Theme 2-3: Forage Production and Utilization--Poster Sessions
Description
An array of technologies; growing improved wheat varieties, bulking and collective marketing of wheat grains, sheep breed improvement, ram sharing, feedlot sheep fattening for market, strategic sheep deworming, pasture establishment and conservation practices; were introduced to members of a community based organization (CBO) in Nturumenti, anti-female genital mutilation and anti-poverty organization (AFAPO) in 2014. The CBO members, composed of youthful 19 men and 7 females, were intensively exposed and involved in the new skills both theoretically and practically in the farmers’ field school model. Even though the 8 farming technology options were suitable for the study environment, their adoption and diffusion varied. However, one of the introduced ideas, bulking and collective marketing of wheat grains, was not attempted for application by the farmers. Instead, the farmers felt that individual marketing of wheat grains immediately after harvesting was convenient and a quick way of recouping the invested funds particularly for the resource poor farmers in Nturumenti. In 2019, a follow-up study, conducted approximately 5 years after the exposure to determine the adoption and technology diffusion rate, it was observed that close to 80% of the agro-pastoral farming CBO members adopted more of the technologies associated with pasture establishment, production and conservation albeit the fact that they were lowly ranked in terms of awareness, at 13.3% for pasture establishment, synonymous to reseeding, and 16.7% for harvesting and conservation of cereal crop residues referred to as feeding of wheat straw during the ex-ante study. Indeed, the adopted ideas were practiced at commercial level and even diffused to non-CBO members. The findings indicate that even though, field demonstration exposed the farmers to a wide “menu” of technology options, the farmers, starting with the early innovators, adopted the technologies that mostly suited their needs and guaranteed to improve their livelihoods; and others farmers ‘imitated’ them.
Included in
Tracing the Path of Technology Diffusion: The Case of Nturumenti, Narok, Kenya
An array of technologies; growing improved wheat varieties, bulking and collective marketing of wheat grains, sheep breed improvement, ram sharing, feedlot sheep fattening for market, strategic sheep deworming, pasture establishment and conservation practices; were introduced to members of a community based organization (CBO) in Nturumenti, anti-female genital mutilation and anti-poverty organization (AFAPO) in 2014. The CBO members, composed of youthful 19 men and 7 females, were intensively exposed and involved in the new skills both theoretically and practically in the farmers’ field school model. Even though the 8 farming technology options were suitable for the study environment, their adoption and diffusion varied. However, one of the introduced ideas, bulking and collective marketing of wheat grains, was not attempted for application by the farmers. Instead, the farmers felt that individual marketing of wheat grains immediately after harvesting was convenient and a quick way of recouping the invested funds particularly for the resource poor farmers in Nturumenti. In 2019, a follow-up study, conducted approximately 5 years after the exposure to determine the adoption and technology diffusion rate, it was observed that close to 80% of the agro-pastoral farming CBO members adopted more of the technologies associated with pasture establishment, production and conservation albeit the fact that they were lowly ranked in terms of awareness, at 13.3% for pasture establishment, synonymous to reseeding, and 16.7% for harvesting and conservation of cereal crop residues referred to as feeding of wheat straw during the ex-ante study. Indeed, the adopted ideas were practiced at commercial level and even diffused to non-CBO members. The findings indicate that even though, field demonstration exposed the farmers to a wide “menu” of technology options, the farmers, starting with the early innovators, adopted the technologies that mostly suited their needs and guaranteed to improve their livelihoods; and others farmers ‘imitated’ them.
