TECHNOLOGICAL GAP IN RECOMMENDED CULTIVATION PRACTICES OF CABBAGE GROWERS AT KUHUBOTO BLOCK IN DIMAPUR DISTRICT OF NAGALAND

This study has been conducted to find out the technological gap in recommended cultivation practices of the cabbage growers in order to understand the extent of the difference between the traditional and non- traditional practices practiced by the local farmers in the district. The aforementioned study was conducted at Kuhuboto block in Dimapur district of Nagaland in the year 2021. A descriptive research designed was applied for this study. The primary data was collected from 120 respondents by personal interview method using pre-structure interview schedule. After the analysis of the data, it was observed that, maximum number of the respondents (55.83%) were having medium level of overall utilization of information sources and majority of the cabbage growers (62.50%) belonged to medium level of over-all technological gap category. It indicates that a sum number of the population had incorporated the new technologies while others have still yet to adopt and use the new recommended cabbage cultivation. The socio- economic variables associated with the respondents, such as education and training exposure were positively significant with the extent of adoption of improved package of practices of cabbage cultivation. The above results compel the research and extension system to work on the gaps in a pragmatic way.

EVALUATING USE OF ICTS IN ACCESSING E-EXTENSIONSERVICES AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA

Smallholder farmers in Kenya are faced with low agricultural productivity which has been attributed toa number of factors among them being lack of access to agricultural information. This has been further exacerbated by shrinking number of public extension staff and underfunding of the extension system in the country. ICTs can play a crucial role in bridging this gap. This study determined ICTs accessed, and the extent of use of the ICTs to access e-Extension services among smallholder farmers in Nakuru county, Kenya. Data was collected from randomly selected sample of 130 smallholder farmers in a descriptive survey, using structured questionnaires and focus group discussions. Over 70 percent of the respondents had access to mobile phones, radio and TV while only 27.7 percent had access to the internet. The respondents that had access to YouTube, twitter and computers however, were less than 20 percent. The findings of the study revealed that mobile phones, radio and TV were the most accessed and utilized ICT tools in accessing e-Extension services among smallholder farmers.Social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook were on average used by the farmers to access e-Extension services while computers and twitter were the least used.The findings further revealed that e-Extension services that were most sought for by the farmers included production, market, pest and disease information.The major constraints in the use of ICTs tools in accessing e-Extension services were reported to include lack of ICTs such as computers and the internet, lack of awareness of availability of e-Extension services, lack of relevant information and lack of infrastructure such as electricity. The study concludes that accessible ICTs could be used to supplement other extension methods. There is need for improving access to ICTs particularly the internet and computers and creating awareness on use of platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Farmer Call Centres in accessing agricultultural information among farmers.

Constraints Faced by Vegetable Growers in Amaravati Division of Maharashtra

Vegetable cultivation involves intensive cultural operations since sowing to marketing, providing regular employment opportunities to unemployed youth and farm family. Vegetable production is now commercialized, but still traditional farming is done in far flung areas. Besides, they are not as well served by the extension system as the farmers growing food grains. Moreover, most of the vegetable growers in this region are small and marginal farmers, and they have their peculiar concerns and problems which need to be studied urgently and earnest. The present study was carried out in Akola and Amravati districts of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state during the year 2019 with a sample size of 120 respondents to define the constraints faced by vegetable growers in Amravati division of Maharashtra. The major constraints faced by the vegetable growers were price fluctuation, electricity, fertigation, exploitation by middle men and lack of market knowledge.

Influence of public agricultural extension on technology adoption by small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe

This paper presents the findings of challenges facing Zimbabwe’s extension services and how these have affected the adoption of technologies they render to small-scale farmers. This study uses a critical review of relevant literature on Zimbabwe’s primary public extension agency (AGRITEX). Additionally, 21 key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted to corroborate data collected in secondary research on extension approaches currently in use, the key factors affecting technology adoption, and the technology adoption process of small-scale farmers. The study found AGRITEX’s major challenges to be poor funding, poor remuneration and incentives for extension personnel, lack of in-service training, lack of appropriate technology, as well as poor operational resources like transport to reach all farmers. Consequently, services offered to small-scale farmers were compromised, which led to poor adoption of recommended technologies. Furthermore, the study determined that key factors influencing technology adoption are related to the farmers’ circumstances, the operating environment, and the attributes of technology itself. As a lasting solution to poor technology adoption, an adaptive extension system that promotes building the capacity of extension workers and researchers, as well as embracing farmers and their indigenous knowledge, is proposed.

Intermediation Capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Ghana’s Agricultural Extension System

Information and communication technologies (ICTs), specifically those that are digital and interactive, present opportunities for enhanced intermediation between actors in Ghana’s agricultural extension system. To understand these opportunities, this study investigates the capabilities of ICTs in support of seven forms of intermediation in the context of agricultural extension: disseminating (information), retrieving (information), harvesting (information), matching (actors to services), networking (among actors), coordinating (actors), and co-creating (among actors). The study identifies the types of ICTs currently functioning in Ghana’s agricultural system, and applies a Delphi-inspired research design to determine the consensus and dissensus of researchers, scientists, and practitioners about the potential of these ICTs to support each of the seven intermediation capabilities. The findings reveal that experts reached consensus that interactive voice response (IVR) technologies currently have the highest potential to support disseminating, retrieving, harvesting, and matching. Meanwhile, social media messaging (SMM) technologies are currently seen as highly capable of supporting coordinating and, to a lesser extent, co-creating, but no consensus is reached on the potential of any of the technologies to support networking.

Modeling the adoption of a garlic variety (Allium sativum L.) in Mexico through survival analysis

The objective of this research was to analyze the adoption behavior over time for the improved variety of garlic CEZAC 06, and the factors associated with the adoption process through survival analysis (SA), in North-Central Mexico. The data comes at farm level and was collected in 2019 through a questionnaire given to 40 garlic farmers in Zacatecas, Mexico. The results show that 62.5 % of the farmers who adopted CEZAC 06 carried out this process in the first two years after they were first introduced to it. The factors that played a role in the adoption process were: farmer age, how long the farmer had been in business for, number of hectares availables for garlic production, yield, number of college-educated family members, income from crop farming, income from garlic farming, agriculture-related courses taken, financial aid from the federal government, and being part of any type of organization. Improving yield and the quality of the garlic bulb requires an adequate extension system that allows farmers to receive updated and reliable information on the importance of technological innovation. Highlights The analysis also suggested that new technologies should be transmitted at higher rates to increase adoption. This can be done by implementing courses aimed at farmers with low educational backgrounds, small plots of land and low productivity levels. The factors affecting the adoption process were: farmer age, how long the farmer had been in business, yield, etc. CEZAC 06 will increase yield and rural farmers could improve the quality of the bulb as a marketable surplus. This work contributes to the scarce literature on the application of survival analysis to agricultural technologies.

An extension system of sequential differential equations of arbitrary order

We are concerned with an extension of a coupled sequential differential system of fractional type. Using the Banach contraction principle, we establish new results for the existence and uniqueness of solutions. Then, we prove another existence result via Schaefer’s fixed point theorem. At the end, we illustrate one main result by an example.

Urban Networks, Micro-agriculture, and Community Food Security

The white paper first outlines the state of inequity in food security/sovereignty in our area of focus, taking into account historical context as well as emerging and ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and community and policy responses to it. We then discuss a food acquisition intervention, structured as a longitudinal, collaborative research, and service-learning effort known as Everybody Eats. The white paper provides detailed discussion of competing understandings of agriculture, horticulture, and the social problem of food insecurity; the preliminary data that has led to a current collaborative effort to enhance the skillset of people previously not understood as food producers and provisioners, but only as end-user consumers; and the new iteration of the project wherein specific sets of expertise from diverse disciplines are deployed both to offer a more robust intervention, and bring new methodologies to bear in assessing the ecology of a local foodshed. We propose mobilizing existing resources and expertise of the Land Grant/Cooperative Extension system to act as a regional hub for facilitating full community food security (caloric and nutritional adequacy) and food sovereignty (participatory decision-making regarding living spaces and culturally appropriate foodways). Finally, we illustrate how a nexus of faculty, working from a service-learning advocacy perspective and embedded in a participatory action framework, provides a mechanism for bringing together and sustaining a community of intellectually diverse researchers and stakeholders.

Digitization of agricultural extension system for effective management of emergency in Nigeria

This paper presents challenges facing agricultural extension system in Nigeria most especially, during crises and emergencies, which necessitate the adoption of digitizing extension systems as a basis for improving farmers’ access to extension services during emergencies. The emergence of ICTs has given rise to digitization, which is the delivery of agricultural advice via audiovisual messages (video), interactive voice response (IVR) and short message services (SMS) among others. Efforts should be made by the stakeholders in agricultural extension to digitize the country's extension system by capitalizing on the existing enthusiasm among extension practitioners, and farmers using lessons of best practices from elsewhere.