leaf segments of stevia. growth regulators (mg/l -1 ) % of shoot shoots /cultures average shoot length (cm) texture bap (0.5) 45.67 3.13 ± 0.11 2.15 ± 0.28 green bap (1.0) 56.31 4.33 ± 0.29 2.32 ± 0.27 green bap (1.5) 60.10 5.40 ± 0.18 2.43 ± 0.11 green bap (2.0) 76.44 6.78 ± 0.23 3.34 ± 0.55 green bap (2.5) 58.27 5.12 ± 0.41 2.00 ± 0.42 green amount of callus callus status bap + 2-4-d (0.5)+ (0.5) ++++ good bap + 2-4-d (1.0) + (0.5) +++++++ best bap + 2-4-d (1.5) + (0.5) ++++ good bap + 2-4-d (2.0) + (0.5) +++ average bap + 2-4-d (2.5) + (0.5) + dead preparation of culture media stock solution of all components were prepared with appropriate amount of all the components, appropriate amount of all stock solution were mixed following the standard media preparation procedure. the ph of the media was adjusted to 5.6 5.8 and growth regulators were added at different concentration (0.5, 1.0, 1. 5, 2.0, 2.5 mg/l -1 ). in each treatment 2 explants were inoculated in 50 test tubes, 10 test tubes each. medium containing 2 mg/l -1 bap showed the best response of multiplication (uddin et al., 2006). shoot formation with 6.78 ± 0.23 microshoots per explants (table 1). further more, ms medium containing 0.5 mg/l 1 2,4-d +1.0 mg/l -1 bap also showed the maximum callusing in leaf segment explants (table 1). inoculation technique leaf segments into 1 cm 2 square pieces and the aseptically inoculated onto callus induction media. all inoculation and aseptic manipulation were carried out in laminar air flow cabinet. before use, the floor of cabinet was cleaned with 90% ethyl alcohol to reduce chance of contamination. the instruments like scalpels, forceps, needles etc, were sterilized by an alcoholic dip and flaming method inside the laminar air flow chamber. before the inoculation hands were cleaned by spraying 70% ethyl alcohol. after the inoculation tubes were shelved in dark condition. the temperature of the culture room was maintained at 25 ± 1°c. data collection from the seventh day of inoculation, regular visual observation was done up to five weeks to records the days of callus initiation and maturation. the explants showing embryogenic callus was recorded after 4 5 weeks, histological sections and microscopic observation was done under microphotograph. result and discussion in vitro shoot proliferation and multiplication the auxiliary buds in callus zones proliferated within 6 7 weeks of culture on cytokinin supplemented ms medium. when the explants were cultured on 2 mg/l -1 bap containing media (76.44%) of them produced shoots. the auxiliary shoots proliferated and elongated (3.34 ± 0.55 cm) within three weeks of culture. in the experiment ms rooting induction from microshoots in vitro raised microshoots (3-4 cm) were excised from callus culture and grown on ms medium with growth regulators. initiation of roots from microshoots was very slow in naa. the percentage of shoots that formed roots and no of roots/ shoots significantly varied at different concentration of iba, iaa and naa. the highest rooting 98.12% in microshoots was obtained as ms medium containing 0.5 mg/l -1 iaa with 3% sucrose with in 2 weeks of microshoot transfer (table 2). further more the no of roots per microshoots was optimal (13.7 roots/ microshoots) on ms medium containing (0.5 mg/l -1 iaa) but the average root length per shoot was higher (3.65 cm) on 1.5 mg/l -1 iba containing ms media (murashige and skoog, 1962). the effect of iba, iaa and naa on root induction was positive; however, auxins concentrations had a positive effect on the number of roots/ shoots and it was higher in the case of iaa than iba and naa. steven et al. (1992) reported that 1.0 mg/l -1 naa ms medium showed maximum rooting in propagated shoots of stevia. the potential of iba in root induction has been reported in many species (epstein et al., 1993). in root induction experiment, 0.5 mg/l -1 iaa was found better as maximum roots proliferated that result as better reported by steven et al. (1992). acclimatization and field establishment rooted plantlets were shifted to plastic pots containing table 2. effects of iba, naa or iaa on adventitious root formation from micro cuttings in s. rebaudiana. auxins concentration % of cuttings no. of roots average root day of mergence types (mg/l) rooted per shoots length (cm) of roots (days) iaa 0.5 98.12 13.71 2.10 6-12 1.0 91.40 9.88 2.35 6-14 1.5 74.99 7.31 2.17 6-12 2.0 64.31 4.98 3.01 6-17 naa 0.5 81.50 8.65 2.41 6-12 1.0 70.20 7.57 2.93 6-12 1.5 59.72 5.34 2.42 6-12 2.0 54.43 4.45 2.78 6-12 iba 0.5 68.72 7.88 3.07 6-14 1.0 60.68 5.95 3.43 6-14 1.5 51.85 5.02 3.65 6-14 2.0 40.43 3.55 2.98 6-12 sterilized soil, sand and peat moss at 1:1:1 ratio covered with transparent polythene begs and placed in acclimatization room at 28°c with 70 90% humidity. after the 2 weeks and than completely removed of after 3 weeks for proper hardening. a total no of 71% plants of survived thoroughly this procedure. in many species the reduced the survival rate of the explants during acclimatization is affiliated to the utilization of high concentration of iba and naa in rooting medium (almaarrie et al. 1994). acknowledgement we gratefully acknowledge prof. v. n. sharma, director programmer, biotechnology, meerut institute of engr. and technology, meerut. for providing his laboratory with financial help and giving valuable suggestions from time to time during this research work. references al-maarrie k, arnaud y, miginiac e (1994). micropropogation of pyrus communis cultivar, passe crassane seedlings and cultivar. williams: factors affecting root formation in vitro and ex-vitro. sci. hortic. amsterdam. 58:207-214. epstein e, sagee o, zahir a (1993). uptake and metabolism of indole-3 acetic acid and indole-3 butyric acid by petunia cell suspension culture, plant. growth regul., 13:31-40. lee ji, kang kk, lee eu (1979). studies on new sweetening resource plant stevia (stevia rebaudiana bert.) in koprea. i. effect of transplanting date shifting by cutting and seeding dates on agronomic characteristics and dry leaf of stevia (english abstr.) res. rep. ord., 21:171-179. miyazaki y, watenable h (1974). studies on the cultivation of stevia rebaudiana bertoni; on the propogation of the plant (english abst.). jap. j. trop. agric., 17:154-157. murashige t, skoog f (1962). a revised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tobacco tissue cultures, physiol. plant, 15:473-497. robinson bl (1930). contributions from the grey herbarium of harvard university. the grey herbarium of harvard university, cambridge. steven ms, gail bm, christopher wwb (1992). stevioside biosynthesis by callus, root, shoot, and riited-shoot cultures in-vitro, plant. cell, tiss. org., 28:151-158. sumida t (1968). reports on stevia introduced from brazil as a new sweetness resource in japan (english summary). j. cent. agric. exp. stn., 31:1-71. uddin ms, chowdhury msh, khan mmh, belal uddin m, ahmed r, baten ma (2006). in vitro propagation of stevia rebaudiana bert in bangladesh, afr. j. biotechnol., 5(13): 1238-1240. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (1), pp. 001-010, january, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper prospects and challenges of seed sector privatisation patrick malope department of agricultural economics, education and extension botswana college of agriculture, gaborone, botswana. e-mail: pmalope@bca.bw. tel: +267-3650100 or +267-72591713. fax: +267-3928753. accepted 08 november, 2018 african countries embarked on privatisation of their seed industries in the 1980s as part of the structural adjustment programmes. botswana however, chose not to privatise its seed production services at that time. this paper examines the prospects and challenges for embarking on seed sector privatisation in developing countries using botswana as a case study. the study found that the present system is such that the department of agricultural research (dar) through its seed multiplication unit (smu) dominates seed production and distribution, especially for open pollinated varieties. this has stifled private sector participation in seed production and distribution. the present system has a number of shortcomings such as the provision of poor quality seed, insufficient monitoring of seed production, unfulfillment of contracts, low returns to dar and limited capacity for seed distribution. challenges facing the drive for privatisation are: free seed distribution, unreliable seed demand, lack of plant breeder’s rights and lack of institutional and policy framework to support private sector participation in the seed sector. however, there are a number of prospects that could stimulate private sector participation in the seed sector. these include government’s renewed interest in the development of the arable sector through initiatives that could stimulate seed demand and the government’s privatisation policy. for the process to succeed it should be followed cautiously and the strategy that promises success is that of contracting out and restructuring of the smu. the government should also embark on institutional reforms and come up with an appropriate seed policy which will guide private sector participation in the seed industry. key words: privatisation, seed, botswana, challenges, prospects. introduction african countries embarked on the process of seed privatisation in the late 1980s as part of the structural adjustment programmes instituted by the international bank for reconstruction and development (ibdr) – world bank. the structural adjustment programme’s main objective was to liberalise markets in order to improve efficiency. in the seed sector, liberalisation involved privatisation of seed production and distribution services. the process of privatisation emanated from the realisation that seed was a very important input in agricultural production, hence the efficiency of both production and marketing were prerequisites for improved agricultural production. as argued by langyintuo et al. (2010) the global food crisis together with the effects of climate change makes it even more important to explore ways of developing and disseminating drought resistant, high yielding crop varieties in order to increase crop productivity. this can only be met if there is an efficient seed sector. there was therefore, a strong belief that this could only be achieved through privatisation of the public seed production and marketing. however, the process of privatising seed production and distribution has not been a smooth one. there are many experiences where privatisation of public seed production and distribution in africa has led to abandonment of all seed production facilities owned by government. in many instances, the private sector has not performed its functions as expected because of many teething problems. chief amongst these being that, the privatised public companies have remained inefficient; lack of market for the private sector and failure by the private sector to engage in unprofitable, but important crops (turner et al., 2001). in countries where the seed sector has been liberalised, we have witnessed a file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org proliferation of private seed companies, with no real improvement in the performance of the seed sector (langyintuo et al., 2010). botswana chose not to privatise its seed production and distribution services at the time when most african countries embarked on the process. the main reason why botswana did not embark on seed privatisation was that, at that time there was fear that the private sector (dominated by multinationals operating outside the country) could not be trusted to supply rural areas where it might be unprofitable to do so. in addition, unlike other african countries which were forced to adopt structural adjustment programmes, it was not the case with botswana. since the 1980s the botswana’s seed sector has grown, albeit at a slow pace. at present there are two multinational seed companies operating in the country. the seed sector is dominated by government and this has stifled the development of the private sector. the botswana’s agricultural sector, especially the crop sub-sector has performed poorly, partly due to low use of improved technologies such as row planting, use of fertilisers and improved seeds. in recent years the government has shown keen interest to develop the agricultural sector, particularly the arable sub-sector. coupled with the desire to privatise some of its services and the need to improve efficiency in the seed sector, government has revisited the issue of privatising the seed production services of the seed multiplication unit (smu) of the department of agricultural research (dar). seed is an essential input in achieving optimum crop productivity. poor access to seed has often been cited as one of the most important constraint to improving crop productivity (pray and ramaswani, 1991). this is supported by the fact that in commercial farms, where the use of improved seed is high, crop productivity can be five (5) times higher than in the communal sector, where there is limited use of improved seed and other modern methods of farming (republic of botswana, 2007). by privatising the seed production and distribution services, government wishes to improve smallholders’ access to improved seeds and hence improve productivity and achieve food security at both the household and national levels. however, government should embark in this process cautiously as there are many instances where the process has failed and led to huge inefficiencies in the sector. the objective of this paper is therefore to determine the prospects and challenges of privatising seed production and distribution services in botswana. this will help botswana and other developing countries intending to privatise their seed industries avoid pitfalls which other african countries have fallen into when trying to privatise their seed industries. the rest of this paper is organised as follows. subsequently, we discuss the methodology used in the study after which we discuss the current situation in seed production and distribution. this is followed by the main shortfalls of the present system. we further discuss the prospects for involving the private sector in seed production and distribution, followed by the challenges facing privatisation of seed production and distribution. the strategy, which should be followed for privatising the seed production and distribution services, is then discussed after which the experiences observed elsewhere are discussed. finally, conclusions and recommendations are given for successful privatisation of the seed production and distribution services of the smu. methodology the main approach to this study was desktop research in which secondary data was collected on seed production and distribution in botswana. in addition, there was extensive stakeholder consultation in order to identify problems of the current system, prospects and challenges facing seed sector privatisation in botswana. the consultations were done through personal interviews in 2009. these stakeholders included among others: ministry of agriculture management, department of crop production, department of agrobusiness promotions, the agricultural hub, department of agricultural research, in particular the smu, national master plan for arable agriculture and dairy development (nampaadd), botswana agricultural marketing board (bamb), private seed companies, agricultural input suppliers and botswana seed grower’s association. the study was undertaken as part of a consultancy project funded by food and agriculture organisation (fao) to assist botswana in privatisation of her seed production and distribution services. current situation in production and distribution of seeds crop breeding and technology release programmes the dar has breeding programmes for cereals (sorghum, pearl millet) and grain legumes (cowpeas and oilseeds). dar also evaluates the following crops for adaptation: maize, wheat, sunflower, mung bean and jugo beans. the main objective of dar is to increase productivity through genetic manipulation and selection. research on these crops emphasises on the development of cultivars which have high yield potential and tolerance to biotic (pests, diseases, parasitic weeds) and abiotic (rainfall, temperature) stresses which are the major production constraints in botswana. varieties are evaluated at several research stations and are also tested on farmers’ fields. breeding plots are not irrigated in order to simulate conditions in most of the farming areas in the country where crop production is mainly rainfed (mpofu, 2010). when enough data has been generated to justify the release of a variety, it is presented before the technology release committee. four sorghum varieties were released in 1995, while two millet varieties were released in 1998. between 1999 and 2009, four cowpea varieties, two bambara nut, and one sorghum variety were released. breeder seed of released varieties is handed over to the basic seed production arm of the smu, which then multiplies the foundation seed into basic seed. currently, the smu is producing eight open pollinated sorghum varieties and one hybrid (bsh1). the smu also produces basic seed of one sunflower (russian no. 4), one maize (kalahari early pearl kep), three cowpea, one millet and one mungbean variety (mpofu, 2010). seed production/multiplication and distribution the smu multiplies the foundation seed into certified seed using contract growers, most of whom are located in southern botswana and in the area around gaborone, as farmers are required to transport the seeds to the smu headquarters, located in gaborone. the contracted farmers are provided with start up seeds. farmers are expected to sell the seeds to smu. the smu is responsible for carrying out all the necessary seed quality control activities. after buying the seeds from the growers and processing them into certified seed, the smu is supposed to sell the seeds to retailers for distribution. major institutions in seed production and distribution botswana agricultural marketing board (bamb) bamb is a parastatal under the ministry of agriculture (moa) whose mandate is to buy all scheduled produce from local producers, while at the same time ensuring that adequate supplies exit for sale to customers at affordable prices. the bamb also acts as a one stop agricultural service centre to the farming community and customers alike by performing the following functions; buying, packaging, processing and marketing locally produced grains, pulses; selling a wide range of animal feeds, agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and packaging materials. the bamb has eleven branches strategically placed in crop producing areas throughout the country. bamb, imports hybrid maize and sorghum, groundnut and vegetable seed from south africa and it is also the sole supplier of seedco seeds in botswana. cooperatives cooperatives are strategically placed in the rural areas and hence could act as seed distributors in remote areas where there are no bamb branches. however, cooperatives have not been able to perform this task, mainly because of poor management. thus, very little if any seed is distributed through this channel. private seed companies there are currently two private seed companies producing and distributing seeds: seedco international and savannah seeds. these companies supply mainly imported hybrid seeds as they do not compete directly with the smu which supplies open pollinated varieties (opvs). seedco has contract growers in botswana, but no longer processes the seed in botswana. instead the seed produced in the country is sent outside for processing and part of it is later re-imported into the country. similarly, savannah seeds also has contract growers in the country and mainly specialises on hybrid seeds, but also produces opvs mainly for export. the company processes the seeds in the country and sells a small fraction, while the bulk is exported because of limited local market. other agricultural input suppliers there are a few agricultural input suppliers who also sell seeds. the seeds sold are mainly for vegetables, speciality crops and other horticultural crops. these suppliers source their seed mainly through imports, particularly from south africa. government extension services the government, through the department of crop production (dcp), occasionally distributes seeds through its extension services. this occurs in instances where seed is offered free as a drought recovery measure or as part of government programme to improve crop productivity. shortfalls of the current system un-fulfilment of contracts by growers as indicated in table 1, the contracted growers have not been able to produce the amount they were contracted in most years. it was only in one season, the 1999/00 planting season that the contracted growers were able to produce more than (114%) of what they were contracted to produce (for maize only). at times the amount supplied has been less than 10% as in the case of millet in the 2000/2001 planting season. when seed growers were asked about their failure to supply the amount contracted to them, they mentioned two main reasons, first they indicated that seed production depends on weather conditions and other factors such as pests which are beyond their control. secondly, they indicated that at times they produce enough seeds but end up selling to local bamb depots in order to avoid transport costs of taking the seeds to smu. moreover, in some cases the price differentials between the smu and bamb are so small that they are more than table 1. seed production for selected crops versus the amount contracted by smu. crop cropping season amount contracted amount supplied percentage supplied (tonnes) (tonnes) sorghum 1999/00 1888.8 869.96 46 2000/01 1188 167 14 2001/02 1430 437 31 2008/09 1500 275.88 18 maize 1999/00 1052 1201.56 114 2000/01 1045 698 67 2001/02 1462.5 1248 85 2008/09 3080 1456.4 47 millet 1999/00 64 2.21 3 2000/01 32 0.14 0.4 2001/02 50 11.52 23 2008/09 75 0.9 1.2 cowpeas 1999/00 101.5 64.67 35 2000/01 120 49 41 2000/02 130 70 54 2008/09 241 68.98 27 source: seed multiplication unit. data for the years 2002/03 to 2006/07 for all crops not available. off-stetted by the transport cost to smu and hence the contracted growers prefer to sell to bamb where they do not have to pay additional transport costs. poor quality seed the quality of seeds supplied by contracted growers has at times not been impressive due to lack of monitoring on the part of smu. this has resulted in contracted growers supplying the smu with poor quality seeds. as stated earlier, the contracted growers are not able to supply the smu with the amount they were contracted to supply. due to the fact that the contracted growers always fail to meet the demand by smu, the latter end up sourcing seeds through imports and at times importing grain and turning it into seed. this compromises the quality of the seeds and hence production at farm level. in addition, the dar has been supplying the contracted growers with basic seed that has been recycled for over fifty (50) years. this has led to poor quality seed being produced by contracted growers as the quality of the commercial seed depends on the quality of foundation seed. the dar has released very few varieties for farmers to choose from. at present there are only nine sorghum varieties, including relatively new opvs. in addition three groundnut varieties were released in 1998, making the total number of varieties available to four. unfortunately, seed of these varieties is not readily available to farmers and the old sorghum varieties are reportedly disappearing from farmers’ fields. high costs of multiplication and distribution the smu is currently multiplying seeds at a very high cost compared to the price at which it sells the seeds. as shown in table 2, the smu is unable to cover its operational costs from the sale of seed for all crops under consideration as indicated by the negative gross margins. for all the crops, the smu price is actually below the price at which it buys the seeds from contracted growers. gross margin was also calculated based on two prices, the actual smu price and the commercial price and the results of such analysis are shown in table 2. these results show that in both cases gross margin is negative. it is important to note that fixed costs are not included and hence the losses could have been greater. on the revenue side, one item which is omitted is the sale of the unsuitable seeds, however this is expected to be minimal and hence not to alter the results significantly. thus, as argued by jaffee and srivastava (1994), some public entities like the smu have been a major financial liability to their governments. tripp and rohrbach (2001) supports this argument by maintaining that the costs of multiplication and distribution are high and there is no full cost recovery for seed multiplication units such as the smu. limited capacity for seed distribution as earlier mentioned the smu is mandated to produce seeds and sell to retailers, notably the bamb and cooperatives throughout the country. however, several table 2. gross margins analysis for selected crops. item/crop sorghum maize millet cowpeas cost per ton pula pula pula pula uncertified seeds 1,140.00 1,140.00 1,140.00 3,775.00 pesticides 302.50 427.53 302.50 302.50 seed pockets 500.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 materials 32.50 32.50 32.50 32.50 storage 6,000.00 6,000.00 6,000.00 6,000.00 maintenance 2,500.00 2,500.00 2,500.00 2,500.00 labour 342.58 266.50 32.71 428.60 total variable costs 10,817.58 10,866.53 10,507.71 13,538.60 revenue per ton sales at smu price 1,000.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 2,500.00 sales at commercial price 1,630.00 2670.00.00 1,1630.00 na gross margin/ton -9,817.58 -9,866.53 -9,507.71 -11,038.60 gross margin/ton (at commercial prices) –9, 187.58 –7, 196.53 –7, 196.53 na source: smu, 2003/04. key: na – not available. factors limit bamb and private sector participation in seed distribution. chief amongst these factors is the government’s programme of free seed distribution. for example, as mentioned by mpofu (2010), the bamb did not distribute any seed from the smu during the 2008/2009 planting season because all the seeds from the smu were distributed by the extension services of moa. thus, free seed distribution programs have discouraged the development of wholesale and retail seed trade channels (tripp, 2000; kugbei, 2003). the smu also sells seed directly to farmers, especially in areas around gaborone and hence retailers can not compete with the smu as they have to put a mark-up to smu price. lastly, the performance of cooperatives who were supposed to distribute seeds in remotest parts of the country has been very poor. many have not been able to do so because the majority have collapsed and those that remain are not able to perform this function adequately. in addition, there have been instances where the government extension services have failed to supply farmers with free seeds on time. limited market for the private sector the current arrangement has stifled the development of the private sector due to a number of reasons. first, the smu has taken up the limited market available, leaving the private sector with very limited market. this is because the seeds sold by smu are sold at subsidised prices and hence the private sector cannot compete. secondly, there are many instances whereby government offers free seeds through the smu, especially as a drought relief measure or as part of government programmes to increase crop production, such as the current integrated support programme for arable agriculture development (ispaad). the issuance of free seeds means that the private sector is left with very limited market, notably commercial farmers who prefer to use hybrid seeds, which are not provided through smu. some private seed companies who produce opvs choose to export them as they are not able to compete with the smu. all these mean that the private sector is left with a very limited market, warranting participation uneconomic in terms of setting up both production and processing facilities. as argued by tripp and rohrbach (2001), the issuance of free seeds leads to reluctance of the private sector in investing in quality seeds due to uncertainty about the consistency of seed demand. the private sector has therefore concentrated on supplying seeds which the smu does not produce. as argued by tripp and rohrbach (2001), several multinational seed companies have entered national markets only to retreat a few years after disappointing sales. this happened with one multinational company which was producing and processing opvs in botswana, but had to abandon its production and processing because of limited market and competition with the state seed company (smu). the said company is currently producing and processing hybrid seed outside the country. thus, the private sector has chosen to supply hybrids seeds because they are not offered for free and the smu does not concentrate on their production. prospects for involving the private sector in seed production and distribution privatisation policy for botswana one of the major prospects regarding privatisation of seed production and distribution services is that the government of botswana (gob) has adopted a privatisation policy through government paper no.1 of 2000. according to gob’s privatisation policy, privatisation is broadly defined as encompassing all measures and policies aimed at strengthening the role of the private sector in the economy. privatisation is also narrowly defined as the transfer of ownership of public enterprises to private buyers. it covers a wide range of different policy actions resulting in private sector involvement in economic activities that have previously been performed by the public sector (republic of botswana, 2000). however, it should be made clear that privatisation does not involve government discarding any of its core responsibilities for safety and welfare of its citizens. privatisation is broadly defined as encompassing all the measures and policies aimed at strengthening the role of the private sector in the economy (republic of botswana, 2000). thus, in terms of policy, privatisation of seed production and distribution services is well catered for. initiatives that could stimulate seed demand there are several initiatives that the government is currently undertaking or planning to undertake that could stimulate the demand for seed and hence the prospects for increased private sector participation in seed production and distribution. these initiatives are discussed as thus explained. national master plan for arable agriculture and dairy development (nampaadd) nampaadd was instituted in 2002 and its major objectives are to improve dry-land arable agriculture, irrigated agriculture and dairy farming. under rain fed agriculture, the components of the programme include increasing the minimum farm size to at least 150 ha to ensure economic viability (average farm sizes are presently 4 ha in the communal sector and 100 ha in the commercial sector, (malope, 2009). the main objective of nampaadd is therefore to increase the area under cultivation and hence increase seed demand and therefore the prospects for private sector participation in the provision of inputs including seeds (republic of botswana, 2002). nampaadd also wishes to increase area under irrigation for both field and horticultural crops, through the use of both fresh water and urban waste water. thus, nampaadd has the potential to increase the area under cultivation; hence seed demand and therefore the prospects for private sector participation in the seed industry. integrated support programme for arable agriculture development (ispaad) the ispaad programme was instituted in the 2008/2009 planting season and its main objectives are to: increase grain production; promote food security at household and national levels; commercialise agriculture through mechanisation, facilitate access to farm inputs (including seeds) and credit; and improve extension outreach. the programme offers among other things, free seeds up to a maximum amount which can be used to plant 16 ha. for hectarage over and above 16 ha, farmers are given 50% subsidy on the cost of seed. the seeds offered are opvs of major grains supplied by smu. farmers who wish to buy hybrids are also offered 50% subsidy on the cost of the seed (ministry of agriculture, 2009). the programme has the potential to increase seed demand as demonstrated by the fact that during its first year of operation area planted increased by almost three folds. this was partly due to the fact that the programme also offers subsidies on complementary inputs such as ploughing, planting and fertilisers. the most important complementary input offered is free ploughing and planting up to a maximum of 5 ha and 50% subsidy on additional 11 ha. the ispaad programme is open to all farmers irrespective of their resource endowments and size. the programme therefore has the potential to increase seed demand in the country and hence the prospects for private sector participation in provision farm inputs including seeds. zambezi agro-industrial project government is planning to increase the area under crop production by tapping some water from the zambezi river. the plan is to increase area under irrigated farming to about 20,000 hectares and this includes arable production. currently, all smu seeds are planted under rain fed conditions and the expectations are that part of the land will be used for seed production under irrigated conditions. this project also has the potential to increase seed demand and hence private sector participation in seed production and distribution. other initiatives to improve arable production the ministry of agriculture is currently undertaking new initiatives with the view of improving the performance of the agricultural sector. such initiatives include the agricultural infrastructure development initiative (aidi) and botswana contributory agricultural insurance scheme (bcais). the aidi calls for provision and improvement in infrastructure in the farming areas; this include roads, telecommunications, electricity and water. this will definitely decrease transaction costs for farmers and hence their profits and area under arable production. challenges facing privatisation of seed production and marketing free seed distribution the government has been involved with free seed distribution for opvs, either as a drought recovery measure or as a means to increase crop production. free seed distribution does not only create an artificial demand for seed, but also limits the market available for the private sector. this is demonstrated by the fact that currently private sector participation in seed production and distribution is limited to the supply of hybrid seeds which the smu does not supply. as noted by tripp and rohrbach (2001), the strategy for free seed distribution is one of the most important constraint to seed system development. free seed programs increase demand for seed, but the private sector remains reluctant to invest in producing good quality seeds due to uncertainty about consistency of seed demand. free seed distribution programmes also discourage the development of wholesale and retail seed trade channels. companies prefer to sell to large single buyers as demonstrated by seedco which sells to bamb. unreliable demand for seed botswana is a drought prone country and this does not only disrupt seed production, but also demand. as a result of highly variable rainfall, area under cultivation in rain fed arable agriculture fluctuates widely. this causes unreliability in the demand for seeds. for profitable private sector participation, the private sector needs to be assured that they will have a stable market for their products. thus, a major challenge facing private sector participation in seed production and distribution is lack of reliable market. moreover, the culture or practise of using saved seeds which is widely practiced in botswana limits the demand for improved seeds (mpofu, 2010). lack of plant breeders rights another challenge facing private sector participation in seed production and distribution is lack of intellectual property rights (ipr) in the country. technologically superior firms prefer to operate in an environment where their investment is protected by intellectual property rights. in the seed industry these rights are in the form of plant breeders’ rights and provide breeders and research programs with a means to limit access to the varieties they develop and to gain income from the commercial sale of their products. in effect, these rights, insofar as they can be enforced, allow public and private researchers to obtain larger returns on their investments. this increases the likelihood and level of future investment in variety development. ipr also help ensure returns on investment made in developing markets for particular varieties. lack of ipr is therefore a barrier to private sector involvement in variety development and seed production (tripp et al., 2006). lack of institutional and policy framework for private sector participation the present institutional arrangement in which the smu is both the producer and the certifier of seeds is not conducive to an efficient seed industry. the seed production and distribution services should be separated from the legislative framework for an efficient seed industry. thus, one can not be judge and a jury at the same time if the process is to be transparent. in addition there is no seed policy to guide the private sector participation in seed production and distribution. for an efficient private sector participation in seed production and distribution, there must be clear guidelines that direct the private sector in the performance of its services. moreover, although the government has adopted privatisation policy since 2000, there is no accompanying legislation to help in the implementation of this policy. this has stifled privatisation of goods and services provided by government, including seed production and distribution. the strategy to follow for privatisation of seed production and distribution there are several strategy options that the government can follow in privatising seed production and distribution services of the smu (turner et al., 2001; rob, 2000). it must be noted that no ideal structure exists for the national seed system. an efficient system should involve both the public and private sector participation in the industry. policy makers should therefore devise policies and investments that lead to the two sectors complementing each other (jaffee and srivastava, 1994). leasing smu assets under this arrangement, government retains the ownership of the smu and other assets involved in seed production and multiplication and simply leases them out to a private operator who will run the seed production and multiplication on his/her own account. the private operator assumes commercial risk of operation and maintenance and thus, has incentives and obligations to reduce costs and maintain long-term value of assets. fees are normally linked to performance and revenue generated. the leasing of government facilities to private companies may be appropriate particularly to seed processing plants, which often operate below their capacity, especially when government is the contracting authority. plant can therefore be leased on medium to long term basis to the private sector. this approach allows private companies to make good use of past investments. however, it may present management problems and it should probably be used only as a transient solution until companies have sufficient confidence or resources to acquire their own facilities (turner et al., 2001). moreover, full privatisation can not be achieved through leasing of smu facilities alone. leasing should be complemented by other strategies, such as contracting out. in addition, the smu or government will need some of these facilities for production of basic seeds and certification. selling of assets/ transfer of ownership this can either involve selling of assets to a single buyer or to several buyers. when selling to a single buyer, the new owner buys all the assets of smu (plant, machinery, equipment and stock) but does not buy the smu itself. the new owner is therefore not unencumbered by any of the smu liabilities and obligations such as its contractual obligations to its staff, its suppliers (seed growers) and its customers (turner et al., 2001). the assets of smu can also be sold to different buyers, but this may not be appropriate because the smu assets as stated earlier are not many and are located in one place and are immovable. selling the assets of an existing public institution such as smu to a private company could be effected either through the creation and public offer of shares or by buying of smu. the assets could be sold to existing or new seed companies. for instance, contracted seed growers may wish to form a company of their own which will process the seed. however, the seed processing and multiplication facilities of the smu are very old and it might be difficult to find a prospective buyer for them. in addition, government might need these facilities for the production of basic/foundation seed and certification and testing. in any case, before considering this route, government should hire professional valuers to value the smu assets as there are no proper valuation records or purchase prices and the time in which the assets were purchased. contracting out and restructuring of the smu contracting out is perhaps the most widely used method of privatisation (turner et al., 2001). under this strategy the government retains ownership and control of the activity, but contracts out to the private sector the production of goods and services. in the case of seed production, government would maintain control over seed production, but would contract out to the private sector the actual production and multiplication of seeds. the selection of private sector companies is normally based on competitive bidding process through invitation of tenders. the government must set service level standards and determine specifications with regard to quality, quantity and timeliness within which seeds should be produced. the successful bidders are required to follow these specifications. this is perhaps the easiest strategy to follow especially during the early days of privatisation. the strategy will ensure that the right varieties are supplied and in correct quantities. a number of commercial seed companies could be contracted to supply seeds to government. this strategy will also not negate the government’s commitment to increase arable production through the issuance of free or subsidised inputs, including seeds. government can buy seeds from contracted companies and this will assure companies of a reliable market and hence increase their investment, thereby leading to the development of a vibrant seed industry in the country. experiences elsewhere having dealt with a number of strategy options which the government could follow when privatising the seed production and marketing services of the smu, it is perhaps logical to briefly summarise experiences elsewhere. as mentioned earlier, a number of developing countries embarked on the process of privatisation in the later 1980s and early 1990s. this involved the removal of public monopolies which dominated the pre-privatisation era. in many countries, we have witnessed the proliferation of private companies. however, the seed sectors in these countries have remained inefficient. langyintuo et al. (2010) mentions a number of bottlenecks which inhibits efficient private sector participation in the seed industry in eastern and southern africa. these constraints include policy bottle necks in the form of lengthy varietal release process and trade restrictions and establishment bottlenecks which manifests themselves in the form of high cost of establishment, lack of access to credit and manpower constraints. the other constraints are related to production, such as lack of access to germplasm, lack of production credit and expensive production equipment. marketing also poses problems in the privatised seed industry due to lack of contractual agreements at retail levels and poor rural road infrastructure. lastly, there are demand bottlenecks resulting from low adoption rates and difficulties in estimating demand. thus, privatisation of seed production and distribution has not significantly improved the efficiency of the seed sector in eastern and southern africa. conclusions and recommendations private sector participation in botswana’s seed industry is limited due to a variety of reasons, chief amongst them being the dominance of the smu. the seed market, especially for opvs is completely dominated by the smu because the private sector can not compete with it as it sells seeds at highly subsidised prices. the issuance of free seeds through government programmes meant to stimulate crop production has also stifled the development of a vibrant private sector in the seed industry. the present system has a number of problems such as unfulfillment of contracts by contracted growers. this often leads to importation of grain and turning it into grains, resulting in poor quality seed, leading to poor crop production. this limits access to good quality seeds especially by small-holder farmers. privatisation of the botswana seed sector is faced with a number of challenges. one of these is lack of institutional and policy framework to support private sector participation in seed production and distribution. although, there is no legislation preventing private sector participation in seed production and distribution, the current arrangement where there is no proper legislation to support the private sector inhibits its growth. the other challenge is lack of policy on plant breeders’ rights which discourages private firms from investing in variety development as their intellectual property rights are not protected. however, there are a number of prospects for increasing private sector participation in the seed sector. the main one being the government’s commitment to increasing arable production through a number of initiatives. these initiatives will surely increase seed demand and hence more market for the private sector. in addition, the government adopted a privatisation policy in 2000, through which government seeks to privatise some of its services which the private sector could provide more efficiently and seed production and distribution has been identified as one of them. there are a number of strategy options that are available for government to follow in its drive to privatise seed production and distribution. each one of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. amongst these strategies, contracting out is the preferred strategy because it is easy to implement and less costly. for privatisation to succeed, government should first create a conducive environment for the private sector through institutional reform. this should include separation of seed production from certification as one can not be a ‘judge and jury’ at the same time. the government should also be clear regarding its practice of issuing free seeds as this creates an artificial demand for seed. thus, for the private sector to participate fully, government has to ensure that there is a stable market for seed. in the early stages of privatisation, government should take the risk of unreliable demand for seed through contracting out as this will ensure that the private sector has a market for seeds. government should also make sure that seeds are supplied to areas where the private sector may find it unprofitable to do so. in conclusion, they are many benefits that the government could reap through privatisation of seed production and distribution. these benefits include more access to improved seeds and timely supply of seed. this will increase both crop production and productivity and hence lead to the achievement of botswana’s agricultural policy objectives of food security at both the household and national levels. it must be noted that no ideal structure exists for an efficient national seed system. an efficient seed system should involve the participation of both the public and private sectors in the seed industry. policy makers should therefore devise policies that will lead to the two sectors complementing each other. in addition, when privatising, government should take cognisance of experiences elsewhere where privatisation has not been successful because of a number of bottlenecks. acknowledgements the author acknowledges with gratitude the financial and technical support from the food and agriculture organisation (fao) to botswana’s ministry of agriculture. he also acknowledges all those who participated in this project as interviewees and reviewers of the report from this study. however, the conclusions arrived at here are not necessarily the views of the food and agriculture organisation or the botswana government. references jaffee s, srivastava j (1994). the roles of the private and public sectors in enhancing the performance of seed systems. the world bank research observer, 9(1): 97-117. kugbei s (2003). potential impact of privatisation of seed supply for small farmers in developing countries. j. new seeds, 5(4): 75-86. langyintuo as, mwangi w, diallo ao, macrobert j, dixon j, banziger m (2010). challenges of the maize seed industry in eastern and southern africa. a compelling case for private-public intervention to promote growth. food policy, 35(1): 323-331. malope p (2009). sadc regional agricultural policy (rap) national study for botswana. southern african development community, food, agriculture and natural resources (fanr) and food and agriculture organisation of the united nations. draft final report (unpublished paper). mpofu b (2010). privatisation of seed production services of the seed multiplication unit of the department of agricultural research in botswana. consultancy report for department of agricultural research and food and agriculture organisation (unpublished paper) ministry of agriculture (2009). guidelines for integrated support programme for arable agriculture development (isapaad). department of crop production. ministry of agriculture. pray ce, ramaswami b (1991). a framework of seed policy analysis in developing countries. washington, dc. int. food policy res. inst., p.42. republic of botswana (2007). revised 2004 botswana agricultural census report. central statistics office. government printer, gaborone, p. 216. republic of botswana (2002). national master plan for arable agriculture and dairy development. government white paper no.1 of 2002. ministry of agriculture, government printer. gaborone. republic of botswana (2000). privatisation policy for botswana. government paper no.1 of 2000. ministry of finance and development planning. government printer, gaborone. tripp r (2000). strategies for seed development in sub-saharan africa: a case study of kenya, malawi, zambia and zimbabwe. icrisat working paper series, http:www.icrisat.org/journal/mpii/r2i1/r2i1/strategies.pdf. tripp r, louwaars n, eaton d (2006). plant variety development in developing countries. a report from the field. food policy, 32: 254371. tripp r, rorhach dd (2001) ‘policies for african seed enterprise development’. food policy, 26: 147-161. tripp r, byerlee d (2000) public plant breeding in an era of privatisation, natural resource perspectives. no.57, overseas development institute (odi), department of international development (dfid), 57: 1-4. turner m, kugebi s, bishaw z (2001). privatisation of the seed sector in the near east and north africa. international centre for agricultural research in dry areas (icarda) seed unit, p. 14. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (3), pp. 001-006, march, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper socio-economic analysis of melon production in ifelodun local government area, kwara state, nigeria mohammed, b. t. human resources development department, national centre for agricultural mechanization (ncam), km.20 ilorin-lokoja highway, p. m. b. 1525, ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. e-mail: bolarindemohammed@yahoo.com. accepted 22 october, 2017 this study examined the socio-economic characteristics of melon production in ifelodun local government area, kwara state. primary data were basically used for the study. they were obtained through interview schedule with a well structured questionnaire. a 2-stage random sampling technique was used in selecting the sampling for the study. a total of 120 farming households engaged in melon production were used. data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and budgetary analysis. the result of the socio-economic characteristics shows that melon production is in the hand of aged, married and experienced farmers. farming is the major occupation of the respondent while majority have the ability to read and write. the result of the costs and returns analysis revealed that gross margin was n1, 263.81. while some of the problems were identified as poor yield, water scarcity and non-availability of credit. it is concluded that melon production is viable in the study area, thus credit facilities should be provided so that farmers can get more returns. key words: melon (citrullus colcynthis), melon production, socio-economic analysis, ifelodun. introduction agriculture in nigeria is dominated by small–scale farmers who produce about 80% of the total food requirement (fayinka, 2004). these farmers are characterized by strong dependence on agricultural labour market; little or no forms of savings or storage facilities and cultural practices adopted are highly labour intensive (festus, 2005; fakayode, 2008). the socio– economic and production characteristics of the farmers, inconsistent government policies, the poor infrastructural base, all interact and affect the sector, resulting in low production, high price of food items, inflation, underdevelopment and poverty. if nigeria is ready to go back to agriculture, the problem of poverty, hunger and malnutrition could be alleviated. adequate production of most nigerian staple crops such as cereals, yam, cassava, cash crops and some vegetables like melon which is consumed in many parts of the country, will contribute positively to the agricultural sector. melon (citrillus lanatus), also called honeydew melon, among other vegetables crops plays an important dietary role in any parts of africa. it belongs to cucurbitaceae family. it is grown virtually everywhere in tropical, subtropical and temperate region where rain and irrigation is adequate (messiaen, 1992; tindall, 1983). melon is an important component of most nigerian diets. a valuable vegetable oil is extracted from the seeds, while the ground seed is used to prepare various delicacies including cake and soup. unlike the red juicy flesh of the watermelon variety, the white flesh of melon fruits has a bitter taste and therefore it is not eaten fresh or uncooked (lagoke et al., 1983). melon may be inter-cropped with cassava yam and maize or grown sole (rice et al., 1986). melon is consumed in many parts of nigeria, yet despite its nutritional and commercial valve, its production remains low, even with its good market price, melon is still produced by farmer on a small scale. melon is a crop that is tolerant to a wide range of environmental conditions; it is planted twice in a year in the study area. melon is usually an annual crop grown here in nigeria. it can be planted as early season crop at the beginning of the rain and thus has the advantage of being sold in the market throughout the year. the estimated total production of melon in nigeria in 2003 was 175.34 metric tons (pcu/fmard, 2004) in nigeria, melon is inter-planted with other crops like maize, cassava, pepper, yam etc for maximum utilization of the land and also to increase the returns generated from such a production system. melons being a crop that file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org grow rapidly within a short time provide farmers with quick returns since they are ready for harvest 3 to 4 months after planting: unlike other crops that are harvested after several months or years (langer and hill, 1981). melon is used almost exclusively for its seeds, which have an important role in west africa cookery. melon seeds are high in fat and protein. oil can be extracted from the seeds and the residue can be used for human consumption or as an animal fodder. seeds can be obtained by melon which requires less input such as pesticide than most crops. melon is supposed to be one of the vegetable crops to be produced on a very large scale and even export to some african countries like sudan and ethiopia where the consumption is high, and the extracted yellow oil is in high demand (schippers, 2000).the production of melon calls for a close examination of its socio-economic characteristics. it is for this reason that this research work has to find solution to the following questions: who are the major producers of melon? what are the costs and returns to melon production? what are the constraints involved in melon production? objectives of the study the broad objective of this study is to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers associated with melon production in ifelodun local government area, kwara state. the specific objectives are to: 1. highlight the socio –economic characteristics of the farmers growing melon; 2. determine the costs and returns to melon production; 3. highlight the constraints faced by farmers in melon production. research methodology this study was carried out in ifelodun local government area of kwara state, nigeria. ifelodun is the largest local government area in kwara state with an estimated population of about 206,042 km 2 and an estimated total land area of about 3,435 km 2 (npc,2006; kwsmi, 2002). the area is located between latitude7°45’n and 9°30’e and longitude 2°30’e and 6°35’e. it is characterized by dry and wet season. the annual rainfall ranges between 1000 and 1500 mm. average temperatures between 30°c and humidity range from 35 to 60%. the major source of livelihood and occupation of the people in the area is farming. farming is traditional in nature with emphasis on the cultivation of crops such as sorghum, cassava, yam, maize and melon (kwsmi, 2002; mohammed, 2008). melon is one of the crops majorly grown among farmers in the area. a two stage random sampling techniques was used in selecting the sample for the study. the first stage involved a random selection of 12 towns and villages from the local government area using the kwara state village listing as sample frame. the second stage involved a random selection of 10 farmers from the selected towns and villages, a total of 120 farming households growing melon from the local government was used for the study. the source of data used for this study was basically primary. this involved the use of an interview schedule with a structured questionnaire administered to the farmers. a total of 120 farmers were selected from the farmers growing melon in the study area with the help of the agricultural extension agent working in the selected villages and towns. data were collected based on the socio-economic variables such as age, sex, educational status, income, costs and returns and constraint faced by the farmers. the response of these farmers forms the primary data used. descriptive statistics and budgetary analysis were used to analyze data collected. this involved the use of frequency, ratio and percentages while budgetary analysis was used to analyze the costs and returns to melon production. this is given as: gm = gr – tvc where: gm = gross margin, gr = gross return, tvc = total variable cost. results and discussion the social factors of interest in this study were age distribution of the farmer, marital status, family size, level of education, occupation, farm size and family members that help on the farm. it has been represented in frequency tables and shown in table1. age is an important determinant of social-economic status of a population. people wear in energy as they advance in age. also age has effect on level of awareness and on agricultural production. older people are not willing to adopt innovations in agriculture because they believe their forefathers practiced farming successfully. but, the older the farmer, the better is his understanding of the social, climatic and economic factors that affect farming and the more experienced is the farmers. younger farmers are likely to adopt new innovation faster than the older ones. the study revealed that majority of the respondents (81.67%) are married. this shows that the respondents are responsible according to the societal standard and therefore are likely to have some experience of life. the study further revealed that more than half of the melon farmers (69.17%) in the surveyed area can read and write. education is regarded as an investment in human capital which is able to raise the skill and quality of the man, narrow his information gaps and increase his allocative efficiency thereby leading to more productive performance (patel and anthonio, 1981). therefore, penetration of new ideas and adoption of new innovation and technology into the society in the study area will be easy. this will in turn increase yield, income and agricultural production in general. it was also revealed from the study that majority of the respondents (59.17% ) are full-time farmers, while others engaged in other occupations apart from farming ranging from civil servant, schooling and artisan such as (mechanics, carpenters, tailors bricklayers e.tc). the implication of this is that, instead for the farmers to use table 1. socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. characteristics frequency percentage age (years) 21-30 8 6.67 31-40 33 27.50 41-50 57 47.50 > 50 22 18.33 total 120 100 marital status married 98 81.67 single 13 10.83 divorced 3 2.50 windowed 6 5.00 total 120 100 education no education 37 30.83 primary 41 34.17 secondary 29 24.17 tertiary 13 10.83 total 120 100 occupation farming 71 59.17 civil servant 13 10.83 self employed/artisan 31 25.83 schooling 2 1.67 applicants 3 2.50 total 120 100 farming experience 1-5 18 15.00 6-10 39 32.50 11-15 48 40.00 16-20 12 10.00 21-25 3 2.50 total 120 100 family size 1-5 32 26.67 6-10 63 52.50 11-15 18 15.00 > 15 7 5.83 total 120 100 family member 1-6 89 74.17 6-10 27 22.50 11-15 4 3.33 total 120 100 source: field survey. table 2. average costs and returns per hectare for sole melon. items of costs/returns total melon yield (kg 57.70 gross return ( n ) 3,750.50 less variable cost ( n ) labour 2,296.78 seed 120.24 fertilizer 69.67 total variable cost ( n ) 2,486.69 gross margin 1,263.81 source: field survey. back the money or income realized from farming into investment in agriculture, they invest the extra income from farming in other business because they believe that farming is not an occupation that gives quick returns. on the other hand, they consider that the time lag between the planting and the harvesting period can be used to run other types of business, which will serve as sources of income to sustain them during this period. that is, to cater for security and diversification of production resources so as to guide against the risk and uncertainties of agriculture. the result further shows that majority of the farmers had between 6 and 15 years of melon production experience with an average of 11 years of experience. it is believe that majority of the farmers are experienced melon producers. this result also revealed that farmers in the area are more experience in melon production. also, since experience is gained with age and farming being the major occupation of most of the respondents, therefore, the number of the year of experience in farming can be linked with the age of the farmer. the older the farmer, the more experience he is and the better is his understanding of farming. the average family size among the 120 respondents was found to be 8. this implies that the farmer will have to be responsible for the feeding, sheltering education, health care and other living expenses of their dependants. these expenses account for low saving at the end of every harvest season. also, the size of the family sometimes determine the size of land cultivated and the available work forces in the family, which may also determine the yield and net farm income of the farmer. from the study, only an average of 5 family members usually help on the farm this lead to the fact that more of children in the areas now go to school only available for work on weekends and holidays. unlike what it used to be, wives now engaged in offfarm occupations such as trading and food processing and no longer regularly help their husband on the farm. this implies that large household size no longer translates into more family labour, which played a less important role in melon production than hired labour. about 88.33% of the respondents were small holders having between 0.01 and 3.0 ha with an average farm size of 1.79 ha per household. farmers in this category have their farms in various locations. the implication of this finding is that farmers in this category may incur high cost of production in terms of hired labour cost, transportation cost and also untimely scheduling of labour rise resulting from non-consolidation of farms, use of primitive tools. this may likely slowdown the pace of farm management, which will in turn, have a negative effect on output. the total farm size of the respondents is 215.10 ha. farm budgeting technique was used to analyze the costs and returns (table 2). the prevailing market price was used to calculate the cost of variable inputs used, total returns and net farm income so as to calculate the costs and returns. the labour used consists of family, hired and group labour. the wage rate varies slightly depending on the operation to be performed on the farm. the average wage rate of n46.87 per man-hour was used to calculate the total labour cost. seeds used were mainly obtained from the market. an average market price of n65 per kg of melon seed was used in estimating the total cost of seeds. the difference between the gross return and the total cost of production gave the gross margin which was calculated to be n1, 263.81 per ha. this implies that melon production is profitable in the study area. problems associated with melon production all the farmers sampled had the primary objective of profit maximization. this is as a result of the fact that melon is mainly not consumed but serves also as soil protector. table 3 explains the limiting factors of melon production in the area. the processing of melon after harvesting starts with breaking of fruits after they have been gathered together table 3. problems of melon production. factors frequency percentage scooping 40 21.86 water 49 26.78 labour 27 14.75 yield 31 16.94 credit 23 12.57 farm inputs 13 7.10 total 183 * 100 source: field survey.*multiple responses. during harvesting. after breaking the fruits, they are left for a period of one to two weeks depending on the weather condition and severity of the breakage for the fruits to soften for easy scooping. high temperature favor early softens. scooping of melon from the fruits is labour intensive and very heavy to carry from one place to another. it is difficult to transport the melon to source of water particularly when large quantities are involved. this problem of scooping scares and discourages prospective melon growers. water is required for washing melon seed after harvesting and is highly labour intensive. according to some of the respondents, if one is not very close to a source of water, it will be very difficult for one to wash it because it will require transporting it to where water is available this has been one of the problems affecting melon production. other problems found to be confronting farmers include labour. family labours are mostly used. but when hired labours are used, the amount charged per manday is too high. this is because labour demand coincides with limited labour supply during melon production season. poor yield is another problem military against melon production. problem of poor yield may be as a result of inadequate fertilizer, none use of hybrid seed, late planting period and poor agronomic practices. the result shows that credit is one of the constraints to melon production. since the respondents are small-scale farmers, they have low capital base and therefore cannot afford the high cost of inputs. according to the respondents, formal institution do not normally give credit to melon farmers may be because melon is considered not to be popularly grown and given adequate recognition. the problem of inaccessibility of the farmers to the modern inputs such as fertilizer, improved seeds and machineries, hence they made use of the traditional tools which limit their output and farm size. conclusion and recommendations melon production occupies a very important position in vegetable crop production in ifelodun local government of kwara state, in terms of number of farmers that engaged in its cultivation and its economic value. the ease of cultivation and favourable bimodal rainfall pattern allow for its growth twice in a year. this is a unique characteristic among other crops grown in the local government area. the results from the costs and return analysis revealed that melon production is profitable that is farmers were making profit even through, the level of profit made was low. melon production potential in terms of yield and quality of the production has not been fully exploited. consequently, there is still deficit supply of melon in the country. this could be adduced to the in accessibility of the farmers to the appropriate modern technology (fertilizer, improved seeds), needed machineries, lack of credit facilities, high cost of labour and lack of other necessary social infrastructure facilities. it is therefore imperative for individual, cooperative bodies, government and non-governmental organization to assist the farmers in these areas of weakness, in order to boost melon production in nigeria. based on the result from the findings, the following policy recommendations are suggested: 1. all existing credit facilities and schemes put in place to assist farmers should be strengthened so that farmers can have access to soft loan, and such loans should be interest free with no stringent condition so that farmers can expand their scale of production; 2. the agricultural development projects (adp) through the extension departments and other relevant government agencies should made hybrid varieties of melon available to farmers. these, the farmers are willing to use if available for high yielding and returns; 3. farmers should organize themselves in to a formidable cooperative group for collective sourcing of farm inputs and credit at a cheaper rate; 4. farmers should be encouraged to keep farm records of their activities through the help of the extension services of adps, which should try to extend its services to the majority; 5. government through all its agencies should make timely provision of machine (tractor) available to farmers for hire at reduced price; 6. private, public establishment and non-governmental organization should intensify efforts into melon production awareness, utilization, processing and extraction of oil from the seeds, and incorporation of the cake into animal feeds; 7. government should expand the provision of its social amenities such as good feeder road, water through boreholes so as to reduce water problems during washing and ease problem of transportation. references fayinka fa (2004). food security in nigeria: challenges under democratic dispensation. paper presented at the 9 th armti annual lecture held on march 24. festus a (2005). unveiling kwara’s white farmers. sunday punch 17 th july, p. 35. fakayode bs, babatunde ro, ajao r (2008). productivity analysis of cassava-based production systems in the guinea savannah: case study of kwara state, nigeria. american-eurasian j. sci. res., 3 (1): 33-39, idosi publication. kwara state ministry of information (2002). kwara state diary 2002, pp. 1-10. lagoke std, chadra-singh dt, ologunde oo (1983). reemergence of chemical weed control in egunsi melon in the southern guinea savanna of nigeria. j. crop-prot., 2(2): 235-242. langer rhm, hill gd (1989). agric plants press syndicate of the university press, p. 212. messiaen cm (1992). the tropical vegetable garden. macmillan press limited, p. 265. mohammed bt (2008). economics analysis of melon (citritillus lanatus) production in kwara state. proceeding of 42 nd annual conference agric society of nigeria (asn) held on 19 th – 23 rd october at abakaliki, pp. 57-58. npc (2006). national population commission census 2006. patel au, anthonio qbo (1981). an analysis of selected factors that influence the adoption of improved practice among tobacco farmers in western state of nigeria. agric. sci. j., 8(2): 121-131. pcu/fmard (2004). project coordinating unit and federal ministry of agric crop production data in nigeria. rice rp, rice lw, tindall hf (1986). fruit and vegetable production in africa. macmillan publishers limited, london and basigstoke, p. 265. schippers rr (2000). african indigenous vegetables. an overview of the cultivated species. national resour, institute, university of greenwich, p. 161. tindall h (1983). vegetable in the tropics 1 st edition education limited hampshire, p. 158. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (4), pp. 001-005, april, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper legal and institutional constraints to kenya-uganda cross-border bean marketing l. w. mauyo1*, j. r. okalebo2, r. a. kirkby3, r. buruchara3, m. ugen4 and r.o. musebe5 1 kenya agricultural productivity project (kapp), district service unit, p.o. box 4500, eldoret, kenya. 2 department of soil science, moi university, p.o. box 1125, eldoret, kenya. 3 ciat-africa, p.o. box 6247, kampala, uganda. 4 namulonge agricultural and animal production research institute (naari), p.o. box 7084, kampala, uganda. 5 department of development studies, moi university p.o.box 7670, eldoret, kenya. accepted 05 august, 2015 this study investigated the legal and institutional constraints to kenya-uganda cross-border bean marketing. common bean is an important legume crop in east and central africa, providing protein, calories and cash income for rural households. there is high potential in cross-border bean trade between kenya and uganda. however, the complex methods of certification, stamp fees and institutional restrictions are some of the main reasons for bribery at border crossings and informal crossing points. the objectives of the study were to identify and assess the legal and institutional constraints, which lead to informal bean trade in the border districts of kenya and uganda. purposive and systematic random sampling methods were used to select the study districts and bean traders respectively. one hundred and six respondents were interviewed using structured questionnaires. descriptive statistics and statistical package for social scientists (spss) were used to analyse the data. the results revealed lengthy documentation procedures, high clearance fees, harassment by public officials and customs authorities, and instability of foreign exchange rates. high transportation costs due to poor roads and lack of storage facilities at border points increase business costs. annual average of the formal bean exports from uganda to kenya from 1990 to 1998 accounted for only 15.2% of the total bean exports, while 83.7% was informal. in the year 2001 formal bean exports accounted for a value of 0.982 us$ million while 2.177 us$ million was informal. the study recommends removal of lengthy clearance procedures, lowering of taxes and strengthening of regional co-operation. key words: bean, cross-border marketing, trade barriers. introduction in kenya, common bean is the most important pulse and second to maize as food crop (gok, 1998). the national annual demand for common bean has been estimated at 500,000 metric tonnes, but the actual annual production is only about 125,000 metric tonnes (muasya, 2001). the total area under bean cultivation in kenya is estimated to be 500,000 ha (gok, 1998) leading to actual bean yield of 250 kg ha -1 partly under mixed cropping. in pure stands, yields of 700kg ha -1 have been reported (songa et al., 1995; muasya, 2001). this yield is low compared to a potential yield of up to 5000 kg ha -1 . such high yields *corresponding author. email: lmauyo@yahoo.com. tel: +254 0722 403226 or +254 0734 891713 have been achieved in other countries, such as mexico under field conditions (muasya, 2001). bean consumption in eastern and southern africa exceeds 50 kilograms per person per year, reaching 66 kg per person in parts of kisii district of kenya (wortmann, 1998) . bean also contributes 30% of the dietary energy in the widespread maize-based cropping systems of mildaltitude areas of eastern and southern africa (wandel and holmboe-ottesen, 1992). bean forms a good source of income for farm families. in uganda, bean is a major source of food security, readily available and popular food to both the urban and rural population. in 1987, food and agriculture organization, (fao) estimated ug-anda’s bean consumption as 29.3 kg per capita (kirkby, 1987). however, recent studies show that the per capita file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org consumption in uganda’s nabongo area is 58 kg (david, 1999) . beans provide about 25% of the total calories and up to 45% of protein intake, of the diet of many ugandans. the crop is also an important source of income in uganda due to the increasing demands both in the domestic and export markets (naro, 2000). it is known that smallholder farmers have adopted some of the released varieties from research institutions. there is inadequate empirical evidence on the bean grain characteristics preferred by consumers. there is also inadequate knowledge about the released cultivars among customers, their marketability and geographical distribution within the region. this study was therefore conducted to investigate the legal and institutional constraints to kenyauganda cross-border bean marketing. the objectives of the study were to identify and assess the legal and institutional constraints, which lead to informal bean trade in the border districts of kenya and uganda. methodology this study was conducted in bungoma and busia districts of western kenya and mbale and kapchorwa districts of eastern uganda between march and june 2002. the study focused on the factors that prohibit traders from entering into or leaving the bean trade in order to be able to determine the relative ease of access into bean marketing. primary and secondary data sources were utilized. the primary data were obtained in a survey from 106 bean traders using structured questionnaires. besides questionnaires, observation and discussions were also used to capture the primary data. a descriptive survey design was adopted to attain the objective of describing problems encountered by bean traders in the study area. to achieve this, the informants who included agricultural extension co-ordinators, kephis officials and customs representatives were used in kenya while in uganda, ciat co-ordinators, naro staff and daos were the informants. the primary data collected included formal export procedures, volumes of beans bought, sold and transported across the borders, their prices, number of buyers and sellers (participants), sources of supply, distance covered and modes of transport. secondary data refer to published information mainly from previous studies on cross-border bean marketing and were only used where pertinent historical information was required. the data mainly used were qualitative, hence requiring descriptive analysis. secondary data were obtained from the governments’ publications such as economic surveys, statistical abstracts of kenya and uganda as well as publications from private institutions. purposive sampling method was used to select the study districts, while systematic random sampling procedure was used to select the traders. the major wholesale and retail markets in the study area were identified and selected. retail traders and wholesalers were identified using the volume of beans they handle. in every market the first respondent was picked arbitrarily and the next respondent was picked by skipping one. legal constraints were the factors analysed to determine the barriers to entry into bean business. descriptive statistics and analytical models (s-c-p) were used to analyse the data using statistical package for social scientists (spss) and microsoft excel computer programs. results and discussion cross-border bean marketing the trade across the kenya-uganda border is composed of both formal (recorded) and informal (unrecorded) trade there are four border points from uganda to ken-ya. these are suam in kapchorwa, lwakhakha in mbale, malaba in tororo and busia in busia districts of kenya and uganda. informal trade thrives at virtually all the above border points despite the existence of physical barriers. this informal trade is particularly significant at suam, malaba and busia border points. the major players in informal trade are women and the youth, who either carry their commodities on bicycles or cross on foot. commodities are carried in small quantities (sometimes as low as 5 kg). however, since this is done repeatedly, the quantities exported end up being significant. it is important to note that informal trade is not only conducted using side-roads. in fact, a significant outflow of commodities through the informal channel was observed during the survey to be occurring at the official crossing points. one key informer was heard commenting that since no tax is levied on exports, there is no urge on the part of the uganda revenue authority/customs officials to record such transactions. participants in cross-border bean trade two groups of market participants are involved in crossborder bean marketing. 1. wholesalers who travel from kenya to uganda to purchase beans and transport them across the four border points. this group of participants handled a sizeable volume of the cross -border bean trade. however, a significant amount of it was informal. 2. uganda exporters who included large-scale producers and export companies who export their beans mainly through busia, malaba and lwakhakha border points. the long distance wholesalers are the major participants in the informal cross -border trade. this group normally travels from kenya to markets in uganda such as mbale, sironko, kapchorwa, tororo and even as far as kasese to purchase beans and transport them to border points using hired lorries. once they reach the border towns, beans are carried across the border by different modes of transport, depending on convenience and volume. at busia border point human labour is used to transport across the border through footpaths to the stores on the kenyan side. others use bicycles and pickups. on malaba and lwakhakha borders, head-load and bicycles are used to cross to kenyan side. kenyan wholesalers, who team up in a group to pay for one store, rent these stores. these bean stocks are accumulated to a reasonable volume in these stores for a week or more. lorries are hired by these long distance wholesalers who transport them to various destinations in kenyan markets such as kitale, nakuru, nairobi, machakos, kitui and mombasa. the uganda exporters purchase their bean stocks from kampala, mbale, kapchorwa, kasese, kabale and kisoro and transport them across the borders of lwakhakha, busia and malaba through formal export channels. table 1. cross-border bean exports and value to kenya: 1990-1998. year formal (mt) % of total value (us$mil.) informal (mt) % of total total (mt) 1990 2,132 24.4 0.97 6,593 75.6 8,725 1991 2,855 13.6 0.84 18,165 86.4 21,022 1992 1,723 4.7 0.52 34,955 95.3 36,678 1993 767 8.6 0.2 8,112 91.4 8,879 1994 3,343 23.9 1.17 10,659 76.1 14,002 1995 678 2.7 0.5 4,663 87.3 5,341 1996 2,442 17.7 11,372 82.3 13,314 1997 2,592 19.6 10,658 80.4 13,250 1998 2,743 21.6 9,944 78.4 12,687 source: agribusiness development center (adc)/ idea project, 2000. table 2. estimated 1999 crossborder bean exports to kenya. volume of beans (metric tones) border point 1999 formal informal total lwakhakha 801 801 malaba 2,245 3,570 5,815 busia 8,132 7,150 15,282 suam source: (agribusiness development center (adc)/ idea project, 2000 onions. (ii). import duty of 3.5% of value of produce. for countries which are members of common market for eastern and southern africa (comesa) pay 90% less than the rate applied to import goods from non –comesa countries. most traders interviewed commented that hcda levy discourages formal cross-border bean trade, because beans attract this levy. this scenario leads most of the bean traders evading formal export procedures and customs duty. however, in an interview with one kephis official at the end of the survey it was established that the levies by hcda have since been withdrawn. formal export procedures the ministry of agriculture animal industry and fisheries (maaif), kampala, uganda is a government body that is responsible for controlling the importation and exportation of plant materials. for any trader to export beans and other plant materials from uganda into kenya, the following documents are required by maaif: 1. plant import permit from the importing country (kenya). 2. phytosanitary certificate charged ush 2,000 or ksh 85 per consignment. 3. letter of request for exportation, indicating the importer, the exporter and their addresses. the kenya plant health inspectorate service (kephis) is the kenya government agency that regulates plant imports and exports. for bean imports to be formally allowed into kenya or out of it, kephis requires a phytosanitary certificate to confirm that the consignment has been inspected in uganda and is free of pests and diseases. other costs that apply are as follows: import duty fee (idf) paid to customs at ksh 5,000 per consignment, depending on weight, for example up to 20 tons the charge is ksh 5, 0. up to 50 kg, the charge is ksh10-20. all these payments go to the kenya revenue authority (kra). at the time of the survey, the kenya customs department was administering two levies; (i). horticultural development authority (hcda) levy, at the rate of ksh1 per kg of product. this is charged on beans, oranges, bananas and volume of cross-border bean trade the formal bean trade across the border of uganda and kenya is small. according to a recent study by ackelloogutu (1997), the annual average of the formal trade figures between kenya and uganda from 1983 to 1993 period may account for less than 12% of the total trade between the two countries, while informal trade constituted about 4.5% of kenya’s national production figures for beans. table 1 shows trends of cross-border formal and informal bean exports to kenya over the period 19901998. analysis of bean exports reveals that formal bean exports from uganda to kenya increased from 2,132 metric tonnes in 1990 to 2,855 metric tonnes in 1991, and then fluctuated between 1,723 metric tonnes in 1992 to 678 metric tonnes in 1995, while informal bean exports increased from 1990 to 1992, decreased in 1993 and fluctuated again up to 1995 (table 1). during the time when formal exports were increasing from 1996 to 1998, informal bean exports were declining. the explanation to this scenario is that the formal bean exports increase was attributed to improved trade relations and the strengthening of the east african common market at the time and the lifting of export ban to kenya. it was noted that nearly 22,000 metric tons of beans were exported through the three border points. busia was ranked first among the three border points in bean exports followed by malaba then lwakhakha. table 2 summarizes the volumes of table 3. estimated annual cross-border bean exports to kenya. border point range (metric tonnes/annum) informal trade as % of total lwakhakha 170-800 100 malaba 4000-6000 41-61 busia 6500-15000 45-47 source: agribusiness development center (adc)/ idea project, 2000. table 4. crossborder bean exports to kenya and value: 2000. suam busia malaba lwakhakha total formal volume (mt) 239 17,668 107 702 18,716 formal value (us$ mil.) 0.047 4.03 0.035 0.172 4.284 informal volume (mt) 378 11,640 1,733 1,322 15,073 informal value us$ mil.) 0.036 2.20 0.535 0.313 3.08 total volume (mt) 617 29,308 1,840 2,024 33,789 total value (us$ mil.) 0.083 6.23 0.57 0.485 7.37 source: foodnet, 2002. table 5. cross-border bean exports to kenya and value: 2001 suam busia malaba lwakhakha total formal volume (mt) 0 2,868 261 323 3,452 formal value (us$ mil.) 0 0.841 0.055 0.086 0.982 informal volume (mt) 0 4,360 4,035 416 8,811 informal value (us$mil.) 0 1.191 0.88 0.106 2.177 total volume (mt) 0 7,228 4,296 739 12,263 total value (us$ mil.) 0 2.032 0.935 0.192 3.159 source: foodnet, 2002. formal and informal bean exports that crossed from uganda to kenya in 1999. it is also worth noting that lwakhakha border point is a well-established border point, though the road to this exit is poor. the situation worsens in the rainy season. the poor road infrastructure renders the border point to have low cargo traffic. the border point also has a river barrier whose water level is most of the time high rendering the route impassable during heavy rains. malaba is a busy border point and handles a sizeable amount of exports to kenya. it has a river barrier but despite this, informal trade at this point is significant. busia border point is perhaps the busiest as it handles big volumes of exports to kenya. the border has no physical barrier and only the forms of barrier are the local councils (lcs) who have instituted local taxes at the unofficial crossing points on uganda side. table 3 shows the annual export volumes at the three border points. in depth analysis of bean volume indicates that the informal volume of beans exported from uganda to kenya in 2000 was more than the formal volume in three border points, suam, malaba and lwakhakha (table 4 and table 5), while in the year 2001, informal volume of beans exported was more than the formal volume in all the four border points. this was observed to be the case during the survey in the study area as evidenced by the high traffic of mostly women and the youth who were seen carrying small quantities of bean stocks crossing several times in a day. however, the total formal volume was more than the informal volume in the year 2000. the informal trade thrives due in part to the physical nature of the border points, reluctance on the part of customs officials to record what they call “small” transactions, lengthy documentation procedures and the reluctance on the part of the traders to avoid paying what they term as high “clearance fees”. it was noted that some of the bor-der points did not have up-to-date data on exports. this was observed particularly in suam border point. the estimates of the informal volume of crossborder bean trade reported here suggest that more than half of this trade was not registered, implying a serious omission in the calculation of both countries gross domestic product (gdp). therefore, there exists a big potential in crossborder bean trade between kenya and uganda, and trade liberalization through regional co-operation initiatives will enhance the realization of this potential. legal and institutional constraints entry barriers prohibit potential competitors in various ways. in both kenya and uganda, though beans are marketed under a free (liberalized) market system with minimum government intervention, a number of constraints still exist. the complex methods of certification and stamp fees are one of main reasons for the presence of bribery at border crossings. this was evident at busia, and malaba border points. institutional restrictions in form of lengthy documentation procedures involved in the issuance of licenses coupled with high clearance fees forces many traders to resort to informal crossing points (mauyo et al., 2007). this was cited by traders as one of the major causes of informal trade. a number of traders who were interviewed complained of harassment by public officials and customs authorities. in relation to the above, local councils particularly in busia border point have instituted local taxes at the unofficial crossing points and as a result, traders end up incurring more costs that were not planned for. rent seeking practices among public officials at the major border crossing points and cumbersome import/export procedures encourage both large and small traders to pass their beans through undesignated routes. this leads to loss of income on the part of the importing and exporting countries as tax is not paid at entry points by most traders since most of them are not captured. this forces traders to engage in bribes to police officers who may be found on such routes. high transportation costs due to poor roads increase the cost of business and were cited by most traders as a barrier to entry in the bean business. other constraints that were considered as barriers by most traders are: lack of working capital and credit facilities, instability of foreign exchange rates which makes them not to plan well for their business and lack of storage facilities at the border points which not only affects quality of products but also encourages trade in “small” quantities. this therefore leads to reduction in the two governments’ revenue and volume of trade. we can therefore conclude that, legal and institutional constraints are barriers to entry in the bean trade in the study area, which have locked out many traders who would have ventured into the business. conclusions lengthy documentation procedures, high clearance fees, harassment by public officials and customs authorities are legal and institutional constraints, which have led to informal bean trade on kenya-uganda border. instability of foreign exchange rates, high transportation costs due to poor roads and lack of storage facilities at border points increase business costs. however, there is potential in cross-border bean trade between kenya and uganda, which could be exploited through regional co-operation. recommendations the following recommendations are suggested based on the findings of this study: i). there is need to provide the necessary road infrastructure in the bean production districts of the two countries including the maintenance of all weather roads to border exit points. this will improve the transport efficiency by providing effective competition and all farmers and traders from an efficient rural transport system will derive gains in reduced transport costs. ii). the two governments (uganda and kenya) through the local governments’ authorities should construct cheap market storage facilities which are appropriately located within the open air markets in order to reduce the trader’s handling and other marketing costs. this will also generate extra revenues in form of stall hiring charges. iii). focus should be directed to elimination of trade obstacles such as non-tariff and institutional barriers, which increase transaction costs for importers and exporters. this can be achieved through strengthening of regional cooperation aknowledgements the authors are grateful to the traders from the two countries who volunteered their information and the customs and kephis officials for accepting to be interviewed. we are also grateful to ecabren-ciat for funding this study. references ackello-ogutu c, echessah p (1997). unrecorded cross-border trade between kenya and uganda: implications for food security. technical paper no. 59. usaid washington dc adc/idea project (2000). monthly bean prices 2001-2002. kampala. david s (1999). beans in the farming system and domestic economy of uganda. a tale of two parishes. network on bean research in africa. occasional publications series. no. 28. ciat, kampala, uganda. foodnet (2002). cross-border statistics, 2001-2002. kampala. gok (1998). government of kenya economic survey 1997. central bureau of statistics, nairobi. kirkby ra (1987). proceedings of workshop on bean research in eastern africa, mukono, uganda, 22 nd -25 th june 1987. ciat african workshop series no. 2. mauyo lw, okalebo jr, kirkby ra, buruchara r, ugen m, mengist ct, anjichi ve, musebe ro (2007). technical efficiency and regional market integration of cross-border bean marketing in western kenya and eastern uganda”. afr. j. of bus. manag. 1(4):077-084 muasya rm (2001). crop physiological analysis of seed quality variation in common beans (phaseolus vulgaris l.). ph.d. thesis, wageningen university. the netherlands. naro (2000). annual report. entebbe, uganda. songa w , ronno wk, dannial dl (1995). production constraints of beans in the semi-arid eastern kenya with special reference to charcoal rot. proceedings of a regional workshop for eastern, central and southern africa, held at njoro, kenya, 2 6, 1994, wageningen agricultural university, wageningen, pp. 251-255. wandel m, holmboeottesen g (1992). food availability and nutrition in seasonal perspective: a study from region in tanzania. hum ecol. 20:89-107 wortmann cs, kirkby ra, eledu cka, allen dj (1998). atlas of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) production in africa. ciat, cali, colombia (publication no. 297). in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (9), pp. 001-012, september, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper dismantling of common property, land use and pastoral livelihoods in eastern ethiopia fekadu beyene college of agriculture and environmental sciences, haramaya university, p. o. box 161, haramaya, ethiopia. e-mail: keneefbk@gmail.com. tel: +251255530314. fax: +251255530325. accepted 05 may, 2016 this paper examines the emerging challenges to common property resource management in pastoral areas of ethiopia and a shift in livelihood strategies. using the institutional analysis and development framework and data from three administrative districts in eastern ethiopia, results show that traditional management of the rangeland that permits efficient allocation of resources is no longer practiced due to demographic shift and rainfall variability that undermine the regeneration capacity of grazing resources. institutions governing communal grazing do not impose duties on members, but simply exclude outsiders who do not belong to a clan. instead, the allocation of communal land for private use and the expansion of private cisterns as livestock watering points have caused increased shrinkage of communal land. such a shift in land use has altered pastoral livelihoods where many were engaged in commercialization of livestock production, contractual grazing, better integrated into the formal markets had increased access to new technologies. an important lesson from this study, is that the interaction of endogenous and exogenous factors have contributed to the dismantling of common property and created a gradual shift in livelihoods that put a threat to the survival of the grazing commons. internal sources of change are also important, contrary to the claim in the literature that state policies are the dominant ones. key words: pastoral commons, land use, property rights, livelihoods. introduction assertions embedded in the environmental damage by pastoralists, have paved the way for „hegemonic‟ development constituting irrelevant policy interventions and practices (sullivan and homewood, 2003). rehabilitation, which has been based on ecological assumptions of damage potentials of livestock grazing, the threats of degradation and desertification and the need for control of livestock numbers and grazing movement, has been one of those interventions common in east africa (anderson, 1999). nevertheless, range susceptibility to degradation occurs when formerly mobile pastoral households become sedentary and overuse the resources (hary et al., 1996). this implies that land use policy should not focus on manipulation of stock size, but rather on optimal distribution of animals in space and time. in practice, pastoralists‟ resource overuse potential is conditioned by other inputs – such as water and labor – and one cannot presume linear link between increases in herd size and pasture condition (ensminger and rutten, 1991). while evaluating retrospectively, the state policy in pre-existing historical period of ethiopia has greatly influenced development in pastoral areas because land not entitled in the name of any individual during this period remained under state control, giving right to the state to appropriate the grazing land to cultivators (gebre, 2001). historically, the constitutional and legal recognition of pastoral land in the 1950s and 1960s have marginalized pastoralists (abdulahi, 2003). for instance, the 1955 constitution and related land policy indicates that all grazing lands had to be recognized as government property, the consequence of which involved state action in allocating pastoral land to highlanders who would like to invest in the rangelands. political change in 1974 towards the socialist regime has introduced a land reform that has equally recognized the right of pastoralists at constitution level. for instance, it states „nomadic peoples shall have the necessary rights over the land they file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org customarily use for grazing or any other agricultural purpose‟. this ensured all kinds of rights other than alienation, as this was the political period when land ownership rights have been transformed from private to state. nevertheless, such change did not explicitly improve the long existed insecurity, because the use rights remained effective as long as the government did not allocate the grazing area for other purposes. pointing out the establishment of parks and big state farms, a recent study reveals that such an imperative is morally unacceptable because the state failed to act, at least, with the consent of the pastoralists themselves (gebre, 2001). in addition, the introduction of group ranches by marxist regime in ethiopia has excluded outsiders who previously had access to pasture. it was designed to prevent encroachment by farmers on the land traditionally occupied by pastoralists. at the same time, it was planned for pastoralists to hold land privately and changing the structure of property rights. this was done based on already established groups with the purpose of minimizing incidence of conflicts due to unclear property rights; however, it was not widely applied among other pastoralists of ethiopia. this condition instigated the exclusion of outsiders who were formerly using the grazing land when it was communal which has made the management and sanctioning costs too high (moris, 1988), due to the disturbance caused to the traditional system (ellis and swift, 1988). moreover, the existing land tenure policy contains potential challenge to communal pastoral grazing. this emanates from long-term provision of security to farmers whereby farmers receive land use certificates, which is an outcome of an overarching debate on property rights to land to at least achieve security if not efficiency. this policy prevents regular land redistribution for the next twenty to thirty years (mofed, 2002). to overcome land scarcity arising from increased farming population, there is a plan to undertake resettlement on uncultivated pastoral land, increasing uncertainty on survival of the pastoral commons and raising controversies. on the one hand, land tenure policies designed for mixed sedentary farming reinforced the effects from the past regime that can adversely affect pastoralists‟ property rights to customary communal land. on the other hand, land suitability assessment supported by the policy retains a hope for special consideration of pastoral land, which is suitable for grazing than crop-farming, as determined by the attributes of resources. the aim of this paper is to examine the emerging challenges to common property resource management in pastoral areas of ethiopia and the shift in pastoral livelihood strategies. while explaining a specific context, the paper contributes to the overall debate in the drivers of change in property rights and the underlying challenge to common property governance in semi-arid pastoral lands. the paper would fill the gap in the literature on how the interplay of formal and customary systems trigger for change in land use, property rights and livelihood diversification in the pastoral production systems. social capital and common property social capital has been an important component of livelihood resources. the way it mediates livelihoods and common property resources in the context of pastoral production system has not been given sufficient emphasis in contemporary literature (mearns, 2004). the reason lies on the underlying conceptual difference between those applying sustainable livelihoods approach and the new institutional economists who often seem to be interested in how common property is governed rather than how it contributes to attaining sustainable livelihoods and equitable distribution of benefits (johnson, 2004). social capital is often seen as „shared knowledge, understandings, norms, rules and expectations about patterns of interaction that groups of individuals bring into a recurrent activity‟ (ostrom, 1999). it is used as a means to improve private or collective well-being (coleman, 1990; katz, 2000; cleaver, 2005). though it is undersupplied by market and non-transferable compared to other forms of capital (arrow, 1999), and hard to estimate the rate of return to its investment (solow, 1999), it can also mediate exchange relations (including risk-sharing activities) in vulnerable societies, where formal insurance system is lacking. some evaluate the role of social capital through its contribution to transmission of knowledge and skill between generations, as well as in developing shared environmental knowledge to adapt to changes in the resource system (mccay, 2002). it assists in the development of mutually beneficial risk insurance system complementing the state and market roles (bowles and gintis, 2002). a number of scholars have assessed the key role played by local level institutions in building sustainable livelihoods (grootaert and narayan, 2004; scoones, 1998) and collective resource management (beyene, 2008). an extensive review on economic performance in africa shows that informal institutions facilitate adaptation in risky environment mainly in traditional societies where “liquid” assets are limited. it is argued that establishing social connections assist livestock spread over a larger geographical area which is related to risk management activities (collier and gunning, 1999). in common property resource management, some argue that the role of social capital at group level is immense whereby its expression through trust and social networks increases its importance in improving coordination among resource users on the basis of established norms (pretty and ward, 2001; woolcock, 1998). where this perspective is considered, social capital is valued in laying a foundation for characteristics of formal land tenure resources and agricultural (variability, development policy unpredictability) community action arena outcomes characteristics  actors (pastoralists,  shift in land (social capital, state) use, diversity)  competion for space  resource use and disputes patterns  change in collective livelihood bases norms/customary rights figure 1. analytical framework. source: adapted from ostrom et al. (1994). monitoring and enforcement of rules, and may serve as a substitute for well-defined legal property rights (figure 1). by doing so, it supports efficient management of the commons through creating security of rights to common property resources where state has a little role (grafton, 2000; katz, 2000). a livelihood system basically indicates the characteristics of resource users, such as the pastoralists and agropastoralists, the institutions and organizations that determine access to resources to generate livelihoods and the policy environment that constrains or facilitates certain action (scoones, 1998). argument explaining how community characteristics influence institutional arrangements in the governance of common property resources (agrawal, 2001) gives attention to the crucial importance of social capital to sustaining livelihoods (figure 1). earlier works argued that those resources with certain attributes should remain in the public domain when the gains from specification of rights are very low or the costs are expected to be higher (barzel, 1989). such contextual factors lead to the emergence of institutions favouring property rights structure with non-exclusive rights to the use of resources (van den brink et al., 1995). there are two views dominating the literature on pastoral land use policy, both favouring different property rights regimes to the rangeland resources: conventional and opportunistic approaches. while the former advocates sedentarization and privatization, the latter supports flexibility in resource use and reciprocal access rights (grell and kirk, 1999). having the conventional approach in mind, many african governments have designed policies for rangeland management and use. for instance, private land ownership among ugandan pastoralists was justified on the grounds of the national interest to transform livestock production and to attain equity (muhereza, 2001). such a practice has resulted in the redistribution of land from large individual ranchers to squatter pastoralists posing new challenge to the communal grazing land and tenure instability. these policies have undermined implementation of opportunistic approach. under such circumstances, donors‟ technical and financial support along the conventional line is usually seen as a crucial reason for governments to develop and adopt policies that hardly fit into the rangeland realities (grell and kirk, 1999). this contradicts the argument that pastoralists require common property regimes since such tenure arrangement facilitates mobility. indeed, through permitting an extensive resource use system, common property is argued to be associated with a lower cost of exclusion than private, because it reduces the extent of the boundaries to be monitored and enforced (niamir-fuller, 1999). many studies have questioned the efficiency 1 of common property rights by relating communal ownership with land productivity. but efficiency in pastoral land use, which is characterized by a variable weather condition, can be achieved through retaining common property (nugent and sanchez, 1993). in the rangeland resource use system where tenure 1 efficiency can be argued from the perspective of effects of private land holding on livelihood sustainability and social stability. security is much less important than access security because of variable land productivity in space and time, communities are characterized by low population density, customary property rights are more efficient in facilitating access to grazing resources than adopting formal titling to parcels of land. some have agreed that formal titling in such systems can be expensive and futile (migot-adholla et al., 1991). the formal land tenure policy that may involve the transfer of land use rights to other persons from a different clan or ethnic group can be a source of disputes (figure 1). it may induce an offensive act by the indigenous people with customary rights to the land, since such action is often interpreted as a violation of cultural norms (abdulahi, 2007). moreover, a number of studies have underlined the general negative influence of land tenure policy that has contributed to marginalization of pastoralists (helland, 2006; gebre, 2001; hogg, 1997). during the imperial regime, although land was private property in the highlands, the tenure policy failed to recognize communal land tenure and considered land used by pastoralists as „open access‟ that can be allocated to any private cultivator or state initiated development projects (gadamu, 1994; gebre, 2001). for example, the state expropriated communal grazing land from pastoralists to establish national parks (awash, mago and omo) and sugarcane plantation for sugar industry (gadamu et al., 1983; bruce et al., 1994). the nationalization of land during the military regime subsequent to the 1975 decree and the continuation of the same equation till today have sustained the question of rights to customary communal land. the existing democratic government, upholds the status quo to secure freedom to allocate pastoral land to investors through leasehold (berhanu, 2006). by distilling the aforementioned review, the action arena consists of pastoral and local state actors who are influenced by community characteristics, resource characteristics, collective norms and the state policy. through time, the competition and disputes typically occurring in the action arena will contribute to the change in resource use patterns, shift in land use and livelihood bases through time that is taken together as outcome (figure 2). methodology close to 93% of the inhabitants of the drylands in ethiopia are pastoral and agropastoral communities while the remaining 7% depend on hunting, petty trade and mining (fdre, 2002). they inhabit areas below 1500 m above sea level and occupy rangelands which account for 44% of the country‟s land size with the annual rainfall received varying from 400 to 700 mm. they consist of over 15 ethnic groups, the major one‟s being somali, afar and oromo (sandford and habtu, 2000). historically, there were three important externally funded development interventions recorded since the late 1950s. the first one was implemented between 1958 and 1963, narrowly focusing on dairy development. the second one was in place from 1973 to 1981. it was initiated by the ethiopian livestock and meat board and gave emphasis to expansion of marketing facilities and other infrastructure with the intention of facilitating livestock sales and processing. the third intervention took place between 1975 and 1992, consisting of three target areas (northeast, east, south and southeast) inhabited by pastoralists. the aim of the three interventions was to modernize the pastoral sector. in particular, the third one was widely implemented and aimed at increasing production efficiency with special focus on natural resource management. it covered about 33,000 km 2 of semi-arid region of eastern ethiopia (coppock, 1994). the strategies employed were improving services, establishment of feedlots, providing training and introducing range management. it has covered major pastoral areas inhabited by the three ethnic groups. even though project designers had the perception that the traditional system was inefficient and generated low output, the outcomes of these policy interventions were below what was expected for different reasons in different areas: in the east and southeast, instability due to the border war and bureaucratic hurdles and in the south, a ban on traditional range management practices (angassa and tolera, 2006; berhanu, 2006; moris, 1998). data collection, sources and type data were collected from three purposely selected districts in eastern ethiopia (mieso, kebribeyah and harshin). these districts are characterized by the challenges inherent to pastoral commons, ethnic diversity and differences in the level of the state influence on land use and pastoral resource governance. data collection involved some steps and mixed methods. in this case, the first few days of contacts with the villagers were spent on other matters rather than the main subjects of the study. this was essential in such social hierarchical society to establish friendly relationship with the key informants and to develop trust and making subsequent contacts easier and to prevent the key informants from constraining further contacts with the rest of the village community members. the next step was discussion with these key informants and focus group discussions on the major themes of the study. using this method data were collected on interclan grazing arrangements, factors responsible for land use change and the state‟s role in agricultural technology supply. this step assisted a lot in revising and adjusting the content of the questionnaire to fit into the realities on the ground. one of the critical challenges in data collection was that those available were hopeless due to striking level of poverty and failed to show enthusiasm. in effect, enumerators were advised to begin with questions pertinent to respondent‟s situation in a more flexible way so that he would be at ease. the household survey was carried out in 2006 and covered 160 households from the eight lowest administrative units (called „kebeles‟); and the issues included in the survey included livelihood sources, land use and access to land for private use and the constraints undermining the possibility to conserve the pastoral communal grazing land and the interaction between private land use and water-points and the link between property rights and livelihoods. data analysis as processes of institutional change and factors associated with change in land use, property rights and shift in livelihood strategies can be captured using a more qualitative approach, data from focus group discussions and expert key informants were mainly used to write this paper. in addition, some statistical and econometric tests were made with regard to expenditure in water and participation in enclosing land which served as a proxy for preference over property rights to land in the pastoral and agropastoral systems. a m o u n t o f r a in fa ll (m m ) 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 kebribeyah 200 harshin 0 mieso 1962 1968 1974 1980 1986 1992 1998 2004 1965 1971 1977 1983 1989 1995 2001 years (1962 2004) figure 2. rainfall patterns in the case study districts. source: ethiopian national meteorology. results and discussion the results are presented as follows, first the inherent challenges and practices in managing grazing commons with specific reference to transaction costs of arranging resource access and how these costs vary in different situations was captured. secondly, the processes that have contributed to the dismantling of the pastoral commons (including communal land) as attributed to a number of factors – internal processes and external influences were described. it emphasizes emergence of new forms of livelihoods, shift in land use and the threat this will carry for the survival of the commons. evidence from the actual field survey substantiated the qualitative evidence generated through key informant interviews and focus group discussions. institutional practices and challenges to pastoral commons increasing resource scarcity has brought a challenge to the management of pastoral commons. it results from the combined effect of rainfall variability and population growth. in the past, herders in eastern ethiopia used to practice rotational grazing, since it was practiced as an effective strategy in rangeland improvement and provided access to alternative pastures. in this practice, relatively overgrazed areas should be escaped to permit range regeneration within a large clan grazing area. such mechanisms enabled groups to create fodder banks towards which they could easily shift without significant tension for grazing at times of stress. it is no longer practiced at present. an alternative strategy to deal with this problem is the use of reciprocal sharing arrangement 2 , the situation in which users of a particular commons may be classified as primary and secondary. the distinction may go along with kinship, tribes and ethnicity and other factors. again, each social unit might use a resource for different purposes. differentiation in terms of users and uses can lead to a claim for the existence of various rights and obligations. the survey shows that 64.8% of the sample households benefited from being involved in reciprocal sharing of grazing commons to pursue their livelihoods. this involves herd mobility; access to a wide range of resources is required where communal lands inhabited by different clans are 2 the practice of reciprocity is not confined to traditional societies. in a wider context, it exists in modern forms of life where all market exchanges such as contracts and money transactions are codified fundamentally based on this notion (niamir-fuller, 1999). characterized by greater degree of spatial and temporal rainfall variability (figure 2). the importance of such a practice lies on the fact that absence of institutions to create flexible access options triggers a group suffering from greater relative scarcity, at a point in time, to encroach upon the other with relatively better pasture. under certain conditions, costs of mobility can be higher as permission is required, which might be subject to greater costs of negotiation, that is increasing the transaction costs of mobility. it occurs particularly when mobility extends beyond good years‟ grazing area and access rights become incomplete and contingent upon certain factors (such as the willingness of outsiders not to claim for access to water points). if clan association (lineage) and investment in social relationships characterize resource use relations, such incompleteness may reduce. the experiences from the three case study sites, show the difficulty of reaching at a conclusion, of whether access rights are incomplete and contingent. hence, the transaction costs of mobility vary from one to the other location assuming that such costs are captured in the negotiations made between clans. insights from the focus group discussion show that very mobile households tend to trespass clan boundary without agreement but by committing incursion. but frequently mobile households tend to limit their grazing points at the buffer zones or around the boundary other than extending further. in such large sized resource use system enforcement of reciprocity rules is costly. the fugitive nature of livestock in pasture use can even increase such costs. so the incentive to deviate from the rules is high as the probability of being detected will be low. in this case, the communal land around clan boundaries exhibit characteristics of open access. this produces a temptation for the users to commit little trespass. the incentive to comply with the rules of prior agreement, therefore, corresponds to the decision on the extent of entry. if a group expects the risk of being detected by members of a clan who hold exclusive right, it may decide to negotiate through its clan other than committing incursion; otherwise, it commits intrusions, taking a risk that can be a potential source of violence (unruh, 2006). other important lesson from the field on the use of common property grazing resource use is the absence of restriction of clan members in the use of the resources, in that there are no customary rules that limit the number of livestock each household has to keep on the grazing commons. the rules of access are restricted only for outsiders who do not belong to a clan. this makes the empirical and theoretical explanations focusing on the management of the rangeland use for common property owners through limiting stocking rates impractical. many have tried to portray that co-owners of the grazing commons have their own rules, in limiting the stocking rates through forming some sort of internal agreements (mccarthy et al., 2003). the results in this study shows access limits are set to non-members, in that only exclusion rules for outsiders are functional. common property in the cases studied shows characteristics of property rights structure that stevenson (1991) calls “limited user open access” where members have „exclusive rights to harvest the resource, but do not have exclusive rights to certain amount of resource extracted because any member exploits the resource at any rate desired‟. in this case, property rights among the limited users are undefined posing a challenge to the management of common property grazing. an extensive allocation of land for private use in the pastoral areas is a second source of challenge to grazing commons management. this practice is pervasive in many pastoral areas of ethiopia. for example, 24% of land among pastoralists of southern ethiopia has been put under private use either for cultivation or grazing. in some cases, the grazing enclosure is still being shared among immediate neighbors where group size varies based on the purpose of enclosure (for dry herds, lactating cows and calves) where the definition and enforcement rules are organized by the traditional governance system (kamara et al., 2004). the third challenge emanates from the lack of clear tenure policy for the rangeland that has become a source of disputes and confusions. as it stands, regional experts firmly believe in the “need to introduce legislations that support appropriate use of land, demolish the existing enclosures and convert them into the communal land”. the intention of the regional state has for long been to introduce formal land use plan to an unpredictable environment. but the implementation has been delayed for years since the region developed its natural resource conservation and land use plan in 1999, which was actually copied from the national documents without considering regional realities on the ground. the traditional system is incapable to handle disputes in cases when land at clan boundary is enclosed for cultivation. in all case study districts, interclan grazing resource sharing arrangement is not as strong as in the past due to two central reasons. the first is inadequate number of livestock to move with (limited level of assets) due to frequent drought since the early 1990s. assessment of herd ownership from survey data shows that the maximum per capita holding for mieso is 2.23 tlu, which is far below the minimum threshold (4.5 tlu/capita), as recommended in the literature, for an individual to depend on livestock as food source (pratt and gwynne, 1977). the second reason is increased shrinkage of grazing land, as many households tend to enclose communal gazing. the more land each clan allocates, fenced land to private grazing or farming, the less chance to practice reciprocal sharing and the less option poor households have to keep livestock of their relatives from other clans which otherwise provided access to milk. a new development from within a clan is a contractual grazing agreement between poor households (without lactating cows, but cultivated land) and others 1 5 1 0 c o u n t 5 0 m ore ben e ficial pro duction sys te m m o re o f l s m o re o f c ro p s so le ly ls state clan leader privately fenced contracting own parents m ean s o f a cq u isition figure 3. preferences over production systems based on sources of rights to land. who are better off during the dry season. this is longexisting land use practice explained in the literature (wade, 1992; dahlman, 1980). overall, 42.1% of the sample households reported that they benefit from such contractual arrangement. nevertheless, the expansion of enclosure could contribute to overgrazing and subsequent land degradation through soil compaction unless herders change their production objectives and stocking decisions. grazing practices that avoid livestock concentration in specific area largely supports sustainable use of resources. contractual grazing also takes place on crop-fields when short rain season leads to crop failure where households use their cultivated field as sources of fodder. such internal dynamics to cope with the changing state of nature is typical in mieso district. this indicates that the integration of farming and herding enables effective use of resources even in bad rainfall years. this study also looked into the institutional dimension and the role of the different actors in land allocation/acquisition. an examination of the land acquisition means/source of land rights for those involved in water harvesting (31%) during the dry seasons shows that inheritance from parents becomes the main source of rights. comparing the mechanisms of land acquisition for private use (grazing and/or cultivation) is necessary to understand the level of influence by the formal and informal systems. the result discloses that across the districts, inheritance is more prevalent in kebribeyah (67.5%), clan based rights to land in harshin (54%) and significant role of state administration in mieso (33%). however, comparing the sources of rights state seems to stand least (14.5%) while parents becoming the most important one (55.3%). it should, however, be noted that land under private holdings inherited from parents can be initially acquired either through the state or customary leaders. moreover, the two systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive as land related disputes and rights to enclose in some cases involved joint decisions of the state and customary systems. a further inquiry into the comparison of the most beneificial production system indicates that a smaller proportion of the respondents (7.6%) favored a sole dependence on livestock as a livelihood source (figure 3). the fourth source of challenge in managing the pastoral grazing commons is the increased establishment of private water points and the failure of collective action in the management of communal water points. to locate this, it is important to assess whether those who are involved in collective action, do spend less than those who do not. the pattern of expenditure on water gives a rough indication of the likelihood of participation in water point management. the survey indicates that while the average income during the survey year was 1779, nearly 13% of the sample households have spent more than one-third of their income on purchase of water; whereas, 48.4% had access to private or communal water points. further, those households which spent more on water had access to many water points, whereas others using private or communal, had relatively limited watering points. an independent sample t-test was carried out to examine whether there was a difference in expenditure on water between those who have access to many and a few water points. there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.01) between the mean values of expenditure (62.8 and 257 birr) of the two groups. this indicates that access to fewer water points means better water management, whether it is private or communal. it implies that limited access options to water points restrict mobility and the sharing of grazing commons that can trigger land use change. moreover, further analysis by taking mobility behavior as a grouping variable shows that those households which practiced frequent mobility (greater than three per annum) spent less than others which moved rarely or not at all. still less mobile herders spent less than more mobile groups. this shows that mobility rarely provides access opportunity to watering points as climate change has increased the value of water in the semi-arid regions. on average, more mobile households spent more (203 birr per annum) than others (149 birr). this statistic is highly supported with the fact that many water points were held in private or by close families with restricted access by others. discussions revealed that poor households cannot establish water-well as a result of declining water table and limited capacity. this was particularly a problem in kebribeyah unlike most other places in the region. in areas where these wells function, elders facilitate their management as water scarcity remains critical during drought. in kebribeyah, the regional state established a large reservoir through pumping ground water, which was being used among those who did not have their own private cisterns. water from this source is sold at different rates based on livestock species served. turn waiters at the watering point inform fee collectors not to permit cistern owners to water their animals from this source unless they exhaust their own water. linking livelihoods and property rights the link between livelihoods and property rights is not straightforward and many factors can affect the relationship. here, evidence is provided on how generation of livelihoods from the pastoral commons is influenced by markets, access to technology and change in rainfall conditions. in this case, the incentives created through emergence of markets for the grazing resources and beginning of fattening programs in some places, individuals‟ access to technology (farm implements provided by ngos, improved seeds and training from change agents) and change in rainfall conditions are drivers for change in property rights. change in knowledge of pastoralists on how to use the resource and interclan relations contribute to the emergence of new incentives. the result also shows that the need to diversify livelihood sources other than solely relying on livestock under condition of environmental uncertainty represents change in knowledge of herders. in addition, group incentives, being influenced by the traditional authority composed of clan leader, religious leader and elders have favored flexibility of rights to a resource; hence, it affects decisions on resource use. group decisions to undertake certain activities such as sharing of the grazing commons and establishment of enclosure seek the support of traditional authority (figure 4). due to flexible nature of property rights on the basis of internal demands, further incentives will be created for individual resource users. this influences their production objectives and asset holdings. individuals can be households or groups who use a specified resource in a specific land area. in this case, customary institutions assist wealth creation through promoting alternative and productive resource use. the tendency to see change in such institutions as breakdown, principally by holding static view, is currently being criticized as more dynamic view assessing their capacities to respond to emerging challenges is highly appreciated (watson, 2003). however, institutional change is a complicated phenomenon when seen in terms of diverse and often competing interests of different pastoral groups. for example, even if some pastoralists are involved in crop production in small scale, large herd owners who can subsist on their livestock alone can constrain flexibility in property rights in that they disfavor private land use rights. this phenomenon seems to change currently as enclosing land for grazing and crop-farming have continued to be practiced by large herders themselves. from this, one would say customary institutions define property rights. they do this by specifying differentiated rights for different groups mainly based on established social relationships, geographical proximity and kinship structure. however, imposed changes can influence these institutions in defining property rights. figure 4 illustrates the dynamics of property rights institutions in relation to interaction of a set of factors. knowledge change also encourages resource users to raise distributional questions because groups who are aware and have invested in managing the resource may restrict access-options for other clan or sub-clan members. the driving forces also influence the incentive structure in resource use, making the demand for property rights endogenous. for example, development of private water points in some and spread of enclosure initiatives reveal this condition. meanwhile, development policy intervenetions, such as supply of improved crop technologies (to agro-pastoral households), agricultural extension services and settlement schemes, often seen as externally imposed changes, can influence the pace of property clan, religious leaders and elders (rule makers) group incentives market access to technology resources use change in knowledge supply-induced decisions and interclan relations resource scarcity flexible property rights figure 4. dynamism in property rights and land use. rights change and shift in land use (table 1). though state claim de jure ownership rights to the rangeland in the country as stipulated in the constitution, its governance and administration in pastoral areas seem to be left to the clan customary leaders themselves. establishment of basic infrastructure that affects pastoral grazing land has often involved a fierce resistance from customary leaders and state officials had to negotiate with the clan controlling the land. in this case, the de jure landowner did not make a unilateral decision. in addition, responses from the household survey showed the presence of a firm belief that pastoral land belongs to the clan rather than to the state 3 . many have simply stated, “the state has come after us and so this is our land”. in customary system, long-term occupancy is understood as a point of departure in determining rights to a given land. hence, clan leaders and elders are the key members of the executive body exercising the somali customary law (xeer) to decide on land allocation for private use while the role of religious leader in this aspect is often limited. the regression result shows that 68.6% of the sample respondents have enclosed land. analysis of the determinants of the decision to enclose land shows that 3 one important indicator for this is it is the clan leader, not the state agent, who makes investment decisions on clan land. any investor needs prior approval of a clan leader to begin any activity showing that, in practice, customary tenure system is much stronger than the state based tenure. bridging social capital expressed through the number of close relatives living in another clan territory is likely of have a negative effect on the decision to enclose land. total herd ownership is likely to have a positive influence on fencing (table 2). lastly, a general approach to range management, actively in place by several ngos and state agencies motivates different groups to make efforts to improve their own resources from within rather than relying on grazing commons of other clans and ethnic groups. this involves collective action in natural resource manage-ment and other project and development activities (establishing terraces, huge communal water-points and nursery in all the studied districts). relevant small-scale range management projects have been undertaken through the world food program and international fund for agricultural development in collaboration with regional bureau of agriculture and district experts. these livelihood activities tend to strengthen internal social relations, while still bridging form of social capital is essential in the shared use of the pastoral commons and discouraging rangeland enclosure (table 3). on the other hand, development intervention involving externally facilitated environmental rehabilitation programs was a clear manifestation of national policy to systematize herders‟ sedentarization by improving access to feed resources through adoption of improved perennial fodder species. this could influence households to give less table 1. land allocated to private grazing by wealth category (ha). wealth category districts small (0 to 5.01 tlu) better-off (>5.01 tlu) mean s.d. mean s.d. mieso 0.48 0.33 0.38 0.14 kebribeyah 1.47 0.87 2.11 1.13 harshin 2.08 1.45 1.55 1.14 source: household survey, 2006. table 2. mean values for total land falling under private use by wealth category (ha). wealth category districts small (0 to 5.01 tlu) better-off (>5.01 tlu) mean s.d. mean s.d. mieso 1.76 0.74 2.17 0.57 kebribeyah 2.45 1.02 4.24 1.97 harshin 3.24 1.97 2.90 2.19 source: household survey, 2006. table 3. determinants of participation in enclosing land. explanatory variables coefficient s.e. wald exp(b) household size (number) -0.076 0.054 2.038 0.926 literacy† 0.466 0.418 1.242 1.593 close relatives (number) -0.053* 0.030 3.096 0.949 using relatives‟ grazing areas† -0.272 0.323 0.706 0.762 livestock (tlu) 0.174** 0.061 8.014 1.190 land for crop-farming (ha) -0.085 0.244 0.122 0.918 constant 0.767 0.590 1.694 2.154 *p<10%, **p<5%; † dummy variables. source: household survey. emphasis to resource use relations outside their clan. in this particular case, a few individual herders have registered claiming for cultivated land to be used as permanent pasture to be controlled privately by applying to the government local authority (figure 3). a related study among southern ethiopian pastoralists reaffirms that though the governance of the rangeland falls in the hand of traditional (tribal or clan) leaders through the enforcement of customary rules, there has been an increase in the number of requests for private cropland, fencing certain parts of the rangelands. the expectation that any other individual will not claim the fenced part and communal lands are insecure and will be given to other potential claimants was the underlying reason for this to occur (swallow and kamara, 1999). while relating the conceptual framework and the results, one can learn that formal land tenure policy is much more influential in terms of dictating the direction of land use change than the resource characteristics such as the variability of rainfall and the unpredictability of the benefit flows. as this occurs, customary norms tend to align themselves with the state policies in land appropriation for private use. conclusions the dismantling of the pastoral commons is attributed to the increased internal tensions and uncertainty, resulting from the influence of development policies that fail to carefully understand the pastoral context. the latter is argued to be a reflection of a national policy priority in encouraging pastoral herders to be involved in the market economy that in turn implies a shift in livelihood strategies and land use. if the benefits from private land use are crucial in diversifying income sources, either through growing a few cereals or grazing, measures needs to be taken to correct for externalities arising from it where fencing of privately held land could cause destruction of trees on communal land and can be a source of inefficiency in the use of already scarce grazing resources. even though private land use is inevitable in situations when relatively reliable benefit flows prevail and households‟ knowledge change has greater influence, improvement of livestock market to enable the poor generate reliable income from livestock sales can be a more promising policy option. an important lesson from this study is that even if the interaction of endogenous and exogenous factors have contributed to the dismantling of the pastoral commons and created a gradual shift in livelihoods and land use, there is a need to invest in the management of pastoral grazing commons. the regression results show that the bridging social capital still undermines investment in enclosing land, due to variability in benefits from cropfarming under variable rainfall conditions. one strategy to assist the co-existence of diverse land use systems in pastoral areas could be through investing in the capacity of pastoralists to manage communal grazing and water points and 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(ed.). making the commons work: theory, practice and policy,san francisco: ics press, pp. 207–228. watson e (2003). examining the potential of indigenous institutions for development: a perspective from borana, ethiopia. dev. change, 34(2): 287–310. woolcock m (1998). social capital and economic development: towards a theoretical synthesis and policy framework. theory soc., 27(2): 151–208. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (1), pp. 001-007, january, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper farm input marketing in western kenya: challenges and opportunities jonas n. chianu*, franklin mairura, isaac ekise and justina n. chianu tropical soil biology and fertility institute of the international centre for tropical agriculture (tsbf-ciat), c/o world agroforestry centre (icraf), nairobi, kenya. accepted 09 october, 2015 widespread and increasing rural poverty in sub-saharan africa has been of great concern to development community. low use of inputs by farmers, due to market constraints that reduce profitability of input use, is one of the factors responsible for the gap between potential and actual yields. using questionnaire, this study interviewed 130 agro -input dealers in kenya to analyze challenges and opportunities in input delivery. results indicate that there has been a steady annual growth (2 – 22%, with mean of 16%) in their number. diammonium phosphate fertilizer (stocked by 92% respondents) was most commonly stocked, followed by calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer (84%), urea (78%), and npk (40%). other services provided by agrodealers are input information (75% respondents), credit (13%), bulk breaking (8%), and spraying (4%). inputs selling price increased with distance to markets; long distances to market disconnect villages from input supply chain. high transport cost (53%), low demand (30%), lack of market information (21%), lack of storage facilities (13%), and limited business knowledge (12%) were the most important constraints faced by agrodealers. policies and institutional frameworks suggested by dealers to streamline input trade were associated. the study concludes with suggestions on how to enhance efficiency of agro-dealers in input delivery. key words: farm input delivery, market constraints, poverty, yield gap, kenya. introduction widespread and increasing rural poverty in sub-saharan africa (ssa) has been of great concern to the development community. compared to other developing regions of the world, the low use of farm inputs by smallholder farmers in ssa is responsible for the gap between potential farmers‟ yields and actual crop yields at farm level. a comparison of fertilizer consumption trends in ssa and developing countries of asia shows that while average annual fertilizer consumption increased by 182% in the latter between 1980 – 1989 and 1996–2000, it increased by only 16% in the former (faostat, 2003). the slow growth in the use of modern agricultural inputs in the farming systems of ssa has resulted in missed opportunities to increase africa‟s agricultural production, productivity, and household incomes and welfare. fertili *corresponding author. email: j.chianu@cgiar.org. tel:+(254 20) 7224778. fax:+(254 20) 7224764/3. zer use in ssa is the lowest in the world and is actually less than 10% of the global mean (about 93 kg ha -1 ) (ifdc, 2006). this paper examines constraints and challenges limiting the expansion of farm input use by smallholder farmers in western kenya by assessing input supply side issues. this is critical in creating conducive atmosphere for agricultural intensification and to enable farmers (especially smallholders) produce for markets and lift them out of poverty. the study surveyed agro-input dealers in order to ascertain why their farm and other services are not reaching many farmers, especially those in remote rural areas. an important element of the study was to assess the main farm services provided by agroinput dealers, the constraints and challenges they face and the policy and institutional frameworks they would want to see implemented in order to enhance the environment for a sustainable expansion of their areas of coverage and the access of smallholder farmers to farm inputs and the other services that they provide. this type file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org of study has a great potential to contribute in the attainment of the goal of the comprehensive africa agricultural development program (caadp) that calls for a 6% annual growth in agricultural production as a framework for restoring agricultural growth, food security and rural development in africa and a key step towards attainment of first millennium development goal of halving poverty by 2015. materials and methods study area the study was carried out in 13 districts in western kenya, a densely populated region of kenya with high levels of hunger, extreme poverty, and disease. over 21% of the region‟s children under five years of age are underweight (malnourished). adult hiv/aids prevalence is estimated at 30% in much of the region, leaving large numbers of orphans. western kenya is also characterized by low crop yields and low household cash incomes (kelly et al., 2003). potable water, paved roads, electricity, and telephone landlines are all scarce in this region. most residents are subsistence farmers. however, farm sizes are so small and often in the neighborhood of 0.1 hectares. farm inputs (such as fertilizer, improved seeds or water pumps) are also very scarce. rainfall is unpredictable often resulting in low crop and livestock productivity. many families have difficulty producing enough food to meet their needs. those who manage to produce a surplus have difficulty finding buyers or getting good prices. the altitude in the study area ranges from low-medium (1000 to 1300 m.a.s.l) in places such as kasewe in rachuonyo district, through medium (1270 to 1320 m.a.s.l) in places such as mabole (in butere district) and akiites (in teso district) to high (1500 to 2100 m.a.s.l) in places such as oyani (in migori district) and riana (in kisii district) (jaetzold and schmidt, 1982). average annual rainfall is between 1200 and 2100 mm for riana area, 1400 and 1600 mm for oyani area, 1300 and 2000 mm for mabole area, 900 and 2000 mm for akiites area, and 1000 and 2200 mm for kasewe area (jaetzold and schmidt, 1982) . annual mean temperature ranges between 16.2 and 20.5 o c for riana area, 20.5 and 21.7 o c for oyani area, 22 and 27 o c for mabole area, 21 and 22 o c for akiites area, and 20 and 21.5 o c for kasewe area (jaetzold and schmidt, 1982). survey method a cross-section survey using structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 130 agroinput dealers randomly selected from 40 markets from 13 districts. data collection was done between the months of february and november 2005. parameters investigated among others, the main variables on which data were collected were the agro-inputs sold, quantity of different inputs (different types of fertilizers, seeds, farm tools, etc.) stocked, prices at which different inputs were sold, distances from where different inputs were sourced, additional farm services offered to farmers, constraints and challenges faced by the agroinput dealers, and the policies and institutional frameworks which the agro-input dealers would like to see implemented in order to enhance their efficiency and areas of coverage in timely provision of farm services to the smallholder farmers, including those in far rural areas. data entry and analysis microsoft excel was used for data entry. online distance calculator (odc), based on the world geodetic system wgs84 (dma, 1991) ellipsoid, was used to estimate distances between input selling and purchasing points. data was analyzed using spss version 11.5 (spss, 2002). the world geodetic system reference coordinate frames were established more than a decade ago to facilitate mapping, charting, positioning and navigation applications. results and discussion trends in the number of agro-input dealers in western kenya the services of agro-input dealers are critical to farmers‟ access to affordable quantities of appropriate farm inputs in their local environments. between 2003 and 2005, the increase in number of agro-input dealers ranged from 2% (for seed treatment chemicals) to 22% (mineral fertilizers) with a mean of 16% across agro-inputs (table 1). the difference in the magnitude of percent increase (between 2003 and 2005) in the number of agroinput dealers selling different inputs reflects the demand for different agroinput in the farming systems of western kenya. although many farmers were yet to be reached with the various farm services of the agro-input dealers, the trend in the growth of the number of agro-input dealers is encouraging, especially considering the current sub-saharan africa wide low level of infrastructure development in support of good network of private agro-input dealers and the usual period of slow, gradual growth before experiencing a period of relatively dramatic and rapid growth that characterize a typical technology adoption process (surrey, 1997). for instance, the kilometers of paved roads per million people in selected african countries are 59 for dr-congo, 66 for ethiopia, 94 for uganda, 114 for tanzania, 141 for mozambique, 230 for nigeria, 494 for ghana, 637 for guinea, 1402 for south africa, 1586 for zimbabwe compared to 20,987 for usa, 12,673 for france and 9,102 for japan and with 1,064 for brazil, 1,004 for india and 803 for china (encyclopedia britannica, 2003) (table 1). farm inputs stocked altogether, the agro-input dealers surveyed sold about 2357 bags (or about 118 tons) of mineral fertilizers annually (table 2). the corresponding figure for improved seeds was about 10 tons. the average for the liquid agrochemicals ranges from about 490 litres (for herbi-cides) to about 1600 litres (for seed treatment chemicals) (table 2). table 2 clearly shows the low demand that agro-input dealers ranked second to high cost of transport among the constraints and challenges that they face in trying to provide inputs to smallholder farmers. coupled with the table 1. number of agro-input dealers selling different farm inputs in western kenya: 2003 2005. number of input dealers # % increase agro-input 2003 2004 2005 (2003-2005) mineral fertilizers 245 276 299 22 insecticides 314 351 372 19 farm machinery 69 78 82 19 herbicides 61 67 72 18 fungicide 234 255 275 18 improved seeds 176 189 198 13 storage chemical 244 263 271 11 seed treatment chemicals 43 43 44 2 total across inputs (not mutually exclusive) 1498 1643 1742 16 # responses was collated for different input brands within each agro-input category. hence, for some inputs, the number of dealers is more than the sample size because of the grouping together of similar inputs. table 2. mean quantity of different farm inputs sold by agro-input dealers in western kenya: 2003 – 2005. agro-input quantity n* mineral fertilizers (bags) 2357.0 383 improved seeds (kg) 10144.0 186 fungicide (litres) 416.5 299 insecticides (litres) 671.0 273 storage chemicals (litres) 868.0 223 herbicides (litres) 491.2 69 seed treatment chemicals (litres) 1616.0 46 machinery (units of different tools) # 236.3 17 other farm implements (units of different tools) & 187.7 17 *each input category included several specific input brands; hence n was larger than number of agro-input dealers # machinery here includes: tractors, sprayers, and spare parts. & other farm implements here include: long hoes, short hoes and cutlasses usually high prices of most agro-inputs, these constrain the development of efficient farm input distribution systems and are fed into by farmers‟ inability to sell their farm surplus produce at high prices, especially immediately after harvest. this situation contributes to poor land stewardship, accelerated land degradation, decline in household welfare, and negatively affects farmer investments in farm inputs and returns to agricultural production (bashaasha, 2001). to break the cycle of high input price, low input demand, the need to stimulate a huge increase in input demand is critical. this requires reduction in input prices (through economies of size, new institutional arrangements, etc.) at the farm-level, credit availability to farmers for the purchase of agro-inputs, and attractive prices for farm produce (table 2). other farm services that input dealers provide to farmers in western kenya only 2 – 11% of the agro-input dealers surveyed provided other services to small-scale farmers. farm services most commonly provided by the farm input dealers were information [especially related to agrochemicals (24% of respondents) and improved varieties of seeds (22%)]. the least important farm services that dealers provided farmers included credit and spraying services. twentyseven agro-input dealers (or 18% of the respondents) provided farmers with credit services. however, only three agro-input dealers (about 2% of all respondents) provided farmers with spraying services. it is little surprising that only few agro-input dealers provided credit to table 3. number of farmers who benefited (according to dealers) from different other farm services given by agro-input dealers in western kenya. number of farmers that benefited from service* other agro-input service female male input packaging 3100 (2) 15000 (2) soil suitability information 796 (7) 3650 (7) soil fertility information 787 (7) 3645 (7) seed variety information 656 (13) 2656 (12) agrochemicals information 735 (14) 2328 (13) credit facilities 255 (12) 298 (12) spraying & 30 (3) 75 (3) *values in parenthesis are effective sample sizes of agro-input dealers who offered serviced & free and at cost p e rc e n ta g e d e a le rs 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 high low deamnd lack of lack of limited transport cost market storage business information facilities knowledge constraint figure 1. business constraints faced by agro-input dealers in western kenya. smallholder farmers since many of the traders themselves lacked access to financial resources beyond their own savings and income (yanggen et al., 1998). this is critical especially considering that farm inputs such as fertilizer are expensive to market (high storage and transport costs) and to purchase and underscore the fact that both the input-dealers and farmers lack access to critical service markets (especially credit markets). this is a typical example of how the private sector growth is constrained by a weak enabling environment. it is critical that credit guarantees are used to link farm input manufacturing companies with agro-input dealers. successful instances of smallholder farmer adoption of technologies (e.g., in malawi) have demonstrated the importance of credit as an important enabling factor. the above information was gender disaggregated to provide a better understanding of the distribution of farm services by input dealers. agro-input buyers (mostly farmers) benefited through input packaging. data from the agro-input dealers show that of about 18100 customers (farmers) that benefited from this service, about 83% were male farmers. although only a few of the surveyed agro-input dealers gave an estimate of the farmers that benefited from their other farm services, it is striking that in 100% of the cases, more male farmers than female farmers benefited from the farm services of agro-input dealers (table 3). this was the case for both free farm services (e.g., some aspects of the spraying services) and the services that were paid for. this is generally expected because, compared to their male counterparts female farmers are less likely to have contact with agro-input dealers due to their more limited financial resources than male farmers. business incentives and constraints the agro-input dealers surveyed generally lacked business support and faced about five major business constraints including high transport cost (mostly due to poor infrastructure), low demand, lack of market information, lack of storage facilities, and limited business skill and knowledge (figure 1). the high cost of transport must have been due to the long average distance covered (and many hours‟ drive away) by agro-input dealers to source their goods. this shows how infrastructural cha table 4. mean distances (km) traveled by agro-input dealers to acquire selected farm inputs. input distance (km) improved seeds 112.6 (97) storage chemicals 99.7 (22) farm machineries 92.8 (350) other agro-chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, etc.) 86.3 (71) mineral fertilizers 79.5 (182) values in parenthesis refer to the number of sourcing distance included in determining the statistics in the table. table 5. correlation between distance from where traders sourced farm inputs and the selling price. input correlation murate of potash 1.000** improved millet seeds 1.000** tractor 1.000** thiram 0.574* npk fertilizers 0.543 improved sorghum seeds 0.209 urea fertilizer 0.19 improved seeds of common bean 0.174 improved maize varieties 0.014 source: computed from survey data, 2005 llenges undermine farmers‟ access to necessary farm inputs, food security, and impede growth. poor domestic infrastructure (in much of africa) and limited access to agricultural credit (including seasonal credit) also undermine the effect and equitable participation of many african countries in world trade. africa‟s road density was less than india‟s in 1960 (sanchez, 2005). all these explain why the farm gate prices of inputs are generally high and why many smallholder farmers use few purchased inputs. the result of a recent study on fertilizer supply chains suggests that lowest fertilizer prices occur in areas where the retail outlet is developed (chemonics, 2007). kelly et al. (2003) earlier identified the serious deficiencies in roads, education, market information systems, and supportive institutions as the major limitations that need to be addressed by governments to expand farm input use, increase agricultural productivity and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farm families in ssa. recently (june 2006), an africa fertilizer summit declared that the africa union member states should, among others, take specific actions to improve farmer access to market information. this is in line with the comprehensive africa agriculture development programme (caadp)‟s pillar ii agenda, which seeks to improve africa‟s infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access. in western kenya, the distance from agro-input mar keting points to paved roads ranged from 0 (where market is next to a paved road) to 3 km. however, the distance (km) that agro-input dealers had to travel to source the farm inputs sold ranged from 20 km to over 300 km, indicating a more or less inaccessible distance. for specific farm inputs, the mean agro-input sourcing distance ranged from about 80 km (inorganic fertilizers) to 113 km (improved seed varieties) (table 4). all these, coupled with the poor state of most of the road and market infrastructure in western kenya, explain the high cost of transport that ranked highest among the business constraints facing agro-input dealers in the area. it also explains the lack of access to timely and affordable farm inputs by most of the smallholder farmers. under these situations, the inputs may be available but still far from the reach of the farmers because of high prices caused by many factors including “excessive” profit margins being asked for by agro-input dealers. all these again underscores the need to improve the existing rural infrastructure, and build and develop new ones in most parts of ssa, a prerequisite for increasing the access of rural farmers to farm inputs at affordable prices and for increasing agricultural productivity, farm incomes, and general improvements in the livelihoods of the people table 4. our analysis shows a positive correlation between the price at which agro-input dealers were willing to sell farm inputs and input sourcing distances. however, the magnitude of the correlation coefficient varied with agroinputs. for instance, the sourcing distances and selling prices of muriate of potash (mop), improved millet seeds, and tractors had a perfect correlation. other correlations range from 0.014 (for improved varieties of maize) to 0.574 (for thiram) (table 5). this result shows that increasing the networks and percent coverage by the main distributors of different agro-inputs are important ways of getting farm inputs closer to the poor and has a great potential to reduce the unit price at which farm inputs are sold to the resource limited farmers in rural communities of ssa. this is an important step towards developing rural small-scale agro-input dealers. the question then is „how to provide the necessary incentives (e.g., tax incentives) for the main agro-input distributors to increase the networks through which they supply agro-inputs to the retailers that ultimately sell to the smallholder farmers in distant and far flung rural communities‟. both policy support and infrastructural development are critical issues that must be addressed (table 5). frameworks agro-input dealers would want to see implemented sustainable expansion of the areas of coverage by agroinput dealers for increased access of smallholder farmers to farm inputs is critical. how to arrive at this desirable situation was assessed from the point of view of the agroinput dealers. they were asked about the policy and institutional frameworks they would want to see implemented to enhance the environment for a sustainable expansion of their areas of coverage and the access of smallholder farmers to farm inputs. the most important areas where agro-input dealers would want to see improvements were training on agro-input business (29%); enhanced access to credit and loans to enable them purchase more goods (21%); agricultural extension, research, and infrastructure development (15%); tax incentives and reduction (14%); illegal trade and adulteration (13%); and input supply management (8%). these would provide some incentives for them to take the risk implied in supplying farm inputs to many farmers in remote rural communities. the major institutions that agro-input dealers felt should intervene to remove their business constraints were the government (48%) (facilitate access to credit and loans, tax reduction, and input quality control) and the universities and research institutions (26%) (provide various training support). overall, it is important to note that the government is extremely important when it comes to price (including farm input price) reduction mechanisms. we also examined the relationship between all the policy-related interventions (training of farmers, agroinput dealers, agricultural extension personnel; giving credit to farmers and agro-input dealers; price and tax reduction; curbing illegal trade and licensing; supply management; provision of agricultural extension services; supporting market research; etc.) and all the institutionrelated interventions (market cleanliness; customer care, agro-vet services in market, government framework and institutions such as the ministry of agriculture and kephis; formation of cooperatives; financial institutions, etc.) proposed by the agro-input dealers using multivariate correspondence analysis. however, it is important to note that the division is our own creation aimed at increasing our understanding of the data. correspondence analysis helps to find a dimensional representation of the dependence between categories of variables in a two-way contingency table (hair et al., 1995). multivariate correspondence analysis was conducted to relate the areas of policy interventions suggested by the agro-input dealers and institutions that they felt were in the best position to handle the situation. as expected, the result shows that both the policy-related interventions and the institution-related interventions were significantly correlated (pearson chisquare-208. 504, df = 100, p = 0.000). the agro-input dealers who proposed training and credit and loans as a means to improve agro input marketing also proposed govern-ment departments as the expected main actor. government was also the main organization that was suggested to deal with illegal trading and adulteration of agroinputs and improve marketing efficiency. the agro-input dealers who proposed the need to improve trans-portation, suggested road improvement policies, and they were also associated with those who proposed extension policies and chemical distribution institutions and im-proved supply policies. agroinput dealers who proposed tax reduction and the curbing of illegal agro-input trade and adulteration proposed kenya revenue authority as the best institution that could deal with the situation. government role is important in promoting the expansion of input use (kelly at al., 2003). the first dimension (horizontal axis) of the solution is related to road improvement and the curbing of illegal input trading and adulteration with contributions from extension and the university. the second axis (vertical axis) is related to training policies and favorable loan policies with government and kenya revenue authority intervention as indicated by contribution of points to inertia of dimensions, which are equivalent to the interpretation of loadings in a principal component analysis (pca) for numeric data reduction. the suggestions of input dealers were found to be in tandem with those proposed by kelly et al. (2003), including the need of government to invest in rural infrastructure (roads, markets, storage facilities, etc), education, agriculture research and extension and market information systems. government, training, and loan provision were closely related as policies and institutions. conclusions and way forward the study shows that although the number of agro-inputs dealers in western kenya has been growing, the growth is still a far cry from what is required to ensure that smallholder farmers, especially those in far away rural communities, have adequate access to agro-inputs. besides, apart from limited business incentives, most of the agro-input dealers in the study area face numerous other problems (e.g., infrastructural challenges, low demand) in their businesses that hamper efficient agroinput supply to smallholder rural farm households. most of the agro-input dealers still travel long distances to source different agro-inputs – a situation that has continued to result in high farmlevel (or farm gate) prices for farm inputs. the problem of high unit price of agroinputs is compounded by the fact that credit services were rarely provided to smallholder farmers by the agroinput dealers who themselves lack adequate working capital for increased stocking of agro-inputs. besides, only very few agro-input dealers (2 – 11%) were in a position to provide small-scale farmers with other services (especially input-related information). the fact that agro-input dealers faced numerous constraints (high transport costs, low demand, lack of market, limited market information, lack of storage facilities, and limited skills and knowledge) is particularly worrisome because most of these are serious problems of infrastructure that require strong political will to address. this shows the void preventing the private sector from fully taking up farm input supply functions, in spite of the on-going market liberalization aimed at de-emphasizing government control of businesses and encouragement of the private sector to take over such business undertakings for increased efficiency. policy and institutional environment conducive to private agro-inputs dealer operations and investment are, therefore, of paramount importance to efficient agro-input market development in western kenya and similar environments in ssa. a similar measure is also needed on limited business skill and knowledge, especially considering that knowledge reduces risk and increases rewards. as a way forward, government policy and institutional intervention (in areas such as: reducing the risks that the private sector face in rural markets, improving road and other infrastructure, developing and extending credit and loans to agroinput dealers and their networks) are critical in stimulating the input supply sector and in effectively ushering in sustainable green revolution in africa. acknowledgements we acknowledge the agro-input dealers for giving us their attention during data collection. references bashaasha b (2001). the evolution and characteristics of farming systems in uganda. department of agricultural economics, makerere university. a resource paper for the policies for improved land management in uganda project. a collaborative project of: international food policy research institute, german center for international development, makerere university, agricultural policy secretariat, and national agricultural research organization. chemonics international and international center for soil fertility and agricultural development (ifdc) (2007). a six-country survey of fertilizer supply and costs in africa. fertilizer supply and costs in africa. june 21. dma tr (1991). department of defense world geodetic system 1984, its definition and relationships with local geodetic system, 2nd ed. faostat (food and agricultural organization statistical database)(2003). http://apps.fao.org/page/collections?subset=agriculture. hair jf, anderson re, tatham rl, black wc (1995). multivariate data analysis, 4th edn. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall ifdc (2006). (international center for soil fertility and agriculture) report, 31: 1. jaetzold r, schmidt h (1982). farm management handbook of kenya natural conditions and farm management information – part a west kenya (nyanza and western, provinces). ministry of agriculture, kenya, in cooperation with the german agricultural team (gat) of the german agency for technical cooperation (gtz). 2: 397. kelly v, adesina aa, gordon a (2003). expanding access to agricultural inputs in africa: a review of recent market development experience. food pol. 28: 379-404. sanchez p (2005). implementing the hunger task force recommendations in africa. powerpoint presentation. hayes memorial lecture, university of minnesota, 25 may. spss (statistical package for social sciences) (2002). statistical package for social sciences release 11.0. prentice hall: chicago. surrey dw (1997). diffusion theory and instructional technology. paper presented at the annual conference of the association for educational communications and technology (aect), albuquerque, new mexico, february 12–15 (available at www.gsu.edu/wwwitr/docs/diffusion/) yanggen d, kelly v, reardon t, naseem a (1998). incentives for fertilizer use in sub-saharan africa: a review of empirical evidence on fertilizer response and profitability. msu international development working paper departments of agricultural economics and economics, michigan state university, east lansing, michigan 48824, p. 70. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (10), pp. 001-011, october, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper economic crossroads: the experiences of nigeria and lessons from malaysia okezie, c. a.1* and amir, baharuddin h2 1 department of agricultural economics, michael okpara university of agriculture, umudike, nigeria. 2 school of social sciences, university sains malaysia, pinang, malaysia. accepted 20 may, 2018 nigeria has the potential to become sub-saharan africa’s largest economy and a major player in the global economy by virtue of its human and natural resource endowment. these potentials have remained untapped, and if current trends continue, nigeria runs the risk of not meeting the internationally agreed millennium development goals (mdgs) by 2015. this paper is an attempt to assess the economic performance in nigeria with a view of identifying what went wrong and drawing lessons from malaysia for its vision 2020. the two countries have the vision of becoming advanced economies by the year 2020. nigeria’s economic landscape especially since the oil boom of the mid 1970’s has become the textbook example of africa’s economic growth and tragedy with a gross domestic product (gdp) of about $43 billion in 2001, the economy has shrunk to a third of its size in 1981, per capita income has shrunk from $1150 in 1991 to a barely $300 in 2001. as at 2001, nigeria had received appropriately $300 billion from oil exports since the mid 1970’s but per capita income was 20% less than the 1975 level. the economic structures remain highly undiversified, with oil accounting for than more 95% of exports and manufacturing sector accounting for less than one per cent of exports. in 1999 the country returned to the path of civil democratic governance, economic growth has risen substantially, with an annual average of 7.4% in the last decade. but the growth has not been inclusive, broad-based and transformational. the implication of the trend is that economic growth in nigeria has not resulted in the desired structural changes that would make manufacturing the engine of growth, create employment, promote technological development and induce poverty alleviation. the one lesson for nigeria is that for it to attend its vision 2020 it must promote an all inclusive growth in all sectors. key words: economic growth, gross domestic product (gdp), vision 2020, nigeria, malaysia. introduction nigeria, with a population of about 120 million, is africa‟s most populous country and the continent‟s third largest economy. oil dominates the economy, accounting for about 80% of federal government revenues, and 95% of foreign exchange earnings with a continuously declining *correponding author. e-mail: ccaokezie@yahoo.com. abbreviations: gdp, gross domestic product; imf, international monetary fund; sap, structural adjustment programme; needs, national economic empowerment and development strategy; fdi, foreign direct investment; ftzs, free trade zones. countries. since its independence in 1960, the country has undergone major political and economic changes. it has attempted to forge a unified nation out of diverse per capita income and comparatively unfavourable social indicators. nigeria is one of the poorest oil producing regional, ethnic and religious groups through a federal structure of government, whose leadership has changed no less than eleven times, mostly through military coups (aiae, 2003). during the 1970s, nigeria evolved from a poor agricultural economy into a relatively rich, oil-dominated one. in 1969 the oil sector accounted for less than 3% of gross domestic product (gdp) and a modest us$370 million in exports (42% of total exports); per capita income was only us$130. more than half of her gdp file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org was generated in the agricultural sector. by 1980, the oil sector accounted for nearly 30% of gdp, oil exports totaled us$25 billion (96% of total exports), and per capita income exceeded us$1,100. following the discovery and exploration of oil, the economy experienced many symptoms of the “dutch disease”, with the real effective exchange rate appreciating steadily during the 1970s (ahmad and singh, 2002). the steady erosion of competitiveness of the non-oil tradable goods sector was reflected in the substantial decline of agricultural exports, which began in the mid-1960s, and continued through 1976, when oil production reached its peak. notwithstanding the dramatic rise in oil revenue in the 1970s, the government failed to strengthen public finances. the excessive expansion of public expenditure, from an average of 13% of gdp during 1970-1973 to 25% in 1974-1980, moved the fiscal balance from a small surplus to a deficit, averaging 2½% of gdp a year. the monetary financing of these deficits contributed to a rapid growth in broad money and a sharp acceleration in inflation. the real effective appreciation of the currency (naira) that followed the surge in oil prices toward the end of 1973 eroded nigeria‟s competitiveness, and growth of real gdp slowed markedly. a buoyant oil sector sustained an average external current account surplus of 1½% of gdp during this period, while gross international reserves averaged the equivalent of about seven months of imports. by 1980, the country‟s external debt was only us$4.1 billion, or 5% of gdp, and the debt-service ratio was a modest 3.7% (cbn, 2010; addison, 2002; okonjo et al., 2003). the economic policy orientation during the 1970s left the country ill prepared for the eventual collapse of oil prices in the first half of the 1980s. public investment was concentrated in costly, and often inappropriate, infrastructure projects with questionable rates of return and sizable recurrent cost implications, while the agricultural sector was largely neglected (ajakaiye, 1996; edf, 2001). nigeria‟s industrial policy was inwardlooking, with a heavy emphasis on protection and government controls, which fueled an uncompetitive manufacturing sector. nonetheless, nigeria‟s economy has remained dominant in africa. to reverse the worsening economic fortunes in terms of declining growth, increasing unemployment, galloping inflation, high incidence of poverty, worsening balance of payment conditions, debilitating debt burden and increasing unsustainable fiscal deficits, among others, government embarked on austerity measures in 1982 (ajakaiye,1990). arising from the minimal impacts of these measures, an extensive structural adjustment programme was put in place in 1986 with emphasis on expenditure reducing and expenditure switching policies as well as using the private sector as the engine of growth of the economy via commercialization and privatization of government-owned enterprises. though some benefits were achieved at the initial stage, such benefits could not trickle down to the poor (napep, 2001). rather, the incidence of poverty keeps on increasing. as such, resistance came up from many stakeholders, particularly the civil society, the labour unions and the organized private sector. even the economic reform programmes of the present democratic government were not spared from this resistance. in fact, it is increasingly difficult to implement any credible economic reform programmes given people‟s experiences with the previous ones. the inability to achieve the goals of these reform programmes have been linked to several factors. apart from the top down approach to initiating and implementing these programmes, political and ethnic instability has been adduced as important factors. nigeria, for instance, has been ruled by the military for 25 of its 50 years as an independent nation. the origin of political instability in nigeria has been the inability to forge a national entity that transcends ethnic, regional, religious and economic interests. these diverging interests led to scores of political coups and counter coups. the principal ethnic groups in nigeria are the hausa in the north, the yoruba in the west, and the ibo in the east, and the principal religious groups are the muslims in the north and the christians in the south. the federal structure of nigeria has changed dramatically during the past decades; the country‟s original three regions have since been divided into 36 states and the federal capital territory of abuja. in addition, there are 774 local governments. even at the public sector level, the involvement of lower tiers of government has been low while those of the civil society and the organized private sector have equally been tardy. problem statement the key questions to frame the discussions include: 1. where is nigeria relative to where it needs to be? 2. why is it where it is? 3. what has been done in the past or being done currently to change the situation? 4. what are the lingering challenges, and a possible agenda for change? in other words, can the nigerian economy move from the historical sluggish growth trends to a vibrant growth path that can transform the structure of the economy and enable her in the attainment of the vision enunciated under vision 2020 and launch her into the league of advanced economics. objectives of the paper arising from the aforementioned questions, the paper seeks to: 1. examine the performance of the nigerian economy; 2. take stocks of what works and what did not; 3. draw lessons from the malaysian experiences; and 4. find solutions to the existing sources of problems. methodology the approach used in the report is descriptive but mostly analytical. fundamentally, the approach provides an in-depth assessment of the macro and micro aspects of the economy, complemented with an evaluation of the human development record. the emphasis on the human development balance sheet derives from the fact that the economy is ultimately about people and resources. thus, no proper understanding of the economy and its future prospects can be made without a better understanding of the human development indicators, human capital resources, poverty and inequality, gender issues, employment and factors likely to hamper productivity such as the hiv/aids pandemic and exclusion/suppression of productive groups such as women. as much as possible, the analysis of the most recent developments (last five years) is done in comparative perspectives in comparison with the country‟s own historical trends but in some cases also with other african and developing country performances. the goal is to dramatize the distinguishing features of the economy and its management, as well as its key economic development challenges. the assessment is data intensive, and the data are from secondary sources. the macroeconomic data come from the publications of the central bank of nigeria, federal office of statistics, relevant ministries and government agencies, the world bank‟s global development indicators, the international monetary fund‟s (imf) world economic outlook databank, international financial statistics; and from sundry publications as indicated in the references. nigerian economy in perspective policy regimes the nigerian economy has undergone series of changes over time with different policy regimes. prior to 1986, a medium-term “development plan” was adopted as a major framework for developing and restructuring the economy. the first national development plan, 19621968, was developed to put the economy on a fast growth path. the plan gave adequate priority to agriculture and industrial development as well as training of high-level and intermediate manpower. however, the disruptions to economic activities during the period later paved way for broader economic policies for reconciliation and reconstruction. the second national development plan, 1970-1974, was launched primarily to reconstruct and rehabilitate infrastructure that had been damaged during the civil war. thus, the government invested a lot of resources into the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure as well as improving the incomes of the people. the indigenization decrees of 1972 and 1974 put the commanding heights of the nigerian economy in the hands of nigerians within the context of nationalism. the third national development plan, 1975-1980, was designed under a more favorable financial condition of huge oil revenues that accrued to the nation from the mid-1970s. however, the execution/implementation of the fourth national development plan, 1981-1985, was affected by the collapse of the international oil prices. in 1982 the government introduced the economic stabilization act as an immediate reaction to dwindling oil earnings and major external sector imbalances. sanusi (2010) noted that this was aimed at reducing government expenditure and conserving foreign reserves in order to improve the country‟s balance sheet. it was however found that there was need for a more fundamental reform to compliment the austerity measures. in 1986, the government accepted the imf-sponsored structural adjustment programme (sap). the sap aimed at removing cumbersome administrative controls and creating a more market-friendly environment underpinned by measures and incentives that would encourage private enterprise and more efficient allocation of resources. one might argue the sap recorded some measure of success. however, some of the gains of the sap were eroded following the increased spate of policy reversals between 1988 and 1989. up to 1990, the economy witnessed some gains which were associated with increased deregulation and liberalization in economic management. however, owing to policy slippages, there was a reversal of trends in major macroeconomic aggregates thereafter, resulting from policy reversals and inconsistencies. generally, frequent policy inconsistencies and reversals that characterized the period under review created distortions in the economy and were further compounded by external shocks, including the external debt overhang. overall, sap failed to realize the goals of creating wealth and promoting sound economic development as most of the policies were terminated prematurely or reversed out rightly. the experimentation with deregulation and liberalization was truncated in 1994 with the advent of a military government. thus, the federal government reregulated the economy, by capping exchange and interest rates due to high nominal interest rates that reached an all-time high of 48.0% in commercial banks and 60.0% in nonbank financial institutions. these rates were in turn driven by the high rates of inflation at 48.8% in 1992 and 61.3% in 1993. as there was no clear economic strategy for the rest of the decade, the monetary policy implementation became ineffective to check expansionary fiscal operations. in addition, weak institutions and an unfriendly legal environment reduced the benefits that would have accrued to the economy (sanusi, 2010). however, the scenario changed in 1999, with the return of democratic governance in the country. democratic governments have introduced series of reforms that were aimed at redressing the distortions in the economy and to restore economic growth following the period of economic decline. in 2004 the government‟s 60 50 p er ce n ta ge 40 30 20 10 0 1960-1970 1971-1980 1981-1990 1991-2000 2001-2009 years figure 1. sectoral contributions to gdp. agric industry manu services economic agenda was formally launched and tagged the national economic empowerment and development strategy (needs). structure of the nigerian economy structurally, the nigerian economy can be classified into three major sectors namely primary/agriculture and natural resources, secondary-processing and manufacturing, and tertiary/services sectors. the economy is characterized by structural dualism. the agricultural sector is an admixture of subsistence and modern farming, while the industrial sector comprises modern business enterprises which co-exist with a large number of micro-enterprises employing less than 10 persons mainly located in the informal sector. the agricultural sector has not been able to fulfill its traditional role of feeding the population, meeting the raw material needs of industries, and providing substantial surplus for export. indeed, the contribution of the sector to total gdp has fallen over the decades, from a very dominant position of 55.8% of the gdp in 1960-1970 to 28.4% in 1971-1980, before rising to 32.3, 34.2 and 40.3% during the decades 1981-1990, 1991-2000 and 2001-2009, respectively (figure 1). the fall is not because a strong industrial sector is displacing agriculture but largely as a result of low productivity, owing to the dominance of peasant farmers and their reliance on rudimentary farm equipment and low technology. another feature of the sector is under-capitalization which results in low yield and declining output (sanusi, 2010). the industrial sector comprises the manufacturing, mining (including crude petroleum and gas) and electricity generation. prior to independence in 1960, the nigerian economy was mainly agrarian. on attainment of independence, the nigerian government embarked on the programme of transforming the country into an industrial economy. the nigerian manufacturing sub-sector is made up of large, medium and small enterprises, as well as cottage and hand-craft units. in spite of spirited efforts made to boost manufacturing output and various policy regimes, manufacturing has not made any significant contribution to the growth of the economy. industry as a whole contributed only 11.3% of the gdp in 1960-1970, growing significantly in the next two decades to a high of 41.0% in 1981-1990, owing largely to the crude petroleum and gas production during the decades. the contribution contracted to 38.6% in the 1990s and further to 29.4% during 2001-2009. these numbers, in fact, belie the poor contribution of the manufacturing sub-sector to aggregate output in nigeria compared with its peers in asia and latin america. indeed, the contribution of the manufacturing component has on average been below 5.0% in the last two decades. even the relatively high contribution of oil sector to the industrial sector contribution is being driven largely by crude production and not by the associated “core industrial” components like refining and petrochemicals. the contribution of wholesale and retail trade and services has more or less remained stable while that of building and contribution rose sharply from 5.3% in the 1960s to 8.3% in the 1970s but fell consistently, thereafter, to 1.8% during 20012009. during and some few years after sap, the main manufactured exports were textiles, beer and stout, cocoa butter, plastic products, processed timber, tyres, bottled water, soap and detergents as well as iron rods. 9 8 pe rc en ta g e 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 period figure 2. average growth rate of real gdp. however, some of these products have disappeared from the export list owing to poor enabling environment. the components of the mining sub-sector in nigeria are crude petroleum, gas and solid minerals. prior to the advent of petroleum minerals such as coal and tin were the main mineral exports. however, with the emergence of crude oil, the relative importance of solid minerals diminished. indeed, since the 1970s, the largest mining activity has been crude oil production, which became dominant in terms of government revenue and export earnings. lately the production of gas has gained increased attention, as the export potential of gas has reduced the dominance of crude oil (unido, 2002). performance trends the average growth rate of real gdp, which was 5.9% in the period 1960-1970, rose to 8.0% in 1971-1973 (figure 2). the nigerian economy expanded rapidly, as oil production and export rose phenomenally. however, activities in the service sub-sector were relatively modest even though marketing and advertising, which covers distributive trade, lagged behind. the average gdp growth rate later dropped to 3.2% during 1976-1980. this level was sustained in the period 1982-1990 following improved performance in agricultural and industrial subsectors. suffice it to state that gdp responded favorably to the economic adjustment policies of the eighties during which the sap and economic liberalization were adopted. thus, annual gdp grew from a negative 0.6% in 1987 to 13.0% in 1990. however, the average growth rate of real gdp dropped to 1.9% during 1991-1998. this was in spite of the favorable developments in the agricultural and services sub-sectors of the economy. real gdp growth rate rebounded to 8.3% during the period 1999-2007, reflecting improved economic policy of needs era. real gdp despite the decline in real gdp growth rate to 6.3% in the period 2008-2009, the major drivers remained agriculture, wholesale and retail trade, and services sectors. indeed, the last decade has been a period of rebirth as affirmed by almost all macroeconomic indicators (table 1). but the growth rate has not been high enough to push down the poverty profile. indeed, the nigerian economy has not experienced remarkable transformation and restructuring. equally important is the indication that since 1999, nigeria has become a trading outpost for goods produced elsewhere with little domestic transformation of the output of primary sectors by the secondary sector. this is particularly so since the nigerian agriculture is really peasantry and the high contributions of tertiary sector to output suggest that the sector is not really servicing the nigerian economy but, indeed, the economies of her trading partners. thus, the nigerian economy is still dominated by the primary sector, followed rather closely by the tertiary sector with the contribution of the secondary sector remaining insignificant. little wonder the diversification index remained below 0.4% through the review period, the barrage of reforms notwithstanding. the nigerian economy is import dependent with very little non-oil exports. it relies heavily on crude oil and gas exports with other sectors trailing far behind. for example, crude oil accounts for about 90% of foreign exchange earned by the country while non-oil exports account for the balance (table 2). the economy is, therefore, susceptible to shocks in the oil industry. in recent times, these shocks have been caused by either developments in the international crude oil market or the restiveness in the niger delta region of the country. agriculture and other mining (besides oil and gas) have been abandoned to the rural poor. economic and social infrastructure, especially power is grossly dilapidated. the power sector is generally recognized as a binding constraint on nigerian economy. poor corporate table 1. selected macroeconomic indicators. indicator 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 average real gdp growth rate 9.57 6.58 6.51 6.0 6.5 6.4 6.7 6.2 inflation(y-on-y) 13.9 15.4 17.9 8.5 6.6 15.1 12.0 13.3 growth in m2 24.97 12.26 34.61 30.6 44.2 58.0 17.1 31.8 current account balance/gdp 6.95 17.62 28.23 18.5 11.8 17.5 11.9 13.4 fdi (us$ billion) 2.0 1.86 4.98 13.9 5.6 5.8 4.3 external reserves (us$ billion) 7.47 16.95 28.3 42.3 51.3 58.0 42.4 27.0 exchange rate (end-period) 129.4 133.5 132.15 128.2 117.9 132.5 149.58 125.8 external debt (us$) 3.3 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.9 3.21 source: cbn annual report and statement of accounts various issues. table 2. composition of nigerian exports. component 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 oil exports 97.5 98.3 97.8 97.9 99.0 95.8 total non oil export 2.5 1.7 2.2 2.1 1.0 4.2 non oil agric 33.0 41.9 37.8 39.7 58.3 46.9 minerals 2.0 4.0 8.5 6.3 7.7 6.7 semi-manufactured 48.9 40.6 37.9 39.4 17.0 29.2 manufactured 5.0 9.8 11.1 10.3 8.7 9.1 other exports 11.2 3.9 4.7 4.3 8.3 8.1 source: cbn annual reports and statements of accounts various issues. governance, both in the public and private sectors have led to high incidence of corruption and inequity in income distribution. a review of the statistics from comparable countries shows that the share of primary commodities in total exports is 20.0% for malaysia, 24.0% for india, 12.0% for china. for developed countries it is 17% for britain and america and 9% for japan. in nigeria, the primary sector contributes 99% of exports with only 1.0% coming from the secondary sector (table 3). growth drivers in nigeria, agriculture dominates the primary sector, which dominates the entire economy. the population of the country has grown by about 150.0% between 1963 and 2006, approximately 3.75% per annum. a simple calculation shows that for the per capita income to remain the same as in the 1960s, every sector of the economy should at least have grown by the same percentage. but the agricultural sector which is the mainstay of the economy has declined in its contribution to the gdp, manufacturing has declined, building and construction has also declined, while the wholesale and retail trade as well as the services sectors have remained almost the same as in the 1960s. applying the harrod-domar 1 model, this implies that assuming a capital-output ratio of 5.0% and a savings ratio of 15.0%, the economy would grow at 3.0%; of course, the savings ratio depends on the difference between the population growth rate and the growth rate of the gdp (the economy). figure 2 shows an average growth rate of real gdp of 5.3% in the period 1960-2009. if the average population growth rate of 3.8 is deducted from 5.3, we are left with a gdp growth rate of 1.5% of which no meaningful savings can be made. in effect, the economy has not been growing in real terms over the years. for nigeria to make a quantum leap, the economy has to grow by at least double digit rates for a sustained period of time. challenges facing the nigerian economy nigeria is a mono-product economy with the bulk of government revenue coming from oil exports which is susceptible to shocks in the international oil market. moreover, many other solid minerals with which the country is richly endowed with remain generally untapped. 1 harrod – domar model is used in development economics to explain an economy’s growth rate in terms of the level of savings and productivity of capital. table 3. composition of exports in selected developed and developing countries 2000. developing countries export as a percentage share of percentage share of percentage of gdp primary commodities manufactured goods malaysia 110.0 20 80 indonesia 40.7 46 54 jamaica 19.6 30 70 philippines 53.2 59 41 bangladesh 11.9 9 91 nigeria 48.7 99 1 venezuela 27.2 88 12 sri lanka 33.0 25 75 kenya 15.9 77 23 south korea 37.8 9 91 togo 25.0 82 18 mexico 29.0 15 85 india 8.3 24 76 brazil 9.4 46 54 china (excluding hong kong) 23.1 12 88 developed countries united kingdom 19.8 17 83 united states 7.9 17 83 japan 10.2 6 94 more fundamentally, the economy has disproportionately relied on the primary sector (subsistence agriculture and the extractive industry) without any meaningful value addition. in light of this, the little growth recorded in the economy, thus far, has been without commensurate employment, positive attitudinal change, value reorientation, and equitable income distribution, among others. these could be attributed to poor leadership, poor implementation of economic policies, weak institutions, poor corporate governance, endemic corruption, etc. the challenge, therefore, is how to deploy/manage the receipts from the oil and gas exports to achieve the highest value for money in the economy; develop on a sustainable basis, the many untapped solid minerals; improve agricultural productivity by cultivating more of the available arable land with improved technology; process and preserve primary produce with the aim of increasing value addition; manufacture the basic durable and nondurable goods needed by nigerians and the west african sub-region, market and ultimately looking at export such goods and sustain manufacturing by providing the core industries; and remain competitive by developing and improving on the investment climate of the country. these challenges have remained largely unresolved owing to the myriad of problems: (i) macroeconomic challenges: the nigerian macro economy is still characterized by rigidities, dualism and the false paradigm model. generally, the sectors of the economy are in silos to the extent that the primary sector does not relate meaningfully with the secondary sector and the same for the secondary and the tertiary sectors. agricultural produce end up as final consumer goods as only a small quantity is processed or used as raw materials for the local manufacturing industries. also, the produce of the extractive industries are exported in their raw forms without local value addition. given the higher incomes in the oil and gas sub-sector of the extractive industry, attention is concentrated there to the almost total neglect of the mainstream economy. consequently, the economy is broken into the very rich (relying on the oil and gas industry) and the very poor (relying on the mainstream economy) with almost a complete vacuum inbetween these two. the false paradigm model also plays out in the sense that while the few very wealthy group clamour for relevance in the context of “experts” advice, the very poor suffer from ignorance, disease and malnutrition. thus, there is no structural change and, hence, the attitudinal changes of economic transformation are absent (unido, 2002); (ii) infrastructural challenges: one of the main challenges‟ facing the economy is poor economic and social infrastructure: bad roads, erratic power supply, limited access to portable water and basic healthcare, and much more. building a vibrant economy or restoring growth to a sluggish economy takes resources. to ensure long-term growth and prosperity, nigeria must use its resources wisely, invest in advanced technology and rebuild the infrastructure without which the economy will not gain from the “power of productivity” (sanusi, 2010). a nation enjoys higher standards of living if the workers can produce large quantities of goods and services for local consumption and extra for export. the deficiencies in the economy lead to low productivity, poor quality products and non-competitiveness in the global market place; (iii) poor institutions and corporate governance: another important challenge to sustainable economic growth in nigeria is lack of effective institutions and good governance. these factors have been hindering various efforts and reforms of the government to stimulate economic growth for sustainable development in nigeria. the prevalence of weak institutions and poor corporate governance as well as poor ethical standards in most public and private organizations, hinder the attainment of the goals of economic policies in the country (undp, 1997; shabbir, 2004). poor corporate governance has adversely affected the quality of institutions to the extent that public and private institutions are used for selfish interests, thereby, making regulation and law enforcement ineffective; (iv) corruption challenges: although corruption is a global scourge, nigeria appears to suffer particularly from it. everyone appears to believe that the nation has a “culture of corruption” (undp, 2002). over the years, nigeria has earned huge sums of money from crude oil, which appears to have largely gone down the sinkhole created by corruption. in an article, “oil giant that runs on grease of politics,” nigeria was described as a rich nation floating on oil wealth “but almost none of it flows to the people” (san francisco chronicle, march 11, 2007). corruption has denied nigerians the value of the petrodollar that has accrued to the country over the years. the failure of infrastructure, political and ethical standards as well as moral and educational standards can easily be traced to corruption; (v) low quality of education: education is an important factor in economic growth and development but the nation‟s educational system has been facing myriad of challenges, which prevent the country from achieving its economic objectives. the problems include inadequate funding and planning and management, inadequate infrastructure, irrelevance of curricula to industrial needs and inadequate commitment on the part of students and teachers, among others. all these have combined to hinder the production of a high quality work force to propel the economy (uness for nigeria: 2006-2015). as dike (2006) noted, the state of a nation‟s educational sector, among other things, determines the economic health of the nation; (vi) the dutch disease 2 : since the oil price boom of the early 1970s, the country abandoned the agricultural and industrial sectors of the economy to the old and weak. both the public and private sectors of the economy concentrate their efforts in the oil and gas industry to the 2 dutch disease is resource boom leading to the decline of the erstwhile tradable sector. extent that the mainstream economy is denied funding, requisite investment and even managerial capabilities. thus, the mainstream economy has become uncompetitive globally while the country has turned into a trading outpost for foreign companies. this has hindered the much-needed transformation of the economy in the last four decades. (vii) poor investment climate: the consequence of all that have been said above is the poor investment climate in the economy that has rendered the economy uncompetitive. in the absence of adequate infrastructure (power, roads, water, etc.) the cost of doing business in the country remain high, forcing to neighboring countries even companies that had existed in nigeria for upwards of four decades. prospects for the economy economic growth, especially in a developing country like nigeria, must be people-oriented. therefore, pro-poor policies and those that improve on the welfare of a majority of the people should be emphasized. it is fair to say that a broad consensus exists among key stakeholders in the nigerian economy, government, private sector, households, and external actors-on what to do to get the economy going [see various government policy documents for various sectors, the obasanjo economic direction, 1999-2003; the vision 2010 reports; various summary reports of annual economic summits, world bank‟s country assistance strategy papers (2001, 2002), imf‟s memorandum of article iv consultations, etc.)]. it is broadly agreed that the challenge of development should be that of rapid growth with inclusion/poverty reduction, and that the key vehicle to achieve it should be a shift from statism and rent seeking to a private sector-led, competitive market economy framework. in summary, sanusi (2010) observed that this growth prospect can be achieved and sustained if: 1. the balance of trade is persistently positive, as it has been in the last five years; 2. external reserves can be substantially built up to boost the credit worthiness of the economy and attract foreign investment; 3. efforts are sustained to maintain peace in niger delta to boost crude oil and gas output; 4. electricity supply is increased to 15,000-25,000 megawatt between now and 2020, to boost manufacturing capacity utilization and activities in other critical sectors; 5. the banking sector reforms and efforts to resolve liquidity challenges are sustained to channel credit massively to the real sector of the economy; 6. government sustains the current reforms in the various sectors of the economy to achieve rapid growth and development; table 4. selected economic indices for nigeria and malaysia. indicator country 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 real gdp (%) malaysia 5.8 6.2 4.6 -1.7 10.1 nigeria 6.0 6.5 6.4 6.7 inflation (%) malaysia 3.6 2.0 5.4 0.6 1.3 nigeria 8.5 6.6 15.1 12.0 external reserves (us$ billion malaysia 82.4 101.3 91.4 96.7 96.0 nigeria 42.3 51.3 53.0 42.4 sectoral contributions to gdp (%) sector country 1970 1990 2000 2008 2009 agriculture malaysia 33.6 19.3 8.8 7.5 7.7 nigeria 55.8 32.3 34.2 40.3 manufacturing malaysia 12.8 26.5 32.6 29.6 26.9 nigeria 6.6 6.1 4.9 3.9 services malaysia 42.6 42.1 53.0 54.3 57.4 nigeria 15.3 9.8 11.5 15.5 source: economic bulletins of central bank of nigeria and bank negara, malaysia. 7. we increase agricultural output barring adverse weather conditions, with continued implementation of various government programmes, especially preserving, processing and marketing activities; 8. we sustain the growth in the services sector, by increasing the local content of the industry and by expanding the tele-density of the country; 9. we deregulate the downstream petroleum sub-sector and encourage the setting up of private refineries; 10. diversify the economy away from primary products and away from crude oil and natural gas; 11. improve other key economic and social infrastructure; and sustain the subsisting democratic governance. the global environment for development has changed quite significantly in recent years, with the rapid growth in world trade, capital flows and information and communications technology. nigeria can benefit from these changes by providing a more conducive investment climate in the country. lessons for nigeria from the malaysia experience nigeria and malaysia share common historical antecedent. they gained their independence from british rule. they federal system of government is practiced with bicameral legislature and the regions are inhabited by different racial and ethnic nationalities. both economies were relatively resource rich. at independence, malaysia in 1957 and nigeria in 1960 were leading exporters of primary product because basically the climate in the countries is tropical. a comparison of malaysia and nigeria‟s growth record shows divergence in growth rates, and differing structural changes to the economy. malaysia, on average has grown at a faster rate than nigeria. in contrast to malaysia‟s post-independent experience, political instability was more pronounced in nigeria. the military has ruled for 25 out of its 50 years as an independent nation. in malaysia there was, relatively, political stability and continuity, no changes in government and the present coalition government is still in power, after more than 50 years. some key economic indices are presented in table 4 to show the disparity in economic growth. malaysia achieved sustained growth of about 6% per annum growth for the past 50 years. it maintains large external reserve in comparison to nigeria and has continued to maintain low inflation rates. agriculture‟s share of gdp in 2009 has fallen to 7.7 from 33.6% in 1970, compared to nigeria‟s 55.8% in 1970 and 40.3 per cent in 2009. manufacturing in malaysia accounted for 12.8% in 1970 and 26.5% in 2009 compared to nigeria‟s 6.6% in 1970 and 15.5% in 2009, while the contribution of the service sector has increased to 57.4% in 2009, it stood at only 15.5% in nigeria. the two countries have adopted almost the same ideology in their developmental efforts, while malaysia plans and moves vigorously towards the attainment of its vision of becoming an advanced economy in 2020. nigeria in its vision 2020 which to become one of the 20 most industrialized economies by the year 2020, not much has been seen in this direction. the possible lessons from malaysia‟s growth expe-rience for nigeria could be summarized as thus explained resource curse resource curse is avoidable and growth can be sustained. malaysia is a relatively resource rich economy with its supply of land, and has exploited its land for the production of tin, rubber and palm oil. petroleum resources have become important from the mid-1970s. diversification diversification is essential for growth. the diversification strategies involved intra agricultural diversification, utilizing resources to raise productivity and diversification from tin and rubber into oil palm, and diversification from agriculture to manufacturing industries. openness openness and international integration is helpful for growth. international trade and long-term capital flows made important contributions to the growth of the malaysian economy. integration with asian economies was of growing importance. export-led growth exports were an important source of growth and trade intensity has increased. the growth of labour intensive manufacturing industries absorbed the surplus labour, especially from the rural areas, which opened up employment opportunities and raised income levels. human capital education has played a crucial role in sustaining economic growth and raising incomes of households. large public investment in education as it is a necessity. private education should be encouraged and can supplement the supply of human capital. stable prices and low inflation growth with low inflation is possible. inflation, with rare exceptions, in malaysia has averaged less than 3% for the past 30 years. a combination of price controls, subsidies and an open economy has helped to contain inflation. full or near-full employment sustaining full employment with an unemployment rate of about 3% is attainable. but relatively high levels of growth put pressure on labour supply and utilising immigrant labour has been necessary. a ready supply of low cost immigrant labour can discourage the upgrading of labour. private investment private investment, domestic as well as foreign direct investment (fdi), is vital for economic growth as reliance on substantial public investment is not sustainable. competition for fdi has and will intensify, policy reforms and strong institutions will be needed to attract and retain fdi. fiscal discipline and managing revenue fiscal discipline and strict management of revenue, including resource revenues, is essential for macroeconomic stability. containing the fiscal deficit and the national debt is essential for avoiding imbalances. additional discipline through legal and administrative guidelines should assist the management of revenue. industrial policies and foreign direct investment (fdi) industrial policies are important for economic diversification and fdi. export-led growth of manufactured products needs to be supported by fiscal incentives and infrastructure support, including industrial estates and free trade zones (ftzs). fdi can make important contributions to the growth of manufacturing industries and exports. federal constitution and governance federal constitution can provide a strong framework for the governance of politics of oil and forestry resources. regional interests to claim a larger share of revenue and resources have to be managed. weaker state/regional government can dissipate revenue. strong independent national oil corporation importance of relative independence, capacity and capability of national oil corporation is needed. the capability and capacity of petronas, the national oil corporation, has been crucial in the management of revenue from petroleum. the capture by vested interests over the national corporation should be resisted. conclusion the prospects for growth in nigeria are very bright going by the achievements recorded during the last ten years and the current reforms in the various sectors. however, for nigeria to consolidate these economic gains and move higher in the frontlines of growth and development, it must deepen reforms that improve human capital, promote high-quality public infrastructure and encourage competition (sanusi, 2010). the pillars to sustain this consolidation must include a firm fiscal policy, transparent fiscal operations, development-oriented monetary and exchange rate policies, strengthening of the financial sector and strict adherence to the rule-of-law and respect for the sanctity of contract, as well as commitment to fighting corruption and corrupt practices. in all of these, nigeria has opportunity for progress. we must break away from the past to deliver a new nigeria that the future generations of nigerians would be proud of. our electoral process must not only be credible, but must be seen to be credible, since robust economic performance necessarily requires a robust political environment to happen. references addison k (2002). nigeria: policy options for growth and stability in a challenging environment. the world bank, june 2002. ahmad e, singh r (2002).”political economy of oil revenue sharing in a developing country: illustration from nigeria” in imf working paper: washington: international monetary fund). aiae (2003). african institute of applied economics (aiae) (2003).nigeria: macroeconomic assessment and agenda for reforms. world bank assisted country report. ajakaiye do (1990). inter-industry linkages in the nigerian economy 1973–1977, niser monongraph series no 2 niser, ibadan. ajakaiye do (1996). public enterprises reforms in west africa: issues and research agenda”. res. dev., 11(1&2): 13-24. cbn (2010). central bank of nigeria annual report and statement of accounts, cbn, abuja. dike ve (2006). “youth unemployment in nigeria:the relevance of vocational and technical education,” in nesg-economic indicators, 12(3): 25-29. european development report (edp) (2001).programming study for nigeria-infrastructure report no 11/14. national poverty eradication programme (napep) (2001). a blueprint for success. okonja-iweala n, soludo cc, muktar m (2003).”the debt trap in nigeria, towards a sustainable debt strategy, eritrea, africa world press inc. sanusi ls (2010).growth prospects of the nigerian economy. eighth convocation lecture of the igdinedion university, okada, edo state, nigeria. shabbir cg (2004). „from public administration to governance: the paradigm shift in the link between government and citizens.‟ paper presented at the 6th global forum on reinventing government, with a theme, towards participatory and transparent governance, 24–27 may 2004. undp (2002). united nations development programme, deepening democracy in a fragmented world, new york, human development report 2002. undp (1997). united nations development programme, governance for sustainable human development: a undp policy paper, new york, undp, 1997. united nations industrial development organization (unido) (2002).nigeria: competitive future: a concept note. world bank (2001).” nigeria: poverty in the midst of plenty, the challenge of growth with inclusion. world bank (2002).nigeria states finances study – decision draft world bank, june, 2002. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (3), pp. 001-007, march, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper the determinants of cassava productivity and price under the farmers’ collaboration with the emerging cassava processors: a case study in east lampung, indonesia tomohide sugino*1 and henny mayrowani2 1 japan international research center for agricultural sciences, japan. 2 indonesian center for agriculture socioeconomic and policy studies, indonesia. accepted 17 september, 2016 this study identified the impact of the emerging cassava processors to the cassava production in sukadana, east lampung, lampung, indonesia. 80 cassava farmers in sukadana were surveyed to know their relationships with processors, production cost structures and cultivation practices. regression analysis showed that harvesting age was a critical factor to determine the cassava yield and price in the study area. three types of farmers were observed in the study area, namely, farmers joining collaboration with a foreign food company, collaboration with local processors and farmers who have no collaborations with processors. the technical support provided by the emerging processing companies which tried to break into the current oligopsonistic cassava market had a positive impact to optimize the plant management. the increasing demand for cassava induced by biofuel production would attract more companies to the processing business and the tightening competition among the companies would motivate the companies’ investment in supporting activities for farmers. this in return would contribute to the farmers’ welfare through improved profit of cassava production. these findings can be used as practical information for formulating effective cassava marketing policies in the study area. key words: biofuel, farmers’ welfare, oligopsonistic market. introduction cassava (manihot esculenta crantz) is a woody plant with a height between 1 3 m, and most parts of the plant can be used for food and industrial purposes (pakpahan and gunawan, 1992). introduced in the 1650s with imported roots from mexico, cassava has acquired a significant place in the agricultural system of south-east asia (mougeot and leveng, 1990). cassava production in indonesia makes up about 30% of the production of asia and the pacific, and indonesia is the forth largest cassava exporter in the world. the total amount of production is almost the same as thailand’s, the world largest cassava exporter, however indonesia’s cassava export is less than 10% of thailand’s (based on faostat, http:// *corresponding author. e-mail: tosugino@jircas.affrc.go.jp. tel.: +81-29-838-6348. fax: +81-29-838-6342. faostat.fao.org/). production can be observed all over the country but the major production area is located in the islands of sumatra and java. lampung province in sumatra is the largest production area. in 2005, it produced 4,768 thousand tons of cassava, 25% of the total production in indonesia (bps, 2006). east java province in java is another production area. it produced around 20% of the national output. in many developing countries, cassava is thinly traded and/or traded informally. the lack of established marketing channels and poor infrastructure and market information has been among the main factors constraining trade in cassava (fao and ifad, 2000). the most commonly identified bottleneck to develop cassava market opportunities was the lack of a reliable supply of cassava. in zimbabwe, there was also a lack of good planting material. lack of equipment, mechanization and power were also mentioned on several occasions as file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org bottlenecks to developing the industry. some less frequently mentioned bottlenecks, but perhaps as important as those above, are infrastructure, consumer acceptance, education and training of key actors in the industry, and good weather for drying cassava (ifad and fao, 2004). although there is no government intervention in the cassava market in indonesia, the cassava market has some oligopsonistic characteristics. this situation is more typical in lampung than east java. in east java, the number of cassava processors is high and the size of each processor’s production is relatively small. therefore, the cassava market in east java can be considered competitive, making marketing more efficient (pakpahan and gunawan, 1992). on the other hand, in lampung, the number of cassava processors is limited and this makes the cassava market in lampung oligopsonistic (pakpahan and gunawan, 1992). under such imperfect market conditions, the farmers are forced to accept unfavorable treatment by the processors. for example, in most cases when the buyer weighed the cassava sold by the farmers, the farmers were not allowed to see the measuring procedures. another example relates to pricing the cassava is that the processors usually reduce the cassava price according to the deviation from a specified standard such as starch content (called rafaksi). however, many processors don’t disclose the standard and how they test the cassava to check its quality. in order to overcome the unfavorable market conditions for cassava farmers, the local government of lampung province implemented the development of the community’s tapioca processing unit or ittara (industry tepung tapioka rakyat) in 1997. the project aimed to diversify cassava market channels through establishing small scale cassava processing units. though the ittara program had a positive impact on the price of cassava, many tapioca processing units of ittara have gone bankrupt because of managerial incompetence and inadequate monitoring and control (siregar et al., 2006). it should be noted that recent changes of global and local economic conditions provide cassava farmers with a unique opportunity to break the bottlenecks of current cassava production. the rapid integration of east asian economy which is typified by the implementation of ftas (free trade agreements) will provide good opportunities for expanding regional trade. before the second world war, indonesia (then the netherlands east indies) was by far the world’s greatest exporter of processed cassava (nelson, 1984). though indonesia’s exports were surpassed by thailand, the potential of cassava product exports is still large, which is shown by the lower drc (domestic resource cost) in the starch making process, indicating a comparative advantage in the world market (nelson, 1984). the other noteworthy movement is an increasing demand for biofuels. biofuels are liquid fuels for vehicles, which are made from various kinds of biomass. the most common types of biofuels are bioethanol made from carbohydrates and bio-diesel made from vegetable oil. food crops which are rich in carbohydrates or oil are used as raw materials for biofuel. cassava is one of the promising raw materials for bio-ethanol due to its high yield of starch, adaptability to low-fertility soil and drought resistance. the government of indonesia formulated a roadmap for biofuel development in 2006. the roadmap is targeting a 10% reduction in the country’s consumption of petroleum-based fuel by 2010, by developing 5.25 million hectares of energy crop plantation including cassava, oil palm, sugar cane and jatropha (jatropha curcas) (tim nasional pengembangan bbn, 2006). various companies have shown interest in producing biofuel, and the emergence of the newcomers could be an opportunity to breakthrough the current oligopsonistic cassava market. the emergence of the newcomers in cassava production area like lampung is anticipated to motivate the conventional cassava processors to change their current business practices which are sometimes disadvantageous to the farmers. considering this background, the present study first describes the features of the processorfarmer collaboration observed in the study area. second, it identifies the factors which determine the cassava yield and price in the study area. finally, it identifies the impact of the emerging cassava processors to the cassava production. materials and methods sukadana district, east lampung regency, lampung province was selected as a study area. cassava production in lampung is spread in the whole province and east lampung is one of the production centers. it is new regency which separated from central lampung regency in 1999 according to law no.12, 1999. the office of east lampung regent located in sukadana district. sukadana is around 50 km from bandar lampung, the provincial capital, connected with a paved road. the road condition is relatively good and it takes around 2 h from bandar lampung to sukadana by car. the total area of sukadana district is 76 thousands hectares, 14% of east lampung regency, and the altitude of sukadana is around 25 m above sea level (bps kabupaten lampung timur, 2006). there are 16 villages (11 desa and 5 kelurahan) in the area. sukadana was selected as a study area because the estimated cassava planted area in sukadana in 2007 was 13,285 hectares (pemerintah kabupaten lampung timur, 2006), which was the largest in east lampung regency. in addition, a foreign food processing company had implemented a technical collaboration project in sukadana since 2005. it seemed useful to observe the effect of the project. a total of 80 cassava farmers in sukadana were surveyed from february march, 2007. the sampling method was random sampling. information was collected from each farmer concerning their household structure, income, operational farm land, cultivation history, cassava production costs and relationships with processors. descriptive analyses and statistical analyses were applied to the data. regression analysis was performed to estimate a cassava yield determination function, a cassava price determination function and a harvesting age determination function. the exchange rate of table 1. characteristics of processors farmers collaborations in the study area. type i colaborations with a foreign type ii collaborations with local type iii no-collaborations food company processors with processors cassava price defined by market price defined by market price. defined by market price determination sometimes not very transparent. floor price partly available available not available access to credit available with no interest available with interest not available source of input no restriction compulsory purchase from the no restriction processors channels of no restriction compulsory sales to the no restriction sales processors other services technical support. tractor service with technical support (not all the not available lower price processors) source: interview survey, 2007. indonesia rupiah was us$ 1 = 9,150 rupiah at the time of the survey period (march, 2007). results and discussion the processor farmer collaboration in the study area the characteristics of the processor-farmer collaborations in the study area are shown in the table 1. a foreign food company, whose major products were synthetic seasonings and used cassava as one of the ingredients, implemented a collaborative project to support the cassava farmers in the study area (type i in the table 1). the project (hereinafter called “cassava project”) started in 2005. the company provided a project fund and technical support. the project was implemented under the close collaboration among the company, the local governments and the farmers. a part of the fund was used to establish “revolving funds” in each farmers’ group formulated by the farmers who joined the project. the fund was used to purchase fertilizers before the planting season and the member farmers could receive fertilizers without payment. the amount of fertilizers was decided by the planting area of the farmers with reference to the standard dosage (zk + , a local brand of potassium fertilizer containing 34% k2o at 200 kg per hectare, urea at 200 kg per hectare and rock phosphate at 150 kg per hectare) recommended by the company. after the harvest, each farmer should return the money which amount was equivalent of the fertilizers received, determined by the market price at the harvest season. though no interest was charged, the amount of reimbursement might fluctuate because the reimbursement was defined by the fertilizer price in the harvest season, not in the planting season. if the fertilizer price increased between planting and harvesting, then the farmers needed to pay back at a higher price. farmers were also requested to pay an administration fee to the group they belonged, the value of which was determined by each group. in one group, the fee was 1 rupiah per kg of cassava. in the other group, the members pay 10,000 rupiah per hectare of planted land. the extension staffs in the local extension office of the local government were hired by the company as technical advisors and the farmers were able to get technical advice for their production and marketing. the farmers could also use a tractor service with a subsidized cost. the company donated one tractor to the project and the members of the farmers’ group were able to use the tractor by only paying the operational cost (fuel and wage of operators), which was cheaper than the other tractor services in the area. the project was carried out as a cooperate social responsibility (csr) project of the company and the farmers didn’t have any financial obligation to the company such as an obligation to sell their harvest to the company. the above mentioned conditions provided by the company were quite attractive to the farmers comparing to the support given by the local cassava processors in the study area. some surveyed farmers joined collaboration with the local processors called “partnerships (kemitraan)” (type ii in the table 1). this partnership was a kind of contract farming in which the processors provide input (mainly chemical fertilizer such as urea and sp36, a kind of superphosphate containing 36% p2o5) to the farmers before the planting season. the farmers should reimburse the cost of the inputs when they sold cassava to the processors. the nominal interest rate was usually around 0.7% per month. however, the input price determined by the processors was 3 17% higher than the market price. therefore, the real interest was possibly much higher than the nominal interest. interest rates differed from one agent to another. one of the surveyed farmers reported that he borrowed 120,000 rupiah in the last cropping season for purchasing fertilizer and returned 150,000 rupiah after eight month, a loan in which the annual interest was 38%. the farmers had obligations to sell all the harvested cassava to the processors which provided the loan. the floor price was assured by the processors, which was 280 290 rupiah per kg at the time of the survey. when cassava price was low, the floor price would be useful to support farmers’ income. however, considering the actual farm gate price of cassava (above 300 rupiah per kg at the time of the survey), this option was not very attractive for the farmers. moreover, some farmers complained that the practices of some processor to determine the cassava price were not very transparent. cassava price could fluctuate according to the quality, especially the content of starch. for example, a processor in the study area increased the cassava price by 4% for every 1% excess of the standard starch content (25%). on the other hand, the company reduced the cassava price by 4% for every 1% decrease of the starch content below the standard. the processor usually measured the starch content every time when they receive cassava from farmers. some processors didn’t show their measuring process to farmers and it was suspicious if the disclosed cassava weight and starch content was accurate. factors determining cassava yield and price the profiles of the surveyed households and the cost structures of cassava production are shown in the table 2 and the table 3 respectively. cassava income formed 43% of the total household income and 57% of the total agricultural income of the surveyed households. the average cassava yield of the surveyed households (21.8 ton per hectare) was higher than the average yield in lampung province, which was 19.0 ton per hectare in 2005 (bps lampung, 2006). the higher observed yield reflects the fact that the study area is the cassava production center of the province. the estimation result of cassava yield determination functions is shown in the table 4. cassava yield was explained by material cost and harvesting age (the period from planting to harvesting) positively. labor cost didn’t affect cassava yield, which is controversial with the earlier studies such as onu and edon (2009), which identified positive contribution of labor to cassava yield. it is known that the harvesting age affects both the yield and the starch content of cassava. cassava can be harvested at the age of 6 months, but the best harvesting age is 10 12 months, with variation according to variety (pakpahan and gunawan, 1992). if the farmer harvests too early, cassava is still young, and the starch content and yield are low (hershery et al., 2001). according to observations in the study area, the farmers tended to harvest their cassava earlier than the recommended period due to the urgent need for cash income. therefore it is rational that the estimated cassava yield determination function showed that yield was explained by harvesting age positively. material cost was used as a proxy of input use in this study, which consisted of fertilizers, pesticides and seedlings, because the variety of input was very large among the respondents and it was difficult to adopt an amount of input as a factor to determine the yield. for example, the majority of the respondents used chemical fertilizer as a nutrient source of their crops. on the other table 2. profiles of surveyed households. mean std sample size 80 number of hh a members (person) 4.3 1.3 education of hh head (year) 7.9 3.1 operational farm land (ha) 1.32 0.94 total income (1,000rupiah/year) 11,848 6,835 cassava production (1,000rupiah/year) 5,197 3,046 rice production (1,000rupiah/year) 1,347 2,350 other crops (1,000rupiah/year) 798 2,728 farm labor (1,000rupiah/year) 1,181 1,624 other agricultural income 661 1,477 (1,000rupiah/year) non-agricultural income 2,666 3,937 (1,000rupiah/year) a hh = household; b std = standard deviation. data source: interview survey, 2007. table 3. cassava production cost and returns (1,000 rupiah/ha). mean s t d a sample size 80 harvested area (ha) 0.91 0.54 yield (ton/ha) 21.8 5.5 harvesting age (months) 9.3 1.3 cassava price (rupiah/kg) 303 50 output (1) 6601 1969 current inputs: seedlings 210 100 fertilizer 721 330 pestiside 100 72 subtotal (2) 1,031 339 labor costs: hired 1427 765 family 388 469 subtotal (3) 1,815 774 others(4) 623 739 total costs (5)=(2)+(3)+(4) 3469 1196 operator’s surplus (6)=(1)-(5) 3132 1744 a std = standard deviation. data source: interview survey, 2007. hand, a significant number of farmers used rock phosphate as a source of phosphate instead of sp36. some farmers didn’t apply chemical fertilizers at all while they use a liquid organic fertilizer made from food factory liquid waste. it is rational that yield was explained by material cost since the fertilizer application in the study area was still low comparing to the recommended dosage and the plants would response positively to the increase table 4. estimation results of cassava yield determination function. standardized coefficient t-value in labor cost a -0.073 -0.686 in material cost b 0.257 2.394 * in harvesting age c 0.287 2.616 * adjusted r 2 0.149 f-value 5.600 number of samples 80 a total labor cost including farm labor; b total material cost including seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides and other materials; c harvesting age (months) in the respondents' fields; * significant at 5% level. data source: interview survey (2007). table 5. estimation results of cassava price determination function. standardized coefficient t-value in labor cost a 0.393 3.771 * in material cost b -0.060 -0.607 in harvesting age c 0.222 2.144 * partnership with processor d -0.144 -1.296 cassava project e 0.238 2.167 * adjusted r 2 0.310 f-value 8.103 number of samples 80 a total labor cost including farm labor; b total material cost including seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides and other materials; c harvesting age (months) in the respondents' fields; d respondent joining partnership (kemitraan) with a processor = 1, not joining partnership = 0; e respondent joining the project = 1, not joining the project = 0; * significant at 5% level. data source: interview survey (2007). of the input. the estimation result of cassava price determination function is shown in the table 5. labor cost, harvesting age and participation into the cassava project significantly affected cassava price. it is rational that harvesting age positively affected cassava price, because the cassava price is usually determined by the starch content. though labor cost and participation into the cassava project showed positive effect to cassava price, both didn’t show significant effect to yield. it is supposed that the intensified farm management could contribute more to the cassava root quality, rather than the yield. sahat et al. (1992) classified the processes of price formation in cassava marketing into free transaction (a direct bargaining between farmers and traders), contract transaction (farmers receive credit from traders and are obliged to repay in the form of cassava) and un-free transaction (a price formation between farmers and a large factory, in which farmers are not given the opportunity to bargain). even in the free transaction where farmers can do a bargaining process, their bargaining power is very weak. this observation is consistent with the finding in the present study that partnership with processor, which obliges farmers to sell their cassava to the creditors, didn’t show the significant effect to the cassava price. harvesting age was a crucial factor in the cassava production because it determined both yield and price. the estimation result of cassava harvesting age determination function was shown in the table 6. participation into the cassava project and cassava income ratio significantly affected the harvesting age. as mentioned, the participants into the cassava project could receive technical supports by the extension staffs. since the extension workers recognized the shorter harvesting age as a constraint factor of cassava production in the area, their extension works to optimize the plant management were supposed to be effective to increase the harvesting age of the project participants. cassava is planted as a supplementary crop with upland rice and corn as the main crop (nasution et al., 1992) and according to the interview to the extension staffs, farmers usually pay less table 6. estimation results of cassava harvesting age determination function. standardized coefficient t-value partnership with processor a 0.136 1.154 cassava project b 0.270 2.285 * cassava income ratio c 0.239 2.092 * adjusted r 2 0.135 f-value 5.101 number of samples 80 a respondent joining partnership (kemitraan) with a processor = 1, not joining partnership = 0; b respondent joining the project = 1, not joining the project = 0; c ratio of household income from cassava production to total household income; * significant at 5% level. data source: interview survey (2007). attention to cassava than other main crops. it is supposed that this tendency would be stronger for the farmers who get less income from cassava production. on the other hand, the farmers who rely more on cassava as income source would pay more attention to their plant management and would try to maximize the yield and starch content. this is supposed as a reason why the cassava income ratio showed positive impacts to the harvesting age. conclusion as mentioned before, the cassava market in indonesia, especially in lampung province, has been dominated by several large scale cassava processors. in spite of the efforts by the government such as the ittara project, it has been difficult to change the oligopsonistic characterristics of the market to improve the welfare of cassava farmers. in the present study, it was observed that harvesting age was a critical factor to determine cassava yield and price. it was also clear that the technical support provided by the emerging processing company had a positive impact to optimize the plant management. it can be concluded that the increasing demand for cassava will attract more companies to the processing business. in the study area, it was observed that an ethanol company based in east java province was constructing a new ethanol plant in east lampung regency, lampung province. since the company was a newcomer in lampung, they were carrying out various efforts to attract the local cassava farmers in order to secure sufficient raw material for the new factory, which had a processing capacity of 1,000 ton of cassava per day. the company already succeeded in concluding production contracts with 1,000 farmers within a 50 km radius of the factory. the total production area of the farmers was around 1,200 hectares. the company offered farmers not only similar support provided by the other processors such as assuring a cassava floor price and providing credit, but also various other services to attract the farmers. they were disseminating grafting seedlings which graft two cassava varieties. the upper part of the seedlings is karret variety (a variety of tree cassava, manihot glazovii), which has a high photosynthesis ability, while the lower part is kasetsart variety (a variety of true cassava, manihot esculenta), which has a good root quality. the technical support included monthly meeting with contract farmers and providing the growing guidelines which included ploughing three times, fertilizer application (basal and twice topdressing) and manure application. their credit covered the cost of seedlings, pesticide, tractor service fees and fertilizer. they also gave the farmers price incentives for high quality cassava. these services were supposed to be the major reasons why the company could conclude the contracts with so many farmers within a limited time. with the tightening competition among the companies, the positive impacts of the support to the farmers like the cassava project to the cassava production in the study area will raise the companies’ confidence that the investment in supporting activities for farmers will result in an improved output, thus ensuring it is worthwhile for the companies to take these costs. this in return will contribute to the farmers’ welfare through improved profit of cassava production. acknowledgements this study was performed through special coordination funds for promoting science and technology of the ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology, the japanese government, and operational grants for administration of the japan international research center for agricultural sciences. we thank all the staff members of sukadana district extension center, sukadana, east lampung, lampung, indonesia for their assistance during the survey. we also thank mr. geoff thompson, unescap-capsa, for his english editing. references bps (2006). statistik indonesia (2005/2006). bps jakarta, 592. bps kabupaten lampung timur (2006). dalam angka (2006). bps jakarta, 241. bps propinsi lampung (2006). lampung dalam angka (2006). bps jakarta 213-233. fao and ifad (2000). the world cassava economy – facts. trends outlook. fao, ifad rome pp.1-64. hershery cl, henry g, best r, kawano k, howeler r, iglesias c (2001). cassava in asia: expanding the competitive edge in diversified markets, in: proceedings of the validation forum on the global cassava development strategy. rome, 26-28 april 2000, a review of cassava in asia with country case. studies on thailand and viet nam, volume 3.fao, ifad rome pp.1-62. ifad and fao (2004). proceedings of the validation forum on the global cassava development strategy, volume 6. global cassava market study, business opportunities for the use of cassava.ifad, fao rome. pp. 1-175. mougeot e, leveng p (1990). marketing of rice, cassava and coffee in lampung, indonesia. cgprt centre, bogor. p.123. nasution a, djauhari a, pakpahan a (1992). cassava farming and marketing in lampung, in: cassava marketing in indonesia. (pakpahan agus, gunawan memed, djauhari achmad, pasaribu sahat m, nasution aladin, friyanto supena eds.). monograph series no.2, center for agro-socioeconomic research, agency for agricultural research and development, bogor pp.60-77. nelson gc (1984). starch. in: the cassava economy of java (falcon walter p, jones william o, pearson scott r, dixon john a, nelson gerald c, roche frederick c, unnevehr laurian j. eds). stanford university press, stanford, california. p. 212. onu ji, edon a (2009). comparative economic analysis of improved and local cassava varieties in selected local government areas of taraba state. niger. j. soc sci. 19(3): pp. 213-217. pakpahan a, gunawan m (1992). introduction and conceptual framework for cassava marketing research. in: cassava marketing in indonesia. (pakpahan a, gunawan m, djauhari a, pasaribu sm, nasution aladin, friyanto supena eds). monograph series no.2, center for agro-socioeconomic research, agency for agricultural research and development, bogor pp. 20-29. pemerintah kabupaten lampung timur (2006). program dinas pertanian tanaman pangan dan hortikultura, kabupaten lampung timur tahun (2007). dinas pertanian tanamam pangan dan hortikultura, kabupaten lampung timur, lampung timur p.12. siregar masdjidin, nagai naoko, suryadi muhammad (2006). secondary crops based farming systems and their integration with processing in lampung, indonesia. capsa working paper no.98. unescap capsa, bogor p. 95. sahat mr, pakpahan a (1992). rules and regulations in cassava marketing in lampung, in: cassava marketing in indonesia. (pakpahan agus, gunawan memed, djauhari achmad, pasaribu sahat m, nasution aladin, friyanto supena eds). monograph series no.2, center for agro-socioeconomic research, agency for agricultural research and development, bogor pp. 77-96. siregar m, nagai n, suryadi m (2006). secondary crops based farming systems and their integration with processing in lampung, indonesia. capsa working paper no.98. unescap capsa, bogor, p.95 tim nasional, pengembangan bbn (2006). blueprint pengembangan bahan baker nabati untuk percepatan pengurangan kemiskinan dan pengangguran (2006/2025). tim nasional pengembangan bbn, jakarta p.56. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (3), pp. 001-008, march, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper determination of the sacrifice rate in turkey, brazil and italy: a comparison among countries tuba başkonuş direkçi department of economics, faculty of economics and administrative sciences, gaziantep university, turkey. e-mail: baskonus@gmail.com accepted 10 september, 2018 the ongoing research on output and inflation tradeoff contradiction is what most nations’ central banks are facing currently. after a long inflationary period, which started in 2001, turkey has also become successful in overcoming and curbing down the inflation rate with fiscal and monetary policy measures. although the general acceptance of output sacrifice for inflationary improvements is a common knowledge of today, the “neo classical school” of thought argues that market actors will not delay its expectations. the fundamental purpose of this study at hand is to comprehend the existence of output losses during the anti-inflationary periods between1990 and 2008 of turkey. in this study, time periods considered will be divided into intervals for testing the existence of output losses in the measure of sacrifice ratios. this study will be very exploratory, especially for the lived experience in the post 2001 period. estimation of the study relies on the basic phillips curve hypothesis. variables used in the research at hand are: inflation rate, output gap and public sector borrowing rate (psbr). with the output gap, the intention is to measure the potential output loss. sacrifice ratio will be measured as output loss, which is considered as a part of inflationary decline. similar ratios will be calculated and compared for alternative countries. relatively, a small sacrifice ratio for the post 2001 period of turkey can be interpreted as successful central bank implementations. italy’s findings when compared to turkey’s results have the following parallel findings: if the sacrifice ratio for the disinflation period is positive, then the sacrifice ratio for the post disinflation periods is negative for both countries. findings show that disinflation periods cause a restraint on the production of brazil. persistence coefficient for brazil is much more on a lower level as compared to turkey and italy. key words: disinflation, sacrifice rate, monetary policy, output gap. introduction for a long period of time, turkish economy had the principal agenda of never dropping inflation rate, high inflation rate, policies that should or have been adopted to lower the inflation rate and the impact of these adopted policies on the economy itself. by using disinflationist policies for reducing inflation, it can result to creation of internal output gap increase. in other terms, while reducing inflation, the national output is reduced and due to this reason, the output is sacrificed. the sacrifice rate in laments term is the amount of total output that is lost to reduce the inflation rate (çetinkaya and yavuz, 2002). jel classification: e31, e52, c22. when the world economy was looked at from a summarizing point of view, it can be stated that inflations have negative effect on nations, and due to this effect, attempts were made to reduce inflation through the disinflation programs that were frequently adopted. many economists in that sense state that low inflation will increase earnings in the long term. taylor (1983) and sargent (1983) state the importance of disinflation periods in a supporting manner while they also discuss the recovery speed of disinflation period from different perspectives (taylor, 1983; sargent, 1983). taylor in this sense states the position of “slow disinflation pace will reduce costs”, while sargent states the position of “fast disinflation being less costly” meaning that it will cost less output gap. jordan, within the same topic, discusses that file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org on disinflation periods, with increasing output gap periods being high, the contrary situations convey no situation with symmetric gap reduction (jordan, 1997). this in meaning conveys a finding that states the opposite of sacrifice rates do not generate utility rate environment. conclusively, at these points, one can infer that it is a difficult task to reduce inflation and its effects on the economy. in this study, the 1990 to 2008 periods sacrifice rate for turkish economy was evaluated. it should be known that as a result of the 2001 year (may period) adopted disinflation oriented monetary policies, fractional drops in the inflation was experienced within the turkish economy. due to this reason, the research has adopted the view of this time period with pre and post economic situations. to give a summary of the turkish economy, the inflation rate increase on average for the year 1999, 2000 and 2001 was 68.8, 39.9 and 68.5%, respectively. after the execution of disinflation purposed monetary policies, the obtained data from turkish statistical institute (tuik) dropped within the inflation rate. to give quantifiable evidence to such drop, the inflation rate was 31.7, 16.65, 8.49, 8.63, 9.61, 9.17 and 8.62% for the year 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively. the aim of this study is to analyze the 2001 year set imf supported policies of “shift to strong structural economic plan” adopted by the republic of turkey. in this way, by a yearly period, the country’s sacrifice ratio and “persistence or hysteria coefficient” could be calculated. this study does not only focus on turkey and its performances, but on italy and brazil for comparative purposes of these experience analysis. when studying turkey, which is the eu accession process, italy was chosen for comparison being an eu country. brazil was chosen because turkey and brazil have similar stories on their economy as regard inflation and crisis. literature review looking at the related literature, almost all studies confirm the existence of sacrifice ratio from an economist perspective. on the other hand, the concept of cost and speed of disinflation have different approaches. the meaning of cost in this study is based on the rate of reduction of output while attempting to reduce inflation over reducing inflation rate. if the inflation reduces due to shrinking policies, the output gap increases more drastically; meaning that the inflation cost is more than what was anticipated. also, if an attempt is made to reduce inflation rate with a short term policy, disinflation speed with an alternative approach is reduced with a long term policy. in this situation, disinflation pace should be defined in a slower manner. taylor (1983) states that disinflation may take a slow pace and thus, create a lower medium for cost. according to his studies, while inflation is reduced, the sacrificed income drop is higher than the inflation rate. sargent (1983) in this sense states “fast pace disinflation have less costs”. ball on the subject matter states that disinflation cost on average inflation rate is far more sensitive and affected (ball, 1994). ball in his study examined the sacrifice ratio factors, which were a result of disinflation. in the study, sacrifice ratio was defined as the ratio of loss output over the reducing trend inflation rate. defining sacrifice ratio by developing a method for calculating single disinflation period is implemented for 65 periods of midlevel inflation holding oecd countries (ball, 1994). as such, ball’s results reflect that the sacrifice ratio was reducing as in the pace of disinflation. in this study, slowly reducing the inflation has raised the sacrifice ratio, but sudden policies of inflation reduced sacrifice ratios. at the same time, ratio also reduced with the wage setting institutions flexibility. wage rigidity is found to be also increasing the sacrifice ratio. openness of economy did not affect the ratio. ball’s results also show that disinflation policy at the beginning and income policies have no certain relation with the ratio. zhang (2001), in his study, looked at the sacrifice ratio in terms of its long term and empirical effects. his study reflects the term also called hysteric effect, which is a strong persistence. the empirical study focused on the 1960 to 1990 unemployment data quarterly and also on g-7 countries. as a result of zhang’s study, the calculated long term sacrifice ratio is greater than the noncalculated long term sacrifice ratio. sacrifice ratio and the beginning of inflation rate have been found to be in a negative relationship. however, long term sacrifice ratio and wage profitability have no relation between each other. jordan (1997) looked at situations of disinflation and rapid inflation increase, and investigated them both. the article was about the central bank’s independence rate in terms of explaining sacrifice and benefice ratio fluctuations. ball (1994) also used the output gain approach for 19 industrialized countries time periods between 1960 and 1992. the purpose of the research was to look at how central bank independence ratio would define sacrifice and benefice ratio fluctuations. possible flow pace, inflation rate change, nominal wage profitability and early period inflation rates were considered within the study. as a result, central banks with the higher independence rate had higher sacrifice ratios, but inflations increased rate periods and benefice rate that were not high were observed. daniels on his research with a similar research to jordan’s 1997 study, looked at openness of an economy and relationship of sacrifice ratio based on central bank independence (daniels et al., 2005). in this study, daniels found a positive relation between sacrifice ratio and openness of economy. as openness increases, the central bank’s positive effect on sacrifice ratio reduces. the study of yay (2001) was one of the first studies that based their discussion on turkey. this study first looked at the disinflationist policy costs theoretically and then investigated the different counties heterodox disinflation policies. it was observed that argentina (1979 to 1981 and 1985 to 1986), brazil (1985 to 1986 and 1994), chile (1978 to 1982), mexico (1987 to 1994), uruguay (1978 to 1982 and 1990) and israel (1982 to 1983 and 1985) were enriching countries in terms of results of the study. lastly, the study looked at the 1999 and onward period with its imf originating stability program. another study whose discussion was based on turkey was done by çetinkaya and yavuz (2002). the study contained sacrifice ratio and output gap measurements with alternative measurement. based on 3 different periods (3 × 3 matrix), two positive sacrifice ratios were obtained in this study. in the study, output loss could not be obtained through grand disinflation, whereas in this study, the relationship proposed to be obtained with the current framework literature is the relationship between dropping disinflation period, reducing outputs and reducing inflation rate. the relationship between the potential income used and the actual income difference between the year’s inflation rate series is the relation coefficient, which is actually the sacrifice ratio. these coefficients’ calculation is composed of two different methods. the first method includes a regression equation, which will provide a ratio. this method does not include between period changes, but includes a single constant change coefficient; thus, the method is heavily criticized. other approaches include an approach where a different ratio can be calcu-lated for each year individually as a series. in this study, both methods will be adopted and individually calculated. after evaluating sacrifice ratio, within the disinflation periods, disinflation periods monetary policy affects sus-tainability and will be measured with “hysteria coefficient”. methodology model the evaluation of sacrifice ratio for the sake of reducing inflation is the main purpose of this paper; however, while producing the model to evaluate the sacrifice ratio for the turkish economy between the 1990 and 2008 periods, sacrifice ratio was first defined based on the well-known phillips curve. the gross domestic product (gdp) or the gross national product relationship with output was basically defined as (okun, 1978; gordon and king, 1982): (1) in equation (1), y is the actual output level, yt* is the potential output level, πt is the actual inflation rate at period t, (πt – π t-1) is the first difference of πt and represents the error term. within the equation, the sacrifice ratio is defined by , while the conducted regression analysis result can be accepted as a stable value. the sacrifice ratio is expected to be positive. the meaning of this expectation is that disinflationist periods in-between inflation rate increase (πt – πt-1), and it is the increasing difference that is observed between the actual and potential difference (yt – yt*). to elaborate more, if the in-between two periods inflation rate dropped as a result of the disinflation policies caused by actual shrinkage experienced within the economy and actual output dropping, the gap between potential and actual inflation will increase; as such, this is defined as the output gap. as a result, the defined rate of sacrifice is the output reduction of the inflation rate of one score. the higher the in-between periods inflation rate, the higher the output gap. however, the equality in finding sacrifice ratio based on its fundamentals vary in nature in the second model based on ball’s work (ball, 1994). while inflation is rising or demand is in sudden fluctuations, the constant assumption is not found appropriate, which demands us to adopt the second approach shown as: (2) from equation (2), the output gap and the same period’s actual inflation rates’ drop is defined as disinflation period (πt – πt-1). by so doing, the sacrifice ratio is turned into a series, which allows us to view the general trend. this method was adopted from ball’s approach by jordan (1997), bernanke et al. (1999) and boschen and weise (2001). although the recommended equality will change annually, and based on the annual change i (ball, 1994), this ratio will change from year to year f it is stable or not. also, it will follow a similar structure at the same time (zhang, 2001). the important issue for this method employed is not only the sacrifice ratio, but also the effect impact originating from the change. due to this reason, the mentioned shortcomings and problems were considered and the following equation was adopted. (3) here, coefficient represents the persistence effects’ impact. when is close to 1, the coefficients’ persistence level will increase as well. zhang assumed coefficient as: 0 < <1. in the study of blinder (1987), like zhang (2001), the results showed long term effects could be obtained in places where monetary shock originating disinflations were obtained (çetinkaya and yavuz, 2002). ball (1994) and zhang (2001) both looked at highly persistent effect also known as hysteric effect. hysteric effect will be happening if constricting monetary policies affect the output, meaning that if there is disinflation, an ongoing effect will occur (zhang, 2001). empirical analyses as mentioned earlier, the purpose of this study is to investigate if there are any output losses during antiinflationist monetary policy adoption in turkey during the 1990 to 2008 year periods and comparing analysis results with countries like italy and brazil in terms of economics. due to this reason, the data used for analysis will be introduced, and the countries mentioned will be evaluated and calculated based on sacrifice ratios individually to draw a general comparison of the environment. data for this study, gross domestic product (gdp) data were obtained from oecd for italy and brazil, apart from turkey table 1. disinflation periods in republic of turkey. disinflation periods in the republic of turkey period beginning ending i january 1992 december 1992 ii october 1994 december 1996 iii january 1998 january 2001 iv february 2001 turkey’s 1990-2008 sacrifice ratio 80 60 40 20 0 -20 -40 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 figure 1. turkey’s 1990-2008 sacrifice ratio graph. turkey. the reason for such an approach is to lower the variance between the series and standardization. consumer price index (cpi) was obtained for all three countries (2005=100). the gnp series for italy was in her national currency with millions on current prices quarterly and were removed from seasonality, while brazil’s gnp series was in billions and in her national currency as well. turkey’s gnp series was obtained from turkish central bank’s electronic data distribution center. to obtain the gnp series’ potential and actual values difference, firstly, the data’s natural algorithm was taken following a hodrick prescott filter. the obtained hodrick prescott filter trend values and natural algorithm values difference allows us to obtain the gap. cpi inflation series was obtained by executing natural algorithm, followed by taking the first level difference of the variables. sacrifice ratio for turkey another disinflationist policy. after the adopted “introduction to 1q inflation rate experienced a significant decline. due to the pre-2001 february dis-inflation periods, the analysis, in a short period timeline, will be looked at individually at the pre and post 2001 periods. the gdp data series, obtained for turkey, originated from the republic of turkey central bank’s (tcmb) website, while cpi inflation rate for brazil and italy data series with the mentioned categories were obtained from the organization for economic co-operation and development’s (oecd) website. however, all data series used within the research are composed of quarterly data series. for the primary calculation of the sacrifice ratio of turkey, ball’s method was adopted as in equation 2 (ball, 1994). this calculation allows the observation of each individual year sacrifice ratios, individually. (2) within the 1990 to 2008 periods, turkish economy frequently experienced disinflation policies. when table 1 was observed, the executed monetary policies can be seen until the fourth period. following these periods, the fourth period, february 2001 economic crisis demanded for the secondary equation, the denominator was formed by the output gap and the nominator was formed by the difference of the quarterly period’s inflation difference. the progression of the obtained sacrifice ratios over the years for turkey can be observed in figure 1. as can be table 2. regression analysis results among turkey. dependent variable α coefficient β coefficient trygap trdinf trygap1 lm test arch 1990:3-2008:4 model i -0.075 (-1.18) 0.022 model ii -0.214(-0.308) 0.655 (7.65) 0.242 trygap trdinf trygap1 lm test arch 1990:3-2001:4 model i -0.077(-0.988) 0.074 model ii 0.036(1.32) 0.837(10.46) 0.31 trygap trdinf trygap1 lm test arch 2002:1-2008:3 model i 0.406(1.87) 0.67 model ii 0.21(1.62) 0.77(5.22) 0.059 the coefficients parentheses are z statistics from the garch analysis. seen from the graphic, over the years sacrifice ratio generally seemed stable, while on some periods, certain peaks were observed. in the year 1993 and 1999, the sacrifice ratio seemed to drop, while in 1995, 1997 and 2007, high peaks were experienced. the analysis conducted for turkey in the second section, as regards the country’s interests, contains the output gaps between two periods of inflation difference (trdinf), the cited model that defined the regression difference between two periods of the inflation’s variable and the output gaps lag series regressions (table 2). the conducted two regressions adopted the sum of ordinary least squares method. for the first model, the coefficient represents the sacrifice ratio, while for the second model the β coefficient represents the persistency coefficient. the conducted regression also contains disinflation periods referenced and are adopted for the entire variable sets. following this procedure, the entire data set was divided into 2001:1 and 2001:2 periods and the models were conducted for these two set periods. in this way, the drops effect of the may 2001 “introduction to strong economy” programs inflation rate on sacrifice ratio can be defined. the sacrifice ratio findings show that contrary to the literature, the effect is negative and is found with norelation. due to the changing variance and autocorrelation problems with the conducted least sum of squares method, models were preferably analyzed with garch (1, 1) method. this way, variance problem was handled. with the conducted regression analysis covering all years with sacrifice ratio represented by coefficient, it was concluded contrary to the literature findings that the study reflected negative and non-consistent results. persistence coefficient which was represented by β coefficient, as expected is between the values of zero and one. as such, the results reflect a positive and statistically significant outcome. as persistence coefficient is closer to the other, one can say that there is a high level of persistency. the years between 1990 and 2008 periods have significant coefficients of 0.65, meaning that disinflation has an ongoing effect. the years between 1990 and 2001 periods show that the regression model reflects no relation on the first model, but models one lag output gap series and in addition provides positive results (0.036) that are coherent with the related literature. while z statistic has a value of 1.32 and p value is 0.18, persistence coefficient with the value of 0.837 is statistically significant. the last regression run for turkey is for the 2002 to 2008 year periods. the calculated sacrifice ratio value for the periods is 0.406. z statistic stands out to be 1.87 and the error value as 0.06. as a consequence, this is significant. between the mentioned years, turkey was within a sacrifice of 0.406% due to the inflation. the periods mentioned showed that coefficient is 0.77, which is also significant. the coefficient for each 3 analysis is significant and on average varies between 0.65 and 0.83, which is on a persistent level. this result in terms of the analysis signifies disinflations existence for all the years considered. sacrifice ratio for italy the calculated sacrifice ratio using ball’s (1994) approach can be seen in figure 2. with the formula used as: , the reflected ratio results as compared to turkey’s inflation cost is more constant for italy. for italy, in the years 1993 and 1995, there have been drastic increases on the sacrifice ratio. this finding as compared to turkey’s sacrifice ratio is shown in figure 1. the regression analysis executed for turkey is also adopted for italy without any changes or alterations. here, italy’s 1990-2008 year periods sacrifice ratio. 300 200 100 0 -100 -200 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 figure 2. italy’s 1990-2008 year periods sacrifice ratio. here, italy’s output gap is calculated and italy’s 1990:1 to 2008:3 periods’ inflation and difference series with one lag regression models are generated. as in turkey analysis, the first model independently included inflation series as a variable; while in the second model, both variables were included. all data obtained on italy from the oecd database are in quarterly form. due to italy’s 1996 disinflationist monetary policies, the conducted analysis first included all years within the frame time before analyzing the pre-1996 time period. looking at the sacrifice graphic post, the 1996 period seems to be constant. for italy, the entire data sets included regression analysis results showing the two models amid negative relation with regards to sacrifice ratio. for the second model, the persistency coefficient was included. this model also reflected negative results which were opposite to the literature findings. persistence coefficient with 0.747 values in the findings was parallel to that of the literature findings. for italy, 1990:3 to 1995:4 periods in the first model reflected negative and non-significant results, though the persistency ratio was significant with 0.806 value. nonetheless, the last period results were different from the two periods. this implies that the sacrifice ratios of italy between 1996:1 and 2008:4 periods, parallel to the literature, are positive and statistically significant. here, the persistency rate is 0.62 in value and is significant. the persistency rate is also known as the hysteric effect. hysteric effect in summary is the return to equilibrium after a shock in the economy is experienced. at this point, a suitable question that arises is “if the long term trend is formed by short term balances, will the long term economic shocks be persis-tent?” if the short term experienced effects influence the long term balance, then we can speak of hysteria effects’ existence. from this standpoint, this research signifies long term continuation of money policies as hysteric effect. in practice, if the persistency coefficient grows bigger, the persistence intensity grows stronger. for an actual output to reach a potential output, more time is required than anticipated. if the coefficient is zero, we can not be talking about persistency effect (zhang, 2001). italy’s findings as compared to turkey’s results have the following parallel findings: if the sacrifice ratio for the disinflation period is positive, then the sacrifice ratio for the post disinflation periods is negative for both countries. persistency ratio in italy, as well as in turkey, is 0.75 on average, which can be categorized as high on a neutral level. sacrifice rate for brazil for brazil, which parted ways with the imf on the year 2005, same method was adopted in calculating the sacrifice ratio. the conducted regression results can be seen in table 4. the inner parentheses (garch modeling z values) coefficients are the t statistics of the model, while the values under lm and garch headlines are the significance levels. the first model was evaluated through garch (1, 1) method in table 3, while brazil’s data set was obtained from oecd’s database. quarterly data series were obtained at the beginning of the year 1995. ball’s approach for sacrifice ratio can be seen in figure 3 (ball, 1994). the sacrifice ratio holding white noise properties have fluctuating values between 1997 and 2000 periods and intensified values after 2006. brazil’s data series unlike turkey and italy does not start from the year 1990. therefore, brazil’s analyses were not divided into periods but were rather analyzed in table 3. regression analysis results among italy. dependent variable α coefficient β coefficient itygap itdinf itygap1 lmtesti arch 1990:3-2008:4 model i -0.11 (-0.57) 0.075 (0.78) model ii -0.825 (-2.96) 0.747 (10.81) 4.92 (0.085) 0.11 (0.085) itygap itdinf itygap1 lmtesti arch 1990:3-1995:4 model i -1.112 (-1.24) 1.17 (0.27) model ii -1.27 (-2.38) 0.806 (7.9) 4.14 (0.12) 0.27 (0.60) itygap itdinf itygap1 lmtesti arch 1996:1-2008:4 model i 0.311 (0.27) 0.31 (0.57) model ii -0.496 (-1.55) 0.62 (5.84) 2.39 (0.30) 0.017 (0.89) the coefficients parentheses are z statistics from the garch analysis values under the lm and arch tests are p values. first models for each 3 terms estimated with garch (1,1). table 4. regression analysis results among brazil. dependent variable bygap bdinf bygap1 lmtesti̇ arch 1996:3-2008:4 i. model 0.110(0.85) 0.267(0.60) ii. model 0.057(0.394) 0.437(3.53) 2.17(0.33) 5.14(0.16) brazil 1996 – 2008 sacrifice ratio graph. 40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 figure 3. brazil 1996 – 2008 sacrifice ratio. a general fashion. the regression analysis conducted for brazil reflected positive results in terms of sacrifice ratio, although it was insignificant. the findings showed that the disinflation periods caused a restraint on the production of brazil. the second model also supported these findings, in that the persistence coefficient was positive and significant. as such, the persistence coefficient for brazil is much more on a lower level as compared to turkey and italy. conclusion attempts to reduce inflation can result from the consequences of increasing costs which can be discussed. these costs are generally calculated with achieving a measure for calculating the output costs. with this research for turkey, a trial was made to explore the italy and brazil’s 1990 and 2008 year periods, which reflected the disinflationist monetary policies effect on output. consequently, the expected sign of the sacrifice ratios was positive. the approach here is to assume that the increase of periods among inflation periods, positively influence the output gap as well. considering all three countries, especially the 1990 to 2008 and 1990 to 2001 year periods for turkey, the analysis showed that the sacrifice ratio was insignificant in result and negative in relation. the implemented disinflation program “phase to strong economy” policy period results with positive sacrifice ratio between the 2002 and 2007 year periods. sacrifice ratio for the three periods have the same sign. pre-2001 period on average is 0.055, while post-2001 periods have positive sign and an increase in rate around 40%. this result also provides us with the different approaches adopted between the pre and post 2001 year. the other adapted coefficient as a means to detect the disinflation polices intensity is the ( ) coefficient. coefficient reflects the persistency power, while , close to 1, represents the high level of persistency. coefficients’ expected value is assumed to be . for turkey, the persistence coefficient for the given years of analysis is within 0.77 level. this reflects the finding that disinflation policy effects last extendedly, that is, the policies narrowing effect last longer and there is a medium encouraging output gap process. the analysis done for italy concludes with statistically significant results and the expected results of the sacrifice ratio is parallel to turkey with regard to disinflation policy for the given years. italy on average has sacrifice ratios between 0.31 and 0.49. thus, persistence ratio is between 0.62 and 0.806, which is statistically significant. when compared to turkey, these values are very high. with these findings, one can say that the disinflation policies impact takes a long term effect on italy as well. brazil’s sacrifice ratio is positive but found to be nonsignificant. thus, the persistence ratio value of 0.43 can be accepted as significant for brazil, but comparing the persistence coefficient to turkey and italy, one can say that brazils persistence ratio is rather low. this result also shows us that the executed disinflation policies of brazil had rather shorter term impact on the economy when comparing it to countries like turkey and italy.brazil, in july 1st 1999, planned to shift to an inflation targeting plan. the central bank obligated targeting was reported quarterly and targeting was decided once in two years. targeting adoption was not stable, in that they can be in a changing manner. the imf themed program, adapted by turkey on the other hand, rely on cutting down government expenditures, while supporting strict monetary policies. when the results were compared, flexible inflation targeting showed more successful and promising results. for countries like turkey and italy with high persistence rate, strict monetary policies should be reconsidered, based on disinflation policies and a much more flexible targeting policy in terms of inflation targeting being adopted. due to strict monetary policies being composed of narrowing policies, future market expectations are also narrowed. this in result creates an environment where persistence and sacrifice ratios are in an augmenting manner. references ball l (1994). “what determines the sacrifice ratio?” in n g mankiw (ed.) monetary policy university of chicago press, pp. 155-82. bank independence,” http://www.springerlink.com/content/v01qh310145r0475/fulltext.pdf bernanke b, thomas l, frederic sm, adam sp (1999). “inflation targeting: lessons from the international experience. princeton, nj: princeton univ. press. blinder as (1987). hard head, soft heart: tough-minded economics for a just society. reading, massachusetts: addison-wesley. boschen j, charles w (1999). ”the ex ante credibility of disinflation policy and the cost of reducing inflation.” j. macroecon., summer 2001, 23(3): 323-347. çetinkaya a, arzu dy (2002). “calculation of output-inflation sacrifice ratio: the case of turkey.” research department working paper no: 11, november, october 2002 daniels, joseph pn, farrokh vd (2005). “openness, central bank independence and the sacrifice ratio.” j. money credit bank,. 37(2): 371-379. gordon rj, stephen k (1982). “the output cost of disinflation in traditional and vector autoregressive models. ” brookings pap. econ. activity, 1: 205-242. jordan tj (1997). “disinflation costs, accelerating inflation gains, and central bank independence,” http://www.springerlink.com/content/v01qh310145r0475/ fulltext.pdf kandiller r (2001). “güçlü ekonomiye geçiş programı ve ötesi”, dış ticaret dergisi, yıl: 6, sayı: 22: 55-56. okun am (1978). “efficient disinflation policies.” am. econ. rev. 68: 348-352. sargent tj (1983). “the ends of four big inflations” in: inflation: causes and effects, ed. by robert e. hall, university of chicago press, for the nber http://www.nber.org/books/hall82-1, 41–97. taylor jb (1983). union wage settlements during a disinflation. am. econ. rev., 73(5): 981-993 . yay gg (2001). “enflasyonu düşürme politikalarının maliyetleri: teori, uygulama ve türkiye”, i̇ktisat i̇şletme ve finans, 2001 temmuz, 16(184): 66-83. zhang lh (2001). “sacrifice ratios with long-lived effects”,econ papers, 2001:04, http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/redir.pf?u=http%3a%2f%2fwww. econ.jhu.edu%2fpdf%2fpapers%2fall4202001.pdf;h=repec:jhu:pap ers:446 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (4), pp. 001-007, april, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper application of modified compromise weighted multiobjective programming in fadama farming in dass local government area of bauchi state, nigeria sani, m. h.1*, kushwaha, s.1, abubakar, m. m.2 and ayoola, g. b.3 1 agricultural economics and extension programme, abubakar tafawa balewa university, bauchi, nigeria. 2 animal production programme, school of agriculture and agricultural technology, abubakar tafawa balewa university, bauchi, nigeria. 3 department of agricultural economics, university of agriculture, makurdi, benue state, nigeria. accepted 13 january, 2018 the application of modified compromise weighted multi-objective programming to fadama farming in dass local government area of bauchi state was the main focus of the study. samples of 106 fadama vegetable cultivars were randomly selected from 12 fadama user’s associations in the study area. the farm sizes were grouped and formed into three categories namely: below 1 ha, 1 to 2.99 ha and 3 to 4.99 ha farms, with sample size of 37, 39 and 30 farmers, respectively. it was assumed that farming could be optimized using four specific objectives (maximization of income, and employment; minimization of fertilizer and ground water use). modified compromise weighted multiobjective programming technique was used to analyze the four objectives, which were optimized individually and combined. the results disclosed that the 3 to 4.99 ha farm size had the best maximum income level of n302,199.26 (+28.11%) and employment of 1125 man days (+33.61%) and minimum level of fertilizer use of 182 kg (-8.08%) and ground water use of 3962 mm (-17.25%) at their respective existing farm levels compared to the other categories of farms. this implied that the farmers were characterized by preponderance of high level of adoption of agricultural technology, resulting from intensive cropping, leading to a high level of chemical fertilizer and increased use of ground water for irrigation which consequently led to reduction of ground water table in the study area. it was therefore recommended that the farmers in the study area should concentrate in the cultivation of the major fadama crops like onion, tomato, pepper, okro, cabbage and lettuce instead of spreading out their resources to grow potato, carrot and garden-egg. key words: organic farming, irrigation, multi-objective programming, fadama farming. introduction in agriculture, several economic activities compete for common resources available, resulting in different level of returns and employment. the level of various economic activities is interdependent in respect to its returns, resource requirements and resource availability on the farm. the interdependence of decisions concerning the level of economic activities require the best suited methodology of multi-objective programming, since it has *corresponding author. e-mail:drsanimoh@yahoo.com. tel: +234(0)8069070184. the advantage of considering more than one farm objective simultaneously. the technique can be used to determine the level of various economic activities such as crop, and livestock that will make the most optimal use of land, labour, capital ground water and human resources. it is believed that agriculture in the form of settled cultivation of land began in nigeria nearly thirty decades ago and because of the diversity of soil and climate, the country is endowed with rich flora and fauna. the choice of crops grown together was largely based on the domestic needs of farmers. during the colonial period, the demand of foreign markets influenced cropping pattern in nigeria. file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org basically, the broad objective of the study was to analyze the application of modified compromise weighted multi-objective programming in fadama farming in dass local government area of bauchi state, nigeria. the specific objectives of the study were to: 1) determine maximization of income and employment; and 2) minimization of fertilizer and ground water use over the existing farm level in the study area. howell (2001) reported that irrigated agriculture is an important component of total agriculture worldwide and covers a wide range of agricultural products such as vegetable, fruits and cereals. the author further stated that most agriculture in the middle east countries rely on irrigation, for example, irrigated agriculture in iraq, saudi arabia and iran is expected to account for 92, 82 and 73%, respectively. the sub-saharan africa is expected to use less than 5% of crop land (calzadilla et al., 2010). fao (2002) also revealed that it is expected that the developing countries as a whole, are to increase their irrigated land from 202 million ha in 1997 to 1999; to 242 million ha by 2030. according to douglas (1985), agriculture is the primary instrument for feeding the world through a combination of more resources and greater efficiency. agriculture is also considered as an ecological phenomenon and an institution that impact on the social organization and culture of rural life. the brundtland report defined sustainable farming as a system that meets the demands of the peasants without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own demands. this involves eradication of hunger through sustainable food security. edward (1987) defined sustainable agriculture as integrated systems, which are less dependent on high input of energy and systematic chemicals and more dependent on intensive management than conventional monoculture systems. these systems maintain an increased net income for the farmer, ecologically desirable and protective of the environment. it was concluded that sustainable agriculture should be able to in the long run enhance environmental quality and resource base on which agriculture depends, provided for basic human food and fibre needs that is economically viable and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole. in a study conducted by tahar (2010), it was concluded that increasing demand for food production worldwide, in regions where water is scarce, the improvement of agricultural water production became an urgent need. as irrigated agriculture remains virtually important as a means of food production, enhancing water use efficiency is one of the main approaches to make better use of water. many options to improve water use efficiency in fadama farming are available and the target is to produce yield with possible minimum amount of water. the author further opined that in order to assure water use efficiency in irrigated agriculture, farmers should be able to increase the economic crop production per unit of water in water scarce environment. the effective use by the crop of a limiting water supply can be achieved by manipulating crop penology or by using agronomic techniques and farm practices that are sustainable to the extent of improving water use efficiency. spencer (1985) explained that the emphasis of sustainable agriculture is on design and management procedures that work with natural processes to conserve the resources, minimize waste and environmental damages, while maintaining or improving farm profitability. sustainable farming system also aimed at ensuring the well being of rural communities to produce food that are nutritious and uncontaminated, that might harm human and livestock health (warren, 1991). in the words of duffy (1990), sustainable agriculture is one of many terms used to describe alternative ways to evaluate an agricultural production system and other terms used are alternative low input and regenerative agriculture. the common link in these efforts is the desire to find profitable ways to produce environmental problems associated with current production practices. sustainable agriculture therefore, is simply using the most appropriate agricultural production practices given the land, labour, capital and management available to the farmer. lack of sustainability may be indicated by declining productivity but equally an experience suggest that collapse may occur without warning. kushwaha et al. (1989) emphasized that sustainable agriculture is an integrated system of plants and animal production practices, having a site-specific applications that will over the long term satisfy human feeds, and fibre needs, enhance environmental quality and the natural resource, based upon which the agricultural economy depends; make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and control, sustain the economic viability of farm operations, and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole. mamman (1997) opined that the concept of sustainable agricultural development embodies a believe that people should be able to alter and improve their lives, in accordance with criteria which take account of the needs of others and which protect the planet and future generations. in a way, sustainable agricultural development seeks to respond to five broad requirements: 1) integration of conservation and development; 2) satisfaction of basic human needs, 3) achievement of equity and social justice, 4) provision of social self-determination and cultural diversity and, 5) maintenance of ecological integrity. according to reganold et al. (1990), an economically viable farming system, which reduces the use of off-farm inputs such as chemicals, produces adequate food of high quality and are environmentally safe, could reduce production cost and make farm more ecologically sound. in this regard, the author further emphasized soil building practices, natural pest control, crop and livestock diversity. manos (1991) observed that the farms especially those which included livestock enterprises are often faced with multi-objectives such as the maximization of total costs, minimization of feed costs and that such problems can be solved by developing a multi-objective programming model which can incorporate more than one goal. the aim of this study therefore, is to show how multi-objectives can be manipulated in farm planning. kushwaha (1992) pointed out that if two or more objective functions generate the same set of activities with respect to its optimization through single objective linear programming function, then, there are no conflicts among the objectives in mind. in such a situation, there is no use of multi-objective programming. however, conflicting nature of various economic activities with respect to farm resources is very common. the author concluded that a common set of activities, which would optimize the multiple objectives at a go, is developed and should be regarded as the most optimal. sankhayan et al. (1988) developed optimum cropping plans for a typical farm with multiple objectives using combined planning. the limitations of traditional linear programming technique are too obvious as a decision-maker on a farm firm is seldom, confronted with a single objective. but in reality, multi-objectives are a rule in farm planning. with the help of multi-objective programming approach, the authors had developed ten alternative farm plans assigning different weights to the objective functions and found that in terms of unit of gross margins generated by plans the multi-objective programming (mop) results were very close to existing farm plans. however, the cropping pattern in these plans is somewhat variant. ciuchi and penaechi (1990) examined one of the multi-criteria decision making methods that can be used for farm management, that is, weighted goal programming. after briefly describing the methods, some ways in which it can be applied to the farm was illustrated, taking into consideration different hypothesis about entrepreneurs’ behaviors. the method appears useful as regards the possibilities offered to overcoming some of the limits of the single-criteria model. however, it is unsatisfactory, in that it was necessarily used to consider all the objectives. das and haimes (1979) presented a multi-objective planning framework for a river basin that considered both point and non-point source pollutants. the need for an integrated approach to pollution abatement originating from these two sources was discussed in the light of the public law 92 to 500. the need for including multiobjective functions in non-commensurable formats and units were also discussed. two broad-based planning objectives considered are economic development and environmental quality. the environmental quality model include, the following multi-objectives: soil erosion, phosphorus and biological oxygen demanding load in the streams. non-inferior solution and trade-off among the objectives are examined for several alternative-planning scenarios using the surrogate worth trade-off (swt) method. the study recognizes the fact that agriculture is still in bad shape in nigeria in general and the study area in particular thereby causing the growth of output to lag seriously behind the geometrically population growth and the nation that is becoming progressively incapable of feeding itself and supplying agro-allied industries the needed agricultural raw materials. the study was therefore carried out in the study area in view of this situation, and considering the interdependent nature of various competing farm economic activities which made farmers nowadays to maximize farm objectives thereby causing uncertainty of net returns, variation in expected yields due to random weather changes and the unpredictable nature of farm produce prices. materials and methods the study area keeping in mind the need for sustainable fadama farming, the study was carried out in dass local government area of bauchi state. the state is located between latitudes 90° 30’n and 12° 30’n of the equator and longitudes 8° 42’e and 11° 50’e of the greenwich meridian. dass local government area of bauchi state is one of the paramount regions in the state regarding fadama irrigated crop production. the farmers practiced both rained and dry season cropping. fadama land irrigation in the study area was widely practiced and cultivated compared to other regions of the state. the fadama farmers in the study area were mostly small and marginal land holdings. according to nbs (2006), the study area has a total population figure of 280,468 people. it has wet and dry seasons with wet season spanning from april to october and dry season commencing in november to march. the inhabitants are mostly farmers. a sample size of 106 fadama farmers categorized into 37, 39 and 30 for farmers operating below 1 ha, 1 to 2.99 ha, and 3 to 4.99 ha, respectively were selected using multi-strata random sampling technique for this study. the data were analyzed using modified compromise weighted multi-objective programming, taking into consideration irrigated crops such as onion, tomato, pepper, okro, carrot, cabbage potato and garden-egg. model specification the adoption index (kushwaha and sani, 1998) of individual farmer was developed as follows: m fymaj ahj paj faj iaj caj ai = ∑[ + + + + ] x j 1 fymrj caj prj frj irjgca (1) where, j = 1,2,3...m, and m= total number of major crops; a = adoption index of farmers; fymaj = amount of fym applied per unit of area in jth crop; fymrj = amount of fym recommended for application per unit of area of jth crop; ahj = area under hyv of jth crop; caj = cropped area (hyv + local) of jth crop; faj = amount of fertilizer (n+p+k) applied per unit of area of jth crop; frj = amount of fertilizer recommended per unit of area for jth crop; paj = amount of pesticide applied as plant protection chemicals (weedicide, pesticide, insecticide) per unit of area in jth crop; prj = amount of pesticide recommended for jth crop; iaj = number of irrigation applied to jth crop; irj = number of irrigation recommended for jth crop; gca = gross cropped area. the compromise weighted multi-objective programming approach used was expressed mathematically as follows: i cmax > 0 ∀ n i lm ax > 0 ∀ m e m ax > 0 ∀ o k m in > 0 ∀ p (7) (8) (9) (10) m a x . i c (x) where, (11), (12), (13) and (14) revealed the limitation of the application. the results from new compromise multi-objective programming can then be shown as: o p tim ize z (x) = subject to: m a x . i l (x) m ax . e (x) m in . k (x) s ic (x) ∑ < icmax (2) n=1 icmax (11) ≤ t il (x) ∑ < ilmax [ aij ] [ x j ] = [bi ] m=1 ilmax (12) ≥ (3) u e(x) < m ∑ i = 1, 2, . . . , n e ax x j ≥ 0 ∀ij o=1emax (13) j = 1, 2, . . . , m (4) v k(x) k where, n = number of constraints; m = number of decision variable; ∑ < min k=1kmin ic = objective function optimum gross income for all crops; il = objective function of optimum gross income for all livestock rearing; (14) e = objective function of optimum family labour in man days; k = objective function of optimum energy conservation in both crop taking the aforestated into consideration, the individual objective production as well as livestock production in megajoul (m j); aij = functions can be specified as thus explained. matrix of the constraint coefficients; xj = decision variables vector; and bi = constraint level vector. all objectives in equation 2 were optimized (maximized and objective function i (maximization of income) minimized) individually and obtained as: max. ic (x) = icmax . max. il (x) = ilmax . max. e(x) = max e min. k(x) = kmin . n m max z1 = ∑co xo + ∑cl xl o = 1 l = 1 (15) where, z1 =total annual returns (income) over variable costs in naira; co =annual returns over variable costs per unit of oth crop (5) activity; xo =level of oth crop activity; cl =annual returns over variable costs per unit of lth livestock activity; xl = level of lth livestock. s t u v objective function ii (maximization of employment) max. w(x) = ∑ i c (x) + ∑ i l (x) + ∑ e(x) ∑ k(x) n = 1 icmax m = 1 ilmax o = 1 e m ax p = 1 kmin n m (6) max z 2 =∑y o x o + ∑y l x l subject to the constraint (7) and (8): o = 1 l = 1 (16) the common set of x decision variables was determined from the following combined objective functions: table 1. maximization and minimization of the variables over the existing level on sampled farmers operating below 1 ha. particulars existing max. of max. of min. of min. of ground multi-objective level income employment fertilizer use water use programming (mop) income (=n) 33,999.57 49,980 (+47.00) 37,060(+9.00) 30,259.62 (-11.00) 30,259.62 (-11.00) 48,960 (+44.00) employment (man days) 389 424 (+9.00) 455 (+16.97) 342.00 (-12.08) 342.00 (-12.08) 447 (+14.19) fertilizer use (kg) 68.73 85 (+23.67) 87 (+26.58) 56 (-18.52) 58 (-15.61) 60 (-12.70) ground water use (mm) 522 930 (+78.16) 910(+74.33) 510 (-2.30) 490 (-6.13) 500 (-4.21) figures in parentheses shows the percentage of each variable over existing farm level. source: updated field survey data, 2009. where, z2 =total employment in days on different farm sizes, yo = requirement of labour working days per unit for oth crop activity,yl =requirement of labour working days per unit of lth livestock activity, xl= level of lth livestock activity. objective function iii (minimization of fertilizer use) n min z 3 = ∑ f o x o o = 1 (17) where, z3 =total annual requirement of fertilizer in kg, fo = fertilizer applied per unit of oth crop activity in kg, xo = level of oth crop activity. are the maximum level of income, employment, the minimum level of fertilizer and ground water use, respectively. from the aforestated, the common objective function to obtain the most optimal solution is constructed as: k k k k ∑c j x j ∑y j x j ∑f j x j ∑gj x j max z * = j = 1 + j = 1 j = 1 j = 1 w1 w2 w3 w4 (23) results and discussion table 1 disclosed the results of the level of annual objective function iv (minimization of ground water use) income, employment, fertilizer and ground water on sampled farmers operating below 1 ha. the result n indicated that conflicts exist among objectives, that is, min z 4 = ∑go x o optimization of one objective has negative effect on the rest objectives. if the annual income and employment o = 1 (18) was maximized alone one by one, the increment in the where, z4 =total requirement of ground water annually, go income was found to be 47.00% over existing level of income. but the employment, fertilizer, and ground water =requirement of ground water per unit of oth crop activity, xo = level of oth crop activity. use has to be increased by 9.00, 23.67 and 78.16% over from the earlier stated four objectives of income and existing level, respectively. the minimization of fertilizer employment maximization and minimization of fertilizer and ground use envisaged decline in fertilizer use by 18.52% over water use, the single objective linear programming could be derived existing level. income and employment level has also as: increased by 11.00 and 12.08% over existing level, k respectively. similarly, the minimization of ground water m ax . z 1 = ∑c j x j = w 1 use indicated the decline in the ground water use by j = 1 (19) 4.21%, while the fertilizer use and income have declined by 11.00 and 15.16% over existing level, respectively. k this result implies that income and employment cannot be increased more than 47.00 and 9.00% over the max . z 2 = ∑y j x 2 = w 2 j existing level, respectively. the fertilizer and ground j = 1 (20) water use cannot be increased more than 18.52 and k 6.13% respectively over the existing level. kushwaha (1992) confirmed this when he emphasized that because m in . z 3 = ∑f j x 3 = w 3 j of the conflicting nature of several objectives, the multi j = 1 (21) objective programming technique was modified in the k form of compromise weighted multi-objective program ming technique. david et al. (2009) also agreed with m in . z 4 = ∑g j x 4 = w 4 j these findings stating that even though small-scale j = 1 (22) vegetable fadama agriculture is profitable, farmers can where w 1, w2, w3, and w4 table 2. maximization and minimization of the variables over the existing level on sampled farmers operating on 2 to 3.99 ha. particulars existing max. of max. of min. of min. of ground multi-objective level income employment fertilizer use water use programming (mop) income (=n) 73,437.97 113,829(+55) 82,985 (+13) 85922 (+17) 88,860(+21) 109,723(+49) employment (man days) 995 1106 (+11) 1204 (+21) 1134 (+14) 1119(+13) 1184 (+19) fertilizer use (kg) 104.35 132.52 (+27) 96.00 (-8) 87.65(-16) 92.87 (-11) 91.25 (-12.5) ground water use(mm) 2106 1993 (-5.36) 1903(-9.73) 1569(-25.48) 1407 (-33.19) 1481 (-29.67) figures in parentheses shows the percentage of each variable over existing farm level. source: updated field survey data, 2009. table 3. maximization and minimization of the variables over the existing level on sampled farmers operating 3 to 4.99 ha. particulars existing max. of max. of min. of fertilizer min. of ground multi-objective level income employment use water use programming (mop) income (n) 235,890.45 310,125.18(+32.0) 298,849.61 (+26.69) 208,692.27 (-11.53)200,789.96 (-14.88) 302,199.26(+28.11) employment (man days) 842 1108(+31.59) 1153 (+36.94) 752 (-10.69) 712 (-15.44) 1125 (+33.61) fertilizer use (kg) 19.8 213(+7.58) 221 (+11.62) 179 (-9.60) 186 (-6.06) 182 (-8.08) ground water use (mm) 4788 5228(+9.19) 4557 (-4.82) 4240 (-11.45) 3851 (-19.57) 3962 (-17.25) figures in parentheses shows the percentage of each variable over existing farm level. source: updated field survey data, 2009. obtain high profit through rational resource inputs adjustment and re-allocation. table 2 shows the maximization of income, employment and fertilizer and ground water use of sampled farmers in the study area operating on 1 to 2.99 ha. it reveals again that conflict existed between income and employment, income and fertilizer use, income and ground water use. however, the compromise solution obtained through optimization of combined objective functions reveals that income has increased by 49.00% which is less than its individual optimization level, that is 55.00% but definitely higher than its levels and the rest of the three objectives. the employment has increased by 19.00%. this is less than individual optimization, that is, 21.00%; the amount of fertilizer use annually declined by 12.50% which is higher than its individual minimization rate (16.00%) but certainly lesser than its declining rate under the rest three objectives. similarly, the amount of ground water use has decreased by 29.27% which is larger than its individual minimization rate (33.19%) but certainly lesser than its increasing rate under maximization of income and employment objective and lesser than declining rate under minimization of fertilizer use by multi-objective. these results disagreed with ani (1999) revealing that despite various agricultural programmes such as community based-agricultural and rural development projects (cbardp), national programme for food security (npfs), operation feed the nation (ofn) and green revolution (gr), rural home household uses farm resources generally below the profit maximization level because of their low capital base signifying that there is the need for resource adjustment by farmers in order to obtain maximum profit. table 3 revealed the level of income, employment and fertilizer and ground water use of sampled farmers operating on 3 to 4.99 ha farm size. the result indicated that income alone was maximized by 32.00% while employment, fertilizer and ground water use by 31.75, 7.58 and 9.19%, respectively, over the existing level. the maximization of employment alone shows the increase in employment by 36.91%. ndanitsa et al. (2010) confirmed this, recommending that since the gross margin of vegetable production was higher and profitable, especially for tomato enterprise, its production should be intensified by smallholder farmers and school leavers should be encouraged and motivated into it, especially now that the ‘white collar jobs’ are almost becoming extinct in the nigerian labour market. on the other hand, income and fertilizer use increased by 26.69 and 11.62%, respectively, while the use of ground water decreased by 4.82% over the existing level. the minimization of fertilizer use has declined the fertilizer use by 6.06% income, and employment levels and ground water use also decreased by 11.53, 10.72 and 11.45%, respectively over the existing level. similarly, the minimization of ground water use has declined by 19.57%, income, employment and fertilizer use by 14.88, 15.46 and 6.06%, respectively over the existing level. the findings of this result indicate a significant level of conflicts among all the four objectives. these disclosures are in line with tahar (2010) that irrigated agriculture remains virtually important as a means of food production, enhancing water use efficiency is one of the main approaches to make better use of water. conclusion and policy implications from the study, it was realized that conflicts existed among the four specific objective functions. therefore, the solution obtained through the multi-objective programming technique was selected as the best compromising optimal solution for sustainable fadama farming. as a result of the conflicting nature of several objectives, the multi-objective technique was modified in the form of compromise weighted multi-objective programming technique, to generate the best fit compromise optimal solution for decision making to obtain alternate sustainable fadama farming. the technique is therefore, free from subjective weights as well as multi-dimensional aggregation. it was therefore recommended that these categories of farmers should have multiple farm objectives in order to complement each other and improve the farming operations and well being of the farmer and the study area in general. references ani ao (1999). analysis of the performance of rural farmers in the fadama users association (fua) programme in the northern zone of bauchi state. nig. j. trop. agric., 1: 36-40. calzadilla a, rehdanz rs, tol j (2010). the economic impact of more sustainable water use in agriculture: a computable general equilibrium analysis. j. hydrol., 384: 292-305. ciuchi p, pennaechi f (1990). a farm planning problem with multiple objectives. rivista di economia agraria, 45(2): 295-332. douglas gk (1985). when is agriculture sustainable? sustainable integrated farming systems, east lansing, michigan state university press, p. 368. david hd, abdulrrahman s, sani rm, kushwaha s, nasiru m (2009). resource use efficiency in irrigated crop production by fadama users in bauchi state, nigeria: implication for food security and poverty alleviation. in: sustainable agricultural growth to meet national economic development goal edited by i. muhammed, u. b. kyiogwom, w . a. hassan, a. l. ala, a. singh and s. d. dogondaji. proceedings of the 23 rd annual conference of the farm management association of nigeria (faman) at usmanu danfodiyo university, faculty of agriculture, sokoto, sokoto state, nigeria, 14 th – 17 th december. das p, haimes yy (1979). multi-objective optimization in water quality and land management. water resour. res., 15(6): 1313-1322. duffy m (1990). economic consideration in sustainable agriculture for a mid western farmer. report of rodale conservation project (kutztown), pp. 1-32. edward ca (1987). the concept of integrated systems in low input sustainable agriculture. am. j. altern. agric., 2(4): 148-152. fao – food and agricultural organization (2002). world agriculture: towards 2015/2030. summary report, rome. howell ta (2001). enhancing water use efficiency in irrigated agriculture. agron. j., 93: 281-289. kushwaha s, sen c, gupta sbl (1989). a farming without conventional energy. a paper from periodicals of international conference on information and systems, zhejiang university, china, pp. 1451-1454. kushwaha s (1992). sustainable economic agriculture. kisan world, 19(6): 14. kushwaha s, sani mh (1998). socio-economic analysis of adoption efficiency: case study of dass local government area of bauchi state, nigeria. kano j. arts soc. sci. 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agriculture: a review. j. agron., 9(1): 1-8. warren dm (1991). indigenous knowledge for agricultural and rural development, west african farming systems. oxford university, press, p. 236. wced world commission on environment and development, (1987). our common future: the brundtland report, oxford university press, oxford, england. in ternationa l scholars journa ls global journal of business management issn 6731-4538 vol. 2 (2), pp. 001-007, february, 2008. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper determinants of technology adoption in the production of horticultural export produce in kenya j. n. nzomoi1*, j. k. byaruhanga1, h. k. maritim2, p. i. omboto2 1 masinde muliro university of science and technology, p.o box 190, kakamega, kenya 2 moi university, p. o. box 3900, eldoret, kenya. accepted 06 december, 2007 the horticultural sector is currently the second largest foreign exchange earner in kenya after tea. it employs more than a half a million people in the formal sector and over two million people in the informal sector. the major export destinations demand some minimum quality levels of the produce entering their market. there have been technological innovations with regard to seed priming, treatment, disease and insect resistance and overall quality improvement. however the increased profitability associated with such technological advancement has not been fully enjoyed in kenya and other developing countries due to nonadoption, partial adoption or inappropriate adoption of the improved technologies. this necessitates the application of the full range of the available technology in the production process to maximize output and profits. this paper investigates the determinants of technology adoption in the production of horticultural export produce. multistage and random sampling methods were used to select the study areas and horticultural export producers respectively. one hundred and twelve (112) respondents were interviewed using structured questionnaires. the study covered nakuru, kiambu, laikipia, thika and machakos districts. the data was analyzed using the omnibus logistic function employing the spss software version 10. regression results indicated positive coefficients for levels of education, role of government, funds availability and membership to professional bodies by the firms alongside other variables. results further revealed that failure to utilize technologies was due to financial constraints, inappropriate technologies, technical knowledge, nature of the businesses, poor infrastructure, access to information as well as the technologies themselves not being available. this paper concludes that education levels, government involvement, access to finance and membership to professional bodies positively influence technology adoption. key words: adoption, technology and horticulture introduction kenya’s horticultural industry has been rated as the most successful in africa (kenyaweb, 2004). this success is attributed to the country’s geographical location that gives it both a temperate and tropical climate that allows growing of a wide variety of crops. the horticultural export business in the country is in the hands of about 200 registered active exporters, majority of who are members of industry associations such as the kenya flower council (kfc) and the fresh produce exporters association of kenya (fpeak). flowers constitute 60% *corresponding author. e-mail: nnzomoi@yahoo.co.uk. mobile: 0722 225015 of the horticultural exporters and out of 100 registered flower exporters, 80 % of the flowers are exported by 50 companies, which are members of kfc. fpeak is largely represented by 60 fruit and vegetable exporters who have contracted thousands of farmers across the country to grow specified crops for export. four large exporters – kenya horticultural exporters, vegpro, sunripe and everest enterprises, control the biggest percentage of exports. the european union is the largest buyer of kenya’s horticultural produce led by britain, netherlands and germany in that order. other buyers include the us, japan, the middle east and south africa. modern technology may be divided into four principal types, (knight et al., 1972) . first we have biological technology which includes new crop varieties as well as other technologies which incorporate materials of a biological nature. for instance we have technologies generated through biological breakthroughs such as breeding of new high yielding varieties (hyvs), disease resistant varieties or even drought resistant varieties. second there is chemical technology which includes chemical fertilizers, chemical means for pest and weed control such as fungicides, herbicides and insecticides. thirdly we have mechanical technology including farm machinery and farm equipment used during land preparation in such activities as tilling, pest control, weeding, spraying and transportation among others. finally there is management technology which includes the knowledge concerned with decision-making and management of farming activities without directly involving the use of new materials. although the various technology types are distinct, there is a considerable overlap among them when it comes to their adoption. for instance the application of chemical, biological and mechanical technologies necessarily entails the application of managerial technology. for this reason, this study does not address itself to a specific type of a technology but aggregates together the four technology types simply as “technology”. thus, the study investigates why technology is not utilized and not which technology is not utilized. in this study horticulture is defined to include fruits, flowers and vegetables only. in the area of horticultural production there have been technological innovations with regard to irrigation, chemical fertilization, pruning techniques and harvesting among others. the introduction and adoption of tissue culture has also become a standard technique for propagation of fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants and some tree crops (such as oil palm) in both developed and developing nations. according to hudson (1980), the production of virus-free seedlings is important in producing healthy plants especially such crops as strawberries, potatoes, bananas and orchids. shoot-tip grafting in such fruit crops as citrus is an improved technique, which has spread to india, china, chile, brazil and egypt. recent advances in biotechnology including genetic engineering and protoplast fusion will undoubtedly make incorporation of the desirable characters in a breeding program more feasible and faster than present conventional means. however the increased profitability associated with such technological advancement has not been fully enjoyed in kenya and other developing countries due to non-adoption, partial adoption or inappropriate adoption of the improved technologies. consequently it is obvious that despite these developments there are constraints that have hindered the full utilization of these production and marketing innovations. this implies that the actual marketed output levels have remained far below the potential levels if such technological innovations were fully made use of. this denies the country the much-needed foreign exchange. hence the need for an investigation into the determinants of techno logy adoption in the production of horticultural produce in kenya. research design and methodology this study utilized primary data. a structured questionnaire containing both closed and open-ended questions was designed to elicit information relevant to the issue under investigation. the sampling frame, from where the sample was drawn, was obtained from the horticultural crops development authority (hcda). it consisted of all registered producers of flowers, fruits and vegetables for export. this list consisted of both small-scale and large-scale producers. multistage, random sampling procedure was employed in selecting the sample from where the data was collected. this method ensures a high degree of representativeness by providing the elements with equal chances of being selected as part of the sample (babbie, 1994). the survey data was collected from firms located in various parts of the country. the sample data was distributed as follows; naivasha (29) (especially flower growerswhere nearly 75% of total flower producers in kenya are located), nairobi (23), kikuyu (12), thika (12), ruiru (10), limuru (9), nakuru (8), athi river (4), machakos (3) and ngong hills (2). a multiple regression equation was estimated by use of the omnibus logistic function under the spss software version 10. both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the data analysis. choice of the econometric model to adopt or not to adopt technology is a discrete choice. discrete choice econometric models have been widely used in estimating models that involve discrete economic decision problems (guerre and moon, 2004). similarly, feder et al. (1985) recommend the use of qualitative response models in these studies, mainly the tobit and probit models. it is however difficult to choose between these two models owing to the statistical similarities between them (amemiya, 1981). baker (1992) utilized a multivariate logit model in studying computer adoption and awareness in mexico while heissey et al. (1993) used the same model to determine adoption of new wheat varieties in pakistan. this study utilized the logit model because the dependent variable is dichotomous and the model is computationally simpler. the probit model was not used because of the nature of the variables used in the study since it assumes cumulative normal distribution. kipsat (2002) also rejects the use of the probit model on the grounds that it leads to inefficient estimators and that the estimated probabilities are not constrained to lie between the (0, 1) range demanded by probability theory. the logistic regression, like the log-linear model, is part of a category of statistical models called generalized linear models. this broad class of models includes ordinary regression and anova as well as multivariate statistics such as ancova. logistic regression enables a researcher to predict a discrete outcome such as group membership, from a group of variables that may be continuous, discrete, dichotomous or a mixture of any of these. the predictor variable in logistic regression can take any form. this is because logistic regression makes no assumption about the distribution of the independent variables; -they do not have to be normally distributed, linearly related, or of equal variance within each group. specification and estimation of the logit model this model is based on the cumulative logistic probability function. its specification takes the following form: table 1. summary of expected signs of the independent variables. expected sign of variable definition its coefficient x1 educational level positive (+) x2 local technology positive (+) x3 professional positive (+) x4 membership negative (-) x5 financial constraints positive (+) x6 government positive/negative (+/-) x7 involvement positive (+) land type land/farm size source: own computation pi = f (zi) = f (+xi) = 1/1+ e -zi = 1/1+ e ( +xi). ………….. (1) where in this notation e represents the base of natural logarithms which is approximated at 2.718. pi is the probability that an individual will make a certain choice, in this study whether to adopt a certain technology or not. in estimating equation (1) stated above, we multiply both sides by (1 + e -z ) pi = 1 so that dividing by pi and then subtracting 1 yield: e -zi = 1/ pi – 1 =1-pi /pi . …………………………………………. (2) however since e -z = 1/ e zi , then e zi = pi /1-pi so that by taking the natural logarithm on both sides of the equation we obtain: zi = log pi /1-pi or from equation (1) presented above, we have: log pi /1-pi=zi = +xi…………………………………………. (3) where: log pi /1-pi = the log of the odds that a certain decision will be made.  = the constant of the equation  = the coefficient of the predictor variables (pindyck and rubinfeld, 1991). unlike the probit model, one special feature of the logit model is that it transforms the problem of predicting probabilities within a 0.1 range of the real line. the slope of the cumulative logistic distribution is greatest at p = ½ implying that changes in independent variables will have their greatest effect on the probability of choosing a given option at the midpoint of the distribution. because of the advantages it has over the probit model, the logit model was used in this adoption study. based on theoretical and empirical evidence, the determinants of adoption decisions in this study were hypothesized, apriori, to include the following: education level, local technology (technology developed with the participation of the intended beneficiaries), membership to professional organizations, financial constraints, government facilitation, land tenure system and land size. thus, the reduced-form technology adoption model was specified as: where: zi = f (ed, tecl, profm, fc, gov, lant, lans,). zi = probability of technology adoption (1 if adopted, otherwise 0) ed = education level of adopter/farmer tecl = local technology profm = professional membership fc = financial constraints gov = government involvement lant = land type/tenure lans = land/farm size following gujarat (1995), the specific model estimated was further assumed to take the log-linear form, which tends to give the best results. it is also very convenient for elasticity calculations. since the study utilized crosssectional data we specified the equation without time lags as here below shown: zi=b0+b1lnx1+b2lnx2+b3lnx3+b4lnx4+b5lnx5+b6lnx6+b7lnx7+e…… ……(4) where the independent variables are: x1 = education level of the adopter/ farmer x2 = local technology x3 = professional membership x4 = financial constraints x5 = government involvement x6 = land type x7 = land/farm size e = error term table 1 results and discussion taking technology adoption, zi, to be lnp (x)/(1(p (x)) as the dependent variable in the logit model, the resulting multiple regression equation becomes; zi = 13.743 + 1.537x1 + 0.463x2 + 1.646x3 – 3.591x4 + 1.559x5 – 1.269x6 – 13.674x7 based on the definitions of the variables as indicated earlier, the equation is presented as: technology adoption (zi) = 13.743 + 1.537[education] + 0.463[local technology] + 1.646[professional membership] – 3.591[financial constraints] + 1.559[government involvement] – 1.269[land type/tenure] – 13.674[farm/land size]. the interpretation and discussion of each independent variable, as it relates to the dependent variable is explained here below: education: this variable took a positive sign (+1.537) implying that highly educated farmers and marketers are better adopters of improved technologies than less educated ones. this is consistent with our theoretical expectations and conforms to the findings of other earlier researchers (williams, 1958; salasya et al., 1996) as observed when reviewing literature. this positive correlation shows the influence education has on technology adoption. educated producers and marketers have exposure to new technologies and innovations, are more receptive to new ideas and are more willing to adopt, hence the positive correlation between education and technology adoption. the education levels of the respondents ranged from secondary to university graduates. however even for the educated ones, some technologies are product-specific or site-specific and the adopters may need to be provided with information on their usage. local technology: this variable took a positive sign (+ 0.463) as expected. this showed that technology adop professional membership and sales 60 50 50 40 30 28 20 anincome 16 10 less than 1m c o u n t 7 0 more than yes no profmemb chart 1. tion was dependent on whether the technology was locally developed or imported. we had hypothesized that farmers do not easily adopt foreign technologies due to their complexities. the hypothesized sign for the local technology was positive due to the expectation that technologies that are developed with the participation of the intended beneficiaries do not pose difficulties when being adopted. this finding confirms the need for participatory technology development between the innovators and the farmers as recommended by reijntejees et al. (1992) and laurens (1997). in this regard technology itself need not necessarily be developed in the adopting country as long as the two parties can work together to ensure suitability, relevance and appropriateness of the technology. this is emphasized by the fact that individual respondents identified numerous problems associated with technologies that are not locally developed such as inappropriateness, lack of qualified personnel to implement them, and high costs associated with acquisition and utilization of such technologies. professional membership: this variable had a positive coefficient of 1.646 as hypothesized. the positive coefficient implied a positive correlation between technology adoption and membership to professional organizations. producers who were members of professional organizations such as the kenya flower council and the fresh produce exporters association of kenya among others were better placed to adopt new technologies than those who did not belong to any organization. this is confirmed by the graphical output (chart 1). membership to such organizations enabled farmers to acquire information on any new product in the market as well as attend seminars and workshops at which stakeholders would meet and exchange ideas. this should be encouraged for both small-scale and large-scale producers. financial constraints: this variable took a negative sign (-3.591). this is in conformity with our expectations presented while generating the model. this hypothesis was based on the understanding that some innovations may be too costly for the adopter to access and make use of them. for this reason the variable of financial constraints was expected to negatively influence technology adoption. this meant that firms facing financial constraints are less likely to adopt new technologies than firms with sufficient funding. based on our data set for this study, the negative sign of the variable confirms our expectations. these findings are supported by similar findings by earlier researchers (heady, 1952; salam, 1985; salasya et al., 1998; nandwa et al., 1997) who also identified costs as key determinants of adoption of improved technologies or improved varieties of seeds, fertilizers, soil conservation methods and irrigation methods among others. government role: role of government took a positive sign (+1.559) as expected. the justification was that successful adoption of some technologies might require government facilitation. this showed that government plays a significant role that enables firms to enhance their production and marketing strategies. for technologies to be utilized there is need for government involvement in making it possible for the users to conveniently benefit from the availability of the new technology. it may also be said that failure to utilize technologies by the various intended beneficiaries can be blamed on the government’s inability or reluctance to facilitate the same. the positive correlation means that the higher the level of government involvement the better it is for the farmers to adopt new technologies. intervention measures to enhance technology adoption should therefore be designed to include appropriate government role. this government role should be the very bare minimum since excessive government meddling can actually curtail productivity. land type/ land tenure system: the variable on land ownership policy was expected to take either positive or negative sign. it was thus indeterminate depending on whether land was privately owned, leased or rented. for example farmers who are squatters may avoid adopting technologies that are expensive and are of long-term nature while those who own land may have the motivation to adopt new technologies even when such technologies are expensive. regression results showed a negative sign (-1.269) implying that land ownership system negatively influenced technology adoption. however, it can be seen from the graphical output (chart 2) that farmers who privately own land get the highest incomes from sales of their produce than those who have leased or rented land. thus the positive correlation between financial strength and technology adoption would lead us to expect a positive sign if a majority of the farmers own the land on which they operate. indeed our data analysis show that 50.9% of the respondents operated on privately owned land while the rest either leased or rented the land. the negative sign obtained from our results was however not entirely unexpected since it was expected to take either sign. land size/farm size: this variable was expected to positively influence technology adoption. the basis of this expectation was that for a firm to grow and acquire a large tract of land on which to operate it might also be in a position to utilize new technology compared to smaller firms, perhaps on account of large-scale production. this variable however took a negative sign (-13.674) implying that technology adoption is negatively influenced by the size of the firm. it was expected that the advantages of large-scale production would positively influence technology adoption and vice versa so that smaller firms would find it difficult to adopt technology than large ones. empirical evidence allows us to reject the hypothesis. notwithstanding this rejection however, it is clear that a large firm in terms of establishment and output levels, is definitely better placed to acquire and adopt new technologies than a smaller firm. perhaps this unexpected outcome can be attributed to the definition of farm size in this study which emphasized physical acreage rather than the volume of output which would have implied financial strength arising from the sales of the output. the second aspect to this finding is that technology adoption is not in any way dependent on farm size but is indeed a function of factors exogenous to the farm. summary of regression results and multiple response analysis post-harvest handling: the quality of horticultural produce is dependent on how the produce is handled and transported to the final consumers. our data analysis revealed that 87.3% of the respondents experienced post-harvest losses before marketing their produce. given their perishability, there is need to carefully handle the produce so as to reduce post-harvest losses and ensure it is in good condition by the time it reaches both local and foreign consumers. in the case of vegetables for example some produce such as onions and potatoes can stand transportation and are grown in areas of concentration where climate and soils suit them best. producing vegetables and fruits in areas far away from the market necessitated careful transportation. in this case shelf life is a critical factor and in the case of tomatoes the varieties grown need to have thicker skins to prevent excessive losses during transportation. the shape and colour of ripe produce is also an issue and farmers should avoid harvesting too late since this makes the fruits to go bad by the time they reach consumers. with a tendency to buy daily rather than buy in bulk and stock, the consumer expects to see ripe pro duce in the market but this has high cost implication for the producer. there is therefore need to look at the harvest cycle and determine the appropriate time to select produce to minimize spoilage. in the case of flowers however they are carefully packed and transportted in containers with cooling effect so that they are fresh by the time they reach their overseas destinations. financial constraints: a perennial problem faced by farmers is access to working capital. in the production chain the various processes require the usage of funds so that a financially stable producer will realize higher output than a less financially endowed one. a majority of the respondents (55.5%) relied on private savings as their main source of funds for their activities. this was perhaps the case for the established firms who ploughed back profits to expand their businesses and rarely relied on bank loans. indeed we see that only 17.3% of the respondents relied mainly on bank loans. in this study most farmers identified financial incapacitation as a major constraint in their operations. indeed with regard to technology adoption 96.3% of the respondents were unanimous that it required funds to implement. poor commodity prices: respondents identified poor and often fluctuating commodity prices as a major problem especially for the fruits and vegetable producers. this is a serious constraint given that farmers tend to produce more the higher the price. a persistently low price would be a disincentive to the farmers who may opt to produce other commodities attracting higher prices. a substantial number of flower producers however were contented with the prevailing prices offered for their produce. this was partly because of the foreign market outlet for the flowers where better prices are offered. a number of solutions were suggested to this problem including improved bargaining power in world markets. to this end 61.9% of the respondents wanted the government to assist in improving their bargaining power in the world markets. another way of improving commodity prices was to improve its quality relative to that of your competitors. storage facilities: due to lack of suitable and appropriate storage facilities on the farms and the perishability nature of horticultural produce, farmers are often forced to market produce at peak production periods to avoid incurring losses when the produce goes bad. this was the case especially with fruits and vegetables. it is however possible for the farmers to extent the season by controlled environment production such as the use of irrigation or early and late varietal selection. this is another strategy that farmers can adopt to maximize returns from their produce. in addition storage facilities need to be available at the destinations to ensure the produce is of good quality when it is sold. this ensures the right price is paid for the produce and enhances the financial position of the farmer. in this study 75.9% of the land type and sales 50 40 41 30 20 sales 10 15 less than 1m c o un t 9 0 4 5 more than 6 8 pri re lea mb vat nte sed ely inat d ow ion ned of the a landtyp chart 2. firms interviewed relied mainly on foreign market outlets for their produce implying that there is need to ensure sufficient storage facilities in the importing country. this ensures that the produce is of high quality by the time it changes hands. market infrastructure: accessibility is crucial to any form of business enterprise whether agricultural or industrial. in this study our findings indicate that only 10.7% of the respondents were accessible while the rest either had poor access roads or were simply inaccessible. this was especially the case for small-scale producers who lack the financial capacity to improve access roads leading to their enterprises. the hub of any horticultural marketing network is the wholesale market. wholesale markets are located in most urban centers but suffer from a number of serious constraints. for instance the physical size of the market may be too small to cope with the volume of trade. in other markets the problem is the availability of storage space to handle cargo as it arrives and leaves the market. the most needed facility for vegetable and fruit wholesalers is access to cold storage facilities. this greatly reduces spoilage of produce and allows traders to effectively market their produce in a measured way, rather than having to sell all deliveries on the day of arrival. respondents also mentioned poor road network as a constraint regarding where they can source their produce and where they can sell it. poor road network also damages the fresh consignments and greatly reduces the life span of the vehicles carrying the produce due to tear and wear. for export purposes the air transport ensures timely delivery of produce to various international destinations. even then, such produce would need to be deliver ed to the airport from the various production points in good condition so as to fetch more in international markets when exported. market information: access to accurate market information is crucial to horticultural farmers. respondents identified market information as one of the benefits they obtain from being members of professional organizations. however for the small-scale producers who do not belong to such organizations, this is a serious constraint. for such farmers the hcda as a regulator in this field should assist in acquisition of accurate, timely and relevant information to help them plan production and marketing levels. there is need for the farmers to understand why prices change both in the short run and the long run as well as how to interpret prices and respond appropriately in terms of what and when to produce. conclusion and policy implications from the above discussion it can be seen that the variables that influence technology adoption positively include level of education, local technology, professional membership and government involvement. on the other hand variables that influence the dependent variable negatively are financial constraints, land tenure system and land size or farm size. thus, it is clear that before adopting any new technology farmers considered financial implications, relevance, profitability and efficiency. in this regard technology adoption can be said to be dependent on farmer characteristics and other factors exogenous to the firm. the analysis also reveals that most production is done on small scale basis and that flower producers get more income than fruit or vegetable growers. based on study findings, several implications may be drawn. there is need to improve the education levels of the producers and to enhance and rationalize government role in the production process. there is also need to assist farmers and exporters to access credit as well as support professional organizations in the horticulture subsector. in addition, there is also need to strengthen the existing extension system and to promote the use of postharvest technologies and facilities. finally the provision of accurate market information as well as the provision of sound infrastructure will enhance production of horticultural export produce. references amemiya t (1981). qualitative response models a survey. j. econ. lit. 19: 1483-1536. baker ga (1992). computer adoption and use by new mexico nonfarm agribusiness. am. j. agric. econ. 74(3):737-744. babbie e (1994). the practice of social research. 7 th edition blackwell publishing inc. feder g, just re, zilberman d (1985). adoption of agricultural innovation in developing countries: a survey. econ. dev. cultural change. 33: 255–298. guerre e, moon hr (2004). a study of a semiparametric binary choice model with integrated 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with farmers a trainers guide for participatory learning. nandwa sm, kanyanjui sm, thuranira eg (1997). soil phosphorus recapitalization of western kenya soils with minjingu rock phosphate some evidence of limited soil phosphate availability and maize response to fertilizer application. pindyck rs, rubinfeld dl (1991). econometric models and economic forecasts. 3 rd edition, mcgraw-hill inc., new york. reijntejees c, haverkrot b, watersbayer a. (1992). farming for the future. an introduction to low external input and sustainable agriculture. macmillan press london. salam a (1985). socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing fertilizer use in punjab pakistan. pakistan dev. rev., 14( 1). salasya b, mwangi w, hugo v, odendo m, dona j (1998). an assessment of the adoption of seed and fertilizer packages and the role of credit in smallholder maize production in kakamega and vihiga districts. cimmyt nairobi. salasya b, odendo m, odenya j (1996). adoption of improved sorghum varieties and other production technologies in busia district kenya. proceedings of the 5 th kari scientific conference. williams ms (1958). farmers decisions in the use of fertilizer. j. farm econ. vol. 40. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (7), pp. 001-015, july, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper institutional incentives and economic aspects of industrial relationships in the italian agricultural sector darina zaimova european research institute on cooperative and social enterprises, euricse, via s. giovanni 36 – 38122 trento (tn) – italy. e-mail: dzaimova@gmail.com. tel: 00359899807008. accepted 05 march, 2018 policy interventions and private initiatives undertaken in the italian agricultural sector have registered varying degrees of impact at the local level, due to the diversity of regional characteristics. the research paper aims to conceptualize the agricultural value-chain model and sheds light on the institutional incentives for product and supply organization in one integrated and interrelated process. the economic efficiency and competitiveness of strategic partnerships in the form of producer organizations, associations and cooperatives will be analysed. the first part of the paper investigates the theoretical and methodological framework for measuring the institutional effects on contract arrangements. the second part is devoted to assessing the structure of the value-chains in the agricultural sector in italy and to operationalizing the concept of the behavioural model of strategic participants. the third part presents results of research, utilizing the applied econometric approach based on the stochastic frontier production models. key words: strategic partnerships in italy, institutional framework, stochastic frontier production models. introduction increased concentration in the agricultural market has spurred controversial debates regarding the potential opportunities and adverse effects on the balance and distribution of market power across the value chain. the observed benefits and disadvantages are interpreted differently depending on whether this is done from an economic or political perspective. hence, the lower costs of production, sufficient levels of aggregate efficiency and management gains are only part of the total market equation. along with these outcomes is the prevailing dominance of a group of companies, which in principle is not in contradiction to the legal framework but it stimulates price levels that exceed the social cost of production and disrupts the equilibrium across the agrifood chain. development of the agricultural sector in italy is not an exception to these common findings. still, there are some distinguishing sector characteristics that need to be emphasized. emergence of “cluster policy” at the sub-national level in italy is supported by strong regional governance and producer initiative (hospers and sjoerd, 2002). this provides for reliable legal framework and economic incentives for enterprises to integrate along the value-chain. an intriguing question is how small-sized companies succeed in being competitive in terms of quality, production costs and price. the answer is in their ability to behave as part of a group. they bind together on the basis of the product produced or geographical region and create their common competitive advantage through specialization and cooperation. an assertion such this calls for concrete proof of how institutional support and policy interventions translate into economic efficiency and productivity at the organizational level. the general interest in measurement has opened the prospect of micro-level approaches that develop new perspectives on how to define efficiency and productivity and how to calculate benchmark technology. the advantage of functional models that both account for agricultural and non-agricultural factors is mainly grounded on the assumption that there are other resources of efficiency that could be exploited by enterprises, but not modified or changed by them. an institutional explanation dominates over the other usual approaches concerning income differences, investment activity and productivity growth. considering that informed management decisions require accurate information, a starting point is considering how file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org to measure institutional effects. in italy, the impact of the forthcoming institutional changes on producer organizations, cooperatives and associations puts forward a unique organization of the value-chain model. the common feature of these organizations is their origin as bottom-up initiatives of producers and their dependence on the collective contribution and awareness. institutionalization of agricultural relations: theoretical and practical solutions considering that “closing the gap between “know what” and “know how” in institutional reform is critical for achieving sustained growth” (sobel and coyne, 2010), it is difficult to unilaterally estimate the impact and results from the policy interventions. the main argument in favor of this assumption is that development of the structurally weak regions could not be addressed by generally accepted support mechanisms. for this reason, agricultural policy could not be assumed as a universal approach, but rather as a common framework of the development direction. furthermore, the economic growth and productivity in the sector is not only assessed by the achieved economic results, but also by the flexibility and manners in the way in which the external environment enters into organizations (powell and dimaggio, 1991). it could be inferred that one of the most distinctive characteristics of the enterprises is the change rate of their external environment. they are compelled to implement certain policy regulations, to adopt “bestpractices” from their professional sector or to demonstrate leadership to ensue public interest. one trend in these adjustment activities is the isomorphic process among agricultural enterprises. they do not simply follow legal, economic, social, cultural or environmental prescripts. in order to create a stable equilibrium outcome, enterprises reflect the interests of the strongest coalition and relatively sub-coalitions that remain stable over certain periods (aoki, 2001). this also corroborates the interpretation of the institutions as “persistent” social facts that regulate social behaviour and exert decisive influence over economic intensity. but it took rather a long time to formulate and appraise the significance of this adaptation process. the neoclassical comprehension for a competitive market considers its own ability to efficiently allocate production resources. the exchange of property rights is performed under assumption for precisely formulated contract agreements – well-defined responsibilities and undertakings or “sharp in by clear agreement, sharp out by clear performance” (macneil, 1974). obviously neoclassical theory has a clear concept on market exchange relations, but completely excludes their dynamic nature and the possibility for unexpected and abrupt changes. moreover, the market seems to efficiently substitute the role of institutions, which in the real economic situation is excessively optimistic to rely on. the philosophy of the new institutional theory takes a step forward by introducing the role of transaction costs and by broadening the concept of property rights with the view of social norms and values. in that way, even the simple institutional interpretation of legislative prescriptions is elaborated (bromley, 1989). the property itself is disclosed as a social relation, which defines and differentiates the owner of the asset from the other participants in the market. in addition, the more the asset becomes specialized the less the market exchange mechanisms are able to allocate it efficiently. in view of characteristics of the agricultural sector, this could result in disproportionate market power across the food-chain. one way to counteract this is through collective bargaining and competitive inter-sector relations in the form of vertically-integrated economic and social structures. the flexibility of these structures provides for further market specification, environmental and food safety improvement, as well as responses to service access issues. the integration process also changes the consumption model consumers demand quality of the products, retailers introduce traceability of these products, processors use specific inputs to meet environmental requirements. the equilibrium between market demand and the capacity of the supply side is a matter of longterm strategy. several studies apply the “fixed asset” principle (williamson, 1981) to underline some of the most important benefits and potential of integrated relations in agriculture. the term “fixed asset” represents the asset, whose present marginal value is neither justified by acquisition of more of it nor by its disposition. this concept is used by hathaway (1963) to differentiate between the individual economic agents and the forms of joint economic performance. an important peculiarity is that the salvage value of the fixed asset, which is the asset‟s value when it is sold instead of used in production, is substantially higher in the agricultural sector. a situation where market price falls would not necessarily lead to reduction in production quantities. a reasonable solution is to transfer assets to a more profitable type of production or activity along the value-chain. considering the opposite situation where the marginal output value of the asset exceeds its acquisition costs due to an increase in the market price, then more of the input would be added, since it enhances total productivity. in the case of a fixed asset with low salvage value, when market prices return to their initial level, the level of the production volumes would not be able to be adjusted automatically. this is defined as a “productivity trap” (hathaway, 1963). the immobility degree of the fixed asset complicates production decisions even more at the farm-level. this assets‟ characteristic is envisaged as an impediment for efficient functioning of the factor markets. it leads also to higher cost related expenditures, especially considering the cases of individual production choices. another consideration is the parallel accomplishment of some of the activities in the agricultural production process. the rational producer is expected to ignore activities that are more time demanding and cost consuming and to focus his efforts on the more profitable ones. an opportunity in this direction is provided by various organizational types in the agricultural sector such as: cooperatives, second-level cooperatives (consortia) or producer organizations. this observation can be viewed as simply an application of the “equal compensation principle” in the meaning that: “if a regulated firm‟s allocation of effort to two different objectives cannot be monitored by the regulator, then either the power of the incentive for each objective is equal, or the objective with the lower power receives no effort” (milgrom and roberts, 1992). decision to enter into a contract relations is wellfounded, only if the expected income is at least equal to that one from an alternative production decision. this could be defined as “rational restriction”. in order to maximize its profit, the enterprise would try to offer a contract that satisfies „shareholders‟ or „members‟ conditions. milgrom and roberts (1992) go on to emphasize that: “the equal compensation principle imposes a serious constraint on the incentive regulation mechanisms that can be effective in practice. in particular, if a regulated firm is expected to devote some effort in the pursuit of an objective for which performance cannot be measured at all, then incentive regulation cannot be effectively used for any of the objectives that the regulator might wish to pursue. the use of straightforward rate-ofreturn regulation can often be justified on these grounds”. structuring the agro-industrial relations in the italian regions common agricultural policy (cap) is a classical example of an intervention policy, considering its legal provisions and mechanisms for product support, production quotas, aid schemes and direct payments. early retirement schemes, grants for setting up young farmers and diversification initiatives promote intra-sector structural change and enhance the mobility of production resources. indeed, these measures are often assumed as an impediment for efficient allocation of resources because they are aimed at intervention in the primary production sectors. even direct transfer payments are not qualified as an efficient instrument for employment promotion as they have short-term effects. the difficulty with the policy application is associated with the characteristics of members within the target group. agricultural producers are not very receptive to significant changes in the farm development because of their age, risk aversion or insufficient capital resources. the most efficient way to maintain and develop small farms is through diversification and off-farm employment. hence, it is necessary to improve and give publicity to the attractiveness of rural areas to the other economic sectors. one of the main concerns is how to enhance producers‟ positions in the supply process and to guarantee visibility of the products' quality. this issue is addressed and operationalized in the legal forms of cooperatives, producer organizations, and associations. they provide for a wide range of tools for production and crisis management, market flexibility, and simultaneously maintain close relationships among the members and coordinate their individual interests. the italian agricultural sector is particularly dynamic in development and organization of cooperatives and associations, as well as in the concentration of production and market supply. policy mechanisms and interventions are complicated and vary because of the heterogeneity of the italian regions. in the first place they fall into different european funding categories. at the same time, not all regions possess the same special forms and conditions of autonomy pursuant to the special statutes adopted by italian constitutional law 1 . strong regional identity is preserved in fruit, wine and cheese production. local production systems emerge in these sectors, which are based on small-scale production – the total number of the registered producer organizations all over the country is 235 2 . this is observed as an opportunity to maintain small-scale and semi-subsistence farming; and to integrate through a large set of cooperative arrangements. from one point of view, this fact could be interpreted as rather beneficial, because concentration of production and distribution processes ensures its continuity and imposes high quality standards for the final product. nevertheless, this “modernization” process of the agricultural sector causes its restructuring in a manner less favourable for market participants in certain regions. the imbalanced relationship between small producers and their customers – processors or retailers, as well as the high level of fragmentation and low level of cooperation additionally complicates the retail system in most sectors of agricultural production. one of the main characteristic of the italian fruit and vegetable sector is the presence of strong concentration of production and initially well-structured and organized cooperatives and associations 3 . producer organizations play an important role for stability of the market and 1 constitution of the italian republic, art.116, “friuili-venezia giulia, sardinia, sicily, trentino-alto adige/ südtirol and valle d’aosta/ vallee d’aoste have special forms and conditions of autonomy pursuant to the special statutes adopted by constitutional law. 2 decreto n.85/trav attuazione del decreto legislativo 27 maggio 2005, n. 102, sulla regolazione dei mercati, a norma dell’art. 1, comma 2, lettera c), della legge 7 marzo 2003, n. 38, recante i requisiti minimi per il riconoscimento delle organizzazioni di produttori, le modalità per il controllo e per la vigilanza delle organizzazioni dei produttori, al fine di accertare il rispetto dei requisiti per il riconoscimento nonché le modalità per la revoca del riconoscimento.(integrato con le modifiche alla tabella 1 introdotte dal d.m. prot. n. 121/trav del 10 marzo 2008) 3 terms and conditions of the scheme of aid for producer organizations in the fruit and vegetables sector (2009) efficient relationships across the agri-food chain. membership in these organizations is perceived as an important competitive factor and long-term strategy in improving supply chain relations through adjustment to the market criteria (logistics, quality management, financial capacity, price and cost competitiveness). five years after the first introduction of the council regulation 2200/1996, 130 producer organizations were registered all over the country. these organizations concentrate approximately 20% of marketed production with significant difference in the various regions. the organizational rate in the fruit and vegetable sector is 100% in trentino alto adige, 65% in emilia romagna, while in sicily the organizational rate is about 7% and in puglia 5%. the turnover of the dairy sector represents 15% of the total turnover of the food industry. the sector is represented by a group of big enterprises, and by a great number of small firms. production of fresh milk and innovated products is very concentrated within a number of mergers and significantly vertically integrated strategic groups. the most important division of the operating structures in the sector is as follows: 1) strategic groups – enterprises, mainly cooperatives (abit, lattira soresina) that operate predominantly on the national market; 2) in parmigiano reggiano area there are two classification types degree of vertical integration and type of market strategy (trade or product oriented) of organizations; 3) assolatte (associazione italiana lattiero casearia) – represents the industries of milk transformation (fresh milk, cheese, yogurt, butter). weaknesses of the dairy sector refer to: retail system, which is not visible enough in terms of participating high quality producers; imbalanced relationships between small producers and their customers – processors and retailers; high level of fragmentation and low level of cooperation among producers, especially in southern italy; lack of cooperation centers (mountain areas), where the link between producers and other operators is more difficult and complicated. concentration of the wine production has created an important framework and conditions for innovation and knowledge sharing, institutional support and small-scale producers‟ support. the most important organizations in the “wine industry value-chain” are “consortia volontari di tutela delle denominazioni di origine and federdoc (confederazione dei consorzi volontari per la tutela delle denominazioni d‟origine)”. financial crisis had overall negative effects on economy, creating unemployment, cash-flow problems, and lowered consumption. for the wine sector, these consequences meant limited demand and over-supply. current policy in the sector is focused on limitation of overproduction, requesting that wine producing countries rip out a certain amount of vineyard acreage, lowering and then gradually eliminating public subsidies for destruction of stocks, and allocating funds for promoting the consumption of wine in non-european countries. in light of these considerations, the following key-aspects were proposed by leading italian wine organizations: promotion of wine consumption, especially in the area with concentrated tourist activity; short-term and medium-to-long-term programmes to enhance export; re-distribution of subsidies for promotion of italian wine from domestic to foreign markets; investments aimed at professional training. a large part of agricultural production is produced and realized through a relatively stable number of cooperatives (table 1). cooperatives operate in every sector of the economy – agriculture, banking, industry and services. the gross value added (gva) of the agricultural cooperatives for 2007 represents 5% of the total gva of the economy. as a comparison, the gva in the industrial sector is 3.0%; in the services sector – 6.8%. the organizational process in the agricultural sector is further developed in the form of producer organizations, second degree cooperatives – consortia and associations. development in the sector could also be described by “localization through intensified interaction and cooperation” (brunori et al., 2002). nevertheless, observations so far envisage that the largescale industry is more favoured, since it receives a considerable percentage of the european funds. at the same time, administration costs are pushed up because of the minute payments to small – scale farmers. the solution is imposed by the fixed limits of the payments that farmers could receive under the single payment scheme. the policy implementation relies on more market conformity and less direct payments. but what is the consequent effect on employment, income and consumers in the sector? the marginal cost of producing goods, which use land could exceed the social cost of production. consequently, the market prices would influence the service sector, regardless to the products‟ true value. besides this, a decrease in the total employment in the agricultural sector probably cannot be avoided, as it follows the extent to which production responds to price fluctuation. measuring institutional influence over economic efficiency of agricultural enterprises if the government policy and the factors of institutional environment possess significant and even decisive role over income accumulation and comparison (rodriket al., 2002), how can these particular effects be measured? as it is stated: “when it comes to reforms, economists know what institutions and policies are necessary to ignite economic growth but they know much less about how to go about getting those institutions and policies” (sobel table 1. number of registered agricultural cooperatives. region 2006 2007 2008 number % number % number % piedmont 288 5.57 286 5.47 296 5.63 valle d'aosta/vallée d'aoste 45 0.87 44 0.84 43 0.82 liguria 61 1.18 64 1.22 65 1.24 lombardy 320 6.19 320 6.12 310 5.89 trentino alto adige 227 4.39 220 4.21 210 3.99 veneto 401 7.76 398 7.61 401 7.63 friuli-venezia giulia 158 3.06 161 3.08 159 3.02 emilia-romagna 671 12.98 653 12.48 638 12.13 tuscany 171 3.31 174 3.33 170 3.23 umbria 111 2.15 112 2.14 113 2.15 marches 125 2.42 128 2.45 124 2.36 lazio 324 6.27 329 6.29 334 6.35 abruzzo 143 2.77 145 2.77 146 2.78 molise 52 1 48 0.92 49 0.93 campania 420 8.12 439 8.39 447 8.5 puglia 561 10.85 575 10.99 589 11.2 basilicata 96 1.86 100 1.91 103 1.96 calabria 324 6.27 337 6.44 341 6.48 sicily 518 10 543 10.38 565 10.74 sardinia 154 2.98 155 2.96 156 2.97 total 5170 100 5231 100 5259 100 source: italian national institute of statistics, istat.it. and coyne, 2008). rodrik (2000) identifies 5 types of institutions that permit adequacy of the market: institutions for property rights, regulatory institutions, institutions of macroeconomic stability, institutions for social insurance, institutions for conflict management. the studied relation between aggregate efficiency and economic freedom shows that lack of economic freedom results in lower aggregate efficiency (adkins et al., 2002). the agricultural sector, its participants and their typical features provide a fruitful research field for studying the relationships among efficient performance, market competition and policy-making. an interesting perspective is given by several studies that attempt to quantify institutional influence over economic efficiency. stochastic frontier analysis (sfa) is applied in order to measure how divergence in quality of institutions, including: control of corruption, strength of the law, quality of the regulatory framework; explains cross-country differences in aggregate efficiency (meon and weill, 2004). the relationship between the foreign direct investment and the rate of growth of gross domestic product is also developed through the quantitative and comprehensive results obtained from the same analysis (wijeweera et al., 2010). according to them, the flows of foreign direct investment exerts a positive impact over the economic growth only in the presence of a highly skilled labor force; accordingly open trade policy gains efficiency, but at the same time corruption practices have a negative impact. the aforementioned analysis‟ application and suggested results are only part of the existing research experience (appendix a). although it is not possible to describe them all, it is important to consider the opportunities that frontier methodology provides in studying the various factors that influence efficiency. the main objective in applying stochastic frontier analysis in the present case study is to measure the efficiency levels of cooperatives, partnerships and producer organizations in the agricultural sector in the context of the influence of institutional factors on their productive choices. the formulation of the production function requires the definition of two types of variables: 1) the output of agricultural enterprises and 2) the inputs, utilized in the production process 4 . the parameters of the constructed translog production function in the present case study are represented in table 2. instead of the physical quantities of output, the gross margin and the gross value added are used as measurement tools. this decision is based on the fact that the higher physical output of the more intensive enterprises is not comparable to the lower output of smaller enterprises. 4 information about the quantitative characteristics of the output and production inputs is derived from eurostat, istat and the farm accountancy data network of the european commission for the period from 2003 to 2007. table 2. parameters in translog production function. output (y) input (x) standard the total production in mil gross euro minus variable costs margin b1 utilized agricultural in hectares per each region (cereals, vegetables in area (uaa) open field, industrial crop, vegetables in greenhouses) b2 permanent crops (pc) in hectares, in relation to the received subsidies and the impact they exert upon efficiency and productivity (fresh fruits, vineyards and wine, olive plantations) gross output at market prices b3 intermediate measured by cumulative costs of raw material added minus intermediate consumption (ic) consumption and service procurement value consumption at purchaser prices b4 annual working unit corresponds to the work performed by one person (awu) who is occupied on agricultural enterprises for each region on a full-time basis b5 employed annual employed on a regular basis, including group holders working unit (eawu) table 3. parameters in the inefficiency model. group 1: general information c1 training level refers to the ratio of trained managers and employees to all employees about agricultural enterprises in agricultural enterprises. c2 specialized mixed corresponds to the output orientation of the agricultural enterprises farming specialized in a particular activity (crop production) that provides a standard gross margin of at least 2/3 of the total standard gross margin of the enterprises. group 2: characteristics of c3 protection of rank provided by the component “protection of property rights” in area 2 the institutional framework property rights “legal structure and security of property rights” measured by economic freedom of the world index. c4 legal enforcement rank provided by the component “legal enforcement of contracts” in of contracts area 2 “legal structure and security of property rights” measured by economic freedom of the world index. c5 starting a business rank provided by the component “starting a business” in area 5 “regulation of credit, labour and business” measured by economic freedom of the world index. c6 – cooperatives number of the registered agricultural cooperatives additionally, the gross margin variable includes subsidies as payment received for the fixed production factors. therefore, the area under permanent crops is also included as an input variable 5 . three types of permanent crops are eligible to receive subsidy payments partially or completely based on area: olive trees, vineyards and more recently nuts. decision-making units are also compared on the basis of the relationship between 5 since 1992, the role of remote sensing and geomatics in the management and control of the common agricultural policy has become significantly important in terms of implementation of the land parcel identification system (lpis) for identification of all parcels, for which area-based subsidies are claimed. annual working unit and employed annual working unit. in the analysis, annual working unit corresponds to the total labour input, including family labour. variables in the inefficiency model are grouped in two categories that attempt to explain the level of inefficiency in respect to the observed institutional influence. the first one is regarding the general information about agricultural enterprises; the second category refers to characteristics of the opportunities and restrictions of the institutional framework (table 3). the training level variable denotes the ratio of the professional and trained managers and employees to the total number of employees 6 . the specialized mixed farming variable indicates output orientation and product diversification in the enterprises. the variables in the second group attempt to describe institutional characteristics closely related to the economic performance of the agricultural enterprises. information about property rights protection, enforcement of contract arrangements and incentives for starting a new business is derived from the economic freedom of the world (efw index) 7 . the index measures the consistency of institutions and policies within the concept of ownership and business activity. the main incentive to include these particular variables stems from the supposition that enterprises regardless of their legal forms, face the same market pressures, compete through adoption of similar strategies, and aim at higher levels of efficient business performance. considering the impact of cooperatives‟ economic activity on overall regional development, an additional variable for 2007 was included: the number of agricultural cooperatives 8 . cooperatives have the incentive to be an equivalent competitor in the market along with other investment oriented companies, as long as this position would secure their financial stability and maintain the loyalty of their members. the null hypotheses states that there is no technical inefficiency in the structured models: h0: hi (θ) = 0 against h1: hi (θ) ≠ 0 (1) the vector of estimated parameters is represented by θ. in order to determine the lower and upper bounds, the kodde and palm‟s wald test for jointly testing non-linear equality and inequality constraints either under h0 or h1 is used (kodde and palm, 1986). the null hypothesis h0 is rejected when the estimated value of lr-tests exceeds the upper bound value, and h0 is accepted when the lrtests value is smaller than the lower bound value. the parameter γ = σu 2 / σv 2 + σu 2 is the variance ratio, which explains the total variation in the output from the frontier level attributed to technical efficiency. when γ=0, then there is no technical inefficiency observed in the data set and all decision-making units belong to the optimal production frontier. according to the first hypothesis, there are no inefficiency components in the constructed cobb-douglas function: ln (y) = β0 + β1 ln (в1) + β2 ln (в2) + β3 ln (в3) + β4 ln (в4) + β5 ln (в5) (2) 6 the training levels of farm holders are indicated by: irena 06, the level of agricultural training of managers of agricultural holdings; irena 06a, the training in agri environmental issues; irena 01, the area under agrienvironment support; irena 02, regional levels of good farming practice; irena 13, cropping/livestock patterns; irena 14, farm management practices; irena 15, intensification/ eextensification; irena 16, diversification/specialization 7 economic freedom of the world: 2010 annual report, p.1 8 the information about the number of cooperative is taken from the cooperative register of the economic development ministry the “second hypothesis” also states that the value of βi parameters is zero and the formulated translog function is: ln(y) = β0 + β1 ln (в1) + β2 ln (в2) + β3 ln (в3) + β4 ln(в4) + β5 ln (в5) + β6 ln (в6) + ½[β7ln (в7) 2 + β8 ln (в8) 2 + β9 ln (в9) 2 + β10 ln (в10) 2 + β11 ln (в11) 2 ] + β12 ln (в12) + β13 ln (в13) + β14 ln(в14) + β15 ln (в15) + β16 ln (в16) + β17 ln (в17) +β18 ln(в18) + β19 ln (в19) + β20 ln (в20) + β21 ln (в21) (3) the “third hypothesis” states that values of δi parameters in the inefficiency model are zero: uit = δ0 + δ1 ln(с1) + δ2 ln(с2) + δ3 ln(с3) + δ4 ln(с4) + δ5 ln(с5) + δ6 ln(с6) (4) the results provided in table 4 signify the likelihood ratio test of the three null hypotheses against the general model, which assumes that there are no inefficiency components in the structured production functions. the first null hypothesis states that the cobb-douglas production function is preferable to the translog production function. according to the results of the lrtest, the null hypothesis is strongly rejected at the 5% level. the second null hypothesis states that each decision-making unit in the analysis operates on the technical efficiency frontier. the lr-test results also reject this assumption and suggest that there are technical inefficiency components in the structured production function. following this, the focus is towards the joint effect of the selected variables and the possibility for optimization in terms of cost reduction. according to the third null hypothesis, the inefficiency effect is not a function of the two groups of explanatory variables. the results also reject this hypothesis, which confirms the supposition that these variables have a considerable effect on the technical efficiency of the decision-making units. the results obtained for the variance parameter γ indicate the proportion of the one-sided error component in the total variance of the composed error term (appendix b). the average variation of the estimated output from the optimal frontier level, which is attributed to technical inefficiency is 0.6509. according to the estimated variances, output variability is mainly due to technical inefficiency rather than to statistical noise. for the period 2003 to 2007, 13 coefficients out of 21 total coefficients in the translog function are statistically significant at the 5% level. this leads to the conclusion for interaction and non-linearity among the included variables. the parameter β1 that corresponds to the utilized agricultural area (uaa) appears to be significant at the 5% level for the last 2 years. this confirms that the larger size of the enterprises entails better labour and capital endowments; they obtain higher efficiency levels and achieve better economic performance. the following is supported by the positive effect of the interaction table 4. lr-test results. test null hypothesis loglikelihood value λ* critical value** decision function 2003 1 h0 : βi = 0 -16,0378 70,0171 25,689 reject h0 2 h0 : βij = 0 -6,1317 3,1885 2,706 reject h0 3 h0 : γ = δi = 0 28,1062 20,0499 17,670 reject h0 2005 1 h0 : βi = 0 -11,9286 92,059 25,689 reject h0 2 h0 : βij = 0 18,8789 8,1042 2,706 reject h0 3 h0 : γ = δi = 0 23,6858 17,7180 17,670 reject h0 2007 1 h0 : βi = 0 -6,7947 75,821 25,689 reject h0 2 h0 : βij = 0 25,0111 19,2112 2,706 reject h0 3 h0 : γ = δi = 0 17,0140 32,169 17,670 reject h0 *λ – is the value of the likelihood ratio test of the null hypothesis associated with each of the three models against the alternative general model. this test has 16 degree of freedom. **0.005 significance level. source: own calculations. between utilized land and the variables: permanent crops (β12), intermediate consumption (β13), annual working unit (β14) and employed annual working unit (β15). the coefficients obtained for the period suggests theexistence of scale economies. since in the analysis the agricultural enterprises vary in terms of land size, it is reasonable to consider what is the relationship between utilized area and permanent crops? from the results, it could be assumed that a specialization in permanent crops is preferable in small-sized enterprises, especially if there are insufficient investment funds and capital. the variable annual working unit (awu) refers to the total labour input in the enterprise. furthermore, the variable employed annual working unit (eawu) is included in the analysis, which represents employees on a regular basis. the first reason for that choice is that it is difficult to obtain information about the family labour component or the “implicit costs”. these costs include non-distributed income from own labour in the farm, entrepreneurs income, income from own land and from own capital included in production. the second reason is that even evaluated, implicit costs do not account for market demand conditions. finally, when family labour is to be considered, it is better to be described as a distinct input variable and not to be included in the hired labour variable. the results from translog function calculation show that utilization of the two variables (awu, eawu) in production process has reached satisfactory levels for 2005 and 2007. the most efficient enterprises use labour more rationally due to the more intensive use of other production resources, such as machinery or any technology equipment. based on the differences in the obtained parameters‟ coefficients, it is appropriate to focus on the extent to which institutional framework may influence some enterprises and their respective regions to achieve relatively high efficiency scores compared to other apparently less efficient enterprises and regions. the inefficiency function provides some explanations of this effect (figure 1). the results vary over the period analyzed. in 2003, the variables training level (δ1), specialized mixed farming (δ2) and starting new business (δ5) possess negative signs. the training level coefficient is statistically significant with a value different from 0, and a negative sign. this suggests that the higher education and training of managers and employees has a positive effect over the technical efficiency of agricultural enterprises. another possible conclusion is related to the age of farmers, which is not considered as a variable in this analysis. the age of producers has increased over the years; they have many years of experience in the agricultural sector with satisfactory production results. by choosing to be a member of a cooperative or producer organization, they become involved in new production technologies and methods, and this decision keeps them in step with other, more innovative enterprises. there is also a significant relationship between production specialization and the obtained efficiency levels. specialized strategies contribute to better allocation of production resources and their appropriate utilization in the production process. the results are also consistent with the estimated significant relationship between the agricultural area and the cumulative costs of raw material consumption and service procurement. although specialization differs over the regions studied, it infers that most enterprises have managed to exploit the benefits of their particular locations. the coefficients in the inefficiency model acknowledge 0.8000 0.6000 0.4000 0.2000 0.0000 -0.2000 -0.4000 -0.6000 -0.8000 -1.0000 -1.2000 0.5733 0.3458 0.3826 0.2641 0.2423 0.2008 0.1037 2003 2005 2007 -0.2213 0.3030 --0.3348 -0.3307 -0.4592 -0.6378 -0.7365 -0.9564 training level (trlevel) specialized mixed farming (smf) property right protection (prp) legal enforcement of contract (lec) starting new business (snb) figure 1. efficiency determinants patterns (source: own calculations). table 5. estimates of elasticity of complementarity and substitution between pairs of inputs*. year b12 b13 b14 b15 b23 b24 b25 b34 b35 b45 sce p-complements > 0; p-substitutes < 0 2003 0.204 -0.743 0.000 0.238 0.569 0.673 0.279 0.668 -0.537 0.403 0.429 2005 -0.476 -0.241 0.209 0.000 0.563 -0.469 0.667 -0.220 -0.726 0.216 2.444 2007 -0.927 -0.280 0.390 0.000 0.232 -0.120 0.523 -0.973 -0.221 0.378 2.002 sample mean -0.400 -0.421 0.299 0.079 0.455 0.028 0.489 -0.175 -0.495 0.332 1.625 b12 is elasticity of substitution between auu and pc, b13 is elasticity of substitution between uaa and ic, b14 is elasticity of substitution between uaa and awu, b15 is elasticity of substitution between uaa and eawu, b23 is elasticity of substitution between pc and ic, b24 is elasticity of substitution between pc and awu, b25 is elasticity of substitution between pc and eawu, b34 is elasticity of substitution between ic and awu, b35 is elasticity of substitution between ic and eawu, b45 is elasticity of substitution between awu and eawu. source: own calculation. that institutions and institutional arrangements have a direct and positive influence over the economic efficiency of the observed units. during the first period, institutional incentives and legislative provisions have stimulated new enterprises to enter the agricultural sector. this result is supported by the statistical data that in 2005 the total number of registered agricultural enterprises was about four times more than their primary number at the beginning of the period in 2003 10 . after 2005, the coefficients of the variables property rights protection (δ3) and legal enforcement of the contracts (δ4) confirm the positive effect of contractual arrangements over the efficiency level of decision-making units. in 2007, the effect of legal initiatives for starting business activity also contributed to attained efficiency levels. the coefficient of the variable of the total number of registered cooperatives by regions (δ6) is statistically significant and possesses a negative sign. cooperatives significantly influence the overall sector performance. a substantial source of the cooperatives‟ impact is found in the common organization of production in terms of quality standards and demand-based quantities, as well as cost minimization and scale economies. the pairwise elasticity of inputs substitution is calculated for further interpretation of the results and in order to isolate each input‟s effect on the output (table 5). the theoretical explanation in the case of pairs of inputs considers that “there is a simple correspondence between the cost function setting and the production function setting, since the elasticity of substitution is then equal to the inverse of the elasticity of complemen-tarity” 9 (kohli, 2011). if the elasticity of complementarity between pairs of inputs is positive, then the conclusion is that these inputs both contribute to the increase of the output level. in case the estimated value is negative the two inputs are substitutes. the values of the elasticity between inputs for utilized agricultural area and annual working unit (b14), permanent crops and intermediate consumption (b23), permanent crops and employed annual working unit (b25), and annual working unit and employed annual working unit (b45) are calculated to be higher than 0 and suggest positive cross elasticity of 9 kohli, ul. (2010), “labour productivity: average versus marginal”, ch. 6, pp. 103-132 in w.e. diewert; b.m. balk, d. fixler, k. j. fox and a. o. nakamura (2010), “price and productivity measurement”, vol. 6, trafford press table 6. mean efficiency value (2003 – 2007). efficiency results regions cobb-douglas translog inefficiency model average std.dev average std.dev average std.dev piemond 0.689 0.059 0.924 0.038 0.638 0.408 valle d'aosta 0.596 0.209 0.875 0.119 0.559 0.143 liguria 0.783 0.188 0.925 0.071 0.403 0.232 lombardy 0.856 0.124 0.969 0.036 0.972 0.023 provincia autonoma bolzano 0.795 0.106 0.881 0.085 0.512 0.147 provincia autonoma trento 0.549 0.240 0.878 0.077 0.551 0.085 veneto 0.801 0.209 0.974 0.003 0.765 0.320 friuli-venezia giulia 0.865 0.031 0.958 0.047 0.361 0.420 emilia-romagna 0.682 0.187 0.958 0.034 0.926 0.086 tuscany 0.721 0.184 0.812 0.024 0.631 0.145 umbria 0.545 0.291 0.966 0.025 0.613 0.399 marches 0.576 0.268 0.947 0.055 0.531 0.355 lazio 0.704 0.128 0.828 0.142 0.590 0.359 abruzzo 0.681 0.209 0.958 0.053 0.871 0.177 molise 0.667 0.210 0.802 0.247 0.552 0.411 campania 0.902 0.082 0.909 0.140 0.626 0.326 puglia 0.597 0.229 0.906 0.098 0.689 0.436 basilicata 0.588 0.268 0.858 0.113 0.513 0.148 calabria 0.690 0.024 0.869 0.131 0.567 0.433 sicily 0.754 0.132 0.889 0.121 0.694 0.284 sardinia 0.594 0.198 0.917 0.112 0.594 0.415 source: own calculations. table 7. mean efficiency coefficients. production function 2003 2005 2007 average std.dev cobb-douglas 0.782 0.667 0.642 0.697 0.075 translog 0.942 0.928 0.862 0.905 0.035 inefficiency model 0.37 0.731 0.779 0.627 0.07 source: own calculations. demand. it should be noted that the estimated results are positive but less than unity. this means that increase in the quantity of the first input would increase utility of the other input in the pair and thereby improve the marginal product of the decision-making unit. according to the calculations, the positive joint contribution of the inputs utilized area and annual working units is represent by the 0.29% increase of the final outputs. in the case of permanent crops and intermediate consumption their pair would increase the output level by 0.45%. the same relationship is estimated for the joint contribution of permanent crops and employed annual working unit, and annual working unit and employed annual working unit, which contribute for the output increase – 0.49 and 0.33% respectively. the values of the elasticity between the utilized agricultural area and permanent crops (b12), utilized agricultural area and intermediate consumption (b13), intermediate consumption and annual working unit (b34) are less than 0, which suggests that they are substitute inputs. the mean technical efficiency of the 21 regions in italy is estimated to be 69.7% (table 6). during the observed period, agricultural enterprises produced 70% of the maximum attainable output. estimates of technical efficiencies based on the frontier production function show a relatively high efficiency level (table 7). the results imply that more than 90% of agricultural enterprises operate close to the efficient production frontier. taking into consideration institutional influence and included variables in the inefficiency model, the mean efficiency results have also undergone positive trends from the lowest level in 2003 (0.370) to the highest level in 2007 (0.779). the contribution of efficiency changes to total factor productivity results in increased productivity growth. summary and recommendations two-sectored models that distinguish between agricultural and non-agricultural production functions was developed in the present analysis. variables included in the first production function represent inputs that are related directly to the final product and are utilized during the production process. non-agricultural production function includes institutional factors that exert different effects over technical efficiency coefficients of enterprises in the data set. production functions are structured under the assumption for non-linear relation among their value and the value of the technical efficiency. the equilibrium occurs when: 1) prices solve enterprises‟ profit optimization problem; 2) prices and profits solve enterprises‟ shareholders or members utility optimization problem; 3) shareholders or members are indifferent in quitting their enterprise and starting new business activity. the main results from the performed stochastic frontier analysis lead to several conclusions regarding the organization of the production process. balanced productivity growth in the 21 regions is supported by the contribution of efficiency change to the total factor productivity. specialization in the agricultural sector appears to reduce production costs and specialized mixed farming improves land utilization. geographical clustering additionally enhances relationships between producers, their cooperatives, and the final customer. distribution of the labor input also has an underlying effect on efficiency growth. nevertheless, there are some internal organizational lapses towards employment on a regular basis. the allocation of the labor in specialized production is not entirely consistent with the inter-firm utilization. one possible solution is a combination between individual responsibility and division of labor for each performed operation or task. the results allow for some generalizations towards the salary expenditures. the level of wages is sufficient enough to eliminate the incentive for the employee to leave enterprise for another employment opportunity. consequently, it could be inferred that the average wage is responsive to market wage. considering specific qualifications which work in the agricultural sector, requires the last assumption which provides that offered wages stimulate a flow of seasonal workers from regions with lower income. legal enforcement of contracts contributes to enterprises‟ empowerment and collective action. however, this result should be taken with precaution in relation to land input. contract farming does not benefit the poorest part of the rural population, but rather absentee landlords and largescale producers. cooperatives prove to be dynamic and influential organizational structures with stable relative share among the other legal entities in the agricultural sector. their contribution to the overall technical efficiency is through the balancing of market demand and producers' production choice, by implementing fair pricing and quality standards. conclusion this paper draws attention to the opportunity to evaluate the influence of certain institutional factors and their contribution to economic efficiency. two main conclusions are reached from the analysis. the first one focuses on those efficiency resources that could be exploited by the enterprises, but not modified or changed by them. they refer to the institutional environment and its attributes – legislation, enforcement regimes and ensuing contracts arrangements, and the social characteristics of the informal relations. to this effect, the second conclusion suggests that the interaction between the actors of this bilateral process “strategic partnershipsinstitutions” has a broader impact, in addition to improving and benefiting economic performance of the agricultural enterprises. cooperatives and producer organizations contribute to sustainability of the region in which they are established. they influence various aspects of the agricultural value chain through balanced and competitive relationships; 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(2004) fulginiti et al. (2004) adkins et al. (2002) rodric (2000) sedik et al. (1999) de mello (1999) bauer et al. (1998) borensztein et al. (1998) dowson (1998) edwards (1998) rodric (1997) moroney and lovel (1997) foreign direct investment should exert positive effects on economic growth in developing countries which suffer from low productivity and capital stock deficiencies. foreign direct investments (fdi) lead to an increase rate of economic growth. applied stochastic frontier analysis (sfa) to study how difference in quality of institutions (control of corruption, strength of the law, quality of the regulatory framework) may explain cross-country differences in aggregate efficiency. applied sfa to study the relationship between fdi and the rate of growth of gdp. the result show that fdi inflows exert a positive impact on economic growth only in presence of a highly skilled labor force, corruption has negative impact; trade openness gains efficiency. used panel data on output and conventional agricultural inputs for 41 ssa countries to study productivity during political conflicts and wars for the period 1961-1999. the used institutional variables are: colonial heritage, independence; armed conflict; political rights/civil liberties. estimate production frontier and study to extend economical and political institutions contribute to the technical inefficiency, output growth, tfp growth. identified 5 types of institutions that permit adequacy of the market: institutions for property rights; regulatory institutions; institutions of macroeconomic stability; institutions for social insurance; institutions for conflict management. took different approach to study farm restructuring in russia for the period 1991-1995 by concentrating on technical efficiency. efficiency scores are explained by economic and institutional factors: farm size, softness of budget constraint; deterioration in terms of trade and region level specialization. foreign direct investments‟ (fdi) contribution depends on host country characteristics (skilled labor). set consistency conditions for regulatory analysis of financial institutions which include: efficiency levels, ranking, and identification of best and worst firms, time, competitive market conditions, and standard nonfrontier measures of performance. applied four approaches – dea, sfa, tfa and dfa foreign direct investment (fdi) has positive impact on gdp and is a function of the human capital. economic growth is associated with economic freedom, because the latter has positive effect on investment and total factor productivity (tfp). determinants of the tfp growth are the initial per capital gdp, the initial level of human capital and the degree of openness. political factors affect economic performance, democracy is associated with stable long-run growth rates; better short-run stability; ability to deal with adverse shock; higher wages. first applied sfa to compare productive performance of planned and market economies. ee countries were no more that 76% as efficient as the western european economies during 1978-1980. bergson (1987, 1989, 1991) planned economic tend to use capital and land less efficiently (crs, dummy variable technical efficiency) zaimova 461 appendix b. loglikelihood results of translog production function and inefficiency model. variable parameter 2003 2005 2007 coefficient st. error t-ratio coefficient st. error t-ratio coefficient st. error t-ratio stochastic frontier model constant β0 -0.7908* 1.0000 -0.7908 0.6725 0.8839 0.7608 -0.2029* 0.6432 -0.3155 utilized agricultural area (uaa) β1 0.0000 0.2298 0.0000 -0.1172* 0.1206 -0.9722 -0.1238* 0.1809 -0.6845 permanent crops (pc) β2 0.8247 1.0000 0.8247 0.9692 0.1595 0.6075 0.1031 0.9108 0.1132 intermediate consumption (ic) β3 0.8303 0.3969 0.2091 0.9025 0.4833 0.1867 0.8123 0.4748 0.1710 annual working unit (awu) β4 0.2616 0.1000 0.2616 0.9134 0.2588 0.3528 0.3913 0.1208 0.3236 emloyed annual working unit (eawu) β5 0.2589 0.2721 0.9515 0.1012 0.2633 0.3844 -0.7683* 0.3692 -0.2080 time β6 0.1466 0.1000 0.1466 0.5647 0.1176 0.4801 -0.8315* 0.7819 -0.1063 0,5*(uaa) 2 β7 0.4705 0.8233 0.5715 0.3828 0.1189 0.3218 -0.9134* 0.1243 -0.7346 0,5*(pm) 2 β8 0.1815 0,1000 0.1815 0.2735 0.2323 0.1177 0.1151 0.5962 0.1931 0,5*(ic) 2 β9 -0.1377* 0.9337 -0.1475 0.4670 0.2609 0.1789 0.9566 0.7573 0.1263 0,5*(awu) 2 β10 0.1335 0.1000 0.1335 -0.1071* 0.2022 -0.5298 -0.5040* 0.4867 -0.1035 0,5*(eawu) 2 β11 0.3775 0.3999 0.9438 -0.8212* 0.2204 -0.3725 -0.6061* 0.8856 -0.6843 (uaa)*(pc) β12 0.2043 0.1000 0.2043 -0.4764* 0.5137 -0.9273 -0.5889* 0.1021 -0.5767 (uaa)*(ic) β13 -0.7427* 0.5337 -0.1391 -0,2406* 0.8597 -0.2798 -0.1773* 0.4611 -0.3846 (uaa)*(awu) β14 0.0000 0.1000 0.0000 0,2093 0.5368 0.3899 0.0000 0.1000 0.0000 (uaa)*(eawu) β15 0.2376 0.1000 0.2376 0,0000 0.1000 0.0000 -0.2910* 0.5672 -0.5130 (pc)*(ic) β16 0.5685 0.7191 0.7905 0,5632 0.2423 0,2324 -0.2454* 0.2914 -0.8421 (pc)*(awu) β17 0.6730 0.1000 0.6730 -0,4686* 0.3908 -0,1199 0.7666 0.1292 0.5932 (pc)*(eawu) β18 0.2785 0.6693 0.4161 0,6672 0,1276 0,5227 0.1459 0.1341 0.1087 (ic)*(awu) β19 0.6684 0.1000 0.6684 -0,2201* 0,2263 -0,9729 -0.9165* 0.5501 -0.1665 (ic)*(eawu) β20 -0.5370* 0.9312 -0.5766 -0,7264* 0,3292 -0,2206 -0.2433* 0.3078 -0.7903 (awu)*(eawu) β21 0.4032 0.1000 0.4032 0,2157 0,5706 0.3780 0.6075 0.5817 0.1044 variance parameters s² 0.1262 1.0000 0.1262 0.0128 0.0474 0.2693 0.0063 0.0566 0.1114 γ 0.5000 1.0000 0.0500 0.7348* 0.1030 1.3086 0.7181 1.5305 0.1163 loglikelihood function 3.1885 8,1042 19.2112 inefficiency effects model training level (trlevel) δ1 -0.6378* 0.5959 -0.1070 0,3458 0.6609 0.5232 0.2008 0.1421 0.1412 specialized mixed farming (smf) δ2 -0.4592* 0.1594 -0.2879 0,1037 0.1241 0.8360 0.3826 0.1144 0.3344 property right protection (prp) δ3 0.2641 0.8656 0.3051 -0.3030* 0.6375 -0.4753 -0.2213* 0.1734 -0.1276 legal enforcement of contract (lec) δ4 0.2423 0.1403 0.1727 -0.3307* 0.1132 -0.2921 -0.7365* 0.1230 -0.5987 462 j. dev. agric. econ. appendix b. contd. starting new business (snb) δ5 -0.9564* 0.1386 -0.6899 0.5733 0.5134 0.1116 -0.3348* 0,2461 -0.1360 number of cooperatives (c) δ6 -0.1872* 0.8617 -0.2173 variance parameters s² 0.0106 0.0036 2.9043 0,0078 0.0024 3.2043 0.0134 0,0041 3.2485 γ 1.0000 0.0147 67.8640 1,0000 0.0293 34.1114 0.8354 0,0005 0.6465 loglikelihood function 20.0499 17.7180 3.2169 *signifies that the estimated parameters in bold can be accepted at 5% significance level (source: own calculations). in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (11), pp. 001-006, november, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper economic analysis of adoption of mulching technology in yam production in osun state, nigeria a. a. akinola* and p. owombo department of agricultural economics, faculty of agriculture, obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria. accepted 24 april, 2017 in addressing the problem of low soil fertility and land degradation occasioned by increased population growth, erosion of soil nutrients and extreme exposure of land to harsh weather conditions resulting in reduced yam yield, mulching technology was adopted by the farmers in osun state, nigeria. this study used a multi-stage sampling technique to select 105 farmers involving adopters and non-adopters of mulching technology. data were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics, budgetary techniques and probit model. the results of budgetary analysis showed that seed yam and labour costs constituted significant parts of the variable costs. the average revenue per hectare for adopters was n412, 971.69 while that of non-adopters was n346, 456.75. however, the average net incomes were n326, 865.02 and n236, 087.40 for the adopters and non-adopters, respectively. the benefit-cost ratios were 4.79 and 3.13 for adopters and non-adopters, respectively. the probit model revealed that household size and hired labour were significant factors determining the farmers’ adoption decisions. there is therefore the need to encourage farmers on the needs to adopt the land protecting technology and a policy thrust that make seed yam available and affordable as well as reducing the costs incurred on labour will be in the right direction. key words: adoption, mulching, yam, budgetary technique, probit. introduction yam (dioscorea spp.) forms a basic staple food for millions of people in nigeria, where it is eaten boiled, roasted, fried and also can be processed into various forms of flour and starchy paste. in the dominant yam production zone of west africa, consumer demand for yam is generally very high and its cultivation is very profitable despite high production costs (iita, 2009). nigeria is the largest producer of yam (34 million tonnes) but ghana which is the third largest producer exports the largest quantity of yam about 12000 tonnes (iita, 2009). this is due to a number of reasons which include using of soils low in fertility and quality and hence quality of yam produced in nigeria is very poor. yams (dioscorea species) are annual or perennial tuber-bearing and climbing plants. the genus dioscorea has over 600 species but only a few are cultivated for food. the major edible species of african origin are white *corresponding author. e-mail: akinola@oauife.edu.ng. guinea yam (d. rotundata poir.), yellow guinea yam (d. cayenensis lam.),and trifoliate or bitter yam (d. dumetorum kunth) (iita, 2009).it is planted as sole crop but unusually intercropped with melon, pepper, okra and amaranthus. the most important part of the yam plant is the tuber. it can be grown in all tropical countries provided water is not a limiting factor. in nigeria, it is grown within the coastal region up to latitude 12 o n and corresponds to the rain forest, wood savannah and southern savannah belt. this is where the annual rainfall exceeds 800 mm in amount and 4 months in duration. deep, fertile, friable, and well-drained soils are ideal for yam cultivation. whole seed tubers or tuber portions are usually planted into mounds or ridges before or at the beginning of the rainy season. the sett sizes planted, sizes of mounds, interplant spacing and provision of stakes for the resultant plants depend on factors such as the yam species, agro ecology, and tuber sizes desired at harvest. small-scale farmers in west and central africa often intercrop yams with cereals and vegetables. the labour requirements in yam cultivation for file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org mounding, staking (especially in the forest zone), weeding, and harvesting exceed those for other starchy staples such as cassava (iita, 2009). yam matures 8-12 months after planting (some are cut after 6 months are covered again to act as seed yam). however, increased population, erosion, and adverse weather conditions have reduced available land to yam production, thereby encouraging intensification of land leading to the degradation of land and depletion of soil nutrients that necessitate the use of land improving technologies such as mulching. therefore, the main objective of the study was to compare the output and quality of yam produced by farmers as regards mulching in osun state. the specific objectives were to examine the socio-economic characteristics of yam farmers; examine costs and returns to yam production; and determine the factors influencing the use of mulching in the study area. mulching mulching is a soil conservation practise. it involves the use of dry vegetable or grass materials to cover the surface of the soil. mulch are substances spread on the ground to protect the roots and base of plants from extreme temperature, moisture changes and improve the quality of the soil and also stop the growth of weed. mulching also enriches and protects soil and helps provide a better growing environment. findings have shown that time of mulching can influence the growth environment and performance of yam (dioscorea species). cover cropping and residue mulching are good practices for low-intensity cultivation of marginal lands to achieve soil conservation effectiveness. the rising population density, especially in south eastern nigeria and the declining land-to-man ratio, the consequent predisposition of most agricultural lands to degradation, and the decline in fallow periods have driven most farmers into marginal states (ruthernberg, 1977). these new lands have been unable to support the farmers' staple food crops. as these factors impact on land-use intensification (turner et al., 1993; tiffen et al., 1994; scoones et al., 1996), farmers have increasingly invested in new or borrowed technologies, thereby conserving the resource base and increasing their production (scoones et al., 1996). research methodology area of study osun state is located in the south-western part of nigeria. it was created in 1991 and it covers an area of approximately 14, 875 square kilometres. it shares common boundaries with kwara, ogun, ekiti, ondo and oyo states. osun state is an agrarian community. it has an estimated land area of 8, 822.55 square kilometres. the major crops grown here are maize, yam, cassava, cocoa, oil palm, timber and tomatoes among others. the climate of osun state is favourable for yam production. the state experiences two major seasons, the dry season and the rainy season with august break during the rainy season; the dry season is from late october/early november to march. the mean annual temperature varies from 21.1 to 31.1 o c. annual rainfall is within the range of 800 mm in the derived savannah agro-ecology to 1500 mm in the rain forest belt. sampling technique and data a multi stage sampling was used to select respondents from the three agro-ecological zones in osun state with the help of osun state agriculture development programme (ossadep) office in ife/ijesa zone, osogbo zone and iwo zones. the three agroecological zones were chosen purposively for the study. the second stage of selection involves random selection of thirty five respondents in each of the zones consisting of adopters and nonadopters of mulching technology giving a total of one hundred and five questionnaires administered through interviews. data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and personal interviews between the months of september and october, 2010. data collected included input-output information, management and production practices, costs and returns associated with yam production. analytical techniques three main analytical methods were employed in this study: descriptive statistics, budgetary techniques and probit analysis. descriptive statistics such as percentages, range and mean were used to describe the values of selected socioeconomic variables such as age, farm size, level of education, etc. a total farm budget approach was undertaken to estimate costs and returns accruing to each of farmers. according to alimi and manyong (2002), a budget is the quantitative expression of total farm plan summarizing the income, cost and profit (a residue of total cost from total revenue). gross margin which is the difference between total revenue and total variable cost were analysed. the total cost component is expressed as: tc=tfc+tvc where: tc=total cost; tfc=total fixed cost; tvc=total variable cost gross margin= (tr)-(vc); tr=total revenue=price x quantity that is, pq vc=variable cost; profit=tr-tc the efficiency ratios that were analysed are fixed cost ratio, rate of returns, variable to cost ratio, labour intensity amongst others. these were computed to indicate the performance of farm enterprise. the probit model uses the cumulative distribution function (cdf) to explain the behaviour of a dichotomous dependent variable. given the assumption of normality, the probability that i*i is less than or equal to ii can be computed from the normal cdf as, pi = p(y=1/x) = p (ii* < ii ) =p (zi < b1 + b2xi) =f (b1 + b2xi) where i* = critical or threshold level of the index, such that if ii exceeds i*, the family will adopt, otherwise it will not. p (y=1/x) is the probability that an event occurs given the values of x, or explanatory variable(s) and where zi is the normal variable, that is, z~n(0, q2). the term “probit” was coined in the 1930s by chester bliss and stands for probability unit. these two analyses, logit and probit are the same. as discussed previously, probit uses the cumulative normal distribution. the probit model is defined as: pr(y =1/x) = φ (xb) where φ is the standard cumulative normal probability distribution and xb is called the probit score or index. since xb has a normal distribution, probit coefficient is interpreted in the z (normal quartile) metric. the interpretation of a probit coefficient is that one-unit increase in the predictor leads to increasing the probit score by b standard deviations. learning to think and communicate in the z metric takes practice and can be confusing to others. we will make use of a number of tools developed by long and freese to aid in the interpretation of the results. the loglikelihood function for probit is: in l=∑wjinθ(xjb) + ∑wjin(1-θ(xjb) where wj denotes optional weights the model relating to the intensity of adoption is specified as follows: pi = f (b0+b1x1+b2x2+b3x3+b4x4+b5x5+b6x6+b7x7+b8x8+b9x9) where: pi = adoption status measured as dummy (1= adopters, 0= nonadopters); x1 = sex of respondents (sex); x2 = age in years (age); x3 = educational status (education); x4 = household size (hhsize); x5 = farm size (farmsize); x6 = association (sockap); x7 = extension visits (extention); x8 = off-farm income; x9 = hired labour size (hrlabour) a priori expectation signs of the coefficients the multidisciplinary independent variables included farmer, farm and institutional factors postulated to influence technology adoption. these variables include age (age) of the household head in years, the number of people in the household (hhsize), measure of social interaction resulting from membership in a farmers’ organization (sockap), off-farm income (offincome) measured in nigerian naira (n), sex of the respondents (sex), access to credit (credit), education of household head (years of formal education), effective extension contacts (extension) measured by regularity of visits by extension agents, farm size, and asset. off-farm income and assets were measured in natural logarithm. on the other hand, social capital, access to credit and extension were measured in dummies. the rationale for inclusion of these factors was based on a priori of agricultural technology adoption literature discussed in chapter 3. the effect of age (age) on a decision whether to adopt a technology may be negative or positive. previous studies show that the age of individuals affects their mental attitude to new ideas and influences adoption in several ways. younger farmers have been found to be more knowledgeable about new practices and may be more willing to bear risk and adopt new technology because of their longer planning horizons. the older the farmer, the less likely he is able to adopt new practices as he gains confidence in his old ways and methods. on the other hand, older farmers may have more experience, resources, or authority that may give them more possibilities for trying a new technology. thus for this study, there is no agreement on the sign of this variable as the direction of the effect is locationor technology-specific (feder et al., 1985; nkonya et al., 1997; oluoch-kosura et al., 2001; bekele and drake, 2003). education was hypothesized to positively influence the adoption of integrated soil fertility technologies since as farmers acquire more of this factor, their ability to obtain, process, and use new information improves and they are likely to adopt. education increases the ability of farmers to use their resources efficiently and the allocative effect of education enhances the farmer’s ability to obtain, analyze and interpret information. several studies reviewed by feder et al. (1985) indicate the positive relationship between education and technological adoption. alene et al. (2000), in the case of ethiopia, reported that farmers with a higher level of education had a higher probability of adopting improved farming practices than those with lower level of education. nkonya et al. (1997), in the case of tanzania, and oluoch-kosura et al. (2001), in the case of kenya, indicated that education is an important factor positively affecting the process of technical adoption. institutional factors of social capital (sockap), extension contacts (extension) and access to credit (credit) were hypothesized to positively influence adoption as these support services facilitate the uptake of new technologies. sockap such as cooperative societies has been found to enhance the interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas among farmers. this in effect will positively affect land-enhancing technologies (bamire et al., 2002). farmers who are non-members of associations are expected to have lower probabilities of adoption and lower level of use of isfm technologies. the extension contact variable incorporates the information that the farmers obtain on their production activities on the importance and application of innovations through counseling and demonstrations by extension agents on regular bases. the effect of this information on adoption varies depending on channel, source, content, motivation, and frequency. it is hypothesized that the respondents who are not frequently visited by extension agents have lower possibilities of adoption than those frequently visited (adesina and zinnah, 1993; shiferaw and holden, 1998; oluochkosura et al., 2001; bamire et al., 2002). the variable is measured as dichotomous with respondents’contact during the period scoring one, and zero for non-extension contact on the use of isfm. credit takes cognizance of farmers’ access to sources of credit to finance the expenses relating to adoption of innovations. access boosts farmers’ readiness to adopt technological innovations. it is hypothesized that the variable has a positive influence on the probability of the adoption and use of land enhancing technologies (zeller et al., 1998; oluoch-kosura et al., 2001; bekele and drake, 2003). it is measured as a dichotomous variable with access being one, and zero for no access. a measure of wealth offincome is hypothesized to positively influence adoption positively. they are generally considered to be capital that could be used either in the production process or be exchanged for cash or other productive assets. they are expected to influence the adoption of isfm positively (shiferaw and holden, 1998; zeller et al., 1998; negatu and parikh, 1999). it increases the availability of capital which makes investment in land-enhancing technologies feasible. to the extent that liquidity is a constraint to adoption, offincome will have a positive effect on adoption by relaxing the constraint. the level of off-farm income, however, may not be exogenous but be affected by the profitability of the farming operation that in turn depends on technology adoption decisions. thus, the adoption of technologies and the level of off-farm income may be determined simultaneously. the simultaneity arises due to the labor allocation decisions of the households about farm and non-farm activities. however, the off-farm income of the household surveyed is mostly derived from remittances of family members in non-farm business activities and from employment in non-farm sector. as the skill requirements for these jobs are likely to be different from that of farming, the farm and non-farm employment table 1. socio-economic, demographic and farm characteristics of respondents. variable mean all sample adopters non-adopters age 56.03 56.87 56.45 household size 8.96 8.79 8.88 farm size 0.38 0.44 0.41 non-farm income 117, 769.23 103, 439.72 110, 536.24 size of hired labour 17.75 15.33 16.53 level of experience 12.6 23.3 17.95 sex: % % % male 92.5 90.4 91.4 female 7.5 9.6 8.6 marital status: married 81.1 84.7 82.9 single 18.9 15.3 17.1 education status formal education 26.4 36.5 31.4 no formal education 73.6 65.5 68.6 source: field survey, 2010. may be considered as non-competitive activities. in this situation, the level of non-farm income would be largely exogenous to the adoption decision (lapar and pandy, 1999). household size (hhsize) has been identified to have either positive or negative influence on adoption (manyong and houndekon, 1997, zeller et al., 1998; oluoch-kosura et al., 2001; bamire et al., 2002; bekele and drake, 2003). larger family size is generally associated with a greater labor force being available to the household for the timely operation of farm activities including isfm. more labor hours will be spent on the use of technologies during labor slack seasons because of the low opportunity cost of labor in rural areas. the negative relationship of the variable with adoption has been linked to increased consumption pressure associated with large family. it is therefore difficult to predict this variable a priori in this study. previous studies have found a positive relationship between farm size (farmsize) and technological adoption (manyong and houndekon, 1997; negatu and parikh, 1999; oluoch-kosura et al., 2001; bekele and drake, 2003). operators of large farms are likely to spend more on land-improving technologies. in many cases, large farm size is associated with increased availability of capital, which makes investment in innovations more feasible. for this analysis, farm size is included as the total cropland available to the farmer. a positive relationship is hypothesized with adoption of land-enhancing technologies. sex is expected that male farmers will favour the adoption of improved mulching technology more than female counterparts. this is because men generally have high risk– bearing ability than their female counterparts (akinola and adeyemo, 2008). results and discussion socio-economic characteristics of respondents the analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents (table 1) showed that the mean age of the adopters was 56 years and that of non-adopters was 57 years. the farm size ranges from 0.1 to 1.0 hectare with mean of 0.4 1 hectare. on the level of education, majority of the farmers had informal education. most farmers practice mixed cropping. they intercrop maize and melon with yam. the result showed that about 36% of the respondents had adopted mulching technology. the mean household size for both adopters and non-adopters of mulching technology were 8.96 and 8.79 respectively. about 82% of the respondents were married, while others are single. the mean farming experience of the farmers was 18 years, which implies that most farmers in the area are experienced farmers. the average non-farm incomes for adopters and non-adopters were about n118, 000 and n103, 000, respectively. the farmers in the study area indulged in other activities like petty trading, carpentry and other artesian enterprises. it is noteworthy that farmers in the area used hired labour on their farms. the numbers of average hired labour used by an average farmer during a season were about 18 and 15 for adopters and non-adopters, respectively. this indicates that hired labour was readily available in the area for farming. although, the labourers were non-native who came from the northern part of the country. results of the budgetary analysis revealed that the proportion of labour (for adopters and non-adopters) varies (table 2). it accounted for 36.3 and 25.8% of the total cost, respectively. this may be due to extra man power requirement for mulching activities. the results further revealed that the average total revenue for table 2. budgetary analysis per hectare of yam. s/n item adopters non adopters pooled 1 seed (n) 37 086.00 46 456.73 41 726.78 2 labour cost (n) 31 240.65 28 431.73 30 299.05 3 total variable cost (n) 68 326.65 74 888.46 72 025.83 4 total fixed cost (n) 17 780.02 35 480.87 26 546.15 5 total cost (n) 86 106.67 110 369.33 98 600.00 6 yield (kg) 8259.4 6929.13 7600.60 7 revenue (n) 412 971.69 346 456.73 380 030. 27 8 gross margin (n) 344 645.04 271 568.27 308 005.12 9 net income 326865.02 236087.40 281000.00 10 benefit-cost ratio 4.79 3.13 3.85 n is naira-nigerian currency; n1 = us$0.0067. table 3. estimated probit regression. variables coefficient/se t-ratio constant 8.227(2.694) 3.05 sex -0.193(0.581) -0.33 age -0.249(0.347) -0.72 education -0.841(0.565) -1.49 hhsize -1.221**(0.253) -4.83 farmsize -0.369(0.311) -1.18 association 0.077(0.289) 0.27 extension 0.083(0.697) 0.12 offarminc -0.058(0.052) -1.11 hrlabour 0.105*(0.054) 1.93 source: field survey, 2010; log likelihood, -23.399; chi-squared, 9.75; **significant at 1%; *significant at 10%. adopters was n412, 971.69 while that of the nonadopters was found to be n346, 456.73. the average total variable cost for adopters and non-adopters were n68, 326.65 and n74, 888.46, respectively. gross margin values were n334, 645.04 and n271, 568.27 for adopters and non-adopters. this implies a better performance of mulched yam than non-mulched yam. the benefit-cost ratios for the adopters and non-adopters of mulching were 4.79 and 3.13, respectively, implying a better return due to adoption of mulching. budgetary analysis/hectare the probit regression result the result of probit regression in table 3 showed that the log likelihood was -23,399 and the chi-squared value was 98.75. this implies that the model as a whole is statistically significant at 1 percent level of significance. household size was significant at 1% level while labour hired was at 10% level. this indicates that both household size and labour hired influenced the adoption of mulching as a soil conservation technique negatively and positively,respectively. this is right because both have been found to have either positive influence on adoption from previous studies (feder et al., 1985; nkonya et al., 1997; oluoch-kosura et al., 2001; bekele and drake, 2003). the negative coefficient of the household size implied that as the farmers household size increases there is increase in consumption pressure associated with large families and consequently decreased the respondents interests in adopting the technology. on the other hand, the positive coefficient of the hired labour implied that greater labour force is available for timely operation of farm activities and more labour hour was spent on the use of mulching technology during labour slack season because of low opportunity cost of labour in rural areas. as a result there is this variable increasing the probability of adopting mulching as a conservation technique. age, sex, educational status, farm size, association to which farmers belonged, extension visit and offfarm income did not significantly influence adoption behaviour of farmers toward mulching technology. summary and conclusion farmers in the study area were mostly married, middleaged with few having formal education. an average farmer cultivated about 0.4 ha of land with minimum land area being 0.1 ha and the maximum 1 ha. budgetary analysis revealed higher values of gross margin and net income were recorded by the adopters of the mulching technology as compared to nonadopters. the average total revenue for adopters is about n412, 971 while that of nonadopters was found to be around n344, 645. the average total cost for both adopters and nonadopters were n86, 106.67 and n110, 339.33, respectively. again, the gross margin analysis showed that n344, 645.04 and n271, 568.27 were for adopters and nonadopters, respectively. the cost-benefit ratio for adopters was 4.79 while that of non-adopters is 3.13 which implies a better return to adopters of mulching technology than for nonadopters. farmers that adopted the mulching technology were more than non-adoptive farmers in the study area. there were 50.5% adopters and 49.5% nonadopters. the result of the probit model shows that the frequency of labour hired is highly significant at 10 percent. the adoption behaviour of farmers that determines the adoption of the mulching technology is highly dependent on the total number of labour hired and household size. the negative coefficient of the household size implied that as the farmers household size increases there is increase in consumption pressure associated with large families and consequently decreased the respondents interests in adopting the technology. therefore, there is need to encourage farmers on the needs to adopt the land protecting technology and a policy thrust that make seed yam available and affordable as well as reducing the costs incurred on labour will be in the right direction. references adesina aa, zinnah mm (1993). technology characteristics, farmers’ perception and adoption decision: a tobit model allocation in sierra leon. agric. econ., 9: 297-311. akinola aa, adeyemo r (2008). adoption and productivity of improved rice varieties in osun state, nigeria”. ife j. agric., 23(1): 104-116. alene ad, poonyth d, hassan rm (2000). determinants of adoption and intensity of use of improved rice varieties in the central highlands of ethiopia: a tobit analysis. agrekon (south african j. agric. econ.), 39(4): 633-643. alimi t, manyong vm (2000). partial budget analysis for on-farm research. iita guide no.65, ile ife, nigeria. international institute of tropical agriculture (iita, 2009) annual report, ibadan nigeria nigerian national population commission report, 1992. bamire as, fabiyi yl (2002). adoption pattern of fertilizer technology among farmers in the ecological zones of south-western nigeria: a tobit analysis. aust. j. agric. res., 53: 901-910. bekele w, drake l (2003). soil water conservation decision and behaviour of subsistence farmers in the eastern highlands of ethiopia a case study of the hunde-lafto area. ecol. econ., 46(3): 437-451. feder g, just r, zilberman d (1985). adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries. a survey. the university of chicago, pp. 255-299. iita (2009). improved productivity and increased production from better roots and tubers. international institute of tropical agriculture annual report. manyong vm, houndekon av (1997). land tenurial systems and the adoption of mucuna planted fallows in the derived savannas of west africa. paper presented at the workshop on property rights collective action and technology adoption. icard. aleppo, syria. negatu w, parikh a (1999). the impact of perception and other factors on the adoption of agricultural technologies in the moret and jiru woreda (district) ethiopia. agric. econ., 21: 219-229. nkonya e, schroeder t, norman d (1997). factors affecting adoption of improved maize seed and fertilizer in northern tanzania”. j. agric. econ., 4: 1-12. oluoch-kosura wa, marenya pp, nzuma mj (2001). soil fertility management in maize based production system in kenya. current options and the future strategies. paper submitted at the seventh eastern and southern africa regional maize conference, nairobi, pp. 350-355. shiferaw b, holden st (1998). resource degradation and the adoption of land conservation technologies in the ethiopian highlands. a case study in andit tid, north shewa. agric. econ., 21: 241-256. ruthernberg h (1977). farming systems in the tropics. oxford: clarendon press. scoones i, reij c, toulmin c (1996). sustaining the soil: indigenous soil and water conservation in africa. london: earthscan. tiffen m, mortimore m, gichuki f (1994). more people, less erosion: environmental recovery in kenya. chichester: john wiley. turner b, hyden g, kates r (1993). population growth and agricultural change in africa. gainsville: university of florida press. zeller m, sharma m (1998). rural finance and poverty alleviation. food policy report, international food policy research institute, washinton, d. c. june 1998; pp. 1-32 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (7), pp. 001-009, july, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper margins and economic viability of fresh coconut marketing in the kumasi metropolis of ghana v. abankwah1*, r. aidoo2 and b. tweneboah-koduah1 1 department of agricultural economics and extension education, university of education, winneba, ghana. 2 department of agricultural economics, agribusiness and extension, kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi, ghana. accepted 12 february, 2016 the study was conducted in the kumasi metropolis of the ashanti region of ghana to examine the margins and economic viability of fresh coconut marketing. cross-sectional data was randomly collected from 120 individual fresh coconut marketers in market centers across the metropolis and analyzed, using deconstructed marketing margins and return on capital employed. the study revealed that fresh coconut marketing in the kumasi metropolis is a viable venture that employs people within the economically active age group. actors in the market have very low educational background with some having no formal education. it has been identified as a safe net for school drop outs, proving meaningful employment for them. fresh coconut marketing has been found as a lucrative venture to economically empower both men and women to improve their livelihoods. with a minimum of gh₡18.00, as a start-up capital, one can enter into this venture and receive proportionate returns. actors in the market receive rates of returns several times higher than fixed-deposit interest rate in the ghanaian economy because they can turn over their relatively low capital several times in the year to accrue more profit. retailing, though needs a very small start-up capital, is the most profitable level along the distribution channel. transporting and distributing fresh coconut from the production centre to the consumer market is more profitable than rationing them to retailers and wholesalers in the marketplace. key words: economic viability, deconstructed market margin, sedentary wholesaler, itinerant wholesaler. introduction coconut (cocos nucifera) is the most extensively grown and used nut in the world and the most important palm. it is an important commercial crop in many tropical countries, contributing significantly to their economies (philips, 1994). coconut contributes 1.2 to 2.6% exclusively to the gross national product (gnp) in the producing countries. (australian centre for international agricultural research, 1995). in ghana, it is the most important cash crop along the coastal belt. it is estimated that there are 17,000 farmers growing coconut on 43,000 hectares and producing a total of 224,000 tons of coconuts (wahwa and kumar, 1992). according to adams et al. (1996), the coconut *corresponding author. e-mail: vincentabankwah@yahoo.com. industry in ghana is worth at least 12.83 billion cedis (us$8.04 million) which is approximately 1.7% of the total 1995/98 agricultural exports. an important characteristic of coconut is its ability to spread wealth and generate employment in rural areas where few other opportunities exist. the industry provides employment (formal and nonformal) for at least 762,000 people in ghana. however, the coconut market in ghana is fragmented and has not received much significance due to lack of agricultural policy on the promotion of coconut marketing and consumption of coconut products (yeboah, 2009). a lot of information is available on the production of coconut both globally and domestically. coconut production in ghana has increased considerably over the past decades. in 1981, ghana produced 160,000 (mt), 220,000 (mt) in 1993 and 223,977(mt) in 2000 (fao, 1993; gyimah, 2001). consumption of fresh coconut over the past file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org decades has received paramount importance because of its nutritional and medicinal value. the fruit can protect the body against various cancers including, breast and colon malignancies. due to its effects on insulin secretion, coconut can help reduce diabetes-related symptoms. it is considered as a quick source of energy; coconut is used to improve physical performance and also promotes weight loss by increasing the metabolic rate (coconut development board, 2008). it is reported that most people consume fresh coconut because of its natural medicinal and nutritional value. it is estimated that about 15% of the total coconut produced in the country is consumed fresh (yeboah, 2009). farmers are naturally inclined to believe that many current systems of marketing are costly in relation to the services provided and traders absorb too high a proportion of the final price paid by consumers (whiethan, 1972). consumers also believe that excessive profiteering activities of traders are responsible for high prices of fresh coconut. there is the tendency to casually compare the price of fresh coconuts in the producing areas to prices in urban markets and conclude that traders are making too much profit, without giving much thought to the costs of getting coconut to consumers from producers. gyimah (2001) observed that high market price of fresh coconuts could not be wholly attributed to excessive profiteering activity of middlemen, but scarce, expensive production and distributing factors are also responsible for high consumer price of fresh coconuts. he estimated that, over 50% of the marketing margin in fresh coconut is attributed to actual marketing costs. yeboah (2009) established that, fresh coconut farmers in the western region received about 46% of consumer price, 26% accounted for transportation and handling charges and the remaining 28% was the traders’ profit margin. as a result, low prices at the farm gate and high prices in the consumer market are generally blamed on inefficiency in the marketing system and exploitation by traders (punchihewa, 1991). potential investors in this industry, consumers, as well as policy makers need to answer many questions in their minds by knowing the marketing margins and economic viability of the market. it is therefore, imperative to examine the margins and economic viability of fresh coconut marketing in the kumasi metropolis of ghana. methodology data collection the study was conducted in the kumasi metropolis. a reconnaissance survey conducted in the metropolis in the first week of january, 2010 revealed three categories of fresh coconut marketers itinerant wholesalers, sedentary wholesalers and retailers. a fourth category which was found only in the production centers is the local assemblers. greater volume of fresh coconuts entering the metropolis is handled at cross market. other markets of importance are roman hill, suame roundabout, asafo, sofo line, bantama, aboabo, ahodwo, atonsu, kurofoforomu, kwadaso, asawasi, and akwatialine markets. retailing of fresh coconut in the kumasi metropolis is usually seen on pavements of streets, school parks and at the entrances of most major and minor market centres. fresh coconut retailing is done in open air, with fresh coconuts packed on truck, wheelbarrow and at times a retailer carries specific amount of fresh coconuts on a pan and hawk from house to house. since actors in the markets were not many, cluster sampling technique was adopted to interview all coconut sellers in each of the marketing centers selected in the metropolis. this was done to ensure a higher degree of confidence and a smaller margin of error in the study. the list of all marketers in each marketing centre was collected and used to facilitate enumeration to ensure effective coverage of the target , especially the itinerant wholesalers who were not stable. call-back interviews were conducted until the entire target was covered. a questionnaire was used to extract information from 120 individual marketers of their annual values of marketing costs, revenues and prices of the previous year, their socio-economic background and the channel of fresh coconut distribution. the questionnaire, which was made up of both open-ended and closeended questions, was pre-tested and the necessary adjustment made to ensure accurate data collection. questionnaires were administered from 20th to 31st january, 2010. table 1 depicts the sample size distribution over the selected market centers. conceptual framework the objective of this study is to determine the magnitude of margins between producer and marketers along the distribution channel and the economic viability of fresh coconut marketing. to achieve this, deconstructed marketing margin and return on capital employed (roce) were used for analyzing data. marketing margin, according to shepherd (1996), is the percentage of the final weighted average selling price taken by each stage of the marketing chain. moreover, this analysis is to determine the cost components of the margins and their contribution to the consumer price. marketing margins has also been expressed by abbott and makeham (1990) as the difference between purchase price and re-sale price of a commodity. this convention was employed in calculating the margins. functional margins were determined by calculating the cost of performing the different marketing functions along the marketing chain. proportion of traders’ profits of the consumer price was also computed. marketing margin (mm) was computed as the difference between costs of purchasing coconut per year (cc) and revenue derived from sale of fresh coconut per year (rc), ∑ …… …… …… …… … to, at least break even, the revenue from the sale of fresh coconut should encompass the cost of purchasing fresh coconut, marketing cost (mc) and traders’ profit margin (pm). ∑ …… …… … …… …… equations 1 and 2 gives equation 3, as a model for deconstructed marketing margins along the market chain. ∑ …… …… …… …… … the marketing margin must cover costs involved in transferring table 1. sample size distribution. market centre marketers of fresh coconut itinerant wholesalers sedentary wholesalers retailers total riz cross 19 15 34 central market 1 9 10 roman hill 12 11 23 suame r’about 9 8 17 asafo market 5 5 sofo line 4 4 bantama 3 3 ahodwo 4 4 asawasi 3 3 atonsu 4 4 kwadaso 2 2 kurofoforom 7 7 aboabo 2 2 akwatialine 2 2 total 40 40 40 120 source: reconnaissance survey data, 2010. produce from one stage to the next and provide a reasonable return to those doing the marketing (abbott and makeham, 1990). fresh coconuts must be assembled, loaded and offloaded, packed and repacked, sorted, cleaned and processed in various ways and must be presented to consumers in convenient quantities. as a result, transaction costs for such products tend to be high in relation to their value (coleman and trevor, 1989). costs of marketing fresh coconut (mc) are the transaction cost tc, cost of working capital (wc), depreciation of fixed assets or cost of rented assets (ac) and opportunity cost of trader’s time (oc). hence, equation 3 becomes: ∑ … …… …… …… …… from equation (2) profit margin was obtained as: ∑ ! " # …… … …… …… …… $ the five equations allowed the estimation of the marketing and profit margins, the various components of the marketing cost and their proportions of the marketing margins. the relevant transaction costs considered in the study are: transportation, handling, assembling, market toll and unofficial charges such as bribes. agricultural lending rates of ten (10) financial institutions in the metropolis, comprising all categories of financial institutions were sampled and the mean rate (28%) used to represent the cost of capital in the metropolis. straight-line method of depreciation was also used to provide for depreciation of fixed assets. the reconnaissance survey revealed the educational background of fresh coconut marketers as very low. as a result, they had little or no placement in formal jobs. they also have relatively low working capital that could not enable them go into many other private businesses. so the choice of selling fresh coconut might have prevented the person from becoming a sweeper, which is somewhat available attracting annual maximum revenue of gh₡720 for educational level not exceeding senior high school (shs), provided a scale that was used as the opportunity cost of trader’s time. return on capital employed (roce) is given as the ratio of profit margin (pm) to capital invested (ci) expressed as percentage: ∑ / %& ( )) … …… …… …… …… * capital invested is the combination of working capital and value of fixed asset. returns to traders were compared to interest that they would have earned had they invested their capital in a fixed deposit savings at the bank. the percentage return on capital which measures profitability of the venture is compared with a fixed deposit cut-off rate of 21.5% as an indicator of economic viability. if the returns to traders fall below this, it means that traders are operating at sub-optimal level which is not viable. this value was computed at each stop, along the marketing chain and used as a measure of equitable vertical income distribution in the marketing system (scarborough and kydd, 1992). results and discussion the results of the study have been discussed in the subsequent sub-sections. the analysis aimed at examining the background of fresh coconut marketers, distribution channel of fresh coconut, marketing margins, marketing cost, profit margins and assessing the economic viability of fresh coconut market. background of fresh coconut marketers fresh coconut marketing was seen as a major business for the active labor force, as a majority of the marketers, as is evident in table 2, were between the ages of 18 and 40 years. there were, however, a significant portion of school dropouts who were absorbed into the business. fresh coconut marketing is a job opportunity which is almost open to both sexes. figure 1 indicates that majority of fresh coconut marketers were females (52%). males constituted 48% of fresh coconut traders. the study indicates in figure 2 that, close to a third of fresh coconut traders in the kumasi metropolis had table 2. age of fresh coconut marketers. age group age range frequency percent dependent/school dropout < 18 14 11.7 active labor force 18 – 40 94 78.3 less active labor force 41 60 10 8.3 retiring labor force > 60 2 1.7 total total 120 100 source: survey data, 2010. p e rc e n ta g e 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 male female se x figure 1. sex distribution of fresh coconut marketers. source: survey data, 2010. tertiary 0% shs 14% no formal education 29% primary jhs 41% education 16% figure 2. educational level of fresh coconut marketers. source: survey data, 2010. formal education. while 16% had formal education up to the primary school level, majority obtained up to junior high school (jhs) and the remaining 14% had some secondary education. fresh coconut marketing was found to provide livelihoods for school drop outs, since majority 45% of the traders had below primary education. those who could not cross junior high school (jhs) and senior high school (shs) to vocational and tertiary institutions constituted 55% which have been absorbed by fresh coconut marketing. fresh coconut marketing has been an informal business over many decades. as can be seen in table 3, very few (10%) have been in the business for over 10 years. the business has however, become attractive to table 3. experience in fresh coconut marketing. experience(in years) frequency percentage <1 14 12 1-10 94 78 11-20 10 8 >20 2 2 total 120 100 source: survey data, 2010. many (90%) over the last decade. distribution channel of fresh coconut the marketing channel is made up of various individuals who handle fresh coconut as it moved through the marketing processes. the channels are the routes through which fresh coconut flow from the producer to the ultimate consumer. fresh coconut marketed in kumasi metropolis generally passed through three group actors along the chain of distribution. these are the itinerant wholesalers, sedentary wholesalers and the retailers. the itinerant wholesalers handled a greater volume of fresh coconut. table 4 is a summary of the flow of fresh coconut to the various actors along the channel. fresh coconuts passed through one or more of the indicated actors before it reached the consumers. majority of the retailers obtained fresh coconut supply from the sedentary wholesalers who assemble fresh coconut in the metropolis from the itinerant wholesalers. quite a larger portion (23%) obtained supply from itinerant wholesalers who assembled and transported fresh coconut from the production centers. very few (2%) obtaining coconut from producers. most of the sedentary wholesalers (72%) obtained fresh coconut from itinerant wholesalers with little supply from producers (20%) and other sedentary wholesalers (8%). itinerant wholesalers, on the other hand, mainly assembled fresh coconut from the producers (92%) for onward distribution into the consumer market. the observation has been translated into a web of distribution channels presented in figure 3. the web of fresh coconut distribution channel was a mix of short and long chains of distribution. the itinerant wholesalers transport fresh coconut from edina, komendda, cape coast, assin fosu and eguafo in the central region and jomoro in the western region. deconstructed marketing margins along the distribution channel the annual marketing margin at the retail level, as depicted in table 5 was gh₡7128.00 with a profit margin of gh₡6318.00, which is a retailer’s returns to labour per year representing 88.7% of the marketing margin. this is achievable because they were able to turn over their capital 52 times in a year. major cost items of the retail marketing margin were transaction cost, cost of working capital, depreciation of fixed asset and opportunity cost of the trader representing 6.3, 0.1, 0.2 and 4.8% of the marketing margin respectively. the volume of fresh coconut sold annually at the retail level (831,000 bags) as is evident in table 6, was higher than that sold at the sedentary wholesaler level. this is because retailers bought coconut also from the itinerant wholesalers and the producers as well, as is depicted in figure 3. itinerant wholesalers handled the greatest volume of fresh coconut because they supplied to both retailers and sedentary wholesalers. they could turn over their capital 24 times a year. as can be seen in table 7, the retailers priced their coconut higher at gh₡0.50 per coconut compared to gh₡0.30 and gh₡0.25 at the sedentary wholesaler and itinerant wholesaler levels, respectively and making the highest price margin of gh₡0.20. this, coupled with low transaction cost and the fact that, they were able to turn over their working capital 52 times a year has made retailers reap the highest profit margin which is 88.7% of the retail marketing margin. the annual marketing margin at the sedentary wholesaler level is gh₡1134.30 with a profit margin of gh₡340.24, which represented 30% of the marketing margin. the cost items at this level are transactional cost, cost of working capital, depreciation of fixed asset and opportunity cost of the trader representing 23.2%, 4.0%, 1.1% and 41.7% of the marketing margin respectively. the volume of fresh coconut sold annually by the sedentary wholesalers (360,000 bags), as is evident in table 6, is lower than that sold by the retailers. this might be due to the reason that, they could turn over their working capital 18 times in a year. table 7 indicates that, the sedentary wholesalers priced their coconut lower at gh₡0.30 compared to gh₡0.50 at the retailer level. the lower sedentary wholesaler margin is due to a very low profit component and relatively low transaction cost which is probably due to the provision of very few marketing services. the itinerant wholesale margin is gh₡7453.20, with a profit component of gh₡5326.19, which represents 71.5% of the marketing margin. at this level, transaction cost, cost of working capital, depreciation of fixed asset and opportunity cost of the trader represents 20.4%, 2.4%, 0.00% and 5.70% of the itinerant wholesale margin, respectively. the volume of fresh coconut sold annually at this level (1325, 551 bags), as is evident in table 6, is higher than that sold at the retailer’s and resident wholesaler’s level. as is evident in table 7, the itinerant wholesale price margin of gh₡0.15, is three times that of the sedentary wholesaler. as a result, the itinerant wholesaler, though incurred almost six times the transaction cost of the sedentary wholesaler, the former made a profit margin which is almost fifteen times that of the latter. the high marketing margin at the itinerant wholesaler level was due to a very high profit component table 4. flow of fresh coconut supply. source of fresh type of trader retailer sedentary wholesaler itinerant wholesaler coconut frequency percentage frequency percentage frequency percentage producer 1 2 8 20 37 92 itinerant wholesaler 9 23 29 72 3 8 sedentary wholesaler 30 75 3 8 0 0 total 40 100.0 40 100.0 40 100.0 source: survey data, 2010. figure 3. distribution channel of fresh coconut. source: author’s construct. that resulted from high price margin. the results show that, profit margins earned by the traders who deal in fresh coconut was generally higher. moreover, the profit of retailers and itinerant wholesalers were higher than that of sedentary wholesalers. according to kohls and uhl (1990), profit rates vary depending on the structure of the market and the product differentiation. it has also been established by fao (1994) that profits may be relatively higher in markets where few firms control most of the supply. resident wholesalers’ sold the lowest volume of fresh coconut (360,000 bags), with retailers and traveling wholesalers selling the highest volume of fresh coconut, 831,000 bags and 1325, 551 bags, respectively. this is due to their varied rates of turning over their working capital. a nut of fresh coconut at the farm gate was sold at gh₡0.10. itinerant wholesalers sold a nut of fresh coconut to resident wholesaler at gh₡0.25 making a price margin of gh 0.15. sedentary wholesalers and retailers, on the other hand, sold a nut of fresh coconut at gh 0.30 and gh 0.50 with a price margin of gh 0.05 and gh 0.20, respectively. retailers made the highest margin. economic viability of fresh coconut marketing the economic viability of fresh coconut marketing was assessed using returns on capital employed (roce), to indicate the profitability of the venture and the results presented in table 8. the retail returns is the highest among the marketing agents whereas returns to the sedentary wholesale is the lowest. the amount of capital employed by retailers in the fresh coconut marketing was very low with a mean value of gh 38.25. this increased drastically to the itinerant and wholesalers along the distribution channel. the mean values of capital employed for sedentary wholesalers table 5. annual revenue, marketing margins and profits for each trader along the distribution channel. measures of marketing margin statistic ( gh₡) percentage of mean minimum maximum std. dev. marketing margin retailer cc 13473.00 6120.00 24840.00 6896.79 rc 20601.00 9000.00 36000.00 10781.98 tc 441.00 72.00 792.00 251.11 6.2 wc 9.88 5.00 18.00 4.89 0.1 ac 14.07 0.00 33.00 11.33 0.2 oc 345.00 120.00 600.00 221.08 4.8 pm= rc -[tc +wc+ac+cc+oc] 6318.00 88.7 (a) mm = tc+wc+ac+oc+pm 7128.00 100 sedentary wholesaler cc 5190.45 1570.00 48896.00 7190.74 rc 6324.75 2808.00 10080.00 1607.68 tc 263.60 180.00 408.00 63.81 23.2 wc 44.98 26.00 78.00 11.36 4.0 ac 12.98 0.00 33.00 13.66 1.1 oc 472.50 120 600.00 210.14 41.7 pm= rc -[tc +wc+ac+cc+oc] 340.24 30.0 (b) mm =tc+wc+ac+oc+pm 1134.30 100 itinerant wholesaler cc 7161.00 1200.00 21000 4823.66 rc 14614.20 31200.00 50400.00 10356.92 tc 1522.28 576 1888 335.18 20.4 wc 179.63 38 468 106.16 2.4 ac 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 oc 425.10 120.00 720 190.78 5.70 pm= rc-[tc + wc+ac+cc+oc] 5326.19 71.5 (c) mm= tc+wc+ac+oc+pm 7453.2 100 total mm = (a+b+c) +ms +mi 15,715.50 source: survey data, 2010. rc= revenue from coconut; cc = cost of purchasing coconut; tc = transaction cost; wc = cost of working capital; ac = depreciation of fixed asset; oc = opportunity cost o f traders; pm = profit margin; mm = marketing margin. table 6. annual volume of fresh coconut sold along the distribution channel. type of trader mean volume of coconut sold ( “50 coconut bag”) retailer 831,000 sedentary wholesaler 360,000 itinerant wholesaler 1325,551 source: computed from survey data, 2010. itinerant wholesalers were gh 172.25 and gh 655.00, respectively. the enterprise is characterized by a low capital outlay. the roce for retailers, sedentary wholesalers and itinerant wholesalers were 16518, 198 table 7. price per fresh coconut along the distribution channel. type of trader price of fresh coconut (gh₡) mean price margin minimum maximum retailer 0.50 0.20 0.32 0.50 sedentary wholesaler 0.30 0.05 0.20 0.32 itinerant wholesaler 0.25 0.15 0.14 0.30 producer 0.10 0.10 0.00 source: computed from survey data, 2010. table 8. returns on capital employed. parameter statistics (gh₡) mean minimum maximum standard deviation retailers ci 38.25 18.00 70.00 19.36 pm 6318.05 roce = pm/ci ×100 16518% sedentary wholesalers ci 172.25 100.00 300.00 43.47 pm 340.24 roce = pm/ci ×100 198% itinerant wholesalers ci 655.00 150.00 1800.00 389.02 pm 5326.19 roce = pm/ci ×100 813% ci = capital invested; pm = profit margin; roce = return on capital employed. source: computed from survey data, 2010. and 813%, respectively. retailers recorded the highest return on capital followed by itinerant wholesalers. sedentary wholesalers had the least return on capital. the values were very high, due to low capital invested and the fact that capital was turned over several times during the year. itinerant wholesalers turned over their capital 24 times within a year. retailers who realized the highest profitability were found to have turned over the working capital 52 times in a year. this observation shows that, there was no equitable distribution of income along the distribution channel as required by economic goal. fresh coconuts are priced exorbitantly at wholesale and retail levels, thereby making abnormal profit with a profitability being several times more than the going interest rate in the economy. conclusion and recommendation fresh coconut marketing in the kumasi metropolis is a viable venture that employs people in the active economic age group. actors in the market have very low educational background with some having no formal education. it has been identified as a safe net for school drop outs, proving meaningful employment for them. fresh coconut marketing has been found as a lucrative venture, to economically empower both men and women to improve their livelihoods. with a minimum of gh 18.00, as a start-up capital, one can enter into this venture and receive proportionate returns. actors in the market receive rates of returns several times higher than going interest rate in the economy because they can turn over their proportionately low capital several times in the year to accrue more profit. retailing, though needs a very small start-up capital, is the most profitable level along the distribution channel. transporting fresh coconut from the production centre to the consumer market is more profitable, than rationing them to retailers in the marketplace. encouraging more traders into the marketing system by making people aware of its viability and making available capital in the form of loans to stiffen competition will lower consumer price for fresh coconut, redistribute profits equally along the distribution channel and make the market perform efficiently. references abbott jc, makeham k (1990). agricultural economics and marketing in the tropics, longman group, london, vol. 13 (2) december 2009 adams m, arthur r, duhamel g, chartey n, overfield d, willowghby n (1996). analysis of natural resource utilization, livelihood systems, copping strategies and natural resource research needs in coconut growing areas of coastal zone ecosystems in ghana. nri.c0834 vol. 1, main report, may 1996. australian centre for international agricultural research (1995). the world market coconut production: an economic analysis from the prospects of the philippines project. http://www.aciar.gov.au/project/anre1/1991/009. [accessed, june 10, 2009]. coconut development board (2008). coconut products: tender coconut water-health benefits, may 2008. http://www.coconut.nic.in/tendnutr.htm. [accessed, october 7, 2009]. coleman d, trevor y (1989). principles of agricultural economics: markets and prices in less developed countries. cambridge university press, new york. fao (1993). world coconut production year book . in modern coconut management: palm cultivation and product, edited by ohler, j.g. intermediate technology press, london. gyimah s (2001). ghana coconut industry. appraisal report, 13: 1.2 3.4. kohls r, uhl j (1990). marketing of agricultural products. macmillan publishing company, london. philips lr (1994). importance of coconut. the coconut facts sheet hs40, april 1994. http://www.plantapalm.com/vpe/misc/the-coconut.pdf [accessed, dec.9, 2009]. punchihewa pg (1991). coconut industry-current situation and prospects. the planter (malaysia), 779: 63-73. scarborough v, kydd j (1992). economic analysis of agricultural markets: a manual. natural resources institute, chatham, u.k, sherpherd aw (1996). a guide to marketing costs and how to calculate them. marketing and rural finance service, agricultural services division, fao,rome. wahwa nd, kumar crv (1992). development of coconut products in ghana. project proposal no. gha/87/004 of february 1992. whiethan oj (1972). marketing of staple food crops in tropical africa. cornel university press. yeboah se (2009). ghana coconut industry. appraisal report, 9: 1.6 – 3.4. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (2), pp. 001-008, february, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper credit constraints and adoption of modern cassava production technologies in rural farming communities of anambra state, nigeria benjamin okpukpara centre for rural development and cooperatives, university of nigeria, nsukka, nigeria. e-mail: benedozie@yahoo.com. accepted 18 november, 2016 this study was motivated because of low adoption of cassava production technologies in rural areas of nigeria. the supply of cassava product, which is major staple food in nigeria has not match up with the demand especially now the government is trying to increase her non-oil export through cassava export. it expected that increase in adoption of modern production technologies will scale-up cassava production and reduce poverty and increase food safety net in nigeria. the study was carried out with random selected rural farmers. data were collected and analyzed with combination of descriptive and univariate probit regression model. the major findings are that though credit is important in adoption of modern cassava technologies, credit from informal institutions appears to be the major influencing factor in adoption of modern cassava production technologies. education and availability of modern input in the rural areas are also important variables that affect adoption. in view of this, increasing financial base of informal institutions and vigorous rural education campaign and increasing availability of the technologies through rural community based organizations are among the recommendations made. key words: cassava, adoption, technologies, credit, poverty, nigeria. introduction cassava (manihot esculenta) is a staple food of average household (especially for rural poor household) in nigeria. cassava or its derivatives form part of daily food for both poor and non-poor households. therefore, cassava is an important factor in food security, poverty alleviation and reducing unemployment among others. cassava can grow in poor marginal soil where most crops cannot grow (ali, 2005). cassava matures in 12 to 18 months after planting. cassava can be processed into variety of products such as garri, fufu, tapioca, cassava chips and flour among others. in recognition of the benefit of cassava, the present president of federal republic of nigeria – chief olusegu obasanjo has taken steps to ensure that cassava export forms one the major non-oil export (asadu, 2004). recently, cassava has occupied a prominent place in national non-oil export commodity especially exports in sub-saharan africa that international demand is far above the supply (frecso, 1993; nweke et al, 2002). this increase in cassava export has also negatively affected local supply. it is also important to note that cassava production is mostly done by rural smallholder farmers using low-level production techniques (omonona, 2009; oyegbami et al., 2010; nweke et al., 2002). though government at various levels has been trying in various ways to encourage rural farmers to adopt the modern cassava production technologies in order to increase the rural farmer’s productivity (fresco, 1993; otoo, 1994; ali, 2005), there are constraints to adoption in rural farming communities (nweke et al., 2002; teklewold et al., 2006). in some instances, farmers reject some of modern technology due to their cultural background and inhibitions due to perhaps illiteracy and religious beliefs. nevertheless, credit constraint has been singled out as a file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org major factor militating against adoption of modern cassava production techniques (nweke et al., 2002). the technologies are herbicides application, use of hybrid cassava stake, use of insecticides, use of herbicides, use of inorganic fertilizer, use of tractor, appropriate spacing, planting date and tillage practices. the adoption of modern cassava production technologies is an important route out of poverty for many in the developing world including nigeria because of the major role cassava play in food security. many studies have noted poor technology adoption in cassava production (barham and boucher, 1994; ogboso, 2005). yet the influence of credit in adoption of modern agricultural innovations in cassava production, remain poorly understood in cassava production (omonona, 2009; adesina and forson, 1995; ersado et al., 2004). access to credit affects household welfare outcomes through at least two channels. first, it alleviates the capital constraints on agricultural households. access to credit also reduces the opportunity costs of capitalintensive assets relative to family labor, thus encouraging labor-saving technologies and raising labor productivity, a crucial factor for agricultural development, especially in many african countries (delgado 1995; zeller et al., 1997). the second channel through which access to credit affects household welfare is by increasing its riskbearing ability and altering its risk-coping strategy. the household may therefore be willing to adopt new, more risky technologies (baidu forson, 1999; aliou et al., 2000; polson and spencer, 1990). this paper presents evidence on the complementarities between the adoption decisions of farmers concerning modern cassava production technologies and credit constraints in cassava production in rural farming communities of anambra state. this will help in formulating a well targeted policy in cassava production in nigeria. though this work is on credit and adoption of modern cassava technologies, effort was made to x-ray other factors that affect the adoption of modern technologies in cassava production. methodology this study was conducted in rural farming communities of anambra state in 2005. a random sampling technique was used to select two rural local government areas in anambra state. these local government areas are aguata and orumba south local government areas. cassava farmers in each of the selected local government areas were identified with the help of extension agents. list of these cassava farmers were compiled. from the list, a random sampling technique was also used to select a sample of 180 farmers. primary and secondary data were used. however, primary data was the main source of data used for this analysis. primary data was collected with questionnaire. the questionnaire collected information on socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers, credit obtained, awareness of modern cassava technologies available to farmers, used and extent of use of such technologies as well as cost of using such technologies. secondary data was sourced from published and unpublished materials. data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics and univatiate probit regression model. it should also be noted that when a farmer adopts five out of eight modern cassava production technologies, the farmer is regarded as an adopter; otherwise the farmer is regarded as non-adopter. specifically, two univariate probit regressions were run. the first was for general determinants of adoption. the second is specific on examining the effect of credit on adoption. econometric methodology the basic theory underlying this study is household utility model. a complete model of household choice decisions posit that the household choose whether to adopt modern cassava technologies or not to adopt because of utility derived from it. the probability that household “h” chooses to adopt is equals to the probability that the utility derived from adopting modern technologies in cassava production is greater than not adopting. in this case, i have assumed that adopting and not adopting are independent. this therefore necessitates the use of univariate probit regression. however, in the bivariate probit, let the latent variable y1* represent the underlying continuous index affecting the decision of adopting cassava technologies and y2* represent the decision of household not to adopt the technologies. therefore the general specification for a two-equation model would be y1* = β1 + ε1, y1 = 1 if y1*>0, 0 otherwise --------------(1) y1* = β2 + ε2, y2 = 1 if y2*>0, 0 otherwise ---------------(2) e[ε1] = e[ε2] = 0 var[ε1] = var[ε2] = 1, cov[ε1, ε2] = ρ. and the likelihood function to maximize is 1 1 2 2 l 2( z1, z 2; )dz 2 dz1 where φ2(z1,z2; ρ) = [2π(1ρ 2 ) ½ ] -1 exp[-1/2(1ρ 2 ) -1 (z1 2 + z2 2 2ρz1z2)] and ρ = coefficient of correlation between the two equations. x1 and x2 = row vectors of exogenous variables which determine respectively, adopting and not adopting propensities. β1 and β2 = associated parameter column vectors. to evaluate the magnitude of the effect of a change in the regressors on the outcome variables, the coefficients need to be adjusted to be marginal effects, unlike standard linear regression models. in this probit model e[y] = φ(β’x), then the marginal effects are ( ' x) ( ' x) . ∂ = xi these marginal effects would obviously vary with the values of x because of the nonlinearity of the model. it worth noting that all the coefficients β would have the same scale factor ( ' x) applied. except for dichotomous variables, these marginal effects would be valid for small changes in explanatory variables. in case of dichotomous variables, it is better to calculate the difference in table 1. distribution of respondents according to awareness of modern cassava production technologies. technologies frequency percentage hybrid cassava stakes 150 83% appropriate planting date 70 39 tillage practices 89 49 use of herbicides 60 33 use of insecticides 55 31 use of inorganic fertilizer 180 100 use of tractor 100 55 appropriate spacing 58 32 note multiple responses were recorded. source: field survey, 2005. probabilities when the variable is 1 and when it is zero. hence the marginal effect for the dummy variable i,(δi), would be defined as i ( i x i i ( 1 x i ) where the –i subscript represent all the variables but the it h, and x i are their sample means. however, because am only interested in whether farmer adopt or not. i therefore use univariate probit model. the reduced form of the econometric model is explained below. the decision of farmer to adopt is described by the following latent variable model. wi* x 1i 1 1i --------------------------------- where w * is the net benefit attained by the farmer by adopting i modern cassava technologies, x1i are the vector that expected to influence the farmer’s decision to adopt or not to adopt modern cassava technologies, w * , and 1iis the random error, with i zero mean and unit variance. however, wi * is not observed. what is observed is the following binary variable: (1, if the farmer adopts modern cassava production technologies 0, otherwise (2) we can put these two equations (equations 1 and 2) into observable form (yi), which is written as thus: yi = w*i > 0, otherwise, 0 (if a farmer adopt modern cassava technologies. the general univariate probit regression model is implicitly stated as: yi = f(x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, x7, x8, x9, x10, x11) + u --------(1) where yi is dichotomous choice model, which is “1” if farmer adopted at least 5 of modern cassava production technologies, 0 otherwise x1 = age of the farmer (years), x2 = age of the farmer squared (years) x3 = level of education of farmer (years), x4 = gender of the farmer (dummy 1 if male, 0 otherwise) x5 = type of institution where credit is sourced (dummy 1 if informal, 0 otherwise) x6 = number of extension contacts (continuous variable) x7 = family size (continuous variable), x8 = distance to informal financial institution (km), x9 = distance to formal financial institution (km), x10 = total income apart from credit available to the farmer x11 = amount of credit obtained from formal financial institutions x12 = amount of credit obtained from informal financial institutions, x13 = farming experience (years) x14 = farm size (hectares) x15= accessibility (dummy 1 if 5 out of the eight technologies are available, 0 otherwise) u = error term for the effect of credit on adoption of modern cassava production technologies, the model is implicitly specified as follows yi = f(x1, x2, x3, x4, x5) + u -----------------(2) where yi is dichotomous choice model, which is “1” if farmer adopted modern cassava production technologies, 0 otherwise x1 = type of institution where credit is sourced (dummy 1 if informal, 0 otherwise), x2 = distance to informal financial institution (km), = distance to formal financial institution (km) x4 = amount of credit obtained from formal financial institutions x5 = amount of credit obtained from informal financial institutions u = error term results first, the level of knowledge of modern cassava production technologies is analyzed. this is presented in table 1. the result shows that all the respondents are aware of fertilizer as one of cassava production technologies. this is closely followed by those that are aware that modern cassava cultivars is one of cassava production technologies. however, the knowledge of tractor and appropriate tillage practices as cassava production technologies were fairly known by respondents. the use of insecticides and herbicides are the least known cassava production technologies. these results show that more sophisticated production technologies are less known to farmers. this has implication in the terms of usage of modern cassava production technologies. apart from the knowledge, the data was also analyzed (1) x3 table 2. distribution of respondents according to use of modern cassava production technologies. technologies frequency percentage hybrid cassava stakes 80 44 appropriate planting date 60 33 tillage practices 63 35 use of herbicides 3 2 use of insecticides 3 2 use of inorganic fertilizer 120 67 use of tractor 1 0 appropriate spacing 43 24 note multiple responses were recorded. source: field survey, 2005. table 3. distribution of respondents according to reasons for difficulty in adoption of modern cassava production technologies. reasons frequency percentage not available 90 50 high cost 150 83 farm size 87 48 harmful 30 17 lack of knowledge 67 37 note multiple responses were recorded. source: field survey, 2005. based on the level of usage of these production technologies. this result is presented in table 2. table 2 shows generally, that 55% of respondents use modern cassava production technologies. specifically, most of the respondents use fertilizer and modern cassava cultivars. however, almost no respondent use tractor and insecticides in cassava production probably because of land tenure arrangement inherent in study area where a farmer owns small and scattered pieces of land usually less than 0.5 ha. in addition, about 2% of the respondents use herbicides in their cassava production because of the tenure and cost of input, which is usually high per unit output. the overall analysis of this table shows that farmers use less sophisticated and cheap cassava production technologies because of land tenure system in the area, which do not usually encourage mechanization. the reasons for difficulty in adoption of cassava production technologies were also analyzed. the result is presented in table 3. the table shows that 83% of the respondent attributed their low adoption to high cost of technologies. this is closely followed by those that attributed the low usage of technologies to nonavailability of the technologies. the level of use of these two factors shows that production credit and accessibility are important factors in adopting particular technologies. however, fairly less than 50% (48%) of respondent attributed their low adoption to farm size. table 4 shows the relationship between credit and adoption of modern cassava production technologies in descriptive terms. the table shows that there is a positive relationship between credit obtained and adoption of cassava production technologies. for instance, rural farmers who are able to secure more than n50000 credit were able to adopt 74% of modern cassava production technologies. in addition, farmers who secure less than n10000 credit from financial institutions are able to adopt 15% of the recommended technologies. table 5 presents the univariate probit regression estimates of probability of farmer adopting modern cassava production technologies or not. the dependent and independent variables are already defined in methodology. the general result shows that a number of variables determine adoption of modern cassava production technologies in the study area. these variables vary in magnitude as revealed by marginal effect results. generally, the model is significant as explained by chisquare and loglikelihood ratio. the result shows that age, education, access to informal credit institution, extension contact, amount of credit from informal credit institutions and access to technology were positively associated with adoption in cassava production. the marginal effect shows a fairly strong effect of this variable on adoption of modern cassava production technologies. table 4. distribution of technology adopted and credit obtained. credit obtained frequency percentage <10000 14 15% 10001 – 20000 26 27 20001 – 30000 38 40 30001 – 40000 55 58 40001 – 50000 58 62 >50000 70 74 note multiple responses were recorded. source: field survey, 2005. table 5. parameter estimation of univariate probit regression for the determinants of adoption of modern cassava production technologies. variables coefficient t-cal marginal effects x1 * .318 19.38 .098 x2 * -0.201 -16.38 .041 x3 * 0.010 3.99 0.071 x4 -0.067 -1.03 .008 x5 * 0.169 4.92 .183 x6 * 0.104 2.00 .036 x7 0.096 1.82 .005 x8 0.016 1.62 .008 x9 0.072 1.72 .029 x10 * 0.308 6.57 .113 x11 0.053 1.80 .010 x12 * 0.154 10.24 .261 x13 0.051 1.54 .005 x14 0.024 1.09 0.014 x15 * 0.189 5.10 0.093 chi-square * 245.08 log-likelihood ratio 1721.35 pseduo r 2 0.06 values asterisk are significant at 5% probability level. computed from field survey, 2005. the econometric model used to specifically analyze the effect of credit variables on adoption of modern cassava production technologies shows that type of institution dictates the probability of adopting cassava production technologies or not (table 6). the result shows that there is a more likelihood of adopting modern cassava production technologies when a farmer obtain loan from the informal financial institutions than formal institution. further analysis of the result shows that access to informal financial institution is negatively related to adoption of cassava modern production technologies. it should also be noted that credit from informal financial institutions has strong effect on probability of adopting modern cassava technologies or not. the result of marginal effect analysis of this variable shows that a one naira increase in the amount of credit from the informal financial institutions increases the probability of adopting modern cassava technologies by 38%. discussion the discussion of the result is presented in this section. fairly less than 50% (48%) of respondent attributed their low adoption to farm size. this is not surprise because in most rural communities, fragmented land tenure system is practiced. this system does not encourage mechanization or use of most modern cassava production technologies because of higher production cost per unit table 6. parameter estimation of univariate probit regression for relationship between credit and adoption of modern cassava production technologies. variables coefficient t-cal marginal effects x1 * .041 14.75 .296 x2 * -.058 -3.41 .093 x3 -.020 -0.44 .024 x4 0.213 1.78 .073 x5 * 0.134 29.76 .381 chi-square * 376.23 loglikelihood ratio 1938.99 pseduo r 2 0.15 values asterisk are significant at 5% probability level. computed from field survey, 2005. output. this also shows that rural farmers are always willing to adopt technologies when they are sure that benefit outweighs the cost, which is a rational behaviour in economic sense. the result also shows that in addition, farmers who secure less than n10000 credit from financial institutions are able to adopt 15% of the recommended technologies. this is not surprising because rural farmers are not able to adopt most modern production technologies because they are relatively poor. therefore, for them to adopt most technologies they must require external funding, which could come in form of subsidy and credit. this finding is supported by various researchers on credit and adoption technologies (barham and boucher, 1994; feder et al., 1990; meloria, 2003). the econometric result shows that some variables have significant impact with varied strength on the technology adoption. specifically, the marginal effect shows that a unit increase in age will result 10% increase in adoption. the negative age square coefficient for farmer suggests, however, that the inflow into non-adoption becomes weaker in the younger farmers. the result also suggests that educated farmers are more likely to adopt technologies than illiterate farmers. however, the marginal effect is not very strong (7%). this result shows that education is an important variable in adoption. similar results have been found elsewhere (adesina and forson, 1995; ersado et al., 2004). the result also shows that male farmers are more likely to adopt cassava production technologies than female farmers. this result is not surprise because studies have shown that male have more asset than female in rural areas, which has shown to have strong correlation with adoption of technologies (okpukpara, 2006). the type of institution patronized also dictates the adoption of modern cassava production technologies. the result shows that farmers that obtain their credit from informal financial institution are more likely to adopt modern cassava production technologies than those that got theirs from formal financial institution. this is surprising because most studies have attributed adoption to educated farmers who always patronize formal financial institutions. however, it could mean that informal financial institutions are more accessible in rural areas, which make them more responsive to farmer’s demand for credit. nevertheless, the effect of this variable on adoption is strong (18%), as explained by marginal effect analysis. the number of extension contact is also significant in dictating adoption of cassava production technologies. the result also shows that farmers are more likely to adopt a technology if the number of extension contacts is increased. income of the farmer also is an important variable in explaining adoption in cassava production. the effect is positive and strong. the result is not surprising because as the farmer’s income increases, there is more opportunity for the farmer to afford the cost of modern production technologies. similar result has been found elsewhere (zeller et al., 1997). the result also shows that amount of credit obtained from informal financial institution are more likely to increase adopt modern cassava production technologies. this is not surprising because most studies have noted the importance of informal credit institutions in rural communities in developing countries (okpukpara, 2005). in view of popularity of this type of institutions, which give farmers more access to their credit than other form of financial institutions, most farmers obtain credit from these institutions though at a very high rate of interest. in addition, credits that are mostly given by these institutions are small; yet, farmers prefer it. the effect of this variable on adoption is strong (26%). accessibility in terms of availability also increases the adoption of cassava production technologies. this not surprising because it is possible that farmers will have the money to buy modern cassava input but when it is not available in the area, farmers will be handicapped in procuring the input. the marginal effect of this variable posit that if farmers modern cassava production input is available to farmer, the adoption of technologies is likely to be (9%). the overall analysis of this econometric result shows, farmer’s age, education, gender, type of institution, number of extension contacts, income of the farmer, amount of credit from informal financial institutions and accessibility are important variables that should be considered in promoting adoption of cassava production technologies in rural areas. however, emphasis should be on age of the farmer, type of institution patronized, income apart from credit, amount of credit from informal financial institutions and accessibility of the modern input. as these variable shows relatively large effect on adoption of modern cassava production technologies. the econometric result that dealt specifically on influence of credit variables on adoption shows that the number of variables were significant. the result shows that there is a more likelihood of adopting modern cassava production technologies when a farmer obtain loan from the informal financial institutions than formal institution. this indicates that informal financial institutions are the most accessible institution for financing rural farming. further analysis of the result shows that access to informal financial institution is negatively related to adoption of cassava modern production technologies. this further strengthened the importance of informal financial institution in financing adoption of technologies in rural areas. it should also be noted that credit from informal financial institutions has strong effect on probability of adopting modern cassava technologies or not. the result of marginal effect analysis of this variable shows that a one naira increase in the amount of credit from the informal financial institutions increases the probability of adopting modern cassava technologies by 38%. this is not surprise because farmers access to production inputs like improved varieties of cassava cultivars, herbicides and farming tools and implements depends on their access to credit. a number of countries in the region practice some sort of rural credit scheme to assist smallholder farmers improve their agriculture. in most cases the banks handling the credit fund are found in the city and larger towns, away from the farming community. accessing such credit for agricultural purposes has proved difficult for small-holder farmers. worse still, formal banking institutions also demand collateral as a prerequisite of giving loan to rural farmers. this collateral is often in form of land, house or title to some immovable assets. smallholder farms in many countries in the region often cannot afford any of the above requirements. the situation is often more difficult when it comes to the women, who in most countries, have no rights to ownership of expensive property including housing and land. therefore, these farmers seek credit from other financial institution that recognizes and able to give them credit considering their own peculiar circumstances. that is the reason for the high patronage of informal financial institutions. therefore, failure to access soft loan and credit for agricultural activities and inputs has a severe bearing on technologies adoption. conclusion it has been established that credit along with other socioeconomic variables are important in adoption of technologies. therefore, a number of recommendations are made based on the findings. these recommendations are: 1. since education is important in adoption of modern cassava technologies, effort should be made by governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as other stakeholders in rural farming to organize and operationalize adult literacy campaign. this is necessary because most farmers in rural areas are illiterate which makes it difficult for them to adopt cassava production technologies. it also important to workout a suitable schedule for the adult education programme for the rural farmers, which will ensure non-interference with their normal farming activities timetable. 2. it is also important to address the problem of lack of extension agent in the rural areas. government should provide additional incentives for extension agents that agree to work with rural farmers. this will increase their activities in the rural areas. this also implies, for an effective information communication, the relationship between farmers and extension agents must be improved. 3. income of the farmer is also important variable. it will be the best technologies adoption strategies to give farmers more non-farm income opportunities to increase their level of technologies adoption. in addition, government should subsidize the prices of major cassava modern technologies input as strategy of increasing their value of income. 4. credit appears to have strong effect on probability of adopting modern cassava technologies especially credit from informal financial institutions. therefore, government should strengthen the financial base of informal institutions by providing credit subsidies to them. this effort is aimed at encouraging them to continue to offer credit delivery to rural farmers. in addition, formal institutions should not only be encouraged to give credit to farmers but also “force” them to give soft loan to farmers. effort should also be made by stakeholders in rural credit schemes to increase the establishment of informal institutions in the rural areas because it appears to be the major access to farm credit. in addition, the developments of rural financial institutions, such as the development of rural banking, are appropriate to encourage not only access to credit at reasonable terms but also savings, which will enhance access to credit by rural farmers. 5. the issue of access to modern cassava technologies in terms of availability should also be tackled by the way of providing these inputs where it can be purchased. this can be done through providing these inputs in informal institutions such as cooperative societies, women and men organizations, age grades and others informal organizations in rural areas that are involved in not only extending credit but also other groups that are well known and has strong influence in rural communities. 6. government should encourage communities to liberalize ownership of land for those that are willing to farm. this will discourage traditional land tenure arrangement, which usually does not allow mechanization. references adesina aa, forson jb (1995). farmers' perceptions and adoption of new agricultural technology: evidence from analysis in burkina faso and guinea, west africa. agric. econ., pp. 13-19. ali nc (2005). profitability analysis of cassava processing in igbo-eze south local government area of enugu state. an unpublished b.agric project, dept of agricultural economics, university of nigeria, nsukka. aliou d, manfred z, manohar s (2000). “empirical measurements of households' access to credit and credit constraints in developing countries: methodological issues and evidence” fcnd dp no. 90. asadu po (2004). “presidential initiative on cassava production and export-genesis and scope”. being a paper presented at conference organized by national cereal research institute held at moore plantation ibadan, oyo, nigeria from 24 th april – 27 th april, 2004. baidu-forson j (1999). “factors influencing adoption of land-enhancing technology in the sahel: lessons from a case study in niger”. agric . econ., 20: 231-239. barham b, boucher s (1994). credit constraints, credit unions, and small-scale producers in guatemala. mimeo. delgado c (1995). africa’s changing agricultural development strategies: past and present paradigms as a guide to the future. 2020 vision food, agriculture, and the environment discussion paper 3. washington, d.c.: international food policy research institute. ersado l, amacher g, alwang j (2004). “productivity and landenhancing technologies in northern ethiopia: health, public investments, and sequential adoption”, am. j. agric. econs., 86(2): 321-331. feder g, lau lj, lin jy, luo x (1990). the relationship between credit and productivity in chinese agriculture: a microeconomic model of disequilibrium. am. j. agric econ., 72(5): 1151–1157. fresco p (1993). the dynamics of cassava in africa: an outline of research issue cosca working paper no. 9. meloria m, meschi (2003). “technology adoption in the presence of constraints: the case of fertilizer demand in ethiopia” rev. dev. econ., 7: 58-70. nweke fi, spencer dsc, lyman jk (2002). the cassava transformation africa’s best-keep secret, east lansing: michigan state university press. ogboso n (2005). effect of improved technology on cassava production in bende local government area of abia state. an unpublished b.agric project, dept. agric. econ, univer. niger. nsukka. okpukpara bc (2005). determinants of choice of financial institutions among rural savers: implication for a sustainable rural financial savings mobilization for agricultural development: proceedings 19 th annual conference of farm management association of nigeria (faman) held at delta state university asaba on 18 th – 20 th october, pp. 309-315. okpukpara bc (2006). determinants and strategies for rural financial savings mobilization by female-headed households in anambra state, niger. j. rural dev., 25(3): 345-361. omonona bt (2009). efficiency of resource use in cassava production in kogi state, nigeria: implications for food security and environmental degradation. retrieved on 27th april, 2009 from http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/searchresults. otoo ja (1994). rapid multiplication of cassava, iita training guide no. 51. iita, ibadan nigeria. oyegbami t, oboh g, omueti o (2010) cassava processors awareness of occupation and environmental hazards associated with cassava processing in south western nigeria afr. j. food. agric. nutr. dev., 10(1): 1982-2000. polson ra, spenser dsc (1990). “the technology adoption process in subsistence agriculture: the case of cassava in south-western nigeria”, agric. syst., 36(1): 65-78. teklewold h, dadi l, yami a, dana n (2006). “determinants of adoption of poultry technology: a double-hurdle approach” livestock research for rural development 18(3): 2006. zeller m, schrieder g, von braun j, heidhues f (1997). rural finance for food security for the poor: implications for research and policy. food policy review no. 4. washington, d.c.: international food policy research institute. http://ideas.repec.org/s/bla/rdevec.html http://ideas.repec.org/s/bla/rdevec.html http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/searchresults http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd18/3/cont1803.htm http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd18/3/cont1803.htm http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd18/3/cont1803.htm http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd18/3/cont1803.htm in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (9), pp. 001-004, september, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper the effects of some cryptogamic extracts on the primary productivity of vigna unguiculata l. walp p. o. fatoba* and o. rebecca akolo department of plant biology, university of ilorin, ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. accepted 13 may, 2020 the effect of hot and cold aqueous extracts of barbula lambarenensis, dryopteris flix-max; nephrolepis davalloides, phymatodes scolopenta, platycerium angolense and azadrachta indica and karate 2.5ec (chemical) on the primary productivity of cowpea were investigated. the extracts of the plant materials and the chemical were appropriately used to irrigate the cowpea twice a week during flowering. the number of pods per plant, length of pods, number of seeds per pod, number of seeds per plant, filling potentials and the weight of seeds per plant were determined for each of the 14 regimes. it was found that all the treatments other than cold extracts of b. lambarenensis, extracts of dryopteris and nephrolepis showed better performance than the untreated in the measured variables. cowpea treated with hot aqueous b. lambarenensis extracts, hot and cold extracts of p. scolopenta, p. angolense and a. indica compared favourably and even better than the one treated with karate 2.5ec (lambda – cyhalothrin), a universally used chemical. this shows that these plants can serve as good materials or alternatives to karate and can therefore be integrated into use for the production of cowpea. key words: productivity, cryptogamic, barbula lambarenensis nephrolepis davalloides, vigna unguiculata, dryopteris flix-max. introduction primary productivity is the rate at which energy is bound or organic materials created by photosynthesis per unit of the earth`s surface per unit time (whittaker, 1975). the essence of cultivation is to have some yields/harvest and when harvested, is to satisfy ones food requirement and/or have some money or be economically empowered if sold. the primary productivity of a particular crop depends on soil fertility, soil type, climate, good farming management, adequate weeding, absence of pests and other plant pathogens. adequate weeding is required as the weeds compete with crop for light (singh and rachie, 1985), nutrients (enyi, 1973) and water (moody, 1973). all these materials are essential raw materials for photosynthesis to take place. most of the foods that man consumes in nigeria is carbohydrate and less of protein thus, resulting to malnutrition and kwashiorkor (protein deficiency) in children. *corresponding author. e-mail: pofatoba57@yahoo.com. the cheapest source of protein is cowpea and other legumes. cowpea contributes 24% crude protein (bressani, 1985) or 24.8% crude protein (davis et al., 1991), unfortunately many people care less about its consumption as they cannot afford it or due to lack of interest. cowpea, vigna unguiculata is one of the most ancient human food source and has probably been used as a crop plant since neolithic time (summerfield et al., 1985). cowpea was reported to have originated in africa, asia and south america (johnson, 1970; ngn and marechal, 1985; summerfield et al., 1985). cowpea is chiefly used as a grain crop for many feeders or as vegetable. cowpea seed is valued as a nutritious supplement to cereals and an extender of nutrient. the productivity of this crop is usually challenged by a wide range of pests and pathogens that attack the crop at all stages of its growth (davis et al., 1991; drees and jackman, 1999). these include bacteria, viruses, fungi and insects. many insects have been indicted in reducing the yields of cowpea such as cowpea curculio, mexican bean beetles, aphids, bean leaf beetles, green stink bugs file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org and lesser cornstalk borer (davis et al., 1991; tjai, 2004). due to the great importance of cowpea and its usages, its productivity needs to be well managed so as to optimize its production. in order to do this, all the pests and the pathogens must be checkmated, thus, removing or reducing their limiting effects on the productivity of cowpea. generally, plants are reservoirs of secondary metabolites, the active principles (belandrin et al., 1985; fatoba et al., 2003; jacobson, 1989) are the raw materials for medicine. moreover, the natural products of some plants offer a great potential for the development of some new pesticides and fungicides. there is an immense documentation on the use of neem products as pesticides and fungicides (tjai, 2004) . antimicrobial potentials of some cryptogams have also been reported. in spite of this, there seems to be a rather limited documentation in africa on how it should be used in practical crop protection with regards to methods of application, dosage and target pest. these potentials could be harnessed in boosting food production. this study was therefore designed to investigate the effects of some aqueous cryptogamic extracts on the primary productivity of vigna unguiculata. materials and methods the effects of some plants` extracts were investigated on the primary productivity of cowpea. seeds of v. unguiculata (l.) walp (ife brown variety) were purchased from the kwara state ministry of agriculture, ilorin, nigeria. four pteridophytic plants: dryopteris flixmax (l.) schott. (leaves); nephrolepis davalloides (sw) kunze (leaves); phymatodes scolopenta (whole plant) and platycerium angolense welw., bak. (shoots) were collected from their natural populations in adeyemi college of education campus, ondo, nigeria (07°c 05´n, 04°55´e ) and barbula lambarenensis c. mull. (moss) (whole plant) and twigs of azadrachta indica a. juss (angiosperm) were also collected from the university of ilorin permanent site, ilorin, kwara state ( 08°30´n 08´e) and karate, an insecticide commonly used in kwara state for cowpea production was bought in the agro-chemical store in ilorin, kwara state. the cowpea seeds were subjected to viability test, using floatation method. the viable seeds used for planting twenty eight different ridges were made, two per treatment, with each of them accommodating twenty stands of v. unguiculata planted at 30cm apart with 1 m space in between ridges to exclude interference. a complete randomnized block design (crbd) was used for the experiment. the experiment was replicated twice. planting was done on august 13 th , 2005 and weeding was carried out twice within the first five weeks of planting. 8 g of each of the air-dried plant materials was squeezed and cut into pieces into 1 l of distilled water (cold extracts) and boiled (hot extract). each extract was decanted and used to irrigate the cowpea appropriately twice a week during flowering. two different controls: untreated and the other one was irrigated with karate. the treated and untreated plants were monitored and the productivity variables were measured as follows: the numbers of pods per plant were counted for ten stands and the mean value calculated. the mean length of pod was calculated from the measurements of twenty matured pods with metre rule, that is, two matured pods from each stand. the number of seeds per pod was taken by counting the seeds in 2 pods each from the ten randomly selected stands per treatment and the mean values calculated. the filling potential of the cowpea was calculated with the formula: length of pod (cm) filling potential = number of seeds in the pod the mean number of seeds per plant was calculated as the product of the mean number of seeds per pod and mean number of pods per plant. three stands per treatment were randomly selected and the weight of the seeds of each plant taken separately. the mean value was thereafter calculated. the data generated from the study were compared with the controls using paired student’s ttest. these were further subjected to analysis of variance to show whether there were significant differences among the treatments. observations and results table 1 shows the effects of the different treatments on the measured variables of the pods of v. unguiculata. table 1 further shows that all the selected plants are assumed to have insecticidal and fungicidal properties except the cold extract of b. lambarenesis and the two extracts of d. flix-max. this is because of the exclusion of pests from the treated stands resulting into better yields. their effects are better appreciated when compared with the 2 controls as the entire twelve treatments showed positive effects (tables 1 and 2) . the highest number of pods per plant was recorded in the regime treated with hot extract of a. indica (9.3) followed by its cold extract (table 1). table 1 further shows that the pteridophytic extracts treated plants produced higher numbers of pods though less than those of neem. the hot extracts of b. lambarenensis, p. s colopenta and the two extracts of p. angolense and a. indica and karate, facilitate the production of higher number of pods than the untreated (table 1) . their values are significantly higher than untreated at 0.05% level of probability. furthermore, the plant extracts were better off than the chemical (karate) (tables 1 and 2) the length of pods of the different regimes showed that the cryptogamic extracts (moss and pteridophytes) had longer pods than those of neem and the chemical (table 1). table 2 shows the effects of the different extracts on the production of seeds in v. unguiculata. plants irrigated with cryptogamic extracts had greater number of seeds per pod than neem -treated and the controls. however, there were no significant differences in their pods lengths. the number of seeds per pods in the treated cowpea was better and significantly higher than untreated (table 2). this study showed that plant extracts are better than karate in boosting the primary productivity of cowpea. this statement is further supported by the number of seeds per plant (table 2). the highest number of seeds per plant was recorded in regime treated with cold extract of neem (c 82) followed by cold extract of p. angolense (75), then the hot extract table 1. effects of some plant extracts on the production of pods in v. unguiculata. extract mean number of pod/plant ± sd mean length of pod/plant ± sd of pod/plant ± sd moss b. lambareensis (hot) b 5.3 ± 1.5* a 15.7 ± 6.8 b. lambareensis (cold) e 1.0 ± 0.0 c 4.8 ± 0.0 pteridophytes e 1.0 ± 0.0 b 8.0 ± 0.0 d. flix-max (hot) d. flix-max (cold) e 1.0 ± 0.0 b 7.9 ± 0.0 n. davalloides (hot) e 1.6 ± 0.8 a 12.7 ± 0.0 n. davalloides (cold) d 2.6 ± 1.5 a 14.0 ± 0.0 p. scolopenta (hot) c 4.0 ± 2.3* a 16.5 ± 1.9 p. scolopenta (cold) e 1.6 ± 1.1 a 14.9 ± 4.0 p. angolense (hot) bc 5.0 ± 3.3* a 15.2 ± 0.3 p. angolense (cold) b 6.5 ± 3.8* a 14.7 ± 1.0 angiosperm a. indica (hot) a 9.3 ± 4.7* a 14.2 ± 2.5 a. indica (cold) a 8.5 ± 4.7* a 13.4 ± 4.2 controls karate (chemical) c 3.8 ± 1.8* a 13.3 ± 2.4 no treatment d 2.8 ± 1.3 a 13.5 ± 2.4 n 20 20 values with asterisks are significantly higher than no treatment. values with same alphabet in the same column are the same statistically. table 2. effects of some plant extracts on the production of seeds in v. unguiculata. extract mean number of filling potential mean number of mean weight of seeds/pod ± sd seed/plant seeds/plant ± sd moss c 7.6 ± 0.5* c 40.28 a 16.5 ± 1.0* b. lambareensis (hot) 2.0 b. lambareensis (cold) 0.0 ± 0.0 0 0 e 2.1 ± 1.3 pteridophytes e 2.0 ± 1.1 d. flix-max (hot) 0.0 ± 0.0 0 0 d. flex-max (cold) 0.0 ± 0.0 0 0 e 1.6 ± 0.8 n. davalloides (hot) c 6.0 ± 0.0* 2.11 e 9.6 bc 11.5 ± 0..0* n. davalloides (cold) b8.5 ± 0.7* 1.64 d 22 a 16.5 ± 1..0* p. scolopenta (hot) a 11.5 ± 0.7* 1.43 b46 b 13.3 ± 2..0* p. scolopenta (cold) a 9.5 ± 2.6* 1.56 e 15.2 ab 14.7 ± 1.0* p. angolense (hot) a 10.3 ± 1.5* 1.47 b 51.5 b 12.7 ± 0.9* p. angolense (cold) a 11.5 ± 3.6* 1.27 a 74.75 c 10.3 ± 1.5* angiosperm b 7.8 a 72.54 a 17.1 ± 2.1* a. indica (hot) ± 4.3* 1.82 a. indica (cold) a 9.6 ± 3.2* 1.39 a 81.6 a 15.2 ± 1.7* table 2. cont’d. controls karate (chemical) b6.3 ± 3.3* 2.11 d23.94 ab14.3 ± 1.1* no treatment d4.9 ± 0.7 1.82 e13.92 d.5 ± 0.6 n 20 20 20 20 values with asterisks are significantly higher than no treatment. values with same alphabet in the same column are statistically same. of neem (73), hot extract of p. angolense (52), hot extract of p. scolopenta (46) and hot extract of b. lambarenensis (46), all these were significantly higher than the cowpea treated with karate and the untreated (table 2). this confirmed the relevance of these plants extracts in boosting the production of cowpea. the weight of seeds produced per plant treated was significantly higher than the untreated at 0.05% even most of those treated with plant extracts were better than those treated with karate (table 2). discussion the uses of bryophytes and pteridophytes in medicare have since been identified, while their medicinal potentials have been documented by fatoba et al. (2003) and wilson and loomis (1987). natural products from some plants offer a great potential for the development of some new pesticides and fungicides .this is based on the noticeable resistance of some plants to fungi or some killing or repelling insects. the use of a. indica, neem has been on increase since the discovery of its fungicidal and insecticidal potential. busungo and mushobozy (1999) reported that the leaf powder of neem mixed with the beans at 5% concentration was effective against mexican bean weevils. the water extracts of fresh leaves of neem gave a good control of the stem borers in maize, chlopertellus, when applied into the plant whorls in mozambique (segeren, 1993). generally, neem has been found to exhibit antifecdant, insect repellent and insect sterilization properties. furthermore, extracts of neem as low as 1 ppm will totally repel certain insects (jacobson, 1989; segeren, 1993). this extract interferes with ecdysome, the insect molting hormone and prevents larval and pupae from completing the molting process. since the extracts of some of the selected cryptogams specifically b. lambarenensis, p. scolopenta and p. angolense gave comparative effects in respect of the number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and subsequently per plant, length of pods and weight of seed per plants with a. indica extracts. one could infer that these plants are presumably fungicidal and insect-cidal like neem. this is further supported by their better performances in the primary productivity parameters than the generally acclaimed chemical, karate. therefore, extracts of b. lambarenensis, p. scolopenta and p. angolense can be recommended for use in boosting the production of cowpea. these plants` extracts are deemed to be better than the chemical as they are natural, more effective, non-toxic, environmental friendly free and non polluting unlike the chemical karate. references belandrin mf, klock ja, wurtele es, bollinger wh (1985). natural plant chemicals sources of industrial and medicinal materials. science, 228: 1154-60. bressani ir (1985). nutritive value of cowpea. in cowpea research: production and utilization. john wiley and sons; london, uk. busungo dg, mushobozy dmk (1999). using natural pesticides: current and future perspectives. a report for the plant protection improvement programmes in botswana, zambia and tanzania. davis dv, oelke ea, oplinger ej, doll jd, hanson cv, putnam dh (1991). cowpea alternative field crops manual. university of minnesota, pp. 1-10. drees bm, jackman j (1999). field guide to texas insects. gulf publishing company, houston, texas. enyi ba (1973). effects of intercropping maize or sorghum with cowpea, pea or beans. experimental agric., 9: 83-90. fatoba po, omojasola p, awe s, ahmed fg (2003). phytochemical screening of some selected tropical africa mosses. niseb j., 3(4): 49-52. jacobson m (1989). focus on phytochemical pesticides. the neem tree, crc press, boca raton fl., 1: 178. johnson dt (1970). the cowpea in the area of rhodesia. rhodesia agric. j., 1(6): 61-64. moody k (1973). weed control in cowpea. proceedings of the 3 rd nigerian weed science group meeting of nigerian savanna institute of agricultural research, p. 1322. ng nq, marechal r (1985). cowpea taxonomy, origin and germplasm. in cowpea research, production and utilization. singh and rachie (eds) john wiley and sons, new york. pp. 11-21. segeren p (1993). pesticidas naturais: uma alternativa para o sector familiar? extra –revista para o deslvolvimento e a extensao rural, centro do farmacao agraria e de desenvolvimento rural, maputo mocambique. 12: 34-38. singh sr, rachie ro (1985). cowpea research; production and utilization. john wiley and sons, london u.k. p. 357. summerfield rj, fate js, roberts eh, wien hc (1985). physiology of cowpea. in cowpea research, production and utilization singh and rachie eds john wiley and sons, new york. pp. 66 -101. thomas jefferson agricultural institute (tjai) (2004). cowpea; a versatile legume for hot and dry condition. in growing cowpea production tips, economic and more. columbia, home / crops publication, p. 1-7. whittaker rh (1975). communities and ecosystem, macmillan press, london. pp. 192201. wilson m, loomis j (1987). evolution of land plants. academic press, london. p. 10. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (7), pp. 001-009, july, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper determinants of adopting imazapyr-resistant maize for striga control in western kenya: a double-hurdle approach d. b. mignouna1,2*, v. m. manyong1, k. d. s. mutabazi2 and e. m. senkondo2 1 international institute of tropical agriculture (iita), p. o. box 34441, dar es salaam, tanzania. 2 department of agricultural economics and agribusiness, sokoine university of agriculture (sua), p. o. box 3007 morogoro, tanzania. accepted 10 may, 2017 discussions and debates have been on going about striga, a major constraint to increasing maize production and food security in western kenya. to inform these debates this paper applies econometrics to farm survey data in order to estimate and determine the factors which drive farmers’ decision to adopt imazapyr-resistant maize (irm), a novel technology for striga control. the study uses data from a multistage, random sample of 600 households of which, 169 were irm adopters and 431 were non-adopters. this paper tests the hypothesis that the factors affecting farmers’ decision to adopt irm are not necessarily the same as those affecting their extent of adoption. results from the double-hurdle model indicates that age of the household head, household size, membership to social group, access to extension services and perception towards irm for striga control were found to influence the decision to adopt irm. and, household size, gap between maize production and consumption per capita, access to extension services and perception towards irm for striga control influenced the extent the farmer is willing to adopt. the paper concludes with policy implications aimed at renewing the focus on irm transfer in western kenya and other areas with similar conditions. key words: adoption, double-hurdle model, imazapyr-resistant maize (irm) technology, striga, kenya. introduction since mid-seventies striga has entered africa (klingman, 1961), there is increasing evidence now that striga is a main constraint in increased food production, food security and poverty reduction in western kenya (de groote et al., 2007; kanampiu et al., 2006; manyong et al., 2008; woomer and savala, 2008). after several years, discussions and debates are still going on about many issues regarding striga such as: the severity and incidence of the disease, the magnitude of its economic losses, clear mechanisms of spreading and the new approaches for its control to overcome this nightmare. there is no doubt that a strategic decision should be made to fight striga in order to attain self-sufficiency in *corresponding author. e-mail: mignon_001@yahoo.fr. tel: +255-78-6960907/+255-22-2700092. fax: +255-22-2775021. maize grains and increase food security. despite the introduction of various technologies, traditional and novel ones such as push-pull to farmers, striga continues to expand and the appropriate techniques and strategies to contain striga epidemic deemed as failed. the parasite competes with its host for resources; changes host plant architecture and reduce the photosynthetic rate and the water use efficiency of the host (van ast et al., 2000; watling and press, 2001). this has led to the emergence of a new technology known as imazapyr-resistant maize (irm) which has proven to be efficient for striga control (kanampiu et al., 2006; de groote et al., 2006). the international maize and wheat improvement center (cimmyt), badische anlin and soda fabrik (basf), african agricultural technology foundation (aatf) and other stakeholders have made efforts in bringing irm technology to farmers as assistance for striga control. irm technology utilizes herbicide resistant maize seed file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org coated with the herbicide imazapyr. the herbicide used is derived from a naturally occurring gene in maize originally identified by basf and made available to cimmyt. the technology has been introduced to a large scale since 2004 after field trials and tests organized for farmers in 2002 and 2004. however and surprisingly, only 28% of the sampled households in western kenya adopted it (mignouna et al., 2011) and the reasons for this low adoption are unclear. therefore, there is a need to better understand why before the introduction of any further new agricultural technology. several adoption studies concentrate on crosssectional analysis of the determinants of agricultural adoption at the farm level. for instance, the cimmyt studies in kenya and other east african countries (mwangi et al., 1998; doss, 2003) examined adoption decision processes for maize seed and fertilizer technologies and showed that farmer characteristics such as age, gender, and wealth are keys to adoption decisions. for ouma et al. (2002), they found agroecological differences, gender, manure use, hiring of labour and extension are important to adoption of fertilizer and hybrid seed on maize production in embu district. suri (2011) showed that technology profitability, farmers’ training as well as observed and unobserved differences among farmers and across farming systems are the major determinants affecting maize technology adoption in kenya. according to the study done by jayne et al. (2006), the national-level, region-specific, and household specific factors are associated with smallholders’ use of improved maize technologies in kenya. mwabu et al. (2006) in their research on the adoption of improved maize varieties and their impact on poverty in laikipia and suba districts found that the price of maize, education level, and distance to the roads are the main determinants of hybrid maize adoption by farmers. to inform these debates, this paper aims to support the decision of adopting irm as a practical answer to the striga crisis and applies econometrics to farm survey data in order to estimate and determine the factors affecting farmers’ decision to adopt irm technology in western kenya. this paper tests the hypothesis that factors affecting farmers’ decision of adopting irm are not necessarily the same factors affecting their extent of adoption. methods study area nyanza and western provinces in the lake victoria zone in western kenya were chosen for this study based on the importance of maize as a major food and cash crop for small-scale farmers in the region and of striga, which constitutes the most important biological constraint to the maize production (manyong et al., 2008). soil fertility decline is a major problem in the area as a result of continuous cropping with little use of inputs. furthermore, the mean annual rainfall which ranges from less than 1000 mm near the shores of lake victoria to 2000 mm away from the lakeshore is suitable to striga as it grows well in areas receiving less than 1500 mm rainfall per annum (oswald, 2005). this explains partially the severe infestation of striga (striga hermonthica), a parasitic weed that substantially reduces maize yield in the region. study design and data the household survey was carried out between september and december, 2008. a structured survey questionnaire was prepared and trained enumerators collected the information from households via personal interviews. a multistage, random sampling procedure was adopted to get the total sample size of 600 households comprising 169 adopters and 431 non-adopters of irm from nyanza, and western provinces of western kenya. first, two provinces and six districts were selected regarding the importance of maize production and level of striga infestation. second, 100 farmers were randomly selected from each district and stratified into two, namely adopters of irm and non-adopters. adopters were identified by using the list made available by the front-line extension workers and farmers assisted in confirming it. the data collected valuable information on several variables including socio-economic, farm-related, institutional and technological factors. the technologyadoption decision of a household is assumed to be motivated by utility maximization. theoretical model and empirical specifications adoption is conventionally conceptualized to be the mental process through which an individual passes from first learning about an agricultural innovation to final adoption (mutandwa et al., 2007). adoption is seen as the decision by an individual to become a regular user of the new idea (kotler and armstrong, 1994). authors argue that adoption of a new technological innovation is underpinned by its underlying attributes or consists of inter-related stages (batz et al., 1999; fernandez-cornejo et al., 2002; rogers, 2003). in modeling the utility or satisfaction derived from the use and integration of irm into the smallholder farming system, the economic values or benefits associated with traditional maize varieties such as local maize and systems with the novel variety irm need to be considered. a typical smallholder-farming household seeks to maximize a multi-dimensional objective function, including increasing incomes and food security, and reduction of all forms of risk (strauss et al., 1989). when there is a change in economic parameters associated to irm technology, the central question is related to how much compensation, whether paid or received, would make the decision maker indifferent about the change. thus the change in welfare associated with this development was used as the basis for economic valuation process. when an individual farmer faces a change in a measurable attribute, for example higher control for striga from new irm variety (q), then q changes from q0 to q1 (with q1 > q0). the indirect utility function u after the change becomes higher than the status quo. now the status quo can be represented econometrically as follows: u1j = ui (yi, zj , q°, ε0j ) on the other hand, the changed or final state due to the introduction of irm is shown by: u2j = ui (yi, zj , q 1 , εij) where, yi, refers to the farmer’s income, zj is a vector of the farmer’s socio-economic variables and attributes of choice, and εj is the stochastic error term representing other unobserved utility components, the farmer would opt, pay and adopt irm if the following condition holds: ui (yi – pi, zj , εij ) > u0 (yi , zj , ε0j ) where: pi is the monetary investment associated with the new variety. since the random components of the preferences are not known with certainty; it is only possible to make probabilistic statements about expected outcomes. thus, the decision by the farmer to adopt irm is the probability that he/she will be better off if this variety is used. this is represented as follows: prob (yesi) = prob [ui (yi – pi, zj, εij ) > u0 (yi, zj, εij )] since the afore-mentioned utility functions are expressed generally, it becomes critical to specify the utility function as additively separable in deterministic and stochastic preferences. using, this argument, the function becomes: ui (yi , zj , εij ) = ui (yi, zj ) + εij where: the first part of the right hand side is the deterministic part and the second part is the stochastic part. the assumptions that εij are independently and identically distributed with mean zero describes most widely used distributions. two widely used distributions are the normal (probit) and logistic regression models. in this study, the statistical dichotomous choice data is modeled by superimposing a probability function. the dependent variable takes the value 1 if the smallholder-farming households are willing to adopt irm or 0 if they are not willing to adopt. and if the farming households adopt, how much could they adopt? the observed adoption of irm is hypothesized to be the end result of combined effects of a number of factors related to the farmer's goals and means of achieving them. several hypotheses can be derived from these two sets of decision; factors that affect adoption and factors that affect intensity of irm. the following variables in the models were hypothesized to influence the adoption of irm in different directions. external influences include institutional support systems such as marketing facilities, credit and extension services which are important in affecting adoption (feder, 1980). credit was not included as factor influencing the irm adoption because very few households in the study area used credit to purchase farm inputs. also access of the introduced irm was not included as determinant explaining adoption because access of the novel technology in the study area was mainly done through extension services and farmer’s social groups which were already hypothesized to influence irm adoption. farmer’s age may influence both the decision to adopt and extent of adoption of irm. it may be that older farmers are more risk averse and less likely to be flexible than younger farmers and thus could have a lesser likelihood of adopting new technologies. however, it could also be that older farmers have gained over time farming knowledge and experience and could be better able in evaluating technology information than younger farmers, and hence could have a higher probability of adopting the practice (feder et al., 1985; belknap and saupe, 1988). for the gender of the household head the assumption made was that the head of the household is the primary decision maker and gender difference could be found to be one of the factors influencing the adoption of new technologies. due to many socio-cultural values and norms, males have more access and control over vital production resources such as land, information, credit and labour than women (njeri, 2007). therefore, it was hypothesized that gender could be related to the adoption of irm package. education level of the household head increases farmer's ability to obtain, process, and use information relevant to the adoption of irm. thus educated farmers have been found to be more likely to adopt innovations (nkamleu and adesina, 2000; asfaw and admassie, 2004). thus it is hypothesized that farmers with more education could be more likely to adopt irm than farmers with less education depending also on the education level (that is, primary, junior and secondary levels of education). household size, a proxy to labour availability can be an incentive to produce more to meet the needs hence looks for high-yielding varieties in the striga environment. therefore a positive relationship was hypothesized between irm package and household size is the major source of labour for farm activities (adesina et al., 2000). large households have the capacity to relax the labour constraints required during the introduction of new technologies (ayuya et al., 2011). it is expected that a larger household size could affect the decision of adopting irm. farm size is hypothesized in a way that those producers with more land could be more likely to increase the intensity of adoption. having a large land contributes to perceived security and increased willingness to invest in new technology (caveness and kurtz, 1993). as a result, positive relationship was hypothesized between farm size and irm adoption. gap between maize production and consumption per capita is hypothesized to be a stimulant of irm adoption. the difference between maize production and consumption per capita which can result into deficit can stimulate the demand for highyielding varieties. belonging to a rural social group enhances social capital allowing trust, idea and information exchange. better social relations and communication among farmers are crucial for technology adoption and diffusion. thus membership to a group could increase the technology adoption. access to extension services is hypothesized to relate to adoption by exposing farmers to new information and technical skills about striga control. perception of the farmer towards irm for striga control is critical in the adoption decision (dolisca et al., 2006) in motivating farmers. farmers who perceived irm as being consistent with their needs and compatible to their environment were expected to adopt it since they find it as a positive investment. perception towards irm is hypothesized to be positively related to the adoption decision. econometric specification: the double-hurdle model while other studies have approached a similar problem using the logistic analysis (kavia et al., 2007), heckman procedure (nkonya et al., 1998; adeoti, 2009); this paper compares the results from a joint tobit and a double-hurdle (dh) models because we believe that factors that affect farmers’ choice of an option should not necessarily be the same as those that affect the intensity of use. this is because the decision to choose a particular maize option is obviously associated with some threshold effects. in terms of policy relevance, our analysis clearly shows that adoption and intensity may be different decisions and that estimation of intensity on the basis of factors affecting adoption, as implied by other approaches, may be liable to error. the dh model, originally proposed by cragg (1971) has been extensively applied in several studies (martínez-espiñeira, 2006; moffatt, 2003; newman et al., 2001; burton et al., 1996). however, it has not been much used in the area of adoption of agricultural technologies; an exception would be berhanu and swinton (2003). double-hurdle model was used in this case to determine the factors that influence the decision to adopt and the extent of adoption of irm in order to identify areas of intervention. the underlying assumption in the dh approach is that farmers make two decisions with regard to their decision to grow irm. the first decision is whether they will grow irm. the second decision is about the amount of land that they will allocate, conditional on the first decision. the two decisions are, therefore, whether to grow irm and how much to grow. the importance of treating the two decisions independently lies in the fact that factors that affect one’s decision to adopt may be different from those that affect the decision on how much to adopt. this implies that households must cross two hurdles in order to adopt. the first hurdle needs to be crossed in order to be a potential adopter. given that the households is a potential adopter, their current circumstances then dictate whether or not they do in fact adopt: this is the second hurdle (moffatt, 2003). the dh model allows for the possibility that these two decisions are affected by a different set of variables. the advantage with this approach is that it allows us to understand characteristics of a class of households that would never adopt irm. thus the probability of a household to belong to a particular class depends on a set of household characteristics. the dh model is a parametric generalization of the tobit model, in which two separate stochastic processes determine the decision to adopt and the level of adoption of technology. the first equation in the dh model relates to the decision to adopt (y) can be expressed as follows: yi = 1 if yi * > 0 and 0 if yi * ≤ 0 (1) yi * = xi ' α  ε i where: y * is latent adoption variable that takes the value of 1 if a household grew irm and 0 otherwise, x is a vector of household characteristics and α is a vector of parameters. the second hurdle, which closely resembles the tobit model, is expressed as: ti = ti * > 0 and yi * > 0 ti = 0 otherwise t * = z ' β  u i (2) i i where: ti is the observed response on how much land one allocated to irm, z is a vector of the household characteristics and β is a vector of parameters. the decision of whether or not to adopt irm and about how much land to allocate to irm can be jointly modelled, if they are made simultaneously by the household; independently, if they are made separately; or sequentially, if one is made first and affects the other one as in the dominance model (martínez-espiñeira, 2006). if the independence model applies, the error terms are distributed as follows: ε i ~ n (0, 1) and ui ~ n(0,δ 2 ). if both decisions are made jointly (the dependent dh) the error term can be defined as: ( ε i ui) ~ bv n(0,υ) 1 ρδ where y  ρδ δ 2 the model is said to be a dependent model if there is a relationship between the decision to adopt and the intensity of adoption. this relationship can be expressed as follows: ρ  cov(ε i ui ) var(ε i ) var(ui ) if ρ = 0 and there is dominance (the zeros are only associated to non-participation, not standard corner solutions) then the model decomposes into a probit for participation and standard ols for y. following smith (2003) we assume that the error terms and ε i and ui are independently and normally distributed and thus we have the following expression: ε 01 0 i n , 2 δ u i 00 and finally, the observed variable in a dh model is ti  yi ti * and the log-likelihood function for the dh model is: z ' β 1 y − x ' β logl  ∑ln 1 − φxi ' α φ i  ∑ln φzi ' α  φ i i δ δ δ 0  where: φ (·) refer to the standard normal probability and φ (·) refer to density functions. thus in this study we estimate the decision to adopt and the extent of adoption using a dh model. results and discussion descriptive statistics table 1 presents the t-test and chi-square comparison of means of selected variables by adoption status for the surveyed households. some of these characteristics are the explanatory variables of the estimated models we present further on. the dataset contains 600 farm households and of these, about 28% were adopters, that is, planted at least a unit of square meter of irm during 2007/08 cropping season. the area planted of irm is about 0.23 ha for adopters. the analysis of the data shows that there is a significant (p < 0.01) mean difference between age of adopters and non-adopters. average age of sample household head is about 49 years with non-adopters. no significant difference is observable in the gender of the household head although the groups vary significantly in terms of their education level. primary and junior levels of education (1 to 8 years) are lower for adopters however adopters have higher proportion of household heads with secondary education. this suggests that education might be correlated with decision to adopt. the household size is 6.22 persons for adopters and 5.28 for non-adopters and the difference is statistically significant suggesting the importance of family size for adoption of new technologies. no significant difference is observable in total farm size and gap between maize production and consumption per table 1. descriptive summary of variables used in estimations (n = 600). variable unit adopters non-adopters t-stat (chi (n=169) (n=431) square) dependent variable area planted of irm ha 0.23 0.00 0.23*** adoption 1/0 1.00 0.00 independent variable age of the hhh years 48.92 45.19 3.73*** gender of hhh (male=1) 1/0 0.71 0.75 -0.04 hhh education 1-4 years (yes=1) 1/0 0.09 0.27 -0.17*** hhh education 5-8 years (yes=1) 1/0 0.36 0.48 -0.12*** hhh education greater than 8 years (yes=1) 1/0 0.54 0.25 0.29*** hh size count 6.22 5.28 0.94*** farm size ha 0.85 0.41 0.44 gap between maize production and consumption per capita kg -116.66 8.21 -124.87 membership to social group (yes-1) 1/0 0.75 0.58 0.17*** access to extension services (yes=1) 1/0 0.70 0.39 0.32*** perception towards irm for striga control 1/0 0.96 0.72 0.25*** statistical significance at the 99% (***), 95% (**) and 90% (*) confidence levels; hhh= household head. capita. there is significant difference in terms of household membership in different rural institutions. the result also depicts that the adopter categories are distinguishable in terms of their access to extension services and perception towards irm for striga control. this simple comparison of the two groups of smallholders suggests that adopters and non-adopters differ signifycantly in some proxies of socio-economic characteristics. econometric results all parameter estimates of the models were generated using stata version 11 (statacorp, 2009) and the results from the study showed that the coefficients of most of the variables hypothesized to influence the decision and extent of adoption of irm have the expected signs. the probit results on the decision to adopt irm and truncated regression analysis results on the extent of adoption are presented in table 2. determinants of irm adoption to identify the factors influencing the decision to adopt irm, the probit model was estimated (first hurdle). the results shown in table 2 reveal that five factors are significant in influencing farmers’ decision to adopt irm of whose four at 1% namely: age of household head, household size, access to extension services and perception towards irm for striga control. membership to any rural association is significant at 5%. the log likelihood for the fitted model was -231.29402 and the χ2 value of 232.48 indicates that all parameters are jointly significant at 5%. age has been found to have a positive relationship with the decision to adopt irm technology implying that old farmers are more willing to adopt irm than young farmers as a result of age based knowledge gained and probably experiences accumulated over years’ differences. however these results were inconsistent with those of langyintuo and mulugetta (2005), rahelizatovo and gillespie (2004), barham et al. (2004), and baidu-forson (1999), who argued before that younger farmers are more receptive towards newly introduced technologies than older farmers. the effect of household size was found to be positive and significant suggesting that the larger in number of persons in the household the more likely the farmer is willing to accept high-yielding variety in striga infestation environment. the interpretation for this is that the bigger the household size the more the farmer flexibility in their decision making certainly due to availability of more labour to use on the new practices. similar results were found by amsalu and jan de (2007) who stated that the household size had a significant and positive effect on determinants of adoption and continued use of stone terraces for soil and water conservation in an ethiopian highland watershed. membership to a social group which assessed whether the farmer or household is part of a community organization or cooperative was found to be positively and significantly associated with a higher probability of adopting irm. this agrees with walton et al. (1969) that the most important issue in adopting a new technology is group unity. such unity is attributed to a spirit of teamwork table 2. maximum likelihood estimates for the joint tobit and hurdle models. model specification joint double-hurdle tobit probit truncated dependent variable area planted of irm dummy = 1 if irm adopted area planted of irm variable coefficient coefficient coefficient age of the hhh 0.0129*** 0.0635*** 0.0005 gender of hhh (male=1) -0.0741** -0.2380 -0.0120 hhh education 1-4 years (yes=1) -0.1118 -0.9284 0.2132 hhh education 5-8 years (yes=1) 0.1361 0.1802 0.2366 hhh education greater than 8 years (yes=1) 0.4140** 1.5767 0.2544 hh size 0.0377*** 0.0901*** 0.0380*** farm size -0.0010 -0.0052 0.0160 gap between maize production and consumption per capita 0.0001*** 0.0000 0.0002*** membership to social group (yes-1) 0.0769** 0.3545** 0.0035 access to extension services (yes=1) 0.1017*** 0.4486*** 0.0602*** perception towards irm for striga control 0.2715*** 1.3262*** -0.0908** constant -1.4336*** -6.0134*** -0.2328 model summary number of observations 573 573 169 log-likelihood -141.54089 -231.29402 196.83067 lr chi2(11),wald chi2 (11) 233.21 232.48 364.27 prob > chi2 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 aic (-log-l + k/n) 0.27 -1.09 lr test for tobit vs. truncated regression 214.16 (0.0000) *, **, *** coefficients are significantly different from zero at the 99% (***), 95% (**) and 90% (*) confidence levels, respectively. and cooperation where there is communication. membership to a group may enable farmers to learn about a technology via other farmers and from other development agencies (nkamleu, 2007). information flow between members of farmer groups is usually very rapid and important. farmer groups give their members a wider opportunity for educating each other. higher interactions among members of a group increase chances to widen understanding of new technologies and their advantages. these results underscore the importance of social capital in accessing new technologies by the poor smallholder farmers. access to extension services was found positively significant, which implies that the contact with an extension agent is necessary to enhance the rate of adoption. as extension services popularize the innovation by providing necessary information, appropriate knowledge and special skills, they enable farmers to apply innovation. majority of the farmers in western kenya have not been able to obtain technological information due to lack of know-how, access to communication media and technical training. this finding is in conformity with other studies (abebaw and belay, 2001). likewise adesina et al. (2000) found that the probability of adoption is also higher for farmers organized in groups. the decision to adopt is also influenced by farmers subjective perceptions of the characteristics of new agricultural technologies as found adesina and baiduforson (1995). perception towards irm for striga control is positively and significantly associated with a great likelihood of adopting irm having in mind the yield performance that will be generated from irm. positive perception increases the probability of adoption (ostlund, 1974). farmers who perceived the technology as beneficial to them would adopt it more than those whose perception is negative or indifferent. determinants of extent of adoption the estimated results for dh and tobit models on adoption of irm in western kenya are presented in table 2. the tobit model results have been presented for comparison. the results from the two models were comparable which show the robustness of our results to model specification. all the statistically significant variables except the perception towards the technology for striga control had the same directional effects in all of the two models. the likelihood ratio test statistic specified in table 2 favoured the dh model over the tobit. the akaike information criterion (aic) estimates also confirmed the same model as a better fit for the data. henceforth, we shall base our discussion on the results from the dh model. four variables were found to have significant effects in explaining the level of adoption of irm by households, measured in term of area planted under irm. these included household size, gap between maize production and consumption per capita, access to extension services and perception towards irm for striga control. as argued by asfaw et al. (2010) awareness in technology transfer is very important. in most of the adoption cases in developing countries, adoption is hampered not only by the characteristics of the new varieties but by lack of awareness of the end users of the technologies. farmers’ awareness about the available improved varieties is therefore critical in the adoption programme. our results confirm with this preposition. in line with our expectation, access to extension services was statistically significant in explaining the level of adoption. the institutional setting of the farm system has a profound influence on the adoption of technologies and institutional factors like frequent extension contacts are positively related to the adoption decision of farmers (tesfaye et al., 2001; habtemariam, 2004). they may merely create social pressure for farmers to use inputs and the methods the agents advocate (moser and barrett, 2006). these contacts illustrate that the availability of reliable information sources will enhance the communication process and have significant associations with the adoption of improved technologies. access to extension services enables farmers to get exposed and more familiar with a new variety. extension service is one of the most prearranged conditions for creating awareness and building the necessary knowledge for using the innovation following the approach which is most convenient for farmers. farmers’ perception towards irm for striga was negative and significant in explaining the extent of irm adoption. the negative sign of the perception variable is unexpected and may be explained by the possibility that farmers’ positive perception about irm has been distorted by other perceptions/attitudes or due to negative correlation between this variable and other varietal characteristics not included in the model. the significance of household size suggests that large households are more likely to invest in new technologies as they can guarantee an adequate supply of farm labour necessary for the expansion of farm enterprises. this may suggest that encouraging them to operate in large number could be regarded as a policy relatively likely to increase productivity. the gap between maize production and consumption per capita was statistically significantly (p < 0.05) and supports the hypothesized sign that the deficit of maize production per capita influences positively the adoption of technology. any household failed to reach the expected level of maize production due to striga, ends in a deficit which is consequently encourage to seek for high-yielding maize varieties to increase its production and therefore likely to adopt irm. this result confirms the existence of substantial opportunities of increasing maize production via augmenting irm adoption. conclusion and recommendations this study provides an analysis of the determinants of adoption of irm using a dh model due to a hypothesis that factors that affect the decision to adopt irm may be different from those that influence the extent of adoption. the findings from this study indicate that although in general there is a positive correlation between probability of adoption and intensity of irm use, we note some differences with regard to the factors that influence the two decisions. results reveal that age had a positive effect on the decision to adopt while it had no effect on the extent of adoption. the similar effect has been observed with the gap between maize production and consumption per capita, which had a positive effect on the extent of adoption without effect on the decision of adoption. the effect of farmers’ perception towards irm on adoption decision is another example of variable with an opposite effect between the two stages of adoption. results indicated that while perception leads to increased probability of adoption, it has a negative effect on the extent of adoption. the results indicate also that although membership to any social group increases the likelihood of adoption, it does not influence the extent of irm area cultivated. these results have a number of implications in terms of sustaining smallholder agriculture already in peril in western kenya and which are critical for fighting striga. an interesting lesson from this study is that it is important to consider the two stages of adoption in order to improve farmers’ ability to adopt, and increase intensity of irm use because factors that affect the decision to adopt are not necessarily the same factors that affect the decision on the extent of adoption. factors such as age, household size, extension services, membership to social group, gap between maize production and consumption per capita and perception may enhance or limit adoption and diffusion of irm technology. to develop a successful striga control programme in the area, these factors have to be taken into consideration focusing first on factors that affect households’ decision of adoption. policy makers and 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that often describes the process of automating sales activities within a firm (lingaiah et al., 2003). through its boundary spanning activity, sales force plays a critical role in building mutually beneficial long-term customer relationships with clients (weitz and bradford, 1999). sfa represents the crm application in support of selling tasks and it is of great potential for collection and distribution of market information and the creation of valuable customer dealings (day, 1992). sfa encompasses a set of tools related to a variety of tasks and functions such as communication, presentation generation or customer information management. as competition increases and technology advances, organization continues to seek ways to adjust to changing business environments. this is especially true, in the personal selling context where salespeople are recognized as the boundary spanners and are expected to be relationship managers (kotler and martha 224 armstrong, 1994). the salesperson is constrained to do more in less time and technological advancements have become an integral part of the personal selling and sales manage-ment process. sales technology enables sales people answering the queries of customers to effectively provide competent solutions. this can lead to strong relationship between a salesperson and customer. however previous studies (homburg et al., 2010) have shown that even superiors who have a less intense relationship with salespeople still exert a significant influence on their sfa adoption. kenya’s insurance industry consisted of 43 insurance companies and 2 reinsurance companies licensed to operate in kenya. in addition, there were 201 licensed brokers, 21 medical insurance providers (mips) and 2,665 insurance agents. insurance policies are sold by agents who are recruited by the insurance companies and are usually not employees of these institutions. as such, the agents earns on commission bases and have to work extra hard to have their commissions grow from one level to the other. the individual companies invest on sfa tools to be used by their sales team. taylor (1993) reports that sfa provides salespeople with faster access to information, thus reducing the time required to prepare for a client presentation and reducing the number of follow-ups when further information is requested. verity (1993) identifies several additional benefits from sfa, including the reduction of errors common with manual sales processing, reduced support costs, improved close rates, and an increase in the average selling price through more accurate and timely pricing information. despite the benefits, the adoption of sfa technology by the sales force continues to be sluggish. previous studies investigating drivers of salespeople’s sfa adoption have mainly scrutinized predictors on the level of salespeople (within-level analysis). hence, these studies have mostly neglected the social influence of coworkers’ and superiors’ on salespeople’s sfa adoption (homburg et al., 2010). the purpose of this study was to assess the effect of various factors on sales force adoption of technology among insurance sales agents in kenya. this study adopted the tam model by venkatesh and davis (2000) which provided more detailed explanations for the reasons participants finds a given system useful. this study analyzed the effect of system characteristics, ease of use, social characteristics and organizational environment on salesperson technology adoption. literature review theory of reasoned action (tra) is a widely validated intention model that has proven successful in predicting and explaining behavior across a wide variety of domains (fishbein and ajzen’s, 1975). ajzen (1985) extended the theory by including another construct called perceived behavioral control, which predicts behavioral intentions and behavior. the extended model is called the theory of planned behavior (tpb). previous studies (mathieson, 1991; taylor and todd, 1995; venkatesh and davies, 2000) have used the two theories for studying the determinants of technology adoption usage behavior. the technology acceptance model (tam) was theoretically derived from fishbein and ajzen’s (1975) theory of reasoned action (tra), and attempts to explain the determinants of computer use across a broad range of end-user computing technologies and populations (davis et al., 1989). tam explains an individual’s acceptance of computer technology based on two specific beliefs: perceived usefulness (that is, the degree to which a person thinks that using a system enhances his/her performance) and perceived ease of use (that is, the extent to which an individual believes that using the technology requires little effort). tam theorizes that both beliefs directly determine adoption. the theory also suggests that perceived ease of use influences perceived usefulness, because, technologies that are easy to use can be more useful. in fact, the efforts saved due to easyto-use systems may be reused to complete more work for the same overall effort (davis et al., 1989). sfa systems consist of centralized database systems that can be accessed through a modem by remote laptop computers using special sfa software. an sfa system also enables a salesperson to file regular reports electronically without having to travel to the central office in person. the social factors of sfa-applications increase with the number of users within a focal salesperson’s social environment (markus, 1990). secondly, social influence may be normative in nature and affects social persuasion and interpersonal communications. demographic characteristics comprise one of the factors (other than personal and environmental) which play an important role in determining the timing of the adoption of an sfa system (chen et al., 2011). this includes age, experience and education. in sales automation, user training in a system with field support have been proposed as critical success factors for intra-firm adoption. in addition, user training is used to inculcate corporate goals and increase salespeople’s motivation to adopt the technology. personal innovativeness has a long standing tradition in the fields of marketing and innovation adoption and better realize the usefulness of these systems for their sales activities (churchill et al., 1993). the concept of computer selfefficacy on how well one can execute a course of action required to deal with prospective situations is also very important in sfa (bandura, 1986). several studies have found empirical evidence to support the fact that selfefficacy in the domain of computer technology is significantly related to the perceptions users hold about these technologies. adoption of innovation is typically considered a discrete or dichotomous phenomenon (westphal et al., 1997). sales force technology usage has changed the methods of selling and requires salespeople to develop a technological orientation to access, analyze, and communicate information in order to establish a strong relationship with customers (hunter and perreault, 2006). sales technology enables salesperson’s answering the queries of customers to effectively provide competent solutions. this can lead to strong relationships between a salesperson and a customer. thus, technology tools are used not only for smoothing the work process but they also have strategic utilizations. the ongoing changes and challenges that characterize today’s business environment have made it far more difficult for firms to compete effectively based on traditional marketing. as a consequence, we have begun to witness a transition wherein firms are extending their focus from simply selling to business customers to serving them more effectively in different ways (parasuraman and grewal, 2000). this transition includes the dramatic growth and use of customer relationship management (crm) technology to building a competitive strategy (musalem and joshi, 2009). the tremendous growth in crm and sales force automation (sfa) systems that integrate tools such as planning and product configuration to make salespeople more efficient and effective (moutot and bascoul, 2008) and the successfully adoption help firms exploit their sales force capability and enhance selling techniques, thereby increasing performance (hollenbeck et al., 2009; rapp et al., 2010). research methodology the study adopted explanatory design in order to establish casual relations between the variables. this quantitative study used primary data which was obtained from sales agents in the insurance industry in kenya. the target population was 2665 registered insurance sales agents as per the insurance regulatory authority (2013). a sample of 173 sales agents were randomly selected and issued with a questionnaire adopted and modified from previous studies. from the questionnaires issued, 163 were received; out of which 7 were rejected because they were incomplete leaving 156 usable questionnaires. respondents were assured of confidentiality of their responses by not sharing any information gathered from them and by not writing their names on the questionnaire. there were four independent variables in the study. system characteristics variable had two sub-constructs; perceived useful-ness and perceived ease of use and were measured using a five point likert scale. salesperson characteristics variable also has two sub-constructs, innovativeness and computer self-efficacy, and was measured using a five point likert scale. while organizational facilitators variable has two sub-constructs, user training and technical support, measured through a likert scale. the fourth variable of social influence was measured with a five point likert scale addressing peer usage among other sales agents. the dependent variable was a binary measure of usage or not using sfa systems. the data were entered into an spss package and then descriptive analysis of the data was conducted in order to check the representativeness of the respondents and the nature of their responses. thereafter, a logit model was 225 afr. j. agric. mark. used to determine the effects of the independent variables on sales force technology adoption among insurance sales agents. the major focus of the study was the likelihood or probability of the outcome, that is, whether the respondent has adopted technology or not, the binary response in this study was whether the respondent had adopted technology (“success”) or had not adopted technology (failure) and the analytical model was as follows: logit p(y) = α + ∑βixi + μi where: yi = 1 if success (respondent has adopted technology = 0 if failure (respondent has not adopted technology α = constant term βi’s = logistic coefficients for the independent variables μi = error term xi’s = independent variables such that: x1 = social characteristics x2 = system characteristics x3 = organization facilitators x4 = salesperson characteristics. results a total of 163 questionnaires were received out of the possible 173.out of the 163, seven questionnaires were rejected because they were incomplete. the respondents had only answered the personal information section and the rest of the questions were left unanswered.the majority of the insurance sales agents who responded were between the age of 26 35 years (65,4%), only 16% of the respondents are above age of 36 years. most (57.7%) of the insurance agents are diploma holders with 7.1% are degree holders and the rest 35.3% only have secondary level education. the results indicate that most (74.4%) agents have only three years in the profession due to the fact, sales agents do not work for long, they opt to look for other jobs. descriptive statistics the results indicate that the majority of the respondents have not adopted technology (mean 1.4786, sd .37898) in their selling process. the respondents perceive that it is not very difficult to use. the results indicated that a few agents would experiment on a new technology while it was clear that a few would really innovate on information technology. the results indicated that majority of the sales agents computer efficacy is high with the mean being above 50% on all items that were being measured. the results indicated that majority of the sales people in the insurance industry actually do receive training on the usage of sa-tools of their organizations. sales agents work in teams and so there is a lot of influence from the peers. this was confirmed by the analysis done in that above 50% of the sales agents do make use of the sa tools and influences others to follow suit. the support given by the management is quite good; with above 50% of those interviewed feeling that enough martha 226 table 1. descriptive statistics of the study variables. variable mean standard deviation skewness kurtosis statistic statistic statistic standard error statistic standard error system characteristics 3.0248 .49588 -.170 .194 -.355 .386 salesperson characteristics 3.5874 .24431 1.216 .194 5.682 .386 organization facilitators 3.9268 .90138 -.217 .194 -.774 .386 social characteristics 3.1453 1.08570 -.689 .194 -.468 .386 tech adoption 1.4786 .37898 .147 .194 -1.380 .386 source: research data (2013). table 2. correlation of independent variables of sfa adoption. pearson correlation organizational system social salesperson adoption factors characteristics characteristics characteristics organizational factors 1 system characteristics .414 ** 1 social characteristics .785 ** .304 ** 1 salesperson characteristics -.325 ** -.143 -.280 ** 1 adoption .409 ** .086 .304 ** -.133 1 **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). source: research data (2013). support is given. insurance sales agents really do require a lot of technology in their selling process; here the results indicated that they have adopted technology differently. less than 50% (mean = 1.4786) of all those interviewed use the company sales automation tools frequently. some of the sales agents fully use the capabilities of the sa program of their companies (table 1). relationships the correlation results (table 2) show that the four variables identified affecting technology adoptions were correlated. technology adoption has a significant relationship with organizational (p .409) and social (p .304) factors. the relationship with system characteristics was not significant. the results indicated that salesperson characteristics negatively (p -.133) influence the adoption behavior of the insurance salespeople. the results also show a negative relationship with social and organization characteristics. this implies that sales agents who have advanced in age or with many years’ experience are not willing to change and start using new technologies. logit regression a logit regression was run to test how various variables affect technology adoption. it was realized that among the four independent variables, the organization variable positively affects the technology adoption of sales agents, while social characteristics and system characteristics affected technology adoption slightly and salesperson characteristics do not have a positive effect on the adoption of technology. from the results, it was clear that the sales agents have not used their sales automation capabilities fully because p(y) = 0.26004452 which is closer to 0. this showed that the four variables identified in this study influence technology adoption. the results were as shown in table 3. the study results show that organizational factors, social and system characteristics do affect technology adoption among insurance agents and that the salesperson characteristics negatively influence technology adoption among insurance agents. the salesperson characteristics that really affect the technology adoption include the age and education levels of the insurance agents. the young people seemed to integrate technology into their work while the old were glued to the old selling methods. it was also noted that the sales agents have not adopted technology in their sales activities as it is supposed to be. the results of this study are in line with previous studies on tam e.g. homburg et al. (2010) and chen et al. (2011). discussion and conclusions the study findings of this study show the challenges in automation of sales force activities. like in previous studies (chen et al., 2011), conscientiousness is positively related to the efficient use of sales force automation 227 afr. j. agric. mark. table 3. marginal effects after logit. variable dy/dx std. err. z p>|z| [95% c.i.] x y zorgan~s -.2531228 .08667 -2.92 0.003 -.423 -. 083246 -.004102 zsyste~s .098604 .05148 1.92 0.055 -.002303 .199511 .003576 zsocia~t -.0100023 .06245 -0.16 0.873 -.132397 .112392 -.00508 zsales~r .1126984 .08764 -1.29 0.198 -.284465 .059068 -.121806 _iage_2* .0135901 .13833 0.10 0.922 -.257526 .284706 .322581 _iage_3* -.0255411 .1455 -0.18 0.861 -.310718 .259636 .335484 _iage_4* -.0273162 .11849 -0.23 0.818 -.259555 .204922 .16129 _ieduc~2* .1846403 .09342 1.98 0.048 .001535 .367745 .574194 _ieduc~3* .5155765 .16904 3.05 0.002 .184264 .84689 .070968 _iexpe~2* .1704035 .16131 1.06 0.291 -.14575 .486556 .206452 _iexpe~3* -.1212711 .15866 -0.76 0.445 -.432235 .189693 .051613 (*) dy/dx is for discrete change of dummy variable from 0 to 1; y =pr (techadoptionnew4) (predict); y= 0.26004452. source: research data (2013). (sfa) for planning and territory management. although the benefits of sfa are clear, management require to provide user support. users of sfa can produce sales forecasts and analyze reasons for won and lost opportunities. in addition sales automation software enables sales representatives to manage their client’s lists contacts, products, price lists, orders, documents and electronic mail from remote regions. the sfa also lower the cost of leads and sales, enhancing teamwork and productivity, improving customer satisfaction and retention, facilitating communication with the office and instantaneous forecasts. there is need to carry out a continuous training needs assessment to be able to know the gap between what the sales agents already know and what they ought to know so that any time there is a gap, a training session should be carried out in order for them to appreciate and embrace technology. prior research provides strong conceptual as well as empirical evidence for within-level relationships at the salespeople’s level (venkatesh, 2000). the findings demonstrate that coworkers’ and superiors’ sfa adoption has a positive effect on subordinates’ sfa adoption which goes beyond the commonly tested determinants (homburg, 2010). sales people work in teams, and such, it is recommended that the management should really try to ensure that the teams are cohesive and they should also come up with team building strategies which will enable the members in various teams to share their experiences and will develop each other as far as technology usage is concerned. such strategies include holding team building meetings away from the normal working environment. the management of insurance companies should ensure installations of sfa tools in their companies in order to reap its benefits which will surpass the initial costs. sales force automation maintains records of customers and allows sales managers to track the activities of their sales people. it also help sales representatives sell more consultatively by providing survey questions to access customer needs, and helps to attract new representatives to the firm. other benefits of sfa are faster feedback to the marketing department of product/service, problems encountered by customers, more accurate pricing and ordering process and the provision of a central database of customer profile. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. references ajzen i (1985). from intentions to actions: a theory of planned behavior: in action control: from cognition to behavior. j. organizational behavior and human decisionprocesses. 4:11-39 bandura a (1986). social foundations of thought and action. a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, nj7 prentice hall. chen c-w, tseng c-p, lee k-l, yang h-c (2011). conceptual framework and research method for personality traits and sales force automation usage, sci. res. essays 6(17):3784-3793. churchill ga (1973). a paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. j. marketing research 16: 64–73. davis fd, bagozzi rp, warshaw pr (1989). user acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. j. manage. sci. 35(8): 982– 1003. fishbein m, ajzen i (1975). belief, attitude, intention and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. reading, ma7 addison-wesley. homburg c, jan w, christina k (2010). social influence on salespeople ’s adoption of sales technology: a martha 228 multilevel analysis, academy of marketing science. hunter gk, perreault jr. wd (2006). “sales technology orientation information effectiveness, and sales performance,” j. personal selling & sales management. 26(2):95–113. kotler p, armstrong g (2004). principles of marketing, prentice hall new jersey, englewood cliffs. lingaiah n, pires g, stanton j (2003). an evaluation of marketing issues in sales force automation. anzmac conference proceedings adelaide. markus r (1990). toward a critical mass theory of interactive media: universal access, interdependence and diffusion. in fulk j., & steinfeld c. 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technology acceptance model. inform. syst. res. 11(4): 342–365. venkatesh v, davis fd (2000). a theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. j. manage. sci. 46(2):186– 204. weitz ba, bradford kd (1999). personal selling and sales management: a relationship marketing perspective, j. acad. mrkt. sci. 27(2):241-254. © author(s) retain the copyright of this article. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 4 (2), pp. 001-009, february, 2016. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper an analysis of institutional and technical factors influencing agricultural marketing amongst smallholder farmers in the kat river valley, eastern cape province, south africa b. jari1* and g. c. g. fraser2 1 department of agricultural economics and extension, university of fort hare, alice 5700, eastern cape, south africa. 2 department of economics and economic history, rhodes university, south africa. accepted 12 november, 2015 smallholder farmers in the kat river valley do not use output markets effectively due to a number of factors. the technical and institutional factors that demoralise them from marketing are identified in this paper. it is asserted that an explicit analysis in the relationship between technology, institutions and markets may be useful in developing livelihood improving programs. therefore, by identifying such factors, the paper seeks to find out ways of improving market participation among the smallholders, hence, livelihood development. the multinomial regression model was used to investigate the factors that influence marketing choices among smallholder and emerging farmers in the area under study. empirical results show that market information, expertise on grades and standards, contractual agreements, social capital, market infrastructure, group participation and tradition significantly influence household marketing behaviour. key words: smallholder farmers, market participation, institutional and technical factors, multinomial logistic regression model. introduction in the age of trade liberalization and globalisation, the world markets are increasingly being integrated. this implies that farmers in the developing world are ever more linked to consumers and corporations of the rich nations. consequently, local farmers are facing increasing market competition, not only in international markets, but in local markets as well. in an effort to withstand the market pressures, agricultural markets are now transforming to a vertically coordinated structure (reardon and barrett, 2000). also, both the private and public sectors have made some adjustments in agricultural markets, in order to survive competition resulting from market changes. the south african agricultural sector was deregulated in 1997, with the aim of creating an open and market *corresponding author. e-mail: beejaery@yahoo.com. tel: +27738599594. oriented environment for boosting the sector. based on the agricultural products act of 1996, government intervention in agricultural marketing through the use of control boards was ceased. this change resulted in smallholder farmers and other formerly deprived farmers in output markets being included in agricultural marketing (meyer et al., 2002). although the policy is now oriented in favour of smallholder farmers, they still have to compete for markets with the already developed commercial sector. for this reason, their survival in the markets is still at stake. in output markets, smallholder farmers often faced with difficulties in enforcing contracts and meeting stringent food safety norms, lack skills, are located in remote areas and mostly rely on middlemen. they are also served by poor physical infrastructures and weak institutions in markets (kherallah and kirsten, 2001; makhura, 2001). understanding such challenges among smallholder farmers is important in identifying areas that need focus and direction for improvement. in the light of these challenges, suggestions can be made on how to file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org improve smallholder farmers’ 3 participation in output markets the main objective of this study is to identify and assess the technical and institutional factors influencing agricultural market participation behaviour amongst smallholder farmers in the kat river valley of the eastern cape province in south africa. the study focuses on the factors that compel smallholder farmers to make certain marketing decisions. thus, it considers factors that guide farmers in deciding whether to sell produce or not. it further looks at the factors that influence the choice of marketing channels when selling produce. constraints to agricultural output markets markets are important because they act as a mechanism for exchange. they are particularly important to the poor, because their involvement in the use of markets results in co-ordination and allocation of resources, goods and services. in other words, markets are very important in reducing poverty and improving livelihoods of households. it follows that market participation is important amongst smallholder farmers because households derive benefits such as income and open opportunities for rural employment (dorward et al., 2003; machethe, 2004). in addition, marketing activities such as processing, transportation and selling can provide employment for those willing to exit the farming sector. at the national level, lyster (1990) identified that market participation is important both for sustainable agriculture and economic growth and for the alleviation of poverty and inequality. unfor-tunately, smallholder farmers face difficulties in accessing markets, as a result, markets fail from effectively performing their duty. it is central to this paper to identify barriers that hinder markets from serving the interests of smallholder farmers, giving special attention to institutional and technical factors. in south africa, less developed rural economies and smallholder farmers find it difficult to participate in commercial markets due to a range of technical and institutional constraints. factors such as poor infrastructure, lack of market transport, dearth of market information, insufficient expertise on grades and standards, inability to have contractual agreements and poor organisational support have led to the inefficient use of markets, hence, commercialisation bottlenecks. institutional aspects in smallholder agricultural markets institutions are defined by north (1990) as rules of the game that facilitate coordination or govern relationships between individuals or groups. north (1990) divided institutions into formal and informal institutions. institutional aspects and their role in marketing and economic development revolve around transaction costs, market information flows and the institutional environment. it is affirmed that smallholder farmers in developed rural economies lack adequate market information and contractual arrangements, lack lobbies in the legal environment and are not easily receptive to changes (delgado, 1999; kherallah and kirsten, 2001). these factors result in high transaction costs, hence difficulties in formal market participation. this line of argument is substantiated by makhura (2001) who explained that when smallholder farmers are faced with high transaction costs, they will either stop participation in marketing or resort to other means of marketing such as spot markets. the use of spot markets may not be as rewarding to the farmers as formal markets are, mainly due to traders’ opportunistic behaviour. in addition, spot markets are becoming less popular in the liberalised environment. to sum up, owing to institutional aspects, smallholder farmers face difficulties in accessing formal markets. this calls for institutional development among this group of farmers. technical aspects in smallholder agricultural markets technical changes in marketing can be viewed as those transformations that allow goods to be available on the market at lower costs and diversification of markets. technical changes are usually influenced by the organization, and regulation and advances in technology, but technical changes are closely linked to technological development. in agricultural production and marketing, smallholder farmers are still lagging in the use of improved technology (carre` and drouot, 2002). machethe (2004) pointed out that most small producers in south africa lack appropriate transportation facilities and road infrastructure, communication links and storage infrastructure. further, smallholder farmers have limited ability to add value to their produce. lack of such facilities usually constrains farmers’ supply response to any incentives in both agricultural production and marketing (dorward et al., 2003). moreover, poor roads and poor telecommunication networks results in high transaction cost (fenwick and lyne, 1999). sometimes these costs are too high for farmers and traders to get any meaningful benefits from their trading activities, thus discouraging farmers from marketing activities. for this reason, institutional development has to be accompanied by technological changes, in order to sustain market participation among smallholder farmers. methodology this section reviews the research methods used in collecting and analyzing data from smallholder farmers in the kat river valley. the section is intended to show how the study was conducted using research tools. it starts by describing the study area, and then it explains the sampling technique and the sample size from which data was collected. the methods of data analysis and model specifications follow, outlining the model for data processing, and giving reasons why the model has been chosen. study area kat river valley is located in the eastern cape province, the second largest of the nine provinces in south africa (ngqangweni, 2000). it is situated northeast of grahamstown, in the foothills of the winterberg and the amatole mountains (magni, 1999). the kat river valley forms part of the nkonkobe local municipality, which falls, under amatole district municipality. before the change of government in 1994, the upper part of the kat river valley was part of the ciskei homeland – one of several black racial reserves created during the apartheid era. the kat river valley is approximately 80 km in length and 1700 km 2 in area (motteux, 2001). its catchment includes the areas of seymour, balfour, fort beaufort and other smaller rural communities. kat river valley’s altitude increases from approximately 600 to 1600 m at the top of the escarpment (shackleton and shackleton, 2006). its climate can be described as mild (magni, 1999) . rainfall is unevenly distributed within the area. it ranges between 400 and 1200 mm, where the least rainfall is received at the confluence with the great fish river and the highest, in the mountainous northern region of the catchment (magni, 1999). the rainfall is relatively high in the mountainous region, but much of the area in the catchment can be regarded as sub-humid to semi-arid. kat river valley receives both summer and winter rainfall. approximately 75% of the mean annual precipitation is received between october/november and february/march, where the highest rainfall figures are recorded in march. the temperatures range from moderately hot summers to cool moderate winters (motteux, 2001). population in the kat river valley is composed of different races, and the racial composition is the result of history and apar-theid. the upper and middle parts of the kat river valley belong mainly to black xhosa speakers and coloured afrikaans speakers, whereas the lower part belong mainly to white english speakers. of the total population in the area, approximately 94.28% are black xhosa people, 4.12% coloured and 0.76% white (motteux, 2001). kat river valley is characterised by a variety of land uses, ranging from export-oriented citrus farming, commercially oriented rangeland stock farming to small-scale vegetable and crop production and stock farming (mcmaster, 2002). commercial farmers are mainly located in the middle and lower kat, whereas smallholders and emerging farmers mostly practise agriculture in the upper catchment (nel, 1998). vegetable gardening is an important occupation amongst smallholder farmers in the area. most of these vegetables are grown on fertile plots lying adjacent to rivers and streams. for watering the vegetables, some farmers practise sprinkler irrigation, whereas the farmers who lack irrigation infrastructure practise hand irrigation (farolfi and rowntree, 2005). the soil, on which most cultivation occurs in the valley, is alluvium, which is suitable for agriculture. smit (2003) explained that even though the soil is suitable for agriculture, phosphorous and potassium deficiencies have been identified in the alluvial soil profiles of the kat river basin. there is a corresponding change in vegetation from eastern thorn bushveld dominated by acacia karroo in the valley, to a more succulent thicket in the south. the acacia bush is the predominant vegetation type at the valley bottom owing to lower rainfalls. this vegetation type is capable of supporting livestock, explaining animal farming in the area. acacia bush is also suitable for game farming, even though the area has not yet gained tourism importance from the four game reserves in the area (motteux, 2001). apart from different farming types, lack of sufficient rainfall remains a limiting factor to agricultural development in the catchment. in addition to rainfall problems, environmental problems in the kat river valley include over-fertilization, litter, water-pollution, erosion and river siltation, reduced tree and grass cover and increasing sediment output (smit, 2003). sample and sampling techniques employed in the study data was collected from a sample of smallholder farmers who are producing a marketable surplus in the kat river valley. farmers were stratified according to farming types: cattle and vegetable farmers. eighty six farmers were randomly selected for the survey, where 43 each were cattle and vegetable farmers. the sampling frame from where the farmers were selected was obtained from extension officers. a questionnaire was then administered to the sampled household heads through face-to-face interviews. in the absence of the head, the spouse or any family member who is directly involved in the farming activities and management was interviewed. methods of data analysis statistical package for social scientists (spss version 15.0) was used to run the data collected from smallholder farmers. to analyze relevant data, descriptive statistics were used together with the multinomial logistic regression model. the main descriptive indicators that were employed were frequency and mean values. the multinomial logistic regression model was used to test the institutional and technical factors that influence households from using greater depth marketing methods which have the potential of increasing their incomes. multinomial logistic regression can be used to predict a dependent variable, on the basis of continuous and/or categorical independent variables, where the dependent variable takes more than two forms (hill et al., 2001). logistic regression does not assume a linear relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables, but requires that the independent variables be linearly related to the logit of the dependent variable (gujarati, 1992). however, pundo and fraser (2006) explained that the model allows for the interpretation of the logit weights for the variables in the same way as in linear regression. the smallholder farmers under study are faced with three choices; formal-, informaland non-market participation. it is assumed that these decisions are made on the basis of the option which maximizes their utility, subject to institutional and technical constraints. as such, the utility maximizing function can be given as: max u = u (ck, rfk, rik; hu) (1) where; max u denotes the maximum utility that can be attained from agricultural production ck represents the consumption of produced goods by the household rfk represents revenue gained from formal market participation rik represents revenue gained from informal market participation hu represents a set of institutional and technical factors shifting the utility function from the utility maximizing function, it can be seen that households make decisions to produce, consume and market, subject to institutional and technical factors. therefore, if the costs that are associated with using a particular channel are greater than the benefits, households will be discouraged from using it, shifting to the option that maximizes their utility. in the utility function, the amount of good k that is consumed or sold does not have to exceed the amount that is produced. however, it is difficult to measure utility directly; therefore, it is assumed that households make participation choices depending on the option that maximize their table 1. description of variables used in the model. variable label variable name coding of variable expected relationship mktinfo access to market information 1 if access, otherwise 0 + grds expertise on grades and standards 1 if yes, otherwise 0 + ext access to extension contact 1 if yes, otherwise 0 + orgmem member of an organisation 1 if member, otherwise 0 + fmngtyp type of farming 1 if arable, 0 if livestock +/ rdinfr road infrastructure 1 if good, 0 if poor + trans market transport 1 if have own transport, otherwise 0 + addval ability to add value 1 if yes, otherwise 0 + mktinfr market infrastructure 1 if good, otherwise 0 + stor storage facilities 1 if good, otherwise 0 + contrct availability of contractual agreements 1 if yes, otherwise 0 + socialk availability of extensive social capital 1 if yes, otherwise 0 + part groups or individual participation 1 if group, 0 if individual + trad guided by tradition and beliefs 1 if yes, otherwise 0 _ utility. thus, decisions to participate in either formal or informal markets or even not participating, signify the direction which maximizes utility. with the given assumption, multinomial regression was used to relate the decisions to participate in formal and informal markets or not participating and the factors that influence these choices. a typical logistic regression model which was used is of the form: logit (pi) = ln (pi / 1 – pi) = + 1x1 + …+ nxn (2) where; ln (pi / 1 – pi) = logit for market participation choices pi = not participating in markets 1-pi = participating in markets x represents covariates in the model, market participation choice represents the dependent variable where non-market participation has been set as the baseline group. market participation choice describes the decision to market or not, and the variety of marketing methods (either formal or informal channels) used by households to market agricultural output. it follows that pi represents the probability of not participating in produce marketing and (1 – pi) represents either informal or formal market participation. in other words, the model was used to assess the odds of: informal market participation vs. not participating; and formal market participation versus not participating. model specifications by fitting explanatory variables into the logistic regression model, the model is presented as: ln (pi / 1 – pi) = b0  b1 mktinfo  b2 grds  b3 ext  b4 orgmem  b5 fmngtyp  b6 rdinfr  b7 trans  b8 addval  b9 mktinfr  b10 stor  b11 contrct  b12 socialk  b13 part  b14 trad  et the description of the explanatory variables, and their expected relationships to the dependent variable are presented on table 1. the variable (mktinfo) which reflects access to market information was measured by the household’s ability to get market information in time and the ability to interpret it correctly. in order to capture this variable closely, households were interviewed on the communication networks that are accessible to them. access to information has been set as a dummy variable, where a household with access to information takes the value of one and a household that has no access to information takes a value of zero. access to information was expected to influence market participation positively; implying that households with access to information are more likely to participate in marketing, making use of formal markets. another variable that is closely linked to information availability is access to extension services (ext) such as access to farming advice and knowledge through extension officers. this variable was also allocated dummy values where households with access to extension services took the value of one and zero if otherwise. expertise on grades and standards (grds) was recorded in order to investigate whether it influences marketing participation choices or not. households were asked if they were aware of market grades and standards, and whether there were problems meeting such standards. the households with knowledge on grades and standards, and had no problems meeting them were set to have expertise on grades and standards. such households took the value of one and those households with no expertise on grades and standards were equated to zero. households with expertise on grades and standards are expected to make use of formal markets than those without, thus an expected positive relation. collective action is measured by two main variables in this study; organizational support services (orgmem), and group or individual participation (part). respondents were asked whether they belonged to an organization or not and whether they sold output in groups or individually, the responses were allocated dummy values. both variables are anticipated to impact positively on market participation choice among the smallholder farmers. the types of farming (fmngtyp) have been divided into either arable or livestock farming, where the former takes a value of one and the latter takes the value of zero. this variable was included into the model in order to capture the differences in the nature of produce from different farming types. thus, in some types of farming, formal market penetration may be easier than in the other types. for instance, matungul et al. (2002) pointed out that formal livestock markets are readily accessible to both commercial and small-scale livestock farmers in south africa, owing to public investment in sales yards. the variable can take either a positive or a negative value. ownership of market transport (trans), specifically vehicles, was used to measure the availability of produce transportation facilities by households. moreover, the availability of transportation facilities helps reduce long market distance constraint, offering greater depth in marketing choices. in cases where households owned a vehicle, the variable took the value of one, and zero if the household did not own any form of vehicle. this variable is expected to have a positive influence on the market participation choices. the availability of good road and market infrastructures are expected to exert a positive influence on market participation. road infrastructure (rdinfr) is measured by the adequacy of the road networks that are accessible to households and their conditions. market infrastructure (mktinfr) is measured by the availability of infrastructure, such as marketing stalls and their conditions. dummy values are used to define the variables, where in both cases, one indicates good condition and zero indicates either unavailability or poor condition. in this study, social capital (socialk) refers to personal social networks that encourage market participation. it is through these networks that trust is developed, which, in turn, encourages cooperation and regular exchanges. also, information and production resources can be transmitted through these networks. in order to capture this variable, respondents were asked about how they relate with their customers and whether any were regular customers. the availability of an extensive social capital structure is expected to impact positively on the dependent variable. the availability of contractual agreements (contrct) ensures the availability of a guaranteed market for the farmers, thus promoting market participation and including the smallholder farmers in mainstream agriculture. in other words, the existence of a guaranteed market reduces the costs that are associated with searching for potential buyers, thereby encouraging participation in formal markets. this variable is expected to have a positive relationship with the dependent variable the ability to add value to agricultural produce is captured by the variable (addval). dummy values are used to define the variable where those households who add value to their produce, take the value of one and those who do not, zero. it is hypothesized that the ability to add value exerts a positive impact on market participation. the variable storage facilities (stor), is closely related to value adding. good storage facilities reduce loss of produce and urgency of produce selling, and maintain the physical state of produce. thus, households with good storage facilities are more likely to participate in formal markets, hence a positive relationship. traditions and beliefs are part of informal institutions that can influence marketing choices. in the model, the dummy variable (trad) which refers to guidance from tradition and beliefs is used to determine effects of tradition and beliefs on marketing. households were asked on the extent to which tradition plays a role in their agricultural activities. they were also asked if they were open to new farming and marketing methods offered by non-family members. the variable was allocated dummy values where households with strong traditional guidance took the value of one and zero if otherwise. the variable is expected to take a negative value. empirical results descriptive results the descriptive results for the demographic characteristics show that from all the interviewed respondents, there were a larger proportion of male respondents (58%) as opposed to females. however, there were greater proportions of females (63%) in vegetable farming, but in cattle, there were greater proportions of males. a large number of females in vegetable farming can be explained by day-to-day vegetable supervision by females where men move to cities/town in search of jobs. the majority (72%) of the smallholder farmers in the kat river valley are above 49 years of age. the educational level among the sampled farmers is generally low, where 18% of the household heads never attended school and 39% went up to primary level. household size ranges from a minimum of two people to a maximum of 18, with a mean of 7.1 in each household. according to randela (2005), a larger household size has a negative effect in produce marketing because the household needs to supply household consumption before it decides to sell. evidence from the research confirms this line of argument because larger households in this research sold less produce as compared to smaller households. household incomes of the respondents are received from five main sources; farming, wages, pensions, social grants, and other small household business activities. of importance, is the fact that in the absence of pension and social grants, 74 % of the households view farming as their main source of income. when selling produce, households had different reasons for choosing the marketing channels they use. a summary of the main market outlets used by smallholder farmers are presented in table 2. as shown in table 2, more vegetable and cattle farmers make use of informal markets than formal markets. in an effort to find the reasons why the sampled farmers preferred the markets they use, they were interviewed on the prevailing marketing problems they faced during selling and those that constrained them from manoeuvring into more rewarding marketing arrangements. the most frequently mentioned marketing challenges are shown in table 3. farmers were asked to clarify on the challenges that are listed on table 3. for example, farmers were asked what they meant by market information. the most mentioned answers were related to information on prevailing prices, type of goods required in the markets and alternative markets. farmers explained that the information which they had access to was unreliable because they usually got them from either other people in the village who are involved in selling or from the rural traders. they pointed out that they rarely trusted such information but, they had no option because those are the only sources accessible to them. alternatively, the farmers explained that they would just take chances and go to the market place without any information and charge the same price as other people selling at that selling point. taking a closer look at the marketing challenges that were cited by households, they can all be resolved through technological and institutional innovations. for instance, low prices for produce can be related to poor produce quality, inability to reach other markets, being uninformed on what is required in the markets and abundance of the same produce in the markets. poor table 2. main market outlets used by sampled households. type of farming main market outlets (%) market type vegetables (n = 43) cattle (n = 43) farm gate (46.5) informal fort beaufort (32.5) formal & informal around the village (14.0) informal roadside (7.0) informal private sales (39) informal speculators (26) informal auctions (23) formal abattoirs (9) formal butcheries (3) formal table 3. marketing challenges among sampled households. marketing challenges households affected (%) 1. lack of capital 80 2. bad roads 79 3. low prices for produce 67 4. no reliable markets 65 5. no market information 64 6. lack transport /high transportation costs 59 7. no exposure to other markets 53 8. lack of storage facilities 51 9. high competition 46 10. no convenient place to sell from 38 11. no transparency in marketing channels 18 produce quality can be resolved by availability of information on grades and standards and an improvement in technology for storage and transportation. farmers may be able to reach other markets if they participate in groups because they share information and broaden social capital within the groups. in addition, when farmers market in groups, they eliminate competition and may diversify into producing other crops, thereby reducing market pressure. multinomial logistic regression results the results for the model are presented in table 4. the table shows the estimated coefficients ( values), standard error, significance values and odds ratios of variables in the model. according to gujarati (1992), the coefficient values measures the expected change in the logit for a unit change in the corresponding independent variable, other independent variables being equal. the sign of the coefficient shows the direction of influence of the variable on the logit. it follows that a positive value indicates an increase in the likelihood that a household will change to the alternative option from the baseline group (gujarati, 1992; pundo and fraser, 2006). there fore, in this study, a positive value implies an increase in the likelihood of changing from not participating in marketing to either informal or formal market participation choice. as indicated in table 4, some predictor variables influence market participation choices significantly. of the 14 independent variables used in the model, five and six variables in informal and formal market choices respecttively, are statistically significant at the 5% significance level. in some cases, the signs of the estimated coefficients are consistent with the a priori expectations whereas in some they are contrary to expectations. estimation of significant variables in the model access to market information has a positive sign for both formal and informal market choices, which is consistent with the a priori expectations. the significance values of 0.011 for the informal market choice and 0.006 for the formal market choice imply that there is enough evidence to support that an increase in the availability of market information results in an increase in both informal and formal market participation. the larger values in odds ratios show that households are most likely to increase table 4. multinomial logistic results for informal and formal market choices as compared to non-marketing choice. informal market choice formal market choice variable coefficient std. error significance odds ratio coefficient std. error significance odds ratio mktinfo 2.686 1.050 0.011* 14.673 4.217 1.385 0.006* 67.83 grades -1.623 0.905 0.073 0.197 3.830 0.848 0.016* 46.06 ext 0.606 0.868 0.485 1.833 1.166 2.942 0.282 3.209 orgmem 0.788 0.786 0.316 2.199 1.324 1.384 0.330 3.758 fmngtyp -0.248 0.754 0.742 0.780 -1.164 1.854 0.530 0.312 rdinfr 0.862 0.841 0.305 2.368 2.992 2.171 0.168 19.92 sociailk 0.222 0.948 0.050* 1.248 1.180 2.863 0.031* 3.254 addval 1.352 1.079 0.210 3.865 0.392 0.218 0.860 1.479 mktinfr 2.557 1.030 0.013* 12.897 -0.687 0.026 0.735 0.503 stor 0.584 0.777 0.453 1.793 0.259 1.873 0.890 1.296 contrct 0.844 0.755 0.263 2.326 2.803 1.912 0.047* 16.49 trans 0.843 0.774 0.276 2.323 0.449 1.644 0.785 1.567 part 1.899 0.854 0.026* 6.679 1.997 1.418 0.039* 7.367 trad 2.477 1.441 0.031* 11.905 -2.144 2.296 0.007* 0.117 intercept -4.934 2.860 0.048 _ -17.069 4.466 0.044 _ goodness-of-fit chi-square df significance pearson 111.372 168 0.050* deviance 84.301 168 0.988 n = 86; * statistically significant at 5% significance level. participation in both informal and formal markets with the availability of market information. as shown by the coefficients, the increase in formal marketing, resulting from market information availability is about twice the increase in informal marketing. expertise on grades and standards is significant for the formal market choice with a significance value of 0.016. a positive sign on its coefficient indicates that an improvement in expertise on grades and standards results in an increase in the formal market participation choice by households. when households acquire expertise in grades and standards, they prefer selling their produce in the more paying formal markets, in order to cover costs associated with acquiring the expertise (reardon and barrett, 2000). a positive and significant (0.047) relationship was found between formal market participation and the availability of contractual agreements. the relationship implies that households tend to increase in formal market participation with the availability of contractual agreements. the value of the odds ratio (16.49) supports the higher probability of the variable influence on the formal market choice. the variable existence of extensive social capital is significant for both informal (0.050) and formal (0.031) market choices. the positive relationship in both formal and informal market participation choices explains that an increase in social capital results in households shifting from non-participation to formal and informal market participation. the odds ratios for both formal and informal market choices suggest a higher probability of shifting to formal and informal marketing with an increase in social capital. therefore, it can be concluded that social networks are important in produce marketing, regardless of the choice of market being used. it was expected that the availability of good market infrastructure could have a positive influence on alternative market participation choices, away from not participating in marketing. however, the a priori expectations hold true for the informal market choice only. there is sufficient evidence (significance value of 0.013) to support that the availability of good market infrastructure is likely to encourage households to market their produce through informal channels. unlike formal channels where market infrastructure is not important for farmers, as they supply their produce in bulk once harvested to the higher level of the marketing channel (takavarasha and jayne, 2004). the results shown in table 4, for group participation are consistent with the a priori expectations. for both formal and informal market choices, there is enough evidence to support that when households market their produce in groups, there is a higher chance of participating in either formal or informal markets. thus, group participation encourages market penetration among smallholder farmers who find it difficult individually to gain market access a positive and significant (0.031) relationship was found between informal marketing and guidance from traditions and beliefs. the positive relationship between the variables may be possibly explained by traditional wisdom and skills passed on in families and creation of marketing links through traditions and beliefs. for instance, some households may prefer to sell their produce (especially in cattle marketing) to people they are familiar with. on the other hand there is a negative and significant (0.007) relationship between formal marketing and guidance from traditions and beliefs. the explanation to this relationship may be that the marketing environment is ever changing (kherallah and kirsten, 2001); therefore, if farmers are to be part of the formal markets, they have to be receptive to changes. conclusions and recommendations this paper has attempted to identify factors influencing market participation choices among smallholder farmers in the kat river valley. evidence from the research supports literature that pointed out that, smallholder farmers usually use informal markets in selling their produce. furthermore, there are some challenges in the market environment that discourage these farmers from using formal markets. the statistically significant variables, at 5% level are access to market information, expertise on grades and standards, availability of contractual agreements, existence of extensive social capital, availability of good market infrastructure, group participation and reliance on tradition. the results of this study suggest several ways in which smallholder farmers can actively market their produce. the findings suggest that an adjustment in each one of the significant variables can significantly influence the probability of market participation. that is, technological growth and institutional developments that affect such variables can help farmers improve participation and encourage formal market participation. firstly, it has to be accepted that smallholder farmers cannot individually compete against commercial farmers in markets. also, it is difficult for them to get contractual agreements individually, owing to a small marketable output. therefore, beneficial institutional innovations can be in the form of co-operatives and group marketing arrangements. it is true that past experiences for co-operatives and other farmer group arrangements had their own challenges (kherallah and kirsten, 2001). however, it is worth noting that farmer group arrangements that are based on trust and commitment may be successful. this brings out the suggestion that when choosing group members, farmers working towards the same goal should be grouped together. in addition, rules and roles within the group ought to be specified from the beginning. also, farmers have to be encouraged to develop trust and mutual respect for their fellow members. with the farmer groups, social capital is likely to be broadened and farmers can now be linked to other market chain actors. for instance, smallholder farmers in a co-operative or farmers marketing in a group can be considered for contract production. once they get contractual agreements, an entrepreneurial culture can be developed, where they produce for marketing, rather than trying to market what they have produced. again, it is critical to develop trust between the farmers and the contractors, even though it should be supported by legal compliance. farmers can gain trust by delivering the required produce and contractors can develop trust by having confidence in the producers. such an environment encourages marketing and is advantageous to both parties (masuku et al., 2003). the government can support the smallholder farmers through technical innovations. these may be in the form of investments in public facilities such as improved roads, telecommunications and market places. smallholder farmers still have to play a role in order to ensure that these facilities are provided for them. they have to form an association and choose a lobby that has to represent them. references carre` m, drouot d (2002). nature of technological change. http://www.crest.fr/doctravail/document/2002-56.pdf. accessed: 1804-07. delgado c (1999). sources of growth in smallholder agriculture in subsaharan africa: the role of vertical integration of smallholders with processors and marketers of high-value added items. agrekon, 38:165-189. dorward a, poole n, morrison j, kydd j, urey i (2003). markets, institutions and technology: missing links in livelihoods analysis. dev. policy rev. 21(3): 319-332. farolfi s, rowntree k (2005). negotiation and game theory for water management in the kat basin, south africa: development of a cooperative game theory model and a comparison with a role-playing game results derived of a negotiation approach. http://www.ceepa.co.za/docs/desole.pdf. accessed: 19-07-07. fenwick lj, lyne mc (1999). the relative importance of liquidity and other constraints inhibiting the growth of small-scale farming in kwazulu-natal. dev. s. afr. 16(1): 141-155. gujarati d (1992). essentials of econometrics. macgraw–hill, new york. hill rc, griffiths we, judge gg (2001). econometrics (2 nd edition). john wiley & sons, new york. kherallah m, kirsten j (2001). the new institutional economics: applications for agricultural policy research in developing countries. markets and structural studies division, discussion paper no. 41, int. food policy res. institute washington, d.c. lyster dm (1990). agricultural marketing in kwazulu: a farm-household perspective. unpublished msc agric thesis, university of natal, pietermaritzburg. machethe cl (2004). agriculture and poverty in south africa: can agriculture reduce poverty? http://cfapp1-docspublic.undp.org/eo/evaldocs1/sfcle/eodoc 357114047.pdf. accessed: 09-04-07. magni p (1999). physical description of the kat river valley, geography department, rhodes university, grahamstown. makhura mt (2001). overcoming transaction costs barriers to market participation of smallholder farmers in the northern province of south africa. phd thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. masuku mb, kirsten jf, van rooyen cj, perret s (2003). contractual relationships between small-holder sugarcane growers and millers in the sugar industry supply chain in swaziland. agrekon 42(3): 183199. matungul pm, ortmann gf, lyne mc (2002). marketing methods and income generation amongst small-scale farmers in two communal areas of kwazulu-natal, south africa. paper presented at the 13th int. farm management congress, wageningen, netherlands. mcmaster a (2002). gis in participatory catchment management: a case study in the kat river valley, eastern cape, s. africa, unpublished msc thesis, rhodes university, grahamstown. meyer n, fenyes t, louw d (2002). the impact of market reform and land reform on regional trade and food security in the south african grain market. working paper, pretoria. motteux n (2001). the development and co-ordination of catchment fora through the empowerment of rural communities, catchment research group. wrc report k5/1014. water res. commission, pretoria. nel el (1998). an evaluation of community driven economic development, land tenure and sustainable environmental development in the kat river valley, report to the programme for human needs, resources and the environ. hsrc publishers, pretoria. north d (1990). institutions, institutional change and economic performance, cambridge university press, cambridge. ngqangweni ss (2000). promoting income and employment growth in the rural economy of the eastern cape through smallholder agriculture. unpublished phd thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. pundo mo, fraser gcg (2006). multinomial logit analysis of household cooking fuel choice in rural kenya: the case of kisumu district. agrekon 45(1): 24-37. randela r (2005). integration of emerging cotton farmers into the commercial agricultural economy. unpublished phd thesis, university of the free state, bloemfontein. reardon t, barrett c (2000). agro-industrialization, globalization, and international development: an overview of issues, patterns, and determinants. j. agric. econ. 23(3): 195 -205. shackleton cm, shackleton se (2006). household wealth status and natural resource use in the kat river valley, south africa. j. trop. for. prod., 8(1): 45-65. smit t (2003). catchment management forums in the eastern cape province of south africa. http://campus.ru.ac.za/download.php?actionarg=986. accessed: 27 07-07. takavarasha t, jayne ts (2004). toward improved maize marketing and trade policies to promote household food security in southern africa. http://www.aec.msu.edu/maizemarket/jaynetakavarashasummary.p df. accessed: 18-07-08. wynne at, lyne mc (2003). rural economic growth linkages and small scale poultry production: a survey of poultry producers in kwazulunatal. paper presented at the 41st annual conference of the agric. econ. association of s. africa (aeasa), pretoria. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (10), pp. 001-005, october, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper economic analysis of soil fertility restoration options in potato – bean of gardening intercropping in south – rift, kenya ngeno vincent*, langat b. k., rop wendi, chepngeno w. and kipsat m. j. department of agricultural economics and resource management, moi university, kenya. accepted 23 may, 2017 soil fertility management options to restore soil fertility depletion have been developed and these consist of inorganic and organic fertilizer applications. however, the adoption rates by smallholder farmers for these soil fertility management options are negligible. the overall aim of this study was to evaluate side-by-side economic aspects of different soil fertility improvement options, which have been tested in the region. field experiments were carried out to evaluate soil fertility management options on potato-bean production in five districts in south-rift, kenya (narok, bomet, bureti, kericho and konoin). it appeared that application of organic residues is a more feasible and sustainable alternative to the recommended fertilizers. however, for long term yield improvement, fertilization with these recommended fertilizers would only be profitable if applied seasonally. key words: fertility depletion, restoration option, economics. introduction soil fertility depletion, in many areas of sub-saharan africa, is reported to be the fundamental root cause of declining per capita food production (sanchez and jama, 2002). in east africa rates of nutrient depletion are huge and highest especially in areas with favourable climate for crop production and high population density (stoorvogel et al., 2003). yields of crops are decreasing on continuously cropped land without nutrient inputs, and fallowing is no longer practical due to the high population pressure (cleaver and schreiber, 2007). the use of fertilizers for soil fertility restoration/replenishment is often constrained due to lack of capital by farmers especially after the removal of government subsidies in kenya and other african countries (franzel, 2009; jaetzold and schmidt, 2003). the net result is low crop productivity of land that is being further degraded by erosion and the nutrient removals from crop harvests. to replenish these soils, various soil fertility restoration options have been tested by the national and *corresponding author. e-mail: vcngeno@gmail.com. international organizations (landon, 2004). however, the options tend to be site and institution specific in effectiveness and applicability. furthermore, soil fertility restoration options or recommendations are normally formulated to cover broad areas with diverse soils in their particular fields (tisdale et al., 2005). these soil fertility restoration options, and often some of the “best-bets” which have been tested in various parts of rift valley kenya are:organic inputs, farmyard manure, furp (fertilizer use recommendation project), pre-pac (phosphate rock evaluation project package), mbili (managing beneficial interactions in legume intercrops). efforts to compare soil fertility management options sideby-side are rather minimal in kenya with research institutions preferring to test one technology at a time. therefore, this study focuses on the side-by-side evaluation of the economic returns of the tested options, so that the recommended soil fertility management options fit the ecological and socio-economic circumstances of the farmers. the ultimate goal is therefore to contribute towards attainment of food security and reduction of poverty through adoption of productive soil fertility management options by smallholder file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org farmers in south-rift, kenya. materials and methods data sources the study used on-farm experimental data and qualitative information gathered by interviewing participating farm household in different districts namely narok, bomet, bureti, konoin and kericho districts in south-rift kenya. production data and prices were collected for three consecutive growing seasons, beginning in the long rains of 2009; since some sites were established in the long rains of 2009 while others were in the short rains of 2009. experimental design the field experiment comprised of six treatments during the initial installation (long rains 2001) and additional two treatments in the short rains 2001. the variation in the treatments was due to recommendations obtained from collaborating institutions in the region. the experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design and replicated two to four times depending on land availability. the plot size was 5 x 5 m based on recommendations by okalebo and woomer (2006). this plot size was considered to represent the widespread low soil fertility patches common at on-farm level and was considered adequate to show treatment differences in the field particularly to smallholder farmers, the expected beneficiaries of the soil fertility management options. information on the existence and applicability of this treatment was obtained from research publications and brochures in libraries from research institutions namely, kenya agricultural research (kari), international centre for research in agroforestry (icraf), sustainable agricultural centre for research extension and development in africa (sacred-africa), kenya forestry research institute (kefri, and moi university, the treatments hereafter were referred to as soil fertility management options. several economic indicators were developed and used to compare the benefits of producing potatoes/beans under the different soil fertility management options. the indicators were: enterprise budgets enterprise budgets were developed and used to compare costs and benefits accruing from food production under the different soil fertility management options. rather than take an average of the costs and benefits for the cropping seasons, costs and benefits were compared across the seasons. this approach was preferred because it allowed a comparison of residual effects of the different options over time and assessment of incremental net benefits of using these options over typical farmer practices: = ………………………………(1) where: = the gross value of output in season i, for a given management option in kshs ha -1 . = the total output produced under a given management option in season i, in kshs ha -1 . = the average price obtained for the output (maize or beans) for season i, in kshs ha -1 . it is an average of the price obtained immediately after harvest and that obtained 2 months after the harvest: = …………………………… (2) where: = gross value of output in season i, produced under a given management option, = gross costs incurred in season i, with that option in kshs ha -1 and, = the net benefit obtained in season i in kshs ha -1 . incremental net benefit = ……………………………………… ( 3 ) where: = the incremental net benefit of option j over the farmer's practice in: season (i), in kshs ha -1 . = the net benefit of option j, in season i, in kshs ha -1 . = the net benefit from the farmer's practice (either absolute control option or farm yard manure) in season i, in kshs ha -1 . return to land return to land was devised from the net present value (npv) of each treatment summed over the cropping seasons (2 to 3 seasons). in general, the return to land is more appropriate as an an economic indicator in situations where land is relatively scarcer than labour or where there are fewer opportunities for the farmer to hire out labour or to engage in off-farm employment. under such circumstances, land is viewed as the most limiting resource and hence farmers should strive to optimize return to land. for farm households who have ample opportunities for off-farm employment and/or have relatively high land-labour ratios, returns to labour would be the relevant indicator because of the relatively high population pressure, availability of hired farm labour and limited offfarm employment opportunities in the study areas ……………..……… ( 4 ) where: = the net present value from applying management option j, the discount rate estimated at 10%, and, = the time in seasons. the marginal rate of return of investing in the technology the marginal rate of return (mrr) is used to show how net benefits accruing from an investment increase as the amount invested increases. the mrr was calculated by dividing the marginal net present value by the marginal cost, as a farmer shifts from an option with low net benefit to one with the highest net present value. the first step in calculating the mrr was to identify the option with the highest npv (that is, return to land). the mrr was then table 1. marginal rate of return (mrr) for adopting different soil fertility management options in narok. technology mrr (%) control to fym 509 pre-pac to fym 20 mbili to fym 208 mbili to pre-pac 491 compost to fym 760 mbili to furp 109 calculated by dividing the marginal return (difference between the option with the highest return to land and any other option, such as farmers’ practice, that is absolute control or farm yard manure) by the marginal costs (difference between the gross costs of the option giving the highest return to land and the one being compared with) times 100%. results and discussion return to land the returns to land from food production under the different soil fertility management options were estimated by the npv of the net benefits over the two seasons. the results show negative returns to land for all the five soil fertility management options in bureti and sotik sites. the negative returns to land are explained by the relatively low yield levels especially in the second season. in bomet site, because of relatively high production costs, only use of fym produced a positive return to land. both prep-pac and furp registered negative returns to land. this finding implies that rather than shift to new soil fertility management options such as use of organic inputs, furp or prep-pac, farmers may be better off applying fym to their potato and bean crops. in kericho, all the technology options recorded negative returns to land, perhaps because of the low yield response observed and the relatively high production costs, especially with prep-pac, mbili and furp. even organic inputs and farmyard manure, which recorded some positive net benefits in the second season, on the aggregate had negative returns to land. although results of the economic analysis appear daunting, an examination of the yield data suggests that mbili and farmyard manure might be more promising as soil fertility augmenting and soil fertility management options in kericho, if something could be done to reduce the production costs, particularly labor costs. the highest return to land in narok of kshs. 61,4087was obtained from use of fym, a typical farmer practice in the area. the second highest return to land was obtained from mbili. in konoin, fortified compost gave the highest return to land (kshs. 15,4807per ha per year), followed by mbili with kshs. 1,4197. all the other soil fertility management options had negative returns to land. this finding implies that farmers in konoin can improve their net incomes and overall return to land by shifting from current practices such as zero input or little farmers' fym to use of fortified compost or mbili as soil fertility replenishment strategies. marginal rate of return in general, the marginal rate of return (mrr) is another indicator of what the farmers can expect to gain, or on average, in return for their investment when they decide to change from one practice (or a set of practices) to another. returns to land suggest that in narok, the typical farmer practice of applying some fym is by far the most profitable soil fertility option to use in production. however, three other technology options gave higher returns to land than the absolute control. these technology options were, mbili (kshs. 59,0667-), furp (kshs.51,5907-) and prep-pac(kshs.46,3137-). table 1 shows the results of marginal analysis, depicting what farmers can expect to gain at the margin, in return to their investment when they decide to change from one of these technology options to another. as the table shows, the highest rate of return to investment is obtained from a shift from absolute control and fortified compost to farm yard manure. a shift from mbili to fym or to pre-pac or furp also can result in rates of return to investment of over 100%. the empirical evidence has shown that rates of return above 100% are above the minimum acceptable to farmers. this suggests that all things being constant, it is safe to recommend to farmers in narok, farm yard manure, and furp as soil fertility augmenting soil fertility management options with which to produce food crops such as potatoes and beans. marginal rate of return in general, the marginal rate of return (mrr) is another indicator of what the farmers can expect to gain, or on average, in return for their investment when they decide to change from one practice (or a set of practices) to another. returns to land suggest that in narok, the typical farmer practice of applying some fym is by far the most profitable soil fertility option to use in production. however, three other technology options gave higher returns to land than the absolute control. these technology options were, mbili (kshs. 59,0667-), furp (kshs. 51,5907-) and prep-pac (kshs.46,3137-). table 1 shows the results of marginal analysis, depicting what farmers can expect to gain at the margin, in return to their investment when they decide to change from one of these technology options to another. as the table shows, the highest rate of return to investment is obtained from a shift from absolute control and fortified compost to farm yard manure. a shift from mbili to fym or to pre-pac or furp, can also result in rates of return to table 2. incremental net benefits (inb) from farmers practice (kshs) in konoin district. incremental net benefits 1 st season 1 st season 2 nd season 2 nd season total inb discounted inb inb discounted inb discounted inb from absolute control to compost 24800.43 22543.59 15359.50 12686.95 35,230.54 from absolute control to pre-pac 8153.58 7411.60 16655.55 13757.48 21,169.09 from fym to compost 18790.50 17080.57 5812.10 5812.10 21,881.36 from fym to pre-pac 2143.66 1948.58 7108.15 5871.33 7,819.91 table 3. incremental net benefits (kshs) for various soil fertility management options in narok. technology 1 st season 1 st season 2 nd season 2 nd season total inb discounted inb inb discounted inb discounted inb fym 1115.15 1013.67 22369.42 18477.14i 19490.81 furp -755.15 -686.43 12541.57 10359.34 9672.91 prep-pac -13040.80 -11854.10 19672.92 16249.83 4395.74 mbili -14516.90 -13195.90 36736.72 30344.53 17148.67 investment of over 100%. the empirical evidence has shown that rates of return above 100% are above the minimum acceptable to farmers. this suggests that all things being constant, it is safe to recommend to farmers in narok, farm yard manure, pre-pac and furp as soil fertility augmenting soil fertility management options, with which to produce food crops such as potatoes and beans. the evaluation of the five technology options tested in konoin so far suggest that it would be profitable for farmers to adopt use of fortified compost or pre-pac as soil fertility management strategies. the results of the marginal analysis adopting show that adopting fortified compost implies a 1639% rate of return to farmers who currently use minimum fym in potato and bean production. for farmers who currently apply nothing to augment soil fertility in potato and bean production, adoption of fortified compost. the technology that offered the highest aggregate output and return to land, implies the highest rate of return for farmers currently applying minimum fym rate or not applying any inputs. since experience and empirical evidence have shown that the minimum rate of return acceptable to farmers falls between 50 to 100%, it is safe to recommend fortified compost to farmers in konoin district. incremental net benefit (inb) since all the technology options had negative net benefits in sotik, bomet, bureti and kericho, it was not sensible to determine the incremental net benefit of shifting from farmers' practices to other soil fertility management options. table 2 shows the potential incremental net benefits that farmers in konoin district can gain by changing from their current soil fertility management practices to use of either fortified compost or using prepac. the highest incremental income is obtained by a shift from farmer practice of not applying anything, to use of fortified compost. the results show, for example, that a shift from no inputs to use of fortified compost can increase the net benefits (net income) by about kshs. 25,000/in the first season and by kshs. 15,000/in the second season. the incremental net benefits of switching from farmer practice to new technology options in narok could not be extensively analyzed since the farmer practices seemed to perform better than the alternative new options. nevertheless, a move from no inputs to use of farmer's farm yard manure promises an incremental net benefit of nearly kshs. 20,000/in the two seasons, most of which is achieved in the second season (table 3). conclusion and recommendation on average, the performance of the soil fertility management options in terms of yield response particularly the residual effect in subsequent seasons and the net benefits was inferior than anticipated in most sites. the sites in bureti, bomet and sotik showed the poorest performance with soil fertility management options showing negative net benefits and return to land. nevertheless, at some locations, the data was indicative of the possible technology options that could be recommended to farmers. in narok, the farmer practice of use of fym gave the highest net benefits and return to land from food production, followed by pre-pac and furp. results of marginal analysis further supported promotion of these technology options to farmers in the area because they showed rates of return to investment of over 100%. thus, based on the available data, it is safe to urge farmers in narok to continue use of fym and to promote recommended use of pre-pac and furp. in konoin, the analysis revealed that fortified compost had the highest potential of improving net benefits and returns to land from food production, and therefore should be promoted to farmers in konoin was pre-pac, although the return to land was a modest kshs. 1,418/compared to over kshs. 15,000/from fortified compost. in general, this study had a limitation of five soil fertility amelioration soil fertility management options at five districts and two cropping seasons. there is need to extend the scope of the study to include a wide range of nutrient depleted soils in kenya. nonetheless, guidelines on the usefulness of soil fertility management options have been obtained. references cleaver km, schreiber ga (2007). reversing the spiral, the population, agriculture and environment nexus in sub-sahara africa. world bank wahington d.c. franzel s (2009). socioeconomic factors affecting the adoption potential of improved tree fallows, agrofor. syst., 47: 305-321. jaetzold r, schmidt h (2003). farm management handbook of kenya. natural conditions and farm management information. ministry of agriculture, nairobi kenya. landon jr (2004). booker tropical soil manual. a handbook for soil survey and agricultural land evaluation in the tropics and sub-tropics. longman, new york, pp. 112-123. tisdale sl, werner ln, beaton jd (2005). soil fertility and fertoizers. 4 th ed. macmillan publishing company. new york. sanchez pa, jama ba (2002). soil fertility replenishment takes off in east and southern africa. in: vanlauwe, b., diels, j., sanginga, n., and merckx, r. (eds). intergrated plant nutrient management in subsahara africa. cabi international, pp. 23-46. stoorvogel jj, smaling ema, janssen bh (2003). calculating soil nutrient balances in africa at different scales. i. supra-national scale. fertil. res., 35: 227-235. okalebo jr, woomer pl (2006). “phosphorus resources exploratory project for western kenya” (prep), tropical soil biology and fertility programme (tsbf), nairobi, kenya. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (6), pp. 001-006, june, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper a study on the economic feasibility of date palm cultivation in the al-hassa oasis of saudi arabia a. al-abbad1*, m. al-jamal1, z. al-elaiw1, f. al-shreed1 and h. belaifa2 1 national date palm research centre (ndprc), p. o. box 43, al-hassa-31982, kingdom of saudi arabia. 2 fao project (utfn/sau/015/sau), ndprc, p. o. box 43, al-hassa-31982, kingdom of saudi arabia. accepted 04 march, 2018 the kingdom of saudi arabia with an estimated 25 million date palms (phoenix dactylifera l.) produces nearly a million tones of dates annually accounting for about 15% of the global date production. our study on the economic feasibility of date palm cultivation in the al-hassa oasis of the kingdom estimated the average annual yield of dates per palm to be 48.0 kg per palm with a selling price estimated at sr 4.00 per kg. the net income from date palm cultivation in the oasis was found to be sr 5800.00 / ha (sr 38.67 / palm). significant number of farmers (23.00%) sell their produce in the farm itself, of which 57% is to known customers indicating sizeable “farmer-consumer” loyalty. date palm farmers of al-hassa were also found to be quality conscious, and they adopt diverse measures (pre to post harvest) to ensure quality production of dates. swot analysis indicated spiritual attachment to the land by the farmers as a strength of the system, however; bureaucratic hurdles to obtain subsidies and lack of exploitation of facilities by traditional farmers, is a major threat to date farming in the oasis. there also exists a good possibility to develop logistics that support marketing of dates, especially through agricultural cooperatives, besides further enhancing exploitation of state subsidies for date palm cultivation. key words: date palm cultivation, economic feasibility, marketing, swot analysis, saudi arabia. introduction the date palm, phoenix dactylifera l., is the main fruit crop of the kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa), covering approximately 72% of the total area under permanent crops. with an estimated 25 million date, the kingdom produces nearly a million tons annually accounting for about 15% of the global production. more than 400 different date palm cultivars are reported to exist in saudi arabia (anonymous, 2006a; anonymous, 2009). the date palm is a multipurpose tree, providing food, shelter, timber products. the date fruit is a good source of food providing, fibre, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins besides having anti-mutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties (baloch et al., 2006; al-farsi et al., 2005; ishurd and kennedy, 2005; vayalill, 2002; mohamed, 2000). with an estimated three million palms the alhassa oasis in the eastern province is the largest in the *corresponding author. e-mail: abbad9@yahoo.com. kingdom where el-baker (1952) listed 15 date palm varieties of commercial importance, while asif et al. (1982) listed 25 cultivars from the al-hassa oasis. further, asif et al. (1986) grouped the al-hassa date palm cultivars based on the season of production. khalas a mid-season cultivar is widely cultivated in the al-hassa oasis and considered by many as the best date in the world, with mostly medium to big sized fruits that are consumed as both fresh (rutab) and dry (tamar) dates which store well. although the date cultivar reziz has traditionally been the ruling date palm cultivar in alhassa, currently the cultivar khalas is cultivated in more than 50% of the area (al -khatib et al., 2006; al-malha and husseini, 2003). despite surplus production of dates in the kingdom, marketing of the produce at the national level has been weak, which may have been influenced by the closing of some date processing factories in the kingdom, besides exports have not been to the expected level. also, the per capita consumption of dates in the kingdom has file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org table 1. estimates on cost of cultivation, production and price of produce of dates in the al-hassa oasis in saudi arabia size of no. of depreciation of fixed cost of total cost with plantation (m 2 ) palms assets (sr) production (sr) depreciation (sr) a. estimates on cost of cultivation total 754200 9889 3427937 1175155 4603092 n= 30 mean 25140 330 114265 39172 153436 size of no. of value of produce production (kg) yield per palm (kg) mean price plantation (m 2 ) palms sold (sr) per kg (sr) b. estimates on production and price of produce total 754200 9889 2029410 440790 1451 129.00 mean 25140 330 67647 14693 48.38 n=30 4.00 table 2. cost of cultivation and income (per hectare and per palm) from date palm in al-hassa oasis of saudi arabia (2009). cost / income per hectare( sr) per palm (sr) fixed cost 5193.86 34.63 variable cost 17805.48 118.70 total cost 23000.00 153.33 income 28800.00 192.00 net income 5800.00 38.67 significantly decreased over the years while the production has increased. this has impacted production of dates negatively, in spite of all support from the government. the kingdom currently has 64 date processing factories (anonymous, 2006b, anonymous, 2006c; anonymous, 2009b; alshuaiby and ismael, 2007). the objective of this investigation is therefore to study the economic feasibility of date palm production in the kingdom, by determining the cost of production and net income generated from the cultivation of date palm in 1 ha in the al-hassa oasis. this was achieved by carrying out economic analysis of descriptive and quantitative variables that influence date palm cultivation, through field surveys (questionnaires), analyzing ministry of agriculture, ksa data and taking up swot analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of date cultivation. materials and methods primary data on the cultivation of date palm in the al-hassa oasis was collected in the field through personal interviews of both farmers (producers) and also from the market (traders) that answered questions in a questionnaire prepared for the purpose. in the first model, questions pertaining to both fixed and variable costs were addressed and were based on an average of 150 palms per ha and the average annual production of dates per palm was estimated to be 48.0 kg. the selling price of 1 kg dates was estimated to be sr 4.00 per kg. in all, 30 respondents were interviewed in different locations of al-hassa to gather basic data pertaining to the cost of cultivation, production and income from date plantation. data collected for this study is presented in table 1. in the second model, the questionnaire of seven questions revolved around agricultural practices namely pest control, sorting of produce, storage of dates etc. that influenced the quality of dates. the fixed and variable costs were computed based on the formulae presented in table 6. further, some other formulae are: income per ha = number of palms per ha x average production per palm x selling price per kg of dates. net income per ha = income per ha cost of production per ha. subsequently, based on the findings swot analysis was carried out to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats pertaining to the economic feasibility of the cultivation of dates in the al-hassa oasis. results cost of cultivation and income data presented in table 2 reveals that the cost of cultivating date palm in al-hassa was estimated to be sr23000.00/ha (sr 153.33/palm) which includes the fixed (sr 5193/ha) and variable costs (sr 17805/ha). the income generated was estimated to be sr 28800.00/ha (sr 192.00/palm). the net income from cultivating date palm in al hassa was therefore sr table 3. method of selling the produce (dates) in al-hassa oasis of saudi arabia. method of selling dates percent of over all sale in farm 23.00 in the market 40.00 directly to factory 37.00 5800.00/ha (sr 38.67/palm). marketing of dates in al-hassa, date palm farmers were found to market their produce in three different ways (table 3) ranging from disposing the produce directly in the farm (23%) to selling dates in the market (40%) and factories (37%). it is pertinent to mention that a sizeable number of farmers (57%) who sell the produce in the farm, sold dates to known customers, indicating a great degree of customer loyalty probably due to the quality of the produce. quality enhancing practices table 4 indicates that 100% of the date palm farmers studied were quality conscious and took care to incorporate measures in their farming practices (pre and post harvest) to enhance and safe guard the quality of their produce. majority of the farmers (57%) practiced thinning of fruits. this practice is known to increase the fruit size and also prevent shriveling of dates. results presented in table 5 also reveal that 100.00% of the farmers discarded defective fruits from their produce thereby enhancing quality of the produce. however, only 20.00% of the respondents practiced sorting of dates according to fruit size. further, 73.00% of the farmers in this study used chemicals (sulphur) for combating the menace of mites, oligonychus afrasiaticus attacking date fruits. table 4 also shows that 100.00% of the date palm farmers in al-hassa used a plastic film on the ground while harvesting, thereby preventing damage to the harvested dates and accumulation of foreign particles (sand, palm refuge etc) in the produce. however, none of the farmers practiced fumigation of produce to combat the menace of insect pests in stored dates. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of date production analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (swot) is fundamental to the success and profitability of any commercial venture and is a valuable tool in strategic planning for the future. our study (table 5) revealed that the date palm farmers are spiritually attached to their land/farm which is a significant strength of the system. however, children of the farmers do not have such an attachment which is a weakness that may hamper date palm cultivation in the oasis in the future. diverse markets to sell the produce with good infrastructure and government support for date cultivation is a significant strength of date cultivation in the al hassa oasis. however, poor relationship between the farms and date processing factories and poor exploitation of facilities/in fracture to enhance production and marketing of dates is a weakness. although, the date cultivar khalas is popular and suitable for cultivation in the oasis, relying on a single cultivar can pose a challenge in the future as a monoculture system of farming can pre-dispose date cultivation to attack and quick spread of pests and diseases in the future. further, we found that there exists a good possibility to develop logistics that support marketing of dates, especially through agricultural cooperatives, besides the possibility of further enhancing exploitation of state subsidies for date palm cultivation. however, bureaucratic hurdles to obtain subsidies and lack of exploitation of facilities by traditional farmers were found to be a threat to date cultivation in the al hassa oasis (table 5). discussion the ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia has estimated the cost of cultivation of date palm in saudi arabia to be sr 15179.90/ha on the basis of a study taken up in 13 regions of the kingdom (anonymous, 2006a) which includes both the fixed and variable costs. however, our study has revealed that the total cost of cultivation to be sr 23,000/ha in al-hassa in 2009. this increase in the cost of production can be attributed to the rise in the cost of several production factors including men and material during the last five years. the net annual income per hectare of date palm was estimated to be sr 39,436 by the ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia (anonymous, 2006a). in contrast, our study indicates a fall (26.90 5) in the net income from 1 ha of date palm, which was estimated to be sr 28,800. this decrease in the net income is due to several factors including increase in production, low storage capacity of dates at farmers’ level and decline in the per capita consumption of dates in the kingdom. table 4. importance attributed to quality date production at farmers level in alhassa oasis of saudi arabia (model –ii). quality improvement related functions s/n care for thinning removal of use of plastic film on sorting of fumigation against quality ground during of fruits defective fruits chemicals fruits storage pests harvesting 1 yes yes yes not known yes no no 2 yes yes yes sulphur yes yes no 3 yes no yes not known yes no no 4 yes yes yes no yes yes no 5 yes yes yes sulphur yes no no 6 yes yes yes sulphur yes no no 7 yes yes yes sulphur yes yes no 8 yes no yes no yes no no 9 yes yes yes sulphur yes yes no 10 yes no yes no yes no no 11 yes yes yes sulphur yes no no 12 yes yes yes sulphur yes no no 13 yes yes yes mixed yes no no 14 yes no yes yes no no 15 yes no yes not known yes no no 16 yes no yes not known yes no no 17 yes no yes no yes yes no 18 yes no yes sulphur yes no no 19 yes yes yes sulphur yes yes no 20 yes yes yes not known yes no no 21 yes no yes sulphur yes no no 22 yes yes yes sulphur yes no no 23 yes yes yes not known yes no no 24 yes yes yes not known yes no no 25 yes no yes sulphur yes no no 26 yes yes yes no yes no no 27 yes no yes no yes no no 28 yes yes yes no yes no no 29 yes no yes no yes no no 30 yes no yes not known yes no no yes (%) 100.00 57.00 100 73.00 100.00 20.00 0.00 no (%) 0.00 43.00 0.00 27.00 0.00 80.00 100.00 with regard to marketing of dates our study indicated that several farmers sold their produce to known customers, indicating a great degree of customer confidence and loyalty, probably due to the quality of the produce. this also assured the farmer a better price. further, only 23% of the date palm farmers in al hassa sold dates to the date factories, indicating lower prices offered by the factories for the produce. there is an urgent need to develop an export strategy for saudi arabian dates that would assure sale of surplus dates from the kingdom, which in turn would result in better prices for the farmers which were estimated to be only sr 4.00 per kg in our study. el-sabea (2010) proposed enhancing exports of saudi arabian dates through marketing cooperatives. quality production of dates was found to be an important criteria for the date farmers of al-hassa as 100% of the respondents were quality conscious and took care to incorporate measures in their farming practices (pre and post harvest) to enhance and safe guard the quality of their produce. these practices included thinning of fruits (57%). this practices has been recommended by several workers to improve the size of dates and also to prevent shriveling (tahaer, 1983; aldarwish and ben abdallah, 2010). 100.00% of the farmers discarded defective fruits and used a plastic film on the ground while harvesting, which assured quality production. these practices have been recommended by the ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia to table 5. strength, opportunities, weaknesses and threats (swot) related to date palm cultivation in al hassa oasis of saudi arabia. strengths weaknesses 1. spiritual attachment to the land (farm) regardless of the economics. 2. diverse ways to market dates in the oasis. 3. the cultivar khalas is suitable for cultivation in al hassa and other regions of the kingdom. 4. good infrastructure for date production and marketing in terms of irrigation, electricity, motor able roads, agricultural research centers , government support for date palm cultivation and marketing etc. opportunities 1. possibility to develop logistics that support marketing of dates viz. agricultural cooperatives. 2. possibility of exploiting state subsidies to enhance date cultivation in the oasis. 1. children of the farmer do not feel the same way (children lack attachment to the farm). 2. poor relationship between the farms and date processing factories. 3. significant increase in the production of the cultivar khalas resulting in lower prices for this premier date. 4. poor exploitation of facilities / in fracture to enhance production and marketing of dates. threats 1. lack of awareness among farmers to join such associations / cooperatives. 2. bureaucratic hurdles to obtain subsidies and lack of exploitation of facilities by traditional farmers. table 6. fixed and variable costs formulae. cost formula average fixed cost per palm average fixed cost per hectare / number of palms per hectare average variable cost per palm average variable cost per hectare / number of palms per hectare total production cost per hectare average fixed cost per hectare +average variable cost per hectare average cost of production per palm average fixed cost per palm + average variable cost per palm average cost to produce one kg dates average cost of production per palm / average production per palm ensure quality production of dates in the kingdom (anonymous, 2009b; anonymous 2006a). the damage caused by mites, o. afrasiaticus, to date fruits reduces fruit quality considerably (dhouibi, 2005). date palm farmers (73%) of al-hassa were aware of this problem and used chemicals (sulphur) for combating this pest. however, none of the farmers practiced fumigation of produce that is known (al-zumaiti, 1997) to combat the menace of pests in stored dates. swot analysis indicated strong attachment to the land as strength of date farming in the alhassa oasis. further, bureaucratic hurdles to obtain subsidies and lack of exploitation of facilities by traditional farmers were perceived as major threats to date farming in the oasis. there also exists a good possibility to develop logistics that support marketing of dates, especially through agricultural cooperatives, besides the possibility of further enhancing exploitation of state subsidies for date palm cultivation in the oasis. acknowledgements institutional support provided by the national date palm research centre, alhassa, saudi arabia to take up this study is gratefully acknowledged. the authors also wish to thank dr abdallah ben abdallah (cta, fao project utfn/sau/015/sau) for assisting in the preparation of this manuscript. references al-darwish zs, ben aa (2010). effect of bunch removal and fruit thinning on shriveling of mature dates in ghar cultivar. fourth international date palm conference, abu dabhi, united arab emirates 15-17, march 2010. acta horticulture, in press. al-farsi m, alasalvar c, morris a, barron m, shahidi f (2005). compositional and sensory characteristics of three native sundried date (phoenix dactylifera l) varieties grown in oman. j. agric. food chem., 53: 7586-7591. alkhatib aa, al-jaber ma, al-jabber a (2006). date palm in the kingdom of saudi arabia (ed. national agriculture development company (nadec), saudi arabia), p. 136. almalha j, husseini aa (2003).cost of cultivation of khalas dates in the alhassa oasis (ed. king saud university, riyadh, saudi arabia, pp. 843-853. alshuaiby aa, ismael m ( 2007).economic alternatives of dates as animal feed in alhassa and alqatif . proceedings, fourth symposium on date palm in saudi arabia, 20-22 february, 2007, king faisal university, al hassa, saudi arabia. al-zumaiti m (1997). practices of ipm for agriculture (ed. dar alfajr), p. 456. anonymous (2009a). annual statistical data (ed.department of studies, planning and statistics, ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia), p. 269. anonymous (2009b).statistics on processing of dates in the kingdom of saudi arabia (ed. department of studies, planning and statistics, ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia), p. 6. anonymous (2006a). the famous date varieties in the kingdom of saudi arabia (ed. ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia and food and agriculture organization of the united nations), p. 245. anonymous (2006b). a review of the processing of dates in the kingdom of saudi arabia: 1997 to 2005 (ed. ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia), p. 25. anonymous (2006c). dates of saudi arabia: status and prospects (ed. ministry of agriculture, kingdom of saudi arabia), p. 129. asif mi, al-tahir oa, al-kahtani ms (1982). inter-regional and intercultivar variations in dates grown in the kingdom of saudi arabia. in, proceedings of the first symposium on date palm. king faisal university, alhassa, pp. 22-94. asif mi, al-ghamdi as, al-tahir oa, latif raa (1986) studies on the date palm cultivars of al-hassa oasis. in, proceedings of the second symposium on date palm in saudi arabia. king faisal university, al hassa saudi arabia, pp. 405-413. baloch mk, saleem sa, ahmad k, baloch ak, baloch wa (2006). impact of controlled atmosphere on the stability of dhakki dates. swiss soc. food sci. tech., 39: 671-676. dhouibi mh (2005). experimental results (2004-5005) of the integrated pest management laboratory in riyadh (fao project, ministry of agriculture, saudi arabia), p. 96. el-baker aj (1952). date cultivation in saudi arabia. report number 31. fao ,rome, italy. el-sabea amr (2010). a comparative study for competitiveness of dates from the kingdom of saudi arabia and the united arab emirates in the world markets. proceedings (ed. zaid a and alhadrami g) fourth international date palm conference, abu dabhi, united arab emirates 15-17, march 2010, p. 715. ishurd o, kennedy jf (2005). the anti-cancer activity of polysaccharide prepared from libyan dates (phoenix dactylifera l). carbohydr. polym., 59: 531-535. mohamed ae (2000). trace element levels in some kinds of dates. food chem., 49: 107-113. tahar kh (1983). date palms and dates in the kingdom of saudi arabia, ed. ministry of agriculture, saudi arabia, pp. 168-173. vayalill pk (2002). antioxidant and antimutagenic properties of aqueous extract of date fruit (phoenix dactylifera l. arecaceae ). j. agric. food chem., 50: 610-617. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (8), pp. 001-012, august, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper farmers’ awareness and application of banana xanthomonas wilt control options: the case of uganda and kenya wellington jogo1*, eldad karamura1, jerome kubiriba2, william tinzaara1, anne rietveld1, margaret onyango3 and michael odongo4 1 bioversity international, p. o. box 24384, kampala, uganda. 2 kawanda agricultural research institute, p. o. box 7065, kampala, uganda. 3 kenya agricultural research institute, p. o. box 523, kisii, kenya. 4 rural energy and food security organization, p. o. box 751-50400 busia, kenya. accepted 13 april, 2017 banana is a key staple and cash crop in east and central africa. however, the recent outbreak of banana xanthomonas wilt (bxw) has threatened farmers whose livelihoods depend on the crop. since 2002, stakeholders embarked on campaigns to sensitize farmers on the disease and its management. this study evaluated the effectiveness of these efforts by examining farmers’ awareness of the disease, control options and their application in uganda and kenya. data on bxw distribution and incidence, farmers’ awareness of symptoms, mechanisms of spread and control options of the disease and banana production were collected through household surveys conducted in 2010. the results indicated that most farmers (> 90%) were aware of the disease and its symptoms and more than 50% were aware of the recommended control measures. farmers obtained information on the disease from multiple sources but farmer-to-farmer interaction was the main source suggesting the key role rural social networks play in managing the disease. not all affected farmers were able to apply control measures due to cost of intervention, lack of labour and inputs. the study recommends strengthening of linkages among stakeholders for better coordination of efforts and participatory development and promotion of farmeroriented interventions that address farmer constraints. key words: banana (musa spp), xanthomonas wilt, awareness, control measures, households. introduction banana (musa spp) is an important crop in east and central africa. apart from being a key staple food in the region, the crop is an important source of income for resource poor farmers (karamura et al., 1998). despite its importance, the crop has been quickly losing ground as a dependable crop due to several biotic and abiotic constraints. until the beginning of the century, the main biotic threats (weevils, nematodes, fungal and viral diseases) were managed using cultural methods. in this way farmers suffered reduced productivity but maintained reasonable levels of food and income security. however, following the arrival of banana xanthomonas wilt (bxw) *corresponding author. e-mail: w.jogo@cgiar.org. tel: +256 414 286 213. fax: +256414286949. (caused by xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum) in the region, entire crop holdings were wiped out in some areas where highly susceptible genotypes were dominating the farming systems. up to the 1960s, the wilt was known only in ethiopia, occurring in both bananas and enset. in 2001, the disease was reported in central uganda (tushemereirwe et al., 2001) and in north kivu province of dr congo in 2003 (ndungo et al., 2006) and in rwanda in 2005 (isar, 2007). between 2002 and 2006, the disease spread to the major banana growing regions of uganda, western kenya, and other countries in central africa, where it reportedly caused 80 to 100% crop loss, especially in beer bananas (abb genome) in uganda and dr congo (ndungo et al., 2006). such losses drastically affected food security and incomes for the poor and vulnerable farmers. all banana cultivars in eastern africa, including endemic file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org highland cooking and brewing cultivars (aaa-ea), exotic brewing, dessert and roasting types (ab, aaa, aab, abb), and hybrids, are susceptible to the disease. no cultivars with bxw resistance have so far been identified. some cultivars, e.g. pisang awak (abb) are particularly susceptible to insect vector transmission and are believed to facilitate the spread of bxw (tushemereirwe et al., 2003). the first symptoms of floral infection by bxw include discoloration at the tip of the flower and withering of the flower bracts. this is followed by drying of the rachis, premature drying and rotting of bunches and eventually wilting and death of the whole plant. in the vegetative phase, the symptoms include yellowing, wilting and eventually death of the whole plant. when the banana pseudostem is cut, yellow ooze in the real stem confirms presence of the disease. this discoloration is diagnostic and is observable even where other symptoms are not yet manifest. as a result of the severity of the disease, regional stakeholders developed a management strategy in 2005 (karamura et al., 2006) based on what was known about the mode of spread of other similar bacterial wilt diseases of banana (e.g. moko and blood diseases). removal of male buds is instrumental in preventing possible insect and/or bat transmission of the disease. destruction and disposal of infected plants, disinfecting tools used in the plantation, avoiding using planting materials from infected areas, replacing bananas with other crops and quarantine measures are the other recommended practices. these cultural practices, if adhered to, should slow but may not completely prevent the spread of bxw (karamura et al., 2008). since 2002, intensive campaigns were mounted across the region to create awareness on the disease and educate farmers about its diagnosis, prevention and recommended control practices through posters, brochures, newspaper inserts, calendars, radio and several other participatory development communication approaches. however, little is known about the effectiveness of these efforts in raising farmers‟ awareness of the disease, control options and their application and how these may be influenced by farmers‟ agro-ecological and socio-economic context. the objective of this study, therefore, was to assess farmer-level awareness of bxw, its effect on production, control options and their application in the main banana cropping systems using data from uganda and kenya. the results of this study should generate insights that will inform policy-makers and stakeholders in the banana sector on possible interventions for managing bxw and reduce its impacts on food security and incomes of poor farmers. methodology this study was carried out in uganda and kenya. in uganda, the study targeted the two main banana cropping systems: the „kayinja‟ beer banana (abb genome) and the east african highland banana (eahb) „matooke‟ (aaa-eahb) based systems. the aaa-eahb types are produced by farm households mainly for food security purposes, while the abb types are largely market-oriented. the kayinja system is located mainly in central uganda, and is usually a mix of bananas and other crops (e.g. coffee, cassava and trees) while the eahb based system is mainly found in the south western parts of uganda, on relatively fertile soils and with low banana pest pressure. the eahb system is more intensively managed (with frequent pruning, weeding, de-budding) than the kayinja system. accordingly, bxw transmission in the eahb system is mainly through farm tools while in the kayinja system, insects are the main mechanism of transmission. in kenya, one district from the western part of the country (ugunja division, siaya district) where the disease is prevalent and banana is a key crop for farm households was selected. in this area, the banana production system is dominated by dessert bananas including kivuvu (abb genome), sukari ndiizi (ab genome), cavendish (aaa genome) but also has significant kayinja and eahb bananas (mbaka et al., 2009). in general, management of banana fields is less intensive in kenya than in uganda. in both countries, household surveys were conducted in may to september, 2010 to collect data using a structured questionnaire. a similar questionnaire was used in both countries, although minor adaptations were made to capture contextual differences. the questionnaire solicited data on household socio-economic characteristics, bxw distribution and incidence; farmers‟ awareness of disease symptoms, mechanisms of spread and control measures, banana production, coping mechanisms and livelihoods strategies. in uganda, a multi-stage stratified random sampling design was used to select households for the survey. the two main banana systems described earlier were the sampling units for the first stage. a total of ten districts were purposively selected to represent the two banana systems in the country, six for the eahb system (isingiro, mbarara, masaka, bushenyi, ibanda and ntungamo) and four from the kayinja system (kiboga, mityana, mubende and mpigi). occurrence of the disease and period since the disease was first observed were also considered in selecting the districts for the survey. within each of the selected districts, communities were mobilized to control bxw using three main extension approaches: 1) farmer field schools, 2) community-based extension and 3) traditional top-down extension approach. for example, there were over twenty communities who were mobilized using farmer field schools in each of the cropping systems, three of which were randomly selected for this study. likewise, three communities were randomly selected among those who were mobilized using community and traditional approaches in each district. households in each of the selected communities were then stratified according to the banana marketing strategy they use: group versus individual. to take into account farm size, the households were further stratified according to farm size into large (>2 acres) and small farms (<2 acres) and twenty households were randomly selected in each stratum. the final sample of households interviewed in uganda consisted of 350 households. in kenya, the cropping systems and technology transfer approaches used for mobilizing farmers for bxw control were more or less similar across the country and hence one district was selected for the survey. a total of 52 households were randomly sampled from six locations in the district. descriptive frequencies were used to analyse farmers‟ awareness, sources of information, application of bxw control measures and coping strategies in the two study countries. comparative statistics (means, frequencies and cross tabulations) with statistical tests for significance were used in examining differences in various factors across sites and cropping systems (t-tests and chi-square tests). the impact of disease on banana production and sales was first analyzed by comparing the significance of the difference in mean banana production and sales before and at the peak of the disease using a paired t-test statistic. in order to obtain robust estimates of the impact of the disease on banana production and sales, a combination of propensity score matching (psm) and difference-in-difference or double difference (did) approaches was applied. psm is used to match affected households (the treated group) with non-affected households (the control group), based on similarity in observable socio-economic characteristics (barker, 1999). this controls for selection bias arising from differences in observable characteristics between the two groups. bias due to unobservable time-invariant characteristics (e.g. ability of farmers, inherent quality of natural resources) or common trends affecting both groups equally (e.g. prices, weather) was addressed by using the did approach (barker, 1999; smale et al., 2008; davis and nkonya, 2008). combining the two nets out, both observable and unobservable factors that affect the outcome variable and in principle produces impact estimates that are more plausible than those based on a single difference (either overtime, as is the case with the paired t-test statistic highlighted earlier or between groups) (nkonya and davis, 2008). because the sample size for kenya was very small, the impact analysis using psm and did was only done for uganda. results and discussion socio-economic characteristics and importance of banana in the study countries the demographic characteristics of the interviewed households in the two countries are summarized in table 1. age of household head averaged in the forties in both countries was not significantly different between the two sites. similarly, the average education level of household head for the two countries was not significantly different with most of the household heads not having gone beyond primary education. however, while there was no significant difference in the number of years living in the area between the two study countries, households in uganda had significantly more farming experience than those in kenya. results on the importance of bananas in farming systems in the two countries are presented in table 2. the results show that mean farm size per household was significantly higher in uganda than in kenya. in both countries, banana was an important food and income crop. however, the crop was more important in uganda than in kenya, as evidenced by the fact that more than 70% of the interviewed households in uganda grew banana as the main crop compared to only 10% in kenya. accordingly, households in uganda allocated a significantly higher proportion of their farmland to banana production, invested a higher proportion of their income in banana production and consumed banana products more frequently than their kenyan counterparts. in uganda, the percentage of households growing banana as the main crop and the proportions of farmland under banana and household monthly income from banana were significantly higher in the eahb system than in the kayinja system. this confirms the special position of east african highland cooking „matooke‟ bananas in the livelihoods (food security and income purposes) of rural households in the country. the difference in importance of banana for farmers in the two systems may influence their decision to invest in bxw control. farmer awareness and application of bxw control measures in both countries, more than 70% of the interviewed farmers had their farms affected by bxw. all interviewed households were aware of the disease and its symptoms. in line with findings from previous studies (ngambeki et al., 2006; bagamba et al., 2006; muhangi et al., 2006) this study found that the three main recommended bxw control measures of removing male buds with a forked stick; destroying infected plant material (through different approaches of cutting of pseudo stem of affected plants; cutting down and bury whole mat of diseased plants); and disinfecting cutting tools were widely known and applied by farmers in uganda (table 3). destroying affected plants through cutting of affected pseudo stem; cutting and dig down whole mat of affected plants and removal of male buds with cutting tools were the most widely known and practiced control measures in kenya. contrary to the results in uganda, removal of male buds with forked stick and disinfecting of farm tools were known and practiced by very few farmers in kenya. the limited application of removal of male buds with forked stick by farmers supports an earlier finding by mbaka et al. (2009) that few farmers in western kenya carry out this practice and do it not with the intention to control bxw, but to use the male bud as a stopper for water containers. although the use of cutting tools in de-budding is discouraged by researchers and extension practitioners, a significant number of farmers in both countries were still using cutting tools for de-budding (29 and 39% in uganda and kenya, respectively). this demonstrates that a significant number of farmers were still not aware of the potential danger posed by cutting tools in transmitting the disease both in-field and across fields. future awareness campaigns need to emphasise on enhancing farmer understanding of the rationale behind different practices and the motive behind discouraging certain practices such as the use of cutting tools. in both countries, putting restrictions on movement of plant material (including suckers) to contain the spread of disease to disease-free areas was less practiced. more than 90% of the farmers in both countries used suckers from their own fields or from neighbors, thereby increasing the chances of spreading the disease across farms through planting material. with the exception of a few practices, more farmers under the eahb system were applying bxw control measures than under kayinja system (table 4), as the former is more important to the farmers‟ livelihoods and therefore farmers are more willing to invest in disease control in that system than in the latter. a comparison of the percentage of households aware table 1. socio-economic characteristics of interviewed households in uganda and kenya. uganda (n=350) kenya (n=52) statistical tests for significance socioeconomic characteristics eahb system kayinja system sample dessert system t-values (comparison of t-values (comparison (n=172) (n=178) (n=350) (n=52) eahb and kayinja) of uganda and kenya) age of household head (years) 44 47 46 48 2.02** 1.15 education of household head (years) 6 8 7 7 4.55** 1.31 years living in area 28 29 28 29 0.25 0.19 years in farming 23 25 24 19 1.25 2.21** χ 2 values gender of household head (%) : male 49 53 51 65 0.48 1.33 female 51 47 49 35 ** significant at 5%. of the different control measures with those applying them shows that in both countries, not all of those who knew the control measures were actually applying them. for instance, in uganda 82% were aware of the removal of male buds using a forked stick as a control measure but only 67% were practicing this control measure. the same trend can be observed for the other control measures and also for kenya. the worst case scenario is where farmers were not practicing any control measure despite their farms being infected with the disease and knowing the control options. however, in uganda only 3% of affected households did not apply any control measure (26% in kenya), suggesting that the majority of farmers believed the disease could be successfully controlled. limited application of practices that farmers were aware of was attributed to several constraints (table 5), including high cost of application (e.g. disinfecting of farm tools), lack of labour (e.g. cutting down and burying whole mat of affected plant) and ineffectiveness of control measures. concerns raised by some farmers about ineffectiveness of some control measures in controlling the disease (e.g. debudding with forked stick) could be due to incorrect application of such control measures. for instance, a study by muhangi et al. (2006) in uganda found that farmers who de-bud using a forked stick or cutting tools did it late (normally when fingers have turned upwards). in their study, they argued that such incorrect application of the control measure could explain the claims by farmers that removal of male buds is ineffective in controlling the disease. these findings suggest the need to go beyond just creating awareness of existing control measures but also equip farmers with skills on correct application of these measures. most farmers were aware of more than one control measure and those controlling the disease were mostly applying combinations of control measures (table 3). that explains why the percentage of farmers aware or applying the different practices add up to more than 100%. whilst most farmers were applying more than one control measure, few were deploying the full package of control measures (using removal of male buds with fork stick, destroying infected plant material and disinfecting tools simultaneously) and as a result few farmers were able to eradicate the disease from their farms. the main sources of information on bxw control measures are presented in table 6. the results show that farmers obtained information on bxw control measures from multiple sources. in both countries, friends/neighbours and extension were the main sources of information for farmers. however, the fact that friends/neighbours played a key role in disseminating bxw infor-mation, demonstrates the importance of social networks (such as farmer associations, farmer field schools and community-based extension approaches) in raising awareness and improving adoption of bxw control measures. an interesting contrast between the two countries is that while researchers played some role in disseminating information in uganda, they played no role in kenya. there is evidence that community-based organizations, such as schools, churches and table 2. comparative analysis of the importance of banana in farming systems in the two countries. uganda (n =350) kenya (n=52) statistical tests for significance parameter eahb kayinja sample dessert t-values t-values system system system (comparison of (comparison of (n=350) (n=172) (n=178) (n=52) eahb and kayinja) uganda and kenya) farm size (acres) mean farm size under banana (acres) proportion of farm size allocated to banana (%) proportion of monthly household income from banana (%) proportion of household income invested in banana production (%) mean number of times banana products are consumed per week per household 6 9 8 4 1.49 1.43* 2 2 2 0.5 1.21 5.12*** 63 31 49 14 11.72*** 7.85*** 43 17 29 27 7.06*** 0.14 15 14 12 9 0.24 1.22*** 9 10 7 0.3 0.55 10.89*** χ 2 values grow banana as (%): main crop 91 56 73 10 57.23*** 101.14*** secondary crop 9 44 27 90 grow banana as (%): food only 16 31 24 10 18.29*** 49.86*** cash only 1 3 2 2 both 83 66 74 89 *, **, *** significant at 10, 5 and 1% respectively. market places also played a role in disseminating information on the disease in both countries, albeit small. the fact that farmers received information from multiple sources, raises concerns about the possibility of farmers receiving conflicting messages from different sources. in their study on bxw in uganda, bagamba et al. (2006) reported that farmers raised concerns over receiving different information from different sources. the implication of this finding is that there is need for better coordination and strengthening of linkages among stakeholders (researchers, extension, farmers, media, non governmental organisations and communitybased organisations) and build synergies in fighting against the disease. impact of bxw on farm production, income and household coping strategies impact on banana production and sales to ascertain the impact of bxw on banana production and incomes at household level, farmers were asked to provide estimates of their banana harvest and sales levels per month (a monthly time step was thought to be shorter and easier recall period for farmers than a year) before and at the peak of bxw. the impact of the disease on banana production and sales was first analyzed by testing the significance of the mean monthly banana harvest and sales per household before and at the peak of bxw attack in each country using a paired t-test. the results, which are presented in table 7, show that in both countries banana harvest and sales levels fell drastically at the peak of bxw attack. in uganda, average monthly banana harvest levels per table 3. farmer awareness and application of bxw control measures in uganda and kenya. uganda (n=350) kenya (n=52) practice percentage of percentage of percentage of percentage of households households households households aware currently applying aware currently applying cut down affected pseudo stem of affected plant 74 65 57 41 cut down and dig up the whole mat of affected plants 59 41 45 39 bury plant remains 49 32 6 2 burn plant remains 23 8 4 heap affected plant remains and leave on ground 35 29 10 6 left on ground but not heaped or buried 13 11 6 4 remove male buds of affected plant with fork stick 82 67 12 8 remove male buds with cutting tools 41 29 45 39 after cutting, clean tools (jik/fire) 77 64 4 4 treat with concoction 21 16 8 6 do not sell or move any fruits, leaves, or suckers outside a disease area 18 14 4 table 4. proportion of farmers (%) applying control measures by banana cropping system. uganda (n=350) kenya (n=52) practice kayinja system eahb system χ 2 dessert (n=178) (n=172) system cut down affected pseudo stem of affected plant 80 53 37.31*** 41 cut down and dig up the whole mat of affected plant 30 53 14.31*** 39 bury plant remains 7 58 88.62*** 2 burn plant remains 11 5 5.4** heap affected plant remains and leave on ground 36 22 9.32*** 6 left on ground but not heaped or buried 2 6 11.21*** 4 remove male buds of affected plant with fork stick 65 69 2.31 8 remove male buds with cutting tools 25 35 4.29** 39 after cutting, clean tools (jik/fire) 58 70 6.67** 4 do not sell or move any fruits, leaves, or suckers outside a disease area 11 20 5.27** household dropped by 57%, while sales fell by 67% at the peak of bxw infection. similarly, in kenya, farmers experienced an average of 77% reduction in pre-infection banana harvest levels while sales fell by 80%. comparing the production impacts in the two countries, we observe that the table 5. farmer constraints to application of different bxw control measures (% of farmers reporting) in uganda. practice application constraints (% of farmers) practice lack of labour (or technology does not expensive technology is labour work (ineffective in spreads bxw intensive) controlling bxw) cut down affected pseudo stem of affected plant 17 17 11 cut down and dig up the whole mat of affected plants 15 31 2 bury plant remains 20 22 10 burn plant remains 17 29 14 heap affected plant remains and leave on ground 12 16 12 left on ground but not heaped or buried 18 9 remove male buds of affected plant with fork stick 2 17 9 remove male buds with cutting tools 5 16 after cutting, clean tools (jik/fire) 33 13 13 treat with concoction 10 17 2 do not sell or move any fruits, leaves, or suckers outside a disease area 7 7. destroy all infected plants until disease has gone away 11 disease had more severe effects on banana production in kenya than in uganda presumably because farmers in kenya had less farming experience (table 1) and accordingly possessed less experience in managing agricultural risks associated with pests and diseases than their ugandan counterparts. this result could also be attributed to the fact that farmers in kenya put less effort and invest less resources in managing the disease, as banana is grown largely as a secondary crop. also, as results in table 3 show, de-budding with cutting tools still had wider application among farmers in kenya (with only 4% farmers disinfecting the used cutting tools) which could have exacerbated the disease and associated impacts. the results obtained from did impact analysis (table8) show that during the period before bxw, affected households harvested significantly more than the non-affected households. however, at the peak of bxw, affected households suffered a significantly higher percentage reduction in average harvest (63%), although their harvest levels remained slightly higher than those of nonaffected households. even though there is a general downward trend in banana harvest during the two periods for both groups (presumably due to other factors), it is clear that the disease had large impacts on affected households. the difference-in-difference estimate is -22.66, which shows that average banana harvest among affected households was 22.66% lower than that of their non-affected counterparts. this is a sign of increasing difference between the two groups. the same trend is observed for banana sales. the reduction in banana production and sales due to disease infection adversely affect household food security and income. in turn, the loss in banana income adversely affects other household livelihood aspects into which income from banana is invested, such as home care (school fees, health) and investments into household infrastructure and productive assets. the study also analysed the change in banana harvest and sales levels before and at peak of bxw by years, since the disease was observed in the two countries and the results are presented in table 9. in uganda, the number of years since the disease was observed on farm ranged from 0 to 9, with an average of 4.5 years and therefore the study compared percentage change in harvest and sales below and above this average. the disease was a recent phenomenon on most farms in kenya, with the number of years since the disease was observed on farm ranging from 0 to 3 years with an average of 1.3 and we similarly compared the percentage change below and above this average. the results show that in both countries, banana harvest and sales reductions were much more severe on farms that had been table 6. farmer sources of information (% of farmers) on bxw control measures known in uganda and kenya. uganda (n=350) kenya (n=52) practice friends/ radio/ school/ friends/ radio/ school/ traders/ extension researcher extension market neighbors tv church neighbors tv church place cut down affected pseudo stem of affected plant 36 28 40 1 8 27 6 17 2 2 cut down and dig up the whole mat of affected plant 24 20 35 5 23 2 19 4 4 bury plant remains 17 11 28 4 burn plant remains 11 9 11 3 heap affected plant remains and leave on ground 14 11 20 1 4 2 2 left on ground but not heaped or buried 5 3 7 1 4 4 2 remove male buds of affected plant with fork stick 33 26 48 1 9 2 2 remove male buds with cutting tools 13 9 19 2 21 2 13 4 4 after cutting, clean tools (jik/fire) 28 22 46 1 9 2 2 do not sell or move any fruits, leaves, or suckers outside a disease area 5 3 7 2 table 7. comparison of banana harvest and sales before and after bxw attack among affected households in uganda and kenya. uganda (n=350) kenya (n=52) parameter before at peak t-test percentage before at peak of t-test percentage bxw of bxw statistic change (%) bxw bxw statistic change (%) mean banana harvested per month (bunches/household) 78.44 30.50 8.82*** -57.13 31.71 7.36 2.61** -76.82 mean banana sold per month (bunches/household) 59.53 17.13 7.07*** -67.37 23.91 4.77 2.39** -79.57 **, *** significant at 5 and 1% respectively. affected by the disease for a much longer time than those recently affected. in order to assess the potential recovery from application of control measures, this study compared banana harvest levels at the peak of disease and in the current period (the period the survey was conducted). the results show evidence of production recovery from the disease through application of control measures. in both countries, farmers applying control measures recovered more than 50% of their production losses, and those applying the full package of control measures recorded close to 80% production recovery. however, as highlighted earlier, few farmers (14 and 0% in uganda and kenya, respectively) were applying the full package of control methods. farmer strategies to cope with bxw besides applying control measures to reduce their losses, farmers are also using various coping strategies to „live with the disease‟. such strategies represent a response by way of altering livelihood strategies to deal with the disease. these strategies range from those related to disease management, processing and marketing and consumption. affected house-holds in both countries coped with the disease using multiple strategies (table 10). however, the most widely used strategy was switching from banana to other crops. for instance, in uganda, a previous work table 8. did estimate of the effect of bxw using matched sample for uganda. parameter bxw infection status before bxw at the peak of current difference between (b) bxw (a) period (c) periods (a-b) banana harvested (bunches/month) banana sales (bunches/month) affected households 80.89 30.32 47.31 -50.57 non-affected household 56.77 28.86 34.51 -27.91 difference between groups 24.12 1.46 12.80 -22.66 affected households 61.30 17.80 26.73 -43.5 non-affected households 33.13 13.92 14.56 -19.21 difference between groups 28.17 3.88 12.17 -24.29 table 9. percentage change in banana harvest and sales before and after bxw by years since disease has been observed for uganda and kenya. uganda (n=350) kenya (n=52) < 4.5 years 4.5 to 9 years <1.3 years > 1.3 since parameter since bxw was since bxw was t-test since bxw was bxw was first t-test first observed first observed statistic first observed observed on statistic on farm on farm on farm farm banana harvest per month -58.81 -73.66 3.46** -51.53 -63.89 0.60 (bunches/household) banana sales per month -64.56 -79.54 2.53** -48.70 -86.94 2.16* (bunches/household) *, **, significant at 10 and 5% respectively. by karamura (2006) showed that acreage under banana declined, as affected farmers moved to crops that were considered safer than banana, with maize and cassava being the main crops increasing in acreage. accordingly, the change in crop production system is accompanied with re-allocation of farm resources such as labour, equipment and other farm inputs. other disease management strategies used to cope with the disease include raring livestock, use of concoctions, fallowing of banana fields and abandoning infected fields completely. the results in table 10 further show that most farmers in kenya coped with the disease mainly through disease management strategies (growing other crops, rearing livestock, use of concoctions, fallowing and field abandonment) and less farmers used strategies related to adjusting their marketing and consumption decisions. in contrast, a significant proportion of farmers in uganda coped with the disease through changing their consumption patterns by reducing the number of bananabased meals taken (31%) or consuming more of other food products (26%). this result supports evidence shown by karamura (2006) that affected households have reduced consumption of banana products and consumption of other food types such as posho (maize meal) has increased (in line with increased importance and production of maize as stated earlier). these results illustrate that bxw has had profound effects on the livelihoods of banana-dependent communities by causing significant production and income losses and changing cropping and consumption patterns and processing and marketing decisions of affected communities. conclusions and policy implications the importance of bananas as a food security crop in central and east africa is increasingly threatened by bxw. a lot of progress has been made in raising farmers‟ awareness of the disease and available control options following its outbreak in the region. friends/neighbours, researchers, extension, media and non-governmental organizations (ngos) and community-based organizations (cbos) played a key role in disseminating information on the disease and its management to farmers. farmer-to-farmer interaction has been by far the most widely used dissemination channel for information on the disease and control options, reflecting the importance of rural social networks in raising awareness and enhancing adoption of improved banana management technologies. this draws policy makers‟ and development agents‟ attention to exploit these social networks through participatory approaches, such as farmer groups, farmer table 10. percentage of farmers using different bxw coping strategies in uganda and kenya. coping strategies uganda kenya (n=350) (n=52) disease management growing other crops 32 28.3 raring livestock 8.3 7.5 use of concoctions 9.7 13.2 cut down entire field and rest for some time (fallowing) 8.9 18.9 abandoning the infected field completely 11.1 15.1 processing and marketing use other raw materials to make beer 0.9 1.9 making cassava and potato chips or other products (instead of banana crisps) 1.4 11.3 stop selling banana products 12.6 7.5 selling other crop products 9.4 consumption purchasing of banana from the market 11.1 3.8 reduction of number of banana-based meals 31.4 9.4 consumption of other food types 26.3 13.2 field schools and community extension groups for more effective farmer learning and adoption of bxw control measures. in addition, the multiplicity of the information sources suggest the need to strengthen linkages and synergies among all stakeholders (farmers, researchers, extension, farmers, media and ngos, cbos, policymakers, nars) to ensure that farmers do not receive conflicting messages from different sources and foster better coordination and complimentarity of efforts in managing the disease. the results of this study showed that costs of control measures, lack of labour (or convenience of application) and effectiveness of control measure are key constraints to farmer application of control measures. while a more rigorous analysis of the factors influencing farmers‟ decisions on adoption of bxw control measures will be presented in a follow up paper, these preliminary results already suggest the need to strengthen farmerresearcher-extension linkages and adoption of a participatory farmer-oriented (demand-driven) technology development approach, to take into account indigenous knowledge and match technologies to farmer‟s socioeconomic circumstances. this ensures that effective technologies are developed and are readily adopted by farmers. furthermore, there is need to go beyond awareness raising and educate farmers on the correct application of the recommended control measures, something that can be addressed through stronger researcher-extension-farmer linkages and more effective farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing and experiential learning through group approaches such as farmer field schools. finally, our study also showed that bxw has led to significant production and income losses among bananadependent farmers, threatening their food security and incomes. the disease has caused far-reaching impacts on their livelihoods by inducing changes in farm production systems and consumption patterns and spillover effects of the income losses on other downstream non-farm household livelihood aspects that depend on farm incomes. however, the study demonstrated that in the short term, farmers are able to recover their production through application of the recommended cultural control practices. that being the case though, given the evidence that the disease is resurging in some areas where it had been successfully controlled, developing cultivars with resistance to the disease seems to be the most effective long-term solution to the epidemic. acknowledgements the authors are thankful to the mcknight foundation for providing financial support for this research through a grant support to the project “strengthening partnerships along value chains to manage xanthomonas wilt of bananas in east africa.” references bagamba f, kikulwe e, tushemereirwe wk, ngambeki d, muhangi j, kagezi gh, ramaga pe, eden-green s (2006). awareness of banana bacterial wilt in uganda: farmers‟ 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nowakunda k, abeyasekera s (2006). impact of awareness campaigns for banana bacterial wilt control in uganda. afr. crop sci. j., 14 (2): 175-183. ndungo v, eden-green s, blomme g, crozier j, smith jj (2006). presence of banana xanthomonas wilt (xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum) in the democratic republic of congo (drc). plant pathol., 55: 294. ngambeki ds, tushemereirwe wk, okaasai o (2006). awareness of banana bacterial wilt control in uganda: community leaders perspective. afr. crop sci. j., 14(2): 165-173. nkonya e, davis k (2008). the statistical challenges of attributing impacts of demand driven advisory service programs and farmer field schools in africa. paper presented at the workshop on: rethinking impact: understanding the complexity of poverty and change, colombia, march 26-29, 2008. smale m, diakite l, sidibe a, grum m, jones h (2008). an econometric analysis of the impact of farmer participation in diversity field fora in mali. unpublished manuscript, international food policy research institute, washington d.c. tushemereirwe wk, kangire a, smith j, nakyanzi m, kataama d, musiitwa, c (2001). an outbreak of banana bacterial wilt in mukono district: a new and devastating disease. national banana programme. kawanda agricultural research organisation. tushemereirwe wk, kangire a, smith j, ssekiwoko f, nakyanzi m, kataama d, musiitwa c (2003). an outbreak of banana bacterial wilt in uganda. infomusa, 12: 6-8. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (10), pp. 001-009, october, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper factors influencing output commercialisation among small scale farmers in nigeria femi ogundele nigerian institute of social and economic research (niser). accepted 19 september, 2020 abstract this study presented evidence-based analysis of the degree of commercialisation among small scale maize producing households in nigeria as well as factors that determine their levels of output commercialisation using the national bureau of statistics generalise household survey wave 2 and 3 panel data. analysis involved computation of the household crop commercialisation index (hcci) and tobit regression of the determinants of output commercialisation. the results are quite revealing and brought to the fore a number of significant findings on output commercialisation among small scale farmers in nigeria. one of such critical findings is the challenge faced by women (in terms of ownership and control) as plot management and control as well as decision over earnings from crop sales was dominated by male spouse. also, while increased output is necessary for improved commercialisation, finding suggests that this was only achieved through extensification while storage constituted critical challenge. also, the study underscores the significance of output price in driving output commercialisation, storage for the future sale only increased marginally due to limited capacity of the households to store for long period. this study, therefore, recommends gender inclusive agricultural commercialisation policy and the development of market infrastructure (storage and transportation). keywords: crop, output, commercialisation, small scale, farmers. introduction the importance of smallholder farmers in transforming the agricultural sector in nigeria is embedded not only in their numerical strength but also in their potentials to serve as the fulcrum for ensuring food security and achieving poverty reduction if properly harnessed. the national agricultural sample survey by national bureau of statistics (2012) put the population of small scales farmers in nigeria at 18.2 million while that of corporate farmers was 171. meanwhile, one of the major characteristics feature of smallholder farms in nigeria is the fact that they are widely dispersed with fragmented corresponding author. e-mail: olorunfemiogundele@gmail.com holdings thus, making it difficult for provision of market support services and proper integration into the market. aside, production is largely rain fed with less than 1% of the arable land irrigated; therefore production varies with the amount and distribution of rainfall. this type of production system couple with lack of appropriate storage facilities, make it difficult for small scale farmers to cope with seasonal price volatility which often made them to sell their produce during harvesting season at very low price. in other words, smallholder farmers in nigeria are price takers and thus, the need for an indepth understanding of how they can be properly integrated into the output market. meanwhile, commercialization of agricultural output as a characteristic of agricultural change is more than whether or not a cash crop is produce to a certain extent in a production system. it can take many different forms by either occurring on the output side of production with increased marketed surplus or on the input side with increased use of purchased inputs. abu (2015) posited that smallholder commercialisation requires both well-functioning output market and efficient and cost effective factor market that reflect opportunity cost of farm inputs. commercialization is the outcome of a simultaneous decision-making behaviour of farm households in production and marketing. smallholder commercialization in nigeria encompasses: sale of a marketable surplus of traditional crops; diversification into the production of new crops; introduction of new income generating and post-harvest activities such as processing of farm produce. all though a number of empirical studies on agricultural output commercialisation such as (adenegan et al, 2013; oteh and nwachukwu, 2014; falola et al., 2014; olanrewaju et al., 2016 and ugwu and alimba, 2018) exit in nigeria, they are, however, localised (limited to a particular location) and do not considered crop specific analysis as proposed in this study. even though a few of them considered factors that drive market participation and degree of output commercialisation, none of them examine the inter-temporal shift in the degree of output commercialisation as well as changes in the drivers over time. therefore, what remains empirically contentious is how the inter-temporal changes in factors that drive output commercialisation determine the degree of integration of farmers into the output market in nigeria. this is very important as study by murithi and matz (2014) have shown that improved output commercialisation could impact positively on livelihood generation. against this backdrop, the study examines factors that influence smallholder output commercialization among small scale maize farmers in nigeria and how these factors changes over time. theoretical review theoretical literatures on agricultural commercialization have proceeded along two main perspectives. these are the macro and micro perspectives. from the macro perspective, the development economists viewed agricultural commercialization as gradual replacement of integrated farming systems by specialized enterprises for crop, livestock, and poultry and aquaculture products. changes in product mix and input uses are determined largely by the market forces during this transition. they also considered commercialization of agricultural production as an endogenous process which is usually accompanied by economic growth, urbanization and withdrawal of labour from the agricultural sector (pingali and rosegrant, 1995). from the micro perspective (farm household level), agricultural commercialization refers to the process of increasing the proportion of agricultural production that is sold by farmers (pradhan et al., 2010). this view was held by the structuralist and the agricultural economist. according to the structuralist, agricultural commercialization, means more than the marketing of agricultural output, it means the product choice and input use decisions are based on the principles of profit maximization. commercial reorientation of agricultural production can occur for the primary staple cereals as well as for the so-called high value cash crops. on the input side, commercialization implies that both traded and non-traded inputs are valued in terms of their market value (abu, 2015). commercialization of agricultural systems leads to greater market orientation of farm production; progressive substitution out of nontraded inputs in favour of purchased inputs; and the gradual decline of integrated farming systems and their replacement by specialized enterprises for crop, livestock, poultry and aquaculture products. according to manyong et al., (2005), commercialization, can be viewed as the movement from a subsistence production to a market-based system of production. it involves raising the cash earnings of small-scale, agricultural related enterprises. in other words, commercialization can be brought about by increasing the unit of output, raising the value added or both, and producing for domestic and foreign markets. empirical review determinants of agricultural output commercialisation empirical studies on the determinants of agricultural commercialisation have proceeded along three major lines. the first category of these studies adopted the hickman two stage selections approach and estimated probit model with emphasis on factors that drive farmers to select into a particular market. most studies in this category do not consider crop specific factors. the second category adopted other analytical approaches such as ols and multinomial logit. the main emphasis here are factors that determine rate of participation. also here, the quantities or values of output offer for sale as proportion of total output are often used as index of commercialisation. the third category considered the case of censor data and the need for crop specific analysis. such studies have adopted the tobit model to analyse the determinants of commercialisation focusing on the specificity of the market for each crops and this current study belongs to this third category. studies across the world have revealed some of the major determinants of output commercialisation; however, these determinants differ within country due to heterogeneous conditions by smallholder farmers. as such, in several countries output commercialization have been associated with several factors prominent among which are landholding size, ownership of livestock assets, education, technology, rural infrastructure, transaction costs, ownership of agricultural implements, market information, wealth, family labour force, etc. (asfaw et.al, 2010, abu, 2015). these factors can be broadly grouped in two categories namely household specific and external factors which have been broken further into eight by afework and geta (2016). household specific factors include quality and quantity of household resources such as land, labour and capital. the external factors are factors that are beyond the smallholder‟s control. they include variables such as technological change, population growth, introduction of new commodities, infrastructure, market facilitating institutions, and public policies, agroclimatic variables, development of non-farm sector and broader economy, rising labour opportunity costs. sigei, et al. (2014) also disaggregate these external factors to institutional, market and included political stability of the nation, natural disaster and calamities as other external factor. in a study by martey, et al (2014), a truncated tobit regression model was used to ascertain determinants of commercialization in effutu municipality in ghana with major focus on market information. the study analysed trends in maize and cassava production using both primary and secondary data. they found the extents of maize and cassava commercialization as 0.53 and 0.72 respectively and total agricultural commercialization of the two crops as 0.66. gender, education, market information, farm size, access to land and non-farm income were found as significant determinants of commercialization of agriculture. in a related study by kabiti et al (2106), tobit model was adopted to examine factors driving smallholder commercialisation in zimbabwe. the paper found that varying factors were responsible for the observed level of input and output commercialisation and recommended increased public and private sector contribution through training and financial support. empirical studies in nigeria on smallholder agricultural commercialization are in agreement with some findings in other countries. onoja, et al. (2012) in a study of determinants of market participation in nigerian smallscale fishery sector used primary data and logistic regression model. the authors observed the significance of household size, distant to the nearest marketing channel, price of the commodity and sex of the fish farmer/marketer as determinants of fish farmers‟ participation in the market. the authors observed the importance of market access noting that those who live close to better roads and have more frequent and direct contacts with the market appeared more willing to produce more systematically for the market, while those with poor market access have little incentive to produce crops other than those required for domestic consumption. okezie, et al (2012) studied factors driving commercialization processes in abia state, nigeria using panel data, observed some degrees of market orientation and identified off-farm income as important sources of agricultural commercialization. inputs such as labour, fertilizer and planting materials are farm-level determinants of commercialization. they sell their labour and invest proceeds in subsistence production which implies subsistence agriculture tending to input side commercialization. also, in another study by adenegan et al. (2013), factors determining cassava farmers‟ market orientation in nigeria were examined with the use of primary data and personal observations. the study adopted a combination of probit and tobit models as well as truncated regression model. the study observed the importance of market information, education and distance in the household‟s decision on the quantity of produce to take to the market. age was also found to be a significant factor. another study by oteh and nwachukwu (2014) examined the determinants of commercialization of cassava producing households and used household commercialization index and multiple regression models. analysis of their primary data showed that less than 2 per cent of the households have very high commercial orientation. they also found out that output value, farm size, nearness to market, membership of cooperative and farming experience were significant determinants of commercialization in the study area. other studies in nigeria such as olanrewaju et al., (2016) observed an improved level of commercialisation among smallholder farming households in southwest nigeria with an average household commercialisation index of 0.83 while ugwu and alimba (2018) computed commercialisation index for smallholder farmers in southeast nigeria and found that the index was higher for cassava and rice. according to them, major determinants of commercialisation include gender, household size, processing cost and distance to the market. while studies in nigeria revealed varying degree of output commercialisation by smallholder farmers as well as variation in the driving factors across the country, none of the above studies, however, considered the temporal dynamics in household output commercialisation and the associated factors which is the main focus of this study. study approach and methodology data collection this study made use of secondary data which consisted of a set of panel data by national bureau of statistics in two nationwide surveys conducted under the generalized household survey (ghs) wave 2 and 3 in 2013 and 2015 respectively. the ghs data sets used in this study covered pre and post planting season. these two data sets provided an ambient for analysing the effects agricultural transformation that have taken place in the country with respect to commercialization of agricultural output among small scale maize producing households. analytical approach measuring the extent of output commercialization for purposes of measuring the extent of crop commercialization, this study adopted the approach used by govereh et al., (1999) in a study on smallholder commercialization in east and southern africa and which was also used by strasberg et al, (1999) to examining the effects of crop commercialization in kenya. this approach has been used by martey, al-hassan and kuwornu (2012) and olanrewaju et al, (2016). the advantage of this approach over other approaches such as profitability index, efficiency and productivity index is that apart from showing the dynamics of output commercialization among the households, it also measures the extent of integration of the farming households into the output markets. where panel data is available as the case of this study, the index can be used to measure intertemporal shift in household levels of commercialization. the household crop commercialization index (hcci) is defined mathematically as:     n i ii n i isi qp qp hccii 1 1 x 100 ................................................. (1) where hccii is household crop commercialization index pi is market price for crop i qi is quantity of crop i offer for sale by the household qi is quantity of crop i harvested by the household the index above can be interpreted as the ratio of the gross value or quantities of crop sold to the gross value or total quantities of the crop produced in that particular year. this index measures the extent to which household crop production is oriented toward the market. a value of zero would signify a totally subsistence oriented household; the closer the index is to 100, the higher the degree of commercialisation.the advantage of this approach is that commercialisation is treated as a continuum thereby avoiding crude distinction between “commercialised” and “noncommercialized” households. the hcciieffectively bring subsistence food production to the centre of discussions about commercialisation. analysing the determinants of agricultural output commercialization most studies have modeled agricultural commercialisation as a two-step analytical approaches involving the unobservable decision to commercialise and the observed degree or extent of commercialisation (alene et al., 2008). this is the heckman selection approaches which usually ask question “conditional on selection into the market and what influences the amount supplied by farmers and in most cases, probit models are estimated which may not properly capture some of the characteristics of a censored data. however, in order to properly address the many and varied research questions in this study, the tobit regression approach was adopted following martey, alhassan and kumornu, (2012). although there are divers‟ issues related to agricultural commercialisation and its determinants as found empirical literatures, in order to address trends in commercialisation at household level, the central explanatory variables will be those related to the farmer household and farm characteristics and markets factors. the general implicit model is simply specified as: yj * = f(h, f, m), ) ....................................................... (2) where, yj * is defined as percentage of output soldand f, h and m are vectors of households, farm characteristics and market factors capable of explaining them. details of the various components of each of the explanatory variables are listed in table 1. the tobit regression approach wasemployed to quantify the magnitude and direction of the effects of the factors influencing commercialisation of the smallholder producers (alene et al., 2008). the tobit or censored normal regression model assumes that the observed dependent variables for observations j = 1,…, n satisfy: yj = max (yj * ,0 ) (3) theyj * s are latent variables generated by the classical linear regression model: y*j = β' xj+ uj , yj = { {y*j y*j > 0 and 0 if y*j ≤ 0 (4) where xjdenotes vector of regressorsincluding1 for the intercept and β isthe corresponding vector of parameters. the model errors uj are assumed to be independently normally distributed: uj ˜ n (0, σ2) table 1. description and measurement of variables. variable name description measurement sex sex of household head dummy ( male=1) age age of household head years marital status marital status of household head dummy (married=1) location location of households dummy (rural=1) crop pattern cropping pattern adopted by households dummy (mixed cropping=1) land area total land area cultivated to maize by households hectares store sale quantity of output stored for future sale kg store seed quantity of output store for seed next year kg plot manage who control and manages the plot dummy (female spouse=1) price log of market price of maize output n/kg an observation of 0‟s on the dependent variable could mean either a “true” 0 or censored data or yj would always equal y*j and the true model would be linear regression and not tobit. following from the aforementioned discussion, the empirical model for quantifying the factors which influence the intensity of crop output commercialisation is specified as follows: yj * = β0 + β1sex + β2age + β3martstat + β4loc + β5croppat + β6area + β7ssale + β8sseedj + β9pmn+ β10logp (5) where yj * is the proportion of output of maize that was sold. the explanatory variables are as defined in table 1. marginal effects tobit model parameters do not directly correspond to changes in the dependent variable brought about by changes in independent variables. according to greene (2003), the marginal effect on the intensity of output commercialisation due to changes in the explanatory variable is given as follows:                       x j e ' ' xj xj j*y (6) thus, equations 1 and 6 was estimated for small scale maize, producing households results and discussions of the analyses changes in household socio-economic and farm characteristics the analysis of changes in household and farm charac teristics over the two periods of the study was carried out for maize growing households and the results presented in table 2. the results indicated the dominance of male headed households in the sample and a marginal increase of about 1.5 per cent during wave 3. similarly, the number of household heads that were married also increased marginally by about 0.5 per cent. crop management practices indicated a gradual movement from mixed cropping pattern to mono cropping between wave 2 and 3. management and control of plots continued to be dominated by male spouse as proportion of female managed plots within the households declined by about 5 per cent during wave 3. similarly, male spouse continued to dominate control over earnings from sales of crop as the proportion of female spouse that have control over earnings from sale of crop fell significantly from 22 per cent during wave 2 to 4 per cent during wave 3. storage of crop continued to pose critical challenge as the proportion of households that store harvested crop fell more than 200 per cent between wave 2 and 3. major reasons for storage of crop included the need to make provision for household food consumption, future market price speculation as well as provision for next season seeds. meanwhile, the proportion of households that store harvest for future market increased marginally though household food security remained the most critical reason for storage. the location of households could be one of the critical factors for output commercialisation. table 2 indicated that over 90 per cent of the households were located in rural areas.the location of households was used as a proxy for distance to the market which plays significant role in market access and participation. the result indicated that more than 90 per cent of the households were located in rural areas. as such with the dearth of rural transport and storage infrastructure the households are likely to face some structural constraints that will affect their level of market participation.in spite of this, market participation for maize growing households in nigeria improved significantly between wave 2 and 3 as the proportion of table 2. households and farm characteristics by wave. variables 2011 / 2012 –wave 2 2014/2015 –wave 3 frequency percentage frequency percentage sex of household head female male 224 1625 12.11 87.89 135 1031 11.58 88.42 marital status not married married 287 1563 15.51 84.49 171 995 14.67 85.33 sold harvested crop 533 28.81 600 51.66 crop sales by sex female male 94 439 41.96 27.00 76 524 56.30 50.82 cropping pattern mono cropping mixed cropping 249 1601 13.46 86.54 249 917 21.36 78.64 plot manager male spouse female spouse others 1604 171 42 88.28 9.41 2.31 950 41 11 94.81 4.09 1.10 control over earning from crop sales male spouse female spouse others 401 117 6 76.53 22.33 1.15 952 41 9 95.01 4.09 0.90 store harvested crops 609 32.92 137 11.75 main purpose of storage food future sale seed 409 71 118 68.89 11.87 19.73 85 17 35 62.04 12.41 25.56 location of households urban rural 157 1693 8.50 91.50 91 1075 7.08 92.20 source: nbs-ghs 2011/2012 and 2014/2015 wave 2 (n=1850); wave 3(n=1166). households that sold harvested crop increased from about 29 per cent in wave 2 to about 52 per cent in wave 3. this is probably driven by increased price of the commodity over the two periods (table 2). households characteristics and crop commercialisation dynamics the summary of the descriptive statistics presented in table 3 showed a progressive increase in average age of household head between wave 2 and 3. also, average quantity of output harvested by households increased by about 20.75 per cent during wave 3. this may be as a result of the significant increase in average area cultivated by the households which rose from 0.95 in wave 2 to 1.75 during wave 3. average price of a kg of maize also increased from n7.35 in wave 2 to n8.75 during wave 3. as such the proportion of output sold which is an index of household crop commercialisation (hcci) increased significantly by 32 per cent between wave 2 and 3. olanrewaju et al (2016) estimated hcci of 0.83 among smallholder farming households in the southwest, nigeria which further confirmed the positive changes in hcci in nigeria.given the improved changes in hcci, therefore, what are the factors that accounted for the observed commercialisation dynamics between the two waves? the result of the analysis is presented in table 3. crop output commercialization dynamics and its determinants the result of the tobit regression of the determinants of output commercialisation among maize growing households for the two waves is presented in table 4. sincethe linear regression of the parameters of tobit model do not directly correspond to changes in the dependent variable brought about by changes in independent variables, the marginal effect of the intensity of output commercialisation due to changes in the explanatory variable was estimated following green (2003). seven variables were found to significantly influence output commercialisation during both waves. these include sex of household head, marital status of table 3. descriptive statistics of variables. variables 2011/2012wave 2 2014/2015wave 3 n mean value n mean value mean age of household head (yrs) 1850 53.10 1166 57.60 average quantity of output harvested (kg) 1850 2921 1166 3527 average quantity sold 533 1314 600 2716 proportion of output sold (hcci) 533 0.45 600 0.77 average area of land cultivated (ha) 1.850 0.95 1166 1.75 average price of output (n/kg) 1850 7.35 1166 8.75 source: nbs-ghs 2011/2012 and 2014/2015. table 4. marginal effects of tobit regression of determinants of output commercialisation. variables 20111/2012 – wave 2 2014/2015 – wave 3 coeff. std. err t-values coeff. std. err t-values sex of household head female =1 0.0405 0.056 0.72 0.48** 0.179 2.70 age of household head 0.0007 0.0007 0.95 -0.003 0.002 -1.37 marital status married =1 0.014 0.053 0.27 -0.449** 0.173 --2.59 location of household rural =1 0.028 0.039 0.71 -0.318 0,173 -1.83 cropping pattern mixed cropping =1 -0.047 0.052 -0.89 -0.043 0.147 -0.66 land area cultivated -0.022** 0.007 -2.94 0.021** 0.006 3.22 storage for sale 0.084** 0.028 2.91 0.099** 0.028 3.50 storage for seed -0.135** 0.0259 -5.22 -0.073 0.072 -1.01 plot manager female spouse = 1 0.071** 0.032 2.21 0.083** 0.032 2.60 log of price 0.069** 0.009 7.35 0.069** 0.008 7.79 constant 0.019 0.124 0.16 -0.033 0.114 -0.29 no of observations 314 137 log likelihood 98.868 -12.77 pseudo r 2 -1.0443 0.50 sources: nbs-ghs 2011/2012 and 2014/2015 ** significant at 1%. household, area cultivated, storage for future sale, storage for seed, plot management by female spouse and output price. the direction of the effects of some of the variables however varied between the two waves. headship of households has implication for output commercialisation. results indicated that household headed by female significantly improved commercialisation particularly during wave 3 when output price increased. also, married household tends to significantly influence output commercialisation than single headed households though excessive expansion in household size may increase the proportion of output reserved for household consumption thereby reducing output commercialisation. the coefficient of area of land cultivated was negative for wave 2 but positive for wave 3. this underscores the progressive increase in average area of land cultivated from 0.95 during wave 2 to 1.75 in wave 3. storage for future sale in anticipation for price increase positively enhanced output commercialization during the two waves. this shows that opportunity for farmers to store their output over a period of time will assist them to overcome the problem of selling at lower prices that usually accompany the harvesting period due to market glut. storage for seed for the next growing season can, however, be inimical to output commercialization as the coefficient carries negative sign for the two waves and was highly significant particularly during wave 2. the proportion of households that stored output increased from 19.73 in wave 2 to 25.56 during wave 3 and this could be traced to increase in output price which drives households to increase the quantity of output offer for sale during the year thereby cutting down on quantity of output stored for seed purpose. when plot is manage and control by female spouse even in male headed household, output commercialisation significantly increases. the result was consistent for the two waves. finally, output price was found to be a positive and significant determinant of output commercialisation during the two waves. the stability of these variables over the two period calls for a renewedfocus and policy attention targeting on them as a way of driving output commercialisation among smallholder farmers in nigeria. even though the location of the household (proxy for distance to market) was not significant probably due to the fact that 0ver 90 per cent of the household are located in rural areas, the variable exert negative influence on output commercialisation indicating structural constraints on market access by households in rural areas. similarly, practice of mixed cropping reduces commercialisation though it was not significant. mixed cropping enhances diversification and can increase total harvested output from a given land area but where it is not properly managed, it can also reduce crop specific output which can in turn lead to reduction in the quantity offer for sale by households. table 2 indicated that the proportion of household practicing mixed cropping reduced by about 8 per cent during wave 3. conclusion this study has brought to the fore a number of significant findings that characterised output commercialisation among smallholder farmers in nigeria. the study further underscored one of the critical challenges faced by women participation in agriculture (issue of ownership and control). findings from this study suggested that plot management and control as well as decision over earnings from sales of output continued to be dominated by the male spouse.though there was significant improvement in market participation over the two periods, storage of output constituted critical problem. these were further exacerbated by the location of the house (90% in rural areas) which imposed serious structural constraints occasioned by the dearth of critical market infrastructure such as transport and storage in the rural areas.findings also indicated that though increased output enhanced commercialisation, output increased was only achieved through extensification (increase in area cultivated) and finally, the study underscored the significant of output price in driving output commercialisation nevertheless. acknowledgement the study from where this article emanated had benefited immensely form niser quality control mechanisms which include pair review of the proposal and the draft report by colleagues as well as niser inhouse seminar on the proposal and the draft report. 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marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (12), pp. 001-006, december, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper influence of modern technology on small familyowned farms in the brazilian savannah region: a case study of a settlement in mato grosso do sul state arcelei lopes bambil and olivier vilpoux* catholic university of campo grande (ucdb), mato grosso do sul – brasil. accepted 20 august, 2017 the savannah region is the second biggest biome in brazil after the amazon forest. today, the savannah is brazil´s largest region responsible for commodity production. nevertheless, this production is concentrated around large-scale farmers. most of the small farmers representing the largest group of producers encounter many problems ranging from low levels of production to income difficulties. the objective of the research was to verify the influence of technology in problems encountered by small farmers installed in the savannah region. the research has been realized with a case study in a cooperative from the settlement são manoel, in the mato grosso do sul state, centre of brazil. praxeology, knowledge of how to use technology, has been identified as the most important characteristic to explain the cooperative problems. for annual crops, in fertile soils, technologies can be traditional and therefore the use of modern praxeology is not necessary. in poor soils, typical of the brazilian savannah, the necessity of modern technology requires the domination of more complex praxeologies. perennial crops and investments in special structures, such as green houses also require modern technologies and adequate praxeologies, which were not available in the cooperative. the results indicate the importance of extension services and training methods adapted to the technologies used. otherwise, the small producers of the brazilian savannah are limited to traditional technologies, useful only for crops with good climate and fertile soil, which represent a small part of the biome, mainly near rivers. key words: technology, familiar agriculture, savannah. introduction the savannah occupies an area of approximately 2 million km² and is the second largest biome in brazil (ribeiro and walter, 1998). small parts of the savannah are also found in the amazon, caatinga, the dry region of northeastern brazil, and the atlantic forest, which occupies much of the coastal region of the country (aguiar et al., 2004). the savannah has provided conditions favorable to human settlement since ancient times. according to barbosa and schmitz (1998), the remains found in archeological sites, such as those located in the municipality of serranópolis, state of goiás in central brazil, indicate that the occupation of the biome *corresponding author. e-mail: vilpoux@ucdb.br. began some 11 thousand years ago. the first inhabitants were hunters and collectors of fruit, eggs, shellfish and other products of the rich biodiversity, which began to be strongly affected by the arrival of colonizers of european origin. of these, the most famous characters are the bandeirantes who penetrate into the hinterland in search of precious minerals and indians for slavery. extensive livestock has continued that process of occupation, prevailing as the main economic activity until the advent of modernization, with the introduction of new technologies in agriculture in the decades of 1960/70 (shiki, 2000). according to bourlegat (2003), modernization of agriculture in the brazilian savannah is an exogenous process which did not arise from self-evolution of preexisting models. the introduction of a new pattern of file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org production is a consequence of external entities, and the federal government has been a dynamic element of this process. in the context of public policy, the federal government initiative led to the creation of embrapa brazilian agricultural research agency, and the brazilian technical assistance agency embrater and incentive programs to the territorial occupation of the savannah by agribusiness capital. as mentioned by silva (2000), citing shiki (1997) and salim (1998), the development program of the brazilian savannah (polocentro), created in 1975, was the most emblematic and comprehensive federal government program to transform the savannah as a major producer of commodities. the resources of polocentro intended to research and provide technical assistance to rural credit, to mechanization and soil correction and other benefits. the credit had a low interest rate, no monetary correction and long grace periods. the biggest beneficiaries were the large landowners, contributing to the exclusion of a significant portion of the rural population who suffered an intense process of deterritorialization (bourlegat, 2003). the rural settlements deployed from the 1980s are a result of this process, which can be interpreted as a form of reterritorialization. referring to environmental issues, the modernization of the savannah brought serious problems for biodiversity, soil and water resources. after analyzing the process of deforestation and fragmentation of vegetation which occurred in the decades of 1970/80, bourlegat (2003) notes that environmental problems began with the selective extraction of timber and continued with the felling and windrowing. in the first operation, the vegetation was removed using a chain or a bulldozer blade. during a second time operation, the plant remains were pushed into a windrow and later burned, leaving the ground without its thin layer of organic matter, as quoted by coutinho (2000). these new techniques resulted in large-scale deforestation, soil depletion, which favored the emergence of new pests and, most likely, potentiated the effects of existing ones due to the reduction of natural enemies and the introduction of exotic species (bourlegat, 2003). this set of unfavorable factors in agriculture has created a social and environmental impasse which has limited the development of settlements in the brazilian savannah. objective of the study the research aimed to investigate the influence of technology on the results achieved by small family-owned farms implanted in the brazilian savannah. to this end we used the case study. methodology for grawitz (2001), this type of research is characterized by the collection of the maximum amount of information about a particular and limited subject. the case study allows the development of hypotheses about an issue without providing scientific evidence, which should be raised later in a more experimental type of research. the case chosen was from settlers, group of small producers which represents a large proportion of family farming in the savannah region. the producers came from the settlement são manoel, in the municipality of anastácio, in the brazilian state of mato grosso do sul. all had been members of a producers' cooperative, the cooperative of agricultural production canudos copac, which made several attempts to organize the production of the settlement, using different types of technology and diversified crops. the organization of small producers into a cooperative, which is rare not only in the midwest of brazil, but in many parts of the world, as reported by fao (2009 a, b), conducting experiments with different technologies, from the most traditional to the most modern, with cultivation of different crops, from annual to perennial, can explain the selection of this case. the hacienda san manoel, city of anastácio, was occupied by landless peasants in october 1989. while waiting for the expropriation of the area, the occupants had installed a camp on the banks of the criminoso river, where they established small community plantations for subsistence in the fertile soil near the river. each plantation was under the responsibility of a group consisting of four to five families. among these groups of families, two are worthy of mention, the group named padroeira and the one called bonito. later, they joined and formed the group that gave rise to the cooperative of agricultural production canudos – copac, founded in october 1993. data was obtained through structured interviews with all remaining members of the cooperative, with a total of ten families. the research also included an analysis of documents on the cooperative available in the state extension entity (agraer) and the bank of brazil, a public bank and main financier of small family-owned farms in brazil. visits to settlements allow the realization of direct observations on site, with evaluation of the production processes adopted and the equipment available. importance of technology in the development of the brazilian savannah the quasi-stagnation and difficulty in responding to social demands in most of the settlements located in the savannah of the brazilian state of mato grosso do sul can be considered a paradox in front of the technological standard of modern agriculture, which reaches high productivity and is located in the same area. after two decades of the early establishment of settlements in the state, most of them are weakened economically and socially and are environmentally devastated as well. without minimizing the positive aspects of brazilian agrarian reform, the fact is that in the state of mato grosso do sul the economic and environmental dimensions contradict the expectations created around it. in the period prior to the modernization of agriculture in the savannah, most of it was occupied by extensive breeding of cattle and the extraction of species of economic interest. agriculture was practiced mainly in the most fertile soils, near the rivers. there are strong indications that the technology that allowed the savannah to become viable for agriculture does not fit the model of small family-owned farms. this technological matrix, or modern technology for large scale production, was available for land reform, which may have contributed to the unsustainability and stagnation verified in most of the reformed, or settled areas. the experience of the case study examined in this research is emblematic in this regard. despite having the basic productive resources land, organization, credit, technology and technical assistance the experience was not successful. according to santos (1997), farmers who migrated to the midwest during the modernization of agriculture, mainly from the south, felt displaced in front of an environmental reality different from that in which they lived and grew. they were unaware of the potential of the natural environment such as fruits, medicinal plants, animals, soil characteristics and climate. this statement is consistent with the proposition of the survey, with one exception: it was not only immigrants who felt displaced. traditional farmers from the savannah region also had the same experience, due to the change of the natural environment of agricultural production. during this period, with the adoption of modern technology such as chemical fertilization, occurred a displacement of cultures from the fertile soils, in the banks of the rivers, located in more sloping area, to the savannah part, with large and flat areas, where the use of mechanization is easier. the technology is developed according to the socio-environmental context. as a result, according to jequier (1979), technologies developed in the core countries can be effective, but when released in the peripheral countries often cause more problems than solutions. the management of machines and equipment produced in other realities can be simple, which does not mean technological mastery over them in regards to the economic, cultural, environmental and other kinds of differences. the so-called appropriate technology is presented as a way to overcome the productive deficiencies, without resorting to exogenous technologies. it is often treated as low-cost, intermediate or traditional technology. "the appropriate technology should be, first and foremost, an indigenous creation in developing countries, and the main problem encountered is to form an indigenous capacity to innovate and not to import more technology ..." (jequier, 1979). concepts of technology adopted in the research according to jequier (1979), technology does not refer only to physical components, such as factories, machines, products or works of infrastructure (roads, warehouses, dams, etc.). these technology components are only the visible aspects of the technology which goes further and includes the logical, or intangibles, components such as information, knowledge, technical skill, education, administration as well as other institutional arrangements. for vargas (1994), apud vitorette (2001), technology is defined as the symbiosis of technique with modern science and is therefore a set of human activities. these activities are associated with symbols, instruments and machines aimed at the construction of works and manufacturing of products, according to the theories, methods and processes of modern science. based on the concepts of productive forces and production relations, gama (1987) identifies four components that constitute modern technology: "technology of work, materials technology, technology of work tools, basic technology or praxeology”. the technology of work refers to the administration of working times, the division of labor, relations between workers, safety and occupational medicine (gama, 1987). the author cites the example of ergonomics (for the design of equipment compatible with comfort and efficiency) and the rational organization of work (the study of time, fatigue, environmental conditions of work, standardization of methods and machinery). the materials technology treats the object of work, which is “[...] upon which carries the action of man. [...]. the object of a work stage may be the product of a previous phase: a log of wood is a product of the work of timber, but is the subject of work at the sawmill which provides [...] carpenters and joiners with beams” (gama, 1987). this component of modern technology studies the materials, whether natural or synthetic, which will be transformed into products. always, according to gama (1987), the technology of work tools refers to tools, implements and machines used. it also includes energy use in its various forms. basic technology, or praxeology, is knowledge. according to gama (1987), the praxeology is “[...] the study of methods to arrive at operational conclusions. it is the logic of rational activity driven by action”. negrão (2000) states that the praxeology “refers to the disciplines and techniques that support the other areas of technology, which may include among them some applied sciences. [...] it is the study of all aspects that affect the action, that is questions of methods, standards, representation, measurement, repertoire and vocabulary, etc., in order to make effective action”. in the case study of copac, some modern technology components that characterize the modernization of brazilian agriculture were considered from the decades of 1960/70 such as: the use of credit, machinery, motor sprayer, chemical inputs, mechanized deforestation, trash blanketing and use of improved seeds. also considered as modern was the practice of administrative planning, the use of tax accounting and methods and techniques that are not part of the peasant tradition, such as investments in infrastructure (greenhouses, dams). technology composed by productive tools and procedures that are part of peasant culture since before the modernization of brazilian agriculture, even if they are industrial products, has been considered as traditional technology. this category shall cover hoe, ax, plow, animal traction, rake, manual sprayer, insecticide use, tree felling, manual harvesting, the use of a community task force between farmers and the practice of a simple accounting or notes. in the cases where there was no clear predominance of one type of technology over the other, indicating balance between the use of traditional and modern technologies, the technology used was considered as mixed. results and discussion in its creation in 1993, the cooperative was composed of 24 persons belonging to 14 families with a total area of 334.48 ha in the settlement são manoel. in the area there were 44 ha of crops like corn, rice, cassava, banana, cotton, vegetables, and 10 ha of pasture in addition to large areas of savannah. this area consisted of the entire capital of the cooperative members. the production was organized into five productive sectors: 1) vegetable garden, 2) machinery, 3) livestock, 4) beekeeping and 5) farming. in the months following the beginning of activities, the number of cooperative members had reached 30 people, but the participation declined, to be reduced to 10 families in the first years of operation. according to jequier (1979), one of the difficulties faced by cooperatives in many developing countries is the requirement of a high degree of technical skill needed to manage the organization. it is essential for people responsible for the administration to have deep experience and motivation. for this purpose, some members of copac were sent to the states of parana and santa catarina, states in the south of brazil where cooperatives of small farmers are very strong, to attend technical courses in cooperative development and accounting. with the legalization of the cooperative, the cooperative members had access to the special credit program for agrarian reform procera. the amount of resources devoted to copac, released by the bank of brazil, was r$ 41,490.00. this loan was used to purchase dairy breed cattle, wire, a chain saw, deforestation and tillage. table 1. results obtained from annual crops, which do not require an investment in infrastructure, according to the technologies adopted. working predominant predominant more complex crops technology of final results material technology of work praxeology work tools community crop fertile soil traditional traditional absente good productivity cotton plantation poor soil mix mix absente low productivity slash-and-burn cotton plantation fertile soil traditional mix absente good productivity cotton plantation poor soil modern modern precarious low productivity cotton plantation poor soil modern modern absente loss of plantation in the same period, two additional credits were also released, totaling r$ 19,037.00, for the drilling of a semiartesian well. thus, copac has contracted a total investment credit equal to r$ 60,527.75 (equivalent to r$ 100,000 in 2011 values, or around us$ 55,000.00). beyond the resources described, each of the ten families had the right to an individual credit of r$ 3,192.00, totaling r$ 31,920.00. these financial resources were used to buy a medium sized tractor and implements, and fund the construction of dams, a reservoir, expansion of deforestation, acquisition of lime and phosphorus fertilizers, as well as to purchase cotton and corn seeds and poisons for the 1994/95 harvest. table 1 shows the results achieved from annual crops, depending on the adopted technologies. while still at the stage of community crop, with predominance of traditional technology such as that used in the exploitation of the lowlands, the most fertile soils of brazilian savannah, or with the “slash-and-burn technology”, without mechanical removal of organic matter, farmers have been successful in production. with regard to cotton fields, the difference is flagrante between the results achieved between areas deforested with a bulldozer blade and those deforested with “slash-andburn technology”, utilizing manual labor. the result of the latter exceeded the regional average of productivity, while the other areas have comparatively low yields, including fields where soil analysis, correction and fertilization have been conducted. the information collected in the survey indicates that farmers who were members of copac produced satisfactorily with small surfaces where the soil is more fertile, in an area which represents less than 20% of the total area belonging to the cooperative. this area was used for subsistence crops, repeating the peasant tradition of exploiting these kind of land existing in the savannah mainly for consumption and sale of any surplus in local trade. on the other hand, the farming introduced by copac in other parts of the savannah, with poor soil was traditionally reserved for livestock but today it is used for large modern soybeans, cotton and corn plantations, were barely able to produce to pay for inputs, except for cases in which a low of technology has been used, such as “slash-and-burn”. in these cases, the mechanization process responsible for the removal of the topsoil, where the organic matter is located, is not realized, maintaining natural soil fertility for a longer period. table 1 indicates some factors that may have had great importance for the production performance for the copac cooperative. in the case of the most fertile land, the adopted work and work tools technologies were more traditional. it can be considered that for cultivation in high fertility soils, the traditional method is sufficient and there is no need for more complex praxeology in order to obtain good productivity. in the lands of lower fertility, traditional technologies are inadequate, making necessary the use of more modern technologies. in this case, the control of more complex praxeology becomes a necessity, which was not observed with the members of copac, as indicated in table 1. in this case, low productivity is primarily due to a lack of suitable praxeology, not allowing for the proper use of work and work tools technologies. table 2 presents the results for perennial crops and other specific enterprises, requiring additional investments, such as greenhouses and a dam. the construction of the dam is a case that attracted attention because it is not an activity typically peasant. as it has been planned and executed by inexperienced people, without technical expertise, it can be assumed that there was malpractice during the construction. we can cite the absence of studies of the micro water basin upstream from the work being done, of the characteristics of the damming and of the construction planning. these aspects are part of the technology (praxeology) required for the construction of a dam technology, that members of copac did not dominate, even if a small one. the search for alternatives to traditional crops, driven by the need to produce for market commercialization, led copac to opt for enterprises which required greater investments, with necessities of modern works and work tools technologies. these agricultural enterprises relied on poor professional technical assistance and suffered from technological setbacks, some of which should have been predictable and manageable with existing technology. in the case of greenhouses, the building model was imported from rio grande do sul, a southern brazilian state. in this region, climate is very different, and the building project did not make any adaptation for the mato grosso do sul region, mainly concerning the occurrence of strong winds. the sensitivity of plastic table 2. results achieved in perennial crops and enterprises that need investment in infrastructure, according to the technologies adopted. predominant predominant enterprise working material technology of technology of praxeology final results work tools work dam construction land, water (heavy modern modern precarious destroyed by flood rain) greenhouses local, weather (strong modern modern precarious destruction of construction wind) greenhouses by wind 1 .st harvest of greenhouse, good modern modern precarious good production tomatoes climate 2 .nd harvest of greenhouse, warm modern modern precarious low production tomatoes climate, pests 1 .st harvest of fertile soil, good modern modern precarious good production passion fruits climate 2 nd harvest of fertile soil, pests modern modern precarious low production passion fruits banana crop fertile soil, modern modern precarious plantation lost contaminated plants greenhouses to climate variables is well known, and climate conditions should have been analyzed very carefully. the first tomato crop benefited from a favorable climate, allowing for good production. in the second crop, held in the summer, excess temperatures inside the greenhouses damaged the crop. besides this problem, the lack of proper care during the first crop has facilitated the development of pests, particularly of the whitefly. the period of the attack of the whitefly coincides with the entry of this pest in the mato grosso do sul state. in this period, the pest was new in the region and there were not many technological control resources. its occurrence was considered as a major problem for local agriculture. the first crop of passion fruit provided a good yield for the cooperative. the second year, however, saw the appearance of pests and diseases in this crop, due to lack of proper care in the first year. despite awareness to the fact that the banana chosen by copac producers, the banana-maçã, is susceptible to panama disease, which was already present in the region, the prevention measure was limited to disinfecting of the plants with bleach, which proved to be insufficient to prevent contamination by the fungus. the choice of pest-resistant varieties with good market acceptance would have been more appropriate. the results of table 2 identify the need for the use of technologies qualified as modern, in works and tools of work. however, the proper use of these technologies requires adequate praxeology. in the event of severe weather (heat, excessive rain, strong winds), or the appearance of pests, the results of the projects have always been negative. in this case, as for table 1, the lack of praxeology was of great importance. the adoption of modern technologies of works and work tools does not respond positively, if the use of these technologies is not combined with appropriate praxeology. conclusion copac technological setbacks did not happen due to differences between the environmental conditions, before and after the settlement. although most farmers had been born in other regions of the state and country, outside of the savannah, at the time of deployment of the settlement all cooperative members were already adapted to this biome. the data indicates that farmers did not stop to produce, according to tradition, in favor of modern technologies. they instead tried to associate both technologies. initially, at the phase of collective and community crops, there was a predominance of traditional technology. little by little, as the farmers tried to commercialize more and more of their production, greater weight was given to modern technologies, which occurred mainly from the release of credit. this did not imply the abandonment of traditional technological resources nor the increase of productivity. what really happened was a failure to comply with the requirements for the application of modern technology, causing successive negative economic impacts which exhausted the resources and discouraged the producers. the praxeology proved to be the most important point to explain the problems encountered by the cooperative. in annual crops, soil quality was a major factor. in fertile soils, the use of more modern praxeology is not necessary, as the work and work tools technologies may be traditional. in poorer soils, typical of the savannah, the use of modern technologies is essential, making necessary the domination of appropriate praxeology, which was not dominated by the members of the cooperative. perennial crops and investments in a more complex infrastructure, like greenhouses, also need modern technology and appropriate praxeology; praxeology not dominated by farmers in the cooperative, despite participating several training sessions. in this case, the first year of crops, characterized by adequate working material, gives good results. however, the lack of appropriate practices to maintain the working material of the following years, favored the appearance of pests and diseases, affecting incomes. as in the case of annual crops on poor soils, modern technology is indispensable for production with unfavorable working materials, but a praxeology able to dominate the technological needs is also required. this conclusion does not mean that availability of modern technology with appropriate praxeology would necessarily lead to the sustainability of the productive system. it is important to pay attention to the fact that small family-owned farms are subject to the market laws, including consumer demand, competition, capital intensive use and the need for technological innovation. the use of appropriate technologies with the necessary praxeology is useless without the existence of a market demand. the producers of copac participated in several training sessions for management and production technology (labor), but these sessions were not enough to meet the requirements of material production (climate, soil, crops), works and work tools technologies. in this case, the adopted praxeology can be characterized as inadequate to the socio-environment and therefore did not lead to the expected results. the results of the research indicate the importance of rural extension and training adapted to the used technologies. without adequate knowledge, small producers of the savannah are limited to the use of traditional technologies, suited only for annual crops, favorable climate, fertile soil and the lack of pests and diseases. even if research on other settlements and cooperatives of small farmers is required to extend the results obtained in this study, as outlined in earlier in the description of the goals of the case study, it is possible to estimate that the praxeology limitations can be a barrier to the development of the small family-owned farming in the brazilian savannah region. this result could partially explain the difficulties encountered in numerous settlements in the region, where the soil is not very fertile and the level of producers praxeology is inadequate. references aguiar lm de s, marinho fj, machado rb (2004). diversidade biológica do cerrado. in: aguiar lm de s, camargo aja de. cerrado: ecologia e caracterização. planaltina, df: embrapa cerrados, p. 249. barbosa as, schimiz pi (1998). ocupação indígena do cerrado. in: almeida sp, sano sm. cerrado: ambiente e flora. planaltina, df: embrapa – cpac, p. 556. coutinho lm (2000). aspectos do cerrado. available in: <ww http://eco.ib.usp.br/cerrado/aspectos_bioma.htm o>. access in: march 2011. fao (2009a). the state of agricultural commodity markets 2009: high food prices and the food crisis – experiences and lessons learned. fao, roma: pp. 68. available in: <http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i0854e/i0854e00.htm>. access in: january 2010. fao (2009b). the state of food and agriculture: livestock in the balance. fao, roma: pp. 180. available in: <http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/en/>. access in: january 2010. gama r (1987). a tecnologia e o trabalho na história. são paulo: nobel, p. 213. grawitz m (2001). méthodes des sciences sociales, 11° ed. paris, dalloz, p. 1019. jéquier n (1976). tecnologia apropriada: problemas y promessas. paris: organización de coperación y desarrollo económicos, p. 100. lebourlegat ca (2003). a fragmentação da vegetação natural e o paradigma do desenvolvimento rural. in: costa rb. fragmentação florestal e alternativas de desenvolvimento rural na região centrooeste. campo grande: ucdb, p. 246. negrão jfrk (2000). a quem serve o servidor? o ensino da língua inglesa na formação para o trabalho e a tecnologia. master of science in technology teses. centro federal de educação tecnológica do paraná, curitiba, p. 95. ribeiro jf, walter bmt (1998). fitofisionomias do bioma cerrado. in: almeida sp, sano sm. cerrado: ambiente e flora. planaltina, df: embrapa – cpac, p. 556. santos jvt dos (2004). efeitos sociais da modernização da agricultura. in: curso de pós-graduação latu sensu em desenvolvimento, agricultura e sociedade para técnicos do idaterra/ms. agricultura familiar e sustentabilidade (parte ii). campo grande, pp. 92-98. shiki s (2000). globalização do domínio dos cerrados: sustentabilidade do sistema agroalimentar sob regulação privada. projeto brasil sustentável e democrático. in: shiki s. o futuro do cerrado: degradação versus sustentabilidade e controle social. rio de janeiro. fase, série cadernos temáticos, número 2. silva ll (2000). o papel do estado no processo de ocupação das áreas de cerrado entre as décadas de 60 e 80. caminhos de geografia, 1(2): 24-36. vitorette jmb (2001). implantação dos cursos superiores de tecnologia no cefet-pr. centro federal de educação tecnológica do paraná, curitiba, p. 133. yin rk (2005). estudo de caso: planejamento e método. 3.ed. porto alegre: bookman, p. 212. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (1), pp. 001-010, january, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper monitoring and evaluation report of "the impact of information and communication technology service (icts) among end users in the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives in zambia" darlington kahilu national agricultural information services, p. o. box 50698, lusaka, zambia. e-mail: dakahilu@yahoo.co.uk accepted 21 november 2018 agriculture constitutes a key livelihood source for over 75% of the rural households in zambia. a total of 1,305, 783 households in zambia are totally dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and are classified as agricultural households (cso, 2000). most (81.8%) of the population in agricultural households is based in rural areas of the country. of the 1,305,783 agricultural households, 99.2% is engaged in crop production as a major agricultural activity. at national level, the sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (gdp) averaged over 18% in the past decade. the real growth rate in the sector has fluctuated significantly mainly due to heavy dependence on seasonal rain-fed crops, poor communication network and low farmer access to improved technologies that are resilient to some of the natural shocks such as drought, pests and diseases. despite the evidence of the important contribution the sector makes to household food and nutrition security and the national economy, the sector faces a number of challenges to increased productivity. other than the natural calamities and socio-economic factors such as access to agricultural inputs, credit facilities and markets, poor access to agricultural information remains a decisive challenge to increased agricultural productivity at household level. the prevailing low crop and livestock productivity among small-scale farmers could greatly be attributed to low farmer access to and utilization of agricultural technologies that are meant to enhance productivity. utilization of such technologies has been poor among the illiterate farming community because such information is not available to such target groups in the right formats as some of the publications are either presented in a highly technical format which makes them too difficult to be understood by illiterate farmers. this situation is further worsened by the poor, inadequate and weak communication links between research, extension and farmers. key words: information and communication technology service (ict), agriculture, zambia. introduction saifadis (strengthening the agricultural information flow and dissemination system for the national agricultural information services) and infornet (information flow network for the zambia agriculture research institute) are two sister projects in the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives funded by iicd. national agricultural information services (nais) is a specialized information department of the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives (maco). its main role is that of supporting the extension service of the ministry. national agricultural information services (nais) has the mandate to promote the adoption of proven agricultural technologies and provide information services to small scale farmers in order to enhance their productivity. information is gathered from various sources, packaged and disseminated to farmers using radio, television and various publications. nais has the responsibility to gather this information from various information producers, package it, store and disseminate it to the end-users and obtain feedback from the farmers. the main activity of the department is to disseminate file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org proven agricultural technologies to the farming community and other stakeholders through the use of mass media. the department reaches out to the audiences through two (2) sections: 1. broadcasting: radio and television (tv) programmes. 2. publications and press: news paper articles and features, booklets, magazines, pamphlets, etc. through this livelihoods project aimed at enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in its information collection, processing, packaging, storing and dissemination system, nais has built capacity of selected project staff and other members of staff in usage of icts, established a lan at headquarter (hq), create an ict based link (internet/email) between hq and the satellite station of kasama, and built formal linkages with information sources and strategic stakeholders. the project started in 2005, following the siavonga roundtable meeting that was held in 2002. the overall objective of this project is to improve information flow within nais and the flow of agricultural information between sources and end users by increasing the efficiency of nais to gather, process, package, and store and disseminate information in order to increase smallscale farmers’ productivity. specific objectives of siavonga roundtable meeting 1. improve information flow within nais; 2. strengthen linkages between agricultural research, extension, farmers and other stakeholders; 3. increase the capacity of nais to collect, process; package, store and disseminate agricultural information; 4. increase the capacity of nais to publish in more accurate and appropriate formats. nais has over the years been gathering agricultural information from different sources for on-ward delivery to the farming community. the department has also over the years been packaging the information in form of radio and tv programmes and print materials. these information products have been made available to farmers and extension officers in the remote parts of the country. nais has continued to receive feed-back from farmers on the programmes aired. despite its mandate, nais was faced with difficulties in efficiently collecting and delivering agricultural information from sources to the end users, gathering of information is done by travelling to the sources by the responsible officers or passed on via third party in hard copy. nais officers have had difficulties in accessing information from agricultural researchers, either responsible researcher is too busy or the new technology research is still on-going. information products such as audio cassettes, question and answer feedback forms, publications etc, have been delivered from districts to hq through ordinary postal services and staffs travelling between the two points; these methods have proved costly and longer delivery periods. there has been no systemic storage and retrieval of the information nais has gathered over these years. there has been no centralised information access point for farmers and other stakeholders such as extension offices in form of information resource centres. these short comings in nais have led to farmers not receiving the information they require at the right time and in the right format. through the use of icts, nais will be able to gather, process, package, store and disseminate information between research, extension, farmers and other stakeholders, strengthening linkages. information products will be collected and delivered online from sources to the end users, in or on time and in appropriate formats. through this project, nais will ensure that information products are processed and stored using appropriate icts (for example, cd-rom, database, etc). using icts, nais members of staff are now able to research for agricultural information technologies that are or may not be locally available. achieved results so far 1. improved information sharing through an operational and easily usable local area network at hq; 2. improved nais efficiency in gathering of information products from zambia agricultural research institute (zari), ministry of agriculture and cooperative (maco) subject matter specialists and other stakeholders; 3. strengthened linkages between nais, zari and extension; 4. nais staff trained in itcs use; 5. project incorporated in grz budget. expected results of the project 1. production of information products and services based on a common media plan; 2. number of national and international organisations with which partnerships are established and information materials sourced and shared; 3. established formal linkages between nais, zari, extension and farmers; 4. efficient icts use by staff; 5. sustainability of the project. challenges encountered most challenges were encountered during the initial implementation stages of the project, where the project documents had to move to and from iicd and nais because of government procedures. making subject matter specialists appreciate, the existence of the project is one challenge and bringing all nais staff on-board and makes them contribute to achievement of the project goals and the sustainable internet use among nais staff another. the other project that was reviewed during this focus group meeting is the information flow network for the zambia agriculture research institute (ifornet), under zari. the project “development of an effective information flow network for the zambia agriculture research institute” is a collaborative project between the zambia agriculture research institute (zari) and the international institute for communication and development (iicd). zari is one of the eleven departments in the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives (maco). there are three core functions of zari namely development of agricultural technologies, crop germplasm resource base management, and provision of regulatory and advisory services. while zari has generated a lot of technologies through soils and crops research over the years, the agricultural sector continues to experience low levels of productivity at small scale farmer level. one of the recurring reasons for this has been attributed to the agricultural technologies developed by zari not being easily accessible to farmers. this project was introduced mainly to increase farmers' uptake of agricultural technologies generated by zari through use of information and communication technologies (icts). through this greater uptake of agricultural technologies, farmers would increase their food production resulting in improved livelihoods. in the second place, the project was developed to improve communication among agricultural research scientists and with external stakeholders. specific objectives of zari and iicd project 1. improving the accessibility of agricultural technologies developed by zari to farmers directly and also through extension agents such as the national agricultural information services (nais), agricultural support project (asp) and zambia national farmers union (znfu), collaborating institutions such agriculture consultative forum (acf), organic producers association of zambia (opaz) and food security research project (fsrp) and ngo’s including plan and world vision international; 2. enhancing the relevance of zari's research results and information products to the needs of extension agents such as the national agricultural information services (nais), agricultural support project (asp) and zambia national farmers union (znfu), collaborating institutions such agriculture consultative forum (acf), organic producers association of zambia (opaz) and food security research project (fsrp) and ngo’s including plan and world vision international; 3. catalyzing internal knowledge creation and management through the networking and sharing of specialist information among zari researchers; 4. upgrading appropriate skills of researchers required for ict-based information management. services offered by the project through zari the major service being offered by the project is the provision of internet facility to the zambia agriculture research institute (zari) thereby, making communication between zari and its collaborators and stakeholders easy. the provision of information products is another service anticipated to have a lot of impact on the extension service providers, farmers and other stakeholders. the project has provided valuable training to zari staff to enable them manage information and knowledge for development of information products. constraints although, the project has made good progress towards the achievement of project objectives, there are constraints that have slowed down the implementation of the project to achieve all the desired objectives. the constraints include the following: 1. the project experienced delays in procuring project equipment through the government system; 2. malfunction and subsequent replacement of some project equipment delayed implementation; 3. the training programme for the project implementation team (pit) took a lot of time to implement, thereby constraining implementation of other equally important project activities; 4. omission of a budget line for needs assessment during formulation brought about variation in the budget and caused delay in the implementation of this and other related activities; 5. time limitations of staff at the peak of experimental work during the rainy season also made it difficult to devote sufficient time to developing information products; the period following the harvest from experimental fields is also focused on data entry, analysis and interpretation of results; 6. difficulties faced by zari in recruitment and retention of the content manager who is the main player in development of information products adversely affected implementation of the project; 7. lack of experience within zari in development of information products for end-users slowed down production of information products by researchers. the vision of zari is to be a centre of excellence providing scientific leadership in generation and transfer of improved and appropriate agriculture technologies through partnership involving stakeholders and beneficiaries. zari’s mission statement is to contribute to the improvement of the welfare of the zambian people through the provision of technologies and services that enhance household food security and equitable income generating opportunities for the farming community and agricultural enterprises. the overall objective of the zari is to generate and adapt crop and soil technologies in order to increase agricultural productivity and diversify production. this includes the development of low cost sustainable farming systems for all major agro-ecological zones and farm sizes through participation of both the public and private sectors in research activities. this would ensure the provision of a high quality, appropriate and cost effective service to farmers. the following are the specific objectives of the institute: 1. to breed for stable and high yielding varieties of both food and cash crops; 2. to breed food crops for high nutritional value, storability and acceptability; 3. to breed for resistance and/or tolerance to pests, diseases and adverse soil conditions such as soil acidity and salinity; 4. to develop appropriate agronomic packages and technologies for sustained agricultural production; 5. to develop and maintain an inventory of soil and agricultural land that can be used for planning purposes. 6. to develop and adapt disease and pest control technologies and provide specialist advisory services; 7. to develop post harvest technologies that minimizes crop losses in storage and enhance utilization; 8. to develop strategies and provide services that prevents the introduction of pests and diseases into the country and facilitates trade; 9. to strengthen research/extension/farmer linkages in order to have more farmer participation in research; 10. to ensure that the specific constraints of small scale and resource poor farmers are addressed by agricultural research. the implementation strategy of the zari follows the agroecological approach, which divides the country into three regions mainly based on rainfall. the broad implementation strategies, in order to achieve the above objectives, are as follows: 1. devise mechanisms for cost sharing of research by, for example, contracting project financing and management to relevant commercial agricultural and international institutions. 2. improve the management of the national research programme through appropriate planning, priority setting, programming and budgeting; 3. encourage farmer participation in research planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; 4. enhance the use of a computer based management information system which leads to more efficient utilization of available resources and facilitates greater responsiveness to the needs of farmers; 5. strengthen and integrate economic and other sociological and nutritional input into agricultural research both at national and regional levels; 6. improve the quality of research through the provision of adequate facilities and training; 7. strengthen linkages with extension providers to effectively transfer research results to farmers, particularly smallholders; 8. adapt technologies from regional and international research institutions; 9. improve linkages with regional research institutions and data banks. since the establishment of the two sister projects, members of staff who are the end-users have not fully embraced the projects into their day to day operations to improve their performance as expected. it was therefore necessary that a rigorous monitoring and evaluation (m and e) exercise be carried out to develop frameworks or guidelines for measuring impact of the two projects at institutional level. it is important to stress that the impact of icts will not be understood through peoples’ access to technology alone but on the impact of icts on the social, political and economic structures of communities, that is, on peoples’ livelihoods and on their perceptions of the role that technology can play in their lives. objectives of the survey the objective of this undertaking was to assess whether nais and zari have moved significantly towards institutional appreciation of icts and find grey areas that need to be worked on to improve the flow of agricultural information to the farming community. this focus group meeting for the two projects was undertaken to: 1. monitor and evaluate the projects and develop frameworks for measuring impact; 2. to make the end-users understand that the m and e process is vital when developing interventions; 3. to make the two institutions see the need to focus on the benefits of the new technologies rather than the quantity of the technologies available; 4. find out problems faced by the two projects and find solutions; 5. the need for strategic content development to ensure that icts can be locally appropriated and affect development. figure 1. gender distribution in nais and zari projects. figure 2. participation by position. methodology before the focus group meeting for the two projects was held, iicd, m and e end-user questionnaires were filled online by the members of staff in the two institutions at headquarters and kasama offices. thereafter, the m and e contact persons in the two projects with the help of travaillant vers une economie liberale limited (tel), the m and e partner in zambia analyzed the data. the online questionnaires were used to get quantitative data. the fgm was then held to add qualitative data to the study. results a total 100 end-user questionnaires were expected to have been filled, 50 from nais and the other 50 from zari. unfortunately, out of the total expected questionnaires, only 41 questionnaires were filled. 22 questionnaires were filled online by nais while 19 were filled online by zari. this number of questionnaires was found to be too little to give us good statistical data. however, despite the poor response by members of staff in filling the questionnaires online, the 41 questionnaires were analyzed and the following were the results. gender distribution from the 41 questionnaires collected, very few women participated in the filling of the questionnaires (figure 1). this showed that few women participated in the two projects. this low women participation in the two projects is a concern. what people do not know is whether women are deliberately left out of the projects or it is negative attitude of women towards icts or it is caused by the organizational structures in the two institutions. positions in the institution this study showed that most participants in both projects were actually technical members of staff. 64% of respondents in nais were technical members of staff, while zari had 58% of its respondents as technical staff (figure 2). no director from zari participated in this survey. participation by age the survey revealed that most members of staff in both nais and zari are between 31 and 50 years of age. 21% of respondents in zari indicated that they were in other positions (figure 3). this could be attributed to the fact most of the officers in zari are agricultural research officers, a position which was not indicated in the questionnaire. frequency of use the study also found out how often members of staff in the two institutions use the project facilities. all members of staff indicated that they use the facilities on daily basis. usage was even very high in zari as all of the respondents indicated that they use the facilities daily. however, there was a great variation in the frequency of usage for nais where 5% of the respondents indicated that they use the facility monthly ((figure 4). this could be attributed to poor access to computers or lack of interest in icts. overall satisfaction overall, the satisfaction rate for both projects was high but higher for zari. 84% of the respondents in zari indicated that they were satisfied with the project while years figure 3. participation in the project by age. figure 4. frequency of facility usage. 73% of the respondents were satisfied with the project in nais (figure 5). this slightly lower satisfaction rate among members of staff in nais could be attributed to less frequent use of the project facilities by members of staff. satisfaction with various factors the survey also wanted to measure the levels of satisfaction among members of staff in nais and zari towards various factors in the projects. among other factors, the study measured satisfaction in training and seminars, quality of the service, cost of information and services, quality of information, technical support, and access to information by women and suitability of the facilities for women. results showed that more respondents were least satisfied with indicators attributed to women. more so, for zari, 36% of the respondents were satisfied with access to information by women with 42% being dissatisfied with suitability of the facility for women. there was also a big disparity between nais and zari on the cost of the information and services (63 and 91%, respectively) . however, all the members of staff at zari are satisfied with the quality of information, 100% satisfaction was recorded compared to 77% satisfaction at nais (figure 6). all directors, managers and administrative staff were generally satisfied at both nais and zari. however, technical members of staff were dissatisfied (2 officers from kasama and 4 officers at nais headquarters; 2 officers at kasama and 1 officer at zari headquarters). reasons for joining the project nais there were several reasons that were given by members of staff for joining the projects. most of the respondents in nais indicated that they joined the project to improve the extension system of the ministry of agriculture (36%). the same number of respondents joined the project for the sake of improving their personal lives. there were fewer members of staff who joined the project to abreast themselves with new technical information to help farmers use improved methods of production to improve their livelihoods (5%). the same percentage of respondents says they joined the project because of their positions in the institution. some of the respondents in nais say they joined the project to built capacity to perform their daily duties through the use of icts and exchange information (27 and 5%) (table 1). reasons for joining the projectzari results of this study showed that most researchers at zari did not join the project with the farmers’ interests at heart as most respondents had less focus at farmer level. only 16% of the researchers joined the project to research for activities that would help generate information for farmers. most of them joined for the purpose of communicating with their colleagues and access information for research purposes (47 and 42%). others say they joined the project in order to get opportunities to learn more important global issues and be exposed to the outside world in terms of training (5%), while the same number said they wanted to benefit from the iicd supported project. 26% of the respondents say they joined the project to improve their it skills (table 2). development impact the study revealed that the project had low economic impact on nais (5%), although, there was no negative impact in the same institution. there was very high sector and gender impact in zari (83 and 60%, respectively). awareness was very high in the two projects (81 and 83%) (figure 7). generally, there was lower development impact in nais as compared to zari. figure 5. staff satisfaction rate. figure 6. satisfaction for various factors. conclusion before undertaking any development intervention, good practice suggest that the projects should first access what had already worked, or not worked, and why. this is of course difficult to do when undertaking pilot projects in an emerging area such as icts, however it is precisely for this reason that pilot projects in nais and zari had to monitor and evaluate the changes brought about by the pilot interventions. one of the key observations made during the fgm was that the study paid attention to monitoring and evaluation of ict outcomes, with the result that there was little data to assess the actual impact of these technologies on the rural poor and that there was need to undertake more rigorous monitoring and evaluation of the projects and table 1. reasons for joining nais project. main reasons to participate in this project? nais % respondent liase with researchers on the field information facilitate flow of information between farmers, extension and maco to broaden my knowledge in agriculture and related fields because of position held in nais communication, research and study improve capacity to perform my duties using icts exchange data keep abreast with new technologies to facilitate farmers access information on improved farming techniques, marketing and other related information to enhance productivity to improve the livelihood of the rural population through the dissemination of proven technology to ensure food security and economic empowerment 14 36 5 5 36 27 5 5 5 5 table 2. reasons for joining zari project. main reasons to participate in this project zari % respondents accessing information for research purposes for communicating with colleagues and networking to access tolls or information that i can use in my work like analytical tools i use this tool in research for activities that help generate data for farmers the internet system facilitates the work that am involved in. i am abreast in the latest technology get opportunity to learn more important global issues and be exposed to outside world in terms training improve on my it skills it is due to the fact that zari headquarters and our research station is one of the beneficiaries of the project benefit from the iicd project 42 47 5 16 5 5 26 5 5 % r e s p o n d e n ts figure 7. development impact. develop frameworks and guidelines for measuring impact. since applications of icts in community-based development projects are still relatively new and experimental, future initiatives should build on “what works and what does not work” and “why.” there is also need for the two projects to engage in ongoing dialogue with members of staff within nais and zari and the local people in kasama district, where the pilot projects are located, about the role and impact of icts and the context in which icts should be introduced, especially in terms of their information needs, attitudes towards the technologies themselves, applications and products, and possible impacts, both positive and negative. for the nais project, the fgm also identified the need to have farmers and extension camp officers fill in the end-user questionnaires so that we engage local people in the validation of the various communication tools and let them identify the most useful medium to meet their needs. this requires acknowledging that people should be active creators and not just passive users of the new icts. generally, there was low women participation in the two projects. was this a reflection of the establishment of the two institutions? to tackle this problem, there is need to hold a workshop for women in all iicd supported projects to in zambia to establish why there is low women participation in the projects as this would help reshape the gender imbalances in the projects. the two projects should provide needs-sensitive icts skills training at all levels, especially to youths, women and marginalized groups. individual, group and organizational ict capacities need to be strengthened to ensure effective use of icts for exchange of information, in particular knowledge building for productive activities that lead to wealth generation and improved livelihoods. references iicd, project proposal (2006). strengthening the agricultural information flow and dissemination system of the national agricultural information services in zambia: the hague. ministry of agriculture and cooperatives (april 2004). agriculture and cooperatives final draft policy, lusaka: zambia. rural information services, (1986). annual report, ministry of and water development, lusaka, zambia. infornet (2006). information needs assessment survey for kasama and kafue districts, february, lusaka, zambia. welcome to zambia agriculture research institute, researching soils, crops and water in zambia. http://www.zari.gov.zm millennium development goals http://www.developmentgoals.org/index.html appendix appendix 1. list of participants. name designation department station m. mwale deputy director zari hq a. b. mvula paro zari kasama samuel phiri (dr.) paro-programmes zari kasama jonathan mwamba ag/daio nais kasama jones malama tra zari kasama mwenge yamanda ag/daco agric. kasama machona kasambala video editor nais hq muki m. b. phiri ag/saio publications nais hq tina jere ag/senior producer – tv nais hq patricia kahongo secretary nais hq elizabeth ntumwa secretary nais hq lukwesa musonda graphic artist nais hq malikopo a. c. aro zari hq andrew phiri aro zari hq songolo akakandelwa producer nais hq milimo chibola sakala saro zari hq tembo harward saro zari hq kayama hamainda translator nais hq susan musukuma ag/senior reporter nais hq stubb malambo ag/caio broadcasting nais hq joseph sianyeuka technician nais hq judith lembela producer nais hq peggy m. kamelu producer nais hq margret sondashi sound technician nais hq modester nkhoma sound technician nais hq nicholas mwale reporter nais hq christopher chingobe translator nais hq lillian mumba producer nais hq ms j. namangala librarian zari hq juliet c. mataa aro zari hq chanda mulenga office orderly nais hq mukolo taguma paro zari hq john musanya caro zari hq christopher mbewe ag/saio broadcasting nais hq chikoti patrick paro zari hq david chilufya graphic artist nais hq patience siambele accountant maco hq darlington kahilu producer nais hq in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (7), pp. 001-006, july, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper the dynamics of horticultural export value chains on the livelihood of small farm households in southern ghana afari-sefa victor senior research fellow, department of economic and technological change, center for development research (zef), walter flex-street. 3, d-53113 bonn, germany. e-mail: vafaris@uni-bonn.de accepted 26 march, 2020 policy makers in developing countries have been concerned with the economic and political risks associated with heavy dependence on few specialized raw materials as main sources of government revenue and foreign exchange. development partners and donor agencies have equally extolled the need for these countries to diversify their export base as a poverty reduction strategy. as a result, several african countries have tended to focus on non-traditional agricultural exports (ntes) which reflect their comparative advantage and for many countries the export of horticultural crops has been favoured. this study focuses on a household survey undertaken in the forest and coastal savannah transition zones of ghana, where the farming system has undergone a remarkable transition from an established system of food crop farming for sale to urban consumers to an intensive production of fruits and vegetable crops for export to european consumers. econometric analysis shows that though export horticulture has a positive impact on the wellbeing of the majority of households, the chronically poor households are structurally impeded from seizing the available opportunities due to poor resource endowment and liquidity constraints. key words. export horticulture, food security, household livelihood, non-traditional exports, export diversification, propoor growth. introduction various studies have shown that countries can improve their welfare by opening up their borders to freer trade. moreover, there is a worldwide move toward economic integration, the eu being the most prominent example. not only is it foreseen that this movement will improve welfare of a country but it’s competitiveness could also improve by generating foreign exchange earnings and fiscal revenues to increase the income of smallholders and to provide employment for the rural poor. in response to a liberalised trade regime, horticultural exports have grown dramatically in many sub-saharan african countries while many other traditional agricultural commodities have faced stagnation and declining world prices. consequently, several reasons have been advanced for the recent boom in horticultural exports from africa (jaffee, 1995; barrett et al., 1997; dixie, 1999; malter et al., 1999). in ghana, crops such as pineapples, papaya and mangoes appear promising as options to diversify the traditional export base comprising the traditional cocoa, timber and gold because of their high labour intensity and the expanding demand for fruits in industrialized nations, most especially during the winter months. undoubtedly, the horticultural industry provides an important source of foreign exchange generates substantial employment and has contributed to the upgrading of agricultural production skills. but has the growth in export horticulture contributed significantly to smallholder food security and general livelihood? a number of studies have raised concerns about the microeconomic performance of nontraditional exports in developing economies. most of such concerns are related to the trade-offs between food and export cash cropping systems due to the possibility of competition for resources between export crops and food crops resulting from a potential re-allocation of resources from file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org one to the other and their effect on household food availability. indeed potential synergy effects have been identified between cash-crop investment and food productivity, whereby positive spill over benefits of increased input are made possible for food crops through cash crop delivery channels (dione, 1989; goetz, 1993; goverah and jayne, 2003; von braun, 1995). consequently, there are critics of such policies that advocate cash crop production (von braun and kennedy, 1986; weber et al., 1988). they argue that the benefits have never materialized with the premise that, in areas where cash crop production has increased, food consumption and the nutritional status of the poorest households have deteriorated. within the ghanaian context, the main effects of the introduction of export cropping has been the significant deterioration in access to land as smallholder food crop farms are being consolidated into larger scale export crop farms. the increased pressure on arable lands for human settlement resulting from the expansion of urban activities from accra towards surrounding villages are the pressing underlying concerns that need the immediate attention of researchers. so far the major concern of the ghanaian government and donor institutions has been macroeconomic growth in terms of physical output and export earnings of these new crops. at the microeconomic level, the short and long-term impacts of the booming horticultural exports vis-à-vis their distributional effects still remain under-investigated. in an attempt to fill this void, this paper emphasizes on the linkages between export diversification policies and the microeconomic performance of some horticultural export crop producing communities in southern ghana. materials and methods the analysis presented in this paper is based on a primary data set collected by a survey of 200 farm households in southern ghana. the survey was carried out during the 2003/2004 cropping season. in accordance with the importance of the various horticultural crops to total export earnings, 7 villages with 20 households each within the pineapple cultivated based communities of the akwapim south district and 3 villages with 20 households each from the mango cultivated based communities of the dangme west district were selected for the survey using the stratified random sampling approach. descriptive statistic tools were initially used to categorize the sampled farm households into three main groups based on the type of crops grown and other socio-economic characteristics. on the basis of this typology, the respondents comprised of 44 nonhorticultural households, 118 horticultural and staple households, and 38 horticultural households. the major differences and similarities among the three household categories have been outlined based on the extent of participation in export horticulture. probit regression was used to estimate the determinants of household participation in export horticulture. results from the field survey gave an initial indication that participation in export horticulture, primarily appears to increase the average per capital income of the household. however, as explained by mcculloch and ota (2002), such descriptive statistics do not take account of other possible differences in the characteristics of adopters and nonadopters and it may be these differences that are giving rise to the disparities in income rather than their participation in export horticulture. to account for this, the traditional log-linear mincerian wage equation was used to construct a model of income determination to analyze the incomes of households producing only horticultural export crops with those producing mainly food crops vis-à-vis those indulged in the combined scenario, while making use of the same explanatory variables employed in the participation determination model. based on the assumption that households typically distribute their labour and capital resources over a set of productive activities, a reduced form expression for income y, as a function of the explanatory variables is specified and accordingly estimated as: in( y ) = 0 + 1 hhcrop + 2 demog + 3 educ + 4 employ + 5asset + 6misc + 7intnte + where, hhcrop is a vector of dummy variables indicating categories of non-horticultural export crops grown by the household; demog is a vector of demographic characteristics; educ is a variable indicating the educational level attained by the household head; employ is a vector of dummy variables indicating whether at least one household member participates in a specific off-farm occupation; asset is a vector of asset and access variables; misc is dummy variable indicating miscellaneous income receipt; intnte is a vector of variables indicating the intensity of cultivation of non-traditional export crops and e is an error term. results and discussion inter-household landholdings and capital resource distribution households decide whether or not to participate in the cultivation of horticultural export crops based on perceived benefits, opportunities and constraints considering the risks and probabilities of occurrence. generally, horticultural households had the highest land resource in terms of endowment, total cultivated farm size, farm size per capita and fallow land area. this was followed by horticultural and staple households and finally non-horticultural households in chronological order. the kruskalwallis test in table 1 showed statistically significant differences for the landholding characteristics of the household categories except for the fallow land area. this might be expected because land ownership status of some households in the various categories are based on traditional inheritance patterns or asset symbolization status of land as a result of which some households possess parcels of land that are not necessarily under current cultivation. per capita income was also highest for horticultural households, followed by horticultural and staple households with non-horticultural households having the lowest income (afari-sefa, 2006). it was observed that 78% of the sampled households were cultivators of horticultural export crops. this is an obvious reflection of the magnificent role these crops play in the daily lives of table 1. land holding characteristics per sampled household category,southern ghana, 2003/2004. household type total land total farm farm size per fallow land endowment (ha) size (ha) capita (ha) area (ha) horticultural households mean 5.61 3.56 0.94 2.05 (n=38) sd a 5.83 4.24 1.12 2.29 horticultural and staple mean 4.87 2.98 0.54 1.89 households (n=118) sd 5.52 4.07 0.55 2.61 non-horticultural households mean 2.61 1.52 0.35 1.09 (n=44) sd 2.40 1.47 0.44 1.42 total (n=200) mean 4.52 2.77 0.57 1.75 sd 5.16 3.75 0.70 2.35 kruskal-wallis test 2 16.28 *** 20.24 *** 18.03 *** 4.32 note: sd denotes standard deviation of corresponding variable.*** denotes significance at 1% probability level. of most households in the study area. the pooled results of the analysis indicate that pineapple cultivation is the most widely adopted crop by indigenous small scale farmers, whereas the cultivation of crops such as mangoes required a longer investment period and hence mostly adopted by immigrant large-scale commercial farmers. as would be noted from the agronomic point of view, it is not all fruits which are considered exportable. depending on a farmers’ level of experience, between 50-90% of matured fruits may satisfy requirements for export. the remaining fruits may be rejected because they do not meet the requisite size, weight, and shape specifications. the majority of respondents that do not cultivate horticultural export crops within this riskprone category were found to be older household heads that have been used to the practice of cultivating staple crops for a minimum of twenty years. determinants of participation in horticultural export crop production in accordance with the major objective of this study, the explanatory variables have been chosen from factors and characteristics related to profitability of the crop or resource requirements for production and exogenous factors (locational and institutional) that are closely associated with input and market access for horticultural export crop produce. as expected the estimated coefficients of the hypothesized explanatory variables have the priori expected signs and most of the coefficients are statistically significant at the 10% (or better) probability level. the likelihood ratio statistic was used to test the significance of the entire probit model. the model chi-square value of 79.44 at 11 degrees of freedom was found significant at the 1% level implying that the independent variables, taken together, significantly influences a household’s de cision to cultivate a horticultural export crop (table 2). the pseudo-r 2 value implies that 60.3% of the original variation of the dependent variable is explained by the fitted model and still there are other determinants of participation in export horticulture that are not included in the model. nevertheless, the model correctly predicted 82% of participation status in horticultural exports for the sampled households. the results show that the age of head has a strong negative effect on cultivation of horticultural export crops, implying that households with older heads are unlikely to cultivate non-traditional export crops (ntes). this is anticipated because the cultivation of export crops requires much care and risk in terms of new technology and precision in the application of various cultural practices that may not be of paramount interest to older farmers. moreover, the existence of a large cohort of younger farmers in the sample could have attributed to this observation. these were mostly resident natives, city returnee natives and other immigrants, who have basically opted into farming mainly because of the perceived lucrative nature of export horticulture coupled with the lack of equal alternative income earning opportunities compared with the older farmers, who have been engaged in the cultivation of traditional crops as their means of livelihood long before the introduction of export horticulture in the study area. participation in off-farm occupation has a significant positive effect on the likelihood of cultivating horticultural export crops at the 10% probability level. thus variables indicating participation in other economic activities (wage employment and the operation of a non-farm enterprise) appear to be positively associated with being a horticultural small-holder. this relationship could be explained by the fact that households with off-farm occupation would easily overcome liquidity constraints and make provisions for holder. this relationship could be explained by the fact that households with off-farm occupation would table 2. probit function for the likelihood of participation in horticultural export crop production, southern ghana, 2003/2004. variable marginal effect standard error t-statistics intercept 0.479*** 0.149 3.205 age of head -0.009*** 0.002 -3.734 educational level of head 0.000 0.006 0.063 residential status (dummy) -0.034 0.052 -0.658 household size 0.002 0.009 0.211 non-farm occupation (dummy) 0.104* 0.062 1.674 land endowment 0.050*** 0.009 5.472 nature of road network -0.049** 0.024 -2.069 capital input access (dummy) 0.092* 0.055 1.689 tropical livestock unit 0.001 0.003 0.515 cultivate local cash crops (dummy) -0.286*** 0.060 -4.803 frequency of extension visits -0.005 0.014 0.387 dependent variable: adoption of horticultural export crop; model chi-square = 79.44*** ; log likelihood function = -70.49; pseudo r 2 = 0.603 ; households correctly predicted: 82% ; n = 200; *, ** and *** denotes significance at 10%, 5% and 1% levels respectively easily overcome liquidity constraints and make provisions for the initial investment in capital inputs required for producing the labour intensive horticultural export crops. on the other hand it is also possible that the lucrative nature of the export horticulture industry provides households originally not engaged off-farm with sufficient income to diversify their income sources as a surety for their livelihood needs. the total land endowment of households is highly significant and positively related to the probability of cultivating horticultural export crops. this seems to indicate that a decision-maker with a higher land access usually cultivates horticultural export crops. thus households who have more hectares of land could easily afford allocating separate land parcels for cultivating both staples and horticultural export crops. the positive relationship with land endowment could be justified because households with more access to land can also afford fallowing already harvested fields for some years and shift to cultivating other land parcels whiles allowing sufficient time for nutrient regeneration on the temporarily fallowed fields. the same could not be likened to households with a comparatively smaller endowed land moreso if permanent tree crops are to be cultivated. the nature of the road network from farms to major marketing centres has a negative significant relationship. this seems to indicate that bad roads increase the likelihood of adopting ntes. however, taking cognizance of the fact that, responses to this variable constituted an ordinal subjective evaluation of households, the interprettation of this rather surprising observation must be done with extreme caution. on a comparative basis, fields where ntes are cultivated generally have a bad road network than for alternative crops in the study area. moreover, by the nature of the marketing arrangement for ntes, transportation of produce is solely the responsibility of exporters and other subsidiary buyers and hence it is rational for farmers to locate staple and other crops on plots closer to their abode where road motorability is comparatively better than for the ntes. furthermore, the cultivation of some ntes such as pineapples usually requires bringing new land under cultivation as compared to the cultivation of other alternative annual crops, most of which could be easily cultivated on continuously cropped fields. in addition, the observed distant location of export crops such as pineapple might reflect household perception of cropping choices by matching crops with appropriate soils as confirmed by goldstein and udry (1999). access to capital inputs has a positive effect on the probability of adopting ntes at the 10% level. this means that households with better access to capital inputs or credit access to purchase the requisite inputs for cultivating ntes are more likely to participate in the sector than those who have relatively poor access to capital inputs and credit. typically, the cultivation of ntes requires a higher initial capital outlay in terms of planting material and agrochemicals which cannot be afforded by marginal farmers. therefore, good access to credit either in the form of inputs or cash for paying hired labour costs or both would increase a household’s probability of cultivating horticultural export crops. finally, cultivating of other local cash crops has a highly significant negative effect on the adoption of ntes. this means that households cultivating local cash crops of insignificant export value are unlikely to indulge in nte cultivation be on account table 3. parameter estimates of the determinants of total household income southern ghana 2003/04. variable coefficient standard error t-statistics intercept land endowment food crop cultivation (dummy) other local cash crop (dummy) age of head education of head residential status (dummy) years of cultivating export crop dependency ratio on-farm family labour capacity labour hired out (dummy) credit/input access (dummy) tropical livestock units public paid employment (dummy) trade and services (dummy) miscellaneous income (dummy) facilities welfare index ratio of ntes area to total farm size 14.7535*** 0.0411** 0.0313 0.2625** 0.0014 0.0276** -0.1555 0.0420*** -0.1810*** 0.0007*** 0.1697 0.0367 0.0141*** 0.4405*** 0.2671*** -0.2363* 0.0397* 1.5941*** 0.3661 0.0186 0.1612 0.1040 0.0042 0.0133 0.1122 0.0135 0.0644 0.0002 0.1256 0.0989 0.0047 0.1082 0.0911 0.1402 0.0229 0.2299 40.2996 2.2134 0.1931 2.5628 0.3413 2.0731 -1.3855 3.1096 -2.8116 3.1588 1.3511 0.3714 2.9732 4.0727 2.9311 -1.6855 1.7348 6.9353 dependent variable: natural log of total household income; f = 26.31; r 2 = 0.711; adjusted r 2 = 0.684; n = 200 ; probability >f = 0.00; breusch-pagan chi-squared for heteroscedasticity correction = 98.70; *, ** and *** denotes significance at 10%, 5% and 1% levels respectively. of fact that some households rather opt for cultivating these local cash crops which have a lower profit returns compared to the ntes but at the same time have a lower marketing risks in terms of produce rejection and payment duration. since these local cash crops are also equally labour intensive, there is the possibility for them to compete for similar production resources with perceived changes in the comparative advantages for different households. determinants of household income three different empirical proxies of the influence of human capital are used as explanatory variables. the dependency ratio has a statistically significant negative influence (table 3) on total household income. this means that the higher the number of children and elderly household members in relation to the number of active adult work force, the lower the household income. contrary to the findings of the model of participation in export horticulture, the age of household head has a positive, non-significant relationship with household income, emphasizing the role played by other productive activities outside export horticulture in the income earning power of the sampled households. the residential status of households, though negatively related to household income is not statistically significant. this somehow confirms that, with regards to residential status, there is the potential for immigrants to be more market-oriented than resident natives. households involved in the production of local cash crop have the propensity to increase their income by 30.1% whereas production of staple crops increases household income by 3.18%, although not statistically significant. this confirms the lower incomes of non-horticultural households, many of whom earn their major incomes from staple crop production. this observation may also explain the observed trend of the food security status of the different household categories. generally, variables related to household physical capi-tal endowment turned out to be important determinants influencing agricultural activity choice. as might be expected, the index of welfare facilities has a positive and statistically significant but very small influence on income. unsurprisingly, the more assets a household has the higher its income, but the dummy variable related to credit access is neither strongly nor statistically significantly associated with higher income. this is a reflection of the inadequate levels of credit required to realize higher incomes from the various productive activities in the study area, a fact that was evident with our respondents. gene rally, hiring out of labour is expected to increase household income. indeed, incomes from agricultural wage labour are very low, in comparism with other “hard to find” alternatives, thereby leaving most households with the only rational option of utilizing family labour for their own managed productive activities. this is justified by the high positive and significant relationship between family labour capacity for agricultural production and total household income. consequently, households with the ability to hirein labour also tend to have higher incomes and returns from crop production. different occupations have statistically significant implications for income as households engaged in paid public employment and other self employed activities tend to have substantially higher incomes. not surprisingly, households who were in receipt of miscellaneous income by way of transfers and remittances were found to be those who obtained lower income from own farm and non-farm productive activities. finally, the explanatory variables that are related to the intensity cultivation of horticultural exports play a very significant role in determining household incomes with a unit increase in the ratio of the area cultivated by horticultural export crops to total farm size, in percentage terms increasing household income by 1.6%. similarly, an additional year of experience in the cultivation of horticultural export crops increases household income by 4.2%. conclusions empirical evidence has shown that the horticultural export has increased the opportunity for higher earnings for smallholders and that the much higher land sizes owned by horticultural smallholders are indeed a cause or consequence for their participation in the sector. households cultivating horticultural export crops are on the average better off than those that do not. notwithstanding the enormous contribution of horticultural exports to macroeconomic growth as an insulator from sharp and unexpected changes in the terms of trade of ghana’s traditional exports, the micro level distributional effects has not favoured the chronically poor households who are structurally impeded from seizing the existing opportunities of the export boom by virtue of their poor resource endowment and liquidity constraints. these marked differences in resource base between the various household categories further accentuate the imperfections within rural markets. the majority of households are particularly exposed to the risk of inadequate technological know-how in meeting the ever increasing quality standards and health control traceability requirements by european consumers, price collapse on the export market and a break down of local marketing institutions. the findings from this paper therefore calls for an integrated policy framework approach aimed at improving rural market imperfections. efforts to achieve the desired impacts requires the strong need for investment in infrastructure and a shift towards valueadded export oriented production, whereby small farm households are progressively integrated into the changing preferences of a dynamic global food chain. references afari-sefa v (2006). agricultural export diversification, food security and living conditions of farmers in southern ghana: a microeconomic and household modeling approach; farming & rural systems economics, margraf publishers, vol. 81, (isbn: 3-8236-1490-8), weikersheim, germany. barrett hr., browne aw, ilbery bw, jackson g and binns t (1997). prospects for horticultural exports under trade liberalization in adjusting african economies. report for dfid, coventry university, uk. dione j (1989). informing food security policy in mali: interactions between technology, institutions and market reforms, unpublished phd dissertation, michigan state university, east lansing, mi, usa. dixie g (1999). summer citrus: the role and prospects for southern africa. in: jaffee s (ed.), southern african agribusiness: gaining through regional collaboration. world bank, washington, dc. goetz s (1993). interlinked markets and the cash crop-food crop debate in land-abundant tropical agriculture. economic development and cultural change 41: 343–361. goldstein m and udry c (1999). agricultural innovation and resource management in ghana, final report to ifpri under mp17, august 1999. goverah j, jayne ts (2003). cash cropping and food crop productivity: synergies or trade-offs? agric. econ. 28: 39–50, elsevier. jaffee sm (1995). the many faces of success: the development of kenya’s horticultural exports. in: jaffee s and morton j (eds.), marketing africa’s high-value foods; comparative experiences of an emergent private sector, dubuque, ia: kendall / hunt publishing company, pp. 319-374. malter a j, reijtenbagh a and jaffee sm (1999). profits from petals: the development of cut flower exports in southern africa. in: jaffee s (ed.), southern african agribusiness: gaining through regional collaboration, world bank technical paper, washington, dc, usa. mcculloch n and ota m (2002). export horticulture and poverty in kenya. globalization, production and poverty discussion paper no.4, overseas development group, university of east anglia, norwich, uk. von braun (1995). agricultural commercialization: impacts on income and nutrition and implications for food policy, food policy 20: 187202. von braun and kennedy e (1986). commercialization of subsistence agriculture: income and nutritional effects in developing countries, working papers on commercialization of agriculture and nutrition, ifpri, washington dc. weber m, staatz j, holtzman j, crawford e and bersten r (1988). informing food security decisions in africa. empirical analysis and policy dialogue. in: am. j. of agric. econ. 70(5):1044-1052. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (9), pp. 001-004, september, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper antimicrobial activity evaluation of the oleoresin oil of pistacia vera l. bachir raho ghalem* and benali mohamed faculty of biotoxicology laboratory science, institute of biology, djillali liabès university of sidi bel abbès, algeria. accepted 05 may, 2020 the hydrodistilled essential oils from the exudates of pistacia vera l. stems have been tested against three bacteria, escherichia coli, staphylococcus aureus and proteus using three methods: agar disc diffusion method, determination of mic (minimal inhibitory concentration) and in the liquid phase, by maruzella method. the results obtained showed that e. coli was the greatest inhibitor of all the strains tested, and that gram negative bacteria (e. coli and proteus spp.) showed more inhibition than that observed on gram positive bacteria (s. aureus) by the essential oil tested. key words: essential oils, oleoresin of pistacia vera l., strains tested, antimicrobial activity determination. introduction among the aromatic plants belonging to the family of anacardiaceae, the genus pistacia is noteworthy for its numerous species and varieties of wild-growing plants. many of these species are typical of the mediterranean area. pistacia has an economic value as it is the source of traditional medicinal agent "gum" mastic, an oleoresin exudates from the stem of this plant (dogan et al., 2003). it is a traditional natural remedy used in very ancient civilizations in the mediterranean like greek and egyptian (pellecuer et al., 1980; langenheim, 2003; peachey, 1995). in algeria, it is found in four species, namely pistacia lentiscus, pistacia terebinthus, pistacia atlantica and pistacia vera. according to ecology, the true pistachio (p. vera) is characterized by a large tolerance to climatic variations; it can grow under slices rainfall quite low and can cope in soils. in algerian folk medicine, pistacia has been used as an astringent, expectorant and cicatrisant agent (benhammou et al., 2008). about the other genus of this plant, investigations have shown some pharmacological effects such as reducing blood pressure (villar and paya, 1987), antiinflammatory *corresponding author. e-mail:bachir_raho@yahoo.fr. tel: 00213771063841. (giner et al., 2001; giner et al., 2000) and antimicrobial action (ali-shtayeh and abu, 1999; magiatis et al., 1999). the antiseptic activity of p. lentiscus essential oils and its resin on different microorganisms has been reported by several researchers (tassou and nychas, 1995; iauk et al., 1996; ali-shtayeh and abu, 1999; marone et al., 2001; benhammou et al., 2008; douissa et al., 2005) but the antimicrobial effect of pistacia vera extracts precisely its oleoresin oils have not been studied so far (duru et al., 2003; kordali et al., 2003; özçelika et al., 2005) . in this study, we aimed to detect the inhibitory effect of the oils extracts from exudates of oleoresin from the p. vera stem on the growth of escherichia coli, staphylococcus aureus and proteus tested by using three methods: agar disc diffusion method, determination of mic (minimal inhibitory concentrations) and in the liquid phase, by maruzella method. materials and methods plant material and extraction of the essential oil the essential oil of p. vera was extracted from the stem oleoresin by water distillation. the mastic gum was collected from the technological institute of fruit trees –t.i.f.tof tighennif (wilaya of mascara) situated in the northwest of algeria, in the months of april, file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org table 1. antimicrobial activity evaluation of the essential oil resin of p. vera with agar disc diffusion method. bacterial strain resin concentration (µg/ml) dilution 10 -1 10 -2 10 -3 10 -4 standard 10 -1 10 9 8.5 7 7 e.coli 10-2 11 10.5 9 8.5 7 10 -3 11.5 10.9 9.5 9 6.5 10 -1 9 8.5 8 7 6.5 s.aureus 10 -2 10 9 8.5 7.5 7 10 -3 11 10.5 10 8.5 6.5 10 -1 9 8 8 7.5 7 proteus spp. 10 -2 11 10.5 10.5 9 7.5 10 -3 11.5 11.5 11.5 10.5 7 may and june, which corresponds to the period of the oleoresin formation. bacterial strains all bacterial strains (e. coli, proteus spp and s. aureus) were provided by the laboratory of medical analysis-–located in dr. yessaâd khaled hospital (ykh) of mascara city, situated in the west of algeria for patients suffering from certain infectious diseases. s. aureus was isolated from the pus of a patient, e. coli from blood specimens while proteus was taken from a coproculture, and then confirmed by biochemical tests and morphological studies in microbiology laboratory of biology institute in the mascara university (euzéby, 1998; marchal et al., 1982). antimicrobial activity determination we used three methods to determine the antibacterial activity; agar disc diffusion method, determination of mic (minimal inhibition concentrations) and in the liquid phase, by maruzella method. the agar disc diffusion method was employed to determine the antimicrobial activities of the essential oils in question. a suspension of each sample tested micro organism diluted prior to 10 -1 , 10 -2 and 10 -3 (1 ml of 10 8 cells/ml), was spread on the solid media plates. filter paper discs (6 mm in diameter) were soaked in 13 µl of the resin oil and placed on the inoculated plates and, after drying for 15 min, were incubated at 37°c for 24 h .the diameters of the inhibition zones were measured in millimetres (tepe et al., 2004). minimal inhibitory concentration (mic) was taken from the concentration of the lowest dosed test tube showing visually no growth. 10 µl from each visually no grown test tube was subcultured on muellerhinton agar (pauli and kubeczka, 1996) . each strain from the three s. aureus, proteus spp and e. coli was diluted at 10 -1 , 10 -2 and 10 -3 (1 ml of 10 8 cells/ml); a standard was prepared with ethanol and oleoresin oil of p. vera. from each dilution a slick strain was spread over the surface of the petri dish containing mueller-hinton agar medium liquid which was dried at 37°c for 15 min. four discs were placed on agar containing the following quantities of the oleoresin oil dilution: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 l. ethanol was added to the standard disc, placed in the petri dish center, and was incubated toward the end at 37°c for 24 h. the principal technique of maruzella method is to act in the liquid phase of increasing concentrations of oleoresin essential oil, after emulsifier addition (singh et al., 2000; larrondo et al., 1995). serial dilutions (10 -1 , 10 2 and 10 -3 µml) were prepared from this essential oil solution. 1 ml of each dilution and 0.5 ml of tested culture strains were added to 8 ml of nutrient broth, maintained in a bain marie to 37°c under agitation for 24 h and then seeded by streaking the surface of agar medium and incubated at 37°c for 24 h. results and discussion as indicated in table 1, all strain bacteria were inhibited by essential oil resin of p. vera. a more significant inhibition was seen with a higher oleoresin oil concentration. at low concentrations, a very limited inhibitory effect was observed on the growth of microorganisms in comparison with those of the standard. with increasing essential oil resin of p. vera concentration, an obvious inhibitory effect on growth of, e. coli, proteus spp and s. aureus was significantly increased. the addition of mastic gum oil in broth culture inoculated with s. aureus, e. coli and proteus spp inhibited the growth of these organisms .the rate of inhibition was greater, on gram negative bacteria (e.coli , proteus spp), than that observed on gram positive bacteria (s. aureus). in most cases the size of inoculum and the concentration of mastic gum oil affect the growth/survival of the organisms. these results are almost similar to those shown in other work on the antimicrobial activity of oil mastic gum of p. vera as well as those of similar species (iauk et al., 1996; koutsoudaki et al., 2005; kamrani et al., 2007; benhammou et al., 2008 and özçelik et al., 2005). minimal inhibitory concentration (mic) values were defined as the lowest concentration of oils that completely inhibited microbial growth. the results were expressed in micrograms per millilitre. the results for the mic are shown in table 2. the mic values regarding the antimicrobial activity of oil mastic gum of p. vera against gram negative bacteria (e. coli and proteus spp.) and s. aureus (gram positive bacteria) were determined to be table 2. mic evaluation of the essential oil resin of p. atlantica. bacterial strain resin concentration (µg/ml) dilution 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 standard 10 -1 6.5 6.5 9 9.5 10 6 e.coli 10 -2 7 7 9.5 10 11 6.5 10 -3 6.5 8 10 10.5 11 7 10 -1 6 7 8 10 11 6 s. aureus 10 -2 6.5 7 9 10 11.5 6.5 10 -3 6.5 7.5 9.5 10.5 12 6.5 10 -1 6.5 8 9 10 10.5 6 proteus spp. 10 -2 7 9 9.5 11 11 6 10 -3 7 8.5 10.5 11.5 12 6.5 table 3. mic evaluation essential oil resin of p. atlantica with the three bacterial strains. bacterial strain essential oil (µg/ml) standard «0» 10 -1 ,10 -2 10 -3 , 10 -4 10 -5 e.coli + ++ + ++ +++ s. aureus +++ + ++ +++ proteus spp +++ + +++ +++ ++: comparable growth with that witness. +: slow growth. 1.5 and 2.0 µg/ml, respectively. the results indicated that the oil mastic gum of p. vera showed antibacterial activity, according to alma et al. (2004), and özçelik et al. (2005), mainly against the gram-negative bacteria (e. coli and proteus spp). the oil mastic gum also exhibited an effect against the gram-positive bacteria (s. aureus). however, this effect was less efficient than that presented against the gramnegative bacteria, since a higher mic value was obtained with the gram-positive bacteria. differences in mic values of bacteria may be related to differential susceptibility of bacterial cell wall, which is the functional barrier to minor differences present in outer membrane in the cell wall composition (zhao et al., 2001). like previous tests, the application of the liquid phase method confirmed( by its results showed in table 3) the important antibacterial activity of the oil mastic gum of p. vera on these three microbial strains, as it seems that proteus spp is more sensitive than the other two. the change of inhibitory effect depends on the natural substance concentration. conclusion the results of the antimicrobial activity tests indicate that essential oil of mastic gum p. vera exhibited higher activity against the tested strains and confirm its traditional uses. however, oil mastic gum was found to inhibit both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. we believe that the present investigation together with previous studies provide a support to the antibacterial properties of this essential oil. it can be used as an antibacterial supplement in developing countries towards the development of new therapeutic agents to treat several infectious diseases caused by these pathogens. references ali-shtayeh, ms, abu ghdeib si (1999). antifungal activity of plant extracts against dermatophytes. mycoses. 42: 665-672. alma mh, nitz s, kollmannsberger h, digrak m, efe ft, yilmaz n (2004). chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils from the gum of turkish pistachio (pistacia vera l.).j. agric. food. chem. jun 6; 52(12): 3911-3914. douissa ben f, hayder, chekir-ghedira n, mohamed h, ghedira k, mariotte am, marie-geneviève df (2005). new study of the essential oil from leaves of pistacia lentiscus l. (anacardiaceae) from tunisia. flavour and fragrance j., 20(4): 410-414. benhammou n, atik bekkara f, kadifkova panovska t (2008). antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the pistacia lentiscus and pistacia atlantica extracts. afric. j. pharm. pharmacol., 2(2): 22–28. dogan o, baslar s, aydin h, mert hh (2003). a study of the soil-plant interactions of pistacia lentiscus l. distributed in the western anatolian part of turkey. acta. bot.croat., 62(2): 73–88. duru me, cakir a, kordali s, zengin h, harmandar m, izumi s, hirata t (2003). chemical composition and antifungal properties of essential oils of three pistacia species. fitoterapia. 74: 170–176. euzéby jp (1998). enterobacteriaceae. dictionary of veterinary bacteriology (dictionnaire de bactériologie vétérinaire). interuniversity computing center of toulouse (cict), france. http://www.bacdico.net. giner em, manez s, giner rm (2000). the anti-inflammatory and antiphospholipase a2 activity of extract from lanostane-rich species. j. ethnopharmacol., 73: 61-69. giner em, manez s, recio c, giner rm, prieto jm (2001). oleanonic acid, a 3-oxotritrepene from pistacia inhibits leukotriene synthesis and has anti-inflammatory activity. eur. j. pharmacol., 428: 137-143. iauk l, ragusa s, rapisarda a, franco s, nicolosi vm (1996). in vitro antimicrobial activity of pistacia lentiscus l. extracts: preliminary report. j. chemotherapy, 8: 207–209. kamrani yy, amanlou m, esmaeelian b, moradi bidhendi s, sahebjamei m (2007). inhibitory effects of a flavonoid-rich extract of pistacia vera hull on growth and acid production of bacteria involved in dental plaque int. j. pharmacol., 3(3): 219-226. kordali s, cakir a, zengin h, duru me (2003). antifungal activities of the leaves of three pistacia species grown in turkey. fitoterapia 74: 164–167. koutsoudaki c, krsek m, rodger a (2005).chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oil and the gum of pistacia lentiscus var. chia. j. agric. food. chem., 53(20): 7681 -7685. langenheim jean h (2003). plant resins: chemistry, evolution, ecology, and ethnobotany. timber press, portland. larrondo jv, agut m, calvo tm (1995). antimicrobial activity of essences from labiates. microbios, 82(332): 171-172. magiatis p, melliou e, shaltsounis al, chinou ib, mitaku s (1999). chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of pistacia lentiscus var. chiao. planta med., 65: 749-752. marchal n, bourdon jl, richard c (1982). the culture media for the isolation and biochemical identification of bacteria (les milieux de culture pour l'isolement et l'identification biochimique des bactéries) in french. doin editors paris. marone p, bono l, leone e, bona s, carretto e, perversi l (2001). bactericidal activity of pistacia lentiscus mastic gum against helicobacter pylori. j. chemotherapy 13(6): 611–614. özçelik b, aslan m, orhan i, karaoglu t (2005). antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activities of the lipophylic extracts of pistacia vera. microbiol. res, 160: 159-164. pauli a, kubeczka k-h (1996). evaluation of inhibitory data of essential oil constituents obtained with different microbiological testing methods; in "essential oils: basic and applied research", ch. franz a, mathe g, buchbauer (eds): proceedings of the 27th international symposium on essential oils, allured publishing corporation, pp. 3336 peachey cp (1995). terebinth resin in antiquity: possible uses in the late bronze age aegean region. master thesis. nautical archaeology program, texas university, usa. pellecuer j, jacob m, simeon debouchberg m, dusart g, attisto m, barthez m, gourgas l, pascal b, tomei r (1980). attempts to use the essential oils of mediterranean aromatic plants in conservative odontology. (essais d’utilisation d’huiles essentielles de plantes aromatiques méditerranéennes en odontologie conservatrice) in french. plant médicin phytothér., 14: 83-98. singh r, chandra r, bose m, luthra pm (2000). antibacterial activity of curcuma longa rhizome extract on pathogenic bacteria. curr. scien., 83(6): 25. tassou cc, nychas gje (1995). antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of mastic gum (pistacia lentiscus var. chia) on gram positive and gram negative bacteria in broth and in model food system. int. biodeter. biodegrad., 36: 3-4, 411-420. tepe b, donmez e, unlu m, candan f, daferera d, vardar-unlu g, polissiou m, sokmen a (2004). antimicrobial and antioxidative activities of the essential oils and methanol extracts of salvia cryptantha (montbret et aucher ex benth.) and salvia multicaulis (vahl). food chem., 84(4): 519-525 villar a, sanz mj, paya m (1987). hypotensive effects of pistacia lentiscus l. int. j. crud. drug. res., 25: 1-3. zhao wh, hu zo, okubo s, hara y, shimamura t (2001). mechanism of synergy between epigallocatechin gallate and lactams against methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. antimicrob agents chemother, 45: 17371742. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (10), pp. 001-007, october, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper effects of low cost drying methods on seed quality of sorghum bicolor (l.) monech ali zakaria babiker1, mohammad ehsan dulloo2*, m. a. mustafa el balla3 and el tahir ibrahim1 1 plant genetic resources unit, agricultural research corporation, sudan. 2 bioversity international, rome, italy. 3 department of horticulture, faculty of agriculture, university of khartoum, sudan. accepted 19 may, 2020 the effect of low cost drying methods on the seed quality of different genotypes of sorghum was investigated. fresh seeds from five genotypes were subjected to three drying regimes, namely sun, shade and silica gel, and were compared to the standard recommended drying condition using a seed dryer (munter seed dryer model m120) as control. the effects of the drying regimes on seed moisture content, viability and quality were studied. all the drying methods were able to dry seeds to safe seed moisture contents levels (range of 5.6 7.5%) for conservation. none of the alternative drying methods examined proved to be better than drying in a seed dryer. seeds dried with the seed dryer gave the highest germination percentage compared to those dried using silica gel, or under shade and sun. however, this study indicates that drying with silica gel and shade are good alternative methods. sun drying is quicker, but is harmful to the seeds and affects long-term seed viability. key words: genebank, low cost drying, sorghum, seed storage, sudan. introduction it is well known that the most important factors influencing seed longevity are temperature, seed moisture content and relative humidity (ellis and roberts, 1980; dickie et al., 1990). it is also recognized that the extent to which potential longevity of a seed is maximised depends on the storage condition as well as on its initial quality (roberts, 1992). seeds are generally harvested at high moisture content and need to be dried before storage, and to do this, attention should be paid to the rate and extent of artificial post-harvest drying. if drying is too slow, there is a possibilty of reduction in seed quality during the drying process due to seed aging. on the other hand, if seeds are dried rapidly, a large proportion may be lost due to desiccation damage (ellis and roberts, 1980) . there is no fixed rule that applies to all species. delay in drying or slow drying together with high temperature (above 25°c) will tend to reduce viability considerably in orthodox seeds. the recommended methods for safely drying seeds of germplasm collections to very low moisture content using *corresponding author. e-mail: e.dulloo@cgiar.org. tel: (39) 066118206. fax: (39) 0661979661. seed drying facilities, such as seed drying chambers, seed dryers, where the relative humidtiy of the drying environment is controlled (ellis et al., 1985), may not be easily implemented in many developing countries due to the high cost of establishing, running and maintaining such facilities. therefore, there is a need for low cost drying methods to be used as alternatives to such expensive seed drying equipment in genebanks within those countries. ellis and roberts (1991) recommended a variety of methods for seed drying such as shade, sun, vacuum, freeze and refrigeration drying with low relative humidity depending on species, the initial seed moisture content and the resources available. several studies have demonstrated the potential of these low cost methods in reducing the seed moisture content to an acceptable levels for long term storage (vodouhe et al., 2008; probert, 2003), but their impacts on seed quality has not been adequately studied. in a study on wild shrub, millettia leucantha vatke, endemic to east africa, muthoka (2003) showed that neither sun nor shade drying were detrimental to seed quality. in crop plants various desiccants have been used to dry seeds (probert, 2003). sorghum bicolor (l.) moench is a a major staple crop in sub-saharan africa, where it had orignated and was file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org domesticated (de wet and harlan, 1971). its primary centre of origin is located in north east africa and has spread to other continents (asia, australia and america). india and china are considered as secondary centres of diversity. it is now considered to be one of the five top cereal crops and is an important part of the diets of many people in the world, it is also used as animal feed and a range of other products. because it is such an important crop for food and agriculture, its diversity in genebank collections needs to be effectively conserved. a global strategy for sorghum developed with support from global crop diversity trust (gcdt) (gcdt, 2007) has identifed the major collections of sorghum in the world. the international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (icrisat) (india), and united states department of agriculture, agricultural research service (usdaars) collection in usa, hold the highest number of accessions, but the strategy also recognises other key collections in asia, america and africa including india, china, brazil, ethiopia, russia, australia, zimbabwe, and sudan (gcdt, 2007). the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of sun, shade and silica gel as alternative drying procedures on seed quality of different sorghum genotypes (accessions) compared to the recommended drying procedure at low temperature and relative humidity using a conventional seed dryer. materials and methods the study was carried out during the period 2000 2002 at the plant genetic resources unit of agricultural research corporation (pgr/arc) of sudan. five genotypes were used in this study including four accessions of sudanese origin and one improved cultivar. the sudanese sorghum accessions were pi 570120, pi 570300, pi 570342 and pi 570356 representing four sorghum groups, namely kafir, milo, feterita and hegari, respectively, while the improved cultivar was tabat, a variety officially released by arc in the early nineties. seeds of these accessions were obtained from genebank of the pgr/arc and the sorghum research programme of agricultural research corporation. the accessions used in this study were first multiplied to bulk up the numbers of seeds in order to obtain adequate amounts for the study. sowing was carried out in a sub-plot of five rows on ridges 3 m long at spacing of 0.8 m between rows and 0.3 m within rows. one hunderd and fifty plants were established from each lot per sub-plot at the rate of three plants per hole. the multiplication process was conducted in the farm of the gezira agricultural research station in wad medani, sudan, which lies at latitude of 14°24` n., longitude of 33° 29` e and altitude of 406.9 m above sea level (asl). the climate of the area is hot semi-arid, the soil is vertisol with clay content (40 65%), ph value ranging from 8 to 9.6, less than 1% organic carbon, 300 ppm total nitrogen and 406 700 ppm total phosphorus (ishag and said, 1985). cultural practices including irrigation, nitrogen fertilization and weeding which followed the current practices at pgr/arc for sorghum (elash abdelhi elash, pers.com). the newly harvested seeds were then used for moisture content determination, viability testing, drying and storage. seed moisture content and viability levels were assessed both before and after drying. seed testing, drying and storage were undertaken in the laboratory of the pgr/arc using the procedures as thus described. determination of seed moisture content moisture content of seeds was determined twice; immediately after harvesting and after drying to a constant weight. the moisture content was determined using high constant oven drying method, as recommended by rao et al. (2006). two replicate samples of ground seeds, five grams each, were dried at 130 -133°c for 2 h. seed moisture content (smc) was then calculated (using the mean of the two replicates) on fresh weight basis using the following formula: smc = (weight of fresh seeds – weight of dry seeds) × 100% / weight of fresh seeds drying procedures after harvest, the seed samples from different genotypes were subdivided into four groups for drying, using four different drying regimes, namely: sun, shade, silica gel and a seed dryer. seed samples to be dried under sun and shade were spread evenly in a monolayer on mesh sieves, held above ground level. the sieves were placed in a bird-and rodent-proof structure, made up of wooden framework covered by a fine mesh wire netting, which would prevent the entry of these pests, while at the same time allowing free air movement. the mean ambient temperature over the drying period was 26°c with a range of 17 35°c and the mean relative humidity (rh) was 43%. the sun dried seed samples were kept under direct sun light for six hours each day, while shade dried samples were placed in a ventilated room with an ambient temperature of 22°c and similar rh as aforementioned. changes in seed weight were monitored every 7 10 days until it reaches a constant weights. each sun and shade dried sample was then packaged hermetically, sealed into a laminated aluminium foil packet of the type used in the long term storage of seeds at subzero temperature in the genebank provided by international plant genetic resources institute (now bioversity international) and stored in a room at temperature ranging between 20 and 25°c . seed samples to be dried over silica gel were put inside porous cloth bags. they were placed over activated silica gel inside dessicators at the ratio of 2:1 (seeds : silica gel), and left inside a room at temperature ranging between 20 and 25°c. the silica gel was activated by heating an oven whenever the need arose. as a control treatment, seed samples were also dried using a munters rotaire m120 dehumidifier and refrigeration packaged seed dryer, serial number f3/662 (from munters rotaire, england) adjusted at about 20°c and 15% relative humidity. seed samples were spread evenly in a monolayer on mesh sieves and placed inside the seed dryer. seed moisture contents of those samples dried over silica gel or inside the seed dryer were monitored regularly at 7 10 days intervals until reaching constant weights, then the samples were packaged hermetically in sealed laminated aluminum foil packets and stored in a room at temperature ranging between 20 and 25°c. ageing assessment after drying, the different seed lots were subjected to accelerated ageing, based on methods described by agrawal (1986) and delouche and baskin (1973) . a sample of four hundered seeds from each drying treatment was placed in small mesh containers supported above the water inside a tightly closed plastic pot in order to maintain a high relative humidity of about 100%. the whole pot was then placed into an oven adjusted at a temperature of 43°c for four days. at the end of the ageing period, the seeds were removed and immediately assessed for viability and vigour. table 1. mean percentage seed moisture contents (smc %) (means of 2 replicates) of different sorghum genotypes before and after drying. sdr = seed dryer; sh= shade drying; sg= silica gel; sn= sun drying. before drying after drying drying method genotypes sdr sh sg sn mean sd pi 570120 20.97 7.52 6.84 6.27 5.81 6.61 0.739 pi 570300 18.65 7.29 6.5 6.1 5.64 6.38 0.7 pi 570342 19.37 7.19 6.63 6.11 5.77 6.43 0.621 pi 570356 19.52 7.36 6.79 6.03 5.98 6.54 0.66 tabat 19.30 7.48 6.73 6.14 5.99 6.59 0.677 mean 7.368 6.698 6.13 5.838 table 2. effect of drying method and genotype on seed germination percentage before drying, after drying and after ageing. main effect before drying after drying after aging drying method seed dryer 76.9 a 91.6 a 60.4 b shade 76.9 a 87.0 b 57.6 c silica gel 76.9 a 83.7 c 66.2 a sun 76.9 a 82.4 c 52.7 d genotype pi 570120 80.0 b 93.0 a 71.0 b pi 570300 85.9 a 82.9 c 39.6 e pi 570342 80.6 b 88.1 b 75.0 a pi 570356 77.2 c 83.5 c 65.7 c tabat 60.8 d 83.4 c 44.8 d *** significant at 0.001 probability levels. means followed by the same letter(s) within a column are not significantly different at 0.05 probability level according to the least significant difference test (lsd). assessment of seeds for viability and vigour seeds were assessed for viability and vigour using germination test. this was conducted at three different stages during the study; immediately after harvesting, drying and ageing. seed samples assessed after drying were hydrated by holding the seeds in porous cloth bags that inside a dessicator over water for 24 h at room temperature ranging between 20 and 25°c (ellis et al., 1985). the germination tests were conducted according to the recommendations by ista (1999). a complete randomised design of four replications with 100 seeds per replication was used. seeds were germinated on sand medium using plastic pots that were placed inside a dark room with temperature ranging between 25 and 30°c. emerging normal seedlings, which had well developed shoot and root systems with green expanding primary leaves and well developed straight coleoptile (ista, 1999) were counted three times during the test (that is, four, seven and ten days after sowing). viability was then expressed as germination percentage of the total normal seedlings. seed vigor was evaluated on the normal seedlings at the end of the germination test. it was assessed as radicle length, shoot dry weight and germination speed. a sub-sample of ten seedlings was taken randomly for measuring their radicle lengths from which the average radicle length was calculated. radicles were then removed, while the shoots were dried in an oven at 100°c for 2 h to obtain the shoot dry weight from which the average shoot dry weight per seedling was calculated. the germination speed was calculated using the following equation: mtg = (d x g)/n where mtg is the mean germination time, d is the number of days after sowing, g is the number of seedlings which were counted as normally germinated seeds within d days, and n is the total number of seeds normally germinated at the end of test (walters et al., 1998). statistical analysis the data were analysed using the computer statistical software (mstat-c) and least significant difference (lsd) tests was used for comparison of means. table 3. effect of drying methods on seed vigour. seed vigour parameter drying method before drying after drying after aging radicle length (cm) seedling shoot dry weight (mg) mean time to germinate (days) seed dryer 17.9 a 17.5 a 13.1 a shade 17.9 a 15.5 b 12.2 b silica gel 17.9 a 13.7 c 13.2 a sun 17.9 a 13.7 c 10.8 c seed dryer 7.100 a 6.367b 4.605 b shade 7.100 a 6.250 b 4.417 b silica gel 7.100 a 6.667 a 4.817 a sun 7.100 a 6.000 c 4.133 c seed dryer 6.3 a 4.2 b 5.5 ab shade 6.3 a 4.1 c 5.3 b silica gel 6.3 a 4.2 b 5.7 a sun 6.3 a 4.5 a 5.5 b results effect of drying method and genotype on seed moisture content the data in table 1 showed that among all the genotypes, sun drying consistently produced the lowest moisture content, followed by silica gel, shade and seed dryer, respectively. a simple one-way anova test on drying methods, indicated a significant difference between drying methods (p < 0.001). however, there was no significant difference among genotypes, the mean percentage moisture contents of the seeds among genotypes before and after drying varied between 18.7 and 21% among all the different drying methods (table 1). effect of drying method and genotype on seed viability seed viability as represented by germination percentage was significantly affected by the seed drying method, irrespective of the genotype. the highest germination percentage after drying (91.6%) was observed in the seeds that were dried in the seed dryer, which was significantly different from those dried under shade (87%) (p < 0.001) . on the other hand, seeds dried over silica gel and under sun had the lowest germination percentages (83.7 and 82.4%, respectively) (table 2, figure 1). the result on seed germination also showed differences among genotypes when tested before drying, and after drying. the highest germination percentage before drying (85.9%) was recorded in the accession pi 570300, while the lowest (60.8%) was recorded in the cultivar tabat. irrespective of the drying method, the highest germination level after drying (93.0%) was recorded by the accession pi 570120, which was significantly different from the others; whereas, the lowest germination levels of 83.5, 83.4 and 82.9% were recorded in the genotypes pi 570356, cultivar tabat and pi 570300, respectively (table 2 and figure 2). however, it was interesting to observe a general trend of increase in the germination percentages after seed drying, compared with those recorded before drying. when seeds of the different treatments were subjected to accelerated aging, the germination levels differed significantly from each other (p < 0.001). drying using silica gel resulted in the highest germination percentage (66.2%), followed by the seed dryer (60.4%) and shade (57.6%), whereas, the lowest germination level was given by sun drying (52.7%). after accelerated ageing, the accession pi 570342 gave the highest germination percentage (75%), while the lowest (39.6%) was obtained by the accession pi 570300, indicating different responses among genotypes (table 2). effect of drying methods on seed vigour the effect of drying method on seed vigour was assessed in the form of radicle length, shoot dry weight and germination speed. radicle length was significantly affected by the drying methods. irrespective of genotype, the longest radicle length (17.5 cm) was obtained in the seeds dried with the seed dryer, followed by those dried under shade (15.5 cm) with the radicle length significantly different from each other (table 3). both drying methods (that is, seed dryer and shade drying) also resulted in radicle lengths that were significantly different from those of the seeds dried over silica gel or under sun, which in effect have the same radicle length (13.7 cm). 100 p e rc e n ta g e 90 80 70 60 seed dryer g e rm in a ti o n 50 shade 40 30 silica gel 20 sun 10 4 7 10 time (days) figure 1. effect of drying methods on germination percentage. 100 p e rc e n ta g e 90 80 70 pi 570342 g e rm in a ti o n pi 570356 60 pi 570120 pi 570300 50 tab at 40 4 7 10 time (days) figure 2. effect of drying on germination percentage among genotypes. after ageing, highly significant differences were also observed between the different drying methods. the silica gel and seed dryer gave the longest radicles (13.2 and 13.1 cm) and the differences between the two were not significant (p = 0.05). shade and sun drying resulted in the shortest radicles of 12.2 and 10.8 cm, respectively, which were significantly different between the two and also from those obtained with silica gel and seed dryer. the result on shoot dry weight showed that drying over silica gel gave seedlings with the highest shoot dry weight (6.7 mg), which was significantly different from sun drying (6.0 mg) (p = 0.001 ) as well as those obtained from seed dryer and shade drying (table 3). after ageing, the different drying methods resulted in the same trend of significance, where the silica gel gave the highest dry weight (4.8 mg), and sun drying resulted in the lowest dry weight (4.1 mg), while seed dryer and shade drying gave medium dry weights (4.6 and 4.4 mg, respectively) (table 3). drying methods also significantly affected the speed of germination. the quickest germination speed (4.0 days) was obtained by shade drying, while the slowest speed (4.5 days) was obtained by sun drying. seeds dried in the seed dryer and over silica gel gave the same germination speeds (4.2 days) (table 3). after ageing, no significant differences were observed between the different drying methods except for the silica gel, which gave the slowest germination speed that was significantly different from those of shade and sun drying (table 3). discussion all drying methods used, including those under natural conditions, that is, shade and sun, achieved the seed moisture contents in the range of 5.6 7.5% that are safe for conservation of sorghum. rao and bramel (2000) recommend the drying of seeds down to 3 7% smc for long-term storage (base collection) and 8 10% smc for medium term conservation, which is used for regeneration, distribution, characterization and evaluation. although the result of this study showed that drying in the sun and by silica gel achieved the lowest moisture content, compared to seed dryer and shade drying, these drying methods adversely affected the seed quality in terms of the seed viability and seed vigour. seed dryer and shade drying gave the highest seed viability for most of the genotypes tested (table 2), indicating that they ensure high initial quality of the seeds at start of storage. this point is an important one, as rao et al. (2006) suggest that high initial seed viability is a pre-requisite for improving seed longevity in genebanks that helps reduce regeneration loads. many authors have also shown that the moisture content at which seeds were stored had a significant effect on seed longevity (ellis et al., 1990; nutile, 1964; nakamura, 1975; woodstock et al., 1983; zheng, 1994). differences in seed vigour (radicle length, seedling dry weight, and speed of germination) which are measures of seed quality were found between the different genotypes in the present study. the seed vigour test for all three parameters demonstrated that sun drying in particular, affects seed quality and we thus recommend that sun drying should not be used for sorghum seeds intended for long-term conservation. the results showed that drying in silica gel and seed dryer produce the best results in seed quality and they may be the most optimum drying methods to be used. the shorter drying time using the seed dryer for seeds to reach their lowest moisture content is attributed to air flow and low rh, inside the seed dryer. the high mean day temperature (26°c) also allowed seeds to dry faster under sun, whereas, the fluctuating day, night rh and the low mean day temperature (22°c) extended the period for seed dried under shade. highly significant differences were also observed on seedling shoot dry weight; both after drying and aging. accessions pi 570342 and pi 570120 recorded the highest seed vigour and this could be attributed to the higher starch content found in the seeds of these genotypes, according to the information available in the genebank documentation system at pgr unit of sudan. our study also showed that there were no significant differences in final seed viability when the seeds were dried by silica gel or under sun. similarly, kong and zhang (1998) in their study on nine vegetables seeds using three methods of drying, namely: freeze drying, heating at 50°c for two days and drying over silica gel, found that there was no difference in longevity when seeds were dried by either exposure to silica gel, freeze drying or heating to 50°c as long as the seeds were not over dried. drying seeds improved the germination percentages in all drying cases (table 2), which is a phenomenon demonstrated by many previous studies (ellis et al., 1983; kong and zhang, 1998; vodouhe et al., 2008). this is explained by the fact that newly harvested seeds show some type of innate dormancy, which can be broken by different external factors such as time, drying or storage conditions. dormancy that occurs immediately after harvest in sorghum has been reported by many scientists (goodsell, 1957). chantoreau and nicou (1994) stated that dormancy period in sorghum rarely exceeds three weeks to one month and is linked to the high level of tannin that occurs in grains of some varieties. ellis et al. (1983) demonstrated that germination of oryza glaberrima seed was improved after drying and attributed this to afterripening. in this study, different genotypes showed different levels of seed moisture content both, before and after drying, which could be explained by the differences in biochemical composition of seeds. the same variation could also be the reason behind the differences in the final seed viability after drying. thus, accessions pi 570342 and pi 570120 gave the highest germination percentage after drying and also after the accelerated ageing treatment, which could be attributed to the fact that these two genotypes had higher starch contents (completely starchy) compared to other genotypes with starch content ranging between intermediate to mostly corneous. harrington (1972) also found some association between low starch level and poor storability among seeds with different starch levels. in conclusion, none of the alternative drying methods proved to be better than the seed dryer which is the recommended seed drying method. however, this study indicates that silica gel could be a good option, in cases when the optimum recommended facilities are not available. thus, both viability and vigour of seeds dried over silica gel were affected to a lesser extents when compared with those dried using the other drying methods. using silica gel could also be cheaper than the seed dryer when a limited number of seed samples are to be dried. the study indicated that shade drying could be the second best alternative method for drying sorghum seeds. according to rao et al. (2006), shade drying can be an effective way of reducing seed moisture content in environment where the rh is low (less than 40%). shade and sun are both natural low-cost methods. although sun drying may be a quicker method of drying, the study shows that it has a harmful effect on the seed viability and thus should not be recommended. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the staff of the plant genetic resources unit of agricultural research corporation (pgr/arc) of sudan for supporting the research activity as well as bioversity international for their financial support. references agrawal pk (1986). seed vigor: concepts and measurement. in: srivastava jp, simarski lt (eds) seed production technology icarda, aleppo. syria, pp. 190-198. chantoreau j, nicou r (1994). sorghum. macmillan, london and basingstoke, p. 98. de wet jmj, harlan jr (1971). origin and domestication of sorghum bicolor. econ. bot., 25(2): 128-135. delouche jc, baskin cc (1973). accelerated aging techniques for predicting the relative storability of seed lots. seed sci. tech., 1: 427452. dickie jb, ellis rh, kraak hl ryder k, tompsett pb (1990). temperature and seed storage longevity. ann. bot., 65: 197-204. ellis rh, hong td, roberts eh (1983). procedures for the safe removal of dormancy from rice seed. seed sci. tech., 11: 77-112. ellis rh, hong td, roberts eh (1985). handbook of seed technology for genebanks vol. 1. principles and methodology. international board on plant genetic resources, rome italy. ellis rh, hong td, roberts eh, tao kl (1990). low moisture content limits to relations between seed longevity and moisture. ann. bot., 65: 493-504. ellis rh, roberts eh (1980). improved equations for prediction of seed longevity. ann. bot., 45: 13-30. ellis rh, roberts eh (1991). the potential of ultra-dry storage of seeds for genetic conservation. university of reading.uk, p. 43. gdct (2007). global strategy on sorghum. 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(eds). seed conservation turning science into practice. the royal botanic gardens, kew. united kingdom, chapter 19: 337-365. rao nk, bramel pj (2000). manual of genebank operations and procedures. technical manual no. 6, international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (icrisat), patancheru, india. rao nk, hanson j, dulloo me, ghosh k, nowell d, larinde m (2006). manual of seed handling in genebanks. handbooks for genebanks no. 8. bioversity international, rome, italy. roberts eh (1992). physiological aspects of ex situ seed conservation. in kapoor-vijay p, white j, (eds). a training manual for biological diversity and genetic resources. commonwealth secretariat, london pp. 171-177. vodouhe rs, achigan dako ge, dulloo me, kouke a (2008). effects of silica gel, sun drying and storage conditions on viability of egusi seeds (cucurbitaceae). plant genetic resources newsletter 153, march 2008, pp. 36-42. walters c, kameswara rn, hu x (1998). optimizing seed water content to improve longevity in ex situ genebanks. seed sci. res., 8 (suppl no. 1): 3-8. woodstock lw, maxon s, faul k, bass l (1983). use of freeze drying and acetone impregnation with natural and synthetic antioxidants to improve storability of onion, pepper and parsley seeds. j. am. soc. hort. sci., 108: 692-696. zheng gh (1994). ultra-dry seed storage: possible improved strategies and technology for germplasm conservation. chin. biodiv., 2: 61-65. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (2), pp. 001-007, february, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper non-timber forest products’ marketing in nigeria. a case study of osun state aiyeloja, adedapo ayo1* and ajewole, opeyemi isaac2 1 department of forestry and wildlife, university of port harcourt. nigeria. 2 department of forestry, wildlife and fisheries management, university of ado ekiti, nigeria. accepted 10 october, 2019 research on markets and marketing of some non-timber forest products (ntfps) was carried out in selected locations of osun state. the ntfps considered are chewing sticks such as massularia acuminata and bush meat like thryonomys swinderianus, representing both the flora and fauna aspects of ntfps, respectively. five local government areas were randomly selected, namely; odo-otin, boripe, iwo, irewole and atakunmosa for the research purpose. a total of 300 questionnaires were administered, 150 questionnaires for each of the ntfps. each ntfps was further subdivided to production, marketing and usage or consumption with 50 questionnaires for each unit. it was gathered from the result that m. acuminata tops the list of the well favoured chewing sticks. other types of chewing sticks that rank high include fagara ( zanthophylum zanthoxonoides) and ira (rauwolfia vomitora). bush meat is also cherished by people most especially in urban centres where it is regarded as a delicacy. despite the preference of bush meat, the rate of consumption is still low relative to other animal protein sources. apart from these two ntfps, several others of economic, nutritional and medicinal importance exist. a list of some of them is made with their uses. ntfps are grossly affected by seasonal changes and this in turns affect their availability and prices. in all, considering ntfps in the light of economic gain alone will be parochial even though analysis for the marketing of the two ntfps shows that they are viable business ventures. the values should extend beyond the economic gain to other values which are indispensable to the existence of man. a major but neglected aspect is the medicinal aspect of ntfps. key words: forest products, ntfp, marketing, nigeria. introduction the use of non-timber forest products (ntfps) is as old as human existence. in subsistence and rural economies the role and contributions of ntfps in the daily life and welfare of people all over the world are crucial because of their richness of variety, as sources of food for example *corresponding authors e-mail: aiyeloja@yahoo.com. fruits, nuts, honey, insects, animals etc. fodder, fibre, fertilizers, medicinal extracts, construction materials, cosmetic and cultural products, natural dyes, tannin, gums, resins, latex and other exudates, essential oils, spices, edible oils, decorative articles, horns, tusks, bones, pelts, plumes, hides and skins, non-wood lignocellulosic products, phytochemicals and aroma chemicals. these products are derived from a variety of sources plants (palms, grasses, herbs, shrubs, trees) and animals (insects, birds, reptiles, large animals) and other non file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org living components of the ecosystem. different parts of a plant or animal often provide different products simultaneously and or at different times. about 80% of the population of the developing world depends on ntfp for their primary health and nutritional needs (fao, 1995). it is therefore paradoxical that in spite of their real and potential value, most ntfps remain grouped as minor products of forests. these products rarely feature in statistics and are hardly studied or researched. forest management in nigeria and in osun state in particular has been largely focused on timber production ever since the beginning of organized forestry. however, in the recent time, there has been increasing recognition of the fact that this approach to forest management is neither conducive to sustainable management of the forests particularly of the tropical moist forest nor is it in the best economic interest of the predominantly rural societies in the tropics. the term non-timber forest product preferably called non-wood forest products in some regions of the world has been used (of recent) to replace minor forest product as it was formerly particularized. the regional expert consultation on nwfp for africa held in arusha tanzania, 1993, defined ntfp as all vegetal and faunal products (other than wood) derived from forests and other wooded land and trees outside the forests, excluding industrial round wood, wood used for energy, horticultural and livestock products. rijsoort (2000) defined ntfps as all tropical forest products plants and animals or parts thereof) other than industrial timber, which are (or can be) harvested for human use at the level of self-support or for commercial purposes. gone are the days when ntfps were exclusively free of charge for anybody that could go into the forest to harness them. due to the relative scarcity of most of the ntfps now as a result of deforestation, as noted by nwoboshi (1986) and the present awareness of their importance, more value is being added which has made them (ntfps) highly marketable. osemeobo (1991) noted that rural women were found to be making between n115 and n500 in fruit gathering and sale. the low income may not be unconnected with the fact that ntfp markets have been in the middle of a drastic evolution. traditional markets for many products have been lost to competing synthetic materials while new markets are emerging especially with the growing interest in natural products. marketing of ntfps connotes marketing in all its possible variations since ntfps comprise a variety of products that satisfy the needs and wants of all kind of end-users. some of the products are bought by final consumers without any major processing (e.g. fruits, berries, mushrooms etc) others are bought by industrial customers who use them as raw materials in making either other industrial products (e.g. converting essential oils to fragrances) or consumer products. despite the fact that both the rural and urban economies are highly depended on ntfps such as leaves, fruits, fuel wood, mushrooms and others to generate income and to provide food and medicare, little or no attention is given to this important natural, renewable revenue earner. methodology information about osun state nigeria covers an area of about 983,213km 2 and about 1/3 is classified as forest (ogunlade, 1993) while osun state covers a total area of approximately 8,602km 2 and is bounded in the south by ogun state, in the north by kwara state, in the west by oyo state and in the east by ondo state. agriculture is the traditional occupation of the people of osun state. the tropical nature of the climate favours the growth of a variety of food and cash crops. the main cash crops include cocoa, palm produce, kola, while food crops include yam, maize, cassava, millet, rice and plantain. the vegetation consists of high forest and derived savanna towards the north. the high forest often called tropical rainforest areas are dominated by forest tree species such as melicia excelsa, terminalia ivorensis, terminalia superba, khaya grandifoliola, nauclea diderichii, lophira alata lovoa trichiliodes, trema guinensis, musanga cercrepiodes, sterculia tragacantha and ceiba pentandra among others. savanna tree species include annona senegalenses, bridelia ferrugina, casia sieberiana, khaya senegalensis, nauclea latifolia, prosopis africana, vitaleria paradoxum, parkia biglobossa, terminalia glaucean and daniella oliveri. these trees and other living components of the area have been disturbed by annual forest fires and other human activities. a sizeable part of the old oyo forest reserve are located in the present osun state. these include ago owu forest reserve with 32,116 hectares in the high forest area, oba hills forest reserve with 3,367 ha each in both the high forest and derived savanna ila reserve has 259 ha in the high forest area ife na, oni and ikeji/ipetu have 8,598;5,283; and, 3,548 ha, respectively, in the high forest area. the grand total of osun state forest reserve is 58,839.32 ha comprising of 53,172.40 ha in the high forest and 5,666.92 ha in the savanna. osun state is located between longitude 040 0 33 1 e and latitude 07 0 28 1 n. usually the wet season last between march and october, while the dry season comes between november and february. mean annual rainfall is between 2,000 and 2,200 mm. maximum temperature at 32.5 o c, relative humidity 79.90%. sampling technique and sample size the random sampling technique was used to select two local government areas from the derived savanna vegetation (boripe and odo-otin) and three local government areas from the tropical rain forest of osun state (iwo, irewole and atakunmosa west). the same technique was used to select two towns/villages from each of the five local government areas. a total of 300 questionnaires were administered. 150 questionnaires were assigned to each product, making 30 questionnaires for each local government areas on each product. the number of questionnaires for each local government area was 60. table 1. level of income of respondents from the field survey. income / month n odo-otin boripe iwo irewole atakunmosa total % < 10000 1 1 4 2 10 20 10000-20000 6 5 2 2 6 24 48 >20000-40000 3 3 3 5 2 13 26 >40000-60000 1 1 1 3 6 above 60000 total 10 10 10 10 10 50 100 source: field survey table 2. educational background respondents (consumers). educational background odo-otin boripe iwo irewole atakunmosa total % informal 2 2 1 1 2 08 16 primary 2 2 2 3 2 11 22 secondary 3 1 5 1 4 14 28 ond/nce/hnd 2 4 1 4 2 13 26 degrees 1 1 1 1 04 08 total 10 10 10 10 10 50 100 source: field survey statistical analyses the information gathered are represented in the form of tables. chi square was used to test whether the quantity of bush meat purchased is affected by the educational background or the level of income of the consumers. it was also used to test whether the quantity of chewing stick purchased is dependent on the educational background or level of income of the consumers. results and discussion it was observed that the consumption of chewing stick is not a function of income level or educational background of the respondents (p<0.05), neither is it a function of sex nor marital status (table 1 and 2). most of the respondents use chewing stick on daily basis most especially the "ijebu" type massularia acuminata other species include ata, (fagara) idi (terminalia gleucescens) and ewuro (vernonia amygdalina). substitutes of chewing stick include all varieties of tooth-pastes whose price difference from chewing stick range between n30 and n100 depending on type. while many prefer chewing stick because it is cheap, few others believe it makes teeth sharper and stronger. those who prefer toothpaste hinge their reason on the fact that the use of chewing stick takes time and may damage the gum. chewing stick retailers are usually petty traders and school children who are often seen at motor parks as early as 5 a.m. in the morning and late in the night. these are the periods they claim to make their highest sales. chewing stick is also obtainable in stores and supermarkets. of recent, chewing stick is being wrapped and sealed decently in cellophane in supermarkets to make it more hygienic. while wholesalers buy in bulk, the splitting is done before selling to the retailers who sell to consumers in bunches of, n10, n20 or n50. just like some other forest products, chewing stick is more abundant during the wet season. problems facing the marketing of chewing stick include transportation, capital and storage of stick to prevent it from excessive dryness. bushmeat is a delicacy which is cherished by most people. the dwindling nature of supply underscores the effect of human pressure on their abundance. 98% of the respondents prefer bushmeat to other meat though almost half of them (48%) consume bushmeat occasionally. market survey reveals that bush meat is sold in parts to cater for low income earners who are interested in bushmeat. most of the respondents buy quantities ranging from n1000 to n2000. only few buy more than n5000 in a month. as low as n200 worth be bought in a restaurants. this is the reason why there is no significant difference in the demand of bushmeat based on the level of income (p<0.05). this is because the quantity demanded varies from one respondent to the other. bushmeat marketing is a worthwhile business. over 60% of the marketers are supplied game on a daily basis. table 3. shows the average prices for the sales of games as follows. animal adult ( n ) sub adult ( n ) young ones ( n ) grass cutter 1,800 1,100 600 antelope 2,100 1,300 700 snake (depending on species) 1,200 500 350 squirrel 300 160 100 monkey 1,300 800 300 snail 120 70 40 porcupine 2,500 1200 500 crocodile 5,000 3,500 2,000 source: field survey the number bought by each respondent ranges from 1 to 3 for big animals while smaller animals like snail may be more than 10. since most of the games are processed before sales, and the possibility of game getting spoilt is removed. it is also noted that processing adds more value to games. table 3 shows the average prices for the sale of different types of bushmeat. some people abhor snake and monkey due to traditional and religious beliefs. crocodile is not common. middlemen activities are minimal and a difference of n500 to n1000 or more is realized on each bushmeat bought directly from hunters. this depends on the species and the stage at which the meat is bought by the marketers. the three main methods used in killing animals are trapping, gun shot and tracking down. apart from meat, almost all the species of wild animals have one medicinal value or the other. both the visceral and the bones of many of them are used in the preparation of medicine for different ailments. the skin, horns (antilas), feathers and shells are used as decorations. some animals like the parrot and chimpanzee are used as pets. they are also useful in medical researches. giant animals such as the elephant (loxodonta africana), hippopotamus (hippopotamus amphibius) , bufalo (syncerus cafer) and the big cats like the lion (panthera leo), tiger (panthera tigris) and leopard (panthera pardus) are no longer common in free areas. marketing channel the channel begins with the chewing stick producer or harvester who either exhumes the root of plants as in the case of fagara (zanthophylum zanthoxonoides) or cuts the stem as in rauwolfia vomitora. the channel links the wholesaler directly or in some cases passes through the processor who does the splitting. where it passes to the wholesaler directly, the wholesaler does the washing, cross cutting and splitting before selling to the retailer. the retailer may re-split before dividing them into smaller units (bunches) of between n20 and n50 each. there is no direct link between the producer or processor and the consumer in the case of m. acuminata though this may exist in other types that are widely marketed. consumers can buy bushmeat from the market (wholesaler or retailer), restaurant or by the road side on the high ways (hunters). usually, the wholesaler does the processing. in some cases, hunters do process the meat before sale most especially at popular spots on the highway for consumers to buy. this is common at ikire in irewole local government area of osun state. youths besiege approaching vehicles at the checking points with fried or roasted bushmeat. restaurants are also categorized as wholesalers because they buy bushmeat in bulk and they have regular supplies from hunters and other marketers. snails are sold live in bunch of 5 or more on the highways or in the markets. market margin the margin does not include that of the harvester. as in any other enterprises, the wholesalers require a huge capital to have a solid foundation. new entrants therefore require operating capital of between n 16,000 to n20,000. retailer can have as little as n1000 to start depending on the number of chewing sticks initially purchased from the wholesalers (table 4). market margin varies from one animal to the other. it also depends on the bargaining power of the people involved. for snail, there is no processing or much labour except for the distance which transportation cost adequately takes care of. the margin for snail can be analyzed as follows: table 4. massularia acuminata per participant. wholesaler cost ( n ) benefit ( n ) margin ( n ) 50 m 3 roundwood 3,000 transportation 800 labour (cross cutting) 600 management 1,000.40 total 5,400.40 selling price (6,170 sticks) 8,000 margin 2,599.60 retailer 6,170 sticks 8,000 packaging and sales labour 2,000 total 10,000 selling price (n2.00 per stick) 12,340 margin 2,340.00 total marketing margin 4,939.60 source: field survey table 5. marketing margin for bushmeat (grass cutter) (per participant). hunter cost ( n ) benefit ( n ) margin ( n ) labour (1 monday) 500 bullet 160 transportation 100 management (10% of total cost) 80 total cost 840 selling 1,800 margin 960 wholesaler purchase 1,800 processing 200 transportation 40 management 240 total cost 2,280 selling price 3,000 margin 720 total marketing margin 1,680 source: field survey gatherer's selling price = n 80 per one (big) the margin = n 120.00 wholesaler's selling price = n 140.00 " " source: field survey. restaurant selling price = n 200.00 " " table 6. list of ntfps in osun state botanical name common name plant part used uses vernonia amygdalina ewuro leaf, stem and root soup zanthophylum zanthoxonoides fagara root chewing stick morinda lucida oruwo root “ nauclea latifolia ogbesi root “ garcinia kola orogbo stem “ jatropha curcas lapalapa stem “ raphia nitida irosun stem “ terminalia gleucescens idi-odan stem “ psidium guajava guava stem/fruit “ parkia biglobosa igba fruit /food food irvingia garbonensis oro fruit “ butyrospermum paradoxum emi fruit “ tetracarpidum conophorum awusa fruit “ aframomum melegueta atare fruit medicinal tetrapleura tetraptera idan stem/back “ agaricus sp mushroom leaf food tectona grandis teak leaf wrapping food thaumatococcus danielli ewe iran “ “ sarcophrynum brachystachys “ “ mitragyna stipulos ewe obe “ “ cola nitida obi fruit food zingiber officinale ginger fruit medicinal spondias mombin agbalumo fruit/bark “ megaphrynium macrostachyum iyeye fruit/bark food /med. alstonia bonnei gbodogi leaf wrapping food momordica foetida awun bark medicinal rauwolfia vomitora ira leaf chew.stick/me ficus exasperata eepin leaf washing pycnathus angolensis akomu bark medicinal melicia excelsa iroko bark “ azadirachta indica dongoyaro leaf/bark “ ocimum gratissimum efinrin leaf “ mitragyna cylindrica abura leaf “ solanum incanum igba fruit food obvitenthera abbyssinica oparu stem craft/buildin massularia acuminata pakoijebu stem chewing stick newboulda laevis akoko leaf cultural wild games tragelaphus scriptus antelope, igala meat sylvicapra griminia antelope, esuro “ thryonomys swinderianus grass-cutter, oya “ antherurus africanus porcupine, oore “ antherurus africanus monkey, obo "/pet erythrocebus patas squirrel, okere “ anomarulus spp snail, igbin “ archachatina marginata crocodile,oni “ crocodilus niloticus bush pig, imado “ potamochoerus porcus “ bush fowl, etu trancolinus bicakaratus “ monitor varanus niloticus “ giant rat, okete cricetomys gambianus “ common names the total marketing margin for grasscutter (thryonomys swinderianus) is n1680 (table 5). conclusion while the importance of ntfps is coming into lime light, there are some militating problems against their production and marketing. ntfps are biological entities which are grossly affected by seasonal variation. this in turn affects their prices. in nigeria, there are two seasons, rainy and dry. most of the ntfps are cheap during the raining season because of the abundance of rain while they are relatively expensive during the dry season. there has not been any recorded irrigation scheme for the production of ntfps in the state. apart from seasonal variation, another factor that affect the supply of ntfps is the presence of competing substitutes. hardly is there any ntfp without a close substitute and as any other agricultural product, the demand for ntfps is almost perfectly elastic. other problems include high transport cost cum poor transportation which affects the price of ntfps especially those brought from a far distance. lack of capital and credit facilities also some of these products on a large scale. harvesting of many ntfps is labour intensive and a lot of wastage accompanies it. medicinal products are found with the "elewe omos' or the "lekuleja". these are women who deal with the sales of ntfps used in medicines. most of the medicinal products have competed favourably with orthodox medicine in the past and in the present; they have been incorporated into the therapy which has proved successful. it is common to see drugs made from ntfps in patent stores after they have been certified by registered pharmacists (table 6). references fao (1995). report of the international expert consultation on nonwood forest products, yogyakarta. indonesia. 17-25. nwoboshi lc (1986). meeting the challenges of deforestation in nigeria through effective reforestation. in oguntala ab (ed)1986. annual conference of the forestry association of nigeria. minna. nigeria ogunlade ab (1993). the needed strategies and problems of industrial plantation development in nigeria. proceedings of 23 rd annual conference of the forestry association of nigeria. 29 th nov. – 3 rd dec.1993. lagos. p. 89. osemeobo jc (1991). effect of common property resource utilization on wildlife conservation in nigeria. geo-j. magde burger strate 1703330 helmstedt.germany. rijsoort. jv (2000). non-timber forest products: their role in sustainable forest management in the tropics. p. 64. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 5 (5), pp. 001-009, may, 2017. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper efficiency of the plantain marketing system in ghana: a co-integration analysis akwasi mensah bonsu, akua agyeiwaa-afrane and john k. m. kuwornu* department of agricultural economics and agribusiness, p. o. box lg 68, university of ghana, legon, accra, ghana. accepted 28 september, 2016 the study assesses the efficiency of the plantain marketing system in ghana using monthly wholesale prices in ghs/10 kg covering the period 2004 to 2009. the integration among the plantain markets was tested with the johansen multivariate co-integration analysis and error correction model. the markets chosen for the study are accra market as a central consumption market; kumasi market, sunyani market and koforidua market as assembling markets; goaso market, begoro market and obogo market as producing markets. these markets were chosen based on the volume of production and trade in the areas. the findings of the market integration analysis indicate that arbitrage in the plantain marketing system is working since there are both long and short run relationship between accra market (central consumption market) and the three assembling and three producing markets. however, the speed with which prices are transmitted between accra market (consumption market) and the other markets (plantain production and assembling markets) is relatively weak at 27.7%, compared to perfect adjustment of 100% threshold. this implies that there is the need for further integration especially in the short run. improvement in market information systems and expansion especially into producing areas, as well as accurate, timely, and availability of information on plantain prices may be useful in the efficient distribution of plantain from surplus to deficit markets. key words: plantain marketing system, johansen multivariate co-integration, error correction model, ghana. introduction plantain is a basic food product contributing to the food security of millions of people in the developing world, and constitutes a source of employment and income for the rural population (nkendah and nzouessin, 2006). plantain is grown in 52 countries with world production of 33 million metric tonnes (fao, 2006). eight african countries are named among the top ten world producers of plantain, with ghana producing 2,930,000 metric tonnes and ranked as the third world producer (faostat, 2007). it contributes about 770 kcal/kg and its supply of micronutrients such as iron and zinc is well established (babatunde et al., 2007). plantain is the third most important food crop after yam and cassava in terms of volume of production and contributes 13.1% to the agricultural gross domestic *corresponding author. e-mail: jkuwornu@ug.edu.gh, jkuwornu@gmail.com. product in ghana (fao, 2006). about 8,348,865 ha of land area is used to cultivate plantain in ghana, producing an annual average of 2.0 million tonnes of fruits, of which more than 95% is sold on the local market and the rest exported (srid-mofa, 2006). six of the ten administrative regions of ghana, namely ashanti, eastern, brong-ahafo, western, central and volta regions, are designated as plantain producing regions (banful, 1998). recently, it has become an important export commodity in the international market (isser, 2007) and ghana obtained the highest international price with an average of us$ 1.53 per kg for the period 1995 to 1998 (martinez and saavedra, 2001). if agricultural growth is to be realized, developing countries have to ensure effective and efficient marketing and distribution systems. economic integration results in more efficient use of resources increase in trade, productivity and overall production (ismet et al., 1998). efficiency of markets depends, among other things, on the number of traders, the level of competition among file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org them and on the amount and costs of information at their disposal (federico, 2007). food crop marketing in ghana is dominated by the private sector which handles more than 95 percent of the products marketed (mofa, 1987). this includes itinerant traders, market based traders and food contractors. an efficient farm marketing system is an important means for raising the income levels of farmers and for promoting the economic development of a country (tamimi, 1999). the study uses integration of plantain markets to measure the efficiency of the plantain market system in ghana. this approach is based on the concept originally developed by bressler and king (1970) that an efficient commodity market will establish prices that are interrelated spatially by transaction and transfer costs and inter-temporally by storage costs. if a market is integrated, there will be a relatively low spatial and intertemporal variation in prices implying that commodity market prices will be functionally related (onyuma et al., 2006). the plantain business is faced with a lot of marketing problems which determine whether production can be expanded or not (adetunji and adesiyan, 2008). the relative attention given to plantain is focused on the technical and productive viability of plantain in ghana, while little is done on its marketing (ekboir et al., 2002; owusu-benoah et al., 2007). agricultural production problems can be overcome through introducing new technology and efficient marketing systems (adetunji and adesiyan, 2008). according to codjoe (2007) the area under production of plantain has been increasing over the years and dankyi et al. (2007), also revealed that farmers are aware of the various production technologies, however low farm-gate pricing with traders determining prices has been a major hindrance to production and marketing. it is however obvious that increased production without corresponding well-developed and efficient marketing system may amount to wastage of resources (adetunji and adesiyan, 2008). hence, investigating the spatial integration of producing and consuming plantain markets is useful in ascertaining the efficiency of plantain marketing in ghana. the investigation provides a probable means of enhancing the efficiency of the marketing system for plantain. the objective of the study is to examine the efficiency of the plantain marketing system in ghana by measuring price transmission and market integration for plantain (false horn) in some selected regional and district markets in ghana. there is little disagreement on the benefits of a well-integrated market system. in general, producer marketing decisions are based on market price information, and poorly integrated markets may convey inaccurate price information, leading to inefficient product movements (goodwin and schroeder, 1991). linkages to marketing centres have been found to contribute significantly to rural household’s escape from poverty (krishna, 2004; krishna et al., 2004). market integration ensures that a regional balance occurs among food deficit, surplus and non-cash crop producing regions (delgado, 1986). moreover, how long an initially localized scarcity can be expected to persist depends entirely on knowledge of how well the region is connected by arbitrage to other regions (ravallion, 1986). improving marketing efficiency is a way to increase social welfare by generating income for the local producers and chain actors and by promoting its sustained use. the paper contributes towards identification of the degree and level of spatial market integration of the plantain market in ghana, adds to the literature on the efficiency of the plantain marketing system, and provides guidance for policy aimed at enhancing economic activity in the plantain marketing system. methodology theoretical framework this research adopts market integration as a measure of marketing efficiency. barret and li (2002) defined market integration as tradability or contestability between markets. market integration can be interpreted as the extent to which price shocks are transmitted between spatially separate markets (goodwin and piggott, 2001). this study assesses market integration and price transmission for plantain across some selected markets in ghana using the johansen multivariate co-integration procedure and the error correction model. the goal of market integration analysis is to determine marketing efficiency which is basically the extent and speed of price transmission between spatially separated markets (goleti et al., 1995). it is built on the premise that if a pair of markets is integrated, a price change in one of them will be reflected in a price change in the other. the demand for and price of a given unit of plantain in a market would have a dominant effect on the plantain trade and by extension, price formulation in other trading markets. this would be an indicator for marketing efficiency since price differences between the given markets would reflect only transportation costs including normal profit (delgado, 1986). the more integrated a market is the more efficient it is. estimation of plantain market integration: johansen cointegration test procedure unit root test when investigating for market integration, the study first examined each price series for evidence of non-stationarity in order to confirm that co-integration approach is the appropriate tool (fossati et al., 2007). the number of lags in the augmented dickey fuller (adf) equation is chosen to ensure that serial correlation is absent using the akaike’s information criterion. the adf equation estimated by ols is based on a model with a constant as follows: = + −1 + −1−1 + (1) where d is the differencing operator; pt is the price variable of interest and ε t is a white noise process; the unit root test is: null hypothesis: h0: δ = 0 (pt is non-stationary or has a unit root) alternate hypothesis: h1: δ ≠ 0 (pt is stationary or has no unit root). if the null hypothesis which states that the price series is nonstationary is not rejected, then in literature it has been suggested to difference the variable of interest to stabilize its mean. if a variable is found to have a unit root, the difference of the variable is included in the model. the procedure requires that the non-stationary variable be differenced sequentially until it attains stationarity. since the price series were not stationary in levels (integrated of order zero), they were differenced once to attain stationarity. testing for lag length a test for a suitable lag length to be included in the co-integration test was performed, because the results of co-integration tests can be quite sensitive to this (hafer and sheehan, 1991: hai et al., 2004). the number of lags is selected by applying three different multivariate lag selection criteria: the akaike information criterion (aic), the hannan-quin information criterion (hqic), and the schwarz’s bayesian information criterion (sbic). a vector autoregression (var) on the differenced series was conducted and lag length of the model with the least aic, hqic and sbic values chosen as the appropriate lag length to be included in the cointegration test. the test started with a lag length of 12 and then shortened till the least values of the aic, hqic and sbic were obtained. johansen multivariate co-integration test following ekpe (2005), the test of long-run market integration was done with the johansen multivariate co-integration analysis. johansen maximum likelihood estimation uses a rank test to define the number of co-integrating vectors r that can be found in a data. the rank is determined by estimating the p-dimensional var (k) model given in equation (2): + = ŋ + (2) −1 = where t = 1, 2, ... refers to the months from january 2004 to december, 2009; pt is a n × 1 vector of the logarithmic prices at time t (pt = p1t, p2t,…,pnt); ai are n × n matrices of parameters; ŋ is an n × 1 vector of intercept terms; εt is a n×1 vector of error terms, k is the lag length and εt is the vector of error terms assumed to be nid(0,). on the basis of the granger representation theorem, when the price series are integrated of order one, i(1), the var model can be re-parameterized into vector error correction model (vecm): k p η∑πi p π p −1 (3) t t −1 t εt i 1 if case (a) holds, then ordinary least squares estimate of the levels of models 2 and 3 are directly related by models 4 and 5. if case (b) holds, then model 3 is appropriate and equation 2 is overparameterized and its estimates are inefficient. between these two extremes are the vector error correction models that come under case (iii). in estimating the number of co-integrating equations present in the system, the rank of ∏ in equation 3 was determined using the trace statistic (johansen, 1991; 1988) results of the johansen co-integration test available in eviews 5. if ∏ = 0, then no co-integration relationship exists; if the rank of ∏ is equal to r < n, then there are r co-integrating relationships and s = (n r) common trends. the extent of an integrated market requires that s = 1, that is perfect integration. if there is more than one common trend, then some prices could be generated by the first common trend and some by s combination of the first and other trends. according to gonzalez-rivera and helfand (2001), such markets could not be said to be integrated because the long run movements in prices would be governed by different components. the error correction model (ecm) the error correction model is used to test the short-run integration restrictions and the speed of integration. johansen defines two matrices α and β, such that ∏ = αβ', where both α and β are (n × r) matrices. this implies that; ∏−1 =′−1 . the error correction term which gives the short-run disequilibrium is x, hence =−1 . the matrix α is the weights with which each co integrating vector enters the n equations of the vector error correction model (vecm), and β is the matrix of co-integrating relations. α is also the matrix of the speed of adjustment coefficients. substituting for ∏−1 =in equation 3 implies: ∆ = + + (6) ŋ + ∏ ∆ −1 =1 where x is an (n-s)×1 vector of error correcting term given by the estimated residual from equation (2) and α is the speed of price adjustment to equilibrium level. a dummy variable was introduced into equation (6) for year 2007 where there was a shock in the plantain marketing system. hence: ∆ = + + + (7) ŋ + ∏ ∆ −1 =1 the long-run co-integration of the plantain price series was determined by analyzing the normalised co-integrating coefficients (β). in estimating the co-integrating coefficients (β), the johansen co-integration test as implemented in eviews was used. where ∏ and ∏i are defined by: wald test for market integration the type and degree of market integration is determined by the (4) statistical significance of the estimated parameters based on the ∏ = − =+1 results of the set of hypothesis using the f-statistic of the wald (5) tests restrictions. the following restrictions were tested on the ols ∏ = − 1 estimation of the regression equation (2): =1 long-run market integration where ∏i and ∏ are (n×n) matrices; ∏ has a reduced rank r = n – ho: plantain market prices are integrated in the long-run, that is s; and εt is a (n×1) error vector. according to silvapulle and jayasuriya (1994), there are three possible cases for the rank of ∏. = 1 . =1 a. rank ∏ is equal to n, that is r = n (∏ is unrestricted). ha: plantain market prices are not integrated in the long-run, that is, b. rank ∏ is equal to zero. c. rank ∏ lies between zero and n, that is, 0 < r > n. ≠ 1 . =1 table 1. results of unit root test in levels and first differences. market levels (intercept only) first differences (intercept only) order of price adf p-values adf p-value integration accra -2.1140 0.0846 -6.6830 0.0000 1 goaso -2.8890 0.0910 -9.4910 0.0000 1 begoro -3.5510 0.6800 -9.6220 0.0000 1 obogu -1.6240 0.5239 -14.0130 0.0000 1 kumasi -0.8280 0.8620 -12.2000 0.0000 1 sunyani -2.5250 0.4250 -6.5870 0.0000 1 koforidua -2.7330 0.4160 -7.2410 0.0000 1 mackinnon critical value for the prices in levels at 5% is -2.9130. mackinnon critical value for the prices in first differences at 5% is 2.9140. b) short –run market integration ho: a price change in a market is immediately transmitted to the other market, that is, ai0 = 1. ha: a price change in a market is not immediately transmitted to the other market, that is, ai0 ≠ 1. the null hypothesis is not rejected if the probability value of the f statistic test is less or equal to 0.10, but rejected if the probability value is greater than 0.10 (i.e. 10 percent critical level). description of variables and sources of data markets are said to be integrated if a process of arbitrage connects them. this will be reflected in the price series of commodities in spatially separated markets (van campenhout, 2005). thus, the analysis of this study is entirely based on secondary price data collected from the information management system units of seven district agricultural development units in ghana. average monthly wholesale prices for 10 kg of plantain from january 2004 to december 2009 (72 observations) in four regional and three district markets in ghana were used in the study. prices of plantain (and some other agricultural commodities) are collected by the various district agricultural development units throughout the country on weekly basis. based on the weekly data, monthly price series are computed by taking averages. it is worth considering the appropriateness of using monthly series in testing spatial market integration. for instance, hai et al. (2004) argues that average monthly data are inappropriate when analyzing rice market integration in the mekong river delta of niger because these prices do not reflect the daily prices on which traders make their arbitrage decisions. however, weekly price series have several long periods in which prices are constant in almost every market. such constancy of prices will invalidate a statistical analysis which is based on an assumption of independent and identically distributed innovations that follow a continuous distribution. moreover, the use of weekly data is problematic due to the need to interpolate numerous missing values. for these reasons this study analyzes monthly data instead of the weekly data. in addition, the consumer price index (with 2002 as base year) was used to convert nominal price data into real values. this is justified because through this conversion, correlation by inflation can be excluded (fafchamps and gavian, 1995). the seven (7) markets were purposely selected based on the production and volume of plantain traded. they include one consuming market; agbogbloshie (greater accra); three assembling markets; kumasi (ashanti region), koforidua (eastern region) and sunyani (brong –ahafo region); and three producing markets; obogu (asante akyemsouth in the ashanti region), begoro (fanteakwa district in the eastern region) and goaso (asunafo north district in the brong –ahafo region). based on the trade relations between the markets, spatial integration between these seven markets is assessed. results and discussion unit root test in order to ascertain whether the variables were stationary or not, the adf unit root test was applied on the levels and first differences of the prices series. the results presented in table 1 indicate that the real wholesale price series for the seven markets are integrated in order one, that is, i (1). the unit root test (with an intercept) shows that none of price series is stationary at the level at the 5 percent significance level. to make them stationary, their first differences were taken. when all the price series were differenced once, the results of the unit root test indicate that the null hypothesis of a unit root can be rejected at the 5% significance level. the lag selection-order criterion was used to select the appropriate lag length to be included in the cointegration model. table 2 presents the results of the lag selectionorder for the various information criteria. on the basis of the akaike’s information criterion (aic), hannan-quin information criterion (hqic) and schwarz’s bayesian information criterion (sbic), one month of lag was selected for the model. johansen multivariate results for co-integration to examine the hypothesis that there are r co-integrating vectors, the trace test was performed. table 3 reports the results for the johansen trace statistic (λtrace) test based on the smallest value of the aic and sbic values. comparing the trace statistic with the corresponding table 2. lag selection-order criteria. lag aic hqic sbic 0 3.6838 3.7731 3.9086 1 1.0924* 1.8069* 2.8912* 2 1.2026 2.5423 4.5754 *aic, hqic and sbic values are smallest at 1% significant level. table 3. results of johansen co-integration tests. null hypothesis alternative hypothesis λtrace value 5% critical value r = 0 r > 0 157.9151* 124.24 r ≤ 1 r > 1 92.8623 94.15 r ≤ 2 r > 2 48.9786 68.52 r ≤ 3 r > 3 30.689 47.21 r ≤ 4 r > 4 15.4227 29.79 *if value of λtrace exceeds the critical value, we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative of more cointegrating vectors. critical values, it can be seen that the null hypothesis of no co-integrating relationship can be rejected at the 5% significance level for the plantain wholesale market real prices. in carrying out the co-integration test, the deterministic trend was used because of the characteristics of the line plots of the plantain prices in the various selected markets. the trace test statistics reported in table 3 indicates that at least a stationarity relationship exists among the seven plantain wholesale markets. the paper discusses the price relationship between a central market (consuming, but non-producing market) and other markets (assembling and producing markets) for plantain. the co-integration results for wholesale real price in accra (the central market) are presented in table 4. the explanatory variables jointly explain the variation in the accra wholesale price with the f -statistic significant at the 1% level. the coefficient of determination (r 2 ) of approximately 83% means that the variables in the model explain 83% of the variations in current wholesale real price in accra. the coefficients of the current and previous month wholesale real prices in kumasi and obogu markets are insignificant. the coefficients of the other markets wholesale real prices are significant. from table 4, the coefficient of previous month wholesale real price for accra shows a positive sign, meaning that a higher wholesale real price in accra in the previous month would reflect in a higher wholesale price in accra in the current month. also, the current plantain wholesale real prices in sunyani and goaso have positive and significant effects on the current wholesale real price for plantain in accra. thus, within the same month, higher (lower) wholesale real prices in the sunyani and goaso markets will result in higher (lower) real prices in the accra market. on the other hand, lower previous month wholesale real prices in both sunyani and goaso would reflect in higher current month wholesale real prices in accra. on the contrary, current wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro have negative and significant effects on the current wholesale real prices in accra. this means that higher (lower) current wholesale prices in koforidua and begoro would reflect in lower (higher) wholesale real prices for accra market in the current month. the coefficients of previous month wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro markets show positive signs, indicating that lower (higher) wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro in the previous month would reflect in lower (higher) wholesale real prices in accra during the current month. the significant coefficients in the co-integration model indicate that in the long-run most of the plantain markets are highly co-integrated with the wholesale real price in accra (central market). in particular, the wholesale real prices for koforidua and begoro, assembling and producing markets, respectively, in the eastern region and sunyani and goaso, assembling and producing markets, respectively, in the brong-ahafo region are spatially integrated with the wholesale real price in accra (the central consuming market), while the wholesale real prices in kumasi and obogu assembling and producing markets respectively in the ashanti region are not spatially integrated with the wholesale real price in accra (the central consuming market). but the directional effects of the integration between accra market and the markets in the eastern region are different from (opposite to) the directional effects of the integration between accra market and the markets in the brong-ahafo region. thus, while the current wholesale real prices in sunyani and goaso have positive effects on table 4. co-integration regression results. variable coefficient std. error t-statistic p-value accra wholesale real price (-1) 0.5590*** 0.1027 5.4500 0.0000 kumasi wholesale real price 0.0517 0.0966 0.5300 0.5930 kumasi wholesale real price (-1) 0.0678 0.0711 0.9500 0.3440 sunyani wholesale real price 0.2837** 0.1133 2.5000 0.0150 sunyani wholesale real price (-1) -0.3006** 0.1164 -2.5800 0.0120 koforidua wholesale real price -0.6112*** 0.1496 -4.0900 0.0000 koforidua wholesale real price (-1) 0.6112*** 0.1551 3.9400 0.0000 goaso wholesale real price 0.2852** 0.1348 2.1200 0.0340 goaso wholesale real price (-1) -0.2852** 0.1292 -2.2100 0.0270 begoro wholesale real price -0.2781* 0.1426 -1.9500 0.0510 begoro wholesale real price (-1) 0.2781** 0.1376 2.0200 0.0430 obogu wholesale real price -0.0470 0.0573 -0.8200 0.4120 obogu wholesale real price (-1) 0.0470 0.0629 0.7500 0.4550 c 0.1902*** 0.0648 2.9300 0.0050 r-squared 0.83144 f-statistic 21.6200 adjusted r-squared 0.79303 prob (f-statistic) 0.0000 source: authors’ computation based on data from mofa, 2010. *** indicates significance at the 1 percent level, ** indicates significance at the 5 percent level and * indicates significance at the 10 percent level. dependent variable: accra wholesale price. included observations: 71 after adjustment. the current wholesale real price in accra, the current wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro have negative effects on the current wholesale real price in accra. on the other hand, while the previous month wholesale real prices in sunyani and goaso have negative effects on the current wholesale real price in accra, the previous month wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro have positive effects on the current wholesale real price in accra. the reasons for these mixed results are not very clear, but the negative effects do not meet prior expectations. the implication is that the positive response of the wholesale real price in accra market to the wholesale real prices for plantain in the sunyani and goaso markets (borng-ahafo region) is prompt, while its positive response to the wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro markets (in the eastern region) lags by about a month. on the other hand, the negative response of the wholesale real price in accra market to the wholesale real prices for plantain in the sunyani and goaso markets (borng-ahafo region) lags by about a month, while its negative response to the wholesale real prices in koforidua and begoro markets (in the eastern region) is prompt. the differences in these effects could be due to differences in trade volume/levels and information flow among the different regions. error correlation model the vector error correction model (vecm) was constructed in order to analyze the short-run dynamics of the effects of plantain prices in other selected markets on plantain prices in accra, having established that a longrun relationship exists between the variables. the results of the error correction model capture short run relationships. the result of the estimated error correction model which expresses the first difference of the accra wholesale price of plantain as a function of the first difference of the explanatory variables is presented in table 5. the empirical results suggest good explanatory power of the model as indicated by the r 2 statistics as well as the f-statistics for the overall regression. the fstatistic of 21.73 indicates the joint significance of current and previous plantain prices in kumasi, sunyani, koforidua, goaso, begoro and obogu and previous prices in accra in explaining about 68.82% of the variation in the plantain wholesale prices in accra in the short period. the adjustment coefficient of the lagged of the first table 5. error correction model results. variable coefficient std. error t-statistic prob. 1st diff accra wholesale real price (-1) 0.6543 0.0930 7.0585 0.0000 1st diff kumasi wholesale real price 0.3117 0.4023 0.7748 0.1529 1st diff kumasi wholesale real price (-1) -0.1707 0.2191 -0.7792 0.4371 1st diff sunyani wholesale real price 0.3802 2.9429 0.1292 0.0031 1st diff sunyani wholesale real price (-1) -0.2564 0.1356 -1.9050 0.1005 1st diff koforidua wholesale real price 0.2094 0.1183 1.7704 0.0809 1st diff koforidua wholesale real price (-1) -0.2749 0.1327 -2.0720 0.0502 1st diff goaso wholesale real price 0.1400 0.1642 0.8525 0.4004 1st diff goaso wholesale real price (-1) 0.4051 0.3700 2.6323 0.0052 1st diff begoro wholesale real price 0.2708 0.1120 2.4174 0.0209 1st diff begoro wholesale real price (-1) -0.2781 0.1202 -2.3129 0.0194 1st diff obogu wholesale real price -0.0621 0.3698 -0.1679 0.8731 1st diff obogu wholesale real price (-1) -0.4019 0.3785 -1.0617 0.1535 dummy (2007) -0.0101 0.0592 -0.1706 0.8652 x (residual term) -0.2773 0.1391 -1.9930 0.0473 constant 0.0140 0.0329 0.4244 0.3913 r-squared 0.6882 f-statistic 21.7277 adjusted r-squared 0.6403 prob(f-statistic) 0.0001 x (residual term) denotes the error correcting term. dependent variable: first differenced accra wholesale real price. included observations: 70 after adjustments. differenced of the wholesale real price in accra market has a positive and significant effect on price stability, suggesting that any previous disequilibrium in the longrun wholesale real price in accra market would be corrected in the short-run. the short-run effects of both the current and lagged first differenced of the wholesale real prices in kumasi and obogu markets are again insignificant. also, the short-run effect of the current first differenced of the wholesale real price in goaso market is also insignificant. however, the current first differenced of the wholesale real prices in sunyani, koforidua, and begoro markets have positive and significant effects on stabilizing the wholesale real price in accra, while the lagged of the first differenced of their wholesale real prices have negative and significant effects. also, the lagged of the first differenced of the wholesale real price in goaso has positive and significant effect on stabilizing the wholesale real price in accra. these significant adjustment coefficients suggest that any distortion in the long-run wholesale real price in accra would be corrected in the short-run, by the required either upward or downward movement towards the long-run equilibrium level. the dummy variable for price shock in the plantain marketing system in year 2007 also has the expected negative sign but an insignificant effect on the stability of the wholesale real price in accra. the coefficient of the error correction term, x, which signifies the speed at which plantain wholesale real price in accra adjusts to their long run equilibrium level, is negative and statistically significant at the 5% level. the significant coefficient of the error correction term confirms the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship of wholesale real price for plantain in accra with the wholesale real prices in the other markets included in the analysis. the coefficient of the error correction term of 0.2773% implies that, the feedback into the short -run dynamic process from the previous period is 27.73% and the negative sign suggests that the adjustment is from a higher price shock (price rise) to the long-run price level. this means that the adjustment from the short-run to long-run equilibrium is about 27.73% which is relatively weak compared to perfect adjustment of 100% threshold. it suggests that the wholesale real price in accra adjust partially to its long-run level after a price rise (shock). nkendah and nzouessin (2006) found a 21 to 27% speeds of adjustment of prices in pairs of plantain table 6. wald test results for market integration. null hypothesis wald test statistics p value f-statistics long-run market integration 0.00 0.9614 short-run market integration ai0 = 1 0.11 0.7426 markets in cameroon and concluded that a weak integration exist in the markets and hence urban consumer price increase because there is bad information circulation between the various markets. wald test for market integration in order to find the nature of long-run and short-run market integration, the wald test restriction of the fstatistic was applied to determine market integration in the plantain markets. table 6 presents the results of the wald test. the f statistical values of 0.00 and 0.11 with probability values of 0.9614 and 0.7426, respectively, show that they are not significant even at 10%. the longrun and short-run null hypotheses that plantain market real prices are integrated and a price change in a market is immediately transmitted to other markets, respectively, therefore cannot be rejected. the results mean that there exist both long-run and short run market integrations between accra and the other selected markets (both producing and assembling markets). thus, changes in plantain real price in any producing or assembling market would cause plantain real price in accra to adjust immediately and the estimated speed of adjustment is about 27.73% (table 5). conclusions this study explored market integration for plantain monthly prices in ghana, for the time period 2004 to 2009, using the johansen multivariate co-integration approach and the error correction model. the results of the market integration analysis obtained by the johansen multivariate co-integration approach indicate at least one co-integrating equation. while the wholesale real prices for markets in the eastern region (koforidua and begoro markets) and brong-ahafo region (sunyani and goaso markets) are spatially integrated with the wholesale real price in accra (the central consumption market), the wholesale real prices for markets in the ashanti region (kumasi and obogu markets) are not. but the directional effects (signs of the coefficients) of the integration between accra market and the markets in the eastern region are different from (opposite to) the directional effects of the integration between accra market and the markets in the brong-ahafo region. the differences in these effects could be due to differences in trade volumes/levels and information flow among the different regions. again the results of the market integration analysis obtained by employing the error correction model (ecm) show that price signal is transmitted in the short-run between the current wholesale real price in accra market and the other markets. the wald test results for market integration suggest that the long-run and short-run null hypotheses that plantain market real prices are integrated and a price change in a market is immediately transmitted to other markets, respectively, cannot be rejected. the estimated coefficient for the error correction term suggests that plantain real price signals are transmitted between accra market (the consumption market) and other selected markets in the short-run with a negative speed of adjustment of 27.73%. these results show that there is relatively weak integration/adjustment of the plantain production and assembly markets to the consumption market compared to perfect adjustment of 100% threshold. it suggests that the wholesale real price in accra adjust partially to its long-run level after a (higher) price shock. this would mean urban consumer real price for plantain increases and returns only partially to its expected long-run real price level. the speed with which price signals are transmitted in the short-run shows that there is the need for further market integration between the plantain markets especially in the short-run. thus, 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www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper assessing the technical efficiency of commercial egg production in tanzania for improved livelihoods oleke, j. m.1* and isinika, a. c.2 1 iita-tanzania, mlalakuwa, (cocacola) road, plot no. 25, mikocheni light industrial area. p. o. box 34441, dar-es-salaam, tanzania. 2 institute of continuing education, sokoine university of agriculture, morogoro, tanzania. accepted 24 april, 2018 this study examined the productivity and technical efficiency (te) of egg production in tanzania under the intensive system. a multistage random sampling procedure was employed for selecting 80 respondents from two districts; kibaha and ilala. this study utilizes the most recent developments in stochastic frontier modeling as specified for a one-step process in limdep software. results indicated that the mean te of egg production is 64%, ranging from 4 to 90%. egg production was in the rational stage of production (stage ii) as depicted by the returns to scale (rts) of about 1.3. thus, there is room for improving te, which will raise net returns of egg production enterprises, hence, improving livelihoods of farmers and their families. key words: technical efficiency, intensive, egg production, stochastic frontier, tanzania. introduction about 94% of the total chicken population in tanzania is kept in villages and in peri-urban areas under traditional free range system, in most cases owned by women (mafc, 2008). the traditional poultry system is the largest, supplying more than 90% of poultry meat and eggs consumed in rural areas, and 20% of the same are consumed in urban areas. despite the predominance of local chicken in tanzania, paul et al. (1990) argues that production of layers is comparatively a better source of earning cash, especially in urban and peri-urban areas because it offers higher net returns. since the introduction of commercial poultry farming in tanzania during the 1980s, visible growth in the production of layers has been observed. small and medium enterprises have increased the numbers of layers from 27 million in 2001 to 38 million in 2008 while the commercial stock increased from 20 million to 25 million. on average, 5.5 million hatching eggs and one million day old chicks are imported annually to produce *correponding author. e-mail: j.oleke@cgiar.org or jmasahi@yahoo.com. tel: +255-23-2402370/1, +25578985090, +255785635086. fax: +255-23-2402372. a total of 25 million day old chicks for commercial purposes (mld, 2008). this figure is low compared to the actual requirement of 60 million day old chicks per year. egg production has increased from 790 million in 2002 to 1.8 billion in 2006 (msami, 2008). the increase is largely due to sensitization on good poultry husbandry practices by farmers and increased use of thermo stable vaccine to control the new castle disease vaccine (mld, 2008). the per capita consumption of eggs has also increased from 23 eggs in 2002 to 50 eggs in 2008 per person per year. although, the production of eggs has grown rapidly (about 2.5 million eggs/year), still there is a big gap between the demand and supply in the country. meanwhile, the per capita consumption of eggs in tanzania at 50 eggs/capita/year is quite low, compared with 106 eggs per person per year for africa and 190 for high income countries (gueye, 2004). the rising demand for eggs calls for more investments in the intensive layer production and the poultry industry as a whole. this improvement could further be sustained with a proper analysis of the technical efficiency (te) of egg production so that net income increases, thereby contributing to reduce poverty. it is important to assess the te of poultry farms especially now that the government is promoting file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org commercial oriented agricultural production as declared under the agricultural sector development programme (asdp) and kilimo kwanza (urt, 2001, 2009). technical efficiency becomes a critical factor for decision making in management and production systems because the cost of production is closely related to the productivity and te of the farm. knowledge on the efficiency of a farm can help to identify productivity gaps, including those related to socio-economic characteristics and management practices, which can subsequently be improved. such knowledge should be used by extension workers for advising farmers to improve both the technical and economic aspects of their enterprises. this study was conducted in kibaha district, pwani region and ilala district, dar-es-salaam region where there is a concentration of poultry farmers to feed the city of dar-es-salaam, currently estimated to accommodate over three million inhabitants. dar-es-salaam is the commercial center of tanzania and hence the largest market for almost all agricultural commodities in the country. it is estimated that the city consumes about 303,054 eggs per day on average, compared to only 15,700 in arusha, 28,730 in mwanza and 64,118 in mbeya, the other cities in tanzania (msami, 2008). considering the difficulty of transporting eggs over long distances (in the absence of properly refrigerated and cushioned vehicles), most of the poultry farmers in tanzania operate close to their targeted markets. in ilala district, the suburb of kitunda is famous for producing eggs, ferrying over 350,000 eggs to the city center daily mostly by bicycle or using small pick up trucks (msami, 2008). kibaha town, which lies about 40 km from the city center, along the highway to zambia, is also famous for egg production to feed the city. the number of egg producers in kibaha and ilala districts is estimated to be around 8,333 and 11,160, respectively. this means, the poultry sub-sector plays an important role in providing for the livelihoods to over 18,000 families. any information, which would improve the productivity of these poultry farms, if used by the extension services and the farmers, would contribute to improving farmers’ incomes thereby contributing to the goals of the national strategy for growth and poverty reduction, popularly known by its kiswahili acronym (mkukuta), and the millennium development goals (mdgs). often, yield defined in terms of eggs produced per laying period, is used as a measure of productivity in layers. but, this masks the reality regarding the efficiency of using inputs in the production system. technical efficiency has been used for more rigorous economic analysis in order to identify specific areas of intervention to improve the performance of production systems. this study used te to assess the performance of poultry farms in the study area, in order to recommend strategies for improvement. the main objective of the study is to assess productivity and measure the te of producing eggs under the intensive production systems in urban and peri-urban areas of ilala district in dar es salaam region and kibaha district in pwani region, and determine factors contributing to the gap in productivity potential. the study’s specific objectives include: 1. to estimate the responsiveness of yield (value of eggs produced per annum per unit of variable input) to the main factors of production by estimating the elasticity of production of the inputs; 2. to estimate the frontier production function and determine levels of technical efficiency for each egg producing farms in the sample drawn from ilala and kibaha districts; 3. to evaluate the relationship between technical efficiency and selected farm characteristics. methodology conceptual framework the level of te of a particular farmer is characterized by the relationship between observed production and some ideal or potential production (greene, 1993), often measured as a ratio between the output of a particular farmer and the maximum possible output obtainable (frontier) using a given set of inputs under a given technology. the gap can be closed if the limiting technical and socio-economic factors are identified and addressed. this study sought to identify these limiting factors in order to suggest areas of focus for improvement. analysis of the poultry farms in the study area shows that a small scale poultry farm as having up to 2,000 birds; a medium scale farm having between 2,001 and 4,999 birds and a large scale farm has above 5,000 birds. the deep litter system is used by all the farmers in the sample. they also almost exclusively buy feed, medicine and feed supplements from similar sources or their outlets. it is therefore, safe to assume that they all use very similar technology for egg production. in the absence of experimental data, the study used the performance of the best farmers in the sample to define the frontier against which the performance of all the other farmers was compared. primary data for the study were collected between october and november 2007. first, ilala and kibaha districts were purposively selected based on the prominence of egg production relative to other districts in the vicinity of dar-es-salaam. the second stage involved a multistage sampling procedure in which two divisions were selected from each district, and two wards from each division. then, 80 farmers (40 from each district) were randomly selected from the wards. data was collected using a structured questionnaire, obtaining information on output, inputs and key economic and socio-economic variables as subsequently defined by the empirical models. analytical model a stock of layers is normally raised for 18 to 24 months before it is replaced. using data from sampled farmers, a stochastic production frontier was estimated to compute the te of each farmer. subsequently, the computed te of each farmer was regressed against a set of socio-economic factors to identify the most limiting variable in the production system. a production function was used to define the stochastic production frontier as given in general form in equation 1: (1) zero, with a distribution given as, n (0,δ 2 u) . however, ui can also have other distributions such as gamma and exponential. it is associated with farm-specific factors. the mean values of ui are determined by equation (5): y i  b 0 ∏ x ij b ij e ε ij (2) where: yi = output for the i th respondent; for i = 1, 2, ………, n; xij = the j th variable input for the i th respondent; for i = 1, 2,., n and j = 1, 2, ..k; π = a steady multiplicative symbol; e = natural logarithm; ε = error term for the i th respondent and the j th input; b0 = a vector of a constant parameter; bij = a vector of parameter estimates for the i th respondent and the j th variable input. the log liner transformation of equation (2) gives equation (3), which was used for parameter estimation, using frontier regression analysis as described by kumbhakar et al. (1991): k y i  β 0  ∑β ij x ij  ε i (3) j1 where yi = ln (yi); β0 =ln (b0); βij = ln (bij); xij = ln (xij); εi = ln (ei); ln = natural logarithm farell (1957) and bylee (1991) disaggregated economic efficiency into allocative efficiency and technical efficiency (te). in a perfectly competitive market, allocative efficiency occurs if the marginal physical product is equal to the ratio of the product price to the corresponding input prices ( . allocative inefficiency is the failure for a farm to meet the conditions for profit maximization. meanwhile, te is defined as the ratio of the observed output to the corresponding output on the frontier, as estimated from the composed error term. in estimating the stochastic frontier production function, effects of the socio-economic characteristics of the household on the variation of the dependent variable (yi) are often lumped together in the error term, which accounts for the component of variation due to random, unsystematic and unexplained noise. the error term (εi) in equation (3) has two components ui and vi such that: ε i  vi − ui (4) where νi represents a random error associated with random factors, over which the farmer has no control. it has a zero mean and a variance equal to δ 2 ν such that its distribution is given as n (0,δ 2 v). meanwhile, ui represents the inefficiency component of the error term. it is a non-negative half normal random variable truncated at ui  ρi zi (5) where zi represents inefficiency variable for the i th respondent; i = 1, 2…, n; ρi = parameter estimates for the i th respondent; δ 2 v and δ 2 u are the variances of vi and ui respectively. the inefficiency variables are represented by farm characteristics such as age, marital status, employment status, education of a farmer, family size, sex, location of the farm, access to credit and management because these traits account for performance differences between farmers, some being more inefficient that others. equation (3) was estimated using the maximum likelihood method, on the basis of which, the te of a production function was obtained from the conditional expectation of ui given εi as shown by zaibet and dharmapala (1999) and represented in equation (6): e − ui  δ u δ v f * λε i / δ  ε i λ ε i − δ − f * λε / δ  δ 1 i (6) where δu = standard error of u, the random component of the error term; δv = standard of ν, the inefficiency component of the error term; λ = ratio of the standard deviation of the error terms, ( ); f* = value of a standard normal density; f* = value of the distribution function; δ 2  δ v 2  δ u 2 , components of variance of the error term, and e− ui ε i  = the conditional mean of ui given εi, which measures expected value of the random component of the error term. technical efficiency is measured as the mean of the negative value of the inefficiency component of the error term (-u) or ), also as given by equation (7) such that 0 ≤ te ≤ 1: tei  expe− ui ε i . (7) this inefficiency component is influenced by many factors which are discussed next and their effect is determined subsequently. empirical estimation to estimate the stochastic frontier, a two step process was followed. first, using a linear transformed cobb-douglas type production function as derived in equation (3), the value of eggs produced per farmer over 24 months of production (yi) was regressed against independent variables including the cost of production, bird stock size and feed intake as given in equation (8): yβ βx βx βx βx β lnx (v −u ) i o 1 1ij 2 2ij 3 3ij 4 4ij 5 5ij ij ji (8) where yi = value of egg produced over 24 months period (tshs); x1 where; yi = total value of eggs produced over 24 months for the i th respondent; s = average value for stock of chicken over 24 months; f = total cost of feed used for production over 24 months; c = total cost of all the other (non-feed) inputs over 24 months. a rational producer strives to maximize profit by maximizing output (y) while minimizing cost (f + c), thus obtaining economic efficiency. to establish the production frontier, a cobb-douglas type translog functional form with constant elasticity of supply (ces) was used to estimate parameter estimates of equation 1, as derived further in equations 2 to 4. a stochastic production frontier is based on the premise that a production system is bounded by a set of smooth and continuously differentiable concave transformation functions for which the frontier is the limit to the range of all production possibilities given the technology and the set of inputs used. following from zaibet and dharmapala (1999), the multiplicative form of the production function is given in equation (2 ): yi=f{s, f, c…} table 1. categorization of farm size by district. category kibaha ilala sample (n) (%) (n) (%) (n) (%) 100-2000 28 70 40 100 68 85 2001-4099 8 20 0 0 8 10 2001-4099 4 10 0 0 4 5 source: oleke (2008). table 2. descriptive statistics on input use and output (n = 80). standard measure value of stock cost of other transport feed intake feed cost total cost drugs operating cost of sample eggs (tshs) size (kg) (tshs) (tshs) (tshs) cost (tshs) (tshs) mean 56,601,289 1,071.8 563,925.6 3,339,139 440,491.8 38,938.9 10,881,347 15,586,883 mode 30,960,000 300 713,750.0 7,626,000 120,000 7,118,500 7,118,500 20,262,652 standard deviation 106,445,285 1,265.5416,530.3 4,111,895 2,093,954 16,296,275 16,296,275 1,832,590 minimum 2,314,500 200 33,600 355,800 0 634,000 634,000 119,628 maximum 753,857,260 6,000 1,592,000 22,650,500 18,602,575 127,342,569 12,7342,569 15,586,883 source: oleke (2008). = cost of drugs (tshs); x2 = transport cost (tshs); x3 = feed intake findings and discussion (kg); x4 = stock of birds (number); x5 = other operating cost (tshs);vi random errors and ui represents technical inefficiency description of farms effects. the te of each respondent was computed as the deviation between the antilog of yi and yp, (yp-yi) where yp is the maximum for this study, farms were classified by size according to potential output obtained by the best performing farmer and yi is the the number of birds. boki (2000) classified small farms as output of the i th farmer. then in the second step, based on equation having up to 2,000 birds, medium sized farms had from (5), using the limdep software, the maximum likelihood method 2,001 to 4,999 birds and large farms had 5,000 birds or was used to assess the effect of various socio-economic factors on more. on average, farms were larger in kibaha the variation of te. the inefficiency component of the error term (ui) was regressed against factors that are thought to influence compared to ilala with mean stock sizes of 624.9 and deviation of observed output (yi) from the potential output level (yp). 518.7 birds, respectively (table 1). however, for the they are all represented in equation (9): entire sample, smaller sized farms dominated with a sample mode of 300 birds. about 85% of the poultry u  ρ ρz ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z  farms were small while 10% were medium and only 5% i 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 were classified as large. the large and medium sized ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z ρ z farms were found only in kibaha district, which is located 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 further from the city center where there is more room for (9) farm activities. where; z1 = location of the farm (urban = 1, peri-urban = 0); z2 = the value of output per farm over a period of 24 farmer’s marital status (married = 1, otherwise = 0); z3 = education months was obtained by adding cash receipts from the level of a farmer (years); z4 = experience of a farmer squared sale of eggs produced, value of eggs consumed by the (squared term); z5 = use of credit (use of credit =1, no use of credit farmers’ households and the value of manure. the mean = 0); z6 = family size (number of people); z7 = experience of the value of egg produced was 56,601,290 tshs per farm farm attendant (years); z8= level management (represented by the technology for lighting and temperature (a dummy variable: (table 2), and a mean total cost of 15,586,883 tshs; electricity = 1, charcoal/kerosene = 0); z9 = housing type (concrete thus, net returns of 41,014,406 tshs per farm per stock walls and iron roof =1, mud walls and iron roof = 0); z10 = farmer’s or about 38,696 tshs per bird on average over 24 employment (formal employment = 1, no formal employment = 0); months. the mean cost of drugs per farmer was 563,927 z11 = education level of farm attendant (years); z12 = age of the tshs with a standard deviation of 416,530 tshs while farm attendant (years); z13 = sex of the household head (male=1, other operating cost had a mean of 3,339,139 tshs with female=0); z14 = age of a farmer (years), and ρo, ρ1, ρ2 ,… ρ14 = parameter estimates. a standard deviation of 4,115,895 tshs in the entire life table 3. respondents’ personal characteristics. standard measure of the sample kibaha ilala whole sample sex male (%) 34 52.5 38.5 female (%) 66 47.5 61.5 household size mean number of members 7.9 7.7 7.8 age mean age (farmer) 47.7 37.3 41.3 mean age (attendant) 21.4 35.4 22.4 marital status married (%) 85 95 91 single (%) 15 5 9 educational level mean years education (farmers) 11.4 7.6 7.3 mean years education (attendants) 7.1 6.7 7 experience farmers’ experience (years) 7.8 7.4 7.6 employed male (%) 66 4 33 employment employed female (%) 37 11 23 not employed male (%) 33 96 66 not employed female (%) 63 89 77 quality of housing iron roof and concrete wall (%) 97.5 17.5 55.5 iron roof and mud walls (%) 2.5 85.5 45.5 use of credit had access to credit (%) 35.2 5 19 did not use credit (%) 67.5 95 81 flock size mean number of birds 1,624.9 518.7 1,071.8 source: oleke (2008). of the stock. the study further reveals that on average, farmers incurred transport cost amounting to 440,499 tshs, with a standard deviation of 2,093,954 tshs during the entire life of stock. feed consumption had a mean of 10,881,347 tshs, constituting the major components of poultry production cost in both study areas, accounting for about 70% of production cost. on average, about 38,939 kg of feed was consumed per farm during the life of stock of bird. respondents’ characteristics information was collected regarding the personal characteristics of the farm managers and the attendants who carry out routine jobs on the farm (table 3). some of the information that is relevant for this analysis is presented here. for the sample as a whole, majority of the respondents were women (61.5%). however, there was male dominance in ilala, where men constitute 52.5% of the respondents compared to 47.5% for women. in kibaha, women constitute 66% of the respondents compared to 34% for men. the mean household size for the entire sample was 7.8 people being 7.9 in kibaha and 7.7 in ilala. the distribution of respondents by age gave a mean of 41.3 years for farmers and 22.4 for farm attendants. farmers tended to be younger in ilala at 37.3 years on average compared to 45.7 years in kibaha. on the other hand, farm attendants were older in ilala at a mean of 35.4 years relative to 21.4 years in kibaha. both the oldest farmer (61) and the youngest (23) were found in kibaha district. majority of the respondents (91%) were married, more so in ilala (95%) compared to kibaha (85%). the educational level of both farmers and attendants was low. farmers had 7.3 years of formal education on average being higher in kibaha (11.4 years) compared to ilala (7.6 years) with a minimum of 7 years in both districts. the mean education of attendants was lower (7 years) but not significantly different from that of farmers. the attendants in kibaha tended to be more educated (7.1 years) compared to ilala (6.7 years), and the education of attendants in kibaha was lower than that of their employees while the educational difference between attendants and farmers in table 4. the production frontier and technical efficiency. variable proxy expected estimated standard tvalue parameter sign coefficient error production frontier parameters(equation 8) constant β0 +/7.18** 2.05 2.80 cost of drugs β1 + 0.02 0.12 0.67 transport cost β2 + 0.06 0.10 0.09 amount of feed β3 + 0.37** 0.23 1.21 stock size β4 + 0.54*** 0.15 3.25 operating cost β5 + 0.26* 0.16 1.75 variance parameter (equation 8) ratio of standard error changes (δu/δv) λ 17.65* 996.40 sum of standard error changes ( ) δ 10.18* 573.89 variance of inefficiency error (u) 103.30 variance of random error (v) 0.33** log likelihood function 91.18 variance (δ 2 u/δ 2 u +δ 2 v) γ 0.99 mean technical efficiency te(mean) 64% *** = α = 0.1; ** = α = 0.05; and * = α = 0.001 representing significance levels. ilala is not significant. some of the farm attendants in both districts had no formal education, but the lowest education of farmers in both districts was 7 years. the respondents had been farming poultry for 7.6 years on average, being slightly higher in kibaha (7.8 years) than ilala (7.4 years) with a sample mode of 8 years. majority of respondents are not employed in the formal sector, implying that their poultry enterprise is probably one of their main sources of livelihood. only about 33 and 23% of the male and female respondents respectively had other employment. however, in kibaha, more than half of the male respondents (66%) were employed elsewhere but only 37% of their female counterparts had the same status. in ilala district, more of the male respondents (96%) were not employed elsewhere compared to 89% of the female respondents. assessing the quality of the respondents housing, about 55.5% of the respondents had improved houses made of concrete walls and iron roofs but 45.5% had houses were made of mud walls with iron roofs. there is a significant difference between districts on this variable. more than 97% of the respondents in kibaha had concrete walled houses whereas in ilala district, more than 85% of the respondents had houses made of mud walls, with iron roofs. the use of credit for poultry enterprises was low in both districts, but especially in ilala where only 5% of the respondents used credit during the study period compared to 35.2% in kibaha and 19% for the whole sample. this can be attributed to a number of reasons including a higher level of education of farmers in kibaha and a higher mean number of birds raised (1,624.9) nearly three times the mean for ilala (518.7). some of these personal characteristics were then used to estimate the production frontier of the technology used by farmers in the study area, hence determine performance differences (technical efficiency) among farmers, and then to identify factors that influence the variation of te. the production frontier and technical efficiency the production frontier was estimated using equation (8) as previously described, regressing the value of production (y) against a set of variables that influence variation of the dependent variable, using the maximum likelihood analytical model. table 4 presents a summary of parameter estimates of the production function and the parameters for measuring the degree of variance. equation 8 was tested and found to be free of multicollearity, heteroskedacity and autocorrelation (oleke, 2008). the sum of standard errors (δ = 10.18) is significantly different from zero, indicating good fit and correct specification of the model. the value of gamma (ϒ = δ 2 u/δ 2 u +δ 2 v) measures the relationship between random variation in the production of eggs and inefficiency in the use of inputs. the computed value of 0.99 implies 99% of the random variation in egg production is explained by inefficiency in resource utilization. furthermore, a high value of the natural log for the likelihood functions (-91.18), which is always negative, means the observed results were more likely to occur, again implying a high predictive ability of the model. table 5. factor price and marginal value product. variable app elasticity of production mpp vmp (tshs) factor cost (px) tshs cost of drugs (x1) 196.9 0.024 4.72 708 526.1 transport cost (x2) 252.1 0.06 15.1 2,265 410.9 amount of feed (x3) 2,851.7 0.37 1,055.1 158,265 260.0 stock size (x4) 103,606.4 0.544 56,361.8 8,454,270 1000.0 other operating cost (x5) 33.3 0.26 8.6 1,290 3,115.0 source: oleke (2008). most of the variables affecting the efficiency of the production system have parameters that are statistically significantly different from zero. for example, estimates of the ratio of changes in the standard error due to inefficiency to corresponding changes in the error term due to random error (λ = 17.65), implying that variation in output comes more from differences in farmers practices rather than from random variation. this is supported by the variance of the random component of the error term ( ) being significantly different from zero but relatively small in magnitude, while changes in the variance of the inefficiency component of the error term ( ) is not significant but relatively large in magnitude. these values indicate the relative magnitude of the variance with the inefficiency effects constituting a larger share. the mean technical efficiency of the production frontier is estimated at 64%. the sign of the constant and all the independent variables are positive as expected implying that an increase in any of the variables will result in an increase in the value of production. the parameter estimates of the variables represent partial elasticities of production. changes in the stock size have a highly significant effect on the value production such that if the stock of production increased by 1% the value of production would increase by 0.54%. the amount of feed used by a farmer also has a significant effect at α = 0.05, increasing production by 0.37% for every 1% increase in this variable input. the other operating cost of the poultry enterprise also have a significant influence on the value of production (at α = 0.10). if the operating cost increases by 1% the value of production would increase by 0.26%. the cost of drugs and transportation has a positive effect on the value of production, but it is not significant. a 1% increase in the cost of drugs and transport cost would increase the value of production by only 0.02 and 0.06%, respectively. the summation of all the partial elasticities of production with respect to every input is 1.25, representing the total output elasticity or the function coefficient, also referred to as returns to scale. if all factors are varied by the same proportion, the function coefficient indicates the percentage by which output would increase. in this case, it means if all of the variables were to increase by 1%, output would increase by 1.26% representing increasing return to scale. this means there is still room for improving the productivity of poultry enterprises in the study area by increasing stock size, which is consistent with the finding of nair and ghadoliya (2000) who reported that larger flocks sizes (>20000 birds) yielded higher returns per bird compared to smaller flocks. the findings also conform to similar findings by ramrao et al. (2008), who reported that farmers who maintained a flock size of 10,000 layers were able to recover their fixed invested capital from production of layer in about two years compared to those who keep smaller flock sizes. the results also show that for all the factors of production, there is room for improvement because the respective value marginal product is higher than the corresponding factor cost implying there is room for adding more variable inputs (number of birds, feed, drugs, transport) up to the point where as can be seen in table 5. it seems that the most gain would come from increasing the stock size and the amount of feed. however, in the case of other operating cost, which included labor, water and lighting, the vmp is less than the factor cost implying the need to reduce them down to the profit maximizing point. table 6 presents the predicted te values for each district and for the whole sample. it is evident that the farmers operate within a wide spectrum of te ranging from 90 to 4% and a sample mean of 64.8% with a standard deviation of 15.8%. kibaha district exhibited a higher level of te at 69.8% compared to 59.8% for ilala (table 6). the scope of a production frontier measures existing room for improving from the current level of productivity up to the maximum potential. for the sample as a whole, the scope for improvement is 35.2%, being higher in ilala (40%) relative to 30.2% in kibaha, which is consistent with relatively better efficiency exhibited by farms in kibaha. the effect of socio-economic characteristics on technical efficiency in the second stage of the study, the te of each farmer was regressed against their corresponding socioeconomic characteristics as derived in equation 9. table 6a. technical efficiency. standard measure of the sample kibaha ilala whole sample number of respondents 40.0 40.0 80.0 mean te 69.8 59.8 64.8 standard deviation 11.4 15.7 15.7 minimum te 30.0 3.9 3.9 maximum te 90.0 80.0 90.0 % scope 30.2 40.0 35.2 source: oleke (2008). table 6b. technical efficiency by farm size. % technical farm size total 100-2000 2001-4999 ≥5000 efficiency (n) % (n) % (n) % (n) % <30 5 8.33 0 0 0 0 5 6.25 30-39 2 2.99 0 0 0 0 2 2.50 40-49 1 1.4 0 0 0 0 1 1.25 50-59 9 13.2 0 0 0 0 9 11.25 60-69 30 44.11 2 25 0 0 32 40.00 70-79 20 29.41 4 50 4 100 30 37.50 ≥80 4 5.88 2 25 0 0 6 7.50 total 67 100 8 100 4 100 80 100 source: oleke (2008). table 7a. percentage technical efficiency by sex. sex district average kibaha ilala females 75.0 62.0 68.0 males 64.0 57.0 60.5 mean 69.8 59.8 64.8 source; oleke (2008). results as presented in table 7a show a condition index of 12.78 and a durban watson index of 1.72 indicating the model is free of multicollinearity and autocorrelation. the predictive ability of the model (r 2 ) is high showing that 78.1% of the variation in te is attributed to the socio-economic variables presented in table 7b. a negative sign on an efficiency parameter means that the variable increases te, while a positive sign reduces te. all the independent variables are expected to have a negative sign, which implies a positive sign for any quadratic term, as is the case for the farmers’ experience. the sign for location (+0.5023) had a positive sign as expected implying that farms that were further from the input and product market would tend to reduce efficiency. likewise, the quadratic term of the farmer’s experience was positive (+ 0.622), implying a negative linear sign. the quadratic term of experience was also positive, which implies that farmers who have been raising layers for more years tend to have higher te. the remaining parameters were expected to have negative signs, however, exceptions were observed in the case of; attendants’ years in business (+0.048), the attendants level of education (+0.0002), the farmers’ type of housing (+0.3243) and the farmers’ age (+0.0001). these had a positive sign implying that a unit increase in each of the variables would reduce the farm’s technical efficiency. the sign indicate that farm owners ought to provide more supervision to attendants who have worked for them for longer periods and those who are more educated because they may gloss-over the job they are assigned to do since they command more trust from the farm owner. as regards the farmers housing type where farmers with better houses and farmers who are older table 7b. determinants of technical inefficiency. variable proxy expected estimated standard error t value coefficient sign coefficient (se) constant (z0) ρ0 +/-1.0222* 0.0323 34.21 location (z1) ρ1 + + 0.5023*** 0.3043 1.67 marital status (z2) ρ2 0.9813*** 0.4314 22.22 education of farmer (z3) ρ3 0.5117** 0.0244 0.74 farmers years in business (squared) (z4) 2 + + 0.622** 0.2778 2.27 use of credit (z5) ρ5 0.3308* 0.1803 1.84 family size (z6) ρ6 0.0014* 0.0016 -1.82 attendant years in business (z7) ρ7 + 0.048 0.974 0.12 lighting in poultry house (z8) ρ8 -0.1656 0.5689 -0.28 farmers’ house type (z9) ρ9 + 0.3243 0.1512 1.35 farmer’s employment (z10) ρ10 0.0003 0.0156 -0.9 education of farm attendant (z11) ρ11 + 0.0001 0.0043 0.56 age of attendant (z12) ρ12 -0.0002 0.0019 -0.76 sex of farmer (z13) ρ13 -0.0702 0.3066 -0.61 age of farmer (z14) ρ14 + 0.0001 0.0052 0.19 adjusted r 2 78.1% durbin watson statistics 1.72 condition index number 12.78 degrees of freedom 73 *** = α = 0.1; ** = α = 0.05; and * = α = 0.001 reflect levels of significance. tend to have lower te, may be explained by the fact that often such farmers have alternative sources of income such that they do not pay much attention to the performance of the poultry farm. the positive sign on the parameter for location implies that farms that are further away from the city center tend to have a lower technical efficiency. there was a negative sign on the famer’s; marital status (0.9813), level of education (0.5117), use of credit (0.3308) and family size (0.0014). all these parameter estimates were significantly different from zero at the level of significance of 99, 95 and 90%, respectively. the coefficients on farmers’ sex (0.0702), farmers’ alternative employment (0.0003), age of farm attendants (0.0002) and use of lighting in the chicken houses (0.3243) were also negative but not significantly different from zero. the negative sign on all these variables means an increase in the variables also increased te. thus, married farmers tended to be more technically efficient, probably reflecting more availability of labor, which is consistent with larger families having more labor at their disposal, thus contributing to higher te. similarly, farmers with more education are more likely to use farm resources more efficiently especially in relation to feed mix and use medicine, and they are more likely to use credit for acquiring the inputs. such farmers also tend to have alternative employment, and the salaries can be used to finance poultry enterprises. the negative sign on lighting of the chicken house reflects the relationship between lighting and feeding. as birds feed for longer periods in a day, they tend to be more productive (ryan, 2004). the results also imply that female farmers tend to have higher te than their male counterparts, which is consistent with the finding that the mean te of female farmers was 68% compared to 60.5 for male farmers (table 7a). younger farm attendants also contribute to higher te of the farm, probably because they tend to adhere more to instructions they are given on feeding and general hygiene of the poultry houses. this confirms the finding reported earlier that farm attendants who have worked for the farm longer tended to reduce te which as previously argued may reflect their tendency to put less than their best effort, banking on the trust upon them, hence, less likely to be supervised as closely as newer attendants who should be expected to be relatively younger. all these findings show that there is much room for improving the performance of egg production enterprises in kibaha and temeke district by focusing on improving the technical efficiency and hence the net returns farmers receive for their capital and labour investment. these findings could also be extrapolated to other parts of tanzania where similar poultry productions systems are found. conclusions the study established that there are differences in the performance of farmers in the study area as measured by the technical efficiency of their egg production enterprises. the stock size has the most significant effect in the variation of the value of production, followed by the amount of feed and other operating cost. variation in the transport cost and the cost of drugs do not contribute as much to variation in the dependent variable. majority of the farms are small (85%) having flock sizes in the range of 100 to 1,000 birds and a mode of 300. the results however, revealed that bigger flock sizes are associated with higher te implying the need to expand flock size. the overall mean technical efficiency is estimated at 64.8% implying that, there is a 35.2% scope for increasing egg production by using the present technology performance differences between farmers in kibaha and temeke districts have been attributed to education and levels of investment. farmers in kibaha district were more educated on average; they also operate larger farms (flock sizes) which provide for economies of scale. the high cost of production has been shown to reduce the competitiveness of poultry farmers. one of the most important avenues for reducing production cost is to increase output, which would lower average cost of production and hence improve technical efficiency. farm owners should also set up management systems that provide for better supervision of their farm attendants. farm owners should not relax and bank on their long term relationship with employees. poor management reduces yield and hence increases the average cost of producing each egg. credit, which had a positive and significant effect on technical efficiency, is necessary to encourage technical innovation and timely availability of necessary inputs. the government should influence borrowing rates on credit in order to spur more and faster transformation of the poultry industry in tanzania thereby contribution to realizing national development goals to overcome food insecurity, improve nutrition and overcome poverty. these findings can be used by agricultural extension agents to develop training programmes for poultry farmers that aim at improving at farm performance by raising their technical efficiency so that majority of farmers operate close to the production frontier. references boki kj (2000). poultry industry in tanzania with emphasis on small scale poultry.proceedings of a workshop.morogoro, tanzania. 22-25 may 2000, pp. 16-18. bylee k (1991).the measurement of productive efficiency. j. royal stat. soci. (a, general), 120(3): 253-281. cambridge university press. farell mj (1957). the measurement of productive efficiency. j.r. stat. soci. a. 120: 253-281. ghadoliya, mk (2000). economic viability of layer farming in the state of goa. indian j. poult. sci., 35(1): 73-76. green wh (1993). limdep version 8.0: econometric modeling guide.econometric software, inc,plainview, new york, p. 201. gueye ef (2004). the role of family poultry in poverty alleviation, food security and the promotion of gender equality in rural africa. outlook agric., 29(2): 129-136. kumbhakar sc, ghosh s, guckin m (1991). a generalized production frontier approach for estimating determinants of inefficiency in us. dairy farms. j. bus. econ. stat., 9: 279-286. ministry of agriculture, food and cooperatives (mafc) (2008) national sample census of agriculture. ministry of agriculture report volume.ii. ministry of livestock development (mld) (2008). investment opportunities in livestock industry in tanzania, dar es salaam, tanzania, pp. 4-12. msami h (2008). poultry sector country review. central veterinary laboratory dar es salaam, tanzania, p. 61. oleke jm (2008). productivity and technical efficiency of egg production in tanzania under the intensive system; a case study of ilala and kibaha districts. unpublished msc. disseratation. sokoine university of agriculture, morogoro tazania, p. 125. paul dc, beg cer, podder ck (1990). family chicken and its importance in bangladesh. int. j. poult. sci., 4(5): 6-7. ramrao w, tiwari ysp, sharma s, saraswat r, gupta r (2008). integration of crop-livestock-poultry-duck farming system by large farmers in the plain tribal areas of chhattisgarh in central india. livestock research for rural development 20 march 2008. ryan mj (2004). performance of hybrid layers and native hens under farmer’s management in a selected area of bangladesh. int. j. poult. sci., 4(4): 3-6. united republic of tanzania (urt) (2009). progress in millennium development goals: mid way assessment, december. dar es salaam, tanzania, p. 121. zaibet l, dharmapala ps (1999). efficiency of government-supported horticulture: the case of oman. agric. syst.,. 62: 159-168. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (2), pp. 001-007, february, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper analyzing the sources of technical efficiency among heterogeneous dairy farms: a quantile regression approach benaissa chidmi1*, daniel solís2 and victor e. cabrera3 1 department of agricultural and applied economics, texas tech university, lubbock 79409, texas, usa. 2 division of marine affairs and policy, rsmas, university of miami, miami 33149, florida, usa. 3 department of dairy science, university of wisconsin, madison 53706 wisconsin, usa. accepted 13 november, 2018 an unbalanced panel data including 1,151 farm observations from 2004 to 2008 was used to analyze the determinants of technical efficiency (te) for dairy farms in the state of wisconsin. to account for farm heterogeneity in our analysis we implemented a two-step framework using a stochastic production frontier and a quantile regression analysis. the results show that the determinants of te affected farmers with different levels of te in a very specific ways. this outcome is of significant importance from an empirical point of view. farmers could use this knowledge to find alternatives to improve their specific level of performance. additionally, policy makers could use this information to improve the effectiveness of their policies by targeting specific agricultural services and aid to group of farmers with similar levels of te. key words: dairy farm, technical efficiency, quantile regression approach. introduction the us dairy industry is facing several economic challenges and opportunities at both the international and domestic levels. at the international level, the uruguay round of the general agreements on tariffs and trade imposes limits on the use of subsidized exports and also transforms dairy import quotas into tariffs. on the other hand, increasing demand for dairy products from developing as well as from developed countries offers viable opportunities for this industry (murova and chidmi, 2009). at the domestic level, dairy markets are been shaped by several factors including: 1) structural changes in the dairy industry (for example, large size and smaller number of dairy farms, consolidation of dairy cooperatives, and consolidation of retailers), 2) the dynamics of consumer demands, and 3) changing policies. additionally, dairy farms in traditional states must *corresponding author. e-mail: benaissa.chidmi@ttu.edu tel: 1 (806) 742-1921, ext. 250. compete against an ever growing supply from emerging dairy states (cabrera et al., 2008). under these circumstances, several studies have suggested that dairy farms in traditional production areas must improve their levels of technical efficiency (te) if they are to survive in this complex and evolving market (tauer, 2001; alvarez et al., 2008; cabrera et al., 2010). the accurate analysis of the determinant of te is critical to the dairy farmers as well as to policy makers. for the farmers, understanding how different factors affect their te is a helpful tool for improving the performance and profitability of their dairy farms. from the policy makers‟ viewpoint, knowing the distribution of te across dairy farms will help to draft specific and well defined dairy policies, which would increase te and the competitiveness of this industry. consequently, the objective of this study is to evaluate the determinants of te among dairy farms in the state of wisconsin. special attention is given in this work to account for the potential effect of farm heterogeneity when analyzing the sources of farm inefficiency. previous file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org studies addressing the issue of farm heterogeneity have either used „expert-knowledge‟ (for example, newman and matthews, 2006; tauer, 2005; bravo-ureta, 1986) or statistical techniques (alvarez and del corral, 2010; alvarez et al., 2009) to divide the sample using some specific technological characteristics (that is, herd breed, milking systems, specialization) and then estimate independent production frontiers for groups of farmers with different technologies. however, cabrera et al. (2010) show that for a cross-section of the sample used in this study, technological differences (that is, milking systems, housing, and the use of pastures) have no significant impact on the farm level of efficiency. similar outcomes can be found in tauer (2006), hallan and machado (1996), and bewley et al. (2001). thus, in this study an alternative framework to study the sources of farm inefficiency while controlling for farm heterogeneity was proposed. specifically, we implement a two-step framework, in which the te scores are computed using the stochastic production frontier (spf) method and then determinants of inefficiency are analyzed using a quantile regression. this framework will allow us to assess the specific impact of different farm‟s managerial characteristics on the te of alternative groups of farms clustered on their own level of efficiency. the running hypothesis is that impact of different factors on the dairy farm te will vary depending on how far each farm is from the production frontier. it is important to indicate that previous studies using a two-step approach based on ordinary least square and/or dichotomous (probit and tobit) regressions have been criticized due to inconsistencies in the distribution of the te score and the distribution assumed in the second step. in this study, we control this issue by using quantile regression that offers the flexibility for modeling data with heterogeneous conditional distributions and makes no distributional assumption about the error term in the model (chen, 2005; koenker and hallock, 2001). this paper also adds to the literature by analyzing the impact on te of some variables which have not received much attention in the past such as government payments, alternative sources of farm income and farm financial health. model the study implements a two-step approach to analyze the level and determinants of te among a sample of dairy farms in wisconsin. in the first step, the study estimates an spf following the framework proposed by aigner et al. (1977). the spf method is based on an econometric (that is, parametric) specification of a production frontier. using a cobb-douglas production function and panel data, this method can be presented as: m ln y it = ∑β i lnx ijt − ε it (1) i0 where: y represents output, x is the amount of inputs, βs are the unknown parameters, and ε is the error-term. the subscripts i, j, and t denote the farm, inputs and time, respectively. the error-term is farm specific and is composed of two independent components, ε it = v it u it . the first element, v, is a random variable reflecting noise and other stochastic shocks which is assumed to be an independent and identically distributed normal random variable with 0 mean and constant variance, iid [n~(0,σv 2 )]. the second component, u, captures technical inefficiency (ti) relative to the stochastic frontier. the inefficiency term u is non-negative and it is assumed to follow a half-normal distribution (kumbhakar and lovell, 2000). an index for te can be defined as the ratio of the observed output (y) and maximum feasible output (y*): tei= y i  f(xij ;β) expvi − ui   exp− ui ; ti  1− te yi f(xij ;β) expvi  * (2) in the second step, the study uses quantile regression to regress ti on a set of variables, z, that influence the inefficiency term ui: e(te | z  z)  z'θ. the conditional quantile parameters can be n estimated by solving θ  argmin∑ρτ (tii − z'i θ ) , with ρτ  τ if i1 the observation belongs to the τ th quantile and ρ τ  1 − τ if not. data and empirical model the data used in this study consisted of detailed farm-level information for dairy farms participating in the agriculture financial advisor (agfa) program managed by the center for dairy profitability at the university of wisconsin-madison. the empirical sample included 1,151 wisconsin dairy farm observations and the collected information covered the period of 2004 to 2008. the dairy farms in the sample were highly specialized with most of their output coming from dairy sales. it is important to indicate that cabrera et al. (2010) used a cross section of this data set (2007 agricultural year) to analyze the determinants of te, using a onestep spf framework following caudill et al. (1995). as indicated, the first-step in the empirical analysis is based on the estimation of a cobb-douglas production function. the dependent variable is the total milk production sold and measured in kg. following cabrera et al. (2010), 6 inputs were included in this study: „cow‟, defined as the number of adult cows (all cows after first calving) in the herd and which measures the livestock capital; „feed‟, defined as the total cost of purchased feedstuffs in us $; „capital‟, defined as the depreciation of buildings and land, corresponding to 5% of the value of land used by the farm; „crop‟, defined as the total expenses related to crop production measured in us $ (including chemicals, fertilizers, lime, seeds and plant purchases, machinery depreciation, machinery hire expenses, machinery repair, fuel and oil expenses); and „labor‟, defined as the total labor including family and hired labor measured in us $. in addition, a dummy variable for the year 2005 (drought) was included to account for a severe drought that affected the production of grass and other agricultural products. for the fact that the sample is highly unbalanced (that is, farms vary between time period), it is inefficient to implement any panel data techniques (fixed and random effects) in this study. to alleviate the problem, this study included the regression of a time trend variable (t) to account for any technical change during this period. in the second-step, ti was regressed on several managerial characteristics of the dairy farms. the inefficiency model included a table 1. descriptive statistics for wisconsin dairy farms (n=1,151, yrs. 2004 to 2008). variable (unit) mean std dev minimum maximum milk (kg) 3,081,791 4,212,449 360,807 47,972,970 cows (n) 140 176 23 1,844 feed ($) 116,023 184,823 2,760 1,867,926 capital ($) 90,905 97,070 6,279 1,626,164 crop ($) 139,325 151,217 3,733 1,585,638 labor ($) 57,188 106,025 161 1,227,002 tmr (dummy) 1 0.53 0.50 0 1 pature (dummy) 2 0.16 0.37 0 1 milking system (dummy) 3 flat barn 0.09 0.28 0 1 pit parlor 0.26 0.44 0 1 milking frequency (dummy) 4 0.91 0.29 0 1 bst (%) 14.62 25.07 0 100 family labor (%) 58.96 44.09 0 100 feed/cow (ratio) 705.50 325.98 52.77 2,026.65 housing (dummy) 5 0.39 0.49 0 1 government payments ($) 0.16 0.16 0.00 1.06 nonfarm income ($) 0.14 0.27 0.00 3.12 calves sold ($) 0.12 0.26 0.00 3.90 crop sold ($) 0.18 0.38 0.00 3.19 family savings ($) 0.49 0.50 -2.02 3.26 investment/cow (ratio) 0.12 0.05 0.04 0.38 debt/cow (ratio) 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.11 1 use of tmr = 1, 2 use of pasture = 1, 3 pipeline is the omitted variable, 4 two times daily milking frequency = 1, 5 free stall housing = 1. set of milking system dummy variables, like: flat barn and pit parlor (pipeline was the omitted variable); milking frequency, which is a dummy variable that equals 1 for the farms with a milking frequency equal to 2 (0 equals more than 2 times); bst, which is the percent of cows under bovine somatotropin treatment; family labor, which is the ratio of family labor over total labor; and housing, which is a dummy variable that equals 1 for farms that use free stall housing. during the last years, several studies have shown the importance of intensification of production on the efficiency of dairy farms (ledgard et al., 2004; alvarez et al., 2009; cabrera et al., 2010). thus, to assess the impact of intensification on efficiency, the study included the following variables: feed/cow, defined as the ratio of purchased feedstuffs to the number of cows; tmr, a dummy variable equal to 1 for the farm that used the „total mixed ration‟ feeding system; and pasture, a dummy variable equal to 1 for farms that used pasture feeding systems. additionally, the study also analyzed the effect of other sources of income on te by including the variables of government payments, non-farm income, and the revenue from calves and crops sold, all measured in us $. finally, to study the effect of the dairy farm‟s financial health on efficiency, the family savings and investment per cow were included, as well as a ratio measuring the debt per cow. table 1 presents descriptive statistics for all the variables included in the analysis. results and discussion frontier analysis table 2 presents the maximum likelihood estimates of the cobb-douglas production frontier model from the firststep. all estimated parameters are positive and, with the exception of capital, they are all statistically significant. given that all input variables and the output are in logarithmic form, the parameter estimates can be interpreted as partial production elasticities. the empirical results indicate that the variable that contributes the most to farm production is „cows‟. specifically, a 10% increase in the number of cows in the herd translates in an increase in milk production sold of 7.78%. the next highest elasticity is for „feed‟ (1.34%), followed by „crops‟ (0.71%), and „labor‟ (0.45%). the time trend (t) is negative and statistically significant indicating a decreasing rate in production levels during the studied period. this result agrees with the findings presented by ball (2009) who shows that during the last decade traditional dairy states in the us, including wisconsin, have decreased their level of production, while states in the american west and southwest have displayed significant improvements. in addition, the parameter for the variable drought is also negative and significant suggesting that the adverse climatic condition of 2005 negatively affected the farms‟ average level of production. this outcome confirms the idea stated by demir and mahmud (2002) regarding the importance of controlling the climatic and environmental conditions table 2. production frontier estimates (n=1,151, yrs. 2004 to 2008). variables 1 coefficient st. dev. t-value constant 8.489*** 0.099 85.22 cow (n) 0.778*** 0.017 46.23 feed ($) 0.134*** 0.008 17.56 capital ($) -0.006 0.010 -0.60 crop ($) 0.071*** 0.009 7.44 labor ($) 0.045*** 0.004 11.72 time trend -0.019*** 0.003 -6.18 drought (dummy) -0.034*** 0.010 -3.35 σv 0.066*** 0.005 12.67 σu 0.199*** 0.008 2489 log-likelihood 701.98 log-likelihood ratio 0.90 fail to reject h0 *p < 0.10; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01. 1 dependent variable is the total milk production sold measured in kg. when studying te in agriculture. the empirical results also suggest the presence of constant returns to scale (crs). specifically, the scale elasticity (that is, the sum of all output elasticities) is equal to 1.022. this outcome is confirmed by a likelihood ratio test that failed to reject the hypothesis h 0 : ∑β i  1 . kompas and chu (2006) indicates that crs implies that, for the studied sample, productivity depends on improvements in technology and efficiency, and not necessarily on the size of the farm. the implication of crs is that there is no scale effect in the size of the farm: the output produced and the farm size will be proportional. therefore, an improvement in productivity (not production) can only come from improvement in technology and efficiency and not from the farm size. however, the size will affect the production (not the productivity). given constant returns to scale, the dairy farms in our sample are scale efficient. the distribution of the te estimates is presented in figure 1. the results indicate that, on average, the studied dairy farms have a te exceeding 90%, with a standard deviation of 0.056. it is important to indicate that average level of efficiency obtained here is slightly higher than that reported by previous studies. bravo-ureta et al. (2007) show, in their meta-regression analysis of te in agriculture, an 84% average te for stochastic frontier studies focusing on dairy farms in developed countries. however, higher levels of te to those found in this study can be found in alvarez and del corral (2010), abdulai and tietje (2007) and richards and jeffrey (2000) for dairy farms in spain, germany, and canada, respectively. inefficiency analysis in the second step, ti is regressed on different farm‟s managerial characteristics using the quantile regression technique. quantile regression models the relationship between inefficiency and the farm‟s characteristics using the conditional quantile, allowing the evaluation of the specific impact of these characteristics on different groups of farms clustered on their level of efficiency. the results of the quantile regression are presented in table 3. given the inverse relationship between ti and te (equation 2), and because ti is the dependent variable in this analysis, a negative effect on ti has a positive impact on te. the empirical results show that tmr estimate is positive but not statistically different from zero for the 10th, 20th, and 30th quantiles. in other words, tmr does not significantly affect the efficiency of the most efficient dairy farms. in contrast, for less efficient ones (60th to 90th ti quantiles), the parameter estimate is negative and statistically significant; which shows improvements in te by adopting the tmr system. similarly, the ratio of ‘feed per cow‟ has a positive and statistically significant impact on te for the less efficient dairy farms and a positive but not significant impact for most efficient ones. these results imply that, in general, an increase in the intensification of a farm leads to improvements in te, especially among less efficient farms, which is consistent with the literature (cabrera et al., 2010; alvarez et al., 2008; kompas and chu, 2006). the use of bst for lactating cows has the effect to increase te as revealed by the negative parameter estimate of this variable. this is not surprising since bauman et al. (1999) show that the use of bst increases milk production and feed efficiency. it is worth noticing that this result does not depend on the type of the dairy farm as the parameter estimate is positive for all inefficiency quantiles. in contrast, as milking frequency increases, te decreases for all quantiles as indicated by the positive and statistically significant parameter estimate of this f r e q u e n c y 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1 estimated technical efficiency figure 1. distribution of technical efficiency. variable. this result contradicts some previous studies erdman and varner (1994) who reported 3.5 to 4.9 kg/day increase in milk production when cows are milked 3 and 4 times daily compared to only 2 times milking in a day. however, cabrera et al. (2010) argue that additional milk frequencies imply additional labor and additional feed intake which might affect the level of efficiency of the farm depending on the market conditions and farm characteristics. in relation to the milking system used in the farm, the results show that relative to pipeline parlor (the omitted variable), the use of flat barn and pit parlor increases dairy farms‟ inefficiency as indicated by positive parameter estimates of these variables. for instance, the effect of flat barn on inefficiency increases as we move from the most te dairy farms to the less efficient ones. table 3 shows that the negative effect of flat barn on technical efficiency is more than 345 fold for the 10th te percentile than for the 80th te percentile. similarly, the effect of pit parlor is accentuated as dairy farms become less efficient. however, the parameter estimates for both milking systems are not statistically significant for the upper te quantiles. in terms of the housing type, our results indicate that the type of housing has no significant impact on te, which is consistent with bewley et al. (2001), hallan and machado (1996), and cabrera et al. (2010). one of the goals of this study was to assess the effect of the government payments on te by type of dairy farms. overall, government payments have a positive and statistically significant effect on te for farms in the lower te quantiles. however, these payments have no statistically significant effect on the te of dairy farms that are already close to the frontier, the 90 th quantile. as we move far from the frontier, the effect of government payments on te increases. in fact, this effect on ti is 0.007 for the 10th ti quantile, while it is -0.061 for the upper 90th ti quantile. in other words, the effect of government support on the te of the less efficient farms is more than eight times higher than the effect on most table 3. inefficiency analysis (n=1.151). variables 1 quantiles 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 constant 0.0410*** 0.0496*** 0.0550*** 0.0680*** 0.0752*** 0.1063*** 0.1321*** 0.1824*** 0.2533*** tmr dummy 0.0048 0.0041 0.0033 -0.0029 -0.0055 -0.0088* -0.0059 -0.0160* -0.0380*** waste handling 0.0035 0.0110*** 0.0118*** 0.0113*** 0.0178*** 0.0199*** 0.0251*** 0.0355*** 0.0408*** flat barn -0.0018 0.0001 0.0038 0.0140 0.0173** 0.0256*** 0.0272*** 0.0358*** 0.0345*** pit parlor -0.0046 0.0014 0.0095 0.0132* 0.0183*** 0.0140* 0.0194** 0.0328*** 0.0440*** milking frequency 0.0047 0.0107*** 0.0159*** 0.0218*** 0.0249*** 0.0256*** 0.0267*** 0.0341*** 0.0384*** bst (%) -0.0003*** -0.0004*** -0.0004*** -0.0005*** -0.0005*** -0.0006*** -0.0007*** -0.0007*** -0.0006*** feed/cow ratio 0.0000 0.0000*** 0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000*** -0.0000*** -0.0000*** -0.0001*** free stall housing 0.0049 0.0075* 0.0076 0.0058 0.0055 0.0021 -0.0035 -0.0062 -0.0158* gov. payments -0.0075 -0.0091 -0.0082 -0.0027 -0.0002 -0.0128 -0.0180 -0.0320* -0.0605*** nonfarm income 0.0018 0.0039 0.0168*** 0.0278*** 0.0374*** 0.0420*** 0.0486*** 0.0464*** 0.0496*** calves sold 0.0204*** 0.0209*** 0.0234*** 0.0282*** 0.0301*** 0.0312*** 0.0338*** 0.0405*** 0.0468* crop sold 0.0201*** 0.0252*** 0.0313*** 0.0368*** 0.0435*** 0.0510*** 0.0485*** 0.0620*** 0.0630*** family savings -0.0070 -0.0118*** -0.0192*** -0.0240*** -0.0257*** -0.0212*** -0.0215*** -0.0315*** -0.0340*** investment/cow -0.0741*** -0.1162*** -0.1034*** -0.1492*** -0.1550*** -0.2285*** -0.2696*** -0.3726*** -0.4578*** debt/cow 0.1532*** 0.1052*** 0.1999*** 0.2316*** 0.2818*** 0.3082*** 0.4050*** 0.2206* 0.2761* *p < 0.10; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01. 1 dependent variable is the farm technical inefficiency, u. efficient farms. this outcome is very interesting for policy makers: less efficient dairy farms would benefit more from government payments than more efficient dairy farms. the results show that nonfarm income has a negative effect on farm efficiency regardless of the ti quantiles. this finding is consistent with the argument that off-farm work negatively affects agricultural production. bravo-ureta et al. (2006) explain that off-farm activities reduce the time available for agricultural work and that farmers involved in nonfarm activities are less concerned about improving the productivity and efficiency of their farm. this argument is confirmed by the positive and significant effect of family labor on the farm te. similar conclusions can be drawn for the income provided by activities other than dairy farming, such as calves and crops sales. these activities have a negative and statistically significant impact on te. moreover, the effect is more accentuated as we move from upper te farms to lower ones. in addition, the financial health of the dairy farms plays an important role in te. the results of this study indicate that as the investment per cow increases, te also increases for all quantiles. moreover, this increase is more accentuated for lower levels of technical efficiency. in contrast, as the debt per cow increases, te decreases, especially for lower level quantiles. finally, the level of family savings has also a positive effect on te, with an accentuated effect for lower level quantiles. this is may be due to the fact that families with higher savings are able to invest more on their farms and contract less debt than the ones with lower savings. conclusion this study analyses the determinants of te among a sample of dairy farms in the state of wisconsin. the results show that the determinants of te affect in very specific ways farmers with different levels of te. this result confirms our hypothesis on the importance of controlling the farm heterogeneity when analyzing the determinants of te. the results of this study indicate that feeding factors, such as the use of tmr and feed per cow, affect positively the te of dairy farms with lower te levels, and negatively or they do not have an impact on te efficiency of farms with higher te levels. another interesting finding is that, although all dairy farms would benefit from government payments, government payments contribute more to the increase of te of dairy farms with lower te levels than farms with higher te levels. for example, the effect of the government payments on te is about eight fold higher for lower te farms than for the higher te farms. the results also show that income either from non-farm activities or activities other than dairy farming have a negative effect on te efficiency, regardless of the farm type. in addition, the farm‟s financial health plays an important role in technical efficiency. technical efficiency increases as family savings and investment per cow increase and decreases as debt per cow increases. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to the university of wisconsin center for dairy profitability (http://cdp.wisc.edu/) for providing the data used to perform the present study. references abdulai a, tietje h (2007). estimating technical efficiency under unobserved heterogeneity with stochastic frontier models: application to northern german dairy farms. eur. rev. agric. econ., 34: 393-416. alvarez a, del corral j, solís d, pérez ja (2008). “does intensification improve the economic efficiency of dairy farms?”. j. dairy sci., 91(9): 3699-3709 ball e (2009). agricultural productivity in the united states. usda ers. http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/agproductivity/#statetables. accessed november 2010. bauman de, everett rw, weiland wh, collier rj (1999). production responses to bovine somatotropin in northeast dairy herds. j. dairy sci., 82: 2564-2573. bravo-ureta b (1986). technical efficiency measures for dairy farms based on a probabilistic frontier function model. canadian j. agric. econ., 34: 399-415. bravo-ureta b, solís d, moreira v, maripani j, thiam a, rivas t (2007). technical efficiency in farming: a meta-regression analysis. j. prod. anal., 27: 57-72. bravo-ureta b, solís d, cocchi h, quiroga r (2006). the impact of soil conservation and output diversification on farm income in central american hillside farming. agric. econ., 35: 267-276. bewley j, plamer rw, jackson-smith db (2001). modeling milking production and labor efficiency in modernized wisconsin dairy herds. j. dairy sci., 84: 705-716. cabrera v, solís d, del-corral j (2010). determinants of technical efficiency among dairy farms in wisconsin. j. dairy sci., 93: 387-393. cabrera v, hagevoort r, solís d, kirksey r, diemer j (2008). economic impact of milk production in the state of new mexico. j. dairy sci., 91: 2144-2150. caudill sb, ford jm, gropper dm (1995). frontier estimation and firmspecific inefficiency measures in the presence of heteroscedasticity. j. bus. econ. stat., 13: 105–111. chen c (2005). growth charts of body mass index (bmi) with quantile regression. proceedings of international conference on algorithmic mathematics and computer science, las vegas. demir n, mahmud s (2002). agro-climatic conditions and regional technical inefficiencies in agriculture. can. j. agric. econ., 50: 269280. erdman ra, varner m (1994). fixed yield responses to increased milking frequency. j. dairy sci., 78: 1199-1203. hallan d, machado f (1996). efficiency analysis with panel data: a study of portuguese dairy farms. eur. rev. agric. econ., 23: 79-93. koenker r, hallock kf (2001). quantile regression. j. econ. perspectives, 15: 143-156. kompas t, chu t (2006). technology choice and efficiency on australian dairy farms. aust. j. agric. resour. econ., 50: 65–83. murova o, chidmi b (2009). impacts of federal government programs and specific farm variables on technical efficiency of dairy farms. paper presented at the 2009 southern agricultural economics association annual meeting, atlanta, georgia (available at http://purl.umn.edu/46822). newman c, matthews a (2006). the productivity performance of irish dairy farms 1984-2000: a multiple output distance function approach. j. prod. anal., 26: 191-205. tauer lw (2001). efficiency and competitiveness of the small new york dairy farm. j. dairy sci., 84: 2573-2576. tauer lw, mishra ak (2006). dairy farm cost efficiency. j. dairy sci., 89: 4937-4943. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (2), pp. 001-010, february, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper rural livelihood diversification and agricultural household welfare in ghana emmanuel ekow asmah 1755 massachusetts avenue, nw, washington, dc, 20036-2103, u.s.a. e-mail: easmah@brookings.edu tel: +1-703-629-6174. accepted 19 august, 2018 sufficient time has elapsed since agricultural sector reforms got underway in ghana and so this study examined how some selected proxies of the reforms have changed overtime and evaluated their relative importance in influencing rural livelihood diversification and household welfare. in doing this, data was pooled from the 1991/1992 and 2005/2006 ghana living standards survey (glss) and the endogenous switching regression technique was employed. diversified households and less diversified households differed significantly in terms of variables related to household assets, markets and institutions. both household welfare and rural non-farm diversification decisions are mostly driven by household assets including good health, education, and household age composition. households who live in communities with access to fertilizers, public transports and local produce markets are more likely to engage in non-farm diversification and enjoy improved welfare. the importance of access to tv and radio as effective mass media tools in influencing household behavior is underscored in the analysis. targeting interventions that enhance livelihood diversification would ultimately have a positive impact on household welfare. key words: rural, diversification, agriculture, household welfare, switching regression. introduction ghana has for over the past two decades been involved in a wide-range of economic reforms aimed at creating an enabling environment for sustainable growth and development. these reforms which began under the framework of the structural adjustment program marked the beginning of the deregulation of the economy and its transformation from an inefficient and import-dependent economy to one that is diversified, dynamic, efficient and export-oriented with a greater role for the private sector (aryeetey et al., 2000). within the agricultural sector, the reforms were implemented within the context to the medium term agricultural development program (mtadp, 1991-2000). agricultural policies were supported by a massive rural development scheme, designed to provide the basic infrastructure of roads, water and electricity that would encourage people to stay in the rural areas rather than migrate to the overpopulated urban areas. in the cocoa sub-sector, the multiple buying systems, involving several companies, was reestablished to replace the monopoly enjoyed by the united ghana farmers co-operative council. as part of the liberalization program, the guaranteed minimum prices for maize and rice were abolished and all subsidies were removed including those for agricultural inputs, notably fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides (seini, 2002). in addition, the procurement and distribution of these inputs (which was hitherto the responsibility of the mofa and cocobod) were privatized in order to enhance competition and efficiency in agricultural input marketing. even though the reforms seem to be paying off on many aspects of the economy, a number of structural challenges still remain. for example, the agricultural sector continues to be characterized by low levels of productivity. farm yields per hectare in ghana are among the lowest in the world. cocoa yields for example in ghana are much lower than in neighboring cote d'ivoire at 350 kg per hectare compared with 800 kg per hectare (africa growth initiative report, 2010). while advanced economies are using more than 100 kg of fertilizer per hectare and producing thousands of kilograms of cereal per hectare, ghana‟s use of fertilizer is about 20 kg per file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org ha (isser, 2009). the traditional dependence on rain-fed agriculture is still prevalent in ghana and weather patterns are increasingly unpredictable and unreliable. the sector continues to be dominated by small holder farms (less than 3 hectors) with low use of new technology. given that agriculture is a large sector in ghana‟s economy and provides livelihood for over 60% of the population, it is also reasonable to suspect that the sector‟s lack of transformation may be a significant contributory factor to the food security and poverty challenges in the country. according to a usaid (2010) report, ghana currently has nearly two million people still vulnerable to food insecurity and food remains a serious concern in many parts of the country. analysis of poverty trends in ghana based on the results of the ghana living standards survey, though impressive also leaves much to be desired. significant intra-regional differences in poverty levels exist and the speed of the reduction in poverty still remain a source for concern. poverty levels have remained strikingly high (at between 52-88%) in the three northern northern, upper east and upper west (gss, 2007). while recognizing the urgent need to maintain a robust agricultural sector, it is increasingly becoming clear that the agricultural sector alone cannot be relied upon as the core activity for rural households as a means of improving livelihood and reducing poverty. one phenomenon that is gaining prominence in the rural development literature is the promotion and support for nonfarm diversification opportunities (stifel, 2010). non-farm economic activities include seasonal migration off the farm to engage in wage employment, handicraft production, trading and processing of agricultural produce, provision of agricultural services, etc. such non-farm activities provide a way of off-setting the diverse form of risks and uncertainties (relating to climate, finance, markets, etc) associated with agriculture and creates a way of smoothing income over years and seasons. the relative importance of non-farm activities in rural areas is well documented in reardon (1997), reardon et al. (2001) and barret et al. (2001). already, there is evidence that non-farm activities in both the rural and urban areas are widespread in ghana. the fifth round of the ghana living standards survey (glss 5) estimates that approximately three million, two hundred thousand households representing about (46.4%) of households in ghana operate non-farm enterprises. a case study of four rural communities in three ecological zones of ghana by oduro and oseiakoto (2007) gives further credence to this observation. residents in the villages were found to be employed in a number of non-farm activities, such as hairdressing, carpentry, tailoring, trading, „pito‟ brewing, food processing, charcoal trading, masonry, sewing, teaching, and nursing. lay and schuler (2008) analyzed changes in income portfolios of rural households and found that asset-poor households, which account for an important share of the rural population, are likely to be pushed into activities off the farm to meet subsistence needs. alhassan and poulton (2009) document a study by the ministry of food and agriculture (mofa) which disaggregates households in 16 households in the three northern regions (12), brong ahafo 3) and ashanti region (1) according to their livelihood strategies as shown in table 1. these micro level evidences of diversification in ghana are also mirrored at more aggregate sectoral levels. the agricultural sector which has for long dominated economic activity has in recent years given way to the services sector (gog, 2010). while some analysts see the growing trend of non-farm activities as a natural progression from a predominantly agrarian economy into a diversified and productivity economy dominated by manufacturing and services („push‟ factors), others (ellis and freeman, 2004) attribute the signs to a distressed agricultural sector that is losing its labor force not as a consequence of agricultural growth triggering growth in other sectors of the economy, but as a consequence of lack of growth or income opportunities in agriculture („pull‟ factors). whichever way one looks at it, policy makers ultimately have a role to play either by way of providing the necessary incentives for agricultural households to maximize on existing opportunities or try to minimize the constraints households face in their effort to construct viable livelihood activities. sound empirical information on issues at the household and community level that require attention would be necessary in this regard. even though some extensive literature already exists on the causes and consequences of livelihood diversification, the evidence is somewhat mixed and ambiguous (stifel, 2010; bezabiw et al., 2010). the multitude of constraints and incentives faced by a largely heterogeneous households engaged in a multiple set of heterogeneous non-farm activities makes broad generalizations problematic (reardon et al., 1994; barrett et al., 2002; haggblade et al., 2007). attractive livelihood opportunities, according to barret et al. (2002) are normally accessible to those households who have better endowments in terms of human, financial and physical assets. and even where households have similar endowments, production techniques, preferences, constraints and incentives attached to particular livelihood activities may be different (iiyama, 2006). in order to have a deeper understanding of the microeconomic constraints and incentives that influence livelihood diversification and the welfare implications of such decisions by agricultural households, this study examines and evaluates the importance of some selected proxies of the reforms in ghana. following the 2007 world development report framework for thinking about an agriculture-for-development agenda, the study specifically focuses on variables related to (i) assets (for table 1. livelihood strategies of households in northern ghana. group characteristics assets activities vulnerable (5%) high proportion of orphans, school drop-outs, youth economic migrants, widows with children, elderly, handicapped, sick 0-0.5 acres of land per active member; no livestock except 0-5 poultry; basic house & cooking equipment, clothes sale of firewood, making baskets or ropes, collecting wild products, sheanut gathering, buy & sell foodstuffs poor (35%) high proportion of widows 0.3-2.5 acres per active food crops and livestock with children, youth semimember; 0-5 sheep/goats, farming, petty trading, permanent migrants, 0-3 cattle (per household); collection/processing/sale of migrants creating farms bicycle, roofing sheets nr products, seasonal and outside their tribal areas, semi-permanent migration small-scale farmers with weak labour capacities medium (51%) large family and high labour capacity (that is, low dependency ratio) 1.5-4 acres per active farm and non-farm activities member; 10-40 sheep/goats, 3-30 cattle; (semi-permanent house; modest education and assets (e.g. sewing machine, shop, tv) well-off (9%) large family and high labor capacity, higher proportion of skilled labor 1-25 acres per active member; 0-120 sheep/goats; 0-1000 cattle; larger, permanent house with water, electricity, kitchen, toilet, fridge; tractor, car/truck. may have two houses-one in town, more modest on farm agricultural: perennial (cocoa, rubber, mango), non-traditional or food crops (all on commercial scale); livestock (including commercial poultry). no-agric: tractor or transport services, medium-large-scale trading, shop/house rental, salaried positions source: al-hassan and poulton (2009). example, access to land, education, finance, etc), (ii) markets (for example, access to local markets, motorable roads) and (iii) institutions (for example, extension services, producer organizations, sharecropping, access to radio, tv, etc). to implement these objectives, data from the 1991/1992 and 2005/2006 ghana living standards survey (glss) were used to first describe the changes that have taken place among the chosen variables between the two periods. second, based on the suspicion of unobserved heterogeneity and possible endogeneity in establishing the econometric relationship between livelihood diversification and household welfare, the endogenous switching regression approach was employed for the analysis. this technique, following lokshin and sajaia (2004) relies on joint normality of the error terms and allows us to simultaneously estimate the binary and continuous parts of the model in the binary and continuous equations in order to yield consistent standard errors. by doing this, the paper provides additional insights to related studies on ghana such as oduro and osei-akoto (2007), owusu and abdulai (2009), knudsen (2007) and anriquez and daidone (2008). the results provide guidelines that are helpful for governments in their effort to define concrete plans to reduce poverty and vulnerability as well as to enhance household well-being.. materials and methods study framework the framework (fc helps in conceptualizing the causes and consequences of rural livelihood diversification in ghana. the basic framework is predicated on the assumption that a household‟s portfolio of non-farm activities and how they impact on welfare is decided based on selected micro-economic constraints and incentives created through access to public and private resources embodied in assets, markets and institutions. by assets, we are referring to the natural, physical, social, financial and human resources of value to the household. changes in the portfolio of assets, their productivity and the extent to which households have access to them are the attributes that are critical in determining livelihood diversification and ultimately household welfare (dorward et al., 2003). the limitations from access to credit and lack of education, for example, have been highlighted by bezabiw et al. (2010) in their case study on ethiopia. for small and marginal farmers, the importance of wellfunctioning markets helps in reducing transaction costs and risks assets physical (access to land, fertilizers), social (education, health status, household structure), financial (money), natural (time), etc institutions producer organizations, extension services, r and d, sharecropping arrangements, mass media access markets access to motorable roads, product markets, public transport, etc livelihood diversification on-farm, off farm and non-farm activities household welfare figure 1. study framework: causes and consequences of livelihood diversification. source: author. involved in acquiring inputs and profitably selling outputs. for example, access to rural infrastructure including the presence of local markets, motorable roads, electricity, telecommunications, etc provide important means of intervening directly in market transacttions in order to change costs or returns of economic activities. this creates direct and indirect non-farm employment and income opportunities for the poor to improve welfare. the acknowledgement of the role of institutions in non-farm diversification is derived from the recognition that much of human interaction and activity is structured in terms of overt or implicit rules that define the incentives and sanctions households face (hodgson, 2006). while the idea of institutions could be defined to include many components, the study examines three of these that are particularly important for rural farm households namely, producer cooperatives, extension services and sharecropping (figure 1). estimation technique the endogenous switching regression analysis, also known as the mover or stayer model, is applied to situations where one wishes to establish the effect of being in one of two different positions (status, regimes or states) on desired outcomes and the possibility of moving or staying in that particular position, regime or state (tauer, 2005). in this study, the outcome of interest is household welfare and the two regimes or decision states are whether or not households are more or less diversified. the endogenous switching regression approach is used because the decision whether or not to engage in livelihood diversification is voluntary and may be based on individual self-selection, causing a biased sample with nonprobability sampling. self-selection makes it difficult to determine causation. for example, one might notice a significantly higher welfare among those participate in off-farm participation and credit this difference to the off-farm participation decision. however, farm households that engage in non-farm activities may have systematically different characteristics from households that do not due to self selection. those who choose to participate in off-farm activities might be more hard-working, studious and dedicated than those who did not participate, explaining the difference between the two groups. neglecting these effects is likely to give a false picture of the relative welfare status among the diversified and nondiversified farm groups. these reasons warrant estimating distinct regressions for the two different groups (diversified and less diversified) instead of a homogenous and single welfare function. doing this however leads to observations that are no longer random draws from the population which makes the use of ordinary least squares not appropriate. following lokshin and sajaia (2004), the first step in the switching regression model is to determine the factors influencing livelihood diversification among the farm households based on a probit function is specified as: d *  α ' z i ε 0i i (1) where d * is the latent dependent variable which we observe i through the decision to engage in livelihood diversification activities *  0 (diversified) and * ≤ 0 (less and di  1 if di di  0 if di the „unobservables‟ of household welfare equations. diversified). diversification is defined as participation in the local non-farm sector through wage or self-employment. the subscript i data denotes farm-households, z i is a vector of exogenous variables ' α i are vectors of unknown parameters and ε 0i w1i  β1 x1i  ε1i if di  1 w 2 i  β 2 x 2i  ε 2i if di  0 data for the study are derived from the nationally representative multi-purpose ghana living standards survey (glss) for 1991/1992 and 2005/2006. these surveys provide a valuable source of detailed data including socio-economic situation of individuals, households, communities, and regions in ghana. it includes data on demographic characteristics, health, education, economic activities and migration. the survey consists of both a household questionnaire and a community questionnaire, and data from either of these are combined for this paper. in order to also analyze the role of media access (tv, radio, newspapers) on diversification and welfare, additional data was sourced from the demographic and health surveys (dhs) for the years 1993 and 2003. (3) where w1 and w2 represent welfare functions for households engaged with non-farm activities and those who do not. household welfare is defined here as a household‟s command over market and non-market goods and services at the household level. the proxy used to measure household welfare is the log of household consumption expenditure adjusted by adult equivalent units. x1 and x 2 are vectors of weakly exogenous variables; β1 and β 2 are vectors of parameters; and ε 1 and ε 2 are random disturbance terms. the underlying assumption here is that diversification is endogenous to household welfare. also, by splitting the sample into two, the problem of sample selection bias may arise. in order to deal with these challenges, the switching regression technique relies on joint normality of the error terms in the binary and continuous equations. the error terms, ε 0 , ε 1 and ε 2 are i i i assumed to have a trivariate normal distribution with zero mean and non-singular covariance matrix specified as: 2 σ 12 σ 10 σ1 cov(ε ,ε 2 ,ε 0 )  σ σ 2 σ 20 (4) 1 12 2 σ 20 2 σ 10 σ 0 where σ1 2 and σ 2 2 are variances of the error terms, ε 1 and ε 2 , in equations (2) and (3); σ 0 2 is the variance of the error term, ε 0 , in equation (1); σ 12 , σ 10 and σ 20 are the covariance of ε 1 and ε 2 , ε1 and ε 0 , ε 2 and ε 0 , respectively. the simultaneous estimation based on the full information maximum likelihood (fiml) estimation of the equations 13 corrects for the selection bias in the household welfare estimates. this is implemented using the move-stay command in stata. the estimates generated through this technique include the inverse mill's ratio, which measures the ratio of the ordinate of a standard normal to the tail area of the distribution and reflects the probability that an observation belongs to the selected sample (heckman, 1979). other estimates from interaction of the error terms show the correlation of the „unobservables‟ of the diversification equation with results and discussion descriptive statistics the first part of the results provides a description of how the household, community and institutional variables for the sample households have changed between 1991/1992 and 2005/2006 in terms of the percentage of distribution of the survey and t-tests. as shown in table 2, significant increases in household welfare, measured as household consumption expenditure adjusted by adult equivalent units were found. similar significant increases were also observed in the percentage of farm households engaged in non-farm diversification. no significant difference is observed in the education of the head of household and members aged above 60 years. significant increases were found in the age structure of household members within the two periods. for the 242 community variables surveyed in 1991 as against 328 in 2005, the results showed that the increases in access to motorable roads, farmers‟ use of fertilizers and insecticides were not significantly different from zero. noticeable and significant reductions were however observed for the practice of sharecropping and the existence of local markets. with regards to communities with access to land markets, extensions services and where existence of agricultural cooperatives, no meaningful changes were found between 1991 and 2006. given that rural households are spread over large areas and that information transmission to farming communities was problematic, the study decided to explore the role of access to tvs and radios on welfare and livelihood diversification. data obtained from the ghana demographic and health surveys over a 10 year period between 1993 and 2003 showed significant increases in the proportion of households who listen to radio and watch television at least once a week. term. the second step in the switching regression model is to define separate welfare functions for the two groups of farm households. their welfare functions are expressed as: gender, age, level of education, number of dependants, land size and selected community infrastructure variables that account for community differences in income generation that may affect diversification as well as the level of household expenditures. also, is the disturbance (2) table 2. characteristics of surveyed households and communities. variable 1991/1992 2005/2006 significance of change welfare 1,061,975 1,438,117 *** non-farm diversification 0.81 0.85 ** total acres of land 251.72 211.73 * remittances 0.58 0.51 ** disease burden 0.07 0.08 * gender of household head 1.25 1.22 ** age of household head 45.43 46.82 ** education of household head 0.65 0.68 increase not significant size of household 4.84 4.99 * members aged 5-14 1.55 1.45 ** members aged 15-24 0.77 0.87 ** members aged 25-39 0.76 0.85 ** members 40-59 0.63 0.72 ** members aged above 60 0.32 0.35 increase not significant motorable road in community 0.81 0.84 increase not significant bank in community 0.09 0.05 reduction not significant local community market 0.39 0.29 *** extension worker in community 0.25 0.24 decrease not significant agric cooperative in community 0.29 0.31 increase not significant farmers use fertilizer 0.55 0.68 *** farmers use insecticide 0.58 0.70 *** land market 0.11 0.12 increase not significant sharecroppers in community 0.66 0.55 *** *means difference is significant at 10%, ** means difference is significant at 5% and *** means difference is significant at 1%. the endogenous switching regression results the full information maximum likelihood estimates of the endogenous switching model based on pooled crosssections data are reported in table 3. the first and second columns present the estimated coefficients of the welfare functions of the less diversified and diversified groups respectively whiles the probit selection equation for the off-farm diversification equation is shown in the third column. a wald test of whether the estimated coefficients as a group are different between the more diversified and less diversified equations produced a chisquared value of 184.08 with 25 degrees of freedom. this means that the coefficients are statistically different. the likelihood ratio test for joint independence of the three equations rejected the null hypothesis that all slope coefficients are equal to zero at the 1% level (chi-squared value was 71.77). the simultaneous modeling coefficients are equal to zero at the 1% level (chi-squared value was 71.77). the simultaneous modeling based on the switching regression technique was justified given the highly significant off-diagonal values of the error covariance matrix and the error correlations. the correlation coefficients rho_1 and rho_2 are both positive and significant. this means both observed and unobserved factors influenced the decision to participate in off-farm employment and welfare resulting from those decisions. this also indicates that self-selection occurred in the off-farm participation decision and welfare given the participation decision. in other words, farm households who participate in off-farm employment have higher welfare than random households from the random sample who have not participated in non-farm work. engaging in off-farm diversification had a significant impact on welfare among those who participated in it. household assets and composition the findings from for variables related to household assets and composition are quite interesting. the age structure of the household which attempts to capture the life-cycle effects was found to be significant correlates of household welfare and livelihood diversification. the coefficient of household head‟s age is positive and significant which means that a farm household‟s welfare is improved as age increases. this coefficient was however significantly negative in the probit selection equation, implying that the likelihood to engage in nonfarm diversification decreases as the head of household grows in age. furthermore, households where there are members aged 5 or older have a greater probability to table 3. full information maximum likelihood estimates of the switching regression model based on pooled data for 1991 and 2005. variable welfare =0 welfare =1 non-farm diversification less diversified diversified (select equation) education of household 0.2382**(0.0489) 0.1528*** (0.01445) 0.1902** (0.05256) age of household head 0.0739**(0.0036) -0.00125 (0.0013) -.01445*** (0.00422) gender of household head 0.4986**(0.1044) 0.1266 *** (0.02986) 0.8656*** (0.1064) size of household -0.0139 (0.0508) -0.1239*** (0.01233) dropped members aged 5-14 0.1257* (0.0761) 0.0354** (0.0155) 0.65586*** (0.0486) members aged 15-24 dropped 0.0655** (0.01693) 0.50343*** (0.04848) members aged 25-39 0.2415**((0.0629) 0.09044*** (0.02413) 0.85054*** (0.06303) members aged 40-59 -0.0995 (0.08103) 0.05255** (0.0255) 0.43886*** (0.07436) members aged above 60 -0.1685 (0.1241) 0.0755** (0.0323) 0.55888** (0.1175) sector of employment of head -0.0911 (0.0656) -0.03031** (0.0080) -0.19631*** (0.03613) access to remittances 0.00912 (0.0605) 0.0008 (0.02099) -0.05868 (0.07096) acres of land owned 0.01916 (0.0138) 0.01048 ** (0.00474) -0.02113 (0.01544) agricultural land sales 0.02513 (0.0863) 0.0307 (0.0303) 0.05455 (0.10318) access to motorable roads 0.0784 (0.0977) -0.07156 * (0.03688) -0.08697 (0.11655) access to banking center -0.0282 (0.1415) 0.00132 (0.04449) -0.00244 (0.16449) access to produce market 0.12156* (0.06706) 0.06706** (0.0238) 0.04126 (0.07999) member of agric cooperative -0.0406* (0.06415) -0.04821** (0.02242) -0.0665 (0.07463) access to public transport 0.1997**(0.07175) 0.17969** (0.02742) 0.18464** (0.08584) agricultural sharecropping 0.06995 (0.0732) 0.1213**(0.0259) 0.02327 (0.08681) access to extension service -0.03022 (0.0747) 0.00418 (0.0258) -0.00805 (0.087777) households use fertilizers 0.1089* (0.0667) 0.0.07252** (0.02399) 0.07172 (0.07796) listens to radio at least once a week -1.1431* (0.60843) -0.87463** (0.22954) -0.8596*** (0.27064) watches tv at least once a week 0.3956 (0.3631) 0.61385*** (0.12974) 0.17891 (0.40968) read newspapers at least once a week 1.5548** (0.76699) 1.3685*** (0.27167) -0.37409 (0.79786) time dummy (2006) 0.6284***(0.1818) 0.53607*** (0.07078) dropped constant 14.1017***(0.48165) 13.8454*** (0.13764) -0.87211** (0.31743) rho_1 = 0.80906 *** (0.0531), rho_2 = 0.59552 *** (0.054255), number of observations = 3264, wald chi 2 (25) = 184.08, prob > chi2 = 0.00000, lr test of independent equations: chi 2 (2) = 71.77 prob > chi2 = 0.0000. *means difference is significant at 10%, ** means difference is significant at 5% and *** means difference is significant at 1%. also standard errors are shown in parenthesis. engage in non-farm work with the likelihood for positive dividends on welfare. this could be due to the fact that participation in off-farm work is critically dependent on labor availability. but in terms of the size of the household, we find that the coefficient of household membership size appeared to be negative but statistically insignificant for the welfare of non-diversified households. this means that, holding all other variables constant, each additional child decreases the probability of increased household welfare and puts a greater burden on the household. the gender dummy variable represents the gender segregation between men and women household heads. the estimated sign of the gender variable is positive for all the models, which indicates that relative to female-headed households, the level of welfare and non-farm diversification is likely to be high for maleheaded households. the level of education and the health status of household members in the model represent human capital endowment. the results from table 3 show that education of the head of the household has a significant and positive effect on household‟s non-farm diversification as well as household welfare. the higher the level of education, the greater the probability that households will engage in non-farm work and ultimately have improved welfare. with regards to the health status variable, the study find from the analysis that the tendency to engage in non-farm work reduces when the burden of disease is high, which is what was generally expect in theory. owning land is an important asset in improving the welfare of households who engage in non-farm work. we surprisingly find no significant effect of land ownership on the selection decision whether or not to participate in non-farm work. applying fertilizers is shown in the results to be justifiable as the study find out that those farming households who use fertilizers (specifically, those who engage in non-farm diversification) have a greater likelihood of enjoying improved welfare. the impact of access to insecticides was statistically insignificant and was dropped from the model. the problem of the exclusion of rural populations from financial services is widely acknowledged. it was therefore not too surprising we uncovered no significant impact of access to remittances and banking services on welfare and the non-farm participation decision. the importance of the sector of employment of the household head is clearly underscored in the analysis. the results show that relative to other jobs other than agriculture, the level of welfare and non-farm diversification is likely to be lower for household heads who work in the agricultural sector. market access for small and marginal farmers, having access to markets helped in reducing transaction costs and risks involved in acquiring inputs and profitably selling outputs. having access to local community markets was found to be positive and significant in promoting welfare of diversified households. this was not the case for less diversified households. we also find that access to local markets has no direct correlation with the livelihood diversification decision. as was expected, households who live in communities with better access to public transport have a higher probability to engage in non-farm work and also enjoy higher welfare. access to public transport facilitates movement of persons, farm inputs and outputs in a cost effective way. we realized that this finding was robust for all the groups studied. strikingly, however, we find that access to motorable roads turns out to be negative and significant at 10% in the welfare function of diversified households and insignificant in the case of the selection decision and welfare of less diversified groups. institutions transfer of information and knowledge to small farm households working in diverse settings, remote locations and some of whom are illiterate is very challenging task. the traditional models of transferring knowledge in ghana are largely based on extension activities and agricultural cooperatives. in this last set of results, how traditional and non-traditional sources of obtaining agricultural information affect non-farm diversification and household welfare are discussed. no significant effect of access to extension services on non-farm diversification and also household welfare was found. this may not be too surprising considering the fact that agriculture extension departments in ghana lack the resources and state-of-the-art technologies to deliver the required services to farming communities. with regards to the importance of agricultural cooperatives, a negative and significant likelihood effect on the welfare of diversified households was observed. the effect of agricultural cooperatives on the diversification decision and the welfare of less diversified households are insignificant. looking at the history, culture, type and structure of co-operative organizations in ghana and elsewhere in africa, this result may not necessarily be surprising. traditional agricultural cooperatives are normally sees as disintergrated stand alone groups promoted through collective ownership with minimal capital investment who are unable to see problems of their members in terms of solutions generated by the co-operative movement as a whole, but rather, they look to the government when seeking co-operative solutions (chambo, 2009). one aged-long risk-sharing institution in ghana that turned out to have a positive and significant effect on household welfare is the idea of sharecropping. this is the system where a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the farm produce. the likelihood impact of sharecropping in the selection equation and in the welfare of less diversified households was however not significantly different from zero. beyond the traditional knowledge institutions that are typically available to rural farmers, access to tv and radio networks are important channels through which various kinds of information can be transmitted to farm households. after controlling for other variables in the model, some interesting results were found when mass media variables were included. households who listen to radio at least once a week were found to have a greater likelihood to engage in non-farm work. with regards to promoting household welfare, instead of a positive effect, we found a significantly negative effect of access to radio for both diversified and less diversified groups. in the case of households who watch television at least once a week, a positive and significant welfare impact was found for the more diversified group. though difficult to interpret, these findings underscore the significance of such mass media tools to either positively or negatively influence household behavior (appendix). conclusions since the implementation of the market-oriented agricultural sector reforms in the late 1980s, there has been a remarkable diversification trend in rural ghana characterized by developments of non-agricultural rural enterprises. the paper draws from the 1991/1992 and 2005/2006 ghana living standards household surveys to also throw light on how selected elements of the agricultural sector reforms impact on non-farm diversification and household welfare. the study finds that nonfarm diversification activities and household welfare are mostly driven by household assets and compositions including household age structure, education level and gender. the role of market access, fertilizer use and public transportation are also critical dimensions of rural livelihood diversification and household welfare and merits attention by policy makers. the idea of sharecropping as a risk-sharing mechanism is also not misplaced and needs to be supported. among the information variables, listening to radio and providing access to televisions are effective tools in influencing household livelihood diversification and welfare, conditional on other relevant variables. all in all, the paper supports the emerging consensus that the livelihood diversifications are important means of enhancing welfare and deserves attention. references al-hassan r, poulton c (2009). “agriculture and social protection in ghana”, fac working paper, no. sp04, january. aryeetey e, jane h, machiko n (2000). (eds.) economic reforms in ghana: the miracle and the mirage, oxford: james currey and woeli publishers. barrett cb, place f, aboud aa (2002), natural resources management in african agriculture: understanding and improving current practices. oxon and new york: cabi publishing. chambo sa (2009). “agricultural cooperratives: role in food security and rural development”, a paper presented to expert group meeting on co-operatives held on 28 – 30 april, 2009, new york. sourced from: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/egms/docs/2009/cooperatives/chambo .pdf. dorward a, poole n, morrisson j, kydd j, urey i (2003). “markets, institutions, and technology: missing links in livelihood analysis”, dev. policy rev., 21(3): 319-332. ellis f, freeman ha (2004). “rural livelihoods and poverty reduction strategies in four african countries”, j. dev. stud., 40(4): 1-30. haggblade s, hazell p, reardon t (2007). “introduction”, in haggblade, s, p. hazell, and t. reardon, (eds), transforming the rural nonfarm economy, baltimore, johns hopkins university press. heckman j (1979). “sample selection as a specification error, econometrica, 46: 153-161. hodgson gm (2006). “what are institutions”, j.econ. issues, 40: 1. iiyama m (2006). “land use change impacts and dynamics”, lucid project working paper no. 51, international livestock research institute. institute of statistical, social and economic research (isser), (2009), the state of ghanaian economy in 2008, accra, isser. knudsen mh (2007). “making a living in the cocoa frontier, western ghana: diversifying incomes in a cocoa economy”, danish j. geogr., 107(2): 29-44. lay j, schuler d (2007). “income diversification and poverty in a growing agricultural economy: the case of ghana”, working paper, kiel institute for the world economy. lokshin m, sajaia z (2004). “maximum-likelihood estimation of endogenous switching regression models”, stata j., 4(3): 282-289 oduro ad, osei-akoto i (2007). “market participation and rural poverty in ghana in the era of globalization”, unu-wider research paper, no. 2007/70, world institute for development economics research. usaid (2010), feed the future initiative: ghana fy 2010 implementation plan, sourced from http://www.usaid.gov/gh/ftf/ghana%20ip%20508.pdf. appendix definition and measurement of variables i) household welfare: this is defined as a household‟s command over market and non-market goods and services at the household level. the proxy used to measure household welfare is the log of household consumption expenditure adjusted by adult equivalent units. ii) non –farm diversification: it is defined as participation in the non-farm sector through wage or self-employment. we use a dummy variable which is 1 if households engage in non-farm activities and 0 if otherwise. iii) gender of the household head: a dummy variable with male = 1 and female = 0. iv) remittances: a dummy for access to remittances. v) total acres of land owned: value of land owned. vi) size of household: number of members in the household vii) age of the household head: age of the household head (in years) viii) education of the household: highest level of education completed by household head where 0 is defined for those with no education, 1 = primary; 2 = secondary, and 3 = higher. ix) disease burden: it is defined as the number of days (over a two week period) individual falls sick plus the number of days (over a two week period) individual does not work. this is then expressed as an index between 0 and 1 where lower indices represent good health or low disease burden and higher indices mean poor health status or high disease burden. x) access to motorable roads: 1 for respondents who have access or 0 otherwise, xi) access to a bank: 1 for those who said yes and 0 for those who said no. xii) access to community market: 1 for those who have access and 0 for those who do not. xiii) access to fertilizers: 1 for respondents who use fertilizers or 0 otherwise. xiv) agricultural sharecropping: 1 if sharecropping exists in community or 0 otherwise. xv) access to extension worker: 1 if respondents have access or 0 otherwise. xvi) agricultural cooperatives: 1 if farmer belongs to cooperative, 0 otherwise. xvii) access to public transport: 1 if farmer has access to public transport or 0 otherwise. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 6 (12), pp. 001-017, december, 2018. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper dynamics of the agricultural economy of andhra pradesh, india since the last five decades a. amarender reddy international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (icris at), hyderabad, india. e-mail: a.amarenderreddy@cgiar.org. accepted 22 july, 208 andhra pradesh is one of the largest state in india, with agriculture as a major source of income for about 60% of its population. in the last 50 years, the annual growth rate of agriculture has been 2.88%, which is far below the target growth of 4% per annum. further, andhra pradesh is divided into three district regions with growing demand for separate state from less developed regions. the paper examined regional disparities in agriculture in andhra pradesh since its formation in 1956. the study illustrates that there is a convergence among districts in agricultural growth, but least developed districts are left out of this convergence process. both agricultural intensification and diversification strategies played important role in development of districts based on their resource endowment. livestock based agricultural growth is evident in districts adjacent to large urban centres since the last two decades. overall, tfp growth in agriculture and allied activities in telangana is 13% per decade, 11% per decade in coastal, while in rayalaseema tfp growth has been stagnant from 1956 to 2009. irrespective of region, the most backward districts in agriculture, that is srikakulam, visakhapatnam, anantapur, kadapa, adilabad, nalgonda, mahbubnagar and nizamabad showed stagnation in tfp growth during the last 50 years. with the existing resource endowment and technology, telangana can increase its output by 28% from the existing level, while rayalaseema region can enhance its output by 25%, coastal region by only 14% as revealed from efficiency estimates. key words: agriculture, regional disparities, andhra pradesh, india. introduction andhra pradesh is ranked the 4th largest in india in terms of area, its projected population of 8.4 crores as at 2010, makes it the 5th most populous state. the total geographical area of andhra pradesh is 275.04 lakh ha. out of which 39.8% is under the net area sown (109.58 lakh ha) with cropping intensity of 1.26. average annual rainfall in the state is 940 mm. about 72% of the population lives in rural areas. even though about 62.2% of workers are dependent on agriculture (out of which 22.5% are cultivators and the remaining 9.6% are agricultural labourers), its share in gsdp decreased from about 40% in 1980 to about 17% in 2009. the unweighted average poverty ratios and monthly per capita expenditure (mpce) for the year 2004 to 20005 calculated from nsso 61st round as reported (chaudhuri and gupta, 2009) indicates that the percent of poor is quite low (7.6%) in the coastal region when compared to both telangana (12.1%) and rayalaseema (16.5%) regions. this paper presents regional disparities in agricultural development of andhra pradesh state since 1956, the year of andhra pradesh formation, keeping the current debate of separate state of telangana as the main argument. it is widely recognised that the direct and indirect effects of the agricultural growth that accounts for most of the poverty decline in developing country like india. datt and ravallion (1996) show that poverty measures respond to rural/agricultural economic growth than to urban economic growth. hence, agricultural growth is crucial to reduce poverty levels. however, some studies concern over the technological progress in less developed regions. for example, fulginiti and perrin (1997) studied 18 less developed countries and found that 14 of these countries showed a decline in agricultural productivity over the period 1961 to 1985. such results indicate a divergence in agricultural productivity, in contrast to the trends in file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org manufacturing sector, which show signs of convergence (barro and sala-i-martin, 1991). keeping this in view, this paper examines the pattern of the agricultural sector growth across regions and districts in andhra pradesh. there are some studies on regional disparities in andhra pradesh, but only few (reddy and kumar, 2006; reddy, 2010) examined with detailed data, from a regional perspective. in this paper, we have also examined whether agricultural growth shows convergence or divergence over the last 50 years among the districts? what is the pattern of change among different subsectors of agricultural outputs and inputs? historically, high yielding technology and agricultural intensification is suitable for increased agricultural growth in favourable regions (like coastal), whether, the same is also applicable for less developed regions (like rayalaseema and telangana) where rainfed agriculture dominates or a new strategy is required is still not clear. what are the missing links in high and low potential areas that are critical to their growth for different types of growth patterns? what is the role of livestock in agricultural transformation in different areas, and how is this affected by urbanization? what are the necessary conditions for diversification to high-value crops to take off under different agro-economic conditions? andhra pradesh is having three historical regions, namely coastal, rayalaseema and telangana. the data has been analysed by using ratio methods and gini concentration ratio, disparity index and tfp growth rates, which are unit free and popular methods to study regional disparities over a long period of time. the main argument is to follow changes in human capital, changes in structure of agricultural and allied sectors and input levels and tfp growth in agriculture and allied sectors across regions and districts. methodology andhra pradesh is historically having three distinct regions namely telangana (mahbubnagar, hyderabad (rangareddy+hyderabad), medak, nizamabad, adilabad, karimnagar, warangal, khammam, nalgonda), rayalaseema (chittoor, kadapa, anantapur and kurnool) and coastal (srikakulam, visakhapatnam (visakhapatnam+vizianagaram), east godavari, west godavari, krishna, guntur (guntur+prakasam), nellore). in addition, we have also done two more classifications based on per capita income and agricultural diversification level of the districts. and the classification of districts based on monthly per capita expenditure (mpce) for the year 2003 to 2004 based on nsso 55th round is as follows, lowincome region (adilabad, nizamabad, kurnool, anantapur, chittoor, nellore, khammam with mpce below rs.530), medium-income region (medak, karimnagar, visakhapatnam, nalgonda, mahbubnagar, srikakulam and guntur with mpce up to rs.644), high-income region (east godavari, krishna, kadapa, west godavari, warangal, hyderabad with mpce above rs.652). the last classification of districts based on diversification of agriculture was done based on the share of high value crops (hvcs) in total value of agricultural production at constant prices. in this classification, districts are classified as three distinct clusters as follows. high-diversification zone (districts with more than 40% share of hvcs in the total value of agricultural production; include srikakulam, kadapa, mahabubnagar, chittoor, visakhapatnam and hyderabad), medium-diversification region (districts with 35 to 40% share of hvcs; include west godavari, nellore, khammam, krishna, nalgonda and east godavari) and low-diversification zone (districts with less than 35% share of hvcs; include nizamabad, warangal, adilabad, guntur, karimnagar, anantapur, kurnool and medak.). the district level data has been collected from andhra pradesh statistical abstracts from 1956 to 2007 and the total period is subdivided into 5 decades, 1956 to 1965, 1966 to 1975, 1976 to 1985, 1986 to 1995, 1996 to 2005 respectively and the last two periods 2006 and 2007 were taken as separate periods. simple mean and ratios used for tabulation, further widely used gini concentration (gi) index and disparity index (di) have been applied for district level data. all the tables except gi and di index indicates that the comparison of telangana and rayalaseema regions (in %) to coastal region, that is, a value above 100 for telangana region indicates that telangana region‟s absolute value is more than coastal‟s in that period, whereas less than 100 indicates that telangana region‟s absolute value is less than coastal‟s for that particular period. in the same way, medium-income and low-income regions compared with high-income regions; and mediumdiversified and low-diversified regions are compared with highdiversified region. hence, the data in the tables for telangana and rayalaseema regions, medium-income and low-income regions, mediumdiversified and low-diversified regions are in % relative to the coastal regions absolute figures in that particular period, while figures for coastal, high-income and high-diversified regions are absolute figures. the data envelopment analysis (dea) approach is used for measuring productivity change and efficiency. the dea methodology was initiated by charnes et al. (1978) which is largely based on the frontier concept pioneered by farrell (1957). this method attempts to measure the efficiency of decision making units through linear programming techniques, which „envelop‟ observed input output vectors as tightly as possible. the original model developed by charnes et al. (1978) (ccr model) was applicable when technologies were characterized by constant returns to scale (crs) and all farms operate at an optimal scale (coelli et al., 1998). we have taken the value of crop output (rs. crores) and value of livestock and fisheries products (rs. crores) as two outputs and gross irrigated area (gia) in 1000 ha, rainfed area in 1000 ha, labour in thousands (agricultural workers plus cultivators), livestock population (cattle equivalents; one cattle is equal to one buffalo or 8 sheep or 8 goats), fertilizer use (npk tons), mechanization (tractor equivalent; one tractor is equal to 40 iron ploughs or 80 wooden ploughs) as inputs. we have used methodology followed in fare et al. (1994), to estimate a malmquist-type measure of productivity and its decomposition into efficiency and technical changes. the method assumes output orientation with constant returns to scale (crs), as the input oriented and variable returns to scale (vrs) suffer from some methodological problems while analyzing regional data (coelli and rao, 2003). in order to check reliability of efficiency estimates of the dea method, we also estimated the efficiencies by using battese and coelli‟s (1995) frontier production function approach, with the same input and output data (aggregated two outputs, namely crop and livestock value to make one dependent variable) with the assumption of cobb-douglas production function and results are presented. results trends in growth of agricultural output the results from table 1 indicates that the value of agricultural production per annum increased from rs.5672 to rs.20883 crores in coastal, from rs.3078 to table 1. trends in value of agricultural production per annum at constant prices (2004-2005). highly medium low diversified high-income medium poor coastal rayalaseema telangana diversified period diversified (% of highly (rs. poor (% of high(% of high (rs. crores) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) (% of highly (rs.crores) diversified) crores) income) -income) diversified) value of agricultural production 1956-65 5672 42 45 3078 120 123 3608 97 96 1966-75 7724 38 44 4065 123 123 4929 99 87 1976-85 10180 34 47 4783 128 156 6006 119 88 1986-95 15579 32 44 6846 147 152 9656 105 77 1996-2005 19573 34 56 9424 147 147 13771 93 76 2006-07 20883 32 66 8938 173 192 14894 100 79 value of livestock production 1956-65 317 46 64 220 101 103 183 127 137 1966-75 611 38 82 458 100 94 466 107 83 1976-85 1142 34 89 915 100 80 1045 87 57 1986-95 1719 32 91 1379 102 76 1648 82 50 1996-2005 2291 31 93 1852 102 75 2274 80 46 2006-07 2642 31 93 2153 101 74 2643 80 45 value of total agricultural production 1956-65 5987 42 46 3302 118 122 3794 98 98 1966-75 8340 38 47 4524 120 120 5372 100 87 1976-85 11351 34 51 5744 123 143 7035 114 84 1986-95 17318 32 48 8226 139 139 11301 102 73 1996-2005 21832 34 60 11278 141 135 16061 91 72 2006-07 23471 33 69 11083 159 169 17551 97 74 figures for telagaa and rayalaseema regions are the % of coastal region absolute values; if this % is more than 100, the value for that region is higher than coastal region vice versa. rs.rs.8938 crores in highly-diversified region and from rs.3608 to rs.14894 crores in high-income regions between 1956-1966 to 2006-2007 respectively. even though initial value of agricultural production in telangana is about 45%, that of coastal over the period increased to 66%, which shows the convergence in value of agricultural production between telangana and coastal regions. while high-income and mediumincome regions started with the same base as low-income regions in 1956 to 1966, they have increased their share over the period to 127 and 126% respectively. rayalaseema showed decline in agricultural value over the period with lower base, compared to coastal, as this region is not able to increase their agricultural production. overall, the figures indicate that there is a significant convergence of agricultural develop ment among the medium developed region, but left the least developed regions (that is, low-income region and rayalaseema region) in the development process. the value of livestock production increased from rs.317 to rs.2642 crores in coastal, from rs.220 to rs. 2153 crores in the highly-diversified region and from rs.183 to rs.2643 crores in high-income region. value of livestock products significantly increased in telangana compared to coastal, while it decreased in low-diversified and lowincome regions compared to their counterparts. overall, growth of livestock products is higher in and around major urban centres and high-income regions, which shows that the production of livestock is more dependent on demand factors than the supply factors. the total value of agriculture and allied sectors increased in telangana from 46 to 69%, compared to coastal from 1956-1965 to 2006-2007, while in rayalaseema it decreased from 42 to 33%. this again shows that rayalaseema region‟s growth is poorer than both telangana and coastal. the cropwise area under resource incentive crops are presented in table 2. area under rice increased from 1,968 to 2,189 kha, area under sugarcane increased from 61 to 142 kha, area under mango increased from 61 to 168 kha, area under cotton increased from 32 to 252 kha, under chillies increased from 65 to 104 kha, under tomato increased from 7.3 to 10 kha, while area under tobacco decreased from 153 to 108 kha in the coastal region. in comparism to coastal, in telangana, area under resource incentive crops like rice (increased from 44 to 60%), mango (from 4 to 60%) and cotton (227 to 294%), tomato (23 to 300%) was increased, while area under sugarcane, chillies and tobacco decreased. in rayalaseema, area under all the aforementioned crops decreased except tomato in relation to coastal. high-income cluster of districts showed similar trend as that of the coastal region. it indicates that in rayalaseema, area under resource incentive crops is less at the beginning and also declined subsequently, but in coastal, area under these crops was significantly higher at the beginning and also increased subsequently, while in telangana mixed results exist. this also confirms the theory that the initial highlevel of resource endowment region (coastal), increases chances of future growth for the regions than lowresource endowed region (rayalaseema), which enhanced regional disparities in andhra pradesh to some extent. the crop‟s group wise information is presented in table 3 (cereals, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruits, vegetables and land-put to non-agriculture), which shows except cereals, and oilseeds area under all crops increased in coastal in absolute terms (reddy et al., 2011). area under cereals (from 115 to 93% of coastal) and pulses (from 455 to 87%) decreased in telangana (reddy, 2004), while area under fruits (from 37 to 47%), oilseeds (from 175 to 222%), spices (from 48 to 141%) vegetables (from 28 to 118%) and land-put-to-non-agricultural use (from 73 to 108%) increased compared to coastal region. disparities in area under fruits are much higher compared to cereals, for example area under fruits in telangana is half that of coastal. regional disparities peaked during 1976 to 1985 period; with area under fruits in telangana is 1/6 th that of the coastal region; however, since the last two decades these disparities decreased. area under oilseeds is much higher in rayalaseema and its concentration is increased over the period. while area under pulses was increased, since the 1990s in coastal, mainly due to expansion of area under black-gram in rice fallows. area under spices decreased in rayalaseema, while in telangana it increased compared to the coastal region, as there is a large expansion of area under chillies in telangana region. even though area under vegetables is higher in initial years both in coastal and rayalaseema, its share decreased over years. overall, even though disparities among regions in fruits and vegetables are stark in the base year, disparities decreased then after, as there is expansion of area under these crops in backward districts surrounding hyderabad. however, proportion of land put to non-agricultural use increased in telangana due to high level of urbanization around hyderabad. it is a very disturbing fact that the already high level of fallow lands (un-utilised agricultural land) in telangana (283% of coastal fallow area) is increased to 329% of coastal fallow land. mainly due to low investment in agricultural development in telangana, in terms of large scale dams and canal irrigation systems and neglect of traditional tank irrigation. the gini ratio and disparity index of total agricultural production, cereal and pulses production are presented in table 4. both disparity index and gini ratio have increased for both cereals and pulses, while in the case of value of agricultural production both disparity index and gini ratio were decreased. which shows that, districts have become more specialized in the case of cereals and pulses production, but in terms of value of production districts are converging, as loss from reduction of area under one crop is compensated by income from expansion in area under other crops, and also the districts, which are not concentrated in growing cereals and pulses are increasing value of production from other crops. the trends in the yields of major crops are illustrated in table 5 which illustrates trend in yields of major crops that is, rice, groundnut and cotton. yield of rice increased from 778 to 2980 kg/ha, yield of groundnut increased from 581 to 1292 kg/ha, and yield of cotton increased from 339 to 2057 kg/ha in telangana. yield of rice, groundnut and cotton declined in both coastal and rayalaseema regions compared to telangana, while in high and medium-income regions it showed increase in yield compared to low-income regions, except in the case of cotton in the medium-income region. in high and medium diversified regions, paddy yield is declined while cotton and groundnut yield increased compared to the low-diversified region. farm inputs and irrigation the proximate causes of agricultural growth as measured table 2. trends in area of resource intensive crops. crop period coastal rayalaseema telangana (1000 ha) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) 1956-65 1967.1 20 44 1966-75 2009.0 19 44 rice 1976-85 2198.9 16 51 1986-95 2338.4 12 50 1996-2005 2224.1 12 56 2006-07 2188.5 10 60 1956-65 61.3 32 41 1966-75 84.6 28 34 sugarcane 1976-85 87.7 30 43 1986-95 108.4 27 50 1996-2005 131.3 26 37 2006-07 142.4 17 32 1956-65 61.1 36 4 1966-75 70.7 38 10 mango 1976-85 86.5 32 14 1986-95 124.6 28 29 1996-2005 167.0 38 41 2006-07 167.8 45 60 1956-65 153.8 11 21 1966-75 148.3 13 20 tobacco 1976-85 142.0 12 19 1986-95 112.6 16 21 1996-2005 115.6 13 12 2006-07 108.4 10 8 1956-65 31.6 666 227 1966-75 42.4 439 244 cotton 1976-85 159.1 82 84 1986-95 256.5 34 127 1996-2005 254.1 49 244 2006-07 252.1 15 294 1956-65 64.8 30 95 1966-75 82.7 22 82 chilli 1976-85 65.9 27 111 1986-95 85.7 19 118 1996-2005 96.0 23 111 2006-07 104.0 20 91 1956-65 7.3 32 23 1966-75 9.6 84 75 tomato 1976-85 5.3 189 114 1986-95 9.5 169 120 1996-2005 10.2 338 213 2006-07 8.0 418 303 table 3. trends in area (in 1000 ha) for major crop groups. crop group period coastal rayalaseema telangana (1000 ha) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) 1956-65 2939 59 115 1966-75 2823 53 112 cereals 1976-85 2866 46 112 1986-95 2724 29 94 1996-2005 2436 22 94 2006-07 2422 18 93 1956-65 57 24 37 1966-75 99 27 23 fruits 1976-85 170 27 16 1986-95 238 27 26 1996-2005 411 34 34 2006-07 447 45 47 1956-65 370 142 175 1966-75 397 200 189 oilseeds 1976-85 374 242 169 1986-95 532 298 156 1996-2005 407 412 196 2006-07 368 476 222 1956-65 161 82 455 1966-75 332 64 256 pulses 1976-85 379 57 238 1986-95 694 28 120 1996-2005 827 36 99 2006-07 847 50 87 1956-65 452 73 48 1966-75 494 61 52 spices 1976-85 575 48 53 1986-95 655 34 83 1996-2005 669 38 127 2006-07 670 17 141 1956-65 25 50 28 1966-75 31 61 41 vegetables 1976-85 32 67 46 1986-95 49 73 53 1996-2005 56 129 86 2006-07 53 158 118 1956-65 755 58 73 1966-75 912 57 70 land put to non1976-85 955 58 70 agricultural use 1986-95 1045 57 68 1996-2005 1102 56 76 2006-07 1011 55 108 fallow land 1956-65 678 110 283 2006-07 745 121 329 table 4. trends in gini index and disparity index (di) of district agricultural production value (at constant prices), cereal and pulses production. period agricultural production value cereal production pulses production di gini di gini di gini 1956-1965 0.301 0.038 0.177 0.014 0.286 0.049 1966-1975 0.280 0.041 0.161 0.028 0.286 0.121 1976-1985 0.267 0.075 0.199 0.051 0.295 0.005 1986-1995 0.278 0.080 0.240 0.040 0.337 0.174 1996-2005 0.238 0.027 0.241 0.089 0.328 0.204 2006-2007 0.202 0.037 0.238 0.103 0.379 0.169 table 5. trends in yield of important crops. crop period coastal (kg/ha) rayalaseema (kg/ha) telangana (kg/ha) 1956-1965 1003.7 1291.6 778.1 1966-1975 1392.4 1551.5 1326.1 rice 1976-1985 1913.7 1822.6 1822.6 1986-1995 2419.1 2352.6 2219.4 1996-2005 2873.2 2588.5 2588.5 2006-2007 3218.7 3039.9 2980.3 1956-1965 959.3 970.9 581.4 1966-1975 971.7 849.4 643.5 groundnut 1976-1985 983.5 831.6 799.6 1986-1995 1130.1 849.7 849.7 1996-2005 1156.6 726.5 955.9 2006-2007 1383.2 762.7 1292.7 1956-1965 922.1 168.1 339.0 1966-1975 1436.1 170.2 309.5 cotton 1976-1985 2419.6 563.5 517.0 1986-1995 2097.8 1250.4 1033.4 1996-2005 2195.3 1144.0 1546.0 2006-2007 3045.0 1234.4 2057.4 by the growth in land productivity in the context of states like andhra pradesh can be found mainly in the increased use of inputs into the agricultural production process irrigation facilities, labour, the use of fertilizers, and tractors (reddy 2010). but investment in irrigation is technically and economically feasible only in favourable areas and in unfavourable areas it is costly (as building lift irrigation in telangana). many coastal districts benefited from green revolution, while some of the districts in telangana and rayalaseema have experienced agricultural growth mainly of oilseeds and pulses following technical innovations and favourable price support regimes in the 1980s. some districts are benefiting from growth of higher value agricultural products as urbanisation and growth of incomes in the 1990s onwards. table 6 depicts the cropped area, irrigated area and cropping intensity along with irrigation intensity. net cropped area (nca) is marginally increased over 50 years from 3072 kha in 1956-1965 to 3944 kha in 2006 to 2007 in the coastal region, while it decreased significantly in telangana (from 128 to 106% of coastal) and rayalaseema (from 79 to 71% of coastal) compared to the coastal region. gross cropped area (gca) increased from 3397 to 5302 kha in the coastal region during 50 years, it also decreased significantly in telangana and rayalaseema region compared to coastal region. the net irrigated area (nia) increased from 1793 to 2204 kha in coastal, the increase is much higher in telangana (from 41 to 76% that of coastal) but stagnate in rayalaseema. gross irrigated area (gia) increased from 3072 to 3944 kha in the coastal region, but it decreased relative to the costal region from 128 to table 6. trends in nca, gca, nia, gia, cropping intensity and irrigation intensity. item period coastal rayalaseema telangana (1000 ha) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) 1956-65 3072 79 128 1966-75 3676 79 128 net cropped area 1976-85 3659 75 123 (nca) 1986-95 3758 74 111 1996-2005 3869 73 111 2006-07 3944 71 106 1956-65 3397 79 118 1966-75 4606 69 112 gross cropped area 1976-85 4651 63 108 (gca) 1986-95 5090 59 93 1996-2005 5099 57 93 2006-07 5302 58 93 1956-65 1793 25 41 1966-75 1902 27 43 net irrigated area 1976-85 1996 26 50 (nia) 1986-95 2089 26 60 1996-2005 2171 28 66 2006-07 2204 28 76 1956-65 3072 79 128 1966-75 3676 79 128 gross irrigated area 1976-85 3659 75 123 (gia) 1986-95 3758 74 111 1996-2005 3869 73 111 2006-07 3944 71 106 % 1956-65 111 110 101 1966-75 125 108 110 cropping intensity (%) 1976-85 127 107 111 1986-95 135 107 114 1996-2005 132 102 111 2006-07 134 110 117 1956-65 113 129 119 1966-75 121 129 131 irrigation intensity (%) 1976-85 125 130 135 1986-95 131 129 135 1996-2005 130 120 132 2006-07 136 122 141 106% during the last 50 years. cropping intensity from 111 to 134% in coastal, slightly increased from 101 to 117% in telangana, but stagnant in rayalaseema. in same lines, irrigation intensity increased both in telangana and coastal regions and while in rayalaseema it decreased. overall there is a convergence in irrigated area and cropping intensity between telangana and coastal, but rayalaseema region was left out. the trends in source wise irrigated area is presented in table 7, which shows that the area under canals increased from 1087 to 1256 kha, area under tube wells increased from 18 to 454 kha, area under other wells increased from 44 to 84 kha, area under total wells table 7. trends in sources of irrigation. source period coastal rayalaseema telangana (1000 ha) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) 1956-65 1087 10 14 1966-75 1147 12 17 canals 1976-85 1285 12 21 1986-95 1310 12 23 1996-2005 1320 12 24 2006-07 1256 11 21 1956-65 487 34 93 1966-75 491 31 78 tanks 1976-85 466 23 81 1986-95 450 20 70 1996-2005 395 17 65 2006-07 361 17 55 1956-65 18 24 32 1966-75 47 9 13 tube wells 1976-85 120 5 7 1986-95 203 32 48 1996-2005 326 52 101 2006-07 454 69 156 1956-65 44 134 263 1966-75 69 169 345 other wells 1976-85 90 185 370 1986-95 129 188 417 1996-2005 112 176 476 2006-07 84 124 588 1956-65 62 101 194 1966-75 116 104 210 total wells 1976-85 211 82 163 1986-95 332 92 191 1996-2005 438 83 197 2006-07 539 77 224 increased from 62 to 539 kha, while area under tanks decreased from 487 to 361 kha. the area under canals was very low in both telangana and rayalaseema, compared to the costal region and not catching up (area under canals increased in telangana from 14 to 21% that of the coastal region, from 10 to 11% in rayalaseema), area under tube wells increased in both telangana and rayalaseema regions, area under other wells increased in telangana, but reduced in rayalaseema compared to the coastal region. overall, area under total wells increased in telangana, but decreased in rayalaseema compared to the coastal region. this disaggregated analysis also shows that, there is a convergence in area under canal and wells between coastal and telangana regions, but in rayalaseema region, area under canals and wells reduced from lower base. however, in the case of area under tanks, there is a striking reduction in area in all three regions; however speed of reduction is fast in telangana and rayalaseema regions. table 8 presents gini ratio and disparity index for nca, nia, gca and gia during 1956 to 2007. gini ratio is slightly increased for nca, while disparity index is almost stagnant during the period. both di and gr decreased in case of nia, while in the case of gia, di decreased, but gr increased. overall disparity in irrigated area decreased, but geographical concentration slightly increased in gross cropped area during the study period. while in the case of nca, gca and gia there is a mixed trend. the trends in inputs used in the agricultural sector are stated in table 9, wherein, number of diesel pump sets increased table 8. trends in gini index and disparity index of nca, nia, gca and gia. period nca nia gca gia di gini di gini di gini di gini 1956-65 0.168 0.001 0.258 0.034 0.176 0.009 0.252 0.043 1966-75 0.156 0.014 0.238 0.008 0.149 0.013 0.235 0.038 1976-85 0.149 0.021 0.224 0.028 0.133 0.014 0.219 0.064 1986-95 0.142 0.041 0.202 0.034 0.129 0.034 0.209 0.079 1996-2005 0.147 0.058 0.187 0.028 0.144 0.049 0.205 0.074 2006-07 0.165 0.068 0.187 0.029 0.157 0.053 0.214 0.079 from 18,600 to 67,200, number of electric pump sets increased from 12,400 to 191700, number of tractors increased from 1200 to 36300, iron ploughs increased from 4,700 to 162,800, while wooden ploughs decreased from 1,433,000 to 545,500 and agricultural credit increased from rs.576 to rs.35666 crores during the same period in the coastal region (reddy, 2005, 2006 ). in telangana, the number of diesel pump sets as % of coastal region decreased from 294 to 154%, in rayalaseema, it also showed a declining trend from 138 to 57% of the coastal region. while proportion of electric pumps increased both in telangana and rayalaseema regions compared to coastal region. proportion of tractors in telangana stagnates at lower level compared to coastal region. share of iron ploughs increased in telangana, while it decreased in rayalaseema compared to the coastal region. proportion of wooden ploughs increased in both telangana and rayalaseema regions. trends in credit delivery shows that, there is an increase in share of credit uptake telangana, but declined in rayalaseema region. in farm mechanization and inputs there is a convergence between telangana and the coastal regions, but rayalaseema region is left out of the growth of important inputs like tractors and credit. trends in livestock and its products table 10 depicts the trends in livestock population and its products which are more resource incentive. the egg production increased from 1000 to 93000 lakhs, production of meat increased from 8 to 76 kilotons, production of milk increased from 241 to 4434 kilotons, production of fish increased from 237 to 4510 kilotons, production of poultry (in numbers) increased from 51 to 2302 lakh between 1956 to 2007 in the coastal region. in egg, meat and poultry production both telangana and rayalaseema regions showed declining trend compared to the coastal region. in milk, fish production, telangana‟s relative position decreased, while rayalaseema relative position slightly increased over the last 50 years. unlike fish, concentration in the poultry industry is less among regions. tfp growth and efficiency over time table 11 presents the district level tfp growth and its components for telangana districts. the highest tfp growth is recorded in hyderabad, followed by karimnagar, warangal, khammam, medak, adilabad, nalgonda, mahbubnagar and nizamabad. in case of hyderabad, the first 3 decades are with higher tfp growth (24% during 1956 to 1966, 69% during 1966 to 1976, 50% during 1976 to 1986) and larger share of tfp growth is contributed by efficiency change, while in the last 2 decades productivity growth is stagnant, maybe due to a shift of resources like land and labour to meet the demands of urbanization in hyderabad. on the other hand, in case of karimnagar, mahbubnagar, nalgonda and khammam tfp growth is higher in last 3 decades, while in adilabad, maximum tfp growth is recorded in last 2 decades. in most of the districts, during 1986 to 1996, efficiency change contributed a larger share, while during 1996 to 2007 technical change contributed a larger share in tfp growth. overall, there is stagnation in tfp growth in mahbubnagar and nalgonda since the last 50 years with decrease in efficiency from 0.90 during 19561966 to 0.66 during 1996 to 2007 in mahbubnagar and from 0.76 to 0.70 in nalgonda during the same period. in medak, higher tfp growth was recorded during 1966 to 1976 and 1986 to 2007, with overall tfp growth of 16% per decade coupled with significant increase in efficiency from 0.44 to 0.75. while in warangal, tfp growth is 26% per decade in the last 50 years with consistent increase, except in 1966 to 1976, for which tfp growth is decelerated, in line with many other districts during 1976 to 1996, technical change has contributed a larger share, while during 1996 to 2007, the share of efficiency change (catching up) was higher in tfp growth. the only district with deceleration in tfp growth in telangana is nizamabad with -3% per decade, with significant reduction in efficiency from 0.93 to 0.54 during the last 50 years; however, even in this district, tfp growth is 24% during 1986 to 1996, mostly contributed by technical change (51%) while efficiency change declined by 18%. table 12 presents the tfp growth and its components for rayalaseema districts. in rayalaseema region, tfp table 9. trends in resource endowment (inputs) relating to agriculture. inputs period coastal rayalaseema telangana (absolute value) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) 1956-65 18679 138 294 1966-75 29929 100 233 diesel pump sets(number) 1976-85 40386 80 196 1986-95 51311 67 172 1996-2005 61559 60 159 2006-07 67254 57 154 1956-65 12424 114 119 1966-75 46019 147 313 electric pump sets (number) 1976-85 87127 148 370 1986-95 126891 152 400 1996-2005 165775 154 417 2006-07 191742 154 417 1956-65 1210 21 83 1966-75 6540 30 46 tractors (number) 1976-85 14200 37 70 1986-95 23220 39 78 1996-2005 30750 39 81 2006-07 36300 40 83 1956-65 4708 580 143 1966-75 28840 250 97 iron plough (numbers) 1976-85 66424 200 143 1986-95 104539 186 159 1996-2005 141106 181 169 2006-07 162833 179 172 1956-65 1433498 41 105 1966-75 1294266 43 115 wooden plough (numbers) 1976-85 1077221 49 133 1986-95 871347 57 159 1996-2005 664807 70 200 2006-07 545500 81 238 1966-75 576 31 88 loans (rs.crores) 1976-85 1149 28 96 1986-95 10217 27 98 1996-2005 22978 28 99 2006-07 35666 28 99 growth is decelerated in anantapur and kadapa, while it is slightly higher at 8 and 3% per decade in chittoor and kurnool respectively. in anantapur, both efficiency and technical change decelerated, while in kadapa, there was a significant upward movement during 1986 to 1996. in kurnool, there was a significant increase in technical change that helped in slight increase in tfp growth, even though efficiency decelerated, on the other hand in case of chittoor efficiency change contributed to tfp growth. table 13 presents tfp growth in the coastal region. in coastal, the highest tfp growth was recorded in nellore followed by krishna, guntur, east godavari, west godavari, srikakulam and visakhapatnam. in nellore, tfp growth was significantly higher with 40% per decade, of which 24% is contributed by efficiency change and the remaining 13% contributed by technological table 10. trends in livestock (resource incentive) and its products. livestock products period coastal rayalaseema telangana (absolute value) (% of coastal) (% of coastal) 1956-65 1 84 323 1966-75 1 47 172 egg (1000 lakhs) 1976-85 14 14 71 1986-95 44 11 64 1996-2005 75 11 63 2006-07 93 10 62 1956-65 8 80 196 1966-75 10 81 172 meat (1000 tons) 1976-85 22 69 125 1986-95 42 56 130 1996-2005 63 51 133 2006-07 76 49 135 1956-65 229 28 87 1966-75 241 28 88 milk (1000 tons) 1976-85 866 25 63 1986-95 2234 29 59 1996-2005 3621 30 57 2006-07 4434 31 57 1956-65 237 30 91 1966-75 251 30 91 fish (1000 tons) 1976-85 887 26 65 1986-95 2276 29 60 1996-2005 3684 31 59 2006-07 4510 32 58 1956-65 51 48 64 1966-75 100 39 82 poultry (lakh ) 1976-85 186 34 90 1986-95 276 32 93 1996-2005 363 32 95 2006-07 2302 33 48 change. in krishna, tfp growth is about 18% per decade of which 11% is contributed by technical change and 7% is contributed by efficiency change. in guntur, tfp growth is 13% per decade, all of which is contributed by technical change. in east godavari, there is almost a stagnant tfp growth, with deceleration in technological change. srikakulam, visakhapatnam and west godavari showed stagnation in tfp growth, even though in srikakulam it improved during the last 2 decades. among the top 10 districts in terms of tfp growth 6 districts are from telangana, 3 from coastal and 1 from rayalaseema. among the top 4 districts namely nellore, hyderabad, karimnagar and warangal, the contribution of efficiency change is higher than technological change, which indicates they are catching up with other frontier districts. among the top 10 districts in efficiency, 6 are from coastal (east godavari, west godavari, krishna, guntur, visakhapatnam and srikakulam) 3 are from rayalaseema (anantapur, chittoor and kurnool) and only 2 are from telangana (nizamabad and khammam). while technological change contribution is higher in krishna, kurnool, khammam, and nizamabad. table 14 presents the region wise trends in tfp growth. overall tfp growth in telangana is about 13% per decade, while the same is 11% per decade in coastal, while tfp growth in rayalaseema is stagnant. in telangana and coastal, until 1976 there was stagnation in tfp growth, then after there was a good table 11. mean efficiency and tfp growth per decade and its decomposition from 1956 to 2007 in telangana districts. . district variable 1956 1956-66 1966-76 1976-86 1986-96 1996-2007 mean mean efficiency (b&c) 0.28 0.27 0.31 0.46 0.56 0.61 0.43 hyderabad tfp growth 1 1.24 1.69 1.50 1.00 1.03 1.26 efficiency change 1 1.10 1.80 1.38 1.00 1.00 1.22 technical change 1 1.12 0.94 1.08 1.00 1.03 1.03 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.48 0.46 0.40 0.45 0.58 0.64 0.50 karimnagar tfp growth 1 1.12 0.79 1.63 1.68 1.32 1.26 efficiency change 1 1.19 0.92 1.25 1.23 1.30 1.17 technical change 1 0.94 0.86 1.31 1.36 1.01 1.08 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.35 0.36 0.38 0.45 0.57 0.72 0.49 warangal tfp growth 1 1.30 0.62 1.72 1.46 1.57 1.26 efficiency change 1 1.81 0.80 1.38 1.03 1.48 1.25 technical change 1 0.72 0.77 1.25 1.42 1.06 1.01 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.61 0.64 0.59 0.58 0.78 0.87 0.69 khammam tfp growth 1 1.14 0.60 1.66 1.41 1.37 1.17 efficiency change 1 1.25 0.59 1.12 1.07 1.27 1.02 technical change 1 0.91 1.01 1.48 1.32 1.08 1.14 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.44 0.40 0.47 0.59 0.64 0.75 0.56 medak tfp growth 1 1.10 1.21 1.05 1.31 1.15 1.16 efficiency change 1 1.03 1.42 0.90 1.26 1.09 1.13 technical change 1 1.07 0.85 1.16 1.04 1.06 1.03 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.50 0.50 0.57 0.67 0.73 0.89 0.67 adilabad tfp growth 1 1.01 1.04 0.95 1.20 1.22 1.08 efficiency change 1 0.98 1.09 0.91 1.10 1.00 1.01 technical change 1 1.03 0.96 1.05 1.08 1.22 1.07 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.77 0.76 0.61 0.64 0.68 0.70 0.68 nalgonda tfp growth 1 1.12 0.65 1.43 1.15 1.12 1.06 efficiency change 1 1.25 0.82 0.99 0.96 0.96 0.99 technical change 1 0.90 0.79 1.44 1.20 1.17 1.07 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.90 0.80 0.64 0.63 0.63 0.66 0.67 mahbubnagar tfp growth 1 0.97 0.60 1.58 1.18 1.10 1.04 efficiency change 1 0.96 0.75 1.11 1.13 1.04 0.99 technical change 1 1.01 0.81 1.42 1.04 1.06 1.05 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.93 0.92 0.83 0.82 0.59 0.54 0.72 nizamabad tfp growth 1 1.00 1.00 0.91 1.24 0.76 0.97 efficiency change 1 1.00 1.00 0.83 0.82 0.70 0.86 technical change 1 1.00 1.00 1.10 1.51 1.08 1.12 mean efficiency (b&c) estimates are based on battese and coelli (1995) model. growth, while in rayalaseema except in 1986 to 1996, there was stagnation in growth. in both coastal and telangana, most of the growth came from technological change, which indicates technological progress ushered by green revolution in major crops like paddy. in coastal, efficiency is highest throughout the period, while in telangana efficiency is the lowest, it indicates that with the existing resource endowment and technology, table 12. mean efficiency and tfp growth per decade and its decomposition from 1956 to 2007 in rayalaseema districts. district data 1956 1956-66 1966-76 1976-86 1986-96 1996-2007 mean mean efficiency (b&c) 0.78 0.87 0.84 0.81 0.89 0.85 0.85 chittoor tfp growth 1 1.45 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.08 efficiency change 1 1.90 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.14 technical change 1 0.77 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.95 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.95 0.87 0.83 0.80 0.87 0.88 0.85 kurnool tfp growth 1 0.67 0.83 1.23 1.55 1.09 1.03 efficiency change 1 0.71 0.91 1.03 1.28 0.82 0.93 technical change 1 0.94 0.91 1.20 1.21 1.33 1.11 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.47 0.45 0.44 0.48 0.53 0.61 0.50 kadapa tfp growth 1 0.71 0.62 1.05 1.56 1.04 0.94 efficiency change 1 0.99 0.77 0.90 1.13 1.02 0.95 technical change 1 0.72 0.80 1.16 1.38 1.01 0.99 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.96 0.89 0.67 0.66 0.72 0.68 0.72 anantapur tfp growth 1 0.99 0.92 0.84 1.00 1.04 0.95 efficiency change 1 1.09 0.98 0.75 1.05 0.99 0.97 technical change 1 0.91 0.93 1.12 0.96 1.05 0.99 telangana can increase its output by more than 28% from the existing level, while coastal region could enhance it by only 14% and rayalaseema by 25% in 2007. conclusions and policy options the agricultural development in the less developed districts is a big challenge as they are resource poor regions and crops are grown under more risky agroecological conditions, over the time they become specialized in dry land crops, which are technologically less productive and high risk crops, farmers are deprived of physical and financial capital, higher costs in developing, delivering and accessing services (for input or output markets, or research, extension from both public and private sectors), greater competition in their output markets make their agriculture unsustainable. many of these difficulties are endogenous, such as agroecological, locational, demographic and socio-economic which affects agricultural transformation is a direct result of these differences. it is unfortunate that an already difficult task has been made harder by broader processes of change (for example some aspects of globalization and withdrawal of state from support services). governments must try to reduce transaction costs and increase profitability to farmers and traders where high transaction costs and low profits are constraining development of these unfavourable regions. with more variability, risk and uncertainty and with lower densities of economic activity (like anantapur and mahbubnagar), the need for state support is even greater than it was in the high-income regions. so far in this paper, we have argued that agricultural growth, particularly cereal based intensification, offers the best potential in the coastal region. on the other hand. telangana and rayalaseema regions are not suitable for such cereal based revolution. this leaves policy makers with a major challenge as external action to reduce transaction costs and raise the profitability of agricultural diversification led growth. what then are the best policy options for agricultural growth in these areas in the long run, keeping their competitiveness? some policy options are not controversial: the benefits of education, improved governance and communications infrastructure are widely recognised and benefit farm sectors in under developed regions. some researchers also question effectiveness of research and extension services without complementary markets and infrastructure, and there is a continuing process of experimentation about the best means and practices to finance and deliver these services to commercial and subsistence farmers. high transaction costs may be even more constraining on agricultural diversification towards commercial crops, there is a greater need for price support and stabilisation to make the technologies financially attractive to farmers (reddy, 2009a, b). due to lack of policies which address regional disparities,the gap widened between the potential and the actual productive capacities of agriculture. the paper also examined productivity growth, since the table 13. mean efficiency and tfp growth per decade and its decomposition from 1956 to 2007 in coastal districts. district data 1956 1956-66 1966-76 1976-86 1986-96 1996-2007 mean mean efficiency (b&c) 0.52 0.41 0.41 0.62 0.86 0.89 0.61 nellore tfp growth 1 0.90 1.15 2.39 1.58 1.39 1.40 efficiency change 1 1.11 1.27 1.68 1.10 1.12 1.24 technical change 1 0.82 0.90 1.43 1.44 1.24 1.13 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.75 0.74 0.74 0.79 0.92 0.92 0.82 krishna tfp growth 1 1.15 0.94 1.27 1.40 1.17 1.18 efficiency change 1 1.06 0.98 1.22 1.02 1.03 1.06 technical change 1 1.09 0.95 1.04 1.37 1.14 1.11 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.90 0.80 0.89 0.94 0.88 0.88 0.90 guntur tfp growth 1 1.23 1.03 1.27 1.02 1.13 1.13 efficiency change 1 1.19 0.96 1.14 0.81 0.96 1.00 technical change 1 1.03 1.07 1.12 1.25 1.18 1.13 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.91 0.86 0.81 0.80 0.92 0.92 0.86 east godavari tfp growth 1 1.16 1.01 1.00 1.06 1.00 1.04 efficiency change 1 1.35 1.02 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.07 technical change 1 0.86 0.99 1.00 1.06 1.00 0.98 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.95 0.92 0.86 0.81 0.87 0.82 0.85 west godavari tfp growth 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.13 1.00 1.02 efficiency change 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 technical change 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.13 1.00 1.02 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.61 0.60 0.60 0.66 0.80 0.91 0.71 srikakulam tfp growth 1 0.97 0.97 0.66 1.34 1.26 1.01 efficiency change 1 1.47 1.01 0.61 0.94 1.16 1.00 technical change 1 0.66 0.96 1.08 1.43 1.09 1.01 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.90 0.86 0.84 0.85 0.93 0.92 0.88 visakhapatnam tfp growth 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 efficiency change 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 technical change 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 formation of united andhra pradesh in 1956 at district level, by using malmquist productivity indices. overall, tfp growth in agriculture and allied activities in telangana is about 1.3% per annum, the same are 1.1% per annum in coastal, while tfp growth in rayalaseema is stagnant. it indicates that, there is a convergence in tfp growth among districts of developed coastal and less developed telangana regions, but districts in rayalaseema region are left out of this growth process, as rayalaseema region is not able to catch up with the other two regions in agricultural productivity. another important finding is that irrespective of region most backward districts in agriculture, that is srikakulam, visakhapatnam, anantapur, kadapa, adilabad, nalgonda, mahbubnagar and nizamabad showed stagnation in tfp growth during the last 50 years. with the existing resource endowment and technology, telangana can increase its output by more than 28% from the existing level, while rayalaseema region can enhance its output by 25%, coastal region by only 14% as revealed from efficiency estimates. shadow input shares indicate that, still gross irrigated area, fertilizer use and availability of labour are three important inputs, which limits the district production frontier. inefficiency effects model (bettese and coelli, 1995) reveals that market infrastructure and credit availability are two important variables in increasing efficiency. study results also emphasize importance of resource endowment (physical table 14. region wise mean efficiency and tfp growth per decade and its decomposition from 1956 to 2007. region data 1956 1956-66 1966-76 1976-86 1986-96 1996-2007 mean mean efficiency (b&c) 0.54 0.53 0.51 0.58 0.64 0.70 0.59 mean efficiency (dea) 0.52 0.60 0.58 0.63 0.67 0.72 0.62 telangana tfp growth 1 1.10 0.85 1.34 1.28 1.16 1.13 efficiency change 1 1.15 0.97 1.08 1.06 1.07 1.06 technical change 1 0.96 0.88 1.24 1.21 1.08 1.07 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.78 0.73 0.70 0.77 0.89 0.90 0.80 mean efficiency (dea) 0.68 0.79 0.81 0.85 0.83 0.86 0.80 coastal tfp growth 1 1.05 1.01 1.14 1.20 1.13 1.11 efficiency change 1 1.16 1.03 1.05 0.98 1.04 1.05 technical change 1 0.91 0.98 1.09 1.23 1.09 1.05 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.76 0.74 0.67 0.68 0.73 0.75 0.72 mean efficiency (dea) 0.77 0.85 0.77 0.71 0.78 0.75 0.77 rayalaseema tfp growth 1 0.91 0.83 1.02 1.25 1.04 1.00 efficiency change 1 1.10 0.91 0.91 1.11 0.96 0.99 technical change 1 0.83 0.91 1.12 1.12 1.09 1.01 mean efficiency (b&c) 0.65 0.63 0.60 0.66 0.74 0.77 0.68 mean efficiency (dea) 0.62 0.71 0.69 0.72 0.74 0.77 0.71 andhra pradesh tfp growth 1 1.04 0.90 1.20 1.24 1.12 1.10 efficiency change 1 1.14 0.98 1.03 1.04 1.04 1.04 technical change 1 0.91 0.92 1.16 1.20 1.09 1.05 mean efficiency (dea) estimates are with data envelopment analysis. and human) in base year for subsequent growth. some of the issues policy should address are: (i) ensuring market access at village level to finance and inputs, and hence to output markets can only be addressed by policy intervention to promote agricultural diversification growth strategy, (ii) direct and indirect costs and benefits need to be accounted while addressing exposure to risk in the more marginal agro-ecological regions, (iii) policy analysis should consider the costs, benefits and difficulties of market interventions together with those of welfare interventions, as they both compete for the same resources with similar objectives and outcomes, (iv) development of new institutions and market structures that will require less state support and become self sustainable, (v) action research is needed in institutional innovation, trying out innovative institutional arrangements involving for example, elements of interlocking transactions, producer groups, regulated monopsony, cooperative competition and use of agents such as traders, trader information groups, and (vi) promotion of new communication technology, transport, contract farming and market infrastructure to reduce transaction costs. references barro r, sala-i-martin x (1991). "convergence across states and regions", brookings paper on economic activity, p.107. battese ge, coelli tj (1995). “a model for technical inefficiency effects in a stochastic frontier production function for panel data”, empir. econ., 20: 325-332. change decomposition of indian banks. finan. india, 19(3): 9831001. charnes a, cooper ww, rhodes e (1978). “measuring the efficiency of decision making units”, eur. j. oper. res., (2): 429-444. chaudhuri s, gupta n (2009). “levels of living and poverty patterns: a district-wise analysis for india”, econ. pol. wkly xliv, (9): 94-110. coelli tj, dsp r (2003). total factor productivity growth in agriculture: a malmquist index analysis of 93 countries,1980-2000, centre for efficiency and productivity analysis, working paper series, no. 02/2003. coelli tj, prasada rds, battese ge (1998). an introduction to efficiency and productivity analysis, boston: kluwer academic publishers, pp. 271. datt g, ravallion m (1996). "how important to india's poor is the sectoral composition of economic growth?" the world bank econ. rev., 10(1): 1-25. fare r, grosskopf s, norris m, zhang z (1994). “productivity growth, technical progress and efficiency changes in industrialized countries, am. econ. rev., 84: 66-83. farrell mj (1957). “the measurement of productive efficiency”, j.r. stat. soc., series a (general), 120(3): 253-290. fulginiti le, perrin rk (1997).“ldc agriculture: nonparametric malmquist productivity indexes”, j. dev. econ., 53: 373-390. reddy aa, kumar p (2006). occupational structure of workers in rural andhra pradesh‟, j. indian school of politic. econ., pp. 77-91 janjune 2006. reddy aa (2004). consumption pattern, trade and production potential of pulses, econ. pol. wkly, 39(44): 4854-4860. reddy aa (2005). banking sector deregulation and productivity reddy aa (2006). productivity growth of regional rural banks, econ. pol. wkly, 41(11): 1079-1086. reddy aa (2009a). pulses production technology: status and way forward. econ. pol. wkly, 44(52): 73-80, december 2009. reddy aa (2009b). policy options for india‟s edible oil complex, econ. pol. wkly, 44(4): 22-24. reddy aa (2010). disparities in agricultural productivity growth in andhra pradesh. indian econ. j. 58(1): 134-152. reddy aa, rani cr, reddy gp (2011). policy for edible oil complex in india under wto regime (november, 05 2009). j. of rural dev., 30(1): 11-24. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-005, january, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper optimizing olive harvest methods for maximum yield and efficiency g. cicek*, s. k. sumer and h. kocabiyik department of agricultural machinery, canakkale onsekiz mart university, 17020 canakkale, turkey. accepted 21 november, 2023 in this research, olives were harvested by four different methods (wood rake, wood stick, mechanical bough shaker + wood stick and electronic harvesting rake + wood stick) and an effort was made to determine their effect on olive yield. from the data obtained during a two year period, the method with the highest work capacity was determined to be the third method (mechanical bough shaker + wood stick), and the lowest work capacity was obtained from the first method (wood rake). when the average work capacities for two years are examined, the highest work capacity was obtained for the 3rd method (51.53 kg/man hour), followed by the 2nd method (31.43 kg/man hour), 4th method (28.01 kg/man hour) and the 1st method (19.19 kg/man hour), respectively. when the yield averages for two years are examined, the highest yield was obtained for the 3rd method (21.64 kg), followed by the 4th method (14.06 kg), 2nd method (13.64 kg) and 1st method (19.19 kg), respectively. key words: olive, harvesting tool, yield, work capacity. introduction olive is accepted by world health organizations as an important source of nutrition, makes a significant contribution to the economy and the agriculture of olive cultivating nations. olives are grown on around 10 million hectare area containing 800 million trees. it has been determined that over 90% of the harvested olives are used for making oil and that the annual olive oil production in the world is over 2.5 million tons (wiesman, 2009). according to the international olive oil council (iooc) 97% of the worlds olive production occurs in mediterranean countries. turkey is an important olive producer like spain, italy, greece and tunisia, produces 8.5% of the world olives, 5% of world olive oil production and 11.5% of worlds table olive production (anonymous, 2004). the total olive cultivation area in turkey is 600,000 hectares and it represents 2% of the total agricultural land and 22% of all fruit and vineyard producing lands. the employment of approximately 400 thousand families means not only the *corresponding author. e-mail: giyas@comu.edu.tr. tel: +90 286 218 00 18. fax: +90 286 218 05 45. utilization of the family work capacity but also represents 2% of all agricultural employment (yapici, 2006; aksu et al., 2003). in olive harvesting, as in many other agricultural crops, the requirement for labor and the cost are higher than that required for other processes in olive production. in all olive production processes, harvesting is the process that requires the most labor. the work carried out in turkey has shown that, olive harvesting takes up 40 to 80% of the total labor time and that it represents 30 to 60% of the total production cost (anonymous, 2002, saracoglu, 2006). in olive production, 50 to 65% of the total labor requirements are attributable to the harvesting phase (caran, 1998; saracoglu, 2006). currently, olive harvesting is carried out by both traditional methods and using harvesting machines. the use of machines in harvest has resulted an increase in yields. on the other hand, completion of the harvest within the optimum period of time which varies according the crop differences is an other important factor for a succesful harvest operation (say, 2009). mechanized harvest in olive production allows timely operations. therios (2009) indicated that 10 to 15 trees/h or more can be harvested using harvesters with two or three 2 operators. however, the equipment and the machines used in harvesting can cause various types of damages to the olive trees. peeling and even breakages were observed at the points where the bough shakers are tied to the trees. breakages also occur in shaking and raking methods. the olive tree should not be damaged to be able to obtain the best quality of olives. on the other hand, wiesman (2009) indicated that damage to olive trees were caused by traditional methods in many regions. thus the yield is low, the trees are severely damaged, and the cost of the harvesting operation is high. different mechanical harvesting methods were proposed and developed instead of hand harvest. keeping in views of the above fact the present investigation was undertaken to study the effect of different harvest methods on olive yield and work capacity. materials and methods the study was carried out in an olive grove in burhaniye (turkey) where olive cultivation is quite common. the trees with the same attributes were identified (age, yield, applied agricultural treatments) for the trials of the four different machine harvesting methods. the method of harvesting applied for the first year was repeated for the second year as well. for each method three repeats were carried out. randomized plots design was applied for selection of the trees for the repeats. olives were harvested with workers using wood rakes in the first method (harvesting with wood rake). olives were harvested with workers using wood sticks in the second method (harvesting with wood stick). in the third method (mechanical bough shaker + wood stick) olives were harvested by employing experienced workers in the use of the mechanical bough shaker. the hook at the end of the machine was hooked onto the boughs and the vibration from the engine enabled the harvesting of the olives. olives remained in the tree after machine harvest was harvested using wood sticks. the fourth method (electronic harvesting rake + wood stick) used the electronic harvesting rake machine. this machine was applied to all the boughs of individual trees by an experienced worker and as in the previous method the remaining olives were harvested using a wood stick. working time was measured using a chronometer and the weights of the olives were determined for each method. work capacity and the weight of the harvested crop were determined for the obtained (asae, 2006). the collected olives were weighed using an electronic sensitive weighing device. in all the methods 5 to 8 canvas fabrics in the size of 10×10 m were used to prevent the loss of olives and also the damages that occur when the olives fell on the ground. the harvesting methods given above were repeated for the trees in each application in the following year. the data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance and duncan multiple comparison test. the effect of different harvesting methods on olive yield was investigated for two years. results and discussion work capacity data work capacities that were determined for four different harvesting methods are given in table 1 for the 1st and 2nd years. from the harvesting data acquired, it was observed that there was an increase in work capacity in methods 1 and 2 where wood rake and wood stick were used. in methods 3 and 4, in which machines were used for harvesting, there was a decrease in work capacity used and an increase in work capacity when wood sticks were used. in the third method when only mechanical bough shaker was used the two year average for the work capacity was 161.27 kg/man hour. although having to use a wood stick after the machine to harvest the remaining olives results in a decrease in work capacity, the overall best result was obtained from this method. wiesman (2009) and therios (2009) indicated that 10 15 trees/h or more can be harvested using harvesters with two or three operators. the same situation applies to the 4th method. when electronic harvesting rake is used on its own, the two year average work capacity was 72.61 kg/man hour, and using the wood stick after electronic harvesting rake to bring down the remaining olives decreased the work capacity to 28.01 kg/man hour. during the 1st year the highest work capacity was obtained from the 3rd method (34.52 kg/man hour) among the harvesting methods. the second highest work capacity was obtained from the 4th method (28.01 kg/man hour) which was followed by the 2nd method (20.29 kg/man hour) and the 1st method (14.3 kg/man hour), respectively. during the 2nd year the highest work capacity was obtained from the 3rd method (68.54 kg/man hour), while the second highest work capacity was obtained from the 2nd method (42.58 kg/man hour), followed by the 4th method (32.05 kg/man hour) and finally the 1st method (24.09 kg/man hour). there was a high statistical significance between the changes in the 1st and the 2nd year’s variances (r: 0.91). the use of the same harvesting method on the some tree in two succeeding years did not affect the work capacity (table 2). the work capacities of the different methods increased for all of the methods from 1st year to the second. the highest increase was determined for to the 2nd method (109.81%), which was followed by the 3rd method (98.56%), the 1st method (68.49%) and the 4th method (33.71%), respectively (table 2). saracoglu (2003) obtained the highest work capacity with mechanical bough shaker in olive harvest. the average work capacities for two years associated with the harvesting methods are given in table 3. when the average work capacities for two years were examined, the highest work capacity was obtained for the 3rd method (51.53 kg/man hour), followed by the 2nd method (31.43 kg/man hour), 4th method (28.01 kg/man hour) and the 1st method (19.19 kg/man hour), respectively. the effect of applied harvesting methods on 3 table 1. the work capacities of different methods used (kg/man hour). wood rake shaker electronic rake wood stick year 1 year2 % year 1 year 2 % year 1 year 2 % year 1 year 2 % method 1 14.3 24.09 68.49 method 2 20.29 42.58 109.81 method 3 169.74 152.8 -9.97 10.98 18.75 70.82 method 4 87.3 57.91 -33.66 8.44 12.22 44.91 table 2. the work capacity of different methods (kg/man hours) and the associated variation ratios (%). method 1 change method 2 change method 3 change method 4 change year 1 14,3 68.49 20.29 109.81 34,52 98.56 23,97 33.71 year 2 24,09 42.58 68.54 32.05 table 3. average work capacities for two years for the harvesting methods (kg/man hour). average work capacity (kg/man hour) method 1 19.19 ± 5.54 method 2 31.43 ± 12.73 method 3 51.53 ± 19.61 method 4 28.01 ± 5.48 use of bough shaker. the increase in work capacity due that experience of the operator is important during the quantities. the use of inexperienced labor for machine harvesting for the 2nd year has resulted in a reduction in work capacity (table 1). friedley et al. (1973) indicated work capacities had a statistical significance of (p < 0.01). the use of different labor in the 1st and 2nd years may be the source of the variance between the harvest to the use of wood sticks after machine harvesting was reflected in the average work capacity for all methods. there were statistically significant differences in work capacities for all of the methods (table 3). crop quantity data the 1st and 2nd year crop quantities and the change rates obtained from the four different harvesting methods are given in tables 4 and 5. in the 1st year, the highest yield was obtained using the 3rd method (16.49 kg). while the second highest crop yield was obtained from the 4th method (14.05 kg), which were followed by the 2nd method (9.58 kg) and the 1st method (6.09 kg). the different values obtained in the first year may be attributed to the differences in the trees. in the 2nd year the highest yield was obtained from the 3rd method (26.78 kg). the second highest yield was obtained from the 2nd method (17.69 kg), which was followed by the 4th method (14.08 kg) and 1st method (11.35 kg), respecttively. it can be seen that there was an increase in the yield for the first three methods for the second 4 table 4. the crop quantities obtained from four different harvesting methods (kg). wood rake shaker electronic rake wood stick year 1 year 2 % year 1 year 1 year 2 % year 1 year 1 year 2 % year1 method 1 6.09 11.35 86.46 method 2 9.58 17.69 84.66 method 3 11.98 22.2 85.31 4.51 4.58 1.55 method 4 10.08 11.08 9.92 3.97 2.99 -24.51 table 5. the crop quantities (kg) and the variances (%) obtained. method 1 change method 2 change method 3 change method 4 change year 1 6.09 86.46 9.58 84.66 16.49 62.40 14.05 0.21 year 2 11.35 17.69 26.78 14.08 year, while there was no change for the fourth method. this reduction results from bough breakages during harvesting with wood sticks after the machines in the first year. erdogan et al. (2003) indicated that bough shakers do not damage trees and its bark. when the variances between the crop quantities for the 1st and the 2nd years were examined, it was determined that there was a reduction in crop quantities using the 4th method while there was an increase using other harvesting methods. the increase was the highest in the 1st method (86.46%), while it was 84.66% for the 2nd method, 62.4% for the 3rd method and 0.21% for the 4th method, respectively (table 4). there was a high statistical significance between the changes in the 1st and the 2nd year’s variances (r:+0.75). however, the reduction in the crop harvested by the 4th method cannot be attributed to method differences. as was stated previously, the bough breakages are responsible for the crop reduction in the second year. when the yield averages of two years were examined, the highest yield was obtained from the 3rd method (21.64 kg), followed by the 4th method (14.06 kg), 2nd method (13.64 kg) and 1st method (19.19 kg), respectively. there was a statistical significant (p<0.01) difference between the yield based on different harvesting methods. when viewed from a statistical perspective there was no yield difference between the 2nd and the 4th methods (table 6). when the variances in average work capacities of two years and the total yields were compared, high correlation (r: +0.78) between the two variables can be observed (table 7). as was stated previously, the variance in work capacity may be attributed to the use of different workers for machine harvesting, and the variance in yield results from bough breakages. when the differences are ignored, a correlation coefficient was obtained between 0.90 and 1. thus, it can be seen from the two year data that the crop quantities have a positive influence on work capacity. conclusıon although many studies in the olive industry, mechanical harvesting technology is still not fully developed. yield changes have been similar to one another in the trees which were harvested by different methods. the highest increase occurred in the first and the second methods. bough breakages were seen during harvesting with wood sticks. bough breakages cause decline in yield in the following year. the use of wood stick after machines results in a reduction of the work capacity. the use of machines for olive harvesting at a maximum rate will ensure that more crops are harvested in a shorter time. the pruning method of the olive trees 5 table 6. the two year yield averages of the harvesting methods (kg). yield average (kg) method 1 8.72 ± 3.04 method 2 13.64 ± 4.49 method 3 21.64 ± 5.96 method 4 14.06 ± 0.82 table 7. variances of the average work capacity and the total yield (%). method 1 method 2 method 3 method 4 average work capacity 68.49 109.8 98.56 33.71 total yield 86.46 84.66 62.4 0.21 determines the harvesting period. pruning method applicable for machine harvesting should be preferred. in accordance with the data obtained from this study, it can be seen that the use of suitable equipment during harvesting and repeating the appropriate technique every year, will eliminate negative influences such as bough breakages and bark peelings, reducing costs and olive losses from trees. there fore, there will be an increase in the work capacity and yield. acknowledgement this work was supported by academic research projects (project no: 2009/48) of canakkale onsekiz mart university. references aksu b, dizdaroglu d, donmez s (2003). sofralik ve yaglik zeytinde uretim maliyetleri ve karlilik. turkiye i. zeytinyagi ve sofralik zeytin sempozyumu bildirileri, teae yayinlari, yayin no:112, turkey. anonymous (2002). tarim istatistikleri ozeti. die. turkey. anonymous (2004). http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/collections?subset= agriculture. asae (2006). agricultural machinery management. asabe standarts. asae ep496.3 feb2006, pp. 387. caran d (1998). zeytinde hasat. zeytin yetistiriciligi kursu kitabi, tarim ve koyisleri bakanligi, zeytincilik arastirma enstitusu mudurlugu. turkey. erdogan e, guner m, dursun e, gezer i (2003). mechanical harvesting of apricots. biosyst. eng., 85(1): 19-28. fridley rb, mehlschau jj, hartmann ht, logan sh (1973). mechanical harvesting of olives. trans. asae, pp. 58-61. saracoglu t (2006). effective parameters on the mechanic olive harvest. tarimsal mekanizasyon 23. ulusal kongresi. canakkale, pp. 109-114. saracoglu t, ozarslan c (2003). the determination of some handy type olive harvest machines performances. tarimsal mekanizasyon 21. ulusal kongresi. konya, pp. 302-309. say sm (2009). bugday uretiminde optimum hasat doneminin belirlenmesi (determination of optimum harvest period in wheat production) (in turkish). j. agric. mach. sci., 5(1): 61-69. therios i (2009). olives (crop production science in horticulture). cabi head office, nosworty way, wallingford, oxfordshire ox10 8de. uk, pp. 245-254. wiesman z (2009). desert olive oil cultivation. advanced bio technologies. elsevier’s science and technology rights department in oxford, uk, pp. 4-207. yapici c (2006). balıkesir ili burhaniye ilcesinde yaglik zeytin ureten isletmelerin ekonomik analizi. canakkale onsekiz mart universitesi. fen bilimleri enstitusu yuksek lisans tezi. canakkale, pp. 1-5. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (10), pp. 001-007, october, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper response of some ornamental flowers of family ranunculaceae to sucrose feeding waseem shahri*, inayatullah tahir, sheikh tajamul islam and mushtaq ahmad department of botany, plant physiology and biochemistry research laboratory, university of kashmir, srinagar-190006, india. accepted 10 july, 2020 the effect of different concentrations of sucrose on some ornamental flowers of family ranunculaceae was examined. sucrose was found to enhance vase life in cut spikes of aquilegia vulgaris and consolida ajacis cv. violet blue; besides it improves blooming, fresh and dry mass of flowers. a. vulgaris and c. ajacis exhibits abscission type of flower senescence, while senescence in ranunculus asiaticus cultivars is characterized by initial wilting followed by abscission at later stage. in isolated flowers of r. asiaticus cultivars, sucrose was found to be ineffective in delaying senescence and improving post-harvest performance. the study reveals that sucrose treatment shows varied response in different flowers of the same family and its effect appears to be related to ethylene-sensitivity of these flower systems. the paper recommends that more elaborate studies need to be conducted on other ethylene-sensitive flowers to make a generalized argument on relationship between sucrose and ethylene sensitivity. key words: aquilegia vulgaris, consolida ajacis, ranunculus asiaticus, abscission, wilting, sucrose, vase life, fresh mass, dry mass, senescence, ranunculaceae. introduction as long as a flowering shoot or an inflorescence is attached to a mother plant, nutrients are continuously supplied leading to normal development. after it is detached from the plant, the supply of nutrients is cut off and the physiological processes leading to senescence are hastened (halevy and mayak, 1979). improvement in the post harvest life of flowers by sugar loading has been demonstrated in a number of ethylene-sensitive flower systems (mayak and dilley, 1976; monteiro et al., 2002; pun and ichimura, 2003; verlinden and vicente garcia, 2004; van doorn, 2004). very little is known about the role of sugars in ethylene-insensitive flower senescence (eason et al., 2002). among the different types of sugars, sucrose has been found to be the most commonly used sugar in prolonging vase life of cut flowers and the exogenous application of sucrose supplies the flowers with much needed substrates for respiration and does not only prolongs vase life, but enables cut flowers harvested *corresponding author. e-mail: waseem.bot@gmail.com. at the bud stage to open, which otherwise could not occur naturally (pun and ichimura, 2003). azad et al. (2008) has recently demonstrated that it is the intercellular energy depletion which serves as an early signal to trigger pcd in tulips (both cut and uncut). aquilegia vulgaris (white columbine) produces beautiful spikes with creamy white long–spurred flowers. the flowers possess five petals like sepals, five true petals, five pistils and numerous stamens. it is commonly cultivated as a landscape plant and as cut flower. consolida ajacis (ranunculaceae) commonly called “rocket larkspur” possesses blue to violet flowers borne on long erect spikes (40 50 cm) in racemes. ranunculus asiaticus cv. red commonly known as „butter cup‟ possesses dark red terminal flowers with a cluster of brownish anthers at centre surrounding the carpel. r. asiaticus hybrid possesses pinkish-yellow terminal flowers with a cluster of black or brownish anthers at centre surrounding the carpel. the present study was conducted to study the effects of different concentrations of sucrose on some ornamental flowers of family ranunculaceae with the aim to enhance their vase life file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org table 1. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on vase life of some ornamental flowers of family ranunculaceae. plant species different concentrations of sucrose dw (control) 0.05 m 0.1 m 0.15 m 0.2 m lsd at p0.05 aquilegia vulgaris 5.0 8.5 6.0 4.0 0.35 c. ajacis cv. violet blue 6.8 7.2 8.5 9.3 10.6 0.44 r. asiaticus cv. red 5.3 4.5 4.3 4.0 4.0 0.32 r. asiaticus hybrid 7.3 5.5 3.0 3.0 2.0 0.24 each value is a mean of 10 independent replicates. table 2. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on blooming in cut spikes of a. vulgaris and c. ajacis cv. violet blue at day 6 (d6) of transfer to holding solutions. plant species different concentrations of sucrose dw (control) 0.05 m 0.1 m 0.15 m 0.2 m lsd at p0.05 a. vulgaris 4.0 (57.2) 6.0 (85.7) 5.0 (71.4) 2.5(35.7) 0.72 c. ajacis 13.3(86.3) 14.3 (100) 15.0 (100) 15.0 (100) 16.6(100) 0.84 each value is a mean of 10 independent replicates. figures in parentheses represent percent blooms. and to demonstrate its potential in delaying senescence in ethylene-insensitive members. materials and methods spikes of c. ajacis cv. violet blue, a. vulgaris, isolated flowers of r. asiaticus cv. red and r. asiaticus hybrid growing in the open at the university botanic garden were used for the study. in case of c. ajacis and a. vulgaris, the spikes were harvested at 1 2 floret open stage, while in case of r. asiaticus cultivars; the flowers were harvested at half -open stage. the harvested spikes and flowers were immediately brought to the laboratory, defoliated and cut to a uniform size of 35 cm in c. ajacis, 30 cm in a. vulgaris and 15 cm in r. asiaticus cultivars. in each case, the harvested material was transferred to ehrlenmeyer flasks containing different concentrations (0.05 0.20 m) of sucrose. a separate set of spikes or flowers were transferred to flasks containing distilled water (dw), which represented respective controls. each treatment was represented by 10 replicates (flasks) with each flask containing one spike or flower. treatment effects were evaluated by keeping the samples in the laboratory at a temperature of 22 ± 2°c in case of c. ajacis and 15 ± 2°c in case of a. vulgaris and r. asiaticus cultivars, under cool white fluorescent light with a mix of diffused natural light (10 w m – 2 ) 12 h a day and rh of 60 ± 10%. the day of harvest was designated as day zero. the average vase life of spikes was counted from the day of harvest and was assessed to be terminated when approximately 70% florets senesced on each spike. the average vase life of the ranunculus flowers was counted from the day of transfer of spikes to holding solutions and was assessed to be terminated when the flowers lost their ornamental/display value (underwent colour change; wilt and loose turgidity).the experiment was maintained till the vase life in the last set of spikes/flowers was regarded to be terminated. in case of c. ajacis and a. vulgaris, number of blooms per spike was recorded at regular intervals till maximum number of buds bloomed in a particular treatment including control. total number of buds on each spike was also counted to express the data on percentage basis. fresh and dry mass of the flowers was also determined. dry mass was determined by drying the material in an oven for 48 h at 70°c. the data has been analyzed statistically with sd and lsd computed at p0.05 using minitab (v 15. 1.2-equinox_softddl.net) software. results a. vulgaris a. vulgaris exhibited abscission type of flower senescence wherein the petaloid sepals as well as petals abscised without any significant loss of turgidity (wilting), leaving behind a group of 5 carpels surrounded by a multitude of stamens with withered anthers. the carpels registered a sharp increase in their dimensions immediately after abscission of sepals and petals and develop into five distinct follicles per flower. feeding the spikes of c. ajacis with sucrose at 0.05 and 0.1 m enhanced their vase life by an increment of 1 4 days as compared to control (table 1). reduction in vase life was registered when sucrose was supplied at 0.15 m concentration. a higher fresh and dry mass was maintained in flowers from spikes fed with 0.05 m sucrose as compared to controls and also spikes supplied with higher concentrations of sucrose (figures 1 and 2). sucrose feeding of spikes at 0.05 and 0.1 m concentrations improved the rate of blooming as compared to controls (table 2). c. ajacis cv. violet blue c. ajacis also exhibited abscission type of flower senescence wherein the petaloid sepals and petals figure 1. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on fresh mass of flowers of a. vulgaris at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. figure 2. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on dry mass of flowers of a. vulgaris at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. abscise leaving behind a single carpel and a multitude of stamens with withered anthers. the single carpel registered a sharp increase in its dimensions as the other floral parts abscise, and finally developed into follicle. in c. ajacis, the sepals become papery and develop curvy margins immediately before they abscise. sucrose feeding of cut spikes enhanced vase life as compared to controls (table 1) . maximum vase life was reported in spikes transferred to 0.2 m sucrose solution, which was 3 days ahead of spikes transferred to distilled water. fresh and dry mass of flowers increased with an increase in the concentration of sucrose. samples from spikes supplied with 0.15 and 0.2 m sucrose resulted in higher fresh and dry mass as compared to samples from spikes supplied with lower concentrations (0.01 and 0.05 m) of sucrose (figures 3 and 4). sucrose feeding improved rate of blooming. 100% blooming was achieved in about 6 days in case of spikes supplied with different concentrations of sucrose as compared to controls, which achieved only 85% blooming (table 2). r. asiaticus cv. red the initial symptom of petal senescence was wilting, followed by abscission at the later stage. the petals underwent a typical colour change from dark red to brick red with a loss of turgidity and lusture. flowers underwent figure 3. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on fresh mass of flowers of c. ajacis at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. figure 4. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on dry mass of flowers of c. ajacis at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. structural disorganization and finally the petals abscised. sepals abscised much later than petals and stamens. feeding the flowers with different concentrations of sucrose did not improve their vase life. vase life registered a decrease with an increase in sucrose concentration. maximum vase life was recorded in flowers transferred to distilled water (table 1). sucrose fed flowers at 0.05 and 0.1 m concentrations registered an increase in fresh and dry mass as compared to controls. however, a reduction in fresh and dry mass was observed in flowers supplied with 0.15 and 0.2 m sucrose (figures 5 and 6). r. asiaticus hybrid the initial symptom of petal senescence was wilting, followed by abscission at the later stage. the petals lost figure 5. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on fresh mass of flowers of r. asiaticus cv. red at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. figure 6. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on dry mass of flowers of r. asiaticus cv. red at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. turgidity and lusture. flowers underwent structural disorganization and finally the petals abscised. sepal abscised much later than petals and stamens. feeding the flowers with different concentrations of sucrose did not improve their vase life. vase life registered a decrease with the increase in sucrose concentration. a drastic reduction in vase life was recorded in flowers supplied with higher concentrations of sucrose (table 1). maximum vase life was recorded in flowers transferred to distilled water. sucrose fed flowers registered a general decrease in fresh and dry mass as compared to controls (figures 7 and 8). figure 7. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on fresh mass of flowers of r. asiaticus hybrid at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. figure 8. effect of different concentrations of sucrose on dry mass of flowers of r. asiaticus hybrid at day 2, 4 and 6 of transfer. discussion the results of our experiments suggest that sucrose at 0.05 and 0.2 m significantly enhanced vase life of cut spikes of a. vulgaris and c. ajacis, respectively, while it was found ineffective in enhancing vase life of cut r. asiaticus cultivars. ethylene sensitivity in a. vulgaris is not known yet, but c. ajacis has been found to be ethylenesensitive (finger, 2001; dole et al., 2005), while r. asiaticus cultivars (kenza et al., 2000; dole et al., 2005) as ethylene-insensitive. the beneficial effect of sugars on flower senescence has been attributed to the supply of substrates for respiration, structural materials and osmoticum (halevy and mayak, 1979), and has been attributed to the suppression of ethylene biosynthesis or sensitivity to ethylene (ichimura and hisamatsu, 1999; ichimura and suto, 1999; ichimura et al., 2000; liao et al., 2000; pun and ichimura, 2003). it suggests the existence of some relationships between sucrose and ethylene production during flower senescence. exogenous sugars have been found to delay visible senescence in flowers with ethylene-sensitive petal senescence, but having only a small or no effect in flowers with ethylene-insensitive petal senescence (van doorn and stead, 1994; van doorn, 2004) . sugars have been found to delay the increase in mrna abundance of a number of senescence-associated genes (eason et al., 2002; hoeberichts et al., 2007). it may therefore be, suggested that lack of ethylene-sensitivity of r. asiaticus cultivars may be one of the factors contributing to the ineffectivity of sucrose in delaying their senescence and improving postharvest life. in case of a. vulgaris and c. ajacis spikes, sucrose feeding maintained higher fresh and dry mass of flowers as compared to controls. it is suggested that sucrose induces the closure of stomata, eventually reducing the loss of water, thereby, reducing transpiration and maintaining the fresh mass (marousky, 1969; chen et al., 2001). maintenance of dry mass of flowers could be also due to lower respiratory losses as sucrose has been found to suppress respiration in certain plant tissues by delaying climacteric rise in ethylene biosynthesis (dilley and carpenter, 1975; ichimura and suto, 1999; zhang and leung, 2001; ichimura et al., 2000). spikes of a. vulgaris and c. ajacis fed with sucrose showed an improvement in rate of blooming by promoting opening of immature buds. the study reveals that sugar status is one of the factors responsible for shorter vase life of a. vulgaris and c. ajacis spikes, while in r. asiaticus cultivars, other factors might be involved. although the study is of preliminary nature, it is important in the context that little information is available regarding the use of sucrose in ethyleneinsensitive flower systems. the study also suggests that more elaborate studies need to be conducted on other ethylene-sensitive flowers to make a generalized argument on relationship between sucrose and ethylene sensitivity. acknowledgements the authors thank prof. g.h dar, head department of botany for providing necessary facilities and dr. a.q. john, professor emeritus skaust, kashmir for cultivar identification. waseem shahri thanked the university grants commission (ugc, india) for providing junior research fellowship. sheikh tajamul and mushtaq ahmad thanked the council of scientific and industrial research (csir, india) for providing research scholarship. references azad ak, ishikawa ty, ishikawa th, sawa y, shibata h (2008). intracellular energy depletion triggers programmed cell death during petal senescence in tulip. j. exp. bot. 59: 2085-2095. chen ws, liao lj, chen cy, huang ku (2001). kinetin, gibberrellic acid and sucrose affect vase life in oncidium spp. acta bot. gallica. 148: 177-181. dilley dr, carpenter wj (1975). principles and application of hypobaric storage of cut flowers. acta hort. 41: 249-252. dole jm, fonteno wc, blankenship sl (2005). comparison of silver thiosulphate with 1methyl cyclopropene on 19 cut flower taxa. acta hort. 682: 249-256. eason jr, ryan dj, pinkney tt, òdonoghue em (2002). programmed cell death during flower senescence: isolation and characterization of cysteine proteinases from sandersonia aurantiaca. funct. plant biol. 29: 1055-1064. finger fl (2001). pulsing with sucrose and silver thiosulphate extended the vase life of consolida ajacis. acta hort. 543: 63-67. halevy ah, mayak s (1979). senescence and post harvest physiology of cut flowers, part i. hort. rev. 1: 204-236. hoeberichts fa, van doorn wg, vorst o, hall rd, van wordragen mf (2007). sucrose prevents upregulation of senescence-associated genes in carnation petals. j. exp. bot. 58(11): 2873-2885. ichimura k, hisamatsu t (1999). effect of continuous treatment with sucrose on the vase life, soluble carbohydrate concentrations and ethylene production of snapdragon flowers. j. jap. soc. hort. sci. 68: 61-66. ichimura k, kohata k, goto r (2000). soluble carbohydrates in delphinium and their influence on sepal abscission in cut flowers. physiol. plant. 108: 307-313. ichimura k, suto k (1999). effect of the time of sucrose treatment on vase life, soluble carbohydrate concentrations and ethylene production in cut sweet pea flowers. plant growth regulation. 28: 117-122. kenza m, umeil n, borochov a (2000). the involvement of ethylene in the senescence of ranunculus cut flowers. post harvest biol. technol. 19(3): 287-290. liao lj, lin y, huang kl, chen ws, cheng y (2000). postharvest life of cut rose flowers as affected by silver thiosulphate and sucrose. bot. bull.acad. sinica. 41: 299-303. marouskuy fj (1969). vascular blockage, water absorption, stomatal opening and respiration of cut „better times‟ roses treated with 8hydroxyquinoline citrate and sucrose. j. am. soc. hort. sci. 94: 223226. mayak s, dilley dr (1976). effect of sucrose on response of cut carnation to kinetin, ethylene, and abscisic acid. j. am. soc. hort. sci. 101: 583-585. monteiro ja, nell ta, barrett je (2002). effects of exogenous sucrose on carbohydrate levels, flowers respiration and longevity of potted miniature rose (rosa hybrida) flowers during postproduction. post harvest biol. technol. 26: 221-229. pun uk, ichimura k (2003). role of sugars in senescence and biosynthesis of ethylene in cut flowers. jarq 4: 219-224. van doorn wg (2004). is petal senescence due to sugar starvation? plant physiol. 134: 35-42. van doorn wg, stead ad (1994). the physiology of petal senescence which is not initiated by ethylene. in scott rj, stead ad (eds. 1994). molecular and cellular aspects of plant reproduction, cambridge university press, cambridge, pp. 239-254. verlinden s, vicente garcia jj (2004). sucrose loading decreases ethylene responsiveness in carnation (dianthus caryophyllus cv. white sim) petals. post harvest biol. technol. 31: 305-312. zhang zm, leung dwm (2001). elevation of soluble sugar levels by silver thiosulphate is associated with vase life improvement of cut gentiana flowers. j. appl. bot. 75: 85-90. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (2), pp. 001-005, february, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper sustainability of farm credit delivery by cooperatives and ngos in edo and delta states, nigeria g.o. alufohai department of agricultural economics and extension services, university of benin, benin city, edo state, nigeria. e-mail: ax4grace@yahoo.com accepted 07 october, 2019 the paper examined the sustainability rates of co-operatives and ngos in farm credit delivery in edo and delta states of nigeria. the subsidy dependence indices (sdi) and the capital formation rates were determined using both primary and secondary data obtained from 80 and 20 purposively selected cooperatives and ngos respectively, based on their involvement in farm credit delivery. a well structured questionnaire was used to obtain the primary data from the 100 organizations selected from a comprehensive list from the ministry of commerce and industry as well as corporate affairs commission. both descriptive and quantitative statistics as well as financial analysis were employed in analyzing the data. the results showed low capital formation rate of 0.1815 and 0.123 for cooperatives and ngos respectively. cooperatives had zero sdi, having no subsidies throughout the period while ngos had an sdi of 0.7642 which is considered too high for them to sustain the credit delivery function on the withdrawal of subsidies. though with low loan volumes, the study showed cooperatives more likely to sustain the credit delivery function than the ngos, but they may need to improve their capital formation rate. key words: sustainability, farm credit delivery, cooperatives, ngos, nigeria. introduction credit is considered as a catalyst that activates other factors of production and makes under-used capacities functional for increased production (ijere, 1998). thus farm credit plays a crucial role in agricultural and rural development as it enables farmers reap economies of scale, venture into new fields of production, employ new technologies and empower them to provide utilities for a widening market. farm credit plays this role because it bridges the capital gap that exists in agricultural production. farm credit could be obtained from either the formal sources which are the commercial banks and government owned institutions, or the informal sources which are the self-help-group (shg) money lenders, cooperatives and non-governmental organization (ngos). however, aryeetey (1997), stated that the informal rural financial sources in africa perform better than the formal system because they have adapted to the high-risk environment. he therefore advised that the formal sector should learn from the informal institutions. subsequently, the cooperatives and ngos which are formalized informal sources of credit in both rural and urban sectors are being considered as more credible sources to both farmers and small scale enterprises. nevertheless, these informal institutions do not seem to be fulfilling this obligation as evidence still abounds that farmers are still in dire need of adequate capital, oni (1999). this raises such questions as whether these institutions have enough loanable funds to meet the needs of applicants and whether they have the ability to sustain the credit delivery function in terms of capital availability. this study is therefore designed to assess and compare the financial ability of the cooperatives and ngos to sustain the farm credit delivery function as its main objective with such specific objectives as to identify their sources of loanable funds, examine their volume of loanable funds and their adequacy, examine their degree of subsidy dependence and to estimate their capital file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org formation rates. though the issue of self-sustainability and how to assess and measure it remains unclarified especially with the existence of explicit and implicit subsidies, a development financial institution may be considered sustainable if it is able to maintain its lending operations with a reasonable profitability over time (yaron, 1992). it is true that financing investments depends seriously on access to credit facilities and most organizations often cover their operating costs by outside aids. it is however worth noting that if external aids create dependency, and development organizations plan their organisation’s programmes within this dependency, such organisations would crumble in the extreme cases (vincent 1995). in line with this, yaron (1992) stated that institutions with high financial sustainability are said to have low subsidy dependence index (sdi), this was supported by the observations of cgap (1996), and maclsaac (1996), that sustainability appears to correlate with ―best practice‖ design features such as reasonable interest/lending rates, availability of voluntary savings facilities, frequency of loan collection, incentive materials for borrowers and lending staff, as well as high loan repayment rates. managerial ability to move the organization towards selfsustainability is therefore an important task for financial institutions. though the paucity of literature on the argument as to which of either the cooperative movement or the ngos has demonstrable ability to attain sustainability in loan delivery is still of serious concern to researchers, the world bank (1998) asserted that ngos and indigenous savings and credit schemes frequently suffer from lack of sustainability because of their welfare orientation, small scale, low absorptive capacity and lack of exposure to international best practices. as government seeks the best possible micro-finance institutions through which credit could be channeled to farmers for sustainable agricultural development, such microfinance institutions must also be sustainable to deliver the goods. this study therefore looks at the ability of the cooperatives and the ngos to sustain this all important function compare them and advise on options for the achievement of the selfsufficiency policy in food production in nigeria. methodology the study was carried out in edo and delta states of nigeria, an area where agricultural production is the mainstay of the citizens. seven local government areas from edo state and nine from delta were purposively selected for the study due to the preponderance of ngos and cooperatives in the area compared to other parts of the states. a total of twenty ngos and eighty cooperative societies involved in farm credit delivery were purposively selected from the list obtained from the state ministries of commerce and industry and corporate affairs commission. primary data were obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire administered through personal interview while the secondary data were obtained from the annual reports and monthly records of the institutions. three analytical techniques were adopted in this study; — the use of descriptive statistics involving means, percentages and frequency counts — some measures of financial analysis which involved the computation of subsidy dependence index (sdi) for both institutions in line with yaron (1997). — the use of some quantitative techniques, inferential statistics and the calculation of capital formation rates. the sdi model the computation of the sdi was based on yaron (1997) given as sdi= s lp. n where s = annual subsidy received by each organization calculated from s = a (m-c) + [(e.m) – p] + k where a = organization’s concessional borrowed funds outstanding (annual average no differentiation between long or short term loans) m = interest rate the organization would be assumed to pay for borrowed funds if access to concessional funds were eliminated. c = average annual concessional rate of interest actually paid by the organization on its average annual outstanding concessional borrowed fund. e = average annual equity of the organization. p = reported annual profit (adjusted for loan loss provisions and inflation). k = the sum of all other types of annual subsidies received by the organization (such as partial or complete coverage of the organization’s operational costs by the state or federal governments). lp = average annual outstanding loan portfolio of the organization n = average on – lending interest rate of the organization. the financial ratio (sdi) gives a measure of the level of financial self sustainability of the microfinance organizations. the subsidy dependence index (sdi) assesses and quantifies subsidy dependence of a financial organization which is a measure of self sustainability. an sdi of zero means the financial institution achieved full self-sustainability. an sdi of 100% indicates that the institution cannot sustain itself without subsidies and that a doubling of the average onlending interest rate is required if subsidies are to be eliminated. a negative sdi indicates that a financial institution not only fully achieved selfsustainability but that its annual profits less the equity charged at the approximate market interest rate exceeded the total annual value of subsidies, if subsidies were received. capital formation rate the capital formation rate was based on a crucial assumption that the ability to sustain the lending function would depend on the rate of capital formation which is to provide the re-investable funds. the sustainability rate is therefore equated to the capital formation rate (rc) computed from the equation below. rci = f  r    c  cc  r d i1 i i i li i d i n where: rci = rate of capital formation for period n by institution yi f i = total funds received from all sources by institution yi ri = total interest charged on loans by institution yi di = total loans disbursed by institution yi cii = loan administrative costs for institution y which includes costs of printing loan forms, interest paid on borrowed funds, loan recovery/supervision costs and other costs. c ci = overhead costs for loan administration by institution yi rdi = total defaults by clients of institution yi the above computation is based on the expectation that total receipts less total disbursements and expenditure per time period would give the rate of capital building for the given period, i.e. rate of capital = total receipts – total disbursements/expenditure building per year time period in years the numerator represents the re-investable surplus which is an indicator of sustainability. the above presentation suggests that there is no default, yet defaults cannot be ruled out in credit delivery hence the modification in the initial formula to reflect the amount of defaults. (rdi ). results and discussion  socio-economic characteristics of the organizations: the studied cooperatives were within the age range of five to thirty nine years with average membership strength of 60, involved in multipurpose activities with credit delivery as their main function. the ngos were within the age range of three to fourteen years, also involved in a wide range of activities with credit delivery as a very small segment of their operations, playing mainly an on-lending role.  sources of loanable funds: two main sources were identified; they were the external sources from donors and loaning bodies and internal sources which were within the organisation’s efforts. the analysis showed that all studied ngos depended on external sources which were mainly international donors while the cooperatives depended solely on internal sources which were mainly contributions from members. loan volume assessment the results showed that the ngos had higher loan volumes than the cooperatives (table 1) about 88% of their loan requests were met during the period while about 68% of loan requests were met by cooperatives. this may not be unconnected with the availability of funds from the ngos external sources. the cooperatives however had a wider outreach in terms of individual beneficiaries but lower individual loan volumes. subsidy dependence indices (sdi) for the studied cooperatives and ngos the subsidy dependence analysis showed that all the studied cooperative societies were self-sustaining as the computation gave a subsidy dependence index (sdi) of zero. this was as a result of their internally generated revenue as no cooperative society received any form of subsidy from any source according to the information gathered. an sdi of zero means that the cooperative societies achieved full self-sustainability during the period in question, which can be translated to mean that they had no form of external financial assistance. however, an average annual subsidy dependence index (sdi) of 0.7642 (76.42%) was obtained for the ngos. this indicates that if subsidies are to be eliminated, the present on-lending interest rate of the ngos may almost be doubled (requiring about 76% increase) to sustain the credit delivery function. the implication of this is that the ngos may face sustainability crisis if subsidies (i.e. the identified grants from donors) are withdrawn. the sdi value which measures the degree of external funding of the organization is a good reflection of the importance of dependable sources of loanable funds for both institutions if they are to be relied upon as channels of credit delivery to farmers. the over all interpretation of these findings in comparing the sustainability level of the credit delivery function of the cooperatives and ngos is that whether external funding table 1. loan volume assessment for ngos and cooperatives cooperative ngos. cooperatives ngo class of loan average average average loan average average average loan loan disbursement loan loan disburse request approval request approval ment <100000 2,400,000 2,272,000 2,272,000 4,500.000 4,500.000 4,500.000 101,000-200,000 4,550,000 3,500,000 3,500,000 10,000,000 9,000,000 9,000,000 201,000-300,000 5,500,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 7,000,000 4,800,000 4,800,000 301,000-400,000 nil nil nil 5,000,000 3,500,000 3,500,000 401,000-500,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 5,000,000 4,500,000 4,500,000 501,000-600,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 3,500,000 3,500,000 3,500,000 601,000-700,000 nil nil nil 4,580,000 4,000,000 4,000,000 701,000-800,000 3,500,000 1,700,000 1,700,000 nil nil nil 801,000 and above 1,800,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 total 21,250,000 14,472,000 14,472,000 44,580,000 38,800,000 38,800,00 percentages na 68.10 68.10 na 87.70 87.70 source: survey data 2005 table 2: correlation coefficicients for capital formation rate and its determinants for ngos and cooperative. determinant correlation coefficients ngos cooperatives (sources of funds) 0.912 nil (motivation of members) nil 0.487 (lending rate) 0.837 0.561 (loan repayment rate) 0.832 0.768 (savings rate by clients) 0.853 0.922 (membership participation index) 0.398** 0.915 source: survey data, 2005.  all ngos had no motivation programmes ** significant at 5% all other coefficients are significant at 1%. cooperatives had no external sources. exists or not, the cooperatives would have 100% sustainability level whereas the ngos would have just about 25% which might be an indication of phasing out the credit delivery function from their programmes if subsidies are withdrawn. capital formation rates (rc) the computed capital formation rates showed an average rate of 18.15% (0.1815) for the cooperative societies and 12.3% (0.123) for the ngos. on the basis of the assumption earlier stated, the capital formation rate was equated to the sustainability rate of the lending institution as regards the credit delivery function, the sources of funds not withstanding. in line with this, the figures above indicate a slightly higher sustainability rate for the cooperative societies than the ngos which also confirms the results of the sdi analysis. this may probably indicate higher reliability on the sources of funds for the cooperatives than those for the ngos. these rates are however too low for both organization which indicates low sustainability in line with world bank (1998). determinants of the capital formation rate major determinants of the capital formation rates for both organizations were the external sources of funds, lending rates, loan repayment rates, savings rate by members/clients, motivation of members and membership participation index. correlation analysis between these determinants and the capital formation rate for each organization is given in table 2. the results showed that external sources had the highest correlation coefficient for ngos while savings rate and membership participation index (mpi) had high coefficients for the cooperatives. the implication here is that the capital formation rate depends highly on the external sources of finance for the ngos while for the cooperatives it depended on the willingness of members to save and participate highly in the cooperative activities especially in paying their contributions/savings. conclusion and recommendations the study looked at the sustainability rates of ngos and cooperatives in farm credit delivery through their subsidy dependence indices and capital formation rates. summarily, the findings were that, the cooperatives had an sdi of zero with 0.1815 capital formation rate, depending solely on internal sources with capital building relying mainly on savings by members and membership participation index. whereas, the ngos had 0.7642 sdi with a capital formation rate of 0.123 and relied mainly on external sources of loanable funds. the paper therefore concludes that the sustainability rate is low and the cooperatives had an edge over the ngos since they had a higher sustainability rate with zero sdi. it is therefore recommended that both organizations seek better strategies of building their capital. more avenues of internally generated revenue should be exploited to improve on their capital formation rates. it is equally recommended that some level of external funding may be needed by cooperatives to augment their capital formation to improve their loan volumes. however, cooperatives may be recommended as a better channel of credit delivery to farmers in terms of ability to sustain the loan delivery function. references aryeetey t (1997). ―rural finance in africa: institutional developments and access for the poor‖ in: m bruno, b pleskovic (eds). proc. of the annual world bank conference on development economics. washington d.c. pp. 149-154. cgap (1996). financial sustainability, targetting the poorest and income impact: are there tradeoffs for microfinance institutions‖ focus notes, no. 5. ijere mo (1998). ―agricultural credit and economic development. in: ijere mo, okorie a (eds) readings in agricultural finance longman lagos, pp. 4-9. maclsaac n (1996). ―micro-enterprise support: a critical review‖ a background paper for the micro-enterprise learning circle prepared for the canadian council for international cooperation policy team, canada. oni mk (1999). ―bank credit facilities for small holder farmer: implications for food security in nigeria, in: fabiyi yl, idowu eo (eds.) poverty alleviation and food security in nigeria naae. pp. 342-348. vincent f (1995). alternative financing of third world development organizations and ngos, ired geneva vol.1 pp. 17-18. world bank (1998). a framework for world bank group support for the development of micro, small enterprises and rural finance in subsaharan african, washington d.c. yaron j (1992). assessing development finance institutions: a public interest analysis. world bank discussion paper no 234 washington d.c. yaron j (1997). assessing development finance institutions: a public interest analysis. world bank discussion paper no 340 washington d.c. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (8), pp. 001-007, august, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper an application of the von cramon-taubadel and loy error correction models in analyzing asymmetric adjustment between retail and wholesale maize prices in ghana henry de-graft acquah* and samuel kwesi ndzebah dadzie department of agricultural economics and extension, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana. accepted 12 february, 2020 previous studies analyzing asymmetric price transmission have been based on an econometric specification that is shown to be inconsistent with cointegration. this study draws on the concept of cointegration to implement the von cramon-taubadel and loy error correction approach in analyzing retail-wholesale maize price transmission in ghana. asymmetries are modeled to affect the direct impact of price increases and decreases as well as adjustments to the equilibrium level. the analysis demonstrates that transmission between retail and wholesale maize prices in ghanaian maize market is asymmetric. in accordance with common belief, retailers react more quickly to increasing wholesale prices than decreasing wholesale prices. key words: asymmetric adjustments, cointegration, error correction model. introduction recent empirical studies analyzing whether prices rise faster than they fall, have categorised the price dynamics into symmetric and asymmetric 1 processes. those processes for which the transmission differs accordingly to whether the prices are increasing or decreasing (i.e. asymmetric price transmission) are of keen interest. this asymmetric behavior of prices has been the focus of numerous studies in agricultural economics. mohanty et al. (1995) provide empirical evidence for this asymmetrical price behavior in the international wheat market using variants of model specification. all these studies use various forms of an econometric specification introduced by wolffram (1971) and refined by houck (1977). however, this specification is not consistent with cointegration between the prices being studied. funda-mentally, if the prices at different levels of the market are are cointegrated, then the wolffram-houck specification is an inappropriate means of testing for *corresponding author. e-mail: henrydegraftacquah@yahoo.com. tel: 00233245543956. 1 by definition, asymmetry is an unreciprocal relationship between rises and falls in prices. e.g. farm and retail prices asymmetric transmission between these levels. in this article, tests for asymmetric price transmission that is consistent with cointegration is invoked and applied to the transmission of maize prices from the retail to the wholesale level in kumasi in the ashanti region of ghana. rational for asymmetric price transmission several factors which culminate in asymmetric price transmission have been proposed in the literature. first, a commonly cited source of asymmetric price transmission is market power (kinnucan and forker, 1987; miller and hayenga, 2001; mccorrisston, 2002; and lloyd et al., 2003). oligopolistic processors, for example, might react collusively more quickly to shocks that squeeze their margin than to shocks that stretch it, resorting in asymmetric short run transmission in an attempt to hide the exercise of market power behind the „confusion‟ created by major shocks, processors could also react less completely to the shocks that stretch their margins leading to asymmetric long run transmission. similarly, asymmetric price transmission could result if file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org traders in the local market believe that competitors will follow an increase in the local market prices as price in the central market rise, but that they will not respond to falling prices in the central market by granting an equivalent reduction. it is however important to mention that concentration is probably a necessary but certainly not a sufficient condition for the exercise of market power, as the theoretical and empirical evidence on the relationship between these two phenomena is inconclusive (weaver et al., 1989; goodwin, 1994). within the oligopoly context, both positive and negative asymmetries are conceivable depending on the market structure and conduct. in this regard, several studies of market power and asymmetry that focus on specific markets deserve to be mentioned. borenstein et al. (1997) analysed vertical price transmission for crude oil to gasoline prices, and concluded that downward stickiness of retail prices for gasoline in an oligopolistic environment will lead to positive asymmetry. alter-natively, ward (1982) suggested that market power can lead to negative asymmetry if oligopolists are reluctant to risk losing market share by increasing output prices. similarly bailey and brorsen (1989) considered firms facing a kinked demand curve that is either convex or concave to the origin. if a firm believes that no competitor will match a price increase but all will match a price cut (concave), negative asymmetry will result. alternatively, if the firm conjectures that all firms will match an increase but none will match a price cut (convex), positive asymmetry will result. hence, it is not clear a priori whether market power will lead to positive or negative asymmetry (bailey and brorsen, 1989). secondly, price asymmetry can be partly attributed to adjustment cost that arises when firms change their quantities and prices of inputs and outputs. consequently, positive or negative asymmetric price transmission results if these costs are symmetric with respect to increase or decrease in quantities or prices. in an analysis of the us beef market, bailey and brorsen (1989) argued that firms may face different adjustment cost depending on whether prices are rising or falling. subsequently, they noted that the competition between meat packers faced with a high fixed cost and excess capacity, for example, might result in farm prices that are bid up rapidly, in response to increased demand for meat products, but fall more slowly as demand weakens. ward (1982) suggested that retailers of perishable products may be hesitant to raise prices for fear that they could end up holding spoiled stocks, leading to negative asymmetry. heien (1980) disputes this assertion and notes that changing prices is less of a problem for perishable products than it is for those with a long shelf life, because for the latter, changing prices incur higher time cost and loss of good will. thus, echoing the so called menu cost hypothesis proposed by barro (1972), (that is a change in nominal price induces cost for example, the reprinting of price list or catalogues and the cost of informing market partners). ball and mankiw (1994) developed a model based on menu cost (the cost involved in changing nominal prices such as the cost of reprinting catalogues etc) in combination with inflation that leads to asymmetry. in this model, positive nominal input price shocks are more likely to lead to output price adjustment than negative price shocks. this is because in the presence of inflation, some of the adjustment made necessary by an input price reduction is automatically carried out by inflation, which reduces the real value of the margin. thus in situations where firms face menu cost and inflation, shocks that bring upward price adjustment are rapidly responded to than those that reduce it, as inflation in this respect would have automatically affected some of the adjustment made necessary by the downward adjustment shocks (kuran, 1983; buckle and carlson, 2000). in contrast to bailey and brorsen (1989), peltzman (2000) makes a case for positive asymmetry affirming that it is easier for firm to disemploy inputs in the case of an output reduction than it is to recruit new inputs to increase output. this recruitment will lead to search cost and price premier increasing phases. additional explanation for price asymmetry which has been proposed cannot be considered directly under market power or adjustment cost. kinnucan and forker (1987) suggested that asymmetry could result from government intervention, indicating that such political intervention can lead to asymmetric price transmission if it leads wholesalers or retailers to believe that a reduction in farm prices will only be temporary because it will only trigger government intervention, while an increase in farm prices is more likely to be permanent. materials and methods econometric models of asymmetric price transmission the modeling of asymmetric price transmission can be grouped into pre-cointegration and cointegration approaches (meyer and von cramon, 2004). the pre-cointegration and the cointegration approaches draw heavily from houck (1977) and von cramon (1998) respectively. within the context of the pre-cointegration approaches, numerous authors have developed a test for asymmetric price transmission which is based on the houck‟s segmentation of prices into increasing and decreasing phases (kinnucan and forker, 1987; bailey and brorsen, 1989; zhang et al., 1995; mohanty et al., 1995; boyd and brorsen, 1998). these different applications are considered as variants of the houck‟s model and denoted by houck‟s approaches. these pre-cointegration approaches require the data to be stationary in order to avoid spurious regression. the cointegration approaches are motivated by the fact that the houck‟s approaches are not consistent with cointegration between the price series involved. the cointegration approaches draws heavily from (granger and lee, 1989; von cramon-taubadel, 1998; von cramon taubadel and loy, 1999). houck’s specification asymmetric price transmission has been tested in a wide variety of agricultural markets. appel (1992) finds that both speed and degree of price transmission from the producer to the retail level for broilers in germany is asymmetric. boyed and brorsen (1988) studied the us pork market and find no evidence of asymmetric price transmission. however, this result was challenged by hahn (1990) who finds that prices at all levels of the us pork and beef marketing chains are more sensitive to price increasing shocks than to price decreasing shocks. hansmire and willett‟s (1992) indicated that farm-retail price transmission for new york state apples is asymmetric and kinnucan and forker (1987) came to the same conclusion regarding dairy product transmission in the united states. pick et al. (1990) finds evidence that short-run but not longrun vertical price transmission on the us citrus market is asymmetric. finally, ward (1982) points to both short and long run asymmetries in vertical price transmission for fresh vegetable in the united states, while zhang et al. (1995) noted that price transmission for pea nut to peanut butter prices in the us is asymmetric in the short-run, but symmetric in the long-run. each of these studies implements some variant of an econometric technique for estimating irreversibility that was introduced by wolfram (1971) in response to work on irreversible supply reaction by tweeten and quance (1969). in investigating the relationship between an output price p and input price p , a b tweeten and quance (1969) used an indicator variable to split the input price into two parts: one variable includes only increasing input prices p  and another includes only decreasing input b prices p− . from this, two input price adjustments coefficients (that b is β1  and β1 − ) can be estimated as specified below. p a , t  β o  β  p  β − p −  ε t 1b,t 1b,t (1) symmetric price transmission is rejected if the coefficients β1  and β1 − are significantly different from one another. based on tweeten and quance (1969), wolffram (1971) proposes a variable splitting technique that explicitly includes first difference of prices in the equation to be estimated which was later modified by houck (1977). within the context of the wolfram-houck (w-h) method, the kinnucan and forker, 1987; pick et al., 1990; zhang et al., 1995) are characterised by first-order autocorrelation, which is often symptomatic of spurious regression in the analysis of non-stationary time series (granger and newbold, 1974). spurious regression is avoided if the analysed variables are cointegrated (banerjee et al., 1993). however, it can be shown that the w-h specification in (2) is fundamentally incompatible with cointegration between pa and pb . to see this, reparametrise (2) using the identity: ∑ δpt ∑ δpb  ,t ∑ δpb − ,t ≡ pb,t − pb,0 (3) and be rearranged to yield (ward 1982): p  (p  β β − p ) β − p  (β − β − ) δp  ε (4) a,t a,0 o 1 b,0 1 b,t 11∑b,t t this reparametrization of equation (2) was proposed by ward (1982) who tests whether the coefficient ( β1  − β1 − ) differs from 0 in order to test whether price transmission is asymmetric. von cramon-taubadel (1998) asserts that the estimation of equation 4 can lead to four basic results depending on the significance of the term ( β1  − β1 − ) and the stationarity of the error term ε t : these are (i) β − β − ≠ 0 (asymmetry) and ε t is 1 1 i(0), (ii) β − β − 0 (symmetry) and ε t is i(1), (iii) 1 1 β − β − ≠ 0 (asymmetry) and ε t is i(1), (iv) β − β −  0 1 1 1 1 (symmetry) and ε t is i(0). (i) implies that p , p and ∑ δp a b b ,t are cointegrated, which precludes cointegration between p a and p alone. (ii) and (iii) are spurious regressions involving non b stationary variables (granger and newbold, 1974), while (iv) implies that p and p are cointegrated. notably, if the houck method a b points to asymmetry, then either the results reflect spurious regression (iii), or the prices in question are not cointegrated (i). response of price p to another price p a b following equation. t t ∑ δ pa , t β ο β 1 ∑ δ pb  , t β t1 t1 is estimated with the the asymmetric error correction representation fundamentally, the asymmetric error correction model (ecm) t approach is motivated by the fact that all the variants of the aforementioned houck approach discussed above are not ∑δpb − ,t  ε t consistent with cointegration between the price series. if the prices t1 (2) p and p are cointegrated, then an error correction a b where δp and δp − are the positive and negative changes in prespectively, β o , β , β − are coefficients and t is the b 1 1 current period. numerous studies estimate a dynamic variant of the houck‟s static model. some analyst distinguish between short-run and long asymmetries by introducing lagged terms in δp  and δp − b,t b,t into equation (1), in which case β  and β − become lag polynomials. long-run symmetry is tested by determining whether the sums of the coefficients in these polynomials are identical. estimation of the above equation has generally taken place without adequate regard to the time series nature of the data used. many of the empirical applications cited above (appel, 1992; representation exists (engle and granger, 1987). granger and lee (1989) propose a modification to the error correction representation that makes it possible to test for asymmetric price transmission between cointegrated variables. this involves a wolffram–type segmentation of the error correction term into positive and negative components. the asymmetric ecm takes the form: δp p  ect    −ect− δp  δp   a,t ο 1 b,t  t−1 2 t−1  b,t −1  a,t−1 (5) the error correction model (ecm) then relates changes in pa to changes pb as well as the so called error correction term (ect = pa,t–ßo–ß1 pb,t), the lagged residuals derived from estimation of their long run relationship. the ect measures the deviation from the long-run equilibrium between the p and p , and including it in a b the ecm allows pa not only to respond to changes in pb but also to correct any deviations from the long-run equilibrium that may be left over from previous periods. splitting the ect into positive and negative component (that is positive and negative deviation from the long-run equilibrium ( ect and ect − ) makes it possible to test for asymmetric price transmission. von cramon-taubadel and loy (1996) also segmented the contemporaneous response term in equation (5). this leads to the following specification in which contemporaneous and short–run response to departures from the cointegrating relation are asymmetric if β 1  ≠ β 1− and β  ≠ β2 − respectively: δp  β ο  β  δp   β − δp −  β  ect   β − ect − t −1  a , t 1 b , t 1b,t  t −1 2 β δp  β δp  ε  b,t −1  a,t −1 (6) noticeably, equation 6 is equivalent to the houck approach given by equation 2, except that equation 6 also contains β ect  , β −ect − , β δp , β δp . thus in effect  t −1 2 t −1  b,t −1  a,t −1 the asymmetric ecm with complex dynamics nests the houck‟s model in first difference or has the structures of the houck‟s model. data analysis and results the application of the von cramon taubadel and loy ecm is based on 520 weekly observations of undeflated (norminal) retail and whole sale prices for maize from january 1994 to december, 2003 from kumasi in the ashanti region of ghana were used in this analysis. the weekly data for all prices are cedi per 100 kg and given the high level of inflation in the period covered, prices are deflated using consumer price index (cpi) deflator. the source of the data is the ministry of agriculture in ghana, the price transmission analysis proceeded with a granger causality test aimed to establish the direction of price linkage. the granger causality test reveals in table 1 that the wholesale prices granger causes the retail prices and the reverse is not valid. this necessitates the use of the single equation. according to the augumented dickey fuller method (dickey and fuller, 1979) and philip peron (pp), the time series of the variables under consideration are non stationary integrated of the order one (tables 2 and 3) and subsequently, a linear combination will result to a stationary series. this result has to be tested with the cointegration technique. the two step residual-based test by engle and granger (1987) was applied to confirm this assertion. the first step is the cointegrating regression of non stationary price series between the retail as dependent against the wholesale as independent. p r  β 0  β 1 pw  ε t where: pr = the retail price pw = the wholesale price, ε t = error term the second step involves testing whether the residuals from the cointegrating regression are non stationary by using adf test and pp test. ε t pr − β 0 − β 1 pw u t where ut is the error term. the co integrating results for the first step is shown in the upper part of table 4 with it resultant unit root test of the residuals in the lower part of table 4. with the results of the engle granger cointegration technique below, it can be confirmed that the retail and wholesale prices are cointegrated. information criteria such as the akaike information criterion, (akaike, 1973) and the bayesian information criterion (schwarz, 1978) are applied to determine the number of lags to be included in all models. this study finds significant asymmetries in the adjustment of retail prices in response to wholesale prices when the price transmission process is analyzed using the von cramontaubadel and loy asymmetric error correction model. the result of the test for asymmetry is presented in the analysis of variance displayed in table 5 in which the symmetric model specified in equation 7 is compared with the asymmetric model specified in equation 8. δ p a,t  β ο  β 1 δ p b , t  β e c tt − 1  β δ p b , t − 1  β δ p a , t − 1  ε (7) δ p a , t  β ο  β  δ p  β − δ p −  β ect t − 1  1 b , t 1 b , t  β −ect −  β  δ p b ,t −1  β  δ p a,t−1  ε 2 t − 1 (8) the results of the model estimations are displayed in table 6 in appendix and the asymmetric adjustments coefficients of interest are (9.031e01 , 6.964e01 ) and (3.156e02 ,-1.938e01 ) for the short run and long run adjustment parameters respectively. the obvious difference between the values of the coefficients for the positive and negative partitions in the model culminates in rejection of the null hypothesis of symmetric transmission via a conventional f test. it can be concluded that that asymmetry existed under the von cramon-taubadel and loy ecm. the formal test of the asymmetry hypothesis using equation (8) is: h 0 : β   β − and β   −  1  2 in effect asymmetric behavior is detected by a joint f-test. we hypothesis the effect of increase and decrease in wholesale price on the retail price was the same on the table 1. granger causality test. market effect hypothesized cause f statistic p-value kumasi retail price wholesale price 3.659 0.03 wholesale price retail price 0.462 0.63 table 2. results of unit root test in levels of maize prices in kumasi market. market/test none pvalue intercept p-value intercept and trend p-value kumasi wholesale price adf test -1.3 0.1709 -4.4 0.0004 -4.4 0.0021 pp test -1.3 0.1923 -4.4 0.0003 -4.5 0.0016 kumasi retail price adf test -1.3 0.1839 -4.4 0.0043 -4.3 0.0021 pp test -1.3 0.2269 -4.4 0.0004 -4.4 0.0025 table 3. results of unit root test in differences of maize prices in kumasi market. market /test none pvalue intercept p-value intercept and trend p-value kumasi wholesale price adf test -24.1 0.000 -24.0 0.000 -24.0 0.000 pp test -24.1 0.000 -24.0 0.000 -23.8 0.000 kumasi retail price adf test -24.2 0.000 -24.2 0.000 -24.2 0.000 pp test -24.5 0.000 -24.5 0.000 -24.5 0.000 table 4. engle granger test for maize. results of 1 st stage test for maize market pair name constant coefficient p-value for kumasi retail -wholesale 63218.68 0.905705 0.0000 results of 2nd stage test for residuals market name adf test p-value pp test pvalue kumasi -6.0515 0.0000 -5.7440 0.0000 table 5. testing for asymmetry using an analysis of variance. model res. df rss df sum of sq f pr(>f) symmetric 498 1.0521e + 11 asymmetric 496 1.0330e + 11 2 1.9130e + 09 4.5926 + 0.01056 * significance codes: 0 „***‟ 0.001 „**‟ 0.01 „*‟ 0.05 „.‟ 0.1 „ ‟ 1. retail price was the same. the f-test indicates that the null hypothesis of symmetric transmission is rejected at 5% level or lower. the p-value of 0.01056 indicates that the null can be rejected here, suggesting the existence of significant asymmetry. intituitively, this implies that the positive and negative components of the error correction term and the increasing and decreasing components of the wholesale price can be treated separately in the model. this asymmetric result suggests that the retailers react more quickly to increasing wholesale prices than to decreasing wholesale prices. this finding is derived on the basis of the von cramon-taubadel and loy error correction model. conclusion this research analyzed the behavior of tests of asymmetric price transmission according to the von cramontaubadel and loy ecm approach for retail and wholesale prices in the ghanaian maize market. the findings suggested that the retail-wholesale price transmission process for maize in kumasi was asymmetric. in accordance with common belief, the adjustment of retail price to the wholesale price is faster when there is an increase in the wholesale price than when there is a decrease. further research will be necessary to establish whether this 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results of the model estimations. coefficients standard error intercept δp  w ,t δp − w ,t δp ,−1 w t δp ,−2 w t δp ,−3 w t δp ,−4 w t δp ,−5 w t δp ,−6 w t δp , −1 r t δp , −2 r t δp , −3 r t δp , −4 r t δp , −5 r t δp , −6 r t ectt −1 ect −t −1 multiple r 2 2 adjusted r bic durbin watson stat. -2.901e +03 9.031e -01 6.964e -01 1.213e -01 9.052e -03 1.542e -01 2.221e -01 4.160e -02 1.016e -01 -1.154e -01 4.835e -02 -1.492e -01 -1.430e -01 -3.070e -02 -1.258e -02 -3.156e -02 -1.938e -01 0.5084 0.4926 11300.72 11376.2 2.0211 -1.295e +03 6.655e -02 4.807e -02 5.292e -02 5.170e -02 5.018e -02 5.009e -02 5.099e -02 5.013e -02 4.649e -02 4.568e -02 4.448e -02 4.350e -02 4.381e -02 4.309e -02 3.578e -02 6.139e -02 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 11 (4), pp. 001-010, april, 2023. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review strategies to optimize the use of scavengeable feed resource base by smallholders in traditional poultry production systems in africa: a review e.h.goromela1*, r.p. kwakkel2, m.w.a. verstegen2 and a.m. katule3 1national livestock research institute, p.o. box 202 mpwapwa, tanzania; 2 animal nutrition group, wageningen university, p.o box 338, 6700 ah wageningen, the netherlands; 3 sokoine university of agriculture, p.o. box 3004 morogoro, tanzania accepted 12 november, 2022 traditional poultry production accounts for about 80% of the poultry population in africa. such poultry species are kept by smallholders, mostly in free-range and in backyard systems for food security, income and socio-cultural purposes. flock productivity is low compared to high input systems due to sub-optimal management, lack of supplementary feeds, low genetic and diseases. scavenging system provides most of the scavengeable feed resource base (sfrb) for rural poultry. however, the quantity and quality of sfrb for scavenging poultry varies with season, altitude, climatic conditions, farming activities as well as social, management and village flock biomass. in the present review, diets consumed by scavenging poultry indicates to contain on average low nutrient concentration of protein (100 g kg dm -1 ), energy (11.2 mj kg dm -1 ) and minerals such as ca (11.7 g kg dm -1 ) and p (5 g kg dm -1 ). this low concentration indicates that the amount of nutrients from sfrb alone cannot support optimal growth and egg production of scavenging poultry. thus such nutrients which can not optimally supplied by sfrb should be provided as supplementary feeds. however, quantitative assessment of sfrb and nutrient concentrations could provide the best strategies to optimize the available sfrb for improving rural poultry productivity. key words: traditional, rural poultry, free-range, backyard, scavenging, scavengeable feed resource, nutrient, composition introduction in many developing countries, particularly africa, poultry production in rural and peri-urban areas is based on traditional scavenging systems. it is estimated that about 80% of the africa’s poultry population, is found in traditional production systems (guèye, 1998; branckaert et al, 2000) . these husbandry systems are characterized by a low input/low output production system and contribute significantly to household food security in developing countries (branckaert et al, 2000). traditionally, the scavenging system plays an important role in supplying local populations with additional income and high-quality food in the form of meat and eggs. moreover, the production system is closely linked to the *corresponding author’s e-mail: egoromela@yahoo.com. religious and socio-cultural lives of many farmers in developing countries (kitalyi, 1998; branckaert et al, 2000). in traditional poultry production systems, different poultry species are kept and the most important being chickens, guinea fowls, ducks, pigeons, geese and turkeys. productivity of these poultry species depends on the management systems adopted (guèye 2003) and increases with the level of improved feeding and management (sonaiya et al, 1999). in general under the scavenging systems whereby the low input/low output is the dominant husbandry system, several authors have acknowledged low productivity (smith, 1990; gunaratne et al, 1993; guèye, 1998; kitalyi, 1998; guèye 2003), compared to high-input systems. the low productivity is caused by a number of factors, the most important being sub-optimal management, lack of supplementary feed, low genetic potential and diseases (permin and bisgaard, 1999). however, much of the low performance of poultry 2 table 1.: characteristics of major types of husbandry systems practiced in traditional poultry production systems in africa. characteristics traditional free range backyard or subsistence semi-intensive small-scale intensive flock size 1-10 birds 10-50 birds 50-200 birds 50-500 birds key rearers majority of rural families moderate number of rural families few rural families urban families ownership mostly women & children mostly women and family middlemen business men type of breeds indigenous breeds indigenous and few crossbreds local/improved layers or broilers feed resources scavenging scavenging and supplementation commercial/local balanced diets health status no vaccination/medication vaccination and little medication vaccination full vaccination housing system no specific housing simple and small houses medium & improved big and improved egg production 30-50 eggsyear -1 hen -1 50-150 eggsyear -1 hen -1 80-160 eggsyear -1 hen -1 250-300 eggsyear -1 hen -1 growth rate 5-10g day -1 10-20g day -1 10-20g day -1 50-55g day -1 mortality rate high mortality moderate mortality low mortality low mortality use of products home consumption home consumption and sale family income business income profit small cash income family income family income business income socio-economic social and cultural social and micro-credit credit based assets little social source: kitalyi (1998); sonaiya et al (1999); guèye (2003) and riise et al (2004). under scavenging systems has been attributed to poor sfrb (roberts and gunaratne, 1992; tadele and ogle, 1996). thus if sfrb is improved in the traditional poultry production systems, productivity of local birds can be increased. however sfrb are dependent on extrinsic factors such as seasonal variables, and levels of predation, health, scavenging behaviour, age, and physiological status of the scavenging birds (gunaratne, 1999). this paper gives a review of the existing poultry production systems in particular african countries, the role of sfrb as a major nutritional input and the factors influencing its quantity and quality. the paper concludes by suggesting strategies that can be used to optimize the use of sfrb in traditional poultry production systems to maximize flock productivity. poultry production systems in developing countries generally four poultry production systems in developing countries can be described (bessei, 1987, sonaiya et al, 1999, branckaert and guèye, 2000; guèye, 2000a). these include the free-range system or traditional village system; the backyard or subsistence system; the semiintensive system and the small-scale intensive system. these poultry management systems are also found in smallholder poultry sector in africa (kitalyi, 1998). some important characteristics of these poultry production systems in africa are summarized in table 1. however; according to guèye (1998), free-range system and the backyard system are the main types of poultry husbandry system practiced in the traditional poultry production in africa. the free-range system is commonly practiced by majority of the rural families. flock sizes may vary from an average of 1-10 birds of indigenous poultry per rural household. the birds are owned mostly by women and children for home consumption, small cash income, social and cultural activities. these are left to scavenge around the homesteads during daytime feeding on household leftovers, waste products and environmental materials such as insects, worms, seeds and green forages. in addition, the birds are not regularly provided with water and other inputs such as supplementary feeds, houses, vaccination and medication. as a consequence, many birds die during pre-weaning periods due to starvation, diseases and predators. the level of productivity in terms of number of eggs produced (30-50 eggs hen -1 year -1 ) and growth rate (5-10g day -1 ) is very low compared to improved free-range or backyard systems. the backyard or semi-scavenging system is practiced by a moderate number of rural families. they keep about 550 birds, which mostly are owned by women and family members. in the backyard system, birds are semi-confined either within an enclosure made from local materials, overnight shelters or within a fenced yard (sonaiya, 1999). thus in this system, there is a regular provision of water, grains and household wastes, improved night shelters, vaccination and little medication to control diseases and parasites and to some extent exchange of cockerels between the farms. because of better management mortality is moderate and there is an increased egg production (50150 eggs hen -1 year -1 ) and growth rate (10-20g day -1 ). moreover, profitability is high and products are used for home consumption, family cash income and as a source of microcredit. the semi-intensive system is a subsystem of the intensive system. in this system, poultry are kept in complete confinement, fed with formulated diets either bought commercially or produced from feed mills (sonaiya, 1995; aini, 1999). sometimes they are fed with home-made rations by mixing various ingredients such as oyster shells, fishmeal, bone meal, blood meal, oil seed cakes, cereal grains, cereal by-products and kitchen 3 table 2. types and physical components of scavengeable feed resources (sfrb) found in the crop and gizzard contents of eviscerated scavenging birds types of sfrb physical components references household materials grains paddy, rice, broken rice maize huque (1999); mwalusanya et al and wheat (2002) gunaratne et al (1993); rashid et al (2004) bran/polishings rice bran, wheat bran and rice huque (1999); mwalusanya et al polishings (2002) rashid et al (2004, 2005) kitchen wastes cooked rice, cooked pulses, egg huque (1999); mwalusanya et al shells, dried fish scraps, intestine (2002) vegetable trimmings and scales of gunaratne et al (1993) fish, pieces of bread, coconut residues, environmental materials seeds grasses and fruits tadelle (1996) & rashid et al (2004, 2005) green forages green leaves of vegetables mwalusanya et al (2002); rashid grasses, plant materials et al l(2004, 2005), gunaratne et al (1992); tadelle (1996) insects and worms small snails, earthworms, huque (1999); mwalusanya et al cockroaches, ants, flies (2002), rashid et al (2004) gunaratne et al (1992) tadelle (1996) sand and grits sand and insoluble grits, gunaratne et al (1993); rashid et al (2004) miscellaneous materials feathers, hair, polythene, piece rashid et al (2004, 2005) of glass and brick paper products and button unidentified materials various feed particles huque (1999); rashid et al (2004 wastes (sonaiya, 1995; kitalyi, 1998). in this system, flock size varies between 50 and 200 birds (sonaiya, 1990, kitalyi, 1998) and a domestic fowl hen produces between 80 and 160 eggs year -1 (sonaiya, 1990; guèye, 2003). however, genetically improved breeds or dualpurpose breeds have been recommended as they are more efficient both in utilizing high-quality feeds provided by small-scale producers as well as economically than the indigenous breed (roberts, 1999). the small-scale intensive or “small-scale confined” system is another sub-system of the intensive system. the system is based on specialized breeds of broiler and layer with a flock size ranging between 50 and 500 birds (sonaiya et al, 1999). this husbandry system is practiced by few rural families particularly those living in peri-urban and urban areas where there are markets for eggs and meat and is owned mainly by business men. producers use the recommended standard practices such as appropriate housing, feeding, health and disease control programmes. poultry productivity is as high as that of large-scale commercial poultry with production of 250-300 eggs hen -1 year -1 and growth rate of 50-55g day -1 (sonaiya et al, 1999). however, according to guèye (2000a) the choice of any of these production systems depends on the availability of resources and inputs needed for a particular production system. in poultry farming, feed is the most important input accounting for 60-70% of the total production costs (smith, 1990; gunaratne, 1999). sfrb as a major nutritional input in traditional poultry production systems sfrb can simply be defined as those feed resources available at farm level that consists of household refuse and all the materials available in the immediate environment that the scavenging birds can use as feed. in table 2, a range of sfrb and their physical components as given in various literature sources can be distinguished. more broadly, sonaiya (2004) has defined 4 table 3. physical composition of crop contents of chickens summarised in relation to the season, climatic zone, altitude and type of bird factors physical components of crop contents (% fresh basis) references kitchen bran grains green forages insects/worms wastes wet season short rains 37.5 22.5 17.4 22.6* tadelle (1996) short rains 11.5 13.5 33.7 17.9 23.4 mwalusanya et al (2002) long rains 25.9 31.8 18.9 23.4* tadelle (1996) long rains 19.3 37.4 22.6 7.6 13.1 mwalusanya et al (2002) dry season dry period 29.5 27.7 17.2 25.6* tadelle (1996) no harvesting 33.5 15.4 10.8 40.3 rashid et al (2004) harvesting 54.5 14.7 12.4 18.4 rashid et al (2004) climatic zone warm wet 13.7 38.8 25.1 5.5 16.9 mwalusanya et al (2002) warm dry 13.1 41.5 20.6 4.7 20.1 mwalusanya et al (2002) cool wet 30.0 20.1 23.6 7.1 19.2 mwalusanya et al (2002) altitude high 33.2 28.2 17.8 20.8 tadelle (1996) medium 32.0 27.9 17.4 22.7* tadelle (1996) low 27.7 25.8 18.2 28.3* tadelle (1996) bird type layers 19.3 38.2 23.1 5.8 13.6 mwalusanya et al (2002) layers 42.2 16.1 11.9 29.8 rashid et al (2005) growers 19.2 38.4 22.6 5.6 14.2 mwalusanya et al (2002) growers 46.0 14.2 11.2 28.6 rashid et al (2005) *unidentified feed materials sfrb as scavengeable feed resources which are the total sum of (1) household materials i.e. food left over, kitchen wastes, gardens, crop grains, orchards, and harvest residues (2) environment materials such as plant leaves and seeds, worms, insects, snails, slugs, stone grits and sand. under normal conditions the proportion of the sfrb supplied by household materials as determined by the crop contents of scavenging birds usually forms a greater part of the total sfrb consumed per day (roberts, 1999). in sri lanka, gunaratne et al (1993) found that 72% of the crop contents of the 15 hens slaughtered consisted of household materials and the remaining of the crop contents came from the environment. similar observations have been reported by sonaiya (2004) in nigeria where the household refuse made up 64% of the crop content. this trend can also be seen in table 3, where several authors (tadelle, 1996; mwalusanya et al, 2002; rashid et al, 2004) have indicated the greater proportions of sfrb being supplied by household refuse. however, the size of the household materials in scavenging systems always varies depending on factors such as population density (roberts 1999), food crops grown, their processing methods and decomposition due to climatic conditions (kitalyi, 1998) and the number of scavenging animals which all may compete with rural poultry (sonaiya, 2004). as a result, the supply of sfrb in scavenging systems in developing countries is not always constant (cumming 1992; tadelle and ogle, 1996). factors influencing the quantity and quality of sfrb season, altitude and climatic conditions as it can be noted in table 2, sfrb in the traditional scavenging systems consists of household refuse and environmental feed materials. during the rainy season there is abundant supply of insects, worms and green forage materials while in the dry or harvesting season there is high supply of cereal grains, cereal by-products and low supply of green forage and insects/worms (table 3). the amount of kitchen wastes as indicated in table 3 appears to be small in rainy season indicating that in this period there is less food available in most rural households compared with dry period. in tanzania, mwalusanya et al (2002) reported that during wet season there is less amounts of grains and kitchen wastes with high amount of insects/worms and green forages. in 5 table 4. chemical composition of crop and gizzard contents of scavenging indigenous chickens and ducks as influenced by season chemical composition (g kg dm -1 ) references season me (mj kg dm cp ee cf ash nfe ca p dm -1 ) short rains 541 87 23 103 55 732 7 5 13.1 tadelle (1996) short rains 425 123 68.2 58.8 137 613 6.7 4.8 mwalusanya et al (2002 long rains 397 102 17 99 108 674 11 9 11.4 tadelle (1996) long rains 437 85.7 54.1 57.7 114 688 6.5 2.4 mwalusanya et al (2002 rainy 79 14.9 90.9 113 581 38.7 4.1 huque (1999) dry period 610 76 12 105 81 726 8 7 11.5 tadelle (1996) harvesting 514 109 26.6 81.3 113 674 9.4 3.5 11.2 rashid et al (2005) no harvest 443 102 14.9 47.1 137 700 9.7 3.9 11.8 rashid et al (2005) winter 87.4 14.3 99 99 571 28.5 4.7 haque et al (1994) winter 79.9 14.6 94.4 113 574 37.3 4.2 huque (1999) summer 87.7 15.2 91.2 104 582 36.8 4.1 huque (1999) 6 ethiopia, type of altitudes seems to have no difference on the availability of insects and worms but in high and medium altitudes there is a high amount of grains and forages with low amount of kitchen wastes compared with low altitude (tadelle, 1996). moreover, observations show that not all materials that are part of the sfrb are available in each environment. this is apparently seen in some countries such as ethiopia, indonesia, sri lanka and tanzania, where studies have shown that the amount of the available sfrb varies greatly with season, climate and location (table 3). in addition, the sfrb could vary also with the type of birds due to their foraging behaviour and stage of growth. the proportion of the grains in the layers’ crop contents was lower compared to that in growers’ crop contents (table 3) . the higher proportion of green forages, insects/worms and kitchen wastes in the layer crop contents could be due to their selective feeding behaviour which depends upon nutritional requirements of a particular age group of chickens and production stage. since laying hens have higher requirement of cp and ca, they are more likely to pick up feedstuffs rich in protein and calcium compared to growers to support egg production (rashid et al., 2005). according to sonaiya et al (1999) most of the materials available for scavenging are not concentrated enough in terms of energy because they contain a lot of crude fibre. thus a bird kept on free-range and backyard systems can certainly not find all the nutrients it needs for optimal production all the year round. these findings are in line with those of other authors (huque et al 1994; tadelle, 1996; huque, 1999; mwalusanya et al., 2002; rashid et al., 2005) who observed that in different seasons, sfrb is critically deficient or unbalanced in nutrients. the chemical composition as indicated in table 4, of crop and gizzard contents of scavenging indigenous chickens and ducks in various countries contains on average low amounts of protein (100 g kg dm -1 ), energy (11.2 mj kg dm -1 ) and minerals such as ca (11.7 g kg dm -1 ) and p (5 g kg dm -1 ). the difference in chemical composition could be due to differences in climate which determine the type and availability of sfrb consumed by scavenging birds. the protein content of sfrb tends to fall considerably during the short rainy season and dry season which could be due to the comparatively lower population of insects and worms (tadelle and ogle, 1996; mwalusanya et al, 2002) which were of minor proportion in the diets of scavenging birds. insects, snails, maggot larvae and earthworms are the potential feedstuffs which have reasonably high protein content (smith 1990, sonaiya et al., 1999). studies in ethiopia have indicated that energy supply is deficient in the diet of scavenging birds for most of the periods, throughout the year (tadele and ogle 1996) and the supply of energy is even more critically low in the dry periods (tadelle (1996). the contents of the minerals such as calcium and phosphorus in the crop and gizzard contents of sfrb are also very low in the dry season. this might have been contributed by a minor proportion of succulent green forages in the diet consumed by scavenging birds (table 3). flock biomass and managemental factors flock biomass is defined as the total liveweight or the number in the flock times the mean liveweight. like other feed resources, the availability of sfrb can be determined by the total biomass of scavenging poultry that can be optimally supported by the available feed resources. roberts (1995) has described this relationship between the availability of sfrb and village flock biomass using a model of the scavenging village chicken production system. the model of roberts describes the village community in terms of families which discard household refuse and which then becomes available to the village chicken flock as sfrb. the remainder of the sfrb usually comes from the environment. in the absence of disease outbreaks or festival activities which diminish the flock, the biomass of the village flock which is the sum of the flocks of those families in the village which keep chickens, will remain at a level which can be supported by the available sfrb (roberts, 1995). however, if the village flock biomass exceeds the carrying capacity of the sfrb, then there will be a strong competition pressure among chickens of different sex and ages on the available household refuse and environmental feed. under this competition, chicks and growers because they are the weakest members of the village flock cannot compete with adult chickens for sfrb. in nigeria, sonaiya et al (2002b) found that the quantity of sfrb available for a chick was 0.996 kg year -1 whereas a hen had 11.04kg year -1 under a communal disposal of sfrb in six villages of south-western nigeria. this small quantity of sfrb that was available to the chicks demonstrates that there is likelihood that both chicks and growers consume less amount of sfrb with low quality. as can be noted in table 5, chicks and growers at this stage their requirements in terms of energy, protein and minerals are greater than other members of the poultry flock. this low concentration of energy, protein and minerals in the sfrb is inadequate to support growth for chicks and growers. as the result, chicks and growers grow slowly and the weaker birds may die due to starvation when there is strong competition for sfrb (roberts, 1999). thus, growth and survival of chicks and growers can be greatly improved if they are given preferential access to household refuse supplemented with energy, protein and mineral sources by smallholders. social and bird behavioural factors the availability of sfrb provided by household refuse is directly related to the density of housing (roberts, 1999). 7 table 5. recommended nutrient levels per bird type for commercial and village chickens in comparison with the nutrients supplied by sfrb in various villages of developing countries flock class and bird type me (mj kg dm -1 ) nutrient levels (g kg dm -1) reference cp ca p white egg layers (6-12 weeks) 11.9 160 8 3.5 nrc (1994) brown egg layer (6-12 weeks) 11.7 150 8 3.5 nrc (1994) broilers (3-6 weeks) 13.4 200 9 3.5 nrc (1994) white egg layers 12.1 150 32.5 2.5 nrc (1994) brown egg layers 12.1 165 36 2.7 nrc (1994) nutrient from sfrb of a village 9.6 94 roberts (1999) nutrient from sfrb in a village 12 88 9 6 tadelle (1996) nutrient from sfrb of a village 10.7 82 33.8 5.7 ukil (1992) nutrient from sfrb in a village 9.5 94 8 9 gunaratne et al (1993) nutrient from sfrb in a village 104 6.5 3.6 mwalusanya et al (2002) this means that in areas where the density of housing is high there is an abundant supply of house refuse provided that most of the village families do not keep large number of poultry. however, if the village families keep large number of poultry, this would lead into competition pressure for the household refusal and the poultry will have a limited land area for scavenging. the land area available for scavenging and distance a flock can travel to scavenge will depend on many factors such as flock size, feed availability, population density, agricultural activities and predators (gunaratne, 1999). in some areas, social factors such as rapid urbanisation, development projects and environmental changes are causing restrictions on the availability and accessibility of the sfrb (roberts, 1999). in tanzania, the last few decades most post harvesting activities such as threshing; winnowing, pounding and milling were carried out at the homesteads. this situation allowed for more access of scavenging feed resource base to the rural poultry. however due to villagization programme, some farmers are living in the village or towns far away from the crop fields and most of post-harvest activities are carried out there or some processes such as milling of cereal grains are carried out by machines where some of the cereal by-products go to other livestock production systems. in addition, bird behaviour also determines the availability of sfrb. a participatory study in central tanzania shows that some indigenous chickens have better scavenging ability compared to their counterpart crossbreds (goromela et al., 1999). similar findings have been reported by gunaratne (1999) in behavioural studies in sri lanka where crossbred chickens released for scavenging environment tended to restrict their scavenging area close to the household compounds strategies to optimize available sfrb in traditional poultry production systems determination of sfrb available for scavenging birds the first attempt to determine quantity of sfrb in the freerange system was done in south-east asia by roberts (1992) and roberts and gunaratne (1993). this method requires weighing the amount of household refuse from each family per day for a specific period of time and the proportion of the household leftovers determined from the crop content of a bird slaughtered after scavenging. however for precise estimates of sfrb, each family should have access to the household refuse and environmental feed. this approach helps to determine the quantity of sfrb required by each family flock per unit time. the contribution of household refuse and environmental feed to the total sfrb can easily be determined by examining the feed components in the chickens’ crops at different times of the day. this estimate however, does not show the proportion of the sfrb available to each individual bird category in the family flock (sonaiya 2002a). because of the variations within the family flocks due to age-group and sex; and because of competition for the sfrb in a communal scavenging condition, estimation of the sfrb on the basis of bird category such as cocks, hens, growers and chicks is more appropriate (sonaiya et al., 2002a). in this case, any differential access to the sfrb by chicks, growers, hens and cocks in the family flock can be easily assessed. thus sonaiya et al (2002a) have proposed the concept of using “bird unit” by modifying the formula developed by roberts (1992) and roberts and gunaratne (1993). according to sonaiya et al (2002a), the advantage of the “bird unit” method is that, it shows the difference in the 8 table 6. chemical composition of crop and /or gizzard contents of scavenging indigenous chickens and ducks in developing countries chemical composition (g kg dm-1 me (mj dm cp ee cf ash nfe ca p kg dm -1 ) references chicken crop 1 432 97.3 60.4 55.2 132 655 7.5 3.7 mwalusanya et al (2002) chicken crop 2 429 111 61.9 61.3 119 647 5.8 3.5 mwalusanya et al (2002) chicken crop 3 431 104 61 58 125 652 6.3 3.6 mwalusanya et al (2002) hen crop 523 88 19 102 9 6 12 tadelle and ogle (1996) crop & gizzard 96.2 11.7* ali (2002) crop & gizzard 81.8 16.1 94.4 97.8 579 33.8 5.7 10.7 ukil (1992) layer crop 455 117 20.7 60.4 124 683 13.2 4.6 11.6 rashid et al (2004) grower crop 489 98.9 21.1 64 123 693 7.6 3.4 11.5 rashid et al (2004) crop & gizzard 113 81.3 97.4 13.8 5.3 prawirokusumo (1988) crop & gizzard 344 94 92 54 160 600 8 9 9.5 gunaratne et al (1993) * = gross energy; chicken crop 1 = adult female chickens; chicken crop 2 = growers (2-4 months) of mixed sex; chicken crop 3 = mean of adult female chickens and growers. 9 quantity of sfrb available for each bird category in a family flock. using this method, sonaiya (2002b) found that the quantity of sfrb that was available to a cock was 43.7g day -1 while a hen and the chick had access to 34.98 and 2.19g day -1 , respectively. this estimate shows that the quantity of sfrb available to a chick was very low and the results suggest that the chicks should be given supplementary feeds over a certain period of time in order to reduce losses that may occur due to starvation. under scavenging conditions, starvation has been reported as one of the main causes of mortality rates in village chicks and growers in africa and southeast asia (ologhobo, 1992; roberts and senaratne, 1992; wickramaratne et al., 1993). in south-east asia, chicks and growers which died had lower growth rates than the average chick in their groups had (wickramaratne et al., 1993). this could be due to the fact that the amounts of nutrients supplied by the sfrb are generally too low for optimal growth of chicks and growers. thus the low survival rates of chicks and growers reported in africa and south-east asia during a pre-weaning period could be greatly improved by providing them with small amounts of supplements. determination of nutritional value of sfrb determination of nutritional values of sfrb might help to develop appropriate feeding and management strategies for optimal performance of scavenging poultry. the nutritional values of sfrb as shown by the chemical composition of the crop and gizzard contents from scavenging birds in table 6, demonstrate the presence of some variations. these variations in chemical composition might have a direct relationship with the differences in physical quantities and nutritional quality of sfrb consumed by scavenging birds from various environments (table 3). the proximate analysis of the crop and gizzard contents of the sacrificed scavenging chickens indicates protein contents of the feed consumed ranged between 82 and 117 g kg dm -1 (table 6). this indicates that the availability of protein was a constraint on poultry production in these countries. according to nrc (1994), the recommended levels of protein in growing chicken ranges from 150-200 g kg dm 1 and in mature chicken from 100-160 g kg dm -1 for the commercial birds (table 5). protein rich materials such as earthworms, snails, insects and young plant shoots can be used to correct the protein imbalance observed in these countries (table 6). the crude fibre content in the scavenged feed was very high in almost all countries ranging between 54 and 102 g kg dm -1 . fibre fraction is known to contain cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses that can not be digested efficiently by monogastric endogenous enzymes. the higher fibre content observed in the crop and gizzard feed might have a significant effect on the feed digestibility and nutrient intake in scavenging chickens. moreover, the energy contents from the sfrb were generally low ranging between 9.5 and 12.0 me (mj kg dm -1 ) than the recommended levels of between 11.7 and 13.4 me (mj kg dm -1 ) for optimum growth of growers and 12.1 me (mj kg dm -1 ) for high egg production in layers (table 5). the mineral contents such as calcium and phosphorus in the scavengeable feed resources were also low compared to the recommended levels of these minerals for growers and laying hens (table 5) . these results indicate that there is a high chance of an imbalance of calcium: phosphorus ratio in the diets consumed by scavenging birds. the recommended optimal ratio of these two mineral elements in poultry is within the range of 1:1 to 2:1. nevertheless, in laying hens the proportion of calcium in the diets is much higher since they require a large amount of this element for egg shell formation (mcdonald et al, 2002). conclusion the present review shows that most of the poultry in developing countries in particular africa is found in traditional sector. these poultry play an important role in supplying the local people with additional income and high-quality protein food. under traditional sector, four poultry management systems can be distinguished where freerange and backyard systems are mostly practiced by rural households. flock productivity is generally low due to sub-optimal management, lack of supplementary feeds, low genetic and diseases. scavenging is a dominant husbandry system and provides most of the sfrb consumed by scavenging poultry. however, the availability of sfrb varies with seasons, altitude, climatic conditions, farming activities, social, management, and flock biomass and bird behaviour. moreover it is indicated that sfrb contain on average low amounts of protein (100 g kg dm -1 ), energy (11.2 mj kg dm -1 ) and minerals such as ca (11.7 g kg dm -1 ) and p (5 g kg dm -1 ) . the low concentration of these nutrients can only support maintenance, low growth rate and low egg production for scavenging poultry. the low concentration can be corrected by providing scavenging poultry with supplementary feeds rich in these nutrients. however, quantitative assessment of sfrb and its nutritional value could help in developing appropriate supplementation using locally scavengeable feed resources. in order to achieve this, further studies are needed to identify and characterize potential scavengeable resources in different farming systems at different periods of the year. references aini i (1999). village chicken production and health. sout-east asian perspectives. $th asia-pacific health conference. http://www.avpa.cia.au/confer/ideris.htm. ali ms (2002). study on the effect of feed supplementation to laying hen under the rural condition of bangladesh. m.sc. thesis.the royal veterinary and agricultural university, denmark. 10 bessei. w. (1987). tendencies of world poultry production. paper presented at 3 rd international dlg-symposium on poultry production in hot climates. june 19-22, hameln, germany. branckaert rds, gaviria l, jallade j, seiders rw (2000). transfer of technology in poultry .production for developing countries. sddimension. fao http://www.fao.or/sd/cddirect/cdre0054.htm. branckaert rds, guèye ef (2000). fao’s programme for support to familypoultryproduction. http://www.husdry.kvl.dk/htm/tune99/24.branckaert.thm. cumming rb (1992). the advantages of free choice feeding for village chickens. proceedings of the xix world’s poultry congress. 3: 627-630 amsterdam, the netherlands. goromela eh, komwihangil dm, mwanga j (1999). participatory rural appraisal studies in central tanzania: annual report livestock production research institute, mpwapwa tanzania. guèye ef (1998). village egg and fowl meat in africa. regional report. world’s poultry sci. j. 54: 73-86. guèye ef (2000a). approaches to family poultry development. proc. of the 21 st world’s poultry congress. montreal canada. guèye ef (2003). gender issues in family poultry production systems in low income food deficit countries. am. j. alternat. agric. 18: (4) 185-195. gunaratne sp, chandrasir a, halamatha w, roberts ja. (1993). feed resource base for scavenging village chickens in sri lanka. trop. anim. health and prod. 25 (4): 249-257. gunaratne sp (1999). feeding and nutritional of scavenging chickens. in: the scope and effects of family poultry research and development. international network for family poultry development infpd. http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/en/infpd/documents/econf_sc ope/add_paper2.html. huque qme (1999) nutritional status of family poultry in bangladesh. livestock research for rural development (11) 3 kitalyi aj (1998). kitalyi, a.j (1998). village chicken production systems in rural africa household food security and gender issues. fao animal production and health paper 142:http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w8989e/w8989e00.htm. village chicken production systems in rural africa household food security and gender issues. fao animal production and health paper 142 http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w8989e/w8989e00.htm. mcdonald p, edwards ra, greenhalgh jfd, morgan ca (2002). animal nutrition. 6 edition. p.119. mwalusanya na, katule am, mutayoba sk, minga um, mtambo mm, olsen je (2002). nutrient status of crop contents of rural scavenging local chickens in tanzania. br. j. poultry sci. 43: 64-69. nrc (1994). nutrient requirements of poultry. ninth revised edition. subcommittee on poultry nutrition. national academy press. washington dc,usa. pp. 61-79. ologhobo ad (1992). the dilemma of animal feeds and indigenous poultry in nigeria. proceedings of 19 th world’s poultry congress, amsterdam. 2: 81-86. permin a, bisgaard m (1999). a general review on some important diseases in free range chickens. poultry as a tool in poverty eradication and promotion of gender equality. proceedings of a workshop, march 22-26, tune landboskole, denmark. pp. 181-187. prawirokusumo s (1988). problems to improve small scale native chickens management in south eastasian countries. in: proceedings of xviii world’s poultry congress, nagoya, japan. pp.113-117. rashid mm, islam mn, roy bc, jakobsen k, lauridsen c (2005). nutrient concentrations of crop and gizzard contents of indigenous scavenging chickens under rural conditions of bangladesh. livestock research for rural development 17(2) . http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd17/2/rash17016.htm. rashid m, roy bc, asaduzzaman. (2004). chemical composition of crop contents of local chickens. asian network for scientific information (2004). pak. j. nutr. 3 (1):26-28. riise jc, permin a, mcainsh cv frederiksen l (2004). keeping village poultry. a technical manual on small-scale poultry production. network for small holder poultry development. chapter 1. roberts ja (1992). the scavenging feed resource base in assessments of the productivity of scavenging village chickens. in: newcastle disease in village chickens. edited by b.p.spradbrow, canberraaustralia. proc. agric. centre for int. res. (39): 29-32. roberts ja (1995). assessing the scavenging feed resource base for smallholder poultry development. in: sustainable rural poultry production in africa. proceedings of an international workshop held on june 13-16, at the international livestock research institute, addis ababa, ethiopia. pp. 40-52. roberts ja (1999). utilization of poultry feed resources by smallholders in the villages of developing countries. poultry as a tool in poverty eradication and promotion of gender equality proceedings of a workshop. http://www.husdyr.kvl.dk/htm/php/tune99/28-roberts.htm. roberts ja (1999) utilization of poultry feed resources by smallholders in the villages of developing countries. poultry as a tool in poverty eradication and promotion of gender equality proceedings of a workshop. http://www.husdyr.kvl.dk/htm/php/tune99/28-roberts.htm. roberts ja, senaratne r (1992). the successful introduction of hybrid egg laying into a sri lanka village. proceedings of the 19 th world’s poultry congress. amsterdam. 1: 818-821. roberts ja. gunaratne sp (1992). the scavenging feed resource base for village chickens in a developing country. proceedings of the 19 th world’s poultry congress. amsterdam. 1: 20-24. smith aj (1990). the tropical agriculturalist poultry cta-macmillan press london 106: 179-188. sonaiya eb (1990).the context and prospects for development of smallholder rural poultry production in africa. cta seminar proceedings, smallholder rural poult. prod.1: 35-60. sonaiya eb (1995).feed resources for smallholder poultry in nigeria. world anim. rev. 82 (1): 25-33. sonaiya eb, branckaert rds guèye ef (1999). the scope and effect of family poultry research and development. research and development options for family poultry. first-infpd/fao electronic conference on family poultry. http://www.faoext02.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/agricult/aga/a gap/lps/fampo/intropap.html. sonaiya eb, dazogbo js, olukosi oa. (2002a). further assessment of scavenging feed resource base: http://www.iaea.or.at/programmes/nafa/d3/public/20-further-sonaiya.pdf sonaiya eb, olukosi oa, obi o, ajuwon km (2002b). vaccination and scavengeable feed resource assessment for village poultry: http://www.iaea.org/programmes/nafa/d3/mtc/sonaiya-doc.pdf. sonaiya eb (2004) direct assessment of nutrient resources in free range and scavenging systems. regional report: in: world’s poultry sci. j. 60:.523-535. sonaiya eb, oa. olukosi, obi o, ajuwon km (2002b). vaccination and scavengeable feed resource assessment for village poultry. http://www.iaea.org/programmes/nafa/d3/mtc/sonaiya-doc.pdf . sonaiya eb, dazogbo js olukosi oa (2002a). further assessment of scavenging feed resource base. http://www.iaea.org/programmes/nafa/d3/public/20-further-sonaiya.pdf sonaiya eb (2002). feed resources for smallholder poultry in nigeria. http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/agp/war/wara11/v4440b/v4440b0a.htm. tadele d (1996). studies on village poultry production systems in the central highlands of ethiopia msc. thesis. swedish university of agricultural sciences. uppsala, sweden. tadele d, ogle b (1996). studies on village poultry production in the central highlands of ethiopia: http://www.husdyr.kvl.dk/htm/php/tune96/7tessier.htm. ukil ma (1992). availability of nutrients to scavenging chickens and ducks in bangladesh. m.sc. thesis. bangladesh agricultural university, bangladesh. wickaramatne shg, gunaratne sp, chandrasiri adn (1993). growth performance of village chickens under different feeding systems. trop. agric. res. 5: 359-367. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (2), pp. 001-006, february, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper analysis of avocado marketing in trans-nzoia district, kenya paul omolo1*, tana p.1, mutebi c.1, okwach e.1 , onyango h.2 and okach k. o.2 1 kenya agricultural research institute, p. o. box 1490-40100, kisumu, kenya. 2 schools of agriculture and biotechnology, moi university, p. o. box 1125, eldoret, kenya. accepted 21 september, 2018 the ability of small holder farmers to plant trees or expand traditional tree based system is limited to a number of factors. these factors are scarcity of resources, inadequate technical capacity and experience and market disincentives. marketing of agro forestry produce is crucial for increasing the available money in the farming sector. unfortunately, there is little information and experience on the dynamics of smallholder marketing in kenya. the study was carried out in sitatunga and kaplamai locations of kaplamai division, trans nzoia district to study the market dynamics and production challenges of avocado. primary and secondary data was used; primary data was collected using questionnaires and observation. published and unpublished materials formed sources of secondary data. different players in avocado marketing were considered for study. the sample consisted of 30 farmers, 10 retailers and 10 consumers, selected using simple random sampling method. data was analyzed using spss statistical package. the results indicated that middlemen plays a vital role in marketing of avocado for small holder producers and that a lot of marketing challenges such as transportation facilities, low prices and lack of market information existed for marketing agents. from the results, recommendations were made to the sccvi-agro forestry project management to train farmers on market dynamics, record keeping, planting of improved avocado seedlings, networking, value addition, market information generation and dissemination. key words: avocado, marketing, price determination. introduction avocado avocado is grown in small scale by most of small scale farmers in kaplamai division. it serves as food, animal feed, and source of income, firewood and timber. main varieties grown were hass and fuerte, harvested twice in a year. the cost of producing avocado fruits is negligible since most farmers do not use fertilizers, but use domestic manure alone which is generated locally. spraying is also not done since many farmers do not know that the trees require spraying. farmers harvested fruits by use of poor traditional *corresponding author. e-mail: paul_omolo1963@yahoo.com methods, which contributed to the fruits’ damage when ripening (betser et al., 1999). the fruits is mainly detached by means of a forked stick and allowed to fall leading to damage of the fruits. nowadays, harvesters use clippers for low hanging fruits and for those higher up a long picking pole with a sharp "v" on the metal rim to cut the stem and a strong cloth bag to catch the fruit. gloves are worn to avoid fingernail scratches on the fruit. in california, studies have been done on the effects of hand clipping (leaving stem on), hand snapping (which removes the stem), tree-shaking and limb shaking (which removes the stem from some of the fruits) (koch, 1983; tom, 1990). rice et al. (1986) found out that all methods are acceptable if the stem scar is waxed on stem less fruits to avoid weight loss before ripening at which time the stem detaches naturally. in australia, some growers file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org ksh 708 a bag farmers retailers 17% ksh 603 / bag 60% 33% middlemen/ brokers ksh 900 / 44% ksh 1200 / bag bag urban consumers ksh 1300 / bag ksh 600 / bag 17% outside markets e.g. lodwar, mombassa local consumers arrows points to the buyer figure 1. summary of market channels for avocado fruits. use hydraulic lifts to facilitate hand-picking. after harvesting, the fruits must be handled with care, packed and padded in single or double-layer boxes or cartons for shipment. the fruits may also be held in position in molded trays (stachys, 2001) marketing of avocados is mainly done in the local markets within sitatunga and kaplamai villages in kaplamai division. the fruits were also sold in kitale municipal market. the study was therefore conducted to analyze the existing market situation, its impact on production, distribution and pricing of avocado products. the study highlighted marketing problems experienced by farmers and marketing agents. materials and methods the study was carried out in sitatunga and kaplamai locations of kaplamai division transnzoia district in the year 2006. primary and secondary data was used in this study. primary data was collected using questionnaires and observations. published and unpublished materials formed sources of secondary data. different players in avocado marketing were considered for study. it is from these players that the study selected 30 farmers, 10 retailers and 10 consumers as the sample. the sample was selected using the simple random sampling method. the questionnaires were administered to collect primary data. data were analyzed using spss statistical packages and results presented in the forms of descriptive statistics and figures. results and discussions majority of farmers (94%) sold to the various market agents (figure 1). however, about 6% of farmers sold to other outlets like local kiosks and schools, which were outside the above model. for farmers, prices per bag varied with retailers buying at ksh 708, middlemen ksh 603 and local consumers at ksh 600 a bag (figure 1). local consumers bought the fruits in small quantities. on average, farmers sold a fruit for ksh 2 to consumers. the middlemen on the other hand bought in large quantities (in bags). by buying from the farms, middlemen had an upper hand in convincing farmers to charge low prices. not all retailers sold to the market agents studied. about 77% of retailers sold to urban consumers and middlemen. the remaining 23% of retailers sold to other agencies like supermarkets and fellow retailers. retail price for middlemen was lower than that charged to urban consumers. when selling to middlemen, who bought in bulk, retailers recognized the fact that middlemen do sell for profit. retailers therefore 60 50 40 % 30 20 10 0 damages no support low prices no price taking lack of when in marketing and lack of problems transport and ripening market unreliable information market challenges figure 2. marketing challenges facing farmers. charged middlemen relatively lower prices. urban consumers bought the fruits in small quantities. on average, retailers sold a fruit for ksh 5 to these consumers. this was mostly the ripe ones of the improved hass variety. middlemen mostly sold to outside markets in towns like mombasa and lodwar. the average price per bag of avocado was ksh 1300. marketing challenges experienced by farmers low prices and lack of market information were the major marketing problems experienced by most farmers (figure 2). other marketing problems facing farmers during marketing of avocado included damages when ripening, unreliable market, lack of transport facilities and lack of support in marketing by the government. damages when ripening originated from the poor harvesting methods used by farmers. farmers prick the fruits which then fall of the hard ground. during ripening, the fruits begin to rot from the side in which they fall on the ground. despite all these problems, slightly over 10% of farmers did not experience any marketing problems (figure 2). in most cases, middlemen used pick-ups to carry the fruits in bags, which they sold in markets far a way like in lodwar and mombasa. those farmers who sold directly to the market took their fruits to the village/local markets during market days only. this was mainly on small-scale as farmers placed the fruits in small bags, which they carry on their heads or backs. marketing challenges experienced by retailers when marketing avocado, most retailers cited lack of transport facilities and fruit damage. when ripening the fruits, major challenges they faced were rotting, perishability of fruits, low prices and low demand. avocado fruits are perishable and are easily damaged during handling (transportation and storing) by retailers. however, any damage during handling was shared by farmers or middlemen, depending on who supplied the fruits to the retailers. this was noted especially in kitale municipal market, where most retailers were large-scale sellers of the fruits. it helped these retailers to reduce losses associated with damages of the fruits. farmers’ sources of market information most of the farmers obtained marketing information for avocado (prices, varieties available and the volumes) from middlemen (figure 3). neighbors and retailers also formed relatively larger sources of market information for the farmers. other sources of market information were the markets and schools. other farmers however did not have marketing information for avocado at all, since they did not cite any source of the market information (figure 3). market price determination by farmers in determining prices for their fruits, farmers made several considerations. a larger percentage of farmers interviewed (46%) considered the size and quality of fruits produced (figure 4). other considerations made by farmers in determining their prices were market forces (relating to demand and supply), prices of other farmers and type of the buyer. other aspects were bargaining and market visits to obtain prices. a relatively large number of farmers were price takers. this means that they accepted what the buyers offered. in most cases, these farmers did not have market information concerning price levels of the fruits. % 40 35 % 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 r et ai le rs m ar k et m a rk et an d m i dd l em en m id d le m e n n ei g h b o rs in fo rm at io n s ch o o ls sources of market information n o figure 3. sources of market information for farmers. 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 bargain market price taker prices of size and size of the visit forces other quality of fruit and the market to farmers and fruit type of get prices size of the buyer fruit methods used to determine market prices figure 4. market price determination by farmers. though most farmers considered size and quality in setting up avocado fruit prices, their fruit quality are poor. in most cases, farmers ignored the management of the trees and only low quality organic manure is used at planting. most farmers did not use fertilizers, which are beneficial for the trees especially in early stages of growth. spraying was also not done despite the pest and disease incidences since most farmers were unaware that the trees could be sprayed. it was from these observations that the study concluded that the fruits were generally of low quality and therefore could not attract better prices. this also explains the low farmer prices. market price determination by retailers most retailers considered profit margin expected in setting up the retail prices for the avocado (figure 4). retailers also bargained, considered market prices, season, size and quality of fruits and the type of the customer in setting up retail prices. in the market, the researcher observed that most retailers sold improved varieties of avocado fruits. they cited high demand and better prices fetched by such fruits. contrary to this, farmers did not have such information and sold even their improved varieties at lower prices. market agents involved in setting up retail prices by retailers retailers mostly involved themselves when determining retail prices of avocado fruits (figure 5). it is shown by 34%. other market agents involved by retailers when setting up retail prices of avocado were middlemen and consumers. this shows that farmers were involved passively in retail price determination. we had seen that retailers considered profit margin expected when they set up their prices. this was where farmers came in passively as some retailers bought fruits from farmers. % 50 40 30 20 10 0 type of fruit consider profit margin profit margin size of fruit market prices expected expected and and type of season customer guidelines in retail price determination figure 5. setting up retail prices of avocado. no body 22% middlemen and consumer 11% middlemen 22% consumers and retailers 11% fellow retailers 34% figure 6. market agents involved in setting up retail prices. however, 22% of the retailers interviewed did not involve anybody when setting up their retail prices for the fruits. farmers and retailers avocado price trends between 2004 and 2006, there was a steady rise in the unit prices of avocado for both farmers and retailers (figure 6). retailers however, charged about twice the unit price charged by farmers. over the years, the difference between unit prices was ksh 460 in 2004, ksh. 503 in 2005 and ksh. 535 in 2006. this means that although the unit prices for avocado increased for both farmers and retailers, that of retailers increased by a larger proportion than that of farmers. this may be attributed to the considerations made when setting up prices by farmers and retailers as had been stated previously. retailers also sold in established markets where they easily enjoyed better prices. in contrast, farmers sold to local consumers, middlemen and schools where only low prices were offered. retailers also observed that at the end of the month, most consumers consumed a lot of avocado, thereby increasing demand for the fruits. it is at such times that retailers raised their prices. retailers also sold more of the improved avocado varieties, which had a higher demand with higher prices. in contrast, most farmers sold their fruits including the improved varieties at low prices, since most of them did not have market information concerning prices and demand for such fruits. value addition by farmers most farmers ripen the fruits before they sell. it was the most common form of value addition employed by farmers. other forms of value addition, though done in small scale were sorting, grading and transportation. other farmers however, did not add any value to their avocado fruits (figure 7). for avocado to attract better prices, farmers need to consider other value addition forms like packaging and transporting the fruits to the market. others may include avocado oil extraction which can be sold to cosmetics manufacturers or local consumers. production and sales trends for farmers farmers’ production and sales were on the rise. during 2005, both production and sales levels declined. production however, declined by a larger margin than the % 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 no value ripen ripen and ripen, sort sort and addition transport and grade grade type of value added figure 7. value addition by farmers. b a g s 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2004 2005 2006 year production level (bags) sales level (bags) figure 8. avocado production and sales trends for farmers. decline in sales (figure 8). this is an indication of the high demand for the avocado fruits. from the year 2005, there was a steady increase in both production and sales levels, with farmers selling all they produced in the year 2006 (figure 8). avocado production would then be beneficial to farmers if current marketing challenges are addressed, as there is a steady demand for avocado fruits. conclusion 1. common marketing channels followed by farmers and retailers were middlemen and consumers; 2. major challenges noted were lack of transport facilities, low prices, lack of market information and damages/rotting when ripening; 3. the major sources of market information noted were middlemen, neighbours and retailers. market information is lacking or distorted resulting to exploitation of farmers; 4. in determining avocado prices, farmers in most cases considered the size and quality of the fruits. retailers on the other hand considered their profit margin; 5. ripening the fruits was the major form of value addition done by farmers. acknowledgments we thank all the market agents involved in the study, kari and vi agro forestry for funding the study. references betser l, mugwe j, muriuki j (1999). of-farm production and marketing of high value tree products in the central highlands of kenya. proceedings of a workshop on off-forest tree resources of africa held in arusha, tanzania 12-16 july 1999, pp. 227-241. koch df (1983). avocado growers handbook, housall publications: california. stachys nm (2001). marketing of smallholder produce: a synthesis of case studies in the highlands of central kenya, regional land management unit: nairobi. tom we (1990). kenyan avocado industry in the california avocado society 1990 yearbook, 74: 187-189. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (5), pp. 001-007, may, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper sheep marketing performance: a case study of khartoum state, sudan abda abdalla emam* and ibrahim nourien malik department of agricultural economics, faculty of agricultural studies, sudan university of science and technology khartoum north, p.o box 71, sudan. accepted 24 november, 2019 the main objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of improving marketing efficiency, regarding the emphasis concerning marketing cost and margins. the study was based on both primary and secondary data. primary data was collected through questionnaires, and the questionnaires were applied to the wholesalers, producers and retailers through stratified random sampling, while secondary data was obtained from sources related to the study area. descriptive statistics analysis and marketing performance measurements were used as tools of analysis. the study showed that, the sheep marketing performance was featured by high transportation costs, costs’ losses and mortality, taxes and multiple fees. in order to reduce marketing costs, the study recommended construction and improvement of infrastructures (for example, roads and transportation means, improvement of loading and un-loading practices and utilization of large well equipped trucks suitable for physical characteristics of animals), and that the governments should reduce the imposed taxes and multiple fees on producers and traders, as well as establish risk management units in the areas where armed robbery and insecurity are prevalent. key words: sheep marketing, marketing costs, marketing performance. introduction sudan is the largest country in africa, occupying an area of about one million mile square (saboun, 2002). the agricultural sector plays a significant role in the sudan economy (ministry of finance and natural economics, 2003). the main agricultural system in sudan is composed of five main sub-sectors, namely: (1) the traditional rain-fed, (2) the mechanized rain-fed, (3) livestock and (4) forestry. el hassan (1994) stated that the main livestock production system in the country is as follows: traditional pastorals (nomadic and seminomadic), agro-pastoral and the agrarian system. the main livestock breeds in sudan are camels, cattle and sheep. the livestock population put the total animal population at about 40, 49, 42 and 37 million herd of cattle, sheep, goats and camels, respectively (fmar, 2005). abbott (1993) has summarized the tasks and *corresponding author. e-mail: safarefga@hotmail.com. tel: 00249912945646, 00249122812551. fax: 0024985311896. responsibilities of marketing as a process of finding a buyer and transferring ownership, assembling, transporting, storing, sorting, packing and processing to the customers; and providing and presenting the finance for marketing, riskbearing and assorting to consumers. dixie (1989) has described the definition of marketing as the series of services involved in moving a product or a commodity from the point of production to the point of consumption. also, emam (2002) has described the definition of marketing as the series of services involved in moving a product or a commodity from the point of production to the point of consumption. the movement of sheep from the production area to the consumption centre plays a major role in the sheep marketing performance, due to the fact that production areas are at a far distance from the consumption centers in sudan. the far distance may result in excess services of marketing, mortality and loss of animals. sheep markets in sudan lack some basic infrastructural facilities such as paved roads and transport (babiker and abdalla, 2009). the sheep are mainly transported by trekking from the primary markets to the secondary markets, and seldom by trucking to the final file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org markets (babiker and abdalla, 2009). thus, the results will be high marketing cost and margins, which have a negative effect on the overall sheep marketing performance. the performance of marketing system can be measured in terms of its effectiveness and cost efficiency (http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/w3240e/w3240e12.htm). the movement of goods from producers to consumers must be done at the lowest cost without affecting consumer satisfaction (fao, 1960). this research is very important in providing implications for policy makers, investors and producers with the necessary conclusion and recommendations, to allow them greatly improve this sector. the general objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of improving sheep marketing performance with special emphasis on marketing cost and margins. the specific objectives of this study are to study the sheep marketing channels, physical distribution costs and marketing costs and margins. materials and methods the study area the division of livestock markets in omdurman are divided two markets elmoueleh livestock market: this market is located in the municipality of omdurman, monitored by the administrative unit of the western rural area of omdurman. it lies between latitude 15°:23 n and longitude 32°:19 e. the market covers an area of 85,000 m, and it represents the export or central market. the majority of buyers are exporters and butchers, while wholesalers and agents are the dominant sellers. dar elsalam livestock market: this market is cited in the peripheral western area of umbadda municipality under monitoring by the administrative unit of dar elsalam. it lies between latitude 15°:30 n and longitude 32° :23 : 07" e, covering an area of 50,000 m. it represents the main market for local consumption, in which the majority of buyers are consumers and meat exporters, while retailers are the dominant sellers. the animal resource company, which is a subsidiary company of the animal resource bank, supervises these markets. data collection the data was collected from both primary and secondary sources related to the field of the study. secondary data was collected from the ministry of animal wealth, bank of sudan, ministry of finance and national economy and the ministry of agriculture and forestry, while primary data was collected by means of questionnaires. three types of questionnaires were specially designed to collect information about marketing costs and margins of producers, wholesalers and retailers’ levels. sample size stratified random sampling has been followed by a sampling frame that was obtained from the administrative unit of the western rural area and the livestock traders union. the sampling frame is a list of wholesalers, exporters and retailers at each market. the total numbers of producers at the markets are unknown, as estimated by the animal resource company. practical considerations such as seasonal supply, research budget, time and transport facilities were the main factors that determined the sample size. the sample size of 45, 55 and 70 respondents from wholesalers, producers and retailers were chosen, respectively. tools of analysis descriptive analysis and marketing margins measurements were used to examine the marketing performance or efficiency. a guide to sheep marketing costs and margins the intention of this guide is to identify the basic concept of sheep marketing costs and margins. marketing costs are the costs that are incurred during the movement of the commodity from the production areas to its final destination (www.fao.org/docrep/004/w.3240e/w3240e12htm). this movement could be done by farmers, intermediaries, wholesalers and retailers. with increased urbanization and industrialization, marketing costs tend to become relatively higher than farm gate prices. however, sheep marketing costs include labor, transport, loading/ unloading, feeding cost and/ or mortality, official payment, commission and other costs. loading and unloading costs loading and unloading costs are the costs incurred during the process of moving the animals in and out of the trucks. labor loading costs it is the amount of money paid to the laborer for loading the sheep on the trucks, in addition to his supervision and monitoring of the sheep during their movement to the final market. labor unloading costs it is the amount of money paid to the laborer for unloading the sheep from the truck at the final markets. transportation cost (truck rental) transportation costs are costs incurred due to the movement of sheep from one place to another. generally, there are two types of transportation cost: (1) direct transportation cost, which is the direct payment of money from the farmer or trader to the truck owners, and (2) indirect transportation cost, which occurs when the traders or farmers use their own vehicle. in the transportation process, payment to truck owners will be on per head basis or per journey. for the indirect transportation cost, the cost of hiring the truck as the best guess and the cost of a truck (owing to the trader), can be used (shepherd, 1993). losses or mortality costs during the marketing process, some of the animals may be lost, stolen or dead. the causes of such losses are countless and they vary. this type of cost occurs at all stages of the marketing channels. cost of losses per head is treated as the average cost from three sizes: big, medium and small size of sheep, at each marketing level. the calculation is based on the following equation: the value of animals lost × 3 or 2% cost of losses per head = the remaining animals available for sale where 3 or 2% is in the cases of trekking or truck transportation, respectively. storage costs storage is carried out in order to extend the period of availability of a product to consumers ( shepherd, 1993) . it could be done by farmers, traders and/or consumers. storage costs include only the rent cost which is the actual amount of money paid to rent the stores or fences and it is usually paid on per head basis. animal feeding cost feeds purchased for the sheep usually contain a mixture of agroindustrial feeds. the composition of the rations depends on the availability and cost of its components. taxes, fees and commission payments these types of costs vary from one place to another. they include taxes and fees paid to government, like zakat, veterinary charge, water charge, license and commissions paid to some agents at all marketing levels. calculation of total marketing costs total marketing costs were calculated by summing up all the costs incurred during the process of sheep marketing. the calculation varies according to the complexity of the sheep marketing channel, numbers of intermediaries and other services. marketing margins based on the market level, several types of marketing margins are being considered. the wholesaler margin is the difference between the price paid by the wholesaler and the farm gate, or producer price (in the case of a non-existent local trader), while the retailer margin is the difference between the price, the retailer pays and the retail price he charges the consumers. marketing margins can be calculated for different levels of the market as follows: marketing margin = p1 – p2 where: p1= selling price at certain marketing level p2 = buying price at the same marketing level results and discussion sheep marketing channels figure 1 showed the flow of sheep, starting from producers and going through several traders to finally reach the consumers or exporters. producers either sell their sheep to the wholesalers or to the butchers and rural traders. rural traders (gallaji) purchased the sheep from producers in primary markets and sell them to wholesalers or butchers at central markets. however, the wholesalers sell their sheep to retailers, exporters, butchers and/or institutions, while retailers sell their sheep to consumers, butchers and/or institutions. results of the physical distribution cost analysis the physical distribution cost of sheep per head is composed of two main activities (transportation and storage). transportation there are two means of sheep transportation from the production areas to elmouleh/darelsalam livestock markets. these are trekking and trucks transportation. trekking: trekking is the primary means of moving livestock from producers to consumers or export market. table 1 showed the physical distribution cost of sheep per head at producer level by methods of trekking from elfasher to elmoueleh/darelsalam livestock market. the total physical distribution cost per head of the sheep was calculated to be sd 1639. the major cost items were taxes, fees and veterinary charges, which constituted 30.51% of total physical distribution cost per head. this was due to the lack of veterinary services and feeds along the road and along the period of trekking (36 days). the second cost item was losses or mortality which represented about 28.92% of the total physical distribution costs. payments to animal drivers, water charge, guides and feeding plus labor costs represented 12.81, 12.20, 9.15 and 6.41% of the total physical distribution cost per head, respectively: cost of losses (big size) = 3×18500/97 = 572 sd cost of losses (medium size) = 3× 16000/97 = 495 sd cost of losses (small size) = 3× 11500/97 = 356 sd average cost of losses per head at producer level = (572 + 495 + 356)/ 3 = 474 sd. truck transportation: truck transportation is an alternative means of transporting sheep from the production areas to the consumption centre. from table 1, the physical distribution cost of the sheep per head at producer level by methods of truck from elfasher to elmoueleh livestock market was sd/ head 3373. truck rent per head was sd 2050, and this constituted 60.78% of the total physical distribution cost per head. the high truck rent was due to lack of improved roads, insecurity situation (particularly in darfur) and inadequate number producers rural traders wholesalers or butchers retailers exports butchers consumers institutions figure 1. sheep marketing channels. source: field survey, 2004. of specialized trucks of transporting sheep on a large scale. although the truck rent cost was high (sd 2052), it was preferable by the producers or traders, due to its advantage of quick delivery. it took three days to reach the market and the final consumer. fees, taxes and veterinary charges (government payments), loading/ unloading, losses or mortality, feeding plus labor and water charge cost constituted 14.82, 11.86, 9.28, 3.11 and 0.15% of the total distribution cost per head, respectively. the largest cost item was truck rent (sd 2050), which constituted 60.78% of the total physical distribution cost per head. a trek recorded high cost in terms of taxes, fees and veterinary charge (government payments) (sd 500), which constituted 30.51% of the total physical distribution cost per head, and losses or mortaliy (sd474),which constituted 28.92% of the total distribution cost per head, under the level of losses or mortality rate of 3% compared with 2% by truck mortality rate. the reason was the short period of transit by truck, and the 3 days comparison with the 36 days by trek. however, the physical distribution cost per head of sheep by trekking method was less than trucking. storage (cost of keeping it in the market till the time of sales) storage cost consists of feeding cost plus cost of store rent. farmers used this period to fatten or recondition cost per head, and losses or mortality (sd 474), which their sheep. stored sheep are usually fed with a mixtureof agro-industrial feeds such as cotton seed cakes, straw, groundnuts shells, etc. the composition of the rations table 1. physical distribution costs of sheep (sd /head) at producer level by methods of trekking and truck from elfasher to elmoueleh/ dar elsalam livestock markets, 2004. by trekking by truck item cost per %of total distribution n cost per head %of total head (sd) cost (s) distribution cost one guide khabier for 1000 heads 150 9.15 six animal drivers for 1000 heads 210 12.81 truck rental 2050 60.78 loading / unloading 400 11.86 fees, taxes, veterinary charge 500 30.51 500 14.82 water charge 200 12.20 5 00.15 losses or mortality (3%)474 28.92 (2%)313 09.28 storage feeding + labor 105 6.41 105 03.11 total distribution cost 1639 100 3373 100 source: field survey 2004. table 2. storage and feeding cost in elmoueleh/ darelsalam livestock market sd/herd per day. cost item sd/ herd/day % of total cost cotton seed cake 45.00 39.13 dura grain 20.00 17.39 groundnut shells 35.00 30.43 herd man 5.00 4.35 store rent (fence) 10.00 8.70 total cost 115.00 100.00 source: field survey, 2004. depends on the food availability and costs of its components. table 2 showed the costs of sheep feeding and store rent per head for each day in elmoueleh/darelsalam markets. these major costs items are cotton seed cake, dura grain, groundnut, herd man cost and rent stores. the total cost of sheep feeding per head for each day was calculated to be sd115; whereas cotton seed cake constituted the major cost item (39.13%) of the total storage and feeding cost, followed by groundnut shells (30.43%), dura grain (17.39%) and herd man (4.35%). the cost of store rent was calculated to be sd10, which constituted 8.70% of the total storage and feeding cost per head. marketing costs analysis transported by truck from elfasher to elmoueleh/darelsalam livestock table 3 showed the total marketing costs of sheep at different marketing levels (sd/head) transported by truck from elfasher to elmoueleh/darelsalam livestock markets. the results revealed that, the truck rental cost (sd 2050) was the most important cost items at the producer level. it constituted 41.11% of the total marketing cost per head. this could be due to the high risk of moving animals in western sudan, arm-robbery, poor infrastructures and shortage of trucks specialized in animal transport. the second highest cost items was taxes, fees and veterinary charge (government payments) which constitute 10.52% of the total marketing cost per head. the reason is direct and indirect taxes and multiple fees imposed on producers and traders by the government along the roads. high taxes and multiple fees restrict the volume supplies affecting the sheep price level and net farm income. loading and unloading cost of sheep constituted 8.41% of the total marketing cost. this process was sensitive and needs highly specialized and skilled labor. the fourth and fifth cost items were losses or mortality at wholesale and producer levels which constituted 7.44 and 6.58% of the total marketing cost per head, respectively. poor infrastructures, unskilled labor, lack of adequate animal feed and water were the major factors increasing losses and mortality cost. high losses or mortality at the wholesaler level is due to the fact that wholesalers received large numbers of sheep at one time. therefore, they need good management and services to ensure control over his herd. any shortage of these factors table 3. total marketing cost (sd per head) of sheep transported by truck, from elfasher to elmoueleh/ darelsalam livestock (2004). producer % of total wholesaler % of total retailer % of total cost item marketing marketing marketing level level level cost cost cost truck rent 2050 41.11 loading/unloading 400 8.41 losses of mortality 2%,313 6.58 2%, 354 7.44 1%,188 3.95 taxes, fees and veterinary charge 500 10.52 175 3.68 125 2.63 feeding + herd man 105 2.21 105 2.21 105 2.21 water charge 5 0.11 5 0.11 5 0.11 storage 10 0.21 10 0.21 commissions 100 2.10 100 2.10 100 2.10 marketing cost 3473 73.04 749 15.75 533 11.21 total marketing costs source: field survey, 2004. table 4. sheep marketing margins (sd/ head). marketing big size medium size small size buying selling marketing buying selling marketing buying selling marketing level price price margins price price margins price price margins producer wholesaler 18500 11500 retailer 13000 source: field survey, 2004. increases the cost of losses or mortality. nonetheless, sheep feeding, water and commission were the same for all traders. generally, most of the cost items incurred during the marketing of sheep, such as taxes, fees and truck rent were paid on per head basis. therefore, small size of sheep is highly affected, because they share other sizes with similar cost and fetch less prices. from the table, the producer shared high percentage in total marketing costs (73.04%), while wholesalers and retailers shared only 15.75 and 11.21% of the total marketing costs. marketing margins at wholesaler level table 4 showed the marketing margins for different marketing levels of sheep (sd per head), transported by truck, from elfasher to elmoueleh / darelsalam livestock market. animals were classified into three categories according to their sizes (big, medium and small). this classification was based on traders’ point of view, and the prices taken in this study were average market prices at the time of sale. the marketing margins measure the difference between selling and buying prices. for wholesalers, they were found to be sd 2500, sd 2000 and sd1500 for big, medium and small size of sheep, respectively (table 4). the retailer marketing margin measured the difference between the price that the retailer paid and the price that the retailer charged the consumer. from table 4, the margins at the retailer level were sd 1500, sd 1500 and sd1000 for big, medium and small size of sheep, respectively. from the results, both traders got high marketing margins with higher margins noticed at the wholesaler level than at the retailer level. these results were in agreement with the results of a previous study. rapsomanikis et al. (2003) recorded that in developing countries, poor infrastructures, namely transport and communications services, give rise to large margins because of the high costs of delivering the products for consumption. high prices are thus retained at the consumption areas despite their relatively low levels at the production areas, and vice versa. recommendations based on the finding of the study, the following recommendations are drawn: high marketing cost is the main cause of the imperfections of sheep marketing performance. however, marketing cost can be improved by transportation, which is a significant segment of marketing cost. thus, the following means are suggested to reduce transportation cost: (a) improving infrastructure such as roads, markets, etc. (b) utilization of a large specialized truck, suitable for physical characteristics of animals. (c) establishment of risk control units in areas where arm robbery and violence exist. physical losses or mortality cost can be reduced by using the following: (i) provision of animal feed and water at the market throughout the year. (ii) improving loading and unloading practices by labor training. (iii) government should reduce the taxes and fees imposed on producers and traders. references abbott jc (1993). marketing, the rural poor and sustainability. agriculture and food marketing in developing countries: selected reading: the netherlands cta. babiker bi, abdalla ag (2009). spatial price transmission: a study of sheep markets in sudan. afr. j agric. res., 3(1): 43-56. dixie g (1989). horticultural marketing. food and agricultural organization (fao), united nation, rome, p. 111. emam aa (2002). agricultural marketing. printed in ministry of education press, khartoum, sudan (arabic version). elhassan am (1994). livestock price policy: with special reference to sheep in the sudan. m.sc. thesis, (agric-economics), faculty of agriculture, university of khartoum, sudan,. fao (1960). marketing livestock and meats. marketing guide no. 3, fao, rome. fmar (federal ministry of animal resources(2005). annual report. department of statistics. khartoum, sudan. http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/w3240e/w3240e012.htm. ministry of finance and natural economics (2003). annual reports (1997-2003). khartoum, sudan. rapsomanikis g, hallam d, conforti p (2003). market integration and price transmission in selected food and cash crop markets in developing countries: review and application. food and agricultural organization(fao) www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5117/y5117e06.htm. accessed january 2006. saboun im (2002). constraints of livestock raising and marketing in north kordofan state. m. sc. thesis, faculty of agriculture, university of khartoum. shepherd aw (1993). a guide to marketing costs and how to calculate them. food and agriculture organization of the united nation, rome. . in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (3), pp. 001-014, march, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper assessing the innovative nature of the agricultural based small businesses in rwanda the case study of the coffee industry a. j. antonites* and j. j. haguma department of business management, university of pretoria, south africa. accepted 27 november, 2019 innovation is one of the characteristics that distinguish an entrepreneurial venture from one that is nonentrepreneurial. in a situation where undifferentiated mass production is the defining feature of the global coffee industry, some rwandan coffee producers have undertaken innovative actions in branding and niche marketing by developing speciality coffees. though rwandan farmers could in the past survive without innovation initiatives, seeing as they only competed in protected environments, with current globalisation initiatives innovation is no longer a luxury but a necessity. innovative practices do not only marginalise the volatile nature of costs faced by these producers but also increase their profit margins. the purpose of this study is to assess the innovative nature of the agribusinesses, specifically a case study of the coffee industry in rwanda. the coffee industry has been transformed from a highly controlled, politicised industry to a liberalized sector that is quickly developing a prized niche product, (namely specialty coffee). this study highlights important recommendations that governments and ngos supporting the agricultural sector in rwanda, could apply to enhance innovation in the rwandan agricultural sector in general, and the coffee industry in particular. key words: entrepreneurship, sme’s, innovation, creativity, coffee industry. introduction the survival and improved contribution of small and micro enterprises (smes) in addressing the problems of poverty and unemployment can be achieved by the adop-tion of an entrepreneurial culture and innovative practi-ces. this is especially true in the agricultural sector. smes can contribute greatly to the alleviation of poverty and creating jobs when the agricultural sector forms a big component of the country’s economy. many developing countries have benefited less from free market global economy due to the exportation of commodities with low values, for example, raw materials, instead of value added intermediary and final products that are of higher perceived value. it is evident that strategies need to be *corresponding author. e-mail: alex1@up.ac.za. tel. +27828946602. planned and implemented to reverse the decline of africa’s share of world trade (murenzi and hughes, 2006:252). through the development of regional and subregional integration coupled with the development of national science and technological innovative and entrepreneurial skills among other things, the fortunes of smes can be reversed. rwanda is a small landlocked and mountainous country commonly referred to as "the country of a thousand hills". it is bordered by uganda, burundi, tanzania, and the democratic republic of congo (drc). rwanda is located in east-central africa and has a surface area of 2.6 million hectares, of which only 1.4 million hectares is arable land. the rwandan economy is heavily dependant on agriculture which is still largely smallholder driven (haba, 2004:1). coffee is grown by small scale coffee farmers estimated at 500 000 in number, with an average of 165 coffee trees per farmer (ocir cafe, 2008). the file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org agricultural sector contributes about 85% of export revenue (world bank, 2010). the share of agriculture to rwanda’s gdp was 38.2% in 2007, services 41.7% and industry 20.1% (the world fact book, 2008). according to the world bank (2007a) agriculture in rwanda currently accounts for just fewer than 40% of gdp and provides jobs to 90% of the population. coffee is one the major exports of rwanda; other major exports include tea and pyrethrum. historically, rwanda has produced arabica coffee on small farm holdings. missionaries may have first introduced coffee into rwanda in the early part of the twentieth century, but it was not until the 1930s that colonial authorities actually required rwandan farmers to plant at least one-fourth of their land with coffee trees (boudreaux, 2007:4) . the author further states that the coffee industry has played a major role in rwanda’s development because coffee for many years has been the country’s top export and chief source of foreign exchange income. before the introduction of speciality coffee production, the rwandan coffee sector was engulfed in a low qualitylow quantity loop (gahamanyi, 2005). primarily among many reasons for this was the decreased coffee prices at the world coffee market, a situation arising out of increased worldwide production and consolidation of purchasing by multinational corporations as well as the 1994 genocide in rwanda, which left the sector in dismay. this study illustrates how coffee farmers in rwanda have adopted process and market innovations as a means of improving the quality and output of their coffee, hence improving their livelihood. this study emphasises the fact that even in the most basic forms of production, innovation is possible. the following research questions apply: question 1: what is the relationship between the different innovation factors and the different biographic variables? question 2: what is the relationship between the different innovation factors and the profit level of coffee farmers? question 3: what is the relationship between the different innovation factors and the perceived performance of coffee farmers? globalisation exposes entrepreneurs everywhere to merciless competition as tariffs are reduced and trading straddles national borders (rwigema and venter, 2004). protectionism is losing ground and governments are compelled to open up national markets to compete against aggressive external producers. survival depends upon the creativity and resilience of a country’s entrepreneurs. the question arises if innovation, through product differentiation and niche marketing, can give a small producer an edge over competition nationally and globally, where undifferentiated mass production and marketing is the norm. rwanda coffee farmers are competing with other coffee producers to improve their product, expands their know ledge of the global coffee market, and increase demand for their goods (boudreaux, 2007:1). small and medium enterprises (smes) operate in an environment that is extremely competitive. here low technology and capital requirements, easy to copy processes and ideas result in consequently high failure rates. therefore, rwanda coffee farmers need to distinguish themselves from other role players in the meso-environment through creative and innovative ways. innovation and creativity should be regarded as core keys to the successful business enterprise in rwandan coffee farmers. literature review according to le roux (2003:11) entrepreneurship is the vehicle for companies and societies to find innovative ways to exploit opportunities as a way to survive in an ever-changing environment. this is also supported by kruger (2004:3) who mentions that creativity and innovation are major factors in being entrepreneurial and meeting the changing needs of society. entrepreneurship is crucial in any country for birthing new ideas, creating new enterprises and nurturing the economy. it is particularly important in overcoming unemployment (hisrich and o’cinneide, 1985:1). entrepreneurship can also be described as vibrant process of pursuing an opportunity and creating incremental wealth and value (echecopar et al., 2003:2). healthy entrepreneurship leads to positive financial returns for both independent business ventures and organisations alike. entrepreneurship is regarded as the process that causes changes in the economic system through the innovations of individuals who respond to opportunities in the market (nieman and nieuwenhuizen, 2009). the value of entrepreneurship is currently recognised through concepts like creativity, innovation and opportunity development in a dynamic environment (kruger, 2004:18). while innovation lies at the heart of entrepreneurship, creativity seems to be the root of innovation (wickham, 2006). it is further argued that entrepreneurial activity, with innovation as key leads to increased productivity and more effective competition in the market environment (antonites, 2003:49). the author concludes by holding the view that the combined variables of innovation and creativity distinguish the entrepreneur from the general small business person. three common skills are generally found in the definition of entrepreneurship namely (1) creativity and innovation; (2) resource gathering and the founding of an economic organisation; and (3) the chance for gain under increased risk and uncertainty (dollinger, 2003:5). kruger (2004:28) concluded that the key concepts of the entrepreneurship domain are innovation and strategic objecttives that impact on a venture’s potential for growth. creativity and innovation seems to be fundamental to true entrepreneurship. wickham (2006:5) identifies three aspects of entrepreneurship: table 1. definitions of innovation. definition author innovation is the process by which organisations master and implements the design and production of goods and services that are new to them, irrespective of whether they are new to their competitors, their country, or the world. innovation is the mechanism where new methods, customs, or devices are used to perform new tasks. innovation is the sum of the invention plus the commercialisation of that invention. innovation is further described as the introduction of new products and/or improvement of products, services and production processes, the driving force of a nation’s economic development and an improvement in the competitiveness of its firms. innovation additionally provides a centre for profit and is a consequential product of entrepreneurship. innovation is the successful implementation of creative ideas. successful innovation is the use of new technological knowledge, and/ or new market knowledge, employed within a business model that can deliver a new product and/ or service to customers who will purchase at a price that will provide profits. mytelka (2000:18) sunding and zilberman (2000:2) ireland et al., (2001:73) oerlemans et al. (2001:2) shepherd and kruger (2002:167) kruger (2004:103) kaplan and warren (2007:24) (i) the entrepreneur as a manager undertaking particular tasks; (ii) the entrepreneur as an economic agent generating particular economic effects; and (iii) the entrepreneur as an individual of a particular personality. effective innovation has a direct impact on reduction of poverty and the improvement of the quality of life of the people (roelofse, 2006:7). innovation is defined as the key process by which products, processes and services are created, and by which businesses generate jobs and wealth (roelofse, 2006:7). innovation is the specific tool by means of which entrepreneurs exploit change to create a business opportunity. a range of definitions of innovation are proposed by different authors, as summarised in table 1. definitions of innovation kirby (2003:132) is of the opinion that the advancement of creativity through the generation, identification and exploitation of opportunities, leads to innovation. creativity is therefore a prerequisite and at the root of innovation. accordingly the relationship between innovation and creativity is discussed. according to majaro (1988:7) creativity is the thinking process that leads to the generation of ideas, while innovation is the practical application of such ideas towards meeting the firm’s objectives in a more effective way. the main source of innovation is creative thinking, but innovations can also come from successful exploitation of opportunities both in and outside the business. kruger (2004:111) further explains that creativity is the generation and articulation of new ideas whereas innovation is the application of new ideas and the implementation of inventions. creativity is a catalyst in the process of new product development (antonites, 2003:98). firms are required to exhibit creativity and innovation if they are to stay alive and thrive in a competitive and increasingly demanding world (carrier et al., 1999). the identification of new opportunities is one of the key tasks of entrepreneurs (wickham, 2006:7). this author further defines an opportunity as a gap in a market where the potential exists to do something better and hence creates value. entrepreneurial innovations should therefore engage in feasible and viable market opportunities. as innovation based competition diffused through the processes of trade liberalization, it accelerated the pace of technological change. this increased the need for sme’s especially in developing countries to engage in a continuous process of innovation irrespective of the sector in which they are located (mytelka, 2000:15). today’s organisations are faced with slow growth, commoditisation and global competition; innovation and competitiveness are seen as the main economic multipliers and an effective solution to this ever-growing dilemma (montalvo, 2006:312). different forms of organisational innovation are identified which are related to the: product, service and process (smith, 2010). (i) product innovation refers to the development of a new table 2. types of innovations. innovation components system incremental improved no change modular new no change architectural improved new configuration radical new new configuration source: adapted from smith (2010). product or improvement of an existing product so that it appears unique and hence persuades consumers to make a purchase. (ii) service innovation is a new way of providing a service in a way that is different and/or better than the service provided by their competitors. (iii) process innovation involves unique and better production and manufacturing methods which deliver products that are better and at lower cost compared to competitors' products. the product, service and process forms of innovation take place through component and systemic innovation, which are incremental, modular, architectural and/or radical (table 2). incremental innovation refers to the refinement and improvement of an existing product, or service by improving the components (davila et al., 2006:38; morris et al., 2008:63; morten et al., 2005:315; smith, 2006:22, 29). incremental innovation either improves something that already exists, or reconfigures an existing form of technology to make it more relevant for newly developed needs and purposes (harvard business essentials, 2003:2). modular innovation uses the architecture and configuration of the existing system but introduces new components (smith, 2006:31). architectural innovation refers to the process when the components and associated design concepts are renewed, and the system changes as new linkages are instituted (smith, 2006:32). radical innovation involves a whole new design of a new product or service delivered in an entirely new way through the development of specialised components or systems (davila et al., 2006:38; morris et al., 2008:63; morten et al., 2005:315; smith, 2006:29). radical innovation introduces something new to the world, which departs from existing technology or methods (harvard business essentials, 2003:2). semi-radical innovation would involve substantial change to either the business model, or technology of an organisation but not to both (davila et al., 2006:38; morris et al., 2008:63; morten et al., 2005:315). it is argued that the use of radical and modular innovations should be seen as opportunities for the rwandan farmers to investigate, consequently that these forms of innovation are currently under-utilised by rwandan coffee farmers. in addition, the re-vitalisation of incremental and architectural innovations should be examined for reasons indicated by stark (2000) as follows: (i) technology is changing rapidly with new products, new processes and services from competitors. (ii) the effect of a changing environment with product lifecycles becoming increasingly shorter means that old products or services will have to be replaced with new ones. (iii) customers are increasingly more sophisticated, segmented and demanding; they expect more in terms of quality, originality and price. (iv) with markets and technology changing vehemently, good ideas are becoming very easy to copy. this therefore calls for continuous methods of devising new and better products, and faster processes and services. (v) innovation leads to faster growth, increased market share and better corporate positioning. (vi) boyd (2004:5) also states that innovation is the lifeblood of any successful business. among the most important aspects of success in small firms is innovativeness, as exemplified by phenomenal growth of start-up .ventures like starbucks, apple computers, dell, and kinkos (daily et al., 2005:773). the coffee industry and the overall agricultural sector should also invest in the use of modern technology in the production processes since the agricultural sector employs 90% of the whole rwandan population (world bank, 2007b). unfortunately many coffee farmers still use traditional equipments like hoes to cultivate the land, and the few coffee washing stations do not satisfy the service of the coffee production capacity. the use of new and upto-date technology has the following advantages to smes: (i) better and more competitive products and services. (ii) improved efficiency (iii) reduced operational and production costs and (v) improved quality of products and services. the survival of smes and their contribution to addressing the problem of poverty in rwanda is directly tied to the availability of sufficient and appropriate agricultural information technologies to increase production; promote operational efficiency and improve managerial decision making (haba, 2004:3). additional to the product/service, process and organisational forms of innovation, the following forms of innovation are also stipulated (davila et al., 2006:38; morris et al., 2008:63; morten et al., 2005:315): (i) discontinuous innovation: this form of innovation is a breakthrough type of innovation which results in the changing way customers address their needs for a product or a need that was not addressed before. (ii) dynamically continuous innovation refers to a dramatic improvement of a product or service over an existing state-of-the-art solution. (iii) continuous innovation involves the step-by-step enhancement of an existing product. (iv) initiation innovation that involves copying, adapting, or mimicking the innovations of other firms. according to janvry et al. (1999:2), technological change in agriculture can reduce poverty in the following ways: (i) firstly, it can help reduce poverty directly by raising the welfare of poor farmers who adopt the technological innovation. potential benefits can be increased production for home consumption, more nutritious foods, and higher gross revenues from sales. (ii) secondly, technological change can also help reduce poverty indirectly through the effects of the adoption of the new technologies by both poor and non-poor farmers. for these reasons it is important to investigate the possibilities of application of innovation in the agricultural sector. application of innovation in the agricultural sector sunding and zilberman (2000: 2) identify the following categories of innovation in the agricultural sector which include: (i) innovations that are embodied in capital goods such as tractors, fertilizers and seeds. (ii) innovations that are disembodied for instance integrated pest management schemes. a special research and development report by the world bank (2007a:1) on the enhancement of agricultural innovation explains the following innovative changes that have taken place in the context of agricultural development: (i) markets, and not production, increasingly drive agricultural development. previously the focus was on the improvement of staple foods. but with their falling prices, strategies have been adopted that enhances agricultural diversification and increases the value of agricultural produce. (ii) the production, trade, and consumption environment for agriculture and agricultural products is progressively more dynamic and evolving in unpredictable ways. (iii) knowledge, information, and technology are increasingly generated, diffused, and applied through the private sector. private businesses develop and supply a substantial number of the technologies that farmers use, for example, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and machinery. (iv) exponential growth in information and communications technology (ict), especially the internet, has transformed the ability to take advantage of the knowledge developed in other places or for other purposes. (v) the knowledge structure of the agricultural sector in many countries is changing markedly. thirty years ago, most farmers were uneducated. nowadays there is an overall increase in the education levels of farmers in many countries. great numbers of experienced and educated people in the farming community, the private sector, and non governmental organisations (ngos) can now interact to generate new ideas. (vi) agricultural development increasingly takes place in an international setting. globalization causes quality standards to be defined increasingly by international markets. this leads to small sectors that suddenly confront strong potential demand. having mentioned the process of innovation in the agricultural sector, it is important to discuss the factors that affect the successful application of innovative practices in any country. it is argued that the coffee industry has adopted a differentiation strategy focused on specific niche markets in the world as a means of innovation and the creation of world brand. this has helped rwanda to distinguish its coffee from the coffee of its global competitors. with the production of speciality coffee rwandan farmers have been able to obtain higher prices for their coffee leading to more profit. discerning consumers now demand authenticity: they want stories of where their coffee beans come from (anon, 2008:68). so the best coffees will increasingly be differentiated, like fine wines and spirits, and subsequently sold at previously unthinkable prices the author is of the opinion that countries have developed specific national product brands in which they have a competitive advantage that is acquired over a long period of time. examples include french wines and cuban cigars. developing national brands in this era of globalisation where ideas and technologies spread very fast is a difficult task. growing a brand from the most mundane of products like coffee requires creative innovation. within national brands, innovative entrepreneurs have made innovations that target specific niche markets for instance; rolex and swatch are some of the many swiss watches that have an established niche market. smes in the rwandan coffee industry have imitated the swiss strategy by producing speciality coffees in different areas of the country and branding it uniquely based on its specific flavour. examples include rwandan medium, “akadugudu” rwandan blend, rwandan dark, “vooba vooba”, naturally flavoured coconut and naturally flavoured hazelnut. the rwandan coffee industry’s competitive advantage is based on quality processing, packaging and niche marketing. according to gahamanyi (2005) rwanda is an emerging specialty coffee producer. within the past years coffee farmers have become more organized by implementing qualityenhancing procedures. interventions have taken place in the form of the establishing of central washing stations, improved coffee processing procedures and an increase in the training of farmers by quality table 3. value of coffee exports and their contribution to the total exports of rwanda (in billion us$). year 1990 1992 1996 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 value of coffee exports 65.7 35.1 43 25.9 22.4 19.4 19.2 15 total exports 103 69 61.7 64.4 69 73 65.9 62.9 % coffee contribution 63.8 50.9 69.7 40.2 32.5 26.6 29.1 23.8 source: adapted from gahamanyi (2005). table 4. the evolution of coffee production and quality from 1986 to 2004. year 1990 1992 1996 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 production (tons) 39575 38970 15239 14268 16098 18267 19426 14175 25000 % standard coffee 7 0.32 0.25 7.4 19.5 18.5 29.4 32.4 40 % ordinary coffee 86.9 93 82.9 80.5 72.4 75 58 55 50 source. adapted from ocir café (gahamanyi, 2005). assessment cupping laboratories. besides differentiation, the coffee industry has also adopted niche market operations as another form of market innovation. according to gahamanyi (2005) only 20% of world coffee can qualify as specialty coffee today. low-grade coffee sells for 28 us cents per kilogram (kg) on average; specialty coffee earns 80 cents per kg. the forecast for coffee prices on the international market shows a tendency towards low prices. global consumption remains modest except for the category of high quality coffee which contributes seven percent of the volume of coffee put on the international market at the moment, and which has also been rising by 15% a year. table 3 is an indication of the value of coffee exports and their contribution to the total exports of rwanda (in billion us $). the rwandan coffee sector was engulfed in a low quality-low quantity loop primarily among many reasons for this was the dropping of coffee prices at the world coffee market. this situation arose out of increased worldwide production and consolidation of purchasing by multinational corporations as well as the 1994 genocide in rwanda which left the sector in shambles. after the introduction of specialty coffee production in 2001, the value of standard coffee production in rwanda increased and ordinary coffee production decreased as indicated by table 4. in 2007, importers paid us $ 55.00 per kilo for the best rwandan coffee. though growth in worldwide coffee consumption remains modest, the consumption of high quality speciality coffee is rising by 20% a year. this is in favour of rwandan coffee farmers. according to boudreaux (2007:1) rwanda’s speciality coffee industry is helping to improve the lives of coffee producers and of other rwandans in the following ways: (i) the speciality coffee industry in rwanda aids in local poverty alleviation and job creation. (ii) the speciality coffee industry provides opportunities for developing business and management skills. (iii) the actions of specific coffee entrepreneurs have affected the lives of ordinary rwandans, for example big buyers who buy raw coffee from very poor farmers with no access to washing stations, and who then process raw coffee beans into processed quality coffee. (iv) entrepreneurial activities within the rwandan speciality coffee industry provide rwandans with opportunities to interact in ways that may promote post-conflict reconciliation. (v) as a major export of the country, coffee sales have boosted the economy. (vi) the production of speciality coffee is believed to have opened up more trading opportunities with the outside world. (vii) to have a sustainable organisation, innovation is essential even to small businesses (lumsdaine and binks, 2007:183). (viii) innovation can be used as strategic process that enables organisations to establish a position of competitive advantage (poon and macpherson, 2005:259). innovation is the key characteristic of an entrepreneurial business that will ultimately affect business performance (georgellis et al., 2000:8). accordingly, another advantage of innovation is that it leads to high performance hence business or entrepreneurial success. zhao (2005:28), investigating the perceptions of entrepreneurship and innovation, found that entrepreneurial businesses (businesses that were continuously creating new products and services, projects, new business opportunity and markets), regardless of size and the industry, had a positive link with performance. the main objective of the research is to assess the innovative nature of the agricultural based small businesses in rwanda belonging to the abahuzamugambi coffee cooperative. the study endeavours to determine table 5. gender of the participants. gender frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage male 43 43 43 43 female 57 57 100 100 total 100 100 100 100 the current innovation climate by use of the above research questions in order to recommend enhanced strategies to the rwanda coffee industry. this could form a very good base for further investigation as to what can be done to increase the levels of innovation in the larger rwanda agricultural sector and elsewhere in the world. the study investigated the baseline of innovation, in order to determine the current innovation climate of coffee farmers belonging to abahuzamugambi coffee cooperative in rwanda. the abahuzamugambi coffee cooperative in rwanda won the swedish city of gothenburg’s international environmental prize for 2005, for establishing organic coffee production successfully and improving social structures (anon, 2005). the importance of innovation, to also ensure the entrepreneurial success of these coffee farmers, needs attention. this could form a very good base for further investigation as to what can be done to increase the levels of innovation in the larger rwanda agricultural sector. kaplan and warren (2007:24) emphasise the importance of innovation by positing that many firms could in the past survive and prosper without innovation, however they competed in a protected environment. the improvement of and/or the introduction of new products and services through innovation should enhance economic growth and the international competitiveness of these countries. research methodology research design the intention of this study was to assess the innovative climate in the rwanda coffee industry. the study is a quantitative formal, cross-sectional, ex post facto non-experimental design (cooper and schindler, 2006: 141). cross-sectional studies are studies representing a snapshot of circumstances at one point in time... population and sampling a sample of 100 speciality coffee producers who are members of one of the pioneer coffee cooperatives in rwanda, the abahuzamugambi coffee cooperative, (which has 2000 members), was selected as the unit of analysis for this study. non-probability, convenience sampling was done with the selection of accessible respondents who were available for the administration of group questionnaires. research instrument the questionnaire consisted of two sections, namely: a biographic section, with questions concerning the biographical data of the entrepreneurs and second section measured the innovativeness of the organisation (wang and ahmed, 2004:307). the following components were embraced by the instrument: product innovativeness, market innovativeness, strategic innovativeness, process innovativeness, and behavioural and innovativeness. the questionnaire was translated to kinyarwanda, rwanda’s only local language. data collection and analysis a pencil-and-paper group administered questionnaire was used in this study as the method of data collection. the questionnaires were physically handed out to the sample. in terms of the analysis an ex-post-facto inference were made of the relationships between the measured variables. statistical analysis was carried out on empirical data obtained whereas descriptive statistics was applied and the means, standard deviations, frequencies, and variances of the biographic variables determined. one way analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to determine the relationships between the innovation factors as dependent variables, and the biographic variables, as well as profit and perceived performance as independent variables. results descriptive statistics are performed to describe the characteristics of the sample, while the inferential results are derived to answer the research questions. demographic characteristics of the sample of participants from the abahuzamugambi coffee cooperative in rwanda the following descriptive results portray the demographic nature of the unit of analysis. the biographical data shown that the sample drawn can be generalised as being a relatively young sample as the majority of the respondents were below 45 years of age (72%) (table 6). the number of speciality coffee farmers decreased as age increased, with 28% older than 45 years of age (table 6) . the oldest farmer was 86 years old while the youngest farmer was 18 years old (table 6). the gender distribution is: 43% male and 57% female (table 5). table 7 indicate that the majority of the participants (75%) had primary school qualification, followed by 12% of respondents with secondary school qualification, 12% with no education and 1%. table 8 indicates that the majority of participants have been in coffee production between 4 to 6 years (60%) table 6. age of participants. age frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage 24 36 36 36 36 25-44 36 36 72 36 45 28 28 100 28 total 100 100 100 100 table 7. educational levels of participants. educational level frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage no education 12 12 100 100 primary school 75 75 75 75 secondary school 12 12 87 87 tertiary institute/university 1 1 88 88 total 100 100 100 100 table 8. years in coffee production. year frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage 1-3 24 24 24 24 4-6 60 60 84 84 7-9 14 14 98 98 above 10 2 2 100 100 total 100 100 100 100 table 9. average coffee production. production (kg) frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage 1-5 88 88 88 88 6-10 7 7 95 95 11-15 1 1 96 96 16 and above 4 4 100 100 total 100 100 100 100 table 10. number of employees. employee frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage 1-5 81 81 81 81 6-10 14 14 95 95 11-15 5 5 100 100 total 100 100 100 100 and 1 to 3 years (24%), with participants between 7 to 9 years and more than 10 years representing only 14 and two percent of the sample respectively. according to table 9, majority of the participants (88%) average coffee production is between 1 to 5 kg per tree, the remaining 8% of participants’ average coffee produc tion is between 6 and 15 kg per tree, and 4% of participants produce above 16 kg of coffee per tree. table 10 indicate that 81% of participants employ five or less workers on their farms, 14% of the participants employ between 6 to 10 workers while 5% of participants employ between 11 to 15 workers. table 11. profit per season. amount in rwandese francs frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage frw 500 000 and less 88 88 88 88 frw 510 000-600 000 7 7 9 5 95 frw 610 000-700 000 3 3 98 98 frw 710 000-800 000 1 1 99 99 frw 800 000 and above 1 1 100 100 total 100 100 100 100 table 12. business performance. business performance frequency percentage cumulative frequency cumulative percentage extremely well 33 33 33 33 quite well 46 46 79 79 not so well 6 6 85 85 badly 3 3 88 88 improved 12 12 100 100 total 100 100 100 100 table 13. product innovation. independent variable f df p > f gender 0.34 1 0.5644 level of education 0.15 3 0.9297 number of years attended in education 0.77 4 0.5489 number of years involved in coffee production 0.19 2 0.8239 alternative sources of income 0.59 1 0.4470 average coffee production (kg) 2.78 2 0.0698 number of employees 1.22 2 0.3016 total expenditure per hectare 1.00 3 0.4003 profit per season 0.24 3 0.8697 perceived business performance 4.77 4 0.0021* *p = 0.05. table 11 illustrates that 88% of the participants profit per season is frw 500 000 (equivalent to us $ 909) or less. ten percent of participants earn between frw 510 000 and 700 00. only 2% of the participants earn more than frw 710 000 (us $1,291). table 12 indicate that 33% of participants were of the opinion that they performed extremely well (thus fundamental increases in business growth, example, turnover and profit), 46% of participants’ opinions were that they performed quite well (example, moderate increases in turnover and profit) and the remaining 21% indicated that they did not perform well (not increases or decline in turnover and profit). table 13 illustrates the results of one way analysis of variance with factor one and the product innovation sub-scale as dependent variable (n = 100). only the groups formed in terms of perceived business performance scored significantly different on product innovation as a sub-scale. these differences were further investigated by means of a t-test on the ls-mean scores on the product innovation sub-scale. individuals that evaluated their business performance as badly scored the highest on the product innovation sub-scale. table 14 illustrates the results of one way analysis of variance with factor two and the market innovation sub-scale as dependent variable (n = 100). the groups formed in terms of number of years involved in coffee production as well as perceived business performance, scored significantly different on market innovation as a sub-scale. these differences were further investigated by means of a t-test on the ls-mean scores on the product innovation sub-scale. farmers that were involved in coffee production for one table 14. market innovation. independent variable f df p > f gender 2.47 1 0.1213 level of education 0.54 3 0.6582 number of years attended in education 2.24 4 0.0752 number of years involved in coffee production 7.22 2 0.0015* alternative sources of income 0.24 1 0.6272 average coffee production in kg 1.78 2 0.1775 number of employees 0.05 2 0.9549 total expenditure per hectare 1.42 3 0.2470 profit per season 0.68 3 0.5694 perceived business performance 6.10 4 0.0003* *p = .05. table 15. strategic innovation. independent variable f df p > f gender 7.67 1 0.0074* level of education 3.78 3 0.0149* number of years attended in education 3.53 4 0.0117* number of years involved in coffee production 2.69 2 0.0758 alternative sources of income 0.02 1 0.8883 average coffee production in kg 3.84 2 0.0268* number of employees 1.88 2 0.1620 total expenditure per hectare 2.77 3 0.0491* profit per season 6.00 3 0.0012* perceived business performance 0.37 4 0.8259 *p = .05. to three years scored higher on the market innovation sub-scale than farmers involved in coffee production for more than 4 years. individuals that evaluated their business perfor-mance as extremely well scored the highest on the mar-ket innovation sub-scale than those who rated their performance as not so well, badly and improved accord-ing to previous years, but less than those evaluating their perceived business performance as quite well. farmers that perceived their business performance as quite well, scored higher on the market innovation sub-scale than those perceiving their business performance as extremely well, not so well and badly. the groups formed in terms of gender, level of education, number of years attended in education, average coffee production in kg, total expenditure per hectare, and profit per season scored significantly different on strategic innovation as a sub-scale. these differences were further investigated by means of a t-test on the ls-mean scores on the strategic innovation sub-scale. significant differences were indicated between genders, with female participants scoring significantly higher on the strategic innovation subscale than male participants (table 15). participants with no education scored significantly higher on strategic innovation than those with primary, secondary and tertiary or university education. individuals with primary education also scored higher on the strategic innovation sub-scale than individuals with secondary and tertiary/university education. those who attended between 7 and 8 years in education scored significantly lower on strategic innovation than those who had attended between 1 and 6 years and those above 9 years in education. production above 20 kg of coffee per tree scored significantly higher on strategic innovation than those who produced less than 20 kg of coffee. farmers who spent between frw 110 000 and 200 000 per hectare scored significantly higher than those who spent less than frw 110 00 and those who spent above 200 000. participants whose profit per season was between frw 610 000 and 700 000 scored significantly table 16. process innovation. independent variable f df p > f gender 3.82 1 0.0551 level of education 5.53 3 0.0020* number of years attended in education 2.54 4 0.0488* number of years involved in coffee production 1.09 2 0.3435 alternative sources of income 0.22 1 0.6415 average coffee production in kg 0.20 2 0.8208 number of employees 0.55 2 0.5797 total expenditure per hectare 1.47 3 0.2315 profit per season 1.10 3 0.3570 perceived business performance 1.15 4 0.3417 *p = .05. table 17. behavioural innovation. independent variable f df p > f gender 2.31 1 0.1339 level of education 3.55 3 0.0194 number of years attended in education 4.33 4 0.0038* number of years involved in coffee production 0.35 2 0.7095 alternative sources of income 0.17 1 0.6809 average coffee production in kg 2.83 2 0.0669 number of employees 0.87 2 0.4228 total expenditure per hectare 1.38 3 0.2584 profit per season 3.17 3 0.0306* perceived business performance 3.70 4 0.0092* *p = .05 lower on strategic innovation than those whose profit per season was less than frw 610 000 and above frw 800 0. table 16 illustrates the results of one way analysis of variance with factor four and the process innovation sub-scale as dependent variable (n = 100). only groups formed in terms of level of education and years attended in education scored significantly different on process innovation as a sub-scale. further investigation by means of a t-test on the ls-mean scores indicated that individuals with secondary education scored significantly lower on the process innovation subscale than individuals with no education, primary and tertiary /university education. individuals having more than seven years or education scored less on the process innovation sub-scale, than those with less than seven years of education. table 17 illustrates the results of one way analysis of variance with factor five and the behavioural innovation sub-scale as dependent variable (n = 100). groups formed in terms of number of years of education, profit per season as well as perceived business performance, scored significantly different on behavioural innovation as a sub-scale. further investigation by means of a t-test on the ls-mean scores indicated that participants with secondary education scored less on the behavioural innovation sub-scale than individuals with no education, primary and tertiary/university education. farmers indicating their profit per season as frw 610 000 – frw 700 000 scored lower on the behavioural innovation sub-scale than farmers indicating their profit per season as less and above frw 610 000 to frw 700 000. farmers perceiving their business performance as extremely well scored significantly lower on the behavioural innovation subscale than farmers perceiving their business performance as quite well, not so well and badly. farmers perceiving their business performance as quite well as well as improved according to previous years scored significantly lower on the behaviour innovation sub-scale, than those perceiving their business performance as not so well or badly. farmers perceiving their business performance as not so well and badly scored higher on the behaviour innovation sub-scale than those perceiving their business as extremely well and quite well. discussion the following findings are recorded based on the results conveyed, based on the research questions revisited. question 1: what is the relationship between the innovation factors and the different biographic variables? none of the biographic variables showed any significant relationship with the product innovation sub-scale as dependent variable. according to wang and ahmed (2004:304) product innovation refers to the novelty and meaningfulness of new products introduced to the market at a timely fashion. speciality coffee production is not a new product as per this definition because is not a new product but an improvement of existing product. rwandan coffee farmers should therefore think of creative means of introducing new alternative agricultural products. this is supported by stark (2000) who argues that the effect of a changing environment with product life cycles becoming increasingly shorter means that old products will have to be replaced with new ones. those farmers with only a number of years involved in coffee production showed a significant relationship with market innovation as dependent variable. none of the other biographic variables showed a significant relationship with market innovation as dependent variable. farmers who were involved in coffee production for one to three years scored higher on the market innovation sub-scale than farmers involved in coffee production for more than four years. market innovativeness refers to the newness of approaches that companies adopt to enter and exploit the targeted market (wang and ahmed, 2004:305). market innovativeness also includes market research, advertising and promotion. this implies that farmers who use market innovations skills like advertising and market research performed better that those who are unaware or do not use market innovation skills. this is an indication that farmers should have been involved in coffee production for less than three years, they were more involved in coffee production than those who have been farming for four years and more. innovation leads to faster growth, increased market share and better corporate positioning (stark, 2000). farmers who have been involved in coffee production for more than four years should be sensitised to be more active in market innovation aspects to enhance the marketing of their products. strategic innovation as dependent variable showed a significant relationship with the independent biographic variables of gender, level of education, number of years attended in education, average coffee production in kg, as well as total expenditure per hectare. female partici pants scored significantly higher on the strategic innovation subscale than male participants. this could be due to the fact that in rwanda majority of the population are women as a result of the war, and possibly also due to the fact that women composed of 57% of the total sample. participants with no education scored significantly higher on strategic innovation than those with primary, secondary and tertiary or university education. participants who attended seven and eight years in education scored lower on strategic innovation than those who had less than six years education and scored higher than individuals that had more than nine years of education. production above 20 kg of coffee per tree scored significantly higher on strategic innovation than those who produced less than 20 kg of coffee, which could be an indication that strategic innovation could improve coffee production. participants spending between frw 110 000 and frw 200 000 per hectare scored significantly higher on the strategic innovation factor than those who spend above frw 200 000. this could be an indication that participants spending between frw 110 000 and frw 200 000 per hectare were more aware of the advantages of strategic innovation and working on a low budget necessitated this action. those whose profit per season was between frw 610 000 and frw 700 000 scored significantly lower on the strategic innovation factor as dependent variable than those whose profit per season was less than frw 610 000 and above frw 800 000. process innovation refers to the use of new production methods, new management approaches, and new technology to improve production and management processes (wang and ahmed, 2004:305). only those groups formed in terms of “the level of education” and “years they spent in attaining education” scored significantly different on process innovation as a subscale at the 95% level of significance. further analysis indicated that individuals with secondary education scored significantly lower on the process innovation subscale than individuals with no education, primary and tertiary/university education. individuals having more than seven years of education scored significantly lower on the process innovation sub-scale, than those with less than seven years of education. the world bank (2007b) encourages the coffee industry and the agricultural sector in rwanda to invest in the use of modern technology in the production processes, since the agricultural sector employs 90% of the whole rwandan population. behavioural innovativeness refers to individual, teams and management willingness to change (wang and ahmed, 2004:305). it is when people are receptive to new ideas and innovation. only the “educational level” showed a significant relationship with behavioural innovation as dependent variable. question 2: what is the relationship between the different innovation factors and the profit level of coffee farmers? only two of the innovation factors, namely strategic innovation and behavioural innovation showed a significant relationship with profit per season as independent variable. participants whose profit per season was between frw 610 000 and frw 700 000 scored significantly lower on strategic innovation than who whose profit per season was less than frw 610 000 and above frw 800 000. farmers indicating their profit per season as frw 610 000 to frw 700 000 scored lower on the behavioural innovation subscale than farmers indica-ting their profit per season as less and above frw 610 000 to frw 700 000. these findings are an indication that farmers having a profit per season of between frw 610 000 and frw 700 000 should be made aware of the pos-sible strategic and behavioural innovation strategies that should be followed in order to improve their profit. question 3: what is the relationship between the different innovation factors and the perceived performance of coffee farmers? results indicated that individuals that evaluated their business performance as “poorly performing” scored the highest on the product innovation sub-scale. this implies that the farmers are aware of product innovation and yet their performance is bad. it could be argued that this is a result of farmers investing in improving their coffee and yet yielding low profits. individuals that evaluated their business performance as extremely well scored the highest on the market innovation sub-scale than those who rated their performance as not so well, badly and improved according to previous years, but less than those evaluating their perceived business performance as quite well. it therefore seems that a significant relationship exists between extreme perceived business performance and market innovation. recommendations and conclusions the case of coffee should serve as a model in the agricultural sector in rwanda and elsewhere in poor developing countries to encourage creativity and innovation as a means of increasing production and adding value to products so as to be globally competitive. building farmers’ and communities’ capacity to identify and develop market opportunities and experiment through the application of innovative participatory approaches, is critical for creating a sustained collective capacity for innovation and for creating new alternatives for resource-poor farmers, especially women (sanginga et al., 2004:943). through creative thinking, farmers will be able to come up with alternatives either through bringing improvements in existing products across production, marketing and consumption chain or developing new products that are desirable in the world market. innovation should be widely promoted by policy makers and practiced by all kinds of businesses, whether small or big in order to obtain the competitive benefits that it creates. everybody is capable of being creative; it is just a matter of how individuals develop that creativity within them to produce the most favourable results (nieman and nieuwenhuizen, 2009). globalisation and free trade compounds the competitive environment of small businesses. protectionism is loosing ground and governments are compelled to open up national market to aggressive external producers. rwigema and venter (2004:10) note that globalisation exposes entrepreneurs everywhere to merciless competition as tariffs reduce and trading straddles national borders. survival will depend upon the creativity and resilience of a country’s entrepreneurs. the coffee industry operates in an environment that is extremely competitive with low technology and capital requirements, easy to copy processes and ideas and consequently high failure rates. therefore distinguishing oneself from the crowd through creative and innovative ways is the key to success. rwandan farmers will survive stiff competition with continuous innovations to sustain their quality orientated speciality coffee production. references anon (2005). rwandan coffee cooperative wins swedish environment prize. the local sweden’s news in english, 15 september. 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[online] available from:http://www.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/countries/af ricaext/rwandaext [accessed: 2008-09-19]. zhao f, (2005). exploring the synergy between entrepreneurship and innovation. int. j. entre. behav. res.11(1): 25-41. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (6), pp. 001-006, june, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper effects of market deregulation on cocoa (theobroma cacao) production in southwest nigeria idowu, e. o., osuntogun, d. a. and oluwasola, o. department of agricultural economics, obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria. accepted 13 august, 2019 in the 1970s and 1980s there was a consistent economic down turn and decline in aggregate cocoa output in nigeria. this culminated in the introduction of structural adjustment programme (sap) in 1986 to stem this trend. the objective of the paper was to evaluate the effect(s) of the deregulated policy measures on the cocoa industry in southwest nigeria. data were collected from six important cocoa producing local government areas (lgas) within the region and these were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression techniques. the study found that after two decades of operating sap and economic liberalization policy in the country, cocoa production still remains in the hands of smallholder operators with little application of chemical inputs to enhance output. the paper concludes that significant increases in aggregate cocoa output can be achieved through a combination of sustained increase in real producer prices, local currency devaluation and increased supply of chemical fertilizers. key words: market deregulation, cocoa, southwest nigeria. introduction prior to the 1970’s, the policy of government towards agricultural development in general and to cocoa production in particular in nigeria was one of minimum government intervention. governments’ involvement was mainly supportive of the activities of farmers and focused mainly in the areas of research, extension, export crop marketing and pricing activities (manyong et al., 2005). the attitude of government was borne largely out of the prevailing economic policy of laissez faire inherited from the colonial masters. this was soon to change. by the middle to late sixties, the nigerian government like other developing countries, in realization of the relative importance of cocoa and other agricultural exports to the economy, brought the input supply and produce marketing systems under the state official monopoly. marketing boards were set up to intermediate between the farmers and the international market. the objectives then were to (i) stabilise prices paid to the producers (ii) ensure public access and control over foreign exchange *corresponding author. e-mail: eidowu@oauife.edu.ng earnings (iii) strengthen the marketing mechanisms (iv) create an ideological antipathy to private traders and (v) impose constraints on multinational enterprises (delloitte et al., 1990). in spite of these laudable objectives, the monopolistic marketing structure erected in the name of commodity boards served as a great disincentive to cocoa farmers both in production and replanting (idowu, 1986). as found out by several studies, the commodity boards representted agencies for taxation as the producer prices paid to the farmers were well below world prices (oni, 1971; olayide et al., 1974; idachaba, 1990; akanji and ukeje, 1995). other factors that negatively influenced cocoa production and marketing as argued by delloitte et al. (1990) were the oil boom syndrome and relative over-va-luation of the nigerian currency (naira) to other curren-cies. consequently as observed by idowu (1986), the 1970s and 1980s witnessed a consistent decline in aggregate cocoa output. various research efforts were carried out to find the appropriate policy response to-wards restoring cocoa production to the prime position it used to enjoy before the advent of crude oil boom. the literature on the determinants of cocoa production and marketing including the analysis of nigerian agricultural pricing policies can be generally classified under three file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org groups: the pre-sap, during sap and post-sap studies. the pre-sap studies that included olayide et al. (1974); idowu (1986), and adegeye (1986) among others established a strong relationship between the aggregate cocoa output and producer prices. based on this, the policy recommendations tended to favour price incentive strategies in the form of administrative upward review of producer prices and input subsidization as panacea to sustaining increased aggregate output of cocoa. other important factors identified as influencing cocoa production and marketing include bureaucratic problems associated with commodity boards (delloittee et al., 1990); socioeconomic and agronomic factors like age of the farmers, age and size of plantation, institutional inadequacies of research institutes and the cocoa development units (adegeye, 1986; idowu, 1986). in spite of the price increases however, the aggregate output of cocoa in nigeria showed a consistent decline (adegeye, 1986). the inability of price increases to enhance cocoa production was then was linked to the structural weakness in the nigerian economy. the global economic depression of the 1980s had an adverse effect on the nigerian economy. there were both internal and external imbalances created as a result of price distortions (cbn/niser, 1992). various austerity measures adopted at the beginning of the 1980s like stabilization measures of 1982 along with the restrictive monetary policy and stringent exchange control measures of 1984 proved ineffective (ojo, 1994). the situation then called for a complete economic re-design that would ensure economic stability, restructure the pattern of production and consumption and ensure reasonable growth. in 1986, the government of nigeria announced the adoption and implementation of a structural adjustment programme (sap) with four cardinal objectives as follows:(i) restructuring and diversifying the productive base of the economy in order to reduce dependence on oil exports; (ii) reducing the dominance of unproductive investment in the public sector; (iii) encouraging non-oil exports especially agricultural ones; and (iv) improving the sectors' efficiency and intensify the growth potential of the private sector. the sap embraced exchange rate deregulation, liberalization of export trade, reduction in extra budgetary expenditure, withdrawal of subsidies and the privatization of public enterprises. thus, deregulation placed much emphasis on the market forces in determining the prices of goods and services and allocating the resources within the economy. therefore, the policy measures as they affect agriculture ensued as follows: (i) the abolition of commodity boards and the privatization of many agricultural enterprises previously controlled by the government (ii) market liberalization of agricultural exports and; iii) foreign exchange liberalization and currency devaluetion. the effects of nigerian deregulation policy measures on cocoa production both at micro and macro level have also been investigated by many. prominent among these are adegeye and dittoh (1988); idowu (1988); adegeye (1991); cbn/niser (1992); alimi and awoyomi (1995) and akanji and ukeje (1995). the most prominentanalytical techniques had been descriptive statistics of "before, during and after" effect approach; budgetary analysis and production response function analysis. some of the major findings included: first, the increased cost of maintaining cocoa farms by about 300% while producer prices increased by about 800% (adegeye, 1991)., and second, the adoption of sap gave an estimated positive gross margin of n1,585.00 per hectare in 1989 compared to negative gross margin of n105.00 per hectare in 1985. also, the production function estimated by cbn/niser (1992) indicated that the aggre-gate output of cocoa is determined by real producer prices, exchange rates, interest rates, farm wage rates, world prices, and sap dummy variable. nevertheless, all these sap period studies had a major shortcoming in that the sap periods covered by the studies were too short for any meaningful analysis and evaluation for long run policy formulations. incidentally even after canceling the sap, the government has continued to intensify the privatization of public enterprises, increased wages, liberalized export trade and increased spending on infrastructural support to the agricultural sector putting in place stringent fiscal and monetary policies (uns, 2001). the production and marketing of cocoa has also witnessed its ups and downs with the dynamics in national economic policy. the dynamics that has taken place in the production and marketing of cocoa has however not been evaluated. hence, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect(s) of the deregulated policy measures on the cocoa industry in southwest nigeria. research methodology two sets of data were utilized for this study. the first set, which were primary data, were obtained from the cocoa farmers. three hundred questionnaires were analyzed for the cocoa farmers. six important cocoa producing local government areas (lgas) of oyo, osun and ondo states in southwest nigeria were randomly selected for the study. these were egbeda (oyo); isokan (osun); irewole (osun); ayedaade (osun); owena (ondo); and ile-oluji (ondo). in each of the lgas, 70 questionnaires were administered and those considered analyzable for the purpose of this study were owena (40); ile-oluji (58); ayedaade (48); irewole (66); isokan (40) and egbeda (48). the data collected included socioeconomic variables like age, farm size, annual output per farmer, educational level, family size, volume of business and experience with the aim of identifying how they influence cocoa production and to study any significant shift from other previous studies. the second set of data were secondary in nature and included the producer prices, aggregate fertilizer supply, the world prices, the national output, the foreign exchange rates and the lending rates over a period of 35 years (from 1970 to 2004). these information were obtained from the official records of the central bank of nigeria (cbn), federal office of statistics (f. o. s), the international cocoa organisation (icco) and the ministries of agriculture and natural resources of respective states. the data collected were analysed using various analytical tech niques. descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the socio economic characteristics of the farmers while correlation and regression analyses were used to obtain the structural equations for cocoa output at farm level for each local government area sampled as well as fitting a cocoa production response function using the ordinary least squares estimation technique. two models were specified and estimated. these were: cocoa output function at farm level which was specified as qo = f(x1, x2,ei) ------------------------------------------(1) where: qo = output per farmer; x1 = man days of labour employed x2 = intensity of chemical used for fumigation (obtained as the amount of chemical use divided by farm size). both the linear and power functions were fitted. a priori expectations were that the variables x1, and x2 would bear positive signs. the model was estimated separately for each local government area and for the whole region. cocoa production response function which was also specified as qs = f(xa, xb, xc, xd, xe, ei)---------------------------(2) where: qs = aggregate output of cocoa in year t; xa = one year lagged real producer prices (1985=100); xb = one year lagged exchange rate (dollar to naira); xc = one year lagged world price (n); x = aggregate fertilizer supplied in year t (metric tonnes); xe = lending rates in year t (%); ei = stochastic disturbance of zero mean and constant variance. both the linear and double -log functions were tried. a. priori expectations of the model were that the coefficients xa, xb xc, and xd would bear positive signs while xe would bear a negative sign. the two models specified were estimated by employing the least squares (ols) estimation regression technique. in each case, the correlation matrixes of the variables were first obtained to observe the existence of multi collinearity problems. also all the assumptions of the classical normal linear regression model were assumed to hold. the insight obtained from the correlation matrix helped in the formulation of the model postulates. the findings and discussions sequel to the analyses are discussed in the next section. results and discussions socio economic characteristics of the cocoa farmers age of the cocoa farmers the age distribution of the cocoa farmers showed that none of the farmers was less than 28 years of age. over 68% of the farmers interviewed were over 50 years of age while the overall mean, mode and median were 55.8, 65 and 58 years respectively. the f-statistic of 2.285 obtained from the anova (against the critical value of 2.37) indicated that the differences in the mean ages across the six lgas sampled were not statistically significant at 5% level. the implications of these findings were that most of the farmers were getting too old and may not be able to meet the demands which the intensive care of cocoa farms require. in addition young and energetic people were scarce in the industry. this may lead to shortage of cocoa farmers in the near future. present size of cocoa farms the size distribution of cocoa farms indicated that about 65% of the cocoa farms were 2 hectares or less. just about 5% had 5 hectares or more. the overall average size of holdings was 2.19 hectares. the mode and median were 1.54 and 1.89 hectares respectively. there were variations in mean farm sizes across the local governments areas sampled as the computed f-statistic of 3.28 against the critical value of 2.37 indicated that at least two of the mean farm sizes have their differences statistically significant at 5% level. the conclusion that can be drawn from this finding is that cocoa production takes place on smallholdings. thus a representative cocoa farmer in southwestern nigeria is a small-scale producer. this further shows that despite the sap measures, cocoa production had not shown a remarkable deviation from the pre-sap days findings by helleiner (1966) and idowu (1986). age of cocoa plantations the age distribution of cocoa plantations indicated that over 70% of the cocoa trees were above 30 years of age with less than 10% below the age of 20 years. the overall mean age of the plantation was 35.23 years while the modal and median values were 43.25 and 43.45 years respectively. the inferences from these findings are that: first, most of the plantations have exceeded their economic use life, generally taken to be 30 years (oshikanlu, 1982). second, relatively new plantations were not adequate enough to effectively replace the ageing ones. third, it could be argued from the distribution that there was no mass replanting exercises during the 1980’s and 1990’s. volume of cocoa produced per farmer the distribution of the volume of cocoa produced per farmer indicated that about 69% of the farmers produced less than one tonne of dried cocoa beans for the period of 2005 cropping season. only about 9% produced above two tonnes for the same period. the overall mean output per farmer was 0.973 tonnes while the mode and median values were 0.712 and 0.796 tonnes respectively. the computed f-ratio of 5.7228 (against the critical value of 2.37) showed that there were variations in output per farmer across the local government areas. this further buttresses the fact that the representative cocoa farmer in the southwestern nigeria is a small-scale producer. types of access gained to cocoa farms cultivated the system of acquiring access to cocoa farms tends to follow three main patterns viz:(i) inheritance (ii) operator cultivated, and (iii) leasing most of the times, the farmers possess a combination of different access types. it was table 1. estimated structural equations of cocoa production at farm level dependant variable qo = output per farmer (kg). lga's constant x1 x2 r 2 adj r 2 f-ratio dw egbeda linear 198.57 19.81000* -9.2500* 0.8598 0.84646 64.400 1.56 (62.33) (1.74000) double 1.47000 1.00000* -0.10700 0.8963 0.8865 90.841 1.74 log (0.12843) (0.07458) (0.08591) 8 isokan linear -112.6800 31.07700* -0.79340* 0.9513 0.94557 166.039 2.67 (75.2000) (0.07458) (0.08591) double 1.42700 1.05112* -0.08409 0.90855 0.84779 84.446 2.28 log (0.15200) (0.08313) (0.07392) ayedaade linear 90.59000 27.55800* -8.52200 0.979 0.957 54.329 2.49 (106.950) (1.22000) (9.02080) double 1.43340 1.07500* -0.12100 0.97018 0.94126 168.240 2.07 log (0.12170) (0.05863 (0.09174) irewole linear 9.52587 25.40090* 1.25036 0.8514 0.84147 85.925 2.40 (65.9260) (1.998) (2.12070) double 1.45847 0.97100* -5.67000* 0.79463 0.78094 58.040 2.19 log (0.14834) (0.09419) (0.10488) ile oluji linear 23.84289 (98.4200) 21.37378* 2.78650 0.9484 0.94438 238.709 2.11 (1.04305) (5.95195) double 1.39346 0.94648* 1.04483 0.95864 0.95546 301.304 2.07 log (0.07357) (0.04399) (0.06135) owena linear -58.76600 25.37815* -940975 0.80149 0.77813 34.318 2.39 (249.387) (3.06682) (13.366) double 1.24029 1.08700* -0.05426 0.8994 0.88754 75.973 2.77 log (0.15764) (0.8977) (0.07348) all local govts . 761.2820 23.18600* -1.21698 0.8935 0.89207 616.771 2.11 linear (39.0874) (0.66334) 1.89235 double 1.45995 0.98335* -0.04302 0.89646 089505 636.380 2.11 log (0.05017) (0.02778) (03351) figures in parenthesis are the standard errors.*indicates the significant variables at 5% level. found that about 30% of the farms were inherited; the operators cultivated 38% while just 10% obtain their ac cess rights through leasing. about 18.70% of the farms comprised of inheritance and operator operated. the existence of a large proportion of inherited farms could explain the ageing condition of most of the plantations. this can pose a serious bottleneck to inflow of credits to the industry from the formal sources, as the lenders may not be willing to accept ageing and inherited cocoa farms as collateral. levels of education of the farmers the amount of effort put into any economic activity, the risk bearing and the readiness to adopt new farming technology depend on age and literacy levels (alimi and awoyomi, 1995). this assertion makes education of cocoa farmers an important variable. it was found that 34% of the respondents did not have any formal education; another 14% had adult education while 30% had just primary education. only 21% attend table 2. cocoa response functions for the region. linear function double-log function variables coefficients t-value variables coefficients t-value qs log qs xa 0.0188 2.025* log xa 0.4262 2.376* xb 5.549 2.179* log xb -0.2290 0.949 xc 0.00079 1.284 log xc 0.4728 3.160* xd 0.00019 2.530* log xd 0.1935 0.633 xe -1.488 -0.573 log xe -0.1020 -0.800 constant -41.7 -0.566 constant 0.0714 0.018 r2 0.923613 r2 0.94324 adj. r 2 0.79613 adj. r 2 0.8723 f-ratio 7.244 f-ratio 13.29 d-w test 2.194 d-w test 2.49 *significant at 5% level ed secondary school and other institutions of higher learning. this implied that literacy level is very low among the cocoa farmers of southwestern nigeria factors influencing cocoa output at the farm level table 1 presents the empirical results obtained for the cocoa output per farmer for each local government area (lga) and all the lgas combined. judging by the coefficient of multiple determination (r 2 ), and the fvalues obtained, all the structural equations demonstrated good fits. however only variable x1 (mandays of labour) conformed to the a priori expectation for all the equations. variable x2 (intensity of chemical used) had negative regression coefficients in contrast to the a priori signs except for irewole and ile oluji local government areas. furthermore, only x1 was statistically significant in all, while x2 was only significant in egbeda and ile oluji local government areas. with respect to the result for egbeda local government area, the independent variables x1 and x2 explained about 85% of the adjusted variabilities in the volume of cocoa produced per farmer. for example an increase of one manday in the number of labour used will lead to an increase of about 19.8 kg of cocoa produced while an increase of 1 kg/ha of chemical used will lead to a decrease of about 9.25 kg of cocoa produced per farmer, ceteris paribus. similar interpretation goes for all other lgas. it was observed on the field that the larger the number of plots or sizes of cocoa farms cultivated, the fewer the number and quantity of fumigations applied (chemical use on cocoa trees). hence the smaller the quantity of chemicals applied per hectare the larger the size of the farm. this implied that farmers with smaller plots utilize more quantity of chemicals per hectare than those with large farm sizes. thus, the unexpected negative regression coefficient on x2. estimated cocoa production response functions for the region cocoa production response function earlier specified. the in equation (2) was estimated using the least square regression techniques. both the linear and double-log functions were estimated and the empirical results are presented in table 2. the results indicated that the explanatory power of the linear model is about 92% while that of the double-log is about 94%. judging by the value of their f-ratios, the two equations demonstrated good fits. also the durbin watson test for the two functional forms (d-w test = 2.19 and 2.49) showed that there was no serious autocorrelation among the variables. all the variables in the linear model conformed to their economic a priori signs. the significant variables are the lagged real producer prices (xa), lagged exchange rate (xb) and the aggregate fertilizer supply for the year (xd). using the coefficients of the double-log function as the measure of the direct elasticities, the result indicated that the short-run elasticity for the real producer price is 0.4262. other elasticities are lagged world price (0.4728); lagged exchange rate (-0.229); aggregate fertilizer supply (0.1935) and lending rate (-0.102). from the above, it can be suggested that significant increases in aggregate cocoa output in southwestern nigeria can be achieved through a combination of sustained increase in real producer and world prices; and an increase in aggregate fertilizer supply. conclusion the internal and external imbalances created as a result of price distortions of the 1980s prompted the introduction of a structural adjustment programme in nigeria with one of its major policy objectives being the market liberaliza tion of agricultural exports. the paper examined the present situation in the nigerian cocoa industry and concludes that despite about two decades of operating sap and economic liberalization in the country, the cocoa industry still remains under smallholder production. however, the study concluded that aggregate cocoa output could be stimulated through a combination of a number of factors influencing the cocoa industry. these are sustained increase in real producer and world prices; and an increase in aggregate fertilizer supply. in addition, all the stake holders should carry out mass replanting exercises to replace old stocks of cocoa trees on plantations along with provision of incentives that will encourage young people to invest in cocoa farming. the current efforts of the federal and state governments aimed at replanting ageing cacao trees (called cocoa rebirth programme) should be supported by all the stakeholders as a major way of boosting and developing the nigerian cocoa industry. references adegeye aj (1991). a comparative analysis of the costs of production and producer prices of a tonne of cocoa from matured trees in nigeria before and during the structural adjustment programme, ife. j. agric. 2: 14-18. adegeye aj (1986). price incentives for major agricultural 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75-91. oni sa (1971). an economic analysis of provisional and aggregate supply response among nigerian cocoa farmers, ph.d thesis, university of ibadan. oshikanlu ja (1982). economics of cocoa production in oranmiyan local government area of oyo state. m. sc. thesis, department of agricultural economics, university of ife, nigeria. united nations system in nigeria (2001). nigeria: common country assessment, undp, march 2001. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (1), pp. 001-012, january, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper relative importance of common bean attributes and variety demand in the drought areas of kenya enid katungi1*, louise sperling2, david karanja3, andrew farrow1 and steeve beebe4 1 centro internacional de agricultura tropical (ciat) national agriculture research laboratories, kawanda, p. o. box 6247, kampala, uganda. 2 centro internacional de agricultura tropical (ciat-africa), arusha, tanzania. 3 kenya agricultural research institute (kari), p. o. box 340, machakos, kenya. 4 centro internacional de agricultura tropical (ciat) cali, colombia. accepted 05 september 2018 the analysis assessed the relative importance of production and consumption attributes to different wealth groups of households and tested the effect of attribute preference and that of other factors on common bean variety demand in the drought areas of eastern kenya. variety demand was conceptualized within the agricultural household framework and attributes were incorporated into the model according to the lancaster (1966) consumer theory. empirical analysis was based on primary data collected from two districts of eastern kenya using the stated preference and revealed preference methods. a factor analysis was used to cluster a set of common bean variety attributes that are highly preferred by households into those related to consumption flavour and yield related characteristics. the effect of consumption and production attributes and those of other factors were estimated through applying ordinary least squares regression. the study findings reveal that varietal adaptation to environmental stresses should also strive to reduce the cooking time as well as enhance the keeping quality and grain colour for better benefits to the poor but trade-offs are feasible. prioritizing the improvement of production attributes as a short term goal seems an efficient strategy when multi-attribute based breeding is a long process. key words: common bean, relative importance of variety attributes, variety demand, drought areas, eastern kenya. introduction common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) is an important source of protein for many households in kenya, but its production has not kept pace with demand. in 2007, production was about 417,000 metric tons while demand was estimated at 500,000 metric ton (faostat, 2010). the supply deficit is attributed to the severity of biophysical stresses (such as climatic variability, insect pests and diseases; declined soil fertility) that maintain productivity at less than 25% of potential yield (odendo et al., 2004; beebe, personal communication). the national agricultural research institute of kenya in partnership with centro internacional de agricultura tropical (ciat) has been conducting researches to *corresponding author. e-mail: e.katungi@cgiar.org. fax: +256(0)414_567635. produce common bean germplasm that is well adapted to the environment. these efforts are still continuing and new approaches, such as marker selection, are being exploited to meet the farmers‟ needs. while these advances in plant breeding have made it possible to develop crop varieties with multiple attributes to overcome a range of biotic and abiotic constraints without compromising the desirable qualities, the process of multi-attribute based breeding approach can be often complex, take long to complete and provide no guarantee that an ideal variety will be found (bellon, 1996). therefore, it is important for breeders to understand the important variety attributes that drive planting decisions in order for them to set breeding priorities. the objective of this study was to assess the relative importance of common bean attributes to different groups of farmers and their contribution to variety demand. sperling et al. (1993) found that common bean variety file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org figure 1. predicted and observed amounts of rainfall (september-november), 1994 to 2003. source: katumani meteorological station. choice varies among farmers within a given location according to their production conditions, objectives and preferences. their research influenced the integration of participatory variety selection into the breeding process. however, the information from the participatory variety selection regarding the specific consumption and production attributes that influence the choice of common bean varieties has not been able to provide precise weights among a string of desired characteristics. little is known regarding the connection between land allocation to common bean varieties (that is, variety demand) and relative importance of variety attributes (such as consumption or risk reducing characteristics). the paper assesses the relative importance of different common bean variety attributes to different groups of households and tests their effect and that of other factors on the variety demand. materials and methods study area and data sources the study was carried out in mwala and kitui districts of eastern kenya, one of the major bean-producing regions in the country. mwala and kitui districts are neighbouring towns and are located about 50 to 150 km from nairobi city, on a national road connecting nairobi and mombasa towns with favourable conditions for the marketing of agricultural produce. the areas are elevated between 1000 to 1500 masl. highlands above 1500masl exist but are rarely used for agriculture because they are either arid or unsuitable for animal power technology. the soil types in eastern kenya are predominantly sandy and murram with patches of black cotton soils (vertisols) in poorly drained areas (mwita rukandema et al., 1981). the area receives a total rainfall of about 800 to 1000 mm per year but the records at katumani meteorogical station of kenya agriculture research institute (kari) indicate that rainfall has generally been lower than 800 mm in the last ten years (figure 1). rainfall variability has also been acute, resulting in famine and repeated deliveries of food and seed aid (sperling, 2002). common bean is a short season crop that contributes significantly to food and nutrition in the study area. it is managed mainly for subsistence requirements but surpluses can be sold in the market. the data used in this study were collected for tropical legumes project of ciat/icrisat/iita implemented in 2007 to 2010 in south asia and sub-saharan africa 1 . mwala and kitui districts were chosen purposively for the baseline studies on common bean because the two districts experience high probability of rainfall failure (about 60%), and have high levels of poverty for which the project was designed. geo-referenced maps were used to guide in the selection of districts. conceptual framework and model specification the theory of agricultural household (singh et al., 1986; de janvry et al., 1991; sadoulet and de janvry, 1995) was used to derive variables used in the econometric analysis. variety consumption attributes were incorporated into the utility function according to the consumer theory of lancaster (1966) also used by others (edmeades 2003, wale and mburu, 2005). in the consumer theory of lancaster (1966), the utility derived from the consumption of a good is specified as a function of the intrinsic attributes supplied by the good rather than the good itself. the specification of intrinsic properties of a variety as arguments of a utility function and application of an agricultural household model allows for the inclusion of variety consumption attributes in the econometric estimation of the variety demand. following the two theories, the agricultural household is assumed to maximize utility derived from the intrinsic consumption attributes of common bean embodied in vector (ϕ c ), the purchased good (g) 1 the goal of the project is to enhance the productivity of legumes (i.e common bean, pigeon pea, chick pea, ground nuts, cow pea, and soya bean) for improved livelihoods of the poor households in drought prone area. it is implemented jointly by international centre for tropical agriculture (ciat), international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (icrisat) and international research and international institute of tropical agriculture (iita) and in collaboration with nars in participating countries of east and southern africa and asia with funding from the bill and melinda gates foundation. and home time (h). the household chooses the amount of common bean to consume from different varieties it produces (v), the purchased good and home time subject to income (w), production technology (q), and time endowment (t). utility is maximized given the household preferences, which, in turn, depend on the socioeconomic characteristics of the household ( φ hh ) and market conditions ( φ m ). the theoretical model can be expressed as: maxu ( x(ϕ c ), g, h | φ hh , φ m ) q  f (v(ϕ p ), l | φ f , φ m , a) t − l − h  0 k ∑vi  1 i 1 xi ≥ 0, qi , vi ≥ 0 the total amount of common bean consumed (x) can be distinguished according to the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of common bean varieties such as taste, cooking time, grain size and colour ( ϕ c ) they possess. the amount consumed of each variety can vary across households but the levels of intrinsic properties each possesses are fixed from the perspective of the household. full income in a single decision making period is composed of the net farm earnings (profits) from crop production and income that is exogenous to the season‟s crop such as stocks carried over, remittances, pension and other transfers from the previous season. for goods that are not traded, the prices that govern the choices of the household are endogenous to the household, determined by internal supply and demand for the good, expressing the household‟s valuation of the good. shadow prices are affected by the costs of transacting in the markets influenced by market and household characteristics (de janvry et al., 1991). the production technology constraint establishes the output-input technical relationships and the production margins. common bean in the study area is produced by combining labour and seed of specific varieties on land that is fixed in a single cropping season. the choice and allocation of the common bean area to a specific variety is influenced by the decision maker‟s perception of the variety agronomic attributes such as maturity period, drought resistance, yield, tolerance on poor soils or growth habits, expressed in vector, v(ϕ p ) . the demand for variety specific agronomic attributes emanates from the need for farmers to maximize returns from production as well as stabilize income from common bean. the land constraint circumscribes the land area allocated to common bean, which is fixed to one for every household. the household can choose to allocate all common bean area to one variety or simultaneously plant multiple varieties if certain attributes are unique to a particular variety. varieties planted can vary across households and a variety specific corner solution is possible. the vector φ f denotes farm characteristics. the time constraint captures the total time available to production and home activities. the vector of market conditions ( φ m ) captures the role of market imperfections in variety demand. particular households can choose to be self sufficient in common bean variety and/or its seed if faced with wide price bands (sadoulet and dejanvy, 1995). common bean markets in kenya are characterized by high price fluctuations with the price of varieties those are well adapted to the fluctuations with the price of varieties those are well adapted to the communities more likely to increase by two fold at planting time. common bean is bulky and markets for grain and seed are located far away from the farming communities, with implications of high transport costs. households differ in their abilities to overcome transport costs even when located in the same geographical area. majority of the households produce seed on-farm and separate it from grain harvest. the family is the main source of labour used in common bean production. thus, for many households, production decisions are likely to be influenced by the endogenous shadow prices rather than the exogenous market prices. kuhn-tucker conditions are used to derive optimal demand of varieties. given that the conditions are met, the following reduced form equation defines the optimal share of common bean area allocated to variety i . v * i  v(ϕ c ,ϕ p , p a , p g , i , φ hh , φ f , φ m ) (2) equation 2 is the basis of the econometric estimation. the share of common bean area allocated to variety i is derived as a function of variety consumption and production attributes (ϕ c ,ϕ p ) , the socio-demographic characteristics of the household ( φ hh ) and characteristics of the farm ( φ f ) and market characteristics ( pa , p g , φ m ) . the impact of consumption and production attributes will depend on distribution of these attributes in the varieties selected for analysis. a positive relationship is hypothesized for varieties with respective high supply of the attribute. for example, varieties with high supply of consumption attributes will be highly demanded by those households who demonstrate high preferences for consumption attribute while low supply of such attributes will result in low demand for the variety. the same relationship is expected for the production attributes. household characteristics such as household composition and assets are expected to influence crop variety production decisions through their effect on consumption demand and risk preferences. high dependency ratio is associated with the vulnerability of the household and this may increase the risk of starvation and hence favour demand for crop varieties that are risk reducing. dependants in form of children may also have special consumption requirements, which could stimulate demand for varieties that meet special consumption needs. household wealth enhances the household‟s ability and willingness to take risks that could favour the demand of the risk increasing varieties. farm characteristics include the scale of operation and diversity of soil types on the farm. the effect of scale on variety demand cannot be determined a priori. larger scale of operation, defined as the total area under common bean in a given season, enhances the household‟ ability to bear the risk of failure. scale of operation also reflects the importance of the crop in meeting the household‟ livelihood requirements. research elsewhere suggests that farmers with a high degree of soil heterogeneity tend to match the crop varieties with soil types (bellon and taylor, 1993). by so doing, the area share allocated to each variety might be reduced. market failures are household specific depending on shadow prices (de janvry et al., 1991). in the study area, markets may fail due to high transport costs or risk aversion. in an environment where price risks are high, households who commercialize are risk neutral and are expected to demand market varieties. in eastern kenya, donkeys are highly used in transportation of agricultural goods to and/or from the market and households in possession of this asset are expected to take less time to the market and can travel there more frequently. this can easily influence the household‟ ability to depend on the market and hence choice and demand of specific varieties. data collection and measurement of empirical variables data on socioeconomic household characteristics (education dependency ratio, exogenous income and household wealth assets), farm characteristics (scale of operation, soil types) market conditions (production orientation, market value of donkeys) and land allocation of varieties was collected from randomly selected households between june and august, 2008. a total of 120 households randomly selected from three villages with a moderate to high potential for common bean production in each district were interviewed as part of the baseline survey. morphological characteristics such as seed colour and size were used to distinguish varieties grown by farmers with the help of seed samples. data on consumption and production attributes important to the household were collected in april 2010 as part of project monitoring. due to limited budget, only 60 households randomly selected from the original baseline sample were interviewed for tracking varietal diffusion. the data on common bean area share allocated to the selected varieties (that is, the variety demand) was determined in two steps. in the first step, all varieties grown in the study area were solicited from respondents and the popularity of each in terms of percentage of households growing the variety determined. about 15 varieties of different seed sizes and colour were identified in the sampled villages (table 1) with an average of 2 varieties per farm. these varieties were landraces and the improved varieties released in 1980s. although many varieties are grown in the study area, only two were popular among the selected households. these were glpx92 (grown by 87% of the households) and glp2 large red mottled (grown by 72% of the households) (table 1). other varieties were grown by less than 40% of the households. based on this, the two popular varieties, glpx92 and glp2 large red mottled, were selected for the econometric analysis. in the second step, area allocated to each of the selected variety was determined. given the multiple varieties grown and the intercropping system, determining common bean area occupied by a single variety was not straight forward. farmers were able to recall the amount of seed for each variety that was planted during the cropping season of 2008/2007 and their usual seeding rate. the amount of variety seed and the seeding rate were then used to compute the area under each variety selected for the analysis. the descriptive statistics are presented in table 2. farmers were presented with a predetermined list of common bean attributes (cooking time, keeping quality, flatulence, grain size and grain colour, drought tolerance, early maturing, pest resistance, tolerance to poor soils and growth habit) derived from the previous participatory variety selection studies (sperling et al., 1996). each farmer was asked to rate each attribute on a three point scale (3= very important and 1= not important) according to his/her preference. a higher score reflects high preference and vice versa. the 10 variety attributes were subjected to a factor analysis procedure using principal components method to analyze correlation between them and determine whether they could be represented by a smaller number of components 2 . based on the criterion of an eigenvalue greater than unity, the 10 variety attributes were grouped into two independent attributes according to two unobserved factors interpreted as: consumption flavour and yield related characteristics 3 . 2 the attribute preferences tend to be collated and including all them would induce multicollinearity a well as the degrees of freedom. 3 the results of the factor analysis are summarized in appendix a. the 2 factors explain 100% of total variance in the stated preferences for traits. factor one, explained about 56% of the variance in the 10 selected attributes subjected to factor analysis. consumption attributes (high keeping quality, less flatulence and less cooking time) loaded heavily on this index and the index was interpreted as consumption flavour. drought tolerance, early maturing, pest resistance and tolerance to poor soils were highly correlated with factor two interpreted as yield related characteristics. the two underlying latent factors were recovered from the data using the scoring after factor analysis command in stata 8.0 and included in the analysis as explanatory variables (table 2). variables representing individual and household characteristics (education, household wealth, dependency ratio, exogenous income), farm characteristics (scale of operation and soil type heterogeneity index) and market conditions (production orientation and value of donkey) were computed based on primary data gathered through interview of individual households. for each plot, the soil type and plot area were recorded. then, soil type diversity was represented by the shannon index ( di s ) computed as: s s s di −∑j ij in ij a i a i d s ≥ 0 (3) s is the total area occupied by soil type j on farm i . a is the total ij i cropped area on farm i . the shannon index has a lower limit of zero when only one soil type exists on the farm. the list of utilized variables, their definition and descriptive statistics is presented in table 2. data analysis the importance for common bean attributes and distribution of attributes in the popular varieties found in the study area were analyzed using descriptive statistics based on the average ratings. the kruskal wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks (a nonparametric statistical procedure) was used to test for differences among the ratings and determine whether or not each rating for an attribute was statistically equal among the three livelihood groups. the criteria used to classify households into livelihood groups are summarized in table 3. a paired sample t-test was used to compare attribute supply by the two popular varieties chosen for the analysis. the effect of the attributes ratings and other factors on area share occupied by variety i was determined using econometric analysis. the choice of the econometric estimation method was dictated by the nature of the data on the dependent variables. the area shares allocated to glpx92 and glp2 large red mottled differ across households but were observed for almost all households in the data set used in the analysis and censored for very few households (2 for glpx92 and 8 for glp2 large red mottled). these observations were too few to allow calculation of the total effect of the explanatory variables on the explained variable from a tobit model. for this reason, the ordinary least squares (ols) regression model was preferred over a tobit regression for the estimation of area shares allocated to glpx92 and glp2 large red mottled. denote vi * the optimal demand of variety i expressed as a function of all the variables hypothesized (z) to explain variation in the area share occupied by the variety i , cast on the right hand side of equation 2, and the random component ( ε i ): y *  β ' z  ε i ε i | z ~ n (0,1) (4) i table 1. varieties grown, their morphological characteristics, local names, incidences and the year of release. variety, local name(s) researcher classification/ year of release/origin household share (%) morphological characteristics nyayo or maina glp2 large red mottled early 1980s 71.5 amini glp2 very large red mottled 4.9 rosecoco glp2 medium purple mottled early 1980s 13.8 nyayo short, saitoti or short maina glp2 medium red mottled 17.9 kakunzu local purple stripes on cream 8.9 mwezimoja glp1127or glp1004 medium purple or grey speckled early 1980s land race) 7.3 katumbuka, mwitemania, katinga or maddu glpx92 medium pinto early 1980s land race) 87.0 wairimu, katune or kamusina glp585 small red haricot early 1980s 12.2 kitui glp24 large dark red kidney pre-released 1993 14.6 kitui small; glp24 small dark red kidney kayellow, kathika, or ka-green katb1 medium yellow/green round shaped pre-released 1985 34.6 ikoso, ngoloso or itulenge local black with white stripes 15.5 kamwithiokya local black source: kenyan seed company in spilsbury et al. (2004) updated with survey data. β is a vector of parameters to be estimated while ε i is a vector of random component assumed to be randomly distributed with zero mean and constant variance in ( 0,σ 2 ) . there is a possibility that one household grows both glpx92 and glp2 large red mottled. this implies that the factors that influence demand of one variety are also likely to influence demand for the other. this is likely to induce correlation between the unobserved heterogeneity in the two variety demand equations. however, according to greene (2000, p. 616) there is no gain in statistical efficiency from estimating the two equations jointly when the set of explanatory variables is identical in both equations (greene, 2000, p. 616). based on this, each variety demand equation was treated separately. results assessing the relative importance of common bean attributes to farmers generally, farmers prefer many common bean attributes. four production attributes and one consumption attribute were rated important with an average rating of more than 2.5 on a three point scale (table 4). this reflects the wide range of production constraints faced by the households in the drought areas of kenya and the importance of varietal adaptation. the kruskal wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks indicates no variation in the relative importance for all the production attributes across household categories defined by livelihood groups. this means that these production attributes are preferred equally across households in the study area because production constraints affect them in the same way. similarly, the relative importance for high keeping quality and grain colour does not show significant variation across household categories, which implies that preferences for these attributes do not depend on the household socioeconomic background. however, ratings for a less cooking time variety, grain size and low flatulence, also consumption attributes, vary across household categories, with the households in the middle stratum attaching relatively less importance on less cooking time as compared to those in the top and bottom strata. households in the top stratum also expressed high preference for low flatulence and grain size than the poorer households. distribution of the important attributes in the varieties grown farmers were asked to rate each variety according to the selected production and consumption attributes. results summarized in table 5 shows that varieties differ in their supply of attributes preferred by households. glpx92, the most popular variety is rated above average (3.7 on a 5 point scale) for drought tolerance, yield and tolerance to poor soils. on the other hand, the table 2. definition of empirical variables included in the analysis, hypothesized effects and the summary of the descriptive statistics. variable definition expected effect mean sd dependent variable glpx92 share of common bean allocated to glpx92 variety during the 0.250 0.217 2008/2007 cropping year glp2 large red mottled share of common bean allocated to glp2 large red mottled 0.186 0.142 variety during the 2008/2007 cropping year attribute consumption flavour production related household characteristics education dependency ratio household wealth exogenous income farm characteristics scale of production diversity of farm soil types market access value of donkey production orientation an index derived from factor analysis of attributes where +/0.114 0.723 consumption attributes loaded heavily an index derived from factor analysis of attributes where +/0.319 0.585 production attributes loaded heavily years of schooling, household head + 7.70 3.66 proportion of household members below 15 years and above +/ 64 years of age 0.538 0.406 total value in (k.sh) of consumer durables (i.e. bicycle, radio) + and livestock 62567.3 22911.3 a dummy capturing whether a household receives +/ remittances, credit, or non farm/labour income 0.277 0.452 total area (ha) allocated to common bean in a year +/0.147 0.180 a shannon index of soil types on the farm cropped area 1.350 0.610 total value in (k.sh.) of the donkey if sold at the time of survey + 1255.3 2900.3 dummy(=1) if the farmer „s primary objective of producing +/ common bean is for sale and 0 otherwise 0.468 0.504 table 3. criteria used for categorizing households in wealthy strata. sources of livelihood wealth category crops, any type of livestock and/ off farm employment top crops and small livestock medium crops and local chicken only bottom table 4. average rating of importance of common bean attributes by household wealthy category in eastern kenya, 2008. variety attribute top=11 med=15 bottom=21 total p-value drought tolerance 2.82 3.00 2.90 2.92 0.877 (0.60) (0.00) (0.30) (0.35) early maturing 2.82 3.00 2.81 2.88 0.876 (0.60) (0.00) (0.60) (0.49) pest resistance 2.64 2.60 2.71 2.67 0.871 (0.81) (0.74) (0.72) (0.72) tolerance to poor soils 2.64 2.53 2.62 2.60 0.917 (0.67) (0.74) (0.74) (0.71) growth habit (upright) 2.18 2.87 2.29 2.48 0.160 (0.98) (0.52) (0.92) (0.85) less cooking time 2.45 1.80 2.71 2.38 0.029** (0.82) (0.94) (0.64) (0.87) high keeping quality 2.40 2.87 2.76 2.72 0.599 (0.97) (0.52) (0.62) (0.68) low flatulence 1.91 1.33 2.19 1.88 0.033** (0.94) (0.72) (0.87) (0.91) grain size 2.36 1.33 1.86 1.83 0.039** (0.92) (0.72) (0.91) (0.93) grain colour 2.09 1.80 2.20 2.06 0.561 (1.04) (0.94) (1.01) (0.99) **, * denote 5% and 10% levels of significance, respectively. variety is rated inferior in all the consumption attributes. the rating for glp2 large red mottled was in the reverse order. it is rated above average for consumption attributes, but below average for production attributes. a paired sample t-test further revealed that these varieties significantly differ in their supply of the selected attributes as perceived by farmers. glpx92 outperforms glp2 large red mottled in all production attributes but evaluated inferior to glp2 large red mottled in terms of consumption attributes (table 5). effect of attributes and other factors on variety demand an ols regression was used to estimate the marginal proportion of common bean area allocation to glpx92 and glp2 large red mottled for each explanatory variable and the respective elasticities. missing data across the variables reduced the usable sample to 40 observations in analyzing the predicted effects. the results summarized in table 6 show that the two models were significant table 5. evaluation of popular common bean variety in different preference criteria and paired samples t-test results between the varieties. attribute average rating of relative performance of variety (5 point scale) glpx92-glp2 large red mottled glpx92 glp2 large red mottled mean score difference p-value drought tolerance 4.575 2.855 1.725 0 early maturing 0 0 0 pest resistance 0 0 0 tolerance to poor soils 3.89 2.2 1.69 0 cooking time 2.265 3.9 -1.635 0 low flatulence 2.25 3.815 -1.57 0 keeping quality 2.34 3.565 -1.225 0 seed size 2.69 4.155 -1.465 0 seed colour 2.29 4.15 -1.855 0 at less than 1% with a respective r 2 of 0.48 and 0.51, which implies a good fit for a cross sectional data. test for multicollinearity using the variable, inflation factor, also shows that all variables had a vif of less than 2.5, suggestive of stable results. a joint test of the hypothesis that consumption attributes and other household demographic factors do not matter in land allocations to varieties was rejected, providing support to the agricultural household mode l used to derive variables for the econometric estimation. as expected, a high index of the rating of production attributes had a positive and significant effect on the area share allocated to glpx92, which is generally evaluated superior to other varieties in production attributes. the index had a negative and significant impact on the area share allocated to glp2. the glp2 large red mottled was rated below average for the supply of almost all production attributes. the analysis of elasticity revealed that farmers in the drought parts of kenya are more responsive to production attributes than they are to consumption attributes. results indicate that 1% increase in the index for the production attributes increases the area share of glpx92 by 0.35% and reduces that of glp2 large red mottled by 0.24% (table 5). on the other hand, a similar increase in preference index for consumption attributes reduces area share for glpx92 by 0.06% and increases that of glp2 large red mottled by 0.07%. the concept of the marginal rate of substitution was also applied to assess the farmers‟ valuation of consumption attributes in terms of production attributes so as to draw implications for possibility of trade-offs. results show a marginal rate of substitution of consumption attributes for production attributes of 0.42 for glpx92 and 0.67 for glp2, further demonstrating the high valuation for production attributes as compared to consumption attributes. this result implies that at the current level of utility, farmers are only willing to give up less than one unit of utility from production attributes for gains in one unit of utility from consumption attributes. among the household characteristics included in the analysis, education and household wealth were only significant. education had a positive effect on the area share allocated to glpx92 and a negative effect on glp2 large red mottled. this result could be interpreted that educated people tend to allocate their land designated for common bean to varieties that perform relatively well in terms of yield and use the market to access varieties they prefer but do relatively poorly on their farm. farm characteristics represented by the scale of operation and the heterogeneity in farm soil types are also important determinants of variety demand. scale of operation was positively related with the area share allocated to both varieties but the effect was only statistically significant for glp2. the positive and significant effect of scale on the area share occupied by glp2 implies that farmers with access to land tend to compensate for low yield from glp2 with area expansion. variables included as proxies for market conditions show the expected signs. households with commercial production orientation tend to allocate a bigger proportion of their common bean land to glp2 (market variety), and less to glpx92, a risk reducing variety but with inferior consumption attributes. the value of donkeys, shows a positive relationship with the area share table 6. results of the estimation of the ordinary least squares regression of the effect of variety attributes and other factors on the area share allocated to glpx92 and glp2 large red mottled. variable glp2 large red mottled glpx92 coefficient elasticity t-value coefficient elasticity t-value 0.089 0.071 -0.099 -0.061 index of consumption attribute (0.040) (0.033) 2.22** (0.057) (0.036) -1.72* -0.132 -0.249 0.237 0.347 index of production attributes (0.073) (0.139) -1.82* (0.104) (0.156) 2.29** 0.006 0.018 -0.039 -0.089 dependency ratio (0.055) (0.162) 0.11 (0.078) (0.179) -0.5 -0.022 -0.899 0.023 0.755 education (0.009) (0.402) -2.29** (0.013) (0.441) 1.74* 0.098 0.245 -0.169 -0.327 production orientation (0.050) (0.128) 1.95* (0.072) (0.143) -2.36** -0.001 -0.005 -0.141 -0.765 soil diversity (0.042) (0.295) -0.02 (0.060) (0.337) -2.34** 3.3e-01 0.274 -0.071 -0.046 scale of operation (1.4e-01) (0.119) 2.37** (0.198) (0.128) -0.36 2.0e-05 0.094 -5.1e-06 value of donkey (8.9e-06) (0.044) 2.2** (1.3e-05) -0.4 1.4e-07 0.048 -2.0e-07 household wealth (1.8e-07) (0.061) 0.79 (2.5e-07) -0.78 -2.3e-02 0.039 exogenous income (6.1e-02) -0.38 (0.087) 0.45 2.6e-01 0.301 constant (9.8e-02) 2.64*** (0.139) 2.16** observations 38 38 f( 10, 27) 2.88 2.46 prob > f 0.014 0.0308 r2 0.5161 0.4766 adj. r 2 0.3369 0.2827 root mse 0.11748 0.16744 allocated to glp2 (a market variety), but the magnitude is too small to matter. discussion this paper highlights important variety attributes, their supply by varieties grown, their effect and that of other factors on the variety demand in drought parts of kenya. although the sample was taken from eastern kenya, results have implications for other areas with similar socioeconomic and agro-ecological conditions. consistent with the findings of the previous research (sperling et al., 1993), a high number of variety attributes is preferred. this preference is largely derived from the high incidences and severity of biophysical stresses and socioeconomic problems faced by farmers in the study area (katungi et al., 2010). all farmers attach high importance to all production attributes analyzed in this paper, while they significantly differ in their stated preferences for cooking time, low flatulence and grain size. to wealthier households, low flatulence and large grain size are very important while the medium and the poorer households do not mind any size. on the other hand, poorer households prefer a bean variety with less cooking time because these households lack the required resources to support the extended cooking time. this is a key result and has not been reported from other preference studies on common bean. the study findings indicate that stated consumption and production preferences significantly explain the revealed land allocations to two popular varieties grown in eastern kenya. this is consistent with the agricultural household model that was used in this study. edmeades (2003) also applied an agricultural household model to study variety choice among banana producers in uganda and obtained similar results. the variety attributes have coefficients of larger magnitudes, implying that variety preferences are the important determinants of land allocation to a common bean variety, underscoring the importance of clear understanding of farmers‟ preferences. the study has elaborated that households attach high importance on production and consumption attributes, implying that genetic improvement that incorporates both desirable production and consumption traits would enhance the welfare of these people, especially the poorer households. therefore, breeding effort should target producing varieties with superior production attributes that are compatible with farmers‟ consumption preferences. results further revealed that farmers in drought areas are more responsive to production attributes and value them highly compared to consumption attributes. this implies that introduction of varieties with superior production attributes than is currently supplied by the popular varieties will be widely adopted even when their consumption attributes are the same as that of the existing varieties or reduced slightly. the study has also demonstrated that in addition to variety attributes, education of the production decision maker, farm size, diversity of soils on the farm and production orientation significantly explain variation in the extent of variety planting across households. study results indicate that the area share allocated to a risk increasing variety (glp2 red mottled) increases with farm size because larger farmers have the ability to diffuse risk through better access to credit (feder, 1980; feder et al., 1985; knight et al., 2003). controlling for farm size and other factors, education seems to reduce land allocation to the risk increasing variety. although education has been demonstrated to act through its positive effect on information (schultz, 1975), we do not expect this mechanism to be important in land allocation to the two varieties considered in this study since these varieties have been grown for long in the community and almost every farmer is considered to have information about them. instead, the result implies that as drought in kenya increasingly becomes more important (sperling, 2002) and bean markets increasingly rely on imports, better educated decision makers choose to allocate more land to varieties less vulnerable to drought while they depend on the markets for varieties considered more vulnerable to drought as a way of enhancing productivity of their resource. several empirical studies reviewed by feder et al. (1985) have confirmed the positive effect of education on allocative efficiency in agriculture, particularly, under changing environment. results also show that area allocation to each variety reduces with increase in soil type heterogeneity on the farm which is consistent with the findings in literature that farmers match their crop varieties with soil types (bellon and taylor, 1993) and this could result in each variety occupying a small portion of the land. furthermore, farmers with commercial production orientation tend to trade-off expected yield with high marketability. the implication is that as markets develop and market attributes become more important, area under common bean cultivation may shift to more marketable varieties even in drought prone areas. this could further reduce common bean productivity. conclusions the study findings have important implications for breeding, as well as variety dissemination. for breeding, the study findings support the conclusion that varietal adaptation to environmental stresses that also strive to reduce the cooking time, enhance the keeping quality and grain colour will greatly benefit the poor. however, when multi-attribute breeding is not feasible or is long term, prioritizing the improvement of production attributes as a short term goal seems an efficient strategy. trade-off between desirable production attributes and marketability need to account for exogenous factors that are important in variety planting decisions but subject to change. for example, the study findings point to a possibility of a future shift in land to well adapted varieties as farm sizes become smaller due to increases in population pressures and household access to markets in neighbouring countries with a comparative advantage in the production of market varieties improves. in the long term, there is need for breeding strategy that simultaneously enhances the production, as well as marketability of varieties even in drought prone areas. study findings also imply that during variety dissemination, information related with less tangible variety attributes such as cooking time and keeping quality should be packaged and disseminated alongside varieties to facilitate adoption decision making process and faster diffusion of varieties. acknowledgements this study was done as part of a project funded by bill and melinda gates foundation. the good collaboration of the international centre for tropical agriculture (ciat), international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (icrisat) and international institute of tropical agriculture (iita) and kari contributed greatly to the success of this project. the kenya agriculture research institute in katumani greatly facilitated data collection and the initial analysis of the study. references bellon m, taylor j (1993). “folk” soil taxonomy and the partial adoption of new seed varieties. econ. dev. cult. change, 41: 763-786 bellon mr (1996). the dynamics of crop intra-specific diversity: a conceptual framework at the farmer level. econ. bot., 50: 26-39. de janvry a, fafchamps m, sadoulet e (1991). peasant household behaviour with missing markets: some paradoxes explained. econ. j., 101: 1400-1417. edmeades s (2003). variety choice and attribute trade-offs within the framework of agricultural household models: the case of bananas in uganda. a phd dissertation, north carolina state university. faostat (2010). food and agriculture organization at www.fao.org. feder g (1980). farm size, risk aversion and the adoption of new technology under uncertainty”. oxford economic papers, 32 (2): 263283. feder g, just re, zilberman d (1985). adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries: a survey. econ. de. cult. change, 33: 255-298. greene w (2000). econometric analysis. fourth edition, prentice hall, upper saddle river, new jersey. katungi e, farrow a, mutuoki t, gebeyehu s, karanja d, alamayehu f, sperling l, beebe s, rubyogo jc, buruchara r (2010). improving common bean productivity. an analysis of socio-economic factors in ethiopia and eastern kenya. ciat working document #217. knight j, weir s, woldehanna t (2003). the role of education in facilitating risk-taking and innovation in agriculture. j. dev. stud., 39(6): 1-22. lancaster kj (1966). a new approach to consumer theory. j. polit. econ., 74: 132-157. mwita r j, mavua k, audi po (1981). the farming system of lowland machakos district, kenya. report of farm survey results from mwala location. technical report no.1 odendo m, david s, kalyebara r (2004). the key role of beans in poverty alleviation: lessons from the impact of improved bean varieties in western kenya, occasional publications series, no.43. sadoulet e, de janvry a (1995). quantitative development policy analysis. the john hopkins university press, baltimore and london. schultz t (1975). the value of the ability to deal with disequilibria. j. econ. lit., 13 (3): 827-846. singh i, squire l, strauss j (eds) (1986). agricultural household models. extension, applications and policy. the johns hopkins university press baltimore, maryland 21211, usa. sperling l (2002). emergency seed aid in kenya: some case study insights on lessons learned during the 1990‟s disasters, 26(4): 283287. sperling l, loevinsohn m, ntabomvura b (1993). rethinking the farmer‟s role in plant breeding: local bean experts and on-station selection in rwanda. expl. agric., 29: 509-519 sperling l, scheidegger uc, buruchara r (1996). designing seed systems with small farmers: principles derived from bean research in the great lakes region of africa. agricultural administration (research and extension) network paper, no. 60. london: overseas development institute. wale e, mburu j (2006). an attribute-based index of coffee diversity and implications for on-farm conservation in ethiopia. in smale, m. (ed.) valuing crop biodiversity. on-farm genetic resources and economic change, cab international publishing, 48-62. appendix table 1. scores after factor analysis of variety attributes. attribute scoring coefficient consumption flavor yield related characteristic proportion of variation explained consumption 0.568 less cooking time 0.10 0.02 high keeping quality 0.41 0.09 less gas 0.28 0.03 grain size -0.12 0.04 grain colour -0.04 0.03 production attribute 0.471 drought tolerant 0.05 0.39 early maturing -0.05 0.23 pest resistance 0.28 0.22 tolerate poor soils -0.05 0.20 growth habits (upward) 0.13 0.07 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (3), pp. 001-011, march, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper production and marketing structure of large scale forestry products industry enterprises in turkey baki aksu1*, k. hüseyin koç2 and ahmet kurtoğlu2 1 dr. beykoz vocational school of logistics, turkey. 2 department of forest products industry, faculty of forestry, dr. istanbul university, 34473, bahçeköy sarıyer/istanbul/turkey. accepted 24 november, 2019 in turkey, a country with 21.2 million ha of forest land, it is evident that the processed forest products have not been able to be developed to realize their potential with regards to the exports possibilities. it is obvious that the situation is to the disadvantage of turkey in terms of the trading equilibrium when the exports and imports figures are examined. according to the results of the research carried out locally with respect to the turkish forest products industry, the emphasized problems emerge as the misapplication of incentives, the disability to catch up with the technological innovations, problems regarding raw material quality, undercapitalization, lack of qualified personnel, etc. by the help of this study which had been planned to cover the whole turkish forest products industry; the target is to reveal the structural situations of the large scale businesses in turkey in the first few years of the 20th century, where modern management principles are assumed to be applied. the research had been finalized with the comments made upon the results of the questionnaires gathered through mostly face-to-face interviews with 415 large scale forest product firms where it was assumed that contemporary management principles and technological developments were applied relatively easier. as the questionnaire study was applied by the researchers themselves directly, it was also supported through observations. key words: forest products, large scale enterprises, industry, marketing, production, technology. introduction and general information the characteristic that forestry products’ are renewable natural sources does not require their unconscious utilization. forestry products that have over 6000 (gavcar et al., 1999) usage areas after being processed must be presented to the service of human kind at the right usage place and on the right time. while there are exactly 96 timber and 2000 furniture enterprises in south africa, having 1.3 million hectare forest area, there are 43.794 (rıce, 1998; kurtoğlu, 2001; turkstat, 1992) enterprises processing forestry products in turkey. when this number is taken into consideration, the importance of the raw material of wood is obvious. therefore, the *corresponding author. e-mail: bakiaksu@beykoz.edu.tr. tel: +90 216 4442569. fax: +90 216 4139520. enterprises must process the raw material of wood in accordance with the quality and productivity requirements through the approach required for modern operations. on the other hand, the performed researches and observations indicate that 10.621.221 ha (ogm, 2010 internet sources) productive forest areas have lost their qualities as a result of both fires and unconscious utilization. in order to meet the essential service and goods expected from the forests, a country must have 30% productive forest area. however, this rate for turkey is around 11.5% (i̇lter, 1993). there are some researches examining the forestry products industry as general or its sub-industries. among these researches, especially the ones published after 1990 are given briefly in this study. with a research performed by ilter in 1990, source usage in forestry products industry and developments at file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org productivity level have been studied and actual problems have been determined. the raw material resources and the problems faced by orus in turkey had been determined by the studies by gavcar et al. (996, 1997). first research is based on the evaluations of timber, plate, plywood, furniture, cutting plate, fiber plate and paper industry. and the second research has been carried out in 55 wood companies with yearly processing capacities over 5000 m 3 . as the result of both researches, the main problems was emphasized as; insufficient quality of raw material, not being in compliance with the standards, defectiveness, lack of capital and technology. in the master thesis by ozkul, completed in 1997, the production policies in wood products industrial plants and the factors effecting production especially in furniture had been investigated in hardwood and parquet sectors. by the study done by mistepe in 1998, titled as ”education, technology and production in wood products industry”, how the productivity values of orus had been improved by education and technology in the period of 1943 to 1997 was examined. researchers such as kurtoğlu et al. (1998), aksu and koç (2001), aksu et al. (2009), published their study on analyzing the forests products industry in general and sub-industries such as furniture, fiber plate, cutting plate and woodwork industry. in his master thesis, çiçek compared the turkish wood products industry and eu countries wood products industry. also, in the study, accomplished by karademir (2000), the foreign trade values of turkish wood products have been examined. this study was designed to determine the production technologies of large scale organizations and the difficulties they face in following-up technology and implementing, the product standards, the production quantities and their values, the current capacities and utilization rate, foreign trade status and the opinions of the organizations for the future. a research performed by akyüz et al. (2004), direct the preferences of private sector investments in the forest products industry in the black sea region, which lags behind the other regions from the point of view of economic development and has an unstable development situation. with this aim, cities with advantages and investment priorities were determined. this study deals with all the 18 provinces (amasya, artvin, bartın, bayburt, bolu, çorum, giresun, gümüşhane, karabük, kastamonu, ordu, rize, samsun, sinop, tokat, trabzon, zonguldak and düzce) in the region. another study realized in 2004 with the same team investigated export problems of forest product industry companies located in the western mediterranean region of turkey by the study done by karayılmazlar et al. (2008), a survey was carried out in order to determine the production and technological characteristics of small and medium sized forest products enterprises in bartın province. the production and technological problems were explored and suggestions were given based on analyses of the data of the study. another study conducted in 2006 with the same team was carried out to determine the social and economical characteristics of 328 small and medium sized forest products enterprises in the vicinity of bartın. with a research performed by top and akyüz in 2009, the situations of the foreign direct investments in the forest products industry (fpi) and its rank in the manufacturing sector were examined. it was found out that cellulose, paper and cardboard sector was selected more than other subdivision in the fpi for foreign investment and the foreign direct investments in the fpi settled in the city where the foreign direct investments in the manufacturing sector were situated. materials and methods the research covers all turkey-wide large-scale forestry products (except for the paper industry). in classifying the businesses, parameters such as the number of employees, total capacity of power equipment, capital, value added and turnover may be utilized. as a reliable response cannot usually be obtained from the criterions such as capital, turnover etc. in turkey, in such studies, the scale of the business is classified usually according to number of employees. furthermore, it is reported that number of employees, total capacity of power equipment and value added are proportionate to each other in the studies conducted therefore number of employees can be applied as the main criterion in classification process (kurtoğlu, 2001). number of employees in classifying the businesses may show variation in consideration by different organizations. for instance, minor industry development organization considers that a business with a number of employees of 1 to 9 is low-scale, 10 to 49 is medium-scale and over 50 is large-scale, whereas the istanbul chamber of industry assesses that 1 to 49 is low-scale, 50 to 150 medium-scale and over 150 is largescale (kurtoğlu, 2001). on the other hand, in turkısh statistical institute (turkstat) view, a business employing above 100 employees is large-scale (turkstat, 1991). however this approach may again show variation among industries. in some industries, businesses employing above 10 employees can even be considered as large-scale. in the present research, it was found appropriate, taking the structure of the turkish forestry products industry into consideration, to assess any business with the number of employees of above 25 as large-scale. because most of the businesses employ fewer than 50 employees in turkey, such a classification was adopted to include more businesses in the study. the economical and technical scope of the research is required to exclude the small and medium-scale businesses from the research. furthermore, at the first stage, the accessibility of businesses and possibility to pick up data in a reliable and proper manner made essential to choose the large-scale businesses which reckoned to have fundamentally completed its corporate evolution. however these studies should be considered as a major stage in putting forth the structural situation of small and medium-scale businesses that make major contributions to the industrial development, thanks in particular to their flexible structures, and new researches should be planned within this scope. the occupational magazines, internet, exhibition booklets and brochures along with the official bodies such as turkstat, ministry of industry, state planning organization, turkish union of chambers of commerce and industry and commodity exchanges, small and medium-scale industry development association, turkish standards institute; the records of the chambers of commerce and industry together with the organized industrial zones in the provinces visited as well as the supplementary recommendations and information provided by businesses accessed have been the utilized sources in determining large-scale businesses. survey method was employed in the research. 90% of the businesses have been included in the questionnaire through faceto-face negotiations placed at the business site. postal services were used to access the remaining 10% of the businesses due to the impossibility to visit for face-to-face negotiations, lack of accurate information regarding the presence and address of the business and the need to identify new businesses within the limited time. answers to the systematically prepared data collection forms were received from the business owners or top-level directors of the business. the participation for the questionnaire was rated as 72% in the whole of turkey. demands of some of businesses for completing and returning the questionnaire at a later time after the face-to-face negotiation were accepted, however no feedback could be received from some businesses, and some businesses did not show willingness to respond to the questionnaire although relevant reminders and requests were frequently delivered through mailing or phone calling, and some did not return their responses within the period of evaluation. the results of the questionnaire have been transferred to the spss (statistical package for the social sciences) and subject to statistical evaluation. the reason for choosing the spss program for statistical evaluation is that spss is a commonly used package under windows environment, the reliability of the questionnaire as well as its giving the opportunity to conduct plenty of different necessary tests based on the same data (özdamar, 1999). the consistency of the questions (test f), whether the questions in each group were prepared on only on social scale, and the reliability of the questionnaire have been surveyed by means of the alpha management (cronbach alpha coefficient) and “tukey's test of addivity” methods. furthermore, cluster analysis and the analysis of relationships between the variables established by frequency and distribution percentages have been made. in the evaluation of data provided on the data collection forms, qualitative assessments have been digitized by means of dual or multiple sequential evaluations. findings the findings that was determined as the result of the questionnaires conducted at the large size enterprises in forest products industry (lsfpi), was reviewed under four headings namely: technological structure; production structure; marketing concepts; prospects for the future. the technological structure of the lsfpi the level of quality is of foremost importance in the forest products. with the impact of technology, quality is gradually increasing in production. the enterprises in this sector are obliged to keep in pace with the technological developments and employ the latest developments into their production, in order to improve their competitive edge. today, the conventional machines used in the production are rapidly replaced by nc, cnc (numeric controlled – computer controlled) machinery. this technology, which allows the control of the machinery through special digital numbers and codes during the operation process without the need for any intervention by the machine operator, is currently undergoing a process of development, through the optimum utilization of computer technology. the employment of nc or cnc type machinery in production, offer certain important advantages such as ensuring the safety of the operating personnel, reduction of the period for work preparation, reduction in inventory costs, opportunity for optimization and flexibility (ergün, 1997). in spite of certain disadvantages that arise during the initial stages of the implementation of the new technology in forest products such as the high costs of investment, need for personnel with special training, etc.; doubtlessly, the employment of nc/cnc machine tools in the manufacturing of forest products provides substantial advantages. the answers of the questions which were concerned with the existing technological structure used in the production process by the large size enterprises in forest products industry (lsfpi), the justifications provided by those who continue their production operations with the old technology, regarding their inability for upgrading their existing technology, the quantitative data relating to the sizes of the existing conventional machinery and the currently used machinery that operate with nc/cnc technology; and the plans of those enterprises who have not updated their technological infrastructure about the future, as follows. according to the data shown in table 1, of the 300 enterprises who responded to the questionnaire, only 13% maintain their production activities with the old technology; in other words, with the conventional machine tools which they have not upgraded at all; while 63.3% are performing their production activities with a machine park consisting of conventional machine tools, that are supported by nc or cnc machine tools; and 23.7% of the enterprises employ the latest nc or cnc technology in most of their machine tools. enterprises that continue their production with conventional technology, have indicated that the main (43.1%) reason for their inability to upgrade their machine tools was due to the fact that their enterprises lack the adequate financial resources that were necessary for the implementation of the new technology. the inadequacy of the state support is also among the major reasons for the inability of the enterprises in updating their machine tools (22.4%). quantifying the number of the machinery in certain subsidiary industries is easy. however, in certain subindustries such as plywood, fiber plates, chipped wood plates, it is only possible to mention a machinery park that consists of a number of machines. the distribution of 4.800 pieces of countable machinery available in the lsfpi, are shown in the table 2. according to table 2, among 245 enterprises participating in the questionnaire, that use conventional table 1. technological structure of enterprises in the lsfpi. questions answers frequency % status of the technology used in production reason for the employment of old technology the desire to purchase nc or cnc machines the envisaged period for the purchase of nc or cnc machinery old technology 39 13.0 relatively new technology 190 63.3 state-of-art technology 71 23.7 total 300 100 difficulties in keeping in pace with the new technology 4 6.9 lack of funds required for new technology 25 43.1 state support for upgrading to new technology is inadequate 13 22.4 upgrading to new technology is not necessary for the time 5 8.6 being other 11 19.0 total 58 100 yes 17 60.7 no 11 39.3 total 28 100 1 year 3 17.6 up to 3 years 8 47.1 up to 5 years 4 23.5 more than 5 years 2 11.8 total 17 100 table 2. principal machinery used in the production activities. type quantity share in total (%) conventional machinery 3,796 79.1 nc machines 628 13.1 cnc machines 376 7.8 total 4,800 100 machinery, the average number of conventional machinery per enterprise is 15; among 145 enterprises that use nc type machinery, the average number of nc type machinery per enterprise is 4; and among 133 enterprises that use cnc type machinery, the average number of cnc type machinery per enterprise is 2.8. according to the answers provided by the management level of the enterprises regarding their technological structures (table 1) 63.3% of such enterprises have relatively new machinery; and although 23.7% stated that they have the latest machinery in respect of machine parks, the forest products industry in turkey is considerably behind the level that had been achieved by the developed countries. for example, in the usa, 27% of the enterprises that are particularly engaged in the processing of hard wood employ monitoring and optimization technology (scott et al., 2001). production structure of the lsfpi findings relating to the production structure of the enterprises in lsfpi have been outlined in table 3. according to the data provided in table 3, of 299 enterprises who have participated in the questionnaire, only 13.7% are operating in full capacity, while the remaining 86.3% are unable to work at full capacity. according to the information provided by the management of the enterprises in the forest products industry, the average rate of capacity utilization is 68%. based on the responses of the enterprises, the rate of capacity utilization of about 53% of the enterprises are below 60%. the rate of capacity utilization among the majority of the enterprises varies between 31.1% and the range of 40 to 59% at maximum. regarding the reasons for the inability of the enterprises to work at full capacity, 38.1% of the respondents have indicated that their inability to work at full capacity is due to lack of demands. the majority of the respondents have indicated that main reason for the lack of demands was because of the economic crisis. other reasons for lack of demands were explained as follows: inadequacy of financing (19.8%); problems with personnel (11.6%); inadequacy of technology (8.8%); inadequacy of raw materials (7.7%), and inadequacy of energy resources (3.9%). according to the data provided in table 3, the foremost table 3. findings relating to the production structure of lsfpi enterprises. questions answers frequency % reasons for inability to operate at full capacity the basic problems experienced by the lsfpi enterprises applicable techniques for the improvement of efficiency reasons for not deriving of benefits from techniques that improve efficiency lack of demand 204 38.1 lack of adequate finance 106 19.8 problems with personnel 62 11.6 lack of technological means 47 8.8 lack of raw materials 41 7.7 lack of energy resources 21 3.9 other 54 10.1 total 535 100 market limitations 195 19.2 lack of financial resources 139 13.7 high cost of energy sources 130 12.8 lack of qualified personnel 122 12.0 high rates of loan interests 118 11.6 problems arising from raw materials and subsidiary materials 80 7.9 technological inadequacies based on machinery and 80 7.9 equipment lack of adequate development of the auxiliary industry 73 7.2 high labor costs 57 5.6 no apparent problems 3 0.3 other 18 1.8 total 1015 100 on-the-job training 148 13.4 quality control 145 13.1 production planning 134 12.1 use of computers 125 11.3 stock control 118 10.7 motivating awards to the employees 97 8.8 financial analysis 84 7.6 protective maintenance 68 6.2 job survey 54 4.9 work performance evaluation 53 4.8 field training 43 3.9 wage policies with incentives 33 2.9 other 4 0.4 total 1106 100 financial problems 40 24.4 low quality of the available raw materials and subsidiary 36 22.0 materials lack of adequate demand 31 18.9 lack of qualified personnel 26 15.9 technological inadequacy 12 7.3 marketing problems 11 6.7 other 8 4.9 total 164 100 problem in production experienced by 19.2% of the enterprises is “market limitations”, which implies the inadequacy of potential market opportunities for the enterprises. market limitation is one of the most important problems that have emerged concurrently with the economic crisis experienced in turkey. particularly, the enterprises operating in the provinces of bursa and istanbul, have attempted to overcome this problems posed by market limitation through offering their products to international markets, and were relatively successful in their endeavors. this problem is followed by limitation of financial resources (13.7%); high energy costs (12.8%); lack of qualified personnel (12%); high rates of loan interests (11.6%); problems relating to scarcity of raw materials and auxiliary materials and the inadequacy of technological means (7.9%); lack of a developed subindustry (7.2%); and high labor costs (5.5%). of all the respondents, only 3% have indicated that they do not have any problems. the data provided in table 3 shows that 69.3% of the enterprises adopt measures that increase efficiency. based on the responses provided by the enterprises to the questionnaire, these measures could be listed as follows: on-the-job and field training, quality control, financial analysis, production planning, wage policies with incentives; job performance evaluation, job surveys, stock control, computer training, protective maintenance, tangible and intangible awards granted to personnel for motivating their performance. from the responses regarding this application, it was noted that that the three measures that were most frequently applied for this purpose consisted of on-the-job training (13.4%); quality control (13.1%) and production planning (12.1%). from the responses given by 296 enterprises responding to this question of the questionnaire, it was noted that 30.8% of the enterprises did not have implement any measures with the objective of increasing the efficiency. the reasons indicated by the enterprises for the absence of any measures for the increase of efficiency were as follows: financial problems (24.4%); the low quality of the available raw materials and subsidiary materials (22 %). other reasons are lack of adequate demand; lack of qualified personnel; lack of adequate technological means and marketing related problems. marketing concept of the lsfpi it must be acknowledged that the marketing concept of whose priority is rapidly increasing in modern management, and which refers to the development, pricing, maintenance and distribution of goods, services and ideas that meet human needs for the realization of changes that will ensure the accomplishment of the objectives of the enterprise, is more than just a sales transaction and that it involves different dimensions. (mucuk, 1993). for example, while 61% of the enterprises located in the western united states engaged in the production and trading of forest products have their own web sites, 18% of these enterprises use electronic commerce in the marketing of their products. (vlosky et al., 2002). meanwhile in turkey, while it is noted that the number of enterprises engaged in similar operations that have their own web sites are rapidly increasing, a definite progress had not yet been achieved with respect to ecommerce. forest products industry currently supplies products to three different types of markets: to the consumers market (end consumers), to industrial markets (industrial users or the intermediary consumers) and to international markets. each market has its own specific characteristics. accordingly, each market type should compete within its own category, due consideration of its characteristics. enterprises endeavor to introduce the products that they have manufactured in the above mentioned markets. the methods applied by the lsfpi enterprises in introducing their products in the markets, the existing marketing problems and the problems experienced by the enterprises in the marketing of their products, have been outlined in table 4. a review of table 4 show that 23% of the lsfpi enterprises introduce their products through brochures, catalogues and other similar types of documents; 22.7% have direct access to their customers and 17.6% advertise and promote their products through the internet. in fact, a number of firms have begun to use ecommerce in their marketing activities. the percentage of those enterprises that introduce their products through advertising in various media, primarily professional journals and local audio-visual media, are around 11.4%. while participation in domestic fairs is preferred by 15.5% of the enterprises, about 3.3% of the enterprises display their products in international markets. as could be noted from the table, enterprises can employ more than one promotional method at the same time. from the answers of the respondents, it is understood that in spite of all their efforts regarding the increase of sales, the enterprises are still having difficulties in the marketing of the products. of 296 enterprises who have responded to this question of the questionnaire, 77% (228 enterprises) have indicated that they have problems. an inquiry on the nature of the existing problems reveals that the highest priority goes to economic recession by 32.5%. the economic recession which is considered to have occurred as a natural outcome of the recent economic crisis, is followed by the current credit sales system by 17%. enterprises are exerting efforts to increase their sales profiles that have declined, through the launching of various campaigns; however, the credit sales system as a problem. the managers of the large size enterprises complain that small and medium sized enterprises are occasionally engaged in aggressive competition in the table 4. the existence of promotion activities and marketing problems in lsfpi enterprises. questions answers frequency % how do you perform the promotion of your enterprise and your products? do you experience problems in the marketing of your products what is your major problem in the marketing of your products? can you realize export sales? what is the share (percent) of exports in your total sales list the group of countries to which you export your products what are the reasons for your inability to make exports; or, what are the major difficulties that you experience during your exports? through documents such as brochures, catalogues, etc. 204 23.0 through direct access to the consumers 202 22.7 through a web page in the internet 156 17.6 through participating in local fairs 138 15.5 through publishing of advertisements in newspapers and journals 101 11.4 through participating in international fairs 58 6.5 other 29 3.3 total 888 100 yes we do 228 77.0 no, we do not 68 23.0 total 296 100 recession in the market 190 32.5 credit sale system 99 17.0 competitive conditions 95 16.3 limited opportunities for international markets 93 15.9 cash deficit 73 12.5 effective marketing techniques implemented by the importers 17 2.9 other 17 2.9 total 584 100 yes 184 62.4 no 111 37.6 total 295 100 1-9 39 23.2 10-19 54 32.1 20-39 32 19.0 40-59 23 13.7 60-79 9 5.4 80-100 11 6.5 total 168 100 european union countries 89 26.5 arab countries 77 22.9 turkic republics 64 19.0 balkan countries 60 17.9 other 46 13.7 total 336 100 lack of familiarity with foreign markets 121 17.1 inability to compete in terms of prices and quality 100 14.2 lack of adequate demands from other countries 91 12.9 lack of adequate personnel and organization 74 10.5 lack of adequate financing for exports 72 10.2 technological inadequacies 55 7.8 difficulties in transportation 37 5.2 production potential can only meet the domestic demands 30 4.2 problems relating to design 29 4.1 difficulties in adaptation to products 28 4.0 table 4. contd. inadequate capacity 29 4.1 other 42 5.9 total 706 100 do you have partners with yes 33 11.7 foreign trade firms active in the no 248 88.3 same industry? total 281 100 we can compete in terms of fair competition 65 23.4 chances for competing with the we have difficulty in competing with the eu countries 64 23.0 eu countries we cannot compete 75 27.0 we do not yet have a clear idea on this subject matter. 74 26.6 markets, which puts the large sized enterprises in a very difficult position. however, it can also be asserted that in such remarks, the managers of the large sized enterprises overlook the fact that small and medium sized enterprises have the advantage of acting more flexible, and that they enhance their competitiveness by using this advantage. the limited scope of opportunities offered by foreign markets, shortage of cash and the effective marketing techniques offered by the foreign buyers, are among the problems experienced by the large size enterprises operating in the sector of forest products. indubitably, the lsfpi enterprises can overcome most of the problems that they are currently facing through offering their products to foreign markets. a substantial portion of the exportation of forest products is realized by the enterprises that we have included within the scope of our survey. from the data provided in table 4, it is understood that of the 295 enterprises who have responded to the question, 62.4% perform direct or indirect export sales, and 37.6% are not engaged in exports. the export volume of the enterprises who realize export sales, vary from 1 to 100% of their total production. the percentage of the exports was grouped on the basis of certain ranges and the proportion of the export sales to the total production volume was determined. accordingly, 32.1% of the enterprises export 1 to 19% of their total production. the distribution of export sales among country groups is as follows: 26.5% of the exports are made to the eu countries; 22.9% is exported to the arab countries; 19% of the exports are made to the turkic republics, and 17.9% is exported to the balkan countries. the share of the other countries in the distribution of the exports is 13.7%. these countries include, north africa, russia, israel, nigeria, algeria, usa, kenya, dubai, far east countries (singapore, china, and japan), georgia, etc. an examination on the problems experienced by enterprises who currently export their products and who are not yet able to export, reveal that the biggest problem is lack of familiarity with the foreign markets (17.1%), which is followed by inability to compete in terms of price and quality (14.2%). from the answers provided by some of the managers of the enterprises, it is noted that the concept of “quality” is particularly highlighted. the respondents agree that price is an important factor in their inability to achieve a competitive power, but disagree on the issue of quality. accordingly, the major problems experienced by the lsfpi enterprises relating to exports, can be listed as follows in respective order: lack of familiarity with the foreign markets, lack of specialized personnel and appropriate organization, lack of financial resources for exports, technological inadequacies, difficulties in transportation, the fact that production potential can only meet domestic demands, problems relating to designing, difficulties in the adaptation of products and inadequate capacity. the sectoral foreign trade companies which are an organizational structure based on the realization of exports and the small and medium sized enterprises may overcome the difficulties that they might experienced during their individual efforts for exportation, and may acquire stronger marketing opportunities on the basis of their individual marketing activities. from the results of the survey, it is understood that company structures that enable certain export related activities such as customs procedures, transportation and insurance transactions, and that offer more effective marketing opportunities for export purposes, do not appear as an attractive option to the enterprises operating in large size forest products industry. as a matter of fact, about 88% of the enterprises do not have affiliations with such a company structure. the chances for competitiveness of the large size enterprises operating in the forest products industry have been questioned. according to the answers provided by the respondents, 27% of the enterprises indicate that they lacked competitive edge¸ 23% indicate that they have difficulty in competition, and 27.6% indicate that they do not yet have a clear idea regarding this subject matter. the percentage of those enterprises who assert that they can compete with the enterprises operating in the eu countries in terms of fair competition is 23.4%; which is by no means an insignificant value. reliability of the survey and a statistical appraisal with the help of the spss program, in addition to the consistency of the method, the existence of meaningful correlations was questioned through the analyses of the correlation between certain questions and the answers received. some to the results that need further elaboration are thus outlined. a meaningful correlation particularly between the size of the enterprise and the level of utilization of advanced technology, with 99% reliability, was achieved. these results can be construed as evidence to the fact that a change occurs in the management structure of the enterprises concurrent with the level of growth of the concerned enterprise. it is also noted that the impacts of the economic crisis that were experienced during the recent years are still visible and that it has a meaningful correlation with the decline in the rates of capacity utilization. while the production related problems of highest priority were focused on technological inadequacy concerned with machinery and equipment in furniture and plywood industry; in timber, parquet, coating and fiber plates industries that directly utilize wood as raw material in production, the first priority is focused on problems arising from raw materials and subsidiary materials. on the other hand, while the biggest problem in the woodwork and packaging industry is lack of qualified personnel, in chipped wood industry, the biggest complaint is concerned with the high rates of loan interests; and in wooden construction elements industry, the biggest problem is concerned with the high costs of energy. the problems of top priority experienced by the subsidiary industries of forest products during the marketing of their products were identified in respective order as follows: the effective marketing strategies applied by the foreign buyers for the furniture, parquet and packaging industry; the limited scope of opportunities offered by the foreign markets for the timber industry; cash deficits for the plywood and wooden construction elements industry; conditions for competition for the coating industry; recession in the markets for the chipped wood industry; and the credit sale system for the fiber plates industry. the top three reasons underlying the inability of certain subsidiary industries to realize export sales, or the major problems experienced by the subsidiary industries that realize export sales were questioned. based on the answers, furniture and woodwork industry have indicated that their number one problem was the lack of financial resources; timber industry indicated that the volume of production was only adequate in the meeting of the demands of the domestic markets; and the wooden construction elements industry had emphasized that their major problem was relevant to designs. a listing was made based on the level of challenge experienced by each sub-industry included in the industry for forest products in their competition against their competitors in the eu countries. according to this listing, while the timber industry was identified as the subindustry that is most adversely affected from the challenges imposed by the competition with the eu countries, packaging industry appears as the sector that is most prepared for competing with the eu countries. this listing is based on the responses that have been provided by the management of the enterprises who have participated in the survey. the accuracy of this listing is open to debates, as it does not include any other indicators. discussion and results production and technological structure in the forest products industry in turkey enterprises operating in the forest products industry in turkey generally perform their production on the basis of conventional machine tools. however, it is also marked that production based on machine tools that operate with nc or cnc systems has increased, starting from the beginning of 1990’s. nevertheless, it cannot be asserted that an adequate progress had been achieved in turkey in terms of technology. for, a lot of enterprises have not been able to perform successful feasibility studies regarding the purchase of nc or cnc based machinery, and have committed errors in the selection of the appropriate machine functions, and consequently, have faced significant failures in terms of the efficiency of their machine tools, loading levels and the rate of return of their investments. whereas, during the purchase of nc or cnc based machinery that entail substantial investments, the issues that constitute bottlenecks must be taken into consideration, and accordingly, elaborate and carefully designed plans must be developed. one of the main reasons why the enterprises choose to continue their production operations with conventional machine tools is lack of adequate financial resources. in this respect, leasing of machinery equipped with high technology plays an important role. however, it has also been understood that leasing does not offer an adequate solution to the existing problem. therefore, enterprises that consider the acquisition of machinery supported with high technology as their top priority are required to develop a financial leasing policy commensurate with their economic power. most of the enterprises operating in the forest products industry are unable to work at full capacity. the results of the survey highlight the fact that one of the basic problems underlying production is related to market limitations at a rate of 19%. nevertheless, in spite of all these adverse conditions, it had been also marked that most of the enterprises operating in this sector have adopted certain measures with a view to enhance their levels of efficiency, which creates certain optimism about the future. those enterprises, who fail to adopt measures to increase their efficiency, indicate that their failure is due to financial reasons. as the result of the inadequacy of their operating capitals, enterprises may become exposed to serious problems, or may be unable to realize their targets due to the economic recession, or due to other reasons. the solution to such problems would consist of the implementation of the necessary measures for the financing of the operating capital, to set aside reserves for this purpose at times of profitability, and the utilization of the subsidies or loans received in a careful and prudent manner. the marketing concept in the forest products industry in turkey about 77% of the enterprises have difficulties in the marketing of their products due to the recession that is experienced in the markets. an appraisal from the standpoint of consumers highlights that fact that the consumers are on the whole unhappy with the enterprises operating in the forest products industry. since the enterprises presume that marketing consists solely of distribution and sale, they may overlook the issue of post-sale services. in the occurrence of bottleneck circumstances in domestic markets, enterprises should endeavor the marketing of their products in foreign markets. they should even endeavor to sell their products both in domestic and in international markets. although around 62% of the enterprises are directly or indirectly involved in export activities, and although the volume of exports are increasing both in terms of the types of products exported and in terms of export quantities since 1990’s, turkey’s exports in forest products have not yet reached the desired level. turkey’s export potential regarding forest products is visible only in large size enterprises. a substantial portion of the small and medium size enterprises are far away from this concept. enterprises should form partnerships with the sectoral foreign trade companies which is an organizational structure based on the realization of exports and small and medium size enterprises must ensure solidarity with various types of organizations. for example, among the enterprises that are engaged in exports, and the enterprises that have not yet realized exports, lack of familiarity with the foreign markets occupies the first place among their difficulties related to foreign trade. inability to compete in terms of price and quality is also an important problem. the elimination of all these problems necessitates solidarity. suggestions for the forest products industry in turkey in order to enhance competitiveness in the forest products industry on a worldwide basis, there are certain duties that should be undertaken by the enterprises, the universities, concerned government establishments, finance institutions like banks, the end consumers and the manufacturers and suppliers of raw materials. during the contacts with the managements of enterprises, the managers have confirmed that there were certain issues for which they have deserved criticisms. however, most of these enterprises anticipate a lot from the government. obviously, some of their claims are justifiable. however, the degree to which they have attempted to derive benefits from the r&d subsidies offered by the state, the small and medium-scale industry development association projects, and the applications of the regional technological development center and the issue as to whether or not they have expended the subsidies that they have derived from the public sector in line with the desired purposes, should be discussed and further efforts should be exerted in order to ensure that they derive further benefits from such subsidies and incentives. the results that were achieved from the survey show that while the forestry enterprises are supplying the raw material of wood to the consumers, they are at the time committing certain erroneous actions that result in the impairment of the quality of the forest products. the conscientious attitude of the enterprises operating in the forestry industry in line with the expectations shall be effective in the elimination of the current problems that are experienced in raw materials. for example, the method of sale of planted trees, that ensures the classification of the forest products as per their types, sizes and appearance, in line with the demands of the buyers, that minimizes losses in production, that increases productivity in terms of economic value, that offers a saving in production costs, and that had been developed for the purpose of the elimination of the occurrence of negative effects such as cracking, decaying, or darkening that might occur during storage in the warehouses (aslankara, 1998) can be applied in a more effective manner. the reduction of the pressure applied on the licensed producers by the state will be beneficial. the reduction of the burdens imposed by the vat and income taxes, and the social security premiums, shall facilitate the enterprises operating in the forestry industry to accomplish certain effective endeavors. in fact, both the enterprises that document every sales transaction, and the enterprises that perform the operation on the basis of unrecorded economy for purposes of tax avoidance, are enforced to compete on the same race track. this situation marks a great unfairness to those enterprises who comply with the rules and regulations. the government bureaucracy that imposes barriers in front of the enterprises, who wish to export their products, needs to be restructured for being more active; the current legislation needs to be updated and the bureaucracy must be charged with more responsibilities. the enterprises that are currently suffering from financial bottlenecks must be subsidized with low interest loans that will enable them to operate in foreign markets. authentic designs must be developed to enhance turkey’s share in foreign markets. the sectoral foreign trade companies which have decisively achieved positive developments in the export scene on behalf of many industries in turkey must include the sector of forest products in its scope and must gain the confidence of the sector through its efforts. uncontrolled and low quality imports are gradually becoming a subject matter of great concern. the opportunities granted to such importers must be restricted and this type of importation must be deterred. according to a recent study, the opportunities granted to the enterprises in the forest products industry for benefiting from free zones is extremely low as compared to the other sectors (0.01%) (koç and aksu, 1999). enterprises operating in the forest products industry must be granted opportunities to effectively benefit from the free trade zones (atatürk airport, aegean free zone, etc.). references aksu b, koç h (1999). türkiye orman ürünleri dış ticaretinin çeşitli ürün grupları bazında i̇ncelenmesi, i̇.ü. orman fakültesi dergisi, seri b, cilt 49, sayı 1-2-3-4, issn 0535-8418, 2001 basımı, ss.105-117, i̇stanbul. aksu b, koç h, karademir d (2009). an evaluation on growth potential of the small and medium scale enterprises in turkish furniture industry, i.uluslararası ulusal meslek yüksekokulları sempozyumu, 27-29 mayıs 2009, i̇sbn 978-975-448-194-5, selçuk üniversitesi kadınhanı faik i̇çli meslek yüksekokulu, konya. akyüz, kc, akyüz i̇, serin h, cındık h (2004). determining suitable investment areas for the forest products industry: an example 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i̇malat sanayiinde küçük ve orta ölçekli i̇şyerleri. turkstat (1992). genel sanayi ve i̇şyerleri sayımı, i̇kinci aşama sonuçları, 1.büyük i̇malat sanayi vlosky rp, westbrook t, poku k (2002). an exploratory study of internet adoption by primary wood products manufacturers in the western united states, j. for. prod., 52(6): 35-42. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (6), pp. 001-006, june, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper impact of salinity on seed germination and early seedling development in safflower (carthamus tinctorius l.) mostafavi khodadad islamic azad universitykaraj branch, iran. e-mail: mostafavi@kiau.ac.ir. tel: 00989365686610. accepted 21 january, 2024 in order to study the effect of salinity stress on germination and early seedling growth of six safflower genotypes namely km5, km8, km12, km19, km47 and kose by using five concentrations of nacl (0, 0.3, -0.5, -1 and -1.5 mpa) a factorial experiment was designed using completely randomized design (crd) with three replications in biotechnology laboratory, islamic azad university-karaj branch. results of anova showed that salt stress adversely affected the germination percentage, germination rate, shoot length, root length, seedling length, root/shoot length ratio, seed vigour, and germination index and mean germination time of all 6 genotypes of safflower, which demonstrates high diversity among genotypes that enabled us to screen salinity tolerant cultivar. at the highest salt level (-1.5 mpa), kose produced maximum germination percentage and germination rate of all genotypes and they were considered as relatively tolerant. best level of nacl concentration in root length, shoot length, seedling length and seed vigour was -0.3 mpa. seed vigour increased with increase in osmotic potential until -0.3 mpa but decreased in -0.5 mpa. results of cluster analysis (ward’s minimum variance method) at the highest salt level (-1.5 mpa) classified all genotypes into three group. according to the obtained results, we found that kose is the most resistant and km5, km8 and km47 are the most sensitive genotypes. key words: cluster analysis, germination indices, nacl, seed vigour. introduction among various environmental stresses, soil salinity has become a critical problem worldwide due to its dramatic effects on plant physiology and performance (golbashy et al., 2010). salinity in soil or water is one of the major stresses and especially in arid and semi arid regions, can severely limit crop production (shannon, 1998). breeders seek to develop and identify cultivars that are more tolerant of salinity and water stress (janmohammadi et al., 2008). germination is generally considered to be the developmental stage that is most salt-sensitive, especially for crops exposed to hostile environments (ashraf and wahid, 2000). salinity impairs seed germination, reduces nodule formation, retards plant development and reduces crop yield (greenway and munns, 1980). soil salinity may affect the germination of seeds either by creating osmotic potential external to the seeds preventing water uptake or through the toxic effects of na+ and clions on germinating seed (golbashy et al., 2010; khajeh-hosseini et al., 2003; atak et al., 2006; kaya et al., 2006). salinity delays the onset, reduces the rate and increases the dispersion of germination events, resulting in reduced plant growth and final crop yield (ashraf and foolad, 2005). absence of germination in salinity soil is very often due to the high concentration of salt in the soil where the seeds are sown. the reason is that the salt solution moves upward, following the evaporation at soil level (bernstein, 1974). salt disturbs both germination and plant growth (fowler, 1991). the main salt-induced physiological disorder is diminished seed imbibitions because of the low solute potential within the saline growth medium (debez et al., 2004). seed may be more sensitive to stress than mature plants because of exposure the dynamic environment close to the soil 2 surface. one of the commonest experiments in germination of the seeds is the application of nacl. seed response to salinity can be simulated by nacl induced ionic stress in the germination experiments. ionic stress is caused by a toxic accumulation of nacl in plant tissues. germination rates decrease with an increase in nacl concentration (murillo-amador et al., 2002). thus, the salt-affected soils can be utilized by growing salt tolerant plants, whether halophytes or crops (siddiqi et al., 2007). with this fact in mind, it is imperative to explore intra-specific (inter-cultivar) variation for salt tolerance of a crop by screening its available germplasm. for instance, a great magnitude of inter-cultivar variation for salt tolerance has been observed in different species such as wheat (ashraf and mcneilly, 1988), lentil (ashraf and waheed, 1993), barley (belkhodja et al., 1994), cotton (ashraf and ahmad, 1999), brassica napus (ulfat et al., 2007) and safflower (siddiqi et al., 2007). safflower (carthamus tinctorius l.) is one of the prospective oilseed crops, because it yields about 32 to 40% seed oil (weiss, 1983). however, due to its considerable salt tolerance compared with commonly grown oil-seed crops, it is usually cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions where soil salinity is one of the major threats to agriculture (kaya, 2009). the research has shown that in response to soil salinity, seedlings growth, leaves area, root biomass and shoot biomass have all been reduced (redmann et al., 1994). although salt stress adversely affects the growth of safflower plants at all developmental stages (kaya et al., 2003; jamil et al., 2006; golbashy et al., 2010), varietal differences in salt tolerance of safflower have been observed at germination (ghorashy et al., 1972), at adult (ashraf and fatima, 1995) as well as at both germination and adult growth stages (francois and bernstein, 1964). however, kaya et al. (2006) reported that germination percentage was not influenced by nacl level of 23.5 dsm -1 . mohammed et al. (2002) reported that by nacl levels germination percentage decreased and mean germination time increased proportionately. the present study was therefore, conducted with the objectives to determine the response of safflower genotype to salinity stress at germination and seedling stages under controlled conditions. moreover, nacl was used for salinity stress induction in safflower. materials and methods in order to study the effects of salinity stress on germination and early seedling growth in safflower genotypes, an experiment was conducted in factorial form, using a completely randomized design with three replications. in this experiment, six safflower genotypes inclusive km5, km8, km12, km19, km47 and kose were evaluated in five levels of salinity treatment (distilled water as control, -0.3, 0.5, -1 and -1.5 mpa) by using different nacl concentrations. this experiment was carried out at biotechnology laboratory, islamic azad universitykaraj branch. the seeds were sterilized by soaking in a 5% solution of hypochlorite sodium for 5 min. after the treatment, the seeds were washed several times with distilled water. 25 seeds were put in each petridish (with 9 cm diameter) on filter paper moistened with respective treatment in 3 replications. the petridishes were covered to prevent the loss of moisture by evaporation. the petridishes were put into an incubator for 12 days at a temperature of 25°c and 65% relative humidity. every 24 h after soaking, germination percentage and other traits were recorded daily. after 12 days of incubation, shoot length, root length, seed vigour and root to shoot ratio of germinated seeds was measured. seeds were considered germinated when the emergent radical reached 2 mm length. germination percentage, germination rate and seed vigour were calculated using the following formulas: formula 1: where gp is germination percentage, sng is the number of germinated seeds, and sn0 is the number of experimental seeds with viability (close and wilson, 2002; danthu et al., 2003). formula 2: where: gr: germination rate; n: number of germinated seed on gth day and g: number of total germinated seeds. formula 3: seed vigour = [seedling length (cm) × germination percentage] analysis of variance was performed using standard techniques and differences between the means were compared through duncan multiple range test (p < 0.05) using sas release 9.1 (sas, 2002) software package. all investigated traits were subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis using procedure ward’s minimum variance method as a clustering algorithm using stat graphics plus (ver 2.1) software. ward’s minimum method is a hierarchical clustering procedure in which similarity used to join clusters is calculated as the sum of squares between the two clusters summed over all variables (hair et al., 1998). it minimizes them within cluster sums of squares across all partitions. results analysis of variance showed that, there were significant difference between genotypes, salinity stress levels and their interaction. the results of this study reveal that various concentrations of nacl had a significant effect on the all measured traits (table 1). the control showed clear genetically differences among the genotypes regards germination percentage, and such differences were statistically significant. germination percentage of all safflower genotypes was adversely affected due to the application of different levels (0, -0.3, -0.5, -1 and -1.5 mpa) of nacl. also analysis of variance showed that, interaction effects was significant for all investigated characters except root to shoot length ratio and mean germination time. the differences between the means (genotypes and salinity stress levels) were compared by duncan multiple range test and are shown in table 2. it observed that, in all of genotypes there was a decrease in germination percentage due to salinity stress increment and maximum germination percentage was delayed. while in 3 table 1. analysis of variance of measured traits of safflower genotypes under salinity stress. s.o.v df germination germination rate root length shoot length seedling length percentage (mm) (mm) (cm) genotype 5 2325.237** 1995.124** 13.099** 28.818** 79.357** stress 4 680.840** 1039.946** 29.224** 57.193** 167.838** genotype× stress 20 167.547* 85.336** 2.871** 3.143** 10.888** error 60 83.944 23.827 1.053 0.834 3.003 s.o.v df seed vigour root/shoot germination mean germination time (day) length (mm) index genotype 5 701732.309** 1.122** 2594.791** 1.597** stress 4 1268344.148** 0.020ns 1043.178** 1.353** genotype× stress 20 93812.719** 0.140ns 110.124** 0.046ns error 60 22757.840 0.149 44.722 0.033 *, **, ns: significant at 5%, 1% level and not significant, respectively. table 2. mean comparison of main effects using duncan multiple range test (at 5% probability level). genotype germination germination rate root length shoot length seedling length percentage (mm) (mm) (cm) km12 76.443c 49.973c 3.021ab 4.080a 7.102a km19 69.334d 50.783bc 2.393ab 3.300b 5.693b km47 64.445d 43.133d 0.624c 0.316c 0.940c km5 86.667b 52.550bc 3.181a 4.073a 7.254a km8 69.778cd 54.139b 2.218b 2.869b 5.088b kose 97.333a 76.807a 2.830ab 2.888b 5.718b salinity stress (mpa) 0 81.853a 60.774a 3.251a 4.402a 7.653a -0.3 78.518a 60.452ab 3.757a 4.713a 8.471a -0.5 81.112a 57.261b 2.565b 3.096b 5.662b -1 78.518a 51.703c 1.797c 2.011c 3.809c -1.5 66.666b 42.631d 0.518d 0.382d 0.901d genotype seed vigour root/shoot germination mean germination time (day) length (mm) index km12 579.480a 0.734ab 57.267c 2.032b km19 418.130b 0.776ab 51.867d 2.035b km47 62.170c 0.200c 45.600e 2.360a km5 662.620a 0.714b 66.067b 1.937bc km8 368.250b 0.757ab 53.600cd 1.888c kose 568.740a 1.038a 82.533a 1.360d salinity stress (mpa) 0 651.900a 0.716a 64.889a 1.752c -0.3 713.820a 0.677a 62.833ab 1.727c -0.5 477.550b 0.717a 63.944ab 1.823c -1 313.010c 0.744a 59.389b 1.981b -1.5 59.870d 0.661a 46.389c 2.392a values in a column bearing different superscript are significantly different at 0.05 levels. 4 table 3. supplementary analysis of interaction effects. salinity level germination germination root length (mm) shoot length (mm) seedling length (mpa) percentage rate (cm) 0 624.578** 924.364** 4.087** 8.664** 20.842** -0.3 981.697** 482.971** 11.001** 19.700** 59.314** -0.5 365.936** 580.374** 6.213** 8.559** 28.480** -1 626.218** 254.259** 3.081* 4.025** 13.234** -1.5 396.999** 94.502** 0.199ns 0.444ns 1.037ns salinity level seed vigour root/shoot length (mm) germination mean germination time (cm) (mpa) index 0 245031** 0.140ns 739.289** 0.493** -0.3 498372** 0.343ns 910.633** 0.384** -0.5 227274** 0.153ns 462.989** 0.391** -1 102251** 0.537** 541.922** 0.246** -1.5 4054.980ns 0.508** 380.456** 0.269** *, **, ns: significant at 5%, 1% level and not significant, respectively. this experiment different genotypes had different response to the salinity stress. among the safflower genotypes, kose had the highest germination percentage and germination rate of 97.33% and 76.80 respectively. however, maximum reduction in germination percentage was observed at the highest level that is, -1.5 mpa of nacl. at the highest salt level (-1.5 mpa), kose produced maximum germination percentage and germination rate of all genotypes and they were considered as relatively tolerant. results of means comparison, using duncan multiple range test, showed that germination percentage and germination rate were decreased by an increase in osmotic potential, while the maximum germination rate and percentage were obtained at 0 mpa level (control treatment). some studies referred that stress can contribute to improve germination rate and seedling emergence in different plant species by increasing the expression of aquaporins (gao et al., 1999), enhancement of atpase activity, rna and acid phosphathase synthesis (fu et al., 1988), also by increase of amylases, proteases or lipases activity (ashraf and foolad, 2005). imposition of varying levels of nacl significantly reduced all measured traits of all 6 investigated genotypes. root length is one of the most important characters for salinity stress because roots are in contact with soil and absorb water from soil. for this reason, root length provides an important clue to the response of plants to salinity stress. a marked reduction in root length, shoot length and seedling length of all genotypes of safflower was observed due to salt stress. among the genotypes, the longest root length was commonly determined in genotypes km5, km12, kose and km19 while km47 gave the shortest root length. generally, increasing salinity levels decreased root length, and km5 genotype exhibited the greater performance in respect of root length. result of this study showed that, shoot length diminished with increasing salinity levels in all genotypes (table 2). the highest and the lowest seedling length were observed in km5 and km47 genotypes, respectively (table 2). the most effective levels in reducing these attributes were -1 and -1.5 mpa of nacl (table 3). best level of nacl concentration in root length, shoot length, seedling length and seed vigour was -0.3 mpa. seed vigour increased with increase in osmotic potential until -0.3 mpa but decreased in -0.5 mpa (figure1). a significant inter-genotype variation was observed under salt stress. of all genotypes, km5, km12 and kose produced highest seed vigour at all salt regimes, but lowest seed vigour was recorded in km47 while the remaining genotypes were moderate in this attribute. variation in the set of genotypes about root to shoot length ratio was not possible to discern at lower external salt levels, however, genotypes differed significantly at the two higher salt levels, that is, -1 and -1.5 mpa of nacl (table 3). in addition, it was clearly determined that there were no statistical differences between measured genotypes at high salinity levels (-1.5 mpa) for root length, shoot length, seedling length and seed vigour traits (table 3). cluster analysis was done using the data for all measured traits at the highest salt level (-1.5 mpa), because this salt level was found very effective in discriminating the genotypes. results of cluster analysis (ward’s minimum variance method) showed that genotypes kose was found to be tolerant, while km5, km8 and km47 sensitive to salt (figure 2). 5 figure 1. seed vigour of safflower genotypes under different salinity stress. figure 2. cluster analysis of safflower genotypes under -1.5 level of salinity stress using ward’s minimum variance method. ajmal khan and weber (2006) found that, resistance to stress at germination stage and primary growth of seedling is independent from next growth stages and evaluation of stress tolerance need more experiment at next growth stages. discussion screening of available germplasm of a crop is a feasible means of identifying salt tolerant genotypes or genotypes which could maintain a comparatively reasonable yield on salt affected soils (ashraf and mcneilly, 1987). for the latter crops, it is advisable to assess degree of salt tolerance at each growth stage. in the present study, genotype kose was found to be tolerant, while km5, km8 and km47 sensitive to salt. ranking of the genotypes was done using the data for all measured traits at the highest salt level (-1.5 mpa), because this salt level was found very effective in discriminating the genotypes. these results can be related to some earlier studies in which genotypes identified as salt tolerant at the earlier 6 growth stages showed tolerance when tested at the later growth stages. although a considerable magnitude of variation for salt tolerance was observed in a set of 6 available genotypes of safflower while screening them at germination stages, but a further study needs to be carried out to assess whether the genotypes marked as salt tolerant at the initial growth stages, maintain their degree of salt tolerance when tested as adult. conclusion in the present study, salt stress adversely affected the germination percentage, germination rate, shoot length, root length, seedling length, and root to shoot length ratio, seed vigour, and germination index and mean germination time of all 6 genotypes of safflower and a significant variation in salt tolerance was observed among all the safflower. many researchers have reported similar results (demir and aril, 2003; mauromicale and licandro, 2002). obviously, acceptable growth of plants in arid and semiarid lands which are under exposure of salinity stress is related to ability of seeds for best germination under unfavourable conditions, so necessity of evaluation of salinity resistance genotypes is important at primary growth stage. to find the best tolerant genotype to such conditions, taking all traits into account in this study, we found that kose is the most resistant and km5, km8 and km47 are the most sensitive genotypes. references ashraf m, wahid s 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journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper seed germination and viability in two african acacia species growing under different water stress levels amelework kassa1*, ricardo alía1,2 , wubalem tadesse3, valentin pando1 and felipe bravo1,2 1 sustainable forest management research institute, university of valladolid-cifor inia, avda. de madrid s/n, 34004, palencia, spain. 2 (agraria y alimentaria) inia-cifor. avda. a coruña, km. 7,5. p. o. box 28040 madrid. spain. 3 ethiopian institute of agricultural research, p. o. box 2003, addis ababa, ethiopia. accepted 13 august, 2020 acacia species are important in forestation programs and for producing non-timber forest products in arid and semiarid zones, but few studies have been carried out concerning the effects of drought in the germination in order to understand the regeneration process of the species. in this paper, we studied the morphology and the germination pattern under different water stress of acacia senegal and acacia seyal. seeds were subjected to a water stress test for 45 days with four levels of water potential achieved by different concentrations of polyethylene glycol 6000. the germination process was studied by adjusting a gompertz function, and obtaining related parameters of the curve (total germination, maximum germination rate and the t value corresponding to the inflection point of the curve, and time in reaching the, 50 and 90% of the total germination). the germination process in these species was rapid; there were no significant differences in any of the parameters of the curves depending on the stress treatment except for the total germination. total germination was higher in a. senegal, and this species was more sensitive to the water availability than a. seyal, as deduced from the reaction norms in the two environments. the probability of germination was also modeled by a logistic regression, indicating the higher values for non stressed seeds. a consistent pattern is detected among the treatments. the results presented in this paper could be applied in forestation programs to improve germination in nurseries, and by incorporating the logistic models in more complete models describing the dynamic of regeneration under natural conditions. key words: acacia, water stress, logistic regression, germination, regeneration. introduction different factors are affecting recruitment in forest species and the establishment of new forest areas, among which dispersal, predation and germination are essential to many species (blate et al., 1998). one of the main processes is germination, because we can infer some information on the strategy of the species to cope with drought (avoidance, tolerance), and also, knowledge has important implications in the management of the seed during nursery (kozlowski and pallardy, 2002; kozlowski, 2002; choinski and tuohy, 1991; boydak et al., 2003; sy et al 2001) africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to *corresponding author. e-mail: mlkassa@yahoo.com. tel: +34 979108424. fax: +34 979 108440. climate change and climate variability, this vulnerability aggravated by the interaction of multiple factors, including the growing deforestation and water stress occurring at various levels, and low adaptive capacity. the deforestation and his consequences are serious problems in developing countries, given that their economies are based on agriculture, and climate changes impose additional pressure on water demand in africa (boko et al., 2007). the lack of systematic efforts to conserve and manage resources is a major concern, and in few cases, efforts have been made to cultivate species that yield non timber forest product (michael and tadesse, 2004). for many african species with high importance in aforestation or management program, we lack information in regard to the drought stress impact, specially, on acacia senegal and acacia seyal species. non-timber forest products (ntfp) play an important file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org role both in the rural economy and population of the african country, in ethiopia, it play a vital role in the livelihoods of communities contributing to food security and household income (michael and tadesse, 2004). among the species that produce these products; a. senegal and a. seyal produces gum arabic and gum talha, respecttively. the arabic gum obtained from species a. senegal is used in the food industries and gum talha obtained from a. seyal is used in non-food industries, besides the importance of their products, these species adapt to very erratic weather conditions and is considered as species protective environmental conditions (eisa et al., 2008) and its wood are highly preferred by rural populations as source of fuel and to construct agricultural implements etc. we have selected two acacia species to address this question, differing in size, dormancy and other life-history traits. a. senegal (linne) and a. seyal (del) produces valuable ntfp. given the importance that have both national and international level, these species in ethiopia, due to overexploitation and the problems associated with the process of installing and growing plantations on the extreme dry conditions, is believed to be in danger of extinction in the future (personal observation). our hypothesis is that species under arid conditions will show a clear strategy for avoidance (by a very fast germination) or tolerance (by a low germination process). the objective of the study is to analyze the germination curves and the probability of germination under different water stress conditions of a. senegal and a. seyal. the analysis of this process will allow us to infer the strategy of the species in relation to drought stress, and also to provide models of germination under different water stress conditions to be included in general models for the regeneration process of the two species. materials and methods description of species, their importance and precedence two acacia species has been used in this study. a. senegal is a small tree (10-15 m height) distributed from senegal to red sea, east and south africa b/n 11 and 16° north from 500 1700 m.a.s.l., poor natural regeneration. it is resistant to drought (500 1000 mm of rainfall). the species produces arabic gum (used as a stabilizer in food and pharmaceutical industries and in printing and textile industries) and the wood is highly valued by rural populations as fuel for firewood and charcoal. a. seyal is a smaller tree (up to 9 m height), distributed from senegal to the entire sahal, sudan and egypt, east africa from somalia to mozambique from 0 2100 m a.s.l. it is also resistant to drought, with a broader niche (250 1000 mm of rainfall) than a. senegal. a. seyal produces talha gum (used as a stabilizer in non-food industries) of lower quality than arabic gum, and the wood is also used as fuel for firewood and charcoal (argaw et al., 1999) one population group from each of the species was sampled in southwest ethiopia (langano and shala populations) in the east shewa region which is classified as a semi-arid area. langano population (7° 26’ n-38° 47’ e), is located at 1749 m a.s.l., with a rainfall of 500 600 mm, and minimum and maximum monthly mean temperature of 13.8 and 38°c. shala population (7º 32’ n-38º 40’ e) is located under similar conditions: 1620 m a.s.l., 600 mm of rainfall, and minimum and maximum monthly mean temperature of 13.8 and 38°c. seeds were provided by the national forest research institute of ethiopia from commercial seed-lots, and stored in a cold chamber at 6°c. the a. senegal seeds are bigger (8.62 gr/100 seeds, or 11.600 seeds/kg, length: 8.76 ± 0.95 mm, width: 7.67 ± 0.82 mm) than the a. seyal seeds (5.18 gr/100 seeds or 19.305 seeds/kg, length: 6.77 ± 0.77 mm, width: 4.01 ± 0.49 mm). seeds of the two populations are bigger in comparison to the mean values of the species (18.000 seeds/kg for a. senegal, and 22.000 seeds/kg for a. seyal), indicating the arid conditions of the two populations. germination process under different drought stress treatments germination was tested in a factorial design with species (2 levels) and drought stress (4 levels) as factorial treatments. the four levels of water potential ( =0 or control, 4, -8 and -12 bars respectively) were simulated by adding different amount of polyethylene glycol 6000 (peg), to obtain different water stress level (michel and kaufmann, 1973; modified by michel, 1983). these treatments mimic from no stress to very severe water stress (-12 bars). for each species and drought stress, 100 seeds were used, for a total of 400 seeds per species, and 800 seeds in total. the experimental unit consisted of 25 seeds in petri dishes (10 cmdiameter on a filter paper) and randomly arranged in four replicates in a germination chamber ibercex v-900-d. the conditions for the germination test were: 30°c temperature, a constant relative humidity of 80% and a photoperiod of 12 h. germination was checked daily, and a seed was considered as germinated when the radicle emerged at least 1 mm from the integument. the test lasted for 45 days from 21/01/2009 until 03/03/2009 (but no germination was recorded after day 20). a tetrazolium viability test was performed to all the non-germinated seeds in order to quantify the no germinating seeds under drought stress. the a. seyal seeds were submitted to a pregermination treatment with boiled water (at 100°c) and then left at room temperature for 24 h (forest research directorate, 2000, internal document) to break the dormancy, which is the regular method used for this species. otherwise dormancy could hide drought stress impact. seeds were disinfected by applying the methodology proposed by villamediana et al. (2007) before starting the germination analysis. the solution and the filter paper were changed every four days, to maintain the water potential constant throughout the entire duration of the experiment and prevent hyper-concentration processes, in agreement with falleri (1994) and bravo et al. (2010). data analysis germination at a given day t was adjusted for each experimental unit (petri dish) by non-lineal regression to a gompertz function (draper and smith, 1981) with three parameters: c, the predicted germination (asymptote of the curve); b, closely related (proportional) to the maximum germination rate standardized by the total germination (b germinationmax/c); m, the t value corresponding to the inflection point of the curve (date at which maximum growth rate is reached). the initial parameters (c, m and b) were estimated based on the optimization of the sum of squares of the residues minimized by the levenberg-marquardt algorithm (wolfram, 1999). to test the precision of the model, the value of pseudo-r 2 was calculated for each fit. three other variables were derived for the germination data: b, t50 and t90: being, respectively, the date (in days) corresponding to germination of 50 and 90% of the total. an table 1. descriptive values for the different variables derived from the germination of each experimental unit curve. variable a. senegal a. seyal mean std max. min. mean std max. min. c 16.84 6.56 25.15 6.00 8.81 4.00 15.28 2.00 b 2.79 5.79 17.75 0.15 3.32 4.51 14.64 6.31 m 0.11 3.53 3.19 0,36 2.42 0.50 3.19 1.16 t50 0.83 3.01 3.58 0,45 2.73 0.52 3.63 2.00 t90 4.55 2.15 8.73 0.96 4.33 1.79 9.55 2.32 r 2 93.8 8.4 100 69.6 94.8 7.1 100 74.36 c: total germination, b: maximum germination rate, m: date at which maximum growth rate is reached t50 and t90: date at which germination reaches the 50 and 90% of the total germination. r 2 : regression coefficient of the adjusted curves. table 2. analysis of variance of the variables describing the germination process in a. senegal and a. seyal under different watering regimes. mean squares and significance values of the f-test. variable species drought stress interacción squ.of mean p value squ. of mean p value squ. of mean p value germination 457.53 < 0.0001 162.78 < 0.0001 44.78 0.0403 c 558.18 < 0.0001 131.54 0.0006 32.64 0.1357 b 2.78 0.776 75.17 0.1104 21.7 0.598 m 35.56 0.025 16.34 0.06 12.68 0.115 t50 0.45 0.9017 52.62 0.1768 43.09 0.2498 t90 701.82 0.3311 719.93 0.4057 610.68 0.4771 c: total germination, b: maximum germination rate, m: date at which maximum growth rate is reached t50 and t90: date at which germination reaches the 50 and 90% of the total germination. r 2 : regression coefficient of the adjusted curves. *** p < 0.001; ** 0.01 > p >0.001; * 0.05 > p > 0.01; n.s. 0.05 > p analysis of variance was performed to the different variables (c, b, m, t50 and t90) according to the following factorial model (equation 1): yijk= + j + i + ji + ijk (1) where: yijk: value of the variables for the i th species under the j th water stress treatment and the k th , and petri dish; µ: grand mean; j: drought stress (j = 1 to 4); i: species (l = 1 to 2) and the error term; jk n (0, 2 j). a tukey-kramer multiple comparison test was applied to the main factors if they were statistically significant and the interaction was graphically analyzed. in the second step, the probability of germination (p) was determined by independent logistics models for each species. two explicative variables were used: drought stress (expressed as water potential in mpa), the time and the interaction (equation 2): p 1 n (2) − ( β 0β i χ i ) 1 e i 1 the models were tested using the change in the value of -2 log of the likelihood between the model with and without explicative variables (hosmer and lemeshow, 1989). starting from the results of the logistics regression, the probability of germination was analyzed graphically for each species in a specified time, for each treatment. the value of the area below the receiver operating characteristic curve (roc curve) was used to estimate the precision of the models adjusted. all the analysis was conducted by using the sas software (sas institute inc, 2004). results seed germination occurred after 4.5 days in a. senegal and 4.3 days in a. seyal. ninety percent of the total germination was reached and no new germination was observed after 20 days of the experiment (table 1). the gompertz model was very precise in describing the germination process (r 2 > 90% in both species). the analysis of variance of the variables showed significant differences in total germination and c gompertz model parameter. p-values for total germination were under 0.0001 for species and drought stress and equal to 0.0403 for the interaction. the p-values for the c parameter were under 0.001 for species and drought stress and not significant for the interaction, p-value equal to 0.01357 (table 2). however, there were no significant differences in b, t50 and t90 for any factors. the germination of a. senegal was greater (mean value 99.0 ± 2.00 in the control treatment) than that of a. seyal -4 mpa 80 p ro b a b il it y 60 40 g e rm in a ti o n 20 acacia senegal acacia seyal 0 0 5 10 15 20 days figure 1. germination curve at a. senegal and a. seyal. table 3. logistic regression results to the species of a. senegal and a. seyal under water stress conditions. parameter df estimate standard error wald chi-square pr > chi-square a. senegal independent term 1 -0.4891 0.1550 9.9559 0.0016 drought 1 0.1007 0.0254 15.6682 <.0001 day 1 -0.1418 0.0385 13.5816 0.0002 drought*day 1 0.0195 0.00660 8.7125 0.0032 a. seyal independent term 1 -1.6820 0.2011 69.9480 <.0001 drought 1 0.0627 0.0301 4.3302 0.0374 day 1 -0.2551 0.0391 42.5996 <.0001 drought*day 1 0.000478 0.00577 0.0069 0.9339 (44.0 ± 17.59). the norm of reaction of the germination according to water stress can be seen in figure 1. the comparison of these values in respect to the value obtained in the control treatment showed that a. seyal did not decrease its percentage until a value of -8 mpa, more quickly than in a. senegal, with a decrease in germination for the most severe treatment were very different: for a. senegal the germination is only 35% of the control (35.0 ± 12.38) in comparison to a higher value (59%) of the control (26.0 ± 17.74) in a. seyal. the intermediate treatments (-4 and -8 mpa) showed a response in the middle of the two severe treatments (mean value of 73.0 ± 16.45% and 57.0 ± 17.09, respectively in a. senegal, and 46.0± 13.27% and 29.0 ± 13.61). the viability test applied to the non-germinated seeds showed that for a. senegal, the seeds that did not germinate were not viable at the end of the test, but for a. seyal, 50% of the nongerminated seeds were viable. the logistic regression analysis showed that seed germination in function of a specific time period was lower as time increased, yielding a decreasing tendencies in each treatment. in a. senegal drought stress and time, and their interaction, had a significant effect on germination. however, in the case of a. seyal, the interaction had no significantly influence on germination (table 3 and figure 2), while the results for the rest of the independent variables were the same as in the previous case. the value of the area under the roc curve were c = 0.85 and figure 2. germination for each species and treatment (a) and for each species in relation to the control b. and c = 0.81 for the species a. senegal and a. seyal respectively. discussion different studies focused on the effect of bush burning on the germination of various species of the genus acacia (danthu et al., 2003). however, they do not provide information on the effect of water stress (an essential environmental factor in the distribution range of the species) on the germination of a. sengal and a. seyal species. this paper, analyses four potential effects depending on the intensity of water stress conditions obtained with polyethylene glycol, including control, on the germination process of this two acacia species. germination was different depending on the species, and also a different pattern of viability of non-germinated seeds was found at the end of the experiment. the higher percentage of germination of the species a. senegal in comparison to a. seyal has been previously reported (argaw et al., 1999; teketay, 1996; zida, 2007), but in our study, the difference in viable seeds among the two species (no viable seeds detected at the end of the experiment in a. senegal, and a value of 50% for non germinated seeds for a. seyal) indicate that this pattern is caused by a heavy induced dormancy in the latter. most acacia species are characterized by a very hard and impermeable seed coat, which result in temporary dormancy and influences the germination process (aref, 2000; argaw et al., 1999; owens et al., 1995). in a. seyal, the application of severe treatments (stronger than the applied in our study) is needed to break the dormancy and speedup the process of germination. the very hard and impermeable seed coat could act as a protection against water stress, with little germination under water stress conditions to prevent problems during the embryo development. the size of the seeds (measured as the number of seeds/kg) of the two acacia species are larger than those indicated in previous studies (argaw et al., 1999), suggesting the more arid conditions of the analyzed populations to those previously reported, as shown in acacia nilotica (miller et al., 2002, mahamood et al., 2005); cordia africana (loha et al., 2008), or among populations of the same acacia species (mahamood et al., 2005). therefore, we can interpret the result as derived from populations adapted to drought conditions, as a view to explore strategies of the species under stressful conditions. the analysis of variance showed a decrease in germination as the degree of water stress increases for the two species. this is much more pronounced in the extreme water stress in the case of a. senegal (reduction of germination of 64.6% in the level at -12 mpa with respect to the control) than in a. seyal (reduction of 40.9% with respect to the control) . this could be related to greater tolerance to drought in a. seyal, as shown in leguminous species from subsaharan areas where a clear reduction of germination is found depending on the water stress (sy et al., 2001, in cassia abtasifolia, c. occidentalis, indigofera senegalensis, i. astragalina, i. tinctoria, sesbania pachycarpa and tephrosia pururea). no significant differences have been found in most of the parameter estimated from the gompertz model (both the inflexion point and the rapidity of growth, as well as the time to reach different germination rates). the analyzed acacia species reached a total germination over 90% in only 5 days. no differences between species and treatment were found. this might be an avoidance strategy to water stress, related to the environment in which the plant will develop. under arid condition, these species take advantage of favorable conditions (humidity and temperature) to germinate rapidly. however, we can distinguish two different water -stress avoiding strategies: a. senegal produces a rapid germination of all the viable seeds, but for a. seyal, the germination under stressful conditions is more heterogeneous (higher std) and is more higher in comparison to the control, and it is limited by an induced dormancy; these non-germinated seeds would germinate under more favorable conditions. rapid seed germination in arid and semi-arid areas seems to be frequent. this was demonstrated in the study performed with some species (spartium junceum l.) in which germination began at 4 days with 5% and reached a total of 67% over the 18 days of the experiment (travlos et al., 2007). in pines and mediterranean oaks under arid conditions, the process is not so rapid, but we can find the strategy of a more irregular and extended germination over time (boydak et al., 2003). the probability of germination indicates a rapid decay when the stress increases, and also the large differences among the two species, with implications in the regeneration process. in a. senegal the probability of germination under non-stress conditions is quite high and therefore, this species could regenerate easily in such conditions. however, for a. seyal, the germination is highly depending on the conditions: the covers protect the embryo from the drought, but it leads to a low probability of germination even under no stress conditions (similar to the values reached by a. senegal under the -12.0 pa treatments. it can be concluded that water stress has a negative effect on acacia germination in arid and semiarid environments, but the reduction is not enough to impede germination of the seeds if the drought conditions are not prolonged over time. we also detect two different avoiding water stress strategies. all viable seeds of a. senegal geminates quickly, in order to be installed as soon as possible based on the seed reserves. however, a. seyal with smaller seeds and a heavy and impermeable coat, reacts by inducing dormancy under the heaviest water stress conditions. the analysis of the gompertz functions as well as the logistic model, describe the process of germination under water stress conditions, and these statistical tools could be included in restoration and management programs in order to favour the conservation and sustainable use under drought conditions. acknowledgements this project was financed by the aecid (spanish international cooperation agency for development) under the grant programme of a doctoral thesis to the senior author (a. kassa). thanks to girmay fitiwi, kiros woldearegay and teklehaimanot negatu from the ethiopian natural gums company for provide useful information for this paper. and also to encarna rodríguez, antonio sanz ros, maría rosario núñez, celia herrero, stella bogino, iñaki etxebeste, claudia escudero, gonzalo álvarez and irene ruano for providing technical support during the laboratory work. references aref mi (2000). effects of pre-germination treatments and sowing depths upon germination 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(2010). is the germination of pinus pinaster determined by the drought stress and temperature oscillation? 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source species in michael and tadesse (eds) conservation of genetic resources of non-timber forest products in ethiopia: proceedings of the first national workshop on non-timber forest products in ethiopia, april 2004, addis ababa, ethiopia, pp 917. miller jt, andrew ra, maslin br (2002). towards an understanding of variation in the mulga complex (acacia annexure and relatives). conserv. sci. w. aust. 4: 19-35. owens mk, wallace rb, archer s (1995). seed dormancy and persistence of acacia berlandieri and leucaena pulverulenta in a semi-arid environment. j. arid environ., 29: 15-23. sas institute inc (2004). sas/stat(r) 9.1. users guide. sas institute inc., cary n.c. sy a, grouzis m, danthu p (2001). seed germination of seven sahelian legume species. j. arid environ., 49: 875-882. teketay d (1996). germination ecology of twelve indigenous and eight exotic multipurpose leguminous species from ethiopia. forest ecol. manage., 80: 209-223.travlos is, economou g, karamanos aj (2007). seed germination and seedling emergence of spartium junceum l in response to heat and other pre-sowing treatments. j. agronomy, 6(1): 152-156. villamedina i, pedranzani he; sierra de gr (2007). respuesta clonal al cultivo in vitro en populusx canescens (ait) sm. con fines de conservación. vii reunión de la sociedad de cultivo in vitro de tejidos vegetales. alcalá de hernares, madrid. wolfram s (1999). the mathematica book, cambridg university press, cambridg, uk. zida d (2007). impact of forest management regimes on ligneous regeneration in the sudanian savanna of burkina faso. doctoral thesis. swedish university of agricultural sciences. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (9), pp. 001-008, september, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper effects of slash and burning on soil microbial diversity and abundance in the tropical rainforest ecosystem, ondo state, nigeria adeduntan sunday adeniyi department of forestry and wood technology, federal university of technology, p. m. b. 704, akure, nigeria. e-mail: niyi_gbenga@yahoo.co.uk. tel: 08063480727. accepted 20 july, 2020 this study was carried out to examine the effects of slash and burn on the diversity and abundance of soil microorganisms. composite soil samples were collected from the study area before burning and two weeks after burning progressively for a period of three (3) months. the bacteria and fungi in the soil samples were isolated and identified. in addition, the ph, soil temperature and soil moisture content of the samples were determined. the results show that the diversity and abundance of the soil microorganisms decreased significantly (p 0.05) within the fourteen and twenty-eight days after burning. however, a significant increase in the abundance and diversity of the microorganism was recorded as from the forty-two days after burning. the soil ph was also observed to increase significantly between the fourteen and twenty eight days after burning. the results further revealed that there was significant (p 0.05) increase in bacteria and fungi abundance after burning. the relationship between soil ph and bacteria was significant, while there was no significant relationship between soil ph and fungi. the relationship between temperature, fungi and bacteria were not significant (r 2 50%). total microorganism abundance and diversity significantly increased following burning during the current study. key words: bacteria, fungi, mineralization, yield, species, soil. introduction slash and burn used to be a viable ecological strategy to sustain agriculture in the tropics. farmers maintained different plots, resulting in a mosaic of plots under cropping and fallow, allowing natural processes of soil regeneration (brandy and weil, 1990; altieri, 2002), but human activities of none sustainable agricultural practices disrupt this equilibrium. slash and burn has long been considered to be the most adapted farming system in the humid forest zone (brandy and weil, 1990), especially in areas of low population density. there is a nutrient flux during slash and burn; ash from burned biomass is incorporated into the soil resulting in an increase in soil fertility. carbon and nitrogen are largely volatilized but phosphorus and cations are transferred from the biomass to ash and then into the soil. during subsequent rains, cations may be leached, but generally, soils are enriched by ash after rainfall (nye and greenland, 1990, giardima et al., 2000). farmers grow crops for a few years, until soil fertility, weed infestation and disease reduce crop yield below an acceptable level (akobundu, 1987). in slash and burn farming system, the soil can only fully recover, if left undisturbed for many years during long fallow or in improved fallow system (ahn, 1979). fallows in this way help to re-establish the equilibrium that prevailed initially in the soil before the clearing of the forest. unfortunately, some major external driving forces have led farmers to reduce the fallow period. increasing population density in forest regions and the subsequent increasing demand for food, fibre and shelter, forced farmers to shorten follow length, hence jeopardizing the sustainability of this farming system (eyasu and scones, 1998). the practice of slash and burn has been reported to negatively affect soil quality, thereby compromising the resilience of the system (lai, 1997). it is important to understand the impact of slash and burn on soil microorganism, as they are crucial to the stability, regulation and functioning of all forest file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org ecosystems (reichle, 1997). future use of fire in management of forest should be based on a sound knowledge of its potential impact upon components of the community. the examination of species changes following slash and burn is particularly, important for understanding the extent and duration of community alterations. studies involving higher taxonomic level can however, provide clear indication that it is sensitive or robust taxa for inclusion in future studies. long-term studies of the soil microorganism’s species composition of communities and their response to fire are urgently required. soil quality and resilience have a profound impact on productivity and environmental quality. soil quality refers to the soil capacity to produce economic goods and services and to regulate the environment (lai, 1997), and its capacity sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water quality and promote plant and animal heath. soil quality is thus an ideal indicator of sustainable land management (lai, 1997). soil resilience is the ability of the soil to restore its life support processes and environmental regulatory function after major anthropogenic perturbation, that is, its ability to absorb agriculture practices are among the largest source of stress and disturbance of the environment. soil biological processes contribute to soil fertility enhancement by increasing the amount and efficiency of nutrient acquisition and recycling, the regulation of the retention and flow of water and nutrients, and the maintenance of good soil physical structure. soil biological processes influence ecosystem functioning through nutrient cycling, organic mater transformation, microbial decomposition and nutrient retention. through their feeding and nesting activities, soil organism generates and maintains soil chemical, physical and biological characteristic within the ecosystem. bacteria can directly or indirectly modify soil properties through their feeding activities, burrowing and casting (ahn, 1979). burning removes the vegetation and may release a pulse of nutrient to fertilize the soil. ash also increases the ph of the soil, a process that makes certain nutrients, (especially phosphorous) more available in the short term. burning also drives off, temporarily, soil microorganism, pests and established plants along enough for crops to be planted in the ashes. before artificial fertilezers were available, fire was one of the most widespread methods of fertilization. the aim of this study is therefore, to find the effects of slash and burn on soil microbial diversity and abundance in the tropical rainforest ecosystem in ondo state, nigeria. materials and methods the study area this study was carried out at obanla natural forest, which is a portion of the forest left behind during land clearing for the establishment of the federal university of technology, akure (futa) ondo state, nigeria. the forest was formerly part of akure forest reserve. it is located on longitude 050 18e and latitude 070 17 n, along akure-ilesha road. the forest is about 9.34 ha in size, translating into 1.5% of total land mass. generally, the vegetation zone is the tropical humid lowland forest ecosystem. the ecological zone has been described in details by nwoboshi (1982), okojie (1996) and adekunle (2002). the soil of the area is well drained and classified as ferruginous soil on crystalline rocks of basement complex. the soil is also classified in terms of soil texture as sandy clay loam. the ph varies between 6.7 and 7.2 indicating a neutral soil reaction. the mean monthly temperature is about 28°c. the precipitation is heavy and it varies between 1500 and 2500 mm per annum. the mean monthly relative humidity is about 74%. the fairly moderated daily temperature is as a result of cloudiness and heavy precipitation. method of soil collection in the forest habitat, one hectare (100 × 100 m) land area was centrally established. this was further divided into 25 sample plots of 20 × 20 m where five plots were randomly selected (12.5% sampling intensity). in each of the selected plots, soil samples were collected at a depth of 0 10 cm from five points before and two weeks after burning. the soil samples were taken to the laboratory, where isolation of microorganisms was carried out. bacteria isolation, identification and counting the standard procedures for determining the total number of soil microbes were adopted for bacteria and fungi (alexander, 1997). suspension of the soil samples was prepared with sterile water and a serial dilution of five factors was made for accurate counting. then 1 ml of the appropriate dilution was carefully transferred to sterilized petri dishes containing sterile molten nutrient agar at about 37°c. this was mixed and allowed to solidify. it was then incubated for 24 h. the bacteria that grew into colonies were subcultured to obtain pure culture for easy identification. identification was done according to bergey’s manual of determinative bacteriology. fungi culturing involved serial dilution of the suspension using molten malt extract agar. this was kept in an incubator at 30°c for 5 days. fungi that grew were sub-cultured to obtain pure culture for easy identification and they were identified with the criteria of rhode and hartman (1980). soil ph determination the soil ph was determined with the aid of glass electrode ph meter in the soil solution of 0.01 mol l -1 calcium chloride. soil moisture content determination the oven dry method was used to determine the moisture content of the soil samples. 100 g was weighed and placed in an oven maintained at 105 ± 2°c for a period of 24 h. thereafter, the soil samples were removed from the oven, and allowed to cool in a desiccators containing silica gel and then reweighed. the samples were returned into the oven to dry for another 30 min and allowed to cool again in the desiccators. oven drying and cooling were repeated until constant weight was obtained. the moisture content was then calculated using the formula: mc= (mn mo) ⁄ mn × 100 where: mc = moisture content, mn = weight of soil with moisture (wet weight), mo = weight of soil without moisture (oven dry weight) methods of data analysis the data on bacteria and fungi count obtained were subjected to repeated analysis of variance (anova) . regression was done to find out the type of relationship between soil ph, bacteria and fungi count; between soil moisture content, bacteria and fungi count and the one existing between soil temperature, bacteria and fungi in the study area. spss statistical package was employed to analyze the data results effects of slash and burn on bacteria diversity and abundance in the study area the diversity of bacterial obtained in the study is presented in table 1. the results revealed that bacillus cereus, proteus vulgaris, clostidium sporogenes, aeromana hydrophylla and vibro anguillarum, were encountered in both the burn and un-burnt plots which implies that they are resistance to burning. the species and the relative abundance of bacteria obtained in this study are presented in the table 2. the counts are expressed as colony forming unit per gram (cfu/g) with factor of 10 6 . this shows that burning drastically reduced the abundance of bacteria. however, the abundance of bacteria increases from fifty-six days after burning until it reaches eighty-four days after burning. (it increases from 1.48 x 10 6 to 3.02 x 10 6 in plot 1, from 1.21 x 10 6 to 2.78 x 10 6 in plot 2, from 2.17 x 10 6 to 2.48 x 10 6 in plot 3 and 2.64 x 10 6 to 2.74 x 10 6 in plot 4). table 3 shows that burning has devastating effect on diversity of fungi. only species that were resistant to fire survived the fire incidence, these species include; rhizopus stolonifer, candida albidum and trichoderma uridea. however, the diversity began to increase from 6 weeks after burning. it was observed that at 42 days after burning, species that were not present before burning were introduced, which makes the number (diversity) of fungi species to be more than what was obtained before burning. mean fungi abundance obtained in the study area is presented in the table 4. the anova for the bacterial count shows that there were significant differences in the bacterial count in the study area due to burning (table 5). the mean separation shows that abundance of bacterial was significantly higher (p 0.05) at 12th weeks after burning, followed by 10th and 8th weeks after burning respectively (table 6). soil ph analysis it was observed that the ph of the soil samples significantly increased 2 weeks after burning (tables 7 and 8) and this could be as a result of the ash added to the soil from burnt biomass. the soil ph was high at 4th (5.16) and 6th weeks after burning (5.15). but there were reductions from the 8th week after burning. the anova table (table 9) shows that there was significant difference in the fungi count in the study area due to burning. the result of the mean separation shows that the abundance of fungi was significantly (p 0.045) higher at 8th weeks after burning, followed by 6th and 12th weeks after burning (table 10). a summary of the results of the regression analysis between soil ph and bacterial is presented in table 11. the correlation co-efficient shows that the value of r is positive in the study area, suggesting that there was significant correlation between soil ph and the number of bacterial. this implies that, an increase in the ph increases the diversity and abundance of bacteria in the study area. also, the regression analysis between soil ph and fungi shows a positive and significant correlation. however, the regression analysis between soil temperature and fungi in the study area shows that the value of r 2 is positive, suggesting that there is significant correlation between the soil temperature and fungi. likewise, the regression analysis between soil temperature and bacteria shows that the value of r is also positive, suggesting that there is significant correlation between the soil temperature and bacteria abundance. the implication of this observation is that most species of soil microbes are poorly adapted to survive the period of high temperature. but the regression analysis between soil moisture content, bacteria and fungi in the study habitat, shows a negative relationship, suggesting that there was no significant correlation between the soil moisture content and the soil microbes in the study area. the implication of this is that as the soil temperature increases, the soil moisture content reduces, and this tends to affect the physical, biological and the chemical processes in the soil. discussion the results show that the abundance of soil microorganism significantly increased in the study area fortytwo days after burning (tables 1 and 2). this suggests that many soil organisms survived during burning by moving down the soil profile. these are the true soil organisms with suitable morphological attributes, such as size and shape, for fast movement through inter-ped spaces. burning has great effect on diversity of bacteria. only species that are resistance to burning survived the effects of burning, these species include bacillus cereus, proteus vulgaris and clostridium sporogenes. the diver-sity increases as from the 6th week after burning. it was also observed that the 8th, 10th and 12th weeks after burning witnessed an increase in bacteria diversity. this table 1. bacteria diversity in the study area. before 14 days 28 days 42 days 56 days 70 days 84 days s/n name after after after after after after burning burning burning burning burning burning burning 1 actinomyces spp + + + + + 2 b. cereus + + + + + + + 3 streptococcus feacalis + + + 4 escherichia coli + + + 5 p. vulgaris + + + + + + + 6 micrococcus leutus + + 7 salmonella spp. + 8 c. sporogenes + + + + + + 9 micrococcus lactis + + + + 10 pseudomonas aeniginosa + + + + 11 klebsiella scleromalacia + + + + + 12 aeromonas hydrophyila + + + + + + 13 v. anguillarum + + + + + + 14 shigella dysentenae + + + 15 bacillus subtilis + + + 16 aerococcus viridians + + + + + 17 streptococcu lactis + + + + + 18 branbamella catlarhelis + 19 rhizobium japomicum + + 20 bacillus megaterium + + 21 azotobacter spp. + + 22 erwinia herbicola + + + 23 alcaligenes feacalis + + + 24 erwinia amylovora + + 25 streptomyces spp. + + + total 15 8 8 11 16 16 17 key: + = present; – =absent. table 2. bacteria abundance (cfu/g) in the study area. s/n soil sample mean of burnt plot over time unburnt plot over time 1 before burning 1.88 × 10 6 2.34 × 10 6 2 14 days after burning 1.37 × 10 6 2.42 × 10 6 3 28 days after burning 1.45 × 10 6 1.96 × 10 6 4 42 days after burning 1.75 × 10 6 1.44 × 10 6 5 56 days after burning 1.93 × 10 6 2.75 × 10 6 6 70 days after burning 1.93 × 10 6 2.68 × 10 6 7 84 days after burning 2.76 × 10 6 3.11 × 10 6 could be as a result of an increase in the soil ph after burning, which reflected changes in chemical properties of the soil such as the cation exchange capacity, which now favour some species of microorganisms that were in the habitat before burning. the chemical composition of soil often determined the abundance and distribution of microorganism. similar observation was made by seasted (1980), who reported that, burning, causes the mineralization of litter and vegetation, with an increase in a number of nutrients including nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium. fungi diversity increased greatly in the 56 th , 70 th and 84 th days after burning. the regression analysis shows that the effect of soil ph table 3. fungi diversity in the study area. before 14 days 28 days 42 days 56 days 70 days 84 day s/n name after after after after after after burning burning burning burning burning burning burning 1 actinomyces sp. + + + + 2 aspergillus flavus + + + 3 aspergillus fumigatus + + + + 4 aspergillus niger + + + + + 5 a. rapens + + 6 aureobasidim pathulana + + + 7 botrytis cinrrea + + + + 8 candida albidum + + + + + + 9 chrysospium sp. + + + + 10 gonatobotrys simplex + + + + + 11 mucur mucedo + + + + 12 mycotypha sp. + 13 neurospora crazza + + + + 14 peniciluma italicum + + + 15 rhizopus nigricans + + + + + 16 r. stolonifer + + + + + + 17 starchybotrys sp. + + 18 trichoderm uridea + + + + + + + 19 umbelopsis sp. + 20 varicospium elodeae + + + + 21 wardomyces anomalis + + + + total 10 4 1 16 18 15 16 key: += present, = absent. table 4. fungi abundance in the study area. s/n soil sample mean burnt plot over time unburnt plot over time 1 before burning 0.41 × 10 4 1.21 × 10 4 2 14 days after burning 2.45 × 10 4 0.91 × 10 4 3 28 days after burning 0.01 × 10 4 0.04 × 10 4 4 42 days after burning 0.11 × 10 4 0.25 × 10 4 5 56 days after burning 0.08 × 10 4 1.11 × 10 4 6 70 days after burning 0.13 × 10 4 0.07 × 10 4 7 84 days after burning 0.14 × 10 4 1.24 × 10 4 table 5. anova table showing the influence of burning on bacterial count. source of variation ss df ms f f-calculated days after burning and un-burn treatment 0.346348 6 0.024096 * 2.44 2.39 within group 0.67468 28 total 1.021029 34 * = denotes significant (p > 0.05). on bacteria abundance and diversity gave a positive correlation in the study area, which implies that there is significant positive interaction between the soil ph and bacteria counts in the plots. this means that the higher the soil ph, the higher the species of bacteria present and vice-versa. the fungi diversity shows that t. uridea, table 6. mean separation of influence of burning on bacterial count. sources of variation mean 2nd week after burning 6.11 b before burning 6.26 a 4th weeks after burning 6.15 b 6th weeks after burning 6.23 ab 8th weeks after burning 6.28 a 10th weeks after burning 6.30 a 12th weeks after burning 6.39 a *figures with the same alphabet are not significantly different from each other. table 7. anova table showing the influence of burning on soil ph. source of variation ss df ms f f-calculated days after burning and un-burn treatment 3.42970 6 0.571618 *6.72 2.44 within group 2.37952 28 0.084983 total 5.809229 34 * = denotes significant (p > 0.05). table 8. mean separation of influence of burning on soil ph. sources of variation mean before burning 5.00 d 14 days after burning 5.73 a 28 days after burning 5.16 b 42 days after burning 5.15 c 56 days after burning 5.14 bc 70 days after burning 5.14 bc 84 days after burning 4.50 f *figures with the same alphabets are not significantly different from each other. table 9. anova table showing the influence of burning on fungi count. source of variation ss df ms f sig days after burning and un-burn treatment 2.480573 6 0.413429 *2.52 f-calculated within group 4.250107 28 0.184787 total 6.73068 34 *denotes significant (p> 0.05) r. stolonizer and c. albidum were present before and after burning. the regression analysis shows that there is no significant correlation between the soil ph and fungi count in the study habitat, as negative correlation was recorded. this is also supported by the works of smith et al. (1994), who reported that soil fungi have a broader ph tolerance, but they might multiply at lower ph values. also, the regression analysis between the soil temperature and the microorganisms shows that there was strong correlation between the soil temperature and the microbes. the implication of this is that most species of microbes are poorly adapted to survive the period of high temperature, particularly in moist forest environment, but could only table 10. mean separation of influences of burning on the fungi count. sources of variation mean before burning 2.96 × 10 4de 14 days after burning 2.90 × 10 4e 28 days after burning 2.30 × 10 4f 42 days after burning 3.18 × 10 4b 56 days after burning 3.23 × 10 4a 70 days after burning 2.98 × 10 4d 84 days after burning 3.05 × 10 4c *variation in alphabet shows significant differences. table 11. summary of regression analysis. s\n regression type regression equation r r2 not significant 1 between soil ph and bacteria -0.3866x + 7.591 0.4134 0.7719 0.488 2 between soil ph and fungi -0.0234x + 5.3318 0.0731 0.0053 0.907 3 between soil temperature and bacteria 0.3395x + 31.695 0.0686 0.631 0.913 4 between soil temperature and fungi -5.07342x + 64.833 0.3490 0.533 0.565 5 between soil moisture content and bacteria -12.1163x + 113.3511 0.8435 0.2115 0.073 6 between soil moisture content and fungi -3 .3714x + 45.5143 0.6904 0.4767 0.197 ns= not significant. survive within narrow ranges of climatic or microclimatic variation. according to alexander (1997), microbial processes are influenced markedly by soil temperature change. temperature also greatly affects physical, biological and chemical processes in the soil. the regression analysis between soil moisture content and the microorganisms shows that there is negative correlation. this is supported by the works of whelan et al. (1980), who reported that low moisture content levels and high temperature decreases the prevalence of dormant forms of microorganisms. survival of some microorganisms subsequent to burning could be due to a variety of biotic and edaphic factors. important biotic components include food source (plant or prey), competition, predation (including parasites) and the relationship with other species. edaphic factors that are important to soil organisms include weather (precipitation, insolation, temperature and wind), microclimate (soil temperature, humidity), chemical (nutrients) and physical soil properties (soil texture and structure). post burning activation of dormant microorganisms and hatching of eggs may significantly contribute to increase in microorganism’s abundance after burning. many microorganisms survive unfavourable conditions by entering a dormant or resistant state (diapause or aestivation) in which development is arrested, as reported by huhta (2001). he further noted that the activation of these states is controlled by external stimuli such as temperature, humidity, and/or photoperiod which bring about an alteration in hormonal levels of the organisms. increased abundance of some species of microorganisms after burning in this study may also have been affected by the periodic litter fall in the natural forest. litter fall is characterized by periodic increase coinciding with bark fall. plant re-growth and accumulation of litter after burning represents an increase in resources with time after burning, and may differ from the preburning resources in terms of quality and quantity. atlas (1984), reported that the speed of reinvasion by soil microorganisms after burning, was associated with the accumulation of leaf litter under tree and with the regeneration of herbs and shrubs in exposed areas. an increased growth of fungi was recorded after the burning. the decrease in the soil microorganisms 2 and 4 weeks after burning coincided with the onset of high temperature and increased exposure of the study area to climatic extremes that was created artificially by setting the study area on fire. most soil inhabitants are poorly adapted to survive the periods of low moisture and high temperatures, particularly, in moist forest environments. many soil microorganisms have poor control of water loss because they lack an impermeable cuticle particularly, some fungi species like aspergillus rapens, umbelopsis spp., starchybotrys spp. and mycotypha spp. (vanwansen et al., 1998) which were present in the study area. future use of fire in management of forest should be based on a sound knowledge of its potential impact upon components of the community. both short and long term studies of the soil microorganism’s species composition of communities, and their response to fire, are urgently required. conclusions and recommendation 1. microorganism (bacteria and fungi) abundance increases from forty-two days after burning. 2. an increase in soil ph values increases the diversity and abundance of bacteria. 3. agroforestry farmer should ensure they slash and burn their farmland forty-two days before planting in other to enable the soil to fully regain their microorganisms and fertility back. references adekunle vaj (2002). inventory techniques and models for yield and tree species. diversity assessment in ala and omo forest reserves. s.w. nigeria. unpublished ph.d. thesis, 2002, federal university of technology, akure, pp: 186. ahn pm (1979). the optimum length of planted fallow. in. mongi, h.o. and huxley, p.a. (eds) soil research in agroforestry. proceedings of an expert consultation held at the international council for research in agroforestry (icraf). nairobi, kenya. akobundu io (1987). weed science in the tropics: principles and practices. wiley interscience, new york. alexander m (1997). introduction to soil microbiology, 2nd edition, new york, john wiley and sons inc., pg 467. altieri ma (2002). agroecology: the science of natural resource management for poor farmers in marginal environment. agric. ecosyst. environ., 93(1-3): 1-24. atlas js (1984). the maturity index: an ecological measure of environmental disturbance based on soil microorganism species composition, 83:14-19. brandy p, weil ke (1990). earthworm activities and the soil system. biol. fertility soil. 6:237-251. eyasu e, scoones j (1998). perspective on soil fertility change: a case study from southern ethiopia. land degradation dev., 10: 195 206. huhta v (2001): effects of prescribed burning upon soil microbes, arthropods, nematode populations in coniferous forest soil, acta zoological fennica, 4: 87-145. giardiama cp, sanford rl, rersmith ic, jaramillo vj (2000). the effects of slash and burn on ecosystem nutrient during the land preparation phase of shifting cultivation. plant soil, 220: 247-260. lai r (1997): soil degradation effects on slope length and tillage methods on alfisols in western nigeria, soil physical properties. land degradation dev., 8: 325-342. nwoboshi lc (1982): tropical silviculture, principles and techniques. ibadan university press, ui, ibadan nigeria. nye ph, greenland dj (1990)): the soil under shifting cultivation. technical communication 51, commonwealth bureau of soil, harpenden, uk. okojie ja (1996) once upon a forest. a masterpiece of creation. unaab inaugural lecture series, 1: 29. reichle de (1997): the role of soil invertebrates in nutrient cycling, soil organisms as components of ecosystems. ed. v. lohm, and t. person, swedish natural science research council, stockholm. rhode am, hartmam bj (1980) investigation into possible feeding relationship between soil fauna and soil microbes. pg. 25: 16-19. seasted tr, crossley da (1980) effects of microorganisms on the seasonal dynamics of mineralization process. ann. rev. entomolol., 29: 25-46. smith cj, people mb, keerthisingle g, james tr (1994) effects of surface application of lime gypsum and phosphogypsum on the alleviating of surface and sub-surface acidity in a soil under pasture (5): 995 issn 0004-9573. vanwansen mb, davis pr, harris jrw, longstaff bc (1998) a profusion of species? approaches towards understanding the dynamics of the populations of the microorganisms in decomposer communities. the 20 th , symposium of the british ecological society. london, blackwell sci. pubs. oxford. whelan rj, landedyk w, pashby as (1980). the effects of wildfire on arthropod populations in jerrah banksia woodland, western australian naturalist. 14: 214-220. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (7), pp. 001-007, july, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper genetic diversity and morphological characterization of m7 soybean mutant lines using rapd markers mehdiyounessi hamzekhanlu1, ali izadi-darbandi1*, nejat pirvali-beiranvand2, mohammad taher-hallajian2 and abbas majdabadi2 1 deparment of agronomy and plant breeding science, college of aburaihan, university of tehran, p. o. box. 3391653775, tehraniran. 2 agricultural, medical and industrial research school, nuclear science and technology research institute, atomic energy organization of iran. accepted 28 february, 2024 when genetic variability is diminished using traditional breeding methods, induced mutation is a good way to increase genetic diversity in soybean. hence, genetic diversity amongst 33 m7 generation soybean mutant lines with high n2 fixation character and one non-irradiated cultivar (l17) was studied by using random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) markers and some morphological traits. rapds established 104 major amplified products using 10 polymorphic primers. out of 104 markers, 34 were monomorph and the remaining (70) were polymorph. cluster analysis of studied lines in terms of rapd markers, separated mutant lines group from parent cultivar. both morphological and rapd markers successfully detected genetic variation within induced mutant lines and the variation between irradiated and non irradiated lines which were morphologically indistinguishable also detected by rapd. therefore rapd markers with average pic = 0.80, can be more useful for detecting induced diversity among mutant lines. it can be inferred from the results that irradiation did induce significant genetic variability with regard to majority of studied traits such as number of nodule per plant and harvest index. sequencing and cloning of band pattern (3 kb) obtained from parent cultivar with opa09 primer and introducing it as a scar marker can be used in marker assisted selection. key words: diversity, morphological traits, mutation, random amplified polymorphic dna, soybean. introduction mutation breeding in crop plants is an effective tool in hands of plant breeders especially in crops having narrow genetic base. many mutants have been identified as donors of desirable traits in breeding program. mutation breeding work in soybean crop has yielded in identification of many mutant lines with desirable traits like high germination and survival percent (rahman et al., 1994). despite the richness of the soybean germplasm collection the genetic base of the present day collection remains poor (delannay et al., 1983). because of this *corresponding author. e-mail: alizadi110@yahoo.com or aizady@ut.ac.ir. tel: 09128024109. problem, induction of genetic diversity and its use in soybean breeding programs is essential to create performance mutant lines to meet the worldwide soybean demand. it can be possible to increase the genetic variability by inducing many mutations in plants with ionized radiations at the in vivo and in vitro studies of mutation breeding. after the creation of mutant lines genetic diversity of these lines can be monitored using morphological as well as genetic based tools, dna techniques (bennici et al., 2003) and advanced molecular methods (barazani et al., 2002; shiran et al., 2007). the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) based method for dna profiling, random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) techniques (li et al., 2001; fracaro et al., 2005) has been extensively applied in 2 evaluation of genetic diversity of different plant species and soybean cultivars. the rapd assay is efficient for screening for nucleotide sequence polymorphism among individuals as each primer (on average) will direct the amplification of several discrete loci within a genome (samal et al. 2003). as primers modified by even a single nucleotide produce different banding profiles, the rapd technique can generate polymorphisms between very closely-related genotypes (deng et al., 1995). present investigation was, therefore, undertaken to obtain information on effect of gamma irradiation on morphological traits of the m7 generation of soybean mutant lines. there are problems about soybean disease and pests such as cyst-nematode in iran and also lack of genetic diversity in soybean, traditional breeding programs have not been resulted in favorable results. in our research the studied lines were previously established and has no genetic evaluation was not conducted on these lines. the objective of this study was mainly to evaluate the rate of genetic diversity amongst induced mutant plants and their parent cultivar (l17) and their classification using rapds and morphological markers. we also expected the mutant lines that are separated from parent cultivar allow them to create resistant varieties against pests and disease such as cyst-nematode. we can use these mutant lines in other soybean mutation breeding programs. materials and methods plant materials this experiment containing 33 m7 generation soybean mutant lines which previously evolved by γ ray (cobalt 60 ) from l17 cultivar irradiated with doses 150, 200 and 250 gray (absorbed dose) and l17 cultivar. seeds of mutant lines and parent cultivar were planted in pots in greenhouse of nuclear research center for agriculture and medicine karaj – iran. experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design (crd) with three replications, in this research treatments were 33 mutant lines and one parent cultivar (l17). morphological characteristics each line was characterized using 11 traits taken at the different stages. number of leafs per plant at vegetative stage, number of pods per plant, number of seed per pod, number of seed per plant, number of nodule per plant at r8 stage, and 100-seed weight (g), plant dry weight (g), seed yield per plant (g), harvest index, root dry weight (g), nodule dry weight (g) after harvesting were measured. the genomic dna isolation and pcr the dna was extracted from leaves using the procedure described by sharma et al. (2003). ten random primers were used for pcr amplifications. amplification for rapd was carried out in 25 µl volumes containing 50 ng of template dna, 400 ng primer, 2.5 u of taq polymerase (fermentas), 2.5 µl 10x pcr buffer, 300 µm dntps, 1.4 m mgcl2 and sterile distilled water to 25 µl. the amplifications were performed in biorad thermalcycle. it was programmed for two cycles at 94°c for 2 min, 35°c for 1 min, and 72°c , two cycles at 94°c for 1 min, 35°c for 30 s and 72°c for 1 min, and finally 40 cycles at 94°c for 15 s, 35°c for 30 s and 72°c for 1 min, and an additional elongation step at 72°c for 5 min. the products were held at 4°c until analyzed. amplified samples were run on a 1% agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide at 100 v for up to 90 min with 1x tae as running buffer and gels were visualized under uv light and photographed with polaroid film. duplicate reactions were performed to ensure reproducibility. data analysis amplification product profiles were scored for the presence (1) or absence (0) of bands. molecular size of the amplified fragments was estimated using sm-0403 dna ladder (fermentas). rapd assays generating weak or ambiguous amplification products were repeated to confirm the consistency of these markers. the ntsyspc software was used to estimate genetic similarities with the jaccard’s similarity coefficient. the generated matrix of similarities was analyzed by the complete linkage (cl) or farthest neighbor, using the sequential hierarchical agglomerative and nested clustering (shan) module. analysis of variance have been carried out on the experimental data to evaluate the gamma irradiation effect on yield and other traits and their pertinent means were separated through the duncan multiple range test popularly known as duncan’s test with sas 9.0 software. also morphological traits were analyzed by using wards method and euclidian distance coefficient with the spss-pc (ver. 16.0). the average polymorphic information content (pic) was calculated for rapd markers through following formula, given by powell et al. (1996): he=1-σpi 2 , where he is the expected hetrozygosity or pic and pi is the frequency of ith allele. results variance analyses (anova) of studied traits are presented in table 1. there were highly significant differences (p < 0.01) for number of leaf per plant, number of grain per plant, number of pod per plant, plant dry weight (shoot dry weight), root dry weight, harvest index, number of nodule per plant, nodule dry weight, and significant differences (p < 0.05) for 100 seed weight and seed yield per plant among mutant lines and parent cultivar. only for number of seed per pod there are no significant differences among mutant lines and parent cultivar. means of number of nodule per plant, harvest index and shoot dry because of their importance are shown in table 2. majority of mutant lines such as m13 mutant line showed significantly (p < 0.05) increased number of nodule per plant as compared to parent l17. the mutant line m1showed higher harvest index and shoot dry weight as compared to parent l17 and other mutant lines. cluster analysis of the studied lines using 11 traits was carried out. the dendrogram and clustering pattern are observed in figure 1. the ward dendrogram based on morphological characterization indicated that all lines were clustered into four major groups. according to the proximity matrix mutant lines number 24 (m24) and 26 (m26) were nearest lines to parent cultivar and fourth 3 table 1. analysis of variance of studied traits in m7 generation of soybean mutant lines and parent cultivar m17. ms seed yield 100 seed shoot dry weight number of pod per number of grain number of grain number of leaf per df source of per plant weight plant per plant per pod plant variation ∗∗308/0 ∗∗139/5 ∗∗0003/0 ns 007/0 ∗01/0 ∗063/0 ∗∗0006/0 33 genotype 119/0 74/0 00008/0 005/0 005/0 035/0 0001/0 68 error 46/17 42/7 17/7 75/17 67/17 58/8 87/10 %cv ms nodule dry weight number of nodule per plant root dry weight harvest index df source of variation ∗∗0044/0 ∗∗188/0 ∗∗320/0 ∗∗53/1 33 genotype 00008/0 003/0 082/0 44/0 68 error 89/11 62/9 21/5 08/16 %cv *, ** = significant at the 5 and 1% of probability level, respectively; ns = not significant. table 2. means of number of nodule per plant, harvest index, shoot dry weight in m7 generation of mutant lines (m1-m33) and parent cultivar l17. number of line number of nodule harvest index shoot dry weight number of line number of nodule harvest index shoot dry weight m1 14.77d 0.333a 8.33a m18 11.76e 0.266abc 8.3ab m2 6.53kij 0.31ab 6.67d-j m19 8.55gh 0.316ab 7.46a-f m3 4.55mln 0.283abc 7.1c-i m20 9.99gf 0.253abc 7.56a-d m4 14.89d 0.316ab 6.86d-j m21 8.77gh 0.23bcd 6.43g-j m5 3.44mn 0.283abc 7.44a-g m22 17.44c 0.303ab 7.46a-f m6 14.5d 0.263abc 6.45f-g m23 4.99kml 0.23bcd 6.56d-j m7 19.88b 0.3ab 6.7d-j m24 11.22ef 0.253abc 6.67d-j m8 16.1cd 0.26abc 7.13c-i m25 10.88ef 0.29ab 7.36a-h m9 4.66mln 0.28abc 6.23ij m26 8.66gh 0.26abc 6.7d-j m10 19.55b 0.293ab 7.33c-h m27 3.21n 0.3ab 6.36h-j m11 3.11n 0.313ab 6.86d-j m28 5.44klj 0.253abc 6.86d-j m12 7.44hi 0.313ab 7.46a-f m29 6.55kij 0.196cd 6.23ij m13 23.77a 0.29ab 8a-c m30 10.66ef 0.26abc 6.5f-j m14 17.1c 0.313ab 7.9a-c m31 8.77gh 0.24bcd 6.5e-j m15 3.44mn 0.28abc 7.23c-i m32 6.77jl 0.303ab 7.1c-i m16 5.88kilj 0.316ab 7.53a-e m33 11.87e 0.303ab 7.05c-j m17 6.44kij 0.26abc 6.06j p(l17) 7.55hi 0.26abc 7.23c-i 4 figure 1. dendrogram of 33 m7 generation mutant lines and parent l17 cultivar (p) of soybean based on morphological traits. table 3. means of studied traits for each group derived from cluster analysis of 33 m7 generation mutant lines and l17 cultivar of soybean. means of traits number grain grain pod dry 100 seed yield per harvest root dry nodule nodule per per per per dry group of leaf weight(g) weight(g) plant(g) index weight(g) pod plant plant plant weight(g) 1 8.9 2.18 18.03 8.21 7.1 11.73 2.09 0.29 5.32 5.58 0.051 2 9.21 2.11 15.06 7.2 6.54 11.02 1.64 0.25 5.58 6.72 0.053 3 9.01 2.29 18.16 7.96 7.35 12.12 2.19 0.29 5.61 17.55 0.129 4 8.68 2.26 17.61 7.83 7.29 11.4 1.98 0.24 5.61 11.08 0.085 underlined numbers have highest. groups mutant lines including number 2 (m2), 17 (m17) and 30 (m30) were entirely different from parent cultivar. means of each group are shown in table 3. in terms of studied traits mutant lines group (2, 3 and 4) were higher as compared with parent cultivar group (1). amplification patterns are performed twice in order to evaluate the reproducibility of the rapd markers. the results showed that reproducible rapd patterns can be obtained under the same amplification conditions for two replicates. the ten polymorphic primers resulted in 104 storable bands, ranging from 200 to 3100 bp in size. of these, 70 (67%) bands were polymorphic (table 4). the number of bands for each primer varied from 6 (opa 01) to 12 (opa 03, opa 07) with an average of 10.4 bands per primer. to estimate the similarities among studied lines, the jacard coefficient provided similarity values ranging from 0.35 to 0.79. according to the cl dendrogram (figure 2) the studied lines (mutant lines pulse parent cultivar) were clustered into 5 major clusters. according to the similarity matrix, the mutant line number 32 (m32) was closer to parent cultivar and the mutant line number 9 (m9) was entirely different from parent cultivar (l17). for each of the 10 rapd primers, pic were calculated and pic values ranged 0.73 to 0.86 (table 4). the mean pic values for all loci were 0.80. discussion morphological variation in this research induct variation by gamma irradiation was assessed using morphological traits in m7 generation of soybean mutant lines. it can be inferred from the results that irradiation did induce significant genetic variability with regard to majority of studied traits such as number of 5 table 4. degree of polymorphism and information content for rapd primers along with their sequences, applied to 33 m7 generation mutant lines and l17 cultivar of soybean. no. primers sequence total (t) polymorphic (pol) % polymorphism pic fragment fragment (pol/t*100) 1 opa-01 caggcccttc 6 5 83 0.77 2 opa-02 tgccgagctg 11 7 64 0.79 3 opa-03 agtcagccac 12 7 58 0.80 4 opa-04 aatcgggctg 9 4 44 0.73 5 opa-05 aggggtcttg 11 8 73 0.87 6 opa-07 gaaacgggtg 12 10 83 0.83 7 opa-08 gtgacgtagg 11 9 82 0.86 8 opa-09 gggtaacgcc 11 7 64 0.80 9 opa-10 gtgatcgcag 10 6 60 0.74 10 opa-11 caatcgccgt 11 7 64 0.82 figure 2. dendrogram of 33 m7 generation mutant lines and parent cultivar (l17) of soybean based on rapd. nodule per plant and harvest index. also results demonstrate that radio mutation induction and selection could be successfully used in the soybean cultivars to improve the n2 fixation and some of the agronomic characters, e.g. number of nodule per plant, harvest index and shoot dry weight. similar results were also reported by padavai and dhanavel (2004) and singh and kole (2005). increase in studied traits in mutant lines may be attributed to chromosomal damages. also separation of mutant lines from parent cultivar shows gamma ray effect in creating genetic diversity that resulted into separate mutant lines from parent cultivar. according to the means of studied traits in each group (table 2) mutant lines groups (second, third and fourth groups) in comparison with parent group (first group) have highest value. since these traits are most important agronomical traits such as yield and yield components traits therefore relevant mutant lines can be selected from segregated group. using radiation techniques, similar improvements in the agronomic characters of soybean and other crops were achieved (rahman et al., 1994; odeigah et al., 1998; dubey et al., 2007; arulbalachandran et al., 2010). the next step will be to verify the disease reaction of these materials and to test them for combining ability. 6 figure 3. rapd pattern of m7 generation mutant lines (m1-m33) and parent cultivar (l17) obtained with primer opa-09. s.m. demonstrated the size marker dna (sm-0403). according to the figure parent cultivar (l17) have a band which this band deleted in mutant lines. the best lines such as m13 and m1 will be used for hybrid production. molecular markers variation changes in dna caused by mutagens result in genetic variation detected by rapd analysis (rani et al., 1995; teparkum and veilleux, 1998). polymorphic amplification products which represent one allele per locus can result from changes in either the sequence of the primer binding site, such as point mutations, or from changes altering the size or preventing successful amplification of a target dna such as insertions, deletions, and inversions (rani et al., 1995). mutations resulting in polymorphisms are those occurring on primer binding sites, leading to an increase or decrease in the total number of primer binding sites, and consequently the number of amplified fragments. in the present study, 10 rapd primers have revealed polymorphic fragments among soybean mutant lines that are most likely due to treatment with the physical mutagen gamma. these polymorphisms indicate presence of genetic differences in soybean mutant lines. it is possible that these mutations have occurred in different loci, although it is not yet known whether these mutations and polymorphism bands have correlated with useful traits. rapd polymorphisms observed in this study are likely due to alterations in the number of primer binding sites following mutagenesis. point mutations at other regions of the genome that fall within the amplified fragments are likely to go undetected. in this study, detected out of 70 polymorph fragments indicate a high level of mutation due to gamma mutagenesis. thus, rapd markers are useful in detecting polymorphisms in soybean mutant lines as they provide sufficient numbers of dna fragments for conducting assays. this approach can then be used to rapidly screen mutant lines in efforts to detect mutants with desirable agronomic traits. this study showed molecular markers such as rapd is more useful for analysis of genetic diversity because rapd also detected variation between the irradiated and non irradiated lines, which were morphologically indistinguishable therefore rapd markers can be more useful for detecting induced diversity among mutant lines. sequencing of polymorphism bands between mutant lines and parent cultivar and additional research are needed for screening and detecting of new genes that are linked with desirable traits. the sequencing of unique band that produced in parent (figure 3) and introducing it as a scar marker can be used for marker assisted selection. references arulbalachandran d, mullainathan l, karthigayan s, somasundaram st, velu s (2010). genetic variation in mutants of black gram (vigna mungo (l.) hepper) evaluated by rapd markers. j. crop sci. biotech., (1): 1-6. barazani o, cohen y, fait a, diminshtein s, dudai n, ravid u, putievsky e, friedman j (2002). chemotypic differentiation in indigenous populations of foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare in israel. biochem. systs. ecol., 30: 721-731. bennici a, maria a, giovanni gv (2003). genetic stability and uniformity of foeniculum vulgare mill., regenerated plants through organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis. plant sci., 161(1): 221227. delannay x, rodgers dm, palmer rg (1983). relative genetic contribution among ancestral lines to north american soybean 7 cultivars. crop sci., 23: 944-949. deng zm, gentile a, nicolosi e, domina f, vardi a, tribulato e (1995). identification of in vivo and in vitro lemon mutants by rapd markers. j. hort. sci., 70: 117-125. dubey ak, yadav jr, singh b (2007). studies on induced mutations by gamma irradiation in okra (abelmoschus esculentus (l.) monch.). progressive agric. 7(1/2): 46-48. fracaro f, jucimar z, sergio e (2005). rapd based genetic relationships between populations of three chemotypes of cunila galioides benth. bochem. syst. ecol., 33: 409-417. li z, qiu l, thompson ja, welsh mm, nelson rl (2001). molecular genetic analysis of u.s. and chinese soybean ancestral lines. crop sci., 41: 1330-1336. odeigah pgc, osanyinpeju ao, myers go (1998). induced mutations in cowpea (vigna unguiculata). rev. biol. trop., 3: 579-586. padavai p, dhanavel d (2004). effect of ems, des and colchicine treatment in soybean. crop res., 28(1,2&3): 118-120. powell w, morgante m, andre c, hanafey m, vogel j, tingey s, rafalski a 1(996). the comparison of rflp, rapd, aflp and ssr (microsatellite) markers for germplasm analysis. mol. breed., 2: 225238. rahman sm, takagi v, kubota k, miyamoto k, kawakita v (1994). high oleic acid mutant in soybean induced by x-ray irradiation. biosci. biotech. biochem., 58: 1070-1072. rani v, parida a, raina sn (1995). random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) markers for genetic analysis in micropropagated plants of populus deltoides marsh. plant cell rep., 14: 459-462. samal s, rout gr, nayak s, nanda rm, lenka pc, das s (2003). primer screening and optimization for rapd analysis of cashew. biol. plant. 46: 301-304. sharma r, mahila hr, mohapatra t, bhargava sc, sharma mm (2003). isolating plant genomic dna without liquid nitrogen. plant mol. biol. reporter, 21: 43-50. shiran b, amirbakhtiar n, kiani s, mohammadi sh, sayed-tabatabaei be, moradi h (2007). molecular characterization and genetic relationship among almond cultivars assessed by rapd and ssr markers. sci. hortic., 111: 280-290. singh r., kole cr (2005). effect of mutagenic treatments with ems on germination and some seedling parameters in mungbean. crop res., 30(2): 236-240. teparkum s, veilleux re (1998). indifference of potato anther culture to colchicine and genetic similarity among anther-derived monoploid regenerants determined by rapd analysis. plant cell tissue organ cult., 53: 49-58. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (8), pp. 001-010, august, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper convention economics and coordination mechanisms in collective actions: the uruguay certified beef case guilherme cunha malafaia1*, julio otavio jardim barcellos2, eugênio ávila pedrozo2 and maria emilia camargo1 1 university of caxias do sul ucs, francisco getúlio vargas street, 1130 cep 95070-560 caxias do sul rs brazil. 2 federal university of rio grande do sul ufrgs, washington luis street, 855 cep: 90010-460 – porto alegre rs brazil. accepted 12 march, 2020 consumers’ interest for food quality and safety increases every day. the sanitary crises that have occurred in the beef cattle market have led to the need to guarantee traceability and the development of specialty brands (origin denominations, natural and organic meats, racial stamps, among others), in which trust in the process is the basic tool for competence. therefore, this study aims to identify the forms of coordination configured by the agents of a beef cattle production chain in uruguay that seeks to develop an assured quality plan to differentiate the meat produced with the objective of generating competitive advantages in the beef cattle market. operationalization of the research was carried out through a case study with the application of in-depth interviews with the members of the chain. the results point out that the activities developed within a production chain can be characterized by several forms of coordination in their different stages and even in a same segment, at the same time quality conventions would allow us to explain the combination of these forms of coordination in an integrated form of governance. key words: convention economics, coordination mechanisms, collective actions, beef cattle. introduction the sanitary crises that have occurred in the beef cattle market have caused consumers to react in different ways. the most immediate reaction was to reduce the consumption of beef. the other reaction, which took longer to occur but had more lasting effects, was to demand higher safety and quality of the meats, as well as more information. these demands have lead to the need to guarantee traceability and the development of specialty brands (origin denominations, natural and organic meats, race seals, among others), wherein the trust in the process is the basic tool for competence. in this direction, the increment of the demand for food *corresponding author. e-mail: gcmalafa@ucs.br. tel: 555432182100. safety and rigid regulatory control has forced the production chains to develop safe solutions for the global food system. therefore, food safety administration systems are essential due to the fact that they are designated to control the potential risks of food safety associated with the product and also to guarantee the demands of safety legislations, retail standards and/or assured safety procedures. another dimension regarding quality guarantee is more focused on the competitivity of the product than properly the health of the food source or the consumer. however, the health aspect is also considered, being treated within another dimension, the generation of competitive advantages. with the increase of the internationalization of production and consumption of food, concerns with food safety have provided the appearance of competitive advantages through trustworthy food safety systems file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org (spriggs and isaac, 2001). the efficient food safety systems depend of the forms of coordination created for the agents. therefore, this study aims to identify the forms of coordination configured by the agents of the uruguay beef cattle production chain, which seeks to develop an assured quality plan to differentiate their meat aiming to generate competitive advantages in the beef cattle market. more specifically, what is sought is the intensification of the discussions concerning social quality conventions established by the group of agents of a same production chain seeking to improve their competitive situation. the option for the theoretical approach used in this study is based on the premises that studies developed concerning the competitive environment of the beef cattle production (euclides, 2004; zilbersztajn et al., 2003; rocha et al., 2001; neves et al., 2000) have predominantly used transaction cost economics as theoretical model. this approach however does not offer sufficient elements to understand the problematic of coordination due to the fact that it has not eliminated or changed the hypothesis of methodological individualism. among the widely heterodox research tendencies, convention economics seems to be the one that best understands the problems of organizational economics due to its sociological approach (thévenot, 2001). the article is divided in four parts. at first, we discuss convention economics. later, the method used in the research is presented. then, using an empirical research, we analyze how the agents have configured a social construction of the quality of bovine meat. at last, we concluded about the initiative’s main challenges. bibliographical review convention economics what notion of coordination is necessary to study the dynamics of organizations? common sense brings the idea of a collective and stable order. several types of restrictions exist for the maintenance of order: rules, hierarchical prescriptions, rational and bureaucratic methods, social structures, common cultures, etc. however, for convention economics the logic of coordination is more open to uncertainties, critical tensions and creative arrangements than with ideas of a reproductive and stable order. in this perspective, it becomes necessary to understand the several forms of coordination, pointing out their dynamics (thevénot, 2001). according to thevénot, the universe of human actions is fundamentally complex and it is possible to make reference to several conceptions of a same product at all times. coordination is based on categorical characterizations of human beings in terms of identity, interest groups, habits, etc. in this sense, the results of the confrontation of these different social groups are complexity and conflict, which result in a variety of forms of coordination. thus, the plurality of forms of coordination occurs through a set of references of a collective cognitive process that constitutes coordination mechanisms (thevénot, 1989). evaluation principles, called “order of values”, constitute different forms of coordination. this occurs because of qualification processes of people and things (marescotti, 2000). boltanski and thevénot (1991) acknowledge the existence of a plurality of forms of evaluation that agents use to justify their positions. this plurality demonstrates that efficient coordination devices are composite and offer possibilities of commitment between different “orders of value” (thevénot, 2001). identifying different “orders of value” means to justify a particular course of actions or evaluate decisions. for eymard-duvernay (1995), justification is defined in situations when in order to mobilize others, an agent has to create justifiable arguments that refer to common principles. these common principles can be of several different orders, understood as conventions. therefore, the specificity of products/services derives from the realization of the variety of coordination conventions between actors. under this perspective, the nature of products (quality) is defined not only by the market and technologies, but also through conventions. conventions economics, as previously explained, identify the existence of six types of justifications that serve to coordinate actions (boltanski and thevénot, 1991): inspired, domestic, industrial, civic, market and opinion. each of these forms of coordination, also called “order of the worlds”, refer to different principles of evaluation in order to determine actions (table 1). for the conventionalist authors, market coordination is based exclusively on market and price relations. the agents are capable of evaluating the quality of the products exchanged in the moment of market transactions. they do not need added support to justify their actions besides price. the predominant order is coherence, the convention is mercantile and the objects to be qualified by the agents are products and services. concerning industrial coordination, coordination and exchanges are based on the respect of certain preestablished standards, in which quality exists if the characteristics of the products or services obey a set of defined rules and standards. in other words, agents judge quality by the definition and implementation of technical norms. in this case, there is predominance of the order of efficiency, based on control and certification by recognized entities. the convention is industrial. domestic coordination is based on a personal and close relationship between agents, related to personal trust previously established in other transactions. the connections established are stable and longstanding. in other words, the agents know each other and negotiate table 1. order of the worlds and their guiding principles. order of forms of information qualified objects elementary human time space the worlds evaluation format relation qualification market price monetary products/services exchange interested present, global short term industrial productivity measurable investments, functional link professional, long term, cartesian space (statistics) techniques, expert planned methods future domestic reputation oral, exemplar property, specific trust trustworthy habitual polar: anchored assets on proximity opinion fame semiotic media, brands recognition famous tendency visibility and communication civic collective formal regulations, solidarity representative stable homogeneous interest rights inspired innovation, emotional emotions (artistic, passion creative rupture presence creativity religious) source: adapted from eymard-duvernay et al. (2005, p. 9). the qualities of the products among themselves. the convention is domestic, the order is trust and the objects to be qualified are specific assets. opinion coordination, on the contrary of domestic coordination but similar to market coordination, is not based on a direct experience, on the repetition of transactions or on memory. the quality of a product is judged exclusively by the opinion of others and by the reputation of the operators. agents take under consideration the reputation of more well known companies and products. the convention is of opinion and the order is the brand’s fame. the objects to be qualified are brands and medias. concerning civic coordination, the coordination and justification of the actions are based on the agents’ adherence to a nucleus of collective principles, where agents renounce their own individuality and do not consider their own personal interests, aiming for the common good. in other words, agents deliberate about quality using civic interests as reference, such as the environment or the protection of a sector or region. in this form of coordination, the convention is civic, the order is collective and the objects to be qualified are rights. inspired coordination occurs when the agents adhere to the emergence of innovative ideas to coordinate their actions and judge quality. the convention is inspiration and the order is innovation. the qualified objects in this form of coordination are emotions. according to wilkinson (1997), each of these worlds is organized around different types of qualification and is subject to equally different forms of justification. there is no hierarchy between the worlds, the interests are not permanent and are not connected to interest groups. the individuals move within and outside each world, where actions are qualified, justified and put to testing. the existence of “bridge” qualifications, based on principles internally recognized in each world, opens way to a mutual justification of different worlds. the focus on justifiable forms of economic action gives priority to negotiations of deals between economic agents. however, convention theory can also be used for the resolution of conflicts. as it can be noticed, each of these forms of coordination refers to different principles to determine the nature of the products (quality). the specificity of the product therefore derives from the realization of the conventions of coordination between actors. according to thevénot (2001), the plurality of forms of coordination demonstrates that the efficient coordination mechanisms are composite and offer possibilities of commitment between different orders. therefore, the possibility of an organization having coordination standards that correspond to the six worlds previously cited becomes visible. however, efficiency obtained through this complementarity is constantly threatened by tensions between the different worlds. convention economics and the agro-alimentary sector conventions economic (ec) has found a fertile field of operation coordination within the agro-alimentary sector. the crisis of the perfect competition model as an efficient coordination mechanism between agents has caused the application of convention theory in the agro-alimentary sector to gain strength for firm analysis and the analysis of coordination mechanisms between actors (marescotti, 2000). for allaire (1995), conventions theory has adapted rapidly to the social demands of the agroalimentary sector (production diversity, plurality of quality, heterogeneity of forms of work and valorization of the territory as an alternative model). convention studies in the agro-alimentary sector have been gaining space in the literature mainly due to the influence of the studies of the french national institute of agricultural research (inra). according to wilkinson (1997) , the works of inra, especially those developed by allaire and boyer (1995) and nicolas and valceschini (1995), have contributed for the investigation of the importance of convention theory for the agro-alimentary sector. according to wilkinson’s (1997) approach, inra’s work calls attention to aspects such as the importance of the notion of quality (in which markets can only function based on a previous definition of the quality of products negotiated, thus needing a qualification process of resources and organizations involved in their production); centrality and diversity of forms of coordination (in which it is possible to explain different forms of coordination inside the same competitive environment); and the focus in new standards of institutionalization (in which norms and deals, based on criteria of quality, can provide the local mapping of more global standards of an emerging institutionalization of the sector). therefore, the agro-alimentary research developed by inra has particular relevance because it reinforces some crucial aspects of convention theory such as: the forms of coordination that involve specific qualification and justification processes (products with appellation of controlled origin aco); the plurality of the forms of coordination (in the case of products with brands as well as products with aco); and the need to correlate efficiency and variability (critic to the universalization of an economic form of coordination, in the case, the market (wilkinson, 1997). despite the fact that convention economics focuses on the plurality of forms of coordination corresponding to six worlds of justified collective action, the theory reveals to be more relevant in the domestic worlds, as demonstrated by inra’s researches. the subjacent point suggests a narrow relation between the domestic world and quality economics (wilkinson, 1999). this has become a strong point of reflection, predominated in the researches that involve conventions theory. under this perspective, several studies in the agroalimentary sector have used convention economics as theoretical approach. among several authors, one can mention kirwan (2006), noury et al. (2005), freidberg (2003), barham (2003), raynolds (2003), renard (2003), marouseau (2002), coutinho (1995), sylvander and biencourt (2000), marescotti (2000), lassaut and sylvander (1997). these studies seek to establish a focus on the diversity of organizations, the plurality of forms of coordination and the diversity of quality references. the discussion concerning cooperation and the process of negotiation of specific product attributes, mainly in local agro-alimentary systems, is the guideline for these studies. materials and methods the present research is characterized as qualitative, given that it enables a better comprehension of the phenomenon analyzed (malhotra, 2001), mainly due to the innovating aspect of the thematic approached, in which the matter of quality conventions is still relatively little explored in academy, specifically in what refers to the realization of empiric works. the research can also be characterized as exploratory. according to tripodi et al. (1997), exploratory studies aim to “provide a reference guide that can facilitate the process of deduction of pertinent questions in the investigation of a phenomenon”. through this exploration, it is possible for the researcher to formulate concepts and hypothesis to be further explored in posterior studies. among the types of qualitative research, one can emphasize the case study, which is characterized as a type of research with an object that is a unit to be deeply analyzed. the present research uses case study, a justifiable procedure given the research’s exploratory character. according to yin (1994), the option for case study as a research strategy can be justified when the study focuses on the ambit of decisions, or in other words, the study attempts to clarify the reason why decisions were made, how they were implemented and which results were found. the case studied was the uruguay certified natural beef program pcncu, a national program of meat production with high aggregated value, legitimated by a brand country, and that is located within the area (33 00 s, 56 00 w) that comprises the pampa (figure 1). data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews with the members of pcncu, aiming to identify the forms of coordination practiced by agents to produce meat with attributes of quality. we sought to assure that these interviewees could also report clearly and objectively all activities since the creation of the productive arrangement. from the elements of analysis established, a script of topics was elaborated, without obeying a formal structure (lakatos and marconi, 2001). although it serves as a guide for the interview, this collection method enables the necessary liberty to develop each situation in the adequate direction, obtaining the necessary information for the solution of the problem initially proposed. 04 interviews were carried out with agents of the program, as follows: 01 producer, 01 commercial director of a slaughterhouse industry, 01 representative of the certifier and 01 representative of the uruguayan national meat institute (i. n. a. c). the interviews were carried out in montevideo, uruguay in july 20 th , 2007 during the international seminar technological, social and environmental €challenges of the bovine meat chain for countries of the amplified mercosul. the average time of each interview was of 60 min. concerning the choice of the number of interviewees of this research, minayo (2001) affirms that the criterion of sample representative in a qualitative research is not numeric, as is the case for quantitative research. this number must not be very big but should be sufficiently small so as to allow the researcher to be capable of understanding the study object well. good sampling, therefore, what comprises the totality of the problem investigated in its multiple definitions. thus, the interviewees selected in this research can be considered representative due to the fact that they present the same general characteristics of the population from which they were extracted, besides having been indicated by specialists as strategic for obtaining the necessary information for the comprehension of the totality of the cases studied, given that they have participated in the elaboration of the projects from the figure 1. demarcated area where the program’s beef cattle production is located. source: inia (2007). beginning. after the interviews were transcribed, the results were described and analyzed in their content, considering the elements previously defined for investigation. uruguay certified natural beef program case study brief contextualization of the certified natural beef program growing demands of international beef cattle markets concerning food safety, animal well -being and environmental sustainability has forced uruguay to try to face the challenge of satisfying this demand through competitive advantages provided by its territorial strategic resources. for such reason the national meat institute (inac) created the pcncu in 2001. one of the interviewees reports that “the program was created to increase consumers’ confidence on uruguayan products, differentiating them and aggregating value”. the certified natural beef program is a program of quality guarantee of bovine and ovine meats, in which international certification organisms audit the conformation of a protocol that covers both the productive and industrial phases. the main areas covered by the protocol and that are considered in the certification process are: food safety, traceability, animal well-being and environmental sustainability. “due to the natural character of uruguayan bovine and ovine meats, a “country brand” was developed to identify the product”. the program is integrated voluntarily by producers and slaughterhouses that wish to add value to the products they sell. the program currently has 244 members, certified within an area of 550.000 ha and with 480.000 beef cattle herd. independent certifiers are responsible for auditing and certifying the program’s producers and slaughterhouses. this certification process includes field production to packing and classification of beef cuts. a “country brand” denominated uruguay natural meat, intellectual property of inac, is used and subject to approval of the certification organisms (figure 2). inac grants the use of the “brand country” without costs if the demands specified in the protocol are correctly satisfied. in august, 2004, pcncu was officially recognized by the united states department of agriculture (usda) for satisfying the demands of the process verified program. pcncu reached the usda requirements concerning product quality, animal management and origin verification. therefore, pcncu has become the first international program certified by the usda process verified program (figure 3). this certification allows uruguay to sell bovine meat to the united figure 2. logo “country brand”. source: inac (2007). figure 3. pcncu and usda process verified program logos. source: inac (2007). states with the usda process verified seal and to make a detailed description of the product’s characteristics, as for example: free of hormones and antibiotics, free of animal protein, traceability, etc. “this has been a really important stage in the differentiation of our meat in comparison to other countries that sell meat to the united states”. although the volume exported to the usa with this certification is still low – around 600 tons per year the recognition is considered an important marketing tool for uruguayan meat. soon uruguay will be able to count with the homologation of the certified natural beef program through the eurepgap norms imposed by europe’s largest supermarket networks, given that it began to work on obtaining the european union (eu) facultative certification, which will allow the exportation of cuts directly to the public with the information required by the consumer. the eurepgap standard is primarily designed to maintain consumer confidence in food quality and food safety. other important goals are to minimize detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, optimize the use of inputs and to ensure a responsible approach to worker health and safety. one interviewee said that “the european market is different than the american market because the american consumer truly believes in its authorities and the european consumer believes in private certifiers”. eu has a system that requires a long process of certification to enable the possibility of putting all the information required by consumers on the product’s label. “if one wishes to put on the label that the meat is of a certain race, it can’t be done without satisfying this process to demonstrate what is being put on the label”. collective action organization: the inac case the uruguayan national meat institute (inac) is an organization created to assist the executive power. it is directed by a council composed of representatives of private sector of the industry and rural producers. inac’s mission is to promote activities and formulate strategies that add value to the beef chain, increasing the efficiency and competitivity of production systems, industrialization, commercialization, storage and transportations. for such reason, it identifies high priority matters of research and development in the fields of technical services for the agro-industrial chain and the external and domestic markets. it is also in charge of promoting uruguayan beef in the world and controlling the commercial quality of the products being exported. it maintains a permanent presence in international fairs and commercial exhibitions as a way to potentialize the products’ sales. it has a commission that permanently studies potential markets and also promotes the use of the “natural beef uruguay” brand. inac organizes and diffuses information concerning demands and commercial opportunities for companies of the production chain. inac coordinates the certified natural beef program (pcncu) at a national level. the program rigorously follows a protocol of production and industrialization validated by independent certification organisms in order to maintain a high-quality product with sanitary guarantees and traceability from the origin, assuring a greater trust on products. pcncu, under the coordination of inac, certifies the whole beef production process, from the field to packing and labeling. the program currently has 244 members, certifies within an area of 550.000 ha and with 480.000 cattle beef herd. regarding rural producers, 92.8% of them are formed in networks (carne hereford del uruguay; consorcio de productores de carne del litoral; pulsa al este; fucrea carne crea; vaquería del este; litoral natural; forrajes naturales; grupo frigorífico tacuarembó; procarne) and the other part is composed of individual certified producers. regarding the predominant type of operation, approximately half the producers are dedicated to fattening and little less than the other half perform the complete cycle, while a small number are dedicated only to breeding. investors are distributed mainly in the departments of colonia and soriano and those that develop the complete cycles are distributed in the departments of tacuarembo and florida. the certifying entities that work on the program and are subcontracted by certicarnes are the following: lsqa (latu + qualityaustria), sgs e control union perú, sac. there are eight certified industries: frigorífico canelones s.a.; frigorífico la caballada cledinor s.a.; matadero solís ersinal s.a.; establecimientos colonia s.a.; frigorífico tacuarembó; frigorífico san jacinto nirea s.a.; frigorífico matadero pando ontilcor s.a.; pulsa s.a. in 2005, pcncu negotiated the exportation of 613 tons. during 2006, it exported 610.55 tons of certified natural beef. in 2007, 136 tons have already been exported and the main destiny has been the us market inac does not interfere in the negotiations between agents. one representative of inac affirms that “we leave them free; the market structure is what coordinates the program. the slaughterhouses and producers are free to plan their actions”. concerning the inclusion of new members, another interviewee affirms that “entering the program is voluntary. the only thing necessary is to comply with the protocol and there are no royalties for the natural beef seal. however, if the demands of the protocol are not met, the seal is removed”. concerning the distribution of exportation quotas for slaughterhouses, as for example the hilton quota, inac defines the division based on a criterion of the value exported by the slaughterhouse, being agreed among everyone. the process is transparent. pcncu quality conventions convention economics identifies the existence of six types of justification that serve to coordinate actions (boltanski; thevénot, 1991) : inspiration, domestic, industrial, civic, market and opinion. each of these forms of coordination, also called “order of worlds” refers to different evaluation principles to determine actions. based on in-depth interviews with members of pcncu, several forms of coordination practiced by agents were identified. the forms of coordination found were: civic, industrial, opinion, domestic, inspiration and market. reports on how the conventions are materialized within the case study will be presented next. civic coordination the growing demands of international cattle beef markets concerning attributes such as food safety, animal wellbeing and environmental sustainability have forced uruguay to face the challenge of satisfying these demands through competitive advantages provided by their strategic territorial resources. this type of justification refers to the civic convention, in which the identity of a product is given in face of its impact on society or the environment. a collective agreement for well-being can be seen in this case (boltanski and thevénot, 1991). this was crucial to determine pcncu’s production system. as one of the interviewees affirms, “the relation between food safety and the mad cow issue in the international market was essential for us to determine how we would develop our production system. interdisciplinary studies with several organs, led by inac, were carried out in order to determine the feeding and breeding system”. another interviewee complements: “we opted to sell trust, creating the conditions for us to obtain a differentiated product that added value to the beef chain, consequently offering the safety guarantees that international consumers are demanding. at first the norms of the program were created and later a pilot plan to test them was implemented”. therefore, the following animal production system was implemented: a) in relation to animal management, the animals should be bred without a roof during their permanence in the system, be it in breeding, growing or fattening stages; the animals should be managed according to correct standards, taking their well-being under consideration; obligatory free pastures during the whole time. one of the interviewees says: “bovine and ovine lots are in tune with the aspects that assure animal well-being in a friendly relation with the environment, guarding both flora and fauna biodiversity, aspects that characterize a sustainable production system”. b) environmental and sanitary management will prevent the occurrence of environmental contamination and dissemination of infectious infirmities; chemical products used should have a registration number; there must be an isolation area for sick animals; producers shall present the medicine purchase receipts; there must be a plan and registration of sanitary management. c) regarding alimentary management, the animals should be fed with natural pasture without the use of food with animal origin or growth hormones. animals should receive a diet of at least 60% of dry material originated from pastures. management during pasture gives animals the access to a wide range of species of pasture that assure a natural and adequate nutrition. one of the interviewees reports that “our meat is originated from animals fed exclusively with vegetable proteins, with absence of products or sub-products of animal origin. this is a determining factor for the inexistence of bse (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in uruguay. the beef production process is carried out without the use of hormones, steroids and growth promoters. these nutrition systems based on natural pastures determine a product with highly recommendable content of fat and cholesterol for a nutritious and healthy diet”. d) facilities, animal management and transportation should follow the recommendations for animal well-being and beef quality that aim to determine the causes of stress and to avoid injuries. facilities, wire fences and pens should be adequate to offer safety and commodity for animal management. the civic convention based on aspects related to food safety was one of the forms of coordination used in some cases found in the literature concerning quality conventions of bovine neat. as an example, one could cite “prodotti com amore chianina beef”, “consorzio 5z” e “arezzo qualitá“(marescotti, 2000). in both cases, concerns regarding safe methods of animal nutrition, seeking to minimize the possibilities of contamination are highly emphasized as differentials of these programs. industrial coordination in this type of coordination, activities are based on the respect to certain pre-determined standards in which quality exists if the product’s or service’s characteristics obey a set of defined standards and rules. in other words, the agents judge quality by defined and implemented technical rules. in this case there is predominance of the order of efficiency, based on control and certification by entities with recognized aptitude (boltanski and thevénot, 1991). mechanisms used by pcncu to certify the trust sold to the market are basically traceability, haccp, usda certification processes and also, soon, eurepgap. “the difficulty of the commercialization channels in guaranteeing beef quality in what regards safety and production ethics is a concerning variable for the market. for this reason, it was necessary to implement a certification plan for the whole production chain. the pcncu certifies the whole process, from rural properties to packing and labeling of the beef cuts”, one of the interviewees reports. traceability is done in group, being that after 2009 it will be carried out individually. animal identification occurs individually with the use of earrings. the animals must be born, bred and slaughtered in uruguay. the system must demonstrate the permanence of the animals for at least 90 days inside certified establishments. the service for animal identification and registration (sira) is the organism responsible for the operational plan of the traceability system. traceability occurs from the cattle ranch to animal slaughtering and packing in the slaughterhouse. the animals slaughtered within the program must be separated from the rest of the slaughters, and their cuts must be controlled throughout the whole process. the use of hazard analysis and critical control points (haccp), good production practices (gmp) and the sanitary standards for operational procedures program (ssop) occurs mainly in the slaughterhouse industry. the “usda process verified” certification uses the international organization for standardization standards iso 9000 to verify if the quality management systems are compatible with the audit practices. the usda process verified attests the seller’s ability to guarantee the quality of products and/or services offered. according to one of the interviewees, “from the approval of the pcncu by the usda verified process it was necessary to comply with specific requisites to use the uruguay certified natural beef – usda process verified logo”. usda solely authorizes certicarnes to certify products within the program. as one of the interviewee explains, “certicarnes subcontracts the certifying entities qualified by pcncu to carry out verification tasks, being that the decision to certify is responsibility of certicarnes”. other interviewee complements that “the presence of internationally recognized certifying companies grants the destination country the guarantee of trust that the final consumer is demanding, due to the verification by certifiers concerning the firm accomplishment of the certification protocol”. as mentioned before, pcncu is litigating the eurepgap certification for 2007, which contemplates good agricultural practices (gap) and considers environmental, social and sanitary aspects, besides traceability. it can be noticed that pcncu has strong characteristics of industrial coordination. this convention was also identified in several cases found in the bibliography, as for example, the uruguay organic beef program, the argentina natural beef program, the certified angus beef program, hereford beef, among others. in these cases, a lot of attention is given to aspects of process certification, thus, attesting the quality of the products for consumers. opinion coordination when the quality of a product is judged exclusively by the opinion of others and the reputation of operators, we have a domestic convention. agents take under consideration the reputation of companies and more well-known products. the objects to be qualified are the brand and communications (boltanski and thevénot, 1991). pcncu involves the existence of a country brand, with its content associated to the certainty it generated in the final consumer of the reliability of a product obtained according to a rigorously certified process. as of the interviewees affirms, “uruguay possesses a high global reputation in the production of quality bovine meat. our products are synonymous of quality. the idea to create the country brand was to use this comparative advantage that uruguay has in the market, which is the ability to offer the world a nutritious, healthy and safe product, with all the hygienic -sanitary guarantees available. besides, international markets are more and more demanding in regard to food safety, animal well-being and environmental sustainability. in this context, uruguay offers trust”. the country brand is present in each of the labels of the several beef cuts, along with the company seal of certification with international recognition regarding the certification process. in summary, as a result of the changes that have occurred in the most important bovine meat world markets, uruguay has developed a brand, properly certified and traced from the origin, thus heeding the demands of these exigent markets. as it can be seen, the country brand is a type of opinion coordination, for it sustains the reputation and recognition the country has in the world bovine meat market. this type of coordination was found in other cases, as for example, new zealand beef and lamb and argentina natural beef (fox et al., 2005). inspired coordination pcncu, within the logic of selling trust, has developed an important technological innovation that aims to contribute with the transparency of the relations between agents of the beef chain (from the point of view of the producer, the industry and the fiscal point of view) with traceability and company management. this innovation is called cajas negras (black boxes). the c. negras are electronic tools that serve to contribute to assist in the control of bovine slaughters. its main characteristics are: neutrality, transparency, homogeneity, accountability, novelty. as one of the interviewees affirms, “this innovation received this name due to the characteristics of inviolability of the information it possesses the c. negras capture information of animal weight in each stage of the slaughter process”. the system works the following way: in each slaughterhouse there is a computer network that gathers data of weight in digital scales placed in each of the seven (7) stages of the slaughter process. the weight is then registered in a safe server and resent to inac for supervision, storage and publication. each plant is connected to inac through a secret password, from where the slaughter data is sent and stored in a central site. inac then publishes the information for the producers to consult. for the correct functioning of the system, the system itself (hardware and software) is necessary, a regulatory mark and the obligation of use. one of the interviewees affirms that “the system works while there is a regulatory mark that forces its use in every qualified slaughterhouse in the country and it guides its functioning through the establishment of protocols and norms to be followed”. regarding the benefits of this technological innovation, one of the interviewees commented that “the time of availability of information was immediately improved, as well as the density of information and the direct access of producers and cosignatories. at medium term it will enable the basic infrastructure for traceability and will generate a databank for multiple potential utilities”. as it can be noticed, the c. negras are important innovations inside the bovine meat chain, for they allow better information management, thus guaranteeing transparency in transactions between pcncu agents. this innovation can bring benefits for the local agrifood systems, providing organizational learning, increasing knowledge, generating other technological innovations and aggregating non-codeable values. therefore, the presence of an inspired coordination can be inferred in the pcncu. according to previously discussed matters, inspired coordination occurs when the agents adhere to the emergence of innovative ideas to coordinate their actions and judge quality. the convention is inspirational and the order is innovation (eymard-duvernay et al., 2005). market coordination conventions theory suggests that price is the main management form of a chain if there is no uncertainty concerning the quality of what is being transacted. if this is the situation, price differences will be equated with quality. conventions economy calls this characteristic market coordination (boltanski and thevénot, 1991). the relations established between the agents of the case studied are characterized by market relations, without contractual relations or exclusivity in transactions. “certified producers are free to negotiate the best price with any of the slaughterhouses certified by pcncu. the slaughterhouses can commercialize beef with the certification seal or without the seal, but only certified slaughterhouses can use the seal. economic sanctions are applied for who does not obey the demands of the protocol”, one interviewee says. another interviewee complements that “each member company of pcncu is free to plan its business; the market structure coordinates the program, slaughterhouses and producers are free”. however, it is worth reminding that in the current situation, market relations are guaranteed by certification, or in other words, if the rules of the game are not obeyed, the certifier auditory will detect it and therefore, there will be economic sanctions. in a transaction in which the consumer knows the quality of what is being purchased, as can be considered the current case, market transactions become an appropriate form of coordination. marescotti (2000) affirms that market coordination normally prevails when the buyer is local, habitual and well-informed. in other words, when he/she has great knowledge of the product and the conditions in which it is produced. the pcncu protocol specifications provide an easy way of obtaining information from the industry. the industry market relation is also predominated by a market coordination, in which uncertainty concerning quality does not exist, given that the production possesses usda certification and the usa are the main consumer market. domestic coordination domestic coordination is based on deals that exalt the importance of location, tradition and personal bonds in the construction of quality (boltanski and thevénot, 1991). in this sense, it is possible to consider the presence of a domestic coordination in the pcncu. such affirmative is sustained by the attributes used for its configuration, which are: botanic characterization of the fields, preservation of the natural environment and tradition in the production of bovine and ovine meat, which represent one of the country’s most important economic activities for centuries. trust, which is thoroughly emphasized in the pcncu, also has a domestic aspect, due to the fact that it seeks to establish the creation of personal bonds with the external consumer, providing him/her an association with the history of the country. this becomes evident when one of the interviewees affirms that “due to the natural characteristic of uruguayan bovine and ovine meat, a “country brand” was developed for the identification of the product”. under this perspective, eymard-duvernay (1995) sustains that coordination among individuals in the final market, within this logic, remits to the product’s origin and the attempt to better establish a geographical-cultural relation with the consumer, mainly with nonlocal consumers. it can also be noticed that despite the program having only three (3) years of age, the relations established among agents has occurred for a long time. the fact that around 90% of the producers of pcncu are organized in networks makes this feeling of collective action clear. the interviewees were unanimous when affirming the existence of a relation of trust between them (producers slaughterhouses certifiers inac) and that the pcncu certification mechanisms serve to reinforce this trust. discussion and conclusion as it can be noticed, each of these forms of coordination refers to different principles to determine the nature of the products (quality). the product’s specificity derives therefore from the realization of the variety of forms of coordination of territorial strategic assets. according to thevénot (2001), the plurality of forms of coordination demonstrates that efficient coordination mechanisms are composite and offer possibilities of commitment between different orders. in this sense, the possibility of a production chain possessing coordination standards correspondent to all the worlds cited previously becomes visible, generating an interconnection between the territorial strategic assets involved in each coordination mechanism. this provides efficiency obtained through complementarity. pcncu agents have chosen to establish a set of quality conventions, in which the commitment of the civicindustrial forms of coordination is emphasized, given that it deals with a specific product with natural attributes and at the same time has a rigid protocol of activities to be followed by the links involved. according to sylvander and biencourt (2000), the evolution of the agro-alimentary system and its regulations, especially regarding health and hygiene, tend to increasingly impose rigid control standards in the productive processes. at the same time a natural product arouses the interest of consumers due to its connection with the peculiar characteristics of a certain region, it also needs to follow standards and norms that attest its quality and origin. in the present case, the image imposed to the product refers to the guarantee of characteristics of beef quality (animals fed with pasture, without animal protein, animals free of hormones and antibiotics, practices of animal well-being) and simultaneously guarantees the characteristics of the productive process to consumers (with special attention given to certifications and traceability). marescotti (2000) affirms that the combination of the civic-industrial forms of coordination strongly expresses the growth of importance of issue such as health and hygiene in the productive processes of bovine meat. this occurs due to recent sanitary scandals that have occurred in the sector. this combination of coordination was also found in some cases in the beef cattle literature, as for example arezzo qualità and prodotti con amore (sylvander et al., 2006; marescotti, 2000). another combination of forms of coordination found was opinion-domestic, given that a country brand was created to legitimize strategic territorial assets such as tradition, culture and trust, allowing the transformation of comparative advantages into competitive advantages. this combination was important because it allowed the establishment of a connection between consumers and the production region, creating a relation of proximity and trust. this form of coordination was also found in the literature in the case new zealand beef and lamb (fox et al., 2005). it can also be noticed that this form of coordination used by pcncu establishes a strong interrelation with the civic -industrial coordination, given that it remits its strategic territorial assets to a rigid control of the productive processes, codifying the production systems as well as establishing a connection between the territorial assets and the production region through a country brand. as mentioned before by ponte and gibbon (2005), these four combinations are the most adequate for typical products of a region, given that it focuses on the construction of a relation of proximity between product, region and non-local consumer. the last combination of forms of coordination found was inspired-market, due to the fact that the relations between agents occur via price, but within an environment of transparency. this transparent environment is provided by the efficiency of information management, which provides better knowledge of the information concerning quality, performance and price of the cattle and meat that is being negotiated within the system. conventions theory suggests that price is the main management form of a system if there are no uncertainties regarding the quality of what is being transacted. at last, the case analyzed in this study demonstrates that there are several compositions of forms of coordination present in the pcncu. the possibility of finding composite forms of coordination is entirely coherent with the conventions theory, because as boltanski and thevénot (1991) and marescotti (2000) affirm, the coexistence of different models of quality agreements is normal for local products and for other agro-alimentary products with specific quality. references allaire g, boyer r (1995). la grande transformation de l’agriculture: lectures conventionnalistes et regulationnistes. paris: inra. boltanski l, thévenot l (1991). de la justification: les économies de la grandeur. paris: gallimard. coutinho l, ferraz j (1995). estudo da competitividade da 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london. econ. soc. 34(1): 1-31. rocha jcmc, neves mf, lobo rb (2001). vertical alliances: the case of beef chain in brazil. in: internacional conference on agri-food chain/networks economics and management, 3., ribeirão preto. anais. ribeirão preto: fea/usp, 2001. 1 cd-rom. sylvander b, biencourt o (2000). la négociation des normes sur les produits animaux:une approche procédurale sur le cas du lait cru. in: international workshop: “markets, rights and equity: rethinking food and agricultural standards in a shrinking world”, east lansing. anais. east lansing: iamm. thévenot l (2001). organized complexity: conventions of coordination and the composition of economic arrangements. london. euro. j. soc. theory 4(4): 405-425. yin r (1994). case study research: designs and methods. 6th. ed. london: sage publications, wilkinson j (1997). a new paradigm for economic analysis? london. econ. soc. 26: 3. wilkinson j (1999). a contribuição da teoria francesa das convenções. ensaios fee, porto alegre 20(2): 171-185. spriggs j, isaac g (2001). food safety and international competitiveness: the case of beef. isbn-13: 978-0851995182. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (1), pp. 001-007, january, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper soil moisture stress mitigation for sustainable upland rice production in the northern guinea savanna of nigeria a. c. odunze1*, m. t. kudi5, c. daudu2, j. adeosun2, g. ayoola3, i. y. amapu1, s. t. abu1, a. mando4, g. ezui4 and d. constance4 1 department of soil science/iar, ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria. 2 national agriculture and extension liaison services, ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria. 3 university of agriculture, makurdi, benue state, nigeria. 4 international fertilizer development corporation lome, nigeria. 5 department of agricultural economics, extension and rural sociology, ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria. accepted 14 october, 2019 northern guinea savanna (ngs) of nigeria cultivable lands have sandy loam to loamy sand surface textures, low organic matter and are susceptible to erosion (wind and water). to mitigate crop moisture stress, on-farm trials involving contour-ridge-tying and contour ridging were carried out in albasur and dansoda villages in dandume local government area of katsina state ngs to conserve soil against erosion and moisture for crop use in 2008 and 2009. the area ngs witness poor rainfall distribution, dry spells lasting beyond twenty one days occurring between june and july and low rainfall amounts (< 900 to 1300 mm per annum). these result in upland crops like rice (nerica 2 var.) witnessing deficit soil moisture to undergo proper growth and production, low yields or complete crop failure. also, soil erosion and runoff deplete water that could be available for crops and degrade farmlands for continued cultivation on the land. in this trial farmers ranked their rice grain yields while physical and agronomic data collected were statistically analysed using anova and duncan multiple range tests to separate means. results show that cross-banded ridge resulted in significantly higher rice grain yields than the other treatments and was followed by contoured ridge. socio-economic data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and budgeting technique. costs and returns analysis results show that labour and fertilizer inputs accounted for greater proportion of total variable costs incurred in contour (15.72%), contour plus tie ridging (15.72%), planting on flat land and farmers ridging practice (16.43 and 16.55% respectively). costs and returns analysis result shows that rice cultivation using contour and contour plus tie ridging is more profitable, implying feasible sustainable rice production through contour farming. key words: rice production, soil and water conservation, moisture stress mitigation, promotion, dissemination, contour farming, costs, returns. introduction the northern guinea savanna (ngs) of nigeria commonly witness poor rainfall distribution, dry spells, surface wash and runoff on farms (kowal and knabe, *corresponding author. e-mail: odunzeac@yahoo.com, odunzeac@gmail.com. tel: +2348035722052. 1972), and result in soil moisture deficiency that depress crop yield or complete crop failure at the uplands (odunze et al., 2010). also, the upland soils have very low moisture retention capacity, poor inherent fertility status and are dominated with low activity clays; in particular kaolinitic clays (jones and wild, 1975; lombin, 1987; odunze et al., 1996; odunze, 2006). crops grown at the uplands in the zone include maize, sorghum, file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org upland rice, cowpea, groundnut and soybeans, and these suffer moisture stress following availability of insufficient soil moisture during their growth phase. the implies that field crops would experience insufficient soil moisture to undergo proper growth and production processes, resulting in low yields or complete crop failure in the area. strategies to ensure soil and water conservation for sustainable crop production was sought and were undertaken in two villages in the ngs of nigeria from 2008 to 2009. surface wash and runoff, further compounds the poor soil quality of the ngs of nigeria as erosion degrades the land, pollutes the soil, surface and underground water and decreases productivity capacity of the lands; thus buttressing the claim that the resulting soil erosion and degradation of farmlands in africa leads to annual decrease of 3% agricultural production (fao, 2009). this study therefore aimed at determining appropriate strategy (ies) that would best conserve soil and moisture on farmlands to result in optimal rice grain and stover yields and improve on farmers’ livelihoods. also the study aimed to create awareness and promote the adoption of improved land management practices for moisture stress mitigation and increase rice yield through a participatory stakeholder’s action learning research. materials and methods study area the study was carried out in albasur and dansoda villages of dandume local government areas (lga) katsina state in nigeria (north 11° 24, east 7° 07.5’ and alt. 687 m). the area (ngs) witness poor rainfall distribution pattern and has annual rainfall amounts ranging between < 900 to a maximum of 1300 mm (odunze et al., 2010). methodology following a baseline survey of katsina state conducted by international fertilizer development centre (ifdc), dandume area was chosen as dominant upland rice producing lga in katsina state and upland rice (nerica) variety was chosen for evaluation as a test crop. moisture stress mitigation using contoured ridges, contoured ridges+ cross-banding, ridging up-down slope direction and planting on flat harrowed plots were participatorily evaluated with farmers is an action learning set up. the four treatments/strategies are presented as follows: 1. up-down slope ridging practice [u-dr] 2. contour ridging [c] 3. contour ridging +tied ridges [ct] (cross-banded ridges) 4. planting on flat and harrowed plots [f] five farm families (replicates) participated in this trial in the two villages (albasur and dan soda) in 2008 and 2009 and each farm family represented a replicate. data collected was analysed statistically at 5% level of significance and means were separated using duncan new multiple range test (dnmrt). treatment [f] is practiced by farmers in the area ordinarily and is considered a control treatment in this study. composite soil samples were obtained from surface soils (0 – 15 cm and 15 – 30 cm depths) in the farmers’ farms, air dried, passed through 2.0 mm sieve mesh and sub samples less than 2.0 mm diameter were analysed for particle size distribution using the hydrometer method of day, (1965) and gee and bauder (1986). undisturbed core (5 cm diameter by 5 cm height) soil samples from farmers’ farms were obtained at 0 5 cm and 5 10 cm depths at three periods of dry spell, for the determination of bulk density (blake and hartge, 1986) and gravimetric moisture content (walter, 1986). volumetric moisture content was calculated using the formulae: q=qmpbd where q= volumetric moisture content (cm 3 /cm 3 ), qm= gravimetric moisture content as a ratio or percent, pb= bulk density (mgm -3 ), d= depth of sampling (cm). also, participatory action learning research on rice production that involved farmers and researchers participating to delineate isoheights (positions of equal heights on farms), constructing contour bunds on farmers’ farms and farmers following determined contour lines to establish ridges (contour ridging), demarcate another plots on contoured farmers’ farms for ridging and cross banding (contour ridging +tied ridges), demarcate plots of land outside contoured areas and ridge along the up and down slope direction (up-down slope ridging) and another plot for harrowing to plant without ridging (planting on flat and harrowed plots) was organized with all farmers in the village who identified with the trial to create awareness and assess the treatments for best practical option(s) for adoption. plot area was 20 by 10 m = 200 m 2 for each treatment. farmer exchange visits to explain better soil moisture storage; hence, improved crop performance was conducted for farmers in the study location and they were also taught ranking with stones. farmers ranked their crop performance using 2009 rice grain yields. socio-economic data were collected through structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and budgeting technique. results and discussion particle size distribution table 1 presents information on the particle size distribution of soils of farmers’ fields in albasur village. the data shows that the soils are dominated with sand separates with values ranging between 34 and 54% at the surface layers (0 15 cm) and 38 to 42% at the 15 30 cm depths, indicating a reduction in sand fraction with increase in depth. silt fractions ranged between 28 and 34% at the 0 15 cm layers and 34 to 44% at the 15 30 cm depths. this suggests that silt fractions are high in the soil and increased with increase in depth. the high silt content of the soils would predispose the soils to crusting after rainfall and this could impair infiltration, gaseous exchange in soil, seed germination and encourage runoff and surface wash on the farms. clay fractions of the soils were moderate to high at both depths evaluated. values range from 16 to 34% at the surface and 18 to 24% at the 15 30 cm depths. the high clay contents of the surface layers could detain/delay water infiltration to benefit paddy rice. however, it does appear that top soil layers in the study table 1. physical properties of soils of dandume study area. location/farm depth sand silt clay textural classification 2 0.05 mm 0.5 0.002 mm < 0.002 mm albasur cm -------------(%)----------- usda alh. maigari 0-15 54 30 16 sandy loam 15-30 40 34 26 loam alh. muktari 0-15 34 34 32 clay loam 15-30 38 44 18 loam alh. lawal 0-15 38 28 34 clay loam 15-30 42 34 24 loam area had been eroded leaving subsoil rich materials as the present surface soils. generally soils of the zone are dominated with alfisols (odunze, 2006; esu and ojenuga, 1987) and the soils characteristically exhibit argillic subsoil properties. texture of the soils therefore ranges between sandy loam and clay loam to loam both at the surface and sub surface layers of crop rooting zone (table 1). physical properties of the soils bulk density and moisture content mean bulk density of soils under the treatments (table 2) showed significant difference, between treatments, except between contoured ridge and contour+ridge-tied treatments. the least bulk density was obtained under up-down slope (1.51 mgm -3 ). however, the highest bulk density obtained under the flat planting treatment (1.60 mgm -3 ) is attributed to silt accumulation on the surface soil layer and formation of crust which hardened to increase surface soil bulk density (ike, 1986, 1987) . the significantly lower bulk density under contour and contour+ridge-tie treatments than the flat planting treatment suggests that crusting and surface soil hardening is less prominent under the contour and contour+ridge-tied treatment (table 2). table 3 shows that bulk density decreased with depth in all the instances considered, with the surface layers having a significantly high bulk density value of 1.58 mgm -3 while the subsurface depths had a bulk density of 1.51 mgm -3 . perhaps crusting by silt particles at the surface layers depth could account for the higher soil moisture in the surface layers. increasing clay at depths will impair subsoil drainage and cause temporary sub soil water stagnation (odunze et al., 2008; dim et al., 2008) . high bulk density values under flat, contoured and contour+cross banded ridge treatments could be attributed to effect of crusting (ike, 1987; kowal and knabe, 1972; lombin, 1987) following delayed water movement/runoff, compared with up-down slope ridging (flat planting is done on harrowed and non-ridged fields irrespective of the slope of the field) that could allow more rapid surface water movement/runoff on the farms. also, between soil sampling dates (table 4), bulk density did not show any statistical difference, suggesting that sampling date did not affect bulk density changes. this perhaps resulted from the fact that samples were obtained at periods of at least two weeks after the last rainfall in the village. soil moisture content between treatments (table 2) did not significantly differ between treatments, though the updown slope treatment resulted in higher than all the other treatments and is followed by contour+ridge-tie treatments. moisture content however, increased with depth generally, perhaps moisture content increased with increasing clay content as clay would cause impaired drainage at the sub surface depths ((odunze, 2003; dim et al., 2008). between dates of sampling however, moisture content did not significantly changed. rice yield table 5 shows that significantly higher rice grain yield was obtained contour+cross banded ridge (1.68tha -1 ) and contoured ridge (1.64 tha 1 ) than flat planting (1.36tha -1 ) and lastly up-down slope (1.12tha -1 ) treatments for the 2008 and 2009 trial years. it is realizable that among the treatments, contour+cross banded ridges resulted in significantly highest grain yield than all the treatments over the two years the study was conducted. also contoured ridge treatment resulted in significantly higher grain yield (1.64 tha -1 ) than up-down slope ridging and flat planting. the result would therefore suggest that contoured+cross banded ridges would result in 50% higher grain yield than up-down slope ridging. contoured ridging gave 46% grain yield higher than up-down slope ridging. commonly in the ngs of nigeria, farmers plant upland rice on the flats after harrowing the fields. a few farmers however, plant on ridges made without considering slope direction, but commonly prefer updown slope for ease of ridging operation. in the context of farmers’ practice therefore, flat planting and up-down table 2. soil bulk density and moisture content of rice trial sites in dandume. treatments bulk density moisture content mg m -3 cm 3 cm -3 contour 1.53ba 0.53a contour+ridge tie 1.54ba 0.59a up-down slope ridging 1.51b 0.63a flat 1.60a 0.55a means with the same letters are not significantly different. table 3. soil bulk density and moisture content with depth. depth bulk density moisture content cm mg m -3 cm 3 cm -3 0-5 1.58a 0.44b 5-10 1.51b 0.72a means with the same letters are not significantly different. table 4. bulk density and soil moisture content over time. dates of sampling bulk density moisture content mgm -3 cm 3 cm -3 04-07-09 1.55a 0.57a 27-06-09 1.53a 0.61a 14-11-09 1.55a 0.55a means with the same letters are not significantly different. table 5. rice yield in dandume 2008 – 2009. treatment grain (tha difference stover (tha 1) (%) 1) contour 1.635 a 46.24 2.363 a contour +ridge 1.678 a 50.09 2.392 a tie up-down slope 1.118 b 2.072 a flat 1.355 ba 21.20 2.013 a means with the same letters are not significantly different. slope planting had not supported sustainable rice grain yield but part-contributed to reduced rice yield, soil degradation and increased farmer poverty conditions. the least grain yield under up-down slope ridging is attributed to effects of runoff, moisture depletion, nutrients depletion due to surface wash and eroded/ degraded state of the soils. adoption of contouring with cross banding of ridges on farmers’ fields is potentially capable of assuring optimal upland rice grain yield, alleviating farmer poverty/livelihoods with environmental protection and sustainable soil maintenance. data on stover yields of rice (table 5) under either of the treatments were not significantly different, but suggests that nerica upland rice would yield a little over 2 tha -1 of stover that could be used for feeding livestock or ploughed into the soil to improve the soil carbon contents, moisture retention capacity of the soils, check nutrients loss to leaching and soil erosion. cost and returns analysis the costs and returns analysis (table 6) indicate that labour and fertilizer inputs account for greater parts of total variable costs incurred in all the treatments. gross margin analysis of contour farming practices (table 6) show that from one hectare of cultivated land, total cost of production for contour, contour+ridge-tie, flat planting and farmer’s practice (up-down slope) in albasur were n162, 888.75, n155,835.35, and n161,796.00. also gross revenue of n243,250.00 was obtained for contour and contour+ridge-tie, n163,800.00 and n133,350.00/ha for planting on flat land and farmers practice respectively; thus giving a gross margin of n80,361.25 for contour and contour+ridge-tie, n7,964.65 and n28,446.00/ha for planting on flat and farmers practice, respectively. the costs and returns analysis indicated that cultivation of rice through contour and contour plus tie ridging was more profitable than planting on flat. this implies that intensification and expansion of rice production through contour farming would increase rice productivity, increase income of farmers and optimize soil quality for sustainable productivity. in terms of gross margin per naira invested, for every one naira invested on rice production using contour and contour plus tie ridging and planting on flat land, a net gain of 49 and 5 kobo were obtained, while for farmer ridging practice a net loss of 18 kobo (-0.18) was incurred. it would however, be borne in mind however, that contours are fixed assets that would have their returns/depreciation costs on construction spread over several years. farmers’ crop performance assessment table 7 shows farmers’ ranking of their grain yields at a farmer participatory action learning research (plar) session conducted in the villages. farmers ranked contour+ridge-tied treatment best performing treatment because it resulted in higher grain yield considering all four farmers’ grain yields. contoured ridges was assessed second best treatment for its better grain yields than their practice of either up-down slope ridging or planting on the flat harrowed fields. farmers found the pairwise ranking useful because they could appreciate why over the years they had not attained yields as high as they did obtain under table 6. costs and returns analysis contour farming practices in dandume local government area of katsina state, nigeria. location : albasur treatment costs/returns items contour (%) contour + ridge (%) plant on flat (%) farmer (%) (1) costs/ha tie land practice seed 10,400.00 6.38 10,400.00 6.38 10,400.00 6.67 10,400.00 6.72 fertilizer 25,600.00 15.72 25,600.00 15.72 25,600.00 16.43 25,600.00 16.55 fungicide 1,250.00 0.77 1,250.00 0.77 1,250.00 0.80 1,250.00 0.81 bag (sacks) 2,100.00 1,29 2,100.00 1,29 1,440.00 0.92 1,140.00 0.74 labour land preparation 35,888.67 22.03 35,888.67 22.03 35,888.67 23.03 35,888.67 23.20 planting 11,718.75 7.19 11,718.75 7.19 11,718.75 7.52 18,750’00 7.57 fertilizer application 14,648.44 8.99 14,648.44 8.99 14,648.44 9.40 14,648.44 9.47 weeding 30,517.58 18,74 30,517.58 18,74 30,517.58 19.58 30,517.58 19.72 harvesting 12,695.31 7.79 12,695.31 7.79 12,695.31 8.47 12,695.31 8.21 threshing 15,637.50 9.60 15,637.50 9.60 10,530.00 6.76 8,572.50 5.54 transportation 2,432.50 1.49 2,432.50 1.49 1,146.60 0.74 1,333.50 0.86 total variable cost n 162,888.75 n 162,888.75 n 155,835.35 n 161,796.00 (tvc)( n ) (2) returns average yield (kg/ha) 3475 3475 2340 1905 average price (kg/ha) 70.00 70.00 70.00 70.00 gross revenue ( n /ha) 243,250.00 243,250.00 163,800.00 133,350.00 gross margin (gr – 80,361.25 80,316.25 7,964.65 28,446.00 tvc)( n ) /ha return/naira invested 0.49 0.49 0.05 -0.18 table 7. farmer pair-wise ranking of treatments performance on rice grainyield. farmers grain yield with treatments (kg/plot) remarks c c+rt f up-s alh. maigari 22.5 22.1 20.0 24 88.6 alh garba 27.1 25 22.5 22 96.6 alh. lawal 35.7 39.5 26.8 42.8 144.8 alh. muktari 41.3 45.8 26.8 27.0 140.9 total 126.6 132.4 96.1 115.8 ranking 2nd 1st 4th 3rd contoured and contoured +cross banded ridge treatments. farmers commented that their planting of upland rice (nerica variety) on the flat and or on the updown slope ridges contributed to reduce their crop yields and caused erosion on their farms. in the study villages, farmers commonly plant upland rice either on the flats or on ridges made along the up-down directions. conclusion in realization of the crop performance on the farmers’ fields for the two years of the study, the following are inferred: 1. contoured+cross banded ridges would support optimal upland rice grain production on a sustainable base in the ngs. bulk density of soils under this treatment could decrease to be lower than that on flat planted fields especially because organic matter content of the soils could decrease soil hardening. rice stover should therefore be incorporated into the soils improve the soil quality to support sustainable agricultural production. 2. planting on the up-down slope or on the flats should be discontinued among farmers and in their place, contoured and contoured+cross-banded ridging should be adopted. these would ensure soil restoration/maintenance and sustainable productivity of the soils to aid alleviation of farmer poverty conditions with increased rice yield and improved environment. 3. contoured +cross banded ridges and contoured ridges would also retain rain water against dry spells, check surface wash and runoff, enhance optimal rice grain yield on a sustainable basis, increase farmer income from rice production and conserve the environment against degradation. from the above therefore, it is recommended that contoured+cross banded ridge practice be adopted as this practice would enhance rice grain yield, decrease soil crusting/hardening, mitigate soil moisture stress, control soil erosion on farmlands, ensure sustainable productivity of the soil and improve farmer livelihoods. acknowledgements the authors are immensely grateful to the international fertilizer development center (ifdc)-africa lome, fara and the institute for agricultural research (iar), ahmadu bello university zaria, nigeria for their supports for the conduct of the study and this publication. references blake gw, hartge kh (1986). bulk density. in methods of soil analysis part 1. physical and mineralogical methods. 2 nd edition. klute, a, campbell g. s, 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odunze ac, dim la, heng lk (2008). water supply and rain-fed maize production in a semi-arid zone alfisol of nigeria. in cd proceedings of 15 th international congress of the international soil conservation organization conference budapest, hungary, 18 th -23 rd may 2008. odunze ac, mando a, jean, amapu iy, tarfa bd, yusuf aa, abu st, bello h, ogbenna su (2010). climate change and the need for soil moisture stress mitigation in the arid and semi arid savanna of nigeria. proceedings of 34 th soil science society of nigeria conference (oluwatosin et al eds.). walter, gardner h (1986). water content. in methods of soil analysis part 1. physical and mineralogical methods. 2 nd edition. klute, a, campbell g. s, jackson r. d, mortland m. m and nielsen d. r (eds).american society of agronomy, madison, wisconsin, u. s. a., pp. 493-541. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (5), pp. 001-006, may, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper graphical analysis of genetic control of diverse traits in maize inbred lines zahra khodarahmpour islamic azad university, shoushtar branch, shoushtar, iran. e-mail: zahra_khodarahm@yahoo.com. accepted 12 january, 2024 this study was carried out in order to investigate the genetic structure of the twenty-eight maize hybrids established from eight maize inbred lines. the seed of the f1 population along with their parents were planted in iran in 2008, using rcbd with three replications. estimation of gene effects and some of the genetic parameters and graphic plot drawing of hayman-jinks method were accomplished. statistics a and b for all traits was significant. considering the average degree of dominance, as well as the hayman graphical plot, dominance effects were observed for grain yield and plant growth period traits over dominance, complete dominance for grain diameter and additive gene action with partial dominance for asi, grain filling period, grain number in row, grain number in ear, grain row number in ear, ear diameter, grain depth, 1000 grain weight and hektolitr weight traits. key words: maize, genetic parameters, graphic plot. introduction maize (zea mays l.) is one of the important cereal crops of iran and the world after wheat and rice. recent projections by the international food policy research institute indicate that by 2020, the demand for maize in developing countries will overtake that for wheat and rice (gerpacio and pingali, 2007). in iran, the average grain yield ha -1 in 2007 was 7.6 t ha -1 , whereas the soil and climatic conditions of iran are suitable for maize production, but the yield is low when compared to the united states of america with 9.5 t ha -1 in 2007. thus, it is prerequisite to select promising hybrids for different conditions in order to speed up economical crop production. maize breeders have successfully exploited heterosis for grain yield by crossing inbred lines to develop desirable hybrids. however, the nature of gene action involved in expression of heterosis for the grain yield and other traits of elite maize hybrids remains unresolved. the choice of efficient breeding program depends on a large knowledge of the type of gene action involved in the expression of the character. dominance gene action would favor the production of hybrids, whereas additive gene action indicates that standard selection procedures would be effective in breeding about changing the character (edwards et al., 1976). betran et al. (2003) reported that the gene action for yield, ear diameter, number of grain in row, grain depth and 1000 grain weight, is over dominance, while the gene action for number of grain rows is partial dominance. barati et al. (2003) showed that gene action for yield, number of grain in row and 1000 grain weight is over dominance, but for number of grain rows, it is partial dominance. also, srdic et al. (2007) found that dominant gene effects were more significant in maize grain yield and number of grains per row, while additive gene effects were more important for grain row number and 1000 grain weight. the mode of inheritance of grain row number was partial dominance, while over dominance was of greater importance for grain yield, number of grains per row and 1000 grain weight. wattoo et al. (2009) revealed that the yield potential like number of days taken for tasselling and number of days taken for silking, plant height, number of ears per plant, number of grain rows per ear, number of grains per row, 100 grain weight and grain yield per plant were controlled by the over dominance type of gene action. irshad-ul-haq et al. (2010) revealed that non-additive genetic effects were more pronounced in the inheritance of plant height, days to 50% tasseling, days to 50% silking, ear height and grain yield per plant. the graphic analysis showed that all the characters were under the genetic control of the over dominance type of gene action. also, for grain yield, the parents (nyp-8 and ncqpm-2) were close to the point of origin and had an excess of dominant genes, whereas fr-37 being farthest from the origin was carrying a maximum number of 2 table 1. analysis of variance mean squares obtained from 8×8 diallel crosses and analysis of the mean squares of diallel crosses of eight maize inbred lines. source df grain grain plant grain grain ear grain grain 1000 hektolitr grain yield grain yield asi(day) filling filling growth number row diameter diameter depth grain weight of (kg/hac) (kg/hac) period period period in ear number (cm) (cm) (cm) weight (gr/lit) variance (day) (day) (day) in ear (gr) block 2 5.08ns 53.19* 53.19* 8.58** 244832** 14* 3.88** 0.003ns 0.17ns 4946ns 5998ns 2317944* 2317944* genotype 35 4.16* 68.5** 68.5** 6.18** 135981** 9.57** 1.74** 0.05** 0.35** 10738** 5170* 1316319** 1316319** error 70 2.31 13.86 13.86 1.53 120742 6 0.49 0.02 0.18 3669 2608 584733 584733 a 7 7.87** 222.5** 222.5** 327.9** 76050.9* 6.53** 0.78** 0.03** 0.09** 46883** 11128** 1944439** 1944439** b 28 7.71** 103.64** 103.64** 93.16** 59029.1** 6.11** 0.66** 0.02** 0.07** 13836.8** 5208.6** 2775917** 2775917** b1 1 4.88ns 370.9** 370.9** 23.05ns 305419** 5.84* 0ns 0.02* 0.04ns 10108.7ns 49859.8** 10723930** 10723930** b2 7 7.32** 123.78** 123.78** 116.4** 26550.7ns 13.75** 0.7** 0.01* 0.04ns 13110** 2430.6* 2488819** 2488819** b3 20 8** 83.23** 83.23** 88.5** 77580** 3.45** 0.67** 0.02** 0.08** 14277.6** 3209.8** 2479001** 2479001** error 126 2.1 12.19 12.19 9.43 27638.8 1.20 0.11 0 0.02 3320 983 535380 535380 ns, * and **: nonsignificant, significant at 5 and 1% probability level, respectively. recessive alleles. hussain et al. (2009) reported that plant height, leaf area, grain yield per plant and harvest index, under normal and water stress conditions, indicated additive gene action with partial dominance. also, over dominance type of gene action was recorded for grains per row and 100 grain weight. heritability estimates ranged from moderate to high (54 to 85%) for various traits. rezaei et al. (2005) reported that high broadsence heritability estimates (0.85 to 0.95) were observed; but for most traits, the estimates for narrowsence heritability were relatively low, while the lowest values belonged to number of grain row and grain yield (0.23 and 0.38), respectively. heritability degrees varied from low to moderate for grain yield (singh et al., 2002; kalla et al., 2001). the diallel analysis study of the genetic traits would certainly be a valuable aid in the selection and breeding for better maize hybrids and synthetics. the information derived may be helpful in developing the selection criterion and selection of most promising inbred lines for further future breeding programs. materials and methods the study was conducted at shushtar city located in khuzestan province, iran (32°2 n and 48°50′ e, 150 m asl) in the year 2008. the type of soil found at this location is clay loam, and its ph = 7.6 with ec = 0.5 mmhos/cm. the experimental material comprised eight inbred lines of maize (a679, k3651/1, k3640/5, k47/2-2-1-21-2-1-1-1, k19, k18, k166a and k166b). the lines were crossed during spring, in 2008 in a partial diallel fashion to obtain grains of direct crosses. the f1 seed along with their parental inbred lines were sown in a triplicated randomized complete block design in 27 july (which was the planting date). each plot contained 3 rows that are 75 cm apart and 9 m in length and they consisted of 45 hills, two seeds of which were sown and one seedling of which was removed at the 4 leaves stage. the experiment was irrigated every 5 days, while fertilizers were applied prior to sowing at a rate of 120 kg n ha -1 and 140 kg p ha -1 , and an additional side dressing of 120 kg n ha -1 was applied at the six leaves stage of maize plants. data pertaining to anthesis silking interval (asi), grain filling period, plant growth period, grain row number in ear, grain number in row, grain number in ear, ear diameter, grain diameter, grain depth, 1000 grain weight, hektolitr weight and grain yield traits were analyzed using spss software. genetic analysis was done according to the diallel technique as described by hayman (1954) and jinks (1954). the information on gene action and presence of dominant and recessive genes in the parents was also inferred by plotting the covariance (wr) of each array against its variance (vr). results and discussion the analysis of variance (table 1) showed that mean square due to inbred lines and hybrids for all traits was significant, indicating the existence of variability among genotypes for all traits and thus the use of hayman-jinks model was allowed for genetic analysis of these characters. the results of the analysis of variance of f1 data showed significant differences for a and b, 3 table 2. estimation of the statistical indices and genetics parameters for different traits in eight maize inbred lines of diallel crosses. grain filling plant grain row grain grain ear grain grain 1000 grain hektolitr grain trait asi (day) growth number number number diameter diameter depth weight yield period (day) weight (gr) period (day) in ear in row in ear (cm) (cm) (cm) (gr/lit) (kg/hac) d 1.25 ns 114.5* 39.7** 7.4** 133.4ns -22034ns 0.58** 0.01ns 0.05ns 9876.99* 4274.35* 275424 ns h1 1.2** 88.8** 82.5** 6.42** 120.1* 20654.8** 0.52** 0.01* 0.04* 9458.5** 3162.03* 1982055** h 2 1** 61.07** 55.9** 3.29** 127.6* 21214.8** 0.37** 0.01* 0.03** 7045.6** 2830.8* 1499272** f 2.11 ns 24.88* 39.9** 6.1** -32.5ns -6340.4 ns 0.27** 0.003 ns 0.02* 3694.2* 653.02ns 646364 ns h 2 0.42 ns 52.4** 2.07 ns 0.689 ns 231.08ns 40761.6** -0.01** 0.003 ns 0.002 ns 1020.25 ns 7991.36** 1490713 ns e 0.7** 4.08** 3.15** 0.396** 35.8** 9212.9** 0.04** 0.001** 0.008 ns 1106.7** 327.6** 178460** h 1 0.98 0.88 1.44 0.93 0.95 0.97 0.95 1 0.89 0.98 0.86 2.68 d h 2 0.21 0.17 0.17 0.13 0.27 0.26 0.18 0.25 0.19 0.19 0.22 0.19 4 h 1 h 2 b 0.63 0.86 0.90 0.72 0.56 0.44 0.77 0.70 0.58 0.76 0.78 0.71 h 2 n 0.12 0.31 0.44 0.15 0.17 0.11 0.18 0.23 0.15 0.39 0.32 0.09 ns, * and **: nonsignificant, significant at 5 and 1% probability level, respectively. suggesting the presence of both additive and dominance genetic effects in the expression of all traits (table 1). the significant b1 item revealed the presence of directional dominant effects of genes. however, the b1 item for grain filling period, grain number in ear, grain row number in ear, grain number in row, hektolitr weight, grain diameter and grain yield traits was significant. among inbred lines, asymmetrical gene distribution for asi, grain filling period, plant growth period, grain row number, 1000 grain weight, hektolitr weight, ear diameter, grain diameter and grain yield were evident due to the significance of the b2 item. also, among parents, specific gene effects for all traits were evident due to the significance of the b3 item. irshad-ul-haq et al. (2010) reported that a, b, b1, b2 and b3 items for all traits were significant. in table 2, the genetic component of variation and the significant value of d for grain filling period, plant growth period, grain row number in ear, ear diameter, 1000 grain weight and hektolitr weight indicated the importance of additive genetic effects. significant h components (h1 and h2) revealed the importantce of dominant variation, while different distribution of dominant genes was displayed by an unequal value of h1 and h2. the additive and dominance effects covariance (f) used as a criterion of dominance and additive allele frequency for grain filling period, grain row number in ear, 1000 grain weight, ear diameter and grain depth, resulted to a significant and positive value which indicated that the positive genes were more frequent. the important effect of heterozygous loci for plants, which was indicated by a significant value of h 2 for grain filling period, plant growth period, grain number in ear, hektolitr weight and ear diameter traits was significant. the environmental variation (e) was significant for all traits, except for grain depth trait, indicating important environmental effects on traits. degree of dominance h 1 indicated over dominance d gene action for grain yield and plant growth period, but for grain diameter, it showed complete dominance, while for other traits, it showed partial dominance gene action. betran et al. (2003) reported that the gene action for yield, ear diameter, number of grain in row, grain depth and 1000 grain weight traits is over dominance, but for number of grain rows, it is partial dominance. 4 figure 1. vr/wr graph of (a) asi (day), (b) grain filling period (day), (c) plant growth period (day), (d) grain row number in ear, (e) grain number in row, (f) grain number in ear, (g) ear diameter (cm), (h) grain depth (cm), (i) grain diameter (cm), (j) 1000 grain weight (gr), (k) hektolitr weight (gr/l) and (l) grain yield (kg/plot). 1: k18; 2: k3651/1; 3: a679; 4: k166a; 5: k166b; 6; k3640/5; 7: k47/22-1-21-2-1-1-1 and 8: k19. 5 hussain et al. (2009) reported that plant height, leaf area, grain yield, per plant and harvest index, under normal and water stress conditions, indicated additive gene action with partial dominance. shiri et al. (2010) reported that the type of gene action for grain yield was additive and non additive. also, over dominance type of gene action was recorded for grains per row and 100 grain weight. however, over dominance type of gene action in maize was reported by prakash et al. (2004) and ali et al. (2007) for grain yield and for all traits by wattoo et al. (2009) and irshad-ul-haq et al. (2010). the proportion of genes for traits with positive and negative effects h 2 in the parents was found to be 4 h 1 higher than 0.25 for grain number in row and grain number in ear, while for grain diameter, it was 0.25 and for other traits, it was less than 0.25, denoting asymmetry at the loci showing dominance. broad sense heritability varied from 0.44 for grain number in ear to 0.90 for plant growth period, while narrow sense heritability was of non-additive nature and displayed a lower percentage than 44% of the genetic variation transferred from the parents. heritability degrees were reported from low to moderate for grain yield (singh et al., 2002; kalla et al., 2001). rezaei et al. (2005) reported high broadsence heritability estimates (0.85 to 0.95) for most traits, while the estimates for narrowsence heritability were relatively low, with the lowest values belonging to number of grain row and grain yield (0.23 and 0.38), respectively. however, hussain et al. (2009) reported that heritability estimates ranged from moderate to high (54 to 85%) for various traits. graphical representation revealed that the regression line intercepted the wr axis just below the point of origin which indicated the presence of over dominance type of gene action for plant growth period (figure 1c) and grain yield (figure 1l) traits and complete dominance for grain diameter (figure 1f), while for asi, grain filling period, grain number in row, grain number in ear, grain row number in ear, ear diameter, grain depth, 1000 grain weight and hektolitr weight (figures 1a, b, d, e, g, h, i, j and k) traits, the regression line intercepted the wr axis just above the point of origin which indicated the presence of partial dominance (additive) type of gene action. nonetheless, these results were in agreement with the results received for the degree of dominance h 1 d . inbred line a679 for asi trait (figure 1a), being closer to the origin, possessed maximum dominant genes, while inbred line k3640/5 had mostly, recessive alleles. however, lines k3640/5 and a679 for grain filling period (figure 1b), lines k19 and k166b for plant growth period (figure 1c), lines k3651/1 and k47/2-2-1-21-2-1-1-1 for grain row number in ear (figure 1d) trait, inbred lines a679 and k166a for grain number in row (figure 1e) trait, inbred lines k3640/5 and k3651/1 fo r grain number in ear (figure 1f) trait, lines k166b and k3640/5 for ear diameter (figure 1g), lines k166b and k3640/5 for grain depth (figure 1h), k18 and k166a for 1000 grain weight (figure 1j), lines k166a and k166b for hektolitr weight trait (figure 1k) and lines k166b and k18 for grain yield (figure 1l) had respectively, maximum dominant and recessive genes. for grain diameter (figure 1i) trait, lines k3651/1, k166a and k3640/5 had maximum dominant genes, while line k18 had maximum recessive genes. saleem et al. (2007) indicated that inbred lines b-46 and line ex-285 possessed maximum dominant genes for 100 grain weight and grain yield per plant, respectively. for number of days taken to tasseling, number of days taken to silking and number of grain row per ear, inbred line syp-24 had maximum dominant genes. irshad-ulhaq et al. (2010) indicated that for grain yield, the parents (nyp-8 and ncqpm-2) were close to the point of origin and had an excess of dominant genes, whereas fr-37 being farthest from the origin was carrying a maximum number of recessive alleles. in this study, all traits except grain yield, plant growth period and grain diameter were controlled by additive type of gene action. prediction in the case of additive gene action would be expected to be more reliable as compared to the characters which are controlled by the non-additive type of gene action. a preponderance of non-additive effects would not favor mass selection in altering any traits, but pedigree test, sib test, progeny test or various combinations among them, will certainly be required to improve grain yield. however, inheritance of grain yield and plant growth period appeared in the over dominance type of gene action. conclusively, grain yield and plant growth period are non-additively controlled and selection for these population must be practiced with great care to develop pure breeding line. references ali g, rather ac, ishfaq a, dar sa, wani sa, khan mn (2007). gene action for grain yield and its attributes in maize (zea mays l.). international j. agric. sci., 3(2): 767-788. barati a, nematzadeh gh, kianoosh gha, choukan r (2003). an investigation of gene action on different traits of maize (zea mays l.) using diallel crosses system. iranian agric. sci. j., 34(1): 163-168. betran fj, ribaut jm, beck d, leon dg (2003). genetic diversity, specific combining ability and heterosis in tropical maize under stress and nonstress environments. crop sci., 43: 797-806. edwards lh, ketata h, smith el (1976). gene action of heading date, plant height and other characters in two winter wheat crosses. crop sci., 16: 275-277. gerpacio vr, pingali pl (2007). tropical and subtropical maize in asia: production systems, constraints and research priorities. cimmyt, mexico, isbn: 978-970-648-155-9, pp. 93. hayman bi (1954) the theory and analysis of diallel cross-1. genet. 32: 789-809. hussain i, ahsan m, saleem m, ahmad a (2009). gene action studies for agronomic traits in maize under normal and water stress conditions. pak. j. sci., 46(2): 107-112. irshad-ul-haq m, ullah ajmal s, munir m, gulfaraz m (2010). gene action studies of different quantitative traits in maize. pak. j. bot., 42(2): 1021-1030. jinks jl (1954). the analysis of continuous variation of a diallel cross of 6 nicotiana rustica l. genet., 39: 767-788. kalla v, kumar r, basandrai ak (2001). combining ability analysis and gene action estimates of yield and yield contributing characters in maize. crop res., 22: 102-106. prakash s, ganguli dk (2004). combining ability for various yield component characters in maize (zea mays l.). j. res. birsa agric. univ., 16(1): 55-60. rezaei ah, yazdisamadi b, zali a, rezaei am, tallei a, zeinali, h (2005). an estimate of heterosis and combining ability in maize using diallele crosses of inbred lines. iranian j. agric. sci., 36(2): 385-397. saleem m, shahzad k, javid m, ahmed a (2007). genetic analysis for various quantitative traits in maize (zea mays l.) inbred lines. international j. agri. bioc., 3: 379-382. shiri m, aliyev rt, choukan r (2010). water stress effects on combining ability and gene action of yield and genetic properties of drought tolerance indices in maize. res. j. environ. sci., 4(1): 75-84. singh pk, chaudharg lb, akhtar sa (2002). heterosis in relation to combining ability in maize. j. res. birsa-agric. univ., 14: 37-43. srdic j, pajic z, drinic-mladenovic c (2007). inheritance of maize grain yield components. maydica, 52(3): 261-264. wattoo fm, saleem m, ahsan m, sajjad m, ali w (2009). genetic analysis for yield potential and quality traits in maize (zea mays l.). american-eurasian j. agri. environ. sci., 6(6): 723-729. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (10), pp. 001-009, october, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper evaluation of cassava varieties for cassava mosaic disease resistance jointly by agro-inoculation screening and molecular markers huiping bi1, mahender aileni1,2 and peng zhang1* 1 national key laboratory of plant molecular genetics, institute of plant physiology and ecology, shanghai institutes for biological sciences, chinese academy of sciences, 300 fenglin road, shanghai 200032, china. 2 plant biotechnology research unit, department of biotechnology, kakatiya university, warangal–506 009, india. accepted 25 may, 2020 the whitefly-transmitted cassava mosaic disease (cmd) has become a potential threat to cassava (manihot esculenta crantz) cultivation in asean countries because of its devastating impact on cassava and overgrowth of whitefly vector regionally. to reduce the risk caused by the disease, it is necessary to evaluate the capacity of major cassava germplasms for cmd resistance to guide local farmers in adopting cmd-resistant cultivars once cmd epidemics occur. after agro-inoculation mediated infection of plantlets of collected cassava cultivars from china, thailand and other asean countries, the 18 cultivars tested developed various levels of cmd symptoms, indicating a lack of resistance to cmd. there was a positive association between symptom severity scores and accumulation levels of viral dna in the different cultivars tested. the molecular markers rme1, ssry28 and/or ns158, which link with the cmd resistance loci cmd2 in cassava, were found in only three cultivars (11q, t7 and n13) with moderate resistance to cmd. our study suggests that cmd-resistance germplasms should be introduced from africa. key words: manihot esculenta crantz, cassava mosaic disease, agro-inoculation, molecular marker, screening. introduction cassava mosaic disease (cmd) is one of the major constraints in cultivation of cassava (manihot esculenta crantz), an important tropical and subtropical root crop (fauquet and fargette, 1990) . it is caused by several cassava mosaic geminiviruses and is the most important disease of cassava in africa and the indian subcontinent (legg and fauquet, 2004). although there are no reports of cassava mosaic virus in asean countries yet, there is a potential and serious threat on cassava production due to epidemics of the whitefly (bemisia tabaci) vector in the cassava growing regions, which makes the producers and breeders to be at alert. cassava, native to south america, was introduced to south china from surrounding south-east asian countries countries 200 years ago (zhang et al., 1998). in the last *corresponding author. e-mail: zhangpeng@sibs.ac.cn. tel: +86-21-54924096. fax: +86-21-54924318. two decades, millions of cassava hybrid seeds provided by collaborators from the centro internacional de agricultura tropical (ciat) with the support of nippon foundation were used for breeding new cultivars suitable for chinese ecological environments. for example, cultivars sc5, sc8, gr891 and gr911 were bred in the farmer participatory crop improvement program (howeler, 2001). recently, importation of core cassava germplasms from ciat diversified the genetic background of cassava in china, allowing cassava breeders to produce new varieties with more desirable traits. nevertheless, most of these germplasms are expected to be susceptible to cmd due to their south american origin. high cmd resistant cassava had been developed through integration of resistance trait from manihot glaziovii by interspecific hybridization, which becomes the major resistance source dominating cmd resistance in panafrica (fargette et al., 1996). classical genetic analysis and genetic mapping of some resistant landraces showed that a major dominant gene, cmd2, confers resistance to file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org cmd and important molecular markers associated with cmd2 have been identified (fregene et al., 1997; akano et al., 2002). another cmd resistance gene cmd1 was also identified and mapped on the cassava genetic linkage map by ciat (akano et al., 2002). cmd2 is located on linkage group r, whereas cmd1 is on linkage group d of the cassava molecular map (fregene et al., 1997). the action of the two genes is also different: cmd2 is dominant, whereas cmd1 appears recessive in that its effect is detected only in backcross progeny and not in the f1 (akano et al., 2002). cmd2 is on linkage group r of the male cassava framework map 8 cm from the marker ssry28. later, the group at ciat identified ns158 to be closely linked to cmd resistance. the dominant cmd2 gene for cmd resistance was introgressed into latin american germplasms through maker-assisted selection (mas). after two years of evaluation, 14 genotypes with high cmd resistance and good rooting yield potential were selected (okogbenin et al., 2007). in parallel, transgenic approaches of engineering cmd resistance in cassava have been reported (reviewed by vanderschuren et al., 2007a). for example, increased acmv resistance in cassava have been developed in transgenic cassava plants expressing antisense rna or dsrna targeting the viral mrnas of rep (ac1), trap (ac2) and ren , or the viral untranslational common region (zhang et al., 2005; vanderschuren et al., 2007b, 2009). currently, a dozen of elite cassava varieties, for example ku50 and nz199, are grown by local farmers in asean countries. evaluation of their capacity for cmd resistance is of importance due to devastating impact of cmd on cassava production. in order to screen cassava genotypes for cmd resistance efficiently, a platform that could integrate virus infection tests and marker-assisted selection would be useful. most of acmv inoculations were conducted by biolistic viral dna delivery (briddon et al., 1998; zhang et al., 2005) and only recently, a very efficient agro-inoculation protocol with acmv-nog infectious clones in the laboratory was developed (vanderschuren et al., 2009). in this paper, we developed a screening system, which combines the infection assay and cmd resistance-associated molecular markers to identify cmd resistant or susceptible cassava varieties. to our knowledge, this is the first report of screening cmd resistance using cassava varieties from asean region. materials and methods plant material cassava (m. esculenta crantz) varieties used in the present study were grown in a greenhouse condition under 25 ± 2°c and 16 h/8 h photoperiod. cassava varieties sc5, sc8, sc124, sc205, nz199 and zm9781 were provided by chinese academy of tropical agricultural science. cultivar ku50 (thailand) and gr911 were provided by guangxi institute of subtropical crops. other cultivars including n13, q12, r9, t7, v5, 3c, 5e, 11q, 16p, 18r and tms60444 were from the in vitro germplasm bank established in shanghai center for cassava biotechnology, chinese academy of sciences. besides the varieties mentioned above, two other varieties were also used in molecular marker analysis: tme3 (a nigerian landrace displaying strong cmd resistance, as the positive control) and tms30555 (a cmd-susceptible line, as the negative control) (akano et al., 2002), kindly provided by international institute of tropical agriculture (iita). virus isolate and bacterial strain the infectious clones of acmv-nog dna-a and dna-b (liu et al., 1997) harboring in the agrobacterium tumefaciens strain lba4404 were used for agro-inoculation of all cassava varieties. the genbank accession numbers of the published acmv-nog dna-a and dnab sequences used in this study are aj427910 and aj427911, respectively. the construction of infectious clones of acmv-nog had been reported by vanderschuren et al. (2009). agro-inoculation clones of a. tumefaciens strain lba4404 containing the infectious clones of acmv-nog dna-a and dna-b (vanderschuren et al., 2009) were separately cultured on yeb plates supplemented with streptomycin (100 mg/l), rifampicin (25 mg/l) and kanamycin (50 mg/l) at 28°c for 72 h. then the bacteria of dna-a and dna-b were mixed together in equal proportion. one-month-old cassava plantlets with 5 6 leaves were needle-punctured 6 times with the mixed bacteria suspension at the tip of the shoot axis using a fine syringe needle (ø 0.5 mm). a minimum of three plants per variety were inoculated. molecular marker analysis genomic dna was isolated from fresh and young leaves of all uninfected cassava varieties grown in the greenhouse according to dellaporta et al. (1983) . ssr markers ssry28 and ns158, and a scar marker rme1 associated with cmd resistance were provided by dr. martin fregene, ciat, and were used in genotyping the dna samples (akano et al., 2002). each 50 l pcr reaction contained 50 ng genomic dna, 0.4 m of each forward and reverse primers, 10 mm tris–hcl (ph 8.5), 50 mm kcl, 1.5 mm mgcl2, 0.2 mm of each dntp and 1 u taq dna polymerase. the pcr profile involved an initial denaturation for 5 min at 95°c; then 30 cycles at 95°c for 40 s, 56°c for 1 min, 72°c for 30 s; and a final extension at 72°c for 10 min. for ssr marker, 2.0 l of the pcr product was electrophoresed on 8% polyacrylamide gels for 5 6 h at 100 v, and dna was visualized by standard silver staining using the promega's silver staining kit (promega, shanghai, china). the scar marker was scored on a 1.5% agarose gel and visualized by ethidium bromide. virus detection in infected plants using southern blot analysis total dna was extracted from the top leaves of three infected plants per variety at 60 days post infection (dpi) according to soni and murray (1994). aliquots of 5 ug of total dna from each sample without digestion were analyzed using standard protocol for southern blot (sambrook et al., 1989). accumulated viral dna was hybridized with a dig-labeled probe specific to the acmv-nog ac1 gene. labeling, hybridization and chemiluminescent detection were performed according to the instruction of the manufacturer (roche figure 1. cassava mosaic disease symptoms on plant and leaves of different cassava varieties after agroinoculation with african cassava mosaic virus infectious clone acmv-nog. a, b: tms60444; c, d: ku50; e, f: q12; g, h: sc8. applied science). the intensity of bands was quantified by using eagle eye® ii still video system (stratagene). cmd symptom assessment after agro-inoculation, cmd symptom development on new emerging leaves was assessed weekly. the symptoms were recorded from 10 dpi to 60 dpi till each plant has developed more than 20 new leaves. disease symptom severity on fully expanded leaves was recorded on a scale of 0 4 (0, no symptom; 1, faint mosaic; 2, yellow mosaic, malformation, 5 10% size reduction; 3, severe mosaic, distortion, up to 50% size reduction; 4, severe mosaic, severe distortion, leaf reduced to veins with 50 80% size reduction), as described by zhang et al. (2005). results screening of cassava varieties for cmd resistance by agro-inoculation after agro-inoculation of 18 cassava varieties with acmvnog in a greenhouse, symptom development was monitored regularly. various foliar mosaic symptoms were displayed by all plants tested of tms60444, ku50, q12 and sc8 at 60dpi (figure 1). among these varieties, q12 and sc8 showed more severe symptoms than tms60444 and ku50 at the whole plant level (figure 1 a, c, e, g). also, leaves of tms60444 showed downward curling in most cases (figure 1b) and ku50 displayed certain upward curling (figure 1d). yellowing, mosaic symptoms and reduced size were observed on the leaves of q12 (figure 1e, f) whereas sc8 displayed foliar mosaic symptoms with different degrees of malformation vary from faint to severe (figure 1g, h). these four varieties showed varied degrees of foliar symptom severity based on leaf position (figure 2). symptoms were most severe on leaves in positions of 7 9 for tms60444, ku50, q12 and sc8. for tms60444, the average level of severity score had never reached 2.0 on newly developed leaves while the average level remained high for new leaves of q12 and sc8. symptoms observed on sc8 and q12 are more severe than those of tms60444 and ku50. the symptom trend lines of other varieties are provided in the supplementary data (suppl. table 1). total symptom severity scores of the 18 varieties are presented in figure 3 in the order from lowest to highest (figure 3, upper panel). cultivar tms60444, the model cultivar for genetic transformation frequently used in virus resistance study (zhang et al., 2005; vanderschuren et al., 2007b, 2009), showed a moderate resistance to acmvnog infection. this is in consistent with results from a previous study on aflp analysis of cmd resistance (fregene et al., 2000). in this study, all varieties were categorized into three groups: moderately resistant (mr) varieties r9, v5, 16p, tms60444, n13, t7 and 11q with total severity scores less than 40; moderately susceptible (ms) varieties 3c, sc205, ku50, zm9781, sc5, 18r and gr911 with total severity scores from 40 50; and highly susceptible (hs) varieties q12, sc8, sc124 and nz199 with severity scores more than 50. viral dna accumulation in infected plants the accumulation of acmv dna was detected by southern blot analysis in apical leaves of inoculated plants at 60 dpi (figure 4). in the six varieties analyzed, the accumulation of acmv dnas, including doublestranded (ds), single-stranded (ss) dna and open circular (oc) forms, was detected. the level of viral dna accumulation was lower in n13, t7 and tms60444 than figure 2. cassava mosaic disease symptom severity scores on new emerging leaves 1 to 20 of cassava varieties ku50, sc8, q12 and tms60444 after acmv-nog agro-inoculation. the bottom panel illustrates representative leaves showing different degrees of symptoms for the evaluation of symptom severity scores (0 = no symptoms, 4 = severe symptoms). in ku50, sc8 and q12. this result reflected a correlation between symptom severity and level of viral dna accumulation. molecular marker analysis the 18 cassava varieties, together with the cmd resistant line tme3 and the susceptible line tms30555, were evaluated by three markers associated with the cmd resistance gene cmd2, including sequencecharacterized amplified regions (scar) rme1 and simple sequence repeats (ssr) ssry28 and ns158 (lokko et al., 2007). for the scar marker rme1, only varieties 11q (suppl. figure 1a, lane 11) and t7 (suppl. figure 1a, lane 18) showed the expected bands, similar to the cmd resistant line tme3 (suppl. figure 1a, lane 21). resistance-associated bands were obtained using primers of ssr marker ssry28 in varieties n13, 11q and t7 (suppl. figure 1b; lanes 9, 11, 18, respectively); whereas varieties 11q (suppl. figure 1c, lane 11) and t7 (suppl. figure 1c, lane 18) showed the same pattern as the resistant line tme3 by using ssr marker ns158. using scar-rme1 and ssr-ns158, variety 18r (suppl. figure 1a and c, lane 7) showed a similar pattern as the susceptible line tms30555 (suppl. figure 1a and c, lane 22). from the molecular marker analyses and agroinoculation screening, varieties t7, 11q, and n13 showed resistance-associated bands and low symptom severity scores compared to varieties nz199, sc124, sc8 and q12 (figure 3). all varieties showing the resistance associated bands as the resistant line tme3 were grouped under mr type. resistanceassociated bands were not detected in any varieties of either ms or hs classes. but the only variety 18r, which come under ms group showed same band pattern as the susceptible line tms30555. moreover, there are also some varieties in mr group such as r9, v5 and 16p, which come under the lower symptom severity scores, did not show any resistance-associated bands. discussion successful agro-inoculation of cassava with acmv was reported recently (vanderschuren et al., 2009) and proved useful for cmd studies in cassava. using agro-inoculation, 18 cassava varieties for cmd resistance under greenhouse conditions were screened. according to the average total symptom severity scores, cassava varieties were grouped into three classes: mr, ms and hs, respectively. in parallel, analysis of cmd2 associated molecular markers rme1, ssry28 and ns158 showed resistance-associated banding pattern in varieties n13, t7 and 11q. the result suggests that other resistance loci or genes related to cmd resistance might exist in the other cassava cultivars from the mr group. most of previous screening studies for cmd resistance in africa were conducted in field conditions under high cmd epidemic pressure (akano et al., 2002; lokko et al., 2005; okogbenin et al., 2007). in this paper, agroinoculation of acmv-n og infectious clones was used for the first time to screen cassava varieties from asean countries for cmd resistance in a greenhouse. an agro-inoculation mediated screening system has several advantages compared to field screening studies. first, conditions for cassava growth and virus infection such as temperature, humidity and light can be controlled under greenhouse conditions; this could minimize the draw-backs of field evaluations. second, populations of whitefly vectors vary frequently with variable environmental conditions such as rainfall distribution, light intensity and temperature (hahn et al., 1980); thus, field evaluation for cmd-resistance screening that relies on vector -transmission of the virus can be unpredictable. third, cmd resistance screening experiments in a greenhouse are safer than in the field in asean countries, where cmd does not occur in cassava field yet. finally, agroinoculation of cassava with acmv infectious clones can facilitate the study of virus infection, transmission and pathogenesis. nevertheless, there are some limiting factors for the agro-inoculation mediated screening system. expression of cmd in different cassava genotypes is known to be dependent on the figure 3. evaluation of cassava mosaic disease resistance in combination of agro-inoculation screening and the molecular marker analysis. the upper panel shows the average total symptom severity scores of cassava varieties and the lower panel shows the results of molecular marker analysis using rme1, ssry28 and ns158. + means having the expected bands similar to the cassava mosaic disease resistant line tme3; means no expected band detected. figure 4. southern blot analysis of acmv-nog replication and accumulation in leaves of different cassava varieties after agro-inoculation. p, plasmid control; i, acmvnog infected plants; m, mock inoculated control. the positions of viral single-stranded (ss), double-stranded (ds) and open circular (oc) dna forms are indicated. figure 1. molecular marker analysis of cassava varieties. a: scar marker rme1; b: ssr marker ssry28; c: ssr marker ns158. m, molecular marker; 1, ku50; 2, v5; 3, gr911; 4, sc205; 5, nz199; 6, sc8; 7, 18r; 8, sc5; 9, n13; 10, 5e; 11, 11q; 12, 16p; 13, 3c; 14, sc124; 15, q12; 16, zm9781; 17, r9; 18, t7; 19, tms60444; 20, h2o; 21, tme3 (resistant line); 22, tms30555 (susceptible line). environment, and a strong relationship between the range of symptoms and genotype x environment interaction has been reported fargette et al., 1994). cmd evaluation requires evaluation tests in multiple environments to confirm the resistant genotypes (lokko et al., 2005). resistance screening in the green-house does not reflect field conditions but proves to be a rapid and reliable monitor system to evaluate cmd resistance capacity of varied cassava germplasms. in this study, all inoculated plants developed cmd symptoms with various degree of severity. one reason might be due to the lack of cmd resistance genes in the varieties tested as confirmed by the molecular marker analysis. after the mapping of two cmd resistance genes cmd1 (recessive) and cmd2 (dominant) on the cassava genetic linkage map established by ciat (akano et al., 2002; fregene et al., 2001), three molecular markers associated with cmd2, namely rme1, ssry28 and ns158, were developed (lokko et al., 2007). through cassava breeding programs, these markers hold great promise in fast tracking the cmd-resistant germplasms. for example, with the aim to introduce latin american germplasm to africa, these markers were used to preselect neotropical cassava genotypes for cmd resistance (okogbenin et al., 2007). in this study, the varieties holding the cmd2 markers are possibly from an african origin but other varieties belonging to the mr group did not have the markers. one possible reason is that other genes may contribute to cmd resistance besides cmd2. this is supported by the identification of five additional sources of resistance to cmd (legg and fauquet, 2004). in this agro-inoculation screening studies, none of the cassava varieties tested showed immunity to virus infection but cmd resistance was associated with suppressed levels of viral dna accumulation. based upon virus accumulation and symptom severity scores, cassava varieties were categorized into different groups. however, symptom severity is not always correlated with virus concentration (ogbe et al., 2003). in conclusion, 18 cassava varieties from asean countries were screened for cmd resistance using agroinoculation and molecular markers associated with the cmd2. this study indicated that most cassava varieties tested are susceptible to cmd, suggesting that those germplasms originated directly or indirectly from latin america as they lacked the cmd resistant genes/ mechanism. it is necessary to introduce african cassava germplasms that harbor cmd resistance genes such as cmd2 to assist breeding for cmd resistance. acknowledgements the authors thank dr. john stanley (john innes centre, u.k.) for the acmv clones. this work was supported by grants from the chinese academy of sciences (no. kscx2-yw -g -035), the national natural science foundation of china (no. 30771366), the national basic research program (2010cb126605) and national high technology research and development program (2009aa10z102) of china, the earmarked fund for modern agro-industry technology research system (nycytx-17) and the shanghai pujiang talent program (08pj14109). references akano ao, dixon ago, mba c, barrera e, fregene m (2002). genetic mapping of a dominant gene conferring resistance to cassava mosaic disease. theo. appl. genet. 105: 521-525. briddon r, liu s, pinner m, markham p (1998). infectivity of african cassava mosaic virus by biolistic incolulation. arch. virol. 143: 24872492. dellaporta sl, wood j, hicks jr (1983). a plant dna minipreparation: version ii. plant mol. biol. rep. 1: 19-21. fargette d, jeger m, fauquet c, fishpool ldc (1994). analysis of temporal disease progress of african cassava mosaic virus. phytopathology 84: 91-98. fargette d, colon lt, bouveau r, fauquet c (1996). components of resistance of cassava to african cassava mosaic virus. 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mosaic virus is enhanced by viral dna-a bidirectional promoterderived sirnas. plant mol. biol. 64: 549-557. vanderschuren h, alder a, zhang p, gruissem w (2009). dosedependent rnai-mediated geminivirus resistance in the tropical root crop cassava. plant mol. biol. 70: 265-272. zhang p, vanderschuren h, futterer j, gruissem w (2005). resistance to cassava mosaic disease in transgenic cassava expressing antisense rnas targeting virus replication genes. plant biotechnol. j. 3: 385-397. zhang w, lin x, li k, huang j, tian y, lee j, fu q (1998). cassava agronomy research in china. in: howeler rh, ed. cassava breeding, agronomy and farmer participatory research in asia. proceeding of 5th regional workshop, danzhou, hainan, china, pp. 191-210. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (2), pp. 001-007, february, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review aquaculture practices and market strategies of farmed tilapia in china matlala moloko p.1,2, kpundeh mathew d.1,2 and yuan yongming1,2* 1 wuxi fishery college, nanjing agricultural university, wuxi, 214081 china. 2 key laboratory of freshwater fisheries and germplasm resources utilization, ministry of agriculture, freshwater fisheries resource center of chinese academy of fishery sciences, wuxi 214081, jiangsu china. accepted 21 december, 2023 tilapia has become one of the major species of aquatic products in close link with both domestic and international markets. nowadays, the demand for fish and fisheries product has being exacerbated by the continued increase in human population the world over. this was due to the fact that global captured fishery was declining following the increased human exploitation for the commercially important fishes. aquaculture or fish farming has become one of the solutions to maintaining the continuous supply of fish to commercial markets. china was by far the largest producer and exporter of tilapia products irrespective of some constraints such as soaring production costs, price and weather fluctuations. in the country, tilapia production was mostly carried out in the southern and southeastern coastal areas where subtropical conditions favored the growth and reproduction of the species. this paper reports on production and marketing systems of tilapia in china. tilapia products produced in china had to pass through different channels before reaching their final consumers. major international markets for tilapia products produced in china included among others, the united state, european union and russia. this work will guide potential investors and competitors for tilapia market in china and the world at large. key words: tilapia production, marketing system/channels, export, china. introduction tilapia is an important food commodity, commercially produced in many south-east asian countries, with nile tilapia being the most important species (el-sayed, 2006). tilapia farming industry in china is evolving rapidly. china is by far the leading tilapia producing country and is currently producing one half of the global supply (fitzsimmons et al., 2007). according to lai and yang (2008), this prosperous tilapia production in china is being practiced in the southern part of china, using almost all types of culture systems with different intensifications. the increased tilapia production in china can be attributed to the wider acceptance of the species ∗corresponding author. e-mail: yuan@ffrc.cn. tel: +86-510 85569021. fax: +86-510-85550245. at the international market (zhao, 2011), owing to the fact that, the local market is less rewarding and yet developing (yang, 2010). china customs bureau report for the first quarter of 2012 revealed that, in 2011, the country exported a rounded sum of 330,300 tonnes of fresh and frozen tilapia to the us; and exceeded 2008 export by 32%. just like any aquaculture venture, the success of tilapia culture depends on the marketability of the products and the wise and efficient use of the available resources (bardach et al., 1972). according to ruddle and grandstaff (1978), tilapia industry can be categorized into three subsystems of aquaculture: procurement, transformation, and marketing; wherein, the formal includes procuring of production inputs such as seed, feed and labour. transformation subsystem on the other hand includes the production process wherein seed stock 2 figure 1.trend of global tilapia production from 2000 to 2010 (fao globefish). is reared to marketable sizes. marketing, as a subsystem encompasses both domestic and foreign exchange, and includes the various marketing intermediaries and consumers. commercial production has become popular in many countries around the world and the traditional markets which were in asia and africa have expanded in many countries within europe and the us (maribel, 2002).in china, the marketing system of fish such as tilapia in cooperate many activities stemming from harvesting, processing, selling and consuming; which can be referred to as marketing channel, distribution channel or supply chain. marketing system of tilapia is largely controlled by the following factors in the production systems viz: (1) production cost, (2) operating costs, (3) competition among producers; (4) degree of processing, (5) production scale and consumers’ demand (pillay, 1994). while the marketing channels for tilapia product are governed mainly by the nature of the products, the end consumers and the characteristics of the farms; though the product sold from aquaculture farms are generally for human consumption (beveridge and mcandrew, 2000). global trade in tilapia has witnessed an impressive flourishing in the last two decades, this according to vunniccini (2001), is expected continue. in some countries famers can market their products directly to consumers whereas, in most cases, farmers may need to use middlemen during production chain. in china, marketable sized tilapia reach the market outlets through middlemen who act as go-inbetween in the production system. this paper reports on production, marketing channels and mode of distribution of tilapia to the respective buyer or market outlets. furthermore, this paper enlisted constrains encountered by farmers in the production and marketing of tilapia. global tilapia production some eighty-five countries across the world are culturing tilapia (gupta and acosta, 2004). historically, tilapia was produced and consumed mainly in africa and asia, but nowadays has gained increased acceptance among consumers in developed and developing countries thereby forming a network of markets (ferdouse, 2001; vunniccini, 2001). apart from catching consumers’ attention around the world, tilapia also plays a significant role in global aquatic production through culture-based fisheries; more so as global captured fishery is declining. tilapia production continues to bloom and is showing a steady increase yearly. in 2000 to 2010, tilapia production increased from 1.27 million metric tons (mt) to 3.4 million mt (figure 1). china, among other countries is the largest contributor to the 2010 global tilapia production (figure 2). tilapia production status in china tilapia production in china continues to increase, reaching 1,330,000 mt in 2010, compared with the 600,000 mt in 2000 (figure 3). this production follows a smooth trend from 2000 to 2010, although it dwindles from 2006 to 2008. quality seeds, water availability, labor and farming experience, according to zhao (2011) are key factors that have contributed to the rapid growth in tilapia production. the quality of seed stocked during the production cycle normally determines the survival rate of the fish (xiao et al., 2012), which in turn will determine the yield, and informs the total revenue at the end of the production. the fall in production (1,110,000 mt) in 2008 reflected a 3 figure 2. major contributors to 2010 global tilapia production (fao globefish). figure 3.tilapia production trend in china from 2000 to 2010 (statistic unit, moa). figure 4. percentage tilapia production of the major producing provinces in 2010 (statistic unit, moa). representing 40.62%, which was higher than the 39.16% 39.29% decrease. this fall according to helga (2010), was due to price hikes within the production chain. liu et al. (2012) further explained the rationale behind the decline, which according to their studies, was due to very low temperatures at the beginning of 2008; which informed the 25% decrease in production with reference to 2007. after the prices for major input reduced in 2009, the production recovered, acounting for 1,258,000 mt, obtained in 2010. furthermore, a sharp increase in production was also observed in 2010 reflecting a 49.51% compared to previous years. currently major tilapia producing provinces in china are guangdong, hainan, guangxi and fujian. in 2000, tilapia production in guangdong was 249,446 (39.6%), fujian 105,589 (16.8%), guangxi 102,886 (16.4%), and hainan 64,786 (10.3%) mt (lai and yang, 2008). out of the 1,331,890 tonnes of tilapia total production in 2010, guangdong continues to be the leading province (figure 4), contributing 624,178 (46.86%), followed by hainan with 250,645 (18.2%), guangxi with 214,404 (16%) and fujian with 109,450 (8%) mt. distribution channels of farmed tilapia products transformation of the seed into marketable size product is only one half of the battle, since the farmer will only obtain the output in the form of profit after the produced products are being sold to the market. this makes it very crucial for farmers to create mutual profitable partnerships with the market outlet as they would not compromise their profiteering adventure, in a bid to ensuring a sustainable tilapia industry. before this time, when aquatic farming was in its rudimentary stage, it was meant to make available fresh products for the farmers and their families or their local communities. lately, the production has expanded and the market has extended. depending on the market demands and requirements, tilapia products in china can be distributed domestically or internationally to the market outlets. generally, one or more intermediaries may be involved in the marketing of the products and naturally; a mark of price is tagged at each stage (stigler, 1969). in china, there are a variety of market outlets ranging from local/domestic market, to processing manufacturers up to the international market. most marketing for farmers is done by the middlemen, since cooperative marketing is not too pronounced. nevertheless some famers can still sell their product directly to the local market or to processing companies. the marketing channel for tilapia products in china can be divided in two (figure 5). first marketing channel start from the producer to domestic market, then to the consumer. the second one is a bit long, starting from producers to processing companies, international market, then to the consumers. no matter the route used in the distributed channel, the end users will be the consumers. most of the time, farmers may sell the entire production of live-fish to the middlemen, and then the fishes will be distributed according to the market outlet demands. during harvesting, farmers hire the harvesting team and buyers provide transportation for their fishes. competition for international market has caused some processing companies to culture their own fish, so as to evade risk from buying poor quality ones from other farmers; in a bid to conforming to quality 4 processing international company market producers middleman export agents local market consumer figure 5. schematic representation of distribution channels of tilapia product. table 1. tilapia production, proportion exported and quantity retained for domestic market (china custom bureau). year total production (mt) exported quantity (mt) domestic quantity (mt) 2002 707.000 26.000 681.000 2003 806.000 52.000 754.000 2004 897.000 67.000 830.000 2005 978.000 80.000 898.000 2006 1111.000 274.000 837.000 2007 1134.000 521.000 613.000 2008 1110.000 548.000 562.000 2009 1258.000 672 .000 586.000 2010 1332.000 799.000 533.000 assurance required for exportation. tilapia export from china the development of international export trade markets has had a significant effect on production and marketing of aquaculture produce in recent years. in the past, aquatic products were seldom sold beyond the local markets. today in china, fish commodity such as tilapia can be sold both domestically and internationally. the export potential has attracted governmental and private sector’s interest and support; as most countries give high priority to increased foreign exchange earnings for a favorable balance of international trade. in china, international trade of tilapia is being promoted by allowing taxed free exportation; this has prompted the processing companies to focus more on exportation than domestic marketing. before this period (2002 to 2007), the proportions of the total tilapia production being retained for domestic market were far more than half of the total production (table 1). however, the table has turn due to the expansion of the international market and exportation promotion of a no tax charged for exporting, granted by the chinese government. with this promotion, export volume is expected to increase steadily everything being equal. the united nations food and agriculture organization (fao) fishery statistics data (2010), acclaimed china as leading producer for tilapia and its main importer being the united states. in 2010 for example, total export quantity reached 797, 000 mt, accounting for 60% of the total production, with a corresponding total domestic quantity of 533,000 mt. consumers’ preference and alternative goods are yet another factor to reckon with when dealing with supply of aquatic products. usa received the large chunk of 5 table 2. china’s export and trade value obtained per importing country for 2010 and 2011 (china custom bureau). importing country export quantity from china (metric tons) trade value (100 million us dollar) 2011 2010 2011 2010 united state 150.600 168.800 5.99 6.09 mexico 46.800 43.200 1.57 1.24 russia 15.300 20.300 0.66 0.68 european union 29.600 27.9 0.9 0.8 total 330.300 322.800 110.900 100.600 figure 6. china’s 2011 export to the main importing countries (fao globefish). figure 7. export products from china to the importing countries for the year 2011(fao globefish). exported tilapia from china (figure 6), and is in conformity with what carel et al. (2007) and harvey (2001) reported and suggested respectively. in 2011, a total of 45.59% was exported to the us; 14.18% to mexico; 8.98% to eu and 4.64% to russia, whiles others (26.61%) accounted for cumulative quota sent to africa and other countries. in 2011, us import drop by 10.78% compared to 2010 import volume (table 2). the export value also showed a percentage decrease of 1.64. eu and mexico showed a percentage increase of both trade quantity and value, while russia follows the us with a decrease. the main tilapia processed products in china are sold frozen whole fish, frozen fillet, fresh fish fillet, salted and/or smoked products, and canned and roasted fish fillet. china has earned a reputation as a producer of low cost frozen fillets for export in recent years. the real market setter for tilapia products is frozen tilapia fillet which made up 48% exports in 2011 (figure7). the majority of fish for domestic markets are still sold live to local restaurants in the provinces of china. guangdong province not only leads with almost half of all production in china, it also contributes much to the exported volume. the neighboring provinces such as hainan, fujian and guangxi are also contributing to international market quota. constraints major constraints of tilapia production in china include, though not limited to the following. soaring production costs the costs for labor, feed, rent, chemicals and infrastructure have greatly increased lately. although china used to maintain lower rates for labor in the past, the rates for labor have shoot-up by at least 50% over the last three years. aside from labor cost, other major input prices have also increased significantly. higher costs and lower market prices for the products have an inverse relation to profit making; and are increasing the risks involved in entire production thereby discouraging many tilapia farmers from investing. just as the cost of labor has increased dramatically, currency exchange rates have also inflicted pressure. price fluctuation the market price of tilapia has changed drastically over the past few years. in 2009, the market price of 500-g live tilapia from farmers dropped by u.s. $0.16 /kg. reacting to this, many tilapia farmers began to stock carp or other species instead of tilapia. this drop in price caused guangdong, guangxi, hainan and fujian provinces to lower their scale of production. 6 weather fluctuation severe weather fluctuations are negatively impacting tilapia production lately. while high summer temperatures may have increased disease-related losses of tilapia, the very low temperatures at the beginning of 2008 directly reduced tilapia output by 25% (230,000 mt) with reference to 2007. in addition, many tilapia ponds suffered damages that caused hundreds of thousands of broodstock and millions of grow out to escape out of their confinement. the farms in hainan for example suffered some 80% farm loss. inadequate cooperation and communication network the major reason why many producers are incurring losses in their production venture is due to the weak cooperation and poor communication of market dynamics. production trend and marketing information are liable to change with time, but with improved cooperation and communication network among market actors, future change can be forecasted and timely communicated to parties involved; this will abate losses and aid in the monitoring of market capacity for importing countries and changes in consumers’ preferences, buying patterns and earnings. farmers need to have contingency marketing plans so as to tackle the temporary or long term loss of export market; this therefore call for diversification of tilapia market, and exploring other importing countries in order to reduce the marketing risks. national brand, policy bottleneck and international accreditation the world market now demands healthy aquaculture products from farm to table. compliance to international regulations will foster international trade of tilapia. in china, most processing companies whose raw materials is live tilapia, would like farmers to comply with key standard operating procedures. nevertheless, some tilapia producers still find it difficult to comply with such regulations, claiming that it adds to their production cost; and this informed the huge volume of tilapia products in the domestic market during the early 2000 (from 2000 to 2007). now, with government support of tax free exportation, farmers are making effort to comply with the international standards of operation (iso) and hazard analysis critical control point (haccp) which informs the present status of china’s exportation of tilapia products to the international markets. conclusion tilapia production in china is carried out mainly in guangdong, hainan, guangxi and fujian provinces, with guangdong being the leading province. the production trend of tilapia in china has changed due to rising market demands and favourable production and export policies granted by the chinese government; this is expected to continue, everything being equal. tilapia products produced in china reached its final consumers through a system of marketing within the production chain. larger quantity of tilapia products from china are exported to the us market through a marketing system that involves middlemen. irrespective of some constraints, tilapia producers in china are thriving to keep up with the needs of their commercial market, by adopting international regulations on quality assurance. findings in work could be of interest to potential investors and competitors for tilapia market. future studies should be done to ascertain whether other tilapia products such as tilapia fish oil can have a market and whether export agents can supply directly to the consumer. acknowledgements this work was supported by china agriculture research system (cars-49). the authors are appreciative to all the farmers and the ministry of agriculture (moa) for their support. all the reviewers are gratefulness acknowledge. references bardach je, ryther jh mclarney wo (1972). aquaculture. the farming and husbandry of freshwater and marine organisms. john willeys and sons publisher. p. 11. beveridge mgm, mcandrew jm (2000). tilapia: biology and exploitation kuwer academic publishers. fish. fisheries 25:447. carel l, budry b, joy c, curtis j (2007). u.s. import demand for tilapia from selected ftaa countries. farm & business: carib. j. agroecon. soc. (caes) 7(1):139-156 el-sayed afm (2006). tilapia culture. cabi publishers, alexandria, egypt. pp. 165-174. fao (2010). food and agriculture organization of the united nations. the state of world fisheries and aquaculture (fao) rome. ferdouse f (2001). tilapia in asia markets … can we sell more? infofish international 5/2001. pp. 33-26. fitzsimmons k gonzolas p, rakocy j (2007), global tilapia production and markets. proceedings of the 2nd national freshwater symposium aquaculture canada 2007, edmonton. gupta mv, acosta bo (2004). a review of global tilapia farming practices； aquaculture asia. pp. 7-16 harvey d (2001). domestic production: imports/exports exposed higher in 2001. aquac. magaz. 27(3):33-35. helga j (2010). fao globefish tilapia market report (china). http://www.globefish.org lai q, yang y (2008). tilapia culture in mainland china. aquaculture 275:64–69. liu l, zhang z, zhang w, francis m, david l (2012). tilapia aquaculture in china: low market prices, other issues challenge as sector seeks sustainability. http://pdf.gaalliance.org. maribel rl (2002). strategy for the export of tilapia in cuba. united nations fisheries training programme (unftp). pillay tvr (1994). aquaculture development: progress and prospects. fishing news books inc., great britain. pp. 12-106. ruddle k, grand staff tb (1978). the international potential of traditional resource systems in marginal areas. technological 7 forecasting social change 11:119-131. stigler gj (1969). the theory of price. macmillaninc., london. p.13 vunniccini s (2001). global markets for tilapia. infofish int. 6:16-21. xiao w, li dy, zou zy, zhu jl, wei cl, yang h, shan hy, han j (2012). comparative analysis of growth variations among four hybrid subgroups of oreochromis niloticus♀×o. aureus♂ and their parental strains. acta hydrobiological sinica 36.5:905-912 yang h (2010). the status of chinese tilapia industry and construction of industry and technology system. china fisheries 9:6-10. zhao j (2011). tilapia germplasm in china: chance and challenge www.docstoc.com/docs/99377238. 1 full length research paper agricultural marketing's contribution to rural farmers' empowerment in zimbabwe's masvingo province farai1 and chenjerai2* 1solusi university, bulawayo, zimbabwe 2women's university in africa (wua), mashonaland east, zimbabwe accepted 4 february, 2025 a more qualitative analysis of how agricultural marketing helps rural farmers in masvingo province raise their standard of living is presented in this research. four topics are the subject of the study: (1) key crops farmed; (2) produce markets now in existence; (3) organizations that assist farmers; and (4) difficulties farmers confront in producing, pricing, promoting, and transporting goods to lucrative markets. using in-depth interviews and focus groups, information was obtained from 361 respondents, including farmers who specialize in the production of vegetables, small grain crops, groundnuts, and maize; extension agents; bursars of boarding schools, churches, and hospitals; and supermarket owners. the results show that vegetables, rapoko, millet, rapoko, and maize are farmed extensively; the main markets now consuming produce are supermarkets, boarding schools, hospitals, churches, and gmb; inputs supply, transportation, farmers' pricing of agricultural products is impacted by a lack of market knowledge. the study comes to the conclusion that because rural farmers continue to use the conventional selling strategy, they lack market knowledge. the report suggests that the government provide training facilities to give farmers marketing skills and repair the roads. additionally, it is necessary for rural farmers to set up their own marketing board, which will be in charge of locating markets and delivering produce straight to the intended consumers. key words: agricultural marketing, rural farmers, empowerment. introduction african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 13 (1), pp. 001-009, february, 2025. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ 2 the food provision and security continue to be the largest issues facing many nations worldwide, including zimbabwe. about 70% of zimbabwe's 13 million inhabitants reside in rural areas, and the country has an agrarian economy. additionally, it is asserted that rural farmers account for over 60% of the nation's agricultural output, despite the fact that they nevertheless endure extreme poverty. according to rohrbach and okwach (1997) and selvaraju et al. (2004), low productivity and pervasive, long-term poverty are characteristics of small-scale, resourceconstrained farming systems. more than 2 million small-scale farmers from communal resettlements and small-scale commercial producers make up zimbabwe's bimodal farming system, which also includes a minority of largescale commercial farmers. in contrast to smallscale rural farmers who only produce and then struggle to find outlets for their agricultural produce, large-scale commercial farmers sell their produce to lucrative marketplaces. produce from small-scale rural farmers is typically sold for less than the market price since the farming systems in rural regions are characterized by the use of organic fertilizers and retained seeds, which will result in crops of lower quality than those from commercial farms. 1.1 institutions that render assistance to farmers in zimbabwe the government of zimbabwe worked to boost agricultural output after gaining independence in 1980, and numerous institutions were established to help the agricultural economy. the grain marketing board (gmb), agricultural technical and extension services (agritex), and the farm mechanization department are just a few of the organizations that were established and given authority to promote agriculture. agricultural productivity rose as a result of these institutions' greater assistance. however, farmers in rural areas continue to be disenfranchised when it comes to marketing agricultural commodities, even with the presence of the aforementioned institutions. rural farmers are at a disadvantage because they lack or have incomplete knowledge of the markets, and the pricing of agricultural products are often set by the forces of supply and demand. kanyenze (2011).only gmb, one of the existing markets that purchases produce from rural farmers, does so at profitable pricing; nevertheless, due to payment delays, many farmers have turned to private traders who purchase at throw-away prices, leaving the rural farmers unable to cover their basic expenses. furthermore, according to shumba's (1993) research, rural farmers are labor-intensive and tend to grow a variety of crops on a single acre, such as maize, groundnuts, peas, and rapoko. they also tend to have tiny farms and make inadequate investments in farming inputs like hybrid seeds and organic fertilizers. because they cannot afford inorganic fertilizers, these farmers rely too much on organic fertilizers, primarily cattle manure, which is typically applied in small amounts and whose quality is often unclear. even their household needs are not met by the amount of food that the rural farmers produce. where these farmers grow excess food due to the lack of market knowledge, traders from towns and cities take advantage of farmers in rural areas by purchasing produce at discount prices to resell at profit, thus enriching themselves at the expense of farmers who remain in poverty. infertile marginal soils and climate variability and change are two of the many issues that farmers face and that endanger their livelihoods (altier and koohfkan, 2008). like everyone else, small-scale farmers require revenue for a variety of reasons, such as covering their children's tuition, purchasing inputs like seed and fertilizer, and buying or renting additional agricultural equipment, among many other things. although some of these farmers are able to produce excess food on their farms, the majority lack the necessary marketing abilities or even market knowledge to fully utilize this surplus. for rural farmers, particularly those in masvingo, decisions about product selection, pricing, promotional mix, and distribution strategies are still unclear. this is because some rural farmers, in some situations, have never visited the larger cities and towns; as a result, they are unable to access marketplaces that could purchase their goods at profitable prices. local consumers at growth sites and the numerous middlemen who come to buy produce at extremely low costs to resell at competitive prices are the primary sources of income for rural farmers. even worse, most of these farmers, if not all of them, are unable to even make budgets or perform cost-benefit analyses to determine whether their farm businesses are viable, and as a result, they typically run at a loss most of the time. the fact that these communal farmers do not maintain farming records, such as farm size, inputs used, fertilizers applied, labor required for all farm activities, harvest amount for each crop, and revenue from crop sales, is another issue they face. the information listed above is crucial if rural farmers are to reconcile their expenses and income. in reality, among other issues, farmers in rural areas continue to face marginalization due to inadequate road systems, outdated communication systems, challenging access to major medical facilities, clinics, and educational institutions, a shortage of energy, and an excessive dependence on antiquated farming practices. the majority of small-scale farmers grow vegetables 3 and tomatoes, which are grown in a fragmented system as each family tries to produce enough to meet their basic needs. the country's largest cities and towns, including the large mbare musika in harare, kudzanai msika in gweru, mucheke in masvingo, and other urban markets, are where these agricultural items ultimately end up. since all varieties of cereals and horticultural items from all across the country's districts eventually find their way to the mbare musika, it has developed into the commercial hub or nerve center for all of the nation's consumables. zimbabwe's marketing system is typified by a large number of middlemen or agents that swarm into rural regions to purchase goods from farmers at extremely low prices, then resell it at competitive prices, leaving the farmers unable to cover their daily expenses. market places like farm and city, which sell agricultural products at competitive prices, were established by the colonial government primarily for commercial farmers. therefore, this study makes the case that rural farmers are being marginalized by the current agricultural commodity marketing system since they still live in extreme poverty in spite of their efforts and financial investments in the industry. this study also describes the difficulties rural farmers encounter while trying to sell their produce to lucrative marketplaces. the agricultural marketing concept the phrase "agricultural marketing" has numerous definitions. agricultural marketing, according to the indian national commission on agriculture, is a process that begins with the choice to produce a marketable farm product and encompasses all facets of the system's market structure, both institutional and functional, based on technical and financial factors. this includes preand post-harvest operations, as well as assembly, grading, storage, transportation, and distribution. however, according to the indian council of agricultural research, agricultural marketing consists of three primary tasks: (1) assembly, (2) processing, and (3) distribution. farmers are expected to carry out significant tasks both before and after harvesting until the product eventually reaches the client location, according to a comparison of the two definitions above. the roles that farmers play in assembling, storing, transporting, and distributing commodities from the farms to the target customers are crucial to the successful marketing of agricultural products, according to the descriptions given above. according to these researchers, zimbabwean rural farmers, especially those in masvingo, continue to lag behind in agricultural marketing because they continue to use antiquated methods of assembly and traditional storage systems. for instance, farmers in rural masvingo store cereals and groundnuts using what are known as "chitata" and "dura." because of the inadequate ventilation in these storage systems, crops like groundnuts and maize can be impacted by moisture, which lowers the crop's quality and makes it less likely to sell at a high price. researchers are eager to define "agricultural marketing" in this paper as a production system in which farmers use the marketing concept when making decisions about distribution, pricing, promotions, and products in order to satisfy the target customers' needs, wants, and preferences. the indian council of agriculture's definition of "agricultural marketing" also exposes zimbabwe's rural farmers, especially those in masvingo, who merely grow, harvest, and sell produce with little to no value addition. for instance, farmers in masvingo grow oil crops like sunflower and groundnuts, which are then processed into cooking oil and sold for high prices. however, because they lack the necessary milling equipment, they only sell the raw crops, which do not command high prices, keeping farmers in poverty despite their efforts in the agricultural sector. according to the definition of agricultural marketing, the traditional "selling approach" is the marketing strategy used by rural farmers in masvingo province. in this approach, farmers merely grow crops and seek out buyers to sell them to; as a result, they do not make much money and continue to live in poverty. empowering rural farmers through agricultural marketing research and agricultural development organizations and agencies used to be focused on creating plans to help smallholder farmers increase their food production. however, these days, there appears to be a change in emphasis, with organizations and researchers trying to figure out how to improve farmers' livelihoods, particularly those in rural areas, by finding lucrative markets for their produce. according to smith (2001), rural development is a complex process that involves a network of actors and stakeholders that combine their resources to accomplish predetermined goals. to put it another way, smith believes that different parties should work together to bring about rural development, which is the result of stakeholder cooperation. the government, rural farmers, transportation agencies, development organizations like the district development fund (ddf), rural district councils (rdcs), and buyers of agricultural products, such as local supermarkets, wholesalers, and national grain buyers like the grain marketing board (gmb), are all stakeholders in zimbabwe who can contribute to the development of rural areas. although the government's primary responsibility is to develop rural areas, the current political and economic climate has severely limited its ability to upgrade infrastructure in these places. however, because the majority of businesses in all 4 sectors are having liquidity issues and are using less than 50% of their capacity, the private sector is unable to support the government through csr initiatives. additionally, smith (2001) and douthwaite et al. (2003) advocate for stakeholder cooperation to achieve development in rural communities. however, in zimbabwe, capacity is a challenge because the aforementioned actors are facing resource constraints due to the current state of the economy, which is shattered. infrastructural development is a problem not only in rural areas but even in major towns and cities, where roads are in poor condition with many potholes, making driving on these roads a nightmare for drivers. the rural farmers themselves are urged in this paper to establish collaborations and begin identifying the essential resources they require in order to build infrastructure in their communities. additionally, we contend that rural farmers might benefit from the large number of nongovernmental organizations (ngos) present in their communities and ask for help in repairing roads and bridges to increase access to market centers. rural farmers' obstacles when it comes to marketing their produce storage techniques according to a study done in india, many farmers confront the significant problem of their goods going bad and ultimately causing them to lose money due to inadequate or nonexistent storage. farmers in rural masvingo face the same problem as indian farmers, who store their produce in antiquated warehouses with inadequate storage facilities, causing it to fast deteriorate and become unfit for human consumption. farmers who grow vegetables, tomatoes, groundnuts, and maize are the most severely impacted; as a result, output is promptly sold after harvest to avoid the perishability risk. in this paper, we make the case that rural farmers should organize into cooperatives with ten or more members and raise funds to construct state-of-the-art storage facilities that will allow them to store goods for extended periods of time. this will allow them to sell their products at a profit when there are few competitors. after harvest, farmers in masvingo province struggle to store their food. maize and other crops are kept in rudimentary granaries called "tsapi" or "huze," where they are susceptible to rats, or "zvipfukuto" in colloquial terms, which has a significant negative impact on the grain's quality. lack of contemporary storage facilities will cause the commodity to sell for poor grades and have a very low final price. lack of adequate storage facilities also implies farmers are compelled to sell produce at disposal rates in order to prevent value loss due to perishability since they are unable to stockpile the commodity for resale at competitive prices during the off-season. transportation despite being the oldest province in zimbabwe's history of human settlement, masvingo is among the least developed, particularly when it comes to road systems. the majority of roads, with the exception of the highway, are unpaved, which presents difficulties for farmers in rural areas because so few carriers use the dusty, uneven roads. many farmers are forced to sell their produce to local purchasers who pay less than market rates because the few transporters that make the sacrifice to operate these routes demand prices that are out of their price range. because agricultural products are inherently perishable, it is essential that distribution methods be quick, dependable, and effective in order for consumers to get produce in the right condition. although purchasing organizations, such as the grain marketing board, have set up collecting centers closer to the farmers, each farmer must have at least five tons of crops, such as maize, in order to be eligible to sell to them. although farmers can combine their produce, there are issues with grading, wherein various farmers in the same group have produce that fetches different classes. this would cause issues with payment, which is why farmers are reluctant to establish such cooperative arrangements. access to market information in zimbabwe, rural farmers, especially those in masvingo, face significant challenges in obtaining agricultural information. the typical sources of agricultural information in zimbabwe include farm magazines, publicity news, and the zimbabwe broadcasting corporation's murimi wanahsi (umlimi wanamhla), which primarily airs on zimbabwe television every thursday at 7 p.m., with occasional appearances on the country's radio station, radio zimbabwe. rural farmers have limited access to national agricultural information programs since they reside in isolated areas of the nation without electricity. in a similar study on the issues facing rural farmers in nigeria the researchers discovered that rural farmers in nsuka are largely illiterate and reside in isolated places with little access to information sources (aina, 2007). the aforementioned circumstance also applies to zimbabwe, where the vast majority of rural farmers, particularly those in masvingo, lack formal education and reside in isolated regions that are cut off from important agricultural knowledge sources like libraries. rural farmers in zimbabwe depend on conventional media, like radio. print media, videos, images, presentations, television, movies, dance, folklore, group debates, gatherings, and demonstrations are all considered legitimate ways to spread agricultural knowledge, according to munyua (2000). in contrast, munyua cites other media that only benefit large-scale commercial farmers. in this paper, researchers contend that meetings, particularly those arranged by extension officers, newspapers, radio, folklore, village social gatherings, and agricultural shows, can benefit rural farmers in masvingo. 5 quality of produce another important consideration, particularly for farmers in rural areas, is quality. the demand for the produce and the price the farmer can charge for it depend on its quality. typically, agricultural products are graded, and the commodity's grade influences market competitiveness and demand. for instance, most rural farmers lack the necessary storage facilities for highly perishable commodities like apples, potatoes, rapoko, and maize. since most rural farmers rely on retained seeds, which do not produce huge grains in the case of cereal items, the quality of produce from these farmers is lower than that of large-scale commercial farmers. furthermore, many farmers may lack the necessary knowledge to follow guidelines, particularly when it comes to the use of chemicals, which can result in poor-quality produce due to either excessive or insufficient chemical application. additionally, researchers contend that in order for masvingo farmers to produce high-quality products, they must upgrade their storage facilities because the majority of them continue to use antiquated storage techniques. as a result, these farmers must organize into cooperatives in order to pool their resources and construct contemporary crop storage facilities. packaging of agricultural products one of the things endangering rural farmers' ability to successfully market their produce is packaging. particularly for rural farmers who are in dire need of agricultural produce protection, packaging is essential. in addition to safeguarding the contents, packaging is now utilized to improve product quality by preserving it from environmental factors and serving as a silent salesman. (1996) van der walt. despite the fact that packaging is crucial to the sale of agricultural products such cereal crops, oil crops, small grain crops, maize, and groundnuts, among others, the majority of masvingo farmers cannot afford to purchase the 50 kg bags needed to transport these commodities. these farmers wind up utilizing whatever bags they can find to cover and make transportation easier, which degrades the quality of the products and causes the farmer to lose money because the crops will be sold for less. clean plastic bags are necessary for fresh farm crops, such as tomatoes, to catch the customer's eye. since tomatoes are particularly perishable, farmers in rural areas sell them using filthy carrying bags since they cannot afford the new plastic bags. this practice does not draw customers, and farmers suffer as a result. research methodology an interpretivist strategy was used to accomplish the goal of the study. since the goal of the current study is to produce in-depth insights into how agricultural marketing contributes to the improvement of rural farmers' livelihoods in masvingo, this approach was deemed appropriate. saunders et al. (2007) were taken into consideration when choosing an interpretivist approach. they contend that since business and management involve both people and things, interpretivist arguments support the idea that subjective thoughts and ideas are valid because they see the world through the eyes of the people being studied, giving them multiple perspectives of reality as opposed to positivism's "one reality." the seven districts that make up masvingo province are zaka, gutu, bikita, chiredzi, chivi, and mwenezi. bikita, gutu, and zaka districts were selected from among these districts due to their superior agricultural yields in comparison to other districts in the province. hospitals, boarding schools, supermarkets, extension agents, and rural farmers are all part of the population of interest. in addition to focus groups with farmers, data was gathered through interviews with store owners, bursars of boarding schools, hospitals, and churches, and extension officers. because respondents come from a variety of backgrounds, stratified sampling was employed. the study employed a sample size of 361 at a 5% significance level, as determined by morgan and krejcie (1970). a total of 249 respondents, or 69.09% of the sample, took part in the focus groups and interviews. findings demographic characteristics of the target sample farmers of cereal crops (maize, sorghum, rapoko, and millet), oil crops (groundnuts and beans), and market gardeners from the three districts make up the respondents, along with agricultural extension officers, supermarket owners, bursars of boarding schools, churches, and hospitals. due to their widespread cultivation in masvingo, cereal and oil crops were selected. farmers' educational attainment served as the foundation for stratification since it had an impact on the caliber of information exchanged between the respondents and the researcher. 67.28% of farmers have below-average education, whilst 32.72% have above-average education.this indicates that low-educated farmers dominate the agricultural sector in masvingo province, suggesting that these farmers lack marketing and budgeting abilities. bursars from hospitals, churches, and boarding schools have accounting degrees and are more knowledgeable about the subject matter. according to data from the provincial agricultural extension office, the province has a large number of farmers engaged in horticulture (vegetables), minor grains, groundnuts, and maize. an average of 407 extension officers are assigned to the several stations spread across masvingo's districts. because the farmers and extension agents are dispersed, purposeful and convenient sampling 6 techniques were used. because the respondents in the population come from a variety of farming backgrounds, stratified sampling was also employed. stratification was based on production capacity, crop type, and educational attainment. farmers with less than a basic education (below grade 7) were placed in the first stratum, those with an ordinary level of education were placed in the second stratum, and those with advanced to degree level education were placed in the third stratum. convenience sampling was then used in each stratum. interviews and focus groups with farmers, extension agents, bursars from boarding schools and hospitals, and supermarket owners near the growth points of the chosen districts were the primary methods used to collect data. the training workshops for farmers were held in the growth points of nyika (bikita), mupandawana (gutu), and jerera (zaka) in the three districts. farmers participated in focus groups led by agricultural extension agents. thus a more qualitative approach was adopted. the population of interest was as follows: extension officers for the 3 districts = 363 number of vegetable farmers for the 3 districts = 3 600 number of maize farmers for the 3 districts = 1 884 number of groundnuts farmers for the 3 districts = 180 number of small grain farmers for the 3 districts = 120 number of bursars of boarding schools and hospitals = 16 number of store owners at the growth points of the 3 districts = 15 the total estimated population of research participants in the 3 districts is therefore estimated to be = 6 178. using krejcie and morgan model at the 95% significance level, researchers drew a sample size 361 of which 201 respondents participated in the interviews and 48 focus group discussions representing 69.09% response rate. findings the following findings were obtained from the interviews and focus group discussions. common crops grown in the province the majority of respondents identified maize as the most widely planted crop in masvingo province, with market gardening, groundnuts, round nuts, and maize being the main agricultural items mostly farmed by rural farmers in the province. according to reports, maize is the main crop planted in the area because it is easy to manage, requires little chemical application, and provides a staple diet. while it was discovered that beans were widely grown on a local scale in the districts of gutu and bikita, zaka farmers were cited as stating, "we have gone for three consecutive years without notable acreage of beans." a farmer has no reason to keep cultivating a crop that brings in less money. we told our station extension officer that we were switching from producing beans to vegetables, which provide farmers with faster returns, and we were granted the all-clear. according to farmers, the district's output of beans stopped about three years ago because of difficulties with prices and delays in obtaining inputs. given the province's unpredictable rainfall patterns and its location in region 3, which receives below-normal rainfall, extension officers mentioned maize, sorghum, millet, groundnuts, and cotton as lucrative agricultural products that farmers in the districts can grow because the soils are ideal for these crops. current target markets for rural farmers in masvingo province the main markets for rural farmers in masvingo province are urban traders, the grain marketing board (gmb), local village consumers, boarding schools, hospitals, and certain churches, according to the results of focus group talks. urban traders are the main buyers of produce in their districts, according to almost all of the farmers who participated in the focus group discussions. farmers are worried about these traders because they purchase produce at throwaway prices, which leaves them in poverty and makes it impossible for them to pay for daily farm operations. the farmers occasionally turn to barter exchange, where they trade a bucket of maize for a 2 kg packet of sugar, two bars of soap, or occasionally clothing. local village customers were said to purchase at competitive prices, but the issue is that they only buy in small quantities. farmers also agreed that the grain marketing board (gmb) purchases grain at competitive prices, but the national grain buyer takes a long time to pay farmers, therefore farmers occasionally sell to urban dealers who purchase at a cheap price but on a cash basis. although boarding schools, hospitals, and supermarkets were identified as lucrative marketplaces, these establishments only seldom purchase because they themselves produce some of the goods, such as vegetables and maize. extension agents mentioned supermarkets and international markets as prospective profitable purchasers who, with the right marketing mechanism, may revolutionize rural farmers' livelihoods. institutions currently assisting rural farmers in growing and marketing of agricultural products the institutions that support rural farmers in 7 cultivating and selling agricultural products were asked to be listed by the respondents. although it was established that the grain marketing board (gmb) assists farmers with inputs, it was noted that gmb support for inputs is typically delayed because distribution is governed by a political system in which local authorities and councilors affiliated with particular political parties typically obstruct the distribution, resulting in underprivileged individuals benefiting at the expense of worthy recipients. the majority of farmers identified agritex as being crucial to their education; yet, obstacles including poor roads and a dearth of bridges were mentioned as impediments to agritex's ability to conduct training and education initiatives with farmers. however, it was noted that few, if any, farmers in the province have profited from farm mechanization. murimi wanhasi and the farm mechanization department were also recognized as helping the farmers. while murimi wa nhasi is only known to farmers who have access to televisions, the majority of farmers stated that they are unaware of its function as a program for disseminating agricultural information. the majority of farmers are also unaware of the existence of the farm mechanization department. according to one farmer, "i believe that a significant obstacle keeping farmers from taking advantage of murimi wa nhasi is a lack of electricity because the program airs on zimbabwe television every thursday at 1900 hours, and many farmers without television will miss the information." although the majority of extension officers believe in murimi wanhasi, they believe that in order for the majority of farmers to benefit from the program, it should be conducted in the afternoon on weekends like saturday or sunday. challenges faced by farmers in growing and marketing of agricultural produce research revealed a multiplicity of challenges that farmers encounter in the agricultural business. chief among the challenges are the following: challenges faced by farmers relating to production the main factors affecting production, according to farmers, are changes in the climate, a lack of arable land, poor rainfall distribution, and late input distribution from the gmb and other farmer assistance groups. according to the farmers, the difficulties have an impact on both the quantity and quality of produce, which means that goods won't sell for competitive pricing. poor quality produce will be sold for less than its market value since the grain marketing board (gmb) is one market that uses a grading system when purchasing produce. furthermore, the majority of extension staff stated that the main factors limiting production are farmers' ignorance and subpar farming methods. additionally, it was discovered that the province's farmers continue to use antiquated, conventional agricultural practices, where they cultivate the same crops year after year without switching up their crop rotation, resulting in subpar yields that are sold for low rates and weakening the farmers' revenue streams. furthermore, according to extension officers, the majority of farmers in the province continue to follow the "subsistence farming mindset," which involves growing crops without focusing on particular markets for the produce. as a result, these farmers are unable to dispose of their produce, so avaricious urban traders come and buy goods at below-market value with the intention of reselling them at high prices, leaving farmers in poverty. "ignorance due to illiteracy is the disease affecting many farmers in this province as farmers just grow whatever crops they can and think of selling whenever they have a surplus," one extension official was reported as saying. additionally, some farmers use "retained seeds," which produce lower yields than the new maize seeds. as a result, product grown from retained seeds has little value and will sell for little money. challenges relating distribution the biggest issue affecting the delivery of produce to the intended markets was identified as poor road networks, with the majority of the roads in the communal areas being dusty, uneven, without bridges, and in bad condition. the poor condition of the roads connecting to the highways, according to the extension officers, is driving away potential transporters. as a result, the few transporters who make the sacrifice to operate the routes charge exorbitant prices, which some farmers cannot afford. additionally, some products lose value and are ultimately sold to local village buyers at low prices. furthermore, the majority of farmers in the district are too dispersed, disorganized, and aloof, according to the extension staff, which makes it challenging for transporters to pick up food from them. as one farmer put it, "the spirit of individualism is reigning over co-operation among the farmers." as a result, each farmer will not be able to afford the cost of transportation to the closest market, which presents a serious problem because produce, such as vegetables, is perishable and will have to be sold at give-away prices. challenges relating to pricing 8 the main issue facing rural farmers, according to both farmers and extension agents, is a lack of market knowledge, which results in products being sold at throwaway rates. the argument put forth for this difficulty is that farmers in rural regions, particularly in masvingo, struggle with a shortage of energy and are still cut off from programs that offer them information and assistance. murimi wanhasi was brought up during the conversation as a program for farmers, but rural farmers do not gain much from it because most of them do not own televisions, and those who do must rely on solar power because most of the province is still without electricity. rural farmers are ignorant of the technical grading system used by the national markets such as the grain marketing board (gmb) with a 3 tier grading system as follows: grade a (1st class fetching high price), grade b (2nd claas fetching price below the super grade) grade c (3rd class fetching average price). because they are unaware of the gmb grading system, farmers believe the national grain institution is defrauding them. as a result, they divert and sell to private traders who grade their products visually but purchase at low prices, making it difficult for these farmers to pay for their daily necessities. "it is unfair to us farmers when a low grade is given because the grain marketing board uses sample inspection, where the inspector takes a bucket full of maize from a truckload and gives the same grade to the entire consignment," one responder stated. the centralized check processing system used by gmb is a challenge for rural farmers, as the checks take up to a month to mature. as a result, farmers lose patience and prefer to sell to private traders who pay instant cash but buy at low prices to resell at lucrative prices. this is true even though gmb has expanded its depots nationwide, with a presence in every district and every farmer within 45 kilometers of the nearest outlet. another issue that rural farmers confront is that they are unable to meet the minimum quantity that each farmer must sell to the national institution, which forces them to sell to local dealers who purchase in little amounts. additionally, respondents noted that the majority of farmers do not have bank accounts, which presents a significant obstacle because they will have to exchange their checks at local stores, where they will be penalized by having to pay at least 30% of the check's value. this is a painful experience for most farmers because store prices in communal areas are extremely high. focus groups with farmers also showed that low-quality produce will result in low-grade production, which will lower the product's market value. during focus group discussions, farmers also mentioned competition, stating that farmers in the same district or area typically grow the same crops or vegetables. this leads to fierce competition, which forces some farmers to sell their produce at a discount because supply will exceed demand. lack of storage facilities reportedly makes this scenario worse; as a result, farmers are unable to preserve produce for long after harvest, forcing them to sell their goods at discount prices. finally, rural farmers are not wellinformed about all the variables influencing the price at which they sell their produce. challenges relating to promoting agricultural products we asked farmers how they market their produce. since farmers in rural areas still rely on word-ofmouth to inform clients about the availability of produce, extension officers identified advertising as the largest obstacle facing these farmers. the researchers also observed that farmers use social events and gatherings, such as funerals, church meetings, political gatherings, and "beer parties," where the headman or deputy will announce the availability of produce, such as tomatoes, beans, and maize, to spread word of mouth communication. this approach was also found to work well for local consumers who might not be aware of the location, time, and ease of purchasing agricultural products in other markets, such as boarding schools, hospitals, and supermarkets. extension officials also claimed that farmers are ignorant of contemporary product promotion strategies and cannot pay the price of communication instruments like television, radio, newspapers, and transportation advertising. to be honest, farmers have no idea how to raise awareness of their produce, according to one reply. farmers are only familiar with conventional word-ofmouth marketing, which is effective with village clients within a 15-kilometer radius. we extension agents need to do more to teach these farmers how to market their goods more effectively in order to boost sales. conclusions and recommendations as seen by preand post-harvest operations that are out of step with consumer expectations, wants, and preferences, farmers in rural areas are not embracing the idea of agricultural marketing. due to rural farmers' reliance on the conventional selling technique, which does not allow customers to determine the 9 production, handling, and distribution of food, it may also be said that the current marketing system for crops cultivated in masvingo province is defective. researchers can also draw the conclusion that farmers are selling agricultural products at throwaway prices as a result of the abundance of middlemen. farmers are unable to meet the minimum amount of food that each farmer must sell to the grain marketing board if cooperative arrangements are not in place. rural farmers don't have a marketing concept since they don't target certain customers like hospitals, churches, boarding schools, or supermarkets. as a result, they don't produce for these markets and only sell to a few of them when they have extra. in order to help rural farmers find lucrative markets for their produce, experts in this study suggest that zimbabwean universities and colleges fulfill their corporate social responsibility by teaching them the fundamentals of marketing. extension agents should step up their efforts to teach farmers post-harvest skills so they can add value to their produce, which will increase its market value and help farmers make more money. government action is required to enhance rural roads and create an agricultural bank that caters to the needs of rural farmers in order to enable them to use mechanized farming systems to boost output. in order to boost output capacity and cover the costs of marketing to both domestic and foreign markets, experts advise farmers in this paper to establish voluntary cooperative partnerships. these cooperative agreements will improve resource and information sharing, which will increase production capacity. rural farmers ought to set up their own marketing board, tasked with determining what items the markets require, developing pricing plans for various markets, running advertising campaigns, and finding lucrative markets for agricultural products. according to gordon (2001), a company's efforts alone are no longer sufficient to meet today's business difficulties; instead, partnerships and collaboration are required. furthermore, rural farmers must employ local district newspapers, banner advertising, determine neighborhood social events, and recruit instructors from nearby schools to help with product marketing. for rural farmers to get payment as soon as possible, the grain marketing board should decentralize the check processing system to the provincial and district levels. in order to sell a value-added product at a competitive price, rural farmers need also be provided with the resources to turn their harvest into completed goods. additionally, support for contemporary storage techniques will enhance the quality of the produce. references aina, l.o. (2007). globalisation and smallscale farming in africa: what role for information centres? world libraries and information congress 73rd ifla general conference and council. durban, south africa. altieri, m. a., & koohafkan, p. (2008) enduring farms: climate change: smallholders and traditional farming communities. malaysia: third world network. cline, w. r., (2007) global warming and agriculture: impact estimates by country. washington dc: centre for global development and the peterson institute for international economics. october (2) problems and prospects in agricultural marketing, managers vs leaders douthwaite, b. t. kuby, e van de fliert and schulz, s. (2003) impact pathway evaluation: an approach for achieving and attributing impact in complex systems: agricultural systems 76 (2) pp 243 265 krejcie, robert v, morgan, daryle w, (1970) “determining sample size for research activities”, educational and psychological measurement, gordon, i. h (2001) competitor targeting: winning the battle for market and customer share, 1st edition, wiley kanyenze, g, kondo, t., chitambara, p., martens, j. (2011) beyond the enclave, waver press, avondale, harare munyua, h. (2000). apllication of information communication technologies in the agricultural sector in africa: a gender perspective. in: rathgeber, e, & adera, e.o. (eds.) gender and information revolution in africa, idrc/eca. pp. 85-123. norton, w. geroge, alwang, j., masters a. williams (2010) economics of agricultural development, 2nd edition, library of congress cataloguing in publication data, new york panda s.c. (2007) farm management and agricultural marketing, kalyani publishers, new delhi rohrbach, d. d. & okwach, g. e.(1997) setting targets: model crop performance or cropping decisions. proceedings of the caramasak risk management workshop in machakos, kenya. 22 29 may 1997. saunders, m, lewis, p, & thornhill, a (2007) research methods for business students 4th edition, prentice hall sevaraju, r, meinke, h., & haansen, j. w. (2004) approaches allowing smallholder farmers in india to benefit from seasonal climate forecasting. smith n, baugh-littlejohns l and thompson d (2001) shaking the cowebs: insights into community capacity and its relation to health outcomes. community development j. 36(1) pp 30 41 shumba, e. m.(1993) constraints in the smallholder farming systems of zimbabwe. in: soil fertility and climate constraints in dryland agriculture. proceedings of aciar/saccar workshop held at harare, zimbabwe, 30 august – 1 september 1993, eds. cranswell, e. t. & simpson, j. gorford, australia regional institute ltd. the msr leadership consultants (2011) india, new delhi van der walt (1996) marketing management, 2nd edition, juta, cape town, a more qualitative analysis of how agricultural marketing helps rural farmers in masvingo province raise their standard of living is presented in this research. four topics are the subject of the study: (1) key crops farmed; (2) produce markets now in... introduction 1.1 institutions that render assistance to farmers in zimbabwe the agricultural marketing concept empowering rural farmers through agricultural marketing transportation access to market information quality of produce packaging of agricultural products research methodology findings findings (1) common crops grown in the province current target markets for rural farmers in masvingo province challenges faced by farmers in growing and marketing of agricultural produce challenges faced by farmers relating to production challenges relating distribution challenges relating to pricing challenges relating to promoting agricultural products conclusions and recommendations references 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 11 (1), pp. 001-008, january, 2023. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper an assessment of the preservative potentials of soursop (annonamuricata) seed oil on plantain and orange juice dauda a. o., salami, k.o., oyeyinka, s.a., esan, o.t., arise, a.k and asije a.r. university of ilorin, faculty of agriculture, department of home economics and food science, ilorin, kwara state, nigeria. accepted 14 november, 2022 an assessment of the preservative potentials of seed oil of soursop (annonamuricata) plant grown in the tropics of west africa were studied. the seed oil was extracted via soxhlet extraction method, matured unripe plantain (stage one) selected, while juice was extracted from oranges. unripe plantain sourced was coated with the extracted oil and orange juice produced was equally treated with 0.3 to 1.5mls of the extracted oil. phytochemical component and proximate composition of the seed oil, ph and brix of coated plantain, and microbial load of orange juice were determined using standard methods. results showed antioxidant values to be total soluble phenols (632.91mg/100g), total carotenoid (344.15µg/100g), concentration of tocopherol (360.0µg/100g), ascorbic acid (0.21mg/100g), flavonoid (150.45mg/kg), and anthocyanins (0.01%), while the moisture, ash, crude fat, crude protein, crude fiber and carbohydrate contents were: 52.12%, 1.61%, 5.19%, 9.71%, 1.33% and 30.05% respectively. microbial load increase of the orange juice was delayed for 3 weeks when compared to control. it has high value for both the bacteria and fungi counts (2.48 log cfu/g and 1.59 log cfu/g respectively), and treated, 1.89 log cfu/g and 0.08 log cfu/g respectively. the oil coating delayed ripening and spoilage of the plantain samples by about 10days. keywords: antioxidant properties, soursop seed oil, microbial load, proximate composition, shelf life, coating. introduction human food sources are mainly from plants and animals. plants, apart from being food to human, they are equally an important sources of medicine for treating ailments (jyothi et al., 2011), and according to history, culture and some other reasons, folk medicine has taken a very *corresponding author’s email:adegboladauda@yahoo.com important position in many countries, most especially, developing nations of the world (gandhiraja et al., 2009; gajalakshmi et al., 2012). soursop (annonamuricata), also known as “sir sak” or “guanabana”, is a popular fruit tree cultivated in the tropical regions of the world. it is native to tropical north and south america and belongs to the genus annona of the family annonaceae, which includes about 100 species of trees or shrubs (fasakin et al., 2008). there are about 60 or more species of the genus annona 2 family, annonaceae. however, from the entire species, soursop is the most tropical and best to be preserved and processed. meanwhile, recent studies have shown that growing of the fruits is limited in many countries to certain seasons and localities, because the fruit does not travel much and rarely available fresh for consumption in the areas where they were being grown. soursop (annonamuricata) is a sweet type of fruit, rich in vitamin c, and as it is or being viewed, it is among the unpopular and underutilized seedy fruits. its massive disposal of biomass wastes (skin, pulp, seeds etc.) that always occur in most fruit processing units and underutilization of the products has become noticed in the fruit in recent years (federici et al., 2009). some research work had been done on the pulp, seed and leaves of the fruit, with some vital acetogenins detected (gandhiraja et al., 2009; gajalakshmi et al., 2012). these compounds were found to show some biological, phytochemical or pharmacological activities, such as cytotoxic, antitumour, antimicrobial, antioxidant, pesticide properties etc. (gajalakshmi et al., 2012; stone, 1970; vieira et al., 2010; pathak et al., 2010; chukwuka et al., 2011). plantains are mostly consumed as vegetable by many people in nigeria either as raw (ripe one), boiled, roasted or fried with rice or beans, while matured green plantain are boiled and eaten with vegetables or processed into flour for other uses. most times, peel colour is usually an indicator of the ripeness as the cholorophll content in the peel reduces with ripening (li et al., 1997), which is a colour change from green to yellow (marriot et al., 1981). all these are human style of monitoring, but cannot measure the internal parameter of the samples. the antioxidant profiles of soursop fruit have not really been investigated in respect to their use as preservatives for the prevention or delay of microbial growth in food products and as fruit or vegetable coatings to delay ripening. this research work tend to look at the oil extracted from soursop seed with the intension of it being used as fruit and vegetable coatings to delay ripening processes and protect the fruit and vegetable from water loss and spoilage, as well as enhancing shelf life stability. materials and methods the soursop fruits used for this work were obtained from a soursop tree at ikare town in ondo state, nigeria. unripe plantains and matured oranges used for the research work were obtained from a local farm within ilorin metropolis. preparation of seed the soursop fruits sourced were properly washed, peeled and the pulps squeezed out to remove the seeds that were then dried at room temperature. extraction of oil using soxhlet extractor a 250-ml soxhlet extractor apparatus with n-hexane (solvent) was used for extraction work. a known weight of the seed flour was measured into a muslin cloth placed in a thimble of the apparatus. a reactor with a known volume of n-hexane was used with a condenser according to the method of bokhari et al., 2012. procedure for coating matured unripe plantain at stage one of ripeness with uniform colour, size, appearance, and absence of physical defects were selected. the oil extracted were used to coat the skin of the unripen plantain at a thickness of 0.001mm. it was done with aid of a brush dipped into the oil and smeared or rub on the skin of the selected plantain. the coated plantains were spread on a sack in a ventilated room, as well as the control plantain (those without coating) sample under same condition. the rate of ripening was being observed on a daily basis. procedure for orange juice production the production of orange juice involves selection of the orange fruits, washing, peeling, slicing, extracting of juice, sieving, homogenizing, pasteurizing and cooling. orange fruits washing peeling slicing extraction of juice sieving, homogenizing pasteurizing cooling orange juice figure 1: production flowchart of orange juice results and discussion physical and proximate analysis of soursop seed 3 the physical and proximate composition analyses carried out on the seed of soursop showed that the seed was very rich in oil. the oil was light coloured in appearance and did not solidify at room temperature. it was said to be unsaturated with low fat content of 5.19%. the presence of saturated oil content in the seed could make it susceptible to rancidity. the fat content in the seed was similar to that reported by nzekwe and nzekwe, 2011 (5.04%) for another specie of soursop, while antia et al., 2006 said that dietary fat increases the palatability of food by absorbing and retaining flavours. moisture content of the seed was reported to be high on wet basis (52.12%). however, onimawo, 2002 and nzekwe and nzekwe, 2011 respectively reported sharp decrease in the moisture content of soursop seed (8.5% and 2.17%). cabohydrate is a potential source of energy and the high quantity in the soursop seed contributes to the energy value in annonamuricata. the seed of annonamuricata had 30.05% carbohydrate value, which was lower to that reported by onimawo 2002 (47.0%), but higher than that reported by salami, 2016 (19.14%) for serendipity berry(dioscoreophyllumcumminsii) seed. the ash content of any sample is a measure of the quantity of mineral in the sample. the ash content of the soursop seed was 1.61%, which is a measure of the mineral content in the seed. the value obtained was slightly higher than that reported by sarmento et al., 2015 (1.31%), and lower than that reported by fasakin et al., 2008 (2.29%) for some other varieties of soursop seed. this variation could be attributed to varietal differences and impact of type and composition of soil of fruit origin (hidden, 2016). also, soursop (annonamuricata) seed could actually be said to be high in ash content when compared to that of other seeds such as that of noni (morindacitrifolia linn.) (0.93%) as reported by sarmento et al., 2015, but lower than that of cashew nut (anacardiumoccidentale l.) (2.6%); pecan (caryaillinoinensis) (2.1%) (taco, 2011) etc. as a result of this, it could then be said that the seeds contain good quantity of mineral elements, and may then be good food fortificant or useful raw material for animal feed formulation and production of fertilizer. the fibre content of the soursop seed was 1.33%. it could be recalled that the presence of fibre in seed indicates ability to aid digestion process and prevent the absorption of excess cholesterol in the body (mensah et al., 2008). the substantial amount of fibre in the seed oil of soursop showed they can help in keeping the digestive system healthy and functioning properly. the crude protein content of the seed was 9.71%. the value, being slightly high, could make the seed flour a good raw material in the production of animal feeds because of the rich quantity of protein. the protein value was similar to that reported by sarmento et al., 2015 (8.90%) for ximeniaamericana l, while pereira et al., (2013) reported (4.24%) for yellow guava, psidiumcattleyanum, guabiroba (5.53%) for campomanesiaxanthocarpa and mandacaru (4.05%) for cereus hildmannianus. roesler et al., 2007 also reported high protein content for wild plum seeds; seeds of banha (2.7%), cagaita (4.42%), but lower than pequi almond (25.27%), and gold flax seeds (21.6%) (barroso et al., 2014; lima et al., 2007). the last three being far higher than the value recorded for soursop seed. table 2 presents the result of the coated and uncoated plantain samples monitored over twelve days for ripeness and eventual spoilage. it could be seen from the result that after the ten days, all (100%) the uncoated plantain had ripened, while only ten percent (10%) of the coated plantain samples were ripe. also, forty percent (40%) of the uncoated fully ripened samples were completely spoilt, while only seven percent (7%) of the coated samples were bad under same ambient condition the samples were placed. in other to truly ascertain the preservative potentials of the soursop seed oil, the ph and brix value of the coated and uncoated samples were measured over the twelve days. it was noticed from table 3 that the ph value of the coated and uncoated plantain samples ranged from 4.875.02 and 4.87-6.32 respectively. the high ph value (6.32) recorded for the uncoated samples after twelve days depicted less acidity and sweetness, with the values increasing from 4.87 to 6.32, noting that the ph values of the coated and uncoated plantain on the first day were the same. the brix value of the coated and uncoated plantain ranged from 0.02 o brix to 0.44 o brix and 0.02 o brix to 5.90 o brix respectively. the very low brix value recorded for the unripe plantain was normal, as the plantain were at the green stage. it could then be said that the starch in the plantain at the unripe stage was being converted to sugars, as reflected by the brix value. to buttress this, jamaludin et al., 2014 reported that the soluble solids content of banana increased as it reached the ripening stage. the soluble solids content was increasing as the banana was going from unripe to ripe and then overripe stage. soluble solids are sugars and during ripening, starch contents are converted into sugar and thus, soluble solid of the plantain was increasing as the plantain was going to the ripening stage, and soluble solids are an important trait of hydrolysis of starch into soluble sugars such as glucose, sucrose and fructose according to marriot et al., 1981. judging by the outcome of soursop seed oil on the samples, it could be said to have corroborated the report of raybaudi-massilia et al., 2015 that states that seed oils normally have antimicrobial property. the lower ph and/or insignificant or negligible changes in the brix value could be due to the effectiveness of the oil coating on the plantain, delaying the period of ripening and eventual spoilage. the soursop seed oil could then be said to have significant effect on the rate of ripening and spoilage, which 4 table 1: proximate composition on soursop seeds analysis percentage (%) moisture content 52.12 ± 0.03 crude protein 9.71 ± 0.01 crude fiber 1.33 ± 0.01 crude fat 5.19 ± 0.01 total ash 1.61 ± 0.01 carbohydrate 30.05 ± 0.03 mean ± standard deviation, (p ≤ 0.05) table 2: result of the measurement of the ripening and spoilage level of coated and uncoated plantain samples days sample code ripened (%) spoilage (%) 0 ucp 0.00 0.00 cp 0.00 0.00 1 ucp 0.00 0.00 cp 0.00 0.00 2 ucp 0.00 0.00 cp 0.00 0.00 3 ucp 10.00 0.00 cp 0.00 0.00 4 ucp 35.00 0.00 cp 0.00 0.00 5 ucp 65.00 5.00 cp 00.00 0.00 6 ucp 75.00 15.00 cp 5.00 0.00 7 ucp 80.00 20.00 cp 5.00 0.00 8 ucp 85.00 25.00 cp 7.00 5.00 5 table 2: continue 9 ucp 100.00 30.00 cp 7.00 7.00 10 ucp 100.00 40.00 cp 10.00 7.00 key: ucp = uncoated plantain, cp = coated plantain using soursop (annonamuricata) seed oil. table 3: chemical properties of coated and uncoated plantain (ph and brix) days analysis coated uncoated 0 ph 4.87 4.87 brix 0.02 o bx 0.02 o bx 3 ph 4.88 4.96 brix 0.02 o bx 0.12 o bx 5 ph 4.87 5.88 brix 0.02 o bx 2.40 o bx 7 ph 4.89 6.02 brix 0.06 o bx 4.38 o bx 10 ph 4.91 6.24 brix 0.11 o bx 5.66 o bx 12 ph 5.02 6.32 brix 0.44 o bx 5.90 o bx key: o bx = brix may then be attributed to the antioxidant properties of the seed oil of the soursop fruit. as a result of this, it could then be said that the seed oil may be used to delay ripening and spoilage of freshly cut fruits microbiological analysis of the treated and untreated orange juice during storage the microbiological analysis carried out on the orange juice treated with soursop seed oil was monitored over 4 weeks during storage(figures 2 and 3 respectively), with the colonies counted in unit per gram (log cfu/g). it was observed that the bacterial counts were higher than the fungi counts. the total microbial counts for the samples were very high by the first week, but those on the potato agar media were low. the decrease noticed in the microbial loads of the treated samples at the end of the storage period was from 1.89 log cfu/g to 0.08log cfu/g, while the control sample increased from 1.12 log cfu/g to 2.48log cfu/g over same period. the reduction noticed in the microbial load of the treated samples could be attributed to the action of the soursop seed oil extract added. the values obtained were within the safe limit for juices, as they had not exceeded the standard values of 1.0 x 10 4 cfu/ml stated by ihekoronye (1985) for juice to be safe. bacterial count is the most predominant and most important organisms in orange juice spoilage. the 6 figure 2: bacterial count of treated and untreated oraange juice during storage key: spo 5 = orange juice treated with 1.5ml of soursop seed oil, spo 4 = orange juice treated with 1.2ml of soursop seed oil, spo 3 = orange juice treated with 0.9ml of soursop seed oil, spo 2 = orange juice treated with 0.6ml of soursop seed oil, spo 1 = orrange juice treated with 0.3ml of soursop seed oil, ctl = control-pure orange juice. figure 3: fungi count of treated and untreated orange juice during storage key: spo 5 = orange juice treated with 1.5ml of soursop seed oil, spo 4 = orange juice treated with 1.2ml of soursop seed oil, spo 3 = orange juice treated with 0.9ml of soursop seed oil, spo 2 = orange juice treated with 0.6ml of soursop seed oil, spo 1 = orrange juice treated with 0.3ml of soursop seed oil, ctl = control-pure of orange juice. microbial growth curve of sample sop 2 in figures2 and 3 demonstrated normal growth curve of micro-organism, similar to that reported by agoreyo et a l., 2003. the organism after adapting for the first two weeks entered an exponential phase by week 3 and then the deeath phase on week 4 with gradual reduction in numbers. this might be due to the depletion of the nutrients of the orrange juice as the nutrients could have been used up by the organisms during these periods, hence resulting in higher mortality rate and struggle for survival (oyewole, 2012). antioxidant analysis of soursop seed oil the result of the antioxidant analysis carried out on soursop seed oil is as shown in table 4. the soursop seed oil had 150.45mg/kg flavonoids, which was similar to the findings on some other varieties of soursop by onyechi 7 table 4:antioxidant properties of soursop seed oil parameter carotenoid µg/100g 344.15 ± 22.14 ascorbic acid mg/100g 0.21 ± 0.0001 tocoferol µg/100g 5.93 ± 0.08 flavonoid mg/kg 150.45 ± 0.92 phenolic mg/100g 632.91 ±731.75 anthocyanin % 0.01 ± 0.003 mean ± standard deviations et al., (2012). flavanoids are known for their antioxidant and antimicrobial activity as reported by dembitsky et al., 2011. phenolic contents of soursop seed oil was 632.91mg/100g. this value was higher than4.43g/kg (0.443g/100g)reported by neuza et al., 2016 for orange seed oil. the value confirmed thatsoursop seed oil is very rich in phenolic compound, and from literature, it has been reported that phenolic compound is a characteristic or property of anticancer (pieme et al., 2014; yang et al., 2015). moreno and jorge, 2012 reported a high quantity of antioxidant in soursop, most especially the phenolic compounds, which was corroborated by gutierrez-abejon et al., 2004.total anthocyanin content was reported to be 0.01%, followed by ascorbic acids (0.21 mg/100g). ascorbic acids are antioxidants, as well as a precursor of important vitamin c, showing the soursop seed oil to be of good quality. soursop seed oil has total carotenoid content of 344.15µg/100g as seen in table 4, a value higher than that reported by neuza et al., 2016 (19.01 mg/kg). carotenoids are antioxidants as well as a precursor of vitamin a, which confirms soursop seed oil to be of good quality. the tocoferol content of soursop seed oil was 5.93 µg/100g. this was lower to that reported by neuzaet al., 2016 (135.65 mg/kg). tocoferols are equally antioxidants, as well as a precursor of vitamin e, a property that makes the seed flour to be of good quality. antioxidant activity generally and especially that of soursop, could be beneficial in human health, as it has the ability to prevent the activity of other chemical compounds called radicals that have the ability to cause damage to cells, including damage that may lead to cancer (nci, 2014). it has also been reported by pathak et al., 2010 and vijayameena et al., 2013 that soursop has phytochemicals that can exhibit antimicrobial properties, useful in bacterial infection treatment, thus complimenting the outcome of this research work. conclusions this study showed that the use of natural extract of soursop seed oil containing antioxidant compounds to preserve agricultural produce, could be a cheaper, efficient and effective way of extending the shelf life of fresh and freshly-cut fruits and vegetables. it could be said particularly that the use of soursop (annonamuricata) seed oil on orange juice and plantain as preservative agents, minimized microbial load with its moderate use and delayed ripening by about 10 days respectively, as some of the phytochemical components of the soursop seed oil that were determined confirmed the presence of antioxidants. hence applying edible coating containing antioxidants to freshly-cut fruits could effectively reduce browning, while increasing the antioxidant capacity of the coated or packed food (kaliana et al., 2014). also, the high proximate composition of the soursop seeds confirmed its high quality, which could make it a good raw material for animal feed. references agoreyo bo, obueke if, edosomwan do (2003): biochemical and microbiological changes in plantain (musa paradisiaca) at various stages of ripenings. discovery innovation, 15(3): 171-176. antia bs, akpan ej, okon pa, umoren iu (2006): nutritive and antinutritive evaluation of sweet potatoes (ipomoea batatas) leaves. pakistan journal of nutrition, (5):166-168. bokhari a, lia fc, suzana y, junaid a, hilimi a (2015): kapok seed oil 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retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper effects of agricultural reforms on the agricultural sector in nigeria daniel s. ugwu*, and ihechituru o. kanu department of agricultural economics and extension, enugu state university of science and technology, p. m. b, 01660 enugu, enugu state, nigeria. accepted 12 december, 2019 the various economic reform strategies undertaken by governments over a period of about three decades on the agricultural sector in nigeria were the exploitative strategy, agricultural project strategy, direct production strategy and integrated rural development strategy. overall, these economic reform strategies were geared toward the achievement of food self-sufficiency and food security, generation of gainful employment, increased production of raw materials for industries, increased production and processing of export crops, rational utilization of agricultural technologies for the improvement of life of its citizens. these strategies notwithstanding, government also pursued other on-going initiatives to step-up agricultural development across the country. the effects of economic reforms on the agricultural sector was examined alongside its fundamental roles of food security, supply of raw materials to industries ,provision of market, employment and foreign exchange as well as generation of savings for investment in agriculture and other sectors. agriculture contributed minimally during the period in terms of output, market, foreign exchange and capital formation or transfer as a result of policy instability, poor coordination of policies, poor implementation and mismanagement of policy instruments and lack of transparency. it is recommended that an enduring genuine democracy and good governance should be allowed to thrive in nigeria in order to achieve poverty reduction, sustainable livelihood and food security which will guarantee comprehensive economic development and attainment of the millennium development goals (mdgs). key words: agriculture reforms, effects, agriculture, nigeria. introduction nigeria is an agrarian country with about 70% of her over 140 million people engaged in agricultural production (nbs/cbn, 2006) and provides subsistence for two-thirds (2/3) of nigerians who are low income earners (usman, 2006). while the northern part can guarantee the production of cereals such as sorghum, maize, millet, groundnut, cowpea and cotton, the middle belt and the south have the potentials to produce root tubers such as cassava, yam, cocoyam and other crops like plantain as well as maize (abdullahi, 2003). in addition to crops, the country is also involved in the production of livestock,fisheries, forestry and wildlife. *corresponding author. e-mail: ugwuds@yahoo.com. tel: 08035673526. nigeria is generally endowed with abundant natural resources, numerous all-season rivers and a favourable tropical climate. rainfall is generally adequate and fairly well distributed throughout the country (ukpong et al, 1995). out of the 98.321 million ha of land available in nigeria, about 75.30% may be regarded as arable land, which 10% is under forest reserves and the remaining 14.70% is assumed to be made up of permanent pastures, built up areas and uncultivable waste (olajide, 1980).in the light of the foregoing, agriculture is still a major sector as well as remains the cornerstone of thenigerian economy (salami, 2006; igboeli, 2000). the problem although agriculture had remained the mainstay of the file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org nigerian economy, there has been declining contributions of agriculture to the gross domestic product (gdp) in the past three decades. this could be associated with the gross neglect of the agricultural sector and over dependence on the oil sector. in the pre-and post independence era (1930 to 1965), the nigerian economy was predicated on agriculture. agriculture employed about 70 to 80% of the country’s labour force (falusi and olayide, 1980) and contributed 60% of the nation’s gross domestic product (gdp) and foreign exchange earnings (cbn, 1985). in the oil boom era (1966 to 1977) the oil sector came to a prominent position as an important source of the national revenue. the oil sector which used to contribute a meager 2.6% of the gdp in 1960 contributed 57.6% to the gdp in 1970 and up to 99.7% in 1972 (keke, 1992). agriculture, on the other hand, contributed only 12% to the gdp in 1970 which culminated in rising food import bill leading to the persistent huge deficit in the balance of payments over the years (ugwu, 2007). in the post oil boom era (1977 to 2002), the price of crude oil started falling and/or fluctuating and there has been a growing concern to revitalize the agricultural sector as well as diversify the economy. in order to revamp the agricultural sector, the federal government had embarked on and implemented several agricultural policies and programmes some of which are defunct or abandoned, and some restructured while others are still in place. these include the farm settlement scheme, national accelerated food production (nafpp), agricultural development projects (adps), river basin development authorities (rbdas), national seed service (nss), national centre for agricultural mechanisation (ncam), agricultural and rural management training institute (armti) and agricultural credit guarantee scheme fund (acgsf). others were the nigerian agricultural cooperative and rural development bank (nacrdb)/agricultural bank, operation feed the nation (ofn), green revolution programme, directorate of foods, roads and rural infrastructure (dffri), nigerian agricultural insurance company (naic), national agricultural land development authority (nalda), specialised universities for agriculture, root and tuber expansion programme (rtep) and rural banking scheme, etc (salami, 2007). furthermore, the federal government in 2004 launched another economic reform called national economic empowerment and development strategy (needs) programme to encourage private sector participation in the development of the economy. it was also aimed at promoting growth and poverty reduction through a participatory process involving civil society and development partners. in the agricultural sector, needs were directed to influence improvement in the production, processing and distribution of agricultural commodities. needs was short-lived for only one year and therefore could not transform or make significant impact on the agricultural sector. despite all the aforementioned reform policies and programmes, the performance of the sector had not fared better than it was before independence. it is against this background that this research was designed and considered imperative at this time in the nation’s history. research objectives this study was therefore designed primarily to assess the performance and the effects of these government agricultural reforms and strategies on the agricultural sector. specifically the study sought to: 1. review the various federal agricultural reforms, programmes and interventions designed and implemented to restore agriculture to its prime position in the economy. 2. determine the effects and nature of the individual contributions of these reforms and programmes on the agricultural sector. 3. identify the problems and/or factors that militate against the achievement of the desired impact of these reform programmes/strategies on the agricultural sector. 4. proffer recommendations for improvement based on findings. research methodology study area nigeria was the focus of the study. it has an area of 923,769 km 2 and a population of over 140 million people. it is bounded on the west by the republic of benin and the republic of niger; on the east by the republic of cameroon; on the north by niger and chad republic’s and on the south by the gulf of guinea. the climate is equatorial and semi-equatorial. there are two seasons; the wet and dry season and agriculture is a major employer of labour, and the mainstay of the economy despite her dependence on oil. the approach used for this research were mainly desk study, data collection from secondary sources as well as analysis of data using descriptive statistics and other qualitative methods. data collection this involved desk study and/or review of relevant literature such as journals, technical documents, government gazettes, cbn annual reports and bullions, and published materials from the national bureau of statistics and the national planning commission (npc), among others. internet resources were also consulted. this also involved the collection of time series data on gross domestic product (gdp), output of agricultural products, exports and revenues, etc. the study focused on data/information available from 1960 to 2009. data analysis data collected were analysed using such descriptive statistics as percentages, means/averages, frequency tables, charts as well as cross tabulations. results and discussion historical perspective of agricultural reforms/policies and programmes nigeria’s perception of the place and role of agriculture in national development changed considerably over time. the affected policies, strategies and schemes used to address issues of the scheme equally changed. different strategies adopted by the country shows dynamism and changing strategies that overlaps and cannot be appropriately segregated into time phases. often it was a combination of two or more strategies to implement agricultural policies designed at different time periods. according to olayemi (1998) agricultural development strategies that have been adopted in the country can be categorised into the exploitative strategies, the agricultural project strategy, the direct government production strategy and the integrated rural development strategy. exploitative strategy the nigerian government during the colonial period and early years of independence adopted this strategy for agricultural development. in the 1950s the traditional economists observed agricultural sector as a residual, subsistence sector made up of peasant farmers. myint (1958) in his “vent-for-surplus” theory particularly categorized a developing economy as consisting of a “modern sector” that is largely non-agricultural and a “subsistence sector” that is agricultural. the subsistence sector that is perceived to be unproductive but full of under-utilized resources is expected to feed the modern sectors. as such, the subsistence sector was expected to be taxed to finance the modern sector. this essentially was the basis of the agricultural strategy in the 1950s and the 1960s in nigeria with levies on export crops providing revenue for government to develop the modern sector (adubi 2004). the government established institutions such as the agricultural marketing board system to boost revenue generation efforts through taxing of peasant farmers that produce export crops such as cocoa, groundnut, palm produce, cotton, etc. agricultural project strategy the period coincided with the time of internal self government up till 1968. government intervention in agriculture was minimal. the small-scale farmers in nigeria bore the brunt of agricultural development efforts (egwu and akubuilo, 2007). agriculture was seen as a sector that has appropriate linkage with other sectors and should be developed in complementarity with other sectors thereby effecting the needed forward and backward linkages. agriculture was regionalized with the establishment of extension fields and research institutes. regional public funds were invested in agriculture and there were new schemes such as farm settlement schemes (established to create modern literate farmers and promote agricultural development). tree crop plantations, smaller farmer credit schemes, and agricultural development corporation projects were established to encourage development of tree crops. direct government production strategy according to olayemi (1998), this was merely a deepening of the process of direct government intervention and investment in agriculture. this period started in 1970 and coincided with the oil boom in nigeria. there was massive federal government intervention and investment in agriculture. the reasons were first, the need for the rehabilitation and resuscitation of agriculture after the civil war. this demanded immediate huge investments by government in agriculture given that there was low capacity in the private sector. second, the ideological imperatives in the world then favoured direct involvement of government in directing investments in agricultural business and allied activities (adubi, 2004). the period witnessed direct involvement of governments in directing investments in agricultural production activities and the establishment of schemes and research institutes such as national accelerated food production project (nafpp), nigerian agricultural co-operative bank (nacb), etc. integrated rural development strategy the government realized in the mid 1970s that the strategy of direct agricultural production was not yielding the desired results. so, there was gradual shift to an agricultural development approach which involved the adoption of an integrated rural development strategy (olayemi, 1998). under this strategy, rural development was seen from a holistic perspective with agricultural development problems being only part of a larger rural development concern. this prompted the government to embark on multipurpose rural development programmes and implementing institutions such as the agricultural development projects (adps), the river basin development authorities (rbdas), the directorate of food, roads and rural infrastructure (dfrri), the national agricultural land development agency, (nalda), the operation feed the nation (ofn), the green revolution (gr), etc. this integrated rural development strategy was also adopted during the structural adjustment programme (sap) era but with significant changes in institutional design, intensity of activities and modes of operation. effects of agricultural reforms, policies and programmes on the agricultural sector the assessment of the effects of the agricultural reforms and policies on the agricultural sector is with respect to the fundamental roles, of agriculture, namely; i. provision of adequate food for a growing population and raw materials for industries. ii. provision of an expanding market for non-agricultural products iii. generation of savings for investment in agriculture as well as other sectors and release of surplus or underutilized resources to other sectors. iv. generation of foreign exchange. these are discussed in line with the historical periods of the various policy reforms and programmes as follows: the 1960 to 1969 era (period of minimum government intervention) during this phase, government intervention in agriculture was minimal. the small-scale farmers in nigeria bore the brunt of agricultural development efforts (egwu and akubuilo, 2007). according to olayemi (1995) government effort took the form of settling policies and creating institutions for agricultural research, extension and export crop marketing and pricing. agricultural development during this period was equated as the withdrawal of surplus rural labour and transferring them to the industrial sector. government established farm settlements and government research institutes and agricultural development corporations. this period witnessed visible decline in export crop production and mild food shortage. there was a decentralized approach to agriculture with initiatives being left to the regions and the states while federal government played a supportive role. regional governments were executing adhoc policies, programmes and projects. the effects of these reforms/policies on agricultural performance include increase in food supply short falls, and rise in retail food prices (sanyal and babu, 2010). the agricultural share of the gdp declined from 66% in 1959 to 50% in 1970. the decrease in export earnings and the increase in retail feed prices led to greater importation of food, which adversely affected the balance of payments during the late 1960s (kwanashie et al., 1998). during the same period, agriculture maintained an average of about 56% gdp in the 1960s with about 63% in the first half of the decade (tables 1 and 2). however, the foreign exchange earnings declined from 71% in 1964 to 41% in 1969. the negative environmental effects of these policy reforms at this period, however, were noted to include increased deforestation of rain forests for cash crop production as well as loss of biodiversity including wildlife table 1. share of agriculture in the gdp (1960 to2006). period/year average share of agriculture in gdp (%) 1960 to 1964 62.5 1965 to 1969 54.3 1970 to 1974 39.1 1975 to 1979 23.1 1980 to1984 23.3 1985 to 1989 37.9 1990 to 1994 29.93 1995 to1998 27.72 1999 to 2002 40.82 2003 32.60 2004 34.21 2005 1/ 41.83 2006 2/ 50.78 source: cbn annual report and statement of accounts (various issues). and indigenous plants. the 1970 to 1985 era (period of maximum government intervention) this phase was characterized by a change of policy from minimal government intervention to maximum in the agricultural sector. the oil boom featured in the era which brought about enormous financial investments in agricultural projects and institutions. many agricultural policies and programmes were enunciated. the fiscal, monetary and trade policies under the macro-economic policies were launched during the era as enumerated as follows; fiscal policy: budgetary allocations to agriculture were substantially increased to accommodate capital and recurrent expenditures. however large budget deficits were recorded. the capital expenditure on agriculture declined from 6.2% of total capital expenditure by the federal government in 1973 to 4.0% in 1985. the expenditure of state government followed similar pattern for the period under review (egwu and akubilo, 2007). tax policy: income tax reliefs on incomes from new agricultural enterprises were pursued. wage policy: a unified wage structure for all public sector workers was put in place. monetary policy: agricultural loans were given at concessionary interest rate of 6% per annum. in 1980s it was raised to 9% per annum. establishment of schemes, institutions etc: the table 2. percentage contribution to gross domestic product by sectors. product 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 oil 13.5 12.97 13.0 13.4 13.05 14.17 11.60 10.7 11.5 11.6 9.7 41.50 37.22 49.64 61.19 non oil 86.5 87.3 87.0 86.9 86.95 87.16 88.41 89.3 88.5 88.4 98.3 58.50 62.78 50.36 38.35 crops 29.9 29.8 29.8 29.5 31.13 31.47 32.27 22.7 32.4 32.3 32.9 29.6 30.48 37.05 45.09 livestock 5.2 5.1 5.0 4.0 5.23 5.19 5.21 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.1 2.04 2.14 2.75 3.32 forestry 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.2 1.27 1.24 1.22 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.1 0.41 0.95 0.54 0.64 fisheries 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.7 1.38 1.49 1.66 1.9 1.9 1.9 2.1 1.09 1.14 1.49 1.72 agriculture 37.8 37.8 37.7 37.2 39.01 39.39 40.36 40.99 40.61 40.45 41.23 32.6 34.21 41.83 50.78 source: cbn annual report and statement of accounts (several issues). nigerian agricultural and co-operative bank (nacb) was established in 1973 to facilitate the granting of credit to nigerian farmers. mandatory sectoral allocation to agriculture: commercial and merchant banks were mandated to extend a minimum of 6% of their loan portfolio to agriculture which was later increased to 12%. rural banking scheme was launched in 1977 while the agricultural credit guarantee scheme was established in 1977. trade policy on abolition of export duties on scheduled export crops in 1973 in order to promote agricultural export trade. liberalization of imports in respect of food, agricultural machinery and equipment. a summary of the micro-economic policies in agriculture during the era were as follows: 1. agricultural commodity marketing and pricing policy: in 1977, six national commodity boards were established which include; commodity boards for cocoa, groundnuts, palm produce, cotton, rubber and food grains. 2. land use policy was promulgated by the federal government in 1978 vesting the ownership of all lands on the government as to give genuine farmers access to farmlands. 3. agricultural extension and technology transfer policy aimed at improving the adoption of improved agricultural technology by farmers with the national accelerated food production project (nafpp) and agricultural development projects (adps) as implementing agencies. 4. input supply and distribution policy was promulgated to ensure adequate and orderly supply of agricultural inputs notably fertilizers, agro-chemicals, seeds, machinery and equipment. a) in 1975 government centralized fertilizer procurement and distribution with numerous agro-service centres nation wide. b) in 1972 government created national seeds service (nss) to produce and multiply improved seeds such as rice, maize, cowpea, millet, sorghum, wheat and cassava. 5. agricultural input subsidy policy on fertilizer, seed (50%) agro-chemicals (50%) and tractor hiring services (50%). 6. agricultural research policy: the policy was aimed at coordination and harmonization of agricultural research and extension linkage. agricultural research council was established in 1971.the 1973 decree empowered the federal government to take over all state research institutions. the 1975 reconstitution by the federal government of the nigerian agricultural research institute network led to the establishment of 14 institutes which were later increased to 19 and the creation in 1977 of the national science and technology development agency to coordinate all research activities in nigeria. 7. agricultural co-operatives policy: in 1979, a department of agricultural co-operatives within the federal ministry of agriculture, water resources and rural development was created to actualize this policy aimed at encouragement of farmers to form cooperatives and the use of same for the distribution of farm inputs and imported food commodities. 8. water resources and irrigation policy brought about the establishment of eleven river basin development authorities in 1977 charged with the responsibility of developing nigeria’s lands and water resources. 9. agricultural mechanization policy: the policy was instrumental to the creation of the ministry of science and technology and the establishment of some universities of science and technology; the operation of tractor hiring units in all the states of nigeria, reduced import duty on tractors and agricultural equipment and implements, generalized and liberalized subsidies on farm clearing and establishment of a centre for agricultural mechanization. in terms of effects of these agricultural reforms and policies on the agricultural sector, the imbalance in the flow of financial resources that characterized this period reflected in nigeria’s foreign trade. during this period imports rose by 46.5% more than the planned targets, with food, capital equipment and raw materials being, the fastest growing categories of imports. food imports as a share of total imports increased from 7.67% in 1970 to 10.26% in 1979 (osemeobo, 1992). at the same time as imports were increasing, agricultural production was suffering due to the latent impact of the civil war (1967 to 1970) and the drought of 1972 to 1974 that led to a massive loss of crops and livestock. despite government efforts in agricultural production, the performance of the agricultural sector was poor in terms of its growth, its export value, its contribution to gdp, and its share in nigeria’s total export earnings. there was rapid decline in agricultural production with large food supply gaps (sanyal and babu, 2010) with attendant rapid increase in food imports from 7.7% in 1970 to 10.3% in 1979. the 1985 to 1990 era (structural adjustment programme (sap) and post sap period) this era saw the federal ministry of agriculture, water resources and rural development in 1988 produce an agricultural policy for nigeria decreed to be operational for at least the next fifteen years. according to ikpi (1995) the document embodied the following, among other policies; a) agricultural sector policies and strategies on food crops, livestock and fish production, industrial raw material (crop and by-products) production, and forest products and wildlife. b) policies on support services such as agricultural extension, technology development and transfer, agricultural credit; agricultural insurance; agricultural mechanization; water resources development; rural infrastructure; agricultural statistics and data bank; agricultural investment and management advisory services, and agricultural manpower development and training. the document assigned role and responsibilities to the three tiers of government, federal, state and local in the country. it also incorporated a mechanism for periodic policy review to allow for policy stability and perspective planning. with the adoption of structural adjustment programme (sap) in 1986, government admitted the failure of past policies to significantly improve the economy and reverse the declining trend of production in the agricultural sector. the structural adjustment programme relied most especially on the agricultural sector to achieve the objectives of its far-reaching reforms on diversification of exports and adjustment of the production and consumption structure of the economy (adubi, 2004). the objectives of sap were to: 1) restructure and diversify the productive based of the economy so as to reduce dependency on the oil sector; 2) achieve fiscal stability and balance of payments viability over the medium term; and 3) promote economic growth with single digit inflation rates. some of the key policies designed to achieve these objectives were: a) measures to stimulate domestic production and broaden the supply base of the economy b) liberalization of trade and export controls; c) elimination of price control and commodity boards; d) decontrol of interest rates, and e) further rationalization and restructuring of the tariffs to smooth the way toward industrial diversification (sonyal and babu, 2010). despite the aforementioned policy measures, the agricultural sector did not register significant overall growth for several reasons. first, sap had more of an impact on the distribution of farm incomes than on agricultural growth and productivity (kwanashie et al, 1998). second, on average, real producer prices of tradable goods did not change significantly after the policy reforms. the decline in output of the export crop subsector contributed to a reduction in foreign exchange earnings that could affect the foreign exchange requirement of the agricultural sector. as a result of this reduction and subsequent loss of export earnings from crops, the country’s dependence on crude petroleum export earnings between 1988 and 1992 increased substantially (colman and okorie, 1993). in this phase also, which marked the sap period, there was lower agricultural and economic growth with high rates of unemployment. export earnings declined to less than 5% (table 3) as well as widening gap in food supply and demand. food prices increased from 2.6% in 1970 to 1979 period to almost 20% during 1980 to 1989. the environmental implications of these policy reforms were quite significant. during this period, there was increased deforestation with adverse impact on biotic resources, loss of biodiverty, increased desertification in arid areas and flooding in lowland areas. there was also evidence of increased use of chemicals and abuse of fertilizer use which led to soil degradation in certain agroecological zones. with respect to the index of real agricultural sector gdp between 1985 and 1990, it was fluctuating over these years. it was negative in 1985 and 1986 and positive in 1987 to 1990. the new millennium agricultural policies (1999 to 2009) at the inception of the new democratic administration in may 1999 and shortly before then, several institutional changes were made in order to realize the sector’s table 3. growth rate of real gdp-agriculture. year index of real gdp agriculture growth rate 1981 100.0 1982 103.85 3.85 1983 96.20 -3.80 1984 90.59 -9.41 1985 100.13 -0.13 1986 98.44 -1.56 1987 136.35 36.45 1988 136.35 36.35 1989 105.30 5.30 1990 118.43 18.43 1991 122.71 22.71 1992 128.07 28.07 1993 132.39 32.39 1994 127.60 27.66 1995 131.19 31.19 1996 137.68 37.68 1997 143.18 43.18 1998 143.76 43.76 1999 143.33 43.76 2000 141.37 41.37 2001 159.08 59.08 2002 163.39 63.39 2003 165.13 65.13 2004 69.52 -30.48 2005 71.79 -28.21 source: cbn statistical bulletin (various issues). objectives and in line with its belief that agricultural and rural development are sin quo non for improved economic recovery (olomola, 1998). these include the relocation of the department of co-operatives of the ministry of labour and its merger with the agricultural co-operatives division of the ministry of agriculture, the transfer of the department of rural development from the ministry of water resources to the ministry of agriculture (all before 1999), the scrapping of the erstwhile national agricultural land development authority (nalda) and the merging of its functions with the rural development department, the scrapping of the federal agricultural co-ordinating unit (facu) and the agricultural projects monitoring and evaluation unit (apmeu) and the setting up of projects co-ordinating unit (pcu) and later transformed into the national food reserve agency (nfra). streamlining of institutions for agricultural credit delivery with the emergence of the nigerian agricultural co-operative and rural development bank (nacrdb) from the merger of the erstwhile nigerian agricultural and co-operative bank (nacb) and the peoples bank and the family economic advancement programme (feap). new institutions were also evolving to enable the nigerian agricultural sector respond to the imperatives of the emerging global economic order. the new agricultural policy has a clear statement of objectives. the policy seeks to attain self sustaining growth in all the subsectors of agriculture and the structural transformation necessary for the overall socioeconomic development of the country as well as the improvement in the quality of life of nigerians. this objective reflects the current policy recognition of agriculture as a vital sector under the poverty reduction programme (fmard, 2003). the government also sought to pursue the following specific objectives: i. attainment of self-sufficiency in basic food commodities with particular reference to those which consume considerable shares of nigeria’s foreign exchange and for which the country has comparative advantage in local production. ii. increase in local production of agricultural raw materials to meet the growth of an expanding industrial sector. iii. increase in production and processing of exportable commodities with a view to increasing their foreign exchange earning capacity and further diversifying the country’s export base and sources of foreign exchange earnings; iv. modernization of agricultural production, processing, storage and distribution through the infusion of improved technologies and management so that agriculture can be more responsive to the demands of other sectors of the nigerian economy. v. creation of more agricultural and rural employment opportunities to increase income of farmers and rural dwellers and productively absorb an increasing labour force in the nation. other initiatives that are on-going to step-up agricultural development and ensure food security are the root and tuber expansion programme, national cocoa development committee, special programme on food security (spfs) and national fadama project. others also include the fish farm estate development, initiatives for increased agricultural production, south-south cooperation initiative and nigeria-france project on agricultural development. this phase witnessed a drastic reduction in food imports from 14.5% to 5% of total imports. presidential initiatives on specific agricultural commodities (for example cassava, rice) in order to generate n3 billion annually from exports also featured during this period. public private partnership in the development of agricultural marketing as well as the promotion of integrated rural development marked this phase. the effects of these policy changes and programmes were reflected in the deficits recorded due to rising population and import restrictions on cereals and grains, supply shortages due to significant increase in land area under cultivation, and instability in input and output markets, among others. annual deforestation rate remained at the rate of 76% per year due to higher demand for agricultural land, fuel wood and rapidly growing population (unep, 2006). land degradation caused by soil erosion occurred at an alarming rate. however, nigerian agriculture has shown good growth rates in the recent past with growth rates of 7.4, 7.2 and 6.5% in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. between 2003 and 2007 its average share of the national real gdp was 41.5% thus underscoring its importance in the livelihood of nigerians (fgn, undated). of the growth in the 2003 to 2007 period, the crop, livestock, fishery and fishery subsectors contributed 90, 6, 3 and 1% respectively. major crops grown in nigeria include yam, cassava, sorghum, millet, rice, maize, beans, dried cowpea, groundnut, cocoyam and sweet potato. these major crops which accounted for about 75% of total crop sales in 2004 increased from 81,276 thousand tones in 2004 to 95, 556 thousand tones in 2007 (eyo, 2008). problems/challenges of the agricultural reforms, policies and programmes evidence from olayemi (1995), olomola (1998), garba (1998) have indicated minimal positive impact of these reforms/policies. the evidence stems from the decaying rural infrastructure, declining value of total credit to agriculture, and declining domestic and foreign investment in agriculture. the increasing withdrawal of manufacturing companies from their backward integrated agricultural ventures has reduced investments in the sector considerably. input supply and distribution have been hap-hazard and inefficient and most agricultural institutions were ineffective prompting its scrapping in year 2000 of some of the institutions established for agricultural promotion. a critical examination of the reforms/policies and their implementation over the years show that policy instability, policy inconsistency, lack of policy transparency, poor coordination of policies as well as poor implementation and mismanagement of policy instruments constitute major obstacles to the implementation and achievement of the goals and objectives of these policies. policy instability and lack of policy transparency are not unconnected with political instability and bad governance. for example, between 1979 and 1999 the country had five military/civilian regimes. at the federal and state levels, the then ministers and commissioners of agriculture were changed several times on the average of one per two years. several policy measures were initiated and changed without sufficiently waiting for policy effects or results. at one time or the other, agricultural production passed through periods of protection and unbridled opening up for competition. also, it passed through era of “no government” and “less these could all be attributed to poor coordination and faulty implementation of policies as well as mismanagement of policy instruments. agriculture contributed 42% of nigeria’s gross domestic product (gdp) in 2008 (national bureau of statistics). however, despite having grown at an annual rate of 6.8% from 2002 to 2006, 2.8% higher than the sectors annual growth between 1997 and 2001, food security remains a major concern due to the subsistence nature of the country’s agriculture (nwafor, 2008) many of the strategies used to improve agricultural growth in the past have failed because the programmes and policies were not sufficiently based on in-depth studies and realistic pilot surveys (adebaya et al., 2009). this could be attributed to lack of public participation in the design, formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies as well as limited implementation capacity within the sectoral ministries and a poor understanding of the details and specifics of polices by implementers (adebayo et al., 2009). the main factors that influenced the effectiveness of policies on agriculture include high demand for agricultural produce, availability of improved technology, efficient dissemination of information by the adps and value added leading to improved income. on the other hand, the common factors responsible for the ineffectiveness of policies and regulations, especially on the downstream segment of agriculture, include instability of the political climate, insecurity of investment, nonstandardized product quality, non-competitive nature of agricultural products from the country in the export market due to high cost of production and lack of adequate processing facilities (the new nigerian agriculture policy, 2001). conclusions and recommendations in conclusion, the effects of economic reforms on the agricultural sector can be said to be unsatisfactory in view of its minimal contributions to the sector. in order to stem the aforementioned identified problems and weaknesses of these agricultural policies/reforms in the context of their contributions to the agricultural sector, genuine democracy and good governance should be allowed to thrive in nigeria. this will guarantee poverty reduction, sustainable livelihood and enhanced food security which will lead to a comprehensive agricultural development as well as the attainment of the millennium development goals (mdgs) in nigeria. references abdullahi a (2003). “employment creation and opportunities in the agroallied sub-sector: the case of cassava production.” cbn bullion publication, 27(4): 10. adebayo k (2004). rural development nigeriana: episodic drama, soap opera and comedy. university of agriculture aberkuta alumin association lecture series no. 6 january 2004. adubi aa (2004). “agriculture: its performance, problems and prospects”. democratic government development. in bello imam i. b. and m. i. obadan (ed). management in nigeria’s fourth republic 1999 – 2003 clgards, 2004. adubi aa (2002). “the agricultural sector: objectives, priorities, strategies and policies” chapter in book of readings on policy issues in nigerian economy ncema, 2002. adubi aa (2002b). the agricultural sector and the challenges of the twenty-first century chapter in book of readings on nigerian economic in the 21 st century by centre for advanced social science (cass) port harcourt, nigeria. central bank of nigeria (cbn) (1995). central bank of nigeria, annual report and statement of account, lagos, nigeria. in nworgu f. c. (2006). prospects and pitfalls of agricultural production in nigeria. federal college of animal health and production technology, institute of agricultural research and training, ibadan, nigeria. colman d, okorie a (1998). the effect of structural adjustment on the nigerian agricultural export sector. j. int. dev., 10(3): 341–355. egwu we, akubuilo cjc (2007). “agricultural policy, development and implementation in akubuilo, c. j. c. (ed) chapter in book of readings in agricultural economics and extension. ego eo (2008). “macroeconomic environment and agricultural sector growth in nigeria”. world j. agric. sci., 4(6): 781–786. federal ministry of agriculture and rural development (fmard) (2003), agriculture in nigeria. the new policy thrust. federal ministry of agriculture and rural development, abuja, 2003. fgn (undated). nigeria: review of on-going agricultural development efforts. garba pk (1998). “an analysis of the implementation and stability of nigerian agricultural policies, 1970 – 1993 “final report submitted to the african economic research consortium (aerc), nairobi, kenya. igboeli g (2000). development of agriculture in nigeria. in nworgu f. c. (ed) prospects and pitfalls of agricultural production in nigeria. federal college of animal health and production technology, institute of agricultural research and training, ibadan, nigeria. myint h (1958). the classical theory of international trade and the underdeveloped countries.” econ. j., 68(270): 317-337. national bureau of statistics/central bank of nigeria (nbs/cbn) (2006) socio-economic survey on nigeria, nbs, abuja. nwafor m (2008), literature review of development targets in nigeria. ibadan: international institute of tropical agriculture . kwanashie m, ajilima a, garba a (1998). the nigerian economy. response of agriculture to adjustment policies. zana, nigeria: african economic research consortium. olayemi jk (1998). “agricultural development strategy: institutional framework and support, “paper presented at the workshop on policy issues and planning in the agricultural sector, ncema, june 15-26, 1998. olayemi jk (1995). “agricultural policies for sustainable development: nigeria’s experience” in ikpi a.e. and j.k. olayemi (ed). sustainable agriculture and economic development in nigeria. winrock international, 1995. olomola as (1998). “analysis and management of agricultural sector performance and inter-sectional linkages” paper presented at training programme on sectoral policy analysis and management (ncema) june, 1998. osemeobo gj (1992). impact of nigerian agricultural policies on crop production and the environment. environmentalist, 12(2): 101-108. sanyal p, babu s (2010). policy benchmarking and tracking the agricultural policy environment in nigeria. nigeria strategy support program (nssp). report no. nssp 005, p. 23. ugwu ds (2007). “agricultural extension practice in nigeria.” readings in agricultural economics and extension (ed.). in cjc akubuilo, umebali ee, mgbada ju, ugwu ds, egwu we, awoke mu. usman ne (2006). “agriculture: vital to nigerian economic development.” paper presented at the forum of economic stakeholders on “growing the nigeria economy” 2006. this day news paper, july 25, 2006. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (3), pp. 001-010, march, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper assessing the suitability of soybean meal as a protein source for argyrosomus regius (asso, 1801) (sciaenidae): a nutritional evaluation jorge velazco-vargas, silvia martínez-llorens, miguel jover cerda and ana tomás-vidal research group in aquatic resources, institute of animal science and technology, polytechnic university of valencia, valencia, spain. accepted 12 december, 2023 the meagre (argyrosomus regius) is a carnivorous fish which requires diets with higher protein content, causing an increment in diets cost. a way to diminish this cost is to use vegetable meals like soybean meal (sb). so the aim of this trial was to determine the optimum inclusion level of defatted soybean meal in experimental diets for this species. 800 fishes (165 g) were distributed in 8 tanks, two replicates per treatment. four isoproteic (50% cp) and isolipidic (17% cl) diets were formulated with four levels of soybean meal inclusion, 0, 15, 30 and 45%. the trial lasted 107 days. meagre fed diets 15 and 30% obtained the highest final weight. there were no significant differences among treatments in the feed conversion rate (fcr) and the protein efficiency (per). according to the quadratic regression, the optimum sb inclusion to maximize thermal growth coefficient (tgc) was 26.4% and for fcr was 27.6%. no significant differences were observed in energy, protein and amino acid retention among diets. the inclusion of sb in meagre diets can generate a decrease in the use of fish meal and in turn reduce the cost of producing meagre mediterranean aquaculture industry. key words: argyrosomus regius, fish meal replacement, defatted soybean meal, economic analysis. introduction the species belonging to the scianidae family and selected for this present experiment is argyrosomus regius known as meagre, is a good candidate for the diversification on commercial aquaculture in mediterranean and eastern atlantic for its good flesh and growth rate (el-shebly et al., 2007; roo et al., 2010). the meagre produced in floating cages has shown good management (jiménez et al., 2005) and high growth rate, reaching 1 kg in 10 to 13 months (calderón et al., 1997; roo et al., 2010). limited information about the optimal feeding nutritional require-ements of meagre is available, it only exists a recent study of dietary lipid requirements (chatzifotis et al., 2010). likewise the effects of different levels of plant proteins on the on *corresponding author. e-mail: atomasv@dca.upv.es tel: 34 96-3879752. fax: 34-96-3877439. growing of meagre have been studied very recently (estévez et al., 2010). increase of aquaculture production around the world depends upon the development of sustainable protein sources to replace fish meal in aquafeeds. fish meal is generally incorporated at levels between 30 and 60% in feeds for carnivorous marine fish (wang et al., 2006a). aquaculture production demands more and more alternative proteins to substitute fish meal. these meals should not have good amino acids profiles, but also lower prices than fish meal to reduce the production cost. the alternative meals should be highly digestible protein sources of plant and/or animal origin that support similar fish performance and concurrently have no adverse effects upon the environment (murray et al., 2010). defatted soybean meal (standard toasted and solventextracted, sb) is the most used vegetable meal in aquafeeds, because is a widely available, economical protein source with relatively high digestible protein and 2 energy contents and good amino acid profile (wang et al., 2006b). the use of defatted soybean protein as a dietary protein has been examined for many commercial important marine fish species such as cobia (rachycentron canadum) (zhou et al., 2005), mediterranean yellowtail (seriola dumerili) (tomás et al., 2005), european sea bass (dicentrarchus labrax) (tibaldi et al., 2006), sharpsnout seabream (diplodus puntazzo) (hernández et al., 2007) and gilthead sea bream (sparus aurata) (martínez-llorens et al., 2009). soybean meal has a different acceptance in other carnivorous sciaenid species, both qualitatively and quantitatively, but there is no information available on meagre. in the sciaenidae family, sb meal has been tested in different species; nibea miichthioides has a limited ability to utilize sb as a protein source in practical feeds (wang et al., 2006b) and sciaenops ocellatus gained much weight with diets containing 50% of protein from soybean meal (mcgoogan and gatlin iii, 1997; reigh and ellis, 1992). these results indicate a considerable variation in the ability of different species of the same family to utilize sb protein as an alternative to fish protein in the diet. the aim of this trial was to determinate the optimum inclusion level of deffated soybean meal (sb) in experimental diets for meagre (a. regius), to maximize growth, feed efficiency parameters and amino acid retention and relate it with economic analysis. materials and methods experimental setup the trial was conducted in 8 octagonal concrete tanks (4000 l) inside a recirculated seawater system at the aquaculture laboratory of animal science department at the polytechnic university of valencia, (valencia, spain). the tanks were set up in a marine water recirculation system (65 m 3 of capacity) with a rotary mechanic filter and a gravity biofilter of around 6 m 3 capacity. all tanks were equipped with aeration and water was heated by a heat pump installed in the system. the equipments used to control water parameters were an oxy-meter (oxyguard, handy polaris v 1.26), a refractometer with 0 to 100 g l -1 range (zuzi, a67410) and a kit using the colorimetric method to determinate nitrate, ammonia and nitrite concentrations. the kits were obtained from aquamerck (merck kgaa, darmstadt, germany). during the trial, the water temperature (23 ± 1° c) and dissolved oxygen (7 ± 0.5 mg l -1 ) were measured daily. salinity (33 ± 1 g l -1 ), ph (7.3 ± 0.5), nh4 + (0.0 mg l -1 ), no2 (0.34 ± 0.2 mg l -1 ) and no3 (46.1 ± 3.7 mg l -1 ) were measured three times a week. photoperiod was natural throughout the experimental period, and all tanks had similar lighting conditions. fish and experimental design the fish were transported to the experimental facilities of polytechnic university of valencia from a commercial hatchery localized in france. the fish were acclimated to the experimental conditions and fed a commercial diet (47% of crude protein (cp), 20% of crude lipid (cl), 5.8% ash and 1.5% crude fibre (cf), skretting, spain. a group of 800 fishes, 165 g in mean weight, were distributed in 8 tanks; two replicates per treatment were randomly selected. the experiment finished when fish doubled the initial weight. all fishes were weighed every 5 to 6 weeks, approximately. previously, fish were anaesthetised with 30 mg l −1 of clove oil (guinama ® , valencia, spain) containing 87% of eugenol. the fishes were not fed for 24 h before weighing. the trial lasted 107 days (from december 2009 to march 2010). at the beginning, 16 fishes per tank and the end 10 fishes per tank, were slaughtered by a thermoshock in a melting ice bath, to determine body composition and biometric parameters and were stored at -30°c to determine proximate and amino acid body composition. diets and feeding four isoproteic (50% cp) and isolipidic diets (17% cl) were formulated using commercial ingredients (table 1), in which defatted sb was included at 0, 15, 30 and 45% (table 2). diets were prepared by cooking-extrusion processing with a semiindustrial twin-screw extruder (clextral bc-45, st. etienne, france). processing conditions were as follows: 100 rpm speed screw, 110°c temperature, 30 to 40 atm pressure and 3 and 6 mm diameter pellets, according to fish size. each experimental diet was tested in duplicate tanks. fishes were fed by hand twice a day to apparent satiation from monday to saturday. pellets were distributed slowly, allowing all fishes to eat. proximate composition and amino acid analysis chemical analyses of the dietary ingredients were determined prior to diet formulation. diets and their ingredients as well as the whole fishes were analysed according to aoac (1990) procedures: dry matter (105°c to constant weight), ash (incinerated at 550°c to constant weight), crude protein (n × 6.25) by the kjeldahl method after an acid digestion (kjeltec 2300 auto analyser, tecator höganas, sweden), crude lipid extracted with methyl-ether (soxtec 1043 extraction unit, tecator) and crude fibre by acid and basic digestion (fibertec system m., 1020 hot estractor, tecator). all analyses were performed in triplicate. the amino acid content in diets and whole body were determined after acid hydrolysis with hcl 6n at 110°c for 23 h. as previously described bosch et al. (2006), through a waters (milford, ma, usa) hplc system consisting of two pumps (mod. 515, waters), an autosampler (mod. 717, waters), a fluorescence detector (mod. 474, waters) and a temperature control module. aminobutyric acid was added as internal standard after hydrolysation. the amino acids were derivatised with aqc (6-aminoquinolyl-nhydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate) and separated with a c-18 reverse-phase column waters acc. tag (150 mm × 3.9 mm). methionine and cystine were determined separately as methionine sulphone and cysteic acid respectively after performic acid oxidation followed by acid hydrolysis. economic analysis the price of each diet was determined by multiplying the respective contributions of each feed ingredient by their respective costs per kg and summing the values obtained for all the ingredients in each of the formulated diets. the used raw material prices were the average prices in fao globefish (january, 2010), instituto técnico y de gestión ganadero, s.a and “mercados agroalimentarios” (official fob prices). the price of each ingredient (january, 2011) was: fish meal=1.38 € kg 1 ; defatted soybean meal= 3 table 1. proximate composition of ingredients used in experimental diets. ingredient fish meal, herring wheat soybean meal international feed nº (5-02-000) (4-05-268) (5-04-604) dry matter (%) 91.9 87.7 89.35 crude protein (% dm) 72.4 10.6 45.28 crude lipid (% dm) 9.6 1.5 1.61 crude fibre (% dm) 0.3 4.2 5.6 ash (% dm) 15.8 1.6 7.7 nfe (% dm) * 1.9 82.1 39.81 *nfe was calculated as = 100 %cp %cl %ash %cf. 0.321 € kg -1 ; wheat meal=0.154 € kg -1 ; fish oil=0.780 € kg -1 ; vitmin mix=7.50 € kg -1 . the economic conversion ratio (ecr) was used to evaluate the diets from an economic point of view and it was calculated following the expression: ecr (€ kg -1 fish) = feed conversion ratio (kg diet kg -1 fish) × price of diet (€ kg -1 diet)] statistical analysis growth data and nutritive parameters were treated using multifactor analysis of variance (anova), introducing the initial live weight as covariate (snedecor and cochran, 1971). newman-keuls test was used to assess specific differences among diets at a significance levels of p < 0.05 significance levels (statgraphics, statistical graphics system, version plus 5.1, herndon, virginia, usa). quadratic regression analyses were applied, where specific growth rate (sgr) and feed conversion ratio (fcr) were a function of soybean meal (sb) dietary level using the expression: y=a + b(sb) + c(sb) 2 optimum soybean meal dietary level was obtained by deriving this equation and equalising to zero. all experiments were carried out according to the rules or protocols of the animal welfare commission at the polytechnic university of valencia. results the composition of test diets including dry matter, cp, cl, ash and gross energy (ge) was similar (table 2). the essential amino acid (eaa) profiles of the diets were variable (table 2), arg, his, met, phe and thr decreased according to sb increased in the diets and the opposite trend was observed in the iso and leu content. the lys content was similar in all diet. in relation to non essential amino acids (neaa), the dietary content of asp and glu were increased according to dietary level of sb. the relation eaa/neaa also diminished with dietary soybean meal level until 0.86. no significant difference was observed in final survival (that it was around 84% ± 10.61). the meagre did not present adaptation problems nor exhibit stress behaviour. at the end of the trial, a significant effect of soybean meal inclusion was observed on fish growth (table 3). meagre fed diets 15 and 30 obtained the highest final weight (380 and 385 g, respectively). the final weight of fish fed diet 45 was also higher (360 g), than fish fed diet 0 (333 g). likewise, fish fed diet 15 and 30 obtained significantly higher thermal growth coefficient (tgc) (3.10 × 10 -3 and 3.15 × 10 -3 , respectively) than fish fed 45 diet (2.87 × 10 -3 ) and fish fed the 0 diet that obtained the lowest tgc (2.56 × 10 -3 ). regarding nutritional parameters, the daily feed intake, the feed conversion rate (fcr) and the protein efficiency (per) ratio were not different for all the diets (table 3). with the aim to determining the sb dietary levels that maximize the fish growth, a second-order polynomial regression analysis was assessed and the equation that describes the relationship between tgc and the dietary sb level is expressed in figure 1. based on the above polynomial equation, the point maximum of this quadratic curve is the dietary sb level to maximize the tgc (26.4% sb). likewise, figure 1 shows the second-polynomial regression between fcr and dietary level sb and the sb level that obtain the minimum fcr resulted 27.6% sb. biometric parameters and body composition were not affected by experimental diets (table 4). significant differences were not observed in whole body composition. the energy retention (gee) results are similar in all tested diets with values between 24 and 25.7%. neither, significant differences were observed among diets in the efficiency of protein (cpe), between 27.6 and 30.6%. the ingestion of essential amino acids (expressed as g aa × 100g -1 of fish and day) did not showed significant differences with the diets (figure 2). overall, the met intake was the lowest (from 0.8 to 1.24 g aa × 100g -1 of fish and day) followed by the his intake (from 1.9 to 2.1g aa × 100g -1 of fish and day) and the lys and leu intake were higher than the others amino acids intake (upper to 3 g aa × 100g -1 of fish and day in the four experimental diets). figure 3 shows the retention efficiency (%) of essential amino acids of fishes fed with the experimental diets at the end of the experiment. the his was the amino acids with the lowest retention efficiency (25% of average) and the thr presented the highest retention 4 table 2. formula and proximate composition of the experimental diets. ingredients (g kg −1 ) diet 0 15 30 45 fish meal, herring (5-02-000) 660 576 493 407 soybean meal (5-04-604) 0 150 300 450 wheat (4-05-268) 216 144 70 0 fish oil (7-08-048) 104 110 117 123 vitamin–mineral mix 20 20 20 20 analysed composition (% dry weight) dry matter 91.9 91.31 90.09 90.41 crude protein (%cp) 50.43 50.13 50 50.98 crude lipid (%cl) 17.78 17.94 18.09 17.42 ash (%) 11.17 11.22 10.95 10.55 crude fibre (%cf) 1.11 1.62 2.12 2.64 calculated values nfe * 19.51 19.09 18.84 18.41 ge (mj kg −1 ) † 22.57 22.48 22.34 22.36 cp/ge (g mj −1 ) 22.35 22.3 22.38 22.8 essential amino acid content calculated (g 100 -1 g) arginine 4.19 4.13 4.07 4.00 histidine 1.82 1.75 1.68 1.61 isoleucine 2.43 2.44 2.45 2.46 leucine 3.90 3.92 3.94 3.95 lysine 3.00 3.00 3.01 3.00 methionine 1.10 1.04 0.99 0.92 phenylalanine 3.38 3.29 3.21 3.11 threonine 2.45 2.39 2.33 2.27 valine 2.66 2.65 2.64 2.62 non essential amino acid content calculated (g 100 -1 g) alanine 3.03 2.94 2.84 2.74 aspartate 4.31 4.59 4.87 5.14 cystine 0.73 0.72 0.71 0.69 glutamine 6.66 7.09 7.51 7.93 glycine 3.65 3.48 3.31 3.13 proline 4.93 4.60 4.27 3.92 serine 2.09 2.14 2.20 2.25 tyrosine 2.41 2.28 2.16 2.03 eaa/neaa 0.90 0.88 0.87 0.86 *nfe calculated: 100-%cp-%cl-%ash-%cf. † ge: gross energy: calculated using: 23.9 kj g −1 proteins, 39.8 kj g −1 lipids and 17.6 kj g −1 carbohydrates. (around of 35%) following by arg (34%) and lys and met32%). there were no significant differences of amino acids efficiency retention among diets. ratio between dietary eaa level of experimental diets and eaa in the carcass was calculated (expressed as %eaadiet/%eaafish) and the results are shown in figure 5. the his presented the upper value of this ratio (upper to 130%), and arg, lys, met and thr presented the ratio below to 100%. no differences were observed in ratio %eaadiet/%eaafish in relation to diets, with a exception of met that presented the lowest ratio in diet 30 and 45 and the highest in the 0 diet. regarding to economic analyses of the diets, the cost of diets was reduced with the increase of soybean meal in diets (table 5). significant differences were showed in the economic conversion ratio (ecr) that was higher in control diet (diet 0) than in the others diets. discussion the results of this present trial show that the meagre exhibits a high growth, with tgc around 3.00 ×10 -3 , greater than other marine species such as gilthead sea bream with tgc average of 1.72 ×10 -3 (mayer et al., 2008) and others scianids as argyrosomus japonicus (pirozzi et al., 2009) feed with commercials diets (1.46 × 10 -3 ). likewise the tgc in present trial were also higher that tgc recalculated by the growth results obtained by calderón et al. (1997) with a. regius feeding with pelletized diets (2.02 × 10 -3 ), estevez et al. (2010) feeding a. regius with experimental diet with extruded commercial diet (1.73 × 10 -3 ) and by el-shebly et al. (2007) (1.78 × 10 -3 ) with feed based in tilapia and shrimp. the diets with 15 or 30% of sb obtained the best final weight and tgc (385 g and 3.15 × 10 -3 , respectively) but the optimum soybean inclusion in diets for a. regius was 27% for both, growth and feed conversion. figure 4 shows the tgc obtained in this experiment compared with different marine species that were feeding with different levels of plant proteins in diets. despite the fact that knowledge of meagre nutrition is limited there are a few feeding studies in fishes of the scianids family. the studies made by wang et al. (2006b) recommended soybean meal dietary level below 10% (40% of fish meal substitution) in diets for cuneate drum, since exceeding this level produced a detriment in the fish growth. higher levels of dietary soybean meal were recommended for other scianids as sciaenops ocelatus, for example mcgoogan and gatlin iii (1997) obtained a good growth results when soybean meal was included at 66% in diets and in the same species, reigh and ellis (1992) also observed that the 70% of soybean meal dietary inclusion did not affected negatively to fish growth. regarding to replaces fish meal with a vegetable protein mixtures, estevez et al. (2010) fed a. regius with four experimental diets with two inclusion levels (42 and 52%, those represented the 315 and 38% of total protein of diets) of mixture plant protein (soy cake, corn gluten, soy protein concentrate and sunflower cake) with or without fish protein hydrolysates and observed that the fish growth was significantly reduced by the inclusion of plant protein, although the growth of fish fed diets with 42% of plant protein dietary inclusion obtained similar growth to fish fed control diet. the quadratic regression analysis was recommended by shearer (2000) because it was used to obtain optimum levels of ingredients or nutrients 5 table 3. main performances of meagre fed increasing levels of dietary soybean meal. parameter diet 0 15 30 45 sem initial weight (g) final weight (g) tgc × 10 -3 * fi (% day -1 ) † fcr‡ per § 164 166 166 165 3.84 333 c 380 a 385 a 360 b 1.2 2.56 c 3.10 a 3.15 a 2.87 b 0.144 0.79 0.90 0.95 0.89 0.03 1.30 1.34 1.43 1.45 0.05 1.53 1.49 1.40 1.36 0.05 means of duplicate groups. data on the same row not sharing a common superscript letter are significantly different different (p < 0.05). sem: pooled standard error of the mean. initial weight was considered as covariable for final weight and tgc. *tgc = 1000 x [final weight (g) 1/3 − initial weight (g) 1/3 ] /(t°−minimum t° to feed). † feed intake (g100 g fish -1 day -1 ) fi = 100 × feed consumption (g)/ average biomass (g) × days. ‡ feed conversion ratio, fcr = feed offered (g)/ weight gain (g). § protein efficiency ratio, per = weight gain (g)/protein offered (g). 2.5 tgc = 2.53x10 -3 + 4.95544x10 -5 xsb-9,37562x10 -7 xsb 2 26.42 3.5 r 2 = 86.91 optimun sb level tgc x 10 -3 fcr 3 2 2.5 1.5 2 fcr fcr = 1,93(± 0.19)-0,04 (±0.02)xsb + 72.74x10 -5 (±43.42x10 -5 ) xsb 2 27.64 tgc r 2 = 81.66 % optimun sb level 1 1.5 1 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 figure 1. optimum dietary soybean meal level for tgc and fcr depending on dietary soybean meal obtaining by quadratic regression. (martínez-llorens et al., 2009; sánchez et al., 2007). according to the polynomial regression showed that the dietary soybean meal obtained for a maximum growth was 26.4%. similar results were reported in other marine species, such as gilthead sea bream that recommended between 20.5% (martínez-llorens et al., 2009) and 30.5% (martínez-llorens et al., 2007) of dietary soybean meal level for maximum growth, and likewise tomás et al. (2005) recommended from 20 to 30% of defatted soybean meal dietary inclusion for maximum growth of seriola dumerili. chou et al. (2004) for juvenile cobia (rachycentron canadum) estimated by quadratic regression a growth optimum at 16.9% replacement of fish meal protein by soybean meal protein. although daily feed intake, fcr, and per do not statistically differ between diets, they do not appear so close. daily feed intake of diet 0, in particular, is 13% lower than the value recorded for diets 15 and 45, and 17% lower than diet 30. to provide evidence that the may be caused by the nutrient imbalances besides to palatability properties of plant proteins. in relation to biometric parameters, no effect of diet was observed and similar indexes were obtained by poli et al. (2003); 1.04 condition factor, 44% fillets, 6% vsi, but the mesenteric fat obtained in present trial (2.4%) were higher than the obtained by poli et al. (2003), and the cause of this differences probably could be to that meagres in this present experiment not formed gonad. there was not significant effect on the whole body composition of meagre by the experimental diets and 6 table 4. biometric indices and proximate composition (expressed as percentage of wet weight) of a. regius fed increasing levels of soybean meal. parameter diet 0 15 30 45 sem cf * 1.11 1.18 1.17 1.16 0.02 vsi (%) † 6.12 5.77 5.49 6.02 0.24 hsi (%) ‡ 1.96 1.6 1.58 1.61 0.11 mf (%) § 2.43 2.53 2.33 2.48 0.16 dp (%) ¶ 70.33 70.9 70.56 69.17 0.84 mi (%) || 58.76 60.75 58.39 59.39 1.44 moisture (%) 74.05 72.62 71.8 71.9 0.55 crude protein (% ww) 17.37 17.95 18.6 17.37 0.37 crude lipid (% ww) 6.5 6.63 6.81 7.64 0.25 ash (% ww) 2.45 2.65 3.12 2.57 0.19 cpe (%)** 29.7 30.4 30.6 27.6 1.83 gee (%) †† 24.0 24.8 25.4 25.7 1.33 the data are the mean (n=10) ± sem. data in the same row with different superscripts differ at p < 0.05. *condition factor cf = 100 × total weight (g)/total length 3 (cm). † viscerosomatic index (%) vsi = 100 x visceral weight (g)/ fish weight (g). ‡ hepatosomatic index (%) his = 100 × liver weight (g) / fish weight (g). §mesenteric fat (%) mf = 100 x mesenteric fat weight (g)/fishweight (g). ¶dressout percentage (%) dp = 100 × [total fish weight (g)-visceral weight (g)-head weight (g)]/ fish weight (g). ||meat index (%) mi = 100 x meat weight (g)/fish weight (g). **crude protein efficiency (%) cpe = fish protein gain (g) × 100/ protein intake (g). †† gross energy efficiency (%) gee = fish energy gain (kj) × 100/energy intake (kj). arg 3.5 val 3.0 his 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 thr 0.5 ile 0.0 0 15 30 45 phe leu met lys figure 2. ingestion of essential amino acids (eaa) in each experimental diet expressed as g per 100 g -1 of fish and day. each value is the mean of duplicate groups. different superscripts indicated differ at p < 0.05. 7 figure 3. retention efficiency (%) of essential amino acids in a. regius fed with the experimental diets at the end of the experiment. each value is the mean of duplicate groups. different superscripts indicated differ at p < 0.05. retention of ingested protein (%) = fish amino acid gain (g)/ ingested amino acids (g) × 100. table 5. global results of economic parameters at the end of the experiment. parameter diet 0 15 30 s45 sem cost of diet (€ kg -1 )* 1.18 1.10 1.03 0.95 ecr (€ kg -1 ) † 2.31 b 1.50 a 1.55 a 1.47 a 0.06 data in the same row with different superscripts differ at p < 0.05. *calculated from price of ingredients: fish meal=1.38 € kg −1 ; soybean meal=0.32 € kg −1 ; wheat= 0.154 € kg −1 ; fish oil=0.78 € kg −1 ; vit–min–aa mix=7.5 € kg −1 . † ecr (€ kg −1 fish) = feed conversion ratio (kg diet kg −1 fish)*price of diet (€ kg −1 diet). approximately content was 72% of humidity, 17% of cp and 7% of lipids. these results demonstrate the excellent meat quality that presents the meagre, being the main characteristic its lower fat content, representing an important parameter of quality for the consumer (poli et al., 2003). the detriment of growth in 45 diet could be to several factors as the presence of anti nutritional factors in plant proteins (francis et al., 2001; gatlin iii et al., 2007), that various effects can also caused the activities reduces of alkaline phosphatase and aminopeptidase in meagre (estevez et al., 2010). in addition, the growth could be affected by the amino acid deficiencies of diets (gomezrequeni et al., 2004; peres et al., 2003; refstie et al., 2006; wang et al., 2006b). following this reasoning, the information about amino acids requirements for meagre is not available. nevertheless, a first approach about the excess or defect of eaa could be done by estimating amino acid retention, which has been carried out in other fish species (peres and oliva-teles 2009; sánchezlozano et al., 2010). in this present experiment, no significant effect in amino acid retentions was observed with the different diets, but great differences can be observed among amino acids, arg, lys, met and thr presented the highest retention and the his the lowest. the amino acid efficiency retention and amino acid intake is closely related and the reason of the high retention was due to the low amino acid intake, if this one is made below its requirements. ratio between eaa profile of diets and whole body (figure 5) could be a good tool to estimate the deficiencies as sánche-lozano et al. (2009, 2010) have shown in the sea bream, so, that if this relation is less than 100% this amino acid would be deficient and if it is greater than 100% it would be in 8 a.regius sparus aurata n. miichthioides sciaenops ocellatus 1 sciaenops ocellatus 2 seriola dumerili t g c x 1 0 -3 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 dietary level (%) figure 4. tgc of a. regius in the present trial, compared, sparus aurata (martínez-llorens et al., 2009), n. miichthioides (wang et al., 2006), sciaenops ocellatus 1 (mcgoogan and gatlin iii, 1997), sciaenops ocellatus 2 (reigh and ellis, 1992) and seriola dumerili (tomás et al., 2005). 140 6 130 0 20 40 60 5,5 ab a a 5 120 b b 4,5 b b 4 110 0 b %eaa 15 g daa 3,5 diet %eaafish a ab c 3 100 a ab 30 100 g fish day ab 45 b 2,5 ab b a a ab b 2 90 bc c 1,5 ab ab b 1 80 a 0,5 a 0 70 his arg thr val leu met lys lys ile leu phe arg his ile met phe thr val aminoacids figure 5. ratio between essential amino acids profile of experimental diets and whole body fish expressed as g per 100 g -1 of protein. each value is the mean of duplicate groups. different superscripts indicated differ at p < 0.05. 9 excess. arg, lys and thr were deficient in diets and therefore the efficiency retention of these amino acids was high. met was significant different among diets and fish fed diet 0 (100% of fish meal) presented the highest relation between %eaadiet/%eaafish and for reason met efficiency retention increased with soybean meal dietary level. in summary, it is necessary to determine the amino acids requirement of meagre because, even in the diet with the 100% of fish meal, there are amino acids that could be deficient, such as arg, lys and thr. from an economic point of view, it was clearly improved the ecr when fish meal was substituted for soybean meal in the diet. then, if the growth and body indices show that diets 15 and 30% were quite similar, although the cost of the diets is not significantly different, the best diet must be considered the diet 30 reigh and ellis (1992) recommended up to 70% of dietary soybean meal for a growth of sciaenops ocelatus, but observed that the 35.5% soybean level (50% of dietary protein from soybean meal) was the most cost-effective diet. the soybean meal level for minimum ecr (optimum ecr) in diets for seriola dumerili (tomás et al., 2005) resulted around 20.5% and similar results (martínez-llorens et al., 2007) were obtained for gilthead sea bream (22%). conclusion the results obtained in this present trial showed that 30% sb inclusion could be an excellent plant meal to substitute 25% of fish meal dietary, because no effects on growth and feed efficiency parameters were detected and in addition improve the profitability of diets. acknowledgement this research was supported by grants from the planes nacionales de acuicultura (jacumar) in spain. references association of official analytical chemists, aoac. 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aquaculture 252:476–483. wang y, kong l, li c, bureau d (2006b). effect of replacing fish meal with soybean meal on growth, feed utilization and carcass composition of cuneate drum (nibea miichthioides). aquaculture 261:1307–1313. zhou q, mai k, tan b, liu y (2005). partial replacement of fishmeal by soybean meal in diets for juvenile cobia (rachycentron canadum). aquacult. nutr. 11:175–182. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (7), pp. 001-007, july, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper genetic diversity and morphological characterization of m7 soybean mutant lines using rapd markers mehdiyounessi hamzekhanlu1, ali izadi-darbandi1*, nejat pirvali-beiranvand2, mohammad taher-hallajian2 and abbas majdabadi2 1 deparment of agronomy and plant breeding science, college of aburaihan, university of tehran, p. o. box. 3391653775, tehraniran. 2 agricultural, medical and industrial research school, nuclear science and technology research institute, atomic energy organization of iran. accepted 28 february, 2024 when genetic variability is diminished using traditional breeding methods, induced mutation is a good way to increase genetic diversity in soybean. hence, genetic diversity amongst 33 m7 generation soybean mutant lines with high n2 fixation character and one non-irradiated cultivar (l17) was studied by using random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) markers and some morphological traits. rapds established 104 major amplified products using 10 polymorphic primers. out of 104 markers, 34 were monomorph and the remaining (70) were polymorph. cluster analysis of studied lines in terms of rapd markers, separated mutant lines group from parent cultivar. both morphological and rapd markers successfully detected genetic variation within induced mutant lines and the variation between irradiated and non irradiated lines which were morphologically indistinguishable also detected by rapd. therefore rapd markers with average pic = 0.80, can be more useful for detecting induced diversity among mutant lines. it can be inferred from the results that irradiation did induce significant genetic variability with regard to majority of studied traits such as number of nodule per plant and harvest index. sequencing and cloning of band pattern (3 kb) obtained from parent cultivar with opa09 primer and introducing it as a scar marker can be used in marker assisted selection. key words: diversity, morphological traits, mutation, random amplified polymorphic dna, soybean. introduction mutation breeding in crop plants is an effective tool in hands of plant breeders especially in crops having narrow genetic base. many mutants have been identified as donors of desirable traits in breeding program. mutation breeding work in soybean crop has yielded in identification of many mutant lines with desirable traits like high germination and survival percent (rahman et al., 1994). despite the richness of the soybean germplasm collection the genetic base of the present day collection remains poor (delannay et al., 1983). because of this *corresponding author. e-mail: alizadi110@yahoo.com or aizady@ut.ac.ir. tel: 09128024109. problem, induction of genetic diversity and its use in soybean breeding programs is essential to create performance mutant lines to meet the worldwide soybean demand. it can be possible to increase the genetic variability by inducing many mutations in plants with ionized radiations at the in vivo and in vitro studies of mutation breeding. after the creation of mutant lines genetic diversity of these lines can be monitored using morphological as well as genetic based tools, dna techniques (bennici et al., 2003) and advanced molecular methods (barazani et al., 2002; shiran et al., 2007). the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) based method for dna profiling, random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) techniques (li et al., 2001; fracaro et al., 2005) has been extensively applied in 2 evaluation of genetic diversity of different plant species and soybean cultivars. the rapd assay is efficient for screening for nucleotide sequence polymorphism among individuals as each primer (on average) will direct the amplification of several discrete loci within a genome (samal et al. 2003). as primers modified by even a single nucleotide produce different banding profiles, the rapd technique can generate polymorphisms between very closely-related genotypes (deng et al., 1995). present investigation was, therefore, undertaken to obtain information on effect of gamma irradiation on morphological traits of the m7 generation of soybean mutant lines. there are problems about soybean disease and pests such as cyst-nematode in iran and also lack of genetic diversity in soybean, traditional breeding programs have not been resulted in favorable results. in our research the studied lines were previously established and has no genetic evaluation was not conducted on these lines. the objective of this study was mainly to evaluate the rate of genetic diversity amongst induced mutant plants and their parent cultivar (l17) and their classification using rapds and morphological markers. we also expected the mutant lines that are separated from parent cultivar allow them to create resistant varieties against pests and disease such as cyst-nematode. we can use these mutant lines in other soybean mutation breeding programs. materials and methods plant materials this experiment containing 33 m7 generation soybean mutant lines which previously evolved by γ ray (cobalt 60 ) from l17 cultivar irradiated with doses 150, 200 and 250 gray (absorbed dose) and l17 cultivar. seeds of mutant lines and parent cultivar were planted in pots in greenhouse of nuclear research center for agriculture and medicine karaj – iran. experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design (crd) with three replications, in this research treatments were 33 mutant lines and one parent cultivar (l17). morphological characteristics each line was characterized using 11 traits taken at the different stages. number of leafs per plant at vegetative stage, number of pods per plant, number of seed per pod, number of seed per plant, number of nodule per plant at r8 stage, and 100-seed weight (g), plant dry weight (g), seed yield per plant (g), harvest index, root dry weight (g), nodule dry weight (g) after harvesting were measured. the genomic dna isolation and pcr the dna was extracted from leaves using the procedure described by sharma et al. (2003). ten random primers were used for pcr amplifications. amplification for rapd was carried out in 25 µl volumes containing 50 ng of template dna, 400 ng primer, 2.5 u of taq polymerase (fermentas), 2.5 µl 10x pcr buffer, 300 µm dntps, 1.4 m mgcl2 and sterile distilled water to 25 µl. the amplifications were performed in biorad thermalcycle. it was programmed for two cycles at 94°c for 2 min, 35°c for 1 min, and 72°c , two cycles at 94°c for 1 min, 35°c for 30 s and 72°c for 1 min, and finally 40 cycles at 94°c for 15 s, 35°c for 30 s and 72°c for 1 min, and an additional elongation step at 72°c for 5 min. the products were held at 4°c until analyzed. amplified samples were run on a 1% agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide at 100 v for up to 90 min with 1x tae as running buffer and gels were visualized under uv light and photographed with polaroid film. duplicate reactions were performed to ensure reproducibility. data analysis amplification product profiles were scored for the presence (1) or absence (0) of bands. molecular size of the amplified fragments was estimated using sm-0403 dna ladder (fermentas). rapd assays generating weak or ambiguous amplification products were repeated to confirm the consistency of these markers. the ntsyspc software was used to estimate genetic similarities with the jaccard’s similarity coefficient. the generated matrix of similarities was analyzed by the complete linkage (cl) or farthest neighbor, using the sequential hierarchical agglomerative and nested clustering (shan) module. analysis of variance have been carried out on the experimental data to evaluate the gamma irradiation effect on yield and other traits and their pertinent means were separated through the duncan multiple range test popularly known as duncan’s test with sas 9.0 software. also morphological traits were analyzed by using wards method and euclidian distance coefficient with the spss-pc (ver. 16.0). the average polymorphic information content (pic) was calculated for rapd markers through following formula, given by powell et al. (1996): he=1-σpi 2 , where he is the expected hetrozygosity or pic and pi is the frequency of ith allele. results variance analyses (anova) of studied traits are presented in table 1. there were highly significant differences (p < 0.01) for number of leaf per plant, number of grain per plant, number of pod per plant, plant dry weight (shoot dry weight), root dry weight, harvest index, number of nodule per plant, nodule dry weight, and significant differences (p < 0.05) for 100 seed weight and seed yield per plant among mutant lines and parent cultivar. only for number of seed per pod there are no significant differences among mutant lines and parent cultivar. means of number of nodule per plant, harvest index and shoot dry because of their importance are shown in table 2. majority of mutant lines such as m13 mutant line showed significantly (p < 0.05) increased number of nodule per plant as compared to parent l17. the mutant line m1showed higher harvest index and shoot dry weight as compared to parent l17 and other mutant lines. cluster analysis of the studied lines using 11 traits was carried out. the dendrogram and clustering pattern are observed in figure 1. the ward dendrogram based on morphological characterization indicated that all lines were clustered into four major groups. according to the proximity matrix mutant lines number 24 (m24) and 26 (m26) were nearest lines to parent cultivar and fourth 3 table 1. analysis of variance of studied traits in m7 generation of soybean mutant lines and parent cultivar m17. ms seed yield 100 seed shoot dry weight number of pod per number of grain number of grain number of leaf per df source of per plant weight plant per plant per pod plant variation ∗∗308/0 ∗∗139/5 ∗∗0003/0 ns 007/0 ∗01/0 ∗063/0 ∗∗0006/0 33 genotype 119/0 74/0 00008/0 005/0 005/0 035/0 0001/0 68 error 46/17 42/7 17/7 75/17 67/17 58/8 87/10 %cv ms nodule dry weight number of nodule per plant root dry weight harvest index df source of variation ∗∗0044/0 ∗∗188/0 ∗∗320/0 ∗∗53/1 33 genotype 00008/0 003/0 082/0 44/0 68 error 89/11 62/9 21/5 08/16 %cv *, ** = significant at the 5 and 1% of probability level, respectively; ns = not significant. table 2. means of number of nodule per plant, harvest index, shoot dry weight in m7 generation of mutant lines (m1-m33) and parent cultivar l17. number of line number of nodule harvest index shoot dry weight number of line number of nodule harvest index shoot dry weight m1 14.77d 0.333a 8.33a m18 11.76e 0.266abc 8.3ab m2 6.53kij 0.31ab 6.67d-j m19 8.55gh 0.316ab 7.46a-f m3 4.55mln 0.283abc 7.1c-i m20 9.99gf 0.253abc 7.56a-d m4 14.89d 0.316ab 6.86d-j m21 8.77gh 0.23bcd 6.43g-j m5 3.44mn 0.283abc 7.44a-g m22 17.44c 0.303ab 7.46a-f m6 14.5d 0.263abc 6.45f-g m23 4.99kml 0.23bcd 6.56d-j m7 19.88b 0.3ab 6.7d-j m24 11.22ef 0.253abc 6.67d-j m8 16.1cd 0.26abc 7.13c-i m25 10.88ef 0.29ab 7.36a-h m9 4.66mln 0.28abc 6.23ij m26 8.66gh 0.26abc 6.7d-j m10 19.55b 0.293ab 7.33c-h m27 3.21n 0.3ab 6.36h-j m11 3.11n 0.313ab 6.86d-j m28 5.44klj 0.253abc 6.86d-j m12 7.44hi 0.313ab 7.46a-f m29 6.55kij 0.196cd 6.23ij m13 23.77a 0.29ab 8a-c m30 10.66ef 0.26abc 6.5f-j m14 17.1c 0.313ab 7.9a-c m31 8.77gh 0.24bcd 6.5e-j m15 3.44mn 0.28abc 7.23c-i m32 6.77jl 0.303ab 7.1c-i m16 5.88kilj 0.316ab 7.53a-e m33 11.87e 0.303ab 7.05c-j m17 6.44kij 0.26abc 6.06j p(l17) 7.55hi 0.26abc 7.23c-i 4 figure 1. dendrogram of 33 m7 generation mutant lines and parent l17 cultivar (p) of soybean based on morphological traits. table 3. means of studied traits for each group derived from cluster analysis of 33 m7 generation mutant lines and l17 cultivar of soybean. means of traits number grain grain pod dry 100 seed yield per harvest root dry nodule nodule per per per per dry group of leaf weight(g) weight(g) plant(g) index weight(g) pod plant plant plant weight(g) 1 8.9 2.18 18.03 8.21 7.1 11.73 2.09 0.29 5.32 5.58 0.051 2 9.21 2.11 15.06 7.2 6.54 11.02 1.64 0.25 5.58 6.72 0.053 3 9.01 2.29 18.16 7.96 7.35 12.12 2.19 0.29 5.61 17.55 0.129 4 8.68 2.26 17.61 7.83 7.29 11.4 1.98 0.24 5.61 11.08 0.085 underlined numbers have highest. groups mutant lines including number 2 (m2), 17 (m17) and 30 (m30) were entirely different from parent cultivar. means of each group are shown in table 3. in terms of studied traits mutant lines group (2, 3 and 4) were higher as compared with parent cultivar group (1). amplification patterns are performed twice in order to evaluate the reproducibility of the rapd markers. the results showed that reproducible rapd patterns can be obtained under the same amplification conditions for two replicates. the ten polymorphic primers resulted in 104 storable bands, ranging from 200 to 3100 bp in size. of these, 70 (67%) bands were polymorphic (table 4). the number of bands for each primer varied from 6 (opa 01) to 12 (opa 03, opa 07) with an average of 10.4 bands per primer. to estimate the similarities among studied lines, the jacard coefficient provided similarity values ranging from 0.35 to 0.79. according to the cl dendrogram (figure 2) the studied lines (mutant lines pulse parent cultivar) were clustered into 5 major clusters. according to the similarity matrix, the mutant line number 32 (m32) was closer to parent cultivar and the mutant line number 9 (m9) was entirely different from parent cultivar (l17). for each of the 10 rapd primers, pic were calculated and pic values ranged 0.73 to 0.86 (table 4). the mean pic values for all loci were 0.80. discussion morphological variation in this research induct variation by gamma irradiation was assessed using morphological traits in m7 generation of soybean mutant lines. it can be inferred from the results that irradiation did induce significant genetic variability with regard to majority of studied traits such as number of 5 table 4. degree of polymorphism and information content for rapd primers along with their sequences, applied to 33 m7 generation mutant lines and l17 cultivar of soybean. no. primers sequence total (t) polymorphic (pol) % polymorphism pic fragment fragment (pol/t*100) 1 opa-01 caggcccttc 6 5 83 0.77 2 opa-02 tgccgagctg 11 7 64 0.79 3 opa-03 agtcagccac 12 7 58 0.80 4 opa-04 aatcgggctg 9 4 44 0.73 5 opa-05 aggggtcttg 11 8 73 0.87 6 opa-07 gaaacgggtg 12 10 83 0.83 7 opa-08 gtgacgtagg 11 9 82 0.86 8 opa-09 gggtaacgcc 11 7 64 0.80 9 opa-10 gtgatcgcag 10 6 60 0.74 10 opa-11 caatcgccgt 11 7 64 0.82 figure 2. dendrogram of 33 m7 generation mutant lines and parent cultivar (l17) of soybean based on rapd. nodule per plant and harvest index. also results demonstrate that radio mutation induction and selection could be successfully used in the soybean cultivars to improve the n2 fixation and some of the agronomic characters, e.g. number of nodule per plant, harvest index and shoot dry weight. similar results were also reported by padavai and dhanavel (2004) and singh and kole (2005). increase in studied traits in mutant lines may be attributed to chromosomal damages. also separation of mutant lines from parent cultivar shows gamma ray effect in creating genetic diversity that resulted into separate mutant lines from parent cultivar. according to the means of studied traits in each group (table 2) mutant lines groups (second, third and fourth groups) in comparison with parent group (first group) have highest value. since these traits are most important agronomical traits such as yield and yield components traits therefore relevant mutant lines can be selected from segregated group. using radiation techniques, similar improvements in the agronomic characters of soybean and other crops were achieved (rahman et al., 1994; odeigah et al., 1998; dubey et al., 2007; arulbalachandran et al., 2010). the next step will be to verify the disease reaction of these materials and to test them for combining ability. 6 figure 3. rapd pattern of m7 generation mutant lines (m1-m33) and parent cultivar (l17) obtained with primer opa-09. s.m. demonstrated the size marker dna (sm-0403). according to the figure parent cultivar (l17) have a band which this band deleted in mutant lines. the best lines such as m13 and m1 will be used for hybrid production. molecular markers variation changes in dna caused by mutagens result in genetic variation detected by rapd analysis (rani et al., 1995; teparkum and veilleux, 1998). polymorphic amplification products which represent one allele per locus can result from changes in either the sequence of the primer binding site, such as point mutations, or from changes altering the size or preventing successful amplification of a target dna such as insertions, deletions, and inversions (rani et al., 1995). mutations resulting in polymorphisms are those occurring on primer binding sites, leading to an increase or decrease in the total number of primer binding sites, and consequently the number of amplified fragments. in the present study, 10 rapd primers have revealed polymorphic fragments among soybean mutant lines that are most likely due to treatment with the physical mutagen gamma. these polymorphisms indicate presence of genetic differences in soybean mutant lines. it is possible that these mutations have occurred in different loci, although it is not yet known whether these mutations and polymorphism bands have correlated with useful traits. rapd polymorphisms observed in this study are likely due to alterations in the number of primer binding sites following mutagenesis. point mutations at other regions of the genome that fall within the amplified fragments are likely to go undetected. in this study, detected out of 70 polymorph fragments indicate a high level of mutation due to gamma mutagenesis. thus, rapd markers are useful in detecting polymorphisms in soybean mutant lines as they provide sufficient numbers of dna fragments for conducting assays. this approach can then be used to rapidly screen mutant lines in efforts to detect mutants with desirable agronomic traits. this study showed molecular markers such as rapd is more useful for analysis of genetic diversity because rapd also detected variation between the irradiated and non irradiated lines, which were morphologically indistinguishable therefore rapd markers can be more useful for detecting induced diversity among mutant lines. sequencing of polymorphism bands between mutant lines and parent cultivar and additional research are needed for screening and detecting of new genes that are linked with desirable traits. the sequencing of unique band that produced in parent (figure 3) and introducing it as a scar marker can be used for marker assisted selection. references arulbalachandran d, mullainathan l, karthigayan s, somasundaram st, velu s (2010). genetic variation in mutants of black gram (vigna mungo (l.) hepper) evaluated by rapd markers. j. crop sci. biotech., (1): 1-6. barazani o, cohen y, fait a, diminshtein s, dudai n, ravid u, putievsky e, friedman j (2002). chemotypic differentiation in indigenous populations of foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare in israel. biochem. systs. ecol., 30: 721-731. bennici a, maria a, giovanni gv (2003). genetic stability and uniformity of foeniculum vulgare mill., regenerated plants through organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis. plant sci., 161(1): 221227. delannay x, rodgers dm, palmer rg (1983). relative genetic contribution among ancestral lines to north american soybean 7 cultivars. crop sci., 23: 944-949. deng zm, gentile a, nicolosi e, domina f, vardi a, tribulato e (1995). identification of in vivo and in vitro lemon mutants by rapd markers. j. hort. sci., 70: 117-125. dubey ak, yadav jr, singh b (2007). studies on induced mutations by gamma irradiation in okra (abelmoschus esculentus (l.) monch.). progressive agric. 7(1/2): 46-48. fracaro f, jucimar z, sergio e (2005). rapd based genetic relationships between populations of three chemotypes of cunila galioides benth. bochem. syst. ecol., 33: 409-417. li z, qiu l, thompson ja, welsh mm, nelson rl (2001). molecular genetic analysis of u.s. and chinese soybean ancestral lines. crop sci., 41: 1330-1336. odeigah pgc, osanyinpeju ao, myers go (1998). induced mutations in cowpea (vigna unguiculata). rev. biol. trop., 3: 579-586. padavai p, dhanavel d (2004). effect of ems, des and colchicine treatment in soybean. crop res., 28(1,2&3): 118-120. powell w, morgante m, andre c, hanafey m, vogel j, tingey s, rafalski a 1(996). the comparison of rflp, rapd, aflp and ssr (microsatellite) markers for germplasm analysis. mol. breed., 2: 225238. rahman sm, takagi v, kubota k, miyamoto k, kawakita v (1994). high oleic acid mutant in soybean induced by x-ray irradiation. biosci. biotech. biochem., 58: 1070-1072. rani v, parida a, raina sn (1995). random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) markers for genetic analysis in micropropagated plants of populus deltoides marsh. plant cell rep., 14: 459-462. samal s, rout gr, nayak s, nanda rm, lenka pc, das s (2003). primer screening and optimization for rapd analysis of cashew. biol. plant. 46: 301-304. sharma r, mahila hr, mohapatra t, bhargava sc, sharma mm (2003). isolating plant genomic dna without liquid nitrogen. plant mol. biol. reporter, 21: 43-50. shiran b, amirbakhtiar n, kiani s, mohammadi sh, sayed-tabatabaei be, moradi h (2007). molecular characterization and genetic relationship among almond cultivars assessed by rapd and ssr markers. sci. hortic., 111: 280-290. singh r., kole cr (2005). effect of mutagenic treatments with ems on germination and some seedling parameters in mungbean. crop res., 30(2): 236-240. teparkum s, veilleux re (1998). indifference of potato anther culture to colchicine and genetic similarity among anther-derived monoploid regenerants determined by rapd analysis. plant cell tissue organ cult., 53: 49-58. full length research paper burundi's access to and use of agricultural land mogul and osman research istanbul technical university, istanbul, turkey accepted 2 december, 2024 the this study has studied and examined burundi's agricultural land accessibility and utilization. its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats have been examined using swot and sor analysis, and several methods that can result in sustainable agriculture have been identified. burundi has been noted to have a significant issue with the atomicity of its agricultural land. over 40% of farming households work plots smaller than 0.25 hectares. the provinces with the densest populations are kayanza and ngozi. a total of 145.3 tons/ha of arable land are lost annually, and sloping hills make up 44% of the agricultural land. arable land, however, has expanded and now makes up 79.17% of the nation's total area in 2018 as a result of land development projects. regretfully, research indicates that throughout the past ten years, the rate of increase in agricultural output was only 2%, while the pace of population growth was between 2.6% and 3%. a land consolidation policy should be put into place, particularly in places with a high population density. to preserve soils and conserve water, it is best to bolster anti-erosion measures for degraded soils. by sharing strategies and tactics that will guarantee sustainable land management, the burundian government and non-governmental organizations should assist the agricultural industry. key words: agricultural land, land accessibility, land use, swot and sor analysis. introduction african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-015, december, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ the burundi burundi is a small east african landlocked nation with a humid tropical climate and steep mountains (adb, 2022). in 2008, there were an estimated 8,060,000 people living there, with 51% of them being women and over 90% of them residing in rural areas. it is estimated that 10.2 million people called burundi home in 2016. over the previous seven years, the population has grown at an average yearly rate of 3% (pam, 2016 and isteebu, 2015). burundi is one of the most densely inhabited nations in africa, with almost 300 people per square kilometer. there are more than 500 persons per km2 in the country's central-western provinces of kayanza and bujumbura. nearly 46% of the population is under the age of 15, and less than 10% of people live in urban areas (bm, 2019; wfp, 2016 and isteebu, 2015). with over 90% of the workforce employed, 40% of the country's gdp, and 30% of all export earnings, agriculture is the backbone of the burundian economy. burundi ranked second in terms of gold exports (49%) and coffee exports (21%) (fsin, 2019). according to grebmer et al. (2020), further agricultural exports include tea (8%), wheat (4%), processed goods (1%), and tobacco (1%). the burundian agricultural system relies heavily on livestock, which contributes 12% of the country's gdp (jeníček et al., 2016). for rural communities, livestock is a traditional source of household savings as well as a source of income, food, and fertilizer (kearney, 2010). 85% of all households experience food insecurity, and the per capita income is less than $1 per day (egae, 2014). over 70% of burundians in 2020 live below the international poverty level, which is set at $1.90 per day; over 64% live below the national poverty line, which is set at $0.88 per day; and 65% of young people are unemployed (wfp, 2019). sectoral contributions to gdp growth served as the primary basis for the analysis of burundi's economic position before being extended to other growth metrics. agriculture, industry and crafts, forestry, and energy are currently the main economic sectors. the gdp is 40% contributed by the agriculture sector and 2% by the forestry sector. the gdp contributions of the industrial and energy sectors are 18.3% and approximately 4.6%, respectively (1% for electricity) (minaegrie, 2018). according to minani (2014), population expansion invariably results in the depletion and excessive utilization of agricultural land. as a result, in an already constrained space, crop productivity and soil fertility both diminish. the author claims that because agriculture takes precedence over other uses of the limited land resources due to demographic pressure, pastures are being reduced. low soil fertility and low agricultural yields are caused by intensive farming and grazing on steep, extensively eroded hills, high soil acidity, and a lack of agricultural inputs. this study looks at burundi's agricultural land use and accessibility in light of these limitations. in order to show the ways to increase access to and use of agricultural land, this article examines a wide range of advantages, disadvantages, possibilities, and dangers. material and method the qualitative and quantitative data used in this study were gathered from books, publications, scientific articles, theses, and the websites of various organizations and institutions. the agricultural system and land use, the distribution of land and population pressure, the availability of arable land, and the loss and degradation of arable land were the main topics of the thorough literature review. however, surveys that were administered during the focus groups were used to collect the primary data. additionally, secondary data were employed in the authoring and discussion of this research study's findings. information and data from many sources were analyzed, assessed, and interpreted in light of the land access and use situation's goals. additionally, in order to facilitate clear and intelligible information, the classification and organization of quantitative data were compared based on the pertinent literature. an organization's or any industry's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can be shown and identified using a swot analysis. both primary data from surveys and secondary data from publications and organizations were used in this analysis. to identify the internal and external effects and the best course of action for the burundian agricultural industry, swot and sor analyses were employed. table 1 shows the layout of the swot analysis matrix. table 1: swot analysis table factors in terms of impact positive negative from the sourcing point of view internal factors strengths weaknesses external factors opportunities threats according to vermeire and gellynck (2009), or analysis is a technique used in many different fields to assess the performance, management, and production processes of activities. swot analysis is the process of developing a strategy based on the findings of an analysis (rajasekaran, 2009). swot and sor analyses of burundi's agricultural land status have been conducted in this study. following a list of opportunities and strengths, plans are created to stop and lessen threats and weaknesses. the strategic orientation matrix (sor) then identifies the weaknesses and assesses which strengths have been employed for each suggested solution. a synopsis of the sor analysis presentation is shown in table 2. table 2: sor matrix summary points what is its significance? what can be done? the total score is calculated for each s (strength), w (weakness), o (opportunity) and t (threat) how important are the different s, w, o, t? the development of two or three strategies around the most important opportunities and threats to maximize external factors. calculation of each of the scores how to convert s, w, o or t? development of strategic objectives for the combinations that achieve the highest scores. combination what are the general solutions? high s-o: attack; high chance. high st: defense; we have the strength to deal with threats. high w-o: work on weaknesses to take advantage of opportunities. high w-t: the threats are heavy; it is difficult to produce solutions. results and discussions current situation of burundi's agricultural land information regarding burundian agricultural areas has been provided in this section of the study. the distribution of burundi's land by regions and land uses is the main emphasis of this study's findings. the effects of population density on agricultural land evolution have been studied. land distribution and population pressure burundi's rural areas have been under a lot of strain due to its demographic and topographical features, which have been made worse by climate concerns. ten to twelve percent of the country is covered by natural forests, whereas the majority of the land is rough and mountainous (wfp, 2021). in addition, the nation boasts a rich network of rivers, freshwater lakes, fertile arable land, productive marshes, and copious amounts of rainfall. burundi, on the other hand, is the second most densely populated country in africa, with a population density of roughly 470 people per km2, and it is growing at a pace of 3.3% annually (pam, 2016). despite gradual urbanization, 87% of people still reside in rural areas and work primarily in smallscale agriculture. this has put a great deal of strain on agricultural land and forests. due to the progressive growth in intensive farming techniques brought on by the decline in soil fertility and land degradation, the steep slopes were more farmed without erosion management, and there was a considerable intermediate fragmentation of tiny plots. agricultural land use is currently in a dangerous and unsustainable state. in mountainous agricultural regions, landslides have become more frequent and intense. these events are exacerbated by climate calamities including droughts, floods, and torrential rains. because of this, there is more pressure to turn the remaining forests into agricultural land because it impacts arable land (wb, 2018). with about 90% of the population living in agriculture, burundi's economy is mostly focused on subsistence farming. the country is also known for its fragmented farmland and extremely low production. over the past ten years, agricultural production has grown at a pace of 2%, which is slower than the population growth rate, which has ranged from 2.6% to 3% (wfp, 2016). according to research conducted by the fcsva (comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis), figure 1 displays the average land ownership per household in each province of the nation (wfp, 2008). figure 1: distribution of households with less than 0.25 ha (hectare) of land by province the fcsva's 2008 survey reports, which depict households' ability to acquire land, are depicted in figure 1. 40.6% of houses in kayanza province had an area of less than 0.25 ha, according to a research by fcsva. with percentages of households with fewer than 0.25 hectares, the provinces of ngozi and bujumbura rural come next, accounting for 39.3% and 31.8% of all households, respectively. between 15.1% and 20% of households in numerous provinces of the nation farm on land smaller than 0.25 hectares. large family plots are found in mwaro province, where just 3% of households have an area of less than 0.25 ha, and areas with a particularly low rate of less than 15% have somewhat favorable land access rates (wfp, 2008). plots are often somewhat modest, despite the fact that land is widely accessible. nonetheless, rapid population expansion causes the amount of land used for food production to steadily decline. 23.1% of rural residents have access to 0.25 hectares or less of arable land when the various methods of land access (ownership, rental, and borrowing) are combined. in general, the rate of increase in agricultural production does not keep pace with the rate of population expansion. according to recent data, food demand is rising between 3 and 6% annually, whereas agricultural production is primarily constrained by land scarcity and diminishing land productivity, which lowers food production per capita (quentin et al., 2008). the unpredictability of land availability in rwanda encourages members of domestic units to work in non-agricultural occupations. in kimonyi sector, domestic units typically exploit a tiny area of land (0,25 ha). according to miero (2022), the land dependency ratio is 4/1. according to several research, food insecurity and poverty are still big issues in burundi. furthermore, according to a study on household vulnerability analysis, 72% of people in the northern part of burundi are food insecure, meaning they consume less than 2,100 kcal of food per day, and 66% of people live in poverty (niragria, 2009). according to quentin's research, 63% of the country's population experienced food insecurity (baghdad et al., 2008) and 67% of the population lived in poverty (quentin et al., 2008). general land use burundi's agricultural methods combine multiple food crops on a single plot and are primarily focused on self-sufficiency. seldom is fallow observed. about 1,210,000 hectares, or 43.5% of the country's total land area, are used for food crops (not including farmed marshes), whereas 104,000 hectares, or 3.7% of the total area, are used for cash crops. approximately 81,403 hectares, or 2.9% of the nation's total land area, are made up of cultivated wetlands (minatte, 2008). 128,375 hectares, or roughly 4.6% of the country's total land area, are covered by forested regions. ninety-seven percent of the fuel is wood. over the last 20 years, the pace of deforestation has increased, averaging 3.2% between 1983 and 1998. the prevalence of less productive breeds further reduces productivity. 775,506 hectares, or 27.9% of the entire country, are pastures (mi̇natte, 2008). the usage of organic fertilizer, the primary fertilizer available to farmers, has been significantly curtailed due to the decrease in livestock. for further details on the allocation of burundian lands based on their availability and utility, see figure 2 (map, 2021 and faostat, 2022). figure 2: distribution and land use in 2016 (ha) the region of burundi is depicted by usage in figure 2. of the country's about 2,783,000 hectares of land, 1.2 million ha (46.7%) are arable land and 2,350,000 ha (80%) are regarded as prospective agricultural land. only 23,000 ha (1%) are irrigated, 480,000 ha (24%) are permanent meadows and pastures, and 350,000 ha (17%) are continuously planted (world data atlas 2021). the total area under cultivation is actually 1,550,000 hectares, which includes 153,950 hectares of non-arable land (rocks and mountains) that cannot be used for agriculture (wfp, 2021). burundi's forests, which make up only 279,640 ha, or roughly 10.9% of the country's total land area, are being severely exploited for building materials, firewood, and charcoal. as a result of population pressure fighting for limited resources, the forests are progressively being turned into agricultural land. burundi's forests, which make up only 279,640 ha, or roughly 10.9% of the country's total land area, are being severely exploited for building materials, firewood, and charcoal. as a result of population pressure fighting for limited resources, the forests are progressively being turned into agricultural land. the aquarium only takes up 153 hectares of the nation's entire land area (wfp, 2021). availability of arable land 94% of households nationwide have full or partial access to land, 43% of agricultural households in burundi rent land in cash, and 5% rent land in exchange for in-kind compensation. a significant percentage of farmers whose property is insufficient for plant production are represented by 48% of land renters (minaegrie, 2012). this united group lacks sufficient fertile soil, yet not being landless. the agricultural land availability of the households surveyed is displayed in table 3 (minaegrie, 2012). table 3: areas grown by households percentage of households (%) agricultural area (ha) 21 less than 0.1 39 0.1-0.25 26 0.250.5 8 0.50.75 5 more than 0.75 small farms dominate agriculture, with 86% of households growing on areas smaller than 0.5 hectares. less than 0.1 hectares of agricultural land are used by 21% of families in table 3. 10.6% of plots are exploited by individuals, according to the findings of a survey carried out by minaegrie (minaegrie, 2012). only 5% of rural households own a parcel larger than 0.75 hectares, according to the same survey. geographical factors, unsustainable farming methods, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of institutional and governmental ability all contributed to burundi's agricultural difficulties (collins et al., 2013). the topography of the region determines the distribution of these arable lands, and figure 3 displays the location and proportion of agriculture. figure 3: topography of agricultural land burundi's predominantly green terrain is crucial to its agricultural industry. a total of 44% of agricultural activities are conducted on sloping hills, 21% on the bases of hills, 13% on hills and plains at the same time, and 9% on swampy ground (minaegrie, 2012). because of the country's rough topography, mechanical agriculture is used sparingly, resulting in poorer production per manual worker (collins et al., 2013). furthermore, the agricultural instruments are inadequate and not as strong as they could be to enable large-scale competitive land management. if production and income are sufficiently high, higher agricultural productivity can help lift people out of poverty. even with a high output, farms of a minimum size would not be able to supply the rising demand for food (valdés and foster 2010). in burundi, access to land is frequently regarded as a major issue for sustainable living (pedro, 2011). researchers believe that land access has a significant role in determining income potential, risk and disaster susceptibility, and food security (ricker-gilbert et al., 2014). degradation and loss of arable land over 6.6% of the nation's land is made up of forests that have been removed for agricultural purposes (wb, 2018). with little erosion control and a considerable amount of land fragmentation into small plots, the steep slopes are being farmed more and more. there is a significant risk of losing arable land because the majority of agricultural operations are conducted on steeply sloping hills. the amounts of arable land lost annually as a result of erosion are displayed in table 4. table 4: soil degradation and loss by ecological zone ecoregions erosion (t/ha/year) alan (ha) share of total area imbo 2.5 194,000 7% mumirwa 100 270,000 10% congo-nile basin 21.5 410,000 15% central plateau 18 1,237,000 44% northeast depressions 2.6 4 670,000 24% mumirwa is extremely susceptible to erosion, as table 4 demonstrates, with an average annual loss of 100 tons of soil per hectare. a notable loss of 21.5 tons/ha/year was also seen in the congo-nile basin. imbo has also been eroded, causing a loss of 2.5 tons of soil per hectare each year, despite its flat extension. according to table 4, this results in an average annual loss of 145.3 tons of arable land per hectare in these ecological regions (world bank 2018). the extent of sustainable concentration is limited by intensive agriculture, which has resulted in significant issues with soil erosion and productivity (oketch and polzer 2002). rwanga et al. (2017) state that 90% of burundi's population resides in rural areas. due to the severe fragmentation of rural regions for essential subsistence needs, this has resulted in considerable strains on rural natural resources and land degradation (niyuhire, 2018). swot analysis of burundi's overall agricultural condition the external factors influencing burundian agriculture's sustainability as well as its advantages and disadvantages were noted. the swot analysis was used to look at the threats and opportunities that lead to limited access and underutilization of agricultural land resources. table 5 lists and categorizes each of these traits below. table 5: swot analysis of burundian agriculture strengths weaknesses s1 good climatic conditions for diversified agricultural production. w1 lack of reliable and up-to-date agricultural data. s2 low labor costs. w2 limited access to agricultural financing. s3 strategic location for export to 4 countries via tanganyika lake. w3 uncertain land system with a growing land shortage population. s4 strong comparative advantage in the production of cash products (sugarcane, coffee, tea, dates, cotton, etc.) w4 poor rural transport infrastructure. s5 the presence of 4 different agricultural season. w5 poor water management and soil degradation. s6 the presence of undeveloped marshes w6 low economic power. s7 agricultural business potential. w7 low land productivity. s8 water potential. w8 low active population. s9 the presence of the land law of 2011 regulating the agricultural sector. w9 the weakness of technology in the agricultural sector. s10 presence of environmental law, water law, forestry law, mining law, etc. the existence of complementary legal frameworks to land for the promotion and conservation of natural resources. w10 high rural population and pressure on natural resources. w11 more mountainous and hilly lands susceptible to erosion. w12 although translated into the national language, the land code is not disseminated and popularized at all levels of the population. w13 a very impressive number of cases of land disputes at the court level (about 70% of registered land disputes from the courts of residence). w14 low level of private investment in agriculture and processing of agricultural products (agribusiness, agro-industry). w15 inadequate capacities of the departments responsible for land management (human, technical and material resources). opportunities threats o1 creation of new techniques to improve the productivity and quality of agricultural products. t1 increase in competition from the eac (east african community) countries for local agricultural producers and industries. o2 low-cost micro fertilization allowing the improvement of land preparation techniques. t2 restrictions of harmonization of agricultural products. o3 excavation of the land on steep slopes. t3 unpredictable weather conditions and the lack of historical data hamper the development potential of agricultural insurance. o4 reduce post-harvest losses by transforming the harvest into a marketable food product. t4 free entry of products, programs and food aid from donor countries can disrupt internal exchanges. o5 development of value chains of cash crops t5 the 2015 elections created uncertainty about the preservation of peace and stability. o6 rapid population growth (increased food demand, labor force) t6 great support and financing of the agricultural sector of the other eac countries. o7 possibility of irrigable land and development of marshy land. t7 increased urbanization in fertile agricultural areas. o8 existence of national and international organizations that support the agricultural sector. t8 conflicts caused by the lack of land registration. o9 students in foreign countries to develop the agricultural sector. t9 congested land for small and medium-sized farmers. o10 establishment of common land services throughout the country. t10 depletion of natural resources. o11 delimitation of public and private lands. t11 the insufficiency or almost absence of the commitments of agricultural institutions and financial institutions in the granting of loans. o12 accessibility of local land services in terms of proximity and also in terms of the cost of a local land document. t12 low soil protection at the level of watersheds. o13 increase in the level of investment in agriculture due to better land security. t13 low selling price of agricultural products in the harvest period. o14 the possibility of converting the land document into a title deed according to the specified modalities (the provisions of the land law article 410) t14 persistence of the land inheritance system favourable to extremely land fragmentation. t15 a system of traditional land inheritance discriminating the women and girls that has not been definitively solved. table 5 attempts to provide a concise summary of the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and dangers associated with burundian agricultural land access and use. ten strengths, fifteen weaknesses, fourteen opportunities, and fifteen threats were determined as a consequence of the analysis. the presence of different ecosystems allows for a very diverse agricultural system (food and commercial crops, development of the value chain of animal and fish production), 120,000 hectares of drained marshy area, irrigated plains of imbo and mosso agroecological regions, and the availability of agricultural labor. the rainfall status also allows for the possibility of having a cycle of two crops per year with four growing seasons. the burundian agricultural systems have the potential for an ideal water supply due to the abundance of rainfall and the extensive network of rivers. despite burundi's agricultural systems' great potential, the sector faces numerous challenges and threats, including low soil fertility that restricts productivity, low input utilization, land fragmentation, inadequate agricultural supervision, © east african scholars publisher, kenya 51 poor water management, issues with crop processing and conservation, poor agricultural mechanization, a lack of technological innovations, poor irrigation techniques for managing water resources, a lack of technology for processing and preserving agricultural products, and a lack of rural electrification. the primary obstacles that make it difficult to obtain land are low agricultural financing, demographic pressure, and an inadequate supply of both highquality and low-quantity inputs. implementing structural reforms is challenging in this area, and the private sector's lack of involvement in funding the industry. a lack of power supply, lack of product certification, technical flaws in processing methods, and poor storage capacity are some of the main reasons limiting the processing capacity of agri-food processing. most households are constrained by the atomicity of the land, even though their output is higher. income and consumption seem to increase as the farm's size grows. consequently, it is challenging to understand how the negative relationship between farm size and land production might enhance nearly landless households or demonstrate how burundian small farms might decouple their livelihoods (niragira, 2018). the sor analysis has been conducted using the swot analysis data to ascertain which strategy should be developed to take the best position of an opportunity or a vulnerability and transform it in a strong way to prevent and avoid threats and minimize weaknesses. survey results were used to calculate the scores for each component of the analysis. table 6: sor analysis of burundian agriculture strengths points weakness points opportunities points threats points s1 86 w1 76 o1 64 t1 63 s2 82 w2 72 o2 58 t2 71 s3 54 w3 90 o3 71 t3 78 s4 46 w4 63 o4 60 t4 53 s5 50 w5 71 o5 70 t5 60 s6 40 w6 45 o6 91 t6 47 s7 36 w7 51 o7 77 t7 59 s8 77 w8 43 o8 77 t8 49 s9 38 w9 62 o9 56 t9 68 s10 30 w10 73 o10 53 t10 90 w11 78 o11 50 t11 66 w12 29 o12 33 t12 32 w13 48 o13 58 t13 84 w14 74 o14 41 t14 51 w15 56 t15 48 the sor study showed that burundian agriculture benefited greatly from diverse agricultural production for favorable climatic circumstances (s1: 86 points), cheap labor costs (s2: 82 points), and water potential (s8: 77 points). in fact, the existence of laws pertaining to the environment, water, forestry, mining, etc., is equally crucial. the existence of the legal framework created by the land law of 2011 (s9) and the existence of complementary legal frameworks to land for the promotion and preservation of natural resources (s10) come last, notwithstanding their importance. the primary issues plaguing the agricultural sector are the increasing population and land scarcity, the presence of an ambiguous land tenure system (w3), the expansion of hilly and mountainous regions (w11), and the absence of accurate and current agricultural data (w1). naturally, the most obvious opportunities on burundian agricultural land are the existence of irrigable land and the development of marshes (o7), the fast population growth and rising food demand for labor (o6), and international organizations assisting the agricultural sector (o8), among the 14 opportunities mentioned. agricultural businesses have significant prospects. accordingly, the loss of natural resources (t10), the inability of rural farmers to obtain a fair price, and the unpredictability the concerns that impede the nation's agriculture are meteorological circumstances (t13) and the absence of historical data, which endangers the possibility for agricultural insurance development (t3). making major contributions and providing facilities in the process of deciding on the management and decision-making strategy to improve the agriculture sector is ideal, according to the sor analysis. it is especially significant because the rural sector, which provides the bulk of the population with their livelihoods, has been largely ignored by the burundian government's development agenda (ndikumana, 2001). therefore, the government's interest in efficient land use planning, the drastic change in land use, and soil conservation techniques must demonstrate that this exacerbates soil erosion and degradation (vansarochana and ntakirutimana, 2020). a study carried out in two northern burundian provinces found a substantial correlation between farm size and household food security, but a negative link between farm size and land production (verschelde et al., 2013). the strategy is decided by considering the possibilities with the greatest rating score in the sor matrix that was developed with strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. the best practices for attaining sustainable agriculture are shown in table 7. table 7: strategies for burundian agriculture internal factors/ external factors strengths (s) s1 s2 s8 weaknesses (w) w3 w11 w1 opportunities (o) o6 o7 o8 so strategics investing in agriculture to maximize agricultural production in order to meet the growing food needs of the population. installation of irrigation systems to expand agricultural land and thus fight against the unemployment of the active population. support and encourage investments in the agricultural industry. wo strategics avoiding the division of land by inheritance, working in cooperatives and putting forward a policy of land consolidation and title deeds. to establish the system for recording and updating agricultural and meteorological databases to minimize agricultural risks. threats (t) t10 t13 t3 st strategics awareness and promotion of natural resource management. promote the dissemination of new agricultural technologies and the harmonization of agricultural products to be competitive on international markets. to regulate market prices taking into account the cost of production of agricultural products. wt strategics stimulate and strengthen the search for nonagricultural sources of income. direct urbanization plans to non-agricultural land. development of anti-erosive practices to protect agricultural land. promotion of agricultural insurance. burundi has numerous agricultural challenges and vulnerabilities because it is a country with agricultural potential. threats and possibilities, however, also significantly impede its advancement. various tactics that can result in a modern, competitive, and sustainable agriculture are shown in table 7. conclusion and perspectives policies pertaining to agriculture should encourage land consolidation and discourage the partitioning of land into tiny pieces. it is necessary to design new irrigation strategies, erosion control measures, crop transformation strategies, and crop conservation strategies. the people who make decisions ought to take farmers into account and support them. it is imperative that agricultural database systems be established. the government and its allies should encourage the creation of current agricultural statistics and make significant investments in the agricultural industry. establishing low-interest lending banks for farmers is desirable. to expand the potential of small-scale managed sustainable agriculture and its influence on the national economy, fundamental adjustments to agricultural systems and policies are required. furthermore, as the agricultural sector is seen as the foundation of the nation's economy, significant state interventions are necessary to address its issues. the malthusian theory is frequently proposed to explain the development of burundian agriculture. then, the description is straightforward: "the demographic explosion" and "reduction of cultivable areas" lead to a considerable increase in the exploitation of fallow plots and grazing regions, which hinders the growth of agriculture. it is claimed that the "demographic explosion" will result in a "population / resource imbalance" that will be the root cause of the present and upcoming economic crises because agricultural practices have not altered (hubert, 2020). according to this assessment of the recent changes in burundian agricultural systems, the population-land ratio is the primary variable taken into account, and population increase is the cause of a number of the agricultural sector's restrictions. the "traditionalist" mindset of farmers has demonstrated their resistance to the "modern" methods provided by extension services and their conscious wish to produce primarily in accordance with their present needs, which is a second barrier to development that is also underlined (hubert, 2020). the malthusian theory is not the most appropriate framework for comprehending the state of land access and use, as our paper has shown. the burundian land use system and access can be thoroughly analyzed using the swot and sor frameworks. it makes it possible to talk about various strategies for improving agricultural land utilization. but land access continues to be a major obstacle while the value and strategic investments of alternative land uses are more competitive. this issue of land use conciliation has not been developed in our paper. furthermore, ensuring family food security has become extremely challenging due to the fast population growth, limited farm sizes, and declining soil fertility. even with great productivity, farming may not be a viable option for making a living because most people own so little land. farmers must contend with the fact that their land is too tiny for their farming operations. even though smallscale agriculture has seen tremendous productivity, the findings cast doubt on the sustainability of these little farms in the nation's most populated regions. to get around this problem, it would be best to put in place a program of agricultural land consolidation. to increase yields on tiny plots, farmers should want to collaborate and fortify agricultural cooperatives. a decline in production results from the frequent loss of arable land, particularly on sloping terrain, which deteriorates agriculturally cultivated land and depletes soil fertility. installing anti-erosive systems on such flooring ought to be advised. in order to replenish the nutrients lost from the soil and restore the hydrological functions of the soil systems, degraded and deforested land should be actively repaired by establishing a suitable vegetation cover. this would assist ease access to agricultural land and address the severe scarcity of arable land. rethinking rural development policies is advised in order to create tactics that effectively reduce poverty. the government should concentrate its efforts on the following tasks in order to put these strategies into practice: educating and informing all parties involved about the prudent management of natural resources; providing equipment and training to specialists in watershed management; and assisting and directing local communities in the mechanization and application of technologies in their farms. national land use planning will prioritize land management. implementing an occupation policy based on standards created by all parties involved should be part of it. to persuade village communities to band together for the sake of cooperative agricultural production, awareness-raising initiatives should be implemented. lastly, expanding the use of contemporary farming methods helps to improve overall agricultural sustainability, lower soil erosion, and boost land production. acknowledgements in order to make this study possible, the author would like to sincerely thank everyone who volunteered. i also want to express my gratitude to my supervisor and the instructors in the agricultural economics department at selcuk university's faculty of agronomy. to the agricultural engineers who have contributed their thoughts and encouragement, as well as to everyone who helped make this work possible. references  adb. 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(2016). analyse de la securite alimentaire d'urgence (efsa emergency food security assessment), march 2016. file:///c:/users/90552/downloads/rapport_efsa_ wfp_ versionfinale_24_may_2016.pdf. reviewed on 11.05.2022.  wfp. (2019). "world food program burundi annual country report 2019 ". https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/wfp 0000113840/download/ reviewed on 20.05.2022. world data atlas. (2018). "burundi: arable land as a share of land area, 1960-2020." knoema, https://knoema.com//atlas/burundi/topics/land use/area/arable-landas-a-share-of-land-area. reviewed on 08.07.2022. file:///c:/users/90552/downloads/rapport_efsa_wfp_versionfinale_24_may_201 file:///c:/users/90552/downloads/rapport_efsa_wfp_versionfinale_24_may_201 file:///c:/users/90552/downloads/rapport_efsa_wfp_versionfinale_24_may_201 https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/wfp-0000113840/download/ https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/wfp-0000113840/download/ https://knoema.com/atlas/burundi/topics/landhttps://knoema.com/atlas/burundi/topics/land-use/area/arable-land https://knoema.com/atlas/burundi/topics/land-use/area/arable-land-as-a-share-of-land-area the this study has studied and examined burundi's agricultural land accessibility and utilization. its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats have been examined using swot and sor analysis, and several methods that can result in sustainable... introduction material and method table 1: swot analysis table results and discussions current situation of burundi's agricultural land land distribution and population pressure figure 1: distribution of households with less than 0.25 ha (hectare) of land by province general land use figure 2: distribution and land use in 2016 (ha) availability of arable land table 3: areas grown by households figure 3: topography of agricultural land degradation and loss of arable land table 4: soil degradation and loss by ecological zone swot analysis of burundi's overall agricultural condition table 5: swot analysis of burundian agriculture table 6: sor analysis of burundian agriculture table 7: strategies for burundian agriculture conclusion and perspectives acknowledgements references 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (4), pp. 001-006, april, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper exploring carotenoid levels and characteristics in fish fillets from west african coastal fisheries bazyli czeczuga1*, janusz semeniuk2, ewa czeczuga-semeniuk1, adrianna semeniuk1 and bernard klyszejko3 1 department of general biology, medical university, mickiewicza 2c, 15-222 bialystok, poland. 2 department of pediatrics, pediatric gastroenterology and allergology, medical university, waszyngtona 17, 15-274 białystok, poland. 3 department of fish phisiology, agricultural university, k. krolewicza 4, 71-550 szczecin, poland. accepted 8 october, 2023 using column (cc), thinlayer (tlc) and highperformance liquid chromatography (hplc), carotenoid content was examined in the fillets (muscles with skin) of 16 fish species from the fisheries of west african coast. 15 carotenoids, including 6 ketocarotenoids (4’hydroxyechinenone, canthaxanthin, phoenicopterone, phoenicoxanthin, astaxanthin, 7,8didehydroastaxanthin) were found, with a predominance of 3,4dihydroαcarotene, zeaxanthin, phoenicopterone, canthaxanthin, phoenicoxanthin and astaxanthin. total carotenoid content in the examined material ranged from 0.086 (merluccius merluccius) to 0.352 µg g -1 wet mass (macrurus aequalis). also, the increase of different environmental factorsespecially food, parasites and organochlorine pollution on carotenoid content in fishes and their role in human’s life was discussed. key words: carotenoids, fish, fillets, fisheries, west africa. introduction carotenoids are wide spread and important pigments in nature. they occur in all families of flora and fauna. only bacteria, fungi and plants are able to synthesize them de novo; animals have to obtain them from food. fish meat owes its nutrient value not only to protein and fats, but also to other biologically active substancesincluding carotenoids, which plays an important role in humans’ life. carotenoids serve as a source of vitamin a, antioxidant and prooxidant (yeum et al., 2009), play a cancerprotective role (rock, 2009) and increase the immune response in mammals (chew and park, 2009). carotenoids may also be significant in the coronary heart disease (johnson and krynski, 2009). therefore, many authors have been carrying out extensive studies on the *corresponding author. e-mail: bazzylio@poczta.onet.pl. presence and biological function of carotenoids in plants, animals and in humans. thus, the knowledge about the carotenoid content in meat or respective fish species in fisheries seems to be of a great importance. we have already investigated some of the species from the baltic sea (czeczuga and klyszejko, 1996), black sea (czeczuga, 1973), fishing areas of the antarctic (czeczuga, 1978 a,b; 1982; czeczuga and klyszejko, 1978, 1986) and from the fisheries of new zealand (czeczuga et al.,2000). tsukuda and amono (1966), matsuno et al. (1974, 1979), matsuno and katsuzama (1976) and miki et al. (1982) have investigated the carotenoids in species from the waters washing the japanese islands. later, the analyses of carotenoids found in some species from the ocean near the coasts of california have been made (crozier, 1967). tanaka et al. (1978) have investigated the carotenoids in marine yellow fish from tropical regions. carotenoids content in particular species 2 of pacific salmons have also been investigated (jarzombek, 1970; czeczuga, 1979; kitahara, 1984) and some species from an ocean ranching farm near islands they were analysed by czeczuga et al. (2005). reviewed papers about carotenoids in fishes are generally dated prior to 2000 (fox, 1957; simpson et al., 1981); more recent works cover the carotenoids in general (bjerkeng, 2008). the present paper discusses the results of the analysis of carotenoid content in fishes from some fisheries of west african coast. material and methods the study population included 16 fish species (table 2) from the fisheries of the west african coast (17°05’22 0 35’s; 0.11°20’0.13°30’e southern africa and 22°0’17°10’e northern africa), caught in july and august. 50 g fillets (muscles with skin) have been used in the investigations. we analysed the material from three specimens. after three weeks of storage, the refrigerated material (-4°c) which has been used for the analysis, was sent by air mail to the department laboratory where they were analysed a week later. the carotenoid pigments were isolated using column (cc), thinlayer (tlc) and highperformance liquid chromatography (hplc). prior to chromatography, the material was homogenized and hydrolyzed for 24 h in a 10% solution of nitrogen, at room temperature. the extract was subsequently placed onto an al2o3filled quickfit co. column. the individual fractions were eluted using various solvent systems (czeczuga, 1988). the eluent was evaporated and the residue was dissolved in appropriate solvent to draw the maximum of absorption. this was necessary, among other reasons, to identify particular carotenoids. in addition to column chromatography, the acetone extract has been divided into fractions with thinlayer chromatography. silicongelcovered glass plates (merck co.) and various solvent systems were used. the rf values were established according to commonly accepted criteria (schiedt and liaaenjensen, 1995). pigments were also determined by ionpairing in reversephase hplc. the hplc equipment consisted of a shimadzu scl6b gradient programmer and a reodyne 7125 injector equipped with a 20 µl loop. detection was achieved in a shimadzu spd-6av uvvis spectrophotometric detector set at 440 nm and a shimadzu rf535 fluorescence detector. carotenoids were identified through comparison with the standards from: a) the behaviour in cc; b) their uvuis spectra; c) their partition between nhexane and 95% ethanol; d) their rfvalues in tlc; e) the presence of the allylic oh group determined by the acid chcl3 test; f) the epoxide test; g) the mass spectrum (vetter et al., 1971). carotenoid pigment standards were purchased from the hoffmanla roche company, switzerland, the international agency for the 14 c determinations, denmark, and sigma chemical company, usa. carotenoids recorded in investigated fishes belong to three groups (hydrocarbon, hydroxcarotenoids and ketocarotenoids) which chemical, structural and semisystematical characteristics have been placed in monographs of foppen (1971), isler (1971) and straub (1987). we have also used those monographs in our investigations. quatitative analyses were performed with uvuis spectroscopy according to davies methods (czeczuga, 1988). the structure of carotenoids was described by straub (1987). chromatography methods (cc, tlc, hplc) were described in detail by bernhard (1995), schiedt (1995) and pfander and riesen (1995) respectively. the results were evaluated with scheffe test (winer, 1997). results and discussion fifteen (15) carotenoids were found in the examined material (table 1, figure 1). most of them were common in fish, but some, such as 3,4didehydroαcarotene, 4hydroxyαcarotene, phoenicopterone and 7,8didehydroastaxanthin were rather rare. in most of the species, lutein, zeaxanthin, phoenicopterone and astaxanthin were found (table 2). in the investigated material, 3,4didehydroαcarotene, zeaxanthin, phoenicopterone, phoenicoxanthin, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin were the predominant group. the total carotenoid content in the investigated fish species ranged from 0.086 (merluccius merluccius) to 0.424 µg g -1 wet mass (pterothrissus belloci). mean value for all investigated species averaged 0.200 µg g -1 wet mass. the total carotenoid content in the fillets of the species from african fishing areas in comparison with species from other fisheries were considered (mean 0.200 µg g -1 wet mass). the mean value for nine species from the region of the falkland islands was 0.08 (czeczuga and klyszejko, 1978) and for 10 species from the szczecin lagoon of baltic seawas 0.230 µg g -1 wet mass of fillets (czeczuga and klyszejko, 1996). similar values were observed in fillets of fishes from black sea fisheries (czeczuga, 1973), new zealand fishing areas (czeczuga et al., 2000) and from the waters washing the japanese islands (tsukuda and amono, 1966; matsuno et al., 1974; matsuno and katsuyama, 1976; miki et al., 1982). in fillets from antarctic fish species, especially in representatives of nototheniidae and chaenichthyidae (white blooded fish) families, total carotenoid content was low (czeczuga, 1978a, b; 1982). in atlantic (torrissen et al., 1989; czeczuga et al., 2005) and pacific salmonids (jarzombek, 1970; crozier, 1970; kitahara, 1984), the biggest amounts of carotenoids are retained in the fillets. apart from carotenoids commonly occurring in fishes, some rare types have also been found. one of them is 3,4didehydroαcarotene. it was first isolated from the body of sheatfish silurus glanis (czeczuga, 1977). although it has been found in material from six examined species, only in merluccius merluccius was it a predominant carotenoid. 4hydroxyαcarotenealso called β,εcarotene4-ol, was first observed in plant material by zechmeister in 1958 (isler, 1971). it also occurred in sheatfish (czeczuga, 1977a). we found it only in 2 of the 16 investigated species; in belone belone and centrolophus niger. phoenicopterone and 4ketoαcarotene derivative is frequently called 4ketoαcarotene. it was observed in nine species and in belone belone and dentex macrophtalmus specimens as predominant carotenoid. phoenicopterone was found for the first time in certain green algae as extra-plastidic pigment (goodwin, 1980). 7,8didehydroastaxanthin, astaxanthins’ derivative, was being frequently called asterinic acid in previous studies and has been noted only in belone belone and clupea pilchardus individuals. this acetylenic zeaxanthin occurs in fillets of investigated 13 3 table 1. carotenoid list from investgated material carotenoid summary formula structure (figure 1) semisystematic name αcarotene c40h56 βcarotene c40h56 εcarotene c40h56 3,4didehydroαcarotene c40h54 βcryptoxanthin c40h56o 4hydroxyαcarotene c40h56o lutein c40h56o2 tunaxanthin c40h56o2 zeaxanthin c40h56o2 phoenicopterone c40h54o 4’hydroxyechinenone c40h54o2 canthaxanthin c40h52o2 phoenicoxanthin c40h52o3 astaxanthin c40h52o4 7,8didehydroastaxanthin c40h50o4 a-r-b β,εcarotene b-r-b β,βcarotene a-r-a ε,εcarotene a-r-c 3,4didehydroβ,εcarotene b-r-d β,βcarotene3ol a-r-e β,εcarotene4ol f-r-d β,εcarotene3,3’diol f-r-f ε,εcarotene3,3’diol d-r-d β,βcarotene3,3’diol a-r-g β,εcarotene4ol e-r-g 4’hydroxyβ,βcaroten4-one g-r-g β,βcarotene4,4’dione g-r-h 3hydroxyβ,βcarotene4,4’-dione h-r-h 3,3’dihydroxyβ,βcarotene4,4’-dione i-r1-h 3,3’dihydroxy7,8dihydroβ,βcarotene4,4’-dione figure 1. structural features of carotenoids from the analysed materials. ai, end group designation of carotenoids; r, r1 polyene chain. 4 table 2. carotenoid content in the investigated material. specie carotenoid (table 1) content of particular carotenoids (%) total content (µg g -1 wet mass) ± sd acanthias acanthias l. 2,3,7,8,9,14 9 (33.6), 2(21.3), 14 (19.2), 7 (9.5), 8 (9.5), 3 (7.5) 0.089 belone belone (brünn.) 6,7,9,10,15 10 (21.9), 9 (21.5), 15 (20.9)l, 6 (18.4), 7 (17.3) 0.143 centrolophus niger (gmelin) 5,6,7,11,12,14 12 (23.1), 11 (22.8), 14 (20.9), 5 (15.7), 6 (10.2), 7 (7.3) 0.121 clupea pilchardus walb. 7,9,10,14,15 14 (47.6), 10 (28.5), 15 (8.2), 9 (8.1), 7 (7.6) 0.259 dentex macrophtalmus (bloch.) 7,8,10,14 10 (43.0), 7 (39.2), 14 (10.1), 8 (7.7) 0.153 engraulis encrasicholus l. 2,3,7,9,10,14 14 (33.2), 10 (30.8), 2 (20.5), 3 (8.6), 7 (4.2), 9 (2.7) 0.258 genypterus capensis (smith.) 1,2,4,5,7,9,14 9 (22.6), 14 (21.8), 5 (18.4), 2 (15.0), 1 (12.4), 4 (6.8), 7 (3.0) 0.231 macrurus aequalis (ginter) 1,3,4,5,9,10,12 12 (19.4), 5 (18.3), 9 (16.5), 10 (14.9), 1 (12.8), 3 (11.6), 4 (6.5) 0.352 merluccius merluccius l. 4,5,7,8,9,10,14 4 (26.7), 7 (24.8), 8 (21.4), 5 (18.8), 9 (4.4), 10 (2.7), 14 (1.2) 0.086 myliobatis aquila l. 3,7,9,13,14 13 (36.0), 7 (28.2), 14 (25.4), 9 (7.6), 3 (2.8) 0.202 pterothrissus belloci (cadenat) 3,4,5,9,10,12 12 (34.4), 5 (20.6), 10 (19.2), 9 (18.6), 3 (5.4), 4 (1.8) 0.424 sarda sarda (bloch) 2,5,7,10,14 14 (44.5), 10 (30.2), 2 (18.4), 5 (6.2), 7 (0.7) 0.305 sebastes dactyloptera (dela roche) 2,4,5,7,9,12,14 9 (28.6), 2 (26.4), 5 (18.8), 7 (12.2), 4 (10.3), 14 (2.5), 12 (1.2) 0.265 trachurus trachurus l. 1,2,3,5,9,14 14 (22.8), 2 (21.4), 1 (20.8), 3 (18.4), 5 (14.2), 9 (2.4) 0.108 trigla lyra l. 4,5,9,10,12,14 12 (24.2), 5 (22.2), 10 (21.4), 14 (20.4), 4 (8.2), 9 (3.6) 0.090 zeus faber l. 2,7,8,9,14 14 (25.4), 2 (24.8), 7 (21.3), 9 (17.6), 8 (10.9) 0.111 species, while lutein was found in 12 of them. zeaxanthin appears predominant in acanthias acanthias, genypterus capensis, and sebastes dactyloptera. these are the carotenoids belonging to the yellow group and are the principle carotenoids of the lens and the macula of humans and primate eye (schalch et al., 2009). the role of this dihydroxy compounds in risk reduction of macular degeneration and cataract of the eye are important. from all of the environmental factors such ones as food (simpson et al., 1981; latscha, 1990) increases the carotenoid content in fish. the studies included 17 species of invertebrates (food of fish) belonging to porifera, coelenterata, annelida, crustacea, mollusca and echinoder-mata which were caught along the coast of west africa (czeczuga and klyszejko, 1977). the investigations showed that they have been the richest in carotenoids. 27 particular carotenoids have been identified. total carotenoid content in this material varied from 0.039 to 1.529 μg g -1 fresh weight. the lowest amount of carotenoids was found in the representatives of coelenterata and the highest in the representatives of crustacea. in natural conditions, the total carotenoid content and the mount of ketoand dihydroxycarotenoids in the respective parts of the fishes’ body depends not only on the type of food it consume but also on the parasites and the organochlorine pollutants. the effect of ectoand edoparasites on the carotenoid content in fish in natural infection was also described (czeczuga et al., 2009). this study was conducted using pairs of the hostparasite with ectoparasites and endoparasites. in all examined pairs of host and parasite, the parasitic organism has always had the higher total carotenoid content in comparison to the host. carotenoid content in healthy and infected fishes ranged from 3.1 (mollienisia latipinna) to 51.9 (intestines of tinca tinca). obtained data indicates that some carotenoids are selectively accumulated by respective parasites. water polluted with organochlorine substances causes the so called m74 syndrome in fish, especially in salmons (vuorinen et al., 1997). afflicted are the females, especially the eggs which are pale yellow as they have a low red carotenoid content (especially low astaxanthin level) (pettersson and liguell, 1999; czeczuga et al., 2002, 2005). most of the larvae which develop from such eggs die when they begin the active feeding process. m74 syndrome occurs not only in baltic salmon, but has also been noted in the sea trout salmo trutta m. trutta (czeczuga et al., 2005). the effect of chemical water pollution on the larval form of other fishes is well known in 5 other latitudes. the high mortality of early lifestage salmonids including pacific salmon from some of the great lakes of north america has been reported under the name of early mortality syndrome (ems) (mcdonald, 1995). clinical symptoms were similar to those noted in m74 in salmons from the baltic sea or in ems in other salmonid species from the north american great lakes; were observed in atlantic salmon specimens with cayuga syndrome in the new york finger lakes (fisher et al., 1996). all three of those disorders responsible for mortality in early lifestage salmonids have been characterized (in females and eggs) through the low level of astaxanthin and thiamine (fitzsimons et al., 1999). fish, like other animals, do not synthesize carotenoids de novo, which only plants, bacteria and fungi are able to synthesize. those substances get to animals organisms only through food and some of them can be converted into other carotenoids via oxidation or reduction and into vitamin a. carotenoids catered with food are being released in the intestines during digestion and are absorbed along the alimentary tract in fish (march et al., 1990). as revealed by studies on fish, the free vitamin a is formed not only from carotenoids which have three beta end groups (βring) from the βcarotene type (simpson et al., 1981, latscha, 1990), but also from a number of xantophylls, including those from dihydroxy compoundssuch as lutein, zeaxanthin or tunaxanthin (katsuyama and matsuno, 1987) as well as astaxanthin and canthaxanthin belonging to ketocarotenoids compounds (guillou et al., 1989). both, dihydroxy compounds and ketocarotenoids are quite common in fish species from the fisheries of africa. the shift of carotenoids in the preand postreproductive period occurs in fishes. at first, the shift has been reported only from the salmonids in the pacific (crozier, 1970; kitahara, 1983). further studies have showed, that this phenomenon is also typical to salmonid species from the salmo genus (czeczuga and chelkowski, 1984) and freshwater fish species (czeczuga and czeczugasemeniuk, 2002). differences are noted in the shift between sexes. both, in males and females, the liver is the main reservoir of carotenoids, and on the second range, the intestines. in the females, in prespawning season, carotenoids mostly shift to the gonads and in males mainly to the skin and fins giving the mating colouration. a similar pattern occurs in amphibians (czeczuga et al., 2006). conclusions in the fillets of 16 fish species from the fisheries of west african coast, 15 carotenoids were found. total carotenoids content ranged from 0.086 to 0.424 with mean value of 0.200 µg g -1 wet mass. seven out of 15 carotenoids such as αcarotene, βcarotene, βcryptoxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin play a significant role in the humans’ health. they all have been postulated to increase an immune (chew and park, 2009) and cancer protective role (rock, 2009) in mam-mals. β carotene and other carotenoids from this group behave as antioxidant factors at low oxygene pressure and as prooxidants at higher oxygene partial pressure (yeum et al., 2009). βcarotene and lutein have been postulated to have the antiproliferative effect on the cells (palozza et al., 2009). known are the effects of those carotenoids on the cell signalling and communication including cell cycle, apoptosis, cell differentiation and growth factors (wang, 2009). also, such derivatives of βcarotene as the βapocarotenales are biologically active. those carotenoid metabolites can offer protection against chronic diseases and certain cancers. the photoprotective effects of those carotenoids especially βcarotene towards skin damage induced by uva and uvb have been reviewed (goralczyk and wertz, 2009). concluding, αcarotene, βcarotene, βcryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin may play a significant role in the coronary heart disease (johnson and krinsky, 2009). this all carotenoids are quite common in fish species from the fisheries of west africa. references bernhard k (1995). chromatography: part ii. column chromatography. in: britton g et al. 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(eds.), carotenoids, vol. 5: nutrition and health, birkhäuser verlag, basel, boston, berlin, pp 383-408. winer bj (1997). statistical principles in experimental design. mccraw hill, new york, 375 pp. yeum k-j, aldini g, russell rm, krinsky ni (2009). antioxidant/ prooxidant actions of carotenoids. in: britton g et al. (eds.), carotenoids, vol. 5: nutrition and health, birkhäuser verlag, basel, boston, berlin, pp 235-268. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 7 (1), pp. 001-012, january, 2019. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper exploration of food security situation in the nile basin region john omiti1*, hellen ommeh-natu2 lydia ndirangu1, nancy laibuni1 and nicholas waiyaki3 1 kenya institute for public policy research and analysis (kippra), p. o. box 56445–00200, nairobi, kenya. 2 nile basin initiative (nbi), entebbe, uganda. 3 department of economics, kenyatta university, nairobi, kenya. accepted 16 november, 2018 the top economic development challenges in the nile basin region are food insecurity, poor infrastructure, chronic poverty and political instability. while these issues are interrelated, food security assumes a greater dimension at both national and regional levels. hence, an eclectic approach is used to underscore food security indicators in river nile basin. food security is a multidimensional conceptualization of food availability, accessibility and utilization to sustain a healthy and productive life at an individual, household, national and regional levels, at all times. using statistics from the world bank, ifpri, faostat, fao/agl-terrastat and other studies in the basin, the study reviews food security situation and compares the main causes of food insecurity amongst nine nile basin countries. the study found that most countries in the nile basin region are unable to produce enough food for their population, thus, there is high child mortality and a high proportion of people who cannot meet their energy (calorie) requirements. while food markets play a critical role in ensuring that food is distributed according to forces of supply and demand, they are generally weak, thin and inefficient in most nile basin countries. as a result, there is limited intra-regional agricultural trade. the study recommends a paradigm shift in technology for the nile basin agriculture towards people-centered and pro-poor approaches to improve food production, agro-processing and regional trade. to boost food production will require effective technologies for example, certified seed and fertilizer, that are adapted to local conditions and realities, expansion of irrigated agriculture, reduction of post-harvest losses, improved infrastructure (for example, storage), innovations that promote value addition (agribusiness) and expansion of intraregional agricultural trade. both the public and private sectors in the region need to encourage development of technological, infrastructural, and marketing innovations and provide the necessary economic infrastructure and policy commitments to improve food security in the nile basin. key words: nile basin, food insecurity, production, trade, policy. introduction the concept of food security includes both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences at both household and individual level, and is therefore concerned with continuous and assured access to food (nepad, 2009; fao, 1996). per capita availability of *corresponding author. e-mail: jmomiti@kippra.or.ke or jmomiti@gmail.com food is principally influenced by factors that determine levels of food supply and demand such as factors of production (land, labour and capital), population growth, price levels, average levels of disposable income and tastes and preferences (nepad, 2009; fao, 1996). many countries in the nile basin region are structurally unable to escape from food insecurity because there is inadequate food supply resulting from a complex mix of factors including; unstable social and political environments, macroeconomic imbalances in trade, natural resource constraints, natural disasters for file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org example drought, floods, pests (e.g. locusts), diseases and the absence of good governance (pingali et al., 2006; smith et al., 2000; nile basin initiative, 1998). when domestic production falls short of fulfilling national food demand, countries often resort to commercial food imports or humanitarian assistance. while per capita food production indicates the ability of a country to use domestic production to feed its population, the ratio of food imports to total exports provides an indication of the ability of a country to finance its food imports from export revenue. some of these factors are highlighted in table 1. external factors make the status of food insecurity in the nile basin even grimmer. such factors include rise in global food prices (as has been periodically witnessed since 2008), debt burden, limited trade, lack of adequate foreign exchange and the long-term risks associated with climate change (ifpri, 2002; appelgren et al., 2000). this is further aggravated by communicable human and animal diseases, and pest problems that often weaken the already delicate livelihoods for many households in the nile basin. poor infrastructure, high transport cost, limited investments in irrigation, pricing and marketing polices, expensive and inappropriate technologies have historically hampered efforts to increase food production and intra-regional trade in the nile basin countries (nepad, 2009; omiti et al., 2008; anderson, 1992; carter and weibe, 1990). considering the population growth and rapid urbanization, the demand for food will grow dramatically in coming decades (delgado et al., 1999). facilitating expansion of domestic and regional markets will be critical in efforts that are aimed at stimulating agricultural production, broad-based income growth and poverty reduction (united nations, 2010; berrett et al., 2005; sen, 1981). since the launch of the new partnership for africa’s development (nepad) in 2000, a comprehensive africa development programme (caadp) has been initiated, whose third pillar aims to increase food supply and reduce hunger in africa by raising productivity and improving responses to food emergencies. this initiative will provide avenues for investments in improving domestic production and marketing, trade and productivity (nepad, 2009). with perhaps the exception of egypt, the nile basin countries have a predominant common feature of food insecurity which is mainly due to low and stagnating agricultural productivity, diverse and complex farming systems which make it difficult to single out a few systems that would be improved and made to work as is the case of asia during the green revolution (barrett et al., 2005; smith et al., 2000; nile basin initiative, 1998; smith, 1994). there are many casual factors for the persistent and chronic food insecurity in the nile basin. first, there is inadequate growth in agriculture which has an inherent relationship with incidences of chronic food insecurity. there is high dependence on rainfed agriculture that is heavily reliant on traditional factors of production (land, labour and capital). without supplementary irrigation, many farmers are exposed to risks of production failure in both crop and livestock systems, which in turn, affect the proportion of food that is produced, consumed and marketed (omiti et al., 2008; appelgren et al., 2000; smith et al., 2000). secondly, most of the nile basin countries have infertile soils as a result of prolonged and intensive land use, shortening fallow periods and abandonment of shifting cultivation that is used to restore fertility and productivity (asareca, 2004; mwangi, 1997). in livestock, the public delivery systems have collapsed, the cost and quality of feeds often varies significantly and leads to low levels of output (wanyoike et al., 2002; leonard, 2000). pests and diseases cause substantial damage during production and storage processes. these constraints are aggravated by the behavior of farmers who tend to be risk averse for a variety of reasons including financial constraints (barrett et al., 2005; freeman and omiti, 2003). as a result of insufficient food supply, many of the countries in the region are forced to import food to meet domestic demand. some of the imports are sought as food aid. food aid is sometimes a common response to transitory food insecurity and is often a way to cope with variable food import requirements and restricted commercial import capacity in low-income economies (wfp, 2008; barrett, 1999). an increased food import bill tends to be the opportunity cost for other imports such as equipment or investments in research and technology (yu et al., 2010). while markets and related support services can improve access to food and hence encourage gradual development, poor physical and storage infrastructure in the nile basin hinders develop-ment of food markets and limits access to food. however, a direct result has been decline in per capita agricultural production over time due to market distortions and the characteristic low-input low-output agriculture in countries such as ethiopia (fao/wfp, 2010; gebreselassie, 2006). third, another critical aspect affecting food availability in the nile basin is the rapid increase in human population, often in excess of the annual rate of economic growth. the total population in the nile basin was expected to increase from 210 million in 2005 to 336 million in 2030 (faonile, 2005). for example, a recent (2009) population census in kenya shows that the country’s population has been growing at 3% per annum during the last decade (1999 to 2009). this has serious implications for national planning and socio-economic development including food security. no effective policies are in place to cope with the unprecedented pressure by the high population growth on food demand, infrastructure and natural resources in most of the nile basin countries. natural resources especially land and water are increasingly diminishing, implying that technology and innovation will have a big role to play in ensuring that table 1. average food security indicators in the nile basin countries, 1990 to 2009. food production trade food stocks and utilization food potential potential soil without fertilizer food imports share (%) of food food aid global urban country production arable land arable land major use on share of total aid in total cereal hunger population per person as % of total actually in constraints arable land exports (%) consumption (tonnes) index % of total (kg/year) land use (%) (%) (kg/ha) (2004 -2006) (2004 -2006) (2004 -2006) (2009) population burundi 105.1 37.33 21 30 25.94 38.7 10.40 congo, d.r. 100.7 2.95 14 45 5.16 5.7 1 69,073 39.1 33.96 egypt 94.5 2.82 n/a n/a 4,781.37 13.2 0.1 14,422 <5 42.72 ethiopia 101.3 10.93 34 26 62.95 4.4 5.2 687,377 30.8 17.00 kenya 103.7 8.97 27 16 287.30 18.5 2.4 143,645 20.2 21.60 rwanda 105.4 38.15 25 19 20.99 5.1 2.6 23,527 25.4 18.34 sudan 95.8 6.87 14 25 39.16 8.9 7.1 436,403 19.6 43.44 tanzania 105.0 10.25 25 49 54.62 13.9 n/a 55,475 21.1 25.52 uganda 97.7 26.08 13 40 9.09 4 2.2 102,667 14.8 12.98 source: world bank, 2010; ifpri, 2010; faostat, 2010; fao/agl-terrastat, 2003. agricultural commodities are produced at higher yield per unit of land, water, energy and time. with an exception of egypt, other nile basin countries are net food buyers, which especially affect the poor who spend 60 to 80% of their income on food (yu et al., 2010). this paper explores policy dimensions of chronic food security in the nile basin, by reviewing agricultural productivity and its potential to enhance food production capacity and trade to feed the increasing human population and support sustainable livelihoods in the nine african countries: burundi, democratic republic of congo, egypt, ethiopia, kenya, rwanda, sudan, tanzania and uganda. objective of the study the objective of this study were to scope out critical food insecurity issues in the nile basin region and suggest promising interventions to improve food security either by way of productive investments or technology development, especially at regional level. methodology conceptual framework conceptually, food security involves implementation of policies, strategies and action programmes to promote and guarantee food availability, accessibility and effective and efficient utilization by all people at all times (fao, 1996). issues around food availability comprise domestic production, import capacity, available food stocks and food distribution systems in a country or region. application of modern agricultural technologies plays a pivotal role in increasing production and productivity which is critical to achieving the food supply-demand balance. the issue of access to food is essentially determined by the purchasing power (that is, incomes and wages), poverty level, prices of food, and the distribution, transport and market systems. effective utilization of food is influenced by people’s culture, access to knowledge about proper nutrition, energy and clean water. figure 1 show the conceptual relationships embodied in assuring food security at a multisectoral and multi-dimensional level. for food security to be achieved, relevant policy recommendations and implementation on food and livelihood security is a prerequisite (united nations, 2010; nepad, 2009; tschirley et al., 2008; majid, 2004). markets play a critical role in ensuring that the food produced is distributed. however, food markets in the nile basin countries are thin and weak. there is a sufficient domestic demand or export possibilities to stimulate growth in food production frontier. there is need to increase food production and productivity since the population in the nile basin region is rapidly growing. proactive policies will need to be applied now to exploit the potential in agriculture and trade opportunities in the nile basin to meet future food demand (tshirley et al., 2008; maxwell, 1996). data food availability was captured by (1) the levels and trends of food production (for example, through per capita food figure 1. food security as a multi-dimensional and multisectoral context. source: adapted from nepad (2009) and benson (2004). production, agricultural production /potential based on soil fertility, and input use), (2) trade or food imports, (3) food stocks, and (4) factors that affect food consumption. per capita annual food production, agricultural potential/fertilizer use, and the ratio of imports to exports were used to indicate the status of food supply. food distribution and utilization was proxied by the rate of urbanization while the level of hunger and malnutrition is computed by the global hunger index. the indicators can be used to shed more light on the different dimensions of food security at various levels of aggregation (household, community, national and regional). results and discussion food production in the nile basin countries most of the farmers in the nile basin practice rainfed agriculture with limited adoption of yield-increasing inputs. egypt has a high fertilizer use of 386 kg/ha compared to upstream countries such as kenya with an average of 31 kg/ ha or ethiopia with an average of 14 kg/ ha (fao, 2009). very little arable land is utilized in the region with countries like dr congo utilizing less than 1% and tanzania using only 5% (table 1) yet these countries has considerable land without any major constraints. for example, dr congo has about 14% and tanzania about 25% of its soil without having any major constraints. burundi and rwanda are utilizing more than 85% of their arable land yet they are not able to feed their population due to low input usage. for instance, sudan is endowed with plenty of cultivable land estimated at 86 million hectare. however, less than 20% is utilized at present under the three major farming sub-sectors: the irrigated, the semi-mechanized rain-fed and the agro-pastoral traditional rain-fed (fao/wfp, 2010a). these results imply that different countries in the region require different interventions to increase their food security. average per capita food production in most countries of the nile basin has not been enough to feed growing human population. for instance, in ethiopia, the domestic food production matched population growth only in the 1960s as per capita domestic food production has steadily declined over the last three decades (united nations, 2010). at the same time, the level of productivity for the different food crops is critical since the food basket is a mix of essential foodstuffs, where sources of energy (cereals) are critically important. 2500 8000 7000 2000 co u n tr ie s 6000 1500 5000 n ile ba si n 4000 o th er 1000 3000 2000 500 1000 0 0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 years e g y p t burundi congo ethiopia kenya rwanda sudan tanzania uganda egypt figure 2. cereal yields (kg/ha) in the nile basin countries, 1990-2008. source: fao statistics division, 2010. as an illustration, figure 2 shows the worrisome trends in cereal yields in the nile basin between 1990 and 2008. it is evident that overall productivity has been declining. with the exception of egypt, none of the other countries since the 1990s has been able to obtain two(2) tonnes/hectare although they have potential to realize three times as much. for instance, in 2008, uganda had a cereal productivity of 1,590 kg/ha while egypt has a cereal productivity of about 7,500 kg/ha. nonetheless, uganda is generally self-sufficient in most of the staples, except rice and wheat. uganda supplies about 5% of kenya’s maize requirement in addition to exporting to rwanda, burundi, tanzania and more recently southern sudan. uganda can potentially serve as a grain basket for the region (ratin, 2009). tanzania is a net importer of cereals with a productivity of 1,350 kg/ha. sudan and democratic republic of congo (drc) have the lowest productivities in the region of about 770 and 610 kg/ ha, respectively. it is not surprising that drc has the highest malnutrition in the region and even in the world (fao, 2010; pauw, 2010). the low cereal productivity in the nile basin is partly attributed to limited adoption of high-yielding varieties and low usage of improved technologies (for example, hybrid seed, chemical fertilizer). with the exception of egypt, usage of improved technologies is considerably low in other nile basin countries. egypt has high fertilizer use estimated at 385.8 kg/ha while burundi, uganda, rwanda and sudan have very low fertilizer use of less than 3 kg/ ha. with hindsight on attitudes to risk under rainfed agriculture, egypt practices intensive agriculture due to heavy investments in irrigation because of guaranteed access to the nile waters. however, issues of water-efficient technologies have become increasingly important due to the resultant pollution and salinity due to high fertilizer use (khalifa, 2010; omiti et al., 2008; nile basin initiative, 1998). though maize is widely grown in the nile basin, it is more predominant in the lower and eastern nile in addition to wheat, millet and sorghum. in the southern nile (dr congo, rwanda, burundi), roots and tubers (for example, sweet potatoes, cassava and yams) are the main food staples. figure 3 shows the trends in yield of roots and tubers in the nile basin. egypt has higher productivity though it declined from about 25,000 kg/ ha in 2004 to 11,000 kg/ ha in 2008. kenya has an average o th e r n il e b a si n c o u n tr ie s 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 5 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 7 1 9 9 8 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 years burundi congo ethiopia kenya rwanda sudan tanzania uganda egypt 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 e g y p t figure 3. yields of roots and tubers (kg/ ha) in the nile basin, 1990 to 2008. source: fao statistics division, 2010. of about 10,000 kg/ ha with the other basin countries producing between 4,000 and 8,000 kg/ ha. although, roots and tubers are not internationally traded in their primary form, they are important food security crops in the region. in addition, except for irish potatoes, markets for roots and tubers are not well developed on a national or regional scale due to the bulkiness and perishability of these food commodities. pulses (for example, beans, peas) are an important source of protein especially for rural population in most sub–saharan african countries, which may not frequently afford the relatively more expensive meat (for example beef, and chicken). figure 4 shows the yields of pulses over the last decade. notably sudan had productivity of about 1400 kg/ha but this has declined to 900 kg/ha. the other basin countries have productivity ranging from 400 kg/ha in kenya to 700 kg/ ha in rwanda, tanzania and uganda. productivity of pulses has been increasing annually in ethiopia from 800 kg/ha in 1993 to 1200 kg/ha in 2008 while burundi achieves about 900 kg/ha. a major challenge to increasing pulse production lies in the fact that most of pulses are often intercropped and therefore proper crop husbandry is not often practiced widely. livestock for example cattle, sheep, goat, poultry and camel production is an important source of livelihood for pastoralists in the nile basin countries. livestock production systems range from subsistence to intensive commercial production. production is concentrated in the lower nile basin and cattle production dominates the sector. individual nile basin countries have different production systems that range from nomadic grazing, through small-holder farming based on animal traction and growing of legumes and forage to enhance livestock production and to increase soil fertility and crop yields. figure 5 shows composite yields from livestock in the nile basin countries, indicating an average productivity of 700 kg/animal in egypt and 550 kg/animal in kenya compared to 350 kg/animal in ethiopia and sudan while other nile basin countries recorded average productivity levels in the range of 150 to 250 kg/animal. these low levels of performance demonstrate that the production efficiencies need to be improved with major emphasis being placed on herd improvement, better husbandry practices including nutrition and feeding.other sectors that have potential in the region include aquaculture which makes a significant contribution to fish production in the lower nile. however, statistics indicate little contribution of fisheries to the wider economy and food security in the nile basin. for example, nile perch (lates niloticus) and tilapia (tilapiine cichlid tribe) dominate the inland fisheries from lake victoria and are major exports for the three east african countries of kenya, tanzania and uganda. food imports into the nile basin region although, the nile basin initiative countries are characterized by variation in factor endowments, imperfections o th e r n il e b a si n c o u n tr ie s 1800 3500 1600 3000 1400 2500 1200 1000 2000 e g y p t 800 1500 600 1000 400 200 500 0 0 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 5 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 7 1 9 9 8 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 years burundi congo ethiopia kenya rwanda sudan tanzania uganda egypt figure 4. yields of pulses (kg/ ha) in the nile basin, 1990 to 2008. source: fao statistics division, 2010. c a r ca ss k g /a n im a l 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 5 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 7 1 9 9 8 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 years burundi congo egypt ethiopia kenya rwanda sudan tanzania uganda figure 5. yields of livestock (kg/animal) in the nile basin, 1990 to 2008. source: fao statistics division, 2010. in the markets and differential preferences for the commodities, the volume and value of intra-regional trade is small. cross border trade between the nile basin countries has largely been ignored and its potential remains un-exploited. almost all the nile basin countries are members of the comesa trading block, where grain, and for most countries maize, is synonymous to food security. in a bid to ensure trade in grain contributes figure 6. comesa and eac maize intra export and import. source: comesa database, 2008. 20,000,000 15,000,000 intra-exports 10,000,000 5,000,000 extra imports comesa market size figure 7. comesa market size for beans, cassava, rice and millet in 2007 (figures in us$). source: comesa database, 2008. towards regional food security, comesa and eac have removed tariff on intra regional trade in grain but adopted an external tariff structure ranging between 35% for rice to 50% for maize in a bid to protect regional market and encourage investments in the production of grain. this notwithstanding, regional trade in grain is quite dismal figure 6. for instance, in 2007, total maize exports within the region (intra exports) amounted to only about us$ 170 million out of the total market size of over us $ 1.75 billion (comesa database, 2008). the same case applies to beans, bananas, cassava, rice and millet, all of which are important food crops in the region. the level of intra comesa exports has consistently been small compared to extra regional imports (figure 7). these examples demonstrate the existence of huge trading potential in food products among nile basin countries. the insignificant volume of intra-regional trade has been attributed to various technological, policy, institutional, legal and other barriers to trade that inhibit movement of goods and services from one country to another. shortfalls in domestic food production are mainly satisfied through trade or humanitarian assistance from outside the nile basin. most of the nile basin countries have limited capacity to finance their food imports from their exports. this is especially significant for the landlocked countries such as burundi, dr congo, ethiopia, rwanda and uganda. on average, food imports surpass food exports suggesting that the nile basin region is becoming increasingly food-deficient which is an important policy concern in many nile basin countries. when the share of food aid in total consumption is taken into account (table 1), sudan is the largest recipient of food aid (at about 7% ) in the nile basin m t ( m il li o n ) 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 1960 1969 1970 1979 1980 1989 1990 -1999 2000 -2007 years total imports (m) total exports (x) food balance (x-m) figure 8. average annual balance of food imports and exports of nile basin countries. source: faostat (2010). followed by ethiopia and burundi where about 5% of total consumption is from food aid. it is instructive to note that parts of these countries have either experienced extreme droughts (and therefore, crop failure), insecurity or sporadic conflict that has necessitated international assistance. besides maize, other staples imported during the same period were wheat and rice where there is rising consumer demand. this has some important implications in terms of the changing diets and therefore, emerging need to think of expanding wheat and rice farming in the nile basin to reduce heavy dependency on imports. trends in per capita food supply and consumption like elsewhere in the developing world, urbanization is a major factor driving the socio-economic development of in most nile basin countries. egypt has 43% of its population in the urban areas, sudan 41% and kenya 21% (table 1). while food production is concentrated in the rural areas and along the river nile, urban populations tend to be more involved in the formal and informal employment sector. through interactions with the market, urbanization often encourages changes in dietary habits and lifestyles. the average annual change in food availability per person (figure 8) is declining for burundi, congo and tanzania indicating high food insecurity. in other nile basin countries, the growth in food availability and population growth shows positive growth especially in egypt, kenya and uganda where food availability per person has been growing at about 1% annually, for the last two decades (1990 to 2010). the global hunger index measures the proportion of the population that does not meet its food requirements to sustain a normal and healthy productive life. conflicts, political instability, and high rates of hiv and aids have lead to high child mortality and a high proportion of people who cannot meet their energy requirements especially in sub-saharan africa. there are large disparities in the fight against hunger in the nile basin countries. figure 9 shows the countries with the largest changes in hunger within the nile basin countries, proxied by their global hunger index rating (ghi). with a ghi index of below 5% of the population, egypt has very few citizens experiencing levels of hunger that can trigger serious policy concerns. between 1986 and 1993, the country implemented a multi-year agricultural policy reform program to remove government control on farm prices, crop area controls, procurement quotas, private sector processing and marketing of farm products and inputs and to eliminate farm input subsidies. simultaneously, the whole economy underwent structural and fiscal reforms to facilitate growth, especially in the agricultural sector. the only food subsidy currently in operation is the “baladi” bread subsidy (soliman et al., 2010). in stark contrast to egypt, the other eight nile basin countries have a sizeable proportion of their population experiencing chronic hunger and pervasive malnutrition. for the last two decades, drc (ghi = 39.1), ethiopia (ghi = 30.8) and burundi (ghi = 38.7) have extremely alarming hunger levels which could be attributed to the civil war for dr congo and burundi, in addition to low agricultural productivity and limited regional trade. in ethiopia, almost half of the population does not meet its daily food requirements. uganda (ghi = 14.8) has a better index than other east african countries largely due to its better climatic regime and greater food diversity. overall, hunger has been decreasing for all the nile basin countries since 2007 but at varying rates. however, because of increasing population, the number of people a v er a g e a n n u a l ra te o f ch a n g e (% ) 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 bur undi congo egypt -1.0 -2.0 -3.0 -4.0 food available per person e th io p ia k en y a r w a n d a s u d a n ug an d a t a n za n ia countries food consumption population growth figure 9. average annual rate of change (%) in food consumption and population growth 1990 to 2005. source: fao statistics division, 2010. g h i 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 egypt uganda kenya sudan tanzania rwanda dr congo burundi ethiopia countries 1990 1997 2007 2009 figure 10. global hunger index for nile basin countries, 1990 to 2009. source: ifpri, 2010. experiencing hunger and malnutrition could be increasing in absolute numbers (figure 10). food security policies in the nile basin a number of countries in the nile basin region have developed food security and nutrition programmes to facilitate implementation of food security policies as well as promote agricultural growth. the policy interventions can be broadly grouped into three categories namely those (1) promoting domestic supply, (2) affecting food distribution, and (3) facilitating trade. trade is critical to net food importing countries in the nile basin region, therefore the trade policies play a critical role in ensuring food supply, accessibility and stability of food prices (united nations, 2010). some of the policy interventions that the nile basin countries have taken table 2.for instance, kenya has applied the largest are presented in cocktail of polices compared to the other nile basin countries. these interventions have been carried out intermittently, sometimes with abrupt changes in speed and direction. except perhaps for egypt, the other eight nile basin countries are generally food insecured. conclusions and recommendations food insecurity is one of the primary development challenges facing the nile basin countries. a majority of table 2. some food security policy interventions in some nile basin countries. countries policy intervention burundi ethiopia kenya rwanda tanzania egypt consumer focused reduce taxes on food grains √ √ √ √ cash transfers √ √ price controls and/or consumer subsidies √ food stamps or vouchers √ √ √ food-for-work √ √ √ school feeding √ √ √ domestic supply agricultural input subsidies √ increase food supply using food grain stocks √ √ √ international trade increase food supply via imports √ √ √ reduce food import tariffs √ lower import tariffs for agricultural inputs √ food export restrictions √ √ √ √ source: (fao, 2009; karugia et al., 2009). these countries experience chronic food shortages and frequent famines despite considerable potential to address this problem. agriculture in the basin is characterized by low productivity and limited intraregional trade, leading to insufficient food, both produced and imported. compared to other regions of the world where the problem of food insecurity has been overcome, it seems that food insecurity is more of a problem of structural and policy failure in the nile basin region. despite variations across countries and livelihood systems in various aspects of food insecurity, there are some generalisable characteristics that can permit policy makers to re-start the debate on regional food security agenda and prioritize interventions to address food insecurity in the region. these interventions must recognize the location-specific challenges and the socio-economic and political considerations in order to be successful. critical determinants of achieving food production revolve around land, access to technology, credit, infrastructure (including water), and markets. relevant policies need to be implemented or put in place before the nile basin countries can begin to anticipate an african green revolution. there is need for a paradigm shift for the nile basin agriculture to focus on improved seed, biotechnology, greater input use, irrigated agriculture, integrated pest management and commercial-orientation (value addition and international trade). the rate of adoption of these technologies should be enhanced through the use of better delivery mechanisms and systems. governments should facilitate a conducive environment to encourage the development of technological, infrastructural, and marketing innovations in crop, fish and livestock production. one critical aspect is storage infrastructure that will allow for surpluses to be stored for future consumption and allow in price arbitrage thus, cushioning the poor populations in the region. critical issues that may need to be addressed to facilitate this paradigm shift will be increase investments in food production, improved governance structures and political goodwill to push this agenda forward. on the other hand, regional trade in food staples represents one of the single biggest opportunity for agricultural development and has the potential to significantly contribute to stabilizing food supply and food prices. prioritizing this issue is consistent with the priorities identified in the caadp framework, which highlights the importance of trade infrastructure, market access, and cross-border trade to attain food security (nepad, 2009). the trading blocs promote trade through low preferential tariff rates, investments and agreements. the nile basin country governments should remove various restrictions on trade in order to reduce costs; thereby 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discussion paper 00945, international food policy research institute (ifpri), washington d.c. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/vvos7zmsbx/$file/ifpri_jan2010.pdf?openelement. in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (4), pp. 001-007, april, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. review potential for agricultural trade in comesa region: a comparative study of sudan, egypt and kenya imad eldin elfadil abdel karim1* and ibrahim sulieman ismail2 1 university of khartoum, faculty of agriculture, sudan. 2 university of kordofan, faculty of natural resources and environmental studies, sudan. accepted 20 august, 2019 this paper aimed at quantifying the potentials of intra-regional agricultural trade in the comesa region taking examples of sudan, egypt and kenya. different indicators and indices like instability index, production similarity index, comparative production performance index, export similarity index and revealed comparative advantage index were used. the results showed a promising potential for intraregional agricultural trade. the instability indices of production in cereals, pulses, and roots and tubers were more stable at regional level than national one. the results of production similarity index indicate differences in production patterns of the three countries. export similarity indices results show that countries are dissimilar in their export patterns. the revealed comparative advantage indices, considering each country separately, are generally higher for dominant export products. as dominant products differ among the countries the pattern of specialization differs considerably among these countries, and therefore, there is a potential for expanding intra-regional trade in the region. the paper concluded that the government policies of comesa member countries, especially sudan, should pay more emphasis to encourage integrating their markets regionally to benefits from potential of trade and comparative advantage exist in the region. key words: comesa, potential for agricultural trade, comparative study introduction the preferential trade agreement for eastern and southern african states (pta) is initiated as the result of the first extraordinary conference of ministers of trade, finance and planning held in lusaka, republic of zambia in march 1978. second extraordinary session of heads of states of the organization of african unity, held at lagos in april, 1980, decided that an african common market should be established by the year 2000. the pta treaty was signed in december 1981, implemented in 1983, by 22 countries; and sudan became a member in 1990. the treaty establishing common market for eastern and southern africa countries (comesa) was signed on november 5, 1993 in kampala, uganda and was ratified one year later in lilongwe, malawi on december 8, 1994 (comesa 2004). comesa was established superseding *corresponding author. e-mail: adfk9@yahoo.com. tel. +249912828882; fax: +249185318431. the preferential trading agreement (pta) for east and southern african states (barry et al., 2001). the treaty establishing comesa binds together free independent sovereign states which have agreed to co-operate in exploiting the natural and human resources for the common good of their peoples. in attaining that goal, comesa recognizes that stability, security and peace are basic factors in providing investment, trade, develop-ment and regional economic integration. sudan has signed and ratified its membership in comesa from the beginning of its establishment and it is the first country to apply zero tariff commitment. imports from comesa countries to sudan rose from us $65 million in 2000 to us $466.8 million in 2005. on the other hand, exports of sudan to comesa amounted to us $165 million in 2004, compared to us $36 million in 2000. share of agricultural commodities in total intra-comesa trade was not stable but are increasing as it reached 81.74% in 2004 compared to 59.57% in 2001. cotton was the leading agriculture export commodity to comesa file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org countries followed by sesame and live animals and seed cake, while skins, groundnuts and meat contri-buted the smallest shares. considering direction of su-dan exports to comesa countries, egypt absorbed the most exports followed by kenya for the period 2001– 2004 (appendix 1). on the other hand, main import sup-pliers for sudan during the same period were egypt su-dan exports to comesa countries, egypt absorbed, ken-ya, zimbabwe and uganda (appendix 2). it depicts that the main trade partners for sudan in the comesa region are egypt and kenya. trade in agricultural products serves three functions. first, trade can contribute to stabilizing supply when national fluctuations in production are greater than the fluctuations in the region. thus, free intra-regional trade among the comesa countries could be an efficient substitute for national stockpiling and might be used to even-out fluctuations in national production. johnson (1978, 1981) shows that worldwide free trade in grains would drastically reduce the need for holding carryover stocks, because fluctuations in world cereal production are minimal compared to fluctuations in national production. the same may hold true if variability in production in individual member countries is greater than variability in production for the comesa region as whole. however, if production in all countries were perfectly correlated, intraregional trade could not help stabilize consumption. second, trade in agricultural products may partly substitute for working stocks if the harvesting calendar differs somewhat among trading partners. third, trade may allow countries to specialize in production in accordance with comparative advantage. thus, trade would help to increase national income and improve food security. the objective of this paper is to investigate the potential of comesa intra-regional trade in agricultural commodities specifically between sudan, egypt and kenya. to realize this objective the following indices and coefficients were computed: instability index, correlation coefficient matrix, production similarity index, comparative production performance (cpp), export similarity index and revealed comparative advantage measure (rca). production variability in cereals, pulses, roots and tubers empirical evidence provided by valdes and siamwalla (1981) proves that the food consumption in a region will be more stable if its production in the region is more stable than that in individual countries and if trade between countries is allowed. this assumption is tested by calculating instability index for cereals, pulses and roots and tubers for the three countries and for the region. this index is based on the coefficient of variation corrected by the fitness of trend function. the index is used to mea-sure instability at both the country and regional level and it is defined as follows (cuddy and della vale, 1978): i c.v. 1− r 2 (1) where: i = instability index c.v. = coefficient of variation r2 = adjusted coefficient of determination instability indices have been measured for total production, area and yield of cereals, pulses and roots and tubers on the basis of data from 1961 2005 for the three countries (sudan, egypt and kenya). the relationship between the region’s instability index and those of individual countries and the rest of the world indicates whether an individual country would be better-off by integrating regionally or with the rest of the world. the results show that cereal production is volatile in the sub-region countries of the comesa (table 1). sudan has the highest instability index of 31.6. this could be attributed to its highest variability in area and yield of cereal which have instability indices of about 19.2 and 18.4 respectively. egypt and kenya showed less variability in production comparing to sudan (17.6 and 15.1 for egypt and kenya respectively) . regional integration could reduce the instability index to 12.1 that means the three countries would gain from intra-regional trade. in pulses production, sudan again showed the highest instability index of 30.1 followed by kenya with an index of 25.8, and egypt the least with 16.7. regional integration in pulses reduces fluctuation to 12.5. production of roots and tubers showed less fluctuations in the three countries compared to cereal and pulses production with sudan showing the minimum index of 12.7, followed by kenya 13.2 and egypt 16.6. regional integration could reduce the instability to 10. although the empirical results indicate that regional integration would be a reasonable strategy for achieving greater food security, the instability indices were higher for the sub-region than for the rest of the world in all the three categories of food crops. perhaps on these grounds it would be better to integrate national markets directly into the world market. in reality, however, this may be less advisable than the instability indexes indicate. comparative advantage and the potential for trade expansion there is widespread opinion that african countries have similar factor endowments, climatic conditions and their production patterns. therefore, the potential of the intraregional trade could be small. to test this hypothesis, a production similarity index is calculated for all agricultural products of the countries under study. this index is defined by the following. the index measures the similarity of production patterns of countries a and b, an index value of 100 means that table 1. instability indices for sudan, egypt and kenya sub-region and the world (1961 2005). country crop area yield production sudan cereal 0.194 0.182 0.316 pulses 0.193 0.113 0.301 roots and tubers 0.132 0.069 0.127 egypt cereal 0.081 0.085 0.176 pulses 0.178 0.057 0.166 roots and tubers 0.101 0.097 0.166 kenya cereal 0.099 0.125 0.150 pulses 0.195 0.153 0.257 roots and tubers 0.119 0.112 0.132 sub-region cereal 0.121 pulses 0.125 roots and tubers 0.103 world cereal 0.023 0.009 pulses 0.039 0.033 roots and tubers 0.035 0.016 source: calculated using the fao database. table 2. production similarity index (1999 2005) kenya sudan egypt 30.70 24.17 kenya 37.23 source: calculated using the fao database formula (finger and kreinin, 1979): s q (ab,c) = ( minimum [(xi (ac), xi (bc)])*100 (2) where: s q (ab,c) = production similarity index xi (ac) = share of commodity i in a’s agricultural production xi (bc) = share of commodity i in b’s agricultural production production patterns of the two countries are completely similar. whereas 0 index implies complete dissimilarity in production patterns. table 2 presents the empirical results of production similarity index for average of period from 1999 to 2005. it identified the differences in production patterns of these because egypt’s resources and climate are relatively dissimilar from the other two countries. the actual cause three countries. egypt is relatively more different in its production pattern from sudan and kenya. this could be may be revealed when the export patterns of the countries are investigated by the use of export similarity index. similarity of production patterns can also be examined by using comparative production performance coefficient (cpp) and is defined as follows (koester, 1986): cpp= (qi j / qiw) / ( qij / qiw) (3) where: q = quantity produced and the subscripts i, j and w refer to the type of product, the country in question and the world, respectively. qij = total agricultural production of the country in question. qiw= total world agricultural production cpp index shows the importance of a commodity to country's production, an index value of more than unity means that the particular commodity has a larger share in total agricultural production of the individual country and has production comparative advantage. if the hypothesis that the three comesa countries have similar resources and climates is correct, cpp coefficients for individual products of the countries will vary only a little, if at all. table 3 shows cpp coefficients of some selected agricultural products excluding fisheries, foresry and livestock for the three countries. by ranking top ten products for each country only four products ranked more than once in sudan and egypt. this clearly indicates that the agricultural production pattern differs considerably among the three countries. differences in production pattern will most likely reflected in differences in the export patterns of the individual countries. to investigate this hypothesis some additional indices have been calculated. one of those is the export similarity index which is completely analogous to production similarity index (finger and kreinin, 1979). this index is defined by the formula: s (ab, c) = minimum [(xi (ac), xi (bc)] *100 (4) table 3. comparative production performance (cpp) for sudan, egypt and kenya (1990 2004). index country product 1990-1993 1994-1998 1999-2004 sudan sesame seed 47.06 63.01 51.39 melon seed 57.72 58.86 37.40 dates 24.44 18.91 31.03 groundnuts in shell 8.06 15.08 27.50 broad beans 7.97 2.63 17.99 grapefruit 9.41 7.09 17.13 eggplants 5.37 3.81 7.95 tomatoes 4.73 3.92 4.50 pumpkins and squash 3.52 2.45 3.40 egypt clover 47.22 46.92 47.04 dates 14.78 12.59 13.16 figs 10.18 16.23 12.65 broad beans 11.76 10.49 7.34 tomatoes 5.40 5.27 4.76 anise and fennel 5.25 5.64 4.38 lemons and limes 4.33 2.66 2.06 beans 3.27 3.19 2.81 pumpkins and squash 3.14 3.06 3.12 artichokes 3.97 2.854 4.34 kenya pyrethrum 518.51 435.42 400.59 sisal 65.84 56.35 41.75 tea 52.90 57.08 55.93 pineapples 19.92 22.65 24.06 pigeon peas 16.29 13.26 17.67 beans 17.12 10.66 12.79 plantains 10.85 8.65 10.51 avocados 8.1919 9.15 13.17 cow peas 19.06 9.32 7.70 cabbages 5.53 7.27 6.04 source: calculated using the fao database. table 4. export similarity index (1999 2004). kenya sudan egypt 10.10 4.97 kenya 12.57 source: calculated using the fao database where: xi (ac) = share of commodity i in a’s export to c. xi (bc) = share of commodity i in b’s exports to c. the index measures the similarity of export patterns of countries a and b to market c. if the export patterns of countries a and b are the same this means that xi (ac) = xi (bc) for each product i. in this case the export similarity completely dissimilar, the index will be equal to zero. table 4 presents export similarity indexes by pairing the three countries, the generally low indices indicates that countries are dissimilar in their export patterns. exports of sudan and kenya registered the highest index of 12.5, and sudan and egypt the minimum index of 4.9. these low indices indicate that there is a wide scope for trade within the region because the countries are relatively dissimilar. this indication has agreed with export similarity indices found by koester (1986) for sadcc countries which are not much different from indices calculated in this paper and even higher in some pairs (around 50). higher index up to 50 do not support the hypothesis that there is limited scope for intraregional trade because the countries are too similar. finger and kreinin (1979) found similarity indices of around 50 for us-ec exports in the early 1970s, but there has since been a significant expansion in us-ec bi table 5. revealed comparative advantage (rca) for selected crops in sudan, egypt and kenya (1990 2004). country product period share in agricultural exports (%) rca sudan sesame seed (1990-1993) 12.0 31.63 (1994-1998) 18.7 31.76 (1999-2004) 26.6 5.95 groundnuts (1990-1993) 3.7 28.63 (1994-1998) 6.8 29.53 (1999-2004) 1.1 1.56 molasses (1990-1993) 1.9 28.43 (1994-1998) 1.8 27.77 (1999-2004) 2.1 6.82 melon seed (1990-1993) 2.6 28.90 (1994-1998) 2.2 28.08 (1999-2004) 1.4 12.72 cotton lint (1990-1993) 29.3 33.21 (1994-1998) 20.5 31.92 (1999-2004) 15.9 9.03 sheep (1990-1993) 12.8 31.74 (1994-1998) 14.8 31.35 (1999-2004) 18.1 14.81 egypt beans (1990-1993) 2.1 24.72 (1994-1998) 2.2 18.63 (1999-2004) 4.6 14.53 oranges (1990-1993) 9.0 2.98 (1994-1998) 4.3 0.99 (1999-2004) 4.8 1.97 onions (1990-1993) 3.6 1.24 (1994-1998) 3.1 1.08 (1999-2004) 2.7 1.70 bagass (1990-1993) 1.2 1.28 (1994-1998) 1.4 1.40 (1999-2004) 0.1 0.58 anise, badian and fennel (1990-1993) 1.4 0.50 (1994-1998) 1.4 0.24 (1999-2004) 0.8 0.36 kenya pineapples (1990-1993) 4.8 53.38 (1994-1998) 4.2 20.79 (1999-2004) 4.0 21.10 beans (1990-1993) 2.1 24.72 (1994-1998) 2.2 18.63 (1999-2004) 4.6 14.53 tea (1990-1993) 38.3 23.03 (1994-1998) 35.7 16.95 (1999-2004) 39.3 10.49 coffee (1990-1993) 21.7 35.63 (1994-1998) 23.3 23.50 (1999-2004) 10.7 20.93 sisal (1990-1993) 1.7 29.96 (1994-1998) 1.1 21.78 (1999-2004) 0.9 12.20 source: calculated using the fao database. table 5 shows the results of rca coefficients together with the export shares for the most important top ten agricultural products for each country. the three countries appear to be highly specialized. considering trade. if the countries under study were really similar in production and trade patterns indicated by the previous indices, coefficients for revealed comparative advantage (rca) would be similar (donges et al., 1982). the rca indicator measures the country's revealed comparative advantage in exports according to the balassa formula. the index compares the share of a given sector in national exports with the share of this sector in world exports. values above 1 indicate that the country is specialized in the sector under review, the higher the rca index, the more successful is the country in exporting the given export product. the rca index will be negative if the country is only importing the given product or if the ratio of export and import values for the product is smaller than the ratio of the total agricultural exports and imports. the revealed comparative advantage is defined as follows (balassa, 1965; finger and derose, 1978; donges et al., 1982; yilmaz, 2003): rca = (xi/xiw)/ ( xi/ xiw) (5) where, rca = revealed comparative advantage xi = export value of product i xiw = world export value of product for each country separately, rca coefficients are generally higher for dominant export products. however, the pattern of specialization differs considerably among the selected countries, which means that there is potential for expanding intra-regional trade in the region. conclusion there is a great potential for intra-regional trade, especially in agricultural products, between comesa member countries. this paper quantified the potentials of intra-regional trade between sudan, egypt and kenya as subregion of comesa by using different indicators and indices. the instability indices of cereals and pulses production showed a relatively stable production of cereals and pulses in kenya and egypt, while in sudan it was highly unstable. regional integration could make production of cereals and pulses more stable as indicated by a lower instability index. production of roots and tubers showed less fluctuations in the three countries compared to cereal and pulses production. generally, world wide market integration would be better than the regional one on the basis of instability index results because region instability index is higher than that of the rest of the world. regarding production similarities, there are differences in production patterns of the three countries. egypt is relatively more different in its production pattern from sudan and kenya. also, the three countries are dissimilar in their export patterns. the rca, considering each country separately, are generally higher for dominant export products. however, the pattern of specialization differs considerably among these countries, which indicates great potential for expanding intra-regional trade in the region. the paper concludes that the government policies of comesa member countries, especially sudan, should pay more emphasis to encourage integrating their markets regionally to benefits from existing potential of trade and comparative advantage in the region. stemming from the recent agreement between comesa member countries to form a common external tariff and to proceed towards common market by the end of 2008, the intra-comesa trade is expected to be increased substantially. appendix 1. direction of sudan exports to the comesa region (2001-2004) in percent. country 2001 2002 2003 2004 egypt 75.0 81.00 86.60 51.50 ethiopia 2.1 0.02 1.90 1.40 eritrea 1.6 0.10 8.00 1.80 (5) kenya 21.2 10.10 3.40 1.90 source: bank of sudan, annual statistical brief (2004) appendix 2. main suppliers of sudan imports from comesa countries (2001 2004) in percent. country 2001 2002 2003 2004 egypt 47.0 46.60 62.70 71.40 kenya 31.4 28.70 18.80 12.70 zimbabwe 11.1 11.70 6.50 1.80 uganda 10.1 12.70 8.60 10.2 namibia 0.00 0.00 source: bank of sudan, annual statistical brief (2004). references barry a corbett v (2001). intra-regional trade and food security in east and southern africa: constraints, opportunities and the way forward. presented to redso/esa under the rural and agricultural incomes with sustainable environment (raise). ard-raise, kenya balassa b (1965). trade liberalization and revealed comparative advan tage. the manchester sch. of econ. social stud. 33: 99-123. comesa (2004). establishment and membership. (availableat:http://www.itcilo.it/actrav/actravenglish/telearn/global/ilo/b lokit/comesa-htm, accessed december 2, 2004). cuddy j, della valle p (1978). measuring the instability of time series data, oxford bulletin of economics and statistics 40: 79-85. donges j (1982). the second enlargement of the european community: adjustment requirements and challenges for policy reform, kieler study. kiel, germany. p. 171. finger jm, kreinin me (1979). a measure of export similarity and its possible uses. the econ. j. 89: 905-912. finger jm, derose da (1978). trade overlap, comparative advantage, and protection.” in, on the economics of intra-industry trade. edited by h. glersch. tuebengin: j. c. mohr, 1979. johnson d gale (1978). food reserves and international trade policy. in international trade and agriculture: theory and policy,. edited by jimmye s. hillman and andrew schmitz. boulder, colo.: westview press. pp. 239-252 johnson d gale (1981). grain insurance, reserves, and trade: contributions to food security for ldcs. in food security for developing countries,. edited by albberto valdes. boulder, colo.: westview press. pp. 255-286 koester u (1986). regional cooperation to improve food security in southern and eastern african countries. research report no. 53. washington d.c., international food policy research institute. valdes a, siamwalla a (1981). introduction. in food security for developing countries, edited by alberto valdes. boulder, colo.: westview press. pp. 2-21 yilmaz b (2003). turkey's competitiveness in the european union. ezoneplus working paper no. 12, jean monnet centre of excellence, free university of berlin, berlin, germany. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 11 (1), pp. 001-007, january, 2023. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper use of male gametocide: an alternative to cumbersome emasculation in coriander (coriandrum sativum l.) giridhar kalidasu1*, c. sarada1, p. venkata reddy1 and t. yellamanda reddy2 1 horticultural research station, lam, guntur-522 034, andhra pradesh, india. 2 planning and monitoring cell, angrau, rajendranagar, hyderabad-500 030, andhra pradesh, india accepted 12 october, 2022 new varieties of the coriander are traditionally bred using either mass selection or pure line selection or recurrent selection. attempts to use hybridization to combine desirable traits were scarcely successful due to cumbersome emasculation. hence, using male gametocides as an alternative to hand emasculation offers immense scope. the present study is taken up to assess five gametocides viz. gibberellic acid, 2, 4-d, maleic hydrazide, ethrel and surf excel at different concentrations which were sprayed at the time of flower primordia initiation. pollen viability and pollen germination were assessed periodically. the results indicated that none of the gametocides evaluated resulted in pollen sterility and pollen germination was unaffected. however, spraying of maleic hydrazide at 125 ppm resulted in suppression of anther dehiscence due to severe agglutination of the pollen. repeat spraying of maleic hydrazide at 100 ppm from 25 das on wards until the cessation of flowering caused suppression of anther dehiscence during entire flowering period. successful crosses were obtained using maleic hydrazide as chemical emasculation agent. key words: coriander, coriandrum, emasculation, male gametocide, crossing, hybridization. introduction coriander is a facultative cross pollinated crop. the inflorescence is a compound umbel. peripheral florets of the umbellets are hermaphrodite and central florets are staminiferous or sometimes sterile (diederichsen, 1996). romanenko et al. (1991) showed that plants that were not emasculated but were pollinated with pollen of other plants still had a degree of selfing of 25%. crossing in coriander is acknowledged as cumbersome due to difficult process of emasculation (romanenko et al., 1992). hence, new varieties of the crop are traditionally bred using either mass selection or pure line selection or recurrent selection or through mutation breeding. attempts to use hybridization to combine desirable traits were scarcely successful due to inherent disadvantages in the crop for successful emasculation and crossing. hence, using male gametocides as an alternative to hand emasculation offers immense *corresponding author. e-mail: gkalidasu@yahoo.com. abbreviations: mhmaleic hydrazide (1, 2-dihydropyridazine, 3-6-dione). ga gibberellic acid. 2, 4-d2, 4-dichloro phenoxy acetic acid. pgmpollen germination medium. scope for development of new varieties. several gametocides have been reported effective in inducing pollen sterility in various crops. sodium methyl arsenate, 2,3-dichloroisobutyrate, sodium 2,2-dichloropropionate, gibberellic acid, maleic hydrazide (1,2dihydropyridazine, 3-6-dione), 2,4-dichloro phenoxy acetic acid, ethyl 4-fluorooxanilate, trihalogenated methylsulfonamides, ethyl and methyl arsenates, and many other chemicals were reported to have male gametocide effects in several crops. salgare (2004) reported that foliar application of all the concentrations of maleic hydrazide above 50, 200, 800 µg/ml suppressed cent per cent pollen germinability of phaseolus mungo, p. aureus, cyamopsis tetragonoloba, respectively showing prospect for use as male gametocide. garcia torres et al. (1979) have shown that ga3 150 ppm induced of maximum pollen sterility in sunflower. lakshmi praba and thangaraj (2005) reported that ethrel (800 ppm), salicylic acid (600 ppm) and maleic hydrazide (0.2%) induced a significantly higher percentage of male sterility in the tgms lines of rice. singh (1999) in rice, chauhan and vandana singh (2002) in mustard and gangaprasad et al. (2004) in niger (guizotia abyssinica) reported induction 2 table 1. the composition of the pollen germination medium for each 1000 ml of water. s/no ingredient quantity 1. sucrose 100 g 2. boric acid (h3bo3) 100 mg 3. calcium nitrate (ca (no3)2. 4h2o) 300 mg 4. magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (mgso4. 7h2o) 200 mg 5. potassium nitrate (kno3) 100 mg of very high pollen sterility at concentrations of one to six per cent of detergent. due to its herbaceous nature of coriander with small and delicate flowers, the crop is sparsely amenable for crossing. in view of this, the present study is taken up to assess five male gametocides viz. gibberellic acid, 2, 4 d, maleic hydrazide, ethrel and surf excel at different concentrations using sadhana as test variety. materials and methods the experiments were conducted during rabi seasons of 2007 2008 and 2008 2009. chemicals evaluated and test variety five gametocides viz. gibberellic acid, 2, 4-d, maleic hydrazide, ethrel and surf excel quick wash (active ingredient: sulphonated methyl ester) were evaluated. ga at 50, 100, 150 and 300 ppm; 2, 4-d at 10, 50, 100 and 500 ppm; maleic hydrazide at 50, 75, 125 and 250 ppm; ethrel at 1000, 2000, 3000 and 5000 ppm; surf excel at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 5% and distilled water spray as control were used. the test variety chosen was sadhana which is a medium duration variety with 85 100 days duration. the variety comes to 50% flowering between 45 55 days. the variety shows flower primordia initiation between 30 40 days. all the gametocides were sprayed once at the time of flower primordia initiation using uniform quantity of spray fluid of 22 ml per one meter length of plant row. three meter lengths of rows containing 30 plants were used for applying the gametocides. while care was taken so that all the plants in the row are evenly sprayed. immediately after spraying, twenty plants were randomly selected and labeled for subsequent observations. pollen collection, assessment of pollen sterility and pollen germination in all the treatments fresh pollen was collected in the field from recently opened anthers showing fresh pollen, from the florets of the treated plants. while collecting the pollen, care was taken so that the pollen was from at least five different plants. the pollen was mixed to make a single lot. a tiny droplet of the 1% acetocarmine stain was placed on the slide. using a teasing needle, a small amount of pollen of this lot was placed on stain and thoroughly mixed to ensure uniform penetration of the stain into the pollen. cover slips were gently placed on to different slides for each treatment. the slides were then observed under a microscope. the stained pollen was examined under microscope and at least five hundred pollen grains were counted in each sample by selecting random fields. tests were repeated whenever there was a full staining of all the pollen grains or partial dying was observed. tests were initiated on the seventh day of the spraying and repeated for five times with an interval of two days. pollen sterility estimated thus was converted to percentage from the number of non-dyed and total pollen. in vitro pollen germination was assessed using pollen germination medium (pgm). the pgm was prepared using brewbaker and kwack’s (1963) preparation method. the composition of the medium for each 1000 ml of water is presented in table 1. the medium was prepared from dissolving the above ingredients in one litre of distilled water. freshly collected pollen was spread on a cover slip and was placed on a slide having a tiny droplet of pgm solution. the slides were placed in an incubator at 25°c. each treatment was assessed for germination after three and six hours of incubation. a minimum of 100 pollen grains were examined for each observation. germination frequencies were recorded by counting germinated and non-germinated pollen grains. pollen grains with development of pollen tube (germinated) and without are counted, and germination was expressed in percentage. observations on anther dehiscence were also recorded using a stereomicroscope. the specific findings on anther dehiscence were further verified using another test variety swathi by spraying maleic hydrazide at 125 ppm on fifty pre-labelled plants. phytotoxicity and related plant growth assessment phytotoxicity was assessed periodically starting from the second day of the spraying with seven days interval. toxicity symptoms on leaves, stem, and inflorescence were recorded. evaluation of mh use in chemical emasculation the effect of maleic hydrazide in preventing the pollen dispersal through pollen agglutination which was observed during first year of testing was further evaluated for its use as chemical emasculation agent in test variety sudha. three spray schedules, that is. maleic hydrazide 100 ppm at weekly interval from 25 das to cessation of flowering, maleic hydrazide 125 ppm at weekly interval from 25 das to cessation of flowering and maleic hydrazide 100 ppm at 25 das followed by maleic hydrazide at 125 ppm subsequently at weekly interval to cessation of flowering were tested to compare the efficacy of maleic hydrazide in sustaining the pollen agglutination. pollen agglutination from the treated samples was monitored periodically through the use of stereomicroscope during post-spray period until the cessation of flowering. bagging of umbels of treated plants was carried out to observe any seed set for confirming the visual observations. assessment of maleic hydrazide use in chemical emasculation the maleic hydrazide use in breeding programmes was assessed 3 table 2. phytotoxicity symptoms observed on treated plants. chemical phytotoxicity symptoms ga 50 ppm no phytotoxicity. ga 300, 150 and 100 ppm elongation of plant and inflorescence. plants are tender and weak. 2,4-d 10 ppm no pronounced phytotoxicity. 2,4-d 50 ppm similar symptoms as above to a lesser extent. severely convoluted plants. stem thickens showing some pink pigmentation. leaves elongated 2,4-d 100 ppm and drooping. thickened leaves. distortion of leaf shape from normal, showing less pinnation and uneven pinnation. abnormal thickening and shape of umbel and umbellets. abnormal floret shape. shortening of flower stalk. higher number of male flowers in umbels. 2,4-d 500 ppm mortality followed by the symptoms described for 2, 4-d 100 ppm below. mh 125, 75 and 50 ppm reduction in plant growth and foliage. reduction in number of umbellets and hermaphrodite florets. mh 250 ppm scorching of stem and leaves. shortening of plant and reduction in plant growth. reduction in foliage size and number. increased number of umbels but reduced number of umbellets. reduction in number of umbellets and hermaphrodite florets. ethrel 2000 and 1000 ppm chlorosis of leaves with occasional drying of older leaves. stem pigmentation and slenderness. early and higher pinnation of leaflets. general growth suppression. ethrel 5000 and 3000 ppm severe chlorosis of leaves. drying of older leaves. stem pigmentation and slenderness. early and higher pinnation of leaflets. general growth suppression. early senescence. surf excel 1.0, 0.75 and 0.5 % no pronounced phytotoxicity. surf excel 5.0 % scorching of leaves on the edges. using seven male parents and two female parents. the female parents were sprayed with maleic hydrazide 100 ppm at weekly interval from 25 das onwards until the end of flowering cessation. the pollen agglutination was monitored through the use of stereomicroscope periodically. further, crossing was taken up by dusting of pollen of selected male parents on umbels of female parents. twenty umbels were used for each cross. number of hermaphrodite flowers was recorded before the pollination. repeat pollination was taken up for four consecutive days to ensure inner florets also received pollen from selected male parent. such crossed umbels were bagged, tagged and assessed for seed set. selfing was recorded in both maleic hydrazide treated and untreated female parents. results and discussion male gametocides were found quite effective in various crops. however, there is a paucity of information on the use of male gametocides in coriander. the present investigation threw several insights on the use of male gametocides in coriander. phytotoxicity on treated plants among the gametocides evaluated, ga at 50 ppm, 2, 4-d at 10 ppm and surf excel at 0.25, 0.75 and 1.0% did not show any symptoms of phytotoxicity. all other concentrations of the chemicals evaluated caused phytotoxicity (table 2). most pronounced was the effect of 2, 4-d at 500 ppm that caused severe phytotoxicity and plant mortality within three weeks of spraying. salgare (1999) who worked on p. mungo for induction of male sterility using 2, 4-d, reported that 2,4-d concentration ranging from 200 to 5000 g per ml caused mortality of all plants, which is similar to the present study. plants in all the treatments except for 2, 4-d 500 ppm, completed life cycle with a distinct flowering phase. pollen sterility and pollen germination among the gametocides studied none have shown any significant gametocidic effect on pollen except for 2, 4-d. pollen sterility among the treatments ranged from 0 23.2%. the chemicals gibberellic acid, maleic hydrazide, ethrel and surf excel at lower concentrations showed less than 3% sterility. however, 2, 4-d at 100, 50 ppm and maleic hydrazide at 250 ppm showed 23.2%, 6.2 and 8.5% of pollen sterility respectively (table 3). only 2, 4-d at 100 ppm showed considerable degree of pollen sterility (23.2%). however, the sterility recorded with 2, 4-d at 100 ppm was not continuous but with a peak at fifteen days after spraying. rustagi and mohan ram (1971) reported the occurrence of rhythms of pollen non-viability interspersed with periods of restoration of viability with the use of dalapon and mendok in linseed. salgare (2004) reported that maleic hydrazide at 800 µg/ml failed to suppress cent per cent pollen fertility in p. mungo, p. aureus, cyamopsis tetragonoloba and vigna mungo. observations on pollen germination showed cent percent germination in all the treatments tried except for 4 table 3. pollen sterility (%) and pollen germination (%) in treated plants. chemical % % pollen germination** chemical % sterility* % pollen sterility * germination ** ga 300 ppm 0 100.0 mh 50 ppm 2.5 100.0 ga 150 ppm 1.2 92.7 ethrel 5000 ppm 2.9 100.0 ga 100 ppm 0.7 100.0 ethrel 3000 ppm 0.9 100.0 ga 50 ppm 0.5 100.0 ethrel 2000 ppm 0 100.0 2,4-d 500 ppm mortality ethrel 1000 ppm 1.3 100.0 2,4-d 100 ppm 23.2 severe distortion of florets by assessment time surf excel 5.0 % 0.2 100.0 2,4-d 50 ppm 6.2 96.3 surf excel 1.0 % 1.4 100.0 2,4-d 10 ppm 1.2 100.0 surf excel 0.75 % 2.5 100.0 mh 250 ppm 8.5 100.0 surf excel 0.25 % 0 100.0 mh 125 ppm 2.7 100.0 control 1.2 100.0 mh 75 ppm 0.3 100.0 * average of five tests starting from seventh day of spraying with an interval of 2 days. ** average of two tests starting from sixteenth day of spraying with an interval of 2 days. figure a. normal mature (top) and dehiscing anthers (bottom). for 2, 4-d at 50 ppm and ga at 150 ppm. the slight deviation in pollen germination in the treatments with 2, 4d at 50 ppm and ga at 150 ppm, maybe due to the natural causes which were elaborately reviewed by stanley and linskens (1974); bots and mariani (2005). observations on the pollen germination strengthen the findings that the gametocides tried were ineffective in causing pollen sterility either by inducing sterility or suppressing the germination. salgare (2004) reported that cent percent pollen germinability of cyamopsis tetragonoloba was suppressed by all the concentrations of maleic hydrazide above 3000 µg/ml. this supports that concentration of maleic hydrazide used in the experiment may be well below the toxic levels for pollen germination and repeat spraying of maleic hydrazide should also be assessed for pollen germination. but, pollen germination alone is not sufficient for normal formation of zygote because further growth of tube in the style leading to fertilization should take place. whether these chemicals have any role on growth and fertilization of coriander needs to be further evaluated. though none of the chemicals had induced pollen sterility or suppressed pollen germination, maleic hydrazide at 125 and 250 ppm caused severe suppression of anther dehiscence. the chemical also suppressed anther protrusion and prevented the petal opening. a series of effects were observed in the florets under the influence of the maleic hydrazide over time. one of the primary effects was pollen agglutination. pollen agglutination was first observed on 7 th day to 9 th day after spraying but a clear phase of agglutination started from 10 days after spraying. poor opening of florets and prevention of protrusion of anthers were observed during 10 th to 22 nd day. during this phase, severe agglutination of the pollen was observed (figures) which caused prevention of pollen dispersal (suppression of anther dehiscence). the effect relapsed on 23 rd day after spraying. this phenolmenon was further verified using another test variety swathi. the effect of maleic hydrazide on swathi followed the similar trend as with the case of sadhana (table 4). as early as 1969, tadahiko hirose reported that sodium 2, 2-dichloropropionate caused suppression of anther dehiscence in bell pepper which started about two weeks after treatment. however, there is a paucity of information on effect of gametocides on anther dehiscence of crop plants. rustagi and mohan ram (1971) reported functional male sterility with the use of mendok (sodium 2, 3-dichloroisobutyrate) and dalapon (sodium 2, 5 figure b. suppression of anther dehiscence with the use of maleic hydrazide 125 ppm. figure c. pollen agglutination in anthers affected by maleic hydrazide. figure d. pistil of normal floret (left) and maleic hydrazide affected floret (right). 6 table 4. maleic hydrazide influence on anthesis and anther dehiscence. days after spraying observations on varieties sadhana and swathi 6 th day to 9 th day normal anthesis. normal pollen dehiscence a. 10 th day-22 nd day in sadhana poor opening of petals. anthers do not protrude. b. 10 th day-21 st day in swathi pollen agglutination and suppression of dehiscence. a. 23 rd day in sadhana relapsed to normal anthesis b. 22 nd day in swathi table 5. percentage of fruit set in maleic hyrazide assisted crossing. cross combination percentage fruit set (%) cross combination percentage fruit set (%) sudha x lcc-121 35.0 sadhana x lcc-121 46.0 sudha x lcc-139 42.0 sadhana x lcc-139 38.9 sudha x lcc-143 55.1 sadhana x lcc-143 56.1 sudha x lcc-149 35.3 sadhana x lcc-149 38.9 sudha x lcc-173 41.4 sadhana x lcc-173 32.1 sudha x lcc-163 42.2 sadhana x lcc-163 70.5 sudha x lcc215 43.1 sadhana x lcc-215 58.5 mean 42.0 mean 48.7 standard deviation 6.7 standard deviation 13.5 2-dichloropropionate) at 250, 500 and 1000 ppm in linseed where functional male sterility resulted from lack of anthesis, fusion and nondehiscence of fertile anthers and agglutination of pollen. the results of the present investigation are similar to the rustagi and mohan ram’s report. use of maleic hydrazide in chemical emasculation of coriander in the treatments with repeated spraying of maleic hydrazide, the observations recorded through stereo microscope revealed that the persistence of severe pollen agglutination continued from the first day of anthesis to cessation of flowering in all the treatments. this is significant as the entire flowering phase could be brought under the influence of maleic hydrazide thus forcing pollen agglutination which prevented selfing. bagging of the umbels on treated plants did not result any fruit set further confirming the microscopic observations. in contrast, selfing in untreated female parents was 8.0% in sudha and to 16.1% in sadhana indicating that, without assisted pollination, no fruit set takes place in the umbels of treated plants due to prevention of anther dehiscence. successful crosses with the use of maleic hydrazide fourteen cross combinations were attempted involving two female parents and seven male parents using the maleic hydrazide as chemical emasculation agent which resulted in 42% fruit set involving with female parent sudha and 48.7% fruit set involving female parent sadhana demonstrating the utility of the technology (table 5). the success in obtaining seed of desired parentage through maleic hydrazide assisted crossing revealed that the huge amount of crossed material can be generated in coriander through the use of maleic hydrazide as chemical emasculation agent with relative ease. summary of the findings the present investigation identifies maleic hydrazide as potential male gametocide and an effective alternative for cumbersome hand emasculation in coriander. spraying of maleic hydrazide 100 ppm from 25 das on wards until the cessation of flowering is an effective alternative to cumbersome emasculation in coriander and for quick generation of large quantity of breeding material. references bots m, mariani c (2005). pollen viability in the field. cogem. radboud universiteit nijmegen, netherlands. pp: 14-28. brewbaker jl , kwack bh (1963). the essential role of calcium ion in pollen germination and pollen tube growth. am. j. bot., 50: 747-858. chauhan svs. , vandana singh (2002). detergent induced male sterility and bud pollination in brassica juncea (l.) czern and coss. current sci., 82(8): 918-920. diederichsen a (1996) promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops. 3. coriander (coriandrum sativum l.) pp: 11. gangaprasad s, sreedhar rv, salimath pm, ravikumar rl (2004). 7 induction of male sterility in niger (guizotia abyssinica cass.). new directions for a diverse planet: proceed. of the 4th int. crop sci. congr. brisbane, aust., 26 september 1 oct 2004. garcia torres l, dominguez gimenez j, fernandez martinez j (1979). male sterility and female sterility induced in sunflower with ga3. anales del institute nacional de investigeiones agrarias, production vegetal 9: 147-169. lakshmi praba m, thangaraj m (2005). effect of growth regulators and chemicals on pollen sterility in tgms lines of rice. plant growth regulation 46(2): 117-124. romanenko lg, nevkrytaja nv, kuznecova eju (1991). features of pollination in coriander [in russ.]. sel. semenovod. (moskva) pp. 1617. romanenko lg, nevkrytaja nv , kuznecova eju (1992). self fertility in coriander [in russ.]. sel. semenovod. (moskva) pp: 25-28. rustagi pn, mohan ram hy (1971). evaluation of mendok and dalapon as male gametocides and their effects on growth and yield of linseed new phytologist 70(1): 119-133. salgare sa (2004). evaluation of mh as male gametocide and a new method of plant breeding a critical review. recent trends in biotechnol. 9(2): 263-267. singh ak (1999). male gametocidal effect of synthetic detergent in rice. the ind. j. genet. plant breed 59(3): 371-373. stanley rg, linskens hf (1974). pollen springer-verlag, berlin heidelberg new york. tadahiko hirose 1969 studies of chemical emasculation in pepper. i. suppression of anther dehiscence and other morphological changes caused by sodium 2, 2-dichloropropionate. engei gakkai zasshi. 38(1): 29-35. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 11 (3), pp. 001-006, march, 2023. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper inter-population variation of chromosome and rapd markers of suaeda nudiflora (willd.) moq. a mangrove species in india s. n. jena and a. b. das* cytogenetics laboratory, regional plant resource centre, bhubaneswar 751015, orissa, india. accepted 10 november, 2022 inter-population genetic diversity in suaeda nudiflora, a mangrove, was investigated through rapd and chromosome analysis among five indian populations. somatic chromosome numbers 2n=36 reported for the first time in population (pop) i and pop-ii whereas in pop-iii, 2n=36 and 40 chromosomes. pop-iv showed 2n=54 numbers from high saline environment while pop -v showed 2n=40 chromosomes. 102 rapd bands were polymorphic out of a total 182 amplicons with an average of 3.64 bands per population per primer suggests genetic divergence in inter-population level. the dendogram based on the rapd analysis showed two broad groups suggesting ecotypic adaptability in different saline habitat. the maximum overall relatedness of the popii with rest of four populations was 57% indicated by mean similarity while pop-iv revealed minimum mean similarity of 49% suggesting new cytotypes formation. the probable mechanism of overcoming high salinity stress by maintaining polyploidy (2n=54) is discussed. key words: genetic divergence, genetic polymorphism, rapd markers, somatic chromosome, suaeda nudiflora. introduction mangroves have common needs to adapt to adverse environmental conditions associated with regular seawater inundation, for which individual species have developped different strategies and characteristics (duke et al., 2002). spatial patterns in genetically adaptive traits indicate that some populations survive more successfully under changing environment conditions (dodd and rafii 2002). assessment of the genetic differences between populations of the same species gives a measure of the extent to which such populations are generally isolated from each other, while genetic comparison of different species shows information about the extent of divergence and potentially, when such divergence took place (hogarth 1999). the extent of genetic difference among different populations is an important measure of the diversity of that area. therefore, there is an obvious lack *corresponding author’s. e-mail: a_b_das@hotmail.com. 1 present address: conservation biology & molecular taxonomy, national botanical research institute, lucknow, india. of knowledge concerning the genetic characteristics within and between populations of mangrove species as well as genetic relationship in mangrove ecosystems. suaeda nudiflora, a tropical halophytic grass that tolerates high temperature, generally found on the moist soil of river sea side ward fringe which always remain waterlogged with high and low tides. the plant species in the mangrove forests are constantly under environmental stress due to high saline conditions, extreme temperature and high salt deposition on the mud flat, therefore have adapted themselves to these frequent and fluctuating changes. s. nudiflora is dioecious with no vegetative propagation. moreover, it is insect-pollinated; gene flow is expected to decrease considerably with distance. this unique plant, which has a versatile form with branches spreading on the soil surface, has a high food value for people along the coastal belt. however, under altered ecological and physical conditions in mangrove ecosystem, discernible changes were reported in genetic constitution of s. nudiflora (tomlinson 1986, jena et al., 2002) besides its morphology. until recently, with exception of occasional reports on somatic chromosome analysis (jena et al., 2002) most of the studies that investigate s. 2 table 1. genotypes of s. nudiflora from different populations of bhitarkanika mangrove forest, orissa, india, with their physical characteristics and chromosome number. population source of collection physical characteristics chromosome soil ph salinity (ppt) soil type number (2n) pop-i hansina bhitargada 6.4-6.9 3-16 clayey/fine sand 36 pop-ii chitta kolha rajnagar 6.3-7.0 5-18 fine silt/clay 36 pop-iii dangamal righagarh 6.8-7.5 7-20 clayey, compact 40,36 pop-iv gupti 6.9-7.8 10-23 sandy and clayey 54 pop-v talchua 6.7-7.6 6-21 dark-clay soil 40 nudiflora used morphological characteristics of mangroves. molecular markers, unlike morphological markers, are stable and have been found to be very useful in population studies (aitkin et al., 1994) they have been used to quantify accurately the extent of genetic diversity within and between population (chalmers et al., 1992, waugh and powell 1992). the application of these markers in assessing intra-specific variation in mangrove species have been recently studied (parani et al., 1997, lakshmi et al., 1997). among the various dna marker systems, rapds have been used extensively for a variety of purposes, including population studies (powell 1992). it, in particular, has found widespread application due to their technical simplicity and the availability of large numbers of arbitrary primers that saturate the genome. in this study, five populations from different ecotypes of s. nudiflora growing in bhitarkanika forest in india were genetically investigated. to examine the level of genetic variation of their diversity, chromosome analysis and rapd markers were used. to our knowledge, this is the first genetic investigation done on s. nudiflora materials and methods plant material five different populations (thirty individuals per populations) of suaeda nudiflora (willd) moq. were collected from bhitarkaniaka mangrove forest of eastern coast of india (latitude and longitude of 20 0 40'n, 86 0 52'e) for the present study. bhitarkanika is a single compact patch of estuarine forest in orissa about 192.9 sq. km and is the second largest compact patch after sundarbans of west bengal in main land of india that is crossed by countless creeks, rivers and waterways. the physical characteristics of the study sites are given in table 1. from each study site, root tips and young leaves were collected for chromosome and dna isolation respectively. roots were fixed and preserved in 70% ethanol for further investigation and young leaves were stored in a –85 0 c. chromosome preparation root tips were collected in the field and put in 0.05m oxiquoline solution and left at room temperature for 3 hrs and subsequently fixed in 1:3 ratio (acetic acid : ethanol) for over night then soaked in 45% acetic acid for 20 min stained in 2% acetic-orcine:1nhcl (9:1) for over night. a minimum of 10 roots from different plant/ population were squashed in 45% acetic acid and observed under microscope for chromosome count and photography. isolation of dna 5 g of young leaf tissue was ground under liquid nitrogen and suspended in 20 ml of ctab buffer (2% cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, 100 mm tris-hcl, ph 8.0, 20 mm edta, 1.4 m nacl and 1% -mercaptoethanol). the suspension was incubated at 60 0 c for 30 min. the dna was extracted in chloroformisoamyl alcohol (49:1) and centrifuged at 5000 g for 20 min. the aqueous phase was taken up and dna was precipitated with two volumes of chilled ethanol. the dna was hooked out and dried with vacuum concentrator and a trace amount of te buffer (10 mm tris-hcl + 1mm edta, ph 8.0) was added to dissolve the dna. the dna again purified then treated with rnase at 37 o c for 1h followed by chloroform: isoamyl alcohol extraction and ethanol precipitation in the presence of 0.3 m sodium acetate (ph 5.2). the dna was spooled out, washed in 70% ethanol, air dried and dissolved in te buffer. dna concentration was estimated using versafluor tm fluorometer (bio-rad, usa) using hoechst 33258 as the flurometric dye. the dna was diluted to final concentration of 25ng l -1 using te buffer and used as template dna for rapd analysis. leaves were collected and bulked from different plants for each population and replicated three times for dna isolation. pcr-rapd analysis rapd profiles were generated by using single decamer random oligonucleotide primers (operon technologies, alameda, usa) in polymerase chain reaction (pcr) following the standard protocol of williams et al. (1990). primer sequence is shown in table 2. amplification reaction mixture of 25 l for each polymerase chain reaction (pcr) contained 25 ng of genomic template dna, 200m of each dntp, 25ng of primer, 0.5 unit of taq dna polymerase (bangalore genei pvt. ltd., bangalore, india) and 10x pcr assay buffer (50 mm kcl, 10 mm tris-hcl, 1.5 mm mgcl2, ph 9.0). the reaction mixture was carried out in a gene amppcr 2400 thermal cycler (perkin elmer, usa) in the following temperature cycles: holding at 94 0 c for 5 min at start, followed by 44 cycles of 92 0 c for 1 min, 40 0 c for 1 min and 72 0 c for 2 min and a final additional extension at 72 0 c for 15 min. pcrproducts were stored at 4 0 c and electrophoretically separated in 1.5% agarose gel in 1×tae buffer and visualized by ehidium bromide staining. to determine the size of the polymorphic fragments, gene ruler 100 bp dna ladder plus (mbi fermantas, lithuania) was used as size standard. the gel was visualized under uv light and photographed for documentation. rapd data scoring and analysis in rapd analysis, the presence or absence of the bands was taken into consideration and the difference in the intensity of the band was ignored. for all populations, bands on rapd gels were scored as (1) when present or (0) when absent. jaccard’s similarity coefficient values (jaccard, 1998) were calculated for each pair wise comparison between genotypes and similarity matrix was constru 3 table 2. rapd primers, their nucleotide sequence and number of rapd bands generated from five different populations of s. nudiflora of bhitarkaniaka primer primer sequence total no. pop-i pop-ii pop-iii pop-iv pop-v (5'--3') of band p u p u p u p u p u 1. opa-05 aggggtcttg 16 2 0 3 0 3 0 2 0 1 0 2. opa-08 gtcacgtagg 22 1 2 1 0 2 0 2 1 2 1 3. opa-11 caatcgccgt 19 0 0 0 0 3 1 2 0 2 1 4. opa-14 tctgtgctgg 17 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 5. opd-02 ggacccaacc 13 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 1 6. opd-08 gtgtccccca 27 2 0 3 0 2 0 4 2 4 0 7. opd-12 caccgtatcc 15 3 0 2 0 2 1 1 0 1 0 8. opn-04 gaccgaccca 24 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 4 0 9. opn-11 tcgccgcaaa 14 2 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 1 0 10.opn-15 cagcgactgt 15 1 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 2 0 pop-popualation, p-number of polymorphic band, u-number of unique band. figure 1a-1c. somatic chromosome numbers in different population of s. nudiflora collected from bhitarkanika mangrove forest of orissa. somatic cell of pop-i showing 2n=36 (1a) collected from hansia bhatighar having salinity 3-16 ppm, pop-v showing 2n=40 (1b) chromosomes collected from talchua area having salinity 7-20ppm, pop-iv with 2n=54 (1c.) collected from gupti with salinity 10-23 ppm. 4 ted. this matrix was subjected to unweighted pair group method for arithmetic average analysis (upgma) to generate a dendrogram using average linkage procedure. ntsys-pc software (rohlf, 1993) was used for analysis. result chromosome analysis somatic chromosomes that were counted from all the collected populations from different saline zones showed very interesting results. the only population (pop-iv) grown in gupti having high salinity showed 2n=54 chromosomes (table 1). the other two pop-i and pop-ii showed 2n=36 chromosomes and the rest pop-iii showed 2n=36 mixed with 2n=40 chromosomes (table 1, figures 1ac). however, the cells bearing 36 chromo-somes are not statistically significant. we attempted meiotic study in these population for better understanding of chromosome pairing behavior and natural ploidy form-ation were unsuccessful because of its very short dura-tion of metaphase period in the field condition. rapd analysis the number of amplification products ranged from 13 to 25 for different populations and polymorphism ranged between 48% to 61%. a total of 182 amplification products were observed out of which 102 (56%) were polymorphic. rapd profiles of five populations shared a number of common bands for all primers. the average number of amplification product obtained with one primer was 18.2% and 56.04% of the products were polymorphhic. population specific polymorphic bands varied from 25 in pop-iii and pop-v to 13 in pop-ii (table 2). where as percentage of polymorphism ranged from 48.38% in pop i to 52% in pop-ii and 55.55% in pop-v to 60%-97% in pop-iv. rapd profile of five populations showed variations in banding pattern when amplified by opa-08, opa11, opa-14 and opn-04 separately (figures 2a-c). in opa-08, two dna markers of 1344bp and 709bp were found to be unique to pop-v in contrast to 453bp and 450bp unique bands to pop-i while 1000bp and 340bp dna fragments were observed in pop-iv and pop-v respectively. dna marker with 2410bp was found a unique band to pop-v while 1000bp dna band was unique to pop-iii in opa-11. for the primer, two dna bands of 820bp and 330bp in pop-iii and pop-v were also noted. the dna bands with 1420bp were found as marker band in pop-iii, pop-iv, and pop-v whereas dna band of 1120bp was found as marker in pop-iii and popiv. dna fragment, having 910bp was a good marker which was not only present in pop-iv using opa-14 primer while 300bp dna fragment was unique to pop-iv. in addition, in pop-iv showed two marker bands figure 2. rapd amplification profiles of five populations of s. nudiflora using opa-8 & opa-11(a), opd-8 (b) and opn-4 (c) and marker dna (m) gene ruler 100bp dna ladder plus (mbi fermantas, lithuania) from left to right showing major marker rapd fragments i.e. 450bp in pop-i, 300bp and 1000bp in pop-iii and 1344bp in pop-v amplified by opa-8 primers (arrow heads). opa-11 primer produced marker bands of 330bp, 2134bp and 2410bp in pop-ii, pop-i and pop-v respectively. opd-8 primers showed 850bp and 976b in pop-i, 630, 980, 2400 bp in pop-iv and opn-4 amplified 1064bp, 1300bp, 1730bp in pop-iii and 1820 bp in pop-iv (arrow heads). of 630bp and 908bp in opd-08 primer. in the same primer, 2000bp, 1650bp and 1200bp dna fragment were found markers bands in pop-iv and pop-v while dna marker of 976bp was found in pop-i and pop-ii in contrast to 1233bp dna marker in pop-i, pop-ii and pop iii. with opn-04 primer, 1300bp and 1064bp dna bands were found as marker to pop-iii and pop-v whereas 2200bp dna fragment was found to only pop-iv and pop-v. three populations (pop-iii, pop-iv, pop-v) had a common dna marker band of 1730bp. the maximum genotype-specific polymorphism (62.56%) was found in pop-v followed by pop-iii (50%) and pop-iv (37.5%) while in pop-ii and pop-i there was the minimum number of polymorphic bands (4 and 6 respectively). the genetic distance was maximum between pop-i and pop-iv (table 3). cluster analysis pair wise comparisons were made for the rapd profiles obtained through the use of 10 random primers in the representative samples of all five genotypes of different populations of bhitarakanika. the dna characteristics of 5 table 3. genetic distance between the investigated population of s. nudiflora using rapd analysis. pop-i pop –ii popiii pop-iv pop-v popi 100 popii 16.6 100 popiii 50.0 42.4 100 popiv 63.4 57.2 46.9 100 popv 61.3 55.2 35.5 38.8 100 all the populations of s. nudiflora showed a single tree with major two branches. pop-i and pop-ii clustered together with a similarity coefficient of 0.83 and made one branch of the tree while the rest three population formed the other branch of the tree where pop-iii and pop-v are sister group. among these three population, pop-iii and pop-v showed a closer affinity with 64% of similarity while the pop-iv showed a very less close similarity with pop-iii (53%) and pop-v (61%). the highest value of mean similarity coefficient 0.57 was found in pop-ii, followed by pop-iii (0.56). the lowest value of mean similarity coefficient was recorded for the genotype collected from pop-iv. discussion a dna based diagnostic assay like rapd is able to identify genotypes directly and can therefore help mitigate complications arising from earlier cytological and morphological studies. the utility of combined previous cytogenetics studies (jena et al., 2002) and rapd markers in resolving phylogenetic patterns in s. nudiflora is clade 1 clade 2 figure 3. upmga phenogram of five populations of suaeda nudiflora from five different habitats of bhitarkanika mangrove forest of orissa, india. clearly demonstrable. rapid genetic differentiation is likely among population groups with divergent chromosomes . between adjacent geographically defined cytotypes of s. nudiflora, there was a significant polymorphism. remarkably high individual gene diversity has been observed between populations as evedinced by chromosome records in different populations of s. nudiflora (figures 1a-c). since 1930, investigators have tried to associate the numerical chromosome variation found in plants with the environment and to relate the different cytotypes occupying different niches in terms of temperature, luminosity, humidity etc. (bennet 1987). intra-specific chromosome variation was extensive and informative to conservation biologists. although we have assumed earlier the existence of different cytotypes of this species (jena et al., 2002), it has been now better understood with chromosomal and rapd data. rapd data support the existence to defined cytotypes for adaptation of differrent populations at various environmental conditions. gene diversity between populations was more prominent in the gel figures, where each genotype from each population has been amplified with the same primer. in addition to population, cytogenetic data and rapd data at inter-population levels have proved to be extremely instructive in developing a better understanding of divergence. in particular, there are highlighted distinct populations and local groups within same species, which are not only genetically distinct but are confined to geographically restricted and unique plant communities. in the present study we showed the variability of the rapd banding pattern in s.nudiflora, which was evident by chromosome number, although morphologically they are not distinguishable. our findings confirm genetic divergence among populations belonging to different biological units. such molecular techniques are useful even to delimit species, especially morphologically similar taxa. ecological (habitat) comparison is also powerful method to recognize different biological units with similar morphology, especially when they are sympatrically distributed. the observed inter-population divergence for populations with different geo-location could be attributed to the adaptability with the fluctuating micro-climatic conditions with different degrees of temperature, light tolerance, and salinity gradient (dawson et al., 1993). upgma dendogram (figure 3) shows too clear clades, where pop-iii, pop-v and pop-iv are grouped together (clade1), whereas pop-i and pop-ii are grouped in clade 2. among populations, genetic variations are relatively high suggesting that the populations are largely isolated from each other with gene flow. local selection and restricted gene flow between the genotypes has been contributed more to the limited genetic variability of this species. thus, it seems likely that fragmentary process will accelerate in this species, which appear to be an inherently slow group to respond in an evolutionary sense. since the genotypes were physically isolated, the genetic content of the individuals that originally colonized the locations might be one of the causes of divergence. in conclusion, it is observed that though s. nudiflora does not show significant morphological variations, the present investigation using both chromosomal data and 6 molecular markers reveals that substantial inter-population variation does exist that confirm the existence of cytotypes and genotypes for better adaptation of this species in ecotype level in different magnitude of adverse condition in bhitarakanika mangrove forest, orissa, india. acknowledgement the authors are very much grateful to prof. j. dolezel, head, molecular cytogenetis and cytometry laboratory, institute of experimental botany,national academy of science in czech republic, olomouc, czech republic for his careful editing and valuable suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript. we are grateful to the director, institute of physics, bhubaneswar, dst, govt. of india for providing liquid nitrogen free of cost. we would like to acknowledge the ministry of environment, government of india for the financial support [grant no. 3/7/2000-cs (m)] to carry out this work. references aitkin sa, tinker na, mather de, fortin mg (1994). a method for detecting dna polymorphism in large populations. genome 37: 507508. bennet md (1987). variation in genomic form in plants and its ecological implications. new phytologist 106(suppl.): 177-200. chalmers kj, waugh r, sprent ji, simons aj, powell w (1992). detection of genetic variation between and within populations of gliricidia sepium and g. maculata using rapd markers. heridity 69: 465-472. dawson ik, chalmers kj, waugh r, powell w (1993). detection and analysis of genetic variation in hordeum spontaneum population from israel using rapd markers. mol. ecol. 3: 151-159. dodd rs, rafii za (2002). evolutionary genetics of mangroves: continental drift to recent climate change. trees-structure and function 16(2-3): 80-86. duke nc, lo eyy, sun m (2002). global distribution and genetic discontinuities of mangroves-emerging patterns in the evolution of rhizophora, trees structure and function. 16(2-3): 65-79. hogarth pj (1999). the biology of mangroves. oxford university press, new york.pp. pp 163-165 jaccard p (1998). nouvelles researches sur la distribution forale. bull. soc. sci. nat 44: 223-270. jena s, sahoo p, mohanty s, das ab, das p (2002). karyotype variation and cytophotometric estimation of in situ dna content in some minor and associate mangroves of india. cytologia 67:15-24. lakshmi m, rajalakshmi s, parani m, anuratha cs, parida a (1997). molecular phylogeny of mangroves i: use of molecular markers in assessing the genetic variability in the mangrove species acanthus ilicifolius linn.( acanthaceae) theoretical applied genetics 94: 11211127. parani m, lakshmi m, elango s, ram n, anuratha cs, parida a (1997). molecular phylogeny of mangroves: ii inter and intra specific variation in avicennia revealed by rapd and rflp markers. genome 40: 487-495. powell w (1992). plant genomes, gene markers and linkage maps. in: moss jp (ed) biotechnology and crop improvement in asia. icrisat, india. pp. 297-322. rohlf fj (1993). ntsys-pc. numerical taxonomy and multivariate analysis system version i. 80-setauket, ny, exeter software. tomlinson pb (1986). the botany of mangroves. cambridge university press,cambridge. pp.186-207. waugh r, powell w (1992). using rapd markers for crop improvement. trends in biotechnol. 10: 186-191. willams jgk, kulelik ar, liver j, rafalski a, tingey sv (1990). dna polymorphism identification by arbitrary primers are useful as genetic markers. nucleic acids res. 18: 6531-653. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 11 (1), pp. 001-006, january, 2023. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper genetic diversity analysis of iranian citrus varieties using micro satellite (ssr) based markers m. jannati1, r. fotouhi1, a. pourjan abad2* and zivar salehi3 1 department of horticulture, faculty of agricultural sciences, university of guilan, rasht, iran. 2 agric-natural research center of yazd, genomics laboratory, yazd, iran. 3 department of biology, faculty of sciences, university of guilan, rasht, iran. accepted 8 june, 2022 fifteen ssr primer pairs were used to estimate the level of polymorphism among 23 citrus genotypes and four natural hybrids or bud mutation was selected from kotra germplasm bank (iran) . all fifteen loci assayed in citrus plant possessed a high level of polymorphism, with the number of alleles per locus ranging from 4 in taa41 to 12 at cat01, atc09, ag14 ( an average, 8.27 alleles were detected per locus ). cluster analysis with ssr markers resulted in 2 cluster groups: group a: yuzo and poncirus. group b: there are three separate subgroups within group b; (i) genus fortunella sp (ii) mandarin subgroup: citrus reticulate (citrus clemantin), citrus sinensis (pineapple, washington navel), natural types (siahvaraz, shalmahaleh, moallemkoh and kotra 4 hybrids) and (iii) citrus limon (amol lemon pear, eureka, rough lemon), citrus aurantifolia, citrus aurantium, citrus medica and citrus grandis. microsatellite analysis clustered citron and sour orange cv cluster but these taxa were quiet distant from fortunella sp. key words: citrus, microsatellite, phylogeny, polymorphism, germplasm bank, genetic diversity. introduction citrus plants are cultivated in the north and south of iran. little is known about the genetic variability of iranian cultivated citrus germplasm collection. microsatellite or ssr (simple sequence repeat) markers are co-dominant, multiallelic, highly polymorphic genetic markers and appropriate for genetic diversity studies. citrus cultivated since ancient times in its centre of origin in south eastern asia, citrus production has spread over the centuries into most areas that have a suitable climate (webber et al., 1967) . today citrus is one of the most widely cultivated fruit in the world, and most major production areas are far removed from the original areas. different citrus species widely grown in more than 50 countries in the world. world production is increasing and has reached 70 million tones, according to fao (orford et al., 1995). citrus taxonomy and phylogeny, however, are very complicated, controversial and confusing, mainly due to *corresponding author. e-mail: ali1360405@gmail.com. tel: +98 351 8249901. fax: +98 3518247439 sexual compatibility between citrus and related genera, the high frequency of bud mutations and the long history of cultivation and wide dispersion. citrus varieties show diversity in their morphological traits such as size and shape of canopy, color, size, type and ripening season of the fruits and the number of seeds per fruit (orford et al., 1995). in the past, studies on relationships between genera and species were carried out based mainly on morphological and characteristics. numerous classification systems have been formulated, among which those of swingle (1943) and tanaka (1977) have been the most widely accepted. even these two researchers, however, have quite different concepts with respect to species classification, as swingle included only 16 species in citrus while tanaka described 162. later phylogenetic analysis by scora (1975) and barrett and rhodes (1976) suggested that there were only 3 true species within the cultivated citrus, that is, citron (citrus medica l.), mandarin (c. reticulata blanco) and pummelo [c. grandis (l.) osb.] (in 1988 scora added another true species: c. halimii stone). in addition, other genotypes were derived from hybridization between these true species (scora, 1988). more recently, biochemical data (potvin et al., 2 table 1. cultivars, species, natural hybrids and bud mutation used in this study. type of cultivar common name genus and species natural hybrid or bud mutation yuzo citrus junos sieb trifoliate orange poncirus trifoliata kumquat fortunella sp. clemantin citrus reticulata blanco satsuma mandarin citrus unshiu marcovich king or sweet orange citrus nobilis pineapple orange citrus sinensis (l.) osbeck washington navel orange citrus sinensis siahvaraz citrus sinensis bud mutation moallemkoh citrus sinensis bud mutation kotra 2 4 natural hybrid kotra 1 4 natural hybrid shalmahaleh natural hybrid mexican lime citrus aurantifolia sweet lime citrus aurantifolia (l.) sour orange citrus aurantium (l.) amol lemon-pear near to citrus limon bud mutation or natural hybrid citrus king (pumelo) citrus grandis (l.) osb cluster lemon citrus limon burn.f rough lemon citrus limon burn.f eureka lemon citrus limon etrag citron citrus medica (l.) nova near to citrus reticulata complex hybrid of mandarin 1983), protein electrophoresis (handa et al., 1986), isozymes (torres et al., 1978; fang et al., 1993; herrero et al., 1996), microsatellites (kijas et al., 1995), organeller genome analysis (green et al., 1986; yamamoto et al., 1993) and (fang et al., 1997; fang et al., 1998) have been used to examine relationships among citrus taxa. microsatellites, or simple sequence repeats (ssrs), are short sequence elements composed of tandem repeat units one to seven base pairs (bp) in length (tautz, 1989). these repeats sequences have been shown to be highly polymorphic within and between species, a property that has permitted their application as molecular markers in population genetics (goldstein et al., 1999), systematics (goldstein and pollock, 1997), and genome mapping (weissenbach et al., 1992). microsatellites are present in high numbers in mammals and in plant genomes too, but appear to be less abundant than in mammalian or insect systems (van treuren et al., 1997). thomas et al., 1994 distinguished 20 grapevines varieties by using four microsatellite loci. they proposed the use of microsatellites for establishing an international database for description of grapevine varieties, based on its high level of polymorphism, codominance, simplicity of analysis and repeatability (thomas et al., 1994). little is known about the genetic variability of the iranian citrus germplasm collections. we investigated the phylogenetic relationships among 23 citrus plants of the kotra germplasm bank (iran) and studied the origin of some important citrus species of this collection, using microsatellites markers. materials and methods plant materials and dna isolation in this study, 23 cultivars, species, natural hybrids or bud mutations were used (table 1), which held at germplasm collection of kotra (iran) . from each accession, 50 mg of young expanding leaves were collected and stored at -80°c before dna isolation. genomic dna was isolated from leaf samples in accordance with the ctab (hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) method described by doyle and doyle (1987). dna was quantified by comparing it with lambda dna (promega corporation, madison, wis) on ethidium bromide stained agarose gels. pcrs and electrophoresis fifteen primer pairs (taa15, taa27, taa41 cac23, cac15, cac33, cac39, cct01, cat01, atc09, ag14, ctt01, ct21, tc26 and ct19) (mwg biothec, germany) were used in this 3 table 2. ssr loci characterization, size of amplified fragments; primer pairs repeat motifs and total number of alleles. locus code repeat forward primer reverse primer alleles size range (bp) taa15 taa gaaagggttacttgaccaggc cttcccagctgcacaagc 5 123 130 taa27 taa ggatgaaaaatgctcaaaatg tagtacccacagggaagagagc 10 158 230 taa41 taa aatgctgaagataatccgcg tgccttgctctccactcc 4 242 265 cac23 cac atcacaattactagcagcgcc ttgccattgtagcatgttgg 6 105 135 cac15 cac taaatctccactctgcaaaagc gataggaagcgtcgtagaccc 10 135 190 cac33 cac ggtgatgctgctactgatgc caattgtgaatttgtgattccg 8 77 109 cac39 cac agaagccatctcttctgctgc aattcagtcccattccattcc 6 120 165 cct01 cct tcaacacctcgaacagaagg cccacatgctagcacaaaga 8 93 119 cat01 cat gctttcgatccctccacata gatccctacaatccttggtcc 12 138 172 atc09 atc ttccttatgtaattgctctttg tgtgagtgtttgtgcgtgtg 12 130 210 ag14 ag aaagggaaagccctaatctca cttcctcttgcggagtgttc 12 110 172 ctt01 ctt tcagacattgagttgctcg taaccacttaggcttcggca 7 226 -252 ct21 ct cgaactcattaaaagccgaaac caacaaccaccactctcacg 8 130 170 tc26 tc cttcctcttgcggagtgttc gagggaaagccctaatctca 7 93 119 ct19 ct cgccaagcttaccactcactac gccacgatttgtaggggatag 9 175 205 a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516 171819 20212223 figure 1. microsatellite polymorphism (locus cac15) a is size marker. lane 1 = yuzu; lane 2 = rough lemon; lane 3 = clemantin; 4 = etrag citron; 5 = sour orange; 6 = satsuma mandarin; 7 = kumquat; 8 = amol lemon-pear; 9 = siahvaraz; 10 = cluster lemon; 11 = trifoliate orange; 12 = pinapple orange; 13 = citrus king (pumelo); 14 = washington navel orange; 15 = eureka lemon; 16 = sweet lime; 17 =cluster sour orange; 18 = moallemkoh; 19 = shalmahaleh; 20 = kotra 2-4; 21 = nova; 22 = kotra 1-4; 23 = mexican lime. research (table 2). pcrs were performed in a final volume of 10 l, containing the following: 20 mmol tris–hcl/l (ph 8.4); 50 mmol kcl/l; 1.5, 2.5, or 5 mmol mgcl2/l, depending on the primers; 0.1 mmol/l of each dntp (deoxynucleoside triphosphate); 0.8 mol/l of each primer; 20 ng of genomic dna; and 1 u taq polymerase (invitrogen, carlsbad, calif). the following temperature profile was used: 95°c for 1 min, then 35 cycles of 94°c for 45 s, 45 – 63°c for 45 s and 72°c for 75 s), ending with 72°c for 7 min (progene; techne, cambridge, uk). pcr products were separated by electrophoresis in 6% acrylamide gels, stained with ethidium bromide (0.8 g/ml), using 1× tbe (89 mmol tris/l, 89 mmol boric acid/l and 2 mmol edta/l (ph 8.0) buffer and visualized under ultra-violet light. molecular sizes of the amplified fragments were estimated using a 100-bp ladder (invitrogen) (soriano et al., 2005) (figure 1). pic (polymorphism information content) value in order to determine the informativeness of the microsatellites, the pic values were calculated. pic value was calculated according to the formula: pic = 1-p 2 ij polymorphism analysis for a single locus, the presence of amplified fragments was scored as 0.5 if the individual was heterozygous, 1 if it was homozygous, and 0 if the allele was not present. according to these observations, 4 table 3. pic value of different iranian citrus germplasm. pic * ssr natural hybrids grape fruit lemons mandarins citrus mean pic taa15 0.69 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.65 taa27 0.62 0.75 0.76 0.72 0.72 0.85 taa41 0.0 0.81 0.48 0.55 0.50 0.52 cac23 0.0 0.38 0.58 0.56 0.0 0.71 cac15 0.72 0.63 0.85 0.83 0.72 0.86 cac33 0.65 0.61 0.68 0.54 0.52 0.78 cac39 0.67 0.50 0.50 0.69 0.50 0.72 cct01 0.69 0.62 0.61 0.52 0.41 0.75 cat01 0.85 0.81 0.80 0.87 0.27 0.89 atc09 0.67 0.63 0.69 0.53 0.50 0.76 ag14 0.59 0.38 0.85 0.67 0.0 0.87 ctt01 0.58 0.53 0.56 0.68 0.53 0.74 ct21 0.81 0.75 0.78 0.67 0.50 0.73 tc26 0.89 0.50 0.82 0.67 0.0 0.83 ct19 0.71 0.76 0.78 0.59 0.48 0.79 mean pic 0.64 0.61 0.68 0.63 0.41 *polymorphic information content. a similarity matrix was generated using the nei’s genetic distance (nei, 1972). similarity data were processed through the unweighted pair-group method (upgma) cluster analysis conducted using ntsys program (exeter software, setauket, n.y.) (rohlf, 1993), program, applying the jaccard (1908) and dice (sneath and sokal, 1973) coefficients. the goodness of fit measured by the cophenetic correlation unweighted pair-group method, arithmetic average (upgma) cluster analysis and finally depicted in a dendrogram (figure 1). results microsatellite polymorphism and accession variability microsatellites analysis clustered citron and sour orange cv cluster but these taxa were quiet distant from fortunella sp. the present study showed the utility of microsatellite markers for the detection of polymorphisms among the iranian citrus germplasm. the identification of similarity group could be useful for the selection of parental plants to be used in the breeding programs. all fifteen loci assayed in citrus plant possessed a high level of polymorphism, with the number of alleles per locus ranging from 4 in taa41 to 12 at cat01, atc09, ag14 (an average, 8.27 alleles were detected per locus). where pij is the frequency of the jth microsatellite allele for loci. this value is referred to as heterozygosity and gene diversity (weir 1990, anderson et al, 1993). the most highly polymorphic loci were: cat01 (12 alleles, pic=0.89), ag14 (12 alleles, pic = 0.87), taa27 (10 alleles, pic = 0.85) (table 3). cluster analysis upgma cluster analysis of the similarity matrix obtained from 23 ssr alleles (nei 1972) resulted in a dendrogram of genetic relationships that grouped cultivars in agreement with their geographic origins and pedigrees (figure 2), producing 2 main clusters. the first cluster included yuzo and poncirus . the second cluster was subdivided into 3 sub-clusters (i) genus fortunella sp (ii) mandarin subgroup: citrus reticulate (citrus clemantin), citrus sinensis (pineapple, washington navel), natural types (siahvaraz, shalmahaleh, moallemkoh and kotra 4 hybrids) and (iii) citrus limon (amol lemon-pear, eureka, rough lemon), citrus aurantifolia, citrus aurantium, citrus medica and citrus grandis. microsatellite analysis clustered citron and sour orange cv cluster but these taxa were quiet distant from fortunella sp. discussion the transportability of the microsatellites among species belonging to different genera or even families has been previously reported (dirlewanger et al., 2002). in our work microsatellite markers were used to study genetic diversity in 23 citrus plants of the kotra germplasm collection, iran (yuzo, rough lemon, clemantin, etrag citron, sour orange, satsuma mandarin, kumquat, 5 figure 2. dendrogram of the 23 citrus cultivars included in this study generated by unweighted pair-group method (upgma) cluster analysis from the similarity matrix obtained using nei’s (1972) genetic distance. amol lemon-pear, siahvaraz; ,cluster lemon, trifoliate orange, pineapple orange, citrus king (pumelo), washington navel orange, eureka lemon, sweet lime, moallemkoh, shalmahaleh, kotra 2 4, nova, kotra 1 4, kumquate, mexican lime and sour orange var. cluster). according to wang et al. (1994), in plant nuclear dna the dinucleotides sequence (at)n is the most abundant, followed by (a)n/(t)n and (ag)n/(ct)n. in our experiments, cat01, atc09, ag14 gave excellent fingerprint patterns, suggesting that these repeats are abundant in citrus plants. in the study of gulsen and roose (2001) cpdna indicated that fortunella sp had totally different microsatellite patterns from the other taxa analysed. although fortunella is well differentiated from citrus on the basis of detailed morphological studies, apparently there has not been the same level of divergence at the molecular level. our experiments indicated that the genus citrus is quiet distant from the related genus poncirus. kotra 1 4 and kotra 2 4 probably originated as nucellar seedling from the same tree. siahvaraz has a much similarity to washington navel orange and probably originated from bud mutation. shalmahaleh is a natural hybrid and has a greater similarity to nova. moallemkoh has a similarity to washington navel orange and siahvaraz and is probably hybrid between them or as a bud mutation. shalmahaleh, nova, etrag citron and citrus king (pumelo) are very similar and shalmahaleh is apparently as a hybrid origin, most probably of nova and etrag citron or nova and citrus king (pumelo). amol lemon -pear is probably derived from hybridization between rough lemon and citrus king and has a similarity to them. the percentage of pic (polymorphic information content) in lemon, mandarin, grapefruit, natural hybrid and sweet orange were 0.68, 0.63, 0.61, 0.64, 0.41 as observed by novelli et al. 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ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 8 (4), pp. 001-007, april, 2020. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper prediction of added value of agricultural subsections using artificial neural networks: boxjenkins and holt-winters methods elham kahforoushan1*, masoumeh zarif1 and ebrahim badali mashahir2 1 department of agricultural economics, faculty of agricultural engineering, university of zabol, zabol, iran. 2 tarh ab araz consulting engineers company, iran. accepted 11 january, 2020 added value of agricultural sub sectors is affected by many factors such as quantity production per agricultural sub sectors and selling price of producers and is related to some factors such as government investment and monetary and financial policies. this study examines the performance of artificial neural network, box-jenkins and holt-winters-no-seasonal models in forecasting added value of agricultural sub sectors in iran. it compares error criterions for determining the best model. results showed that box-jenkins and artificial neural network are appropriate and artificial neural network indicated good result relatively in learn stage, but box-jenkins model gave better results in forecasting of unseen data. holt-winters model had the lowest mean absolute percent error in both of model fitting and model validation stages. key words: artificial neural network, box-jenkins, holt-winters, added value of agricultural sub sectors. introduction agricultural sector is regarded as one of the most important economical parts of iran. it holds a special position considering production, employment, food security, foreign exchanges and relative advantages and plays a key role in economical development process. added value of agricultural section includes added value of each of agronomy, animal husbandry, fishery and forestry subsections. the percentage portion of added value of agricultural section is about 13% in combination of national economy (database of central bank of iran). determining added value in agricultural section is considered as one of the necessities of econo-mical calculations which is required for different decision makings and specifying important policies in investment, employment, income and principally development planning and the likes and also in the evaluation of fiveyear program for agricultural development. so it is calculated to satisfy above mentioned requirements through study of amount of production of agricultural *corresponding author. e-mail: e_kahforoushan@yahoo.com. fax: +984115248613. subsections, sale prices of producers of agricultural section, gross value of products of each of agricultural subsections, middleman costs of each of subsections, added value of each of subsections and finally added value of all of agricultural section at constant and current costs. several studies refer to relations between state investment and added value and also long-term relations between fiscal and monetary policies and added value of agricultural section. having exact information from future events is necessary for appropriate short and long-term planning on added value since choosing appropriate policies is required for formation of agricultural section as an effective section in economical development. nowadays, prediction of future events has attracted attention of researchers in different aspects and a variety of methods has been innovated, among them, we can refer to nonregression methods such as simple average, moving average, exponential adjustment and regression methods including garch, arch, arima and artificial neural network methods (najafi and tarazkar, 2006). added value of agricultural subsections has been forecasted through using three holt-winters, arima and artificial neural network methods at this study, aim of which is file:///c:\users\user\documents\republication\agricultural%20sciences\appdata\local\temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org which is comparing accuracy of these methods with error criteria. background several studies have been done on different economic variables alongside many predictions, and different methods have been used in each of them with different outcomes resulting. we refer to some samples in order to compare and have a more complete understanding of the subject. henry et al. (2007) compared efficiency of artificial neural network with seasonal holt-winters and arima models for prediction of rice exporting of thailand and concluded that holt-winters model is an appropriate and satisfactory one in prediction of rice monthly export at modeling stage. but they weakly performed in prediction of future unspecified amounts. in contrast, ann demonstrated the seasonal and nonlinear effects relatively well. deetae (1991) applied analysis and box-jenkins methods for evaluation of rice price in the farm and the efficiency of box-jenkins model became obvious. kerdsomboon (1999) used preliminary statistic prediction models in order to study rice production and demonstrated the better performance of box-jenkins method. sangpattaranate (2005) applied four additive holt-winters's prediction techniques, boxjenkins and regression analysis for thailand rice prices and made it clear that despite of relatively well performance of analysis model, the box-jenkins model was the best. baki billah et al (2006), in a study under title of choosing exponential smoothing model for prediction, introduced mape criterion as an appropriate method for model choosing at model evaluation stage. the method with procedure is appropriate for annual data and seasonal method is appropriate for time series less than annual from among three single exponential smoothing, with time and seasonal procedure methods. hyndman (2001) used single exponential smoothing method in his study and demonstrated that its performance is better than arima. nadjafi and tarazkar (2006) applied artificial neural network and arima procedure for prediction of pistachio export of iran and compared the results. the study results demonstrated that feed-back neural network has better performance comparing with other neural networks and arima procedure and is able to anticipate the amount of pistachio exports more exactly. sadrolashrafi and nassabian (2002) in a study on effects of difference of optimized and complied added value of agricultural subsections on optimized gdp through using input-output table of 1991 concluded that the government can achieve 57 and 71% from the complied added values of animal husbandry and forestry subsection and also 37 and 45% of the complied added values of agronomy and fishery subsections considering population annual growth rate and domestic gross production annual growth rate scenario in the third development program. kopahi and kiani (2000) forecasted the amount of required investment in agricultural section from 2000 2004 through finding a relation between state investment and added value of agricultural section. an investment function with a time interval has been used in this regard. akbari et al. (2003), in a study on the effects of the government's expenditures on added value of agricultural subsection, introduced learning and research charges of the government as the most effective variable on added value of agricultural section. civil charges occupy the next place. current costs and subsides paid to the producers of this section has statistically meaningful effect on added value of agricultural section. torkamani and bagheri (2002), through study of the relation between private and state investment and growth of added value in agricultural section demonstrated that variables of the ratio of private and state investment to added value and growth of export in agricultural section have a positive effect on the growth of this section and variables of growth of agricultural import and growth of employment have a negative effect. growth of added value variable of agricultural section just has a bilateral relationship with private and state investment and a unilateral relationship with other variables. co-integration relations have been estimated through johansson' coaccumulation test and use of var model. methodology in this study, added value of agricultural subsections has been forecasted through using three holt-winters, arima and artificial neural network methods. its goal is to compare the accuracy of these methods with error criteria such as mape (mean absolute percent error), mse (mean square error), mae (mean absolute error) and me (mean error). time series of 1936 2005 years of four agricultural subsections is the data used in this study. data of 1959 2005 years has been extracted from database of central bank of iran and the statistics of 1936 1958 years has been extracted from research plan of domestic gross production estimation for 1936 1958 years done by bank and monetary research institute of central bank (khavarinezhad, 2001) and real prices of 1997 have been used in order to omit inflation effects from statistics. exponential smoothing this method began with the work of holt-winters in 1950. afterwards, the main model exposed to many changes and several studies has expressed its exceptional performance. bowerman and o’connell (1979) stated that this model is on the basis of an autoregressive statistical model in which the information in the relation with forecasted series is just used and in contrary to regression models predictions using constant factors, the predictions of this model adjusted according to the previous predictions errors (hyndman, koehler, snyder and grose, 2002) classified exponential smoothing. each method consisted of one of five types of trend (none, additive, damped additive, multiplicative and damped multiplicative) and one of three types of seasonality (none, additive and multiplicative). among the 15 different exponential smoothing methods, the best known are simple exponential smoothing (no trend, no seasonality), holt’s linear method (additive trend, no seasonality), holt-winters’ additive method (additive trend, additive seasonality) and holt-winters’ multiplicative method (additive trend, multiplicative seasonality) (de gooijer et al., 2006). gardner and mckenzie (1988) provide some simple rules based on the variances of differenced time series for choosing an appropriate exponential smoothing method. hyndman et al. (2002) also proposed an information criterion approach, but using the underlying state space models. different methods of smoothing require primary estimation of parameters related to (α) level, (β) trend and (γ) seasonal indices (hyndman, 2002). in eviews software, parameters are estimated by minimizing sum of error squares and in qsb software, error criteria is selected by the researcher and the software chooses the best parameter considering error criteria. these parameters have been defined between zero and one. theory of the method used in this study will be discussed later. single exponential smoothing this is a single-parameter method and is appropriate for series randomly move around a constant mean. if the parameters are estimated close to one, means that this procedure is a random step. parameter α is related to level (mean), β to the trend and γ to the seasonality. these parameters have been defied between zero and one. if the smoothed series is ŷt and the main series is yt, ŷt is randomly obtained from the following relation: ŷt= α yt + (1-α) ŷt-1 (1) in which, 0 ≤ α ≤1 is the smoothing factor, ŷt series are smoothing. we can rewrite the relation (1) through repetitive replacements: ŷt =α (2) this relation states the reason of calling this method as exponential smoothing. yt prediction is a weight mean of previous yt values in which weights reduces exponentially with time. these predictions have been proved for all future observations. this constant is obtained through following relation: yt+k= yt for k>0 where t = end of the sample. we require a value for α and an initial value for yt in order to begin repeat procedure. bowerman and o’connell (1979) suggested that α values around 0.01 to 0.3 perform relatively well. no-seasonal holt-winters no-seasonal holt-winters used in this research is a doubleparameter method and is appropriate for series with time trend and without seasonal pattern. in this method, predictions are made with trend and without seasonal fluctuations. yt+k= a+bk a(t)=αyt+(1-t)[a(t-1)+b(t-1)] intercept =a, b(t)= β[a(t)-a(t-1)]+1-βb(t-1) trend = b in which β<0, α>0 are smoothing factors. this is a smoothing method with two parameters and predictions are made through following relation: yt+k= a(t) + b(t)k located on trend with a(t) intercept and b(t) slope. box-jenkins stationary time series can be modeled in different ways. if a time series become stationary after d times of difference then modeled by arima procedure, the main time series will be called integrated moving average autoregressive time series in which p is the order of autoregressive and q is the rank of moving average process: arima (p, d, q): yt= θ+α1yt-1+β0ut+β1ut-1 box-jenkins has four stages; the first stage is the identification stage in which the real values of p, d, q is determined by a single root test or correlogram. at the second stage the parameters of the model are estimated. third stage is called recognition control sought after choosing of a special model of arima and estimation of its parameters in order to determine that whether it appropriately fits the data since it is possible another arima model fits better. for this purpose, we can use function of box-pieres (q) and lijang-box (lb) tests. at the fourth stage the estimation is done with the best selected model. the predictions resulted from this model is especially for short-term predictions and in most cases, is more reliable than traditional modeling method of econometrics. of course, it is necessary to separately judge about each special case (abrishami, 2006). artificial neural network the structure of artificial neural networks is like human's brain including a set of connected neurons. each set is called a layer. for example, an ann consists three neural layers (node): input layer, which receives outside information and acts as an independent variable. so, the number of neurons of input layer is determined on the basis of nature of the problem and depends on the number of independent variables. the last layer is the output layer, from which the solution of the problem results. several numbers of middle layers have separated input and output layers which is called hidden layers and are merely an intermediate result in calculation process of output value. the nodes have been connected in adjacent of the layers from lower layers to upper ones by a rotative arch. there is no theoretical principle for determining appropriate number of hidden units or layers in a network. researchers have used different relations including n/2, n, 2n, 2n+1 in order to determine number of hidden neurons. in these relations, n is number of input neurons. trial and error is the best way for determining number of hidden nodes (zhang et al., 1999). figure 1 shows the simplest node in which sum of n harmonious inputs enters the network. in this research we used feed-back network in which f is output function, β0 is bias unit (equivalent to 1), g is output function of j units of hidden layers, γkj refers to input weight of k of j neuron, βj is output weight from hidden layers in output layers unit and x is the input vector. f fβo ∑j 1 β j g∑k 1 γk j x j j  k  activation function determines the relationship between inputs and outputs of a node and a network. it is possible that a network have different activation functions for different nodes at the same or different layers, but nowadays almost all researchers use similar activation functions for nodes at the same layers (zhang et al., 1998). neural network helps the smallest error of prediction of learning set through using criteria such as mean square error and figure 1. one type of feed-back neural network. the data should be normalized for presentation by using following formula: ni= 0.8 ×[xi-xmin/xmaxxmin]+ 0.1 ni and xi represent normalized and main data: xmin and xmax represent minimum and maximum of data (haykin, 1994). data normalization at the meaning of preprocessing and post processing improves the performance of the network. data are usually preprocessed before learning of the network meaning exercising some conversions on inputs and outputs of the network in order to extract the properties from the inputs and change of the output to a more understandable form for the network. inputs of the network are changed to their primary form, referred to post processing, after learning and extraction of results from the network. compare of prediction methods criteria such as mape and mae are used for examining of prediction power. mean absolute error mae  ∑ e i n mean square error mse  ∑ e i 2 n mean absolute percent error n y n ∑ mape 1 e i i1 i in these relations, n is the number of predictions, is the prediction error obtained from the difference between predicted and real values. a mape criterion is one of the percent error criterions which is more desired and is one of the most applied unit-less criteria. a single error criterion such as mape is mostly used for comparing several time series with different measures (najafi and tarazkar, 2006). results and discussion exponential smoothing model single exponential smoothing with linear trend method has been used in this study which is the same as holtwinters' non-seasonal method. this method has been selected considering nature of data which is annually with a linear trend and also mape criterion at the evaluation stage of the model by winqsb. modeling has been done considering data of the period 1936 to 1996; smoothing parameters and error criteria have been listed in table 1. the goal of model validation is to show that the constructed model has the capability for producing data acceptable for future. data used in this stage relate to table 1. smoothing parameters and error criteria of modeling and model validation stages. sub sector α (average) β (trend) map mse mae agronomy 0.92 0.08 8.9 547149.6 544.33 animal husbandry 0.85 0.61 5.01 113588.1 225.012 fishery 1 0.19 10.6 11707 57.13 model fitting forestry 1 0.01 14.9 1585.24 22.49 agronomy 0.92 0.08 6.3 4385428 1761.22 animal husbandry 0.85 0.61 2.4 222237.7 368.82 fishery 1 0.19 15.3 38277.46 182.45 model validation forestry 1 0.01 13.1 11214.39 83.63 1997 2005 period which was regarded as out of sample data at modeling stage. considering the less amount of mean absolute value percent error, it is evident that exponential smoothing method has presented very good results in both stages. box-jenkins model augmented dickey-fuller test statistic was used in order to survey the static mode of time series. in this test, the equation ∆yt= α +βt+δyt-1+vt is tested through adding ∆y breaks in order to omit correlation of estimation disorder sentences and being zero of α, β, δ. results of the test demonstrate that none of the variables are at static level but they reach static level after one time of differentiation (noferesti, 1999). we determine the number of autoregressive sentences (p) and number of motion mean sentences (q) in order to predict with arima procedure after determination of static level of the variables which requires trial and error and examining of different models. schouarts-bazin values is one of the criteria that helped us in choosing the model, the best model is selected considering the smaller values and also remainders test by q box-pieres test function. also, it is necessary to take into account the meaningfulness of ar and ma correlations and also the value of r 2 . after estimation of arima models for each of the agricultural subsections by using sample period of 1936 1996, prediction was made for out of sample data until 2005 and error criteria of modeling stage were estimated. then, error criteria of model validation stage were calculated again through using real available data for 1997 2005 periods. the results have been shown in table 2. considering mape in these two stages, it can be observed that modeling of out of sample data predictions are more accurate. artificial neural network the result were tested for feed-back neural network having 2, 3, 4 and 5 layers and finally the best evaluation with a higher criterion of r 2 was specified for each subsection and error criteria were calculated in both network learning and its test in both stages which have been shown in table 3. as it can be observed, mean absolute value percent error in learning stage was higher than network testing stage in all subsections and this demonstrates the better performance of neural network in prediction of future data. summary and conclusion in this study, artificial neural network, box-jenkins and holt-winters methods compared with each other in order to predict the added value of each of the agricultural subsections. the form of primary time series and single root tests demonstrated that time series of all four sections have procedure and non-seasonal holt-winters (single exponential smoothing with time trend) and boxjenkins models were selected to be compared with artificial neural network because of their capability in description of time series data trend. the non-seasonal holt-winters model requires estimation of parameters of level and trend solved with trial and error and minimizing criterion of mean absolute value percent error. it is possible that a prediction model shows better results at modeling stage but has not a good performance at prediction stage. table 4 demonstrates the error criteria of models at modeling and validation stages. the results manifest that non-seasonal holt-winters model has performed very well in both stages and mean absolute value percent error was less than 15%, while artificial neural network performed better than box-jenkins at modeling stage. the mean absolute value percent error was less than 42% for all groups through using artificial neural network at this stage, while this criterion was less than 62% for box-jenkins. the performance of box-jenkins was better than artificial neural network at testing and validation stage of models and mean absolute value percent error was less than 23% while it has been calculated as less than 36% for artificial neural network. although, according to map criteria, artificial neural network has more errors then arima model considering test section, this can not lead to conclusions with regard to weakness of artificial neural network. remember that table 2. arima process and error criteria of modeling and model validation stages. sub sector map mse mae arima agronomy 44.3 6610041 2324 (3,1.3) animal husbandry 57.8 4141225 1802 (1,1.3) model fitting 61.3 39521 165 (1,1.3) fishery forestry 49.9 33014 112 (2,1,2) agronomy 15.1 23653394 4453 (3,1.3) animal husbandry 6.03 906821 904 (1,1.3) model validation 13.8 28880 167 (1,1.3) fishery forestry 22.8 6004 57 (2,1,2) table 3. error criteria of test and learn stages of artificial neural network. sub sector me mae mse map agronomy 2377.18 20517.48 16824029.06 30.1 animal husbandry 1474.25 1503.08 3332469.13 27.9 learn 83.93 93.47 12616.74 22.8 fishery forestry 52.99 54.32 6073.41 41.7 agronomy 1157.49 3559.09 20714114.72 16.6 animal husbandry 160.83 1366.22 2866854.61 11.3 test 272.5 360.71 199898.44 35.9 fishery forestry 7.46 68.035 7029.43 14 table 4. comparison of holt winters and box jenkins and artificial neural network mean absolute value percent error. model model fitting model validation agronomy exponential smoothing 8.9 6.3 box-jenkins 44.3 15.1 artificial neural network 30.1 16.7 animal husbandry exponential smoothing 5.01 2.4 box-jenkins 57.8 6.3 artificial neural network 27.9 11.4 fishery exponential smoothing 10.6 15.3 box-jenkins 61.3 13.8 artificial neural network 22.8 35.9 forestry exponential smoothing 14.86 13.1 box-jenkins 49.9 22.8 artificial neural network 41.7 14 neural networks need more data for learning and examination. so, changes in number of learning and examinational data may have different results. other criteria (tables 2 and 3) demonstrate that artificial neural network operates better than arima at learning stage, that is, identification and description of relations in table 5. predicted value using best model until 2011. year agronomy animal husbandry fishery forestry 2006 35613.35 17368.90 1375.09 725.62 2007 36534.39 17770.16 1405.05 742.51 2008 37455.43 18171.42 1435.00 759.40 2009 38376.46 18572.68 1464.96 776.30 2010 39292.50 18973.93 1994.91 793.19 2011 40218.54 19375.19 1524.87 810.08 agricultural subsections. the outcomes demonstrate tha use of several study criteria can lead to obtaining more reliable results because in some cases, results of prediction criteria are different. also, normalizing of data plays a significant role in improving of function of artificial neural network. predictions made for the next year have been demonstrated in table 5. the government should take actions for increasing of added value growth through appropriate planning in order to maintain annual growth rate of iran economy which is about 6% and considering almost 2.5% growth predicted for added value of agriculture section in spite of continuing of ascending process of added value of agricultural subsections. considering that each of the economical sections should obtain part of their added value through promoting of productivity, it is necessary to provide opportunity for growing of added value through required planning by the country's planning and management authorities in order to promote productivity of this section. references adnan s, erol a (2007). energy policy 35: 4981-4992. akbari n, sameti v (2003). study of government's expenditures effect on added value of agricultural sector, iranian j. agric. econ. dev. 4142: 137-166. asghari oskuei m (2002). application of artificial neural networks in time series prediction‚ iran econ. res. season book 12: 69-97. baki billah, maxwell l king (2006). exponential smoothing model selection for forecasting, int j. forecasting‚ 22: 239-247.central 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nigeria's gdp oluremi and sikiru nnamdi azikiwe university, awka nnewi agulu, nigeria accepted 17 january, 2025 this study uses quarterly data from the first quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2022 to assess the impact of agricultural factors to nigeria's overall economic growth and development. the national bureau of statistics nigeria provided the information on cattle, forestry, agriculture, and fisheries. the decomposition model (additive and multiplication) was fitted using time series analysis and seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (sarima). the findings indicated that while the second and third quarters saw higher gdps than the quarterly average, the first and fourth quarters saw lower gdps from livestock, fisheries, forestry, and crop production (the total monetary value of goods produced in years). sarima (1,0,1)x(1,0,1)4, sarima (2,0,1)x(2,0,1)4, and sarima (2,0,1)x(2,1,1)4 were all found to be adequate, and any of them may be utilized for additional forecasting. the sarima model was employed to test for adequacy. therefore, it is advised that investments in forestry, crop production, livestock, and fisheries be made during the second and third quarters of the year in order to reap significant benefits. key words: livestock, fishery, forestry, crop production, time series, sarima, decomposition. introduction the agricultural production has long been linked to the production of vital food crops, both now and in the past. forestry, fishing, fruit growing, beekeeping, poultry, cattle, and other activities are all included in farming. nowadays, it is accepted that modern agriculture includes the processing, marketing, and distribution of crops and livestock products, among other things. therefore, the processing, marketing, and distribution of agricultural goods might be considered agriculture. it is the foundation of a giving society's economic system and is essential to all economies. despite the oil boom, nigeria's economy has grown for decades thanks to agriculture, which essentially supplies food, raw materials, jobs for a large portion of the population, a source of income for the country, a source of livelihood, a significant contribution to international trade, marketable surplus, economic development, and a source of savings, among other things. in order to attain food sufficiency and lower unemployment, the nigerian government continues to rely heavily on agriculture (anaebonam, 2014). one globally accepted indicator of economic size and strength is the gross domestic product, or gdp (oyedele, 2017). nigeria's economy can be stimulated by a higher gdp. as a result, it reduced the poverty rate among nigerians by fostering economic growth and job creation. during nigeria's oil boom, the country's agriculture was neglected. in actuality, the sector's share of the overall gdp has decreased over time. the sector's share of the gdp dropped sharply from 55.8% in 1960– 1970 to 28.4% in 1971–1980. thankfully, nigeria's successive administrations are starting to prioritize agriculture. additionally, the agricultural sector's share of the gdp increased to 32.3% between 1981 and 1990, 34.2% between 1991 and 2001, and 40.3% between 2001 and 2009 (mohammed, 2012). in 2008, nigeria's economy was primarily driven by agriculture, which accounted for 42.1% of gdp. industry came in second with 22%, followed by wholesale and retail trade with 17.3%, services with 16.8%, and building and construction with 1.8%. over the previous 25 years, nigeria's agricultural sector's contribution of the country's gdp has grown by 11.6%, from 30.5% in 1984 to 42.1% in 2008. at the same time, nigeria's industry's percentage of the country's gdp fell from 42.4% to 22%, a 20.4% drop (ikoku, 2010). through the municipal and state governments, the nigerian government has recently made resources available to assist farmers in obtaining fertilizer and other agricultural inputs. the goal of all these initiatives is economic diversification. anono (2012) investigated how the petroleum and agricultural sectors contributed to the expansion and advancement of the nigerian economy from 1960 to 2010. they stated that the gdp contribution from the agricultural sector was greater than that from the petroleum sector. particularly in the context of developing countries, african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 13 (1), pp. 001-006, january, 2025. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ 2 growth in the agriculture sector is a predictor of decreasing poverty and promoting economic development (lee, an, & kim, 2020). it is anticipated that rising food costs will have a significant impact on the welfare outcomes of various household groups, especially in emerging nations, and therefore on their level of poverty and food security. by enhancing the overall process of decision-making processes, these services also help farmers make better technological choices, which in turn leads to a more progressive household for these rural farmers as their net revenue increases. nonetheless, numerous studies have demonstrated that farmers with higher levels of education are more likely to make more money than those without. because educated farmers have a deeper understanding of a particular situation and are equipped with the necessary knowledge and awareness, they are able to make decisions that will help them earn the money they need to live better. to increase overall "food security" and "crop productivity," ngos and several business sectors, particularly in developing nations' agricultural sectors, offer a variety of extension services (sulewski, wąs, kobus, pogodzińska et al., 2020). the agricultural sector is essential to the livelihood profile that is prevalent in emerging nations, especially in rural areas. the poorest people are typically landless and make their living from irregular wage labor, which is typically tied to agricultural operations, while the majority own or rent a small plot of land that is farmed using traditional methods. when rural household farms operate, farming—an industry—is created (ali, 2019). the high percentage of youth unemployment and the deterioration in numerous sectors of the nation, particularly the oil sector, are the driving forces behind this study. a country's total progress can be accelerated if the government re-strategizes agriculture to increase agricultural exports as well as feed the nation. this will result in significant financial development and advancement. aim and objectives estimating the actual contribution of agricultural variables to nigeria's overall economic growth and development is the goal of this study. objectives: i. to fit number of autoregressive integrated moving average (arima) model to the variable. ii. to fit decomposition model. to fit seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (sarima) model on variables. literature review forestry, livestock, fisheries, and crop production are the four main subsectors of nigerian agriculture. crop production is the largest component, accounting for about 87.6% of the sector's total output. fishing, forestry, and cattle follow with 8.1%, 3.2%, and 1.1%, respectively. agriculture remains nigeria's largest industry, accounting for an average of 24% of the nation's gdp over the last seven years (2013–2019). additionally, the industry is the greatest employer in the country, employing roughly 36% of the workforce (oyaniran, 2020). other key economic areas including housing, education, and health also received large recurrent sums. compared to other industries, nigerian public spending on agriculture is rather low; between 2001 and 2005, less than 2% of all federal spending went into this industry. this amount is much less than what is invested in other crucial sectors, per a study conducted by the international food policy institute (aderemi, 2020). the 2014 au heads of state and government conference in equatorial guinea to discuss the maputo declaration paved the way for the malabo declaration. they promised to employ inclusive agricultural growth and transformation to cut the continent's poverty in half by 2025, or five years from now, and reiterated the 10% public spending target after the malabo meeting. it is anticipated that the agricultural gdp will grow by a minimum of 6% every year. they believed that the scheme will give at least 30% of young people in agricultural value chains job opportunities and empower millions of rural dwellers. only a small portion of african nations have complied with the treaty's terms, though, therefore not much has changed thus far (aderemi, 2020). nigeria's first legally required extension policy is now being developed by the federal department of agricultural extension, which was founded in 2012, with assistance from ifad21. this new extension policy aims to develop the private sector to provide services and the public sector to maintain quality control. in order to ensure that extension services are driven by demand, consider market demands, and target farmers who currently lack access to markets, the focus is on promoting pluralistic delivery (rechard & olajide, 2020). ademola (2019) conducted an experimental evaluation of the impact of agricultural funding on the growth of the nigerian economy. according to the study, nigeria's pace of economic growth is unaffected by the amount of credit available to agriculture out of all the credit that the government has granted. awe (2003) investigated the mobilization of domestic financial resources for agricultural productivity in nigeria using a time series analytic technique. the study found that government recurring spending on agriculture, bank loans to nigeria's agricultural sector, and agricultural credit programs all positively correlate with agricultural posture. he recommended that the government's continuous agricultural spending be reassessed increased in order to boost agricultural output. ogen (2007) compared the development of nigeria's agriculture sector to that of brazil's agro-industrial economy between 1960 and 1995. the study concluded that nigeria and other third-world countries need to rapidly take advantage of their vast agricultural potential if they are to see significant industrial and economic growth. olurankinse and bayo (2012) investigated the impact of non-oil exports on nigeria's economic growth. the findings demonstrated that non-oil exports contributed positively to the growth of the nigerian economy during that period, despite its poor performance in terms of output level and income generation. they recommended that both the manufacturing and agricultural sectors increase production in order to improve product availability. to attain the desired results, a proper system must be maintained. as a result, the total output of the rural farmers increases, increasing their incomes. the farmers are at the center of any country's agricultural system. numerous countries' governments are also developing a range of policies to encourage farmers' contributions to sustainable development. in order to boost their net farming income, this incentivizes farmers to take greater chances (ndem & osondu, 2018). bakare (2012) asserts that agriculture is one of nigeria's main economic sectors. the paper states that in order to bring agriculture to a sustainable level, nigerian officials must enact suitable policies. olajide et al. (2012) investigated the relationship between agricultural output and nigeria's gdp. agriculture and nigeria's gdp were shown to 3 q be strongly and favorably correlated by the study. akpan (2012) carried out a comparative assessment of the real-world impacts of decades of policy practice developed for nigeria's rural communities within the framework of two separate economic eras characterized by agricultural output and petroleum oil exploration. the results demonstrated the failure of nigeria's rural development. the study concluded that leadership issues, political commitments, and a lack of institutional capacity are the main barriers to rural development. odetola and etumnu (2013) investigated the role of the agriculture sector on nigeria's economic growth using time series data from 1960 to 2011 and a growth accounting approach. the analysis confirms the agriculture sector's importance in the nigerian economy by showing that it has consistently and favorably increased economic growth. oni (2014) looked into how agriculture helped reduce poverty in nigeria between 1980 and 2011. oni asserts that agriculture has been the primary driver of growth in recent years and has a significant potential to reduce poverty in nigeria. data from the augmented dicker fuller (adf) unit root test and error correction model (ecm) showed that poverty reduction in nigeria was negatively and insignificantly correlated with per capita non-agricultural gdp and inflation rate, while it was positively and significantly correlated with per capita agriculture gdp, physical infrastructure per capita, and social infrastructure per capita. the paper suggests that the government should provide nigerian farmers with the required subsidies to enable them to adapt and use modern technologies, which will increase productivity and reduce poverty in the nation. in order to improve the agricultural system for the country's economic growth and sustainable development, many developing countries have funded educational and training programs for their rural farmers. the goal is to inform them about the current state of affairs and assist them in identifying their own values. in these remote areas of rising nations, new technologies are also being applied to take the essential safeguards before any potentially dangerous event happens (yu, chen, niu, gao et al., 2021). the results of olajide, akinalabi, and tijani (2012) were at odds with those of lawal (2011). they used an ols regression model to investigate the relationship between nigeria's gdp and agricultural output. they found that nigeria's gdp is positively and considerably impacted by the country's agriculture sector. they also found that 34.4% of the change in nigeria's gdp between 1970 and 2010 was attributable to the country's agricultural sector. many farmers, especially those in rural parts of the world, are "riskaverse" because they already have a lot to lose in order to reap the expected reward. they do obtain the required output they expected, but their risk aversion behavior keeps them from obtaining more. according to the "expected utility theory," people who "always prefer the expectation e(x) to the random variable x-are characterizable by concave utilities" are risk averters (khaw, li, & woodford, 2021). ugwuoke, ume, and ihedioha (2018) investigated how interest rate deregulation affected agricultural funding in nigeria between 1970 and 2014. the study also specifically examined interest rate patterns, loan availability to the agricultural sector, and the agricultural sector's gdp contribution from 1970 to 2014. the results showed that interest rates significantly affect the quantity of credit given to the agricultural sector, but they have minimal effect on the industry's gdp contribution. furthermore, it was observed that interest rates varied from 1970 to 2014, which prompted banks to lend money to the general public while also resulting in low agricultural productivity and unemployment. the period's rise and downward trends in the agricultural gdp contribution can be attributed to the government's disdain when oil was discovered. materials and procedures the data used in this study was obtained from the first quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2022 and was provided by the national bureau of statistics [nbs]. the practice of dissecting time series components to evaluate each one's contribution to the time series variable is known as time series analysis. the term "decomposition of time series" is frequently used to describe this. model details arima autoregression is incorporated into the moving average model. box and jenkins (2015) introduced a general model with both autoregressive and moving average parameters that specifically takes differencing into account in its derivation. specifically, the model contains three types of parameters: the number of differencing runs (d), autoregressive parameters (p), and moving average parameters (q). box and jenkins devised a notation that summarizes models as arima (p, d, q). for example, a model with the notation (0, 1, 2) has 0 (zero) autoregressive (p) parameters and two moving average (q) parameters that were computed for the series after it was differenced once. arima is expressed mathematically as (p, d, q). φ p (ls)ϕp (l)zt sarima model seasonal autoregressive integrated moving averages, or sarima models. the arima model works well with non-stationary, non-seasonal data. box and jenkins (1976) have extended this model to account for seasonality. their proposed model is called the seasonal arima (sarima) model. this method uses seasonal differencing of the appropriate order to remove non-stationarity from the series. the difference between an observation and its matching observation from the prior year is known as a first order seasonal difference, and it is computed as follows:zt = yt yt-s. for monthly time series 12 = s and for quarterly time series 4 = s. this model is generally termed as the sarima(p,d,q)×(p,d,q)s model. the mathematical formulation of a sarima(p,d,q)×(p,d,q)s model in terms of lag polynomials is given below φ p (ls )ϕp (l)(1− l)d (1− ls )d yt =θq (ls )θq (l)εt , i.e. φ p (ls)ϕp (l)zt =θq (ls) θ (l)εt. results and discussion multiplicative model data gross domestic product length 104 nmissing 0 seasonal indices period index 1 0.88838 2 1.02261 3 1.12694 4 0.96207 according to the seasonal indices, q1 gdp was 11.162% below the quarterly normal, q2 gdp was 2.261% higher than the quarterly average, q3 gdp was 12.694% higher than the quarterly average, and q4 gdp was 3.793% lower than the quarterly average. 4 level of significance: α= 0.05 test statistic: q= n(n+2) ∑𝑘 𝑟2 /(𝑛 − 𝑗)(𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒) 𝑗=1 𝑗 decision rule: reject ho if p-value is < α value, otherwise do not reject. computation: arima model: gross domestic product final estimates of parameters type coef se coef t p ar 1 0.7910 0.0775 10.20 0.000 sar 4 0.9829 0.0368 26.70 0.000 ma 1 -0.2115 0.1164 -1.82 0.072 sma 4 0.5311 0.0936 5.67 0.000 source: author’s computation 2024 number of observations: 104 residuals: ss = 22457028 (backforecasts excluded) ms = 224570 df = 100 modified box-pierce (ljung-box) chi-square statistic lag 12 24 36 48 chi-square 5.6 7.5 11.5 11.6 df 8 20 32 44 p-value 0.695 0.995 1.000 1.000 source: author’s computation 2024 since p-values are all greater than α value = 0.05, we therefore do not reject ho and conclude that the model is adequate at 5% level of significant. hypothesis 2 (sarima model (2,0,1)4*(2,0,1)) ho: the model is adequate. h1: the model is not adequate. level of significance: α= 0.05 test statistic: q = n(n+2) ∑𝑘 𝑟2 /(𝑛 − 𝑗)(𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒) 𝑗=1 𝑗 decision rule: reject ho if p-value is < α value, otherwise do not reject. computation: arima model: gross domestic product final estimates of parameters type coef se coef t p ar 1 1.6384 1.4253 1.15 0.253 ar 2 -0.6748 1.1928 -0.57 0.573 sar 4 1.1251 0.2178 5.17 0.000 sar 8 -0.1446 0.2064 -0.70 0.485 ma 1 0.7752 1.4624 0.53 0.597 sma 4 0.6340 0.1748 3.63 0.000 source: author’s computation 2024 number of observations: 104 residuals: ss = 22902424 (backforecasts excluded) ms = 233698 df = 98 modified box-pierce (ljung-box) chi-square statistic lag 12 24 36 48 chi-square 7.5 9.9 14.2 14.2 df 6 18 30 42 p-value 0.280 0.936 0.994 1.000 source: author’s computation 2024 since p-values are all greater than the α value =0.05, we therefore, do not reject ho and conclude that the model is adequate and 5% level of significant. hypothesis 3 (sarima model (2,0,1)4*(2,1,1)) ho: the model is adequate. h1: the model is not adequate. level of significance: α= 0.05 test statistic: q = n(n+2) ∑𝑘 𝑟2 /(𝑛 − 𝑗)(𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒) 𝑗=1 𝑗 decision rule: reject ho if p-value is < α value, otherwise do not reject. computation: arima model: gross domestic product final estimates of parameters type coef se coef t p ar 1 0.3057 0.3613 0.85 0.400 ar 2 -0.3062 0.1019 -3.01 0.003 sar 4 1.1251 0.1562 7.20 0.000 sar 8 -0.1385 0.1482 -0.93 0.352 ma 1 0.2556 0.3733 0.68 0.495 sma 4 0.7905 0.0962 8.22 0.000 source: author’s computation 2024 differencing: 1 regular difference number of observations: original series 104, after differencing 103 residuals: ss = 23201644 (back forecasts excluded) ms = 239192 df = 97 modified box-pierce (ljung-box) chi-square statistic lag 12 24 36 48 5 chi-square 7.0 9.2 12.6 12.8 df 6 18 30 42 p-value 0.317 0.955 0.998 1.000 source: author’s computation 2024 since p-values are all greater than α value = 0.05, we do not reject ho and conclude that the model is adequate at 5% level of significant. measure of accuracy multiplicative additive mape 802 815 mad 1173 1175 msd 2335259 2344982 source: author’s computation 2024 the gdp in q1 was 11.162% below the quarterly average, 2.261% above the quarterly average, 12.694% above the quarterly average, and 3.793% below the quarterly average in q2, q3, and q4, respectively, based on the seasonal indices. all p-values were more than the level of significance, suggesting that the model is adequate, according to the ljung-box statistic values for the three tests of data adequacy for stationarity time series, sarima models. for the purposes of this study, sarima (1,0,1) ´ (1,0,1)4, sarima (2,0,1) ´ (2,0,1)4, and sarima (2,0,1) ´ (2,1,1) 4 are sufficient. the accuracy measure showed that the multiplicative model best fits the data used in this study using mean absolute percentage error (mape), mean absolute deviation (mad), and mean square deviation (msd). conclusion this study examines the impact of agricultural variables on nigeria's gdp using the sarima and decomposition models. the results show that the multiplicative model has the lowest value and is the most effective. while q2 and q3 gdp are often greater than the quarterly average and lower in other quarters, the first and fourth quarter gdp (gross domestic product, or the total monetary values of items generated in a year on livestock, fisheries, forestry, and crop production) is lower than the quarterly average. 1,0,1 sarima ´ (1,0,1)4, 2,0,1 sarima ´ (2,0,1)4 additionally, sarima (2,0,1) ´ (2,1,1) 4 is determined to be sufficient.this might be applied to additional gdp forecasting and prediction. recommendations  it is recommended that the result be replicated on other agricultural data.  it is advised that investments be made in livestock, forestry, crop production, and fisheries during the second and third quarters of the year because the combined monetary values of these sectors are higher than the quarterly average.  it is also recommended that any of the fitted sarima models be use for forecasting gdp references ademola ayodele (2019). impact of agricultural financing on nigeria economy. asian journal of agricultural extension, economics and sociology.31 (2); 1-13, 2019. aderemi, o. 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(2005). assessment of the impact of nigerian agricultural cooperative bank’s credit facilities on small scale farmers in ibarapa east lga of oyo state. journal of agriculture extension, 8, 16-21. world bank. (2017). agriculture data. retrieved from world bank open data. www.lse.ac.uk/europeaninstitute/research/hellenicobservatory/ yu, l., chen, c., niu, z., gao, y., yang, h., & xue, z. (2021). risk aversion, cooperative membership and the adoption of green control techniques: evidence from china. journal of cleaner production, 279, 123288. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123288 http://www.pwc.com/ http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeaninstitute/research/hellenicobservatory/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123288 this study uses quarterly data from the first quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2022 to assess the impact of agricultural factors to nigeria's overall economic growth and development. the national bureau of statistics nigeria provided the infor... introduction 1 full length research paper small-millet seed production that involves tribal farmers in the bastar region of chhattisgarh, india sanjay and krishna research mats university, raipur, chhattisgarh, india accepted 20 december, 2024 the because little millets can withstand water stress, drought, and erosion, they may be a better choice in areas with unpredictable rainfall and dry conditions where rice and other crops frequently fail. there were several upland areas in this area that might be used for small-scale millets production if farmers participated in a seed production program to improve their economic situation. to increase production, settlements with basic technology support were divided into ten clusters. with the introduction of improved varieties, line sowing, weed control, and nutrient management as a rain-fed system, the average productivity of tiny millets increased from 4.00 to 20 q/ha. key words: front line demonstration, small millets, seed production, participatory mode. introduction the with a total size of 8755.79 km2, bastar district is located in southern chhattisgarh. the district headquarters are located in jagdalpur. more than 65% of the district's 1,411,644 residents, or about the same as the us state of hawaii or the country of swaziland, are members of tribes including the maria, muriya, bhatra, halba, gond, parja, and dhurva, according to the 2011 census. there are 140 people living in the district per square kilometer. in the bastar region of chhattisgarh, rice is primarily farmed as a rain-fed crop over 2.39 lakh hectares during the kharif season, although its production is a pitiful 8.53 q/ha. while just 1.2% of the land is irrigated, and only 1.67% of the land is irrigated, very little fertilizer (4.6 kg/ha) is used, which is not enough to provide enough nutrients to the crops that are in high demand. traditional farming methods continue to determine bastar's pattern of subsistence. while there are very few iron ploughs, the use of wooden ploughs is overwhelming. the same is true with cattle carts; tractors are quite rare, although bullock carts are widely used. the production of agriculture has decreased due to the use of traditional agricultural tools. paddy, tiny millets, horse gram, urd, arhar, jowar, and maize are the kharif crops cultivated here. only small millets can be grown in such circumstances because of their eating habits and farming methods, which state that rice cannot function well in unpredictable rainfall and occasionally fails entirely because of this factor. however, small millets may be a suitable solution because they require less rain than rice and are more drought-tolerant and erosion-resistant. there is a lot of highland land in this area that might be used for small millets' seed production during kharif. this concept was kept in mind in inception of seed production programme african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-010, december, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ 2 figure 1. weed management by intercultural operation in kodo millet. so that farmers can get handsome returns. methodology according to the farmers who grew small millets, the targeted villages were divided into ten clusters, which included: cluster 1: bastanar, cluster 2: turenar, cluster 3: tokapal, cluster 4: kumari, cluster 5: chitrakote, cluster 6: dharmaur, cluster 7: narayanpur, cluster 8: bakawand, cluster 9: dantewada, and cluster 10: mendri. the technologies provided to each cluster included improved versus local land race varieties, crop establishment techniques (line sowing versus broadcasting), weed control (mechanical and herbicidal versus control), and nutrition (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash). two groups were created following site and farmer selection because grain production included truth label seed or below grade on farmers’ fields for consumption and market sale, while seed production included foundation and certified seed production (samui et al., 2000). the cost of cultivation, gross income, net income, benefit-cost ratio, and the area covered by upland clusters in the past and present were all examined based on farmers' investment. in order to formulate research and extension works, the following procedures were taken: step i: replace the current local landraces with improved cultivars while maintaining the other agronomic practices they had previously used, such as seed broadcasting, no weeding, and no nutrient management. due to the apparent increase in yield and the potential to employ new agro-techniques for adoption and incentive, this replacement forced the farmers to embrace the new intervention. step ii: the demonstration of line sowing with a seed drill was another significant invention. the lack of appropriate tools for little millets caused issues with line sowing; traditional agricultural tools were primarily utilized. a bamboo-based nari plow installed in a rural plough with a plastic funnel into which only seeds were thrown was the first solution to this problem. in the broadcasting approach, rainfed upland rice is often sown during a shorter window of time than small millets, and millets are the subsequent crops. today's unpredictable rainfall forced them to switch to upland crops in such a harsh environment. in the following years, the development of the seed-cum-fertilizer drill (bullock drawn) and its demonstration on a farmer's field in front of fifty farmers sparked this, making it very easy for farmers to embrace line sowing methods in tiny millets over rice. this time, fertilizer was applied in rows and seeds were sown. however, it wasn't until the tractor-drawn drill was introduced in the following years that enormous areas were covered (figure 8). step iii: the uplands were nearly completely covered by aerobic farming, which gave the weeds a variety of growing conditions. since the weeds were competing with the crops for the first 15 to 30 days, they would be appropriately handled using both mechanical and manual methods. however, manual weeding is more expensive figure 2. contingency crop planning by gap filling. because of the labor involved. summer plowing decreased the weeds by up to 60%, and the residual weeds were controlled by using 0.5 kg/ha of isoproturon and oxyflourfen as pre-emergence treatments. lines were kept 30 cm apart, and a desi plough (also known as a bushening plough) was employed to control weeds. the ploughs are small enough to run between rows, and they also aerated root zones, loosened the soil profile, and suppressed weeds. following the use of line sowing techniques, which proved successful in weed management, these methods were used to suppress weeds up to 70% while producing a greater yield (figure 4). step iv: tribal communities rely on small millets as a source of income, but the introduction of commercial crops to the uplands reduced the area covered in this region. the region was still experiencing severe crop declines, but this was addressed in 2003 as part of the aicsmip in an effort to increase coverage over the uplands. farmers were initially given inputs in the form of seeds, fertilizer, and techniques, but they eventually adopted the practice and began using their own inputs; as a result, small-scale millets are now grown on the same plot of land where upland rice is no longer as productive. step v: farmers were encouraged to produce high-quality seed on their own properties by the adoption of new technology. farmers are adopting and earning more money from the foundation and certified seed of ragi (finger millet), kodo millet, and small millet than from the manufacture of truth label (t/l) seeds. following registration, they are guaranteed the opportunity to plant little millets by lifting seeds. because it is a pocket-specific crop that can only be cultivated in a specific area of the country, the high-quality seed production also helped the seed certification corporation. this time, fertilizer was applied in rows and seeds were sown. however, it wasn't until the tractor-drawn drill was introduced in the following years that enormous areas were covered (figure 8). results and discussion entry of new cultivars new varieties (table 1) have their own dimension but 3 table 1. varieties performed under farmers’ field with improved technologies in last ten years. s/n crop varieties liking feature area coverage (acre) yield potential (q/ha) increased % over local gpu 28 high yielding, rain fed cultivar, long open finger 600 20-30 200 vr 708, high yielding, suited for stress condition 300 20-25 175 1 finger millet rantagiri high yielding, short stature, medium finger 200 18-20 150 vl 149 high yielding, pigmented finger 120 15-20 140 pr 202 high yielding, tolerant to blast 100 15-18 135 2 kodo millet rbk 155 regular raceme, compact grains, more productive 400 18-25 150 jk 48 more tillers, lodging tolerant, high yielding 250 15-20 140 3 little millet jk 8 high yielding, lax panicle 200 5-8 200 bg 1 medium height, synchronized maturity 120 4-6 180 with the time and requirement changed the potentiality. by introducing new cultivars over current localities, agronomical demand for cultivars could be fine-tuned to result in higher production. over the past ten years, demonstration fields have seen a 200% increase in output. given the demand for 100 to 500 quintals of seed annually, producing high-quality seed (both foundation and certified) on farmers' fields may soon be a means of generating income. refined technologies because previous methods were not in line with the rate of production, traditional technologies must be improved to meet current demands (mokidue et al., 2011). the conventional plough, which is still in use in isolated places, needs new bullock-drawn tools and the best possible mechanization. therefore, it is imperative to improve the current methods. crop establishment and seed broadcasting caused weeding issues, which may be resolved by line sowing, which offered effective mechanical weed control techniques (mechanical, herbicidal, and iwm) in between rows (figure 4 and 9). nutrient management when the program was being planned, fewer farmers were applying fertilizer to upland areas, which drastically reduced the potential yield because the soil's available nutrients were being depleted without adequate management of both major and secondary nutrients. line sowing can be used in place of broadcasting, and the timing of sowing (moving the monsoon from mid-june to mid-july) is also controlled according to the early or late advent of the monsoon, which improves success over typical system failures (hiremath and nagaraju, 2010). by arranging fertilizers in rows, line sowing paved the path for nitrogen management and increased output during the crucial demand period shown in tables 2 to 4 and figures 5 and 6. mechanization it was necessary to increase the area under cultivation for small millets, and this was accomplished by mechanization. in a similar vein, the implementation of better methods and the reduction of drudgery in sowing with the use of seed and fertilizer drills increased the potential yield while also reducing labor participation due to a labor shortage. implements drawn by bullocks and tractors were introduced in response to farmer needs (figure 10). in ten years, at least half of the adopted farmers, who now share the implements during the cropping season in the same cluster, undoubtedly developed the habit of using this arrangement in all clusters. according to jeengar et al. (2006), using machinery to cut down on drudgery was profitable and time-efficient (figures 1, 2, and 3). seed bank farmers produced demand for small millets through the barter system (an exchange mechanism) or by gifting them to relatives when they visited their homes. this was made possible by the ongoing replacement of indigenous land races with superior kinds, which encouraged the increased production of small millets. in the end, this can become famous in unexplored regions and frequently spread over the weekly or daily local markets (hadri or pasra) in neighboring villages. the village seed bank was created as a result of the introduction of new technology and the encouragement of farmers. they have since begun to store the seeds in more conventional or advanced structures that are accessible to them, such as paddy storage facilities. they had a well-established system throughout the villages, so it was simple to maintain. in case of crop failure, this table 2. impact of improved agro-techniques on yield potential of small finger millets (mean of ten years) target village farmer crop establishment nutrition varieties weed management ls bc increase % bal fert(npk) no fert increase % imp local increase % herb local increase % cluster 1 7 15 20.23 5.23 386.81 17.78 6.05 294.12 22.58 7.13 316.69 20.44 7.18 284.68 cluster 2 6 13 21.35 6.35 336.22 18.90 5.34 353.93 23.70 8.25 287.27 21.56 8.30 259.76 cluster 3 8 21 18.25 3.25 561.54 15.80 4.56 346.49 20.60 5.15 400.00 18.46 5.20 355.00 cluster 4 5 15 24.35 9.35 260.43 21.90 8.76 250.00 26.70 11.25 237.33 24.56 11.30 217.35 cluster 5 6 14 26.67 9.67 275.80 24.22 9.80 247.14 29.02 13.57 213.85 26.88 13.62 197.36 cluster 6 4 12 24.37 9.37 260.09 21.92 7.86 278.88 26.72 11.27 237.09 24.58 11.32 217.14 cluster 7 3 17 17.89 2.89 619.03 15.44 6.09 253.53 20.24 4.79 422.55 18.10 4.84 373.97 cluster 8 5 18 23.45 8.45 277.51 21.00 9.48 221.52 25.80 10.35 249.28 23.66 10.40 227.50 cluster 9 5 15 23.34 8.34 279.86 20.89 10.35 201.84 25.69 10.24 250.88 23.55 10.29 228.86 cluster 10 5 16 16.75 1.75 957.14 14.30 4.78 299.16 19.10 3.65 523.29 16.96 3.70 458.38 mean 5.40 15.60 21.67 6.47 421.44 19.22 7.31 274.66 24.02 8.57 313.82 21.88 8.62 282.00 *ls, line sowing; bc, benefit:cost ratio; bal fer, balance fertilizers; npk, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and herbherbicides. table 3. impact of improved agro-techniques on yield potential of small kodo millets (mean of ten years). target village farmer crop establishment nutrition varieties weed management ls bc increase % bal fert (npk) no fert increase % imp local increase % herb local increase % cluster 1 9.00 16.00 15.48 6.94 223.05 15.02 5.03 298.61 16.91 5.86 288.57 15.87 5.09 311.79 cluster 2 8.00 13.00 16.60 8.06 205.96 16.14 4.32 373.61 18.03 6.98 258.31 16.99 6.21 273.59 cluster 3 10.00 22.00 13.50 4.96 272.18 13.04 3.54 368.36 14.93 3.88 384.79 13.89 3.11 446.62 cluster 4 7.00 15.00 19.60 11.06 177.22 19.14 7.74 247.29 21.03 9.98 210.72 19.99 9.21 217.05 cluster 5 8.00 17.00 21.92 13.38 163.83 21.46 8.78 244.42 23.35 12.30 189.84 22.31 11.53 193.50 cluster 6 6.00 13.00 19.62 11.08 177.08 19.16 6.84 280.12 21.05 10.00 210.50 20.01 9.23 216.79 cluster 7 5.00 17.00 13.14 4.60 285.65 12.68 5.07 250.10 14.57 3.52 413.92 13.53 2.75 492.00 cluster 8 6.00 19.00 18.70 10.16 184.06 18.24 8.46 215.60 20.13 9.08 221.70 19.09 8.31 229.72 cluster 9 7.00 21.00 18.59 10.05 184.98 18.13 9.33 194.32 20.02 8.97 223.19 18.98 8.20 231.46 cluster 10 8.00 17.00 12.00 3.46 346.82 11.54 3.76 306.91 13.43 2.38 564.29 12.39 1.61 769.57 mean 7.40 17.00 16.92 8.38 222.08 16.46 6.29 277.93 18.35 7.30 296.58 17.31 6.53 338.21 *ls, line sowing; bc, benefit:cost ratio; bal fer, balance fertilizers; npk, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and herbherbicides. system would help to revive this in coming year as managed in this way. areas expansion became easier when it was linked with seed production programme on farmers’ field under rain fed condition for sustainability of small millets; whereas almost other cereals failed quite often table 4. impact of improved agro-techniques on yield potential of small little millets (mean of ten years). target village farmer crop establishment nutrition varieties weed management ls bc increase % bal fert (npk) no fert increase % imp local increase % herb local increase % cluster 1 6 13 12.48 3.94 316.75 12.02 3.25 369.85 13.91 1.29 1078.29 12.87 2.09 615.79 cluster 2 5 10 13.60 5.06 268.77 13.14 2.54 517.32 15.03 2.41 623.65 13.99 3.21 435.83 cluster 3 7 19 10.50 1.96 535.71 10.04 1.76 570.45 11.93 2.18 547.25 10.89 1.89 576.19 cluster 4 4 12 16.60 8.06 205.96 16.14 3.96 407.58 18.03 5.41 333.27 16.99 3.29 516.41 cluster 5 5 14 18.92 10.38 182.27 18.46 4.09 451.34 20.35 7.73 263.26 19.31 2.90 665.86 cluster 6 3 10 16.62 8.08 205.69 16.16 3.06 528.10 18.05 5.43 332.41 17.01 1.97 863.45 cluster 7 2 14 10.14 1.60 633.75 9.68 1.29 750.39 11.57 2.09 553.59 10.53 1.78 591.57 cluster 8 3 16 15.70 7.16 219.27 15.24 4.68 325.64 17.13 4.51 379.82 16.09 3.20 502.81 cluster 9 4 18 15.59 7.05 221.13 15.13 3.67 412.26 17.02 4.40 386.82 15.98 3.87 412.92 cluster 10 5 14 9.00 0.46 1956.52 8.54 3.45 247.54 10.43 2.08 501.44 9.39 2.16 434.72 mean 4.40 14.00 13.92 5.38 474.58 13.46 3.18 458.05 15.35 3.75 499.98 14.31 2.64 561.56 *ls, line sowing; bc, benefit:cost ratio; bal fer, balance fertilizers; npk, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and herbherbicides. due to vagaries of monsoon during crop period. it was a well-known fact that producers and consumers were similar in the past, leading people to grow in backyards or small spaces for personal consumption. however, with the guarantee of seed lifting, it transformed into a commercial enterprise. according to yadav et al. (2007) in their demonstration of pulses, the construction of a seed bank in the village is a crucial issue for preparing the production chain. productivity enhancement in comparison to local approaches used in surrounding fields, the technology adopted a higher yield level. productivity increased as a result of the best management strategies' exceptional performance. line planting, highquality seed production, and balanced fertilizer were shown to be the most effective management strategies for increasing productivity (20–25 q/ha for ragi, 15-20 q/ha for kodo millet, and 5-7 q/ha for tiny millet). however, compared to grain production, local agronomic methods may yield just 2 to 5 q/ha. converting as many areas as possible into productive ones by cultivating millets was a viable way to achieve environmentally acceptable management in the deteriorating agricultural environment (figure 7). singh et al.'s pulse demonstration produced a similar outcome (2005a). income enhancement although quality seeds like foundation and certified seeds were sold on farmers' fields for rs 30 to 40 per kg of produce through a buyback system under registration by the seed corporation, which led to farmers earning more money, income was undoubtedly increased when production of small millets increased and market demands peaked. previously, there was no value of lands because of the barren lands, but tables 5 to 7 demonstrate how quality seed production transformed those lands into productive lands. similar results were also observed by mukherjee (2003) and reddy (2010) in the case of revenue enhancement through field demonstrations using technologies that initially supported farmers. value addition effective communication with both farm and nonfarm individuals helped tiny millets gain popularity quickly. grain must be processed after it is produced in order to be transformed into consumable forms, such as basic cooking and ready to eat. it contains items that can be made at home, such as ragi malt for tribal women and finger millet multigrain flour, while other forms that need slight primary 6 figure 3. side drain line under water logging condition. figure 6. bullock drawn seed cum fertilizer sown little millet figure 4. beushening for weed suppression in finger millet. figure 5. pouring of seed and fertilizer in seed drill. figure 7. root growth under good tilth. processing like frying roasting etc was kept away in value addition of small millets, for which trainings and machinery support had been given them by linking other projects had the provision. according to singh et al. (2005b), secondary agriculture's engagement increased demonstration adoption. in the end, they partnered with sanjeevani, the department of forests in chhattisgarh, and created the avenue for its sale via self-help group stores. the processing centre of the selected villages was equipped with grinding machine, table 5. impact of technologies in income generation through seed and grain production of finger small millets in clusters. target seed production grain production areas coverage (%) cost of cultivation gross income net income b:c ratio cost of cultivation gross income net income b:c ratio income over grain production available upland previous at present cluster 1 21336 57372.28 36036.28 1.69 12071 30345 18274 1.51 111.57 53 12 44.0 cluster 2 22680 60548.60 37868.60 1.67 13415 32025 18610 1.39 120.36 45 13 45.0 cluster 3 18960 51757.00 32797.00 1.73 9795 27375 17580 1.79 96.38 32 15 47.0 cluster 4 26280 69056.60 42776.60 1.63 16915 36525 19610 1.16 140.40 54 16 48.0 cluster 5 29064 75636.12 46572.12 1.60 20799 48006 27207 1.31 122.50 43 23 55.0 cluster 6 26304 69113.32 42809.32 1.63 16939 36555 19616 1.16 140.54 37 18 50.0 cluster 7 18528 50736.04 32208.04 1.74 10263 26835 16572 1.61 107.66 65 21 53.0 cluster 8 25200 66504.20 41304.20 1.64 17935 42210 24275 1.35 121.10 54 19 51.0 cluster 9 25068 66192.24 41124.24 1.64 18803 39678 20875 1.11 147.77 36 16 48.0 cluster 10 17160 47503.00 30343.00 1.77 8095 25125 17030 2.10 84.05 45 20 52.0 mean 23058.00 61441.94 38383.94 1.67 14503.00 34467.90 19964.90 1.45 119.23 46.40 17.30 49.30 *ls, line sowing; bc, benefit:cost ratio; bal fer, balance fertilizers; npk, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and herbherbicides. table 6. impact of technologies in income generation through seed and grain production of kodo small millets in clusters. target seed production grain production areas coverage (%) cost of cultivation gross income net income b:c ratio cost of cultivation gross income net income b:c ratio income over grain production available upland previous at present cluster 1 14246 46868 32622.08 2.29 8679 26670.0 17991.0 2.07 181.32 61 10 42 cluster 2 20590 49820 29230.40 1.42 13023 28350.0 15327.0 1.18 190.71 53 11 43 cluster 3 16870 41649 24778.80 1.47 11303 23700.0 12397.0 1.10 199.88 40 13 45 cluster 4 24190 57728 33538.40 1.39 15623 32850.0 17227.0 1.10 194.69 62 14 46 cluster 5 26974 63844 36869.92 1.37 17407 36330.0 18923.0 1.09 194.84 51 21 53 cluster 6 24214 57781 33567.12 1.39 18647 32880.0 14233.0 0.76 235.84 45 16 48 cluster 7 16438 40700 24261.84 1.48 10871 23160.0 12289.0 1.13 197.43 73 19 51 cluster 8 23110 55356 32246.00 1.40 17543 31500.0 13957.0 0.80 231.04 62 17 49 cluster 9 22978 55066 32088.04 1.40 17411 31335.0 13924.0 0.80 230.45 44 14 46 cluster 10 15070 37695 22624.80 1.50 9503 21450.0 11947.0 1.26 189.38 53 18 50 mean 20468 50650.74 30182.74 1.51 14001.00 28822.50 14821.50 1.13 204.56 54.18 15.72 47.16 *ls, line sowing; bc, benefit: cost ratio; bal fer, balance fertilizers; npk, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and herbherbicides. table 7. impact of technologies in income generation through seed and grain production of little small millets in clusters. target seed production grain production areas coverage (%) cost of cultivation gross income net income b:c ratio cost of cultivation gross income net income b:c ratio income over grain production available upland previous at present cluster 1 7423.00 23652.24 16229.24 2.19 6278.00 16369.56 10091.56 1.61 136.01 46 8 29 cluster 2 9786.00 22120.80 12334.80 1.26 7641.00 14946.12 7305.12 0.96 131.84 38 9 30 cluster 3 7047.00 23964.20 16917.20 2.40 4902.00 16659.52 11757.52 2.40 100.09 25 11 32 cluster 4 11230.00 26176.28 14946.28 1.33 9085.00 18715.60 9630.60 1.06 125.55 47 12 33 cluster 5 10223.00 29267.52 19044.52 1.86 8078.00 21588.84 13510.84 1.67 111.38 36 19 40 cluster 6 9354.00 26488.24 17134.24 1.83 7209.00 19005.56 11796.56 1.64 111.94 30 14 35 cluster 7 10234.00 21468.52 11234.52 1.10 8089.00 14339.84 6250.84 0.77 142.06 58 17 38 cluster 8 9876.00 24531.40 14655.40 1.48 7731.00 17186.72 9455.72 1.22 121.33 47 15 36 cluster 9 9805.00 23680.60 13875.60 1.42 7660.00 16395.92 8735.92 1.14 124.09 29 12 33 cluster 10 8247.00 22064.08 13817.08 1.68 6102.00 14893.40 8791.40 1.44 116.29 38 16 37 mean 9322.50 24341.39 15018.89 1.65 7277.50 17010.11 9732.61 1.39 122.06 39.18 13.72 34.16 packing machine and stencils used in processing of small millets. three processing units are currently operational in bastanar, turenar, and narayanpur. due to their reliance on agriculture and the current farming system, tribal farmers are off-stream individuals who live outside of cities. this farming community has been targeted for agricultural improvement and extension during the past ten years, undergoing field visits, trainings, demonstrations, and other activities in order to improve the current system with positive outputs through farming in a sustainable way.. research output enhanced yield 1. an important agronomic technique aimed at improving soil health and productivity sustainability is intercropping ragi and kodo millets. 4:1 and 4:2 (ragi: pigeon pea) responded well in terms of generating revenue and bolstering the demand for pulses in addition to being profitable. according to poonia and pithia (2011), horse gram is an existing crop in the area that is chosen for intercropping. 2. the technique became lucrative when little millet and niger were planted consecutively because tiny millet is harvested in mid-kharif, or about august 20, and the soil moisture that remains can supply enough moisture to niger plants when they are rain-fed. in a zero-tillage technique, the niger crop is planted between harvested rows. profitability would be increased if the price of niger was 25 to 30 rupees per kilogram. 3. the poaceae family, which includes little millets, is renowned for conserving soil. because there are fewer obstacles to flow during the wet season, upland conditions encourage top soil erosion and runoff. farmers learned to cultivate little millets, which are always cultivated on well-draining, sloppy upland soil. crops must be planted in rows across the hill in order to fix the issue, which will take hours. 4. scooping is a technique that entails digging tiny ditches with a shovel every foot along the line between crop rows. in order to prevent short-term stress, the ditch assisted in water infiltration and extended the crops' duration of moisture availability by up to ten days. 4. the country plough's ability to run between rows would loosen the soil and suppress weeds at the same time, giving plants strength and yield-attributing qualities. 5. nitrogen administered as a top dressing 20 and 40 days after sowing helped to increase yield, while the initial application of phosphate and potash as basal improved usage efficiency. 6. compared to a blanket application of fym, a hill placement of fym and one nitrogen top dressing at 40 days allowed for adequate development and yield of tiny millets under rain-fed conditions. conflict of interests the authors have not declared any conflict of interests. 9 figure 8. bullock drawn seed cum fertilizer drill. figure 9. transplanting of finger millet behind desi plough. 10 figure 10. harvesting of finger millet by reaper at farmer’ field. references singh a, singh l, prasad r (2005a). pulse production under technology assessment, refinement and dissemination through kvks in u.p. paper presented in 3rd national extension education congress 2005 held at n.d.r.i. karnal from april 27-29. singh l, singh a, prasad r (2005b). response of demonstrations on pulses yield at kvks in uttar pradesh. paper presented in 3rd national extension education congress 2005 held at n.d.r.i. karnal from april 27-29. yadav vps, kumar r, dashwal ak, raman rs, sharma bk, bhela sl. (2007). boosting pulse production through frontline demonstration. indian res. j. ext. educ. 7(2&3):12-14. hiremath sm, nagaraju mv (2010). evaluation of on – farm front line demonstrations on the yield of chilli. karnataka j. agric. sci. 23(2):341342. jeengar kl, panwar p, pareek op (2006). front line demonstration on maize in bhilwara district of rajsthan. curr. agric. 30(1/2):115-116. mokidue i, mohanty ak, sanjay k (2011). corelating growth, yield and adoption of bean technologies. indian j. ex. educ. 11(2):20-24. mukherjee n (2003). participatory, learning and action. concept, publishing company, new delhi. pp. 63-65. poonia tc, pithia ms (2011). impact of front line demonstrations of chickpea in gujarat. legume res. 34(4):304-307. reddy aa (2010). regional disparities in food habits and nutritional intake in andhra pradesh, india, regional sectoral economic stud. pp. 10-12. samui sk, maitra s, roy dk, mondal ak, saha d (2000). evaluation on front line demonstration on groundnut (arachis hypogea l.). j. indian soc. coast. agric. res. 18:180-183. the because little millets can withstand water stress, drought, and erosion, they may be a better choice in areas with unpredictable rainfall and dry conditions where rice and other crops frequently fail. there were several upland areas in this area t... introduction results and discussion refined technologies nutrient management mechanization seed bank productivity enhancement income enhancement value addition research output enhanced yield conflict of interests 1 full length research paper natural enemies: harnessing biological control for sustainable agriculture dr. s. peer mohamed assistant professor, department of zoology, sadakathullah appa college (autonomous), rahmath nagar, tirunelveli-627011 affiliated to manonmaniam sundaranar university, tirunelveli, tamil nadu, india accepted 23 december, 2024 abstract biological control of pests is an essential component of sustainable agricultural practices, offering an eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides. this chapter explores the history, mechanisms, and effectiveness of biological pest control, emphasizing its role in integrated pest management (ipm). various natural enemies such as predators, parasitoids, and microbial agents are examined for their ability to regulate pest populations in different agricultural ecosystems. the study also highlights recent advancements, challenges, and future perspectives in the field. through a qualitative and quantitative assessment of research findings, the chapter underscores the benefits of biological control, including reduced environmental pollution, enhanced biodiversity, and longterm pest suppression. despite its advantages, biological control faces challenges such as inconsistent efficacy, slow action, and potential non-target effects. the chapter concludes with recommendations for optimizing biological control strategies and integrating them with other sustainable agricultural practices for enhanced effectiveness. keywords: biological control, pest management, natural enemies, sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, predators, parasitoids, microbial agents. introduction biological control of pests is a crucial strategy for sustainable agriculture, offering a natural alternative to chemical pesticides. this method relies on the use of living organisms, such as predators, parasitoids, and pathogens, to regulate pest populations. as concerns over environmental pollution, pesticide resistance, and ecological imbalances grow, biological control presents a viable solution that aligns with the african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-011, december, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. http://www.internationalscholarsjournals.org/ 2 principles of integrated pest management (ipm). the concept of biological pest control dates back centuries, with early examples documented in ancient chinese and egyptian civilizations. farmers observed that certain insects preyed on harmful pests, leading to natural pest suppression. over time, scientific advancements formalized this approach, and today, biological control is an essential component of modern agriculture. biological control methods can be classified into three major categories: classical, augmentative, and conservation biological control. classical biological control involves the introduction of natural enemies from a pest’s native habitat to new areas where the pest has become a problem. this method has been successfully used to control invasive species, such as the cottony cushion scale in california citrus orchards, which was managed by introducing the vedalia beetle (rodolia cardinalis). augmentative biological control involves the periodic release of natural enemies to enhance their population and effectiveness against pests. this method includes inoculative releases, where a small number of natural enemies are introduced early in the pest cycle, and inundative releases, where large quantities are released to suppress pests immediately. the use of predatory mites against spider mites in greenhouses is a prime example of augmentative biological control. conservation biological control focuses on modifying agricultural practices to support existing natural enemies, ensuring they thrive and effectively control pests. strategies include planting flowering plants to provide nectar for parasitoids, reducing pesticide applications that harm beneficial organisms, and maintaining habitat diversity to support predator populations. despite its advantages, biological control faces several challenges. unlike chemical pesticides, biological control agents often take longer to establish and suppress pest populations. additionally, their effectiveness may be influenced by environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and habitat conditions. in some cases, introduced natural enemies may not be able to adapt to new environments or may have unintended impacts on non-target species. research and continuous monitoring are essential to optimize biological control strategies and minimize risks. advancements in biotechnology and genetic engineering are shaping the future of biological control. researchers are exploring ways to enhance the effectiveness of natural enemies through selective breeding and genetic modifications. for example, scientists are investigating how to improve the efficacy of entomopathogenic fungi, which infect and kill insect pests, by enhancing their virulence and environmental adaptability. overall, biological control of pests is an indispensable tool for sustainable agriculture. by reducing reliance on chemical pesticides, it promotes environmental conservation, maintains ecological balance, and supports biodiversity. however, for biological control to be widely adopted, further research, education, and policy support are needed to integrate it effectively into pest management 3 programs. as global food security and environmental sustainability become more pressing concerns, biological control will play an increasingly important role in the future of agriculture.the study of biological pest control has gained considerable attention due to its environmentally friendly approach. this chapter delves into different biological control methods, addressing key questions such as the effectiveness of predators, parasitoids, and pathogens in controlling pest populations. literature review the biological control of pests has been extensively studied, with various researchers analyzing its effectiveness, mechanisms, and applications. over the decades, significant strides have been made in understanding how natural enemies contribute to pest suppression. this section reviews key literature, discussing historical perspectives, contemporary advancements, challenges, and gaps in research. historical perspectives on biological control the concept of biological control can be traced back to ancient civilizations, where farmers observed natural predators keeping pest populations in check. according to debach and rosen (1991), the first recorded use of biological control dates back to 304 ad in china, where ants were used to control citrus pests. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, efforts to use biological control became more structured. the introduction of the vedalia beetle (rodolia cardinalis) to control cottony cushion scale (icerya purchasi) in california citrus groves in the 1880s was one of the first successful examples of classical biological control (caltagirone, 1981). 4 mechanisms of biological control biological control employs three major mechanisms: classical, augmentative, and conservation methods.  classical biological control involves the introduction of natural enemies from a pest’s native habitat into new regions. according to van lenteren et al. (2006), classical biological control has been effective against invasive pests like the cassava mealybug (phenacoccus manihoti) in africa, controlled by the introduction of parasitoid apoanagyrus lopezi.  augmentative biological control enhances the population of beneficial organisms through periodic releases. studies by heinz et al. (2002) highlight the role of mass-reared parasitoids in greenhouse pest management.  conservation biological control modifies environmental conditions to promote existing natural enemies. gurr et al. (2017) discuss the importance of habitat management, such as intercropping and reduced pesticide usage, in fostering predatorprey relationships. effectiveness and limitations research indicates that biological control is effective in reducing pest populations, yet challenges persist. barbosa (1998) argues that while natural enemies can suppress pests, their efficiency is influenced by environmental factors such as climate and habitat conditions. studies on microbial biopesticides by lacey et al. (2015) show promising results, but their widespread adoption remains limited due to formulation challenges and high costs. case studies on biological control success several case studies highlight the effectiveness of biological control in various agricultural systems:  the introduction of cotesia flavipes in sugarcane fields to control stalk borers has significantly improved yields (kfir et al., 2002).  the use of bacillus thuringiensis (bt) in controlling lepidopteran pests has been extensively documented (bravo et al., 2007).  ladybird beetles and aphid control: research by dixon et al. (2000) demonstrates the effectiveness of coccinellidae species in regulating aphid populations in cereal crops. gaps in research and future directions while significant advancements have been made, gaps remain in understanding the longterm ecological impacts of biological control. according to eilenberg et al. (2001), more research is needed to assess the non-target effects of introduced natural enemies. additionally, there is a need for greater integration of biological control with other pest management strategies, including genetic approaches and biotechnological innovations. 5 the literature on biological control of pests underscores its effectiveness and challenges. from historical applications to modern-day successes, research has consistently highlighted the potential of natural enemies in sustainable agriculture. however, the implementation of biological control strategies requires ongoing research, innovation, and policy support to overcome existing limitations and enhance their global applicability. results the results of this study highlight the significant impact of biological control methods on pest population reduction across different agricultural ecosystems. the study analyzed the effectiveness of various biological control agents, including predators, parasitoids, and microbial agents, and their ability to regulate pest populations sustainably. overview of biological control effectiveness the findings suggest that biological control methods can effectively suppress pest populations by up to 90%, depending on the type of pest and the biological control agent used. the study focused on five common agricultural pests: aphids, whiteflies, spider mites, thrips, and caterpillars. the results are summarized in the table below: pest reduction (%) natural enemy used 6 aphids 85% ladybird beetles whiteflies 78% encarsia formosa spider mites 90% predatory mites thrips 80% orius insidiosus caterpillars 88% bacillus thuringiensis graphical representation of results the bar chart above illustrates the percentage reduction in pest populations due to biological control methods. among the studied pests, spider mites showed the highest reduction (90%) when predatory mites were introduced, while whiteflies had the lowest reduction (78%) when controlled by encarsia formosa. 7 effectiveness of different biological control strategies 1. predators as biological control agents  ladybird beetles were highly effective in controlling aphid populations, leading to an 85% reduction. similar results have been observed in previous studies (dixon et al., 2000).  orius insidiosus significantly reduced thrip populations by 80%, making it an essential component of ipm strategies. 2. parasitoids as pest regulators  encarsia formosa was used to control whitefly populations, reducing them by 78%.  cotesia flavipes was observed to effectively control sugarcane borers, demonstrating successful field applications (kfir et al., 2002). 3. microbial control methods  bacillus thuringiensis (bt) showed significant effectiveness in controlling caterpillars, reducing populations by 88%.  entomopathogenic fungi, such as beauveria bassiana, were effective in controlling aphid and thrip populations but required specific environmental conditions for optimal effectiveness (lacey et al., 2015). comparative analysis: biological vs. chemical control 8 to better understand the advantages of biological control, a comparative analysis was conducted between biological and chemical pest control methods. the following graph represents the effectiveness and environmental impact of both methods. from the comparative analysis, it is evident that biological control provides a sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides while ensuring minimal environmental impact. although chemical pesticides can provide immediate pest reduction, their long-term environmental consequences and resistance development in pests make biological control a more favorable approach. environmental and economic benefits of biological control the adoption of biological control not only aids in pest management but also contributes to ecological balance and economic sustainability. key benefits include:  reduced environmental pollution: unlike chemical pesticides, biological control does not contaminate soil and water sources.  sustainability: encourages biodiversity by maintaining natural enemy populations.  cost-effectiveness: while initial implementation may be expensive, long-term benefits outweigh costs, especially for smallholder farmers.  resistance management: reduces the likelihood of pests developing 9 resistance, a common issue with chemical pesticides. challenges and limitations despite its advantages, biological control faces some limitations:  time requirement: unlike chemical pesticides, biological control takes longer to establish pest suppression.  environmental dependency: the effectiveness of biological control agents is influenced by temperature, humidity, and habitat conditions.  predator-prey imbalance: overreliance on a single control agent may lead to imbalances in the ecosystem. future directions and research needs future research should focus on:  developing genetic modifications in natural enemies to enhance their efficacy.  enhancing habitat conservation strategies to support natural enemies.  integrating ai and remote sensing for real-time pest monitoring and biological control implementation. conclusion the study confirms that biological control methods play a critical role in sustainable pest management. while challenges exist, the long-term benefits make biological control a viable alternative to chemical pesticides. with continued research and improved implementation strategies, biological control can significantly contribute to global agricultural sustainability. reference 1. barbosa, p. 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(2015). innovative methods in biological pest control. biocontrol science and technology, 25(4), 1241-1252. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn 2375-1061 vol. 9 (2), pp. 001-007, february, 2021. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper detection and diagnosis of tomato leaf curl virus infecting tomato in northern karnataka reddy, a. b.1*, patti, m. s.1, reddy, k. m.2 and venkataravanappa, v.2 1 department of plant pathology, uas, dharwad-05, india. 2 division of plant pathology, iihr, hesaraghatta, bangalore-89, india. accepted 02 november, 2020 tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) is an important and most widely grown vegetable crop in india. the begomo viruses’ affecting tomato in india is the most devastating and is a major limiting factor in the tomato production. the tomato leaf curl virus (tolcv) was present in almost all fields of belgaum, dharwad and haveri districts surveyed with the disease incidence ranged from 4-100% in rabi and was in severe form ranging from 60-100% during summer. all the five representative symptomatic samples collected from the different regions of north-karnataka were found positive for polymerase chain reaction (pcr) amplification with specific primers for deoxyribonucleic acid (dna); a component of tomato leaf curl bangalore virus (tolcbv). to examine the diversity of the sequences, phylogenetic trees were generated for the four cp sequences together with representative sequences available in gene bank. the isolates under study clustered into two groups. the dharwad isolate and belgaum2 isolate were closely related (99.4% nucleotide similarity) and formed in to one cluster in which haveri and belgaum-1 isolates had comparatively less homology (97.30% nucleotide homology) between themselves and clustered into another sub group. the isolates under study had lowest nucleotide sequence homology of 53.50 to 53.90% with tolcv 19.patna (aj 810358) followed by tolcv 18.malvastrum.pa (aj 810357) (53.50-54.00%), tolcv 17. nasik (aj 810356) (53.90-54.30%), while they had highest homology of 92.40-96.00% with tolcbv-avt 1 (ay 428770). the results revealed that these isolates are entirely different from north indian isolates and there is some variability within the isolates collected from a geographical location, indicating that there will be continuous variability in gemini viruses. key words: tolcv, detection, diagnosis, cloning, nucleotide sequence. introduction tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) is an important and most widely grown vegetable crop in india. virus diseases are the major production constraints. among the virus diseases, tomato leaf curl disease; tomato leaf curl bangalore virus (tolcbv), tomato leaf curl new delhi virus (tolcndv), tomato leaf curl karnataka virus *corresponding author. e-mail: arb_agri@yahoo.co.in. abbreviations: tolcv, tomato leaf curl virus; pcr, polymerase chain reaction; dna, deoxyribonucleic acid; tolcbv, tomato leaf curl bangalore virus; tolcndv, tomato leaf curl new delhi virus; tolckv, tomato leaf curl karnataka virus; tolcgv, tomato leaf curl gujarat virus; tlcb, twolined chestnut borer; orf, open reading frame. (tolckv) and tomato leaf curl gujarat virus (tolcgv) are the important begomo viruses which limit the tomato production. the begomo viruses affecting tomato in india are the most devastating and the early work on the geographical distribution of twolined chestnut borer (tlcb) species within india has shown that the begomo viruses affecting tomato in northern india are bipartite and those affecting tomato in southern india are monopartite (muniyappa et al., 2000; kirthi et al., 2002). these two groups of viruses are quite distinct in their biological activity and genomic organizations. the incidence of tolcv has become a major limiting factor and challenge to farmers and scientists. the tropical climate in southern india allows year-round tomato cropping, which together with the presence of perennial host plants for both tlcbs and b. tabaci 2 (ramappa et al., 1998; sastry et al., 1978), enables the easy carry-over of tolcd between growing seasons. until the late 1990s, the main control method employed against tolcd was the intensive use of insecticides targeted at viruliferous immigrant adult b. tabaci that spread tlcbs into and within tomato crops. the existence of variability among the virus isolates is the main reason for the break down of resistance in the ruling varieties. in order to manage the deployment of these resistant varieties to improve the efficacy of the tolcd-resistant material, an improved understanding of the diversity and distribution of tlcbs present in a region is required. though the disease has been known for quite a long period with a good amount of literature on various aspects of the disease, the information regarding the extent of diversity among the different isolates of the tolcv in the tomato growing areas of north karnataka was lacking. considering that the present work is initiated in identification of tolcd isolates in north karnataka and development of reliable detection method suitable for development of various management strategies. materials and methods survey for disease incidence a roving survey was conducted during rabi 2005 and summer 2006 in major tomato growing districts of north karnataka. in each visited field, a plot area of 10 x 10 m area was selected and the total number of plants and infected plants showing leaf curl symptoms was recorded separately and the percent disease incidence was calculated. three such plot areas were selected randomly in each field and mean of three plots was calculated. the overall disease incidence and severity was recorded based on visual symptoms. collection of tolcv isolates and dna extraction a survey was undertaken to collect the samples of tolcv and the leaves and twigs exhibiting typical symptoms were collected from all the fields visited in belgaum, dharwad, gadag and haveri districts of north karnataka. the samples showing some variations in symptoms within a cultivar were chosen for further analysis. the total deoxyribonucleic acid (dna) was extracted from the representative field samples, following standard dna extraction protocols of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide method (srivatasva et al., 1993). the extracted dna was quantified for the concentration and was diluted appropriately in sterile distilled deionised water before being subjected to polymerase chain reaction (pcr) amplification using tomato leaf curl specific primers. pcr amplification and cloning the total dna extracted was used for pcr amplification of tolcv dna. further, the pcrs were carried out in 25 µl of reaction mixture containing dna template (50-60 ng) -1.0 µl, deionised nuclease free water-16.0 µl, 10x pcr buffer (supplied with enzyme)-2.5 µl, 2 mm dntps -2.0 µl, 25 mm mgcl2 2.0 µl and primersforward primer (20 pmol/µl)0.5 µl, reverse primer 20 pmol/µl) -0.5 µl and taq dna polymerase (1.5 u/µl) 0.5 µl. all the reaction components were procured from mbi fermentas, germany. the pcr amplification was carried out in a thermal cycler (biometra) with initial-denaturation at 94°c for 2 min followed by 35 cycles each consisting of denaturation at 94°c for 45 s, annealing at 55°c for 1 min followed by extension at 72°c for 1.30 min with final extension at 72°c for 20 min. amplified dna fragments were electrophoresised in 0.8% agarose gel according to the procedure outlined by sambrook and russel (2001). sequence of tomato leaf curl specific primers used forward primer (tolcbv33f): 5’ ggt ccc ctc cac taa atcat 3’ (20 nt) reverse primer (tolcbv1070r): 5’cag ttg gtt aca gaa tcg tag aag 3’ (24 nt) cloning of pcr product after gel elution of amplified dna fragment using gel extraction kit (qiagen, germany), the pcr amplified dna fragment was cloned into the plasmid vector ptz57r/t using t/a cloning kit (mbi, fermentas) following the manufacturer's instructions. the vector also contains the ampicillin resistant gene for antibiotic selection and the lacz gene that allows blue/white selection of recombinant colonies by a αcomplementation. ligation was carried out at 22°c for 16 h. the ligation mixture was used for transformation. the competent cells of escherichia coli strain dh5 α were prepared by calcium chloride method as described by sambrook and russel (2001). screening of clones colony pcr was carried out by using the specific primers to confirm the clones carrying the insert. the confirmed colonies were then grown in 3-5 ml lb containing ampicillin (100 mg/ml) at 37°c overnight in a rotary shaker at 100 rpm. plasmid mini-preparation was done from the culture by alkaline lysis method as described by sambrook and russel (2001). after confirmation of the presence of inserted dna, the clone was named as ptz57r+cp and the isolates were named based on the geographical location from which it was collected. sequencing of the cloned insert after successful confirmation of the presence of expected insert in the clone, the plasmid dna was isolated in large scale using plasmid extraction kit (qiagen gmbh, hilden, germany) and sequenced using the automated sequencing facility at microsynth, switzerland. sequencing was done in both directions using m 13 forward and reverse primers in an abi prism 377 dna sequencer (mwg biotech limited). sequence analysis the complete coat protein sequences of tolcv isolates from various geographical locations were obtained from ncbi (table 1). for sequence comparison, published nucleotide and amino acid sequences from related viruses of gemini group were used. genebank (benson et al., 1996) searches were done using the blast program (altschul et al., 1990). the nucleotide sequences were translated to amino acid sequences using the bioedit program and the open reading frame (orf) was also determined using bioedit program. dendrogram and phylogenetic analysis was 3 table 1. reference geminivirus sequences and their genbank accession numbers. designation region/country genebank source tlcgv-kelloo gujarath, india af449999 tolcgv-nepal gujarath, india ay234383 tlcgv-varnasi varnasi, india ay190290 tolcgv-vadodara vadodara, india af413671 tolcv19.patna patna, india aj810358 tolcv17.nasik nasik, india aj810356 tolccv-g18 aj558119 tolcv18.malvastrum.pa aj810357 cryvmv aj507777 siyvv-madurai madurai, india am259382 tolcndv-severe new delhi, india u15015 sylcv aj620187 tolcndv-pkt1/8 new delhi, india af448059 tlcndv-lucknow lucknow, india y16421 tolcndv-pkt5/6 new delhi, india af448058 tolcndv-mild new delhi, india u15016 tolcndv-potato new delhi, india ay286316 tolcndv-avt1 new delhi, india ay428769 tolcndv-s[jessore] new delhi, india aj875157 tlcndv-luffa new delhi, india af102276 sqlccv-[pumpkin_coimb coimbatore, india ay184487 tolcv-32.tirupati tirupati, india aj810371 tolcv2.assam assam, india aj810341 tolcv-9.tomato.calcut calcutta, india aj810348 loymv af509739 tolcbv-bangalore bangalore, india z48182 tolcv27.thrissur.kera thrisur, india aj810366 vs228.haveri haveri, india tolcbv-tnau1 tamil nadu, india dq358098 tolcv24.ranibennur ranebennuru, india aj810363 tolcv7.belgaum belgaum,india aj810346 vs229.belgaum1 belgaum,india vs226.dharwad dharwad, india vs230.belgaum2 belgaum,india tolcbv-tnau2 tamil nadu, india dq358099 tolcbv-kolar kolar, india af428255 tolcbv-avt1 ay428770 tolcv-30.maderahalli. maderahalli, india aj810369 tolcv-ban5 bangalore, india af295401 tolcbv-cotton bangalore, india ay456684 tolcv-ban4 bangalore, india af165098 tolcslv srilanka af274349 |tolckv-ban2 bangalore, india u38239 tolckv.arskeri arsikeri, india ay753203 tolcv3.aurangabad aurangabad, india aj810342 tolcv-tagetes dq339120 tblcv-kar1 ay007615 chlcv-[multan] pakistan af336806 tolcnd-prm dq629103 clcubv ay705380 mayvv-[y47] aj457824 4 table 1. contd. slcmv-tn6 aj890228 icmv-mah maharastra, india aj314739 tolcv28.ageratum.ke aj810367 tolcbdv.bd2 bangalore, india af188481 palcv-pd dq376036 tolcjov aj875159 peplcbv bangalore, india af314531 eulcv-[g35] aj558121 clcukv-dabawali kokhran ay456683 byvmv-[madurai] india af241479 clcuav-[802a] alababad aj002455 clcumv-[bhatinda_05] dq191160 clcurv [india_abohar] india ay795606 tolcv-taiwan u88692 mymiv-[cowpea] af481865 msv-a mastrevirus table 2. district wise distribution of disease (tolcv) incidence during 2005-06. s/n district percent (%) disease incidence minimum maximum average rabi-05 1 belgaum 4.00 75.00 25.83 2 dharwad 5.00 60.00 45.00 3 gadag 8.00 20.00 16.00 4 haveri 8.00 100.00 33.43 summer-06 1 belgaum 60 100 80 2 dharwad 90 100 95 3 gadag 60 90 75 4 haveri 75 90 87 constructed by neighbour joining method using the tree view program. results detection of tomato leaf curl (begomo) virus in field samples of tomato incidence summer reveals that tolcv was present in severe form ranging from 60-100% in almost all the major tomato fields surveyed. distribution of tlcbs in north karnataka (pcr detection) the survey data of the rabi season revealed that the tolcv was present in almost all parts of belgaum, dharwad, gadag and haveri. disease incidence ranged from 4-100% and was maximum in hiremathuru (100.0%) of haveri taluk, uas campus (100.0%), sidenur (70.0%) of byadgi taluk, itagi (60.0%) of ranebennur taluk of haveri district and hulikppa (60.0%), kalaghattagi taluk of dharwad district (table 2). while the survey data on all the five symptomatic representative samples collected from the different regions of north-karnataka were found positive for pcr amplification with specific primers for dna; a component of tolcbv. these primers amplified a  1040 bp product. these primers produced expected results on the five samples for which cp sequences had been obtained. table 3 shows the pcr amplification results of the five representative samples used for screening using tolcbv primers of dna-a. 5 table 3. pcr detection of tolcv in the tomato samples collected from different regions of north karnataka. s/n place variety/hybrid date of collection pcr detection 1 uas campus (dharwad) megha 6-12-05 + 2 honnihalli (hukkeri tq) (belagao) hy 2535 5-12-05 + 3 hattaragi (hukkeri tq) (belagao) utsav 5-12-05 + 4 hiremuttur (hirekerur tq) (haveri) sungro seeds 12-12-05 + 5 bikadakatti (gadag tq) (gadag) sungro seeds 3-12-05 + cloning and sequencing of coat protein gene of tomato leaf curl virus isolates the coat protein gene was amplified by pcr and amplified product was eluted from the gel and ligated to ptz57r/t of size 2.4 kb with t-overhang. transformation of e.coli strain dh5 α was done with ligation mixture. the bacterial clones carrying the recombinant dna molecules were colorless and could easily be distinguished from the non-recombinant blue colonies. further, the clones carrying the coat protein gene were analyzed and confirmed by colony pcr, which produced about 1.0 kb product as resolved and analyzed by gel electrophoresis. the clones were sequenced using m13 universal forward and reverse primers. sequence analysis and phylogenetics to examine the diversity of the sequences, phylogenetic trees were generated for the four cp sequences together with representative sequences available in gene bank. the tree was constructed using clustal-w multiple alignments programme (figure 1). the isolates under study clustered into two groups. the dharwad isolate and belgaum2 isolate were closely related (99.4% nucleotide similarity) and formed into one cluster (figure 1) and haveri and belgaum-1 isolates had comparatively less homology (97.30% nucleotide homology) between themselves and clustered into another sub group (figure 1). the isolates under study had lowest nucleotide sequence homology of 53.50-53.90% with tolcv 19.patna(aj810358)followedbytolcv 18.malvastrum.pa (aj 810357) (53.50-54.00%), tolcv 17. nasik (aj 810356) (53.90-54.30%). while they had highest homology of 92.40-96.00% with tolcbv-avt 1 (ay 428770). however, within the isolates under study, haveri isolate (vs 228) had highest nucleotide sequence homology (97.30%) with belgaum-1 (vs 229) and had lowest homology (95.1%) with belgaum-2 (vs-230) isolate. the belgaum –1 (vs 229) had highest homology (97.30%) with haveri isolate (vs 228) and lowest (96.30%) homology with the belgaum-2 (vs230). the dharwad isolate had highest homology of 99.40% with belgaum-2 (vs-230) isolate and had lowest homology of 95.60% with the haveri isolate (vs 228), while the belgaum-2 (vs230) isolate had lowest homology of 95.10% with haveri isolate (vs 228). from figure 1, it could be concluded that all the isolates under study, collected from north karnataka were entirely distinct from the north indian (gen bank accessions) (tlcgv-varnasi (ay190290)average of 69.20% homology, tolcv19.patna (aj810358)average of 53.60% homology and tolcv18.malvastrum.pa (aj810357) – average of 53.80% homology), north eastern (tolcv 2.assam (aj810341) average of 57.00% homology) and north western indian (tolcgvvadodara (af413671) average of 69.0% homology) isolates. however, the isolates under study had less homology with only few south indian isolates (tolcv30.maderahalli (aj810369) average of 72.15% homology and tolcv-24. ranebennur (aj810363) average of 71.97% homology). but these had highest homology of 96.00% with the south indian isolate, tolcbv-avt1 (ay428770). the homology with south indian begomo viruses was ranging from 63.90% with tolckv. arsikeri (ay753203) isolate to 96.00% with tolcbv-avt-1 (ay428770) isolate. however, they have got more than 90% homology with majority of the south indian isolates. genetic relationship of tolcv based on amino acid sequence to look at the functional diversity of the cps, their nucleotide sequences were translated into amino acid sequences. amino acid sequence similarity identity reveals that all the isolates under study had highest amino acid homology 97.60-99.60% with tolcv ban-5 (af295401) and tolcbv-cotton (ay456684) followed by tolcv 27 thrissur. kerala (aj810366). while the lowest homology of 42.90-43.30% was found with siyvvmadurai isolate (af259382) followed by tolccv-g18 (aj558119) with 71.2-71.9% homology. discussion the tests on the samples collected during survey revealed that the tolcv was present in all the fields visited based on the symptoms in the field and also by 6 figure 1. dendrogram showing clustering pattern of nucleotide sequences of tolcv coat protein gene from different geographical locations. pcr amplification in the laboratory. cp genes represent the most conserved gene in the family geminiviridae and cp sequences can be used as preliminary virus identification or to infer geographic and vector relationships (brown et al., 2001). the phylogenetic analysis of the four cp sequences obtained from north karnataka samples showed that they are all closely related to the isolates from south india (ban-04, ban-05, tolcbv-cotton and tolcbv-tnau 2). however, there is only slight variation among the isolates under study and there is greater variation when compared with the isolates/accessions (genbank) from north india, north eastern india and also of north western india. percentage identity figures for members within each cluster were in agreement with the criteria of <90% cp nucleotide identity representative in general of different geminivirus species (faquet and stanley, 2003). however, recently recombination between begomovirus dna-a molecules has been reported to be a frequent occurrence (fondong et al., 2000; kirthi et al., 2002; zhou et al., 1997). although the sequencing of the full length dna-a component is desirable, a partial sequence approach based on cps was adopted to enable a wider scale study to be conducted on indian tlcbs diversityand phylogeography. the isolates under study had very close (95.10-99.6%) homology among themselves with respect to nucleotide sequence, they belonged to one group and they show very wide variation of up to 46.50% divergence with respect to nucleotide sequence with some of the north 7 indian tolcv 17. nasik (aj 810356), tolcv 19.patna (aj 810358) isolates and only with few south indian isolates like tolcv-30.maderahalli (aj810369), tolckv. arsikeri (ay 753203) and tolcv3.aurangabad (aj 810342). and high amino acid homology of 96.8-99.6% among themselves and up to 57.10% with siyvvmadurai (am259382) amino acid sequence diversity with the other north indian isolates of begomo viruses and up to 29.00% diversity with tomato isolate tolccv-g18 (aj 558119). similar results were reported by few workers (padidam et al., 1995), where he sequenced the genomes of two isolates of tomato leaf curl geminivirus from india (tolcndv-mild and tolcndv-severe). the tolcv-indian isolate contains a and b components and the two isolates have 94% sequence identity. srivastava et al. (1993) compared the amino acid sequence of the putative coat protein product of tolcndvlucknow with some other mono and bipartite gemini viruses and revealed a maximum of 86% homology with indian cassava mosaic virus. similarly, few authors (shimizu and ikegami, 1999) reported that in total nucleotide sequence comparisons with other gemini viruses, tomato leaf curl virus was most closely related to tomato leaf curl virus from taiwan (twtolcv) (76% identity), tomato leaf curl virus from bangalore (tolcv-ban) (74%) and ageratum yellow vein virus (ayvv) (74%), all possessing a monopartite genome. the full length 2759 nucleotide long dna-a like viral genome was sequenced and sequence comparisons indicated that tolcv-ban4 is similar to the other three isolates from bangalore previously sequenced and is closely related to tolcv-ban2 (approximately 91% nucleotide sequence identity). phylogenetic analysis showed that the tolcv isolates from bangalore constitute a group of viruses separated from those of northern india (muniyappa et al., 2000). the diversity and distribution of begomo viruses in tomato in northern karnataka determined in this study are therefore are likely to only represent general trends and understands true situation. a cp sequence represents the most conserved region of the begomo virus genome and hence there is least diversity among the isolates studied. however, when we compared these isolates with the other tolcv isolates from kolar district (aj810369|tolcv-30.maderahalli), which is a highly potential area for commercial cultivation of tomato and also the area of first report of b-biotype in india, it has got only around 72.00% nucleotide homology. this indicates that there is diversity among the gemini viruses infecting tomato with in the state. breeders working towards the incorporation of begomovirus resistance genes into tomato must take into account the high degree of genetic diversity among tomato leaf curl viruses in karnataka. a given resistance gene might be extremely effective against a particular begomovirus species and totally ineffective against distinct unrelated species. also, the rate of evolution of begomoviruses seems to be quite fast (padidam et al., 1999), leading to the quick emergence of new strains or species that might overcome resistance genes. the durability of resistance based on a single gene is therefore questionable. the genetic diversity of begomoviruses present in a region must be taken into consideration, in order to orient breeding programs towards resistance to the species prevalent in each region. acknowledgements authors wish to thank mr. salil jalali (technical officer), ms. p. swarnalatha, senior research fellow at indian institute of horticulture research, bangalore for their assistance in carrying out this piece of work. references altschul sf, gish w, miller w, mysers ew, lipman dj (1990). basal local alignment search tool. j. mol. biol., 215: 403-410. benson da, boguski m, lipman dj, oslei j (1996). gene bank. nucleic acid res., 24: 1-5. brown jk, idris am, torres-jerez i, banks gk, wyatt sd (2001). core region of coat protein is highly useful in establishing the provisional identification and classification of begomoviruses. arch. virol., 146: 1581-1598. faquet cm, stanely j (2003). geminivirus classification and nomenclature: progress and problems. ann. appl. biol., 142: 165189. fondong vn, pita js, rey mec, de kochko a, beachy rn, fauquet cm (2000). evidence of synergism between african cassava mosaic virus and a new double recombinant geminivirus infecting cassava in cameroon. j. general virol., 81: 287-297. kirthi n, maiya sp, murthy mrn, savitri hs (2002). evidence of recombination among the tomato leaf curl virus strains/species from bangalore, india. arch. virol., 147: 255-272. muniyappa v, venkatesh hm, ramappa hk, kulkarni rs, tarba cy, ghanim m, czosnek h (2000). tomato leaf curl virus from bangalore (tolcv-ban4): sequence comparison with indian tolcv isolates, detection in plants and insects, and vector relationships. arch. virol., 145(8): 1583-1598. padidam m, beachy rn, faquet cm (1995). tomato leaf curl geminivirus from india as a bipartite genome and coat protein is not essential for infectivity. j. general virol., 76: 25-35. padidam, m, sawyer s, faquet cm (1999). possible emergence of whitefly transmitted gemini viruses by frequent recombination. virology, 265: 218-224. ramappa hk, muniyappa v, colvin j (1998). the contribution of tomato and alternative host plants to tomato leaf curl virus inoculum pressure in different areas of south india. ann. appl. biol., 133: 187198. sambrook, j. russel dw (2001), molecular cloning; a laboratory manual, second edition, cold spring harbour, laboratory press, usa. sastry ksm, singh sj, sastry ks (1978). studies on epidemiology of tomato leaf curl virus. indian j. horticult., 35: 269-277. shimizu s, ikegami m (1999). complete nucleotide sequence and the genome organization of tobacco leaf curl gemini virus from japan. microbiol. immunol., 43(10): 989-992. srivastava km, hallan v, raizada rk, chandra g, singh bp, sane pv (1993). molecular cloning of indian tomato leaf curl virus genome following a simple method of concentrating the supercoiled replicative form of viral dna. j. virol. methods, 51(2-3): 297-304. zhou x, liu y, calvert l, munoz d, otim-nape gw, robinson dj, harrison bd (1997). evidence of dna-a of geminvirus associated with severe cassava mosaic disease in uganda has arisen by interspecific recombination. j. general virolol., 73: 2101-2111. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-011, january, 2024. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper analyzing the resistance factors in pneumatic bicycle wheels for optimal performance f. b. akande1*, d. ahmad1, o. b. jamarie1, s. sulaiman1 and a. b. fashina2 1 faculty of engineering, universiti putra malaysia, 43400 upm serdang, selangor, de. malaysia. 2 department of agricultural engineering, ladoke akintola university of technology, ogbomoso, nigeria. accepted 12 november, 2023 four pneumatic bicycle wheels of diameters 405 mm (16"), 510 mm (20"), 610 mm (24") and 660 mm (26") were tested on three different test surfaces (paved surface, grass field and tilled (sandy-clay loam) soil at selected tyre inflation pressures of 276 kpa (40 psi), 337.5 kpa (50 psi) and 414 kpa (60 psi) with varied (added) dynamic loads of 98.1 n (10 kg), 196.2 n (20 kg), 392.4 n (40 kg) and 588.6 n(60 kg) respectively. the motion resistances of these wheels at various dynamic loads and the selected inflation pressures were compared, to identify the wheel with the lowest motion resistance. on all the test surfaces, the 660 mm diameter recorded the lowest motion resistance measured with an average of 16 out of the 36 total number of test outcomes. the 660 mm diameter wheel, if used, has the potential to increase the pull (draft) and can be used in the development of simple, easy to maintain and low-cost agricultural machines with narrow wheels; as traction member for the low-income farmers and the rural dwellers to boost their agricultural productivity. key words: motion resistance, test surfaces, pneumatic bicycle wheel, narrow wheel, inflation pressure, dynamic loads. introduction agricultural mechanisation is the bedrock of any developing and the underdeveloped countries’ economy, to take care of their teeming population in terms of food production and to provide employment in the rural areas where the largest population resides. however, the agricultural mechanisation strategies of developing and the developed countries are not identical and the adoption of such by the developing nations has failed because of the misplaced strategies and wrong adoption processes. some of the reasons are unavailability of funds to procure agricultural equipment, land fragmentation and lack of technical know-how on maintenance and repair of such equipment. therefore, simple and low-cost appropriate machines will help to increase the agricultural productivity of the agricultural mechanisation development in developing countries is a key solution to increased agricultural productivity and economic survival (akande et al., 2008). narrow wheels are defined as wheels with sectional width ranging from 35 mm to 100 mm. these include bicycle wheels, motorcycle wheels and motor scooter wheels. these narrow wheels could be pneumatic, rigid, pneumatic-lug, rigid lug or the non-lug rigid and pneumatic wheels within the category. in the tractive performance of offroad vehicles, motion resistance otherwise called rolling resistance is a major factor in the determination of the drawbar pull of agricultural vehicles. therefore, vehicle designers will like to minimise the motion resistance, in order to reduce the energy wasted to overcome the motion resistance with a view to achieving higher pull according to equation 1 (macmillan, 2002) (macmillan, 2002): *corresponding author. e-mail: fbukkyakande@yahoo.com. ph−r (1) 2 p is the drawbar pull (n), h is the tractive force (n) and r is the motion resistance (n). motion resistance is defined as the force opposing the motion of a free rolling wheel in contact with a surface. motion resistance also refers to the resistance to motion of a wheel caused by the absorption of energy in the contacting surfaces of the wheel and the soil upon which the wheel rolls (plackett, 1985; macmillan, 2002). motion resistance may be described as, the total drag opposite to the steady motion of a free rolling wheel across a horizontal surface. usually, the motion resistance is expressed in terms of motion resistance ratio. thus, mathematically, the motion resistance ratio is as expressed in equation 2 (arregoces, 1985) r   q (2) r is the motion resistance force suffered by the wheel and q is the normal (dynamic) load on the wheel. the performance characteristics of a towed wheel are described usually by a towing force (motion resistance), sinkage and skid. the most pertinent parameter of the towed pneumatic wheel is the rolling (motion) resistance, which is influenced by the tyre design, system parameters and terrain characteristics. in studying the soil-wheel interaction, the behaviour of the soil and the most important design parameters of the wheel form the basic inputs and need to be quantitatively defined (pandey and tiwari, 2006). traditionally, design parameters of the tyre include overall diameter of the wheel, section width, section height, tyre inflation pressure and load-deflection relationship. all these are considered to have varying degrees of influence on the tyre-soil interaction (wong, 1984). the terrain characteristics include the type of soil, soil moisture content and its compaction level. the system parameters comprise the dynamic load on the wheel and the forward velocity (tiwari and pandey, 2008). this paper is aimed at identifying the wheel with the lowest motion resistance out of the four test wheels on all the test surfaces under consideration when all the wheels are subjected to the same conditions of inflation pressures and dynamic loads. it will also suggest the best inflation pressures and dynamic loads at which the minimum motion resistance can be achieved on all the test surfaces, and which of the surfaces has the lowest motion resistance. the rolling (motion) resistance test rig a motion resistance test rig for traction studies on towed narrow wheel has been developed to investigate the offand onroad performances of narrow wheels with emphasis on motion resistance. the test rig is relatively simple, portable and suitable for both laboratory and field motion resistance studies for narrow wheels. it has the following features: 1. it is portable and collapsible (assembling and dismantling) for ease of movement to the field and in the laboratory. 2. it is made from readily available materials such as hollow pipe, angle iron and mild steel that make it simple to construct, repair or replace. 3. it can accommodate various narrow wheels in the specified categories without any modification. 4. the data acquisition system can easily and readily be powered by batteries which can last for 48 runs (tractor travels) before being recharged. the motion resistance rig was designed to measure the towing force of a single test wheel when towed by a tractor. the towing force is equal to the motion resistance of the wheel. the motion resistance of different narrow wheels can easily be measured with this device on various terrains to obtain new design information for narrow wheels especially the non-lug type under the specified categories. the test rig (figure 1) is hitched to the tractor via the three-point hitch connecting links and the tractor towed the test rig over the selected test surface at a predetermined velocity of 4.44 km/h. this velocity is assumed to be the optimum velocity at which bicycle can be operated in off-road condition and this was used throughout the tests. the test rig comprises the frames and the data acquisition systems. the frame is divided into two parts, the first part holds the test wheel and the second part is hitched to the tractor three-point hitch on top of which is placed the mecmesin basic force gauge (model bfg 2500) (newton house, spring copse business park, stane street, slinford, west sussex, rh 13 7sz) for data acquisition for onward signal transfer to the notebook pc. the data acquisition system the data acquisition system for the test facility comprised the basic force gauge (bfg) that is rs-232 interfaced to hewlett packard (hp) dv6000 notebook personal computer with installed mecmesin data plot software. the complete data plot software is capable in real time to record the measured compression or tension forces per unit time as specified and a plot of the graph showing the forces measured in desired units against time intervals. the average towing force over time is read from the 3 figure 1. the complete test rig with the data acquisition system on paved surface. 1-test wheel, 2-load hanger, 3added load, 4the basic force gauge, 5three-point hitch frame, 6connecting cable and 7notebook pc. table 1. specifications of pneumatic bicycle wheels. tyre size overall diameter sectional designation mm (in.) width mm (in.) 26" x 1.9" 660 (26) 48 (1.9) 24" x 1.9" 610 (24) 48 (1.9) 20" x 1.9" 510 (20) 48 (1.9) 16" x 1.9" 405 (16 ) 48 (1.9) graph (plot). materials and methods tyre selection/tyre parameters four pneumatic bicycle wheels of different sizes were selected for this study. the tyre dimensions are as shown in table 1. the inflation pressure range according to the manufacturer’s specification is between 240 kpa (35 psi) to 450 kpa (65 psi). test surfaces the test surfaces considered in this study were the paved road (figure 1), grass field (figure 2) and the tilled sandy-clay soil (figure 3). the first two test surfaces represent the available road for rural dwellers and farmers, for the transportation of their farm produce from the farm to the house or directly from the farm to the market. the tilled sandyclayloam soil is considered for the offroad performance to obtain design information for simple agricultural machinery and or equipment with these narrow wheels figure 2. test on grass field. at affordable price for lowincome farmers to boost their agricultural productivity. the three test surfaces were located within the premises of the universiti putra malaysia (upm). 4 figure 3. test on tilled sandyclay-loam soil. table 2. analysis of total dynamic loads. wheel diameter weight of wheel dynamic loads levels (n) total vertical loads (n) inches ( mm) and the frame (n) 16" (405) 21.88 (214.64) 98.1 196.2 392.4 588.6 312.74 410.84 607.84 803.24 20" (510) 22.18 (217.59) 315.69 413.79 609.99 806.19 24" (610) 22.50 (220.73) 318.83 416.93 613.13 809.33 26" (660) 22.52 (220.92) 319.02 417.12 613.32 809.52 table 3. test treatments on each surface. d1 d2 d3 d4 d1p1l1 d2p1l1 d3p1l1 d4p1l1 d1p1l2 d2p1l2 d3p1l2 d4p1l2 d1p1l3 d2p1l3 d3p1l3 d4p1l3 d1p1l4 d2p1l4 d3p1l4 d4p1l4 d1p2l1 d2p2l1 d3p2l1 d4p2l1 d1p2l2 d2p2l2 d3p2l2 d4p2l2 d1p2l3 d2p2l3 d3p2l3 d4p2l3 d1p2l4 d2p2l4 d3p2l4 d4p2l4 d1p3l1 d2p3l1 d3p3l1 d4p3l1 d1p3l2 d2p3l2 d3p3l2 d4p3l2 d1p3l3 d2p3l3 d3p3l3 d4p3l3 d1p3l4 d2p3l4 d3p3l4 d4p3l4 test variables the test variables as stated earlier are: (1) the pneumatic bicycle wheel of diameters, 405 mm (16"), 510 mm (20"), 610 mm (24") and 660 mm (26"). (2) considering the manufacturer’s specification on the inflation pressure and knowing fully from past researchers that, tyre life will be shortened by under-inflation as well as over-inflation (elwaleed, 1999). therefore, three levels of inflation pressures of 276 kpa (40 psi), 345 kpa (50 psi) and 414 kpa (60 psi) were selected. (3) dynamic loads acting on the test wheel and (4) the three test surfaces. the weight of the frame with each test wheel was measured with multi-function bench scale (model and hw -100k) and recorded. four levels of loads of 98.1 n, 196.2 n, 392.4 n and 588.6 n were used during the investigative studies. each of these levels of load was added to the weight of the frame, holding the test wheel making up the vertical loads under consideration and the summary of the dynamic (vertical) loads for each of the test wheels in table 2. the added dead weights (dynamic load levels) are designated as l1, l2, l3 and l4 corresponding to 98.1 n, 196.2 n, 392.4 n and 588.6 n respectively. the tyre inflation pressures of 40 psi (276 kpa), 50 psi (345 kpa) and 60 psi (414 kpa) were respectively denoted as p1, p2, and p3. while, d1, d2, d3 and d4 represent 16" ( 405 mm), 20" (510 mm), 24" (610 mm) and 26" (660 mm) test wheels, respectively. on each test surface, there were 48 treatment combinations, 12 per wheel and a 2 x 2 factorial design was followed, in which the surface and the wheel size were constant and the dynamic load and the tyre inflation pressure were varied, to measure the motion resistance. table 3 shows the treatment combinations on each test surface. prior to the tests, preliminary tests were done to determine the average towing speed to be used for the tests. a tractor (fiat 640 2wd) was used to determine the average speed by varying the low and the high gear at the selected engine rpm over a measured distance of 40 m and with a mitutoyo stop watch of 0.01 s resolution (sensitivity) until the desired velocity 5 (speed) of 4.44 km/h, was achieved which was used for all the tests. tilled soil properties, some physico-mechanical properties of the undisturbed soil at 20 cm depth were determined before the tests were carried out on the loose soil, in accordance with the astm d4318 ( 2005). the following are the summary of the properties of the soil: textural classification – sandyclay-loam (60 sand, 32 clay, 8% silt) soil bulk density – 1.48 to 1.72 kg/m 3 (mean = 1.55 kg/m 3 d.b) liquid limit – 28.06% db plastic limit – 11.14 to 24.26% (mean = 17.09% db). moisture content range10.75 to 28.95% wb cone index (ci) range of the test tilled surface – 0.6 to 1.8 mpa (mean ci = 1.1 mpa). test surface preparation the preparation for data acquisition on the different test surfaces differ. the paved surface was located within the faculty of engineering, upm, at the same surface where speed tests were carried out. a test area of 60 x 2 m was demarcated and the start and the end points were marked out. the tests were conducted in one direction only. on the grass field located at taman pertanian universiti (tpu), the test area of 45 x 4 m was demarcated for the tests and the same travel direction was used for all the test wheels and the test variables. the starting and the end points were also marked as for the paved surface. the undisturbed soil of 45 x 20 m was first ploughed and after 48 h, the rotavator was used to break the large clods into smaller soil clods similar to soil bed preparation ready for planting operation. the loose soil was left for another 3 days before the tests commenced. fifteen (15) echo dielectric aquameter were buried randomly on the test plots for at least 18 h before taking the moisture contents of the field prior to motion resistance tests (traction data acquisition) for that day. the average soil moisture content was then calculated and the range was as stated above. since it was difficult to get a large area of land for this test, considering the number of test runs, after the completion of two pressure levels (experimental runs at 276 and 344 kpa), the field was re-prepared by using a rotavator, to make the soil surface even and loose, to ensure uniform test conditions. the distance of tractor travel during the test from the starting to the end point was set as 35 m, for all the tests conducted on the loose soil. procedure for data acquisition the tractor towing the test rig was prepared to be in a very good condition for the test. the test rig was assembled (that is, the test wheel was fixed to the test rig). the first level of vertical load (10 kg) was screwed to the load hanger and the first level of inflation pressure (276 kpa) was maintained. the data acquisition system was put on, to facilitate real time data transfer to the data plot software installed on the notebook for data acquisition. the distance of the test (starting and the end point) was marked. the tractor was allowed to attain a steady speed of 4.44 km/h, as stated above before the starting point and the start icon on the data plot environment was also initiated and the real time data acquisition of measuring the towing force (n), against the time taken (seconds) in the form of force –time graph, was taken progressively until at the end point when the stop icon was also clicked, to stop the data transfer and the plot. the minimum, maximum and the average towing force (motion resistance) was obtained from the data plot. each of the treatments was replicated three times and the average was taken, at least 95% of the measured data, around the mean (µ ± 2δ). statistical analysis analysis of variance (anova) was used to test whether there is significant difference between the means of the measured motion resistance on the three test surfaces (factor 1) and the four pneumatic wheels of different sizes (factor 2) and the interactions between the two factors. this test was divided into three categories,, based on the 3 levels of tyre inflation pressure and four levels of added dynamic loads per pressure level. results and discussion the analysis of variance at 95 to 99% confidence levels showed that, there are significant differences between the mean of the motion resistance measured on all the three test surfaces, under the three levels of inflation pressures and the four levels of dynamic loads. however, at 95% confidence level, there were significant differences between the observed means of motion resistance among the different wheel sizes tested but no significant difference exists between the means of the different wheel sizes and their interactions with test surfaces at 196.2 n (added load) and 276 kpa (tyre inflation pressure) and at 98.1 n, 392.4 n (added loads) and 345 kpa (tyre inflation pressure). at all levels of added loads and 414 kpa tyre inflation pressure, there were significant differences between the means of the motion resistance on the test surfaces and within the test wheels and their interaction. based on the anova, 9 out of 12 outcomes showed significant differences between the two factors (test surfaces and the wheel sizes) and out of this 9, 67% of the lowest motion resistance was recorded against the 660 mm (26") while the remaining 33% was recorded against the 610 mm (24"). this implied that, the larger the diameter the smaller the motion resistance as the smaller wheels recorded the highest motion resistance. figures 4 to 12 show the graphical representations of the motion resistances of the four wheel sizes, according to the diameter of the wheels as 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the three test surfaces, under three levels of inflation pressures and four levels of additional loads. motion resistance on paved surface figures 4 to 6 show the motion resistances obtained on paved surface at inflation pressures of 276 kpa (40 psi), 345 kpa (50 psi) and 414 kpa (60 psi), respectively. the measured motion resistance ranged from 3.6 n to 20.4 n being the minimum and the maximum motion resistances on that surface. the 3.6 n corresponds to the motion 6 m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n 20 15 10 5 0 405 510 610 660 overall wheel diameter (mm) figure 4. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 276 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on paved surface. 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 20 15 10 5 0 405 510 610 660 overall wheel diameter (mm) figure 5. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 345 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on paved surface. 98.1 n 196.2 392.4 588.6 n m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 20 15 10 5 0 405 510 610 660 overall wheel diameter (mm) figure 6. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 414 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on paved surface. 7 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n (n ) 20 re s is t an ce 10 15 m o ti o n 5 0 405 510 610 660 overall wheel diameter (mm) figure 7. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 276 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on grass field. 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 20 15 10 5 0 405 510 610 overall wheel diameter (mm) 660 figure 8. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 345 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on grass field. resistance of 510 mm (20") wheel at 276 kpa (40 psi) inflation pressure when a load of 98.1 n was added to the test rig frame, making a total dynamic load of 315.69 n. the motion resistance of 20.4 n corresponds to the motion resistance of 405 mm (16") at 345 kpa (50 psi) inflation pressure when a load of 588.6 n (60kg) was added (total dynamic load of 803.24n). fifty-eight percent of the outcome revealed that, the 660 mm (26") wheel had the lowest occurring motion resistance, most of which occurred at higher inflation pressure (415 kpa) and higher added loads (588.6 n). this implies that more pull can be achieved using a larger wheel at higher vertical (dynamic) loads (taylor et al., 1967) and higher pressure in narrow wheels; although, the higher pressure may not be advisable in broader or wider wheels. seventeen percent of the outcomes showed that, the 510 mm (20") wheel had the lowest occurring motion resistance, taking place at low level of inflation pressure but at lowest level of vertical load of 98.1 n (10 kg). the remaining twenty-five percent were observed from the 610 mm (24") wheel occurring at higher pressure level and average dynamic loading. no lowest motion resistance was recorded for the smallest 405 mm (16") wheel, considering the outcomes closer to the least occurring ones, the 660 mm (26") diameter was found to be closer in values to the other two wheels. hence, it can be concluded that on this surface, at higher inflation pressure the larger the wheel, the lower the motion resistance at higher loads. motion resistance on grass field the motion resistances measured on the grass field under the same test, as on the paved surface, are as shown in figures 7 to 9 in increasing levels of inflation pressures. the values of the motion resistances on the grass field ranged from 4.1 n to 15.7 n, being the minimum and the maximum motion resistances obtained 8 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 20 15 10 5 0 405 510 610 overall wheel diameter (mm) 660 figure 9. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 414 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on grass field. m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n 200 150 100 50 0 405 510 610 660 overall wheel diameter (mm) figure 10. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 276 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on tilled sandy-clay-loam soil. on the grass field. the minimum corresponds to the measured motion resistance of 510 mm (20") wheel at 50 psi when an additional load of 98.1 n was placed on the test rig, making a total dynamic load of 315.69 n, while the 405 mm (16") wheel had the maximum motion resistance at 414 kpa (60 psi) and 588.6 n (60 kg) additional load (total dynamic load of 803.24 n). on this surface, 42% of the lowest occurring motion resistance was measured with the 510 mm (20") wheel occurring at all levels of inflation pressure and at the first two levels of additional loads while wheels 610 mm (24") and 660 mm (26") had 33 and 25%, respectively of the lowest occurring motion resistances at all levels of inflation pressure but at higher 392.4 n (40 kg) and highest 588.6 n (60 kg) of additional loads. the closeness of the motion resistance values of wheels 610 mm (24") and 660 mm (26") to the 510 mm (20") wheels values was also 40:60. this indicates that, the motion resistance decreases with increase in diameter, as no lowest motion resistance was measured against the 405 mm (16") wheel. from this surface, it cannot be generalised that, the larger the diameter the smaller the motion resistance, but it can be concluded that, as in the case of the first surface, that at higher inflation and higher vertical loads, the larger wheels give low motion resistances. motion resistance on tilled soil motion resistances measured on the tilled sandy-clayloam soil for all the four pneumatic wheels under the same test variables of inflation pressures and vertical loads used on the first two test surfaces, are as illustrated in figures 10 to 12. the motion resistances measured on this surface ranged from 23.9 n to 176.9 n, being the lowest and the highest motion resistance recorded on this surface. the minimum motion resistance was measured with 660 mm (26") wheel, at 414 kpa (60 psi) and 98.1 n additional loads (total dynamic load of 319.02 n). 9 (n ) 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n 200 m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e 150 100 50 0 405 510 610 overall wheel diameter (mm) 660 figure 11. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 345 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on tilled sandy-clay-loam soil. 98.1 n 196.2 n 392.4 n 588.6 n 200 m o ti o n r e s is ta n c e ( n ) 150 100 50 0 405 510 610 660 overall wheel diameter (mm) figure 12. motion resistance of pneumatic bicycle wheels at 414 kpa pressure and 4 added loads on tilled sandy-clay-loam soil. fifty-eight percent of the lowest occurring motion resistance were measured against the 660 mm (26") wheel at 345 kpa (50 psi) and 414 kpa (60 psi) inflation pressures and at all levels of additional loads except at p3l3, where the 610 mm (24") wheel had the lowest motion resistance, making a total of 42%, the lowest motion resistance measured against the 610 mm (24") wheel. the bulk of these lowest motion resistances were measured at 276 kpa (40 psi) and all load levels of additional loads. the 660 mm (26") wheel had values close to the 610 mm (24") wheel and vice-versa. this implies that on the tilled sandy-clay-loam soil, the lowest motion resistances were measured in larger wheels at almost all levels of test variables, as the 405 mm (16") and 510 mm (20") wheels had the highest motion resistances. summary of results there were 12 outcomes per test wheel per surface as shown in table 3; each of these treatments was present in all the wheels on each test surface. hence, a comparison was made among each corresponding treatment in each wheel. on each test surface, there were 12 outcomes representing the single wheel with the lowest motion resistance and this has been identified in previous subsections on the three test surfaces. figure 13 shows the frequency (degree) of occurrence of lowest motion resistances by all the test wheels in all the test surfaces. there were 36 outcomes from the three test surfaces and the 660 mm (26") wheel has the highest degree (frequency) of occurrence in the combined test surfaces. it has the highest on surfaces 1 and 3. the 510 10 405 mm 510 mm 610 mm 660 mm 170.48% 0, 0% 70.19% 70, 19% 170.48% 170, 48% 120 120, .33% % figure 13. degree of occurrence of lowest motion resistance of test wheels. mm (20") and 610 mm (24") wheels had the same frequency (degree) of lowest occurring motion resistances on the test surfaces but the 510 mm (20") wheel had the highest on surface 2, but the 610 mm (24") wheel was closer to the 660 mm (26") wheel on surface 3. it can be inferred that the larger wheels have the lowest occurring motion resistances in all the test surfaces which shows that, the larger the diameter, the smaller the motion resistance especially on off-road condition. reducing the average motion resistances (outcomes) to 12 by finding the averages in the three test surfaces, 75% of the lowest occurring motion resistances were recorded against the 660 mm (26") wheel while the remaining 25% were recorded against the 610 mm (24") wheel. this showed that the lager wheels have lowest occurring motion resistances. the motion resistances measured on the paved and grass field were within the same range of less than 20 n with the highest on the paved surface. however, the minimum on the tilled soil was just 24 n and the maximum was 176 n, which implies that the motion resistance on the tilled soil is almost 10 times greater than those obtained on the grass field and the paved surfaces. this could be as a result of the deformable nature of the loose soil which resulted in more energy in the contacting surfaces between the wheel and the soil upon which the wheels roll. generally, with increase in added dynamic load, the motion resistance also increases; this could be seen in figures 4 to 12. it was observed that with the smallest wheel which had the highest motion resistance in all the tested surfaces, the motion resistance at higher pressures and highest dynamic load (additional load) reduced because at low pressures and higher loading, the tyre flexing could contribute to higher motion resistance. the inflation pressures may not have any effect on the motion resistance in most cases because as the inflation pressures increased, the motion resistance either increased or decreased without a constant pattern. previous findings as reported by macmillan (2002), inns and kilgour (1978) and taylor et al. (1967) showed that for wider agricultural tyres of different sizes on different terrains, the rolling resistance (now motion resistance) and the motion resistance ratios (then coefficient of rolling resistance) of the wheels decreased with increase in overall wheel diameter. this shows that, the results obtained from this study are not at variance with their findings. however, the motion resistance obtained on freshly cultivated loam was higher than those obtained on concrete and grass field. motion resistances of wider tyres on grass and concrete were very close, although, higher on grass field than on the concrete surface (inn and kilgour, 1978). gee-clough (1980) in his studies on the selection of tyre sizes for agricultural vehicles found out that, the tractive performance of agricultural tyres increases with increase in wheel diameter. a similar result was also obtained from the studies with narrow wheels. as it could be observed from this study, the added dynamic loads had a direct relationship with the motion resistances obtained on all the test surfaces and at every level of tyre inflation pressure, a similar finding was also reported by arregoces (1985) and burt et al. (1989). conclusions the motion resistances of the four pneumatic bicycle wheels have been measured on paved surface, grass field and tilled sandy-clay-loam soil with the minimum on the paved surface and the maximum on the tilled sandyclay-loam soil. the motion resistances measured on the paved and the grass field were in the same range. however, motion resistance on the tilled sandy-clay-loam soil was about 10 times greater than those obtained on the two other surfaces. the 660 mm (26") wheel has been identified to have the highest frequency of lowest motion resistance compared to the other wheels (610 and 510 mm) with 33 and 19% respectively, of lowest occurring motion resistances while 660 mm (26") wheel had 48%. the 405 mm (16") wheel had the highest occurring motion resistances in all the surfaces tested. the 510 mm (20") wheel had the highest occurring motion resistances on the grass field. the 660 mm (26") wheel had the lowest occurring motion resistances at higher inflation pressures of 345 kpa (50 psi) and 414 kpa (60 psi) and at higher dynamic loads on all the tested surfaces while the 510 mm (20") 11 wheel has the lowest occurring motion resistances at all inflation pressure levels and lower vertical loads. from the conclusions, design information for low-cost, easy to maintain agricultural machinery with narrow wheels as traction members for offand on-road usages can be obtained. acknowledgements this research project is classified under institute of higher learning, ihl (frgs-fundamental research grant scheme) 1/ 2007 kos 55235435.ihlrm7 irpa project no. 01-02-04. the authors are very grateful to the authority of the universiti putra malaysia for granting the fund for this research project and the technical staff in the department of biological and agricultural engineering central workshop, for their contribution and assistance during the process of developing the test rig. references akande fb, ahmad d, hadi s, samsuddin s, fashina ab (2008). status of research on narrow wheels. paper presented at malaysian scientist and technologist conference (mstc, 2008), 16-17th december, 2008, at klcc, malaysia. arregoces a (1985). rolling resistance of bicycle wheels: measurement and trends investigation. unpublished master thesis. silsoe college, silsoe, bedfordshire. uk. astm d 4318 (2005). american society for testing and material, standard test methods for liquid limit. plastic limit, and plasticity index of soils dodrechtlondon: kluwer academic pub. burt ec, wood rk, baily, ac (1989). effects of dynamic loads on the normal soil-tyre interface stresses. trans. asae. 32(6): 1843-1846. elwaleed ak (1999). motion resistance, net traction ratio, and tractive efficiency of riceland type tyre. unpublished master thesis, biological and agricultural engineering, faculty of engineering., universiti putra malaysia, serdang, selangor, malaysia. gee-clough d (1980). selection of tyre sizes for agricultural wheels. j. agric. engr. res., 25: 261-278. inns fm, kilgour j (1978). agricultural tyres: principle of off highway mobility. dunlop limited, pp. 26-36. macmillan rh (2002). mechanics of tractor-implement performance; theory and worked examples. a textbook for students and engineers. http://www.eprints.unimelb.edu.au (accessed 03/07/2009). pandey kp, tiwari g (2006). rolling resistance of automobile discarded tyres for use in camel carts in sand. paper presented at 2006 annual international meeting of asabe, 9-12 july, 2006, at oregon conventional centre portland, oregon. plackett cw (1985). a review of force prediction methods for off-road wheels. j. agric. engr. res., 31(1): 1-29. taylor jh, vanden bge, reed if (1967). effect of diameter on the performance of powered tractor wheels. trans. asae 10(6): 838-842. tiwari gs, pandey kp (2008). performance prediction of animal drawn vehicle tyres in sand. j. terramech., 45(6): 193-200. wong jy (1984). the study of wheel-soil interaction. j. terramech., 21(2): 117-131. 1 in ternationa l scholars journa ls african journal of agricultural marketing issn: 2375-1061 vol. 11 (2), pp. 001-005, february, 2023. available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © international scholars journals author(s) retain the copyright of this article. full length research paper contextual analysis of teff marketing: empirical evidence from halaba, lomie, shenkora na minjar and tahtay maichew larry williams and kelvin smith accepted 11 february, 2023 abstract grain marketing in ethiopia is important for the agricultural sector as it is the largest of all the agricultural markets, and it involves a large number of participants. since the adoption of the new economic policy in 1991 in ethiopia, agricultural markets have been reformed and prices of commodities are determined through market mechanisms. though teff marketing was practiced for decades in the study areas, and there are studies on the quantitative aspects of the teff value chain, it is not well supported by qualitative research. thus, the aim of the study is to qualitatively and systematically examine the situation of teff marketing in ethiopia from smallholder farmers’ and stakeholders’ perspective. the researchers used a multistage sampling to select top teff producing regions, districts, and kebeles.in this regard, four teff producing districts were purposively selected from four different regions. moreover, a total of eight kebeles were purposively selected from the four districts. in gathering empirical data, about 84 focus group participants were purposively selected from eight kebeles. moreover, about 25 key informants were purposively selected from district, regional, federal level officials, and wholesalers. a systematic review of scientific journals and documents were used to assess previous studies. content analysis was used to code and categorize the qualitative data and to generate the key themes. the survey result indicates that teff is a cash crop value. the government is following free market economy and farmers are free to sell their crops. however, the teff marketing in ethiopia largely relies on traditional practices and the farmers are not getting benefits as much as they deserve to be. thus, it is recommended that the government should create an enabling environment for the participation of farmers in teff marketing and develop strategies for modernizing the market. keywords: ethiopia, cooperatives, government, price, smallholder farmers, teff marketing, transport facilities 1. introduction in many poor developing countries, agriculture constitutes the backbone of the economy (fao 2012). according to andrew, jonathan, jamie and ian (2003), agriculture is an important part of the livelihoods of many poor people, and it is frequently argued that agricultural growth is a fundamental pre-requisite for widespread poverty reduction. in this regard, a large proportion of the small and marginal farmers gain 2 their livelihoods through production on small pieces of land whereby majority of families, in both the farm and non-farm sectors, derive their livelihoods from agriculture (acharya 2006). strengthening smallholder agriculture is argued to remain important strategy for economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries but its development is challenged by the need for institutional innovations to overcome market failures (world bank (2007) and hazell, poulton, wiggins &dorward (2010)). in sub-saharan africa, subsistence agricultural producers face several barriers to gain access to markets and productive assets (alene, manyong, omanya, mignouna, bokanga, & odhiambo, 2007). the lack of access and absence of required storage facilities leads to local price reduction at harvest time because all the poor farmers are obliged to sell their produce at the same time to generate income (burney, &naylor 2011). in the process of selling the agricultural products, farmers face many challengessuch as weak market linkages (farmers are unable to take advantage of the deficit markets because the markets are poorly coordinated), asymmetry of information (transacting parties do not have equal information), high transaction costs (costs associated with information, negotiation and monitoring and costs of transferring the products or inputs being traded such as transportation costs and the time spent delivering the product to the market) (bihon 2015). the vast majority of households in ethiopia live in rural areas and agriculture is still the main economic activity and they earn their livelihoods primarily from agriculture. in this regard, agriculture in ethiopia is dominated by smallholder farming households that cultivated 94percent of the national cropped area in 2013/14 (fantunisraneet al 2015). the agricultural sector, which is stunned by subsistence smallholder farmers, is the primary source of livelihood for the majority of the population and the basis of the national economy (azebet al 2017). they rarely produce for the market and are highly dependent on climate for their subsistence (efaet al 2017). in order to improve the performance of the agricultural sector in ethiopia, different strategies have been adopted since 1970s. according to desalegn et al (1998) most strategies have focused on increasing agricultural productivity at the farm level through the dissemination of improved production technologies, while the marketing aspect of agriculture was relatively neglected. it is only recently that the country adopted a market reform policy with the objective of improving agricultural market performance and reducing food insecurity through enhancing market efficiency (desalegn et al 1998). the ethiopian economics association (eea) (2005) indicated that since the adoption of the new economic policy in 1991 in ethiopia, agricultural markets have been reformed and prices of commodities are determined through market mechanisms. the pasdep (plan for accelerated and sustained development to end poverty)plan (mofed 2006) focuses on the development of agriculture both as a source of production for direct consumption and as raw materials for industrial processing. the plan is to accelerate the transformation from subsistence to a more business/market-oriented agriculture. as a result of such favorable conditions, a large number of small holder producers are growing a variety of cereal products for the local market. marketing is not simply an extension of the production process, but as mentioned by glahe referring the work of adam smith in his text the wealth of nations (1776), said that: “consumption is the sole end purpose of all production, and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer” (glahe 1978). marketing refers to the series of services involved in moving a product (or commodity) from the point of production to the point of consumption (enibe, chidebelu et al. 2008; abdullah and hossain 2013). agricultural marketing is defined as the performance of all business activities involved in the flow of food products and services from the point of initial agricultural production until they are in the hands of consumers (meulenberg 1997; siskos, matsatsinis et al. 2001). in this regard, the participation of producers is crucial for the success of agricultural marketing.market participation refers to the extent to which a household participates in the market as a seller (jagweet al 2010). participation means any situation which involves the exchange of goods for money, regardless of location. the findings of seneshaw (2013) indicates that grain marketing in ethiopia is important for the agricultural sector for two reasons: (1) it is the largest of all the agricultural markets, based onvolume of output and the geographical area covered; and (2) it involves a large number of participants in production, trade, transportation, storage, and retail. in this regard, agricultural growth can promote growth in food production that can raise real incomes for the poor by reducing food prices (diao, hazell et al. 2010). considering the marketing of agricultural commodities in ethiopia, one of the major cereal crops is teffwhereby it involves more than 6.7 teff producers and more than 50 million consumers. 3 teff (eragrostistef) is the most important cereal in terms of both production and consumption in ethiopia (fao 2015). it is a major staple food crop in ethiopia, as measured by a number of indicators such as acreage, harvesting and consumption. research results of demeke and marcantonio (2013) indicated that teff accounts for the largest share of the cultivated area (28.5% in 2011). it is grown by 6.7 million smallholder households in ethiopia and is cultivated on more than 3 million hectares of land, which represents one-third of total cereal acreage and about one fifth of the gross cereal grain production with production of 52.8 million quintals of teff crops (csa 2017/18).this higher and relatively more stable price is one of the main reasons for growing teff, primarily as the source of cash crops (habtegebrial and singh 2006). however, due to inefficiency in marketing and associated value chain problems, the country is not benefiting from teff marketing and its opportunities. the marketing system in which the actors participate and operate influences the incentives of the participants with different implications on the performance of the sector. the marketing system is important for producers, traders, and consumers make and it necessary to study the marketing system of the crop both for economic and political reasons (getnet 2007; minten, tamru et al. 2013; abraham 2015). considering its market value which is often two or three times higher than maize (the grain with the largest volume of production), teff covers the largest share of the total value of cereal production. teff marketing systems are complex combinations of activities, functions and relations (production, handling, storage, transport, processing, packaging, wholesaling, retailing, etc.) that enable the country to meet its food requirements. these activities are performed by different economic agents such as food producers (farmers), assemblers, importers, transporters, wholesalers, retailers, processors, shopkeepers, street vendors, providers of services (such as credit, storage, information and extension), packaging suppliers and public institutions. they all need infrastructure, facilities, services and laws as well as formal regulations to govern their decisions (olivio& cecilia 2005). according to birara (2017), the marketing problem of teff were identified as poor market linkages, collusion of buyers on price setting, high transport cost, unavailability and poor quality of packaging materials, adulteration, and inconvenient taxation system. also, food value chains are characterized by many layers of traders between producers and consumers, leading to inefficiency (masters 2008; world bank 2009). as per the technical report of fao (2015), the teff value chain is long and involves too many small operators. the supply market is also fragmented as a result of the small volume handled by traders and the limited number of large scale buyers. it involves input suppliers, producers, traders (local assemblers and wholesalers), retailers, processors and consumers. the marketing chains are long and involve too many operators who rarely provide marketing services beyond transport and storage. however, the price of teff has remained relatively high because of the high demand resulting from rising incomes, high rates of urbanization and rapidly increasing export demand for fresh injera and smuggling to neighboring countries (fao 2015). on the other side, the growing demand for local foods is presenting new opportunities for smallholder agricultural producers(matthew and todd 2009). on the other side, the modernization of the global retail food system has raised fears that smallholder farmers may be increasingly marginalized (jayne & elliot 2010). thus, understanding the relative benefits of enabling environment forteff marketing is important to maximize farm performance (matthewand todd2009). in most developing countries, there exist various drivers that are changing food demand. these drivers include most importantly rapid urbanization, income growth, changing lifestyle and female participation in the workplace, as well as increasing access to better food technologies (such as refrigerators, microwave ovens, and gas stoves (bart et al 2013). on the other side, these modifications in the supply chain ultimately influence the rural producer’s production environment; their livelihood might change due to the different crops that they grow as well as the impact of changes in input and output prices (bart, seneshaw, ermias& tadesse 2015). in this regard, daniel roduner (2007) stated that globalization does not only patch up market gaps and brings producers and consumers closer together; it also brings regional and international competition into local markets. he also mentioned that any agricultural production not consumed by the farmers’ families is a product in the market (local to international) and competes today with products coming from nearby or far away. therefore, all farmers offering their products for sale are instantly part of a value chain (katia c., longin n.,& alberto z., 2012). farmers produce teff for market and some authors indicate that the average marketable surplus of teff ranges between 26 to 75 % of the harvested crop (fufa, behute et al. 2011; gideon 2016). however, farmers in developing countries like ethiopia are under intense pressure for enhancing their market orientation due to the increasing demand for agricultural commodities on domestic markets and abroad. in this regard, some authors such as coleman (1999) argued that smallholder farmers are not benefiting 4 from the share of the consumer price and they are not producing and selling in an organized system like cooperatives and thus part of their benefit may transfer to the middlemen. in studying the teff marketing in ethiopia, the technical report of fao documented that the value chain of the teff crop is very long and it involves a lot of actors such as input suppliers, producers, traders (local assemblers and wholesalers), retailers, processors and finally consumers (fao 2009). similarly, hyjin lee (2018) argued that teff value chain in ethiopia largely relies on traditional practices and the teff market is limited by the government’s export ban. in this regard, identifying the factors that limit the participation of smallholder farmers in teff marketing requires rigorous empirical studies. though teff marketing was practiced for decades in the study area and there are studies on the quantitative aspects of the teffvalue chain, it is not well supported by qualitative research. thus, the aim of the study is to qualitatively and systematically examine the situation of teff marketing in ethiopia from smallholder farmers’ and stakeholders’ perspective.having first-hand information about the enabling environment of teff marketing at district level is essential to devise appropriate strategies aimed at enhancing its value chain. in this regard, the paper tries to analyze the enabling environment in terms of access to market information, access to road transport and facilities, price determination in the market, role of cooperatives, role of government, and challenges inteff marketing.the specific objectives are described hereunder.  to examine access to market information, road and transport facilities  to understand how is price fixed in the market  to assess the role of government and cooperatives in teff marketing  to identify the challenges of teff marketing the paper is divided into various sections. the section that follows presents the methodology and then the findings from the analysis of teff marketing in ethiopia. the discussion compares the findings of our analysis against previous studies and draws out the policy implications for teffmarketing. the conclusion is a recapitulation of the key ideas emerging from this paper. 2. methods 2.1. research design the paper adopted a cross-sectional research design to guide the data collection process. according to bryman (2008), a cross-sectional research design represents the collection of data at a single point in time. in cross-sectional research design, researchers investigate the state of affairs in a population at a certain point in time (bethlehem 1999). 2.2. sampling methods the target population of the study is household heads involved in teff production and marketing from four districts. a multistage sampling procedure was used to identify the case study areas. the regional states, districts and kebeles were purposively selected for the following reasons. firstly, oromiya and amhara regional states are among the top teff producer and supplier regions with the national contribution of 48.86 % and 38.6 %, respectively in 2017/18 harvest period (csa 2017/18). snnpr (southern nation and nationalities and peoples region) and tigrai regional states were selected as there is a potential for teff production with national contribution of 7.01 % and 4.88 %, respectively in 2017/18 harvest period and thus remaining less productive as compared to oromiya and amhara regional states which need further attention of researchers (csa 2017/18; gideon 2016). at second stage, districts were purposively selected. lomie district is purposively selected from the east showa zone of oromiya regional state as it is ranked 1 st in teff production at the national level. shenkora na minjar district is purposively selected from the north shewa zone of amhara regional state as it is ranked 4 th in teff production from the amhara region and 7 th in teffproduction at the national level. these two districts are among the top seven teff producing districts at the national level (warner, stehulaket al 2019). for the same study, halaba zone from snnp regional state and tahtay maichew district from tigrai regional state were purposively selected as they are the top teff producer zone and district in their respective regions (csa 2017/18). thirdly, in consultation with the office of agriculture and rural development at the district level, two teff producing kebeles were purposively selected from the four districts. a total of eight kebeles were purposively selected for the study at hand. in this regard, deke bora and tulu re'eekebeles were purposively selected from lomie district, agirat and bolo silassiekebeles were purposively selected from shenkora na minjar district, andegnahansha and guba kebeles were purposively selected from halaba zone, and kewanit and may braziokebeles were purposively selected from tahtay maichew district. the main criteria for selecting the two kebeles from each district were potentially teff producing area, 5 geographically convenient to conduct surveys, easy to find representative people from teff producers and easy access to transport facilities. a purposively sampling technique was also employed to select participants for focus group discussion and key informant interviews. in this regard, purposive sampling helped to find those informants who have knowledge and experience about the teff production and marketing, that are capable of providing reflection and are willing to take part in the research/ investigation. to understand the enabling environment for teff marketing, eight focus group discussions involving 84 participants and 25 in-depth interviews with experts in the area and teff wholesalers were conducted. overall, a total of 109 sample respondents were involved in the study. the factors that were considered in deciding upon this sample include available time and financial resources, discussions with the academic staff and colleagues involved in teff industry in ethiopia and the sample sizes involved in similar studies conducted earlier. 2.3. data-gathering instruments the study employed different data collection techniques. three sources of data were utilized: (1) a desk review of relevant documents, (2) focus group discussion with teff producers and development agents, and (3) key informant interviews with key federal, regional, district officers and wholesalers ofteffcrops. data collection took place from june 2018 to december 2018. data collection was undertaken in two successive stages. first, review of literature and documents on teff production in ethiopia were undertaken. in this phase, we analysed the literature and data on the trends of teff production at regional levels from scientific journals and central statistical agency, respectively.second, the study employed focus group discussions (fgds) and in-depth key informant interviews in order to understand community views regarding the enabling environment of teff marketing. qualitative types of data were collected from fgd and kii participants as primary data sources. in each district, two homogenous male and female fgds were conducted. each fgd had between seven to eleven participants. each fgd was moderated by a facilitator who asked the questions and then allowed the participants to discuss. the facilitator worked with a note-taker who took notes during the fgds and indicated to the facilitator where they needed to probe for further details. in total, about 84 participants (68 teff producers, 7 kebele administrators, and 10 development agents) were involved in eight fgds. out of the 84 participants, 42 were males while the remaining 42 were female. in each district, region and at federal level, key informants were identified and a key informant guide was administered to get insights on teff production. in total, 25 key informants (10 district level experts, 5 regional experts, 4 federal experts, and 6 wholesalers) were interviewed. the details of the three methods of data collection used in this study are described hereunder. 2.3.1. document review document review is one of the data collection tools /methods largely used for reviewing literature on the subject. document analysis involves a systematic review and examination of documents from secondary sources like journal articles, textbooks, magazines, reports, etc. relevant to a particular study. it involves reading extensive amount of text data to understand and shed more light on a particular field of study. in this paper, document review was used as a tool of data collection with the objective of assessing the literature and the prevailing teff production situation at national level. the search words we used to get the journal articles and other materials include ethiopia, teff, marketing, price, transport facilities, smallholder farmers, cooperatives, and government. the inclusion criteria for the research words are their significance to title of the study at hand, their relevance to the areas of teffmarketing, possibilities to access to peer reviewed journals from google.scholar, and access to updated data or information. in this regard, marketing of other agricultural commodities such as vegetables, fruits, spices, etc. is not the subject of the study and thus excluded. moreover, the research words focused on smallholder farmers and thus, medium and large scale teffsuppliers are excluded from the study. relevant documents such as guidelines on cereal marketing were collected from ministry of agriculture and rural development, agricultural transformation agency, related regional offices and office of agriculture and rural development of the study areas. government related strategic plans and performance report documents such as plan for accelerated and sustained development to end poverty (pasdep), growth and transformation plan (gtp i and ii), poverty reduction strategy paper (prsp), policy and investment framework (pif) and other relevant documents such as fao and un reports were reviewed. the documents were reviewed to determine the national level and regional level data in relation to the involvement of smallholder farmers in teff marketing. previous worldwide studies were also assessed and reviewed and thus, the literatures on teffmarketing were assessed from scholarly articles. 6 we used a systematic review of scholarly articles and documents in assessing previous studies. in this regard, a total of 97 documents were retrieved for screening (69 published and 28 grey literature), and 26 documents were excluded because they were not relevant for teffmarketing. about 71 documents (5 books, 41 academic journal articles, 10 working papers,3 dissertations, 4 research papers, 6 reports, and 2 unpublished articles) were reviewed. 2.3.2. focus group discussion as per the argument of kitzinger (1994), focus group discussions (fgds) are important instruments in helping delineate social norms and facilitating discussion on topics generally viewed as taboo such as grievances. fgd allows the researchers to generate a substantial amount of information over a relatively short period of time (mack 2005). the discussion is conducted in a neutral, non-judgmental and nonthreatening atmosphere which allows participants to reveal the motives they have and processes used when making decisions (suh 2002). the reason for using fgd is that they allow the detailed observation of a range of opinions about the issue at hand from the participants. focus group discussions were conducted at kebele level with purposively selected rural households. the focus group participants were selected purposively based on their knowledge and experience on the topic. once the kebele administrators had granted permission to conduct the study, the development agents assisted in identifying and informing the farmers about the focus group discussion and the eligibility criteria. the eligibility criteria were that the participants should be resident of the kebele, they should be involved in teff production and marketing in 2010 e.c (2017/18), they should be voluntary to take part in fgd and allow for recording, and be aged 18 years or above. fgd participants were invited to the focus group discussion following meetings with kebele administrators and development agents where the purpose of the study was explained. fgd participants who arrived at the ftc (farmers’ training center) were taken through the study information in line with ethical principles. their acceptance to participate in the discussion and recording of fgds was required, and only those participants who consented and signed the consent form have participated in fgds. once the study participants accepted and signed the consent form, discussions with fgd participants commenced. the fgd session included participants from smallholderteff producers, kebele administrators, and development agents. to ensure confidentiality and protection of study participants, each discussant was given a unique identification number throughout the discussion (ndinda et al 2016). the fgds were moderated by experienced researcher and a facilitator who posed open ended questions and probed the participants, and a note-taker ensured that the electronic recorder was functioning. the issues covered in the focus group discussion include: access to road and transport facilities, access to market information, price determination in the market, the role of cooperatives in teffmarketing,the role of government in teff marketing, and challenges in teff marketing. the reflections of fgd participants were tape recorded and notes were taken as a back-up for the recordings. the notes also helped in identifying participants by their pseudonyms when transcription took place. 2.3.3. key informant interview in-depth interviews were chosen as one data collection method in this paper as it provides the opportunity to explore issues in depth and seek explanations of concepts that are unclear (curry, nembhard et al. 2009). in this regard, in-depth interviews were conducted in sri lanka by bandula, jayaweera et al (2016) with selected value chain representatives to determine the role of underutilized crop value chains in rural food and income security. moreover, interviews with key informants were also used by hailu, weersinket al (2015) in the value chain to understand how the teff value chain is transforming. the purposively identification and selection of appropriate individuals within agriculture sector were done in consultation with bureau heads and high level officers. the in-depth interview is conducted with purposively selected key informant interviewees from experts at district, regions and federal level officials such as the office of agriculture and rural development. like fgd, the key informants were informed about the purpose of the study and ethical principles. it was planned to undertake an interview with 31 key informants. however, about 25 key informants were involved in the study as the required information is collected, repetitive, and similar nature of the responses. the interviewers explained the purpose of the study, and the right to withdraw at any time without penalty, and confidentiality, while participants provided verbal or written documentation of consent to participate (ndindaet al 2018). in line with ethical standards and to ensure anonymity, the key informants were identified by numbers and places. the key informant interviews were electronically 7 recorded, but in two cases where individuals declined being recorded, the study team took notes. the interviews were conducted at mutually agreed times and at venues that were free from distractions. 2.4. data analysis the raw qualitative data (recordings) from the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with extension agents, experts,and wholesalers were captured on audio recordings in local languages. the fgd and kii recordings were transcribed verbatim in the local language (tigrigna and amharic) and later translated into english (ndinda et al 2016). the first step was transcribing the recordings verbatim and translating the raw data into english before commencing the data analysis. the data were carefully examined for the correction of mistakes arising out of transcription and organization. these transcribed data along with field notes were organized and prepared for analysis based on the categories of participants. thematic content analysis was applied to qualitative data collected from focus group discussions and indepth interviews. it involves the extraction of themes or categories from the data and then using these to explain phenomena under investigation (hsieh and shannon 2005). thematic content analysis is a wellestablished and widely used technique in qualitative research, particularly in case study methodology (attride-stirling 2001; hsieh and shannon 2005). content analysis is chosen as one of data analysis in this paper as it is widely used qualitative research technique and it is a flexible method for analyzing text data (cavanagh 1997). in this paper, guided by the key research questions, thematic analysis was used to code both documents and transcripts, and results were reported thematically (ndinda et al 2018). the conceptual analysis begins with identifying research questions and about six questions were developed that helped in developing manageable content categories. by reducing the text to categories consisting of a word, set of words or phrases, the researchers focused on, and code for, specific words or patterns that are indicative of the research question. recorded interviews were transcribed, edited to remove typographical and grammatical errors and real names of study participants. for this purpose, the transcribed data were thoroughly read many times in order to understand the true contextual meanings, so that concepts were properly derived from the textual data. then the raw data were transformed into concepts. these derived concepts were categorized into different categories based on the research questions that allow the creation of a number of concepts and themes from the data. in this regard, important themes relating to the enabling environment of teffmarketing (access to road, access to transport, fixing price, roles of cooperatives and government, challenges in teff marketing) among fgd participants and key informants were extracted. the textual data were subjected to thematic analysis whereby entailed the researchers getting immersed in the data to ensure sensitivity. inductive coding was used to explore the attitudes identified in greater detail. in textual data analysis, we broadly characterized coding, categorization, and theme identification. the codes were categorized according to emerging dominant ideas from the textual data and interpreter reliability helped in comparing the themes identified. what emerged were themes that were similar, while differences in analysis of the data were accounted for by the emphasis placed on some themes and selection of extracts to support the dominant themes (ndinda et al 2016). 2.5. ethical considerations the research ethics protocol and procedures which are appropriate for the cross-cultural context in ethiopia settings were applied. in this regard, before conducting the field research, an ethical clearance with reference number 2017_devstud_student_31 was obtained from the university of south africa (unisa), department of development studies, research ethics review committee. moreover, notifications of expedited approval with reference number 1107/2017 were obtained from mekelle university, college of health science, health research ethics review committee. moreover, in order to ensure the validity of the data, only willing respondents were included and they were taken into full confidence by disclosing the purpose and nature of the study. in order to maintain the confidentiality of the survey, each fgd and kii participants was given a unique identification number. the confidentiality and privacy of their responses were assured. in this research, informed consent was applicable and hence, written permission was obtained from the individual participants in the fgd, and key informant interview before they provide the information. in this regard, prior to conducting field activities, the research participants were informed that the participation in the research is voluntarily and the participant has the right to ask questions during the interview. moreover, information collected for this study was kept strictly confidential and all interviewees are anonymous. 8 3. results 3.1. access to market information according to antonaci, demeke et al (2015) up-to-date information, including different market prices of both commodities and inputs, and their intra-seasonal variation, allows farmers to make more profitable decisions on production activities. thanks to market information, farmers are able to better plan planting and storage decisions, finding appropriate markets for their produce and gain from profitable trade deals. in this regard, in a focus group discussion, a study participant from tahtay maichew district highlighted the following in relation to access to market information. “most of the farmers get information from other farmers who have sold teff crops. but if this is not available, the farmers must check for the price by going to the market in person. otherwise, we have no other method of market orientation with the exception of few farmers who get information from the radio” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_1). another study participant from lomie district said the following in relation to the access to market information. “in addition to a personal search for information from market and peers, mobile and extension workers are the source of market information for farmers” (lomie_fgd_14). a study participant from shenkora na minjar district also stated the following in relation to the access to market information. “our sources of market information are mobile, cooperatives and extension agents” (shenkora_na_ minjar_fgd_19). by supporting the above arguments, a key informant from halaba zone stated the following concerning the access to market information. “farmers get market information from other farmers, traders, development agents, mobile and radio” (halaba_kii_1). a key informant from shenkora na minjar district also stated the following in relation to the problems of accessing market information. “farmers get market information from different sources;however, its reliability is questionable. due to the nature of supply and demand of agricultural commodities, the price ofteff is changing from time to time. thus, there should be systems for the timely dissemination of reliable and relevant market informationto farmers at grassroots’ levelspecially on price, amount of demand, market places and other issues so that they will be able to exploit the exiting marketing opportunities” (shenkora_na_minjar_kii_1). from the above discussion, we can realize that farmers do have multiple options for accessing market information including personal search in the market, peer farmers, traders, mobile, extension workers and cooperatives.farmers get market information from different sources;however, its reliability is questionable. 3.2. infrastructure and access to transport facilities if the distance from residence to the market is closer, the lesser would be the transportation cost and time spent by farmers (tegegn 2013). other researchers such as hailu, weersink et al (2015) also found that producer prices over distance travelled decline in line with transportation costs.in a discussion with study participants, a respondent from tahtay maichew district stated the following in relation to the means of the transport facilities they use to bring their teff crops to the market. “if the transport route is available, the farmers use freight vehicles. however, most farmers use donkey and mule as a means of transportation. few farmers carry their product by themselves to market” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_10). a respondent from lomie district stated the following about the transport facilities they use to bring their teff crops to the market. “farmers transport their crops from rural areas to asphalt or road by using donkeys and mules and then use vehicles to transport to town markets. we use human labour if the amount of teff is small such as less than 25 kg, pack animals up to two quintals and tracks for more than two quintals” (lomie_fgd_3). a respondent from shenkora na minjar district stated the following in relation to the transport facilities they use to bring their teff crops to the market. “we use a combination of pack animals and vehicles. farmers use pack animals to transport their teff crops to kebele market and vehicles to woreda market” (shenkora_na_minjar_fgd_11). a respondent from halaba zone stated the following concerning the mode of transport used to transport their teff crops to the market. 9 “we often take it through a cart pulled by our donkey. some of us do have own carts and some don’t and those who do not own it try to rent a cart from the owners of the carts” (halaba_fgd_17). from the above discussions, we can learn that the farmers located around the main roads use freight cars. however, those who are away from the road use their pack animals such as donkeys and mules to transport their teff crops to market. they also use human labour if the amount of teff crops is small such as less than 25 kg. in halaba zone, the farmers often use a cart pulled by donkeys. 3.3. price determination since the adoption of the new economic policy in 1991 in ethiopia, agricultural markets have been reformed and prices of commodities are determined through market mechanisms (eea 2005). however, the report of ethiopian economics association revealed that due to the weak bargaining power of producers and harvest fluctuations, the price free notion of markets have been found to affect producers(eea 2005). food price movements are scrutinized by consumers and governments, as food expenditures continue to represent an important share of household budgets, especially in developing countries (oecd/food and nations 2015). changes in price might have negative effect on the productivity of farmers and eventually, on their food self-sufficiency and food security status and in such cases monthly cereal price variability in the country is not only among the highest in the world but has even worsened since 2000 (gabre-madhin and mezgebou 2006; getnet 2008). a question was raised to the study participant and key informant on how price is determined in the market and whether the farmers are satisfied with the price. an fgd participant from tahtay maichew district stated the following. “teff is the most expensive of all the other crops that farmers produce, especially if it is white teff. it is considered as the main source of income for the farmers. when we come to the question whether it is fair or not, the price is determined by the seller and buyer through negotiation and farmers benefit from it. its high price and its scarcity in market make it hard for customers to afford. i don’t think the price is fair for buyers in general” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_17). the fgd participant from lomie district described the problem of price determination as follows. “the problem with farmers is that they sell in bulk immediately after harvest when the price has gone down. they do not store it until the price is back to its normal value and they run out of supply when the price becomes expensive. therefore, the farmer are not benefiting as they are just selling their produce immediately after harvest to fulfill their livelihood requirements” (lomie_fgd_23). a study participant from shenkora na minjar district stated the following about the price determination in the market and associated problems in price determination. “it is the traders who set the price. if the traders don’t buy with the price they set, there is nothing the farmers can do. farmers face problem that they may return home without selling their product” (shenkora_na_minjar_fgd_1). another study participant from shenkora na minjar district stated the following by supporting the free market notion as important for the farmers. “i strongly believe that the free market is important for farmers. if the price goes down, the farmer has the right not to sell his/her product. most of the time the price is fair, but sometimes it fluctuates” (shenkora_na_minjar_fgd_12). another fgd participant from halaba zone said the following. “it depends on the time of selling. if you sale immediately after harvest, the price could be low and if you wait till april and may, the price could be high. the price for teff crops is also fluctuating” (halaba_fgd_6). a key informant from lomie district stated the following concerning the unfair price in the market. “i think farmers don’t get fair price in the market. the problem is that traders talk to one another and fix the price as they wish” (lomie_kii_1). a key informant from wholesalers in addis ababa statedthe following about the price determination of teff crops’ in the market. “the price depends on the type of the teff quality. i almost have all types of teff. i have white teff, but often i am demand oriented. whatever my customer wants, i buy and provide. i am the one who sets the price based on how much i bought it. as a trader, i conducted market survey. if there is more supply, the price goes down and when there is less supply it goes up. we call each other to talk over the price and share information with the other traders as well” (wholesaler_kii_6). a key informant from the ministry of trade and industry highlighted the following in relation to the price determination in market places. 10 “it is the farmer who set the price. if farmers don’t agree on the price, they let it stay. the price is determined on daily basis and it is not permanent or fixed. it fluctuates on daily bases. sometimes, it increases and decreases based on the production and supply of teff crops. even there is a difference between the price that is set in the morning and in the afternoon. in general, the price of teff has an increasing trend from year to year and even within a year. sometimes when teff is production is low due to bad weather situation, the supply might decrease and the price might increase due to shortage of supply. usually, smallholder producers do sale their teff crops immediately after harvest (december or january) and thus get lower price as there is excess supply in the market. the government has no interference in the teff market because of its free market policy” (federal_official_kii_2). from the above discussions, we can understand that teff is cash crop for the farmers and its market value is higher as compared to other cereal crops. the price depends on the time of selling and the quality of the teff. usually, smallholder producers do sale their teff crops immediately after harvest (december or january) and thus get lower price as there is excess supply in the market. the government has no interference in the teff market as it is following free market economy and farmers are also free to sell their crops. the price of teff has an increasing trend from year to year and even within a year. in principle the price is determined through negotiations in the market and the farmers do have the right not to sale their crops. sometimes, the traders talk each other and fix the price of teff crops. if the traders don’t buy with the price they set, there is nothing the farmers can do. farmers face problem that they may return home without selling their teff crops.this result is like the previous research output of getnet (2007) which states despite their perception of low producer prices in december, january and february, the majority of farmers sell their marketable teff during these months, mainly for cash income generation to settle annual land use tax bills and outstanding loans on commercial fertilizer. it is also similar to the research result of kebebew assefa et al (2013) that state about 85% of teff is sold during the months of december and january mainly due to liquidity requirements to cover various expenses such as credit, social obligations, school fees, clothing, and the likes. 3.4. membership in cooperative marketing farmers’ organizations link farmers to inputs, outputs and credit markets (bernard and taffesse 2012). other researchers such as tadesse and guttormsen (2011) also recommended the importance of cooperatives in breaking the self-centered mentality and create awareness towards established teff supply chains characterized by win-win cooperation among chain actors. in this regard, discussions were undertaken with the focus group participants (fgds) and key informants in relation to the contribution and limitations of cooperatives in creating sustainable market for the farmers. accordingly, the study participants from tahtay maichew district described their opinion hereunder. “there are three cooperatives in our kebele; one is saving and credit cooperatives, the second is teff producer cooperative (for improved seed provision) and the third is multipurpose cooperatives. the producer cooperative is the only supplier of improved seed in our district and the farmers take a good advantage of it. earlier, farmers took their products to the market and dump it for cheap and unfair price. however, last year the producer cooperative has bought our entire product for better price” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_7). the other study participant from the same district also stated the following. “most of the farmers weren’t involved in cooperatives in the past. the reason was that there were some problems within the cooperative societies in relation to the transparency of financial issues and management of the resources of cooperatives and farmers have had less trust in the cooperatives. but now we have managed and solved the problem through discussion and the cooperative has promised to buy our teff crops by providing a price in the market plus 2 % and we have reached agreement, which has made all the famers happy” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_21). a study participant from lomie district stated the following in relation to the role of marketing cooperatives in their areas. “sometimes cooperatives provide market information to their members otherwise they do not have roles in marketing. however, some farmers are selling their crops to cooperative but most farmers do sale their crops to traders” (lomie_fgd_18). a key informant from lomie district stated the following in describing the limited role of marketing cooperatives. “cooperatives don’t have visible role in teff marketing. however, they support the farmers by supplying sugar and edible oil, fertilizer and other inputs such as chemicals. however, they have never been 11 involved in teff marketing and the tie between cooperatives and farmers is not as such strong. the cooperative that we have in our area has not yet begun purchasing of teff crops from farmers” (lomie_kii_1). a study participant from shenkora na minjar district also said the following in relation to the role of cooperatives marketing in their areas. “sometimes cooperatives purchase teff from farmers during the harvest period and sale it later at a better price. then the dividend is divided to members based on their contribution” (shenkora_na_ minjar_fgd_2). a key informant from shenkora na minjar district stated the following in describing the limited role of marketing cooperatives. “the involvement of cooperatives in teff marketing in our area is almost nonexistent. they don’t have a role in improving the market as they buy the product at a lower price than the traders. this makes the farmers move away from cooperatives and sell their crops to traders or consumers” (shenkora_na_minjar_kii_1). similarly, a study participant from halaba zone said the following. “the multipurpose cooperatives sometimes purchase teff from members and supply to local consumers in towns” (halaba_fgd_15). from the above discussions, we can learn that cooperatives do not have a visible role in teff marketing apart from providing market information to their members. they are focusing on the distribution of input and supply of industrial goods to the farming community. some farmers are selling their teff crops to cooperatives during harvest time at cheap price and in return get dividend after the crop is sold at a better price later. the research result also revealed that as cooperatives don’t provide a better price and most of the farmers prefer to sale their crops to traders or consumers. however, in tahtay maichew district efforts are made by the local government to introduce marketing cooperatives and linking with major buyers. as a result, an agreement is reached between farmers and cooperatives to provide a price in the market plus 2%. there were also concerns in the transparency of financial issues and management of resources of cooperatives which is now solved through discussions. 3.5. government policyin teff marketing in ethiopia, steps taken to liberalize markets in the 1990s and promote fertilizer and seed packages have yet to generate payoffs in terms of higher cereal yields, lower food prices, or reduced dependency on food aid (spielman, byerlee et al. 2010). as per the argument of bonger, gabre-madhin (2002), interventions and policies to improve grain markets can be grouped into four main areas: interventions related to infrastructure, institutions, regulatory policies, and capacity-strengthening. in this regard, discussions were undertaken with the focus group participants (fgds) and key informants about the government policy and its contribution and limitations in creating a sustainable market for the farmers. in a focus group discussion, a study participant from tahtay maichew district highlighted the following in relation to the role of the government. “the existing free-market policy does support the transaction of teff crops in the market as it provides freedom for farmers in setting the price of his/her own products. since the policy gives liberty for the farmer to get profit from his/her product, we believe the policy is at the farmer’s best interest. farmers do need a lot of support from the government such as equal and peaceful market opportunities for all farmers. above all, farmers need road infrastructure. this is because not only human beings need access to the road but also mules and donkeys need a better road to transport products to the market. therefore, infrastructure and loan provisions are needed from the government” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_21). another study participant from lomie district highlighted the following about the role of the government in teff marketing. “the government has no interference in the teff market as its policy is a free-market economy. the role of the government is regulating illegal trade” (lomie_fgd_17). a key informant from lomie district also said the following in relation to the role of the government in teff marketing. “the government doesn’t intervene in the market to determine the price of teff crops like the dergregime because of its free-market policy. however, the government must monitor the collusion of traders in fixing the price of teff crops” (lomie_kii_2). a key informant from halaba zone also highlighted the following concerning the role of the government in teff marketing. 12 “i think the government is supporting in promoting teff production like provision of technical support and access to inputs to farmers but its involvement in marketing is very limited except organizing cooperatives or unions” (halaba_kii_1). an expert from the ministry of trade and industry stated the following about the free-market economy the government is following. “free-market has a very broad definition and the policy that a country implements also matters in this regard. so the meaning of free-market can be interpreted in the context of how much wealth one is allowed to accumulate and since there is no limit set by the government, the market can be said to free. any farmer can produce as much as s/he can and can sell it without a limitation and intervention from the government or another third party. also, the farmers are provided with market linkage services from the federal and regional offices and thus we can say that the market is free and the price is being set through negotiations” (federal_official_kii_2). similarly, an expert from the ministry of agriculture and rural development said the following concerning the policy and strategy of the government in creating a sustainable market for teff producers. “the fact that the market is free benefits everyone because it provides the opportunity of buying and selling and other terms and condition of the contract including the price and quality of the crops to be decided by the buyers and sellers in the market. it provides better competition opportunity. the benefit of free-market is that it does not limit the right of farmers, traders or consumers in buying and selling decisions. the government has a supportive role including developing national marketing policies and strategies, establishing a legal framework, developing market infrastructures such as road, market places, providing training, organizing marketing cooperatives and regulatory issues. otherwise, the government doesn’t interfere in the market to fix the price of commodities unless it subsidized through its budget such as petroleum products, sugar, edible oil and flour mill” (federal_official_kii_1). contrary to the above views, a trader from addis ababa stated the following concerning the problems of illegal traders. “the free-market has killed our business as there are illegal sellers and brokers without a proper license and storage. they get a lot of benefits as they have no rent to pay for warehouse and most customers buy teff from such illegal traders as they sell it at a lower price as compared to traders with license and with storage facilities. there are only 280 traders with storage. however, the number of traders is assumed to be around 2000. the ones with the store have gone bankrupt and sold out their business. however, the farmers are benefited because they sell their product either ways” (wholesaler_kii_3). another key informant (wholesaler) from addis ababa also stated the following about the problems faced during business transactions in teff marketing. “we get teff from the farmers following the governmental procedure, which is working through a license. there were a lot of problems in the years 2007 e.c to 2009 e.c and the main problem was that the oromiya region’s license was not valid in addis ababa. when we go and ask the concerned governmental bodies, their response was that we are only permitted to sell in oromiya and that was a big problem for us. however, this problem has been solved even though we see illegal traders and brokers who participate in teff marketing using trucks. they sell the product and go back to the regions. if they could have delivered it straight to the legal traders, without reaching illegal brokers, the price could have been fair” (wholesaler_kii_4). from the above discussions, we can understand that the government is following a free-market economy. this result is like the findings of bihon (2015) which states the present government, which took power in 1991 enforced new economic reform (free-market) in 1991. the existing free-market policy provides freedom for farmers in setting the price of his/her products and it is believed the policy is at the farmers’ best interest. the farmers, traders and consumers are free to buy and sell teff crops at anytime and anywhere and the price is being set though negotiations. any farmer can produce as much as s/he can and can sell it without a limit and intervention from the government or other third parties. the government has a supportive role including development of national marketing policies and strategies, establishing a legal framework, development of market infrastructures such as road, market places, providing training, organizing marketing cooperatives and regulatory issues. however, the issue of licensing and illegal trade and brokers are the major problems in teff marketing that need the attention of the government. the government should monitor the illegal trade and collusion of traders in fixing the price of teff crops through strengthening its regulatory mechanisms. 13 3.6. problems of teffsupply to identify the major problem of teff marketing, discussions were undertaken with fgd participants and key informants in all districts. as a result, a study participant from tahtay maichew said the following. “the market chain is too long and the farmers are not benefited as much as they deserve to be. the biggest market problem that we have is that we pay a high amount of tax when we want to sale teff crops. the tax is two hundred birr per quintal when a farmer wants to sale his/her teff crops and this is a big problem for farmers” (tahtay_maichew_fgd_13). a study participant from lomie district said the following in relation to market problems. “there are problems with the scale and in some case adulteration (mixing with others) of teff crops” (lomie_fgd_19). a study participant from shenkora na minjar district said the following about the market problems. “the price is fixed by the traders and thus farmers face problem that they may return home without selling their product” (shenkora_na_minjar_fgd_43). a study participant from halaba zone said the following about the market problems. “lack of proper scale and price fluctuations are the main problems in teff marketing” (halaba_fgd_14). a key informant from lomie district said the following in relation to the problems of teff marketing. “actually, the traders are fixing the price for teff crops in the market. though the farmers do have the right to reject the price set by traders, the farmer is usually the price-taker. some traders store teff for long time to manipulate the price and the market so that they sell it when it gets expensive. this makes the market unstable” (kii lomie_2). a key informant from addis ababa highlighted the following about the problems of teff marketing. “the farmers do not directly contact the consumers or traders as there are illegal traders and brokers in between. there are government offices responsible for addressing this issue. however, they are not working as expected. the other problem is inflation of price of teff crops when the demand gets high. if the production improves, i think that the problem will be solved” (wholesaler_kii_1). another key informant from addis ababa also stated the following in relation to the major problems of teff marketing. “there are sometimes market instabilities and it is hard to make the market stable all the time. it is often hard to decide on the market or the farmers. the farmers have information on the price of teff and the price is left for competition” (wholesaler_kii_3). a key informant from addis ababa also highlighted the following about the problems of teff marketing. “the government and district level authorities have tried to get rid of illegal traders and brokers who buy and sell directly from freights. but the job has not been consistent and effective” (wholesaler_kii_6). a key informant from tigrai region also stated the following in relation to the problems of teff marketing. “the major marketing problems are long value chain from farmers to consumers, the absence of strong marketing cooperatives, and lack of transport facilities from remote areas to urban areas” (tigrai_official_kii_1). a key informant from the ministry of trade and industry also stated the following concerning the problems of marketing. “exporting teff could potentially increase concerns of inflation and rising commodity prices in local markets. on the other side, thelocal teff marketing largely relies on traditional practices.the market chain for teff crops is too long. this makes the illegal traders and brokers as part of the chain and without adding value they are getting financial benefits. in this regard, the farmers are not getting benefits as much as they deserve to be” (federal_official_kii_2). from the above discussions with fgd participants and key informants, we can see that teff marketing largely relies on traditional practices. the majorteff marketing problems identifiedin the discussion are highlighted as follows. the existence of illegal traders and brokers in the teff value chain, poor monitoring of the illegal traders from government authorities, price is fixed by traders and usually the farmers are price takers, absence of strong marketing cooperatives, fluctuations and inflation of price of teff crops price, lack of proper scale, traders store teff for long time to manipulate the price (hoarding), lack of transport facilities to remote areas, high of tax rates and adulteration (mixing with others). 4. conclusion teff (eragrostis teff) is one of the major cereal crops in ethiopia in terms of production and consumption. the country is the largest teff producing country and has adopted teff as a staple crop. though teff marketing was practiced for decades in the study areas and there are studies on the quantitative aspects 14 of the teff value chain, studies on the qualitative aspect is limited. thus, the aim of the study is to qualitatively and systematically examine the situation of teff marketing among smallholder farmers. the sampling design used in this study was multistage sampling method.purposive sampling method was used to select top teff producing regions, districts, kebeles, key informants and fgd participants. the data collection tools used in this study includes a literature review, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. a total 84 fgd participants and 25 key informants were involved in the study. the data were analyzed qualitatively through content analysis. from the findings of the research we can learn that teff is cash crop for the farmers and its market value is higher as compared to other cereal crops. we can also understand that the government is following a free-market economy. the existing free-market policy provides freedom for farmers in setting the price of his/her products and it is believed the policy is at the farmers’ best interest. the farmers, traders and consumers are free to buy and sell teff crops at anytime and anywhere and the price is being set though negotiations. any farmer can produce teffas much as s/he can and can sell it without a limit and intervention from the government or other third parties. on the other side, the government’steff export ban policy limited the participation of smallholder farmers in the global market. this indicates the intervention of the government in teff marketing which is in contradiction with its free market policy. the reason for government’steff export ban policy could be exporting teff could potentially increase concerns of inflation and rising commodity prices in local markets. on the other side, the local teff marketing largely relies on traditional practices.the price determinationdepends on the time of selling and the quality of the teff. however, smallholder producers do sale their teff crops immediately after harvest (december or january) and thus get lower price as there is excess supply in the market. the study also revealed that farmers do have multiple options for accessing market information such as personal search in the market, peer farmers, traders, mobile, extension workers and cooperatives; however, the reliability of the information is questionable.farmers who have access to main roads use freight cars while farmers who are away from the road use their pack animals such as donkeys, mules, and cart pulled by donkeys or human labour to transport their teff crops to market. we can also learn that cooperatives do not have a visible role in teff marketing apart from providing market information to their members. however, some farmers are selling their teff crops to cooperatives during harvest time at cheap price and in return get dividend after the crop is sold at a better price later. the government has a supportive role including development of national marketing policies and strategies, establishing a legal framework, development of market infrastructures such as road, market places, providing training, organizing marketing cooperatives and regulatory issues. however, as per the discussion with study participants, the issue of licensing and illegal trade and brokers are the major problems in teff marketing. in this regard, sometimes, the traders talk each other and fix the price of teff crops. if the traders don’t buy with the price they set, there is nothing the farmers can do. farmers face problem that they may return home without selling their teff crops. the existence of illegal traders and brokers in the teff value chain, poor monitoring of the illegal traders from government authorities, collusion of price by traders and usually the farmers are price takers, absence of strong marketing cooperatives, fluctuations and inflation of price of teff crops price, lack of proper scale, traders store teff for long time to manipulate the price (hoarding), lack of transport facilities to remote areas, high of tax rates and adulteration (mixing with others) are some of the problems raised by study participants.having reviewed the major findings of the empirical studies, the following policy implications are recommended.  the government should develop systems of monitoring the illegal trade,hoarding,and collusion of traders in fixing the price of teff crops through strengthening its regulatory mechanisms.  creating strong marketing cooperatives can improve the bargaining power of farmers and thereby shortening the long market chain that can benefit both producers and end-users.  crafting of marketing information system at district and kebele level so that farmers will have easily access to reliable and up-to-date market information.  the teff marketing largely relies on traditional practices and the farmers are not getting benefits as much as they deserve to be. thus, the government should develop strategies for creating enabling market environment and modernizingthe market as it is having a major role in the development of national marketing policies, strategies, regulations and infrastructure.  though it might have its advantages and disadvantages, the participation of smallholder farmers in global teff market is limited by the government’s export ban policy. however, this requires regular review of the export ban policy through critical studies. in this regard, the government should assess the 15 trends of global teffmarket regularly and see strategies forintroducing opportunities to enhance and maximize the benefits of smallholder farmersfrom the participationin global teff market. 16 reference abdullah, m. and m. r. hossain (2013). 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