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    Start Over Subject Term extension research Subject Term rural development

    4. Construction and validation of a psychometric scale to assess extension agents’ beliefs about extension and innovation

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Landini, Fernando (author), Beramendi, Maite (author), and University of La Cuenca del Plata Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2019-07-24
    Published:
    Argentina: Taylor and Francis
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 101 Document Number: D10880
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    25(5) : 318-399
    Notes:
    18 pages, online journal article, Purpose This article aims at designing and validating a psychometric scale to assess extensionists’ and advisors’ beliefs about extension and innovation. Design/Methodology/approach The scale was developed by drawing upon results from a previous empirical research as well as insights from a literature review on extension and innovation approaches. The theoretical framework used to write the items was validated by 12 international experts from 11 countries. 608 Argentine extension workers completed the questionnaire. Replies were analysed using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Findings The scale has a good fit and satisfactory level of internal consistency. Five factors were identified: Dialogue and horizontal coordination; Transfer of technology; Blame on farmers; Participatory, farmer-led extension; and Self-critical attitude. Practical implications The scale has multiple and different uses, including research, theory development, institutional practice, diagnosis, and teaching. Theoretical implications Results show that a horizontal, facilitative extension approach shares a common epistemology, as well as underlying values and assumptions, with territorial development and with an innovation systems perspective, and that both contrast with a traditional transfer of technology approach. Nonetheless, practitioners would not tend to see these two contrasting perspectives as contradictory but as complementary. Originality/Value The scale is the first validated psychometric instrument, based on an ample theoretical framework, that allows for a quantitative assessment of beliefs about extension and innovation.

    5. Contributions to group work and to the management of collective processes in extension and rural development

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Landini, Fernando (author), Bianqui, Vanina (author), Vargas, Gilda (author), Inés Mathot y Rebolé, María (author), Martinez, Manuela (author), and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina National Council of Scientific and Technological Research, Argentina University of La Cuenca del Plata, Argentina University of Morón, Argentina University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2017-10-07
    Published:
    Argentina: Science Direct
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 106 Document Number: D10934
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Rural Studies
    Journal Title Details:
    56(2017) : 143-155
    Notes:
    12 pages, via online journal, Working with farmers' groups, associations and cooperatives constitutes a fundamental element of extension work with family farmers. Despite the fact that extension practitioners face many problems in this area of their work, there is currently a lack of academic literature that systematically addresses the topic and offers concrete guidelines for practice. Thus, this paper will aim to clarify the benefits of farmers' groups, associations and networks within the context of family farming, systematise problems faced by rural extensionists when working with farmers' groups and associations, provide conceptual tools for understanding group and associative processes, and construct a set of guidelines and recommendations for facing said problems. In order to achieve these aims, the authors conducted an extensive literature review and drew upon their personal experience on the topic. Results suggest that some of the benefits of associative work are: better access to inputs, produce and credit markets, the facilitation of learning processes, the empowerment of family farmers as social actors, and a reduction of rural extension costs. Additionally, with respects to the problems faced by extensionists, the following can be highlighted: individualist attitudes and conflicts between farmers, scarce participation and commitment, problems with leaderships and with organisations' administrative management, and the lack of extensionists' training to address these processes, among others. With regards to the factors that increase trust and cooperation are: interpersonal communication and mutual knowledge, sharing problems, values and objectives, and the existence of shared rules for the functioning of the group that include sanctions for transgressors. In this context, the extensionists' role will be that of facilitating processes of construction of group relationships, creating rules for the groups' functioning and developing the group's capacities for self-management.

    6. Development and validation of the international extension network advocacy capacity scale

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Lamm, Kevan W. (author), Lamm, Alexa (author), Davis, Kristin E. (author), Dobbins, Catherine (author), and Powell, Alyssa (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2021-12-29
    Published:
    USA: New Prairie Press
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12684
    Journal Title:
    Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol. 28, Iss. 5
    Notes:
    24 pages, Extension is sometimes viewed globally as less important than academic research and innovation, even though these networks are crucial to agricultural development. Using Lewin’s (1947) organizational change theory as a conceptual background, an instrument to measure advocacy capacity within international extension networks was developed. The resulting scale was analyzed for content validity, response process validity, internal structure validity, and consequential validity. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the proposed scale. The underlying structure of the scale was found to load onto five factors. The five extracted factors were labelled: 1) network support of advocacy, 2) network integration of advocacy, 3) network influence in advocacy, 4) network visibility in advocacy, and 5) network advocacy performance. The overall International Extension Network Advocacy Capacity (IENAC) scale, and associated subscales were all found to have acceptable levels of validity.

    7. Facilitators and barriers to farmers’ market use in a rural area

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Jarvandi, Soghra (author), Johnson, Kristen (author), and Franck, Karen (author)
    Format:
    Journal Article
    Publication Date:
    2022-06-16
    Published:
    United States: Clemson University Press
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12614
    Journal Title:
    Journal of Extension
    Journal Title Details:
    V. 60 Iss. 2
    Notes:
    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.

    9. Rural Farmers' Problems Accessing Agricultural Information: A Case Study of Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Obidike, Nnenna (author)
    Format:
    Journal article
    Publication Date:
    2011-11-01
    Published:
    United States: University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12353
    Journal Title:
    Library Philosophy and Practice
    Journal Title Details:
    Vol. 660
    Notes:
    12 pages, Rural farmers account for the greater part of the population of any developing country such as Nigeria. Governments of developing countries have a major responsibility of ensuring that there is adequate rural development in their various communities and local governments which would lead to effective and efficient agricultural systems that will not only supply food and animal protein but also foster the utilization of natural resources in a sustainable manner (CGIAR, 1995). When the rural farmers lack access to knowledge and information that would help them achieve maximum agricultural yield, they are not only grope in the dark but are driven to the urban centres in search of formal employment, as the only option for survival (Munyua, 2000). Blait (1996) pointed out that the least expensive input for improved rural agricultural development is adequate access to knowledge and information in areas of new agricultural technologies, early warning systems (drought, pests, diseases etc), improved seedlings, fertilizer, credit, market prices etc. There have been short-comings of traditional print and library based methods (Van and Fortier, 2000) of providing such agricultural information to rural farmers who are generally illiterate and relatively remote from formal sources of information (e.g. extension stations, libraries). Aina (2007) also, was of the opinion that farmers would benefit from global information, if information centres, are cited in rural areas complete with all information and communication gadgets. Rural farmers in Nsukka local government area of Enugu state are not noted to produce enough food, probably due to some constraints that lead to lack of access to timely and up-to-date information which would have enabled them to achieve optimal yield from their farmlands. Such information is highly desired by these farmers and can only be made available to them via extension workers, community libraries, state and local government agricultural agencies (ADP, ENADEP etc), e-mail or the World Wide Web (WWW) in a telecentre (Telecommons Development Group, 2000). In this modern day of information technology, telecentres provide the rural farmers with prompt and reliable information about what is happening in areas of improved seedlings, better methods of cultivation and fertilizer application, pest and weed control/eradication, new advances in livestock production and disease control etc. Where rural farmers are not faced with constraints in accessing agricultural information, traditional media such as rural radio, has been used in delivering agricultural messages to rural farmers (Munyua, 2000). Other ways of delivering these messages or information to the rural farmers include print, video, television, films, slides, pictures, drama, dance, folklore, group discussions, meetings, exhibitions and demonstrations (Munyua, 2000). The lack of access to basic agricultural knowledge and information by rural farmers in Nsukka local government area of Enugu State which may be as a result of certain constraints has made these farmers to stick to their old traditional methods of farming system and animal husbandry practice, hence resulting in poor crop and livestock productivity. Information and knowledge are very vital in agricultural development of any community and where they are poorly disseminated as a result of certain constraints, the community’s agricultural development becomes highly impeded. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the constraints of the rural farmers in Nsukka local government area of Enugu State in accessing agricultural information.

    10. Seeing is Believing: How to Conduct Convincing Result Demonstrations

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    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Strow, Helen (author / Division of Extension Research and Training), Cowing, Amy (author / Division of Extension Research and Training), and U.S. Department of Agriculture
    Format:
    Booklet
    Publication Date:
    1960
    Published:
    USA
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 177 Document Number: C30385