22pgs, To explore the structures and processes within agricultural advisory organisations that may enhance absorptive capacity (AC) and determine how organisations develop their AC.
19 pages, This special issue presents recent European Commission-funded research into on-farm demonstration, undertaken through the Horizon 2020 PLAID (Peer-to-peer learning: Accessing innovation through demonstration), AgriDemo-F2F (building an interactive agridemo-hub community: enhancing peer-to-peer learning), and NEFERTITI (Networking European Farms to Enhance Cross Fertilisation and Innovation Uptake through Demonstration) projects, jointly branded ‘FarmDemo’.
Retrieved January 28, 2007, Urges improvements in conflict resolution and negotiation processes. Emphasizes the need for changing the roles of women, development organizations and extension services n these processes.
12 pages., Purpose
Pervasive use of poor quality seed remains an important reason for low yields throughout the developing world. We explore ways to increase the quality of the local stock of seed tubers among a sample of Ugandan potato farmers.
Design/methodology/approach: Using videos, we provide agricultural extension information on (i) how to select the best seed tubers and (ii) how to properly handle and store seed tubers until the next planting season. The relative effectiveness of the information interventions is tested using an individually randomized controlled trial where we model spillovers using a randomization-based framework for estimating causal effects under interference between units.
Findings: Especially the video on seed selection translated into increased awareness and adoption of recommended practices, increased probability of using improved inputs, as well as higher consumption.
Practical implications: Interventions aimed at improving seed quality are important in the absence of access to high-quality seed. Video messages are becoming increasingly useful as a complementary tool in agricultural extension.
Theoretical implications: Randomization-based inference can be used to take into account spillover effects in the analysis rather than the design phase of an experiment.
Originality/value: This is the first study to address seed quality of potato tubers in a real-world setting using videos.
