Abstract
The major concern of most African countries, including Nigeria, in recent times is how to increase food production because of food insecurity issues, which by extension, is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of poverty. Therefore, adoption of conservation agricultural practices is regarded as a pathway to drive the achievement of food and nutrition security, as well as the needed optimal performance in the agri-food sector. Reportedly, scaling up of the limited adoption of these practices could be facilitated through kinship ties, peer influence, and social networks that govern mutual interactions among individuals; therefore, this motivated the study. Using cross-sectional data obtained from 350 sample units selected from South-Western Nigeria through a multistage sampling technique, this study applied descriptive statistical tools and cross-tabulation techniques to profile the sampled subjects while count outcome models were used to investigate the factors driving counts of conservative agriculture (CA) adoption. Similarly, a marginal treatment effects (MTEs) model (parametric approach) using local IV estimator was applied to examine the effects of CA adoption on the outcome (log of farmers’ farm income). Additionally, appropriate measures of fit tests statistics were used to test the reliabilities of the fitted models. Findings revealed that farmers’ years of farming experience (p < 0.1), frequency of extension visits (p < 0.05), and social capital viz-a-viz density of social group memberships (p < 0.05) significantly determined the count of CA practices adopted with varying degrees by smallholder farmers. Although, social capital expressed in terms of membership of occupational group and diversity of social group members also had a positive influence on the count of CA practices adopted but not significant owing largely to the “information gaps” about agricultural technologies in the study area. However, the statistical tests of the MTEs indicated that the treatment effects differed significantly across the covariates and it also varied significantly with unobserved heterogeneity. The policy relevant treatment effect estimates also revealed that different policy scenarios could increase or decrease CA adoption, depending on which individuals it induces to attract the expected spread and exposure.
Highlights
InformationSustainable economic growth and development in a developing economy like Nigeria is achievable through the agricultural sector and its sub-sectors which are concentrated in rural areas, home to the majority of the households practicing farming for family sustenance and/or earning income from the sales of agricultural products [1]
The estimation of Poisson distribution regression model (PRM) and the associated goodness-of-fit tests indicated that the Poisson estimation suffers from over-dispersion problem as expected
The study found that farmers’ years of farming experience (p < 0.1), frequency of visits by the extension agents (p < 0.05), and social capital viz-a-viz density of social groups membership (p < 0.05) significantly determined the count of conservative agriculture (CA) practices adopted with varying degrees by smallholder farmers in the study area
Summary
InformationSustainable economic growth and development in a developing economy like Nigeria is achievable through the agricultural sector and its sub-sectors which are concentrated in rural areas, home to the majority (about 75%) of the households practicing farming for family sustenance and/or earning income from the sales of agricultural products [1]. In addition to the persistent use of traditional farming practices, these rural farming households cultivate crop varieties that are low-yielding on small. Sustainability 2019, 11, 716 traditional farming practices, these rural farming households cultivate crop varieties that are lowyielding on small and scattered farmland holdings (smallholder farmers). This act depletes the soil and scattered holdings Non-access to agricultural credit and limited technical know-how are part non-access to agricultural credit and limited of technical know-how of the challenges the of the challenges facing the development farming activitiesare in part sub-Saharan. Africa, facing including development of farming activities in sub-Saharan.
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