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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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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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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format | Article |
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institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2073-445X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:09:12Z |
publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
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series | Land |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT mauriceosewe doesminimumtillageimprovesmallholderfarmerswelfareevidencefromsoutherntanzania AT chrismiyinzimwungu doesminimumtillageimprovesmallholderfarmerswelfareevidencefromsoutherntanzania AT aijunliu doesminimumtillageimprovesmallholderfarmerswelfareevidencefromsoutherntanzania |