Assessing the effectiveness of climate-smart irrigation practices in improving household income among smallholder maize farmers in Botswana.

Abstract

The growing impacts of climate change have adversely affected smallholder farmers across the world, leading to low output, decreased incomes, and high levels of food insecurity. As a result, farmers have been advised to find alternative ways of dealing with this phenomenon. The low adoption of climate-smart irrigation technology in Botswana warrants an investigationinto the factors and the impact of adoption. This study used a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data from 271 smallholder maize farmers, who were selected through a multi-stage sampling approach. Descriptive statistics, probit regression, and propensity score matching technique (PSM) were employed to analyze the data. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents (55%) were male and 62% of farmers were above 50 years. The majority (62%) of the participants had a farm size of less than 5 ha and were heavily reliant on family labour for farm operations. Despite high (66%) awareness of climate-smart irrigation technology, many (52%) farmers did not adopt smart irrigation in Botswana. Age, gender, and access to credit had a statistical and negative influence on adoption. However, level of education and farming experience had a positive influence on adoption. The result of the propensity score matching model indicated that farmers using climate-smart irrigation techniques experienced positive and significant improvement in crop yield compared to dryland farmers. The study recommends that relevant institutions in Botswana should design a strategy that will be tailored to addressing issues of access to credit, facilitate training and education on advanced irrigation methods, and encourage more young farmers to engage in farming activities.