Determinants of maize stover utilization as feed, fuel and soil amendment in mixed crop-livestock systems, Ethiopia

Crop residues have several uses in smallholder mixed crop-livestock systems. This paper examines determinants of households’ maize stover use as livestock feed, fuel and soil amendment in maize-based systems in Ethiopia. In these systems maize stover is primarily used as feed (56% of biomass) and fuel (31%), with the feed use share negatively associated with maize production potential. We develop a Seemingly Unrelated Regression model to capture the interdependence of crop residue uses. Results show extension training on crop residue retention in the field results in more residue use for soil amendment and less for feed. Farmers with more livestock tend to use more residues for feed and less for soil mulch. Cropping pattern, farm size, agro-ecology and crop residue production also influence crop residue utilization. Conservation agriculture interventions have implications for crop residue use and need to consider access to information, cropping patterns, resources endowments and other socio-economic factors in their development and targeting.