Conservation agriculture in Gimbi, Ethiopia. Benefits and barriers to adoption.

Poor, small-scale farmers in developing countries are facing a risk of double exposure from food insecurity and dis-proportionate vulnerability to the effects of climate change. Climate-smart agriculture has been put forward as a solution that might increase farmer resilience, and it has become a popular buzz-word within the global development and environment community. This master thesis is a qualitative case study of the agricultural community of Gimbi, Ethiopia. I investigate a pilot project that is implementing conservation agriculture (CA), an agricultural method generally referred to as climate-smart. Although CA is a recommended method for rainfed, low-power agriculture, which characterizes the majority of the agriculture in rural South and East Africa, the adoption rate in these regions has been low. Based in in-depth interviews with farmers who participate in the project, the study identifies factors that constitute either benefits or barriers to long term adoption of CA. The data indicate that the farmers are surprisingly positive towards CA and express strong intent to continue with the method on a permanent basis. This optimism may be due to a combination of high awareness of positive long term effects of CA, and already observed short term effects. These effects may, however, not entirely have been a result of the method in itself. Also, the findings suggest that despite willingness from farmers, long term adoption will be greatly challenged by structural conditions that are outside the farmers' control. This negatively affects the possibility of scaling-up and expanding CA. The experiences from Gimbi confirm existing literature in some cases, and in other cases dispute it. In any case they add to existing knowledge and provide pointers for additional research. Although farmers have the potential to be central agents of change, they still have to navigate through a difficult structural terrain which affects their agency. More research is nevertheless needed on how to minimize barriers and maximise benefits of adoption. There is also a need for more studies that examine the interaction between structures and actors, and how these could synergise in order to facilitate adoption of CA and other climate-smart methods which may increase resilience and improve food security