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    3. Building Bridges: improving extension support to organic growers in North Georgia

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Marabesi, Amanda Olbrick (author), Kelsey, Kathleen D. (author), Anderson, James C. (author), and Fuhrman, Nicholas E. (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2021-02-18
    Published:
    USA: School of Human Sciences at Mississippi State University
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12728
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Human Sciences and Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol. 9, N. 1
    Notes:
    20 pages, Organic agriculture has the potential to improve the environmental performance of U.S. agriculture, supporting increasing food demand and diversification of food consumption while improving the quality of ecosystems. Organic growers are challenged by a lack of Cooperative Extension agent support as agents have not served organic growers to the same extent as conventional growers nationwide. Rogers’ (2003) diffusion of innovations theory guided our phenomenological inquiry to explore (a) what agents experienced while supporting organic growers, and (b) how agents experienced providing support to organic growers in north Georgia. According to participants, the essence of the support offered to organic growers was an uneven bridge. Agents were willing to provide growers with the resources to support organic production; however, they lacked theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding organic agricultural production that would enable them to establish stronger relationships with growers. Findings from the study and the uneven bridge metaphor led to an original model to assist Extension agents in better serving the organic agricultural community.

    4. Cover crops and specialty crop agriculture: exploring cover crop use among vegetable and fruit growers in Michigan and Ohio

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Schoolman, E.D. (author) and Arbuckle, J.G. (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2022-07
    Published:
    USA: Soil and Water Conservation Society
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12643
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
    Journal Title Details:
    V. 77, N.4
    Notes:
    15 pages, Cover crops—crops grown primarily to protect and improve soil—are widely considered to be an important component of sustainable agricultural systems because their use can provide multiple ecosystem services without compromising yields over time. Specialty crops—fruits, vegetables, and horticultural crops—are increasingly important to US agriculture and food security and uniquely vulnerable to climate-related problems that cover crops can help to address. Yet far less research has been conducted on cover crop use by farmers who grow mainly specialty crops, compared to the much larger body of research on farmers who principally grow row crops like corn (Zea mays) and soybeans (Glycine max). In this study, we draw on survey data from a stratified, random sample of 881 specialty crop growers in Michigan and Ohio to accomplish two main goals. First, we seek to characterize cover crop use among this important group of farmers, focusing on types of cover crop used and use of multiple types. Second, we examine the relationship between cover crop use on vegetable and fruit farms and key social and economic factors, with particular attention to farmers’ environmental values, adherence to organic principles, and sources of information. According to survey results, cover cropping is more likely when farmers (1) manage certified organic (p &lt; 0.01) or organic-in-practice (p &lt; 0.05) farms; (2) report being influenced by private crop consultants (p &lt; 0.01); (3) attach high importance to agri-environmental goals (p &lt; 0.01); and (4) grow vegetable crops instead of or in addition to fruit crops (p &lt; 0.001). No relationship was found to exist between cover cropping and farmers’ concerns about climate-related risks, education level, or perceived self-efficacy. We conclude by suggesting that the importance of structural factors to farmers’ decisions about cover crops should not be underestimated. Promoting and strengthening the market for organic food may be the most direct pathway toward increasing the number of farmers who use cover crops. Historically important entities in agricultural networks, including cooperative extension and conservation nongovernmental organizations, might enhance their impact on cover crop use by forming new partnerships with private crop consultants.

    5. Environmental impacts and consumer preference for sustainably cultivated Japanese mustard spinach, komatsuna

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Seo, Yuna (author), Someya, Yuki (author), and Dowaki, Kiyoshi (author)
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2019-01
    Published:
    Elsevier
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10521
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Environmental Management
    Journal Title Details:
    231: 364-369
    Notes:
    6 pages., via online journal., Sustainable agriculture is spreading in Japan in response to growing concerns about the environmental burden of the agriculture sector, but less than 1% of the total crop area for each vegetable in Japan is grown sustainably. Environmentally friendly agricultural products are produced by using organic and low-input farming techniques; low-input farming aims to reduce chemical inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, by half. Here, we used komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach, Brassica rapa var. perviridis) as a model vegetable to study the environmental impact of low-input farming and ways to promote the purchase of organically and low-input farmed vegetables. We first assessed greenhouse gas emissions resulting from organic, low-input, and conventional farming of komatsuna. We also evaluated the effectiveness of providing consumers with detailed farm management and seasonality information to market organically and low-input farmed vegetables. We estimated marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) using choice-based conjoint analysis, based on attributes of price, fertilizer use, pesticide use, and region of origin. For seasonality, the questionnaire incorporating these attributes was conducted twice: once assuming purchasing in season, the other out of season. The greenhouse gas emissions of organic farming per area (196.7 kg CO2-eq/10 a/year) and per yield (72.3 kg CO2-eq/t/year) were less than those of low-input (322.6 kg CO2-eq/10 a/year, 120.7 kg CO2-eq/t/year) and conventional (594.0 kg CO2-eq/10 a/year, 220.7 kg CO2-eq/t/year) farming. MWTPs were highest for pesticide-free komatsuna (76.9 yen out of season, 66.2 yen in season), followed by full organic fertilizer (66.0 yen out of season, 63.4 yen in season), half organic fertilizer (35.8 yen out of season, 19.8 yen in season), and half pesticide (29.2 yen out of season, 21.0 yen in season). Consumers showed greater preference for organically and low-input farmed komatsuna out of season than in season. Consumers were more interested in pesticide information than in fertilizer and region of origin information. Our findings suggest that providing detailed cultivation and seasonality information would be a beneficial consumer communication tool to increase the market for sustainable agricultural products.

    6. Grower communication networks: information sources for organic farmers

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Crawford, Chelsi (author), Grossman, Julie (author), Warren, Sarah T. (author), and Cubbage, Fred (author)
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2015-06
    Published:
    Extension Journal, Inc.
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10604
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    53(3)
    Notes:
    14 pages., Article #:3FEA9, via online journal., This article reports on a study to determine which information sources organic growers use to inform farming practices by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 organic farmers across 17 North Carolina counties. Effective information sources included: networking, agricultural organizations, universities, conferences, Extension, Web resources, personal experience, books, organic buyers/certifiers, and consultants. Results suggest that grower-to-grower networking is a highly effective information-seeking behavior for organic growers. Recommendations for Extension personnel include reshaping educational programing for organic growers to include peer-to-peer information sharing, as well as increased investment to graduate and undergraduate programs that train future Extension agents in organic production approaches.

    7. Highlighting a key question for the common agricultural policy: adoption of agriculture system types

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Papadopoulos, Sotirios (author), Markopoulos, Theodoros (author), Chousou, Charoula (author), Natos, Dimitrios (author), and Mattas, Konstadinos (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2019-06
    Published:
    Germany: CENTMA Research
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12702
    Journal Title:
    International Journal on Food System Dynamics
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol.10, N.3
    Notes:
    12 pages, One of the key questions that concerns policy makers, related to the long term planning of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), is the form of agriculture that farmers intend to follow in the future. In order to highlight that question, a sample of producers from the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Greece were surveyed and analyzed in order to identify and assess the factors that influence farmers’ adoption of organic, conventional or integrated agriculture systems. The paper methodologically applies double-valued logistic regressions, one for each form of agriculture, to the selected sample. Results indicate that producers' training and high awareness of CAP policies are positively correlated with the future adoption of organic farming systems, while the adoption of integrated agriculture depends on producers’ age as well as their positive or negative opinions regarding the conventional agricultural system.

    8. Impact of internet use on farmers’ organic fertilizer investment: a new perspective of access to credit

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Weng, Feilong (author), Liu, Xuan (author), and Huo, Xuexi (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2023-01-16
    Published:
    Switzerland: MDPI
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12772
    Journal Title:
    Agriculture
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol. 13, Iss. 1
    Notes:
    13 pages, Encouraging farmers to increase the use of organic fertilizer will be conducive to promoting the green transformation of farmers’ production and realize sustainable agricultural development. As a long-term investment, the accuracy of farmers’ access to organic fertilizer information and the supporting role of credit are important factors that affect their organic fertilizer application decisions. However, the existence of information asymmetry in the organic fertilizer market and the credit constraints in the financial market, which restricts the enthusiasm of farmers to apply organic fertilizer. In recent years, the rapid development of the Internet in China’s rural areas has effectively alleviated the degree of information asymmetry in rural areas, and improved farmers’ access to credit, which provides a new opportunity for farmers to increase the application rate of organic fertilizer. This study takes 1030 apple growers in the main apple production areas of China as the research object, and employs Tobit model, IV-Tobit model and mediation effect model to explore the impact of internet use on farmers’ organic fertilizer investment. The results show that internet use can promote farmers’ organic fertilizer investment. After addressing the endogeneity issue and the robustness test, the conclusion is still robust. Heterogeneity analysis shows that internet use has a more significant impact on organic fertilizer investment in the older generation and the large-scale group of farmers. The mechanism analysis shows that internet use affects farmers’ organic fertilizer investment through improving access to credit. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously improve the construction of rural digital infrastructure, accelerate the development of the Internet in rural areas, and actively guide financial resources to agriculture, so as to effectively promote the green transformation of agricultural production.

    10. Motivations, goals, and benefits associated with organic grain farming by producers in Iowa, U.S

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Han, Guang (author), Arbuckle, J. Gordon (author), and Grudens-Schuck, Nancy (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2020-11-06
    Published:
    United States: Elsevier
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12517
    Journal Title:
    Agricultural Systems
    Journal Title Details:
    191
    Notes:
    14 pages., CONTEXT The U.S. has the world's largest organic food market. However, low domestic production and a low adoption rate of organic grain farming limit the overall development of this sector. Multiple organic stakeholders have called for a better understanding of cognitive and motivational aspects of farmers' decision-making processes to help policymakers, agricultural scientists, and extension practitioners to work more effectively with farmers to explore and adopt organic grain production. OBJECTIVE This paper assesses farmers' adoption motivations, long-term goals, and perceived benefits to examine the congruence between initial motivations, long-term goals, and current perceived benefits. METHODS We employed a sequential mixed-method approach that first interviewed organic farmers in Iowa, U.S. Then developed and administered a statewide survey for the organic farmers. Survey data were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis, paired-samples t-tests, and heteroskedasticity-robust regression models. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We identified five highly-rated motivations for farmers to adopt organic grain: 1) profitability, 2) personal safety, 3) natural resources stewardship, 4) consumers and public health, and 5) honor and tradition. We found organic farmers' long-term goals are strongly orientated to both productivism and stewardship but less strongly oriented to civic-mindedness. This research assessed five areas of benefits associated with organic grain farming: 1) economic benefit, 2) addressed health concerns, 3) environmental natural resources, 4) values and beliefs validation, and 5) social benefit. This study found the benefits farmers experienced by adopting organic grain farming aligned with most of their original adoption motivations and long-term goals, except for serving the motivation of consumer and public health concerns.