Mapping the Relationship of Inter-Village Variation in Agroforestry Tree Survival with Social and Ecological Characteristics: The Case of the Vi Agroforestry Project, Mara Region, Tanzania

Abstract

Agroforestry practices can improve the adaptive capacity and resilience of local farming and subsistence systems while providing livelihood benefits to households. However, scaling up of agroforestry technology has often proved difficult. Many studies have been carried out to explain the lack of tangible impact, based mainly on formal household/farm surveys comparing characteristics of non-adopters with that of adopters. In this study, we mapped the relationship between agroforestry tree survival in villages that were a part of the Vi Agroforestry project in the Mara region, Tanzania with key social-ecological variables. A random sample of 21 households from each of 89 investigated project villages was used. The proportion of households with surviving agroforestry trees, varied from 10%-90% among villages. Social and ecological differences between villages were important explanations to this variation. Variables related to the project and its operations explained most of the inter-village variation in households with few surviving trees. To encourage the majority of village households to practice agroforestry their perceptions of tree ownership and the benefit of agroforestry were additional key factors to the project showing the importance of socio-cultural issues to the households' decisions to continue beyond the initial tree planting and testing phase. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 5172

The Pattern and Process of Adoption and Scaling up: Variation in Project Outcome Reveals the Importance of Multilevel Collaboration in Agroforestry Development

“…Apart from the differences revealed among villages influencing agroforestry adoption in Johansson et al [32], the study pointed out the need to further study the socio-cultural and governance differences at multiple levels and the dynamics of the scaling up process itself [32]. Hence, the aim of this study was to deepen the understanding of how this pattern and process influence agroforestry adoption.…”

“…The point of departure for this study was previous studies stressing the importance of the socio-cultural context and governance system in agroforestry development and the development process itself [16,17,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]32]. Apart from the differences revealed among villages influencing agroforestry adoption in Johansson et al [32], the study pointed out the need to further study the socio-cultural and governance differences at multiple levels and the dynamics of the scaling up process itself [32].…”

“…An important part of the collaboration was farmers co-designed learning experiments. In the year 2000, 54 tree species and four improved crop varieties were promoted by the project [32,35,36,39,42].…”

“…After seven years in operation, the Vi Agroforestry project in the Mara region in Tanzania (ViAFP) had an inter-village variation in tangible surviving agroforestry trees ranging from 10%-90%. Johansson et al [32] pointed out that for a more comprehensive understanding, it is necessary to make a deeper analysis of the wider socio-cultural context of the project and the scaling up process itself considering differences in governance at multiple levels. The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of the pattern and processes of agroforestry adoption and scaling up.…”

“…The Vi Agroforestry Program (Vi AF) has worked with and promoted tree planting and agroforestry development among small scale farmers since the mid 1980s [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. After seven years in operation, the Vi Agroforestry project in the Mara region in Tanzania (ViAFP) had an inter-village variation in tangible surviving agroforestry trees ranging from 10%-90%.…”