Agricultural Economics & Innovation – Work Package 7

WP 7 investigates agricultural innovation processes in the research region, and factors that enable or hinder their adoption by local smallholder farmers. In collaboration with WP 2 we conduct two innovation experiments on vegetables cultivation in gardens and manure application in combination with more drought tolerant maize varieties. Futhermore, WP 7 conducts a detailed longitudinal agronomic study dealing with agricultural in- and outputs, including labour input complementing the 'SuLaMa Baseline Survey'. Farming households will be surveyed bi-weekly for an entire year. The outcomes of the survey will help to understand smallholder farming in rural Madagascar in order to design conservation and sustainable development projects in semi-arid "biodiversity hotspot" areas.