In Malawi’s Zomba district, farmers’ use of sustainable agricultural practices is more complex than conventional adoption surveys suggest. Although sustainable intensification practices are widely promoted to improve soil fertility, food security and climate resilience, their uptake is often difficult to sustain and scale. In this perspective article, Merel Boonen, Gildas Assogba and Luuk Fleskens examine the limitations of research approaches that classify farmers simply as adopters or non-adopters, drawing on a mixed-methods study of smallholder farming systems in southern Malawi.

The research combines a household survey of 384 farmers across 12 villages with in-depth interviews with 18 farmers, interviews with five district officers and ten extension workers, and field visits to 18 farms. The findings identify four dimensions of adoption complexity that conventional surveys may overlook: differences in how farmers implement and adapt practices, cycles of adoption and temporary discontinuation, uneven application across fields, and institutional conditions shaping access to support and training. Field observations revealed substantial variation in practices such as box ridges and crop residue incorporation, while interviews highlighted constraints related to labour, input availability, weather, community conflicts and limited extension services.

The authors propose a flexible mixed-methods framework to help researchers select complementary methods according to their research questions. Household surveys remain valuable for identifying population-level patterns, but combining them with interviews, field visits and, where appropriate, remote sensing can provide a more complete understanding of farmers’ decisions and practices. The framework is intended to strengthen the evidence used to assess sustainable intensification and inform agricultural development initiatives, with further application needed to test its relevance in other contexts.