1 - 9 of 9
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. Agricultural extension: criteria to determine its visibility and accountability in resource poor communities
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Hlatshwayo, P. P. K. (author) and Worth, S.H. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-08-08
- Published:
- South Africa: African Journals Online
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12673
- Journal Title:
- South African Journal of Agricultural Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 47, N. 2
- Notes:
- 8 pages, Agricultural extension can be defined as the entire set of organisations that support and facilitate people engaged in agricultural production to solve problems and to obtain information, skills and technologies to improve their livelihoods and well-being. Extension officials should ensure that farmers are engaged and capacitated so that they can make production decisions that are not in conflict with nature, yet such decisions ensure that their well-being is improved. With 75% of the world’s poor living in rural areas, the topic of improved agriculture through agricultural extension is viewed as central to poverty reduction. There have been questions posed by stakeholders (communities, policy-makers and politicians) about the non-visibility and accountability of agricultural extension in the communities that it is supposed to help. There are however a number of factors (perceived or real) that make agricultural extension less or not visible nor accountable. Therefore, this paper investigates and proposes a theoretical framework or model to ensure that agricultural extension is visible and accountable to all stakeholders. This will in turn ensure that there are noticeable increases or improvement of the lives of the resource poor farmers and communities.
3. Analysing agricultural innovation systems: a multilevel mixed methods approach
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Konig, Bettina (author), Kuntosch, Anett (author), Bokelmann, Wolfgang (author), Doernberg, Alexandra (author), Schwerdtner, Wim (author), Busse, Maria (author), Siebert, Rosemarie (author), Koschatzky, Knut (author), and Stahlbecker, Thomas (author)
- Format:
- Paper
- Publication Date:
- 2012-09
- Published:
- Germany
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 187 Document Number: D01144
- Notes:
- Paper presented at the 131st EAAE Seminar, "Innovation for agricultural competitiveness and sustainability of rural areas," Prague, Czech Republic, September 18-19, 2012. 17 pages.
4. Fighting hunger together: a case of women farmers' participation in women groups in Mwala Division, Kenya
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Karaya, Rebecca Njoki (author), Onyango, Christopher A. (author), and Amudavi, David M. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2013-09
- Published:
- Kenya
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 190 Document Number: D02388
- Journal Title:
- International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 3(3) : 189-200
5. Food security - What role for Extension?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Blum, Magdalena (author)
- Format:
- Presentation
- Publication Date:
- 2013
- Published:
- International: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 146 Document Number: D11569
- Notes:
- 22 pages., Presentation at the annual conference of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension (SASAE), June 3-7, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. 22 pages., Presenter concluded that new innovative capacities are needed at all levels of capacity development. Recommendations included continuous adaptation to change, linking stakeholders in the innovation system, and considering farmers' own innovative processes.
6. Human Development and Food Sovereignty: A Step Closer to Achieving Food Security in South Africa's Rural Households
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Mbajiorgu, Grace (author)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Publication Date:
- unknown
- Published:
- South Africa: SAGE Journals
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11873
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Asian and African Studies
- Journal Title Details:
- Volume 55 pgs. 330-350
- Notes:
- 20 pages, Food security strategies are determined by the prevailing realities within households and communities. Therefore, it is not surprising that in South Africa agricultural transformation is an important food security strategy. This article examines the role of human development and food sovereignty in fostering conditions that enable rural households to enhance their food security capabilities. Using an in-depth analysis of literature, national, regional and international instruments, this article takes its departure from the fact that subsistence agriculture is an effective strategy for improving household food needs when implemented within the broader human rights framework of human development. The results reveal that agriculture has the potential to increase household food security if appropriate agricultural technologies and productive resources such as land are made accessible to households. Further, for agriculture to attain optimal efficiency as a food security strategy, policies on agrarian transformation should be implemented within broader social development programmes.
7. Impacts of adoption of improved wheat technologies on households' food consumption in southeastern Ethiopia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Mulugeta, Tsegaye (author) and Hundie, Bekele (author)
- Format:
- Paper
- Publication Date:
- 2012-08
- Published:
- Ethiopia
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 187 Document Number: D00966
- Notes:
- Paper presented at the International Association of Agricultural Economists triennial conference, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, August 18-24, 2012. 20 pages.
8. Learning from experts and peer farmers about rice production: experimental evidence from Cote d’Ivoire
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Takahashi, Kazushi (author), Mano, Yukichi (author), and Otsuka, Keijiro (author)
- Format:
- Journal article abstract
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10534
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 122: 157-169
- Notes:
- 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.
9. Where do smallholder farmers get their information? an exploration of the sources of agricultural information in northwest Cambodia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Nickens, Presley (author), Ader, David (author), Enriquez, Jean Pierre (author), Bates, Ricky (author), Gill, Tom (author), Huot, Sovanneary (author), Hok, Lyda (author), and Pao, Srean (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2023-08-29
- Published:
- USA: New Prairie Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12943
- Journal Title:
- Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education
- Journal Title Details:
- V.30, Iss.2
- Notes:
- 15 pages, A significant emphasis on scaling up food security efforts is needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) by 2030. Scaling up sustainable intensification efforts for Cambodian smallholder farmers is key since they face greater exposure to the uncertainties of climate change, globalizing markets, and rural-to-urban migration. One way to increase the effectiveness of efforts and the scaling up of sustainable intensification technologies is through improving access to information about production and marketing technologies. This study aimed to identify sources of information about sustainable technologies available to smallholders and barriers that may be preventing adoption. Information was gathered from a household survey to document the sources of agricultural information for smallholders in Northwest Cambodia. This research suggests Cambodian smallholders are receiving agricultural extension services, however, the overall quality and effectiveness of these messages are unknown, since NGOs with competing foci are the primary provider of extension information. Smallholders face significant barriers that prevent the adoption of sustainable technologies and participation in markets, such as low price for goods, poor product quality, lack of time, and concerns for safety. Future endeavors to strengthen the price of goods and alleviate market-related challenges would likely result in increased smallholder income and food availability.