TY - JOUR

T1 - Agroecological intensification

T2 - Can organic conversion improve the production efficiency? A perspective from smallholder kale production systems Kenya

AU - Canwat, Vincent

AU - Oelofse, Myles

AU - Onakuse, Stephen

AU - de Neergaard, Andreas

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The increasing resource and ecological challenges in agriculture necessitate agricultural intensification and resource optimization. This study focuses on agroecological intensification using organic practices. It compares the production efficiency of the organic and non-organic smallholder kale production systems in Kenya. Using survey data collected from Kenya, the study estimated production (cost and revenue) efficiency of the kale production system by conducting data envelopment and stochastic frontier analysis and subjected the efficiency measures to propensity score matching analysis. The results show no significant difference in cost efficiency between organic and non-organic kale producers. However, revenue efficiency and income per unit production cost are lower among organic than non-organic kale producers. The results also show that the efficiency and productivity of the organic smallholder kale production system are limited by a lack of inputs (especially manure) but not labor. This implies that improving the efficiency of the smallholder organic kale production system requires more use of organic manure as well as research and training on organic pesticides. The finding concurs with literature that reports organic input problems and lower productivity in organic than non-organic production systems in developing countries and Kenya, especially in vegetables. It also shows that the organic production system is more labor-intensive than the non-organic system.

AB - The increasing resource and ecological challenges in agriculture necessitate agricultural intensification and resource optimization. This study focuses on agroecological intensification using organic practices. It compares the production efficiency of the organic and non-organic smallholder kale production systems in Kenya. Using survey data collected from Kenya, the study estimated production (cost and revenue) efficiency of the kale production system by conducting data envelopment and stochastic frontier analysis and subjected the efficiency measures to propensity score matching analysis. The results show no significant difference in cost efficiency between organic and non-organic kale producers. However, revenue efficiency and income per unit production cost are lower among organic than non-organic kale producers. The results also show that the efficiency and productivity of the organic smallholder kale production system are limited by a lack of inputs (especially manure) but not labor. This implies that improving the efficiency of the smallholder organic kale production system requires more use of organic manure as well as research and training on organic pesticides. The finding concurs with literature that reports organic input problems and lower productivity in organic than non-organic production systems in developing countries and Kenya, especially in vegetables. It also shows that the organic production system is more labor-intensive than the non-organic system.

KW - Data envelopment analysis

KW - Organic conversion

KW - Production efficiency

KW - Propensity score matching

KW - Stochastic frontier analysis

U2 - 10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100048

DO - 10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100048

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85125813187

VL - 3

JO - Cleaner Environmental Systems

JF - Cleaner Environmental Systems

SN - 2666-7894

M1 - 100048

ER -