Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Practices and their Welfare Impacts: Comparative Evidence from Malawi, Uganda and Ethiopia

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May 14, 2024 - Anderson Gondwe, Lemekezani K. Chilora, Dinah Salonga, Aleksandr Michuda and Kristin Davis

ABSTRACT

Sustainable intensification practices are popular interventions for enhancing soil fertility and crop yield, and eventually improving household income and food security. Using the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture panel data from Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda, we conduct a multi-country comparative analysis of the adoption of sustainable intensification practices and their impacts on food and nutritional security. While most studies use the sex of the household head to define gender, we base our gender variable on decision-making: male, female, and joint households' decision-making at a farm level. We use multinomial logit, multinomial endogenous switching regression and multinomial endogenous treatment effects models to account for selection bias and endogeneity originating from both observed and unobserved heterogeneity. Our analysis shows that adoption of sustainable intensification practices is impacted household size, wealth, livestock ownership, agroecological zones, and gender decision-making at a farm level. Our econometric analysis reveals that the relationship between the adoption of sustainable intensification practices and households' food and nutritional security varies by country, confirming the importance of considering country-specific contexts and practices when designing agricultural interventions. Policymakers should consider promoting the adoption of sustainable intensification practices as they have shown to have a positive impact on food and nutritional security. Sustainable intensification practices s, along with training programs for farmers, are crucial for enhancing knowledge and resource availability to implement sustainable intensification practices and improve food and nutrition security effectively. There is a need to increase investments in agricultural research, extension services, and climate-smart agriculture.

 

Keywords

 Sustainable intensification practices, welfare, multinomial logit, multinomial endogenous switching regression and multinomial endogenous treatment effects

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