Abstract
Despite decades of agricultural extension programmes, participatory research projects and efforts to encourage knowledge integration and sharing, few smallholder farmers are adopting natural resource management (NRM) practices. Using an agroforestry (AF)-based conservation practice known as conservation agriculture with trees as a case study, this study aims at contributing to the growing debate that a properly designed training programme enhances adoption of knowledge intensive NRM practices by providing resource poor farmers with the opportunity to learn, test and adapt such practices to suit their resource needs. To control for endogeneity in participation in training and assess the effect of training on adoption, we estimate an instrumental variable probit model using cross sectional data collected in 2013 from 198 farm households in Machakos district in Kenya. One key message emanating from the study, which is critical for development practitioners who are keen on up-scaling AF based conservation practices through training, is that strengthening technical capacity of smallholder farmers is necessary but it is not in itself sufficient to stimulate adoption of conservation practices. Instead, institutional factors like good road infrastructure that help reduce transaction costs associated with the search for information on technologies and markets and resource endowments in form of labour and land provide synergistic effects. Consequently, complementary strategies such as the introduction of cost effective labour saving technologies and the provision of enabling environment through public–private partnerships for farmers to access the technologies and inputs that are critical for implementing the skills acquired during the training are prerequisites for adoption.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Landcare is a sustainable land management approach that promotes land management practices that are community led. It is a partnership between community groups, schools, organizations and governments working together and supporting project activities to address local environmental issues.
References
Abadie A (2003) Semiparametric instrumental variable estimation of treatment response models. Econom J 13:231–263
Abdulai A, Huffman W (2005) The diffusion of new agricultural technologies: the case of crossbred-cow technology in Tanzania. Am J Agric Econ 87:645–659
Abdulai A, Huffman W (2014) The adoption and impact of soil and water conservation technology: an endogenous switching regression application. Land Econ 90:26–43
Adesina AA, Mbila D, Nkamleu GB, Endamana D (2000) Econometric analysis of the determinants of adoption of alley farming by farmers in the forest zone of southwest Cameroon. Agric Ecosyst Environ 80:255–265
Ajayi OC, Franzel S, Kuntashula E, Kwesiga F (2003) Adoption of improved fallow technology for soil fertility management in Zambia: empirical studies and emerging issues. Agrofor Syst 59:317–326
Ajayi OC, Akinnifesi FK, Sileshi G, Chakeredza S (2007) Adoption of renewable soil fertility replenishment technologies in the southern African region: lessons learnt and the way forward. Nat Resour Forum 31:306–317
Amemiya T (1978) The estimation of a simultaneous equation generalized probit model. Econometrica 46:1193–1205
Amemiya T (1979) The estimation of a simultaneous equation Tobit model. Int Econ Rev 20:169–181
Angrist JD, Imbens GW (1991) Identification and estimation of local average treatment effects. Technical working paper no. 118
Baidu-Forson J (1999) Factors influencing adoption of land-enhancing technology in the Sahel: lessons from a case study in Niger. Agric Econ 20:231–239
Barry PJ, Ellinger PN, Hopkins JA, Baker CB (1995) Financial management in agriculture, 5th edn. Interstate Publishers, Inc., Danville
Batte M, Johnson R (1993) Technology and its impact on American agriculture. In: Hallum A (ed) Size, structure, and the changing face of American agriculture. Westview Press, Boulder
Bayard B, Jolly CM, Shannon DA (2007) The economics of adoption and management of alley cropping in Haiti. J Environ Manag 85:62–70
Bekele N, Obare G, Mithöfer D, Amudavi D (2013) The impact of group based training approaches on crop yield, household income and adoption of pest management practices in the smallholder horticultural subsector of Kenya. J Sustain Dev Afr 15:117–140
Braveman A, Srinivasan TN (1981) Credit and sharecropping in agrarian societies. J Dev Econ 9:289–312
Braverman A, Stiglitz JE (1982) Sharecropping and the interlinking of agrarian markets. Am Econ Rev 72:695–715
Cameron AC, Trivedi PK (2005) Microeconometrics: methods and applications. Cambridge University Press, New York
Carolan MS, Mayerfield D, Bell MM, Exner R (2004) Rented land: barriers to sustainable agriculture. J Soil Water Conserv 59:70A–75A
Clay DC, Kelly V, Mpyisi E, Reardon T (2002) Input use and conservation investments among farm households in Rwanda: patterns and determinants. In: Barret CB, Place F, Aboud AA (eds) Natural resource management in African agriculture: understanding and improving current practices. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, pp 103–114
Cobo JG, Dercon G, Cadisch G (2010) Nutrient balances in African land use systems across different spatial scales: a review of approaches, challenges and progress. Agric Ecosyst Environ 136:1–15
Current D, Lutz E, Scherr S (1998) Costs, benefits and farmer of agroforestry. In: Lutz E (ed) Agriculture and the environment: perspectives on sustainable rural development. World Bank, Washington, DC, pp 323–343
Doss CR (2001) Designing agricultural technology for African women farmers: lessons from 25 years of experience. World Dev 29:2075–2092
Doss CR, Morris ML (2001) How does gender affect the adoption of agricultural innovations? The case of improved maize technology in Ghana. Agric Econ 25:27–39
Feder G, Umali DL (1993) The adoption of agricultural innovations: a review. Technol Forecast Soc Change 43:215–239
Feder G, Just RE, Zilberman D (1985) Adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries: a survey. Econ Dev Cult Change 33:255–298
Fernandez-Cornejo J, Hendricks C, Mishra A (2005) Technology adoption and off-farm household income: the case of herbicide-tolerant soybeans. J Agric Appl Econ 37:549–563
Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO (2009) Scaling-up conservation agriculture in Africa: strategy and approaches. FAO Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa. http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/doc/conservation.pdf. Accessed 17 July 2013
Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO (2011) CA adoption worldwide. FAO-CA website. http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/6c.html. Accessed 30 Nov 2013
Friedrich T, Kassam AH, Shaxson TF (2009) Conservation agriculture. In: Agriculture for developing countries. Science and technology options assessment (STOA) project. Karlsruhe
Fuglie KO, Kascak CA (2001) Adoption and diffusion of natural resource conserving-agricultural technology. Appl Econ Perspect Policy 23:386–403
Gine X, Yang D (2009) Insurance, credit and technology adoption: field experimental evidence from Malawi. J Dev Econ 89:1–11
Gould BW, Saupe WE, Klemme RM (1989) Conservation tillage: the role of farm and operator characteristics and the perception of soil erosion. Land Econ 65:167–182
Haggblade S, Tembo G (2003) Development, diffusion and impact of conservation farming in Zambia. Food security research project working paper no. 8, Lusaka. http://www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/zambia/index.htm. Accessed 20 Jan 2014
Hiroyuki T, Adeoti AL, Salau S (2010) Measuring the effect of transaction costs for investment in irrigation pumps: application of unobserved stochastic threshold model to the case of Nigeria. Nigeria strategy support program. NSSP working paper no. 0015. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/measuring-effect-transaction-costs-investment-irrigation-pumps. Accessed 6 Jan 2014
Hitayezu P, Okello JJ, Obel-Gor C (2014) Farm households’ participation in rural non-farm employment in post-war Rwanda: drivers and policy implications. Dev S Afr 31:452–474
Hussein SS, Byerlee D, Heisey PW (1994) Impacts of the training and visit extension system on farmers’ knowledge and adoption of technology: evidence from Pakistan. Agric Econ 10:39–47
Jack BK (2011) Market inefficiencies and the adoption of agricultural technologies in developing countries. CID research fellow and graduate student working paper no. 50. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/publications/research-fellow-graduate-student-working-papers/cid-research-fellow-and-graduate-student-working-paper-no.50. Accessed 10 Jan 2014
Jerneck A, Olsson L (2013) More than trees! Understanding the agroforestry adoption gap in subsistence agriculture: insights from narrative walks in Kenya. J Rural Stud 32:114–125
Kassam AH, Friedrich T, Francis S, Pretty J (2009) The spread of conservation agriculture: justification, sustainability and uptake. Int J Agric Sustain 7:1–29
Kaumbutho P, Kienzle J (2007) Conservation agriculture as practiced in Kenya: two case studies. African Conservation Tillage Network and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Nairobi. ISBN 9966-7219-0-8
Ketema M, Bauer S (2012) Determinants of adoption and labour intensity of stone terraces in eastern highlands of Ethiopia. J Econ Sustain Dev 3:7–17
Khandker SR, Koolwal GB, Samad HA (2010) Handbook of impact evaluation: quantitative methods and practices. World Bank, Washington, DC
Khanna M, Zilberman D (1997) Incentives, precision technology, and environmental protection. Ecol Econ 23:25–43
Kijima Y, Ito Y, Otsuka K (2012) Assessing the impacts of training on lowland rice productivity in an African setting: evidence from Uganda. World Dev 40(8):1610–1618
Knowler D, Bradshaw B (2007) Farmers’ adoption of conservation agriculture: a review and synthesis of recent research. Food Policy 32:25–48
Lee DR (2005) Agricultural sustainability and technology adoption: issues and policies for developing countries. Am J Agric Econ 87:1325–1334
Marenya PP, Barret CB (2007) Household-level determinants of adoption of improved natural resources management practices among smallholder farmers in western Kenya. Food Policy 32:515–536
Matshe I, Young T (2004) Off-farm labour allocation decisions in small scale rural households in Zimbabwe. Agric Econ 30:175–186
Mazvimavi K, Twomlow S (2009) Socioeconomics and institutional factors influencing adoption of conservation farming by vulnerable households in Zimbabwe. Agric Syst 101:20–29
McCulloch AK, Meinzen-Dick R, Hazell P (1998) Property rights, collective action and technologies for natural resource management: a conceptual framework. SP-PRCA working paper no. 1. IFPRI
Mercer DE (2004) Adoption of agroforestry innovations in the tropics: a review. Agrofor Syst 204411:311–328
Moser MC, Barret BC (2003) The disappointing adoption dynamics of yield increasing, low external-input technology: the case of SRI in Madagascar. Agric Syst 76:1085–1100
Nguyen TQ (2001) Farmers’ training and the adoption of upland agricultural technologies in the Black River (Song Da) watershed, northeast of Vietnam. In: Conference on international agriculture, 9–11 October 2001. Deutscher Tropentag, Bonn
Noltze M, Schwarz S, Matin Qaim M (2012) Understanding the adoption of system technologies in smallholder agriculture: the system of rice intensification (SRI) in Timor Leste. Agric Syst 108:64–73
Nyanga HP (2012) Factors influencing adoption and area under conservation agriculture: a mixed methods approach. Sustain Agric Res 1:27–40
Oduol JBA, Binam JN, Olarinde L, Diagne A, Adekunle A (2011) Impact of adoption of soil and water conservation technologies on technical efficiency: insight from smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. J Dev Agric Econ 3:655–669
Ojiem J, Ridder N, Vanlauwe B, Giller KE (2006) Socio-ecological niche: a conceptual framework for integration of legumes in smallholder farming systems. Int J Agric Sustain 4:79–93
Okoye C (1998) Comparative analysis of factors in the adoption of traditional and recommended soil erosion control practices in Nigeria. Soil Tillage Res 45:251–263
Phiri D, Franzel S, Mafongoya P, Jere I, Katanga R, Phiri S (2004) Who is using the new technology? The association of wealth status and gender with the planting of improved tree fallows in Eastern Province, Zambia. Agric Syst 79:131–144
Place F, Dewees P (1999) Policies and incentives for the adoption of improved fallows. Agrofor Syst 47:323–343
Posthumus H, Pound B, Andrieu N, Triomphe B (2010) Enhancing adoption of conservation agriculture practices through co-innovation platforms in sub-Saharan Africa. http://aciar.gov.au/files/node/14068/enhancing_adoption_of_conservation_agriculture_pra_96301.pdf. Accessed 15 Nov 2013
Pretty J, Uphoff N (2002) Human dimension of agroecological development. In: Uphoff N (ed) Agroecological innovations increasing food production with participatory development. Earthscan Publications, London, pp 243–250
Quisumbing AR (1995) Gender differences in agricultural productivity: a survey of empirical evidence. FCND discussion paper no. 5. IFPRI
Quisumbing AR, Pandolfelli L (2010) Promising approaches to address the needs of poor female farmers: resources, constraints and interventions. World Dev 38:581–592
Rogers EM (1962) Diffusion of innovations. Free Press, New York
Rubin DB (1974) Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies. J Educ Psychol 66:688–701
Rubin DB (1977) Assignment to treatment group on the basis of a covariate. J Educ Stat 2:1–26
Saltiel J, Bauder JW, Palakovich S (1994) Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: diffusion, farm structure and profitability. Rural Sociol 59:333–349
Shively EG (1997) Consumption risk, farm characteristics, and soil conservation adoption among low-income farmers in the Philippines. Agric Econ 17:165–177
Wall PC (2007) Tailoring conservation agriculture to the needs of small farmers in developing countries. J Crop Improv 19:137–155
Wooldridge JM (2010) Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data, 2nd edn. The MIT Press, Cambridge
World Bank (2008) World development report: agriculture for development. World Bank, Washington, DC
Zanello G, Shankar B, Srinivasan CS (2012) Transaction costs, information technologies and the choice of marketplace amongst farmers in Ghana. In: Contributed paper prepared for presentation at the 86th annual conference of the Agricultural Economics Society, University of Warwick, UK, 16–18 April 2012. http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/134740/2/Giacomo_Zanello_Zanello_et_al_AES_2012.pdf. Accessed 15 Dec 2013
Zeller M, Diagne A, Mataya C (1998) Market access by smallholder farmers in Malawi: implications for technology adoption, agricultural productivity and crop income. Agric Econ 19:219–229
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) through the Evergreen Agriculture Project for funding this study. We especially wish to express our gratitude to the internal reviewers and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. We thank all who in one way or another contributed to making this study successful. The contents of this paper are the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the views of the funding organization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wafula, L., Oduol, J., Oluoch-Kosura, W. et al. Does strengthening technical capacity of smallholder farmers enhance adoption of conservation practices? The case of conservation agriculture with trees in Kenya. Agroforest Syst 90, 1045–1059 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-015-9882-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-015-9882-y