International donors and advisory bodies, governments, and nongovernmental organisations are actively promoting conservation agriculture (CA) to improve agricultural productivity and resilience to climate change impacts. However, many smallholder farmers continue to dis‐adopt (abandon) the technology. Reasons for dis‐adoption are not well known. This article examines farmers' lived experiences and perceptions of CA to understand why smallholder farmers dis‐adopt CA in Malawi. Improving understanding of dis‐adoption of this seemingly appropriate intervention is important to achieve sustained adoption and for ensuring long‐lasting impacts of agricultural development project interventions. A mixed methods approach was used, involving household questionnaire survey and focus group discussions with smallholder farmers. Findings reveal that although drivers of dis‐adoption are multidimensional and multilayered, they are rooted in shortfalls of CA promoters' implementation arrangements. Although CA proponents market CA as a time‐saving, labour‐saving, and yield‐improving technology, respondents report contrary experiences. Our findings show that farmers lack sufficient technical support and encounter technological, social, institutional, and economic challenges. These, coupled with unfulfilled expectations, undermine ownership of CA projects and lead to dis‐adoption. This highlights a need to (a) collaboratively design projects to better suit local needs and context with inclusive implementation arrangements; (b) emphasise climate resilience benefits of CA rather than economic benefits to manage farmers' expectations; (c) intensify multidisciplinary research that incorporates farmers' knowledge and experiences to develop suitable, flexible, and low‐input CA packages; and (d) provide regular hands‐on technical extension support to farmers.

中文翻译：

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为什么小农不接受保护性农业？来自马拉维的见解

国际捐助者和咨询机构、政府和非政府组织正在积极推动保护性农业 (CA)，以提高农业生产力和抵御气候变化影响的能力。然而，许多小农继续不采用（放弃）该技术。不采用的原因尚不清楚。本文考察了农民的生活经历和对 CA 的看法，以了解为什么马拉维小农不采用 CA。提高对拒绝采用这种看似适当的干预措施的理解对于实现持续采用和确保农业发展项目干预措施的长期影响非常重要。使用了混合方法，包括住户问卷调查和与小农的焦点小组讨论。调查结果表明，虽然不采用的驱动因素是多维和多层次的，但它们的根源在于 CA 推动者的实施安排的不足。尽管 CA 支持者将 CA 视为一种省时、省力和提高产量的技术，但受访者报告了相反的经历。我们的研究结果表明，农民缺乏足够的技术支持，并面临技术、社会、制度和经济方面的挑战。这些，再加上未实现的期望，破坏了 CA 项目的所有权并导致不被采​​用。这突出表明需要 (a) 协作设计项目，以通过包容性实施安排更好地适应当地需求和背景；(b) 强调 CA 的气候适应效益而非经济效益来管理农民的期望；(c) 加强多学科研究，结合农民的知识和经验，开发合适、灵活和低投入的 CA 包；(d) 向农民提供定期的实际技术推广支持。