Educational Programs for Commercial Agriculture and Agribusiness
Selected problems and opportunities inherent in educational work with large Agricultural and Agribusiness firms are examined in this paper. The problems arise largely because of the increasing size and complexity of today's large firms; the nature of their requests for assistance; and existing means of teaching the personnel of those firms. The opportunities lie in helping solve their problems in a manner which retains University contact with this important audience without disrupting academic budgets and faculty relationships.
An Analysis of Extension Needs for Agricultural Economists
Whether we are to discuss Extension as an administered agency or as a type of work in which agricultural economists engage themselves must be clarified first. If the choice is to feature the needs from an administrative point of view, probably the real issues would be missed. Therefore, the choice must be meeting the agricultural needs for economics through Extension. There is something to say about Extension needs, however, from the administrative viewpoint, and I do plan to put an oar on that side of the question as well.
Deliberative Democracy and the Resource Curse: A Nationwide Experiment in Tanzania
Oil and gas discoveries in developing countries are often associated with short-sighted economic policies and, in response, calls to insulate resource management from populist impulses. We report on a randomized experiment testing methods to overcome this apparent tension between sound resource governance and democratic politics. Soon after Tanzania’s discovery of major natural gas reserves, we invited a nationally representative sample of voters to an intensive public deliberation of policy options featuring nationally recognized experts and small-group discussions. Democratic deliberation reinforced the public’s strong preference for rapid spending of gas revenues, but also increased support for various prudential and economically orthodox measures, including independent oversight of gas revenues, limits on government borrowing, and selling gas abroad rather than subsidizing fuel at home. These effects were driven by deliberation per se, rather than a pure information treatment, and show no evidence of contamination by facilitatoror peer-effects in group deliberations. www.cgdev.org Justin Sandefur, Nancy Birdsall, James Fishkin, and Mujobu Moyo