Article reprints (US $5/each) may be obtained by contacting the Academic Editor.
O. S. Verma, Editorial
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Assessment of Hierarchical Structure of Cognitive Learning of Neo-Literate Rural Women, Sumita Roy and Varinder Randhawa
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Participatory Programming and Sustainable Development: A Workshop for Indian Educators, Okechukwu Ukaga, Edwin F. Shinn, Arlen Etling
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Effectiveness of Maryland Nutrition Management Program in Reducing Crop Nutrient Use by Livestock Farmers in Maryland, Jamal Hosseini and William Rivera
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Experiences of Public Sector Collaboration for Scaling Up Non Government Organization (NGO) Rural Development Project in Mexico, Anibal Quispe and Leobardo Jimenex-Sanchez
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Survey of Agricultural Enterprises owned by Women Farmers in Botswana, P. J. Squire and Ntshaliki Cecilia Moseki
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Activities in Research-Extension-Farmers Linkage System in South Western Nigeria, O. I. Oladele
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Assessment of Methods of Training Farmers for the Implementation of Programmes of Agricultural Development Project in Rivers State of Nigeria, A. G. Eke and G. N. Emah
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Gender Sensitization: Women in Agricultural Development, O. S. Verma
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NEW YORK – USA: Capitalizing on its Image as the Big Apple, O. S. Verma
Development of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is not only the ability to successfully predict future needs of the people but also produce goods and services accordingly to satisfy these needs. Further, it needs constant evaluation of the changing social and economic order. It also requires highest level of imagination, creativity, and innovation. By and large, there is no dearth of the people possessing these properties. In developing countries, however, a large number of people with potential to develop entrepreneurship either sit idle or wait for a job to come their way. Becoming an entrepreneur to earn a living and thereby generate employment for others and also create assets for the whole economy is not an option for them. An in-depth analysis of this stigma reveals some of the reasons for entrepreneurship not gaining momentum.
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Contempt for Labor: Mostly, people try to seek external help for doing their odd jobs that they themselves can do with ease. This is mainly because of their traditional contempt for labour. Manual work for them is a social stigma. Such mental block affects the development of entrepreneurship.
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Lack of Capital: Developing countries have a lower rate of savings and investments which in turn affects the rate of capital formation. Capital is vital for every business. Its unavailability adversely affects entrepreneurship spirit.
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License: Economic environment is such that starting and running a business is Herculean task. Sundry licenses, permits, and quota all are roadblocks in the development of entrepreneurship. Government is the entrepreneurs’ biggest enemy.
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Education Systems: Education systems are simply churning out hoards of office clerks. In schools and colleges, mindsets are shaped for nothing but a job after graduation. Even the top management centers are churning out managers conditioned to work for big corporations. There is little emphasis on the development of entrepreneurship skills through requisite training.
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Parental Expectation: No sooner do parents send their children to school than they expect him/her to become an officer in government sector some day. Very few think of making their child an officer of his/her own business.
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Socialist Mindset: Socialistic economies have a bias that anything concerned with money and creating wealth is a sin. Anyone doing so is thought of as a thief by the society. This negative feeling has always bogged down the mindset and hindered the growth of enterprising efforts.
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Traditional Obsession: Traditional obsession with government jobs prevents a large number of people from taking up employment in private sector. Private sector is traditionally understood as a synonym for extra income. Hence, people refrain from becoming a part of it as workers and so also as entrepreneurs.
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Familial Protection: In a society of joint-families, non employed member of the family is considered a boon to do small odd jobs. This is detrimental to personal development of the individual.
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Cultural Values: Despite lucrative feasibility of a business, it does not get public and social acceptance mainly because cultural values do not approve it. For instance, Piggery is a very profitable venture but because it is a caste-tied avocation, it is not taken up by people other than lower categories of scheduled castes.
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Youths Unwillingness: Despite having a large population of unemployed youths in almost all the countries around the world, entrepreneurship as a career has not been picked up by them. They are not willing to come forward for developing their own business. Thus, the bottom line is that instead of thinking of joining others’ business, youths should be motivated to create and find employment avenues by their own efforts. Business always does not mean a multi-million corporation. Something as humble as a small shop catering to local needs is still better than no employment at all.
So, why join others’ business? Why not your own? It is high time entrepreneurship as a career becomes a common phenomenon. In the developed countries, concept of private sector has taken center stage long ago and entrepreneurship has become a great success. In the United States, for instance, Venture Capital Outlays which fuel new business has registered a 200-fold increase in a short period of 10 years. While 1000 largest US companies eliminated one million jobs, smaller innovative Companies added 20 million jobs over the same period. So, small is beautiful. Another viable option is that non-traditional career should be considered to counter unemployment. But before you have what it takes to succeed, map your aptitude for entrepreneurship. Here is a 10-question entrepreneurship test for you. Each question in this 10 question battery carries three options. You tick only one of these which is typically characteristic of you.
1. Are you a self-starter?
a.
If someone gets me started, I might go alright.
b. I do things
my own way. Nobody needs to tell me to get going.
c. I do not
put myself until I am asked to do it.
2. How do you feel about other people?
a. Most people puzzle me.
b. I can get along with just about anybody.
c. I do not need anybody else. I already have enough friends.
3. Can you lead others?
a. I can get people to do things if I am in the driver’s seat.
b. I can get most people to go along with me without much difficulty.
c. I usually let someone else get things moving.
4. Can you take responsibility?
a. I will take if I have to but I would rather let someone else take the responsibility.
b. There is always some eager person around waiting to show off, I say let him.
c. I like to accept responsibility and see things done through.
5. How good organizer are you?
a. I like to have a plan before I start. I am usually the one who lines up the things.
b. I do all unless things get too complicated. Then, I may opt out.
c. I just take things as they come.
6. How good worker are you?
a. I do not see hard work can lead you anywhere.
b. I work hard when I have enough time. That’s it.
c. I can keep going as long as necessary. I do not mind working extra hours.
7. Can you make decisions?
a. I can if I have plenty of time.
b. I can make up my mind quickly if necessary to make quick decisions.
c. I do not like to be the one who decides things in hurry.
8. Can people trust what you say?
a. I try to be on their level but sometimes I just say what is easiest.
b. I do not say things I do not mean. They, therefore, surely trust me.
c. I always say what I think is right. If they do not understand the difference, it is their fault.
9. Can you stick with?
a. If I make up my mind to do something, I do not let anything stop me.
b. If a job does not go right, I turn it off. Why beat others brain?
c. I usually finish what I start.
10. Can you keep record?
a. Records are not important. I know what is needed without keeping records.
b. I can but it is more important to work out things that to shuffle numbers.
c. Since they are needed, I will keep records even though I do not want to.
SCORE-CARD
Question |
(a) |
(b) |
(c) |
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1 |
5 |
10 |
3 |
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2 |
3 |
10 |
5 |
|
3 |
3 |
10 |
5 |
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4 |
5 |
3 |
10 |
|
5 |
10 |
5 |
3 |
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6 |
3 |
5 |
10 |
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7 |
5 |
10 |
3 |
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8 |
5 |
10 |
3 |
|
9 |
5 |
3 |
10 |
|
10 |
3 |
5 |
10 |
GRADING
Score 100: Excellent
A perfect score. You are a born entrepreneur. If you are not presently running your own business you should definitely start one, the sooner the better. You are on the way to fame and riches.
Score 91-99: Very Good
You definitely have what it takes to succeed in a business of your own. Do not hesitate. Your ways to success in business are wide open.
Score 72-90: Good
You have the qualities of a successful entrepreneur with some weak spots. Identify your deficiency. You should be able to cover that deficiency by either retraining yourself or hiring someone with the necessary skill.
Score 41-71: So-So
The prospect of your success in a business of your own is questionable. You have some deficiencies that might out-shadow some good traits you have. If you still want to go on with it, be sure to call up all the persistence you can get. You are going to face some tough adversity on the way.
Score 40 and below: Most Unsatisfactory
Forget your dreams of being your own boss. You should better keep secure job. Why bother with all the risks and hustles of starting a business.
As an educational approach, the present investigation attempted to promote cognitive learning in neo-literate rural women towards maternal and child nutrition. The approach was based on modular instruction where a set of capsules was used on respective content areas. These capsules were used for promoting cognitive learning through personal and impersonal mode of intervention. The personal mode was face-to-face instruction through lecture and for impersonal mode the video-taped lectures were delivered. In both the intervention modes, a moduled instructional booklet was distributed for self-reading after the exposure to respective content. The intervention was carried out through randomized control group pre-test post-test experimental research design. The scores obtained through criterion referenced mastery test showed differential pattern of cognitive learning for respective capsules in both the modes of intervention. The cognitive learning was according to the order of difficulty from simple to complex and also followed a hierarchy where knowledge formed the base for comprehension and then application was subsequently built upon each in a hierarchical manner.
After much talk about participatory rural assessment, a number of articles and papers by AIAEE members, and a training manual, a particular university is taking the concepts to field workers. International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) at Colorado State University (CSU), working with the HELPO Foundation, Pune, India, initiated a collaborative workshop for participatory program and community development. IISD and HELPO Foundation organized a four-week training entitled “Participatory Processes for Sustainable Development” (PPSD) of local community development practitioners in Pune, India, whose previous education and training were largely authoritarian and hierarchical. The participants not only rated the workshop very positively but also actually implemented participatory methods in their community development work. A year after the workshop, most participants were still using participatory approaches.
The sample for the study included 250 livestock farmers. The research design included a survey strategy and mail questionnaire. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and content analysis. The response rate for the study was 135 livestock farmers. The majority of livestock farmers (95 respondents) indicated that they implemented the NMP on at least 50 percent of their farmland. The results show a majority of livestock farmers decreased the amount of commercial nitrogen applied to their crops especially those engaged in corn adopt practices recommended by the NMP. In addition, forty-one livestock farmers indicated that they implemented the NMP practices in order to reduce water pollution in Maryland. While majority of respondents (98 respondents) believed that there is water pollution in Maryland, they did not consider the agricultural sector to be a primary contributor to non-point source pollution. Livestock farmers perceive the NMP in a very favorable light. Those using manure (121 respondents) and those using chemical fertilizers (123 respondents) stated that the NMP helped them to use manure and chemical fertilizers more efficiently. The study arrived at two main findings. First, the NMP is effective in persuading livestock farmers to use crop nutrients more efficiently; and second, livestock farmers’ perception of the NMP is very favorable, although they desire more frequent and regular farm visits by extension consultants.
In the last ten years, the number of NGO rural development projects has been increasing in Mexico. Many of them have been successful in their pilot phase of 3 years. Evaluation studies questioned how to deal with these projects in order to expand the experiences to other communities. In response to this, in Mexico the representatives of some NGO projects and state programs decided to share resources for scaling up. This evaluative research identified some evidence of the scaling-up results and the processes of six projects. A survey method, face to face interview, and direct observation were used to collect information from the beneficiary small farmers, technicians, coordinators of the projects, and representatives of the state programs. Two of the six projects were very successful for scaling-up their experiences because of the successful linkages; while one of them mostly linked with the state program, the other one did it with the local institutions and organizations. For other two projects, the scaling-up experiences were fairly successful; and for the last one, there were no scaling-up results. Eight factors were identified that favored or hindered the results: 1) the quality performance of the Ngo staff; 2) the degree of communication between the project and program personnel; 3) the financial and other resources of NGOs; 4) the resources availability of the government programs for the projects; 5) the degree of participation and organization of the farmers in the project; 6) the expectations of the new beneficiaries of the technologies and experiences of the projects; 7) the nature of the introduced technologies and organization; and 8) the socio-economic and political context in which the projects were operating.
The study was a descriptive survey research. Face-to-face interview schedule was used to collect data from a random sample of the accessible study population. The findings showed that the majority of women farmers were relatively young and manage small scale traditional agricultural enterprises on their own land, but earn less than P5000 per annum from their farm investments. In order to empower women farmers to manage their enterprises better and become more productive, it is recommended that: (1) soft loans and other production inputs be made available to the women as independent investors, (2) the agricultural extension services be strengthened to make it more responsive to the needs of women, (3) marketing outlets be provided for the women’s agricultural produce, and (4) current agricultural products pricing policies be reviewed to reflect the high costs of production, processing marketing.
Linkage between researchers, extension agents, and farmers play a vital role in agricultural development. This study analyzed the activities of the components of linkage system in South Western Nigeria. Data were collected through the aid of structured questionnaires from samples that were drawn randomly from researchers (88), extension agents (115) and farmers (271). The results of the study show that problem identification (87.8 percent) is the most prominent linkage activity of both the researchers and extension agents. No significant difference was recorded for the linkage activities across the institutes that were interviewed. The paper concludes that other activities on the linkage scale should be intensified in order to reap the maximum benefits of these linkage types and functions.
The study examines the perception of farmers on methods of training needed for successful implementation of Agricultural Development programmes in Rivers State. A total of eleven methods were examined and seven were ascertained as most important to the training needs of farmers.
Gender Sensitization – Women in Agricultural Development, O. S. Verma, 83-93.
(No Abstract Available)
New York-USA – Capitalizing on its Image as the Big Apple, Complied & Edited by Dr. O. S. Verma, 94-97.
(No Abstract Available)