what drives agroforestry adoption in cameroon? by degrande ann et al
TRANSCRIPT
What drives agroforestry adoption
in Cameroon?
Degrande Ann1, Chiatoh Maryben1, Nimino Godwill1, Ngaunkam Precilia1,
Franzel Steven2 and Place Frank3
(1) World Agroforestry Centre, West and Central Africa/Humid Tropics,
Yaoundé, Cameroon (2) World Agroforestry Centre, Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya.
(3) International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA H
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15
Outline
• Introduction • Objective of the study • Methodology • Results • Conclusion • Research and Policy Implications
Introduction
• Importance of understanding adoption:
– document progress in disseminating new practices,
– improve efficiency of the technology development and dissemination process,
– provide farmer feedback for improving research and extension programmes,
– help identify policy and other factors contributing to successful technology development and constraints limiting the achievements
Franzel et al. (2001)
• Growing body of literature on adoption:
– biophysical characteristics of technologies,
– individual and household conditions of farmers
– institutional context in which adoption of innovations takes place
• challenging to understand adoption of innovations in a way that would help design better extension systems
Objective of study
Agroforestry technologies in humid forest and savannah zones of
Cameroon:
- Fertiliser trees and shrubs
- Fodder trees and shrubs
- Tree domestication: - Tree propagation
- Tree integration
- Value addition and marketing of tree products
Objectives of study
• to analyse adoption of agroforestry technologies by farmers in humid forest and savannah zones of Cameroon
• to develop recommendations to accelerate adoption
Methodology
Step 1: Division into strata reflecting agro-ecological zone and market access – factors hypothesised to affect adoption of AF
Relay Organizations – Community-Based extension services • boundary-spanning actors (NGOs, CBOs, farmer associations) that link research
organisations like ICRAF, and farmer communities • disseminate innovations to farmers using demonstrations, training and technical
assistance, after which farmers provide feedback and by so doing, help develop the innovations further
Step 2 : Choice of relay organizations (ROs) => In each stratum defined above, at least 1, where possible 2 ROs were selected; giving a total of 12 ROs
Agro-ecological zones Market access
Good Poor Sub-humid savannah: West
region
2 1
Sub-humid savannah: North-West
region
2 2
Forest mono-modal rainfall:
Littoral and South-West regions
1 1
Forest bi-modal rainfall: Centre,
South and East regions
1 2
Step 3: Selection of study villages
2 factors affecting adoption rate of innovations promoted: H1: distance from RO
=> 2 axes, 3 radii (15, 30, 45 km from RO)
H2: extension efforts from RO => 3 villages with intervention (‘project’ village), 3 without intervention (‘control’ village)
30-45km 15-30km 0-15km 0-15km
km
15-30km
km
30-45km
km R
O V3
V2 V1 V4 V5 V6
V = Village RO = Relay organization
X2 X1
X1 = Axis 1 X2 = Axis 2
R3 R2 R1 R2
R3
R = Radius
Step 4: Selection of study households
• List of households residing in village (with key persons and administrative authorities)
• 15 households per village randomly selected
• 10 interviewed per village; total: 720
RESULTS
- What agroforestry practices are adopted? - Who is adopting? - How does dissemination of agroforestry practices take
place?
What AF practices are adopted?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Soil fertilitymanagement
Foddertrees/shrubs
TreePropagation
Integrationof improved
trees
CollectiveAction in
marketing
Post-Harvestof AFTPs
Nu
mb
er o
f re
spo
nd
ents
(%
)
AF Techniques
Project village
Control village
More recently introduced innovations such as collective action in marketing of agroforestry products and post-harvest techniques were more commonly adopted in project villages than in control villages
Who is adopting?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Heard about AF Heard about TD Plantedimproved trees
Nu
mb
er
of
resp
on
den
ts (
%)
Project village
Control village
Action
Awareness
= ‘ADOPTION’
Adoption by gender
• more men than women had heard about agroforestry
• the proportion of men (51%) and women (53%) that heard of tree domestication was not very different
• men adopted tree domestication more than women
• similar trends in project and control villages
Involvement in AF practices
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Soil fertilitymanagement
Foddertrees/shrubs
TreePropagation
Integration ofimproved
trees
CollectiveAction in
marketing
Post-Harvestof AFTPs
% o
f re
spo
nd
en
ts
Agroforestry Practices
All
Male & female adult
Children
Female adult
Male adult
Male dominated AF practices
Female dominated AF practices
Adoption by agro-ecological zone
• Awareness does not automatically lead to planting of improved trees
• Great differences in adoption of specific AF practices between agro-ecological zone – Soil fertility and fodder
shrubs/trees more in humid savannah
– Collective action and post-harvest more in humid forest
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Heard about AF Heard about TD Plantedimproved trees
Nu
mb
er o
f re
spo
nd
en
ts (
%)
Humid Forest Bi-modal
Humid Forest Mono-modal
Humid Savannah West
Humid SavannahNorth-West
How does dissemination takes place?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
% o
f re
spo
nd
en
ts
Sources of agroforestry information
projectvillagewitnessvillage
LOW: GOVERNMENT
HIGH: NGO/RO
HIGH: Fellow farmers
Farmer-to-farmer exchange of knowledge and training
• 86% provided information about AF to others
• 54% trained others • Some AF practices are more
difficult to train others on • Information shared with:
– fellow farmers in the village (72%) or outside the village (14%)
– household (6%) or other family (8%) members
• Men (84%) and women (87%) were equally active in sharing agroforestry information
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
% o
f re
spo
nd
ents
wh
o t
rain
ed
Agroforestry Practice
Male
Female
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSION
• No meaningful differences in terms of age of HH head, HH size, farm size, experience with farming or wealth indicators between adopters and non-adopters
• What facilitated adoption significantly: – membership in farmer organisation,
– Contact with extension services,
– Exposure to agroforestry information.
• Farmers, men and women, share knowledge with fellow farmers within and outside their village, though to different extent depending on technique
Policy Implications
• Importance of grassroots extension mechanisms and farmer-to-farmer dissemination
• Strengthen the role of CBOs in agroforestry extension
• Encourage exchange of information and skills between fellow farmers
