8 pages., ISSN: 2284-7995, via online journal., The study accessed agrochemical based information usage among cocoa farmers in Nigeria with a view to determine the sustainability of information sources for an increased cocoa production in the study area. Simple random sampling was used to select 120 cocoa farmers using structured interview schedule. Results showed that farmers were in their 50s with about 12 years of formal education. Radio (mean = 2.56) ranked highest among the sources of information while about 60 percent of the respondents indicated a very high level of usage of agrochemical information in cocoa production. Results of Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed a significant relationship between farmers’ perception (r = 0.365; p≤0.01) and usage of agrochemical based information. The findings conclude that the use of mass media as the most frequently used among farmers for agrochemicals in cocoa production may be sustainable. It is therefore recommended that the use of mass media for agrochemicals usage in cocoa production should be reinforced in passing other information to cocoa farmers.
10 pages., Via online journal., Development of natural resource user typologies has been viewed as a potentially
effective means of improving the effectiveness of natural resource management engagement
strategies. Prior research on Corn Belt farmers’ perspectives on climate change employed
a latent class analysis (LCA) that created a six-class typology—the Concerned, Uneasy,
Uncertain, Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached—to develop a better understanding of
farmer perspectives on climate change and inform more effective climate adaptation and
mitigation outreach strategies. The LCA employed 34 variables that are generally unobservable—beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks of
climate change, and attitudes toward climate action—to identify types. The research reported
in this paper builds on this typology of Corn Belt farmers by exploring 33 measures of observable farm enterprise characteristics, land management practices, and farmer demographics to
assess whether variations in these observable characteristics between the six farmer classes
display systematic patterns that might be sufficiently distinctive to guide audience segmentation strategies. While analyses detected some statistically significant differences, there were
few systematic, meaningful observable patterns of difference between groups of farmers with
differing perspectives on climate change. In other words, farmers who believe that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, that it poses risks to agriculture, and that adaptive action
should be taken, may look very much like farmers who deny the existence of climate change
and do not support action. The overall implication of this finding is that climate change
engagement efforts by Extension and other agricultural advisors should use caution when
looking to observable characteristics to facilitate audience segmentation. Additional analyses
indicated that the farmer types that tended to be more concerned about climate change and
supportive of adaptive action (e.g., Concerned and Uneasy) reported that they were more
influenced by key private and public sector actors in agricultural social networks. On the
other hand, farmers who were not concerned about climate change or supportive of adaptation (e.g., the Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached groups, comprising between one-third
and one-half of respondents) were less integrated into agricultural networks. This suggests that
Extension and other agricultural advisors should expand outreach efforts to farmers who are
not already within their spheres of influence.
7 pages., Via online journal, The emergence of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) has drawn the attention of researchers from various fields, who try to understand and explain these new phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to explore how personal attitude and product quality perception influence relative satisfaction over participation in AFNs, therefore contributing to the literature on socially conscious consumerism. Structural Equation Modeling is used to investigate the determinants of consumers' attitudes towards AFNs, its influence on perceived quality of food products, and their relative influence over satisfaction with participation in AFNs. A survey was conducted among 210 AFN participants. The results from this study suggest that consumers' attitude towards AFNs directly influences the perceived quality of food products; moreover, the analysis confirms the relationship between these two elements and overall satisfaction with participation in AFNs. Finally, the research provides suggestions on how to improve consumers’ involvement and mainstream AFNs.
9 pages., Via online journal., In a world where the notion of ‘sharing of knowledge’ has been gained much prominence in the recent past, the importance of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to promote sustainable agriculture, especially when combined with mobile and open source software technologies is discussed critically. On this rationale, this study was carried out to explore the applicability of the concept of converging ‘Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)’ to promote sustainable knowledge sharing amongst the agricultural communities in Sri Lanka. A multi-stage community consultative process with a set of designated officials (“Sponsors”) and a series of semi-structured questionnaire survey with a cross section of smallholder agriculture farmers (n=246), were carried out in the Batticaloa, Kurunegala and Puttalam districts to gather the baseline data. This was followed by a number of field experiments (“Campaigns”) with the farmers (n=340) from same geographical areas. The two FOSS, namely: (1) “FrontlineSMS” for ‘Text Messaging’ and (2) “FreedomFone” for ‘Interactive Voice Responses’, were applied to evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge sharing within the farming communities. It was found that FOSS intervention increases the ‘Text messaging’ and ‘Voice Call’ usage in day-to-day agricultural communication by 26 and 8 percent, respectively. The demographic factors like age and income level of the farmers has positively influence on the knowledge sharing process. And also the ‘Mobile Telephony’ was the most extensive mode of communication within the communities. The outcome of analysis, as a whole, implies that, with a fitting mechanism in place, this approach can be promoted as a “drive for positive changes” in agriculture-based rural communities in developing countries like Sri Lanka, and those in South and East Asia with similar socio-economic and cultural perspectives.
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.
14 pages., via online journal., While dealing with weather variability has always been a source of stress for farmers, a generally warmer, wetter climate with the potential for increasingly intensive precipitation poses a threat to long-term farm viability. Knowing how farmers think about increasingly variable weather patterns (IVWP) is important for educators, agency staff, and others to learn how to work with producers on adaptation strategies to protect natural resources and prevent crop failure. In 2011, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension conducted focus group sessions with farmers from seven different commodity groups, five mixed farmer sessions, and two sessions with consultants, educators, and agency staff who work with growers to learn about grower perceptions of environmental changes, and to learn about changes they may be making to their farming operations to protect their operations from IVWP. Farmers discussed over 40 practices that could be construed as adaptation measures to buffer against IVWP. Fruit (apple and blueberry) growers spent the most time on the subject and expressed the most concern about the effects of IVWP, while dairy and potato growers spent the least. Given the divergence of opinion on the subject of climate change that Maine growers expressed, successful outreach education through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Cooperative Extension should likely emphasize short-term risk management, resilience, and stability of farm operations as opposed to communicating the need to adopt strategies based on climate change.
4 pages., Via online journal., Transformation process to Audience-centered Communication Theory is introduced, as well as the basic idea of the theory in China. It is believed that using Audience-centered Communication theory can help to consolidate the theoretical basis of participatory agricultural extension. The communication essence of agricultural extension activity is studied, which is spreaders send information to farmers; then, farmers filter and process the information, transform it into their own experiences and feed back on time. Internet logical relationship between audience-centered communication and participatory agricultural extension is studied. Effects of Audience-centered Communication Theory on participatory agricultural extension are analyzed. One is that the Audience-centered Communication Theory defines the guidance and implementation basis of agricultural extension activities; the other is that bringing Audience-centered Communication Theory into agricultural extension research can help to expend the agricultural extension. Several enlightenments of the theory to participatory agricultural extension are obtained. Firstly, take audience as the orientation and focus on the needs of the audience. Secondly, advocate the participatory approach of process; and emphasize the importance of internal audience participation. Thirdly, establish two-way interaction mechanism; and make the promoters understand the implementation and performance status on time.
6 pages., (Special Issue from the 17th International Nitrogen Workshop), Via online Journal, Substantial improvements of agricultural systems are necessary to meet the future requirements of humanity.
However, current agricultural knowledge and information systems are generally not well suited to meet the
necessary improvements in productivity and sustainability. For more effective application of research output,
research producers and research consumers should not be considered as separate individuals in the knowledge
chain but as collaborating partners creating synergy. The current paper investigates the relationships between
scientists and stakeholders and identifies approaches to increase the effectiveness of their communication.
On-farm research has proven to be an effective means of improving exploitation of research output at farm level
because it connects all relevant partners in the process. Furthermore, pilot farms can act as an effective platform
for communication and dissemination. Regional networks of pilot farms should be established and connected
across regions
