Rethinking Rural and Agricultural Development Through Market-Oriented Technologies in Africa

The broad objective of the paper was to design a market oriented technology for agricultural and rural development in Africa. Marketing extension has been over looked in extension services delivery. Many of the agricultural technologies including the Top-Bottom, Feed-back, Farmer-Back to Farmer and Integrated Rural Development lacked in-built marketing components. The technology versus market component model was developed in this study. The model consists of the technical, market, and sustainability components as well as control mechanism. The theory of the technology and marketing component model states that, if the technical, marketing and sustainability components of a technology are properly designed implemented and controlled farmers will derive greater incentives from their investment. The marketing component should be specified in all agricultural technology after verifying the technical and sustainability components. Advisory services on marketing functions, role of cooperatives and organized markets in improving market incentives to the rural small and medium scale farmers were discussed. The model is recommended to research scientists and extension workers to adopt in a bid to improve the welfare of the rural farmers.