Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security
The study assessed the impact of sustainably adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) on household poverty, food and nutrition security. Different scholars have assessed the impact of adopting agricultural practices including SAPs on livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Nonetheless, through...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Innovation and Green Development |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294975312300022X |
| _version_ | 1797753811346915328 |
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| author | Wisdom Richard Mgomezulu Abdi-Khalil Edriss Kennedy Machira Innocent Pangapanga-Phiri |
| author_facet | Wisdom Richard Mgomezulu Abdi-Khalil Edriss Kennedy Machira Innocent Pangapanga-Phiri |
| author_sort | Wisdom Richard Mgomezulu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The study assessed the impact of sustainably adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) on household poverty, food and nutrition security. Different scholars have assessed the impact of adopting agricultural practices including SAPs on livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Nonetheless, through the focus on one-time survey season adoption decisions, the findings on potential impacts of SAPs which are aimed at informing policy direction remain inconclusive. The current study introduced the concept of sustainability in the adoption of SAPs to iron out inconsistences in the adoption of such practices, and hence assessed whether farmers were better off in terms of poverty status, food and nutrition security than their counterparts. Through the use of Selectivity-corrected Endogenous Switching Regression models on a sample of 2100 farmers, the study notes that gender of household head, education of the household head, natural log of household annual income, Tropical Livestock Units (TLU), farmer membership of farmer clubs and village savings and loan groups significantly influenced the probability of smallholder farmers sustaining their adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices. Furthermore, the study notes tangible evidence of an improvement in household food and nutrition security by farmers sustainably adopting SAPs as compared to their counterparts. Nevertheless, no evidence exists that sustained adoption of the practices would alleviate poverty of smallholder farming households. The study recommends the development of an agricultural productivity enhancement program that cuts across the gender divide and social barriers of smallholder farmers, further focusing on promoting farmer clubs and village savings groups to ensure sustained adoption of agricultural practices. Such a program should employ a clear targeting strategy with an aim of targeting food insecure as opposed to poor households in order to eradicate hunger. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T17:24:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4577e8de96c44edca72beb3dbc1fccc8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2949-7531 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T17:24:18Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Innovation and Green Development |
| spelling | doaj.art-4577e8de96c44edca72beb3dbc1fccc82023-08-05T05:18:46ZengElsevierInnovation and Green Development2949-75312023-09-0123100054Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition securityWisdom Richard Mgomezulu0Abdi-Khalil Edriss1Kennedy Machira2Innocent Pangapanga-Phiri3Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi; Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, Department of Business Management, P/Bag 303, Blantyre 3, Malawi; Avant-Garde Consultants Limited, P.O. Box 31599, Lilongwe, Malawi; Corresponding author. Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi.Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, MalawiLilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, MalawiLilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, MalawiThe study assessed the impact of sustainably adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) on household poverty, food and nutrition security. Different scholars have assessed the impact of adopting agricultural practices including SAPs on livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Nonetheless, through the focus on one-time survey season adoption decisions, the findings on potential impacts of SAPs which are aimed at informing policy direction remain inconclusive. The current study introduced the concept of sustainability in the adoption of SAPs to iron out inconsistences in the adoption of such practices, and hence assessed whether farmers were better off in terms of poverty status, food and nutrition security than their counterparts. Through the use of Selectivity-corrected Endogenous Switching Regression models on a sample of 2100 farmers, the study notes that gender of household head, education of the household head, natural log of household annual income, Tropical Livestock Units (TLU), farmer membership of farmer clubs and village savings and loan groups significantly influenced the probability of smallholder farmers sustaining their adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices. Furthermore, the study notes tangible evidence of an improvement in household food and nutrition security by farmers sustainably adopting SAPs as compared to their counterparts. Nevertheless, no evidence exists that sustained adoption of the practices would alleviate poverty of smallholder farming households. The study recommends the development of an agricultural productivity enhancement program that cuts across the gender divide and social barriers of smallholder farmers, further focusing on promoting farmer clubs and village savings groups to ensure sustained adoption of agricultural practices. Such a program should employ a clear targeting strategy with an aim of targeting food insecure as opposed to poor households in order to eradicate hunger.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294975312300022XFood securityPovertySelectivity-corrected endogenous switching regressionSustainable agricultural practicesMalawi |
| spellingShingle | Wisdom Richard Mgomezulu Abdi-Khalil Edriss Kennedy Machira Innocent Pangapanga-Phiri Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security Innovation and Green Development Food security Poverty Selectivity-corrected endogenous switching regression Sustainable agricultural practices Malawi |
| title | Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security |
| title_full | Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security |
| title_fullStr | Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security |
| title_short | Towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Implications on household poverty, food and nutrition security |
| title_sort | towards sustainability in the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices implications on household poverty food and nutrition security |
| topic | Food security Poverty Selectivity-corrected endogenous switching regression Sustainable agricultural practices Malawi |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294975312300022X |
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