Modeling Smallholder Farmers' Preferences for Soil Management Measures: A Case Study From South Ethiopia

Solomon Tarfasa, Bedru B. Balana, Tewodros Tefera, Teshale Woldeamanuel, Awdenegest Moges, Mengistu Dinato and Helaina Black

Ecological Economics, 2018, vol. 145, issue C, 410-419

Abstract: Land degradation is a major environmental problem in Ethiopia posing serious threats to agricultural productivity and livelihoods. The interactions of numerous socio-economic, demographic, natural, and institutional factors constitute the underlying causes of soil degradation in Ethiopia. However, there exist evidence gaps on the contextual factors that hinder investments on soil conservation among smallholders. Using primary data generated through a stated preference survey among 359 sample smallholder farm households in Southern Ethiopia, this study investigates investment constraints on soil management technologies among smallholders. A random parameter logit model was implemented to estimate the model. Results indicate that smallholders are willing to invest in soil management technologies if appropriate incentive mechanisms, primarily, secured land tenure rights and access to finance are in place. Unfortunately, the prevailing land tenure regime in the country does not allow private property rights on land and smallholders have very limited access to credit. Thus, instituting secure land rights and improving credit access to smallholders should be considered as key interventions to enhance adoption of soil management technologies. The study highlights that policy interventions that incentivize adoption of soil management measures provide not only on-site private benefits but wider societal off-site benefits through the provision of multiple ecosystem services.

Keywords: Choice Modeling; Ecosystem Services; Soil Management; Contract Design; Smallholder Farmers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180091631583X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:ecolec:v:145:y:2018:i:c:p:410-419

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.11.027

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().