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.
27 pages., Research in agricultural communications is not guided by a national research agenda. Therefore, the substantial body of research produced from scholars working in the discipline represents scattered efforts. We conducted a content analysis of journal articles published in the Journal of Applied Communications between 2000 and 2019 to identify the research themes that establish the discipline’s scholarly base. Through an examination of n = 259 journal articles, we identified N = 27 research themes, the most prevalent of which included agriculture and media relations/practices (f = 30; % = 11.58), public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources (f = 25; % = 9.65), and agricultural communications academic programs and curricula (f = 21; % = 8.11). Then, we used Q methodology to identify viewpoints of agricultural communications scholars (e.g., faculty, graduate students; n = 45) as they relate to perceptions about the importance of research. We identified four dominant viewpoints of scholars in agricultural communications: Message Framing Influencers, Extension-Focused Scholars and Practitioners, Discipline-Conscious Researchers, and Tech-Savvy Scholars. Together, these viewpoints explained 59.43% of the study variance. Although participants who represented each of these groups had unique perspectives, participants generally agreed that public perceptions/understanding of agriculture and natural resources and crisis communications in agricultural communications were important research themes. Likewise, they generally agreed that the role of agricultural communications professional organizations, agricultural communications efforts during historical events, and agritourism were not important research themes.
10pgs, Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) is gaining prominence as an agricultural pathway to poverty reduction and enhancement of sustainable food systems among government and development actors in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia. Despite substantial investment in research and extension programs and a growing understanding of the agronomic, economic and labor-saving benefits of CASI, uptake remains limited. This study explores farmer experiences and perspectives to establish why farmers choose not to implement CASI systems despite a strong body of recent scientific evidence establishing the benefits of them doing so. Through thematic coding of semi-structured interviews, key constraints are identified, which establishes a narrative that current households' resources are insufficient to enable practice change, alongside limited supporting structures for resource supplementation. Such issues create a dependency on subsidies and outside support, a situation that is likely to impact any farming system change given the low-risk profiles of farmers and their limited resource base. This paper hence sets out broad implications for creating change in smallholder farming systems in order to promote the adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies in resource-poor smallholder contexts, especially with regard to breaking the profound poverty cycles that smallholder farmers find themselves in and which are unlikely to be broken by the current set of technologies promoted to them.
13pgs, With a focus on journalistic discourse, this paper argues for a re-envisioning of food-system communication that takes non-human animals into account as stakeholders in systems that commodify them. This is especially urgent in light of the global pandemic, which has laid bare the vulnerability to crisis inherent in animal-based food production. As a case study to illustrate the need for a just and non-human inclusive orientation to food-systems communication, the paper performs a qualitative rhetorical examination, of a series of articles in major U.S. news sources in May of 2020, a few months into the economic shutdown in the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, millions of pigs were brutally killed on U.S. farms due to the impossibility of killing them in slaughterhouses overrun with COVID-19 outbreaks. The analysis finds that media reporting legitimated violence against pigs by framing narratives from industry perspectives, deflecting agency for violence away from farmers, presenting pigs as willing victims, masking violence through euphemism, objectifying pigs and ignoring their sentience, and uncritically propagating industry rhetoric about “humane” farming. Through these representations, it is argued, the media failed in their responsibility to present the viewpoints of all sentient beings affected by the crisis; in other words, all stakeholders. The methodology merges a textually- oriented approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) with social critique informed by critical animal studies (CAS), and the essay concludes with recommendations for journalists and other food-system communicators, which should be possible to implement even given the current capitalist, industry-influenced media environment and the demonstrated ruthlessness of animal industries in silencing voices inimical to their profitmaking.
19 Pages, Agriculturalists and environmentalists must navigate complex challenges as the global population continues to increase and environmental resources are depleted. Colleges of agricultural and environmental sciences are tasked with addressing the nexus between environmental and agricultural challenges through research, education, and communication. However, the amount of research being conducted with both agriculture and the environment considered is largely unknown and, as a result, their corresponding communication messages may not provide coherent messages from the college. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify if research within a college of agricultural and environmental sciences takes a holistic approach so that communication efforts coming from the college can encompass both perspectives. The data were collected from a web-based system containing university research publications and analyzed using a thematic analysis and meta-synthesis. The meta-synthesis revealed 212 codes overlapping agricultural and environmental themes compared to the total 4,325 codes found across all publications. The findings indicated there was a limited amount of collaboration occurring between environmental and agricultural researchers within the college. Without collaborative research, agricultural communicators cannot develop science communication efforts that holistically integrate evidence-based science. As new challenges emerge at the nexus of agriculture and the environment, researchers must shift toward a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to ensure the science communication efforts sharing their findings are inclusive.
20 pages, Several U.S. federal government agencies collect and disseminate scientific data on a national scale to provide insights for agricultural trade, research, consumer health, and policy. Occasionally, such data have potential to provide insights to advance conversations and actions around critical and controversial issues in the broad agricultural system. Such government studies provide evidence for others to discuss, further interpret, and act upon, but to do so, they must be communicated well. When the research intersects with contentious socio-political issues, successful communication not only depends on tactics, but as this study illuminates, it also depends on relationship quality between research producers, study participants, and end-users. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) conducted first-of-its kind national studies on cattle and swine producers’ use of antimicrobials. The use of antimicrobials in animal agriculture is considered a critical and controversial issue pertaining to antimicrobial resistance. In recognition of the anticipated wide-ranging interests in these studies, APHIS sought to understand stakeholders’ perceptions and experiences of the federal government research process and products with aim of improving their science communication and relations. This study reports on findings from in-depth interviews with 14 stakeholders involved in the antimicrobial use studies to make recommendations for improving communication and relations between the agency and its stakeholders. From this research, we draw implications that are transferrable to numerous types of government science communication efforts within agricultural sectors.
21 Pages, Visual messaging is becoming the new avenue to connect with consumers. The majority of the American public is not connected with agriculture and often questions procedures, practices, and tactics within the industry. Practitioners and researchers have suggested value congruent messages, a type of emotional appeal, may increase attention to agricultural messages. However, limited research has been conducted to define and investigate value congruent messages in agricultural communications. The purpose of this study was to describe the presented messages in videos used in one agricultural advocacy effort, CommonGround’s “Nothing to Fear Here” campaign. This content analysis described the video’s message content and use of value congruent messages. Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values (2012) was used to identify the values present in each video within the campaign. The values of benevolence, security, self-direction, universalism, and hedonism were common values displayed in the campaign. Message sensation value was calculated, and it was found the videos had moderate levels of emotional arousal. The primary characters in the videos were mothers, farmers, and children. More research should be conducted to explore how the value congruent messages and message sensation value interact to increase a receiver’s level of attitude change after viewing the message.
