There is great untapped potential for farm mechanization to support rural development initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. As technology transfer of large machinery from high-income countries was ineffective during the 1980s and 90s, mechanization options were developed appropriate to resource poor farmers cultivating small and scattered plots. More recently, projects that aim to increase the adoption of farm machinery have tended to target service providers rather than individual farmers.
In the context of an exponential rise in access to information in the last two decades, this special issue explores when and how information might be harnessed to improve governance and public service delivery in rural areas. Information is a critical component of government and citizens’ decision-making; therefore, improvements in its availability and reliability stand to benefit many dimensions of governance, including service delivery.
The Agro-innovation Broker (AIB) concept was introduced by the European Commission solely to increase the vast spread of innovative solutions in Agriculture. The concept can be perceived as an intermediary between the demand and supply of agricultural research and extension services. This paper’s results are derived from the international research work that aims to develop a training curriculum in the field of agricultural innovation services with effective materials to boost capacity building actions in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE).
El objetivo del presente trabajo fue identificar los principales problemas ambientales en relación al aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales y los conflictos ambientales que se viven en el municipio de Álamos.Metodológicamente la investigación se soporta en la evaluación rural participativa.
La literatura señala que la innovación tiene como base el conocimiento, para promover cambios que generen mayores beneficios en las empresas. En este trabajo, se analiza el nivel de adopción de innovaciones y los factores asociados en 94 empresas familiares agropecuarias y agroindustriales mexicanas, participantes en una capacitación enfocada en aspectos técnicos, administrativos, organizacionales y familiares. Se encuestó al 63% de estas empresas y se analizó la información a través de indicadores de innovación, comparación de medias y correlaciones.
Many smallholder farmers in developing countries grow multiple crop species on their farms, maintaining de facto crop diversity. Rarely do agricultural development strategies consider this crop diversity as an entry point for fostering agricultural innovation. This paper presents a case study, from an agricultural research-for-development project in northern Ghana, which examines the relationship between crop diversity and self-consumption of food crops, and cash income from crops sold by smallholder farmers in the target areas.
This study uses 344 women and men survey respondents involved in conservation agriculture (CA) and small-scale irrigation schemes (SSIS) as data sources for examining the effect of gendered constraints for adopting climate-smart agriculture amongst women in three areas in Ethiopia. Qualitative and quantitative data collections were applied using survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's chi-square test and binary logistic regression using statistical software for the social sciences (SPSS) version 24.
Growing empirical evidence suggests that innovation platforms can be effective in enhancing agricultural research impact by creating an enabling environment for scaling of innovations such as novel technologies, practices and busines models . However, efforts to understand how these innovation platforms operate to scale innovations are insufficient. Such knowledge is critical for improving the design of agricultural innovation systems, specifically within the context of a rising interest in the innovation platform approach to support the transformation of agriculture across Africa.
Relying on cross-sectional data from 300 smallholder rice farmers, the study examined the effects of agricultural extension on improved rice variety adoption and farm income in northern Ghana. A recursive bivariate probit (RBP) model was used to assess the effect of agricultural extension on adoption while regression with endogenous treatment effect model (RETEM) was adopted to evaluate the effect of agricultural extension on farm income. The results indicate a statistically significant effect of agricultural extension on both adoption and farm income.
There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality.