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.
5pgs, Billions of dollars in federal funding are available to help rural communities repair and build infrastructure like roads and bridges, clean drinking water, hospitals, and schools. A new pilot project at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is designed to help communities that most need the funding receive it, officials said.
Sloan, Margaret F. (author), Trull, Laura (author), Malomba, Maureen (author), Akerson, Emily (author), Atwood, Kelly (author), and Eaton, Melody (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2022
Published:
USA: Sagamore-Venture Publishing Inc.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 208 Document Number: D13249
17 pages, Much of the press on the pandemic has been focused on urban environments where the virus was quick to spread and the numbers of cases are high. Beyond the greater risk for COVID-19-related health complications, rural populations are particularly susceptible to disruptions in the economic infrastructure of their communities. This study explores the impacts of COVID-19 on rural communities and the responses of nonprofit and other community infrastructures. Using a strengths-based approach and mixed methods design, this qualitative research asked rural residents and nonprofit leaders about their needs, challenges, and assets as a result of COVID-19. Themes relative to access, interdependence, and community emerged from a priori categories. The research offers implications for both nonprofit education and rural nonprofit leadership.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 157 Document Number: D11640
Notes:
4 pages., Online from G&S Business Communications, New York City, New York. 4 pages., "A new consumer intelligence survey fielded by G&S Communications found Americans are changing their consumption behaviors and their perceptions of the food supply chain as a direct result of the coronavirus. From food safety and quality to availability and affordability, people are beginning to think differently about where their food comes from and the significance of the nation's farming infrastructure."
16 pages., via online journal., The study assessed the use of ICTs among public and private extension officers in Lesotho. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 86 public and 19 private extension officers. Data collected were analysed, using percentages, mean, and standard deviation, multiple regressions and t-test. Extension officers use ICT tools to obtain information on new technology (79.1%), preservation of farm produce (79.1%); time of planting crops (75.6%), call attention of extension officers (75.6%) and cultural practices (75.6%). Serious constraints to the use of ICTs, as perceived by extension officers were: high cost of ICT (83.7%); poor basic infrastructure (79.1%); non-availability of technical personnel (72.1%), failure of service (73.7%) and non-availability of genuine parts. There is a strong relationship between access to information, residing within place of work, constraints, age awareness, type of extension and use of ICTs. There is also a significance differences in the use of ICTs between public and private extension officers. Policy makers should improve national e-readiness and make more ICT tools available and accessible to extension officers. Constraints of high cost, lack of ICT infrastructure and training of technical personnel should be dealt with.
13 pages., Via online journal., Access to food is a basic pillar of human development. It is therefore unsurprising that it features so centrally on global development agendas and that a robust, interdisciplinary literature seeks to examine its determinants. This study focuses on the relationship between mobile technology and food access. Specifically, we ask whether mobile technology can strengthen the relationship between food access and certain social and political factors such as remittance flows and political participation. We use Afrobarometer surveys and highly disaggregated data on 2G network coverage to estimate a multilevel model testing how increased connectivity measured by mobile technology influences food access. We show that mobile phone use and higher frequency of use are significantly and positively correlated with food access, but we do not find evidence that remittances and political participation levels can explain the mechanisms linking mobile technology and food access. The study highlights that connectivity can play a powerful role in shaping food outcomes even when controlling for commonly identified impediments such as income constraints or physical isolation. These findings suggest that policies aimed at improving food access should devote attention to strengthening both communication and physical infrastructure.
14 pages., Via online journal., During recent years, one of the most familiar name scaling new heights and creating a benchmark is Internet of Things (IoT). It is indeed the future of communication that has transformed Things (Objects) of the real world into smarter devices. The functional aspect of IoT is to unite every object of the world in such a manner that humans have the ability to control them via Internet. Furthermore, these objects also provide regular as well as timely updates on their current status to its end user. Although IoT concepts were proposed a couple of years ago, it may not be incorrect to quote that this term has become a benchmark for establishing communication among objects. In context to the present standings of IoT, identification of the most prominent applications in the field of IoT have been highlighted and a comprehensive review has been done specifically in the field of Precision Agriculture. This article evaluates contributions made by various researchers and academicians over the past few years. Furthermore, existing challenges faced while performing agricultural activities have been highlighted along with future research directions to equip novel researchers of this domain to assess the current standings of IoT and to further improve upon them with more inspiring and innovative ideas.
USA: Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, Arizona State University, Phoenix.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D11683
Notes:
3 pages., Via online article., Description of proposed legislation in support of efforts to implement environmental/green practices and technologies. Describes seven features of the Green New Deal and provides questions reporters might ask in gather information about it.
16 pages., Via online journal., This paper assesses the effect of transportation and communication networks on farmers’ choice of market channels for paddy and wheat, and subsequently on the prices they receive from these channels. It is found that smallholder farmers sell more to informal channels i.e. local traders and input dealers, and typically receive lower prices from them compared to the government-set minimum support prices (MSP). The prices realized from the sales in regulated markets are also less than the MSP despite these being claimed to be more transparent in price discovery. Econometric results show that farmers’ access to transportation and information enables them to obtain better price terms from informal as well as formal channels. The effect of information is relatively stronger, implying that farmers’ access to transportation itself is not sufficient but is effective when combined with provision of market information. Further, our proposition is that despite a positive impact of the improved market access on price realization from informal traders, farmer-trader relations are unlikely to undergo a meaningful change because of the tied transactions involving inputs, credit and outputs.
5 pages, via online journal, The tool kit Mobilizing Rural Communities to Prevent Childhood Obesity is the product of a seven-state multidisciplinary research project focused on enhancing obesity prevention efforts by integrating community coaching into the work of rural community coalitions. The interactive tool kit is available at no cost both in print form and online, and it consists of five tutorials that present best practices and lessons learned throughout the research project. Extension professionals working within health promotion coalitions may wish to use or promote the tool kit. Coalition members can complete the activities contained in the tool kit individually or as a group.
8 pages., Via online journal, This paper examines the effect of farmers' access to communication technologies (CTs) on farmers' agricultural output at the aggregate level in the People's Republic of China (P.R. China) based on panel data. The paper uses a dynamic Cobb–Douglas aggregate production function and the generalized method of moments (GMM) as estimation techniques to estimate the parameters of interests. The research findings are: the estimated effects (measured by elasticity) of teledensity on the provincial level agricultural output have been positive and statistically significant both in the short and long runs. In the long-run, the size of the effect is substantial: from 0.94 to 1.06. This implies that the agriculture sector of the P. R. China has some potentials to derive benefit from the use of CTs like telephone. Hence, the Chinese government should consider policy support to expand communication infrastructure for the farmers
Kunelius, Risto (author) and Yagodin, Dmitry (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2017
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08850
Notes:
Pages 59-80 in Kunelius, Risto Eide, Elisabeth Tegelberg, Matthew Yagodin, Dmitry (eds.), Media and global climate knowledge: journalism and the IPCC. United States: Palgrave Macmillan, New York City, New York. 309 pages.
Million, Angela (author), Bürgow, Grit (author), Steglich, Anja (author), and Raber, Wolf (author)
Format:
Proceedings
Publication Date:
2017
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08823
Notes:
Pages 801-831 in Rob Roggema (ed.), Agriculture in an urbanizing society volume two: proceedings of the sixth AESOP conference on sustainable food planning. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Pages 601-1274.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08903
Notes:
Pages 119-138 in Waisová, Šárka, Environmental cooperation as a tool for conflict transformation and resolution. United Kingdom: Lexington Books, London. 196 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08904
Notes:
Pages 139-158 in Waisová, Šárka, Environmental cooperation as a tool for conflict transformation and resolution. United Kingdom: Lexington Books, London. 196 pages.
Kunelius, Risto (author) and Eide, Elisabeth (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2017
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08848
Notes:
Pages 1-32 in Kunelius, Risto Eide, Elisabeth Tegelberg, Matthew Yagodin, Dmitry (eds.), Media and global climate knowledge: journalism and the IPCC. United States: Palgrave Macmillan, New York City, New York. 309 pages.
14 pages., via online journal., This research aims to identify and communicate water-related vulnerabilities in transport infrastructure, specifically flood risk of road/rail-stream intersections, based on watershed characteristics. This was done using flooding in Värmland and Västra Götaland, Sweden in August 2014 as case studies on which risk models are built. Three different statistical modelling approaches were considered: a partial least square regression, a binomial logistic regression, and artificial neural networks. Using the results of the different modelling approaches together in an ensemble makes it possible to cross-validate their results. To help visualize this and provide a tool for communication with stakeholders (e.g., the Swedish Transport Administration - Trafikverket), a flood ‘thermometer’ indicating the level of flooding risk at a given point was developed. This tool improved stakeholder interaction and helped highlight the need for better data collection in order to increase the accuracy and generalizability of modelling approaches.
Knierim, Andrea (author) and Prager, Katrin (author)
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
2015-07
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 149 Document Number: D06722
Notes:
Online via Proakis.com.eu. 4 pages., "Overall, the analysis revealed that European AKIS are characterised by a mix of public and private actors, and there are no countries where only public actors dominate the knowledge system."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 199 Document Number: D09922
Notes:
Paper presented at the 2015 4th annual International Symposium on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Libraries and Information Services, Noida, India, January 6-8, 2015. 15 pages.
April 2 issue via online. 3 pages., Emphasizing the changing means of communicating, author notes the enduring act of reading, across time and place. "Magazine media continues to do what we have done for hundreds of years. We store valuable information for sale." "Many rural communities around the world have skipped the step of hard wired infrastructure and gone right to modern cellular networks."
The International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD)
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 102 Document Number: D10916
Notes:
6 pages., IAALD XIIIth World Congress, via IAALD website., This paper presents our experience in building a rural and agriculture development communication
network in Egypt to improve the communication among extension, research, private and public
sectors and institutions involved in rural and agricultural development for the benefit of farmers
and agrarian businesses at rural and village level. The paper describes the main components of the
network: the web based information system, the rural communication network, and the mass
media. The lesson learned and future plans are also introduced.
4 pages., Via online journal., Raising the productivity of smallholders
is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and
improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most
developing countries. This increased productivity is
essential to both household food security and to
agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger
economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of
constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall,
and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to
productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also
vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture,
and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such
as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on
the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving
the information, communication, transaction, and networking
elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
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.
8 pages., via online journal., A self-administered survey of randomly selected recipients in 44 Missouri, U.S., communities found that most Missourians were very concerned about the quality of natural resources and having trees on streets and in parks. Respondents felt that Missouri was not doing well at making sure fewer trees are lost during development and at managing stormwater runoff. Residents in communities with a population of 50,000 or more, in the St. Louis and Kansas City suburbs, and in the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City show strong support for a ballot issue establishing a tree fund supported by a tax of US$5 or less. Missourians in communities with a population greater than 5,000 showed support for protecting or replacing trees during development through passage of a tree preservation ordinance. They lack basic knowledge of their community's tree program and could not correctly say whether their community was certified by The National Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree City USA. They are most likely to seek information on trees from their local garden center. The results of the survey, together with recent surveys of community forestry officials and street tree inventories, are used to make recommendations to state agencies charged with managing community forests.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 146 Document Number: D06623
Notes:
Presentation at a conference, "Concentration in agriculture: how much, how serious and why worry" at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, February 4, 2003. 18 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 117 Document Number: C13013
Journal Title Details:
2 pages
Notes:
RIRDC completed projects in 1999-2000:human capital, communications and information systems, Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation (RIRDC), Barton, ACT, Australia, 2000
The author is Editor in chief of Water Policy and Senior Advisor at the Institute for Water Resources, US Army Corps of Engineering, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes4; Folder: Speeches for Adolfo Franco File Document Number: D01622
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Conference on the Caribbean and Latin America, 7 pages
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 109 Document Number: C10352
Journal Title Details:
83 pages
Notes:
Supported by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, with additional supported from the Farm Foundation and the Rural Development Initiative Project at Iowa State University, http://www.soc.iastate.edu/rdi-tech/page7.html, Proceedings of a Workshop, Feb. 25-27, 1997, Kansas City, Missouri
City, Utah
Paper presented at the IAALD Regional Conference, Strategic Issues in Agricultural Information; 1988 November; Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, A description of the present situation in the field of food and agricultural information is given, based on the historical development within last thirty years, with special reference to the financial development. The relationship between information in industrialized countries is emphasized and examples are given that demonstrate the possibility to improve the exchange of scientific information. (original)
Monge, Fernando (author / Head, Documentation Services, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia) and Head, Documentation Services, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1981
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 76 Document Number: C04007
Notes:
AGRICOLA IND 8805341, In: Agricultural information to hasten development : proceedings of the VIth World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists; 1980 March 3-7; Manilla, Philippines. Los Banos, Philippines : Agricultural Information Bank of Asia, 1981. p. 267-276
