Tropentag, September 10 - 12, 2025, Bonn "Reconciling land system changes with planetary health"

How effective is your demo plot? Feedback from a new “participatory demo plot appraisal toolkit”

¹University of Hohenheim, Inst. of Agric. Sci. in the Tropics (Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute), Germany
²University of Hohenheim, Inst. of Agric. Sci. in the Tropics (Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute), Germany
³Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Service, Nigeria
⁴Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Dept. of Agricultural Engineering, Tanzania
⁵University of Hohenheim, Inst. of Agric. Sci. in the Tropics (Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute), Germany

Abstract

Demonstration (demo) plots play a key role in the promotion of new farming practices and technologies, because farmers can visually inspect the proposed innovations during an entire farming season. However, demo plots do not always lead to adoption. In order to better understand why, the Participatory Demo Plot Appraisal Toolkit” (PaDePAT) toolkit has been developed. PaDePAT can be seen as a new tool in the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tool box. It has been designed to capture farmers’ perceptions on the adoption potential of new technologies and farming practices promoted through demo plots. Using the “African Agri-centre of Excellence” (AAE) project in Tanzania as a case study, we piloted PaDePAT on AAE demo plots established in Njombe and Dodoma, which aimed at promoting mechanisation and good farming practices of maize, sorghum and potato. Following the principles of PRA, the toolkit is applied participatorily with a group of farmers and relies on visualisation. It starts with a field observation of the demo plot, followed by a group discussion where a timeline of the demo plot is developed and all activities observed on the plot are visualised and discussed in comparison with existing farming practices. The tool was applied with 25 focus groups, comprising in total 255 participants, purposively selected based on their active participation in demo plot management. The findings indicate that the rate of adoption or willingness to adopt the proposed technologies was higher among maize and sorghum farmers than among potato farmers. Typical constraints to adoption identified by the PaDePAT tool included cost and unavailability of proposed technologies, incompatibility with existing farming systems practised by the farmers, and limited knowledge. Farmers ranked the PaDePAT as relatively easy to use (4, on a scale of 1-5). The data derived from PaDePAT can be used for further analysis, e.g., to compare costs and benefits of proposed with existing farming practices, as well as gender participation of farmers. We conclude that PaDePAT is a useful tool to facilitate the communication between farmers and stakeholders to better understand farmers’ perceptions regarding the opportunities and challenges of technologies promoted through demo plots.

Keywords: African Agri-center of Excellence, demonstration Plots, Innovations, Mechanisation , Participatory Rural Appraisal

Contact Address: Usman Abdullahi Angara, University of Hohenheim, Inst. of Agric. Sci. in the Tropics (Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute), Wollgrasweg 43 , 70599 Stuttgart, Germany, e-mail: usmanabdullahi.angarauni-hohenheim.de