ACAI pretests Farmers’ Field Guide in Nigeria and Tanzania

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) project has placed a high priority on creating materials that will help both partners and end-users to easily understand, use, and apply recommendations from the AKILIMO agronomy advisory tools.

One of the materials developed is the AKILIMO farmer’s guide, an image and text illustration outline of the good agronomic practices (GAP) for growing cassava. The practices championed in the farmer’s guide are an essential part of realizing the full benefits of the recommendations from the AKILIMO agronomy advice tools.

Beginning in June, ACAI has been conducting pretests with farmers using the guide in the field in both Nigeria and Tanzania. In the pretest process, the target audience is allowed to interact with the guide and find out how well it works and identify any weaknesses that need modifications.

The project scheduled pretest sessions at 19 different locations, ten across Nigeria, and nine in Tanzania. The project team with partners have already covered five sites in Nigeria and four in Tanzania.

Farmers and extension agents participating in the pretest were selected randomly across cassava growing agroecological zones like Benue, Cross River, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo states in Nigeria and Mkuranga, Kisarawe, Chalinze, and Sengerema districts in Tanzania.

The teams are gathering the views and user experiences of the participating farmers and extension agents. Particular focus is on effectiveness of the illustrations in the guide and the clarity of the content.

The pretest findings will help ensure that farmers understand the message in the farmer’s guide to the extent that they can make better measurements and precise estimates on input requirements and expected outputs (yield, revenue, and profit).