Abstract
Perennial crops have numerous ecological and agronomic advantages over their annual counterparts. We estimate discrete choice models to evaluate farmers' preferences for perennial attributes of pigeon pea intercropped with maize in central and southern Malawi. Pigeon pea is a nitrogen-fixing leguminous crop, which has the potential to ameliorate soil fertility problems related to continuous maize cultivation, which are common in Southern Africa. Adoption of annual pigeon pea is relatively low but perennial production of pigeon pea may be more appealing to farmers due to some of the ancillary benefits associated with perenniality. We model perennial production of pigeon pea as a function of the attributes that differ between annual and perennial production: lower labor and seed requirements resulting from a single planting with multiple harvests, enhanced soil fertility and higher levels of biomass production. The primary tradeoff associated with perennial pigeon pea intercropped with maize is competition with maize in subsequent years of production. While maize yield is approximately twice as valuable to farmers as pigeon pea yield, we find positive yet heterogeneous demand for perenniality driven by soil fertility improvements and pigeon pea grain yield.
Highlights
Population growth and rising consumption are dramatically increasing demands on agriculture and natural resources, which raises challenges for achieving global food security (Foley et al, 2011)
We model the hypothetical choice farmers face in the second year of a maize-pigeon pea intercrop, which is effectively the difference between an annual and perennial system
A crop variety bred explicitly for perennial production qualities may be more appealing to farmers than a variety bred for annual qualities due to some of the ancillary benefits associated with perenniality
Summary
Population growth and rising consumption are dramatically increasing demands on agriculture and natural resources, which raises challenges for achieving global food security (Foley et al, 2011). Incorporating nitrogen-fixing legumes into the cropping systems has the potential to improve soil fertility and mitigate the nutrient mining impact of maize (Snapp and Silim, 2002a; Bezner-Kerr et al, 2007). In addition to the nitrogen-fixing properties and protein rich grain, pigeon pea provides a range of byproducts including leaves and stems used for fodder and the dried stems for fuel wood (Simtowe et al, 2010). Despite these benefits, adoption of leguminous crops and pigeon pea in SSA remains low (Snapp and Silim, 2002a). This makes perennial crops potentially less risky in low rainfall environments, more resistant to flooding, and more resilient to climate variability
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