Evaluating conservation agriculture for small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Stevenson, Jàmes R.; Serraj, Rachid; Cassman, Kenneth G.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2014.01.018

Cited by 103 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Equally clearly, it is important to consider the attitudes of the farmers to recommended practices in addition to other factors (Barr et al, 2000;Pannell et al, 2006;Sattler et al, 2010). However, most studies on the promotion of EAPs in China have focused on their advantages and disadvantages, as shown in Table 1 (Gao et al, 2011;Chu et al, 2012;Shao et al, 2005;Liu et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2005;Zhang, 2008;Ji et al, 2012;Stevenson et al, 2014), few have explored their acceptance by farmers (Li et al, 2008). Thus, poor consideration of farmers' opinions and attitudes may account for the ineffective promotion of EAPs and their low adoption by farmers (which is voluntary rather than enforced by the government).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmentally-friendly agricultural practices and their acceptance by smallholder farmers in China—A case study in Xinxiang County, Henan Province

Luo

Qin

Wang

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmentally-friendly agricultural practices and their acceptance by smallholder farmers in China—A case study in Xinxiang County, Henan Province

Luo

Qin

Wang

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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“…For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) estimated that by 2030 the agricultural sector in developing countries could contribute up to 1.9 Gt/yr of CO 2 equivalent to carbon mitigation, and the forestry sector another 1.6 Gt/yr. That is, there is substantial potential for carbon sequestration initiatives on agro-forestry and conservation agriculture, which could enhance natural resource-based livelihoods and increase smallholders' resilience to drought, climate change and economic instability (Stevenson et al, 2014).…”

Section: Pes and Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The livelihood impacts of the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (EPWS) Program in Morogoro, Tanzania

Kwayu

Paavola²,

Sallu³

2017

Envir. Dev. Econ.

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ABSTRACT. Research on PES programs in agro-ecosystems is recent and limited in developing countries. The authors use a multi-method, quasi-experimental impact evaluation approach to examine direct and indirect livelihood impacts of the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (EPWS) program piloted in the Morogoro region in Tanzania. The evaluation is based on a survey of 116 program participants and 117 non-participants, 32 semi-structured interviews and 16 focus group discussions to complement the survey data. They find that, while the EPWS program incentives resulted in direct benefits, indirect benefits such as increased crop yields, higher land values, new employment opportunities, more knowledgeable farmers, improved leadership skills asThe authors thank the University of Dar es Salaam on behalf of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology for granting permission to conduct this research. They thank EPWS-Morogoro staff, local community leaders, local government officers, farmers and enumerators for their support and participation in fieldwork. They gratefully acknowledge the support of the Government of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) and the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds for funding this study.terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X17000067 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 18.236.120.13, on 13 May 2018 at 03:05:24, subject to the Cambridge Core Environment and Development Economics 329 well as increased trust, expanded internal and external networks and strengthened institutions were more important. The results clearly indicate the potential of PES schemes to generate win-win outcomes in agro-ecosystems, but they also call for attention to equity in the design of PES programs implemented on agro-ecosystems.

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“…However, empirical evidence of large scale adoption and impact has remained scarce and considerable variation exists in adoption estimates (Andersson and D'Souza 2014;Stevenson et al 2014). Despite the important implications for policy and resource allocation, very few studies have examined the accuracy of crop residue coverage-a key element of conservation agriculture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conservation agriculture has risen to prominence in the policy discourse on sustainable intensification in spite of a lack of evidence of its adoption by farmers-a problem that is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa (Stevenson et al 2014). As noted by Andersson and D'Souza (2014), considerable variation exists in those adoption estimates that are available and it is not clear how many hectares of land are currently under conservation agriculture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Thus, conservation agriculture has received considerable attention among scholars and policy makers (Kassam et al 2009;Erenstein et al 2012;Thierfelder and Wall 2012;Tesfaye et al 2015). The CGIAR-a global partnership on international agriculture research-has invested significantly into conservation agriculture research over the last decades (Renkow and Byerlee 2010) and a growing number of development organizations have been promoting conservation agriculture, with recent efforts focusing on smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (Stevenson et al 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Ground or in the Air? A Methodological Experiment on Crop Residue Cover Measurement in Ethiopia

Kosmowski¹,

Stevenson²,

Campbell³

et al. 2016

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Maintaining permanent coverage of the soil using crop residues is an important and commonly recommended practice in conservation agriculture. Measuring this practice is an essential step in improving knowledge about the adoption and impact of conservation agriculture. Different data collection methods can be implemented to capture the field level crop residue coverage for a given plot, each with its own implication on survey budget, implementation speed and respondent and interviewer burden. In this paper, six alternative methods of crop residue coverage measurement are tested among the same sample of rural households in Ethiopia. The relative accuracy of these methods are compared against a benchmark, the line-transect method. The alternative methods compared against the benchmark include: (i) interviewee (respondent) estimation; (ii) enumerator estimation visiting the field; (iii) interviewee with visual-aid without visiting the field; (iv) enumerator with visual-aid visiting the field; (v) field picture collected with a drone and analyzed with image-processing methods and (vi) satellite picture of the field analyzed with remote sensing methods. Results of the methodological experiment show that survey-based methods tend to underestimate field residue cover. When quantitative data on cover are needed, the best estimates are provided by visual-aid protocols. For categorical analysis (i.e., >30% cover or not), visual-aid protocols and remote sensing methods perform equally well. Among survey-based methods, the strongest correlates of measurement errors are total farm size, field size, distance, and slope. Results deliver a ranking of measurement options that can inform survey practitioners and researchers.

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Evaluating conservation agriculture for small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Cited by 103 publications

References 31 publications

Environmentally-friendly agricultural practices and their acceptance by smallholder farmers in China—A case study in Xinxiang County, Henan Province

Environmentally-friendly agricultural practices and their acceptance by smallholder farmers in China—A case study in Xinxiang County, Henan Province

The livelihood impacts of the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (EPWS) Program in Morogoro, Tanzania

On the Ground or in the Air? A Methodological Experiment on Crop Residue Cover Measurement in Ethiopia

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