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2. Botswana, Nigeria: participatory drama, popular analysis and conscientizing the development worker
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Kidd, Ross (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 1982-12
- Published:
- International: Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Centre, University of Reading, Reading, England.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 170 Document Number: C28621
- Journal Title:
- Reading Rural Development Communications Bulletin
- Journal Title Details:
- 16 : 19-25
- Notes:
- "Theatre can reveal to development workers both villagers' problems and their capacity to analyse such programs." Also: "the main obstacle to development is not ignorance or apathy but structural limits on villagers' access to resources, information and power."
3. Can the TV makeover format of edutainment lead to widespread changes in farmer behaviour and influence innovation systems? Shamba Shape Up in Kenya
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10461
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 76: 338-351
- Notes:
- 14 pages., Edutainment, the combination of education with entertainment through various media such as television, radio, mobile phone applications and games, is increasingly being used as an approach to stimulate innovation and increase agricultural productivity amongst smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Shamba Shape Up, a widely publicised makeover reality TV programme, is an example of edutainment that has received considerable attention, and airs in three countries in East Africa where it is estimated to be watched by millions of viewers. There is no published academic research on the influence of makeover television formats on innovation systems and processes in smallholder agriculture. Using an Agricultural Innovation Systems approach, this paper explores how makeover edutainment is influencing smallholder farmer innovation systems together with the effect this is having on smallholder farms. In the absence of previous research, it articulates a Theory of Change which draws on research traditions from mass communication, agricultural extension and innovation systems. Data came from two large scale quantitative (n = 9885 and n = 1572) surveys and in-depth participatory qualitative research comprising focus group discussions, participatory budgets, agricultural timelines, case studies and key information interviews in Kenya. An estimated 430,000 farmers in the study area were benefiting from their interaction with the programme through increased income and / or a range of related social benefits including food security, improving household health, diversification of livelihood choices, paying school fees for children and increasing their community standing / social capital. Participatory research showed SSU enhanced an already rich communication environment and strengthened existing processes of innovation. It helped set the agenda for discussions within farming communities about opportunities for improving smallholder farms, while also giving specific ideas, information and knowledge, all in the context of featured farm families carefully selected so that a wide range of viewers would identify with them and their challenges. Broadcasts motivated and inspired farmers to improve their own farms through a range of influences including entertainment, strong empathy with the featured host farm families, the way ideas emerged through interaction with credible experts, and importantly through stimulating widespread discussion and interaction amongst and between farmers and communities of experts on agricultural problems, solutions and opportunities. The fact that local extension workers also watched the programmes further enhanced the influence on local innovation systems. The findings indicate that well designed makeover edutainment can strongly influence agricultural innovation processes and systems resulting in impact on the agricultural production and behaviours of large numbers of smallholder farmers.
4. Community-based extension
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Miano, David Mwangi (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2011-12
- Published:
- International: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, ACP-EU Brussels, Belgium
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 184 Document Number: D00200
- Journal Title:
- Spore
- Journal Title Details:
- 156
- Notes:
- Via website. 2 pages.
5. Constraints to the utilisation of conservation agriculture in Africa as perceived by agricultural extension service providers
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Brown, Brendan (author), Nuberg, Ian (author), Llewellyn, Rick (author), and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide CSIRO Agriculture
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10460
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 73: 331-340
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online journal., Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a knowledge-intensive set of practices which requires substantial access to functional agricultural extension services to enable utilisation. Despite this importance, the perspectives of those providing extension services to smallholder farmers have not been fully investigated. To address this, we qualitatively explore the perspectives of agricultural extension providers across six African countries to understand why uptake of CA has been limited, as well as the institutional changes that may be required to facilitate greater utilisation. Across the diversity of geographical, political and institutional contexts between countries, we find multiple commonalities in the constrained utilisation of CA by smallholder farmers, highlighting the difficulties non-mechanised subsistence farmers face in transitioning to market-oriented farming systems such as CA. The primary constraint relates to the economic viability of market-oriented farming where farmers remain in low input and low output systems with limited exit points. The assumed exit point used by CA programs appears to have led to a culture of financial expectancy and reflects a continuation of top-down extension approaches with inadequate modification of CA to the contextual realities of subsistence farmers. If African agricultural systems are to be sustainably intensified, we find a need for greater flexibility within extension systems in the pursuit of sustainable intensification. If extension systems are to persist with CA, it will need to be promoted through more transitional pathways that disaggregate the CA package, and with that there is a need for the provision of a mandate to, and necessary funding for, more participatory extension services.
6. Decoding agricultural digitalisation in Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Boloh, Yanne (author) and Cartmell-Thorp, Susanna (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- International: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, ACP-EU Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 153 Document Number: D11615
- Journal Title:
- Spore
- Journal Title Details:
- 194 : 4-7
- Notes:
- 4 pages., Online from publisher., "For the first time, a landmark report on digitalisation for agriculture (D4Ag) in Africa compiles and highlights data on digital solutions that are enabling the transformation of African agriculture."
7. Exploring Information Seeking Behavior of Farmers’ in Information Related to Climate Change Adaptation Through ICT (CHAI)
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Tumbo, Siza (author), Mwalukasa, Nicholaus (author), Fue, Kadeghe G. (author), and Mlozi, Malongo R. S. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-07-01
- Published:
- International: Athabasca University Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D12413
- Journal Title:
- International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
- Journal Title Details:
- Issue 19, Vol. 3
- Notes:
- 22 pages., In Tanzania, agriculture sector is known for employing more than 70% of the total population. Agriculture sector faces many challenges including climate change. Climate change causes low productivity in agriculture; low productivity is caused due to poor implementation of agricultural policies and strategies. This poor implementation of policies has also caused many farmers to be not competent in climate change adaptation. Over the years, provisions of agricultural advice and extension were provided by various approaches, including training and visit extension, participatory approaches, and farmers’ field schools. However, provision of agricultural advisory and extension service is inefficient. Also, in most cases the usage of most agricultural innovations and technologies developed is limited. A literature review indicates that the main reasons given by Tanzanian farmers for not using improved technology are not lack of knowledge or skill, but rather that the technologies do not contribute towards improvements (e.g., the technologies are not profitable or they imply to high risk). Thus, agricultural extension service needs to be geared towards teaching farmers how to develop innovative and cost effective technologies that are contextualized. Limited numbers of agricultural extension staff and less interactivity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as radio and television, have been mentioned to be among the factors limiting the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services to the majority of farmers in Tanzania. The advancements in ICTs have brought new opportunities for enhancing access to agricultural advisory and extension service for climate change adaptation. In Tanzania, farmers and other actors access agricultural information from various sources such as agricultural extension workers and use of various databases from Internet Services Providers. Also there are different web – and mobile – based farmers’ advisory information systems to support conventional agricultural extension service. These systems are producing bulk amounts of data which makes it difficult for different stakeholders to make an informed decision after data analysis. This calls for the need to develop a tool for data visualization in order to understand hidden patterns from massive data. In this study, a semi-automated text classification was developed to determine the frequently asked keywords from a web and mobile based farmers’ advisory system called UshauriKilimo after being in use for more than 2 years by more than 700 farmers.
8. Exploring the role of agricultural extension in promoting biodiversity conservation in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Abdu-Raheem, Kamal Adekunle (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2014
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10465
- Journal Title:
- Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
- Journal Title Details:
- 38(9): 1015-1032
- Notes:
- 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.
9. Factors associated with the adoption of recommended practices for maize production in the Kainji Lake Basin of Nigeria
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Ekpere, Johnson A. (author), Igodan, Chris O. (author), Ohaji, Patrick E. (author), and Department of Agricultural Extension, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria; Department of Agricultural Extension, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria; Department of Agricultural Extension, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 1988
- Published:
- UK
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 70 Document Number: C03027
- Journal Title:
- Agricultural Administration and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 29(2) : 149-156
- Notes:
- James F. Evans Collection, Ann
10. Gender again -- views of female agricultural extension officers by smallholder farmers in Tanzania
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Due, Jean M. (author), Magayane, Flavianus (author), and Temu, Anna A. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 1997
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 115 Document Number: C11675
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- <25(5): 713-725>
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