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Organic agriculture (OA) is often regarded as a sustainable agricultural pathway for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an increasing number of initiatives promoting OA were initiated over the last decades. However, holistic empirical evidence on the effects of such initiatives on the sustainability of smallholder farmers is still scanty. We analyzed the effects of five initiatives promoting OA on farm-level sustainability. We selected farmers exposed to the initiatives (n = 678) and control farms (n = 957) in five different case studies, two implemented in Ghana and three in Kenya. We used a farm-level multi-criteria assessment tool that evaluates to what extent the environmental, social, economic, and governance sustainability goals formulated in the FAO-SAFA Guidelines are addressed by farmers. We found that the initiatives had limited effects on reducing farmers reliance on chemical inputs use (pesticides and synthetic fertilizers) and uptake of organic or agro-ecological practices. Nevertheless, the results show that the initiatives were able to trigger significant (p-value < 0.05) positive effects mainly for the environmental sustainability goals. In contrast, the goals within the economic, social and good governance sustainability dimensions were rarely affected. Moreover, certified initiatives had more frequently a positive sustainability effect compared to uncertified initiatives. • Holistic impact assessment of initiatives promoting organic farming among African smallholders. • Heterogeneous sustainability effects among the analyzed initiatives. • Overall limited effects on the sustainability performance of smallholder farmers. • Capacity development activities on organic farming must be complemented with other support measures. • The SMART-Farm Tool offers a holistic-standardized framework to assess agro-ecological initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-efficiency offers a promising approach for the sustainable intensification of production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is widely used for eco-efficiency analyses, is however sensitive to outliers and the analysis of the influence of external factors in the second stage requires the separability assumption to hold. Order- m estimators are proposed to overcome those disadvantages, but have been rarely applied in eco-efficiency analysis. This paper assesses the eco-efficiency of smallholder perennial cash crop production in Ghana and Kenya. It examines factors influencing eco-efficiency scores and in doing so, tests the application of order- m frontiers as a promising method for eco-efficiency analysis in the agricultural context. The analysis is performed for four selected perennial crop cases, namely cocoa, coffee, macadamia, and mango, applying DEA as well as the order- m approach to a comprehensive empirical dataset. Seven relevant environmental pressures as well as determining factors around capacity development, farm and farmer features, and crop production environment are considered. The distribution of eco-efficiency estimates among coffee farms showed the widest spread, which indicates the greatest potential to increase eco-efficiency. However, also the dispersion of scores within the other crop cases suggests room for improvements of eco-efficiency within the current production context. The subsequent analysis of determinants based on the order- m scores revealed that eco-efficiency scores were strongly influenced by variables, which measure capacity development, and resource endowments, such as labor and land, whereas the crop production environment had some influence, but results were unspecific. Generally, a positive effect is highly context-specific. The results underline the importance of designing effective training modalities and policies that allow knowledge to be put into practice, which involves the creation of marketing opportunities, the provision of targeted and regular advisory services, as well as region-wide measures to build and maintain soil fertility in a sustainable manner. To our knowledge, this study presents the first attempt to apply inputoriented order- m frontiers to assess eco-efficiency in the agricultural context, comparing its eco-efficiency rankings to those estimated with the widely applied DEA approach. This can inform the discussion on robust eco-efficiency assessments. [Display omitted] • While increased eco-efficiency matters for sustainable intensification, eco-efficiency studies of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa are lacking. • We estimated eco-efficiency scores in smallholder crop production, testing the use of order- m frontiers and comparing it to the widely applied DEA. • Correlations between eco-efficiency rankings of the DEA and the order- m approach were positive and significant, albeit not strong. • Order- m efficiency scores are influenced by resource endowments, capacity development and production environment but effects are context-specific. • Study represents the first application of input-oriented order- m frontiers to assess and explain eco-efficiency in the agricultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]