Description
First published in 1972, Farm Management in Peasant Agriculture remains the only detailed discussion of on-site research techniques for economists working on the development of small-holder agriculture in Africa. Part 1 describes the conditions of the agricultural sector within which the African peasant farmer must operate, and then outlines an approach to farm management tailored to those conditions. Part 2 sets out the research planning and investigation tasks implied by the approach. Survey techniques, as well as the value of a pre-survey for understanding general attributes of a farm system, are reviewed, and alternative data-collection methods are elaborated. Part 3 shows how research data can be used in planning content for extension programs. Dr. Collinson concludes with the details of a planning method that interpolates changes in farm practice into a model of the existing farm system and that projects a sequence of changes, representing a sequence of extension content, on the basis of farmer acceptability.
Table of Contents
Also of Interest -- List of Activity Codes -- Preface -- Introduction -- Conditions in African Peasant Agriculture Affecting the Application of Farm Management Techniques -- The Farmer: His Motivational Balance and Farm Organization -- The Traditional Agricultural Sector -- The Economy: I. Infrastructural Conditions -- The Economy: II. Government Policy for Agricultural Development -- The Approach for Farm Economics -- The Investigation Phase -- The Planning and Investigation Tasks -- Building the Representative Farm Model -- General Attributes -- The Variable Attributes: Land -- The Variable Attributes: Labor -- The Variable Attributes: Capital and Livestock -- The Variable Attributes: Output -- Conclusions on Survey Organization and Design -- Planning Extension Strategy and Content -- The Planning Task in Relation to Adoption and Diffusion Research -- Preparing an Inventory of Available Farm Improvements -- The Planning Sequence: Constraints and Coefficients in Simulation -- The Planning Sequence: Setting the Objective for Extension Strategy -- The Planning Sequence: Selecting Extension Content over the Adoption Period -- Farm Management Economics in Traditional African Agriculture and Extension Organization -- Postscript
