A total of 206 wheat and 200 barley farmers were interviewed in northeastern Syria to understand farmer perceptions and practice relating to modern varieties, seed sources and seed quality. Wheat farmers had better awareness and grew modern varieties (87%), applied fertilizers (99.5%), herbicides (93%), seed treatment (90%) or insecticides (41%). In contrast barley growers had low awareness (36...

This paper presents an approach for simultaneously estimating farmers’ decisions to accept incentive payments in return for adopting a bundle of environmentally benign management practices. Using the results of a multinomial probit analysis of surveys of over 1,000 farmers facing ten adoption decisions in an EQIP-type program, we show how the farmers’ perceptions of the desirability of various ...

Bringing together emerging lessons from biophysical and social sciences as well as newly available data, we take stock of what can be learned about the relationship among subjective (reported) and objective (measured) soil fertility and farmer input use in east Africa. We identify the correlates of Kenyan and Tanzanian maize farmers’ reported perceptions of soil fertility and assess the extent ...

While ecosystem services provide benefits at various spatial scales, often the decision to conserve an ecosystem lies with the local people. Knowing the perceptions of local landowners of the benefits provided by ecosystem services cannot only help in the design of efficient mechanisms for environmental conservation, but also in achieving the support of these mechanisms by the local stakeholder...

This study provides an insight into auger-related injuries, Iowa farmers' perceptions of auger-related injuries and the condition of augers used in Iowa agriculture. Specific auger-related injury data (437 records) from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) was examined and interpreted. The most likely body part injured was the finger and 11:00 A.M., 3:00 P.M., and 5:00 P.M. were the time...

The objectives of this study were to explore farmers' intentions to implement foot and mouth disease (FMD) control in Ethiopia, and to identify perceptions about the disease and its control measures that influence these intentions using the Health Belief Model (HBM) framework. Data were collected using questionnaires from 293 farmers in three different production systems. The influence of perce...

Early storage root bulking (ESRB) in cassava has increasingly become important in the national cassava breeding programmes in Africa. To assess farmers' perceptions on ESRB in cassava and identify their cultivar selection criteria, a study was conducted in east and central Uganda. One hundred and twenty cassava farmers were sampled and interviewed following structured questionnaires, and their ...

Land degradation is one of the most serious problems facing resource-poor tropical hillside farmers. Studies examining determinants of farmers’ decisions to invest in land improvement technologies have focused on economic and financial factors, neglecting individuals’ perceptions and awareness of the problems and how they affect land use and behavioral change that enhance environmental sustaina...

Soil fertility is one of many factors which influence farmers’ choices regarding agricultural production, fertilisation and soil and water conservation. Before we can study the effects however, we need to measure soil fertility. We use the QUEFTS model (QUantitative Evaluation of the Fertility of Tropical Soils Janssen et al., 1990), which predicts crop yields from chemical soil characteristics...