The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN ... more The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with governments, businesses and civil society, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people, especially the most vulnerable.
guidance and support during the course of my PhD studies. I could not have imagined having better... more guidance and support during the course of my PhD studies. I could not have imagined having better advisors and mentors for my PhD studies. I would also like to thank Dr. Dale Manning and Dr. Kathleen Galvin for serving as members of my dissertation committee. I am truly appreciative of their insightful comments, feedback and all the tough questions, which helped me to widen my research perspective and get results of better quality. I would also like to thank members of staff in the department of agricultural and resource economics (DARE), particularly Denise Davis, Donna Sosna and Perry Todd, who were crucial to the logistics of this research, and for helping me with traveling issues throughout this project. I sincerely appreciate all their efforts. I would also like to thank my fellow graduate students for sharing ideas, their feedback, and of course friendship. I am sincerely grateful to the Fulbright scholarship for funding the first two years of my graduate school. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for helping fund my fieldwork. I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Peter Thorne, Dr. Kindu Mekonnen, Dr. Girma Tesfahun and the entire Africa RISING staff for the logistical support and helping with data collection activities in Ethiopia. I also had the privilege of receiving the Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (Borlaug LEAP), which helped fund my research activities in Ethiopia as well as providing mentorship throughout my research.
as soon as possible after acceptance. Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof... more as soon as possible after acceptance. Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof will be undertaken on this manuscript before final publication of the Version of Record (VoR). Please note that during production and pre-press, errors may be discovered which could affect the content.
This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in E... more This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We examine the internal consistency of jointly achieving “sustainable” “intensification” by exploring the factors that lead to complementarity or tradeoffs in the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of farms was examined in multiple regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. The results show that some farmers can achieve both sustainability and intensification, while many do not, or cannot achieve both at the same time. We found that some actions have a common impact on both sustainability and intensification, while other factors only affect one outcome. Access to agricultural loans and farm mechanization significantly increases the likelihood of succeeding in sustainable intensification. Access to land will be critical for agricultural sustainability while access to farming information and technical services will drive agricultural intensification. Overall, opportunities to improve both s...
Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide.... more Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide. Yet, despite growing concern about the environmental and social impacts of increased agricultural productivity, no consensus exists on the appropriate method for assessing the appropriate tradeoffs for sustainability. To address this need, this paper proposes the use of Data Envelope Analysis to create an index that permits assessment of the relative sustainability of smallholder farms in a given region, with minimal external interpretation about how individual farmers weight tradeoffs on their own farms. The method is applied to the Ethiopian highlands to explore the determinants of economic, social and environmental sustainability in the region's agricultural sector. Econometric model results suggest that farmers felt that farm size, market access, access to off farm income, agricultural loans, and access to agricultural extension and demonstration plots are key drivers of agricultural sustainability at the farm-level. Differences in agro-ecological conditions and region-specific factors were also significant determinants of relative farm sustainability. This underscores the importance of geographical targeting and tailoring of interventions to increase farm sustainability.
The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) awakened the world to the critical need for food systems ... more The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) awakened the world to the critical need for food systems transformation. Several commitments were made during the summit, with the UN Secretary-General reiterating the need to support national mechanisms that develop and implement national pathways to 2030 that are inclusive and consistent with countries’ climate commitments, building upon the national food systems dialogues. Much of the discussion in the post-summit era has mostly been high level and focused on how countries can be supported to transform pathways into strategies and to design and operationalise investment plans aimed at fostering sustainable and inclusive food systems transformation. However, what has been missing in these discussions is what the envisaged transformation means for the smallholder farmer, and what it takes for smallholder farmers to embrace the transformative agenda and transition to more sustainable methods of production. In this article, reference is made to...
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 2020
Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers' resource endowme... more Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers' resource endowments, levels of technology use, degree of market access and agro-ecological factors. Consequently, the prospects of achieving sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems need to be examined vis-à-vis the dominant farmer typologies, so as to help craft effective and tailored interventions. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology to establish farm typologies prevalent within the smallholder farming systems and infer their implications for the drive to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture. A cross-sectional survey was carried out, covering 600 households in four regions of Ethiopia's Highlands. Multivariate statistical techniques of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used to group farmers into four distinct clusters. The study then compared relative levels of agricultural intensification and sustainability across the different typology clusters. The study found that households who are more commercially oriented and have larger landholdings, higher levels of productive assets and livestock ownership, exhibit higher levels of both agricultural intensification and relative sustainability. The study concludes that the farm typology approach has important policy application as it helps identify the set of socioeconomic characteristics of farmers that influence their propensity to achieve sustainable intensification.
The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to affect agri-food systems around the world and lay bare its... more The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to affect agri-food systems around the world and lay bare its fragility, worsening the welfare of millions of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods are anchored on agricultural activities. For the vast majority of sub-Saharan Africa, COVID-19 has coincided with a number of other macroeconomic shocks, which have also exacerbated the impacts of the pandemic on food security, nutrition and general livelihoods, as well curtailed policy responses and mitigation strategies. In Zimbabwe, the COVID-19 pandemic struck at a time the country was experiencing a worsening economic and humanitarian situation. This study focused more on community and household dynamics and response measures to cope with the pandemic. This paper presents a summary of findings emerging from a series of rapid assessment studies undertaken by the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) Programme in Mvurwi and Concession areas of Mazowe District in Zimbabwe to examine how COVID...
In response to COVID-19, the Government of Zimbabwe enforced a nationwide lockdown on 30 March 20... more In response to COVID-19, the Government of Zimbabwe enforced a nationwide lockdown on 30 March 2020, closing most sectors of the economy, including informal markets. However, with limited cases, lockdown movement restrictions were eased and supermarkets, restaurants and vegetable markets allowed to reopen. Between 3-13 October 2020, a second-round (R2) of surveys was conducted, targeting farming communities in Mvurwi and Concession Areas of Mazowe District, to assess COVID-19 impacts on food production systems, supply chains and general livelihoods. This report summarises insights obtained from the phone-based survey, covering 102 respondents (20 female and 82 male-headed households), and 5 local key informants (councillors and extension officers). Results are compared to the earlier R1 survey carried out in late June/early July.
Model A1 of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe was intended to decongest co... more Model A1 of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe was intended to decongest communal areas and targeted land-constrained farmers in communal areas. The average landholding in these schemes is about 37 hectares. 2 An index of wealth was computed using principal components analysis (PCA) on variables capturing household asset ownership, housing characteristics, as well as access to utilities and infrastructure such as water sources and sanitation facilities, to create an index of household wealth (Vyas and Kumaranayake 2006; Filmer and Pritchett 2001). ENDNOTES Agricultu ral Policy R esea rch in A frica (APRA) is a new, Þ ve-year, R esea rch Programme Consortium funded b y UK aid f rom the UK G overnment thr ough the Department for In ternational D evelopment (DFI D) and will run fr om 2016-2021. The programme is based at the Institut e of D evelopment Studies (IDS), UK (www.ids.ac.uk), with r egional hubs at the Cent re for frican Bio-Entr epreneurship (CABE), K enya, the Institut e for Po verty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), South A frica, and th e University of Ghana, Legon. It builds on mo re than a decade of r esearch and policy engagement work by the Futu re Agricultures Consortium (www.future-agricultu res.org
COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected lives and livelihoods across the globe. In Zimbabwe, preliminar... more COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected lives and livelihoods across the globe. In Zimbabwe, preliminary indications point to a worsening economic situation in a country already facing macroeconomic challenges, particularly in rural communities where most households depend on agriculture. National lockdown and movement restrictions have affected agricultural activities as well as access to markets and farming inputs.
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development , 2020
Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers’ resource endowme... more Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers’ resource endowments, levels of technology use, degree of market access and agro-ecological factors. Consequently, the prospects of achieving sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems need to be examined vis-à-vis the dominant farmer typologies, so as to help craft effective and tailored interventions. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology to establish farm typologies prevalent within the smallholder farming systems and infer their implications for the drive to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture. A cross-sectional survey was carried out, covering 600 households in four regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. Multivariate statistical techniques of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used to group farmers into four distinct clusters. The study then compared relative levels of agricultural intensification and sustainability across the different typology clusters. The study found that households who are more commercially oriented and have larger landholdings, higher levels of productive assets and livestock ownership, exhibit higher levels of both agricultural intensification and relative sustainability. The study concludes that the farm typology approach has important policy application as it helps identify the set of socioeconomic characteristics of farmers that influence their propensity to achieve sustainable intensification.
Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide.... more Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide. Yet, despite growing concern about the environmental and social impacts of increased agricultural productivity, no consensus exists on the appropriate method for assessing the appropriate tradeoffs for sustainability. To address this need, this paper proposes the use of Data Envelope Analysis to create an index that permits assessment of the relative sustainability of smallholder farms in a given region, with minimal external interpretation about how individual farmers weight tradeoffs on their own farms. The method is applied to the Ethiopian highlands to explore the determinants of economic, social and environmental sustainability in the region's agricultural sector. Econometric model results suggest that farmers felt that farm size, market access, access to off farm income, agricultural loans, and access to agricultural extension and demonstration plots are key drivers of agricultural sustainability at the farm-level. Differences in agro-ecological conditions and region-specific factors were also significant determinants of relative farm sustainability. This underscores the importance of geographical targeting and tailoring of interventions to increase farm sustainability. Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Ethiopia; Relative farm sustainability; Smallholder farms; Sustainability indicators
The adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) remains high on the policy and research... more The adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) remains high on the policy and research agenda in most of sub-Saharan Africa. This paper adopts an integrative approach to investigate how psycho-social and socioeconomic factors influence the uptake of SAPs by smallholder farmers in Ethiopian Highlands. The study applies the Theory of Planned Behavior theoretical framework, as well as the Ordered Probit model and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to model farmers' adoption decisions. The results show that socioeconomic factors such as access to agricultural loans and off-farm income, household labor availability and livestock ownership increase the probability of adopting two or more SAPs. The results further show that farmers' intentions and personal norms significantly influence the number of SAPs adopted at farm-level. These results imply that efforts to promote the widespread adoption of SAPs by smallholder farmers should focus on enhancing farmers' access to agricultural loans and off-farm income, through increased integration into the non-farm rural economy and addressing liquidity constraints through affordable rural financing schemes. The adoption of SAPs Vine Mutyasira
This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in E... more This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We examine the internal consistency of jointly achieving "sustainable" "intensification" by exploring the factors that lead to complementarity or tradeoffs in the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of farms was examined in multiple regions of Ethiopia's Highlands. The results show that some farmers can achieve both sustainability and intensification, while many do not, or cannot achieve both at the same time. We found that some actions have a common impact on both sustainability and intensification, while other factors only affect one outcome. Access to agricultural loans and farm mechanization significantly increases the likelihood of succeeding in sustainable intensification. Access to land will be critical for agricultural sustainability while access to farming information and technical services will drive agricultural intensification. Overall, opportunities to improve both sustainability and intensification are weak, but the opportunity to improve one without sacrificing the other are realistic. The results contribute to the ongoing debate on sustainable intensification and help policy makers explore alternatives for managing different intensification and sustainability scenarios to achieve agricultural development goals.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN ... more The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with governments, businesses and civil society, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people, especially the most vulnerable.
guidance and support during the course of my PhD studies. I could not have imagined having better... more guidance and support during the course of my PhD studies. I could not have imagined having better advisors and mentors for my PhD studies. I would also like to thank Dr. Dale Manning and Dr. Kathleen Galvin for serving as members of my dissertation committee. I am truly appreciative of their insightful comments, feedback and all the tough questions, which helped me to widen my research perspective and get results of better quality. I would also like to thank members of staff in the department of agricultural and resource economics (DARE), particularly Denise Davis, Donna Sosna and Perry Todd, who were crucial to the logistics of this research, and for helping me with traveling issues throughout this project. I sincerely appreciate all their efforts. I would also like to thank my fellow graduate students for sharing ideas, their feedback, and of course friendship. I am sincerely grateful to the Fulbright scholarship for funding the first two years of my graduate school. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for helping fund my fieldwork. I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Peter Thorne, Dr. Kindu Mekonnen, Dr. Girma Tesfahun and the entire Africa RISING staff for the logistical support and helping with data collection activities in Ethiopia. I also had the privilege of receiving the Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (Borlaug LEAP), which helped fund my research activities in Ethiopia as well as providing mentorship throughout my research.
as soon as possible after acceptance. Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof... more as soon as possible after acceptance. Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof will be undertaken on this manuscript before final publication of the Version of Record (VoR). Please note that during production and pre-press, errors may be discovered which could affect the content.
This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in E... more This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We examine the internal consistency of jointly achieving “sustainable” “intensification” by exploring the factors that lead to complementarity or tradeoffs in the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of farms was examined in multiple regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. The results show that some farmers can achieve both sustainability and intensification, while many do not, or cannot achieve both at the same time. We found that some actions have a common impact on both sustainability and intensification, while other factors only affect one outcome. Access to agricultural loans and farm mechanization significantly increases the likelihood of succeeding in sustainable intensification. Access to land will be critical for agricultural sustainability while access to farming information and technical services will drive agricultural intensification. Overall, opportunities to improve both s...
Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide.... more Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide. Yet, despite growing concern about the environmental and social impacts of increased agricultural productivity, no consensus exists on the appropriate method for assessing the appropriate tradeoffs for sustainability. To address this need, this paper proposes the use of Data Envelope Analysis to create an index that permits assessment of the relative sustainability of smallholder farms in a given region, with minimal external interpretation about how individual farmers weight tradeoffs on their own farms. The method is applied to the Ethiopian highlands to explore the determinants of economic, social and environmental sustainability in the region's agricultural sector. Econometric model results suggest that farmers felt that farm size, market access, access to off farm income, agricultural loans, and access to agricultural extension and demonstration plots are key drivers of agricultural sustainability at the farm-level. Differences in agro-ecological conditions and region-specific factors were also significant determinants of relative farm sustainability. This underscores the importance of geographical targeting and tailoring of interventions to increase farm sustainability.
The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) awakened the world to the critical need for food systems ... more The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) awakened the world to the critical need for food systems transformation. Several commitments were made during the summit, with the UN Secretary-General reiterating the need to support national mechanisms that develop and implement national pathways to 2030 that are inclusive and consistent with countries’ climate commitments, building upon the national food systems dialogues. Much of the discussion in the post-summit era has mostly been high level and focused on how countries can be supported to transform pathways into strategies and to design and operationalise investment plans aimed at fostering sustainable and inclusive food systems transformation. However, what has been missing in these discussions is what the envisaged transformation means for the smallholder farmer, and what it takes for smallholder farmers to embrace the transformative agenda and transition to more sustainable methods of production. In this article, reference is made to...
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 2020
Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers' resource endowme... more Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers' resource endowments, levels of technology use, degree of market access and agro-ecological factors. Consequently, the prospects of achieving sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems need to be examined vis-à-vis the dominant farmer typologies, so as to help craft effective and tailored interventions. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology to establish farm typologies prevalent within the smallholder farming systems and infer their implications for the drive to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture. A cross-sectional survey was carried out, covering 600 households in four regions of Ethiopia's Highlands. Multivariate statistical techniques of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used to group farmers into four distinct clusters. The study then compared relative levels of agricultural intensification and sustainability across the different typology clusters. The study found that households who are more commercially oriented and have larger landholdings, higher levels of productive assets and livestock ownership, exhibit higher levels of both agricultural intensification and relative sustainability. The study concludes that the farm typology approach has important policy application as it helps identify the set of socioeconomic characteristics of farmers that influence their propensity to achieve sustainable intensification.
The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to affect agri-food systems around the world and lay bare its... more The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to affect agri-food systems around the world and lay bare its fragility, worsening the welfare of millions of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods are anchored on agricultural activities. For the vast majority of sub-Saharan Africa, COVID-19 has coincided with a number of other macroeconomic shocks, which have also exacerbated the impacts of the pandemic on food security, nutrition and general livelihoods, as well curtailed policy responses and mitigation strategies. In Zimbabwe, the COVID-19 pandemic struck at a time the country was experiencing a worsening economic and humanitarian situation. This study focused more on community and household dynamics and response measures to cope with the pandemic. This paper presents a summary of findings emerging from a series of rapid assessment studies undertaken by the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) Programme in Mvurwi and Concession areas of Mazowe District in Zimbabwe to examine how COVID...
In response to COVID-19, the Government of Zimbabwe enforced a nationwide lockdown on 30 March 20... more In response to COVID-19, the Government of Zimbabwe enforced a nationwide lockdown on 30 March 2020, closing most sectors of the economy, including informal markets. However, with limited cases, lockdown movement restrictions were eased and supermarkets, restaurants and vegetable markets allowed to reopen. Between 3-13 October 2020, a second-round (R2) of surveys was conducted, targeting farming communities in Mvurwi and Concession Areas of Mazowe District, to assess COVID-19 impacts on food production systems, supply chains and general livelihoods. This report summarises insights obtained from the phone-based survey, covering 102 respondents (20 female and 82 male-headed households), and 5 local key informants (councillors and extension officers). Results are compared to the earlier R1 survey carried out in late June/early July.
Model A1 of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe was intended to decongest co... more Model A1 of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe was intended to decongest communal areas and targeted land-constrained farmers in communal areas. The average landholding in these schemes is about 37 hectares. 2 An index of wealth was computed using principal components analysis (PCA) on variables capturing household asset ownership, housing characteristics, as well as access to utilities and infrastructure such as water sources and sanitation facilities, to create an index of household wealth (Vyas and Kumaranayake 2006; Filmer and Pritchett 2001). ENDNOTES Agricultu ral Policy R esea rch in A frica (APRA) is a new, Þ ve-year, R esea rch Programme Consortium funded b y UK aid f rom the UK G overnment thr ough the Department for In ternational D evelopment (DFI D) and will run fr om 2016-2021. The programme is based at the Institut e of D evelopment Studies (IDS), UK (www.ids.ac.uk), with r egional hubs at the Cent re for frican Bio-Entr epreneurship (CABE), K enya, the Institut e for Po verty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), South A frica, and th e University of Ghana, Legon. It builds on mo re than a decade of r esearch and policy engagement work by the Futu re Agricultures Consortium (www.future-agricultu res.org
COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected lives and livelihoods across the globe. In Zimbabwe, preliminar... more COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected lives and livelihoods across the globe. In Zimbabwe, preliminary indications point to a worsening economic situation in a country already facing macroeconomic challenges, particularly in rural communities where most households depend on agriculture. National lockdown and movement restrictions have affected agricultural activities as well as access to markets and farming inputs.
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development , 2020
Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers’ resource endowme... more Smallholder farming systems are highly diverse, owing to differences in farmers’ resource endowments, levels of technology use, degree of market access and agro-ecological factors. Consequently, the prospects of achieving sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems need to be examined vis-à-vis the dominant farmer typologies, so as to help craft effective and tailored interventions. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology to establish farm typologies prevalent within the smallholder farming systems and infer their implications for the drive to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture. A cross-sectional survey was carried out, covering 600 households in four regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. Multivariate statistical techniques of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used to group farmers into four distinct clusters. The study then compared relative levels of agricultural intensification and sustainability across the different typology clusters. The study found that households who are more commercially oriented and have larger landholdings, higher levels of productive assets and livestock ownership, exhibit higher levels of both agricultural intensification and relative sustainability. The study concludes that the farm typology approach has important policy application as it helps identify the set of socioeconomic characteristics of farmers that influence their propensity to achieve sustainable intensification.
Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide.... more Global population growth will require substantial increases in agricultural production worldwide. Yet, despite growing concern about the environmental and social impacts of increased agricultural productivity, no consensus exists on the appropriate method for assessing the appropriate tradeoffs for sustainability. To address this need, this paper proposes the use of Data Envelope Analysis to create an index that permits assessment of the relative sustainability of smallholder farms in a given region, with minimal external interpretation about how individual farmers weight tradeoffs on their own farms. The method is applied to the Ethiopian highlands to explore the determinants of economic, social and environmental sustainability in the region's agricultural sector. Econometric model results suggest that farmers felt that farm size, market access, access to off farm income, agricultural loans, and access to agricultural extension and demonstration plots are key drivers of agricultural sustainability at the farm-level. Differences in agro-ecological conditions and region-specific factors were also significant determinants of relative farm sustainability. This underscores the importance of geographical targeting and tailoring of interventions to increase farm sustainability. Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Ethiopia; Relative farm sustainability; Smallholder farms; Sustainability indicators
The adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) remains high on the policy and research... more The adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) remains high on the policy and research agenda in most of sub-Saharan Africa. This paper adopts an integrative approach to investigate how psycho-social and socioeconomic factors influence the uptake of SAPs by smallholder farmers in Ethiopian Highlands. The study applies the Theory of Planned Behavior theoretical framework, as well as the Ordered Probit model and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to model farmers' adoption decisions. The results show that socioeconomic factors such as access to agricultural loans and off-farm income, household labor availability and livestock ownership increase the probability of adopting two or more SAPs. The results further show that farmers' intentions and personal norms significantly influence the number of SAPs adopted at farm-level. These results imply that efforts to promote the widespread adoption of SAPs by smallholder farmers should focus on enhancing farmers' access to agricultural loans and off-farm income, through increased integration into the non-farm rural economy and addressing liquidity constraints through affordable rural financing schemes. The adoption of SAPs Vine Mutyasira
This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in E... more This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We examine the internal consistency of jointly achieving "sustainable" "intensification" by exploring the factors that lead to complementarity or tradeoffs in the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of farms was examined in multiple regions of Ethiopia's Highlands. The results show that some farmers can achieve both sustainability and intensification, while many do not, or cannot achieve both at the same time. We found that some actions have a common impact on both sustainability and intensification, while other factors only affect one outcome. Access to agricultural loans and farm mechanization significantly increases the likelihood of succeeding in sustainable intensification. Access to land will be critical for agricultural sustainability while access to farming information and technical services will drive agricultural intensification. Overall, opportunities to improve both sustainability and intensification are weak, but the opportunity to improve one without sacrificing the other are realistic. The results contribute to the ongoing debate on sustainable intensification and help policy makers explore alternatives for managing different intensification and sustainability scenarios to achieve agricultural development goals.
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Papers by Vine Mutyasira
for the drive to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture. A cross-sectional survey was carried out, covering 600 households in four regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. Multivariate statistical techniques of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used to group farmers into four distinct clusters. The study then
compared relative levels of agricultural intensification and sustainability across the different typology clusters. The study found that households who are more commercially oriented and have larger landholdings, higher levels of productive assets and livestock ownership, exhibit higher levels of both agricultural intensification and relative sustainability. The study concludes that the farm typology approach has important policy application as it helps identify the set of socioeconomic characteristics of farmers that influence their propensity to achieve sustainable intensification.
Keywords:
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Ethiopia; Relative farm sustainability; Smallholder farms; Sustainability indicators
for the drive to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture. A cross-sectional survey was carried out, covering 600 households in four regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. Multivariate statistical techniques of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used to group farmers into four distinct clusters. The study then
compared relative levels of agricultural intensification and sustainability across the different typology clusters. The study found that households who are more commercially oriented and have larger landholdings, higher levels of productive assets and livestock ownership, exhibit higher levels of both agricultural intensification and relative sustainability. The study concludes that the farm typology approach has important policy application as it helps identify the set of socioeconomic characteristics of farmers that influence their propensity to achieve sustainable intensification.
Keywords:
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); Ethiopia; Relative farm sustainability; Smallholder farms; Sustainability indicators