Small-Scale Technology for the Developing World: Volunteers for International Technical Assistance, 1959–1971

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bess Williamson
Water Policy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-212
Author(s):  
J. Lisa Jorgensona

This paper discusses a series of discusses how web sites now report international water project information, and maps the combined donor investment in more than 6000 water projects, active since 1995. The maps show donor investment:  • has addressed water scarcity,  • has improved access to improvised water resources,  • correlates with growth in GDP,  • appears to show a correlation with growth in net private capital flow,  • does NOT appear to correlate with growth in GNI. Evaluation indicates problems in the combined water project portfolios for major donor organizations: •difficulties in grouping projects over differing Sector classifications, food security, or agriculture/irrigation is the most difficult.  • inability to map donor projects at the country or river basin level because 60% of the donor projects include no location data (town, province, watershed) in the title or abstracts available on the web sites.  • no means to identify donor projects with utilization of water resources from training or technical assistance.  • no information of the source of water (river, aquifer, rainwater catchment).  • an identifiable quantity of water (withdrawal amounts, or increased water efficiency) is not provided.  • differentiation between large scale verses small scale projects. Recommendation: Major donors need to look at how the web harvests and combines their information, and look at ways to agree on a standard template for project titles to include more essential information. The Japanese (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank provide good models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 6932
Author(s):  
Mauricio Sagastuy ◽  
Torsten Krause

Agroforestry practices support agricultural resilience against climatic variability, increase soil productivity, can diversify and increase farmers’ incomes, and support native fauna in agricultural landscapes. However, many farmers are still reluctant to implement agroforestry practices. We distributed questionnaires to 75 agroforestry and 64 “conventional agriculture” small-scale farmers working in the northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest to identify the motivations and limitations to implement agroforestry practices. We reveal the four main reasons why farmers worked with agroforestry: Higher income generation (89%), diversification of the production system (86%), increase in the land’s quality and productivity (86%), and increase in self-sufficiency (82%). The three most common mentioned reasons for conventional agriculture farmers to not shift to agroforestry practices were: Uncertainty if the system will work (62%), reduction in yield of the main agricultural crop (43%), and a lack of models and knowledge in the region (41%). Agroforestry in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest region can support native fauna, but farmers need to be educated about agroforestry practices and encouraged to switch from conventional agriculture to agroforestry through an increase in available technical assistance and capacitation/training in agroforestry practices.


Author(s):  
Amy Bilton ◽  
Leah Kelley ◽  
Francesco Mazzini

Electrification of remote areas in the developing world can greatly improve the health and economic standing of the population. Unfortunately, providing power to these remote areas can be expensive and determining the most economical solution is not trivial. This paper presents a method to compare the economics of different small-scale power systems for developing world. In this method, models are developed to describe the performance of power systems composed of diesel generators, batteries with photovoltaics or wind turbines, and hybrid systems. These models are coupled to an optimizer to determine the lowest cost solution that meets the desired system reliability. The reliability is expressed as Loss of Load Probability, and is computed using hourly solar and wind data. In this paper, this method is used to design a power system for a small hospital in the developing world. The results are presented for three sample locations in Honduras, Pakistan, and Uganda. Results show that the economic attractiveness of different technologies varies greatly due to local climatic conditions. The variety and soundness of the solutions found using this method show that it can aid in the design of a small-scale power system for any location in the developing world.


Author(s):  
ERNESTO GO YAP

The goal of past administrations of the Philippine government was to enablethe country to be self-sustainable in food production. This paper takes intostudy the coconut farmers; the country being a prime producer and exporter ofcoconuts. Many past and recent studies have shown that the coconut industryhas often been beset with numerous problems and small scale coconut farmersare poor, with the causes ranging from lack of finance, technical assistance andsocio-cultural factors. This study further explored the perspectives of smallscale coconut farmers on the issues of aging and succession, obstacles andopportunities of farming, as well as the future impact on the local ecology. Thisstudy is conducted in the province of Negros Oriental, Municipality of Bacong, in Central Philippines. Qualitative methods were primarily used in the research, including a survey, key informant interviews, participant observation. Thestudy revealed that family members currently involved in coconut farming aredecreasing, and a significant number of families do not have members to succeedthe parent-farmers, preferring to go for non-farming jobs. Farms are expected to be neglected. Keywords - Small-scale coconut farmers, poverty, perspectives, succession, local ecology,descriptive design, succession, Philippines


1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 (1) ◽  
pp. 677-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.D. Evans ◽  
G.W. Mulholland ◽  
J.R. Lawson ◽  
E.J. Tennyson ◽  
M.F. Fingas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Center for Fire Research (CFR) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is conducting research related to safety in offshore drilling and oil spill pollution under joint funding from Minerals Management Service (MMS), U.S. Coast Guard, and the American Petroleum Institute. Technical assistance in measurement has been donated by Environment Canada. This research has focused on examining the phenomena associated with crude oil combustion and the impact of using burning as a spill response method. The process of burning crude oil on water as a means to mitigate oil spills has been investigated with a research effort combining both small-scale experiments and calculations. As a result of these studies, there has been increased understanding of the burning process, including burning rate, heat radiation, smoke emission, smoke composition, and smoke dispersion in the atmosphere. A key to gaining acceptance of burning as a spill response technique is the demonstration that favorable results obtained at laboratory scale can be shown to continue in test burns representing the size of fires expected in actual operations. Field-scale burn tests are being planned and coordinated jointly by MMS, API, USCG, and Environment Canada to document the use of burning technology under conditions simulating actual oil spill cleanup operations. The purpose of this project is to measure the effects of oil spill burning in laboratory and field tests.


Author(s):  
Tales Neri Borsoi ◽  
Silvio De Jesus Freitas ◽  
Paulo Marcelo De Souza ◽  
Patrick Martins Barbosa Brito ◽  
Waldinei Souza Da Silva ◽  
...  

This study analyzes the technological conditioning factors of cassava production in the municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes-RJ, seeking to elucidate the limitations and technological barriers that have contributed to the decline of crop production and productivity. A descriptive and quantitative methodology was adopted, in which the Survey method was used to analyze the technological factors through a questionnaire applied to 157 cassava producers in the field. The results evidenced the low degree of modernization of cassava in the municipality of Campos-RJ, intensive and extractive land use, generally produced on a small scale and with a low level of capitalization and productivity of work and land. This context seems to stimulate a vicious cycle, of low performance of the crops and profitability, low capacity of accumulation of resources, and capital and technological possibilities, favoring a gradual process of discouragement of the production. Without the possibility of gains and accumulation of income, the degree of uncertainty and risk tend to increase, as adversities and external forces make the permanence and perpetuation of the activity even more difficult, to emphasize the climatic factors and obstacles of commercialization and market. Thus, the research reinforces the need to evaluate technological alternatives that fit the local culture, as well as mechanisms that make them accessible to producers, such as: technical assistance, rural credit, social organization, among other public policies which aim to reduce the aggravation of rural activity in the municipality.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yorgos Stratoudakis ◽  
Patrick McConney ◽  
John Duncan ◽  
Abdul Ghofar ◽  
Nancy Gitonga ◽  
...  

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is the frontrunner in fisheries certification, receiving both extensive support and strong criticisms. The increasing uptake by fisheries and markets (almost 10% of world fisheries tonnage engaged by the end of 2014) has been followed by a widening pool of stakeholders interacting with the MSC. However, the applicability of the MSC approach for fisheries in the developing world (DW) remains doubtful, reinforced by a worldwide uptake skewed towards developed world fisheries. Here, a group of MSC stakeholders, with the aid of an ad-hoc questionnaire survey, reviews constraints to MSC certification in DW fisheries, evaluates solutions put forward by the MSC, and recommends actions to improve MSC uptake by DW fisheries. Recommendations to the MSC include researching and benchmarking suitable data-limited assessment methods, systematizing and making readily available the experiences of certified fisheries worldwide and constructing specific fisheries capacity-building for regional leaders. The MSC can further review the certification cost, especially for small-scale fisheries and, in partnership with other institutions, mobilize a fund to support specific DW fishery types. This fund could also support the development of market opportunities and infrastructures likely to satisfy local conditions and needs. For wider market intervention, the MSC should consider embarking on some form of vertical differentiation. Finally, for fisheries that may never move towards certification, the group identifies tools and experiences available at MSC that can improve environmental performance and governance bearing.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eryanti Niu ◽  
Haji Saediman ◽  
Surni Surni

This research aimed to analyze break-even point and margin of safety of poultry egg production in the rural area in Southeast Sulawesi. The research used a case study approach by using questionnaire1, in-depth interviews, and observation to collect data and information from a small-scale poultry egg producing enterprise which was selected purposively with the consideration that the farm is located in rural area and had less than 1.000 laying hens. Data were analyzed using costs and returns, break-even point, and margin of safety ratio. Research results show that the enterprise record net income of Rp9.232.165,00. R/C ratio of 1,32 means that the enterprise would earn a revenue of Rp1,32 for every one rupiah it invested. Break even sales are Rp3.374.474,00 and break even volume was 140,60 kg. The egg production is far above both the break-even sales and units, meaning that the enterprise earns a profit from egg production. The margin of safety is Rp34.750.526,00 or 91,15%, indicating a high level of safety in the enterprise. In view of its profitability and the importance of poultry egg production in the generation of employment and fulfillment of protein needs of the population, local government and other stakeholders are suggested to take measures to promote poultry egg production in rural areas by providing technical assistance program for small-scale poultry farmers at the community level and improving managerial skills in the poultryegg production.


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