Agricultural Administration and Extension最新文献

The eight qualities which Peters and Waterman⁴ attributed to the most successful companies in the United States are used as a framework to support the author's personal views on agricultural research management. Management of research institutions in developing countries is stressed. Although the eight attributes of Peters and Waterman were related to profit-making businesses, all, to some extent, apply to non-profit, agricultural research institutions. Those found to be most relevant are: ‘Close to the customer’, which translates in agricultural research terms to knowing what farmers want and need, ‘autonomy and entrepreneurship’, which relates to the importance of an environment conducive to creativity and innovation in research institutions, ‘productivity through people’, of special importance in institutions where new technology is the product, and ‘hands-on, value driven’, which underlines the significance of value systems in motivating employees at all levels to perform effectively. The author adds a ninth attribute, leadership, which was evident as an essential component of the eight attributes of Peters and Waterman, and stresses the overriding importance of more effective leadership for agricultural research institutions in developing countries.

Despite an increasing literature on monitoring and evaluation (M & E), no consensus has been reached on terminology, methodology, and the place of monitoring and evaluation activities in agricultural development projects. Any discussion of monitoring and evaluation activities must start with consideration of the planning and management cycle, of the anticipated sequence of project outputs, effects and impact flowing from project inputs, and of the different people involved in this sequence. From this basis, a more comprehensive terminology is suggested for different monitoring and evaluation activities, and organisational structures are proposed, to aid effective integration of monitoring, evaluation, planning and management. Finally, it is argued that project planning should give much more explicit and detailed attention to M & E activities.

Given an economic and sector planning and policy background, a crop development project is postulated, to be funded by a government and an international donor agency. It is recognised that such projects will only succeed in a sound institutional and policy environment. Such an environment is examined, and a project is designed which overcomes perceived constraints. The achievement of donor loan effectiveness, and the procurement of required goods and services are reviewed. The assembly of data for the estimation of planned project benefits is the next consideration as the sizes and annual phasing of several project cost items will depend on when and at what rate project benefits are to be achieved. A checklist of project cost items is then presented. Project costs are assembled on a component basis. Within each component, costs are built up by category commencing with technical staffing; which to some extent determines the requirements for support staff, housing, office space, vehicles, and capital equipment. The provision of buildings, vehicles and equipment, and staff then determine levels of maintenance and repair, operating, and administrative recurrent costs. Pragmatic methods are advanced which could be used as a starting point for the estimation of such recurrent costs. Project costs may have to be rearranged to meet the particular needs of financing agencies. It is noted that the compilation of project costs with the aid of a personal computer spreadsheet program is useful in terms of the construction of cost tables, their rearrangement if required, and subsequent sensitivity analysis. The purposes and presentation of the project appraisal report are then considered.

The Coffee Improvement Project in Ethiopia is a large but pioneering or experimental project which aims to intensify peasant coffee production and to protect the country's coffee industry from the potential dangers of an epidemic of coffee berry disease. During its early years the project suffered from weak agronomic foundations to its activities, organisational difficulties, and a lack of perceived farmer benefits from project activities. It is suggested that these problems were inevitable since at the time of project planning very little was known about peasant coffee production and possible means for its intensification. However, better planning of monitoring and evaluation activities might have provided mechanisms for learning from research and experience during project implementation, and for constant modifications of project design and activities in response to this. When such mechanisms were belatedly introduced, project performance rapidly improved, though there is still much to be learnt and the effects and impact of changes in project activities may take many years to benefit farmers.

Conventional wisdom suggests that relatively few farmers in developing nations have contact with extension, that those who do do not benefit from their contacts, and that those with contact are not representative of the farm population. This study, based on a set of survey data collected from 300 farmers in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, examines the general issue of how and where farmers obtain agricultural information. Particular attention is placed on levels of contacts farmers have with extension, the types of farmers being ‘reached’ by extension, and farmers' assessments of the utility of information received from extension.

The data provide evidence of relatively few farmers with any type of extension contact. Those with contact tend to be involved across several extension activities, and over time. There is also evidence to support the argument that it is the more ‘progressive’ farmers who have higher levels of contact with extension. Finally, farmers who are in contact with extension exhibit a generally favorable view toward the advice and information they received.

This paper highlights the slow pace of institutional change in accommodating Farming Systems Research in countries of East and Southern Africa. First, the characteristics of FSR, as an innovation in the research process, are considered and the implications for institutional change. The history of the introduction of FSR in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia is used to illustrate the hesitant progress achieved. Finally, the influences of African government institutions, donor agencies and professional agricultural economists in inhibiting the adoption of FSR are discussed.

This paper reviews the ‘turnkey’ establishment of the 10 000 ha Ubima oil palm plantation in Rivers State, Nigeria, between 1977 and 1985. The plantation has a giant mechanised processing mill, mechanical workshops and other administrative and social buildings and facilities.

The plantation is now a major supplier of oil palm products for industries and human consumption. The project has itself generated sufficient revenue in under ten years to maintain and expand another oil palm plantation. It has stimulated the harvesting of numerous wild oil palms abandoned since the late 1960s and vigorous economic and social development activities in surrounding localities.

It is concluded that the ‘turnkey’ and high mechanisation approaches adopted, though desirable in providing sufficient oil palm products for Nigeria in the short-term, are not ideal for the country in the long-term.

A farm-household economics approach is used to illuminate Mellor's labour constraint/rapid urbanization problem in the Southern African context. It is viewed as a rational decision by rural households to combine the benefits of indigenous land-use arrangements with the advantages of non-farm wage employment. The implications of this analysis for the design of technology consistent with the objectives and constraints of farm households are then discussed in relation to some general experiences in Southern Africa.