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Constraints to adopting soil fertility management practices in Malawi: a choice experiment approach

dc.contributor.authorKrah, Kwabena
dc.contributor.authorMichelson, Hope
dc.contributor.authorPerge, Emilie
dc.contributor.authorJindal, Rohit
dc.date.accessioned2020-10-15
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-31T01:15:50Z
dc.date.available2022-05-31T01:15:50Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractThough problems related to low and declining soil fertility continue to impede agricultural production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers in this region – those cultivating two hectares or less – have shown reluctance to adopt practices at scale that help conserve or enhance soil quality. Employing a discrete choice-based experiment, we find evidence that farmers’ propensity to adopt soil fertility management (SFM) practices increases with improved access to mineral fertilizers, and when farmers receive relevant technical training on soil fertility improving technologies. A unique aspect of our study is our focus on understanding how smallholders’ stated SFM preferences relate to their perceptions of recent local climatic variation. We find that farmers who perceive that rainfall amounts are decreasing are less willing to adopt crop rotations to improve soils. Our findings suggest that policies designed to increase adoption of SFM practices are more likely to succeed when they provide farmers with inputs that farmers perceive as complementary to SFM, including mineral fertilizer, and when they are built around an understanding of farmers’ perceptions of climatic variability.
dc.description.urihttps://library.macewan.ca/full-record/edselp/S0305750X19302992
dc.identifier.citationKrah, K., Michelson, H., Perge, E. & R. Jindal (2019). Constraints to adopting soil fertility management practices in Malawi: A choice experiment approach. World Development, Volume 124, 2019, 104651.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104651
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/1920
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved
dc.subjectSub-Saharan Africa
dc.subjectMalawi
dc.subjectsoil fertility
dc.subjectchoice experiment
dc.subjectfarmer perceptions
dc.subjectclimatic variability
dc.titleConstraints to adopting soil fertility management practices in Malawi: a choice experiment approachen
dc.typeArticle

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