Adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: Evidence from a semi‐arid region of Ethiopia

TLDR

Sustainable agriculture practices that rely on renewable local resources offer a desirable option to enhance productivity amid resource constraints for external inputs in developing countries. The study investigates factors influencing farmers’ adoption of conservation tillage, compost, and chemical fertilizer in Tigray, Ethiopia. The authors use a trivariate probit model and stochastic dominance analysis on six‑year farm‑level data to assess determinants and productivity impacts of the practices. Results show heterogeneous determinants of adoption, with household endowments and information access driving choices, and stochastic dominance analysis confirms that sustainable practices outperform chemical fertilizers in productivity.

Abstract

Abstract In the wake of the resource constraints for external farm inputs faced by farmers in developing countries, sustainable agriculture practices that rely on renewable local or farm resources present desirable options for enhancing agriculture productivity. In this study, plot‐level data from the semi‐arid region of Ethiopia, Tigray are used to investigate the factors influencing farmers' decisions to adopt agriculture practices, with a particular focus on conservation tillage, compost and chemical fertilizer. A trivariate probit model is used to analyze the determinants of adoption of these practices. In addition, stochastic dominance analysis is used to compare the productivity impacts of compost with that of chemical fertilizer based on a six‐year cross‐sectional farm‐level dataset. Our results indicate heterogeneity with regard to the factors that influence adoption decisions of the three practices and the importance of both plot and household characteristics on influencing adoption decisions. In particular, we found that household endowments and access to information, among other factors, impact the choice of sustainable farming practices significantly. Furthermore, the use of stochastic dominance analysis supported the contention that sustainable farming practices enhance productivity. They even proved to be superior to the use of chemical fertilizers — justifying the need to investigate factors that influence adoption of these practices and to use this knowledge to formulate policies that encourage adoption.