Permaculture, Final Capstone Paper 5-26, Hope - Never Ending Food
Permaculture, Final Capstone Paper 5-26, Hope - Never Ending Food
Permaculture, Final Capstone Paper 5-26, Hope - Never Ending Food
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ABSTRACT<br />
Malawi is a country rich in underutilized natural resources, which could be used to<br />
reduce household food and nutrition insecurity in the country. The burgeoning <strong>Permaculture</strong><br />
community in Malawi, including officials in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology,<br />
is seeking, through <strong>Permaculture</strong>, to make better use of resources and assets that already Malawi<br />
already possesses. Despite the growing numbers of <strong>Permaculture</strong> practitioners, however, little is<br />
known about the influences that affect farmers’ decisions to adopt or not to adopt. This positive<br />
deviance inquiry seeks to inform the <strong>Permaculture</strong> community of the constraints and barriers to<br />
<strong>Permaculture</strong> practice, the coping strategies adopters employ and the benefits adopters receive.<br />
The data analysis indicates that <strong>Permaculture</strong> adoption is associated with age and land<br />
ownership but not with income or years of education. Quantitative and qualitative data shows<br />
that food and nutrition security scores are associated with <strong>Permaculture</strong> adoption scores, weakly<br />
with acres owned and not with income. Such findings are contrary to contemporary thought on<br />
yield-improving techniques and increased household food security, and suggest that farmers who<br />
adopt <strong>Permaculture</strong>, despite limited income, land holdings, or education have both increased<br />
their yields and improved their food and nutrition security.<br />
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