Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California

While questions about the environmental sustainability of contemporary farming practices and the socioeconomic viability of rural communities are attracting increasing attention throughout the US, these two issues are rarely considered together. This paper explores the current and potential connections between these two aspects of sustainability, using data on community members’ and farmers’ views of agricultural issues in California’s Central Valley. These views were collected from a series of individual and group interviews with biologically oriented and conventional farmers as well as community stakeholders. Local marketing, farmland preservation, and perceptions of sustainable agriculture comprised the primary topics of discussion. The mixed results indicate that, while many farmers and community members have a strong interest in these topics, sustainable community development and the use of sustainable farming practices are seldom explicitly linked. On the other hand, many separate efforts around the Valley to increase local marketing and agritourism, improve public education about agriculture, and organize grassroots farmland preservation initiatives were documented. We conclude that linking these efforts more explicitly to sustainable agriculture and promoting more engagement between ecologically oriented farmers and their communities could engender more economic and political support for these farmers, helping them and their communities to achieve greater sustainability in the long run. Sonja Brodt is a former program evaluation specialist with the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program. Her current research focuses on extension and adoption of integrated pest management strategies by California growers and the impacts of pesticide safety training programs on farmworkers. Gail Feenstra is a food systems analyst at the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP). She coordinates SAREP’s Community Development and Public Policy grants program and conducts outreach and education to academic and community-based groups to build their capacity and leadership skills for developing sustainable community food systems. Robin Kozloff is a social science researcher and consultant in agricultural and land use policy. Karen Klonsky is an extension specialist at the University of California at Davis in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her research focuses on the economic viability of organic and sustainable farming systems as well as the evolution of the organic market. Laura Tourte is county director and farm advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Santa Cruz County. Her research and extension activities currently focus on farm management and marketing for small-scale growers.     

浅谈农业建设项目管理系统的现状

管理系统的建设可以进一步规范农业建设投资管理,增强农业部部内单位、农业系统内各级主管部门和农业部与相关部委信息互通互联,进一步提高工作效率,提高农业建设项目管理能力,丰富监管手段,更好服务我国三农工作。通过项目的实施与建设,能够提高政府农业建设项目投资决策和管理水平,降低国家投资风险,提高投资效益,促进我国农业和农村经济的快速发展,增强农业建设项目管理能力,提供农业投融资和农业工程技术推广服务,具有良好的社会效益和明显的经济效益。     

Poultry Farmers’ Preference and use of Commercial and Self-compounded Feeds in Oyo Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

This study investigated poultry farmers’ perceptions, preferences, and use of commercially compounded and self-compounded feeds in the Oyo Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 120 poultry farmers through a structured interview schedule. The study concluded that poultry farmers prefer and use self-compounded feeds (SCF) instead of commercially compounded feeds (CCF) because (a) self-compounded feeds are of better quality than commercially compounded feeds, (b) there are no quality control measures in the poultry feed industry in the Oyo Area, (c) commercially compounded feeds cost more than self-compounded feeds, and (d) farmers choose feed based on the perceived quality of the feed, their technical ability to produce feed by themselves, the cost of CCF, the storability of feed, and the cost and availability of transportation. Based on these findings, it is recommended that interested public and private agencies should organize annual extension workshops and training for poultry farmers in the study area on (a) feed formulation; (b) feed ingredient mixing and compounding; (c) selection of ingredients, mixtures, and additives; and (d) the establishment, operation, and maintenance of feed mills. Farmers should be encouraged to form feed mill cooperative societies. The performance of the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) should be monitored and evaluated to ensure its effective oversight of quality standards for agricultural products and inputs such as feeds and feed ingredients. S. O. Apantaku, PhD (Southern Illinois), is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. His research interest is in agricultural extension education processes and development, farmers’ decision-making processes, and community and rural development. He is involved in extension work and teaches group dynamics in extension, rural community development and social change, agricultural extension teaching methods and learning processes, public relations in extension, and advanced rural sociology. E. O. A. Oluwalana is a PhD candidate and an Extension Research Fellow with the Agricultural Media Resources and Extension Center, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Her research interest is in farmers’ micro-credit financing, agro-processing and utilization, and women-in-agriculture. She teaches agribusiness management, cooperatives and agricultural finance and is involved in extension service in the area of women-in-development, agro-processing, and health and environmental issues. O. A. Adepegba is a graduate of the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. She is presently a postgraduate candidate at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is an Agricultural Extension Officer I with the Oyo West Local Government Council, Oyo State. She is interested in socio-economic issues in poultry production and farmers’ decision-making processes.     

农业技术推广模式的探索--农业科技合作社

青冈县祯祥镇、北林区兴福乡聚宝村在村民自愿加入的基础上,由农技推广部门、农业科研院所和农民出于自身产销利益考虑,遵循民办、民管、民受益原则,成立了以科技成果为载体的祯祥镇和兴聚农业科技合作社.经过探索实践,展现出三个方面重要作用:一是提高农民组织化程度,发挥大型农机具作用,实现农机农艺相结合、良种良法相配套,开展集约化、规模化、标准化生产;二是加速农业科研成果转化,先进技术扩散;三是促进农技推广人员知识更新、农民培训和技能提高,使农技人员更好地服务社员,社员更好地辐射、带动周边农民,并成为推进农业科技入户的有效途径.     

The legitimacy of the agricultural extension service

Traditionally, the Swedish Agricultural Extension Service has delivered technical information to farmers with the aim of increasing productivity and efficiency in farming. Present problems with overproduction of food and the negative social and environmental consequences of present farm practices has brought this traditional mission in question. In a situation of budgetary constraints it has been suggested that the funding of the governmental Agricultural Extension Service should be cut down or even discontinued altogether The article argues that this would be a mistake. The various negative consequences of modern agriculture indicate that we are far from an ideal mode of agricultural production. Instead, public opinion and new guidelines for agricultural and environmental policies call for substantial changes in Swedish agriculture with respect to pollution, preservation of non-renewable resources, maintaining an open rural landscape, ethical aspects of animal production, rural development etc. This reorientation of Swedish agriculture presumes that decision-makers, farmers, and the public at large get an opportunity to learn more about the complexities of agricultural production. In contributing to this learning process the Agricultural Extension Service would have an important mission. To be able to fulfill this mission, extension professionals must be provided an opportunity to learn a broader concept of productivity and efficiency in agriculture, for instance, how to extend cost-benefit analyses and technical criteria of efficiency to include social, environmental, and ethical aspects. Our present extension staff has not received adequate training for this task. It is suggested that all agricultural colleges need to create departments of Rural Sociology and Agricultural Humanities to provide agricultural students and professionals an opportunity to develop a better understanding of agriculture and make them prepared to take on the challenges and responsibilities they confront in developing our future agriculture.     

Identifying the challenges of promoting ecological weed management (EWM) in organic agroecosystems through the lens of behavioral decision making

Ecological weed management (EWM) is a scientifically established management approach that uses ecological patterns to reduce weed seedbanks. Such an approach can save organic farmers time and labor costs and reduce the need for repeated cultivation practices that may pose risks to soil and water quality. However, adoption of effective EWM in the organic farm community is perceived to be poor. In addition, communication and collaboration between the scientific community, extension services, and the organic farming community in the US is historically weak. In order to uncover the most persistent obstacles to promoting effective weed management in organic agroecosystems, we use the mental models approach to generate an expert model based on interviews with experts (e.g., weed scientists, weed ecologists, and extension personnel) and theories from the behavioral sciences. The expert model provides two main insights: (1) EWM is a complex strategy that may cause farmers to use heuristics in management decisions and (2) the long-term benefits of EWM, rather than the risks, need to be emphasized in communication with and outreach to organic farmers. The basis for new research topics and outreach material that incorporates these insights from the expert model are discussed. We briefly explain how the expert model is an incomplete picture of on-farm practices, but provides the basis for the second step of our mental models research, the farmer interviews and farmer decision model development.     

Agents,vendors, and farmers: Public and private sector extension in agricultural development

Based on the assumption that agricultural technologies were available and that the problem was their dissemination and adoption, U.S. development efforts have focused on establishing public-sector extension systems for farmers in developing countries. Evaluations of government extension services in developing countries, however, have found them to be largely ineffective, especially in helping small farmers. As a result, private-sector extension is increasingly receiving attention as an alternative approach. This paper examines various characteristics of public- and privatesector extension, drawing on both the literature and a case study of government extension and farm input stores in Imbabura province, Ecuador. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of increased privatization of extension.     

A history of black farm operators in Maryland

Since the turn of the century, the number of small-scale farmers in the U.S. and farmlands they owned have declined very sharply (structural change). Although the decrease in number is generally true for both white and Black farm operators, it has been more significant for Blackfarm operators than whites. The declining trend in the number of Blackfarm operators in the country is derived from individual state experiences that resulted from a combination of various political and economic factors. Using the census of agriculture data from 1900 to 1987, this paper gives a brief historical overview of Black farm operators in Maryland. The census data for the study period shows that at their peak number in 1910, there were 6,382 Blackfarmers in the state of Maryland. However, by 1987, only 371 of that number remained, representing a loss of 94 percent since 1910. According to the 1987 census data almost all Black operated farms in Maryland were not only small-scale but also in the lower sales class, less than $20,000 a year. Their household net family income is below that of non-metropolitan median household income. This concentration of Blacks in the lower economic class of farm operators in the state, for the most part, is closely related to their resource endowments, patterns of tenure, type of farm enterprises, and government farm programs and policies. On the average, Blackfarmers in Maryland have less land, capital and management skills than their white counterparts. Government policies and programs had, and continue to have, a devastating effect on Maryland Black farmers because they were tied to productive resources rather than farm income needs. Under conditions of low income, years of neglect by federal and state programs and policies, and limited resources Blackfarmers were unable to adopt capital intensive production practices and expand their farm operations. This resulted in most of them leaving agriculture, in the past and today, at a faster rate than whites. To avert or at least lessen the unfortunate situation of Black farm operators, projections and possible solutions are offered. This includes how the 1890 Land-Grant institutions because of their tradition, expertise and experience of research, teaching and outreach can take the leadership role in shaping the future direction of these farmers and their operations.Trained in agricultural economics, Ejigou Demissie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. His teaching areas include agricultural policy, farm business management, and agricultural marketing. Research interests center on small-scale agriculture and rural development. His recent book published by Westview Press is titledSmall-Scale Agriculture in America: Race, Economics, and the Future.     

Building Community Capacity through Enhanced Collaboration in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program

The Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) is a federal-state partnership designed to provide fresh, locally grown produce to low-income participants at nutritional risk and expand consumer awareness and use of local produce sold at farmers markets. This paper describes the results of a collaboration initiative based on the typology of a “comprehensive, multisectorial collaboration” to support the FMNP. We report the outcomes of the partnerships that developed over three years, including increased outreach to FMNP participants and strategies to decrease barriers to participation. Those partnerships that reached higher degrees of coordination or collaboration are now addressing market accessibility and market quality in new ways. Those partnerships that exhibited the highest degree of collaboration are contributing to community capacity building beyond FMNP issues per se and to larger issues affecting the agriculture community and the food security of residents. Jamie S. Dollahite, PhD, RD, is an associate professor of Community Nutrition. She leads the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities programs, including Cornell Cooperative Extension’s role in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which provide outreach to and conduct research with limited resource audiences across New York State. Janet A. Nelson, MS Ed, is an Extension associate in Community Nutrition. Since 1999 she has coordinated Cornell Cooperative Extension’s role in the New York State Farmers Market Nutrition Program. For the preceding five years, Janet was Rural and Community Nutrition Educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oswego County where she facilitated Extension’s relationship with the NYS-FMNP at the county level. Edward A. Frongillo, PhD, is an associate professor of Community and International Nutrition. His work includes the evaluation of program enhancements for the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, as well as studying the impact of nutrition programs for elders on food security, dietary intake, and nutritional status. Matthew Griffin, MS, is the Nutrition Resource Manager at the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, Elmira, New York where he coordinates nutrition, food safety, and community food security programs in connection with emergency food relief organizations.     

提高黑龙江垦区超级稻生产水平的探讨

阐述了垦区2010年超级稻示范推广取得的显著成效,进行了经验总结,为推动垦区超级稻生产并实现175亿kg粮食新目标奠定基础.超级稻项目成功经验在于:超级稻生产应与粮食产能工程、现代农机、新技术、农业标准化、农业项目建设、农业示范区建设、指导服务和规范管理相结合.     

创新农业技术推广模式——建设农村科技示范户网络体系的农业技术推广模式探索与实践

为探索新阶段中国农业技术推广体系提供科学依据,通过国家项目＂以大学为依托的农业科技推广模式探索＂的实践,以农村推广网络建设方式,以科技示范户为推广主体,形成推广网络,对示范户的概念进行了定义,并就示范户的准入标准以及运行机制进行了阐述。在实践中细化了农民技术推广网络策略在中国现阶段的运用,并对其推广效果进行了调查。     

Including growers in the “food safety” conversation: enhancing the design and implementation of food safety programming based on farm and marketing needs of fresh fruit and vegetable producers

Experts identified water quality, manure, good handling practices (including personal hygiene and equipment sanitation), and traceability as critical farm problem areas that, if addressed, are likely to decrease risk associated with microbial contamination of fresh produce from all scales of agriculture. However, the diverse nature of production strategies used by produce farmers presents multiple options for addressing foodborne illness issues while simultaneously creating potential complications. We use a mental models methodology to enhance our understanding of the underlying factors and assumptions of small, medium, and large produce growers that influence their decision-making processes for contamination prevention and control. This empirical evidence demonstrates how challenges and opportunities to food safety are related to the scale of production and marketing strategies. We believe that refining the development of standards and existing extension and outreach food safety programs are important to both consumer protection and supporting agricultural communities. Additionally, this approach will help develop and refine food safety programs that will result in empirically grounded recommendations based on identified grower information needs.     

农民家庭经营纯收入影响因素分析：基于岭回归的实证研究

研究农民收入问题对“三农”问题的解决具有重要意义。本文以1985-2005年农村居民家庭经营纯收入数据作为研究对象,通过岭回归分析影响家庭经营纯收入的因素,研究结果表明．年末农用机械总动力与农民经营性收入呈负相关关系;国家财政农业支出、农村集体单位引定资产投资、农村居民个人固定资产投资、有效灌溉面积、化肥施川量与农民经营性收入呈正相关父系：其中农作物播种面积是影响农民家庭经营纯收入的最主要因素。     

基于乡村振兴战略背景下的农业项目选择研究

实施乡村振兴战略是中央解决农业、农村和农民问题的战略决策,也是解决新时代中国社会主要矛盾的必然途径,产业兴旺是乡村振兴的重点,农业项目则是产业兴旺的有机组成部分,进行农业项目选择研究具有现实意义。本文回顾了国内外关于农业项目选择的研究和发展,提出农业项目选择应当考虑:正确价值取向原则、服务原则、政策符合原则、区域资源优势原则、科学技术原则。并对国家政策文件中的"农业项目"或者"项目"的关键词摘取汇表,推荐了当前具有较优选择价值的休闲农场、农村电商、民宿旅游、家庭农场等四种农业项目。     

对常德市基层农技推广体系建设的思考与建议

农技推广体系作为农业现代化服务的主体,在提高粮食生产能力,促进农民增收做出重要的历史贡献,在建设社会主义新农村方面将起到重要的作用。在分析常德市乡镇农技推广体系的现状的基础上,针对农技推广体系建设中存在的问题,提出常德市基层农技推广体系建设的思路与建议。     

Farmers’ precision pesticide technology adoption and its influencing factors: Evidence from apple production areas in China

The research aimed to understand farmers’ willingness to adopt (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) for precision pesticide technologies and analyzed the determinants of farmers’ decision-making. We used a two-stage approach to consider farmers’ WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technologies. A survey of 545 apple farmers was administered in Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau in China. The data were analyzed using the double-hurdle model. The results indicated that 78.72% of respondents were willing to apply precision pesticide technologies provided by service organizations such as cooperatives and dedicated enterprises, and 69.72% were willing to buy the equipment for using precision pesticide technologies. The results of the determinant analysis indicated that farmers’ perceived perceptions, farm scale, cooperative membership, access to digital information, and availability of financial services had significant and positive impacts on farmers’ WTA precision pesticide technologies. Cooperative membership, technical training, and adherence to environmental regulations increased farmers’ WTP for precision pesticide technologies. Moreover, nonlinear relationships between age, agricultural experience, and farmers’ WTA and WTP for precision pesticide technology services were found.     

Participatory research in integrated pest management: Lessons from the IPM CRSP

Integrated pest management has emerged as an important means of managing agricultural pests. Since the mid-1980s, the emphasis in IPM has shifted toward biologically-intensive and participatory research and extension approaches. Finding better means for solving pest problems is high on the agenda for most farmers, and farmers often have significant pest management knowledge and interest in IPM experimentation. This paper describes an approach to participatory IPM research that is being implemented by the IPM Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CSRP). The approach emphasizes on-farm research with an extrapolation domain beyond the single farm, and in some cases beyond the local region or country. It considers many factors beyond the farm and research station that influence the generation and adoption of IPM technologies and strategies. It emphasizes linkages among farmers, scientists, consumers, bankers, marketers/processors, and policy makers in IPM research priority setting, conduct, and evaluation. The interdisciplinary approach described in the paper is illustrated with a case study from the Philippines. Lessons and conclusions draw on its recent application in other sites as well.     

家庭农场变化视角下农业推广服务适应性研究

基于家庭农场变化视角,采用问卷调查方式,就福建省农业推广服务进行实证研究,总结了家庭农场发展现状及农业推广服务机制,发现家庭农场已初吴规模且生产经营性规模较大,但面临着农业推广服务供给与需求不平衡等问题.在分析不同类型经营模式特点及其适用条件的基础上,从构建“一主多元”农业推广服务模式,建立“三位一体”农业推广服务机制,加强对职业化新型农民的培养与教育,加大农村科技服务投入力度等方面,提出创新农业推广服务的对策建议,以期为促进家庭农场发展提供借鉴.     

地方农业高校实施“双百”科技富民工程的科技服务价值

地方农业高校是提升农业科技创新水平,服务农业产业发展,推动农业科技成果转化的重要力量。文章结合湖南农业大学科技服务"三农"的实践,从"双百"科技富民工程的实施背景出发,总结了"双百"科技富民工程的建设成效,并从4个方面探讨了实施"双百"科技富民工程的科技服务价值。     

Innovative agricultural extension value chain-based models for smallholder African farmers

The value chain extension strategy of Sasakawa Africa Association focuses on improving the capacity of national agricultural extension systems and follows various thematic areas along the value chain to address key challenges accountable for low income households and poverty in Africa. Farmer learning platform is a model designed to increase crop productivity and encompasses demonstration plots where technological packages demonstrated significantly outperformed other technology plots in crop productivity and average profit margins. Enterprise-oriented production, postharvest and trading centers are value adding models designed to improve the effectiveness of extension and adoption of postharvest and agricultural processing technologies by producers. The use of the above along with necessary capacity building has facilitated the development of profitable business linkages of smallholder farmers with financial institutions and reliable market opportunities. The community association trader-trainer model is a market-oriented business approach applied in combination with other extension models. In 2018, 297 community-based commodity association trader-trainers were mobilized and capacitated to improve farmer group dynamics and developed collective input and output access and cluster aggregation centers at community level where various agricultural produces were mobilized and collectively aggregated, and valued at about 3.9 million USD. The supervised enterprise project model is an innovative agricultural extension model developed along with above models for capacity development of extension agents and transfer of technologies to smallholder farmers. Over 6000 supervised enterprise projects have been introduced into 27 universities in 12 African countries for training front-line extension officers and extension delivery to farming communities.