21 pages., Via online journal., This project is an examination of how strategies for innovation in fertilizer application are communicated to agricultural communities. Specifically, this project examines the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program‒a public communication campaign seeking to encourage the use of specific strategies, tools, and best practices in fertilizer application. The campaign is advanced by the Fertilizer Institute, an industry trade association, and targets local agricultural communities within the United States. To understand how this campaign functions to encourage adoption of innovative fertilizer application behaviors, this project draws on the principles of diffusion of innovations theory as well as established concepts within public relations, including issues management.
18 pages, Soil and land degradation is a common issue in Sub-Saharan Africa leading to poor yield and threatening food security, yet soil conservation technologies remain underutilized. To build on prior work that primarily emphasizes demographic differences in adoption, this study contributes by identifying underlying social and cultural factors that influence farmers' perceptions about and willingness to adopt soil conservation management practices in a rural region of Malawi. Key informant interviews were first conducted to identify constraints slowing composting adoption, which were then used to structure the creation of participatory videos—videos created with the active participation of local farmers that demonstrated compost manure practices and benefits. Farmers from the same communities subsequently participated in focus group discussions before and after the moderated screening and discussion of these videos in order to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the constraints and possible ways to overcome them. Among the identified constraints to the use of composting were inefficient government programs such as the Farm Input Subsidy Program that contributed to a belief that only subsidized chemical fertilizers provided positive returns on investment, a lack of support from extension services that diminished compost use, social norms around gender that hindered women farmers from attempting to use composting, and livelihood strategy changes that led to labour shortages. Findings from the focus groups showed that the participatory video method encouraged adoption by helping farmers, and especially women, to reconsider composting, test it, and reflect upon social and cultural constraints impeding adoption. Over half of the farmers in the study tested composting for the first time after discussing the videos and changed their perception of both the value of composting and their own ability to use these types of soil conservation practices.
