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Determinants of smallholder farmers’ adoption of short-term and long-term sustainable land management practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2020

Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga Open the ORCID record for Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga [Opens in a new window] ,
Isaac Luginaah ,
Rachel Bezner Kerr ,
Laifolo Dakishoni  and
Esther Lupafya
Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Isaac Luginaah
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Rachel Bezner Kerr
Affiliation:
Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Laifolo Dakishoni
Affiliation:
Soils, Food and Healthy Communities Organization. Ekwendeni, Malawi
Esther Lupafya
Affiliation:
Soils, Food and Healthy Communities Organization. Ekwendeni, Malawi
*
Author for correspondence: Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga, E-mail: mkansanga@gwu.edu
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Abstract

Despite increasing land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa, investment in sustainable land management (SLM) remains low. Empirical evidence show that smallholder farmers tend to prioritize investing in SLM practices with short-term turnover—e.g., composting and crop residue integration—in order to improve soil fertility and yields to the neglect of practices like agroforestry whose benefits tend to materialize in a relatively longer period. While it is crucial for farmers to prioritize both short-term and long-term SLM practices for the maintenance of overall ecosystem health, the factors that shape the concurrent adoption of short-term and long-term SLM practices remain underexplored. Using data from a cross-sectional survey with smallholder farming households (n = 512) in Malawi, we employed logistic regression to examine the determinants of the concurrent adoption of short-term and long-term SLM practices. Our findings show that plot size, farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, presence of a chronically ill person in the household, active household labor size, wealth and women's autonomy are noteworthy determinants. A unit increase in plot size was associated with increased odds (OR = 1.41, p < 0.01) of simultaneously adopting short-term and long-term SLM practices. Similarly, a unit increase in the active labor size of the household (OR = 1.30, p < 0.001) was positively associated with the concurrent adoption of short-term and long-term SLM practices. Households with no chronically sick person were 3.2 times more likely to adopt short-term and long-term SLM practices simulataneously compared to those with chronically sick persons. Farming households that exchanged farming information (OR = 2.50, p < 0.001) with other households had significantly higher odds of adopting short-term and long-term SLM practices concurrently than those that did not share farming information. Compared to households in the poorest wealth category, those in the richer (OR = 3.14, p < 0.001) and richest (OR = 3.64, p < 0.001) wealth categories were both significantly more likely to adopt short-term and long-term SLM practices concurrently. These findings suggest that initiatives targeted at promoting the holistic adoption of SLM practices—a combination of both short-term and long-term practices—must pay attention to contextual nuances including household wealth, gender, farmer training and land access dynamics.

Keywords

Agroecologyland degradationMalawismallholder agriculturesustainable land management

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Type
Research Paper
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , June 2021 , pp. 265 - 277
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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