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Does closing knowledge gaps close yield gaps? On-farm conservation agriculture trials and adoption dynamics in three smallholder farming areas in Zimbabwe

Part of: AGS Millet Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

S. CHEESMAN ,
J. A. ANDERSSON  and
E. FROSSARD
S. CHEESMAN*
Affiliation:
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), P.O. Box MP 163, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe Institute for Agricultural Sciences, Plant Nutrition, ETH Zurich, Eschikon 33, 8315 Lindau, Switzerland
J. A. ANDERSSON
Affiliation:
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), P.O. Box MP 163, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
E. FROSSARD
Affiliation:
Institute for Agricultural Sciences, Plant Nutrition, ETH Zurich, Eschikon 33, 8315 Lindau, Switzerland
*
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Email: stephanie.cheesman@usys.ethz.ch
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Summary

On-farm demonstration-trials are a common strategy to introduce new technologies to farmers, while simultaneously evaluating these technologies’ performance under farmer conditions. The current study focuses on conservation agriculture (CA) technology adoption dynamics among a small group of farmers who can be considered increasingly knowledgeable, as they have hosted CA demonstration-trials for at least 7 years. Management and performance of farmers’ fields were compared with the CA demonstration-trials implemented on the same farm, focusing on yield gaps (YGs) between the two and the uptake of CA or some of its principles. Comparisons were made between demonstration-trials and farmers’ fields in three distinct land classification areas: Madziwa Communal Area (est. 1910s), Chavakadzi (est. 1980s) and Hereford (est. 2000s) Resettlement Areas. It was found that closing knowledge gaps on CA did not close YGs and that CA adoption was partial. In the Communal Area, CA principles have barely been taken up, but farmer yields were often as good as on the demonstration-trials. In the Resettlement Areas, farmers did take up reduced tillage (CA principle 1) and practised rotations (CA principle 3), but not residue retention (CA principle 2). Rather than partial CA adoption, lower fertilization rates explained the recorded YGs in the Resettlement Areas. In the three areas, farmers’ interest in CA-based increasing of yields was limited, as circumstances drove them to embark on extensification rather than a land use intensification pathway.

Type
Crops and Soils Research Papers
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 155 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 81 - 100
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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