International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Abuja, Nigeria.
Food Security and Safety Niche Area, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North West University, Private Mail Bag X2046, Mmabatho, 2790, North West Province, South Africa.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr;30(19):56016-56036. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26280-2. Epub 2023 Mar 13.
One of the most serious challenges threatening agricultural sustainability in Nigeria is land degradation. Although this issue has received little attention, soil and water conservation practices have been identified as a possible pathway out of the potential problems posed by land degradation. Therefore, the central research question that this paper tries to address is the following: Do adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices affect crop productivity and household welfare? This paper uses data collected by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) from maize farmers in rural Nigeria. We usedemploy the propensity score matching (PSM), inverse probability weighting adjusted regression model (IPWRA) approach, and the linear regression with endogenous treatment effect (LRETE) model to incorporate the typologies of SWC practices, and tested how the model affects crop productivity and household welfare. Additionally, multinomial logit was used to estimate the factors influencing the decision to adopt single and multiple SWC practices. The estimates show that education, age of the household head, access to credit, experience of drought, soil fertility, and occupational stress contribute to the decision to adopt SWC practices. The casual effect estimates reveal that both single and multiple adoptions of SWC practices had a positive and significant relationship with the crop productivity and welfare of the adopters. The results show that the adoption of combined SWC practices has a higher impact on crop productivity and welfare than single SWC practices. For instance, the adoption of a combination of three SWC practices was found to increase crop productivity and household welfare by 27.55% and 38.23%, respectively versus 13.91% and 15.11% in the case of single SWC practices. The study suggests that profile-raising agenda and efforts that focus on promoting the adoption of combination of SWC practices should be designed and implemented to enhance crop productivity and hence the welfare of the maize farming households in rural Nigeria.
尼日利亚农业可持续性面临的最严峻挑战之一是土地退化。尽管这个问题没有得到太多关注，但土壤和水资源保护实践已被确定为解决土地退化潜在问题的可能途径。因此，本文试图解决的核心研究问题如下：采用水土保持（SWC）措施是否会影响作物生产力和农户福利？本文使用国际热带农业研究所（IITA）从尼日利亚农村玉米种植户收集的数据。我们采用倾向得分匹配（PSM）、逆概率加权调整回归模型（IPWRA）方法和具有内生处理效应的线性回归（LRETE）模型来纳入 SWC 实践的类型，并检验模型如何影响作物生产力和农户福利。此外，还使用多项逻辑回归来估计影响采用单一和多种 SWC 实践的决策的因素。估计结果表明，教育、户主年龄、获得信贷、干旱经历、土壤肥力和职业压力有助于做出采用 SWC 实践的决策。因果效应估计表明，单一和多种 SWC 实践的采用都与采用者的作物生产力和福利呈正相关且具有显著关系。结果表明，采用综合 SWC 实践对作物生产力和福利的影响高于单一 SWC 实践。例如，与采用单一 SWC 实践相比，采用三种 SWC 实践的组合可分别将作物生产力和农户福利提高 27.55%和 38.23%。研究表明，应设计和实施提高认识议程和努力，重点促进综合 SWC 实践的采用，以提高作物生产力，从而提高尼日利亚农村玉米种植户的福利。
