9 pages., via online journal, Since 2014, the Chinese government has initiated new-type urbanization under the guidance of ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020)’, which embarks on a significant transformation of the model of urbanization in post-reform China. To understand the origin and outputs of this policy, this article demonstrates the context of China’s new-type urbanization. The paper proposes a conceptual framework of new-type urbanization, which mainly includes four aspects: humanism, people-oriented urbanization; inclusivism, benefits sharing for urban and rural; sustainability, development without sacrifice of resources and environment; and harmonism, coordination. This is followed by an examination of the case of Anhui province, as a pilot province of China’s new-type urbanization. Anhui has performed a lot of related work to promote citizenization of peasant workers and has made great progress on the reform of the household registration system. The study found that despite a special emphasis on people-oriented urbanization, the pressures and costs of citizenization of peasant workers are growing fast, accompanied by rising housing prices in cities. This insight suggests there are benefits and costs of promoting China’s new-type urbanization. Despite the advantages of institutional innovation, the unexpected side effects such as rapid rising housing prices actually undermine the success of plan implementation.
12 pages., Via online journal., Rural Resources Centers (RRCs) managed by community-based organisations, where farmers come together for training and demonstration, have been an innovative extension approach in Cameroon since 2006. This paper describes information flow in RRCs and farmers’ assessment of RRCs as information sources. All the RRCs in Cameroon were studied and 29 group interviews, involving 118 producers and 7 individual interviews with RRC managers, were performed. RRCs share information with several stakeholders including farmers, research institutions, and educational and religious institutions; and interpersonal channels are commonly used. Farmers and agricultural extension workers are the most important sources of information for RRCs. Farmers rank RRCs as their second best sources of information after fellow farmers. On average, each year, RRCs organise at least 40 training sessions for about 1777 participants. The themes are mainly agroforestry (29%), marketing (20%), group dynamics (20%) and post-harvest techniques (11%). The issue of funding the activities of the RRCs needs to be addressed, they need to be better structured, and their human resources increased and strengthened.
14 pages., via online journal,, Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers’ access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self‐help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross‐sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest‐neighbor matching models to match SHG and non‐SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes, possibly due to financial constraints, social norms, and women's domestic responsibilities. SHGs need to go beyond provision of information to changing the dynamics around women's participation in agriculture to effectively translate knowledge into practice.
18 pages., Via online journal., The study asserts that rural villages which have developed relatively complex communication systems have extensive local knowledge and practice systems. Using the knowledge and community-based perspective, the study departs from past works of development communication scholars, who have focused their attention mainly on the transfer of information. The study is concerned with how meaning is created and shared in rural communities through the use of communication. It looks at how small homogenous farming communities in Thailand – world’s number one rice exporter – utilize communication to improve rice crop production. It asks: what roles does communication play in the formation of collective definitions (perspectives) and the construction/management of local knowledge and practices on rice farming? To explore the plausibility of this paper’s assertion, ethnographies of two rice farming villages were conducted – Baan Sap Som Boon (irrigated) in Chainat province (Central Region) and Baan Hua Hae (rainfed) in Ubon Ratchathani province (Northeast Region). Data generation period was from October 2004 to July 2005. Research results indicate that Baan Sap Som Boon has both an extensive knowledge of rice farming methods and procedures and an elaborate community-based communication system. Baan Hua Hae, on the other hand, practices more traditional means of rice production and divides time with other livelihood activities. In both villages, communication plays a central role in improving crop production via facilitating the formation of collective definitions on rice farming, labor, economics and agriculture-related institutions.
22 pages, via online journal, Past explanations of why rural people respond as they do to external development interventions have emphasized the role of key limiting factors or critical characteristics (wealth, education, land tenure, etc.) which are thought to influence peoples' behavior in predictable ways. Efforts to promote tree planting and soil conservation in eight neighboring villages in the Philippines revealed that variation in participation did not reflect clear patterns based on existing household or village characteristics. Instead, specific responses to interventions reflected a complex, but interpretable interaction between existing socio-economic factors and historic trends or events. Characteristics like the degree of local knowledge, security of land tenure and community cohesion affected peoples' participation, in general, but their specific influence was neither predictable nor consistent between, and even within, individual villages. An appreciation of the specific historic context was often sufficient to explain these variations. The following historic trends and events were found to have important consequences for peoples' participation: migration and settlement history; family and group lineages; history of socio-political organization and conflict; history of physical isolation; labor history; economic–ecological history; environmental history; and past exposure to development agents. The paper concludes with a preliminary checklist of questions intended to assist researchers and development agents to discover relevant and interesting historical information about rural villages.
25 pages, Online journal article, Existen diferentes modelos para pensar la extensión rural. Con el fin de indagar las concepciones de extensión rural de los extensionistas que trabajan en diez diferentes países latinoamericanos se realizó una encuesta. La muestra fue no probabilística incidental (n=589). Se observa predominio de una concepción transferencista de la extensión rural en el promedio de las 10 muestras, con importantes diferencias entre países. La muestra uruguaya posee una orientación dialógica. No se observa presencia de concepciones asociadas al desarrollo local/territorial o a la noción de sistemas de innovación. Se recomienda implementar acciones para definir de manera crítica y consciente los modelos de extensión rural que se desea implementar.
Landini, Fernando (author), Beramendi, Maite (author), and University of La Cuenca del Plata
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-07-24
Published:
Argentina: Taylor and Francis
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 101 Document Number: D10880
18 pages, online journal article, Purpose
This article aims at designing and validating a psychometric scale to assess extensionists’ and advisors’ beliefs about extension and innovation.
Design/Methodology/approach
The scale was developed by drawing upon results from a previous empirical research as well as insights from a literature review on extension and innovation approaches. The theoretical framework used to write the items was validated by 12 international experts from 11 countries. 608 Argentine extension workers completed the questionnaire. Replies were analysed using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
Findings
The scale has a good fit and satisfactory level of internal consistency. Five factors were identified: Dialogue and horizontal coordination; Transfer of technology; Blame on farmers; Participatory, farmer-led extension; and Self-critical attitude.
Practical implications
The scale has multiple and different uses, including research, theory development, institutional practice, diagnosis, and teaching.
Theoretical implications
Results show that a horizontal, facilitative extension approach shares a common epistemology, as well as underlying values and assumptions, with territorial development and with an innovation systems perspective, and that both contrast with a traditional transfer of technology approach. Nonetheless, practitioners would not tend to see these two contrasting perspectives as contradictory but as complementary.
Originality/Value
The scale is the first validated psychometric instrument, based on an ample theoretical framework, that allows for a quantitative assessment of beliefs about extension and innovation.
7 pages., Via online journal, The emergence of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) has drawn the attention of researchers from various fields, who try to understand and explain these new phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to explore how personal attitude and product quality perception influence relative satisfaction over participation in AFNs, therefore contributing to the literature on socially conscious consumerism. Structural Equation Modeling is used to investigate the determinants of consumers' attitudes towards AFNs, its influence on perceived quality of food products, and their relative influence over satisfaction with participation in AFNs. A survey was conducted among 210 AFN participants. The results from this study suggest that consumers' attitude towards AFNs directly influences the perceived quality of food products; moreover, the analysis confirms the relationship between these two elements and overall satisfaction with participation in AFNs. Finally, the research provides suggestions on how to improve consumers’ involvement and mainstream AFNs.
Landini, Fernando (author), Bianqui, Vanina (author), Vargas, Gilda (author), Inés Mathot y Rebolé, María (author), Martinez, Manuela (author), and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina National Council of Scientific and Technological Research, Argentina
University of La Cuenca del Plata, Argentina
University of Morón, Argentina
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2017-10-07
Published:
Argentina: Science Direct
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 106 Document Number: D10934
12 pages, via online journal, Working with farmers' groups, associations and cooperatives constitutes a fundamental element of extension work with family farmers. Despite the fact that extension practitioners face many problems in this area of their work, there is currently a lack of academic literature that systematically addresses the topic and offers concrete guidelines for practice. Thus, this paper will aim to clarify the benefits of farmers' groups, associations and networks within the context of family farming, systematise problems faced by rural extensionists when working with farmers' groups and associations, provide conceptual tools for understanding group and associative processes, and construct a set of guidelines and recommendations for facing said problems. In order to achieve these aims, the authors conducted an extensive literature review and drew upon their personal experience on the topic.
Results suggest that some of the benefits of associative work are: better access to inputs, produce and credit markets, the facilitation of learning processes, the empowerment of family farmers as social actors, and a reduction of rural extension costs. Additionally, with respects to the problems faced by extensionists, the following can be highlighted: individualist attitudes and conflicts between farmers, scarce participation and commitment, problems with leaderships and with organisations' administrative management, and the lack of extensionists' training to address these processes, among others. With regards to the factors that increase trust and cooperation are: interpersonal communication and mutual knowledge, sharing problems, values and objectives, and the existence of shared rules for the functioning of the group that include sanctions for transgressors. In this context, the extensionists' role will be that of facilitating processes of construction of group relationships, creating rules for the groups' functioning and developing the group's capacities for self-management.
