Early adoption of conservation agriculture practices: Understanding partial compliance in programs with multiple adoption decisions
Early adoption of conservation agriculture practices: Understanding partial compliance in programs with multiple adoption decisions
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DOI：
10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.10.001
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
7.1
通讯作者：
Patrick S. Ward;A. Bell;K. Droppelmann;T. Benton
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Patrick S. Ward;A. Bell;K. Droppelmann;T. Benton
土地退化和土壤侵蚀已成为整个南部非洲小农面临的严重挑战。为了应对这些挑战，保护性农业（CA）——一套由免耕、覆盖作物残茬和豆科作物间作组成的农业实践——作为一套“可持续”农业实践得到了广泛推广。尽管CA有许多潜在的好处，但是采用率仍然很低。然而，对于选择采用CA或其任何组成实践的决策过程所知相对较少。本文试图通过研究马拉维南部CA的采用来填补这一重要的知识空白。与引入这些实践包时隐含的假设不同，农民将CA的采用视为一系列独立的决策，而不是单一的决策。但收养决定并不需要完全独立。我们发现了相互关联的决策的有力证据，特别是在覆盖作物残茬和实行零耕作之间，这表明覆盖作物残茬和间作或轮作豆科作物对采用零耕作产生了乘数效应。
Land degradation and soil erosion have emerged as serious challenges to smallholder farmers throughout Southern Africa. To combat these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) – a suite of agricultural practices consisting of zero tillage, mulching of crop residues, and intercropping with legumes – is widely promoted as a “sustainable” package of agricultural practices. Despite the many potential benefits of CA, however, adoption remains low. Yet relatively little is known about the decisionmaking process in choosing to adopt CA or any of its constituent practices. This article attempts to fill this important knowledge gap by studying CA adoption in southern Malawi. Unlike what is implicitly assumed when these packages of practices are introduced, farmers view adoption of CA as a series of separate decisions, rather than a single decision. But the adoption decisions need not be wholly independent. We find strong evidence of interrelated decisions, particularly among mulching crop residues and practicing zero tillage, suggesting that mulching residues and intercropping or rotating with legumes introduces a multiplier effect on the adoption of zero tillage.