Extension,advice and knowledge systems for private forestry: Understanding diversity and change across Europe

The decisions and actions of private forest owners are important for the delivery of forest goods and services. Both forest ownership, and policies related to forest owners, are changing. Traditionally in most countries, government extension officers have advised and instructed forest owners, but this is evolving, with greater importance given to a range of actors, objectives, and knowledge types. Drawing on literature and mixed data from 10 countries in Europe, this paper explores how forestry advisory systems can be conceptualized, and describes their current situation in Europe. Drawing parallels with the concept of AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems), we propose the term FOKIS (FOrestry Knowledge and Information Systems), as both a system (a purposeful and interdependent group of bodies) and a method for understanding such systems. We define four dimensions for describing FOKIS: owners, policy goals, advice providers, and tools. We find different roles for extension in countries with centrally controlled, highly regulated forest management, and advisors in regions where forest owners have more freedom to choose how to manage their forest. We find five trends across Europe: increasing flexibility, openness and participation of owners as sources of information; increasing reliance on information and persuasion rather than enforced compliance; a shift of attention from timber to a wider range of ecosystem services such as biodiversity and recreation; a shift of funding and providers from public to private sector; emergence of new virtual communication tools. The approach provides a way to make sense of comparisons and change in FOKIS, and opens up an important research field.     

Extension services,product quality and yields: the case of grapes in Argentina

This article studies the impact of publicly subsidized agricultural extension services on yields and product quality. We use panel data from grape producers in Mendoza, Argentina to estimate the impacts of farmer trainings. We find a negative overall impact on yields and evidence of a positive average impact on the adoption of higher‐quality grape varieties. By analyzing the dynamic pattern of the estimated effects, we find evidence of a temporary decrease in yields suggesting the existence of an adjustment process following the introduction of higher‐quality grapes. The overall negative effect on yield is driven by a sharp drop in the year of participation. This fades after year one, and two to three years after treatment we observe increases in higher‐quality grape production. Findings reinforce the importance of temporal dimension of extension services.     

Can women's self‐help groups improve access to information,decision‐making,and agricultural practices? The Indian case

Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers’ access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self‐help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross‐sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest‐neighbor matching models to match SHG and non‐SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes, possibly due to financial constraints, social norms, and women's domestic responsibilities. SHGs need to go beyond provision of information to changing the dynamics around women's participation in agriculture to effectively translate knowledge into practice.     

From our perspective: developing printed extension materials with cocoa farmers in Ghana

Farmers' lack of access to technical information constitutes a major obstacle to improving cocoa productivity in West and Central Africa. Recent debates on cocoa extension pay little attention to the potentially important role of printed extension materials for promoting cocoa integrated crop and pest management (ICPM) and encouraging farmer experimentation. A key issue concerns how to design such materials to meet farmers' needs. Typically, printed agricultural extension materials are developed by technical experts with little input from farmers, the end users. Materials developed in this way are often incomprehensible or confusing to farmers as they tend to contain too much information and use culturally inappropriate symbols and complex language. This paper describes a process involving Ghanaian cocoa farmers, communications and extension specialists to develop an illustrated booklet on cocoa integrated crop and pest management. The case study shows that farmers can make significant contributions to designing printed extension materials by bringing their own perspectives to the sequencing and design of the materials, highlighting details and showing illustrators the most effective ways to convey messages in a non-written way (using body language, colour etc.). As a result of farmers' involvement, the illustrations in the booklet are presented in a story context and sequence, and use a cause and effect approach to communicating ideas. Farmers' input also ensured that the illustrations provide a holistic presentation of cocoa farming by highlighting the linkage between application of technologies and improved household welfare. The paper concludes by offering guidelines on best practices for involving farmers in extension material development.     

Smallholders download and share videos from the Internet to learn about sustainable agriculture

Of 1,211 farmers and their representatives registered on www.accessagriculture.org, 142 participated in an on-line survey in November 2017, designed to learn farmer’s opinions of Access Agriculture, an NGO which hosts a digital platform where anyone can watch or download videos and other information for free. These farmer learning videos all convey practical information on sustainable agricultural innovations, to encourage farmer experiments. Previous experience showed that smallholders liked having their own copy of videos (e.g. on DVD), but this study showed that farmers are now starting to find their own way to the internet to pro-actively search for information. Although some farmers learn about on-line videos by social contacts, most of the farmers found the videos on www.accessagriculture.org by surfing the web. This suggests that limitations of reaching farmers with traditional forms of video distribution (e.g. DVDs and village screenings) will be partly overcome by the Internet. Youth have become the new information brokers for communities, as elders may lack the digital technology skills needed to use the Internet to get agricultural information. To share videos with other community members, youth will benefit from additional tools, such as an app, to allow easy download and sharing with limited data consumption.     

An evaluation of extension services in Sweden

This article analyzes the effects of extension services regarding the use of nutrients in Swedish agriculture on nutrient balances and farms’ finances. The key to our research design is that extension visits vary between agents (some agents give more consultation than others), which leads to random variation in “treatment.” We find that the service affects nutrient utilization, which possibly reduces leakages and eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. A large and positive impact on farms value added implies that the net benefit from the extension services is positive. The improvements are mainly due to better land management practices so that more efficient use of fertilizers increases crop production and thereby decreases the nitrogen balance.     

Design of a decision support tool for visualising E. coli risk on agricultural land using a stakeholder-driven approach

Enabling knowledge exchange between scientists and decision-makers is becoming increasingly necessary to promote the development of effective decision-support tools (DSTs) for environmental management. Participation of stakeholders in the design process beyond a basic level of consultation is essential for promoting trust in modelled outputs and accelerating eventual uptake of resulting tools and models by end-user communities. This study outlines the development of a DST to visualise and communicate the spatial and temporal patterns of E. coli (a faecal indicator organism) on agricultural land, as a first step in managing microbial pollution risks to the wider environment. A participatory approach was used to engage regulators, catchment managers, environmental scientists, farmers and farm advisors, researchers in geospatial technologies and water industry staff in the co-design of a novel, user-friendly and accessible DST for guiding on-farm microbial risk assessment. Recommendations for maximising the benefits of a participatory process to DST design are discussed with reference to a series of opportunities and limitations identified by our stakeholder cohort during the development of the Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk (ViPER) DST. The resulting toolkit provides environmental managers and farm advisors with one of the first freely-available DSTs for visualising patterns of E. coli inputs to pasture in space and time, and begins to address the lack of advisory tools currently available for informing decision-making with respect to managing microbial risks in agricultural systems.     

MAPGIS在省级土地利用规划应用与扩展

在西部大开发和数字国土的背景下,以四川省绵阳市为例,依托MAPGIS软件在土地利用规划管理方面的优势,按照省级土地利用规划数据库建设的具体要求,阐明了基于MAGIS平台进行土地利用规划调查与建库分析的方法、流程及其特点.体现了该方法在土地资源调查中简单易行、动态快速的优良特征,对新一轮国土资源大调查的展开具有很高的实用价值.最后,探讨了该方法在其它方面的应用和扩展,为进一步开展国土资源的数字化和信息化奠定了基础.     

Quantifying the Economic Return to Participatory Extension Programmes in Ireland: an Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis

This article examines the effectiveness of a government funded extension programme. Farm‐level data are used to assess the economic impact of dairy discussion groups, a common participatory extension method. The evaluation focuses on whether discussion group participants have improved farm profits, which is estimated with an endogenous switching regression model. This method controls for self‐selection bias due to unobserved characteristics, such as the farmer’s ability, that may affect both participation and farm profitability. After controlling for this potential bias, we find that the economic returns to discussion group membership are positive, thus supporting government targets to enrol more farmers in discussion groups.     

Incentive-Compatible Pollution Control Policies under Asymmetric Information on Both Risk Preferences and Technology

This article proposes a method to accommodate asymmetric information on farmers' risk preferences in designing voluntary environmental policies. By incorporating stochastic efficiency rules in a mechanism design problem, the government can find incentive-compatible policies by knowing only the general class of risk preferences among farmers. The model also accounts for hidden information on technology types and input use. The method is applied empirically to simulate a pollution control program in New York. Results suggest that participation incentives would be inadequate for many risk-averse producers if the government does not account for the diversity in risk preferences.     

The Impact of Agricultural Extension and Roads on Poverty and Consumption Growth in Fifteen Ethiopian Villages

This article investigates whether public investments that led to improvements in road quality and increased access to agricultural extension services led to faster consumption growth and lower rates of poverty in rural Ethiopia. Estimating an Instrumental Variables model using Generalized Methods of Moments and controlling for household fixed effects, we find evidence of positive impacts with meaningful magnitudes. Receiving at least one extension visit reduces headcount poverty by 9.8 percentage points and increases consumption growth by 7.1 percentage points. Access to all-weather roads reduces poverty by 6.9 percentage points and increases consumption growth by 16.3 percentage points. These results are robust to changes in model specification and estimation methods.     

Assessing the Impact of Financial Incentives in Extension Programmes: Evidence From Ireland

We evaluate whether the effectiveness of a participatory extension programme changes when an incentive is introduced that financially rewards farmers for participation. Using data from a dairy farm extension programme operated in Ireland, the evaluation assesses whether farmers who joined before the financial incentive was introduced receive larger benefits from the extension programme than farmers who joined after the financial incentive. The results from a propensity score matching analysis reveal that farmers who joined before the incentive significantly improved their farm performance, as measured in gross margins and yields, while farmers who joined after the incentive did not significantly benefit from the extension programme. This implies that the incentive to participate is a windfall gain to these later participants.     

新时期水产技术推广的重点和体系建设

水产技术推广工作，是渔业科技与生产的桥梁，新时期搞好水产技术推广要做好六项工作，并配套相应的措施与完善推广方式。     

Smallholders' demand for and access to private‐sector extension services: A case study of contracted cotton producers in northern Tanzania

This paper examines demand for and access to private‐sector extension services by contracted cotton producers in northern Tanzania. Data from a non‐random survey of 520 smallholders show that only 21.9% received any extension and only 4.6% received extension from the cotton ginnery. Wealthier households were three times more likely to receive extension from any provider. While the public sector remains the main source of extension and is prioritized by smallholders, almost all households demanded extension from firms and are willing to invest 3 days per month mainly for advice on cotton and maize production. The involvement of third parties in the supply of extension from ginneries could not only meet smallholders' demands but could increase cotton supply and repayment rates to the firm, and thus finance the provision of missing extension advice.     

Economies of Scale and Inefficiency in County Extension Councils: A Case for Consolidation?

Current funding, mission, and organizational difficulties question the long-run survival of extension and the Land–Grant system. Consolidation of county extension offices is seen as a possible remedy for extension's problems. This paper estimates scale economies and inefficiencies in county extension offices in Kansas using parametric and nonparametric techniques. Large economies of scale and inefficiencies are found. Based on the empirical results, several simulations are performed to measure the short-run cost savings associated with consolidation. The results reveal that while all counties would experience significant savings from consolidating, rural and less populated counties would experience the greatest per unit savings.     

Designing Policy for Reducing the Off‐farm Effects of Soil Erosion Using Choice Experiments

Soil erosion produces both on‐site private costs and off‐site social costs, such as desertification, rural depopulation, siltation of waterways and reductions in biodiversity. To design efficient policies, land use planners and decision makers need information on the relative weights of changes in these consequences, since policy alternatives, such as different management restrictions, will have varying impacts on these consequences of erosion. The research presented here uses the choice experiment method to evaluate these relative weights, using a case study in the Alto Genil and Guadajoz watersheds in southern Spain. We find that reductions in desertification, protection of water quality, protection of biodiversity, the area covered by the scheme, and the number of rural jobs safeguarded are all significant determinants of preferences over alternative policy designs.     

Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries, yet yields in these countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields is the use of improved agricultural technologies, such as fertilizers, seeds, and cropping techniques. Public sector programs have attempted to overcome information‐related barriers to technological adoption by providing agricultural extension services. While such programs have been widely criticized for their limited scale, sustainability, and impact, the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage in developing countries provides a unique opportunity to facilitate technological adoption via information and communication technology (ICT)‐based extension programs. This article outlines the potential mechanisms through which ICT could facilitate agricultural adoption and the provision of extension services in developing countries. It then reviews existing programs using ICT for agriculture, categorized by the mechanism (voice, text, internet, and mobile money transfers) and the type of services provided. Finally, we identify potential constraints to such programs in terms of design and implementation, and conclude with some recommendations for implementing field‐based research on the impact of these programs on farmers’ knowledge, technological adoption, and welfare.     

What farmer types are most likely to adopt joint venture farm business structures?

Joint venture (JV) farm structures have the potential to increase the productivity and profitability of traditional family farms. However, such structures are not widely adopted within the farm business community. Furthermore, knowledge on the relative attractiveness of different JV models to farmers is limited. We use a choice experiment to explore what JV structures are preferred by Australian farmers, and how farmers’ socio‐demographic and attitudinal characteristics influence the type of JV structure preferred. A latent class analysis revealed significant unobserved preference heterogeneity amongst the population. We identify four latent classes that differ in their preferences regarding the number of JV partners, access to new machinery, and/or the opportunity for additional annual leave. All classes of farmers displayed positive preferences for operational decision‐making with other JV partners, although they varied in their preferences towards final operational responsibility. The diversity in preferences shows that there is no ‘one size fits all’ JV design, leaving opportunities for a range of JV decision models. Such flexibility in JV design is likely to have advantages when seeking JV partners, with a significant proportion of the sampled population open to collaborative decision‐making models.