Learning videos enhanced farmers’ knowledge on climate-smart agriculture in Mali

14 November 2017. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) is a concept developed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in 2010; it is aimed at adapting agriculture to climate change and to mitigating the causes of climate change (FAO, 2010). CSA practices address climate change challenges, while supporting economic growth and development of the agriculture sector.

This paper assesses the climate smart agricultural practices triggered by learning videos on integrated striga management, soil fertility and cost-benefit evaluation practices.

This study, carried out in republic of Mali, included semi-structured interviews with 122 farmer household heads who participated on a voluntary basis.
The sampled households comprise farmers who had lived all or most of their life in the selected villages, and were able to assess changes in climate.
Household head interviews were combined with focus group discussions (FGD), organised in each selected village to crosscheck information.

Results revealed that farmers have similar perceptions of climate change and related impacts in video-villages and in non-video-villages. However, farmers’ observation of climate change and related impacts are influenced by gender; men perceived more climate change and related impacts than women. In non-video villages, few respondents adopted crop rotation, intercropping, crop diversification, improved short-cycle seed varieties and zaï techniques as climate change adaptation strategies.

Videos contribute more to the adoption of crop rotation, intercropping and fertilizer application for men than for women. Videos on accounting (managing money) enable more women than men to enhance their cost-benefit evaluation practices for income improvement.

During the interviews, women farmers in video-villages were eager to demonstrate their knowledge about cost-benefit evaluation. We also found that the yield of sorghum, millet and maize is higher in video-villages than in non-video-villages. Thus, using videos as an extension tool is suitable for knowledge development and leads to the high adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices for food security.

For more details, please find the full publication at Beyond Striga Management: learning videos enhanced farmers’ knowledge on climate-smart agriculture in Mali.

You can find other publications that you may find of interest on the subject of using videos in agricultural extension at Publications.