Factors influencing adoption of minimum tillage ripping and animal draught power among smallholder farmers in Zambia
type: CreativeWork
description: Conservation Farming (CF) practices and Animal draught power (ADP) have been promoted for years in Zambia and the rest of sub-Sahara Africa. CF has the potential to improve soil quality and raise farm incomes despite the variable climatic conditions. ADP is considered the least expensive form of mechanisation among smallholder farmers who cannot afford tractors. This study focused on the determination of the factors affecting the adoption of minimum tillage technology of ripping (MTR) and ADP among smallholder farmers in Zambia. It uses panel data from the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Survey (RALS) conducted by the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) in 2012 and 2015 in Zambia. The pooled sample used in the current study consists of 14,213 households broken down as 7,130 and 7,083 for the RALS of 2012 and 2015 respectively. The study also examined the extent to which adopters of MTR use ripping with ADP. Moreover, the Correlated Random Effects (CRE) estimator was used to estimate the unconditional average partial effects (APEs) in order to explore the within and between household effects on the hectares ripped. This analysis paved way for more robust results and determined the changes in the hectares ripped within a given household overtime and between households in a given period. These unconditional APEs were then compared with the unconditional APEs from the pooled estimator, that is, without the CRE estimator. Descriptive statistics indicated that use of ADP, ADP hire, partial CF adoption and non-adoption of CF changed between 2012 and 2015 by 40.3 to 43.8%, 16.8 to 19.8%, 6.2 to 5.8% and 89.8 to 89.2% respectively. This showed an increase in ADP use and ADP hire but reduction in partial CF. Gender aspects indicated that females hired ADP more than men while more men used ADP than women. Factors found to positively influence the adoption of ADP include male headed households, labour availability, ownership of a ripper and access to loans. Com…
abstract: Conservation Farming (CF) practices and Animal draught power (ADP) have been promoted for years in Zambia and the rest of sub-Sahara Africa. CF has the potential to improve soil quality and raise farm incomes despite the variable climatic conditions. ADP is considered the least expensive form of mechanisation among smallholder farmers who cannot afford tractors. This study focused on the determination of the factors affecting the adoption of minimum tillage technology of ripping (MTR) and ADP among smallholder farmers in Zambia. It uses panel data from the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Survey (RALS) conducted by the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) in 2012 and 2015 in Zambia. The pooled sample used in the current study consists of 14,213 households broken down as 7,130 and 7,083 for the RALS of 2012 and 2015 respectively. The study also examined the extent to which adopters of MTR use ripping with ADP. Moreover, the Correlated Random Effects (CRE) estimator was used to estimate the unconditional average partial effects (APEs) in order to explore the within and between household effects on the hectares ripped. This analysis paved way for more robust results and determined the changes in the hectares ripped within a given household overtime and between households in a given period. These unconditional APEs were then compared with the unconditional APEs from the pooled estimator, that is, without the CRE estimator. Descriptive statistics indicated that use of ADP, ADP hire, partial CF adoption and non-adoption of CF changed between 2012 and 2015 by 40.3 to 43.8%, 16.8 to 19.8%, 6.2 to 5.8% and 89.8 to 89.2% respectively. This showed an increase in ADP use and ADP hire but reduction in partial CF. Gender aspects indicated that females hired ADP more than men while more men used ADP than women. Factors found to positively influence the adoption of ADP include male headed households, labour availability, ownership of a ripper and access to loans. Com…
author: Sakala, Isabel Chalendo
language: en
keywords: Conservation farming
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-27T22:06:42Z
provider: University of Zimbabwe
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Zambia