期刊
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
卷 231, 期 -, 页码 54-67出版社
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2016.06.027
关键词
Technology adoption; Constraints; Multinomial-logistic regression; Qualitative interviews; Conservation agriculture
资金
- United States Agency for International Development mission in Lusaka, Zambia (USAID/Zambia)
- C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Agriculture under MSU's Food Security Research Project (FSRP)
- Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI)
Conservation agriculture (CA) is heralded as a means to increase yields and reverse land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa, but low adoption levels have led to concerns about its suitability for smallholder farming systems. Combining data from surveys and semi-structured interviews, we examine farmers' motivations for adopting CA and the determinants of adoption and disadoption of hand-hoe and oxen-drawn minimum tillage (MT), a key component of CA. Farmers generally hold favorable opinions about MT, though not for its benefits to the soil but primarily for how it reduces crop losses from erratic rainfall. MT use rates in communities with the highest adoption rates are relatively low (12% of cotton area and 20% of maize area) and disadoption is common (25% of all farmers). Many farmers are interested in adopting MT but the available MT technologies do not match their resource endowments. Labor constraints limit use of hand-hoe basins while equipment costs limit ox-ripping. These results show that farmers are not stuck in traditional hoeing and plowing but are carefully evaluating the benefits and costs of adopting MT. Widespread adoption of CA will require adapting MT technologies to match a broader range of resource endowments. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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