22 pages, While climate change threatens global food security, health, and nutrition outcomes, Africa is more vulnerable because its economies largely depend on rain-fed agriculture. Thus, there is need for agricultural producers in Africa to employ robust adaptive measures that withstand the risks of climate change. However, the success of adaptation measures to climate change primarily depends on the communities’ knowledge or awareness of climate change and its risks. Nonetheless, existing empirical research is still limited to illuminate farmers’ awareness of the climate change problem. This study employs a Bayesian hierarchical logistic model, estimated using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) methods, to empirically determine drivers of smallholder farmers’ awareness of climate change and its risks to agriculture in Zambia. The results suggest that on average, 77% of farmers in Zambia are aware of climate change and its risks to agriculture. We find socio-demographics, climate change information sources, climate change adaptive factors, and climate change impact-related shocks as predictors of the expression of climate change awareness. We suggest that farmers should be given all the necessary information about climate change and its risks to agriculture. Most importantly, the drivers identified can assist policymakers to provide the effective extension and advisory services that would enhance the understanding of climate change among farmers in synergy with appropriate farm-level climate-smart agricultural practices.
7 pgs, Extension is uniquely positioned to deliver data-driven solutions to complex community issues with University applied research, particularly through crises like COVID-19. Applying the Policy, Systems and Environmental (PSE) framework to community development is an effective, innovative approach in guiding Extension leaders to create, document, and share long-term transformative change on challenging issues with stakeholders. Beyond the public health sector, applying a PSE approach to community development provides leverage points for population-level benefits across sectors. This article describes current public health approaches, methodologies, and how the PSE framework translates to other programs with four examples of high-impact, systems level Extension projects.
Online via UI Library electronic subscription, To close the gap between ecologists and policy makers, the author proposed a program of embedding ecologists into the political syst4em in much the same way the U.S. military embeds journalists into combat units. Emphasized the importance of developing personal relationships.
5 pages, The scientific advice needed to inform national and regional policies addressing the key challenges we face today must take account of disparate requirements. The complex nature of the problems addressed in this article—which encompass food and nutrition security, global health and climate change—and the multitude of their interconnections, calls for an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach that spans aspects related to the use of natural resources; the adoption of new technologies all the way to issues related to food demand and human behaviour. The scale is also important: national policies need to respond to a set of heterogeneous local conditions and requirements and should be particularly mindful of the effect on vulnerable groups of the population. At the same time, the global interconnectedness of food systems and shared natural resources also necessitates coordinated action at regional and global levels. The InterAcademy Partnership sought to develop an innovative model for integrating and analysing multidisciplinary scientific evidence to inform governments and regional policy bodies for policymaking on food and nutrition security. This approach relies on IAP’s membership of over 130 science academies grouped in four regional networks for Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Our article reviews the model, in particular with regards to interdisciplinarity, exploring examples relating to yield gap, plant breeding and food processing, and reflects on lessons learned during the project discussions and when engaging with policy-makers and other stakeholders. We propose that the framework developed can be applied to integrated assessment of other societal challenges where the scientific community can play a significant role in informing policy choices.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 133 Document Number: D11399
Notes:
9 pages., Online via website., Results of a national survey among U.S. adults suggest that"divides in public opinion over food are encapsulated by how people assess the health effects of two kinds of food: organic and genetically modified (GM) foods. Americans' beliefs about food connect with their personal concerns about the role of food choices in their long term health and well-being."
Yagodin, Dmitry (author), Medeiros, Débora (author), Ji, Li (author), and Saleh, Ibrahim (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2017
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08854
Notes:
Pages 151-170 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.
22 pages., Via online journal, Private consumption is increasingly being blamed for resource depletion and environmental degradation, and the discourse of ascribing environmental responsibility to the individual consumer has become a part of mainstream policy-making. Measures aimed at promoting consumers' voluntary engagement through sustainable consumption now constitute an important part of public sustainability strategies. Nevertheless, the actual progress made in changing people's consumption patterns in a more sustainable direction has been modest. Based on a quantitative and a qualitative content analysis of articles on environmentally sustainable consumption of meat published in five national and regional newspapers in Norway between 2000 and 2010, it is argued in this article that an important reason for the lack of both political and consumer engagement in the issue can be attributed to a discursive confusion that arises from a simultaneous existence of mainly two clashing discourses on what is actually environmentally sustainable consumption of meat. One that is focusing on the environmentally malign aspects of consumption and production of (especially) red meat, and another that is focusing on the environmentally benign aspects of production and consumption of red meat. The findings imply that the lack of consensus on the character of the problem constitutes a major barrier for the opportunity to change people's consumption patterns in a more environmentally sustainable direction through the use of voluntary measures.
17 pages, In developing countries, agriculture plays a vital role in reducing poverty and enhancing food security. In Sunamganj, Bangladesh, rural women significantly contribute to agriculture but face gender disparities and limited access to resources. Green cooperatives provide a promising model to empower these women through sustainable practices and economic support. This study explores the roles and impacts of green cooperatives on rural women entrepreneurs in Sunamganj, focusing on factors influencing their involvement, the benefits, and constraints they face, and changes in empowerment before and after joining cooperatives. This study was conducted across five upazilas in Sunamganj, the sampled 200 women entrepreneurs-100 cooperative members and 100 non-members using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Data was gathered via interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions (FGDs) and analyzed with SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify key influencing factors and the Problems Confrontation Index (PCI) was utilized to assess the severity of challenges faced by members. The findings reveal that green cooperatives enhance women’s socio-economic status through improved production, market access, financial stability, and decision-making roles. Education, credit access, input availability, training, and experience were key drivers of the cooperative engagement of rural women entrepreneurs. However, challenges like male dominance, limited training, transportation issues, labor shortages, and market information gaps persist. Despite these, women in green cooperatives benefit from fixed pricing for organic products, increased bargaining power, and timely access to inputs and training. The study highlights the need for improved education, continuous training, extension services, high-quality inputs, and better infrastructure to support women’s participation further. The insights provided aim to guide policymakers in developing supportive policies that enhance the impact of green cooperatives, address gender-specific challenges, and promote the use of digital tools for market access. Future research should explore longitudinal studies and regional comparisons for deeper insights into rural women’s empowerment.
