6 pages, Extension professionals are skilled at connecting with community partners and community members to identify needs and address challenges. This paper outlines how Extension professionals quickly responded to address rising rates of food insecurity in a rural Tennessee County during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an extensive network of state, regional, and local partners, Extension professionals and partners planned and implemented mobile food distributions through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families program. These Extension-led efforts resulted in sustainable, community-driven initiatives to improve food insecurity. Lessons learned can help Extension professionals respond to emerging needs.
11 pages, Existing research and practice related to digital agriculture technology adoption is largely focused on large-scale producers. In this paper, we describe a case of adopting an advanced soil monitoring system in a community-based agricultural organization. We provide guidance for Extension professionals seeking to implement or promote digital agriculture technology adoption on: selecting appropriate technology, incorporating new technology into existing practices, harnessing local technology champions, and avoiding data-driven mission creep.
10 pages, Today’s societal challenges, the pandemic, require new approaches to the organization of modern education, which is becoming increasingly digital and based on blended and distance learning with the introduction of modern information and communication technologies. The use of interactive distance learning methods, which are based on purposeful and controlled intensive independent work of a student who can study in a convenient place, according to the chosen schedule, is relevant and needs to be disseminated. The purpose of the work was to develop a consulting system for interactive provision of knowledge and scientifically sound answers to the client in rural tourism. The research is carried out on the basis of methods of system analysis, SWOT-analysis, monographic method, as well as statistical and sociological research, economic and mathematical modeling. The scientific novelty of the work is the deepening of organizational and consulting proposals for the provision of interactive educational and informational support in rural tourism. As a result, created an interactive educational and information support system based on the optimal combination of computer hardware, computer networks, software, operating systems and databases, which are aimed at the accumulation, storage and transmission of large amounts of information for processing and use. The importance of creating educational and information systems in rural tourism with the use of interactive consultations with the necessary recommendations to quickly meet customer needs is emphasized. The variety of types of rural tourism and forms of accommodation complicates the search for a place to rest, which indicates the need to improve methods of information support in this area. The prospect of using an interactive consulting system of educational and information support for the development of rural tourism indicates the need for computerization of rural areas.
34 pages, This paper uses data on broadband connections and the production and sales of agricultural products to empirically estimate the impact of improved connectivity on U.S. farming outcomes. The Federal Communications Commission has detailed data on broadband subscriptions from its semi-annual Form 477 collection. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) releases a complete census of agriculture every five years to measure agricultural activity. By pairing periodic releases of the Form 477 data collection with information on farm production expenses and crop yields from corresponding releases of the Census of Agriculture, the analysis directly evaluates the benefit of rural broadband development on the U.S. farming industry. Overall, I find evidence of crop yield improvements from increased Internet penetration rates at thresholds of 25 Megabits-per-second download and 3 Megabits-per-second upload speeds. Among the findings, doubling the number of 25+/3+ connections per 1000 households is associated with a 3.79% increase in corn yields, as measured in bushels per acre. I also find some evidence of cost savings at thresholds of 10 Megabits-per-second download and 0.768 Megabits-per-second upload speeds. Doubling the number of 10+/0.768+ connections per 1000 households is associated with a 2.41% decrease in operating expenses per farm operation. The paper also provides an introductory look at changes in the composition and speed thresholds of connectivity available for selected field crops over time.
13 pages, The purpose of this paper is to consider role of branding agricultural products in better market valorization. The benefit of branding is especially significant for rural and insufficiently developed environment. The problems of rural environments are multidimensional, but revitalization and improvement of development leads to strengthening competitiveness of these areas. The higher price of products enables the increase of income of agricultural workers, as well as diversification of the rural economy and creation of conditions of better socioeconomic aspects in rural environments. Creation of a more desirable image of an agricultural product most often has a strong reflection on the area of origin, as well as on reformation of the social attitude towards that environment. Branded products and services have a higher market value, due to which legal aspects enabling not only branding, but maintenance of a brand as well, are of special significance.
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.
