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2. Does the farmer field schools program improve farmers' behavior to adopt the drought-tolerant rice varieties in Pangasinan, the Philippines?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Cho, Sunmee (author) and Kim, Taeyoon (author)
- Format:
- Journal article summary
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Philippines
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D11672
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Rural Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 42 (Special Issue) : 71-99
- Notes:
- 6 pages., Article is a revision of material presented at the annual conference (2017) of the Korea Association of SouthEast Asian Studies., Results show that participants of the farmer field schools (FFS) program were more likely to adopt the drought-tolerant rice varieties by 9.9% compared to the non-participants. "It also demonstrates that the FFS with the Local Farmer Technician system is effective in improving farmers' adoption of the newly introduced varieties in the survey area.
3. Effect of intensive agriculture-nutrition education and extension program adoption and diffusion of biofortified crops
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Okello, Julius J. (author), Kwikiriza, Norman (author), Muoki, Penina (author), Wambaya, Jacob (author), and Heck, Simon (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 75 Document Number: D10806
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 20(3):254-276
- Notes:
- 24 pages., via online journal., Biofortification of staple crops to combat micronutrient deficiencies is gaining global recognition. Projects promoting biofortified food crops use intensive agriculture-nutrition education and extension activities to increase adoption of such crops. This study examines the effect of such programs on the adoption and diffusion of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP). It finds that intensive agriculture-nutrition education and extension programs adopted by some of the biofortification projects increases the adoption and diffusion of OFSP. Specifically, participation in mother-to-mother nutrition support clubs and nutrition-focused health talks affect its adoption and diffusion, but with varying degrees of importance. The paper discusses the implications of these findings.
4. Exchanging knowledge to improve organic arable farming:an evaluation of knowledge exchange tools with farmer groups across Europe
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bliss, Katie (author), Susanne Padel (author), Beth Cullen (author), Charline Ducottet (author), Samantha Mullender (author), Ilse A. Rasmussen (author), and Bram Moeskops (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12
- Published:
- Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D11505
- Journal Title:
- Organic Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- 9:383–398
- Notes:
- 16 pages., via online journal., Organic farming is knowledge intensive. To support farmers in improving yields and organic agriculture systems, there is a need to improve how knowledge is shared. There is an established culture of sharing ideas, successes and failures in farming. The internet and information technologies open-up new opportunities for knowledge exchange involving farmers, researchers, advisors and other practitioners. The OK-Net Arable brought together practitioners from regional Farmer Innovation Groups across Europe in a multi-actor project to explore how online knowledge exchange could be improved. Feedback from the groups was obtained for 35 ‘tools’, defined as end-user materials, such as technical guides, videos and websites informing about practices in organic agriculture. The groups also selected one practice to test on farms, sharing their experiences with others through workshops, exchange visits and through videos. Farmers valued the same key elements in face-to-face exchanges (workshops and visits) as in online materials. These were the opportunity for visual observation, deeper understanding of the context in which a practice was being tried and details about what worked and what did not work. Videos, decision support tools and social media can provide useful mechanisms for taking knowledge exchange online, enabling farmers and researchers to share experiences and practical implications. Visual information, economics, details of the context, successes and failures were considered to be critical factors in good knowledge exchange tools. Online platforms and forums should not be expected to replace but rather to complement face to face knowledge exchange in improving organic farming.
5. Information and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture: a report to the G20 agricultural deputies
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (author)
- Format:
- Report
- Publication Date:
- 2017
- Published:
- Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 8 Document Number: D10296
- Notes:
- 57 pages., Report from FAO, Via website., This report responds to the request by the G20 Agricultural Ministers to FAO, IFPRI and OECD in June 2016 to build on their preliminary assessment of existing ICT applications and platforms and make specific proposals for consideration and action by G20 Agriculture Deputies ahead of the next G20 Agricultural Ministers meeting on the best possible mechanism to improve agricultural ICT exchange and cooperation. The report is organized as follows: (i) The section Summary, Evaluation and Recommendations is targeted to policy makers and draws from the detailed review undertaken in Sections 1 to 4 of the report. It provides a succinct but comprehensive account of ICTs in agriculture, including evaluating their impact. It identifies gaps, and puts forward a number of recommendations for the G20 in line with the G20 comparative advantage for collective action. Policies and measures to promote ICTs are crucial for the G20 economies and for agriculture in particular. G20 Ministers of Agriculture can take action to integrate ICTs in agricultural policies and initiatives. The report makes a number of recommendations for concrete actions in the area of ICTs that promote sustainable food systems and contribute to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.(ii) Sections 1 to 4 contain a detailed, albeit not exhaustive review of ICTs in agriculture. There is plethora of ICT applications on agriculture, ranging from using radio to satellite remote sensing, and in Section 2 every effort has been made to provide a comprehensive picture through the discussion of selected applications. Section 3 reviews the platforms and initiatives that promote the use of ICTs, and Section 4 examines governance issues specifically related to principles, rights and privacy. A number of Annexes provide more detail to the reader on a number of areas related to governance.
6. Is agricultural intensification a growing health concern? perceptions from waste management stakeholders in vietnam
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Veidt, Julia (author), Lam, Steven (author), Nguyen-Viet, Hung (author), Tuyet-Hanh, Tran T. (author), and Nguyen-Mai, Huong (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018
- Published:
- United States: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 197 Document Number: D10417
- Journal Title:
- Sustainability
- Journal Title Details:
- 10(12)
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Article 4395, via online journal, This article characterizes the health risk perceptions toward excreta and wastewater management practices among waste management stakeholders in Vietnam and explores the implications of such perceptions on hygiene behaviors and preventative actions. Key informant interviews (n = 19; 12 women and 7 men) were conducted with farmers, community leaders, researchers, and government representatives in Hanoi and Ha Nam Province. Interviews were audio-recorded with permission, transcribed, and analyzed using a constant comparative method and qualitative thematic analysis. Researchers and government representatives perceived that the lack of knowledge of safe waste management practices among farmers was responsible for the use of “outdated” and often “unsafe” waste management practices. However, many farmers were aware of the health risks and safe hygienic practices but felt that safety measures were impractical and viewed susceptibility to diseases as low risk. Farmers also identified unfavorable climate and working conditions, limited financial capacity, and limited farm space as barriers to adopting safe management practices. At the broader level, inadequate communication between ministries often led to the creation of inconsistent waste management regulations. These barriers create constraints on efforts to improve sustainable waste management practices. Promoting collaboration between sectors, encouraging farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, and designing and implementing risk communication strategies that account for risk perceptions of stakeholders are recommended.
7. Learning from experts and peer farmers about rice production: experimental evidence from Cote d’Ivoire
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Takahashi, Kazushi (author), Mano, Yukichi (author), and Otsuka, Keijiro (author)
- Format:
- Journal article abstract
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10534
- Journal Title:
- World Development
- Journal Title Details:
- 122: 157-169
- Notes:
- Abstract via online journal. 2 pages., Technological innovation is vital to economic growth and food security in sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural productivity has been stagnant for a long time. Extension services and learning from peer farmers are two common approaches to facilitate the diffusion of new technologies, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. Selection bias, whereby well-motivated training participants would perform better even without extension services, as well as knowledge spillovers, where non-participants can indirectly benefit from extension services, are among the major threats to causal inference. Using a unique sequential randomized experiment on agricultural training, this study attempts to meet the dual objectives of executing rigorous impact evaluation of extension services and subsequent spillovers on rice production in Cote d’Ivoire. Specifically, to reduce selection bias, we randomly assigned eligibility for training participation; and to satisfy the stable unit treatment value assumption, control-group farmers were initially restricted from exchanging information with treated-group farmers who had received rice management training. Once some positive impacts were confirmed, information exchange between the treated and control farmers was encouraged. We found that the initial performance gaps created by the randomized assignment disappeared over time, due presumably to social learning from peer farmers. A detailed analysis concerning the information network and peer effects provided suggestive evidence that there were information and technology spillovers from treated to control farmers after removing the information exchange restriction. Overall, our study demonstrates that information dissemination by farmers can be as effective in improving practices as the initial training provided by extension services.
8. Making millets matter in Madhya Pradesh
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Mondal, Ashis (author), King, Israel Oliver (author), Meldrum, Gennifer (author), Roy, Somnath (author), Priyam, Shambhavi (author), Mishra, Sharad (author), and Padulosi, Stefano (author)
- Format:
- Case study
- Publication Date:
- 2016-06
- Published:
- India: Agri Cultures Network, Wageningen, Netherlands
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D11019
- Journal Title:
- Farming Matters
- Journal Title Details:
- 32(2)
- Notes:
- Online from publisher. 6 pages., Case example includes description of successful use of farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange and festivals for rural-urban populations featuring ways to get these climate-hardy crops back on their plates.
9. Media's role in enhancing sustainable development in Zambia
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Young, Carrie (author) and McComas, Katherine (author)
- Format:
- Article
- Publication Date:
- 2016
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 152 Document Number: D11602
- Journal Title:
- Mass Communication and Society
- Journal Title Details:
- 19(5) : 626-649
- Notes:
- 25 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, Researchers evaluated the role of media through qualitative feedback from smallholder farmers identified by Community Markets for Conservation through radio programming efforts involving sustainable agriculture. Results demonstrated the centrality of the radio programming alongside other forms of communication such as extension and farmer-to-farmer communication, as well as written and visual communication.
10. Of mice and men: when face-to-face agricultural information is replaced by a mouse click
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Charatsari, Chrysanthi (author) and Lioutas, Evagelos D. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2013-01-01
- Published:
- Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10488
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural & Food Information
- Journal Title Details:
- 14(2): 103-131
- Notes:
- 30 pages., via online journal., In this article we present and discuss two experiments designed to test the effectiveness of the Internet as a tool of agricultural information. Subjects were cotton producers from Thessaly, Greece. Findings suggest that, in the early stages of an innovation diffusion process, the Internet is more effective than social sources (Experiment 1). However, when urgent situations that force quick decisions occur (Experiment 2), the Internet is significantly less effective than face-to-face communication channels. In both cases, farmers who used the Internet spent more time and devoted extra effort. The experiments proved that agronomists remain the most effective information source. Results also illustrate that Internet adoption is not necessarily synonymous with its use.
11. Opportunities for adaptive online collaboration to enhance rural land management
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Baumber, Alex (author), Metternicht, Graciela (author), Ampt, Peter (author), and Cross, Rebecca (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-08-01
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10627
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 219: 28-36
- Notes:
- 9 pages., via online journal., Cross-property cooperation has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of environmental management actions that cut across property boundaries. Online tools can facilitate this and overcome barriers to landholder engagement in collaborative management. However, collaborative online tools need to be designed and tailored to users' needs and values, and landholder participation in the development process is critical to ensuring uptake and long-term use. This article presents a case study from the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia, where landholders have been involved in participatory development of a new online collaboration tool. The case study results highlight the significance of issues such as internet access, privacy, technical proficiency and differing stakeholder objectives. A landholder survey identified mapping and the uploading of monitoring data as important functions for the online tool, but these were not rated as highly as functions relating to data security, sharing settings and key term searches. Consequently, we recommend that a future online collaboration tool for the region is not framed specifically as a mapping or citizen science tool, but rather as an adaptive collaboration and communication tool that can incorporate a variety of data types and formats and be modified over time in line with changing landholder needs.
12. Social networking of innovative farmers through WhatsApp messenger for learning exchange: A study of content sharing
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- M.S. Nain (author), Rashmi Singh (author), and Jyoti Ranjan Mishra (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 121 Document Number: D11070
- Journal Title:
- The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences
- Journal Title Details:
- 89(3)
- Notes:
- 3 pages., via online journal., Farm Innovators are regularly exchanging information and their experiences using WhatsApp messenger on their mobile phones. Most of the content shared was knowledge intensive with a mix of personal farming experiences. As Social constructivist learning theory seeks to improve socialinteractions to construct and share knowledge and the social networking through WhatsApp has proved to be potential to construct knowledge. Learning being the outcome of interactions between cognitive and psychological and the WhatsApp being the potential source for socialization and internalization promoted the creation ofsocial wealth in the form of discussion forums of Innovative farmers for learning exchange. The extension mechanism for purposeful farmer to farmer learning exchange has been created which in turn is a step towards innovative farmer led extension delivery mechanism. The potential of not only WhatsApp but other social media need to be exploited to bring location specific and commodity oriented transformative changes in the agriculture extension delivery system. The experimentation with innovative farmers is not only helping in scaling the farmers’ innovations but also institutional innovations at large. As all human resources (labour, management, innovation, creativity) are products of social relationships, no one can reach maturity without the help of personally caring people, including their families, friends, neighbors, and communities. Farms and agricultural enterprises also depend on the ability of people to work together toward the common goal of ecological, social, and economic sustainability through social networks.
13. The use of Twitter for knowledge exchange on sustainable soil management
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Mills, Jane (author), Reed, Matthew (author), Skaalsveen, Kamilla (author), and Ingram, Julie (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12
- Published:
- Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 121 Document Number: D11121
- Journal Title:
- Soil Use & Management
- Journal Title Details:
- 35:195–203
- Notes:
- 9 pages., via online journal., Encouraging the uptake of sustainable soil management practices often requires on‐farm experiential learning and adaptation over a sustained period, rather than the traditional knowledge transfer processes of identifying a problem and implementing a solution. Farmer‐to‐farmer learning networks are emerging with farmers experimenting and sharing knowledge about these practices amongst themselves. One potential communication channel for such interaction and knowledge sharing is social media and Twitter in particular. A content analysis of a Twitter account for an EU research project, SoilCare, and in‐depth qualitative interviews with five farmers using Twitter, was used to illustrate the extent and type of farmer‐to‐farmer knowledge sharing in relation to sustainable soil management practices. Evidence of farmer learning and knowledge sharing on Twitter with respect to these practices was identified. Twitter can capture the immediacy of the field operations and visual impacts in the field. Furthermore, the brief messages channelled through Twitter appeal to time‐constrained farmers. The ability for interaction around particular hashtags in Twitter is developing virtual networks of practice in relation to sustainable soil management. Within these networks, farmer champions are emerging that are respected by other farmers. Twitter works best for those actively seeking information, rather than passive recipients of new knowledge. Therefore, its use with other forms of face‐to‐face interaction as part of a blended learning approach is recommended. Twitter also offers a potential space for other actors, such as researchers and advisers, to interact and share knowledge with farmers.
14. The use of social media technologies to create, preserve, and disseminate indigenous knowledge and skills to communities in East Africa
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Owiny, Sylvia A. (author), Mehta, Khanjan (author), and Maretzki, Audrey N. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2014
- Published:
- International Journal of Communicaitons
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 102 Document Number: D10904
- Journal Title:
- International Journal of Communication
- Journal Title Details:
- 8: 234–247
- Notes:
- 14 pages., via online journal., The preservation, management, and sharing of indigenous knowledge is crucial for social and economic development in rural Africa. The high rate of illiteracy (print-based) in rural Africa and the exclusion of indigenous knowledge from Western education add to the information gap experienced in rural Africa. Other challenges facing oral cultures are the disappearance of traditional knowledge and skills due to memory loss or death of elders and the deliberate or inadvertent destruction of indigenous knowledge. The rapidly increasing use of social media and mobile technologies creates opportunities to form local and international partnerships that can facilitate the process of creating, managing, preserving, and sharing of knowledge and skills that are unique to communities in Africa. This article proposes the use of social media and mobile technologies (cell phones) in the creation, preservation, and dissemination of indigenous knowledge and discusses the role of libraries in the integration of social media technologies with older media that employ audio and audiovisual equipment to reach a wider audience.
15. To work alone or with peers: Examining smallholder coffee farmers’ perceptions influencing collective actions
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Silvert, Colby (author), Diaz, John (author), Warner, Laura (author), and Ochieng, Willis (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-06-01
- Published:
- International: OJS / PKP
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 204 Document Number: D12524
- Journal Title:
- Developments in Agriculture
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol 2(2)
- Notes:
- 14 pages, This study examines how smallholder coffee farmers’ perceptions may influence their engagement in peer mobilization and collective action. Forty smallholder coffee farmers were interviewed in the Central Highlands region of Peru using a closed-ended instrument. The sample of smallholder farmers was achieved using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Quantitative data on farmers’ attitudes and aspirations regarding working with peers, autonomy, and external support as well as knowledge, skills, and behaviors pertinent to collective actions were collected and analyzed using descriptive and correlational procedures. Key findings indicate farmers perceive a need for external support, feel there are benefits of collective actions, and aspire to work with their peers. Based on the findings, it is recommended that practitioners and farmer group leaders focus training efforts on building smallholders’ knowledge and skills in mobilization, encourage peer association/collective action as a source of external support, and target knowledgeable, skilled and confident farmers to lead collective actions. This study has implications to bolster support for farmer-to-farmer extension and technical assistance systems and inform the identification of leader farmers.