Can Farmer-Centred Approaches Deliver Impact at Scale? Evidence from Interventions Supporting Soil Health Innovation in Rural Malawi

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Abstract Increasingly, agricultural research and development interventions are embracing farmer-centred approaches. The approaches are touted as effective in building farmers’ capacity to address their farming needs and problems, and considered by many as a way to strengthening platforms for co-creation of knowledge and contributing to sustainable agri-food systems. But can these bottom-up approaches deliver their promises at scale in developing countries like Malawi? This chapter describes how four farmer-centred approaches, namely: Lead Farmer, Farmer Field School; Farmer Research Team; and Farmer Research Networks were operationalised to support soil health innovation in rural Malawi (Mzimba, Kasungu and Ntcheu districts). In these areas resource-poor farmers face food and nutrition security challenges that are associated with low crop productivity in the context of degrading soils and unpredictable rainfall pattern among others. The chapter also presents an analysis of how social network processes created in farmer-centred approaches influence the flow of information from farmers participating in soil health interventions to the broader farming community at scale. Evidence presented in this chapter reveals that whilst vertical networks link the participating farmers to diverse and novel ideas on options for managing soil health, the homophilic tendency in horizontal networks restricts the flow of this information to the broader farming community.

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