Winfield United (author), Exponent PR (author), and Colle+McVoy (author)
Format:
Online document
Publication Date:
2017
Published:
United States: Public Relations Society of America
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 8 Document Number: D10305
Notes:
3 pages., Via Silver Anvil Awards., WinField United teamed up with Exponent PR and its sister agency, Colle+McVoy, to unleash a multi-channeled communications blitz to help farmers and retailers be more efficient and sustainably connect the dots using WinField United’s proprietary precision agriculture tools and data platforms. Additionally, the team took on the challenge of telling the remarkable story of modern agriculture to the masses.
Janssen, Sander (author), Porter, Cheryl H. (author), Moore, Andrew D. (author), Athanasiadis, Ioannis N. (author), Foster, Ian (author), Jones, James W. (author), and Antle, John M. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016-11-10
Published:
International: Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 160 Document Number: D07790
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10672
Notes:
7 pages., via Scientific American website., Farming across the Midwest will be challenged by a shifting climate and may struggle to keep up crop production.
Erickson, Bruce (author) and Lowenberg-DeBoer, James (author)
Format:
Survey report
Publication Date:
2018-07-19
Published:
USA: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10589
Notes:
20 pages., Via online - Power Point presentation. Summarizes retail dealers' adoption of precision technologies in agriculture, 1997-2017., The CropLife/Purdue University precision dealer survey is the longest-running continuous survey of precision farming adoption. The 2017 survey is the 18th, conducted every year from 1997 to 2009, and then every other year following. Major sections of the survey include precision technologies used by the retailers within their business/on their equipment, the adoption rates of precision products and services offered by retailers to customers, the dealer’s estimation of the acres in their area where farmers are using precision practices, and questions about profitability, technology investment, and constraints to adoption.
The 2017 survey shows substantial increases in the adoption of practices that provide data for understanding and managing inter- and intra-field variability. Grid/zone soil sampling, which was being offered by 35 to 57% of dealers in a period stretching from 1999 to 2013, increased to 67% in 2015 and to 78% offering in 2017. Soil EC mapping increased from 19% in 2015 to 31% in 2017, and dealers offering UAV services from 19% to 30%. At the same time variable rate technology (VRT) seeding prescriptions, VRT lime application, and VRT fertilizer application services are up, yet VRT pesticide offerings are down. Seventy eight percent of dealers are using autoguidance for their custom application and 73% are using sprayer section controllers.
16 pages, via online journal article, Purpose: In this paper, the knowledge dynamics of the farmer–rural extensionist’ interface were explored from extensionists’ perspective with the aim of understanding the matchmaking processes between supply and demand of extension services at the micro-level. Design/methodology/approach: Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with extensionists whom work in the North-Eastern, Argentine provinces. Findings: Two different, general types of knowledge dynamics were identified: one moderately diffusionist, based on a hierarchical relationship and the prioritisation of experts’ knowledge, and the other constructivist, based on horizontal processes of co-construction. Interestingly, some extensionists support beliefs pertaining to both approaches. They also highlight the importance of unceremonious trainings, interpersonal trust and making recommendations that take into account farmers’ rationale. Practical implications: Results show the persistence of diffusionist rural extension and that extensionists have different, even contradictory, extension approaches, which renders inappropriate any attempt to generalise their perspectives. Theoretical implications: This study suggests that farmers’ demand is the result of a constructive, interactive process, and thus is not prior to the interaction between the demand side (farmers) and the supply side (extensionists). Consequently, the knowledge and power dynamics that take place within the farmer–extensionist interface should be considered the nucleus of demand construction and the matchmaking process. Originality/value: This paper addresses the dynamic matchmaking process between supply and demand of extension services at the micro-level, suggesting it is a constructive process and showing the core role played by power dynamics.
