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Determinants of smallholder farmers’ adoption of short-term and long-term sustainable land management practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2020

Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga Open the ORCID record for Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga [Opens in a new window] ,
Isaac Luginaah ,
Rachel Bezner Kerr ,
Laifolo Dakishoni  and
Esther Lupafya
Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Isaac Luginaah
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Rachel Bezner Kerr
Affiliation:
Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Laifolo Dakishoni
Affiliation:
Soils, Food and Healthy Communities Organization. Ekwendeni, Malawi
Esther Lupafya
Affiliation:
Soils, Food and Healthy Communities Organization. Ekwendeni, Malawi
*
Author for correspondence: Moses Mosonsieyiri Kansanga, E-mail: mkansanga@gwu.edu
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Abstract

Despite increasing land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa, investment in sustainable land management (SLM) remains low. Empirical evidence show that smallholder farmers tend to prioritize investing in SLM practices with short-term turnover—e.g., composting and crop residue integration—in order to improve soil fertility and yields to the neglect of practices like agroforestry whose benefits tend to materialize in a relatively longer period. While it is crucial for farmers to prioritize both short-term and long-term SLM practices for the maintenance of overall ecosystem health, the factors that shape the concurrent adoption of short-term and long-term SLM practices remain underexplored. Using data from a cross-sectional survey with smallholder farming households (n = 512) in Malawi, we employed logistic regression to examine the determinants of the concurrent adoption of short-term and long-term SLM practices. Our findings show that plot size, farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, presence of a chronically ill person in the household, active household labor size, wealth and women's autonomy are noteworthy determinants. A unit increase in plot size was associated with increased odds (OR = 1.41, p < 0.01) of simultaneously adopting short-term and long-term SLM practices. Similarly, a unit increase in the active labor size of the household (OR = 1.30, p < 0.001) was positively associated with the concurrent adoption of short-term and long-term SLM practices. Households with no chronically sick person were 3.2 times more likely to adopt short-term and long-term SLM practices simulataneously compared to those with chronically sick persons. Farming households that exchanged farming information (OR = 2.50, p < 0.001) with other households had significantly higher odds of adopting short-term and long-term SLM practices concurrently than those that did not share farming information. Compared to households in the poorest wealth category, those in the richer (OR = 3.14, p < 0.001) and richest (OR = 3.64, p < 0.001) wealth categories were both significantly more likely to adopt short-term and long-term SLM practices concurrently. These findings suggest that initiatives targeted at promoting the holistic adoption of SLM practices—a combination of both short-term and long-term practices—must pay attention to contextual nuances including household wealth, gender, farmer training and land access dynamics.

Keywords

Agroecologyland degradationMalawismallholder agriculturesustainable land management
Type
Research Paper
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , June 2021 , pp. 265 - 277
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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