“At village level, the PIP approach is the basis for
collaboration between community members, and as a third generation PIP
farmer I make household visits to other generations of PIP farmers to
ask them for technical advice. They do so with pleasure, something that
was not done before PIP.”
Increased diversity on PIP farms is noticed by the number of crops, with
PIP farmers having 16-19 different perennial, annual and vegetable crops
on the farm, while non-PIP farmers have only 12. More vegetables and
some extra perennial crops contribute to this difference, with the
increased use of kitchen gardens as an important driver. Some of the new
crops are cash crops, and income from cash crops has increased by
85-100% for all PIP generations. Noteworthy too is that PIP farmers, in
particular those working longer with PIP, invest significantly more in
livestock than non-PIP farmers, especially in cows and goats. Livestock
keeping is an important element of farm resilience and is now being more
frequently integrated on PIP farms.