Agricultural Economics (Amsterdam, Netherlands), The study aims to track adoption of improved chickpea varieties, and assess their on-farm benefits in some remote and backward tribal villages in Gujarat, India, where few newly developed varieties were introduced by a non-government organization. It also determines key factors which were influencing their adoption. The study found that adoption of improved chickpea varieties was gradually increasing by replacing a prominent local variety. Duration of crop maturity, farm size, yield risk, and farmers' experience of growing chickpea crop were significantly influencing their adoption. The on-farm benefits as a result of improved varieties were realized in terms of increased yield levels, higher income and labor productivity, more marketable surplus, price premium and stabilized yields in fluctuating weather. Breeding short duration varieties with stable yield levels under varying weather, and organizing seed multiplication and dissemination in regions, where moisture stress is a problem during maturity of chickpea, are the major suggestions.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 95 Document Number: C07405
Notes:
INTERPAKS, Mimeographed, 1985. 16 p., Outlines the proposed project of the Government of Malawi for agricultural produce marketing. The objectives of the project are to: 1) improve the timeliness and effectiveness of management information; 2) improve export market intelligence and identify alternative market opportunities for existing and new crops; 3) reduce the high degree of crop losses due to inadequate storage infrastructure; 4) improve the operational effectiveness of ADMARC as a produce marketing organization; 5) increase the economic efficiency of produce and farm input transportation; and 6) improve the monitoring and evaluation of the ADMARC investments and operations to rationalize the activities of the corporation.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 47 Document Number: B05712
Notes:
In T. M. Arndt, D. G. Dalrymple, and V. W. Ruttan (Eds.), Resource allocation and productivity in national and international agricultural research. Minneaspolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 209-236.
12 pages, via online journal, Since the rice crisis of 2007, the government of Benin has initiated many programmes for rice intensification. Comparison of three rice production areas shows that local rice production has indeed been increased by the facilities provided by the government programmes. Although broadly the same facilities (market outlet, credit, input, etc.) were provided to rice farmers in the three study areas, which are located close to one another, there are not only similar, but also some different outcomes with regard to farmers' practices. There were also some unexpected changes, like the shift from limited collective canal cleaning to individual canal cleaning in Koussin-Lélé and the use of pumps in upland areas in Bamè. The study explores the interplay between these external interventions of government programmes and local actions of farmers to explain the outcomes. Using an actor-oriented perspective, the study concludes that farmers' agency played a critical role in the success of interventions; the changes occurred because of local actions of the farmers and intermediaries interacting with the external interventions at diverse junctures. Differences in strategies for resolving livelihood problems, in production options and biophysical conditions influence farmers' local actions and contribute to the explanation of the diversity of outcomes. The main lesson drawn from this research is that evaluation studies should not consider external interventions as the only or primary source of change. The dynamic interplay between local agency, intermediation and external interventions makes room for change.
