Abstract
SUMMARYThe success of scaling out depends on a clear understanding of the factors that affect adoption of grain legumes and account for the dynamism of those factors across heterogeneous contexts of sub-Saharan Africa. We reviewed literature on adoption of grain legumes and other technologies in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries. Our review enabled us to define broad factors affecting different components of the scaling out programme of N2Africa and the scales at which those factors were important. We identified three strategies for managing those factors in the N2Africa scaling out programme: (i) testing different technologies and practices; (ii) evaluating the performance of different technologies in different contexts; and (iii) monitoring factors that are difficult to predict. We incorporated the review lessons in a design to appropriately target and evaluate technologies in multiple contexts across scales from that of the farm to whole countries. Our implementation of this design has only been partially successful because of competing reasons for selecting activity sites. Nevertheless, we observe that grain legume species have been successfully targeted for multiple biophysical environments across sub-Saharan Africa, and to social and economic contexts within countries. Rhizobium inoculant and legume specific fertiliser blends have also been targeted to specific contexts, although not in all countries. Relatively fewer input and output marketing models have been tested due to public–private partnerships, which are a key mechanism for dissemination in the N2Africa project.
Highlights
N T RO DUCTIONSub-Saharan Africa is characterised by diverse and heterogeneous environments (World Bank, 2009), languages, cultures, institutions and histories (Hopkins, 2009) and farming systems (Giller et al, 2011b; Tittonell et al, 2010, 2011)
SUMMA RY The success of scaling out depends on a clear understanding of the factors that affect adoption of grain legumes and account for the dynamism of those factors across heterogeneous contexts of sub-Saharan Africa
We observe that grain legume species have been successfully targeted for multiple biophysical environments across sub-Saharan Africa, and to social and economic contexts within countries
Summary
Sub-Saharan Africa is characterised by diverse and heterogeneous environments (World Bank, 2009), languages, cultures, institutions and histories (Hopkins, 2009) and farming systems (Giller et al, 2011b; Tittonell et al, 2010, 2011). The authors cite an approach by Franzel et al (2002) which investigates the adoption potential of agroforestry, and which identifies six factors: (1) Biophysical performance; (2) Profitability; (3) Feasibility and acceptability; (4) Boundary conditions (including input and output markets); (5) Lessons for effective dissemination: extension and policy and (6) Feedback to research and extension Both this framework and that of Shelton et al (2005) incorporate explicitly the sustainability of effort on the part of extension and other support services when promoting technologies that only provide a return on investment over a longer time frame. A sub-set of factors acts at the household level and might not become apparent until the project is underway; these factors should be monitored and their effects evaluated during the course of the project
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