Abstract
Sustainable agriculture has been recognized in the literature as one of the important pathways to ensuring food and livelihood security among rural households in Africa. This study used data from the “Intensification of Food Crops Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (Afrint)” project to examine the impact of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs)—zero tillage, intercropping, residue incorporation and animal manure—on farm income and food security (captured as self-sufficiency in food production—SSF) of rural households in Africa. The multinomial endogenous treatment effect method is applied to control for potential selection bias from observable and unobservable factors. In addition, the multivalued treatment effect model and dose–response functions are used to examine the treatment effects heterogeneity associated with the adoption of SAPs. The study revealed that joint adoption of SAPs increases farm income and food security relative to the adoption of a single practice or non-adoption. Households obtain significantly higher farm income and food security via the adoption of at least three practices relative to households adopting less than three practices. These findings reaffirm the notion that adopting SAPs as a package rather than single practice enables farm households to derive significant welfare benefits.
Highlights
Sustainable agriculture is an important aspect of the food system that plays a vital role in enhancing farm incomes and household food security, especially in developing countries (Zero Hunger Challenge, 2016)
Using data from the ‘Intensification of Food Crops Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (Afrint)’ project, we examine the impact of adoption of multiple sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) - zero-tillage, intercropping, residue incorporation and animal manure - on farm incomes and food security among African rural households
This study examined the impact of multiple adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) - intercropping with nitrogen fixing crops, zero tillage, residue incorporation and animal manure use - on farm income and food security among rural households in Africa, using cross-sectional data from Africa’s intensification of food crops project
Summary
Sustainable agriculture is an important aspect of the food system that plays a vital role in enhancing farm incomes and household food security, especially in developing countries (Zero Hunger Challenge, 2016). Achieving sustainable household food production in Africa is beset with numerous challenges One of such challenges is decreased farm sizes resulting from increasing pressure from rapid population growth (Barbier & Hochard, 2018). Another challenge is degraded environment caused by the adverse impacts of climate change, continuous cultivation of soil, poor recycling of organic matter and low-level adoption of soil improvement measures. These challenges, together with institutional and infrastructural bottlenecks lead to poor yields, lower farm incomes, food insecurity and poverty (Dillon & Barrett, 2017; Teklewold, Kassie, Shiferaw, & Köhlin, 2013). SAPs have been defined to include (a) application of manure, crop rotation, integrated pest control (IPM) practices, management-intensive grazing, tillage, residue retention and weed control, (b) the reduced or zero use of petroleum-based products, fertilizers, pesticides, growth stimulators, and antibiotics or a combination of these practices (D’Souza, Cyphers, & Phipps, 1993)
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