Factors supporting the adoption of soil conservation practices: Evidence from Ecuadorian smallholder farmers

Abstract

AbstractThe modernization of agricultural practices has been widespread in South America since the 1970s. The main practices implemented included the use of fertilizers and phytosanitary control based on synthetic elements, and agricultural mechanization for plowing. These activities affect soil quality and make soils more dependent on fertilizer imports throughout the continent. At the same time, the intensification of agricultural activity also increased CO2 emissions in South America from less than 150 thousand gigagrams in 1977 to more than 280 thousand gigagrams in 2017, which translates into a greater burden of agriculture on the environment. Ecuador is one of the South American countries that share several social, climatic, and topographic characteristics common in the region; therefore, it is interesting to study the factors that help mitigate soil erosion processes resulting from agricultural activity. For this purpose, this study performs the estimation of a Tobit model with the information of the agricultural units with seasonal crops present in the Continuous Agricultural Surface and Production Survey of 2018. For the model approach, the number of soil conservation practices (SCP) in each farm is considered as the dependent variable. The estimation results show that there is a positive relationship between farms that are managed by women and the number of SCP implemented: the same result was obtained with respect to agricultural investment by local governments. However, it was found that farms with government technical assistance implemented fewer SCPs, which opens the debate on the importance of soil conservation in public policy.