Shifting cultivation is, for around half of Sarawak's farm households, the traditional means of growing a subsistence crop of rice. It is, however, widely regarded as damaging to the environment and unsustainable in its present form, given high rates of rural population increase.
Given an economic and sector planning and policy background, a crop development project is postulated, to be funded by a government and an international donor agency. It is recognised that such projects will only succeed in a sound institutional and policy environment. Such an environment is examined, and a project is designed which overcomes perceived constraints. The achievement of donor loan effectiveness, and the procurement of required goods and services are reviewed. The assembly of data for the estimation of planned project benefits is the next consideration as the sizes and annual phasing of several project cost items will depend on when and at what rate project benefits are to be achieved. A checklist of project cost items is then presented. Project costs are assembled on a component basis. Within each component, costs are built up by category commencing with technical staffing; which to some extent determines the requirements for support staff, housing, office space, vehicles, and capital equipment. The provision of buildings, vehicles and equipment, and staff then determine levels of maintenance and repair, operating, and administrative recurrent costs. Pragmatic methods are advanced which could be used as a starting point for the estimation of such recurrent costs. Project costs may have to be rearranged to meet the particular needs of financing agencies. It is noted that the compilation of project costs with the aid of a personal computer spreadsheet program is useful in terms of the construction of cost tables, their rearrangement if required, and subsequent sensitivity analysis. The purposes and presentation of the project appraisal report are then considered.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the character and relative importance of obstacles to the adoption of modern rice cultivation practices as perceived by small farmers in Bangladesh. Such farmers form the dominant class in the country's largely agricultural population. The data presented are based on information collected from 205 small farmers near Mymensingh during four months in 1983. The opinions of these farmers were also sought on measures which might be used to remove the obstacles.
The study investigated in this paper indicates that the variables of occupation, number of individuals in household, levels of education, literacy, social participation and contact with extension agents were found to be significantly related to the adoption of recommended farm practices (innovation).
In Part I the conclusions were drawn that the potential of a certain area for agricultural production is, to a certain degree, the result of investments in technology development; that historic and economic factors have led to a comparative disadvantage of agricultural systems in the developing countries; and that the collective agricultural production potentials of the developing countries have not been assessed properly. As a result of differences in investments for technology development, differences in development opportunities have emerged.
The need to develop an effective strategy of technology transfer to peasants has been increasingly emphasized due to the fact that access to and use of appropriate technology is seen as one of the important factors in increasing food production among the peasants of the Third World. This paper describes the use of Indigenous Specialists as agents of technology transfer by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in the Philippines (IIRR). The lessons generated from this experience are discussed to point out the implications for technology transfer strategies.
This paper reviews the ‘turnkey’ establishment of the 10 000 ha Ubima oil palm plantation in Rivers State, Nigeria, between 1977 and 1985. The plantation has a giant mechanised processing mill, mechanical workshops and other administrative and social buildings and facilities.
Exchanges of agricultural scientists are an effective means of advancing agricultural science and technology for both developed and developing countries. Three key factors need to be addressed during the planning and administration of agricultural exchanges, as they often determine the final success or failure of an agricultural exchange. The three factors essential to a successful exchange program are: (1) clarity and mutual understanding of goals and objectives; (2) understanding in dealing with the unique characteristics of the country involved, its people, and its institutions; and (3) monitoring and feedback from participants and other interested parties.
Successful agricultural development in developing countries requires farmers gradually to change from subsistence to commercial farming. During the transition period they can be called commercializing farmers. Farmers in these circumstances face major changes in their life styles and must learn numerous new skills, requirements often not recognized by change agents. They also have several unique economic characteristics not found among farmers who have completed the change to commercial farming. Successful response by commercializing farmers requires policy approaches which recognize these unique characteristics.
The Coffee Improvement Project in Ethiopia is a large but pioneering or experimental project which aims to intensify peasant coffee production and to protect the country's coffee industry from the potential dangers of an epidemic of coffee berry disease. During its early years the project suffered from weak agronomic foundations to its activities, organisational difficulties, and a lack of perceived farmer benefits from project activities. It is suggested that these problems were inevitable since at the time of project planning very little was known about peasant coffee production and possible means for its intensification. However, better planning of monitoring and evaluation activities might have provided mechanisms for learning from research and experience during project implementation, and for constant modifications of project design and activities in response to this. When such mechanisms were belatedly introduced, project performance rapidly improved, though there is still much to be learnt and the effects and impact of changes in project activities may take many years to benefit farmers.
In designing extension systems, answers to the question ‘How many extension agents are needed?’ are always given. The question is, in practice, answered intuitively and this paper enquires whether economically optimal answers are conceivable. It appears that, so long as farmers vary in their propensity to innovate, there probably are least-cost solutions to the question in respect of specific projects. The underlying theory is complex and the treatment presented here is simplified, perhaps oversimplified. In discussion, the importance of diffusion processes as an agent of innovative change is emphasised.
After more than a decade of project work on Farming Systems Research, much confusion and disagreement surrounds the methodology for on-farm experiments. This paper reports the results of a survey of 41 practitioners who were asked to report on the methods and procedures they were using in their projects, and the reasons for success or failure. Responses suggest that projects based on formal, complex, researcher-designed experiments ran into a maze of problems including logistical support, analytical needs, interdisciplinary compromise, and farmer participation. Most importantly, this conventional approach to farming systems research fails to incorporate the experimential knowledge of the farmer in the research design. Thus, many if not most farming systems research projects fail to provide useful information to farmers or to station-based researchers. On the other hand, those practitioners who do report success indicate that experiments which exploit indigenous knowledge to define research questions, and employ many farmers to conduct simple, flexible trials can provide the information needed to develop technologies relevant to resource-poor farmers.
Fundamental transformations underway throughout rural Asia will influence the future of Asia's agriculture. This paper outlines the challenges Asia's rural transformation presents to agricultural development policy through discussion focusing on issues of sustainable productivity, technological transformations, environmental limits on agricultural development, the implications of changes in Asia's rural economies, and the time-frame of agricultural development policy.
Two problems can arise when attempting to evaluate the organizational capacity of farmer organizations expected to contribute to agricultural and rural development. First, organizations' capacity is very difficult to assess, as it represents potential rather than just performance. Indirect measures are needed for estimating this important variable in agricultural administration. Second, most approaches to evaluation are themselves ‘top-down’ and thus inconsistent with the capacity they are supposed to assess. Ideally, one would have a system of evaluation that itself supports the value and process of ‘participation’ in development activities. This article presents a methodology initiated with irrigation user groups in Sri Lanka that tackles both these problems.
The author contends that Geographic Information System (GIS) technology can help lending institutions better understand the long-term consequences of economic development projects on African land and climate resources. Issues that are specifically addressed include: the application of GIS to investment plans for the agriculture sector, what can go wrong in agriculture planning when environmental data are not included, how scientific data bases and ADP system software can be used by economists and other social scientists to anticipate the impact of bank projects on natural resource systems, and what can be done to minimize environmental damages in agriculture development. Inputs to the ‘ideal’ investment process include: geocoded satellite, climate, environment and demographic data.
Coconut is an important crop in the Sri Lanka economy, in part due to the fact that nearly 20 per cent of the country's cultivated land is planted with this crop. Yet, the coconut sub-sector's contribution to the economy has not been satisfactory. Recognizing this, successive governments have introduced several measures to assist its development. The provision of extension services through a regional office network is one such measure. Although this traditional prescription has a role to play in the development process of the coconut sub-sector a wide range of factors, some internal and some external to the extension service system, appear to limit the effectiveness of the system. Among the internal factors, assignment of high priority non-extension duties to the extension personnel and mono-crop orientation of the system are significant while, of the external factors, peculiar characteristics of the coconut palm itself, lack of high-yielding varieties in adequate quantities and macro-economic policies which tend to depress the producer prices appear to be significant.
The project management cycle is traditionally utilized in identifying, planning and implementing rural development projects in developing countries. This cycle does not allow for the participation of extension workers and farmers in the decision-making process involved. Typically, their participation is confined to the implementation phase of this cycle. The authors regard it as a ‘top down’ approach to rural development.
The unsuitability of current ‘objective’ methods used in agricultural surveys of smallholder farming in Africa has often been stressed but scientifically tested alternative methods that may be used to replace them are yet to be developed. The present paper reports on the ‘Longest Diagonal Method’ of area estimation, with which encouraging results have been obtained in Malawi.
Underinvestment is a problem common to most agricultural institutions. This paper reviews the history of the Minnesota agricultural research system in order to outline possible methods which might help other research systems to build political support for investment in public agricultural research. The paper reviews the growth of Minnesota research institutions and their budgets, looks at the economic benefits derived from the research system, discusses the means through which the experiment station developed political support for its budget, and finally, discusses recent efforts to generate more support.
