In order to enhance agricultural advisory service delivery, there is need to harmonize the efforts of extension providers to more effectively address the intensification of maize and adapt to climate change. The Diffusion of Innovations Theory was developed by Everett M. Rogers to analyze the diffusion and adoption of agricultural innovations among farmers. Considered the theoretical basis for agricultural extension, this theory asserts that the adoption of an agricultural technology communicated through specific channels occurs over time among members of a social network . Under this theory, individuals within the network are categorized according to their ability to adopt the technology. This theory follows the top-down “transfer of technology” model where innovations are developed by researchers, disseminated by extension personnel, and then adopted by farmers. In the context of Malawi, agricultural innovations are developed both by researchers within the hierarchical structure of the public extension system and are co-developed at the grassroots level with input and field testing from farmers . Therefore, it is useful to understand the basic elements of the Diffusion of Innovations Theory to evaluate Malawi’s public extension system, but also analyze the extension system as a network of actors that all develop, share, and improve agricultural innovations and information. To effectively analyze Malawi’s complex,cut flower bucket pluralistic extension system it is useful to develop a conceptual framework that draws from the Diffusion of Innovations Theory as well as Social Network Analysis.
Feed the Future’s Developing Local Extension Capacity project led by Digital Green in partnership with Care International, the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services developed a “best fit” framework for analyzing Malawi’s extension and advisory services that target key activities for improving the system . This framework outlines extension parameters and characteristics allowing stakeholders to understand the state of Malawi’s extension system and where critical levers for change exist .Within this framework, the frame conditions outside the manageable interests are meant to show factors that influence extension services in Malawi, but are not the focal area for change within the efforts of this study. The critical factors for change within the manageable interests of this study are the characteristics of AIS including 1) the governance structures which I will analyze using Social Network Analysis to understand the development of content, transfer of information, and engagement between stakeholders; 2) the organizational and management capacities which I will analyze as the capacity for organizations to provide EAS and ways in which organizations are structured; 3) the advisory methods used by providers to deliver EAS; 4) the connection to local and international markets; 5) the livelihood strategies integrated into the provision of EAS; 6) the engagement of community members, villages, and farmers in the process of EAS information development and dissemination; and 7) the performance of EAS with respect to climate change adaptation based on the messages communicated to farmers and the effectiveness of information delivery. GoM has developed a pluralistic extension policy that calls for the delivery of specialized services to farmers by governmental institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and private industry. These extension services support farmers to overcome barriers to increasing crop yields and adapting to changing climatic conditions.
Yet, inconsistent recommendations provided by different extension providers regarding best practices to adapt to climate change have remained significant challenges in Malawi. GoM has emphasized the need to improve coordination among extension providers in order to reduce inefficiency, redundancy, and confusion due to conflicting messages to farmers. In fact, few nongovernmental organizations or private companies coordinate their extension activities with DAES under MoAIWD. In order to improve stakeholder engagement amongst extension providers, communicate clear messages to farmers, and improve the adoption climate adaptation practices, there is a critical need to identify what climate change information is currently being communicated to farmers across the extension system.To meet the objectives of the study, I contacted key informants using the snowball sampling method to identify affiliate organizations and individuals who provide extension services to maize farmers in Malawi. The location for this study was chosen based on the projected severity of climate change impacts to Malawi’s maize production across all regions and high concentration of extension providers that operate throughout the country. I developed a professional network in Malawi that connected me to key organizations and individuals who work on extension. This network included staff from IFPRI where I interned, GFRAAS, MaFAAS, USAID, and faculty specializing in extension from LUANAR in Malawi. My researcher team at the University of California, Davis included my advisor and the CoPrincipal Investigator, Dr. Amanda Crump who has worked on agricultural extension issues in Malawi and an experienced thesis committee who provided additional contacts for this research. In total, 130 individuals were contacted through email and phone calls and 19 agreed to participate in virtual interviews through online platforms for this research study. Interviews were conducted in English over the phone from October 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021 with individuals from organizations who provide extension services to farmers. It should be noted that English if the official language of Malawi and is widely spoken among extension providers.
The table below shows how many individuals from each type of organization participated in the research study through in-depth interviews.Through this research, I sought to assess the challenges and successes in communicating climate change adaption information to maize farmers in Malawi in order to improve the development of content and delivery of information by extension providers. Therefore, I focused on understanding the development and dissemination of information throughout the extension system, messaging around climate risk and variability, curriculum and learning tools extension providers use to educate farmers, and engagement with other organizations that support farmers across the extension system in Malawi. I employed qualitative methods to develop a deeper understanding of the participants’ experiences, perspectives, and relationships which are essential to better understand Malawi’s extension system and the stakeholders involved . The research began with a literature review to understand climate change impacts to agriculture in Malawi, climate change adaptation practices for farmers, and the agricultural extension system in Malawi. This was followed by key informant interviews with a sample of identified organizations using an interview questionnaire. A detailed Interview Questionnaire was developed to administer in-depth interviews with all participants. The Interview Questionnaire introduced participants to the intention, goal, and dissemination of the research. This document also informed all participants that their participation was voluntary and asked if they consented to participating in the research. Participants who opted not to participate were thanked and no further communication was made. All participants were asked if they consented to being recorded on the my phone and all who participated consented to being recorded. In addition, a script was developed to introduce participants to questions and a question route was developed to ensure consistency across all interviews. A semi-structured questionnaire was used because I recognized that a detailed explanation of certain topics might be required, and certain responses could not be anticipated prior to the interview. The questions asked during interviews focused on climate smart agricultural practices shared with farmers, extension approaches, and key constraints in delivering effective climate change information to maize farmers. Specifically,flower display buckets the interviews gathered information about the following themes: organizational activities and partnership, information development and dissemination, educational tools, extension methods, climate smart agricultural practices, and communication successes and challenges . In order to evaluate the validity of the content obtained during interviews, I tested the instruments developed for this study prior to use with several members of my research team at UC Davis and at MaFAAS by phone. This allowed me to understand if the questions were clear and could be answered in the time allotted for the interview. After testing, I made several format and phrasing changes to the Interview Questionnaire to improve the quality of the guide and ensure that participants could understand the questions being asked.
Each interview lasted between 60-90 minutes depending on the participant’s responses and elaborations. In preparation for this study, I sought approval from the Institutional Review Board and Committee on the Use of Human Research Subjects at UC Davis and the Malawi Government through the National Commission for Science and Technology’s Framework for Guidelines for Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities. This process required the submission of a research proposal to be reviewed and approved by the National Commission for Science and Technology in Malawi. In order to comply with Malawi’s requirements, this research was first affiliated with a local research institution; LUANAR. This affiliation was initiated with an extension faculty member of LUANAR, Mr. Paul Fatch, on July 28, 2020. All appropriate forms and documents were provided to UC Davis and the Malawi Government. The UC Davis IRB deemed this study to meet the criteria of exemption on August 24, 2020. I obtained a permit from the Malawi Government on September 29th, 2020 was approved to proceed with all interviews.Qualitative data analysis used for these interviews involved analyzing the relationships between themes in my data in order to understand the phenomena and derive a theory about information generated during the interviews. The data for this research were collected through in-depth interviews with 19 participants who provide extension services to farmers in Malawi. All phone interviews were recorded using my mobile device or computer and were transcribed using Word. After all interviews had been transcribed, each interview was coded to identify common patterns and themes using NVivo. NVivo is a Qualitative Data Analysis computer software package that helps a researcher analyze qualitative data produced during interviews. Using NVivo significantly improves the quality of qualitative research analysis by reducing the number of manual tasks and allowing the researchers to easily discover themes in the data . The data analysis process began by developing a project database in NVivo. The unit of analysis for the study was the “organization.” Therefore, I analyzed patterns, themes, and relationships between organizations instead of the individuals representing those groups. A unique “case” was created for each organization to ensure that the organization’s associated information such as type of organization was linked to them and stored in the NVivo Classification Sheet in order to compare information between organizations. After building the NVivo project structure, coding took place in order to sort the data into meaningful segments. I used both inductive and deductive methods to develop theme codes that were generated both from the theoretical framework used and those that reflected emerging themes present in the data. The words and phrases directly mentioned by the participants were then combined to formulate a connection and relationship between related words or phrases in order to develop broader themes. The model explorer tool in NVivo was then used to visually map the ways in which different themes related to one another in order to derive greater meaning from the data. This analysis was then connected to existing concepts and the theoretical framework used and existing concepts discovered through the literature review. In addition to theme codes, relationship codes were also developed to record the relationships between stakeholders and the transfer of information between organizations. Relationship coding occurred any time an interview participant mentioned information sharing or a partnership between two organizations. Organizational relationships were categorized in three district ways. First, if an interview participant mentioned one organization receiving information from another the relationship was coded as “Organization X receives information from Organization Y.” Second, if an interview participant mentioned information sharing between two organizations, but did not specify which organization developed the information, the relationship was coded as “Organization X shares information with Organization Y.” Finally, if one organization was associated with another, such as the Department of Agricultural Extension Services is part of the Ministry of Agriculture, the relationship was coded as “Organization X is associated with Organization Y.” Relationship coding allowed me to visualize the stakeholder network and the dissemination of information through a Network Sociogram that was exported from NVivo into a data visualization software, Gephi. The Network Sociogram produced through Gephi allowed for the visualization of the complex network of relationships and organizations that are central to information sharing within Malawi’s extension network, and organizations that are not as closely connected to others.Social network analysis was used as the analytical method for understanding and evaluating Malawi’s extension network.