Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: l. 122-125.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study explores a possible relationship between personality factors and attitudes towards perceived problem animals in a sample of 17 white, male, full-time small- stock farmers in the Eastern Cape district of Cradock. Personality factors were analysed by means of Cattell's l6 Personality Factor Questionnaire, standardised for South Africa. Attitudes were determined by qualitative analysis of data from semi-structured interviews. Specific personality factors associated with positive and negative attitudes towards 'problem animals', including Lynx Felis caracal, eagles and vultures, were identified. Demographic and situational influences and certain world views associated with environmental attitudes are also discussed. Re-orientation of perspectives are recommended for farmers, conservationists and environmental educators.

While scholars and activists have analyzed the consequences of a largely white, middle-class membership in the alternative food movement, lesser consideration has been given to the relationship food has with gentrification processes. On Chicago's West Side, alternative food spaces such as gardens, restaurants and farmers markets are staking a physical and cultural claim in longstanding communities of color. Food is perhaps unique and more powerful than prior initiators of gentrification such as art due to its mundane, everyday qualities that intersect with its ability to uphold class distinctions. Using qualitative interviews, participant-observation and a literature review, I will examine how alternative food contributes to and is a form of resistance against the uprooting of longstanding Puerto Rican and Mexican communities on Chicago's West Side. Readers who have an investment in the alternative food movement must be conscientious of these tensions and consider resisting gentrification by creating inclusive, intercultural food spaces.

In a series of studies, rural and urban suicides were compared and the psychological factors underlying suicidal behaviour investigated. In the first study suicides in a Nfid-Wales county were examined and contrasted with a group of urban suicides. The pattern of rural suicides was found to differ from the urban suicides. Rural suicides were more evenly spread through the age bands, mostly married and used more violent means of death. Farmers comprised a large proportion of rural suicides and seem to differ from rural suicides in general in that 88% were over 45 years of age, most died of hanging, only 13% left notes and they had no record of previous suicide attempts. The factors that might cause farmers stress were examined. This showed that farmers found form filling and adjusting to government policy most stressful. Isolation was relatively unimportant as a stressor. In the third study the role of mood and problem solving in suicidal behaviour was investigated in three matched groups (suicidal, psychiatric control and non-psychiatric control). The suicidal group was found to display a careless and impulsive problem solving style and unique deficits in decision making and generation of alternative solutions. They were also more depressed, angry and confused. The problem solving deficits remained even when the effects of the mood differences were removed. The last study investigated the relationship between autobiographical memory and problem solving and found the suicidal group to be significantly more overgeneral in their memories, they produced fewer means and less effective problem solving solutions and these deficits were found to persist over time. These results were interpreted as support for these factors being trait features or alternatively requiring more time to recover. The findings were incorporated into a revised version of the "Cry of Pain" model of suicidal behaviour (Williams, 1997).

There has been an increased interest on small-scale pumped irrigation (SSPI) in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), however little is known on the adoption processes behind this technology. Moreover, the conditions for successful SSPI adoption remain largely unexplored. This research aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the present adoption processes to inform future policy. The thesis was framed around the diffusion of innovations model (Rogers 2003), using the systematic review methodology and field surveys. Interviews involving 212 farmers and 25 other stakeholders were conducted between 2013 and 2014 within 3 districts in Malawi. The responses were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The systematic review revealed that evidence relating to pump performance in SSA was limited, lacked standards and confined within particular regions. The field surveys identified that four different pumped systems have been adopted by farmers in Malawi; group treadle, individual treadle, group motorized and individual motorized. Farmers generally prefer individually managed pumps that are easy to operate and fit in with their existing farming practices. Adoption is driven either by the attributes of self-motivated farmers or by incentives such as free or subsidized pumps. While adoption by self-motivated farmers is consistent with Rogers (2003) model, adoption due to incentives shows differences. The research proposes a modification to the Rogers (2003) model and revised definition of success in SSPI adoption, leading to a new framework showing pathways of success. This framework identifies the routes taken by farmers who successfully adopt or discontinue using pumps. Incentive farmers are typically the poorer; these need continued external support to survive the learning curve. For self-motivated farmers, their higher socio-economic status supports successful adoption. To ensure sustainability, SSPI promoters need to offer continued support to incentive farmers and/or reduce barriers to accessing the pumps for self-motivated farmers.

The main research problem is the low productivity of small scale maize farmers largely as a result of low adoption rates of recommended practices that could enhance yield levels and improve their incomes and livelihoods, and the inability of extension workers to effectively influence farmers’ decision making process by their lack of appropriate predictive extension planning tools. The problem faced by extension workers is the lack of understanding of the wants and needs of farmers, their preferences and behavioral inclinations towards agricultural innovations. In order to contribute to the understanding of farmers’ behavior change, the study sought to compare the relative influence of personal and social characteristics of farmers with intervening variables as conceptualized by Düvel and Ajzen’s subjective norms, with the objective of determining their predictive potential of farmers behaviors for extension program planning purposes. A secondary objective was to search for additional variables to explain farmer’s adoption behavior by exploring the predictive value of the subjective norm concept The study was carried out in the Leribe and Maluti-a-Phofung districts of Lesotho and South Africa respectively. A structured questionnaire with a Sotho translation was used to collect data from 107 farmers randomly selected from the districts and administered by trained extension staff. The data collected was analyzed using the social sciences (SPSS). In determining the relationships between the independent and dependent variables, Chi-square test of independence, correlation and regressions analysis were used. In all 10 independent and nine intervening variables were selected for the study. The independent variables were location of the farm, membership of farmers association, gender, age, level of education, experience in farming, off-farm income, amount of time spent farming, total farm size and area under maize cultivation. The intervening variables were efficiency perception, need compatibility, need tension, awareness and prominence constituted cognitive aspects derived from Düvel’s Model and the social dimensions adapted from Ajzen’s subjective norm concept were, important people, extension agents, close friends and membership of farmers association. The results suggest that farm size and area under maize cultivation were the only variables that showed any consistent influence with adoption of recommended maize agronomic practices namely: use of improved seeds, lime and fertilizer applications. The association between the remaining variables seems to be more dependent on the type of recommended practice. For example location was found to be significantly associated with the adoption of fertilizer and top-dressing practices but not with lime and the use of improved seed. All the remaining independent variables gender, age, educational level, experience and time spent on the farm appear not to have any significant influence on the adoption of the recommended practices at five percent level of probability. Compared to the independent variables, five out of the nine intervening variables, namely: prominence, awareness, need compatibility, efficiency perception and need tension were consistently found to be highly significantly associated with the adoption of all the four recommended maize agronomic practices at 5% level of probability. On the other hand, the subjective norm variables did not show any consistent association with adoption behaviors of respondents In general the analysis suggest a lower than expected contribution to variation as the results contradicts the hypothesis that farm and farmer characteristics influence adoption behavior. This is supported by the fact that, except for top- dressing where the characteristics of the farmer and farm contribute about 40% to the explanation to total variation, the rest all fall below 20 %. In contrast, the evidence shows that the intervening variables – those with cognitive dimensions, showed a high degree in explaining variation in the adoption behavior in all the production practices studied. The power of explanation ranged from 49% in the case of adoption of improved seed practices to 77.7% for the use of lime. The results provide strong evidence in support of the contention that, the intervening variables of cognitive in nature, are the likely precursors of decision making through which the influence of independent variables become manifested in behavior. The results also show that need, perception and knowledge related variables mediate between intentions, personal variables and the environment and decisions on adoption. This study confirms and opens the way for the search for more intervening variables with the potential to extend the epistemology of extension science. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Agriculture in Ghana is dominated by smallholder farmers who are faced with unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events. Climate modelling forecasts that the rate at which precipitation will decrease in the country is far more than the rate at which it will increase during the wet season. It is predicted that rain-fed maize output will decrease below 25 percent in all the ten regions of the country by 2020 if nothing is done. To mitigate the effect of climate change and safeguard food security, the country must undertake measures to adapt to the changing climate. The process of adaptation, therefore, involves the interdependence of agents through their relation with each other. This includes the institution in which the agents reside and the resource based on which they depend. The resource embedded in such relationship has been termed social capital. Empirical studies on social capital and climate change adaptation is lacking, especially in Ghana. Based on this, the study assesses the influence of social capital on climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers in the Central region of Ghana. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data was collected using household questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. K-means cluster analysis was used to identify weak and strong ties and four individual social capital variables. Twenty-year maize and rainfall data were analysed using trend analysis. The influence of individual social capital and other controlled variables were analysed using Multinomial logit model. Using 225 sampled households the results of the study showed that all the four identified individual social capital variables differ by sex. The perceptions of climate change among smallholder farmers also differ significantly by location. The four individual social capital variables as well as other controlled variables influence at least one indigenous adaptation strategy and one introduced adaptation strategy. The study recommends, among others, that transfer of climate change adaptation techniques or technology to smallholder farmers should not be solely accomplished through the usual technology transfer network of agricultural researchers and extension agents. Rather, it will be imperative to increased contact with a wide variety of local actors who provide information and resources for agricultural production.

The near collapse of extension services in Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA) particularly evident in its failure to respond to the needs of the majority of small-scale farmers, presents a major problem from an agricultural and rural development point of view. This calls for an urgent and holistic intervention, in terms of an appropriate extension approach and policy, and prompted this research focusing on the search and development of an appropriate extension approach and corresponding policy for the LDA. For such a policy to be acceptable at the operational level, the emphasis has been on maximum involvement and participation of extension personnel. A total of 324 front line extension workers and managers, representing a 40 percent sample, were involved in group interviews in which their opinions were captured in semi structured questionnaires after exposure to nominal group and Delphi techniques. From the research no particular extension model emerged, but rather a series of principles, which, depending on a specific situation, could be combined and implemented to different degrees. Respondents’ opinions regarding these principles and their dimensions formed the basis of recommendations for a policy framework. These recommendations, based on informed opinions of respondents, include a need-based but priority focused approach relying on a compromise between felt and unfelt needs rather than only the felt needs of community members. For the implementation of participatory development that will ultimately allow for community empowerment and ownership, institutional linkage structures are recommended that provide for effective coordination and integrated operational activities, and having primarily a commodity focus. A strong knowledge support system, having as target audience front-line extension workers rather than farmers, is important in view of the large percentage of under-qualified extension staff. A national (or provincial) monitoring and evaluation programme is seen as an issue of high priority, with a stronger emphasis on monitoring using behaviour determinants (forces of change) as main criteria, but covering also the full range of in- and output criteria in the evaluation process, which if used together with a purposeful and programmed approach, can go a long way in improving current and future extension in Limpopo. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Contractual arrangements have been viewed as institutional arrangements ideal for improved market access for smallholder farmers. However, certain questions remain unanswered, such as whether the smallholder farmers benefit from them and how? Do contractual arrangements empower smallholder farmers or not? And do contractual arrangements lead to improved gross farm incomes for smallholder farmers or not? From these questions, three hypotheses were developed and tested, which are: Contracting lowers smallholder farmers' market price risk and therefore improves market access; contracting improves smallholder farmers' farm incomes; and contracting improves smallholder farmers' capacity to access external resources (financial credit, technical and extension services). This thesis characterised agricultural contractual arrangements in the Winterveld region, which ranged from implicit to explicit contracting. These contractual arrangements were characterised based on the general description of the contractual arrangement, the nature of the contract (formal or informal), contract negotiation, price discovery and payment structure, responsibilities of the contracting firm and farmers, contract enforcement and conflict resolution and opportunities and threats associated with the contractual arrangement. The study used a case study approach and interviewed a total of 50 smallholder farmers and three agribusiness companies. Most of the data were qualitative in nature with significant quantitative data on prices and yields. Only smallholder farmers who were actively involved in marketing their produce for the season 2009/2010 were interviewed, using a structured questionnaire. Agribusiness companies were interviewed us1ng semi -structured questionnaires. The technique of triangulation was employed to validate data from the three primary data sources, which were key informants, smallholder farmers· and agribusinesses transacting with Winterveld smallholder farmers. Literature on contract farming was explored and the main objective of the study was to show how contractual arrangements affect smallholder farmers and how best can they be used to mainstream smallholder farmers into formal agricultural markets. Results from the qualitative analysis showed that non-land assets endowment are sources of pre-selection bias and in some cases are determinants of being contracted. However there was no positive relationship between owning non-land assets and contracting. Some contractual arrangements, like the marketing specification public tenders' contractual arrangement, are well designed to minimise farmers' price risk. However, others, like the marketing specification valencia contractual arrangement, do expose farmers to market price risk. There was a significant difference in farm gross incomes between contracted and noncontracted farmers. It is however so that there were different levels of skills, management and enterprise mix between them. In some cases, for instance in the marketing specification valencia contract and marketing specification leafy vegetables and navels contracts, contracting does enable farmers to access external resources. However, having access to external resources also depended on the farmers' innovativeness and social networks and the information available to them. From these results, the thesis concluded that contractual arrangements are not a panacea for improving smallholder farmers' market access, therefore other alternative marketing channels for smallholder farmers have to be explored. Market outlets such as hawkers had very low transaction costs, which makes it easier for smallholder farmers to enter such market channels, but there is very low public support in such market channels. Furthermore, it is not always the case that contracting prices are superior to other prices in alternative markets. Some farmers in non-contractual arrangements in some cases realised superior prices for their produce. Based on the study findings, this thesis proposes key government interventions in eliminating information asymmetries and development of a public framework on contracting where necessary. Information asymmetries in particular can be reduced by deployment of effective and well trained agricultural extension personnel in smallholder farming areas. Also, a public framework on contracting reduces information asymmetries as well as guarding against unfair business practices against smallholder farmers. Furthermore, due to the heterogeneous nature of produce from smallholder farmers, exploration of urban supply chains characterised by cultural diversity and low income consumers might result in improved market access for smallholder farmers. The thesis also proposes further research on the policy environment in which agricultural contracting takes place in South Africa. This could help in creating better policies which may foster increased formal market access by smallholder farmers. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc(Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted