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Autor: Dil Bahadur Rahut

Pathways from information to the adoption of conservation agriculture practices in Malawi and Tanzania

Paswel Marenya Dil Bahadur Rahut (2023)

To reduce agriculture's carbon, land and water footprint, the diffusion of conservation farming methods is one commonly cited proposition. Yet the process of translating available information on new conservation farming methods into farmers' practices is often a black box in many studies. This understanding is critical to inform strategies for scaling these complex, knowledge-intensive, but necessary practices for improving agriculture's resource and climate balance sheet. By implementing a series of mediation analysis using data from 700 households in Malawi and 930 households in Tanzania, this study examines how an improved understanding of conservation agriculture (CA) principles is an important mediator in the pathway from extension contact to the adoption of two of the CA practices examined. For the adoption of conservation tillage, the share of the mediated treatment effect was in the 31.5–34.4% range, while it was 31.6–46.9% for the adoption of soil cover (mulching). Our results suggest that unless learning from external sources strongly correlates with improved farmers' technical understanding of new farming practices, private learning by doing must be a critical adjunct to other avenues of learning. Beyond the basic promotional goals, improving farmers' technical know-how needs to be the centerpiece of holistic efforts in support of conservation farming and similar knowledge-intensive practices necessary for agriculture's sustinability goals.

Artículo

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE SMALLHOLDERS AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES FIELD EXPERIMENTATION

Behavior of private retailers in a regulated input market: An empirical analysis of the fertilizer subsidy policy in Nepal

Shriniwas Gautam Dyutiman Choudhary Dil Bahadur Rahut (2022)

The private sector in Nepal participates in the regulated import and distribution of three types of subsidized fertilizer. However, almost 55% of the agrovets (family-owned microenterprises) that retail agricultural inputs do not comply. Many farmers rely on the fertilizer purchased through these agrovets, including subsidized ones. There is no private sector importer of the three types of fertilizer covered by the subsidy program, which indicates that the agrovets either acquire these through leakage in the government distribution system or through illegal cross-border trade from India, both of which are considered legal noncompliance. We discern the determinants for this noncompliant behavior of agrovets using logistic regression. The results from logistic regression suggest that the agrovets that are more likely to comply are registered, have membership in business associations, and have a higher number of competitors. Those with diversified business portfolios and covering a greater number of districts are less likely to comply. Key informants, consisting of both public and private sector stakeholders, were solicited for their views on solving this noncompliant behavior. The private sector unanimously asserts the need for deregulation of fertilizer imports and the participation of agrovets in the distribution of the subsidized fertilizer. In contrast, the public sector is skeptical of the ability and trustworthiness of the private sector in the import and distribution of quality fertilizer. We propose a middle ground to mitigate private sector noncompliance and suggest a policy revisit to increase the fertilizer supply and distribution efficiency.

Artículo

Fertilizer Subsidy Policy Input Retailers CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA FERTILIZERS POLICIES MARKET REGULATIONS

Projecting food demand of Nepal: Implications for policy

Khondoker Mottaleb Dil Bahadur Rahut Gideon Kruseman Olaf Erenstein (2019)

This study projected the consumption demand of a few major food items of Nepal. On average, 62% of the total daily dietary energy of a Nepalese comes solely from cereals. As the economy of Nepal is rapidly emerging, and given that 25% of the total population of Nepal is still poor, this study projects the aggregate consumption demand for rice, wheat, maize and other cereals, pulses, vegetables, and fish and meat in Nepal by 2025 and 2030. Findings indicate that the consumption demand of the sampled commodities would increase with the GDP and population growth of the country. For example, by 2030, the demand for wheat, maize, and rice will increase by 63%, 46%, and 8%, respectively, from the consumption level in 2018/19. This study also demonstrates that the consumption demand for noncereal food items such as pulses, vegetables, meat and fish would also increase by 2030. Based on the findings, this study strongly suggests policymakers to invest both in cereal and noncereal subsectors of agriculture in Nepal to enhance the domestic production capacity. Investment in agricultural capacity enhancement can also reduce extreme poverty in Nepal, as more than 66% of the employed labor force in Nepal is currently engaged in agriculture.

Dataset

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA

Clean fuel for rural families in India a major challenge: evidence from four rounds of consumer expenditure survey

Khondoker Mottaleb Dil Bahadur Rahut Jeetendra Aryal Akhter Ali (2022)

Artículo

Clean Fuel Dirty Household’s Choice CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA COOKING FUELS RURAL AREAS HOUSEHOLDS EDUCATION INCOME USES