9 pages., Via online journal., In a world where the notion of ‘sharing of knowledge’ has been gained much prominence in the recent past, the importance of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to promote sustainable agriculture, especially when combined with mobile and open source software technologies is discussed critically. On this rationale, this study was carried out to explore the applicability of the concept of converging ‘Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)’ to promote sustainable knowledge sharing amongst the agricultural communities in Sri Lanka. A multi-stage community consultative process with a set of designated officials (“Sponsors”) and a series of semi-structured questionnaire survey with a cross section of smallholder agriculture farmers (n=246), were carried out in the Batticaloa, Kurunegala and Puttalam districts to gather the baseline data. This was followed by a number of field experiments (“Campaigns”) with the farmers (n=340) from same geographical areas. The two FOSS, namely: (1) “FrontlineSMS” for ‘Text Messaging’ and (2) “FreedomFone” for ‘Interactive Voice Responses’, were applied to evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge sharing within the farming communities. It was found that FOSS intervention increases the ‘Text messaging’ and ‘Voice Call’ usage in day-to-day agricultural communication by 26 and 8 percent, respectively. The demographic factors like age and income level of the farmers has positively influence on the knowledge sharing process. And also the ‘Mobile Telephony’ was the most extensive mode of communication within the communities. The outcome of analysis, as a whole, implies that, with a fitting mechanism in place, this approach can be promoted as a “drive for positive changes” in agriculture-based rural communities in developing countries like Sri Lanka, and those in South and East Asia with similar socio-economic and cultural perspectives.
Robertson, Michael J. (author), Preston, Nigel P. (author), and Bonnett, Graham D. (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2017
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08788
Notes:
Pages 155-172 in Gordon, Iain J. Prins, Herbert H.T. Squire, Geoff R. (eds.), Food production and nature conservation: conflicts and solutions. United Kingdom: Routledge, London. 348 pages.
Alpmann, Jan (author), Bitsch, Vera (author), and Technical University of Munich, Chair Group Economics of Horticulture and Landscaping, Alte Akademie 16, Freising, Germany
Technical University of Munich, Chair Economics of Horticulture and Landscaping, Alte Akademie 16, Freising, Germany
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2017-01
Published:
Germany: Elsevier Ltd.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 162 Document Number: D08106
12 pages. Located on pages 17-28 of pdf., The study assessed the level of awareness and determined the level of participation of fish farmers in Agricultural Insurance Scheme (AIS) with a view to improving on the level of awareness and consequently participation. The study adopted the survey method of research. The study population comprised all the 1,728 registered fish farmers in Ondo State. Only 295 respondents were sampled from the population using the Raosoft sample size calculator. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to distribute the sample population among the Local Government Areas (LGAs). Two Local Governments Areas (LGAs) were purposively selected from each of the four zones based on the prominence in fish farming. Second stage involved random selection of two communities each from the selected LGAs. At the last stage, fish farmers register was used to proportionately distribute the farmers to LGAs. The results showed the mean age of fish farmers to be 44.6±10.1years and majority (83.4) were married. The mean household size was 5±2 and about 96% was able to read and write. The mean years of fish farming experience was 13.54±11.9 and all of them were smallholders. About 70.5% were aware of AIS but only 15% were under fish policy cover for the last five years. Majority (82.3%) had moderate participation level with only 4.4% with high level of participation. There was strong correlation (R = 0.759) between the variables investigated and level of participation. Also three variables age, contact with extension and awareness regressed positively while number of information sources and household size regressed negatively with level of participation. It was concluded that despite the high level of awareness, level of participation was low.
