Browsing by Author "Adenuga, Adewale"
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Item Assessing the impact of participatory extension programme membership on farm business performance in Northern Ireland.(MDPI, 2021-09-30) Adenuga, Adewale; Jack, Claire G.; Ashfield, Austen; Wallace, MichaelThis paper evaluates the impact of membership of the Business Development Groups (BDG), a participatory extension programme in Northern Ireland on the economic performance of participating farmers for dairy and sheep enterprise groups. The study employs the conditional difference-in-differences approach which combines a non-parametric matching estimator with a difference-in-differences analytical technique to obtain a credible best-estimates of the causal effect of BDG membership on farmers’ economic performance assuming that BDG participation is as good as random after controlling for observable farm characteristics and that the parallel trends assumption holds between BDG participants and non-participants. The results of the analyses showed that membership in the BDG programme has a statistically significant impact on the economic performance of participating farmers. Specifically, the results showed that farmers who are members of the dairy and sheep BDGs increased their gross margin by £109.10 and £17.10 per head respectively compared to farmers that are non-members of the BDGs. The results of the study provide robust evidence to inform policy development around the area of participatory extension programmes. It also supports the design of efficient agricultural education and extension systems that incorporates the ideas of the farmers themselves through peer-to-peer learning thereby maximising the economic and social benefits accruable from such programmes.Item The Case for Long-Term Land Leasing: A Review of the Empirical Literature(MDPI, 2021-03-01) Adenuga, Adewale; Jack, Claire; McCarry, RonanLand, as a factor of production, has a vital role within the agricultural sector compared with other sectors. However, in recent years, land mobility has become a significant issue around the world with increased concentration and competition for land ownership, limiting the overall competitiveness of the agri-food sector and constraining the potential opportunities for new entrant farmers to access land. While land leasing is increasingly being embraced as a common form of land tenure serving as an alternative to the purchase of land for agriculture, the length of lease has been shown to have a significant impact on land productivity and sustainability. In this study, we provide a comprehensive and systematic review exploring the benefits of longer-term land leasing with a particular focus on developed countries and some selected developing countries in the context of commercial farming with more formal arrangements. Specifically, we highlight the barriers to longterm land leasing and identify potential incentives that might be adopted to encourage long-term land leasing for both landowners and farmers who seek to rent land.Item Farm Diversification: Drivers, Barriers and Future Growth Potential(Wiley, on behalf of the Agricultural Economics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists, 2020-10) Jack, Claire; Ashfield, Austen; Adenuga, Adewale; Mullan, ConallFamily farm businesses throughout Europe are facing new economic, environmental and social challenges. In order to deliver a more resilient primary agriculture sector national and regional governments are identifying mechanisms to support farm businesses to adapt to these changing demands. This qualitative study, explored the drivers of and barriers to farm diversification and its potential as a strategy to make farms more sustainable. Although there are a range of farm diversification strategies being pursued regionally, farm diversification is under exploited as an opportunity to achieve additional household income. Areas considered to have the potential for growth included, agri-tourism, care services (including social farming), professional services and developing artisan food products. Beyond the need to generate new income sources, creating employment for other family members was considered an important motivation. Those factors identified as constraints to diversification included internet access, planning, business rates, support around skills development, networks and a farmer’s own fear of failure. For smaller scale, family farm businesses located in more marginal areas, there is a need to identify a range of policy levers which support local farming systems and capture the multifaceted nature of the products and services that these farm businesses could provide and may be asked to deliver in the future.Item Investigating the Drivers of Farmers’ Engagement in a Participatory Extension Programme: The Case of Northern Ireland Business Development Groups(MDPI, 2020-06-02) Jack, Claire; Adenuga, Adewale; Ashfield, Austen; Wallace, Michael; EconomicsParticipatory agricultural extension programmes aimed at encouraging knowledge transfer and the adoption of new technology and innovation at the farm level are a novel approach to advisory service provision. In order to drive sustainable agricultural production systems that address farm-level economic and environmental objectives, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) in November 2015, developed a new participatory extension programme for farmers in Northern Ireland, the Business Development Groups (BDGs). The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse the drivers of farmers’ decisions in relation to joining and participating in this new approach to farm extension, learning and advisory service provision. Making use of data from both primary and secondary sources, this study employs a mixed-methods approach which involves an empirical analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to examine the factors influencing membership of the BDG programme. The results of our analyses show that larger, more intensive farmers who are keen to access information from other farmers to improve their business performance are most likely to participate in the BDG programme. The study contributes to the empirical literature by establishing the need to take into consideration the different characteristics of farmers in the design and delivery of participatory extension programmes.Item Quantifying land fragmentation in Northern Ireland Cattle Enterprises(MDPI, 2022-03-06) Milne, Margaret Georgina; Byrne, Andrew William; Campbell, Emma; Graham, Jordan; McGrath, John; Kirke, Raymond; McMaster, Wilma; Zimmermann, Jesko; Adenuga, AdewaleFarmland fragmentation is considered to be a defining feature of Northern Ireland’s (NI) agricultural landscape, influencing agricultural efficiency, productivity, and the spread of livestock diseases. Despite this, the full extent of farmland fragmentation in cattle farms in NI is not well understood, and little is known of how farmland fragmentation either influences, or is influenced by, different animal production types. Here, we describe and quantify farmland fragmentation in cattle farms for all of NI, using GIS processing of land parcel data to associate individual parcels with data on the cattle business associated with the land. We found that 35% of farms consisted of five or more fragments, with dairy farms associated with greater levels of farmland fragmentation, fragment dispersal and contact with contiguous neighbours compared to other production types. The elevated levels of farmland fragmentation in dairy production compared to non-dairy, may be associated with the recent expansion of dairy farms by land acquisition, following the abolition of the milk quota system in 2015. The comparatively high levels of farmland fragmentation observed in NI cattle farms may also have important implications for agricultural productivity and epidemiology alike. Whilst highly connected pastures could facilitate the dissemination of disease, highly fragmented land could also hamper productivity via diseconomies of scale, such as preventing the increase of herd sizes or additionally, adding to farm costs by increasing the complexity of herd management.Item Toward a Resilient Future: The Promise of Microbial Bioeconomy(MDPI, 2023-04-27) Akinsemolu, Adenike; Onyeaka, Helen; Fagunwa, Omololu; Adenuga, AdewaleNaturally occurring resources, such as water, energy, minerals, and rare earth elements, are limited in availability, yet they are essential components for the survival and development of all life. The pressure on these finite resources is anthropogenic, arising from misuse, overuse, and overdependence, which causes a loss of biodiversity and climate change and poses great challenges to sustainable development. The focal points and principles of the bioeconomy border around ensuring the constant availability of these natural resources for both present and future generations. The rapid growth of the microbial bioeconomy is promising for the purpose of fostering a resilient and sustainable future. This highlights the economic opportunity of using microbial-based resources to substitute fossil fuels in novel products, processes, and services. The subsequent discussion delves into the essential principles required for implementing the microbial bioeconomy. There is a further exploration into the latest developments and innovations in this sub-field. The multi-sectoral applications include use in bio-based food and feed products, energy recovery, waste management, recycling, and cascading. In multi-output production chains, enhanced microbes can simultaneously produce multiple valuable and sustainable products. The review also examines the barriers and facilitators of bio-based approaches for a sustainable economy. Despite limited resources, microbial-based strategies demonstrate human ingenuity for sustaining the planet and economy. This review highlights the existing research and knowledge and paves the way for a further exploration of advancements in microbial knowledge and its potential applications in manufacturing, energy production, reduction in waste, hastened degradation of waste, and environmental conservation.Item Understanding the drivers and motivations of farm diversification: Evidence from Northern Ireland using a mixed methods approach(SAGE Publications, 2020-11) Jack, Claire; Adenuga, Adewale; Ashfield, Austen; Mullan, ConallFarmers are increasingly required to become more productive and innovative to ensure effective 9 management of farm resources and to improve their livelihoods. Farm diversification has been 10 identified as a viable strategy that can be adopted by farm businesses to achieve these objectives 11 in order to reduce their reliance on agricultural production as the main source of household 12 income. In this study, we employ a mixed methods approach to analyse the factors influencing 13 farm diversification and diversification strategies in Northern Ireland. The challenges of setting 14 up a farm diversification enterprise were also explored. Data collection and analysis were 15 undertaken by combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches in a two-stage process 16 using primary data obtained from a survey of farm businesses and interviews with key 17 stakeholders involved in the Northern Ireland agricultural sector. The study results show that the 18 primary motivating factor in pursuing farm-level diversification is the need to generate additional 19 income. The analysis has shown that farm level diversification has the capacity to contribute to 20 both the sustainability of family farms and the wider rural economy. The study results support 21 the need for governments to explore the development of policy measures to support 22 diversification at farm level.Item Unraveling the impact of variable external input use on the cost efficiency of dairy farms in Europe(Elsevier, 2020-10-14) Ojo, O.M.; Adenuga, Adewale; Lauwers, L.; Van Meensel, J.There has been a global shift towards intensification in the dairy sector in recent years which may have considerable impact on the cost efficiency and economic returns of farms. Considering this, the goal of this study is to offer an empirical analysis of the effect of variable external input use on dairy farms. Employing a novel Activity Analysis Model (AAM), the study analysis was conducted in two distinct but complementary steps. In the first step, we discriminated two technologies (low and high inputs) which allow us to classify a sample of dairy farms according to their level of intensification, while in the second step, we evaluated two cost efficient frontiers instead of assessing individual farm inefficiency scores. With this approach, we explore different technologies within a sample of EU dairy farms. Our results, on average, shows that agricultural practices using low inputs dominates the high input ones for farms operating on a large scale while a slight dominance of high input over low inputs exist for small scale farmers. While we reckon that low input can be cost competitive with their high input counterparts, we also note that regional differences do exist. Thus, showing that the significant gap between the two discriminating frontiers depends not only on farm size but also on farm region. We found that increased cost efficiency can reduce the negative environmental impact of EU-dairy farms while simultaneously reducing farmers’ production costs. The results of the study can therefore provide a direction to policymakers and dairy farmers alike as regards the efficient use of external inputs which may consequently reduce environmental burdens associated with dairy farms.