The Iowa Master Farmer Award History Book: A History of the Prestigious Award, Its Winners, and a Century of Iowa Agriculture

Review of: "The Iowa Master Farmer Award History Book: A History of the Prestigious Award, Its Winners, and a Century of Iowa Agriculture," by the Iowa Master Farmer Foundation

Modernizing peasants and 'master farmers': all-India crop competitions and the politics of progressive agriculture in early independent India

In the years following independence, looking toward agricultural self-sufficiency, India's national leadership sought to identify cultivators endowed with the daring, grit, and experimental character needed to actualize the promise of plenty. Drawing on Western modernization theory and the idioms of colonial and nationalist economics, India's bureaucrats and politicians contrasted the nation's “progressive farmers” with the passivity and superstition alleged to be characteristic of the majority of peasants, establishing crop competitions and the title of Krishi Pandit—“master farmer”—to reward and trumpet these qualities. Yet the progressive farmers winning these titles were not the agrarian poor, but rather an ascendant, self-cultivating peasantry armed with the capital and connections needed to raise their yields. In a subsequent era of egalitarian reform, exemplified in the Community Development Program, these same progressive farmers continued to bag awards but bucked planners' expectations that they would serve as natural leaders in villages. As these producers mobilized politically, and India's bureaucrats and politicians moved toward the Green Revolution consensus that agricultural productivity would require an inequitable concentration of inputs, progressive farmers emerged as “bullock capitalists,” a demand group that would transform national politics but do little for the aims of equity and rural development.Accepted manuscrip

Prospectus, April 7, 1970

ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS AGENDA; Munton\u27s Condition \u27Good\u27; Transfer Students Do Well; Election Scheduled For Vice-President, Night Senator; Bid Too High; 700 Much Talk Without Action; Letters To The Editor; Black Rap; New Careers In American Education; Teacher Aid Students Active In Area Schools; BEAVER\u27S: It Was A Good Ordeal ; Sex & Violence; Synapse; Bull Page: Enrollment Figures, Parkland Holds Open House April 19, 1970, General Info, P.C. Board Member Named Master Farmer, Norma DeVore Memorial Award, A Matter Of Time; P.C. Participates In Library Conference, Moran Chairs Discussion Group, Calendarhttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1970/1030/thumbnail.jp

The use of participatory processes in wide-scale dissemination of micro dosing and conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

Participatory technology development has been used for quite some time. However, little is known about how farmers perceive participatory methods and processes. Understanding farmers’ concerns about the participatory process can be an important starting point and can further the ultimate aim of encouraging sustained technology adoption. An ex-post participatory technology development and transfer evaluation was carried out in Zimbabwe in 2006/07 involving 231 farmers. It was revealed that use of demonstration trials encouraged the most participation and subsequent adoption and adaptation of the technologies to suit specific needs. The participatory nature of the process encouraged greater knowledge sharing among farmers and gave them more confidence in the technology. In order to increase the gains of the participatory process, feedback loops should be built in to allow improvements and modifications to be made to the techniques being promoted.Participatory approach, technology, dissemination, adoption, transfer, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Economic analysis of the Best Management Practices (BMPS) in Louisiana sugarcane production

Agriculture has been identified as one of the major sources of nonpoint water pollution due to discharges running off farmland. This study assessed the current adoption of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the Louisiana sugarcane industry and provided policy recommendations based on the empirical results. Fifteen BMPs recommended by Louisiana State University Agricultural Center were examined in three categories: Soil Erosion and Sediment Control, Nutrient Management, and Pesticide Management. Based on neoclassical economic principles of individual’s utility maximization, this study evaluated seven multivariate probit models using primary data collected from a mail survey of Louisiana’s sugarcane producers. The results indicated that remarkable progress has been achieved in BMPs promotion since 1999. The primary factors that significantly impacted BMP adoption were: awareness of the Master Farmer Program for sugarcane, farm size, ownership, and farmer’s risk attitude. It is recommended that educational programs provided by LSU AgCenter continue to play a vital role in promoting sugarcane BMPs

Factors influencing the participation in environmental stewardship programs: a case study of the agricultural and forestry sectors in Louisiana

Considerable research has been conducted to evaluate the adoption of agricultural best management practices and their overall impact on improving environmental quality. However, limited studies have been conducted to evaluate the behavioral factors that influence the adoption of these practices in the context of educational programs The goal of this study is to determine the factors that influence farmer conservation behavior that might lead to an increased probability of improving agriculture and forestry watersheds. A conceptual model was developed to identify the: 1) identify landowner participation in watershed conservation projects, and 2) determine the factors influencing agriculture and forestry landowners to participate in watershed conservation projects. The model includes four major sets of explanatory variables including: 1) social-psychological, 2) farm structural, 3) ecological, and 4) institutional. This study indicates that both farmers and loggers that are younger, more educated and of Caucasian ethnicity tend to participate in environmental stewardship programs which lead to the implementation of conservation practices. Farmers with strong local organization relationships have a greater tendency to participate in environmental stewardship programs which leads to the adoption of conservation practices. Agricultural producers with higher income resulting from farming, higher total acres, and farms legal structure indicated as incorporated tended to participate in environmental stewardship programs. Loggers that produced larger loads per week, which is an indicator of size, tended to participate in environmental stewardship programs. The study also found that agricultural producers who spend more time in a job off-farm and have a family owned operation have a lower tendency to participate in environmental stewardship programs. The study indicates that farmers that have modified their operation due to the Clean Water Act as well as awareness of efforts to control non-point source pollution through the Clean Water Act have a lower tendency to participate in environmental stewardship programs, thus viewed upon as institutional barriers. Also found was loggers with negative relationships toward regulatory agencies and lending institutions have a lower tendency to participate in environmental stewardship programs. Farmers have mixed attitudes toward government involvement in agriculture. These conclusions are supported by earlier studies

Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Adoption of Soil Water and Nutrient Management Technologies in Dry Areas of Zimbabwe: Global Theme on Agro-Ecosystems Report no. 14

Agricultural extension systems in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly using participatory approaches to improve technology adoption by smallholder farmers. This approach has been successful particularly in low-rainfall areas, where adoption is traditionally slow. Crop productivity, farm incomes and food security have improved as a result. ICRISAT worked with Zimbabwe’s Department of Agricultural Research and Extension to pilot-test the effectiveness and efficiency of one such participatory approach – Farmer Field Schools, FFS – for delivering extension messages on improved soil and water management technologies in drought-prone areas. FFS are costlier to implement than traditional Master Farmer and community-based Participatory Extension approaches; but they provide more opportunities for experimentation, and collective learning-by-doing and learning- by-using. This improves farmers’ understanding of new technologies, their capacity to effectively use the technologies and to make better decisions, and improves adoption rates. To introduce FFS more widely into national programs and make them sustainable, the study recommends that part of the government extension budget be re-allocated from Master Farmer training to FFS; and that NGOs and commercial agribusinesses be encouraged to target their investments towards developing a nation-wide FFS system

Awareness of and Application to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program By Cow–Calf Producers

This study uses a bivariate probit model with partial observability to examine Louisiana beef producers’ awareness of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and how awareness translates to application to the program. Results indicate that awareness of and application to the EQIP depend on portion of income derived from off-farm sources, extent of previous best management practice adoption at one’s own expense, household income, farmed land that is highly erodible, contact with Natural Resource Conservation Service and extension service personnel, and producer age.BMPs, bivariate probit, EQIP, probit, Agribusiness, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Q12, Q16, Q18,

HIDDEN HEALTH COSTS OF PESTICIDE USE IN ZIMBABWE'S SMALLHOLDER COTTON

Balancing the numerous benefits that may accrue from pesticide use on cotton, farmers face health hazards. Pesticide-induced acute symptoms significantly increased the cost of illness in a survey of 280 smallholder cotton growers in two districts of Zimbabwe. Cotton growers lost a mean of Z$180 in Sanyati and Z$316 per year in Chipinge on pesticide-related direct and indirect acute health effects. These values are equivalent to 45% and 83% of annual household pesticide expenditures in the two districts. The time spent recuperating from illnesses attributed to pesticides averaged 2 days in Sanyati and 4 days in Chipinge during the 1998/99 growing season. These pesticide health cost estimates represent lower bounds only; they omit chronic pesticide health effects as well as suffering and other non-monetary costs. Acute pesticide symptoms were determined in large part by pesticide use practices, notably the lack of protective clothing. Yet many smallholder farmers misunderstood pesticide health hazards, and so did little to protect themselves. Despite the use of simple color codes, 22% of smallholder cotton growers in Sanyati and 58% in Chipinge did not know how to order the four colored pesticide label triangles by toxicity. Better farmer education in exposure averting strategies is needed. Likewise, fuller accounting for hidden health costs in future would allow farmers to make more informed decisions about agricultural pest management.Crop Production/Industries, Health Economics and Policy,