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2. Addressing the needs: small-scale farmers in the United States: suggestions from FSR/E
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Robotham, Micheal P. (author) and McArthur, Harold J. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2001
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 120 Document Number: C13687
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Sustainable Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- 19(1): 47-63
- Notes:
- 17 p.
3. An investment with great returns
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Armbruster, Walt (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2007-05
- Published:
- USA: Farm Foundation, Oak Brook, Illinois
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 158 Document Number: C25828
- Journal Title:
- The Catalyst
- Journal Title Details:
- : 2
- Notes:
- Author emphasizes the productivity and economic value of public investments in production agriculture research and extension.
4. Can the TV makeover format of edutainment lead to widespread changes in farmer behaviour and influence innovation systems? Shamba Shape Up in Kenya
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10461
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 76: 338-351
- Notes:
- 14 pages., Edutainment, the combination of education with entertainment through various media such as television, radio, mobile phone applications and games, is increasingly being used as an approach to stimulate innovation and increase agricultural productivity amongst smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Shamba Shape Up, a widely publicised makeover reality TV programme, is an example of edutainment that has received considerable attention, and airs in three countries in East Africa where it is estimated to be watched by millions of viewers. There is no published academic research on the influence of makeover television formats on innovation systems and processes in smallholder agriculture. Using an Agricultural Innovation Systems approach, this paper explores how makeover edutainment is influencing smallholder farmer innovation systems together with the effect this is having on smallholder farms. In the absence of previous research, it articulates a Theory of Change which draws on research traditions from mass communication, agricultural extension and innovation systems. Data came from two large scale quantitative (n = 9885 and n = 1572) surveys and in-depth participatory qualitative research comprising focus group discussions, participatory budgets, agricultural timelines, case studies and key information interviews in Kenya. An estimated 430,000 farmers in the study area were benefiting from their interaction with the programme through increased income and / or a range of related social benefits including food security, improving household health, diversification of livelihood choices, paying school fees for children and increasing their community standing / social capital. Participatory research showed SSU enhanced an already rich communication environment and strengthened existing processes of innovation. It helped set the agenda for discussions within farming communities about opportunities for improving smallholder farms, while also giving specific ideas, information and knowledge, all in the context of featured farm families carefully selected so that a wide range of viewers would identify with them and their challenges. Broadcasts motivated and inspired farmers to improve their own farms through a range of influences including entertainment, strong empathy with the featured host farm families, the way ideas emerged through interaction with credible experts, and importantly through stimulating widespread discussion and interaction amongst and between farmers and communities of experts on agricultural problems, solutions and opportunities. The fact that local extension workers also watched the programmes further enhanced the influence on local innovation systems. The findings indicate that well designed makeover edutainment can strongly influence agricultural innovation processes and systems resulting in impact on the agricultural production and behaviours of large numbers of smallholder farmers.
5. Constraints to the utilisation of conservation agriculture in Africa as perceived by agricultural extension service providers
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Brown, Brendan (author), Nuberg, Ian (author), Llewellyn, Rick (author), and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide CSIRO Agriculture
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10460
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 73: 331-340
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online journal., Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a knowledge-intensive set of practices which requires substantial access to functional agricultural extension services to enable utilisation. Despite this importance, the perspectives of those providing extension services to smallholder farmers have not been fully investigated. To address this, we qualitatively explore the perspectives of agricultural extension providers across six African countries to understand why uptake of CA has been limited, as well as the institutional changes that may be required to facilitate greater utilisation. Across the diversity of geographical, political and institutional contexts between countries, we find multiple commonalities in the constrained utilisation of CA by smallholder farmers, highlighting the difficulties non-mechanised subsistence farmers face in transitioning to market-oriented farming systems such as CA. The primary constraint relates to the economic viability of market-oriented farming where farmers remain in low input and low output systems with limited exit points. The assumed exit point used by CA programs appears to have led to a culture of financial expectancy and reflects a continuation of top-down extension approaches with inadequate modification of CA to the contextual realities of subsistence farmers. If African agricultural systems are to be sustainably intensified, we find a need for greater flexibility within extension systems in the pursuit of sustainable intensification. If extension systems are to persist with CA, it will need to be promoted through more transitional pathways that disaggregate the CA package, and with that there is a need for the provision of a mandate to, and necessary funding for, more participatory extension services.
6. Information empowers vegetable supply chain: A study of information needs and sharing strategies among farmers and vendors
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bu Zhong (author), Fan Yang (author), Yen-Lin Chen (author), and College of Communication, Pennsylvania State University Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania State University
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2015
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10462
- Journal Title:
- Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- 117: 81-90
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online journal., Agricultural extension systems often fail due to inadequate knowledge of farmers’ information needs and sharing strategies. This study aims to meet an urgent need of studying information needs and sharing strategies among vegetable farmers and vendors in Chengdu, China, whose results might be used in building a center of agricultural information disseminating vegetable production and marketing information. The findings disclose interesting differences between the farmers and vendors regarding their willingness to join such a center, information needs, sharing strategies and preferred information sources. Ample evidences justify the construction of the proposed center of agricultural information, which should not only empower the vegetable farmers and vendors but also enhance the efficiency of the existing vegetable supply chain and food security. Cross-discipline research involving both agriculture and communication scholars, like this, should shed more insights on working out strategies to cope with agricultural challenges.
7. Information needs and source informatin of agricultural extension workers in DIY
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Wuloandari, Retno (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2015-07
- Published:
- Indonesia
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: D08752
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development Research
- Journal Title Details:
- 1(2)
- Notes:
- 13 pages.
8. Measuring public agricultural research and extension and estimating their impacts on agricultural productivity: new insights from U.S. evidence
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Yu Jin (author), Huffman, Wallace E. (author), and Department of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Department of Economics, Iowa State University
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2016
- Published:
- Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10455
- Journal Title:
- Agricultural Economics
- Journal Title Details:
- 47 : 15-31
- Notes:
- 17 pages., Via online journal., This article provides new estimates of the marginal product of public agricultural research and extension on state agricultural productivity for the U.S., using updated data and definitions, and forecasts of future agricultural productivity growth by state. The underlying rationale for a number of important decisions that underlie the data used in cost‐return estimates for public agricultural research and extension are presented. The parameters of the state productivity model are estimated from a panel of contiguous U.S. 48 states from 1970 to 2004. Public research and extension are shown to be substitutes rather than complements. The econometric model of state agricultural TFP predicts growth rates of TFP for two‐thirds of states that is less than the past trend rate. The results and data indicate a real social rate of return to public investments in agricultural research of 67% and to agricultural extension of 100+%. The article concludes with guidance for TFP analyses in other countries.
9. Old skills and new ideas in Macedonia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Janev, Viktor (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2006-09
- Published:
- Macedonia: Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 154 Document Number: C25049
- Journal Title:
- LEISA
- Journal Title Details:
- 22(3) : 26-27
10. Participatory research and training: ten lessons from the farmer field schools (FFS) in the Andes
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Thiele, G. (author), Nelson, R. (author), Ortiz, O. (author), and Sherwood, S. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2001
- Published:
- International
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C25566
- Journal Title:
- Currents
- Journal Title Details:
- 27 : 4-11