Papers by Jeffery Bentley
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2007
For three years in Bolivia (2002-2005) the INNOVA Project finished researching several technologi... more For three years in Bolivia (2002-2005) the INNOVA Project finished researching several technologies for sustainable agriculture, started by earlier DFID-funded projects. Before INNOVA started critics suggested that these technologies should be discarded in favour of a demand survey. Instead, INNOVA kept the existing technologies, but judged the demand for them with several methods (CIAL, sondeo technology fair, and others). INNOVA found that there was demand for some of the technologies, but that a survey would have missed much of the demand, which is implicit. That is, people are not initially aware of all their problems or of all the possible solutions. Over the years, farmers made more specific, sophisticated demands on the technologies, which evolved as a result. Demand and supply of farm technology are like two sides of an unfolding conversation.
Cogent Food & Agriculture
Commercial channels can be non-conventional networks for disseminating agricultural information, ... more Commercial channels can be non-conventional networks for disseminating agricultural information, especially if farmers are willing to pay for a DVD with learning videos. Using purposive sampling, we selected retailer and involved them in selling videos compiled in a DVD. Inside the jacket of DVD, we pasted a sticker listing a phone number that buyers or video viewers could call for further questions. We interviewed 341 of the buyers who called that number. After the phone interviews, snowball sampling was used to select 180 farmers for face-to-face interviews in order to validate the information collected during the telephone interviews and to understand the behavioural changes triggered by watching the videos. Within four months of first distributing DVDs to retailers, 80% of the 700 DVDs were sold. Distributing videos through commercial channels gives a fair chance to everyone to learn, since the DVDs were sold on the open market at an affordable price. About 84% of the DVDs were sold at 1 USD, suggesting that all of the respondents were willing to pay for learning DVDs; 86% of respondents said they now spent less money on pesticides after watching the videos. Private sector actors can become "new extensionists" and distribute agricultural information to rural populations.
Outlooks on Pest Management, 2009
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability
This study explores how communication and its technical content shape farmers' response to advice... more This study explores how communication and its technical content shape farmers' response to advice delivered at plant clinics. Thirty-six farmers who visited a plant clinic in one of three countries (Malawi, Costa Rica and Nepal) were given at least one diagnosis of a plant health problem and up to six options for managing the problem. Almost all of the farmers were able to use at least some of these management recommendations. Communication was verbal, but reinforced in writing; all of the farmers received a one-page prescription form that summarized the recommendation. Communication per se was rarely the reason farmers failed to adopt technologies. Farmers who opted not to use recommendations often had logical, material reasons for doing so, and they showed a preference for chemical control. Of the 31 farmers who were advised to apply pesticides (including organic ones), 23 people (74%) accepted this advice to spray, but only 14 of 22 farmers (54%) tried advice for cultural or biological control. Farmers' response to an innovation is too complex to always describe as accepted vs rejected, and this decision depends on the fit of the technology itself, and on the quality of how the innovation is communicated.
The Colombian Coffee Growers' Federation (La Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia) i... more The Colombian Coffee Growers' Federation (La Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia) is a powerful and successful farmers' organisation funded by farmers. By describing the history and present activities of the Federation, this paper examines the factors that have contributed to its many achievements. Since its establishment in 1927, the Federation has served the welfare of the country and promoted the economic and social well-being of Colombian coffee growers. The success of the Federation can be traced to the experience and competence of both its managers and members, the stability of its leadership, its financial security, and its political independence. Although the Federation leadership comes from élite families, they have tended to act in the interests of smallholder coffee growers. Over the years, the Federation has established a number of subsidiary institutions, including a research institute, a capital fund and a merchant marine fleet. Established in 1938, ...
Interciencia
El conocimiento técnico indígena (indigenous technical knowledge) ) gana cada vez más respeto ent... more El conocimiento técnico indígena (indigenous technical knowledge) ) gana cada vez más respeto entre las agencias internacionales de desarrollo. Hasta cierto punto ésto refleja la influencia de antropólogos, quienes por mucho tiempo éramos casi los únicos que explicábamos el valor de prácticas agrícolas tradicionales que los científicos y políticos han considerado "atrasadas" o dañinas . La explicación de conocimiento tradicional es valiosa por sus aportes al marco etno-científico, porque procura información que los científicos a veces ignoran ) y porque contribuye a mejor entendimiento y por tanto respeto de los campesinos (ver Thrupp 1989). Sin embargo, en el afán de explicar que el conocimiento tradicional es profundo y digno de respeto, los antropólogos tendemos a ignorar fallas, o faltas en el conocimiento endógeno. Sin negar que los campesinos tienen un conocimiento profundo de muchos aspectos del medio ambiente, este artículo trata de balancear el actual sesgo antropológico, describiendo la falta de información de los agricultores hondureños
Social Science & Medicine, 2012
Most nutrition initiatives to date aimed at improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) have ... more Most nutrition initiatives to date aimed at improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) have emphasized addressing knowledge gaps through behavior change messaging with less focus on addressing the underlying environmental barriers that may shape these behaviors. This research integrates an analysis of longitudinal dietary data with qualitative data on barriers to improved child feeding to identify the nature and extent of the barriers caregivers face to improving IYCF practices in a farming region of the Bolivian Andes, and to determine the relative influence of these barriers on caregivers' abilities to improve IYCF practices. Sixty-nine caregivers were selected from a sample of 331 households that participated in a longitudinal survey assessing changes in IYCF practices among caregivers with children aged 0-36 months from March 2009 to March 2010. Forty-nine barriers within 12 categories of barriers were identified through semi-structured interviews with the 69 caregivers. The most frequently reported barriers were those related to women's time dedicated to agricultural labor, the limited diversity of household agricultural production, and lack of support for child feeding from spouses and mothers-in-law. In multivariate analyses controlling for several variables that could potentially influence IYCF practices, these barriers were negatively associated with changes to the diversity of child diets, child dietary energy intake, and child meal frequency. While knowledge gaps and individual-level influences affected IYCF practices, physical and social caregiving environments in this region of Bolivia were even more important. Behavior change communication alone will likely not address the social and environmental barriers to improved child feeding that often prevent translation of improved knowledge into action. Particularly in rural regions, agriculture may strongly influence child feeding, not only indirectly through household food security, but also directly by affecting women's caregiving capacity.
Human Ecology, 1990
Portugal, two major assumptions about land fragmentation are refuted." (a) that it is extremely d... more Portugal, two major assumptions about land fragmentation are refuted." (a) that it is extremely detrimental to farm production and (b) that its main cause is inheritance divisions.
Integrated Pest Management: Dissemination and Impact, 2009
In recent years, IPM extension came to mean FFS (farmer field school). Most studies of FFS pilot ... more In recent years, IPM extension came to mean FFS (farmer field school). Most studies of FFS pilot projects suggest that IPM helps farmers to lower costs or to increase yields, although the farmers pass on little of their new knowledge to their neighbours, which limits the cost-effectiveness of FFS. Some quantitative studies of FFS suggest that there is actually little overall impact of FFS programs. FFS may be better suited to stimulating collaborative research with farmers than for extension itself. In other words, FFS may help to perfect the extension message (the technology) which can then be communicated with other methods. There are many alternative extension methods available, although their impact needs further study. The challenge is to find methods that deliver quality and quantity messages (reaching a large audience with an appropriate, understandable message).
Agriculture and Human Values
Campesinos have an explicit model for managing each weed species, based on experience with the re... more Campesinos have an explicit model for managing each weed species, based on experience with the reproductive cycle and damage of the weed, and taking into account farmers' resources, especially the supply of labour. Agricultural R&D that takes this knowledge into account will help ensure that research topics are appropriate and that the results are adopted.
The Colombian Coffee Growers' Federation (La Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia) is a p... more The Colombian Coffee Growers' Federation (La Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia) is a powerful and successful farmers' organisation funded by farmers. By describing the history and present activities of the Federation, this paper examines the factors that have contributed to its many achievements. Since its establishment in 1927, the Federation has served the welfare of the country and promoted the economic and social well-being of Colombian coffee growers. The success of the Federation can be traced to the experience and competence of both its managers and members, the stability of its leadership, its financial security, and its political independence. Although the Federation leadership comes from élite families, they have tended to act in the interests of smallholder coffee growers.
H o w a n d W h y F a r m e r s M a n a g e T r e e s f o r S h a d e a n d O t h e r P u r p o s... more H o w a n d W h y F a r m e r s M a n a g e T r e e s f o r S h a d e a n d O t h e r P u r p o s e s
Agriculture and Human Values
Nearly all contemporary people subsist on cultivated plants, most of which are vulnerable to dise... more Nearly all contemporary people subsist on cultivated plants, most of which are vulnerable to diseases. Yet, there have been few studies of what traditional people know – and do not know – about crop disease. Agricultural scientists in general are becoming aware of the potential contribution of social scientists and farmers in developing integrated management of crop diseases. The International Potato Center (CIP) has focused on stimulating farmer-scientist collaboration in developing management of late blight, a major fungal disease of potatoes and other plants. Understanding farmers' knowledge of this and other plant diseases is an important element in furthering such collaboration. Although not all agricultural scientists recognize the value of social science, this literature search shows that some agricultural scientists now actively collaborate with farmers, in ways that cross the boundary into social science research. During this search, much of the work we found was writte...
This book documents nine small agricultural projects (PITAs) in Bolivia on different agricultural... more This book documents nine small agricultural projects (PITAs) in Bolivia on different agricultural technologies, each written as self-contained chapters. They were written by Bolivian agriculturists as part of a course that Eric Boa and Jeffery Bentley taught in 2007. The projects included two on sugar cane: one on introducing new varieties to the department of Santa Cruz and another on agronomic practices; one chapter on soybean pests, another on wool from llamas, a project on management of dairy herds, one each on cheese and dairy production, beekeeping, pig production and lastly one on growing peppers. The unusual feature of these chapters is that the people who did the projects evaluated themselves, critically reviewing what worked well and why progress was sometimes disappointing. Self-evaluation may seem unlikely to reveal truths, yet the authors do not shy from self-criticism as well as offering unique personal insights. Self-evaluation deserves more attention when assessing o...
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Papers by Jeffery Bentley