Community-embedded experiential learning and adoption of conservation farming practices in Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract In low-income country agriculture, there is frequently limited information about the comparative effectiveness of alternative extension modalities for delivering  information on new farming methods. This paper analyzes the impact of community-embedded farmer education programs on the adoption of conservation farming. A multinomial choice model is applied on survey data from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania to estimate the relative risk ratios (RRR), a measure of the probability of adopting the conservation agriculture practices studied, conditional on attending specific extension activities in the farmers' community. The results show that the likelihood of adoption was generally high as measured by RRRs between 10 and 14. Suggestive of the effectiveness of experiential learning methods, attending training sessions had consistently higher RRRs of adopting conservation farming practices. The positive role of community-based extension programs potentially means that the dissemination of conservation agriculture requires investments by governments and development organizations in community learning sites. Investments in programs that promote experiential, hands-on and farmer self-learning can be consequential in enabling the diffusion of better farming methods.