14 pages, This study examines how smallholder coffee farmers’ perceptions may influence their engagement in peer mobilization and collective action. Forty smallholder coffee farmers were interviewed in the Central Highlands region of Peru using a closed-ended instrument. The sample of smallholder farmers was achieved using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Quantitative data on farmers’ attitudes and aspirations regarding working with peers, autonomy, and external support as well as knowledge, skills, and behaviors pertinent to collective actions were collected and analyzed using descriptive and correlational procedures. Key findings indicate farmers perceive a need for external support, feel there are benefits of collective actions, and aspire to work with their peers. Based on the findings, it is recommended that practitioners and farmer group leaders focus training efforts on building smallholders’ knowledge and skills in mobilization, encourage peer association/collective action as a source of external support, and target knowledgeable, skilled and confident farmers to lead collective actions. This study has implications to bolster support for farmer-to-farmer extension and technical assistance systems and inform the identification of leader farmers.
9 pages., Via online journal., Lack of trust is thought to be one of the most significant barriers to the consumption of organic foods, which is an important dimension of sustainable behaviour. Building trust in organic foods is the central objective of this paper. Based on information processing models focusing on what message to transmit and how, and on the premise that to improve trust, two different dimensions (functionality and authenticity) must be managed simultaneously, this paper analyzes the comparative effectiveness of different combinations of message arguments, forms of appeal and sources on consumer trust. To this end, an experiment was designed with a total of 800 participants, in which 36 different treatments were tested. The results show strong interactions between the three variables considered and suggest that the most effective combinations for building trust are: the health argument put across by an expert, the authenticity argument transmitted by a producers’ union, the elitist argument made by an expert and lastly, the social argument transmitted by a public authority, using an emotional form of appeal in all four cases. These results serve to complete the previous literature on the subject, in which communication activities are recommended but the questions of what to say, how to say it and who should say it are not specifically addressed.
27 pages, Vietnam plays an important role in bearing global food security. However, Vietnamese rice farmers face several challenges, including pressures to develop sustainable livelihoods while reducing the environmental impacts of their production activities. Various Vietnamese agricultural restructuring policies were promulgated to promote the adoption of environmentally friendly practices to generate high value added for rice farmers, but the farmers are reluctant to adopt them because of perceived lack of demand. Decreasing consumption of rice in Asia and increasing demands in Europe shaped Vietnamese rice exporting policies. New trade agreements, such as the UK–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, offer new target markets for Vietnamese rice farmers. This research provides empirical evidence related to the preferences of UK consumers for ethical attributes for floating rice imported from Vietnam. Floating rice represents a traditional method of rice cultivation that relies on the natural flooding cycle. Its cultivation uses very few agrochemical inputs and provides several other environmental, economic, and social benefits. In an online survey, the study used a choice experiment that asked 306 UK consumers to report their preferences for one kilo of floating rice with three non-market attributes: reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, allocation of profits to the farmers, and restitution of biodiversity. Overall, study participants favored the attributes of floating rice, but reported utility for only the “fair trade” attribute and for a marginal willingness to pay premiums for profit allocations to farmers. Consumers did not find value in either CO2 emission reduction or biodiversity improvement. Results from the study provide recommendations to develop agricultural programs, distribution strategies, and informational methods to encourage floating rice consumption in the UK.
Hallman, W.K. (author), Schilling, B. (author), Hossain, Ferdaus (author), Onyango, B. (author), Adelaja, A. (author / Food Policy Institute), and Food Policy Institute
Format:
Research report
Publication Date:
2002-06
Published:
USA: Food Policy Institute FPI Publications
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C21833
Arp, Allison A. (author) and Iowa State University
Format:
Thesis
Publication Date:
2018
Published:
Ann Arbor: ProQuest
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 18 Document Number: D10473
Notes:
98 pages., ISBN: 9780438072190, Via ProQuest Dissertations and Theses., This study explored how preexisting values influence attitudes about GMOs and if aligning messages about GMOs with these values would lead to a greater chance of central processing, and subsequently, greater alignment with message-congruent attitudes. Utilizing the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical foundation, an online experiment was used to measure several values of participants, including altruistic, biospheric and egoistic value orientations as well as agricultural identity. Attitude accessibility and pre- and post-opinions were also measured in order to determine how much of an effect the presented stimuli had on the participants. All participants were presented with a stimulus that either aligned or didn’t align with their self-ranked GMO value-argument. It was found that attitude accessibility, agricultural identity and in some cases a biospehric value orientation were the most important predictors for a number of constructs related to GMO attitudes. In addition, agricultural identity did not correlate with any other value orientation, yet was the strongest predictor of many related attitudes. Future research should continue to explore the complexity of values within agricultural communication contexts and expand the understanding of how agricultural identity influences such outcomes.
