‘I wouldn’t want to be a cow’: An ethnographic exploration of more-than-human relational praxis on a New Zealand dairy farm

<p>This thesis aims to understand how industrial farmers perceive and relate to the nonhuman world. A small-scale ethnographic focus of a 250-cow dairy farm in New Zealand’s Rangitikei district is presented as a proxy for approaching the underexamined field of farming ontologies. A common narrative exists that western ontology is characterised by human exceptionalism, a belief in humanity as singularly subjective beings amid a mute and objective world. Contrary to this discourse, this thesis finds that farmer relations to the nonhuman world are multiple, complex and contingent. This thesis employs Annemarie Mol’s (2002) understanding of ontology as established through practice, and thereby multiple, in conjunction with a material analysis of the farm as a composite ecology of human and nonhuman agents. I argue that industrial agricultural practice is informed both by transcendent, objectivist logics, and by co-constituted, informal knowledge formed through co-habitation of multispecies lifeworlds. The unruly agency of lively materials, and the affective and intersubjective qualities of interspecies interactions, are shown to figure conditionally in farming practice. These components are managed within the bounds of industrial agriculture’s outwardly utilitarian and anthropocentric systems through responsive practices of care and attentiveness, revealing that an attribution of nonhuman agency and subjectivity is essential to industrial farming practice.</p>

‘I wouldn’t want to be a cow’: An ethnographic exploration of more-than-human relational praxis on a New Zealand dairy farm

<p>This thesis aims to understand how industrial farmers perceive and relate to the nonhuman world. A small-scale ethnographic focus of a 250-cow dairy farm in New Zealand’s Rangitikei district is presented as a proxy for approaching the underexamined field of farming ontologies. A common narrative exists that western ontology is characterised by human exceptionalism, a belief in humanity as singularly subjective beings amid a mute and objective world. Contrary to this discourse, this thesis finds that farmer relations to the nonhuman world are multiple, complex and contingent. This thesis employs Annemarie Mol’s (2002) understanding of ontology as established through practice, and thereby multiple, in conjunction with a material analysis of the farm as a composite ecology of human and nonhuman agents. I argue that industrial agricultural practice is informed both by transcendent, objectivist logics, and by co-constituted, informal knowledge formed through co-habitation of multispecies lifeworlds. The unruly agency of lively materials, and the affective and intersubjective qualities of interspecies interactions, are shown to figure conditionally in farming practice. These components are managed within the bounds of industrial agriculture’s outwardly utilitarian and anthropocentric systems through responsive practices of care and attentiveness, revealing that an attribution of nonhuman agency and subjectivity is essential to industrial farming practice.</p>

Traditional Farming Practices: Espousal and Committed by Farmers in Northern Senatorial Districts of Gombe State, North – eastern Nigeria

This study was conducted in the northern senatorial district of Gombe state which comprises of local government areas like Gombe, Dukku, Nafada, Funakaye and Kwami respectively. The objective of the research is to ascertained the use of traditional farming practice in the said study area, Quantitative and descriptive research design was adopted for this study and the cluster sampling technique were used to randomly select 50 farmers from each of the five clusters in the study area making a total of 250 farmers as sample size. Structured questionnaire containing nine different organic farming practices on two point scale of yes and no that indicate use or not use was administered. Data generated for this study was analyzed using mean and standard deviation whereby six out of nine traditional farming practices was found to be commonly used by the farmers which are: Farm sanitation (use of fire) (mean value = 1.83, standard deviation (SD) = 0.6), Use of animal manure (mean value = 1.75, SD = 0.5), Light tillage (mean value = 1.65, SD = 0.4), intercropping (mean value = 1.63, SD = 0.4), Use of cover crops ( mean value = 1.55, SD = 0.3), Application of compost (mean value = 1.45, SD = 0.3). The trend of traditional farming practice used by the farmers in the study area shows that the above six practices are the prominent ones among the farmers, the demography of the respondents shows that farming is solely a venture of the men. However, this study recommended that farmers in the study area should have to increase their knowledge of the traditional farming practice for judicious and better conservation of soil, also they should adopt and increase their awareness of the traditional farming practices to drive home the benefits of eco-friendly nature of the practices. However, others include introduction of the practice as practical course in the curriculum of basic learning level and reorientation of the younger ones on the benefits of the practice ecologically and environmentally.

Regenerative Architecture: An Application of Regionalist Sustainability in New Zealand Dairy Farming Practice

<p>Over the past decade the New Zealand dairy industry has undergone unparalleled expansion in the agricultural sector. The influence of globalised market competition, beginning in 1985, has resulted in significant changes to the operation and scale of production of New Zealand farm conditions. With this, there have been a series of changes to the physical form of farming in New Zealand - most notably in a shift towards larger and more intensive practice. The term 'factory farming' has taken a unique and contextual evolution within these conditions, leading to questions of sustainability. Sustainability in this setting is often defined by production growth and trade conditions before more humanistic issues of social and ecological welfare. Similar to the competing perspectives of New Zealand dairy farm sustainability, the discipline of architecture faces a wide and complex field of approaches to sustainable practice. The views of researcher, Steven Moore, are focused on in this study with regard to the contested definitions of architectural sustainability. He advocates a regionalist approach in the belief that sustainability is better defined by local circumstance than a universal best approach. Moore's theory of non-modem regionalism and regenerative architecture are utilised in this thesis as a means of questioning the issues faced in New Zealand dairy farm sustainability. This study applies Moore's concept of a regenerative architecture in New Zealand dairy farming to cultivate improved social and ecological conditions. The architectural consequence of this discussion is in the form of a future mixed-use prototype for Canterbury dairy farming practice. This design explores the relationship between architecture, place and regionalist concepts of sustainability to improve the social and ecological attributes of this cultural setting. By taking a multidisciplinary approach to toward environmentally and socially sustainable dairy farming practices the design produces an integrated system that identifies with Moore's regenerative strategy. The study concludes that further architectural investigations into this setting could potentially influence and improve the future health and sustainability of the industry.</p>

Regenerative Architecture: An Application of Regionalist Sustainability in New Zealand Dairy Farming Practice

<p>Over the past decade the New Zealand dairy industry has undergone unparalleled expansion in the agricultural sector. The influence of globalised market competition, beginning in 1985, has resulted in significant changes to the operation and scale of production of New Zealand farm conditions. With this, there have been a series of changes to the physical form of farming in New Zealand - most notably in a shift towards larger and more intensive practice. The term 'factory farming' has taken a unique and contextual evolution within these conditions, leading to questions of sustainability. Sustainability in this setting is often defined by production growth and trade conditions before more humanistic issues of social and ecological welfare. Similar to the competing perspectives of New Zealand dairy farm sustainability, the discipline of architecture faces a wide and complex field of approaches to sustainable practice. The views of researcher, Steven Moore, are focused on in this study with regard to the contested definitions of architectural sustainability. He advocates a regionalist approach in the belief that sustainability is better defined by local circumstance than a universal best approach. Moore's theory of non-modem regionalism and regenerative architecture are utilised in this thesis as a means of questioning the issues faced in New Zealand dairy farm sustainability. This study applies Moore's concept of a regenerative architecture in New Zealand dairy farming to cultivate improved social and ecological conditions. The architectural consequence of this discussion is in the form of a future mixed-use prototype for Canterbury dairy farming practice. This design explores the relationship between architecture, place and regionalist concepts of sustainability to improve the social and ecological attributes of this cultural setting. By taking a multidisciplinary approach to toward environmentally and socially sustainable dairy farming practices the design produces an integrated system that identifies with Moore's regenerative strategy. The study concludes that further architectural investigations into this setting could potentially influence and improve the future health and sustainability of the industry.</p>

Greenhouse Gas Emission from Rice field in Indonesia: Challenge for future research and development

Rice is an essential crop in Indonesia. Any aspects of rice to increase productivity have been well studied and documented; however, there are still lacking well-documented studies on its environmental aspects, including climate change. Many researches might already be conducted, but only a few have been published in a peer-reviewed journal. There is still a lack of robust data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the rice field in Indonesia, factors affecting and the technology on how to reduce it. From the reviewed publications, it was found out that research only conducted under a controlled environmental setting. More research on understanding the controlling factors (e.g., water management, rice cultivar, soil types, and fertilizer) of GHG emission from rice field is still needed. The result will introduce a sustainable farming practice, with low in GHG emissions, high in productivity, simple to apply and generate more income to farmers. This review has identified the gaps for future research and development in Indonesia. The research should meet the need, either national or global strategies. Development of a new farming practice will succeed in the presence of government policies. Therefore an intensive interdisciplinary approach between researcher and other stakeholders should be conducted.

Moving theory focus beyond individuals targeted for change: observing project stakeholder interactions

Purpose Social marketing theories have habituated to a theoretical and methodological focus that is criticised for being myopic and stigmatising. Following recommendations to redirect focus theoretically, the purpose of this paper is to apply an observational methodology to understanding how project stakeholders interact to examine whether consideration of stakeholders can identify factors facilitating or impeding farming practice change. Design/methodology/approach More than 48 events involving as many as 150 people including project stakeholder meetings, one-on-one consultations and annual events were observed over more than 100 h by between one and five researchers. Field notes were gathered, and thematic coding focussed on understanding how stakeholders facilitated or impeded practice change. Findings Observations identified limited provision of information about the project by on ground project stakeholders to targeted individuals (farmers). On the rare occasions where information sharing was observed, communication was delayed making it difficult for individuals to connect actions with outcomes observed. Participating stakeholders did not freely support delivery of activities needed for individual practice change. Practical implications This study indicates the value of wider process and outcome assessment encompassing stakeholders to identify factors impeding and facilitating farming practice change. Social implications Approaches that centre attention on individuals fail to acknowledge the inputs, activities and outputs delivered by project stakeholders within a system of change. By redirecting evaluation focus, shared responsibility is gained and stigmatisation of one stakeholder group can be avoided. Originality/value This study demonstrates how observations can be used to redirect focus to consider actions and interactions occurring between on ground project stakeholders. A stakeholder evaluation approach extends monitoring and evaluation focus beyond individuals targeted for behaviour change. Implications, limitations and future research directions are outlined.

Evaluasi Aspek Teknis Pemeliharaan Kambing Peranakan Etawa (PE) Menuju Good Dairy Farming Practice (GDFP) di PT. Boncah Utama Kabupaten Tanah Datar

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi aspek teknis pemeliharaan kambing Peranakan Etawa (PE) berdasarkan panduan Good Dairy Farming Practice (GDFP) di PT. Boncah Utama Kabupaten Tanah Datar. Metode yang digunakan adalah survey dan observasi langsung di Usaha Peternakan kambing PE PT Boncah Utama dan analisis laboratorium. Sebaanyak 15 ekor kambing PE diberi perlakuan dengan menerapkan Good Milking Practices (GMiP). Jenis data yang digunakan adalah data primer dan data sekunder. Analisis data dilakukan secara deskriptif. Peubah yang diamati adalah total plate count dan evaluasi aspek teknis pemeliharaan menggunakan kuisioner yang berpedoman pada pelaksanaan GDFP modifikasi dari metode FAO/IDF (2010) dan penghitungan kandungan total bakteri susu (Total Plate Count). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penerapan GDFP di Peternakan Kambing PE PT Boncah Utama Kabupaten Tanah Datar sudah cukup baik dan analisis keragaman terhadap TPC menunjukkan bahwa perlakuan berpengaruh nyata terhadap total plate count susu (P<0.05). Kesimpulan penelitian ini adalah evaluasi GDFP di PT Bocah Utama sudah cukup baik dan sangat penting diterapkan untuk memastikan susu yang dihasilkan berkualitas dan memenuhi standar yang sudah ditetapkan.