Boehlje, Michael (author) and Langemeier, Michael (author)
Format:
Research report
Publication Date:
2021-03
Published:
USA: Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12167
Notes:
6 pages., Authors from the Center for Commercial Agriculture, Purdue University, discuss the adoption of precision agriculture technologies. Findings of cited research among farmers indicated that the average net benefit was almost $90 per acre, and the benefit cost ratio averaged 9.7 to 1. "These results suggest a much higher payoff of precision farming than previous studies. This higher payoff is a result of the whole-farm system benefits of the interactions among individual tools and technologies which result in a new way of farming."
8 pages, via Online journal, The use of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) grafting is gaining traction across the United States, but small-scale growers face the challenge of creating optimum postgrafting healing conditions. The practice of blocking light for a period of 2 to 4 days while maintaining high humidity is commonly recommended for healing grafted tomato transplants; however, research is exploring alternatives to this practice. The present study investigated a low-input healing method for grafted tomato transplants with a specific focus on light and the use of propagation heat mats to regulate substrate and healing chamber air temperatures during the 7-day healing process. We hypothesized that 4 days of light exclusion and the use of propagation heat mats would improve grafted tomato transplant survival and growth. ‘Cherokee Purple’ was used as the scion and ‘RST-04-106-T’ was used as the rootstock. The whole plot factor was heat [propagation mats set at 80 °F (heat) or no propagation mat (no heat)] and the subplot factor was light exclusion (0, 4, or 6 days of dark). The highest survival rate among treatments was 97% in 0 days of dark with no heat treatment; survival decreased to 84% in 4 and 6 days of dark with no heat treatments. The plant survival rate was 96% with 0 days of dark and heat treatment; however, the survival rates were 63% and 45% for the 4- and 6-day dark treatments, respectively. The scion stem diameter was largest for transplants grown in 0 days of dark, but there was no difference in stem diameter due to heat treatments. There were no differences among scion or rootstock biomasses due to heat or light treatments. These results demonstrate that propagation mats set at 80 °F to regulate the substrate temperature were detrimental to grafted transplant survival under extended periods of light exclusion. However, this finding creates the basis to explore lower levels of substrate temperature modification. Our work also indicates that light exclusion may not be necessary for healing grafted tomato plants regardless of root-zone temperature treatments. Future work should examine the interactions of various substrate and air temperatures under full light conditions and their effects on grafted tomato transplant survival and growth. This work contributes to the ongoing research of how to optimize low-input healing methods that may be readily adopted by small-scale tomato growers.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 13,2015, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Man vs nature.", Online from Chicago Tribune. 12 pafwa.
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."
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.
Alomia-Hinojosa,Victoria (author), Groot, CJ (author), Andersson, Jens (author), Speelman, Erika (author), McDonald, Andrew (author), and Tittonnell, Pablo (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2022-06-02
Published:
United States: Wiley Online
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12562
13 pages, Intensified livestock production is considered as a promising pathway for smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, this pathway may entail prohibitive investment requirements of labour, capital or trade-offs at farm level that preclude sustainable intensification. We used fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to assess farmers' perceptions of changes in the farm household system resulting from adding livestock to their mixed farms. Farmers identified trade-offs between the increased income and farmyard manure production versus increases in labour requirements for fodder imports. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis performed on the FCMs showed that an increase in milk market demand could have strong positive effects on livestock production and income. We conclude that FCM is a good tool to rapidly identify trade-offs and analyse perceptions of farmers which revealed that although they consider intensification a promising strategy, the perceived deepening of labour constraints and increasing dependency on fodder import makes a concurrent (sustainable) intensification of these farm systems unlikely.
Aurelie, Toillier (author), Baudoin, Alice (author), and Chia, Eduardo (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2014
Published:
Burkina Faso
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 132 Document Number: D11346
Notes:
Paper presented during the 11th European International Farming System Association (IFSA) Symposium, "Farming systems facing global challenges: capacities and strategies," April 1-4, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. 11 pages in proceedings, The study involved "learning regime" as the set of mechanisms that are triggers for and lead to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, allowing the head of the farm to improve production and management methods. Authors identified four types of regimes, calling into question the assumption of homogeneity of farmers' capabilities to change their routines to acquire new skills. Findings prompted suggestion that creating spaces for exchanges between producers who are at common stages of development or have similar problems, leveraging specific know-how of different ethnic groups and inter-cultural exchanges, and facilitating access to existing information in a given territory seem to be some of the many possible ways of strengthening existing dynamics of learning.
