Impact of Integrated Soil Fertility Management on Farm Income in Corn and Soybean Production in Northern Benin

To mitigate the effects of climate variability, integrated soil fertility management strategies have been widely promoted in the West Atacora region of northern.The study assessed the impact of adopting these strategies on the agricultural income of corn and soybean producers using a logistic instrumental variable model.The results indicated that the the impact estimated Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) revealed the average difference in net income per hectare between adopters and nonadopters, while accounting for the probability of conditional adoption based on the instrumental variables.The results show that corn producers who adopted SG Integrated Soil Fertility Management Strategy (ISFMS) have an average farm income five times higher than those who did not adopt the practice.Soybean farmers who adopted SGIFS earned an average farm income twice as high as those who did not adopt the practice.Moreover, several socio-economic factors such as the level of education, training, area planted with crops and literacy have had a positive impact on household income.Despite the negative effects of climate variability, research has shown that it is possible to improve smallholder incomes by promoting a combination of diversification and agroecological strategies in northern Benin.