systems research - the IDRC Digital Library - International ...

Mungbean productivity
The productivity of mungbean came mostly from pesticide application. Farmers
were fully aware of the potential damage if insect pests were not controlled during
the flowering stage of mungbean. Seeds did not significantly affect mungbean yield.
Farmers had totally shifted to the new mungbean variety (MG-9) introduced by
RIARS. Similarly, inputs, labor, and power tiller did not significantly affect
mungbean yield. The intercept shifter (year dummy variable) indicated that
mungbean yield in crop year 1989-90 was significantly higher than in the succeeding
year.
Impact on total household income
The endogenous variable, total household income, represented the total earnings of
the farm household from different sources. The explanatory variable, nonfarm
income, was an arithmetic component of the endogenous variable in question;
therefore, it was introduced in the model as a share of total income. Proxy variables,
such as the number of hours spent on nonfarm economic activities, may be a more
appropriate estimator. Different economic activities, however, yielded different
levels of earnings. Total household income was explained by the technology
variables (productivity in maize, rice, and mungbean, cropping intensities in lowland
and upland areas of the farm, total land holdings, household size, and year dummy).
Although productivity in rice and maize had a significant positive impact on total
farm household income, mungbean contributed negatively (although the difference
was not sta~istically significant).
The significant negative effect of lowland cropping intensity compared with
the positive impact of upland cropping intensity, reaffirmed the preference of the
farmers to intensively cultivate their upland areas rather than their lowlands.
Similarly, total land holdings provided a significant positive impact on total
household income.
Household size had a significant positive effect on total income. Larger
families tended to have an edge in generating cash income for the household. As
expected, the value of landlord shares decreased total income. This particular
variable represents tenurial status of the land, or land rent in general. Most farmers
cultivated several parcels of land with different rental arrangements. Weather
affected overall crop production during the first year of the study; therefore, total
farm household income was affected that year (the significant negative sign for the
year dummy variable).
Impact on adequacy of nutrient intake
Adequacy in nutrient intake only considers the macronutrients (energy and protein).
These macronutrients are still the most limiting in the diet of small farming
households. The endogenous variables were calculated as a per capita intake instead