Crop productivity continues to decline in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due in part to poor land management practices and negative weather shocks. This trend highlights the importance of soil erosion control strategies to mitigateproductivity loss. While it is apparent that most farming is done by women in SSA, gender disaggregated estimates of erosion control strategy adoption are scanty. This paper uses plot-level data from Malawi and applies both a linear probability model and a probit model to investigate whether the adoption of soil erosion control strategies differs between male and female plot managers, and whether drought mediates this gendered adoption of the strategies in question. The paper further examines whether adoption relates to maize productivity through an instrumental variable approach. The results show that men adopt erosion control strategies more than women, which suggests that agriculture policy should aim to improve erosion control strategy adoption among female plot managers. We show that, in the context of our study, plots managed by women are not less productive than those managed by men once we control for plot and farmer characteristics, and that in both types of plots, the adoption of erosion control strategies does not successfully increase maize productivity. More research is needed to understand under which conditions the adoption of erosion control strategies increases crop productivity.
Project leader: Ruth Magreta
Project researchers: Rosemary Botha | Wisdom Mgomezulu | Grace Tione | zamiwe phiri | Edith Priscilla Chinyumba
Scientific mentors: Francesca Marchetta
Policy outreach mentors: Stephen Wainaina
No journal publications.
No working papers.
No policy briefs.
| Title | Modified | Size | Comments | Recommendations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate shocks and decision-making amongst smallholder farm households in Malawi: Do gender roles influence adaptation? | 2023-02-04 | 523.43kB | 2 | 0 |
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