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This study examined the impact of agricultural credit and farm size on the technical efficiency of rice productivity in Sindh, Pakistan. A cross-sectional random sampling technique was used to collect data from 180 rice growers through a face to face interview. The stochastic production frontier technique was employed to analyse the survey data. The results of Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) showed that credit, farm size, fertilizer, and labor significantly influenced the rice productivity in Sindh, Pakistan. Additionally, larger and significant scale of elasticity was found on credit while larger and significant marginal effect was found on farm size. Further, the mean technical efficiency was 0.97, which implies that 97 percent of rice farmers are technically efficient. Therefore, agricultural credit and farm size are the dominant factors in the improvement of rice production as well as the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in Sindh, Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the determinants of credit constraints: evidence from Sindh, Pakistan. Cross-sectional farm-level data is collected during November and December 2016. A sample of 180 farm households is selected for interviews by using a multistage, random sampling technique. This study employed a probit regression model, frequency counts, and percentages to analyze the data. Access to formal agricultural credit is relatively low in Sindh province of Pakistan, the findings of the study show that the major constraints comprise distance to the formal credit sources, lending procedure, time lag, and interest rate whereas land ownership has a negative association and reduces the constraints to access formal credit. The findings of this study also show that for efficient allocation of resources, institutional sources of credit preferred to disburse agricultural credits toward educated and young age farmers as they are more inclined to adopt new farm technology for better farm production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to investigate the short-run and long-run impact of formal credit (CR) and climate change (CC, via CO2 emissions) on agricultural production (AP) in Pakistan. In addition, other imperative control variables included in this study comprise technology factors (tractors (TRs) and tube wells (TWs), energy consumption (EC), and labor force (LF). This study used annual data covering the period 1983–2016. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach is applied to explore the cointegration between the underlying variables and used the granger causality test under the vector error correction model (VECM) context to determine the direction of causality among the variables. The findings of the ARDL bounds-testing approach suggest that there is a long-term relationship among formal credit, climate change (CO2 emissions), technology factors (tractors and tube wells), energy consumption, labor force, and agricultural production. The empirical results reveal that formal credit, technology use (tractors), and labor force have a positive and significant impact on agricultural production in both the short-run and long-run. CO2 emissions have a positive impact on agricultural production but are not significant in either case. Finally, a unidirectional relationship is established from formal credit to agricultural production; labor force to agricultural production; and electricity consumption and technology factors (tractors and tube wells) to CO2 emissions. The recent study claims that formal institutions should guarantee the redeployment of their services/amenities to those who call for them acutely, with the purpose of boosting their approach to monetary credit facilities and empower farmers to further the resilience that will capitalize on post-fruitage enrichments. Finally, considering that climatic change is a widespread fact with regional community trajectories, perhaps the global community may provide reassurance for loaning to smallholder agriculturalists through central and commercial banks by protecting the moneys that banks lend to the agriculturalists towards supporting climatic change espousal strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a maiden empirical attempt to examine the long-run linkage between households' usage of energy and economic progression in Pakistan from the period of 1972–2017. The Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bounds testing method to co-integrate is employed to expose the causality dynamics between the variables such as households' electricity consumption, households' gas consumption, population growth, and per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Pakistan. The study adopted three renowned unit root approaches through the use of the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), the Phillips-Perron (P-P), and Zivot-Andrews (Z&A) tests to check the stationarity of the variables, while the Johansen cointegration technique is also employed to assess the robustness of the long-run association. The validity of outcomes is also checked with casualty and variance decomposition. The estimated results reveal that, in both the short and long run, households' electricity and gas usage positively affect economic growth, while population growth in the long-run has a negative impact, but the short-run analysis has a positive impact on economic growth in Pakistan. Additionally, the Granger causality and variance decomposition confirm the robustness of outcomes and suggesting a long run association among the variables, and a unidirectional causal link running from three variables to economic growth of Pakistan in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption is a crucial factor to promote industrial sector contribution in an economy for its economic progression. Indeed, Pakistan is an emerging country, but recently adjoining with a very severe deficit of electricity sources. Hence, the industry value added growth leading to economic progression is also fronting inevitable challenges to promote the industry growth. The main objective of the study is to investigate the linkages between industrial sector oil, gas and electricity consumption, and renewable energy consumption with economic development in Pakistan. The findings display evidence of cointegration and a long-run relationship between the consumption of industrial energy and economic growth in Pakistan. The results showed that industrial electricity consumption and industrial gas consumption have a positive and statistically significant impact on economic growth both in the long run and the short run in Pakistan. Industrial oil consumption negatively impacts economic growth in the long run, but positively and statistically significantly impacts economic growth in the short run in Pakistan. Moreover, indications through the vector error correction model (VECM) model confirmed bi-directional relationships of industrial sector oil consumption and economic growth in Pakistan. Furthermore, the uni-directional nexus instituted between economic growth to industrial electricity consumption, industrial gas consumption to industrial electricity consumption, and industrial oil consumption to industrial electricity consumption. The findings uncovered solid interconnections among the studied variables and suggested that the Pakistani government should build a robust policy to diminish the oil, gas, and fossil fuels consumption for electricity production, as a replacement to depend on solar, hydro, wind, and biomass energy sources in Pakistan. Consequently, the government should promote more gas concentrated projects, as these will alleviate the contests of gas dearth and provide it to the industry at cheap prices with ease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to examine the long-term effects of financial development, economic growth, energy consumption (electricity consumption in the agriculture sector), foreign direct investment (FDI), and population on the environmental quality in Pakistan during the period of 1980 to 2016. We use CO2 emissions from the agriculture sector as a proxy indicator for environmental quality. We employ various unit root tests (e.g., ADF, PP, ERS, KPSS) and structural break unit root tests (Z&A, CMR) to check the stationarity and structural break in the data series. Cointegration tests, i.e., Johansen, Engle-Granger, and ARDL cointegration approaches are used to ensure their robustness. Results showed that significant long-term cointegration exists among the variables. Findings also indicated that an increase in financial development and foreign direct investment (FDI) improves environmental quality, whereas the increase in economic growth and electricity consumption in the agriculture sector degrades environmental quality in Pakistan. Based on the findings, we suggest policymakers should provide a conducive environment for foreign investment. Moreover, it is also suggested that a reliance on fossil fuels be reduced and a transition to renewable energy sources be encouraged to decrease the environmental pollution in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit is highly demanded in different parts of the world, mainly for capital requirement to improve land, purchase of main agricultural inputs including fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and purchase of farm machinery. The purpose of this study was to examine the farmers’ access to credit: does collateral matter or cash flow matter?—evidence from Sindh province of Pakistan. The random sampling technique was used to collected data from 300 rural households through a face-to-face interview. To find the important factors affecting access to credit in Sindh province of Pakistan, we performed descriptive statistics and probit regression model. The results of probit regression model showed that gender, household size, educational level, farming experience, farm size, income, and availability of collateral have positive effect on farmers’ access to credit, while age has a negative and statistically insignificant effect on the farmers’ access to credit. Therefore, this study recommended that institutional sources of credit (such as the ZTBL and other Commercial Banks) should improve their loaning schemes to better suit the diversified needs of small farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]