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2. Consumers' sense of farmers' markets: tasting sustainability or just purchasing food?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Giampietri, Elisa (author), Koemle, Dieter B. A. (author), Yu, Xiaohua (author), and Finco, Adele (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2016-11-10
- Published:
- Italy
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: D08765
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 8(11), 1157
- Notes:
- 14 pages.
3. Factors influencing farmers' adoption of best management practices: a review and synthesis
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Liu, Tingting (author), Bruins, Randall J.F. (author), and Heberling, Matthew T. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- International
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 198 Document Number: D09653
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10, 432
4. The Revolution of Mobile Phone-Enabled Services for Agricultural Development (m-Agri Services) in Africa: The Challenges for Sustainability
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Emeana, Ezinne M. (author), Trenchard, Liz (author), and Dehnen-Schmutz, Katharina (author)
- Format:
- unknown
- Publication Date:
- 2020-02
- Published:
- 2020-01-09: MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12211
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 2020, 12(2)
- Notes:
- 27 pages., The provision of information through mobile phone-enabled agricultural information services (m-Agri services) has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and significantly improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Africa. Globally, the benefits of m-Agri services include facilitating farmers’ access to financial services and sourcing agricultural information about input use, practices, and market prices. There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality. Key findings from the exploratory literature review reveal that services are highly likely to fail to achieve their intended purpose or be abandoned when implementers ignore the literacy, skills, culture, and demands of the target users. This study recommends that, to enhance the sustainability of m-Agri services, the implementers need to design the services with the users involved, carefully analyse, and understand the target environment, and design for scale and a long-term purpose. While privacy and security of users need to be ensured, the reuse or improvement of existing initiatives should be explored, and projects need to be data-driven and maintained as open source. Thus, the study concludes that policymakers can support the long-term benefit of m-Agri services by ensuring favourable policies for both users and implementers.
5. UK Consumers’ Preferences for Ethical Attributes of Floating Rice: Implications for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in Vietnam
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Hong Tu, Vo (author), Kopp, Steven (author), Thuy Trang, Nguyen (author), Kontoleon, Andreas (author), and Yabe, Mitsuyasu (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-07-27
- Published:
- Switzerland: MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12510
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 13 (15)
- Notes:
- 27 pages, Vietnam plays an important role in bearing global food security. However, Vietnamese rice farmers face several challenges, including pressures to develop sustainable livelihoods while reducing the environmental impacts of their production activities. Various Vietnamese agricultural restructuring policies were promulgated to promote the adoption of environmentally friendly practices to generate high value added for rice farmers, but the farmers are reluctant to adopt them because of perceived lack of demand. Decreasing consumption of rice in Asia and increasing demands in Europe shaped Vietnamese rice exporting policies. New trade agreements, such as the UK–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, offer new target markets for Vietnamese rice farmers. This research provides empirical evidence related to the preferences of UK consumers for ethical attributes for floating rice imported from Vietnam. Floating rice represents a traditional method of rice cultivation that relies on the natural flooding cycle. Its cultivation uses very few agrochemical inputs and provides several other environmental, economic, and social benefits. In an online survey, the study used a choice experiment that asked 306 UK consumers to report their preferences for one kilo of floating rice with three non-market attributes: reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, allocation of profits to the farmers, and restitution of biodiversity. Overall, study participants favored the attributes of floating rice, but reported utility for only the “fair trade” attribute and for a marginal willingness to pay premiums for profit allocations to farmers. Consumers did not find value in either CO2 emission reduction or biodiversity improvement. Results from the study provide recommendations to develop agricultural programs, distribution strategies, and informational methods to encourage floating rice consumption in the UK.
6. Sustainable smart agriculture farming for cotton crop: a fuzzy logic rule based methodology
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bin, Li (author), Shahzad, Muhammad (author), Khan, Hira (author), Bashir, Muhammad Mehran (author), Ullah, Arif (author), and Siddique, Muhammad (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2023-09-18
- Published:
- Switzerland: MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12959
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- V.15, Iss.18
- Notes:
- 20 pages, Sustainable agriculture is a pivotal driver of a nation’s economic growth, especially considering the challenge of providing food for the world’s expanding population. Agriculture remains a cornerstone of many nations’ economies, so the need for intelligent, sustainable farming practices has never been greater. Agricultural industries worldwide require sophisticated systems that empower farmers to manage their crops efficiently, reduce water wastage, and optimize yield quality. Yearly, substantial crop losses occur due to unpredictable environmental changes, with improper irrigation practices being a leading cause. In this paper, we introduce an innovative irrigation time control system for smart farming. This system leverages fuzzy logic to regulate the timing of irrigation in cotton crop fields, effectively curbing water wastage while ensuring that crops receive neither too little nor too much water. Additionally, our system addresses a common agricultural challenge: whitefly infestations. Users can adjust climatic parameters, such as temperature and humidity, through our system, which minimizes both whitefly populations and water consumption. We have developed a portable measurement technology that includes air humidity sensors, temperature sensors, and rain sensors. These sensors interface with an Arduino platform, allowing real-time climate data collection. This collected climate data is then sent to the fuzzy logic control system, which dynamically adjusts irrigation timing in response to changing environmental conditions. Our system incorporates an algorithm that generates highly effective (IF-THEN) fuzzy logic rules, significantly improving irrigation efficiency by reducing overall irrigation duration. By automating the irrigation process and precisely delivering the right amount of water, our system eliminates the need for human intervention, rendering the agricultural system more dependable in achieving successful crop yields. Water supply commences when the environmental conditions reach specific thresholds and halts when the requisite climate conditions are met, maintaining an optimal environment for crop growth.