IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jsd123/v8y2015i1p69.html

Abandonment of Conservation Agriculture by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Tarisayi Pedzisa
  • Lovemore Rugube
  • Alex Winter-Nelson
  • Kathy Baylis
  • Kizito Mazvimavi

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of abandonment of conservation agriculture (CA) techniques among smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The analysis uses four rounds of a balanced panel from a survey aimed at monitoring CA adoption among farmers who participated in CA promotion projects. Findings indicate that a large share of farmers who had adopted CA during the period of active promotion eventually abandoned the practice in the absence of support from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Households with more farming experience, bigger household sizes and a greater number of cultivated plots were less likely to stop using CA. In turn, wealthy households and farmers in the drier areas were more likely to stop using CA. The finding that persistent adoption is more prevalent among the poor, supports claims that CA is a pro-poor technology. Lastly, we find a strong, negative and robust relationship between continued NGO support and abandonment of CA. This finding suggests that improved support institutions are necessary to ensure that farmers continue to use CA as a productivity-boosting and sustainable farming method.

Suggested Citation

  • Tarisayi Pedzisa & Lovemore Rugube & Alex Winter-Nelson & Kathy Baylis & Kizito Mazvimavi, 2015. "Abandonment of Conservation Agriculture by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(1), pages 1-69, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:8:y:2015:i:1:p:69
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/41600/24223
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/41600
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bekele, Wagayehu & Drake, Lars, 2003. "Soil and water conservation decision behavior of subsistence farmers in the Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia: a case study of the Hunde-Lafto area," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-451, October.
    2. Marenya, Paswel P. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2007. "Household-level determinants of adoption of improved natural resources management practices among smallholder farmers in western Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 515-536, August.
    3. Barham, Bradford L. & Jackson-Smith, Douglas & Moon, Sunung, 2002. "The Dynamics Of Agricultural Biotechnology Adoption: Lessons From Rbst Use In Wisconsin, 1994-2001," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19627, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Neill, Sean P & Lee, David R, 2001. "Explaining the Adoption and Disadoption of Sustainable Agriculture: The Case of Cover Crops in Northern Honduras," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(4), pages 793-820, July.
    5. Mazvimavi, Kizito & Twomlow, Steve, 2009. "Socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing adoption of conservation farming by vulnerable households in Zimbabwe," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 101(1-2), pages 20-29, June.
    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. Makate, Clifton & Hanyani-Mlambo, Benjamine, 2025. "Conservation Agriculture and sustainability of smallholder farms in Zimbabwe: Insights from a nationwide survey," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    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. Kassie, Menale & Jaleta, Moti & Shiferaw, Bekele A. & Mmbando, Frank & Mekuria, Mulugetta, 2012. "Interdependence in Farmer Technology Adoption Decisions in Smallholder Systems: Joint Estimation of Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Rural Tanzania," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126791, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Daniele Mozzato & Paola Gatto & Edi Defrancesco & Lucia Bortolini & Francesco Pirotti & Elena Pisani & Luigi Sartori, 2018. "The Role of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices: Can Geographical Context and Time Explain the Differences Emerging from Literature?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, August.
    3. Hassen, Sied, 2018. "The effect of farmyard manure on the continued and discontinued use of inorganic fertilizer in Ethiopia: An ordered probit analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 523-532.
    4. Meike Wollni & David R. Lee & Janice E. Thies, 2010. "Conservation agriculture, organic marketing, and collective action in the Honduran hillsides," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(3‐4), pages 373-384, May.
    5. Kassie, Menale & Jaleta, Moti & Shiferaw, Bekele & Mmbando, Frank & Muricho, Geoffrey, 2012. "Plot and Household-Level Determinants of Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Rural Tanzania," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-02-efd, Resources for the Future.
    6. Giuseppe Maggio & Marina Mastrorillo & Nicholas J. Sitko, 2022. "Adapting to High Temperatures: Effect of Farm Practices and Their Adoption Duration on Total Value of Crop Production in Uganda," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 385-403, January.
    7. Alice Turinawe & Lars Drake & Johnny Mugisha, 2015. "Adoption intensity of soil and water conservation technologies: a case of South Western Uganda," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 711-730, August.
    8. Mbudzya, Joseph Jabu, 2017. "Effect Of Agricultural Land Rental Market Participation On Agricultural Income Of Small Scale Farmers In Kwale County, Kenya," Research Theses 276436, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    9. Aslihan Arslan & Kristin Floress & Christine Lamanna & Leslie Lipper & Solomon Asfaw & Todd Rosenstock, "undated". "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 63 - The adoption of improved agricultural technologies - A meta-analysis for Africa," IFAD Research Series 304758, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    10. Hailemariam Teklewold & Menale Kassie & Bekele Shiferaw, 2013. "Adoption of Multiple Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Rural Ethiopia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 597-623, September.
    11. Kassie, Menale & Jaleta, Moti & Shiferaw, Bekele & Mmbando, Frank & Mekuria, Mulugetta, 2013. "Adoption of interrelated sustainable agricultural practices in smallholder systems: Evidence from rural Tanzania," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 525-540.
    12. Clifton Makate & Marshall Makate & Nelson Mango, 2019. "Wealth-related inequalities in adoption of drought-tolerant maize and conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(4), pages 881-896, August.
    13. Defrancesco, Edi & Gatto, Paola & Mozzato, Daniele, 2018. "To leave or not to leave? Understanding determinants of farmers’ choices to remain in or abandon agri-environmental schemes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 460-470.
    14. Murendo, Conrad & Gwara, Simon & Mpofu, Nkululeko & Pedzisa, Tarisayi & Mazvimavi, Kizito & Chivenge, Pauline, 2016. "The adoption of a portfolio of sustainable agricultural practices by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246383, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    15. Hailemariam Teklewold & Alemu Mekonnen & Gunnar Kohlin & Salvatore Di Falco, 2017. "Does Adoption Of Multiple Climate-Smart Practices Improve Farmers’ Climate Resilience? Empirical Evidence From The Nile Basin Of Ethiopia," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(01), pages 1-30, February.
    16. Qingfeng Han & Kadambot H. M. Siddique & Fengmin Li, 2018. "Adoption of Conservation Tillage on the Semi-Arid Loess Plateau of Northwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, July.
    17. Wollni, Meike & Lee, David R. & Thies, Janice E., 2008. "Effects of participation in organic markets and farmer-based organizations on adoption of soil conservation practices among small-scale farmers in Honduras," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6423, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Kelly J. Wendland & Erin O. Sills, 2008. "Dissemination of food crops with nutritional benefits: Adoption and disadoption of soybeans in Togo and Benin," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(1), pages 39-52, February.
    19. Thi Quynh Anh Le & Yasuharu Shimamura & Hiroyuki Yamada & Minh Duc Le, 2025. "Gender, social networks, and the use of organic fertilizers toward sustainable agriculture in suburban villages of Central Vietnam," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 1401-1416, February.
    20. Teklewold, Hailemariam & Mekonnen, Alemu, 2017. "The Tilling of Land in a Changing Climate: Panel Data Evidence from the Nile Basin of Ethiopia," EfD Discussion Paper 17-3, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.

    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:8:y:2015:i:1:p:69. 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.