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No Thumbnail AvailableDocumentAssessing the Adoptability of Improved Crop Production Technologies by Small Farmers: the Case of Lesotho
Occasional Paper N. 6 - September 1996
1996Also available in:
No results found.In Lesotho, some externally financed agricultural development projects have appeared particularly prone to failure. One reason may be that, when designed, projects have not been subjected to sufficiently rigorous analysis, particularly with regard to expected farmers' response to extension messages. The thesis of this paper is that the impact of high inter-annual fluctuations in crop yields (and of crop prices) on farmers' expectations plays an important role in producers' decision-making, and t hat this can be measured with sufficient approximation to assess the prospects for the successful introduction of "improved" cropping technologies in small farmers' communities. Stochastic Efficiency Analysis has been applied to the mountain areas of Lesotho, where natural conditions are particularly harsh, but it has wider applicability in project formulation. The paper is based on information gathered by an FAO Investment Centre mission, which visited the Districts of Thaba T'seka and Qacha's Nek in November 1995 on behalf of the Government of Lesotho and the International Fund for Agricultural Development to identify a Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Programme for possible IFAD financing. See also the related FAO Investment Centre Occasional Paper N. 7 "Note on the Machobane system". -
No Thumbnail AvailableDocumentFormulation of an Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (ASIP) for the Mountain Areas of Lesotho
Occasional Paper N. 8 - April 1997
1997Also available in:
No results found.The first part of this paper covers the conceptual background of the approach adopted by an FAO Investment Centre mission which visited Lesotho for the formulation of the Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (ASIP) for the Mountain Areas, carried out in 1995 and 1996 within the framework of the FAO-IFAD Cooperative Programme. The second part deals with the application of the concepts and methodology to the design of the Programme in Lesotho. It presents the main features of the analytical wo rk done to link goals, policies and strategies of the Government with functions, objectives, targets and tasks of the administration, and to link these with the budgeting and financial reporting process. The implicit suggestion is that some difficulties of ASIP implementation in other countries are due to inadequate integration of the substantive and policy aspects of ASIP design with the institutional and procedural aspects at the time of the programme formulation and appraisal. -
No Thumbnail AvailableDocumentParaguay: Financial and Economic Implications of No-tillage and Crop Rotations Compared to Conventional Cropping Systems
Occasional Paper N. 9 - July 1997
1997Also available in:
No results found.The introduction of soybeans to the southern and eastern parts of Paraguay in the early 1970s, followed by wheat in the mid-1970s, using conventional mechanised soil preparation practices with disc ploughs and harrows, initiated a process of widespread soil degradation and erosion. The technique of no-tillage was first used in Paraguay in the late 1970s. Following a slow start, its adoption by Paraguayan farmers gathered momentum increasing from 20,000 ha in 1991/92 to an impressive 250,000 ha i n 1995/96, accounting for about 19% of the land cultivated mechanically. In 1993, the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadeira (MAG) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) started a project aimed at adapting and further disseminating no-tillage in combination with rotations of both cash and green manure crops in the major grain producing departments of Paraguay. Since very little was known about the economics of these technologies in Paraguay, MAG in association with GTZ, initiated a detailed study which was guided by the FAO Investment Centre. In this paper, the findings of the study are summarised and discussed.
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