Relative roles and limits of extension approaches in promoting sustainable agricultural management practices: Analysis of nationally representative panel data from Malawi

Catherine Ragasa (c.ragasa@cgiar.org), Diston Mzungu, Kenan Kalagho and Cynthia Kazembe

No 2068, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Low-cost and sustainable agricultural management practices are being promoted in many countries but continue to face low adoption among farmers. We tracked the awareness and adoption among farmers of a number of practices―soil cover, minimum tillage, crop rotation, intercropping, crop diversification, crop residue incorporation, pit planting, water harvesting, and organic fertilizer―in two rounds of a nationally representative rural household survey in Malawi. Survey data and focus group discussions are used to understand the factors explaining the variations in farmers’ awareness and adoption of these practices. Results show a strong positive effect of extension services receipt on farmers’ awareness of these practices but no effect on farmers’ adoption of most of the practices being promoted, except for crop residue incorporation and organic fertilizer use. Receipt of input subsidy does not influence the adoption of these practices. Both survey data and focus group discussions highlight the need for intensive and iterative engagement between service providers and farmers to fully communicate, learn, and adapt to these management practices.

Keywords: models; water harvesting; technology adoption; agricultural extension; sustainable land management; surveys; technology; households; farmers; agricultural management practices; extension systems; soil fertility; capacity development; minimum tillage; intercropping; organic fertilizers; crop rotation; crop residue management; diversification; rural areas; planting methods; Malawi; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa; Southern Africa; Eastern Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev and nep-env
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143402

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2068

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (ifpri-library@cgiar.org).