Farming family being surveyed, Ethiopia. Photo credit M Wood, AIFSC Project Leader Dr Menale Kassie & Dr Chilot Yirga, EIAR. Photo credit M Wood, AIFSC Previous Pause Next TabsOverview‘Identifying socioeconomic constraints to and incentives for faster technology adoption: Pathways to sustainable intensification in eastern and southern Africa’ aims to better understand how smallholders make decisions about their farming practices, particularly adopting new technologies or practices. The project, more commonly dubbed as the ‘Adoption Pathways project’ investigates how smallholder decisions are influenced by socioeconomic factors (including gender dynamics, labour availability and the availability of credit), changes in farming systems (changes in crop and livestock patterns and practices), and external factors (such as climate variability, markets and policies). The Adoption Pathways project builds on the SIMLESA program and provides an evidence-based understanding of the incentives and barriers to adoption for smallholder farmers. Over the medium to long term, benefits include developing knowledge and understanding of the underlying forces of adoption, identification of drivers (both accelerators and impediments) of change, tools and methods for analysing impact of new technologies, and practical and actionable policy recommendations for improving the adoption of new technologies. This project builds on an earlier scoping study (Sustainable agricultural intensification pathways for improving food security in maize systems in Africa: Socioeconomic dynamics, drivers of change and policy options for inclusive growth) which aimed to bring together key project partners and stakeholders for consultation to design the Adoption Pathways project. Read more about the project formulation meeting. LocationEthiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique ResultsProject Reports Click here for a summary of the project. See a Presentation to the CGIAR Research Program on Maize review meeting from October 2014 (File size:7.4MB) Project Survey Reports Adoption Pathways Tanzania Survey 2013 Adoption Pathways Kenya Survey 2013 Policy Briefs Based on joint work with the SIMLESA program a number of Policy Briefs have been developed as follows: Policy Brief 1 / 2014 - Food security as a gender issue: Why are female-headed households worse off compared to similar male-headed counterparts? Policy Brief 2 / 2014 - Give and Take: Tackling trade-offs in crop residue use for conservation agriculture in Kenya Policy Brief 3 / 2014 - Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Ethiopia: Achieving maximum impact through adoption of suites of technologies Policy Brief 4 / 2014 - Sustainable Agricultural Intensification through Multi-technology Adoption: A Regional Overview from East and Southern Africa Policy Brief 5 / 2014 - Low Risk, High Returns: How adoption of crop diversification and minimum tillage is a win-win for smallholder farmers in Malawi Policy Brief 6 / 2014 - Improved Maize Varieties and Household Food Security: Achieving impact in Tanzania Policy Brief 1/ 2015 - Men’s and Women’s Risk Preferences: Evidence from the Adoption of Maize Technology in Kenya Journal Papers Production risks and food security under alternative technology choices in Malawi Evaluating the impact of improved maize varieties on food food security in rural Tanzania Cropping system diversification, conservation tillage and modern seed adoption in Ethiopia Understanding the adoption of a portfolio of sustainable intensification practices in eastern and southern Africa Are there systematic gender differences in the adoption of sustainable agricultural intensification practices? Evidence from Kenya What determines gender inequality in household food security in Kenya? Discussion Papers Discussion Paper 1 - A 2008/2009 social accounting matrix of Central and Southern Malawi Discussion Paper 1 (2015) - Gendered food security in rural Malawi: Why is women’s food security status lower? Discussion Paper 2 - Adoption and economics of multiple sustainable intensification practices in Ethiopia: Evidence from panel data Discussion Paper 3 - Response to climate risks among smallholder farmers in Malawi: A multivariate probit assessment of the role of Information, Household Demographics and Farm Characteristics Discussion Paper 4 - Understanding farmers’ ex-ante risk management and ex-post risk coping strategies for climate risk: A case study of smallholder farmers in North West Ethiopia Discussion Paper 5 - Technology diversification: Assessing impacts on crop income and agrochemical uses in Malawi Discussion Paper 6 - Women’s empowerment in agriculture in Tanzania using adoption pathways survey Discussion Paper 7 - Maize and legume technology adoption in Malawi: Gender, social networks and SIMLESA effects Discussion Paper 8 - How does gender of the household head affect market participation of smallholder maize farmers? Evidence from Ethiopia and Kenya Discussion Paper 9 - Farm plot level determinants of the number of sustainable agricultural intensification practices adopted in a maize-legume cropping system in Kenya Discussion Paper 10 - Crop choice and adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Practices in Kenya Discussion Paper 11 - Predicting the adoption of conservation agriculture under alternative agricultural policy environments in Eastern and Southern Africa Discussion Paper 12 - Determinants of market participation regimes among smallholder maize producers in Kenya Project Discussion Papers hosted at the Norwegian University of Life Science (NMBU) Economy-wide effects of input subsidies in Malawi: Market imperfections and household heterogeneity Can Adoption of Improved Maize Varieties Help Smallholder Farmers Adapt to Drought? Evidence from Malawi Male and Female risk preference and maize technology adoption in Kenya Risky Choices of Poor People: Comparing Risk Preference Elicitation Approaches in Field Experiments Agricultural Household Models for Malawi: Household Heterogeneity, Market Characteristics, Agricultural Productivity, Input Subsidies, and Price Shocks. A Baseline Report High discount rates: An artifact caused by poorly framed experiments or a result of people being poor and vulnerable? Input subsidies and improved maize varieties in Malawi: What can we learn from the impacts in a drought year? Input subsidies and demand for improved maize: Relative prices and household heterogeneity matter! Synthesis Papers Adoption Pathways Project: Evidence, Lessons and Outreach a synthesis of findings. See also a summary PPT slide of key facts and figures from the project. The TeamProject Leader: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Dr. Menale Kassie, Scientist (Agricultural Economics), Socioeconomics Program Australian collaborating organisation: The University of Queensland, Dr. John Asafu-Adjaye, Associate Professor, School of Economics Collaborating international agencies: University of Life Sciences (UMB): Dr Stein Holden, Professor, School of Economics and Business International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): Dr Ruth Meinzen-Dick, CRP Theme Leader (Inclusive Institutions– CRP2) Collaborating National Agricultural Research Institutes: Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Dr Chilot Yirga, Senior Researcher Sokoine University of Agriculture, Dr Fulgence Mishili, Senior Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Egerton University, Dr. Gideon Obare, Associate Prof., Department of Agricultural Economics University of Malawi, Dr. Julius H. Mangisoni, Associate Prof., Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics Eduardo Mondlane University, Dr. Emilio Tostao, Associate Prof. and Dean, Faculty of Agronomy Related InformationSupplementary media Watch a video sharing the latest insights into the SIMLESA project Read an article by SciDev.Net about a media visit in Eastern Kenya in August 2014 - Smallholders ‘gain from sustainable agriculture’ See photos of a visit to Adoption Pathways sites in Ethiopia by the AIFSC team in July 2013 - AIFSC field trip with CIMMYT to Ethiopia. Read this article by Liz Ogutu from the July 2013 AIFSC newsletter Adoption Pathways annual meeting: how gender shapes decision making - she reflects on the first annual meeting and some of the interesting gender dynamics that influence decision making and how these vary across the communities involved in the project. The Adoption Pathways project team held their gender training from 08-12 January 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attended by over 20 participants from the five countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania) involved in the Adoption Pathways project. Read a CIMMYT blog post about the event. Read the training report (File size: 524 KB). CIMMYT Blog about household typologies training held in Australia Nov-Dec 2012: One size doesn’t’t fit all: training on farm household typology ”Since adopting a one-size-fits-all approach in technology generation and dissemination is unlikely to bring positive results, it is necessary to understand what intervention works for whom, where, and how in order for a program to be successful. Developing farm household typologies to target technology with respect to farmers’ endowments and environmental setting is one of the key components of the SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legume Cropping Systems in Southern and Eastern Africa) initiative.” Read about AIFSC visit to project field sites in 2013 Read articles about the project: CIMMYT Informa CIMMYT Informa May 2014 Online Press Articles Kenya: State told to aid women farmers Female headed households require more than farm input to boost food production Female-headed households ‘prone to food insecurity’ Smallholders ‘gain from sustainable agriculture’ Kenyan government urged to establish good policies for easy accessibility to credit facilities Farmers urged to adopt new methods
