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Does zero tillage improve the livelihoods of small and medium holder cropping farmers in the temperate developing world?

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Title Does zero tillage improve the livelihoods of small and medium holder cropping farmers in the temperate developing world?
 
Creator Al-Shater, Tamer
 
Contributor Yigezu, Yigezu
Mugera, Amin
Piggin, Colin
Haddad, Atef
Khalil, Yaseen
Loss, Stephen Peter
Aw-Hassan, Aden A.
 
Subject endogenous switching regression
 
Description The biophysical benefits of zero tillage (ZT) are well documented in the literature. However, the literature on its economic benefits, especially in the context of small and medium-scale farmers in the temperate developing world is still scanty. This paper uses a case study of 621 wheat farmers in Syria to provide empirical evidence on the impacts of adoption of ZT on farm income and wheat consumption. Propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous switching regression (ESR) approaches that account for potential selection biases are used to achieve the objective of the study. After controlling for all confounding factors, we find that adoption of the ZT technology leads to US$189/ha (33%) increase in net crop income and a 26kg (34%) gain in per capita wheat consumption per year (adult equivalent) - an indication of meaningful changes in the livelihoods of the farm households. Besides the biophysical and environmental benefits documented elsewhere, our results suggest that adoption of ZT can also be justified on economic and food security grounds. Therefore, ZT can have sizeable impacts in transforming the agricultural sector in the temperate developing world provided that the technology is well promoted and adopted.
 
Date 2017-03-04T21:55:59Z
2017-03-04T21:55:59Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier https://mel.cgiar.org/reporting/downloadmelspace/hash/bQ66bKxC/v/49e137e4ab2a34e22a24bacfd72d7a49
Tamer Al-Shater, Yigezu Yigezu, Amin Mugera, Colin Piggin, Atef Haddad, Yaseen Khalil, Stephen Peter Loss, Aden A. Aw-Hassan. (23/2/2016). Does zero tillage improve the livelihoods of small and medium holder cropping farmers in the temperate developing world. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 67 (1), pp. 154-172.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/6127
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Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-4.0
 
Format DOCX
 
Publisher Wiley
 
Source Journal of Agricultural Economics;67,(2016) Pagination 154-172