Tropentag 2023, September 20 - 22, Berlin, Germany "Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation: trade-offs and synergies."

Impact of integrated soil fertility management practices on smallholder farmers welfare in Ethiopia

¹Leibniz-Centre for Agric. Landscape Res. (ZALF), Germany
²Haramaya University, School of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study analyses factors associated with the adoption of integrated soil fertility management (ISFMs), namely, inorganic fertiliser and SWC practices alongside the individual and combined impact on net crop value and per capita food consumption expenditure (PCFCE) using primary data collected from 781 plots in eastern Ethiopia. Multinomial endogenous switching regression is used to identify those factors associated with the adoption of these practices and to evaluate the impact of adopting them on household welfare, while taking into account both observable and unobservable biases which affect both adoption of ISFMs and outcome variables. The results reveal that ten of the explanatory variables included in the model are significantly associated with at least one of the three adoption categories: adopting inorganic fertiliser, SWC practices separately and jointly. The average treatment effects results indicate that adoption of inorganic fertiliser only, SWC practices only, and a combination of both increases net crop value by ETB 1070, 1642, and 2438, respectively, compared to their counterfactuals. Similarly, PCFCE also increased by ETB 492 for inorganic fertiliser only, ETB 407 for SWC practices adopters only, and ETB 1175 for both inorganic fertiliser and SWC practices adopters, compared to their counterfactuals. Interestingly, household welfare gains are larger when inorganic fertiliser and SWC practices are adopted in combination than if adopted separately. The policy implications resulting from this study include that designing policies or interventions that encourage the adoption of multiple agricultural technologies would help improve household income and food consumption expenditures. Most importantly, focusing on those factors found to be associated with the adoption of combination of inorganic fertiliser and SWC practices may help reap higher welfare gains from adopting ISFMs

Keywords: Adoption, Ethiopia, food consumption expenditure, inorganic fertiliser, multinomial endogenous regression, soils and water conservation

Contact Address: Million Sileshi Haile, Leibniz-Centre for Agric. Landscape Res. (ZALF), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Münchenberg, Germany, e-mail: millionsileshigmail.com