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Abstract
The development of the traditional small-scale farming sector in Namibia will depend
on the adoption of relevant productivity-increasing technologies by a majority of farm
households. The World Bank has pointed to the difficulties and disappointing record of
"harnessing technology" for the benefit of African farmers (IBRD, 1989). The structural
adjustment programmes of the 1980s focused on improving incentives for small farmers to
adopt improved technology by "getting prices right". But it is now recognised that methods
developed to generate and disseminate technology for large-scale commercial farmers need
to be adjusted to serve the interests of small resource-poor farmers.
This paper reviews the performance of two new approaches (on-farm research (OFR)
and training and visit (T&V)) that have been introduced to respond better to the needs of
traditional farm households. The experience suggests that adjustments in research approach
and extension management could have a bigger impact if more attention is given to
integration with other actors in the technology generation and dissemination process.