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is despite several promotional efforts by various stakeholders that include government
and non-governmental organizations. In addition, while the number of farmers adopting such ISFM technologies and practices in the initial stages looks promising, the
trend of such numbers over time has generally been on the decline (Marenya and
Barrett 2007). This is especially true with the Legume Best Bets Project as revealed
by a reconnaissance survey undertaken by the authors in 2015. It is against this background that the present study was undertaken to address the following important
research question: what drives some smallholder farmers to adopt ISFM technologies
while others drop out? Addressing this question is vital for understanding the factors
that influence both the adoption and disadoption of the ISFM technologies. Such
knowledge is vital to improve the design of better strategies for promoting adoption
and both up scaling and out-scaling of ISFM technologies. This may also help technology promoters know who to target with ISFM technologies. The rest of the paper
is organized as follows: Sect. 2 addresses methodological challenges and Sect. 3 presents the results and discussion, followed by the conclusion and policy recommendations emanating from the study findings.
2 Methodology
2.1 Study Area, Data and Sampling Design
The study used primary data collected from 200 smallholder maize farmers in
Central Malawi from Kasungu District, one of the major maize-producing areas,
which fall under Kasungu Agricultural Development Division (KADD). Kasungu
District and Mkanakhoti Extension Planning Area (EPA) in particular was purposively selected because it is where LUANAR (formerly Bunda College), in collaboration with the McKnight Foundation, has been implementing the Legume
Best Bets Project since 2006/2007. From the EPA, six project villages were identified and individual farmers were randomly selected using population proportional to size (PPS) sampling procedure. The data were collected during the
2014/2015 growing season, focusing on four ISFM technologies: inorganic fertilizer (151 adopters and 49 non-adopters), improved seed (153 adopters and 47
non-adopters), maize-legume intercropping (92 adopters and 108 non-adopters)
and maize-legume rotation (133 adopters and 67 non-adopters). Improved seed
for maize included hybrid varieties and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs). Among
others, data on the performance of the ISFM technologies, access to productive
inputs (such as FISP coupons), farmer socio-economic characteristics and institutional factors were collected. Figure 1 presents the map of Malawi showing the
study area.
Determinants of ISFM Technology Adoption and Disadoption Among Smallholder…
is despite several promotional efforts by various stakeholders that include government
and non-governmental organizations. In addition, while the number of farmers adopting such ISFM technologies and practices in the initial stages looks promising, the
trend of such numbers over time has generally been on the decline (Marenya and
Barrett 2007). This is especially true with the Legume Best Bets Project as revealed
by a reconnaissance survey undertaken by the authors in 2015. It is against this background that the present study was undertaken to address the following important
research question: what drives some smallholder farmers to adopt ISFM technologies
while others drop out? Addressing this question is vital for understanding the factors
that influence both the adoption and disadoption of the ISFM technologies. Such
knowledge is vital to improve the design of better strategies for promoting adoption
and both up scaling and out-scaling of ISFM technologies. This may also help technology promoters know who to target with ISFM technologies. The rest of the paper
is organized as follows: Sect. 2 addresses methodological challenges and Sect. 3 presents the results and discussion, followed by the conclusion and policy recommendations emanating from the study findings.
2 Methodology
2.1 Study Area, Data and Sampling Design
The study used primary data collected from 200 smallholder maize farmers in
Central Malawi from Kasungu District, one of the major maize-producing areas,
which fall under Kasungu Agricultural Development Division (KADD). Kasungu
District and Mkanakhoti Extension Planning Area (EPA) in particular was purposively selected because it is where LUANAR (formerly Bunda College), in collaboration with the McKnight Foundation, has been implementing the Legume
Best Bets Project since 2006/2007. From the EPA, six project villages were identified and individual farmers were randomly selected using population proportional to size (PPS) sampling procedure. The data were collected during the
2014/2015 growing season, focusing on four ISFM technologies: inorganic fertilizer (151 adopters and 49 non-adopters), improved seed (153 adopters and 47
non-adopters), maize-legume intercropping (92 adopters and 108 non-adopters)
and maize-legume rotation (133 adopters and 67 non-adopters). Improved seed
for maize included hybrid varieties and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs). Among
others, data on the performance of the ISFM technologies, access to productive
inputs (such as FISP coupons), farmer socio-economic characteristics and institutional factors were collected. Figure 1 presents the map of Malawi showing the
study area.
Determinants of ISFM Technology Adoption and Disadoption Among Smallholder…