Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania

Conservation agriculture continues to be promoted in developing nations as a sustainable and suitable agricultural practice to enhance smallholder productivity. A look at the literature indicates that this practice is successful in non-African countries. Thus, this research sought to test whether mi...

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Main Authors: Maurice Osewe, Chris Miyinzi Mwungu, Aijun Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-12-01
Series:Land
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/12/513
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author Maurice Osewe
Chris Miyinzi Mwungu
Aijun Liu
author_facet Maurice Osewe
Chris Miyinzi Mwungu
Aijun Liu
author_sort Maurice Osewe
collection DOAJ
description Conservation agriculture continues to be promoted in developing nations as a sustainable and suitable agricultural practice to enhance smallholder productivity. A look at the literature indicates that this practice is successful in non-African countries. Thus, this research sought to test whether minimum tillage (MT), a subset of conservation agriculture, could lead to a significant impact on smallholder households’ welfare in Southern Tanzania. Using cross-sectional data from 608 randomly selected smallholder households, we applied propensity score matching to determine the effects of adopting minimum tillage on smallholder households’ per capita net crop income and labor demand. Our results indicated that minimum tillage adoption has positive impacts on smallholder households’ per capita net crop income. Further, it reduces the total household labor demands, allowing households to engage in other income-generating activities. However, the adoption rate of minimum tillage is in the early majority stage (21.38%). Thus, we propose the government to support household credit access and extension-specific information to improve the probability of adopting minimum tillage.
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spelling doaj.art-d5a86b0de6cb4942aa4310a562f8b1bd2023-11-21T00:24:32ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2020-12-0191251310.3390/land9120513Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern TanzaniaMaurice Osewe0Chris Miyinzi Mwungu1Aijun Liu2College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, No. 1 Weigang, Nanjing 210095, ChinaSchool of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 51, Hobart, TAS 7001, AustraliaCollege of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, No. 1 Weigang, Nanjing 210095, ChinaConservation agriculture continues to be promoted in developing nations as a sustainable and suitable agricultural practice to enhance smallholder productivity. A look at the literature indicates that this practice is successful in non-African countries. Thus, this research sought to test whether minimum tillage (MT), a subset of conservation agriculture, could lead to a significant impact on smallholder households’ welfare in Southern Tanzania. Using cross-sectional data from 608 randomly selected smallholder households, we applied propensity score matching to determine the effects of adopting minimum tillage on smallholder households’ per capita net crop income and labor demand. Our results indicated that minimum tillage adoption has positive impacts on smallholder households’ per capita net crop income. Further, it reduces the total household labor demands, allowing households to engage in other income-generating activities. However, the adoption rate of minimum tillage is in the early majority stage (21.38%). Thus, we propose the government to support household credit access and extension-specific information to improve the probability of adopting minimum tillage.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/12/513minimum tillagesmallholder welfareTanzaniaimpactspropensity score matching
spellingShingle Maurice Osewe
Chris Miyinzi Mwungu
Aijun Liu
Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania
Land
minimum tillage
smallholder welfare
Tanzania
impacts
propensity score matching
title Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania
title_full Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania
title_fullStr Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania
title_full_unstemmed Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania
title_short Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania
title_sort does minimum tillage improve smallholder farmers welfare evidence from southern tanzania
topic minimum tillage
smallholder welfare
Tanzania
impacts
propensity score matching
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/12/513
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AT chrismiyinzimwungu doesminimumtillageimprovesmallholderfarmerswelfareevidencefromsoutherntanzania
AT aijunliu doesminimumtillageimprovesmallholderfarmerswelfareevidencefromsoutherntanzania