👨‍🔧 Diagnosis and Design (D&D)

Features, important criteria and procedure

D&D is a methodology for the diagnosis of land management problems and design of agroforestry solutions. It was developed by ICRAF to assist agroforestry researchers and development fieldworkers to plan and implement effective research and development projects.

Key Features of the D & D

A. Flexibility: D&D is a flexible discovery procedure which can be adapted to fit the needs and resources of different users.
B. Speed: D&D has been designed with the option of a ‘rapid appraisal’ application at the planning stage of a project with in-depth follow up during project implementation.
C. Repetition: D&D is an open-ended learning process. Since initial designs can almost always be improved, the D&D process need not end until further improvements are no longer necessary.

👉🏻 There is no substitute for good design. A good agroforestry design should fulfill the following criteria:

A. Productivity: There are many different ways to improve productivity with agroforestry: increased output of tree products, improved yields of associated crops, reduction of cropping system inputs, increased labour efficiency, diversification of production, satisfaction of basic needs, and other measures of economic efficiency or achievement of biological potential.
B. Sustainability: By seeking improvements in the sustainability of production systems, agroforestry can achieve its conservation goals while appealing directly to the motivations of low income farmers, who may not always be interested in conservation for its own sake.
C. Adaptability: No matter how technically elegant or environmentally sound an agroforestry design may be, nothing practical is achieved unless it is adapted by its intended users. This means that the technology has to fit the social as well as the environmental characteristics of the land use system for which it is designed.

👉🏻 The procedures of AF D & D are usually done of two types:

An agroforestry research programme normally begins with a macro D&D exercise covering an entire ecological zone with in a country.
This consists of a rapid appraisal, based primarily on secondary information complemented by a few selected surveys in the field by a few selected surveys in the field.
The research team for a micro D&D comprises 5 to 10 biophysical and social scientists.
Again the exercise is usually completed in about three months.

A central aspect of macro D&D is the delineation of land-use systems within the chosen ecological zone, leading to the selection of target systems for more detailed analysis by micro D & Ds.
The fieldwork component entails more contact with farmers, often including a formal survey of 50 to 100 individuals with a semi-structured questionnaire.
In addition, the team may need to allocate considerable time to reviewing ongoing research and extension work in the selected land-use system.
Potential interventions are identified and evaluated in terms of their capacity to relieve the identified constraints.
In the first instance, all interventions are considered, not just those related to agroforestry.
For example, low soil fertility could be addressed by applying chemical fertilizers or manure or providing mulch from multipurpose trees or other plants.
Each alternative is evaluated in terms of its technical potential and its feasibility in terms of resources and capabilities of the land users.
Promising agroforestry technologies may be sketched on the basis of results from D & D.