4pgs, Background
Communicating about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) requires technical knowledge, consideration of audience values and appropriate identification of communication strategies for multiple audiences. Within the context of animal agriculture, communicating about AMR represents an important and complex endeavour for veterinarians, governmental agencies, producers and the industry to convey policy and practice information regarding the use of antimicrobials in food animals.
Objectives
To assess the science communication challenges related to AMR by identifying the motivations, goals and struggles of animal agriculture stakeholders when communicating about AMR and AMS.
Methods
Participants attending a meeting on AMR communication in animal agriculture (N = 80) completed a workshop on science communication, including small group meetings with oral/written comments collected. Participants included veterinarians, government agency representatives, industry stakeholders and producers.
Results
Results indicated participants believed providing more accurate information would resolve misunderstanding and concern about AMR to other stakeholders, counter to recommendations of science communicators. Other participants noted beliefs about the utility of stories in trying to explain how AMS is normative and consistent with the values of all parties interested in animal agriculture. Participants noted the importance of public engagement, even if the participants’ perceived target audiences did not include the public.
Conclusions
Communicating about AMR and AMS in animal agriculture contexts provide unique challenges. Few evidence-based recommendations are available for science communicators in these contexts and more research is needed to improve the quality of communication about AMR and AMS in animal agriculture.
11 pages., Via online journal article., As climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural systems globally, agricultural farm advisors have been increasingly recognized as an important resource in helping farmers address these challenges. While there have been many studies exploring the climate change belief and risk perceptions as well as behaviors of both farmers and agricultural farm advisors, there are very few studies that have explored how these perceptions relate to actual climate impacts in agriculture. Here we couple survey data from United States Department of Agriculture farm service employees (n = 6, 514) with historical crop loss data across the United States to explore the relationship of actual climate-related crop losses on farm to farm advisor perceptions of climate change and future farmer needs. Using structural equation modelling we find that among farm advisors that work directly with farms on disaster and crop loss issues, there is a significant positive relationship between crop loss and perceived weather variability changes, while across all farm advisors crop loss is associated with reduced likelihood to believe in anthropogenic climate change. Further, we find that weather variability perceptions are the most consistently and highly correlated with farm advisors' perceptions about the need for farm adaptation and future farmer needs. These results suggest that seeing crop loss may not lead to climate change belief, but may drive weather variability perceptions, which in turn affect farm adaptation perceptions. This lends further evidence to the debate over terminology in climate change communication and outreach, suggesting that weather variability may be the most salient among agricultural advisors.
9 pages, Sheep meat is an essential element within the multicultural mosaic of Mexican agri-food traditions. A total of 332 consumers were surveyed face-to-face in restaurants specializing in selling traditional sheep meat products. Our results showed that consumers could be segmented based on their perceptions, habits, and preferences towards sheep meat. For consumers, sheep meat is perceived as food with unique sensory attributes, coming from healthier animals than other species and traditional characters. Their willingness to pay extra is subject to the guarantee that the meat is safe, free of hormones and antibiotics, and to a lesser extent, certified organic. The multivariate analysis suggested three clusters or consumer profiles named passive, wholehearted, and deep-rooted, which explained the associations among attitudes, some demographic variables, and consumption frequency. The nascent national sheep meat industry needs to consider these concerns in developing marketing and trust strategies to attract, maintain, and build loyalty among Mexican consumers.
13 pages., Via online journal., Human livelihood needs and nature conservation often contradict. Yet, healthy ecosystems are crucial for human livelihood quality. The semi-arid regions of East Africa suffer under demographic pressure and soil depletion. Ecosystem degradation becomes particularly visible along rivers in semiarid regions of south-east Kenya, where former pristine riparian forests have been transformed into agricultural fields and settlements with negative effects on ecosystem services. In this study, we aim to understand how local smallholders perceive the challenges for the riparian ecosystems and what factors affect their engagement in environmental conservation. We surveyed about 200 farmers and performed expert interviews with representatives from governmental institutions from the field of land- and resource management along Nzeeu River in south-east Kenya. We assessed the level of education, land use practices, environmental knowledge, attitudes and the willingness to contribute to nature conservation. We tested for spatial bias to understand smallholders’ perceptions on environmental challenges. Our data show that land division due to inheritance is not perceived as a problem by the farmers. However, owners holding < 1 ha of land property are less willing to spare some of their land for conservation, as opposed to those holding land plots above this size. Despite a high level of general willingness to conserve ecosystems, our data underline that local people hardly actively engage in conservation action. Furthermore, our data indicate a communication gap between local smallholders and regional governmental officers as well as overconfidence in mass media through the radio which can contradict successful adoption of pro-environment behavior. Sustainable land management in our study area is not a matter of education, but depends from the size of land property. There is an urgent need to bridge this communication gap, as a prerequisite to improve sustainable land management.
Pires, Alda F. A. (author), Kukielka, Esther A. (author), Haghani, Viktoria (author), Stover, James K. (author), de Melo Ramos, Thais (author), Van Soelen Kim, Julia (author), and Jay-Russell, Michelle T. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2020-10
Published:
United States: Extension Journal, Inc.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12287
14 pages, We conducted a survey to characterize certified California farmers markets (FMs) regarding location, seasonality, size, product, product labeling, advertising methods, postharvest practices, regulations governing vendors, training offered, and training interests. Data obtained from the survey highlight the need for improvement regarding food safety and can serve as a basis for development of collaborative education by Extension educators, regulatory agencies, and FMs. Extension professionals can play a proactive role in such training opportunities, focusing outreach efforts for training according to applicable findings and including online training venues to maximize reach to stakeholders.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 34 Document Number: D10664
Notes:
Eugene A. Kroupa Collection, Case 5 Conference Workshop, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, December 13, 1981., Contains a selection of how-to articles, sample questionnaires, and other resources for conducting surveys. Includes a questionnaire about Wisconsin dairy farmers' opinions regarding dairy product promotion.
13 pages., Via online journal., The investigation of the rising use of pesticides in the Yazd City is a remarkable issue, the respective witnesses on the factors affecting the issue are lacking. For this reason, this contribution was intended to investigate the determinants of the pesticide use behavior (PUB) using the design of sequential-exploratory mixed method in central Iran. In the qualitative phase, verbal data (i.e., pesticide narratives) were collected. The heuristic units of the case study were thematically analyzed using the Atlas.ti software. The obtained results served as the data that were applied to develop the conceptual framework, including grounded concepts. By surveying 306 cucumber farmers, the proposed model was tested using the path analysis in the interface of SPSS and AMOS, indicating the model fits with the data well. The study finds that attitude towards the indigenous knowledge of the pest and disease management forecasts the PUB indirectly by the mediation of attitude, behavioral intention, and PBC. Moreover, large-scale farmers have a better understanding of the usefulness of the IPM. Furthermore, the scientific pesticide knowledge and imitation influence the PUB. Habitual behavior and avarice also have a negative impact on the PUB. In addition, trust has an indirect impact on the PUB via behavioral intention. It is necessary to take policy initiatives to enhance the efficient PUB by (1) establishing a network of indigenous knowledge relevant to the pest and disease management together with the scientific pesticide knowledge, (2) disseminating the innovations that mitigate the impact of pesticides (e.g., Biochar), (3) giving information to farmers so that they are persuaded to make money as much as they fulfill their fundamental needs, change their detrimental habits of pesticide use, and (4) raising the trust in cucumber farmers by establishing a close communication between agricultural experts and cucumber farmers and updating the technical knowledge of agricultural experts in the ground of pest and vector management as well as the use of pesticides.
Hasan, Md. Mahedi (author), Mondal, Md. Nazrul Islam (author), Islam, Md. Nurul (author), and Hoque, Md. Aminul (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2017
Published:
United States: Taylor & Francis
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 64 Document Number: D10728
Journal Title Details:
32(3): 214-223
Notes:
11 pages., via online journal., Farm programmes (FPs) of varied categories have been developed and
aired over several decades by Bangladesh Betar, the national radio of
Bangladesh for the diffusion of farm technologies. The study aimed
to produce an in-depth academic evaluation of their effectiveness
in educating farmers in Bangladesh. A sample of 465 respondents
from the Khulna and Rajshahi divisions in Bangladesh was randomly
selected for a questionnaire survey. To analyse the data, relevant
documents were collected from the Ministry of Information, the
Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock
of Bangladesh. Frequency distribution, z-test, and binary logistic
regression analysis were used as statistical tools. The farm knowledge
levels of the farmers were considered the predictors for evaluating
the effectiveness of FPs. The results revealed that 93.33% of the
sample did not listen to the FPs, while only very few of the listeners
listened regularly. Despite this, at the ‘weak’ and ‘average’ levels of
knowledge significant differences were noted between listener and
non-listener farmers of FPs. The binary logistic regression analysis
(Model 1) identified that the farmers who listened to the FPs were
likely to acquire farm knowledge 6.62 times more than the farmers
who did not listen to the FPs. The farmers who listened to the FPs were
likely to have farm knowledge 2.64 times more than the farmers who
did not listen to the FPs but consulted with other sources of farming
information (Model 2). Similarly, a listener of FPs with farm training
was likely to acquire farm knowledge 5.76 times more than a nonlistener with farm training (Model 3). The FPs were found to be very
effective and could be used to better complement other mechanisms
for educating farmers. Regular access to the FPs ought to be ensured
through appropriate stimulants for the diffusion of farm technologies.
7pgs, Community Food Assessments (CFAs) can be used to identify resources and gaps in how food is grown and distributed in a community, and develop action plans for improvement. This article shares the process for conducting these assessments and draws lessons from CFAs conducted across Oregon. Key themes and innovative projects are highlighted to share potential programming ideas. Extension can play a role in partnership development and networking that helps create sustainable projects that improve local food systems.
