Agricultural Research Management Training Needs in SADCC

An AEE Working Paper.Management capabilities in agricultural research have been diagnosed as extremely weak in East and Southern Africa. Many agricultural professionals including academics are involved in management but haye not had any formal background in management training. Improving management skills of agricultural professionals is becoming widely recognized as a means of improving productivity in agriculture. For example, the International Agricultural Research Centers including IRRI and CIMMYT are now viewed as being limited in their impacts by management constraints and the thirteenth international research centre, the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) has been created to address agricultural research management issues

Microcomputer Ex Ante Small Farm Agricultural Research Benefit/Cost Analysis: Zimbabwe, Zambia And Tanzania

AEE Working paper on Zimbabwean Agriculture.The general purpose of the working paper is to provide a group of case studies to be used in agricultural research management workshops with the working paper. Agricultural Research Management Training Needs'-, - me'. SAiDCC2. The paper on training heeds recommends the application of ex;anfe>Muefit:/^thihd^ts as a planning and control tool, for improving the productivity of SADCC agricultural research projects. Ex ante. BC evaluation, refers to economic analysis of research project benefits! versus costs for a range of -alternatives prior to initiation of a project. Ex ante B/C evaluation. refers to the economic analysis of benefits versus costs! after completion of a research project; Historical assessments! of projects in Ex post evaluations are useful but not directly relevant for investment decisions on current and proposed projects

A goal programming model for planning management of Miombo woodlands

This study used a Goal Programming approach to investigate the effects of changes in agricultural policies and labour supply due to deaths in farming households, on use of woodlands under two regimes; namely one where utilization of forest resources was restricted to within sustainable levels and under another where this restriction was relaxed, i.e. an open access situation. The study sites for this work were Mutangi in Chivi district and Mafungautsi in Gokwe district. The Mafungautsi community borders the Mafungautsi State Protected Forest and is relatively better-endowed with woodlands than Mutangi. The results from the study indicate that households in communal areas are highly differentiated with regards to ability to satisfying family sustenance goals; relatively poor households depend on woodlands for a significant part of their income needs but richer families are more efficient in harvesting woodlands; increase in agricultural product prices or increase in crop yields tend to increase harvesting of woodland products among the better off and reduce woodland harvests by the poorer households; increase in input costs tends to increase reliance on woodlands especially among the poorer households; and loss of a member of a household increases the degree of poverty especially among the relatively poor with the greatest impacts being felt with loss of female members of households. The Zimbabwe Science News Volume 36 (1+ 2) 2002, pp. 4

A goal programming model for planning management of Miombo woodlands

This study used a Goal Programming approach to investigate the effects of changes in agricultural policies and labour supply due to deaths in farming households, on use of woodlands under two regimes; namely one where utilization of forest resources was restricted to within sustainable levels and under another where this restriction was relaxed, i.e. an open access situation. The study sites for this work were Mutangi in Chivi district and Mafungutsi in Gokwe districts. The results from the study indicate that households in communal areas are highly differentiated with regards to ability to satisfying family sustenance goals; relatively poor households depend on woodlands for a significant part of their income needs but richer families are more efficient in harvesting woodlands; increase in agricultural product prices or increase in crops yield tend to increase harvesting of woodland products among the better off and reduce woodland harvests by the poorer households; and loss of a member of a household increases the degree of poverty especially among the relatively poor with the greatest impacts being felt with loss of female members of households