The Farm Income Stabilization Insurance Program (ASRA) is an agricultural program implemented in several agricultural sectors in Quebec, including the pork sector. This article aims to empirically assess the effects of this program on production decisions in the pork industry in Quebec using a Vector Error Correction Model (VEC). As variables we used the pig supply, the price of pork, and stabilized income. The dataset contains information about the pork sector which cover the period 1981-2014. The annual average growth rate of the quantity offered in this period is 5.24%. The results suggest that the supply of pork is strongly correlated with lagged values of stabilized income. The results also show that there is only one long-term relationship between the three variables above-mentioned. By contrast, in the short term, an increase of one percentage point of the stabilized income leads to an increase of 0.80 percentage point of pork supply in the next period while an increase of one percentage point of pork price will result to a decrease of 0.47 percentage point of the production. Pork production decisions are dominated in short-term by the presence of ASRA program. This shows evidence that without the ASRA program, pork production would be less. These results confirm some of the criticisms of this program. Thus, through this article we suggest a compensation indicator which internalizes market signals in order to improve pork industry efficiency. Simulations of the compensation indicator were also performed. The adoption of this indicator as a measure of compensation for the ASRA program will generate an efficient production system, reduce the deficit of the program, and improve the competitiveness of pork industry. This indicator can be applied to other agricultural sectors covered by the ASRA program.

Inequalities in opportunities and rights between women and men have occupied many researchers over the last two decades. This study reviews literature on (i) gender and poverty, (ii) inequalities in land rights between women and men and their implications for the economic and social development of rural areas in developing countries, and (iii) violence against women in the rural population. World Bank survey data (3507 rural households) were used to analyze women's perceptions of agricultural land rights and violence against women in Benin. The Poisson model is adopted to investigate the determinants of physical violence against women in rural households in Benin. The results show that women are more vulnerable to poverty than men. Women are disadvantaged in access to productive assets such as access to credit and arable land, education, labor market, control of incomes earned in households, and are excluded in decision-making in households and institutions. The results also highlight that women in rural areas do not have access to land and do not participate in land management decisions. Based on the Poisson model, the results show that restrictions imposed on women by their spouses significantly increase the number of physical violence against women in households. Moreover, the results suggest also that an increase in the economic value of assets owned by women significantly reduces the incidence of physical violence against women in households. These results suggest that implementing development actions to increase incomes and empowerment women helps to reduce poverty, increases food security, reduces violence against women, and improves household welfare.

Irregular and low rainfall levels and drought have become important sources of low agricultural yields and agricultural incomes in sub-Saharan Africa. Weather index insurance is a financial product for climate risk management aimed at securing farmers' incomes. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of a weather index insurance project piloted with groundnut farmers in Senegal in 2015-2016 agricultural season on farmer's technical efficiency (TE). A Stochastic Production Frontier model was used to estimate the TE scores. A matched group of beneficiaries and control farmers was determined using propensity score matching techniques to mitigate biases stemming from observed variables. The results showed that average TE is consistently higher for control farmers than the beneficiary group. Age, gender and education were found to be significantly related to technical efficiency, while membership in farmers' association, credit, improved seeds and extension contact were not significantly related to technical efficiency. From a policy perspective, we suggest that weather index insurance programs targeting smallholder farmers in developing countries, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, be accompanied with education services, provision of new technologies such as high yield seeds and other best farm management practices and credit to help farmers better adapt to weather shocks and secure their production and income.

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Over the last decade, the use of foodstuffs such as corn, wheat and soybean in biofuels production has been growing sharply in the United States, Canada and Europe. This growth has increased total demand for agricultural commodities and stimulated agricultural prices. However, corn, rice, wheat and soybean are the most important sources of calorific energy for West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member states' population, and WAEMU countries are highly dependent on the imports of these products. Consequently, rising prices can have an important impact on imports and severe consequences on food security in these developing countries. This paper aims to investigate: (i) the short-term and long-term relationships between the prices of corn, rice, wheat, soybean and oil and their volatilities, and (ii) the effects of these agricultural commodities prices shocks on the imports of each WAEMU member states. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, the Multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model and the Granger causality test are used in this investigation. The results show that imports of agricultural commodities in WAEMU countries are highly and significantly sensitive to price changes in international market. In short term as well as in long term, there is a significant relationship between the prices of these products. We find a positive relationship in general between prices volatilities, and negative effects of price volatility on imports. Thus, distortions in world agricultural markets threaten considerably food security in WAEMU countries, especially access to food for vulnerable and low-income populations. Policy makers must adopt viable strategies to increase agricultural production and limit their dependence on imports.