Impact of Social and Institutional Factors on the Uptake of Conservation Agriculture: A Case of Zambia and Zimbabwe

Joe Stevens,Putso Nyathi,Thinah Moyo,Helena Posthumus

doi:10.5539/sar.v9n1p67

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) involves the practice of three interlinked principles of minimum soil disturbance, a permanent soil cover and crop rotation. Despite the many stated benefits of the technology, its uptake in Africa has been slow. This study applies the theory of planned behaviour to investigate the attitudes, the role of the social system (social influence, by-laws and customs) and the institutional environment in the decision to practice CA principles and on the area under CA in Choma, Zambia and Nkayi, Zimbabwe. The study finds differing attitudes between districts towards CA outcomes. Local by-laws have a positive correlation with the practice of minimum soil disturbance but negative correlations with the practice of soil cover and crop rotation. Social influence and customs have significant relationships with the area under CA. Institutional support is perceived to be necessary for the practice of minimum soil disturbance but not so for the practice of crop rotation or on the area under CA. We conclude that the attitudes towards CA depend on the performance of the CA options promoted to farmers while the effects of the social system components and institutional factors on the uptake of CA depends on how the particular CA principle fits into the social and institutional environment in which it is promoted. We recommend agriculture extension services and policymakers to pay more attention to these issues in the promotion of CA.

Highlights

With the current global challenges of attaining food security while protecting the environment, conservation agriculture (CA) is perceived as one technology that can contribute towards achieving both objectives (Corbeels et al, 2014)
We find differing attitudes towards Conservation agriculture (CA) among farmers based on the CA options that were promoted in that particular context
We find that the practice of each of the three CA principles depends on whether the principle in question fits or can be adapted into the social system and institutional setting

Summary

Introduction

With the current global challenges of attaining food security while protecting the environment, conservation agriculture (CA) is perceived as one technology that can contribute towards achieving both objectives (Corbeels et al, 2014). In sub-Saharan Africa, CA has been promoted to address the challenges of land degradation and poor crop yields for smallholder farmers (Anderson & D’Souza, 2014). CA is a resource-saving crop production system that strives to achieve acceptable profits, high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the environment (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2010). This is achieved through improved management and application of three key principles, namely; minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and diversified crop associations or rotations. Despite more than a decade of promotion in southern Africa, the adoption of CA in the smallholder sector is still minimal (Kassam, 2014). Africa has about 1.1% of the continent’s total arable land under CA, while South America has about 63% of the region’s cropland under CA (Kassam et al, 2018)

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