AGRICOLA IND 89035615, We explore the relationship between adoption of farm technology and labor availability in Africa. We use a case study of the introduction of a high-yielding variety of maize in an area of Zambia to examine the different aspects of the relationship between adoption and labor availability/mobilization. The research is based on an intensive 15-month study of 23 maize farmers, survey data from 240 of their farm workers, and data collected from an ongoing integrated rural development project. The data illustrate that the shift to hybrid maize requires additional labor. farmers' inability to mobilize additional labor results in partial adoption and various compromises in the performance of recommended practices. The labor survey reveals that despite farmers' preferences for hiring older workers and female labor, children are extensively employed because of their availability. We conclude by illustrating the need for adoption research that takes the broader farming environment into account.
Gartrell, C. David (author), Gartrell, J.W. (author), Lewis, Scott C. (author), and Lewis: Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Gartrell, C.: Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Gartrell, J.: Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1989
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 83 Document Number: C05148
AGRICOLA IND 89062953, We test two hypotheses based on Cancian's theory of the status-innovation relationship which predicts upper-middle-class conservatism in agricultural communities (1967, 1972, 1979, 1981). Quantitative meta-analysis of 34 rural development surveys yields a cumulated difference-of-proportions that (1) actually runs counter to the direction predicted by Cancian's "upper-middle- class conservatism" hypothesis, and (2) supports Morrison et al.'s (1976) conjecture that upper-middle-class conservatism effects should be weaker in pyramidal representations of rural stratification systems. Future research should focus on community-level contextual factors that may influence the nature of the status-innovation relationship:
