Market trends in many developing countries indicate that selling agricultural produce to itinerant traders at the farmgate has been rising, despite criticism that the practice preys on and exploits farmers. Using a cross-sectional data set of 525 households, we investigate the factors influencing participation in farmgate trading and its effects on agricultural productivity in western Kenya. We specifically consider the role of liquidity–related variables within a context of the perennial export crops, a contribution that has received less attention in literature.

The inverse farm size and productivity relationship (IR) is a recurring theme in the literature. However, most previous studies were undertaken within a setting of mixed cropping systems. In this article, we investigate the effect of farm size on productivity within the context of a perennial monocropping system, acute competition for farmland, frequent subdivision of farms and declining yields. We apply household survey data of smallholder tea farms in western Kenya and consider both technical efficiency (TE) and the yield per hectare as indicators of productivity.

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Abstract: In this paper, we describe and analyze an experience in the use of marine resources as a base for economic activities and development of coastal communities. According to the economic theory of the commons, Chile’s establishment of unique property and user rights for marine resources should reduce over-extraction pressure from open access and thereby improve sustainability of marine resources.

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The study analyzes factors affecting climate change coping strategies and constraints experienced by smallholder farmers under root crop (cassava and yam) farming systems in derived savannah ecological zone of Nigeria. The study used data collected from 400 farmers selected through a multistage random sampling technique from two States, Ebonyi and Enugu States, in the zone.

The interactions between prevailing gender gaps and climate variability and change (CVC) response strategies can intensify inequalities among farmers. Hence, this study examined implications of CVC response strategies on gender relations among farmers in Southeast Nigeria and ways of mainstreaming gender into the strategies.