In low-income country agriculture, there is frequently limited information about the comparative effectiveness of alternative extension modalities for delivering information on new farming methods. This paper analyzes the impact of community-embedded farmer education programs on the adoption of conservation farming. A multinomial choice model is applied on survey data from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania to estimate the relative risk ratios (RRR), a measure of the probability of adopting the conservation agriculture practices studied, conditional on attending specific extension activities in the farmers' community. The results show that the likelihood of adoption was generally high as measured by RRRs between 10 and 14. Suggestive of the effectiveness of experiential learning methods, attending training sessions had consistently higher RRRs of adopting conservation farming practices. The positive role of community-based extension programs potentially means that the dissemination of conservation agriculture requires investments by governments and development organizations in community learning sites. Investments in programs that promote experiential, hands-on and farmer self-learning can be consequential in enabling the diffusion of better farming methods.

在低收入国家的农业中，关于提供新耕作方法信息的替代推广方式的比较有效性的信息往往有限。本文分析了社区嵌入农民教育计划对采用保护性农业的影响。多项选择模型应用于来自肯尼亚、马拉维、莫桑比克和坦桑尼亚的调查数据，以估计相对风险比 (RRR)，这是一种衡量采用所研究保护性农业实践的可能性的指标，条件是参加农民的特定推广活动' 社区。结果表明，采用 10 到 14 之间的 RRR 衡量的采用可能性通常很高。 暗示体验式学习方法的有效性，参加培训课程在采用保护性耕作方法方面的 RRR 始终较高。基于社区的推广计划的积极作用可能意味着保护性农业的传播需要政府和发展组织在社区学习场所进行投资。对促进体验式、实践式和农民自学的计划进行投资可能会有助于推广更好的耕作方法。