Adoption of sustainable intensification practices and its effect on smallholders’ food security in Ethiopia

Abstract

Sustainable intensification practice (SIP) facilitates increased and sustained productivity of the limited and existing farmland with less pressure on the environment. Currently, there is a myriad of literature on the effect of SIP on food security. However, unlike previous studies, this study examines the effect of the adoption of multiple sustainable intensification practices on the improvement of food security among smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. Three basic conservation techniques, Agronomic (A), Biological (B) and Physical (P), are analyzed after derivation from 13 implemented soil and water conservation (SWC) practices using principal component analysis (PCA). The result of the multinomial endogenous switching regression (MNESR) shows that SIP adopters have a 55% higher food security, have 51% more access to clean water and sanitation, and consume at least one more dietary food item daily than non SIP adopters. A complete (A1B1P1) and combined (A0B1P1 and A1B1P0) package had the highest food security status as compared to other combination strategies, while single technology users gain the least benefit. Our findings strongly promote the adoption of a complete or combined SIP package in agriculture to leverage the full benefits associated with food security.