19 pages., ISSN: 2168-3565 (Print)
2168-3573 (Online), Via online journal, Biodiversity conservation outside designated protected areas remains challenging in South Africa, where 80% of the biodiversity resources occur on private and communal lands. This applies to the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, which is the focus of this study. Landholders logically choose agricultural production ahead of conservation, which they often perform using non-ecological methods. Extension is well positioned to promote ecological agriculture, but its current contribution is unknown. This study examined the role of extension in ecological agriculture in KZN by investigating extension’s promotion of ecological agriculture among smallholder farmers and the factors impacting their employment of ecologically compatible practices. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with 44 respondents, comprising 5 provincial biodiversity conservation practitioners, 1 national biodiversity conservation manager, and 1 national and 4 provincial agricultural extension managers, selected by purposive sampling; as well as 25 extension officers and 8 farmers, selected by convenience sampling. The study found that extension mainly engages in technology transfer and distribution of production inputs, which poses challenges to biodiversity conservation. Extension shows little concern for biodiversity, and effectively promotes its degradation. Four sets of factors impacting extension’s capacity to promote ecological agriculture emerged: household/community-level, governmental, extension management, and ecological factors. Key among these were inadequate involvement of youth and men in agriculture; inadequate household production resources; poor collaboration and coordination between extension and biodiversity conservation institutions; top-down extension intervention; poor extension management and delivery capacities; and irregular and inadequate rainfall, as well as droughts and flooding. The study concluded that there is a need for a clearly articulated extension and biodiversity conservation policy supporting appropriate linkages and better coordination and integration of services among extension and biodiversity agencies within the National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture and with farmers; more effective agricultural education in schools; strengthening extension support systems; and creating conducive atmospheres for effective extension.
23 pages., via online journal., Unequal reach and access to information is an issue that affects women involved in agricultural activities around the world. Recent initiatives to address gender unequal access to agricultural information have been clumsy, overlooking participatory approaches that focus on transformative change. This study uses Pakistani rural advisory services to compare farmers' and extension workers’ perceptions of access to agricultural information, to identify culturally acceptable gender-responsive schemes.
14 pages., One of the bedrock of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is eradication of poverty and hunger. In an attempt to actualize this goal, the role of public libraries in information provision to agricultural extension agents in Nigeria becomes paramount. This paper discusses provision of information to agricultural extension agents in a developing country. It starts with the concept of extension agents and the essence of information provision to them. It further discusses types, sources and challenges of public libraries in information provision to agricultural extension workers in a developing country. Some of the challenges are as follows: poor funding of public libraries, demotivated staff, and so on. Based on these discussions, the paper recommended adequate training and retraining of staff, adequate funding of public libraries by the federal, state and local government, the revitalization of the abandoned mobile library services among others. The paper therefore concludes that information provision to agricultural extension agents by public library is very crucial for national development. The current state of poverty, hunger and lack in Nigeria and some other African countries could be reduced to a great extent if current, relevant and up-to-date information are provided by libraries to the concerned agencies.
Simumba, Davy (author) and Koopman, Martine (author)
Format:
Brief
Publication Date:
2011-01
Published:
The Netherlands: International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 149 Document Number: D10109
Notes:
5 pages., Via website., This project learning brief describes the lessons learned from the INFORNET (Development of an Effective Information Flow Network) project carried out by the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) with support from IICD. ICT was used to improve access to the knowledge generated by agricultural researchers and transmitted to farmers by extension workers. Improved research-extension linkages, as well as enhanced communication among researchers in different regions, were central to ZARI's INFORNET project.
10 pages., Via online resource., Many smallholder farmers in developing countries grow multiple crop species on their farms, maintaining de facto crop diversity. Rarely do agricultural development strategies consider this crop diversity as an entry point for fostering agricultural innovation. This paper presents a case study, from an agricultural research-for-development project in northern Ghana, which examines the relationship between crop diversity and self-consumption of food crops, and cash income from crops sold by smallholder farmers in the target areas. By testing the presence and direction of these relationships, it is possible to assess whether smallholder farmers may benefit more from a diversification or a specialization agricultural development strategy for improving their livelihoods. Based on a household survey of 637 randomly selected households, we calculated crop diversity as well as its contribution to self-consumption (measured as imputed monetary value) and to cash income for each household. With these data we estimated a system of three simultaneous equations. Results show that households maintained high levels of crop diversity: up to eight crops grown, with an-average of 3.2 per household, and with less than 5% having a null or very low level of crop diversity. The value of crop species used for self-consumption was on average 55% higher than that of crop sales. Regression results show that crop diversity is positively associated with self-consumption of food crops, and cash income from crops sold. This finding suggests that increasing crop diversity opens market opportunities for households, while still contributing to self-consumption. Given these findings, crop diversification seems to be more beneficial to these farmers than specialization. For these diversified farmers, or others in similar contexts, interventions that assess and build on their de facto crop diversity are probably more likely to be successful.
