article · Land
Resource-rich areas known as hollow frontiers face a lack of scientific data to guide resource planning. Research in the Njombe-Penja communities of Cameroon's Mungo corridor investigated how innovations spread across local land resources, sampling one hundred households. The primary resources under exploitation include fertile soils, forests, quarries, and water, utilised by farmers, businesses, non-governmental organisations, and state departments. Patterns of innovation vary by sector, reaching sixty-five percent significance in quarrying and sixty-two percent in agriculture, while water resources show the lowest uptake at forty-eight percent. Economic and political drivers predominantly influence these outcomes. In agriculture, innovation is marked by improved cropping systems, disease-resistant plant species, new cultivation techniques, and specialised production of cash crops and fruits such as white pepper, pawpaw, and pineapples.
Economically attractive and resource-rich frontiers often lack the data required for sustainable planning. Understanding how agricultural and extraction techniques spread helps regional planners, community organisations, and policymakers design better resource management frameworks. It also reveals which economic and political factors encourage or hinder the adoption of productive practices in rapidly developing rural corridors.
The findings point to immediate commercial opportunities in agriculture, specifically the supply and deployment of disease-resistant crop varieties, improved cropping systems, and specialised cultivation methods for white pepper, pawpaw, and pineapple. Intended users include local agribusinesses, farming enterprises, and agricultural extension services. As an applied observational study, these practices are already active in the field rather than laboratory-stage concepts.
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Innovation diffusion has been extensively explored in several contexts, with little application to hollow frontiers—economically attractive areas with resource opportunities. This dearth of scientific data bedevils the design of resource-planning approaches for hollow frontiers. Using the innovation diffusion model as an analytical lens, this study; (1) maps key resources and actors engaged in the Mungo corridor hollow frontier, (2) analyzes the differential patterns of innovation and the forces that drive them, and (3) explores the management implications of resource-linked innovation diffusion. A random sample of 100 households was conducted in the Njombe-Penja communities of the Mungo Corridor. The analysis reveals the following: Firstly, rich fertile soils, forests, quarries and water resources are the key resources exploited by farmers, bureaucrats, businessmen, NGOs and other enterprises who constitute the key innovation actors in Njombe-Penja. Secondly, differential patterns of innovation exist, with techniques and products introduced by companies/state departments to farmers and by NGOs and technical/research departments to communities and state, private and community-based enterprises. This leads to varied resource use outcomes. Innovations are significant in the domain of agriculture (62%) and quarrying (65%), moderately significant in the forest sector (55%) and least significant in water resources (48%). Economic (63%), natural (25%), socio-cultural (23.7%) and political drivers (50%) explain the diverse outcomes linked to innovation diffusion. Finally, the most significant implications of innovations are in the domain of agriculture through improved cropping systems and the use of disease-resistant species. Here, specialization in cash crop cultivation and fruit culture (white pepper, pawpaw, pineapples) is predominant. Additionally, this sector has witnessed the introduction of new methods of cultivation. The least significant implications were recorded for forest use practices. Innovations sustain new dynamics for this resource-rich area and provide new opportunities for reflections on reorganizing resource use for successful management. Power manifestations in the context of the diffusion of innovations are new areas to consider for further research.
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DOI: 10.3390/land14020241
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