Sierra Leone is currently emerging from a brutal civil war that lasted most of the 1990s, and now has the dubious distinction of being ranked among the world's poorest countries. As thousands of displaced people move back to their villages, a large proportion of the predominantly farm-based rural population are growing food crops for the first…

Rural agricultural development is facing challenges of poverty, hunger, and environmental quality, necessitating sustainable, profitable, and productive practices. Extension education is challenged to increase diversity, relevance, and financial support. Examples of World Bank innovations illustrate some pathways for agricultural extension. (SK)

Focusing on the concept of "commodity chains" within the food industry, this paper analyses the term's widespread and variable usage in both academic and policy-orientated work. Despite recent criticisms, the concept has retained its popular appeal alongside competing metaphors such as networks, circuits and assemblages. Examining the…

The direction, complexity and pace of rural change in affluent, western societies can be conceptualized as a multifunctional transition, in which a variable mix of consumption and protection values has emerged, contesting the former dominance of production values, and leading to greater complexity and heterogeneity in rural occupance at all…

The "Agricultural Trinity" consists of agricultural extension, education, and research institutions. While in the beginning the goal of these institutions was to improve rural conditions by equalizing the economic and social status of all rural people, today there exists a conflict between the people and these institutions. The processes…

Compiled in December 1971, this bibliography lists approximately 940 books, journals, periodicals, and unpublished mimeographs dealing with rural development in north, west, and southern Africa. All materials are dated between 1953 and 1971. Entries are listed by country under the following headings: agriculture, economic affairs, social affairs,…

Uses of the agricultural knowledge systems concept of information flow are described in Holland, Bhutan, Switzerland, and India. Application of the model for gaining an overview of institutions must be combined with a functional approach for designing appropriate extension programs. (SK)

If farmers are to meet the new challenges facing agriculture (environment, rural development, etc.), appropriate knowledge has to be produced. But observations in six EU countries (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK) show that unexpected problems arise when technical support for agriculture is linked to market regulation,…

Examining the rural self-help or "harambee" movement in Kenya, this article presents data indicating: education projects consistently account for nearly half of all self-help when measured by either project value or volume at the national level, while agriculture and health related activities, at 10 percent each, represent the second…

Transcripts of Senate hearings on S. 2223 (the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act) and on Amendment No. 153 (to S. 1483) to establish the rural community development bank are presented in this document. In addition to some 25 miscellaneous documents, statements of representatives from municipal, state, and national organizations are…

In this publication, the authors review the historical development of South Dakota communities in the perspective of community change as it occurred in the United States resulting from several important societal factors during the period from 1940-1960. The authors emphasize that, while societal influences continue to operate, forcing adjustment…

Migration is a major continuing phenomenon associated with national and subnational development. The past, present, and future significance of migration on rural development and agriculture are reviewed in this paper. Data are cited which appear to be at variance with popular beliefs. The complexity of interrelationships between migration…

Presidential address, annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, August 26, 1972. (FF)

Progress toward rural development has been hampered by flawed views of rural America; serious limitations to existing social and economic data on sparsely populated areas; treatment of rural America as a geographical entity unconnected to the larger U.S. economy and society; perceived lack of feasible political solution to rural problems; and…

Suggests that the mass media could contribute more to rural development in Jordan if information on agricultural issues were disseminated. (RB)