The objective of this study is to test the approach of heterodox economists that household food insecurity reduces agricultural productivity. It covers 240 agricultural households in the communes of Kérou and Boukombé, chosen by the quota method, where at least eight (08) agricultural households out of ten (10) suffering from food insecurity. The theoretical basis of this study is focused on the causal relationships between agricultural productivity and food security. Heterodox economists postulate the hypothesis that food insecurity reduces the agricultural productivity of the household by the reduction of the productive capacity of the household. The estimation methods are done using ordinary least squares and the fractional regression model. The results showed that apart from the determinants of agricultural productivity, the food insecure household decreases by 0.0977 the level of agricultural productivity reached by the household at the critical threshold of 1%. The policy of increasing agricultural productivity becomes effective when the household is food secure. The transfer of zero hunger policy in 2030 should contextualize by identifying the causes and factors of its realization in Benin. The orthodox approach to food security would be analyzed in another paper.

One of today's key research challenges is now to provide and anticipate climatic changes so that we can respond and adapt to these future developments. Global reheating of the earth and weather forecasts are a growing risk of climatic changes that are not without consequences on the ecosystems whose the watershed of Oueme. The objective of this study is to analyze the availability of water resources with the climatic variability in the lower Oueme valley in south of Benin. The data and methods used are rainfall, ETP, planimetric data, land use extracted from Landsat 8 OLI / TIRS 2016, ArcGIS 10.1 software for mapping, Khronostat 1.01 for detection of ruptures and field observations, etc. This information after treatment helped to determine the physiognomy of the climate in the lower Oueme valley. The results obtained show an unequal distribution of rainfall marked by the continuous changes of the natural conditions of the basin. The study identifies three phases in the evolution of rainfall. The first 1987-1990 is marked by rainfall surpluses. The second is characterized by rainfall deficits between the period 1990-2006 and the last one characterized by a very strong instability in the evolution of the rainfall, concerns the period 2006-2016. The application of Pettitt test to this chronologic series revealed a break in stationarity at the 95% threshold, thus highlighting two sub-periods, 1987-2006 and 2007 -2016. This rainfall decrease anchor decrease of superficial flow between 0,2% and 1% in the lower Oueme valley.

This article that discusses the security of agricultural credit in the department of Borgou in Benin was interested in AgriFinance 100 customers who have at least once default. This investigation carried out using a questionnaire, seeking to know the reasons for their failures to propose appropriate measures for securing agricultural credit in Benin. After investigation, it is noted that the factors of non-security may be endogenous or exogenous. Endogenous factors are related to the procedure for granting credit and exogenous factors from outside the structure. These factors are generally associated with products grown by the beneficiaries. Thus the prevailing risks in the agricultural sector in north Benin are economic risks, monitoring of climate risks, of bad faith in the repayment and natural hazards. To make operational agricultural credit and ensure the speaker followed by Micro Finance Institutions in the area, the state must provide its guarantee in financing agricultural activities. As for the Micro Finance Institutions, they must ensure the continuous monitoring of the beneficiaries to secure the farm income guarantee repayment of the credit.

To deal with the soil fertility decrease, farmers in general and farmers producing vegetables in particular adopt various cropping practices of soils fertility management and conservation. This survey aims at identifying the cropping practices which allow the farmers to carry out the maximum of yield and maximize the return to production factors. To reach this objective, investigations have been led by one hundred and twenty (120) vegetable producers in Malanville. These producers have been carried out at random. The data concerning their socioeconomic characteristics and the cropping practices of soils fertility management and conservation have been collected through an enquiry questionnaire. From the data collected, it comes out that the cropping practices of soils fertility management and conservation permit to increase the crops’ outputs. This contribution to the output improvement varies significantly from a practice to another for tomato and gumbo but stay invariant for onion and pimento. All cropping practices of soils fertility management and conservation are economically and financially profitable. Actually, five (05) factors determine producers’ economic efficiency level. These are about the total land size in use for vegetable production, the grouping adherence, the household size, the number of agricultural workers and the producer's experience in vegetable production.

This paper investigates the determinants of the economic profitability of cashew nuts marketing in North-Eastern Benin. The study was conducted in the municipality of Tchaourou by using survey methods on respondents randomly selected from different categories of actors interacting on the market. Primary data were collected with respect to the marketing year 2013-2014 on up to 160 cashew nut traders such as 91 collectors, 25 retailers, 31 semi-wholesalers and 13 wholesalers. The methodological approach used was based on the paradigm Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP). As a result, four types of marketing systems of cashew nuts were identified in the municipality of Tchaourou. The analysis of the net margins showed that the cashew nuts marketing in Tchaourou generates average net margins of about 9.08fcfa/Kg for the collectors; 13.12 fcfa/Kg for the retailers, 10.56 fcfa/Kg for the semi-wholesalers and 21.16 fcfa/Kg of cashew nut for the wholesalers.The test of ANOVA highlighted a significant difference between these average values of net margins recorded by the different actors. Moreover the marital status, the experience in marketing, the invested capital in the campaign, the cost of commercial labor and the category of commercial actor determine the level of economic profitability of cashew nuts marketing. As a matter of fact, a particular attention has to be given to these determinants in order to sustain the cashew nuts marketing field in North-Eastern Benin.

From the market gardening activities that they carry out the urban farmers play an important economic role in contributing in a significant way, to the revenue of their households. The aim of the present article is to characterize the urban market gardening and to analyze its economic profitability in Parakou (north Benin) on the basis of the net margin of production. In that respect, some data have been collected from 125 producers and resource persons selected in a rational way in the city of Parakou. The analysis of the data collected on the basis of a questionnaire has been made with the help of descriptive statistics and tests of Khi-deux (χ2) of Pearson. The results have shown that the market gardening activity is exercised by men (84.67 %) and women (15.33 %) of 19 to 70 years old with 1 to 50 years experience. The tools used are still rudimentary and archaic. The application of fertilizer (organic and mineral) has brought out a cost which is up to 53.71 % of the expenses. The gross revenue of such exploitation is up to 11 150 F CFA with a gross margin of 6775 F CFA. The net monthly salary of the producers is on average up to 172 621 F CFA corresponding to a monthly salary of a senior staff in the Beninese public administration which is four times the GDMS (Guaranteed Decent Minimum Salary). This is to say that market gardening in Parakou is economically profitable in terms of net margin of production. It is then useful for the actors to work in synergy in view of a sustainable development of that activity through the improvement of agricultural practices, land securing and the access of the producers to adapted credits.