Intention to Use Voluntary Counseling and Testing Services among College Students

Background: HIV is a health problem of global concern. A large number of HIV cases in Surakarta is due to various factors such as the characteristics of adolescents, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs to reduce HIV prevention through the use of VCT services. This study aims to analyze the relationship between age, gender, type of study program, information exposure, organizational participation, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in using VCT to use Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) services for college students. Method: This research was a quantitative study with a cross-sectional approach. The study population was all students at one university in Surakarta in the 2016-2017 class as many as 12,457 students, while the research sample was 500 students who were taken using a proportional random sampling technique. Data analysis using chi-square test and logistic regression. Results: The results of the multivariate analysis showed that students' knowledge of HIV / AIDS and VCT affected the intention to use VCT services with an OR = 1.776 (CI = 1.170-2.695). The bivariate test results showed that there was a relationship between information exposure (p-value = 0.001), knowledge (p-value = 0.007), attitude (p-value = 0.006) and belief (p-value = 0.013) with the intention to use VCT services. Meanwhile, there was no relationship between age (p-value = 0.118), gender (p-value = 0.579), type of study program (p-value = 1,000), organizational participation (p-value = 0.352) with the intention of using VCT services. Students' knowledge of HIV / AIDS and VCT was the most dominant VCT intention. Therefore, providing information about VCT to students is necessary to increase students' knowledge and confidence in using VCT services.

Study the Relationship between Selective Characteristics of Farmers and Their Practicing Coping Strategies towards Household Food Security during Flood Period

A study was carried out at flood affected reverine villages of three upazilas (small administrative unit) under Jamalpur district in Bangladesh during September, 2011 to May, 2012 to explore the relationship, contribution and direct–indirect effect between personal attributes and their coping strategies towards household food security practiced by the farmers during flood. Data were collected from randomly selected respondents and analyzed through both the qualitative and quantitative techniques by using a statistical program. Out of 18 personal, economic, social and psychological characteristics of the farmers, the personal education, housing condition, annual income, annual expenditure, savings, organizational participation, participation in IGAs, cosmopoliteness, environmental awareness, knowledge on flood coping mechanisms and household food security had positive but both credit received and utilization of received credit had negative. In addition, age, family size, training received, risk orientation and involvement in safety net programs are insignificant with coping strategies towards household food security during flood period.

Study of the Characteristics of Farmers on Practicing Coping Strategies towards Household Food Security during Flood Period

A study was carried out at flood affected reverine villages of three upazilas under Jamalpur district in Bangladesh during September, 2011 to May, 2012 to explore the relationship, contribution and direct–indirect effect between personal attributes and their coping strategies towards household food security practiced by the farmers during flood. Data were collected from randomly selected respondents through both the qualitative and quantitative techniques and analyzed with the help of SSPS. Out of 18 personal, economic, social and psychological characteristics of the farmers, the personal education, housing condition, annual income, annual expenditure, savings, organizational participation, participation in IGAs, cosmopoliteness, environmental awareness, knowledge on flood coping mechanisms and household food security had positive and credit received and utilization of received credit had negative while age, family size, training received, risk orientation and involvement in safety net programmes had no significant relation with coping strategies towards household food security during flood period.

Impact of Integrated Farming System on the Socio-Economic Status of Farmers under ‘Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav (MGMG)’Programme in Bishnupur District of Manipur, India

As India is facing the challenge of continuous rise in demand of agricultural production with the fixed size of land holding, it became imperative to come up with strategic approaches to meet the growing concern. Therefore, in order to achieve rural development and to alleviate the gap between demand and supply, Integrated Farming System was implemented as one of the vital tool under MGMG programme in potential areas. Keeping in view the scopes, the present study was conducted in Bishnupur District, Manipur. An Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. From the three villages of Bishnupur district, a total of 120 respondents were drawn following purposive and simple random sampling method. The objective of the study was to study the socio-personal profile of MGMG farmers and impact of Integrated Farming System on their socio-economic status. The data collected by using the structured interview schedule were encrypted, tabularized and analysed statistically. An analysis of the selected characteristics of the MGMG farmers revealed that majority of the farmers were middle aged small farmer educated upto high school having medium; organizational participation, farming experience, innovation proneness, risk orientation, mass media exposure, extension contact, annual income and economic motivation and they preferred radio over DAO, Bishnupur as the regularly used source of information.

Problem assessment: a case study of catfish culture in Mymensingh district, Bangladesh

The objectives of this study was to assess the extent of problems faced by the farmers in catfish culture with randomly selected 120 catfish cultivars in Trishal upazila under Mymensingh district. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Based on the level of problem faced by the farmers in catfish culture they were divided into three groups; less problem, moderate problem and high problem and it was observed through survey that the majority (60 %) of the farmers faced moderate problem while 22.50% percent of the farmers faced low problem and 17.50% farmer faced high problem. Farmers’ problem face was influenced by their media contact for fish farming, training exposure, level of education and organizational participation. Farmers having higher media contact, higher training participation, higher educational level and higher organizational involvement faced lower problem in catfish culture. On the basis of Problem Faced Index (PFI) score calculated to rank the problems, it was observed that high price of feed ranked most severe problem followed by unavailability of quality feed, high price of vaccine and medicine and low production and lack of local market. The findings may contribute in formulating policies to reduce farmers’ problem in catfish culture. Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.8(2): 241-248, August 2021

Farmers' Response on Field Performance of BSMRAU Developed IPSA Seem and BU Pepe1 Crop Variety

The study was conducted to investigate the adoption of IPSA seem and BU pepe1 crop variety by the farmers in Bhaluka upazila of Mymensingh and Meherpur Sadar upazila of Meherpur districts, respectively in Bangladesh. In-person interviews with 80 respondents and two focus group discussions were carried out to collect data. According to study findings, the highest portion of the respondents were young aged, literate, had medium farm size, low farming experience, and organizational participation and their average annual income were Tk. 192850 and Tk. 200500 for IPSA seem and BU pepe1 growers, respectively. Extent of adoption was above fifty percent in both cases of IPSA seem and BU pepe1 whereas the extent of BU pepe1 adoption was higher than IPSA seem. Performance of IPSA seem and BU pepe1 was satisfactory to the farmers in terms of ease of handling, better marketability and adaptation to the environment, vigor, and better physical appearance. Majority of the IPSA seem and BU pepe1 respondents experienced a medium increase in crop yield while medium to high-income increase by cultivating those varieties. Majority of them had a low to moderate knowledge gap in cultivating IPSA seem and BU pepe1. The major problems faced by the farmers were pod borer infestation, common mosaic virus for IPSA seem while low germination percentage, common mosaic virus for BU pepe1. The study results showed that respondents with small farm sizes were more interested in adopting IPSA seem than others. So, engaging small farmers in cultivating IPSA seem would make this technology more available and popular among the farmers.

Investigating the Association between Farmers’ Organizational Participation and Types of Agricultural Product Certifications: Empirical Evidence from a National Farm Households Survey in Taiwan

Agricultural product certifications have proliferated due to the growing concerns in many countries over food safety and environmental sustainability. Encouraging farmers to self-organize was regarded as a useful tool to enhance the adoption of agricultural product certifications in Taiwan. However, previous studies solely focused on the association between membership in a production organization and single food certifications. Moreover, little is known of how different types of organizational participation could improve the adoption of agricultural product certifications. This study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by employing multinomial logistic regression model (MNL) to investigate factors affecting farmers’ decisions to participate in agricultural product certification. Special attention is paid to the role of different types of organizational participation in farmers’ choices for agricultural product certification. The study used a nationally representative sample of core farmers in Taiwan, and its results revealed evident differences in farmers’ organization types. For example, the farm operators who participate in agricultural cooperatives (co-ops) tend to use organic labels. In contrast, farm operators who participate in agricultural production and marketing groups (APMGs) tend to adopt the Traceable Agricultural Products (TAP) label. Moreover, age, education level, farming experience, farm labor, farm type, agricultural facilities, and regional location have a significant effect on farmers’ choices for participating in agricultural product certification across different models. The findings suggest that policymakers should consider these differences in the organizational operation of APMGs and co-ops and provide customized measures by promoting different types of agricultural product certifications.

The antecedents and outcomes of corporate volunteering: an employee- and organizational-level meta-analysis

PurposeThe authors argue that many core findings are not as established as often assumed in the study of corporate volunteering programs, and they assess this possibility by reporting a meta-analysis of both organizational and employee participation that includes relations with antecedents and outcomes at both organizational and employee levels.Design/methodology/approachThe authors perform a meta-analysis of 57 sources, including 30 peer-reviewed articles, 16 theses/dissertations, 8 unpublished manuscripts, 2 conference presentations and 1 book chapter.FindingsOf the antecedents, organizational size only had a small relation with organizational participation, but the effect of corporate social responsibility orientation was very large on organizational participation. Demographic characteristics as well as personality traits had a small relation with employee participation, whereas the effect of volunteering attitudes was large on employee participation. Of the outcomes, organizational participation did not significantly relate to customer perceptions. Employee participation had nonsignificant or small relations with well-being, commitment, job satisfaction and positive behaviors; however, organizational participation also significantly related to all employee-level outcomes, and the effect was significantly stronger than employee participation for two of four outcomes.Practical implicationsOrganizations can better understand the true influence of corporate volunteering programs, aiding their bottom line and employee well-being.Originality/valueSeveral commonly assumed antecedents and outcomes do not relate to corporate volunteering participation, and future research should be redirected to more influential effects. The authors’ discussion highlights theories that may be particularly beneficial for the study of corporate volunteering, including social identity theory and role expansion theory.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Services to Increase Farmers’ Skill

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is considered as the most prominent public organization in Bangladesh for disseminating agricultural information to the farmers. In this line, the objectives of this study were to determine the extent of effectiveness of DAE regarding their services for improving farming skill and to determine the factors affecting the effectiveness of DAE services. Data were collected from two villages of Nawabganj Upazila (sub-district) in Dinajpur district using structured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis were done to explain the data. The findings revealed that majority (70.2 %) of the farmers think that the DAE services are moderately effective for improving farmer’s skill. Among the rest of the respondents, 7.7% and 22.1 % were commented as less and high effective category respectively. The inferential analysis revealed that farmers' education, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness and time spent in farming had positive and significant contribution with effectiveness of DAE services. This means that the initiative for higher these factors would increase the effectiveness of DAE services. The extension personnel, development practitioners and other researchers may be benefited from the findings. The policy makers should also consider these important factors to increase the effectiveness of DAE regarding agricultural advisory services.