The adoption impact of wheat-chickpea double cropping on yield and farm income of smallholder farmers in Central Highlands of Ethiopia: the case of Becho district

Desalegn Haileyesus,Abate Mekuriaw

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07203

Abstract

This paper examines impacts of adoption of wheat chickpea double cropping on yield and farm income of smallholder rural farmers in Becho district, South West Shewa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. The study used cross-sectional data collected from 203 smallholder farm households selected randomly through two-stage stratified random sampling technique. Propensity score matching was employed to analyze the impacts of adoption on yield and farm income. The result showed that adoption of wheat-chickpea double cropping has significant impact on yield and farm income of the group of adopter households compared to the group of non-adopters. With regard to yield, adopters harvested average wheat yield of 2120 kg/ha, while the non-adopters harvested average wheat yield of 1420 kg/ha. In addition, the treated households earned average annual farm income of about 709.125 Euro per year from sale of both wheat and chickpea as adopters; while the non-adopters earned average farm income of 129 Euro from sale of wheat. These results imply that scaling out of wheat-chickpea double cropping contributes to food security and rural livelihood improvement through yield and farm income increment. Hence, encouraging farmers towards adoption of wheat-chickpea double cropping is essential for improving livelihoods of rural households by properly addressing factors such as access to improved seeds, training on double cropping, involvement in non-farm income activities, access to broad bed maker (BBM), ownership of tropical livestock unit (TLU) and access to fertilizer.

Highlights

Multiple cropping systems such as intercropping, double or sequential cropping, mixed cropping and relay cropping have been in practice for environmental, productivity, efficiency and disease concerns
Sandler (2014) reported wheat having a three-fold yield advantage following soybean than grain yield in mono cropping, which was attributed to soil nitrogen fixing properties of the subsequent legume crop. These results show that impact of double cropping on productivity has opposing results as double cropping is context and crop specific
Propensity score matching (PSM) The purpose of the study is mainly to estimate the impact of adopting wheat-chickpea double cropping technology on crop productivity and income of adopters in comparison to those households who are nonadopters

Summary

Introduction

Multiple cropping systems such as intercropping, double or sequential cropping, mixed cropping and relay cropping have been in practice for environmental, productivity, efficiency and disease concerns. These cropping systems are asserted to improve soil health, reduce pest and disease incidence, enhance productivity and minimize risks associated with monocropping (Azam-Ali, 2003; Agegnehu et al, 2008; Adarsh et al, 2019; Waha et al, 2020). Winter wheat followed by soybean is the most popular double cropping system in Missouri and much of the Midwest and Southern United States (Kyei-Boahen and Zhang, 2006). According to Waha et al (2020) estimation, 12% (135 million hectares) of global cropland is growing multiple crops (two or three crops in sequences)

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