18 pages, This paper presents the findings of challenges facing Zimbabwe’s extension services and how these have affected the adoption of technologies they render to small-scale farmers. This study uses a critical review of relevant literature on Zimbabwe’s primary public extension agency (AGRITEX). Additionally, 21 key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted to corroborate data collected in secondary research on extension approaches currently in use, the key factors affecting technology adoption, and the technology adoption process of small-scale farmers. The study found AGRITEX’s major challenges to be poor funding, poor remuneration and incentives for extension personnel, lack of in-service training, lack of appropriate technology, as well as poor operational resources like transport to reach all farmers. Consequently, services offered to small-scale farmers were compromised, which led to poor adoption of recommended technologies. Furthermore, the study determined that key factors influencing technology adoption are related to the farmers’ circumstances, the operating environment, and the attributes of technology itself. As a lasting solution to poor technology adoption, an adaptive extension system that promotes building the capacity of extension workers and researchers, as well as embracing farmers and their indigenous knowledge, is proposed
8 pages, Does it matter whether farmers receive advice on pest management strategies from public or from private (pesticide company affiliated) extension services? We use survey data from 733 Swiss fruit growers who are currently contending with an infestation by an invasive pest, the fruit fly Drosophila Suzukii. We find that farmers who are advised by public extension services are more likely (+9–10%) to use preventive measures (e.g. nets) while farmers who are advised by private extension services are more likely (+8–9%) to use synthetic insecticides. These results are robust to the inclusion of various covariates, ways to cluster standard errors, and inverse probability weighting. We also show that our results are unlikely to be driven by omitted variable bias. Our findings have implications for the current debates on both the ongoing privatization of agricultural extension and concerns regarding negative environmental and health externalities of pesticide use.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 95 Document Number: C07349
Notes:
Evans, see C07346-C07352, In: Cernea, M.M., J.K. Coulter, and J.F.A. Russell (eds.) Research, extension, farmer : a two-way continuum for agricultural development. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1985. p. 34-41
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C09741
Notes:
National Association of Farm Broadcasters Archives, University of Illinois. NAFB Publications Series No. 8/3/89. Box No. 2. Contact http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/ or Documentation Center, Official Historian's Records 22 : 70
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 63 Document Number: C02219
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, Warwickshire, England : Royal Agricultural Society of England, National Agricultural Centre, 1987. 196 p. (Monograph Series No. 6)
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 173 Document Number: C29245
Notes:
Via KCET and "Documenting the Face of America" web site. 3 pages., Announcement and summary of a documentary about "the legendary group of New Deal-sponsored photographers who traversed the country in the 1930s and early 1940s to capture some of the most iconic images in history."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 67 Document Number: D10744
Notes:
Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's Memorandum No. 1798, signed by Earl Butz. 4 pages., Establishes the Department of Communication, USDA. Memorandum involves responsibilities, delegations of authority, and immediate actions to be taken. Replaces the current Office of Information.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 97 Document Number: C07830
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Marketing Service, United States Department of Agriculture, January 1993. 21 p. (7 CFR Chapter XI, part 1220)
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 147 Document Number: C23506
Notes:
Time/CNN from Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, Westport, CT, via http://poll.orspub.com/poll/ 1 page., Responses in a national survey to a question inviting views about whether some portions of the federal government, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, should be moved to other cities elsewhere in the country.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 97 Document Number: C07988
Notes:
James F Evans Collection; Table of Contents and Executive Summary only, The Hague: International Service for National Agricultural Research, 1991. 67 p.
