Why do farmers wait so long before adopting fruit tree-based agroforestry technologies in Malawi? An application of hazard duration analysis

Abstract

Abstract Fruit tree-based agroforestry has been widely promoted but its adoption is generally slow and low. We used a hazard duration analysis to determine factors that influence time until adoption of fruit tree-based agroforestry in Malawi. A Weibull-Gamma model mixture was fitted to account for the unobserved heterogeneity. The results show that households take 4 years, on average, to start adopting fruit tree-based agroforestry. Further, the results show that farmer’s education, club membership, participation in training programmes and provision of material incentives (tree germplasm) are likely to shorten waiting time until the adoption of fruit tree-based agroforestry. The findings imply that there is a need to promote programmes that organise farmers into purpose-driven groups, offer tailor-made agroforestry training and, where possible, provide incentives for quick adoption of fruit tree-based agroforestry.