Agroforestry has been promoted in northwestern Vietnam as a sustainable land management practice that offers multiple benefits, including livelihood enhancement, income diversification, adaptation to climate variability and reduced soil erosion on steep slopes. However, research on the multi-stage adoption process of agroforestry and the complex web of factors influencing farmers’ decisions remains scarce. Our study addresses this gap by investigating the adoption process of fruit tree-based agroforestry practices in the upland farming systems of Son La, a northwestern province of Vietnam. Using a Bayesian Network model, we analyzed the combined effects of socio-economic, household and practice-specific factors that shape farmers’ attitudes and intentions throughout the adoption process, from initial decision-making to sustained use. The Bayesian Network was developed using both qualitative and quantitative inputs from 124 farmer interviews and workshops involving domain experts and farmers. Additionally, through an adoption pathway analysis of 124 interviewed farmers, we explored the diverse trajectories farmers follow to integrate agroforestry into their systems, highlighting the adaptive and non-linear nature of the adoption process. Our findings suggest that effective agroforestry promotion requires coordinated, holistic strategies and sustained support rather than single-point interventions or binary adoption models. This study contributes to the understanding of agroforestry adoption as a dynamic, context-sensitive process and provides insights for designing support mechanisms that align with farmers’ evolving needs and decision-making pathways.
Tag: Adoption
Harnessing the Power of Citizen Science for Agroecological Transitions: The Case of the One Million Voices of Agroecology Initiative and Digital Platform
The One Million Voices (OMV) citizen science initiative seeks to harness citizen science to accelerate agroecological transitions globally. Its primary objective is to co-develop a participatory platform that enables farmers, producer organizations, and consumers worldwide to engage in agroecology movements, adoption efforts, and collaborative knowledge-sharing on agroecological performance. The initiative employs a facilitated co-design process, incorporating a global review, regional partnerships, and structured dialogues across four regions to collectively shape the platform’s scope and features. In alignment with recommendations to leverage existing networks, OMV collaborated with Agroecology Map to create the OMV of Agroecology platform. The platform addresses the key research question: What agroecological practices are being implemented globally, by whom, and with what effects? It facilitates participatory mapping of innovative agroecological practices, their characterization and evaluation, and fosters connectivity among stakeholders. Users can access mapped locations and practices, engage with peers, and analyze personalized summary data, providing scientific insights into geographic trends, actor preferences, and context-specific agroecology performance. This study illustrates how a co-created citizen science process can be effectively structured and leveraged transdisciplinarily. The success of the OMV platform in advancing agroecological transitions hinges on broad, diverse, and decisive participation.
Who communicates the information matters for technology adoption
The role of information in agricultural technology adoption in developing countries has been widely documented in the literature, but much less is known about the importance of the identity of the communicator of the information. We conduct a randomized experiment to assess the effects of information delivered through two approaches wherein either a peer farmer or a market actor supports the extension worker in communicating the standardized information regarding product-quality-enhancing practices and high-value market participation. Results show that farmers in the peer-farmer treatment arm improve the quality of their produce, whereas farmers in the market actor treatment participate in high-value markets to a larger extent than the extension-worker-only treatment farmers. We document positive but marginal treatment effects on coffee revenues. This study contributes to the literature by testing whether incorporating non-traditional communicators, such as private sector actors, into the extension programs is effective in removing the informational barriers to agricultural technology adoption.
Role of exposure in adoption and intensity of tree planting practices among smallholder households in Rwanda
Agroforestry is widely promoted across Sub-Saharan Africa as a strategy for restoring degraded landscapes and enhancing livelihoods, with strong potential to support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—especially SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). However, despite significant investments in agroforestry initiatives, there is limited evidence on their effectiveness in driving adoption at scale. This study employs the augmented inverse probability weighting method to assess how exposure to agroforestry practices influences tree planting adoption and intensity, using panel household data from Eastern Rwanda. Findings indicate that exposure increased adoption probability by 7% (p = 0.03). Households exposed both before and after the baseline period demonstrated a higher adoption probability (15%, p = 0.01), suggesting that cumulative exposure has a lasting impact. While exposure modestly improved tree diversity and increased the number of trees in cropping fields, farmers primarily adopted exotic species over indigenous ones. Moreover, the study found that male household exposure correlated with higher adoption probability and greater tree numbers, and seedling provision positively influenced tree numbers and species diversity among adopters. The findings highlight the importance of sustained farmer engagement, targeted gender-sensitive interventions, and structured training programs. Additionally, policies should prioritize seedling availability and establish an enabling policy environment to maximize adoption and agroforestry impact.
Tools for growth : Hybrid knowledge for agroforestry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Factors Affecting Adoption of Agroforestry Technologies by Women and Young Farmers in the Mt. Elgon Region, Eastern Uganda
Addressing the paradox – the divergence between smallholders’ preference and actual adoption of agricultural innovations
Experiences in smallholder contexts indicate frequent mismatches between technologies introduced and needs of farmers who must make complex decisions in reallocating their limited resources under highly risky ecological and market contexts. This study proposes a cost- and time-effective, easy-to-implement approach to identify farmers’ priorities and critical intervention areas, and presents its application in guiding an agroforestry strategy in Rwanda. It was found that different tree species have distinctive enabling vs. constraining conditions under different agroecological contexts in the perspective of smallholder farmers. Tree species preferred by farmers were not necessarily widely adopted if multitudes of conditions were not enabling. The essential conditions for sustainable adoption include: quality materials/inputs are available; technologies are compatible with existing local farming systems; they are resilient to climate risks/resistant to pests-diseases; management is not complicated; and, there is guaranteed access to markets. The results show that there will not be a silver bullet national strategy to scale up agroforestry. Instead a matrix kind of strategies -to promote enabling conditions and address constraining conditions for priority species in specific agroecologies- will be required. The proposed concept should be further refined for wider agricultural technology transfer debates to break the myths of low uptakes by smallholders.
Factors influencing the adoption of biochar-producing gasifier cookstoves by households in rural Kenya
Fuel wood is the main source of cooking and heating energy in developing countries. However, it is combusted in inefficient cookstoves, leading to more fuel use and human health problems resulting from exposure to smoke. Thus new, efficient cooking systems that can address some of these problems are required. This study examined gasifier cookstove use in Kwale County, Kenya, and factors influencing adoption. Gasifier stoves were issued for free to 50 households, which were surveyed after 2–3 months of use. The results showed that the stove was used by 96% of the households at varying frequencies, 40% of them used it almost every day with 4% switching to only using the new stove. All the users appreciated it because it saved fuel, produced less smoke, and produced charcoal to use for either cooking or soil amendment. Compared with the traditional three-stone open fire, the gasifier stove was reported to be easier to clean (98% of respondents), easier to adjust the heat (88%), easier to handle (58%), caused less exposure to heat (96%) and was cleaner for pots and the kitchen (98%). Another reported benefit of the gasifier stove was that it needed no tending (i.e., adjusting wood and blowing to keep the flames burning). The gasifier stove was mainly used to cook foods that required a short cooking time and many preferred to use it to cook dinner. However, the households encountered some challenges with using the gasifier stoves. For example, fuel preparation, reloading, and lighting were reported as challenges by 42%, 77% and 19%, respectively, of the 83% of households who reported challenges. These challenges could be overcome by improving stove design and by devising innovative ways of cutting fuel into small pieces.
Improving household incomes and reducing deforestation using rotational woodlots in Tabora District, Tanzania
Increasing smallholder incomes and improving the environment are often viewed as conflicting objectives. Rotational woodlots in Tanzania appear to help farmers generate substantial income while at the same time conserving forest area. In the rotational woodlot system, farmers intercrop food crops with leguminous trees during the first 2–3 years, leave the trees to grow, harvest the trees in the 5th year, and replant food crops. Of three species planted in an on-farm trial involving 60 farmers, Acacia crassicarpa (A. Cunn. ex Benth.) performed best, attaining a height 96% higher and a root collar diameter 76% higher, than the second ranked species, Acacia jurifera (Benth.). In spite of higher costs and a longer payoff period, the crassicarpa woodlot achieved returns to land 6.3 times greater, and returns to labor 2.0 times greater, than the maize (Zea mays L.)-fallow system. Farmers use fuelwood to cure tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and they greatly appreciate substituting relatively abundant land and slack season labor for scarce cash required for purchasing fuelwood that is harvested in the forest. Adoption of rotational woodlots in Tabora District alone can conserve 8675 ha forest per year, or 0.8% of total wooded area in the district. Farmers’ interest is high and 87% of those involved in the trial have expanded their area under woodlots. Research and development projects can benefit individual farmers and society by helping them to make the transition from depleting forest resources to planting trees on their own farms.
Assessing the adoption potential of agroforestry practices in sub-Saharan Africa
This paper reviews the application of various types of on-farm trials and methods for collecting and analysing data needed to assess the adoption potential of agroforestry practices. The review is based on farmers’ and researchers’ experiences in seven case studies in three countries of sub-Saharan Africa assessing the biophysical performance, profitability and acceptability of agroforestry practices. Assessments of adoption potential are key elements of a participatory, farmer-centered model of research and development. They improve the efficiency of the technology development and dissemination process, help document the progress made in disseminating new practices, demonstrate the impact of investing in technology development, provide farmer feedback for improving research and extension programmes, and help to identify the policy and other factors contributing to successful technology development programmes as well as the constraints limiting the achievements.