Local governance and participation in agricultural Development Process in Nigeria

Professor Famoriyo obtained a second class honours degree in Agricultural Economics at King's College, Newcastle-On-Tyne (then) of the University of Durham, England in 1966. He did graduate work at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 1968, and received at Ph. D. in Land Economics at Wye College, Wye of the University of London. He is currently Professor of Agricultural Economics and Head of the Department of Farm Management and Extension at The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Professor Famoriyo is widely published in his field.     

The social construction of production externalities in contemporary agriculture: Process <Emphasis Type="Italic">versus</Emphasis> product standards as the basis for defining “organic”

The analysis distinguishes two types of standards for defining organic produce; process standards and product standards. Process standards define organic products by the method and means of production. Product standards define organic by the physical quality of the end product. The National Organic Program (NOP) uses process standards as the basis for defining organic. However, the situation is complicated by agricultural production practices, which sometimes result in the migration of NOP prohibited substances from conventional to organic fields. When this interaction alters the value of the product or the costs of production, a production externality is said to exist. Defining organic using process, rather than product standards, influences the burden and character of production externalities. The NOPs emphasis on process standards reduces the likelihood that production externalities will emerge.B. James Deaton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business and Agricultural Economics, University of Guelph, Canada. His research examines environmental and natural resource issues. He is particularly interested in the manner in which laws, rules, and standards influence environmental quality, natural resource use, and economic development. Additional research examines the relationship between different forms of private property and economic development, public support for various criteria used to preserve farmland, and the social construction of production externalities in agriculture. Prior to his PhD training, he worked on economic development projects in Lesotho (Southern Africa) and the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky.John P. Hoehn is a Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University. His teaching and research activities address environmental and natural resource policies, benefit-cost analysis of environmental improvements, methods for valuing non-market goods, improved institutions for protecting, managing, and using environmental resources, and the economics of ecological resources. He teaches core courses in the departmental and university-wide graduate programs in environmental and resource economics.     

Identifying and ranking attributes that determine sustainability in Dutch dairy farming

Recent developments in agriculture have stirred up interest in the concept of sustainable farming systems. Still it is difficult to determine the extent to which certain agricultural practices can be considered sustainable or not. Aiming at identifying the necessary attributes with respect to sustainability in Dutch dairy farming in the beginning of the third millennium, we first compiled a list of attributes referring to all farming activities with their related side effects with respect to economic, internal social, external social, and ecological sustainability. A wide range of people (i.e., experts and stakeholders) were consulted to contribute to our list of attributes. Our consultation showed that only one attribute was selected for economic and internal social sustainability: profitability and working conditions, respectively. The list for external social sustainability contained 19 attributes and the list for ecological sustainability contained 15 attributes. To assess their relative importance, the same experts and stakeholders ranked the attributes for external social and ecological sustainability by using a questionnaire. The most important attributes for external social sustainability were food safety, animal health, animal welfare, landscape quality, and cattle grazing. For ecological sustainability they were eutrophication, groundwater pollution, dehydration of the soil, acidification, and biodiversity. The present method for identifying and ranking attributes is universal and, therefore, can be used for other agricultural sectors, for other countries, and for other time periods.Klaas Jan van Calker is a Researcher at the Animal Sciences Group and is doing his PhD research on sustainability of different dairy farming systems in cooperation with Business Economics of Wageningen University.Paul Berentsen is a Lecturer and Researcher at Business Economics, Wageningen University.Gerard Giesen is a Lecturer and Researcher at Business Economics, Wageningen University.Ruud Huirneis the general director of the Animal Sciences Group, and Professor of Farm Management, Wageningen University.     

Monetary valuation of livelihoods for understanding the composition and complexity of rural households

There is, at present, little precise understanding of the relative contributions of the various income streams used by impoverished rural households in southern Africa. The impact of household profiles on overall income also is not well understood. There is, therefore, little consideration of these factors in national economic accounting. This paper is an attempt to reduce this gap in knowledge by reflecting on the relative contribution of agro-pastoralism, secondary woodland resources, and formal and informal cash income streams to households in the semi-arid rural village of Thorndale, Limpopo Province, South Africa. In the absence of jobs and confronted with high migrant labor, households with open access to natural resources derived more benefits from land-based livelihoods than cash income streams (i.e., 57.5 % vs. 42.5 %). Total livelihood income was valued at US$2887 per household per annum. A significant correlation between monetary values derived from crops and formal wages was established, and it was found that households with high cash incomes tended to invest more in crop production. Over 80 of households were male-headed. Of these heads of household, more than 60 were long-term migrants to urban areas, leaving household decision-making to the women. The low literacy rates of women have deprived them of paid jobs outside the area and, therefore, have increased their dependence on crops (62%) and secondary woodlands resources (60%). This was further reflected in the proportion of households in which females were the main contributors of cash income (9.7%), or joint contributors with men (24.4%). Various positive correlations were established between the number of women per household and the three land-based livelihoods. This implied that womens total control over such activities was mostly a result of the absence of men and not a typical phenomenon. In spite of this control, it was not positively reflected in the lives of majority of the women. Households differed in their participation in livelihood activities. Household size influenced the level of production and was positively correlated with the value of secondary woodland resources and crops. The study shows the interdependence of land-based livelihood sources and the impact of household features on production and consumption. Policies that focus on livelihood options need to recognize and accommodate associated household dynamics.Delali B. K. Dovie is a conservation biologist with interests in agricultural and natural resource economics and conservation, rural sociology, and global environmental change issues. He is currently a START/IGBP African Doctoral Fellow, and Honorary Research Fellow, School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.E. T. F. Witkowski is an ecologist with expertise in eco-physiology, restoration and plant ecology, and ethnobotany. He is Professor and Director of the Restoration and Conservation Biology Research Group, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.Charlie M. Shackleton is an ecologist and Professor at the Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University with many years of experience and good working knowledge of agro-ecological research, natural resources, plant population dynamics, and ethnobotany.     

Once and future farming: Some meditations on the historical and cultural roots of sustainable agriculture in the United States

American agricultural history, literature, and thought reveal historical circumstances that have often been unfavorable to the development of a sustainable agriculture in the United States. Further critical examination of these historical and cultural roots reveals that sustainable agriculture is an evolving concept that can be traced to the tradition of agrarian idealism, scientific and organic agriculture, and the recent history of ecological ideas, beginning with the Dust Bowl and extending to the present.Carl D. Esbjornson received his Ph. D. in English, with an emphasis in American literature and culture, from the University of Iowa. He taught at the University of Iowa, Oklahoma State University, the University of South Dakota, and, for the last four years, as an assistant professor in the Department of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University. He has published articles on Wendell Berry and on recent American poetry. He is now engaged in a more extended interdisciplinary study of sustainable agriculture. He now lives in Minnesota, working as an independent scholar, free-lance writer, and an advocate for sustainable agriculture.     

Emerson and the agricultural midworld

The metaphor of the midworld refers to Emerson's conception of the realm between the human process and nature. In his earlier writings, poetry served as a linguistic midworld that made it possible for the self to relate to the innumerable orders of nature. By the 1840's Emerson's thought had taken a much more skeptical turn and had moved decisively away from his earlier linguistic idealism. As a consequence, his conception of the nature of the midworld changed. The more humble work of the farmer came to represent more clearly the actual development of the midworld. In agricultural production, the basic features of nature became more directly available to the self. By the 1870's Emerson recognized that the farmer and the poet were both representatives of the midworld that made nature actual to the human process.Robert S. Corrington has taught at The Pennsylvania State University and The College of William and Mary. In the Fall of 1990 he will become Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology in the Theological and Graduate Schools of Drew University. He has published over 25 articles in such areas as American Philosophy, theology, semiotics, and Continental Philosophy. He is co-editor of:Pragmatism Considers Phenomenology (1987), Justus Buchler'sMetaphysics of Natural Complexes, Second Expanded Edition (1989), andNature's Perspectives: Prospects for Ordinal Metaphysics (1990). He is author ofThe Community of Interpreters (1987). He has just completed his second book,Nature and Spirit: An Essay in Ordinal Phenomenology. He is the recipient of the Church Divinity, Greenlee and John William Miller Prizes.     

Soil fertility management in the mid-hills of Nepal: Practices and perceptions

Sustaining soil fertility is essential to the prosperity of many households in the mid-hills of Nepal, but there are concerns that the breakdown of the traditional linkages between forest, livestock, and cropping systems is adversely affecting fertility. This study used triangulated data from surveys of households, discussion groups, and key informants in 16 wards in eastern and western Nepal to determine the existing practices for soil fertility management, the extent of such practices, and the perception of the direction of changes in soil fertility. The two principal practices for maintaining soil fertility were the application of farmyard manure (FYM) and of chemical fertilizer (mainly urea and diammonium phosphate). Green manuring, in-situ manuring, slicing terrace risers, and burning plant residues are rarely practiced. FYM usage was variable with more generally applied to khet land (average 6053 kg fresh weight manure ha^–1) than to bari land (average 4185 kg fresh weight manure ha^–1) with manure from goats and poultry preferred above that from cows and buffaloes. Almost all households (98%) apply urea to khet land and 87% to bari land, with 45% applying diammonium phosphate to both types of land. Application rates and timings of applications varied considerably both within and between wards suggesting poor knowledge transfer between the research and farming communities. The benefits of chemical fertilizers in terms of ease of application and transportation in comparison with FYM, were perceived to outweigh the widely reported detrimental hardening of soil associated with their continued usage. Among key informants, FYM applied in conjunction with chemical fertilizer was the most popular amendment, with FYM alone preferred more than chemical fertilizer alone – probably because of the latters long-term detrimental effects. Key informant and householder surveys differed in their perception of fertility changes in the last decade probably because of differences in age and site-specific knowledge. All key informants felt that fertility had declined but among households, only about 40% perceived a decline with the remainder about evenly divided between no change and an increase. Householders with small landholdings (< 0.5 ha) were more likely to perceive increasing soil fertility while those with larger landholdings (> 2 ha) were more likely to perceive declining fertility. Perceived changes in soil fertility were not related to food self-sufficiency. The reasons for the slow spread of new technologies within wards and the poor understanding of optimal use of chemical fertilizers in conjunction with improved quality FYM may repay further investigation in terms of sustaining soil fertility in this region.Colin Pilbeam graduated from the University of Oxford with an MA in Agriculture and Forest Sciences. He spent 11 years as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Soil Science, The University of Reading researching nitrogen and water dynamics in cropping systems in Kenya, Syria, and Nepal. He is now the manager of research programs at Cranfield School of Management.Sudarshan Bhakta Mathema is a senior agricultural economist based in Kathmandu, Nepal. After serving the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, in Nepal for 23 years, he joined the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization as the Farming Systems Economist for 2years. Currently, Dr. Mathema is the Manager of the Hill Agriculture Research Project with the Department for International Development, UK. Dr Mathema has major expertise in the fields of farming systems research and development, participatory research and development, competitive grant systems, sustainable rural livelihoods, impact assessment, project management and implementation, agricultural extension methods, and various types of socio-economic research. He has worked as a consultant for various national and international institutes. He has published papers and reports in the field of agriculture, particularly focusing on Nepal.Peter Gregory has been the Professor of Soil Science at the University of Reading since 1994. His research focuses on the interactions between plant roots and soils and on the development of sustainable systems of crop production. He has worked in Australia, Syria, Nepal, India, and West Africa and is the chair of Global Environmental Change and Food Systems – an international research project on food security.Padma Bahadur Shakya is an Agricultural Economist who has worked for the Department of Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in Nepal for more than 20 years. He has also been a short-term consultant for various national and international organizations such as FAO, the UNs World Food Programme, Swiss Development Corporation, Asian Development Bank, JICA, HARP, and several local NGOs. Currently, he is affiliated with the Agriculture Perspective Plan Support Programme, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.     

Traditional Mexican Agricultural Systems and the Potential Impacts of Transgenic Varieties on Maize Diversity

The discovery of transgenes in maize landraces in Mexico, a center of diversity for this crop, raises questions about the potential impact of transgene diffusion on maize diversity. The concept of diversity and farmers’ role in maintaining diversity is quite complex. Farmers’ behavior is expected to have a significant influence on causing transgenes to diffuse, to be expressed differently, and to accumulate within landraces. Farmers’ or consumers’ perceptions that transgenes are “contaminants” and that landraces containing transgenes are “contaminated” could cause these landraces to be rejected and trigger a direct loss of diversity. Mauricio R. Bellon is a human ecologist working in the Economics Program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Texcoco, Mexico. He received his MSc and PhD in ecology at the University of California, Davis. His current research includes projects that deal with on-farm conservation of maize, gene flow in traditional farming systems, and the impact of improved germplasm in the livelihoods of poor farmers. Julien Berthaud is a population geneticist working for the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). He received his PhD in plant science at the University of Paris 11. His current research includes projects related with the dynamics of genetic diversity, especially in traditional maize farming systems.     

Agrarianism and the American philosophical tradition

Paul Thompson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. His textbookEthics, Public Policy and Agriculture, written with Eileen Olsen VanRavenswaay and Robert Matthews, will be published by Macmillan in 1991. He is currently co-editing a book with Bill Stout on agricultural research policy entitledBeyond the Large Farm. He is guest editor of this issue.     

Converting or not converting to organic farming in Austria:Farmer types and their rationale

Reasons for converting to organic farming have been studied in a number of instances. However, the underlying rationale that motivates the behavior is not always made clear. This study aims to provide a detailed picture of farmers decision-making and illustrate the choice between organic and conventional farm management. Based on 21 interviews with farmers, a decision-tree highlighting the reasons and constraints involved in the decision of farmers to use, or not to use, organic production techniques was formulated. The accuracy of the decision-tree was tested through a written survey of 65 randomly sampled farmers. The decision-tree permits the identification of decision criteria and examines the decision-making process of farmers in choosing their farming method. It also allows for the characterization of farmer strategies and values, identifying five types of farmers: the committed conventional; the pragmatic conventional; the environment-conscious but not organic; the pragmatic organic; and the committed organic. The importance of taking into account heterogeneity in farmers attitudes, preferences, and goals and their impact on the choice of a farming method is emphasized.Ika Darnhofer is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna. She received both her MSc and PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, working on issues of agricultural development in Africa. Her current research interests include economic and sociological analyses of factors that shape farmers land use decision-making behavior, with a particular focus on organic farming.Walter Schneeberger is a Full Professor of Farm Business Management and Head of the Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna. His current research interests include the economics of producing and processing agricultural products and farm business management for both conventional and organic farms.Bernhard Freyer is a Full Professor of Organic Farming and Head of the Institute of Organic Farming of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna. His work on organic farming focuses on its agronomic aspects (plant cultivation, crop rotations, and soil fertility) as well as on the analysis of conversion to organic farming (planning process, farm development) and its potential for regional development.     

Book reviews

Christopher B. Barrett is a dual Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also pursuing a Certificate in African Studies. His previous degrees are from Princeton and Oxford. He spent several years working as a macroeconomist for an international institution, chiefly reporting on and evaluating African structural adjustment programs and debt rescheduling and reduction agreements.     

“Raising among themselves”: Black educational advancement and the morrill act of 1890

Debate over the curricula of Black colleges and universities dates back to before the turn of the century and involved such noted Black leaders as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. The 1890 Land-Grant Colleges eventually established in 17 southern and border states were created to provide institutions for the teaching of the agricultural and mechanical arts to African-Americans. However, due to their being chronically underfunded and understaffed during the early decades of their existence, they focused mainly on teacher training and to a large extent became state normal schools or teacher colleges for Blacks. I argue that the improvements in public education of southern Blacks at the primary and secondary levels during the 1920s and 1930s induced many graduates of the 1890 institutions to become teachers. At the same time the growing numbers and higher quality of these individuals lead to an increase in the returns to time spent in school and induced increasing numbers of Black parents to send their children to school. During the 1930s expenditures per pupil in Black public schools increased, as did the real wages of Black teachers, while average classroom size fell. At the same time both literacy and school attendance of southern Blacks rose. In no small part these changes were due to 1890 colleges and their students.Lee A. Craig is Assistant Professor of Economics and Business, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695. He was co-winner of the 1989 Allan Nevins Prize, presented by the Economic History Association for the best Ph.D. thesis in American Economic History. He has published articles in journals such asAgricultural History and theJournal of Economic History, and his book,To Plant or Sow One Acre More: Farm Output, Productivity, and the Fall of Rural Birth Rates in the Northern United States is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press.     

Institutionalizing agroecology: successes and challenges in Cuba

Over the past two decades, Cuba has become a recognized global leader in sustainable agriculture. This paper explores how this process of agricultural transition has taken place, and argues that it has largely been led by research institutes, non-state organizations and the Cuban government, which have all contributed to the institutionalization of agroecology in both policy and practice. This process has been highly effective in terms of the numbers of people using agroecological techniques. However, although these techniques have been widely adopted by farmers across the country, this paper suggests that many still perceive maximizing production to be a higher priority than maintaining a commitment to agroecological ideals. For these farmers, agroecological farming is viewed primarily as a pragmatic decision rather than an ideological or moral one, and they may thus be susceptible to shifting back to conventional production if this option became politically and economically feasible

The very idea of sustainability

Discussions of the desirability and ethical justifiability of sustainable agriculture are frequently impeded, if not derailed by the variety of meanings attached to the term sustainable. This paper suggests a taxonomy of different notions of sustainability distinguishing between agricultural product and process sustainability, in both static and dynamic forms, pursued by reductive (extractive), compensatory, regenerative, and induced homeostasis strategies. The discussion then goes on to argue that ethics demand sustainable agriculture. Finally the paper tries to identify just which types of sustainable agriculture will meet the ethical demands. I conclude with reasons for living sustainably in the present, as opposed to trying to orient agriculture by reference to the rights of future generations.Charles V. Blatz is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at The University of Toledo (Ohio). He is a founding member of the International Development Ethics Association, and is editor ofEthics and Agriculture: An Anthology on Current Issues in World Context (University of Idaho Press, 1991).     

干旱半干旱地区边际地种植能源作物的资源环境问题探讨

为减少对进口石油的依赖及应对燃烧化石能源造成的空气污染和温室气体排放问题,世界各国争相发展生物质能源产业。针对利用能源植物带来的粮价上涨和粮食安全问题,适应人多耕地少的国情,我国制定了"不与民争粮,不与粮争地"生物质能源的发展原则。许多学者提出利用边际性土地种植能源作物。多数边际性土地过于零散,不利于能源作物大规模种植和收获、运输,人们把注意力集中到草原及荒草地。干旱和半干旱地区天然降水不能满足植物旺盛生长的水分需求。大规模集约化种植一年生能源作物,主要依靠灌溉,消耗大量的水资源,同"与民争粮,与粮争地"一样威胁粮食安全,同时还可能会造成生物多样性丧失、植被破坏、土地沙化、土壤次生盐渍化等环境和生态问题,影响草原畜牧业发展,使牧民生活无靠,与现有的《草原法》等法律、法规相悖,且无异于"问题搬家"。本研究通过分析能源作物,特别是在干旱和半干旱区规模化、集约化种植,对资源、生态环境的影响,依据国家相关法律法规,提出了干旱和半干旱地区边际土地能源作物规模化种植准入政策建议,以期为生物质能源产业的健康可持续发展提供依据。     

ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: In Search of Einstein's Genius

Steve C. Wang is a lecturer in the Department of Statistics at Harvard University. He earned his B.S. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Chicago. He has taught statistics and mathematics at the University of Chicago and Williams College. His research interests include applying statistics to paleobiology, endocrine diseases, and image recognition.     

Learning in context through conflict and alignment: Farmers and scientists in search of sustainable agriculture

This article analyzes learning in context through the prism of a sustainable dairy-farming project. The research was performed within a nutrient management project that involved the participation of farmers and scientists. Differences between heterogeneous forms of farmers knowledge and scientific knowledge were discursively constructed during conflict and subsequent alignment over the validity and relevance of knowledge. Both conflict and alignment appeared to be essential for learning in context. Conflict spurred learning when disagreeing groups of actors developed their knowledge in order to strengthen their arguments. Conflict caused self-referentiality when the actors no longer listened to each other. This inhibited self-reflection, thus blocking ongoing learning. Nevertheless, after a period of alignment, scientific models and knowledge of farmers were reevaluated and recontextualized. Through determining how to use scientific models and farmers knowledge for further learning, aimed at a shared goal, the participating actors also learned how to learn.Jasper Eshuis is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication Management at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. His research deals with multiple land use, governance processes, and farmers decision-making. He is currently interested in monitoring and trust.Marian Stuiver is a PhD candidate in the Department of Rural Sociology of Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Her current research focuses on nutrient management, farmers innovation, and co-production of knowledge within the agricultural sciences.     

柠条锦鸡儿根瘤菌及其共生固氮基因多样性

为研究西北干旱地区豆科植物柠条锦鸡儿(Caragana korshinskii)根瘤菌的系统发育地位及共生基因多样性,对从甘肃省分离得到的菌株进行16SrRNA PCR-RFLP和序列分析,构建系统发育树,确定其分类地位,并通过分析共生基因nodA和nifH,确定种群共生类型。结果表明:从柠条根瘤内分离到64株菌,共有7个PCR-RFLP 16SrRNA基因型,主要归属于Ensifer(占分离总数43.8%)、Mesorhizobium(31.2%)、Rhizobium(25%),其中,Ensifer为主要类群,约占34.4%。共生基因nodA和nifH与Ensifer和Mesorhizobium模式菌株同源性较高,与16SrRNA基因确定的根瘤菌分类地位相比,发现部分共生基因与16S rRNA基因确定的分类地位不同,揭示了共生基因横向转移现象的发生。     

Rural income generation through improving crop-based pig production systems in Vietnam: Diagnostics,interventions, and dissemination

Sweetpotato-pig production is an important system that generates income, utilizes unmarketable crops, and provides manure for soil fertility maintenance. This system is widely practiced from Asia to Africa, with many local variations. Within this system, pigs are generally fed a low nutrient-dense diet, yielding low growth rates and low economic efficiency. Our project in Vietnam went through a process of situation analysis, participatory technology development (PTD), and scaling up over a seven-year period to improve sweetpotato-pig production and to disseminate developed technologies. The situation analysis included a series of pig production assessments in several provinces in northern and southern Vietnam, and pig supply-market chain identification was conducted in 13 provinces. The analysis of these studies informed the project of the following: (1) appropriate locations for our activities; (2) seasonal available feedstuff and farmers feeding practices; (3) market fluctuation and requirements; and (4) feeding and management improvement needs based on which the subsequent phase of PTD was designed. The PTD involved a limited number of farmers participating in sweetpotato varietal selection, sweetpotato root and vine silage processing, seasonal feeding combination, and pig feeding with balanced crop-feed diet and silage. Six years of multi-location and multi-season sweetpotato selection resulted in a few promising varieties that yielded up to 75% more dry matter and have since been formally released. The most significant results of silage processing and feeding trials include improved growth, higher feeding efficiency, increased year-round local feedstuff, and considerable labor reduction from eliminated cooking and vine cutting. Once these technologies were developed, a farmer-to-farmer training model was designed for scaling up the adoption and impact. Farmer trainers from seven communes in seven provinces received training in these technologies. In turn, they undertook the responsibility of training other farmers on sweetpotato selection, processing, and feeding. An impact study was also administered to monitor and evaluate (M&E) the dissemination process and to document the impact of the new technologies and farmer-to-farmer training model on pig growth and farmer income generation. The results showed that both participating and non-participating farmers have taken up the technologies, although the former demonstrates higher rates of adoption than the latter. The participants also generated more income and saved more labor from the adoption of the technologies. While the scaling up and M&E activities are on-going, the project has since broadened from a sweetpotato-pig system perspective to a pig-cropfeed system perspective based on farmers needs. It has included other crop feeds such as cassava and peanut stems in the research portfolio. New technologies based on on-going PTD will continuously be incorporated into the future training curriculum.Dai Peters is currently a senior scientist with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Hanoi, Vietnam. This publication is based on research conducted while she was a research scientist with the International Potato Center (CIP). She holds a PhD from North Carolina State University. Her research interests include on-farm participatory research methodologies, agroenterprise development, and sweetpotato-pig farming systems in Vietnam and Papua, Indonesia. Her recent publications include a manual on crop-based pig feed systems, post-harvest fermentation of sweetpotato roots and vines, and agroenterprise development.Nguyen Thi Tinh is currently a coordinator of the sweetpotato-pig improvement project at the International Potato Center in Vietnam. Ms. Tinh holds a Masters degree in animal nutrition from Wageningen University, Netherlands. She participated in the project on pig feeding trials for five years.Mai Thach Hoanh is a sweetpotato breeder with the Root Crop Research Center of Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute (VASI). He holds a PhD in sweetpotato breeding from the same institute. He participated in the project for seven years on sweetpotato selection. Nguyen The Yen is a crop scientist in the Food Crop Research Institute of Vietnam. He holds a PhD in sweetpotato breeding from VASI. He participated in the project for five years on sweetpotato selection.Pham Ngoc Thach is a lecturer with the Hanoi Agricultural University. He holds a PhD in veterinarian science from the same university. He participated in the project for five years in controlling pig diseases during the feeding trials.Keith Fuglie is a regional coordinator and research scientist in the International Potato Center based at Bogor, Indonesia. He holds a PhD in agriculture economics from the University of Wisconsin. He designed the impact study for the project.     

The varieties of sustainability

Each of four sections in this paper sketches the philosophical problems associated with a different dimension of sustainability. The untitled introductory section surveys the oft-noted discrepancies between different notions of sustainability, and notes that one element of the ambiguity relates to the different points of view taken by a participant in a system and a detached observer of the system. The second section, Sustainability as a System Describing Concept, examines epistemological puzzles that arise when one attempts to assess the truth or falsity of claims that attribute sustainability or non-sustainability. In particular, such claims generally presume bounded systems, but boundary conditions are value-laden. The third section, Sustainability as a Goal Prescribing Concept, examines puzzles that arise in attempting to define sustainability in normative terms. In particular, the question of whether sustainability is an intrinsic or instrumental value is examined. The final section, Sustainability and Bliss, offers an analysis of the moral responsibilities that human beings have, given the fact that knowledge of conditions for achieving sustainability can never be complete.Paul Thompson was President of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society during 1990 and 1991. He now directs the Center for Biotechnology Policy and Ethics, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. He is also Professor of Philosophy and of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M. His bookThe Ethics of Aid and Trade (Cambridge: 1992, Cambridge U. Press) reviews the alleged conflict of interest between U. S. farmers and efforts that would increase the productivity of agriculture in developing countries.