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HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY OF FARMIMG SYSTEMS
RESEARCH: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
D W Norman, Professor Emeritus, Kansas State University
Invited Keynote Address for Integrated Systems Research for Sustainable Intensification in Smallholder
Agriculture Conference
IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, March 3rd-6th, 2015
INTRODUCTION
• Reason for evolution (1960s on):
Favourable homogenous areas – Green Revolution (GR)
Unfavourable heterogeneous areas – Farming Systems Approach (FSA)
TOPICS COVERED
• Evolution and methodology of FSA/FPA (farmer participatory approaches)
• Why farmer empowerment inhibited
• Justification for further farmer empowerment
• Future of FSA/FPA and innovation platforms
• Village studies (1960s)
Anthropological/farm management studies
Much descriptive” information -- findings:
EVOLUTION OF FARMING SYSTEMS APPROACH (FSA)
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) Farmers:
F Understood their production
environments
F Practiced sound and rational
farming systems (e.g., crop
mixtures)
F Natural experimenters
Schematic Representation of Some Farming System Determinants
ELEMENTS: SOCIO-ECONOMIC BIO-PHYSICAL
FACTORS : EXOGENOUS ENDOGENOUS PHYSICAL BIOLOGICAL
CHEMICAL
MECHANICAL
COMMUNITY STRUCTURES
NORMS AND BELIEFS
EXTERNAL
INSTITUTIONS
OTHER
INPUT
SIDE
OUTPUT
SIDE
FARMING
HOUSEHOLD
DECISION MAKER(S)
(FARM)
CONSUMPTION
SAVINGS INCOME
INPUTS: LAND CAPITAL LABOUR MANAGEMENT
PROCESSES: OFF-FARM CROPS LIVESTOCK
FARMING SYSTEM Note: Broken lines represent the results of the farming system.
Source: Norman, et. al. (1982)
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con)
• Recommended technologies:
“Blanket” technologies often unsuitable
Incompatibility with socioeconomic environment
Standard evaluation criteria flawed
• Conclusion:
Treating farmers as “objects” bad
Farmers:
F Had skills and expertise
F Technology development: should be involved ex ante rather than just ex post
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con)
• Systems perspective maintained
• 4 phases in evolution of FSA (Figure 1):
Predetermined focus
Whole farm focus
Natural resource focus
Sustainable livelihoods focus
• Ratio of variables to parameters increased
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) • Principle, farmer involvement -- 4 stages:
Description/diagnosis
Identification of opportunities and solutions to problems
Evaluate most promising ones
Disseminate best ones
• Approach:
Interdisciplinary
Iterative and dynamic
• 1976: Bamako, Mali
Farming Systems Development Approach to Technology Generation
1. Descriptive/
Diagnostic
STAGES
Current Farming
System
(Hypothesis Formulation)
Support Systems
and Policy
Farmers
2. Design Use Body of
Knowledge from
Experiment
Station
RM RI
3. Testing RM FI
FM FI
4. Dissemination Modified Farming
System
KEY: R = Research (Technician)
F = Farmer
M = Managed
I = Implemented
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con)
(Late ‘70s – Early 80s)
• Pre-Determined Focus
Started in CGIAR institutions with specific crop mandates
Looked at improving one crop enterprise
Rationale:
Easiest methodologically
Improvement of major crop enterprise would have greatest impact on whole farming system
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) (Late ‘70s – Early 80s)
• Start of Whole Farm Focus
Started in national (NARSs) programmes
Substantial donor support
More variables to parameters
Rationale:
More compatible with NARSs’ mandates – area based farming system teams
Better able to address farmers’ needs
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) (Late ’80s - Early ’90s)
• Natural Resource Focus
Increasing concern with ecological degradation because:
incompatibility between production and ecological sustainability
Poor farmers forced to sacrifice sustainable practices
Overuse of “external” inputs
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) (Late ’80s - Early ’90s)
Two approaches for dealing with this:
Farmer participation:
Shift farmers’ perception from “foreseen” to “felt” problem
Methodologies for “modelling” bioresource flows with farmers have evolved
CGIAR: congruency of productivity improvement and ecological sustainability via eco-regional research
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) (Late ’80s - Early ’90s)
Challenges:
Many solutions locational specific
Assessing progress in improving ecological sustainability takes time
Poor farmers have to improve productivity and environmental sustainability simultaneously
EVOLUTION OF FSA (Con) (Early ’90s until Now)
• Sustainable livelihood focus
High ratio of variables to parameters
Distinct features:
Improves livelihoods through addressing:
All activities (farm and off-farm)
Asset sets
Entitlements
Social relationships
Focuses on most vulnerable households
Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
Key
H = Human Capital S = Social Capital
N = Natural Capital P = Physical Capital
F = Financial Capital
VULNERABILITY
CONTEXT
• SHOCKS
• TRENDS
• SEASONALITY
LIVELIHOOD ASSETS
H
N
F P
S Influence
& access
TRANSFORMING
STRUCTURES &
PROCESSES
STRUCTURES
• Levels of
government
• Private
sector
• Laws
• Policies
• Culture
• Institutions
PROCESSES
LIVELIHOOD
STRATEGIES
LIVELIHOOD
OUTCOMES
• More income
• Increased
well-being
• Reduced
vulnerability
• Improved food
security
• More sustainable
use of NR base
I n o r d e r t o a c h i e v e
PROGRESS ASSESSED: METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
• Important methodological developments:
Interaction with farmers -- RRA and PRA techniques:
Enabled systematising farmers’ knowledge/ opinions
Farmers’ relationship -- contractual to collaborative
Gender related issues incorporated
PROGRESS ASSESSED: METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS (Con) New trial types :
Researcher (R), Farmer (F)
Managed (M), Implemented (I)
RMRI – traditional
RMFI and FMFI – “learn by doing”
PROGRESS ASSESSED: METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS (Con) Involving farmers in participatory :
Variety selection(PVS)
Plant breeding (PPB) activities
On-farm trial and recommendation analysis improved through modified stability analysis
PROGRESS ASSESSED: METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS (Con) • Approaches to involving
farmers more effective through:
Farmer groups (formal and informal): Empower farmers
Improve efficiency of research/development process
Farmer groups allocating research funds
Greater interaction between farmers and other stakeholders -- “innovation platforms!”
FARMERS NOW TRULY EMPOWERED?
Do experimental designs often aim for technical optimum?
How often are RMFI and FMFI trials done?
• Are they? For example in technical research:
Are needs of disadvantaged farmers considered?
FARMERS NOW TRULY EMPOWERED? (Con)
• Why farmers not fully empowered:
Many “stakeholders” still unconvinced/lack ability to interact with “poorly educated” farmers
Multi- rather than inter-disciplinary approaches are common
Inappropriate reward systems – based on “good science” not relevancy
FARMERS NOW TRULY EMPOWERED? (Con)
• Positive impact of FSA inhibited by:
Farmers not sufficiently empowered
Weaknesses in farmer-research-development continuum:
Limited financial resources
Vertical organisational structure in institutions
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY
• Requirement – by 2050:
Produce 60% more food in an ecologically sustainable manner
Address malnutrition by diversifying diets with “nutrition dense foods”
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
• Challenge:
Now more complex than prior to GR
Systems perspective essential because will require:
Many combinations of management practices and enterprises
Use (re-adoption!) of supportive biological processes
Results which often incremental, not revolutionary
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
• In FSA require:
More emphasis on Phases 3 and 4 – complex
Less emphasis on Phases 1 and 2 – simpler
• Farmer empowerment critical because many relevant solutions are:
Locational specific -- farmers have intimate knowledge
Often incremental not revolutionary results – farmers have to take “ownership”
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
• Farmer empowerment important in:
Supporting changes in the farming paradigm
Benefitting from the globalisation process
Facilitating necessary, and benefitting from, collective action
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
• Changing the farming paradigm:
From intensive tillage (interventionist) to no-till /minimal tillage (agro-ecological)
Specific examples:
Conservation agriculture (CA)
System of rice intensification (SRI)
Emphasise:
Reduced external inputs
Exploiting natural biological processes/ relationships
Require locational specific adjustments
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
• Benefitting from globalisation process
Traditionally farming households – both production and consumption unit
To benefit from globalisation process help farmers: On how to calculate profits and budget
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
Improve their knowledge of marketing chain (mobile phones)
Improve their bargaining power in market place (collective buying/selling, adding value through processing)
WHY MORE FARMER EMPOWERMENT NECESSARY (Con)
• Facilitating necessary, and benefitting from, collective action
Requires enhancement of social capital
Necessary for establishing equitable and ecologically sustainable livelihood systems
Examples:
Watershed management
Promoting specific collective action in a region
(See previous slide) – collective action on buying inputs and marketing products
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT VIA INNOVATION PLATFORMS
• Promotes/facilitates interactive multi-stakeholder engagement/participation
• Important for:
Meeting challenges discussed – incremental not revolutionary changes likely to be dominant
Improving efficiency and interactivity of farmer-research -development continuum
• Complements and potentially improves payoff of FSA activities – scaling out and up potential
CONCLUDING COMMENT
• Still role for reductionist approach
• Now need greater emphasis on Phases 3 and 4 than 1 and 2 of FSA
CONCLUDING COMMENT (Con)
• Use farmers’ (men and women!) minds --informal modeling function -- important
• Innovation platforms provide means of improving effectiveness and payoff from FSA
NAGODE!
Hard copies of paper
available