In an issue located in a chronological file entitled "INTERPAKS - Newsletter" from the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois., From the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign., Review of a book, Farmer first: farmer innovation and agricultural research, edited by Robert Chambers, Arnold Pacey, and Lori Ann Thrupp, Intermedia Technology Publications, London, 1989.
Gnaegy Suzanna (author / Winrock International) and Anderson, Jock R. (author / Winrock International)
Format:
Publication
Publication Date:
1991-06-30
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D11012
Notes:
World Bank Discussion Paper 126. Washington, D.C. 158 pages., Studies from a workshop. Includes evidence that research and extension had contributed to a decline in agricultural production. "There is a broad consensus about the many factors that have contributed to failures to boost land and labor productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both technological options and agroecological and socioeconomic circumstances in this vast region are diverse, thus creating a complex matrix of impacts and explanations. The central explanation is that research and development activities, whether public or private, national or international, have produced innovations that farmers find variously unprofitable, too risky, or impossible to implement in a timely and useful fashion. These problems lead, in turn, to often declining agricultural productivity and a deteriorating agricultural resource base, particularly of soil and forest resources. Stepping back further from the farmers themselves to the institutions that are supposed to have assisted, the difficulties are several including the poor (often irrelevant for resource-poor farmers) siting of much past experimental and testing endeavor, inadequate and temporally inconsistent staff and budget support for national research and extension organizations.
Located in a chronological file entitled "INTERPAKS - Newsletter" from the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois., From the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign., An invited reassessment by the author of a book, Hard Tomatoes and Hard Times, in which he faulted U.S. land grant universities for abandoning the original intended focus on serving small, low-resource farmers. Emphasized farmers' need for neutral, unbiased assessment of new, often very specialized, technologies. "...and at the same time they will need generalists who can assist in developing comprehensive, integrated farming systems that can depend on lessons learned decades ago as well as new knowledge."
Using the Green Revolution in Indian agriculture as an empirical example, the author shows the epistemic significance of technology as a form of human knowledge created for doing things and solving problems.
