Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Climate Change Adaptation Practices

Southeast Asia is among the most vulnerable regions to climate change, and its high dependence on agriculture imposes significant challenges on its farming systems. Given these challenges, farmers’ climate change adaptation is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, this thesis explored the interlinkages among – and the influence of – social support, knowledge, and various aspects of farmers’ perceptions on their adoption of climate change adaptation practices. Previous research in Southeast Asia has thus far focused on farmers’ attitudes towards – or barriers to – adaptation. This thesis goes a step further by providing insights into the underlying factors and how their interlinkages influence adaptation. Structural Equation Modelling was employed to account for the complexity of farmers’ adaptation behaviour. The results show that social support, knowledge, and perceived usefulness of adaptation practices have small positive direct effects on farmers’ adoption of adaptation practices. Perceived ease of use had a medium-sized positive direct effect, and also mediated the relationship between knowledge and adoption. Perceptions of climate change and its impacts were not found to have significant direct or indirect effects. The thesis concludes that perception should not be studied as a single latent construct when investigating Southeast Asian farmers’ adoption of adaptation practices but rather as multiple constructs. The findings contribute to the crucial research efforts needed in the region to understand how farmers’ adaptive capacity and food systems’ resilience can be strengthened. Thus, the findings also add to policy-relevant literature and provide a good foundation for future research on the development of climate change adaptation policies

Potential policy projects for decreasing fluoride concentrations in the groundwater of Aguascalientes, Mexico

Reductions in groundwater quality due to aquifer depletion is a growing issue globally and will become more prominent with continued climate change and population growth. Dry regions are particularly vulnerable to this issue due to their reliance on groundwater for water supply. Therefore, urgent attention to improving groundwater management in such areas is essential in regional budgets and policy agendas. This thesis aims to provide insight and initial estimates on the potential net social benefits associated with two policy projects intended to increase the groundwater quality in the semi-arid state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. The focus lies on the aquifer of Valle de Aguascalientes, where fluoride contamination due to aquifer overdraft is becoming increasingly problematic. The projects evaluated are the installation of fluoride removal units using electrocoagulation (Project A), and the implementation of centre pivot irrigation systems (Project B). Policy evaluation is performed using cost-benefit analysis. The results show that Project A is associated with a net present value (NPV) of 159 262 033.17 USD and Project B with an NPV of -123 864 575.35 USD. However, due to the uncertainty associated with these estimates, the resulting recommendation is to not accept either project until the certainty of the policy evaluation is increased. Nevertheless, the information provided in this thesis may be helpful in planning for future studies

Waiting to Exhale: African American Women and Adult Learning Through Movies

This paper proposes that movies are a great source for learning especially for African American women. Findings suggest that adult educators will want to look closely at how today’s diverse adults are informed and make meaning via popular culture

A Critical Review of Race, Class, and Gender in Adult Development Models and Theory: Implications for Adult Education

The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss North American literature showing how race, class, and gender has been treated historically and presents three approaches or perspectives that inform contemporary literature

A Majestic Burden: Discovering the Untold Stories of Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Women and Learning Through Narrative Analysis8

The purpose of this completed research investigation is to articulate three of four final research findings as part of a larger study that investigated diverse leadership among an under-represented group and to extend current research on African American women political leaders

Chlorine demand in Haitian water supplies

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-57).by Sara Jo Elise.M.Eng

The Changing Nature of the Adult Education Professorate: New Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century

The purpose of this session is to discuss how the roles and responsibilities of the adult education professor have changed in the last 30 years and how the level of power has shifted amidst such change. An examination regarding the changing nature of faculty roles and responsibilities is important because faculty are now challenged in colleges and universities to operate under *market driven models (Kotler & Fox, 1995). In many institutions, faculty are micro-managed to become “organization” men and women, which greatly alters the teaching and learning contract we have with students; resulting in adult education faculty operating as brokers among constituencies for power, influence, and control. Politics and positionality readily becomes a part of this new market driven relationship or model (Cervero & Wilson and Associates, 2001; Johnson-Bailey, 2001; Kotler & Fox, 1995)