Agrisemantics promises improved interoperability, traceability and analytics in food and agriculture, yet adoption remains limited. This study reports 28 semi-structured interviews and a survey of 76 practitioners, analyzed thematically to identify organizational, financial, technical and cultural factors shaping uptake. Key barriers include decision-maker resistance, internal gatekeeping, limited tools, data heterogeneity and shortages of skilled personnel, with additional constraints in less developed countries. Drivers include provenance, traceability, digitalization, regulation and individual champions. The study contributes an empirically grounded account of adoption and recommends incentive alignment, stronger governance and enhanced tooling and training to support sustainable Agrisemantic infrastructure.
Cocoa is vital to Ghana's economy, yet misinformation threatens productivity by distorting farmers' decision-making. This study examined how misinformation affects cocoa farmers in Jukwa District using a cross-sectional survey of 390 farmers. Farmers accessed information from multiple sources, but extension officers were the most frequently used. However, a considerable number of farmers had acted on false information in pruning, pricing, fertilizer application, and pest control. Misinformation spread mainly through peer interactions, cooperatives, and radio/television. Logistic regression showed radio/television, community information centers, and social media increased susceptibility. Strengthening extension services is essential to counter misinformation and promote informed decisions.
E-commerce has transformed the agricultural landscape, revolutionizing information exchange and driving adoption rates among farmers. In this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) synthesized insights from 87 studies spanning from 2000 to 2024, uncovering the factors, barriers, and challenges related to e-commerce adoption in Asian agriculture. The influencing factors revealed include technological, economic, social, cultural, policy, and market accessibility. Despite its potential, adoption remains hindered by infrastructure deficits, regulatory complexities, and limited digital literacy. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by offering a comprehensive roadmap for advancing agricultural e-commerce research and practice in transforming Asia's agricultural sector.
The contribution of CABI digital tools in enhancing plant health and pest risk management is examined. Six key digital tools are reviewed to draw themes on their benefits and challenges to users and assessed using the Principles for Digital Development as a guiding framework. CABI digital tools provide quick access to relevant information, support informed decision-making, and are open access and scalable. Enhancing user accessibility and considering diverse local contexts, especially in remote areas with poor internet connectivity, can extend their impact. Addressing financial and social sustainability, including gender barriers to mobile ownership, can also increase their contribution.
This review compares the features of CAB Abstracts on the CAB Digital Library Platform and the CAB Abstracts with Full Text on the EBSCO platform. It provides useful information for librarians considering the best platform on which to offer the CAB Abstracts to their patrons. The contents of the CABI databases on these two platforms contain the same information. This review therefore focuses on the similarities and differences between their interfaces and search and retrieval characteristics. Among these are ease of access, sign-in methods, retrieval display, filters, user assistance, searching features, and retrieval with examples.
This study seeks to develop and test the recall of two search hedges for One Health articles. CAB Abstracts was searched, and the first 100 relevance-ranked results were downloaded. The most frequent co-occurrences of CAB descriptors were used to develop a hedge. A second hedge was developed using the descriptors and related natural language keywords. The natural language hedge had better recall (100% and 95%, respectively) than the co-occurrence hedge (24% and 86%, respectively). When searching a broad-based topic area like One Health, there is a need for expansive language to incorporate multiple expressions of a concept.
The university faculties that offer agriculture-related courses and how agricultural information is provided on course outlines are unknown. From June 2020 through April 2022, Canadian university websites were searched using the terms agri*, food*, farm*, crop*, plant*, animal*, and sustain*, retrieving 417 course outlines in 23 social science and 12 science faculties. Through descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis, the authors identified six themes: industrial agriculture and biotechnology; sustainability; alternatives and organic agriculture; food sovereignty, Indigenous, and gender; food security and food safety; and animal ethics and welfare. Instructors are encouraged to broaden the agricultural topics presented and provide balanced information.
You may have seen internet memes comparing llamas and alpacas (e.g., https://amp.cheezburger.com/9680389/llamas-vs-alpacas-learn-the-difference and https://imgur.com/t/llama/lHoXp). “An alpaca has soft fleece,” one such meme reads, while a llama “has a knife in its fur.” “Llamas are the Devil incarnate,” reads another, while “alpacas are not the Devil incarnate.” While llamas are larger, stronger, and generally more independent than alpacas, it is safe to say that these pack animals are being unfairly, if humorously, maligned. Both llamas and alpacas can be ill-tempered when highly provoked – like other camelids, llamas and alpacas are famous spitters – but they also can be quite docile, even friendly, when raised and handled properly. This column discusses some of the differences between llamas and alpacas, their various uses, and some tips and resources for raising them.
In the 1960s, there was widespread concern that human population growth, particularly in developing nations, would soon exceed the world’s food supply. For many developing countries, most arable land was already in production. Scientific attention turned to increasing agricultural productivity. “Increasing the productivity of existing land, therefore, appeared essential both to meeting food needs as population increased and incomes rose and to promoting a thriving agriculture on which the development of the rest of the economy depended” (Baum & Lejeune, 1986, p. 2). Today, the impacts of climate change and anticipated global population of 9 billion people by 2050 are making these same concerns paramount. One organization that has steadfastly supported agricultural research to address global food needs for over 50 years is CGIAR, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Agricultural research in the developing world during the colonial era focused on cash crop production for export. As concerns arose about alleviating poverty and addressing food insecurity in these regions, agricultural research shifted to food crops. In Mexico, the Rockefeller Foundation had been working to address public health issues. Beginning in the 1940s, Henry A. Wallace was instrumental in encouraging the Rockefeller Foundation to branch out to support agricultural research as a means to address public health (Culver & Hyde, 2000). Wallace, a corn farmer and breeder from Iowa, was serving as the U. S. Secretary of Agriculture and he was well-regarded by Mexican agriculturalists. Wallace formed Pioneer Hi-Bred International, the world’s first hybrid seed company, greatly increasing corn yields in Iowa (Hyde, 2003). The Mexican Ministry of Agriculture created the Mexican Agricultural Program with the Rockefeller Foundation https://doi.org/10.1080/10496505.2023.2225247
This paper reports a study that investigated how agricultural researchers use and reuse other researchers’ data in Tanzania. This research used a survey method to investigate the factors influencing researchers in this use/reuse. Findings indicated that more than 80% of researchers use and reuse data accessed from different sources. Several factors influence the majority of researchers (more than 70%) to use and reuse data. The results of this study may attract the attention of agricultural researchers elsewhere to agricultural data use and reuse practices.
"Review of Farming Systems and Food Security in Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy under Global Change." Journal of Agricultural & Food Information, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
"Review of The Devil’s Fruit: Farmworkers, Health, and Environmental Justice." Journal of Agricultural & Food Information, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
"Review of Building a Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa." Journal of Agricultural & Food Information, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
