The team selected Kanchanpur purposively because of its considerable potential for wheat cultivation, and carried out the research during March and April of 2022. Using a simple random sampling technique, they systematically chose one hundred wheat-farming households across the district. Primary data were collected through pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires administered in face-to-face interviews, while secondary data were drawn from relevant journals and official records. This dual approach allowed the researchers to capture both quantitative production figures and the lived experience of farmers struggling with unreliable inputs and market access.

To determine which variables actually drive wheat production, the researchers applied a multiple regression model to their survey data. The analysis revealed that four factors exerted a significant positive influence on output: the quantity of applied NPK fertilizer, meaning the combined nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; the educational level of the household head; the extent of wheat-cultivated land equipped with irrigation facilities; and the farmers’ years of experience in the field. Each of these variables, when increased, was associated with measurably higher wheat production in the study area.

The fertilizer finding is particularly consequential. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the backbone of modern cereal nutrition, and inadequate or poorly timed application directly limits grain filling and tillering in wheat. In Kanchanpur, however, farmers frequently cannot obtain chemical fertilizer at all during the critical growth periods when the crop needs it most. The study identifies this unavailability of fertilizer during key developmental stages as the single most severe constraint on wheat production in the district, a problem that undermines even the most experienced farmers’ efforts.

Education emerged as another powerful lever. Households headed by individuals with more formal schooling tended to produce more wheat, a pattern consistent with the idea that educated farmers are better positioned to interpret agronomic recommendations, calculate appropriate input doses, adopt improved technologies, and navigate extension services. Similarly, the area of wheat land with reliable irrigation proved decisive. Wheat in the Terai plains is often grown after rice on residual soil moisture, and access to controlled water supply allows farmers to time irrigation at critical stages such as crown root initiation and grain filling, protecting yields against the erratic rainfall that increasingly characterizes the region.

Experience also mattered. Farmers with more years in the field achieved higher production, reflecting accumulated knowledge of local soil behavior, sowing windows, variety selection, and pest management. This finding suggests that extension programs could gain leverage by pairing experienced lead farmers with newer producers, transferring practical know-how that formal training alone often fails to convey. It also hints at a generational risk: as older, seasoned farmers retire from cultivation, their tacit agronomic knowledge may not be replaced quickly enough to sustain district-level output.

Beyond the regression results, the researchers used an indexing method to rank the major constraints farmers face. After fertilizer unavailability, the second most damaging problem was crop destruction by wild animals and stray cattle. In Kanchanpur, proximity to forest areas and wildlife corridors means that nilgai, wild boar, monkeys, and roaming domestic livestock frequently invade fields overnight, flattening standing crops and eating grain. Farmers respond with watch huts, night patrols, and noise deterrents, but these measures demand labor and rarely provide complete protection, effectively taxing every harvest.

The indexed ranking also highlighted the lack of access to improved seeds and irrigation as a major constraint. Improved, disease-resistant wheat varieties can raise yields substantially, but many farmers in the district continue to sow saved or uncertified seed because quality seed is not available locally or is priced beyond reach. Combined with limited irrigation infrastructure, this leaves crops vulnerable to moisture stress and to the diseases and pests that the study lists among the significant production challenges. Inadequate market access rounds out the constraint list, with farmers facing poor roads, weak price information, and limited buyer networks that reduce the incentive to invest in higher inputs.

The comparative context sharpens the urgency of these findings. Districts such as Kailali, Banke, Kapilbastu, and Rupandehi, operating under similar weather patterns, achieve higher wheat productivity than Kanchanpur, which indicates that the yield gap is not dictated by climate but by controllable factors: input supply chains, irrigation coverage, seed systems, and market institutions. The study’s authors argue that addressing these bottlenecks could unlock the district’s considerable prospective for wheat cultivation, contributing to national food security at a time when cereal imports and price volatility weigh heavily on Nepal’s economy.

For policymakers, the message is that raising wheat output in Kanchanpur requires coordinated intervention rather than isolated fixes. Ensuring timely fertilizer availability during critical growth periods, expanding irrigation infrastructure, improving the distribution of improved seed, managing human-wildlife conflict around farmland, and strengthening market linkages together form the pathway the evidence points toward. The regression results show that farmers respond strongly when given the means, more nutrients, more water, more knowledge, and more experience, while the constraint indexing shows exactly where the system currently fails them. Closing that gap between potential and performance could transform wheat farming in Kanchanpur from a marginal enterprise into a reliable contributor to Nepal’s grain supply.

Subject of Research: Factors affecting wheat productivity and production constraints in Kanchanpur district, Nepal

Article Title: An assessment of factors affecting productivity and production limitations of wheat farming in Kanchanpur district of Nepal

Article References: Kafle, K., & Joshi, P. P. (2024). An assessment of factors affecting productivity and production limitations of wheat farming in Kanchanpur district of Nepal. Innovations in Agriculture, 7, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3897/ia.2024.124216

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/ia.2024.124216

Keywords: wheat farming, Nepal, Kanchanpur, crop productivity, NPK fertilizer, irrigation, improved seeds, multiple regression, wild animal damage, market access, agricultural constraints, food security

The research, conducted by a team at the University of Parakou’s Laboratory of Ecology, Health and Animal Production, surveyed 236 people between July and November 2025 in the Borgou department, the heart of Benin’s nascent goat dairy industry. What sets the study apart is its three-way segmentation of respondents. Rather than lumping everyone into a single category of consumer or non-consumer, the researchers divided participants into three distinct groups: 81 people who knew and had consumed goat milk or its derived products, 77 who knew of the products but had never tried them, and 78 who had no prior knowledge of goat milk at all. This tripartite design allowed the team to test a crucial assumption, namely that the barriers to adoption are unlikely to be uniform across the full spectrum of potential consumers.

The statistical architecture of the study was correspondingly careful. Data were collected through structured face-to-face questionnaires containing 31 substantive items across four modules, pre-tested on 30 individuals before deployment. Because the three groups differed in how they were recruited, consumers and knowledgeable non-consumers were identified at production farms and sales points, while non-knowledgeable individuals were randomly selected in urban centers, the researchers used Chi-square tests to compare categorical variables and Welch’s one-way analysis of variance, robust to unequal variances, for age comparisons, followed by Games-Howell post-hoc tests. Levene’s test confirmed that variances were indeed unequal, justifying the choice of the Welch approach. A significance threshold of p less than 0.05 was applied throughout.

The sociodemographic results were revealing in their asymmetry. Consumers of goat milk products were significantly younger, averaging 30.04 years, compared with 36.09 years for knowledgeable non-consumers and 39.28 years for those with no prior knowledge, a difference that was highly significant. Yet gender and education level, factors often assumed to shape food choices, showed no significant influence whatsoever. Instead, religion and profession emerged as powerful discriminators, both with p values below 0.001. Merchants made up 92.6 percent of the consumer group, while students dominated the knowledgeable non-consumer group at 93.5 percent and civil servants the non-knowledgeable group at 97.4 percent. The pattern points to a sector whose growth is currently governed less by individual preference than by proximity to commercial circuits.

Among actual consumers, the picture was one of an early-stage market still finding its footing. The duration of consumption was almost perfectly evenly distributed across four time categories, from less than six months to more than three years, suggesting the product attracts newcomers while retaining long-term users. Motivations for first consumption were similarly balanced: curiosity accounted for 25.9 percent, recommendations from close people 24.7 percent, and perceived health benefits 24.7 percent. Discovery channels were likewise scattered across word of mouth, advertising, markets, and social media. This diversity challenges the common assumption that health messaging is the primary engine of alternative dairy adoption; in northern Benin, social influence and simple exploratory behavior appear equally decisive.

But the consumer group also exposed the sector’s structural weaknesses with unusual clarity. While 54.3 percent of consumers found the price acceptable, 25.9 percent considered it too high. Accessibility was rated as very good by only 40.7 percent, with nearly 60 percent reporting at least occasional difficulty obtaining the products. Most striking of all, 82.7 percent of consumers judged the promotion of goat milk products to be insufficient, a result that was highly significant. Even people who already buy and enjoy the products feel the sector is nearly invisible, a communication gap that the authors identify as a major constraint on market development.

The knowledgeable non-consumers told perhaps the most important story of the study. Their reasons for not consuming goat milk were spread almost evenly across product unavailability, unappealing taste, uncertain quality, high price, and preference for cow milk, with no single factor dominating. Their perceptions of the benefits were similarly uncertain: 25.97 percent believed goat milk was worse than cow milk, 24.68 percent were unsure, only 23.38 percent considered it beneficial, and 25.97 percent had no opinion. Familiarity with a product, in other words, does not automatically translate into knowledge of its properties. Yet this group was far from hostile. Cheese and yogurt each attracted the interest of 33.77 percent of respondents as products they might try, slightly ahead of fresh milk, hinting that processed forms, in which the characteristic goat flavor is attenuated, could serve as entry points for hesitant buyers.

The third group, people with no prior knowledge of goat milk, delivered the most optimistic findings. Half said they would try the products if given the opportunity, and another 25.64 percent would do so if provided with more information. Two-thirds, 66.67 percent, said they could potentially consider goat milk as an alternative to cow milk, and the same proportion indicated they would consume goat milk if it were locally produced. When asked which product they would most like to try, goat milk itself led at 46.15 percent, ahead of cheese at 28.21 percent and yogurt at 25.64 percent. The conditions these respondents attached to trying the products, including price reductions, better availability, recommendations from relatives, and proof of benefits, mirror the barriers reported by the other groups, reinforcing the conclusion that the obstacles are informational and economic rather than sensory or cultural.

The authors are careful to acknowledge the limits of their work. The survey covered only two localities, so the findings cannot be generalized to all of Benin’s ecological and cultural regions. The study did not systematically examine sensory dimensions such as taste and smell, which previous research has shown can be decisive for acceptance or rejection, nor did it explore in depth the cultural and traditional beliefs that shape deeply rooted eating behaviors. Because the data are cross-sectional, collected over a limited period, they capture a snapshot rather than a trajectory; perceptions may well evolve as availability improves and awareness campaigns take hold, suggesting a need for longitudinal follow-up.

Even with those caveats, the implications are substantial for anyone invested in West African food security and smallholder livelihoods. Goats are among the most widespread livestock species in Benin, valued for their adaptability and low production costs, yet their contribution to national milk production remains marginal because systems are oriented toward meat. Goat milk itself is nutritionally compelling, with high digestibility, a fatty acid profile rich in short- and medium-chain fatty acids, and substantial calcium and phosphorus, properties of particular relevance for children, the elderly, and people with cow milk intolerance. The new evidence suggests that unlocking this potential requires no single magic bullet but rather group-specific strategies: awareness campaigns on nutritional and health benefits aimed at the uninformed, improved availability, affordability, and quality assurance for the hesitant, and stronger distribution networks and marketing for everyone. The barrier, the study concludes, is not the product. It is the pipeline that connects it to the people who, by all indications, are ready to drink it.

Subject of Research: Consumer perceptions and acceptance of goat milk and its derived products in northern Benin

Article Title: Perceptions and attitudes of consumers and non-consumers towards goat milk and its derived products in northern Benin

Article References: Offoumon, O. T. L. F., Assani, A., Sanni Worogo, H. S., Okambawa, T., Zorobouragui, L., Adambi Boukari, Z. F., Alabi, C. A. D., Idrissou, Y., Attakpa, E. Y., & T. Alkoiret, I. (2026). Perceptions and attitudes of consumers and non-consumers towards goat milk and its derived products in northern Benin. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 16, Article 16705. https://doi.org/10.3389/past.2026.16705

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/past.2026.16705

Keywords: goat milk, dairy products, consumer behavior, Benin, West Africa, food security, smallholder farmers, dairy value chain, consumer perceptions, market access, nutrition, livestock

The team deployed a mixed-methods, cross-sectional design that went well beyond a simple questionnaire. Household surveys were combined with key informant interviews, direct field observations, long-term climate records stretching back more than three decades, and secondary data on cereal production. Food insecurity was measured using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, or HFIAS, a validated instrument that grades households along a continuum from secure access to severe deprivation. Quantitative survey results were analyzed with descriptive statistics and bivariate association tests, interview material was subjected to thematic analysis, and climate records were examined using non-parametric trend analysis capable of detecting gradual shifts in temperature and rainfall behavior.

The headline numbers are stark. Only 19.3 percent of surveyed households were classified as food secure. A striking 74.6 percent were moderately food insecure, meaning they regularly compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they consume, while 6.1 percent were severely food insecure, experiencing hunger at a level that threatens health and productivity. Taken together, more than four in five households in the sample reported some degree of food insecurity, a prevalence that places Arabsiyo among the harder-pressed corners of the Horn of Africa’s drylands, where recurrent drought and volatile food prices have long strained subsistence economies.

When the researchers probed which household characteristics tracked with food security status, two factors emerged as statistically significant: market accessibility and marital status. Households with better access to markets were more likely to be food secure, a finding that underscores the importance of physical and economic connectivity in dryland farming systems, where the ability to sell surplus animals or purchase cereals during lean seasons can make the difference between stability and hunger. Marital status, meanwhile, appears to shape household composition, labor availability, and resource pooling, all of which influence a family’s capacity to withstand shocks. The association with education proved sensitive to the statistical test applied, a cautionary reminder that in small samples the choice of analytical method can determine which relationships appear robust.

Perhaps the most striking dimension of the study is the near-unanimity of climate perception among residents. Fully 89.5 percent of households reported noticing changes in temperature patterns, and 90.4 percent said droughts and floods had become more frequent. Some 85.1 percent observed shifts in the timing of planting and harvesting periods, 86.0 percent reported declining crop yields and reduced availability of staple foods, and 86.8 percent noted falling livestock productivity. In a community whose calendar, income, and diet are calibrated to the rhythm of the rains, such consensus is not anecdotal color; it is a collective diagnosis delivered by the people who live closest to the evidence.

Crucially, the instrumental record backs much of that testimony. Analyzing climate data from 1991 to 2023, the researchers found a statistically significant warming trend, quantified with a Mann-Kendall test that produced a tau statistic of 0.356 and a p-value of 0.004, indicating that the upward trajectory in temperature is very unlikely to be random fluctuation. Rainfall told a more complicated story: annual and seasonal totals displayed substantial variability from year to year, but no significant monotonic trend emerged. In other words, the rains have not simply disappeared; they have become erratic, arriving late, departing early, or failing in ways that disrupt planting schedules and pasture regeneration even when seasonal totals look superficially normal.

The qualitative strand of the research filled in the texture behind those statistics. Key informant interviews and field observations documented rainfall irregularity, chronic water scarcity, limited pasture availability, and persistent constraints on both crop and livestock production. For agro-pastoralists, who deliberately balance cultivation with herding to spread risk, such compound pressures are particularly corrosive. When rains fail, crops wither and pasture thins simultaneously, leaving families with few buffers. Livestock sales, the classic fallback, become less lucrative precisely when demand for slaughter animals falls and herds are weakened by poor grazing, creating a feedback loop that deepens food insecurity across the community.

The Arabsiyo findings resonate with a broader body of evidence from the Horn of Africa. Previous research in neighboring Ethiopia has documented similar patterns of smallholder vulnerability, coping strategies, and adaptation limits under climate variability, while studies across Somaliland have traced declining crop and livestock productivity in regions such as Marodijeh and Gabiley. Regional food security monitoring bodies have repeatedly flagged acute food insecurity in Somalia and its surroundings, and recent work has emphasized that socio-economic determinants, not climate alone, often dominate household food insecurity outcomes. The new study adds granular, district-level evidence to this picture, showing how global climate signals translate into household hunger through the mediating filters of market access, household structure, and livelihood design.

What distinguishes the research methodologically is its insistence on triangulation. Perceptions alone can be contested; statistics alone can be mute about lived experience. By aligning what residents say they observe with what thermometers and rain gauges actually recorded, and by cross-checking both against production data and on-the-ground observation, the authors built a case in which each line of evidence reinforces the others. The significant warming trend validates community reports of changing temperatures, while the absence of a rainfall trend, despite widespread perception of change, highlights how increased variability and unpredictability, rather than a simple decline in totals, may be the operative hazard for farming decisions.

The policy implications are correspondingly concrete. The authors point to improved market access as a priority, since connectivity emerged as one of the few statistically significant correlates of food security in the sample. They also emphasize the need for locally appropriate, climate-resilient agricultural and livelihood strategies, from water harvesting and rangeland management to crop and livestock interventions suited to semi-arid conditions. In a territory that remains internationally unrecognized and chronically under-resourced, the study is a reminder that adaptation planning must begin from the granular realities of specific districts. For the households of Arabsiyo, the data describe a present in which hunger is the norm and the climate is measurably warming; the question the research poses to planners and policymakers is whether interventions can arrive quickly enough to change that arithmetic.

Subject of Research: Household food insecurity and climate change perceptions among agro-pastoral communities in rural Arabsiyo District, Somaliland

Article Title: Household socio-demographics, climate change perceptions, and food security in agro-pastoral Somaliland: evidence from rural Arabsiyo District

Article References: Omer, M. A., & Mawlid, M. E. (2026). Household socio-demographics, climate change perceptions, and food security in agro-pastoral Somaliland: evidence from rural Arabsiyo District. SN Social Sciences, 6(10), Article 523. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-026-01826-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43545-026-01826-6

Keywords: food security, climate change, agro-pastoralism, Somaliland, Arabsiyo District, HFIAS, drought, rainfall variability, warming trend, market access, smallholder farmers, climate adaptation

The editors, Afia Nyarko Boakye, Ralph Nyadu-Addo, Sycil Ayesu Gyimah and Lady Rachel Akosua Lundgren, bring together perspectives from entrepreneurship research, management studies, gender studies and economic development. Their stated aim is to move the conversation beyond simple descriptions of inequality and toward an integrated account of the mechanisms that produce it. That matters because gender-based disparities in entrepreneurship are not the product of any single obstacle. They emerge from the interaction of financial systems, market structures, cultural expectations and institutional rules, each of which can reinforce the others. A woman entrepreneur who lacks collateral for a loan may also lack the professional networks that connect founders to investors, and the stereotypes that shape both of those deficits may trace back to socio-cultural norms about who belongs in business leadership at all.

Access to finance is one of the most extensively documented barriers the book examines. Research across many economies has repeatedly found that women-led ventures receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital, bank lending and other formal financing, a pattern that constrains growth from the earliest stages. The volume situates this problem within broader theories of gender, asking how financial institutions evaluate risk, how collateral requirements interact with unequal property ownership, and how investor perceptions of competence and ambition are filtered through gendered expectations. By framing finance as a structural issue rather than a matter of individual confidence or preparation, the book aligns itself with a growing body of scholarship that treats funding gaps as symptoms of systemic design rather than personal shortcoming.

Market access presents a parallel challenge. Even well-capitalized ventures depend on customers, supply chains and distribution channels, and the book explores how gender can shape entry into each of these. Socio-cultural norms and stereotypes influence not only how entrepreneurs are perceived by buyers and partners but also which industries and business models are considered appropriate or credible for them to pursue. The editors also give sustained attention to leadership, examining how expectations about authority, communication and decision-making affect women who rise to lead their own companies. Resilience, mentorship and professional networking receive their own treatment, reflecting the recognition that entrepreneurial success is rarely a solo achievement. Founders who can draw on experienced mentors and well-connected networks consistently outperform those who cannot, and the book asks why such resources are unevenly distributed in the first place.

One of the more forward-looking sections of the volume addresses digital transformation and the opportunities it creates for women entrepreneurs. Digital platforms, e-commerce infrastructure and remote business tools have lowered some traditional barriers to entry, allowing founders to reach customers and suppliers without the physical presence or institutional relationships that older business models demanded. The book treats this as a genuine but conditional opportunity. Digital transformation can widen participation, yet it can also reproduce existing inequalities if access to technology, digital skills and online financial services remains uneven. The editors’ framing suggests that technology is best understood as an amplifier: it can magnify inclusion where the underlying ecosystem supports it, and magnify exclusion where it does not. That nuance distinguishes the volume from more celebratory accounts of the digital economy.

Policy and institutional frameworks form another pillar of the analysis. The book examines how laws, regulations, procurement rules and entrepreneurship support programs can be designed to promote inclusion rather than merely tolerate it. This includes practical strategies for fostering equity, innovation and sustainable economic growth, from reforming lending practices to building mentorship pipelines and embedding gender considerations in the mandates of development institutions. The editors argue that inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems are not simply a matter of fairness; they are an economic imperative. When a large share of the population faces structural barriers to founding and growing businesses, economies lose access to ideas, jobs and productivity gains that those ventures would otherwise generate. Entrepreneurship, as the book emphasizes, plays an important role in innovation, employment and economic development, and any friction that suppresses participation carries a measurable cost.

The volume’s methodological breadth is one of its distinguishing features. Rather than relying on a single disciplinary lens, it draws on entrepreneurship theory, management research, gender studies and development economics, combining scholarly perspectives with contemporary examples. This multidisciplinary approach reflects the composition of the editorial team itself, whose expertise spans gender, entrepreneurship, management, inclusion and economic development. For readers, the practical effect is a treatment of the subject that connects abstract theory to observable outcomes: gender theories are linked to patterns of entrepreneurial participation, and institutional analysis is tied to concrete policy levers. The book is aimed at researchers, academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students, policymakers, business leaders, entrepreneurship support organizations and development practitioners, a readership that mirrors the range of actors whose coordination the authors appear to consider necessary for change.

The emphasis on balance is notable. Discussions of gender and business often polarize between narratives of unqualified progress and accounts of entrenched discrimination, and the volume positions itself deliberately between these poles. It documents real barriers to finance, market access, leadership and business opportunity while simultaneously highlighting pathways toward more inclusive and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems. The inclusion of emerging opportunities, particularly those created by digital transformation, signals that the editors see the current moment as one of genuine possibility rather than stagnation. The book’s structure, moving from theory through barriers to strategies and future directions, gives readers a framework for understanding not only what is wrong but what has worked and what could work under the right institutional conditions.

What the volume ultimately contributes is a map. It identifies where the obstacles to gender-inclusive entrepreneurship cluster, in financial systems, in market structures, in social norms and in institutional design, and it catalogs the interventions that research suggests can loosen them. For policymakers, the message is that inclusion requires deliberate architecture: procurement rules, funding mechanisms and support programs designed with evidence of how gender operates in entrepreneurial settings. For researchers, it offers an integrated agenda that connects previously siloed strands of inquiry. For founders and the organizations that support them, it provides language and evidence for the barriers they encounter daily. As debates over equity, innovation and economic growth intensify worldwide, the book’s central argument, that entrepreneurial ecosystems are built choices rather than natural outcomes, and can therefore be rebuilt more inclusively, is likely to find a wide and receptive audience.

Subject of Research: Gender-based barriers to entrepreneurship and strategies for building inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems

Article Title: Gender and Entrepreneurship: Navigating Barriers, Building Inclusion and Shaping the Future

Article References: Gender and Entrepreneurship: Navigating Barriers, Building Inclusion and Shaping the Future. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: gender, entrepreneurship, access to finance, market access, leadership, mentorship, networking, digital transformation, inclusion, policy frameworks, economic development, women entrepreneurs

The timing of the study is significant. Tanzania is riding a remarkable rebound. After wild seaweed stocks were depleted in the late 1970s, the country transitioned to commercial cultivation in 1989 with seedlings introduced from the Philippines, and production climbed from 7,000 tons of dry weight in 2005 to a peak of 17,600 tons in 2015. A crash followed after 2016, driven by climate-related stress, disease outbreaks including the notorious ice-ice syndrome, and epiphyte infestations, dragging output down to about 11,000 tons by 2018 to 2020. But recent policy reforms, including reduced export permit fees, helped production surge to 25,426 metric tons in 2023, with quarterly monitoring showing a 52 percent year-over-year increase in the third quarter of that year.

Despite that recovery, Tanzania still contributes only about 0.4 percent of global seaweed output, in a market where Asia dominates with 97 percent of the roughly 35.8 million tons cultivated worldwide in 2023. Africa produces an estimated 120,000 metric tons of red eucheumatoid seaweeds annually, and more than 90 percent of that comes from Tanzania. The gap between what the country produces and what it could produce, given its rich native biodiversity in nutrient-poor but sun-drenched coastal waters, is what the researchers describe as untapped potential. The question their study poses is why that potential remains locked, and their answer points not to the farms themselves but to everything that happens after harvest.

The research team worked across six sites in five coastal regions: Pangani in Tanga, Kigamboni in Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo and Juani in Pwani, Somanga in Lindi, and Naumbu in Mtwara. These locations were chosen because each supports an average of around 800 people involved in the seaweed industry. Using a mixed-methods design, the team surveyed 208 stakeholders, from farmers and traders to suppliers, fishers, processors, transporters, and cooperative leaders, selected through proportional stratified sampling to ensure representation. They supplemented the surveys with 55 semi-structured interviews with key informants, including district fisheries officers and marine aquaculture experts, focus group discussions of roughly ten participants at each site, and direct participant observation of village life and farming operations.

The demographic picture that emerged is strikingly gendered. Women made up 74 percent of survey respondents, and 94 percent of respondents identified women as the primary actors in production. Yet only about 30 percent of these women reported owning the plots they farm; the remaining 70 percent work as laborers on land they do not control. Most respondents were of working age, with nearly 90 percent between 26 and 50 years old, and 85 percent had participated in seaweed farming for less than five years, suggesting a recent influx of newcomers drawn by economic necessity. Incomes were low across the board, with 88.5 percent earning below 300,000 Tanzanian shillings per month, and households were large, with 61.5 percent reporting six to ten members.

Income generation was the dominant motivation for farming, cited by about 40 percent of respondents, far ahead of social influence, training exposure, or village initiatives. Notably, ecological awareness played almost no role: roughly 86 percent of respondents could not clearly explain how seaweed farming contributes to marine environmental protection, even though the practice is widely regarded as one of the most sustainable forms of aquaculture, requiring no fertilizers, pesticides, land, or freshwater. Farmers participate because the work is flexible enough to combine with domestic responsibilities and because declining capture fisheries have left few alternatives, not because they see themselves as stewards of a climate-friendly industry.

The technical picture is one of stagnation. More than 96 percent of respondents rely on traditional shallow-water, off-bottom cultivation using peg-and-rope methods, with minimal adoption of floating lines or tubular nets that could buffer crops from warming waters. Around 70 percent said their current scale of operations does not yield sufficient economic returns, and only 12 percent reported any involvement in value addition over the past five years. Access to inputs such as ropes, floats, and boats was lacking for 76 percent of respondents, and fewer than 30 percent received extension services, which were described as irregular, project-based, and often occurring less than twice a year. Perceptions of the policy framework scored a mean of just 2.73 on a six-point satisfaction scale.

The market structure may be the most damning finding. Approximately 80 percent of harvested seaweed is sold dried to intermediaries or exporting firms, and 92 percent of respondents did not know where their product ultimately went. A small group of firms, including Tanga Seaweed, ZANEA, King David, and Ledo Biashara, dominates buying and exporting, with a spatially uneven presence that leaves some communities with no buyer at all or forced to accept reduced prices. Local demand is nearly absent, with 70 percent of respondents reporting no household consumption of seaweed products, and exposure to seaweed goods largely confined to occasional events such as Nanenane Farmers’ Day and the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair. With so few buyers, farmers have almost no bargaining power, and the sector remains locked in exporting low-value raw dried biomass.

The study’s central argument is that Tanzania’s problem is not production capacity but structural fragmentation. Production is growing without corresponding improvements in aggregation, processing, market transparency, or coordination, so expansion translates into more labor rather than more value. The researchers point to experiences in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Europe, where supply chain upgrading has depended on coordinated investment in processing capacity, quality standards, and institutional support. They also highlight a governance gap: the farmers who produce the crop, most of them women, have limited representation in market negotiations and policy processes, and Tanzania lacks a dedicated seaweed policy. Inclusion without access to assets, credit, and decision-making, the authors warn, does not translate into empowerment.

Yet the study is not only a diagnosis of failure. Respondents identified concrete opportunities: strengthening producer groups and collection systems for bulk handling, investing in basic storage and handling infrastructure to improve quality, supporting emerging local enterprises in collection and small-scale processing, and deepening ties with research institutions such as the Institute of Marine Sciences, the University of Dar es Salaam, and Sokoine University of Agriculture. Embedding seaweed farming within broader coastal development and ocean sustainability strategies, the authors argue, could improve livelihoods while building more resilient marine economies. The future of the sector, they conclude, depends less on growing more seaweed and more on reorganizing how value is created and distributed along the chain, a structural transition that would determine whether Tanzania’s seaweed boom finally pays off for the women who make it happen.

Subject of Research: The seaweed supply chain, market constraints, and livelihood opportunities for coastal farming communities in mainland Tanzania

Article Title: Challenges and opportunities of seaweed supply chain in mainland Tanzania

Article References: Katikiro, R. E., & Michael, A. (2026). Challenges and opportunities of seaweed supply chain in mainland Tanzania. Discover Oceans, 3(1), Article 29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44289-026-00142-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44289-026-00142-4

Keywords: seaweed farming, Tanzania, supply chain, carrageenan, coastal livelihoods, women farmers, value addition, blue economy, aquaculture, market access, Kappaphycus alvarezii, Eucheuma denticulatum

The research, published in BMC Agriculture, was conducted by Andinet Abera Hailu of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and University College Cork, together with Nahom Tefera and Stephen Thornhill. The team carried out a repeated cross-sectional survey in two waves, deliberately timed to capture the extremes of the Ethiopian farming calendar. The first round took place during the pre-harvest months of August and September 2022, when food stores run low and households depend on whatever remains from the previous year. The second round followed in March and April 2023, after the main harvest had replenished food supplies. Data were collected across Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Sidama, and Somali regions using computer-assisted personal interviewing on tablets, with a multistage sampling strategy anchored to the national Household Income and Expenditure Survey framework.

The dietary assessment relied on internationally validated tools adapted to Ethiopian food culture. Women’s diets were scored using the Diet Quality Questionnaire, which classifies everything a woman ate in the previous day and night into ten food groups, with indigenous staples such as teff and enset grouped appropriately. A woman was considered to meet the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women, or MDD-W, if she consumed foods from at least five of the ten groups, a threshold associated with a higher likelihood of micronutrient adequacy. For children aged 6 to 23 months, the team applied the World Health Organization’s eight food groups to calculate the Child Dietary Diversity Score, alongside the Minimum Dietary Diversity and Minimum Acceptable Diet indicators, which also account for meal frequency and breastfeeding status. Nutrient intake was estimated with a food frequency questionnaire using standardized serving sizes from the national Food Consumption Survey, allowing the researchers to compute Nutrient Adequacy Ratios against Ethiopian and FAO/WHO reference values.

The seasonal contrast was dramatic. Before the harvest, only 16.8 percent of women achieved the MDD-W threshold; after the harvest, that figure rose to 25 percent. Children showed even sharper swings: the share meeting Minimum Dietary Diversity nearly doubled, from 11.8 percent to 23.3 percent, and the proportion achieving a Minimum Acceptable Diet more than doubled, from 7.6 percent to 16.5 percent. The post-harvest diet was visibly richer in pulses, other vegetables, fruits, and dairy. Yet the improvements were concentrated in foods that families grow themselves. Consumption of eggs, nuts and seeds, and meat, poultry, and fish remained strikingly low in both seasons for both women and children, with children’s flesh food consumption rising only from 1.7 percent to 6.8 percent and egg consumption from 10.9 percent to 15.5 percent after harvest.

Nutrient intake data told the same story in chemical terms. Women’s energy intake increased from an average of 1,430 to 1,589 kilocalories per day after harvest, still far below the Ethiopian Food-Based Dietary Guidelines recommendation of 2,300 kilocalories. Vitamin A intake rose from 394 to 482 micrograms of retinol activity equivalents per day but remained below the 600-microgram reference intake, and calcium stayed well under recommended levels in both seasons. Children fared similarly: energy intake climbed from 734 to 815 kilocalories per day against a guideline of 1,250, while calcium intake, even post-harvest, reached only 273 milligrams per day, barely a quarter of the recommended 1,000 milligrams. Across the whole study, the Mean Adequacy Ratio hovered around 60 percent for both women and children, with calcium emerging as the most limiting nutrient for both groups: fewer than one in five women and only 27 percent of children met adequacy thresholds.

The statistical core of the study lies in its regression models, which linked farm production diversity directly to nutrient intake. For women, each additional food group produced by the household corresponded to an increase of 103.8 kilocalories of energy, 66.9 milligrams of calcium, 101.4 micrograms RAE of vitamin A, 3.75 milligrams of iron, and 0.70 milligrams of zinc per day, all highly significant. Children in more diverse households consumed significantly more calcium, vitamin A, iron, and zinc. The marginal effects were striking: as production diversity rose from one to five food groups, predicted vitamin A intake among women more than doubled from roughly 500 to over 1,000 micrograms RAE per day, and predicted calcium intake nearly doubled from about 450 to 900 milligrams per day. Homestead land proved particularly powerful, with each additional hectare associated with more than 100 micrograms of extra daily vitamin A intake among women.

The researchers also classified households into four dominant cropping systems using hierarchical clustering of crop composition, and found that agricultural context left distinct nutritional fingerprints. Women in agropastoral households had the highest calcium intake at 560.6 milligrams per day, likely reflecting dairy access, while those in highland perennial systems achieved the best vitamin A intake at 548.1 micrograms RAE per day, probably thanks to perennial fruits intercropped with vegetables. Cereal-pulse mixed systems excelled in iron, consistent with the mineral profile of teff and legumes. By contrast, tuber-based systems consistently showed the lowest zinc intake, pointing to a widespread risk of inadequacy that no single cropping system escaped. Zinc deficiency, in fact, emerged as a systemic problem across rural Ethiopia, with intakes ranging only from 7.4 to 9.8 milligrams per day across systems.

Beyond the farm gate, the study revealed how strongly the food environment constrains diet quality. Households located more than an hour from a market had significantly lower intakes of key nutrients, particularly energy and calcium, and greater distance from roads compounded the disadvantage. Food prices exerted an equally powerful influence: every one-birr increase in the price of eggs was associated with a reduction of 62.5 kilocalories of daily energy intake, 23.9 milligrams of calcium, 2.38 milligrams of iron, and 39.5 micrograms of vitamin A among women. Rising fruit and vegetable prices were similarly linked to drops in vitamin A consumption, indicating that nutrient-dense foods are priced out of reach precisely when families need them most. Regional contrasts were also pronounced, with women in Oromia showing higher energy, calcium, zinc, and vitamin A intake than those in Amhara, while iron-rich teff consumption in Amhara boosted iron and zinc levels.

The authors conclude that farm diversification, while genuinely effective, is not sufficient on its own to close Ethiopia’s nutrition gap. Cultural factors compound the challenge: Ethiopian Orthodox Christian fasting, which can span more than 200 days a year, suppresses animal-source food consumption even among livestock-owning households, and previous research found that only a quarter of young children consumed any animal-source food during Lent despite 80 percent of their households owning animals. The study’s prescription is therefore integrated: nutrition-sensitive agriculture that promotes locally adapted, diverse crop combinations; infrastructure investments in roads and markets that make nutrient-rich foods available year-round; and complementary interventions such as biofortification, fortification, and targeted supplementation of iron, vitamin A, and zinc. Without these parallel efforts, the researchers warn, millions of Ethiopian mothers and children will continue cycling between post-harvest recovery and lean-season deficiency, no matter how varied their fields may be.

Subject of Research: The influence of farm production diversity and seasonality on dietary diversity and nutrient intake among women and children in rural Ethiopia

Article Title: The influence of farm production diversity and seasonality on dietary diversity and nutrient intake among women and children in rural Ethiopia

Article References: Hailu, A. A., Tefera, N., & Thornhill, S. (2026). The influence of farm production diversity and seasonality on dietary diversity and nutrient intake among women and children in rural Ethiopia. BMC Agriculture, 2(1), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44399-025-00029-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s44399-025-00029-3

Keywords: Ethiopia, dietary diversity, nutrition, micronutrients, farm production diversity, seasonality, women's health, child nutrition, food security, agriculture, market access, cropping systems

The research team, led by scientists at Gulu University and Kabale University, set out to answer three linked questions: what determines whether a farmer is aware of the maize grades and standards promoted by the East African Grain Council and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards; what determines whether an aware farmer actually adopts them; and what determines how intensively an adopter applies them to the harvest. Because these are sequential decisions rather than a single choice, the researchers needed a statistical framework that could account for the fact that only a subset of farmers ever reaches the adoption stage. Their solution was a two-pronged econometric approach combining probit regression with the Heckman two-stage selection model, a technique designed to correct for the bias that arises when the sample of adopters is not randomly drawn from the population.

The study area was deliberately chosen for its commercial importance. Amuru and Nwoya districts, located in the Acholi subregion along the Gulu–Arua road, are among Uganda’s most productive maize zones, with Amuru contributing an estimated 45,000 to 55,000 metric tons of maize annually and Nwoya producing between 50,000 and 60,000 metric tons. Both districts sit near the South Sudan border, a gateway for agricultural exports, and both are dominated by small-scale farming despite their considerable potential for large-scale production. Using multistage sampling, the researchers purposively selected the two districts, randomly chose Amuru and Alero sub-counties, and then drew a random sample of 270 maize farmers from lists supplied by district agricultural officers. The sample size was calculated with the Cochran formula, and data were collected between April and May 2023 through a pretested questionnaire administered by trained enumerators.

The headline numbers are striking. Only 40.4 percent of the farmers surveyed were aware of the recommended maize grades and standards, and just 31.1 percent actually used them. Among the farmers who did adopt grading, the mean proportion of their total maize output that was graded stood at 0.86, but the range was enormous, stretching from a minimum of 0.02 to a maximum of 4.41, reflecting wide variability in how extensively individual adopters engaged with the practice. Awareness was measured using eight Likert-type items capturing farmers’ knowledge of the grades recommended by the East African Community, with a composite score threshold used to classify farmers as aware or unaware. The internal consistency of the awareness scale, assessed with Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.71, indicating adequate reliability for the composite measure.

To unpack awareness, the researchers ran a probit regression in which the dependent variable was binary and the explanatory variables included education, age, gender, market access, extension contact, credit access and farmer-group membership. The results showed that each additional year of schooling raised the probability of awareness by 1.6 percent, a modest but statistically significant effect that echoes a large body of literature linking formal education to the uptake of agricultural innovations. Far more powerful was access to extension services: farmers with extension contact were 24.4 percent more likely to be aware of maize standards than farmers without it. Gender also mattered, with male farmers 12.2 percent more likely to know about the standards than female farmers, and access to credit raised awareness by 13.2 percent, presumably because financial resources allow farmers to explore practices that can enhance productivity. Membership in farmers’ associations was positively associated with awareness as well, confirming the role of collective institutions as channels for information diffusion.

The second stage of the analysis examined utilization. Farmers who were aware of the grading system were significantly more likely to apply it, underscoring the intuitive but policy-relevant point that knowledge is a precondition for adoption. Access to extension services again increased the likelihood of utilization, reinforcing the central role of advisory agents in translating standards into practice. Somewhat counterintuitively, the study found a negative and significant relationship between membership in farmers’ associations and adoption. The authors suggest that group dynamics, divergent member interests, limited collective knowledge or weak market demand for graded maize may discourage adoption within associations. Distance to the nearest maize market was also a significant factor, with farmers located closer to markets more likely to grade their maize, likely because reduced transport costs and easier buyer contact make compliance more attractive. Notably, distance to market, credit access and extension access were included only in the selection equation and excluded from the intensity equation, satisfying the exclusion restriction that allows the Heckman model to be identified beyond functional form.

The third stage modeled intensity of use among adopters, defined as the share of total maize output that was graded rather than the absolute quantity, a refinement the researchers adopted to avoid overstating intensity for larger producers. Here the significant and negative inverse Mills ratio confirmed that unobserved factors influencing the decision to adopt are correlated with those influencing intensity, validating the Heckman framework over alternatives such as the Tobit or double-hurdle models. The Tobit approach treats zero outcomes as corner solutions of a continuous process, but in this setting a zero means genuine non-utilization, a qualitatively different state. The double-hurdle model typically assumes independent error terms across the two decisions, whereas the Heckman model explicitly allows unobserved factors to be correlated and tests this through the Mills ratio. The intensity results showed that household size, land size under maize production and awareness were all positively associated with the share of output graded, while the effect of age was negative, meaning younger farmers graded a larger share of their harvest. Larger households supply the labor needed for the time-consuming sorting process, while larger landholdings allow fixed grading costs to be spread over greater volumes and signal more commercially oriented producers facing stronger market incentives.

The stakes of this knowledge gap are not abstract. Uganda exports roughly 22 percent of its annual maize harvest, with the rest consumed domestically, about 60 percent processed into flour, 37 percent used for animal feed and 3 percent for brewing. The trade is organized around informal buyers with no quality controls, large local traders who supply millers, Kenyan large-scale traders offering competitive prices, and institutional buyers such as the World Food Programme. Regional standards, harmonized by the East African Community with particular emphasis on aflatoxin monitoring, are meant to ensure consistency and food safety, but compliance in domestic markets remains inadequate. The consequences have been concrete and costly: in 2018, Kenya rejected more than 600,000 metric tons of Ugandan maize over high aflatoxin levels, and a further import ban affecting Ugandan and Tanzanian maize followed in 2021 for similar reasons. Such rejections depress farmer incomes, choke off export earnings and generate significant postharvest losses, making the low awareness and utilization documented in this study a matter of national economic concern rather than a narrow technical problem.

The authors are candid about the limitations of their work. The cross-sectional design, with data collected at a single point in time, restricts causal inference, and the focus on Amuru and Nwoya may limit how far the findings generalize to regions with different agricultural practices or economic contexts. They call for comparative analyses across diverse regions of Uganda and similar settings to capture regional variation and inform more tailored policy. Still, the practical implications are clear. The study recommends integrating maize-grading training into agricultural advisory programs, prioritizing younger farmers and larger-scale producers as early adopters and demonstration sites to accelerate diffusion through peer networks, scaling up tailored credit schemes so farmers can invest in the equipment and practices needed to meet standards, and establishing grading stations closer to farming communities to mitigate the logistical barriers associated with market distance. Given that association membership boosted awareness but not adoption, the authors also urge capacity building within farmer groups to address internal challenges and stimulate real demand for graded maize.

What emerges from the analysis is a coherent picture of a sequential decision pipeline in which information, institutions and economics each gate the next step. Education, extension, credit and gender equity determine who even knows the standards exist; awareness and proximity to buyers determine who acts on that knowledge; and household labor, land size and age determine how thoroughly adopters grade their grain. Breaking the pipeline at any stage suppresses quality compliance downstream, and the study suggests that fixing it requires coordinated interventions across all three stages rather than any single lever. For a country whose maize competes in regional markets where a single aflatoxin rejection can erase hundreds of thousands of tons of sales, helping smallholder farmers climb this decision ladder may be one of the most economically consequential investments agricultural policy can make.

Subject of Research: Determinants of smallholder farmers' awareness, adoption and intensity of use of maize grades and standards in northern Uganda, analyzed with a Heckman two-stage model.

Article Title: Determinants of awareness and intensity of use of maize grades and standards among smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda: a heckman two-stage model approach

Article References: Kalu, O. N., Adewale, C. I., Okello, D. M., & Mugonola, B. (2026). Determinants of awareness and intensity of use of maize grades and standards among smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda: a heckman two-stage model approach. BMC Agriculture, 2(1), Article 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44399-026-00035-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s44399-026-00035-z

Keywords: maize, smallholder farmers, Uganda, grades and standards, Heckman two-stage model, adoption, awareness, intensity of use, extension services, market access, aflatoxin, agricultural economics

The study area, encompassing the districts of Alefa, North Achefer, Takusa and Quara, is home to an estimated 814,021 people and roughly 130,472 registered smallholder farm households. Spanning altitudes from 500 to 2,300 meters above sea level, the landscape supports a diversified crop-livestock mixed-farming system in which cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, tubers, spices, livestock and their products are all potential components of household food supply. Between April 2022 and January 2023, researchers administered structured questionnaires capturing the full range of plant-sourced and animal-sourced commodities produced by each household, grouping outputs into 12 food groups following guidelines from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the FANTA framework for dietary assessment.

The headline figure from the analysis is that the average smallholder household in northwest Ethiopia produces 43.53 quintals of crops per year, of which cereals account for 25.47 quintals, or 58.51 percent of total production. Maize dominates, with an average of 12.77 quintals per household annually, followed by millet at 4.61 quintals, sorghum at 3.96 quintals and teff, the culturally central Ethiopian grain, at 2.33 quintals. Pulses and nuts contribute an average of 5.74 quintals, led by soybeans and grass peas, both of which show clear agro-ecological sensitivity: soybeans are concentrated below 1,000 meters in altitude while grass peas dominate the mid-altitude band between 1,500 and 2,300 meters. Oilseeds, including sesame, niger seed, sunflower, linseed and rapeseed, average 2.33 quintals per household, with sesame standing out as the principal cash crop in this category.

Micronutrient-rich foods tell a more sobering story. Average annual production of vegetables is 5.22 quintals per household, while fruits lag dramatically at just 0.62 quintals, despite the region’s diverse agroecology being well suited to crops such as avocado, mango, banana, papaya and watermelon. Ethiopian cabbage, intercropped with maize, is among the most common vegetables, and crops such as okra appear only in specific low-altitude pockets of Quara and Alefa. Only 49 percent of households cultivate any tuber or root crop at all, and a mere 23.22 percent grow spices, averaging 0.77 quintals annually. The authors note that households have substantially less experience producing fruits and vegetables and do not regard these crops as being as significant as cereals, a perception with direct consequences for dietary quality given the role these food groups play in supplying vitamins and minerals.

To identify the drivers behind these patterns, the researchers deployed multiple linear regression models, testing demographic, socioeconomic and institutional predictors while screening for multicollinearity using variance inflation factors and checking robustness with quantile, robust and MM regression. The results reveal a consistent and striking pattern: access to irrigation is among the most powerful levers available. Households using small-scale irrigation produced 21.77 quintals more crops than non-users, largely because irrigation enables more than one production season in a system otherwise hostage to rainfall. Irrigation user households also produced 3.25 quintals more fruit per year than non-users, making water access a decisive factor in diversifying production toward nutrient-dense food groups such as fruits and vegetables. Yet only 13.60 percent of surveyed households actually use irrigation, representing an enormous unrealized potential.

Draft and transport animals emerge as equally consequential. Each additional ox increases a household’s total crop production by 6.02 quintals, and each additional donkey adds 6.06 quintals, reflecting the central role these animals play as traction power and as transport for inputs and harvested yields. Male-headed households produce 10.53 quintals more total crops than female-headed households, a gap partly attributed to cultural norms that direct female farmers toward backyard cultivation rather than field-scale cereal production. Contacts with agricultural extension workers also translate directly into output, with each additional contact during a production season associated with 1.63 quintals of additional crops. Distance to market operates in the opposite direction: every additional kilometer separating a household from the nearest market center is associated with 0.7 quintals less crop production.

The analysis also uncovers a subtle and counterintuitive finding about education. Each additional year of schooling by the household head reduces cereal production by 0.37 quintals, suggesting that more educated decision-makers diversify into a wider range of crops rather than concentrating on staples. Consistent with this interpretation, an additional year of schooling increases pulse and root crop production by 0.24 quintals. Household labor structure matters too, with each additional family member aged 15 to 64 adding 1.4 quintals of cereals, while households that factor crop management difficulties into their planting decisions produce 2.7 quintals less than those that do not, indicating a precautionary effect that constrains output.

On the livestock side, the picture changes considerably. Ninety-eight percent of households own at least one type of animal, with average holdings of 6.00 tropical livestock units, equivalent to roughly 1,500 kilograms of live weight. Animal-sourced food production averages 248.61 eggs, 117.46 liters of milk and milk products, 132.63 kilograms of meat including chicken, 2.96 kilograms of fish and 8.59 kilograms of honey per household per year. The regression results show that education of the household head and total crop output significantly boost egg production, with each additional year of schooling adding 10.84 eggs annually and each quintal of crops adding 1.78 eggs, likely because cereals serve as feed for poultry. Livestock ownership itself is the dominant predictor of meat availability, with each additional tropical livestock unit associated with 11.28 kilograms more meat produced or purchased, while each additional unit raises milk production by 15.05 liters. Contacts with extension workers add 7.21 liters of milk per contact, underscoring the value of advisory services in dairy management.

Intriguingly, several determinants of livestock production run counter to those for crops. Whereas market distance suppresses crop output, livestock holdings actually increase by 0.17 tropical livestock units for every kilometer a household sits from a market center, and cooperative members hold 1.07 more units than non-members. Arable land adds 1.18 units per hectare, while aging household heads hold fewer animals, with each year of age associated with a decline of 0.092 units. School-age children between five and fourteen play a pivotal role in the free-grazing system, with each additional child in that age band associated with 0.77 more livestock units, a reminder that child labor remains structurally embedded in traditional herding economies.

The authors conclude that promoting cost-effective small-scale irrigation through water-harvesting technologies, improving agricultural management practices, and adding value to livestock production by introducing nutrient-dense animal feeds could substantially raise both the quantity and diversity of food available to smallholder households. They argue that agricultural extension services should be explicitly nutrition-sensitive, framing agriculture not merely as a matter of production volume but of the range of food groups reaching households. The study acknowledges limitations inherent in its cross-sectional design, which captures a single production season and cannot fully reflect long-term household experience, nor determine whether production levels meet the dietary needs of household members. Even so, the findings provide a detailed evidence base for policymakers seeking to transform traditional, rain-fed, and vulnerable smallholder agriculture into a springboard for nutrition-sensitive food systems capable of tackling the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition in Ethiopia and comparable settings across sub-Saharan Africa.

Subject of Research: Determinants of plant- and animal-sourced food production among smallholder farm households in northwest Ethiopia

Article Title: Food-based production of smallholders in northwest Ethiopia: the extent and determinants

Article References: Brhanu, G. A., Ayele, Z. B., & Gebremedhin, S. (2026). Food-based production of smallholders in northwest Ethiopia: the extent and determinants. BMC Agriculture, 2(1), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44399-026-00040-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s44399-026-00040-2

Keywords: smallholder agriculture, Ethiopia, food security, irrigation, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, livestock production, crop diversification, agricultural extension, mixed farming systems, food groups, market access, BMC Agriculture

The study, led by Jackline Juma Robert of Egerton University together with Mary W. K. Mathenge and Augustus Sammy Muluvi, examines why some smallholder cashew farmers throw themselves fully into cooperative life while others remain on the margins. The stakes are considerable. Kenya’s national cashew output has collapsed from 28,410 tonnes in 2015 to just 8,997 tonnes in 2023, and Kilifi County, which produces roughly 40 percent of the national crop and supports more than 70,000 smallholder farmers, sits at the epicenter of the decline. Weak institutional coordination, thin market linkages and low cooperative participation are identified as central culprits.

Agricultural cooperatives, the authors argue, are among the best-documented institutional fixes for smallholder market failure. By pooling produce and sharing infrastructure, they cut transaction costs, improve access to quality inputs, credit and markets, and create platforms for disseminating knowledge and new technologies. In cashew value chains specifically, cooperatives enable collective investment in storage, transport and processing, allowing farmers to capture more value from each nut. The problem, the researchers found, is not that cooperatives do not work; it is that participation intensity, meaning the number of different services a farmer actually draws from the cooperative, remains stubbornly low.

To investigate, the team surveyed 394 smallholder farmers in Kilifi North Sub-County, a designated cashew production zone where the crop is the principal cash enterprise. Using a multistage sampling design, they first purposively selected the county, then the sub-county, and finally four major cashew-producing wards: Kibarani, Matsangoni, Dabaso and Tezo. Individual respondents were drawn by simple random sampling from a register of 11,012 registered cashew farmers maintained by the county agriculture department and the Empowering Farmers Foundation, with the sample size calculated using Yamane’s formula and inflated slightly to guard against non-response.

Because the outcome of interest, the count of cooperative services a farmer receives, is count data plagued by excess zeros, the researchers compared four regression specifications: standard Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated Poisson and zero-inflated negative binomial. Diagnostic tests revealed significant overdispersion, with a mean of 1.82 against a variance of 2.62, and a glut of zeros largely produced by non-members who are structurally excluded from cooperative services. The zero-inflated Poisson model, which separately models this structural-zero group from the count process among members, delivered the lowest Akaike Information Criterion at 1304.858 and emerged as the preferred specification. Multicollinearity checks using variance inflation factors showed no problematic correlation among predictors.

The descriptive portrait of the farming population is striking in its own right. Nearly 64 percent of surveyed cashew farmers were women, a pattern the authors attribute to men migrating toward alternative income activities as cashew returns have stagnated, leaving women to shoulder routine farm management, harvesting and marketing. Cooperative members were also significantly more likely to have received training in cashew production and Good Agricultural Practices, to access market information, to use pesticides and to belong to social groups, suggesting that membership is entangled with broader networks of information and support.

The regression results tell a coherent economic story. Older farmers used more services, with each additional year of age raising the expected rate of service utilization by a factor of 1.012, plausibly because experience has taught them the long-run value of cooperative support. Education mattered as well: each additional year of schooling increased service uptake by a factor of 1.023. Larger households, with their deeper labor pools and diversified risk, participated more intensively, as did farmers earning off-farm income, whose expected rate of service use was 1.264 times higher per unit increase in such income, presumably because financial slack makes cooperative engagement less risky.

Scale and market access proved decisive. Each additional cashew tree owned raised expected service utilization by a factor of 1.004, reflecting economies of scale that make cooperative services worth the trouble, while farmers with market access used services at 1.895 times the rate of those without, a finding the authors interpret as evidence that a ready market builds the trust that underpins collective action. On the flip side, geography worked against participation: every additional kilometer from the nearest market, or from the nearest tarmac road, reduced service utilization by a factor of 0.985. Remoteness, the study suggests, cuts farmers off not just from physical market access but from extension visits, cooperative announcements and the peer networks through which cooperative life actually happens.

The authors are careful to acknowledge limits. Their data are cross-sectional, gathered between July and August 2025, and thus capture a snapshot rather than the dynamics of participation over time. Conditions in other cashew-producing areas, with different cooperative structures, market access and agroecology, may diverge from Kilifi North, cautioning against overgeneralization. Still, the analytical framework, grounded in Collective Action Theory and Random Utility Theory, treats each farmer as a utility maximizer weighing the perceived costs and benefits of engagement, and the data support that framing with unusual clarity.

The policy implications are concrete. The researchers recommend targeted training to diffuse information about cooperative benefits, deliberate strengthening of social networks and market interactions, and subsidy programs channeled through cooperatives, especially for farmers with fewer trees who might otherwise be priced out of participation. They also call for public investment in rural roads and market proximity, alongside growth in the non-farm economy, to raise off-farm incomes that fuel cooperative engagement. In a county where one nut once funded households, schools and futures, the message is blunt: reviving Kenya’s cashew sector may depend less on the tree than on the roads, education and trust that carry farmers into collective action.

Subject of Research: Determinants of the intensity of participation in agricultural cooperatives among smallholder cashew farmers in Kilifi County, Kenya

Article Title: Intensity of participation in cooperatives among smallholder cashew farmers in Kilifi County, Kenya

Article References: Robert, J. J., Mathenge, M. W. K., & Muluvi, A. S. (2026). Intensity of participation in cooperatives among smallholder cashew farmers in Kilifi County, Kenya. Discover Agriculture, 4(1), Article 282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44279-026-00755-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44279-026-00755-5

Keywords: cashew farming, agricultural cooperatives, Kilifi County, Kenya, smallholder farmers, Zero-Inflated Poisson model, cooperative participation, market access, rural infrastructure, farm productivity, collective action, coastal agriculture