Agro-meteorological (AM) disasters have been reported to be more frequent with climate change. In this study, the spatial and temporal changes in the frequency of major AM disasters affecting maize production are investigated by analyzing observed records at 224 national AM stations in China...

This paper contributes to our understanding of the use and management of crop residues in East African highlands and farmers' decision-making associated with this important on-farm resource. Using the data from a socio-economic and household production survey of a sample of 310 households in 15...

The southern rangelands of Kenya are prone to frequent droughts leading to serious food shortages. The effect of the farmer practice (flat seedbed), tied-ridging and contour furrows water harvesting techniques and five integrated nutrient management practices on the performance of rain-fed maize...

The study examined constraints influencing farmers' access to credit and the effect that credit has on maize productivity, using the endogenous switching regression approach with survey data collected from 595 maize farmers in the Ashanti and BrongAhafo Regions of Ghana. The study revealed that...

The study used a sample of 188 maize farmers to determine the economic efficiency of maize production in Swaziland. Descriptive statistics, Cobb-Douglas production function and Tobit regression were used to analyse the data. The results indicated technical efficiency of 64.7% suggesting that...

This paper seeks to ascertain the role of intellectual property rights (IPR) on Zimbabwe’s maize output. Specific focus is given to the role of article 27 of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement as well as the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in influencing...

Population pressures and the need to optimize the use of limited available land has led to increasing cropping affluence levels within the maize agro-ecologies in Kenya, and a shift from large to smallholder intensification and multiple cropping patterns. Using a geographic information system,...

There has been a decline in crop productivity in Kenya, a situation that has contributed to the raising food insecurity in the country. Communities in arid and semi-arid areas of the country, the landless, and female headed households are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Given the...

Climate change with increasing climate variability is likely to alter risks in agricultural production. The effectiveness of using weather derivatives to hedge against drought risks for rain-fed grain maize production was investigated for current (1981-2003) and future (2070- 2100) climates in...