South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics

Markets are important for economic growth and development of a given country to ensure sustainable supply of food. Failure of market leads to failure of adoption of new technology which is necessary for increasing productivity. Sorghum has been considered as a strategic crop by the Ethiopian government aiming at enhancing food security and essential source of income for farmers as whole economic benefits to the country. Smallholder’s farmers producing about 95 percent of the national agricultural production increasing market participation among smallholder farmers have a big opportunity to boost their living standards. The objective of this study was analyzing factors determining smallholder sorghum farmer decision to participate in output market and level of marketed output smallholder farmers in Kafta-Humera district of Tigeray Ethiopia. A two stage sampling technique was used to select 289 sample farmers who were interviewed using a semi- structured questionnaire to obtain data pertaining to sorghum production during the year 2016/2017. Descriptive and Tobit regression analyses were used to determine the key factors that influence household participation in the market in terms of volumes of product sales.  The study identified that quantity of sorghum supplied to the market was positively affected by credit, extension contact, training, sorghum farm size, current price of sorghum and education, while family size and lagged price of sesame negatively affected. These indicate that there is a room to increase in supply and intensity of sorghum in the study area. Therefore, government authorities and other concerned bodies should take into consideration the mentioned demographic, socioeconomic and institutional factors to increase supply of sorghum to the market in study area.

Aim: This study aimed to analyze the influence of monetary factors on inflation in Kenya.

Study Design: Correlational research design was employed to analyze the relationship between inflation and monetary factors in Kenya.

Methodology: Monthly time series data from Central Bank of Kenya spanning from 2005 to 2018 was used for analysis using Variance decomposition, impulse response and Granger causality techniques.

Results: Results indicated that total money supply had a positive influence on inflation that was highly influenced by extended broad money.

Conclusion: The study concluded that imports influence inflation in Kenya but commercial imports highly determined total imports influence on inflation in Kenya.

The shift from the non-oil sector to the oil sector affects the production base of the Nigerian economy and brings about Dutch Disease which rendered the economy susceptible to worries associated with the crude oil price in the international market and crude oil output. Consequently, the need for macroeconomic polies to redirect the economy from the oil to the non-oil based, Thus, the paper assessed policy mix and non-oil output in Nigeria for the period 1990–2019. The objectives of the study was to; examined the effect of fiscal policy in terms of government capital spending and value-added tax (VAT) on non-oil output in Nigeria; and examine the effect of monetary policy in terms of broad money supply and real exchange rate on non-oil output in Nigeria. The study made use of secondary data collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and applied the Vector Error Correction Method (VECM). Other tests carried out include: stationary and co-integration tests. The results of the ADF unit root and Johansen co-integration tests showed that all the variables were stationary at order one and were indeed co-integrated. The VECM result showed that the R² is 65%; this indicated that the model is a good fit. The long-run VECM results showed that there is a long-run causality running from the independent variables to the dependent variable. The short-run VECM result showed that, there is a direct but insignificant relationship between government capital spending and non-oil GDP. Also, there is a direct but insignificant relationship between broad money supply and non-oil GDP. Meanwhile, there is a negative and insignificant relationship between VAT and non-oil output. But the real exchange rate exerts a negative and significant relationship with non-oil output. Owing to the findings, it was concluded that the combination of the policy mix in terms of fiscal and monetary policies are important drivers of the output of the non-oil sector. But constraint in the form of negative relationship between VAT and non-oil output is inimical to the growth of the non-oil sector. Based on these findings, the study recommended amongst others that macroeconomic policies in term of effective use of government revenue from VAT and strong value of the naira in-term of the U.S dollar should be well directed at increase the output of the non-oil sector.

Purpose: Ageing population will eventually have a dramatic effect on the country’s economy, as it influences on the size of the labor force available. Indorsing longer working lives by encouraging retirees back to the work force has been encouraged by many as a viable option to combat this issue and one way to do this is through bridge employment. Bridge employment is paid work undertaken after retirement from the main vocation but before leaving the labor force completely. The aim of this study is to identify factors influencing bridge employment in health sector in Sri Lanka.

Design: Comparing developed and developing context literatures, the study focused on how job-related factors (financial motives and organizational environment) and the societal-level factors (personal fulfillment and social relationship) affect to the bridge employment. Quantitative approach was used. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire survey. To fulfill the study aim, 296 employees representing doctors and nurses, were taken as the sample of this study.  

Findings: The binary logistic regression analysis results indicated that 21.9 per cent variation of the bridge employment can be explained by organizational environment, financial motives, social relationship and personal fulfillment. Among the factors, personal fulfillment, social relationship and organizational environment were significant determinants of bridge employment in health sector in Sri Lanka. Financial motive was not a significant predictor on bridge employment engagement.

Research Implications: The study findings can aid to healthcare centers and pharmaceutical industry as great opportunity in gaining expertise knowledge of bridge employees by understanding influences of personal fulfillment, social relationship and organizational environment factors on their expectations. Further, the findings will be useful to local and global human resources specialists to access and evaluate the research findings to develop new HRM practices based on bride employment.

Limitations: The responsiveness of older employees to providing data, is below than the expected responsiveness.

This study was carried out to estimate costs and returns associated with maize production in Lere local government area of Kaduna state. Data were collected from a sample of 100 maize farmers selected through multi-stage sampling procedure using questionnaire and data collected were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics and net farm income analysis. The result showed that 82% were in their working age of between 21-50 years, majority of the farmers 53% were married, 91% had formal education, in terms of farming experience, majority (68%) of the respondent had farming experience that is above one year. The result revealed that maize farming is profitable investment in the study area with a total return of N 194,545.00 and net farm income of N 81,275.00 per hectare with a benefit cost ratio of 1.72 and a return on capital invested of 0.42. All the farmers identified maize as an important source of food to households in the study area. However maize farming is facing several constraints such as lack of capital (73%), high cost of farm inputs (69%), lack of credit facilities (67%), inadequate storage facilities (53%), inadequate processing facilities (50%), incidence of pests and diseases infestation (46%), poor road network (40%) and poor extension services (33%). Therefore, it is recommended that credit facilities    should be provided so that farmers can have fund to purchase farm inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides and be able to employ adequate labour, storage and processing facilities such as silo and shelling machine should be made available to farmers at subsidized and affordable price as a form of government intervention, adequate workshops and seminars especially on training farmers on  methods of weed and pests control should be organized by extension agents and farmers should  be encouraged to form themselves into cooperative groups so that they can pool their resources together in getting adequate funds to finance maize production activities.