IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jsd123/v7y2014i4p95.html

Impact of Minimum Tillage and Crop Rotation as Climate Change Adaptation Strategies on Farmer Welfare in Smallholder Farming Systems of Zambia

Author

Listed:
  • Elias Kuntashula
  • Lydia M. Chabala
  • Brian P. Mulenga

Abstract

Worldwide, climate change is currently recognized as one of the major challenges to increased food production. The agriculture sector is the main source of livelihoods, growth and foreign exchange earnings in many developing countries including Zambia. However, it is also a sector that is mostly vulnerable to effects of climate change. Smallholder farmers in Zambia have been adopting agricultural related adaptation strategies including minimum tillage and crop rotation to mitigate effects of climate change. There has been contentious debate on whether the two strategies (that are elements of conservation farming) increase crop yields and incomes. Available literature heavily relies on biophysical experiments and show contradictions in the ability of these strategies to improve crop yields. Taking cognizance of the differences in socioeconomic circumstances of the farmers, the purpose of this study was to estimate the impact of minimum tillage and crop rotation on maize yields and incomes for farmers adopting the strategies. The study used cross sectional data collected in 2012/13 from 1231 households across six districts of Zambia and applied propensity score matching techniques and Heckman’s selection estimators to account for observed and unobserved heterogeneity between the adopters and non-adopters. The results showed that about 12 and 19% of the farmers have adopted minimum tillage and crop rotation respectively. The strategies improved on-farm maize productivity by about 26% to 38% for minimum tillage and 21% to 24% for crop rotation. Minimum tillage also improved total household maize production. On the other hand crop rotation did not significantly improve total maize production and gross income from the crop. This could reflect the small proportions of areas allocated to legumes versus the areas subsequently allocated to the maize crop during crop rotation. The impact of crop rotation on the staple maize crop could be boosted by encouraging farmers to increase the areas allocated to legumes. The legumes portfolio in the government sponsored input support programme should be increased. The results from this study generally confirm the potential direct role of agricultural related climate change adaptation strategies in improving crop productivity levels in small holder farming systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Elias Kuntashula & Lydia M. Chabala & Brian P. Mulenga, 2014. "Impact of Minimum Tillage and Crop Rotation as Climate Change Adaptation Strategies on Farmer Welfare in Smallholder Farming Systems of Zambia," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 7(4), pages 1-95, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:7:y:2014:i:4:p:95
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/39121/21748
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/39121
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haggblade, Steven & Tembo, Gelson, 2003. "Development, Diffusion and Impact of Conservation Farming in Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 54464, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    2. Heckman, James J. & Robb, Richard Jr., 1985. "Alternative methods for evaluating the impact of interventions : An overview," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 239-267.
    3. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias, 2000. "Evaluation methods for non-experimental data," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 427-468, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:bcp:journl:v:8:y:2024:i:10:p:2197-2209 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ng’ombe, John N. & Kalinda, Thomson H. & Tembo, Gelson, 2017. "Does adoption of conservation farming practices result in increased crop revenue? Evidence from Zambia," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 56(2), March.
    3. Olarinre, Abiola Adebunmi, 2023. "Does social network affect farm income and poverty status? Empirical evidence from farming households in Osun State, Nigeria," 2023 Seventh AAAE/60th AEASA Conference, September 18-21, 2023, Durban, South Africa 365952, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    4. Sulinkhundla Maseko & Selma T Karuaihe & Damien Jourdain, 2023. "Impact of the adoption of residue retention on household maize yield in northern Zambia," Post-Print hal-04525209, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Centeno, Luis & Centeno, Mário & Novo, Álvaro A., 2009. "Evaluating job-search programs for old and young individuals: Heterogeneous impact on unemployment duration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 12-25, January.
    2. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    3. Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza & Luis Castro Peñarrieta & Darwin Ugarte Ontiveros, 2021. "Outliers in Semi-Parametric Estimation of Treatment Effects," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-32, April.
    4. Lungu, Harad Chuma, 2019. "Determinants of climate smart agricultural technology adoption in the Northern Province of Zambia," Research Theses 334754, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    5. Fang, Yi & Wang, Qi & Wang, Yanru & Yuan, Yan, 2024. "Media sentiment, deposit stability and bank systemic risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 1150-1172.
    6. Victor Aguirregabiria, 2006. "Another Look at the Identification of Dynamic Discrete Decision Processes: With an Application to Retirement Behavior," 2006 Meeting Papers 169, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Robert Collinson & John Eric Humphries & Nicholas Mader & Davin Reed & Daniel Tannenbaum & Winnie van Dijk, 2024. "Eviction and Poverty in American Cities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(1), pages 57-120.
    8. Hällsten, Martin, 2012. "Is it ever too late to study? The economic returns on late tertiary degrees in Sweden," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 179-194.
    9. Hans J. Baumgartner & Viktor Steiner, 2004. "Enrolment into Higher Education and Changes in Repayment Obligations of Student Aid – Microeconometric Evidence for Germany," HEW 0410003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Ellison, Richard B. & Ellison, Adrian B. & Greaves, Stephen P. & Sampaio, Breno, 2017. "Electronic ticketing systems as a mechanism for travel behaviour change? Evidence from Sydney’s Opal card," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 80-93.
    11. Tristan Le Cotty & Elodie Maître d'Hôtel & Julie Subervie, 2019. "Inventory credit to enhance food security in Africa," CIRED Working Papers hal-02018715, HAL.
    12. James X. Sullivan, 2018. "The Role of Nonprofits in Designing and Implementing Evidence-Based Programs," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 678(1), pages 155-163, July.
    13. Nolan, Anne, 2008. "Evaluating the impact of eligibility for free care on the use of general practitioner (GP) services: A difference-in-difference matching approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1164-1172, October.
    14. Lederman,Daniel & Olarreaga,Marcelo & Zavala,Lucas, 2015. "Export promotion and firm entry into and survival in export markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7400, The World Bank.
    15. Gautier, Pieter & van Vuuren, Aico & Siegmann, Arjen, 2007. "The Effect of the Theo van Gogh Murder on House Prices in Amsterdam," CEPR Discussion Papers 6175, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Dettmann, E. & Becker, C. & Schmeißer, C., 2011. "Distance functions for matching in small samples," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1942-1960, May.
    17. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain, 2015. "Analysis of the bias of Matching and Difference-in-Difference under alternative earnings and selection processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 185(1), pages 110-123.
    18. James J. Heckman, 1991. "Randomization and Social Policy Evaluation Revisited," NBER Technical Working Papers 0107, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Jeffrey Smith, 2000. "A Critical Survey of Empirical Methods for Evaluating Active Labor Market Policies," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 136(III), pages 247-268, September.
    20. John P. Weche Geluebcke, 2012. "Foreign and Domestic Takeovers in Germany: First Comparative Evidence on the Post-acquisition Target Performance using new Data," Working Paper Series in Economics 249, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:7:y:2014:i:4:p:95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.