The diversity of rural livelihoods and their influence on soil fertility in agricultural systems of East Africa - A typology of smallholder farms

Technological interventions to address the problem of poor productivity of smallholder agricultural systems must be designed to target socially diverse and spatially heterogeneous farms and farming systems. This paper proposes a categorisation of household diversity based on a functional typology of livelihood strategies, and analyses the influence of such diversity on current soil fertility status and spatial variability on a sample of 250 randomly selected farms from six districts of Kenya and Uganda. In spite of the agro-ecological and socio-economic diversity observed across the region (e.g. 4 months year⁻¹ of food self-sufficiency in Vihiga, Kenya vs. 10 in Tororo, Uganda) consistent patterns of variability were also observed. For example, all the households with less than 3 months year⁻¹ of food self-sufficiency had a land:labour ratio (LLR) < 1, and all those with LLR > 1 produced enough food to cover their diet for at least 5 months. Households with LLR < 1 were also those who generated more than 50% of their total income outside the farm. Dependence on off/non-farm income was one of the main factors associated with household diversity. Based on indicators of resource endowment and income strategies and using principal component analysis, farmers’ rankings and cluster analysis the 250 households surveyed were grouped into five farm types: (1) Farms that rely mainly on permanent off-farm employment (from 10 to 28% of the farmers interviewed, according to site); (2) larger, wealthier farms growing cash crops (8-20%); (3) medium resource endowment, food self-sufficient farms (20-38%); (4) medium to low resource endowment relying partly on non-farm activities (18-30%); and (5) poor households with family members employed locally as agricultural labourers by wealthier farmers (13-25%). Due to differential soil management over long periods of time, and to ample diversity in resource endowments (land, livestock, labour) and access to cash, the five farm types exhibited different soil carbon and nutrient stocks (e.g. Type 2 farms had average C, N, P and K stocks that were 2-3 times larger than for Types 4 or 5). In general, soil spatial variability was larger in farms (and sites) with poorer soils and smaller in farms owning livestock. The five farm types identified may be seen as domains to target technological innovations and/or development efforts.     

Multi-scale analysis of agricultural development: A modelling approach for Ilocos Norte,Philippines

Decisions and policies that have implications on allocation of resources are made at different levels. Goals at different scales may be conflicting and decisions at one scale have consequences for those at other scales. Performing analyses at more than one scale is, therefore necessary in analysing future options for resource use. This paper illustrates the use of a multi-scale method enabling assessment of multi-purpose natural resource management options. Three examples of analyses that it allows are presented for Ilocos Norte province in the Philippines, at the farm household, municipal (Batac municipality) and provincial levels. Results show that: (1) Differences in resource endowments of farm households strongly affect the potential adoption rates of five well-defined alternative technologies. (2) Limited markets, inadequate infrastructure and resource endowments of farm households have large effects on resource use and goal achievement in the municipality. Not including these factors in a resource use analysis results in a so-called aggregation bias. As these are significant, ignoring them may result in misleading simulation results and policy conclusions. The aggregation bias resulting from assuming spatially fixed input and output prices is significant for Batac, which has poor farm-to-market roads. This suggests large potential benefits from improving infrastructure. The factors investigated suggest that aggregate income in the municipality is most strongly affected by the size of the market for some vegetables. (3) The differences in resource allocations resulting from prioritizing objectives at different levels reveal potential conflicts. The municipal income was highest with crops which pose more risk to farmers; our farm household analysis shows that farmers tend not to select too much of these crops. Similarly, the provincial income is highest when resources in the province are allocated such that more of the staple crop rice and less of the highly profitable cash crops are cultivated in Batac, resulting in lower income for the municipality.     

New technologies, marketing strategies and public policy for traditional food crops: Millet in Niger

New technology introduction in this semiarid region of the Sahel is hypothesized to be made more difficult by three price problems in the region. First, staple prices collapse annually at harvest. Secondly, there is a between year price collapse in good and very good years due to the inelastic demand for the principal staple, millet, and the large changes in supply from weather and other stochastic factors. Thirdly, government and NGOs intervene in adverse rainfall years to drive down the price increases. Marketing strategies were proposed for the first two price problems and a public policy change for the third. To analyze this question at the firm level a farm programming model was constructed. Based upon surveying in four countries, including Niger, farmers state that they have two primary objectives in agricultural production, first achieving a harvest income target and secondly achieving their family subsistence objective with production and purchases later in the year. Farmers are observed selling their millet at harvest and rebuying millet later in the year. So the first objective takes precedence over the second. A lexicographic utility function was used in which these primary objectives of the farmer are first satisfied and then profits are maximized. According to the model new technology would be introduced even without the marketing strategies. However, the marketing strategies accelerated the technology introduction process and further increased farmers’ incomes. Of the three marketing-policy changes only a change in public policy with a reduction of the price depressing effect (cereal imports or stock releases) substantially increases farmers’ incomes in the adverse years. In developed countries crop insurance and disaster assistance is used to protect farmers in semiarid regions during bad and very bad (disaster) rainfall years. In developing countries finding alternatives to the poverty-nutritional problems of urban residents and poor farmers to substitute for driving down food prices in adverse years could perform the same function as crop insurance in developed countries of facilitating technological introduction by increasing incomes in adverse rainfall years in developed countries.     

Poverty reduction with irrigation investment: An empirical case study from Tigray, Ethiopia

The regional government of Tigray has invested millions of dollars to develop irrigation schemes as a strategy of poverty reduction. However, there has been limited attempt to analyze whether these investments have attained their stated objectives of poverty reduction and overall socio-economic enhancement. Therefore, we endeavor to: (1) evaluate the impacts of access to small-scale irrigation on farm household's income and poverty status, (2) contribute to the scant literature on irrigation and poverty reduction in Ethiopia, and (3) provide information for policy makers. We examine a representative sample of 613 farm households (331 irrigators and 282 non-irrigators) drawn using three-stage stratified sampling with Probability Proportional to Size. We find that the average income of non-irrigating households is less than that of the irrigating households by about 50%. The overall average income gain due to access to irrigation ranges from 4000 Birr to 4500 Birr per household per annum. We find also that farming income is more important to irrigating households than to non-irrigating households, and off-farm income is negatively related with access to irrigation.     

黑龙江省农机合作社助农增收绩效评价——基于DID模型的实证研究

使用DID模型来评价黑龙江省农机合作社助农增收的绩效,模型估计结果表明:农机合作社社员与非社员相比,农户家庭总收入、工资性收入、财产性收入、转移性收入显著增加,经营性收入显著减少。因此,农机合作社作为新型农业经营主体,在助农增收方面效果显著。引入控制变量后,户主年龄与家庭收入呈负相关;家庭人数与家庭收入呈正相关;户主受教育程度、人均耕地面积、非农收入所占比重、是否在社内打工与家庭总收入、工资性收入、财产性收入、转移性收入呈正相关,与经营性收入呈负相关。     

The impact of increasing farm size and mechanization on rural income and rice production in Zhejiang province,China

Economic growth in China’s agricultural sector lags behind growth in industry and services, creating an ever widening rural–urban income gap. Development of the non-agricultural sectors offers new opportunities for farmers in China’s more advanced provinces such as Zhejiang. Increased income in the urban sector creates markets for new products, and migrating farmers rent their land to those staying. Until now, the prevailing rice-based systems have been managed mainly using manual labour and animal traction, but the larger farms resulting from migration may facilitate, or even require mechanization. In this study, we use a simulation model of the farm household to analyse the effects of increasing farm size and the transition from rice to vegetable production, while also studying the effects of mechanization.     

GAMEDE: A global activity model for evaluating the sustainability of dairy enterprises. Part II – Interactive simulation of various management strategies with diverse stakeholders

GAMEDE is a stock-flow dynamic simulation model designed with farmers to represent dairy farm functioning and the consequences of the farmer’s daily management decisions for whole-farm sustainability. Sustainability is evaluated according to its three pillars: technico-economic viability, respect for environment, and social liveability. The model provides original information for a better understanding of the processes regulating nitrogen dynamics within the farm, and the factors determining farmers’ decisions and practices. Model implementation experiments have revealed that GAMEDE is also a useful tool to support discussions and to generate knowledge exchange among various stakeholders who play an important role in the development of farm sustainability: farmers, extension agents and researchers.While a majority of researchers and advisers are specialised and a majority of farmers fix their attention on specific and narrow themes of farm management, such a comprehensive model can help stakeholders complement their knowledge to gain a holistic view of the farming system. This holistic and integrated view is crucial: (i) for researchers who wish to explain diversity in farming systems and understand decisional and biophysical processes and their interrelated effects operating in such complex agro-ecosystems, (ii) for advisers whose aim is to define alternative management strategies applicable in practice, i.e. taking into account farm specificities, and (iii) for farmers who must choose practices compatible with their resources, assets, constraints and objectives.Holism can also improve versatility and thus the generic character of models. Issues are narrowly specified and greatly vary both among categories of stakeholders (e.g. scientists versus farmers) and within each category (e.g. among farmers). A comprehensive model that: (i) details all farm management operations, and (ii) represents their effects on different spatio-temporal levels and on the three sustainability dimensions, is more likely to respond to the various issues facing different stakeholders. We argue that capacity of models to respond to stakeholders’ questions has to be considered in future evaluations of decision support systems.     

Agrarian policies for sustainable land use: bio-economic modelling to assess the effectiveness of policy instruments

This article presents a bio-economic modelling approach for the assessment of the effectiveness of different agrarian policies to improve farm household income and soil fertility. Farm household decisions on allocation of land, labour and capital resources for crop and production technique choice are simulated, taking into account resource availability, household objectives and prevailing market conditions. The modelling framework relies on a combination of three procedures: (1) farm household modelling, (2) linear programming, and (3) partial equilibrium analysis. These procedures are applied to evaluate the impact at farm household and regional level of technology improvement and a variety of policy instruments: improvement of infrastructure, price support, land policy and credit schemes. Regional aggregation allows prices to be determined endogenously on regional markets. The approach is applied to the Cercle de Koutiala in Mali, for which selected results are given as an example. Results indicate that technology alone cannot sufficiently induce farmers to adopt sustainable production systems. Additional economic incentives are necessary to foster technological change.     

Modeling the impact of HIV/AIDS upon food security of diverse rural households in Western Kenya

Although the impact of HIV/AIDS upon rural smallholder food security in sub-Saharan Africa is understood to be severe and multi-faceted, few empirical studies have undertaken the task of identifying upon which types of households the impact is most severe. In order to understand and examine the impact of HIV/AIDS upon food security of rural households in Western Kenya, an ethnographic linear programming model was developed to simulate household responses to an adult household member contracting HIV. Three male-headed households and one female-headed household with dynamic compositions and representative of the diversity of households in Amukura, Teso District, were simulated. Findings highlighted that the initial stage of HIV infection was the most devastating time for households as HIV infection of an adult member was a shock for which households were ill-prepared. Results further indicated that household food insecurity was more severe in Amukura when an adult female contracted HIV than when an adult male contracted HIV. In particular, household food availability and utilization were more severely reduced when an adult female contracted HIV. Reductions in available female labor critically undermined household food production to a greater degree than reductions in available male labor. This was compounded by the gender division of labor on certain agricultural tasks as well as the inability of adult males to rapidly change their agricultural activities due to labor requirements to maintain long-term investments in sugar cane and animal production. Food access was also reduced under both HIV+ models and was linked to both declining food availability and end-of-year cash. The severity of impact of HIV upon food access depended upon resources available to an individual household. Impacts of HIV upon household agricultural activities in Amukura are therefore dynamic, multiple and diverse. If interventions to counter the impact of HIV on a community are to be successful, there is an urgent need for organizations and governments to adopt holistic approaches to development which appreciate the complexity and diversity of livelihood systems.     

The impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security: The case of Filtino and Godino irrigation schemes in Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s irrigation potential is estimated at 3.7 million hectare, of which only about 190,000 ha (4.3% of the potential) is actually irrigated. There is little information on the extent to which the so far developed irrigation schemes have been effective in meeting their stated objectives of attaining food self-sufficiency and eradicating poverty. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify the impact of small-scale irrigation on household food security based on data obtained from 200 farmers in Ada Liben district of Ethiopia in 2006. The resulting data was analyzed using Heckman’s Two-step Estimation procedure. Studies elsewhere revealed that access to reliable irrigation water can enable farmers to adopt new technologies and intensify cultivation, leading to increased productivity, overall higher production, and greater returns from farming. Our study findings confirm some of these claims. In the study area about 70% of the irrigation users are food secure while only 20% of the non-users are found to be food secure. Access to small scale irrigation enabled the sample households to grow crops more than once a year; to insure increased and stable production, income and consumption; and improve their food security status. The study concludes that small-scale irrigation significantly contributed to household food security.

Adoption of improved land use technologies to increase food security in Burkina Faso: relating animal traction,productivity, and non-farm income

This article analyzes the determinants of animal traction adoption, and for traction and non-traction groups, the levels of land and labor productivity in Burkina Faso. There are three main conclusions. First, non-farm income was found to be an important indirect determinant of farm productivity, and ability to intensify production, via its effect on animal traction adoption. This was, in particular, the case for the zone where agriculture commercialization is occurring (the Guinean zone). Second, in a region where farmers were traditionally and even today thought to be tied to safety-first, subsistence strategies, our findings show that improved capital and variable inputs—traction and fertilizer and manure, and even labor and best quality land—are applied on cash crops, not on subsistence crops. Third, animal traction greatly improves land and labor productivity, particularly in more favorable agroclimatic zones such as Burkina's Guinean zone, and in the `intensification crops' that are also the main cash crops (maize and cotton). Traction farmers have an advantage in the quest to intensify farming in a region where population density is increasing rapidly.     

Policies to support economic and environmental goals at farm and regional scales: Outcomes for rice farmers in Southern India depend on their resource endowment

Improving water use and nitrogen efficiencies is of overall importance to society at large - to conserve scarce water resources and prevent environmental pollution. Efficient cultivation practices for rice which had no yield penalty were not adopted by farmers because of the open access to water free of charge. Well-chosen combinations of policy measures are thus needed to stimulate adoption of new cultivation practices. We developed a multi-objective linear programming (MGLP) model to explore the impact of: (i) modified rice cultivation including water-saving irrigation on farm profit; (ii) water pricing and water quota government policies on adoption of modified rice cultivation by farmers; (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii) to achieve the objectives of both farmers and society at large, and (iv) to study the trade-offs between income, water and nitrogen use. The analysis was carried out on four rice-based farm types for the state of Tamil Nadu, South India. Model results showed that observed farm profit of all four farm types could be increased using current practices simply by optimizing land use for specific crops. Adoption of modified rice cultivation further increased farm profit. Water-saving practices were selected only when water pricing was introduced. Farm profits were reduced even at low water prices but were compensated by farmers through adoption of modified rice cultivation. The combination of policies that stimulate adoption of modified rice cultivation was effective in achieving both increased farm income and water savings. The required water prices differed across farm types and seasons and impacted poor resource-endowed farmers the most. Providing water quotas could protect the poor resource-endowed farmers. The model helped to identify the optimal water price and water quota for each farm type to achieve both the objectives of farmers and society at large. Opportunities for reducing water use and avoiding environmental pollution at acceptable profits are available for all farm types, but need to be tailored to the farmers’ resource endowments.     

Towards sustainable farming systems: Effectiveness and deficiency of the French procedure of sustainable agriculture

There is a widespread consensus about the importance of sustainable agriculture. In France, the Farming Orientation Law of July 1999 has set down a precise procedure for the implementation of sustainable agriculture: the contrat territorial d’exploitation – or territorial farm contract (TFC). This paper aims to analyse the TFC effectiveness. An analysis has been made of the TFCs signed in the Midi-Pyrenees Region in south-western France, using statistical analysis and qualitative surveys of a sample of farms. The results show that the most valuable effects have been mainly economic. Effects regarding social and environmental aspects were very limited. But from the point of view of an integrated approach, indirect effects of TFCs can be observed on social and environmental aspects. These results are explained, on the one hand, by farmers’ motivations guided by economic objectives, and on the other hand, by the dominance of professional farming organisations in the implementation of TFC’s procedure. Given these results, two ways of improving the elaboration procedure for TFCs are proposed. Firstly, technical improvements can be made to the diagnostic assessment of farms, and to the choice of actions addressed by the contract. Secondly, organisational improvements can be applied to TFCs elaboration and implementation process, in order to adopt a participatory approach which would involve all rural stakeholders.     

Evaluating crop-livestock-based farming systems: A village level study in the dry zone rainfed district of Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka cropping enterprises interact with livestock production on peasant farms. This analysis of the crop-livestock farming system aims at understanding the existing constraints and interactions between crops and livestock in these farms. The main objective of the study is to describe the crop-livestock integrated farming systems in three rainfed villages in the Moneragala district of Sri Lanka, and to evaluate these systems in terms of maximizing farm incomes from the different crop and livestock components of the systems. A field survey was conducted to collect data from 153 farming families for the Maha season of 1982/83. A linear programming model was formulated to test the hypothesis.The results show that in general the activities for lowland rice, highland rice, sugar cane, labour, farm cash cost, and MVP (compost) are higher in the optimal farm plan than in the actual farm situation. The livestock in the optimal plan is mainly confined to milch cattle. However, with the present high level of manutrition among rural livestock industry emphasis should be placed on the expansion of the rural livestock industry in the study villages. The optimal plan also suggests the use of crop residues as a substitute for compost for farm crops. Hence, in the context of escalating prices of chemical fertilizers, research is required to find the suitability of crop residues and household residues as substitutes for compost. Increases in supplementary irrigation may result in the expansion of the farm area and hence the farm income. Other methods of increasing farm income include: replacing hired labour with non-utilized family labour, increased agricultural research, and extension activity regarding the use of modern inputs by farmers on crops.     

Policy reforms,rice production and sustainable land use in China: A macro–micro analysis

This paper presents a macro–micro analysis of the impact of policy reforms in China on agricultural production, input use and soil quality change for a major rice-producing area, namely Jiangxi province. This is done in three steps. First, a quantitative assessment is made of the impact of market liberalization policies on the economic environment of farm households in Jiangxi province. Econometric analyses based on provincial, national and world market data are used to explain changes in rice and fertilizer prices in Jiangxi province over time. Next, the impact of China’s recent income support policy and latest price trends on farm household choices with respect to activity choice (particularly rice and livestock) and input use (fertilizers, pesticides, manure) is assessed for two villages with different degrees of market access in north-east Jiangxi province. Two village-level general equilibrium models are used to analyse household decision-making and interactions between households within these villages. The parameters are estimated and calibrated from an extensive survey held in these villages in the year 2000. Finally, the impact of land tenure policy on farm management decisions (labour, manure and chemical input use), soil quality (available P and K and total N and C) and rice yields is analysed through an econometric analysis of plot-level data for three villages. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) is used to control for interactions with yields and for feedbacks towards input use. The paper ends with a number of suggestions for policy adjustments that would reduce the problem of natural soil compaction in the research area.     

Heterogeneity in farmers’ production decisions and its impact on soil nutrient use: Results and implications from northern Nigeria

Sustainable use (in terms of nutrients) of soil resources by farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by institutions and markets. This paper explores the case of northern Nigeria, by using a combination of multi-attribute utility theory and bio-economic modelling. This approach allowed us to identify heterogeneity in production strategies and to quantify its effect on the use of soil nutrient resources.We find that farmers with larger land holdings place more emphasis on gross margins in their utility function, while those with larger holdings of fertile fadama fields place more emphasis on sustainability. Risk aversion, operationalised through variance minimization, appears an important attribute in the utility function of many farm households that are more dependent on agriculture for their overall income.A regression analysis shows that differences in production strategies significantly affect nutrient balances, but also shows that such effects are heterogeneous across locations. We find more favourable nutrient balances for some of the more market-oriented farm households who place more emphasis on sustainability. In farm plans of the most risk-averse households, the production of cereals for subsistence consumption dominates and leads to negative soil nutrient balances, especially for potassium.Farmers who place a large importance on gross margins are likely to benefit most from policies aimed at enhancing profitability through improving functioning of markets. The large group of risk-averse farmers will have the largest immediate gain in utility from policies and technologies aimed at reducing production risk in high-value crops. Additional policies aimed at creating a stronger market-oriented production by the least-endowed farm households could play a role in reducing intensity of soil fertility mining. Under these conditions, the efficient cropping pattern shifts partially from cereal cropping to high-value crops, associated with higher input use.The main results are similar to those in other studies, although some of the nutrient balances are less negative. The results do appear to be sensitive to the type of cropping activities included in the analysis, and additional methodological research is required. Extensions of the used method should further account for temporal and spatial differences in soil fertility, leading to differences in nutrient uptake and production, as well as potential temporal heterogeneity in production strategies.     

Household livelihood strategies and forest dependence in the highlands of Tigray,Northern Ethiopia

Forest environmental resources provide substantial contributions to the wellbeing of many rural dwellers. However, the level of forest use and the degree of reliance on forest environmental products differ across households. The factors that condition a household’s economic reliance on a particular economic activity in general and on forest environmental resources in particular may vary depending on the resource endowment of the household, the household’s demographic and economic characteristics, and exogenous factors such as markets, prices and technologies. This paper identifies the factors that condition a household’s livelihood strategy choice with a particular focus on forest products. For this, we use the livelihood approach as a framework of analysis. Environmentally augmented household income data were collected from 360 sample households in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. On the basis of the share of forest environmental income in total household income, sample households were clustered into distinct livelihood strategies. Student’s t-test and ANOVA were used to test income differences among the clusters. Multinomial logit (MNL) regression on asset-based explanatory variables was run to identify the main factors that determine households’ livelihood strategy choice and forest dependence. The analyses indicate that differential access to, or endowment of, livelihood assets determines the choice of a household’s strategy. Asset-poor households should be encouraged to engage in activities with higher economic return.     

Agrarian transition and lowland–upland interactions in mountain areas in northern Vietnam: application of a multi-agent simulation model

The agrarian transition that accompanied the decollectivisation of agriculture in the northern Vietnam uplands challenges traditional approaches to land use analysis. In the 1980s, a series of reforms progressively returned means of production to individual farmers. Over the same period the mountains in the study area lost 50% of their forest cover. This paper provides an overview of the impact of changes in government policies on farmers’ practices, on land use, and on environmental dynamics. It applies a multi-agent simulation model to validate the hypotheses derived from household survey and remote sensing data about the mechanisms linking the allocation of paddyland to farm households with shifting cultivation on the hillsides, and deforestation. The model explains the diversity of the current land use systems by analysing the interactions between land tenure policies in the lower part of the toposequence and the dynamics of land use in the upper part. The findings are based on an extensive diagnostic survey of a number of representative sites, on generation of primary data from an intensive survey of 50 randomly selected households, and on insights gained by the authors during their long association with an action research project using a participatory observation method. The authors also explore whether the modelling approach can capture the main features of complex human-environment interactions of a site and can help apply the findings to the broader agroecosystem the site represents.     

Economic impacts on farm households due to water reallocation in China's Chaobai watershed

Our study area in the Chaobai watershed, upstream of Miyun Reservoir, has been undergoing agricultural water transfers to downstream municipal uses in Beijing. We examine the impacts of water reallocation on crop production and farmers’ income and discuss issues relating to current compensation mechanisms. We use data from a survey of 349 farm households and their farm plots in the upper Chaobai watershed within Hebei province. Water reallocation from upstream to downstream areas has reduced agricultural water supply and the area irrigated. Regression results show that in plots deprived of irrigation, maize yields decrease by 21% and crop revenues decline by 32%. On average, losing irrigation on one hectare of cultivated land reduces net crop income by 2422 yuan. We examine compensation arrangements and social equity for the major policies implemented in the region and we identify gaps between current compensation levels and farmers’ income and production losses. The current compensation received by farmers is generally lower than the losses incurred due to reduced irrigation. A more appropriate compensation mechanism is called for in future water transfers.     

Constraints to farmers’ adoption of direct-seeding mulch-based cropping systems: A farm scale modeling approach applied to the mountainous slopes of Vietnam

Substantial initiatives are under way in the tropical world to develop and promote direct-seeding mulch-based cropping systems (DMC) in order to reduce soil erosion and improve crop nutrient and water balances. DMC have been adopted by large-scale mechanized farmers, especially in America and Australia, but seldom by resource-poor farmers in the developing world. This study was conducted in Vietnam with the aim of evaluating the feasibility of farmers’ implementing DMC in a mountainous area. The method involved simulation of rational households maximizing their income subject to food security constraints and availability of resources. It generated insight into why farmers of a small region were reluctant to adopt DMC due to the extra labor and input required to implement these techniques during the first years, which hampers their economic performance. In another region, under different biophysical and economic environmental conditions, the study showed that DMC were more likely to be adopted provided that possible constraints at the community level are overcome. The method also allowed us to discuss the types of technical improvements that would make DMC more attractive to farmers. For most farm types, labor required by mulch establishment would have to be reduced by more than 30%. This would mean spreading much less biomass than the 7 t ha⁻¹ currently necessary, compromising the weed-control function of mulch. This would be technically feasible only by using herbicides but this would not be economically sound since it would increase cash requirements. The study showed that subsidies of 50 to more than 200 USD ha⁻¹ were necessary to enable the conversion of all conventionally managed sloping land into DMC in the simulations. These amounts are high relatively to gross margins (250-750 USD ha⁻¹) under conventional management.