Halbrendt, Jacqueline (author), Gray, Steven A. (author), Crow, Susan (author), Radovich, Theodore (author), Kimura, Aya H. (author), and Tamang, Bir Bahadur (author)
Format:
Journal article abstract
Publication Date:
2014-09
Published:
Nepal
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05707
International: Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D05712
Notes:
258 pages., "The developing world is littered with bodies of abandoned or dead development initiatives...Development dies on the very day that external and internal experts, without an understanding of the local setting, come in with their fancy ideas about implementing strategies and initiatives that do not build on local knowledge and strengths."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05742
Notes:
"Blog stories on Extension" Online via AgroInsight, Ghent, Belgium. 2 pages., "While extensionists may explain the broad rules of the game, it is farmers who really play it, and know the strategies."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 138 Document Number: D05763
Notes:
Extension Methods 2. From AgroInsight, Ghent, Belgium. 1 page., Summary of a method for producing farmer-to-farmer training videos that are regionally relevant and locally appropriate. 1 page.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 149 Document Number: D06732
Notes:
Pages 107-119 in Martin Schonfeld (ed.), Global ethics on climate change: the planetary crisis and philosophical alternatives. Routledge, London, England., Observes that "we are fixated on an evolutionary backwater that cannot provide us with a sustainable way of thinking or living." Emphasizes the value of a "mannered approach to a social cosmos," based on ancestral climate wisdom.
Emphasizes the value of a "mannered approach to a social cosmos."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 153 Document Number: D06803
Notes:
Summary report of a symposium at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Germany, December 8-9, 2015. 5 pages., Includes a session about using local knowledge in dealing with climate change.
Roosvall, Anna (author) and Tegelberg, Matthew (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
International: Nordicom, Goteborg, Sweden.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D06847
Notes:
Pages 297-312 in Elisabeth Eide and Risto Kunelius (eds.), Media meets climate: the global challenge for journalism. Nordicom, Goteborg, Sweden. 340 pages.
Schelhas, John (author), Hitcnner, Sarah (author), and Johnson, Cassandra (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D06963
Notes:
Pages 185-200 in David N. Laband, B. Graeme Lockaby and Wayne C. Zipperer (eds.), Urban-rural interfaces: linking people and nature. American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wisconsin. 332 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D07331
Notes:
Pages 21-53 in Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Christoph Antweiler (eds.), Environmental uncertainty and local knowledge: Southeast Asia as a laboratory of global ecological change. Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany. 284 pages., This historical analysis traces predominance of emphasis on applied types of expert-based knowledge and information, as well as technological innovation packages from outside the developing countries themselves. Author identifies questions about who decides which knowledge is regarded as crucial, is produced and shared, for what purpose and in whose interest. Extensive reference list.
Reichel, Christian (author), Martens, Sofia Elena (author), and Harms, Arne (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
Indonesia: Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D07332
Notes:
Pages 93-118 in Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Christoph Antweiler (eds.), Environmental uncertainty and local knowledge: Southeast Asia as a laboratory of global ecological change. Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany. 284 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D07333
Notes:
Pages 119-143 in Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Christoph Antweiler (eds.), Environmental uncertainty and local knowledge: Southeast Asia as a laboratory of global ecological change. Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany. 284 pages., Examines farmer adaptation to traditional weather knowledge and "modern" meteorological information.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D07334
Notes:
Pages 145-183 in Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Christoph Antweiler (eds.), Environmental uncertainty and local knowledge: Southeast Asia as a laboratory of global ecological change. Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany. 284 pages., Calls for sensitivity to local conditions, issues, uncertainties and knowledge. Notes loss in local knowledge. "Agencies need to realise that cultural diversity and local people's knowledge and practices should contribute significantly to our understanding and protection of natural environments."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 196 Document Number: D08058
Notes:
John L. Woods Collection, Presentation at the World Bank about experiences in privatization of the agricultural extension service in Holland. May 1995. 15 pages.
International: Editions Quae, Versailles Cedex, France, and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D08517
Notes:
ACDC holds citation information, table of contents, and conclusion., 107 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08627
Notes:
Located in Review of Extension Studies, volumes for 1946-1956, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Hal R. Taylor Collection., Summary of research report (Bulletin 22). Department of Agricultural Journalism, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 48 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08705
Notes:
Pages 240-249 in Gordon Wilson, Pamela Furniss and Richard Kimbowa (eds.), Environment, development and sustainability: perspectives and cases from around the world. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. 290 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08813
Notes:
Pages 117-143 in Patrick D. Murphy, The media commons: globalization and environmental discourses. United States: University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield. 192 pages.
AgComm Teaching, Perspectives about the Programme for Integrated Rural Development in the Humid Tropics (PRODERITH)during 1979-1984. Among the points made: "Traditional knowledge is essential for agricultural research."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes8 Document Number: D09069
Notes:
Includes Documents C12667 "Setting minds in motion in the developing world" and C12668 "Training for agricultural research in Pakistan". In 4 folders in the box., Francis C. Byrnes Collection
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D09317
Notes:
Online from Goldman Environmental Foundation. 2 pages., "In a country with growing socioeconomic inequality and human rights violations, Berta Caceres (d. 2016) rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world's largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D09318
Notes:
Online from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, New York City, New York. 5 pages., Interview with Beverly Bell on Berta Caceres and indigenous environmental activism. Caceres was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for leading an indigenous campaign that successfully pressured the world's largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.
21 pages, This article reconsiders the concept of `alternative media', and describes a set of alternative media projects produced over six years in and around migrant farm worker camps in southern California. The media projects described here (small-format videos within marginalized labor communities), challenge assumptions about `alternative media' on three levels - as a theoretical concept, as media practice and as a political project. The article argues the need to attend to the complex spatial and institutional contexts that inflect and complicate any local alternative media project. This examination of how the lived spaces of the migrant camps are both avowed and effaced by local residents and contractors underscores the tortured logic of the region. The study reveals not just how the landed status quo organizes workers lives as parts of its `scenic' landscape. It also describes how indigenous `Mixteco' labor organizers simultaneously work to exploit and resist the same conditions. Occupying semi-public contact-zones and no-man's lands (legally ambiguous spaces), provides migrants with a material beach-head from which to claim other rights that have more legal teeth (including fair labor, health and safety, and civil rights laws). Compared to the conventional video forms the producers/researchers set out to produce, these practices suggested that migrants' unauthorized occupation of space is a consequential form of `alternative media' in its own right; a transnational community response to policies of globalization and `free-trade'.
This article is maintained in the office of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois > "International" section > "Philippines CARD Group" file folder., "...for all their seeming importance, these continuous outpourings of government and foreign aid and the steady diffusion of developmental projects and innovations are only pallatives. Thus, the wheel of agricultural development must reel off with a farmer-oriented concept of development which gives prominent role to farmers' participation in programs which are supposedly designed for their upliftment. ... "How can farmers be mobilized to participate in their own development? Simply by the abolition of 'transmission mentality' in communication and its replacement with a more liberating type of communication that would contain more dialogue..."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D10086
Notes:
This abstract is maintained in records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois > "International" section > "Philippines CARD group" file., Abstract of a research paper presented at the 3rd annual conference of the Communicators for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Mountain State Agriculture College, La Trinidad, Benquet, Philippines, October 21-24, 1982. Page 14., Describes how community residents identified need and cooperatively developed and published a popular manual on how to construct a low-cost fuel-efficient wood stove.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D10087
Notes:
This abstract is maintained in records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois > "International" section > "Philippines CARD group" file., Abstract of a research paper presented at the 3rd annual conference of the Communicators for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Mountain State Agriculture College, La Trinidad, Benquet, Philippines, October 21-24, 1982. Page 14., Findings highlight fishermen's greater respect for local information sources/talents than outside talents/sources.
8 pages., Via online journal., Agricultural communication to mitigate climate change enables information dissemination of both scientific knowledge (SCK) and indigenous knowledge (IDK) for practical farming. This research analyzed knowledge utilization and conducted community-based participatory communication to propose a practical agricultural communication framework for climate mitigation. Based on a qualitative method of data collection in Phichit province, the key findings showed that SCK and IDK can be mutually utilized to enhance the good relationship among the people and for the people with nature. The participatory communication processes consisted of planning, interventions, and monitoring and empowerment. The successful farmers employing the farming practices of not burning rice straw, rice straw composting, and alternative wetting and drying technique were the main senders. The messages were related to their farming practices focusing on a practical and understandable message and graphic explanations. Vinyl was selected as a communication material for signage in the most noticeable areas in their communities. This research highlights that participatory communication with group dynamics and communication promotion mechanisms at both local and national levels should be enhanced.
23 pages., Via online journal., This study draws on a culturally centered collaboration with a community of dalit women farmers in South India who were organized in a cooperative in their collective resistance against the corporatization of agriculture. Situated in the backdrop of the epidemic of farmer suicides in the region, this manuscript examines how those at the margins of global neoliberal transformations symbolically and materially make sense of and resist these transformations. The voices of the women farmers disrupt the underlying neoliberal assumptions that undergird the importation of cash crop agriculture into a subsistence and community-centered farming culture. They depict the ways in which Western cash crop agriculture disrupts community, food security, local health care systems, and the unique gender relations. Moreover, the communication advocacy work carried out by the women seeks to transform agricultural policy through material interventions as alternative practices of agriculture that challenge the hegemony of cash-based individualized agriculture.
13 pages., Via online journal., The investigation of the rising use of pesticides in the Yazd City is a remarkable issue, the respective witnesses on the factors affecting the issue are lacking. For this reason, this contribution was intended to investigate the determinants of the pesticide use behavior (PUB) using the design of sequential-exploratory mixed method in central Iran. In the qualitative phase, verbal data (i.e., pesticide narratives) were collected. The heuristic units of the case study were thematically analyzed using the Atlas.ti software. The obtained results served as the data that were applied to develop the conceptual framework, including grounded concepts. By surveying 306 cucumber farmers, the proposed model was tested using the path analysis in the interface of SPSS and AMOS, indicating the model fits with the data well. The study finds that attitude towards the indigenous knowledge of the pest and disease management forecasts the PUB indirectly by the mediation of attitude, behavioral intention, and PBC. Moreover, large-scale farmers have a better understanding of the usefulness of the IPM. Furthermore, the scientific pesticide knowledge and imitation influence the PUB. Habitual behavior and avarice also have a negative impact on the PUB. In addition, trust has an indirect impact on the PUB via behavioral intention. It is necessary to take policy initiatives to enhance the efficient PUB by (1) establishing a network of indigenous knowledge relevant to the pest and disease management together with the scientific pesticide knowledge, (2) disseminating the innovations that mitigate the impact of pesticides (e.g., Biochar), (3) giving information to farmers so that they are persuaded to make money as much as they fulfill their fundamental needs, change their detrimental habits of pesticide use, and (4) raising the trust in cucumber farmers by establishing a close communication between agricultural experts and cucumber farmers and updating the technical knowledge of agricultural experts in the ground of pest and vector management as well as the use of pesticides.
16 pages., via online journal., Critical factors influencing farmers’ use of traditional communication methods (TCMs) in information dissemination were isolated with a factor analytical technique. The results show that most of the farmers were between 31 and 60 years and the majority (63%) employ use of TCMs such as proverbs, hooting, putting leaves on path, and use of palm fronds to deliver information at a moderate level. The features of TCMs, farmers’ personal characteristics, economic proficiency, and influence of social contact were factors influencing use of TCMs. It was concluded that use of TCMs is influenced by their peculiarities in discerning information and the user's personal and socioeconomic characteristics.
International: CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10510
Notes:
217 pages., ISBN:9781486306404, 217 pages., Social Science and Sustainability draws on the wide-ranging experience of CSIRO'S social scientists in the sustainability policy domain. These researchers have extensive experience in addressing complex issues of society-nature relationships, usually in interdisciplinary collaboration with natural scientists. This book describes some of the evidence-based concepts, frameworks and methodologies they have developed, which may guide a transition to sustainability. Contributions range from exploring ways to enhance livelihoods and alleviate poverty, to examining Australians' responses to climate change, to discussing sociological perspectives on sustainability and how to make policy relevant.
Hill, Ro (author), Robinson, Cathy (author), Pert, Petina (author), Barber, Marcus (author), Lyons, Ilisapeci (author), Maclean, Kirsten (author), Talbot, Leah (author), and Moran, Catherine (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2017
Published:
International: CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10511
Notes:
217 pages., Pages 23-49 in Heinz Schandl and Lain Walker (eds.), Social science and sustainability. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria,Australia. 2017. 217 pages
Davies, Jocelyn (author), Maru, Yiheyis T. (author), Walsh, Fiona (author), and Douglas, Josie (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2017
Published:
International: CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10512
Notes:
217 pages., Pages 75-97 in Heinz Schandl and Lain Walker (eds.), Social science and sustainability. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Victoria,Australia. 2017. 217 pages
19 pages., via online journal., The following study looks at how traditional, organic, cooperative farmers
starting a new farming cooperative in the US Southwest communicate
about their farming as a set of (sustainable) cultural practices. The study
draws on environmental communication theory, the theory of the
coordinated management of meaning, and Vandana Shiva’s three-tiered
economic model to construct a communication-based framework
through which to view farmers’ stories about sustainability. This
framework is productive, showing how some Nuevo Mexicano farmers
(and others) orient toward farming, sustenance, and human-nature
relationships through community, family, heritage, and education.
Moreover, in addition to a conceptualization of sustainability as specific
practices for nurturing and enduring in environments, communities, and
organizations/institutions, sustainability can be understood as
embedded ecocultural and historical experience with cross-cultural
parallels in land-based communities. This study advances the ethical
duty of environmental communication to better understand the ways in
which environmental discourse and ecocultural and material realities are
imbricated, as well as the call for such discursive study to be grounded
in phenomenological experience of the natural world.
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.
Hapsari, H. (author), Hapsari, D. (author), Karyani, T. (author), and Fatimah, S. (author)
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
IOP Publishing Ltd
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 102 Document Number: D10909
Journal Title Details:
306
Notes:
10 pages., IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, via IOPScience website., Climate change is a threat to indigenous farming systems that rely on nature. Indigenous society has idiosyncrasies in managing agricultural systems that relate to nature. This study aims to examine the adaptation mechanism of indigenous farming systems to climate change in terms of social, economic, and technological aspects. The study was conducted in Indigenous Village of Kasepuhan Ciptagelar of Sukabumi Regency West Java. The research method is case study. The technique of collecting data through in-depth interviews with selected informants, participant observation, and focus group discussion (FGD). The results showed that the indigenous society of Kasepuhan Ciptagelar experienced the changes that occur in the environment as a result of climate change. Strategies to adapt to these changes, among others: (1) use natural resources in a sustainable manner, (2) preserve the customary positive impact on the environment, (3) do a crop rotation system, (4) managing the communal granary community food security system, (5) maintaining social values in the society, (6) establish cooperation with the agricultural institutions; (7) utilizing communication networks and information systems; (8) with some help from external parties in the repair of facilities and infrastructure, such as transportation and irrigation; (9) perform the processing of non-rice farming profit-oriented, and (10) instilling the values of local wisdom to the younger generation from an early age.
Cahyono, Edi Dwi (author) and Socio-Economic Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Brawijaya,
Malang, Indonesia
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2018-12-05
Published:
Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D10995
Notes:
12 pages., Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2005-7
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2004-0, In: Dutta M., Zapata D. (eds) Communicating for Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore, It is understood that an effective communication approach might empower society, including the marginalized one. Nevertheless, for the sake of modernization, development agencies tend to administer a conventional top-down communication approach. This approach fails to stimulate capacities of marginal communities, causing social inequality. Therefore, this chapter demonstrates an experience of implementing an alternative approach, known as participatory communication with strong cultured-centered perspectives. A series of interactive extension or facilitation activities is described. The activities were aimed to conserve rare rice varieties and the unique farming practices in an indigenous community’s areas in the eastern region of Java Island. As a result, the farmers were more aware of the values of, and committed to conserve the endangered seed varieties and the related indigenous knowledge and practices; they were also willing to employ their indigenous institution as medium for information exchange regarding the farming system. Moreover, this project is relevant because the local public administration has been paying close attention to indigenous lifestyles for agro-eco tourism attractions recently. The project results suggest that the approach is appropriate to create social change at various levels. It is expected that our experiences will inspire readers to employ the strategic communication approach to empower marginalized communities as a way to achieve sustainable social change/development.
1 page., From the "Indonesia - General" file of the international program records of the AgriculturalCommunications Program, University of Illinois., Notes from review of a journal article at the Gadjah Mada University Library.
Located in a chronological file entitled "INTERPAKS - Newsletter" from the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois., From the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign., An invited reassessment by the author of a book, Hard Tomatoes and Hard Times, in which he faulted U.S. land grant universities for abandoning the original intended focus on serving small, low-resource farmers. Emphasized farmers' need for neutral, unbiased assessment of new, often very specialized, technologies. "...and at the same time they will need generalists who can assist in developing comprehensive, integrated farming systems that can depend on lessons learned decades ago as well as new knowledge."
In an issue located in a chronological file entitled "INTERPAKS - Newsletter" from the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois., From the International Programs records of the Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign., Summary of a research report by Constance M. McCorkle, Robert H. Brandstetter, and Gail D. McClure, "A case study on farmer innovations and communication in Niger," Academy for Educational Development, Washington, D.C., 1988.
Zeng, Douglas Zhihua (author / World Bank) and Wang, Shuilin (author)
Format:
Research report
Publication Date:
2007
Published:
China: The World Bank
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 124 Document Number: D11231
Notes:
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4223. 36 pages., Analysis of some strengths, weakenesses, opportunities and challenges of China's knowledge economy in the areas of economic incentives and institutional regimes, human capital, innovation systems, and information infrastructures.
Author's analysis prompts an observation that simple reforms of existing patent law can prevent outsiders from securing intellectual property in knowledge already developed by traditional communities.
3 pages., Online via "Reflections: Farm and Food History" from Farms.com Ltd. Originally published in the New York Sun newspaper, October 23, 1919., Sixteen rules and formulas (prose and poems) "more or less recognized by amateur weather prophets," as presented in the New York Sun newspaper.
International: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 146 Document Number: D11569
Notes:
22 pages., Presentation at the annual conference of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension (SASAE), June 3-7, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. 22 pages., Presenter concluded that new innovative capacities are needed at all levels of capacity development. Recommendations included continuous adaptation to change, linking stakeholders in the innovation system, and considering farmers' own innovative processes.
14 pages., Online via journal by open access., Researcher proposed an appropriate mechanism for the maintenance of traditional knowledge associated with wild edible plants, seaweeds, and mushrooms in these ecosystems. Assessment of linkages between traditional knowledge and human well-being showed that both the decline in traditional knowledge and the drivers of change adversely affect fundamental components of human well-being: health, development of good social relations, and security.
Online from publisher website., By embracing modern technology and engaging enthusiastic young people, the work of an NGO in Malawi is extending the reach of agricultural extension across the country.
Abstract obtained via online. 2 pages., Synthesizes lessons learned and challenges encountered when applying indigenous and non-indigenous knowledge and methods in natural and cultural resource management (NCRM) in northern and central Australia. Authors identify four key themes for consideration in collaborative cross-cultural NCRM.
Via online by keyword search. Open access., Counsel from a biology teacher about the dilemma of helping students and other "non-experts" assess complex subjects. "The citizen must assess the evidence - not the scientific evidence, but the social evidence for credibility. First, can one trust the source of information? ... If that is relatively secure, one can then take the next step 'backwards' to assess the credibility of the expert or person making the claims. Known experts and media with confirmed track records are ideal, of course. But frequently we must settle for indirect evidence. ... For the consumer interested in reliable knowledge, one must find the thread that one can trust. Robust agreement, when available, helps."
8 pages, Only 30% of households inBairro Boroma(Boromaneighborhood) have a regular proteinintake, mainly due to the lack of a proper cold chain. We analyzed the level of knowledge about alocal dried meat calledchinkui, examining the relationship between this knowledge and its valuefor strengthening local food security. Through surveys ofBairro Boromagoat herders (n=23) about“chinkuiawareness” and passive observation ofchinkuipreparation (n=5) from local biotype goats,we found thatchinkuiwas known to most goat herders (91.3%), but was used only irregularly, mainlybecause knowledge transmission has decreased over time. From passive observation, we foundthat the amount of dried meat obtained from an animal rarely exceeded a yield of 10% and itsperformance and safety depended on weather conditions and the absence of other animals in thearea of preparation. It is, therefore, recommended to strengthen initiatives to increase the amount ofchinkui, based on local knowledge, so as to enhance its frequency of consumption and the possibilityof using it as a sustainable alternative source of protein
2 pages, We tossed our soiled shovels into the back of the pickup truck and took one last satisfied look at the backyard garden we built for Ronya Jackson and her seven children in Troy, NY. The siblings were excitedly tucking peas and spinach into the fresh earth as we headed home to nearby Soul Fire Farm to tend the crops that would be distributed to neighbors in need. Our sacred mission is to end racism and injustice in the food system, which we do by getting land, gardens, train-ing, and fresh food to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), including refugees and immigrants, survivors of mass incarceration, and others impacted by state violence.As Mama Fannie Lou Hamer said, “When you have 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup canned for the winter, no one can push you around or tell you what to say or do.” Before, during, and after the outbreak, food apartheid dis-proportionately impacts (BIPOC) communities who also face higher vulnerability to COVID-19 due to factors like shared housing, lack of access to health care, environmental racism, job layoffs, immigration status, employment in the wage economy without worker protections, and more. This pandemic is exacerbating existing challenges and lays bare the cracks in the system that prevent many of us from having anything canned up for this metaphorical winter. Our society is called to account. Is now finally the time when we will catalyze the 5 major shifts needed to bring about a just and sustainable food system?
23 pages, Via UI Library online subscription., Authors described issues and potentials addressed by poor women farmers in India through sanghams (cooperatives). Findings pointed toward the desire and need for communication sovereignty in resistance to patriarchal, expert-led concepts of privatization that discount their knowledge and their role in making decisions.
Journal article identified Via online topical search. Open access., Authors report a case example that illustrates how academic libraries and librarians "are primed to lead universities toward a fuller inclusion of community partners in academic research" through their unique expertise. The "research sprint" partnership involved experiences of the Gullah-Geechee community - the descendants of Africans who were enslaved along the east coast of the United States.
13 pages, The sustainability of milpa agriculture, a traditional Mayan farming system in southern Belize, is uncertain. For centuries, the milpa has been a sustainable agriculture system. The slash-and-burn aspect of milpa farming, however, has become less reliable and less sustainable over the last 50 years due to several factors, including forest loss, climate change, population growth, and other factors. The traditional milpa practices of slash-and-mulch and soil nutrient enrichment (nutrient cycling) are agroecological practices that produce food in a more sustainable way. Agriculture extension, a government service in Belize, can promote additional agroecological practices to address food and livelihood insecurities in milpa communities. This study examines perceptions of these practices from milpa farmers and agricultural extension officers in Belize using a socio-ecological systems (SES) framework. SES considers multidisciplinary linkages, including social, economic, environmental, cultural, and other factors in the agroecological system. The study finds several of these SES linkages between agroecological practices--specifically slash-andmulch and soil nutrient enrichment--and the sustainability of the milpa farming system in southern Belize. Milpa communities are part of the broader SES and therefore are affected by changes to it. Milpa communities can also be enabled and participate in solution-finding. The findings imply that increasing the use of agroecology practices in milpa communities is needed and that government involvement and action, particularly from agriculture extension services, can facilitate a more sustainable milpa farming system and therefore more food and livelihood security in milpa communities in Belize.
10 pages, The study sought to explore the extent to which agricultural policies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
countries incorporate Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and its impact on the efforts to document and share
agricultural IK through communication efforts. A qualitative content analysis of policy documents from seven SSA countries and eight key informant interviews with knowledge management officers from the seven countries was conducted. Purposive sampling was used to select the countries, determine
documents examined, and for the selection of key informants for the interviews. The results revealed that IK was not included in several SSA countries’ governmental agricultural policies. Activities aimed at capturing, documentation and sharing IK in SSA countries were not found despite the presence of evidence of its importance to agricultural research and development. These results provide insights on the need for researchers, communicators, educators, and decision-makers to consider incorporating IK into policy associated with agricultural information dissemination to improve technology generation and adoption
7 pages, Agricultural extension is the medium through which external agricultural technologies have been transferred to and transplanted in Africa to improve agricultural performance. Over a period of close to a century, different agricultural extension models have been proposed but their structure and content has virtually been the same: top-down, linear, non-participatory transfer of technology with no feedback loops for reverse diffusion. This presumably explains the poor performance of Africa’s agriculture and the scale of food security challenges facing the continent. In this review paper, we trace the history of agricultural extension and examine various agricultural extension delivery models to identify their major strengths and weaknesses, using Ghana and Burkina Faso as case studies. We then review the most recent literature in the field about the philosophy, scope, content, delivery, and outcomes of agricultural extension. The conclusion that agricultural extension has consistently remained out of sync with the needs and aspirations of stallholder farmers was reached. Smallholder farmers are now calling for new agricultural extension delivery models that are truly farmer-led, indigenous knowledge-based, context-specific, culturally-relevant and environmentally-sustainable to guarantee efficient farming systems into the future.
31 pages, Imaginaries of empty, verdant lands have long motivated agricultural frontier expansion. Today, climate change, food insecurity, and economic promise are invigorating new agricultural frontiers across the circumpolar north. In this article, I draw on extensive archival and ethnographic evidence to analyze mid-twentieth-century and recent twenty-first-century narratives of agricultural development in the Northwest Territories, Canada. I argue that the early frontier imaginary is relatively intact in its present lifecycle. It is not simply climactic forces that are driving an emergent northern agricultural frontier, but rather the more diffuse and structural forces of capitalism, governmental power, settler colonialism, and resistance to those forces. I also show how social, political, and infrastructural limits continue to impede agricultural development in the Northwest Territories and discuss how smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities differently situate agricultural production within their local food systems. This paper contributes to critical debates in frontiers and northern agriculture literature by foregrounding the contested space between the state-driven and dominant public narratives underpinning frontier imaginaries, and the social, cultural, and material realities that constrain them on a Northwest Territories agricultural frontier.
11 pages, Private-sector dominance of plant breeding constitutes the present norm of organic seed genetics research, which has generated concerns in the organic farming community in this era of robust intellectual property protections. Intellectual property restrictions primarily in the form of certificates, patents, and contractual arrangements are blamed for stifling the innovation of organic seed varieties. To better understand the challenges small-scale and university-based breeders and researchers face in organic corn seed genetic development, this article provides an overview of intellectual property structures surrounding seed innovation and sharing. After describing the legal landscape in which organic corn seed research and development occurs, the article details research efforts exploring the veracity of claims that contractual arrangements (in the form of seed-sharing agreements between breeders and universities) stifle the innovation of organic varieties. In doing so, the article describes the search methodology utilized and highlights a critical barrier to research: the closely guarded nature of private contracts that parties are reluctant to reveal. While we were able to identify several data points that highlighted the importance of seed-sharing agreements as a part of the intellectual property regime controlling organics research and breeding, we were unable to obtain contracts or identify disputes over contractual language to further analyze. Such contractual language only becomes available upon consent and release by individual parties to the contract or by litigation that exposes the contractual language, both of which we attempted to explore and utilize. The article concludes with a discussion of why contractual arrangements in the context of organic corn seed development are an informative piece of the intellectual property puzzle worth exploring, as well as future points of research necessary to yield data substantiating the concerns of stakeholders in the organic seed industry.
