Urban effects on the adoption of soil conservation practices in urban and peri‑urban vegetable production of Yaoundé, Cameroon

Rapid urbanisation has put farming systems under stress. Yet, conservation agriculture promotes environmentally friendly and productive agriculture. This paper therefore aims at estimating the effects of urbanisation on the adoption of soil conservation practices (SCPs) in urban and peri‑urban vegetable production in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Data from a survey conducted by the World Vegetable Center among 185 vegetable producers and Google Maps were analysed using a Multivariate Probit model with robust standard errors to investigate the adoption of four interdependent SCPs. Descriptive results showed that the most SCP adopted was organic manure (85 %), the least adopted was mulching (61 %), and that the adoption intensity was relatively high as the mean number of SCPs adopted was 2.87 out of 4. In addition, the regression results showed that urbanisation reduces the adoption of SCPs; in particular, proximity to city centre reduces the adoption of crop rotation, organic manure, mulching, and fallow, while population density decreases the practice of fallow. Henceforth, to ease the perverse effects of urbanisation on the adoption of SCPs, decision-makers and local authorities should ensure the preservation of productive agricultural zones by elaborating urban master and zoning plans that take into account agricultural purposes, and by formalising property rights on agricultural lands in urbanising areas.