National fsa training Module 18: Impact assessment studies
Download 236.26 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Relative advantage.
- Compatibility
- Complexity.
- Trialability.
- Observability.
- Diffusion processes
- Some implications of adoption research for extension
- Ten limitations of diffusion research
InnovationsAn innovation always has two components – the hardware and the software. This is clear in the case of the computer where the machine (hardware) is useless without the programs, which instruct it what to do (software). It is also true for a plant variety where we have the plants (equivalent to hardware) and the techniques for growing them (equivalent to software). It is possible that the same software can be used for a new variety as for the old variety, but we often need new techniques also for cultivation, fertiliser application, etc. to ensure optimal production by the new variety. Farmers often play an important role in developing the right kind of software. Scientists who develop new hardware in their research station should take into account the software that might be available to farmers. However, they often fail to do this. For example, they have developed many more techniques for irrigated agriculture (which could include software) than for rain-fed agriculture, although no irrigation is available for the vast majority of farmers. Some innovations are adopted more rapidly than others because the farmers perceive them to have different characteristics. It is not the objective characteristics that are important, but how the farmers perceive them. This makes it more difficult to study them. What really matter are the changes this innovation will require in management of the farm and behaviour of the farm family, and hence in software. Does it require a change in knowledge, in skills in attitudes and/or in roles performed by different family members? Only minor changes in knowledge are required when a farmer switches to an improved wheat variety for the fifth time. However, if a farm family changes form growing food crops only for the family to growing them for market in an African village, the men might have to do the women’s job of weeding the crops. Such a change would make this innovation difficult to adopt. A number of studies have analysed the relation between characteristics of an innovation and its rate of adoption. The following characteristics appear to be important.
An extension agent who still has to gain the confidence of his farmers should start by promoting successful innovations. Hence he should look for those, which diffuse rapidly. However after a while he might spend most of his time on those innovations, which have a considerable impact on farmers’ incomes or goal achievement, even if they would not diffuse without his efforts. There are also innovations, which diffuse rapidly without much attention from extension organisations. Market research in business pays considerable attention to consumers’ needs for and perceptions of new products. This information is used to develop products, which are likely to be a commercial success, and to develop effective communication strategies for marketing these products. They would not know which messages to stress in advertising and other sales promotion activities without such research. Choice of the right name for a product also requires substantial testing, because the name can influence perceptions of the product. This type of research is less common in agriculture and extension than in business, partly because government officers will not lose their jobs if they do not ‘market’ their ideas effectively. Furthermore, there are often insufficient resources for good market research. However, an effective flow of information from field extension agents to extension managers and research workers can largely make up for this deficiency. It is difficult to know when to release an innovation for use by farmers. It may fail if we release it too soon. What might the consequences of failure be? Will it mean just a small decrease in yield or that some members of the family starve? If we release it too late we miss some of its advantages. For example, our farmers may be unable to complete with those in another country who adopted this innovation earlier. Diffusion processes The adoption of innovations is strongly influenced by members of social groups. This means that when some members of a group have adopted an innovation others may often follow. We must ten ask how extension agents can use and influence this diffusion process. Hence, we have to know who exercises influence in these social groups. Farmers are keen observers of how other farmers work, and in some countries, but not in all, they spend much time discussing their farm experiences with their friends and neighbours. They learn much in this way, although most realise that they learn more from some colleagues than from others. They know who gets good yields or good results in their village, and who experiments with new methods. Some of these successful farmers are willing to share their experiences with other farmers. In this way they become opinion leaders in the village because they help other farmers solve problems they consider to be important. Thus, opinion leaders have considerable influence on the way in which people in their village think and farm. The problems considered to be important depend on the norms of the group. An opinion leader will fulfil several of the following functions in his group with regard to innovation:
Not all opinion leaders will do all of these things. There may be some opinion leaders who provide information early in the adoption process and others who legitimise the decision to adopt or reject an innovation. A farmer will talk most frequently with other farmers who are similar to him in social status, farm size, education, age, etc. However, because they are so similar it is unlikely the other farmers will have much information he does not already have. His opinion leaders will be rather similar, but sufficiently different to be able to provide now information and discuss its relevance in his situation. Studies in the diffusion of innovations generally describe opinion leaders who:
Interaction between members of the different social strata can be rather limited in communities with a rigid social stratification. Therefore, each of these strata can have its own opinion leaders who have only a limited influence among other strata. This is the case, for instance, among the large landowners and peasants in Latin America. Also in other countries the extension agent might have to look for opinion leaders in each of the social strata. Small farmers and those with large farms have probably their own opinion leaders. Many innovations can only diffuse effectively among farmers who are more or less homogeneous in resources and social status. Many innovations that are suitable for one group are unsuitable for another group, especially where there are large differences in farm size, or some farmers have irrigated land and others have to rely on rain-fed agriculture. Furthermore, social interaction between these groups is often limited. Extension agents in these situations should try to establish contacts with opinion leaders form each of the groups. In many countries there are also separate communication networks for men and women. Information given by extension agents to male opinion leaders will often reach female farmers very slowly and rather distorted, if it reaches them at all. Opinion leaders are members of small social groups who influence other members of their group. Formal leaders, such as a village headman or tribal chief and national idols, such as film stars, pop musicians and some religious leaders and politicians, can also have considerable influence. Formal leaders have power by virtue of their position, but also clearly have been able to solve many problems faced by their people. Hence, other villagers may follow their advice or example in the belief they will be successful as well. These leaders may exert influence on a wide range of topics in traditional societies. They may also have considerable power over collective decisions such as irrigation or grazing rights. We have already pointed out that people tend to accept new ideas most easily form others who are similar in many respects, like a brother, for example. Especially traditional villagers do not trust outsiders. The problem is that close friends and relatives are likely to have less new and valuable ideas than an outsider. Hence, farmers from other districts can be very helpful in extension work because local farmers are more likely to accept their ideas than those of extension agents or other government employees. An extension agent will not be able to work closely with all farmers in his district, so he can increase his impact by co-operation with the opinion leaders. He can influence a large proportion of the farmers by choosing opinion leaders from among those he works most closely with. This is relatively easy in a community where the group norms favour the adoption of innovations, as we can expect the opinion leaders also to favour co-operation with extension agent. It is more difficult working in communities where most farmers are not yet interested in adopting innovations. Farmers in these areas who interest in co-operating with the extension agent are not usually the opinion leaders. In this situation the extension agent should try to gain the opinion leaders’ trust and develop their interest in modernising agriculture. Then in turn he can influence other farmers. This must done carefully because the opinion leaders will lose their leadership position if they change too quickly. Another somewhat risky proposition is to be on young farmers who might be in a leadership position ten years from now. How can an extension agent identify opinion leaders with whom he could co-operate? In the first instance he could observe carefully the social processes in the community. People will react in a different way according to who is speaking, say, at a meeting or in informal discussion. Farmers will refer to what they have seen on other farms or have heard from other farmers, in a discussion with the extension agent, for example. Extension agents will find it useful to keep notes of these pointers to leadership structure in the community. The extension agent could also seek assistance from some villagers or outsiders who know the community well. For example, in the village council he can point out that a demonstration will be more effective if it is held on a opinion leader’s farm, then seek suggestion about where it should be held. There is a danger with this approach that his adviser might mention only people from his faction if there are conflicts in the area. It is also feasible to make a list of all local farmers and ask these advisers to judge each farmer according to the influence he has in discussions about farming. However, if the opinion leaders change rapidly through these contacts they might lose their leadership position because they deviate too much from group norms. The most reliable, but also the most time-consuming method involves a socio-metric analysis. Each farmer in such an analysis is asked questions such as ‘Could you give the names of two farmers with whom you talk most frequently?’ or ‘From which farmers would you seek advice about whether or not a new method will work well on your farm?’ Responses to these type of questions make it possible to count how often each farmer in a district is chosen. Those chosen most frequently are considered to be opinion leaders. The line dividing leaders from followers is drawn arbitrarily. Some implications of adoption research for extension Researchers who study the adoption and diffusion of innovations can help draw an extension agent’s attention to some processes and variables, which are probably important among his farmers. We may use such research findings either to accelerate or to change adoption processes. Attention has been given to this latter point only recently in relation to interest in the system-blame hypothesis. This leads people to wonder whether it is possible to change the system. We will discuss first some possibilities for acceleration adoption. Research has shown that different information sources are used at the beginning and the end of the rather lengthy process of adopting and innovation. Hence we should combine different media so they reinforce each other in an extension programme. The mass media can be very useful in creating interest in interpersonal communication about innovations. However, they are relatively ineffective unless there is extensive personal follow-up by extension agents in the field. Choice of farmers who participate in group meetings and who are visited by extension agents is also very important. If the farmers choose these people themselves, most of the contacts are likely to be with the innovators and the early adopters. The extension agent can try to establish contacts with the opinion leaders in order to increase his impact on a wider group of farmers. For instance, farmers who have adopted an innovation may take over active promotion of it from extension agents. However, innovative farmers are not always well suited to this task if the innovation is difficult to implement. Such is the case with integrated pest control where management has to be adapted to a farmer’s specific situation. The innovation may also be suited only to a certain category of farmers such as those with large farms. Focusing on these kinds of target groups can lead to even greater differences in income among farmers. Those who adopt innovations first generally profit most from them, although they also run the risk that new innovations will not prove to be as good as they were first thought to be. Income differences between farmers may increase if there is no further promotion of the innovation after the early adopters have adopted it. This may not be a desirable outcome of the extension policy. It may therefore be necessary to develop different messages to meet the needs and the situation of each category of adopters. This approach is frequently used in marking where it is called “market segmentation’. Most extension agents believe it is also essential to pay attention to accelerating adoption among those farmers who are now slow to adopt or who seldom ask for help. This is because these farmers tend to be poor, and many people believe it is desirable to decrease income differences among farmers. Despite his best intentions, an agent may not able to help poor farmers. Research may have found some profitable solutions for large, well-capitalised and irrigated farms, but none for poor farmers working under rain-fed conditions. Extension agents and policy-makers may have to redirect agricultural research towards solving the problems of these small farmers. In the meantime, extension agents can offer limited help by noting why some farmers get higher yields than others, then developing messages for the less successful on the basis of what they have learned from the more successful. Extension agents may also be able to help poor farmers to organise themselves into groups which help each other, and which have more power in dealings with salesmen, moneylenders and/or landowners. This can be an important way of changing the system that currently makes it unprofitable for poor farmers to adopt innovations. Clearly, this may arouse resistance from those who fear they may lose some of their power, although it is sometimes possible to convince them that everyone will be better off with increased productivity. Ten limitations of diffusion research
The structure of the society can have much influence on the possibility and the desirability of different groups of farmers to adopt certain innovations. These system effects have not received much attention in diffusion research to date. Directory: sed sed -> Tourist Areas Haiti, another discovery sed -> Headmaster’s Prize Giving Speech Summer Term 2015 sed -> Early searches for new physics with the atlas detector E. V. Sedykh sed -> Audition pack sed -> Lovers: Birth of Lilith sed -> Wakko’S 50 state capitals (lyrics) sed -> Acknowledgements sed -> Using Well Logs in the Petroleum Industry Download 236.26 Kb. Share with your friends:
|