9 pages, In agricultural research for development adoption of new technology tends to be cast in categories: adoption, partial adoption, dis-adoption or non-adoption. While these may serve for pragmatic classification and measures for project success or impact they fail to properly acknowledge the ongoing and independent efforts of farmers (and others) in experimentation and integration of knowledge across a range of sources. This paper explores responses to practices for cattle management introduced during a research project, at project close, and five years after the project has finished. We consider the perceptions and application of new knowledge by farmers, extension staff, and policy makers. By taking a longer-term view, we demonstrate how farming households adapt and integrate knowledge from different sources into their daily practice, influenced by local institutions and changing cultural expectations, as well as external researchers. We also consider the influence of changing government priorities and incentives in steering farm-management decisions. Results suggest that a focus on measures to build capacity and empower farmers with information to adapt and respond to change, regardless of project activities, is a much more important goal and indicator of impact than measuring adoption.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 107 Document Number: C10126
Notes:
search from AgEcon., American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, August 2-5, 1998, Salt Lake City, Utah. 5 pages; Adobe Acrobat PDF 18K bytes, Selected Paper Session SP - 6R Adoption of Technology in Developing Countries Abstract/Description: These
papers move beyond the questions of who adopts technologies to ask how preferences for characteristics (of maize in Mexico or cattle in Burkina Faso) affect adoption and how technical change differentially affects semi-subsistence farmers and how it affects productivity and yield variability. Modeling the Impacts of Soil Conservation on Productivity and Yield Variability: Evidence From a Heteroskedastic Switching Regression Gerald Shively, Purdue University Selecting Genetic Traits for Cattle Improvement: Preservation of Disease Resistant Cattle in Africa Kouadio Tano, University of Abidjan; Merle Faminow, University of Manitoba Variety Characteristics and the Land Allocation Decisions of Farmers in a Center of Maize Diversity Melinda Smale, Maricio Bellon, and Alfonso Aguirre The Distributional Impacts of Farm Policy in Semi-subsistence Agriculture Garth Holloway and Nermin Akyil, AERI
Williams, Brian R. (author), Raper, Kellie Curry (author), DeVuyst, Eric A. (author), Peel, Derrell (author), Lalman, David (author), Richards, Chris (author), and Doye, Damona (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2013-12
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 140 Document Number: D06068
DeVuyst, Eric A. (author), Williams, Brian R. (author), Raper, Kellie Curry (author), Peel, Derrell (author), Lalman, David (author), Richards, Chris (author), and Doye, Damona (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2012-02
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 184 Document Number: D00245
Notes:
Paper presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting, Birmingham, Alabama, February 4-7, 2012. Via AgEcon Search. 21 pages.
