Journal of Sustainable Development; Vol. 8, No. 1; 2015 ISSN 1913-9063 E-ISSN 1913-9071 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 69 Abandonment of Conservation Agriculture by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe Tarisayi Pedzisa 1 , Lovemore Rugube 1 , Alex Winter-Nelson 2 , Kathy Baylis 2 & Kizito Mazvimavi 3 1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development, University of Pretoria, South Africa 2 Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, United States 3 International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-arid tropics (ICRISAT), Zimbabwe Correspondence: Tarisayi Pedzisa, Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development, University of Pretoria, South Africa. E-mail: tpedzisa@yahoo.com Received: October 28, 2014 Accepted: November 13, 2014 Online Published: January 22, 2015 doi:10.5539/jsd.v8n1p69 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v8n1p69 Abstract This paper examines the determinants of abandonment of conservation agriculture (CA) techniques among smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. The analysis uses four rounds of a balanced panel from a survey aimed at monitoring CA adoption among farmers who participated in CA promotion projects. Findings indicate that a large share of farmers who had adopted CA during the period of active promotion eventually abandoned the practice in the absence of support from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Households with more farming experience, bigger household sizes and a greater number of cultivated plots were less likely to stop using CA. In turn, wealthy households and farmers in the drier areas were more likely to stop using CA. The finding that persistent adoption is more prevalent among the poor, supports claims that CA is a pro-poor technology. Lastly, we find a strong, negative and robust relationship between continued NGO support and abandonment of CA. This finding suggests that improved support institutions are necessary to ensure that farmers continue to use CA as a productivity-boosting and sustainable farming method. Keywords: conservation agriculture, technology adoption, abandonment, probit 1. Introduction Following repeated bouts of severe food insecurity in Africa, several development agencies prescribed conservation agriculture (CA) as a promising response to declining yields that was suitable for drought prone communities (Hobbs, 2007; Shaxson, 2006). The objective of CA is to manage agro-ecosystems to improve productivity, while preserving the soil. CA rests on the three interlinked principles of minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation (FAO, 2013). Proponents of CA have emphasized its potential to provide resilience against drought and sustainably increase crop productivity (FAO, 2001). We study the continued use of manual CA, which involves farmers preparing planting basins using hand hoes. The emphasis on digging basins is central to the definition of CA among smallholders in Zimbabwe because it facilitates increased soil moisture, concentrates soil nutrients and minimizes the need for tillage thus reducing erosion from soil disturbance. Because soils in much of Zimbabwe are badly depleted, basin tillage is usually combined with use of chemical fertilizers to achieve productivity improvement. Though CA is generally purported to address the problem of intensive labor requirements in smallholder agriculture (Giller, Witter, Corbeels & Titttonell, 2009), basin-tillage CA requires high labor input during land preparation and weeding. By allowing land preparation ahead of the onset of rains, CA does relieve a labor bottleneck at planting time. Most studies of CA in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are limited to assessing the determinants of adoption versus non- adoption (Bekele & Drake 2003; Doss, 2006; Tura et al., 2010). Abandonment is part of the adoption cycle that has historically been overlooked, despite the fact that technologies that are abandoned are as ineffective as technologies that are not adopted (Jones, 2005). In contrast to the vast number of empirical studies on technology adoption, little empirical evidence exists on the post-adoption behaviour of farmers (Oladele, 2005). The paucity of such studies may be attributed to data requirements because the analysis of decisions to retain or abandon previously adopted technologies requires information on multiple decisions over an extended period, rather than one decision at one point in time (Uematsu et al., 2010). Technology adoption decisions are