The study focused on constraints affecting the utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for agricultural extension activities by Agricultural Extension Officers in Nigeria's Niger Delta Region. Data were derived from 160 extension officers affiliated to both public and private extension organizations in four states of the…

Poor people make use of a variety of contextually relevant resources to pursue their livelihood strategies, and there is wide empirical evidence that opportunities and constraints for accessing these may vary considerably for women and men, particularly in the rural areas of developing countries. In this article, micro-evidence from a case study…

Introduction: Sharing of information across cultural boundaries does not always live up to expectations. Information behaviour is an underlying factor, which can contribute to poor use or non-use of the information or information services at the disposal of indigenous people in a development context. Method: A literature study of information…

The aim of this study was to understand the role that agricultural consultants in New Zealand were undertaking in the Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) system--and in particular in relation to environmental extension. New Zealand does not have a public extension service and hence there is a strong reliance on consultants and regional…

A new regionalism has been much documented and researched for metropolitan areas; this article documents that there is a new rural regionalism as well. In the United States, these groups appear most likely to emerge in areas that are challenged by outcomes characterizing globalization's effects on the rural condition: namely, exurban or…

Climate change is having a major effect on water cycles. There is an increased intensity and frequency of severe storms resulting in flooding. Floods in other parts of the world cause death on a major scale. Meanwhile across the planet, one billion people (a sixth of the world's population) do not have access to safe drinking water, and two…

This paper is about how rural landscape is experienced according to combinations of practical engagements with land and the ways meaning is made in relation to it. It presents the case of the ambiguous position of the Orkney Islands within categorisations of Highland and Lowland landscapes in Scotland. Through a discussion of the physical and…

This article challenges faculties of the arts in South African institutions of higher education to place arts education at the centre of academic inquiry, scholarship discovery and broaden their narrow understanding of "arts education". I argue for the recognition of a broad-based "arts education" or "faculties of the…

Rural communities such as Stanthorpe on Queensland's Southern Downs, in Australia, are familiar with turbulent environmental, social, technological and economic change and the adversity that frequently accompanies such changes. The capacity of individuals and communities to bounce back from adversity is referred to as resilience. Participation in…

Post-modern theorists have challenged the totalizing and unifying ambitions of change management practices. This paper explores how a narrative action research approach may be used to combine our modernist commitment to facilitate change and collaboration in the land management context with a post-modern sensitivity to complexity and difference.…

The global agro-food system relies heavily on inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers. In addition to consuming enormous amounts of energy, this manufactured input contributes to the accumulation of reactive nitrogen in the biosphere and undermines the biological basis of agricultural production itself. While technological inefficiency and population…

High-level agricultural manpower training in Ethiopian institutions of higher education (AIHE)specializing in agriculture and related fields was studied. The study reveals that high-level agricultural manpower training began in the early 1950s and that, at present, the country has seven institutions of higher learning, which train students in…

An outstanding problem that has haunted most development workers in Africa has been how to effectively engage rural communities who often have no access to modern technological media like newspapers, radio, television, video and film. The tendency has been for development workers to resort to top-down or blueprint development approaches that…

Globalization and shifting societal relations with nature generate change and conflicting politics in rural areas of industrialized nations. In this context, "multifunctionality" has emerged as an important policy logic to stabilize commodity production while encouraging amenity-based development and the production of ecological…

This paper presents the activities of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for 2009. The past year was one of accomplishment for USAC. USAC implemented a host of advances in operations, infrastructure, and outreach in an effort to continue to improve collection and disbursement of the Universal Service Fund (USF) support and to…