1 page., September-November issue via online., Report on a drone service, WeFly Agri, "to help farm and plantation owners regain control of their land."
Abstract via online journal. 2 pages., Technological innovation is vital to economic growth and food security in sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural productivity has been stagnant for a long time. Extension services and learning from peer farmers are two common approaches to facilitate the diffusion of new technologies, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. Selection bias, whereby well-motivated training participants would perform better even without extension services, as well as knowledge spillovers, where non-participants can indirectly benefit from extension services, are among the major threats to causal inference. Using a unique sequential randomized experiment on agricultural training, this study attempts to meet the dual objectives of executing rigorous impact evaluation of extension services and subsequent spillovers on rice production in Cote d’Ivoire. Specifically, to reduce selection bias, we randomly assigned eligibility for training participation; and to satisfy the stable unit treatment value assumption, control-group farmers were initially restricted from exchanging information with treated-group farmers who had received rice management training. Once some positive impacts were confirmed, information exchange between the treated and control farmers was encouraged. We found that the initial performance gaps created by the randomized assignment disappeared over time, due presumably to social learning from peer farmers. A detailed analysis concerning the information network and peer effects provided suggestive evidence that there were information and technology spillovers from treated to control farmers after removing the information exchange restriction. Overall, our study demonstrates that information dissemination by farmers can be as effective in improving practices as the initial training provided by extension services.
Online by open access. 6 pages., Researchers investigated if mobility patterns can be inferred from aggregated mobile phone data alone. Findings suggested that human mobility is well predicated by a simple model based on the frequency of mobile phone calls between two locations and their geographic distance.
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) (author)
Format:
Book
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
International: Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Accra, Ghana.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 141 Document Number: D06192
Notes:
42 pages., Includes section on level of biotechnology awareness in African countries and channels used to create awareness of biotechnology by institutions in those countries. Literature review indicated inadequate diffusion of science-based information on GE crops at both grassroots and policymaker levels.
Ajayi, A.O. (author), Ajayi, O.C. (author), Akinnifesi, F.K. (author), Sileshi, G. (author), and Mng'omba, S. (author)
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2010-09-14
Published:
Ivory Coast
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C30710
Notes:
Paper presented at Tropentag 2010, Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 1 page.
