The impact of adopting sustainable agricultural practices with or without chemical pesticides on farmers' technical efficiency: Evidence from rural Burkina Faso

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of adopting sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) with or without chemical pesticides on farmers' technical efficiency. We compared three groups of farmers: nonadopters, those adopting SAPs and using chemical pesticides, and those adopting SAPs in the pesticide‐free mode. The study data covered 1912 rural households in Burkina Faso for the 2016–2017 agricultural season. We used an endogenous frontier model and a matching method to address sample selection for both observables and unobservables. The results show that the adoption of pesticide‐free SAPs reduces technical inefficiency compared with the practice of adopting SAPs with pesticides and nonadoption of SAPs. However, our findings show that compared with the nonadoption of SAPs, adoption of SAPs with chemical pesticides did not have a significant effect on technical efficiency. For more efficient and sustainable agriculture, policies should further promote SAPs while advancing biological pest management techniques, as opposed to the use of chemical pesticides. [EconLit Citations: Q1, Q12, Q15, Q16, Q56].