PARTNERING IN AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY DISSEMINATION: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF N2AFRICA PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

While different organizational models have been used for the dissemination of new agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers, the dominant model deployed in (donor-funded) agricultural intervention in Africa builds on partner organizations. NGOs, CBOs and national agricultural extension services constitute the implementing partners, with whom activities and outcomes are agreed upon, and to whom donor funds and technical backstopping is channelled. There is surprisingly little documentation of such partnerships and particularly of their effectiveness in dissemination. The N2Africa project aims to disseminate legume technologies to small-scale African farmers to achieve goals of improving soil fertility, farmers’ livelihoods and food security in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. All N2Africa dissemination efforts are directed through partner organisations. This paper builds on the experiences of the N2Africa project to explore organisational characteristics that may be indicative for effectiveness in dissemination. Within N2Africa we have begun to systematically characterize partner organisations to assess effectiveness in dissemination, and make a comparative analyses of ‘best-bet’ dissemination practices both within and between countries. Preliminary analyses show that the effectiveness of dissemination efforts is related to the number of years an organization has been operating in a given country, the longevity of its farmer groups and the focus of the organisation.