Communication exposure of sub-assistant agriculture officers (SAAOs) towards e-agriculture in Khulna district of Bangladesh

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of communication exposure of the Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers towards e-agriculture in Khulna district of Bangladesh. Study was conducted in the five selected upazilas of Khulna city viz., Rupsa, Dighalia, Phultala, Dumuria and Batiaghata which consist of 108 agricultural blocks. A sample of 100 Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officers (SAAOs) was selected from these blocks. Data were collected following a structured pretested interview schedule. Findings revealed that most 60% of the SAAOs had low communication exposures to e-agriculture. Correlation analysis indicates that age, income and service experience had negative significant relationship with communication exposures of SAAOs to e-Agriculture. Training exposure and knowledge on e-agriculture had positive significant relationship with their communication exposures towards e-agriculture. The enter method of regression analysis revealed that knowledge on e-agriculture, training exposure and monthly income described 77.5 percent variation in the communication exposure of SAAOs. The estimates indicated that knowledge on e-Agriculture had strongest (β=0.479) contribution to the variance of communication exposure to e-Agriculture. On the other hand, monthly income had contributed to the variance of communication exposure of SAAOs towards e-Agriculture in negative direction (β=-0.156). Mobile phone was the highest preferred device in using e-Agricultural media by the SAAOs. “Unfamiliarity of extension workers with e-agriculture application” was the main personal constraint and “lack of training on e-agriculture” was the main organizational constraint which might have led to low communication exposure of SAAOs towards e-agriculture

Agricultural extension for women farmers in Africa

Women are responsible for at least 70 percent of food staple production in Africa. They are also important in other agricultural activities, including food processing and marketing, cash cropping and animal husbandry. Women's involvement is significant not only in terms of their labor input, but also in terms of their decision-making authority. This paper proposes a series of operational guidelines on how to provide agricultural extension services in a cost-effective way to women farmers. All small-scale farmers, regardless of gender, face constraints, but the focus here is on women farmers in order to foster a better understanding of the particular gender-related barriers confronting women and the strategies needed to overcome them. Attention is concentrated on sub-Saharan Africa in view of the crucial role of women in agriculture throughout the sub-continent. This paper addresses the question of why women need help -- the role women have in agriculture and the particular constraints they face in terms of access to resources and information. It examines the information needed to modify extension systems to better reach women farmers, to modify the focus of research to address women's activities and to monitor and evaluate programs. The paper also deals with the transmission of the extension message to women farmers and the formulation of the message to be delivered, and the linkage between extension and agricultural research and technology.Agricultural Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Primary Education,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

The Access and use of Library and Internet as Information Source by Agricultural Academics and Extension Workers within King Cetshwayo District Municipality of Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Information plays a vital role in agricultural production, it is believed to be the foundation for improved agriculture. To improve agriculture, access and use of information is required. This study investigated the access to and use of library and internet by agricultural extension workers and academics as information source. Shannon and Weaver model theory was used to underpin the study. Purposive sampling was used to select three local municipalities within King Cetshwayo District of KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. Quantitative technique was adopted with self-administered structured questionnaire. Convenience sampling technique was adopted to select 60 extension workers in three offices of the department of agriculture located in Eshowe, Melmoth and Ngwelezane and 9 academics from department of agriculture, University of Zululand, making the total number of the study participants sixty-nine (69). Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyse data collected. Findings revealed that internet facilities are not adequate in agricultural department offices located in the rural areas, thereby, led to minimal use of internet.; Academics regular access to internet led to regular use of internet. Also, Academics had high access to library but low use of library. Most extension workers do not have access to library, thereby, they hardly use library for information source. The study recommends that effort should be made to train, especially the old extension workers on the use of internet for agricultural information source. Use of library should be encouraged among academics and extension workers

Guideline for sustainable wetland management and utilization: key cornerstones

This research report is based on the project on Wetlands, Livelihoods and Environmental Security and the Sustainable management of Inland Wetlands in Southern Africa: a livelihoods and ecosystem approach projects. The projects were supported by the CGIAR´s Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF) and the Global Environment facility with matching funds from International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), FSP and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) The authors acknowledge input by the entire project team. The support of IWMI, UEM, and the UZ, and Institute de Recherche pour le Development (IRD) during project implementation is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the input of CPWF Theme 3 leadership and the Limpopo Basin Coordinator during project implementation

Resilient seed systems for climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihoods in the East Africa sub-region: Report of training workshop, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, 17-21 September 2019

Bioversity International is implementing a Dutch-supported project entitled: Resilient seed systems for climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihoods in the East Africa sub-region. This work aims to boost timely and affordable access to good-quality seed for a portfolio of crops / varieties for millions of women and men farmers’ and their communities across east Africa. A first project training: i) contextualized farmer varietal selection, ii) provided practical demonstrations of tools for climate-change analysis, iii) introduced policy issues associated with managing crop diversity, iv) outlined characterization and evaluation of genetic resources, and v) articulated associated gender issues, and issues related to disseminating elite materials. The training concluded with a contextualizing field trip. In the workshop evaluation, 98% participants declared their overall satisfaction level to be high (74%) or medium (24%), indicating the training furnished them with good ideas for networking and using the tools and methods they learned about

Biotechnology and the African Farmer

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Gender, Local Knowledge, and Lessons Learnt in Documenting and Conserving Agrobiodiversity

gender, biodiversity, agrobiodiversity, indigenous knowledge, conservation, sustainable management, genetic

Farmers' Taxonomies as a Participatory Diagnostic Tool: Soil Fertility Management in Chihota, Zimbabwe

Soil infertility is a major constraint to food production in the communal areas of Zimbabwe. Smallholders in the region recognize the problems of low soil fertility and have devised ways of coping with them. This study describes the use of farmers� taxonomies of themselves and their soils to identify and understand the options they have, and the constraints they face in managing poor soil fertility in Chihota, a sub-humid communal area of north central Zimbabwe. It is part of an effort by a group of agricultural researchers and extensionists working on improved soil fertility technologies, to better integrate their work with farmers in order to expose the latter to promising technologies, get feedback on the technologies merits and feasibility, and help farmers experiment with them. The results show that these farmers have relatively sophisticated taxonomies, which provide a good picture of the resources, constraints, and concerns they have about soil infertility and ways to manage it. The taxonomies are an important framework for integration of technical interventions with farmers� requirements, systems, and circumstances.participatory methods, soil fertility, local taxonomies, smallholders, Zimbabwe, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,