The Power of Social Capital: How Cooperative Membership and Social Network Shapes Climate Smart Agriculture Practices in Northwest Ethiopia

Vegetable production and productivity in Ethiopia are threatened by climate change and climate variability. Adopting Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices reduces the negative impacts of climate related shocks on production. This paper investigates the impact of cooperative membership and social networks (SN) on CSA practices among vegetable farmers in Northwest Ethiopia. The analysis used primary data from 550 farmers and analyzed them by jointly applying a Poisson Endogenous Treatment model and mediation analysis. Results showed that cooperative membership and SNs significantly influence the adoption intensity of CSA. Other household level factors sex, education, family size, landholding, distance to market, and experience of climate shock influence the adoption intensity of CSA. The Average Treatment Effects show that SNs increase the adoption intensity of onion, potato, and tomato CSA practices by 1.829, 1.756, and 1.318 practices, respectively. Cooperative membership also resulted in the adoption of 1.652, 1.402, and 1.202 more CSA practices than non members for the respective crops. The mediation analysis reveals that SN and cooperative membership increase CSA practice intensity both directly and indirectly through improved access to CSA related information, input supply, and extension services. The direct effects of SNs range from 0.287 to 0.359 and that of cooperative membership ranges between 0.237 and 0.322. These findings underscore the need to strengthen farmer to farmer SNs for rapid dissemination of CSA related information and empowering agricultural cooperatives to serve as institutional hubs for inputs supply and extension services, given their proven mediating role in increasing adoption intensity.