Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
factors that impede adoption. Some of the most important factors impeding adop-
tion are as follows: lack of capital accumulation among poor farmers, incompetent
government structures and leadership, exploitation of natural resources by external
groups, lack of free market policies, little investment in conservation infrastruc-
tures, lack of enforcement of existing conservation policies, uncertain land tenure
rights, cheap food policies by government to keep food and fiber prices low for urban
elites, little investment in infrastructures and communication systems, and a host
of other needed public investments to reduce the level of poverty. Kraybill (2010)
and Southgate and Graham (2010) note that very few subsistence farmers have any
formal education and/or technical training, which means human skills required to
adopt and effectively use new conservation production systems do not exist among
potential adopters. Subsistence farmers do not possess requisite economic resources
to adopt conservation production systems. This means poor farmers will continue to
exploit farmland because they have no other options.
Subsistence farmers “mine”* the land (Henao and Baanante 2006) because they
do not have access to resources to make investments in soil and water conservation
initiatives on their farms. Baidu-Forson (1994) discusses adoption of soil and water
conservation in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Africa, and notes that socioeconomic
factors are very important factors in the decision to adopt and/or reject conservation
production systems. While wind and water erosion are very severe within the study
region and adoption of soil and water conservation production systems is essential to
long-term productivity of land resources, adoption of conservation production systems
is very low. The author notes that lack of access to machinery, fertilizer, and other
farm inputs impede the adoption of conservation production systems. He also notes
that lack of access to capital to invest in conservation, lack of access to labor due to
migration of males for work in other areas, low and slow return to investments made in
conservation, lack of awareness of benefits associated with adoption of conservation
practices, inability of subsistence farmers to assume risk associated with adoption,
lack of knowledge about how to implement conservation production systems, lack of
awareness of the need for specific soil and water conservation practices, insecure land
tenure rights to land operated by subsistence farmers, and a host of other factors are
the major reasons that adoption has been slow within the study region.
Pagiola (1994) examined soil conservation issues in Kenya in the context of the
economic return to investment in conservation structures. His research demonstrated
that creation of certain types of physical structures resulted in improved income and
enhanced environmental quality. He also noted that all farmers did not adopt the
new terracing system although it was demonstrated that adoption often produced
net benefits for those who adopted the new production techniques. He observed that
the two most important barriers to adoption of the new conservation terraces were
lack of human skills and the labor required to construct them. The terrace building
technique being diffused consisted of removing soil along the contour of sloped land
*
“Mine the land” means that land managers extract everything possible from land resources without
making investments in the improvements of soil quality. Output is maximized without regard for
future consequences of land degradation. Exploitation of land resources occurs most often when land
managers have no other option in terms of survival.
