Person: Keil, A.
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Keil
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Keil, A.
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0000-0002-8085-7279 13 results
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- Conservation agriculture benefits indian farmers, but technology targeting needed for greater impacts(Frontiers, 2022) Krishna, V.; Keil, A.; Jain, M.; Weiqi Zhou; Monish Jose; Subash, S.P.; Barba-Escoto, L.; Singh, B.; Jat, M.L.; Erenstein, O.
Publication - Changing agricultural stubble burning practices in the Indo-Gangetic plains: is the Happy Seeder a profitable alternative?(Taylor & Francis, 2021) Keil, A.; Krishnapriya, P.P.; Mitra, A.; Jat, M.L.; Sidhu, H.S.; Krishna, V.; Shyamsundar, P.
Publication - Climate and landscape mediate patterns of low lentil productivity in Nepal(Public Library of Science, 2020) Paudel, G.; Devkota, M.; Keil, A.; Mcdonald, A.
Publication - Zero-tillage wheat provides stable yield and economic benefits under diverse growing season climates in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains(Taylor & Francis, 2020) Keil, A.; Mitra, A.; Mcdonald, A.; Malik, R.
Publication - Social inclusion increases with time for zero-tillage wheat in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains(Elsevier, 2019) Keil, A.; Mitra, A.; Srivastava, A.; Mcdonald, A.Sustainable intensification (SI) approaches to agricultural development are urgently needed to meet the growing demand for crop staples while protecting ecosystem services and environmental quality. However, SI initiatives have been criticized for neglecting social welfare outcomes. A recent review found that better-off farmers benefitted disproportionately from SI and highlighted the dearth of studies assessing the equity of outcomes. In this study, we explore the social inclusiveness of zero-tillage (ZT) wheat adoption in Bihar, India. ZT is a proven SI technology for enhancing wheat productivity while boosting profitability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural machinery in the densely populated Indo-Gangetic Plains. With an average landholding size of 0.39 ha, most farmers in Bihar depend on custom-hiring services to access the technology. While service provision models should foster inclusive growth by reducing financial barriers to technology adoption, early evidence suggested that smallholders remained at a disadvantage. Building on this previous research, we use a panel dataset from 961 wheat-growing households that spans a six-year period to analyze ZT adoption dynamics over time while accounting for the role of social networks and access to service provision. Using a heckprobit approach to correct for non-exposure bias, we compare determinants of ZT awareness and use in 2012 and 2015. We apply a multinomial logit model to identify determinants of early adoption, recent adoption, non-adoption, and dis-adoption. Furthermore, we explore the quality of ZT services as an additional dimension of socially-inclusive technology access. We find that the strong initial scale bias in ZT use declined substantially as awareness of the technology increased and the service economy expanded. Land fragmentation replaced total landholding size as a significant adoption determinant, which also affected the quality of ZT services received. Hence, farmers with small but contiguous landholdings appear to have gained a significant degree of access over time. We conclude that early-stage assessments of SI may be misleading, and that private sector-based service provision can contribute to socially inclusive development outcomes as markets mature.
Publication - Understanding clients, providers and the institutional dimensions of irrigation services in developing countries: a study of water markets in Bangladesh(Elsevier, 2019) Mottaleb, K.A.; Krupnik, T.J.; Keil, A.; Erenstein, O.Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated nations that nonetheless has largely achieved staple self-sufficiency. This development has been enabled in part by the rapid proliferation of small-scale irrigation pumps that enabled double rice cropping, as well as by a competitive market system in which farmers purchase water at affordable fee-for-service prices from private irrigation pump owners. Excess groundwater abstraction in areas of high shallow tube-well density and increased fuel costs for pumping have however called into question the sustainability of Bangladesh's groundwater irrigation economy. Cost-saving agronomic methods are called for, alongside aligned policies, markets, and farmers? incentives. The study assesses different institutions and water-pricing methods for irrigation services that have emerged in Bangladesh, each of which varies in their incentive structure for water conservation, and the level of economic risk involved for farmers and service providers. Using primary data collected from 139 irrigation service providers and 556 client-farmers, we empirically examine the structure of irrigation service types and associated market and institutional dimensions. Our findings demonstrate that competition among pump owners, social capital and personal relationships, and economic and agronomic risk perceptions of both pump owners and farmers significantly influence the structure of irrigation services and water pricing methods. Greater competition among pump owners increases the likelihood of pay-per-hour services and reduces the likelihood of crop harvest sharing arrangements. Based on these findings, we explore policy implications for enhancing irrigation services and irrigation sustainability in Bangladesh.
Publication - The conservation agriculture roadmap for India: policy brief(ICAR, 2018) Jat, M.L.; Biswas, A.K.; Pathak, H.; Mcdonald, A.; Patra, A.K.; Acharya, C.B.; Sharma, P.C.; Chaudhari, S.K.; Singh, R.; Bhaskar, S.; Sharma, R.; Jat, H.S.; Agarwal, T.; Gathala, M.K.; Pal, S.; Sidhu, H.S.; Yadvinder-Singh; Chhokar, R.S.; Keil, A.; Saharawat, Y.S.; Jat, R.K.; Singh, B.; Malik, R.; Sharma, A.R.; Parihar, C.M.; Das, T.K.; Singh, V.K.; Jat, S.L.; Jha, B.K.; Pratibha, M.; Singh, P.; Singh, R.C.; Choudhary, O.P.; Sharma, S.; Satyanarayana, T.; Sidhu, B.S.; Gehlawat, S.K.; Sen, S.K.; Singh, A.K.; Sikka, A.K.Agriculture remains central to the Indian economy, providing livelihood to the majority of its population. Though Indian agriculture have made spectacular progress for food self-sufficiency, yet growing challenges of large management yield gaps, low water and nutrient efficiency, imbalance and inadequate use of external production inputs, diminishing farm profits, deterioration of soil health and environmental quality coupled with climate risks are major concerns. Feeding a growing population with increasing dietary preferences for resource-intensive food products is a major challenge. Moreover, with no scope for horizontal expansion of farming to produce needed food; improving agronomic productivity and achieving high and stable yields under changing and uncertain climate are important for feeding the growing population. Increasing climatic variability affects most of the biological, physical and chemical processes that drive productivity of agricultural systems. The productivity and stability of agricultural systems depends upon measurable factors and processes controlled by climate and non-climate drivers of production paradigm. It is therefore vitally important to develop strategies and practices to sustainably increase food production while increasing farm income, protecting natural resources and minimizing environmental footprints.
Publication - Zero-tillage is a proven technology for sustainable wheat intensification in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: what determines farmer awareness and adoption?(Springer Verlag, 2017) Keil, A.; D’souza, A.; Mcdonald, A.In India, there is increasing recognition among policy-makers of the largely untapped potential of the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) for meeting state- and national-level food needs. Zero-tillage (ZT) is a proven technology for enhancing wheat productivity and, hence, food security in the IGP, while reducing production costs – a ‘win-win’ scenario that should support rapid technology scaling even though adoption remains modest to date. In order to inform policies and derive recommendations for a more effective extension strategy, this study investigated determinants of ZT adoption in the Eastern IGP using a random sample of 1000 wheat-growing households from Bihar, stratified by ZT adoption status. We corrected for potential non-exposure bias by using a two-stage estimation procedure that differentiates between factors affecting farmers’ awareness of ZT and those affecting adoption conditional on awareness. Owing to the relatively nascent stage of ZT diffusion in the area, we emphasized the role of information in the adoption process, including social networks, whereby we allowed for endogenous and exogenous network effects. Only 44% of sample households knew about ZT technology, and there was substantial scale bias in favor of larger scale farmers both with respect to awareness and adoption. Both the adoption behavior and characteristics of the respondents’ network members influenced their own awareness and adoption of ZT, particularly among farmers in the smallest landholding tercile. Farmers valued the time-saving potential of ZT, especially under conditions of increasingly unreliable monsoon rains resulting in a delayed rice crop and, consequently, late establishment of wheat which reduces yield. The fact that most farmers accessed ZT via custom-hire services was accounted for in the model, and the importance of proximate service providers confirmed. We conclude that there is need for further awareness-raising campaigns for ZT technology, whereby, apart from mass media, agricultural extension should use contact farmers belonging to different social strata for effective within-village diffusion of messages, especially to the poorer farmers. The social inclusiveness of ZT use can be enhanced by supporting the emergence of more ZT service providers and by developing business models that lower the transaction costs of servicing smaller farms.
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