Andreas Böhringer, D. Russel, R. Katanga, L. Mataririano, Alexandra Schomburg, S. Ruvuga, Jaquet de Haveskercke:
From Technology Transfer to Innovation Development -- Experiences in Scaling up the Use of Agroforestry in Southern Africa

ANDREAS BÖHRINGER¹, D. RUSSEL², R. KATANGA¹, L. MATARIRIANO¹, ALEXANDRA SCHOMBURG¹, S. RUVUGA¹, JAQUET DE HAVESKERCKE^1
1World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Malawi
²International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), Headquarters Nairobi, Kenya

Increasing levels of poverty, food insecurity and degradation of natural resources currently characterize development in southern Africa, with land and agricultural production being a particular concern to the majority of the population who are smallholder farmers. Agroforestry plays a critical role in the development of sustainable farming systems, but access to technologies is currently limited to only tens of thousands of smallholder farmers who now use a number of agroforestry options in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The challenge over the next years is to scale-up this use to hundreds of thousands of farming families in order that significant impact on people's livelihoods can be achieved. The objective of this paper is to review and synthesize scaling-up approaches that have been used in the region since 1997 and to draw lessons that can guide efficient scaling-up in the region over the next five years. ICRAF's goal in southern Africa is to reach 400.000 farmers with agroforestry by 2006. The effectiveness of a number of approaches that were used to address the two biggest constraints to wider agroforestry use, i.e. lack of awareness and grass-root level capacities, are analyzed. Other strategies used, such as scaling-up agroforestry through partnerships and networking and the direct implementation of pilot development projects are discussed.

Some generic issues for scaling-up innovations in rural development are distilled from these experiences and the future challenges are outlined for reaching critical thresholds in agroforestry use in the region.

Keywords: Development, impact, scaling-up, smallholder farmers, sustainable agriculture, technology

Footnotes

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Contact Address: Andreas Böhringer, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), P.O. Box 134, Zomba, Malawi, e-mail: aboehringercgiar.org