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A cost-benefit analysis of climate-smart agriculture options in Southern Africa: Balancing gender and technology

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Title A cost-benefit analysis of climate-smart agriculture options in Southern Africa: Balancing gender and technology
 
Creator Mutenje, M.J.
Farnworth, Cathy Rozel
Stirling, Clare M.
Thierfelder, Christian
Mupangwa, W.
Nyagumbo, I.
 
Subject gender
decision making
climate-smart agriculture
cost benefit analysis
technology
women
 
Description Climate change and extreme weather events undermine smallholder household food and income security in
southern Africa. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies comprise a suite of interventions that aim to
sustainably increase productivity whilst helping farmers adapt their farming systems to climate change and to
manage risk more effectively. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and a mixed methods approach were used to assess the
likelihood of investment in various CSA technology combinations. The data were drawn respectively from 1440,
696, and 1448 sample households in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, covering 3622, 2106 and 5212 maizelegume
plots in these countries over two years. The cost-benefit analysis and stochastic dominance results
showed that CSA options that combined soil and water conservation management practices based on the
principles of conservation agriculture (CA), improved varieties, and associations of cereal-legume crop species
were economically viable and worth implementing for risk averse smallholder farmers. A dynamic mixed
multinomial logit demonstrated that women's bargaining power, drought shock, and access to CSA technology
information positively influenced the probability of investing in CSA technology combinations. This study
provides evidence of the importance of cultural context, social relevance and intra-household decision-making in
tailoring suitable combinations of CSA for smallholder farmers in southern Africa.
 
Date 2019-09
2019-10-03T14:47:33Z
2019-10-03T14:47:33Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Mutenje, M.J., Farnworth, C.R., Stirling, C., Thierfelder, C., Mupangwa, W. and Nyagumbo, I. 2019. A cost-benefit analysis of climate-smart agriculture options in Southern Africa: Balancing gender and technology. Ecological Economics 163: 126–137.
0921-8009
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103947
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.05.013
SOCIAL SCIENCE & AGRICUSINESS
 
Language en
 
Rights Other
Limited Access
 
Format p. 126-137
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Source Ecological Economics