10 pages., Researchers investigated empowerment in the context of two strategies, Integrated Weed Management and Integrated Pest Management. Findings suggested: "With the rise of chemical resistance, the agricultural industry has placed considerable emphasis on the need to accelerate and achieve farmer adoption if IWM and IPM, but our evidence suggests that greater emphasis should be given to understanding the socio-cultural factors that affect farmer decision making. Farmer empowerment emerged as a core concept from the data."
Lindner, James R. (author), Dolly, David (author), Goff, Samuel (author), and Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2009-05
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 185 Document Number: D00433
Notes:
Pages 225-236 in the proceedings of the 25th annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 24-28, 2009.
8 pages., via online journal., The paper introduces the pest belief model and Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action to analyze farmers’ decisions in stem borer management. Farmers spent an average of $39/ha (median $18) on insecticides believing that if they had not controlled an average loss of 1004 kg/ha or $402 (median 592, $237) would occur. Farmers’ estimates of the worst attack averaged 19 white heads/m2 (median10) with the associated average loss of 1038 kg/ha or $415 (median 592, $270), implying that farmers’ decisions were guided by the worst attacks. Perceived benefits from insecticides were directly related with farmers’ insecticide use and perceived severity. Perceived susceptibility was also high, with 59% of farmers believing that a loss of 450 kg/ha would be “extremely or very likely”. Farmers believed insecticides could destroy natural enemies but placed only moderate importance to conserving them. Health was believed to be very important but farmers had mixed beliefs that spraying could bring about poor health. This study also provides evidence suggesting high peer pressure on farmers’ spray decisions directly influencing perceived benefits from sprays, insecticide spending and spray frequency.
