Provision Of Technical Information Research Articles

The Role of Information in Agricultural Technology Adoption: Experimental Evidence from Rice Farmers in Uganda

Optimal decision-making among the poor is often hampered by insufficient knowledge, false beliefs, or wrong perceptions. This paper investigates the role of information in the decision to use modern inputs and adopt recommended agronomic practices among rice farmers in Uganda. Using field experiments, I tested whether the provision of technical information about the correct use of modern inputs and practices affects adoption of these technologies and subsequent rice production. In addition, I assessed whether providing information aimed at changing the perception of the expected returns on such intensification investments led to different outcomes. In both experiments, the treatments took the form of short agricultural extension information videos shown to individual farmers using tablet computers. I found that both interventions resulted in increased intensification of rice cultivation but only after accounting for the possibility of interference between farmers. These results confirm the importance of peer effects in increasing the effectiveness of information for technology adoption.

Communicative interventions for collective action in the management of potato late blight: evidence from a framed field game experiment in Ethiopia

Potato late blight remains a threat to food security and livelihood of millions of people in Ethiopia. Despite a rapid dispersal of the disease pathogen and farmers’ interdependency in managing it, the literature on agricultural extension and communication tends to frame the disease and its management as a problem of the individual farmer. This study appreciates late blight as a collective action problem whose management requires a corresponding re-configuration in information sharing and communicative practices. We employ a framed field game experiment with a mixed quantitative and qualitative method to explore how and to what extent different types and combinations of communicative interventions affect collective action in the management of the disease among farmers in Ethiopia. Interestingly, our quantitative findings revealed that the provision of technical information about interdependency involved in the management of the disease and social monitoring information about the management practices of other farmers negatively affected collective action. However, collective action performance significantly improved when farmers were given the opportunity to interactively communicate about their management strategies. Further qualitative investigation sheds light on how farmers used and made sense of the different communicative interventions to inform and adjust their individual decisions, coordinate collective strategies, pressure free-riders, and develop a shared identity. It is concluded that interventions that mainly promote the provision of technical and social information can be counterproductive in managing collective action problems such as late blight unless it is complemented with interactive communication and deliberation processes.

Stand-alone renewable energy auctions: The case of Peru

Electrification policies are crucial to improve the welfare of rural populations worldwide. In this context, auctions for the deployment of stand-alone solar home systems (SASHS) are an appropriate alternative to facilitate access to electricity in rural areas. The aim of this paper is to analyze the design elements and functioning of the SASHS auction in Peru in order to derive lessons for the effective and efficient design of those auctions. Based on an analytical framework developed elsewhere, this article draws on official documents and data, secondary material and interviews with stakeholders. Our results show that some design elements are particularly suitable in this regard. In contrast to renewable electricity auctions in general, for which the volume auctioned is usually set as capacity (MW) or generation (MWh), the volume of SASHS auctions should be set in terms of the number of SASHS providing an electricity service. Geographical diversity, with different auctions per region, would ensure the adoption of a minimum amount of SASHS in a given geographical area. Financial solvency, but not technical reputation, should be required. Otherwise, only the incumbents would be able to participate in the auction. The choice of technology-specific, price-only, sealed-bid, single-item auctions brings benefits in terms of economies of scale, lower support or transaction costs and a greater transparency or simplicity. A correction factor on the remuneration which accounts for the quality of the service, as applied in the Peru auction, is suitable for this type of auctions. Finally, provision of technical information, which facilitates the participation in the auction, and the implementation of a non-disclosed ceiling price are deemed appropriate. In contrast, given the low presence of local companies in the Peruvian PV market, the adoption of local content requirements would lead to higher support costs without significantly increasing the local development potential.

‘Surely I should get a script credit, shouldn’t I?’ Creative, consultative and collaborative script development: The Oil Kid

Abstract This article explores the script development process in the pre-production of The Oil Kid, a collaboration between the Oil Museum in Stavanger, Norway, oil industry sponsors, a production company in transition, and a political activist upon whose memoirs aspects of the script were based. The article addresses the idea of how such collaboration works, and how each of the voices represent themselves as the project develops. As will be revealed, these voices are often in competition and have vested interests in how the final script emerges, suggesting that the scriptwriter is often cast as the mediator of such interests and responsible for maintaining creative integrity, political balance, social focus and economic viability. In this case it was required that the scriptwriter constantly be asserted as a particular role with specific skillsets, which was often overlooked when the project’s collaborators viewed the expression of an idea, an intervention about narrative or the provision of technical information as an act worthy of a script credit. The article thus asserts the distinctiveness of the scriptwriter as part of the production process in animation, not merely as an inherent and implicit ‘recorder’ of the script development process, but more significantly, as its key pragmatic leader and facilitator.

Geoethics: a perspective from Australia

This short article is based on the introductory remarks I made in the Geoethics symposium at Geoitalia 2011. I was pleased to be invited to provide a brief address at this meeting because it gave me the opportunity to promote the 34 th International Geological Congress (IGC) that will to be held in Brisbane, Australia, on August 5-10, 2012, and which will have a strong geoethics symposium. My succinct remarks reflect my experience over many years in provision of technical information and advice in support of Australian government decisions and policies on mining, energy and groundwater - all of which have core geoscientific elements. Further, they reflect the situation in a new world country with a strong economy dominated by mining, which differs in many ways from the countries where the field of geoethics has been nurtured and grown. They also outline a dilemma relating to mining in a developing country.

“Twenty years is yesterday”: Science, multinational mining, and the political ecology of trust in New Caledonia

To date, the scholarly literature has insufficiently investigated the micropolitical ecology of trust, the ways that different interests and expectations within a community can differentially mediate trust relationships between members of that community and an exogenous institution. This study explores the complexities of, and intra-community disagreements about, Kanak villagers’ decisions about whether to trust information provided by, or seemingly in support of, a multinational mining project in southern New Caledonia (South Pacific). An indigenous protest group challenged the company’s claims that the construction and operation of a refinery would have no harmful effects on local ecosystems. The company construed this opposition as stemming from fear based in ignorance, to which the solution lay in the provision of technical information. However, villagers disagreed as to whether this information was reliable. Meanwhile, many project employees joined the protest group. I argue that this seeming irony may be explained by examining the role of affiliation – defined here as a sense of solidarity with a group, and the desire to maintain that relationship – in establishing trust. Culturally-informed expectations of long-term social relationships and the reciprocal power these entailed, and concerns about long-term economic security, played a large role in determining which affiliations people chose to privilege, which in turn influenced which “scientific” information they chose to trust. Ultimately, I argue for the usefulness of a deeper understanding of relationships between trust, affiliation, and expectations of long-term social and economic relations in analyzing lay persons’ evaluations of science.

International Perspectives in Horticultural Extension—A New Zealand Viewpoint

The government-funded horticulture extension service, which provided a free service to New Zealand growers for nearly 50 years, was privatized in the late 1980s as part of major reforms to the primary production sector. That service had provided one-on-one on-farm visits, budget advice, provision of technical information, and facilitation of field days, workshops and discussion groups throughout the country. This government-funded service also provided policy advice, acted as an interface between industry and the research and development (R&D) sector, and responded to biosecurity incursions. A decade following privatization, the number of people involved in equivalent consultancy activities has almost halved with very little recruitment of new people into the profession. The emphasis is now much more towards providing advice on the overall management of an individual enterprise to ensure its financial viability, with less emphasis on technical transfer. Large horticultural businesses are increasingly employing specialists in-house who can provide technical solutions and advice on balance sheet management. Private consultancy companies now tend to work more at a local or regional level rather than at a national level and links with R&D providers have markedly weakened as research organisations are increasingly protecting intellectual property for their own commercial advantages and as information provision is now largely on a user-pays basis. In addition, biosecurity incursions over the past decade appear to have increased as a result of a weakened surveillance effort. Nonetheless, horticultural exports from New Zealand continue to grow at around 10% per annum and many sectors remain very competitive on world markets.

The new agricultural research and technology transfer policy agenda

The paper draws upon a national study to analyze two issues relevant to the future effectiveness of the American agricultural technology system: (1) linkages between research and technology transfer activities; and (2) relationships between the public and private sectors. Increased commitments to basic research by the US Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural experiment stations have served to exacerbate existing strains between research and technology transfer functions and units. Both the feasibility and desirability of having USDA's Agricultural Research Service simultaneously seek to strengthen its basic research capabilities and its commitment to technology transfer have been questioned. Within the landgrant universities, multiple pressures have served to attenuate traditional ties among agricultural researchers, extension specialists, and county extension agents. Private sector activity in agricultural research and the provision of technical information has increased following the expansion in the domains of knowledge over which firms can establish property rights and the concentration of production in a smaller number of economic units. Adjustments in the activities of the public sector in response to these changes can be seen. Still, the optimal mix of public-private sector activities in both research and technology transfer has yet to be fully analyzed. Current analyses (and public policy) are excessively constrained by the “property rights” approach to technological change.

THE PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES' CONTRIBUTION: THE LIBRARY OF THE NORTH EAST COAST INSTITUTION

This conference is, I understand, called primarily to advocate the search for and show means for methodizing the provision of technical information in industrial companies—the systematization of the answering of questions that arise in the conception, design, production and service of manufactured articles and materials. Three sources of such information have already been dealt with: the great public library, by Mr. Hinton—who, I am sure, would not lightly reject a challenge to provide literature—given that it exists—on any subject; an equally great, university library in which all branches of learning are represented; and the great works library, by Dr. Parke.