Gnaegy Suzanna (author / Winrock International) and Anderson, Jock R. (author / Winrock International)
Format:
Publication
Publication Date:
1991-06-30
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D11012
Notes:
World Bank Discussion Paper 126. Washington, D.C. 158 pages., Studies from a workshop. Includes evidence that research and extension had contributed to a decline in agricultural production. "There is a broad consensus about the many factors that have contributed to failures to boost land and labor productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both technological options and agroecological and socioeconomic circumstances in this vast region are diverse, thus creating a complex matrix of impacts and explanations. The central explanation is that research and development activities, whether public or private, national or international, have produced innovations that farmers find variously unprofitable, too risky, or impossible to implement in a timely and useful fashion. These problems lead, in turn, to often declining agricultural productivity and a deteriorating agricultural resource base, particularly of soil and forest resources. Stepping back further from the farmers themselves to the institutions that are supposed to have assisted, the difficulties are several including the poor (often irrelevant for resource-poor farmers) siting of much past experimental and testing endeavor, inadequate and temporally inconsistent staff and budget support for national research and extension organizations.
7 pages, Agricultural extension is the medium through which external agricultural technologies have been transferred to and transplanted in Africa to improve agricultural performance. Over a period of close to a century, different agricultural extension models have been proposed but their structure and content has virtually been the same: top-down, linear, non-participatory transfer of technology with no feedback loops for reverse diffusion. This presumably explains the poor performance of Africa’s agriculture and the scale of food security challenges facing the continent. In this review paper, we trace the history of agricultural extension and examine various agricultural extension delivery models to identify their major strengths and weaknesses, using Ghana and Burkina Faso as case studies. We then review the most recent literature in the field about the philosophy, scope, content, delivery, and outcomes of agricultural extension. The conclusion that agricultural extension has consistently remained out of sync with the needs and aspirations of stallholder farmers was reached. Smallholder farmers are now calling for new agricultural extension delivery models that are truly farmer-led, indigenous knowledge-based, context-specific, culturally-relevant and environmentally-sustainable to guarantee efficient farming systems into the future.
5 pages., A simple random sampling technique was used to select 169 extension officers to examine their level of awareness of information communication technologies in North West Province, South Africa. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analysed using frequency counts, percentages and multiple regression analysis. The results show that majority of the extension officers were male (76%) with the mean age of 44.6 years, married (79%) and 82.5% were Christians. Forty one percent of the extension officers had Diploma as their educational qualification and a mean of 16.7 years as working experience. The results revealed that out of the 37 ICT tools listed, extension officers indicated high level of awareness of nine tools, which include mobile phones (1.79), computer (1.68), internet (1.77), overhead projector (1.62), fax machines (1.60), organization e mail (1.58), fixed telephone (1.52), personal email (1.52) and organization website (1.50). Significant determinants of awareness level were were religion (t = 1.91, p = 0.58); constraints to ICT use (t = 1.78, p = 0.78); importance of ICT tool (t = 1.93; p = 0.63) and 2 were significant at 0.05% which were competence on ICT use (t= 3.50; p = .001); (t= 2.0, p = .003). The study recommends that more information communication technologies should be made available to extension officers, so that they will become more aware of the use of ICT in extension work as tools that can gather and disseminate agricultural information.
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: D11614
Notes:
3 pages., Online from publisher., Author addresses "large gap between African extension services ... and the number of farmers being reached." ... "Africa's existing mobile network (currently the second biggest mobile market in the world) could be better utilised to bridge this gap and provide mobile-based agricultural information, advice and support to smallholder farmers."
Subair, Stephen K. (author / University of Botswana Library)
Format:
Proceedings
Publication Date:
2001-04-04
Published:
Africa: Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: C20943
Notes:
Burton Swanson Collection, pages 357-363, from "Emerging trends in agricultural and extension education", AIAEE 2001, Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference, April 4-7, 2001, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 186 Document Number: D00713
Notes:
PowerPoint presentation at"New perspectives on rural extension," U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington,D.C., March 29, 2011. Parts 1 (4 pages), 2 (3 pages) and 3 (2 pages).
Foti, Richard (author), Nyakudya, Innocent (author), Moyo, Mack (author), Chikuvire, John (author), and Foti, Richard (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2006-05-21
Published:
Zimbabwe
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 151 Document Number: C24489
Notes:
Retrieved July 5, 2006, Conference sponsored by the International Association for Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) in Nairobi, Kenya, May 21-26, 2006. Via Livelihoods Connect. 10 pages., Conference theme: "Managing agricultural information for sustainable food security and improved livelihoods in Africa."
