Impact of soil salinity adaptation on yields and food security in Fimela, Senegal

This study analyses the impact of the adoption of the soil salinity adaptation strategy on groundnut and millet yields, as well as on household food security by estimating an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model using farm household data from Fimela, Senegal. Previous studies have not examined the nexus between the soil salinity adaptation strategy and its impact on farm performance and household food security. Findings from this study show that adoption of the soil salinity adaptation strategy (increasing use of inorganic and organic fertilizer or afforestation) is influenced by household productive assets, household size, and peer and surrounding community effects on the use of adaptation strategies. Adopting the soil salinity adaptation strategy resulted in farming households increasing their groundnut yield by 7.26%, millet yield by 6.03% and household food security of groundnut producers by 10.92%. Making productive assets easily available and affordable to farmers, and creating an enabling environment for community networks to thrive and function are viable policy instruments that could facilitate farmers' soil salinity adaptation and improve their welfare.