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2. Challenge for excellence
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Format:
- draft
- Publication Date:
- 1988-08-12
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 198 Document Number: D09747
- Notes:
- NCR-90 Collection, The Missouri College of Agriculture and the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station. 8 pages.
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. Exploring the role of agricultural extension in promoting biodiversity conservation in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Abdu-Raheem, Kamal Adekunle (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2014
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10465
- Journal Title:
- Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
- Journal Title Details:
- 38(9): 1015-1032
- Notes:
- 19 pages., ISSN: 2168-3565 (Print) 2168-3573 (Online), Via online journal, Biodiversity conservation outside designated protected areas remains challenging in South Africa, where 80% of the biodiversity resources occur on private and communal lands. This applies to the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, which is the focus of this study. Landholders logically choose agricultural production ahead of conservation, which they often perform using non-ecological methods. Extension is well positioned to promote ecological agriculture, but its current contribution is unknown. This study examined the role of extension in ecological agriculture in KZN by investigating extension’s promotion of ecological agriculture among smallholder farmers and the factors impacting their employment of ecologically compatible practices. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with 44 respondents, comprising 5 provincial biodiversity conservation practitioners, 1 national biodiversity conservation manager, and 1 national and 4 provincial agricultural extension managers, selected by purposive sampling; as well as 25 extension officers and 8 farmers, selected by convenience sampling. The study found that extension mainly engages in technology transfer and distribution of production inputs, which poses challenges to biodiversity conservation. Extension shows little concern for biodiversity, and effectively promotes its degradation. Four sets of factors impacting extension’s capacity to promote ecological agriculture emerged: household/community-level, governmental, extension management, and ecological factors. Key among these were inadequate involvement of youth and men in agriculture; inadequate household production resources; poor collaboration and coordination between extension and biodiversity conservation institutions; top-down extension intervention; poor extension management and delivery capacities; and irregular and inadequate rainfall, as well as droughts and flooding. The study concluded that there is a need for a clearly articulated extension and biodiversity conservation policy supporting appropriate linkages and better coordination and integration of services among extension and biodiversity agencies within the National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture and with farmers; more effective agricultural education in schools; strengthening extension support systems; and creating conducive atmospheres for effective extension.
5. Extensao ou comunicacao? La conscientizacion en el medio rural
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Freire, Paulo (author)
- Format:
- Book
- Publication Date:
- unknown
- Published:
- International: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Mexico, D.F.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C27953
- Notes:
- 108 pages.
6. Learning from experts and peer farmers about rice production: experimental evidence from Cote d’Ivoire
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Takahashi, Kazushi (author), Mano, Yukichi (author), and Otsuka, Keijiro (author)
- Format:
- Journal article abstract
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10534
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 122: 157-169
- Notes:
- Abstract via online journal. 2 pages., Technological innovation is vital to economic growth and food security in sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural productivity has been stagnant for a long time. Extension services and learning from peer farmers are two common approaches to facilitate the diffusion of new technologies, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. Selection bias, whereby well-motivated training participants would perform better even without extension services, as well as knowledge spillovers, where non-participants can indirectly benefit from extension services, are among the major threats to causal inference. Using a unique sequential randomized experiment on agricultural training, this study attempts to meet the dual objectives of executing rigorous impact evaluation of extension services and subsequent spillovers on rice production in Cote d’Ivoire. Specifically, to reduce selection bias, we randomly assigned eligibility for training participation; and to satisfy the stable unit treatment value assumption, control-group farmers were initially restricted from exchanging information with treated-group farmers who had received rice management training. Once some positive impacts were confirmed, information exchange between the treated and control farmers was encouraged. We found that the initial performance gaps created by the randomized assignment disappeared over time, due presumably to social learning from peer farmers. A detailed analysis concerning the information network and peer effects provided suggestive evidence that there were information and technology spillovers from treated to control farmers after removing the information exchange restriction. Overall, our study demonstrates that information dissemination by farmers can be as effective in improving practices as the initial training provided by extension services.
7. Public opinions of farmer-oriented environmentally friendly extension programs: a case of best management practices
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Huang, Pei-wen (author), Lamm, Alexa J. (author), and Rumble, Joy N. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2016
- Published:
- United States
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: D08766
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Human Sciences and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 4(3) : 75-92
8. Reorienting Priorities of Extension and Advisory Services in India during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Chander, Mahesh (author) and Rathod, Prakashkumar (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-07-01
- Published:
- India: Indian Journal of Extension Education
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 294 Document Number: D12489
- Journal Title:
- Indian Journal of Extension Education
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 56 (3)
- Notes:
- Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) are delivered by millions of extension professionals representing the public, private and civil society located across the globe and have been helping in addressing farmers’ needs over the years, including during COVID-19 pandemic situation. However, public sector has been a major agency dealing with EAS in India and is facing several challenges and constraints to fulfil the demands of farmers on timely basis. The challenge today is to change the organizational culture to incorporate innovation as a core value and to institutionalize the emerging paradigms. Further, different strategies and measures need to be taken to ensure timely and quality EAS by reorienting extension priorities in such emergency situations and later too. In this context, an effort to review the extension mechanism across India and also has focused on reorienting extension priorities post COVID-19 scenario. The study has highlighted on strengthening extension and feedback mechanism, improving research-extension linkages, capacity building, public-private partnership (PPP), developing infrastructure, mass media support and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) etc. to improve the efficiency as the time demands. The paper concludes that reorienting extension priorities is very essential with a vast network of various stakeholders by adapting effective approaches like utilization of social media, human resource development, PPP, farmer groups etc. during and post pandemic scenario. Further, empirical efforts are also needed to develop reliable, location-specific, participatory, gender-sensitive and inexpensive extension methodologies and materials to meet the demands during such crisis. Further, developing countries like India have to invest in terms of various resources like financial, human resource etc. for promoting higher productivity and sustainability through EAS.
9. The distribution of farmer learning videos: Lessons from non-conventional dissemination networks in Benin
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Zoundji, Gérard C. (author), Okry, Florent (author), Vodouhê, Simplice D. (author), and Bentley, Jeffery W. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2016-01-01
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 38 Document Number: D10698
- Journal Title:
- Cogent Food & Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- 2(1): 1-15
- Notes:
- 15 pages., Article #: 1277838, via online journal., Commercial channels can be non-conventional networks for disseminating agricultural information, especially if farmers are willing to pay for a DVD with learning videos. Using purposive sampling, we selected retailer and involved them in selling videos compiled in a DVD. Inside the jacket of DVD, we pasted a sticker listing a phone number that buyers or video viewers could call for further questions. We interviewed 341 of the buyers who called that number. After the phone interviews, snowball sampling was used to select 180 farmers for face-to-face interviews in order to validate the information collected during the telephone interviews and to understand the behavioural changes triggered by watching the videos. Within four months of first distributing DVDs to retailers, 80% of the 700 DVDs were sold. Distributing videos through commercial channels gives a fair chance to everyone to learn, since the DVDs were sold on the open market at an affordable price. About 84% of the DVDs were sold at 1 USD, suggesting that all of the respondents were willing to pay for learning DVDs; 86% of respondents said they now spent less money on pesticides after watching the videos. Private sector actors can become “new extensionists” and distribute agricultural information to rural populations.