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.     

Get real: an analysis of student preference for real food

The Real Food Challenge is a national student movement in the United States (U.S.) that aims to shift $1 billion—roughly 20%—of college and university food budgets across the country towards local, ecologically sound, fair, and humane food sources—what they call “real” food—by 2020. The University of Vermont (UVM) was the fifth university in the U.S. to sign the Real Food Campus Commitment, pledging to shift at least 20% of its own food budget towards “real” food by 2020. In order to examine student preference for “real” food on the UVM campus, we analyzed a survey of 904 undergraduate students that used contingent valuation to evaluate students’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the “real” attribute. We found that a majority of students are willing to pay a positive premium for “real” food. Furthermore, we found that student characteristics and attitudes significantly influence WTP. Specifically, gender, residency, college, and attitudes about price and origin of food are significant predictors of WTP.     

Investigating the Needs of Agriculture Scholars: The Purdue Case

ABSTRACT

To better understand the complexity of agricultural research, two Purdue University Libraries’ faculty members conducted a series of interviews with subjects from across the College of Agriculture. Interview questions addressed research methodologies and outputs, research data management, primary information resources, and other aspects of the research cycle and the researchers’ professional lives. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using nVivo software. The results are summarized and presented here.     

Determination of optimal rotation period for management of lumbering forests in Kenya

This study estimates the optimal rotation period of various tree species in Kenya and applies it in the management of lumbering forests through optimal synchronization of forest plantations to achieve a steady supply to lumbering firms. The optimal rotation period of three tree species, pine, cypress, and eucalyptus, was estimated using data from Kenya Forest Service. A combined application of Chang simple production model and ? Faustmann? model? reveals the optimal biological harvest age is 25 years for pine, 25 years for cypress, and 14 years for eucalyptus. However, introducing the prices and using the Faustmann optimal rotation model at the current market interest rate of 10.5%, the Faustmann rotation age for pine stand will be maximized at 12.67 years, cypress at 23.5 years, and eucalyptus at 38.4 years. The research further indicates significant variability in land expectation value and soil rent of various species and proposes an inclusion of “species” as a variable in forest land valuation. In the conclusion, nonmarket factors affecting the optimal yield were further explained and recommendations on sustainable yield production were suggested.     

The ecogeography and collection of grain, forage and pasture legumes in south-west Turkey

A collecting mission took place in June and July 1996 to collect legume species from south-west Turkey and western Anatolia. Sites were chosen to maximise the diversity of legumes collected and detailed passport data were recorded at each site. A total of 96 sites were visited, and 1307 accessions collected. In total 23 genera were collected, of which the most frequently seen were Trifolium, Medicago and Vicia. Sites were found to be almost exclusively calcareous with a pH range of 7 to 10, and varied from sea level to 1750m. Many of the Trifolium species are of economic importance for southern Australia and have been shown to display characters such as a high productivity (T. michelianum) and waterlogging tolerance (T. resupinatum and T. tomentosum). The Medicago species were found to prefer well-drained habitats in open areas. Many of these species can tolerate heavy grazing. The two main forage legume genera collected were Lathyrus and Vicia. Both of these occurred on the higher pH soils and were most frequently collected from the lower altitudes. Four species of grain legume were found, Cicer arietinum, Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum and Vicia faba. The material collected during this mission is important in the drive to preserve the legume genetic diversity of Turkey, the species' centre of diversity, for utilisation both within and outside of Turkey.     

Thermal Properties and Paste and Gel Behaviors of Starches Recovered from Accessions Used in the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize Project

The objective of this study was to screen starches recovered from the corn accessions used in the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project for unusual thermal properties and paste and gel behaviors, so that they could be exploited in corn breeding programs to enhance traits important to corn utilization. In general, the values for gelatinization temperatures and peak height indices were greater, but heat of gelatinization values were less for the starches recovered from the GEM accessions (particularly BRA 052051 (SE 32)) than for starches from commercial Dent corn hybrids (11.3 vs. 13.6 J/g). Generally, retrogradation properties were similar among the GEM accessions, although there were specific accessions (particularly Lima 13) that possessed modestly lower percentage retrogradation (34 vs. 42%). Generally, peak viscosities, cold paste viscosities, and viscosity breakdowns were greater for the starches of the GEM accessions (particularly ARZM 01150, Antiqua 3, and URZM 01089, respectively) than for the starches of commercial hybrids. Pasting temperatures were about the same for all starches. Both 1‐day and 7‐day gel strengths were considerably greater for the starches recovered from the GEM accessions (particularly BRA 052051 (SE 32), 21.0 g for 1‐day and FS8A(T), 66.2 g for 7‐day). Although the differences in starch properties were statistically different, only the higher gel strengths of the starches recovered from the GEM accessions were of practical significance to the starch industry.     

Population crash in Lesotho's endemic Maloti minnow Pseudobarbus quathlambae following invasion by translocated smallmouth yellowfish Labeobarbus aeneus

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Contrasting influences of inundation and land use on the rate of floodplain restoration

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