Land Use Practices: Sustainability Impacts on Smallholder Farmers

Abstract

This study investigates the drivers of individual and joint adoption of sustainable land use (SLU) practices—specifically crop choice and soil and water conservation—and their impact on farm performance (crop revenue) and production risk (crop yield skewness). Using a farm-level dataset of 504 households across three agro-ecological zones in Punjab, Pakistan, we address selectivity bias through the newly developed multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model. Additionally, we assess land use sustainability across ecological, social, and economic dimensions using a comprehensive non-parametric approach. Our findings identify key determinants of SLU adoption, including farmer education, access to advisory services, FBO membership, hired labor, climate information, farm size, and perceptions of drought and heatwaves. We demonstrate that joint adoption of SLU practices maximizes crop revenue and reduces production risk, lowering the likelihood of crop failure. The study further suggests complementarity between these SLU practices in enhancing crop revenue. Moreover, joint adopters of SLU practices significantly outperform non-adopters in ecological, social, and economic sustainability dimensions. We recommend improving access to public sector farm advisory services and climate information to enable farmers to make well-informed decisions based on reliable data. Implementing these measures can support the transition toward sustainable land management, helping to mitigate risks like crop failure and declining revenues, which threaten farm income.