Article reprints (US $5/each) may be obtained by contacting the Academic Editor.

1999, Volume 15(1), June

O. S. Verma, Editorial

1. Gboku, M. L. S. FARM TECHNOLOGY, Women’s Participation and Resource Control in Sierra Leone.

2. Baryeh, A. B., Ntifo-Siaw, E., & Baryeh, E. A. Transfer of Fish Preservation Technology to women in Ghana.

3. Botha, C. A. J. Towards Measuring Instrument to Predict Farmers’ Success.

4. Apantaku, S. O. Target Audience Adoption of Agricultural Technologies Developed By University of Agriculture Abeokuta Researchers: Case for a new Linkage Mechanism.

5. Shamebo, D. & Belehu, T. Peasants’ Participatory Evaluation in Release of Early Maturing Sweet Potato Varieties in Southern Region of Ethiopia.

6. Madukwe, M. C. Factors Affecting Coordination Among Government Agricultural Extension Agencies in Nigeria.

7. Lindner, J. Common Sense Approach: A Wasteful Management.

A Commentary on Poverty

Today, poverty is a global phenomenon and is not restricted to the developing countries alone. Even rich countries like USA are in the grip of poverty. In a recent report, the anti-hunger group “Bread For the World” says that the United States has more children living in poverty than any other industrialized nation. According to the World Bank estimates, poverty has gradually grown to become a widespread phenomenon that encompasses nearly 20 per cent of the World population.

There is a general consensus that every human should at least have the basic needs of life in terms of food, clothing and shelter to lead a life with dignity. This is not an impossible task, given the “Will” to envision and implement a strategic design for a better world order. Certain tips in this direction are offered for building a sound development base.

First: Poverty is not merely a social or economic phenomenon. It encompasses a wide range of conditions and covers a large part of humanity. The cultural, religious, geographical, communal, and economic differences between people have led to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. Globalization has thus made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Development strategy must consider these factors while designing strategies for alleviation of poverty.

Second: Protected economics resulting in favoritism, frequent scandals, and pervading corruption have badly affected economic growth. Benefits are accrued to a section of population. In order to make a sound development strategy that could suit to the changing needs of global poverty, political system has to adapt a constitution which could be conducive to economic expansion.

Third: Parallel economy in many developing where funds are diverted away from development of a free-market especially towards terrorism, political destabilization, and fundamentalists religious activities are becoming a cause for poverty in a planned manner on a global scale. International institutions like the World Bank, the UN and G-8 group of countries should come forward to take responsibility for creating mass awareness about the relation between faith and poverty. Community centers must be created where people of all sections could come together to interact with valuable traditions of faith. Mass campaigns focusing on commonalities of different religions using films, radio, television, print media, and CD-ROMS would help in promoting multi-cultural understanding which are pre-requisites for economic growth and social development.

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Gboku, M. L. S. FARM TECHNOLOGY, Women’s Participation and Resource Control in Sierra Leone, 3-15.

This paper is an excerpt of a larger study of draught animal technology in Sierra Leone. The purpose of the study was to provide a better understanding of women’s access to and control over production resources in draught animal farming. The study also identified the factors that influence access and control, and determined the specific gender roles performed by women in the use of animal technology. Findings revealed that working with draught animal technology was a predominantly male activity with the involvement of adult women limited to maintenance activities including sheltering, grazing, and provision of animal health care. Although the women reported access to draught animals, control over them and other resources was, by tradition, vested in the men. Women’s potential to maximize production was further constrained by lack of access to farm credit and failure of the predominantly male extension agents to reach women.

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Baryeh, A. B., Ntifo-Siaw, E., & Baryeh, E. A. Transfer of Fish Preservation Technology to women in Ghana, 16-37.

Traditional fish smoking in mud ovens in Ghana has many disadvantages. A technology called the Chorkor Fish Smoker, which overcomes the disadvantages of the traditional smoker, has been developed by the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit. The technology has been transferred to many women engaged in fish smoking in the country. The effectiveness of the transfer, the constraints, the availability of funds and incentives, source of financing, benefits, inputs availability, interest and use of local materials of the technology has been studied on 50 women fish smokers in the Cape Coast district of the Central Region of Ghana. The study revealed that the technology transfer was effective and appropriate. Credit facilities, input availability, and input cost were the major constraints. They, however, benefited from increased knowledge, increase in quantity, quality and shelf life of product, ready marketability of the product, and increased cooperation with other fish smokers. Despite the constraints the women like the technology.

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Botha, C. A. J. Towards Measuring Instrument to Predict Farmers’ Success, 38-56.

It is often believed that farming success if mainly dependent on farm management. This, however, is an over simplification. This investigation was done to show (a) that farming success is the outcome of the influences of three categories of variables, viz., personal and environmental variables, mediating variable (perceptions, aspirations and knowledge) and farming behavioural variables; and (b) that the relative influences of the different sets of factors on farming outcomes are unequal. The different interrelationships between the three sets of variables were not investigated. Data gathering was done by means of personal interviews and included all the commercial project participants within the borders of KaNgwane, a former homeland within the borders of the Republic of South Africa. Pearson correlation, Chi-square and regression analyses were used to select relevant variables and to test the hypotheses. The results of the statistical analyses showed that there were 13 quantifiable variables, which predicted 89.9 per cent of the variation in farming success. The other ten per cent in success variation is ascribed to variables not taken into account by the research. The 13 variables come from each of the three categories of contributing variables and their relative influences on farming success are shown not to be equal.

There is a great need in South Africa and other developing countries to focus aid for farmers and other agricultural producers on those who will make best use of it. This research has indicated that it is theoretically possible to construct a scale to predict the success of farmers on commercial agricultural projects. The scale can accommodate aspects of importance for decision-makers, which could increase the success rate even further. Such a scale may be helpful and valuable for credit suppliers and other decision-makers, e.g. in the identification of farmers for land re-settlement purposes or different forms of aid and assistance. Further research in this regard is required and recommended.

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Apantaku, S. O. Target Audience Adoption of Agricultural Technologies Developed By University of Agriculture Abeokuta Researchers: Case for a new Linkage Mechanism, 57-69.

Despite the existence of a specialized and research oriented University of Agriculture in Abeokuta area of Ogun State Nigeria for the past ten years, the cost of livestock feeds and human food, especially animal protein sources, is still exorbitant. The University’s animal scientists have been able to develop remarkable technologies and feed compounding innovations to reduce the cost of feeds. The aim of the study, therefore, was to evaluate awareness and adoption of the technologies developed by these academics by intended users, extension workers and subject matter specialists in the area and determine the strength of the linkage mechanism between the University’s researchers, extension agents, and intended users of their technologies. Results indicated poor awareness and adoption by users, and poor awareness by extension agents and SMSs. The linkage between the researchers, extension agents and users was found to be weak and ineffective. Since an effective linkage system is that where technologies developed are mainly responsive to users problems only, the study recommended and presented a new Agricultural Technology Research-Extension-Users linkage model.

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Shamebo, D. & Belehu, T. Peasants’ Participatory Evaluation in Release of Early Maturing Sweet Potato Varieties in Southern Region of Ethiopia, 70-78.

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) is one of the important root crops in SRE. One of the major constraints to the production of sweet potato in Ethiopia in general and in SRE in particular is the absence of early maturing and high yielding sweet potato varieties. Eleven varieties of sweet potato were tested in different agro-ecological zones in Ethiopia in 1993-1995 in a replicated experiment. In 1996, three of the best performed varieties; namely, I-444, TIS-1499 and TIS-3017 (2) were planted in two on-station and four on-farms. The plot size was 100 m². Every on-farm activity, from site selection up to releasing of the varieties was executed in conjunction with farmers, researchers and development agents.

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Madukwe, M. C. Factors Affecting Coordination Among Government Agricultural Extension Agencies in Nigeria, 79-88.

This study was carried out to identify the major facilitating factors and barrier to the coordination of the activities of government agencies implementing agricultural extension services in Nigeria. One hundred and thirty administrative staff from three major agricultural extension agencies in Nigeria, namely, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Development Programme, and the Local Government Councils, provided information for the study. The Factor Analysis techniques were used in data analysis. The results show the two major facilitating factors as “domain consensus” and “comparable objectives”, while the two major barrier factors were “concern of organizational autonomy” and “poor logistics support”.

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Lindner, J. Common Sense Approach: A Wasteful Management, 89-99.

Extension needs managers to coordinate the human, capital, and other resources necessary to accomplish organizational goals (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995). At the county level, these managers are called County chairs. Properly trained and educated, County chairs are effective in making managerial decisions. However, under trained and under educated County chairs lead to wasteful management. One common example of wasteful management is the common sense approach. The common sense approach to wasteful management can be defined as making managerial decisions based on common sense or gut feelings, rather than making managerial decisions based on knowledge that has been accumulated through experience, analyzed and developed through scientific inquiry, and organized into a discipline (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995). This paper provides a framework for addressing the common sense approach to wasteful management. The conclusions of the analysis are that Extension needs to (1) recognize that the common sense approach to wasteful management occurs, (2) recognized that the consequences of making managerial decisions based on common sense can have dire consequences, and (3) take action to eliminate managerial decisions based on common sense.

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