What drives small-scale farmers to adopt conservation agriculture practices in Tanzania?

Abstract Conservation Agriculture (CA)-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) practices in this study comprised minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, intercropping of maize and legumes, and use of improved crop genotypes and fertilizers, and were tested on-farm in different agroecologies in northern and eastern Tanzania. The results for six consecutive years of study indicate increased adoption of CASI practices compared to the baseline year (2010). The major impacts of these practices were reduced production costs, labour savings and overall increased crop and land productivity. The average area allocated to improved maize-legume (ML) intercrop rose during the project period by 5.28 ha per household, of which 15% was under complete CASI practices. Adoption trends show that, on average, 6.5% of adopters across the study and spillover communities started adoption in the 2nd year and about 14% of farmers adopted the practices over the next 3-5 years. Demographic and human capital (family size, education, age and farming experience), on-farm CASI demonstrations, farmer to farmer exchange visits, social capital (farmers' group or a cooperative), access to input and output markets (improved seeds, herbicides, fertilizers, insecticides and equipment) and food security were found to have positive and significant effects on adoption of a range of CASI practices. These results suggest continued and long-term efforts in investments in demonstrations, institutionalizing CASI practices in NARS, and good links to input and output markets, including appropriate machinery, are necessary to achieve sustained adoption.