Markenson, Steve (author / Food Marketing Institute)
Format:
Research summary
Publication Date:
2020-07-01
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11751
Notes:
Food Marketing Institute, Arlington, Virginia. 3 pages., Author notes increases in online food shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that it brings higher consumer expectations for transparency, compared with in-store shopping. Summarizes results of a mid-March national consumer survey. The report found that 69% of omnichannel shoppers - those who buy both online and in-store - want more information about a product when shopping online compared to in phsical tores.
15 pages., The aim of this research was to investigate the agricultural information sources and strategies for disseminating agricultural research findings to farmers in Iringa District, Tanzania. A total of 90 farmers were interviewed by using a self-administered questionnaire. The statistical Package for Service Solutions (SPSS) software and Spreadsheet were used as instruments to analyse the findings. Results of this study indicate that radios, church leaders, village leaders and seminars are the main channels of information used by extension officers to disseminate agricultural information to farmers. With regard to strategies the study revealed that, the use of religious leaders and government officials; use of primary school teachers and pupils; non-political interference; repackaging and packaging of technical information reports; deployment of extension officers in rural areas; use of community-based organisations and the establishment of agricultural information boards were the main effective strategies for disseminating agricultural research information to farmers. It is therefore, concluded that radio, church leaders, seminars, Newspapers, brochures and fliers should be intensively used to disseminate agricultural information among farmers so as to raise productivity in their farms. The study suggest that, there is a need to use other disseminators such as influential people, religious leaders, political leaders, primary school teachers and pupils to disseminate such information in addition to repackaging of agricultural research findings to tailor it to the farmers’ needs.
8 pages, Online via UI Library electronic subscription, Examined news media reporting on farm injuries in Canada, 2010 through 2017. Only 6.3% of 856 identified articles included a prevention message. Authors concluded that prevention messages are rare in media reporting of farm injuries and are decreasing over time. "Improved reporting is needed to aid in farm injury prevention."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11768
Notes:
Report from Agri-Pulse received online via AgriMarketing Weekly. 6 pages., Report of a letter to Capitol Hill and the White House from a new American Connection Project Broadband Coalition calling for a "robust federal investment in broadband internet connectivity." Letter (attached) signed by 40 ag, tech, and healthcare groups.
Online from publication. 1 page., Summary of a survey among residents in the Bay Area of California by the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. Findings indicated that 77 percent of the respondents considered agriculture "most" or "very" important. A majority also appeared to understand issues that face frmers, including employment of guest workers through the H-2A program.
14 Pgs., Although climate information can aid farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change, its accessibility and adoption by subsistence farmers hinge on the collaboration between farmers and climate information providers. This paper examines collaborations among actors in the process of climate information production and dissemination in the Namibian agricultural sector. The aim is to investigate the extent to which subsistence farmers are integrated into the collaboration process and the impact of the collaboration on the nature and accessibility of disseminated information. Key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey were used for data collection. Using network analysis, we estimated the networks’ density, clustering coefficient, and degree centrality. The study found that both the climate information production and dissemination networks have a high overall clustering coefficient (78% and 77%, respectively) suggesting a high rate of collaboration among the actors in the networks. However, the frequency of interactions between the actors in both the information production and dissemination networks and subsistence farmers remains very low. Nearly all surveyed farmers reported that they meet with information providers only once in a year. The effect of this poor interaction is reflected in the poor occurrence of feedback learning, which is needed to optimize channels of information dissemination to subsistence farmers and enhance the robustness of disseminated information. We recommend innovative communication means via mobile phone, promotion of peer-to-peer learning, flexible collaboration relations with more space for feedback from the users of climate information, and more attention to long-term forecasts and their implications for adaptive actions.
Online from publications. 3 pages., Report of thoughts about dealing with foodservice staffing and labor challenges from the chief operating officer of DNO Produce, Columbus, Ohio.