Participation of smallholders in carbon-certified small-scale agroforestry: A lesson from the rural Mount Kenyan region

Emmanuel Benjamin and Matthias Blum

No 15-03, Economics Working Papers from Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast

Abstract: This study examines factors that determine the participation of smallholder farmers in certified agroforestry programs involving payments for ecosystem services (PES) in the mount Kenyan region, Kenya. A random utility model and logit regression was used to test a set of nonmonetary and monetary factors that influence participation in the international small group tree planting programme (TIST). This study employs survey data compiled in 2013 on 210 randomly selected smallholders; equally split between TIST and non-TIST members. The findings suggest that the spread of information via formal and informal networks as well as credit constraints are three important drivers of participating in the TIST program. Conversely, participation in TIST is not influenced by farm size, proximity to market, and level of education. Given the importance of smallholder poverty alleviation and credit market accessibility in the presence of climate change, our findings suggest that sustainable development policies should focus on strengthening the social capital and informal networks.

Keywords: Agroforestry program; Network; Spillover; Payment for ecosystem services (PES); Adoption; Information; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D8 O1 O3 Q1 Q2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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