Agricultural Administration and Extension最新文献

Rangelands, though marginal for arable agriculture, are an important agricultural resource in many countries. They also represent a particular challenge for extension services: there are conflicts of interest between different categories of user, and agricultural research does not yet give many definitive technical points of intervention. Common interpretations of extension such as ‘technology transfer’ to individual farming families are inadequate in these circumstances, as the case of the Yemen Arab Republic illustrates. A wider understanding of extension is needed, one which recognizes the variations in, and adaptability of, local farming systems. Basic principles of good land and livestock husbandry can be taught; communities and individuals who have proved more successful than others can be identified and their practices tested, refined and made more widely known; and extension workers can play an important part in the search for suitable institutional arrangements for the management of communally held resources.

This paper is concerned with the definition of the role and purpose of college and university farms in the face of changing socio-economic environments. Features of the particular situation investigated included reduced funding, and major curriculum reform based on concepts of experimential learning.

The Checkland soft-systems methodology was adopted within an action research framework to manage change using a consensus approach.

The outcomes of the research process were twofold. First, there was an improvement in the farms, manifest by increased financial returns, a better working climate and greater use of the farms in the experiential education process. Secondly, the researchers learnt about the use of the Checkland methodology, and how it is able to accommodate purposeful behaviour and issues of power. Such dual outcomes are a feature of action research.

The Ziguinchor Region of Senegal is considered the breadbasket of the nation, yet agricultural production has consistently failed to meet expectations and needs. The reason given for the deficit in production is the failure of researchers and development agents in providing appropriate technologies to targeted farmers with similar priorities, potentials and constraints. This group of farmers form recommendation domains (RDs).

In this paper, cluster analysis was used to classify farm family units into RDs using endogenous and exogenous variables to the farming system. Canonical-discriminant analysis was used to identify the factors influencing homogeneous groups of farmers in attaining food self-sufficiency. This process of isolating RDs is considered appropriate in providing researchers with an effective tool in determining the factors which affect farmers' productivity, and hence articulating research and extension efforts to meet farmers' needs. Information gathered through this method can then be more readily translated into a policy framework.

The author contends that Geographic Information System (GIS) technology can help lending institutions better understand the long-term consequences of economic development projects on African land and climate resources. Issues that are specifically addressed include: the application of GIS to investment plans for the agriculture sector, what can go wrong in agriculture planning when environmental data are not included, how scientific data bases and ADP system software can be used by economists and other social scientists to anticipate the impact of bank projects on natural resource systems, and what can be done to minimize environmental damages in agriculture development. Inputs to the ‘ideal’ investment process include: geocoded satellite, climate, environment and demographic data.

Accurate, up-to-date information on current production costs and returns is a vital prerequisite for the further development of medium/large-scale commercial agriculture in Nigeria as in many other developing countries. However, present farm management data collection tends to be both inefficient and inadequate because it is carried out on an ad hoc basis. This paper argues for a more systematic approach to the design of farm management data collection procedures in Nigeria. The approach involves careful experimentation and the comparison of alternative methods on the basis of cost, accuracy and timeliness. A pilot study in Bendel State using this approach is described and findings presented on alternative data collection strategies. It is concluded that a combination of traditional self-completion methods and ‘consensus surveys’ constitutes the most cost-effective strategy.

The study investigated in this paper indicates that the variables of occupation, number of individuals in household, levels of education, literacy, social participation and contact with extension agents were found to be significantly related to the adoption of recommended farm practices (innovation).

Using a stepwise regression analysis, four of the significant variables explained 38 per cent of the variability in adoption behaviour.