Imperfect Food Markets and Household Adoption of Soil Conservation Practices in the Dominican Republic Highlands: Household Probit and Duration Models

Abstract

This paper formalises the determinants of adoption and maintenance of soil conservation practices on peasant households’ food plots in the Dominican Republic highlands, where a local rural development project provides training, technical assistance and subsidies in the form of food-for-work. We model these decisions as an intertemporal labour allocation choice in the context of household-specific food markets imperfections. From the theoretical model, we derive consistent empirical models (probit and duration models). Results show, that food subsidies help bring marginal households into soil conservation. Households facing a higher return to their labour on the labour market tend nevertheless to abandon conservation practices once the subsidy stops. Large landholdings are also associated with less soil conservation. The main adopters are thus households strongly vested in agriculture, especially if they depend on own production for their consumption.