Extension education impacts of farming systems research in Lesotho

[摘要] Farming systems research is an approach to agriculturaldevelopment in which farmers join scientists in mutual,interdisciplinary problem solving activities on farmers'lands, In that context,· extension education, a nonformalmode developed in the agricultural setting, plays a centraland vital role in the dissemination of information and thediffusion of innovations.The farming systems research and extension strategy has beenat work in Lesotho since 1979 as a fully integrated policyin the Research Division of the Ministry of agriculture andMarketing. Funded by the United States Agency forInternational Development, faculty members of WashingtonState University have worked as advisors and colleagues withnational officers and members of farming communities incarrying out appropriate activities;Extension education programmes have been conducted among· anumber of clienteles since 1981, addressing such areas ofneed as rural organization, village leadership, extensionmethods, and technical agriculture from a variety of fieldsand at several levels of instruction. Members of organizedfarmer contact groups as participants and diffusors, villagechiefs and headpersons, and government extension workers andsubject matter specialists were three key target groups forextension education programmes.This study concentrated on a threefold task. First, itundertook to review and substantiate the role and dynamicsof extension education in agricultural development, ingeneral and as reflected in farming systems researchactivities in Lesotho, Second, it sought to assess theimpacts of extension education programmes in the abovecontext in terms of changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills,aspirations (KASA), agricultural practices and, wherepossible, end results, using a reflective appraisal ofprogrammes (RAP) methodology to ascertain those outcomes.Third, it expected to formulate conclusions and advancerecommendations for the improvement of future suchprogrammes based on the evidence thus derived, together withany other discoveries made during the course of the study.In basing this research on the 1979 - 1984 segment 9f thefarming systems research intervention in Lesotho, and inseeing it through to its contemplated closure the researcher ·concludes that the outcomes demonstrate that there have beenimpressive, at times dramatic, KASA changes among the threekey clienteles perceived by their members as directlyrelated to the extension education programmes under study.Likewise, practice change in all three groups, while morevariable, was significant as vividly described by theparticipants themselves. Finally, end results, best seenamong the farmer contact groups, disclosed such realbenefits as better meals for families, higher crop yields,improved condition of animals and increased incomes. Themembers of those same farmers groups had become effectivedisseminators and diffusers, reaching nearly nine otherfarmers each.It is further concluded that, while farming systems researchis neither a panacea for low productivity nor a blueprintfor Africa, it is a useful and dynamic development strategy,and that, as in other strategies, extension education isboth central and critical to dissemination of informationand diffusion of innovations. Extension educationprogrammes, designed according to available resource levels,do produce positive change in participants' learning,practical behaviour and end benefits. Women, as a dynamichuman resource in the development formula, must beconsidered in the design and delivery of extensionprogrammes. And, urgent research into extension educationfor the developing world is required so that new flexible andrealistic methodologies might be perfected to meet thechallenge of the millennium.

[发布机构] University of the Free State