Factors influencing farmer-to-farmer extension of forage legume technology

Forage legumes have been introduced to farmers in Central Kenya between 1980 and 2002 through various Institutional and Projects’ efforts. The adoption rate of these forages among farmers has been found to be rather low, with the NDDP reporting only 1.9 % of farms surveyed and an ICRAF report indicating that the technology was only reaching 1 % of smallholder farms. An evaluation of adoption of Calliandra and Desmodium was conducted to identify farm characteristics affecting the likelihood of sharing of Desmodium and Calliandra technologies as well as to characterise the spread or diffusion of the technology from the original contact groups and the effect of distance from those groups. Three groups of farmers were approached. A first generation who received planting material from the distributors, a second generation who received planting materials from the former, and a randomly selected group of farmers at various distances from the first contacts. Informal discussions were held with the farmers and formal questionnaires filled. Out of the 133 first generation farmers contacted 64.7% still had Desmodium and 89.5% still had Calliandra. More farms in the contact sub-locations had the plants than the sub-locations further away. The small sample size of those with the forages could not allow effect of distance to be worked out. Tobit estimates of effects of farmer attributes influencing sharing of planting materials shows that the status of the household head in the community positively affected the likelihood of giving out planting material. The technology has a rather slow spread as indicated by percentages of farms with the forages. For better adoption and spread proponents of the technology should have the technology introduced to farmers who have substantial positions in farmer groups or have been bestowed community responsibility

Fodder legumes technology and farmer to farmer extension: a case of Desmodium and Calliandra in central Kenya

Adoption studies on fodders legume technologies have shown that spread of the technology is significantly enhanced by informal methods of dissemination especially farmer-to-farmer extension. It is not known which type of farmers are involved in this dissemination. The objective of this study was to identify farm and farmer characteristics that influence farmer-to farmer extension hence identify the type of farmers that can disseminate fodder legume technologies. A random sample of 130 farmers who had been given calliandra in central Kenya responded to a structured questionnaire. Information collected included farm and farmer characteristics and the number of farmers the original farmer had given Calliandra outside the original group. A tobit model was used to analyze the data to get the magnitude of the effects of factors affecting the probability and the intensity of giving out the fodder. Results showed that farmers with positions in farmer groups** , community responsibility**, larger amounts of desmodium on the their farms** , more years of the fodder on their farms***; low access to markets* and off farm income* , were positively involved in spread of the fodder legume. It was recommended that this type of farmers be targeted with support to increase spread of the technology

Did female prisoners with mental disorders receive psychiatric treatment before imprisonment?

© 2015 Mundt et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BackgroundThroughout the world, high prevalence rates of mental disorders have been found in prison populations, especially in females. It has been suggested that these populations do not access psychiatric treatment. The aim of this study was to establish rates of psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments prior to imprisonment in female prisoners and to explore reasons for discontinuation of such treatments.Methods150 consecutively admitted female prisoners were interviewed in Berlin, Germany. Socio-demographic characteristics, mental disorders, and previous psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments were assessed by trained researchers. Open questions were used to explore reasons for ending previous psychiatric treatment.ResultsA vast majority of 99 prisoners (66%; 95% CI: 58¿73) of the total sample reported that they had previously been in psychiatric treatment, 80 (53%; 95 CI: 45¿61) in inpatient treatment, 62 (41%; 95 CI: 34¿49) in outpatient treatment and 42 (29%; 21¿39) in both in- and outpatient treatments. All prisoners with psychosis and 72% of the ones with any lifetime mental health disorder had been in previous treatment. The number of inpatient treatments and imprisonments were positively correlated (rho¿=¿0.27; p¿<¿0.01). Inpatient treatment was described as successfully completed by 56% (N¿=¿41) of those having given reasons for ending such treatment, whilst various reasons were reported for prematurely ending outpatient treatments.ConclusionThe data do not support the notion of a general `mental health treatment gap¿ in female prisoners. Although inpatient care is often successfully completed, repeated inpatient treatments are not linked with fewer imprisonments. Improved transition from inpatient to outpatient treatment and services that engage female prisoners to sustained outpatient treatments are needed

Prevalence Rates of Mental Disorders in Chilean Prisons

PMCID: PMC371883

Socio-economic analysis of farmer preferences of fodder legumes attributes and information flow among smallholder dairy farmers in Central Kenya: A case study of Calliandra and Desmodium.

It has been recognized that livestock production can contribute to sustainable livelihoods in the rural areas through increased food and nutritional security and incomes especially for the rural poor in the less developed countries. Low quantities and poor quality basal diet, and lack of high quality protein feeds have been identified as the major constraint to improved milk production in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya the problem is compounded by high cost of commercial feeds that are beyond the reach of the smallholder milk producers, resulting in farmers producing only 50% of the potential annual milk production of 4 billion litres. There have been several attempts to introduce fodder legumes in livestock production systems without success in most regions. In Kenya efforts to introduce fodder legumes started more than 2 decades ago but still a very small percentage of farmers have adopted this technology. Previous studies on adoption of these fodders have not embraced the more client-oriented approaches such as farming systems and farmer-participatory research. Much of their research has been driven by a macro-level, constraint oriented analysis that assumes a set of objectives that is not necessarily shared by any livestock producers. This study used participatory methodologies to elicit farmer preferences of fodder legumes attributes. The study area consisted of Maragua, Kirinyaga, Embu and Nyeri districts of Kenya. The sample used consisted of 130 farmers who were randomly selected from the groups that had been given Calliandra by System-wide Livestock (SLP) project at the international Centre for Research in Agro Forestry (ICRAF) and Desmodium by Smallholder Dairy Project (SDP) at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Data was collected using a conjoint analysis survey instrument and a structured questionnaire. This data set of households was used to evaluate fodder legume attributes by use of an ordered probit model. The consumer theory was the underpinning of the model used. A tobit model was used to analyse factors influencing sharing out of the legume technology from the original farmers to others outside their group. Ordered probit results showed that farmers valued most fodders legumes that had high dry season tolerance and high economy on land. Tobit results showed that sharing out of fodder legumes technology from original farmers to other farmers was strongly influenced by farmer being an official in a farmer group or having a community responsibility. Lastly sharing of the technology was influenced by the characteristics of the individual fodder legume. Recommendations given from this study were that fodders legumes to be introduced in the study area should be dry season resistant and have high economy on land. It was also recommended that farmers who have positions in farmer groups and those with community responsibility be supported in various feasible ways like training to increase spread of the technology. Lastly, it was concluded that specific constraints to spread of the technology be addressed for individual or particular fodders legumes since it was shown in the study that plant characteristics influenced its spread