Input subsidies or extension: which policy should take precedence when supporting farmers?

Abstract

The Sustainable intensification of maize legume systems in eastern and southern Africa (SIMLESA) R4D project in conjunction with the adjunct Adoption Pathways project were designed to test the agronomic, economic and institutional requirements for CA-based sustainable agricultural intensification practices (CA-SAIPs) in five countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. One of the research efforts towards understanding some of the micro-level and policy enablers of CA-SAIPs looked at key household and farm-specific and macro (country specific) factors as predictors of adoption of two critical components of CA-SAIPs: minimum tillage and mulching. The study was done in four SIMLESA and Adoption Pathways project countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi. Many studies in the agricultural development literature that look at the adoption of agricultural technologies often study factors observed at the farm level and policy variables are often discussed as part of the broad interpretation of these results. In this brief we report on results from a study that is based both on adoption and policy simulations models.