Farmer experiences of Tiyeni’s ‘deep-bed farming’ conservation agriculture system in Malawi

Mvula, Albert and Dixon, Alan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9898-0806 (2021) Farmer experiences of Tiyeni’s ‘deep-bed farming’ conservation agriculture system in Malawi. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 45 (2). pp. 175-196. ISSN 2168-3573

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Abstract

In the context of increasing NGO interest in the capacity of conservation agriculture methods to support sustainable agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa, this paper explores the experiences of farmers (n = 111) adopting the Tiyeni NGO’s deep-bed farming (DBF) system in northern Malawi. The results of a field survey suggest that whilst DBF delivers significant livelihood benefits for farmers relative to traditional techniques (a factor arguably driving its rapid spontaneous adoption throughout the area), some asset-poor farmers are unable to sustain DBF due to its labor demands. We argue that to widen its beneficial impacts in a manner that can be sustained, there is a need for Tiyeni’s DBF to be less prescriptive and more adaptive to specific social-ecological contexts.

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