M. Sc. trop. forestry Dietrich Darr
PhD student / Germany
Curriculum Vitae
Titel of the dissertation
The role of farmer groups in agroforestry extension in East Africa.
supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pretzsch
Beschreibung / Deskription
Sustainable intensification and diversification of farm production is regarded as the way out of rural poverty and underdevelopment in semi-arid Africa. Technological research has yielded numerous innovations suited to stabilise the fragile environment and simultaneously to contribute to socio-economic development of rural areas. Rural extension services aim to provide the integral link between research institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations and farmers in order to facilitate the spread of innovations and the improvement of peasant land management practices.
However, adoption of seemingly beneficial innovations and technologies by farmers often remains below the expectations. Traditional extension approaches that followed the top-down 'Transfer of Technology' paradigm, therefore, have been dismissed, and alternative extension approaches are being pursued. Establishment and involvement of farmer groups in extension activities are thought to facilitate the exchange of experience among farmers, and thus to increase the spread of technologies by overcoming common information and adoption constraints.
The objective of the research is to comparatively assess group extension and individual extension approaches. The adoption of 22 agroforestry and tree management innovations is used to operationalize the effectiveness of the extension efforts. Four rural development projects that are working in the semi-arid parts of Kenya and Ethiopia constitute the study areas. The investigation is founded on the proposition that the spread of innovations is influenced by direct social contacts between individuals, and consequently employs the concepts and tools of the Social Network Theory.
Titel der Master-ArbeitFarm forestry in semi-subsistence and monetary economies and its interdependency with the land tenure system. Case studies from central Laos.
Titel der Diplom-Arbeit
Analyse der natürlichen und geschaffenen Komponenten touristischer Attraktivität im Menagesha-Suba State Forest, Äthiopien.