Bir, Courtney (author), Hagerman, Amy (author), Sahs, Roger (author), and Ladd, Brent (author)
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2021-09-01
Published:
United States: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12530
Notes:
98 pages, If you are considering becoming a farmer or rancher in Oklahoma, then you are about to embark on a journey. As with any long trip, your first step is to plan where you will go and how you will get there. The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service (OCES) at Oklahoma State University has developed this resource guide to help beginning farmers understand the steps needed to achieve the dream of having their own farm.
The first and most important step you should take in beginning a farm is to carefully
research the property and planned enterprises before investing. Attend educational meetings (such as OSU Extension programs) before properties are purchased. Become acquainted with professionals such as the local Extension Educator–Agriculture, who can help. The OSU Extension website, provides links to county offices, publications and many other resources.
12 pages., In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), declining soil fertility is among the factors affecting optimal food production. Although a number of interventions have been implemented to improve soil fertility management (SFM) in SSA, their adoption especially among small scale farmers has been low. Although the literature provides considerable evidence of socio-economic factors which influence adoption, the subject of how communication influences adoption of SFM remains under-explored. This paper therefore reviewed studies on SFM communication in SSA. The objectives were to identify the current focus of studies on SFM communication, the current definitions of communication which informed such studies, and the type of SFM practices being communicated in the SSA region. Using specific search terms, articles were collected from various databases and content analysed. The review revealed five main themes as the focus of current studies on SFM. The study also revealed two main interpretations of communication which in turn influence the use of either diffusion or participatory communication strategies for SFM communication. The review also showed a focus on integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) messages in the SSA area. The study concludes that while each of the two communication strategies has their individual strengths, farmers prefer participatory strategies. This is because participatory strategies foster interaction and greater understanding; thereby, increasing the likelihood of farmer adoption of SFM practices in SSA. The review concludes by calling for further research on the use of participatory communication to engage farmers about various SFM practices in SSA.
21 Pages, While farmers sell their crops, middlemen provide a linkage between them, markets and buyers. Middlemen have good knowledge of working conditions of markets and have access to agricultural market information. Due to poor access to markets and agricultural market information by smallholders, there is a feeling that middlemen benefit more while farmers sell their crops. Good access to markets and market information may help farmers bypass middlemen while selling crops and thus benefit more. Thus, it is best to improve the informational capabilities (ICs) of farmers in agricultural marketing. Thus, this research measured ICs of farmers accessing market information, through a program NINAYO, while selling their crops. The research utilized the informational, psychological, social, and economic dimensions of the empowerment framework in identifying capability indicators to formulate survey questions. Data were collected from smallholders in six regions in Tanzania. The analysis utilized measures of life satisfaction and results showed that about half of the variation in the dependent variable, satisfaction with capabilities, was explained by the model. Backward elimination analysis confirmed that life satisfaction is multidimensional. Robustness test confirmed a positive relationship between satisfaction and capabilities. Overall, results confirmed ICs are multidimensions, their improvement empowers farmers in agricultural marketing.
Vol 10 No 2 (2021): Special Issue: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Food System
Notes:
3 pgs., Online Journal, Resilient local food systems are a necessary component to keep our communities healthy, especially during times of emergency. With a history of supporting local farmers and food access in less-resourced communities, Fresh Approach was in a prime position at the time of shelter-in-place orders to pivot our efforts to emergency food relief in this time of uncertainty. By collaborating and mobilizing resources, Fresh Approach was able to strengthen existing connections with small farmers, build new relationships with other food access nonprofits, and support families in need by providing them with farm-fresh, local, and healthy produce. We outline how these partnerships and collective efforts have fortified a resilient and transformative food system in our area.
12 pages, Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a pathway to sustainably intensify agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet despite decades of promotion, CA uptake in SSA remains sparse with only few analyses of its impacts on farming and rural livelihoods. This study, which focuses on areas in Central Malawi considered to have a relatively high uptake of CA, uses analyses of satellite images, field observations, interviews with farmers, extension workers and other people involved in CA promotion, as well as a household survey, to investigate how CA has been adapted. We find that the three CA principles – (1) continuous minimum tillage, e.g. no-ridging, (2) permanent ground cover, and (3) crop rotation/intercropping – were not practiced as intended. First, one-third of non-ridged land was tilled during the growing season, and half was again ridged in the following season. Second, unless crop residues were added, the soil’s surface of non-ridged plots was usually bare at planting, causing weed control problems, and an increased risk of erosion. Most farmers added large volumes of crop residues to their non-ridged plots. They collected these from the surrounding fields, but this practice severely restricted the size of these plots. Third, crop rotation/intercropping was practiced less when farmers stopped ridging. Thus overall, very few farmers practised all of the three CA principles simultaneously. CA promotion appeared to only increase yields on plots where mulch was added, but this practice is not scalable. CA promotiondoes not seem to have provided substantial benefits for overall farm productivity, labour-savings or soil cons
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.
10 pages., he impact of mobile money services in sub-Saharan Africa have been largely recognised. However, empirical studies are principally lacking on the factors influencing the decision to own a mobile phone (first hurdle), register with mobile money (second hurdle) and the intensity of use of mobile money services (third hurdle). This study examined the determinants of the mobile phone ownership, drivers of registration (participation) of mobile money services, and the intensity of use of mobile money services in rural Ghana by employing the triple hurdle approach. The first and second hurdle were analysed using the logit model while quasi-poisson regression was used to analyse the third hurdle. The analysis from the cross-sectional data showed that the decision to own a mobile phone was driven by household size, marital status, the farm size, access to electricity, income status and the type of occupation engaged, whereas the decision to register with mobile money was influenced by the age, educational status, marital status, household size, farm size and the type of occupation engaged in by the household head. The intensity of usage of mobile money services was influenced by the age of the household head, higher educational level, marital status of the household head, household and farm size as well as the distance of the household heads from the mobile money agent which directly influences the intensity of use of mobile money services by household heads. The study recommends that strategies that promote access to electricity and occupation in the formal sector or both farming and trading in the rural communities should be promoted. Furthermore, policy attention should focus on location, farmers and farm characteristics.
10 pages, Agricultural information is very essential for smallholder farmers to increase farm production and productivity. However, there is no proper access to accurate and adequate agricultural information to smallholder farmers. This paper attempts to identify the existing agricultural information source and the agricultural information need of the smallholder farmers along with usefulness of the provided agricultural information. Household level data were obtained from four wards of Bharatpur metropolitan of Chitwan district during 2019. The result showed agrovet shops as most common source of agricultural information for smallholder farmers. The most needed agricultural information was about input market and prices followed by disease and pest control. Moderately useful agricultural information was provided to smallholder farmers. Findings of this research suggest that context specific agricultural information should be provided through the existing channels to the smallholder farmers.
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.
18 pages, This study examines the application of a self-reliance framework for practitioners and evaluators to better understand the capacities and intrinsic factors impacting smallholder coffee farmers’ commercialization behaviors. We surveyed 40 smallholder coffee producers in Peru using a quantitative instrument. Data were analyzed to determine if statistical relationships exist between farmers’ self-reliance (measured via knowledge and skills, attitudes, and aspirations) and their commercialization behaviors. Findings indicate the self-reliance framework effectively illustrates relationships between farmers’ aspirations, knowledge and skills and their commercialization behaviors, while future, additional studies are needed to better measure and understand the role of commercialization-related attitudes. Practitioners can leverage the study’s findings by using a self-reliance framework to infer farmers’ likeliness to pursue sustainable commercialization practices and align their trainings and design interventions based on evaluation findings. The conceptual self-reliance framework is the first of its kind applied for smallholder coffee commercialization. The findings demonstrate that self-reliance concepts employed recently in other contexts may potentially be used similarly by extension and development facilitators.
