Adoption and integration of climate smart and nutrition sensitive agriculture practices: evidence from farmer field school approaches in southern Malawi

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Introduction Climate change and malnutrition are interlinked challenges that demand integrated climate and nutrition action for building more resilient food systems. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) and nutrition sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions provide complementary pathways to enhance productivity, nutrition and climate resilience in African food systems. Although both domains are well studied individually, there is limited empirical evidence describing how integrated CSA and NSA interact at household level, nor how farmers can best combine them in practice. This study draws on experiences from Farmer Field Schools (FFS) and Farmer Field Business Schools (FFBS) in southern Malawi, to examine how these participatory approaches facilitate the adoption and integration of CSA and NSA practices. Materials and methods A two-wave cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 248 smallholder farming households across FFS, FFBS, and control groups. Follow-up questionnaires and field observations validated adoption of CSA and NSA practices. Results FFBS households showed higher adoption rates of CSA and NSA practices (23.5 and 23.9%) compared with the control group (17.8 and 18.5%) with significant differences observed in CSA adoption ( p = 0.026), NSA adoption ( p = 0.034) and CSA-NSA integration ( p = 0.039). No significant differences were observed between FFS households and the control group. However, households in the FFS group had significantly higher counts of CSA practices compared with the FFBS group (IRR = 1.20, p = 0.009) and were four times likely to adopt integrated CSA-NSA practices (OR = 4.31, p = 0.027). Integrated adoption was associated with practices offering multiple short-term benefits. Larger field sizes, farmer age (36–45 years) and access to financial resources, were positively associated with adoption. Discussion and conclusion These findings suggest that integrated CSA-NSA practices can be promoted through participatory approaches that create enabling conditions for farmers, particularly when combined with financial and social support mechanisms. FFS provided field-based experiential learning associated with higher CSA adoption and CSA-NSA integration, while FFBS participation with stronger female representation appeared to support broader uptake of NSA practices. The results underscore the importance of scaling and institutionalising integrated CSA-NSA approaches through participatory platforms such as FFS and FFBS to strengthen resilient agri-food systems.

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