Participatory approaches have been discussed as alternatives to and complementary elements of more conventional research on sustainable land use and rural development in upland areas of Southeast Asia. Following a brief overview of the history of participatory approaches (Sect. 9.1), this chapter discusses the potential and limitations of applying Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools to field research practice in Vietnam (Sect. 9.2) and of involving stakeholders in priority setting, modeling and environmental valuation in the Southeast Asian uplands (Sect. 9.3).
Although many agronomic researchers currently focus on designing and developing decision support systems, they rarely discuss the methodological implications of such work. In this paper, with the examples of two decision support systems, we propose methodological elements for conducting the participatory design of such tools. The authors proposition aims at building dialogue between designers and users but also between humans, tools and work situations.
The general aims of this chapter are to provide an overview of the historical development of rural advisory and knowledge provision in Vietnam, and how legal frameworks have changed over time, demonstrate how more client-centered extension approaches can be translated and utilized at the field level, and focus on examples of novel approaches to knowledge generation and diffusion, those currently evolving due to initiatives driven by state, private and NGO actors, or developed within the framework of the Uplands Program.
Under the guidance of the agricultural system theory, operational research theory and decision-making support system theory, the regional agricultural development decision support system (RADDSS) was developed in this study ,in which different analysis method and models was integrated. By providing data, right models and analysis methods, RADDSS can assist decision-makers and administrators to solve half-structured and unstructured problems, improving level of management on agriculture. The agriculture in Xuchang has been analyzed using the system constructed in this study.
With the commercialization of agriculture, women are increasingly disadvantaged because of persistent gender disparities in access to productive resources. Farmer collective action that intends to improve smallholder access to markets and technology could potentially accelerate this trend. Here, we use survey data of small-scale banana producers in Kenya to investigate the gender implications of recently established farmer groups. Traditionally, banana has been a women’s crop in Kenya. Our results confirm that the groups contribute to increasing male control over banana.
In order to facilitate improved returns to research and development in African agriculture, the innovation systems approach which engenders the involvement of multiple stakeholders in its innovation pathway, has been proposed. Despite the potential of this approach, the understanding of its implementation and particularly of the process of setting up its multi-stakeholder platform is still largely lacking. Yet, this platform is critical to the success and sustainability of the operations of the platform.
The paper uses a stochastic frontier analysis of production functions to estimate the level of technical efficiency in agriculture for a panel of 29 developing countries in Africa and Asia between 1994 and 2000. In addition, the paper examines how different components of an agricultural innovation system interact to determine the estimated technical inefficiencies.The paper has been presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Birmingham, AL, February 4-7, 2012.
This presentation argues the need of green growth in agriculture, analyzes features of the innovation systems and ends with some policies practices. The presentation has been prepared for "Innovation and Modernising the Rural Economy", OECD’s 8th Rural Development Policy Conference, 3-5 October 2012 (Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation).
Cette étude a été menée dans le cadre du projet PAEPARD ou Plateforme pour un partenariat Afrique-Europe dans le domaine de la recherche agricole pour le développement, projet financé à 80% par la Commission européenne avec pour objectif de consolider la collaboration entre l’Afrique et l’Europe dans le domaine de la Recherche Agricole pour le Développement.
Innovations in the agri-food sector are needed to create a sustainable food supply. Sustainable food supply requires unexpectedly that densely populated regions remain food producers. A Dutch innovation program has aimed at showing the way forward through creating a number of practice and scientific projects. Generic lessons from the scientific projects in this program are likely to be of interest to agricultural innovation in other densely populated regions in the world.