Tailoring agricultural extension to different production contexts: a user-friendly farm-household model to improve decision-making for participatory research |
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| Institution: | 1. International Potato Center (CIP), Apartado 1558, Lima 12, Peru;2. Centro Internacional de la Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Apartado Aereo 6713, Cali, Colombia;3. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1039, USA;1. Institute of Engineering Mechanics, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, PR China;2. School of Aeroplane, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia;1. Research Center, Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, Canada;2. Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada;3. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada;4. Department of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada;5. Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;6. Departments of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Farmers operate within specific natural and socio-economic settings. When those settings are very diverse, as in mountainous areas, agricultural extension services have often failed to tailor interventions to the specific needs of client farmers. In such settings, extensionists need cost-efficient tools or a close link to researchers to evaluate potential strategies and activities to raise farmers' income. This need has become more critical as governments in developing countries downsize expenditure on extension services and donors demand impact from their investments. This paper outlines a flexible computer-based farm-household model designed to assist researchers, extension workers, and policy makers. The model allows the user to define specific production options and resource constraints under different socio-economic and biophysical settings. Model application in different regions has proven its flexibility to capture and analyze a variety of production systems. When used with site-related input data and effective dialogue on the results among researchers, extensionists, and farmers, the model can be a useful tool for participatory research and extension. |
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