3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.7. Pre-conditions and Pathways for Sustainable Innovation Adoption
rainy season, including short (3 to 5 day) dry spells. However, as dry spells increased in frequency and duration with the transition to the dry winter season, moisture in the run- on ditch bed declined rapidly at all depths, whereas moisture in the control bed declined gradually below 20 cm while maintaining some moisture at 20 cm (probably due to seedling irrigation). It is likely that run-on ditches contributed to evaporation through the side-walls of the ditches, resulting in the rapid moisture loss recorded during prolonged dry spells. Additionally, the run-on ditch bed had 60 to 90% vegetation cover during this time, resulting in significant moisture loss through transpiration, while the control bed had less than 10% cover. More detail about run-on ditch WUE efficiency and data analyses can be found in Sturdy et al., in preparation.
3.6.4. Drip irrigation
Drip irrigation was found to be impractical in Potshini, as the available drip kits were prone to malfunction or break and farmers believed they did not provide enough water to the plants (compared to watering cans). In addition, drip kits and parts are not easily accessible in the Bergville district, which is very prohibitive for innovation dissemination. The drip kit trial prepared during this project yielded insufficient data for determining potential WUE because leakage from the drip line connections resulted in drip irrigation being used only minimally throughout the 9 month field study.
Table 3
Ideal conditions required for successful and efficient adoption, adaptation and dissemination of agricultural innovations in Potshini.
Conditions for successful, sustainable adoption
Socio- economic
(S) / Biophysical
(B)
Qualitative importance rankinga
Income generation clearly exceeds cost of innovation upkeep S 1
Does not conflict with cultural beliefs/practices S 1
Markets established (if innovation increases yield for commercial sale) S 1 Business mentoring provided (if innovation increases yield for commercial sale) S 1
Required inputs available & affordable S 1
Increases long term income S 2
Increases food availability B, S 2
Increases skills & knowledge for making decisions S 2
Low or no monetary start-up cost for farmer S 2
Local example(s) of innovation's success/benefits S, B 2
Trainable (not complex in terms of scheduling, understanding process, etc.) S 2
Conserves water B 3
Minimizes daily manual labour S 3
Improves grazing / livestock health B, S 4
Fosters family cooperation S 4
Conserves soil B 4
Makes use of &/or strengthens social networks/cohesion S 4
a 1 = Critical, 2 = Very Important, 3 = Important, 4 = Beneficial but not required
Once innovation types have been agreed upon, the pathways for facilitation can be constructed, again with input from community members. Pathways and their effectiveness, as observed in Potshini, are listed in Table 4. One of the more successful pathways observed, in terms of the number of farmers who adopted introduced innovations and continued to use them the following year, was a series of hands-on gardening workshops (FLWs), conducted at different farmers’ homesteads on a monthly basis, and open to the entire community. Surveys and informal discussions conducted during this study, along with two surveys (n=19 and n=27) conducted four to six months after FLWs ended indicated that at least 91% of workshop participants were still gardening and that the majority of introduced gardening practices were in use by 26 to 79% of participants, depending on need and required inputs, with some innovations such as trench beds and organic pest control being favoured over others (Mudhara et al., in review; RIE, 2008). It is likely that spreading the workshops over several months played an important role in sustained adoption of gardening practices as it allowed farmers to experiment with innovations between workshops, review and repeat training content as needed and share feedback with the group. Workshops with similar content completed over a 3 to 5 day period have proven to have far less, if any, impact in other
smallholder farming communities in South Africa (Kruger, 2008). The hands-on nature of the workshops, along with the rotation of workshop presentation from one homestead to another also appeared to positively impact farmer understanding and motivation.
While knowledge sharing within an organized group tended to be useful and motivating for farmers, it should also be noted that the learning, work and progress of individuals within the FLW group did not depend on participation of other group members.
Informal discussions with farmer leaders in Potshini indicated that working groups in which livelihood improvement for individuals is dependent on the participation of each member tend to fall apart before reaching a sustainable level.
Table 4
Observed pathways for facilitating adoption and dissemination of innovations in Potshini (Observed Effectiveness Rankings: 1=very successful, 2=moderately successful, 3=not very successful).
Observed Effectiveness Rankings for:
Pathway
ADOPTION DISSEMINA- TION
understanding &
successful long term use of
innovation Series (5 or more) of monthly, HANDS-ON
training workshops 1 1 2
Training motivated leader farmers 1 2 2
Facilitating individual farmer experimentation 1 - 2 a 2 1
Knowledge sharing through local groups/coops 2 1 2
Researcher visits to homesteads 1 - 2 a 2 2
Cross-visits to other farming communities 1 - 2 b 2 3 b
Provided incentives &/or start-up materials 1 3 3
Classroom training - group problem solving
exercises 2 2 2
Demonstrations 2 2 2
Radio/TV broadcasts 2 3 3
Printed materials (pictures & diagrams) 2 - 3 c 2 - 3 c 2 - 3 c
Mother/Baby technology trials 2 - 3 d 2 - 3 d 2 - 3 d
Printed materials (text) 3 3 3
Classroom training - lectures 3 3 3
a effectiveness of pathways that involve working with individual farmers varies according to the socio-economic situation and personal motivation of the farmer.
b cross visits are good motivators and can be a very effective pathway for adoption and understanding when combined with training on innovations observed during visits.
c dependant on purpose, content and distribution
d could have been more effective if technologies focused more on cost-benefit for farmers
Intensive facilitation of farmer-driven experimentation, as was implemented through the case study process during this project, proved to be valuable in terms of cultivating a strong understanding (for both researchers and farmers) of innovations and
their potential value for the individual homesteads involved, some of which were able to provide assistance and knowledge to other farmers in the community. These farmers became more proficient with gardening in general through comparing innovations and making decisions based on observations. One year after facilitation had ended, all of the participating homesteads continued to cultivate large (10 m2 or larger), diverse gardens and at least two of the six continued to plan and execute garden experiments comparing different practices. However, knowledge sharing outside of the FLWs occurred only minimally during the life of the project, so this facilitation process was not as successful at disseminating innovations as the workshop process. It is likely that a combination of the pathways presented in Table 4 will be more successful for sustainable, widespread dissemination than a single pathway, and that differing levels of complexity for various innovations will require different pathway combinations.