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Smallholder Farmer Grain-Legume Integration in Central Malawi

机译：马拉维中部的小农户农粮整合

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摘要

Over the last two decades, researchers have heavily promoted grain-legume technologies as a soil amelioration strategy for smallholder farmers in Malawi. Although farmers have been involved in the development of and have expressed great interest in these technologies, their uptake of them has been minimal. Understanding this disconnect is important for both researchers and farmers because Malawian soils are not conducive to the current low-input continuous maize monocropping that dominates the Malawian landscape, ultimately resulting in marginal yields. Therefore, we used various methods and components of participatory action research to determine the drivers and implications of farmers' (n = 363) integration and management of grain-legume technologies in their maize-based cropping-systems. We explored farmers' perceptions associated with the promoted technologies' benefits as well as their on-farm soil fertility to understand farmers' reasoning for their grain-legume integration and management choices when collaborating with researchers. Additionally, we investigated the implications of these choices on subsequent maize production. Two survey instruments were used to determine farmers' perceptions of grain-legume technologies and to monitor farmers' cropping-system management in collaborative research trials (n = 1186) over four years (2013--2016). Soil samples (n = 1729) were collected and analyzed from both farmers' traditional maize plots and their collaborative trials to determine the soil properties associated with farmers' perceptions of soil fertility and cropping-system allocation choices. After four years of farmers' on-farm experimentation with grain-legume technologies, we conducted a field experiment on thirty collaborative research trials to determine the effects of farmers' current and historical management of grain-legume technologies on subsequent maize production.;We found that farmers' overall motivation for integrating grain-legumes into their maize-based cropping-systems was for soil amelioration. Yet, while farmers continue to indicate that they prefer grain-legume technologies over their continuous maize monoculture, in this study they perceived them to be inferior in terms of meeting farmers' immediate needs, like food security. This perception does not reflect scientific evidence showing that grain-legume integration in maize-based systems maintains and often increases maize yield, yet it was a major contributing factor in farmers' grain-legume integration decisions. Moreover, farmers' perceptions of soil fertility were associated with scientific indicators of soil fertility and heavily contributed to farmers' decisions and subsequent maize production. Foremost, farmers allocated their collaborative research trials to soils of lower fertility than their traditional maize plots. Within collaborative research trials, farmers preferentially allocated their soil amendment resources to continuous maize plots, which were allocated to soils of higher fertility than the grain-legume technologies. Farmers' preferential allocation was a key contributing factor in subsequent maize crop response where plots with a history of continuous maize intense cropping had a greater positive effect on subsequent maize crop production than plots with a history of legume intense cropping-systems.;This dissertation revealed some of the synergies as well as disconnects that exist between researchers and farmers associated with grain-legume integration. These findings have implications for technology uptake and collaborative on-farm research. We suggest that both farmers' grain-legume integration and their preferential allocation of maize-intense systems to higher fertility soils are two soil amelioration strategies used by central Malawian smallholder famers. Although, farmers' motivations for cultivating grain-legume technologies are aligned with that of researchers', e.g. integration as a soil amelioration strategy, farmers' incomplete understanding of associated management and livelihood benefits suppresses the potential associated benefits, like soil amelioration and increased food security. If not further understood, this disconnect may continue to limit farmers' uptake of these promising technologies and has the potential to introduce bias into future collaborative research efforts.;Therefore, we suggest that future efforts that promote agricultural technologies must intensify their farmer education to include the underlying agroecological principles associated with the promoted technologies. Not only does this have the potential to increase the success of the developed technology, it may ultimately provide farmers with the knowledge necessary to increase their overall cropping-system productivity based on sound scientific principles, without the assistance of researchers.
机译：在过去的二十年中，研究人员大力推广了谷物-豆类技术，作为马拉维小农的土壤改良策略。尽管农民参与了这些技术的开发并表达了极大的兴趣，但是他们对这些技术的采用却很少。了解这种脱节对研究人员和农民都很重要，因为马拉维的土壤不利于目前主导马拉维景观的低投入连续玉米单作，最终导致边际产量。因此，我们使用了参与式行动研究的各种方法和组件来确定农民（n = 363）在其基于玉米的种植系统中整合和管理谷物-豆类技术的驱动力和影响。我们研究了农民对与先进技术的好处相关的看法，以及他们在农场的土壤肥力，以了解与研究人员合作时农民对他们的谷物-豆科植物整合和管理选择的理由。此外，我们调查了这些选择对后续玉米生产的影响。在四年（2013--2016）的合作研究试验（n = 1186）中，使用了两种调查工具来确定农民对谷物豆类技术的看法并监测农民对种植系统的管理。从两个农民的传统玉米田及其合作试验中收集并分析了土壤样本（n = 1729），以确定与农民对土壤肥力和耕作制度分配选择的认识相关的土壤特性。经过四年农民对豆类作物技术的农场试验，我们进行了三十项合作研究试验的田间试验，以确定农民当前和历史上对豆类技术的管理对随后的玉米生产的影响。农民将豆类作物纳入其玉米种植系统的总体动机是为了改善土壤。但是，尽管农民继续表示他们比连续玉米单作更喜欢谷物豆类技术，但在这项研究中，他们认为在满足农民的眼前需求（如粮食安全）方面，他们的表现不佳。这种看法并未反映出科学证据表明，玉米基系统中的谷物-豆类整合维持并经常增加玉米单产，但这是农民做出谷物-豆类整合决策的主要因素。此外，农民对土壤肥力的认识与土壤肥力的科学指标有关，对农民的决策和随后的玉米生产做出了重大贡献。最重要的是，农民将他们的合作研究试验分配给了肥沃性比传统玉米田低的土壤。在合作研究试验中，农民优先将其改良土壤资源分配给连续的玉米田，这些玉米田被分配给比谷物-豆类技术高肥力的土壤。农民的优先分配是造成随后玉米作物反应的关键因素，具有连续玉米密集种植历史的地块比具有豆类密集种植系统历史的地块对随后的玉米作物生产具有更大的积极影响。谷物和豆科植物整合相关的研究人员和农民之间存在一些协同增效和脱节。这些发现对技术采用和农场合作研究具有重要意义。我们建议，农民的谷物-豆科植物整合以及他们对高肥力土壤的玉米强化系统的优先配置是马拉维中部小农农民使用的两种土壤改良策略。虽然，农民种植谷物豆类技术的动机与研究人员的动机相吻合，例如作为土壤改良策略的整合，农民对相关管理和生计收益的不完全了解会抑制潜在的相关收益，例如土壤改良和提高食品安全性。如果不进一步了解，这种脱节可能会继续限制农民对这些有前途的技术的采用，并有可能在未来的合作研究工作中产生偏见。;因此，我们建议，促进农业技术的未来努力必须加强农民教育，包括与推广技术相关的基本农业生态原则。这不仅有可能提高已开发技术的成功率，而且还可能最终在不依靠研究人员协助的情况下，根据合理的科学原理为农民提供提高其整体种植系统生产力所需的知识。

著录项

  • 作者

    Anders, Erin Jeanne.;

  • 作者单位

    Michigan State University.;

  • 授予单位 Michigan State University.;
  • 学科 Agriculture.;Soil sciences.;Agronomy.;Sub Saharan Africa studies.
  • 学位 Ph.D.
  • 年度 2018
  • 页码 133 p.
  • 总页数 133
  • 原文格式 PDF
  • 正文语种 eng
  • 中图分类
  • 关键词

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