Achieving Impact at Scale in Smallholder African Agriculture

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Achieving Impact at Scale in Smallholder African
Agriculture

• John Lynam
• Kilimo Trust
• November 2006

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Kenya Density of Rural Poor Population at
Location Level
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Planning Context for Poverty Alleviation

• Most of variance in income at community level
• Rural poor dependent on exploiting natural
  capital
• Growing inequity in land distribution
• Economic and technical inefficiencies in low
  asset households

4
Green Revolution in Asia

• Village-based extension systems
• Private sector grain traders
• Price supports through marketing boards
• Village and trader credit
• Extensive road and processing infrastructure

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Breaking the Poverty Trap
Income Growth Poverty Reduction
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Rural Growth Strategy

• Productivity
• Market Efficiency Rural Financial Flows

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Framing IAR4D

• Integrating institutions and functions
• Farmer organization as a key need
• Institutional arrangements, incentives and
  partnerships
• Hypothesis overlay and research protocols
• Financing IAR4D

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Key Functions in IAR4D

• Farmer Organization
• Product assembly
• Input distribution
• Technology testing
• Technology dissemination

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Reform in the African Innovation System

• Research Technology Supply

Technology Transfer Extension
Farmer Demand
Scaling Up
Decentralisation Privatisation
Mobilisation Aggregation
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Constraints on Technology Diffusion in African
Smallholder Agriculture

• Inefficient Information Flows
• Education and age of farmers
• Gender division of labour and decisions
• Cultural diversity
• Agroecological Diversity in Rain-fed Systems
• Variability across scales
• Risk
• Inefficient Input and Output Markets
• Large subsistence component
• Low profit margins
• Management-Intensive System Technologies

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Farming Learning and Adoption Continuum

• Autonomous Diffusion
• Farmer Adoption
• Behavioural Change
• Learning Outcomes
• Information Availability

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Farmer Group Formation in Mobilizing Farmer Demand

• How many functions
• How many empowering organizations
• Farmer field schools
• Micro credit
• Farmer participating research
• Group marketing
• Hierarchies of farmer organizations
• Informal to formal farmer organization
  (cooperatives)

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Mobilising, Aggregating and Articulating Farmer
Demand

• Mobilising farmer demand within socioeconomic and
  farming system heterogeneity
• Market mechanism for aggregating farmer demand
• Common Interest Groups as alternative
• Platform for articulating farmer demand
• What scale and who pays

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Drivers for Scaling Up within Agricultural
Research

• Impact from research investment
• Collapse of Training and Visit Extension
• Investment in adaptive research capacity
• Pilot projects for technology dissemination

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Market vs Extension Approaches in Scaling Up

• Technology embodied in inputs
• Access through stockists
• Purchasing power
• Yield dependent on farmer management

• Technology embodied in improved management
• Information and labor intensive
• Multiple constraints
• Productive base for introduction of inputs

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Connecting Demand and Supply of New Technology

• Decentralization
• Pluralistic (Private)
• Articulating farmer demand
• Farmer group formation
• Range of extension methods

• Multiple technology providers
• Decentralization of agricultural research
• Liberalizing seed markets
• No technology supermarket

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Current Models of Extension Reform

• District-Level Contracts

Farmer Payment for Extension Service
Contracting Private Service Providers
Coordination Division of Labour Coverage Sourcing
Technology
NGOs Public Sector Private Sector
District-Level Pluralistic Systems
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Emerging Issues in Research and Development System

• Scale in Farmer Group Formation
• Sustainability of Second-Order Farmer
  Associations
• Farmer Purchasing Power for Advisory Services
• Evaluating Cost Effectiveness of Advisory
  Services
• Platforms to Articulate Technology Supply and
  Demand
• Understanding Technology Diffusion in Smallholder
  Agriculture