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

Karl-Erik Johansson, Robert Axelsson, Ngolia Kimanzu, Samuel O. Sassi, Eliza Bwana and Robert Otsyina
Additional contact information
Karl-Erik Johansson: School for Forest Management, Faculty of Forest Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-739 21Skinnskatteberg, Sweden
Robert Axelsson: School for Forest Management, Faculty of Forest Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-739 21Skinnskatteberg, Sweden
Ngolia Kimanzu: Social Capital Innovations International, Box 569, SE-10110 Stockholm, Sweden
Samuel O. Sassi: Regional Commissioner Office, Mara, Region, P.O. Box 299/855 Musoma, Mara 31000, Tanzania
Eliza Bwana: Prime Minister's Office, Local Government Authority, Masasi District, P.O. Box 246 Masasi, Mtwara 63000, Tanzania
Robert Otsyina: Development Associates Limited, P.O.Box 60023, Dar es Salaam 11000, Tanzania

Sustainability, 2013, vol. 5, issue 12, 1-30

Abstract: Agroforestry is considered a subsistence system that balances the urgent need for food and income of small scale farmers with restoration and conservation of ecosystem services, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Vi Agroforestry Program aims to implement agroforestry as a means to alleviate poverty and increase resilience among the poorest smallholders. After seven years, the Vi Agroforestry Project in the Mara Region of Tanzania had an inter-village variation in the proportion of households with tangible surviving agroforestry trees ranging from 10%–90%. Using a multiple methods approach, this variation was analysed in relation to changes and differences among administrative districts and project zones regarding perceived barriers to agroforestry adoption, project interventions, governance and the chronology of the process. In districts and zones where collaboration among the project staff, government counterparts and other stakeholders had been established at multiple levels, more agroforestry trees survived and a larger proportion of households practiced agroforestry. The established collaboration made it possible to discover and consider opportunities and barriers to agroforestry development such as diverse stakeholder interests and perceptions. As a result, potential conflicts could be avoided and socially robust solutions developed, adapted and integrated into the local subsistence systems.

Keywords: dissemination of agroforestry; adaptation; technology adoption; poverty alleviation; collaboration; social learning; sustainable development; farming system; participant observation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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