Boosting Climate-Smart Smallholder Farm Strategies and Household Outcomes Through Joint Intra-Household Decision-Making by Men and Women in Arid Namibia

Abstract

Abstract This study examines how joint decision-making by men and women in agrarian households influences farm productivity, adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, and household resilience in arid Namibia. Using a cross-sectional dataset of 401 households the study employed an endogenous switching regression. The key independent variable distinguishes households who make joint decisions on CSA practices’ adoption from those with unilateral decision-making. Hence, compared to male-dominated decision-making, joint−decision-making households achieve significantly higher crop yield and adoption rate. Specifically, joint decision making resulted in 29% higher crop values and adoption of 1.5 additional CSA practices, particularly drought-tolerant crops. Joint−decision-making households also spend less on monthly food budget, have about 1fewer month of food shortage and are less likely to report food insecurity (by 8 percentage points). Overall, the results highlight that in addition to the more customary gender-disaggregated analysis, women’s instrumental role in joint decision-making processes also carries productivity and efficiency-enhancing benefits.