17 pages, via online journal, The greatest challenge now facing agricultural science is not how to increase production overall but how to enable resource-poor farmers to produce more.
The transfer-of-technology (TOT) model of agricultural research is part of the normal professionalism of agricultural scientists. In this model, scientists largely determine research priorities, develop technologies in controlled conditions, and then hand them over to agricultural extension to transfer to farmers. Although strong structures and incentives sustain this normal professionalism, many now recognise the challenge of its bad fit with the needs and conditions of hundreds of millions of resource-poor farm (RPF) families. In response to this problem, the TOT model has been adapted and extended through multi-disciplinary farming systems research (FSR) and on-farm trials. These responses retain power in the hands of scientists. Information is obtained from farmers and processed and analysed in order to identify what might be good for them. A missing element is methods to encourage and enable resource-poor farmers themselves to meet and work out what they need and want.
Reid, Robert L. (author) and Viskochil, Larry A. (author)
Format:
Book
Publication Date:
1989
Published:
USA: University of Illinois Press, Urbana, and Chicago Historical Society.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C26617
Notes:
194 pages., "The book illustrates the way in which this programme of documentation not only informed and motivated the public and the government but also contributed to the acceptance of photography as art form."
Coward, E. Walter, Jr. (author), Gansemer, L. (author), and Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1972
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 26 Document Number: B02651
Notes:
See B02289 for original; Phase 1, In: Communication for change with the rural disadvantaged : a workshop. Washington, D.C. : National Academy of Sciences, 1972. p. 98-103
Hawkins, H.S. (author), Webb, C.G., eds. (author), and School of Agriculture & Forestry, University of Melbourne; Department of Agriculture, Treasury Gardens, Melbourne
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1974
Published:
Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 26 Document Number: B02659
Notes:
Melbourne, Australia : a joint publication of the School of Agriculture & Forestry University of Melbourne and the Department of Agriculture, Victoria, Australia, 1974. 135 p. (Number 10)
