Abstract
The adoption of soil conservation practices is widely recognized as essential in improving soil fertility and promoting climate-smart agriculture in general. Yet, smallholders’ adoption of soil conservation practices in Sub-Saharan Africa has not been adequately documented, especially in relation to the interdependence and temporal dynamics of adoption decisions. In this paper, we analyze the interdependence and temporal dynamics of smallholders’ adoption of soil conservation practices, such as animal manure, crop residue retention, intercropping, and crop rotation in northern Nigeria. We use data from two rounds of a farm-household panel survey among maize-based farming households and estimate econometric models, including pooled multivariate probit and random effects ordered probit. We found that there is a significant positive correlation between the soil conservation practices, suggesting that adoption decisions for these practices are interrelated and the practices are considered complements by the farmers. We found evidence of inter-temporal variability in the adoption of soil conservation practices, which suggests that some farmers do switch in and out of these practices and may likely explain the often-reported variability in maize yields. Also, we found that the farmers’ decisions to adopt soil conservation practices and the intensity of adoption are influenced by several factors, including farmer-, household-, farm-, institutional-, and biophysical-level factors. Yet, the factors that significantly influence the likelihood of adoption differ slightly from those that influence the intensity of adoption. Policy interventions to enhance the adoption intensity of conservation practices should strongly leverage important factors, such as contract farming, crop–livestock integration, and off-farm income diversification.
Highlights
Soil fertility depletion is one of the main biophysical factors that contribute to substantial crop yield gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which poses a threat to achieving food security in the region [1,2,3,4]
We found evidence of inter-temporal variability in the adoption of soil conservation practices, which suggests that some farmers do switch in and out of these practices and may likely explain variability in yields
We found evidence of strong positive correlations among the soil conservation practices, which suggests complementarity among the practices adopted by farmers in the study area
Summary
Soil fertility depletion is one of the main biophysical factors that contribute to substantial crop yield gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which poses a threat to achieving food security in the region [1,2,3,4]. Despite the importance of agricultural technologies, conservation practices, such as animal manure, crop residue retention, intercropping, and crop rotation for soil fertility management and climate-smart agriculture, farmers adoption decisions have not been adequately understood. This lends credence to the various studies that have tried to explain the adoption of such conservation practices in the literature over the years in SSA and other developing countries, e.g., [13,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. A more in-depth understanding of the adoption behavior of farm households is increasingly important, and considered essential to fine-tuning the design and promotion of management practices to drive adoption [26]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
