Impact of an alternative methodology of technical advise on family milk production systems

Abstract

The increasing demands that institutions of higher learning in agriculture face, considering the kind of training that they should offer and the knowledge pertinence that they should generate, require close and fluid relationship with society in general, and particulary with rural producers and their families. This paper shows an experience of extension carried out by an inter-disciplinary team of the Mario Cassinoni Researh Centre, which belongs to the Agriculture Collage of Uruguay, in an neighbouring rural village of Paysandú. the experience takes place in a diary family farm, located in the Colonia 19 de Abril (Department of Paysandú), where extension activities are being implemented as a part of a Program that has been operating since 1996. In this program students'practical training may take place, academic staff can test research result of farmers'fields, and the small farmers may receive direct advice and support from the profesor. The research methodology employed was case study which belongs to the qualitative paradigm. This paper discusses the adventages and disadventages of the non traditional technical advise methodology used in the dairy family farm, its initial situation, the technical proposal that was implemented and its productive, economic and financial results. The paper also illustrates about family farming opportunities and challanges in the current socio-economic context.