Zero-tillage is a proven technology for sustainable wheat intensification in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: what determines farmer awareness and adoption?

Abstract

In India, there is increasing recognition among policy-makers of the largely untapped potential of the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) for meeting state-and national-level food needs. Zero-tillage (ZT) is a proven technology for enhancing wheat productivity and, hence, food security in the IGP, while reducing production costs -a 'win-win' scenario that should support rapid technology scaling even though adoption remains modest to date. In order to inform policies and derive recommendations for a more effective extension strategy, this study investigated determinants of ZT adoption in the Eastern IGP using a random sample of 1000 wheat-growing households from Bihar, stratified by ZT adoption status. We corrected for potential non-exposure bias by using a two-stage estimation procedure that differentiates between factors affecting farmers' awareness of ZT and those affecting adoption conditional on awareness. Owing to the relatively nascent stage of ZT diffusion in the area, we emphasized the role of information in the adoption process, including social networks, whereby we allowed for endogenous and exogenous network effects. Only 44% of sample households knew about ZT technology, and there was substantial scale bias in favor of larger scale farmers both with respect to awareness and adoption. Both the adoption behavior and characteristics of the respondents' network members influenced their own awareness and adoption of ZT, particularly among farmers in the smallest landholding tercile. Farmers valued the time-saving potential of ZT, especially under conditions of increasingly unreliable monsoon rains resulting in a delayed rice crop and, consequently, late establishment of wheat which reduces yield. The fact that most farmers accessed ZT via custom-hire services was accounted for in the model, and the importance of proximate service providers confirmed. We conclude that there is need for further awareness-raising campaigns for ZT technology, whereby, apart from mass media, agricultural extension should use contact farmers belonging to different social strata for effective within-village diffusion of messages, especially to the poorer farmers. The social inclusiveness of ZT use can be enhanced by supporting the emergence of more ZT service providers and by developing business models that lower the transaction costs of servicing smaller farms.

Social inclusion increases with time for zero-tillage wheat in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains

“…In the Eastern IGP in particular, the above-mentioned small landholding sizes complicate the uptake of the technology as tractor and ZT drill ownership is not a tenable goal for the large majority of farmers; hence, they rely on custom-hiring services to access the technology (Erenstein and Laxmi, 2008, Keil et al, 2016). Furthermore, compared with the Northwestern IGP, farmers’ awareness of the technology is still low (Keil et al, 2017, Singh et al, 2012).…”

“…Taking these factors into account, Keil et al (2017) assessed determinants of ZT wheat adoption in Bihar using cross-sectional data collected in 2013 and found a distinct scale bias, with larger, better educated, and higher-caste farmers being more likely to know about and use the technology. This is in line with the critique of SI initiatives articulated by Rasmussen et al (2018): in their recent review of literature evaluating 60 cases of agricultural intensification, the authors found that well-being impacts tended to be unevenly distributed, favoring better-off farmers.…”

“…However, the authors emphasized that only few studies examined socially disaggregated outcomes, which they identified as an important research gap. For the case of ZT wheat in Bihar, Keil et al (2017) hypothesized that the scale bias may (in part) be due to the business logic of custom-hiring services, where larger-scale farmers were more attractive customers for the relatively few ZT service providers (SPs) in the area. As is the case with most technology adoption studies, Keil et al (2017) present a snapshot in time and acknowledge that the technology was in a nascent stage of diffusion.…”

Tillage and Residue Management Effects on Productivity, Profitability and Soil Properties of a Rice-Maize-Mungbean System in Bangladesh

“…Conservation agriculture utilizes three basic principles -no or reduced tillage, permanent ground cover and judicious crop rotation [6,7]. With the advent of zero till wheat, mechanized dry seeding of rice, increasing market availability of herbicides and rising concern over soil degradation, CA systems have gained increased attention in recent decades in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) of South Asia [6][7][8]. The use of CA in the rice-wheat (R-W) cropping systems of the IGP has been the subject of much research, and has been shown to maintain or increase crop yields, increase profitability, and improve soil fertility [6,7,9].…”

“…However, a meta-analysis of large set of global data demonstrated that yields with zero tillage but without residue retention are lower than conventional tillage especially in the humid tropics [12]. Nevertheless, in contrast to sub-Saharan Africa where CA and conservation tillage practices have been found to be more labour intensive [13], such technologies may hold potential to tackle labour and energy shortage in agriculture in Bangladesh and in the EGP [14,11,8].…”