Extension In Africa Research Articles

Assessing the impacts of land use on riparian vegetation dynamics in Osun State, Nigeria

The existence of riparian vegetation is greatly threatened by change in land uses in Nigeria and information on historical management of land use which influences riparian vegetation dynamics is critical to the conservation of plants species diversity. This information is poorly understood especially in Nigeria and by extension in Africa. This study therefore assessed the areas covered by riparian forests in Osun State, Nigeria in order to identify the main drivers of its decline using optical remote sensing data. It also assessed the availability and distribution of the riparian forests over three decades (1986–2016) using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM). Results showed that the riparian forests covered 546.18km2 (6.40%) with about 308riparian forests distributed across the state in 1986 but had declined to 176 by 2016. Three decades later, areas covered by riparian forests decreased to171.69km2 (2.01%), representing a decline of about 69% and was predicted a rapid transition to disturbed lands. Human activities such as logging, farming, grazing and construction have greatly influenced the riparian vegetation cover with obvious decline in extent, distribution and quality. Observation from our case study showed that the disappearance of these forests is taken place at a rate that is faster than the predicted level of the Nigerian riparian forest loss by 2040. Notably deforestation, agriculture and urbanization are the main drivers of this decline, of the African gallery forests.

Perceptions about quality of public and private agricultural extension in Africa: Evidence from farmers in Burkina Faso

AbstractIn a context of more involvement of the private sector in the provision of agricultural extension services as policy option in Burkina Faso, and since policy evidence is needed to better in...

The need for reform of public extension systems in Africa

Extension services are crucial for the rapid spreading of research results to farmers and transmitting information about farmers’ needs, circumstances, and problems to researchers. Although public extension organizations are the norm in Africa, these public extension systems are often inadequately funded and their effectiveness is limited by many administrative and design deficiencies and challenges. This paper stresses the need for reform for public sector extension in Africa by reviewing some of the problems associated with public sector extension systems and the reforms that are required.Key words: Public sector extension, problems, needed reforms, Africa.

The oldest African bat from the early Eocene of El Kohol (Algeria)

The Afro-Arabian Paleogene fossil record of Chiroptera is very poor. In North Africa and Arabia, this record is limited, thus far, to a few localities mainly in Tunisia (Chambi, late early Eocene), Egypt (Fayum, late Eocene to early Oligocene), and Sultanate of Oman (Taqah, early Oligocene). It consists primarily of isolated teeth or mandible fragments. Interestingly, these African fossil bats document two modern groups (Vespertilionoidea and Rhinolophoidea) from the early Eocene, while the bat fossil record of the same epoch of North America, Eurasia, and Australia principally includes members of the "Eochiroptera." This paraphyletic group contains all primitive microbats excluding modern families. In Algeria, the region of Brezina, southeast of the Atlas Mountains, is famous for the early Eocene El Kohol Formation, which has yielded one of the earliest mammalian faunas of the African landmass. Recent fieldwork in the same area has led to the discovery of a new vertebrate locality, including isolated teeth of Chiroptera. These fossils represent the oldest occurrence of Chiroptera in Africa, thus extending back the record of the group to the middle early Eocene (Ypresian) on that continent. The material consists of an upper molar and two fragments of lower molars. The dental character association matches that of "Eochiroptera." As such, although very fragmentary, the material testifies to the first occurrence of "Eochiroptera" in Algeria, and by extension in Africa. This discovery demonstrates that this basal group of Chiroptera had a worldwide distribution during the early Paleogene.

Improving livelihoods in East Africa through livestock research and extension: reflections on changes from the 1950s to the early twenty first century

This paper discusses the major changes in development thinking that, in our view, have characterized livestock research and extension in Africa since the 1950s. It describes the institutional and ideological environment in which research and extension was then conducted and provides examples of early successes aimed at enhancing productivity. There was then a gradual broadening of the scope of research and extension to internalize the wider contexts of the challenges of improving livelihoods. The four main over-arching changes discussed are: poverty-focus, gender-sensitivity, participation and holism. The discussion ends by speculating on directions for the future.

Farmer Field Schools: A Boon or Bust for Extension in Africa?

Despite the tremendous need for extension approaches that contribute to poverty reduction in rural sub-Saharan Africa, many extension models have been tried with only limited success. A popular model at the moment is the farmer field schools (FFS) approach, based on adult education principles such as experiential learning. Farmer field schools are intensive, season-long programs where farmers meet regularly to learn and experiment on a given topic. Farmer field schools have shown remarkable impacts in terms of reducing farmers’ use of pesticides for environmental and health benefits, increasing their on-farm productivity, improving knowledge gain among farmers, and empowering rural communities. However, these impacts have not translated into changes beyond the local level; several studies suggest that FFS are having limited or no effect on the agricultural sector’s economic performance, sustainable use of the environment, on rural health, and on dissemination of information by FFS participants to other farmers. There are also many questions about their sustainability. This paper examines the FFS approach in detail. Findings suggest that many of the issues inherent in the approach are not being addressed, even though the approach is being aggressively promoted by donors, governments, and non-governmental organizations as the next best thing in extension. The paper concludes that what is needed is not a “one size fits all” approach, but rather local solutions for local problems.

A Twenty-first-Century Agenda for Teaching the History of Modern Afro-Latin America and the Caribbean

This [Argentina] was white man’s country, not a country of Indians and half-breeds like Peru or Bolivia—or Brazil, which is just an extension of Africa, no? —Jorge Luis Borges In reference to the stratifying effects of racial ascription, race as a socially elaborated attribute may be conceptualized as related mainly to the subordinate aspect of the reproduction of social classes. —Carlos Hasenbalg

Farmer Field Schools and the Future of Agricultural Extension in Africa

The continuing efforts to stimulate economic growth in Africa through agricultural development reflect the rise and fall of the different ‘fads and fashions’ in international development over the past 50 years. As the ‘poor cousin’ in most agricultural development strategies, agricultural extension and education has been particularly affected by the changing trends in external financing. Following the failure of rural development projects to significantly improve the welfare of the rural poor through the mid-1980s, the region witnessed a widespread abandonment of support for large-scale, state-run extension programs; the exception to this being the continued promotion of the Training & Visit (TV FFS achievements in facilitating ‘systems learning’ on the part of farmers and supporting their increased involvement in knowledge generation; facilitation of farmer-to-farmer information exchange; local organizational development and the institutionalization of integrated pest and production management practices; positive impacts on the relationships between farmers, extension, and other stakeholders; and the specific challenges faced by extension in integrating the FFS approach into their programs. Some concluding observations are made on the progress, pitfalls, and potentials of the FFS approach to play a significant role in the revitalization of national extension programs within the region.

The present and future of public sector extension in Africa: contracting out or contracting in?

AbstractPublic sector extension has come under increasing pressure to downsize and reform. Contracting out—the use of public sector funds to contract non‐governmental and private service providers—is often held up as a potential tool in reform efforts. Much has been written about the possible advantages of contracting out of agricultural extension and it is being encouraged and promoted by numerous international organizations. However, a look at field experience in Africa shows that contracting out is relatively infrequent, especially compared with the reverse—contracting in—where private sector and non‐governmental organizations finance public sector extension delivery. Case studies from Uganda and Mozambique indicate that on the ground attempts to come up with solutions to providing services to farmers are resulting in innovative contracting approaches and combined public and private institutional arrangements. Contracting in and public–private coalition approaches, in contrast to purely public sector extension (characterized by ineffectiveness and inefficiencies) and purely private for profit extension (which may ignore public goods and concerns), may help achieve extension services which are both demand led and which internalize public concerns such as environmental protection, food security and socio‐economic equity. These coalition approaches can be improved and facilitated. They deserve greater analysis and may contribute to a better understanding of extension contracting and the roles of private and public organizations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Impact of T&V Extension in Africa: The Experience of Kenya and Burkina Faso

Agricultural extension programs based on the Training and Visit (T&V) system are operating in some thirty-one Sub-Saharan African countries. Evidence from Kenya and Burkina Faso shows that T&V management enhance the effectiveness of extension and that such programs support agricultural growth and produce high returns on investments. The data indicate that areas served by extension have higher yields and that within these areas the highest yields are achieved by farmers who participate directly in extension activities. As a result, extension helps to close the gap between die yields attainable with existing technologies and those actually realized by farmers. Closing this gap improves agricultural productivity in the short run, but long-term increases in output in Sub-Saharan Africa will depend on the development of improved technologies that are relevant to local conditions.

THE NEW MISSION OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

Recent evaluations of rural development projects in Africa revealed a disappointingly low degree of adoption of the proposed messages or technology packages. This apparent ineffectiveness of the conventional agricultural research and extension system is due to the lack of innovations adapted to specific constraints of the different farming systems of resource-poor farmers, as well as to outmoded concepts of rural development. To overcome this bottleneck the authors propose new roles for agricultural research and extension in Africa: the search for viable innovations should not be left to conventional agricultural research alone. The latter should focus on the development of sustainable strategies, answering those problems (macro-economic, social, ecologic) which would be neglected, if one merely attempted to meet short-term individual interests. Indigenous agricultural systems of knowledge would have to be revitalized as well. One of the main tasks of research and extension services should be to support farmers' experimentation in providing viable options, limiting risk, and analysing and developing indigenous knowledge. The communication of solutions should be left to more efficient external channels, either of the peasantry itself or of professional organizations. Published as: Kohnert, Dirk / Weber, Paul (1991): A new Mission of Agricultural Research and Extension in West-African Agriculture. Sociologia Ruralis, 31 (1991) 2/3:162-68.

Agricultural Extension in Africa. Edited by N. Roberts. Washington DC: The World Bank (1989), pp. 102, £10.75.

Agricultural Extension in Africa. Edited by N. Roberts. Washington DC: The World Bank (1989), pp. 102, £10.75.

Model of the Hercynian foldbelt

Reconstruction of the Hercynian foldbelt is made by combining deductions concerning the overall plan of the Ouachita-Alleghenian-Mauritanian-Hercynian (OAMH) foldbelt with the Devonian and Carboniferous geological history of western Europe. The OAMH foldbelt extended the length of the southeast margin of North America-Europe, but was only in contact with Africa between Alabama and Spain, suggesting that west of Alabama and east of Spain North America-Europe was in contact with oceanic crust. Immediately following the Hercynian orogeny nothern Spain (here termed North Spain) appears to have been an area of folded rocks situated at the juction of Africa, North America-Europe, and Tethys and completely surrounded by metamorphic belts. This plan suggests a simple plate model with North America-Europe and Africa-Tethys as separate converging plates implying that northwest Europe and North Spain represented separate continental areas prior to the final stage of the Hercynian orogeny. North Spain may have been an extension of Africa or, more likely, a separate microcontinent. Combination of the geological history with this plate model suggests an evolutionary model for the Hercynian foldbelt with a northward dipping subduction zone marginal to southeast North America-Europe. Consumption of oceanic crust at the leading edge of the Africa-Tethys plate between the Middle Devonian and mid-Carboniferous resulted in collision between North Spain and North America-Europe in the late Westphalian. Africa in turn collided with North Spain and North America-Europe later in the Upper Carboniferous.

The Beginnings of the Cortes of Leon-Castile

THE origin and development of the Cortes of Le6n-Castile, while reflecting the unique conditions of life in the Iberian Peninsula, also exemplify a phenomenon characteristic of all of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages: the rise of representative institutions. In that sense, Spain, far from being an extension of Africa, was an integral part of Europe and a participant in a common European experience. Indeed, by the very appearance of townsmen in the Leonese royal council at a remarkably early date in the late twelfth century, Spain holds a special place in the history of medieval parliamentary government. Whereas parliaments and assemblies of estates were just beginning to function in England and France by the close of the thirteenth century, the Cortes had anticipated these developments by many years. In large measure the rise of the Cortes to prominence in the public life of Le6n-Castile is explained by the continual struggle against Islam and the concomitant task of colonizing reconquered lands. These circumstances strengthened the royal power and retarded the development of feudalism, while fostering the growth of municipalities directly dependent upon the crown. The emergence of the municipalities as significant factors in the military and administrative structure of the realm was a major reason for summoning townsmen to the council. In spite of current interest in the concept of representation and the growth of representative assemblies, the study of the medieval Cortes has been largely neglected.' The formative period in the history of the Cortes-the late

Pan-Africanism in Paris, 1924–1936

‘THE story, the spirit of Pan-Africanism, although originating in America and France, was brought to our country by a man whose name and memory I should like to recall here. I am speaking of Marc Kodio Tovallo Queno, who—as an authentic African forerunner of the movement—claimed his negritude even before the word was coined. He brought us to know Marcus Garvey, Dr Du Bois, and so many others; when I was a child I heard my parents speak of these names and evoke these problems. That is to say, if the first sketch of this movement was begun in America and Paris, it had, before it was publicly evident, repercussions and an extension in Africa.’1

British Association

THOUGH for the most part science proceeds upon her even way, her head raised above the changes of the times and her feet firmly planted in regions unswept by surface movements, nevertheless her response to the needs of time and place was well marked in the proceedings of the British Association at Leicester this year. The surrounding country was the focus of many contributions on regional planning, land utilisation, education for the local industries, its system of grazing, its early colonisation, its water supply, and so on. This attention to its needs and recognition of its efforts cannot but be appreciated by the citizens of Leicester. Finally, education in relation to the agricultural need of the region occupied time, and stress was also laid upon the need of science and especially of the biological sciences. The cultural educational value, as opposed to its industrial value, of science in relation to adolescence and adult life was emphasised in several contributions, while the stringency of the time was prominent as shown by the many contributions on vocational training, for example, of university men for a department store, Post Office men for the counter staff, and, in general, the needs of business in administration. The rapid colonial extension in Africa particularly East Africa in recent years was reflected in a number of papers and demonstrates the new centre of interest. It adumbrates and lays the foundation for administration based on knowledge of place and people. Modern physics was, of course, well represented an account of the discussion on atomic transmutation appears elsewhere in this issue (p. 432).