• Contact Us
    • Send Feedback
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Journal and Journal Articles
    • Journal and Journal Articles
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Journal and Journal Articles
    • Journal and Journal Articles
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    Whole Repository
    CollectionsIssue DateRegionCountryHubAffiliationAuthorsTitlesSubject
    This Sub-collection
    Issue DateRegionCountryHubAffiliationAuthorsTitlesSubject

    My Account

    Login

    Welcome to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Research Repository

    What would you like to view today?

    Does farmer participatory research matter for improved soil fertility technology development and dissemination in Southern Africa?

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    rusike-does-2006.pdf (410.9Kb)
    Date
    2006
    Author
    Rusike, J.
    Twomlow, Stephen
    Freeman, H.
    Heinrich, G.
    Type
    Journal Article
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract/Description
    Crop management research is increasingly involving farmers in evaluating new technologies, identifying adoption constraints and opportunities for improving farm performance to produce more sustainable impact. ICRISAT and its partners worked with farmers in Malawi and Zimbabwe during the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons to evaluate a range of ‘best bet’ soil fertility and water management technologies and evaluate the impact of farmer participatory research. Although there was some variation in methods implemented at different sites, the study found that there is a basis for a comparison of methods. Community entry and participatory approaches that engage farmers in decision making throughout the research-development-diffusion-innovation process have higher setup costs compared to traditional ‘top-down’ approaches. But they improve efficiency, both in technology development and in building farmers' capacity for experimentation and collective learning. This results in the development of more relevant technologies, joint learning among farmers, researchers and extensionists and better impact. To make farmer participatory research projects more sustainable and introduce them on a wide scale, the study recommends that public and NGO investments be targeted to building district and village-level innovation clusters.
    Permanent link to this item
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12478/3052
    IITA Subjects
    Gender; Food Security; Agribusiness; Crop Husbandry; Farm Management; Livelihoods; Smallholder Farmers; Socioeconomy; Agronomy; Integrated Soil Fertility Management; Soil Fertility; Soil Health; Research Method; Impact Assessment; Soil Information
    Agrovoc Terms
    Farmer Participatory Research; Innovation; Mother And Baby Trials; Soil Fertility Management Technologies; Smallholders
    Regions
    Africa; Acp; Southern Africa; East Africa; North America
    Countries
    Malawi; Zimbabwe; Kenya; United States
    Collections
    • Journal and Journal Articles4842
    copyright © 2019  IITASpace. All rights reserved.
    IITA | Open Access Repository