3 pages., Online from publisher website., Following a training course in technology stewardship, actors in the Caribbean's agri-food sector are implementing ICT approaches to provide agricultural advice and support to their local communities
4 pages., Online via Directory of Open Access Documents (DOAJ)., In interviews, "...a group of 'conservation-minded' Illinois farmers revealed that while they are not necessarily familiar with the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS), they are concerned with nutrient loss and are taking steps to address those concerns." However, authors observed that added efforts may be required to encourage adoption of the best management practices recommended by the strategy. The study also identified information sources farmers trust in making such decisions.
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.
10 pages., via online journal., Findings indicate that analysis of news reports of agricultural injuries provide more current data than traditional surveillance databases.
8 pages., ISSN: 2284-7995, via online journal., The study accessed agrochemical based information usage among cocoa farmers in Nigeria with a view to determine the sustainability of information sources for an increased cocoa production in the study area. Simple random sampling was used to select 120 cocoa farmers using structured interview schedule. Results showed that farmers were in their 50s with about 12 years of formal education. Radio (mean = 2.56) ranked highest among the sources of information while about 60 percent of the respondents indicated a very high level of usage of agrochemical information in cocoa production. Results of Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed a significant relationship between farmers’ perception (r = 0.365; p≤0.01) and usage of agrochemical based information. The findings conclude that the use of mass media as the most frequently used among farmers for agrochemicals in cocoa production may be sustainable. It is therefore recommended that the use of mass media for agrochemicals usage in cocoa production should be reinforced in passing other information to cocoa farmers.
8 pages., via online journal., Social media provides huge opportunities and incentives that could ease promotion of agricultural extension, facilitate real-time service delivery and enable wider farmer coverage. Ineffective dissemination approaches, expanding farmer population, low staffing, and aging agricultural extension agents continue to negatively affect the provision of agricultural extension services in Kenya. Despite the social media potential in agricultural communication, lack of awareness and low usage in the rural areas of developing countries have been documented. This study sought to establish the level of social media familiarity among smallholder rural farmers with the aim of exploring the possibility of usage in agricultural extension. The study was undertaken in Thika Sub-County of Kiambu County on 140 farmers through a researcher administered semi-structured questionnaire. Probability-proportional-to-size sampling method was employed to derive the sample size from existing extension farmer groups. Simple random sampling technique was further used to identify the actual respondents from each group. A low level of social media familiarity was established among the farmers with education, age and gender having significant influence. The study recommends awareness creation initiatives to promote social media familiarity with a particular focus on women who form the bulk of the farmers but with the lowest level of social media knowledge.
Leiserowitz, A. (author), Maibach, E. (author), Rosenthal, S. (author), Kotcher, J. (author), Bergquist, P. (author), Ballew, M. (author), Goldberg, M. (author), and Gustafson, A. (author)
Format:
Research summary
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
USA: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication at Yale University and Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 136 Document Number: D11420
Notes:
71 pages., Via Yale Program on Climate Change website., This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey, March 29-April 8, 2019, among 1,291 U.S. adults. Findings provided detailed insights about current attitudes toward existence of global warming, causes of it, effects of it, level of concern, interactions and sources of information about it, and other aspects.
New-Aaron, Moses (author), Semin, Jessica (author), Duysen, Ellen G. (author), Madsen, Murray (author), Musil, Kelsie (author), and Rautiainen, Risto H. (author)
Format:
Journal article abstract
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
USA: Taylor & Francis
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 25 Document Number: D10537
8 pages., via online journal., The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes annual statistics on occupational injuries and fatalities in the United States. The BLS fatality data include all agricultural workers while the non-fatal injury data only cover hired employees on large farms. In 2012, the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (CS-CASH) began collecting regional media monitoring data of agricultural injury incidents to augment national statistics. The aims of this report were: a) to compare CS-CASH injury and fatality data collected via print and online sources to data reported in previous studies, and b) to compare fatality data from media monitoring to BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) data. CS-CASH media monitoring data were collected from a news clipping service and an internet detection and notification system. These data covered years 2012–2017 in seven Midwestern states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota). CS-CASH occupational fatality data were compared with aggregate CFOI data for the region during 2012–2015. Media monitoring captured 1048 injury cases; 586 (56%) were non-fatal and 462 (44%) were fatal. The numbers of occupational fatality cases from media monitoring and CFOI were nearly identical (280 vs. 282, respectively), and the distributions by type of injury were similar. Findings suggest that media monitoring can capture equal numbers of fatalities compared to CFOI. Non-fatal injuries, not captured by national surveillance systems, can be collected and tracked using print and electronic media. Risk factors, identified in media sources, such as gender, age, time, and source of the incident are consistent with previously reported data. Media monitoring can provide timely access to detailed information on individual cases, which is important for detecting unique and emerging hazards, designing interventions and for setting policy and guiding national strategies.
Rose, Kathleen M. (author), Howell, Emily L. (author), Su, Leona Yi-Fan (author), Xenos, Michael A. (author), Brossard, Dominique (author), and Scheufele, Dietram A. (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019
Published:
SAGE Journals
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10600
19 pages., via online journal., The impact of knowledge on public attitudes toward scientific issues remains unclear, due in part to ill-defined differences in how research designs conceptualize knowledge. Using genetically modified foods as a framework, we explore the impacts of perceived familiarity and factual knowledge, and the moderating roles of media attention and a food-specific attitudinal variable (food consciousness), in shaping these relationships. Based on the differential effects on “negative attitudes” toward genetically modified foods, we provide further evidence that the measures of knowledge are separate concepts and argue against a one-dimensional view of scientific knowledge. We discuss implications for understanding the relationship between knowledge and science attitudes.
25 pages., via online journal, Rural internet use, although still limited, is growing, raising the question of how rural people are using social media politically. As a vehicle of communication that permits the rapid transmission of information, images and text across space and connections between dispersed networks of individuals, does technological advance in rural areas presage significant political transformations? This article investigates this question in the light of a poor result for the Cambodian People’s Party in the 2013 elections, and the subsequent banning of the main opposition party, before the 2018 elections. Expanding internet use in rural areas has linked relatively quiescent rural Cambodians for the first time to networks of information about militant urban movements of the poor. Rural Cambodians are responding to this opportunity through strategies of quiet encroachment in cyberspace. This has had real effects on the nature of the relationship between the dominant party and the rural population and suggests the declining utility of the election-winning strategy used by the party since 1993. However, the extent of this virtual information revolution is limited, since neither the urban nor rural poor are mapping out new online political strategies, agendas or identities that can push Cambodia’s sclerotic politics in new directions.
