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Using a positive deviance approach to inform farming systems redesign: A case study from Bihar, India

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Title Using a positive deviance approach to inform farming systems redesign: A case study from Bihar, India
 
Creator Adelhart Toorop, Roos
Ceccarellia, Viviana
Bijarniya, Deepak
Jat, Mangi Lal
Jat, Raj K.
López Ridaura, Santiago
Groot, Jeroen C.J.
 
Subject food security
climate change
agriculture
 
Description Improving farming systems in resource-poor contexts is often difficult as farmers face multiple challenges to implement the innovations developed by researchers. Viable solutions may however be present within local communities by positive deviant farmers, i.e. farmers that outperform positively compared to others. This study develops a positive deviance informed methodology to support redesign of farming systems, with the aim to improve farm productive, economic and environmental performances. We tested the methodology in Bihar, India, using survey data from 43 farms and the indicators of operating profit, soil organic matter balance, water use and dietary energy production. Positive deviant farms and practices were first identified and then recombined into a redesigned farm in consultation with farmers. The FarmDESIGN model was used to calculate current farm performance and to explore potential alternative farm configurations in the redesign. We found that outstanding performance on all indicators could only be reached by integrating high livestock density with an optimal combination of crop practices, which confirms the key role of interactions among components in mixed crop-livestock systems to improve all dimensions of farm sustainability. The redesigns outperformed all real farms on the indicators assessed. Farmers confirmed the viability of the redesigns in focus group discussions and their suggestions can serve as useful input for a next cycle of farm redesign. Since all suggestions are locally practiced and have proven to be accessible, affordable and recognizable, we conclude that our methodology based on positive deviant farms and practices yields promising results with a large potential to boost agricultural development for resource-scarce smallholder farmers.
 
Date 2020-11-01
2020-11-06T21:30:16Z
2020-11-06T21:30:16Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Adelhart Toorop R, Ceccarellia V, Bijarniya D, Jat ML, Jat RK, Lopez-Ridaurab S, Groot JCJ. 2020. Using a positive deviance approach to inform farming systems redesign: A case study from Bihar, India. Agricultural Systems 185:102942.
0308-521X
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/110079
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2020.102942
PII-SA_CSA
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format 102942
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Source Agricultural Systems