Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers' Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania

Abstract

This study evaluated the welfare effects of minimum tillage among smallholder households in Southern Tanzania. A propensity score matching technique was employed to assess the causal impact of adopting minimum tillage using data from a random sample of 608 households. Results indicated that minimum tillage adoption is influenced by gender of the household head, asset index, training on personal values, drought experience, farmer organization and access to NGO information. Minimum tillage also impacts positively on smallholder households' per capita net crop income with the algorithms ranging between 162,430 – 192,208 Tanzania shillings. Further, it reduces the total household labor demands allowing the households to engage in other income-generating activities with an average of -15.67 labor per man-days. Based on this, the authors recommend supporting households to use complementary farm inputs, credit access, and extension-specific information to improve the intensity of adopting minimum tillage.