The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

land pressure is high (Holden 1991), and may subsequently lead to a reduction in terrace
investment. We also infer a positive relationship between education and terrace investments,
as education embodies acquisition of managerial skills.
Empirical evidence suggests that older farmers are more likely to reject conservation
practices (Gould, Saupe, and Klemme 1989) and new productive practices (Bellon and Taylor
1993). Land tenure insecurity has been found to deter investment in resource management
and conservation (Hayes, Roth, and Zepeda 1997; Reardon and Vosti 1992; Nowak 1987).
Thus, we assume that farmers who perceive the security of their land tenure to be insufficient
would be less willing to invest in terraces.
Where credit markets are imperfect, a larger farm size, often related to wealth, may
mean that such households are not so constrained by lack of liquidity that they cannot invest
in land quality management. [CHANGES OK] Since the type of house variable is correlated
with wealth and welfare of rural households, we expect it to influence soil conservation
positively. The physical erosion potential has been shown to positively affect adoption
decisions (Gould, Saupe, and Klemme 1989; Ervin and Ervin 1982). Consequently, we
hypothesize the slope of cropland to be positively related to intensity of terrace structures.
The net effect of diversification (out of agriculture) on land quality investments is
theoretically not clear (Hayes, Roth, and Zepeda 1997; Gould, Saupe, and Klemme1989).
Increased dependence on nonagricultural activities may lower the economic significance of
soil erosion. Alternatively, off-farm income may ease the liquidity constraint for soil
conservation investment or the purchase of soil fertility-enhancing inputs.
According to Pagiola (1995), poor farmers may have more incentive to adopt
sustainable farming practices than other farmers because future harm from degrading a
resource is potentially unbounded. Yet if we consider that soil conservation in the form of
terracing is labor-intensive, then we would expect wealthy farmers capable of overcoming the
labor constraint to invest in more terracing, all else being equal.
2.3 Productivity as an outcome of terracing
Investments in terraces reflect the agents’ expectations concerning growth in production.
Land productivity can act as an indicator of growth in production since, in most cases, land is
a major constraint in expansion of agricultural production ceteris paribus. In the soil
conservation model presented in Figure 1, a productivity variable has been included as an
outcome of terrace investment. Social capital may facilitate reciprocal insurance
arrangements, thereby decreasing household or individual risk, or it may be used to facilitate
access to credit or information that would lead to increased productivity and better marketing
opportunities (Malucio, Haddad, and May 1999; Gerani 2001). We postulate, therefore, that
crop output per acre will be a function of conventional factors of production in addition to the
elements of social capital.
3. Research methodology
In this section, the study design is discussed, including selection of the study areas, survey
methods, measurement of variables, and methods of data analyses.