Factors affecting the choice of conservation agriculture practices adopted by smallholder cotton farmers in Zimbabwe

Conservation agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted in Zimbabwe as an antidote to non-viable agricultural production and continual land degradation. However, the adoption process had been quite slow and has not yet entered into the exponential uptake phase. This study aimed at identifying factors...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Mavunganidze, Z., Madakadze, I.C., Mutenje, M., Nyamangara, J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:México
Institución:Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional de Publicaciones Multimedia del CIMMYT
OAI Identifier:oai:repository.cimmyt.org:10883/21439
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10883/21439
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
Cluster Analysis
Non Adoption
Strategic Intervention
Multinomial Logit
CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE
SURVEYS
DATA COLLECTION
LOGIT ANALYSIS
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
Descripción
Sumario:Conservation agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted in Zimbabwe as an antidote to non-viable agricultural production and continual land degradation. However, the adoption process had been quite slow and has not yet entered into the exponential uptake phase. This study aimed at identifying factors that influence the level of adoption of CA components. A cluster analysis from results of a household survey administered to 146 households in Muzvezve II, Kadoma District, Zimbabwe identified five dominant CA strategies (clusters) practiced by cotton growing farmers. A multinomial logit model revealed that the choice of CA components adopted is positively influenced by farmer?s age, formal education, access to extension services, labour, animal draught power availability and land size. The empirical results suggests that, to promote adoption of a complete package of CA policies that increase access to formal education and extension of CA should make strategic intervention through innovative methods of farmer to farmer extension services. Promotion of longer-term and effective CA can only be accomplished through targeting young educated farmers. It is of paramount importance as well to address the main factors leading to non-adoption and slow adoption such as labour and animal draught power availability.