Improving smallholders' capacity building by creating an enabling environment for sustainable crop production

CONTEXT

Sustainably improving food production to meet the needs of a growing population necessitates a dual-pronged approach involving both top-down policy support from governments and grassroots support from social organizations. The combination of these two elements can yield comprehensive and systematic solutions for sustainable crop production, particularly in smallholder-dominated agriculture. However, integrating these approaches to empower smallholders with advanced agricultural technologies and enhance crop sustainability remains a subject that warrants further investigation.

OBJECTIVES

We explored collaborative practices for the integration of resources using a dual-pronged approach to empower smallholders for sustainable crop production.

METHODS

The DPSIR framework was applied to our case study. Using stratified and random sampling, 258 farmers were recruited from Quzhou, China. We divided the participants into three groups: six farmers who had worked with China-founded Science and Technology backyards (STBs) for 15 years as leading farmers (LF), 90 neighboring farmers (NF) who were closely related to LF, and 162 traditional farmers (TF) from three villages in Quzhou who were not related to STBs. An intervention experiment focusing on the LF and NF was conducted. Interviews were conducted with 258 farmers after harvesting wheat. In addition, we used statistical analyses to examine the differences in yield and economic and environmental benefits among the different groups. Multiple linear regression was used to determine how different factors affected wheat yield, net profit, and technology adoption. We used a mediation model to analyze the mechanisms by which enabling environmental creation affects sustainable production by empowering farmers.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Compared to TF, LF and NF increased social value by 31% and 25%, technology trust by 16% and 5%, and willingness to accept green production technologies and adoption behavior by 20% and 21%, respectively. In addition, LF and NF achieved wheat yield increases accompanied by net profit gains of 86% and 13%, respectively, and LF demonstrated 53% and 52% reductions in nitrogen surplus compared to TF and NF, respectively. The study found that the synergy of social organizations and government support promoted farmers' knowledge generation and sustainable agricultural production by increasing their social value and technology trust.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study underscores the pivotal role of STBs in bridging these two approaches and facilitating an environment that empowers smallholders for sustainable crop production. This study provides initial insights into a multi-actor, co-participation-based approach to promoting farmers' capacity, which provides important information for future agricultural policy development and implementation.