Dis-adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices: A Less preferred option among the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) group farmers in Malawi

CSA technologies have been promoted by various CSA promoters in Malawi in recent years. Specifically, Dowa district of Malawi, which has over 90% of its population depending on agriculture, is a host to CSA activities which have been implemented for 5 years. The smallholder farmer participants of CSA technologies in Dzoole TA of Dowa district have benefited from the support given by various international donors, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and from the Government of Malawi to promote CSA technologies in that country. Although some research reports reveal that the district had some CSA adoption challenges, a study conducted under the 3D4AgDev Program within National University of Ireland Galway to explore the CSA practices awareness, adoption and dis-adoption among the farmers of VSLA groups in Dowa indicate that the level of adoption is greater than that of dis-adoption (Figure 1).

The above-mentioned result of adoption being greater than disadoption could have been influenced by the existence of CSA activities that were facilitated by multiple service providers/promoters of CSA that were active in the district. Our study showed that there was a pluralistic CSA dissemination system in operation among the VSLA groups. The CSA services were being promoted and being provided by a portfolio of Organizations that included government, NGOs, companies and community members (Figure 2).

When a correlation analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between the levels of adoption of the CSA practices by VSLA farmers and the extent of institutional support/provision of CSA practices by different promoters, our results revealed a direct and tight positive relationship between the two variables assessed (Figure 3).

Despite the positive adoption rate shown by our study, it can still be argued that small scale adoption of CSA technologies by smallholder farmers in Malawi was still below expectation, with a few experiences of dis-adoption that were observed in some cases. Research suggest that dis-adoption of CSA practices are as a result of inadequate technical support received by the farmers in some parts of Africa during the challenging phase of implementation. The exploration into the CSA practices awareness, adoption, and dis-adoption among the farmers of VSLA groups reveal that farmers decide to dis-adopt CSA practices due to implementation bottlenecks such as the withdrawal of support from CSA service providers/promoters. Other farmers dis-adopted CSA practices such as use of inorganic fertilizers because they found locally affordable alternatives; substituted inorganic fertilizers with manure and compost

References:

CHINSEU, E., DOUGILL, A. & STRINGER, L. 2019. Why do smallholder farmers dis‐adopt conservation agriculture? Insights from Malawi. Land Degradation & Development, 30, 533-543.

KASSAM, A., FRIEDRICH, T. & DERPSCH, R. 2019. Global spread of conservation agriculture. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 76, 29-51.

NKALA, P., MANGO, N. A., CORBEELS, M., VELDWISCH, G. J. A. & HUISING, E. J. 2011. The conundrum of conservation agriculture and livelihoods in Southern Africa.

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Awareness in Malawi

Literature reveals that, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technology is a set of adaptation strategies that enable smallholder farmers to mitigate the effects of extreme weather conditions that prevail in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In their response to literature revelation of CSA technology’s mitigating effect on extreme weather conditions in the Sub-Saharan Africa, numerous stakeholders have setup plans to scale up the CSA practices among smallholder farmers in Africa. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) therefore, intends to scale up CSA to at least 25 million farmers in Africa. That target by NEPAD would only be achieved by increasing the levels of awareness among smallholder farmers of the various forms of CSA practices that are available to mitigate extreme weather conditions. CSA practices have been introduced to small scale farmers in Malawi for their adoption, but the question that begs serious answers is this:

How many Climate Smart Agricultural practices do smallholder farmers of Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) groups in Malawi know?

In their efforts to scale up CSA practices, the CARE Pathways project among other CSA promoters, had been promoting CSA practices among VSLA farmers of Dowa district in the Traditional Authority of Dzoole A and Dzoole B areas in Malawi. A study was conducted under the 3D4AgDev Program within National University of Ireland Galway in Dowa to explore the level of awareness of CSA practices, the adoption and dis-adoption rates among the farmers of VSLA groups. Results showed that there were high levels of awareness of various portfolio of CSA practices by the farmers (Figure 1).

A high level of awareness was noted for CSA practices that related to soil fertility and to crop production. Further, the results of the study showed low levels of awareness for post-harvest practices, rural energy and for crop insurance practices. However, it was regrettable to note that although some VSLA groups exhibited high levels of awareness for different CSA practices, there remained many other VLSA groups which were completely unaware of each CSA practice, indicating a heterogeneity of awareness of CSA practices between VSLA groups.

The observed high level of awareness that was exhibited by most VSLA groups elicited the expectation that, the extent of utilization of the CSA practices by the farmers would have been equivalent, but the study revealed the contrary was prevailing. The study revealed that, even though there was a high level of awareness of most CSA practices among some groups, the extent of use of each CSA practice was low among the VSLA groups. Further, there were some CSA practices (biochar, external material for mulching, planting N-fixing legumes, fodder shrubs, use of non-native fodders, increased pasture palatability, deficit irrigation, alternative harvesting techniques, changing harvest time, improved preservation and biogas production) that some of the VSLA farmers had knowledge of,  but the farmers were completely not using them (Figure 2).

The scenario of the VSLA farmers having knowledge of CSA practices but not using them, suggests that farmers had their own priorities in terms of what to adopt. The priorities depended on which practices had immediate benefits and in other cases were less costly to the farmer. It is, therefore, cardinal for the CSA promoters to initially tailor the CSA practices to the context of the target farmers needs and / or the target farmers priorities. Use of participatory selection methods could assist promoters to choose, together with the target farmers, what CSA practices relate to farmers’ priorities and, therefore, what CSA practices to promote.

References:

CHINSEU, E., DOUGILL, A. & STRINGER, L. 2019. Why do smallholder farmers dis‐adopt conservation agriculture? Insights from Malawi. Land Degradation & Development, 30, 533-543.

KHATRI-CHHETRI, A., AGGARWAL, P. K., JOSHI, P. K. & VYAS, S. 2017. Farmers’ prioritization of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies. Agricultural systems, 151, 184-191.

LIPPER, L., MCCARTHY, N., ZILBERMAN, D., ASFAW, S. & BRANCA, G. 2017. Climate smart agriculture: building resilience to climate change, Springer Nature.

ROSENSTOCK, T. S., LAMANNA, C., CHESTERMAN, S., BELL, P., ARSLAN, A., RICHARDS, M., RIOUX, J., AKINLEYE, A., CHAMPALLE, C. & CHENG, Z. 2016. The scientific basis of climate-smart agriculture: a systematic review protocol.