15 pages., The determinants of agricultural extension communication channel usage depend on several factors but have not been explored in the context of emergency (Fall Armyworm outbreak) and non-emergency situations. A multistage purposive sampling technique was used to select 318 farmers, focusing on the districts and the communities with the highest reported cases of fall armyworm infestation. Descriptive statistics and a multivariate probit analysis were used in the analysis of the data. The results showed an increase in the intensity of channels’ usage in the emergency situation. It was also found that fertilizer and improved seeds were the most common extension need. Channels are found to be more complementary in the emergency case. In both situations, some factors explaining the choices of these channels varied, while others agreed. The study recommends multiple channels are made available and that time-consuming channels irrespective of their effectiveness should be avoided by extensionists in emergency situations.
Paine, Darin James (author) and Texas A&M University
Format:
Dissertation
Publication Date:
2018
Published:
Ann Arbor: ProQuest
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10475
Notes:
59 pages., ISBN: 9780438880009, Via ProQuest Dissertations and Theses., The purpose of this study is to understand successful and failed partnerships between industries in production agriculture and Agricultural Extension services in order to determine appropriate avenues for mutually beneficial relationships. Participants across various industries in production agriculture were surveyed in order to provide their perception of partnerships with Extension. Using phenomenology as qualitative research the results indicate a clear disconnect between production agriculture and Extension. Production agriculture industries highlight certain programs and elements within Extension that contribute to successful partnerships. However, a lack of expertise and communication by Extension personnel contribute to failed partnerships, or worse, no working relationship whatsoever. The data includes overarching concepts and meaning as to why partnerships are considered successful or not. Production agriculture is turning to other organizations for collaboration that perform similar work to Extension including non-governmental organizations. However, industries in production agriculture identify opportunities to create new or improve upon existing partnerships with Extension.
11 pages, This study examined village extension agent’s access and use of information and communication technology in extension services delivery to farmers in Plateau State, Nigeria. The population for the study consisted of all the village extension agents (VEAs) of the Plateau Agricultural Development Program (PADP) in the central agricultural zone of the state. Multistage sampling technique was employed in selecting the respondents for the study. Primary data were collected through the administration of questionnaires and interview techniques and were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings from the study shows that majority (77%) of the sampled village extension agents (VEAs) were males with a mean age of 43 years, Majority (87%) of the respondents were married with a mean household size of 4 persons. The study also showed that majority (80%) of the VEAs had tertiary education with a mean working experience of 13 years and average monthly income of ₦64875. The result also shows that four (4) out of the seven (7) listed ICT facilities were adjudged the ICT facilities accessible to VEAs in the study area having had mean values above the discriminating index (x̅ =2.50). They included; GSM (phone) (x̅ =3.94), radio (x̅ = 2.83), television (x̅ = 2.73) and computer (x̅ = 2.68). Based on 2.50 discriminating index, only two out of seven listed conventional ICT facilities had mean values above the discriminating index (x̅ 2.50) and thus were adjudged the ICT facilities used by VEAs. The GSM (phone) had the highest mean value of 3.62 followed by radio with mean value of 2.54. The logit regression result shows that coefficients of years of working experience and monthly income were significant and positively related to ICT use, while age and complexity in use of ICT were significant and negatively related to ICT use. Major constraints to use of ICT by VEAs includes; lack of administrative support in provision of ICT (87%), lack of in-service training on ICT use (66%), Poor salary/remuneration (64%), lack of awareness of ICT importance in extension (56%) among others. The study recommends intervention, serious synergy, and proactive response on the part of the government, non-governmental organization,s and extension organizations in ICT provision and training of VEAs on ICT use as well as stepping up campaigns on the importance of ICT use in agricultural extension delivery.
5 pages., A simple random sampling technique was used to select 169 extension officers to examine their level of awareness of information communication technologies in North West Province, South Africa. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analysed using frequency counts, percentages and multiple regression analysis. The results show that majority of the extension officers were male (76%) with the mean age of 44.6 years, married (79%) and 82.5% were Christians. Forty one percent of the extension officers had Diploma as their educational qualification and a mean of 16.7 years as working experience. The results revealed that out of the 37 ICT tools listed, extension officers indicated high level of awareness of nine tools, which include mobile phones (1.79), computer (1.68), internet (1.77), overhead projector (1.62), fax machines (1.60), organization e mail (1.58), fixed telephone (1.52), personal email (1.52) and organization website (1.50). Significant determinants of awareness level were were religion (t = 1.91, p = 0.58); constraints to ICT use (t = 1.78, p = 0.78); importance of ICT tool (t = 1.93; p = 0.63) and 2 were significant at 0.05% which were competence on ICT use (t= 3.50; p = .001); (t= 2.0, p = .003). The study recommends that more information communication technologies should be made available to extension officers, so that they will become more aware of the use of ICT in extension work as tools that can gather and disseminate agricultural information.
12 pages, The use of information and communication technology (ICT) has become progressively widespread in various sectors including agriculture. This study investigated the barriers to the diffusion of ICT in agricultural extension. Further, the study examined the effect of barriers toward ICT acceptance in agricultural extension. A paper and pencil survey by mail was conducted to collect data from 355 respondents in the Greater Surakarta Region, Indonesia. The study discovered that individual barriers, cultural barriers, government policy barriers, support and technological barriers significantly influenced the acceptance of ICT. In line with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), these variables influenced perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived intention to use of ICT. The findings suggested the methods that could be adopted by governments and non-government bodies to overcome the barriers in ICT implementation.
24 pgs., In order to stay relevant in an online world, Extension must properly use social networking platforms to effectively reach diverse audiences regarding agricultural and natural resource issues. However, few studies have focused on how Extension uses Facebook to effectively accomplish its goal. This study’s purpose was to explore how Utah State University Extension Sustainability uses Facebook to engage followers. The researchers conducted a quantitative content analysis of 504 messages posted to the USU Extension Sustainability Facebook page. Graphics and links were the most common post characteristics used by the organization. Text-only posts and posts containing videos were utilized the least. Food was the most common area of sustainability discussed on the page. Posts containing videos, shared content, or that tagged other Facebook pages in messages experienced statistically significantly higher user engagement than posts without those characteristics. Posts containing hashtags experienced statistically significantly lower engagement. Neutral sentiment appeared in the majority of posts. Additionally, information seeking was the most dominant communicative function among the posts. Neither the type of sentiment nor communicative functions were significantly connected to engagement. Future research should determine changes in knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behavior as a result of exposure to, and engagement with, the Facebook page. Additionally, a qualitative study determining consumers’ attitudes toward Facebook content can provide a deeper understanding of the audience’s thought processes and content preferences. Page administrators should craft engaging content that builds community among followers.
Bowman, Brittany (author), Settle, Quisto (author), North, Elizabeth Gregory (author), Lewis, Kerri Collins (author), and Oklahoma State University
Mississippi State University
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2018
Published:
United States: New Prairie Press
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 152 Document Number: D10159
18 pages, via online journal, Extension is often called the “best-kept secret” having low awareness with the public but high satisfaction with clientele. Extension services nationwide have faced budget cuts, creating a need for the organization to re-evaluate its activities, including how it communicates with its stakeholders. While Extension personnel are the ones who will do most of the communicating, their supervisors impact the personnel’s actions, which means it is important to assess both groups. A survey was conducted with Extension personnel and their supervisors in Mississippi assessing engagement in communications activities and perceptions of those activities, as well as personnel’s preference of professional development activities. Personnel reported higher use, comfort, and importance of more traditional (e.g. making a speech) and written activities (e.g. writing a promotional handout) than media-relations activities (e.g. being interviewed for TV), social media-related activities (e.g. managing a Twitter account), and visual communication activities (e.g. graphic design). Supervisors perceived individual communications activities as less important overall than personnel did, and although supervisor and communication scores for use and comfort/capability were similar for most communication activities, there were noticeable exceptions. Additionally, personnel preferred professional development activities that were hands-on or showing the activities first-hand (e.g. demonstrations and field days). Future research should be expanded to other states, conducted in a case study format to study specific relationships, and involve qualitative components. Extension should ensure clear supervisor-communication dialogue on prioritizing communication activities, provide training on communication activities with low use and comfort, and utilize early innovators who are comfortable using newer communication activities.
6 pages, Despite the huge potential for milk production, interventions to improve productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are barely based on specified farm classifications. This study aimed to develop robust and context-specific farm typologies to guide content of extension farm advice/services in Uganda. From a sample of 482 dairy farmers, we collected data on farmer socio-demographics, farm management practices, ownership of farm tools and facilities, willingness to pay for extension services, milk production, and marketing. Farm typologies were obtained based on principal component and cluster analyses. Thereby, of the three dairy production systems that emerged, small-scale, largely subsistence yet extensive and low productive farms were more prominent (82.6%). Farms that were classified as large-scale, less commercialized yet extensive with modest productive systems were more than the medium-scale commercial farms with intensive and highly productive systems. However, the later were considered to potentially transform dairy farming in Uganda. It was also predicted that the validity of our farm classification may persist until half of the farms have moved between clusters. The study gives new insights on dairy production systems in Uganda, which can be used to organize more targeted research on farmers’ extension needs for facilitating delivery of relevant and effective extension services and designing appropriate extension policies
17 Pages., Given the marked heterogeneous conditions in smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a growing policy interest in site-specific extension advice and the use of digital extension tools to provide site-specific information. Empirical ex-ante studies on the design of digital extension tools and their use are rare. Using data from a choice experiment in Nigeria, we elicit and analyze the preferences of extension agents for major design features of ICT-enabled decision support tools (DSTs) aimed at site-specific nutrient management extension advice. We estimate different models, including mixed logit, latent class and attribute non-attendance models. We find that extension agents are generally willing to use such DSTs and prefer a DST with a more user-friendly interface that requires less time to generate results. We also find that preferences are heterogeneous: some extension agents care more about the effectiveness-related features of DSTs, such as information accuracy and level of detail, while others prioritise practical features, such as tool platform, language and interface ease-of-use. Recognising and accommodating such preference differences may facilitate the adoption of DSTs by extension agents and thus enhance the scope for such tools to impact the agricultural production decisions of farmers.
21 pages, Despite decades of investment in agricultural extension, technology adoption among farmers and agricultural productivity growth in Sub-Saharan Africa remain slow. Among other shortcomings, extension systems often make recommendations that do not account for price risk or spatial heterogeneity in farmers' growing conditions. However, little is known about the effectiveness of extension approaches for nutrient management that consider these issues. We analyze the impact of farmers' access to site-specific nutrient management recommendations and to information on expected returns, provided through a digital decision support tool, for maize production. We implement a randomized controlled trial among smallholders in the maize belt of northern Nigeria. We use three waves of annual panel data to estimate immediate and longer term effects of two different extension treatments: site-specific recommendations with and without complementary information about variability in output prices and expected returns. We find that site-specific nutrient management recommendations improve fertilizer management practices and maize yields but do not necessarily increase fertilizer use. In addition, we find that recommendations that are accompanied by additional information about variability in expected returns induce larger fertilizer investments that persist beyond the first year. However, the magnitudes of these effects are small: we find only incremental increases in investments and net revenues over two treatment years.
