Agriculture is an essential component of food security, sustainable livelihoods, and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Smallholder farmers, however, are restricted in the number of ...crops they can grow due to small plot sizes. Agriculture inputs, such as fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides, and improved seed varieties, could prove to be useful resources to improve yield. Despite the potential of these agriculture technologies, input use throughout much of SSA remains low. This paper aims to better understand the process of innovation diffusion through information and interaction processes at the individual, social network, and community levels. A total of 203 participants were surveyed using a semi-structured interview method in four rural communities located in the Mbale, Lira, Kabale, and Masaka districts of Uganda. Participants were asked about their access to information technologies, information sources via social network ties, level of engagement in the local community, and agricultural input use. Results indicate households with higher levels of information access through cell phone use and weak-tie information sources are more likely to use inputs. Significant findings also include the interactional effect of cell phones and weak ties on fertilizer adoption. This research could inform policy makers of cost-effective methods of disseminating agriculture information and encouraging innovation diffusion.
Community surveys have been widely used to investigate local residents' perceptions and behaviors related to natural resource issues. However, most existing community survey research relies on ...cross-sectional data and is thus unable to capture the temporal dynamics of community processes. Longitudinal analysis has received increasing interest in recent natural resource social science literature. Trend and panel studies are two typical approaches in longitudinal community survey research. Due to limited sampling frames, research design, and respondent attrition, longitudinal community surveys often involve both paired and independent observations across different survey waves. Using previous survey data on community responses to forest insect disturbance in Alaska as an example, this research note shows that the corrected z-test is a more appropriate approach to analyze partially correlated longitudinal data than conventional statistical techniques such as the paired and independent t-tests.
This study adds to the empirical evidence of information and communication technology (ICT) use by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study draws on qualitative data collected from eight ...focus groups segmented by gender and consisting of adult farmers in two villages, in central Mozambique. Special attention was given to the types of ICTs that farmers have access to and the dissemination of agriculture information through various ICTs. Findings indicate that the characteristics of ICTs explain why cell phone and radio use is prevalent, while access to television remains limited. The type of information accessed also varied by ICT type, implying that innovation characteristics affect not only their diffusion, but practical use. Drawing from the Diffusion of Innovations theory, the characteristics and extent of use for each ICT were examined to understand ICT diffusion better.
A basic unit and level of socio-ecological studies is the community, situated at the critical nexus of broader society and the lived, local environment (Hawley 1950; Wilkinson 1991). Within this ...important vantage, the various attributes of communities inform human interactions and societal-environmental relationships. Place-based sociocultural, economic, and biophysical characteristics constitute a structural backdrop for the causes and consequences of social and environmental changes, and for numerous individual-level phenomena including personal experience, attitudes, and behaviors. Despite the conceptual value of contextualism in community science, including studies on community and natural resources, the methodology for examining community context is not adequately developed (Luke 2005; Qin and Flint 2010). Such research deficiency necessitates further exploration of creative analytical techniques appropriate for studying community context and related contextual effects. The primary objective of this research brief is to demonstrate the use of a unique applied social science technique, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), in contextual community research. To do this, we present an example QCA analysis of selected community-based forest management (CBFM) case studies with the goal of identifying the general patterns of community contexts for successful CBFM outcomes.
A Portrait of American Farmers [Book review] Freeman, Kathlee
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development,
10/2016, Letnik:
5, Številka:
4
Book Review, Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
First paragraphs: There is an agricultural renaissance of sorts taking place that can be seen in the rising sales of organic food, the sprouting of urban gardens throughout major cities, and the ...growing legion of locavores. While this surge of interest in what we eat and where it comes from is good for our health and communities, criticism that alternative food systems are elitist and inaccessible has tinged conversations around the growing good-food movement. Indeed, all too often the story of this movement is told only through white voices. Natasha Bowens' The Color of Food provides a window through which we can see a fuller picture of agriculture in the United States. The reader accompanies Bowens as she crisscrosses the country, revealing the many farmers and communities of color dedicated to their land, food sovereignty, and way of life. The book is a product of Bowens' travels across 15,000 miles (24,140 km) and 16 states to interview farmers of color and to unpack the often complicated emotions related to land ownership, farming, and the exploitation and oppression that has frequently been linked to agriculture...
A Portrait of American Farmers Freeman, Kathlee
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development,
01/2015, Letnik:
5, Številka:
4
Book Review
Recenzirano
The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience and Farming, by Natasha Bowens, is reviewed.
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