Church, Sarah P. (author), Haigh, Tonya (author), Widhalm, Melissa (author), Garcia de Jalon, Silvestre (author), Babin, Nicholas (author), Carlton, J. Stuart (author), Dunn, Michael (author), Fagan, Katie (author), Knutson, Cody L. (author), and Prokopy, Linda S. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
unknown
Published:
Netherlands: Elsevier Science BV
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 7 Document Number: D10262
16 pages., Via online journal., The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2014, sampled from ten agricultural trade publications. The results lead us to suggest that trade publications’ 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought discussion lacked information that would allow farmers and agricultural advisors to assess climate change risk and subsequent potential adaptive management strategies. Agricultural risk from climate change is very real, and farmers will need to adapt. The agricultural trade publications studied missed an opportunity to convey risk from climate change and the transformative adaptation practices necessary for a sustainable and resilient agricultural system.
USA: Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 201 Document Number: D11700
Notes:
2 pages., Online from publisher website., Author discusses some business impacts of climate change and offers suggestions for coverage by business and science writers.
USA: Center for Food Integrity, Gladstone, Missouri.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 123 Document Number: D11183
Notes:
Via online release. 1 page., Findings of a digital ethnography report indicate that while the climate change debate is expected to grow 3.6 percent in the next two years, the conversation on causes is expected to grow 260 percent and solutions 202 percent.
Leiserowitz, A. (author), Maibach, E. (author), Rosenthal, S. (author), Kotcher, J. (author), Bergquist, P. (author), Ballew, M. (author), Goldberg, M. (author), and Gustafson, A. (author)
Format:
Research summary
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
USA: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication at Yale University and Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 136 Document Number: D11420
Notes:
71 pages., Via Yale Program on Climate Change website., This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey, March 29-April 8, 2019, among 1,291 U.S. adults. Findings provided detailed insights about current attitudes toward existence of global warming, causes of it, effects of it, level of concern, interactions and sources of information about it, and other aspects.
17 pages., via online journal, By analyzing interview and survey data from U.S. Forest Service
employees, we examined the strategies used for communicating about
climate change within the agency and their effectiveness from the
perspective of agency employees. We found a limited awareness among
employees regarding climate policy. We found that horizontal information
flow through informal social networks was an important way in which
climate-change information was communicated. We also found a lack of
confidence among employees in their ability to provide feedback to
agency leadership. Our results suggest that (1) agency leadership’s ability
to set priorities and deliver positive vision is important for increasing
employee awareness and inspiring actions, (2) the agency could play a
role in facilitating formal and informal networking among employees, and
(3) using advanced information technologies may contribute to information flow horizontally and vertically, formally and informally.
10 pages, This research endeavor, conducted in year 2019-20, explores farmers’ perception regarding
climate change and the impacts of socioeconomic indicators affecting these perceptions in
district Mardan, KP-Pakistan. For this purpose, total of 140 sampled respondents, seventy
from each village were selected for primary data collection. Ordered probit model was used to
quantify the determinants of climate change perception. Demographic characteristics revealed
that average age of the respondents was 44.42 years, with average schooling, household size,
farming experience and farm size of 7.73 years, about 9.96 members, 27.90 years and 3.1
acres, respectively. The study findings indicated that age, education, household size, farming
experience, total income and nature of land significantly (p < 0.05) affect farmers’ perception
of climate change specifying that younger farmers perceive climate change impacts more as
compared to older farmers, while experienced were more likely to perceive than inexperienced.
Educated farmers perceived changes in climate more than less educated or uneducated. Small
holders perceived more than big landlords, rain-fed farm holders perceived more than irrigated
farm holders, high income farmers perceived more than low income farmers, owners perceived
more than owner-cum tenants and tenants and small families perceived more than big families.
The study recommended climate change awareness programs through government and nongovernment organizations, i.e. education programs, farmer field schools (FFS), agricultural
extension agencies to bridge the farmer- research gap, government role in realistic land reforms,
establishment of farm services centers (FSCs), climate information centers and diversify farm
income opportunities.
16 pages, The U.S. Midwest is a major producer of grain, meat, dairy, eggs, and other major agricultural commodities. It has also been increasingly impacted by climate change-related extreme weather over the last decade as droughts, extreme rains, floods, and, most recently, a severe derecho have damaged crops, livestock, and livelihoods. Climate and agricultural scientists and other stakeholders are concerned that without major shifts away from degrading practices toward regenerative systems, long-term sustainability will be compromised. We used cumulative logistic regression to analyze data from a 2020 survey of 1,059 Iowa farmers to examine (1) how farmers are adapting to increasingly variable and extreme weather-related to climate change and (2) whether selected factors were associated with different kinds of adaptive (e.g., increased use of cover crops) or potentially maladaptive (e.g., increased use of pesticides) actions. Our results found that many farmers have been taking adaptive and maladaptive actions. Stewardship ethics, attitudes toward adaptive action, and integration in conservation-related networks were consistent, positive predictors of increases in adaptive practices. On the other hand, faith in crop insurance as a coping strategy, farm scale, and other factors were associated with some maladaptive actions, with several positive predictors of adaptation also being positive predictors of maladaptation, use of pesticides and drainage in particular. This research contributes to the growing literature on climate risk management and adaptation in agricultural landscapes by providing empirical evidence of the factors related to farmers' adaptive and maladaptive actions.
https://link-springer-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/content/pdf/10.1007/s10708-019-10024-2.pdf, 15 pages, Enhancing sustainable food security requires agricultural production systems to change in the direction of higher productivity and to mitigate lower output variability in the face of climate extreme related hazards such as land degradation. Adoption of resilient food production system capable of withstanding disruptive events is therefore needed to stabilize farmers' productivity. Consequently, participation in collective actions has been touted as an effective approach to enhance cooperation among individuals within a social system and to advance adoption of climate-smart farming techniques (conservation agriculture). This study investigated this perspective using heterogeneous treatment effects estimation to analyze the data collected from 350 smallholder farmers selected randomly from the South–West Nigeria. The average treatment effects on the treated estimate revealed that participation in collective actions had adoption-increasing effect for each unit variation in propensity score rank, although, negative selection effect was suspected. Similarly, information acquisition, access to extension service and frequency of visit by extension workers are significant features that predict adoption in the study area. However, rosenbaum sensitivity analysis test revealed that the increasing effect of participation in collective actions on conservation agriculture adoption is insensitive to unobserved bias that may double or triple the odds of exposure to treatment. Hence, the average treatment effect on the treated estimate is a pure impact of the participation in collective actions. The study concluded that farmers with high propensity to participate in collective action have high likelihood to adopt climate-resilient farming practices compared to the counterparts with a lower propensity of participation in collective action.
6 pages., Online via periodical website. Published on November 9, 2019., Author described reactions of journalists who were covering climate strikes that occurred throughout Canada on September 27, 2019. Respondents were invited to share perspectives about their role in covering this complex topic.
Lassa, Mitch J. (author), Wilmer, Hailey (author), Boone, Madison (author), Brown, Zach (author), Derner, Justin D. (author), Peck, Dannele E. (author), Thissen, Carmen (author), and Marlow, Clayton (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: D12286
15 pages, This article offers the Extension community a pathway to drought resilience and climate-related conversations through knowledge exchange workshops. In 2017, a "flash drought" affected eastern Montana, and ranchers in the region faced numerous challenges. Moreover, drought-favorable climate conditions are predicted to increase for the region. We held five workshops to facilitate an exchange of adaptive drought management strategies, focusing on key themes for drought resilience: (a) drought planning and adaptive management, (b) use of local knowledge networks, (c) flexible stocking and grazing, and (d) adaptation to shifting baselines. Extension can use this approach to foster multidirectional knowledge sharing to strengthen ranching resilience to drought conditions.
