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Organic farming for local markets in Kenya: Contribution of conversion and certification to environmental benefits
Author(s) -
Tankam Chloé,
Djimeu Eric W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
canadian journal of agricultural economics/revue canadienne d'agroeconomie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.505
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1744-7976
pISSN - 0008-3976
DOI - 10.1111/cjag.12209
Subject(s) - certification , organic farming , agriculture , business , context (archaeology) , organic certification , notice , order (exchange) , matching (statistics) , production (economics) , control (management) , process (computing) , environmental economics , environmental resource management , natural resource economics , agricultural science , agricultural economics , environmental planning , economics , environmental science , geography , computer science , finance , management , archaeology , statistics , operating system , mathematics , political science , law , macroeconomics
Organic farming is a way to address environmental issues. In Kenya, organic production for domestic markets based on local certification represents a solution to both economic and environmental issues. We propose to address this latter issue. Indeed, no quantitative studies have been dedicated to these systems’ impacts on the environment. However, their theoretical benefits can be weakened, first by their functioning based on internal control and indirect external control, and second by the risk of self‐selection since farmers using low levels of synthetic inputs have less effort to make in order to enter in conversion process. Thanks to unique farm‐level survey data along with the propensity score matching method, we assess the producer‐level effects of organic certification for fruits and vegetables on agro‐ecological practices. We show that conversion and certification are associated with organic farming techniques and positive perceptions of different statements about environmental values. However, we do not notice any additional effects of certification compared to conversion alone. Although economic issues are important, we focus on environmental issues that appear as important for smallholders. In a context with no public regulation, conversion‐only farmers and locally certified farmers could be a lever for a more sustainable agriculture.