Based on cross-sectional data drawn from 135 treated and 68 control farmers in Tanzania, and 133 treated and 71 control farmers in Zambia, this study uses propensity score matching to test whether conservation agriculture (CA) improves smallholder farmers’ welfare, in response to the policy objective of enhancing their resilience in the face of climate change. Farmers in Tanzania assess CA as having statistically significant impacts on increasing total agricultural yield, adaptation to climate change impacts, resilience to droughts, increasing maize production, enhancing household food security, increasing number of meals per day, increasing household income, accumulation of productive assets , addressing gender disparity and social cohesion, and improving soil health . However, CA had no impact on reducing the forest area cleared per year and total agricultural costs. Farmers in Zambia assess CA as having statistically significant impacts on increasing total agricultural yield , adaptation to climate change impacts, resilience to droughts, increasing maize production, enhancing household food security, increasing number of meals per day, decreasing number of food insecure months, increasing household income, accumulation of productive assets, addressing agricultural calendar bottlenecks, increasing total agricultural costs, addressing gender disparity and social cohesion, and decreasing soil health. However, CA had no impact on reducing forest area cleared per year. Policy could use such evidence to leverage CA adoption in support of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2063, although its potential to sequester carbon and provide ecosystem services comes into question. / Dissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / AERC-CMAAE / African Conversation Tillage Network / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics) / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/78422 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Sankhulani, Linda |
| Contributors | Mungatana, Eric D., u18216090@tuks.co.za, Mkomwa, Saidi |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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