Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes1 Document Number: C12157
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Design Notes No. 20, Program of Advanced Studies in Institution Building and Technical Assistance Methodology (PASITAM), Indiana University, Bloomington. 2 p.
Rostow, Walt W. (author / Special Assistant, U.S. President)
Format:
Article
Publication Date:
1966
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes2 Document Number: C12330
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Pages 250-254 in Borton, Raymond E. (ed.), Selected readings to accompany getting agriculture moving. Volume 1. Agricultural Development Council, New York, NY. 526 p.
7 pages., via online journal, The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the market potential of pork labelled to indicate medium and high levels of animal welfare. The paper asks, in particular, whether there is a risk that Danish consumers will abandon high level welfare pork if less expensive products with a medium level of animal welfare became avail-able. The study was based on an online questionnaire with a choice experiment involving 396 Danish respondents. The results indicated that the Danish market could accommodate more than one pork product with a welfare label but the price differential separating medium and high level animal welfare pork will have to be quite narrow. In addition, full willingness-to-pay of consumers who want to buy high level welfare pork cannot be relied upon to incentivise new consumers to buy medium welfare pork. Further, raising brand awareness in the shopping situation and improving consumer's understanding of brand attributes for high level welfare brands were found to be vital.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes2 Document Number: C12348
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Pages 581-593 in Borton, Raymond E. (ed.), Selected readings to accompany getting agriculture moving. Volume 2. Agricultural Development Council, New York, NY. 526 p.
Ragasa, Catherina (author), Ulimwengo, John (author), Randriamamonjy, Josee (author), Badibanga, Thaddee (author), and International Food Policy Research Institution
Washington, DC office
Western and Central Africa Regional Office
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2016-04
Published:
Netherlands: Taylor and Francis
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 108 Document Number: D10953
32 pages, via online journal article, Purpose: As part of the institutional reforms and agricultural restructuring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this paper provides an assessment of the performance of the agricultural extension system as well as factors explaining it.
Method: This paper involves key informants’ interviews and surveys of 107 extension organizations and 162 extension agents in randomly selected 156 villages, analyzed using qualitative and logistic regression methods.
Findings and Practical Implications: Results show that despite having one of the highest extension agent-to-farmer ratio and a pluralistic extension system, DRC fails to deliver knowledge and technologies to rural areas due to lack of coordination, no unified and clear policy and mandate, lack of funding, aging and low competencies of agents, and lack of mobility and interactions of agents with key actors. This paper complements findings by other studies that number of agents is not a sufficient indication of performance, but an effective system needs to focus on the enabling environment for agents to be motivated to work as mandated. In this paper, enabling conditions that are found to be statistically significant are external funding, enforcement of performance targets, systems of rewards and sanctions, mobility to foster linkages, and skills development.
Originality: This paper contributes by: (1) analyzing a cross-section of various organizations and agents to identify factors that explain variations in performance in a statistical and systematic approach; (2) providing insights on how to prioritize investments and options for a fragile state like DRC, with weak infrastructure and institutional capacity and with a long history of neglect for their national extension system; and (3) illustrating how a rich and well-cited conceptual framework can be implemented empirically to provide policy options for a country like DRC.
Gramig, Benjamin M. (author), Barnard, Jessa M. (author), Prokopy, Linda S. (author), and Purdue Univ, Dept Agr Econ, W Lafayette, IN 47907 USA
Purdue Univ, Dept Forestry & Nat Resources, W Lafayette, IN 47907 USA
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2013
Published:
USA: Inter-Research
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08225
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes2 Document Number: C12323
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Pages 49-54 in Borton, Raymond E. (ed.), Selected readings to accompany getting agriculture moving. Volume 1. Agricultural Development Council, New York, NY. 526 p.
27 pages, With new possibilities offered by information and communications technology (ICT), an abundance of products, services, and projects has emerged with the promise of revitalizing agricultural extension in developing countries. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that not all ICT-enabled extension approaches are equally effective in improving adoption, productivity, income, or welfare outcomes. In this review, we explore various conceptual and methodological threads in the literature on ICT-enabled extension in developing countries. We examine the role of multiple impact pathways, highlighting how ICTs influence behaviors and preferences,gender and intrahousehold dynamics, spillovers, and public worker incentives. We also explore the opportunities presented by ICT-enabled extension for increasing the methodological rigor with which extension outcomes are identified. These conceptual and methodological insights—coupled with empirical evidence from prior studies—offer direction for several lines of policy-relevant research on ICT-enabled extension.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes2 Document Number: C12324
Notes:
Francis C. Byrnes Collection, Page 55 in Borton, Raymond E. (ed.), Selected readings to accompany getting agriculture moving. Volume 1. Agricultural Development Council, New York, NY. 526 p.
35 pages, We use data from a randomised experiment in Uganda to examine effects of incentives
on the decision to adopt drought-tolerant maize varieties (DTMVs) and mechanisms
through which effects occur. We find that social recognition (SR) incentives to a
random subset of trained farmers – disseminating farmers (DFs) – increase knowledge
transmission from DFs to their co-villagers and change information networks of both
DFs and their neighbours. SR also increases DFs’ likelihood of adopting DTMVs.
However, the corresponding results for private material rewards are not conclusively
strong. We find no evidence that incentives for knowledge diffusion increase the
likelihood of co-villagers adopting DTMVs
9 pages., Via online journal., Certain pesticides are coming under scrutiny because of their impact on pollinator insects. Although most consumers express willingness to aid pollinators, the reasons for consumers’ preferences or barriers to purchasing pollinator-friendly plants and the types of pollinators’ that consumers are trying to protect are less understood. Using an online survey of 1200 Connecticut (CT) consumers, of which 841 had home landscapes, we find that 46% of consumers with home landscapes purchased pollinator-friendly plants to attract pollinators to their landscape. Consistent with past research that focused on consumers’ preferences for pollinator-friendly plants, the data also reveal that some consumers are willing to pay premiums for plants that contribute to pollinator’s health. However, only 17% stated that attracting pollinators was their primary motivation; a finding that suggests labeling alone will likely not motivate consumers to purchase plants. The major barriers to purchasing pollinator-friendly plants included lack of labeling (cited by 28%), followed by high price (28%). Consumers purchasing pollinator-friendly plants were trying to attract butterflies (Lepidoptera) (78%), bees (Apidae) (59%), hummingbirds (Trochilidae) (59%), and other birds (41%). We also find that demographics and purchasing behavior affect barriers and types of pollinators desired. Simply labeling plants has the potential to increase purchasing, but increasing price could be detrimental as many consumers feel pollinator-friendly plants are highly priced. Implications for ornamental horticulture stakeholders are discussed.
5pgs, At a central Illinois feed mill, electricity from its rural electric co-op was exceeding grain costs as its biggest operating expense. With a new 3-megawatt solar array, the facility expects to reduce energy costs by about 50%.
Ngoma, Hambulo (author), Mason-Wardell, Nichole M. (author), Samboko, Paul C. (author), and Hangoma, Peter (author)
Format:
Research summary
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
Zambia: Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D11674
Notes:
4 pages., Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy, Research Paper 164., Using games, researchers tested the hypothesis that innate behavioral traits such as risk and time preferences play a role in Zambia farmers' decisions about adoption of Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. "Given our findings that more risk-averse individuals are less likely to adopt CSA, a practice that is intended to be risk-reducing, a key policy implication is the need for a retooling of both public and private extension services to better demonstrate and educate farmers on the risk-reducing effect of CSA practices such as conservation agriculture. Moreover, if insurance and subsidies are to be used successfully to nudge adoption, extension will need to educate farmers on the structure of and mechanisms of payouts. This is important to build trust in the incentive systems.
Marasteanu, I. Julia (author), Jaenicke, Edward C. (author), and Food and Drug Administration (formerly the Pennsylvania State University), 5100 Paint Branch Parkway # 1B056, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016-06
Published:
USA: CAB International, Wallingford Oxon OX10 8DE United Kingdom
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 164 Document Number: D08213
Kuchler, Fred (author), Larson, Bruce A. (author), and Resources and Technology Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Resources and Technology Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1990
Published:
USA: Columbus, OH : Ohio State University
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 84 Document Number: C05205
Economic simulation studies of the effects of bovine growth hormone (bGH) on the dairy industry usually assume that producers will have the incentive to adopt bGH and that aggregate milk supply will increase. Based on the description of per-cow milk yield response to bovine growth hormone (bGH), a short-run model of milk production is developed to analyze the farm-level incentives to adopt bGH. This analysis emphasizes that the incentives to adopt a new technology greatly depend on how it alters the existing production environment. Because higher levels of energy are needed in the cow to attain greater levels of production made possible with bGH, those farmers who can most easily and inexpensively expand energy levels in the cow will be most likely to adopt. The model identifies: (1) why farmers may not have the incentive to adopt the new technology; and (2) if farmers adopt bGH, they may not have the economic incentive to produce at the levels obtained in test studies.
Parks, Courtney A. (author), Jaskiewicz, Lara J. (author), Dombrowski, Rachael D. (author), Frick, Hollyanne E. (author), Hortman, Sarah B. (author), Trumbull, Elissa (author), Hesterman, Oran B. (author), and Yaroch, Amy L. (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2018-04-27
Published:
USA: SAGE Journals
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 11 Document Number: D10342
7 pages., Via online journal., To characterize participants of a statewide healthy food incentive program in terms of shopping behaviors, surveys were collected at farmers markets (N = 436) and grocery stores (N = 131). Farmers market and grocery store respondents were mostly forty-five to fifty-four years old (21 percent to 24 percent) and female (72 to 82 percent). Grocery store respondents were more diverse. Farmers market participants were more likely to be female (p = .011), not have children (p = .006), and traveled further compared to grocery store participants. As healthy food incentive programs expand, participant characteristics should inform tailored outreach to expand to diverse populations to have a greater public health impact.
