Ofoegbu, Chidiebere and New, Mark
(2021).
Collaboration Relations in Climate Information Production and Dissemination to Subsistence Farmers in Namibia.
Environmental Management. 67
, 133-145
[Research article]
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Abstract
Although climate information can aid farmers' capacity to adapt to climate change, its accessibility and adoption by subsistence farmers hinge on the collaboration between farmers and climate information providers. This paper examines collaborations among actors in the process of climate information production and dissemination in the Namibian agricultural sector. The aim is to investigate the extent to which subsistence farmers are integrated into the collaboration process and the impact of the collaboration on the nature and accessibility of disseminated information. Key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey were used for data collection. Using network analysis, we estimated the networks' density, clustering coefficient, and degree centrality. The study found that both the climate information production and dissemination networks have a high overall clustering coefficient (78% and 77%, respectively) suggesting a high rate of collaboration among the actors in the networks. However, the frequency of interactions between the actors in both the information production and dissemination networks and subsistence farmers remains very low. Nearly all surveyed farmers reported that they meet with information providers only once in a year. The effect of this poor interaction is reflected in the poor occurrence of feedback learning, which is needed to optimize channels of information dissemination to subsistence farmers and enhance the robustness of disseminated information. We recommend innovative communication means via mobile phone, promotion of peer-to-peer learning, flexible collaboration relations with more space for feedback from the users of climate information, and more attention to long-term forecasts and their implications for adaptive actions.
Authors/Creators: | Ofoegbu, Chidiebere and New, Mark | ||||||
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Title: | Collaboration Relations in Climate Information Production and Dissemination to Subsistence Farmers in Namibia | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Environmental Management | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||||
Volume: | 67 | ||||||
Page range: | 133-145 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 13 | ||||||
Publisher: | SPRINGER | ||||||
ISSN: | 0364-152X | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Agricultural Science (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 5 Social Sciences > 508 Media and Communications > Communication Studies | ||||||
Keywords: | Network analysis, Climate information, Knowledge brokering, Climate change adaptation, Subsistence farmers, Namibia | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-108721 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-108721 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 22155 | ||||||
Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Swedish Species Information Centre | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 09 Feb 2021 07:51 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 09 Feb 2021 07:51 |
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