Agricultural Development Interventions Research Articles

Impact of the rural enterprise programme interventions on smallholder farmers’ climate adaptation strategies: Qualitative evidence from Ghana’s transitional agro-ecological zone

ABSTRACT This paper combines theoretical insights from vulnerability literature and interpretive paradigm using a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to examine smallholder farmers’ climate perception, adaptation strategies, and challenges under the rural enterprise programme interventions in the Kintampo South district of Ghana. The farmers reported rainfall variability and rising temperatures as their key observed changes. The study revealed that climate impacts on farmers and their agricultural systems are multidimensional, which affect their productive capacity and livelihoods. These impacts have pushed them to adopt adaptation strategies with the support of the programme interventions. The farmers benefitted from material and non-material resources, minimizing climate impacts and reducing vulnerabilities. The paper provides critical insights into how future agricultural development interventions could develop effective interventions to build sustainable agricultural systems and livelihoods that are inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable communities and obviate smallholder farmers’ vulnerability.

Agricultural and rural development interventions and poverty reduction: Global evidence from 16 impact assessment studies

Agricultural and rural development interventions can reduce global poverty by providing growth-oriented tools, including access to finance, training, and markets. While such interventions effectively reduce monetary poverty (e.g., $1 a day poverty line), there is increasing interest in incorporating non-monetary poverty indicators, such as education, health, and living standards, to capture inherent multidimensionality in poverty. This study analyzes data from 16 impact evaluation studies conducted between 2019 and 2023 to examine whether and to what extent agricultural and rural development interventions affect multidimensional poverty of small-scale producers. Our analysis shows a 4 percent reduction in multidimensional poverty for treatment households compared to comparison households. Our findings suggest that agricultural and rural development interventions play a positive role in reducing poverty and have the potential to improve the long-term well-being of poor households.

Agricultural extension debatable issues

Extension, and extension workers in particular, drive the agricultural modernization process and the rest of those in associated professions and positions are ‘support staff.’ Whether you are a lecturer, a professor, a dean, a researcher, an extension director or a head of a non-government organization, if your mission is to develop smallholder agriculture at farmer level, you are supporting the field extension worker to achieve your/farmers’ goals. To this extent, it is no surprise that, when no perceptible improvement takes place at the farmer level, the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of extension. Despite its importance, agricultural extension is the most misunderstood of all agricultural disciplines, and the lack of understanding reveals itself in several ways. This paper discusses some of the misconceptions and debatable issues that affect the way extension is supported, the way it is structured, the way it is staffed and the way extension workers are trained and capacitated. The misconceptions also affect the kinds and levels of expectations people have of extension. The misconceptions include: unending definitions of extension, expanding extension concepts, blaming extension for perceived failures in agriculture, undermining the extension discipline, inadequacies in extension teaching and training, markets and the role of extension and structural changes in extension. The origins of some of these debatable issues can be traced to development partners who come with their conceptions of what is needed while others come from development theorists who have not done any extension work in the field. Unfortunately, there are no strong extension professional associations in many African countries that could: raise the profile of extension as a discipline, interrogate some of the agricultural development interventions before implementation and help clear some of the misconceptions. In the absence of extension platforms, extensionists operate as individuals, each struggling the best way they know how to make a difference at the farmer level. There is no way of harnessing the experiences the individuals are going through for purposes of learning, sharing and developing common positions. The purpose of this paper is to promote debate on, and scrutiny of these extension issues which are often presented as facts and absolute truths. Key words: Extension issues, debatable, agricultural discipline, misconceptions, professionals, smallholder farmers

Finding climate smart agriculture in civil-society initiatives

International civil society and non-government organisations (NGOs) play a role in implementing agricultural projects, which contribute to the mitigation, adaptation, and food security dimensions of climate-smart agriculture (CSA). Despite the growth of CSA, it remains unclear how CSA is designed, conceptualised, and embedded into agricultural development projects led and implemented by NGOs, creating a lack of clarity as to the direction of future of agricultural development interventions. This paper examines the extent to which development programmes from the NGO sector actively incorporate CSA principles to benefit smallholder farmers under the major pillars of CSA. Drawing from six projects’ documentation since 2009, we conducted a thematic analysis to reveal the alignment of projects with the pillars of CSA and discuss the extent to which CSA allows for localised adaptability given the diverse agricultural contexts in which civil society and NGOs work. We find that despite a lack of clarity in CSA definition and focus, the agricultural practices in the six projects make heterogenous contributions to the adoption of CSA principles. We illustrate the diversity of ways in which CSA is ‘done’ by a global NGO across six areas: greening and forests, practices and knowledge exchange, markets, policy and institutions, nutrition, carbon and climate, and gender. We discuss the need for balance in contextual adaptability across the three pillars of CSA with explicit consideration of trade-offs to reduce unintended outcomes from CSA initiatives. We conclude with reflections on the role of civil society and NGOs as boundary agents in the agricultural development sector.

Social drivers and differentiated effects of deagrarianisation: A longitudinal study of smallholder farming in South Africa's Eastern Cape province

South Africa's smallholders have progressively become disengaged from farming despite their lack of alternative livelihood options, resulting in the deepening of rural poverty. Farming's reduced role in rural livelihoods represents a wider trend of deagrarianisation seen across contexts and geographies. While most literature on deagrarianisation focuses on its economic dimensions, this paper places the social and cultural dimensions of farming at the centre of its analysis to understand why smallholders are becoming less engaged in agriculture. Drawing on Habermas's concept of the colonisation of the lifeworld and on ethnographic fieldwork in four villages in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, we show how local social cohesion in farming has been undermined by a series of oppressive state policies. Recent agricultural development interventions have not managed to break with this trend, but instead continue to undermine social cohesion and reciprocity. The impacts of this loss of social cohesion in farming have been most severe for the poorest households who seldom plant their fields today. Based on our findings, we suggest that agricultural development programmes should aim to build on smallholders' appreciation of agriculture, their remaining connections to the land and their sense of solidarity, rather than focusing exclusively on stimulating the development of individual entrepreneurs.

Factors associated with food security among small-holder farming households in Lesotho

BackgroundFood insecurity and malnutrition are persistent challenges worldwide and Lesotho is not an exception. Hunger and poverty have worsened with the dawn of COVID-19 pandemic and on-going Russia–Ukraine war. The study seeks to assess food security and associated socio-economic factors among farming households in Lesotho. Household food security has been assessed using Household Food Access Scale (HFIAS) and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS). Questionnaires were employed to collect data from 236 farming households.ResultsThe HFIAS results show that 40% of the farming households were food secure, 18% were mildly food insecure, 32% were moderately food insecure and 10% were severely food secure and severe food insecurity mostly experienced in the highlands. HDDS results indicated that the farming households had consumed 8 to 12 food groups 7 days prior to data collection, the mean HDDS is 9.68. Households that are involved in commercial farming had more (9.98) diverse diets than those in subsistence farming (8.67). Households in the highlands have the lowest diet diversity (9.0) among the four agro-ecological zones. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the socio-economic factors associated with food security were household income, household size, marital status and education status of the respondent.ConclusionsThe findings depict that over half (60%) of the farming households experience varied degrees of food insecurity. Contrary to this, the farming households had consumed highly varied diets in the past 7 days. The socio-economic factors that influence the attainment of food security household food security were household size, household income, education and marital status. The findings suggest that agricultural development interventions must be more sensitive to household food security and nutrition, which includes training farmers on nutrition and food security issues. Furthermore, socio-economic factors must be considered in the development of interventions, since they influence the food security of the farming households.

Building resilience in Africa’s smallholder farming systems: contributions from agricultural development interventions—a scoping review

Building resilience in Africa’s smallholder farming systems: contributions from agricultural development interventions—a scoping review

Inside-out strategic coupling for smallholder market integration – Mango production in Malawi as a test case

Starting from the observation that value chain research has informed much of agricultural development interventions in recent decades, this paper identifies five key challenges to current agricultural development policies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): access to finance, infrastructure, land tenure, local linkages and knowledge transfer. Based on this review, it is argued that recent theoretical advances in the global production network (GPN) approach can help to achieve a more holistic view of agricultural development policies than the more linear value chain research. In particular, three key concepts from the GPN approach are highlighted: mobilisation of regional assets, strategic coupling and territorial embeddedness. These key concepts are used to propose a framework called ‘insight-out strategic coupling for smallholder integration’, which builds on the concept of strategic coupling in GPN research and applies it as a development tool to agricultural production. Using an in-depth case study approach, the usefulness of this framework is tested by examining the experience of Malawi Mangoes, a company established to promote smallholder exports. Malawi Mangoes was initially funded by private equity, but despite a number of challenges along the way, was soon able to attract development funding and integrate smallholders from surrounding villages throughout-grower schemes. Analysis of the case shows both the usefulness of the framework and the lost potential in implementing agricultural development policy. The authors conclude that the framework is useful for linking current debates on agricultural development interventions, but that the findings of critical GPN research need to be taken into account when developing agricultural development interventions in order to respect the ‘do no harm’ principle.

Role of the interaction space in shaping innovation for sustainable agriculture: Empirical insights from African case studies

The challenges of climate change, food insecurity and land degradation have all led to a push for ‘scaling’ innovation for sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, international agricultural development projects often use farm trials or farmer field schools as a way for farmers to engage with technically-constructed knowledge and empirical evidence. However, the role of such trials in the socio-political construction of knowledge is often overlooked. This study conceptualises agricultural development interventions as taking place within an interaction space between researchers and farmers. Unpacking the processes and dynamics of the interaction space from four case studies across Malawi and mainland Tanzania, we present findings which evaluate: 1) how agricultural innovation takes place in the context of funded agricultural development projects, and 2) how space for technical and social knowledge construction can be opened up or closed down in these contexts.Results show that farm trials provide a basis for interaction, but that knowledge exchange in these contexts also require knowledge brokers for successful implementation and scaling. Both knowledge brokers, and the trials themselves shape social dynamics, often simultaneously facilitating social learning for some, but contributing to social exclusions for others. A strong connection was identified between the design of the interaction space and social dynamics evident within it, indicative of the close interconnection between the processes of socio-political and technical construction of knowledge. Key factors open or close the interaction space, such as the continuity of knowledge brokers and the complexity of technologies. Improving the effectiveness of innovation for sustainable agriculture, requires opening up the interaction space to enable more effective and sustained co-creation of technologies, social learning and the collaborative construction of shared knowledge.

Rural non-farm engagement and agriculture commercialization in Ghana

PurposeGhana's economy is largely agrarian, and the business of agriculture is dominated by smallholder farmers who are predominantly rural dwellers. As a result, efforts to lift rural farming households from poverty have been narrowed to the promotion of agricultural development to the neglect of the rural non-farm sector. However, this is fast changing in the advent of a burgeoning rural nonfarm economy and must engage the attention of policy actors. This study thus assesses the effect of non-farm participation on households' level of commercialization of agricultural crops in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies a generalized structural equation model (GSEM) to the Ghana Living Standards Survey round 6 dataset, a stratified and nationally representative random sample of 16,772 households in 1,200 enumeration areas.FindingsThis study finds that non-farm participation increases the produce sold to output ratio. It is concluded that non-farm engagement by farmers boosts commercialization in Ghana. Thus, for the Ghanaian and similar contexts, agricultural development interventions that incorporate non-farm activities are more likely to be successful in improving livelihoods.Research limitations/implicationsThe study uses only the ratio of sales value to output value definition for commercialization and acknowledges use of multiple definitions could be superior.Originality/valueVarious empirical studies have examined the link between the farm and nonfarm sectors. This paper is original in its approach as it tackles an aspect of the subject that has been understudied, namely, an exploration of nonfarm and farm linkages from the perspective of agricultural commercialization.

Impacts of extension dissemination and technology adoption on farmers' efficiency and welfare in Ghana: Evidence from legume inoculant technology

Examining the welfare impact of agricultural development interventions that incorporate diffusion of improved production technologies to farmers within extension delivery programs can be very challenging, because of the difficulty in disentangling the individual impacts of the production technology and the extension delivery program. Using recent farm level survey data from extension dissemination program of legume inoculant technology of 600 farmers in Ghana, we employ a recent methodological approach to investigate, simultaneously, the impact of the inoculant technology adoption and the extension program participation on farmers' productivity, efficiency and welfare. We decompose each of these impact measures into subcomponents whose causal paths can be traced to both the adoption of the production technology and the extension delivery program. We find that, in terms of yields and net revenue, direct contribution of improved technology adoption alone is 34 and 64%, respectively, and 35 and 66% indirectly due to improved farmer efficiency, leading to 36 and 74% improvement in farmers' welfare, respectively. On the other hand, direct contribution of extension delivery program participation alone is 66 and 36%, respectively, with 66 and 34% indirectly due to improved farmer efficiency, resulting in 64 and 26% improvement in farmers' welfare, respectively. Based on the findings, we recommend that policymakers should invest in research and development to produce yield enhancing agricultural technologies suitable for poor and degraded soil conditions in developing countries which can contribute immensely to poverty and food insecurity reduction. The development of new agricultural technologies must be pursued with vigorous provision of extension services to farmers to be able to exploit the full potentials of the new technologies.

Determinants of smallholder farmers' membership in co-operative societies: evidence from rural Kenya

PurposeDespite the potential for co-operatives to improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods, membership in the co-operatives is low. This study examines factors that influence smallholder farmers' decisions to join agricultural co-operatives.Design/methodology/approachThis study involved a survey of 1,274 smallholder chicken farmers. The data were analysed through a two-sample t-test of association, Pearson's Chi-square test and binary probit regression model.FindingsThe results suggest that farming as the main source of income, owning a chicken house, education attainment, attending training or accessing information, vaccination of goats and keeping a larger herd of goats are the key factors which significantly influence co-operative membership. However, gender, age, household size, distance to the nearest agrovet, vaccinating chicken and the number of chickens kept do not influence co-operative membership.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey did not capture data on some variables which have been shown to influence co-operative membership. Nevertheless, the results show key explanatory variables which influence membership in co-operatives.Practical implicationsThese findings have implications for development agencies that seek to use co-operatives for agricultural development and improvement of smallholder farmers' livelihoods. The agencies can use the results to initiate interventions relevant for different types of smallholder farmers through co-operatives.Originality/valueThis study highlights the influence of smallholder farmers' financial investments in farming and the extent of commercialisation on co-operative membership. Due to low membership in co-operatives, recognising the heterogeneity of smallholder farmers is the key in agricultural development interventions through co-operative membership.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2022-0165.

ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT’S INTERVENTION ON LIVELIHOOD OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED MILLET FARMERS IN BORNO STATE, NIGERIA

This study assessed the effects of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) interventions on yield, income and standard of living of internally displaced millet farmers in Borno State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted using a population of 679 internally displaced farmers who benefitted from IFAD interventions in Borno State. Three research questions were raised to guide the study and one null hypotheses was formulated to be tested at 0.005 significance level. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 248 internally displaced millet farmers as sample. A researcher designed questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection with a reliability coefficient of 0.79. Descriptive statistics in form of frequency count, percentage and mean were used to describe the socioeconomic characteristics while stepwise linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. The regression result shows that IFAD interventions significantly affect yield with coefficient of (R2 = 0.347) and standard of living with a coefficient of (R2 = 0. 321). whereas the result reveals that the interventions have not significantly affect the income of the farmers with the coefficient of (R2 = 0.092) The findings indicate that IFAD interventions improved the yield and standard of living of internally displaced millet farmers in Borno State, Nigeria. The study recommended that, Borno State government should ensure continuity of the interventions provided to internally displaced millet farmers, as it reveals from the findings of the study that the interventions improves the yield and standard of living of the farmers.

Spatio-temporal rainfall variability and its linkage with large scale climate oscillations over the Republic of South Sudan

Climate change has distorted the rainfall spatio-temporal distribution. Therefore, understanding the spatio-temporal rainfall variation and its causes at meso and micro-level could provide insight for the water and agricultural development interventions. This article examines the spatio-temporal rainfall variability and driving factors in connection with large scale global oscillation. CHIRPS rainfall and NCEP/NCAR wind fields data from 1981 to 2019 were used. Rotaed Emperical Ortogonal Function (REOF) was employed to investigate spatio-temporal rainfall variability. Large scale moisture transport was studied using lower (1000–850 hPa), middle (600–500 hpa), and upper (300–100 hPa) level wind fields. The result reveals that in South Sudan rainfall dominant variance regions were not uniform across seasons. Northern, Southcentral, and Southeastern tip regions were the top three dominant variance regions which explain around 30 %, 25 % and 17 % of the total variation in REOF1, REOF2, and REOF3 during the spring season respectively. Likewise, during the summer season the dominant variance REOF1 (28 %), REOF2 (24 %), and REOF3 (9 %) was observed in South-east, West, and, North-west, whereas; the autumn dominant variance in North-west, North-east, and South-east explain about REOF1 (22.6 %), REOF2 (19.9 %), and REOF3 (16.7 %) of the total variation respectively. The alternative wet and dry years were causing drought and flooding in the study sites. Low-level southeasterly winds from India and over the equator from the Atlantic Ocean carry rain-bearing moisture to South Sudan. The winds converge and convection is triggered by African Easterly and Tropical Easterly jet favors convection during the summer and spring seasons. Sea Surface temperature shows a positive and negative correlation with rainfall variability. Rainfall spatio-temporal assessment is crucial for water resource management, agricultural productivity, and climate change mitigation.

Gendered barriers and opportunities in Kenya's informal dairy sector: enhancing gender-equity in urban markets

Informal milk trading in peri-urban Nairobi plays a key role in supporting both livelihoods and nutrition, particularly among poor households. Gender dynamics affect who is involved in and benefits from milk trading. To better understand gendered constraints and opportunities in informal, peri-urban dairy marketing, a qualitative study was conducted in 2017 with 45 men and 50 women milk traders in Dagoretti, a peri-urban area of Nairobi, Kenya. The findings show that milk trading is more lucrative for older men than for women and younger men among the respondents. This article illustrates the differences between these women’s and men’s experiences as milk traders and explores the reasons behind these differences. It discusses the implications of the findings for agricultural research and development interventions that aim to enhance the sustainability and equity of the dairy sector.

Simplified pairwise ranking for prioritisation of agricultural development intervention in Masisi, Democratic Republic of Congo

ABSTRACT Development Cooperation initiatives face complex real-world decision-making problems. The present action research investigates the use of Simplified Pairwise Ranking in a case study related to the identification of priority agricultural development interventions in the Collectivity of Katoyi, Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. The study identifies roads building, technical training and follow-up, and improved varieties’ introduction as the first three priority interventions. The dissertation about the applied methodology against the existing criticism provides information on how simplified pairwise ranking can be a useful and scientifically sound technique for eliciting discussion among a multidisciplinary group and for prioritising alternatives in agricultural development.

Supporting Pro-Poor Reforms of Agricultural Systems in Eastern DRC (Africa) with Remotely Sensed Data: A Possible Contribution of Spatial Entropy to Interpret Land Management Practices

In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, agriculture represents the most important economic sector, and land control can be considered a perpetual source of conflict. Knowledge of the existing production system distribution is fundamental for both informing national land tenure reforms and guiding more effective agricultural development interventions. The present paper focuses on existing agricultural production systems in Katoyi collectivity, Masisi territory, where returning Internally and Externally Displaced People are resettling. We aim to define a repeatable methodology for building evidence-based and updated knowledge concerning the spatial distribution of the two existing production systems: subsistence-oriented agriculture (SOA) and business-oriented agriculture (BOA). To this aim, we used a supervised object-based classification approach on remotely sensed Sentinel-2 imagery to classify land cover. To classify production systems further within the “agriculture” and “pasture” land use classes, binary classification based on an entropy value threshold was performed. An iterative approach was adopted to define the final HNDVI threshold that minimised commission and omission errors and maximised overall accuracy and class separability. The methodology achieved acceptable observed accuracy (OA equal to 80–90% respectively for agricultural and pasture areas) in the assessment. SOA and BOA respectively covered 24.4 and 75.6% of the collectivity area (34,606 ha). The results conclude that land use and entropy analysis can draw an updated picture of existing land distribution among different production systems, supporting better-adapted intervention strategies in development cooperation and pro-poor agrarian land tenure reforms in conflict-ridden landscapes.

Land property rights and household take-up of development programs: Evidence from land certification program in Ethiopia

• The study examines the impact of land property rights on take-up of agricultural development interventions in Ethiopia. • We find that land certification has a positive impact on the take-up of agricultural extension package program. • Land certification status significantly predicts farm household adoption of chemical fertilizer. • Secure land rights play a key role in household participation in community level land and water management programs. • The study promotes land rights as mechanism to promote agricultural development and sustainable land and water management. Access to secure land plays a key role in the socio-economic development of agricultural households. Since 1998, large-scale land certification programs aimed at strengthening the land property rights of agricultural households in Ethiopia have been implemented across regions to varying degrees. Using a three-period, large-scale nationally representative panel dataset from Ethiopia, this paper investigates the importance of access to secure land property right in the form of land certification for household take-up of agricultural development interventions that aim to improve household agricultural productivity and sustainable land use at a community level. We studied the take-up of agricultural extension packages and participation in community level sustainable land and water management programs as outcome variables. To account for potential endogeneity in the allocation of certificates and other confounding factors, we applied different panel data methods including instrumental variable approach. We find that access to secure property rights have a positive and significant effect on household take-up agricultural development interventions: agricultural extension packages and sustainable land and water management interventions. Additionally, we find that land certificates significantly predict household adoption of chemical fertilizers.

Constraints for adopting climate-smart agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Southeast Kenya

CONTEXTClimate uncertainty challenges the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Awareness of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices and access to climate-smart technologies are key factors in determining the utilization of farm and land management practices that may simultaneously decrease greenhouse gas emissions, increase the adaptive capacity of farmers, and improve food security. OBJECTIVEUnderstanding how biophysical and socio-economic constraints affect the adoption of CSA practices and technologies plays an essential role in policy and intervention planning. Our objective was to identify these constraints among smallholder farmers in Taita Taveta County of Southeast Kenya across varying agro-ecological zones. METHODSWe conducted a Climate-Smart Agriculture Rapid Appraisal that consisted of four mostly gender-disaggregated smallholder farmer workshops (102 participants), a household survey (65 participants), key-informant interviews (16 informants), and four transect walks. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSOur results indicate a dissonance in the perceived awareness of CSA practices and utilization of CSA technologies between state actors and farmers. State actors emphasize lack of awareness as a barrier to adoption, while farmers express knowledgeability regarding environmental change and climate-smart practices but are confined by limitations and restrictions posed by e.g. market mechanisms, land tenure issues, and lack of resources. These restrictions include e.g. uncertainty in product prices, lack of land ownership, scarcity of arable land, and simply lack of capital or willingness to invest. Farmers are further challenged by the emergence of new pests and human–wildlife conflicts. Our research findings are based on the contextual settings of Taita Taveta County, but the results indicate that adopting CSA practices and utilizing technologies, especially in sub-Saharan regions that are heavily based on subsistence agriculture with heterogenous agro-ecological zones, require localized and gender-responsive solutions in policy formation and planning of both agricultural extension services and development interventions that take into account the agency of the farmers. SIGNIFICANCEThis study contributes to existing climate change adaptation research by increasing our understanding of how physical and socio-economic constraints can affect the adoption of new farm and land management practices, and how CSA-based intervention strategies could be restructured by local stakeholders to be more inclusive.

Who does what and why? Intra-household roles and explanatory models for sourcing soybean seed from the formal sector in Malawi

This study asks whether there is utility in knowing who sources soybean seed within the household and why when explaining variation in seed obtained from the formal versus informal sector. Survey data collected in Malawi in 2018 were used to explore the question. Results suggest that the identity of the person who sources seed has little to do with whether the seed was obtained from the formal sector. Instead, why the person sources soybean seed is the better predictor. As formal seed system actors mobilize to persuade more smallholder farmers to adopt improved varieties, understanding why people source seed may be key for targeting and when designing agricultural development interventions.