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

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good crop yields. As Mwakubo (2003) argues, it is what is expected <strong>of</strong> a good farmer. <strong>The</strong>re<br />

are social benefits or returns from be<strong>in</strong>g a good farmer, which is <strong>of</strong>ten l<strong>in</strong>ked to hav<strong>in</strong>g a farm<br />

with better terraces. Thus, the farmers have <strong>in</strong>ternalized specific norms regard<strong>in</strong>g good<br />

“farmership.” No doubt, norms help to shape preferences and expectations (and thus,<br />

behavior),; hence the positive effect on perception <strong>of</strong> soil erosion. <strong>The</strong> apparent lack <strong>of</strong><br />

significance for Taita-Taveta may be l<strong>in</strong>ked to the low level <strong>of</strong> social capital <strong>in</strong> the district, as<br />

shown by the descriptive results, or it may simply be that farmers are not penalized through<br />

loss <strong>of</strong> prestige when they do not have well laid-down terraces. Moreover, focus group<br />

discussions show that there are no sanctions on deviant members for nonparticipation <strong>in</strong><br />

group activities <strong>in</strong> Taita-Taveta.<br />

5.2 Soil conservation <strong>in</strong>vestments <strong>in</strong> agriculturally marg<strong>in</strong>al and soil erosion-prone<br />

areas<br />

Here we consider the responses to soil erosion <strong>in</strong> the two agriculturally marg<strong>in</strong>al study sites.<br />

<strong>The</strong> response <strong>in</strong>dicator is terrace length. <strong>The</strong> Tobit regression results presented <strong>in</strong> Table 5.3<br />

<strong>in</strong>dicate that lagged crop <strong>in</strong>come, density <strong>of</strong> memberships, membership diversity, cognitive<br />

social capital, and location are significant for the comb<strong>in</strong>ed data set. Land tenure has a<br />

negative and significant effect on terrac<strong>in</strong>g and also terrac<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>tensity <strong>in</strong> Machakos. <strong>The</strong><br />

results show that farms with less tenure are more terraced than the others. This may be due to<br />

a statistical anomaly or simply that farmers may try to <strong>in</strong>crease their tenure security through<br />

<strong>in</strong>creased <strong>in</strong>vestment <strong>in</strong> soil conservation (Otsuka, Suyato, and Tomich 1997; Matlon 1994).

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