Factors affecting sustainable agricultural intensification in Burkina Faso

Farmers in Burkina Faso, as in Sub-Saharan Africa overall, face multiple combined difficulties like water stress, continued land degradation and low soil fertility due to climate change effects. To simultaneously overcome these difficulties, where agriculture accounts for more than a third of GDP, intensifying Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) is a key issue. This paper aims to identify factors affecting sustainable agricultural intensification by farmers. A negative binomial regression model is used with survey data from 1898 rural households in the country. The results show that land tenure and access to credit are main determinants of sustainable agricultural intensification in Burkina Faso. Integrating SAPs issues in farmers' access to credit policies, improving farmers' knowledge on SAPs and securing or enhancing land ownership rights will enable farmers to adopt more SAPs and be more resilient to climate change effects.

Automated summary

Farmers in Burkina Faso face multiple difficulties, but land tenure and access to credit are the main determinants of sustainable agricultural intensification.