Tailoring agricultural extension to different production contexts: a user-friendly farm-household model to improve decision-making for participatory research

Farmers operate within specific natural and socio-economic settings. When t hose settings are very diverse, as in mountainous areas, agricultural exten sion services have often failed to tailor interventions to the specific nee ds of client farmers. In such settings, extensionists need cost-efficient t ools or a close link to researchers to evaluate potential strategies and ac tivities to raise farmers' income. This need has become more critical as go vernments in developing countries downsize expenditure on extension service s and donors demand impact from their investments. This paper outlines a fl exible computer-based farm-household model designed to assist researchers, extension workers, and policy makers. The model allows the user to define s pecific production options and resource constraints under different socio-e conomic and biophysical settings. Model application in different regions ha s proven its flexibility to capture and analyze a variety of production sys tems. When used with site-related input data and effective dialogue on the results among researchers, extensionists, and farmers, the model can be a u seful tool for participatory research and extension. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.