Charles Jumbe | LILONGWE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES (LUANAR) (original) (raw)

Papers by Charles Jumbe

Sustainability

Environmentally sustainable small-scale rice production mechanisation is a feasible intervention ... more Environmentally sustainable small-scale rice production mechanisation is a feasible intervention to help enhance yields and reduce food insecurity. Using machinery for rice production can help small farmers economically and promote sustainability through agroecological principles. The study analyses machinery ownership models and suggests stakeholder interactions for sustainable rice production. The study uses primary data from a field survey of 320 farmers within Asutsuare, a rice production hub in Southern Ghana, and secondary data from various sources. Four different ownership models have been proposed and evaluated. The cooperative-owned machinery (COM) model, with a sharing of the initial investment capital outlay for the machinery acquisition, and the individual ownership model, where the farmer owns and offers hiring services to other farmers (the FOHM-2B and FOHM-2T models) were the most economically viable models. The study also identifies necessary stakeholder engagement a...

Land Economics, Nov 1, 2006

Do local people, especially vulnerable households, benefit from devolution of forest management? ... more Do local people, especially vulnerable households, benefit from devolution of forest management? We apply the propensity-score matching and decomposition techniques on household data from Chimaliro and Liwonde forest reserves under the pilot forest co-management program in Malawi. After controlling for selection bias, we find that while the program raises forest income for participants in Chimaliro, it reduces revenue for participants in Liwonde. Interestingly, results indicate that the program raises forest income for female and low-income participants, although male and richer participants capture more benefits due to discrimination and endowment differences accounting for 100% and 60% of the inter-group income disparity, respectively. (JEL Q23, O13)

2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2018

The present article estimates the extent to which participation in Farm Inputs Subsidy Program (F... more The present article estimates the extent to which participation in Farm Inputs Subsidy Program (FISP) crowds-out/in fertilizer sales among private sector retailers in Malawi. Malawi implemented FISP reforms during 2015/16 season that allowed certain larger-scale fertilizer distributors to sell FISP fertilizer at their retail outlets in select districts on a pilot basis while smaller-scale agro-dealers were excluded. We use a unique panel dataset of fertilizer retailers collected before and after the policy change to measure supplyside crowding-in/out impacts of the FISP. Using a difference-indifferences estimator we are able to obtain a causal measurement of how the policy change affects fertilizer sales for retailers who participated in the program and those who did not. Results indicate that distributors who sold the FISP fertilizer experienced a 299 Mt increase in the volume of total fertilizer sales, on average. Conversely, agro-dealers who were excluded from participating in the pilot program experienced a 28 Mt decline in their fertilizer sales, on average. This suggests that the reforms have mainly benefited distributors who sell 90% of the fertilizer in Malawi, but caused some harm to the many agro-dealers who sell 10% of Malawi's fertilizer, but also conduct their businesses in more remote areas.

This paper sought to address the following key research question: what drives some smallholder fa... more This paper sought to address the following key research question: what drives some smallholder farmers to adopt integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices in a changing climate while others drop out? Data used in this study were collected from 200 farming households during the 2015/2016 agricultural season in Kasungu District of Central Malawi. This paper applied multivariate probit and bivariate probit model, respectively, to analyse the joint adoption and disadoption decisions regarding ISFM technologies and/or practices. Significant factors for both adoption and continued use of ISFM practices include access to legume seed, access to extension, secure land tenure, group membership and landholding size. Interestingly, the same factors discourage disadoption of ISFM practices. For instance, access to legume seed and access to extension discourage disadoption of maize-legume intercropping and rotation, while larger landholding sizes encourage adoption of legume-maize rotation. In addition, the study found that female farmers were more likely to continue the practice of maize-legume intercropping. We therefore recommend that ISFM technology packages that include the use of inorganic fertilizer should go along with other complementary interventions such as maize-legume intercropping and rotation. In addition, efforts in the promotion and scaling up of ISFM practices should focus on those households with secure land tenure rights, encourage access to extension and should place emphasis on the complementarities that exist in the adoption of decisions regarding ISFM technologies in maize-based farming systems.

Agricultural Economics, Aug 26, 2019

and the 2017 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association annual meeting for helpful feedback. ... more and the 2017 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association annual meeting for helpful feedback. We also thank the Agricultural Economics editor, Ashok Mishra and three anonymous referees for insightful comments that greatly improved our manuscript. All remaining errors are our own.

African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Apr 1, 2014

We measured the farm-level impacts of Malawi's Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) on fertiliser ... more We measured the farm-level impacts of Malawi's Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) on fertiliser use and maize yields in central and southern Malawi. Using multiple rounds of panel data and an instrumental variable regression strategy to control for endogenous selection into the subsidy programme, we found positive and statistically significant correlations between participation in the FISP and fertiliser-use intensity. The results are broadly robust to the inclusion of previous fertiliser intensity to control for household-specific differences in fertiliser use. We combined these results with those from a maize production function to calculate programme-generated changes in average maize availability, accounting for estimated subsidy-induced changes in crop area. Our findings have implications for the way input subsidy programmes are designed and implemented.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2013

The paper identified factors that influence the adoption and contribution of conservation agricul... more The paper identified factors that influence the adoption and contribution of conservation agriculture (CA) on household food security using household-level data collected in 2010 from Nkhotakota District, Central Malawi where Total Land Care (TLC) a local Non-governmental Organization (NGO) has been promoting CA. To determine factors that influence adoption of CA, a Probit regression model was used. Then, the paper compared estimated production function between adopters and non-adopters of CA. The Probit results show that age and education level of the household head, number of extension visits, and land holding size are important factors that influence farmers' adoption of CA in the study area. Further results showed that CA adopters had more than 50% higher maize production than that of non-adopters from the Cobb-Douglas production estimates. From the findings, there should be improvement in the delivery of extension services in the promotion and dissemination of agricultural technology to foster wider adoption and improve food security status in the study areas. This can be achieved through increased number of extension workers, increase number of demonstrations when introducing CA technology and improved access to formal education. Our overall results show consistently that CA adopters are better off than non-adopters in various aspects such as maize production, per capita maize requirements and meal frequency. As such, the promoting and up-scaling of CA technologies to smallholder farmers should be intensified as an effective strategy for addressing household food insecurity than the promotion of chemical fertilizers use through programs such as the Farm Inputs Subsidy Program, which is not only unsustainable, but also inappropriate for poor resource farmers.

Advances in environmental engineering and green technologies book series, 2018

The combined effects of declining soil fertility, continuous mono-cropping, poor crop residues ma... more The combined effects of declining soil fertility, continuous mono-cropping, poor crop residues management, and limited resources are considered the major constraints to increased crop productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is for this reason that most African governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have been implementing farm input support programmes to boost smallholder production. While substantial amounts of resources are committed to support such programmes, evidence suggests that the increased use of modern inputs such as inorganic fertilizers on the main staple food crops appear to be only marginally profitable or even unprofitable. There is a renewed realization that the use of fertilizer input alone to raise farm productivity is likely to be impeded, if sufficient attention is not given to complementary interventions such as integrated soil fertility management technologies and extension services. This chapter provides evidence from several African countries on the role of complementary interventions in enhancing profitability, effectiveness, and efficiency with which farm inputs such as inorganic fertilizer and improved seed are applied.

Second RUFORUM Biennial Regional Conference on "Building capacity for food security in Africa", Entebbe, Uganda, 20-24 September 2010., 2010

• The low capacity utilisation is a challenge that impacts on average costs. It requires a soluti... more • The low capacity utilisation is a challenge that impacts on average costs. It requires a solution that involves collaboration between processors, the MBGs and milk producers. • Shortcomings in infrastructure for milk processing, storage and collection. For processors these include the unreliability of power supplies; for some MBGs, the absence of adequate milk cooling and storage facilities; for the entire system, the collection of milk from remoter rural areas is hampered by poor roads. • Low milk consumption is a challenge in terms of marketing but there is also an opportunity for market development. This may be aided by a school milk programme, and education programmes on milk hygiene and health benefits. For processors, expansion of their vendor networks and greater use of small pack sizes might be beneficial. • For some processors the cost of investment in new facilities or machinery is a challenge. • The export trade is an opportunity for processors and may well develop further, but this will depend on an expanding milk supply.

This report Is an output from a research project funded by the United Kingdom Department for Inte... more This report Is an output from a research project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of DFID. R7148 Crop Post-harvest Research Programme.

World forests, 2001

Many countries in eastern and southern Africa have lost significant naturalforest resources. Init... more Many countries in eastern and southern Africa have lost significant naturalforest resources. Initially the pace was gradual, but it has accelerated very much in therecent past. Some of the efforts made to contain the situation include revising pastpolicies to improve forestry development and conservation. This paper traces theevolution of such policies together with corresponding implementation mechanismsin Malawi, Mozambique,Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Although broad policy statementson involving local communities in forestry have existed in some countries for severaldecades, adequate resources have not been committed for their effective operation-alisation.Generally, the forestry sector in southern Africa has lagged behind othersectors in revising its policies to adequately reflect political and socio-economic changes. Political and socio-economic policies appear to have taken precedence over forest sector policies, with far reaching consequences for the sector. However, current forest policies are more comprehensive in terms of stakeholders considered and issues addressed.

About ReSAKSS Established in 2006 under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programm... more About ReSAKSS Established in 2006 under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) supports efforts to promote evidence-and outcome-based policy planning and implementation. In particular, ReSAKSS provides data and related analytical and knowledge products to facilitate CAADP benchmarking, review, and mutual learning processes. AKADEMIYA2063 leads the work of ReSAKSS in partnership with the African Union Commission, the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), and leading regional economic communities (RECs).

Scientific African

Soil nutrient deficiency remains a significant challenge for improved agricultural productivity i... more Soil nutrient deficiency remains a significant challenge for improved agricultural productivity in the global south. Due to fast population growth and limited landholding sizes, most farmers search for affordable soil fertility enhancing options for their farms. With soaring inorganic fertilizer prices, farmers substitute inorganic fertilizer for fertilizer tree technologies in their cropping systems. Thus, understanding drivers of fertilizer trees adoption would provide requisite knowledge for State and non-State actors to promote the integration of fertilizer trees in crop farms. Therefore, this paper assessed the determinants and extent of adopting fertilizer tree technologies in agro-based systems. A Triple Hurdle model of Seemingly Unrelated Multivariate Probit and Tobit models were used to tune model parameter estimates from 962 farm households. The paper used both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study found that seed availability, presence of technology suppliers, training, club membership, frequent extension contact, village bylaws, and household income deepens the adoption agenda. Revitalizing missing markets for agroforestry fertilizer tree seed at the community level is a plausible policy option

This Working Paper is an output of the Bunda Grant Scheme program of IFPRI-Lilongwe. This mentors... more This Working Paper is an output of the Bunda Grant Scheme program of IFPRI-Lilongwe. This mentorship scheme provides selected MSc students from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Bunda College) with opportunities to improve, publish, and disseminate the research that they undertake during their MSc training by working with a seasoned researcher from IFPRI. The Bunda Grant Scheme program is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed in this working paper imply no endorsement by IFPRI-Malawi, USAID, or anyone except the authors.

Biomass and Bioenergy, 2018

Using an ecosystem services perspective to assess biofuel sustainability 1. Understanding the sus... more Using an ecosystem services perspective to assess biofuel sustainability 1. Understanding the sustainability impacts of biofuels The use of liquid biofuels for transport dates back more than a century when it was promoted by automobile industry leaders such as Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel [1,2]. Ever since the oil crises of the 1970s pioneer countries in their respective regions such as Brazil, Sweden and Malawi have been promoting ethanol to substitute imported gasoline [3]. Since then governments around the world have provided considerable support for the development of viable biofuel markets through blending mandates, subsidies and other mechanisms. The U.S. has applied legislative and regulatory instruments to support biofuels for transport [4,5], while the EU has promoted renewable fuels in the transport sector through the Biofuels Directive of 2003 and the Renewable Energy Directive (EU-RED) of 2009 [6,7]. China, India and various other countries have also been supporting biofuels for transport [8-11]. Currently at least 36 countries and trading blocs have enacted mandatory policies for blending liquid biofuels into conventional transport fuel, with several more designing and enacting other types of biofuel policies [8]. Apart from transport, there has also been some limited promotion and pilot projects in some developing countries for the use of liquid biofuels for cooking and power generation [12,13]. Energy security has traditionally been the major driver behind biofuel expansion, while rural development, climate change mitigation and other economic factors (e.g. economic growth, foreign exchange savings) have been additional important motivations in some national and regional contexts [11,14,15]. However, as with any agro-industrial activity, biofuel feedstock production can have a wide range of sustainability impacts, which for any given context can be positive or negative when compared to the impact of other energy alternatives. Perhaps the most significant environmental impacts of biofuels are associated with GHG emissions and land use change (with its subsequent effects on carbon stock change and biodiversity loss) [16-19]. Other important environmental impacts relate to water use and air/water pollution [20-23]. On the other hand key socioeconomic impacts of biofuels include food security, rural development, energy security, land tenure, social conflicts, public health and gender issues among several others [24-31]. The negative impacts of biofuels are mostly associated with land use change such as competition with food production, GHG emissions, and biodiversity loss. However, at the same time, there are opportunities to enhance the positive impact of biofuels on sustainability impacts related to land use change [27]. There are several reasons why biofuels impacts are so variable. First, biofuel lifecycles are quite complex and comprise several stages (e.g. feedstock production, feedstock transport, biofuel production, biofuel distribution/storage/dispensing and biofuel combustion). Different studies often place different emphasis on the various stages [20]. Second, the drivers, impacts and trade-offs of biofuel production and use vary greatly depending on the feedstock, the mode of production (e.g. large plantations, smallholder-based), the mode of consumption (e.g. transport in cities, rural electrification), the social-ecological context where this production and use take place, and the institutions regulating biofuel production, use and trade [15,20]. Third, there is no single assessment methodology that can capture and meaningfully integrate the multiple biofuel sustainability impacts. For example, while standard tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) can capture important impacts related to energy provision and emissions, it cannot assess meaningfully other important impacts related to biodiversity loss, food security and socioeconomic issues [32,33]. The above, combined with the fact that biofuel impacts can manifest across different spatial and temporal scales, undermine our ability to meaningfully compare and generalize between studies, and derive clear conclusions about the sustainability of different biofuel pathways (Section 2). Despite efforts to systematize the current knowledge about biofuel impacts [19], we lack a clear and multidisciplinary synthesis of the existing evidence about the trade-offs of biofuel production and use. To achieve such comprehensive and robust syntheses requires the use of conceptual framework(s) that can position specific findings about biofuel impacts in their appropriate context [34,35]. Such a conceptual framework(s) can also provide the basis for developing a new and much needed set of integrated assessment tools for evaluating biofuel trade-offs [35]. All of the above are major gaps in the current biofuel literature and practice. This Special Issue explores how the ecosystem services perspective can provide this conceptual framework to identify and systematize biofuel trade-offs, as well as develop tools to assess them. Within its various contribution, this Special Issue highlights how the ecosystem services perspective can provide this valuable lens to study biofuel sustainability given its systems-oriented approach, ability to identify trade-offs across temporal and spatial scales, and growing acceptability among academics and stakeholders (Section 2). However there are several important gaps at the interface of biofuels and ecosystem services that need to be bridged (Section 3). The 14 papers included in this Special Issue employ different concepts, methods and tools from the ecosystem services literature to highlight how to apply effectively tools and concepts from the ecosystem services literature to study biofuel sustainability (Section 4).