Thanks, dear Eoghan, for taking time to go through my contribution and give more information about the evaluation.
The picture on introducing CA and get it adopted by farmers is very similar to what we have done for the last 3 decades in technology dissemination and adoption (intensive package on cereal cropping, use of quality seeds, mechanization, herbicides use, water-saving irrigation techniques, etc.). That general picture shows always some of the following aspects:
1. Project's technical staff are very enthusiastic to show their "successes" in the field by showing large numbers of farmers being enrolled by the project, and jump without hesitation to consider as a huge rate of technology adoption. They are very defensive when one tries to ask them questions if they took the time to know in deep their beneficiaries.
2. Farmers are keen to apply a new technology when someone else is covering the cost. But when the project is closed, then we see properly what is happening among farmers. Most of time, farmers who participated in a closed project start asking when the next new project will start and if they will be part of it, as if the closed project was just a game and then the game was over (I am becoming a bit cynical on this).
3. Little is done in terms of evaluation of the project outcomes, impacts, sustainability of both and so forth...
I am telling you this because I was involved in 2013 a 4-year Maghrebin CA project funded by Australia and implemented by ICARDA in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. I was involved in setting the M&E plan for that project and trained a bunch of Maghrebin researchers and dev practitioners on Results-Based Management so that they could make a good use of that M&E plan. All social actors involved in that project praised the work done (M&E Plan + RBM Training), especially the Austalians who were very keen to put a strong pressure on ICARDA to setup the M&E Plan. But the project was closed after 4 years in the same as I saw many projects closing (you can imagine the picture - business as usual).
But, in your case, and the case of your CA evaluated project, I am happy to see that you paint in your message the picture as it is in reality, i.e. that CA was not that "rosy" technology that could fit most farmers in Africa, especially that is was applied in a "one-size-fits-all" approach, with a little knowledge - to not say "no" knowledge - on the beneficiaries, and that the case presents some shortcomings that you are not hiding. And what and how evaluation has to do. Good to read a balanced contribution on a new technology.
As for the issue of sampling, especially with a "fixed constituency" for 4-5 years between baseline and project end, it is always a tricky issue to get that required robustness in our survey. But you tackled the issue through triangulation, using multiple sources of data, and honestly I would have go the same way. But locating 317 farmers among 385-390 at the end of the project is quite an endeavour by itself. That's why I mentioned in my previous contribution the need in such cases to make the sample bigger at the baseline in order to cover such turmoil at the end.
Finally, the way you presented the things made me more curious and "hungry" to look at the evaluation report. Without engaging in a formal commitment, I will download the evaluation report for which I am very thankful to you and try to squeeze some time to read (summer time is rushing away and missions and travels will start again very soon in September).
RE: What works in improving food security and nutrition in very poor communities?
Thanks, dear Eoghan, for taking time to go through my contribution and give more information about the evaluation.
The picture on introducing CA and get it adopted by farmers is very similar to what we have done for the last 3 decades in technology dissemination and adoption (intensive package on cereal cropping, use of quality seeds, mechanization, herbicides use, water-saving irrigation techniques, etc.). That general picture shows always some of the following aspects:
1. Project's technical staff are very enthusiastic to show their "successes" in the field by showing large numbers of farmers being enrolled by the project, and jump without hesitation to consider as a huge rate of technology adoption. They are very defensive when one tries to ask them questions if they took the time to know in deep their beneficiaries.
2. Farmers are keen to apply a new technology when someone else is covering the cost. But when the project is closed, then we see properly what is happening among farmers. Most of time, farmers who participated in a closed project start asking when the next new project will start and if they will be part of it, as if the closed project was just a game and then the game was over (I am becoming a bit cynical on this).
3. Little is done in terms of evaluation of the project outcomes, impacts, sustainability of both and so forth...
I am telling you this because I was involved in 2013 a 4-year Maghrebin CA project funded by Australia and implemented by ICARDA in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. I was involved in setting the M&E plan for that project and trained a bunch of Maghrebin researchers and dev practitioners on Results-Based Management so that they could make a good use of that M&E plan. All social actors involved in that project praised the work done (M&E Plan + RBM Training), especially the Austalians who were very keen to put a strong pressure on ICARDA to setup the M&E Plan. But the project was closed after 4 years in the same as I saw many projects closing (you can imagine the picture - business as usual).
But, in your case, and the case of your CA evaluated project, I am happy to see that you paint in your message the picture as it is in reality, i.e. that CA was not that "rosy" technology that could fit most farmers in Africa, especially that is was applied in a "one-size-fits-all" approach, with a little knowledge - to not say "no" knowledge - on the beneficiaries, and that the case presents some shortcomings that you are not hiding. And what and how evaluation has to do. Good to read a balanced contribution on a new technology.
As for the issue of sampling, especially with a "fixed constituency" for 4-5 years between baseline and project end, it is always a tricky issue to get that required robustness in our survey. But you tackled the issue through triangulation, using multiple sources of data, and honestly I would have go the same way. But locating 317 farmers among 385-390 at the end of the project is quite an endeavour by itself. That's why I mentioned in my previous contribution the need in such cases to make the sample bigger at the baseline in order to cover such turmoil at the end.
Finally, the way you presented the things made me more curious and "hungry" to look at the evaluation report. Without engaging in a formal commitment, I will download the evaluation report for which I am very thankful to you and try to squeeze some time to read (summer time is rushing away and missions and travels will start again very soon in September).
Good luck and kind greetings
Mustapha