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2. Crop advisers as conservation intermediaries: perceptions and policy implications for relying on nontraditional partners to increase U.S. farmers’ adoption of soil and water conservation practices
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Eanes, Francis R. (author), Singh, Ajay S. (author), Bulla, Brian R. (author), Ranjan, Pranay (author), Fales, Mary (author), Wickerham, Benjamin (author), Doran, Patrick J. (author), and Prokopy, Linda S. (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-02
- Published:
- Elsevier
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10369
- Journal Title:
- Land Use Policy
- Journal Title Details:
- 81 : 360-370
- Notes:
- 11 pages., Via online journal., Federal agricultural land use policies in the United States aimed at protecting soil health and water quality typically rely on persuading individual farmers to voluntarily adopt conservation practices. An expanding body of literature suggests that private sector intermediaries, such as crop advisers, are increasingly trusted sources of information for farmers about conservation practices and thus may be persuasive actors in the conservation-adoption realm. While previous studies have explored farmers’ perceptions of crop advisers facilitating conservation practice adoption and participating in conservation programs in agricultural landscapes, little research to date has explored crop advisers’ perceptions of this role, and few agricultural land use policies have explicitly included crop advisers as conservation partners. This study fills a critical void in the literature by evaluating the Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program, an innovative agricultural policy that relies on crop advisers to recruit farmers into the program and assist them with the adoption of conservation practices. Through a survey and interviews with crop advisers in the Saginaw Bay watershed in Michigan, USA, we explore crop advisers’ perceptions of their role in the program and of delivering conservation information to farmers. We found that crop advisers have positive attitudes towards land/water resources and conservation practices, believe they have an important intermediary role to play in facilitating conservation practice adoption, and believe their supervisors are supportive of them promoting conservation. However, difficulties in collaboration and communication between the private and governmental sectors – resulting from perceived differences, operational differences, and territoriality – present a key barrier to crop advisers increasing their intermediary role in the promotion and implementation of federal conservation programs. Future research and policy initiatives should explore how to address public-private territoriality and whether crop advisers should be incentivized to deliver information about conservation practices and/or assist in enrolling farmers in federal conservation programs.
3. Establishment of Office of Communication, U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Format:
- policy statement
- Publication Date:
- 1973-01-22
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 67 Document Number: D10744
- Notes:
- Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's Memorandum No. 1798, signed by Earl Butz. 4 pages., Establishes the Department of Communication, USDA. Memorandum involves responsibilities, delegations of authority, and immediate actions to be taken. Replaces the current Office of Information.
4. Fighting to keep public notices in newspapers: the public loses out when government makes it harder to find out what it's doing
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Reed, Maryanne (author)
- Format:
- Commentary
- Publication Date:
- 2019-01-03
- Published:
- USA: Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 30 Document Number: D10573
- Journal Title:
- Nieman Reports
- Notes:
- 3 pages., via website, Nieman Reports.
5. Nepalese farmers’ climate change perceptions, reality and farming strategies
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Budhathoki, Nanda Kaji (author) and Zander, Kerstin K. (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: D10803
- Journal Title:
- Climate and Development
- Notes:
- 13 pages., via online journal., The study explores the impacts of Nepali farmers’ climate change perceptions on their farming practices over the last three decades (1980–2014). Results from a survey with 496 farmers show that nearly all farmers attributed changes in crop varieties and cropping patterns mainly to technological and market-related factors and not to climate change. A comparison between perceptions and meteorological data shows that while perceptions of changes in maximum temperatures did match observed trends, perceptions of changes in minimum temperature and rainfall did not. The results indicate that the climate change message in the past 30 years has not been definite enough to have a consistent impact on either farmers’ perceptions or their farming practices. This may impede farmers’ adaptive capacity in dealing with increasingly severe future climate change impacts. Because of large variations in the micro-climate of the study locations and the locations of the weather stations from which we obtained the meteorological data, the results need to be treated with caution. However, we suggest that for farmers to effectively adapt to climate change, it may be necessary for responsible state and non-state actors to improve their communication on expected climate change impacts.
6. Shifting blame: addressing the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's complicated ethical responsibility in the Flint water crisis
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Bruns, Catherine J. (author / James Madison University)
- Format:
- Book chapter
- Publication Date:
- 2019
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 102 Document Number: D10901
- Notes:
- See also D10895., Pages 171-178 in Brigitta R. Brunner and Corey A. Hickerson (editors), Cases in public relations: translating ethics into action. Oxford University Press, New York City, New York. 359 pages., Author examines the actions, accountability and ethical stance of government agencies in communicating environment risk to citizens in Flint, Michigan.
7. Smallholder perceptions and communication gaps shape East African riparian ecosystems
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Nzau, Joslyn Muthio (author), Rogers, Rebecca (author), Shauri, Halimu Suleiman (author), Rieckmann, Marco (author), and Habel, Jan Christian (author)
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-12
- Published:
- Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 12 Document Number: D10420
- Journal Title:
- Biodiversity and Conservation
- Journal Title Details:
- 27(14) : 3745–3757
- Notes:
- 13 pages., Via online journal., Human livelihood needs and nature conservation often contradict. Yet, healthy ecosystems are crucial for human livelihood quality. The semi-arid regions of East Africa suffer under demographic pressure and soil depletion. Ecosystem degradation becomes particularly visible along rivers in semiarid regions of south-east Kenya, where former pristine riparian forests have been transformed into agricultural fields and settlements with negative effects on ecosystem services. In this study, we aim to understand how local smallholders perceive the challenges for the riparian ecosystems and what factors affect their engagement in environmental conservation. We surveyed about 200 farmers and performed expert interviews with representatives from governmental institutions from the field of land- and resource management along Nzeeu River in south-east Kenya. We assessed the level of education, land use practices, environmental knowledge, attitudes and the willingness to contribute to nature conservation. We tested for spatial bias to understand smallholders’ perceptions on environmental challenges. Our data show that land division due to inheritance is not perceived as a problem by the farmers. However, owners holding < 1 ha of land property are less willing to spare some of their land for conservation, as opposed to those holding land plots above this size. Despite a high level of general willingness to conserve ecosystems, our data underline that local people hardly actively engage in conservation action. Furthermore, our data indicate a communication gap between local smallholders and regional governmental officers as well as overconfidence in mass media through the radio which can contradict successful adoption of pro-environment behavior. Sustainable land management in our study area is not a matter of education, but depends from the size of land property. There is an urgent need to bridge this communication gap, as a prerequisite to improve sustainable land management.
8. Washington conference looks at critical food safety issues
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Karst, Tom (author)
- Format:
- Online article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-09-21
- Published:
- USA: The Packer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 207 Document Number: D13128
- Notes:
- 5 pages
9. What an agency administrator needs to know about his information director
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Rathbone, Robert B. (author / Director, Information Division, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
- Format:
- Correspondence
- Publication Date:
- 1973-02-20
- Published:
- USA
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 64 Document Number: D10739
- Notes:
- Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Claude W. Gifford Collection. 3 pages.