Adoption of renewable soil fertility replenishment technologies in the southern African region: Lessons learnt and the way forward

Low soil fertility is one of the most important biophysical constraints to increasing agricultural productivity in sub‐Saharan Africa. Several renewable soil fertility replenishment (RSFR) technologies that are based on nutrient re‐cycling principles have been developed in southern Africa. Some success stories have been recorded (e.g. nitrogen‐fixing legumes), but the adoption of RSFR technologies has generally lagged behind scientific advances thereby reducing the potential impacts of the technologies. This paper describes the major RSFR technologies being promoted in the region, synthesizes available information regarding their adoption by farmers, and identifies the challenges, key lessons learnt and the way forward for up‐scaling RSFR technologies in the region. The review indicated that farmer uptake of RSFR technologies depends on several factors that can be grouped into broad categories: technology‐specific (e.g. soil type, management regime), household‐specific (e.g. farmer perceptions, resource endowment, household size), policy and institutions context within which RSFR is disseminated (inputs and output prices, land tenure and property rights), and geo‐spatial (performance of species across different bio‐physical conditions, location of village). Adoption of RSFR technologies can be enhanced by targeting them to their biophysical and social niches, facilitating appropriate policy and institutional contexts for dissemination, understanding the broader context and dynamics of the adoption process, a paradigm shift in the approach to the dissemination of RSFR (e.g. expanding RSFR to high value crop systems, exploring synergy with inorganic fertilizer) and, targeted incentive systems that encourage farmers to take cognizance of natural resource implications when making agricultural production decisions.     

Simultaneous adoption of integrated soil fertility management technologies in the Chinyanja Triangle,Southern Africa

Empirical scientific evidence indicates that there is still room for increasing food production by improving land productivity. This study aimed at identifying the key determinants that govern farmers’ decisions to adopt multiple components of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) in a maize mixed cropping system of the Chinyanja Triangle, Southern Africa. Revealed preferences of ISFM components were collected from 320 randomly selected households and multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyse the simultaneous effects on adoption based on biophysical plot and household‐level socioeconomic attributes. The results show that farmers’ choices of a set of ISFM components are determined by a mix of factors that address the trade‐offs and synergies among them. Non‐farm income, moderate land quality perception, and education influence simultaneous technology adoption, while gender and crop loss increase the likelihood of farmers’ decisions to adopt independent options. Having other sources of income supports co‐adoption of inorganic fertilizer, residue incorporation, and crop rotation. Input/output market access, access to information, financial sources, and climate variability also play pivotal role in technology adoption. These results indicate that resource availability, learning costs, finances, and risk aversion need to be considered when designing and promoting ISFM technologies as a package.     

Factors affecting the adoption of multiple climate‐smart agricultural practices in the Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India

Climate change poses a major threat to agricultural production and food security in India, and climate‐smart agriculture (CSA) is crucial in addressing the potential impacts. Using survey data from 1,267 farm households in 25 villages from Bihar and Haryana in the Indo‐Gangetic Plains, this study analyzes the factors that determine the probability and level of adoption of multiple CSA practices, including seeds of stress‐tolerant varieties, minimum tillage, laser land leveling, site‐specific nutrient management and crop diversification. We applied a multivariate probit model for the simultaneous multiple adoption decisions, and ordered probit models for assessing the factors affecting the level of adoption. The adoption of the various CSA practices is interrelated, whereas several factors, including household characteristics, plot characteristics, market access and major climate risks are found to affect the probability and level of CSA adoption. Climate‐smart agriculture (CSA) adoption and its intensity also vary significantly between eastern Bihar, which is relatively poor and densely populated, and north‐western Haryana. Engaging multiple stakeholders such as farmers, agricultural institutions, agricultural service providers and concerned government departments at the local level is crucial for the large‐scale uptake of CSA. The study, therefore, calls for agricultural policy reforms so that most of the issues related to the uptake of CSA can be adequately addressed.     

Adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: Evidence from a semi-arid region of Ethiopia

In the wake of the resource constraints for external farm inputs faced by farmers in developing countries, sustainable agriculture practices that rely on renewable local or farm resources present desirable options for enhancing agriculture productivity. In this study, plot-level data from the semi-arid region of Ethiopia, Tigray are used to investigate the factors influencing farmers' decisions to adopt agriculture practices, with a particular focus on conservation tillage, compost and chemical fertilizer. A trivariate probit model is used to analyze the determinants of adoption of these practices. In addition, stochastic dominance analysis is used to compare the productivity impacts of compost with that of chemical fertilizer based on a six-year cross-sectional farm-level dataset. Our results indicate heterogeneity with regard to the factors that influence adoption decisions of the three practices and the importance of both plot and household characteristics on influencing adoption decisions. In particular, we found that household endowments and access to information, among other factors, impact the choice of sustainable farming practices significantly. Furthermore, the use of stochastic dominance analysis supported the contention that sustainable farming practices enhance productivity. They even proved to be superior to the use of chemical fertilizers — justifying the need to investigate factors that influence adoption of these practices and to use this knowledge to formulate policies that encourage adoption.     

Sustainable development in East Africa: impact evaluation of regional agricultural development projects in Burundi,Kenya, Rwanda,Tanzania, and Uganda

Investments in agricultural technologies, capacity building and policy harmonization are needed to support sustainable development across Africa. Regional development projects can facilitate the adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations across nation-state borders and generate benefits for shared prosperity. This paper uses panel data from 1,160 smallholder households including beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries from five countries in East Africa - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. From a pool of over 90 projects implemented over a span of 15 years, 23 regional projects are included in this study. The major economic benefits to smallholder participants are higher crop productivity and income, access to adaptable technologies, access to markets, higher livestock and milk production, gender equality, enhanced food security, resilience and capacity building for uptake and scaling up of future innovation platforms. For example, the adoption of low-cost tissue culture banana by the beneficiaries increased their incomes by 15% in Rwanda while the adoption of appropriate land and water management technologies increased the potato yields from 2.8 tons (USD 2,840/ha) to over 7.5 tons (USD 7,410/ha) in Kenya. The beneficiaries ensured value added to commodities like bananas (for export) and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (a nutrition-sensitive intervention for enhancing domestic intake of vitamin A) in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Additionally, milk production increased from 6 to 11 L per cow per day in Uganda and from 6 to 8 L per cow per day in Tanzania, with increases in sales generating USD 115 per cow per month above the non-beneficiaries. These results are supported by previous studies on technology adoption, investments in agriculture and well-being outcomes. Our findings with the higher farm income Difference-in-Differences (DiD) estimator for the female beneficiaries compared to male beneficiaries might have important implications for investing in regional development projects that will close the gender gap in agricultural productivity in Africa. Regional projects can also support post-conflict development efforts for food security and peace in fragile contexts such as in Burundi. Our findings might serve as an input to the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, localization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to food security and agriculture in Africa and an input to monitoring, evaluation and learning.     

Manure and adoption of modern seeds in cereal‐based systems in West African drylands: linkages and (non)complementarities

Using a stepwise approach that combines several econometric methods, we assessed whether or not the adoption of modern seeds and the use of manure in cereal‐based systems are linked and, if so, what are the driving forces of the linkages between these two agricultural technologies under dry‐climate conditions in West Africa. We found complementary and substitutability linkages arising from jointness and endogeneity between the two technologies. Specifically, our findings reveal positive joint determination along with negative endogeneity between the two technologies indicating that, controlling for observable variables, both technologies are positively linked, but unobserved factors that affect one adoption decision are negatively correlated with the other. After controlling for jointness and endogeneity, we found significant complementarity linkages showing a significant positive effect of manure use on the adoption of modern seeds, which is also significantly and positively affected by the number of cash crops grown and remittances. The two technologies are reversely affected by schooling and the incidence of soil fertility problems within the farm, whereas the amount of healthy land has a positive effect on both. The study suggests that organic fertilizer can serve as an enabling factor for greater adoption of modern seeds, especially in less favourable climate areas, and strongly supports the argument behind the need to breed seeds suitable for the use of organic fertilizers. These findings provide avenues for re‐orientation of policies that promote the use of modern seeds in dryland areas in sub‐Saharan Africa, with a possibility of breeding and promoting them in packages with organic fertilizers to upscale their adoption.     

She Came, She Saw, She Sowed: Re-negotiating Gender-Responsive Priorities for Effective Development of Agricultural Biotechnology in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this paper, we argue for the importance of incorporating a gendered perspective for the effective development of sustainable agricultural biotechnology systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Priority setting for agricultural policy and project development requires attention to gender issues specific to the demands of agricultural biotechnology. This is essential for successfully addressing food security and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There has been a great deal of debate and literature on the implications of gender in agricultural development and policy. However, the implications of gender in agricultural biotechnology and have received relatively less attention, especially in SSA. Based on interviews with key stakeholders in agricultural biotechnology across SSA, review of pertinent literature and field observations, we have found that incorporating a gendered perspective is critical for the sustainable development of agricultural biotechnology and requires attention in five areas: the inclusion of women, particularly women farmers, in decision-making around biotech/genetically modified (GM) crop and trait selection; equal representation of women as men in education for agricultural science and in agricultural biotechnology research and development professions; greater involvement of women in extension services and farmers’ associations for successful delivery of information about biotech crops equality between men and women in access to resources for biotech/GM crop cultivation; and increased control for women farmers over biotech/GM crop management and income generation. We explain the consequences of failing to include such gender-responsive considerations into priority setting for agricultural biotechnology development and policy in SSA and provide recommendations for how policy makers and project partners of development initiatives can avoid such oversights.     

Climate change and adoption of sustainable land management practices in the Niger basin of Benin

Due to the important role that the agricultural sector plays in sustaining growth and reducing poverty in developing countries, the adoption of practices that have the potential to simultaneously improve agricultural productivity while minimizing environmental impacts is essential. This paper examines the determinants of farmers’ perceptions of climate change and subsequent adoption of sustainable land management practices in the Niger basin of Benin. Binary and multivariate probit models are applied in a two‐stage regression procedure to cross‐sectional data collected through a survey of 545 randomly selected farm households in 28 villages. The findings indicate that there are substitutabilities among three pairs of sustainable land management practices being used by the farmers. Climate change perception is positively related to land tenure, experience in farming, number of relatives, tractor use, and membership in farmers’ organizations, and negatively related to household size, remoteness, and plough use. Moreover, the findings reveal that the uptake of land management practices is related to assets, land tenure, education level of the household head, remoteness, social network, non‐irrigated land size, having a farm located near a river/lake/stream, tractor and plough use, being a subsistence farmer or not, and memberships in farmers’ organizations. The adoption of sustainable land management practices could be encouraged through improving access to markets, adequate roads, and technologies, as well as by promoting membership in farmers’ organizations.     

Land management in rural Burkina Faso: the role of socio‐cultural and institutional factors

Farmers in the Sahel have been acknowledged for reclaiming degraded lands and improving food security by ingeniously modifying traditional agroforestry, water, and soil management practices. Despite the advantages offered by this range of farming techniques, their adoption rate is influenced by several factors. Using multivariate probit models and a correlation coefficient, this article examines the factors influencing the adoption of five land management practices based on 220 household and 40 farm surveys in four adjacent rural communities in southern Burkina Faso. The model results indicate that household labor force, education of household head, land tenure security, livestock holding, and membership in farmers’ groups influence the adoption of zaï practice, composting, improved fallow, stone bunds, and live hedges. However, two of the surveyed factors ‐ number of farms and visit by agricultural extension staff during the 12 months prior to the survey ‐ were not significant. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between different land management practices, e.g., the decision to practice zaï is significantly linked to that of live hedges and composting. Zaï practice and stone bunds are considered labor intensive, which explains their significant correlations with household labor force at the 1% and 5% levels of significance, respectively.     

Efficacy of Standards vs. Incentives for Managing the Environmental Impacts of Agriculture

The environmental impacts of agriculture depend on both the longrun and shortrun production decisions of farmers. In the longrun, technologies and quasi-fixed factors are selected and put in place through investment. In the shortrun, production plans are made and implemented conditionally upon available technologies and quasi-fixed factors. An important implication is that the environmental effects of agricultural activities result from an integration of economic decisions, private good production practices and biophysical processes. Viewed from a system perspective, these processes transform a set of private and environmental inputs into a set of private good and environmental outputs. It follows from this logic that the environmental impacts or performance of agriculture result not only from the nature of available technologies, but also how those technical opportunities are exploited in response to market and public policy incentives and constraints. This paper presents results of an application of such an integrated model of biophysical and economic processes to evaluate the potential responsiveness of water quality impacts of agricultural field crop practices to changes in economic incentives.     

Dry land tree management for improved household livelihoods: farmer managed natural regeneration in Niger

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a set of practices farmers use to foster the growth of indigenous trees on agricultural land, has drawn substantial attention as a contributing factor to a trend of increasing vegetation greenness in the Republic of Niger. This paper identifies drivers of FMNR adoption and assesses its impacts on rural households in the Region of Maradi, Niger, an area covering 42,000 square kilometers. The results show that 26% of households practice a form of FMNR involving both pruning and protecting woody vegetation. Adoption is strongly linked to soil type, market access, and the education level of the head of household. FMNR raises household income and increases crop diversity, household migration rates, and the density and diversity of trees on farmland. It is estimated that FMNR raises the annual gross income of the region by between 17 and 21 million USD and has contributed an additional 900,000 to 1,000,000 trees to the local environment. These findings support the value of continued promotion of FMNR as an inexpensive means of enhancing rural livelihoods and an attractive alternative to reforestation efforts relying on tree planting.     

On how environmental stringency influences adoption of best management practices in agriculture

There are relatively few Federal environmental regulations that influence agricultural production in the US. However, many local and state environmental rules may influence the management practices on US farms as might interactions between urban population centers and agricultural producers. Detailed analysis of corn farms gives insight into these relationships and suggests that stringent environmental regulations could increase the likelihood of adoption of certain conservation practices, all else being constant, but that the interaction between urban populations has less of an effect on the adoption decisions.     

Why farmers adopt best management practice in the United States: a meta-analysis of the adoption literature

This meta-analysis of both published and unpublished studies assesses factors believed to influence adoption of agricultural Best Management Practices in the United States. Using an established statistical technique to summarize the adoption literature in the United States, we identified the following variables as having the largest impact on adoption: access to and quality of information, financial capacity, and being connected to agency or local networks of farmers or watershed groups. This study shows that various approaches to data collection affect the results and comparability of adoption studies. In particular, environmental awareness and farmer attitudes have been inconsistently used and measured across the literature. This meta-analysis concludes with suggestions regarding the future direction of adoption studies, along with guidelines for how data should be presented to enhance the adoption of conservation practices and guide research.     

Seeds of promise: Developing a sustainable agricultural biotechnology industry in sub–Saharan Africa

In a continent ravaged by poverty, disease and malnutrition, agricultural practices have changed little over millennia. Of all the new technologies recently arisen, molecular biotechnology is one of the few that could signi ficantly improve the livelihoods of the large numbers of people in sub–Saharan Africa. Its impact could exceed that in the developed world, where a multi–billion dollar a year agricultural biotechnology industry has emerged, secured on the back of a highly skilled research and educational sector, extensive biosafety measures, and a strong corporate sector. For much of sub–Saharan Africa, the absence of these foundations constitutes a substantial hurdle to the development of a sustainable biotechnology industry. A critical element is the development of an indigenous and innovative agricultural biotechnology community — one that is responsive to African crops, farming practices and economic imperatives, yet sensitive to local concerns and biosafety issues surrounding use of the controversial GM technology.     

The adoption of green energy technologies: The role of policies in Austria,Germany, and Switzerland

We contribute to the existing research about policy-induced technology adoption in several ways. First, we suggest a new survey design to measure the energy-related policy environment. Second, we simultaneously estimate the policy effects for the adoption propensity and the adoption intensity simultaneously and, third, we compare the policy effects in the three countries, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Based on a representative sample of firms for all three countries we find that policies essentially promote the adoption of technologies and they are practically ineffective for the intensity, which poses a great challenge to future policy designs. Voluntary agreements or demand-related factors are among the most important drivers for the adoption propensity of green energy technologies. Given the current institutional framework in the surveyed countries, subsidies are more effective in Austria, taxes are more effective in Germany, and demand-related factors are relatively more effective in Switzerland.     

Agricultural policies and the emergence of cotton as the dominant crop in northern Côte d'Ivoire: Historical overview and current outlook

In most of sub‐Saharan Africa, where the agricultural sector experiences dismal performance and is characterized by a gloomy picture, the cotton sub‐sector in Côte d’Ivoire is often mentioned as a “success story” given the spectacular rise in the quantity of cotton production and the profile of the crop within the farming system. What are the historical and political antecedents of the development of cotton and the factors responsible for the feat accomplished in the midst of general failures in the same continent? To what extent can cotton be regarded as a “success story” and, what lessons can be drawn for agricultural development strategies based on the Ivorian case study? This paper traces the historical and socio‐political background of cotton development in Côte d’Ivoire and identifies key policy and institutional interventions that have influenced the rise of cotton production and its emergence as the dominant crop in the farming systems of the country. Four stages in Ivorian cotton development are identified: planning, take off, crisis and the renaissance phases. The study demonstrates how a combination of good planning, technological advancement and appropriate policy and institutional conditions have contributed significantly to the rise of cotton production and its influence on the agricultural economy of northern Côte d’Ivoire. The study also highlights how the sustainability of agricultural development has been impacted by domestic and international policies and political events over which smallholder farm families have little control, and can at best only respond to. Important questions about cotton development in Côte d'Ivoire are raised that need to be answered before the program can be categorized conclusively as a success story. The study shows that there are no quick fixes to agricultural development in the sub‐region. Rather, good planning and putting the necessary building blocks in place are important prerequisites. It is recommended that agricultural development efforts in the continent take cognizance of the complexity of the sector and address the inter‐relationships that exist among the technical, policy, market and institutional factors that combine individually and collectively to influence African agriculture.     

Are consumers willing to pay for conservation agriculture? The case of white maize in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Throughout the low-income world, agricultural producers have a motivation to slash-and-burn rainforests as they cannot afford inorganic fertilizers. Farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who are predominantly women, are often forced to walk long distances to cultivate more productive lands, when fertility near their villages is reduced. On their way and while working away from home, women become targets for rape. Adopting conservation agriculture (CA) could help mitigate deforestation and potentially create a safer environment for women. Limited knowledge about the benefits of CA across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has hindered its adoption. Taking these impediments into account, we estimate if consumers in the DRC are willing to pay (WTP) a premium for CA, using maize flour as the medium. By means of a double-bounded dichotomous choice valuation method, 600 consumers in Bukavu, DRC, were surveyed about their willingness-to-pay for CA-produced maize. Our study finds that only those consumers who identify themselves as farmers are WTP a premium. This study indicates that if CA adoption is to spread in the DRC, it will likely need to happen via increased yields or reduced costs before the farm gate and not premiums after the farm gate.     

Adoption and economic impacts of laser land leveling in the irrigated rice-wheat system in Haryana,India using endogenous switching regression

This study assesses the factors affecting the adoption of laser land leveling (LLL) and its impact on crop yields and net returns. It uses household survey data collected from 621 randomly selected farmers in Karnal District of Haryana, India, and applies endogenous switching regression models. Unbiased model results show that the adoption of LLL has significant positive impacts on yields (rice +549 kg ha⁻¹; wheat +471 kg ha⁻¹) and net returns (an aggregate increase of US$230/ha) in the rice-wheat production system, thereby raising farmers' income substantially. Our results show that LLL adoption at the farm level is influenced by land size and quality, tenure system, availability of farm machinery (tractor), access to finance and farm cooperatives, gender of household head, level of education and training and access to extension services. Therefore, LLL scaling strategies need to consider these bio-physical and socio-economic parameters to reach adoption at scale and generate large social, economic, and environmental benefits.     

Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Agricultural Adaptation Strategies in Rural Sahel

Farmers in the Sahel have always been facing climatic variability at intra- and inter-annual and decadal time scales. While coping and adaptation strategies have traditionally included crop diversification, mobility, livelihood diversification, and migration, singling out climate as a direct driver of changes is not so simple. Using focus group interviews and a household survey, this study analyzes the perceptions of climate change and the strategies for coping and adaptation by sedentary farmers in the savanna zone of central Senegal. Households are aware of climate variability and identify wind and occasional excess rainfall as the most destructive climate factors. Households attribute poor livestock health, reduced crop yields and a range of other problems to climate factors, especially wind. However, when questions on land use and livelihood change are not asked directly in a climate context, households and groups assign economic, political, and social rather than climate factors as the main reasons for change. It is concluded that the communities studied have a high awareness of climate issues, but climatic narratives are likely to influence responses when questions mention climate. Change in land use and livelihood strategies is driven by adaptation to a range of factors of which climate appears not to be the most important. Implications for policy-making on agricultural and economic development will be to focus on providing flexible options rather than specific solutions to uncertain climate.     

Crop biodiversity,productivity and production risk: Panel data micro‐evidence from Ethiopia

This paper uses data from the Central Highlands of Ethiopia to assess the productivity and production risk impacts of crop diversification. Using count index as a measure of crop biodiversity, results show that increasing crop biodiversity contributes positively to farm level productivity. In addition, the findings suggest that the level of production risk significantly responds to the level of diversity, with the effect highly conditional on the skewness. The major contribution of the paper is that, unlike previous similar studies that tended to focus on intra‐crop diversity, it incorporates the mutual interdependencies across crops within a farm by focusing on inter‐crop diversity. Hence the study adds to the growing empirical literature, particularly in Africa, that tests empirical relationships between productivity, risk and crop diversity. An important policy implication for a diversity rich country such as Ethiopia is that agro‐biodiversity can be used to improve agricultural productivity while promoting in situ conservation.