Promoting Sustainable Intensification Technologies. What Drives Small Farm Households' Adoption Decisions?

Abstract

Smallholder farmers' behavioural decisions to adopt a given technology are a source of debate among applied economists as to what influences farmers' choices in each geographical area, and it remains an active area of research. Sustainable intensification technologies (SITs) or practices, it is argued, provide opportunities to increase farm-level productivity and income while minimising human, social, economic and environmental costs, especially in the face of increasing human population, food malnutrition, and climate change. Over the last two decades, policymakers and scientists have advocated for sustainable intensification of production, which has resulted in the development and dissemination of sustainable intensification technologies (SIT) to small farms in developing countries.