Midwestern US Farmers Perceive Crop Advisers as Conduits of Information on Agricultural Conservation Practices

Nonpoint source pollution from agricultural land uses continues to pose one of the most significant threats to water quality in the US, with measurable impacts across local, regional, and national scales. The impact and the influence of targeted conservation efforts are directly related to the degree to which farmers are familiar with and trust the entities providing the information and/or outreach. Recent research suggests that farmers consistently rank independent and retail-affiliated crop advisers as among the most trusted and influential sources for agronomic information, but little is understood about whether farmers are willing to receive advice from crop advisers on the use of practices that conserve soil and water, and, if so, whether crop advisers will be perceived as influential. We present survey data from farmers (n = 1461) in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron) watershed to explore these questions. Results suggest that farmers view crop advisers as trustworthy sources of information about conservation, and influential on management practices that have large conservation implications. We discuss these results, along with perceived barriers and opportunities to crop advisers partnering with traditional conservation agencies to enhance the impact of voluntary conservation programs

Early Diagnosis of HIV Infection in Infants - One Caribbean and Six Sub-Saharan African Countries, 2011-2015.

Pediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains an important public health issue in resource-limited settings. In 2015, 1.4 million children aged 50% decline. The most common challenges for access to testing for early infant diagnosis included difficulties in specimen transport, long turnaround time between specimen collection and receipt of results, and limitations in supply chain management. Further reductions in HIV mortality in children can be achieved through continued expansion and improvement of services for early infant diagnosis in PEPFAR-supported countries, including initiatives targeted to reach HIV-exposed infants, ensure access to programs for early infant diagnosis of HIV, and facilitate prompt linkage to treatment for children diagnosed with HIV infection

Exploring the potential role of public drain managers in motivating agricultural conservation practices

AbstractA current lawsuit by the Des Moines Water Works against three upstream Iowa counties raises the prospect that agricultural drain managers nationwide will bear greater responsibility to promote conservation practices that protect downstream water quality. To date, however, an institutional and administrative approach for doing so is lacking. A pilot program in southwestern Michigan introduced a new method for apportioning drain management costs that rewards landowners who use conservation practices known to reduce sedimentation. The logic of the program is that as each parcel deposits less sediment into a drain, the cost of maintaining that drain will decline. We describe the program, review its performance relative to a number of criteria, and discuss its prospects for replication elsewhere. Several Michigan drain commissioners have expressed interest in replicating the approach which reduced participating landowners' drain assessments by 21 percent in the pilot program. The details of the program are quite specific to the case in Michigan, but institutionally it offers a way forward that could be applied widely

Communication, Partnerships, and the Role of Social Science: Conservation Delivery in a Brave New World

© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in Michigan is an innovative conservation effort organized to address water quality impairments involving a unique collaboration between conservation organizations, agronomists, universities, commodity groups, and agribusinesses. We track the evolution and adaptation of the Saginaw Bay RCPP, and the collaboration among the traditional and nontraditional conservation partners. Our reflections are organized around three key lessons: vertical and horizontal communication challenges; contextual and structural constraints; barriers that remain between private and public sector entities for this and alternative conservation-delivery models. Lessons from this evaluation will inform the design of future collaborative/multi-stakeholder watershed management efforts. We also demonstrate that rather than being used as an ad-hoc approach, social science evaluation was integrated into conservation planning and practice, hence increasing the salience and legitimacy of the conservation social science in collaborative watershed management

Museum magazine, Number 54 (2009 Winter)

An exhibit called "Driven" focusing on artists with disabilities is this issue's featured article. Others include "Pre-Columbian Textile Art: Design that Speaks Today", a history of depictions of women in art called "The Sacred Feminine: Prehistory to Post-Modernity", a look at "Fifteen Years of the Missouri Folk Arts Graduate Internships", pictures of new acquisitions at the museum, spotlight on "An Apulian Askos" and columns from director Alex W. Barker, educator Cathy Callaway, academic coordinator Arthur Mehrhoff, and assistant director Bruce Cox.From the Director / Alex W. Barker (Director) -- Driven / Mary Pixley (Curator of European and American Art) -- Pre-Columbian textile art : design that speaks today -- Special exhibitions -- The sacred feminine : prehistory to post-modernity -- Events calendar -- Fifteen years of the Missouri Folk Arts graduate internships / Claire Schmidt, Claire (Graduate Student Intern, Folk Arts) -- New acquisitions -- From the Educator / Cathy Callaway -- From the Academic Coordinator / Arthur Mehrhoff -- Museum Associates / Bruce Cox (Assistant Director, Museum Operations) -- Spotlight : an Apulian Askos / Olivia Fales (Graduate Research Assistant in Ancient Art)

Crop advisers as conservation intermediaries: Perceptions and policy implications for relying on nontraditional partners to increase U.S. farmers’ adoption of soil and water conservation practices

Federal agricultural land use policies in the United States aimed at protecting soil health and water quality typically rely on persuading individual farmers to voluntarily adopt conservation practices. An expanding body of literature suggests that private sector intermediaries, such as crop advisers, are increasingly trusted sources of information for farmers about conservation practices and thus may be persuasive actors in the conservation-adoption realm. While previous studies have explored farmers’ perceptions of crop advisers facilitating conservation practice adoption and participating in conservation programs in agricultural landscapes, little research to date has explored crop advisers’ perceptions of this role, and few agricultural land use policies have explicitly included crop advisers as conservation partners. This study fills a critical void in the literature by evaluating the Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program, an innovative agricultural policy that relies on crop advisers to recruit farmers into the program and assist them with the adoption of conservation practices. Through a survey and interviews with crop advisers in the Saginaw Bay watershed in Michigan, USA, we explore crop advisers’ perceptions of their role in the program and of delivering conservation information to farmers. We found that crop advisers have positive attitudes towards land/water resources and conservation practices, believe they have an important intermediary role to play in facilitating conservation practice adoption, and believe their supervisors are supportive of them promoting conservation. However, difficulties in collaboration and communication between the private and governmental sectors – resulting from perceived differences, operational differences, and territoriality – present a key barrier to crop advisers increasing their intermediary role in the promotion and implementation of federal conservation programs. Future research and policy initiatives should explore how to address public-private territoriality and whether crop advisers should be incentivized to deliver information about conservation practices and/or assist in enrolling farmers in federal conservation programs