Despite the tremendous need for extension approaches that contribute to poverty reduction in rural sub-Saharan Africa, many extension models have been tried with only limited success. A popular model at the moment is the farmer field schools (FFS) approach, based on adult education principles such as experiential learning. Farmer field schools are intensive, season-long programs where farmers m...

This study offers evidence of the robustness of farmer rice varieties (Oryza glaberrima and O. sativa) in West Africa. Our experiments in five West African countries showed that farmer varieties were tolerant of sub-optimal conditions, but employed a range of strategies to cope with stress. Varieties belonging to the species Oryza glaberrima - solely the product of farmer agency - were the most...

Responding to demands for transformed farming practices requires new forms of knowledge. Given their scale and complexity, agricultural problems can no longer be solved by linear transfers in which technology developed by specialists passes to farmers by way of extension intermediaries. Recent research on alternative approaches has focused on the innovation systems formed by interactions betwee...

In Thailand, agriculture is one of the major occupations; however, there is no comprehensive agricultural occupational health promotion and disease prevention model available. Objectives of this study were to empower farmers to study occupational health and safety situation in rice farming and to develop model to promote their health and prevent occupational health hazards among them. This part...

In recent years, entrepreneurship has been gaining more prominence as a potential tool for solving poverty in developing countries. This paper mainly examines the relationship between farmer entrepreneurship and rural poverty alleviation in China by assessing the contribution of farm entrepreneurs towards overcoming poverty. Data were collected from 309 employees of farmer entrepreneurships in ...

The paper presents a computer experiment inspired on the immune metaphor and based on the work of Farmer, Packard, and Perelson [FPP86]. We develop a model influenced by the way the immune system works that is well-suited to address a class of NP-hard problems. We discuss the results obtained when applying the model to an artificial vision problem denoted the museum problem, where artificial ag...

Economics has looked at the decision process of politicians but the decision process of agency staff has primarily been the purview of sociologists. Agencies affect the final form of regulations, they may enforce or ignore regulations that exist, and they provide information to the political process. Policies recommended by economists for nonpoint source pollution control are seldom supported b...

The government of Viet Nam places a high priority on upgrading the quality of farmers' lives. Providing adequate occupational safety and health (OSH) protection for all farmers is an important challenge. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) of Viet Nam trained WIND (Work Improvement in Neighbourhood Development) farmer volunteers. From 2004-2007, MOLISA in cooperation wi...