A Delphi Approach to the Selection of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for Resilience Enhancement for Dry Land Farmers in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

An earlier baseline study (Jellason et al. in preparation) has identified some of the key challenges faced by farmers and from that, appropriate Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) have been selected for the environment the farmers find themselves in and based on a review of available literature. Farmer action plans for enhancing smallholder resilience, GHGs emission mitigation and food security for these dry lands were developed. Expert opinions on the applicability of the selected GAPs to inform farmer co-learning and to validate the suitability of these practices in a dry land context were sought through the Delphi study. Experts were also invited to offer suggestions for improvement of the training action plan. Two rounds of a modified Delphi survey were carried out with experts from diverse backgrounds and locations across the globe to solicit their opinion. Results show that experts’ agreement was reached on most of the action plan items. The results and opinions obtained from the survey were reviewed and adapted into the action plan leading to the development of GAPs for the co-learning exercise.