Factors supporting the adoption of soil conservation practices: Evidence from Ecuadorian smallholder farmers

Author(s):  
David Singaña Tapia ◽  
Maritza Satama Bermeo

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhihai Yang ◽  
Ning Yin ◽  
Amin William Mugera ◽  
Yumeng Wang

PurposeThis paper analysed survey data of 715 rice-producing households in China to assess the determinants of adoption of five mutually exclusive soil conservation practices (SCPs) and their impact on rice yield and chemical fertiliser use.Design/methodology/approachThe multinomial endogenous treatment effects model was used to account for selection bias and endogeneity arising from both observed and unobserved heterogeneity.FindingsFarms that adopted SCPs as a package experienced an increase in rice yield and decrease in chemical fertiliser use. Adoption of SCPs as a package led to a 12.0% increase in yield and 15.2% decrease in chemical fertiliser use; these results have policy implications for the non-point source pollution control in the agricultural sector. In contrast, adoption of straw retention only significantly reduced yield by 4.9% and increased chemical fertiliser use by 18.1%.Originality/valueThe authors evaluate and compare multi-type of SCPs, such as straw retention, deep tillage and use of organic fertiliser, separately or in combination, and their impacts on smallholder farmers’ rice yield and chemical fertiliser usage.





Environments ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamud Salat ◽  
Brent Swallow

To simultaneously enhance agricultural productivity and lower negative impacts on the environment, food systems need to be much more efficient in using resources such as land, water, and fertilizer. This study examines resource use efficiency of maize production among smallholder farmers in Nyando, Kenya. The main objective is to assess the degree of technical efficiency of smallholder farmers and identify the impact of so-called “climate smart practices” on technical efficiency. The method of Stochastic Frontier Analysis is used to simultaneously estimate a stochastic production frontier and a technical inefficiency effect model. Data for 324 subplots farmed by 170 households were available for this analysis. The study reveals that maize production in Nyando is associated with mean technical efficiency of 45% and that soil conservation practices such as residue management, legume intercropping, and improved varieties significantly increase farmers’ technical efficiency. Soil carbon is found to be a critical factor of production. These results imply that there is potential to more than double production using the same resources and that soil conservation practices can be very “climate smart,” at once increasing soil carbon, production, climate resilience, and technical efficiency.





2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandan Singha

AbstractThis study evaluates the effects of vegetative soil conservation practices (afforestation and/or bamboo planting) on farm profit and its components, revenue and variable cost. Since farmers self-select themselves as adopters of conservation measures, there could be a problem of selection bias in evaluating their soil conservation practices. We address the selection bias by using propensity score matching. We also check if there exists spatial spillover in adoption of vegetative conservation measures and how it affects matching. We use primary survey data from the Darjeeling district of the Eastern Himalayan region for the year 2013. Our results suggest strong spatial correlation. We find that the propensity score estimated from the spatial model provides better matches than the non-spatial model. While the results show that vegetative soil conservation can lead to significant gains in revenue, it also increases costs so that no significant gains in profit accrue to farmers.



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