Farmer-led Research for Food Security and Nutrition in Malawi
Agroecology Gender-Transformative Living Labs For Climate Resilience (AGILE4Climate)
Overview:
The AGILE4Climate project aims to strengthen climate resilience in Malawian rural communities to improve food security, sustainability, and gender equality through agroecological gender-transformative transitions, using participatory research in living labs.
Background
SFHC and its collaborators have previously evaluated how implementing agroecological technologies and techniques can impact food security, health, and gender dynamics. They have studied the effects of agroecology on pest management in over 6000 Malawian households and its effects on food security in over 400 Malawian households. These studies were designed using pre and post design measurements as well as a control group.
The keyresearchquestion of this project is whether agroecological methods improve food security, nutrition, livelihoods, and well-being of smallholder African households?
Main Objectives
Objective 1: Assess agroecological practices’ ability to build resilience to climate extreme events and pest/disease outbreaks in Malawi using a participatory, co-learning lab methodology;
Objective 2: Develop gender-sensitive climate services to support knowledge exchange, capacity and policies that bolster climate resilient agroecological transitions.
Experimental Design
There are four living labs. Each lab contains 25 farming households. Each of these labs will have an experimental plot of land and a control plot of land. Farmers and researchers measure the crop response to climate stress, such as drought or pests and diseases. There are four different agroecological methods to pick from including:
Agroforestry (Gliricidia sepium, Tephrosia or Pigeonpea), rotated with maize + legume intercrop (Ppea, Groundnut, Bambara nut);
Compost + Maize + pumpkin rotated with legumes
Manure + Maize + pumpkin rotated with legumes
Double legume (pigeonpea + groundnut or Bambara nut) rotated with maize
The control plot will simply be a maize field with synthetic fertilizer.Â
There have now been four local weather stations installed, one in each of the four living labs. SFHC and collaborators are holding knowledge-co-creation workshops in each living lab to discuss what sources are available for weather and climate information as develop and test tools that are usable and equitable for Malawian farmers. There is a large emphasis on gender and social inclusion.
The Research Sites: The (4) Living Labs in Northern Malawi
Bwabwa*
Chisangano*
Kabwanda**
Zombwe**
* Areas with previous experience in agroecological project, **areas not previously involved
Anticipated Outcomes
Outcome 1: Evidence for crop and soil response to dry spells, heat waves and pest/diseases with different agroecological practices;
Outcome 2: Co-created weather information and tools for farmers to use, adjusted for gender and other social differences and incorporating local knowledge;
Outcome 3: Living lab methodology tested for agroecological research.
Research Team:
Soils, Food and Healthy Communities (SFHC)
Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources
Agroecology Gender-Transformative Living Labs For Climate Resilience (AGILE4Climate)
Overview:
The AGILE4Climate project aims to strengthen climate resilience in Malawian rural communities to improve food security, sustainability, and gender equality through agroecological gender-transformative transitions, using participatory research in living labs.
Background
SFHC and its collaborators have previously evaluated how implementing agroecological technologies and techniques can impact food security, health, and gender dynamics. They have studied the effects of agroecology on pest management in over 6000 Malawian households and its effects on food security in over 400 Malawian households. These studies were designed using pre and post design measurements as well as a control group.
The key research question of this project is whether agroecological methods improve food security, nutrition, livelihoods, and well-being of smallholder African households?
Main Objectives
Objective 1: Assess agroecological practices’ ability to build resilience to climate extreme events and pest/disease outbreaks in Malawi using a participatory, co-learning lab methodology;
Objective 2: Develop gender-sensitive climate services to support knowledge exchange, capacity and policies that bolster climate resilient agroecological transitions.
Experimental Design
There are four living labs. Each lab contains 25 farming households. Each of these labs will have an experimental plot of land and a control plot of land. Farmers and researchers measure the crop response to climate stress, such as drought or pests and diseases. There are four different agroecological methods to pick from including:
The control plot will simply be a maize field with synthetic fertilizer.Â
There have now been four local weather stations installed, one in each of the four living labs. SFHC and collaborators are holding knowledge-co-creation workshops in each living lab to discuss what sources are available for weather and climate information as develop and test tools that are usable and equitable for Malawian farmers. There is a large emphasis on gender and social inclusion.
The Research Sites: The (4) Living Labs in Northern Malawi
* Areas with previous experience in agroecological project, **areas not previously involved
Anticipated Outcomes
Outcome 1: Evidence for crop and soil response to dry spells, heat waves and pest/diseases with different agroecological practices;
Outcome 2: Co-created weather information and tools for farmers to use, adjusted for gender and other social differences and incorporating local knowledge;
Outcome 3: Living lab methodology tested for agroecological research.
Research Team:
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