This dissertation is composed of three essays examining adoption and impact of agricultural technologies. The first two papers estimate adoption and impact of iron-biofortified bean varieties in Rwanda. These varieties are bred to have high iron content and high yields to improve the health and livelihoods of rural households. The third essay estimates the spillover effects of seed producer groups (SPGs) in Nepal on nearby non-SPG member households. These SPGs were established to produce and sell stress tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) and other improved rice varieties and were trained on a number of improved management practices for rice cultivation. The first essay, titled "Promoting rapid and sustained adoption of biofortified crops: What we learned from iron-biofortified bean delivery approaches in Rwanda" uses duration modeling to estimate how a number of delivery approaches designed to distribute iron-biofortified bean varieties to farmers have increased the speed of adoption, reduced the speed of disadoption, and increased the speed of readoption of iron-biofortified bean varieties. We find that these delivery approaches have been very effective at promoting adoption and reducing disadoption. Policy makers can learn lessons from this research regarding distribution of biofortified crops in Rwanda and elsewhere. The second essay, titled "The impact of iron-biofortified bean adoption on bean productivity, consumption, purchases and sales" examines the impact of adoption of the most popular iron-biofortified bean variety, RWR2245, on adopting households. We use a control function approach with instrumental variables related to iron-biofortified bean delivery approaches to control for selection bias of adoption. We find that adoption increases yield, household bean consumption from own-production, and bean sales while reducing bean purchases. This implies that iron-biofortified bean adoption has a strong potential to improve nutrition and food security of adopting households, as beans make up a large portion of the average Rwandan diet. The third and final essay, titled "The spillover effects of seed producer groups on non-member households in local communities in Nepal" examines the spillover benefits of SPGs onto non-member farmers in villages with an SPG or are adjacent to a village with an SPG. We find that SPGs have increased adoption of STRVs, improved the seed replacement rate, and increased use of some best management practices among non-members within SPG villages, and have increased adoption of the STRVs in at least one past seasons among non-members in adjacent villages. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation consists of three essays that examine adoption and impact of agricultural technologies that are designed to help rural households in developing countries improve their livelihoods. The first two papers focus on iron-biofortified bean varieties in Rwanda. These bean varieties have high iron content and are also high yielding. They are designed to combat iron-deficiency within the country. The government of Rwanda distributed the bean varieties to households using a number of different delivery approaches. We study the influence of these approaches and find that households who are closer to them adopt the varieties faster and disadopt the varieties more slowly, indicating that they have been successful in promoting adoption. The second paper of this dissertation studies the impact that one of the iron-biofortified bean varieties has had on adopting households. We find that adoption increases household bean yields and bean consumption from own-production, while reducing bean purchases and increasing the likelihood that a household sells beans. This provides evidence that iron-biofortification improves iron consumption for households that adopt the varieties, because they consume greater quantities of their iron-rich bean harvests, and improves household income through reductions in purchases and increased likelihood of sales. Finally, our third paper examines Seed Producer Groups (SPGs) in Nepal in which member farmers produce and sell rice varieties that are tolerant to drought. We find that for non-SPG members, living in or near a village with an SPG increases their likelihood of growing a drought-tolerant variety. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the literature on adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies and provides useful guidelines for policy makers wishing to promote these and other technologies. This can inform future funding allocation and maximize impacts of development projects.

This study traces the history of how farmers have used technologies from the eighteenth century to the present to form identities, not simply as ways of making greater economic profits. Using technologies becomes a way to 'perform' a person's sense of him or herself. This insight serves historians because it suggests that users, not just important inventors, drive technological change. My study also suggests that the relationship people have with technology (and how they use it to form their identities) has historical genealogies. Engineers and business people will also find my history useful because the notion of 'performative use' means that people's views of themselves can influence the way they adopt and employ technologies. Policy scholars will gain from my study because I show that the way people use technology to understand themselves has consequences in determining how they participate in controversies over science and technology policy. This narrative begins in the eighteenth century by analyzing how elites like Benjamin Rush viewed the agricultural practices of German farmers, regarded by many in the upper classes as backwards. I show how observances of German farmers by elites created a pattern repeated throughout American history where rural people would use technology to perform their identities for an outside observer. In addition, I describe an identity, which I call 'German agrarianism,' and contend that this rural self-image migrated to the Midwest when German farmers moved westward. German agrarianism had several important features including the association of morality with family-based production practices, an obsession with owning personal property, the inclusion of women in farming and land ownership, and the practice of performing identity through the use of material objects. Next, I describe a rural identity with English origins, one that other scholars have named 'Jeffersonian agrarianism.' This Jeffersonian identity saw farmers as heroes who conquered the frontier, preserved American democracy, and supported less moral urban dwellers. I argue that Jeffersonian agrarianism in the nineteenth century began to reject technological and social change and that this view of rural people as anti-modern has influenced the way observers of rural life have viewed farmers up to the present. This study then analyzes the rural-urban conflict of the 1920s, contending that farmers used technologies to develop their own rural modern identity, which I call 'rural capitalistic modernity.' Farmers used technology this way to combat a version of modernity, which I name 'urban industrialism.' This modern identity, arising from the cities, advocated improving rural life by making farms resemble urban factories. This factory model threatened German and Jeffersonian rural identities that existed prior to the 1920s because it removed the family as the center of production and advocated work processes that took control and property ownership away from farmers. In addition, urban industrialism saw farmers as backward and in need of reform, which offended farmers who saw themselves in heroic terms as a result of Jeffersonian agrarianism. I argue that many rural people in the 1920s used technology to perform an identity of rural capitalistic modernity as a means of combating these urban efforts to restructure farms as factories and stereotype farmers as 'yokels' or 'rubes.' This rural modern identity became reinforced during the Cold War because the farmer saw Soviet collectivized agriculture as posing the same threats as previous urban industrialism. In addition, the way farmers used technology to reinforce their views of themselves as modern became valuable to government actors in the United States who saw increased agricultural production as a weapon in defeating the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, farmers formed an identity called 'rural ultramodernity' in which they began to think of themselves as more modern than urban dwellers because of their design and use of advanced technologies and their role as producers in the global food network. This ultramodern identity incorporates aspects of previous rural identities, including an obsession with combating urban stereotypes of farmers as 'hicks.' In addition, this rural ultramodern identity views farmers as having an inborn modernity inherited from previous generations of farmers. I argue that this ultramodern way farmers think of themselves explains why rural people in the Midwest have embraced the erection of wind turbines, unlike residents of other regions in the U.S. From a policy perspective, this study also contends that debates over science and technology, such as efforts to render agriculture more sustainable and organic, are impacted by unexpressed fundamental views about nature and morality. Statements about these controversies often take the form of proxy arguments that sound 'rational' but mask these unstated ideas, and they often alienate those with opposing views. Current debates over genetically modified organisms, from a rural perspective, are actually unspoken clashes over rural ultramodern and organic identities hidden by 'objective' points made by both sides involving science or economics. This study also challenges the common notion that technology and production are male domains by showing how both men and women have used technology to construct their identities as producers on Midwest farms. This insight illustrates how disagreements over gender roles underlie current policy debates about agriculture. Farmers view organic discourse as threatening rural women's identities as modern producers by framing farming as an immoral, industrial, and male domination of a moral and female nature. Rural people view organic discourse as carrying on the tradition of urban industrialism, which saw farmers as backwards and farm women as unhappy and occupying an exclusively domestic sphere. This study suggests that any effort to reform agriculture must include farmers and incorporate the way rural people use technologies to form and reinforce their identities. At the same time, the conclusion advocates for a new rural identity that avoids farmer's tendencies to view all technologies as 'progress' regardless of their environmental or social impacts. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Conflict and agriculture have a long, shared history. The purpose of this research is to look at the relationships between agriculture, agricultural technologies, and conflict during current and recent conflicts, large scale and localized. Agriculture and its related technologies are often affected by conflict, but rarely acknowledged as a cause or solution to conflict. Literature reviews in six topic areas illustrate various facets of the relationship between agriculture and conflict. Research conducted in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala illustrates the ways farmers were impacted by the country’s civil war. It also examines farmer survival strategies during the war, and reveals the presence of minor localized conflict over water resources. Conflict over land is not a major concern at present. Market access for inputs and outputs are shown to have been a problem for a number of farmers during the civil war. The poverty of Santa Cruz farmers indicates that much could be gained by rural development. Research is unable to support the hypotheses that agricultural technologies have prevented or caused conflict in Santa Cruz del Quiché, or that they have played a large role in recovery from the country’s civil war. The author recommends that future research be undertaken in regions with a diverse set of agricultural technologies, and/or a recent history of significant technological change in agriculture. Policy recommendations include providing secure access to markets during war time, increasing capacity for home-based rural production, and continuing research into resilient crops. Finally, the author suggests that the responsible decision to develop, adopt, or introduce an agricultural technology must take into account the social consequences of that decision, including how the new technology may alleviate or contribute to conflict.

For the purpose of preventing the damage caused by wild boars on the field crops in the hunting district of HS Záboří, influence of the agricultural technology and other precautions on the amount of the damage is being investigated. The development of the damage on the field crops has been influenced by the size of the population of the wild boars and by the inconsistent agricultural technology in this area.

Continued increase in population and escalating environmental degradation have changed the priorities of agricultural development projects in developing and emerging countries towards both increasing production or productivity and improving sustainability. The long-term success of these development projects, especially in terms of improving sustainability, depends on how widely those improved practices which are shown to be effective in achieving the technical objectives, are adopted/adapted by farmers in the targeted region. In these terms, many projects in recent years may be considered to be relatively unsuccessful. This study aimed to investigate the factors contributing to the effectiveness of agricultural technology research and development projects in improving the sustainability of cropping systems in upland areas of China, together with the factors that might limit their effectiveness. This has involved both a review of recent projects carried out in the region and detailed monitoring and evaluation of one such project carried out in South West China – the SHASEA project. The SHASEA Project was implemented in Wang Jia catchment in Yunnan Province using holistic and multi-disciplinary approaches to address the twin objectives of increasing productivity of maize, wheat and soybean in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. It introduced into the catchment a range of novel or modified cropping practices, which had been evaluated in plot studies over the preceding six years, together with biological and engineering measures designed to stabilise large scale soil movements in lateral gullies and the main stream. The SHASEA Project was successful in achieving its short-term scientific and technical objectives, but was too short to determine the level of adoption by farmers in the locality. The present study has used a range of approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of this Project, to monitor the biological, environmental and socio-economic impacts and investigate the perceptions of the farmers about the Project and the likelihood of their adoption of the recommended practices. Participatory approaches were used wherever possible, including detailed household surveys, PRA workshops and discussions with Key Informants. Field surveys and direct observations were also made, together with a limited economic analysis of the modified cropping practices introduced into the catchment. It was found that the farmers had different perceptions about the range of practices introduced into the catchment. Some were clearly preferred, such as contour cultivation and were likely to be adopted, while others were seen as inappropriate, such as straw mulching and intercropping, and were unlikely to be adopted. The benefits of an innovative, integrated cropping system, INCOPLAST, were not fully appreciated by the farmers. Other practices would only be adopted if the financial returns were favourable, such as the use of polythene mulch. Longer-term measures, such as tree planting schemes, were regarded favourably, but adoption would still depend on economic returns and related issues such as land security. An irrigation scheme was suggested by the farmers, but after installation it was not used extensively for the staple crops in the catchment. It was found that farmers planned to use the irrigation for higher value crops such as tobacco, after the end of the Project. It has been concluded that, despite the technical and scientific success of the Project, long-term adoption of many of the practices introduced into the catchment will be low, unless considerable incentives are used or much more effective dissemination techniques employed. It is considered that the outcomes would have improved considerably if participatory approaches had been used from the outset, to engage farmers more fully with the project, to ensure that the practices introduced were as appropriate as possible, to achieve greater ownership of the objectives and outcomes, leading to higher adoption rates. More emphasis should have been given to the dissemination of the outcomes at farmer level outside the catchment of study and there should have been more involvement with the regional policy makers and extension officials throughout the programme. Longer-term improvements in sustainability at the catchment level have not yet been demonstrated. These outcomes are discussed within the context of other agricultural projects carried out in South East Asia and other developing regions. Based on the outcomes and conclusions from this study, a series of recommendations are made which are presented as good practices for future agricultural development projects in South East Asia.

Agricultural producers and consumers are experiencing a communication disconnect as the population shifts from rural to urban societies. It is critical to assess producer and consumer perspectives to create a functional agricultural environment. The purpose of this study was to describe the consumer market and the farming industry environments in Trinidad and Tobago through consumers’ perceptions of their produce, a comparison of student and consumer perceptions of their produce, and agricultural professionals’ perceptions of the industry environment. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to complete this study. The study of consumers’ perceptions of their produce provided a quantitative description of attitudes held about produce origin and growing methods and their effect on pricing. An instrument was developed to measure the three constructs. Data were collected in farmers markets. Descriptive statistics were used for reporting consumer perceptions and demographics. The results of this study suggest that consumers are supportive of local, organically grown produce for their health and environmental benefits. A second study described students’ perceptions of their produce in comparison with consumers’ perceptions. The Culture and Consumer Behavior Interaction Model of Luna and Gupta provided the framework to explore the effects of cultural values and market communications on consumer behavior. Data were collected from university students using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for reporting student perceptions and demographics; the data were compared with the consumer data from the first study. The results of this study suggest students and consumers have different cultural values and access to marketing communication and, therefore, behave differently when purchasing produce. The third study was a qualitative case study exploring agricultural industry professionals’ perceptions of the industry environment. Rogers’ theory of diffusion provided the framework to explore information access for producers in Trinidad and Tobago. Data were collected through interviews. Crop production methods, sources of information, and perceived needs to improve the industry emerged as themes. The results suggest the need for a standardized definition of organic growing methods, a centralized location of information and training materials, governmental support and public recognition of agriculture efforts, and career potential for youth interested in the farming industry.

The prospects of sustainable crop production technologies in East Timor were discerned with relevant case studies and experimental data. An overview of the agricultural development in East Timor with particular emphasis on the traditional farming and cropping systems was presented complemented by the discussion on the aspects of agricultural mechanization and technological change and their socioeconomic ramifications on food security. Empirical data from tillage trials, established both in East Timor and New Zealand, were gathered and discussed in the quest for a better understanding of tillage effects on soil structure and crop production environment. The agro-climatic zones of East Timor provide a well-defined set of ecological boundaries upon which further collaborative research work can be developed. Given land resources as one of the major capital investments in agriculture development, the drive towards improvement and technical change in agriculture should be directed in a balanced combination, whenever appropriate, between technologies of land-saving (hybrid seeds, irrigation, and drainage) or labour-saving (mechanization, herbicides, varieties and cropping techniques) characteristics. Moreover, the justification for acquiring an improved technology for traditional farmers, to some extent, needs to conform to the features of their subsistence mode of farming. The emphasis in technology dissemination, therefore, will have to shift from communication to education. Experimental results of this study on the effects of tillage, and no-tillage in Particular as a form of conservation tillage, on the edaphic changes affecting cropping environment generally concur with the findings known in the literature. Organic carbon levels are generally restored with cropping in East Timor. In addition, soil bulk density and crop grain and biomass yield were not affected by tillage treatments. Soil compaction was significantly affected by tillage as shown by data from the Palmerston North experiment. Soil aggregate stability in the 0-10 cm topsoil was similar under all the tillage treatments. Manual tillage (MT) had the greatest number of soil aggregates on sieve after a 30-minute wet-sieving (68.3%) followed by no-tillage (NT) (65.1), permanent pasture (PP) (62.6) and conventional tillage (CT) (56.5). Similarly, the top 0-10 cm soil under MT had significantly larger macroporosity (16.4%) than CT (9.23), NT (11.5), and PP (10.6). MT and CT significantly reduced the total C whereas N levels were significantly decreased by tillage (CT, MT and NT) compared to permanent pasture at the top 0-10 cm soil layer. Barley grain and biomass were unaffected by tillage whereas potato tuber yield and biomass were significantly less under no-tillage. Conventional tillage significantly increased water runoff but produced less leachate compared to no-till and permanent pasture. Total soil sediment loss was significantly lower under PP (95.8 kg/ha) and NT (132.9) compared to CT (3556.7) and MT (4652.2). pH of water runoff was significantly reduced under tillage treatments compared to that from permanent pasture whereas nitrogen losses were unaffected. There are at least four major public policy components that will play vital roles in the development of sustainable crop production technologies in East Timor: (i) Agricultural research and development (ii) Agricultural extension (iii) International and regional networking (iv) Shift of policy focus. The policy approach needs to be decentralized and broad-based and conservation agriculture should be promoted as opposed to conventional production agriculture. Three major areas for the future research agenda include: (i) Integrated Farming Systems (ii) Soil tillage and erosion (iii) Applied science and technology. The last component may cover disciplines such as: food policy analysis, farm machinery selection and testing, soil testing and mapping, land evaluation and GIs, bio-energy technologies, improved local seed varieties, adaptive fodder crops for improved grazing and pasture management, appropriate agro-forestry and soil and water conservation technologies and cash crop initiatives.

Thesis (M.S.)--Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [82]-84).

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Irrigation contributes to the increase of industrial and commercial activities, directly impacting on economic progress, generating direct and indirect responsible for the circulation of wealth from the countries jobs. In any irrigation project, it becomes important to understand the concept of technology that is linked not only to factors such as machinery and equipment to optimize production, plus also the fact that these elements or factors need to be operated within the productive activity. This work had as main objective to analyze the influence of technology on the payment capacity of the producers of the Irrigation Plateaus of Guadalupe, in the state of PiauÃ. Specifically, we sought to identify the representative technological factors and group producers based on the calculation of a technological index; calculate the revenue and production costs of the perimeter producer groups; ability to calculate the total and per unit of crop produced raw water payment, considering the groups of producers; and identify the effect of the technological level on the ability to pay the irrigator producer. The primary data were collected by the technical nature of field research, qualitative and quantitative types of descriptive and refer to the year 2012, collected in 2013 three methods were used: factor analysis to extract the main factors in the formation of representative index aggregate of technological producers and cluster analysis to identify producers who had lower or higher levels of adoption of agricultural technology in irrigation. Jointly-used the residual method to determine the ability to pay full, unitary and culture of producers using raw water for irrigation. The results pointed to the definition of four representative factors in the level of technology. For the index, it was observed that the clustering resulted in three classes, according to the low, medium and high order. Costs and revenues for producer group were raised, considering the technological index and then was calculated ability to pay and the total unit per group of irrigators on the perimeter Plateaus of Guadalupe-PI, concluding as satisfactory for the three groups . In the culture analysis, it was determined that the guava CPT was the most significant, followed production consortium of banana, passion fruit. In order to obtain conclusive results and achieve the objectives of the work, did the aggregated analysis, ie, calculating the Technological Producers Index (ITI), there was that irrigating farmers with low ITI showed low CPT, producers with an average ITI revealed average CPT and irrigators with high ITI expressed high CPT. Therefore, it is concluded that the three groups indicated satisfactory CPT, may state that prevails among irrigators analyzed agriculture medium technological level. / A irrigaÃÃo contribui para o aumento das atividades industrial e comercial, impactando diretamente no progresso econÃmico, gerando empregos diretos e indiretos responsÃveis pela circulaÃÃo de riquezas dos paÃses. Em qualquer projeto de irrigaÃÃo, torna-se importante entender o conceito de tecnologia que està ligado nÃo somente a fatores como mÃquinas e equipamentos capazes de otimizar a produÃÃo, mais tambÃm ao fato de que esses elementos ou fatores precisam ser operados dentro da atividade produtiva. Assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo geral analisar a influÃncia da tecnologia na capacidade de pagamento dos produtores do PerÃmetro Irrigado PlatÃs de Guadalupe, no Estado do PiauÃ. Especificamente, buscou-se identificar os fatores tecnolÃgicos representativos e agrupar os produtores com base no cÃlculo de um Ãndice tecnolÃgico; calcular as receitas e custos de produÃÃo dos grupos produtores do perÃmetro; calcular a capacidade de pagamento total, unitÃria e por cultura produzida de Ãgua bruta, considerando os grupos de produtores; e identificar o efeito do nÃvel tecnolÃgico sobre a capacidade de pagamento do produtor irrigante. Os dados de natureza primÃria foram coletados pela tÃcnica de pesquisa de campo, dos tipos qualitativa e quantitativa descritiva e referem-se ao ano de 2012, coletados em 2013. Foram utilizados trÃs mÃtodos: anÃlise fatorial para extraÃÃo dos principais fatores representativos da formaÃÃo do Ãndice tecnolÃgico dos produtores agregado e a anÃlise de clusters, para identificar os produtores que apresentaram menores ou maiores nÃveis de adoÃÃo de tecnologia agrÃcola em irrigaÃÃo. Em conjunto, usou-se o mÃtodo residual para determinar a capacidade de pagamento total, unitÃria e por cultura dos produtores que utilizam Ãgua bruta para irrigaÃÃo. Os resultados apontaram para a definiÃÃo de quatro fatores representativos do nÃvel de tecnologia. Para o Ãndice, observou-se que o agrupamento resultou em trÃs classes, obedecendo à ordem baixo, mÃdio e alto. Foram levantados os custos e as receitas por grupo de produtor, considerando o Ãndice tecnolÃgico e, em seguida se calculou a capacidade de pagamento total e unitÃria por grupo dos irrigantes no perÃmetro PlatÃs de Guadalupe-PI, concluindo-se como satisfatÃria para os trÃs grupos. Na anÃlise por cultura, determinou-se que a CPT da goiaba foi a mais expressiva, seguida da produÃÃo consorciada de banana e maracujÃ. A fim de se obter resultados conclusivos e atingir os objetivos do trabalho, fez-se a anÃlise agregada, ou seja, calculando-se o Ãndice TecnolÃgico dos Produtores (ITI), constatando-se que os produtores irrigantes com baixo ITI apresentaram CPT baixa, os produtores com mÃdio ITI revelaram CPT mÃdia e os irrigantes com alto ITI manifestaram CPT alta. Portanto, conclui-se que os trÃs grupos indicaram CPT satisfatÃria, podendo-se afirmar que predomina entre os irrigantes analisados uma agricultura de mÃdio nÃvel tecnolÃgico.