Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 127 Document Number: D02717
Notes:
Paper presented at the seminar of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE): Social networks, social media and the economics of food, Montreal, Canada, May 29-30, 2014. 12 pages.
18 pages., Online via UI e-subscription., "This article addresses the interaction between social movements and the media. Based on qualitative research into the media coverage of occupational diseases linked to pesticides, we show how professionals from the journalism sector have helped farmers who felt they were victims of such products get involved in a political cause. Given that sociologists have alerted to the risks of media-centric analyses, we also point up the role of other parties - environmental activists and legal professionals - in the interaction between the media and victims, and we underscore that the latter develop strategies to control their image in the media and express their own political voice in the public sphere."
Online from UI Library subscription., Study examined interpersonal influence during the diffusion of agricultural innovation in a rural district of Pakistan. Findings revealed that interpersonal communication had a major role in agricultural activities, particularly that farmers were motivated through face-to-face discussion.
Online via UI Library Catalog search. 10 pages., Findings of a survey among a sample of 100 farmers in District Sargodha revealed 99% used agricultural radio/TV/FM, 96% used mobile phones, 66% used magazines/newspapers/periodicals, and 61% used social media. Respondents placed highest value on enhancing their productivity.
This study empirically examined the effects of the participatory approach on the adoption of new crop varieties and agricultural practices. Particularly, we focused on the social network structure and examined how the introduced technologies diffused through networks in rural Ethiopia. Our empirical results indicate that if farmers knew and trusted fellow participants, the probability of adopting a new variety increased by 25 percentage points. However, this network had no statistical impact on the diffusion of new agricultural practices. We conclude that the participatory approach has great potential in the adoption of new crop varieties through the social networks of farmers in Ethiopia.
