For smallholders in central Malawi, farm management is complex and dynamic. Farmers' seasonal decisions are determined by a range of factors including resource availability, environmental changes, and farmer priorities. Moreover, management decisions are influenced by a combination of local knowledge and expert recommendations. Although local knowledge is developed over centuries of experimentation within volatile agroecological systems, smallholder experimentation processes are not well documented in literature and are underutilized in agricultural development projects. This study aimed to examine the decision-making processes of experimenting farmers and explore the drivers of on-farm experimentation. A mixed methods design incorporated field observations, survey data, and in-depth interviews, where quantitative and qualitative threads had multiple points of interface. This study found that Malawian farmers across a range of socioeconomic characteristics are inclined to experiment. While experimental methods differ between farmers, there are commonalities in the drivers of experimentation, including climate change, income generation, and improving household nutrition. Farmers' current practices should be taken into account in the development and implementation of agricultural intervention projects so that such projects might work effectively with smallholders to improve Malawian farming systems.
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