Understanding Malawian farmers' slow adoption of composting: Stories about composting using a participatory video approach

Abstract

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.

Greening the Virtual Smart City: Accelerating Peer-to-Peer Learning in Urban Agriculture With Virtual Reality Environments

“…In a program developed in Malawi that co-created instructional videos on the utility of composting for restoring soil health and improving crop yields, farmers in follow-up interviews particularly cited that the appearance of neighbors and "fellow farmers" in the videos encouraged them to reconsider experimenting with composting (Cai et al, 2019). Moreover, by incorporating community members' input and participation in the development of the videos, both participants and audience members were able to be left with a more positive perception of the intervention in question than if the knowledge had simply been disseminated through lecture-style videos from high-level extension officers, most of whom are typically isolated and detached from smaller, agrarian villages (Cai et al, 2019). Such a trend reflects the growing desire and preference for participatory approaches to agricultural extension.…”

“…In this previous work, the key lessons that enabled success included (1) discussing interests and barriers to technology at each stage of the project (Gandhi et al, 2007); (2) centering farmers from stakeholder communities in informational video and audio platforms (Gandhi et al, 2007;Patel et al, 2012;Cai et al, 2019); and (3) creating platforms that users can use to share their own content and enhance relationships they determine to be important (Patel et al, 2010). We build off of these key findings in our current work, and contribute to work demonstrating that direct involvement of stakeholders can greatly enhance the efficacy of agricultural development interventions.…”

Welfare Impact of Organic Fertilizer Adoption: Empirical Evidence From Nigeria

“…Despite its importance, the adoption of organic fertilizers is yet to receive similar recognition like chemical fertilizers that are still traditionally used by small farm households (Powell, 1986;Quynh and Kazuto, 2018). Limiting factors to adopting organic fertilizers include the perception of slow release of nutrients (Khaliq et al, 2006), labor-intensive (Adnan et al, 2017), extension failures, poor knowledge of use, and lack of understanding of the benefits of organic fertilizers (Cai et al, 2019). Studies have further explored other socioeconomic factors of the adoption of components of organic fertilizers as a sole practice and in interdependent scenarios with other sustainable agricultural practices (Teklewold et al, 2013;Kassie et al, 2015;Wainaina et al, 2016;Oyetunde-Usman et al, 2021).…”

Using participatory video to share people’s experiences of neotropical urban green and blue spaces with decision‐makers

“…By engaging in an audio-visually enriched research process, which strengthens and amplifies the narrative, participants are faced with new issues and ideas that may challenge or enhance their own perceptions (High et al, 2012). For example, by taking part in a participatory video process on soil conservation practice, Malawian farmers were encouraged to adopt new methods after their perceptions were changed about the value of composting methods and their own ability to apply the practice (Cai et al, 2019). Tremblay and Harris (2018) illustrated this in urban Ghana and South Africa, where participants described how video enabled them to feel an embodied, empathetic understanding of the issues surrounding (in)access to water and sanitation.…”