A sustainable approach to fostering agricultural knowledge sharing in conflict-affected areas of Eastern Ukraine

Publication date: Available online 9 March 2019Source: NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life SciencesAuthor(s): Andrew F. Fieldsend, Yana Voitovska, Farrukh Toirov, Ruslan Markov, Nevena AlexandrovaAbstractThe agriculture sector of the Donbass Region in eastern Ukraine is facing serious challenges caused by the ongoing military conflict and consequent disruption of the earlier-established value chains. An advisory service potentially could help farmers to adapt to the changed circumstances. To inform the development process, an interview survey was conducted among 80 farmers in the region of their perceived information and advisory needs. Most interviewees stated that many issues affect the performance of their farm. Of all the given farmer × issue ‘interactions’ (i.e. a given farmer facing a specific issue), advice had been sought in around 70 per cent of instances. For any specific issue, most farmers sought advice from several sources. Interviewees attached very high importance to accessibility, convenience, previous personal experience, personal recommendation and confidence in the quality of advice given. Friends and family was the most popular source of advice, with farmers’ organisations, local government agencies and agricultural Internet portals all being consulted by more than half of the interviewees. Many other sources were used by fewer than ten farmers. Twelve interviewees said that they would seek advice from advisory services if this was available. Foll...
Source: NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences - Category: Biology Source Type: research