Agrarian transition and opportunity windows for agroecological innovation

In villages focused on subsistence agriculture, the adoption of innovations like Conservation Agriculture is significantly hindered by the limited capacity of smallholders to invest into required technologies and inputs. In the case of the DMC systems disseminated in the study regions, financial investments are required to gain access to seeders (hand-jab or mechanical), herbicides and cover crop seeds.

Therefore, in a context where a large part of the economy is non monetized and oriented toward subsistence production, farmers can hardly engage with agro-ecological innovations such as DMC without specific financial support. As a matter of fact, financial investments are also needed for engaging into conventional ploughing-based agriculture and the transition is generally made possible through credit and upfront payment schemes set up by traders and collectors.

In contrast with the previous stage, at an early stage of commodification of agriculture, farmers can get the necessary revenues to invest into Conservation Agriculture and DMC systems represent attractive options for smallholders willing to intensify their cropping systems with a limited increase in production costs.

The following table shows the results of agro-economic monitoring conducted in 2007 on 231 farmer plots of southern Sayaboury Province. Due to the important cost of tillage services, the total production costs are clearly lower for DMC maize monocropping than for ploughing-based agriculture which, in turn, has positive impacts on the net incomes of farmers and the labor productivity.

To be illustrated with farmer testimonies (PASS report), perception surveys (PRONAE, PAMPA)...