Browsing by Author "Farrington, John"

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Cash Transfers: Mere 'Gadaffi Syndrome', or Serious Potential for Rural Rehabilitation and Development?
(2005) Harvey, Paul; Slater, Rachel; Farrington, John
"There has been a stark dichotomy between development approaches concerned with the productive sectors, usually focusing on enhancing the supply side, and those concerned with social protection, which have been widely regarded as a drain on public resources. This paper argues that the two are complementary and that social protection is less of a drain than previously thought. Transfers to the poor under social protection have generally been in kind, often taking the form of free or subsidised food. Nevertheless, recent experience in both development and rehabilitation contexts suggests a larger niche for cash transfers than many suppose, sometimes instead of in-kind transfers, at other times, in parallel with them. This paper reviews the evidence, drawing out implications for agriculture and natural resource development."
Combining Growth and Social Protection in Weakly Integrated Rural Areas
(2002) Farrington, John; Gill, Gerald J.
"Growth-focused strategies, especially for rural Africa, are making a comeback. One important question is what such growth might do to reduce rural poverty, and, increasingly, what potential it offers for reducing the risks of civil strife in neglected areas. For some countries, rural areas will continue to contain the majority of poor for many decades, and the majority of these live in areas weakly integrated into markets, so that the size and timing of impacts from growth in better integrated areas are uncertain. Is social protection (in the form of resource transfers) the only viable strategy for the more remote areas in the meantime, or are there worthwhile interventions for these that promote appropriate agricultural or non-farm growth, perhaps incorporating wider interpretations of social protection? The responses to these questions discussed below are piecemeal and tentative, and some are far from new, but this area of debate is here to stay, and merits more detailed study if the best use is to be made of scarce resources."
Creating a Policy Environment for Pro-Poor Agricultural Extension: The Who? What? and How?
(2002) Farrington, John; Christoplos, Ian; Kidd, Andrew; Beckman, Malin
"Agricultural extension has much to offer the rural poor, providing that they are perceived not merely as producers, but also consumers and labourers, and that appropriate wider policies are in place. However, agricultural extension policy in many countries over recent decades has been exclusively production-focused, institutionally monolithic, centrally directed, and organised on the premise that public sector extension structures can effectively reach down to village level. Partly in reaction to this, neoliberal voices have recently urged 'reform' in the sense of wide-scale privatisation of extension and removal of the state 'subsidy'that it implies. The study reported here challenges both approaches. Appropriate future policies will avoid past extremes of state-dominated or (hoped for) private sector provision. Instead, they will focus on identifying appropriate public and private roles and partnerships between them. A powerful policy driver will be to reduce the risk of 'durable disorder' to which remote areas are especially susceptible."
Decentralising Natural Resource Management: Lessons from Local Government Reform in India
(2003) Baumann, Pari; Farrington, John
"Drawing on a two-year study of decentralisation processes at State, district and village levels in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, this paper considers the influence of political economy factors on decentralised natural resource management in India. The paper assesses the constraints and potentials for decentralisation that are posed by the current political economy It argues that centralising political forces constrain both the political and ecological scope of the decentralisation agenda. The suggested way forward is a more strategic approach in concept and practice, as well as a reconsideration of the ultimate objectives of decentralised natural resource management."
Digging Holes and Filling Them in Again? How Far do Public Works Enhance Livelihoods?
(2008) McCord, Anna; Farrington, John
"Public works are of two broad kinds: short-term measures respond to a one-off shock (such as drought or flooding); longer-term measures respond to persistent cyclical events such as shortage of work opportunities in e.g. the agricultural off-season. In some cases, short term measures are used in response to persistent events in the hope that even brief employment may be sufficient to enable graduation from poverty. It has been argued that PWPs, whether short- or longer-term, can impact on livelihoods promotion through the wage transfer itself, the assets created , and also the skills development or work experience impact of PWP participation. Data are too limited to permit firm conclusions, but, drawing on experience with short-term measures in southern Africa and with longer-term measures in India, this paper sets out the issues and draws tentative conclusions."
Do Area Development Projects Have a Future?
(2002) Farrington, John
"Increased donor attention to Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) processes and to budgetary support have meant reduced funding for Area Development Projects (ADPs). Does this trend risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Specifically, this paper argues that PRS processes have a missing middle they envisage greater impact on poverty, and propose changes at policy and strategy level in order to achieve this, but are weak on the practical arrangements for delivering poverty-focused initiatives. Drawing general lessons from a study commissioned by Sida, this paper argues that ADPs have considerable potential to inform PRS and similar processes within this new architecture of aid."
Enhancing Rural Livelihoods through Participatory Watershed Development in India
(1998) Turton, Cathryn; Farrington, John
"India is remarkable not only in the scale of its wastelands, and in the volume of government funds committed to reversing degradation, but especially in the attempt to link environmental improvement and poverty reduction. The governments 1994 Guidelines for microwatershed rehabilitation envisage a high degree of participation and local autonomy in the design and implementation of rehabilitation. This paper reviews experience to date in putting the Guidelines into practice."
Farmer and Community Organizations in Agricultural Research and Extension: Functions, Impacts and Questions
(1994) Bebbington, Anthony; Merrill-Sands, Deborah; Farrington, John
"Many efforts have been made to introduce institutional and methodological changes intended to make agricultural research and extension programmes more responsive to the needs of small scale producers. Yet evaluations of these initiatives suggest that in the absence of sustained political and social pressure from and on behalf of small scale producers, agricultural development institutions are unlikely to become more accountable or demand responsive. "The paper concentrates on the role that farmers' organisations can play in exercising this pressure. Drawing on the early findings of a joint ISNAR/ODI research programme, the paper examines the conditions under which strong farmers' organisations can emerge. These conditions derive from both the external and the internal environment of these organisations. The paper then presents an analytical and methodological framework that can be used when examining the strength of farmers' organisations and the potential for effective links between them and research institutions. "The paper identifies different types of farmer organisations and the roles they play in research priority setting and planning, technology development, processing and input supply in relation to public sector and non-governmental organisations. It reviews the main strengths and weaknesses of farmers' organisations in performing these roles. These qualities are related to determining factors in the social, political and economic context and in the organisational and managerial structure of the organisations. This analysis provides a framework of issues that need to be addressed in any effort to work with and support these organisations as more effective means of pressuring, and working as partners with agricultural research institutions. In addition, a review of the experience and evolution of farmers' organisations in today's industrialised countries, and of organisations of large farmers in developing countries, will identify issues that need to be addressed in any effort to understand the nature and potentials of small farmer organisations."
Forestry Extension: Facing the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow
(1996) Anderson, Jon; Farrington, John
"This article considers some of the issues facing forestry extension and discusses some of the possible adaptations. It attempts to define extension, examines who does forestry extension and who the audiences are, explores how forestry extension relates to agricultural extension, and briefly sets out external and internal trends affecting extension. A discussion of several elements that might help national-level forestry extension services prepare for the twenty-first century concludes the article."
How Can the Rural Poor Participate in Global Economic Processes?
(2006) Farrington, John; Mitchell, Jonathan
"Drawing on work commissioned by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to help its forward planning, this paper asks how the rural poor might benefit more fully from global economic processes. It argues that, whilst the scope for the more entrepreneurial to link into value chains associated with either agriculture or the non-farm rural economy is present, its relevance for many of the rural poor is questionable. There is, however, substantial scope for labourers to participate in activities influenced by globalisation. Policies therefore need to support temporary and permanent migration from rural to urban areas. As a prior condition for the design and implementation of such policies, political mindsets need to be changed to give fuller recognition to the value of such labour in supporting economic modernisation."
Organisational Roles in Farmer Participatory Research and Extension: Lessons from the Last Decade
(1998) Farrington, John
"Experience over the last decade suggests that participatory approaches to technical change are falling into two broad camps: public sector approaches are generally part of a client orientation strategy and rarely aim to do more than enhance the functions of technology design and delivery. By contrast, NGO approaches generally aim for the empowerment of weaker groups. This paper reviews the complementarities and tensions between the approaches, and suggests ways forward."
Policy Research and African Agriculture: Time for a Dose of Reality?
(2004) Omamo, Steven; Farrington, John
"This paper argues that, for the rural poor in Africa, market failure is more the norm than the exception. Despite the growing attention given to market imperfections of the kind highlighted by New Institutional Economics, much policy advice on the agricultural economy in African countries remains based on unrealistic analysis and assumptions. To make policy advice more relevant requires a better understanding not only of how markets (mal)function, but also of implementation issues--what constrains implementability, how constraints can be overcome or bypassed, and what policy measures have greater or lesser prospects of implementation."
Post Offices, Pensions and Computers: New Opportunities for Combining Growth and Social Protection in Weakly Integrated Rural Areas
(2003) Farrington, John; Saxena, N.C.; Barton, Tamsyn; Nayak, Radhika
"India's efforts in targeting a wide range of social protection measures towards different categories of poor people at first glance appear to be a model for other countries as they prepare their own Poverty Reduction Strategies. However, implementation constraints 'especially in areas weakly integrated into economic institutions and infrastructure' are severe. After reviewing briefly the complexities of targeting and delivery in India, the paper examines why there is an apparently inexorable trend towards an increasing number (of increasingly complex) government schemes for transferring resources to the poor, how they are affected differently by misappropriation, and how and why implementation constraints are particularly severe in weakly integrated areas. This paper argues that over-elaborate targeting militates against local transparency and gives local officials too much discretion, and so is part of the problem. It suggests that cash transfers paid through certain channels (e.g. the Post Office) for specific purposes such as pensions and allowances are less corruptible than many 'in kind' transfers. They may help in reducing under-nutrition and stimulating the local food economy by reducing demand deficits and merit greatly increased funding. Stressing simplicity of targeting and automaticity of delivery, the paper suggests it may be better to identify delivery systems that work, and then, with certain safeguards, design schemes around them, than design schemes incorporating the latest concepts of poverty reduction and targeting, which then prove problematic in delivery. This discussion has to be located within the prospects for enhanced automaticity of transfers now offered by computerisation."
Public Sector Agricultural Extension: Is There Life After Structural Adjustment?
(1994) Farrington, John
"The public sector extension services in which ldcs - often at the behest of donors - have invested large sums are achieving only limited impact but face unsustainably high recurrent costs. This is especially true of the 'Training and Visit' model promoted by the World Bank. Further, the fundamental promise of public sector extension - that low-income farmers are unlikely to obtain technical information unless it is provided by government - is increasingly being challenged. This paper reviews the pressures facing conventional agricultural extension and examines the prospects of recent approaches which are participatory, institutionally pluralistic and geared towards cost-sharing."
Rights and Livelihoods Approaches: Exploring Policy Dimensions
(2002) Conway, Tim; Moser, Caroline; Norton, Andy; Farrington, John
"Over the last decade several donors and NGOs (and more recently some developing country governments) have adopted a livelihoods approach to development. More recently, there have also been efforts to approach socio-economic development through the framework of human rights. Drawing on case studies of rights-based approaches to livelihood development, this paper briefly reviews the main features of these two approaches, and the possibility of integrating them."
Scaling Up Participatory Watershed Development in India: Lessons from the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme
(1997) Farrington, John; Lobo, Crispino
"For several years prior to the full start-up of the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP), its architects were driven by one principal concern: that participatory watershed development should be replicable over wide areas. This stimulated the close engagement of stakeholders at international, national, district and local levels, and the creation of confluences of interest (and corresponding checks and balances) within and across these levels. It has also generated a technically sound but participatory watershed planning methodology, a coherent transition from capacity building to full-scale implementation within watersheds, and a practical framework for field-level collaboration among NGOs, community-based organisations and government departments. The Programme currently covers 92,000 ha of private and other land in 20 districts in Maharashtra, involving 50 NGOs working in 74 watersheds. It is set to expand within Maharashtra as new NGOs register themselves some growing from village groups in successful watersheds and to other States through a system of franchising."
Social Protection and Pro-Poor Agricultural Growth: What Scope For Synergies?
(2004) Farrington, John; Slater, Rachel; Holmes, Rebecca
"Social protection (SP) and livelihood promotion have conventionally been handled by different departments within governments and donor organisations. Taking the example of agriculture, this paper argues that the scope for synergy between them (when narrowly defined as making the whole bigger than the sum of its parts) is limited. However, there is substantial unexploited scope for introducing the perspectives of the one into the design and implementation of the other, i.e. for giving aspects of SP more of a growth-promoting dimension, and for designing agriculture initiatives in ways aiming to reduce risk and vulnerability."
Socio-Economic Methods in Natural Resources Research
(1996) Farrington, John
"The format of this NRP is unconventional: it synthesises a number of review papers prepared for a UK Overseas Development Administration (ODA) workshop on Socio-Economics Methods for Natural Resources Research. The ODA s Renewable Natural Resources Strategy (RNRRS) manages natural science research across eleven discipline-based programmes. Most are contracted out to external managers, but the Natural Resources Systems Programme (NRSP) is managed within ODA. The Socio-Economics Methodology (SEM) component of the NRSP is responsible for commissioning work on the development of novel research methods in the social sciences with specific relevance to natural resource management. It commissioned ODI to host the workshop on 29-30 April 1996, which aimed to review the range and recent applications of socio-economic methods currently available to natural resources research managers. A cross-section of natural and social scientists were invited to participate in the presentations and discussions, to examine the fit between the socio-economic methods that are currently available and those that are needed by natural scientists, and to identify priorities for the further development and adaptation of social science research for natural resources management. "Eleven review papers were presented at the workshop. They covered (in the sequence discussed below): aspects of farmer participation (6 papers); a reinterpretation of systems approaches; monitoring and evaluation (2); uptake and promotion pathways, and potential applications to NR research of a Policy Analysis Matrix. The selection of themes was determined by ODA s perceptions of its priorities early in the formulation of the RNRRS, and left a number of gaps. There was, for instance, no discussion of multiagency approaches (but see Alsop et al. 1996), nor of techniques to monitor such approaches (or NR research itself) as a process (but see Mosse et al., forthcoming). "The remainder of this paper draws out the main points made in individual review papers. Papers at the workshop developed 6 sub-themes within the broad theme of client orientation and participation, including: methods of needs assessment, of participation in other parts of the research cycle, of managing the interface between external and local knowledge and of stakeholder and gender analysis. A further paper challenged conventional perceptions of farming systems research."
Supermarkets and Farming in Latin America: Pointing Directions for Elsewhere?
(2002) Reardon, Thomas; Berdegue, Julio A.; Farrington, John
"Supermarkets share in retailing has quadrupled in Latin America since 1990. They have penetrated all parts of the food economy, including those which are scale-neutral and previously were the domain of small farmers and traders, such as fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy products. This paper identifies why supermarkets have grown so rapidly there, what the impacts on producers have been, and whether the pattern might be repeated in other regions."
Support for Migrant Workers: The Missing Link in India's Development
(2008) Deshingkar, Priya; Khandelwal, Rajiv; Farrington, John
"India has around 100 million circular migrant workers, placing its experience almost on a par with Chinas. Yet migration in India faces an almost total absence of forward-thinking policies. Rejecting policies to 'keep them in rural areas' as unrealistic, this paper identifies the kinds of migrant support that are needed if migrants are to continue adding to economic growth as they currently do, but at lower personal cost than at present."
Sustainable Livelihoods in Practice: Early Applications of Concepts in Rural Areas
(1999) Farrington, John
"What is poverty and how it can best be addressed are central questions at conceptual and practical levels in international development. Increased donor commitment to tackling poverty has made the search for answers more urgent. This paper outlines a new approach to poverty alleviation, sustainable livelihoods, setting out its basic concepts and drawing lessons from early experience. The approach is being pursued by, amongst others, the UK Department for International Development."
Using Logframes to Monitor and Review Farmer Participatory Research
(1997) Farrington, John; Nelson, John
"Farmer participatory research (FPR) is difficult to monitor and review because it uses a process' approach; it is done in variable, unpredictable situations; it produces some outputs that are hard to measure objectively; and it involves different types of stakeholder, each with their own aims and ideas of success or failure. For these reasons, FPR projects tend to have permeable boundaries, with sometimes important spillover effects, and less than direct relationships between inputs and outputs. "This paper examines how far a conventional project management tool, the logframe, can be adapted to the monitoring and review of FPR. Normally used in 'blueprint' projects, the logframe presents some difficulties in handling those with process' characteristics. But it has a number of strengths: it requires clear specification of purposes, anticipated outputs, activities, and the relationship among them, as well as performance indicators and means of assessing them. Also, it is becoming almost universally adopted by funding agencies, so organisations using FPR may in future have to structure their proposals and monitoring activities in logframe format."
What is Sustainability?
(2010) Kuhlman, Tom; Farrington, John
"Sustainability as a policy concept has its origin in the Brundtland Report of 1987. That document was concerned with the tension between the aspirations of mankind towards a better life on the one hand and the limitations imposed by nature on the other hand. In the course of time, the concept has been re-interpreted as encompassing three dimensions, namely social, economic and environmental. The paper argues that this change in meaning (a) obscures the real contradiction between the aims of welfare for all and environmental conservation; (b) risks diminishing the importance of the environmental dimension; and (c) separates social from economic aspects, which in reality are one and the same. It is proposed instead to return to the original meaning, where sustainability is concerned with the well-being of future generations and in particular with irreplaceable natural resources—as opposed to the gratification of present needs which we call well-being. A balance needs to be found between those two, but not by pretending they are three sides of the same coin. Although we use up natural resources at the expense of future generations, we also generate capital (including knowledge) which raises future well-being. A major question is to what extent the one compensates for the other. This debate centres around the problem of substitutability, which has been cast into a distinction between ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ sustainability. It is argued that these two do not need to be in opposition but complement one another."