An assessment of animal health projects: U.S. Agency for international development, 1960–93

What are the more significant broad-based needs of animal health programs in developing countries? Essentially they are: health management programs, delivery systems, disease surveillance and monitoring of livestock movements, and improved technologies that are cost-effective and environmentally sound. Responsible program planning elicits important considerations that strengthen final results if integrated early into project design. Examples of these considerations include

?the potential for intervention;

?producers' requirements for animal health services;

?present and future effect(s) of disease;

?trends in livestock production and marketing;

?affect of improved animal health technology on traditional production practices;

?recurrent costs; and

?affect of government policies on development and application of the technology.

For what reasons do some project activities need to be redirected or continually sustained with donor support? A review of the case studies reveals that five major factors critically impact on project longevity. They are 1) initial expense and recurrent costs, 2) labor required, 3) long-term effectiveness, 4) difficulty in achieving objectives, and 5) government policies or civil strife. The U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded animal health projects for 30 years. Unlike most other bilateral projects, nearly one-third have continued for at least a decade. Given the nature of the biological cycle of livestock, animal health projects and programs require long-term commitments. USAID's investments in animal health projects continue to pay dividends despite continuously changing global political priorities and the redefining of development issues.     

The legitimacy of the agricultural extension service

Traditionally, the Swedish Agricultural Extension Service has delivered technical information to farmers with the aim of increasing productivity and efficiency in farming. Present problems with overproduction of food and the negative social and environmental consequences of present farm practices has brought this traditional mission in question. In a situation of budgetary constraints it has been suggested that the funding of the governmental Agricultural Extension Service should be cut down or even discontinued altogether The article argues that this would be a mistake. The various negative consequences of modern agriculture indicate that we are far from an ideal mode of agricultural production. Instead, public opinion and new guidelines for agricultural and environmental policies call for substantial changes in Swedish agriculture with respect to pollution, preservation of non-renewable resources, maintaining an open rural landscape, ethical aspects of animal production, rural development etc. This reorientation of Swedish agriculture presumes that decision-makers, farmers, and the public at large get an opportunity to learn more about the complexities of agricultural production. In contributing to this learning process the Agricultural Extension Service would have an important mission. To be able to fulfill this mission, extension professionals must be provided an opportunity to learn a broader concept of productivity and efficiency in agriculture, for instance, how to extend cost-benefit analyses and technical criteria of efficiency to include social, environmental, and ethical aspects. Our present extension staff has not received adequate training for this task. It is suggested that all agricultural colleges need to create departments of Rural Sociology and Agricultural Humanities to provide agricultural students and professionals an opportunity to develop a better understanding of agriculture and make them prepared to take on the challenges and responsibilities they confront in developing our future agriculture.     

Tools for indigenous agricultural development in Latin America: An anthropologist's perspective

The project of indigenous agricultural development is now widely perceived as valid, given the technological limitations of and the social problems exacerbated by the Green Revolution. Different authors have presented critiques of the Green Revolution based upon their studies of indigenous agricultural practices and their attendant knowledge systems. Such analyses provide important foundations for the promotion of indigenous agricultural development, but do not adequately address the socio-historical dimension. In Latin America, promoting such development must rely upon the reassessment of indigenous culture and ethnic survival by the scientific community.     

广东高等农业院校参与公益性农技推广人员培训的模式探索

农业现代化的发展和农业的创收在很大程度上取决于广大农技推广人员的科技水平.面对急需培训的农技推广人员队伍,在分析国内外高等农业院校参与公益性农技推广人员培训模式的基础上,提出依托广东高等农业院校成功的继续教育模式,建立农村远程培训的长效机制,建立农技人员培训网络平台,建设农技培训网络教学资源库,以及组织大型专题培训,普及推广现代农业技能等对策,从而解决目前培训模式中存在的时空限制、规模过小、互动性缺乏等问题.     

高等农业教育促进我国农业与农村发展的策略思考

高等农业教育对促进我国农业和农村发展具有重要作用。高等农业院校应积极参与农业与农村发展活动、开发农业教育项目和课程、提高高等农业教育的教学质量、在全国农业教育和培训体系中发挥主导作用、开展农业研究并对研究人员进行培训、加强高等农业院校之间的协作。     

略论WTO与中国高等农业教育

本分析了加入WTO对我国农业及高等农业教育的影响。从我国高等农业教育要进一步坚持“三个面向”的方针,要做好为区域经济发展服务的这篇章,要改革教育管理模式和人才培养模式,要大力改革课程设置、实现教学内容的优化,高等农业教育要高度注重创新人才的培养五个方面探讨了新形势下高等农业教育的发展思路。     

高校图书馆服务于农村劳动力教育培训研究

本文就高校图书馆教育培训优势,以及如何利用图书馆对农村劳动力教育培训进行研究,旨在为当前农村劳动力素质提高拓展新途径.     

高等农业教育服务农村人力资本开发的路径选择

农村人力资本是一种提供未来经济价值的资本,其开发途径主要依赖于教育、培训、医疗保健方面。其中教育、培训在农村人力资本开发途径中起着先导性的作用。高等农业教育要转变观念,发挥科技推广与职业培训作用,贯彻落实农科大学生服务农村的计划,提升农村人力资本的科技、文化素质,增强其服务新农村建设的能力。     

Using global organic markets to pay for ecologically based agricultural development in China

The traditional command and control approach and the more recent free market have proven inadequate for promoting ecological agricultural development in China. Organic certification represents a regulated market mechanism with the potential to stimulate ecologically based agricultural research, extension, and investment. Recent linkages between the global organic food industry and local agricultural development in China provide an opportunity to test this potential. The article examines Chinas two largest organic certification systems for their potential to promote the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) as a key component of ecological agriculture. Organic certification is providing a format for research, extension, and implementation of IPM principles and practices, and has the potential to do much more. However, possible contradictions between ecological and market rationality, inherent in organic certification and marketing systems, may be exacerbated by the authoritarian political economy of rural China.Paul Thiersis an assistant professor of Political Science at Washington State University Vancouver where he teaches comparative politics, political economy, and environmental policy in the Program in Public Affairs. His research focuses on the environmental, social, and political dynamics of globalization in rural China, with a particular emphasis on Chinas integration into global food trade and food standards.     

Communication and sustainable agriculture: Building agendas for research and practice

Communication cannot be overlooked as a component of sustainable agriculture; theoretical perspectives from communication science, such as coorientation and information systems analysis, can suggest ways to help improve the chances for sustainability, as can attention to specific types of communication. Communicationabout sustainable agriculture, which creates political-economic and social environments that promote development of sustainable systems, must more clearly define sustainability and what is to be sustained and must help producers and the public “think agroecologically.” Communicationof sustainable agriculture, which creates and disseminates information about how to farm and consume sustainably, must expand the standards for what constitues valid information by increasing farmer participation in production research and easing farmer access to media to disseminate on-farm trial findings.     

基于金融排斥现象对我国农村金融体系的反思

基于我国农村金融排斥现象,从金融机构数量及覆盖范围、农村金融机构的贷款额、资金流出农村的情况3个方面考察了农村金融排斥的程度。研究表明,由于＂三农＂的弱势特征及农村正规金融机构的理性选择,导致农村金融供需失衡。基于上述分析,认为应从以下3个方面反思如何改革和完善我国的农村金融体系：一是农村金融要以服务＂三农＂为宗旨,并在＂三农＂与城市良性互动下系统完善;二是充分发挥政府在农村经济发展和金融市场建设中的作用;三是加强和规范农村金融市场发展的立法问题及加强农业保险体系建设。     

Institutional support and in situ conservation in Mexico: biases against small-scale maize farmers in post-NAFTA agricultural policy

One of the major adjustments brought on by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a change in the relationship between Mexican agricultural support institutions and the small-scale agricultural sector. Post-NAFTA restructuring programs sought to correct previous inefficiencies in this sector, but they have also had the effect of marginalizing the producers who steward and manage the country’s reserve of maize (Zea mays) genetic diversity. Framed by research suggesting that certain maize varieties in a rain-fed farming region in southern Sonora are in danger of loss due chiefly to long-term drought, this article explores the ramifications of post-NAFTA agricultural policies for in situ maize diversity conservation. Qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews with agricultural support institutions and participant observation with farmers, were used to gather data on dryland farmers’ access to research and extension, as well as possibilities for collective action. In southern Sonora, agricultural support is oriented primarily toward high-tech production, and there are structural barriers to small-scale farmers’ access to research and extension institutions. Further, collective action around agriculture is limited. These circumstances represent significant limitations to farmers’ options for accessing new techniques which might help maintain maize diversity in the context of economic and environmental change.     

北京市平谷区农村电商人才培训探析——基于平谷区农业“中关村”建设视角

2021 年,北京市平谷区开始建设农业“中关村”,围绕农业尖端科学领域,打造国家级农业科技创新高地。平谷区农村电商人才培训工作应将农村电商发展与休闲旅游、绿色农业、生态农业和科技农业结合起来,按照建设农业“中关村”的要求,加强农村电商人才培训,推动平谷农村电商实现由单一农产品销售向多元化农业科技推广与服务方向迈进,实现一二三产业融合发展,促进农业提质增效,提升农村发展能力,提高农民收入水平。     

试论新形势下农村农业科技教育培训

实施科教兴国战略和可持续发展战略,科技进步是决定性因素,教育则是基础。因此,在农业和农村现代化建设的新形势下,要特别重视大力发展农业科技教育培训,并根据新形势下出现的新情况、新问题,积极探索,大胆创新,不断适应新形势下对农业科技教育培训的客观要求,努力为农业生产一线培养高素质的劳动者,为强化农业应用技术的开发和推广,加快农业科技成果向现实生产力的转化,为深化农村改革,确保农业和农村经济的发展,增加农民收入,发挥更加积极的作用。     

State,class, and technology in tobacco production

Recent debates over the persistence of family farms have focused on the importance of naturalistic obstacles to the capitalist development of agriculture. According to these arguments, the existence of these barriers in some realms of agricultural production precludes the development of wage labor. I argue, however, that in many instances these obstacles are based primarily on political factors. To demonstrate this thesis I illustrate how the tobacco program until recently has proved to be an obstacle to consolidation and structural change in tobacco production. The tobacco program has conditioned the extent of technological development and structural change in tobacco production. From the 1940s to the 1970s, the tobacco program maintained a system of small-scale producers and discouraged technological change in the industry. Changes in the program in the 1970s and 1980s, however, have contributed to the rapid mechanization and structural change among tobacco producers. Many of the obstacles to consolidation were overcome not by technological change, but by weakened political support for the tobacco program. These results suggest that in addition to economic and technological considerations, we need to assess more carefully the political foundations of the capitalist development of agriculture.Gary P. Green is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute of Community and Area Development at the University of Georgia. His research concentrates on the sociology of agriculture, political economy of rural development, and economic development and community change. He is currently involved in research on the effectiveness of local economic development strategies and self-development strategies among rural communities.     

高等农业教育服务社会主义新农村建设的实践探索

为更好地发挥高等农业院校肩负的农业人才培养、农业科技创新、服务地方经济社会发展三大职能,结合河北农业大学的实际,对高等农业教育服务社会主义新农村建设的实践进行了探索。河北农业大学作为一所地方性高等农业院校,以服务“三农”为己任,通过专业结构调整和人才培养模式改革,构建起了立体现代人才培养体系;通过实施空间的拓展和服务方式等转变,拓宽了服务领域,不断引领农村经济社会发展新方向;通过搭建科技创新平台,加大了科技创新力度;通过创新机制,为服务地方经济建设提供了有利保障;通过弘扬“太行山精神”,传承优秀特色校园文化,为服务社会主义新农村建设提供了持久动力。     

Resilience and vulnerability in US farm policy: parsing the payment limitation debate

Since the New Deal era, the commodity title has been the major farm support program in US farm bills. Commodity programs have encouraged farmers to pursue specialized, monocultural, and input intensive production strategies that are increasingly viewed as unsustainable. Yet commodity programs remain politically resilient. As revealed in the farm payment limitation debate in the 2007 farm bill reauthorization process, political support for commodity programs is maintained through policy elasticity adaptations that combine new with old policy rationales. The recent extension of farm program support to producers of commodities that have not received benefits in the past poses a potential threat to existing commodity programs, as this legislation has institutionalized competition within production agriculture over the allocation and design of subsidies. This paper argues for renewed attention to the policy support mechanisms that undergird the conventional agrifood system in order to better understand alternative agrifood system possibilities and constraints.

广东农业管理干部继续教育现状分析及发展需求研究

继续教育是农业人才培养、知识更新的有效手段,也是农业管理干部队伍提升整体素质的重要途径。结合多年的农业管理干部继续教育培训的经验和调研,分析农业管理干部继续教育中存在的主要问题,揭示"三农"发展对农业干部继续教育的需求,以期为广东农业管理干部继续教育的可持续发展提供有力依据。     

Gender issues and the training of agricultural extensionists in Malawi

African women farmers have an urgent need for adequate agricultural extension information. Training extension agents in gender related issues should have high priority, considering that the majority of farmers are women and have different roles, resources, constraints, and responsibilities from men. This paper examines the extent to which these issues are incorporated into the curriculum of the two Malawian institutions of agricultural education that train extensionists. It also considers the degree to which they are recruiting women officers into fields other than home economics. Administrators and lecturers at both institutions express a desire to integrate gender matters into the curriculum and to recruit more females into agricultural extension; yet both fall far short in meeting these goals. The conclusion provides recommendations on how African institutions of higher learning that train extension personnel might better accomplish these goals and suggests that African MOAs need to employ more women in agricultural research, extension, training, and policy-making positions.     

Reverse leasing and power dynamics among blue agave farmers in western Mexico

We examine changing production relations in the Mexican tequila industry to explore the ways in which large industrial firms are using “reverse leasing arrangements,” a form of contract farming, to extend their control over small agave farmers. Under these arrangements, smallholders rent their parcels to contracting companies who bring in capital, machinery, labor, and other agricultural inputs. Smallholders do not have access to their land, nor do they make any of the management decisions. We analyze the factors that have led some producers to participate in reverse leasing arrangements, while allowing other producers to continue farming independently. In addition, we look at the ways in which farmers are responding to these new production relations and constraints and the strategies that they are using to regain control over the production process.