23 pages, We examined how an agricultural literacy professional development enhanced equity in seven secondary agriculture classrooms in a southeastern state. Utilizing the Equity Framework in Career and Technical Education and exploratory case study methodology, we examined the equitable barriers that seven secondary agriculture education teachers faced in their school sites and how targeted professional development might alleviate some of those challenges. Our findings revealed that all seven teachers faced barriers in their schools from two areas identified in the theoretical framework: educational adequacy and equal treatment. The professional development helped alleviate the educational adequacy barrier. More research is needed to elicit the role of professional development programs in counteracting equity barriers.
Hundal, Gaganpreet Singh (author), Laux, Chad Matthew (author), Buckmaster, Dennis (author), Sutton, Mathias J (author), and Langemeier, Michael (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2023-01-09
Published:
Switzerland: MDPI
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12835
16 pages, The production of row crops in the Midwestern (Indiana) region of the US has been facing environmental and economic sustainability issues. There has been an increase in trend for the application of fertilizers (nitrogen & phosphorus), farm machinery fuel costs and decreasing labor productivity leading to non-optimized usage of farm inputs. Literature describes how sustainable practices such as profitability (return on investments), operational cost reduction, hazardous waste reduction, delivery performance and overall productivity might be adopted in the context of precision agriculture technologies (variable rate irrigation, variable rate fertilization, cloud-based analytics, and telematics for farm machinery navigation). The literature review describes low adoption of Internet of Things (IoT)-based precision agriculture technologies, such as variable rate fertilizer (39%), variable rate pesticide (8%), variable rate irrigation (4%), cloud-based data analytics (21%) and telematics (10%) amongst Midwestern row crop producers. Barriers to the adoption of IoT-based precision agriculture technologies cited in the literature include cost effectiveness, power requirements, wireless communication range, data latency, data scalability, data storage, data processing and data interoperability. Therefore, this study focused on exploring and understanding decision-making variables related to barriers through three focus group interview sessions conducted with eighteen (n = 18) subject matter experts (SME) in IoT- based precision agriculture practices. Dependency relationships described between cost, data latency, data scalability, power consumption, communication range, type of wireless communication and precision agriculture application is one of the main findings. The results might inform precision agriculture practitioners, producers and other stakeholders about variables related to technical and operational barriers for the adoption of IoT-based precision agriculture practices.
10 pages, Food safety is a growing concern worldwide but is especially prevalent in Nepal. Agriculture is the country's critical economic sector, and its sustainability is challenged due to the increasing use of agrochemicals. As a result, low Soil Organic Matter (SOM), reduced crop productivity, increased food safety hazards, and negative impacts on human health and the environment are reported in the agriculture sector in Nepal. In 2018, the concept of Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) was introduced in Nepal to address the issues of food safety, trade, and sustainability. As GAP is relatively new to Nepal, it is still broad and ambiguous, which makes its use and implementation difficult. For this purpose, we conducted a literature review on available global evidence to present the benefits of GAP and to identify the critical barriers to the adoption of GA. The review shows GAP's potential to increase crop yield by up to 36%, reduce agrochemicals use by 31%, increase SOM from a mean of 3.32%–3.77%, and increase farmers' income by more than 100%. However, the review has also identified barriers to wider adoption of GAP, broadly categorized into production, extension, regulation and standards, and markets and finance. The valuable outcome of this review is that it proposes five key pathways: (i) Technical capacity building, (ii) Awareness creation, (iii) Soil fertility management strategies, (iv) Extension programs, and (v) Market development for institutionalizing GAP in Nepal, based on the learning from global evidence. This review could be useful for policymakers and the government of Nepal to develop detailed implementation guidelines for GAP, including appropriate policies as well as short, medium, and long-term plans and programs for institutionalizing GAP in Nepal.
6 pgs, A study showed that Indiana’s rural populations skepticism of climate change is complex. Some of it can be associated with a sense of being ignored and blamed for climate change woes.
34 pages, Agricultural nitrogen (N) use is a major contributor to environmental problems arising from nitrous oxide emissions and N loading to groundwater. Advances in the adoption of conservation practices requires a better understanding of the agronomic context for cropping systems. This paper tests hypotheses about how agronomic and knowledge barriers influence the adoption of conservation practices for N management in orchard agroecosystems. Agronomic barriers are characterized by farm size, irrigation systems and access to water resources, and knowledge barriers are influenced by the availability of information and use of information sources. Our study focuses on the California’s San Joaquin Valley where we collected 879 in-person surveys from fruit and nut growers focused on ten different conservation practices related to fertilizer use, irrigation and soil health. We used logistic regression models to identify parameters influencing adoption and differences in adoption between fruit and nut growers. Our results indicate that overall growers report higher adoption for practices for fertilizer use compared to irrigation and soil health. Growers with larger parcels, microirrigation and more water security had a higher probability of practice adoption. Nut crops are more agronomically intense than fruit crops requiring higher rates of N fertilizer and water use. Nut growers adopted significantly more practices than fruit growers, and also utilized significantly more information sources and experienced significantly fewer practice challenges. Our results collectively support our hypotheses that agronomic and knowledge barriers differ between fruit and nut growers, and help to explain the variance in adoption of conversation practices in orchard agroecosystems. Furthermore, the significance of our work offers a case study for other regions and agroecosystems to address the need for linking agronomic and knowledge barriers to adoption in an effort to promote global climate-smart and regenerative agriculture initiatives.
7 pgs, Farmers’ markets may improve access to healthful foods in rural areas. Our objective was to identify facilitators and barriers to farmers’ market use in a rural county. We collected data via surveys, focus group sessions, and key informant interviews. Study participants identified the two existing farmers’ markets as community assets. Barriers to use farmers’ markets included inconvenient market hours, not accepting nutrition assistance program benefits, limited transportation, and limited variety. Interventions to improve food access should include ways to meet the needs of specific populations such as low-income residents and residents living in outlying areas without farmers’ markets.
8 pages, Background:
Despite the growth of palliative care (PC), access to PC remains challenging for rural Americans living with chronic diseases. Given the demand and benefits of PC, a comprehensive view of PC access would inform policymakers in developing PC services in rural areas.
Objective:
This scoping review aimed to understand the barriers and facilitators to PC access in rural areas from the voices of service users and service providers during the past decade.
Methods:
A scoping literature review was conducted from 2010 to 2020 using MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsychINFO databases. Results: Twenty-eight studies met inclusion criteria. Barriers to PC access in rural areas mostly arose in structural issues: (1) the inadequate knowledge and awareness of PC among both service users and providers and (2) the poorly structured PC system. Other barriers included communication gaps/challenges between providers and patients/families and cultural barriers. The facilitators mainly originated in patients/families’ connectedness with local providers and with other social networks such as friends.
Conclusions:
These findings highlight the need for funding support to increase provider competency, service availability and accessibility, and the public knowledge and awareness of PC in rural areas. A holistic and tailored PC model that standardizes care delivery, referral and coordination, including family caregiver support programs, can improve care access. Future practice and research are warranted to implement and evaluate innovative approaches, such as a coordinated community-based approach, to the successful integration of PC in rural communities.
