Soil and land degradation is a common issue in Sub-Saharan Africa leading to poor yield and threatening food security, yet soil conservation technologies remain underutilized. To build on prior work that primarily emphasizes demographic differences in adoption, this study contributes by identifying underlying social and cultural factors that influence farmers' perceptions about and willingness to adopt soil conservation management practices in a rural region of Malawi. Key informant interviews were first conducted to identify constraints slowing composting adoption, which were then used to structure the creation of participatory videos-videos created with the active participation of local farmers that demonstrated compost manure practices and benefits. Farmers from the same communities subsequently participated in focus group discussions before and after the moderated screening and discussion of these videos in order to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the constraints and possible ways to overcome them. Among the identified constraints to the use of composting were inefficient government programs such as the Farm Input Subsidy Program that contributed to a belief that only subsidized chemical fertilizers provided positive returns on investment, a lack of support from extension services that diminished compost use, social norms around gender that hindered women farmers from attempting to use composting, and livelihood strategy changes that led to labour shortages. Findings from the focus groups showed that the participatory video method encouraged adoption by helping farmers, and especially women, to reconsider composting, test it, and reflect upon social and cultural constraints impeding adoption. Over half of the farmers in the study tested composting for the first time after discussing the videos and changed their perception of both the value of composting and their own ability to use these types of soil conservation practices.

Malawi adopted a pluralistic, demand-driven and decentralised agricultural extension system in 2000, following a political change from one party to a multiparty democratic system of government. This was followed by the introduction of a district agricultural extension services system (DAESS) as a way of facilitating the implementation of the pluralistic, demand-driven and decentralised agricultural extension policy. This study was conducted to assess the feasibility and status of implementation of DAESS. The study was conducted as an action research which involved an assessment of the status as well as implementation of the DAESS system. Stakeholder consultations revealed that DAESS is a very good extension system for promoting agricultural and rural development in Malawi considering its socio-political set-up. At the time of the study, the system had not been well established in two of the three districts and the action research activities demonstrated that the system can be established and works effectively in promoting agricultural development. There is need to conduct more sensitization and training of stakeholders for them to understand and effectively implement the system.

A survey of 191 randomly selected rural farm households in central Malawi was completed to provide a better estimate of mobile phone access in a country that falls at the lower end of published mobile subscription rates. We further ask whether there remains evidence of a mobile divide, across both socio-economic status and gender, in such a context. Detailed analyses of mobile phone ownership, usage practices, and the sources that phone and non-phone owners use for farming-relevant information highlight problems with the current over-reliance on mobile phones as a primary conduit for agricultural information and services.

This paper explores how participatory video can improve the knowledge and adoption of nutrition and food preparation practices among smallholder farmers in Malawi. Using a pretestposttest quasi-experimental design, this study found that the participatory video method improved the participants' knowledge as much as the traditional demonstration method. Short-term adoption tests were carried out 7-10 days after the training. The extent of short-term adoption of the technique varied by the training topic. For egg-coated nsima, the overall short-term adoption rate was a little over 60% across the groups, while the rate for egg-coated pumpkin flower was around 32%. This rate for the former practice was significantly lower in the video group (50.9%) than in the traditional demonstration group (75.6%) mainly because the participants were unable to taste and smell the food during the video training. The adoption rate for the latter practice was similar between the two groups.