Competing models of innovation informing agricultural extension, such as transfer of technology, participatory extension and technology development, and innovation systems have been proposed over the last decades. These approaches are often presented as antagonistic or even mutually exclusive. This article shows how practitioners in a rural innovation system draw on different aspects of all three models, while creating a distinct local practice and discourse. We revisit and deepen the critique of Vietnam’s “model” approach to upland rural development, voiced a decade ago in this journal.
Asian agriculture is faced with major new challenges as a result of globalisation, urbanisation and environmental problems such as climate change. To meet these challenges, Asian agriculture needs to become more knowledge intensive and innovation oriented. This article frames the new Asian challenge in terms of innovation theory, emphasising the importance of the co-evolution of technological and institutional change and linkages between actors in open, interactive innovation processes.
Droughts are causing severe damages to tropical countries worldwide. Although water abundant, their resilience to water shortages during dry periods is often low. As there is little knowledge about tropical drought characteristics, reliable methodologies to evaluate drought risk in data scarce tropical regions are needed.
This study analyses the impact of the transfer of technological information (among other a priori identified factors) on the uptake of innovative crop technologies using structural equation modelling of data from a representative survey of Scottish crop farmers. The model explains 83% of the variance in current technological uptake behaviour and 63% of the variance in intentions to uptake new technologies.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) financed the second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project (CHARMP2), in areas where poverty is most severe among indigenous peoples in the highlands of the Cordillera Region in northern Philippines. The aim is to reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of indigenous peoples living in farming communities in the mountainous project area. The indigenous peoples consist of many tribes whose main economic activity is agriculture.
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) and short organic supply chains have emerged as promising solutions for smallholder farmers to provide organic produce to nearby consumers. PGS is an institutional innovation that builds trust among producers, traders and consumers through a low-cost transparent and participatory certification mechanism. They have particularly gained a foothold among smallholder farmers in middle- income countries, where third-party certification costs are often unaffordable.
Rural advisory services (RAS) can play an important role in addressing gender inequalities. However, RAS programmes have often fallen short of expectations to design and implement relevant services to help rural women and men achieve food security and generate more income. This paper is based on an examination of a broad selection of existing literature on gender-sensitive RAS. It looks at gender-differentiated barriers in access to RAS and challenges of effectively targeting women family farmers when delivering these services.
Este libro guía pretende presentar una visión completa sobre la roya del café, desde el agente causal (hongo), su forma de vida, reproducción e incidencia en el cultivo de café, las interacciones y la discusión de cómo inciden los factores ambientales en el desarrollo de la enfermedad hasta llegar a convertirse en una epidemia. Entender estas interacciones es determinante para el trabajo no solo del personal técnico que brinda capacitación y asistencia técnica, sino también para las familias productoras que toman las decisiones de manejo durante los ciclos productivos.
El propósito del presente documento es evidenciar de manera gráfica la propuesta metodológica y conceptual de gestión del conocimiento del Programa Agroambiental Mesoamericano (MAP). Se ilustra el proceso de implementación de las ECAS en tres diferentes proyectos del MAP: Cacao Centroamérica (PCC), Manejo Sostenible de
Este trabajo da cuenta de las diferencias y similitudes de los enfoques de extensión rural que han utilizado la universidad de caldas y la Asociación Hortifrutícola de colombia (Asohofrucol), durante los últimos seis años, con productores de mora de los municipios de Aranzazu y manzanares (caldas).