Factors Influencing the Double-Up Adoption of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies among Smallholder Maize Farmers in Malawi

Blessings Youngster Tikita and Sang-Ho Lee ()
Additional contact information
Blessings Youngster Tikita: Department of Public Policy and Leadership, Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea
Sang-Ho Lee: Department of Food Economics and Service, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Maize remains the staple grain in Malawi; hence, the cropping system of most smallholder farmers is dominated by the crop, often mono-cropped for food security. Consequently, Malawi’s agriculture sector is made vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. For instance, crop failure results in food insecurity and the low income of farm households. In response, there are coping mechanisms, which can be adopted by farmers to mitigate these negative climate change effects, namely maize–legume diversification, organic manure use, and the practice of agroforestry. Therefore, the underlying objective of this study was to assess the factors influencing smallholder maize farmers’ decision to engage in the double-up adoption of climate change adaptation strategies in Malawi. Both descriptive statistics and the logistic regression model were employed to statistically analyze these factors, and the results of the analysis revealed that landholding size, inorganic fertilizer use, access to credit, seed access, adherence to extension services, and input coupon access were significant in influencing dual adoption. Furthermore, this study recommends policies, which underscore land access and safeguard the land rights of smallholder maize farmers, and also private sector engagement in complementing government efforts in ensuring increased access to seeds. Additionally, improving farmers’ adherence to agricultural extension services is recommended. Thus, addressing the constraints of small-scale farmers observed in this study will act as an incentive for farmers to consider dual adoption, which is perceived to be a feasible method to combat climate change effects.

Keywords: maize–legume diversification; organic fertilizer use; agroforestry; sustainable intensification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/602/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/602/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:602-:d:1316319

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().