Girma Kelboro

Technological innovations have driven economic development and improvement in living conditions throughout history. However, the majority of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have seldom adopted or used science-based technological innovations. Consequently, several scholars have been persistently questioning the effectiveness of intervention models in smallholder agriculture. Following the agricultural innovation systems framework (AIS), this paper reviews a participatory framework known as the ‘Follow the Innovation’ (FTI) approach, which was developed in the research project ‘Economic and Ecological Restructuring of Land and Water Use in Khorezm’ (2001 - 2012) and employed in an ongoing BiomassWeb project ‘Improving food security in Africa through increased system productivity of biomass-based value webs’ (2013 - 2018). The review shows a need for a broader definition of innovation as an outcome of collaborative or collegiate participation of multi-stakeholders processes r...

While Ethiopia maintains a large agricultural extension service system, access to extension knowledge and its resources is largely limited to model farmers, as parts of the rural elites. In consequence, social learning is widely practiced as an inherent coping mechanism to the segregated distribution of knowledge, technologies and agricultural inputs. Despite the widespread use of social learning for knowledge and technology transfer, it has so far hardly been documented in the context of rural Ethiopia or analysed with reference to the translation and adaptation processes through which the passed on knowledges are embedded into the local system of knowledge production and sharing. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to identify the different methodological types of social learning as well as their contribution to innovation development and diffusion within the agricultural context of Ethiopia. A mixed methods approach was employed using household surveys, expert interviews, fo...

Purpose Ethiopia operates a large agricultural extension service system. However, access to extension-related knowledge, technologies and agricultural inputs is unequally distributed among smallholder farmers. Social learning is widely practiced by most farmers to cope with this unequal distribution though its practices have hardly been documented in passing on knowledge of agriculture and rural development or embedding it into the local system of knowledge production, transfer and use. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to identify the different methods of social learning, as well as their contribution to the adoption and diffusion of technologies within Ethiopia’s smallholder agricultural setting. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods approach was used, comprising farmer and expert interviews, focus group discussions, informal individual discussions and key informant interviews. The data were documented, coded and later analyzed using SPSS and ATLAS.ti. Findings The findings showed that 55 per cent of the farmers in the studied areas fully relied on social, community-level learning to adopt agricultural technologies, while 35 per cent of them relied on social learning only partly. Farmers acquired knowledge through social networks by means of communication, observation, collective labor groups, public meetings, socio-cultural events and group socialization. Informal institutions such as iddir, debo and dado, helped farmers learn, adopt and diffuse technologies. Originality/value This study used the concept of epistemic oppression by Dotson (2014) as a conceptual framework to examine farmers’ access to extension services and to analyze how informal institutions serve as workplace learning for the smallholder farmers. The authors suggest community-level social learning serves as a coping mechanism against the prevailing limitations of the formal extension system, and at the same time, it guards against the deepening of social, political and epistemic inequalities that are inherent to the knowledge system.

Despite economic development and social improvements, millions of family farmers in Ethiopia are still struggling with food insecurity. Lack of technology adoption by family farmers is often considered as the root cause for low agricultural productivity and persistence of food insecurity. Based on a study of family farms in southwestern Ethiopia, we show the complex nexus between family farming, food insecurity, and agricultural productivity. We collected qualitative and quantitative data through 300 sample household interviews; expert interviews with elders and village chairmen, agricultural extension agents, farmers’ cooperative heads, as well as experts in NGOs, research institutes, and state agencies; and on-farm observations with in-depth interviews and discussions with individual farmers. Our findings illustrate that everyday experiences, culture, knowledge, and priorities of farmers coupled with ecological and political factors play crucial roles—and need more consideration t...

Stemborer pests contribute to significant maize crop yield loses incurred by the smallholder famers in Ethiopia. The problem requires requires concerted effort to learn and adopt new innovations to find a long lasting solution. In this study, the on-farm implementation of the push-pull technology (PPT) was used as a platform for interaction and enhancing the social learning among the stakeholders in the maize growing Woredas of Bako Tibe, Jimma Arjo and Yayu in the Oromia region. The main stakeholders were the smallholder maize farmers, researchers and the extension staffs. The study took place between August 2014 to May 2015. The PPT is a biological based strategy addresses the stemborer pest problem in maize crop. Under the strategy, maize crop is intercropped with a stemborer moth repellent fodder legume, Desmodium (the push) together with an attractant trap plant, Napier/Brachiaria grass (the pull) planted around maize-legume intercrop. The study was implemented based on the tra...

Transdisciplinary research approach requires that different scientists with their discipline-specific theories, concepts and methods find ways to work together with other societal players to solve a real-life problem. In order to put this into practice, Trans-disciplinary Action Research (TDR) approach was applied in this study using Push pull technology (PPT) as a boundary object. The study was conducted in Bako Tibe, Jimma arjo and Yayu Woredas (Districts) in the Oromia region of Ethiopia from August 2014 to April 2015. PPT is a biological based mechanism developed by researchers for stemborer pest control in maize. It involves inter-cropping maize with a stemborer moth-repellent silverleaf or Greenleaf Desmodium (push), and planting an attractive trap crop, Napier or Brachiaria grass (pull), around the maize crop. On farm PPT implementation was used to provide an opportunity for collaboration, interaction and learning among heterogeneous set of stakeholders comprising of research...

Studies on biodiversity in Africa show its rapid loss and degradation. This is commonly explained with non-sustainable use by local people. Across  Africa, extensive systems of protected areas (PAs) have been established to mitigate this trend. Creation of PAs, however, resulted in manifold conflicts with people who depend on the use of the PAs’ natural resources  for their livelihoods. This study empirically analyzes gaps in knowledge and perceptions between conservationists 2 and pastoralists in Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia, and suggests ways of integrating the knowledge systems into practices. Research techniques used are key informant interviews, focus group discussions and interviews with 60 sample ouseholds conducted between May 2010 and March 2011. Pastoralists who live inside the park describe changes in biodiversity by observing trends of important trees, grasses, and larger wild animals based on traditional  cological knowledge. Conservationists tend to rely on standar...

This article intends to summarize the findings of studies on the relationship between farmers’ behavioral intentions (BI) and water-conservation behavior (WCB) using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). A systematic review of transcripts obtained from Internet-based searching on reliable scientific databases (e.g., SID, ProQuest, Springer, Science Direct, John Wiley, Sage, Taylor & Francis, Emerald Insight, and Google Scholar) was followed by outfitting data for the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software. Data from a total of 28 studies on WCB were synthesized and analyzed through the CMA procedure. The resulting evidence demonstrates that the total and summarized estimate point (i.e., correlation) for the associations of attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SNs), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) with BI was 0.46, 0.36, and 0.26, respectively (r(t)PBC < r(t) SNs < r(t)ATT → BI). Furthermore, the effect size of the relationship between PBC and WCB was 0.27. The largest ...

Female-headed households in developing countries are particularly prone to poverty. They are structurally disadvantaged in terms of access to land, labour and other resources, and are often among the most food insecure. In 1995, the Halaba Special Woreda Agricultural Office in South Ethiopia has launched a community based Bilate Area Closure (hereafter Bilate AC) project with the aim to rehabilitate degraded lands and to sustain local people’s livelihoods. Various land conservation measures were implemented ever since. The Bilate AC is managed by a community-selected Forest Committee (FC) in which women are represented with 50 %. This study aims to show the impact on and perception of the Bilate AC project with regard to female-headed households. The study is based on empirical field work conducted in 2012 using semi-structured household interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. A total of 218 men and female headed households were interviewed. The result of o...

About 80 percent of the Ethiopian population depends on small-scale family farming. Family farms account for more than 95 percent of the agricultural production of the country. Agro-forestry plays a significant role for family farms particularly in South-West Ethiopia. The “Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis” (CFVA) published by the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency and the World Food Program in 2014 defines almost half of the Ethiopian family farms as ‘food insecure’. Findings like this determine policy making and agenda setting for (rural) development strategies and programmes in Ethiopia. Upon this backdrop, this paper shows findings of a study on local dynamics and perceptions of food insecurity among agro-forestry family farms in Yayu area, Oromiya Region, South-west Ethiopia. It is based on household interviews conducted as part of the transdisciplinary research project “BiomassWeb – Improving food security in Africa through increased system productivity...

Agroecology embraces a collection of different disciplinary fields, ranging from agriculture and ecology to political theory. A stronger recognition of agroecology in agricultural research, which often has a strong production focus, could help to achieve sustainable development if more holistic and transdisciplinary research approaches are adopted.

This study evaluated the effect of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) dynamics on the value of ecosystem services in Abaya-Chamo basin over 1985–2050. The main objectives of the study were to estimate the value of ecosystem services of Abaya-Chamo basin using local and global ecosystem service value coefficients, assess how it changes over time, and develop tools to inform policy and public decision-making to protect lands and waters in the region. The study utilized observed (1985 and 2010) and predicted (2030 and 2050) LULC datasets and ecosystem service value coefficients obtained from publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The results indicated that the total ecosystem service value of Abaya-Chamo basin was 12.13 billion USD in 1985 and 12.45 billion USD in 2010. The value is predicted to increase to 12.47 billion USD by the year 2050, which is 2.84% (344.5 million USD) higher than the total value of ecosystem services of the basin in 1985. Although the total ecosystem s...

The Ethiopian Government and the international non-governmental organisation African Parks Network (AP) signed an agreement in 2004 to hand over the management responsibility to the latter for 25 years. The agreement foresaw resettlement of those local ...