cases from tanzania - Sustainet

5
scaling up
he previous sections oF this book described nine cases of how
tSustainet
partner organizations have worked with communities,
other organizations and the government to promote sustainable agriculture in Kenya and
Tanzania. They show various ways sustainable agriculture has been scaled up.
We can divide scaling up into four types:
• Quantitative Increasing the numbers of people who adopt a technology: directly,
spontaneously, or through other organizations. Example: Spreading a sustainable agriculture
technology to a new village.
• Functional Adding new activities or technologies, or adapting them to suit new situations.
Example: Adapting a farming technique to suit a different soil type.
• Political Changing the “rules of the game” by influencing the provision of government
services or changing policies. Example: lobbying for by-laws to protect the environment.
• Organizational Increasing the organization’s capacity and making it more efficient.
Example: training staff in dissemination techniques.
This chapter summarizes the approaches used by the various organizations and projects
described in this book, outlines some other ways that might be used in the future, and summarizes
the challenges facing efforts to scale up activities.
Quantitative scaling up
Quantitative scaling up means enabling a larger number of farmers to adopt sustainable
agriculture techniques. These farmers may be in the same village as the original project, in
other villages served by the organization, or in areas served by other organizations. This type
of scaling up also includes spontaneous adoption or adaptation of the technologies by other
farmers, with little or no intervention from development organizations.
Efforts to promote quantitative scaling up include capacity building, extension activities,
networking and collaboration, awareness creation and mobilization.
capacity building
The Sustainet partners have used the following approaches to build the capacity of farmers
and organizations in the areas they serve.
• Training of groups The organization trains groups of farmers on general specific
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