Options for Climate-Smart Agriculture at Kaptumo Site in Kenya

This report identifies and assesses climate-smart agricultural practices through participatory appraisal tools with experts and farmers, as part of the MICCA pilot project in Kaptumo, Kenya. The aim is to highlight and add climate-smart practices within the ongoing development programme which aims to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation with improving livelihoods and productivity of the dairy farming system

Improved fallows in Kenya: history, farmer practice, and impacts

This case study explores the development, dissemination, adoption, and impact of improved tree fallows in rural western Kenya. The processes of technology development and dissemination throughout the region are described and analyzed. To analyze adoption and impact, the paper applies a variety of different data collection methods as well as samples from both pilot areas where researchers maintained a significant presence and non-pilot areas where farmers learned of the technologies through other channels. Sample sizes for the quantitative analysis ranged from almost 2,000 households for measuring the adoption process to just over 100 households for measuring impact indicators. Qualitative methods included long-term case studies for 40 households and focus group discussions involving 16 different groups. The paper describes the ways in which farmers used and modified improved fallow practices. Discussion also examines the types of households using fallows and benefiting from their use.

THE BLENDING OF PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS: WEALTH STATUS, GENDER AND THE ADOPTION OF IMPROVED FALLOWS IN ZAMBIA

Although there is increasing emphasis on targeting of improved technology towards poor and female farmers, few adoption studies assess the uptake of new practices by these groups in a comprehensive manner. In this study, community members used the wealth ranking method to identify the different wealth groups in their communities, to determine each household's wealth status, and to assess the association of wealth and different types of households with the planting of improved tree fallows, a practice for improving crop yields. There were no significant differences between the proportions of women and men planting improved fallows nor were there differences between single women and female heads of households who were married. There was some evidence of association between planting improved fallows and wealth. That 22% of the 'poor' group and 16% of the 'very poor' group were planting them suggests that there are no barriers preventing low-income households from doing so. Moreover, the proportion of females, poor, and very poor people planting improved fallows varied considerably among villages, suggesting that opportunities exist for increasing their use of technology. Whereas the use of mineral fertilizer is strongly associated with high-income, male farmers, improved fallows appear to be a gender-neutral and wealth-neutral technology. Poor farmers appreciate improved fallows because they permit them to substitute small amounts of land and labour for cash, their most scarce resource. Finally, the high degree of consistency among different key informants in classifying households among wealth groups confirmed the effectiveness and accuracy of the wealth ranking exercise.Adoption, agroforestry, Participatory research, Sesbania sesban, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Strategies for sustainable natural resource management

This brief describes two case studies as follows: "Sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest fertility rate in the world, faces increasing demographic pressure on its natural resource base.... Old strategies for coping with these new pressures on the natural resource base are becoming increasingly infeasible... Consequently, Africa's farmers require new solutions to address the increasing pressure on the continent's soil and water resources. Among hundreds of innovative efforts across the continent, two promising sets of responses have emerged in different locations.... First is the use of planting basins, an approach that has emerged in recent decades in both the Sahel and Zambia.... The second strategy involves the use of improved fallows, introduced over the past decade in eastern Zambia and western Kenya." [from Text]. The authors look at the impact and the drivers of change and conclude with key lessons learned for buidling future successes.

The Adoption and Dissemination of Fodder Shrubs in Central Kenya

Conference Paper No. 1

Collaborative monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment: Experiences assessing the impact of improved fallows and biomass transfer in western Kenya

pre-printThere is considerable literature available on assessing the impact of rural innovations from the perspective of a particular discipline, e.g., economics or sociology, and from the farmers’ own perspective, e.g., participatory monitoring and evaluation. But little has been written about collaborative monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment, that is, how a group of diverse stakeholder organizations working in a particular location promoting similar innovations can work together to monitor and evaluate their work and assess their impact. The objective of this paper is to assess the experience of 30 organizations working together over a four year period, 1999-2003, to assess their impact in helping farmers to develop, adapt and adopt two soil fertility practices aimed at improving household livelihoods in western Kenya. The two practices were biomass transfer (cutting leaves and applying them as green manure) and improved fallows (enriching or replacing natural fallows with planted, nitrogen-fixing shrubs). Researchers of ICRAF, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) in partnership with farmers developed the practices in the mid-1990s, in response to farmers’ soil fertility problems and their lack of cash for buying mineral fertilizer. The following section describes the study area, and research and dissemination activities concerning the two practices. Next the collaborative exercises on monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment are described, followed by the results of the assessments of biomass transfer and improved fallows. Finally, the impact of these exercises is discussed, highlighting the effect of the process and findings on the participating organizations

Tree species selection for land rehabilitation in Ethiopia: from fragmented knowledge to an integrated multi-criteria decision approach

Dryland regions worldwide are increasingly suffering from losses of soil and biodiversity as a consequence of land degradation. Integrated conservation, rehabilitation and community-based management of natural resources are therefore of vital importance. Local planting efforts should focus on species performing a wide range of functions. Too often however, unsuitable tree species are planted when both ecological suitability for the targeted area or preferences of local stakeholders are not properly taken into account during selection. To develop a decision support tool for multi-purpose species selection, first information needs to be pooled on species-specific ranges, characteristics and functions for a set of potentially valuable species. In this study such database has been developed for the highly degraded northern Ethiopian highlands, using a unique combination of information sources, and with particular attention for local ecological knowledge and preferences. A set of candidate tree species and potentially relevant criteria, a flexible input database with species performance scores upon these criteria, and a ready-to-use multi-criteria decision support tool are presented. Two examples of species selection under different scenarios have been worked out in detail, with highest scores obtained for Cordia africana and Dodonaea angustifolia, as well as Eucalyptus spp., Acacia abyssinica, Acacia saligna, Olea europaea and Faidherbia albida. Sensitivity to criteria weights, and reliability and lack of knowledge on particular species attributes remain constraints towards applicability, particularly when many species are jointly evaluated. Nonetheless, the amount and diversity of the knowledge pooled in the presented database is high, covering 91 species and 45 attributes

The farmer trainers approach in technology dissemination in Uganda: Farmer trainers’ and trainees’ perspectives.

This working paper presents the results of the first phase of a study that aims to determine the effectiveness of the farmer trainers approach in the dissemination of feed technologies in the East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD). The starting point of this study is in the recognition that public sector extension services are no longer able to provide small scale farmers with adequate extension services. As a result, new approaches and mechanisms are being developed to fill the gap. One such approach that is being used by the EADD project is the volunteer farmer trainers approach. It is a form of farmer-to farmer extension where farmers host demonstration plots and take centre stage in information sharing. Although this approach has been in use in the EADD project since its inception in 2008, not much is understood about its effectiveness. A study was therefore initiated to assess its effectiveness. The study was organised into three phases. The first phase, which is the subject of this report, is an exploratory informal survey to collect qualitative data from both the trainers and trainees to be used in formulating hypothesis for more in depth formal surveys in the next phases. Group discussions were held in three sites of the EADD project in three districts, namely Jinja, Mukono and Mityana to get the perceptions of farmer trainers and trainees on the effectiveness of the approach. Farmer trainers have served an average of 15.6 months and train an average of 5 trainees per month. Most of them undertake their activities by foot and a few use their own bicycles. Farmer trainers use various means of mobilizing farmers for their training sessions. Training sessions are normally held at trading centres, local county halls, demonstration sites and homesteads of trainees and trainers. Farmer trainers are motivated by the desire to gain more knowledge/skills, improve their own livelihoods and those of other farmers in the community and becoming popular among other factors. Some of the costs that farmer trainers incur are: transport, time and bicycle maintenance. Benefits received range from gaining knowledge and skills, popularity, increasing social networks to satisfaction. Challenges faced include transport, lack of training materials and family conflicts involving some farmer trainees and their spouses. Some of the low-cost opportunities for improving the approach include provision of training materials (manila paper, marker pen, sample seeds) and certification of farmer trainers. If resources are available, bicycles would help improve performance. Farmer trainers are an important source of information to farmers. Rating of topics taught by trainers was mixed with some topics being rated highly in terms of relevance, understanding and ease of use while others were rated low. On technology uptake by farmer trainees, the highest uptake was for Napier (Elephant) grass and pasture improvement (50%), followed by calliandra (47%). Other technologies such as silage, hay, lablab, leuceana and setaria had less than 30% uptake