Climate smart agriculture practices and its pathways to improving factor productivity of vegetables in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Improving agricultural productivity under climate change and variability remains a significant public challenge in Ethiopia. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices have been recognized as one of the solutions to improving agricultural productivity and resilience capacity to climate induced shocks. This study aims to explore the effects of CSA practice bundles on total factor productivity (TFP) of vegetable farmers in Northwestern Ethiopia. Cross-sectional data was collected from 550 smallholder vegetable farmers. To achieve this purpose, control function method was utilized to estimate TFP, while mediation analysis was employed to explore the underlying transmission mechanisms. Additionally, multinomial endogenous switching regression model was employed to measure the impact of CSA practice bundles. The results reveal that the adoption of CSA practice bundles significantly increases TFP across all vegetable crops. Specifically, the adoption of combined CSA bundles increases TFP by about 25–26% for onion producers, 30–33% for potato producers, and 24–26% for tomato producers. The adoption of CSA practice bundles leads to an improvement in TFP of vegetable farmers. For example, TFPs of onion, potato, and tomato producers who used the combined S1C1W0 bundle were 1.054, 1.022, and 1.030, respectively. On the other hand, S1C0W1 bundle led to higher mean TFP of farmers producing onions, potatoes, and tomatoes (1.058, 1.042, and 1.034, respectively). Mediation analysis indicates that TE is the primary channel through which CSA practice bundles influence TFP. In addition, the results confirm that CSA practices exert both direct and indirect effects on TFP. The study concluded that integration of CSA practices positively influences productivity through increased resource-use efficiency and improved climate change resilience. Therefore, policy and development efforts should focus on promoting complementary CSA practice bundles especially soil and water management technologies.