TY - JOUR

T1 - Is Sustainable Intensification Pro-Poor? Evidence from Small-Scale Farmers in Rural Tanzania

AU - Brüssow, Kathleen

AU - Faße, Anja

AU - Grote, Ulrike

N1 - Funding information: Acknowledgments: This publication is a product of the Trans-SEC project (www.trans-sec.org), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The views expressed belong to the authors and may not under any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the BMBF and BMZ.

PY - 2017/9/15

Y1 - 2017/9/15

N2 - The transition of farming systems to higher levels of productivity without overusing natural resources is of rising interest especially in African countries, where population growth has often been larger than past productivity increases. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on whether environmentally friendly agricultural practices are compatible with economic interests. In the context of small-scale farm households in Tanzania, the analysis focuses on Conservation Agriculture (CA) at different levels of agricultural output, as CA is a promising toolbox for sustainable intensification. The results are based on a household survey conducted in 2014 with 900 randomly selected small-scale farmers in rural Tanzania, i.e., in semi-arid Dodoma and in semi-humid Morogoro region. We find that mulching is most frequently applied, followed by crop rotation, fallowing, intercropping and tree planting. Logit regressions show that CA adoption is influenced by socio-economic factors, farm characteristics and the regional context. Quantile regressions explain different levels of agricultural output through variables related to the extent of using CA. They indicate that marginalized farmers have the strongest crop income effect from an increased use of mulching. With increasing levels of agricultural output, the use of mulching remains beneficial for farmers, but the effect appears less pronounced.

AB - The transition of farming systems to higher levels of productivity without overusing natural resources is of rising interest especially in African countries, where population growth has often been larger than past productivity increases. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on whether environmentally friendly agricultural practices are compatible with economic interests. In the context of small-scale farm households in Tanzania, the analysis focuses on Conservation Agriculture (CA) at different levels of agricultural output, as CA is a promising toolbox for sustainable intensification. The results are based on a household survey conducted in 2014 with 900 randomly selected small-scale farmers in rural Tanzania, i.e., in semi-arid Dodoma and in semi-humid Morogoro region. We find that mulching is most frequently applied, followed by crop rotation, fallowing, intercropping and tree planting. Logit regressions show that CA adoption is influenced by socio-economic factors, farm characteristics and the regional context. Quantile regressions explain different levels of agricultural output through variables related to the extent of using CA. They indicate that marginalized farmers have the strongest crop income effect from an increased use of mulching. With increasing levels of agricultural output, the use of mulching remains beneficial for farmers, but the effect appears less pronounced.

KW - Conservation agriculture

KW - Small-scale farming

KW - Sustainable intensification

KW - Tanzania

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087638904&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/resources6030047

DO - 10.3390/resources6030047

M3 - Article

VL - 6

SP - 47

JO - Resources

JF - Resources

IS - 3

M1 - 47

ER -