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2. Cooperative extension and sustainability outreach: programmatic successes, administrative support, and areas for improvement
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Brain McCann, Roslynn (author), Apel, Mark (author), Dove, Clark (author), Madhosingh-Hector, Ramona (author), Kipp Searcy, Jennison (author), and Kay, David (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-02
- Published:
- Extension Journal, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 132 Document Number: D11351
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 58(1)
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Article #:v58-1a2, via online journal., According to the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, without urgent global changes, climate catastrophe caused by warming of greater than 1.5°C will occur by 2030, endangering the planet's capacity to sustain human populations and livelihoods. The National Network for Sustainable Living Education administered a national survey in January 2017 to assess how well-positioned Extension is to address sustainability in the communities the organization serves. Educators from 40 states responded, and 1,395 usable surveys were received. Survey results will help Extension employees discover opportunities for innovation and relevancy in their programming.
3. Evaluating promotional efforts for driving traffic to an extension outreach website
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Campbell, Tim (author), Shaw, Bret (author), Rao, Amulya (author), and Klink, Jenna (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-06
- Published:
- Extension Journal, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10607
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 57(3)
- Notes:
- 7 pages., Article #:3RIB1, via online journal., As online communication becomes more important to Extension professionals, understanding how promotional strategies affect the number of people accessing online content also becomes more important. We tracked website visits resulting from four different promotional efforts to understand relative effectiveness of these efforts. Each effort was unique in cost, efficacy, and efficiency. We found that using multiple promotional approaches to drive traffic to educational content can increase engagement over time and allow for reaching larger audiences.
4. Feasibility of using mobile phones as an educational medium in agricultural extension services in Guilan Province, Iran
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Allahyaria, Mohammad Sadegh (author), Atashi, Maryam Ranjbar (author), and Dunn, Emily Shea (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10476
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 19(2): 129-140
- Notes:
- 13 pages., via online journal., This study examined the feasibility of the use of mobile phones as an educational tool in agricultural extension services in the Guilan Province of Iran. A descriptive-survey methodology was employed on a sample population of 120 agricultural extension agents. Data were analyzed at descriptive and inferential levels using SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). The results of the factor analysis indicated that the application of mobile phones in extension activities was influenced by three factors: economic, skill, and infrastructure. These factors accounted for 52.3% of the variance. Moreover, the possibility for the development of mobile phones as an educational medium is impacted by social, financial-credit, information-communicational, psychological, and improper conditions factors that, in total, captured 70.4% of the variance.
5. Stakeholders' mental models of soil food value chain in the Everglades
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Friedrichsen, Claire N. (author), Daroub, Samira H. (author), Monroe, Martha C. (author), Stepp, John R. (author), and Gerber, Stefan (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- unknown
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10497
- Journal Title:
- Geoderma
- Journal Title Details:
- 343: 166-175
- Notes:
- 10 pages., via online journal., Peri-urban environments, where agriculture and urbanization interact, pose unique challenges for soil management. In Miami-Dade County, Florida USA, this interaction is especially important; a population of 2.7 million lives in an urban county with only 6% of the area zoned agriculture. Miami-Dade County is a major producer of tropical fruit and winter vegetables for the U.S., and is located within the Everglades ecosystem. Relatively little information is known about research and extension within peri-urban environments concerning soil health and management. Ethnopedological work has contributed to ethno-scientific knowledge by bridging the communication gap between scientists and locals concerning soil taxonomies, soil health, and soil fertility management. This study explores mental models of farmers and experts, examining the communication gap concerning soil health and food security. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from farmers (n = 19) and experts (n = 13). All stakeholders perceived pressures from urbanization as the main barrier to farmers' ability to continue to produce food, maintain their soil health, and contribute to national food security. The mental models of farmers reveal their ability to continue farming depends on their ability to construct and sustain a system—the soil food value chain. In this system, the farmer generates farm capital from a combination of high quality products, lower quality produce, and culls. This farm capital includes value-added products or soil amendments. However, experts did not perceive their responsibility to include maintaining a system, rather, only improving production. Experts' research and extension focused on improving product quality, increasing yield, decreasing cost of production, and minimizing the environmental impact of production. The mental models of farmers suggest research and extension related to building and maintaining the entire soil food value chain would increase the likelihood the farmers would better care for their soil and be profitable. This research contributes to the literature by recognizing the importance of examining the barriers to soil communication between stakeholders, as well as the importance to include examining soil within the larger food system.
6. Understanding corn belt farmer perspectives on climate change to inform engagement strategies for adaptation and mitigation
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Arbuckle, J.G. Jr. (author), Hobbs, J. (author), Loy, A. (author), Morton, L.W. (author), Prokopy, L.S. (author), and Tyndall, J. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2014
- Published:
- Soil and Water Conservation Society
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10526
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
- Journal Title Details:
- 69(6): 505-516
- Notes:
- 12 pages., via online journal., Development of extension and outreach that effectively engage farmers in climate change adaptation and/or mitigation activities can be informed by an improved understanding of farmers’ perspectives on climate change and related impacts. This research employed latent class analysis (LCA) to analyze data from a survey of 4,778 farmers from 11 US Corn Belt states. The research focused on two related research questions: (1) to what degree do farmers differ on key measures of beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks to agriculture, efficacy, and level of support for public and private adaptive and mitigative action; and (2) are there potential areas of common ground among farmers? Results indicate that farmers have highly heterogeneous perspectives, and six distinct classes of farmers are identified. We label these as the following: the concerned (14%), the uneasy (25%), the uncertain (25%), the unconcerned (13%), the confident (18%), and the detached (5%). These groups of farmers differ primarily in terms of beliefs about climate change, the degree to which they had experienced extreme weather, and risk perceptions. Despite substantial differences on these variables, areas of similarity were discerned on variables measuring farmers’ (1) confidence that they will be able to deal with increases in weather variability and (2) support for public and private efforts to help farmers adapt to increased weather variability. These results can inform segmented approaches to outreach that target subpopulations of farmers as well as broader engagement strategies that would reach wider populations. Further, findings suggest that strategies with specific reference to climate change might be most effective in engaging the subpopulations of farmers who believe that climate change is occurring and a threat, but that use of less charged terms such as weather variability would likely be more effective with a broader range of farmers. Outreach efforts that (1) appeal to farmers’ problem solving capacity and (2) employ terms such as “weather variability” instead of more charged terms such as “climate change” are more likely to be effective with a wider farmer audience.
7. Understanding factors that support well-functioning community coalitions
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Jacobs, Laurel (author), Orzech, Kathryn (author), Goodman, Greg (author), LeGros, Theresa (author), and Martinez, Stephanie (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-02
- Published:
- Extension Journal, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 132 Document Number: D11350
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 58(1)
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Article #: v58-1rb1, via online journal., Coalitions are central to Extension's community-based programs. To assess characteristics that support well-functioning coalitions and to support coalitions in which Extension stakeholders participate, we used the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory to assess 10 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education coalitions on the basis of research-tested collaboration success factors. Overall, the 103 coalition members who responded reported strengths related to communication and shared purpose and weaknesses in the areas of resources and process and structure for achieving the coalitions' aims. Our project represents a low-burden method for assessing Extension coalitions to understand the characteristics that are likely to support the achievement of collective goals.