Journal Articles

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Browsing Journal Articles by Subject "Africa"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Climate Variability and Farm technology adoption decisions among smallholder farmers in Pangani River basin
    (IISTE, 2016) Moshi, Arbogast; Hella, Joseph; Isinika, Aida
    Climate change is currently a serious threat for agriculture development and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate outlook for the 21st century, the future of maize production in Tanzania remains under threat due to more intense and frequent droughts, and more erratic rainfall patterns. Effective adaptation to these ongoing changes in climatic condition is key to securing food production and livelihoods for millions of poor people. This paper analyzes factors that facilitate or impede the probability and level of adoption of sustainable farm technologies and farm households in response to climate shocks. A multivariate probit model was applied to the model the adoption decisions by farm households facing multiple farm technologies which can be adopted in various combinations. The analysis shows that both the probability and the level of decisions to adopt farm technologies influenced by rainfall and plot-level disturbances, household wealth, institutional factors, distance to the farm plot and input market. The results further show that there were complementarities between farm technologies which are not yet sufficiently exploited. In the light of these findings, government policies, and strategic investment plans should ensure the provision of improved farmer education to generate greater awareness about the multiple benefits of sustainable agricultural practices in the fight against climate change and variability.
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    The effect of institutional factors on financial deepening: evidence from 50 African countries
    (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2022) Sanga, Bahati; Aziakpono, Meshach
    Purpose – This paper investigates the impact of institutional factors on financial deepening and its implications on bank credit in Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs different panel econometric models to examine the heterogeneity of 50 African countries from 2000 to 2019. The estimators include panel corrected standard errors, system generalized method of moments, quantile and threshold regressions. Findings – The results show that rule of law, regulatory quality, government effectiveness, voice and accountability, control of corruption and political stability significantly influence financial deepening in Africa. However, government effectiveness has a higher effect on middle- and high-income countries, while other indicators have a high impact on low-income countries. All institutional indicators have stronger effects, almost double, at higher financial depth levels than for countries with lower levels. Government effectiveness and regulatory quality impact financial deepening more for countries with strong institutions than weak ones. Thus, the relationship between institutional qualities and credit provided by banks is non-monotonic. Practical implications – The findings suggest that strengthening appropriate institutional factors based on country heterogeneity may effectively stimulate debt financing in Africa, the primary source of financing for small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs. Originality/value – The novelty of this paper is that previous studies did not sufficiently scrutinize the heterogeneity of the structure of African economies – i.e. differences in institution, credit and income levels
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    Women’s empowerment, food security, and nutrition transition in Africa
    (MDPI, 2022) Lufuke, Mosses; Bai, Yunli; Fan, Shenggen; Tian, Xu
    Despite mounting recognition of the essential role of women’s empowerment in household dietary and nutrition changes, the diversity of culture across African countries presents ambiguity as to whether its impact is experienced homogeneously across the continent. This article presents a systematic review of whether women’s empowerment changes household dietary patterns, contributes to nutrition improvement, and consequently affects diet-related health outcomes in Africa. We find that whilst more research needs to be conducted, particularly with improved methodologies that can establish cause–effect relationships, there is consensus among the literature on the link between women’s empowerment and some domains of food security and dietary improvement. Meanwhile, studies on women’s empowerment and the additional demand pressure on some food categories are quite limited. This exacerbates the challenge of setting production plans that aim to address the continent’s question of food.