Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
asked if the people, and especially the ancestors of the people in the village, were willing to
accept this tool to make work easier. The chief could have consulted the ancestors in his
own way and after that he would inform the village about the ancestors' answer.
I followed the wrong procedure. I did not respect their way of introducing new
technologies.
Box 5  A farmer's definition of sustainability  
(Professor Saa Dittoh, pers. comm. 1998)
In a village I asked a farming community: 'What does sustainability mean to you, what
makes you “able to sustain” life?'
The groups explained easily:
• enough food
• enough cash
• rich natural environment, especially a fertile soil
• peace, trust, harmony and unity in the community
• a place for worshipping.
Again translating these issues into scientific terms: sustainability is a complex of food
security, cash security, environmental security, social security and last, but not least,
cultural security. One can not go without the other.
An integrated view on sustainability (Box 5) is very useful and will help development
projects for rural people in their types of activities. A technical approach used on its own has
only a limited effect, as does the cultural approach alone (e.g. as attempted by some churches).
A balanced mix of approaches or a multidisciplinary focus seems to be the best.
So when the subject of extension has been determined, namely sustainable development,
the method of extension has to be found. Top-down extension methods have failed. But how to
get a bottom up or a right mix between top-down and bottom-up approaches? In Northern
Ghana the participatory technology development approach, as a mixture of bottom-up and
top-down approaches, has shown fascinating results in pilot projects and shows great potential
to boost sustainable development in rural areas.
Organic agriculture tries consciously to combine a multidisciplinary way of development
with a participatory method of extension (see Box 6 for a definition of organic agriculture).
Participatory extension methods
Much has been written on participatory extension techniques. In principle it is a continuous
process of assessing a situation, analysing it and taking action to improve the situation (Box 7).
Voice from Northern Ghana: organic farming and participatory
extension
Organic agriculture and participatory extension techniques belong with each other. Experiences
to emphasise this mutual beneficial relationship are listed below. The experiences were collected
during several years of fieldwork in Northern Ghana with farmers and development workers.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search