5pgs, Millions of Maine’s fiber dollars is going to a mix of government entities, regional internet service providers, and large, out-of-state companies. Some worry these national companies have not worked well with communities in the past. Others say the investments should be evaluated on what they deliver, not who gets the money.
Alomia-Hinojosa,Victoria (author), Groot, CJ (author), Andersson, Jens (author), Speelman, Erika (author), McDonald, Andrew (author), and Tittonnell, Pablo (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2022-06-02
Published:
United States: Wiley Online
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12562
13 pages, Intensified livestock production is considered as a promising pathway for smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, this pathway may entail prohibitive investment requirements of labour, capital or trade-offs at farm level that preclude sustainable intensification. We used fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to assess farmers' perceptions of changes in the farm household system resulting from adding livestock to their mixed farms. Farmers identified trade-offs between the increased income and farmyard manure production versus increases in labour requirements for fodder imports. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis performed on the FCMs showed that an increase in milk market demand could have strong positive effects on livestock production and income. We conclude that FCM is a good tool to rapidly identify trade-offs and analyse perceptions of farmers which revealed that although they consider intensification a promising strategy, the perceived deepening of labour constraints and increasing dependency on fodder import makes a concurrent (sustainable) intensification of these farm systems unlikely.
Hennessy, David A. (author), Lindsey, Alexander J. (author), Che, Yuyuan (author), Lindsey, Laura E. (author), Pal Singh, Maninder (author), Feng, Hongli (author), Hawkins, Elizabeth M. (author), Subburayalu, Sakthi (author), Black, Roy (author), Richer, Eric A. (author), and Ochs, Daniel S. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2022-01-24
Published:
United States: Clemson University Press
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12260
4 pages, Selecting optimal corn and soybean seeding rates are difficult decisions to make. A survey of Ohio and Michigan farm operators finds that, although generally keen to learn from others, they tend to emphasize their own experience over outside information sources. Soybean growers declare university and extension recommendations as more important than do corn growers. In response to direct queries and in free comments, growers place more emphasis on understanding the agronomic and technological problems at hand than on adjusting to the market environment. Given the decision environment, we argue that these responses are reasonable.
14pgs, As an unobservable attribute, food safety is likely to be under-provided by markets where regulatory enforcement is weak. In such settings, stimulating consumer demand for safer food can potentially encourage market actors to invest in food safety. Through a randomized trial in Kenya, we test the impact of informing consumers about which maize flour brands are most likely to comply with the regulatory standard for aflatoxin, a carcinogenic fungal byproduct. Providing information on safer brands alone does not significantly affect consumption behavior. However, when the same information is combined with a test performed on the maize flour stocked by the household, the likelihood that a safer brand is consumed 2 months later is 76% higher than in the comparison group. Our findings suggest that providing information on the relative riskiness of substitute foods could encourage consumers to make safer choices.
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.
irrigation; sustainability, The inclusion of farmers in the decision-making process of management of irrigation systems is now accepted as necessary to increase productivity and income among the poor in the Third World. Hence, farmer participation is not simply a call for empowerment and mobilization of a hitherto powerless group, but, more fundamentally, a development strategy. The author evaluates the experience of participatory management in Sri Lanka and arrives at general conclusions, taking into account the size and complexity of the irrigation system, objectives, and capacity of agencies and farmers for participatory management as key aspects in a sustainable development strategy. (original)
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 94 Document Number: C07126
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, In: Report of research completed during the past year. Department of Agricultural Journalism, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prepared for NCR-90 meeting, Oct. 26-28, 1988. Mimeograph, 1988. p. 4-5
Dickrell, Peter A. (author) and McCracken, Vicki A. (author)
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1987
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 93 Document Number: C07076
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection; Highlights and Table of Contents, Pullman, WA : IMPACT Center, College of Agricultural and Home Economics, Washington State University, [1987]. Information Series no. 14. 43 p., U.S. consumers' past acceptance of food technologies (microwaves, artificial sweeteners, etc.) and their current decision-making process were examined in this study in order to assess potential acceptance and usage of irradiation foods. Benefits of food irradiation are explained.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1; Folder: IFDC File Document Number: D01437
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Prepared for the IFDC fertilizer marketing management training program for BADC. Dhaka, Bangladesh, 22 pages with appendices.
INTERPAKS, Describes selected extension programs in six Southeast Asian countries. Among extension approaches observed in these countries, those programs directed by Southeast Asians overwhelmingly favored technicians' one-to-one contact with farmers in solving their problems on the spot, whereas those programs designed by Westerners included larger classes and instruction in agricultural concepts. Reviews the advantages of each approach. Given the increasing complexity of irrigated agriculture, technicians and even supervisors were found to need more training in both social and intellectual initiative. Describes how anthropological research methods can be useful in improving the accuracy and insights of administrators' information from the provincial and farm levels and how administrators can benefit from the breadth that anthropologists bring to understanding both technicians' and farmer's decision making.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1; Folder: IFDC File Document Number: D01435
Notes:
Conference paper with slides, Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Prepared for the IFDC/APPI, fertilizer marketing training program for the asian region, Cikampek, Indonesia. 28 pages with 42 visuals in appendices.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1; Folder: IFDC File Document Number: D01434
Notes:
Conference paper with slides, Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Prepared for the IFDC/APPI, fertilizer marketing training program for the asian region. Cikampek, Indonesia. 22 pages, including 36 visuals in appendices.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1; Folder: IFDC File Document Number: D01431
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Presentation at the IFDC/ESCAP Fertilizer Marketing Training Program for the Asian Region, Bangkok, Thailand. 22 pages with appendices.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1; Folder: IFDC File Document Number: D01430
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Presentation at the Fertilizer efficiency research in the tropics (FERITT) training course cosponsored by IFDC/IITA/University of Nairobi. Nairobi, Kenya. 23 pages including appendices.
INTERPAKS; see also C07214, Aims to show that it can be of great advantage to the design of a rural development project if the cognitive strategies which lie behind farmers' decisions to adopt new technology are understood. This is done by using a case study of an agronomic recommendation of the Plan Puebla in Mexico which did not diffuse. Of the 1973-4 recommendations, the one to increase the number and change the timing of fertilizer applications was the non-adopted recommendation. The theory of choice used in this study assumes that people choosing between two alternatives do not make complex calculation of the overall worth or utility of each alternative. Instead people tend to use procedures which simplify their decision making calculations.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 43 Document Number: B05240
Notes:
INTERPAKS, Mimeographed, 1977. Paper presented at the Symposium on Risk and Uncertainty in Decision Processes of Small Farmers in Less Developed Countries, San Diego, CA, July 31-August 3, 1977. 27 p., Describes research towards the generation of production technologies appropriate to the conditions of small farms. notes the conclusion drawn about the decision processes followed by small farmers with regard to what, how much and how to produce, soil preparation, seeding or planting, use of fertilizer, weed control, diseases and insect control, harvesting, and product handling. Despite efforts to transfer improved technologies, small farmers have been reluctant to adopt them, mainly because they perceive them to be inappropriate for their particular conditions and resources and because the element of risk is too strong.
Chakraborti, Sivaji (author), Das, Puranjan (author), Gupta, T.K. (author), and University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India; University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India; University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1973
Published:
India
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 42 Document Number: B04964
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 43 Document Number: B05098
Notes:
Evans, cited reference; Includes Table of Contents, Summary and Conclusions only, Hyderabad, India : National Institute of Community Development, 1969. 61 p.
Clark, Cameron (author / FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Far East, Bangkok, Thailand) and FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Far East, Bangkok, Thailand
Format:
unknown
Publication Date:
unknown
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: B03362
