Subsistence Farmers Participation In Agricultural Development Planning

One of the more perplexing problems of economic development is helping subsistence farmers break away from production simply for home consumption to become commercial farmers, producing more and more for sale in the marketplace. Although subsistence farms occupy 40 percent of the worlds cultivated land and support half of mankind, facts about them and programs to increase their output are scattered. Subsistence Agriculture and Economic Development provides a unique overview of these difficulties and their significance to economic development. It is the first book to subject subsistence agriculture to rigorous multi-disciplinary examination and to bring to light new theory and empirical evidence directed toward solving the problem.This volume contains original chapters by forty leading social scientists and agricultural specialists who summarize contemporary theory, fact, and policy on the problems of developing agriculture from subsistence to a commercial basis. Each contributor speaks from one or more of the relevant standpoints of economics, sociology, agronomy, political science, anthropology, and social psychology. There emerges a clear, meaningful picture of the subsistence farmer and the problems involved in changing his attitudes, methods of production, and economic and social environment.Broad in scope, documented with pertinent case studies, and far-reaching in its guidelines for future research and policy, this work should be read by all concerned with increasing food production and with economic development. This is an area of special concern in the uses of food products as the basis for new energy resources - an issue of increasing importance in the advancing use of ethanol as a fuel drawn from corn products.

Subsistence production: a sign of market failure. Commercialization cannot be left to the market. Household effects of commercialization. Nutrition effects of commercialization. Policy action needed.

This book is the product of an international conference hosted by the Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD) Program at the University of Florida in 1986. The purpose of WIAD program is to promote an understanding of gender and its relevance for agricultural development processes.

Of the estimated 1 billion people in the developing world who survive in conditions of extreme poverty, 70 percent live in Asia. The majority of these people live in rural areas and agriculture is their main occupation. Most of the rural poor are small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural workers, fisherfolk, artisans, female headed households, the aged and infirm, and children. The incidence of poverty is highest among female heads of households and children. The seminar on "Poverty Alleviation through Agricultural Projects" provided thirty development practitioners with an opportunity to consider strategies, policies, and practices that help alleviate rural poverty. The seminar discussed four key issues of relevance to policy makers: (1) poverty cannot be measured by income alone; (2) poverty cannot be alleviated through a short-term, piecemeal approach; (3) agricultural projects constitute one of the many means available to governments for alleviating rural poverty; and (4) the role of public sector in poverty alleviation needs to be reconsidered.

Extension agencies in many countries have organized farmers into groups to minimize cost and time for technology transfer. In this context, farmer participation becomes important to plan and implement Extension education programs. This book presents a study conducted in Nepal that explored government aims of farmer participation and experiences of farmers in an agricultural development program that claims to be based on the participatory principles. Data were collected from secondary sources and focus group discussions and interviews with farmers, policy makers, government and agency staff. The findings show wide discrepancies between the various sources of information: i.e., (1) the aims of farmer participation stated in national policy documents, (2) the interpretations in government and program documents, (3) the views on participation expressed by government and program staff in interviews, (4) participation as experienced by farmers in a case study, and (5) participation as desired by non-participants of the program. Findings have implications for community development work both in non-industrialized and industrialized countries of the world.