Prakash Bista

Citation

Thesis Title
Empowerment of farmers through agriculture extension: A case study of farmer groups in Khairahani, Chitwan, Nepal

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Farmer groups have been widely used as a farmer-centred agricultural extension approach to transform the agriculture sector in developing countries. Recently, farmer group participation was seen as an avenue to empowerment. However, few empirical studies have been conducted to understand how participation in farmer groups contributes to the empowerment of farmers. Mr Bista investigated four farmer groups that were assisted by the public agricultural extension organisation in Nepal using a qualitative case study approach. He found that participation in a farmer group facilitated the accumulation of human, social and financial capital, which then contributed to economic, psychological, social and political empowerment. Mr Bista’s findings suggest extension organisations wanting to empower rural people should conceive and plan extension services in a holistic way enabling enhancement of all three forms of capital, rather than focusing on programmes promoting enhancement of one or two forms of capital.

Supervisors
Dr David Gray
Dr Janet Reid