Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 139 Document Number: D05918
Notes:
Via website of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva, Switzerland. UNCTAD Current Studies on Science, Technology and Innovation, No. 9. 84 pages.
20 pages, via online journal, Purpose: This paper examines the factors affecting farmers’ participation in extension programs and adoption of improved seed varieties in the hills of rural Nepal.
Methodology/approach: Cross-sectional farm-level data were collected during July and August 2014. A sample of 198 farm households was selected for interviewing by using a multistage, random sampling technique. We employed a logistic regression model, frequency counts, and percentages to analyze the data.
Findings: Adoption decisions were mainly affected by extension-related variables – training, membership in a farmers’ group, and off-farm employment. Extension participation was found to be influenced by socioeconomic variables – age, education, household size, and distance to the extension office. Our findings reveal that distance to the extension office and off-farm employment limited participation in extension activities and adoption, respectively, and education, household size, and group membership stimulated participation in extension programs.
Practical implications: Recognition of the determinants of farmers’ participation in extension services and innovation adoption ensures that targeted extension approaches are used to address these factors in various stages of planning, delivering, and evaluating extension programs.
Theoretical implications: Innovation adoption follows a systematic decision-making process. Although personal characteristics are important, widespread use of new technology requires a conducive social and institutional context. Because contexts vary by country or region, extension services providers should create institutions favorable for innovation adoption within a social system.
Originality/value: This research is original and highly valuable to identify the factors associated with extension participation and innovation adoption in the rural hilly region of Nepal. This also provides a new direction to operationalize farmer-oriented policies of agricultural extension and so can be helpful for agricultural policy-makers in devising programs of extension services.
International: CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10515
Notes:
217 pages., Pages 177-186 in Heinz Schandl and Lain Walker (eds.), Social science and sustainability. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria,Australia. 2017. 217 pages.
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:
