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Education and farming experience of farmers are considered the most important factors in allocation of inputs during production process. This study, therefore, aimed at evaluating effect of education and farming experience on technical efficiency of rice farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A sample of 300 rice growers was drawn randomly using a multistage sampling procedure through a well-organized pretested interview schedule. Stochastic frontier models (SFM-1 and SFM-2) were utilized to investigate effects of farm inputs and socioeconomic factors on rice production. Results of SFM-1 explicated that all the regressors except irrigation numbers were highly significant with the estimated coefficients of 0.369, 0.047, 0.060, 0.246 and 0.098 for labor hours, tractor hours, chemicals, urea and irrigation numbers respectively. Results of inefficiency's model exposed that education and farming experience had a significant and adverse influence on technical inefficiency, age had a positive significant effect on farmers' technical inefficiency whereas tenancy status and primary source of income were found insignificant. The mean technical efficiency of the sampled farmers was estimated at 0.74, ranged between 0.52 and 0.99. The estimated production model showed the highest coefficients for labor hours and urea, it is therefore suggested that rice growers can rise their rice output by increasing labor hours and urea application during the production process. Inefficiency effects model showed a negative and significant relationship of inefficiency with farmers' education and farming experience, so government is recommended to facilitate farmers with formal as well as informal education and proper trainings regarding rice farming for efficient utilization of available resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A state of the economy in which output reflects customer desires is known as allocative efficiency. Every good or service is manufactured until the last unit supplies consumers with a marginal gain equal to the marginal cost of production in an economy. The study in hand was designed to assess the allocative efficiency of tobacco growers during 2019. Primary data was collected through face to face interview and a sample of 120 tobacco growers was selected. These growers were randomly selected from three villages namely Takar Kaly, Garo Shah, and Pasand Kaly of tehsil Takhtbai, district Mardan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Empirical findings reveal that labour, chemical, irrigation, seed, poultry manure, and tractor have positive and statistically significant effects on tobacco production. Results of the study also corroborate an insignificant relationship of fertilizer with tobacco production. Findings of the study also showed that the allocation of inputs utilized during production e.g. labour, irrigation, seed, poultry manure and tractor are under-utilized, chemical is optimally-utilized while fertilizer is over-utilized by the growers in the study area. Therefore, this study suggests a rational use of fertilizer and recommends keeping the quantity of chemical use constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to examine the characteristics of agricultural land parcels and identify important determinants of their prices in Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For this purpose, a sample of 79 land parcels, having transaction record for the year 2015-2017, was selected from 10 randomly chosen villages. Data were collected on their prices and their physical, agricultural and location characteristics. Descriptive statistical tools were used to summarize data on agricultural land characteristics. A linear Hedonic Pricing Model (HPM) was used to estimate agricultural land prices based on physical, location and agricultural characteristics. Results show that agricultural land parcels in Central Swabi district have comparatively high prices, and this is due to their high residential and commercial potential. Developmental projects for roads, hospitals, universities and gas supply infrastructure in the surroundings of Swabi city are resulting human influx from rural areas, and are increasing demand for residential and commercial units in the suburbs. This high demand is pulling land prices and causing utilization of fertile agricultural land for residential and commercial units' construction. Around 50% of the sampled agricultural lands were used for residential and commercial purposes. Results from HPM reveal that agricultural characteristics, such as land fertility and irrigation water availability, were the significant determinates and have positive effects on land prices. Location characteristics, such as road distance, city distance, distance to nearby houses and distance to agricultural market are the important determinants of land prices. These findings imply that agricultural land prices depends on agricultural and location attributes and this is consistent with the Ricardian's Land 'Rent' and Von Thunan's 'Land Location' theories. Based on these findings, the study recommends that agricultural land must be protected through laws from residential and commercial encroachments. Investment in development of agricultural infrastructure and provision of subsidized on important inputs could raise farmers' returns from agriculture and could change their perception to favor using land for agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children spend more than two-thirds of their total daytime in schools and becoming more persuasive in shielding them from potential hazards. Schools have a responsibility to protect students in the event of disasters and to promote a culture of preparedness by keeping them prepared and aware. If schools do not handle emergencies effectively, the educational process is interrupted and students have to bear the impact. This allows schools to be capable of dealing with external threats. School safety needs to be evaluated which represents the reality on the ground and determines the schools' readiness level. This research seeks to explore the lessons from the school authorities' perspectives. The researcher used a framework-based qualitative analysis by evaluating data collected in a multistage, starting with a revision of the responses followed by a thematic framework that includes simple manual coding, the development of themes, and data interpretation for data analysis. This study used flood emergency as a case study in 20 selected schools and 100 survey respondents had shared their perspectives on flood events between 2010 and 2014. The findings of the current study identified various preparatory measures being adopted in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa schools which led to the development of a multidimensional six-stage model for school-based flood emergency response. The stages include alert/capacity improvement, emergency planning, preparedness behavior, safe school facilities and guidelines, educational continuity plans, and response capacity development. This study is intended to provide policy decision guidance on school safety in Pakistan and proposing priorities for future emergency response efforts in schools, leading to global school safety researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was based on identification of the major determinants of adoption of hybrid maize technology in district Mardan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A sample of 255 respondents in the study area was randomly chosen using a multistage random sampling technique. The logit model was used to measure the probability of adoption of hybrid maize technology. The estimated results of the model revealed that younger farmers were comparatively more adoptive of the hybrid maize technology. Education level, number of adult males involved in agriculture and land holdings of the farmers affected the adoption of the hybrid maize technology positively. The owners as compared to tenants and farmers having main sources of income other than agriculture were having lower probability to adopt the hybrid maize varieties. This study recommends that the government should facilitate farmers with the subsidized prices of hybrid maize technology and provide them both the informal and formal education considering it as their basic necessity and right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated household's willingness to pay (WTP) for pesticide-free locally produced fresh fruits in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A Contingent Valuation Survey Method (CVM), constructed with a double-bounded WTP elicitation format, was used to interview a randomly selected sample of 600 households. Survey data revealed that households were willing to pay on average rupees 26 more per kilogram of pesticides free fruits. Results from regression analysis showed that age of the household head and his awareness of pesticides use over fruits, household size and their total monthly income were significant determinants of their WTP. In addition, health concern and environment concern of pesticides use also influence the WTP. Findings from this study help in assessing the market potential for pesticides-free fruits in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates consumers' preferences and estimate willingness to pay for different quality attributes of apple in Peshawar district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A sample 150 apple consumers were interviewed at different fruits retail shops to collect data on apple varieties, prices and quality attributes, such as color, size, shape, freshness and external defect. The data were analyzed using hedonic pricing model. Results show that Consumers have strong preferences for apple freshness, size, color and juiciness and their willingness to pay for these attributes are significantly greater than zero. On the basis of these findings the study recommends that apple growers should focus on best quality apple varieties and should maintain post harvest quality of their product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan is alarmingly exposed and vulnerable to flood disasters as a result of rapid urbanization that has not taken into account the threats posed by climate change. The devastating impacts of floods and other natural disasters put extra pressure on the country’s budget and has driven the country’s leadership to adopt a proactive approach instead of traditional, aid-based, approach, one that encourages the inclusion of disaster risk reduction measures within local disaster management policies. This research elaborates household vulnerability and resilience to flood disaster within two districts within Pakistan. It uses a dataset of 600 households collected through face-to-face interviews from two districts within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that were severely affected by the 2010 flood and data from the Directorate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority. In a second step, we assigned weights to the selected variables for vulnerability (exposure, susceptibility and adaptive capacity) and resilience (with social, physical, economic, and institutional components) and used a subjective method (based on expert judgment) to weight these. The survey findings revealed that both study areas were highly vulnerable and had low resilience to flood disasters. The study findings indicated that community households in the flood-prone areas of Nowshera district were more vulnerable and less resilient than those in Charsadda, with a higher composite vulnerability index scoring and a lower composite resilience index score. This study shows that provincial and local disaster management authorities can play a vital role in reducing vulnerability and that more efforts are required to strengthen social, physical, economic, and institutional resilience through capacity-building training, preparedness, and awareness building about preventing and mitigating flood damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]