Number of results to display per page
Search Results
42. Artificial intelligence and the future of humans
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Anderson, Janna (author) and Rainie, Lee (author)
- Format:
- Research report
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- International: Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 133 Document Number: D11396
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online from website., "Experts say the rise of artifical intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will. Includes references to impacts on farmers, farming and climate.
43. Assessing research impact on poverty: the importance of farmers' perspectives
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- 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
- Journal Title:
- Agricultural Systems
- Journal Title Details:
- 72(1) : 73-92
- Notes:
- 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.
44. Assessing the Potentials of Digitalization as a Tool for Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Development in Urban Centres
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Balogun, Abdul-Lateef (author), Marks, Danny (author), Sharma, Richa (author), Shekhar, Himanshu (author), Balmes, Chiden (author), Maheng, Dikman (author), Arshad, Adnan (author), and Salehi, Pourya (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-02
- Published:
- Science Direct
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 121 Document Number: D11094
- Journal Title:
- Sustainable Cities and Society
- Journal Title Details:
- 53
- Notes:
- 12 pages., Digitalization is a key enabler of sustainable development of cities’ socio-economic dynamics with the potential to foster climate-friendly urban environments and societies. The advent of the 4th industrial revolution has seen the increased application of digitalization in several fields and at different levels. High-tech digital devices, platforms and environments are increasingly being deployed to enhance productivity, efficiency and sustainability, and improve overall well-being of urban dwellers. Digitalization is projected to further impact cities in future, transform jobs and trigger life-style changes with far-reaching impacts that will ultimately affect cities’ resilience and adaptation capacities. While a growing body of research has highlighted the significance of digitalization to climate change mitigation such as reducing GHG and CO2 emissions, comprehensive evaluations of the potentials of digitalization as an enabler of climate change adaptation remain scarce. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the current trend in digital revolution in relation to climate change adaptation and examines the likely challenges of digitalization. A desk research method was adopted, focusing on core digitalization concepts driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). Nine case studies in cities across various continents were selected to assess the potentials of digitalization in addressing climatic hazards and to highlight benefits from implementing digitalization, while considering the social-ecological-technological challenges and tensions around IR 4.0. Our findings reveal the capabilities of digitalization in supporting more effective early warning and emergency response systems, enhancing food and water security, improving power infrastructure performance, enabling citizen engagement and participatory adaptation measures and minimizing the impacts of climatic hazards. Finally, we recommend feasible pathways to overcome present risks and challenges in order to optimize the numerous opportunities offered by digitalization in support of climate change adaptation initiatives.
45. Assessing the status of social media familiarity among smallholder farmers: a case study of Thika, Kiambu Kenya
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Kimani, Anne W. (author), Nyang’anga, Hillary T. (author), and Mburu, John I. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Pakistan: eSci Journals Publishing
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 122 Document Number: D11153
- Journal Title:
- International Journal of Agricultural Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 7(1):13-20
- Notes:
- 8 pages., via online journal., Social media provides huge opportunities and incentives that could ease promotion of agricultural extension, facilitate real-time service delivery and enable wider farmer coverage. Ineffective dissemination approaches, expanding farmer population, low staffing, and aging agricultural extension agents continue to negatively affect the provision of agricultural extension services in Kenya. Despite the social media potential in agricultural communication, lack of awareness and low usage in the rural areas of developing countries have been documented. This study sought to establish the level of social media familiarity among smallholder rural farmers with the aim of exploring the possibility of usage in agricultural extension. The study was undertaken in Thika Sub-County of Kiambu County on 140 farmers through a researcher administered semi-structured questionnaire. Probability-proportional-to-size sampling method was employed to derive the sample size from existing extension farmer groups. Simple random sampling technique was further used to identify the actual respondents from each group. A low level of social media familiarity was established among the farmers with education, age and gender having significant influence. The study recommends awareness creation initiatives to promote social media familiarity with a particular focus on women who form the bulk of the farmers but with the lowest level of social media knowledge.
46. Assessment of extension agents' perception of mobile phone usage for communication with farmers in Edo South of Edo State, Nigeria
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Alakpa, S. O. E. (author), Afolabi, S. O. (author), and Ighalo, I. J. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 122 Document Number: D11147
- Journal Title:
- International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology
- Journal Title Details:
- 4(2):430-435
- Notes:
- 6 pages., ISSN: 2456-1878, via online journal., The use of mobile phones as means of communication between the extension agents and local farmers in Edo South was examined to determine the perception of the extension agents on its effectiveness. Fifty-one (51) respondents were obtained through random sampling using questionnaires to obtain relevant information in the two local government areas; Ovia North East and Ovia South West selected for the study. The result obtained indicated that male extension agents were in majority (72.5%), 54.9% of the sampled population above 45 years of age and 58.8% possessed 16 – 20 years working experience. Phone calls and short message service (SMS) were found appropriate for agricultural information dissemination. Significant and positive relationships were established between the working experience of extension agents and their perception of mobile phone usage. The recommendation is that formal integration of mobile phone into extension activities be done to enhance wider coverage, reduce cost and risks associated with movement. Extension agents and farmers need more training on effective usage of SMS and phone calls for interaction on farm related issues. Enforcement of existing telecommunication laws could reduce network failure and also enhance effective usage.
47. Assumptions of the deficit model type of thinking: ignorance, attitudes, and science communication in the debate on genetic engineering in agriculture
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Ahteensuu, Marko (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2012-06
- Published:
- USA: Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 158 Document Number: D07546
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics
- Journal Title Details:
- 25 (3): 295-313
48. Awareness level of use of Information Communication Technologies tools among Extension officers in the North- West Province, South Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Mabe LK (author), Oladele OI (author), and Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, North –West University Mafikeng Campus, South Africa.
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2012-01
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 109 Document Number: D10986
- Journal Title:
- Life Science Journal
- Journal Title Details:
- 9(3) : 440-444
- Notes:
- 5 pages., A simple random sampling technique was used to select 169 extension officers to examine their level of awareness of information communication technologies in North West Province, South Africa. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analysed using frequency counts, percentages and multiple regression analysis. The results show that majority of the extension officers were male (76%) with the mean age of 44.6 years, married (79%) and 82.5% were Christians. Forty one percent of the extension officers had Diploma as their educational qualification and a mean of 16.7 years as working experience. The results revealed that out of the 37 ICT tools listed, extension officers indicated high level of awareness of nine tools, which include mobile phones (1.79), computer (1.68), internet (1.77), overhead projector (1.62), fax machines (1.60), organization e mail (1.58), fixed telephone (1.52), personal email (1.52) and organization website (1.50). Significant determinants of awareness level were were religion (t = 1.91, p = 0.58); constraints to ICT use (t = 1.78, p = 0.78); importance of ICT tool (t = 1.93; p = 0.63) and 2 were significant at 0.05% which were competence on ICT use (t= 3.50; p = .001); (t= 2.0, p = .003). The study recommends that more information communication technologies should be made available to extension officers, so that they will become more aware of the use of ICT in extension work as tools that can gather and disseminate agricultural information.
49. Back to the Future Part 2: Surveying Geospatial Technology Needs of Georgia Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Professionals
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Merry, Krista L. (author), Bettinger, Pete (author), and Hubbard, William G. (author)
- Format:
- Online article
- Publication Date:
- 2008-08
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: C28398
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 46, No. 4
50. Back to the basics: are traditional educational methods still effective in a high-tech world?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Sneed, Christopher T. (author) and Franck, Karen L. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-12
- Published:
- Extension Journal, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 122 Document Number: D11150
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 57(6)
- Notes:
- 7 pages., Article # 6IAW6, via online journal., Although Extension educators have harnessed the power of technology as an important vehicle for conveying research-based content, it is important that the power of traditional educational methods not be overlooked. These traditional methods remain ideas that work, have worked, and continue to work even today. In this article, we spotlight these traditional ideas by presenting a social marketing campaign that engages limited-resource audiences via themed print educational materials—posters, brochures, and bookmarks. Evaluation results indicate that the campaign has been successful in engaging the target audience and motivating them regarding the adoption of healthful behavior changes.