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2. Constraints to the utilisation of conservation agriculture in Africa as perceived by agricultural extension service providers
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Brown, Brendan (author), Nuberg, Ian (author), Llewellyn, Rick (author), and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide CSIRO Agriculture
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10460
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 73: 331-340
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online journal., Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a knowledge-intensive set of practices which requires substantial access to functional agricultural extension services to enable utilisation. Despite this importance, the perspectives of those providing extension services to smallholder farmers have not been fully investigated. To address this, we qualitatively explore the perspectives of agricultural extension providers across six African countries to understand why uptake of CA has been limited, as well as the institutional changes that may be required to facilitate greater utilisation. Across the diversity of geographical, political and institutional contexts between countries, we find multiple commonalities in the constrained utilisation of CA by smallholder farmers, highlighting the difficulties non-mechanised subsistence farmers face in transitioning to market-oriented farming systems such as CA. The primary constraint relates to the economic viability of market-oriented farming where farmers remain in low input and low output systems with limited exit points. The assumed exit point used by CA programs appears to have led to a culture of financial expectancy and reflects a continuation of top-down extension approaches with inadequate modification of CA to the contextual realities of subsistence farmers. If African agricultural systems are to be sustainably intensified, we find a need for greater flexibility within extension systems in the pursuit of sustainable intensification. If extension systems are to persist with CA, it will need to be promoted through more transitional pathways that disaggregate the CA package, and with that there is a need for the provision of a mandate to, and necessary funding for, more participatory extension services.
3. Information empowers vegetable supply chain: A study of information needs and sharing strategies among farmers and vendors
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bu Zhong (author), Fan Yang (author), Yen-Lin Chen (author), and College of Communication, Pennsylvania State University Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania State University
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2015
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10462
- Journal Title:
- Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- 117: 81-90
- Notes:
- 10 pages., Via online journal., Agricultural extension systems often fail due to inadequate knowledge of farmers’ information needs and sharing strategies. This study aims to meet an urgent need of studying information needs and sharing strategies among vegetable farmers and vendors in Chengdu, China, whose results might be used in building a center of agricultural information disseminating vegetable production and marketing information. The findings disclose interesting differences between the farmers and vendors regarding their willingness to join such a center, information needs, sharing strategies and preferred information sources. Ample evidences justify the construction of the proposed center of agricultural information, which should not only empower the vegetable farmers and vendors but also enhance the efficiency of the existing vegetable supply chain and food security. Cross-discipline research involving both agriculture and communication scholars, like this, should shed more insights on working out strategies to cope with agricultural challenges.
4. Smallholders farmers' attitudes and determinants of adaptation to climate risks in East Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Shikuku, Kelvin M. (author), Winowiecki, Leigh (author), Twyman, Jennifer (author), Eitzinger, Anton (author), Perez, Juan G. (author), Mwongera, Caroline (author), and Läderach, Peter (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2017-03-08
- Published:
- Africa
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: D08757
- Journal Title:
- Climate Risk Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 16 : 234-245
5. What can be gleaned from news coverage to improve science reporting and enhance public literacy about agricultural biotechnology in Ghana?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Rodriguez, Lulu (author) and Lee, Suman (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2016
- Published:
- Ghana
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 169 Document Number: D08721
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural and Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 17(2-3) : 91-109