Appeals to environmental protection and farmer adoption of sustainable natural resource management – A case study of Kaya, Burkina Faso

To address issues of soil degradation, deforestation, and on-farm biodiversity loss, development programs in Center North Region of Burkina Faso have traditionally recommended a package of natural resources management practices aimed at conserving soil water and organic matter content, restoring soil health and biodiversity, and preventing erosion. These practices, which include stone bunds, zaï (planting pits), half-moons, agroforestry, vegetation bands, and other similar techniques, exhibit varying levels of complexity and resource intensiveness. While general knowledge about the importance of on-farm natural resource management is widespread in the region, less is known regarding how specific appeals to environmental protection from development programs influence adoption among farmers. Additionally, more information is needed about specific characteristics of individual techniques that either encourage or discourage adoption, including the innovation attributes described by Diffusion of Innovation theory: observability, trialability, relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility. We used quantitative household survey data, focus groups, and key informant interviews to evaluate farmer knowledge and perceptions of these practices, as well as the factors that impeded or facilitated their adoption. We found that technical complexity was an issue for half-moons; additionally, farmers found stone bunds to be incompatible with their production systems, as they lacked access to a vehicle for transporting stones. Practices that create more permanent structures on the land, such as tree-planting and stone bunds, were more difficult for farmers to trial and adopt, especially those farming on rented or borrowed land. In contrast, less resource-intensive practices which produced tangible short-term were more highly adopted, with zaï as the foremost example. Future research should focus on how development programs can build more effective sustainability frameworks that valorize existing indigenous practices, as well as how to substitute resource-intensive practices with practices that require fewer resources, such as switching stone bunds for vegetation bands.