19 pages., via online journal article, Best management practices (BMPs) are suggested practices that help agricultural producers optimize production while reducing pollution, soil erosion, and other environmental impacts. Many audiences, including scientists and policy makers, have expressed disappointment at the current level of BMP use. Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is used to understand how people process messages. ELM states that people can process messages either centrally or peripherally. This study sought to understand how producers processed information related to BMP adoption in grazing systems. Researchers conducted qualitative, in-depth interviews with 42 beef-cattle producers in Kansas and Oklahoma. It was found producers process information both centrally and peripherally, more specifically through past experiences and visual observations. This study suggests that when promoting BMPs, communicators should use visual cues to help producers process information. More importantly communicators should utilize strategies that encourage producers to reflect on past experiences to promote central processing.
14 pgs., There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that global climate is changing with associated devastating, yet differential impacts on different world regions. This, therefore, calls for efforts to improve our understanding of the phenomenon as a way of enhancing mitigation and adaptation measures.Although a lot has been done in this respect, the present study examines the extent to which misnomers associated with the calendar months and local climate events can be employed to convey the phenomenon of climate change to rural agriculturists in the Bolgatanga municipality. The study establishes that the names of the calendar months, which serve asgoalposts for local agricultural practices no longer portray their true meaning due to climate change. The study, therefore, recommends the use of nuanced ways of communicating climate change to local agriculturists,using scientific research, lived experiences as well as socially and culturally embedded tools such as misnomers associated with local climate events.
