Pervasive threats of climate change and land degradation have compounded the inherent low farm productivity problem in sub‐Saharan Africa. Though sustainable agricultural intensification practices have been shown to improve the resilience of farm production in the face of these emerging threats, they suffer low adoption rates typical of any technology adoption in these regions. Recent evidence points to an emergence of large traders in smallholder grain markets of countries in sub‐Saharan Africa. Given their big financial and operational capacities, the hypothesis is that they can drive the elusive transformation in agri‐food systems by enhancing sustainable production and marketing for smallholder farmers. This study tests this hypothesis using a decade‐long large‐panel dataset from Kenya. A dynamic random effects Probit model and a control function approach are used to evaluate the dynamism in adopting sustainable agricultural inputs and the effect of large grain traders in enhancing the adoption of these inputs at the farm level. Results indicate that sales to large grain traders lead to higher adoption of inorganic fertilizer and improved seed, key agricultural intensification inputs. Land ownership is also shown to be a key success factor for entry into large‐grain‐trader markets. Lastly, the adoption of improved seed and organic manure is persistent across time, indicating state dependence in using these inputs. These results suggest that strategies to foster engagements between large grain traders and farmers can enhance the uptake of sustainable intensification inputs. Such strategies should be accompanied by efforts to improve access to these markets by resource‐poor farmers who are primarily smallholders.

中文翻译：

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大型贸易商在推动小农农场可持续农业集约化方面的作用：来自肯尼亚的证据

气候变化和土地退化的普遍威胁加剧了撒哈拉以南非洲固有的农业生产率低下的问题。尽管已经显示出可持续的农业集约化做法可以在面对这些新出现的威胁的情况下提高农业生产的抵御能力，但它们在这些地区采用任何技术所普遍具有的低采用率。最近的证据表明，在撒哈拉以南非洲国家的小规模谷物市场上出现了大型贸易商。鉴于其强大的财务和运营能力，其假设是，它们可以通过增强小农的可持续生产和销售来推动农业食品系统中难以捉摸的转型。本研究使用来自肯尼亚的长达十年的大型面板数据集检验了这一假设。动态随机效应Probit模型和控制函数方法用于评估采用可持续农业投入物的动力，以及大型谷物贸易商在提高农场一级对​​这些投入物的接受度方面的作用。结果表明，向大型谷物贸易商的销售导致更多地采用无机肥料并改良了种子，这是农业集约化的关键投入。土地所有权也被证明是进入大交易市场的关键成功因素。最后，改良的种子和有机肥的采用在整个时间上都是持久的，这表明使用这些投入物时依赖于国家。这些结果表明，促进大型谷物贸易商与农民之间互动的战略可以提高对可持续集约化投入的吸收。