11 pages, This research aims to examine the relation between farmer organization and welfare using Propensity Score Matching approach. Numerous prior studies have demonstrated that farmers’ involvement in a producer group significantly affects their income levels, efficiency rates, and the adoption of cutting-edge agricultural technologies. However, there have been few studies on salt farming in Madura Island, despite its status as a primary salt producer in Indonesia. This study focused on examining how the participation of salt farmers in farmer groups, specifically known as the “Traditional Salt Business Group” (or Kelompok Usaha Garam Rakyat [KUGAR] in Indonesian), impacts their agricultural income. In this study, the researchers examined primary data collected through interviews with 115 traditional salt farmers on Madura Island, East Java, Indonesia. Logistic regression analysis revealed three independent variables affecting the decisions of salt farmers, specifically farmer’s latest level of education, salt production in the last season, and the number of their family members. Then, employing a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach, the study showed a significant income disparity between salt farmers who were KUGAR members and those who are not. Moreover, the level of education emerged as a key determinant influencing salt farmers’ decisions to join KUGAR. Furthermore, the Indonesian government could intervene by encouraging younger salt farmers to join the producer groups to realize benefits, including improvements in the well-being of salt farmers.
12 pages, Background
Health risk communication plays a key role in promoting self-protective measures, which are critical in suppressing COVID-19 contagion. Relatively little is known about the communication channels used by rural poor populations to learn novel measures and their effectiveness in promoting self-protective behaviors. Behavioral change can be shaped by people’s trust in government institutions which may be differentiated by social identity, including indigeneity.
Methods
During an early phase of the pandemic, we conducted two telephone surveys with over 460 communities – both Indigenous and mestizo – without road access and limited communication access in the Peruvian Amazon. This is the first report on the association of information sources about self-protective measures against COVID-19 with the adoption of self-protective behaviors in remote rural areas in developing countries.
Results
People mainly relied on mass media (radio, television, newspapers) and interpersonal sources (local authorities, health workers, neighbors/relatives) for information and adopted handwashing, mask-wearing, social distancing, and social restrictions to varying degrees. Overall, self-protective behaviors were largely positively and negatively associated with mass media and interpersonal sources, respectively, depending on the source-measure combination. Mistrust of the government seems to have shaped how Indigenous and mestizo peoples distinctively responded to interpersonal information sources and relied on mass media.
Conclusions
Our findings call for improved media access to better manage pandemics in rural areas, especially among remote Indigenous communities.
17 pages, Rural households in developing countries often depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. However, many also pursue off-farm economic activities either to complement their farm income or because they lack access to agricultural land. Rural off-farm employment is often informal and temporary. Searching for jobs can be associated with high transaction costs, which may be a constraint on some households’ participation in off-farm employment. The increasing spread of mobile phones may help to reduce these transaction costs. Here, we test the hypothesis that mobile phone ownership increases rural households’ participation in off-farm employment and—through this mechanism—also improves household income. We use nationally representative panel data from rural India and regression models with household fixed effects to control for confounding factors and unobserved heterogeneity. We find that mobile phone ownership is positively associated with the likelihood of participating in various types of off-farm employment, including casual wage labour, salaried employment and non-agricultural self-employment. This association is larger in female-headed than in male-headed households. The estimates also show that mobile phone ownership is positively associated with household income, partly channeled through the off-farm employment mechanism.
Hashem, Nesrein M. (author), Hassanein, Eman M. (author), Hocquette, Jean-François (author), Gonzalez-Bulnes, Antonio (author), Ahmed, Fayrouz A. (author), Attia, Youssef A. (author), and Asiry, Khalid A. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2021-06-08
Published:
United States: MDPI
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12277
24 pages, In the near future, the year 2050, agricultural production should expand to fulfill the needs of approximately 9.7 billion inhabitants. Such an objective should be harmonized with social, economic, and environmental sustainability aspects to maintain safe food production and food security worldwide. For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised and is still strongly disrupting the agro-livestock production sector, similar to several other economic sectors. In this sector, the relationships between suppliers, producers, and consumers should always continue to maintain the activity of the production chain, which are impaired by social distancing decisions taken following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, a global cross-sectional survey (translated into four languages: Arabic, English, French, and Spanish) was shared with people belonging to the agricultural sector to identify: (1) the role of the agricultural information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agro-livestock farming systems sustainability during the period of COVID-19 pandemic, (2) the need for such technologies in the agricultural sector, and (3) the factors that affect the use of such technologies. The results showed that the most frequently used agricultural ICTs were social media (Facebook and/or WhatsApp; 27.3%) and online platforms and Internet services (26.3%), whereas robotic vehicles and/or drones (6.6%) were less frequently used. During the emergence of the pandemic, the major reasons impacting agro-livestock farming systems' sustainability were social distancing (30.0%), shortage of labor (17.7%), maintaining precision farm management (14.8%), product marketing (14.2%), access production inputs (7.2%), and others (16.1%). Applying agricultural ICTs solved many obstacles related to the production process, such as maintaining precision farm management (25.6%), product marketing (23.6%), and access production inputs (16.1%). The subgroup analyses of the results considering the degree of country advancement, size of agribusinesses, and role/position of respondents in the farm highlighted the importance of supporting the use, availability, and awareness of agricultural ICTs at least for some groups of people such as those belong to developing countries, laborers, and small-scale agri-business holders. This cross-sectional study highlights the urgent need to turn to and to expand the use of new agricultural ICTs to meet the growing demand for food production in the world and to ensure the resilience and sustainability of farming systems, specifically under unexpected and extreme conditions.
19 pages, 19 pages, The price fluctuation in agricultural markets is an obstacle to poverty reduction for small-scale farmers in developing countries. We build a microfoundation to study how farmers with heterogeneous production costs, under price fluctuations, make crop-planting decisions over time to maximize their individual welfare. We consider both strategic farmers, who rationally anticipate the near-future price as a basis for making planting decisions, and naive farmers, who shortsightedly react to the most recent crop price. The latter behavior may cause recurring overproduction or underproduction, which leads to price fluctuations. We find it important to cultivate a sufficient number of strategic farmers because their self-interested behavior alone, made possible by sufficient market information, can reduce price volatility and improve total social welfare. In the absence of strategic farmers, a well-designed preseason buyout contract, offered by a social entrepreneur or a for-profit firm to a fraction of contract farmers, brings benefit to farmers as well as to the firm itself. More strikingly, the contract not only equalizes the individual welfare in the long run among farmers of the same production cost, but it also reduces individual welfare disparity over time among farmers with heterogeneous costs regardless of whether they are contract farmers or not. On the other hand, a nonsocially optimal buyout contract may reflect a social entrepreneur's over-subsidy tendency or a for-profit firm's speculative incentive to mitigate but not eliminate the market price fluctuation, both preventing farmers from achieving the most welfare.
Eitzinger, Anton (author), Cock, James (author), Atzmanstorfer, Karl (author), Binder, Claudia R. (author), Läderach, Peter (author), Bonilla-Findji, Osana (author), Bartlin, Mona (author), Mwongera, Caroline (author), Zurita, Leo (author), and Jarvis, Andy (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-03
Published:
Germany: Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 7 Document Number: D10292
13 pages., Via online journal., Farmers can manage their crops and farms better if they can communicate their experiences, both positive and negative, with each other and with experts. Digital agriculture using internet communication technology (ICT) may facilitate the sharing of experiences between farmers themselves and with experts and others interested in agriculture. ICT approaches in agriculture are, however, still out of the reach of many farmers. The reasons are lack of connectivity, missing capacity building and poor usability of ICT applications. We decided to tackle this problem through cost-effective, easy to use ICT approaches, based on infrastructure and services currently available to small-scale producers in developing areas. Working through a participatory design approach, we developed and tested a novel technology. GeoFarmer provides near real-time, two-way data flows that support processes of co-innovation in agricultural development projects. It can be used as a cost-effective ICT-based platform to monitor agricultural production systems with interactive feedback between the users, within pre-defined geographical domains. We tested GeoFarmer in four geographic domains associated with ongoing agricultural development projects in East and West Africa and Latin America. We demonstrate that GeoFarmer is a cost-effective means of providing and sharing opportune indicators of on-farm performance. It is a potentially useful tool that farmers and agricultural practitioners can use to manage their crops and farms better, reduce risk, increase productivity and improve their livelihoods.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D02439
Notes:
Page 69 - Abstract of a paper presented at the International Conference of the Australasia Pacific Extension Network (APEN), Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand, August 26-28, 2013. 100 pages.
International: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00328
Notes:
Pages 61-74 in Pauline Hope Cheong, Judith N. Martin and Leah P. Macfadyen (eds.), New media and intercultural communication: identify, community and politics. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York. 337 pages.
Gordon, Nickesia (author) and Sorensen, Kristin (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
International: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00331
Notes:
Pages 275-289 in Pauline Hope Cheong, Judith N. Martin and Leah P. Macfadyen (eds.), New media and intercultural communication: identify, community and politics. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York. 337 pages.
Chen, Guo-Ming (author) and Dai, Xiaodong (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
International: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00329
Notes:
Pages 123-137 in Pauline Hope Cheong, Judith N. Martin and Leah P. Macfadyen (eds.), New media and intercultural communication: identify, community and politics. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York. 337 pages.
India: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00330
Notes:
Pages 209-221 in Pauline Hope Cheong, Judith N. Martin and Leah P. Macfadyen (eds.), New media and intercultural communication: identify, community and politics. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York City, New York. 337 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C37050
Notes:
Pages 175-193 in Matthew Tonts and M.A.B. Siddique (eds.), Globalisation, agriculture and development: perspectives from the Asia-Pacific. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, U.K. 254 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C30711
Notes:
Paper presented at Tropentag 2010, Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 1 page.
Paluanov, Bakhitbay (author) and International Association for Media and Communication Research, London, UK.
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2010-07-18
Published:
China
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 180 Document Number: C36240
Notes:
Retrieved 03/22/2011, Via online. Page 54 in Book of Abstracts: Journalism Research and Education Section of the IAMCR Conference, Braga, Portugal, July 18-22, 2010.
Chib, Arul (author), Ale, Komathi (author), and International Association for Media and Communication Research, London, UK.
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2010-07-18
Published:
India
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 179 Document Number: C36279
Notes:
Retrieved 03/22/2011, Via online. Pages 22-23 in Book of Abstracts: Participatory Communication Research Section of the IAMCR Conference, Braga, Portugal, July 18-22, 2010.
Murphrey, Theresa Pesl (author), Collett, Ryan (author), and Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2010-05
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 185 Document Number: D00421
Notes:
Abstract of article in the proceedings of the 26th annual meeting of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, May 16-19, 2010.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00581
Notes:
Pages 81-90 in Arnold Pichot and Josef Lorenz (eds.) ICT for the next five billion people: information and communication for sustainable development. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 122 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00582
Notes:
Pages 91-97 in Arnold Pichot and Josef Lorenz (eds.) ICT for the next five billion people: information and communication for sustainable development. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 122 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00579
Notes:
Pages 55-61 in Arnold Pichot and Josef Lorenz (eds.) ICT for the next five billion people: information and communication for sustainable development. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 122 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00580
Notes:
Pages 63-80 in Arnold Pichot and Josef Lorenz (eds.) ICT for the next five billion people: information and communication for sustainable development. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 122 pages.
Gomez, Ricardo (author), Coward, Chris (author), and Ambikar, Rucha (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2009-08-23
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C35654
Notes:
Presented at the World Library and Information Congress, Quebec, Canada, August 10-14, 2008. Via International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, Netherlands. 15 pages., Reports on public access venues such as libraries, cybercafes and telecenters in 25 countries, with a particular focus on underserved populations.
Bakar, A.B.A. (author) and Alhadri, A.Y.A.L (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2009-08-23
Published:
Malaysia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C35653
Notes:
Presented at the World Library and Information Congress, Milan, Italy, August 23-27, 2009. Via International Federation of Library Associations, The Hague, Netherlands. 10 pages.
Byrnes, Kerry J.;Jessee, David;Bathrick, David, Chemonics International (author)
Format:
Special Report
Publication Date:
2009-04-08
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes4; Folder: Presentations at Professional Meetings File Document Number: D01576
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, USAID and T-lad,38 pages
