Dr. MURAOKA Rie (Researcher,  Social Sciences Division) and her colleagues won the Best Paper Award (3rd prize) for their research entitled "Sustainable Intensification of Maize Farming in Kenya: Evidence from a Longitudinal Smallholder Survey” presented at the t the 11th International Conference of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economics (ASAE) held at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo on March 18-20, 2023.

In this paper, the authors empirically analyzed the relationship between land productivity and the determinants of adoption of technologies and methods* that have recently begun to be adopted in densely populated areas of Kenya. The results showed that population pressure on land promotes the adoption of sustainable intensive agriculture and that the adoption of intensive agriculture increases land productivity.

※Sustainable intensive agriculture through the use of high-yielding hybrid maize, chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers, and mixed cropping of maize and legumes

The study showed that promoting sustainable intensive agriculture with the right mix of agricultural inputs available to farmers has the potential to significantly increase food productivity in Africa.