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Improving efficiency of knowledge and technology diffusion using community seed banks and farmer-to-farmer extension: experiences from Malawi

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Title Improving efficiency of knowledge and technology diffusion using community seed banks and farmer-to-farmer extension: experiences from Malawi
 
Creator Okori, Patrick
Munthali, Wills
Msere, Harry
Charlie, Harvey
Hitaya, Soka
Sichali, Felix
Chilumpha, Ethel
Chirwa, Teddie
Seetha, Anitha
Chinyamuyamu, Betty
Monyo, Emmanuel
Siambi, Moses
Chirwa, Rowland
 
Subject agricultural innovation
cereals
seed systems
smallholders
scaling up
innovación agrícola
cereales
sistemas de semillas
 
Description Background: Agri-innovations are mostly delivered to farmers through private and public sector-led institutions around the world, with various degrees of success in Malawi. These distribution systems, on the other hand, do not meet everyone’s production and productivity needs, particularly those of smallholder farmers. Alternative gap-flling systems are therefore required. Over the course of 7 years, we performed two studies in Malawi to assess the efciency of integrated farmer led agri-innovation delivery mechanisms, in order to advise programming and delivery improvements. The frst study looked at the impact of farmer-led technology delivery on agricultural output and productivity. It was split into two phases: learning (2010–2015) and scaling-out (2016–2019). The second study looked at how smallholder farmers changed their behaviour, after receiving instruction during the scaling-out phase. A farmer led social network, community seed banks, was used as the research platform.
Results: The number of farmers who had access to improved seed increased by 35-fold from 2.4% in the baseline year. Groundnut, the major study crop, had a 1.8-fold increase in productivity. In sorghum, and common bean, the diference in grain yield between benefciaries and control populations was 19% and 30%, respectively. The lowest afatoxin contamination was found in groundnut grain samples from trained farmers, showing that learning had occurred, with three training sessions sufcient for initiating and sustaining adoption of agri-innovations.
Conclusions: Many developing country economies have limited investments in agricultural extension and advisory services, and as well as inefcient agri-input delivery systems, limiting access to science solutions needed to boost productivity. The farmer-led technology and knowledge dissemination systems examined in this research, are appropriate for a variety farming contexts, especially for crops underinvested by private sector, and where public extension and advisory services are poorly funded.
 
Date 2022-12
2022-07-14T08:47:22Z
2022-07-14T08:47:22Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Okori, P.; Munthali, W.; Msere, H.; Charlie, H.; Chitaya, S.; Sichali, F.; Chilumpha, E.; Chirwa, T.; Seetha, A.; Chinyamuyamu, B.; Monyo, E.; Siambi, M.; Chirwa, R. (2022) Improving efficiency of knowledge and technology diffusion using community seed banks and farmer-to-farmer extension: experiences from Malawi. Agriculture & Food Security 11: 38. 14 p. ISSN: 2048-7010
2048-7010
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/120097
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-022-00375-4
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format 14 p.
application/pdf
 
Publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
 
Source Agriculture & Food Security