Factors Influencing Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mulimbi, Willy; Nalley, Lawton Lanier; Dixon, Bruce L.; Snell, Heather; Huang, Qiuqiong

doi:10.1017/aae.2019.25

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The literature available on the adoption of technology reveals that the farm size is an important factor that determines the farmers' awareness and their adoption decisions [27][28][29][30]. These studies have shown that large farm sizes increase the ability of farmers to be aware of and to adopt agricultural practices for the potential benefit of their households.…”

Section: Farm Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Farmers’ Awareness and Adoption of Extension Recommended Wheat Varieties in the Rainfed Areas of Pakistan

2022

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Scientific evidence suggests that there is room for eradicating poverty and hunger by increasing food production through the adoption of modern agricultural practices by farmers. This study aimed, first, to explore the relationship between the farmers’ awareness and adoption of improved wheat varieties. Second, it aimed to find the key factors that govern the farmers’ awareness and adoption of extension-recommended innovations in the rainfed cropping system of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Data were collected from 395 respondents. A binary logit model was used to analyze the effect of the farmers’ socioeconomic and farm-specific characteristics on their awareness and adoption of the extension-suggested wheat varieties. Moreover, qualitative data from 40 key informants were collected for in-depth analysis. The results show a strong association between the farmers’ awareness of a technology (improved wheat varieties) and its adoption. The results of the logit model show that their extension contacts, income from agriculture, and access to credit positively affected the farmers’ awareness, whereas their education and household sizes negatively affected their awareness. Moreover, the factors that positively influenced the farmers’ decision to adopt the technology included the extension contact, the confidence in the extension, the risk-bearing attitude, and the credit access, whereas the household size and education negatively affected it. The results of the key informant interviews reveal that the high incidence of poverty, the low soil fertility, the farmers’ inability to make effective decisions, the lack of accurate weather predictability in the rainfed farming system, the lack of government interest, and the asymmetric information in the inputs markets contributed to the farmers’ low levels of awareness and to their poor adoption of improved agricultural technologies. These results indicate that any intervention aimed at the awareness and adoption by farmers of improved technologies, such as new wheat varieties, should recognize the heterogeneity in the farmers’ socioeconomic and farm-specific characteristics.

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Section: Farm Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Farmers’ Awareness and Adoption of Extension Recommended Wheat Varieties in the Rainfed Areas of Pakistan

2022

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“…Households in the nonintervention domain reported walking longer durations to access both their furthest fields and their nearest fallows, which indicates that they were farming geographically farther from their homesteads and extending potentially into the buffer zones and/or PFZs. This presents important social implications beyond deforestation, especially for women, who have important roles in farming and harvesting crops in the DRC and who face increased safety risks when required to travel farther from their homes to cultivate land [48]. A previous study in the same area [28] found that villages that supported higher human populations had generally larger AMZ surface areas; therefore, human population size was likely not the main driver of a village's decision to expand its agricultural activities into the PFZ.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupled forest zoning and agricultural intervention yields conflicting outcomes for tropical forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Nackoney

Demol

Akpona

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Agricultural intensification and forest conservation are often seen as incompatible. Agricultural interventions can help boost food security for poor rural communities but in certain cases can exacerbate deforestation, known as the rebound effect. We tested whether coupling agricultural interventions with participatory forest zoning could improve food security and promote forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Simple agricultural interventions led to a >60% increase in cassava yields and a spill-over effect of improved cassava variety uptake in non-intervention zones. Household surveys conducted at the end of the 8-year project implementation period revealed that households that received agricultural interventions had more favorable attitudes toward forest zoning and conservation. The surveys also showed that farmers in the intervention domain practiced less land-intensive field and fallow management strategies compared to those practiced in the non-intervention domain. However, an 18-year time series analysis of Landsat satellite data revealed that agricultural expansion persisted in areas both with and without intervention assistance, and there is risk of a rebound effect. Approximately 70% of the tree cover loss that occurred outside of the agricultural areas was located within a 3-km buffer zone surrounding the outermost edges of the agricultural areas, which suggested that the majority of tree cover loss was caused by agricultural expansion. Within that 3-km buffer, average annual tree cover loss during the post-intervention time period was higher in the intervention domain compared to the non-intervention domain (0.17% y-1 compared to 0.11% y-1 respectively, p < 0.001), suggesting risk of a rebound effect. The disconnection between household perceptions of zoning adherence and actual behavior indicates the importance of strengthening governance structures for community-based monitoring and enforcement.

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“…In Angonia, a lack of these inputs is real, forcing farmers to confine CA to a small plot of land. Similarly, Mango et al (2017), Mulimbe et al (2019) and Ntshangase et al (2018) demonstrated how input availability influenced CA outcomes and adoption in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi. In this regards, the study concludes that the manner in which CA is practiced may lead to dis-adoption at any point because herbicides and appropriate tillage equipment play an important role in the field management.…”

Section: Constraints Hindering Ca Adoption In Angonia Mozambiquementioning

confidence: 92%

Redefining conservation agriculture through appropriate use of herbicides and fertilisers to improve crop production in Mozambique

Inacio¹,

Didy²,

Titki³

et al. 2022

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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The effects and applicability of conservation agriculture in different farming contexts are highly contested. Yet, there has been limited attempt to adapt the conservation agriculture system to the conditions of resource-poor farmers, focusing primarily on the existing farmers' capacity and objective to practice conservation agriculture. The study assessed the factors that influence adoption and disadoption of conservation agriculture as well as the impact and identified prospective components for successfully implementing it in rain-fed agriculture in Angonia (Mozambique). A structured questionnaire was randomly administered to 192 conservation agriculture farmers to collect data through a multistage sampling process. The study employed descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression to examine possible causal relationships among variables and literature review. The result shows that farmers are motivated to use conservation agriculture because of the increased yield, soil fertility and improved soil moisture. Lack of herbicides and reduced tillage equipment are two major challenges to implementing conservation agriculture. Regression analysis reveals that farmers would likely use minimum soil disturbance over other approaches. The study then proposes the appropriate use of herbicides to address the weed control issue; the use of fertilisers to generate immediate outcomes and enough vegetative cover; and the design of locally available and affordable reduced tillage equipment to accommodate resource-poor farmers. The government and stakeholders should work together to address market imperfections, including the establishment of agricultural input facilities. The study identifies the contextualised conditions required for designing and implementing conservation agriculture in pro-poor farming systems.

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Factors Influencing Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cited by 17 publications

References 35 publications

Determinants of Farmers’ Awareness and Adoption of Extension Recommended Wheat Varieties in the Rainfed Areas of Pakistan

Determinants of Farmers’ Awareness and Adoption of Extension Recommended Wheat Varieties in the Rainfed Areas of Pakistan

Coupled forest zoning and agricultural intervention yields conflicting outcomes for tropical forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Redefining conservation agriculture through appropriate use of herbicides and fertilisers to improve crop production in Mozambique

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