Evaluation of a multimedia extension program in Honduras
Martin, M.J.; Taylor, T.G.
Economic Development and Cultural Change 43(4): 821-834
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0013-0079 DOI: 10.2307/1154559Document Number: 281593
The paper examines the impact of a multimedia (radio, Training and Visit (T&V) extension services, pamphlets) extension programme that promoted a variety of technologies that varied across crops and regions within Honduras. Data were collected by allowing the farmer to identify the source of learning instruction for the technologies on which he relies. Farmers (divided into two groups, commercial, producing tomatoes and rice, or subsistence, producing maize and beans), were scored as either adopters or non-adopters of technology through a survey instrument that asked a series of open-ended questions regarding their agricultural practices. As well as investigating the relative effectiveness of different extension methods, the paper examines demographic characteristics related to human capital, land quality, and institutional structure. Two types of exogenous forces that contribute to farmers' decisions to adopt new technologies are identified: demographic characteristics that affect producer amenity to new methods, and the direct training obtained from both formal and casual sources. An entire extension programme for a region in Honduras is analysed: producers of commercial crops demonstrated an increasing inclination to adopt new technologies as they increased the market proportion of their output. Subsistence farmers demonstrated a negative correlation between land extensiveness and technology adoption. In contrast to impersonal multimedia techniques, T&V extension methods have a multiplier effect through personal contact of experts and friends and are very effective in motivating technology adoption. Nonetheless, mass communication media cannot be discounted and, in fact, given their low cost per farmer of making contact, present a viable alternative.