Transferring viable soil fertility management technologies to the poorest farmers
1997
Benson, T. | Minae, S. | Snapp, S. | Kanyama-Phiri, G.
In Malawi poor farmers are unable to adopt most of the soil fertility technologies which agricultural researchers have to offer. Limited cash makes inorganic fertilizer-based technologies too expensive for many farmers. As they often have limited land or labor, farmers frequently are unable to adopt agro-forestry or leguminous intercrop / rotation strategies. Extension officers are often not provided with the proper messages on soil fertility management or, alternatively, the means to adequately provide these messages to farmers. Meanwhile, national food production is declining as soil resources are depleted through continual cropping. Agricultural development workers in Malawi are employing a number of strategies to provide information on and the means to employ viable soil fertility management techniques to these resource-constrained farmers. These range from nation-wide demonstration trials run by extension officers, to farmer-participatory research on-farm, to the establishment of savings mobilization and agricultural marketing schemes to enable these farmers to acquire inorganic fertilizers and hybrid maize seed. This multi-pronged approach to provide farmers with these technologies reflects the heterogeneity of resource endowments among smallholder farmers and the desire to provide all, regardless of wealth, with practicable technologies to enable them to maintain and enhance the quality of the soils upon which they and the nation depend.
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