IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0326980.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial inclusion for sustainable agriculture: Pathways among smallholder women farmers in rural Zambia

Author

Listed:
  • Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso
  • Xianhui Geng
  • Salman Ibn Yasin

Abstract

Rural women constitute a substantial portion of the global agricultural workforce yet remain marginalized in access to credit, agricultural inputs, and information. This persistent exclusion not only constrains their productivity but also undermines efforts to build resilient and sustainable food systems. As climate variability increasingly threatens smallholder farming, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has gained prominence as a viable approach to enhance agricultural sustainability, productivity, and adaptation. However, adoption of CSA among smallholder women farmers remains patchy and elusive. In response, development actors have promoted village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) to enhance women’s access to financial services. Yet, whether—and through which mechanisms—women participation (WP) in VSLAs influences CSA adoption remains insufficiently understood. To address this knowledge gap, the study investigates the pathways through which WP in VSLAs influences CSA adoption, considering the mediating role of agricultural informatization (AgI). A cross-sectional, mixed-methods design was employed, using a multistage random sampling technique to survey 436 smallholder women farmers in rural Zambia. Quantitative data were collected through a pre-tested structured questionnaire, supplemented by qualitative data from key informant interviews. Mediation analysis, using the Sobel test and bias-corrected bootstrapping, was applied to estimate pathways, while propensity score matching (PSM) was used to check the robustness of results. Findings reveal that WP in VSLAs significantly boosts CSA adoption, with a total effect size of 47%. Notably, 66% of this effect is mediated through AgI, underscoring the critical role of digital tools in supporting agricultural processes and translating financial inclusion into sustainable farming outcomes. By advancing policy discourse on the intersection of financial inclusion, gender equality, and sustainable agriculture, this research provides valuable insights for informing inclusive agricultural policies and development programs aimed at shaping future interventions in global agricultural development.

Suggested Citation

  • Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso & Xianhui Geng & Salman Ibn Yasin, 2025. "Financial inclusion for sustainable agriculture: Pathways among smallholder women farmers in rural Zambia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(7), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0326980
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326980
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0326980
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0326980&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0326980?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2019. "Vietnam Agriculture Finance Diagnostic Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 33630, The World Bank Group.
    2. Hermanus Jacobus Smidt & Osden Jokonya, 2022. "Factors affecting digital technology adoption by small-scale farmers in agriculture value chains (AVCs) in South Africa," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 558-584, July.
    3. Tadesse, Getaw & Bahiigwa, Godfrey, 2015. "Mobile Phones and Farmers’ Marketing Decisions in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 296-307.
    4. World Bank, 2019. "Agriculture Finance Diagnostic," World Bank Publications - Reports 33400, The World Bank Group.
    5. Nkomoki, William & Bavorová, Miroslava & Banout, Jan, 2018. "Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and food security threats: Effects of land tenure in Zambia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 532-538.
    6. Barbara Sianesi, 2001. "Propensity score matching," United Kingdom Stata Users' Group Meetings 2001 12, Stata Users Group, revised 23 Aug 2001.
    7. George W. Norton & Jeffrey Alwang, 2020. "Changes in Agricultural Extension and Implications for Farmer Adoption of New Practices," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 8-20, March.
    8. Jeetendra Prakash Aryal & Cathy R. Farnworth & Ritika Khurana & Srabashi Ray & Tek B. Sapkota & Dil Bahadur Rahut, 2020. "Does women’s participation in agricultural technology adoption decisions affect the adoption of climate‐smart agriculture? Insights from Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 973-990, August.
    9. Doss, Cheryl R. & Qaisrani, Ayesha & Kosec, Katrina & Slavchevska, Vanya & Galiè, Alessandra & Kawarazuka, Nozomi, 2021. "From the "feminization of agriculture" to gender equality," IFPRI book chapters, in: Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: Past, present, and future, chapter 8, pages 299-328, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Abate, Gashaw Tadesse & Rashid, Shahidur & Borzaga, Carlo & Getnet, Kindie, 2016. "Rural Finance and Agricultural Technology Adoption in Ethiopia: Does the Institutional Design of Lending Organizations Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 235-253.
    11. Jenny C. Aker & Ishita Ghosh & Jenna Burrell, 2016. "The promise (and pitfalls) of ICT for agriculture initiatives," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(S1), pages 35-48, November.
    12. Hambulo Ngoma & Henry Machina & Auckland N. Kuteya, 2021. "Can agricultural subsidies reduce gendered productivity gaps? Panel data evidence from Zambia," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(2), pages 303-323, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso & Shangao Wang & Xianhui Geng & Shadrack Kipkogei, 2025. "Bridging credit gaps for sustainable agriculture: The role of rural savings and credit cooperatives among smallholder farmers," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 71(5), pages 254-272.
    2. Ajai Nair & Barry Maher & Qhelile Ndlovu & Andrea Stoppa & Chris Hoveka, 2024. "Namibia Agriculture Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Diagnostic," World Bank Publications - Reports 41086, The World Bank Group.
    3. Fang, Lan & Quan, Yurong & Mao, Hui & Chen, Shaojian, 2022. "The Information Communication Technology and Off-farm Employment of Rural Laborers: An Analysis Based on the Micro Data of China Family Panel Studies," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 322088, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Oparinde, Lawrence Olusola, 2023. "ICTs Use, Agroforestry Technologies’ Adoption and Crop Farmers’ Welfare: An Empirical Evidence from Southwest, Nigeria," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 15(4), December.
    5. Muratbek Baglan & Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso & Xue Zhou & Xianhui Geng, 2020. "Towards Cleaner Production: Certified Seed Adoption and Its Effect on Technical Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Mwalupaso, Gershom Endelani & Eshetie, Aseres Mamo & Matafwali, Eunice & Akter, Asma & Lu, Hua & Geng, Xianhui, 2025. "Rethinking household food security under a changing climate in drought prone areas of Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Abebayehu Girma Geffersa, 2024. "Does cooperative membership enhance inorganic fertilizer use intensity? Panel data evidence from maize farmers in Ethiopia," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 327-361, June.
    8. Lin Tang & Xiaofeng Luo & Yanzhong Huang & Sanxia Du & Aqian Yan, 2023. "Can smartphone use increase farmers’ willingness to participate in the centralized treatment of rural domestic sewage? Evidence from rural China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 3379-3403, April.
    9. Min, Shi & Liu, Min & Huang, Jikun, 2020. "Does the application of ICTs facilitate rural economic transformation in China? Empirical evidence from the use of smartphones among farmers," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Qianqian Chen & Chao Zhang & Ruifa Hu & Shengyang Sun, 2022. "Can Information from the Internet Improve Grain Technical Efficiency? New Evidence from Rice Production in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, December.
    11. Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso & Shangao Wang & Sanzidur Rahman & Essiagnon John-Philippe Alavo & Xu Tian, 2019. "Agricultural Informatization and Technical Efficiency in Maize Production in Zambia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Ullah, Ayat & Arshad, Muhammad & Kächele, Harald & Zeb, Alam & Mahmood, Nasir & Müller, Klaus, 2020. "Socio-economic analysis of farmers facing asymmetric information in inputs markets: evidence from the rainfed zone of Pakistan," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Abate, Gashaw T. & Abay, Kibrom A. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Kassim, Yumna & Spielman, David J. & Paul Jr Tabe-Ojong, Martin, 2023. "Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    14. Yi Cai & Wene Qi & Famin Yi, 2023. "Smartphone use and willingness to adopt digital pest and disease management: Evidence from litchi growers in rural China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 131-147, January.
    15. Kahsay, Goytom Abraha & Garcia, Nerea Turreira & Bosselmann, Aske Skovmand, 2023. "Mobile Internet Use and Climate Adaptation: Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese Coffee Farmers," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 48(3), September.
    16. Yangqi Fu & Yuchun Zhu, 2023. "Internet use and technical efficiency of grain production in China: a bias-corrected stochastic frontier model," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Lin Xie & Biliang Luo & Wenjing Zhong, 2021. "How Are Smallholder Farmers Involved in Digital Agriculture in Developing Countries: A Case Study from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    18. Andrea Pufahl & Christoph R. Weiss, 2009. "Evaluating the effects of farm programmes: results from propensity score matching," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 36(1), pages 79-101, March.
    19. Junyan Tian, 2025. "Vulnerability to Adverse Climate Change: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(4), pages 765-791, August.
    20. Olivier Dagnelie & Philippe Lemay‐Boucher, 2012. "Rosca Participation in Benin: A Commitment Issue," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(2), pages 235-252, April.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0326980. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.