Effects of Zai Pits and Half-Moon Technologies on Smallholder Farmers' Income in Kita Cercle, Mali

Abstract

Smallholder farmers, who mastered the agricultural production in Mali and elsewhere, are the most vulnerable to the drawback of the soil degradation and rainfall shortage. A range of practices such as Zai pits and Half-moon technologies can tackle these issues for better livelihood of these farmers. Despite the multiple benefits of Zai pits and Half-moon, there is a lack of understanding of farmer's behaviours and the potential economics of Zai pits and Half-moon. The objective of this paper was to determine the effects of Zai pit and Half-moon technologies on smallholder farmers' income in the Cercle of Kita in Mali. An exploratory research design was adopted to collect data from 280 users and non-users. We applied descriptive statistics and Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression Model (MESRM) to analyse the data. The socio-economic and institutional variables with regard to Zai pits and Half-moon were determined as influencing smallholder farmers' income. In addition, others factors such as distance to nearest market, contact with extension services providers, farm assets, farmers' perception on soil erosion, fertility of the plot, farmers' perception on soil erosion and risk-attitude were found to be positively affecting the choice of Zai pits and Half-moon use. The users of Zai pit, Half-moon and Zai-Half-moon earn 74.42$, 28.29 and 195.32$ respectively) more income from the main crop and 278.15$, 79.99 and 759.82$ more from the general household income than non-users. The study recommended increasing farmers' sensitization on both technologies as well as their ability to invest in farming business through information sharing and improving perception on the characteristics of the two technologies. There is also need to improve farmers' business skills in innovativeness, risk-taking attitude, and management skills ability of climatic information analysis since they enhance the demand for Zai pit and Half-moon technologies.