IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mth/ijrd88/v3y2016i2p1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Influencing Smallholder Crop Diversification: A Case Study of Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces in Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Lighton Dube

Abstract

This study analyzes the degree of crop diversification and factors associated with crop diversification among 479 smallholder farmers in Manicaland and Masvingo provinces of Zimbabwe. The Herfindahl index used to estimate diversification, while the Tobit model evaluated factors associated with crop diversification. The mean crop diversity index is 0.54. On average households in Nyanga and Bikita are the most diversified with indices of 0.48 and 0.49 respectively. The most specialized households are in Mutasa and Chiredzi with indices of 0.62. An analysis by gender shows that male headed households are slightly more diversified than female headed households. The Tobit model indicates that gender of head of household, education, number of livestock units, access to irrigation, membership to a farmers group, access to markets, farming experience, farms on flat terrain, farmer to farm extension, routine extension, agro-ecological zone and household income are significant contributors to increasing crop diversification. In turn, crop specialization is significantly associated with off-farm employment, soil fertility, farmers who are happy with extension contacts per year, farmers trained using the farmer field school approach and farmers who receive NGO extension support.

Suggested Citation

  • Lighton Dube, 2016. "Factors Influencing Smallholder Crop Diversification: A Case Study of Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces in Zimbabwe," International Journal of Regional Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(2), pages 1-1, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:mth:ijrd88:v:3:y:2016:i:2:p:1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/ijrd/article/download/9194/7701
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/ijrd/article/view/9194
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shujie Yao, 1997. "Comparative Advantages And Crop Diversification: A Policy Analysis Matrix For Thai Agriculture," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1‐3), pages 211-222, January.
    2. Timothy G. Conley & Christopher R. Udry, 2010. "Learning about a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 35-69, March.
    3. Ghimire, Raju & Huang, Wen-Chi & Shrestha, Rudra Bahadur, 2014. "Factors Affecting Nonfarm Income Diversification among Rural Farm Households in Central Nepal," International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development (IJAMAD), Iranian Association of Agricultural Economics, vol. 4(2), April.
    4. Benin, S. & Smale, M. & Pender, J. & Gebremedhin, B. & Ehui, S., 2004. "The economic determinants of cereal crop diversity on farms in the Ethiopian highlands," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 197-208, December.
    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. Chinmaya Ranjan Kumar & Chittaranjan Nayak & Ashis Kumar Pradhan, 2024. "Status and determinants of crop diversification: evidence from Indian States," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 1-18, December.

    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. Lawin, Kotchikpa G. & Tamini, Lota D., 2017. "Risk preferences and crop diversification amongst smallholder farmers in Burkina Faso," Annual Meeting, 2017, June 18-21, Montreal, Canada 258058, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.
    2. Tesfaye, Wondimagegn & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2020. "Crop diversity, household welfare and consumption smoothing under risk: Evidence from rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Jinhua Xie & Gangqiao Yang & Ge Wang & Shuoyan He, 2024. "How does social capital affect farmers’ environment-friendly technology adoption behavior? A case study in Hubei Province, China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 18361-18384, July.
    4. Bonatti, Alessandro & Hörner, Johannes, 2017. "Learning to disagree in a game of experimentation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 234-269.
    5. Alex Hollingsworth & Krzysztof Karbownik & Melissa A. Thomasson & Anthony Wray, 2024. "The Gift of a Lifetime: The Hospital, Modern Medicine, and Mortality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(7), pages 2201-2238, July.
    6. Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew & Gerber, Nicolas & Matz, Julia Anna, 2018. "Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 321-335.
    7. Stark, Oded & Jakubek, Marcin, 2011. "Is population growth conducive to the sustainability of cooperation?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 443-451.
    8. Feng, Yao, 2011. "Local spillovers and learning from neighbors: Evidence from durable adoptions in rural China," MPRA Paper 33924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. 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.
    10. Leavens, Laura & Bauchet, Jonathan & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2021. "After the project is over: Measuring longer-term impacts of a food safety intervention in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    11. Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2023. "When reality bites: Local deaths and vaccine take-up," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    12. Cossar, Frances, 2016. "Boserupian pressure and agricultural mechanization in modern Ghana," IFPRI discussion papers 1528, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Fishman, Arthur & Fishman, Ram & Gneezy, Uri, 2019. "A tale of two food stands: Observational learning in the field," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 101-108.
    14. Michael J. Andrews, 2020. "Local Effects of Land Grant Colleges on Agricultural Innovation and Output," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Research and Innovation in Agriculture, pages 139-175, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Ogada, Maurice Juma, 2012. "Forest Management Decentralization in Kenya: Effects on Household Farm Forestry Decisions in Kakamega," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126319, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Machikita, Tomohiro, 2006. "Are Job Networks Localized in a Developing Economy? Search Methods for Displaced Workers in Thailand," IDE Discussion Papers 84, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    17. Chen, Shuo & Lan, Xiaohuan, 2020. "Tractor vs. animal: Rural reforms and technology adoption in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    18. Muscillo, Alessio & Pin, Paolo & Razzolini, Tiziano & Serti, Francesco, 2018. "Does "Network Closure" Beef up Import Premium?," IZA Discussion Papers 12036, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Liu, Xiaodong & Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves & Lee, Lung-Fei, 2011. "Criminal Networks: Who is the Key Player?," Research Papers in Economics 2011:7, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    20. Terrance Hurley & Jawoo Koo & Kindie Tesfaye, 2018. "Weather risk: how does it change the yield benefits of nitrogen fertilizer and improved maize varieties in sub‐Saharan Africa?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 711-723, November.

    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:mth:ijrd88:v:3:y:2016:i:2:p:1. 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: Technical Support Office The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Technical Support Office to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/ijrd .

    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.