Evidence of collaborative opportunities to ensure long-term sustainability in African farming

Farmers face the challenge of increasing production to feed a growing population and support livelihoods, whilst
also improving the sustainability and resilience of cropping systems. Understanding the key factors that influence
farming management practices is crucial for determining farmers’ adaptive capacity and willingness to engage in
cooperative strategies. To that end, we investigated management practices that farmers adopt and the factors
underlying farmers’ decision-making. We also aimed to identify the constraints that impede the adoption of
strategies perceived to increase farming resilience and to explore how the acceleration of technology adoption
through cooperation could ensure the long-term sustainability of farming. Surveys were distributed to farming
stakeholders and professionals who worked across the contrasting environments of Morocco. We used descriptive
statistics and analysis by log-linear modelling to predict the importance of factors influencing farmers’ decision-
making. The results show that influencing factors tended to cluster around environmental pressures, crop
characteristics and water availability with social drivers playing a lesser role. Subsidies were also found to be an
important factor in decision-making. Farming stakeholders generally believed that collaborative networks are
likely to facilitate the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. We conclude that farmers need both eco-
nomic incentives and technical support to enhance their adaptive capacity as this can lessen the socioeconomic
vulnerability inherent in arid and semi-arid regions.