Several agricultural practices are known to have varying impacts on the environment. Since farmers are directly involved in such practices, it is important that we ascertain their level of knowledge on environmental impacts of their farming activities. It is equally important to know whether there are any factors that are likely to influence such knowledge.
1. Farmers will always cut trees to prepare for farming because they know trees have a negative impact on crop production. Do they know they replace what they cut with more appropriate trees arranged in a way that crops will not be affected?
2. Majority of farmers know the effect of contour-cultivation and the effect on soil erosion.
The ASDSP County household reports in Kenya have captured farmers' knowledge on climate related information
Thank you Dr. Muinga for your response. I will look for the ASDSP household report for Kilifi County to see what the Kilifi farmers know about environmental impacts of their farming activities.
no matter what (if any) information farmers have about the impact of their activities on environment it will always be biased and tainted by the source!
Dr. Am not sure if it makes sense but my feeling is that although farmers may have an idea on the types /forms of environmental impacts of farming in a particular area(s), most likely they are not aware of the potential risks and effects on their social-economic life. They assume there shall be an alternative. I have read the Kilifi ASDSP report but its rather shallow on this aspect
Management is often considered an important factor in explaining differences in environmental impact but limited work has been done to actually analyse the relation between management and environmental efficiency realised.
The efficiency literature often explains the relation between management and technical and/or economic performance by personal aspects such as ‘level of education’ and ‘experience' or 'age’. These aspects are relatively easy to measure but cover only a small part of all aspects concerning management.
De Koeijer et al. operationalise the concept of management capability and apply it to nitrogen management of Dutch arable farms. Four management elements ('objectives'; 'internal analysis of weaknesses and strengths'; 'external analysis of opportunities and threats'; and 'synthesis') are made operational by relating them to the relevant extant N-policy regulation for Dutch arable farms (MINAS). The external analysis was evaluated by questions about the MINAS rules; the internal analysis was evaluated by questions on the expected consequences for the farmer’s N management.
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to assess farm specific efficiency scores for N-fertiliser use. Next, for a sub-sample of the farms used in the DEA analysis, the management elements were addressed by means of a workshop.
To assess the ‘quality of the synthesis’, an interactive simulation model was emplyed for evaluating whether farmers were able to choose the optimal fertilisation strategy in view of MINAS
A positive correlation was found between N efficiency at farm level and the following management elements: ‘quality of the synthesis’, ‘the internal analysis’ and ‘the economic degree of the mission’.
Article Assessment of the quality of farmers' environmental manageme...
Here are some latest publications from India dealing with farmers knowledge being evaluated in form of GAP ( Good agriculture practices) ..
Thank you Ewald, Ada and Anoop for your responses, especially for the publications shared by Ada and Anoop. I will read them to learn about the experiences from the Netherlands and India.
Please see:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212096316300250
http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18049/1/NewshamNaessGuthiga%20CC%20briefing%20paper%20Nov%202011.pdf
https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/fileadmin/mediapool/2_Downloads/Fachinformationen/Dialog/dialog09_women-farmers.pdf
http://www.kh.undp.org/content/dam/cambodia/docs/EnvEnergy/Awareness%20and%20Knowledge%20Assessement%20Report_Final.pdf
https://www.cbd.int/financial/micro/nepal-resilience.pdf
Thank you Gonzalo for the quite useful links you have provided. I have seen a lot of information on the publications.
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