Farmer-to-farmer extension: opportunities for enhancing performance of volunteer farmer trainers in Kenya

Farmer-to-farmer extension (FFE) is playing a complementary role to formal extension services in facilitating the spread of agricultural technologies and improving farmers’ capacities. The effectiveness and sustainability of such programmes depend on volunteer farmer trainers (VFTs) having technical skills and overcoming process-related challenges that hinder them from achieving the desired outcomes. This article uses quantitative and qualitative data collected from seven sites to explore the challenges experienced by VFTs as they share their knowledge on livestock feed innovations in a dairy development project in Kenya. Sustainable opportunities for enhancing VFTs’ performance are discussed.     

Population genetic data of 15 tetrameric short tandem repeats (STRs) in Berbers from Morocco

The allele frequency distribution of 15 short tandem repeats (STR) loci contained in the AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR Amplification Kit (Applied Biosystems), was determined in two Berber populations from Asni and Bouhria, in Central and Eastern Morocco, respectively. A total of 209 individuals were typed. No deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed for Asni at the 15 STRs loci whereas for the Bouhria samples, two loci (D5S818 and TH01) showed significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg expectations (after Bonferroni's correction). All loci are highly polymorphic and population differentiation tests showed that the Moroccan samples from Asni and Bouhria have significant differences in 4 out of 15 loci (D21S11, D7S820, D16S539 and TPOX). The aim of the study was to obtain accurate allele frequencies relevant for forensic applications. Comparative analyses between our population data and other population samples gathered from the literature are also presented.     

Débat sur la Parité: Première Critique Parity Controversy: First Critique

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Changing development models in small economies: The case of Jamaica from the 1950s to the 1990s

By examining in detail the successes and failures of different development models in one developing country over a four-decade period, this article sketches a development model for small economies in the 1990s as an alternative to the neoliberal model pushed by the International Monetary Fund. It reviews the experience of Jamaica with various development models from the 1950s to the 1990s, with special attention focused on the experience of the Seaga government of the 1980s. It also draws lessons from the successful development experience of small European countries and of the East Asian Newly Industrialized countries. In normative terms, the alternative development model attempts to combine growth with equity and democracy. In analytical terms, it takes account of the constellation of domestic forces and appropriate political strategies, as well as of international economic and political conditions. The main features are a strong role for the state in economic interactions with transnational corporations, in identification of export markets and promotion of export production, in selective protection of domestic industry with an export potential, in promotion of agriculture linked to industrial development, in improvement of human resources and promotion of regional economic integration. Within these parameters, a crucial role is assigned to the domestic private sector and a complementary one to foreign investment. Distribution is to be addressed primarily through distribution of productive assets and access to health care and education. Evelyne Huber is professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is a coauthor ofDemocratic Socialism in Jamaica andCapitalist Development and Democracy. She is currently involved in research on the changing role of the state in Latin America and on comparative social policy. John D. Stephens is professor of political science and sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a coauthor ofDemocratic Socialism in Jamaica andCapitalist Development and Democracy. His current research focuses on options for social democracy and comparative social policy.     

Perceptions and practices of farmer empowerment in Tanzania

The purpose of this article is to review the implementation of various empowerment interventions in Tanzania. Data for the review are based on field visits to programmes/projects/organisations involved in implementing empowerment interventions in various regions of the country. These visits involved key-informant interviews, sample surveys, and focus-group discussions with farmers. The review highlights the perceptions of empowerment at the levels of project staff and practitioners/beneficiaries, as well as the approaches used by various organisations and projects in implementing empowerment activities. In addition the article discusses the factors perceived to lead to empowerment, as well as its consequences.     

Allele frequencies of 15 tetrameric short tandem repeats (STRs) in Andalusians from Huelva (Spain)

The allele frequency distribution of 15 short tandem repeat (STR) loci contained in the AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR Amplification Kit (Applied Biosystems), was determined in 114 individuals from Andalusia (province of Huelva), in the southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula. After Bonferroni's correction, no deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed for all samples at the 15 STR loci. All loci are highly polymorphic. The aim of the study was to obtain accurate allele frequencies relevant for applications in forensics and population genetics. Comparative analyses between our population data and other population samples gathered from the literature are also presented.     

Social Work and the Security Issue in the Netherlands and Belgium

Over the past years security has become a central issue in political discussions both in the Netherlands and Belgium. This has led to the setting of new governmental schemes in urban areas that rely upon the commitment of social workers to a large extent. Besides that, a number of new professions linked to social intervention have appeared. The purpose of this article is to analyse the emergence of security as an issue and the effects of the new governmental schemes in the field of social work, and to compare the political and social backgrounds, how security is dealt with and the effects on social work in Belgium and the Netherlands. The general assumption is that the practice of social professions tends to a new balance between change and control, the two usual poles of social work, at the expense of emancipatory practices towards marginalised people. In other words, it is wondered whether the action of social workers is to put in place a system of control and risk prevention as a mix of social work and people policing. The article shows that the development in this direction in the two countries is similar, in spite of significant background differences.     

Regulating mobile advertising in the European Union and the United States

Mobile advertising is a gradually developing component of the marketing mix that includes advertisements directed to or accessed on consumers' mobile devices. Growing concerns about the protection of the consumers' personal data are being raised since mobile advertising may become an extremely intrusive practice in an intimate personal space. Approaches of protecting the consumers' personal information differ greatly throughout the world. This article contrasts the regulatory environment in the European Union and in the United States applicable to the consumer's privacy and personal data used for mobile advertising purposes while also examining the effectiveness of each of these approaches.     

Revolution or Contribution? Rational Choice Approaches in the Study of Latin American Politics

This article assesses the contributions of studies in the rational choice (RC) tradition to scholarly understanding of Latin American politics. It groups some representative works according to their use of RC assumptions, and also reviews some of the major works in the institutionalist tradition. It argues that works in the RC tradition have neither forced a major rethinking of established theories nor filled major lacunae, although they have illuminated some phenomena that were only partly understood. The RC approach works best for narrow questions in which power relations and structural constraints are stable, whereas its essential assumptions become untenable in questions that involve shifting power relations among social groups and the state over time.