Spatial Diffussion patterns in the results of SIDA supported integrated rural development programme(IRDP)activities in ikumbi area of Isoka district
Date
2011-08-15
Authors
Sinkala, Sontwa
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Abstract
This dissertation is the result of research undertaken in Ikumbi IRDP project area of Isoka district from September, 1982 to February 1983. Tne study sought to analyse Zambia's rural development policy in general and to evaluate and analyse the results of this, especially in terms of the spatial diffusion of innovations in the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) supported Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in Ikumbi project area in particular.
Zambia like many developing countries is striving to narrow the gaps that exist between the urban and rural areas and between the people living in these areas. This is so because it has been realised that the majority of the people live in rural areas and a majority of them live in poverty. Several policies have been adopted in these attempts to improve conditions in the rural areas and to stimulate rural development. Increasingly, attention is focussing upon an integrated approach such as that pursued in the Ikumbi IRDP.
In this study the success of the IRDP was evaluated in terms of the rate of adoption of agricultural innovation. The researcher also attempted an overall evaluation of SIDA-IRDP strategy which is based on the growth pole theory with emphasis on what economists term as spread effects which in geography can be seen as the diffusion of an innovation in space. In particular the study sought to identify the spatial variations through time in the participation of people in marketed agricultural production with coffee and wheat as the principal indicators. The identification took the form of adoption by households of innovation practices of growing the said crops. This study also attempted an identification of the facilitating and constraining factors in the diffusion process. These could be the socio-economic characteristics of the people, the physical features of localities or the infrastructure of the area.
It was found that there was an inverse relationship between distance from Old Fife which is the innovation centre and the rate of adoption for both coffee and wheat. This is probably because households close to the innovation centre are more likely to get information from agricultural and other institutional agents based there than if they were far away from the centre. It was also seen that there was some correlation between the time period since the crop was introduced or supported and the number of households adopting the crop. To begin with more people were adopting the innovations with time, but in recent years, deviations from this trend have been growing. The upward trend was a result of the incentives like subsidies on major inputs like fertilizers and seedlings/seeds which were met by SIDA-IRDP. When the subsidies were withdrawn, the down ward trend was the result. Socio-economic characteristics on the adoption process showed that not all of them had a direct influence on the adoption of an agricultural innovation. The socio-economic characteristics considered included
educational level attained, migration experience, work involved in by those who had migrated and household size. It was found that only the latter conformed to the assumption that the larger the household the higher the likelihood of that household to adopt an agricultural innovation which proves the need for more labour in agricultural development especially at small-scale level.
Households in certain areas, which are close to the innovation centre and which have a well developed infrastructure and households of certain socio-economic characteristics like large family size benefited most from the SIDA-IRDP activities in Ikumbi project area. There was on the whole little overall spread effects in the area.
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Rural Development--Isoka-Zambia