10 pages, via online journal, Model farmers are a common feature of many developing world agricultural extension networks within which they demonstrate new cultivation techniques and technologies to local communities. The diverse political-economic and socio-cultural roles that such farmers assume, however, are rarely afforded critical scrutiny. To do so, we emphasise the ways in which model farmers facilitate not only the production and transfer of knowledge but also of materials and legitimacy. These transfers occur both horizontally to community members and vertically through linkages with extension agents, research institutions and private sector interests. We establish how these transfers have important impacts upon both efficiency and equity. To illustrate, we use examples of model farmers drawn from research on hybrid rice dissemination in Mandya district, Karnataka. Despite having the same official functions within the extension network, the model farmers we surveyed assumed strongly different roles with notable implications for the effectiveness of knowledge transfer alongside equity considerations.
Jain, Nemi C. (author / Michigan State University, East Lansing) and Amend, Edwin H. (author / Michigan State University, East Lansing)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
1969-04-24
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 145 Document Number: C22644
Notes:
A contributed paper for the 17th annual NSSC Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, April 24-26, 1969, In the process of research dissemination and utilization, three social systems are identified: the research system, the linking system, and the client system. In each of these three social systems, three information handling processes (namely information input, information processing, and information output) are discussed. In light of these three information handling processes, communication patterns and their interrelationships in the three systems are examined. Nine interrelated categories of communication patterns are formulated to provide a framework which could be used for analyzing, both theoretically and empirically, the communication processes and patterns that are involved in the dissemination and utilization of research results.
