Adoption Potential of Sustainability-Related Agriculture Technologies for Smallholder Farmers in the Global South

Abstract

This paper describes several sustainability-related agriculture technologies that are being used by farmers in the U.S. and Europe that could plausibly be adopted by smallholder farmers in the Global South. Their unifying attributes are that they do not require capital-intensive complementary technologies and can be used effectively by a single operator. We categorize the technologies related to “soil health and moisture” and “crop production and nutrient management”. After describing the technologies, we discuss several barriers to adoption and strategies to lessen these barriers. Lastly, we propose that there are several food and nutrition security implications of facilitating adoption of the technologies. The main takeaway message of our propositions is that adoption of the technologies would mainly affect food availability and stability, but have little direct impact on utilization. Thus, adoption-enhancing initiatives will need supplementation with other simultaneous ones that facilitate proper utilization (e.g., food safety, food preparation, and nutrition trainings) to achieved nutrition security goals.