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
Gaymard, Sandrine (author), Goujon, Boris (author), and Lefebvre, Marianne (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
unknown
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12253
Notes:
22 pages, Support for the agricultural sector from the European Union via the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is evolving. The last CAP reform in 2014 made one further step toward mandatory approaches. To understand the "social thinking" and behavior when faced with these measures, an innovative application has been adopted. Globally, the farmers' discourse manifests contradictions between environmental concern and the financial dimension, which is the expression of their daily difficulties. Mandatory approaches to sustainable agriculture may favor what the Theory of Conditionality called "legitimate transgressions" if regulations appear unadapted to real practices because compliance and opportunity costs are too high.
Shalaby, M.Y. (author), Baig, M.B. (author), Al-Shaya (author), and Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, King Saud University, P O Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2010-12
Published:
Egypt
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08184
Church, Sarah P. (author), Haigh, Tonya (author), Widhalm, Melissa (author), Garcia de Jalon, Silvestre (author), Babin, Nicholas (author), Carlton, J. Stuart (author), Dunn, Michael (author), Fagan, Katie (author), Knutson, Cody L. (author), and Prokopy, Linda S. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
unknown
Published:
Netherlands: Elsevier Science BV
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 7 Document Number: D10262
16 pages., Via online journal., The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2014, sampled from ten agricultural trade publications. The results lead us to suggest that trade publications’ 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought discussion lacked information that would allow farmers and agricultural advisors to assess climate change risk and subsequent potential adaptive management strategies. Agricultural risk from climate change is very real, and farmers will need to adapt. The agricultural trade publications studied missed an opportunity to convey risk from climate change and the transformative adaptation practices necessary for a sustainable and resilient agricultural system.
15 pages., Securing the adoption of scalable agro-educational information and communication technology (ICT) solutions by farmers remains one of the international development community’s most elusive goals – in part due to two key gaps in the data: (1) limited comparisons of competing knowledge-delivery methods, and (2) few to no follow-ups on long-term knowledge retention and solution adoption. Addressing both of these gaps, this follow-up study measures farmer knowledge retention and solution adoption two years after being trained on an improved postharvest bean storage method in northern Mozambique. The results found animated-video knowledge delivery at least as effective as a traditional extension approach for knowledge retention (97.9%) and solution adoption (89%). As animated video can more cost-effectively reach the widest – even geographically isolated – populations, it readily complements extension services and international development community efforts to secure knowledge transfer and recipient buy-in for innovations. Implications and future research for adult learning are also discussed.
