Actors involved in promoting conservation agriculture have often not taken into account perceptions of smallholder farmers of climate change and conservation agriculture as an adaptation strategy. This study documents smallholder farmers' perceptions of climate change and conservation agriculture. Most farmers attributed climate change to supernatural forces. Smallholder farmers' perceptions related to floods and droughts were significantly associated with adoption of conservation agriculture. The extent to which smallholder farmers perceived conservation agriculture as a climate change adaptation strategy was very low. This suggests existence of other important reasons for practicing conservation agriculture than adaptation to climate change. Policy implications of the study are: conservation agriculture projects should not only focus on technical approaches to increase adoption rates but also consider social aspects such as perceptions that are equally important in conservation agriculture. Inclusion of climate change communication to facilitate exchange of climatic information that could enable smallholder farmers relate to conservation agriculture as an adaptation strategy is essential.
Adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) is quite low in most parts of Africa. However, Zambia has been quite successful in increasing adoption of CA among smallholder farmers. Few studies using both quantitative and qualitative approaches have been conducted in Zambia to determine factors influencing adoption of CA. This study uses mixed methods approach to document factors influencing adoption of CA among smallholder farmers under the Conservation Agriculture Project (CAP) in Zambia. From a random sample of 415 smallholder farmers, results showed that 71% had adopted CA. Quantitative analysis indicated that CA trainings, previous experience in minimum tillage, membership in farmer organisations, and ownership of CA tillage equipment significantly increased the likelihood of CA adoption. Number of CA trainings attended, farm size, number of rippers owned and use of herbicide had a significant positive influence on area under CA. Qualitative approaches showed that good rapport with farmers, trust, reciprocity and altruism, monitoring and evaluations, extension strategy, quality and extent of technical knowledge in CA within CFU, and artificial incentives positively influenced adoption of CA. Traditional leadership was reported to enhance adoption of CA in most cases. Prestige was reported to withhold some men from adopting CA basins. Women were very involved in CA basins while men were mostly involved in ADP ripping. Some worldviews of farmers had negative influence on adoption of CA. Donor support and collaboration with the Zambia National Farmers Union and private sector were other contextual factors for the high adoption of CA among sampled smallholder farmers. In the promotion of CA it is important to pay attention to both quantitative and qualitative factors influencing adoption. A mixed methods approach thus can lead to a better understanding of the adoption of CA than a single research strategy approach.
AcknowledgementsWe are very grateful to the research assistants and field officers in Zambia for facilitating communication with farmers and the implementation of individual interviews as well as the participatory system dynamics model building workshops. Our sincere gratitude goes to the traditional leadership in the workshop communities for their support and to all the farmers who generously shared their time and insight with us. Funding sourcesWork on this article was supported by the Norwegian Research Council through the project "Simulation based tools for linking knowledge with action to improve and maintain food security in Africa" (contract number 217931/F10) and the Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study through the project "Knowledge analysis in coupled social-ecological systems. A pilot study in smallholder farmer communities in Zambia". The views and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding sources. The funding sources had no role in study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of this article or in the decision to submit this article for publication. Conflicts of interestThe authors declare no conflict of interest. AbstractFood systems will need to undergo considerable transformation. To be better prepared for and resilient to uncertainty and disturbances in the future, resource users and managers need to further develop knowledge about the food and farming system, with its dominating feedback structures and complexities, and to test robust and integrated system-based solutions. This paper investigates how participatory system dynamics modeling can be adapted to groups at the community level with low or no formal educational background. The paper also analyses the refinement of workshop participants' mental models as a consequence of a participatory system dynamics intervention. For this purpose, we ran two workshops with small-scale farmers in Zambia. Analysis of workshop data and postworkshop interviews shows that participatory system dynamics is well adaptable to support an audience-specific learning-by-doing approach. The use of pictures, objects and water glasses in combination with the basic aspects of causal loop diagramming makes for a wellbalanced toolbox. Participants acquire understanding that is also relevant beyond systems thinking in that it offers a range of practical insights such as a critical evaluation of common food security strategies.
Food insecurity is common place among 44% (six million) of Zambian population. Conservation agriculture (CA) is an option being promoted to address this problem. There is little evidence showing whether CA adopters are better than non-CA adopters in terms of food security. Using a four years panel data, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, informal discussions and personal observations, this study documents the differences in household food security between CA adopters and non-CA adopters in relation to pulses. Results showed that most common pulses grown among smallholder farmers were groundnuts, cowpeas, soya beans and other beans. A tendency for the percentage of households growing pulses to be significantly higher among CA-adopters than among non-CA adopters was recorded. Cash income from pulses as percentage of total pulses production was significantly higher among CA adopters than among non-CA adopter in all the four years. Similar results were obtained for crop diversity and mean number of meals with pulses eaten in a day. Cases of women increasing their cash income from pulses because of CA practices were also reported. Focus group discussants explained that CA had reduced the intensity of food shortage during the peak hunger period because of early green harvest. With reference to pulses, it is concluded from this study that, among sampled smallholder farmers, CA adopters are relatively more food secure than non-CA adopters. Factors contributing to increased food security included farmer trainings in CA, increased access to planting seed, early land preparation and planting, and revitalisation of the practice of crop rotation
Smallholder farmers in sub‐Saharan Africa recurrently face situations of complex and dynamic decision trade‐offs. Short‐term‐oriented activities such as fertilizer application help to cover immediate food needs but compromise on future food production. Long‐term‐oriented production activities such as building up soil fertility are important systemic leverage points; however, they compromise on today's harvests. This article uses a semicomputerized observational experiment in Zambia to investigate farm management decision making with conflicting production objectives in a dynamic context. The results reveal that, overall, Zambian smallholder farmers have a strong and significant preference for short‐term‐oriented production activities, which leads to a suboptimal performance in production in the long term. A mind shift towards more long‐term‐oriented production activities is required to sustainably increase food production. Our findings point at two things in this regard: First, we identify decision rules that successful performers have applied and that should be the basis for capacity building strategies. Second, we indicate that our approach itself contributed to recognition of the importance of a longer term perspective.
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