In August I had the opportunity to conduct a study on the impact that demonstration plots were having on farming behavior change and technology adoption. My partner, the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, requested the study to understand how the Soil Health Project they were implementing was creating change for farmers. They wanted to learn about what was working and what wasn’t.
I wanted to share the major findings from my study, and interactions with 30 farmers in 3 communities in the Northern Region of Ghana. First of all, it was clear that the demonstration plots were creating motivation for behavior change. Farmers identified that the demo’s were a great learning experience and insisted that they continue beyond the project. I believe Ghana’s Ministry of Food & Agriculture (MoFA) extension services could definitely continue them if they had the resources. Another observation was that the success of a demo plot was largely dependent on the quality of information provided by the project Technical Officer who in this case is also a MoFA agricultural extension agent (AEA). Simply put, AEAs who invested in their communities with constant follow-up and on field discussion about demonstration plot results got more farmers seriously interested in changing their agricultural practices.
Finally, it was evident that there were three levels of behavior changes exhibited by farmers due to the interaction with the project and the demonstration plots. They are summarized in the figure below.
Levels of Farmer Behavior Change
The first level, and easiest to achieve behavior change was one in which the only cost to the farmer was time input. These behavior changes are mostly related to improved planting techniques and proper application of fertilizer. Planting in rows with the correct spacing is a best practice that only requires the farmer to spend more time on this activity.
The second level behavior change is one in which there is both a time and financial cost, and where the technology being adopted is not something that is completely novel. An example of this behavior change would be applying fertilizer, either partially or at the recommended rate. The majority of farmers have seen fertilizer technology before and understand its benefit, often the major barrier is financial.
The third level behavior change is one in which there is a time and financial cost, and the technology being adopted is completely novel. Examples of this change would be the inoculation of soya bean seed, the application of organic fertilizer, or the crop rotation of maize with cow pea. Very few farmers exhibited this level of behavior change.
Understanding the three levels of behavior change can allow project staff to design specific strategies to move farmers from one level to the next. In order for these strategies to be effective, it’s important to understand the baseline behaviors of the farmers a project is working with before embarking on a behavior change campaign.
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