Summary
This study evaluated the impact of regenerative agriculture technology adoption on cowpea productivity amongst 400 smallholder farming households in Embu County's drylands, using survey data and stochastic production function analysis. The research identified seven commonly-used regenerative practices and demonstrated that cereal-legume intercropping, crop rotations, pasture cropping, and organic agriculture significantly enhanced cowpea yields, whilst minimum tillage showed a negative relationship. The findings suggest scaling regenerative technologies could improve food security and agricultural resilience in arid and semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
UK applicability
Direct applicability to UK conditions is limited given the focus on dryland cowpea production in East Africa; however, the methodological approach to evaluating regenerative technology impact and the demonstrated productivity benefits of intercropping and crop rotation may inform UK integrated farming system research and policy on scaling regenerative practices in marginal agricultural areas.
Key measures
Cowpea productivity (likely yield); adoption rates of regenerative agriculture technologies; farm size; labour cost; manure quantity; production function coefficients
Outcomes reported
The study identified seven regenerative agriculture technologies commonly adopted by smallholder farmers (cereal-legume intercrop, mulching, minimum tillage, crop rotations, pasture cropping, organic agriculture, and compost manure) and quantified their influence on cowpea productivity using production function analysis. Farm inputs, farm size, labour cost, and manure amount were found to positively influence productivity, whilst cereal-legume intercrop, crop rotations, pasture cropping, and organic agriculture significantly enhanced cowpea yield.
Topic tags
Dig deeper with Pulse AI.
Pulse AI has read the whole catalogue. Ask about this record, its theme, or how the findings apply to UK farming and policy — every answer cites the underlying studies.