The socioeconomic outcomes of the Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR) approach to the transfer of Agricultural Technology (IRM) in rice cultivation
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Date
2009
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Abstract
For many years now, the linear model of technology transfer has been used by Extension Agents in Ghana to transfer improved agricultural technologies to famers. This model of transferring agricultural technologies has led to the low adoption of many improved agricultural technologies and where adoption has been attempted, these technologies are often abandoned by famers.
This work looks at the effectiveness of the participatory model (Participatory Learning and Action Research – PLAR) as an alternative to the transfer of agricultural technologies. This was necessitated by the fact that many authors have criticized the conventional approach as ineffective in transferring agricultural technologies to farmers. First the study was to examine the impact of the approach on farmers’ knowledge concerning improved practices in rice cultivation. Secondly the study was to find out how the knowledge acquired could influence farmers’ outputs and farmers’ profits per an area of land. To examine these questions an investigative survey was conducted in three rice cultivating communities in Ghana where PLAR has been used to transfer Integrated Rice Management as a technology.
Results from the study, using KASA analysis, indicated that in all the three communities the PLAR farmers showed higher levels of improved knowledge and practices in rice cultivation than their non PLAR counterparts. Results from independent sample t-test at a significance level of 5% also showed that the PLAR farmers in all the three communities had significantly higher outputs per acre and also higher cost of production than their non PLAR counterparts, whiles the non PLAR farmers had higher gross profit margins than their PLAR counterparts in all three communities.
The study recommends that PLAR should be re-designed to make it less expensive for farmers to practice to ensure higher gross margins among farmers.
Provision of subsidies to farmers to reduce the cost of using recommended agricultural technologies is also recommended by this study.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Agricultural Economics,