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2. Key social processes sustaining the farmer/advisor relationship
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Kuehne, Geoff (author), Nettle, Ruth (author), and Llewellyn, Rick (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Australia
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 163 Document Number: D11654
- Journal Title:
- Rural Extension and Innovation Systems Journal
- Journal Title Details:
- 15(1) : 20-29
- Notes:
- 9 pages., Through in-depth interviews with farmers having an existing relationship with extension advisors, researchers explored the processes of of advisory relationship building, maintenance, and the nature of commitment to an advisor. Findings identified six guidelines associated with increasing commitment to an advisory relationship.
3. Printing and mailing for the brand: An exploratory qualitative study seeking to understand internal branding and marketing within University and Extension communication services units
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Zagonel, Anissa (author), Baker, Lauri M. (author), King, Audrey E.H. (author), and Kansas State University Oklahoma State University Association for Communication Excellence
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- United States: New Prairie Press
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 15 Document Number: D10433
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Applied Communications
- Journal Title Details:
- 103(2)
- Notes:
- 15 pages., Via online journal., Investment of employees in a brand can lead to greater public understanding and positive impressions of a brand by external stakeholders. However, this can be challenging in public organizations with multiple brand segments and a large number of employees spread across great distance with limited funds for marketing. While previous work has looked at Extension agents, faculty, and volunteers’ brand perceptions, no studies have looked at communication services employees’ investment in the brand. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how well employees in a university and Extension printing and mail entity understood the Extension brand and their investment in the brand. Research questions that guided this study were: 1) What perceptions and investment do communication services employees have in the Extension brand? And 2) what are employees’ perceptions of the organization’s branding and marketing efforts? Each of the 18 interviews included a series of questions focusing on employees’ story related to Extension and employees’ thoughts on branding and marketing efforts. Results in this study with communication services employees indicate these employees are not invested in the brand with the majority having little to no understanding of the mission of Extension. This contradicts previous research with employees in other brand segments of Extension. Implications of this work include a need for training on the Extension mission for communication services employees, a shift in culture to encourage investment in the brand, and inclusion of all Extension employees in the mission of Extension.
4. Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Schilbach, Frani (author), Kremer, Michael (author), and Fabregas, Raissa (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-12-13
- Published:
- United States: American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12491
- Journal Title:
- Science
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol 366, Issue 6471
- Notes:
- 12 pages, Mobile phones are almost universally available, and the costs of information transmission are low. They are used by smallholder farmers in low-income countries, largely successfully, to optimize markets for their produce. Fabregas et al. review the potential for boosting mobile phone use with smartphones to deliver not only market information but also more sophisticated agricultural extension advice. GPS-linked smartphones could provide locally relevant weather and pest information and video-based farming advice. But how to support the financial requirements of such extension services is less obvious, given the unwieldiness of government agencies and the vested interests of commercial suppliers.
5. The impact of agricultural knowledge transfer resources on farm level profitability during the economic recession - a quantitative study
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Cawley, A. (author), O'Donoghue, C. (author), Heanue, K. (author), Hilliard, R. (author), and Sheehan, M. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Ireland
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10411
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Notes:
- Purpose: The impact of agricultural knowledge transfer (KT) is related to the access to and the quality of services available. Within this context, the allocation of resources in terms of KT offices and the number of advisers are important considerations for understanding KT impact. This quantitative study evaluates the impact of KT resources on farm profitability for clients in Ireland during the recessionary period 2008–2014. Design/Methodology: Teagasc, the public KT service provider in Ireland, experienced significant office closures (43%) and a reduction in advisers (38%) during the economic crisis, yet client numbers declined only slightly (4.5%). Administrative data are merged with a panel data set on farm-level performance to evaluate the impact through Random Effects estimation. Findings: The results show that clients gained a 12.3% benefit to their margin per hectare over the period. However, there was a negative effect of 0.2% for each additional client assigned to the adviser which averaged at 9.6%. Practical Implications: The quantitative findings provide a measure of impact that represents the value for money for the KT service. The key implication is that the client ratio for advisers should be considered when allocating resources and lower ratios would positively impact client margins. Theoretical Implications: This article outlines the value of quantitative studies to estimate impact in a clear translatable manner which can aid the policy discussion around resource deployment. Originality/Value: This study evaluates the impact of KT during a recessionary period when resources were constrained, and uses client ratios to examine the spatial effects.
6. To diversify or not to diversify, that is the question. Pursuing agricultural development for smallholder farmers in marginal areas of Ghana
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bellon, Mauricio R. (author), Kotu, Bekele Hundie (author), Azzarri, Carlo (author), and Caracciolo, Francesco (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-09-18
- Published:
- Science Direct
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 121 Document Number: D11076
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 125
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online resource., Many smallholder farmers in developing countries grow multiple crop species on their farms, maintaining de facto crop diversity. Rarely do agricultural development strategies consider this crop diversity as an entry point for fostering agricultural innovation. This paper presents a case study, from an agricultural research-for-development project in northern Ghana, which examines the relationship between crop diversity and self-consumption of food crops, and cash income from crops sold by smallholder farmers in the target areas. By testing the presence and direction of these relationships, it is possible to assess whether smallholder farmers may benefit more from a diversification or a specialization agricultural development strategy for improving their livelihoods. Based on a household survey of 637 randomly selected households, we calculated crop diversity as well as its contribution to self-consumption (measured as imputed monetary value) and to cash income for each household. With these data we estimated a system of three simultaneous equations. Results show that households maintained high levels of crop diversity: up to eight crops grown, with an-average of 3.2 per household, and with less than 5% having a null or very low level of crop diversity. The value of crop species used for self-consumption was on average 55% higher than that of crop sales. Regression results show that crop diversity is positively associated with self-consumption of food crops, and cash income from crops sold. This finding suggests that increasing crop diversity opens market opportunities for households, while still contributing to self-consumption. Given these findings, crop diversification seems to be more beneficial to these farmers than specialization. For these diversified farmers, or others in similar contexts, interventions that assess and build on their de facto crop diversity are probably more likely to be successful.