Browsing by Author "Alokit, Christine"

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    Bringing sustainable agricultural intensification practices and technologies to scale through campaign-based extension approaches: lessons from Africa Soil Health Consortium
    (International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2021) Kansiime, Monica K.; Njunge, Rahab; Okuku, Innocent; Edward, Baars; Alokit, Christine; Solomon, Duah; Gakuo, Stephanie; Karanja, Lucy; Mchana, Abigael; Mibei, Henry; Musebe, Richard; Dannie, Romney; Rware, Harrison; Silvestri, Silvia; Duncan, Sones; Watiti, James
    Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) practices have been developed with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity. However, most of them are not achieving their potential because of low adoption, linked to limited extension support to make them known and accessible by end-users. This paper reviews the effectiveness of the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC) extension-based campaigns, contributing knowledge for formulating novel and cost-effective extension approaches. Results show that ASHC campaigns achieved scale of farmer reach and spurred adoption of promoted SAI technologies. Adoption levels for a range of practices were at least 20%, which favourably compares with reported adoption rates for the training and visit extension approach; 1-7% and 11-21% for complex and simple practices respectively. In comparison to a single channel, exposure to multiple communication approaches was associated with higher uptake of promoted practices and technologies, and also increased participation of men, women and youth, by addressing inherent differences in access to, proficiency with, and preferences of communication channels. Success factors associated with ASHC campaigns were; the deployment of multiple and complementary information channels; harnessing public-private partnerships to establish sustainable input supply chains; and development of localized content and fit-for-purpose information materials to facilitate information diffusion.
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    Challenges and Capacity Gaps in Smallholder Access to Digital Extension and Advisory Services in Kenya and Uganda
    (Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, 2022) Kansiime, Monica K.; Mugambi, Idah; Rware, Harrison; Alokit, Christine; Aliamo, Caroline; Zhang, Feng; Latzko, Jakob; Puyun, Yang; Karanja, Daniel; Dannie, Romney
    An assessment of the challenges and capacity gaps in smallholder access to digital extension and advisory services (EAS) was made by surveying 197 female and 239 male farmers in Kenya and Uganda. Non-digital extension approaches remain dominant but at least 78% of farmers accessed EAS from electronic sources dominated by radio. This is attributed to the fact that ownership of radios was more widespread than of other digital devices. Challenges that particularly limit the use of digital services included low digital literacy and prohibitive cost of internet and mobile devices. Female and elderly farmers were more likely to report these challenges than their counterparts. Logistic regression model results show that ownership of digital devices, participation in post-production activities, and access to extension were enablers of digital EAS use. Farmers mentioned gaps in obtaining information on crop pest/disease diagnosis and management, fertilizer application, pesticide safety and quality seed. Given the diversity in smallholder technological capabilities and information needs, the recommendations made include integration of digital communication within multimode advisory services that use different but linked communication channels, continued farmer digital innovation capacity enhancement, and participatory design approaches that deliver relevant and actionable information for inclusive scaling of extension activities.
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    The role of agro-input dealer certification in promoting sustainable pest control: insights from Uganda
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-01-05) Tambo, Justice A; Holmes, Keith A.; Aliamo, Caroline; Mbugua, Fredrick; Alokit, Christine; Muzira, Fred; Byamugisha, Andrew; Mwambu, Paul
    ABSTRACTPesticides are crucial for increasing agricultural productivity, but they have also beenlinked to a range of health and environmental risks. In this paper, we used nationallyrepresentative data from 557 agro-dealers in Uganda to assess the role of agro-dealercertification in improving knowledge and practices related to environmentally-friendly pest control. We found that almost half of the sampled agro-dealers werenot certified or accredited by regulatory bodies, even though this is a prerequisitefor selling pesticides in the country. Results further showed that only 16% of theagro-input shops were selling biopesticide products, largely due to a lack ofawareness, access and demand from farmers. Regression results showed thatcertified agro-dealers were 9–12 percentage points more likely to know aboutbiopesticides and integrated pest management, and 8–10 percentage points morelikely to sell biopesticide products, compared to their non-certified counterparts.Ourfindings imply that agro-dealer certification courses can play an important rolein raising knowledge and stimulating the supply of environmentally-benign pestcontrol products. We identified regulatory enforcement, a decentralizedcertification system and agro-dealer associations as some of the potentialpathways for incentivising compliance with certification requirements, therebypromoting lower-risk pest control products and strategies