This paper documents a positive relationship between maize productivity in western Kenya and women’s empowerment in agriculture, measured using indicators derived from the abbreviated version of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Applying a cross-sectional instrumental-variable regression method to a data set of 707 maize farm households from western Kenya, we find that women’s empowerment in agriculture significantly increases maize productivity. Although all indicators of women’s empowerment significantly increase productivity, there is no significant association between the women’s workload (amount of time spent working) and maize productivity. Furthermore, the results show heterogenous effects with respect to women’s empowerment on maize productivity for farm plots managed jointly by a male and female and plots managed individually by only a male or female. More specifically, the results suggest that female- and male-managed plots experience significant improvements in productivity when the women who tend them are empowered. These findings provide evidence that women’s empowerment contributes not only to reducing the gender gap in agricultural productivity, but also to improving, specifically, productivity from farms managed by women. Thus, rural development interventions in Kenya that aim to increase agricultural productivity—and, by extension, improve food security and reduce poverty—could achieve greater impact by integrating women’s empowerment into existing and future projects.

The sustainable utilisation of black soldier fly (BSF) for recycling organic waste into high-quality protein feed and organic fertiliser with a low environmental footprint is gaining momentum worldwide. Although BSF farming is becoming a rapidly growing agribusiness, studies on the BSF farming’s economic aspects are limited. This study analysed the economic benefits of farming BSF for animal feeds and composted frass, called frass fertiliser (FF) production using experimental data. The BSF larvae were fed on brewery spent grain amended with sawdust, biochar, and gypsum to determine the cost-effective feed and other by-products production. The agronomic performance of FF on the maize crop was assessed using field experiments. Our results demonstrated that sourcing and preparing the waste substrate for rearing the BSF larvae accounts for 81-90% of the total BSF production cost. The utilisation of FF as an additional value-added product would increase farmer’s net income by 5-15 folds compared to BSF farming alone. Feedstock amended with 20% biochar increased net income by 10-64% for BSF larvae and FF production than other feedstocks. Production of one megagram (Mg) of dried BSF larvae (USD 900) would generate 10-34 Mg of FF worth USD 3,000-10,200. Maize grown on plots treated with FF yielded 29-44% higher net income than maize harvested from plots amended with commercial organic fertiliser. Furthermore, smallholder insect farmers’ direct use of FF for maize production would generate 30-232% higher net income than farmers purchasing similar FF. Our results demonstrate for the first time the role of insect farming in circular economy and justify the opportunities for future investments that would lead to enhanced sustainability for agricultural and food systems, especially for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries.

To sustain agricultural development in Africa, innovative strategies for addressing a myriad of biotic and abiotic constraints facing the agricultural systems must be established. One current biotic stress is the mango infesting fruit flies. In the effort to contain the widely spreading and damaging invasive species of tephritid fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) (Hendel), an area-wide integrated pest management (IPM) program is being promoted in the horticultural sub-sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Such a new technology in which farmers have limited information before commercialization may have diffusion paths that are different from the often-assumed sigmoid (or “s”) shaped curve. We apply the descriptive and econometric analysis of ex ante and ex post integrated fruit fly management used by mango farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia. The results reveal that this technology has a relatively high adoption rate and high prospects for adoption growth in Kenya compared to Ethiopia in the near future.

This study was carried out to assess individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for UZIMAX, a novel plant-based biopesticide developed for malaria vector control. The biopesticide is estimated to kill up to 100% of Anopheles larvae within 48 h of application and poses no risks to human health and the environment. However, scaling-up of its adoption requires clear evidence of its acceptance by individuals in malaria-prone areas. We conducted Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) revealed preference auctions with 204 participants to determine their willingness to pay (WTP) for community-based application of the biopesticide to control malaria vectors. Nearly all participants were willing to pay at the lowest bid price of the biopesticide, and the majority of them expressed great interest in pooling resources to facilitate biopesticide application. Household per capita income and building capacity of households through training significantly increased WTP. These findings imply high adoption potential of the technology and the need to devise inclusive policy tools, especially those that enhance collective action, resource mobilization and capacity building to empower both men and women and stimulate investment in eco-friendly technologies for malaria prevention. Financial and labor resource mechanisms managed by the community could potentially spur adoption of the biopesticides, and in turn, generate health, environmental and economic benefits to households in malaria-prone communities.

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face multifaceted and co-existing risks, such as human and animal diseases and pests. Even though smallholder farmers often experience these challenges simultaneously, interventions to address these challenges are often implemented in a piecemeal fashion. However, managing agricultural production constraints without alleviating human and livestock health burdens might not generate significant and sustained benefits to achieve the desired development outcome (e.g., reducing hunger, malnutrition, and poverty). As such, building farmers’ resilience and adaptive capacity to co-existing production constraints and health burdens may require an integrated and holistic approach. Understanding the potential benefits of an integrated approach would provide critical information, for example, for revisiting the extension systems and for designing pro-poor holistically integrated interventions to tackle interrelated challenges facing smallholder farmers. In this paper, we examined the economic benefits of integrated human–plant–animal health interventions aimed at controlling malaria, stemborer infestations of crops, and trypanosomiasis, along with beekeeping as a livelihood diversification option in rural Ethiopia. We developed a whole-farm multiperiod mathematical linear programming model to examine the economic consequences of the interventions. Our results suggest that relaxing livelihoods and the human–plant–animal health constraints that farmers face has the potential to at least double income. The results further show that exploiting the potential synergies among interventions can generate higher economic benefits. The annual income from the combined interventions is 35% higher than the sum of the income gains from each intervention alone. Our results support an integrated approach to achieve holistic outcomes in areas where these development constraints co-exist.