Rica Joy Flor

Farmers, institutions and technology in agricultural change processes: outcomes from Adaptive Research on rice production in Sulawesi, Indonesia

International agricultural research centres use approaches which aim to create effective linkages between the practices of farmers, introduced technologies and the wider environment that affects farming. This paper argues that such new approaches require a different type of monitoring as a complement to conventional approaches that tend to favour a quantitative assessment of adoption and impact at the farm level. In this context, we examined monitoring data from an Adaptive Research (AR) project highlighting complementary qualitative analysis. Our emphasis is to capture the improvisational capacities of farmers and to reveal social and institutional constraints and opportunities in a broader innovation system. Our approach provided clear insights into how rice farmers adjusted their practices and how actors involved linked (or not) with others in the innovation system. We also demonstrated how institutions such as policies, religious rituals or service provider arrangements pose conditions that establish or constrain practices aligned with introduced technologies. A broader perspective in monitoring AR therefore provides important additional insights into the factors which shape outcomes in farming communities. To expand outcomes, AR projects should also pay attention to designing and testing new institutional arrangements that create enabling conditions for agricultural innovation.

Can media campaign messages influence change towards ecologically based rodent management

Context In Asia, losses to rodents contribute to the undernourishment of smallholder families. Ecologically based rodent management (EBRM) has become the national policy for rodent management in rice-based agriculture in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. EBRM requires community action. Therefore we need to develop communication campaigns that increase community involvement in rodent management. Aims This study evaluates the effects of a campaign to promote EBRM in a community that suffers chronic rodent losses to their rice crop. We hypothesised that the campaign would create changes in rodent management by farmers based on key messages delivered. Methods We documented existing beliefs and management practices, and captured changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of smallholder farmers after the campaign. We also document benefits to the community. We used qualitative tools to evaluate existing beliefs and management practices of rodents in nine villages in Zaragosa, one of which was a focus village for the campaign. Key results Farmers who were influenced by the campaign had significantly higher mean rank scores in knowledge and attitudes pertaining to key messages of the campaign, such as working together, proper timing of management actions, and that rodents can be controlled. Farmers who heard the campaign obtained yields that were higher by 0.7 t ha–1 compared with those with no exposure to the campaign. A year after the campaign, the increase in rice yield in Zaragosa was sufficient to feed 1375 adult Filipinos for a year. The campaign influenced policy on rodent management in Zaragosa and subsequently at the provincial level. Conclusions A media campaign with support from local leaders and extension staff is an effective way to disseminate EBRM, leading to positive economic benefits for smallholder farmers. A media campaign alone is less effective. Implications A communication campaign on EBRM with follow-up support from extension experts is a highly effective pathway for changing attitudes and practices of smallholder farmers on rodent management, and for effective dissemination of EBRM.

Rice postharvest learning alliance in Cambodia: comparison of assumptions and implementation of a network approach

ABSTRACT Research projects employ the learning alliance (LA) approach but there is scepticism that its rhetoric is not evident in practice. The authors examined a case of an implemented LA, comparing its outcomes with assumptions from the project and its conceptual design to evaluate the implementation of an LA. Data were from interviews and network maps of actors involved, as well as farmers and town-level actors in Battambang and Pursat, Cambodia. An LA approach can promote actor–network processes that target social, technical, and institutional reordering. Assumptions about the approach, however, may lead projects to emphasize scaling out and direct efforts away from processes that enable innovation.

INNOVATION PLATFORMS IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research for development projects and programmes. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate and coordinate to overcome challenges and capture opportunities through a facilitated innovation process. Although much has been written on how to implement and facilitate innovation platforms efficiently, few studies support ex-ante appraisal of when and for what purpose innovation platforms provide an appropriate mechanism for achieving development outcomes, and what kinds of human and financial resource investments and enabling environments are required. Without these insights, innovation platforms run the risk of being promoted as a panacea for all problems in the agricultural sector. This study makes clear that not all constraints will require innovation platforms and, if there is a simpler and cheaper alternative, that should be considered first. Based on the review of critical design principles and plausible outcomes of innovation platforms, this study provides a decision support tool for research, development and funding agencies that can enhance more critical thinking about the purposes and conditions under which innovation platforms can contribute to achieving agricultural development outcomes.