Chayanov's ideas on rural development (farmer participation in agricultural evolution, increasing the scope and differentiation of extension activities, and using methods adapted to farmers' characteristics) could be usefully applied today in reforming Russian agriculture. (SK)

As Irish farm households face difficulty remaining viable, the state-funded agricultural advisory service is beginning to charge for services and is suffering from a hiring freeze. Other rural development extension services are emerging and the role of traditional extension is being reevaluated. (SK)

Protas and de Andrade state that rural extension efforts in developing nations should not expect the participation of "progressive" farmers to lead to larger participation of other farmers in adopting innovations. Van den Bar offers comments on the article. (SK)

An effort to introduce the plow to Timor farmers faced following barriers: nature of the land and climate, strongly demarcated traditional system, tensions among ethnic groups, cattlelords system, necessary time to place/retain trainers in villages. Positive factors were concrete results, use of small groups and native trainers, age of adopters,…

An assessment of four community-based agricultural initiatives in South Africa's former Black Homelands indicates that the success of such ventures in terms of community self-reliance, job creation, and poverty alleviation depends upon access to markets; community resources and infrastructure; and training and technical assistance provided by…

This publication describes the formation and evolution of rural agribusiness (RA) in the southern hemisphere as a precondition for improving the lives of families in rural communities, and focuses on RA endeavors created by development projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. After a short introduction, the first section of this study…

A random sample of 150 farmers (75 participants and 75 non-participants in radio forums) from Lahore and Gujrat districts in West Pakistan were surveyed via personal interview in 1971 to determine whether there was a relationship between: certain socioeconomic variables and farmer forum participation; radio forums and agricultural change,…

Reviews experiments in Kenya and Nigeria attempting to modify the progressive-farmer strategy. Success requires that extension services recognize small farmers' ability to make their own rational decisions and involve farmers in planning and implementing extension programs. Available from: Rural Sociological Society, 325 Morgan Hall, University of…

Australian Landcare groups of volunteers, farmers, and other landowners address local conservation and land use issues. In studies of two networks of Landcare groups, networks attracted funding, created opportunities for participation and shared learning, improved communication and management practices, and increased member knowledge. These…

This chapter reports on the activities of the Rural Continuing Education Centre (CREPA), a nongovernmental organization run by volunteers from small agricultural villages in the Las Villas area of Salamanca, Spain. The organization was founded in 1983 with the goal of improving living conditions and community life for villagers through social…

The study concerns the impact of nonfarm employment opportunities on the hired farm labor force and is based on surveys of labor on farms near one new, one expanded, and one old-established town in eastern England, supplemented with findings of other British studies on mobility of farm workers. The main questions considered are the influence of…

Over the past century, rural girls and women have increasingly taken on leadership roles in response to rural community development concerns and farm crises threatening the very existence of family farms and surrounding communities. This paper provides a brief historical overview of the status of women in rural Canada, and then describes the…

The Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia is investigating the elements of social capital and developing a set of indicators that show when social capital is building. The indicators can be used where groups or organizations with a shared purpose engage in productive interactions that benefit not only the individual member groups…

Chachoengsao Province and Lampang Province were selected in 1976 as sites for an "action survey" to identify appropriate program areas for rural women so that governmental and voluntary agencies could be assisted in planning. During December 994 families and 1,272 women (ranging from 15-70 years old) were surveyed. Interviews were…

The objectives of the state-of-the-art paper, second in a series on farming systems research (FSR) in the Third World, are to: (1) review the literature on farming systems; (2) evaluate farming systems research in international institutes and in national agricultural research systems in the Third World; and (3) recommend what can be done to…