Kamau Emma Wangari, Gitau Raphael, Bett Hillary K
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management Egerton University, Kenya, P.O. Box 412-20200, Kericho, Kenya.
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management Egerton University, Kenya, P.0. Box 536, 20115, Egerton-Njoro, Kenya.
Heliyon. 2024 Jul 14;10(14):e34610. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34610. eCollection 2024 Jul 30.
Farmers have adopted ecological farming to overcome the adverse effects of climate change and conventional agriculture. However, the performance of ecological approaches, especially the economic outcomes of ecological practices adopted as a package, has yet to be widely documented in Kenya. This paper aims to fill this gap and generate pertinent information on the implications of adopting different ecological practices bundles on farm income. The study considers five ecological practices: crop diversification, composting, mulching, minimum tillage, and integrated pest management (IPM). This study employed a multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model to capture the effect of adopting different combinations of ecological practices on farm income. The results reveal that 15.3 % of the surveyed households adopted a bundle combining composting, crop diversification, and IPM. Households that adopted a comprehensive package (comprising all five ecological practices) had the largest positive impact on farm income, increasing it by 9.2 %. This package replaces chemical inputs with locally available resources, restores degraded soils and diversifies production risks to increase food production and farm income. Farming experience, off-farm activities, farm size, perceptions of the effects of conventional agriculture, and drought and floods significantly influenced the adoption of the comprehensive package. This study's findings imply that policymakers and related stakeholders should provide timely weather-related information, enforce sustainable land use laws, and establish targeted extension services and information campaigns to heighten the adoption of all five ecological practices and enhance household welfare by increasing farm income.
农民们采用生态农业来克服气候变化和传统农业的不利影响。然而，生态方法的成效，尤其是作为一个整体采用的生态实践的经济成果，在肯尼亚尚未得到广泛记载。本文旨在填补这一空白，并提供有关采用不同生态实践组合对农场收入影响的相关信息。该研究考虑了五种生态实践：作物多样化、堆肥、覆盖、少耕和病虫害综合防治（IPM）。本研究采用多项内生转换回归（MESR）模型来捕捉采用不同生态实践组合对农场收入的影响。结果显示，15.3%的受访家庭采用了堆肥、作物多样化和病虫害综合防治相结合的组合方式。采用综合方案（包括所有五种生态实践）的家庭对农场收入的积极影响最大，使其增加了9.2%。该方案用当地可得资源替代化学投入物，恢复退化土壤并分散生产风险，以增加粮食产量和农场收入。农业经验、非农活动、农场规模、对传统农业影响的认知以及干旱和洪水对综合方案的采用有显著影响。本研究结果表明，政策制定者和相关利益攸关方应提供及时的天气相关信息，执行可持续土地利用法律，并开展有针对性的推广服务和宣传活动，以提高所有五种生态实践的采用率，并通过增加农场收入来提升家庭福利。
