Quantifying the value of adopting a post-rice legume crop to intensify mixed smallholder farms in Southeast Asia

Value-Ag: An integrated model for rapid ex-ante impact evaluation of agricultural innovations in smallholder systems

“…For example, including a legume crop in a crop-livestock system has the potential to both increase overall profit and reduce downside risk in the drier seasons, partly due to healthier animals from a more nutritious and abundant diet, and hence an increasingly resilient livestock system (e.g. Monjardino et al, 2020).…”

“…The standard Value-Ag output is illustrated here through a simplified hypothetical example of a typical crop-livestock smallholder farming system (baseline scenario) and a generic innovation type, for example, a small area of the farm grown to a new forage crop to broaden the livestock feed base as well as market opportunities (innovation scenario). Actual Value-Ag results for a fully developed case study in Laos are reported by Monjardino et al (2020).…”

“…Key IAT parameters tested often include crop yields and commodity prices used in calculations (e.g. Monjardino et al, 2020). Overall, sensitivity to IAT parameter changes can be analysed individually or combined in factorial analysis.…”

“…Validation of Value-Ag is ongoing, with the integrated tool so far tested on specific case studies involving the introduction of a legume crop in the baseline system, both in rotation with a traditional rice crop in Southeast Asia (Monjardino et al, 2020) and with intercropping with maize in South Africa (unpublished results). The IAT component has been extensively applied to the smallholder context in China (Komarek et al, 2015), India (Kumar et al, 2017; Mayberry et al, 2017, 2018), Pakistan (Shafiullah, 2012), Southeast Asia (Gabb et al, 2017;Lisson et al, 2010;Monjardino et al, 2020;Parsons et al, 2012) and Africa (Mayberry et al, 2017(Mayberry et al, , 2018Rigolot et al, 2015) and has been used in project planning and development of intervention strategies in low and high rainfall areas.…”

“…A simplified hypothetical example allows the reader to better focus on the methodology, which can be explained in detail within paper length constraints. The application of Value-Ag to a fully developed case study in southern Laos is described in Monjardino et al (2020).…”