Prioritizing options for multi-objective agricultural development through the Positive Deviance approach

cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and developing country instituteen
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationBioversity Internationalen
cg.contributor.affiliationTanzania Agricultural Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationLeibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Germanyen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Livestock Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.crpRoots, Tubers and Bananasen
cg.contributor.donorDepartment for International Development, United Kingdomen
cg.coverage.countryTanzaniaen
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2TZen
cg.coverage.regionAfricaen
cg.coverage.regionEastern Africaen
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Africaen
cg.creator.identifierMark van Wijk: 0000-0003-0728-8839en
cg.creator.identifierJacob van Etten: 0000-0001-7554-2558en
cg.howPublishedFormally Publisheden
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212926en
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn1932-6203en
cg.issue2en
cg.journalPLOS ONEen
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.subject.ilriAGRICULTUREen
cg.subject.ilriCLIMATE CHANGEen
cg.subject.ilriCONSUMPTIONen
cg.subject.ilriCROP-LIVESTOCKen
cg.subject.ilriDATAen
cg.subject.ilriENVIRONMENTen
cg.subject.ilriFARMING SYSTEMSen
cg.subject.ilriFOOD SECURITYen
cg.subject.ilriINTENSIFICATIONen
cg.subject.ilriLIVELIHOODSen
cg.subject.ilriLIVESTOCK SYSTEMSen
cg.subject.ilriNUTRITIONen
cg.volume14en
dc.contributor.authorSteinke, Jonathanen
dc.contributor.authorMgimiloko, Majuto Gasparen
dc.contributor.authorGraef, Friederen
dc.contributor.authorHammond, Jamesen
dc.contributor.authorWijk, Mark T. vanen
dc.contributor.authorEtten, Jacob vanen
dc.date.accessioned2019-04-10T14:30:58Zen
dc.date.available2019-04-10T14:30:58Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/100731
dc.titlePrioritizing options for multi-objective agricultural development through the Positive Deviance approachen
dcterms.abstractAgricultural development must integrate multiple objectives at the same time, including food security, income, and environmental sustainability. To help achieve these objectives, development practitioners need to prioritize concrete livelihood practices to promote to rural households. But trade-offs between objectives can lead to dilemmas in selecting practices. In addition, heterogeneity among farming households requires targeting different strategies to different types of households. Existing diversity of household resources and activities, however, may also bear solutions. We explored a new, empirical research method that identifies promising options for multi-objective development by focusing on existing cases of strong multi-dimensional household performance. The “Positive Deviance” approach signifies identifying locally viable livelihood practices from diverse households that achieve stronger performance than comparable households in the same area. These practices are promising for other local households in comparable resource contexts. The approach has been used in other domains, such as child nutrition, but has not yet been fully implemented for agricultural development with a focus on the simultaneous achievement of multiple objectives. To test our adapted version of the Positive Deviance approach, we used a quantitative survey of over 500 rural households in South-Eastern Tanzania. We identified 54 households with outstanding relative performance regarding five key development dimensions (food security, income, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and social equity). We found that, compared to other households with similar resource levels, these “positive deviants” performed strongest for food security, but only slightly better for social equity. We then re-visited a diverse sub-sample for qualitative interviews, and identified 14 uncommon, “deviant” practices that plausibly contributed to the households’ superior outcomes. We illustrate how these practices can inform specific recommendations of practices for other local households in comparable resource contexts. The study demonstrates how, with the Positive Deviance approach, empirical observations of individual, outstanding households can inform discussions about locally viable agricultural development solutions in diverse household context.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Accessen
dcterms.audienceScientistsen
dcterms.available2019-02-25en
dcterms.bibliographicCitationSteinke, J., Mgimiloko, M.G., Graef, F., Hammond, J., van Wijk, M.T. and van Etten, J. 2019. Prioritizing options for multi-objective agricultural development through the Positive Deviance approach. PLOS ONEen
dcterms.issued2019-02-25en
dcterms.languageenen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0en
dcterms.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen
dcterms.subjectdataen
dcterms.subjectfood securityen
dcterms.subjectenvironmenten
dcterms.subjectsustainabilityen
dcterms.subjectnutritionen
dcterms.subjectsurveysen
dcterms.subjecthouseholdsen
dcterms.typeJournal Articleen

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