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This section explores the perceived roles of stakeholders involved in CA regarding their relationship with the farmers. In the interviews, respondents were asked how they see the two-way relation between their organisation and the farmer, and were presented with five options to describe the reason for being involved in the promotion of CA, adapted from Röling’s characterization of extension (Röling, 2009b, p. 55, see also Table 2-3). Besides the role of the stakeholder, the description also includes the objective, and the ‘point of action’ of the intervention. The five options presented to the respondents were:

 We are like a Strategist, we identify determinants of farmers’ behaviour so that we can design projects to increase CA adoption.

 We are an Expert in CA, trying to convince farmers of the benefits of CA in order to reach an increased acceptance and adoption of CA.

 We are like a Consultant, identifying the main problems, so that we can remove constraints faced by farmers who try to adopt CA.

 We are like a Trainer, focused on the client, engaging in a process of learning with farmers, so that they make sense of CA.

 We are like an Organizer, we organize interaction and facilitate group processes on platforms with all relevant CA actors.

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An overview of the results is given in Table 6-1, showing that the expert, trainer and organizer were the most frequently mentioned roles. The roles of strategist and consultant were less important, although they were mentioned by some stakeholders.

Table 6-1 Stakeholders' perceived role vis-à-vis farmers in their CA related activities

Strategist Expert Consultant Trainer Organizer

Kenya

ACT-Network + + ++

Cetrad ++ +

Caritas + ++

KENDAT + + ++

ICRAF 1 + ++

EAFF ++ +

WorldRenew ++ +

MoA nat ++ +

Madagascar

FOFIFA nat ++ +

FOFIFA loc ++ +

CIRAD ++ +

GSDM ++ + + + ++

FIFAMANOR ++ +

SD-Mad ++ +

DRDR ++ +

‘++’ stands for the first choice and ‘+’ for the second choice.

Instead of selecting one of the options, some respondents mentioned their own metaphors. In Kenya, the respondent from KENDAT who is involved in a CA mechanisation project argued: “We consider ourselves to be a catalyst, we catalyse. We are in between the farmer, the demand side, and the various actors that supply the technology, the supply side. We are in between, we catalyse, we fill up the gaps in information and technology” (KENDAT, personal communication, 31-07-2013). This role comes closest to the organizer. In Madagascar, a respondent at CIRAD argued that their role varies in time. During the projects they operate sometimes like consultants, otherwise more like trainers. But in general they were more like an observer and an analyst (CIRAD, personal communication, 27-02-2013). Most respondents also mentioned having several of the roles that are briefly discussed below.

The metaphor of the ‘strategist’ was perhaps the least clear option. The suggestion was made that the strategist is the major, almost all-deciding stakeholder, who operates in an instrumental way, in this case towards achieving the objective of an increased adoption of CA. The respondents who selected this option as their first choice, however, do not work directly with farmers and therefore they operate more at the ‘strategic’ level. Among stakeholders directly involved with farmers, other roles were more often selected.

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The most popular first response was that actors see themselves as CA experts, who are trying to convince farmers of the benefits of CA to reach an increased acceptance and adoption of CA. In most cases, this is because the stakeholder is a research institute, or in the case of ACT-Network and GSDM because they are specialists in CA as an NGO. The latter explains: “we are experts and trainers, but not directly for the farmers but for the extension workers [techniciens], and dissemination organisations [opérateurs]”. Regarding the second part of the phrase about adoption, not all respondents agreed. “As a research institute, you could say we are an expert and we are making new knowledge. We put it in a “diffusional state”, and we test the adoption at a small scale.

But the actual diffusion is done by other stakeholders with whom we work closely together”

(CIRAD, personal communication, 26-02-2014). So being an expert in CA, does not directly mean that one is trying to convince farmers of the benefits of CA.

The role of consultant is typically taken up in a situation of an active demand. As there is no serious active demand from the side of farmers for CA, this role is very limited among the interviewed stakeholders. GSDM mentions this role. As a national focal point for CA, they often operate as a consultant. Again, this is not regarding farmers, but regarding other organisations. At CIRAD the respondent said that only during specific research projects researchers in the field operate as consultants. At World-Renew this was seen as their primary role: “In the areas where we operate, we are approachable for farmers who have questions about CA or about other practices.

And we respond as well as we can, so in that sense we are consultants. Overall, we have a facilitation role, so we link farmers with other stakeholders as well” (World-Renew, personal communication, 9-10-2013).

The last two roles of trainer and organizer were often selected by stakeholders who have extension staff who interact with farmers directly. They are roles that require some expertise, and as Table 6-1 shows, many respondents combined the role of expert with that of trainer or organizer. The role of trainer and consultant are similar in their focus on the client, but where the consultant should be an expert in many topics, a trainer is usually an expert in one topic. That is, the trainer is engaging in a process of learning with farmers about CA. In many cases, for example at CETRAD, the extension staff are often general agronomists, not specific CA experts.

As a network organisation, ACT-Network considers their role to be an organiser: “We want to create the right environment for farmers but also for the service providers to play a role. […] Our point is to show the options, show the benefits, show the merits of each option. And from this basket of options, as we call it, enable the farmer to choose what’s best for himself” (ACT-Network, personal communication, 09-07-2013). A respondent at ICRAF argues “Yes, you have to organize, you can’t just train farmers. All these [institutional] processes need organisation and this needs a process where mind-sets are matched with each other, people are learning from each other

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etc.” (ICRAF, personal communication, 06-09-2013). In the Lake Alaotra region in Madagascar, actors involved in the ABACO project consider their role towards farmers in the project to be organizer. “We have two communities with platforms where we try to facilitate the exchange of knowledge. That is why I choose this last option because that is what we try. They can make decisions and experiment, and we have seen that a rigid top-down approach is not very effective”

(FOFIFA national, personal communication, 28-02-2014). In that perspective, being an organizer is to facilitate processes at field level where farmers and other stakeholders can reach a shared understanding and learn from each other about CA.