The effect of soil quality on fertilizer use rates among smallholder farmers in western Kenya
Date
16-08-09Author
Marenya, Paswel P
Barnett, Christopher B
Type
PresentationLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Studies of fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa have been dominated by analyses of
economic and market factors having to do with infrastructure, institutions, and
incentives that prevent or foster increased fertilizer demand, largely ignoring how soil
fertility status conditions farmer demand for fertilizer. We apply a switching
regression model to data from 260 farm households in western Kenya in order to allow
for the possibility of discontinuities in fertilizer demand based on a soil carbon content
(SCC) threshold. We find that the usual factors reflecting liquidity and quasi-fixed
inputs are important on high-SCC plots but not on those with poorer soils. External
inputs become less effective on soils with low SCC, hence the discernible shift in
behaviors across soil quality regimes. For many farmers, improved fertilizer market
conditions alone may be insufficient to stimulate increased fertilizer use without
complementary improvements in the biophysical conditions that affect conditional
factor demand.
JEL classification: Q12, Q18, Q24
Citation
Marenya, P.P & Barnett, C.B(2009). The effect of soil quality on fertilizer use rates among smallholder farmers in western Kenya. Paper presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists Conference, Beijing, China, August 16-22, 20091Publisher
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Description
Conference paper