To establish demonstration plots in a community, SG 2000 enlists farmers who agree to provide labour and a piece of their land in order to try out the new methods.

The plots are large -- 1,000 to 5,000 square meters -- to provide a convincing demonstration of the recommended technology and to reward the participating farmer with a significant economic return. On plots of this size, after a season of tilling the soil, seeding the crop, battling weeds, and bringing in the harvest, farmers can form a realistic idea of the labour and input costs that the new technology entails. They also reap an impressive payoff when their field yields two or three times as much as neighbouring fields.

SG 2000 supports training sessions for extension workers and for participating farmers in the community at key times during the growing season. Together, farmers and extension agents learn the value of ploughing straight furrows, planting seed of an improved variety, applying fertilizer in precise doses, and weeding and harvesting at the right time. For extension agents, the hands-on training builds a valuable foundation for their future interactions with farmers.

After a few years, SG 2000 moves on to other localities to expose a new set of farmers and local extension workers to the new technology. In each community, 30-40 farmers generally take part. But the demonstration plots are their own advertisement. The crop's fast growth, its uniformity, and its rich green leaves stands out among traditionally grown fields, attracting the eye of anyone passing along nearby paths or roads. The farm families in the area invited to field days held at the demonstration plots, where they can discuss the pros and cons of the new technology with participating farmers. Other farmers in the area soon try out ideas they have picked up from the demonstration plots or learned by talking to their neighbours and extension agents.

From 1986 to 2000, national extension personnel and small-scale farmers working with SG 2000 established more than a half-million crop demonstration plots and several million production plots in project countries. Most of these were financed by the collaborating national governments, and the farmers themselves.

Maize demonstrations have accounted for probably 60 percent of SG 2000-supported plots. Other crop demonstrations have focused on sorghum, rice, wheat, millet, cassava, and several grain legume species.

Along with the demonstration programmes, SG 2000 projects support innovations that hold promise for raising and maintaining higher levels of soil productivity of smallholder farmlands.

A range of green manure crops have been demonstrated, including velvetbean (Mucuna spp.) a remarkable Asian legume. Mucuna is one of the few crops capable of recapturing fields from speargrass (Imperata cilindrica), an aggressive weed that blights vast expanses of cropland throughout the tropics. Doubling the attraction of velvetbean to small farmers, it fixes nitrogen while it is growing. Cutting the plants and incorporating the vegetation into the soil allows farmers to use far less fertilizer for the following crop.

SG 2000 is involved in introducing minimum-tillage, or conservation-tillage, farming to smallholders. This work is most advanced in Ghana, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. By applying effective but short-lived herbicides, farmers can kill weeds and other field vegetation, leaving a mulch into which crops can be planted. Eliminating the need for hoeing to prepare the soil cuts in half the labour required before planting, a notable advantage for women. The amount of food they can grow for themselves and their children is constricted by how much land they have ready to plant when the rains begin. Later in the season because of the mulch, the fields need less weeding, the soil retains more moisture, and the risk of erosion is less.