Ervin, David E. (author), Frisvold, George B. (author), and Portland State Univ, Inst Sustainable Solut, 241 Cramer Hall,1721 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 USA
Portland State Univ, Environm Management & Econ, 241 Cramer Hall,1721 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 USA
Univ Arizona, Dept Agr & Resource Econ, 319 Cesar Chavez Bldg, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016
Published:
USA: WEED SCI SOC AMER, 810 EAST 10TH ST, LAWRENCE, KS 66044-8897 USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08227
10pgs, Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) is gaining prominence as an agricultural pathway to poverty reduction and enhancement of sustainable food systems among government and development actors in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Despite substantial investment in research and extension programs and a growing understanding of the agronomic, economic and labor-saving benefits of CASI, uptake remains limited. This study explores farmer experiences and perspectives to establish why farmers choose not to implement CASI systems despite a strong body of recent scientific evidence establishing the benefits of them doing so. Through thematic coding of semi-structured interviews, key constraints are identified, which establishes a narrative that current households' resources are insufficient to enable practice change, alongside limited supporting structures for resource supplementation. Such issues create a dependency on subsidies and outside support, a situation that is likely to impact any farming system change given the low-risk profiles of farmers and their limited resource base. This paper hence sets out broad implications for creating change in smallholder farming systems in order to promote the adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies in resource-poor smallholder contexts, especially with regard to breaking the profound poverty cycles that smallholder farmers find themselves in and which are unlikely to be broken by the current set of technologies promoted to them.
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.
Singh, Lakhan (author), Bishnoi, Rajesh (author), Bihari, Bankey (author), Madan, S. (author), Malik, Anil Kumar (author), Shrimali, S. S . (author), Kadam, M. D. (author), and Singh, Raman Jeet (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-02
Published:
India
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10368
7 pages., Via online journal., The effectiveness of an extension system referred to its ability to meet the fanner needs in providing the new technology which suits to their conditions and results in better production. Recently the demand for information on agricultural practices and technology among the farmers is increasing day by day but fulfilment of these demands exclusively by public agricultural extension system is limited. To address this challenge, information communication technology (ICT) has the immense role in supplementing the extension system. Among the ICT tools, mobile phone, because of its affordability, accessibility, minimum skill requirement, widespread network etc., has emerged as important tool for information and knowledge dissemination to the smallholder and marginal farmers. But it is necessary to study how effective they are in achieving the respective objectives.The present investigation was conducted to study the effectiveness of mKRISHI (R) PAWS (Personalised Advisory on Water and Soil) in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state. An ex-post facto research design was used for this study. Total 136 messages were sent to the respondents. The data was collected from 240 beneficiary farmers of the north-western Himalayan region. The effectiveness of the mKRISHI (R) PAWS in technology advisory and delivery services were measured by developing an effectiveness index for the purpose. Results showed that 93.8% of farmers perceive that quality of information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was excellent and 83.75% of the farmers felt that the information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was appropriate to their condition. The study revealed that the extension services delivered by mKRISHI (R) PAWS were found to be highly effective by majority of the farmers. 34.58% fanners perceived that the mKRISHI (R) PAWS was very highly effective as a mean of getting their information needs.
17 pages., Via open source journal., The rural farmers in western Rajasthan State are uneducated and most of the applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are demonstrated and run in the English Language. The majority of these rural farmers who are illiterates with a very low level of understanding of the English Language find it difficult to take advantage of the availability of ICT to facilitate their access to information for their farm businesses. This study examined the role of ICT in enhancing the farmers’ access to production and marketing information in western Rajasthan State in India. Primary data was collected from 133 farmers consisting of 71 ICT users and 62 Non-ICT users through questionnaire administration. The results of the Analysis of Variance test regarding the farmers’ access to different types of production and marketing information revealed that the user type (i.e., ICT versus Non-ICT user) significantly explains the differences in farmers’ access to the different types of marketing and production information. These results are consistent with the empirical results of the student’s t-test that farmers’ access to different types of production and marketing information from ICT sources is significantly higher than from Non-ICT sources. Consistently, the empirical results of the multiple regressions revealed that the percentage of production and marketing information obtained from ICT sources had positive significant influence on the farmers’ access to marketing and production information; and that the percentage of marketing and production information obtained from Non-ICT sources had negative significant influence on the farmers’ access to marketing and production information. These results suggest that ICT sources of marketing and production information play a crucial role in the farmers’ access to this information for their business operations. The implication is that proper education and training of farmers (especially the female farmers) about the utilization of ICT sources to accelerate access to information is crucial
