Factors influencing trialing of agroforestry in smallholder farming in Zambia

Abstract

Research has shown that agroforestry has potential to improve land productivity and increase crop yields to enable subsistence farmers move out of poverty. In addition, implementing agroforestry would reduce pressure on existing forests and curb forest destruction. However, despite research and extension efforts, not many farmers have adopted agroforestry technologies. In Zambia, agroforestry research was started in the late 1980’s and later introduced on-farm in 1992 and through extension in 1997. We investigated the influence of household and institutional factors by conducting a field survey and face-to-face interviews of 388 random farmer households in four districts of eastern Zambia where agroforestry is promoted and practiced. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. The results show that trialling of agroforestry is very low within the study area. For instance, 44.9 percent of respondents had trialled improved fallows whereas only 21.4 percent of the sample had trialled biomass transfer. Despite the low trialling rates, the retention rate among farmers who had trialled was high (over 70 %).Results further show that trialling of improved fallows and biomass transfer was influenced by different factors. In the case of improved fallows, it was significantly influenced by having appropriate skills, availability of tree seed and direct contact with researchers, while biomass transfer was influenced by extension visits, radio programs and direct training of farmers by researchers. Training was found to influence trialling of both improved fallows and biomass transfer technologies. Results show that farmers who had been trained in agroforestry were more likely to trial agroforestry technologies. This study establishes trialling as the most important step to improving agroforestry