10 pages, The study sought to explore the extent to which agricultural policies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
countries incorporate Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and its impact on the efforts to document and share
agricultural IK through communication efforts. A qualitative content analysis of policy documents from seven SSA countries and eight key informant interviews with knowledge management officers from the seven countries was conducted. Purposive sampling was used to select the countries, determine
documents examined, and for the selection of key informants for the interviews. The results revealed that IK was not included in several SSA countries’ governmental agricultural policies. Activities aimed at capturing, documentation and sharing IK in SSA countries were not found despite the presence of evidence of its importance to agricultural research and development. These results provide insights on the need for researchers, communicators, educators, and decision-makers to consider incorporating IK into policy associated with agricultural information dissemination to improve technology generation and adoption
Getson, Jackie M. (author), Church, Sarah P. (author), Radulski, Brennan G. (author), Sjöstrand, Anders E. (author), Lu, Junyu (author), and Prokopy, Linda S. (author)
Format:
Journal Article
Publication Date:
2022-08-02
Published:
United States: PLOS One
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12709
22pgs, In the United States, a public debate remains about the existence and effects of anthropogenic climate change. This skepticism is present in the agricultural sector, rendering climate science communication challenging. Due to the polarization of climate change issues and the concurrent need for agricultural adaptation, we sought to examine how scientists communicate in this sector. A survey, administered to climate scientists and pertinent U.S. federal agency staff (response rate = 43%), was conducted to examine perspectives on communicating with five agricultural stakeholder groups: agribusinesses, crop advisors, general public, producers, and policymakers. We focused on three aspects of the communication process with these stakeholders to evaluate if scientists, as messengers, were following best practices–communicator training, knowledge of stakeholder, and terminology use. We found scientists valued communication training; however, the majority had not attended formal training. Scientists had different views on climate change than producers and crop advisors but understood their perspective and were deliberate with their communication with different audiences. This suggests stakeholder knowledge and terminology use do not hinder communication between scientist and stakeholder. We also highlight three communication challenges present across stakeholder groups–stakeholder knowledge, timescale, and scientific uncertainty–and others that were specific to each stakeholder group. Future research should support scientists by identifying and resolving barriers to training and effective communication strategies for each stakeholder group that addresses these challenges.