Application of the TOA-MD model to assess adoption potential of improved sweet potato technologies by rural poor farm households under climate change: the case of Kabale district in Uganda
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Food Security
Abstract
Sweet potato technologies that increase productivity,
such as drought resistant varieties and virus free planting material
are being promoted in order to reduce the vulnerability of
poor farm households to climate change. In this paper, the
Trade-off Analysis, Minimum Data Model Approach (TOAMD)
was used to assess the adoption potential of these technologies
by resource poor farmers under climate change in
Uganda. The model was calibrated and validated using household
survey data collected in 2009 from Kabale district. To
simulate adoption potential, the base system data was generated
from household data and adjusted to reflect impact of climate
change on crop yields and prices by 2050. The percentage
increase in yields resulting from the use of climate resilient
sweet potato technologies were used to estimate yields for
alternative systems based on the results from sweet potato trials
by the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO),
Uganda. Adoption potential of sweet potato technologies varied
across altitudes. Compared with the high and lower altitudes,
adoption potential is lowest at moderate altitude despite
higher yields and lower costs of production. Paying farmers to
adopt new sweet potato technologies is economically rational
at the higher and moderate altitudes but not at the lower
altitudes. The provision of free planting material (subsidy) for
the evaluated technologies resulted in a modest increase of 2 %
in adoption potential. Therefore, providing this as a way of
increasing adoption of sweet potato technologies to reduce
vulnerability of poor farm households to climate change will
have a very small impact. Instead, climate change adaptation
policy should focus on creating enabling environments for
farmers tomarket their produce so as to raise returns and reduce
the opportunity costs of climate change adaptation strategies.
Description
Keywords
Drought resistant varieties, Virus free planting material, TOA-MD
Citation
Ilukor, J., Bagamba, F., & Bashaasha, B. (2014). Application of the TOA-MD model to assess adoption potential of improved sweet potato technologies by rural poor farm households under climate change: The case of Kabale district in Uganda. Food Security, DOI 10.1007/s12571-014-0350-8