Compelling evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) shows that Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has a positive impact on agricultural productivity. However, the uptake of CSA remains low, which is related to anthropogenic, or human-related, decisions about CSA and agricultural land use. This paper assesses households’ decisions to allocate agricultural land to CSA technologies across space and over time. We use the state-contingent theory, mixed methods, and mixed data sources. While agricultural land is increasing, forest land is decreasing across countries in SSA. The results show that household decisions to use CSA and the extent of agricultural land allocation to CSA remain low with a negative trend over time in SSA. Owned land and accessing land through rental markets are positively associated with allocating land to CSA technologies, particularly where land pressure is high. Regarding adaptation, experiencing rainfall shocks is significantly associated with anthropogenic land allocation to CSA technologies. The country policy assessment further supports the need to scale up CSA practices for adaptation, food security, and mitigation. Therefore, scaling up CSA in SSA will require that agriculture-related policies promote land tenure security and land markets while promoting climate-smart farming for food security, adaptation, and mitigation.
This study assesses how growing land scarcity relative to family labor is influencing farm household decisions to trade in agricultural land and labor markets to improve their livelihood. Using the farm household model, I analyze decisions to rent-in land or hire out labor among smallholders in Malawi. I use data from two rounds of a nationally representative balanced-household panel and apply a systems approach to jointly estimate land rental and labor market decisions while controlling for simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity. The results indicate that the falling owned-land-to-labor-endowment ratio can push households to participate in either land rental or seasonal agricultural labor markets. However, the probability of hiring out labor for casual work and short-term gains decreases when potential tenant households rent-in land. Based on asset-wealth-to-labor-endowment ratios, wealthier households are more likely to rent-in land while poorer households, including most smallholder households, are more likely to hire out labor. These results suggest higher friction in the land rental market compared to the agricultural labor markets and liquidity constraints dictating what is necessary to support agricultural operations and household needs. Accordingly, agricultural policy in Malawi should aim to reduce friction in factor markets.
We assess how non-convex transaction costs constrain access to and participation in the land rental market by smallholder farmers within Sub-Saharan Africa. The theory suggests a dynamic externality due to such transaction costs and that orchestrated participation can reduce such costs and enhance future participation. We use dynamic random effects probit and Tobit models with balanced panel data from Malawi to assess participation on the tenant side of the market. We observe that initial and earlier land rental market participation significantly increases participation in the subsequent years, consistent with dynamic nonconvex transaction costs and possible entry barriers in the market.
This study investigates the spatial downside and upside rainfall shock effects on tenant household renting behavior and access to rented land in the short‐term and medium‐term. We model the tenant households’ demand decisions within the state‐contingent framework with renting‐in of land as a risky input choice. Our data are a 3‐year balanced household panel, combined with the corresponding seasonal district‐wise rainfall shock data across regional agro‐ecological zones in Malawi. Using the correlated and dynamic random effects panel probit and Tobit models that control for unobserved heterogeneity, spatial heterogeneities were revealed. Land rental markets were found to be more active in the Central Region of Malawi with intermediate population density. The 1‐year and 2‐year lagged downside rainfall shocks enhanced tenant households’ land access. For the more land constrained Southern Region of Malawi, with less prevalence of land rental markets, the 2‐year lagged downside rainfall shock is associated with less access to rented land. The revealed dynamic and spatial effects of covariate rainfall shocks on land rental market activity call for further studies on how policies could facilitate rental markets to enhance land‐use efficiency and land access for the most land‐constrained households in Malawi.
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