IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i18p4981-d266497.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Family Farms, Agricultural Productivity, and the Terrain of Food (In)security in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Till Stellmacher

    (Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Girma Kelboro

    (Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany)

Abstract

Despite economic development and social improvements, millions of family farmers in Ethiopia are still struggling with food insecurity. Lack of technology adoption by family farmers is often considered as the root cause for low agricultural productivity and persistence of food insecurity. Based on a study of family farms in southwestern Ethiopia, we show the complex nexus between family farming, food insecurity, and agricultural productivity. We collected qualitative and quantitative data through 300 sample household interviews; expert interviews with elders and village chairmen, agricultural extension agents, farmers’ cooperative heads, as well as experts in NGOs, research institutes, and state agencies; and on-farm observations with in-depth interviews and discussions with individual farmers. Our findings illustrate that everyday experiences, culture, knowledge, and priorities of farmers coupled with ecological and political factors play crucial roles—and need more consideration than the classic ‘lack of technology’ theorem.

Suggested Citation

  • Till Stellmacher & Girma Kelboro, 2019. "Family Farms, Agricultural Productivity, and the Terrain of Food (In)security in Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-10, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:18:p:4981-:d:266497
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/4981/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/4981/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pangaribowo, Evita Hanie & Gerber, Nicolas & Torero, Maximo, 2013. "Food and Nutrition Security Indicators: A Review," Working Papers 147911, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    2. Dercon, Stefan & Christiaensen, Luc, 2011. "Consumption risk, technology adoption and poverty traps: Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 159-173, November.
    3. Isaac Mbeche Nyang’au & Girma Kelboro & Anna-Katharina Hornidge & Charles A. O. Midega & Christian Borgemeister, 2018. "Transdisciplinary Research: Collaborative Leadership and Empowerment Towards Sustainability of Push–Pull Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-26, July.
    4. Juma, Calestous, 2011. "The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199783199.
    5. Omarsherif Jemal & Daniel Callo-Concha & Meine Van Noordwijk, 2018. "Local Agroforestry Practices for Food and Nutrition Security of Smallholder Farm Households in Southwestern Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2009. "Food security: definition and measurement," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 1(1), pages 5-7, February.
    7. Jayne, T.S. & Mather, David & Mghenyi, Elliot, 2010. "Principal Challenges Confronting Smallholder Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1384-1398, October.
    8. Abebe, Gumataw K. & Bijman, Jos & Pascucci, Stefano & Omta, Onno, 2013. "Adoption of improved potato varieties in Ethiopia: The role of agricultural knowledge and innovation system and smallholder farmers’ quality assessment," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 22-32.
    9. Graeub, Benjamin E. & Chappell, M. Jahi & Wittman, Hannah & Ledermann, Samuel & Kerr, Rachel Bezner & Gemmill-Herren, Barbara, 2016. "The State of Family Farms in the World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-15.
    10. Asfaw, Abay & Admassie, Assefa, 2004. "The role of education on the adoption of chemical fertiliser under different socioeconomic environments in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 215-228, May.
    11. Abate, Gashaw Tadesse & Rashid, Shahidur & Borzaga, Carlo & Getnet, Kindie, 2016. "Rural Finance and Agricultural Technology Adoption in Ethiopia: Does the Institutional Design of Lending Organizations Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 235-253.
    12. Fufa, B. & Hassan, Rashid M., 2006. "Determinants of fertilizer use on maize in Eastern Ethiopia: A weighted endogenous sampling analysis of the extent and intensity of adoption," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 45(1), pages 1-12, March.
    13. Hugo Valin & Ronald D. Sands & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe & Gerald C. Nelson & Helal Ahammad & Elodie Blanc & Benjamin Bodirsky & Shinichiro Fujimori & Tomoko Hasegawa & Petr Havlik & Edwina Heyhoe, 2014. "The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 51-67, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rumana Akter & Shakuntala H. Thilsted & Nazia Hossain & Hiroe Ishihara & Nobuyuki Yagi, 2019. "Fish is the Preferred Animal-Source Food in the Rural Community of Southern Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Karolina Pawlak & Małgorzata Kołodziejczak, 2020. "The Role of Agriculture in Ensuring Food Security in Developing Countries: Considerations in the Context of the Problem of Sustainable Food Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Aparna Rao & Risa Morimoto, 2020. "An Analysis of the use of Chemical Pesticides and their Impact on Yields, Farmer Income and Agricultural Sustainability: The Case for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia," Working Papers 234, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    4. Cristina Keiko Yamaguchi & Stéfano Frizzo Stefenon & Ney Kassiano Ramos & Vanessa Silva dos Santos & Fernanda Forbici & Anne Carolina Rodrigues Klaar & Fernanda Cristina Silva Ferreira & Alessandra Ca, 2020. "Young People’s Perceptions about the Difficulties of Entrepreneurship and Developing Rural Properties in Family Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-12, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adamie, Birhanu Addisu, 2021. "Land property rights and household take-up of development programs: Evidence from land certification program in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Shukkri AHMED & Craig MCINTOSH & Alexandros SARRIS, 2017. "The Impact of Commercial Rainfall Index Insurance: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia," Working Papers 4289, FERDI.
    3. Shukkri AHMED & Craig MCINTOSH & Alexandros SARRIS, 2017. "The Impact of Commercial Rainfall Index Insurance: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia," Working Papers 4288, FERDI.
    4. Renata Baborska & Emilio Hernandez & Emiliano Magrini & Cristian Morales-Opazo, 2020. "The impact of financial inclusion on rural food security experience: A perspective from low-and middle-income countries," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18.
    5. Khushbu Mishra & Abdoul G. Sam & Gracious M. Diiro & Mario J. Miranda, 2020. "Gender and the dynamics of technology adoption: Empirical evidence from a household‐level panel data," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(6), pages 857-870, November.
    6. Yonas Alem & Mintewab Bezabih & Menale Kassie & Precious Zikhali, 2010. "Does fertilizer use respond to rainfall variability? Panel data evidence from Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(2), pages 165-175, March.
    7. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kassahun Mamo Geleta & Aemro Tazeze & Hiwot Mekonnen Mesfin & Eden Andualem Tilahun, 2017. "Cropping systems diversification, improved seed, manure and inorganic fertilizer adoption by maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Alexandra T Tapsoba & Pascale Combes Motel & Jean-Louis Combes, 2019. "Remittances, food security and climate variability: The case of Burkina Faso," CERDI Working papers halshs-02364775, HAL.
    9. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Smits, Joeri & Sun, Qigang, 2020. "Contract structure, time preference, and technology adoption," GLO Discussion Paper Series 633, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano, 2014. "On the composite indicators for food security: Decisions matter!," MPRA Paper 58955, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Mekdim D. Regassa & Mohammed B. Degnet & Mequanint B. Melesse, 2023. "Access to credit and heterogeneous effects on agricultural technology adoption: Evidence from large rural surveys in Ethiopia," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 71(2), pages 231-253, June.
    12. Balana, B. B. & Mekonnen, D. & Haile, B. & Hagos, Fitsum & Yimam, S. & Ringler, C., 2022. "Demand and supply constraints of credit in smallholder farming: evidence from Ethiopia and Tanzania," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 159:106033..
    13. Guerzoni, Marco & Jordan, Alexander, 2016. "“Cursed is the ground because of you”: Religion, Ethnicity, and the Adoption of Fertilizers in Rural Ethiopia," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201605, University of Turin.
    14. Ruerd Ruben & Rob Kuijpers & Youri Dijkxhoorn, 2022. "Mobilizing the Midstream for Supporting Smallholder Intensification," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Morello, Thiago Fonseca & Piketty, Marie-Gabrielle & Gardner, Toby & Parry, Luke & Barlow, Jos & Ferreira, Joice & Tancredi, Nicola S., 2018. "Fertilizer Adoption by Smallholders in the Brazilian Amazon: Farm-level Evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 278-291.
    16. Alexander Jordan & Marco Guerzoni, 2021. "“Cursed is the ground because of you”:," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 853-890, July.
    17. Larson, Donald F. & Gurara, Daniel Zerfu, 2013. "A conceptual model of incomplete markets and the consequences for technology adoption policies in Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6681, The World Bank.
    18. Bola Amoke Awotide & Adebayo Ogunniyi & Kehinde Oluseyi Olagunju & Lateef Olalekan Bello & Amadou Youssouf Coulibaly & Alexander Nimo Wiredu & Bourémo Kone & Aly Ahamadou & Victor Manyong & Tahirou Ab, 2022. "Evaluating the Heterogeneous Impacts of Adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Technologies on Rural Households’ Welfare in Mali," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, November.
    19. Linwei Wang & Yixin Hu & Rong Kong, 2023. "The Impact of Bancassurance Interaction on the Adoption Behavior of Green Production Technology in Family Farms: Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-26, April.
    20. Schwerhoff, Gregor & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Waha, Katharina, 2016. "Agricultural Risk Management and Land Tenure," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145792, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:18:p:4981-:d:266497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.