EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The performance of natural resource management interventions in agriculture: Evidence from alternative meta-regression analyses

Luis A. De los Santos-Montero, Boris E. Bravo-Ureta, Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel and Eva Hasiner

Ecological Economics, 2020, vol. 171, issue C

Abstract: As the world population grows, so do the challenges facing global agricultural systems. Increasing production to satisfy the world's demand for food, fiber and energy intensifies pressure on natural resources, especially soil and water. To face these challenges, natural resource management (NRM) technologies have been promoted by development organizations. Although a significant body of evidence has been produced, the debate about the potential of NRM technologies for increasing agricultural productivity and decreasing environmental degradation is ongoing. We analyze a comprehensive dataset of 75 studies from around the world to examine why effects vary among studies and across different interventions, countries, and methods. The results indicate that NRM technologies have had a significant and positive effect on yields and monetary outcomes such as income and profits. The magnitude of these outcomes vary depending on factors such as rainfall variability, whether training is provided to NRM adopters, whether a government agency oversees the implementation of an NRM program, the number of NRM technologies adopted by a farmer, and the lag between program implementation and evaluation. Our results support the notion that NRM technologies are appropriate instruments to boost productivity and the efficient use of natural resources.

Keywords: Natural resource management; Agriculture; Meta-regression analysis; Impact evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919307049
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:171:y:2020:i:c:s0921800919307049

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106605

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 ().

 
Page updated 2025-05-16
Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:171:y:2020:i:c:s0921800919307049