Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
-
Book (series)Leveraging social protection to advance climate-smart agriculture: evidence from Malawi 2021
Also available in:
No results found.In many developing countries the adoption of climate sustainable practices is hindered by resource and risk barriers. This paper assesses the interactions between participation in Malawi’s largest public works programme, the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), and three widely promoted climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. The underlying hypotheses to be tested are: (a) that participation in the MASAF programme reduce both the budget and the risk constraints to the adoption of sustainable management practices; and (b) the joint treatment effect of MASAF and CSA increases household farms’ productivity and welfare. Drawing on three waves of national panel household survey data, we find that participation in MASAF significantly increases the probability that farm households adopt all the CSA practices considered for this study. -
Book (stand-alone)Climate adaptation, perceived resilience, and food security
Comparative evidence from Kenya and Zambia
2023Also available in:
No results found.This study uses comparable data collected in a pastoralist setting in Kenya and a rain-fed crop production context in Zambia to examine the relationship between climate-adaptive practices, food security, and households’ perceived resilience against climatic shocks. We sort climate-adaptive practices based on their relative factor intensities or diversification decisions, which allows us to draw comparisons regarding these relationships across diverse production systems. Using the doubly robust inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) approach to account for potential selection issues, we find that capital-intensive adaptive strategies are consistently and positively associated with resilience, food security, and income in both contexts. Labour-intensive and diversification strategies have generally positive but heterogeneous impacts across the two production systems, likely governed by contextual differences. Results also highlight the complementarity of adaptive practices in improving household welfare in both contexts. The findings suggest that alleviating the barriers to adoption of climate-adaptive practices and promoting adaptation in several dimensions of rural livelihoods simultaneously can enhance resilience to climate shocks and reduce poverty. -
Brochure, flyer, fact-sheetCropping systems diversification to enhance productivity and adaptation to climate change in Malawi 2019
Also available in:
No results found.Widespread maize monocropping in Malawi exposes farmers to significant livelihood risk in the context of increasing climate variability. 36 percent of rural households grow maize in monocrop. These farmers are often poor and land constrained, and experience low levels of productivity and high production volatility. The effects of crop diversification on farm productivity and income volatility in Malawi varies across cropping systems. Maize in combination with legumes is the only cropping system in Malawi that is significantly associated with an increase in productivity and a reduction in crop income volatility. Contrary to expectations, cropping systems with 3 or more crops do not significantly reduce crop income volatility relative to maize monocropping. Market weaknesses for many non-maize crops in Malawi limit the benefits from diversification. Higher volatility in prices of many non-maize crop is a disincentive to the adoption of diversified systems and pushes farmers toward monocropping. Household constraints are a key barrier to adopting more diverse cropping systems. Sufficient household assets, particularly land, enable households to overcome the investment and risk costs associated with crop diversification. Coordination between private and public investments are required to improve the incentives for diversification in Malawi. A coordinated effort to strengthening input and output markets for non-maize crops, combined with public support to overcome household-level resource constraints to diversification (including public works programmes, input subsidies, and cash transfers) is necessary to promote widespread crop diversification.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.