Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Human Resource Education and Workforce Development

First Advisor

Barbara A. Holt

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare funded and unfunded research proposals submitted to the Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Council between 1992 and 1994. Coding reliability and validity were assessed through a pilot study after which the actual coding was carried out. A census of 32 funded and a simple random sample of 54 unfunded proposals were used for this study. Descriptive statistics (frequencies) were used to describe research themes, sustainable agricultural practices, research categories, funds requested for research, origin of proposals, length of research period, research cooperators, and the occupation of principal investigators. The results of the study showed that the investigators placed emphasis on several variables deemed important in the promotion of sustainable agriculture in the Southern Region. The theme of animal systems research was most emphasized, while the variable, cropping practice, had the highest frequency among the sustainable agricultural practices. Integrated and experimental research categories together had the highest frequencies among the funded proposals. Arkansas received the highest number of proposals funded, and most funded proposals took three years. Many funded proposals were written by four or more cooperators. Professors represented the occupation with the most funding, followed by practitioners. Integrated research was shown to be very important in this study. Integration of animal and cropping systems was considered by researchers as an important farming practice in the promotion of sustainable agriculture in the southern United States. A multi-disciplinary approach where different professionals cooperated to do research was emphasized by many researchers in this study.

Pages

126

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.5893

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