Abstract Past efforts have concentrated on top‐down approaches in delivering precision nutrient management (PNM) practices to smallholder farmers, but with little yield and economic impact for farmers. Farmer‐centric on‐farm experimentation (OFE) is an approach designed to effectively engage farmers in generating technologies tailored to the agroecological, socioeconomic, and cultural complexities of smallholder farming systems. This study, implemented in East and West Africa, used a mixed methodology approach, including a survey and agronomic measurements, to gain insights into farmer learning and nutrient management decision‐making, and the outcomes from their participation in OFE processes. For the agronomic assessment, a simple experimental design was employed from 2021 to 2024, whereby smallholder farm‐scale fields (0.5–1 ha) were divided into two experimental plots to compare optimized treatment (OT) and a farmer practice (FP). Considerable co‐learning between farmers and other stakeholders was observed, particularly in Kenya and Tanzania. There was a positive trend in maize yields over time in the FP treatment, attributed to the involvement of farmers in OFE. Yield improvements of up to 53% were achieved, although profitability was observed only in Côte d'Ivoire. While the scientist‐led OT in most cases outperformed the FP, farmers continuously adopted improved nutrient management practices. This highlights the critical role of OFE in scaling PNM by providing a platform to integrate scientific and endogenous knowledge, entrench learning, and scale it by linking to wider innovation systems. OFE also offers precise and relevant data for farmer decision‐making on nutrient management drawn from co‐designed trials and co‐developed agronomic knowledge.
Adolwa et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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