Adoption of Organic Farming Technologies: Evidence from Semi-Arid Regions of Ethiopia

Menale Kassie, Precious Zikhali (), Kebede Manjur () and Sue Edwards
Additional contact information
Precious Zikhali: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG
Kebede Manjur: Tigray Agricultural Research Institute, Postal: Alamata Agricultural Research Center , P.O. Box 56, Alamat
Sue Edwards: Institute for Sustainable Development,, Postal: PO Box 171-1110 , Addis Ababa, Ethiopia., , sustaindeveth@ethionet.et

No 335, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: In the wake of resource constraints faced by farmers in developing countries in using external farm inputs, sustainable agricultural production practices that rely on local or farm renewable resources present desirable options for enhancing agricultural productivity. In this paper we use plot-level data from the semi-arid region of Ethiopia, Tigray, to investigate the factors influencing farmers' decisions to adopt sustainable agricultural production practices, with a particular focus on conservation tillage and compost. While there is heterogeneity with regards to factors influencing the choice to use either practice, results from a multinomial logit analysis underscore the importance of both plot and household characteristics on adoption decisions. In particular we find that poverty, and access to information, among other factors, impact the choice of farming practices significantly. We also find evidence that the impact of gender on technology adoption is technology specific while the significance of plot characteristics indicate the decision to adopt specific technologies is location-specific. Furthermore the use of stochastic dominance analysis supports the contention that sustainable farming practices enhance productivity -they even prove to be superior to the use of chemical fertilizers- justifying the need to investigate factors that influence adoption of these practices and use this knowledge to formulate policies that encourage adoption.

Keywords: Sustainable agriculture; Adoption; Productivity; Compost; Conservation tillage; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q12 Q16 Q24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2008-12-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-eff and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published in Natural Resources Forum, 2009, pages 189-98.

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