The purpose of this record of study was to examine the perceptions held by a
targeted "grassroots" society composed of agricultural producers regarding farm policy
goals, policy commodity components, and operational factors as potential barriers to
successful policy. The study also examined the relationship of the government defined and
"grassroots" perceived intended outcomes of current components to seek areas of needed
education or research.
A researcher developed questionnaire was used to collect the data from
members/producers of USDA, FSA county committees in Texas. The questionnaire
consisted of 37 questions divided into three sections: demographic and farm data; policy
perception data; and operational issues. Ultimately, there were a total of 761 surveys
returned from 175 FSA county committees of 206 (85%) representing farms and ranches
from 232 of 254 counties (91% of counties) in Texas. Descriptive statistics and one-way
ANOVA were used to examine the data.
Major findings, identified through descriptive analysis, were that the producer
respondents in the study were predominately male, between the ages of 36 - 65 years of
age and Caucasian. As a group, the producer respondents will be farming and ranching to
provide food and fiber for a population much more diverse than itself. The perception data
collected yielded that, while some general and important conclusions can be drawn from
the data, the different size/types of producers had different opinions, knowledge levels, and
therefore, educational needs. Overall, policy goals involving global orientation and the
supply and stabilization of farm income for producers were high targets for educational
needs by the respondents. Respondents also considered those policy tools providing
producer control or proprietary decision making as high areas of need for education.
Several operational issues noted educational needs such as individual handling of
landowner/tenant issues, administrative costs/changes, and changes in commodity
programs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/1036 |
| Date | 15 November 2004 |
| Creators | Parker, Rebecca Hall |
| Contributors | Briers, Gary, Akers, Cindy |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Record of Study, text |
| Format | 930472 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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