Research

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CIAT-CGIAR Deep Bed Farming research scoping visit (2015)

A research scoping visit was conducted to explore potential research avenues that could provide evidence supporting Deep Bed Farming. The scoping visit included one-and-a-half days of field visits and a subsequent summary meeting with Tiyeni staff.
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The scoping visit identified a need for evidence in three dimensions – social, economic, and biophysical – to build stakeholder confidence that would allow Tiyeni to upscale its capacity. Working within these dimensions, future research should comprehensively address two thematic questions:

1. What are the measurable outcomes and benefits of Tiyeni’s method?
2. What are the roadblocks to Deep Bed Farming adoption?

​The authors also identified the following sub-topics falling under the purview of these two questions:

• how to mobilise communities to achieve more widespread Deep Bed Farming adoption across landscapes
• strengths and weaknesses of how Tiyeni organises its farmer groups
• a thorough ‘cost-benefit’ analysis, which accounts for labour requirements
• improved knowledge of compost quality, to better inform recommendations for use and how to minimise soil nutrient loss
• soil erosion monitoring, to quantify how much Deep Bed Farming reduces erosion
• performance of Deep Beds in varying soil types and slopes, including analysis of moisture conservation in different soil types
• assessment of fertiliser requirements, via long-term study of net changes to soil fertility

Read the full article here.