The challenges of promoting agrodiversity during a new Green Revolution: Learning from and working with farming communities in northern Malawi

Background: Malawi, in southern Africa, has been actively promoting a model of high-input, intensive agriculture through fertilizer and hybrid seed subsidies, and more recently irrigation. The increased maize yields achieved have received considerable international attention, with little heed given to the implications for biodiversity or social resilience, particularly in the face of climate change. Our longitudinal study focuses on agricultural strategies and social supports as they influence cropping biodiversity and soil health for uncertain climatic conditions. We anticipate different environmental and social impacts from those strategies that rely more on high-input methods versus those that rely more on diversification and farmer knowledge. We draw on the knowledge accrued from long-term participatory research with farmers on sustainable agricultural techniques to improve food security, soil fertility and child health. Question: In this paper we explore the following research questions: 1) who is using what agricultural strategies and why? 2) what are the environmental and social impacts of different agricultural approaches? Methods: We surveyed 200 farmers in 2010 in northern Malawi where we have developed long-term relationships with local communities. A structured interview with questions about crop diversity, agricultural methods, knowledge of different crop varieties, social support, sources of agricultural knowledge and forest use, along with demographic, economic and social information was conducted with 200 households in each site and soil samples were obtained for 100 of the households' farms. Results/Conclusions: Farmers had diverse land holdings, from 1 to 7 fields, with a majority having 3 or 4 very small fields. Different strategies were evident: half the farmers grew sole maize on their primary fields, and about a third of the farmers retained diversified cropping and intercrops throughout their fields. Long term efforts by the government, the private sector and international organizations to replace local varieties and crop diversity with a reliance on purchased hybrid seeds appears to be gaining ground. Approximately one-quarter of farmers interviewed reported abandoning their local maize varieties. The majority of farmers were growing maize seed that they had obtained less than 10 years ago, suggesting increased reliance on hybrid seed. Crop varietal diversity had declined: the majority of farmers grew 1 groundnut variety and 1 maize variety. Farmers reported abandoning maize varieties for different reasons, where a major concern was late maturity types of maize (long growth period), and a perceived intolerance to drought. Participatory research will involve experimentation with diverse strategies to address climate change.