The role of community engagement in the adoption of new agricultural biotechnologies by farmers: the case of the Africa harvest tissue-culture banana in Kenya



View results in:
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12896-017-0347-4
DOI: 
10.1186/s12896-017-0347-4
Provider: 
Licensing of resource: 
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
Type: 
journal article
Journal: 
BMC Biotechnology
Number: 
28
Volume: 
17
Author(s): 
Bandewar S.V.S.
Wambugu F.
Richardson E.
Lavery J.V.
Publisher(s): 
Description: 

In this paper, it is reported the results of a case study of the Community Engagement (CE) strategies employed by the Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AH) to introduce tissue culture banana (TCB) agricultural practices to small-hold farmers in Kenya, and their impact on the uptake of the TCB, and on the nature of the relationship between AH and the relevant community of farmers and other stakeholders. Was identified six specific features of CE in the AH TCB project that were critical to its effectiveness: (1) adopting an empirical, “evidence-based” approach; (2) building on existing social networks; (3) facilitating farmer-to-farmer engagement; (4) focusing engagement on farmer groups; (5) strengthening relationships of trust through collaborative experiential learning; and (6) helping farmers to “learn the marketing game”

Publication year: 
2017
Keywords: 
community engagement
Commercialization
Biotechnology
Agricultural biotechnology
Tissue culture
Bananas
Africa
Global health
Global development
Stakeholder engagement