Farmers' perceptions and knowledge of soil fertility degradation in two contrasting sites in western Kenya

Odendo, Martins; Obare, Gideon A.; Salasya, Beatrice

doi:10.1002/ldr.996

Cited by 34 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Also, in countries with scarce resources and having scattered data, generating scientific data that support decision making processes is a challenge. Thus, assessment of SQ degradation must go beyond estimating soil erosion and soil properties indicators, using the concept of SQ in the context of local farmers' knowledge (Brunner et al, 2008;Odendo et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Farmers' Knowledge of Weed Species, Crop Type and Soil Management Practices in Relation to Soil Quality Status in Mai‐Negus Catchment, Northern Ethiopia

Tesfahunegn

Tamene²,

Vlek

et al. 2013

Land Degrad Dev

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Soil quality (SQ) assessment from farmers' point of view can be used as a primary indicator for planning sustainable agriculture. Despite this fact, limited information is documented with regard to SQ indicators, for example weed species, crop types and management practices from farmers' knowledge perspectives. The aims of this study are to analyse factors that determine farmers' knowledge of SQ, identify SQ indicators of weed species and crop types across different SQ status and assess soil‐and‐crop management practices that maintain SQ in the Mai‐Negus catchment, northern Ethiopia. Fifty‐two farmer household heads were chosen randomly for questionnaire interview. The results showed significant (p ≤ 0·05) differences in the proportion of respondents who used different crop‐and‐soil management practices. The success of overall prediction by the logistic regression model (model χ2 = 0·84, p < 0·01) and level of model correct predictions (86%) indicated that the explanatory variables have sufficiently explained farmers' knowledge of SQ indicators. Provided that other conditions remained constant, the odds ratio of variables such as farmer experience, access to information, farm location, education, field slope and land tenure have significantly increased the likelihood of farmers for being knowledgeable of SQ indicators. This study also demonstrated that most farmers are knowledgeable in identifying weed species, crop types and management practices across various SQ status, which suggests that such SQ indicators should be used to assess SQ status (degradation severity) while locating fields to be intervened using appropriate management strategies. © 2013 The Authors. Land Degradation & Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Farmers' Knowledge of Weed Species, Crop Type and Soil Management Practices in Relation to Soil Quality Status in Mai‐Negus Catchment, Northern Ethiopia

Tesfahunegn

Tamene²,

Vlek

et al. 2013

Land Degrad Dev

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“…This creates serious repercussion for the environment, which, together with fluctuation in rainfall, have made agricultural production very vulnerable to weather shock. Odendo et al (2010) also affirm that soil fertility degradation on smallholder farms has been the fundamental biophysical cause of food insecurity and poverty in sub-Saharan African countries like Ethiopia where most of the people live in rural areas and derive their livelihoods from agriculture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Biophysical, Socio-Economic, and Institutional Constraints for Production and Flow of Cereals in Ethiopia

Ogato¹

2014

AJHE

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This article an outcome of a study on "Biophysical, Socio-Economic, and Institutional Constraints for Production and Flow of Cereals in Ethiopia." The findings of the study were based on literature review and secondary data and information collected from different sources. The general objective of the study is to assess the biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional constraints for production and flow of cereals in Ethiopia. The study concludes that there is strong conceptual linkage between ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change and food security in Ethiopia; there is interplay among bio-physical, socio-economic, and institutional constraints for production and flow of cereals in Ethiopia; there are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the current Ethiopian agricultural development policy and strategies in addressing the constraints for production and flow of cereals; there are increasing trends of major cereals' mean annual production in Ethiopia; and the food security situation of Addis Ababa is very much affected by increase of mean annual prices of major cereals in Addis Ababa grain market. Hence, addressing the identified biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional constraints for production and flow of cereals is of paramount importance for sustainable production and flow of cereals and insuring food security in Ethiopia.

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“…Odendo et al . () purports that soil fertility degradation is a slow process, yet farmers’ perceptions of the severity of the problem and associated yield losses are critical in influencing adoption of soil fertility enhancing practices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Farmers usually face challenges in processing information about the technologies and often suffer fatigue when involved in experimentation (Gwaze et al, ; AGRA, ). Given the long gestation period of some ISFM packages such as agroforestry, best fits that offer lower investment risk and uncertainty in outputs in the long term are expected to be adopted easily (Foltz, ; Odendo et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous adoption of integrated soil fertility management technologies in the Chinyanja Triangle, Southern Africa

Mponela

Kassie

Tamene

2018

Natural Resources Forum

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Empirical scientific evidence indicates that there is still room for increasing food production by improving land productivity. This study aimed at identifying the key determinants that govern farmers’ decisions to adopt multiple components of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) in a maize mixed cropping system of the Chinyanja Triangle, Southern Africa. Revealed preferences of ISFM components were collected from 320 randomly selected households and multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyse the simultaneous effects on adoption based on biophysical plot and household‐level socioeconomic attributes. The results show that farmers’ choices of a set of ISFM components are determined by a mix of factors that address the trade‐offs and synergies among them. Non‐farm income, moderate land quality perception, and education influence simultaneous technology adoption, while gender and crop loss increase the likelihood of farmers’ decisions to adopt independent options. Having other sources of income supports co‐adoption of inorganic fertilizer, residue incorporation, and crop rotation. Input/output market access, access to information, financial sources, and climate variability also play pivotal role in technology adoption. These results indicate that resource availability, learning costs, finances, and risk aversion need to be considered when designing and promoting ISFM technologies as a package.

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Farmers' perceptions and knowledge of soil fertility degradation in two contrasting sites in western Kenya

Cited by 34 publications

References 23 publications

Assessing Farmers' Knowledge of Weed Species, Crop Type and Soil Management Practices in Relation to Soil Quality Status in Mai‐Negus Catchment, Northern Ethiopia

Assessing Farmers' Knowledge of Weed Species, Crop Type and Soil Management Practices in Relation to Soil Quality Status in Mai‐Negus Catchment, Northern Ethiopia

Biophysical, Socio-Economic, and Institutional Constraints for Production and Flow of Cereals in Ethiopia

Simultaneous adoption of integrated soil fertility management technologies in the Chinyanja Triangle, Southern Africa

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