FACTORS AFFECTING FERTILIZER ADOPTION IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: AN APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE LOGISTIC ANALYSIS IN MALAŴI

Abstract

Fertilizer is one of the critical inputs used in improving smallholder food and agricultural productivity in Malaŵi. However, analytical studies to identify factors influencing fertilizer adoption have so far never been conducted in Malaŵi and effects of policy changes relating to fertilizer adoption appear to be assessed subjectively. In this paper, a logit model is employed to identify the main factors influencing fertilizer use in farms surveyed in the Lilongwe Rural Development Project. In descending order, crop, farming system, crop variety, credit access, income from off‐farm employment and regular labour are the main factors influencing fertilizer adoption, thus, policies impinging on these variables would be expected to have most effect on the number of fertilizer adopters, especially wholly subsistence and groundnut cash‐crop farmers most of whom use no fertilizer at present.