Determinants of crop abandonment by smallholder maize farmers in Zambia

Nixon S. Chekenya, Nanii Yenibehit and Canicio Dzingirai

Agrekon, 2024, vol. 63, issue 3

Abstract: Crop abandonment is when farmers decide not to harvest their previously planted crop. There is limited but emerging literature on crop abandonment or failure predominantly examining weather and crop failure rates. Consistent with these existing scant studies, it is not immediately clear to what extent historical relationships can be extrapolated in the long run under climate change. This paper seeks to improve our understanding of determinants of crop abandonment decisions in Zambia for maize production at subnational level. We find that crop abandonment (harvesting) is positively (negatively) related to fertiliser use, rainfall and temperature and negatively (positively) related to cost of living, price of maize, index-based insurance cover, town and random shocks. Therefore, fertiliser, rainfall and temperature increase the likelihood of crop abandonment in Zambia whereas increasing cost of living, maize price, insurance participation, town specific and random shock reduce it.

Keywords: Crop; Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/348234/files/D ... rs%20in%20Zambia.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:agreko:348234

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.348234

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Agrekon from Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().