Crop diversification, or growing multiple crops in farmland, has received attention as a risk-reducing strategy for smallholders. This study attempts to show that poor and non-poor farmers adopt different strategies of crop diversification. We first conceptualize farmers’ heterogeneous motivations for crop diversification by introducing a subsistence constraint into a utility maximization problem under uncertainty. Using the Tanzanian National Panel Survey, we then examine whether past experiences of shocks affect the adoption of crop diversification differently between poor and non-poor farmers. We rely on a threshold model to estimate heterogeneous impacts between poor and non-poor farmers. We find that poor farmers adopt crop diversification for robust food securities in response to drought/flood and large increases in food prices for purchase. In contrast, non-poor farmers adopt crop diversification to stabilize market income in response to large increases in input prices and large declines in crop prices for sale.

中文翻译：

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贫困农民和非贫困农民作物多样化的不同策略：来自坦桑尼亚的概念和证据


作物多样化，即​​在农田种植多种作物，作为小农降低风险的策略而受到关注。本研究试图表明贫困农民和非贫困农民采取不同的作物多样化策略。我们首先通过将生存约束引入不确定性下的效用最大化问题来概念化农民对作物多样化的异质动机。然后，我们利用坦桑尼亚国家追踪调查，研究过去的冲击经历对贫困农民和非贫困农民采用作物多样化的影响是否不同。我们依靠阈值模型来估计贫困农民和非贫困农民之间的异质影响。我们发现，贫困农民为了应对干旱/洪水和粮食购买价格大幅上涨而采用作物多样化来维持稳定的粮食安全。相比之下，非贫困农民在投入品价格大幅上涨和农作物销售价格大幅下降的情况下，采取作物多样化来稳定市场收入。