Adoption Of Farming Practices Research Articles

Farmers’ Social, Communication and Psychological Factors Towards Adoption of Husbandry Practices and Innovations in Small Ruminant Farming

Farmers’ Social, Communication and Psychological Factors Towards Adoption of Husbandry Practices and Innovations in Small Ruminant Farming

Sustainable Technology Adoption as a Source of Competitive Advantage for Pineapple Production in Ejigbo, Nigeria

Adopting new technology as a strategic resource can result in a competitive edge in any market. However, a competitive advantage cannot be acquired in the production of horticultural goods without first embracing the practices that are inextricably linked to those goods. This paper investigates the adoption of farm practices in conjunction with technology transferred to farmers. Some research debates on competitive advantages have identified both resources and processes of production as sources of competitive advantage. The emphasis on the resource-based view and dynamic capability view stipulates that firms acquire competitiveness via internal resources and capabilities. However, there has not been much empirical exploration of horticultural production sustainability in this regard despite its sufficiently outstanding contribution to the gross domestic product in developing and developed economies. It specifically discusses how Technology Adoption Practices (TAP) could lead to a competitive advantage in horticulture with particular reference to the production of pineapple fruit in Ejigbo, Nigeria. From the angle of professional practice; the study provides an insight into how farmers strive to suggest solutions to practical challenges faced within the production process. Therefore, it is essential to have practices in place for the adoption of sustainable technology. The outcomes of the study generate two different storylines and demonstrate that attributing factors as well as reinforcing capabilities both boost competitiveness at the farm level and enhance the farmers’ desire for farming pineapples. Pineapple farmers in Ejigbo employ a differentiation approach to gain a competitive advantage in their agro-farming industry. This could lead to an increase in the volume of fresh pineapple products that are exported.

Termite species and functional groups in maize intercrop systems in Machakos County, Kenya

Termites are important ecosystem engineers in the tropics but certain termite species cause damage to economically important crops. In Africa, termites cause >50% damage in maize. This study evaluated the effect of intercropping maize with soybean, common beans and sorghum on the level of termite damage, abundance of termite species and functional groups in Machakos County, Kenya during two cropping seasons. In both seasons, Macrotermes herus, M. subhyalinus, Coptotermes formosanus, Odontotermes badius, O. longignathus and Cubitermes ugandesis were recorded. There was a low percentage of lodged plants in maize-sorghum intercrop which also had low population densities of M. herus and O. badius in both seasons. There was no difference in the number of C. formosanus in both seasons. The lowest number of fungus-cultivators was in the maize-sorghum intercrop while soil feeders occurred in low populations. Intercropping maize and sorghum can be further explored alongside other integrated termite management techniques. The observed low populations of soil feeders necessitate adoption of farming practices that conserve them in order to improve crop productivity.

Understanding the effectiveness of policy instruments to encourage adoption of farming practices to improve water quality for the Great Barrier Reef

Governments in Australia and internationally are experimenting with policy instruments to facilitate the adoption of farming practices with reduced environmental impacts. The Great Barrier Reef (Australia) is one such case, where sustained efforts over 20 years have yielded insufficient progress towards targets to reduce the impacts of agriculture on water quality in downstream marine ecosystems.We present a critical review of policy instruments as implemented in Great Barrier Reef catchments. We catalogue the evolving mix of policy instruments employed in reef programs, and examine evidence of the effectiveness of agricultural extension, financial incentives, and direct regulation of farming practices. There is little robust evidence to assess instrument effectiveness, in part due to the evolving mix of the instruments employed, weak program evaluation and heterogeneity of agricultural enterprises. We identify the need to improve the understanding of instrument fit to landholders and enterprises. We recommend a modelling approach to clarify pathways to impact and guide improved policy evaluation.

Sustainable and conventional intensification: how gendered livelihoods influence farming practice adoption in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta

The Vietnamese Mekong River Delta emerged as a rice production giant in the 1990s. Currently, the Vietnamese government is attempting to reduce environmental impacts resulting from the triple annual rice crop regime. This article explores how gender influences farming practice adoption using household livelihood survey data from Tien Giang Province. Each farm is disaggregated into male-managed, female-managed, and jointly managed plots. The study uses correlation to explore how sustainable intensification (SI) and conventional intensification (CI) practices are applied in complementary packages, and then a binary logistic regression to determine if livelihood approaches within households influence adoption of farming practices. The study finds that CI practices are more than twice as popular as SI practices, and that CI and SI practices are adopted in pairs that complement each other. The research also shows that gendered plot management is directly associated with SI and CI practice adoption, including decreased fertilizer use (p < .0005) and increased pesticide use (p = .047) on male-managed plots; and decreased likelihood of using organic fertilizers or compost (p = .013) or adopting integrated pest management (p = .004) on female-managed plots. Across all SI and CI practices, there is a significant indirect gendered impact due to unequal access between the sexes to natural and human capitals that are associated with increased SI adoption, such as education and extension trainings. This research contributes empirical evidence toward understanding the tension between CI and SI practice adoption and uniquely explores the gendered implications of the recent SI push in Vietnamese agriculture.

What drives voluntary adoption of farming practices that can abate nutrient pollution?

Agricultural nutrient runoff and leaching into groundwater can impose societal costs that may be external to farmer decisions. Farmers can reduce the environmental impact of nutrient losses by adopting conservation and precision nutrient diagnostic and application practices. We examine the determinants of adoption decisions of such practices using mail survey data from a large, stratified sample of corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) farmers in the US eastern Corn Belt. Via an ordered probit that captures both adoption and intent to adopt eight different practices, we evaluate a broad range of potential factors driving adoption of conservation and precision agriculture practices. We find that farmer objectives other than income, such as preferences for environmental amenities or social status, were important adoption drivers for conservation and precision technologies, respectively. Livestock farms had a distinct adoption profile, with greater likelihood to adopt cover cropping and less to adopt precision technologies. Farmers who participated in working lands programs were more likely to adopt both cover cropping and precision soil testing technologies. Policies and messaging to encourage voluntary adoption of practices to reduce agricultural nutrient loss should account for farmer objectives, farming systems, and existing policy incentives.

Does sustainable intensification of maize production enhance child nutrition? Evidence from rural Tanzania

AbstractFood insecurity, child malnutrition, and land degradation remain persistent problems in sub‐Saharan Africa. Agricultural sustainable intensification (SI) has been proposed as a possible solution to simultaneously address these challenges. Yet there is little empirical evidence on if agricultural management practices and inputs that contribute to SI from an environmental standpoint do indeed improve food security or child nutrition. We use three waves of data from the nationally‐representative Tanzania National Panel Survey to analyze the child nutrition effects of rural households’ adoption of farming practices that can contribute to the SI of maize production. We group households into four categories based on their use of three soil fertility management practices on their maize plots: “Nonadoption”; “Intensification” (use of inorganic fertilizer only); “Sustainable” (use of organic fertilizer, maize–legume intercropping, or both); and “SI” (joint use of inorganic fertilizer with organic fertilizer and/or maize–legume intercropping). The results from multinomial endogenous treatment effects models with the Mundlak–Chamberlain device suggest that use of practices in the “SI” category is associated with improvements in children's height‐for‐age and weight‐for‐age z‐scores relative to “Nonadoption,” particularly for children aged 25–59 months. These effects appear to come through improvements in both crop income and productivity.

To cluster or not to cluster farmers? Influences on network interactions, risk perceptions, and adoption of aquaculture practices

Over the course of just a few years, shrimp farming has become a major aquaculture production system in coastal areas of several developing countries across the globe. However, farmers are facing a variety of risks related to disease, market, and climate, which influence risk management strategies and adoption of new technologies. This paper looks at three practices related to pond management: (1) water quality management to ensure a good environment for shrimp growth; (2) adequate feed input; and (3) disease control practices in order to mitigate the risk of disease outbreak in the pond. We investigated adoption of these three practices in smallholder shrimp farms in the Mekong Delta, by exploring how and whether membership into a producer's cluster influences access to knowledge and perception of risk in the adoption process. The results show that, after controlling for farm characteristics, farm clustering has a positive relationship with the adoption of water quality management, feed inputs, and disease control practices. Results also indicate that increasing interaction frequency with public sector and private sector's actors, as well as the perceived degree of market risk, positively influences the adoption of the three pond management practices under study. Mediation analyses show that being a member of a farmer cluster influences adoption of farming practices via two underlying processes: frequency of interaction with public and private sector's actors, and perception of market risk, both of which ultimately promote the adoption of practices. We conclude that clustering is a promising avenue for fostering interactions between farmers and key supporting actors in aquaculture, and impacts both the formation of specific aqua-related risk perceptions and subsequent practice adoption. As such, clusters – by fostering linkages and facilitating interactions between different knowledge sources – can promote adoption of practices toward sustainable intensification. However, to more effectively deploy a cluster approach a key policy and practice implication is to take into consideration local idiosyncrasies defined by their social interactions, risk perception and spatial dimensions in order to better facilitate local linkages between farms (horizontal coordination) and a better integration with the value chain (vertical coordination).

Insights into adoption of farming practices through multiple lenses: an innovation systems approach

ABSTRACTA complex systems approach to innovation provides rich insights into the drivers, barriers, and key elements for innovation in rural systems. Through a case study of dry direct seeding (DDS) in smallholder systems in Laos, this article reveals a “perfect storm” of challenges and opportunities resulting in rapid adoption. Labour shortage, climate variability, and machinery availability are key factors. The lessons for the research and development community are that; every local system and situation is unique; focusing on one set of factors is never sufficient; and that timelines for change may be long and require persistence and longer term commitment from donors.

Constraints analysis in adoption of best farm practices towards sequestration of greenhouse gases

The aim of this paper is to find out the major losses due to emission of green house gases (GHGs) and investigate the major constraints that are responsible for non-adoption of best farming practices to minimize the emission of GHG in agricultural sectors in Haryana state. The study was conducted in two districts of Haryana state namely; Hisar and Karnal. A total number of 120 farmers were interviewed to analyze the constraints in adoption of best farm practices towards sequestration of GHGs and losses occurred. The study resulted that very serious losses occurred due to greenhouse gases were found crop benefit ratio decreased with mean score of 1.23, crop damaged due to adverse climatic uncertainty (1.07), crop production decreased (0.89), sowing season changed (0.86), loss in bio-diversity (0.84), less income earned from agriculture (0.81), soil water holding capacity decreased (0.68). The other serious losses perceived due to emission of GHGs were deeper level of ground water table (0.31), cropping pattern and cropping system changed (0.28), high usages of inorganic fertilizers (0.23), soil fertility decreases (0.13). While the constraints that were found responsible in non-adoption of best farming practices towards sequestration of GHGs were noticed as non- availability of package of practices (96.11%), lack of awareness about health risk in humans (94.72%), no reward for adoption of environmental measures (93.05%), lack of demonstration/training for reducing GHG emission (91.11%), less credibility in farm practices (90%) were major problems observed in adoption of farm practices.

Assessment of climate change awareness and agronomic practices in an agricultural region of Henan Province, China

Agricultural production is a complex interaction between human and natural environment, making agriculture both significantly responsible and vulnerable to climate change. China, whose socioeconomy is fundamentally dependent on agriculture, is already experiencing climate-change-related issues that threaten food security and sustainable development. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are of great concern to ensure food security for the growing population and improve the livelihoods of poor smallholder producers. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Henan Province, China to assess agronomic practices of smallholder farmers, adaptation strategies and how climate change awareness and perceptions influence the farmers’ choice of agronomic practices. The results showed that the vast majority of farmers owned <10 Chinese Mu (0.7 ha) and nearly all farmers’ relied on intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase yield at the detriment of environment. However, farmers who were aware of climate change had adopted agronomic practices that reduce impacts of climate change. Information about climate change, lack of incentives, lack of credit facilities and small farm sizes were major hindrance to adaptation and adoption of farming practices that can reduce impacts of climate change. This study recommends that research findings should be disseminated to farmers in timely and appropriate ways. The central government should formulate policies to include subsidies and incentives for farmers to motivate adoption of eco-friendly agronomic practices.

Agricultural Biotechnology: The Promise and Prospects of Genetically Modified Crops

For millennia, humans have modified plant genes in order to develop crops best suited for food, fiber, feed, and energy production. Conventional plant breeding remains inherently random and slow, constrained by the availability of desirable traits in closely related plant species. In contrast, agricultural biotechnology employs the modern tools of genetic engineering to reduce uncertainty and breeding time and to transfer traits from more distantly related plants. Critics express concerns that the technology imposes negative environmental effects and jeopardizes the health of those who consume the “frankenfoods.” Supporters emphasize potential gains from boosting output and lowering food prices for consumers. They argue that such gains are achieved contemporaneous with the adoption of farming practices that lower agrochemical use and lessen soil. The extensive experience with agricultural biotechnology since 1996 provides ample evidence with which to test the claims of supporters and opponents and to evaluate the prospects of genetic crop engineering. In this paper, we begin with an overview of the adoption of the first generation of agricultural biotechnology crops. We then look at the evidence on the effects of these crops: on output and prices, on the environment, and on consumer health. Finally, we consider intellectual property issues surrounding this new technology.

Skull and limb morphology differentially track population history and environmental factors in the transition to agriculture in Europe

The Neolithic transition in Europe was a complex mosaic spatio-temporal process, involving both demic diffusion from the Near East and the cultural adoption of farming practices by indigenous hunter-gatherers. Previous analyses of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Early Neolithic farmers suggest that cranial shape variation preserves the population history signature of the Neolithic transition. However, the extent to which these same demographic processes are discernible in the postcranium is poorly understood. Here, for the first time, crania and postcranial elements from the same 11 prehistoric populations are analysed together in an internally consistent theoretical and methodological framework. Results show that while cranial shape reflects the population history differences between Mesolithic and Neolithic lineages, relative limb dimensions exhibit significant congruence with environmental variables such as latitude and temperature, even after controlling for geography and time. Also, overall limb size is found to be consistently larger in hunter-gatherers than farmers, suggesting a reduction in size related to factors other than thermoregulatory adaptation. Therefore, our results suggest that relative limb dimensions are not tracking the same demographic population history as the cranium, and point to the strong influence of climatic, dietary and behavioural factors in determining limb morphology, irrespective of underlying neutral demographic processes.

Craniometric data support a mosaic model of demic and cultural Neolithic diffusion to outlying regions of Europe

The extent to which the transition to agriculture in Europe was the result of biological (demic) diffusion from the Near East or the adoption of farming practices by indigenous hunter-gatherers is subject to continuing debate. Thus far, archaeological study and the analysis of modern and ancient European DNA have yielded inconclusive results regarding these hypotheses. Here we test these ideas using an extensive craniometric dataset representing 30 hunter-gatherer and farming populations. Pairwise population craniometric distance was compared with temporally controlled geographical models representing evolutionary hypotheses of biological and cultural transmission. The results show that, following the physical dispersal of Near Eastern/Anatolian farmers into central Europe, two biological lineages were established with limited gene flow between them. Farming communities spread across Europe, while hunter-gatherer communities located in outlying geographical regions adopted some cultural elements from the farmers. Therefore, the transition to farming in Europe did not involve the complete replacement of indigenous hunter-gatherer populations despite significant gene flow from the Southwest Asia. This study suggests that a mosaic process of dispersal of farmers and their ideas was operating in outlying regions of Europe, thereby reconciling previously conflicting results obtained from genetic and archaeological studies.

Social Activities And Socio-Economic Status Of Rural Farmers Cultivating Improved Maize In Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study was conducted to investigate and establish relationship between some variables (social activities and socio-economic status) of farmers who cultivated improved maize in rural areas of Kaduna State, Nigeria. A total of 125 respondents who constituted growers of maize were purposively and randomly sampled. Based on their responses, data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and Linear regression analyses. The three objectives of the study were to; (1) examine the social activities of rural farmers cultivating improved maize (2) examine the relationship between the socio-economic status of rural farmers cultivating improved maize, and (3) examine the effect of social status of rural farmers cultivating improved maize on adoption of farm practices. It was found that the respondents\' scores on social participation were in the following order of ranking; Farmers\' cooperative group, agricultural shows, farmers\' general meetings, Field days, farmers\' club, Farmers Council meetings and agricultural festivals. Results further indicate that among the socio-economic status of the respondents the following were positively and significantly correlated; farm size and age of farmer, social participation and level of education, social participation and contact with extension agent (at P=0.01) while contact with extension and age of farmer and social participation and access to radio (at P=0.05). And, results of stepwise regression showed that age, level of education and farm size of farmers were significantly related to adoption (at P=0.05). Keywords : Improved maize, socio-economic status, rural farmers, social participation Global Approaches to Extension Practice Vol. 2 (1) 2006: pp. 29-36

Neolithisation in southwest Asia – the path to modernity

Two questions are discussed that turn out to be related. The first was posed originally by Robert Braidwood more than fifty years ago, and concerns why farming was adopted in southwest Asia early in the Neolithic, and not earlier. The second concerns the usually opposed processualist and post-processualist approaches to the Neolithic. The paper seeks to model the processes at work through the Epi-palaeolithic and early Neolithic, showing how the trend towards sedentism and storage of food resources coincided with the emergence of fully symbolic cognitive and cultural faculties. The former fed more mouths, and led to the adoption of farming practices that further intensified food productivity. The latter made possible and desirable the symbolic construction of large, permanently co-resident communities. The spread of farming may then be understood as the expansion of a complex way of life that involved communities living together in larger groups, with denser, richer cultural environments, controlling not only the built environment of their own settlements, but also the productivity of the agricultural environments that surrounded them.

Technical knowledge and adoption of farming practices to farmer level extension communication of outgrower farmers of Sri Lankan sugar industry

Low adoption of recommended farming practices has partly been responsible for low cane and sugar yield obtained by sugarcane farmers. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of extension communication at farmer level in relation to knowledge and adoption of farming practices by the outgrower farmers of Sri Lankan sugar industry. Primary data were collected from a stratified random sample of 60 farmers consisting of equal number of non-contract and contract farmers from Pelwatte Sugar Industry (PSI) area. Contract farmers were solely dependent on their Agricultural Assistants/Field Assistants (AA/ FA) for the information and services whereas non-contract farmers used other sources also. More attention had been given to marketing and input coordination activities and less attention to farmer education in the main methods of extension communication practised namely AA/FA’s field visits and farmer’s office visits. The majority of contract farmers attributed high credibility to the AA/FAs as well as higher rating for AA/FA’s role and for input services. The highest proportion of contract farmers had medium technical knowledge and adoption levels. But, knowledge and adoption of the majority of non-contract farmers were low and the median adoption and knowledge level of the non-contract group was also significantly lower than that of the contract group. The extension communication activities were significantly related to farmer’s knowledge and adoption. Farmers’ technical knowledge and adoption were also interrelated. However, in the non-contract situation where extension service were poor, a dominant role of personal factors in relation to knowledge and adoption was observed.

A survey of dairy farmers' practices and attitudes towards some aspects of arable-land management in the Darling Downs and South Burnett regions of Queensland

The Darling Downs and Southern Inland Burnett are important geographical subregions of the Queensland dairy industry. The system of dairy farming in these subregions is unique in Australia in that it is based on grazed annual forage crops rather than pastures. When these soils were first cultivated up to 110 years ago they were inherently fertile. However, erosion and fertility decline has reduced their productive capacity and there is a need for the adoption of farming practices that are less exploitative. In February 1997, a survey was conducted to determine dairy farmers' practices and attitudes toward management strategies that were being recommended to grain farmers in the subtropical cereal belt for sustaining the soil resource base. These strategies included greater use of ley pastures, opportunistic double-cropping, zero-till planting and higher fertiliser inputs. We found that dairy farmers were generally familiar with and understanding of the potential benefits of these approaches to their farming enterprises. However, farmers raised a number of issues that need consideration in the transfer of these practices to dairy forage production. These included concerns that an increased emphasis on pastures would result in lower and less-reliable forage production; that double-cropping is practiced more out of necessity than in the belief it is a better way to farm; that zero tillage may not be suitable on clay soils that have been trampled by cattle and that farmers rely primarily on their own observations of crop performance to determine fertiliser use. These findings have particular implications for research and extension activities conducted with dairy farmers and are also relevant to work conducted with other cropping enterprises that incorporate grazing animals in their farming program.

On‐Farm Costs of Reducing Residual Nitrogen on Cropland Vulnerable to Nitrate Leaching

Though nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient required to produce food and fiber, it can become a pollutant when excessive amounts enter surface and groundwater. Residual nitrogen fertilizer, which is the amount of nitrogen applied to a crop in excess of nitrogen absorbed by the crop, has been identified as a major contributor to the elevated concentration levels of nitrates in groundwater (e.g., Office of Technology Assessment; Nielsen and Lee; United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 1984). The EPA's recent Pesticide Survey (1990) contains further indication that many community water systems and rural wells where extensive application of nitrogen is found contain nitrates exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level. High concentration levels of nitrates in drinking water supplied from groundwater have become a public concern because of their real and suspected risks to human health (Freshwater Foundation; Cantor). To reduce excess use of nitrogen fertilizer that is a threat to the groundwater, explicitly limiting nitrogen fertilizer use might be required. Although limiting nitrogen use may be costly to regulate, there are various reasons for its usefulness. For example, it is an effective tool to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use when the fertilizer price is very low relative to the com modity price. The cost would be lower to farmers in comparison with other approaches such as imposing an input or output tax (Huang and Lantin) to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use. Limiting nitrogen has been considered an effective tool for promoting the adoption of farming practices that can reduce nitrogen fertilizer use (Taylor and Swanson), and also a least-cost approach for society to combat the pollution problem, such as nitrate leaching, which often is subject to the stochastic influence of weather (Baumol and Oates). The main objective of this article is to evaluate costs to profit-maximizing farmers of reducing nitrogen fertilizer use on cropland vulnerable to nitrate leaching. In particular, this article investigates the relationship between the cost for a profit-maximizing farmer to comply with the reduction of nitrogen fertilizer use, and the vulnerability of cropland to nitrate leaching. This information can be useful for policy makers interested in providing equitable financial incentives to farmers to encourage them to mitigate nitrate leaching problems such as the green payments program (Heimlich). This article addresses four areas: (1) delineation of residual nitrogen as a measure for limiting nitrogen fertilizer use; (2) development of a dynamic model that incorporates nitrogen carry-over effects to determine the steady-state relationships among the application rate of fertilizer nitrogen and residual nitrogen available for leaching; (3) investigation of the effect of cropland's vulnerability on the farmers' compliance cost of reducing residual nitrogen using the steady-state solutions of the model; and (4) empirical estimation and comparison of the compliance cost associated with reducing nitrogen fertilizer application rates on high-leaching and moderateleaching cropland, using an Iowa case study. Wen-Yuan Huang and David Shank are with the Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. Tracy Irwin Hewitt is with the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States Department of Agriculture. The authors wish to thank Otto Doering, the journal reviewers, and the editor for their valuable comments and suggestions. We take responsibility for any remaining errors.

Farming ‘practice’ as temporally and spatially situated intersections of biography, culture and social structure

SUMMARY This paper brings anthropological, sociological and geographical perspectives to bear on the problem of farm sustainability and, in particular, the legitimation of sustainable farm practices. It attempts to lay some theoretical foundations for explanation of the adoption of farming practices which may, or may not, promote sustainability. A brief survey of the literature surrounding these issues finds many of the current theoretical perspectives incapable of fully accounting for the complexity of farming practice. Reductionist decision/rational‐action models, in particular, are found wanting for their lack of both cultural consistency and social/spatial specificity. Instead, this paper promotes a generative structuralist approach directed towards an analysis of social and economic practice in lived space; that is, firmly anchored in long‐term ethnographic research.