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1.
Adoption of integrated pest management(IPM) practices in the Guatemalan highlands has beenlimited by the failure of researchers andextensionists to promote genuine farmer participationin their efforts. Some attempts have been made toredress this failure in the diffusion-adoptionprocess, but farmers are still largely excluded fromthe research process. Understanding farmers'agricultural knowledge must be an early step toward amore participatory research process. With this inmind, we conducted a semi-structured survey of 75Cakchiquel Maya farmers in Patzún, Guatemala, tobegin documenting their pest control practices. Theirresponses revealed that their understanding ofbiological and curative pest control is limited.However, their broad knowledge of cultural preventivepest control practices could explain why they hadfaced few pest problems in their traditionalmilpa (intercrop of corn, beans, and other edibleplants). The majority of these preventive practicesare probably efficient and environmentallyinnocuous. 相似文献
2.
Ugandan smallholder farmers need to feed a growing population, but their efforts are hampered by declining soil fertility rates. Agricultural extension can facilitate farmers’ access to new practices and technologies, yet farmers are understandably often hesitant to adopt new behaviors. New knowledge assimilation is an important component of behavior change that is often overlooked or poorly addressed by current extension efforts. We implemented a Fertility Management Education Program (FMEP) in central Uganda to investigate smallholder farmers’ existing soil knowledge and their assimilation of new scientific concepts into their knowledge framework. Qualitative data were collected through participant observation, farmer interviews, and focus groups, and coded for using a priori and emergent themes. Our exploration revealed some notable similarities between farmers’ soil knowledge and scientific concepts, particularly in regards to soil health concepts, a discovery that could facilitate communication between extension agents and farmers. However, certain scientific concepts are either unknown to farmers or discordant with existing soil knowledge; these concepts are unlikely to be assimilated by farmers without convincing and concerted extension efforts. Importantly, we found that the combination of new scientific knowledge and hands-on experimentation with novel practices gave farmers far greater confidence in implementing improved soil management practices. Our study provides evidence that extension programs should engage directly with farmers’ existing soil knowledge to develop their understanding of key biological concepts and confidence in implementing improved practices. 相似文献
3.
Mary K. Hendrickson Jere L. Gilles William H. Meyers Kenneth C. Schneeberger William R. Folk 《Agriculture and Human Values》2014,31(4):665-672
The development and utility of genetically modified (GM) crops for smallholders around the world is controversial. Critical questions include what traits and crops are to be developed; how they can be adapted to smallholders’ ecological, social and economic contexts; which dissemination channels should be used to reach smallholders; and which policy environments will enable the greatest benefits for smallholders and the rural poor. A key question is how the voices of smallholders who have experience with or desire to use GM technologies enter the larger debate. Africa has the greatest number of smallholders and poor with the least exposure to GM crops. Because of the well-established use of GM crops in South Africa by commercial farmers, we formed a community of practice (CoP) involving smallholders, extension, researchers, non-profits and agribusiness in KwaZulu-Natal to examine the conditions under which GM crops are used by smallholders, how smallholders interact with GM technologies and what insights smallholders and other stakeholders can provide regarding these questions. One of the advantages of the CoP approach is that it brings stakeholders together in a non-hierarchical way that encourages new ways of thinking and new partnerships. Such interaction around a specific project can enhance the voice of smallholders in a variety of ways. In our project, smallholder participants have increased their knowledge and can make better decisions about GM technologies, which had been barriers for them. Notably, they have also improved their knowledge of maize production practices, accessed new practice networks, and met new researchers and resource providers. They are now being integrated into these networks in a way that should improve their livelihoods and make the wants and needs of smallholders better known. Such knowledge and experience has improved their voice in agriculture and rural development discussions. 相似文献
4.
Farmers and researchers: How can collaborative advantages be created
in participatory research and technology development? 总被引:1,自引:1,他引:0
This article examines differences in the research approaches of farmers and scientists and analyzes how these differences are related to the conditions under which both groups engage in experimental work. Theoretical considerations as well as practical experiences are presented to emphasize the great potential of farmer–researcher collaboration for rural innovation. In the first part of the article, the innovative power of farmer research and experimentation is acknowledged by presenting examples such as crop and animal breeding, development of new production systems, farm equipment, and social innovations. Considering the respective comparative advantages of farmers and scientists, and inspired by theoretical concepts in the fields of knowledge management and innovation processes, we discuss five topics for optimizing the collaboration between farmers and scientists in the field of technological innovation: user orientation, decentralization, informal modes of experimentation, externalization of tacit knowledge, and economic considerations. A better understanding of such issues could help researchers to define their own role in the research process, acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of their own and farmers’ research approaches, overcome communication gaps, and find creative solutions for problems that typically occur in the process of participatory technology development. 相似文献
5.
通过一个失地农民和城市居民混合社区的实证调查,研究失地农民在生产生活方式改变之后的社会支持网络状况,以及由此造成的发展困境。 相似文献
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Carrie Furman Carla Roncoli Donald R. Nelson Gerrit Hoogenboom 《Agriculture and Human Values》2014,31(1):69-82
This article examines the role that civic agriculture in Georgia (US) plays in shaping attitudes, strategies, and relationships that foster both sustainability and adaptation to a changing climate. Civic agriculture is a social movement that attracts a specific type of “activist” farmer, who is linked to a strong social network that includes other farmers and consumers. Positioning farmers’ practices within a social movement broadens the understanding of adaptive capacity beyond how farmers adapt to understand why they do so. By drawing upon qualitative and quantitative data and by focusing on the cosmological, organizational, and technical dimensions of the social movement, the study illuminates how social values and networks shape production and marketing strategies that enable farmers to share resources and risks. We propose a conceptual framework for understanding how technical and social strategies aimed to address the sustainability goals of the movement also increase adaptive capacity at multiple timescales. In conclusion, we outline directions for future research, including the need for longitudinal studies that focus on consumer motivation and willingness to pay, the effects of scale on consumer loyalty and producer cooperation, and the role of a social movement in climate change adaptation. Finally, we stress that farmers’ ability to thrive in uncertain climate futures calls for transformative approaches to sustainable agriculture that support the development of strong social networks. 相似文献
8.
Pingyang Liu Neil Ravenscroft Marie K. Harder Xingyi Dai 《Agriculture and Human Values》2016,33(2):291-304
This paper presents an oral history of farming in the Southern Yangtze Valley in China, covering the period from pre-liberation to recent market liberalization. Using the stories and observations of 31 elderly residents of a small water town, the paper describes the hard labor of traditional farming practices and the acquiescence of many when, post-liberation, they could leave farming for better-paid factory work. However, in a departure from conventional analyses, these oral histories suggest that the co-dependency culture of traditional farming has broken down, and farmers are unwilling to return to the land and continue farming. The changes in knowledge cultures of local farmers in recent decades are not likely to lead to pathways to working with incoming modern “outsider farmers,” nor able to be blended with potential new “urbanite” knowledges of those who might wish to increase organic farming. The current knowledge cultures of these farmers has shifted as needed to the optimization of family unit needs, naturally leading them to urbanization and the relinquishing of their ties to the land. For cultural rather than economic reasons, these farmers see themselves as the last peasant farmers of Tianshanzhuang. 相似文献
9.
Colonists, unlike indigenous peoples, are often assumed tohave little knowledge of their environment. However, their perceptions of the environment and their knowledgeof natural resource systems have a significant impact on their farming practices. Farmers in the frontier regionof Marabá, Eastern Amazonia, understand nutrient cycling and the links between different components in farmingsystems. Diagrams drawn by farmers show very diversified systems, and farmers' knowledge of soilcharacteristics, including sub-surface features, and distribution in their localities is very detailed in comparison to pedologicalclassifications. However, knowledge about nutrient cycling is very uneven, even between farmers from the same area.Generally, farmers were found to have very detailed knowledge of environmental resources, but very patchyknowledge of processes and functions underlying systems, and this conforms to evolutionary models of ecologicalknowledge. Perceptions of change in soil fertility are related to the length of settlement, and are closelylinked to the presence of forest. Overall, the majority of farmers believe they will not be able to sustain cropping in thefuture, and as forest and fallow become scarce the most feasible option will be for them to move to other areas.Farmers are more optimistic about pasture, which is viewed as a more stable system, with the key to long-termsustainability being weed control. These findings imply that a high degree of information sharing between farmers andscientists is required to establish resource management strategies and social institutions to supportsustainable development strategies at the frontier. 相似文献
10.
Anthony Bebbington 《Agriculture and Human Values》1991,8(1-2):14-24
Indigenous agricultural knowledge (IAK) can be analyzed for its technical role in food production strategies, and for its role as cultural knowledge producing and reproducing mutual understanding and identity among the members of a farming group. IAK can also be approached from the perspective of critical theory, analyzing the relationship between knowledge and relations of power, with the goal of liberating indigenous farmers from forms of domination. The paper considers relationships between the different aspects of IAK, using examples of the influence of non-local technologies and ideas on indigenous agricultural practices in the Ecuadorian Andes. The examples elucidate how technical change is a signifier of the changing relationship between indigenous farmers and wider society. The political implications of these changes are ambiguous, however, because the change is not necessarily one of social and cultural assimilation. As indigenous peasant organizations in Ecuador now reflect on these changes, they are connecting the questions of IAK, indigenous cultural identity and political strategy. Some organizations speak of recovering and revalorizing indigenous technologies as a tool for, and symbol of, resistance to domination by wider society. Others see selective modernization of indigenous agriculture as a necessary strategy to sustain the social and cultural cohesion of the group, even if this implies social changes. The different perspectives reflect both different conditions facing the organizations, and their varying approaches. That peasant organizations have these discussions suggests that they should constitute an important meeting point for farmers and crop researchers to discuss technology development strategies as equal partners. The organizations can provide an institutional forum in which participants reflect critically on the agrarian knowledge that they have, why they have it, and what it can contribute to future strategies of agrarian and social change. 相似文献
11.
Jeffery W. Bentley 《Agriculture and Human Values》1989,6(3):25-31
Traditional Central American peasant farmers know more about some aspects of the local agroecosystem than about others. In general farmers know more about plants, less about insects, and less still about plant pathology. Without discounting economic factors, ease of observability must explain part of this difference. Certain local beliefs may affect what farmers observe and know. For example, a belief in spontaneous generation may lead people to fail to observe insect reproduction. The implications of the gaps in farmer knowledge are discussed in terms of the sustainable agriculture movement.Jeffery W. Bentley (Ph.D. cultural anthropology, University of Arizona 1986) has done field work with the Tohono O'odham (formerly the Papago) of Arizona, and in northwest Portugal. After teaching anthropology at New Mexico State University, he joined the Plant Protection Department of the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana (El Zamorano, Honduras) in 1987. He has published several articles in anthropological journals, and has a book in press on small-scale Portuguese farming. He is currently studying the agroecological knowledge and the agricultural practices of Honduran peasant farmers. 相似文献
12.
Yunita T. Winarto 《Agriculture and Human Values》1995,12(4):47-57
The 1989 National Integrated Pest Management Program in Indonesia is a case of a breakthrough in national policy to enhance the ecological balance by conserving natural enemies and diminishing the indiscriminate use of pesticides in the protection of food crops. The Program provided training to agricultural officials and farmers to shift their perspectives in pesticide use through “knowledge transmission” rather than the transferal of “technological packages.” This paper examines how farmers, with the novel understanding they had, responded to the persisting top-down policy of the “complete credit packages” from the government rice intensification agencies and the recurrent outbreak of pests in 1990–1992. IPM knowledge and training provided initial understanding of, and the stimulus to discover, unknown phenomena on the basis of which farmers improved their knowledge and learning capacity. Constraints largely came from the inflexibility of the subsidized scheme of inputs and the inadequate explanation and extension services provided to farmers 相似文献
13.
随着知识经济时代的到来,农村社会的发展将建立在农民获取知识和能力的基础上.中国农村现代化的关键,是农民的现代化,即农民素质的提高与完善.在新农村建设语境下,提高农民整体素质,培养造就有文化、懂技术、会经营的新型农民,突破农民素质"瓶颈"的制约,成为事关整个农村长远发展和现代化建设全局的战略性任务. 相似文献
14.
Astrid Björnsen Gurung 《Agriculture and Human Values》2003,20(4):337-370
Recent trends in agriculturalresearch and development emphasize the need forfarmer participation. Participation not onlymeans farmers' physical presence but also theuse of their knowledge and expertise.Understanding potentials and drawbacks of theirlocal knowledge system is a prerequisite forconstructive collaboration between farmers,scientists, and extension services.An ethnoentomological study, conducted in aTharu village in Nepal, documents farmers'qualitative and quantitative knowledge as wellas perceptions of insects and pest management,insect nomenclature and classification, andissues related to insect recognition and localbeliefs. The study offers a basis to improvepest management programs in terms of efficacyand acceptance. It demonstrates, for instance,that a concept of pests and beneficials isvirtually missing in traditional farmingcommunities and that the Tharu folkclassification profoundly differs from thescientific classification, but is not radicallydifferent from other folk entomologicalsystems. Insects belong to the taxa calledkiraa consisting of arthropods andnon-arthropods that interact with humans. Theyare classified in several overlappinghierarchies where locomotion and human impactplay major roles while morphological criteriaare almost irrelevant. Recognition ofkiraa, however, is dominated by agriculturalaspects followed by physiological-behavioral,ecological, and human-directed features.Morphological criteria play a minor role. Innomenclature, however, the insects' physicalappearance is more important than otherfeatures. The study further shows that male andfemale farmers have different perceptions ofkiraa.The insect-related knowledge system of theTharu has prevented farmers from using modernpesticides in the past. In the course ofmodernization, however, some aspects of theirknowledge system could become obsolete andprove disadvantageous to their livelihood andagro-ecosystems. 相似文献
15.
Feasible, fast and reliable methods of mapping within-field variation are required for precision agriculture. Within precision agriculture research much emphasis has been put on technology, whereas the knowledge that farmers have and ways to explore it have received little attention. This research characterizes and examines the spatial knowledge?arable farmers have of their fields and explores?whether it is a suitable starting point to map the within-field variation of soil properties. A case study was performed in the Hoeksche Waard, the Netherlands, at four arable farms. A combination of semi-structured interviews and fieldwork was used to map spatially explicit knowledge of within-field variation. At each farm, a field was divided into internally homogeneous units as directed by the farmer, the soil of the units was sampled and the data were analysed statistically. The results show that the farmers have considerable spatial knowledge of their fields. Furthermore, they apply this knowledge intuitively during various field management activities such as fertilizer application, soil tillage and herbicide application. The sample data on soil organic matter content, clay content and fertility show that in general the farmers?? knowledge formed a suitable starting point for mapping within-field variation in the soil. Therefore, it should also be considered as an important information source for highly automated precision agriculture systems. 相似文献
16.
Two major episodes of farm protest have occurred in the past decade. In each case, protesting farmers have chosen to create new farm organizations rather than express their grievances through one of many existing farm interest groups. The result has been the development of a durable grassroots farm lobby, a hybrid mode of exercising political influence that combines features of interest group lobbying and social movement protest. The first episode saw the mobilization of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), a nation-wide protest organization devoted to achieving a federal guarantee of parity prices. When AAM's attempt to change federal farm policy failed, it was unable to sustain a high level of member mobilization or organizational activity. This failure is attributed to the lack of a stable organizational structure, the lack of durable membership incentives, and the counterproductive effects of disruptive protest tactics. The second episode of protest occurred in reaction to the farm-debt crisis of the 1980s. Protesting farmers organized numerous crisis groups to provide emergency services to financially distressed farmers. The crisis groups coalesced into the National Save the Family Farm Coalition (NSFFC) in order to exert influence over federal farm policy. It is argued that this coalition structure, along with membership incentives provided by crisis groups through their constituent service programs, may allow this latest farm movement to exert more considerable and durable influence over federal farm policy than AAM was able to do in the late 1970s. The problems of maintaining a national coalition of grassroots groups are discussed and evaluated. 相似文献
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以云南为例,分析政府主导建立农村社会养老保险制度的法理依据和现状,提出服务型政府保障农民"老有所养"的立法建议。 相似文献
19.
Despite their recent proliferation in global agricultural commodity chains, little is known about the potential of intersectoral partnerships to improve the position of smallholder farmers and their organizations. This article explores the potential of partnerships by developing a conceptual approach based on the sustainable livelihoods and linking farmers to market perspectives, which is applied in an exploratory study to six partnerships in the coffee sector in Peru. It is concluded that partnerships stimulate the application of standards to receive market access and therefore emphasize human capital development of farmers to facilitate certification. By transferring knowledge to farmers, partnerships present a new source of technological change, which, in combination with certification, holds potential for improved environmental management and price premiums for producers. However, the emphasis on certification results in a comparatively narrow target group of farmers and is associated with high financial burdens for producer organizations. At the same time, other assets of producer organizations are often not strengthened sufficiently for them to operate successfully without further external support. This suggests that preparing producers for certification is prioritized over empowering organizations toward self-dependence. 相似文献
20.
Adam Calo 《Agriculture and Human Values》2018,35(2):367-381
Beginning farmer initiatives like the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), farm incubators, and small-scale marketing innovations offer new entrant farmers agricultural training, marketing and business assistance, and farmland loans. These programs align with alternative food movement goals to revitalize the anemic U.S. small farm sector and repopulate landscapes with socially and environmentally diversified farms. Yet even as these initiatives seek to support prospective farmers with tools for success through a knowledge dissemination model, they remain mostly individualistic and entrepreneurial measures that overlook structural barriers to productive and economic success within U.S. agriculture. Analysis of the BFRDP’s funding history and discourse reveals a “knowledge deficit” based program focused on the technical rather than the structural aspects of beginning farming. This is contrasted with qualitative analysis of beginning farmer experiences in California’s Central Coast region. The discrepancies between the farmer experiences and national structure of the BFRDP program ultimately reveal a policy mismatch between the needs of some beginning farmers and the programs intended to support them. 相似文献