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A4DVol2-4CoverWeb 21/12/2009 9:39 pm Page 1 Agriculture for Development Melville Memorial Lecture Caribbean agricultural research Ethiopia forest management No. 8 Winter 2009 A4DVol2-4CoverWeb 21/12/2009 9:39 pm Page 2 A4DVol2-4Textweb 21/12/2009 9:41 pm Page 1 The TAA is a professional association of individuals and Contents corporate bodies concerned with the role of agriculture for 2 Editorial | COP15: will it succeed? development throughout the Articles world. TAA brings together individuals and organisations 3 Melville Memorial Lecture | Where theory and practice meet: Innovation, from both developed and less- communication and extension among smallholder farmers | Chris Garforth developed countries to enable 8 Agricultural research in the Caribbean: an outline from Victorian times until today them to contribute to | Bruce Laukner international policies and actions aimed at reducing poverty and 13 Agroforestry and Conservation Agriculture: complementary practices for improving livelihoods. Its sustainable development | Brian Sims, Theordor Freidrich, Amir Kassam and Josef mission is to encourage the Kienzle efficient and sustainable use of 19 Conservation agriculture: south-south technology transfer from Brazil to East local resources and technologies, to arrest and reverse the Africa | Brian G. Sims degradation of the natural South-West Group resources base on which 21 Historical background to forest management in Ethiopia | Stephen Sandford agriculture depends and, by 26 Doing development: why small can be beautiful, some perspectives from a Kitchen raising the productivity of both agriculture and related Table Trust | John Rosewell and Tigist Grieve enterprises, to increase family Newsflash incomes and commercial 30 Red Button Design | Amanda Jones investment in the rural sector. 31 GM Maize could contmainate natural varieties Particular emphasis is given to rural areas in the tropics and 31 Fall in rice strains highlights China’s biodiversity gap subtropics and to countries with 31 Savour tree turns scourge in Kenya less-developed economies in 32 ‘Green Muscletm’ wrestles locusts temperate areas. TAA recognizes 32 Wild fruits as African cash crops the interrelated roles of farmers and other stakeholders living in Bookstack rural areas, scientists 33 Governing Africa’s Forests in a Globalized World | Edited by Laura A. German, (agriculturists, economists, Alain Karsenty and Anne-Marie Tiani sociologists, etc.), government 34 Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development and the private sector in achieving a convergent approach |Edited by Ian Scoones and John Thompson |Review by Keith Virgo to rural development. This 35 Food Security Journal includes recognition of the 35 Seed Trade in Rural Markets: Implications for Crop Diversity and Agricultural importance of the role of Development | Edited by Leslie Lipper, C. Leigh Anderson and Timothy J. Dalton women, the effect of AIDS and other social and cultural issues 35 Energy, Environment and Development (2nd Edn) | José Goldemberg and on the rural economy and Oswaldo Lucon livelihoods. 35 Forestry & Climate Change | Edited by Peter H. Freer-Smith, Mark S. J. Publications Committee Broadmeadow and Jim M. Lynch Garry Robertson Mailbox Jim Waller Amir Kassam 36 Does Britain need an Integrated Agricultural Research System? | Roger Smith Geoff Hawtin 36 Reality versus climate change | Hugh Brammer Declan Walton 37 Minimum tillage needs fertilisers and agro-chemicals |Stephen Carr Caroline Hattam Ed Hamer 38 Preserving rainfall for crops in drier areas of Africa | Andrew Seager TAA Forum contact: 39 Annual General Meeting reports [email protected] 43 TAAF News Tel: 01582 715223 47 Upcoming Events ISSN 1759-0604 (Print) ISSN 1759-0612 (Online) Cover Photograph:Trinidad, important in the birth of TAA. 1 A4DVol2-4Textweb 21/12/2009 9:41 pm Page 2 Editorial COP15: Will it succeed? The world’s attention is firmly focused before 2020; proposals by the on Copenhagen, the host city for the industrial countries add up to about In this UN Conference on Climate Change, 15 percent, but China and other where negotiators are trying to agree developing countries want cuts by at issue the outlines of a new global deal for a least 40 percent, although this might treaty next year to succeed the Kyoto be unrealistic. There is no agreement is the 27th Ralph Melville Memorial Protocol. International meetings since on how much rich countries should Lecture delivered by Professor Chris Kyoto, including the recent G8 pay in the short or medium term Garforth on the adoption and summit, have all stressed the need for because rich nations are suggesting adaptation of technology by farmers. industrialized countries to cut only $10 billion per year from 2010- The “old” idea of taking technology emissions and for substantial funding 2012. This has been rejected by the direct from researchers to farmers did to enable developing countries to developing nations that want $200- not work well; farmers accepted new combat climate change. $300 billion climate aid per year by varieties if they gave more income but 2020. European leaders announced a The overall impression from the so-called improved agronomic paltry $3.5 billion a year from 2010- media is that very little progress has technology was problematic. Present 2012 to help developing countries. been made at COP15 to narrow the day involvement of farmers in the gap between the desires and needs of On a worldwide basis, climate change design process and farmers’ the developing countries and the is going to have the greatest effect on modification of practices willingness of the developed nations the agricultural sector in developing – adaptation – is vital for success. As to ensure realistic reductions in gas countries. Subsistence farmers will be Chris Garforth points out emissions and supply adequate hardest hit and lower yields will push communication with farmers is not a finance for the world effort to tackle more people into poverty. For one-way system but an interactive the effect of climate change. Quite example, the millions of hungry process, and learning is also a social frankly it is a mess, and the meeting people in sub-Saharan Africa, where activity. has not made sufficient progress on there is an ever-present drought The cover photograph of coconut any of the major issues. The problem, cannot wait till 2020 or 2050 palms growing on the coast of a West negotiators must have something while the developed countries make Indian island is to remind you that the ready in the next couple of days for the up their minds to step up their efforts birth of the Tropical Agriculture world’s political leaders to sign. That to tackle climate change in a sensible Association is closely associated with something must be a step in the right and realistic manner. Developing the Institute of Tropical Agriculture at direction from Kyoto so that steady countries not only want financial help St Augustine, Trinidad where, until progress can be made in the next but also need the technology to the 1960s, aspiring young British decade to combat climate change. establish sustainable climate-resilient graduates obtained their Diploma in agriculture. Let’s hope COP15 brings So far there is no agreement on the Tropical Agriculture before being sent an improved legally binding protocol long-term goal to avoid dangerous to work in many countries around the to the table to for the benefit of climate change. There is no world. Bruce Lauckner’s article traces mankind. agreement as to how much industrial the development of agricultural nations should cut their emissions research in the Caribbean. 2 A4DVol2-4Textweb 21/12/2009 9:41 pm Page 3 MML 27th Annual Ralph Melville Memorial Lecture delivered at the Annual General Meeting held at the Royal Over-Seas League on 9th December 2009 Where theory and practice meet: Innovation, communication and extension among smallholder Chris Garforth farmers Chairman of the Tropical Agriculture Association and Introduction Professor of Agricultural Extension When Everett Rogers wrote the first and Rural edition of ‘Diffusion of Innovations’ 47 Development at the University of Reading. years ago, the idea of innovation was straightforward: it was something – a technology or a way of doing things – that was new to the people who were faced with the decision of whether or not to use it, or ‘adopt’ (Rogers 1962). within a geographical area. Many of us Adoption and diffusion of innovations are familiar with his five adopter became an accepted way of thinking categories, from the ‘innovators’ and about the way in which change in ‘early adopter’ to the ‘laggards’, and agriculture took place at farm level and the S-shaped diffusion curve. 3 A4DVol2-4Textweb 21/12/2009 9:41 pm Page 4 MML The latest edition of Rogers’ book, published a Tales from the tropics and year before his death in 2004, refers to several hundred research studies that have used this beyond basic model for exploring changes in I’d like to share three stories, from research behaviour in agriculture, health, information visits to three Asian countries earlier this year. technology and many other spheres. All The first two relate to holes in the ground – along, however, there’s been a problem: the holes which offer windows through which we model doesn’t really describe what actually can see processes of innovation at work. happens in most farming situations. To be fair to Rogers, he did acknowledge this in a In China, in the semi-arid Gansu Province,