Engaging farmers in environmental management through a better understanding of behaviour

The United Kingdom’s approach to encouraging environmentally positive behaviour has been three-pronged, through voluntarism, incentives and regulation, and the balance between the approaches has fluctuated over time. Whilst financial incentives and regulatory approaches have been effective in achieving some environmental management behavioural change amongst farmers, ultimately these can be viewed as transient drivers without long-term sustainability. Increasingly, there is interest in ‘nudging’ managers towards voluntary environmentally friendly actions. This approach requires a good understanding of farmers’ willingness and ability to take up environmental activities and the influences on farmer behavioural change. The paper aims to provide insights from 60 qualitative farmer interviews undertaken for a research project into farmers’ willingness and ability to undertake environmental management, particularly focusing on social psychological insights. Furthermore, it explores farmers’ level of engagement with advice and support networks that foster a genuine interest, responsibility and a sense of personal and social norm to sustain high quality environmental outcomes. Two conceptual frameworks are presented for usefully exploring the complex set of inter-relationships that can influence farmers’ willingness to undertake environmental management practices. The research findings show how an in-depth understanding of farmer’s willingness and ability to adopt environmental management practices and their existing level of engagement with advice and support are necessary to develop appropriate engagement approaches to achieve sustained and durable environmental management.     

土地制度变迁下现今农民社会保障体制改革思考

自建党以来，我党取得了一个个历史性进步，尤其是在广袤的农村，构建了以土地改革和家庭联产承包责任栽勺基础的农民社会保障体制。但随着城市化进程加快和民工荒的出现，大量土地经营权流转或农村建设用地流转，大批失地农民丧失了安身立命之本，农民社会保障缺乏，农民权益受传统二元模式影响受到侵害，农村面临着极不稳定因素．如何更好的觯决土地流转下农民社会保障问题，健全保障农民权益的法律法规，使土地流转不再是一个完全市场化的资源配置方式，而是和 “三农”问题、新农村建设、国家和谐稳定紧密相关，我们必须在逐步完善的土地流转制度下，探索建立具有市场经济特征的新型社会主义农民社会保障制度。     

影响周边社区农户对自然保护区建设态度的主要因素分析

自然保护区与周边社区是一个密切联系的有机整体,周边社区农户对自然保护区建设的态度是决定自然保护区能否可持续发展的重要因素。基于浙江与陕西2省8个自然保护区周边24个社区,192个农户生计状况的实地调查数据,在对保护区管理和农户生计状况进行分析的基础上,通过构建Ologit计量模型,定量分析保护区管理、农户生计状况对农户态度的影响。结果表明:自然保护区对周边社区提供就业帮助和建立针对社区的补偿机制,有助于提高周边农户支持意愿,但目前的社区共管和旅游开发等对周边社区农户支持意愿没有显著影响。在当前周边社区农户能源消费结构仍然以薪柴为主的情况下,农户能源消费水平越高对自然保护区发展支持程度越低;农户收入水平对支持态度的影响与预期判断相悖,但实际作用有限。建议进一步完善社区共管机制,充分发挥社区共管模式的效果;建立多元长效补偿渠道,改善农户生计方式,降低周边社区农户对自然保护区的直接依赖。表6参16     

The arable farmer as the assessor of within-field soil variation

Feasible, fast and reliable methods of mapping within-field variation are required for precision agriculture. Within precision agriculture research much emphasis has been put on technology, whereas the knowledge that farmers have and ways to explore it have received little attention. This research characterizes and examines the spatial knowledge?arable farmers have of their fields and explores?whether it is a suitable starting point to map the within-field variation of soil properties. A case study was performed in the Hoeksche Waard, the Netherlands, at four arable farms. A combination of semi-structured interviews and fieldwork was used to map spatially explicit knowledge of within-field variation. At each farm, a field was divided into internally homogeneous units as directed by the farmer, the soil of the units was sampled and the data were analysed statistically. The results show that the farmers have considerable spatial knowledge of their fields. Furthermore, they apply this knowledge intuitively during various field management activities such as fertilizer application, soil tillage and herbicide application. The sample data on soil organic matter content, clay content and fertility show that in general the farmers?? knowledge formed a suitable starting point for mapping within-field variation in the soil. Therefore, it should also be considered as an important information source for highly automated precision agriculture systems.     

农户创新的理论界定

创新早已成为主流经济学的核心变量,农户是农村创新活动的微观主体,然而到目前为止,农户创新的概念没有得到很好的界定。在回顾农户创新文献的基础上,认为农户创新指农户依据自身的能力和资源,重新组织生产要素,做出技术、市场、组织上的变革和改进,实现创新经济效益、改变传统行为方式的过程。通过分析农户创新这一概念的内涵和外延,初步构建了由技术创新、市场创新、组织创新三方面指标构成的农户创新测度指标体系。     

For the love of goats: the advantages of alterity

Small-scale, artisanal livestock production is framed as “other” by conventional livestock producers, and rural communities. This alterity, although not without cost, allows women to be involved as active entrepreneurs and managers in artisanal livestock production and also allows farmers to pursue management strategies with the explicit purpose of enhancing animal welfare. The case study presented here, an artisanal goat dairy farm managed by three women, demonstrates that by embracing feminine care identities, these women carve a space for themselves within livestock production in which they can pursue their own economic and affective goals. Analysis of ethnographic data also demonstrates that farmers’ decision-making regarding animal production is based on both affective and instrumental concerns. If we are to understand and operationalize the affective component of farmer decision making based on the livestock–farmer relationship, we must begin to consider to what extent livestock themselves are social actors.     

Environmental management strategies in agriculture

There is a large literature on technology adoption and environmental management in agriculture. Included in this literature are debates about the role world view or attitudinal variables play in adoption decisions, and whether smaller farms or larger farms exhibit superior environmental performance or differ in commitment to environmental values. In this paper we attempt to extend the literature in this area by proposing and measuring discrete environmental management approaches among sixty-six farmers in Northern New York. Using key informants interviews, purposeful sampling of farmers and a mail survey we find two environmental management types: (1) the larger-scale conservation farmer; and (2) the alternative/ecological farmer.     

失地农民心理适应现状及引导路径探析

由于生活环境的改变,社会配套设施的缺乏,加上自身的弱势地位,失地农民从农村进入城市后,逐渐出现了生存危机感、身份认同困惑、社会歧视带来的自卑感、对未来生活的焦虑和无助感等多种心理问题。失地农民的这种心理不适应状态,对正在进行的城市化进程会产生一定的负面影响。失地农民要转变观念,全面提高自己各方面的素质,积极地融入城市生活;社区和政府应为失地农民营造良好的生存环境,帮助失地农民提高心理适应能力,增强其城市认同感和归属感。     

基于社会网络的农民专业合作社发展研究

近年来我国农民专业合作社蓬勃发展,成为农村社会经济发展的重要推动力量。通过采用社会网络分析方法及其分析软件UCINET,研究河南省案例合作社的形成与发展,可以有效理清影响合作社发展的相关社会关系网络中行动者之间的关系,能够深层次剖析社会关系网络对农户参与合作社的凝聚方式以及促使合作社发展的社会关系网络的结构特征。并通过进一步探究网络现象背后的社会关系性态,表明农民专业合作社的创建与发展离不开乡村精英及围绕其所衍生的社会关系网络。同时,为推动我国农民专业合作社的发展提供思路和参考。     

三明市农民专业合作社发展现状与思路

本文阐述了三明市农民专业合作社发展概况,当地政府高度重视进一步发展组织经营农民专业合作社工作,深入调查、研究,分析三明市农民专业合作社存在的主要问题,并出台了政策文件,使农民专业合作社在发展现代农业中发挥更大作用,促进农民增收。     

农户参与生态公益林建设意愿的实证分析

生态公益林政策是否能真正促使当地农民对森林生态效益的价值有更深刻的认识,从而主动参与到生态公益林建设中仍值得探讨。以浙江省长兴县10个案例村为例,运用Logistic 回归模型对农户参与生态公益林建设的意愿进行了分析,并以此为基础,提出了相应的政策建议：在生态公益林建设中,应拓展农户非农收入来源,以提高农户参与生态公益林建设意愿;科学提高生态公益林补偿标准,完善生态公益林补偿机制;开展农户教育培训活动,提高农户对于生态环境认知的重要性。表3参17     

Indigenous agricultural knowledge systems,human interests,and critical analysis: Reflections on farmer organization in Ecuador

Indigenous agricultural knowledge (IAK) can be analyzed for its technical role in food production strategies, and for its role as cultural knowledge producing and reproducing mutual understanding and identity among the members of a farming group. IAK can also be approached from the perspective of critical theory, analyzing the relationship between knowledge and relations of power, with the goal of liberating indigenous farmers from forms of domination. The paper considers relationships between the different aspects of IAK, using examples of the influence of non-local technologies and ideas on indigenous agricultural practices in the Ecuadorian Andes. The examples elucidate how technical change is a signifier of the changing relationship between indigenous farmers and wider society. The political implications of these changes are ambiguous, however, because the change is not necessarily one of social and cultural assimilation. As indigenous peasant organizations in Ecuador now reflect on these changes, they are connecting the questions of IAK, indigenous cultural identity and political strategy. Some organizations speak of recovering and revalorizing indigenous technologies as a tool for, and symbol of, resistance to domination by wider society. Others see selective modernization of indigenous agriculture as a necessary strategy to sustain the social and cultural cohesion of the group, even if this implies social changes. The different perspectives reflect both different conditions facing the organizations, and their varying approaches. That peasant organizations have these discussions suggests that they should constitute an important meeting point for farmers and crop researchers to discuss technology development strategies as equal partners. The organizations can provide an institutional forum in which participants reflect critically on the agrarian knowledge that they have, why they have it, and what it can contribute to future strategies of agrarian and social change.     

How knowledge deficit interventions fail to resolve beginning farmer challenges

Beginning farmer initiatives like the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), farm incubators, and small-scale marketing innovations offer new entrant farmers agricultural training, marketing and business assistance, and farmland loans. These programs align with alternative food movement goals to revitalize the anemic U.S. small farm sector and repopulate landscapes with socially and environmentally diversified farms. Yet even as these initiatives seek to support prospective farmers with tools for success through a knowledge dissemination model, they remain mostly individualistic and entrepreneurial measures that overlook structural barriers to productive and economic success within U.S. agriculture. Analysis of the BFRDP’s funding history and discourse reveals a “knowledge deficit” based program focused on the technical rather than the structural aspects of beginning farming. This is contrasted with qualitative analysis of beginning farmer experiences in California’s Central Coast region. The discrepancies between the farmer experiences and national structure of the BFRDP program ultimately reveal a policy mismatch between the needs of some beginning farmers and the programs intended to support them.     

农户对企业推广服务满意度及影响因素分析——基于甘肃省榆中县的农户调查

本文以2012年对甘肃省兰州市榆中县水果玉米种植农户的调查数据为基础,探究农户对企业推广服务的满意度及影响因素。分析结果表明,农户认知特征和环境因素对农户满意度评价有着重要影响;企业服务和管理水平在很大程度上影响着农户对企业推广服务的满意度评价;利益关系是决定农户对企业推广服务满意度评价的关键因素。     

A “curious blend”: The successful farmer in American farm magazines, 1984–1991

Mass media images offer audiences models for how to perform the social roles they depict. Opinions and other attributes of credible media models may likewise be embraced by audience members seeking to identify with those models. Thus farm magazine narratives about “successful” farmers may encourage readers to model or aspire to featured farmers' production and management techniques and ascribe legitimacy to models' responses to current agricultural issues. However, production of agrarian images in the mass media — including images of farms, farmers, and farmers' values — are inevitably biased such that media representations of successful farmers selectively present objective characteristics in terms of the media's own ideological frameworks, which in turn reflect the dominant ideology of the social relations in which the media are engaged. As a first step in identifying farm magazines' role in creating social models for farmers, this study analyzes articles featuring “successful,” “leading,” or “innovative” farmers in leading agricultural magazines. The featured farmers are categorized according to enterprise characteristics and characterizations of them and their management philosophies. Findings show that farmers in farm magazines have larger than average operations and are portrayed in a way that blends a “farming as business” orientation with more conventional agrarian values but that generally omits non-business aspects of farm life.     

彭阳县灌区农民用水协会管理用水的实践与思考

彭阳县成立农民用水协会,让农民参与灌溉管理是提高水利工程管理水平的有效途径之一。本文阐述了农民用水协会的运行实践,总结了取得的成效和存在问题,并对今后的发展提出了建议。     

Participation,empowerment, and farmer evaluations: A comparative analysis of IPM technology generation in Nicaragua

The heated debate over the limited impact of integrated pest management (IPM) in Central American agriculture suggests that we need to investigate the mechanisms of IPM technology generation. CATIE/MAG-IPM Nicaragua initiated a comparative study of two prototypic models with tomato farmers in the Sébaco Valley, in 1990–91. I created two ideal types from the literature: the scientist-led and farmer-led models. Each model was represented by three different communities. The study focused on the: 1) technology generation process, 2) IPM technologies and farmer opinion of IPM, 3) forms of participation and empowerment by farmers and scientists, and 4) institutionalization of the two models. The investigation methodology consisted of intensive pre- and post-program interviews, participant observation, and statistical analysis of experimental insect and production variables. This paper focuses on farmer participation, empowerment, and evaluation of the two models. In the farmer-led model, farmer participation was greater than in the scientist-led model in number of farmers and farm units involved. They achieved five forms of influence, and six out of eight levels of empowerment in the farmer-led model. In the scientistled model, farmers achieved two forms of influence and two out of eight levels of empowerment. Farmer evaluations were varied and complex. In general, farmers in the scientist-led model encouraged CATIE/MAG-IPM to host more meetings and expand farmer involvement. In the farmer-led model the farmers enjoyed the biological information, new technologies, and discussion. They suggested changes for future meetings.     

Managing the fallow: Weeding technology and environmental knowledge in the Krobo district of Ghana

The paper explores the relationship between environmental knowledge and farming and fallowing strategies on degraded forest land in the Upper Manya Krobo district of southeastern Ghana. Changes in cropping strategies are related to the expansion and transformation of frontier agrarian settlement, increasing population density, social differentiation, and land hunger. As a consequence land degradation has become a serious problem among the smaller farmers with insufficient land to allow fallow recuperation. Small farmers' awareness and perceptions of the processes of degradation are explored, as are possible innovative contributions to the development of agroforestry research. But labor constraints often prevent the farmer from developing practical systems of fallow management. Local environmental knowledge reveals important insights into the processes of fallow degradation, potentials for fallow management, constraints that farmers face, and some problems that might emerge with the transformation of current agroforestry technology to farmers' fields. It is suggested that this knowledge should not be abstracted from its socio-economic context. The problems that local farmers' knowledge reveal are in this respect as important as questions of its efficacy and potential as a resource.     

延边地区农民结构调查研究

通过查阅资料和实地抽样调查分析方法对延边农民结构现状进行调查研究的基础上二,分析了农民结构变化原因及影响,并提出一些建议.结果表明,延边朝鲜族自治州的农民人口占社会总人口比重明显下降;年轻人减少,老龄化趋势明显;务农人员日趋减少,留守人员弱势化明显;农民相对贫困人口偏多;本地农民减少,外来农民增多,职业农民队伍正在形成.