How can veterinarians be interesting partners for organic dairy farmers? French farmers’ point of views

Organic dairy farmers must live up to the organic goal of ‘good health’ in respect the organic principles and regulation. Veterinarians could be the organic dairy farmers’ expected sparring partners in reaching this goal but have found difficulties to establish advisory relationships with them. The objectives of this study are −from organic dairy farmers’ points of view- (i) to describe farmers’ objectives and strategies regarding herd health, (ii) to describe private veterinarians’ roles in farmers’ animal health promotion strategies and (iii) to identify farmers’ reasons for accepting veterinarians in an advisory role. Fourteen organic dairy farmers were interviewed using qualitative research interviews. Data collection and analysis was performed using a modified approach to Grounded Theory. Organic dairy farmers had animal health management strategies focusing on animal health promotion. Veterinarians had most often solely the role of therapist in farmers’ animal health management strategies. Reasons explaining that veterinarians were not able to establish advisory roles were found in the differences between veterinarians and farmers regarding their animal health strategies and solutions to disease problems. Furthermore, veterinarians did not always share farmers’ (organic) objectives, values and priorities and this could lead to disagreement on the best choice in animal health management practices. This might be further amplified in situations where there exists a lack of dialogue and mutual interest in other

The Privilege of Healthy Eating: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Local Food Choices of Low-Income Families from Appalachia

Using qualitative semi-structured interviews, 15 low-income women of different ages were asked to discuss their perceptions of healthy eating, local farmers’ markets, as well as their visitation of farmers’ markets. The participants were also asked to share what features of farmers’ markets they found appealing. The results showed that most of the participants had either a deep or moderate understanding of what it means to eat healthy. However, many of them also believed they could improve their own patterns of eating. The data also showed that the low-income women who took part in the study had positive attitudes overall toward local farmers’ markets, despite rather low levels of visitation (only 5 participants had visited farmers’ market at least once and only one of them visited farmers’ market on a regular basis). Lastly, participants discussed constraints that prevented them from visiting farmers’ markets more often and provided suggestions for possible facilitators to increase the frequency of their use of farmers’ markets

Utilitarian and moralistic farmers take equally good care of animal welfare in Finland

A study of Finnish farmers' attitudes towards production animal welfare revealed that a variety of attitudes and management practices can lead to equally good result regarding animal health, productivity and welfare. Organic farmers differed from conventional farmers in providing animals better chances for a pleasant life. The also perceived they could improve animal welfare more than other farmers

Ageing of farmers in the Czech republic and the support from the EU funds

The age structure of managers of agricultural holdings is not favourable in the Czech Republic and follows the general trend of population ageing. The lack of young farmers represents a threat to generation renewal and the competitiveness of the sector, as younger farmers tend to be more open to innovation and more often learn new approaches to farming and business. Therefore, the European Union supports generation renewal through Common Agricultural Policy instruments – direct payments and investment subsidies from the Rural Development Pro-gramme. The aim of the paper is to assess the ageing of the farm manager population and to evaluate whether the support from the EU is well targeted on the regional level based on correlation analysis. Using statistical and ad-ministrative data, we find that the subsidies from the Rural Development Programme in the year 2016 were granted in line with the seriousness of the ageing problem. When there was a larger share of older farmers in a region, the share of young farmers supported was larger. Vice versa, the correlation coefficient between the share of supported farmers and the share of young farmers in the region is negative, meaning that the greater was the share of young farmers, the smaller was the share of supported farmers

Small-scale farmers' assessment of constraints and benefits from getting involved in various organic certification schemes for the domestic market in Thailand

The organic certification schemes, which propose links between small-scale farmers and domestic markets in developing and emerging countries, are increasingly diverse. The study compared small-scale farmers' assessment of the constraints and benefits from getting involved in various organic certification schemes in Thailand. Three of these schemes were based on third-party certification and were managed by a public institute, an accredited non-governmental organisation, and a non-accredited one. The other schemes were participatory guarantee systems. One hundred farmers were interviewed. The farmers expressed a general similar assessment of the four types of schemes, in terms of the difficulties of obtaining certification. A key reason was that the scheme that had the most strict requirements was also the one providing the strongest support. The schemes mainly differed in terms of marketing opportunities. However, the organisations, which provided support to farmers wishing to obtain certification, generally recommended a particular scheme. Farmers had limited autonomy in initiating a certification process by themselves. Farmers' capacities may be built so that they become more autonomous in choosing the certification schemes that best suit their objectives

A biomechanical analysis of the farmers walk, and comparison with the deadlift and unloaded walk

This study compared the biomechanical characteristics of the farmers walk, deadlift and unloaded walk. Six experienced male strongman athletes performed farmers' walks and deadlifts at 70% of their 1RM deadlift. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were apparent at knees passing with the farmers lift demonstrating greater trunk extension, thigh angle, knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion. Significantly greater mean vertical and anterior forces were observed in the farmers lift than deadlift. The farmers walk demonstrated significantly greater peak forces and stride rates and significantly shorter stride lengths, ground contact times, and swing times than unloaded walk. Significantly greater dorsiflexion, knee flexion, thigh angle, and significantly lesser trunk angle at foot strike were also observed in the farmers walk. The farmers lift may be an effective lifting alternative to the deadlift, to generating more anterior-propulsive and vertical force with less stress to the lumbar spine due to the more vertical trunk position

Climate smart strategies to strengthened coffee farmers adaptive capacity to climate change. [P74]

In the last 30 years Kenya's national coffee production decreased by about 70%. In some areas like Muranga County, the decline was up to fivefold and coffee is now replaced by food crops in lower altitudes due to erratic rainfall and increased temperature. Projected mean temperature increase between 3ºC and 4ºC may result in yield losses of 8 - 22 percent by 2050 unless climate smart adaptation practices are undertaken. Adaptation depends on farmers noticing climate change has indeed affected them and perceiving the need for, and benefits from new production strategies. However, there is marked difference in the way scientists and farmers perceive climate change and how it affects agriculture. Therefore, this study aims to: 1) explore how cropping systems are changing; 2) analyse how scientists and farmers respectively perceive climate change; 3) present farm-level adaptation strategies and how climate smart strategies strengthen adaptive capacity of farmers. The study is based on interview of 120 farmers and collection of meteorological data. The data were analyzed in four directions: (1) farmers' perceptions about climate change, (2) trends for temperature and rainfall over 30 years, (3) relations between farmers' perception and climate data, (4) identification of adaptation strategies and adaptive capacity based on livelihood adaptation frameworks. The results revealed 1) 91 percent of the farmers perceived climate has changed, observing extended warmer seasons, changes in onset and cessation of rainfall which is indeed supported by meteorological data. 2) Only 54 percent of farmers are responding to the perceived changes, introducing climate smart practices such as varietal change, intercropping, irrigation and crop-livestock mixed farming. 3) Access to finance, human capacity building and information on weather are vital to strengthen farmers' adaptive capacity. We recommend further researches on future suitable places for coffee, with business as usual and climate smart practices to predict future winners and losers. (Texte intégral

The dialogue with farmers

This report covers the project outcome Deliverable 4.2 ‘Analysis completed after a joint effort to identify possibilities in each country as how to facilitate the best possible dialogue regarding animal health and welfare’ as part of the European CORE Organic project ‘Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning.’ The work was intended to understand the processes and was analysed from the perspective of the key animal health and welfare (AHW) planning principles developed as part of the project. The analysis was completed on transcripts of interviews of facilitators and advisors who had participated in the ANIPLAN project, some of them as partners in the project group. If animal health and welfare planning is to gain widespread use among organic farmers, communication between farmers and between farmers and advisors and other actors in the organic farming environment is crucial. Whilst other forms of communication regarding the role and benefits of AHW assessment systems, such as benchmarking, may be the motivational catalyst needed to encourage engagement in the process, a creative dialogue with the individual farmer is necessary when identifying goals and planning means to reach the desired goals. In order to understand how this dialogue works in practice, and what issues arise, a series of interviews were conducted in all of the ANIPLAN participating countries, involving persons directly involved and those with other experiences. The analysis of the interviews was based on a theoretical framework concerning learning, knowledge and empowerment and a functional framework based on the animal health and welfare principles developed as an output from the ANIPLAN project

Difficult encounters around "monkey cheeks": Farmers' interests and the design of flood retention areas in Thailand

Flood retention areas are being increasingly promoted for flood risk management. People living in these areas will accept them if their interests are taken into account. The present study analyses the extent to which farmers' interests were taken into account in two flood retention projects in Thailand. A feasibility study was conducted in preparation for the first project which included public participation. The second project was a pilot project implemented in the same zone at a small scale. Participants in the public participation process and farmers living in proposed flood retention areas were interviewed for the purpose of the present study. Agreement could have been reached between the farmers and the public agencies concerning the flood retention areas. However, the participation process did not enable frank discussion about the conditions under which farmers would accept the project. The second project was designed without public participation and offered very little compensation to farmers. In countries marked by power imbalances in water resources management, public agencies may impose flood retention areas, but the absence of agreements with farmers can reduce the effectiveness of the measure. Reaching such agreements requires challenging the imbalanced power relationships between farmers and public agencies

Rights in a Cloud of Dust: The Value and Qualities of Farm Data and How Its Property Rights Should Be Viewed Moving Forward

Historically, technology growth has been slower in agriculture than other industries. However, a rising demand for food and an increase in efficient farm practices has changed this, leading to a rise in precision farming technologies. Now, entities that provide services or information to farmers need precision farming technologies to compete, and more farmers are adopting precision farming technologies. These technologies help farmers, but questions still remain about ownership rights in the data that farmers create