In the light of ongoing debates about the suitability of proprietary seed technologies for smallholder farmers, this paper analyzes the adoption and impact of hybrid wheat in India. Based on survey data, we show that farmers can benefit significantly from the proprietary technology. Neither farm size nor the subsistence level influences the adoption decision, but access to information and credit does. Moreover, willingness-to-pay analysis reveals that adoption levels would be higher if seed prices were reduced.
This paper reviews the extension curricula currently followed in universities in India at different levels in light of the new challenges faced by farmers, the new capacities needed among extension personnel to address these challenges, new trends in the job market and advances made in the field of extension.
The agribusiness incubator in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India is the result of a partnership between the Indian government and an international crop-research organization that is a member of CGIAR, a global partnership of organizations seeking a food-secure future. As the incubator has developed, it has become relatively independent of its founders, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Indian government s Department of Science and Technology.
En esta sección se retrata como se hace y vive la agroecología en un contexto campesino rural. Desde una comunidad en las Lomas del Escambray (prov. Villa Clara) se intenta transmitir el corazón y la energía de la agroecología en Cuba, a la vez que mostrar el funcionamiento del MACAC, las prácticas cotidianas y las reflexiones de los/as protagonistas.
Promover, apoyar y colaborar con el pequeño productor para incentivar su acceso a los mercados. Con este objetivo, dieciséis participantes de las diferentes áreas involucradas en la cadena productiva agropecuaria de la región de América Central y México compartieron sus experiencias e identificaron acciones y actores clave en el Seminario-Taller. A lo largo de tres días se conocieron diversas iniciativas que permitieron formular nuevos retos y conclusiones en torno a la cadena productiva.
The agro-ecosystem is a system composed of population, natural resources and economic activities related in a dynamic interaction in terms of socio-ecological and socio-economic relations conditioned by endogenous and exogenous factors. With time, the agro-ecosystem undergoes changes. By analysing the agro-ecosystem dynamics over a period of time, we can plan the agro-ecosystem for higher level of production and productivity, achieving higher level of resource use and environmental efficiency and maximise food security as well as livelihood security.
The purposes of this course are to review the major reforms being considered internationally that aim to change the policy and institutional structure and operations of public sector agricultural extension systems, and to examine the advantages and disadvantages of each of these reforms as illustrated by the selected case studies. Aside from the introductory chapter, the course is organized into nine modules, which are conceived as part of a larger framework.
This publication contains twelve modules which cover a selection of major reform measures in agricultural extension being promulgated and implemented internationally, such as linking farmers to markets, making advisory services more demand-driven, promoting pluralistic advisory systems, and enhancing the role of advisory services within agricultural innovation systems.
This chapter examines the current state of agricultural extension reforms and their linkages to the agricultural research system reforms in India and identifies the policy options and strategic priorities for making it relevant, responsive, and efficient. It explores how the National Agriculture Research Systems (NARS) responded with its own set of reforms that were sought to increase its relevance and its linkages to the extension system reforms.
In an endeavor to promote agricultural innovation, the Government of India introduced two pieces of legislation: (i) the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, which provide for the registration of traditional crop varieties as farmers' varieties, and for the sharing of benefits when those varieties are incorporated into new commercial varieties; and (ii) the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999, which provides for the registration of indications to promote the marketing of goods which derive their quality and characteristics from th