Purpose: The article reports effects on livelihoods of a participatory technology development effort in Benin and Ghana (2001-2006), five years after it ended. Design: The study uses data from all smallholders who participated in seven experimental groups, each facilitated by a PhD researcher. Baseline data and controls were not available. In…

Arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) play a large role in the current understanding of the soil ecosystem. They increase nutrient and water uptake, improve soil structure, and form complex hyphal networks that transfer nutrients between plants within an ecosystem. Factors such as species present, the physiological balance between the plants in the…

In most of the pedagogical development experiences, the contents that students generate as a result of the course activities are not considered as a primary source of knowledge. Thus, students see their learning disadvantaged, when their intellectual outputs are not considered in the design of the learning activities. Today, the Web offers a wide…

Libraries are actively seeking to identify and respond to the data management and curation needs of researchers. One important perspective often overlooked in acquiring an understanding is that of graduate students. This case study used the Data Curation Profile Toolkit to interview six graduate students working for agronomy researchers at the…

Purpose: There is inconsistency in the design, understanding, implementation and monitoring of soil health programmes. Despite mounting scientific evidence for the credibility of certain soil health indicators, an increase in the reporting of programme benefits, and progress in communicating these benefits, many farmers remain hesitant to…

Universities develop strategic planning documents, and as part of that planning process, logic models are developed for specific programs within the university. This article examines the long-standing pecan program at New Mexico State University and the deficiencies and successes in the evolution of its logic model. The university's agricultural…

Using spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel for building crop models and running simulations can be beneficial. Excel is easy to use, powerful, and versatile, and it requires the least proficiency in computer programming compared to other programming platforms. Excel, however, has several weaknesses: it does not directly support loops for iterative…

Fostering the cognitive skills to analyse environmental "commons dilemmas" is an urgent task of environmental education globally. Commons dilemmas are characterised by structural incentives to overexploit a natural resource; their solution is particularly pressing in threatened biodiversity "hotspot" areas. Solutions to these…

In this study the effects of different learning environments on the promotion of decision-making competence for the socioscientific issue of genetically modified crops is investigated. The comparison focuses on direct vs. indirect instructions. Therefore on the one hand a sophisticated decision-making strategy was presented to the directly…

Understanding plant breeding as well as procedures and issues of seed companies are skills students studying agronomy need to acquire. Simulation games can be effective teaching tools in developing higher-order thinking skills of students. The "Fantasy Seed Company" game was developed to create motivated learners by allowing students to run a mock…

Within the now extensive recent literature on cultures of nature, agriculture has received less attention than might have been expected given its threshold role in transforming human relations with the earth and with plants and animals. The concept and practice of agriculture can be understood as central to the emergence and maintenance of the…

Purpose: There are many complexities to be considered when selecting tactical control options in crops grown under an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) regime. Students being trained in IPM are made aware of this complexity but do not always get the chance to experience IPM decision-making first-hand. This case study describes a web-based…

Purpose: This article evaluates the dissemination and use of rice training videos by radio stations, farmers, farmer associations and extension services in Benin. It pays attention to positive deviants and process innovation within a "hands-off experiment". Design/methodology/approach: Using questionnaires and checklists we interviewed…

Some soil and crop science university programs undergo curricula revision to maintain relevancy with their profession and/or to attract the best students to such programs. The Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University completed a thorough data gathering process as part of its revision of the undergraduate curriculum and…

This study was designed to generate a deeper understanding of data sharing by targeting faculty members who had already made data publicly available. During interviews, crop scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were asked why they decided to share data, why they chose a data sharing method (e. g., supplementary file,…