The impact of climate smart agriculture on household welfare in smallholder integrated crop–livestock farming systems: evidence from Zimbabwe

Abstract

Background Agriculture contributes significantly to the welfare of smallholder farmers, but it has become highly susceptible to climate change, due to its reliance on the increasingly erratic rainfall patterns. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) offers important opportunities for enhancing food security and incomes through increased agriculture productivity. Technology evaluation through impact studies provides information on the effect of CSA on farmer welfare, thereby highlighting its potential in optimizing agriculture productivity. This paper analyses the impact of CSA adoption on food security and income of households, using cross-sectional survey data collected from 386 households across four districts in Zimbabwe. The analysis was done using the endogenous switching regression model which controls for selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity, a commonly used method in adoption impact analysis. Results The study found several agricultural and socio-economic factors which affect adoption and food security. The econometric results show that the status of soil fertility in fields, distance to input and output markets, ownership of communication assets, and Total Livestock Units (TLU) have a significant impact on the decision of farmers to adopt CSA. The Average Treatment Effects on the Treated (ATT) and Average Treatment Effects on the Untreated (ATU) were found to be positive and significant for adopters and non-adopters, indicating that CSA adoption has had a significantly positive impact on the welfare of the farmers. An analysis of the outcomes revealed that the characteristics of farmers and farms, as well as market factors, significantly affect the welfare of households. The household income, with reference to the adoption of CSA, was significantly affected by factors such as the education of household head, labour size, TLU, and asset index. Food security was influenced by factors such as the education of household head, TLU, access to sanitation, and arable land size. Conclusions The study concludes by giving policy recommendations centred on the access to inputs, sanitation, and encouraging investing in assets and TLU. The findings indicate that the adoption of CSA has a positive impact on the welfare of farmers. To exploit the full potential of these technologies, the study suggests that access to timely weather forecasts must be ensured, that sanitation must be promoted, and that incentives must be provided for agricultural input agro-dealers to decentralize to rural areas.

Climate Change Perception and Uptake of Climate-Smart Agriculture in Rice Production in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

“…which undoubtedly could assist in rice production and in responding to the changing climate in the area. This is also related to the findings of Abegunde et al [40] and Mujeyi et al [41]. The majority (65%) of the farmers were males.…”

Rethinking Blended High Yielding Seed Varieties and Partial-Organic Fertilizer Climate Smart Agriculture Practices for Productivity and Farm Income Gains in the Drylands of Zimbabwe

“…The findings, as highlighted in Table 4 show that, the adoption of blended improved sorghum seed and partialorganic fertilizer CSA technology has a significant effect on both the productivity and household income of the adopting households. This result concurs with other studies, which also reported the gains from adoption of the different dimensions of CSA adoption (Musara and Musemwa, 2020;Mujeyi et al, 2021). As reported by Ghimire and Huang (2015) in Nepal, farmers who adopted improved maize varieties generated household wealth as opposed to the non-adopting counterparts.…”

“…As reported by Ghimire and Huang (2015) in Nepal, farmers who adopted improved maize varieties generated household wealth as opposed to the non-adopting counterparts. A study by Mujeyi et al (2021) on the impact of CSA on household welfare in smallholder integrated crop-livestock farming systems also confirmed a robust relationship between food security, income and CSA adoption. It therefore shows that, the CSA interventions implemented in the smallholder farming societies have the potential to support gains among the adopting households in various dimensions including productivity and income.…”

“…This has induced lower than expected adoption with on average 30% of farmers taking up the technology against a target of above 80% (Shiferaw et al, 2013). On one hand, smallholder farmers cultivate the crops on small pieces of unproductive land averaging 0.15 hectares against an expected benchmark of 0.3 hectares, while also using low yielding varieties and recycled seed (Khonje et al, 2015;Mujeyi et al, 2021). On the other end, sorghum processors and consumers are not willing to pay competitive market prices and pay on average 11.3% below the breakeven price for the produce, thus further reducing the utility and subsequent adoption (Makindara et al, 2013).…”

“…There is evidence that, in southern Africa, there is a pattern where smallholder farmers are adopting a package of technologies as opposed to singular adoption which dominated during the early 1990s (Mujeyi et al, 2021;Ahmed, 2022;Baiyegunhi et al, 2022). The study seeks to contribute to this discussion by focusing on the blended high yielding seed varieties and partial-organic fertilizer 1 package that has been designed by smallholder farmers in the mid-Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe in response to the call for CSA.…”