The potential for rural areas to benefit from telecommunications technology is a persistent question. This article examines data for the USA concerning the "digital divide" and access of residences and businesses, which tend to suggest that all is (or will soon be) well. The article also presents data on aspects of digital infrastructure in rural America, including points of presence and digital telephone switches, which suggest that there are major shortcomings in most rural communities. Demand aggregation is a possible solution, but more serious pitfalls are those related to shortages of human capital. These might be resolved in some rural places, where immigration and return migration bring needed cerebral inputs to rural areas. A final set of improvements concerns how businesses use the Internet and e-commerce. In the end, telecommunications is not a "quick fix" solution for rural development, and the desired improvements will be limited to a fraction of rural places.
9 pages, via online journal, This paper examines the role of the “Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival” in developing and sustaining regional identities within the context of rural regeneration, sustainability, and the creation of closer relationships between production and consumption in the countryside. It focuses on Donggang, Southern Taiwan, an area with rural development issues, increasing tourism impacts, and contested issues of local identity, sustainability, and an aging society. This paper draws on public discourse and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in Donggang to understand the conditions required for substantiating authenticity of the gastronomic products and experiences and the promotion of an appealing gastronomic image. This study traces the process of embedding bluefin tuna in Donggang through marketing,branding and provides a preliminary conceptualization of interrelations between gastronomic tourism and community development in East Asia.
The paper draws attention to these particular issues issues: the commodification of local heritage and countryside capital, strategies and challenges of hosting culinary festivals and resolving the issue of return migration.
14 pages, via online journal, China's rapid urbanization process has pushed rural villages into an urban-rural integration movement. Several modes and approaches have been applied to remake space in rural China, which differ greatly in restructuring outcomes. In response, this article builds on the insights of regime theory to develop a conceptual framework to reveal the mechanism behind China's rural spatial restructuring and seeks to explore the underlying reasons that affect the outcomes. It is found that resource adequacy, the quality of resource coalition, and the effectiveness of implementation determine the rural regime's capacity to manage spatial restructuring. Case studies from Hua County, Chaohu City, and Shenzhen are used to illustrate the conceptual framework's application and facilitate a comparative analysis from the perspective of rural regime capacity. The findings provide a critical rethinking of the “sustainable remaking of rural space”, which could therefore shed light on the rural governance of countries in the global south generally.
12 pages, via online journal, Rural settlements in China have been experiencing unprecedented transformation since the economic reforms of the late 1970s. This paper examines population movement over the post-reform era and how this affects settlement patterns in an inland nonmetropolitan county-level city region with a well performing economy. It is found that the settlement size distribution in Gongyi is generally transforming from a traditional rural pattern to one that features an urban system, taking place in the form of “in situ urbanisation” and “rural urbanisation”. Without experiencing mass out-migration and in line with the transition of China's political economy, Gongyi has developed its local urban system in parallel with the life and spatial cycles of city-based urbanisation in China. From the perspective of urbanisation cycles, “in situ urbanisation” underpinned by relevant socioeconomic and political conditions is argued to be both theoretically meaningful and practically useful in the context of the evolving settlement systems in China and less urbanised countries.
10 pages, via online journal, As the agricultural industries of developed countries undergo an extended period of change, increasing numbers of farmers are leaving farming. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between intention to exit farming and farmer wellbeing, drawing on and adapting the conservation of resources theory of stress. In a quantitative analysis of 674 Australian farmers, we show that the more likely a farmer is to leave farming, the poorer their wellbeing; but this is moderated by smaller farm size, greater profitability, earning a larger proportion of income off-farm and older age, all of which attenuate the relationship between exit intention and poorer wellbeing. We conclude that it is important for policy-makers to consider the wellbeing of farmers when designing strategies to assist exiting farmers, as poor wellbeing at exit may reduce capacity to adapt successfully to life after farming.
Montgomery, Stephanie C. (author), Martin, Robert J. (author), Guppy, Chris (author), Wright, Graeme C. (author), Tighe, Matthew K. (author), and Agronomy and Soil Science, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2017-11
Published:
Australia: Science Direct
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 106 Document Number: D10937
9 pages, via online journal, Upland farming in Northwest Cambodia has developed rapidly over the last 20 years, with limitations to the plough based system now apparent, including soil degradation and reductions in yield and profitability. A survey was conducted in order to prioritise the main constraints to production, to aid in future research planning, and to identify potential beneficial modifications to the current system. Three hundred and ninety one farmers were interviewed regarding their current farming system constraints, knowledge of conservation agriculture and their future plans in the Districts of Samlout in Battambang Province and Sala Krau in Pailin Province. Perceived major problems in the farming system were extreme climate events such as droughts and heavy rain, declining crop yields, and cash flow shortages, particularly in the pre-monsoon period. This is a plough based farming system, yet 66% of farmers had heard of conservation agriculture, and 59% wanted to learn more about conservation agriculture practices. Two thirds of farmers were interested in how to grow crops in the post-monsoon dry season on residual soil moisture. The survey highlighted opportunities for farmer education and adoption of farming system modifications to improve productivity and sustainability of the farming system in Northwest Cambodia, and assist with climate change adaptation.
Hauser, Michael (author), Lindtner, Mara (author), Prehsler, Sarah (author), Probst, Lorenz (author), and University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2016-07-30
Published:
Austria: Science Direct
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 109 Document Number: D10962
9 pages, via online journal, Farmers who engage in farmer participatory research (FPR) change their established social roles in households and communities. As such, comprehension of farmers’ role transitions is important to understand the extrinsic and intrinsic factors impeding or supporting the uptake and use of FPR by farmers. The existing FPR literature, however, does not address such role transitions. In this study, we analyzed farmers’ experiences with FPR and underlying role transitions in a commercial organic agriculture project in western Uganda. We drew on quantitative and qualitative data from interviews, group discussions, and observations involving farmers and extension workers. Our results suggest extrinsic and intrinsic factors affect farmers’ self-conception, influencing their willingness to participate in FPR. The level of alignment between the self-conception and the anticipated role determines farmers’ decision regarding participation in FPR and affects their response pattern. Farmers’ response pattern and individual set of inhibitors and facilitators lead to the experience of role insufficiency or role mastery, which is crucial for farmers’ continuation or termination of on-farm experiments. Understanding and facilitating role transitions is, therefore, essential for sustaining on-farm experiments, which complements current technical FPR training.
14 Pages, Science Direct, Public and private agricultural information sources are fundamental components that could overcome the barriers to adopting sustainable reduced tillage practices. This study aims to identify the information sources frequently used by farmers and their role in changing from conventional intensive tillage to reduced tillage practices. The study is focused on the Altai Krai region in southwestern Siberia, which faces severe soil degradation problems, pointing to an urgent need for sustainable reduced tillage practices in the area. It relied upon both quantitative and qualitative data that included a quantitative survey with 110 farm managers and qualitative, in-depth interviews with five farm managers. Descriptive statistics were used to explore farm characteristics and farmers’ actual usage of information sources. A logit model was used to estimate the role of agricultural information sources in the adoption of reduced tillage practices. Results show that the participation frequency of farm managers in trainings and workshops influences the adoption of sustainable reduced tillage practices in a statistically significant and positive way. However, the estimation results give that the frequency of expert consultations (from both private and public sources) does not influence the probability of adopting sustainable reduced tillage practices. This may be explained by the fact that farm managers received limited information about sustainable reduced tillage practices from these sources.
Landini, Fernando (author) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnicas (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research), Argentina
University of La Cuenca del Plata, Argentina
University of Moron, Argentina
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2015-04-15
Published:
Argentina: Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D10882
9 pages, online journal article, Quality rural extension is of utmost importance for generating food security and sustainable rural development. In this paper, Argentine rural extensionists' point of view on how to be a good practitioner is described, as well as compared to good practices proposed by scholars and international development organizations. Forty rural extensionists from the Northeastern Argentine provinces were interviewed (29men, 11 women). Interviews were recorded and transcribed, texts were categorized and contents analyzed. Scholars and extensionists, despite agreeing to most of the same principles, frame their recommendations for good extension practices in different ways. The former's recommendations tend to be supported by multiple case studies and focused on best practices on the level of extension projects or policies, while the latter's tend to draw upon their own experience and develop proposals more concerned with interpersonal interactions and with overcoming practical problems in real (and not ideal)settings. Best extension practices depend on environmental, institutional, political and cultural contexts, this implying there is no best extension practice in general. Training extensionists in interpersonal skills and in social sciences is key for reaching good extension results. Horizontal communication between farmers and extensionists, negotiation over best technologies, and helping farmers reflect on their production practices are extension strategies with great potential.
