Research methods for cereal/legume intercropping in Eastern and Southern Africa

Need for the Workshop While interacting with colleagues in National Agricultural Research (and Extension) Services (NARS) in the region, CIMMYT and CIAT staff have been asked on many occasions to give advice on how researchers might undertake more effective intercropping work relevant to the needs of smallholder farmers. Why was there this need for guidance especially after the great deal of intercropping research that took place in Eastern and Southern Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s? To explain this perhaps we have to look at the type of intercropping research being done or planned today, and the persons charged with doing that work. Recently there has been a significant shift from station-based intercrop research looking just at technical or scientific aspects (such as competition between crops grown in association, and plant spatial arrangements) to more problem orientated research driven by the needs of smallholder farmers. This newer work involves diagnosing problems that farmers face with their current intercrops, development of promising intercrop technologies on-station and on-farm, testing of those technologies with farmers under their circumstances and management, and evaluating the benefit of making changes to current practices. Technical considerations are rarely enough in this type of work. Other aspects such as resource endowments, nutrition and farmer decisions are vital. Along with this shift in emphasis has been a change in the personnel doing the work. Many of the persons involved in research on technical aspects of intercropping in the region during the 1970s and early 1980s have either left the region or moved out of active research. Most on-farm researchers involved with intercrops are rather new to research and are faced with a situation where many of the methods from more technical intercropping research, even when known, are in any case not very appropriate. Nor can the International Agricultural Research Institutes be looked upon as able to supply ready answers to more than a few of the many research methodology problems that modern intercropping research throws up. Aims of the Workshop Accordingly the organizers felt it opportune to bring together agricultural scientists from the region and a few from outside, to share their experiences and thoughts on methods to use in improving research on intercropping and in particular on how to make it more effective at addressing the needs of smallholders. Around 40 agronomists representing commodity and disciplinary research, or adaptive or farming systems research, by NARS in Eastern and Southern Africa were invited to take part. Plant breeders, entomologists, plant pathologists, nematologists, extension specialists and socio-economists from NARS were also invited. In addition several key researchers on intercropping from outside the region and staff from CIAT and CIMMYT were present. Not all participants could claim to be experts on intercropping but we provided a mix o biases, experiences and insight that allowed us to develop some excellent discussion. Although the workshop had ‘Cereal/Legume Intercropping’ in its title, to help us gel our thoughts we lay emphasis on the maize/bean association. It is the most important example of cereal/legume intercropping in many of our countries. Structure of the Workshop The Workshop was divided into six Main Sessions, one Special Session and a Field Trip. Reflecting the importance of intercropping to farmers in Malawi, a great deal of research involving intercrops has been done in that country. A chance to see just a small part of that work came on Wednesday 25 January afternoon when we visited Bunda College, University of Malawi, to see some of their bean intercropping work, then farmers fields to see some of the work of the Lilongwe Adaptive Research Team. We rounded off the field trip at Chitedze Agricultural Research Station to look at intercrop trials run by the Maize Commodity Team. A Special Session was devoted to presentations by NARS scientists on country experiences in intercropping research. The Main Sessions covered: Session 1. The future of intercropping research and implications for research methods. Session 2. Understanding current intercropping patterns and diagnosis of intercropping problems in farmers fields. Session 3. Development of an intercropping research program and component research. Session 4. Experimentation with intercrops. Session 5. Analysis and interpretation of intercrop research. Session 6. Sustainability and intercrops. The purpose of presentations in these Sessions was to introduce and give an overview of the issues relevant to each topic. Persons with considerable experience on the topics were invited to make these presentations. During the presentations a small committee noted relevant points or issues raised by the presenters and by participants from the floor of the meeting. From these notes the committee developed a set of points on each Session to b used during the Group Discussions. Group Discussion Sessions were held at three stages during the workshop to discuss issues from Sessions 1 and 2, Sessions 3 and 4, and Sessions 5 and 6. At each stage six groups of 10-12 persons were formed. It was during these discussions that further guidelines on methods were discussed and proposed. Findings were presented to three Plenary Sessions directly after the group discussions and are summarised on p. 231-239. After the Workshop a summary of issues/guidelines on on-farm experimentation with intercrops was compiled from information presented and discussed at the Workshop. This is reproduced on p. 240-245.