The influence of local governance on agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan

The present article investigates the influence of local governance on agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan. The Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan is an agricultural country that has been described as a hybrid state, where local governance tends to be dominated by a few powerful actors. Local governance processes do have a strong influence on the agriculture practise and on the exchange of the knowledge. Agricultural advisory services claim various effects in the country. Especially in regions that are dominated by monocultures, advisory services have limited success. Therefore the present article assumes that the nexus of knowledge and innovation in Tajik agriculture is largely dependent on the decision-making of local governance processes. The article outlines the important role of local governance for distribution and use of knowledge in rural areas and emphasizes the context of agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan. --Tajikistan,Agriculture,Advisory service,Local governance,Elites

Knowledge and governance arrangements in agricultural production: Negotiating access to arable land in Zarafshan Valley, Tajikistan

The economy and society of Tajikistan depends strongly on agriculture. Approximately three-quarters of the Tajik population live in rural areas. The agricultural sector generates about one fifth of total GDP and provides 55 per cent of employment (Akramov and Shreedhar, 2012). However, this does not translate into a sufficient agricultural output. On the one hand, the natural conditions of the country are not particularly favourable for agriculture, as its high elevation limits the land area that is suitable for farming. On the other hand, national legislation and local governance arrangements are not always conducive to agricultural production. The present paper inquires into the role of knowledge and governance in local agricultural production. It concentrates on access to arable land in the upper Zarafshan Valley, a remote mountainous area in northern Tajikistan. The paper analyses how the individual knowledge of farmers relates to the common knowledge that is represented by local governance arrangements. To exemplify this relation it focuses upon one local institution that implements land distribution, Bobogi. The shifting status of knowledge and institutions enables farmers to exercise influence on negotiation processes of access to land. Bobogi is seen to be a publicly legitimized institution that contributes to the construction and maintenance of social order in local communities

The influence of local governance on agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan

The present article investigates the influence of local governance on agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan. The Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan is an agricultural country that has been described as a hybrid state, where local governance tends to be dominated by a few powerful actors. Local governance processes do have a strong influence on the agriculture practise and on the exchange of the knowledge. Agricultural advisory services claim various effects in the country. Especially in regions that are dominated by monocultures, advisory services have limited success. Therefore the present article assumes that the nexus of knowledge and innovation in Tajik agriculture is largely dependent on the decision-making of local governance processes. The article outlines the important role of local governance for distribution and use of knowledge in rural areas and emphasizes the context of agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan

Agricultural Expertise and Knowledge Practices among Individualized Farm Households in Tajikistan

In the context of the post-Soviet restructuration of the agricultural sector and rural livelihoods throughout Central Asia, the present thesis addresses farmers approach to knowledge in marginal mountainous areas in northern Tajikistan. Against the background of the individualization of agricultural production also in remote rural areas such as the Zarafshan Valley, the study scrutinizes how farmers' approach knowledge to maintain their livelihoods. The primary subjects of the study are thus individualized agricultural expertise and knowledge practices in everyday rural livelihood provision. Departing from the perspective on knowledge and expertise in everyday agricultural praxis, the research integrates governance processes, which are conceptually considered being co-produced together with knowledge. Due to its volatile and uncertain outcomes, governance processes in rural Tajikistan are conceptualized as meshwork arrangements. Under the conditions of the neopatrimonial authoritarian state, the individualisation of Tajik agriculture unfolded as limited access order (LAO). LAO are political arrangements where the ruler or aligned elites limit the access to opportunities and resources for other political or economic actors. The study argues that such political economy allowed only for a protracted agro-economic performance of the individualized farm households. Despite completely individualized production processes, only a minority of farm households in the Zerafshan Valley are actually market-oriented producers. Against this finding, the present research notes current Zarafshani farmers disregard for agricultural expertise, while determining noticeable attention to knowledge practices that potentially manoeuvre governance arrangements. Under the conditions of uncertain meshwork governance arrangements and LAO, the individualization of agriculture did not create conditions that incentivize farmers to invest in agricultural expertise. The research outlines that there is no deficit of agricultural expertise, but a lack of request. Instead, under the conditions of individualized agricultural production, local farm households are constraint to engage in governance processes in order to maintain their livelihoods.Die vorliegende Arbeit entstand aus dem zunächst unspezifischen Herangehen an die Frage welches Wissen mobilisieren tadschikische Kleinbauern in marginalen ländlichen Gegenden um ihren Lebensunterhalt zu sichern? Die post-sowjetische Individualisierung der Landwirtschaft brachte die grundlegende Restrukturierung des Wirtschaftssektors, aber auch Veränderungen der lokalen Politikgestaltung, sozialer Ordnung und Sicherung der Lebensgrundlagen (livelihoods). Vor diesem Hintergrund widmet sich die vorliegende Untersuchung der Frage, wie sich Wissen in der tadschikischen Landwirtschaft nicht als epistemische Verlustgeschichte entwickelt, d.h. als Abfall der hochspezialisieren kollektiven Landwirtschaft zur Subsistenzwirtschaft, sondern als Ressource individualisierter, privatwirtschaftlich orientierter Agrarbetriebe. Zentraler Gegenstand dieser Untersuchung sind daher landwirtschaftliche Expertise und Wissenspraktiken der individualisierten Hofwirtschaften im tadschikischen Zarafshantal. Die Feldforschung entlang des Zerafshan Flusses in Nord-Tadschikistan belegt die Marginalisierung landwirtschaftlicher Expertise. Aufgrund fehlender wirtschaftlicher Anschlussmöglichkeiten fragen speziell Kleinbauern Agrar-Expertise nicht nach; ungewisse politische Prozesse verhindern Investitionen in Expertise zur Steigerung der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion und Vermarktung. Stattdessen fokussieren Kleinbauern auf Wissenspraktiken, welche potentiell Einfluss auf Politikgestaltung nehmen, etwa zur Lösung von Konflikten bezogen auf den Zugang und die Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen. Dieser Wandel epistemischer Kulturen, vor dem Hintergrund geringer wirtschaftlicher Produktivität, ist eine Reaktion auf ein volatiles politisches Umfeld und neopatrimoniale Herrschaftspraktiken, welche von begrenzten Zugangsordnungen (LAO) und Flechtwerk-Herrschaft (meshwork governance) geprägt sind. Zur Sicherung des Lebensunterhaltes orientieren sich die lokalen Akteure nicht in erster Linie an landwirtschaftlicher Expertise, sondern fokussieren auf Wissenspraktiken welche Möglichkeiten bieten, Einfluss auf die lokale Politikgestaltung zu nehmen

Video in development: filming for rural change

This book is about using video in rural interventions for social change. It gives a glimpse into the many creative ways in which video can be used in rural development activities. Capitalising on experience in this field, the book aims to encourage development professionals to explore the potential of video in development, making it a more coherent, better understood and properly used development tool – in short, filming for rural change

La vidéo dans le développement: filmer pour le changement rural

Cette publication traite de l’utilisation de la vidéo dans des interventions rurales visant le changement social. Elle donne un aperçu des nombreuses façons créatives d’utiliser la vidéo dans des activités de développement rural. Valorisant l’expérience

Innovative Engineering Education In The Wake Of Smart Agriculture. Revision Of The Agricultural Engineering Curriculum

Global developments request ever more productive agricultural production systems to ensure food security. Agricultural production must be environmentally, socially sustainable and economically efficient. Innovative digital technologies are central to sustainable production systems. This poses challenges to the education of agricultural engineers, as technologies for real world challenges result from highly interdisciplinary innovations. Agricultural engineering (AgEng) as academic discipline is not universally established, which leaves voids in educational curricula and formal training areas. A substantial conflictual dualism remains between the biological and engineering domains. There are currently no homogeneous pathways through which these domains merge on common scientific and cultural foundations, cumulating in consistent training areas. The diffuse institutional situation damages the position of AgEng as an academic discipline. The ambiguity of AgEng has become evident during the evolution of Smart Agriculture (SA), where digital technologies deeply interact with conventional agricultural technologies. In the course of rapidly spreading SA technologies, the present paper formulates a rigorous approach to defining competence formation in AgEng to integrate crosscompetences, which can be offered through lifelong learning (LLL) opportunities

An Optimization Model for Technology Adoption of Marginalized Smallholders: Theoretical Support for Matching Technological and Institutional Innovations

The rural poor are often marginalized and restricted from access to markets, public services and information, mainly due to poor connections to transport and communication infrastructure. Despite these unfavorable conditions, agricultural technology investments are believed to unleash unused human and natural capital potentials and alleviate poverty by productivity growth in agriculture. Based on the concept of marginality we develop a theoretical model which shows that these expectations for productivity growth are conditional on human and natural capital stocks and transaction costs. Our model categorizes the rural farm households below the poverty line into four segments according to labor and land endowments. Policy recommendations for segment and location specific investments are provided. Theoretical findings indicate that adjusting rural infrastructure and institutions to reduce transaction costs is a more preferable investment strategy than adjusting agricultural technologies to marginalized production conditions

Methodological Review and Revision of the Global Hunger Index

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a multidimensional measure of hunger that considers three dimensions: (1) inadequate dietary energy supply, (2) child undernutrition, and (3) child mortality. The initial version of the index included the following three, equally weighted, non-standardized (i.e. unscaled) indicators that are expressed in percent: the proportion of the population that is calorie deficient (FAO's prevalence of undernourishment); the prevalence of underweight in children under five; and the under-five mortality rate. Several decisions regarding the original formulation of the GHI are reconsidered in light of recent discussions in the nutrition community and suggestions by other researchers, namely the choice of the prevalence of child underweight for the child undernutrition dimension, the use of the under-five mortality rate from all causes for the child mortality dimension, and the decision not to standardize the component indicators prior to aggregation. Based on an exploration of the literature, data availability and comparability across countries, and correlation analyses with indicators of micronutrient deficiencies, the index is revised as follows: (1) The child underweight indicator is replaced with child stunting and child wasting; (2) The weight of one third for the child undernutrition dimension is shared equally between the two new indicators; and (3) The component indicators of the index are standardized prior to aggregation, using fixed thresholds set above the maximum values observed in the data set. The under-five mortality rate from all causes is retained, because estimating under-five mortality attributable to nutritional deficiencies would be very costly and make the production of the GHI dependent on statistics about cause-specific mortality rates by country and year that are published irregularly, while the expected benefits are limited