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Simulated willingness of farmers to adopt fertilizer micro-dosing and rainwater harvesting technologies in semi-arid and sub-humid farming systems in Tanzania

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Abstract

Productivity of African agriculture falls below the global average due mainly to limited use of productivity-enhancing technologies. In Tanzania, smallholders farm without fertilizer on fragile soils in rain-fed areas. Inadequate soil nutrients, nutrient mining, and soil-moisture stress are the main factors limiting crop productivity. Fertilizer micro-dosing (MD) and rainwater harvesting (RWH) through tied ridges appear to be appropriate technologies to help replenish soil nutrients and improve soil moisture for increased crop production. It nonetheless remains unclear whether these technologies can be adopted by smallholder farmers in Tanzania. There have been limited efforts to predict adoption and diffusion of new technologies in Tanzanian agriculture. This paper assesses the willingness of farmers to adopt fertilizer MD with and without tied ridges. Data were obtained from a household baseline study, participatory ex-ante impact assessments, and simulation exercises. Our cross-section analysis used integrated ex-ante assessment tools to understand sustainability and to prioritize and sequence technology adoption and diffusion. Simulation predicted the ex-ante impact of selected technologies, the adoption rate peaks, the likelihood for reaching peaks, and the possible time required to reach peak adoption. Our findings suggest the best paths that technology users should take, while considering factors which affect adoption during research planning, implementation, and testing of the farm level technologies.

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Notes

  1. Fertilizer micro-dosing involves the localized placement of small amounts of mineral fertilizer (NPK compound or DAP) on the planting hill at sowing or at the base of plants shortly after crop emergence instead of spreading fertilizers evenly across the field at larger rates (Camara et al. 2013; Twomlow 2010).

  2. In situ-rainwater harvesting using tied-ridges involves harvesting rainwater directly as it falls on the field, or collecting and concentrating runoff water within fields, with the simultaneous reduction of soil erosion; the tied-ridges have cross-ties made every few meters across the contour furrow (Mahoo et al. 2012).

  3. Upgrading strategies (UPS) represent a desirable change in the agri-food value chain component, for instance, natural resources and crop production that increase rewards and/or reduces exposure to risk. They can involve success stories, good practices and technological innovations (Graef et al. 2015).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the farmers for their dedication in testing the upgrading strategies in the case study sites. The authors gratefully acknowledge Future Farm Industries CRC researchers for developing ADOPT and making it available to facilitate learning and decision-making. This paper benefited from useful suggestions by anonymous reviewers and participants of the Tropentag Berlin 2015 Conference. This publication is a product of the Trans-SEC project (www.trans-sec.org). The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funded the project, with co-finance from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The views expressed here belong to the authors and may not in any circumstance be regarded as stating an official position of the BMBF and BMZ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Statistics, The University of Dodoma (UDOM), Box 395, Dodoma, Tanzania

    Lutengano Mwinuka

  2. Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Morogoro, Tanzania

    Khamaldin Daud Mutabazi & Jeremia Makindara

  3. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e. V, Institute of Land Use Systems, Müncheberg, Germany

    Frieder Graef

  4. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e. V, Institute for Socio-Economics, Müncheberg, Germany

    Stefan Sieber & Götz Uckert

  5. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), ICRAF-Tanzania Country Programme, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Anthony Kimaro

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  1. Lutengano Mwinuka
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  3. Frieder Graef
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Correspondence to Lutengano Mwinuka.

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Mwinuka, L., Mutabazi, K.D., Graef, F. et al. Simulated willingness of farmers to adopt fertilizer micro-dosing and rainwater harvesting technologies in semi-arid and sub-humid farming systems in Tanzania. Food Sec. 9, 1237–1253 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-017-0691-1

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