Jäckering, Lisa (author), Gödecke, Theda (author), Wollni, Meike (author), and Department of Agricultural Economics and
Rural Development, University of Goettingen,
Goettingen, Germany
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-07-10
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D10997
16 pages., Wiley Online Library, To date, little is known about how information flows within farmer groups and how extension interventions could be designed to deliver combined information on agriculture and nutrition. This study uses unique network data from 815 farm households in Kenya to investigate the structure and characteristics of agricultural and nutrition information networks within farmer groups. Dyadic regressions are used to analyze the factors influencing link formation for the exchange of agricultural and nutrition information. In addition, we apply fixed-effects models to identify the characteristics of central persons driving information exchange in the two networks, as well as potentially isolated persons, who are excluded from information networks within their farmer groups. Our results show that nutrition information is exchanged within farmer groups, although to a limited extent, and mostly flows through the existing agricultural information links. Thus, diffusing nutrition information through agricultural extension systems may be a viable approach. Our findings further suggest that group leaders and persons living in central locations are important drivers in the diffusion of information in both networks and may thus serve as suitable entry points for nutritionsensitive extension programs. However, we also identify important heterogeneities in network characteristics. In particular, nutrition information is less often exchanged between men and women, and some group members are completely isolated from nutrition information exchange within their farmer groups. We derive recommendations on taking these differences in network structure and characteristics into account when designing nutrition-sensitive extension programs.
Kristjanson, P (author), Place, F (author), Franzel, F (author), Thornton, P.K. (author), and International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
International Centre for Research on Agroforestry, Nairobi, Kenya
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2002-02-23
Published:
Kenya: Science Direct
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 109 Document Number: D10958
20 pages, via online journal, In this paper we provide evidence to show that farmers' perspectives on poverty processes and outcomes are critical in the early stages of evaluating impact of agricultural research on poverty. We summarize lessons learned from farmer impact assessment workshops held in five African locations, covering three agro-ecological zones and five different agroforestry and livestock technologies arising from collaborative national–international agricultural research. Poverty alleviation is a process that needs to be understood before impact can be measured. Workshops such as those we describe can help researchers to identify farmers' different ways of managing and using a technology and likely effects, unanticipated impacts, major impacts to pursue in more quantitative studies, the primary links between agricultural technology and poverty, and key conditioning factors affecting adoption and impact that can be used to stratify samples in more formal analyses. Farmer workshops inform other qualitative and quantitative impact assessment methods. We discuss the linkage of farmer-derived information with GIS-based approaches that allow more complete specification of recommendation domains and broader-scale measurement of impact.
7 pages, via online journal, Despite large investments in research to modernize African agriculture, enabling it to fulfil its potential, traditional agriculture still predominates. To many, the lack of adoption of knowledge generated through agricultural research is due either to the inexplicable functioning of the farmer's decision-making process or to a set of issues so complex that it is not clear how they could ever be overcome. This paper reviews a project in Sub-Saharan Africa in which bean pest management became a tool through which communities were empowered to address a wide range of development issues. This paper suggests that what needs to be altered substantially is the way scientists view and interact with the poor.
Toepfer, Stefan (author), Kuhlmann, Ulrich (author), Kansiime, Monica (author), Onyango Owino, David (author), Tamsin, Davis (author), Cameron, Katherine (author), and Day, Roger (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-04
Published:
Germany: Springer
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10360
4 pages., Via online journal., This is an opinion paper to the perspective paper “The spread of the Fall Army Worm Spodoptera frugiperda in Africa—what should be done next?” from the “Section Plant Protection in the Tropics and Subtropics” at the 61st German Congress of Plant Protection, held at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, on 11 September 2018. It highlights the best approaches in communication, information sharing, and advisory services to raise awareness for fall armyworm detection and area-wide management by farmers.
6 pages., via online journal., Cross-cultural communication is dealt with and more specifically, the communicative competence of 15 white English-speaking farmers when they speak Xhosa to their labourers is assessed. This research was conducted in the Elliot, Ugie, and Maclear areas of the north-eastern Cape. A broad sociolinguistic framework drawing on both ethnographic and ethnomethodological principles was used; complications caused by cross-cultural differences which are reflected in language, and which may lead to possible communication breakdown, were isolated. The actual analysis of speech in terms of ethnomethodological principles, such as turn-taking and the co-operative principle, was undertaken.
12 pages, via online journal, Since the rice crisis of 2007, the government of Benin has initiated many programmes for rice intensification. Comparison of three rice production areas shows that local rice production has indeed been increased by the facilities provided by the government programmes. Although broadly the same facilities (market outlet, credit, input, etc.) were provided to rice farmers in the three study areas, which are located close to one another, there are not only similar, but also some different outcomes with regard to farmers' practices. There were also some unexpected changes, like the shift from limited collective canal cleaning to individual canal cleaning in Koussin-Lélé and the use of pumps in upland areas in Bamè. The study explores the interplay between these external interventions of government programmes and local actions of farmers to explain the outcomes. Using an actor-oriented perspective, the study concludes that farmers' agency played a critical role in the success of interventions; the changes occurred because of local actions of the farmers and intermediaries interacting with the external interventions at diverse junctures. Differences in strategies for resolving livelihood problems, in production options and biophysical conditions influence farmers' local actions and contribute to the explanation of the diversity of outcomes. The main lesson drawn from this research is that evaluation studies should not consider external interventions as the only or primary source of change. The dynamic interplay between local agency, intermediation and external interventions makes room for change.
16 pages, via online journal, Purpose: This study elucidates on how faculty supervision support to students during farm placements and other facilitating conditions influence farmer learning in the student-centred university outreach.
Methodology/Design/Approach: Cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 283 farmers who had previously hosted students of Gulu University in the student-to-farmer university outreach. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse how faculty supervision support to students in combination with other facilitating conditions affect the formation of intentions for learning and actual farmer learning behaviour.
Findings: Faculty supervision support in the student-to-farmer outreach was found to significantly influence formation of intentions for learning (β = 0.380; t = 5.263; P < .01) and actual farmer learning behaviour (β = 0.182; t = 2.081; P < .05).
Practical implications: Faculty supervision support to students is critical to fostering lasting learning relationships in university outreach. Thus, it needs to be a part of the transformation agenda of the higher education sector for improved community linkages and innovation.
Theoretical implications: Empirical data obtained from the context of student-centred university outreach is used to extend the model of facilitating conditions.
Originality/Value: The study addresses how faculty supervision support together with farmers’ perception of student attitudes and the value of the learning content influence farmers’ learning behaviour during university outreach.
Eitzinger, Anton (author), Cock, James (author), Atzmanstorfer, Karl (author), Binder, Claudia R. (author), Läderach, Peter (author), Bonilla-Findji, Osana (author), Bartlin, Mona (author), Mwongera, Caroline (author), Zurita, Leo (author), and Jarvis, Andy (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-03
Published:
Germany: Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 7 Document Number: D10292
13 pages., Via online journal., Farmers can manage their crops and farms better if they can communicate their experiences, both positive and negative, with each other and with experts. Digital agriculture using internet communication technology (ICT) may facilitate the sharing of experiences between farmers themselves and with experts and others interested in agriculture. ICT approaches in agriculture are, however, still out of the reach of many farmers. The reasons are lack of connectivity, missing capacity building and poor usability of ICT applications. We decided to tackle this problem through cost-effective, easy to use ICT approaches, based on infrastructure and services currently available to small-scale producers in developing areas. Working through a participatory design approach, we developed and tested a novel technology. GeoFarmer provides near real-time, two-way data flows that support processes of co-innovation in agricultural development projects. It can be used as a cost-effective ICT-based platform to monitor agricultural production systems with interactive feedback between the users, within pre-defined geographical domains. We tested GeoFarmer in four geographic domains associated with ongoing agricultural development projects in East and West Africa and Latin America. We demonstrate that GeoFarmer is a cost-effective means of providing and sharing opportune indicators of on-farm performance. It is a potentially useful tool that farmers and agricultural practitioners can use to manage their crops and farms better, reduce risk, increase productivity and improve their livelihoods.
Stoudmann, Natasha (author), Waeber, Patrick O. (author), Randriamalala, Ihoby H. (author), Garcia, Claude (author), and Forest Management and Development, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland
Madagascar Wildlife Conservation, Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar
Forêts et Sociétés, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2017-11
Published:
Madagascar: Science Direct
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 108 Document Number: D10938
13 pages., Via online journal., Human livelihood needs and nature conservation often contradict. Yet, healthy ecosystems are crucial for human livelihood quality. The semi-arid regions of East Africa suffer under demographic pressure and soil depletion. Ecosystem degradation becomes particularly visible along rivers in semiarid regions of south-east Kenya, where former pristine riparian forests have been transformed into agricultural fields and settlements with negative effects on ecosystem services. In this study, we aim to understand how local smallholders perceive the challenges for the riparian ecosystems and what factors affect their engagement in environmental conservation. We surveyed about 200 farmers and performed expert interviews with representatives from governmental institutions from the field of land- and resource management along Nzeeu River in south-east Kenya. We assessed the level of education, land use practices, environmental knowledge, attitudes and the willingness to contribute to nature conservation. We tested for spatial bias to understand smallholders’ perceptions on environmental challenges. Our data show that land division due to inheritance is not perceived as a problem by the farmers. However, owners holding < 1 ha of land property are less willing to spare some of their land for conservation, as opposed to those holding land plots above this size. Despite a high level of general willingness to conserve ecosystems, our data underline that local people hardly actively engage in conservation action. Furthermore, our data indicate a communication gap between local smallholders and regional governmental officers as well as overconfidence in mass media through the radio which can contradict successful adoption of pro-environment behavior. Sustainable land management in our study area is not a matter of education, but depends from the size of land property. There is an urgent need to bridge this communication gap, as a prerequisite to improve sustainable land management.
