Adoption of already and proven agricultural technologies in West Asia and North Africa is a real problem. How we can improve and increase the adoption rate.
Looking for leaders farmers then helping them to adopt the new proven good technologies is a very effective starting point. Then incentivaring farmer to farmer comunicarion by fieldays etc will do the rest of the job. This strategy has prooven to be highly effective in many countries of the world.
The methods mentioned by all the researchers above are helpful. However, the most important is the technology itself. It must be relevant to the farmers, area, help solving problems of farmers they are practically facing and they must see some economic benefits in its adaptation. It should not challenge the social system and strict social norms.
Demonstrate new agriculture technology among farmers at town and district levels. But important is that this demonstration should carry low affordable prices package or subsidy and that technology must be useful for former needs. such as in our sindh, peoples harvest wheat and rice with common hand sickle, it very diffiucult, time,labour consuming and cost ful. If any cuter machine available easily, farmers will purchase with interest.
This is a very complex issue that requires much advanced planning on the part of the technology developers and partners who desire to disseminate the information and material aspects of the tech.
I suggest beginning with the Diffusion of Innovation literature in Rural Sociology. The diffusion process is more than just the technology, but includes the appropriateness of the technology, the cultural context in which the technology will be used, the characteristics of the messenger (and how they meet expectations of the desired audience), the type of media and format of the message, and the message itself.
Rogers, Everett. 2013. Diffusion of Innovation. This is the 5the Edition.
A classic in bringing new thought to this area of research is:
Brown, L. 1981. Innovation Diffusion: A New Perspective.
There are countless articles on this approach that can be searched by specific agricultural topic.
In the MENA Region in general, participatory & community-based approaches are still minimal. Yet, these approaches are the best means to increase the adoption named. Therefore, try to adopt such approaches, & in addition, emphasize integrated sustainability plus depend on contribution & help of multi-sector local NGOs, but certsainly involve the local Municipalities.
This is a complex issue basically in least developed countries with wider and varied geographical settings. However in my view Participatory Approach like Farmer Field School, Participatory Technology Development will be the best approach to increase the adoption rate of improved technology.
In addition to this, engagement of Local Social Organization (Cooperatives, Farmers Groups) in planning process and dissemination of the improved technologies will be very much helpful in reducing reluctance within the farmers associated with technologies and motivate them to adopt new and ready to use technologies together at their own farms. Thus, i believe development of technologies should be WITH FARMER, BY FARMER AND FOR FARMER so that dissemination of technologies will be much easier and hence motivate farmers to adopt those rapidly at their level.
This is a complex issue basically in least developed countries with wider and varied geographical settings. However in my view Participatory Approach like Farmer Field School, Participatory Technology Development will be the best approach to increase the adoption rate of improved technology.
In addition to this, engagement of Local Social Organization (Cooperatives, Farmers Groups) in planning process and dissemination of the improved technologies will be very much helpful in reducing reluctance within the farmers associated with technologies and motivate them to adopt new and ready to use technologies together at their own farms. Thus, i believe development of technologies should be WITH FARMER, BY FARMER AND FOR FARMER so that dissemination of technologies will be much easier and hence motivate farmers to adopt those rapidly at their level.
Let the public sector focus on agriculture policies and regulatory frameworks and agro-biodiversity conservation activities and gradually devolve the business of technology generation, adaptation and dissemination to the private sector. Agriculture is a business not a religion.
One way to achieve this goal can be participatory technology development. Use end users as early as possible in technology development.
https://goo.gl/search/Paradox+of+mainstreaming
Paradox of mainstreaming agroecology for regional and rural food ... Paradox of mainstreaming agroecology refers to an apparent contradiction between upscaling niche innovations to produce more food in sustainable ways, and the concerns for a loss of core values and principles of agroecology in the mainstreaming process.
In my openion, using innovation platform is the best approach which is composed of the technology developers( innovators), technology users and major stake holders in the technology value chain.The innovation platform members will have a win-win situation.In most parts of Africa, technolgy adoption is below or is not as expected in the project proposals indicated, since most of us are very good at in technology developing than technology transfer to the end users.I believe starting from scratch technologies need to be developed with all the revelant stakeholders( innovation platform members).Then all stake holders will have no reason not to innovate or adopt their own technologies which I believe is the most important thing in the adoption of technologies in general.
Need to develop farmers friendly program. Farm demonstration, invelovement farmers during policy making as well as training n awareness is also helpfull tools.
This interesting question caught my eye (and good on you Yahya Shakhatreh) but I found it funny to be to a three year old query! I define " already and proven" to mean off the shelf and easily available and scaleable products from the private sector. They are so much different than machinery developed by public research usually with small private workshops or factories who find that their products cannot be scaled up/manufactured in large numbers. And when they do try to produce larger numbers the products suffer from quality issues - non-uniformity of parts (lack of jigs and dies). This has been the one of the biggest problems facing ag engg research in intl development and a good reason for ag and rural development professionals to look to "already available and proven" technologies. And there is much to choose from. One problem I see for my experience in Africa is the insistence of depts of ag, projects, etc to look to western made high quality but very expensive (and usually too large size / HP) machinery rather than looking at the real south south more scale appropriate and generally much more cheaper machinery that can be ordered not in 10s or 100s but in 1000s and 10,000s - the numbers we really need. And secondly when they do look to more smaller scale machinery they many times insist that they are made locally (see problem one). AND I don't consider small or large and expensive tractors and attachments made by (mostly Western) multi-national corporations (MNCs) in Brazil, China, Turkey Italy and elsewhere to be South South or particularly suitable for small scale farmers in Africa or Asia, despite the many of MNCs marketing claims. . Though there are examples like Claas combines made and sold in Asia and MNC's small tractors made in India and China. What remains are scale appropriate technologies from mostly medium scale manufacturers in India and China that includes smaller tractors (2-wheel tractor/powertillers), minitillers, diesel/petro/electric pumpsets, planters, seeders, reapers - threshers combines etc that have spread over the last 30 years in South and East/South East Asia. Some high quality East Asian MNCs from Korea, Japan etc have found niche markets in SE an S Asia. Africa countries that want to provide real choices to their small and medium farmers need to wisely consider this suite of tech that includes large but non-premium combines and tractors to power tillers, seed drills and planters threshers etc. Examples of scale appropriate ag mech from South and SE Asia can be found at http://essp.ifpri.info/2017/11/02/south-south-knowledge-sharing-on-agricultural-mechanization/
Farmers need assessments and needs based technologies development through participatory process will enhance the adoption rate. The researchers, policy makers and development workers often think that they have developed new technologies, varieties fulfilling the farmers’ needs. But not always successful in the reality. The farmers or the beneficiaries should be active in the process from beginning to the end to enhance the adoption rate.
Adoption of already proven technologies.... where? is it in research stations or in farmers field need to be addressed. Technology Assessment and Refinement is a crucial aspect that influences rate of adoption in field. Make TAR as an important component in your programmes. Participatory technology assessment need to be taken up. Attitudinal, behavioural and social factors also influence rate of adoption. constant follow up and feed back to farmer innovators till they successfully use the technology would enhance rate of adoption. And also involve all the stakeholders in the process of TAR before technology is introduced on a large scale.