Flexible adoption of conservation agriculture principles: practices of care and the management of crop residue in Australian mixed farming systems

This paper applies concepts from the sociological literature on ‘practices of care’ to investigate why flexibility is important for farmers in the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) principles, and, crucially, how farmers integrate CA principles into their existing practices. Drawing on qualitative data from six mixed farming regions in South Eastern Australia, the paper discusses how a specific dimension of CA – crop residue retention – is integrated in the context of biophysical and material challenges, and practices of stubble burning. Farmers viewed burning as increasingly incompatible with their desire to be recognised as good land managers. Yet, shifting to full crop residue retention was perceived as posing challenges for their farming system and compromising farmers’ capacity to manage seasonal variations in pests, weeds and crop residue loads. As a consequence, farmers used burning as a key practice of care to deal in a flexible way with an uncertain and variable farming environment, and to make crop residue retention workable in the context of their farming system. In concluding, the paper argues that the significance of flexibility in farm-level integration of CA principles requires a shift in analytical focus from adoption barriers to practices of care.     

Impact of conservation agriculture technology on household welfare in Zambia

This article examines the determinants and impact of conservation agriculture (CA) technology adoption on farm household welfare in Zambia. To account for selection bias from both observable and unobservable factors, an endogenous switching regression model is employed to estimate the impact of the technology on continuous outcomes like farm output, throughput accounting ratio (TAR), poverty gap, and severity of poverty. A recursive bivariate probit model is however used for the estimation of impact of adoption on a binary outcome like poverty headcount. The empirical findings demonstrate that the adoption of CA technology increases maize output, and farm TAR and reduces household poverty. Moreover, the results reveal that farmers’ years of schooling, social networks, access to credit, extension services, and machinery as well as soil quality positively influence adoption of CA technology.     

Resource constraints and partial adoption of conservation agriculture by hand-hoe farmers in Mozambique

Conservation agriculture is a set of practices widely promoted to increase agricultural productivity while conserving soil through reduced tillage, mulching and crop rotation. Adoption levels are low across southern Africa and farmers often use only some components on small portions of their land. This study uses in-depth interviews and partial budget analysis to explore adoption of conservation agriculture in Mozambique's Angonia highlands. Farmers described many benefits but there was little sign of adoption beyond plots where non-governmental organizations promoting conservation agriculture had provided inputs. Most farmers were adamant that conservation agriculture could perform better than conventional agriculture only if they applied fertilizer or compost. With current costs and prices, conservation agriculture is unprofitable except on small plots for farmers with low opportunity cost of household labour. These findings suggest that conservation agriculture can improve maize yields but capital and labour constraints limit adoption to small plots in the absence of free or subsidized inputs. Given the current ranges of prices for grain and inputs these manual forms of conservation agriculture will not be adopted on a large scale in Angonia. Nevertheless, small conservation agriculture plots can provide farmers with high yields where constraints are lowest.     

Resource degradation and adoption of land conservation technologies in the Ethiopian Highlands: A case study in Andit Tid,North Shewa

This paper reports results from a study of resource degradation and conservation behavior of peasant households in a degraded part of the Ethiopian highlands. Peasant households' choice of conservation technologies is modeled as a two-stage process: recognition of the erosion problem, and adoption and level of use of control practices. An ordinal logit model is used to explain parcel-level perception of the threat of the erosion problem and the extent of use of conservation practices. Results show the importance of perception of the threat of soil erosion, household, land and farm characteristics; perception of technology-specific attributes, and land quality differentials in shaping conservation decisions of peasants. Furthermore, where poverty is widespread and appropriate support policies are lacking, results indicate that population pressure per se is unable to encourage sustainable land use. The challenge of breaking the poverty-environment trap and initiating sustainable intensification thus require policy incentives and technologies that confer short-term benefits to the poor while conserving the resource base.     

The transition to conservation agriculture: an insularization process towards sustainability

Part of the Sustainability Transition Studies, this work addresses the question of the relationship between niches and regimes by examining the transition to conservation agriculture. It seeks to understand how farmers’ transition to conservation agriculture can contribute to a better understanding of the transition of agro-food systems towards sustainability. Based on an analysis of farmers’ trajectories in the Walloon region in Belgium, the paper develops the notion of insularization in order to characterize the emergence of conservation agriculture as a niche that is a dynamic process, growing from within and progressively detaching itself from the conventional agricultural regime. The analysis of farmers’ transition shows how, after an initial phase of destabilization of the conventional ploughing regime, learning and experiencing processes can lead to a transformation in soil and soil quality management perceptions. Our hypothesis is that this cognitive transformation constitutes a tipping point in the insularization process because of its effects on agricultural practices, which increase the detachment of conservation agriculture from the regime and thus embed the irreversibility and sustainability of the transition. Insularization describes an ecologizational pathway of agricultural practices endogenous to the regime that can not only lead to adaptive changes on the periphery of the system, but might also induce a deep and systemic transformation of conventional agricultural practices.     

An African success: the case of conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

This paper highlights the limiting factors of agricultural production in Zimbabwe and presents conservation agriculture (CA) as a potential solution to address many of these challenges. CA, based on the three principles of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotations, targets low soil fertility, moisture deficits and low management standards through the use of soil-fertility-enhancing technologies (precision fertilizer application, crop rotations, sequencing and interactions), improved moisture use efficiency and higher standards of agronomic management practices. The paper also explains the role of CA in natural resource conservation as increasing productivity will reduce the land under crop production and increase the area under natural vegetation. Trends in the development of CA in the past five years and its current status in the country are explained, with the roles of different stakeholders outlined. Evidence on the impact of CA on both food security and the environment is presented. In conclusion, the paper looks at the various factors that may affect the spread of CA to different agro-ecological zones in the country.     

Gender and conservation agriculture in East and Southern Africa: towards a research agenda

It is remarkable that despite wide-ranging, in-depth studies over many years, almost no conservation agriculture (CA) studies consider gender and gender relations as a potential explanatory factor for (low) adoption rates. This is important because CA demands new ways of working with the farm system. Implementation will inevitably involve a reallocation of men's and women's resources as well as having an impact upon their ability to realize their gender interests. With respect to intra-household decision-making and the distribution of benefits, CA interventions have implications for labour requirements and labour allocation, investment decisions with respect to mechanization and herbicide use, crop choice, and residue management. CA practice may impact upon the ability of households to source a wide variety of crops, wild plants, and insects and small animals for household nutrition. Gender biases in extension service design can sideline women. This paper examines the limited research to date on the interactions between CA interventions and gender in East and Southern Africa, and, based on the gaps observed, sets out a research agenda. It argues that attention to gender in CA is particularly timely given the increasing interest in CA as a means of adapting to climate change.     

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) in conservation agriculture: a compelling case for increased adoption

The rapidly growing population will soon require a near doubling of food production. This increase must be achieved in a manner that maintains environmental integrity, preserves public health and resolves food access and distribution equalities. The use of forage legumes in arable rotations can make significant and multidimensional contributions to this sustainable intensification and this paper reviews the potential contribution of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), with particular reference to sustainable cereal production in conservation agriculture systems. The use of red clover as a tool in soil fertility-building and the multiple benefits to the cropping system in which it is used is described. The benefits discussed include atmospheric nitrogen fixation, soil conservation, structural soil improvements and a suite of agroecosystem services including increased soil microbial activity, the phytoremediation of polluted soils and the provision of food for pollinators. Reported allelopathic weed suppression by red clover cover crops and the role of modern plant breeding in creating new varieties that further enhance system sustainability is also discussed. Finally, as economic considerations will always impact on adoption rates, the profitability of red clover rotations in terms of silage value and yield benefits is taken into account.     

Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe: Lessons of the KASSA project

According to KASSA findings, conservation agriculture is less adopted in Europe compared to other adopting regions and, reduced tillage is more common than no-tillage and cover crops. Currently, it is not popularised and it is less researched. The lack of knowledge on conservation agriculture systems and their management and, the absence of dynamic and effective innovation systems make it difficult and socio-economically risky for European farmers to give up ploughing which is a paradigm rooted in their cultural backgrounds. In Norway and Germany the adoption of conservation agriculture has been encouraged and subsidised in order to mitigate soil erosion. In the other European countries the adoption process seems mainly driven by farmers and, the major driving force has been the cost reduction in machinery, fuel and labour saving. Soil and water conservation concerns did not appear as main drivers in the European farmers’ decision to shift or not to conservation agriculture.The shift of European farmers to conservation agriculture is being achieved through a step-by-step attitude, large scale farms are the most adopters. This adoption trend may grow in the future. Indeed, the need to improve farms’ competitiveness, the market globalization and the steady increase of fuel cost will likely contribute to arouse European farmers’ interest in conservation agriculture as it slashes significantly the production costs.Conservation agriculture is not equally suitable for all the European agroecosystems. The need of soil and water conservation in Europe requires anticipating the ongoing process in order to improve its ecological and socio-economic sustainability. Priority would be to define which regions in Europe are the most suitable for conservation agriculture taking into account climate and soil constraints, length of growing period, water availability and quality, erosion hazards and farming conditions. Policy favouring the use of soil cover and profitable crop rotations as management strategies for weed, pest and diseases control will certainly allow developing and disseminating efficient and acceptable conservation agriculture systems.     

Advancing climate-smart-agriculture in developing drylands: Joint analysis of the adoption of multiple on-farm soil and water conservation technologies in West African Sahel

Water stress and soil infertility are the greatest constraining factors for higher agricultural productivity in drylands, prompting the current interest in soil and water conservation (SWC) practices in water-constrained regions. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of challenges surrounding the adoption of SWC practices in these regions, we used a joint analysis framework combining both multivariate and ordered probit models to analyze adoption-decisions for eleven on-farm SWC practices. Our case study, involving 500 farmers from a representative West African Sahelian zone, revealed that although the adoption of SWC practices is widespread in the West African drylands, there is still an important potential to improve and upscale their specific adoption rates. Almost all farmers (99%) used at least one of the eleven practices considered in this study, whereas specific adoption rates ranged from 5% for contour vegetation barriers to 87% for manure application. More than 70% of the farmers used up to three practices only, and less than 30% used between four to nine practices. Many practices are interdependent, with some practices being complementary and others substitutable. The analysis of the determinants of the adoption and the intensity of adoption revealed that SWC practices are labor-, knowledge- and capital-intensive. We found that the major drivers of farmers’ decisions to adopt, as well as to intensify the use of, most SWC practices are the presence of children (aged 6 to 14) in the household, land holding, land tenure, awareness and training on SWC and access to alternative – but non-agricultural labor constraining – cash sources such as remittance and cash farming. A higher number of migrating household members increases the probability of intensifying the use of SWC practices, but only when this is in line with the household’s land endowment and labor needs for farm activities. This comprehensive study will be of significance for a finer understanding of SWC practices in West African Sahel. More generally, it will likely help policy makers to upscale the adoption of sustainable SWC practices for the advance of climate-smart agriculture in developing drylands.     

Adaptation in agriculture: historic effects of heat waves and droughts on UK agriculture

Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and/or severity under climate change. Recent examples of these types of events, such as the heat wave in Europe in 2003, have caused considerable damage to crops and agriculture and substantial economic damage. If similar damage was incurred every time such an event occurred in the future, it would cause increasingly serious loss to social welfare and the economy as the frequency or intensity of these events increased. However, agriculture has a history of adapting to shocks, and in this paper we aim to determine whether there has been a systematic reduction in damage from historic extreme events over time in the agricultural sector in the UK. The impact of comparable droughts or heat waves over the past four decades is compared, and for many commodities there appears to have been a reduction in damage over time, to the point where recent events have had a minimal impact on production, indicating that the sector is relatively well adapted to the current climate. We discuss whether this type of adaptation can be sustained into the future under more rapid rates of change, or whether the ‘low-hanging’ fruits of adaptation have been picked.     

Poverty analysis using small area estimation: an application to conservation agriculture in Uganda

This article demonstrates the utility of small area estimation of poverty (SAEp) methods for researchers wishing to conduct a detailed welfare analysis as part of a larger survey of a small geographic area. This study applies SAEp methods as part of an impact assessment of a conservation agriculture production system in Eastern Uganda. Using SAEp, we estimate Foster–Greer–Thorbecke rural poverty indices, estimate the effects of per‐acre farm profit increases to poor households on the indices, and compare the findings to estimates of net returns from a field‐level evaluation of conservation agriculture for maize farmers. Results suggest that increasing the farm profits of the bottom 30% of households by $1.60 per‐acre per‐season would reduce rural poverty incidence by 1 percentage point. Available data on the net returns to conservation agriculture indicate that even these modest increases are achievable for few adopting households.     

Cuban agricultural policy in the last 25 years. From conventional to organic agriculture

Political, social, economic and environmental changes undergone in Cuba in recent decades have led to several well-differentiated production models or systems, and have led to profound transformation of Cuban farmland. This article analyses those changes and transformations in three key stages or chronological periods of Cuban agricultural policy, the Green Revolution, the Special Period and Economic Reanimation. The analysis emphasizes the environmental, social and economic effects of each period, and especially, the change from a conventional intensive to an alternative or organic farming system, which has become an example to be followed.     

Further participatory adaptation is required for community leaders to champion conservation agriculture in Africa

There is a recognized need for the participation of local communities in designing and implementing agricultural interventions for the sustainable intensification in smallholder systems. This study examines the perspectives of local community leaders towards the widely promoted, but not widely adopted, practice of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in African smallholder systems. Perceptions from 47 community leaders (both from traditional local authorities and farmer organizations) across six African countries are documented regarding how CA matches the wants, needs and capabilities of farmers in their communities. While community leaders generally perceived CA as potentially beneficial, they also indicated that CA is not currently perceived as feasible within their communities and hence has limited relevance. Three key themes were identified that limit both CA use and sustainable intensification more generally: [1] a perceived reluctance of farmers to engage with the community platform as part of a higher input, market-oriented production system; [2] informational constraints due to non-functional exchange mechanisms; and [3] a lack of local adaptation of CA underscored by the persistence of top-down, linear research and extension approaches. Through greater understanding of local perspectives, a clearer picture emerges of the need for greater participatory engagement and local adaptation if sustainable intensification of African smallholder agricultural systems is to be achieved.     

Adjusting policy to institutional,cultural and biophysical context conditions: The case of conservation banking in California

This paper examines the political construction of a policy instrument for matching particular institutional, biophysical and cultural context conditions in a social–ecological system, using the case of conservation banking in California as an example. The guiding research question is: How is policy design negotiated between various actors on its way from early formulation of ideas and principles to an accepted policy solution on a state or national level? The underlying assumption is that in order for a policy instrument to be implemented, it has to be adjusted to various context conditions. That is, it has to become accepted by affected actors associated with the institutional framework, and it has to gain local validity for implementation by actors related to a particular ecological and cultural context. We assume that ideas about policy adjustments are not only functionalistic questions determined for example by the materiality of the resource it governs, but are constructed and politically negotiated because these ideas may differ among the mental models of the associated actors. These actors are stakeholders affiliated with the policy process, i.e. authorities, public and private organizations, interest groups, firms or think tanks dealing with, or being shaped by, the policy at different stages of its development.As a result certain context conditions and related concerns such as institutional interplay or match to ecological particularities become inscribed in policy design as an outcome of power struggles, values, and interests. These in turn may vary at different stages of policy development and implementation. Each time the instrument is transferred in a new setting it is likely that the incipient policy design may be opened-up and begin a mutual adjustment process among the newly concerned actors. Thus, such policy developments are not immutable but are dynamic. In this paper, the creation of fit for policies on conservation banking to the issue of species protection in the State of California and later to the U.S. environmental governance domain, are analyzed to understand the instrument's emergence and development toward an established policy solution. The focus is on the negotiation processes among the enrolled actors and their strategies for matching the instrument to certain institutional, cultural and ecological context conditions on different scales. Changes in policy design, its underlying influences, actors’ interests, conflicts and perceived effects are identified, respectively.     

Access to credit and heterogeneous effects on agricultural technology adoption: Evidence from large rural surveys in Ethiopia

Modern agricultural technologies hold huge potential for increasing productivity and reducing poverty in developing countries. However, adoption levels of these technologies have remained disappointingly low in Africa. This paper analyzes the effect of access to credit on the likelihood of adoption and use intensity of chemical fertilizers using data from large rural surveys in Ethiopia. Using a heteroscedasticity-based identification strategy to address the endogenous nature of access to credit, we find that access to credit has significant positive effects on adoption and intensity of use of chemical fertilizers. However, important heterogeneities are observed. Credit obtained from formal sources is more important for the intensity of use than for the decision to adopt chemical fertilizers. Credit taken with the primary purpose of financing agricultural inputs is more likely to promote adoption of chemical fertilizers than credit taken per se. Furthermore, reported credit effects are larger when estimated against the sample of credit-constrained non-users as compared with the pool of the whole sample of credit non-users. The results remain robust to several sensitivity analyses. Our results yield useful implications for the design, promotion, and targeting of credit services to leverage their effect on adoption of agricultural technologies.     

From rhetoric to reality: farmer perspectives on the economic potential of biochar in China

Biochar has garnered much attention for its potential to improve farming productivity and sustainability by amending soil, enhancing crop yields, improving fertilizer use efficiency and sequestering carbon. However, few publications consider farmer perspectives on whether biochar is attractive as an agricultural input. This paper therefore investigates the micro-economics and social suitability of biochar in four contrasting Chinese agricultural systems, using linear optimization models and qualitative contextual data. Results demonstrate that commercially produced biochar is uneconomic as an independent farming input, whilst farm-produced biochar shows promise in just one of four case-study sites. This suggests that biochar research in China should shift away from on-farm production and application of pure biochar, towards combined biochar-inorganic fertilizer products.     

Using agroecology to stimulate the greening of agriculture in China: a reflection on 15 years of teaching and curriculum development

Even though worldwide research and teaching in Agroecology blossomed in the 1980s, until recently, the development of Agroecology in China has been constrained by technical, cultural and economic considerations. The delay in the assimilation of Agroecology, as a science, a practice and a movement, has resulted in the discipline of Agroecology in China lacking the holistic, interdisciplinary approaches needed to respond to current global and regional agricultural challenges. There is a need to redefine Agroecology both as a critical discipline and as a pedagogical approach. By using an ecology-oriented systematic approach to integrate education and research, a reframed Agroecology is proposed; this is based on a re-imagined, holistic consideration of the hierarchy of agroecosystems. The practical experience of a 15-year international team-taught Agroecology education programme among participants from Canada and China has helped refine disciplinary classifications, both from horizontal and vertical hierarchies. There are evolving impacts of this experiment in Sino-Canadian cooperation in Agroecological research and education; they include a new generation of highly trained agroecologists prepared to act across inter-related disciplines; the alignment of Chinese universities to international agricultural curricula and a better- informed policy-making process towards greening agriculture in China.