Appraisal of methods to evaluate farmer field schools

The need to increase agricultural sustainability has induced the government of India to promote the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM). An evaluation of cotton-based conventional and IPM farming systems was conducted in India (2002–2004). The farmers managing the IPM farms had participated in discovery-based ecological training, namely Farmer Field Schools (FFS). The evaluation included five impact areas: (1) the ecological footprint and (2) occupational hazard of cotton production; and the effects of IPM adoption on (3) labour allocation; (4) management practices; and (5) livelihoods. The analysis showed that a mix of approaches increased the depth and the relevance of the findings. Participatory and conventional methods were complementary. The study also revealed different impacts on the livelihoods of women and men, and wealthy and poor farmers, and demonstrated that the value of the experience can be captured also in terms of the farmers' own frames of reference. The evaluation process consumed considerable resources, indicating that proper budgetary allocations need to be made.     

Italian population data on two new short tandem repeat loci: D6S477 and D19S433.

A population study on two new short tandem repeat (STR) loci D6S477 and D19S433 was performed on 214 unrelated Italian Caucasians. The DNA was amplified by PCR and separation and detection of the amplified STR fragments were carried out by use of a PE/ABD PRISM 377 DNA sequencer 377 automated system (Applied Biosystems Division/Perkin Elmer). Both loci meet Hardy-Weinberg expectations. There is no evidence for departures from expectations between the two loci. The combined probability of discrimination and probability of exclusion for the two STR loci are 0.997161 and 0.883183, respectively. The results demonstrate that these loci can be useful for human identification in forensic cases in Italy.     

Book review

Richard Wolin. The Terms of Cultural Criticism: The Frankfurt School, Existentialism, Poststructuralism. Columbia University Press, 1992. pp. 251.

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church 1880–1920. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993. xii + 306 pp. $34.95.)

Rickie Solinger. Wake Up Little Susie: Single pregnancy and race before Roe v. Wade. New York & London: Routledge, 1992

Sonia Kruks. Situation and Human Existence: Freedom, Subjectivity and Society. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990.