Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
maintaining standard management practices across farmers' treatments. With hindsight,
we think that greater farmer involvement in project management could have provided
results that reflected realistic farmer management strategies and provided more opportu-
nities for social learning to occur among researchers and farmers during the project. Other
work has demonstrated the benefits of facilitating farmer innovation in adapting legume
(Snapp, Jones, et al., 2003), alley cropping (Kanmegne and Degrande, 2002), and tree mulch
(Stoate and Jarju, 2008) systems to better meet their needs and constraints.
In terms of social learning, it would also have been beneficial for farmers to be apprised
of the research results at regular intervals throughout the duration of our on-farm projects.
We held focus groups at the end of the project to present findings to farmers; these findings
were understood well and resulted in many additional suggestions and invaluable feedback.
A subsequent training session on legume management clearly demonstrated missed oppor-
tunities to both educate and collaborate with farmers on improved legume management.
Nonetheless, farmers provided us with a vivid picture of the limitations and con-
straints they face when trying to adopt and continue the legume systems being tested.
This feedback was extremely valuable in helping us understand how to improve the sus-
tainability of the current cropping systems and underscored the socioeconomic and cul-
tural heterogeneity that will determine whether the next green revolution attempts will
be met with success or failure. The aim of tripling cereal grain yields to achieve a green
revolution (Sanchez, 2010) and improving soil fertility appears to make sense. However, in
the case of FHHs and poorer households in southern Malawi, a strong focus on improving
maize yields without an understanding of how diversified cropping systems with pigeon
pea can contribute to food security and reduce risk might overlook a critical goal: that of
alleviating hunger for the most vulnerable populations. That is, it is essential that a new
green revolution be comprehensive and inclusive, encompassing considerations of food
security, vulnerability, nutrition, and gender dimensions (Negin et al., 2009).
We cannot emphasize enough the importance of careful investigation of the distribu-
tional impacts of proposed changes to production systems, coupled with an understand-
ing of the need to balance short- and long-term sustainability goals. This is particularly
true for the neediest farmers, often FHHs. In this regard, the frequently diminished effec-
raises concerns about the impacts of fertilizer subsidies for Malawi's neediest farmers.
Moreover, inorganic fertilizer prices are both volatile and increasing in the world market
(Woods et al., 2010). Malawi's current input subsidy program represents a substantial part
of the national budget (Snapp et al., 2010) and may not be sustainable even into the imme-
diate future. While legume/maize relay crops benefited from the addition of inorganic fer-
household food security, and maintaining maize yields, increased emphasis should also
be placed on improving their use and effectiveness through agronomic and soil micro-
biological research, extension, and potentially even subsidies for acquiring legume seeds.
The conceptual framework we present for evaluating cropping system sustainability
emphasizes the importance of identifying trade-offs across time frames and distributional
impacts of modifying cropping systems on those potentially impacted. It can accommo-
date assessment of spatial impacts and could be applied at larger spatial scales than used
here. The fundamental framework could equally well be applied in developed nations,
using appropriate measures of differential social and biophysical vulnerability within and
among communities and incorporating additional indicators of environmental impacts as
sustainability measures. As in the developing world, a nuanced understanding of land-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search