The adoption and diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) has become an important issue in the development-policy agenda for sub-Saharan Africa, especially as a way to tackle land degradation, low agricultural productivity and poverty. However, the adoption rates of SAPs remain below expected levels. This study analyses the factors that facilitate or impede the probability and level of adoption of interrelated SAPs, using recent data from multiple plotlevel observations in rural Ethiopia. Multivariate and ordered probit models are applied to the modelling of adoption decisions by farm households facing multiple SAPs, which can be adopted in various combinations. The results show that there is a significant correlation between SAPs, suggesting that adoptions of SAPs are interrelated. The analysis further shows that both the probability and the extent of adoption of SAPs are influenced by many factors: a household's trust in government support, credit constraints, spouse education, rainfall and plot-level disturbances, household wealth, social capital and networks, labour availability, plot and market access. These results imply that policy-makers and development practitioners should seek to strengthen local institutions and service providers, maintain or increase household asset bases and establish and strengthen social protection schemes in order to improve the adoption of SAPs.

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Employing nationally representative data, we investigate the impact of Sustainable Intensification Practices (SIPs) on farm households’ food security, downside risk and the cost of risk in Malawi. The analysis relies on a flexible moment‐based specification of a stochastic production function in a multinomial endogenous switching regression framework to correct for the selection bias stemming both from observed and unobserved heterogeneity. A quantile moment approach is used to estimate the cost of risk. After controlling for the effects of unobserved heterogeneity and several observable variables on maize production and downside risk functions, estimation results show that the adoption of SIPs increases food security and reduces downside risk exposure and the cost of risk. We estimate greater food security and larger reduction in downside risk from simultaneous adoption of both crop diversification (maize–legume intercropping and rotations) and minimum tillage, suggesting that there are complementary benefits from these practices. We find most of the cost of risk comes from exposure to downside risk. Our findings imply that in dealing with production risks development agents should encourage the adoption of agronomic and resource‐management practices along with other risk mitigation and food security improving strategies.

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There is a paucity of information on conditioning factors that hinder or promote adoption of multiple climate-smart practices and on the synergies among such practices in increasing household resilience by improving agricultural income. This study analyzes how heat, rainfall, and rainfall variability affect farmers’ choices of a portfolio of potential climate smart practices — agricultural water management, improved crop seeds, and fertilizer — and the impact of these practices on farm income in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. We apply a multinomial endogenous switching regression approach by modeling combinations of practices and net farm income for each combination as depending on household and farm characteristics and on a set of climatic variables based on geo-referenced historical precipitation and temperature data. A primary result of this study is that farmers are less likely to adopt fertilizer (either alone or in combination with improved varieties) in areas of greater rainfall variability. However, even when there is high variability in rainfall, farmers are more likely to adopt these two yield-increasing inputs when they choose to (and are able to) include the third part of the portfolio: agricultural water management. Net farm income responds positively to agricultural water management, improved crop variety or fertilizer when they are adopted in isolation as well as in combination. But this effect is greater when these practices are combined. Simulation results suggest that a warming temperature and decreased precipitation in future decades will make it less likely that farmers will adopt practices in isolation but more likely that they will adopt a combination of practices. Hence, a package approach rather than a piecemeal approach is needed to maximize the synergies implicit in various climate smart practices.

Improving farm-level use of multiple climate change adaptation strategies is essential for improving household food security, particularly against a backdrop of a high risk of climatic shocks. However, the empirical foundation for understanding how farm households choose multiple climate-smart practices is far from being established. In this paper, the effects of household, farm and climatic factors on farmers' decisions to use multiple adaptation practices are analysed. A survey of 921 farm households and 4312 farm plots combined with historical climate data in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia is explored using multivariate and random effect ordered probit econometric models. Results show agricultural production can be characterized by complementarities between adaptation practices. This result is important to designing packages of adaptation practices. The econometric results confirm that social capital, tenure security and climatic shocks are important determinants of the choice of the type and number of adaptation practices. The results suggest the need for carefully designing combinations of adaptation strategies based on agro-ecological conditions.

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