12 pages, Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a pathway to sustainably intensify agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet despite decades of promotion, CA uptake in SSA remains sparse with only few analyses of its impacts on farming and rural livelihoods. This study, which focuses on areas in Central Malawi considered to have a relatively high uptake of CA, uses analyses of satellite images, field observations, interviews with farmers, extension workers and other people involved in CA promotion, as well as a household survey, to investigate how CA has been adapted. We find that the three CA principles – (1) continuous minimum tillage, e.g. no-ridging, (2) permanent ground cover, and (3) crop rotation/intercropping – were not practiced as intended. First, one-third of non-ridged land was tilled during the growing season, and half was again ridged in the following season. Second, unless crop residues were added, the soil’s surface of non-ridged plots was usually bare at planting, causing weed control problems, and an increased risk of erosion. Most farmers added large volumes of crop residues to their non-ridged plots. They collected these from the surrounding fields, but this practice severely restricted the size of these plots. Third, crop rotation/intercropping was practiced less when farmers stopped ridging. Thus overall, very few farmers practised all of the three CA principles simultaneously. CA promotion appeared to only increase yields on plots where mulch was added, but this practice is not scalable. CA promotiondoes not seem to have provided substantial benefits for overall farm productivity, labour-savings or soil cons
20 pages., Agricultural extension and advisory services in information and technology dissemination and delivery are critical in a
developing country’s food security and sustainability. Without extension service provision, the productivity and
production smallholder farmers are experiencing would have been much lower, and current global hunger and
malnutrition worse. This paper assesses the effects of COVID-19 on the sustainability of agricultural extension
models/approaches for smallholder farmers in developing countries. Over 60 papers were reviewed covering 2019-2021,
commencing with the disease outbreak in China. Based on characteristics and usage, the findings indicate most reviewed
extension models were disrupted. No single model was entirely disbanded as the impact of COVID-19 was being felt.
However, each model incorporated a digital means of communication to keep farmers and service providers in touch.
There is considerable criticism around the inadequacy of these extension techniques in advancing the agenda for
smallholder farming’s long-term viability that needs to be addressed
4 pages., Online from publisher., "For the first time, a landmark report on digitalisation for agriculture (D4Ag) in Africa compiles and highlights data on digital solutions that are enabling the transformation of African agriculture."
17 pages, Small farms and small farmers are a growing sector of the agricultural economy nationwide. Notably, small farms are influenced by similar antagonists to the success of their business as large, concentrated operations, but they experience it differently. The purpose of this study was to describe small farms and farmers in North Dakota to assist North Dakota State University Extension in defining their needs for programming development. We found that nearly 45% of small farmer respondents are women. Small farmers prefer to access information for their operations in a variety of ways but like to engage with Extension through more direct and personal means. Recommendations include developing programming targeted at female farmers and organizing Extension information resources targeted at small farm needs, specifically.
18 pages, This study examined gaps in climate information within public agricultural extension in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It assessed extension officers’ climate change perceptions, knowledge and climate education. Lastly, the study examined the extension approaches for overall suitability of climate information disseminated to rural smallholder farmers. The results indicated that participants were predominately male, with tertiary education. Education levels had an influence on exposure to climate education and extension approaches in disseminating agricultural information to farmers. There is a need to retool extension officers in climate change extension work, integrating indigenous knowledge to increase suitability and acceptability of information by smallholder farmers.
8 pages., This study ascertained factors influencing adoption of improved maize seed varieties in three local government areas of Kaduna State, North-central Nigeria. It collected cross-sectional data for a sample of 180 randomly selected farming households across three local government areas of the State in 2015/16. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were performed on the data. The descriptive statistics differentiated adopters from non-adopters, while the inferential analysis involved estimation of a logit model to determine factors driving adoption of improved maize seed varieties in the study areas. The results of the descriptive analysis show significant mean differences between adopters and non-adopters regarding several farm households’ characteristics. The model results reveal that adoption of improved maize seed varieties among the households was positively influenced by age, household size, level of education, farming experience, labour availability, contacts with extension agents, farm size, off-farm income and membership of associations. Thus, the study concluded that improving farmers’ education, expanding coverage and depth of extension services and strengthening farmer associations are useful policy actions for promoting adoption of improved maize varieties. It is also important to address availability, accessibility and affordability issues constraining adoption, enhance credit access and mitigate risk perceptions. The link between researchers and innovators and the farmers who are the off-takers of their outputs should be reinforced to increase maize productivity in order to satisfy national demand and promote food security.
18 pages, This paper presents the findings of challenges facing Zimbabwe’s extension services and how these have affected the adoption of technologies they render to small-scale farmers. This study uses a critical review of relevant literature on Zimbabwe’s primary public extension agency (AGRITEX). Additionally, 21 key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted to corroborate data collected in secondary research on extension approaches currently in use, the key factors affecting technology adoption, and the technology adoption process of small-scale farmers. The study found AGRITEX’s major challenges to be poor funding, poor remuneration and incentives for extension personnel, lack of in-service training, lack of appropriate technology, as well as poor operational resources like transport to reach all farmers. Consequently, services offered to small-scale farmers were compromised, which led to poor adoption of recommended technologies. Furthermore, the study determined that key factors influencing technology adoption are related to the farmers’ circumstances, the operating environment, and the attributes of technology itself. As a lasting solution to poor technology adoption, an adaptive extension system that promotes building the capacity of extension workers and researchers, as well as embracing farmers and their indigenous knowledge, is proposed
7 pages., A survey was conducted to identify management information sources and communication channels used by commercially oriented smallholder beef cattle producers (n = 62) in Limpopo province, South Africa. A total of 62 commercially oriented smallholder farmers under the Limpopo Industrial Development Corporation-Nguni cattle project were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data on farmers’ demographic and farm characteristics, sources of information and communication channels used. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to evaluate factors that influenced farmers’ choices of information sources and communications channels used. Findings show that government extension (53% of the respondents) and other farmers (30%) were the major sources of management information for the farmers. Based on the logistic regression results, the decision to choose government extension as the main source of information was mainly influenced by respondents’ gender (p = 0.001) and access to training (p = 0.023). Communication was mainly through farm-to-farm visits (56%) and the use of mobile phones (30%). Based on the current findings, the infusion of modern information communication technologies such as mobile phone-based innovations with the existing government extension service could further strengthen the capacity of farmers to share information among themselves as well as providing feedback to extension agents. Furthermore, it is essential to take cognizance of farmers’ socio-economic factors when identifying and characterizing their management information sources and communication strategies.
12 pages, Agricultural extension and advisory services in Africa have significant impact on food security as well as economic and social development. Recent moves towards a pluralistic delivery system, facilitated by the emergence of private-sector led initiatives in many countries are the subject of policy and academic discourse. This study used an adapted, fit-for-purpose market systems development framework to review available research in extension and advisory services in selected sub-Sahara Africa countries. Using a literature survey methodology, we report evidence of multiple actors in extension delivery, findings that point towards evolution towards mixed delivery as well as objectives. While there are significant uptake of cost-recovery approaches among commercially-oriented farmers, many smallholder farmers still depended on donor-funded services. Our review adds to existing knowledge through incorporating a market systems development framework, which extends the often-used willingness to pay approach, and highlights the need for merger of both public and private-sector objectives to achieve developmental outcomes.
14 pages, Climate change has severe consequences not at just local, regional but also at a global scale. Since such shifts in the climate, the substantial agriculture sector of Pakistan has been suffering widely from its drastic change. The present study is carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province of Pakistan, to explore the perception of smallholder farmers related to climate change. Data is collected from 400 smallholder farmers of Malakand, Mardan and Swabi districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This study expounds the perception of farmers and their farming adaptations to variations in climatic occurrence. Binary logistic regression was employed to discover the aspects that shape smallholder farmer’s adaptation strategies. Our results depicted that the awareness and farm household’s exploits methods for climate change adaptation were common throughout the study area. The main adaptation strategies carried out or executed by the smallholder farmers were irrigation, non-farm activities and early planting schemas. This research identified the barriers to climate change adaptation were lack of money, unavailability of required seed, nonexistence of market access, insecure land tenure system and shortage of information. The findings of the study recommend improving farmer’s awareness and providing timely information about climate change. To improve farmer’s well-being, adequate extension services and greater investment facilities are required to support farmers to sustain their livelihoods in the long run to cope with climate change.
