What Makes an Agriculture Initiative Open? Reflections on Sharing Agriculture Information, Writing Rights, and Divergent Outcomes

Abstract

Agricultural initiatives in the development sphere have seen torrid evolution. The Green Revolution conjures up images of scientists in lab coats coming up with efficient ways to grow staple crops such as wheat and maize, which were then transferred to developing countries in a wave of technocratic initiatives between the 1930s and 1960s. Lewis’ (1954) economic development model suggested that the ultimate goal for the process of economic expansion should be to see complete absorption of small and subsistence rural farming by the capitalist sector. Yet, through implementing the Green Revolution, development practitioners and policymakers soon realized that including Indigenous and rural subsistence farmers in policy and planning could actually be an important development objective in and of itself (Parnwell 2008). Over the course of the next four decades, putting the perspectives of rural and poor farmers first became important for generating sustainable livelihoods that were capable of dealing with increasing pressures on the environment and higher rates of rural to urban migration (Chambers 1994). Nevertheless, there remains a tension between agriculture initiatives imposed from the top and those that stress pluralist approaches to empower farmers. A review of public sector agricultural extension initiatives in developing countries by Rivera, Qamar, and Van Crowder (2001), for instance, demonstrated mixed results, recommending increasing partnerships between farmers and supportive agricultural organizations and businesses, greater decentralization toward lower levels of government, and subsidiarity at the grassroots level. 11 What Makes an Agriculture Initiative Open? Reflections on Sharing Agriculture Information, Writing Rights, and Divergent Outcomes