Inclusive research for agriculture development: farmers participation and innovation
Dissemination or extension of technologies among the farmers is a complex issue. More often than not the scientists, having developed and tested the technologies, are not able to transfer these to the farmers widely. W hy the farmer is not ready to adopt the new technology is an issue that haunts planners and scientists alike. Farmers today need a variety of information about protection, inputs & services (Van den Ban, 1998). Factors such as the size of landholding (Adhiguru et al. , 2009), production system of the farmers and availability of inputs and services affect the information needs of the farmers (Rivera, 1996; Farrington et al., 1997; Planning Commission, 2006). Agricultural extension must be seen as a wider concept, including agricultural and marketing skills, organizing farmers and other stakeholders, developing social capital, sustainable natural resource management and food and livelihood security (Swanson, 2008).
Citation
Kumar A, Gupta RK, Jat ML, Malik RK, Sidhu HS, Gopal R. 2011. Inclusive research for agriculture development: farmers participation and innovation. In: Resilient food systems for a changing world, Proceedings of the 5th World Congress of Conservation Agriculture Incorporating 3rd Farming Systems Design Conference, Brisbane Australia, 26-29 September, 2011, p 282-283.