9 pages., Article # 1RIB4, Via online journal., Food hubs represent a business model through which farmers can collectively market product to access new supply chains and buyers can efficiently access locally sourced foods. Many farmer marketing cooperatives fit within the food hub definition and have existed for decades. Accordingly, much can be learned from them to support food hub business planning efforts. We developed and synthesized case studies of three successful cooperatives in order to match key food hub operational challenges with recommended best management practices. Such information is useful for Extension education efforts supporting the development of economically viable food hub businesses.
10 pages., Via online journal., Development of natural resource user typologies has been viewed as a potentially
effective means of improving the effectiveness of natural resource management engagement
strategies. Prior research on Corn Belt farmers’ perspectives on climate change employed
a latent class analysis (LCA) that created a six-class typology—the Concerned, Uneasy,
Uncertain, Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached—to develop a better understanding of
farmer perspectives on climate change and inform more effective climate adaptation and
mitigation outreach strategies. The LCA employed 34 variables that are generally unobservable—beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks of
climate change, and attitudes toward climate action—to identify types. The research reported
in this paper builds on this typology of Corn Belt farmers by exploring 33 measures of observable farm enterprise characteristics, land management practices, and farmer demographics to
assess whether variations in these observable characteristics between the six farmer classes
display systematic patterns that might be sufficiently distinctive to guide audience segmentation strategies. While analyses detected some statistically significant differences, there were
few systematic, meaningful observable patterns of difference between groups of farmers with
differing perspectives on climate change. In other words, farmers who believe that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, that it poses risks to agriculture, and that adaptive action
should be taken, may look very much like farmers who deny the existence of climate change
and do not support action. The overall implication of this finding is that climate change
engagement efforts by Extension and other agricultural advisors should use caution when
looking to observable characteristics to facilitate audience segmentation. Additional analyses
indicated that the farmer types that tended to be more concerned about climate change and
supportive of adaptive action (e.g., Concerned and Uneasy) reported that they were more
influenced by key private and public sector actors in agricultural social networks. On the
other hand, farmers who were not concerned about climate change or supportive of adaptation (e.g., the Unconcerned, Confident, and Detached groups, comprising between one-third
and one-half of respondents) were less integrated into agricultural networks. This suggests that
Extension and other agricultural advisors should expand outreach efforts to farmers who are
not already within their spheres of influence.
5 pages., The Annual Conference for Mississippi State University Extension is the sole event at which the majority of Extension personnel gather for networking, organizational updates, recognition of efforts, and professional development. Extension leaders plan this conference with intended outcomes but without ever evaluating those outcomes beyond attendee satisfaction. We developed an evaluation instrument to determine how certain conference events influence participants’ critical psychological states and ultimately, their perceived motivation, professional enrichment, opportunities for networking, professional accountability, and organizational awareness. Rather than simply assessing attendee satisfaction, this instrument may help inform planning for successive Extension conferences and other professional development events.
9 pages, A new method for evaluating the influence of Extension programming involves exploring whether Extension clientele differ from others in knowledge and behavior related to a particular topic. Analysis of South Dakota farm survey data allowed for the assessment of potential impacts of Extension through comparison of knowledge and adoption regarding soil conservation practices among farmers who did and did not use Extension. Results suggest that, controlling for some farmer and farm characteristics, use of Extension is associated with higher levels of knowledge and greater adoption rates. The new evaluation methodology can be used for assessing broad-scale impacts across Extension program areas.
12pgs, This study highlights the results of a national survey of Extension land-grant and sea grant professionals designed to better understand their involvement in state/regional tourism programming and their perceptions of tourism related opportunities and challenges. This study demonstrates the breadth and importance of Extension’s tourism programing and continued challenges including limited investment and commitment by state institutions and the larger CES for core tourism program offerings. Investments in tourism programing are recommended as a way for Extension to maintain its relevancy, and better engage and address the community and economic development needs of traditional and emerging audiences.
Aldosari, Fahad (author), Al Shunaifi, Mohamed Saleh (author), Ullah, Muhammad Amjad (author), Muddassir, Muhammad (author), and Noor, Mehmood Ali (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2019-04
Published:
Saudi Arabia: Science Direct
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 8 Document Number: D10318
7 pages., Via online journal., Like many developing countries, agriculture is seen as the vehicle for development also in Pakistan. Our study was aimed to identify the perceptions of farmer community towards the electronic media and relationship between different demographic characteristics of respondents with the use of electronic communication of TV and radio, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), a province of Pakistan. Random sampling technique was used for selecting 183 respondents. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and Chi-square. Results revealed that maximum respondents were agreed that mobile and internet can be a useful source of agricultural information and only 1.6 and 5.5% of the respondents were strongly disagreed about information means, respectively. A maximum number of the respondents were undecided about “agricultural helpline can be a useful source of agricultural information”, only 14.2% of the respondents were strongly agreed with this statement. A highly significant relationship was found between age of respondents and application of information received through radio and TV. On the other side, education of the respondents had a highly significant relationship with the application of information received through radio only. Farming experience of the respondents had no significant relationship with the application of information received through TV and radio. Results suggested that extension personnel should motivate and educate the farming community about the use of electronic media (TV, radio, helpline, internet, mobile) for advanced information about agriculture production techniques.
Via Online Journal, Extension is challenged with meeting the needs of a variety of stakeholders. As the country becomes
more urban, Extension may need to adapt programming to reach new clients. Having an
understanding about what, when, and how urban food producers gather information is important
to address their needs. Information that is relevant, up-to-date, and meets clients’ needs, enables
their ability to adopt new ideas and innovative technologies, providing more opportunities for
success. A mixed-method research design explored the information needs and information-seeking
behavior of urban food producers in Columbus, Ohio. Urban food producers in this study most
needed information to increase food production. Respondents preferred to receive information
from the Internet and other electronic media over conventional information sources. This group of
urban producers trusted information from university and Extension sources, but expressed mixed
opinions about their personal experiences with OSU Extension.
11 pages., via online journal., The purposes of this study was to determine the selected characteristics of the female farmers, to determine the information needs of the female farmers in practicing agriculture and to explore the relationship between information need and selected characteristics of the female farmers. Data were collected using interview schedule from a sample of 50 farmers out of 100 farmers of target group and 50 farmers out of 100 farmers of control group selected random sampling procedure from the beneficiaries of PROTIC project of Dimala upazila under Nilphamari district. Besides the usual descriptive statistical parameter, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was used for the statistical analysis. The information needs were determined on 20 selected agricultural activities related information. It was revealed that the highest information needs was observed on ‘pesticides name’ in target groups. Lowest information needs was observed on ‘pond preparation’. In case of control groups the highest information needs was observed on pesticides name’ while lowest information needs was observed on ‘water quality management’ among the selected information of practicing agricultural activities. In target groups majority of the respondents (74 percent) mentioned medium information needs while 14 percent low and 12 percent high information needs. Among the control groups 62 percent farmers opined medium information needs while 16 percent mentioned about low information needs and 22 percent showed high information needs for practicing agricultural activities. In response to target groups it was observed that extension media contact and agricultural knowledge, annual income and aspiration while in response to control group farmers’ agricultural knowledge and aspiration are positively and age was negatively correlated with information needs of female farmers in practicing agriculture.
