Farmer's decision making process: lessons from rural farming communities in Ethiopia & Kenya

Agriculture a major source of livelihoods in both Ethiopia and Kenya as it dominates the landscapes of each thus greatly impacting the environments and ecosystems of the region. The decisions that farmers make and the practices they engage in in and out of the fields have broad reaching impacts and consequences not only on the environment, but also in their households, communities, nationally and globally. It is well understood that a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors help shape a farmer's decision. What is not understood as well are the connections between those socio economic factors that influence farmers and the agroecological outcomes in the field and vice versa; how agroecological factors influence a farmer's socio economic decisions and behaviours. This research project seeks to fill in that knowledge gap by studying smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and Kenya.

This project is funded by an ESRC Studentship Grant and is in partnership with the Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK). PAN UK is a national charity that is in collaboration with other Pesticide Action Networks around the globe. PAN UK has been working with PAN Ethiopia since 2013 to eliminate the use of pesticides in cotton and vegetable production through the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. Additionally, PAN UK and PAN Ethiopia were able to help 200 farmers become the first Organically Certified cotton farmers in the country providing the farmers with price premiums for their crop and healthier fields. The similarities and differences among these farmers along with others who have and have not worked with PAN UK and PAN Ethiopia in other capacities allow for an investigation into how certain farmers in a similar area make individual decisions and innovate. The framework and methodology that will come from this project will also be studied in north western Kenya through farmer observations and field interviews. I hypothesise that the similarities and differences between these three groups of farmers (certified Organic, IPM but not certified Organic and conventional) will shed light on how these farmers make decisions regarding their livelihoods and generate and implement innovations on and off of their farms.

Key questions
This research can be more easily conceptualised through disaggregated research questions outlined below. Furthermore, the nature of this research relies on open ended questions that don't presuppose answers and allow for the alteration and generation of questions throughout the research process. At this stage in the process, however, the key questions based on the literature and aims of this project include the following:

Key Question #1: How do farmers make decisions regarding farming practices and methods?
Sub questions: What factors and agents are important to the farmer in their decision making process? How can the factors and agents be identified and described? How can the factors and agents be categorised? How are the factors and agents influenced by and influence each other?

Key Question #2: How do farmers innovate on the farm to adapt to changes in their environment and circumstances?
Sub questions: What are the sources and/or inspiration for this innovation? How do farmers judge whether or not the innovation/change was good or successful?

Key Question #3: Are the research methodology and framework that come from this project useful for answering similar questions in different locations?
Sub question: Are the insights from the data collection process site specific or generalisable?