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

“…back in the 70s and 80s…we took pride in ourselves on having been taken to school by coffee. Because, what a farmer would do if he didn’t have school fees, coffee would give him a loan to pay school fees for his children. If he didn’t have food, the coffee societies would buy maize…get food on their table… all to be deducted when farmers received their proceeds.”. [Agricultural NGO staff member (Interview # 8)].

“There were issues of corruption…the coffee board was not operational…Farmers suffered the most since they relied so much on the coffee [plantation].”.[Agricultural NGO staff member (8)]

“It was bad because I remember we had planted about 2 acres of French beans…we were to harvest at least 60 cartons per day. They would come and probably [take only] 10 or 5 cartons. So we used to feed the rest to the animals…So the idea was just to sell their crops and then they go. So we have that experience, a bitter one, yes.”. [Farmers, joint interview (13)].

1. 1.

   Determining the local relevance of an “imported” innovation: An evidence based approach

   As part of the foundation for its CE strategy, AH chose to carry out empirical research—surveys, rapid appraisals, and qualitative studies—with farmers to gain an understanding of their perspectives and share the findings with farmers and other key constituents, such as the MoA. This approach was thought to be necessary because of the unfamiliarity of smallhold farmers with TCB. When TCB was introduced to Kenya by AH in 1997 its suitability to Kenyan climatic and soil conditions had not been tested and some preliminary field trials were conducted at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology to address these gaps in knowledge. Perhaps more importantly, its acceptability to Kenyan farmers and consumers was not well established. In fact, at the outset of the program, farmers viewed the TCB as “alien” and of limited relevance as a cash-crop option.

   “Initially when we first took the plant to the field, the other farmers, and the neighbours were laughing at them and telling them what they were planting! They had never seen anything like that because a TCB plantlet looks like a small flower with just a few leaves.”. [Plant biotechnology scientist (7)]

   Understanding these initial attitudes through their empirical research helped AH to shape the content of the learning opportunities it was designing for farmers. And the discipline of seeking the perspectives of farmers also signalled AH’s desire for a respectful relationship with farmers.

   “…if your decisions are top-bottom a lot of time they either don’t work or nobody really trusts them. But most of our ideas are actually bottom-top whereby we start with the baseline. We go to the community and find out what they want…So by the time we are writing our proposal and even writing our operational strategy, we already have an idea of what people want. I think the MoA (Ministry of Agriculture) likes that, they really appreciate it.”. [AH staff (11)].

   AH’s empirical research also helped the AH team to identify community based resources, which later proved to be valuable social capital during CE: “We also wanted to find out or establish the available resources on the ground that we can work with…to identify the ground networks like community-based organizations (CBOs), field based organizations that we can work with.”. [AH staff (A)]. AH’s emphasis on generating relevant evidence also proved convincing for other key players such as the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), which had important interests in understanding the commercial potential of the TCB.

   THE AH invested in a pilot project to assess the promise of the TCB innovation in real world context which proved critical to the TCB initiative.

   So the project went on very well and actually we proved a concept that for sure the TCB technology is workable. Farmers can adopt TCB which are actually profitable…And we found that for sure, for every one dollar you invest in the TCB, it fetches about 3 or 4 dollars back. So we were able to prove the concept…[AH staff (12)].

    
2. 2.

   Introducing the TCB innovation: Building on existing social networks

   AH used several channels to introduce the TCB innovation, capitalizing first on those most trusted by farmers: “Because most of the time when you are approaching a community it’s usually easy when you use the existing networks than going to start afresh…Because people trust their own…[AH staff (12)]. For example, given the high levels of religious affiliation within the farming communities, AH engaged religious leaders and churches as one of their first points of contact with farmers.

   “First of all when AH came and talked to members at church some of them decided that they are going to plant the bananas. So they were picked and their names were known. Then AH requested them to go on spreading the gospel about planting the bananas.”. [Farmer (4)].

   AH leveraged the support of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) by sharing endorsement letters from the MoA with stakeholders during their community entry activities: “And we have the letters from the agricultural offices because that is our first point. You go through the agricultural offices to make it official.” [AH staff (B)]. This strategy helped to authenticate and legitimize AH’s messages and helped AH establish relationships with key stakeholders, such as local agricultural non-government organisations (NGOs), and various crop or livestock-based financing or management cooperatives. During our field work, we observed that farmers generally interacted comfortably and constructively with MoA staff, likely due to the positive legacy of MoA extension staff engaging with farmers throughout the country. These extension staff were also important stakeholders for AH as a result of their deep knowledge of the farming communities.

   Not all relationships between farmers and stakeholders were equally trusting. Particularly for the identification of implementation sites, AH devoted considerable time and energy to assessing levels of trust with prospective partners, and prioritized those communities where productive partnerships could be built upon a relatively trusting base.

    
3. 3.

   Facilitating farmer-to-farmer engagement

   The TCB plantlet is vastly different from traditional bananas in its appearance. Unfamiliar appearance has been an impediment to the successful uptake of other agricultural innovations by farmers and consumers, such as with the introduction of Golden Rice in South East Asia [22] and this was true also for the TCB. But farmers’ scepticism ran deeper than the appearance of the plantlet. They were concerned, in particular, about the need for trained personnel to carefully grow TCB plantlets in nurseries, and several other unfamiliar agricultural practices that made the TCB’s commercial potential more difficult to understand.

   “…here is a technology, those are scientists and they want to reach the community and that is beyond science. So we were dealing with all the social issues…if you want to adopt a technology, it is not just about the banana, there are perceptions and attitudes… So the first thing we had to tackle, of course, was the perceptions [of farmers and communities about TCB].”. [Consultant in community partnerships and group dynamics (6)]

   AH’s claims about the viability of TCB required validation for farmers to even consider adopting the crop. AH adopted the practice of exposure visits or travelling workshops, to provide farmers with opportunities to experience TCB farming practices first-hand. ‘Exposure visits’ typically involve farmers visiting demonstration or pilot agricultural sites developed by private companies, NGOs, or government agricultural research institutes. Farmers take part in demonstrations and have an opportunity to ask questions of the organizers and peer farmers who have been early adopters of the new practices. These strategies were used by the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and government institutes such as Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), to introduce new practices to Kenyan farmers.

   “So it was easier because a few farmers had walked through the whole cycle. So when it was the time for mass adoption, we gravitated around pilot sites. So that became easier because there was something they could see…just creating a desire and in the process their attitude would change. They would say ‘oh, I will try’…Exposure trips worked wonders…So, in fact, that was the most effective. So they were saying this is someone we know, it is so and so’s father but look, his is also doing well…”.[Consultant in community partnerships and group dynamics (6)]

   “So we were convinced that if those farmers are able, just the way I am talking now, I am talking from experience. They talked from experience. And having been farmers all the way through when somebody talks we could actually understand.”. [Farmers, joint interview (13)]

   Exposure visits made the potential benefits of the TCB innovation evident to interested farmers and offered them engagement with other farmers who had already adopted the TCB, sometimes from within their own social networks, offering an opportunity to assess the merits of AH’s claims. One of the farmers’ genuine concerns was about viable markets for their bananas, a concern rooted in past bitter disappointments. An AH staff member recounted the farmers’ scepticism:

   “…you have been sent from Nairobi to come and tell us to plant bananas and then after we plant, you go back to Nairobi. Where are we going to take the produce?” But we [AH team] kept on assuring them, we are with you here 3 days in a week and we will be listening to your concerns and we are going to try and see how you can work together.”. [AH staff (11)]

   One of the persistent challenges for AH was to convince farmers that bananas that had been growing effortlessly in their backyards for generations would now require more intensive and technical agronomics if they adopted TCBs. The travelling workshops and legitimate business partnerships were instrumental in guiding farmers through this transition, in stark contrast to the disreputable operators from the past.

    
4. 4.

   Focusing engagement on farmer groups

   From the mid 1980s, contract farming evolved in Kenya to include more cooperative “schemes” whereby farmers would group together and establish their own terms of engagement with contracting companies to maintain better control of their stakes in the process [23]. These farmer groups also became eligible for various government subsidies and loan facilities, and registered groups were visited by the agriculture extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture, who shared new information about a wide range of agricultural practices, at no cost to the individual farmers.

   AH was well aware of the advantages of farmer groups and adopted them as an explicit focus of their engagement strategy, encouraging independent farmers to consider the merits of joining with other farmers to pool risk and to better prepare for opportunities that they would be introduced to in the ‘whole value chain’ model [4].

   “Once these farmers are aware about the TC technology, about commercial banana farming, then we move on and talk about forming groups or use the existing ones which might be doing another crop, such as, avocado or maize and looking for another enterprise.”. [Field trainer/facilitator (16)]

   Professionals in the field of group dynamics and psychology from the public and private sectors, along with experts in TCB agronomy, trained the AH trainers who then engaged with farmer groups.

   “Mainly the lecturers were from outside…these trainings were very exhaustive. They handled the TCB innovation from a broad perspective…The group dynamics that we were trained in was broad…We were taught about the various methods of approaching a group. It was all broad, not specific…It was very helpful…[to learn] about group dynamics and the way groups behave.”. [Field trainer/facilitator (2)]

   A formal approach to group formation encouraged group members to develop their own “group constitutions” emphasizing transparency, equity in opportunities, and participatory decision making. These constitutions established the grounding principles for group governance. These included, among others: setting eligibility criteria for nominations for specific positions of responsibility within the group, such as chairperson, secretary, treasurer and banana grader, and procedures for matters related to finance and sales of the TCB produce.

   “It is not one person who makes decisions…We discuss the issues at hand and voice our opinions. We discuss the issues thoroughly and see what we stand to gain. …In this group we have some rules. For example, as a member of the group you cannot sell your bananas to people out there without the group deciding…You cannot as an individual farmer decide to sell yours to someone on your own. If you do so, you are asked to leave the group.”. [Ngorongo FGD] (Table 1)

   These group training activities emphasized the rationale for collective action. “You must first have a reason for forming the group. Also everyone joining the group must be interested in that reason for which you are forming the group. You must also have a vision for the future of the group for it to succeed.” [Ngorongo FGD] (Table 1). They also focused on issues of leadership within the group. Group leaders were elected by group members, which fostered a sense of legitimacy within the group, especially since they knew that they also had the power to remove leaders who were not living up to the group’s expectations. The growing collective sense of the group’s power also helped in the transition to a real sense of ownership of the TCB technology, in both a symbolic and economic sense.

   “Yes, because unless they take it as their activity, their project…we cannot say it is community development, unless they own it as their project, their bananas…So they say with or without a market, we are going to do banana farming and we are going to do it as a commercial venture. So those things I think are very important. The ownership of the project also means a lot to them.”. [Field trainer/facilitator (16)]

    
5. 5.

   Strengthening relationships of trust through collaborative experiential learning

   Adoption of appropriate agronomy practices was crucial for the realisation of TCB’s commercial potential. Without sufficient TCB yields, AH would have run the risk of being perceived as simply another outside organization that failed farmers.

   “Once farmers planted, and when we began talking about good management and adopting a technology, that was difficult…If it was only the technology and everything else was the same it would have been easier. But now one is bringing a new technology and one is also changing the agronomy. I think that change was a lot!”. [Consultant in community work and group dynamics (6)]

   TCB farmer groups were trained in TCB-specific agronomic practices at demonstration plots, which they developed with the kinds of training described above. These plots served as ‘field schools’ for group members.

   “After forming the group, the idea [of demonstration plots] was brought by AH so that we can have a central place where we can all be coming to be taught as to how to plant…That is how we started the field school or demonstration land…Drawing upon these learning at the field school, we started doing it on our own farms where we did exactly what they had taught us…”.[Farmer (4)]

   “The AH has done an unusual thing here in the area. They have trained us on good farming practices. And they don't ask us to pay them, they pay the teacher [Trainer from the community (16)] to come and teach us. All they need is our presence to attend the training sessions. We like this aspect of them training us.” [Ngorongo FGD]

   “After a lot of training they told us to try and plant the TCB…So we saw the difference between the traditional and the TC bananas.”. [Farmer (P15)]

   The exposure visits and demonstration plots required the AH team to be in the fields with farmers in their own environment and communities. Farmers found the sustained presence of AH in their communities unusual and reassuring.

   “Because I thought for myself that they can’t work all that hard to come and visit the farmers while they are cheating…”.[Farmer (9)]

   “What made us believe is that we thought that these people cannot come all the way here to just cheat us. Because we were all grown-ups who could think. Like me personally I don’t believe someone can come from wherever to just tell you to plant something bad. So that is why I believed them.”. [Farmer (15)]

    
6. 6.

   Learning the marketing game

   “The problems we were having before were relating to marketing. Our marketing was not that good…No customers, the bananas are ripening in the shamba [orchard] and trucks are not coming to collect them. There was that difficulty but nowadays not much.”. [Farmer (3)]

   The traditional bananas, particularly those of smallholders, rarely made it to the local retail market. It was imperative that farmers develop the required skills and understanding to have better control over the commercial opportunities offered by TCB. Failure to enact improvements in supply chain and marketing practices would have caused enormous damage to farmers’ trust: “Because you see they would start doubting, if you are telling us to grow bananas and if they had seen bananas rotting somewhere or bananas were being bought at 50 shillings.” [AH staff (11)]

   Because of its limited shelf-life, significant management skills are required to maintain banana quality until delivery to market. Farmers had little marketing knowledge, access to non-local markets or buffers to protect against price variations, making them vulnerable to exploitative middle men. Furthermore, public sector supports are scarce, as the banana market is largely unorganized with no government policies: “… the government actually had a very streamlined policy for marketing tea and coffee which are considered cash crops but banana has always been considered a subsistence crop which did not have this advantage.” [AH staff (12)]

   The primary goals for the commercialisation of the TCB were: (1) to develop a pool of customers with sustained interest in bulk produce; (2) consistent and timely supply of quality and quantity TCB produce to win bulk buyers’ confidence; and, consequently, (3) the establishment, over time, of a more stable demand–supply chain. For smallholders with limited financial resources, maintaining both quantity and quality of production was a formidable challenge, with many critical factors beyond their control, such as their complete reliance on rainfall for adequate irrigation.

   “Because with supermarkets, once you go into a contract with them, if they say we are going to supplying you a ton per week, it is a ton per week for 52 weeks a year! I have told you our farmers are using rain fed agriculture and under this [condition] farmers cannot achieve this [quality and quantity]…And if you are going into a contract [with bulk buyers] you must ensure that you are going to meet your part of the commitment.” [Agricultural NGO staff member (8)]

   To respond to these challenges, AH integrated marketing training for farmers in field schools, collaborating with a private company, TechnoServe, and with Tissue Culture Banana Enterprise Ltd. (TCBEL), a farmer-led marketing company whose establishment was facilitated by AH.

   “And from there I have been working as an extension officer training farmers…the post-harvest handling and organizing the market for them…So that is why I was saying that they need some retraining on the marketing…They never knew the optimum number they needed to plant and how much they can get from it…I also train them on the concept of collection centers, that is, TCB farmers have to take their produce to collection centers instead of someone to go around to individual farmers for collection…We also want to train them on financial management…”.[Field trainer/facilitator (2)]

   “TCBEL really played a very big role. So they [farmers] can now see where to sell their bananas…the market opening is a very big and very significant thing for us.”. [AH staff (12)]

   “Probably we can replicate TCBEL as a success story in other areas.”. [Agricultural NGO staff member (8)]

   AH also expanded the exposure visits to include marketing partners

   “Well, this time we had no problem because they [TechnoServe and TCBEL] came together with the AH in whom we had confidence. These two entities told us that they would take over the marketing side. They also took the trouble to take us around to other farmers where they were actually active, they were helping farmers in marketing…So we knew how they were sold. So it was something which was well arranged, I have never seen.”. [Farmers, joint interview (13)]

   TCBEL was established as a member based organisation with affordable membership fees for farmers in the neighbourhood, but has evolved to a shareholder based company run by the farmers [24]. Given the corruption-fraught history of tea and coffee cooperatives, TCBEL has set itself apart in many concrete ways, including a commitment to fair and transparent practices, such as purchasing by weight and not by bunch count, systematic paper work, periodic payment to farmers, and the complete elimination of middlemen. It has also trained staff in a wide range of skills to ensure the consistent quality of the TCB produce.

   AH’s systematic approach to TCB marketing and commercialisation has shown results. But, satisfaction with the TCB’s commercial development is uneven amongst farmers. Also, scepticism about availability of sustained markets for TCB continues.

   “But with horticulture or dairy the first market creates demand. There will be challenges. The farmers will not know how to meet the requirements of the buyers…Those problems are always there. But if there is continuity they will be handled and….So it works as long as you build trust and the moment you build trust the demand–supply chain is maintained between traders and farmers.”. [Senior Business Consultant (5)].