Extension In Rural Development Research Articles

Community food insecurity and role of agriculture extension in rural development

Availability of food on a sustainable basis throughout the year is of prime importance in a country. The part of agricultural extension in the maintainable progress of rural areas has not been completely utilized to understand sustainable rural societies. An operative extension scheme of any country plays a highly significant role in the growing procedure. Nevertheless, a lot of criticism is being done in Pakistan for not resulting in remarkable improvement crop yield and wanted constructive changes in the rural earnings. Innovative enterprises in the form of dissolution and distribution; contributing methods to extension, and the usage of novel info and communication skills have been engaged to increase the competence and efficiency of the facility. An extension organization that could encourage supportable farming and solve community growth problems like food security is in utmost necessity.

Sharing seed and knowledge: farmer to farmer dissemination of agroforestry technologies in western Kenya

Although there's increasing emphasis on farmer-led extension in rural development, very few studies have been done to understand the social processes involved. This study was undertaken to identify farm and farmer charac- teristics that may influence dissemination of seed and knowledge of improved fallows and biomass transfer, to whom, how and what is disseminated. This was done by carrying out a formal and informal survey involving a random sample of 120 farmers from Siaya and Vihiga districts of western Kenya who were involved in a pilot project on soil fertility replenishment by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) and Kenya Agricultural Re- search Institute (KARI). A second survey in- volved 40 farmers, selected using the snowball sampling technique that were given seed and information by the first group of farmers. Descriptive statistics and logit regression models were used to analyze data. Results presented showed that seed and knowledge were mostly shared along kinship ties. Furthermore, informal social networks were found to be more effective for seed than knowledge. This calls for simplifi- cation of technical information by development professionals in order to help support farmers' understanding and communication of complex principles. Farmers with leadership status in their groups, those who belonged to many groups and those with larger farm sizes were more likely to give out seed of improved fallows. These cate- gories of farmers could be targeted to enhance the spread of technologies.

The use of computing techniques to support agricultural extension in rural development

Abstract The paper outlines the studies (and the resulting field system) carried out in eight countries by International Computers, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and Agricultural Computer Systems International Limited within their joint SCAPA project into the general role computers might play in the extension function. For those unfamiliar with agriculture, the extension service is the linchpin of innovation, responsible for the provision of management, advice and monitoring by agricultural ministries, aid agencies and co‐operatives to large populations of smallholders. The paper relates the studies in Kenya and Malaysia to the World Bank's Benor extension system, to the SCAPA system as since implemented and to pilot experience with and the requirements of one major development authority, RISDA (The Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority of Malaysia) which is responsible for 400,000 smallholders and a quarter of the world's rubber production. SCAPA (System for Co...