This study measures farmers' risk attitudes in rural China using a survey instrument and a complementary experiment conducted in the field with the same sample of subjects. Using a question asking people about their willingness to take risks "in general", we found that the average response of our sample is slightly risk averse. Farmers' exogenous factors (age, gender, and height) and self-repor...

Farmers’ pest management practices, awareness and their perception about the effects of pesticides’ use on the environment were discussed in this study. Data were collected from the vegetable farmers who operate along the banks of the rivers, streams and dams at the outskirts of the city. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from 128 vegetable farmers who use pesticides in ve...

OBJECTIVES To investigate potential sources of stress for farmers in England and Wales METHOD A postal questionnaire was sent to a randomly selected group of 800 members of the National Farmers' Union and 200 members of the Farmers' Union of Wales. RESULTS 500 questionnaires (51%) were returned completed between October 1995 and March 1996. Farmers had problems with record keeping and paper...

Farmers’ right is considered important to farmers for conservation of agro biodiversity and fostering innovations in agriculture. This paper aims to present findings of the stakeholder survey on the perceptions of farmers' rights and conservation of agro biodiversity in Nepal. The study was carried out in 2006-2007 employing combination of personal interviews, focussed group discussions and con...

Building on farmer’s agroecological knowledge to design environmental-friendly agricultural systems is crucial given the environmental impact of industrial agriculture. We investigated the drivers of farmers’ knowledge of agrobiodiversity management and analyzed how farmers’ knowledge and their current farming contexts may guide future farming systems in sub-humid (Bassila) and semi-arid (Bouko...

Two banana supply chains (BSC), one in Indonesia (BSC1) and one in Australia (BSC2), are described based on case study research conducted in 2002. BSC1 sources bananas from small farmers for distribution through traditional markets in Jakarta. BSC2 includes farmers supplying to both major and independent retailers in Sydney through a wholesale agency with some farmer ownership. Farmers in both ...

As the sustainability of agricultural citizen science projects depends on volunteer farmers who contribute their time, energy and skills, understanding their motivation is important to attract and retain participants in citizen science projects. The objectives of this study were to assess 1) farmers' motivations to participate as citizen scientists and 2) farmers' mobile telephone usage. Buildi...

An agent-based model of conflict among herders and between herders and private farmers of east Africa is presented using the MASON agent-based simulation environment. Herders survive by keeping their herds fed and watered in the inhospitable environment with some of the land becoming unavailable due to privatization. Our model develops realistic population and conflict dynamics. With only basic...

Agriculture is an important sector in Ghana's economy, however, with high risk due to natural factors like climate change, pests and diseases and bush fires among others. Farmers in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana which is known as one of the major cocoa producing regions, face these risks which sometimes results in crop failure. The need for farmers to therefore insure their farms against crop...

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and farming are two conditions that have been associated with an increased risk of anxiety and depression. Dairy farming is an independent risk factor for COPD. Objective To test the hypotheses that the prevalence of anxiety and/or depression is higher in dairy farmers with COPD than in farmers without COPD, and higher in dairy farmers w...