The financial benefits of eco-farming for Small-Scale Farmers in Malawi and Kenya.

Through household-level interviews in April and June 2014, farmers practising agroecology were compared with farmers using chemical fertilizers and/or pesticides in two countries.

In Kenya, we compared farmers using push-pull technology against the corn borer pest with farmers using chemical pesticides or neither. In Malawi, we compared farmers using agroforestry for organic fertilisation of maize (fertiliser trees) with farmers using chemical fertilisers.

The findings demonstrate clearly that the small-scale farmers practising agroforestry and push-pull technology were better off financially than their neighbours using agrochemicals, even when agrochemicals were subsidised.

Download the full report "Fostering Economic Resilience", You can also download the summary "More money, less dependency" and the infographic "Ecological Farming, it Makes Cents!"