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 is part of the H2020 project AgriLink “Agricultural Knowledge: Linking farmers, advisors and researchers to boost innovation”. It presents and develops the concept of ‘microAKIS’, i.e. the micro knowledge- and innovation-system that farmers personally assemble to manage their agricultural practices and ensure sustainability.
The latest comprehensive research agenda in the Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension was published in 2012 (Faure, Desjeux, and Gasselin 2012), and since then there have been quite some developments in terms of biophysical, ecological, climatological, social, political and economic trends that impact farming and the transformation of agriculture and food systems at large as well as new potentially disruptive technologies.
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.
In theory, under the federal structure agricultural extension services can serve communities better as it aims to be client responsive and accountable to its consumers at the village level. However, poor understanding of federalism that has only recently emerged from the persisting centralized and feudal conceptions, limited practices of democratic norms and values primarily due to the lack of understanding of local governance, and limited commitment of political actors and policy makers to federalism, may derail the good intentions behind federalism.
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.
This presentation at the GCARD Montpellier, in March 2010, focuses on the Danish model for agricultural advisory services.
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.