Chalak Ali, Irani Alexandra, Chaaban Jad, Bashour Issam, Seyfert Karin, Smoot Kaitlyn, Abebe Gumataw Kifle
Department of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, P.O. Box 11-0236 Riad el Solh, Beirut, 1107-2020, Lebanon.
Oxford Policy Management, Oxford, UK.
Environ Manage. 2017 Oct;60(4):693-704. doi: 10.1007/s00267-017-0904-6. Epub 2017 Jun 20.
With increasing food insecurity and climate change, conservation agriculture has emerged as a sustainable alternative to intensive conventional agriculture as a source of food supply. Yet the adoption rate of conservation agriculture is still low. Our paper analyses the factors affecting farmers' willingness to adopt conservation agriculture in Lebanon. The findings show that household characteristics-years of farming and farm size affect conservation agriculture adoption. However, household characteristics alone were insufficient to explain conservation agriculture adoption. We found that farming experience, information sources, frequency of irrigation, and severity of weed infestation in the past, participation in specific trainings, and farmers' perception about the long-term impact of conservation agriculture, were key determinants of conservation agriculture adoption. Our paper encourages policymakers to invest in conservation agriculture to overcome food insecurity and environmental changes affecting food systems in the Middle East. The paper also informs agribusiness firms to view conservation agriculture as a viable alternative to strengthen their business relationship with farmers in arid and semi-arid regions.
随着粮食不安全状况加剧和气候变化，保护性农业已成为集约化传统农业之外可持续的粮食供应来源。然而，保护性农业的采用率仍然很低。我们的论文分析了影响黎巴嫩农民采用保护性农业意愿的因素。研究结果表明，家庭特征——务农年限和农场规模会影响保护性农业的采用。然而，仅凭家庭特征不足以解释保护性农业的采用情况。我们发现，务农经验、信息来源、过去的灌溉频率和杂草侵扰程度、参与特定培训以及农民对保护性农业长期影响的认知，是采用保护性农业的关键决定因素。我们的论文鼓励政策制定者投资于保护性农业，以克服影响中东粮食系统的粮食不安全和环境变化问题。本文还告知农业综合企业，将保护性农业视为加强与干旱和半干旱地区农民业务关系的可行选择。
