IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cimmew/7677.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Farmers' Taxonomies as a Participatory Diagnostic Tool: Soil Fertility Management in Chihota, Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Bellon, Mauricio R.
  • Gambara, Peter
  • Gatsi, Tendai
  • MacHemedze, Timothy E.
  • Maminimini, Obert
  • Waddington, Stephen R.

Abstract

Soil infertility is a major constraint to food production in the communal areas of Zimbabwe. Smallholders in the region recognize the problems of low soil fertility and have devised ways of coping with them. This study describes the use of farmers' taxonomies of themselves and their soils to identify and understand the options they have, and the constraints they face in managing poor soil fertility in Chihota, a sub-humid communal area of north central Zimbabwe. It is part of an effort by a group of agricultural researchers and extensionists working on improved soil fertility technologies, to better integrate their work with farmers in order to expose the latter to promising technologies, get feedback on the technologies merits and feasibility, and help farmers experiment with them. The results show that these farmers have relatively sophisticated taxonomies, which provide a good picture of the resources, constraints, and concerns they have about soil infertility and ways to manage it. The taxonomies are an important framework for integration of technical interventions with farmers' requirements, systems, and circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • Bellon, Mauricio R. & Gambara, Peter & Gatsi, Tendai & MacHemedze, Timothy E. & Maminimini, Obert & Waddington, Stephen R., 1999. "Farmers' Taxonomies as a Participatory Diagnostic Tool: Soil Fertility Management in Chihota, Zimbabwe," Economics Working Papers 7677, CIMMYT: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cimmew:7677
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.7677
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/7677/files/wp99be03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.7677?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bellon, Mauricio R & Taylor, J Edward, 1993. ""Folk" Soil Taxonomy and the Partial Adoption of New Seed Varieties," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(4), pages 763-786, July.
    2. Jeffery Bentley & Gonzalo Rodríguez & Ana González, 1994. "Science and people: Honduran campesinos and natural pest control inventions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 11(2), pages 178-182, March.
    3. Jeffery Bentley, 1994. "Facts, fantasies, and failures of farmer participatory research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 11(2), pages 140-150, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pawera, Lukas & Manickam, Ravishankar & Wangungu, Carolyne & Bonnarith, Uon & Schreinemachers, Pepijn & Ramasamy, Srinivasan, 2024. "Guidance on farmer participation in the design, testing and scaling of agricultural innovations," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    2. Arslan, Aslihan & McCarthy, Nancy & Lipper, Leslie & Asfaw, Solomon & Cattaneo, Andrea, 2013. "Adoption and Intensity of Adoption of Conservation Farming Practices in Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 147461, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Teklewold, Hailemariam & Kassie, Menale & Shiferaw, Bekele & Köhlin, Gunnar, 2013. "Cropping system diversification, conservation tillage and modern seed adoption in Ethiopia: Impacts on household income, agrochemical use and demand for labor," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 85-93.
    4. Volker Hoffmann & Kirsten Probst & Anja Christinck, 2007. "Farmers and researchers: How can collaborative advantages be created in participatory research and technology development?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(3), pages 355-368, September.
    5. Van Dusen, M. Eric & Gauchan, Devendra & Smale, Melinda, 2005. "On farm conservation of rice biodiversity in Nepal," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19210, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Ekin Birol & Melinda Smale & Agnes Gyovai, 2005. "Sustainable Use and Management of Crop Genetic Resources: Landraces on Hungarian Small Farms," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Working Papers 02.2005, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economics, revised 2005.
    7. Grepperud, Sverre, 1995. "Soil conservation and governmental policies in tropical areas: Does aid worsen the incentives for arresting erosion?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 129-140, August.
    8. Bellon, Mauricio R., 2004. "Conceptualizing Interventions to Support On-Farm Genetic Resource Conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 159-172, January.
    9. Benin, S. & Smale, M. & Pender, J. & Gebremedhin, B. & Ehui, S., 2004. "The economic determinants of cereal crop diversity on farms in the Ethiopian highlands," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 197-208, December.
    10. Francis Denisse McLean-Rodríguez & Tania Carolina Camacho-Villa & Conny J. M. Almekinders & Mario Enrico Pè & Matteo Dell’Acqua & Denise E. Costich, 2019. "The abandonment of maize landraces over the last 50 years in Morelos, Mexico: a tracing study using a multi-level perspective," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 651-668, December.
    11. Bekelc Shiferaw & Stein T. Holden, 1998. "Resource degradation and adoption of land conservation technologies in the Ethiopian Highlands: A case study in Andit Tid, North Shewa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 18(3), pages 233-247, May.
    12. Schuck, Eric C. & Green, Gareth P., 2002. "Farm Level Irrigation Technology Decisions Over Time," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19632, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Becerril, Javier & Abdulai, Awudu, 2010. "The Impact of Improved Maize Varieties on Poverty in Mexico: A Propensity Score-Matching Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1024-1035, July.
    14. Place, Frank & Swallow, Brent M., 2000. "Assessing the relationships between property rights and technology adoption in smallholder agriculture: a review of issues and empirical methods," CAPRi working papers 2, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Green, Gareth P. & Sunding, David L., 1997. "Land Allocation, Soil Quality, And The Demand For Irrigation Technology," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 22(2), pages 1-9, December.
    16. Fitsum Hagos & Stein Holden, 2006. "Tenure security, resource poverty, public programs, and household plot‐level conservation investments in the highlands of northern Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 34(2), pages 183-196, March.
    17. Quetzalcóatl Orozco-Ramírez & Marta Astier, 2017. "Socio-economic and environmental changes related to maize richness in Mexico’s central highlands," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 377-391, June.
    18. Ravnborg, Helle Munk, 2003. "Poverty and Environmental Degradation in the Nicaraguan Hillsides," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1933-1946, November.
    19. Rao, Xudong, 2014. "Land Fragmentation with Double Bonuses -- The Case of Tanzanian Agriculture," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 169436, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Olen, Beau & Wu, JunJie & Langpap, Christian, 2012. "Crop-specific Irrigation Choices for Major Crops on the West Coast: Water Scarcity and Climatic Determinants," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124843, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Farm Management; Land Economics/Use;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:cimmew:7677. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cimmymx.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.