Search Results (14)

Flowers, as integral elements of urban landscapes, are critical not only for aesthetic purposes but also for fostering human–nature interactions in green spaces. However, research on flower color preferences has largely been descriptive, and there is a lack of exploration of potential mechanisms influencing flower color preferences, such as economic and social factors. This study created visual samples through precise color adjustment techniques and introduced the L*, a*, and b* parameters from the CIELAB color system to quantify the flower colors of the survey samples, conducting an online survey with 354 Chinese residents. The complex aesthetic process’s driving factors were unveiled through a comprehensive analysis using a Generalized Additive Model (GAM), a piecewise Structural Equation Model (SEM), and linear regression models. The results show that the public’s flower color preference is primarily related to the a* and b* parameters, which represent color dimensions in the CIELAB color space, and it is not significantly related to L* (lightness). Factors such as age, annual household income level (AI), personal income sources (PI), nature experience, and emotional state (TMD) significantly influence color preferences, with emotional state identified as the most critical factor. Lastly, linear regression models further explain the potential mechanism of the influencing factors. This study proposes a framework to assist urban planners in selecting flower colors that resonate with diverse populations, enhancing both the attractiveness of urban green spaces and their potential to promote pro-environmental behavior. By aligning flower color design with public preferences, this study contributes to sustainable urban planning practices aimed at improving human well-being and fostering deeper connections with nature. Full article

An online application called BeeGardens was developed for users to quickly access over 85 bee-friendly plants that attract 12 primary bee groups and ways to incorporate these into different landscape designs. The functionality and usefulness of the app was evaluated by students enrolled in two courses: Florida Native Landscaping or Annual and Perennial Gardening, taught in different semesters. Before and after the semester, students were asked to report their perceived confidence to (1) identify bee-friendly plants, (2) identify bee pollinators, and (3) design a bee-friendly garden, using a Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Means of pre- and post-test self-reported responses showed a significant confidence gain upon using the BeeGardens online application in both courses. Students in Annual and Perennial Gardening and Florida Native Landscaping were 1.26 and 1.34 times, respectively, more confident in their ability to identify pollinator plants, identify bee pollinators, and design bee gardens after using the web application. These data were consistent with pre- and post-tested means where students were asked to identify three major pollinator plants and three major pollinators using multiple choice response options. Test scores increased by 26.3% and 37.9% in Annual and Perennial Gardening and Florida Native Landscaping, respectively. The majority of students (95.0%) agreed or strongly agreed this learning tool was organized, easy to navigate, and would use it in the future. Since its launch in 2021, BeeGardens has averaged 1201 unique visits per month, revealing its popularity and wide use. Full article

Latinx/Hispanic farmers are an underrepresented group with the largest number of farm operators in the US. However, agricultural educators have encountered challenges in identifying Latinx farmers in Pennsylvania and consequently, in meeting their needs. This study aims to contribute to improved agricultural programming by offering an exploratory overview of Latinx farmers in the Commonwealth, and to bring to light the experiences of Extension educators when working with Latinxs in the agricultural context. Qualitative research interviews were conducted with seventeen Latinxs at different stages of their farming journey, and with twelve educators with experience in agriculture programming and outreach to Latinxs. Latinx farmers discussed the characteristics, goals, challenges, and solutions of their farming operations. Educators discussed their motivations to serve Latinx farmers, the challenges they face in meeting their needs, and the implementation of targeted strategies for successful programming. Both groups discussed challenges they believe Latinx farmers face due to their ethnicity and provided recommendations to better serve the Latinx farming population. Based on the findings, agricultural educators could support Latinx farmers by developing statewide programming, including programming in Spanish, having employers allocate a percentage of educators’ responsibilities to connecting with this audience, creating a Latinx farmers’ network, partnering with organizations connected with Latinx farmers, participating in cultural competency training, and promoting stories of success. Our methodology and findings can be adapted to educators in other locations working with minority populations. Full article

This paper analyzes the thematic trends in school garden studies over the past few decades, using a relational bibliometric methodology on a corpus of 392 articles and review articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. The paper seeks to understand how researchers have studied the concept over the last few decades in various disciplines, spanning approximately eighty Web of Science categories. The results show that there is a critical mass of scientific research studying school gardens. The analysis shows the thematic trends in discussion journals, discussion terminology, and consolidates classic papers and some novel authors and papers. The studies and their theoretical trends lead to refocusing the analysis on the effects of school gardens beyond the educational, thanks to the contribution of authors from more than fifty countries engaged in the study of these activities. This work constitutes new challenges for this line of research, raising interdisciplinary research challenges between horticultural, environmental, technological, educational, social, food, nutritional, and health sciences. Full article

In recent years, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, irregular closed school life and frequent online teaching have negatively impacted the mental health and academic performance of many college students. Doing horticultural activities is an effective way to promote physical and mental health and enhance academic performance. This paper explores the relationship between horticultural activities participation, academic self-efficacy and positive mental characters under the perspective of disciplinary integration, with a view to promoting the mental health status and academic performance of college students and the application of horticultural therapy on college campuses. Questionnaires such as the Positive Mental Characters Scale for Chinese College Students (PMCS-CCS) and Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) are used to investigate 160 college students from four universities in China. The results show that horticultural activity participation is significantly positively correlated with academic self-efficacy (r = 0.345; p < 0.01) and positive mental characters (r = 0.298; p < 0.01), and horticultural activity participation can positively affect positive mental characters (B = 0.135, p < 0.01). At the same time, academic self-efficacy has a partial mediating effect between horticultural activity participation and positive mental characters. Universities can actively carry out campus horticultural activities to enhance students’ horticultural activity participation, which in turn promotes academic self-efficacy and further enhances the positive psychological level of college students. Full article

Horticulture is a vast scientific discipline ranging from ornamentals to consumable food, which is constantly evolving. One of primary goals of horticultural innovation is to improve consistency, and predictability, among products. Extension is one of the primary channels connecting innovations and technologies to growers. However, despite the importance of extension in the dissemination of horticultural advancements, there are no standards for the professionalization of extension networks. Therefore, there is a current gap in the ability to ensure consistency amongst extension providers through professionalization at the network level. The goal of the study was to develop and validate an extension professionalization scale to empirically measure the most critical factors associated with extension professionalization within extension networks. Methodologically, the study extends upon previous research which identified specific capacities associated with extension professionalization at the network level. Specifically, an exploratory factor analysis was undertaken to examine the latent factor structure of the previously identified items. The results of this study identified two primary factors associated with extension professionalization in networks: (a) awareness of the need for extension professionalization, and (b) the operational integration of extension professionalization activities at organizational levels. Although there is existing literature examining professionalization, there are no such instruments specifically developed within an extension context. The present study provides an original and novel tool to prepare more rigorously and consistently trained extension professionals to serve and support the horticulture industry. Full article

The agricultural conservation practice of prairie strips is new and novel. Prairie strips planted in row crop fields warrants greater adoption because the application decreases erosion; protects water quality; and supports habitat for wildlife and biodiversity, including pollinators. Prairie strips are a vegetative practice composed of diverse, native, and mostly perennial species that, as a community, follow principles of ecological succession; however, they must be managed for success. Farm advisor comprehension of practice characteristics is key for adoption by producers and landowners. This article reports on a developmental evaluation of workshops intended to change farm advisor knowledge, skills, and confidence related to prairie strips management for use in consulting with farmers and landowners. The study used pre-post instruments of knowledge and skill focused on prairie species identification and age of prairie strips planing; pre-then post-end of session questions were asked in a survey to report change in knowledge, skill, and confidence, as well as farm advisor situation. Advisors reported increased confidence, but acquisition of prairie knowledge and skills resulted in flat to lower scores. The paper explores the discrepancy of lower cognitive scores (knowledge and skills) compared to higher confidence. Explanations explore the phenomena of satisficing and perceived self-efficacy to explain the differential. Full article

Labor scarcity and rising production costs due to increasing labor wages and benefits are key concerns among nursery growers. Automated nursery technologies are a means to address labor challenges, but they are not widely adopted. The research objective was to use the Theory of Planned Behavior to evaluate nursery growers’ intention of using automated technologies in their operations to support future educational initiatives. Using a mixed-mode survey, four technology clusters, or a grouping of connected ideas, were examined: Irrigation application, Plant transport, Plant handling, and Agrochemical application. Overall intent to adopt technologies within each cluster was neutral but slightly negative. Attitudes towards adopting automated nursery technologies and perceptions of others’ approval for adoption were positive, and perceived behavioral control and perceptions of others’ adoption were neutral. When used to predict likelihood of adoption through multiple linear regression models, there was variability in characteristics that predicted intent to adopt technologies within each cluster with attitude being the most consistent predictor across the clusters. There were both positive and negative relationships between the social norms variables and behavioral intent. Overall, social norms and attitudes appear to be among the most important characteristics in disseminating automated nursery technology adoption to address labor issues. Full article

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, is widely considered to be highly invasive and the most damaging insect pest affecting palms in the world. Nonetheless, the prevention or significant slowing of the spread of RPW mainly relies on the application of integrated pest management (IPM) programs. This study aimed to evaluate farmers’ adoption of RPW IPM practices and examine the differences in adoption according to the farmers’ socio-economic attributes and their farm characteristics. The data were collected from 156 farmers through structured questionnaires by the Al-Kharaj governorate, Saudi Arabia. The findings showed that the farmers moderately adopted the categories of legislative control (54.77%) and cultural practices (50.44%), whereas they were showed a low-level adoption regarding the prevention, mechanical control, and chemical control categories. The cluster analysis revealed two variable farmer segments, “low adopters” and “moderate adopters”, based on the average level of adoption of the 23 IPM practices examined. The cluster of “moderate adopters” accounted for 57.1% of the samples and had a higher average adoption in terms of all the practices investigated. Significant differences (p < 0.01) were found between the two groups of farmers, corresponding to their age, education level, farm size, farming experience, number of date palm trees on the farm, off-farm income, farming activities, source of irrigation, type of irrigation, growing of the ‘Khodri’ cultivar, growing of the ‘Barhi’ cultivar, and tree spacing. The results suggest that implementing campaigns to increase public awareness of the consequences resulting from the non-adoption of IPM, enhancing the participation of date palm farmers in the area-wide IPM strategy, and improving recognition behavior by detecting RPW with digital devices are useful actions. Full article

Cultivar selection is an important managerial task for commercial farmers. Numerous available options provide marketing opportunities for farmers; however, they can also make cultivar selection time-consuming. For the past 13 years, a team of Penn State Extension educators and university faculty has implemented a new model to evaluate cultivars for key vegetable crops to assist farmers. Our approach started by building relationships within the vegetable industry with farmers, seed company representatives, and farmer-driven organizations who support our program with funding and gift-in-kind donations. We also added rigor to cultivar evaluations by conducting trials of key vegetable crops over 2 years at three locations. The results were used to develop cultivar recommendations, which were disseminated through various face-to-face and distance Extension avenues. The results were also published in refereed journals. The combination of funding, Extension products, and refereed articles led to university support. A drawback to our approach was the difficulty implementing uniform production methods at three experimental sites. The input of a statistical consultant assisted with overcoming this drawback. This model also required the use of strategies common to successful teams. Our methods are described here for those who desire to build a similar program. Full article

This paper summarizes the estimates of the total changes in sales, expenses, and income of participants of the horticulture research and extension programs at the Mississippi State University—Coastal Research and Extension Center for the past five years. Major items outline the estimation procedures for the past five years. The average annual values were used in estimating the total economic impacts of added gross sales, expenses, and incomes of participants in horticulture events. The cumulative total impacts reach USD 8.7 million in sales, 76 jobs, USD 1.4 million in labor income, USD 2.4 million in value-added, and USD 0.4 million in local, state, and federal taxes. In addition, the total willingness to pay for the horticulture program by the adult participants reached USD 1.8 million. In comparison, the annual public spending on the horticulture program averaged USD 1.4 million, creating additional substantial economic impacts to the region. Full article

This study investigates the preferences for ready-to-eat pomegranate arils in Italy through a discrete choice experiment (DCE) on 264 young consumers in Italy. The aim is to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the reputational attributes of the product (e.g., the product origin and sales channel) and to discriminate the elicited preferences between tasting and non-tasting situations. To this purpose, a random parameter logit model was employed to assess the heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The results suggest that non-tasters attach a relevant value to the reputational attributes (e.g., +75% WTP for Italian origin). Moreover, considering the sensory features of the products, we found that consumers in this group discriminate against the proposed samples only through their visual characteristics: they prefer the sample with the largest size and red colored arils. In addition, we found that the tasting experience reduced the value attached to the reputational attributes (e.g., −50% WTP for local origin) for consumers, compared to non-tasting situation, thus shifting their preference to the samples that they appreciated the most (high liking). Specifically, we found that consumers in the tasting group preferred the product sample with the highest level of sweetness and the lowest level of sourness and astringency, showing a higher preference for sweetness. The findings contribute to the literature on consumers’ behavior on new food products (NFPs), showing that reputational attributes lose value after the tasting experience. In contrast, the sensory features of the NFPs can help tasters to reduce the information asymmetry, which traditionally represents a hurdle in purchases for new consumers. However, this depends on the individuals’ subjective preferences, as demonstrated by the significant effect of liking levels in discriminating consumers’ choices. To conclude, although these results cannot be extended to the general population, they may give some interesting insights about future trends of NFP demand. Full article

This paper summarizes opinions on the economic impacts of horticulture research and extension at the Mississippi State University, Coastal Research and Extension Center. More than 8400 horticulture producers, master gardeners, research and extension staff, and nonprofit organizations participated in horticulture events during the last five years. Qualitative assessments of horticulture research and extension performed by the faculty and staff were solicited during voluntary surveys. Full article

The implementation of eco-innovations can be a strategy to combine economic benefit and reduce negative environmental impact. German greenhouse production is highly energy intensive, as heating and energy account for the second largest cost factor. Thus, the sector wants to develop and implement eco-innovations to speed up the process towards increased sustainability. In this paper, a sectoral systems of innovation (SSI) analysis is presented to identify and describe interrelated systemic barriers for developing and implementing such innovations into the sector. The SSI was used as an analytical framework, which enabled covering different system levels and components in the research in order to draw a comprehensive picture of this specific innovation environment. A mixed-methods, explorative approach was used: a literature analysis, followed by an expert workshop and semi-structured expert interviews, was conducted to understand the barriers for development and implementation of such innovations. A SWOT workshop assisted in generalizing results from selected innovation examples. A complementary two-wave Delphi study was used to identify innovation activity, important actors, policies and drivers within horticulture. Based on these data, we were able to identify different barrier-types, showing how they are interconnected and affect innovation processes increasing ecological modernization of the sector. Full article