Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 27 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption by : Miehe, Caroline

Download or read book Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption written by Miehe, Caroline and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-05-11 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To fully benefit from new agricultural technologies like improved seed varieties, significant investment in complementary inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, and practices such as systematic planting, irrigation, and weeding are also required. Farmers may fail to recognize the importance of these complements, leading to unsatisfactory crop yields and outputs and, eventually, dis-adoption of the variety. We provide a simple model of biased expectations, complementary input use and technology adoption and test its predictions using a field experiment among smallholder maize farmers in eastern Uganda. We find that pointing out the importance of complementary investments using a short, engaging video effectively deters some farmers from using commercial improved varieties. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find some evidence that this behavior change emanates from increased knowledge and expectations that are more in line with realized outcomes.

Empirical Development Economics

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135093393
Total Pages : 508 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Empirical Development Economics by : Måns Söderbom

Download or read book Empirical Development Economics written by Måns Söderbom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding why so many people across the world are so poor is one of the central intellectual challenges of our time. This book provides the tools and data that will enable students, researchers and professionals to address that issue. Empirical Development Economics has been designed as a hands-on teaching tool to investigate the causes of poverty. The book begins by introducing the quantitative approach to development economics. Each section uses data to illustrate key policy issues. Part One focuses on the basics of understanding the role of education, technology and institutions in determining why incomes differ so much across individuals and countries. In Part Two, the focus is on techniques to address a number of topics in development, including how firms invest, how households decide how much to spend on their children’s education, whether microcredit helps the poor, whether food aid works, who gets private schooling and whether property rights enhance investment. A distinctive feature of the book is its presentation of a range of approaches to studying development questions. Development economics has undergone a major change in focus over the last decade with the rise of experimental methods to address development issues; this book shows how these methods relate to more traditional ones. Please visit the book's website at www.empiricalde.com for online supplements including Stata files and solutions to the exercises.

In Pursuit of an African Green Revolution

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 4431556931
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis In Pursuit of an African Green Revolution by : Keijiro Otsuka

Download or read book In Pursuit of an African Green Revolution written by Keijiro Otsuka and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores recent experiences in the effort to bring about a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The chapters focus on rice and maize, which are promising and strategic smallholder crops. Significantly, we find that an African Rice Revolution has already begun in many irrigated areas, using Asian-type modern varieties, chemical fertilizer, and improved management practices. Further, we find that the same technological package significantly increases the productivity and profitability of rice farming in rainfed areas as well. We also find evidence that that management training, when done well, can boost productivity on smallholder farms. This suggests that African governments can accelerate the pace of Africa’s Rice Revolution by strengthening extension capacity. The story for maize is wholly different, where most farmers use local varieties, apply little chemical fertilizer, and obtain very low yields. However, in the highly populated highlands of Kenya, a number of farmers have adopted high-yielding hybrid maize varieties and chemical fertilizer, as was the case in the Asian Green Revolution, apply manure produced by stall-fed cows, as was the case during the British Agricultural Revolution, and keep improved cows or cross-breeds from European cows and local stock, as was the case of the Indian White Revolution. We conclude that while rice in Africa has benefited from an Asian Green Revolution strategy that emphasizes modern seeds, inputs, and focused knowledge transfers, the success of Africa’s Maize Revolution will require a different system approach based on hybrid maize, chemical and organic fertilizers, and stall-fed cross-bred cows.

How Change Agents and Social Capital Influence the Adoption of Innovations among Small Farmers: Evidence from Social Networks in Rural Bolivia

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis How Change Agents and Social Capital Influence the Adoption of Innovations among Small Farmers: Evidence from Social Networks in Rural Bolivia by : Mario Monge, Frank Hartwich, and Daniel Halgin

Download or read book How Change Agents and Social Capital Influence the Adoption of Innovations among Small Farmers: Evidence from Social Networks in Rural Bolivia written by Mario Monge, Frank Hartwich, and Daniel Halgin and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Social Economics of Poverty

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135993734
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (359 download)

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Book Synopsis The Social Economics of Poverty by : Christopher B. Barrett

Download or read book The Social Economics of Poverty written by Christopher B. Barrett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique analysis of the moral and social dimensions of microeconomic behaviour in developing countries, this book calls into question standard notions of rationality and many of the assumptions of neo-classical economics, and shows how these are inappropriate in communities with widespread disparity in incomes. This book will prove to be essential for students studying development economics.

Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 41 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia by : Abay, Kibrom A.

Download or read book Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia written by Abay, Kibrom A. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lack of accurate information about soil nutrient requirements coupled with limited access to appropriate fertilizers could lead to mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications. Such anomalies and mismatches are likely to have important implications for agricultural productivity. In this paper we use experimental (spectral soil analysis) data from Ethiopia to examine farmers’ response to soil nutrient deficiencies and its implications for yield responses. We find that farmers’ response to macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) deficiencies is not always consistent with agronomic recommendations. For instance, we find that farmers in our sample are applying nitrogen fertilizers to soils lacking phosphorus, potentially due to lack of information on soil nutrient deficiencies or lack of access to appropriate fertilizers in rural markets. On the other hand, farmers respond to perceivably poor-quality soils and acidic soils by applying higher amount of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers per unit of land. We further show that such mismatches between fertilizer applications and soil macronutrient requirements are potentially yield-reducing. Those farmers matching their soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer application are likely to enjoy additional yield gains and the vice versa. Marginal yield responses associated with nitrogen (phosphorus) application increases with soil nitrogen (phosphorus) deficiency. Similarly, we find that farmers’ response to acidic soils is not yield-enhancing. These findings suggest that such mismatches may explain heterogeneities in marginal returns to chemical fertilizers and the observed low adoption rates of chemical fertilizers in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, these findings have important implications for improving input management practices and fertilizer diffusion strategies.

Development economics between markets and institutions

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9086866182
Total Pages : 447 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (868 download)

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Book Synopsis Development economics between markets and institutions by : Erwin Bulte

Download or read book Development economics between markets and institutions written by Erwin Bulte and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-28 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume in the Mansholt series presents state of the art discussions on a wide variety of topics in the field of (agricultural) development. More than 20 chapters have been prepared by internationally known scholars and policy analysts, providing a concise overview of a variety of recent debates in development economics. While the background of most contributors is in economic science, the chapters are prepared so that they feed into ongoing policy discussions and are accessible to a wide readership. The contributions in this volume are organized around five themes: prospects for rural poverty alleviation, sustainable management of natural resources, strategies for enhancing food security, markets and the role of the state, and institutions and governance. It is obvious there are many links between these themes, and indeed the integration between them is emphasized in various chapters. This book is prepared as a festschrift or Liber Amicorum for professor Arie Kuyvenhoven. His retirement from the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands is a good opportunity to take stock of recent developments in the area of agricultural development economics. Therefore, in addition to being a valuable source of information for readers with an interest in development, this volume is also intended as a farewell gift: to Arie, from friends and colleagues."

Revisiting the demand and profitability of chemical fertilizers amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Revisiting the demand and profitability of chemical fertilizers amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia by : Assefa, Thomas

Download or read book Revisiting the demand and profitability of chemical fertilizers amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia written by Assefa, Thomas and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2024-07-16 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We revisit the state of smallholder fertilizer demand and profitability in Ethiopia in the face of the recent global fuel–food–fertilizer price crisis triggered by the Russian–Ukraine war and compounded by other domestic supply shocks. We first examine farmers’ response to changes in both fertilizer and food prices by estimating price elasticity of demand. We then revisit the profitability of fertilizer by computing average value–cost ratios (AVCRs) associated with fertilizer application before and after these crises. We use three-round detailed longitudinal household survey data, covering both pre-crisis (2016 and 2019) and post-crisis (2023) production periods, focusing on three main staple crops in Ethiopia (maize, teff, and wheat). Our analysis shows that fertilizer adoption, use, and yield levels were increasing until the recent crises, but these trends seem halted by these crises. We also find relatively large fertilizer price elasticity of demand estimates, ranging between 0.4 and 1.1, which vary across crops and are substantially larger than previous estimates. We find suggestive evidence that households with smaller farm sizes are relatively more responsive to changes in fertilizer prices. We also document that farmers’ response to increases in staple crop prices is not as strong as perceived and hence appears to be statistically insignificant. Finally, we show important dynamics in the profitability of chemical fertilizer. While the AVCRs show profitable trends for most crops, the share of farmers with profitable AVCRs declined following the fertilizer price surge. Our findings offer important insights for policy focusing on mitigating the adverse effects of fertilizer price shocks.

Can food aid relax farmers’ constraints to adopting climate-adaptive agricultural practices?

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Author :
Publisher : Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN 13 : 9251360189
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (513 download)

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Book Synopsis Can food aid relax farmers’ constraints to adopting climate-adaptive agricultural practices? by : ?Ignaciuk, A., Malevoli, G., Scognamillo, A., Sitko, N.

Download or read book Can food aid relax farmers’ constraints to adopting climate-adaptive agricultural practices? written by ?Ignaciuk, A., Malevoli, G., Scognamillo, A., Sitko, N. and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2022-05-16 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adoption of climate-adaptive agricultural practices (CAAPs) among resource-poor smallholder households is typically hindered by liquidity and risk constraints. Using an inverse probability weighted estimator that uses three waves of nationally representative panel survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania, this article examines whether food transfers help overcome barriers to the adoption of selected CAAPs. The results show that in each country analysed, receiving food transfers increase the probability of adopting at least one CAAP.

Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031157036
Total Pages : 931 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation by : Joachim von Braun

Download or read book Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation written by Joachim von Braun and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-01 with total page 931 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Open Access book compiles the findings of the Scientific Group of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and its research partners. The Scientific Group was an independent group of 28 food systems scientists from all over the world with a mandate from the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The chapters provide science- and research-based, state-of-the-art, solution-oriented knowledge and evidence to inform the transformation of contemporary food systems in order to achieve more sustainable, equitable and resilient systems.

Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Author :
Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464804516
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean by : Jorge Thompson Araujo

Download or read book Understanding the Income and Efficiency Gap in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Jorge Thompson Araujo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-03-28 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The countries of the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC), like other emerging economies, have benefited from a decade of remarkable growth and some income per capita convergence towards the United States and other industrialized countries. However, even nearly ten years of solid growth in the first decade of the 21st century could not guarantee that LAC would move on to a sustained long-term income convergence path. In fact, despite this recent progress, LAC still faces a significant per capita income gap with the developed world. The papers in this volume contribute to the ongoing debate on the reasons for this persistent income gap and the potential drivers of convergence, and propose some broad avenues for reform. This volume presents new macro-, sectoral-, and micro-level evidence that: (i) differences in total factor productivity (TFP), or efficiency in using the production factors, such as physical and human capital, explain a large part of LAC's persistent income gap; and (ii) resource misallocation is the main factor behind LAC's large efficiency gap. At the same time, the findings of this volume indicate there is significant room for further economic growth gains from technology adoption and innovation more broadly. In fact, the quality of the available technology in LAC is low, and there is very little innovation. Although firms can use innovation to reach productivity at the global productivity frontier, weak institutions reduce incentives to innovate. This volume also proposes that the main priorities for improving resource allocation and the incentives to innovate include: (i) enhancing market competition in key network industries (transport, financial, telecommunications, logistics, communication and distribution services); (ii) increasing labor market flexibility (including skill-mismatches and social barriers); (iii) removing informational frictions (including complex tax regimes and credit rationing); (iv) strengthening property rights; and (v) improving the rule of law.

Rural Development Abstracts

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Rural Development Abstracts by :

Download or read book Rural Development Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Does weather risk explain low uptake of agricultural credit?: Evidence from Ethiopia

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 29 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Does weather risk explain low uptake of agricultural credit?: Evidence from Ethiopia by : Abay, Kibrom A.

Download or read book Does weather risk explain low uptake of agricultural credit?: Evidence from Ethiopia written by Abay, Kibrom A. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-12-12 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Row planting teff in Ethiopia

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 26 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Row planting teff in Ethiopia by : Vandercasteelen, Joachim

Download or read book Row planting teff in Ethiopia written by Vandercasteelen, Joachim and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improved technologies are increasingly promoted to farmers in sub-Saharan-African countries to address low agricultural productivity in their staple crops. There is, however, a lack of evidence on how adoption affects farmers’ labor use and profitability at the farm level, as well as the importance gender roles play, all essential drivers for the successful up-scaling of the use of the improved technologies. This paper analyses the labor and profitability impact of the recently introduced row planting technology in teff production in Ethiopia. Based on agronomic evidence in experimental settings, the Government of Ethiopia has focused extension efforts on promoting the widespread uptake of row planting to address low teff yields, replacing the traditional broadcasting method of plant teff. Using an innovative Randomized Controlled Trial set-up, we show that the implementation of row planting at the farm level significantly increases total labor use, but not teff yields, relative to broadcast planting, resulting in a substantial drop in labor productivity when adopting row planting. Moreover, the implementation of row planting has important consequences for inter- and intra-household labor allocation, with relatively more use of non-family labor. The adoption of row planting was further found not to be profitable for farmers in the first year of the promotion campaign, seemingly explaining the limited success in up-scaling the adoption of the technology by farmers in the second year of the program.

The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop

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Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 : 0896292835
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (962 download)

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Book Synopsis The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop by : Minten, Bart

Download or read book The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop written by Minten, Bart and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considerable poverty and food insecurity in Ethiopia, combined with the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, make agricultural transformation a crucial development goal for the country. One promising improvement is to increase production of teff, the calorie- and nutrient-rich but low-yielding staple. The Economics of Teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s Biggest Cash Crop examines key aspects of teff production, marketing, and consumption, with a focus on opportunities for and challenges to further growth. The authors identify ways to realize teff’s potential, including improving productivity and resilience, selecting and scaling up new technologies, establishing distribution systems adapted to different areas’ needs, managing labor demand and postharvest operations, and increasing access to larger and more diverse markets. The book’s analysis and policy conclusions should be useful to policy makers, researchers, and others concerned with Ethiopia’s economic development.

The rapid expansion of herbicide use in smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia

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Author :
Publisher : Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The rapid expansion of herbicide use in smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia by : Tamru, Seneshaw

Download or read book The rapid expansion of herbicide use in smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia written by Tamru, Seneshaw and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We use qualitative and quantitative information from a number of datasets to study the adoption patterns and labor productivity impacts of herbicide use in Ethiopia. We find a four-fold increase in the value of herbicides imported into Ethiopia over the last decade, primarily by the private-sector. Adoption of herbicides by smallholders has grown rapidly over this period, with the application of herbicides on cereals doubling to more than a quarter of the area under cereals between 2004 and 2014. Relying on unique data from a large-scale survey of producers of teff, the most widely grown cereal in Ethiopia, we find significant positive labor productivity effects of herbicide use of between 9 and 18 percent. We show that the adoption of herbicides is strongly related to proximity to urban centers, levels of local rural wages, and access to markets. All these factors have changed significantly over the last decade in Ethiopia, explaining the rapid take-off in herbicide adoption. The significant increase in herbicide use in Ethiopia has important implications for rural labor markets, potential environmental and health considerations, and capacity development for the design and effective implementation of regulatory policies on herbicides .

Adoption of agricultural innovations by smallholder farmers in the context of HIV/AIDS

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9086866417
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (868 download)

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Book Synopsis Adoption of agricultural innovations by smallholder farmers in the context of HIV/AIDS by : Faith N. Nguthi

Download or read book Adoption of agricultural innovations by smallholder farmers in the context of HIV/AIDS written by Faith N. Nguthi and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-28 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using tissue-cultured technology is a potentially important way for smallholder banana farmers to improve their yields and income. In the situation of the impoverishing effects of high HIV/AIDS-prevalence in a rural banana-farming community, this applies even more. The research documented in this book examines the balance between required inputs and potential benefits of applying the tissue-cultured technology among HIV/AIDS-affected and non-affected households in Maragua district, Central Kenya, using a livelihood approach. The results show that adoption of the technology and its continued use differs according to the resources endowment of the farming households. Lack of financial and physical capital, notably a water tank, inhibits adoption, irrespective of HIV/AIDS-status. However, households headed by elderly females dominate among the poor households and the HIV/AIDS-affected households. This illustrates how HIV/AIDS interfaces with poverty and, thereby, indirectly with the feasibility of sustainable technology adoption. The research also shows that livelihood decisions and strategies of farming households are influenced by land tenure status (having title deeds or not) and labour constraints at the household level. The latter arise as a consequence of HIV/AIDS-related morbidity and mortality.