Farm-Level Economics Of Soil-Conservation Practices In The Zomba Rural Development Project Of Malawi

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


Introduction

The smallholder sub-sector is facing serious problems of soil erosion, which are threatening the current and future productivity capacity of Malawi. Estimates show that, apart from serious deforestation, soil erosion rates in some parts of Malawi are as high as 50 tones per hectare per year. Such problems undermine the capacity of the smallholder sub-sector to continue to be the main supplier of food to the country. It is, therefore, important to find measures that would ensure that much of the soil is conserved on the farm through the adoption of recommended conservation practices. However, the situation in Malawi is such that most smallholder farmers do not practice soil conservation measures. The proportion of adopters in certain places such as the Malosa Extension Planning Area (EPA) in the Zomba Rural Development (RDP) of southern Malawi is about 40%, and this is regarded as a high figure by Malawian standards. What is most surprising is that there is a low rate of adoption of soil conservation practices even in areas where adopters and non-adopters work side by side. For these reasons, the study was undertaken to achieve the following key objectives: (i) to assess farmers’ perception of technologies for controlling soil erosion; (ii) to assess the influence of social, economic, environmental, and institutional variables on the choice of soil-erosion-control technologies; and (iii) to evaluate the financial profitability of technologies for controlling soil erosion.

Methodology

To achieve these objectives, a survey of 450 smallholder farmers was conducted in Zomba EPA using both personal interviews and participatory rural appraisal methods from late 2003 to 2004. The stratified random sampling technique and the proportionate approach were used to select the households so that the final sample had 40% adopters, of which 50% were women. In addition, a sub-sample of the farmers (i.e. 18 farmers) was engaged in constant dialogue on the findings of the study so as to verify whether the findings truly reflected farmers’ experiences on the ground. 
To capture essential elements for the study, four models were used, each geared toward a specific objective. The Tobit Model was used to explore farmers’ perceptions of soil-erosion-control technologies while the Nested Logit Model helped to understand the sequential decision-making process of smallholder farmers. The Net Present Value Model was used to compare the profitability of the different technologies. Finally, the Policy Analysis Matrix was used to analyze the impact of policy changes on the technologies. Because of data problems with regard to estimation of the terminal benefits of each technology, the net present value was used and a number of simulations were conducted to assess the profitability of the technologies over a period of 50 years. The key soil-erosion-control technologies identified in Malosa EPA were agroforestry, vetiver bunds, bare contour bunds, and box ridges.

Results

The results show that erosion rate, perception of soil retention, extension contact, field slope, and topsoil depth are important variables influencing smallholder farmers’ perception of the soil-erosion-control technologies. These variables were important in determining whether the smallholder farmers could consider adopting soil-erosion-control technologies. Higher soil-erosion rates and greater perception of the ability of a soil-erosion-control technology to retain soil on the farm increased adoption of the conservation technologies. Farmers who reported that extension workers visited them often and discussed issues related to soil erosion and remedial measures also showed greater adoption of the conservation technologies. It was also quite apparent that farmers who had fields on steeper slopes tended to adopt some form of soil-erosion-control technologies because they had no choice on such terrain if they were to get any crop output at all. Likewise, when the soil depth was relatively shallow, some farmers were encouraged to consider adopting some form of soil-conservation practice.

The Nested Logit Model was used to assess the factors responsible for the sequential adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. The first-step equation gave the probability of adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. This step showed that farm size, labor, food availability, and location of farm were important factors in deciding whether or not to adopt soil-erosion-control technologies in general. In this step, the larger the farm and the more the amount of labor and food available, the more likely it is for the farmer to adopt soil-erosion-control technologies. Farmers with small farms, limited labor, and limited food stocks tended to seek employment from larger farmers at the expense of their own farms, thereby perpetuating their vicious cycle of poverty, which led to little or no adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. The location of a farm in relation to an agricultural office was found to be significant in adoption decision, and this was attributed to the fact that the farmers located close to an agricultural office were more likely to get frequent interaction with agricultural officers. Such farmers may feel pressured to adopt soil-erosion-control technologies because they know that agricultural officers can easily access their fields.

In the second-step decision-making equation, the emphasis was on the selection of technology type: physical or biological. In this stage, the significant variable was extension, which portrayed the fact that the presence of extension staff is crucial to farmers’ decision on whether to implement physical or biological soil-erosion-control measures. In the third-step decision-making equation, two choices under each technology type (physical: bare contour bunds and box ridges; biological: agroforestry and vetiver bunds) were the dependent variables. The important factors in this stage were found to be the ranking of technology in terms of effectiveness, extension contact, cost, and slope. The third-stage estimation results reinforced the importance of extension in the choice of soil-erosion-control technologies among the smallholder farmers.

Profitability was assessed using a simulated net present value model. The results showed that vetiver bunds are the most profitable and effective soil-erosion-control technology in Malosa EPA. The second best was bare contour bunds, followed by agroforestry and box ridges. Sensitivity analysis showed that the ranking of the technologies remained the same, except that a reduction in output price or an increase in the discount rate led to diminished profitability of all technologies. Box ridges gave a negative net present value of benefits when the output price was reduced by 25%. The Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) showed that the technologies were being taxed due to low producer prices.

Conclusions

The study has demonstrated that the Tobit and the sequential models of adoption can effectively be used to understand the reasons for adoption of technologies in the smallholder sub-sector in Malawi. Farm size, labor, and food availability are significant factors that govern the probability of adoption of soil-conservation technologies. Farmers with large farms tend to fall in the group of adopters. Farmers with small farms are perpetually food-insecure and this status locks them into a vicious cycle of poverty that translates into a low rate of adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. On the basis of the intricate linkage between poverty, food insecurity, and poor conservation works, any effort to persuade farmers to engage in soil conservation, without finding concrete solutions to their poverty and food insecurity, is futile.
The Net Present Value Model has demonstrated that vetiver bunds are the most profitable and effective methods of combating soil erosion. The effectiveness of the vetiver bunds lies in the fact that they combine two technologies (bare contour bunds and vetiver grass) and the vetiver grass has an excellent rooting system.

Policy Recommendations

To induce farmers to adopt soil-conservation practices, it is important to have a holistic approach which looks at all the facets of the life of the poor rural households. To do this, food-for-work programs targeting the poor should be linked to making the poor rural households work on their own farms at least for a minimum of two days a week. The work they do on their farms needs to be linked to soil-conservation practices and other modern agronomic practices. In addition, targeted input programs should also have, as one of their preconditions, the need for the poor rural households to demonstrate that they have implemented some serious soil-conservation work on their farms.

Since vetiver bunds proved to be the most effective soil-erosion-control technology, it is recommended that farmers be encouraged to adopt the technology. The advantage with this technology is that it also provides thatch grass from the vetiver, which farmers can use for various household activities. There is also a need to consider promising indigenous soil-conservation practices in terms of research in order to improve their technical efficiencies. Because farmers are receiving low prices, the government should revisit the social functions of the parastatal marketing board (ADMARC) so that it can effectively defend the minimum producer prices for the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Finally, building the capacity of farmers and staff in the Ministry of Agriculture and NGOs is the key to successful research and the dissemination and implementation of promising soil-erosion-control technologies. 
Untitled Document

Farm-Level Economics Of Soil-Conservation Practices In The Zomba Rural Development Project Of Malawi

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


Introduction

The smallholder sub-sector is facing serious problems of soil erosion, which are threatening the current and future productivity capacity of Malawi. Estimates show that, apart from serious deforestation, soil erosion rates in some parts of Malawi are as high as 50 tones per hectare per year. Such problems undermine the capacity of the smallholder sub-sector to continue to be the main supplier of food to the country. It is, therefore, important to find measures that would ensure that much of the soil is conserved on the farm through the adoption of recommended conservation practices. However, the situation in Malawi is such that most smallholder farmers do not practice soil conservation measures. The proportion of adopters in certain places such as the Malosa Extension Planning Area (EPA) in the Zomba Rural Development (RDP) of southern Malawi is about 40%, and this is regarded as a high figure by Malawian standards. What is most surprising is that there is a low rate of adoption of soil conservation practices even in areas where adopters and non-adopters work side by side. For these reasons, the study was undertaken to achieve the following key objectives: (i) to assess farmers’ perception of technologies for controlling soil erosion; (ii) to assess the influence of social, economic, environmental, and institutional variables on the choice of soil-erosion-control technologies; and (iii) to evaluate the financial profitability of technologies for controlling soil erosion.

Methodology

To achieve these objectives, a survey of 450 smallholder farmers was conducted in Zomba EPA using both personal interviews and participatory rural appraisal methods from late 2003 to 2004. The stratified random sampling technique and the proportionate approach were used to select the households so that the final sample had 40% adopters, of which 50% were women. In addition, a sub-sample of the farmers (i.e. 18 farmers) was engaged in constant dialogue on the findings of the study so as to verify whether the findings truly reflected farmers’ experiences on the ground. 
To capture essential elements for the study, four models were used, each geared toward a specific objective. The Tobit Model was used to explore farmers’ perceptions of soil-erosion-control technologies while the Nested Logit Model helped to understand the sequential decision-making process of smallholder farmers. The Net Present Value Model was used to compare the profitability of the different technologies. Finally, the Policy Analysis Matrix was used to analyze the impact of policy changes on the technologies. Because of data problems with regard to estimation of the terminal benefits of each technology, the net present value was used and a number of simulations were conducted to assess the profitability of the technologies over a period of 50 years. The key soil-erosion-control technologies identified in Malosa EPA were agroforestry, vetiver bunds, bare contour bunds, and box ridges.

Results

The results show that erosion rate, perception of soil retention, extension contact, field slope, and topsoil depth are important variables influencing smallholder farmers’ perception of the soil-erosion-control technologies. These variables were important in determining whether the smallholder farmers could consider adopting soil-erosion-control technologies. Higher soil-erosion rates and greater perception of the ability of a soil-erosion-control technology to retain soil on the farm increased adoption of the conservation technologies. Farmers who reported that extension workers visited them often and discussed issues related to soil erosion and remedial measures also showed greater adoption of the conservation technologies. It was also quite apparent that farmers who had fields on steeper slopes tended to adopt some form of soil-erosion-control technologies because they had no choice on such terrain if they were to get any crop output at all. Likewise, when the soil depth was relatively shallow, some farmers were encouraged to consider adopting some form of soil-conservation practice.

The Nested Logit Model was used to assess the factors responsible for the sequential adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. The first-step equation gave the probability of adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. This step showed that farm size, labor, food availability, and location of farm were important factors in deciding whether or not to adopt soil-erosion-control technologies in general. In this step, the larger the farm and the more the amount of labor and food available, the more likely it is for the farmer to adopt soil-erosion-control technologies. Farmers with small farms, limited labor, and limited food stocks tended to seek employment from larger farmers at the expense of their own farms, thereby perpetuating their vicious cycle of poverty, which led to little or no adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. The location of a farm in relation to an agricultural office was found to be significant in adoption decision, and this was attributed to the fact that the farmers located close to an agricultural office were more likely to get frequent interaction with agricultural officers. Such farmers may feel pressured to adopt soil-erosion-control technologies because they know that agricultural officers can easily access their fields.

In the second-step decision-making equation, the emphasis was on the selection of technology type: physical or biological. In this stage, the significant variable was extension, which portrayed the fact that the presence of extension staff is crucial to farmers’ decision on whether to implement physical or biological soil-erosion-control measures. In the third-step decision-making equation, two choices under each technology type (physical: bare contour bunds and box ridges; biological: agroforestry and vetiver bunds) were the dependent variables. The important factors in this stage were found to be the ranking of technology in terms of effectiveness, extension contact, cost, and slope. The third-stage estimation results reinforced the importance of extension in the choice of soil-erosion-control technologies among the smallholder farmers.

Profitability was assessed using a simulated net present value model. The results showed that vetiver bunds are the most profitable and effective soil-erosion-control technology in Malosa EPA. The second best was bare contour bunds, followed by agroforestry and box ridges. Sensitivity analysis showed that the ranking of the technologies remained the same, except that a reduction in output price or an increase in the discount rate led to diminished profitability of all technologies. Box ridges gave a negative net present value of benefits when the output price was reduced by 25%. The Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) showed that the technologies were being taxed due to low producer prices.

Conclusions

The study has demonstrated that the Tobit and the sequential models of adoption can effectively be used to understand the reasons for adoption of technologies in the smallholder sub-sector in Malawi. Farm size, labor, and food availability are significant factors that govern the probability of adoption of soil-conservation technologies. Farmers with large farms tend to fall in the group of adopters. Farmers with small farms are perpetually food-insecure and this status locks them into a vicious cycle of poverty that translates into a low rate of adoption of soil-erosion-control technologies. On the basis of the intricate linkage between poverty, food insecurity, and poor conservation works, any effort to persuade farmers to engage in soil conservation, without finding concrete solutions to their poverty and food insecurity, is futile.
The Net Present Value Model has demonstrated that vetiver bunds are the most profitable and effective methods of combating soil erosion. The effectiveness of the vetiver bunds lies in the fact that they combine two technologies (bare contour bunds and vetiver grass) and the vetiver grass has an excellent rooting system.

Policy Recommendations

To induce farmers to adopt soil-conservation practices, it is important to have a holistic approach which looks at all the facets of the life of the poor rural households. To do this, food-for-work programs targeting the poor should be linked to making the poor rural households work on their own farms at least for a minimum of two days a week. The work they do on their farms needs to be linked to soil-conservation practices and other modern agronomic practices. In addition, targeted input programs should also have, as one of their preconditions, the need for the poor rural households to demonstrate that they have implemented some serious soil-conservation work on their farms.

Since vetiver bunds proved to be the most effective soil-erosion-control technology, it is recommended that farmers be encouraged to adopt the technology. The advantage with this technology is that it also provides thatch grass from the vetiver, which farmers can use for various household activities. There is also a need to consider promising indigenous soil-conservation practices in terms of research in order to improve their technical efficiencies. Because farmers are receiving low prices, the government should revisit the social functions of the parastatal marketing board (ADMARC) so that it can effectively defend the minimum producer prices for the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Finally, building the capacity of farmers and staff in the Ministry of Agriculture and NGOs is the key to successful research and the dissemination and implementation of promising soil-erosion-control technologies.