The Effect of Social Networks on Smallholder Farmers’ Decision to Join Farmer-Base Seed Producer Cooperatives (FBSc): The Case of Hararghe, Oromia, Ethiopia

Zhu

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

Introduction: Recently, the public and policymakers have acquired knowledge of the detrimental effects of pesticide use in agriculture. These include the threat to the health of chemical applicators and the threat that pesticide residues pose to the safety of food. The present study focuses on the farmers’ social networks from a new perspective, along with the farmers’ concurrent agricultural business and their impact on the farmer’s safe production behavior.Methodology: The Endogenous Switching Probit Regression model and Binary Probit Group Regression model were employed for the empirical analysis of survey data collected from 585 households in the Xianyang, Yan’an, and Weinan districts of Shaanxi province, China.Results and Discussion: The results revealed that farmers’ social networks can greatly affect farmers’ safe production behavior. Additionally, we noted that the farmers’ social networks may play a positive role in promoting the farmers’ safe production behaviors of both concurrent agricultural business and non-concurrent agricultural business farmers. Moreover, their correlation coefficients were found significant at a confidence level of 5%. Our findings suggest that the government needs to construct social networks among farmers by setting up a communication platform and promoting the acquaintance of safe production through reciprocal culture.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ social networks’ effects on the sustainable production of fresh apples in China’s Shaanxi province

Zhu

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

“…Based on these observations, the study interpreted whether networks help in the adoption of new technologies (smartphones). Ofolsha et al (2022) state that the large size of the social network of a farmer favors him in group formation where information and knowledge are shared, which in turn increases future participation in farmer-producer organizations. Therefore, using SNA helps to draw future plans based on the communication network.…”

Section: Why Study Farmers' Social Network?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unlocking Agricultural Information Networks: A Social Network Analysis Approach

Anusha,

Patel,

H.M

2023

GJoEE

Indian extension system persistently encountered challenges related to the ineffective dissemination of agricultural information and lack of intensive private extension. Social Network Analysis (SNA) focuses on how actors are located in a network and studies their multidimensional relationship. The present study aims to explore the information-seeking patterns of the farmers using SNA and understand the effective and efficient means of communication that the extension system can tap further. Two districts (Anand and Vadodara) of Gujarat were conveniently selected from which two blocks and two villages each were purposively selected for the study. By employing random sampling, a total of 120 respondents were interviewed. The analysis using UCINET software elicited that respondents had 36 nodes contacted for attaining information for production aspects, with 27 and 23 nodes for protection and marketing, respectively. However, the density (0.553) and transitivity (0.705) were high for the protection network, implying a stronger connection between the nodes and having a lower average geodesic distance (1.450), conveying that the information dissemination related to protection aspects happens rapidly. Non-dominance of either public or private entities in the marketing network emphasized the need for attention. At the node level, input dealers were of significant value in the network, and the respondents of Vadodara had more accessibility to agriculture information than the Anand district. The study’s findings contribute significantly to the existing literature by shedding light on the challenges within the Indian extension system, emphasizing the importance of Social Network Analysis in understanding farmers’ information-seeking patterns and highlighting key areas for improvement in agricultural communication and information dissemination.

“…Farmers join the cooperatives, and the cooperatives provide agricultural services to farmers [27]. Under the unified management, the cooperative provides various agricultural production services for farmers at a relatively low price [10], such as seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides, and other agricultural materials [28] and procurement services for member farmers before production; production services such as cultivation, agricultural machinery, and technical consultation for farmers during production; and acquisition and marketing services for member farmers after production. The agricultural procurement, technical consultation, and production services provided by cooperatives for farmers are conducive to improving farmers' production capabilities, regulating farmers' planting production, and reducing farmers' grain production costs [29,30].…”

Section: Grain Production Cost Influenced By Cooperative-driven Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farmers' cultivation technology has an important impact on farmers' production and management [26], and the government actively improves farmers' agricultural production technology through agricultural training [27]. Considering this paper studies the technology input in grain production of farm households, drawing on related literature [28], the technology input of farm households is measured by the type of agricultural technology training received by farm households. And the specific agricultural technologies are classified as rational fertilizer application, rational pesticide application, land preparation technology, planting technology, straw return to the field, green planting, agricultural machinery training, watersaving technology training, and other technologies.…”

Section: Selection Of Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Agricultural Factor Inputs, Cooperative-Driven on Grain Production Costs

Zhang,

2023

Agriculture

The problem of high grain production costs, which is not conducive to sustainable agricultural development and food security, is highlighted in the context of China’s “large country and small household farmers”. Reducing the grain production costs through factor allocation and organizational drive has become particularly important. Based on 768-grain peasant households in China, this paper uses OLS regression and robust regression to examine the effects of agricultural factor inputs and cooperatives on grain production costs. It analyzes the synergistic and substitution effects between farmers’ factor inputs and cooperatives in grain production. It was found that: (1) in farmers’ grain production, reductions in the grain production costs can be realized by expanding the area under cultivation, improving the use of agricultural machinery, and increasing technological inputs; (2) a reduction in the grain production costs can also be realized through cooperatives driving farmers into grain production; (3) cooperatives can provide farmers with various types of agricultural production services in grain production and cooperative-driven substitution effects between the agricultural factor inputs of farm households. The findings of this paper contribute to the enrichment of research in the field of agricultural production and are important for enhancing agricultural sustainability and reducing grain production costs.