Extension professionals can play a role in addressing water scarcity issues by helping home landscape irrigation users to conserve water. This study used survey research to examine the relationship between several variables, including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norms, demographic factors, and past behaviors, on intention to use good irrigation practices among Florida home landscape irrigation users (N = 1,063). Following subsequent hierarchical linear regression models, the final model explained 39% of the variance in intentions to engage in good landscape irrigation practices. Subjective norms had a strong influence on intention to engage in landscape water conservation, and past behaviors and personal norms improved the prediction. Extension professionals should incorporate subjective norms into water conservation programs by emphasizing somewhat invisible conservation behaviors to improve perceptions of peers' practices. When personal norms are strong, the subjective norms are slightly less important. Residents who feel a personal obligation to conserve water may be more open to information related to water conservation, and they may be more likely to act, even in the absence of social support. Finally, Extension professionals should consider the audience's past behaviors to design programs that are compatible with actions that Extension clients are likely to take.
Today's complex issues require technical expertise as well as the application of innovative social science techniques within Extension contexts. Researchers have suggested that a social science approach will play a critical role in water conservation, and people who use home landscape irrigation comprise a critical target audience for agriculture and natural resources professionals. This study was conducted to examine the possible role of an audience segmentation approach in addressing the complex issue of water resources. This research used descriptive discriminant analysis to assign national irrigation users to previously identified subgroups found in the literature (the water considerate majority, the water savvy conservationists, and the unconcerned water users) and compare characteristics to identify differences on a national scale. Results revealed the nation's irrigation users are fairly water conscious. The findings implied unique subgroups exist among targeted Extension audiences relevant to specific behaviors, and Extension programs should focus on different programmatic objectives for targeting different subgroups. Differences were found among the three subgroups in water conservation behaviors, personal and social normative beliefs, use of landscape professionals for irrigation maintenance, and learning preferences. Recommendations were provided on how to use the results to develop impact-driven Extension programs.
Incorporating stakeholder engagement into environmental management may help in the pursuit of novel approaches for addressing complex water resource problems. However, evidence about how and under what circumstances stakeholder engagement enables desirable changes remains elusive. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for studying social and environmental changes possible through stakeholder engagement in water resource management, from inception to outcomes. We synthesize concepts from multiple literatures to provide a framework for tracing linkages from contextual conditions, through engagement process design features, to social learning, community capacity building, and behavioral change at individual, group, and group network levels, and ultimately to environmental change. We discuss opportunities to enhance the framework including through empirical applications to delineate scalar and temporal dimensions of social, behavioral, and environmental changes resulting from stakeholder engagement, and the potential for negative outcomes thus far glossed over in research on change through engagement.
Background: It is astonishing to know that 30% of world population suffers from IDA out of which 80 to 90% is in developing countries. In India, 80% of children at 1 to 2 years of age, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers suffer from Iron deficiency. Nutritional anemia is a worldwide problem with prevalence in developing countries (36%) compared to industrialized (8%). Most of the problems are related to dietary habits from initial age of a child. Girls are more at risk because of menstrual Issues and early age marriage.Methods: The present study was conducted on 300 adolescent girls (10-19 years) by asking their last 24 hours’ dietary habits.Results: Among 300 girls 39% were vegetarians and remaining 61% were non-vegetarians. Maximum girls (78%) were in the frequent habit of consumption of junk foods. Mild anemia (34%) was found to be more common than other forms of anemia. Severity of anaemia was found to be gradually increased from early to late adolescent group.Conclusions: Anaemia noted in 82% despite majority (91.7%) of girls having normal BMI. Anemia was more common in vegetarians than non-vegetarians and among vegetarians more common with predominantly rice based diet (‘r’=0.871). There was increased association on consumption of tea and coffee post meals (r=0.892).
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