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1.
Abstract

Purpose: This article outlines the development of extension as a discipline in Australia, its organization, and the ideological changes that have occurred from the second half of the nineteenth century through to the present.

Design/Methodology/Approach: It considers the evolution of extension across the different states of Australia from a national perspective and describes how the research development and extension (RD&E) complex has rotated through cycles of crises, highs, awakenings in thought and practice, and periods where achievements and institutions unravel.

Findings: Discussed is the tension between public and private sector extension, as well as the successes and failures of various paradigms. It considers the impacts of different agricultural policy on Australian agricultural RD&E across the decades. In particular it deals with the current ‘unravelling’ of the agricultural RD&E system in Australia, and tries to anticipate future demands on agricultural extension and how these services might be delivered into the future.

Practical Implications: The article challenges the reader to consider the discipline of extension as a subset of the greater society in which it exists. It provides an insight into how the agricultural research, development and extension capacity of a nation can be observed to ebb and flow over generations in accord with the rhythm of society.

Originality/Value: The article presents a perspective that has not been fully captured or understood until now.  相似文献   

2.
Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of farmer-oriented policies as regards the Iranian agricultural extension system. Methodology: To fulfill this objective, a Delphi technique was utilized. The study used a series of three steps, engaging a panel of experts on farmer-oriented policies of agricultural extension system. Finding: The characteristics of farmer-oriented policies in agricultural extension system were classified into six categories including: need-based programs, proper interaction among stakeholders, decentralization and higher stakeholders’ participation, enabling stakeholders with emphasis on smallholder farmers, market-oriented programs and integrated policies. The findings indicated that ‘enabling farmers to solve their technical problems’ and ‘engaging farmers in planning, executing and evaluating of the programs’ had the highest percentage of agreement. Theoretical implication: From a theoretical point of view, the finding of this research has introduced six categories as characteristics of a farmer-oriented policy that could have practical implications for agricultural extension system in Iran. Also, this paper proposes a framework for future studies in the field of farmer-oriented policies in agricultural extension system. Practical implications: Recognizing the characteristics of farmer-oriented intervention of agricultural extension shows that targeted extension approaches are needed to pay attention to these characteristics in various stages of planning, delivering and evaluation of extension programs. Originality/value: This paper provides a comprehensive list of characteristics of farmer-oriented policies of agricultural extension that can be helpful for agricultural policy-makers in devising programs of extension services.  相似文献   

3.
Books Received     
Abstract

This paper analyses the organizational, financial and technological incentives that service organizations used to motivate farmers to finance agricultural research and extension in Benin. Understanding the foundations and implications of these motivation systems is important for improving farmer financial participation in agricultural research and extension.

We studied three cases of farmer financial participation in the field of agricultural research and extension in Benin. We conducted semi-structured interviews with leaders of service organizations and farmers’ associations, local authorities and individual farmers. Our interviews focused on service delivery systems, mechanisms of farmers’ financial contribution, the functioning of farmers’ associations, and the appropriateness of services provided. We performed thematic and comparative analyses at the interfaces between (1) service providers and partner–farmer associations, (2) service providers and delivered services, and (3) farmers/farmers’ associations and services.

Incentives for farmer financial participation are the increasing participation strategy, the fulfillment of farmers’ needs and the local leadership valorization. The selection and combination of their variants determine the motivating capacity and orientation of service organizations. Conversely to the increasing participation strategy, an effective fulfillment of farmers’ needs and local leadership valorization can lead to sustainable motivation. As the fulfillment of farmers’ needs determines importantly the effectiveness and sustainability of farmers’ motivation, the strategies of farmer financial participation are likely to fail if there are no successful agricultural technological incentives.

In the current context of privatization of agricultural services in developing countries, this analytical framework is of interest for policy makers and development workers for identifying conditions of farmer financial participation and designing effective motivation strategies.  相似文献   

4.
Abstract

In Vietnam, agricultural extension has contributed to rural development and poverty alleviation over the past two decades of agricultural decollectivization, but it was not very effective in reducing disparities within farmer communities. The study examined how better interactions of extension services with other agencies and information sources may help marginal farmers in catching up with the general improvement of living conditions in a mountainous area in northern Vietnam. It combined three complementary viewpoints on this issue: that of the agricultural extension staff, that of farmers and that of development experts with a long working experience in the mountains of Vietnam. The analysis of existing structures and functions of the extension system revealed a number of obstacles to the participation of marginal farmers in extension programmes and helped to identify relevant domains of intervention.  相似文献   

5.
Abstract

Changes in education and agriculture in South Africa indicate that agricultural extension practitioners should facilitate continuous learning among farmers. This requires that extension practitioners acquire new skills. To provide these skills requires a critical examination of agricultural extension curricula in the light of South Africa's educational, agricultural and rural development policies with a view to rewriting extension curricula. An initial theoretical examination of extension education in the light of South African education policy yields seven learning outcome indicators encapsulating theory and practice in: 1) theory and practice in problem solving; 2) collect, analyse, organize and critically evaluate information relevant to his extension responsibilities; 3) theory and practice in Participatory Technology Development and innovation; 4) theory and practice in systems (systems thinking), including beyond farm systems; 5) theory and practice in learning facilitation; 6) theory and practice in participatory ‘curriculum’ (extension outcomes, content and process) development; and 7) theory and practice in learning and learning styles. Tertiary institutions and other stakeholders can use these indicators to examine and continuously adjust curricula to ensure extension practitioners are equipped to deliver relevant support to farmers as the agricultural landscape changes.  相似文献   

6.
Abstract

A universal goal of extension agents is the attainment of voluntary behaviour change in clients. Learning skills are critical to individuals that seek effective outcomes from behaviour change experiences. This paper reports on a study that estimated the cognitive changes occurring among a group of farmers, consultants and scientists in New Zealand. A model of the learning process directed the research. This model identifies two distinct components to learning: grasping information through conceptualisation or experience, and: transformation of information into knowledge, through reflection or experimentation. Individual clients are grouped into one of four distinct learning styles depending on the way they grasp information and transform it into knowledge. Research results detected learning preference and belief differences among the farmers, consultants and scientists in the group. The study suggests learning research methods assist extension agents plan and negotiate the specific behaviour changes that clients seek by implementing strategies that use learning preference and belief data. Researchers can improve approaches to technology development by exploring client needs using communication method's compatible with client learning preferences.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract

This study was designed to investigate changes in farming and to look at how farmers adapt to diverse changes in and around their farms in the province of Esfahan, Iran. It is part of a larger project aimed at developing a job competency profile for agricultural extension instructors (AEIs). One hundred and two farmers who had previously followed extension courses in the province of Esfahan were interviewed. The findings demonstrate that a large number of farmers in the target group who are older, married, have low education levels, are smallholders and lack adequate job diversity on their farms. The study revealed that these farmers have experienced sluggish internal and external agricultural change, and they are generally more positive about internal changes than external ones. Respondents designated ‘extension courses’, ‘individual farm visits by official extension agents’ and ‘trial and error’, respectively as their three main learning strategies (LS) to help them adapt to the various changes. The results also indicate that older and more poorly educated farmers have more problems in adopting different LS.  相似文献   

8.
Purpose: This paper examines extension practises of agricultural workers within the Egyptian government and the perceived barriers they face in implementing participatory approaches, identifying improvements required in research and extension processes to meet the real needs of Egyptian farming communities.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Key barriers for engaging in participatory extension were identified using content analysis of semi-structured interviews, surveys and focus group discussion of 37 government agricultural workers along with participant observation and review of existing literature.

Findings: The majority of workers surveyed understood basic participatory extension principles and desired to use these approaches. Changing from traditional ‘top down’ extension to systems that engage with farmers' needs at the community level is made difficult due to the aging and poorly functioning Village Extension Worker (VEW) network. Thus, it is far easier for the research driven extension programmes to use technology transfer models.

Practical Implications: Participatory extension relies on strong relationship building and open communication between farmers, extension workers, researchers, interest groups and policy-makers. The Egyptian government must properly establish and resource the pivotal role of VEWs within the extension system to meet its strategic aims of modernising agriculture, developing food security and improving the livelihoods of rural inhabitants.

Originality/Value: This paper captures the unique perspectives of government research, extension and education workers involved in agricultural development at a time directly after the 2010 revolution, when they were able to more openly reflect on the past and present situations.  相似文献   


9.
Purpose: To examine the role of agricultural education and extension in influencing the adoption of best practice with regard to herd-level mastitis management.Design/Methodology/Approach: Somatic cell count (SCC) is an indicator of herd health with regard to mastitis and is negatively related to productivity and profitability. Panel data regression methods are utilised here to quantify the role of agricultural education and extension in reducing cell count and in influencing farmer best practice with regard to herd health. The impact of education and extension on farmer uptake of milk recording is of particular interest. Data utilised is farm-level Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data for Ireland over a five-year period (2008–2012).Findings: Farmer uptake of formal agricultural training and liaison with agricultural extension services are shown to significantly improve mastitis herd health. Collectively, education, extension and milk recording results in an overall SCC reduction of 25% for the average herd. Farmers who undertook agricultural training were ten times more likely to monitor milk quality through milk recording compared to those who had not. Additionally, those farmers in contact with an extension service and also participated in a dairy discussion group were seven times more likely to practice milk recording.Practical Implications: The importance of farmer behaviour in the optimum management of herd health has been validated, as has the role of agricultural education and extension in influencing the uptake of best practice by farmers.Originality/Value: To date little research has been conducted using nationally representative herd-level data on the role of agricultural education and extension in improving animal health best practice.  相似文献   

10.
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11.
Abstract

Purpose: Formal agricultural research has generated vast amount of knowledge and fundamental insights on land management, but their low adoption has been attributed to the use of public extension approach. This research aims to address whether and how full participation of farmers through the concept of Rural Resource Centre (RRC) provides new insights for the development of alternative and farmers-based extension methods.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Using the Concept of RRC, this research assesses the role of farmers in on-farm demonstrations and scaling-up of land management practices, and investigates effective ways to enhance beneficial interactions between researchers, extension workers and farmers in view of improving adoption.

Findings: The findings suggest that farmers can effectively participate in demonstrations and scaling-up of agricultural practices. This participation is enhanced by judicious incentives such as higher crop yields that motivate farmers and influence adoption. The current success of the approach stems from the fact that farmers, extension workers and researchers jointly implement the activities and their different aims were achieved simultaneously: scientific results for researchers, better agricultural practices for extension workers, and economic success and free choice for farmers.

Practical implications: This research concludes that farmers have the capacities to play an innermost role in demonstrations and scaling-up of agricultural practices. However, there is a need to build and strengthen their capacities to facilitate their participation and contribution.

Originality/Value: The article demonstrates the value of the preponderant role of farmers in on-farm demonstrations and scaling-up practices by exhibiting the beneficial interactions between researchers, extension workers and farmers.  相似文献   

12.
Abstract

Private extension system has been at the centre of a debate triggered by inefficient public agricultural extension. The debate is anchored on the premise that the private sector is more efficient in extension service delivery. This study evaluates the private extension system in Kenya. It employs qualitative and quantitative methods. The results indicate that the private extension is skewed towards high potential regions because it is either driven by profits or quick results. The private system benefits from the public extension staff, thus some form of commercial contracting of public staff to serve the private systems is appropriate. Public extension should not overlap in the areas efficiently served by the private system. The government should consider contracting the private sector to deliver extension to neglected areas. The government has a role in extension services funding, quality control, arbitration, monitoring and in provision of quality infrastructure to lower private sector players’ costs.  相似文献   

13.
Abstract

Purpose: The study evaluated how farmer acquisition, sharing and use patterns of information and knowledge interact with different socioeconomic factors to influence integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technology uptake.

Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted as part of an evaluation of field-based farmer learning approaches introduced by SOFECSA in Zimbabwe. Building on emerging farmer interactive platforms, data were collected using farmer participatory research approaches.

Findings: Over 90% of the farmers identified the national extension agents as the farmers' most preferred and reliable sources of information on ISFM, with farmer-to-farmer interactions ranking second. Non-governmental organisations and the print media emerged as the least trusted sources of agricultural technical information. Field-based learning centres, which enabled interactive evaluation of different ISFM options, constituted ~50%, indicating that they were major platforms for information and knowledge sharing. Uptake of ISFM was influenced by farmer resource group and farmers' visits to learning centres. Farmer experience and access to extension services were, in turn, the major factors influencing farmers' use of ISFM information. Approaches that support farmer-to-farmer interactions are required and learning centres are a suitable platform for such interactions to occur.

Practical implications: The article brings to attention the role of learning centres in fostering adoption of ISFM technologies. Insights on the need to support and strengthen agricultural extension in rural smallholder communities are provided.

Originality/value: This is a unique study exploring the role of farmer-oriented information and knowledge management in promoting complex technologies such as ISFM. A new dimension on the demands of new approaches for information dissemination to enhance knowledge sharing is presented.  相似文献   

14.
Purpose: To examine the factors that support and hinder farmers’ learning and to investigate the impact of an innovative learning program on farmers’ practice change.

Design/methodology/approach: Individual interviews and focus group discussions were held with 24 farmers over 20 months. Observations were made of these farmers as they participated with eight agricultural and social scientists in a range of innovative experiences to learn about chicory and plantain establishment and management. These learning experiences were designed around evidence-informed educational pedagogies. Data sets were analyzed using NVivo to determine common themes of affordances and barriers to learning and actual practice changes.

Findings: The affordances for learning and practice change include belonging to a learning community, enhancing self-efficacy, engaging with scientists, seeing relative advantage, reinforcing and validating learning, supporting system’s integration and developing an identity as learners. Barriers to learning and practice change include issues of: trialability, complexity, compatibility and risk.

Practical implications: The importance of basing new models of extension around evidence-informed pedagogies known through educational research to promote learning and practice change.

Theoretical implications: Sociocultural theory and self-efficacy theories of learning are critical to the success of effective agricultural extension programs.

Originality: To date, little empirical research about the affordances and barriers for pastoral farmers’ learning has been based on contemporary educational research.  相似文献   


15.
Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the views of young farmers regarding the agricultural training, the training needs and content, as well as the implementation of information technology (IT) and the Internet in agricultural training. The research was conducted in the Greek islands of Cyclades.

Methodology: A quantitative approach was implemented in the research and questionnaires were used for the data collection. There were 129 young farmers (under the age of 40), who participated. These farmers were situated in 23 islands of the Cycladic complex in Greece.

Findings: The research concluded that young farmers in Cyclades were, in general, positively situated towards agricultural training. They also stressed the importance of training content, which focuses on local agricultural needs, instead of tackling general agricultural policies and practices. Consequently, all future training programs should be tailor-made to the needs of local agricultural economies (e.g. different programs for different parts of the country). Although most farmers agreed on the importance of IT technology in the agricultural profession and training, they do not make extensive use of it.

Research Implications: The research shed some light on the basic parameters of the agricultural training parameters. These parameters need to be clearly defined in order to organize future efforts for the modernization of the agricultural profession in Greece. It is believed that the results will help official authorities (e.g. the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food) to organize future training programs according to the needs of the agricultural population and considering the regional peculiarities in cultivation and stockbreeding.

Originality/Value: A multi-dimensional approach has been followed, by exploring a variety of agricultural training issues: trainees' views, training needs and content and IT use in the agricultural sector and training. The researchers wanted to explore whether their results were similar to those of research that was conducted in the past nationwide, as the Cyclades islands are quite different from the mainland due to geographical reasons.  相似文献   


16.
The publicly funded component of New Zealand's science system, which accounts for about two-thirds of the national R&D expenditure, has been almost completely restructured in the last five years. Like other far-reaching public sector reform in New Zealand, this has resulted in a separation of the policy, purchasing and operations roles and their placement in different organisations. The purchasing role is undertaken by the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, which invests ca $287 million annually in R&D in line with broad priorities set by the government and more detailed Research Strategies of its own device. The Foundation has been required to establish a system of contestable funding, similar in principle to that in most other countries but previously absent from New Zealand. The Public Good Science Fund is described and compared with other systems for public funding of R&D. Remaining structural problems in the system, some of which constrain progress towards implementing the government's priorities, are identified and likely solutions are indicated. Future developments in the system will see increasing use ofex-post evaluation of research performance to complementex-ante peer review of research proposals, and the development of close linkages among research providers and research users, and between public investment and private investment in R&D.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract

Public good will towards the investment in research and extension on environment-friendly production practices is the justification for publicly funded extension services. Although there are major environmental problems associated with agricultural production in Turkey, the present role of public extension service to control and reduce adverse environmental effects is minimal.

The short term goal of the publicly funded agricultural extension is to establish a control and enforcement system which will ensure that the current production practices cause as little harm as possible to the environment. In the long term, however, publicly provided investment in research and extension on sustainable agricultural systems is necessary. The investments should aim towards ensuring a wholesome food supply for the community whilst maintaining the quality of the environment and natural resources.  相似文献   

18.
Abstract

Purpose: Communication for Development (C4D) is a new academic discipline and profession for addressing human dimension concerns in development, such as local participation, integration and capacity building, which are the main issues limiting aid effectiveness. However, my experience in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa and where a multitude of international development experts attempt to bring about change have, perhaps, never heard about C4D. When the concept was explained, these officials felt C4D was precisely what Malawi and developing countries, need. It left me feeling that the success rate of poverty-reduction programming could be greater if C4D education was provided for development decision-makers and field staff, especially agricultural extension workers.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a critical review of the literature on the role of agricultural extension education in development, focusing on how C4D can strengthen extension performance.

Findings: The study found that development policymakers in Malawi, governmental, nongovernmental, bilateral and multilateral, support the C4D idea once they become knowledgeable about it.

Practical implications: Therefore, the practical implication is that educating policymakers about C4D will increase donor investments in pilot C4D projects, a strengthening of agricultural extension systems, and success of poverty-reduction programs.

Originality/value: It is hoped that readers will find the C4D strategy stimulating, the author's experience enlightening, and the C4D proposal an innovative way of improving aid effectiveness.  相似文献   

19.
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20.
Abstract

Purpose:

Though women are engaged in farming and play a major role in almost every agricultural operation, they continue to receive very limited extension support. While several interventions have been made to address this ‘gender’ bias in extension delivery, there continues to be a shortfall between the kind of support that is provided and the needs and demands of rural women. This gap between supply and demand needs to be addressed in order to improve the lives and livelihoods of women in the rural farming sector.  相似文献   

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