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12. Farmers’ perception of water quality and risks in the Mashavera river basin, Georgia: analyzing the vulnerability of the social-ecological system through community perceptions
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Withanachchi, Sisira S. (author), Kunchulia, Ilia (author), Ghambashidze, Giorgi (author), Al Sidawi, Rami (author), Urushadze, Teo (author), and Ploeger, Angelika (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-08-28
- Published:
- Switzerland: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10388
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(9)
- Notes:
- 26 pages., Via online journal., Competing natural resources usage that leads to dramatic land use changes can threaten the balance of a social-ecological system. When this is the case, communities are directly exposed to the negative consequences of those land use changes. The Mashavera River Basin is considered one of the hotspots of environmental pollution in Georgia. This is of importance for public health because the food production from this basin meets a substantial proportion of the country’s food demand. The farmers’ perception of the water quality and their perceived risks to the economy, health, and lifestyle reflect the status of the environmental and social conditions. The inclusion of farmers’ risk perceptions is an important stage of water quality governance that could enable active civic participation. The approach of this research study was the convergence model in the triangular design of the mixed method approach. As part of the social data, the research study was conducted with a survey of 177 households, for which agriculture was either a main or partial source of income. A few focus group discussions were also conducted. A binary logistic regression analysis was employed as the main method for the analysis. The results from the pollution load index (PLI) were used as the supportive data to verify some geospatial hypotheses. We found that aesthetic attributes (i.e., color changes observed in the river) and the source of the water contamination (i.e., mining sites) were the main predictor variables for a perceived risk to water quality, health, and livelihoods. The people who work in agriculture as the main income source had more concern about their ability to sell their agricultural products as a result of water contamination in the river, compared with people for whom agriculture is a secondary source of income or for self-consumption. Age, amount of land, years of agricultural experience, and the source of water supply for agriculture did not have a significant effect on any of the risk perception or water quality perception models. The results indicate that the health risk is perceived more strongly in areas with more heavily contaminated water compared to less polluted areas. We propose that conducting a public risk perception assessment is an ideal means to detect people’s concerns regarding water quality governance for future risk analysis in Georgia. Another recommendation of this study is an integrated model of risk assessment that combines the results from a public risk perception assessment and a technical assessment. The benefits of such an integrated assessment include finding new hazard-sensitive areas for further analysis, the possibility to cross-check data for verification, communal communication of hazardous conditions by utilizing local knowledge, and the direct participation of the community in monitoring risks.
13. Free range, organic? Polish consumers preferences regarding information on farming system and nutritional enhancement of eggs: a discrete choice based experiment
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Zakowska-Biemans, Sylwia (author) and Tekien, Agnieszka (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2017
- Published:
- MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10693
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 9(11)
- Notes:
- 16 pages., Article #: 1999, via online journal., The main purpose of this study was to determine the structure of consumer preferences regarding information on farming system and nutritional enhancement of eggs to verify if consumers are willing to accept products combing sustainability and nutrition related claims. The data was collected within a CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviews) survey on a representative sample of 935 consumers responsible for food shopping. A discrete choice-based conjoint method was selected in eliciting consumer preferences among different product profiles with varying levels of attributes. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify four distinct clusters that differed significantly in terms of importance attached to production system attributes and socio-demographic profiles. The results of the experiment showed that price and farming system had the most significant mean relative importance in shaping consumers’ preferences, while other attributes such as nutrition and health claims, egg size, package size and hen breed were far less important. Free range eggs had the highest relative importance for consumers despite the fact that organic egg production systems are governed by much stricter animal welfare standards. Our segmentation revealed that two of our four clusters may be more easily reached by information on animal welfare related attributes in egg production than the others. The results of our study provide the policy makers and marketing practitioners with insights applicable for communication and pricing strategies for eggs with sustainability claims.
14. Historical transition of a farming system towards industrialization: a danish agricultural case study comparing sustainability in the 1840s and 2019
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Lohrum, Nele (author), Graversgaard, Morten (author), and Kjeldsen, Chris (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-11-22
- Published:
- Switzerland: MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D12397
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- V. 13, N. 22
- Notes:
- 16 pages, A Danish pre-industrial farming system is reconstructed and compared to its modern industrialized farming system equivalent to evaluate agricultural performance in a sustainability perspective. The investigated Danish farm system and its contributing elements have undergone significant transformations. The intensity of contemporary agriculture shows that high productivity levels have been achieved by increasing the input of energy using modern machinery. At the same time, the energy efficiency (calculations based on energetic indicators) diminishes over time as the degree of dependence on fossil fuels increases. The results from this study show significant changes in the farming system, specifically inputs from agricultural land use, livestock, and energy systems. From being highly circular, the system changed to being a clear linear farming system with highly increased productivity but less efficient at the same time, questioning the relationship between productivity and efficiency and resource utilization in modern farming systems. Through utilizing an agroecological historical approach by comparing system performance over time, the results offer opportunities to explore how agricultural farming systems evolve over time and help to describe the complexity of the system level in a sustainability perspective.
15. How social media can foster social innovation in disadvantaged rural communities
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Onitsuka, Kenichiro (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-05
- Published:
- MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D11040
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 11(9)
- Notes:
- 24 pages., via online journal., Social innovation has received widespread attention in the rural development field, especially its contribution to future rural sustainability. Social innovation revolves around social networks. Rural areas, however, can be relatively disadvantaged by their geographical peripherality. Social media, therefore, has strong potential to foster social innovation by enabling remote communication, but in rural areas, social media use may be low because of an aging and decreasing population. This study examined community-level adoption and use of social media in rural areas in Japan, with a focus on Facebook, for the purpose of sharing community information and facilitating networking with a variety of actors to promote rural social innovation. The study involved a comprehensive search and case studies targeting 139,063 rural communities and 10,922 rural joint-communities, all of which are legally designated agricultural communities throughout Japan. The search found that disadvantaged rural communities’ adoption of Facebook was scarce, and most of the communities that had adopted Facebook did not expand their social networks. Furthermore, investigation into the communities that had adopted social networking to a larger extent revealed that external supporters or migrants had essential roles in successful networking. Based on the obtained findings, this study has provided insights for future policy design.
16. How will we eat and produce in the cities of the future? From edible insects to vertical farming - a study on the perception and acceptability of new approaches
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Specht, Kathrin (author), Zoll, Felix (author), Schumann, Henrike (author), Bela, Julia (author), Kachel, Julia (author), and Robischon, Marcel (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- International
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 99 Document Number: D10870
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 11(16)
- Notes:
- Via online. 27 pages., Global challenges such as climate change, increasing urbanization and a lack of transparency of food chains, have led to the development of innovative urban food production approaches, such as rooftop greenhouses, vertical farms, indoor farms, aquaponics as well as production sites for edible insects or micro-algae. Those approaches are still at an early stage of development and partly unknown among the public. The aim of our study was to identify the perception of sustainability, social acceptability and ethical aspects of these new approaches and products in urban food production. We conducted 19 qualitative expert interviews and applied qualitative content analysis. Our results revealed that major perceived benefits are educational effects, revaluation of city districts, efficient resource use, exploitation of new protein sources or strengthening of local economies. Major perceived conflicts concern negative side-effects, legal constraints or high investment costs. The extracted acceptance factors deal significantly with the “unknown”. A lack of understanding of the new approaches, uncertainty about their benefits, concerns about health risks, a lack of familiarity with the food products, and ethical doubts about animal welfare represent possible barriers. We conclude that adaptation of the unsuitable regulatory framework, which discourages investors, is an important first step to foster dissemination of the urban food production approaches.
17. Impacts of distance education on agricultural performance and household income: micro-evidence from peri-urban districts in Beijing
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Guo, Jianxin (author), Jin, Songqing (author), Chen, Lei (author), and Zhao, Jichun (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-10-30
- Published:
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10422
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(11)
- Notes:
- 19 pages., Article 3945, Via online journal., Information communication technology (ICT) has changed the traditional agricultural extension service mode worldwide. This paper examines the effects of the Rural Distance Education Project (RDEP) on the household income, agricultural productivity, and off-farm employment of farmers in peri-urban areas in Beijing. Using the survey data of 783 randomly selected farm households from 54 villages in three Beijing peri-urban districts in 2014, and the propensity score matching method (PSM), we find that the RDEP has a significant and positive effect on agricultural productivity and input use. Meanwhile, the program’s effects are heterogeneous across districts and households. For example, the RDEP has significant impacts on several outcome indicators, such as agricultural labor productivity (at a 5% level of significance), agricultural land productivity (at a 10% level), and input use intensity (at a 1% level) in Tongzhou (an agriculturally more important district, with a more intensive RDEP usage), but none of these effects is significant in Pinggu district. Furthermore, the RDEP is found to have bigger, and statistically more significant effects, for households with junior high school education than for those with either lower or higher than junior high school education. Furthermore, the RDEP is more effective for households with more assets than those with fewer assets. These results point toward the importance of using a rural distance education program as an effective extension service, and the need to take community and individual characteristics into account in the implementation and design of future programs.
18. Investigating gaps in perception of wildlife between urban and rural inhabitants: empirical evidence from Japan
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Kato, Eri (author), Yano, Yuki (author), and Ohe, Yasuo (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Japan
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 133 Document Number: D11371
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 11 : 4516
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Online via Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). 13 pages., Results of an online survey indicated that urban respondents did not have a comprehensive understanding of wildlife and any positive views were primarily abstract. Conversely, rural individuals had diverse perceptions, both positive and negative.
19. Is agricultural intensification a growing health concern? perceptions from waste management stakeholders in vietnam
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Veidt, Julia (author), Lam, Steven (author), Nguyen-Viet, Hung (author), Tuyet-Hanh, Tran T. (author), and Nguyen-Mai, Huong (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- United States: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 197 Document Number: D10417
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(12)
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Article 4395, via online journal, This article characterizes the health risk perceptions toward excreta and wastewater management practices among waste management stakeholders in Vietnam and explores the implications of such perceptions on hygiene behaviors and preventative actions. Key informant interviews (n = 19; 12 women and 7 men) were conducted with farmers, community leaders, researchers, and government representatives in Hanoi and Ha Nam Province. Interviews were audio-recorded with permission, transcribed, and analyzed using a constant comparative method and qualitative thematic analysis. Researchers and government representatives perceived that the lack of knowledge of safe waste management practices among farmers was responsible for the use of “outdated” and often “unsafe” waste management practices. However, many farmers were aware of the health risks and safe hygienic practices but felt that safety measures were impractical and viewed susceptibility to diseases as low risk. Farmers also identified unfavorable climate and working conditions, limited financial capacity, and limited farm space as barriers to adopting safe management practices. At the broader level, inadequate communication between ministries often led to the creation of inconsistent waste management regulations. These barriers create constraints on efforts to improve sustainable waste management practices. Promoting collaboration between sectors, encouraging farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, and designing and implementing risk communication strategies that account for risk perceptions of stakeholders are recommended.
20. Mediating influences of attitude on internal and external factors influencing consumers’ intention to purchase organic foods in China
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Chu, Kuo Ming (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- MDPI
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10680
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(12)
- Notes:
- 15 pages., Article #: 4690, via online journal., As with environment and sustainable development, there has been a rapid rise in the worldwide consumption of organic foods over the last years, as well as the quickly growing potential of organic markets in China, and their direct influence on consumer health awareness and social opinion. This study provides insights into Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward organic foods and evaluates purchase intention’s impact as a mediator in the relationship between external and internal factors on purchase intention. This empirical study is based on an online questionnaire using a sample of 1421 Chinese consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the main practical approach for data analysis, and six hypotheses were examined. The results show that a more positive attitude on the part of consumers toward organic foods will further reinforce their purchasing intentions, whereas, there was no significant impact of marketing price and communication on consumers’ attitudes toward organic foods. Furthermore, the results show that intention was a full or a whole mediator among the three exogenous constructs of environment awareness, health consciousness, and subjective norms. Based on the findings, marketing communication strategies should concentrate on offering more value to consumers regarding the features of nutritional value. Long-term environment friendliness, health benefits, and social status symbols should be assumed to enhance consumers’ purchase intention in the organic foods industry.
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