Why Farmers Are Hesitant to Adopt What Appears Good on the Basis of Science: Understanding Farmers’ Perceptions of Biophysical Research

This study conducted a series of extension events that were followed by farmer interviews with 394 farmers who had participated in an initial household survey in 2018, involving four farmer categories- 1] those actively participating in the Trees for Food Security (T4FS) project from phase 1 (2014); 2] farmers neighbouring those actively participating in the T4FS project from phase 1; 3] farmers actively participating in the T4FS project from phase 2 (2017) and; 4] farmers living distant and unaware of the T4FS project. The study drew upon knowledge generated from biophysical experiments on tree water use, shade tree planting and management in smallholder coffee-bean agroforestry systems to assess farmers’ perceptions and willingness to adopt practices emanating from the study following exposure to the research outputs. The main form of extension used was through display and viewing of posters and a translated power point presentation of the research outputs on impact of tree canopy pruning on tree and coffee plant water use and productivity of coffee and common beans. We present the key messages obtained by the participants from the extension activities conducted, their preferred crop and management combinations, perceptions towards the research outputs and willingness to adopt the practices recommended by the study. We contend that smallholder farmers are hesitant to adopt innovations due to an underlying culture of financial expectancy leading to ‘pseudo adoption’, underutilisation of existing social networks during research and extension, period of exposure to a technology, and limitations in measuring and predicting adoption. We align the four farmer categories to the Process of Agricultural Utilisation Framework (PAUF) criteria, leading to a better understanding of the impact of research and development projects and agroforestry tree planting and management adoption pathways among smallholder farmers. This would enable introduction of socially and biophysically appropriate agroforestry interventions into local realities.