Exploring the effectiveness of serious games in strengthening smallholders’ motivation to plant different trees on farms: evidence from rural Rwanda

Addressing the global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss requires widespread adoption sustainable agricultural practices such as agroforestry. In many Sub-Saharan African countries, however, agroforestry rates remain low among small-scale farmers, with insufficient knowledge about benefits being a major barrier. To close this gap increase farmers’ motivation to plant different tree species on their farms, study applies Role-playing game (RPG) an awareness-raising tool. 72 farmers from Rwanda played RPG participated in pre- post-game surveys. A comparison responses before after playing demonstrates that increased attitude toward most tree-related benefits. Moreover, significantly strengthened more farms. The findings were supported by debriefing results, confirming RPGs are effective tool raise awareness land use management.