Sustainable maize intensification through site-specific nutrient management advice: Experimental evidence from Nigeria

Miet Maertens Oyakhilomen Oyinbo Tahirou Abdoulaye Jordan Chamberlin (2023, [Artículo])

There is growing evidence on the impacts of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) from Asia. The evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where SSNM developments are more recent and where conditions concerning soil fertility and fertilizer use differ importantly from those in Asia, is extremely scarce. We evaluate a SSNM advisory tool that allows extension agents to generate fertilizer recommendations tailored to the specific situation of an individual farmer’s field, using a three-year randomized controlled trial with 792 smallholder farmers in the maize belt of northern Nigeria. Two treatment arms were implemented: T1 and T2 both provide SSNM information on nutrient use and management, but T2 provides additional information on maize price distributions and the associated variability of expected returns to fertilizer use. We estimate average and heterogenous intent-to-treat effects on agronomic, economic and environmental plot-level outcomes. We find that T1 and T2 lead to substantial increases (up to 116%) in the adoption of good fertilizer management practices and T2 leads to incremental increases (up to 18%) in nutrient application rates, yields and revenues. Both treatments improve low levels of nutrient use efficiency and reduce high levels of greenhouse gas emission intensity, after two years of treatment. Our findings underscore the possibility of a more gradual and sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture in SSA, as compared with the Asian Green Revolution, through increased fertilizer use accompanied by improved fertilizer management.

Randomized Controlled Trial CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION GREEN REVOLUTION FERTILIZERS GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Risk aversion, impatience, and adoption of conservation agriculture practices among smallholders in Zambia

Hambulo Ngoma João Vasco Silva Frédéric Baudron Isaiah Nyagumbo Christian Thierfelder (2024, [Artículo])

Sustainable agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture have been promoted in southern Africa for nearly three decades, but their adoption remains low. It is of policy interest to unpack behavioural drivers of adoption to understand why adoption remains lower than anticipated. This paper assesses the effects of risk aversion and impatience on the extent and intensity of the adoption of conservation agriculture using panel data collected from 646 households in 2021 and 2022 in Zambia. We find that 12% and 18% of the smallholders were impatient and risk averse, respectively. There are two main empirical findings based on panel data Probit and Tobit models. First, on the extensive margin, being impatient is correlated with a decreased likelihood of adopting combined minimum-tillage (MT) and rotation by 2.9 percentage points and being risk averse is associated with a decreased propensity of adopting combined minimum tillage (MT) and mulching by 3.2 percentage points. Being risk averse is correlated with a decreased chance of adopting basins by 2.8 percentage points. Second, on the intensive margin, impatience and risk aversion are significantly correlated with reduced adoption intensity of basins, ripping, minimum tillage (MT), and combined MT and rotation by 0.02–0.22 ha. These findings imply a need to embed risk management (e.g., through crop yield insurance) in the scaling of sustainable agricultural practices to incentivise adoption. This can help to nudge initial adoption and to protect farmers from yield penalties that are common in experimentation stages.

Risk and Time Preferences CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION RISK SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION SMALLHOLDERS

Economics of crop residue management

Vijesh Krishna Maxwell Mkondiwa (2023, [Artículo])

More than five billion metric tons of agricultural residues are produced annually worldwide. Despite having multiple uses and significant potential to augment crop and livestock production, a large share of crop residues is burned, especially in Asian countries. This unsustainable practice causes tremendous air pollution and health hazards while restricting soil nutrient recycling. In this review, we examine the economic rationale for unsustainable residue management. The sustainability of residue utilization is determined by several economic factors, such as local demand for and quantity of residue production, development and dissemination of technologies to absorb excess residue, and market and policy instruments to internalize the social costs of residue burning. The intervention strategy to ensure sustainable residue management depends on public awareness of the private and societal costs of open residue burning.

Crop Biomass Residue Burning Environmental Effects CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CROPS BIOMASS RESIDUES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT CLIMATE CHANGE SMALLHOLDERS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION

Analysis of adoption of conservation agriculture practices in southern Africa: mixed-methods approach

Adane Tufa Hambulo Ngoma Paswel Marenya Christian Thierfelder (2023, [Artículo])

In southern Africa, conservation agriculture (CA) has been promoted to address low agricultural productivity, food insecurity, and land degradation. However, despite significant experimental evidence on the agronomic and economic benefits of CA and large scale investments by the donor community and national governments, adoption rates among smallholders remain below expectation. The main objective of this research project was thus to investigate why previous efforts and investments to scale CA technologies and practices in southern Africa have not led to widespread adoption. The paper applies a multivariate probit model and other methods to survey data from 4,373 households and 278 focus groups to identify the drivers and barriers of CA adoption in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The results show that declining soil fertility is a major constraint to maize production in Zambia and Malawi, and drought/heat is more pronounced in Zimbabwe. We also find gaps between (a) awareness and adoption, (b) training and adoption, and (c) demonstration and adoption rates of CA practices in all three countries. The gaps are much bigger between awareness and adoption and much smaller between hosting demonstration and adoption, suggesting that much of the awareness of CA practices has not translated to greater adoption. Training and demonstrations are better conduits to enhance adoption than mere awareness creation. Therefore, demonstrating the applications and benefits of CA practices is critical for promoting CA practices in all countries. Besides, greater adoption of CA practices requires enhancing farmers’ access to inputs, addressing drudgery associated with CA implementation, enhancing farmers’ technical know-how, and enacting and enforcing community bylaws regarding livestock grazing and wildfires. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for policy and investments in CA promotion.

Adoption Focus Group Discussion CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE CLIMATE CHANGE

Dead level contour technical design parameters required for sustainable crop production in semiarid areas of Zimbabwe

Menas Wuta Isaiah Nyagumbo (2021, [Artículo])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA MAIZE DRY SPELLS RAINWATER HARVESTING CROP PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

High Throughput-Phenotyping at CIMMYT: Experiences and needs

Francisco Pinto (2021, [Objeto de congreso])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA BREEDING PROGRAMMES GENETIC GAIN CROSS-BREEDING TECHNOLOGY YIELD POTENTIAL FIELD EXPERIMENTATION

Chapter 8. Wheat rusts: Current status, prospects of genetic control and integrated approaches to enhance resistance durability

sridhar bhavani Ravi Singh David Hodson JULIO HUERTA_ESPINO Mandeep Randhawa (2022, [Capítulo de libro])

Rust Resistance Race Specific Genes Adult Plant Resistance Genes Breeding Technologies CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA RUSTS DISEASE RESISTANCE ADULT PLANT RESISTANCE BREEDING TECHNOLOGY

Novel SSR markers from BAC-end sequences, DArT arrays and a comprehensive genetic map with 1,291 marker loci for chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

MAHENDAR THUDI Abhishek Bohra Spurthi Nayak Trushar Shah R. Varma Penmetsa Nepolean Thirunavukkarasu Pooran Gaur Pawan Kulwal Hari Upadhyaya Polavarapu Kavi Kishor Rajeev Varshney (2011, [Artículo])

Molecular Markers Recombinant Inbred Lines CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA GENETIC MARKERS MICROSATELLITES PLANTS DNA CHICKPEAS ARRAYS TECHNOLOGY CHROMOSOME MAPPING GENETIC VARIATION GENOTYPES MOLECULAR CLONING

Preparing for, coping with and bouncing back after shocks. A nuanced resilience assessment for smallholder farms and farmers in Northern Ghana

Mirja Michalscheck Fred Kizito Carl Timler Jeroen Groot (2023, [Artículo])

Whole-Farm Model Health Shock CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION VULNERABILITY SMALLHOLDERS LANDSCAPE TECHNOLOGY

Determinantes tecnológicos de las decisiones de inversión: un análisis de la industria manufacturera mexicana

Technological determinants and investment decisions: a Mexican manufacturing industry analysis

CELINA LOPEZ MATEO SANJUANA MARTHA RIOS MANRIQUEZ RUBEN MOLINA SANCHEZ (2015, [Artículo])

En este trabajo se analiza la influencia de determinantes tecnológicos en las decisiones de inversión de las empresas manufactureras mexicanas. Se utilizan estimaciones de eficiencia obtenidas a partir del Análisis Envolvente de Datos (DEA, por sus siglas en inglés), así como indicadores tecnológicos para las regresiones a través de Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios (MCO). El análisis se realiza partiendo de datos de corte transversal. La evidencia empírica sugiere que la eficiencia técnica a partir de los factores productivos capital y trabajo puede incentivar los niveles de inversión.

The influence of technological determinants on the investment decisions of Mexican manufacturing firms is discussed in this work. Efficiency estimates obtained from the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and technology indicators for the regressions through Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) are used to develop the study. The analysis is based on cross-sectional data. Empirical evidence suggests that the technological efficiency that arises from productive factors (capital and labor) may encourage investment.

CIENCIAS SOCIALES Inversión Tecnología Manufactura Investment Technology Manufacture