Scaling Agricultural Innovation Platform Initiated Innovations for Sustainable Smallholder Irrigation Schemes in Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe

Abstract

Irrigated agriculture is increasingly being promoted as a solution for overcoming some of Southern Africa's food security challenges, however, many state owned and smallholder farmer managed irrigation schemes have historically been plagued by low productivity and poor returns on investment. To better understand mechanisms for overcoming the productivity and value chain challenges mentioned above, this study draws on empirical evidence from the Transforming Irrigation in Southern Africa (TISA) project that targeted ailing state-owned smallholder irrigation schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe with a unique two-pronged approach. The approach consisted of the introduction of soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools and Agricultural Innovation Platforms.

The overarching aim of this study is to determine how the scaling pathway was pursued under the TISA project and to determine whether and how this led to achieving and sustaining impact at scale for sustainable irrigation schemes in Southern Africa. Research question one is: i) what were the outcomes and impacts of AIP participatory innovation processes for direct and indirect beneficiaries? The related paper one applied the impact pathway approach for the analysis of the three participatory dimensions of i) breadth of involvement of actors ii) communication and collaboration and iii) delegation of power to stakeholders. By breaking down the impact pathway into its smallest possible components this study was able to systematically analyse the results of AIP participatory processes in order to overcome the attribution gap and determine those outcomes and impacts that were attributable to AIP participatory processes.

Research question two is: ii) what social networks exist around agricultural innovations for information exchange within smallholder irrigation schemes in Zimbabwe? The related paper two applied the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach to assess how information about the agricultural innovations facilitated from the AIPs flowed between and among irrigators at the irrigation schemes for awareness and possible adoption and scaling. The study identified irrigators that had high in-degree, in-beta and betweenness centrality as well as those with low in-closeness centrality, as actors that can be approached for the efficient dissemination of agricultural innovation information.

Research question three is: iii) what were the determinants of agricultural innovation adoption choices by smallholder irrigators and government stakeholders at irrigation schemes in Zimbabwe? The corresponding paper three applied a determinants of adoption approach and found that for irrigators, observability and trialability were found to be the most important attributes considered when adopting an innovation. For government stakeholders the important attributes were relative advantage and trialability. Challenges in the continued use of some agricultural innovations were identified including the breaking down of soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools, however, the study also found evidence of adaptation and continued use of agricultural innovations to suit prevailing conditions.

The fourth and fifth research questions are: iv) what hardware, software and orgware innovations were delivered by AIPs under the TISA project? and v) what scaling approaches were utilised to scale agricultural innovations facilitated by AIPs? The corresponding paper four applied a combination of the multilevel perspective and anchoring frameworks and found that a total of 22 agricultural innovations were initiated by TISA AIPs. Differing combinations of scaling dimensions, strategies and mechanisms were adopted to anchor agricultural innovations from the AIP niche level to the sociotechnical regime levels of the irrigation schemes and government departments. It was also found that a number of these agricultural innovation were sustained throughout and post TISA implementation. Show more