Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana

While sustainable intensification has been aggressively promoted as an agricultural development strategy among smallholder farmers since the beginning of the last decade, there is a dearth of evidence on whether farmers are interested in practicing it and how much value they put to its different com...

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Autores principales: Kotu, Bekele Hundie, Oyinbo, O., Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard, Nurudeen, A.R., Kizito, Fred, Boyubie, B.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/118105
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author Kotu, Bekele Hundie
Oyinbo, O.
Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard
Nurudeen, A.R.
Kizito, Fred
Boyubie, B.
author_browse Boyubie, B.
Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard
Kizito, Fred
Kotu, Bekele Hundie
Nurudeen, A.R.
Oyinbo, O.
author_facet Kotu, Bekele Hundie
Oyinbo, O.
Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard
Nurudeen, A.R.
Kizito, Fred
Boyubie, B.
author_sort Kotu, Bekele Hundie
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description While sustainable intensification has been aggressively promoted as an agricultural development strategy among smallholder farmers since the beginning of the last decade, there is a dearth of evidence on whether farmers are interested in practicing it and how much value they put to its different components. This study aims at analyzing farmers' preferences for maize production technologies within the lens of sustainable intensification. Employing a discrete choice experiment to generate over 12,500 observations from a sample of about 700 maize-producing households in northern Ghana, we analyze farmers' preferences with respect to five domains of sustainable intensification including productivity, economic, human, environmental, and social conditions. We find that farmers are favorably disposed to maize-based cropping systems that align with the domains of sustainable intensification over their current cropping practices. While farmers value all the sustainable intensification attributes considered in the study, we observe substantial heterogeneities among them in the pooled sample and in the sub-samples between regions and gender categories. The findings suggest that sustainable intensification is not just a fad within the academic and research circles but something farmers are interested in and that development actions are more likely to succeed when they consider preference heterogeneities among farmers and adapt to local conditions. The findings can be used to set an evaluation criterion in designing and testing technologies (or a mix of technologies) for sustainable maize production among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana as well as similar socio-cultural and agroecological settings, supporting national and regional level efforts for R&D prioritization.
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spelling CGSpace1181052025-11-13T10:39:10Z Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana Kotu, Bekele Hundie Oyinbo, O. Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard Nurudeen, A.R. Kizito, Fred Boyubie, B. farming systems intensification sustainable intensification maize smallholders While sustainable intensification has been aggressively promoted as an agricultural development strategy among smallholder farmers since the beginning of the last decade, there is a dearth of evidence on whether farmers are interested in practicing it and how much value they put to its different components. This study aims at analyzing farmers' preferences for maize production technologies within the lens of sustainable intensification. Employing a discrete choice experiment to generate over 12,500 observations from a sample of about 700 maize-producing households in northern Ghana, we analyze farmers' preferences with respect to five domains of sustainable intensification including productivity, economic, human, environmental, and social conditions. We find that farmers are favorably disposed to maize-based cropping systems that align with the domains of sustainable intensification over their current cropping practices. While farmers value all the sustainable intensification attributes considered in the study, we observe substantial heterogeneities among them in the pooled sample and in the sub-samples between regions and gender categories. The findings suggest that sustainable intensification is not just a fad within the academic and research circles but something farmers are interested in and that development actions are more likely to succeed when they consider preference heterogeneities among farmers and adapt to local conditions. The findings can be used to set an evaluation criterion in designing and testing technologies (or a mix of technologies) for sustainable maize production among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana as well as similar socio-cultural and agroecological settings, supporting national and regional level efforts for R&D prioritization. 2022-04 2022-02-14T07:30:42Z 2022-02-14T07:30:42Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/118105 en Open Access Elsevier Kotu, B.H., Oyinbo, O., Hoeschle-Zeledon, I., Nurudeen, A.R., Kizito, F. and Boyubie, B. 2022. Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana. World Development 152:105789
spellingShingle farming systems
intensification
sustainable intensification
maize
smallholders
Kotu, Bekele Hundie
Oyinbo, O.
Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard
Nurudeen, A.R.
Kizito, Fred
Boyubie, B.
Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana
title Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana
title_full Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana
title_fullStr Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana
title_short Smallholder farmers’ preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production: Evidence from Ghana
title_sort smallholder farmers preferences for sustainable intensification attributes in maize production evidence from ghana
topic farming systems
intensification
sustainable intensification
maize
smallholders
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/118105
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