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Sample records for agricultural production energeticky

  1. Study of Agricultural Product Options Pricing

    Science.gov (United States)

    HONG, Qiu

    2017-09-01

    China is a large agricultural country, and the healthy development of agriculture is related to the stability of the whole society. The agricultural production and management of agricultural products are confronted with many risks, especially the market risks. Option contract is the object of option market transaction, so it is very important to study the option contract of agricultural products. Option trading separates the risk and profit, so that the trader can avoid the risk while retaining the opportunity to obtain income. The option has the characteristics of low transaction cost, simple and efficient, so it is suitable for small and medium investors.

  2. Product competitiveness analysis for e-commerce platform of special agricultural products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Fucheng; Ma, Ning; Yang, Dongwei; Xiong, Zhangyuan

    2017-09-01

    On the basis of analyzing the influence factors of the product competitiveness of the e-commerce platform of the special agricultural products and the characteristics of the analytical methods for the competitiveness of the special agricultural products, the price, the sales volume, the postage included service, the store reputation, the popularity, etc. were selected in this paper as the dimensionality for analyzing the competitiveness of the agricultural products, and the principal component factor analysis was taken as the competitiveness analysis method. Specifically, the web crawler was adopted to capture the information of various special agricultural products in the e-commerce platform ---- chi.taobao.com. Then, the original data captured thereby were preprocessed and MYSQL database was adopted to establish the information library for the special agricultural products. Then, the principal component factor analysis method was adopted to establish the analysis model for the competitiveness of the special agricultural products, and SPSS was adopted in the principal component factor analysis process to obtain the competitiveness evaluation factor system (support degree factor, price factor, service factor and evaluation factor) of the special agricultural products. Then, the linear regression method was adopted to establish the competitiveness index equation of the special agricultural products for estimating the competitiveness of the special agricultural products.

  3. Microcredit Effect on Agricultural Productivity

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Lautech Ogbomoso

    Department of Agricultural Economics & Farm Management University of Agriculture, ... This study examines the effect of access to credit on the productivity of rural farming households in Ogun State,. Nigeria. ... agricultural support to export crops, in ... growth and the alleviation of rural poverty ..... Dissertation, Department of.

  4. Marketing of agricultural products: case findings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hingley, M.; Lindgreen, A.

    2002-01-01

    This article focuses on the relationship marketing approach to marketing of agricultural products. The article provides specific insights into, and comparisons between, suppliers of two particular agricultural products sectors: in Britain, the fresh produce (fruits and vegetables) sector and, in New

  5. Determinants of Aggregate Agricultural Productivity among High ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development ... Determinants of Aggregate Agricultural Productivity among High External Input Technology Farms in a ... of aggregate agricultural productivity in an environment where policy on ... to increase the farm sizes through re-examination of the existing land laws.

  6. Problems and prospects of Ukraine’s export of agricultural products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oksana Lysak

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this publication is to review current trends Ukrainian exports of agricultural products and develop recommendations on the prospects of export of agricultural products in Ukraine. The problem of marketing of agricultural products by agricultural enterprises is considered in the article. The distribution channels of agricultural products in Ukraine are analyzed. The factors constraining agricultural exports are established. Advantages and disadvantages of agricultural products within the Association Agreement with the European Union are analyzed. Analyzed the first results of cooperation with the EU in agriculture. The problems of the use of quotas dispose of agricultural products within the Association Agreement with the European Union are identified. An simplified legalization exports from Ukraine to the EU of animal origin products is offered. The export of agricultural products to other countries is analyzes. The modern trend in the export of Ukrainian agricultural products based on the reorientation of Asian and European markets is considered. The strategic directions of development of Ukrainian agricultural exports are identified.

  7. Irradiation of Northwest agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eakin, D.E.; Tingey, G.L.; Anderson, D.B.; Hungate, F.P.

    1985-01-01

    Irradiation of food for disinfestation and preservation is increasing in importance because of increasing resrictions on various chemical treatments. Irradiation treatment is of particular interest in the Northwest because of a growing supply of agricultural products and the need to develop new export markets. Several products have, or could potentially have, significant export markets if stringent insect control procedures are developed and followed. Due to the recognized potential benefits of irradiation, Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) is conducting this program to evaluate the benefits of using irradiation on Northwest agricultural products under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Defense Byproducts Production and Utilization Program. Commodities currently included in the program are cherries, apples, asparagus, spices, hay, and hides

  8. Irradiation of Northwest agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eakin, D.E.; Tingey, G.L.

    1985-02-01

    Irradiation of food for disinfestation and preservation is increasing in importance because of increasing restrictions on various chemical treatments. Irradiation treatment is of particular interest in the Northwest because of a growing supply of agricultural products and the need to develop new export markets. Several products have, or could potentially have, significant export markets if stringent insect control procedures are developed and followed. Due to the recognized potential benefits of irradiation, Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) is conducting this program to evaluate the benefits of using irradiation on Northwest agricultural products under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Defense Byproducts Production and Utilization Program. Commodities currently included in the program are cherries, apples, asparagus, spices, hay, and hides

  9. Long Run Relationship Between Agricultural Production And ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study sought to estimate the impact of agricultural production on the long run economic growth in Nigeria using the Vector Error Correction Methodology. The result shows that long run relationship exists between agricultural production and economic growth in Nigeria. Among the variables in the model, crop production ...

  10. Women and agricultural productivity: Reframing the Issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doss, Cheryl R

    2018-01-01

    Should agricultural development programmes target women in order to increase productivity? This article analyzes the challenges in distinguishing women's agricultural productivity from that of men. Most of the literature compares productivity on plots managed by women with those managed by men, ignoring the majority of agricultural households in which men and women are both involved in management and production. The empirical studies which have been carried out provide scant evidence for where the returns to projects may be highest, in terms of who to target. Yet, programmes that do not consider gendered responsibilities, resources and constraints, are unlikely to succeed, either in terms of increasing productivity or benefitting men and women smallholder farmers.

  11. Agricultural Education Curriculum Guide. Agricultural Production and Management I. Course No. 6811. Agricultural Production and Management II. Course No. 6812.

    Science.gov (United States)

    North Carolina State Dept. of Public Instruction, Raleigh.

    This document is designed for use by teachers of Agricultural Production and Management courses in North Carolina. It updates the competencies and content outlines from the previous guide. It lists core and optional competencies for two courses in seven areas as follows: leadership; supervised agricultural experience programs; animal science;…

  12. Agricultural Production. Numeracy. Level 1. Level 2. Level 3. Support Materials for Agricultural Training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batman, Kangan; Tully, Chris

    This publication contains the three numeracy units of the three levels of Support Materials for Agricultural Training (SMAT) in agricultural production: Level 1 (starting), 2 (continuing), and 3 (completing). The units are designed to help the learner improve his or her numeracy skills needed to deal with agricultural production. SMAT materials…

  13. Nondestructive quality evaluation technology of agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noh, Sang Ha

    1997-01-01

    Quality evaluation of agricultural products has been interested to many researchers for many years and as the result, several nondestructive techniques and so many papers have been reported for quality evaluation of agricultural products. These nondestructive techniques are based on the detection of mechanical, optical, electrical, electro-magnetical, dielectric and vibrational properties of agricultural products that are well correlated with certain quality factors of the products such as color, shape, firmness, sugar content, external or internal defects, moisture content, etc. The sophistication of nondestructive methods has evolved rapidly with modem technologies. In this paper an emphasis was put on reviewing some of those papers and techniques which could be led to on-line measurement for practical use.

  14. Impact of greenhouse gases on agricultural productivity in Pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valasai, G.D; Harijan, K.; Uqaili, M.S.; Memon, H.R

    2005-01-01

    Pakistan is an agricultural developing country. About 68% of the country's population resides in rural areas and is mostly linked with agriculture. Agricultural sector contributes more than 25% to GDP, employees about 45% of the labour force and contributes significantly to export earnings of the country. Energy sector is the major source (80%) of emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). Agriculture and livestock sectors are also responsible for GHGs emissions. The emissions of GHGs results in acid rain and earth's temperature rise (global warming). The destabilization of the global climate destroys natural ecosystem and increases natural disasters, such as violent storms, floods, droughts etc. The acid rain and these natural disasters affect the agricultural productivity. The study indicates that the agricultural productivity per capita in Pakistan decreased continuously during the last two decades. The paper concludes that due to emissions of GHGs, the agricultural productivity is significantly affected in the country. The government should take concrete measures to minimize the emissions of GHGs for increasing the agricultural productivity and reducing other harmful impacts in the country. This paper presents the review and analysis of the effects of GHGs emissions on the agricultural productivity in Pakistan. (author)

  15. Relationship between biodiversity and agricultural production

    OpenAIRE

    Brunetti, Ilaria; Tidball, Mabel; Couvet, Denis

    2018-01-01

    Agriculture is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. In this work we model the interdependent relationship between biodiversity and agriculture on a farmed land, supposing that, while agriculture has a negative impact on biodiversity, the latter can increase agricultural production. Farmers act as myopic agents, who maximize their instantaneous profit without considering the negative effects of their practice on the evolution of biodiversity. We find that a tax on inputs can have a pos...

  16. Research on Supply Chain Coordination of Fresh Agricultural Products under Agricultural Insurance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Pei

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on the fact that the current fresh agricultural products are susceptible to natural risks and the coordination of supply chain is poor, This paper constructs the supply chain profit model under the two models of natural risk and agricultural insurance, Firstly, studying the coordination function of the supply chain system under Two-part Tariff; Then discussing the setting and claiming mechanism of agricultural insurance, compares the influence of agricultural insurance on supply chain profit and supply chain coordination; Finally, giving an example to validate the model results and give decision - making opinions. Research shows that the supply chain of fresh agricultural products can coordinated under Two-part Tariff, but the supply chain cooperation is poor in the natural risk , need to further stabilize and optimize the supply chain; When the risk factor is less than the non-participation insurance coefficient, not to participate in agricultural insurance is conducive to maintaining the coordination of the supply chain system; When the risk coefficient exceeds the non-participation insurance coefficient, the introduction of agricultural insurance can not only effectively manage the natural risks, but also help to improve the coordination of the supply chain system.

  17. Monitoring pathogens from irradiated agriculture products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Butterweck, J.S.

    1990-01-01

    The final food and environmental safety assessment of agriculture product irradiation can only be determined by product history. Product history will be used for future research and development, regulations, commercial practices and implementation of agriculture and food irradiation on a regional basis. The commercial irradiator treats large varieties and amounts of products that are used in various environments. it, in time, will generate a large data base of product history. Field product monitoring begins when food irradiation progresses from the pilot/demonstration phase to the commercial phase. At that time, it is important that there be in place a monitoring system to collect and analyze field data. The systems managers, public health authorities and exotic disease specialists will use this information to assess the reduction of food pathogens on the populace and the environment. (author)

  18. Simulation and optimization of agricultural product supply chain system based on Witness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiandong Liu

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Researches on agricultural product supply chain have important implications for improving the efficiency of agricultural products circulation, strengthening the construction of agricultural market system, promoting agricultural modernization and solving the three rural issues. Agricultural product supply chain system has begun to be optimized through simulation technique. In this paper, agricultural product supply chain system is reasonably simplified and assumed. A simulation model was developed by using the simulation software Wit-ness to study agricultural product supply chain. Through the analysis of the simulation output data, improvement suggestions were also proposed as follows: improving the organization degree of agricultural products, improving the agricultural products processing, establishing strategic partnership and scientifically developing agricultural products logistics.

  19. Determinants and impacts of public agricultural research in Japan: Product level evidence on agricultural Kosetsushi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukugawa, Nobuya

    2017-12-01

    The public sector is an important source of agricultural research as the agricultural sector in many countries consists of a number of individual farmers who have difficulty in bearing the cost of research and development. Public institutes for testing and research called Kosetsushi help agriculture and manufacturing improve labor productivity through technology transfer activities, whereby constituting an important component of regional innovation systems in Japan. This study establishes panel data of agricultural Kosetsushi and examines whether their research activities are responsive to local needs and which type of research effort is conducive to the promotion of agricultural product innovations. Estimation results reveal variations across plants in the impacts of agricultural clusters on research on the plant conducted by Kosetsushi located in the cluster. A positive impact is observed only for vegetable while negative or statistically insignificant relationships are found for rice, fruit, and flower. The impact of research on plant breeding on agricultural product innovations also varies across plants. Policy implications of the major findings are discussed.

  20. PRODUCTION POTENTIAL AND AGRICULTURAL EFFECTIVENESS IN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agnieszka Baer-Nawrocka

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the paper was to assess the relation between agricultural production factors and effectiveness in European Union’s agriculture. For each country two synthetic coefficients were calculated using TOPSIS method. The first one characterises production factors relations, the latter one displays effectiveness of production factors. The objective of the research was to verify the correlation between these indices. The analysis proved that in many analysed countries the agricultural potential is correlated positively with the agricultural effectiveness. 

  1. [Discussion on agricultural product quality and safety problem from ecological view].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Ming; Dong, Nan; Lyu, Xin

    2015-08-01

    There are many different perspectives about the sustainable agriculture, which had been proposed since the last three decades in the world. While China's ecologists and agronomists proposed a similar concept named 'ecological agriculture'. Although ecological agriculture in China has achieved substantial progress, including theory, models and supporting technologies nearly several decades of practice and development, its application guidance still is not yet clear. The organic agriculture model proposed by European Union is popular, but it is limited in the beneficiary groups and the social and ecological responsibility. In this context, the article based on an ecological point of view, analyzed the shortcomings of ecological imbalance caused by a single mode of agricultural production and the negative impact on the quality of agricultural products, and discussed the core values of ecological agriculture. On this basis, we put forward the concept of sustainable security of agricultural products. Based on this concept, an agricultural platform was established under the healthy ecosysphere environment, and from this agricultural platform, agricultural products could be safely and sustainably obtained. Around the central value of the concept, we designed the agricultural sustainable and security production model. Finally, we compared the responsibility, benefiting groups, agronomic practices selection and other aspects of sustainable agriculture with organic agriculture, and proved the advancement of sustainable agricultural model in agricultural production quality and safety.

  2. Agriculture products as source of radionuclides and some monitoring principles of agriculture near nuclear facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aleksakhin, R.M.; Korneev, N.A.; Panteleev, L.I.; Shukhovtsev, B.I.

    1985-01-01

    Migration of radionuclides into agriculture products in regions adjoining the nuclear facilities depends on a large number of factors. Among them is the complex of ecological conditions: meteorological factors, type of soils etc., as well as biological peculiarities of agriculture plants and animals. It is possible to control the radionuclide content administered to man's organism with agriculture products changing large branches of agriculture and varying within the range of seprate branches of industry, taking into account the most effective ways of radionuclide pathways

  3. Students' Perception of West African Agricultural Productivity ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    E M IGBOKWE

    recommended that West African Agricultural Productivity Programme officials ... The agricultural sector in the 1960s provided the main source of employment, .... their fathers and mothers' occupation were majorly trading (43.3%) and trading.

  4. Lemon Effect of Green Agricultural Products and Its Marketing Strategy

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2010-01-01

    The paper introduces the lemon effect of green agricultural products,analyzes the formation reasons of the lemon effect of green agricul-tural products and summarizes problems brought by the effect,such as malicious deception and high price.The paper proposes countermeasures toavoid the lemon effect of green agricultural products from a perspective of marketing.The first is to strengthen the quality supervision of green agri-cultural products,upgrade the quality of products,and build up branded products.The government should foster the main body of the products andguide the main body to realize the importance of brand construction and management.The second is to construct a sales channel system of greenagricultural products,making use of the trading center of modern green agricultural products to sell products,developing a long term partnershipwith processing industries,big supermarket and restaurants,making use of internet and selling products online and offline.The third is to propagatethe products.Make a good use of advertisement,personal sales,propagation and public relations to accelerate the healthy development of greenagricultural market.

  5. Mining, Pollution and Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Ghana

    OpenAIRE

    Fernando Aragon; Juan Pablo Rud

    2012-01-01

    Most modern mines in the developing world are located in rural areas, where agriculture is the main source of livelihood. This creates the potential of negative spillovers to farmers through competition for key inputs (such as land) and environmental pollution. To explore this issue, we examine the case of gold mining in Ghana. Through the estimation of an agricultural production function using household level data, we find that mining has reduced agricultural productivity by almost 40%. This...

  6. A Spatial Data Model Desing For The Management Of Agricultural Data (Farmer, Agricultural Land And Agricultural Production)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taşkanat, Talha; İbrahim İnan, Halil

    2016-04-01

    Since the beginning of the 2000s, it has been conducted many projects such as Agricultural Sector Integrated Management Information System, Agriculture Information System, Agricultural Production Registry System and Farmer Registry System by the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Turkish Statistical Institute in order to establish and manage better agricultural policy and produce better agricultural statistics in Turkey. Yet, it has not been carried out any study for the structuring of a system which can meet the requirements of different institutions and organizations that need similar agricultural data. It has been tried to meet required data only within the frame of the legal regulations from present systems. Whereas the developments in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and standardization, and Turkey National GIS enterprise in this context necessitate to meet the demands of organizations that use the similar data commonly and to act in terms of a data model logic. In this study, 38 institutions or organization which produce and use agricultural data were detected, that and thanks to survey and interviews undertaken, their needs were tried to be determined. In this study which is financially supported by TUBITAK, it was worked out relationship between farmer, agricultural land and agricultural production data and all of the institutions and organizations in Turkey and in this context, it was worked upon the best detailed and effective possible data model. In the model design, UML which provides object-oriented design was used. In the data model, for the management of spatial data, sub-parcel data model was used. Thanks to this data model, declared and undeclared areas can be detected spatially, and thus declarations can be associated to sub-parcels. Within this framework, it will be able to developed agricultural policies as a result of acquiring more extensive, accurate, spatially manageable and easily updatable farmer and

  7. Assessing the transfer of risk due to transportation of agricultural products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Pei-Chiun; Shih, Hsiu-Ching; Ma, Hwong-Wen

    2015-02-01

    Health risk assessment (HRA) is the process used to estimate adverse health effects on humans. The importance and sensitivity of food chains to HRA have been observed, but the impact of the transportation of food has generally been ignored. This study developed an exposure assessment to demonstrate the significance of the transportation of agricultural products in HRA. The associated case study estimated the health risks derived from various sources of arsenic emissions in Taiwan. Two assessment scenarios, self-sufficiency and transportation of agricultural products, were compared to calculate risk transfer ratios that show the impact of agriculture transportation. The risk transfer ratios found by the study range from 0.22 to 42.10, indicating that the quantity of transportation of agricultural products is the critical factor. High air deposition and high agricultural production are the two main contributors to the effect of the transportation of agricultural products on HRA. Risk reduction measures could be applied to high-pollution areas as well as to areas with high agricultural productivity to reduce ingestion risks to residents. Certain areas that are sensitive to the transportation of agricultural products may incur more risks if emissions increase in agriculturally productive counties. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Endemic diseases and agricultural productivity: Challenges and policy response

    OpenAIRE

    Martine AUDIBERT

    2008-01-01

    Contrary to Asian countries, the agricultural sector in Africa had not benefited from the green revolution success. After a long time of disinterest in the agriculture sector in Africa, several voices arise now in favour of greater efforts towards this sector. Several studies tend to show the crucial role of agriculture in African countries' growth and highlight the huge need of increasing the productivity in this sector. If increase in agriculture productivity requires both an expansion of i...

  9. Effects of Amendment of Agricultural Bye Products with Animal ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Effects of Amendment of Agricultural Bye Products with Animal Manures on Soil ... Discovery and Innovation ... Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ... into the effectiveness of locally available agricultural by-products as source of nutrient.

  10. Practical Significance of Basin Water Market Construction on Agricultural Production

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    On the basis of introducing the concept of water market and the water market research in cluding both domestic market and foreign market,the system design features of water market are analyzed.The features include the prior distribution of agricultural water right,the close construction of market structure,reasonable price of water obtaining right and water pollution-discharge right and scientific stipulation of total volume of water use and total volume of pollution drainage.The practical significances of basin water market construction on Chinese agricultural production are revealed,which clover safeguarding the safety of agricultural water;effectively alleviating agricultural drought;saving the agricultural production water and improving the quality of agricultural products.

  11. The Status of Human Nutrition and Agricultural Productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wyse, Bonita; And Others

    1986-01-01

    The authors state that the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be considering productive alternatives for the American farmer, exploring ways to use or export the excess fat, and should be spending at least half of its resources to convince the consumers of the value they are getting from agricultural products. (CT)

  12. Positive and negative impacts of agricultural production of liquid biofuels

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reijnders, L.; Hester, R.E.; Harrison, R.M.

    2012-01-01

    Agricultural production of liquid biofuels can have positive effects. It can decrease dependence on fossil fuels and increase farmers’ incomes. Agricultural production of mixed perennial biofuel crops may increase pollinator and avian richness. Most types of agricultural crop-based liquid biofuel

  13. Radio-Agriculture - Ground and Space-Based Determination of Agricultural Productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cockell, C. S.

    The decision to sow seeds in a field, either on a local level (such as on an individual plot) or on vast agricultural complexes, is irreversible. Once the seed is sown, provided there is liquid water, tem- perature conditions are adequate and in some cases light is available, it will germinate. The timing of seed sowing has important effects on subsequent agricultural productivity [1-4]. The correlation between time of sowing and productivity causes several problems. Firstly, sowing seed depends absolutely upon a correct judgement on weather conditions, sometimes to the day. Secondly, not all crops need to be sown at the same time and so resources in manpower and equipment must be available for sowing different crops at different times. Great im- provements in resource allocation could be made if all seeds could be sown at the same time. Thirdly, there is no flexibility once resources to sowing have been committed. For example, in large agricultural areas manpower and machinery might be committed at particular times of the year to sowing, but if the weather conditions are not correct either they must be re-scheduled or productivity is lost. Local factors such as irrigation system availability might also impose upon a farmer a wish to be able to regulate the germination of particular fields, particularly in developing countries.

  14. Theoretical Application of Supervision over Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Xin; CHENG; Ying; ZHANG

    2013-01-01

    Supervision over quality and safety of agricultural products has received high attention of management department.Competent authorities have formulated and issued many measures to strengthen supervision over quality and safety of agricultural products and improve China’s agricultural product quality and safety level.From the perspective of management science,this paper elaborates basic contents of two basic management theories,Broken Windows Effect and Effect of Heat Furnace.Then,it analyzes influence of Broken Windows Effect and Effect of Heat Furnace on supervision over quality and safety of agricultural products.Finally,it comes up with recommendations for supervision over quality and safety of agricultural products.

  15. Research on the Legal Regulation of Market Access for Agricultural Products in China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    On the basis of defining the concept of market access for agricultural products,this paper analyzes the necessity of establishing market access system of agricultural products,proposes the conception of establishing market access system of agricultural products in China;sets up the frame of market access system of agricultural products;analyzes the rationality of the frame of market access system of agricultural products;poses the consideration of economic law regarding setup of market access system of agricultural products.This paper also puts forward the legislative suggestions for establishing market access system of agricultural products as follows:establish the frame of market access system of agricultural products taking quality access as core;establish and perfect the compensation and relief system of guaranteeing benefit of manager and producers;establish the market access system of agricultural products with hierarchical structure;sort out existing laws and form the sound the legal frame of market access system of agricultural products.

  16. Transport and agricultural productivity: A cross-national analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sike Liu

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The transportation infrastructure plays a significant role in the development of agriculture. In this study we examine the relationship between transport and agricultural performance by employing the World Bank’s roads infrastructure indicators. Based on a cross-country sample, a classic method is employed to test the hypothesis that better transport fosters agricultural productivity. The empirical results of the method support the hypothesis. As for this method, the estimation results of the widely-used inter-country aggregate agricultural production function describe that a country with better transport can produce more agricultural outputs given the same amounts of agricultural inputs and the same education level. Our empirical work lends support to the claim of Gollin and Rogerson (2010 [19] that transport is a basic factor explaining the poor economic performance of many developing countries, apart from physical and education investments, more emphasis should be placed on improving the transport infrastructure of these countries.

  17. Management of efficiency of agricultural production on the basis of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Management of efficiency of agricultural production on the basis of margin approach. ... Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences ... and systematized to the management of production costs of agricultural products, the proposed definition ...

  18. Mandatory Production Controls. Issues in Agricultural Policy. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 520.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Economic Research Service (USDA), Washington, DC.

    Mandatory restrictions on agricultural production continue to be suggested as an alternative policy for reducing price-depressing surplus production, increasing farm income, and cutting farm program costs. A mandatory production control program (MPCP) can be implemented through two methods: (1) acreage allotments, which restrict individual farmers…

  19. Organization of monitoring of agricultural products in NPP region

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Panteleev, L.I.; Spirin, E.V.; Sanzharova, N.I.

    1990-01-01

    Problem of organizing chemical and radiation monitoring of agricultural products in NPP region is considered. Attention is paid to monitoring during NPP siting and designing, to monitoring of radioactive contamination of agricultural products under normal NPP operation, emergency situations and decommissioning

  20. Policies for reduced deforestation and their impact on agricultural production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelsen, Arild

    2010-11-16

    Policies to effectively reduce deforestation are discussed within a land rent (von Thünen) framework. The first set of policies attempts to reduce the rent of extensive agriculture, either by neglecting extension, marketing, and infrastructure, generating alternative income opportunities, stimulating intensive agricultural production or by reforming land tenure. The second set aims to increase either extractive or protective forest rent and--more importantly--create institutions (community forest management) or markets (payment for environmental services) that enable land users to capture a larger share of the protective forest rent. The third set aims to limit forest conversion directly by establishing protected areas. Many of these policy options present local win-lose scenarios between forest conservation and agricultural production. Local yield increases tend to stimulate agricultural encroachment, contrary to the logic of the global food equation that suggests yield increases take pressure off forests. At national and global scales, however, policy makers are presented with a more pleasant scenario. Agricultural production in developing countries has increased by 3.3-3.4% annually over the last 2 decades, whereas gross deforestation has increased agricultural area by only 0.3%, suggesting a minor role of forest conversion in overall agricultural production. A spatial delinking of remaining forests and intensive production areas should also help reconcile conservation and production goals in the future.

  1. The influence of farmland pollution on the quality and safety of agricultural products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Z. L.; Li, L. Y.; Ye, C.; Lin, X. Y.; B, C.; Wei

    2018-02-01

    The quality and safety of agricultural products is not only a major livelihood issues for people’s health, but also the main barriers to international trade of agricultural products nowadays. The soil is the foundation to the production of agricultural products and the guarantee of agricultural development. The farmland soil quality is directly related to the quality and safety of agricultural products. Our country’s soil has been polluted by a series of pollution, Such as the excessive discharge of industrial wastes, the encroachment of household waste, and the unreasonable use of pesticides and fertilizers. Soil degradation is a serious threat to the quality and safety of agricultural products, so eliminating soil degradation is the fundamental way out for quality and safety of agricultural products. By analyzing problems of the quality and safety of agricultural products in our country, and exploring the farmland soil influence on the quality and safety of agricultural products. This article provides a reference for improving the control level of quality and safety of agricultural products and the farmland soil quality.

  2. Systems of innovation and agricultural productivity in African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Journal of Agricultural Research and Development ... dominated by the narrow approach of employing technology transfer and adoption theory. ... are relevant in studying innovative practices that result in sustainable agricultural productivity.

  3. AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES PRODUCTION EVALUATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serhiy Us

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to analyze correlation between production volume (V, labour factor (L and capital factor (K with further production volume forecasting of researched agricultural enterprises in Ukraine as well as their competitiveness in the European market. Methodology. The survey based on statistical data of State statistics service in Ukraine, Poland and accounting data of investigated enterprises during 2004-2013 years. Production volume and capital amount taken in monetary terms, labour factor is calculated in monetary terms using the average wage and the number of employees. Treatment of major production factors according to classical economic theory is generalized. Correlation of V, L and K factors are calculated using method of the least squares in production function evaluation. Production volume of enterprises A and B are forecasted with further evaluation of its reliability in the econometric program EViews 7. Results of the survey showed the dominant role of L factor over the K factor especially after world economic crisis 2008 in investigated agricultural enterprises of Ukraine. According to high determination coefficient, the influence of both factors on production volume is 85% for enterprise A and 95% for enterprise B. Production forecast shows the increase of its volume till 2020 in both enterprises with high probability according to forecast credibility indicator MAPE. Practical implications. Application of the results, in particular the ratio of production factors and forecast of production volume, will allow more effective use of production resources and better planning of production process taking into account market conditions. Value/originality. Production activity estimation and output forecast of investigated agricultural enterprises were used for competitiveness analysis of agricultural enterprises in Ukraine and Poland, which is important for European integration process of domestic economy.

  4. Obstacles to Development of Marketing Channels of Agricultural Products in China and Countermeasures

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    This paper introduces the connotation of marketing channels of agricultural products, and gives an overall of current modes of marketing channels of agricultural products in China, including the marketing channel of transportation and sale of agricultural products, the marketing channel of intermediary sales agent, and the marketing channel of mutual cooperation. The problems existing in the marketing channel of agricultural products in China as follows: first, the cost is high; second, the technological content is low; third, the upstream main body lacks competitiveness; fourth, the structure of investment is irrational. Corresponding countermeasures are put forward to develop marketing channels of agricultural products as follows: perfect the service function of wholesale market of agricultural products; propel the construction of integration and expansion of wholesale market; develop the circulation cooperatives of agricultural products; develop the integrated organization of production and sales of agricultural products.

  5. Marketing research of organic agricultural products' customers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salai Suzana

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of customers' marketing research is to acquire information about the way domestic customers behave towards organic agricultural products. This research focuses the overview of conditions and factors influencing customer behavior in nutrition processes in the EM and in Yugoslavia. The acquired information about changes and directions directly affect the possibilities of getting involved into supply processes as well as the 'transmission' of some directions in customer behavior. Anticipations based, on marketing research deal with changes on customers' level, in consumption, products and other competitors. The results of a part of problems concerning customer behavior in nutrition processes follow below, with an emphasis on organic agricultural products.

  6. Corn Production. A Unit for Teachers of Vocational Agriculture. Production Agriculture Curriculum Materials Project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grace, Clyde, Jr.

    Designed to provide instructional materials for use by vocational agriculture teachers, this unit contains nine lessons based upon competencies needed to maximize profits in corn production. The lessons cover opportunities for growing corn; seed selection; seedbed preparation; planting methods and practices; fertilizer rates and application;…

  7. Outsourcing Agricultural Production: Evidence from Rice Farmers in Zhejiang Province.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Ji

    Full Text Available China has recorded positive growth rates of grain production for the past eleven consecutive years. This is a remarkable accomplishment given that China's rapid industrialization and urbanization has led to a vast reduction of arable land and agricultural labor to non-agricultural sectors. While there are many factors contributing to this happy outcome, one potential contributing factor that has received increasing attention is the emergence of agricultural production outsourcing, a new rural institution that has emerged in recent years. This study aims to contribute to the limited but growing literature on agricultural production outsourcing in China. Specifically, this study analyzes factors affecting farmers' decisions to outsource any or some production tasks using data from rice farmers in Zhejiang province. Results from a logistic model show that farm size and government subsidy encourages farmers to outsource while ownership of agricultural machines and land fragmentation have negative effects on farmers' decisions to outsource production tasks. Results also showed that determinants of outsourcing decisions vary with the production tasks that farmers outsourced.

  8. Outsourcing Agricultural Production: Evidence from Rice Farmers in Zhejiang Province.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ji, Chen; Guo, Hongdong; Jin, Songqing; Yang, Jin

    2017-01-01

    China has recorded positive growth rates of grain production for the past eleven consecutive years. This is a remarkable accomplishment given that China's rapid industrialization and urbanization has led to a vast reduction of arable land and agricultural labor to non-agricultural sectors. While there are many factors contributing to this happy outcome, one potential contributing factor that has received increasing attention is the emergence of agricultural production outsourcing, a new rural institution that has emerged in recent years. This study aims to contribute to the limited but growing literature on agricultural production outsourcing in China. Specifically, this study analyzes factors affecting farmers' decisions to outsource any or some production tasks using data from rice farmers in Zhejiang province. Results from a logistic model show that farm size and government subsidy encourages farmers to outsource while ownership of agricultural machines and land fragmentation have negative effects on farmers' decisions to outsource production tasks. Results also showed that determinants of outsourcing decisions vary with the production tasks that farmers outsourced.

  9. Interdependence of Agricultural Production and Environment and the Road to Sustainable Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Curić Jasmina

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability of agricultural production in the world is in serious crisis. Interdependence of agricultural production and the environment is multiple and causality works both ways. On one hand, there are environmental changes which hamper food production, and on the other, the agricultural production, as it is, is severely damaging the environment. The very systems of agricultural production jeopardize future production. The goal of this paper is to explore causes of limitations of sustainable agricultural development in the world, where the authors emphasize the following: gas emissions with greenhouse effect, a disturbed cycle of nitrogen circulation and destruction of biodiversity.

  10. Industrial use of agricultural products: European prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bocchini, A.

    1992-01-01

    This paper first discusses how the GATT internal trade agreement has affected Italian and European agricultural practices, especially in that which regards the production of soybean and other vegetable oils. It then assesses how current Italian agricultural policies impact on proposals now being designed to encourage the production of vegetable oils for use as ecological automotive fuel alternatives. The paper cites the need for a greater say by farming associations, and cooperation among fuel oil producers and government bodies in the drafting up of future policies

  11. FACTORS OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN AGRICULTURE OF THE AGRARIAN REGION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anatoly Babenko

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to study the conceptual provisions of the essence of labour productivity in agriculture in order to determine the factors and conditions for its growth at the present stage of economic development. Methods. The theoretical and methodological bases of research are the works of classical and modern economic science concerning labour productivity and human capital. With the aim of concretizing the conceptual and categorical apparatus, the dialectical and abstract-logical methods were used; a monographic method was used during covering the views of scientists on the investigated problem; for the analysis of labour productivity trends, the method of comparative analysis and the graphical method were used. Results. The conditions of agricultural production management in an agrarian region are characterized. Factors of labour productivity growth in agriculture are determined. It is established that the main reserves of increasing labour productivity consist of reducing labour costs for the production of agricultural products. In turn, the reduction of labour costs is caused by the use of new equipment and new technologies, progressive forms of labour organization, improvement of the system of material incentives for labour. Practical significance. The realization of proposals and recommendations concerning the formation and development of human capital for agricultural production, optimization of production resources, strengthening of labour motivation will provide an opportunity to increase the labour activity of personnel, the volume of agricultural production. Relevance/originality. Further development of research results allows us to collect an empirical, multifactorial model of labour productivity growth in agricultural production.

  12. Impacts of reducing red meat consumption on agricultural production in Finland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heikki Sakari Lehtonen

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper summarises the simulated effects on Finnish agricultural production and trade of a 20% decrease in Finnish demand for red meat (beef, pork, lamb. According to our results, reduced red meat consumption would be offset by increased consumption of poultry meat, eggs, dairy products and fish, as well as small increases in consumption of fruits and vegetables, peas, nuts, cereal products and sweets. By including the derived demand changes in an agricultural sector model, we show that livestock production in Finland, incentivised by national production-linked payments for milk and bovine animals, would decrease by much less than 20% due to the complex nature of agricultural production and trade. Overall, assuming unchanged consumer preferences and agricultural policy, a 20% reduction in red meat consumption is not likely to lead to a substantial decrease in livestock production or changed land use, or greenhouse gas emissions, from Finnish agriculture.

  13. The social organization of agricultural biogas production and use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bluemling, Bettina; Mol, Arthur P.J.; Tu, Qin

    2013-01-01

    While for wind, solar energy or hydropower, energy supply happens directly from the source to the wind wheels, hydropower turbines or solar panels, in the case of biogas, energy production cannot directly take from the energy source, organic matter, but depends on the institutional structures and farmers′ practices involved for making energy available. With the production of bioenergy in rural areas, practices within agriculture are transformed, requiring new ways of organizing production processes. Research has left the question largely unanswered of how agricultural biogas production and use are – and can best be – organized within rural society. Which kinds of social organization exist, how are these embedded in existing agricultural institutions and practices, and how do these systems function? Under which conditions may the different kinds of social organization of biogas production and use work sustainably? This introduction article to the Special Issue “The social organization of agricultural biogas production and use” presents a framework for analysing the different kinds of social organization of biogas production and use presented hereafter. Analysis parameters are the supply network, distribution network, distribution of benefits, social boundaries of the system (accessibility) and scale. Using these parameters, the Special Issue articles are outlined. - Highlights: • Through agricultural institutions and farmers′ practices, biogas is made available. • Scale, supply and delivery network distinguish biogas infrastructural systems. • Access and benefit distribution are key for a biogas system′s sustainability

  14. Evolution of agricultural production of Zaire before and after 1960

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabiti, K.

    1991-01-01

    Full Text Available This study presents the evolution of agricultural production of Zaire before and after 1960 with the help of variable quantifies of products, the cultured area and the exported quantifies of products. A comparative analysis of quantifies of studied products shows that after 1960, the agricultural production of basis foodstuffs of the Zairian population has fallen of the order of 91 % in comparison with the first period. This study shows that the system of peasantry introduced in 1936 by the INEAC, the rationalization of cultural methods connected to the governmental explain the agricultural expansion of Zaire before 1960.

  15. Mass production of entomopathogenic fungi using agricultural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    STORAGESEVER

    2008-06-17

    Jun 17, 2008 ... Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, SRM University Ram, Apuram campus, Chennai 89, India. ... Various agricultural products and by products such as grains, vegetable ..... Premise Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi.

  16. Development of innovation infrastructure of agricultural production Lviv area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vasyl Chemerys

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Innovative infrastructure of agrarian production in Lviv Area and basic problems of its development are investigated. On the basis of the conducted cluster analysis in the article six optimum areas are offered clusterizations of agricultural production, which are certain after the criterion of balanced cluster educations. The first area of clusterization is most suitable for development of plant-grower. In particular, in four its districts, almost fourth part of plant-grower products is concentrated in the permanent costs of 2010 year. The second area of clusterization can be identified as mainly stock-raising, as its localization in the districts of foot-hill of area creates favourable terms for the production of meat and milk goods. The third area can be attributed to balanced stock-raising-plant-grower straight, with development of agriculture, oriented to the sale of products to the cities, above all things in Lviv. The fourth area of clusterization can be considered mainly plant-grower-oriented with simultaneous development of the suckling cattle breeding. The fifth area of clusterization, as marked already, can be identified as innovative oriented with predominance of stock-raising and production of goods on an export. A sixth (mountain area of clusterization is the least suitable for development of agriculture (except for the milk and meat cattle breeding. The applied approach is based on the account of ten key indexes which characterize potential of agricultural production development in each districts of Lviv Area: products of plant-grower are in all categories of economic agents; products of stock-raising are in all categories of economic agents; area of agricultural lands which are engaged in an agricultural production area of plough-land of economic agents which are engaged in an agricultural production; sowing areas are in all categories of economic agents; a quantity of cattle is in all categories of economic agents; a quantity of

  17. Preliminary Study on the Standard of Selenium Content in Agricultural Products

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    ZHANG Zhi-yuan; YOU Yong; GUO Qing-quan; WANG Yong-hong; DENG Shi-lin

    2012-01-01

    With the improvement of living standards, people pay more attention to the agricultural products with health protection function, and the selenium-rich agricultural products attract more and more consumers. The main biological role of selenium is to resist oxidation and inflammatory response, mainly focusing on resisting aging, preventing cardiovascular disease, protecting eyesight, counteracting or destroying the toxic properties, preventing cancer and thyroid disease. In most areas of China, there is a widespread shortage of selenium, thus producing selenium-rich agricultural products to provide natural selenium-rich health food to the areas in need of selenium, has gradually become a new hot spot of China’s health food industry, but high content of selenium in food is detrimental to human body, even leads to selenium intoxication, and artificially adding inorganic selenium is difficult to guarantee that the selenium content of agricultural products is not exceeded. According to human body’s daily demand for selenium in dietetics and the content of selenium in agricultural products in the Chinese food composition table, we put forward the recommendations on the standard of selenium in agricultural products, in order to provide the basis for China to formulate the health standard of selenium content in selenium-rich agricultural products.

  18. International Trade of Agricultural Products in the Context of "B&R" Initiative

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Lijing WU; Shuhua XIE

    2016-01-01

    At present,China’s agricultural product trade is facing the development dilemma. The trade deficit is expanding,market and product structure is irrational,and the Chinese agriculture products often encounter trade barriers. " B&R" initiative provides a rare opportunity for the development of agricultural products in China. It is necessary to seize this opportunity to change idea and innovate upon mechanism so as to increase the added value of exported agricultural products through various channels. There is also a need to develop electronic commerce,and make full use of interconnectivity and trade facilitation in " B&R" initiative to develop the international trade of agricultural products.

  19. FACTOR ANALYSIS OF LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN AGRICULTURE IN TERMS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina Elena PETRESCU

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper represents an analysis of the level of labor productivity in agriculture for each development region of Romania. Labor productivity in agriculture was analyzed by two parameters, namely: the value of agricultural production and the number of employees in agriculture for the period 2011 – 2012. The level of labor productivity is influenced by the quality of biological and bio-capacity of plants and animals as well, as well as the equipment and quality of work performed. From the factorial analysis it can be noticed a decrease of labor productivity caused by a decrease in the value of agricultural production.

  20. Agricultural Production. Level 1. Level 2. Level 3. Support Materials for Agricultural Training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batman, Kangan; Gadd, Nick; Lucas, Michele

    This publication contains the three communication skills units of the three levels of Support Materials for Agricultural Training (SMAT) in agricultural production: Level 1 (starting), 2 (continuing), and 3 (completing). The units are designed to help the learner improve his or her written and spoken communication skills needed to deal with…

  1. 46 CFR 111.105-45 - Vessels carrying agricultural products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Vessels carrying agricultural products. 111.105-45... ENGINEERING ELECTRIC SYSTEMS-GENERAL REQUIREMENTS Hazardous Locations § 111.105-45 Vessels carrying agricultural products. (a) The following areas are Class II, Division 1, (Zone 10 or Z) locations on vessels...

  2. The Relationship between Customer Knowledge Management and Performance of Agricultural Product Innovation

    OpenAIRE

    Hu, Jia-jia

    2012-01-01

    This paper takes an overview of the CKM and the performance of agricultural product innovation from contents of agricultural product innovation and customer knowledge management (CKM), the relation between CKM and agricultural product innovation. On the basis of the overview, it builds the theoretical framework of CKM and agricultural product innovation. It points out that enterprises can satisfy demands of customers through acquisition, share, utilization and innovation of customer knowledge...

  3. Development of Agricultural Product Logistics from the Perspective of the 4PL

    OpenAIRE

    ZHONG, Wuya; YAN, Wei

    2013-01-01

    From the perspective of the Fourth Party Logistics (4PL), this paper elaborates the concept, background and development plight of agricultural products logistics, advises developing 4PL under the background of rapid development of agricultural products and logistics, etc. and explores issues of information, efficiency and supervision of agricultural products logistics, draws the conclusion that only construct an 4PL agricultural products logistics system can alleviate the aporia of cost, and ...

  4. Life cycle assessment of agricultural biogas production systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lansche, J.; Muller, J. [Hohenheim Univ., Stuttgart (Germany). Inst. of Agricultural Engineering, Tropical and Subtropical Group

    2010-07-01

    Agricultural activities are large contributors to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This paper discussed the effectiveness of reducing agricultural emissions by using liquid manure to produce biogas. When using this technique, greenhouse gas emissions from manure storage are avoided and renewable energy is generated as heat and electricity in combined heat and power plants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental impacts of biogas production systems based on the methods of life cycle assessment. The traditional use of agricultural manures was compared with conventional energy production. The Gabi 4.3 software was used to create a model to evaluate the biogas production systems according to their environmental impact. In addition to the global warming potential, other impact categories were also used to evaluate the effects of the systems in eutrophication and acidification. It was concluded that environmental benefits can be obtained in terms of greenhouse gas emissions compared to electricity production from biogas with the typical German marginal electricity mix.

  5. INSPIA project: European Index for Sustainable and Productive Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Triviño-Tarradas, Paula; Jesús González-Sánchez, Emilio; Gómez-Ariza, Manuel; Rass, Gerard; Gardette, Sophie; Whitmore, Gavin; Dyson, Jeremy

    2017-04-01

    The concept of sustainable development has evolved from a mere perception for the protection of the environment, to a holistic approach, seeking to preserve not only the environment, but also to achieve sustainability in economics and social wellbeing. Globally, there is a major challenge to face in the agricultural sector: to produce more food, feed and other raw materials to satisfy the increasing demand of a growing population, whilst also contributing to economic prosperity, climate change mitigation / adaptation, social wellbeing and preserving natural capital such as soil, water, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Nowadays, conventional approaches to agriculture are under threat. A more productive and resource efficient agriculture that integrates natural resource protection into its approach will help to meet all these challenges, enabling us to have more of everything - more food, more feed, more non-food crops, more biodiversity and natural habitats - while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, INSPIA is an innovative approach that has worked since 2013 towards demonstration that sustainable productive agriculture is possible thanks to the implementation of a host of best management practices (BMPs) capable of delivering the above achievements. The purpose on INSPIA is to make visible with European decision makers that a sustainable and productive agricultural model exists in a small scale in Europe and that wider dissemination is possible with enabling legislation. INSPIA is demonstrating sustainable agriculture through the implementation of BMPs and the measurement and monitoring of a set of defined indicators (economic, social and environmental ones). INSPIA promotes sustainable practices that protect biodiversity, soils and water and contribute towards maintaining ecosystems services. This holistic sustainable system of productive agriculture is based on the combination of Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Integrated Pest

  6. A THEORETICAL SPOTLIGHT OVER THE ROMANIAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tarcza Teodora

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims at identifying and classifying new types of agricultural products, especially in Romania, but not only. As we well know, all the countries all over the world have their own history, traditions, economic structure, and a certain type of agriculture, adapted to their soil, climate, and nevertheless to theirs people needs. So, we know that certain countries used to cultivate certain agricultural products, while others are wellknown for others. Usually, we associate Spain with great wines, Belgium with delicious chocolate, Turkey with coffee, India with rice, Romania with grain, Russia with cereals, SUA – tobacco, etc.\\r\

  7. Geographical view on agricultural land and structural changes plant production Montenegro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Rajović

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE This paper analyzes agricultural land and structural changes in plant production Montenegro. The Montenegro represents a significant potential for agricultural development, but plant production insufficiently developed in relation to natural resources and the demands of intensive agricultural production. Average possession by agricultural holdings in 1960 amounts is 5.34 ha with only 2.05 ha arable area per agricultural holdings. Yet more unfavorable is the situation with arable surfaces. Namely, agricultural holdings in the Montenegro in 1960 are on average dispose with maximum of 0.74 ha of arable land. Judging by the size of the cultivated area, production volume, as well as according other parameters, plant production in the Montenegro in 2007, mainly used for meeting need households. A smaller area for is market. The role of the Montenegrin village and agriculture must be first-rate, as are its potentials, the main power future development of Montenegro. This requires radically new relationship between society and science to agriculture and the countryside. Instead of the existing approach in which they observed the preventive as producers of cheap food has to be developed a new concept, a comprehensive agricultural and rural development, which will be based on demographic, natural, economic and socio-cultural potential of Montenegro. 

  8. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

    OpenAIRE

    Serrao, Amilcar

    2001-01-01

    This research work examines levels and trends in global agricultural productivity in fifteen European Union countries and four Eastern European countries that have already applied for European Union membership. The study makes use of data collected from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and covers the period 1980-1998. An approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis is used to provide information on the peers of the (inefficient) i-th country and to derive the Malmqui...

  9. Effects Of Agricultural Extension On Cassava And Maize Production ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study was carried out to assess the effects of agricultural extension on food production in Abak Agricultural zone of Akwa Ibom state. Specifically, the effect was measured using the productivity of small-scale maize and cassava farmers between the years 2004 and 2005. Data for the study were collected from 108 ...

  10. Wastes and by-products - alternatives for agricultural use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boles, J.L.; Craft, D.J.; Parker, B.R.

    1994-01-01

    Top address a growing national problem with generation of wastes and by-products, TVA has been involved for several years with developing and commercializing environmentally responsible practices for eliminating, minimizing, or utilizing various wastes/by-products. In many cases, reducing waste generation is impractical, but the wastes/by-products can be converted into other environmentally sound products. In some instances, conversion of safe, value-added agricultural products in the best or only practical alternative. TVA is currently involved with a diversity of projects converting wastes/by-products into safe, economical, and agriculturally beneficial products. Environmental improvement projects have involved poultry litter, cellulosic wastes, used battery acid, ammonium sulfate fines, lead smelting effluents, deep-welled sulfuric acid/ammonium bisulfate solutions, wood ash, waste magnesium ammonium sulfate slurry from recording tape production, and ammunition plant waste sodium nitrate/ammonium nitrate streams

  11. effects of climate change on agricultural productivity in the federal

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Osondu

    2012-10-18

    Oct 18, 2012 ... The effects of the dynamics of climate on agricultural production are the thrust of this paper. Temperature .... climatic conditions that influence agricultural production in ... temperature when there are few clouds in the. FCT.

  12. Research on the performance evaluation of agricultural products supply chain integrated operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Jiake; Wang, Xifu; Liu, Yang

    2017-04-01

    The agricultural product supply chain integrated operation can ensure the quality and efficiency of agricultural products, and achieve the optimal goal of low cost and high service. This paper establishes a performance evaluation index system of agricultural products supply chain integration operation based on the development status of agricultural products and SCOR, BSC and KPI model. And then, we constructing rough set theory and BP neural network comprehensive evaluation model with the aid of Rosetta and MATLAB tools and the case study is about the development of agricultural products integrated supply chain in Jing-Jin-Ji region. And finally, we obtain the corresponding performance results, and give some improvement measures and management recommendations to the managers.

  13. Application of Mixed Group Decision Making to Safety Evaluation of Agricultural Products

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2012-01-01

    In view of the gravity of issues concerning safety of agricultural products and urgency of resolving these issues,after analyzing the problems existing in safety of agricultural products,this article offers a method for evaluating safety of agricultural products on the basis of mixed group decision making.First of all,it introduces the factors influencing safety evaluation of agricultural products;subsequently,given that the judgment matrices offered by the group of experts contain both reciprocal and complementary judgment matrices in the process of jointly participating in evaluation arising from personal preference,it proposes to assemble expert information in order to obtain indicator weight using the OWA operator;finally,the process of evaluating safety of agricultural products is given.

  14. Agricultural R&D, technology and productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piesse, J; Thirtle, C

    2010-09-27

    The relationships between basic and applied agricultural R&D, developed and developing country R&D and between R&D, extension, technology and productivity growth are outlined. The declining growth rates of public R&D expenditures are related to output growth and crop yields, where growth rates have also fallen, especially in the developed countries. However, growth in output value per hectare has not declined in the developing countries and labour productivity growth has increased except in the EU. Total factor productivity has generally increased, however it is measured. The public sector share of R&D expenditures has fallen and there has been rapid concentration in the private sector, where six multinationals now dominate. These companies are accumulating intellectual property to an extent that the public and international institutions are disadvantaged. This represents a threat to the global commons in agricultural technology on which the green revolution has depended. Estimates of the increased R&D expenditures needed to feed 9 billion people by 2050 and how these should be targeted, especially by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), show that the amounts are feasible and that targeting sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia can best increase output growth and reduce poverty. Lack of income growth in SSA is seen as the most insoluble problem.

  15. Agricultural Productivity, Co-Operatives and Organisational ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Huria: Journal of the Open University of Tanzania ... can enhance productivity and increase farmers' income by bringing financial services closer. ... of Kimuli Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Society (AMCOS) and Muungano Savings and ...

  16. The Change Path of Agricultural Production Outsourcing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Zhang

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The system of agricultural production outsourcing is a breakpoint for the development of agriculture and immigration worker’s urbanization. The analysis based on framework of the Institutional Change reveals that as a whole,the outsourcing system of agricultural production improves the welfare of society effectively. To some extents,it also can solve the problem of food security. The rural transferring labor-forces who realize the institutional change in the initial stage are is the first Action Group to gain the potential benefits. Local governments are a breakpoint of induced institutional change, which find potential benefits and then change the role of system changes. The central government is in dominant statue during the whole change. The outsourcing is a kind of improvement to the Family Contracted System, also an adaption to an imperfect Chinese rural social security. So the outsourcing has a positive meaning in the rural area.

  17. Population pressure and agricultural productivity in Bangladesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaudhury, R H

    1983-01-01

    The relationship between population pressure or density and agricultural productivity is examined by analyzing the changes in the land-man ratio and the changes in the level of land yield in the 17 districts of Bangladesh from 1961-64 and 1974-77. The earlier years were pre-Green Revolution, whereas in the later years new technology had been introduced in some parts of the country. Net sown area, value of total agricultural output, and number of male agricultural workers were the main variables. For the country as a whole, agricultural output grew by 1.2%/year during 1961-64 to 1974-77, while the number of male agricultural workers grew at 1.5%/year. The major source of agricultural growth during the 1960s was found to be increased land-yield associated with a higher ratio of labor to land. The findings imply that a more intensified pattern of land use, resulting in both higher yield and higher labor input/unit of land, is the main source of growth of output and employment in agriculture. There is very little scope for extending the arable area in Bangladesh; increased production must come from multiple cropping, especially through expansion of irrigation and drainage, and from increases in per acre yields, principly through adoption of high yield variants, which explained 87% of the variation in output per acre during the 1970s. Regional variation in output was also associated with variation in cropping intensity and proportion of land given to high yield variants. There is considerable room for modernizing agricultural technology in Bangladesh: in 1975-76 less than 9% of total crop land was irrigated and only 12% of total acreage was under high yield variants. The adoption of new food-grain technology and increased use of high yield variants in Bangladesh's predominantly subsistence-based agriculture would require far-reaching institutional and organizational changes and more capital. Without effective population control, expansion of area under high yield

  18. Relationship between Balanced Fertilization and Healthy Agricultural Products (A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.J. Malakouti

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on World Health Organization (WHO report, our society’s health ranks 123 among 192 countries. Unfortunately, this ranking position is very low and its main reason is malnutrition due to imbalanced fertilization. Although more than 85% of Iranian people are not hungry, about 90% of them are suffering from cell hunger, because agricultural authorities and hence producers do not pay attention to food security. According to the latest information, about 86.5% of applied fertilizers in our country appertain to urea and triple super phosphate. In fact, this is an alarming issue in respect to the production of healthy agricultural products and it remains a threat to food security. At present, a total subsidy of more than 7,000 billion rials is paid for nitrogen (N and phosphate (P fertilizers. Whereas, it should be considered that, firstly, the efficiency of these fertilizers, due to different reasons such as mismanagement and existing subsidy level, is low and, secondly, the overuse of these fertilizers causes the accumulation of nitrate (NO3 and cadmium (Cd in agricultural products. Furthermore, according to the law of minimum, the overdosed fertilizers do not have any special positive effect on sustainable production and society’s health. Paying for such high-cost subsidy just for N and P-fertilizers has caused farmers to overuse and waste these fertilizers in the country and moreover not having any tendency to apply biologic, organic and micronutrient fertilizers. Whereas, the application of these fertilizers, beside their adaptability with the environment, has a very positive effect on the human health. Therefore, at this time scientific management of production and application of all kinds of fertilizers is inevitable. In this case, by improving the quality of all types of fertilizers, and following the principle of balanced fertilization, besides achieving the desired yield increase, the quality of agricultural products will be

  19. Status of Agricultural Production and Crop Variety Improvement in Thailand

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    JIAO Chun-hai; GUO Ying; YAO Ming-hua; WAN Zheng-huang

    2012-01-01

    We introduced basic conditions of agricultural production in Thailand, and variety improvement of major crops, including rice, cassava, rubber, and vegetable, in the hope of providing reference for agricultural production and crop variety improvement in Hubei Province and even in the whole country.

  20. Research on the Development of E-commerce Model of Agricultural Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huo Yaping

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, electronic commerce of agricultural products has developed rapidly. In the development process of electronic commerce of agricultural products,many classic cases and business models have emerged. Such as tootoo industrial commune model (product drive type, Original life model (marketing driven type, Suichang model (service platform type. The author analyzes and compares each model from 7 aspects, and summarizes their differences and links. Finally, The author puts forward suggestions on the development of electronic commerce of agricultural products in china.

  1. Determining the optimum production portfolio in agricultural sector : province of Denizli case

    OpenAIRE

    Akyer, Hasan; Utku, Mehmet; Kaya, Yusuf

    2016-01-01

    Agriculture is a field which is critically important for the economy of every country. Countries pursue different agricultural production strategies in different regions in accordance with their needs. In this study, a production planning model was developed based on Modern Portfolio Theory for the production of summer and winter vegetables in Denizli, which has a significant agricultural production potential for the Aegean region. The historical data of the specified products were obtained f...

  2. Improving agricultural production under water scarcity in Fars province, Iran

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hosseini, M.R.; Haile, A.M.; McClain, M.E.

    2012-01-01

    ABSTRACT Water scarcity is one of the major limiting factor for improving agricultural production in the world, which significantly affects agricultural production and livelihood of millions of people who live in arid and semi-arid regions. This case study presents the analysis of the effectiveness

  3. Economic Analyses of Ware Yam Production in Orlu Agricultural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Economic Analyses of Ware Yam Production in Orlu Agricultural Zone of Imo State. ... International Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development ... statistics, gross margin analysis, marginal analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results ...

  4. TRENDS OF DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION AND REALIZATION OF PLANT PRODUCTION AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES OF MYKOLAIV REGION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kushniruk Viktor

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. Agriculture is one of the largest and most important sectors of the Ukrainian economy. The food security and independence of the state, the state of the internal and external markets, and, consequently, the standard of living of the population are directly dependent on its functional state. Mykolaiv region has significant opportunities for the development of the agricultural sector. There are favorable natural and climatic conditions, fertile land, labor resources and long-standing cultivating traditions. The region is considered one of the regions of intensive agriculture in Ukraine and has significant land resources. Purpose. The article presents the analysis of the development of production and sale of crop production by the agrarian enterprises of the Mykolaiv region, as well as revealing ways to increase the volume of their production and sales. Results. The crop area of main agricultural crops in all categories of farms was analyzed, and structural changes for 2010-2016 were revealed. The priority branch of the agro-industrial complex, which has an important strategic significance, first of all, is determined by the level of production of which the food security of the state depends, its economy and welfare of the population. The dynamics of agricultural crop yields in agrarian enterprises as the determining factor of influence on the efficiency of activity in the field of plant growing is researched. The dynamics of gross collections of crop production in agricultural enterprises is analyzed and the contribution of the Mykolaiv region to the national production of grain is determined. The volumes and average prices of sales of agricultural products by agrarian enterprises are investigated and it is determined that the modern development of the agrarian sector of the economy requires special attention to the formation and activation of the activities of market infrastructure entities. The production of which crops are an

  5. Effects of agricultural credit facility on the agricultural production and rural development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    GE Ekwere

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Lack of capital has been identified as one of the constraints that faced by small scale farmers. The aim of this research was to examine the effect of agricultural credit on the agriculture production, and calculate the inputs and outputs among small scale farmers. Structured questionnaires were distributed to 136 farmers, who had been selected using the stratified random sampling technique, and the data obtained were summarized into percentages. Regression analysis was adopted to assess the impacts of socio-economic factors on loan size among farmers, while Cobb-Douglas Production Function Analysis (CDPFA was used to test the relationship between key independent variables such as loan amount, farm size, inputs and farm output as dependent variable. The analysis revealed a significantly high value of coefficient of determination (R2= 0.922 that reflected a high relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables; gender, age, education, family size, farm size, farming experience. The Adjusted (R2 coefficient (R2 = 0.918 revealed that 91.8 % of variation in loam size explained by the changes in variables. The results showed a significance in F-test in size of loan. The hypothesis two, exhibited that the independent variables; loan size, farm size, and inputs explained the variation in the total value of farmers output. The study therefore showed that to achieve the positive agricultural credit impacts on agricultural production, The Government and the private sector should regularly and timely facilitate the credit to the small scale farmers. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v3i2.10529 International Journal of the Environment Vol.3(2 2014: 192-204

  6. Agricultural Production, Food and Nutrition Security in Rural Benin ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Agricultural Production, Food and Nutrition Security in Rural Benin, Nigeria. ... that rural-urban migration results in shortage of manpower for agricultural activities. ... to support education, health care, sanitation and safe drinking water supply.

  7. Agricultural Productivity and Policy Interventions in Nyamagabe ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Improving agricultural productivity has received considerable policy intervention in many African countries and particularly in Rwanda. The question remains to know the extent to which the policy contributes to the variation being upwards or downwards of the crop productivity. There are number of determinant factors some ...

  8. Production of Enzymes From Agricultural Wastes and Their Potential Industrial Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bharathiraja, S; Suriya, J; Krishnan, M; Manivasagan, P; Kim, S-K

    Enzymatic hydrolysis is the significant technique for the conversion of agricultural wastes into valuable products. Agroindustrial wastes such as rice bran, wheat bran, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, and corncob are cheapest and plentifully available natural carbon sources for the production of industrially important enzymes. Innumerable enzymes that have numerous applications in industrial processes for food, drug, textile, and dye use have been produced from different types of microorganisms from agricultural wastes. Utilization of agricultural wastes offers great potential for reducing the production cost and increasing the use of enzymes for industrial purposes. This chapter focuses on economic production of actinobacterial enzymes from agricultural wastes to make a better alternative for utilization of biomass generated in million tons as waste annually. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Evaluation on Core Competitiveness of Wholesale Market of Agricultural Products Based on CWAA Operator

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    According to relevant data,we select five indices,namely management ability,organization and management capability,enterprise culture,development ability and technical equipment ability,to establish the index system of core competitiveness of wholesale market of agricultural products.Based on combination weight arithmetic average(CWAA) operator,we advance an evaluation model of core competitiveness of wholesale market of agricultural products which involves participation of many people.By inviting five exerts,we conduct evaluation in terms of management ability of wholesale market of agricultural products,organization and management capability of leadership,enterprise culture of wholesale market of agricultural products,future development ability of wholesale market of agricultural products,and exiting technical equipment ability of wholesale market of agricultural products.We adopt hundred-mark system to grade and evaluate core competitiveness of wholesale market of agricultural products.The results show that the experts’ evaluation score of core competitiveness of wholesale market of agricultural products is high.The evaluation result is reasonable and authentic and this model is feasible.

  10. Agricultural production as a source of irradiation of populations in radiation accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexakhin, R.M.

    2000-01-01

    Radioactive contamination of the agricultural production sphere in case of a radiation accident with radionuclide release is one of the most important sources of additional irradiation for population. As a result, realisation of the measures for mitigating the consequences of the accident in agro-industrial complex assumes the leading role in total system of measures providing radiation safety. The possibility to obtain agricultural production meeting the radiological standards is one of the main indications of effectiveness of liquidation of the accident consequences. First, obtaining of agricultural production meeting the radiological standards provides decreasing of the total radiation dose. The evidence is obtained in the 8-year experience of liquidation of the Chernobyl NPP accident that the 70% decrease of the internal dose for population became possible through a complex of protection measures in agriculture (during the first year after the accident, the contribution of internal dose into the total one amounted to 45%, and that of external irradiation - 52%; for the 70-year period these values are 39% and 60%, respectively). Second, the possibility to obtain 'pure' agricultural production is one of the most important factors of psychological stability for population. Third, obtaining of consumable (as to radionuclide content) agricultural production in private small holdings is one of the guarantees of stability of demographic sector in the accident-affected zone. From the point of view of organization of agricultural production in liquidation of the consequences of accidents with radioactive releases into environment, some periods can be distinguished: (i) the first (early) period takes 10-12 days after the accident. The main measures in the field of agricultural production are in operative assessment of the radiological situation, organization of radiation survey, express classification of agricultural products ready to consumption. If radionuclide content

  11. Innovation of Supervision System for Quality and Safety of Edible Agricultural Products

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Xingxing; MEI; Zhongchao; FENG

    2014-01-01

    This paper elaborated multidimensional characteristics of quality and safety of agricultural products,introduced current situation of quality and safety supervision of edible agricultural products in China,analyzed existing problems of quality and safety supervision system and corresponding reasons,and finally came up with recommendations for innovation of supervision system for quality and safety of agricultural products.

  12. Potential effects of nuclear war on agricultural productivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harwell, M.A.; Cropper, W.P. Jr.

    1985-01-01

    The authors examine the vulnerabilities of agricultural systems to nuclear war-induced climatic perturbations and to other, indirect effects of nuclear war. Discussion is included of the dependency of agricultural production on technological inputs and the effects of loss or reduction of these inputs in a post-nuclear war world

  13. Design of Agricultural Cleaner Production Technology System

    OpenAIRE

    Hu, Jun-mei; Wang, Xin-jie

    2009-01-01

    Based on the introduction of agricultural cleaner production, technology system design of planting cleaner production is discussed from five aspects of water-saving irrigation technology, fertilization technology, diseases and insects control technology, straw comprehensive utilization technology and plastic film pollution control technology. Cleaner production technology system of livestock and poultry raise is constructed from the aspects of source control technology, reduction technique in...

  14. Implications of middlemen in the supply chain of agricultural products

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper appraised the roles of middlemen in the distribution of agricultural products and the inherent implications to food security. The results showed that climate and weather are known limiting factors of production in agriculture. Also, middlemen intervention raise price for consumers. The result showed that farmers ...

  15. THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ON RURAL TO URBAN MIGRATION IN JAVA, INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renata Fauzia

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates if the improvement of agricultural productivity will decrease rural to urban migration. Since rural to urban migration occurs due mainly to disparity between urban and agricultural wage, we assume that boosting agricultural income will reduce migration to urban areas. It is hypothesized that increase in agricultural productivity would result in a rise in agricultural wage, and hence income, ceteris paribus, reduces rural-urban migration. The data used in this study is the 2010 provincial statistics in West Java, Central Java, and East Java, Indonesia. The agricultural productivity and migration equations were estimated by using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS. The research findings may offer the suggestion to reduce rural to urban migration by boosting rural income through focusing the policy on agricultural productivity. Enhancing investment in agricultural sector such as increasing the number of subsidized fertilizer, adding agricultural labor and livestock, increasing education of rural people, and utilizing agricultural land resource are expected to increase agricultural output.Thus, it would also minimize the wage differential between urban and rural area.

  16. Quality of agricultural-food products as a factor of the Republic of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Jane

    2011-08-03

    Aug 3, 2011 ... encourages manufacturers and processors of agricultural products to offer a ... AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION COMPETITIVENESS. Serbia has .... quality, modest design and packaging, products have uncertain sale in the ...

  17. Agricultural field reclamation utilizing native grass crop production

    Science.gov (United States)

    J. Cure

    2013-01-01

    Developing a method of agricultural field reclamation to native grasses in the Lower San Pedro Watershed could prove to be a valuable tool for educational and practical purposes. Agricultural field reclamation utilizing native grass crop production will address water table depletion, soil degradation and the economic viability of the communities within the watershed....

  18. Implications of Climate Mitigation for Future Agricultural Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, Christoph; Elliott, Joshua; Chryssanthacopoulos, James; Deryng, Delphine; Folberth, Christian; Pugh, Thomas A. M.; Schmid, Erwin

    2015-01-01

    Climate change is projected to negatively impact biophysical agricultural productivity in much of the world. Actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate future climate changes, are thus of central importance for agricultural production. Climate impacts are, however, not unidirectional; some crops in some regions (primarily higher latitudes) are projected to benefit, particularly if increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is assumed to strongly increase crop productivity at large spatial and temporal scales. Climate mitigation measures that are implemented by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations lead to reductions both in the strength of climate change and in the benefits of carbon dioxide fertilization. Consequently, analysis of the effects of climate mitigation on agricultural productivity must address not only regions for which mitigation is likely to reduce or even reverse climate damages. There are also regions that are likely to see increased crop yields due to climate change, which may lose these added potentials under mitigation action. Comparing data from the most comprehensive archive of crop yield projections publicly available, we find that climate mitigation leads to overall benefits from avoided damages at the global scale and especially in many regions that are already at risk of food insecurity today. Ignoring controversial carbon dioxide fertilization effects on crop productivity, we find that for the median projection aggressive mitigation could eliminate approximately 81% of the negative impacts of climate change on biophysical agricultural productivity globally by the end of the century. In this case, the benefits of mitigation typically extend well into temperate regions, but vary by crop and underlying climate model projections. Should large benefits to crop yields from carbon dioxide fertilization be realized, the effects of mitigation become much more mixed, though still positive globally and beneficial in many

  19. Implications of climate mitigation for future agricultural production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Müller, Christoph; Elliott, Joshua; Chryssanthacopoulos, James; Deryng, Delphine; Folberth, Christian; Pugh, Thomas A M; Schmid, Erwin

    2015-01-01

    Climate change is projected to negatively impact biophysical agricultural productivity in much of the world. Actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate future climate changes, are thus of central importance for agricultural production. Climate impacts are, however, not unidirectional; some crops in some regions (primarily higher latitudes) are projected to benefit, particularly if increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is assumed to strongly increase crop productivity at large spatial and temporal scales. Climate mitigation measures that are implemented by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations lead to reductions both in the strength of climate change and in the benefits of carbon dioxide fertilization. Consequently, analysis of the effects of climate mitigation on agricultural productivity must address not only regions for which mitigation is likely to reduce or even reverse climate damages. There are also regions that are likely to see increased crop yields due to climate change, which may lose these added potentials under mitigation action. Comparing data from the most comprehensive archive of crop yield projections publicly available, we find that climate mitigation leads to overall benefits from avoided damages at the global scale and especially in many regions that are already at risk of food insecurity today. Ignoring controversial carbon dioxide fertilization effects on crop productivity, we find that for the median projection aggressive mitigation could eliminate ∼81% of the negative impacts of climate change on biophysical agricultural productivity globally by the end of the century. In this case, the benefits of mitigation typically extend well into temperate regions, but vary by crop and underlying climate model projections. Should large benefits to crop yields from carbon dioxide fertilization be realized, the effects of mitigation become much more mixed, though still positive globally and beneficial in many food insecure

  20. Agricultural production data for the Sizewell area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-11-01

    The proposed site for the Sizewell B nuclear power station is located at the centre of the East Suffolk coastline. The county itself is predominantly agricultural, producing a very wide range of foodstuffs which in the case of one or two particular foodstuffs contribute a significant proportion of the total national production. A general view of the agricultural setting within which the development would be sited and a compendium of more detailed agricultural data relating to the immediate vicinity of the site, which has been drawn on in the Ministry's assessment of the radiological impact of routine atmospheric waste emission, are given. (U.K.)

  1. Market problems of agricultural products in Albania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Merita Marku

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The production of fruits and vegetables in our country still faces challenges, including informality in sector of planting material, high costs of inputs purchased and fuel (especially affecting the green houses with heating, low productivity and high losses of post-harvest, especially in the case of fruit. Fresh fruit and vegetable marketing is different in many respects from the marketing of other agricultural and nonagricultural products. Hundreds of individual commodities comprise the total group. Each product has its own special requirements for growing and handling, with its own quality attributes, merchandising methods, and standards of consumer acceptance (How, R. B. 2012, 1. Food safety standards of fruits and vegetables their compliance with key standards and certification as a prerequisite and a challenge to be addressed in order to increase Albanian exports of agricultural products to European markets. Concerning vegetables and fruits, Albanian farmers face important marketing problems. Such problems are encountered at all stages of the production system-provision of inputs, both in terms of processing, promotion and other market incentives, which directly assist in the efficient realization of the sale of fruits and vegetables.

  2. Optimizing cultivation of agricultural products using socio-economic and environmental scenarios.

    Science.gov (United States)

    RaheliNamin, Behnaz; Mortazavi, Samar; Salmanmahiny, Abdolrassoul

    2016-11-01

    The combination of degrading natural conditions and resources, climate change, growing population, urban development, and competition in a global market complicate optimization of land for agricultural products. The use of pesticides and fertilizers for crop production in the agricultural fields has become excessive in the recent years and Golestan Province of Iran is no exception in this regard. For this, effective management with an efficient and cost-effective practice should be undertaken, maintaining public service at a high level and preserving the environment. Improving the production efficiency of agriculture, efficient use of water resources, decreasing the use of pesticides and fertilizers, improving farmer revenue, and conservation of natural resources are the main objectives of the allocation, ranking, and optimization of agricultural products. The goal of this paper is to use an optimization procedure to lower the negative effects of agriculture while maintaining a high production rate, which is currently a gap in the study area. We collected information about fertilizer and pesticide consumption and other data in croplands of eastern Golestan Province through face-to-face interviews with farmers to optimize cultivation of the agricultural products. The toxicity of pesticides according to LD50 was also included in the optimization model. A decision-support software system called multiple criteria analysis tool was used to simultaneously minimize consumption of water, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides and maximize socio-economic returns. Three scenarios for optimization of agricultural products were generated that alternatively emphasized on environmental and socio-economic goals. Comparing socio-economic and environmental performance of the optimized agricultural products under the three scenarios illustrated the conflict between social, economic, and environmental objectives. Of the six crops studied (wheat, barley, rice, soybeans, oilseed rape

  3. PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTE

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Braide W, Kanu I.A, Oranusi U.S and Adeleye S.A

    2016-05-01

    May 1, 2016 ... ethanol can be made from the named agricultural waste and the process is ..... of lignocellulosic materials for ethanol production: a review. Bioresour. ... [6] Martín, C., Klinke, H.B. and Thomsen, A.B. Wet oxidation as a ...

  4. Agricultural production and water use scenarios in Cyprus under global change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruggeman, Adriana; Zoumides, Christos; Camera, Corrado; Pashiardis, Stelios; Zomeni, Zomenia

    2014-05-01

    In many countries of the world, food demand exceeds the total agricultural production. In semi-arid countries, agricultural water demand often also exceeds the sustainable supply of water resources. These water-stressed countries are expected to become even drier, as a result of global climate change. This will have a significant impact on the future of the agricultural sector and on food security. The aim of the AGWATER project consortium is to provide recommendations for climate change adaptation for the agricultural sector in Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean region. Gridded climate data sets, with 1-km horizontal resolution were prepared for Cyprus for 1980-2010. Regional Climate Model results were statistically downscaled, with the help of spatial weather generators. A new soil map was prepared using a predictive modelling and mapping technique and a large spatial database with soil and environmental parameters. Stakeholder meetings with agriculture and water stakeholders were held to develop future water prices, based on energy scenarios and to identify climate resilient production systems. Green houses, including also hydroponic systems, grapes, potatoes, cactus pears and carob trees were the more frequently identified production systems. The green-blue-water model, based on the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach, has been set up to compute agricultural water demand and yields for all crop fields in Cyprus under selected future scenarios. A set of agricultural production and water use performance indicators are computed by the model, including green and blue water use, crop yield, crop water productivity, net value of crop production and economic water productivity. This work is part of the AGWATER project - AEIFORIA/GEOGRO/0311(BIE)/06 - co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation.

  5. A survey of radioactive levels of agricultural products in Saitama prefecture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Motegi, Misako; Miyake, Sadaaki; Oosawa, Takashi; Nakazawa, Kiyoaki [Saitama Inst. of Public health, Saitama (Japan)

    1997-09-01

    Past atmospheric nuclear testing which have been conducted frequently, have caused environmental pollution due to the diffusion of radioactive substances into the atmosphere and from the radioactive fallout. The environmental pollution from nuclear testing into the atmosphere has resulted in the radioactive contamination in agricultural products and has continued for a long time. The radioactive contamination of agricultural products occurs through air, water and soil which were contaminated by radioactive fallout. In this paper, for the purpose of analyzing the extent of the radioactive contamination levels in the agricultural products of Saitama Prefecture, spinach, green soybeans, dried shiitake and welsh onion, were selected among products, as the amount of the harvest is abundant in all of Japan. Radioactivity concentration was investigated by gamma-ray spectrometry and radiochemical analysis. The radioactivity concentrations of artificial radioactive nuclides, cesium-137 ({sup 137}Cs) and strontium-90 ({sup 90}Sr), were detected in the range which is considered to be the result of radioactive fallout. Moreover, in order to examine the effect on radioactivity concentrations in agricultural products by culinary processing, the raw agricultural products were boiled, and their radioactivity concentrations were compared with the raw produce. The radioactivity concentrations in the boiled were lower than those in the raw produce. (author)

  6. A survey of radioactive levels of agricultural products in Saitama prefecture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Motegi, Misako; Miyake, Sadaaki; Oosawa, Takashi; Nakazawa, Kiyoaki

    1997-01-01

    Past atmospheric nuclear testing which have been conducted frequently, have caused environmental pollution due to the diffusion of radioactive substances into the atmosphere and from the radioactive fallout. The environmental pollution from nuclear testing into the atmosphere has resulted in the radioactive contamination in agricultural products and has continued for a long time. The radioactive contamination of agricultural products occurs through air, water and soil which were contaminated by radioactive fallout. In this paper, for the purpose of analyzing the extent of the radioactive contamination levels in the agricultural products of Saitama Prefecture, spinach, green soybeans, dried shiitake and welsh onion, were selected among products, as the amount of the harvest is abundant in all of Japan. Radioactivity concentration was investigated by gamma-ray spectrometry and radiochemical analysis. The radioactivity concentrations of artificial radioactive nuclides, cesium-137 ( 137 Cs) and strontium-90 ( 90 Sr), were detected in the range which is considered to be the result of radioactive fallout. Moreover, in order to examine the effect on radioactivity concentrations in agricultural products by culinary processing, the raw agricultural products were boiled, and their radioactivity concentrations were compared with the raw produce. The radioactivity concentrations in the boiled were lower than those in the raw produce. (author)

  7. Quality of agricultural-food products as a factor of the Republic of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study analyzes the competitiveness of agricultural-food products of Serbia in the local and international markets. The subject of this research is analysis of relevant competitiveness factors of agricultural-food products, aiming to assess the products' quality and highlight the main intentions of production and processing.

  8. Agricultural productivity growth and technology progress in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The goal of this investigation was to analyze the impact of some variables of production(input) on agricultural productivity growth (output) in China over the period 1989-2002. To this aim, Cobb-Douglas function has been used. The methodology used in this study is correct and the resulting conclusion is that labor, capital ...

  9. Implications of salinity pollution hotspots on agricultural production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floerke, Martina; Fink, Julia; Malsy, Marcus; Voelker, Jeanette; Alcamo, Joseph

    2016-04-01

    Salinity pollution can have many negative impacts on water resources used for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes. Elevated concentrations of salinity in irrigation water can lead to decreased crop production or crop death and, thus, causing an economic problem. Overall, salinity pollution is a global problem but tends to be more severe in arid and semi-arid regions where the dilution capacity of rivers and lakes is lower and the use of irrigation higher. Particularly in these regions agricultural production is exposed to high salinity of irrigation water as insufficient water quality further reduces the available freshwater resources. According to the FAO, irrigated agriculture contributes about 40 percent of the total food production globally, and therefore, high salinity pollution poses a major concern for food production and food security. We use the WaterGAP3 modeling framework to simulate hydrological, water use, and water quality conditions on a global scale for the time period 1990 to 2010. The modeling framework is applied to simulate total dissolved solids (TDS) loadings and in-stream concentrations from different point and diffuse sources to get an insight on potential environmental impacts as well as risks to agricultural food production. The model was tested and calibrated against observed data from GEMStat and literature sources. Although global in scope, the focus of this study is on developing countries, i.e., in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as these are most threatened by salinity pollution. Furthermore, insufficient water quality for irrigation and therefore restrictions in irrigation water use are examined, indicating limitations to crop production. Our results show that elevated salinity concentrations in surface waters mainly occur in peak irrigation regions as irrigated agriculture is not only the most relevant water use sector contributing to water abstractions, but also the dominant source of salinity pollution. Additionally

  10. Minilivestock in Argentina. Integration with Agricultural Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Biasatti, NR.

    1999-01-01

    Full Text Available The development of alternative agricultural production can take different forms. In Argentina there is an important diversity of species available to be incorporated into production systems, giving support for the use of natural resources based on taking advantage of the regional fauna. Moreover the use of different animal species can be incorporated under the concept of the optimization of flows of energy and materials, tending to minimize the environmental impact of livestock production, and also to make more efficient use of the ingredients required for developing the activity. The integration of non-traditional species (minilivestock within the context of sustainable agricultural development was the motivation for the present study A module for raising Myocastor coypus (coypu or false nutha was developed, to which was linked a module for raising Eisenia foetida (the socalled red worm, in both cases with a dual purpose. Preliminary estimates were made of the productive aspects of both species, as well as an analysis of their integration, to understand the extent to which diversification linked with complementation tends to optimize the system.

  11. Influences of Packaging on Consumers’ Choice of Agricultural Products in Enugu, Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chukwuebuka Ebube Wilfred

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This study focused on packaging and its influence on consumers’ choice of agricultural products in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria. In addition, it also aimed to ascertain the relationship between packaging of agricultural products and their perceived quality. The study population is made up of agro-product consumers in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria. A total of 165 questionnaires were administered to respondents. Data obtained through questionnaires were tabulated and analyzed using simple percentages while the chi-square was used to test the research hypotheses. The major findings of this study were that packaging has a direct relationship both to consumers’ choice of agricultural products and their perception of the quality of such products. Accordingly, the researchers conclude and recommend that improved packaging design for agricultural products is essential in attracting consumers and positively influencing their choice of purchase.

  12. Evolution Model and Simulation of Profit Model of Agricultural Products Logistics Financing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Bo; Wu, Yan

    2018-03-01

    Agricultural products logistics financial warehousing business mainly involves agricultural production and processing enterprises, third-party logistics enterprises and financial institutions tripartite, to enable the three parties to achieve win-win situation, the article first gives the replication dynamics and evolutionary stability strategy between the three parties in business participation, and then use NetLogo simulation platform, using the overall modeling and simulation method of Multi-Agent, established the evolutionary game simulation model, and run the model under different revenue parameters, finally, analyzed the simulation results. To achieve the agricultural products logistics financial financing warehouse business to participate in tripartite mutually beneficial win-win situation, thus promoting the smooth flow of agricultural products logistics business.

  13. Multi-Product Crops for Agricultural and Energy Production : an AGE Analysis for Poland

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ignaciuk, A.; Dellink, R.B.

    2005-01-01

    By-products from agriculture and forestry can contribute to production of clean and cheap (bio)electricity. To assess the role of such multi-product crops in the response to climate policies, we present an applied general equilibrium model with special attention to biomass and multi-product crops

  14. Detecting Chaos from Agricultural Product Price Time Series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Su

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Analysis of the characteristics of agricultural product price volatility and trend forecasting are necessary to formulate and implement agricultural price control policies. Taking wholesale cabbage prices as an example, a multiple test methodology has been adopted to identify the nonlinearity, fractality, and chaos of the data. The approaches used include the R/S analysis, the BDS test, the power spectra, the recurrence plot, the largest Lyapunov exponent, the Kolmogorov entropy, and the correlation dimension. The results show that there is chaos in agricultural wholesale price data, which provides a good theoretical basis for selecting reasonable forecasting models as prediction techniques based on chaos theory can be applied to forecasting agricultural prices.

  15. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agricultural Production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bennetzen, Eskild Hohlmann

    unit. This dissertation presents results and comprehensions from my PhD study on the basis of three papers. The overall aim has been to develop a new identity-based framework, the KPI, to estimate and analyse GHG emissions from agriculture and LUC and apply this on national, regional and global level....... The KPI enables combined analyses of changes in total emissions, emissions per area and emissions per product. Also, the KPI can be used to assess how a change in each GHG emission category affects the change in total emissions; thus pointing to where things are going well and where things are going less...... well in relation to what is actually produced. The KPI framework is scale independent and can be applied at any level from field and farm to global agricultural production. Paper I presents the first attempt to develop the KPI identity framework and, as a case study, GHG emissions from Danish crop...

  16. Microcredit Effect on Agricultural Productivity: A Comparative ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    F-value of 9.84 and 10.11 recorded for the two categories of farmers respectively, and being significant at 1 percent each, led to the rejection of the hypothesis of inputs having no significant effect on output. It is thus concluded that credit could bring about higher productivity and profit in agricultural production, hence, this ...

  17. Agricultural recycling of biodigested vinasse for lettuce production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Camila Roberta Javorski Ueno

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The agricultural use of waste products represents an interesting alternative for nutrient cycling. Biodigested vinasse, the final waste product of vinasse biodigestion and biogas production, can be reused for agricultural purposes. The present work sought to quantify the shoot dry mass production of lettuce plants, as well as foliar nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content following the application of biodigested vinasse on soil. Biodigested vinasse was produced from anaerobic vinasse digestion, using anaerobic sludge as a source of microorganisms. The treatments, with four replications in entirely randomized design, consisted of anaerobic sludge from a gelatin factory, vinasse in natura, biodigested vinasse and a control treatment. The experiment was conducted over 45 days using 5 L vases and applying a dose equivalent to 150 m3 ha-1 . Lettuce treated with biodigested vinasse showed higher shoot dry mass production and higher accumulation of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in its leaves than that treated with vinasse in natura.

  18. Annual cropped area expansion and agricultural production ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management ... considerable annual increase of varying extent over time and space for both annual output and area ... The study suggests improving productivity through sustainable agricultural ...

  19. Reduction of radiation injury of fresh agricultural products by saccharide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Todoroki, Setsuko; Hayashi, Toru

    1999-01-01

    Radiation exposure has been paid attention as an alternative technique of methylbromide to protect agricultural products against insects. However, it has been pointed out that radiation at a dose lower than 300-400 Gy necessary for insecticidal effects might produce damages in fresh agricultural products. To reduce such radiation damages, radiation sensitivities of various fresh products were determined to clarify whether sugar treatment is effective for reduction of damages. Further, the timing of the treatment and its influence on the metabolism of agricultural product were investigated. When sucrose was added to a cut flower of chrysanthemum via water before and during irradiation, the withering time of its leaves and flowers was earlier than that of the untreated product, whereas continuous administration of sucrose after radiation exposure caused to lengthen the flower's life and delay the leave's yellowing. Thus, it was indicated that continuous sugar supply after irradiation was effective for prevention of radiation damages. (M.N.)

  20. Computerised image analysis of biocrystallograms originating from agricultural products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Jens-Otto; Henriksen, Christian B.; Laursen, J.

    1999-01-01

    Procedures are presented for computerised image analysis of iocrystallogram images, originating from biocrystallization investigations of agricultural products. The biocrystallization method is based on the crystallographic phenomenon that when adding biological substances, such as plant extracts...... on up to eight parameters indicated strong relationships, with R2 up to 0.98. It is concluded that the procedures were able to discriminate the seven groups of images, and are applicable for biocrystallization investigations of agricultural products. Perspectives for the application of image analysis...

  1. Electromagnetic radiation properties of foods and agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohsenin, N.N.

    1984-01-01

    In this book, the author examines the effects of the various regions of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum on foods and agricultural products. Among the regions of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum covered are high-energy beta and neutron particles, gamma-rays and X-rays, to lower-energy visible, near infrared, infrared, microwave and low-energy radiowaves and electric currents. Dr. Mohsenin applies these electromagnetic phenomena to food products such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, dairy products, meat and processed foods. Contents: Some Basic Concepts of Electromagnetic Radiation. Basic Instruments for Measurement of Optical Properties. Applications of Radiation in the Visible Spectrum. Color and its Measurement. Sorting for Color and Appearance. Near-Infrared and Infrared Radiation Applications. Applications of High-Energy Radiation. Related Concepts of Microwaves, Radiowaves, and Electric Currents. Measurement of Electrical Properties of Foods and Agricultural Products. Applications of Electrical Properties. Appendix, Cited References. Subject Index

  2. The Analysis of Effectiveness of Various Channels for Selling Agricultural Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yakubiv Valentyna М.

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to conduct an analysis of the agricultural products market in Ivano-Frankivsk region by assessing the main channels for selling products and the price level. By summarizing and analyzing the research of domestic scientists, the importance of conducting a qualitative and detailed market research in the system of intermediary activity is substantiated. Due to the results of the analysis of channels for selling agricultural products, it is revealed that intermediary structures have the largest market share. It is found that there is a tendency to increase the share of sold agricultural products to intermediaries both in Ukraine in general and in Ivano-Frankivsk region in particular. At the same time, direct sales on the market, and, therefore, direct contact with the end user, are decreasing year by year. Prospects for further research in this direction are searching for ways to reduce control over the agricultural market by intermediary structures.

  3. The determinants of agricultural productivity and rural household ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper aims at investigating the determinants of agricultural productivity and rural household income in Ethiopia. Three econometric models namely: Pooled ordinary least square (POLS), fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) model were used to examine the relationship between productivity and income; using ...

  4. Agricultural innovations for sustainable crop production intensification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michele Pisante

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable crop production intensification should be the first strategic objective of innovative agronomic research for the next 40 years. A range of options exist (often very location specific for farming practices, approaches and technologies that ensure sustainability, while at the same time improving crop production. The main challenge is to encourage farmers in the use of appropriate technologies,  and  to  ensure  that  knowledge  about  sound  production  practices  is  increasingly accepted and applied by farmers. There is a huge, but underutilized potential to link farmers’ local knowledge with science-based innovations, through favourable institutional arrangements.  The same  holds  for  the  design,  implementation  and  monitoring  of  improved  natural  resource management  that  links  community  initiatives  to  external  expertise.  It is also suggested that a comprehensive effort be undertaken to measure different stages of the innovation system, including technological adoption and diffusion at the farm level, and to investigate the impact of agricultural policies on technological change and technical efficiency. This paper provides a brief review of agronomic management practices that support sustainable crop production system and evidence on developments  in the selection of crops and cultivars; describes farming systems for crop which take a predominantly ecosystem approach; discusses the scientific application of ecosystem principles for the management of pest and weed populations; reviews the  improvements in fertilizer and nutrient management that explain productivity growth; describes the benefits and constraints of irrigation technologies; and suggests a way forward. Seven changes in the context for agricultural development are proposed that heighten the need to examine how innovation occurs in the agricultural sector.

  5. College Students' View of Biotechnology Products and Practices in Sustainable Agriculture Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, William A.

    2008-01-01

    Sustainable agriculture implies the use of products and practices that sustain production, protect the environment, ensure economic viability, and maintain rural community viability. Disagreement exists as to whether or not the products and practices of modern biotechnological support agricultural sustainability. The purpose of this study was to…

  6. Requirement analysis for the one-stop logistics management of fresh agricultural products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jun; Gao, Hongmei; Liu, Yuchuan

    2017-08-01

    Issues and concerns for food safety, agro-processing, and the environmental and ecological impact of food production have been attracted many research interests. Traceability and logistics management of fresh agricultural products is faced with the technological challenges including food product label and identification, activity/process characterization, information systems for the supply chain, i.e., from farm to table. Application of one-stop logistics service focuses on the whole supply chain process integration for fresh agricultural products is studied. A collaborative research project for the supply and logistics of fresh agricultural products in Tianjin was performed. Requirement analysis for the one-stop logistics management information system is studied. The model-driven business transformation, an approach uses formal models to explicitly define the structure and behavior of a business, is applied for the review and analysis process. Specific requirements for the logistic management solutions are proposed. Development of this research is crucial for the solution of one-stop logistics management information system integration platform for fresh agricultural products.

  7. Agricultural sectoral demand and crop productivity response across the world

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, M.; Ray, D. K.; Cassidy, E. S.; Foley, J. A.

    2013-12-01

    With an increasing and increasingly affluent population, humans will need to roughly double agricultural production by 2050. Continued yield growth forms the foundation of all future strategies aiming to increase agricultural production while slowing or eliminating cropland expansion. However, a recent analysis by one of our co-authors has shown that yield trends in many important maize, wheat and rice growing regions have begun stagnating or declining from the highs seen during the green revolution (Ray et al. 2013). Additional research by our group has shown that nearly 50% of new agricultural production since the 1960s has gone not to direct human consumption, but instead to animal feed and other industrial uses. Our analysis for GLP looks at the convergence of these two trends by examining time series utilization data for 16 of the biggest crops to determine how demand from different sectors has shaped our land-use and intensification strategies around the world. Before rushing headlong into the next agricultural doubling, it would be prudent to first consult our recent agricultural history to better understand what was driving past changes in production. Using newly developed time series dataset - a fusion of cropland maps with historic agricultural census data gathered from around the world - we can examine yield and harvested area trends over the last half century for 16 top crops. We combine this data with utilization rates from the FAO Food Balance Sheet to see how demand from different sectors - food, feed, and other - has influenced long-term growth trends from the green revolution forward. We will show how intensification trends over time and across regions have grown or contracted depending on what is driving the change in production capacity. Ray DK, Mueller ND, West PC, Foley JA (2013) Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by 2050. PLoS ONE 8(6): e66428. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066428

  8. The role of energy policy in agricultural biogas energy production in Visegrad countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chodkowska-Miszczuk Justyna

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Energy production by agricultural biogas plants has recently recorded considerable growth in Visegrad countries. The development was enhanced by European Union’s efforts to increase the proportion of energy produced from renewable sources. The paper aims to assess the role of energy policy in the development of agricultural biogas energy production in Visegrad region. Conducted studies have shown that among various forms of support for energy production from renewable energy sources, the price system prevails, including the support by feed in tariffs and bonuses. Feed in tariffs were adopted in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Another kind of support system – a quota system – was adopted in Poland, what includes tendering and certificate systems. The results confirm the adoption of legal framework was necessary step to enable agricultural biogas energy production in Visegrad countries, but itself it was not enough to stimulate development of agricultural biogas energy production significantly. Rapid development in each country was recorded only after the certain financial support systems took effect, what made production of agricultural biogas energy economically efficient for investors. The production of energy from agricultural biogas grew the most in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where the financial support was the highest. Nevertheless, the protracted process of changes in legal framework and transformation of energy policy, certain measures including state-controlled price-making systems, risk regarding with auction system might hamper agricultural biogas energy production further development.

  9. Effects of climate change on agricultural production and rural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Nigeria is still practicing rain fed agriculture which renders her vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Extreme climatic events such as flooding, extreme heat, and drought has led to soil degradation which results in low crop yields. Decline in agricultural productivity discourages the farmers and may lead to ...

  10. A brief review on activated carbon derived from agriculture by-product

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yahya, Mohd Adib; Mansor, Muhammad Humaidi; Zolkarnaini, Wan Amani Auji Wan; Rusli, Nurul Shahnim; Aminuddin, Anisah; Mohamad, Khalidah; Sabhan, Fatin Aina Mohamad; Atik, Arif Abdallah Aboubaker; Ozair, Lailatun Nazirah

    2018-06-01

    A brief review focusing on preparation of the activated carbon derived from agriculture by-products is presented. The physical and chemical activation of activated carbon were also reviewed. The effects of various parameters including types of activating agents, temperature, impregnation ratio, were also discussed. The applications of activated carbon from agricultural by products were briefly reviewed. It is provenly evident in this review, the relatively inexpensive and renewable resources of the agricultural waste were found to be effectively being converted into wealth materials.

  11. Agricultural production and nutrient runoff in the Corn Belt ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agricultural production in the Corn Belt region of the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) remains a leading source of nitrogen runoff that contributes to the annual hypoxic 'Dead Zone' in the Gulf of Mexico. The rise of corn production, land conversion, and fertilizer use in response to ethanol policy incentives in recent years is well documented and may worsen this effect. We develop a spatially distributed dynamic environmental performance index (EPI), accounting for both desirable agricultural outputs and undesirable nonpoint source emissions from farm production, to examine the corresponding changes in environmental performance within the UMRB between 2002 and 2007, which is characterized by increasing policy incentives for ethanol production. County-level production data from the USDA agricultural census are aggregated to hydrologic unit code (HUC8) boundaries using a geographic information system (GIS), and a previously developed statistical model, which includes net anthropogenic nitrogen inputs (NANI) as well as precipitation and land use characteristics as inputs, is used to estimate annual nitrogen loadings delivered to streams from HUC8 watersheds. The EPI allows us to decompose performance of each HUC8 region over time into changes in productive efficiency and emissions efficiency. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the corresponding changes in environmental performance for producers in this region at the watershed scale. The resu

  12. Business and production performance of different types of agricultural holdings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katarina Rosić

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN was established in the EU in 1965 and now it is obligated for all member states of the EU. The system is based on an annual collection of production, economic and financial data from a representative sample of comercial farms, classified into groups according to the criteria of economic farm size, type of agricultural production and regional affiliation. Research made by FADN system represent the European Commission instrument for evaluating the income of agricultural producers and determining the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU on their business. In this paper the comparison is made between production and economic indicators of different types of agricultural holdings (field crops; horticulture crops; permanent crops, orchards and olive yards; dairy farms; grazing livestock; pig and poultry farms and mixed farms. On the basis of Standard Results for the year 2014 it is possible to conclude that in Croatia field crops and grazing livestock farms lead by their utilized agricultural area. Pig and poultry farming have the most livestock units, while the most working hours is spent in the cultivation of vegetables and flowers. The highest values of labor productivity have holdings that are engaged in the production of vegetables and flowers, while the lowest labor productivity have grazing livestock farms. Cost-effectiveness of all types of farms exceeding a value of 1. The highest value of the gross income is achieved at pig and poultry farms, while the smallest has a mixed type of farms. The average farm direct payments account for a high 44% in the net income, and the largest share of direct payments in the net income has field crop type of farms.

  13. Radiation Processed Materials in Products from Polymers for Agricultural Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2014-07-01

    This publication results from a technical meeting on radiation processed materials in products from polymers for agricultural applications, which was held from 8 to 12 July 2013 at the IAEA in Vienna. The meeting provided a forum for the sharing of practical experiences and lessons learned, and reviewed the recent developments in the use of radiation technologies for the preparation of environmental friendly products based on polymers for agricultural applications

  14. Radiation Processed Materials in Products from Polymers for Agricultural Applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2014-07-15

    This publication results from a technical meeting on radiation processed materials in products from polymers for agricultural applications, which was held from 8 to 12 July 2013 at the IAEA in Vienna. The meeting provided a forum for the sharing of practical experiences and lessons learned, and reviewed the recent developments in the use of radiation technologies for the preparation of environmental friendly products based on polymers for agricultural applications.

  15. Set of information technologies and their role in automation of agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. V. Al’t

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The modern enterprises of agrarian and industrial complex are characterized by the high level of automation of technological processes. The technological development level conformto 5th and 6th technology revolutions. The automatic and automated technologies in crop production and livestock production use data of internet technologies, Global Positioning Satellite survey and observations, mashine and tractor aggregates automated operating. The models nucleus and row of information models of agricultural objects were designed on the basis of information streams systematization. The analysis of results of simulation of biological objects, cenosises, ecosystems, agro cenosises and agroecosystems showed that the most acceptable type of model is the systemically determined dynamic model of potentially effective type. The Internet-oriented database of innovative development of institutes of an agrarian profile is designed. It contains the information about sorts, machines, mechanization means, electrification and technologies in crop production, livestock production, forage production, feed processing, crop protection, biotechnologies, mechanization, veterinary science and agricultural production processing. The database is positioned as the subject-oriented, retrieval database in web space. The list of indices to which the created architecture of the database corresponds is defined. More than 20 various databases of agricultural purpose which are used in educational process and production are created. These databases are useful to agricultural producers and also organizers of agricultural production, scientists, teachers and students. Information on key indicators of innovative products and institutes – developers of innovative solutions is provided in a basis.

  16. Department of Energy programs and objectives: energy conservation in agricultural production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1977-12-01

    This document describes the current Department of Energy agriculture research program as it relates to the research recommendations submitted by a 1976 workshop on energy conservation in agricultural production. In-depth discussions on fertilizers, irrigation, crop drying, fuel substitution, crop and animal production systems, greenhouses, materials handling, and transport systems are included. (MCW)

  17. Agriculture in Bangladesh : A Note on Food Security by Enhancing Productivity

    OpenAIRE

    World Bank

    2009-01-01

    Awami League's Election Manifesto 2008 appropriately recognizes the importance of ensuring food security for all in Bangladesh. Food Security requires increasing agricultural growth which in turn is a key factor in reducing poverty in the country. Food security also requires increasing agricultural production and protecting consumers. Sustained production increases, in turn, require tec...

  18. Process Reengineering of Cold Chain Logistics of Agricultural Products Based on Low-carbon Economy

    OpenAIRE

    Guo, Hong-xia; Shao, Ming

    2012-01-01

    Through the process analysis of cold chain logistics of agricultural products, we find that cold chain logistics of agricultural products contradict the development model of low-carbon economy to some extent. We apply the development idea of low-carbon economy, introduce the third-party logistics companies, establish distribution center of cold chain logistics of agricultural products, and strengthen information sharing, to reengineer the process of cold chain logistics of agricultural produc...

  19. CHALLENGES OF AGRICULTURAL COMPANIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND FUNDING ACCES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Livia TRASCA

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The development of agriculture was a priority for the member states of the European Union since its foundation, the Common Agricultural Policy being one of the most ancient politics at the European level. Agriculture is a sector which has a special economic and social importance for Romania. The paper aimed to identify the challenges of the agricultural companies from the perspective of labour productivity and funding access. In this respect, a series of economic indicators as the contribution of agriculture to GDP, the value of agricultural production, the evolution of reference interest rate, the evolution of credits for agriculture, were studied. the conclusion was that in order to improve labour productivity, it is needed a higher qualification of the occupied population in agriculture and the significant improvement of technological endowment of this sector and, from the point of view of funding access, it is necessary the continuous support of the companies which carry out their activity in agriculture, but not only by the diminution of difference interest rate.

  20. Multi-Objective Fuzzy Linear Programming In Agricultural Production Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H.M.I.U. Herath

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Modern agriculture is characterized by a series of conflicting optimization criteria that obstruct the decision-making process in the planning of agricultural production. Such criteria are usually net profit total cost total production etc. At the same time the decision making process in the agricultural production planning is often conducted with data that accidentally occur in nature or that are fuzzy not deterministic. Such data are the yields of various crops the prices of products and raw materials demand for the product the available quantities of production factors such as water labor etc. In this paper a fuzzy multi-criteria mathematical programming model is presented. This model is applied in a region of 10 districts in Sri Lanka where paddy is cultivated under irrigated and rain fed water in the two main seasons called Yala and Maha and the optimal production plan is achieved. This study was undertaken to find out the optimal allocation of land for paddy to get a better yield while satisfying the two conflicting objectives profit maximizing and cost minimizing subjected to the utilizing of water constraint and the demand constraint. Only the availability of land constraint is considered as a crisp in nature while objectives and other constraints are treated as fuzzy. It is observed that the MOFLP is an effective method to handle more than a single objective occurs in an uncertain vague environment.

  1. Nitrogen Exchanges: Testing the Hypothesis of a Country without Agricultural Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.-F. Slak

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available Today, finding data on agricultural nitrogen balances is quite easy. Calculations of such balances are carried out by most of the European countries as an indicator of environmental pollution attributable to the agricultural sector. In France, average values of agricultural nitrogen balances show an excess of 1.5 to 2 million tons of nitrogen. This excess is enormous. What would the balance of a country be if agricultural activity were stopped? In the following article, a country (France is used as an example without agriculture is studied in order to assess its nitrogen balance. Using a previously published model describing nitrogen input and output of a given country, nitrogen flows are identified. Inputs include deposition, fixation, and products not intended for agricultural use. Outputs are reduced to zero if agriculture disappears (in France, agriculture is the only sector exporting products containing nitrogen. All flows are calculated considering the hypothesis of disappearance of agriculture. Nitrogen requirements to feed people and pets in France are estimated based on medical and veterinary data (recommended daily amounts for proteins and/or usual average consumption. Indeed, most of the food that nourishes the French population is produced nationally. If agriculture stops, it will be necessary to import food from foreign countries. Results show an unexpectedly high excess (for a country without agriculture having a structure similar to France: number of human beings and pets of 1.5 million tons of nitrogen. An attempt to calculate an agricultural balance with the same data gives a result close to 3 million tons. Differences in French agricultural balances found in the literature can mainly be explained by values taken into account for deposition and fixation (values used here are at least 300,000 tons higher than values used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In conclusion, nitrogen excess in agriculture

  2. Decoupling of greenhouse gas emissions from global agricultural production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bennetzen, Eskild Hohlmann; Smith, Pete; Porter, John Roy

    2016-01-01

    Since 1970 global agricultural production has more than doubled; contributing ~1/4 of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) burden in 2010. Food production must increase to feed our growing demands, but to address climate change, GHG emissions must decrease. Using an identity approach, we...... estimate and analyse past trends in GHG emission intensities from global agricultural production and land-use change and project potential future emissions. The novel Kaya-Porter identity framework deconstructs the entity of emissions from a mix of multiple sources of GHGs into attributable elements...... to increase food security whilst reducing emissions. The identity approach presented here could be used as a methodological framework for more holistic food systems analysis....

  3. IMPACT OF CREDENCE ATTRIBUTES OF AGRICULTURAL FOOD PRODUCTS ON CUSTOMER ATTITUDE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fareeha NISAR

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study is to enhance understanding on how a firm can generate value for its customers using a competitive advantage strategy by accumulating credible attributes to its products. There are certain product attributes that customers can only perceive. In the case of agricultural food products, the customers’ consciousness for safe, natural and organic products has enriched the perceived value of the product. To explore the relationship between the credence attributes and attitude of the customers for the agricultural food, a survey questionnaire has been administered to consumers of agricultural food products in the different regions of Punjab, Pakistan. The data analysis has been conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS to investigate the desired relationship in that particular region of the country. It can be concluded that the trust of customer is now very much depending on the presence of credence attribute that customer cannot describe but evaluate during the purchase of food items.

  4. Design of agricultural product quality safety retrospective supervision system of Jiangsu province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Kun

    2017-08-01

    In store and supermarkets to consumers can trace back agricultural products through the electronic province card to query their origin, planting, processing, packaging, testing and other important information and found that the problems. Quality and safety issues can identify the responsibility of the problem. This paper designs a retroactive supervision system for the quality and safety of agricultural products in Jiangsu Province. Based on the analysis of agricultural production and business process, the goal of Jiangsu agricultural product quality safety traceability system construction is established, and the specific functional requirements and non-functioning requirements of the retroactive system are analyzed, and the target is specified for the specific construction of the retroactive system. The design of the quality and safety traceability system in Jiangsu province contains the design of the overall design, the trace code design and the system function module.

  5. Agricultural and Food Production in Hungary: On the Road to Sustainability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Szűcs Csaba

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In the last 25 years Hungarian agriculture has lost its position. Rapid growth in the world’s population requires an increase in food production since one seventh of the population is still starving. The development of agricultural production and the food industry is the basis for the development of rural areas. Hungary produces two per cent of the EU agricultural output, which is far behind its potential. Agriculture, food industry and food trade can only develop together. We need to find the most favourable forms of coexistence with multinational chains sustainably. Food industry is a critical point in the product line, it lags behind the performance of European countries, and resources are insufficient. Long-term co-operation between farmers and processors is inadequate; the common organizations of the markets are minimal. Today, sustainability is increasingly emphasized, environmental and nature protection has been appreciated. The agriculture and forestry sectors are not only suitable for production of food and other raw materials, but they can also replenish resources and have a beneficial effect on biodiversity as well. Today’s problems can only be solved by taking sustainability into consideration. Agri-food industry that complies with the requirements can play a major role in rural employment and value creation.

  6. DIRECTIONS FOR THE RECOVERY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION ON RADIOACTIVELY CONTAMINATED LANDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kustovska O.V.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Effective management of agricultural production in the Polesie Ukraine traditionally was complicated through the low natural land fertility, their high acidity, perevolotsky valley. During the centrally planned economic system that the natural contrast of the Polesie land had been somewhat neglected by the state through differentiation of purchase prices for agricultural products, which gave the possibility of redistribution of the rent in favor of the farms with poorer land. With transition to market relations the role of the state, and hence the possibility of its influence on this situation has changed dramatically. Economic conditions have become more profitable for the farmers that are occupying the best lands. However, the situation in the regions has not yet been investigated systematically taking into account the modern complex socio-economic processes and phenomena caused by increased environmental stress on land resources. One of the most pernicious environmental effects of the Chernobyl accident was radioactive contamination of agricultural land, defined in the final stage of transfer of radionuclides in the human body and further irradiation. The main danger of the accumulation by plants of radionuclides lies in the fact that they are a major link in the migratory chain of transmission of radionuclides to the more radiosensitive species and, above all, human. Economic feature of agricultural production in the study area is insufficient pricesambien, transformation of land use, violations of industrial-economic relations, the structure of agricultural production, changes in the natural-cost structure commodity products, the reform of the organizational structure of agricultural production. In the farms located in contaminated areas, the necessary conversion of dairy cattle for meat. In conditions of high pollution, the production of milk requires a serious sanitary objections in that time, as meat production is more environmentally

  7. Influence of radioactive contamination to agricultural products by rainfall during a nuclear accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hwang, W. T.; Han, M. H.; Choi, Y. H.; Lee, H. S.; Lee, C. W.

    2001-01-01

    For the consideration of the effects on radioactive contamination of agricultural products by rainfall during a nuclear accident, the wet interception coefficients for the plants were derived, and the previous dynamic food chain model was also modified. From the results, radioactive contamination of agricultural products was greatly decreased by rainfall, and it decreased dramatically according to increase of rainfall amount. It means that the predictive contamination in agricultural products using the previous dynamic food chain model, in which dry interception to the plants is only considered, can be overestimated. Influence of rainfall on the contamination of agricultural products was the most sensitive for 131 I, and the least sensitive for 90 Sr

  8. Microbiological Production of Surfactant from Agricultural Residuals for IOR Application

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bala, Greg Alan; Bruhn, Debby Fox; Fox, Sandra Lynn; Noah, Karl Scott; Thompson, David Neal

    2002-04-01

    Utilization of surfactants for improved oil recovery (IOR) is an accepted technique with high potential. However, technology application is frequently limited by cost. Biosurfactants (surface-active molecules produced by microorganisms) are not widely utilized in the petroleum industry due to high production costs associated with use of expensive substrates and inefficient product recovery methods. The economics of biosurfactant production could be significantly impacted through use of media optimization and application of inexpensive carbon substrates such as agricultural process residuals. Utilization of biosurfactants produced from agricultural residuals may 1) result in an economic advantage for surfactant production and technology application, and 2) convert a substantial agricultural waste stream to a value-added product for IOR. A biosurfactant with high potential for use is surfactin, a lipopeptide biosurfactant, produced by Bacillus subtilis. Reported here is the production and potential IOR utilization of surfactin produced by Bacillus subtilis (American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) 21332) from starch-based media. Production of surfactants from microbiological growth media based on simple sugars, chemically pure starch medium, simulated liquid and solid potato-process effluent media, a commercially prepared potato starch in mineral salts, and process effluent from a potato processor is discussed. Additionally, the effect of chemical and physical pretreatments on starchy feedstocks is discussed.

  9. Technological Innovation of Agricultural Products Processing Enterprises from the Perspective of Modern Marketing——A Case of Agricultural Products Processing Enterprises in Hubei Province,China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    The science and technology development of agricultural products processing enterprises in Hubei Province is analyzed.From the perspective of modern marketing,problems in the research and development work of agricultural products processing enterprises are analyzed from the aspects of market,personal training and technology radiation,which are mainly the lack of close connection with market.Countermeasures for the technological innovation of agricultural products processing enterprises are put forward,such as establishing modern enterprise culture with innovative features,strengthening the market benefits of brand,constructing a comprehensive customer orientation information platform,scientifically predicting and developing the market,doing well in market positioning of enterprise,selecting corresponding technology innovation strategy,taking technological innovation strategy as the basis,realizing the transformation from "4P" marketing combination to "4C",cultivating technical personnel,and realizing the integration of professional skill and marketing ability.

  10. Measuring excess capital capacity in agricultural production

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhengfei, G.; Kumbhakar, S.C.; Myers, R.J.; Oude Lansink, A.G.J.M.

    2009-01-01

    We introduce the concept "excess capital capacity" and employ a stochastic input requirement frontier to measure excess capital capacity in agricultural production. We also propose a two-step estimation method that allows endogenous regressors in stochastic frontier models. The first step uses

  11. Precision Agriculture Technologies Positively Contributing to GHG Emissions Mitigation, Farm Productivity and Economics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Athanasios Balafoutis

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture is one of the economic sectors that affect climate change contributing to greenhouse gas emissions directly and indirectly. There is a trend of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions reduction, but any practice in this direction should not affect negatively farm productivity and economics because this would limit its implementation, due to the high global food and feed demand and the competitive environment in this sector. Precision agriculture practices using high-tech equipment has the ability to reduce agricultural inputs by site-specific applications, as it better target inputs to spatial and temporal needs of the fields, which can result in lower greenhouse gas emissions. Precision agriculture can also have a positive impact on farm productivity and economics, as it provides higher or equal yields with lower production cost than conventional practices. In this work, precision agriculture technologies that have the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are presented providing a short description of the technology and the impacts that have been reported in literature on greenhouse gases reduction and the associated impacts on farm productivity and economics. The technologies presented span all agricultural practices, including variable rate sowing/planting, fertilizing, spraying, weeding and irrigation.

  12. Exploring agricultural production systems and their fundamental components with system dynamics modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agricultural production in the United States is undergoing marked changes due to rapid shifts in consumer demands, input costs, and concerns for food safety and environmental impact. Agricultural production systems are comprised of multidimensional components and drivers that interact in complex wa...

  13. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. A case study of Argentina

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wicke, Birka; Smeets, Edward; Faaij, Andre; Tabeau, Andrzej; Hilbert, Jorge

    2009-01-01

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input-output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural intensification, which is needed to make agricultural land become available for bioenergy production, are assessed following a scenario approach. The methodology is applied to a case study of Argentina. The results of this study reveal that large-scale pellet production in 2015 would directly increase GDP by 4%, imports by 10% and employment by 6% over the reference situation in 2001. When accounting for indirect and induced impacts, GDP increases by 18%, imports by 20% and employment by 26% compared to 2001. Agricultural intensification reduces but does not negate these positive impacts of bioenergy production. Accounting for agricultural intensification, the increase in GDP as a result of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land would amount to 16%, 20% in imports and 16% in employment compared to 2001. (author)

  14. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. A case study of Argentina

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wicke, Birka; Smeets, Edward; Faaij, Andre [Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation - Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht (Netherlands); Tabeau, Andrzej [Landbouw Economisch Instituut - Wageningen University and Research Centre, Burgermeester Partijnlaan 19, 2585 BE Den Haag (Netherlands); Hilbert, Jorge [Instituto Ingenieria Rural - Instituto Nacional de la Tecnologia Agropecuario, C.C. 25, 1712 Castelar (Buenos Aires) (Argentina)

    2009-12-15

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input-output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural intensification, which is needed to make agricultural land become available for bioenergy production, are assessed following a scenario approach. The methodology is applied to a case study of Argentina. The results of this study reveal that large-scale pellet production in 2015 would directly increase GDP by 4%, imports by 10% and employment by 6% over the reference situation in 2001. When accounting for indirect and induced impacts, GDP increases by 18%, imports by 20% and employment by 26% compared to 2001. Agricultural intensification reduces but does not negate these positive impacts of bioenergy production. Accounting for agricultural intensification, the increase in GDP as a result of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land would amount to 16%, 20% in imports and 16% in employment compared to 2001. (author)

  15. Institutions and Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa

    OpenAIRE

    Lilyan E. Fulginiti; Richard K. Perrin; Bingxin Yu

    2005-01-01

    Agricultural productivity in 41 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 1960 to 1999 is examined by estimating a semi-nonparametric Fourier production frontier. Over the four decades the estimated rate of productivity change was 0.83% per year, although the average rate from 1985-99 was a strong 1.90% per year. Former UK colonies exhibited significantly higher productivity gains than others, while Liberia and countries that had been colonies of Portugal or Belgium exhibited net reductions in ...

  16. Characteristics of Serbian foreign trade of agricultural and food products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Božić Dragica

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural and food products are a significant segment of the total foreign trade of Serbia, which is characterized by a relatively high import dependency, modest export and constantly present deficit. In such conditions, agrarian sector serves as a stabilizer, and its importance is reflected in the permanently positive balance, increased participation, particularly in total exports, and balancing the trade balance of the country. The aim of the paper is to analyze the basic characteristics of foreign trade of agricultural and food products of Serbia in the period 2005-2015. The tendencies in export, import, and the level of coverage of import by export of agro-food (or agrarian products are analysed. The participation of these products in the total foreign trade of Serbia is also considered, followed by the comparison of this indicator with the neighbouring countries. In the next part of the paper, the structure of Serbian export and import of agricultural and food products (by product groups is analysed. Special attention is given to the territorial orientation of export and import of agrarian products by the most important trade partners. In order to conduct more comprehensive analysis of comparative advantages, or competitiveness of certain groups of agro-food products of Serbia in the exchange with the world, indicator of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA is calculated. The analysis of qualitative competitiveness is derived using the indicator - unit value of export and import. The analysis points to the dynamic growth in the value of Serbian export and import of agro-food products, with the constant surplus of trade balance in the observed period. These products are significantly represented in the structure of the total foreign trade of the country, particularly in export (with about 20%. RCA indicators show that Serbia has a comparative advantage in trade of agro-food products to the world in primary products and products of lower

  17. Insect disinfestation of food and agricultural products by irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-01-01

    Insect infestation is a major cause of post-harvest food loss. Use of chemical pesticides is one of the main methods of controlling storage losses caused by insects. Decades of research conducted worldwide on radiation disinfestation of food and agricultural products have shown that this method could be an alternative to the chemical treatment of foods. The advantages of irradiation processing include no undesirable residues in the foods, no resistance developed by the insects and no significant changes in the physicochemical properties or the nutritive value of the treated products. This volume contains the proceedings of the final Research Co-ordination Meeting on insect disinfestation of food and agricultural products by irradiation, held in May 1987. The individual contributions are indexed separately. Refs, figs and tabs

  18. Seasonality in birth defects, agricultural production and urban location.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKinnish, Terra; Rees, Daniel I; Langlois, Peter H

    2014-12-01

    This paper tests whether the strength of the "spring spike" in birth defects is related to agricultural production and urban location using Texas Birth Defects Registry data for the period 1996-2007. We find evidence of a spike in birth defects among children conceived in the spring and summer, but it is more pronounced in urban non-agricultural counties than in other types of counties. Furthermore, the spike lasts longer in urban non-agricultural counties as compared to other types of counties. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN SUB-SAHARA AFRICA: 1961-2003

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olajide Abraham Ajao

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available This study examined changes in agricultural productivity in Sub-Sahara Africa countries in the context of diverse institutional arrangements using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA. From a time series which consists of information on agricultural production and means of production were obtained from FAO AGROSTAT and rainfall data from Steve O’Connell data base. The information was for a 43-year period (1961-2003; DEA method was used to measure Malmquist index of total factor productivity. A decomposition of TFP measures revealed that the observed increase in the TFP in the sub–Sahara Africa agriculture is due to technological change rather than efficiency change which is the main constrained of achieving higher level of TFP during the reference period. The study further examined the effect of land quality, malaria, education and selected governance indicators such as, control of corruption and government effectiveness on productivity growth. All the variables included in the model are significant with the exception of government effectiveness

  20. Buffers for biomass production in temperate European agriculture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christen, Benjamin; Dalgaard, Tommy

    2013-01-01

    , environmental pressures from intensive agriculture and policy developments. Use of conservation buffers by farmers outside of designated schemes is limited to date, but the increasing demand for bioenergy and the combination of agricultural production with conservation calls for a much wider implementation....... This paper reviews the biophysical knowledge on buffer functioning and associated ecosystem services. It describes how a three-zone buffer design, with arable fields buffered in combination by grassland, short rotation forestry (SRF) or coppice (SRC) and undisturbed vegetation along water courses, can...... be incorporated into farming landscapes as productive conservation elements and reflects on the potential for successful implementation. Land use plays a much greater role in determining catchment hydrology than soil type: shelterbelts or buffer strips have markedly higher infiltration capacity than arable...

  1. Production and Perception of Agricultural Reuse in a Rural Community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valmir Cristiano Marques Arruda

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available There is a growing competition among the various sectors of society in the world for the use of water where agriculture stands out as a major consumer. Since it is carried out in a controlled manner, irrigation with effluents from a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP is a very attractive practice, as it allows a greater supply of water for nobler purposes. This work had the general objective of evaluating the perception of a rural community in the municipality of Pesqueira, Pernambuco, Brasil, in terms of consumption and production of products cultivated with the practice of agricultural reuse. The local population showed acceptance for the cultivation and consumption of products through agricultural reuse, above all, with reliable information on the appropriate quality of the effluents used for irrigation. In the estimated data, the same community had a potential of production of corn, beans and cotton in the order of 19.8 tons, 3.4 tons and 7.7 tons respectively, with the use of treated sewage in irrigation.

  2. Improving food and agricultural production. Thailand. Improving food and agricultural production with nuclear and related technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vanderdeelen, J.

    1991-01-01

    In the northern and north-eastern regions of Thailand, low agricultural production is due mainly to poor soil conditions and variability in the seasonal rainfall distribution. With respect to the former aspect, phosphorus fertilization is one of the major constraints. The aim of the mission was to provide guidance on the studies addressing the use of naturally occurring rock phosphate deposits or phosphate fertilizer. 9 refs, 3 tabs

  3. METHODOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS FOR FORMING THE MARKETING STRATEGY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION ECOLOGIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariya Bagorka

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the article is the investigation of the nature, objectives, and strategic categories of ecologization marketing strategy, development of algorithm of this strategy and determination of environmental, economic, and ecological instruments of implementation of this strategy in the agricultural sector. Methodology. The basis of the formation of a marketing strategy for the ecologization of agrarian production is the systematic approach, which is based on the existence of implementation mechanisms that ensure system consistency, its purposefulness; interdependence; and complexity of its elements, which determines the integrity of the system; all tasks that execute individual elements of the system are interconnected; system elements and their associated actions have a certain subordination that builds a hierarchy; the system changes under the influence of specific factors, which determines its dynamism; the ability of the system to adapt to the variability of the external environment, while not losing its own individuality. Methods for strategic analysis of macro- and micro-environment factors were used to form the marketing strategy of ecologization. This process involves an analytical evaluation of the parameters of the external and internal environment with the help of general scientific and applied methods of strategic analysis. Results. The article explored the ecologization strategy, presented its objectives in the field of agriculture, the basic categories of strategic directions and implementation of ecologization marketing strategies. An algorithm of environmental marketing strategies in agricultural production is developed, environmental, economic and environmental and economic tools to implement them are determined. Practical implications. It is determined that marketing strategy of ecologization of agrarian production is a strategy of innovative development that can solve problems of economic growth, an increase of

  4. Crop succession requirements in agricultural production planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Klein Haneveld, W.K.; Stegeman, A.

    2005-01-01

    A method is proposed to write crop succession requirements as linear constraints in an LP-based model for agricultural production planning. Crop succession information is given in the form of a set of inadmissible successions of crops. The decision variables represent the areas where a certain

  5. PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL AND NON AGRICULTURAL BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES: DEA APPROACH

    OpenAIRE

    Dias, Weeratilake

    1998-01-01

    Efficient operation of agricultural credit markets is very important both for the producer as well as for the policy makers. DEA approach is used to calculate productivity analysis which allows decomposition of sources of productivity changes into efficiency and technical change. Measured efficiencies are comparable to most recent parametric studies.

  6. Estimated effects of radioactive fallout on agricultural production in Sweden. Contamination of crop products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eriksson, Aake; Loensjoe, H.; Karlstroem, F.

    1994-01-01

    The study is part of a research project, 'Radioactivity problems within the food sector' performed in 1991-94 at the request of the National Board of Agriculture in Sweden by The National Research Establishment, Dept. of NBC Defence, and the Dept. of Radioecology and the Dept. of Biosystems and Technology, the latter two belonging to the Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences. The aim of the study was to investigate the contamination levels that may occur in agricultural crop products in Sweden in a situation of radioactive fallout from the use of nuclear weapons. There is a risk for a major nuclide transport in agricultural systems by the feeds, mainly by pasture grass and silage and hay crops but also to some extent by grain crops. For that reason, cattle are expected to be important vectors of the fallout nuclides to the human diet, particularly in milk from dairy cattle but also in beef. The activity transport by grain to pig products may also be of some importance. 8 refs, 7 figs, 25 tabs

  7. Energy consumption and total factor productivity growth in Iranian agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reza Moghaddasi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available In this study we investigated the relation between energy consumption and growth of total factor productivity (TFP of agriculture in Iran from 1974 to 2012 using Solow residual method. The results from estimated aggregate Cobb–Douglas production function showed that one percent change in the value of labor, capital and energy will lead to 4.07, 0.09 and 0.49 percent change in agriculture value added, respectively. Also in a long term, based on the Johansen cointegration test, there is a negative relation between TFP growth and energy consumption in Iranian agriculture which might be due to cheap and inefficient energy use in this sector. Gradual liberalization of energy price and use of so called green box support policies is recommended.

  8. SAR Agriculture Rice Production Estimation (SARPE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raimadoya, M.

    2013-12-01

    The study of SAR Agriculture Rice Production Estimation (SARPE) was held in Indonesia on 2012, as part of Asia-Rice Crop Estimation & Monitoring (Asia-RiCE), which is a component for the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative. The study was expected to give a breakthrough result, by using radar technology and paradigm shift of the standard production estimation system from list frame to area frame approach. This initial product estimation system is expected to be refined (fine tuning) in 2013, by participating as part of Technical Demonstration Site (Phase -1A) of Asia-RICE. The implementation period of this initial study was from the date of March 12 to December 10, 2012. The implementation of the study was done by following the approach of the BIMAS-21 framework, which has been developed since 2008. The results of this study can be briefly divided into two major components, namely: Rice-field Baseline Mapping (PESBAK - Peta Sawah Baku) and Crop Growth Monitoring. Rice-fields were derived from the mapping results of the Ministry of Agriculture (Kemtan), and validated through Student Extension Campaign of the Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB). While for the crop growth, it was derived from the results of image analysis process. The analysis was done, either on radar/Radarsat-2 (medium resolution) or optical/ MODIS (low resolution), based on the Planting Calendar (KATAM) of Kemtan. In this case, the planting season II/2012-2013 of rice production centers in West Java Province (Karawang, Subang and Indramayu counties). The selection of crop season and county were entirely dependent on the quality of the available PESBAK and procurement process of radar imagery. The PESBAK is still in the form of block instead of fields, so it can not be directly utilized in this study. Efforts to improve the PESBAK can not be optimal because the provided satellite image (ECW format) is not the original one. While the procurement process of

  9. Monitoring Agricultural Production in Primary Export Countries within the framework of the GEOGLAM Initiative

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. O.; Vermote, E.

    2012-12-01

    Up to date, reliable, global, information on crop production prospects is indispensible for informing and regulating grain markets and for instituting effective agricultural policies. The recent price surges in the global grain markets were in large part triggered by extreme weather events in primary grain export countries. These events raise important questions about the accuracy of current production forecasts and their role in market fluctuations, and highlight the deficiencies in the state of global agricultural monitoring. Satellite-based earth observations are increasingly utilized as a tool for monitoring agricultural production as they offer cost-effective, daily, global information on crop growth and extent and their utility for crop production forecasting has long been demonstrated. Within this context, the Group on Earth Observations developed the Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative which was adopted by the G20 as part of the action plan on food price volatility and agriculture. The goal of GEOGLAM is to enhance agricultural production estimates through the use of Earth observations. This talk will explore the potential contribution of EO-based methods for improving the accuracy of early production estimates of main export countries within the framework of GEOGLAM.

  10. Potential and impacts of renewable energy production from agricultural biomass in Canada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Tingting; McConkey, Brian; Huffman, Ted; Smith, Stephen; MacGregor, Bob; Yemshanov, Denys; Kulshreshtha, Suren

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • This study quantifies the bioenergy production potential in the Canadian agricultural sector. • Two presented scenarios included the mix of market and non-market policy targets and the market-only drivers. • The scenario that used mix of market and policy drivers had the largest impact on the production of bioenergy. • The production of biomass-based ethanol and electricity could cause moderate land use changes up to 0.32 Mha. • Overall, agricultural sector has a considerable potential to generate renewable energy from biomass. - Abstract: Agriculture has the potential to supply considerable amounts of biomass for renewable energy production from dedicated energy crops as well as from crop residues of existing production. Bioenergy production can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by using ethanol and biodiesel to displace petroleum-based fuels and through direct burning of biomass to offset coal use for generating electricity. We used the Canadian Economic and Emissions Model for Agriculture to estimate the potential for renewable energy production from biomass, the impacts on agricultural production, land use change and greenhouse gas emissions. We explored two scenarios: the first considers a combination of market incentives and policy mandates (crude oil price of $120 bbl −1 ; carbon offset price of $50 Mg −1 CO 2 equivalent and policy targets of a substitution of 20% of gasoline by biomass-based ethanol; 8% of petroleum diesel by biodiesel and 20% of coal-based electricity by direct biomass combustion), and a second scenario considers only carbon offset market incentives priced at $50 Mg −1 CO 2 equivalent. The results show that under the combination of market incentives and policy mandates scenario, the production of biomass-based ethanol and electricity increases considerably and could potentially cause substantial changes in land use practices. Overall, agriculture has considerable potential to

  11. Declining agricultural production in rapidly urbanizing semi-arid regions: policy tradeoffs and sustainability indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dozier, André Q.; Arabi, Mazdak; Wostoupal, Benjamin C.; Goemans, Christopher G.; Zhang, Yao; Paustian, Keith

    2017-08-01

    In rapidly urbanizing semi-arid regions, increasing amounts of historically irrigated cropland lies permanently fallowed due to water court policies as agricultural water rights are voluntarily being sold to growing cities. This study develops an integrative framework for assessing the effects of population growth and land use change on agricultural production and evaluating viability of alternative management strategies, including alternative agricultural transfer methods, regional water ownership restrictions, and urban conservation. A partial equilibrium model of a spatially-diverse regional water rights market is built in application of the framework to an exemplary basin. The model represents agricultural producers as profit-maximizing suppliers and municipalities as cost-minimizing consumers of water rights. Results indicate that selling an agricultural water right today is worth up to two times more than 40 years of continued production. All alternative policies that sustain agricultural cropland and crop production decrease total agricultural profitability by diminishing water rights sales revenue, but in doing so, they also decrease municipal water acquisition costs. Defining good indicators and incorporating adequate spatial and temporal detail are critical to properly analyzing policy impacts. To best improve agricultural profit from production and sale of crops, short-term solutions include alternative agricultural transfer methods while long-term solutions incorporate urban conservation.

  12. Construction of Network Management Information System of Agricultural Products Supply Chain Based on 3PLs

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2010-01-01

    The necessity to construct the network management information system of 3PLs agricultural supply chain is analyzed,showing that 3PLs can improve the overall competitive advantage of agricultural supply chain.3PLs changes the homogeneity management into specialized management of logistics service and achieves the alliance of the subjects at different nodes of agricultural products supply chain.Network management information system structure of agricultural products supply chain based on 3PLs is constructed,including the four layers (the network communication layer,the hardware and software environment layer,the database layer,and the application layer) and 7 function modules (centralized control,transportation process management,material and vehicle scheduling,customer relationship,storage management,customer inquiry,and financial management).Framework for the network management information system of agricultural products supply chain based on 3PLs is put forward.The management of 3PLs mainly includes purchasing management,supplier relationship management,planning management,customer relationship management,storage management and distribution management.Thus,a management system of internal and external integrated agricultural enterprises is obtained.The network management information system of agricultural products supply chain based on 3PLs has realized the effective sharing of enterprise information of agricultural products supply chain at different nodes,establishing a long-term partnership revolving around the 3PLs core enterprise,as well as a supply chain with stable relationship based on the supply chain network system,so as to improve the circulation efficiency of agricultural products,and to explore the sales market for agricultural products.

  13. Students' Perception of West African Agricultural Productivity ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    More than half (55.6%) of them were favourably disposed to the programme while respondents' farming background (r=3.740, p ≤ 0.05) was significantly related to their perception of the programme. It was recommended that West African Agricultural Productivity Programme officials should focus more attention on ...

  14. INDIRECT COSTS ALLOCATION AND DECISION MAKING IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Karić

    2001-06-01

    Full Text Available The paper introduces a research on the changes occurred inside the accounting system of agricultural organisations in the transitional period. Changes of structure and accounting information system being results of privatisation processes were analysed. The introduction of modern methods in the preparation of relevant management information represents one of the preconditions for development of the privatised agricultural organisation during the transition period. Information prepared by the accounting, especially adapted to management requirements, is essential for rational decision making. Modern management system of reporting is fundamental task of management and a precondition for securing competitive production in agricultural industry. For this reason, it is necessary to define areas of responsibility and to enable application of a modern techniques for calculating expenses. The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the specialised use of accounting information by managers and to develop methods of management reporting in agricultural organisations. We propose an emphasis upon the application of modern management accounting techniques rather than financial accounting reporting approach. We support the contention that the need for high-quality management accounting is not debatable and tend to explain how and why accounting information is developed for the individual parts of a business entity, that is for each department or enterprise of an agricultural organisation. The responsibility accounting system should be introduced in agricultural business entities within our conditions, especially in larger organisations, as a measure of securing competitive production. We emphasise the importance of distinguishing between direct and indirect expenses and of using appropriate methods to allocate expenses among departments or enterprises. The research is based on information directly received from the largest agricultural companies in the area of

  15. Participation of Urban Women in Agricultural Production Activities in the Sokoto Metropolis, Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barau, A. A.

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the participation of urban women in agricultural production activities in the Sokoto metropolis, Nigeria. Both primary data and secondary information were used in the study. The primary data were obtained using a structured questionnaire, administered to 72 respondents selected using the snowball sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the primary data generated. These include frequency and percentage, and Pearson product moment correlation, respectively. The results show that most of the urban women (38.9 % were in the active age range and had a family size of 1-5 persons (73.6 %. The majority attained tertiary education (62.5 % and have relatively low income (61.1 %, with monthly earnings of 5,000-99,000 Naira. The majority of the women were involved in agricultural production activities all year round (52.8 % with the highest participation seen in poultry farming (43.1 %. Although most of the women were motivated to participate for several reasons, it was mostly for the increased income (33.3 %. It was also found that the major constraint faced was inadequate capital (43.1 %. Age, marital status, educational attainment, household size and farm size were negatively and not significantly (p<5 % related to the participation of urban women in agricultural production activities. Monthly income was however, positively related to the urban women’s participation in agricultural production activities and was also significant (p<5 %. In general, urban women participate in agricultural production activities on a small scale all year round. Proper orientation and awareness programs, provision of credit and women-targeted agricultural programs would go a long way to improving the participation of urban women in agricultural production activities.

  16. Production conditions of bioenergy in Swedish agriculture; Produktionsfoerutsaettningar foer biobraenslen inom svenskt jordbruk

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boerjesson, Paal

    2007-05-15

    The overall aim of this report is to analyse and describe the production conditions of bioenergy in Swedish agriculture and how these conditions can vary due to different factors. The conclusion is that the potential for producing bioenergy in Swedish agriculture will vary significantly depending on which energy crops are cultivated, which type of agricultural land is utilised and the geographical location of the production. Furthermore, different crop residues and other by-products from agriculture, utilised for energy purposes, will affect the bioenergy potential. To which extent this physical/biological potential will be utilised in the future depends mainly on economic conditions and financial considerations. These aspects are not included in this study. The report starts with a description of current crop production in Sweden, expressed in energy terms, the energy needed for this production and the regional variation in crop yields. The local variations in cultivation conditions are also analysed, as well as variations over the area of a single farm. Another aspect discussed is the production conditions of energy crops on previous farm land not currently utilised. The report includes an analysis of the potential supply of crop residues and other by-products for energy purposes, such as straw, tops and leaves of sugar beets, manure etc, as well as the regional variation of these residues and by-products. A similar analysis is made of the regional production conditions and potential biomass yields of traditional crops and new energy crops. These analyses also include energy balance calculations showing the energy input needed for different production systems in relation to the harvested biomass yield, and the potential for increased biomass yields in the future. Based on the findings of these various analyses, calculations are made showing some examples of how much bioenergy Swedish agriculture can deliver, depending on how much agricultural land is utilised for

  17. Energetic performance analysis of drying agricultural products ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Renewable energy sources such as solar energy for drying purposes in a more effective and efficient way is inevitable for preservation of agricultural products in developing nations with inadequate access to electricity. This study investigates the effects of using a solar tracking device on the energy performance of drying ...

  18. Innovation in Agriculture - a Way for Romanian Farmers to Adjust Production to Market Requirements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Dora Orboi

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available One of the main problems of the world in the coming years is food security. The main problem of agriculture in the future is not only to produce more, but to do so in a sustainable way. European Innovation Partnership called "Productivity and sustainability of agriculture" aims to provide a working interface between agriculture, bio-economy, science and other disciplines at national, regional and EU level. European Innovation Partnership is a new concept that was introduced in Strategy Europe 2020 of the European Commission. In this document, the Commission underlines the role of research and innovation as key elements in adapting to future challenges of the European Union. This partnership will also serve as a catalyst to increase the effectiveness of actions related to innovation supported through rural development policy, EU research and innovation. It has been identified two main objectives for the European Innovation Partnership: promoting productivity and efficiency of agriculture and durable agriculture sustainability in all Member States. It aims to create a better cooperation between research and agricultural practice, namely farmers. Through National Program for Rural Development 2014 - 2020, can be financed such initiatives, through Measure 16, sub-16.1 - Support for the establishment and operation of operational groups of the EIP for agricultural productivity and sustainability and sub-16.2 - Support for pilot projects and development of new products, practices, processes and technologies. The purpose of these sub-measures is to support the establishment of operational groups between partners coming from research: research institutes, research stations or centers, higher education institutions that have research in agriculture or which can be applied in agriculture and agricultural producers (farmers, companies, cooperatives and producer groups. Development and innovation activities would enable farmers to capitalize on joint the

  19. PRODUCTION, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL BIOGAS PLANT IN KOSTKOWICE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karol Węglarzy

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the economic and ecological effect of Kostkowice Agricultural biogas plant based on a four year study carried out on the prototype installation. Agricultural biogas plant is part of the nature of the research conducted for twenty years at the National Research Institute of Animal PIB Experimental Station. Prof. Mieczyslaw Czaja relates to various aspects of environmental protection. It describes the economic justification for the production of energy from waste biomass (manure, slurry, wastes from feeding table, by the characteristics of substrates and products. It was found that agricultural biogas plant in rural areas are an important link in energy security, mainly due to the very high availability. Ecological effect is presented as effect of the installation solutions for the reduction of pollution of water, soil and air. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the recycling of environmentally harmful by-products of animal production of electricity and thermal energy, which is a substitute for environmentally harmful fossil fuels. The advantage of substances digestate is odorless, which is important both in an effort to improve the work culture in agriculture and improving living conditions in rural communities and it is an indisputable argument for the use of biomass for energy purposes.

  20. Agricultural productivity, household poverty and migration in the Indian Sundarban Delta

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rituparna Hajra

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Deltas are highly sensitive to erosion, flooding, and salinization with consequential agricultural productivity losses and out-migration, which is a preferred adaptive measure for the inhabitants of deltaic islands. This study investigates the associations between agricultural productivity decrease, household poverty and the probability of out-migration in the Indian Sundarban Delta (ISD. Using newly collected survey data from randomly selected households within the ISD, we analysed these relationships by means of descriptive statistics and regression modeling. Results suggest the significant positive association between a decrease in agricultural productivity and out-migration. The results further show that ceteris paribus, out-migration is negatively associated with household poverty, which is likely to be explained by the effect of remittances. The results yield important policy implications at the local level and can contribute to the progress towards sustainable livelihoods in these deltaic islands.

  1. O2O - Based Agricultural Products Supply Chain Process Integration Optimization Based on Internet +

    OpenAIRE

    Li Huijuan

    2017-01-01

    Traditional wholesale and retail, electricity supplier of agricultural products supply chain have many difficulties. The O2O supply chain of agricultural products of “Internet+”, committed to the integration of online and offline advantage process, has become the main direction of the agricultural products supply chain transformation. Practice operation results show that O2O supply chain can effectively play the advantages of online and offline process integration, but its further development...

  2. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service overview for operational monitoring of current crop conditions and production forecasts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crutchfield, J.

    2016-12-01

    The presentation will discuss the current status of the International Production Assessment Division of the USDA ForeignAgricultural Service for operational monitoring and forecasting of current crop conditions, and anticipated productionchanges to produce monthly, multi-source consensus reports on global crop conditions including the use of Earthobservations (EO) from satellite and in situ sources.United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) International Production AssessmentDivision (IPAD) deals exclusively with global crop production forecasting and agricultural analysis in support of the USDAWorld Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) lockup process and contributions to the World Agricultural Supply DemandEstimates (WASE) report. Analysts are responsible for discrete regions or countries and conduct in-depth long-termresearch into national agricultural statistics, farming systems, climatic, environmental, and economic factors affectingcrop production. IPAD analysts become highly valued cross-commodity specialists over time, and are routinely soughtout for specialized analyses to support governmental studies. IPAD is responsible for grain, oilseed, and cotton analysison a global basis. IPAD is unique in the tools it uses to analyze crop conditions around the world, including customweather analysis software and databases, satellite imagery and value-added image interpretation products. It alsoincorporates all traditional agricultural intelligence resources into its forecasting program, to make the fullest use ofavailable information in its operational commodity forecasts and analysis. International travel and training play animportant role in learning about foreign agricultural production systems and in developing analyst knowledge andcapabilities.

  3. Cellulosic ethanol production from agricultural residues in Nigeria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iye, Edward; Bilsborrow, Paul

    2013-01-01

    Nigeria′s Biofuels Policy introduced in 2007 mandates a 10% blend (E10) of bioethanol with gasoline. This study investigates the potential for the development of a cellulosic ethanol industry based on the availability of agricultural residues and models the number of commercial processing facilities that could be sited in the six Geo-political zones. The potential for cellulosic ethanol production from agricultural residues in Nigeria is 7556 km 3 per annum exceeding the mandate of 10% renewable fuel required and providing the potential for 12 large- and 11 medium-scale processing facilities based on the use of a single feedstock. Cassava and yam peelings provided in excess of 80% of the process residues available with enough feedstock to supply 10 large-scale facilities with a fairly even distribution across the zones. Sorghum straw, millet straw and maize stalks represented 75% of the potential resource available from field residues with the potential to supply 2 large- and 7 medium-scale processing facilities, all of which would be located in the north of the country. When a multi-feedstock approach is used, this provides the potential for either 29 large- or 58 medium-scale facilities based on outputs of 250 and 125 km 3 per annum respectively. - Highlights: • Nigeria′s Biofuels Policy mandates a 10% blend of bioethanol with gasoline. • Total bioethanol production from agricultural residues was 7556 km 3 per annum. • Process residues offer the greatest potential accounting for 62% of production. • Nigeria has the potential for 12 large- and 11 medium scale commercial. • The use of mixed feedstocks significantly increases the potential for production

  4. Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Michael; Tilman, David

    2017-06-01

    Global agricultural feeds over 7 billion people, but is also a leading cause of environmental degradation. Understanding how alternative agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice drive environmental degradation is necessary for reducing agriculture’s environmental impacts. A meta-analysis of life cycle assessments that includes 742 agricultural systems and over 90 unique foods produced primarily in high-input systems shows that, per unit of food, organic systems require more land, cause more eutrophication, use less energy, but emit similar greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as conventional systems; that grass-fed beef requires more land and emits similar GHG emissions as grain-feed beef; and that low-input aquaculture and non-trawling fisheries have much lower GHG emissions than trawling fisheries. In addition, our analyses show that increasing agricultural input efficiency (the amount of food produced per input of fertilizer or feed) would have environmental benefits for both crop and livestock systems. Further, for all environmental indicators and nutritional units examined, plant-based foods have the lowest environmental impacts; eggs, dairy, pork, poultry, non-trawling fisheries, and non-recirculating aquaculture have intermediate impacts; and ruminant meat has impacts ∼100 times those of plant-based foods. Our analyses show that dietary shifts towards low-impact foods and increases in agricultural input use efficiency would offer larger environmental benefits than would switches from conventional agricultural systems to alternatives such as organic agriculture or grass-fed beef.

  5. Construction of a risk assessment system for chemical residues in agricultural products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Shinai; Hong, Jiyeon; Lee, Dayeon; Paik, Minkyoung

    2014-01-01

    Continuous monitoring of chemical residues in agricultural and food products has been performed by various government bodies in South Korea. These bodies have made attempts to systematically manage this information by creating a monitoring database system as well as a system based on these data with which to assess the health risk of chemical residues in agricultural products. Meanwhile, a database system is being constructed consisting of information about monitoring and, following this, a demand for convenience has led to the need for an evaluation tool to be constructed with the data processing system. Also, in order to create a systematic and effective tool for the risk assessment of chemical residues in foods and agricultural products, various evaluation models are being developed, both domestically and abroad. Overseas, systems such as Dietary Exposure Evaluation Model: Food Commodity Intake Database and Cumulative and Aggregate Risk Evaluation System are being used; these use the US Environmental Protection Agency as a focus, while the EU has developed Pesticide Residue Intake Model for assessments of pesticide exposure through food intake. Following this, the National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS) created the Agricultural Products Risk Assessment System (APRAS) which supports the use and storage of monitoring information and risk assessments. APRAS efficiently manages the monitoring data produced by NAAS and creates an extraction feature included in the database system. Also, the database system in APRAS consists of a monitoring database system held by the NAAS and food consumption database system. Food consumption data is based on Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This system is aimed at exposure and risk assessments for chemical residues in agricultural products with regards to different exposure scenarios.

  6. Linking the Agricultural Production and Climate Change in Central Asia: 1991-2015

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tatarskii, V.; Shemyakina, O.; Sokolik, I. N.

    2016-12-01

    We present results of the impact of climate change on the agricultural output in Central Asia (CA) since 1991. While profit-maximizing farmers in the market based economies would be expected to change their cropping patterns fairly fast in response to climate change, we do not expect that to happen in the CA region that was for a long time driven by Soviet production plans with a limited room for personal choice. We explore the relationship between the agricultural productivity (measured by the actual output) and the variations in average monthly temperatures during growing seasons and precipitation. The climate data for Central Asia are generated using the Weather Research (WRF) Model for 1985-2012. We make use of data on air temperature on 2m height, C, and total precipitation. The data on the agricultural production comes from the State Statistical Agencies of the three Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Data on agricultural production for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not available from online government sources. We model the agricultural production as a function of annual realization of weather in a specific region. This economic approach includes converting daily temperature into degree days, which represents heating units. The two key weather variables are a measure of heat (degree days) and total precipitation in the growing season, April 1st to October 30th. Preliminary regression results estimated for Kazakhstan, indicate that degree days during growing season is negatively and total precipitation is positively associated with the agricultural output. Both coefficients are not statistically significant. Further analysis will include data from other countries and also by the region.

  7. Studies on preservation of agricultural products by irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chung, K.H.; Kwon, S.H.; Lee, Y.I.; Chae, J.C.; Shin, I.C.

    1981-01-01

    This study was attempted to develop and establish the preservation techniques of agricultural products by irradiation through ascertainment of the optimum irradiation doses for sprout inhibition of white potato and chestnut, and for disinfestation of rice insects during storage

  8. Ordering Strategy for Fresh Agricultural Products in External Financing Condition

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wenyi; DU

    2014-01-01

    This paper firstly introduced the two stage supply chain consisting of single agricultural product producer and fund restraint retailer.Then,it analyzed the influence of bank interest rate on order quantity,wholesale price and expected profit of retailer and producer on the condition of retailer taking external loan strategy.Studies have shown that when the bank interest rate is in(0,0.9),the order quantity of agricultural products is a decreasing function of bank interest rate; when the bank interest rate is in(0,1),wholesale price of agricultural products decreases with increase in the bank interest rate; when the bank interest rate is in(0,0.6),the expected profit of retailer is a decreasing function of bank interest rate; when the bank interest rate is in(0,1),the expected profit of producer decreases with increase in the bank interest rate.Finally,through simulation calculation examples,it verified suitability of the conclusion,in the hope of providing reference and application value for management of supply chain.

  9. O2O - Based Agricultural Products Supply Chain Process Integration Optimization Based on Internet +

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Huijuan

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Traditional wholesale and retail, electricity supplier of agricultural products supply chain have many difficulties. The O2O supply chain of agricultural products of “Internet+”, committed to the integration of online and offline advantage process, has become the main direction of the agricultural products supply chain transformation. Practice operation results show that O2O supply chain can effectively play the advantages of online and offline process integration, but its further development is still subject to the logistics, information flow of the dispersion, fracture and high cost. The integrated optimization of various regions and various enterprises and all sectors of the supply chain process is the key to optimize the process Internet plus era of agricultural products supply chain.

  10. Increasing rice production in Malaysia: Department of Agriculture approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asna Booty Othman; Chua Lee Kiang; Rathinam Thiagarajan; Aziziah Md Jan

    2002-01-01

    Increasing rice productivity will continue to be an important agenda in the agricultural development program of the country. This represents a challenge to the Department of Agriculture. To address this challenge, it calls for creativity, innovation, ideas and initiatives in the use of technologies that consist of land leveling, in the field water management, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), production and distribution of quality seeds, effective fertilizer usage and value added activities. Rice areas which have been leveled using laser guided technology have shown yield increase from 3.3 t/ha to 5.1 t/ha. In-field water management increases rice yield, reduces water wastage and ensures timeliness of operations and improve soil water bearing capacity. IPM has proven highly beneficial in the control of field rats, reducing the incidence of diseases such as rice blast, lowering the occurrence of insect pest outbreaks and weed infestation. Fish rearing and fattening of ducklings to adulthood in the rice fields have also been undertaken as profitable enterprises in the rice farming system. In its effort to modernise and increase rice productivity, the Department of Agriculture approach in acquisition of technology from research agencies, and its adaptation and adoption are discussed. Any technology promoted must be economically viable, socially acceptable and technologically feasible for effective implementation. (Author)

  11. TO THE QUESTION OF FORMATION OF EARTHQUAKES OF CORPORATE STRUCTURES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    KUSTOVSKA О.

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The article analyzes the development of corporate structures in agricultural production, proves the influence of corporate formations on the efficiency of agrarian production. On the basis of the analysis of official information of agro holdings, an assessment was made of the efficiency of their activities and a conclusion was made about the optimal size of their structural subdivisions. The advantages and disadvantages of integrated structures are highlighted, peculiarities of formation of their land relations are determined. Issues of expansion of land masses of agro holdings related to the conclusion of land lease agreements are considered. The association of separate agro-industrial enterprises of various industrial-economic orientation form an independent legal entity - a legal entity. The economic feasibility of the creation and functioning of corporate associations is objective based on obtaining the greatest effect, the essence of which is that the result of the joint corporate activities of economic structures will always be higher compared to the results of the individual work of each of them. Corporate forms of management in agriculture were founded in Ukraine on the basis of the general theoretical model of an open, competitive, multi-faceted agricultural market economy type, aimed at an integrated world economic system. The methodology of construction involves taking into account the world economic trends and the national specificity of the country's agricultural development; it is aimed at finding rational forms of organization of agricultural production, mechanisms for overcoming crisis phenomena, stabilizing the economy and creating conditions for further qualitative and quantitative growth of the agrarian sector of the economy. For many years, leading American co-operators have been distributing concepts and concepts that are perceived and used throughout the world. This work is coordinated by the Organization for International

  12. THE CONSUMPTION OF BASIC PRODUCTION MEANS IN POLISH AGRICULTURE IN RESPECT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AREAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wacław Jarecki

    2014-10-01

    The plant protection by pesticides is increasing in Poland and the established trend rate took into account years 2005-2011. In the period 2002-2004 statistics did not present the full range of crop protection measures authorized for sale and consumption. In contrast the consumption of qualified seeds of basic grains and seed potatoes considerably decreased in Polish agriculture. Only for triticale it was noticed that the trend rate of qualified seeds was increasing. So the farmers should be more widely informed about the advantages of the exchange of seed grain for qualified grains. It will facilitate the quicker implementation of variety progress to agricultural production and adverse changes slowdown agricultural production.

  13. Radioactive Contamination of Agricultural Products in Poland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muszynski, W.; Grabowski, D.; Rubel, B.; Kurowski, W.; Swietochowska, J.; Smagala, G.

    2003-01-01

    Radiological contamination of the environment is caused by nuclear activities on the globe: nuclear weapon tests and the Chernobyl accident. The transfer of radionuclides to the organism via ingestion is one of the sources of doses obtained by people. To assess the doses received by humans the intake of isotopes with daily diet was defined. The concentration of radionuclides in foodstuffs was determined. The network of Service for Measurement of Radioactive Contamination systematically controls all kinds of important agricultural products such as milk, meat, vegetables, fruit, cereals and forest products: mushrooms, blueberries etc. Measurement stations involved in food monitoring act within Sanitary-Epidemiological Stations, Veterinary Hygiene Units and Chemical-Agricultural Stations. All activities are co-ordinated by the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection. The level of activity of caesium isotopes has regularly been monitored in collected samples originating from different administrative districts of Poland. Since 1994 the 134 Cs concentration has been below the detection limit. The activity of 137 Cs has been measured to determine long-term effect of the accident on the contamination of milk, meat and other foodstuffs. (orig.)

  14. New Paths to Capitalist Agricultural Production in Africa

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Whitfield, Lindsay

    2017-01-01

    their own export marketing arrangements. This article examines Ghanaian commercial farmers producing and exporting fresh pineapples to European markets. This group of pineapple producer–exporters represents a path to capitalist agricultural production that can be conceptualized as capitalism from outside...

  15. Issue of productivity versus strategies for the development of Polish agricultural sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zbigniew Floriańczyk

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available In the article assessment of economic efficiency of agriculture is discussed from the sustainable development perspective. Basic definitions are outlined and spheres of sustainability related to Polish agriculture characteristics. Concepts of productivity and efficiency measurement are illustrated with the use of recently conducted research. Ability of different measures to reflect most important processes in agriculture sector is discussed. Following, development policies for economy and agricultural sector are reviewed to suggest concept of economic efficiency measurement form the sustainable agriculture perspective.

  16. Next Generation Agricultural System Data, Models and Knowledge Products: Introduction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antle, John M.; Jones, James W.; Rosenzweig, Cynthia E.

    2016-01-01

    Agricultural system models have become important tools to provide predictive and assessment capability to a growing array of decision-makers in the private and public sectors. Despite ongoing research and model improvements, many of the agricultural models today are direct descendants of research investments initially made 30-40 years ago, and many of the major advances in data, information and communication technology (ICT) of the past decade have not been fully exploited. The purpose of this Special Issue of Agricultural Systems is to lay the foundation for the next generation of agricultural systems data, models and knowledge products. The Special Issue is based on a 'NextGen' study led by the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

  17. Food, Feed, or Fuel? Phosphorus Flows Embodied in US Agricultural Production and Trade

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, G.; Bennett, E.; Carpenter, S.

    2012-12-01

    Agricultural phosphorus (P) use is integral to sustainable food production and water quality regulation. Globalization of agricultural systems, changing diets, and increasing biofuel production pose new challenges for managing non-renewable P reserves, particularly in key agricultural producing regions such as the US. We used a detailed model of the US agricultural system to assess the quantity of mineral P fertilizers used to produce food crops, livestock, and biofuels relative to the P ultimately consumed in domestic diets. We also quantified linkages in fertilizer use between the US and its trading partners globally via agricultural trade. Feed and livestock production drove by far the largest demand for P fertilizers in the US (56% of all P use for domestic and imported products). Of the total mineral P inputs to US domestic agriculture in 2007 (1905 Gg P), 28% were retained in agricultural soils as surplus P, 40% were lost through processing and waste prior to consumption in human diets, while 10% were diverted directly to biofuel production. One quarter of P fertilizer in the US was required to produce exports, particularly major food and feed crops (corn, soybean, and wheat) that drove a large net P flux out of the country (338 Gg P) with strongly crop-specific effects on soil P imbalances nationally. However, US meat consumption involved considerable reliance on P fertilizer use in other countries to produce red meat imports linked primarily to soil P surpluses abroad. We show that changes in domestic farm management and consumer waste could together reduce the P fertilizer needed to produce food consumed in the US by half, which is comparable to the P fertilizer reduction attainable by cutting domestic meat consumption (44%). More effective distribution of P use for major crops nationally and greater recycling of all agricultural wastes is critical to using US phosphate rock reserves as efficiently as possible while maintaining export-oriented agriculture.

  18. EVALUATION OF MANUFACTURING AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION BY THE END OF THE FINANCIAL PERIOD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mincho Minev

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This article is dedicated on the matter of evaluation of manufacturing and agricultural production after the initial appraisal. Accounting standards and regulations, concerning the reappraisal of production, are discussed with emphasis on the key and most disputable requirements. The most commonly met difficulties in the process of reappraisal of production are pointed out. A research is done over the leading manufacturing and agricultural entities in Bulgaria. The point of the research is to study the degree on witch entities met the requirements and regulations of accounting standards when they reevaluate their production by the end of the year. The results of the research are shown and analyzed. Conclusions are made along with some recommendations in order to improve the quality of reappraisal of manufacturing and agricultural production.

  19. Biogas production from energy crops and agriculture residues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, G.

    2010-12-15

    In this thesis, the feasibility of utilizing energy crops (willow and miscanthus) and agriculture residues (wheat straw and corn stalker) in an anaerobic digestion process for biogas production was evaluated. Potential energy crops and agriculture residues were screened according to their suitability for biogas production. Moreover, pretreatment of these biomasses by using wet explosion method was studied and the effect of the wet explosion process was evaluated based on the increase of (a) sugar release and (b) methane potential when comparing the pretreated biomass and raw biomass. Ensiling of perennial crops was tested as a storage method and pretreatment method for enhancement of the biodegradability of the crops. The efficiency of the silage process was evaluated based on (a) the amount of biomass loss during storage and (b) the effect of the silage on methane potential. Co-digestion of raw and wet explosion pretreated energy crops and agriculture residues with swine manure at various volatile solids (VS) ratio between crop and manure was carried out by batch tests and continuous experiments. The efficiency of the co-digestion experiment was evaluated based on (a) the methane potential in term of ml CH4 produced per g of VS-added and (b) the amount of methane produced per m3 of reactor volume. (Author)

  20. Virtual water and water self-sufficiency in agricultural and livestock products in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Vicente de Paulo R; de Oliveira, Sonaly D; Braga, Célia C; Brito, José Ivaldo B; de Sousa, Francisco de Assis S; de Holanda, Romildo M; Campos, João Hugo B C; de Souza, Enio P; Braga, Armando César R; Rodrigues Almeida, Rafaela S; de Araújo, Lincoln E

    2016-12-15

    Virtual water trade is often considered a solution for restricted water availability in many regions of the world. Brazil is the world leader in the production and export of various agricultural and livestock products. The country is either a strong net importer or a strong net exporter of these products. The objective of this study is to determine the volume of virtual water contained in agricultural and livestock products imported/exported by Brazil from 1997 to 2012, and to define the water self-sufficiency index of agricultural and livestock products in Brazil. The indexes of water scarcity (WSI), water dependency (WDI) and water self-sufficiency (WSSI) were calculated for each Brazilian state. These indexes and the virtual water balance were calculated following the methodology developed by Chapagain and Hoekstra (2008) and Hoekstra and Hung (2005). The total water exports and imports embedded in agricultural and livestock products were 5.28 × 10 10 and 1.22 × 10 10  Gm 3  yr -1 , respectively, which results in positive virtual water balance of 4.05 × 10 10  Gm 3  yr -1 . Brazil is either a strong net importer or a strong net exporter of agricultural and livestock products among the Mercosur countries. Brazil has a positive virtual water balance of 1.85 × 10 10  Gm 3  yr -1 . The indexes used in this study reveal that Brazil is self-sufficient in food production, except for a few products such as wheat and rice. Horticultural products (tomato, onion, potato, cassava and garlic) make up a unique product group with negative virtual water balance in Brazil. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Environmental impacts and production performances of organic agriculture in China: A monetary valuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Fanqiao; Qiao, Yuhui; Wu, Wenliang; Smith, Pete; Scott, Steffanie

    2017-03-01

    Organic agriculture has developed rapidly in China since the 1990s, driven by the increasing domestic and international demand for organic products. Quantification of the environmental benefits and production performances of organic agriculture on a national scale helps to develop sustainable high yielding agricultural production systems with minimum impacts on the environment. Data of organic production for 2013 were obtained from a national survey organized by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China. Farming performance and environmental impact indicators were screened and indicator values were defined based on an intensive literature review and were validated by national statistics. The economic (monetary) values of farming inputs, crop production and individual environmental benefits were then quantified and integrated to compare the overall performances of organic vs. conventional agriculture. In 2013, organically managed farmland accounted for approximately 0.97% of national arable land, covering 1.158 million ha. If organic crop yields were assumed to be 10%-15% lower than conventional yields, the environmental benefits of organic agriculture (i.e., a decrease in nitrate leaching, an increase in farmland biodiversity, an increase in carbon sequestration and a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions) were valued at 1921 million RMB (320.2 million USD), or 1659 RMB (276.5 USD) per ha. By reducing the farming inputs, the costs saved was 3110 million RMB (518.3 million USD), or 2686 RMB (447.7 USD) per ha. The economic loss associated with the decrease in crop yields from organic agriculture was valued at 6115 million RMB (1019.2 million USD), or 5280 RMB (880 USD) per ha. Although they were likely underestimated because of the complex relationships among farming operations, ecosystems and humans, the production costs saved and environmental benefits of organic agriculture that were quantified in our study compensated substantially for the

  2. Biogas Production from Energy Crops and Agriculture Residues

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Guangtao

    and wet explosion pretreated energy crops and agriculture residues with swine manure at various volatile solids (VS) ratio between crop and manure was carried out by batch tests and continuous experiments. The efficiency of the co-digestion experiment was evaluated based on (a) the methane potential......In this thesis, the feasibility of utilizing energy crops (willow and miscanthus) and agriculture residues (wheat straw and corn stalker) in an anaerobic digestion process for biogas production was evaluated. Potential energy crops and agriculture residues were screened according...... of perennial crops was tested as a storage method and pretreatment method for enhancement of the biodegradability of the crops. The efficiency of the silage process was evaluated based on (a) the amount of biomass loss during storage and (b) the effect of the silage on methane potential. Co-digestion of raw...

  3. Biomass energy production in agriculture: A weighted goal programming analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ballarin, A.; Vecchiato, D.; Tempesta, T.; Marangon, F.; Troiano, S.

    2011-01-01

    Energy production from biomasses can be an important resource that, when combined with other green energies such as wind power and solar plants, can contribute to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. The aim of this study is to assess how agriculture could contribute to the production of bio-energy. A multi-period Weighted Goal Programming model (MpWGP) has been applied to identify the optimal land use combinations that simultaneously maximise farmers' income and biomass energy production under three concurrent constraints: water, labour and soil availability. Alternative scenarios are considered that take into account the effect of climate change and social change. The MpWGP model was tested with data from the Rovigo county area (Italy) over a 15-year time period. Our findings show that trade-off exists between the two optimisation targets considered. Although the optimisation of the first target requires traditional agricultural crops, which are characterised by high revenue and a low production of biomass energy, the latter would be achievable with intensive wood production, namely, high-energy production and low income. Our results also show the importance of the constraints imposed, particularly water availability; water scarcity has an overall negative effect and specifically affects the level of energy production. - Research Highlights: → The aim of this study is to assess how agriculture could contribute to the production of bio-energy. → A multi-period (15-year) Weighted Goal Programming model (MpWGP) has been applied. → We identify the optimal land use combinations that simultaneously maximise farmers' income and biomass energy production. → Three concurrent constraints have been considered: water, labour and soil availability.→ Water scarcity has an overall negative effect and specifically affects the level of energy production.

  4. Optimization of production planning in Czech agricultural co-operative via linear programming

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jitka Janová

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The production planning is one of the key managerial decisions in agricultural business, which must be done periodically every year. Correct decision must cover the agriculture demands of planting the crops such as crop rotation restrictions or water resource scarcity, while the decision maker aims to plan the crop design in most profitable way in sense of maximizing the total profit from the crop yield. This decision problem represents the optimization of crop design and can be treated by the me­thods of linear programming which begun to be extensively used in agriculture production planning in USA during 50’s. There is ongoing research of mathematical programming applications in agriculture worldwide, but the results are not easily transferable to other localities due to the specific local restrictions in each country. In Czech Republic the farmers use for production planning mainly their expert knowledge and past experience. However, the mathematical programming approach enables find the true optimal solution of the problem, which especially in the problems with a great number of constraints is not easy to find intuitively. One of the possible barriers for using the general decision support systems (which are based on mathematical programming methods for agriculture production planning in Czech Republic is its expensiveness. The small farmer can not afford to buy the expensive software or to employ a mathematical programming specialist. The aim of this paper is to present a user friendly linear programming model of the typical agricultural production planning problem in Czech Republic which can be solved via software tools commonly available in any farm (e.g. EXCEL. The linear programming model covering the restrictions on total costs, crop rotation, thresholds for the total area sowed by particular crops, total amount of manure and the need of feed crops is developed. The model is applied in real-world problem of Czech agriculture

  5. THE STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF THE ORGANIC AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS MARKET IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandr Maslak

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The modern agricultural market is characterized by an increasing demand for higher quality agricultural products and food. Thus certified organic production was launched in Ukraine, which prohibited the use of chemically synthesized components, genetically modified organisms, etc., and labelling requirements for such products were established. However, experiencing both external and internal demand, the market for organic products in Ukraine is developing slowly. The subject of study focuses on the theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of forming the organizational-economic basis of organic agricultural products market development in Ukraine. Methodology. Methodological support for the study is based on dialectical and systemic approaches to the study of economic phenomena and processes of formation of the organizational-economic bases of organic agricultural products market development. General scientific and special methods are used, in particular: methods of analogies and comparisons, systematization, statistical and economic, calculation-constructive, program-oriented. The aim of the research is to identify the state of organic agricultural products market in Ukraine and prospects of its further development. The defined goal led to the following tasks: a study of the current state of organic production in Ukraine is carried out; set of problems that hinder its further development are defined; the possible scenarios of this market are identified; prospective tasks, solution of which will contribute to the further development of the market of organic agricultural products in Ukraine, are outlined. According to the results of the conducted research, the following conclusions are made: the tendencies of organic market development in Ukraine are investigated; it is found that the lack of a proper legislative and regulatory framework, a lack of modern market infrastructure, and effective mechanisms of its functioning are holding back

  6. FEATURES OF THE TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION IN THE AGRICULTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aigul Kazambayeva

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The analysis of the current state and problems of the development of agriculture, the share of agriculture in gross domestic product of the country and the ratio of industries in gross agricultural output are analyzed. The advantages of rational allocation and specialization of agricultural production, as well as the criteria for division into industries are considered. The analysis of territorial specialization of agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan is carried out, recommendations for its optimization are given

  7. Device to irradiate agricultural product on the production site, after harvesting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jegu, Jean; Palomo, Georges; Blaive, Daniel.

    1982-01-01

    The invention concerns a device to irradiate agricultural product on the production site, after harvesting. It includes an outer shielding to absorb the radiations and containers in which the products are placed for irradiation. The shielding is rotationally symmetrical around a vertical axis and holds an irradiation chamber containing a radioactive bar fitted along the shielding axis. The cylindrical containers are placed around the chamber with their axes parallel to the axis of the shielding. They are set in rotation by a motor and receive the farm products through their top ends which communicate with a supply system. Their bottom ends are closed by shutters covering a means for evacuating the products. The invention applies in particular to the irradiation of newly dug potatoes to avoid germination [fr

  8. Estimating pesticide emissions for LCA of agricultural products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hauschild, Michael Zwicky

    2000-01-01

    Emission data for pesticides from agricultural product systems may be based on national and international pesticide usage statistics, but these only provide information on the applied dose. When the field is considered as part of the technosphere, the emissions from the system are those quantitie...

  9. Tracing distant environmental impacts of agricultural products from a consumer perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kastner, Thomas; Kastner, Michael; Nonhebel, Sanderine

    2011-01-01

    Globally, trade flows of agricultural products are increasing. While value is typically added along the whole production chain, certain environmental impacts, such as land and water use, biomass appropriation, and soil degradation, are intrinsically linked to where the primary products originate

  10. Factors affecting RFID adoption in the agricultural product distribution industry: empirical evidence from China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Ping; Yan, Bo

    2016-01-01

    We conducted an exploratory investigation of factors influencing the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) methods in the agricultural product distribution industry. Through a literature review and field research, and based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theoretical framework, this paper analyzes factors influencing RFID adoption in the agricultural product distribution industry in reference to three contexts: technological, organizational, and environmental contexts. An empirical analysis of the TOE framework was conducted by applying structural equation modeling based on actual data from a questionnaire survey on the agricultural product distribution industry in China. The results show that employee resistance and uncertainty are not supported by the model. Technological compatibility, perceived effectiveness, organizational size, upper management support, trust between enterprises, technical knowledge, competitive pressure and support from the Chinese government, which are supported by the model, have significantly positive effects on RFID adoption. Meanwhile, organizational size has the strongest positive effect, while competitive pressure levels have the smallest effect. Technological complexities and costs have significantly negative effects on RFID adoption, with cost being the most significantly negative influencing factor. These research findings will afford enterprises in the agricultural products supply chain with a stronger understanding of the factors that influence RFID adoption in the agricultural product distribution industry. In addition, these findings will help enterprises remain aware of how these factors affect RFID adoption and will thus help enterprises make more accurate and rational decisions by promoting RFID application in the agricultural product distribution industry.

  11. XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES FROM AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS: CHARACTERISATION, PRODUCTION AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Kaprelyants

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The current study is a review of characteristics, production, physiological properties and application of xylooligosaccharides (XOS. XOS are the carbohydrates, their molecules are built from xylose residues linked mainly by в-(1→4-glycoside bonds. Xylan is important for plant cell walls and is widely spread component in agricultural by-products. XOS are products of xylan hydrolytic degradation, and exhibiting the high prebiotic potential. The XOS preparation of wheat and rye bran stimulated the cells accumulation ‑ 1,4∙1010 CFU/cm3 of L. аcidophilus and 9,2∙1010 CFU/cm3 of В. bifidum. A difference in XOS molecules branching causes a wide range of their physiological properties: antioxidant, immunomodulation, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic. XOS can reduce high cholesterol level and triglycerides in blood plasma. XOS application reviewed in this article opens new perspectives on its potential use for human consumption. The rich sources of xylan are wheat, rye and barley bran, rice husk, wheat straw, corncobs, cotton stalk. Industrial way of XOS production includes chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis with following purification. Chemical methods are based on hydrothermal pretreatment and acidic or alkali extraction. Obtained oligosaccharides have a wide range of polymerization degree (DP from 2 to 20. Enzymatic methods include fermentation with xylanase that allow controlling the XOS accumulation with certain DP. The different chromatographic purification after hydrolysis is used for analytical purposes. There are anion-exchange, size-exclusion, affinity, size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography. In addition, biomethods are preferred for XOS used in food, because such preparations do not contain monosaccharides and furfural as contaminants. XOS are stable in a wide range of temperature and pH, justifying the development of new synbiotics generation. Most widely XOS are used in production of functional

  12. The problem of sustainability within the complexity of agricultural production systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cotes Torres, Alejandro; Cotes Torres, Jose Miguel

    2005-01-01

    The problem of sustainability is a topic that since the end of the XX century has been worrying more the different sectors of society; becoming one of the topics of greatest interest for managers, consumers, academics and investigators that conform the different agricultural food chains of the world. This paper presents from the general systems theory point of view some elements of critical reflection, approaching the problem of sustainability from the complexity of agricultural production systems, beginning with the original philosophical conception of agricultural and ending by outlining some considerations that should be kept in mind for the development of scientific and technological advances concordant with the agricultural food chain needs of the XX century; which permit an orientation of not only work by profession is who lead the processes of animal and vegetable production, but also creates a sense of pertinence in all of the participants in the chain, highlighting the importance of studying by means of systemic thought, agronomy and animal science, as disciplines that approach to complexities of agriculture which is the angular stone of civilization, such as we know it at the moment

  13. Online hyperspectral imaging system for evaluating quality of agricultural products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mo, Changyeun; Kim, Giyoung; Lim, Jongguk

    2017-06-01

    The consumption of fresh-cut agricultural produce in Korea has been growing. The browning of fresh-cut vegetables that occurs during storage and foreign substances such as worms and slugs are some of the main causes of consumers' concerns with respect to safety and hygiene. The purpose of this study is to develop an on-line system for evaluating quality of agricultural products using hyperspectral imaging technology. The online evaluation system with single visible-near infrared hyperspectral camera in the range of 400 nm to 1000 nm that can assess quality of both surfaces of agricultural products such as fresh-cut lettuce was designed. Algorithms to detect browning surface were developed for this system. The optimal wavebands for discriminating between browning and sound lettuce as well as between browning lettuce and the conveyor belt were investigated using the correlation analysis and the one-way analysis of variance method. The imaging algorithms to discriminate the browning lettuces were developed using the optimal wavebands. The ratio image (RI) algorithm of the 533 nm and 697 nm images (RI533/697) for abaxial surface lettuce and the ratio image algorithm (RI533/697) and subtraction image (SI) algorithm (SI538-697) for adaxial surface lettuce had the highest classification accuracies. The classification accuracy of browning and sound lettuce was 100.0% and above 96.0%, respectively, for the both surfaces. The overall results show that the online hyperspectral imaging system could potentially be used to assess quality of agricultural products.

  14. Livestock in a changing climate: production system transitions as an adaptation strategy for agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weindl, Isabelle; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Popp, Alexander; Müller, Christoph; Schmitz, Christoph; Rolinski, Susanne; Havlík, Petr; Herrero, Mario

    2015-01-01

    Livestock farming is the world’s largest land use sector and utilizes around 60% of the global biomass harvest. Over the coming decades, climate change will affect the natural resource base of livestock production, especially the productivity of rangeland and feed crops. Based on a comprehensive impact modeling chain, we assess implications of different climate projections for agricultural production costs and land use change and explore the effectiveness of livestock system transitions as an adaptation strategy. Simulated climate impacts on crop yields and rangeland productivity generate adaptation costs amounting to 3% of total agricultural production costs in 2045 (i.e. 145 billion US$). Shifts in livestock production towards mixed crop-livestock systems represent a resource- and cost-efficient adaptation option, reducing agricultural adaptation costs to 0.3% of total production costs and simultaneously abating deforestation by about 76 million ha globally. The relatively positive climate impacts on grass yields compared with crop yields favor grazing systems inter alia in South Asia and North America. Incomplete transitions in production systems already have a strong adaptive and cost reducing effect: a 50% shift to mixed systems lowers agricultural adaptation costs to 0.8%. General responses of production costs to system transitions are robust across different global climate and crop models as well as regarding assumptions on CO 2 fertilization, but simulated values show a large variation. In the face of these uncertainties, public policy support for transforming livestock production systems provides an important lever to improve agricultural resource management and lower adaptation costs, possibly even contributing to emission reduction. (letter)

  15. Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging for quality analysis of agricultural and food products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, C. B.; Jayas, D. S.; Paliwal, J.; White, N. D. G.

    2010-04-01

    Agricultural and food processing industries are always looking to implement real-time quality monitoring techniques as a part of good manufacturing practices (GMPs) to ensure high-quality and safety of their products. Near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging is gaining popularity as a powerful non-destructive tool for quality analysis of several agricultural and food products. This technique has the ability to analyse spectral data in a spatially resolved manner (i.e., each pixel in the image has its own spectrum) by applying both conventional image processing and chemometric tools used in spectral analyses. Hyperspectral imaging technique has demonstrated potential in detecting defects and contaminants in meats, fruits, cereals, and processed food products. This paper discusses the methodology of hyperspectral imaging in terms of hardware, software, calibration, data acquisition and compression, and development of prediction and classification algorithms and it presents a thorough review of the current applications of hyperspectral imaging in the analyses of agricultural and food products.

  16. Perceptions of Agriculture Teachers Regarding Education about Biomass Production in Iowa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Guang; Martin, Robert A.

    2015-01-01

    With the growth of biorenewable energy, biomass production has become an important segment in the agriculture industry (Iowa Energy Center, 2013). A great workforce will be needed for this burgeoning biomass energy industry (Iowa Workforce Development, n. d.). Instructional topics in agricultural education should take the form of problems and…

  17. Resource analysis of the Chinese society 1980-2002 based on exergy-Part 3: Agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, B.; Chen, G.Q.

    2007-01-01

    This part is the continuation of the second part on renewable energy sources and forest. The major agricultural products entering the Chinese society from 1980 to 2002 are calculated and analyzed in detail in this paper. The relative political infrastructure and organization of the agricultural production in the rural areas frequently and rapidly changed during the past two decades, making profound impact on the crop structure and yields. The planning and organization of agriculture has been adjusted when prices and market are introduced into agricultural production and the direct planning is restricted. The growth in usage of fertilizers, pesticides and farm-use plastic membrane is revealed. The state farm system as the pioneer of exploring the modernization of agriculture and accumulating experiences is also described

  18. Nonwoven production from agricultural okra wastes and investigation of their thermal conductivities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duman, M. N.; Kocak, E. D.; Merdan, N.; Mistik, I.

    2017-10-01

    Nowadays bio-based composite materials have been used in rising amounts and demanded widely in industrial uses, as they provide cost reduction and weight loss in the end use products. Agricultural cellulose based wastes can be a good alternative to synthetic fibers and can be used in natural fiber reinforced composite production, as there is a huge (more than 40 million tons) potential for natural cellulose production from agricultural wastes. Okra is one of the most grown vegetables around the world with stems left on the fields after harvest. When the similarity of mechanical properties of okra fibers with traditional bast fibers (flax, kenaf, hemp) are considered, from an economical and an environmental point of view this research emphasizes the potential of agricultural biomass for natural fiber production. In this study, okra stem wastes used for natural cellulosic fiber production and treated with 10% NaOH at 60°C for 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes. By alkali treatment, decrease in fiber diameter and weight, and increase in tensile strength and elongation % have been observed. Nonwoven production has been done from both the fibers with and without surface treatments. Thermal conductivity properties of both nonwovens have been investigated.

  19. Biomass production from the U.S. forest and agriculture sectors in support of a renewable electricity standard

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, Eric M.; Latta, Greg; Alig, Ralph J.; Skog, Kenneth E.; Adams, Darius M.

    2013-01-01

    Production of renewable energy from biomass has been promoted as means to improve greenhouse gas balance in energy production, improve energy security, and provide jobs and income. However, uncertainties remain as to how the agriculture and forest sectors might jointly respond to increased demand for bioelectricity feedstocks and the potential environmental consequences of increased biomass production. We use an economic model to examine how the agriculture and forest sectors might combine to respond to increased demands for bioelectricity under simulated future national-level renewable electricity standards. Both sectors are projected to contribute biomass, although energy crops, like switchgrass, produced on agriculture land are projected to be the primary feedstocks. At the highest targets for bioelectricity production, we project increased conversion of forest to agriculture land in support of agriculture biomass production. Although land conversion takes place in response to renewable electricity mandates, we project only minor increases in forest and agriculture emissions. Similarly, crop prices were projected to generally be stable in the face of increased bioelectricity demand and displacement of traditional agriculture crops. - Highlights: ► We model the response of forest and agriculture to increased bioelectricity demand. ► The agriculture sector, through energy crop production, is the key biomass provider. ► Increased land exchange is projected for the highest bioelectricity demands. ► Land exchange from forest to agriculture yield the greatest changes in GHG flux. ► Agriculture and forestry must be accounted for when considering bioenergy policy

  20. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land: a case study of Argentina

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wicke, B.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/306645955; Smeets, E.M.W.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/311445217; Tabeau, A.; Hilbert, J.; Faaij, A.P.C.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/10685903X

    2009-01-01

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input–output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural

  1. Macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land—A case study of Argentina

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wicke, Birka; Smeets, E.; Tabeau, Andrzej; Hilbert, Jorge; Faaij, André

    2009-01-01

    This paper assesses the macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, trade balance and employment of large-scale bioenergy production on surplus agricultural land. An input–output model is developed with which the direct, indirect and induced macroeconomic impacts of bioenergy production and agricultural

  2. Career Preparation in Agricultural Products (Food Processing): A Curriculum Guide for High School Vocational Agriculture. Test Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Eddie A.

    This curriculum guide in agricultural products (food processing) is one of 10 guides developed as part of a vocational project stressing agribusiness, natural resources, and environmental protection. The scope of this guide includes three occupational subgroups: meat, fish, poultry; dairy (milk) products; fruits and vegetables. It is meant as an…

  3. Grassland production under global change scenarios for New Zealand pastoral agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, E. D.; Baisden, W. T.; Timar, L.; Mullan, B.; Clark, A.

    2014-10-01

    We adapt and integrate the Biome-BGC and Land Use in Rural New Zealand models to simulate pastoral agriculture and to make land-use change, intensification of agricultural activity and climate change scenario projections of New Zealand's pasture production at time slices centred on 2020, 2050 and 2100, with comparison to a present-day baseline. Biome-BGC model parameters are optimised for pasture production in both dairy and sheep/beef farm systems, representing a new application of the Biome-BGC model. Results show up to a 10% increase in New Zealand's national pasture production in 2020 under intensification and a 1-2% increase by 2050 from economic factors driving land-use change. Climate change scenarios using statistically downscaled global climate models (GCMs) from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report also show national increases of 1-2% in 2050, with significant regional variations. Projected out to 2100, however, these scenarios are more sensitive to the type of pasture system and the severity of warming: dairy systems show an increase in production of 4% under mild change but a decline of 1% under a more extreme case, whereas sheep/beef production declines in both cases by 3 and 13%, respectively. Our results suggest that high-fertility systems such as dairying could be more resilient under future change, with dairy production increasing or only slightly declining in all of our scenarios. These are the first national-scale estimates using a model to evaluate the joint effects of climate change, CO2 fertilisation and N-cycle feedbacks on New Zealand's unique pastoral production systems that dominate the nation's agriculture and economy. Model results emphasise that CO2 fertilisation and N-cycle feedback effects are responsible for meaningful differences in agricultural systems. More broadly, we demonstrate that our model output enables analysis of decoupled land-use change scenarios: the Biome-BGC data products at a national or regional level can be re

  4. The Cold Chain Logistics for Perishable Agricultural Products in China

    OpenAIRE

    Hou Yanfang; Xie Dong; Wang Jianbo

    2015-01-01

    This study introduces concepts of the agricultural product cold chain logistics and domestic and international researches. Also, the study discusses issues of Chinese agricultural cold chain logistics in the development process as the following aspects: the dividing of cold chain logistics market, refrigeration hardware facilities, third-party cold chain logistics development, the level of cold chain technologies, cold chain logistics professionals and the legal system and the standard system...

  5. Utilizing intraspecific variation in phenotypic plasticity to bolster agricultural and forest productivity under climate change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aspinwall, Michael J; Loik, Michael E; Resco de Dios, Victor; Tjoelker, Mark G; Payton, Paxton R; Tissue, David T

    2015-09-01

    Climate change threatens the ability of agriculture and forestry to meet growing global demands for food, fibre and wood products. Information gathered from genotype-by-environment interactions (G × E), which demonstrate intraspecific variation in phenotypic plasticity (the ability of a genotype to alter its phenotype in response to environmental change), may prove important for bolstering agricultural and forest productivity under climate change. Nonetheless, very few studies have explicitly quantified genotype plasticity-productivity relationships in agriculture or forestry. Here, we conceptualize the importance of intraspecific variation in agricultural and forest species plasticity, and discuss the physiological and genetic factors contributing to intraspecific variation in phenotypic plasticity. Our discussion highlights the need for an integrated understanding of the mechanisms of G × E, more extensive assessments of genotypic responses to climate change under field conditions, and explicit testing of genotype plasticity-productivity relationships. Ultimately, further investigation of intraspecific variation in phenotypic plasticity in agriculture and forestry may prove important for identifying genotypes capable of increasing or sustaining productivity under more extreme climatic conditions. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Multifactor productivity analysis in the sample of agricultural enterprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaroslav Svoboda

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The assessment of Total Factor Productivity (TFP, i.e. inclusion of all factors of production seems to be an easy task. However, its calculation can meet with some difficulties. The calculation of inputs is complicated as different factors of production, which are processes to outputs, has to be transformed to a common factor. The aim of the paper was to analyse relations of efficiency of factors of production measured by factor productivity based on economic profit and returns (profitability of enterprise measured by the most synthetic profitability indicator (Return on Assets, ROA. A partial aim was to consider risk analysed through ratio of cost to capital (Weighted Average Cost of Capital – WACC performed in the sample on agricultural enterprises in 2004–2008. The database used for the research consisted of 622 agricultural enterprises. The methodology of calculation was based on an approach according to Neumaierová and Neumaier (2002 considering the economic profit. This methodology suits well to conditions of Czech financial statements (a balance sheets and a profit and loss statement. The TFP assessment was connected to the return on assets and the correlation analysis revealed dependences of calculated indicators. The paper is a part of the MSM 6007665806 research project.

  7. Improving food and agricultural production. Thailand. Breeding for resistance to diseases in cotton

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wallace, T.P.

    1992-01-01

    This document reports the results of a 20-day mission to Thailand within the framework of the project ''Improving food and agricultural production with nuclear and related technology''. The expert discussed the status of cotton breeding, production practices and problems with personnel of the Department of Agriculture in Bangkok, and travelled to cotton-producing regions of the central and northern areas of the country to discuss current research, pest problems and social factors affecting cotton production

  8. Rational allocation of agricultural production in the region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grigorii Mikhailovich Semyashkin

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper proposes an original approach to determining the optimal allocation of agricultural production in the region; the approach includes the methodological substantiation of the necessity to differentiate consumers when addressing food security issues in the region. It was proposed to allocate three levels: level 1 – the provision of food to socially vulnerable layers, level 2 – the provision with food at the subsistence level, and level 3 – the provision of the total population of the region with food. A preliminary forecast was made for each municipality; it analyzed possible changes in the number of the socially vulnerable up to 2020; in accordance with medical standards and norms of the subsistence level the volumes of food were calculated, which in turn were compared with the actual production output. The difference between the actual volume and the volume of evidence-based requirements represented the very increase in the volume of production, the achievement of which requires certain investments on the basis of capital-output ratio. After that the regional market was divided into three sub-regional markets depending on distance, number of consumers and suppliers. This allowed us to calculate the amount of transport costs based on the type and lot size of the transported product, taking into account the distance to each sub-market. As a criterion of transportation expediency we took into account the share of transport costs in the price of the product not exceeding 30%. Otherwise, it is required to concentrate the production in order to increase the lot transported or to carry out a deeper processing of the product. The proposed methodology served as the basis for choosing the most effective option of spatial location of agricultural production

  9. Production and reduction of nitrous oxide in agricultural and forest soils.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, K; Chen, G; Struwe, S; Kjøller, A

    2000-06-01

    A soil-water slurry experiment was conducted to study the potentials of N2O production and reduction in denitrification of agricultural and beech forest soils in Denmark. The effects of nitrate and ammonium additions on denitrification were also investigated. The forest soil showed a higher denitrification potential than the agricultural soil. However, N2O reduction potential of the agricultural soil was higher than the beech forest soil, shown by the ratio of N2O/N2 approximately 0.11 and 3.65 in the agricultural and the beech forest soils, respectively. Both nitrate and ammonium additions stimulated the N2O production in the two soils, but reduced the N2O reduction rates in the agricultural soil slurries. In contrast to the effect on the agricultural soil, nitrate reduced the N2O reduction rate in the beech forest soil, while ammonium showed a stimulating effect on the N2O reduction activity. After one week incubation, all of the N2O produced was reduced to N2 in the agricultural soil when nitrate was still present. Nitrous oxide reduction in the beech forest soil occurred only when nitrate almost disappeared. The different nitrate inhibitory effect on the N2O reduction activity in the two soils was due to the difference in soil pH. Inhibition of nitrate on N2O reduction was significant under acidic condition. Consequently, soil could serve as a sink of atmospheric N2O under the conditions of anaerobic, pH near neutral and low nitrate content.

  10. Agrification: Agriculture for the industry and energy production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    The new aspect of agrification is the production of alternative products, which can replace fossil sources. This substitution is necessary in order to replace hazardous materials and to find a solution for the problem of depletion of conventional energy sources and basic materials. Attention is paid to some developments in Germany: agricultural products for the production of energy, and new industrial applications for vegetable filaments. With regard to energy production from agricultrual products one should distinguish between (a) solid energy sources (biomass), f.e. straw, fast-growing wood, elephant's grass, hay and rapeseed, and (b) fluid and gaseous energy sources, f.e. purified and partly refined rapeseed oil, rapeseed oil methyl-ester (RME), ethanol from sugar beet, methanol from straw and hydrogen from straw and/or elephant's grass. 4 figs., 7 refs

  11. Closing the gap: global potential for increasing biofuel production through agricultural intensification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnston, Matt; Foley, J; Mueller, N D; Licker, R; Holloway, T; Barford, C; Kucharik, C

    2011-01-01

    Since the end of World War II, global agriculture has undergone a period of rapid intensification achieved through a combination of increased applications of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, the implementation of best management practice techniques, mechanization, irrigation, and more recently, through the use of optimized seed varieties and genetic engineering. However, not all crops and not all regions of the world have realized the same improvements in agricultural intensity. In this study we examine both the magnitude and spatial variation of new agricultural production potential from closing of 'yield gaps' for 20 ethanol and biodiesel feedstock crops. With biofuels coming under increasing pressure to slow or eliminate indirect land-use conversion, the use of targeted intensification via established agricultural practices might offer an alternative for continued growth. We find that by closing the 50th percentile production gap-essentially improving global yields to median levels-the 20 crops in this study could provide approximately 112.5 billion liters of new ethanol and 8.5 billion liters of new biodiesel production. This study is intended to be an important new resource for scientists and policymakers alike-helping to more accurately understand spatial variation of yield and agricultural intensification potential, as well as employing these data to better utilize existing infrastructure and optimize the distribution of development and aid capital.

  12. Closing the gap: global potential for increasing biofuel production through agricultural intensification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, Matt; Licker, R.; Foley, J.; Holloway, T.; Mueller, N. D.; Barford, C.; Kucharik, C.

    2011-07-01

    Since the end of World War II, global agriculture has undergone a period of rapid intensification achieved through a combination of increased applications of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, the implementation of best management practice techniques, mechanization, irrigation, and more recently, through the use of optimized seed varieties and genetic engineering. However, not all crops and not all regions of the world have realized the same improvements in agricultural intensity. In this study we examine both the magnitude and spatial variation of new agricultural production potential from closing of 'yield gaps' for 20 ethanol and biodiesel feedstock crops. With biofuels coming under increasing pressure to slow or eliminate indirect land-use conversion, the use of targeted intensification via established agricultural practices might offer an alternative for continued growth. We find that by closing the 50th percentile production gap—essentially improving global yields to median levels—the 20 crops in this study could provide approximately 112.5 billion liters of new ethanol and 8.5 billion liters of new biodiesel production. This study is intended to be an important new resource for scientists and policymakers alike—helping to more accurately understand spatial variation of yield and agricultural intensification potential, as well as employing these data to better utilize existing infrastructure and optimize the distribution of development and aid capital.

  13. Closing the gap: global potential for increasing biofuel production through agricultural intensification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Johnston, Matt; Foley, J; Mueller, N D [Institute on the Environment (IonE), University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108 (United States); Licker, R; Holloway, T; Barford, C; Kucharik, C [Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53726 (United States)

    2011-07-15

    Since the end of World War II, global agriculture has undergone a period of rapid intensification achieved through a combination of increased applications of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, the implementation of best management practice techniques, mechanization, irrigation, and more recently, through the use of optimized seed varieties and genetic engineering. However, not all crops and not all regions of the world have realized the same improvements in agricultural intensity. In this study we examine both the magnitude and spatial variation of new agricultural production potential from closing of 'yield gaps' for 20 ethanol and biodiesel feedstock crops. With biofuels coming under increasing pressure to slow or eliminate indirect land-use conversion, the use of targeted intensification via established agricultural practices might offer an alternative for continued growth. We find that by closing the 50th percentile production gap-essentially improving global yields to median levels-the 20 crops in this study could provide approximately 112.5 billion liters of new ethanol and 8.5 billion liters of new biodiesel production. This study is intended to be an important new resource for scientists and policymakers alike-helping to more accurately understand spatial variation of yield and agricultural intensification potential, as well as employing these data to better utilize existing infrastructure and optimize the distribution of development and aid capital.

  14. Anaerobic co-digestion of agricultural by-products with manure, for enhanced biogas production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Søndergaard, Marie M.; Fotidis, Ioannis; Kovalovszki, Adam

    2015-01-01

    Biogas is extensively promoted as a promising renewable energy. Therefore, the search of appropriate co-substrates has come into focus. In this study, we examined the potential of using agricultural byproducts as alternative co-substrates for increased biogas production. The biochemical methane p...

  15. Implementing international experience in promoting agricultural products to foreign markets: the Russian export strategy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lilia S. Revenko

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Almost all countries in the world actively regulate both import and export of agricultural products, however this process is very conflictгфд because of acute contradictions on the market. They are associated with the changing conditions of production, increase of attention of the world community to the food securitysituation, change of the used resources efficiency level, competition enhancement. Both internal and external components of agricultural producers support are important for Russia. That means the regulation should be aimed at meeting the needs of the domestic market and at increasing competitiveness of Russian products abroad. The development of the Russian export strategy for agricultural products is currently very important. This problem is closely related to the general subject of the agricultural productiondevelopment, but it has an explicit specific character. Inthiscontextexperienceofforeigncountriesisinteresting. Almost all tools of export regulation existing in the world practice are used in the foreign practice of export regulation of agricultural raw materials and food. Stimulation measures prevail in regards to the coverage of commodity items, number of episodes involving the use of agricultural export regulationmeasures, effectiveness of impact to the national agricultural sector. Holistic strategies of agricultural export development are not a widespread phenomenon abroad at the present stage of the world economy development. Their existence is typical for countries with a high level of food self-sufficiency. Special programs where export component is a harmonically built-in element are now more widely spread. Export development programs of the developed countries include a range of measures to maintain the target income level of producers and to maintain procurement and consumer prices. Export policy of the developing countries has a subordinated importance and is considered as one of the levels to develop national

  16. The importance of opinion leaders in agricultural production among ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The importance of opinion leaders in agricultural production among male and ... farmers do not have adequate access to extension services due to, amongst others, the ... In view of these problems, the role of opinion leaders is important and ...

  17. Agriculture in the climate change negotiations; ensuring that food production is not threatened.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muldowney, J; Mounsey, J; Kinsella, L

    2013-06-01

    With the human population predicted to reach nine billion by 2050, demand for food is predicted to more than double over this time period, a trend which will lead to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. Furthermore, expansion in food production is predicted to occur primarily in the developing world, where adaptation to climate change may be more difficult and opportunities to mitigate emissions limited. In the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 'ensuring that food production is not threatened' is explicitly mentioned in the objective of the Convention. However, the focus of negotiations under the Convention has largely been on reducing GHG emissions from energy, and industrial activities and realizing the potential of forestry as a carbon sink. There has been little attention by the UNFCCC to address the challenges and opportunities for the agriculture sector. Since 2006, concerted efforts have been made to raise the prominence of agriculture within the negotiations. The most recent The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and 'The Emissions Gap Report' by the UNEP highlighted the significant mitigation potential of agriculture, which can help contribute towards keeping global temperature rises below the 2°C limit agreed in Cancun. Agriculture has to be a part of the solution to address climate change, but this will also require a focus on how agriculture systems can adapt to climate change in order to continue to increase food output. However, to effectively realize this potential, systematic and dedicated discussion and decisions within the UNFCCC are needed. UNFCCC discussions on a specific agriculture agenda item started in 2012, but are currently inconclusive. However, Parties are generally in agreement on the importance of agriculture in contributing to food security and employment as well as the need to improve understanding of agriculture and how it can contribute to

  18. Requirement Analysis for the Collaborative Supply and Logistics Management of Fresh Agricultural Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Issues and concerns for food safety, agro-processing, and the environmental and ecological impact of food production have been attracted many research interests. Traceability and logistics management of fresh agricultural products is faced with the technological challenges including food product label and identification, activity/process characterization, information systems for the supply chain, i.e., from farm to table. Application of information technologies for food processing and logistics industry in the fields of smart packaging and materials, automation and control technology, standards and their application scenarios, and production management principles were wildly studied. A collaborative research project for the supply and logistics of fresh agricultural products in Tianjin was performed. System analysis for the logistics management information system is studied. The model-driven business transformation, an approach uses formal models to explicitly define the structure and behavior of a business, is applied for the review and analysis process. Requirements for the logistic management solutions are proposed. Development of this research is crucial for the solution integration of supply and logistic management information system for fresh agricultural products.

  19. Application of fuzzy set theory for integral assessment of agricultural products quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Derkanosova, N. M.; Ponomareva, I. N.; Shurshikova, G. V.; Vasilenko, O. A.

    2018-05-01

    The methodology of integrated assessment of quality and safety of agricultural products, approbated by the example of indicators of wheat grain in relation to the provision of consumer properties of bakery products, was developed. Determination of the level of quality of the raw ingredients will allow direct using of agricultural raw materials for food production, taking into account ongoing technology, types of products, and, respectively, rational use of resource potential of the agricultural sector. The mathematical tool of the proposed method is a fuzzy set theory. The fuzzy classifier to evaluate the properties of the grain is formed. The set of six indicators normalized by the national standard is determined; values are ordered and represented by linguistic variables with a trapeziform membership function; the rules for calculation of membership functions are presented. Specific criteria values for individual indicators in shaping the quality of the finished products are considered. For one of the samples of wheat grain values of membership; functions of the linguistic variable "level" for all indicators and the linguistic variable "level of quality" were calculated. It is established that the studied sample of grain obtains the 2 (average) level of quality. Accordingly, it can be recommended for the production of bakery products with higher requirements for the structural-mechanical properties bakery and puff pastry products hearth bread and flour confectionery products of the group of hard dough cookies and crackers

  20. Virtual water flows in the international trade of agricultural products of China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yu; Zhang, Jinhe; Tang, Guorong; Chen, Min; Wang, Lachun

    2016-07-01

    With the rapid development of the economy and population, water scarcity and poor water quality caused by water pollution have become increasingly severe in China. Virtual water trade is a useful tool to alleviate water shortage. This paper focuses on a comprehensive study of China's international virtual water flows from agricultural products trade and completes a diachronic analysis from 2001 to 2013. The results show that China was in trade surplus in relation to the virtual water trade of agricultural products. The exported virtual water amounted to 29.94billionm(3)/yr. while 155.55billionm(3)/yr. was embedded in imported products. The trend that China exported virtual water per year was on the decline while the imported was on a rising trend. Virtual water trade of China was highly concentrated. Not all of the exported products had comparative advantages in virtual water content. Imported products were excessively concentrated on water intensive agricultural products such as soya beans, cotton, and palm oil. The exported virtual water mainly flowed to the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong of China and Japan, while the imported mainly flowed from the United States of America, Brazil and Argentina. From the ethical point of view, the trade partners were classified into four types in terms of "net import" and "water abundance": mutual benefit countries, such as Australia and Canada; unilateral benefit countries, such as Mongolia and Norway; supported countries, such as Egypt and Singapore; and double pressure countries, such as India and Pakistan. Virtual water strategy refers to water resources, agricultural products and human beings. The findings are beneficial for innovating water resources management system, adjusting trade structure, ensuring food security in China, and promoting the construction of national ecological security system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Aspergillus species as mycotoxin producers in agricultural products in central Europe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kočube Šandor

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Aspergillus species are able to produce a range of mycotoxins, includ­ing e.g. aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumonisins and patulin. Aflatoxins are mainly produced by members of Aspergillus section Flavi, and they contaminate various agricultural products in several parts of the world. Several recent reports have indicated that aflatoxin-producing fungi and consequently aflatoxin contamination occur in agricultural commodities in a number of European countries which have not been faced with this problem before. Indeed, recent surveys have clarified that concentrations of aflatoxins in maize products and milk has been exceeding the EU limit in several regions of Central Europe including Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Northern Italy and Romania. However, aflatoxin contamination and aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus species have not been identified yet in maize in Hungary. We examined the presence of potential aflatoxin-producing Aspergilli in maize samples collected in southern parts of Hungary. Several A. flavus isolates were identified, and pre­liminary results indicated that some of the isolates were able to produce aflatoxins. Con­tamination of other agricultural products with aflatoxins can also pose problems in Central Europe due to global warming. Ochratoxin contamination of grapes and grape-derived products is usually caused by black Aspergilli, especially by A. carbonarius and A. niger, although these species have been rare in Central European vineyards due to climatic fac­tors. Ochratoxin contamination of other agricultural products including spices and cereals was also observed in the region. Besides, ochratoxin producing Aspergilli are frequently isolated from imported products including coffee beans, dried fruits and spices, and ochra­toxin contamination of these samples was also observed. Fumonisins are produced mainly by Fusarium species, and by the recently identified producers Aspergillus niger and A. awamori. We examined fumonisin

  2. Protection against radioactive contamination of foods and agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabo, A.; Kovacs, Z.

    1977-01-01

    Methods suitable for diminishing radioactive contamination of foods and agricultural products and reducing at the same time the irradiation hazards for the human organism are dealt with. The possibilities for the decontamination of foods vegetal and of animal origin are discussed separately. (author)

  3. The effect of Common Agricultural Policy on Dairy production in Croatia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Branka Šakić Bobić

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available In the year 2007 there was price jump at world milk market. In the middle of the year 2008 the market was temporarily stabilized, because European Commission introduced Common Agricultural Policy modernization suggestion to the members of the European Parliament as the answer to an increasing food demand. The main elements of this suggestion were to abolish obligation to keep some agricultural areas set aside, milk quota removal, and abolition of subvention rate - production quantity link. When East and Central European countries entered in the European Union, they faced agricultural tax and milk price decrease. Today in new member states, the protection taxes are lower then before entering the Union (exceptions are Poland and Romania. The production costs in new member states are higher then in the Union, so there is higher market pressure at milk producers to increase their capacity (Livestock unit, to increase capacity utilization (milk per animal, and to produce at lower cost price. One part of smaller producers could not react to this pressure, so they decided to leave the dairy business. The consequence is decreased export of milk and dairy products in the new member states. Today milk market production in Croatia is around 650 million liters. In the production, there are around 32 thousand producers with 177 thousand of dairy cows. In the last 5 years of Croatian dairy, there was important shift in the production and redemption. Help to dairy sector through annual high investments as state subsidies and credit loans, and dairy industry subsidies at basic price, made redemption increase of more then 150 million liters, but also milk producer’s decrease. To stay at present production and redemption level, the only one that counts as Quota I, with around 90 % standard milk, there is a need to increase standard milk for 119 million liters. This increase in production quality, in the negotiation period and just after planned Croatian

  4. DID THE 2004 CAP REFORM AFFECT PRODUCTION PRACTICES OF CEREALS? INSIGHTS FROM THE AGRICULTURAL INPUT SUPPLIERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Theodoros MARKOPOULOS

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The Mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2003/2004 has strengthened the multifunctional role of agriculture by implementing “decoupling”, “modulation” and “cross-compliance” and created a number of significant changes in agricultural production in all EU member states. Specifically, the reform shifted emphasis away from commodity support towards environmental contracts, diversified production practices and rural development. In the case of cereals, a full decoupling was applied in subsidies and integration through rights in the Single Payment Scheme, except rice, which was one of the few crop cases in which part of the subsidy remained coupled, particular in countries with significant production like Greece. Within this context, the present study aims to analyze the impact that the reformed CAP measures had on agricultural production and more specifically variations in production diversification. The novelty of this study is that instead of focusing on the producers, it targeted the agricultural input stores, so as to get better insights of the CAP reform impacts on a larger scale of the regional economy. Accordingly, primary data were collected through personal interviews (structured questionnaire from 209 owners of agricultural input stores in the region of Anatoliki Makedonia and Thraki and were analyzed through multivariate data analysis. The results identify important antecedents for the regional economy and the viability of agricultural input stores, which include factors of the reformed CAP, environmental issues, financial measures and CAP effects on cereal production and marketing.

  5. CERTIFICATION OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE FOR RICE PRODUCTION IN INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dedik Budianta

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available To make better the life, it is required safety foods for health. The health foods can be satisfied by organic farming. Organic farming is farming system based on biomass recycling or eliminating the use of materials as a synthetic agrochemical inputs. To determine whether the result of rice called as an organic product needs to be certified by the Organic Certification Board (OCB. According to the Indonesian National Standard (INS 6729: 2013, organic farming systems (OFS are not only limited to not use material agrochemical synthetic, but must meet the requirements of OFS in rice production ranging from cultivating, handling, storage, processing, transportation, labeling, marketing, production facilities and other materials that are allowed start on farm to off farm should be separated from conventional agriculture. The farm is just a negate the use of synthetic agrochemicals without regard to the cultivation process and the system of post-harvest organic results are said to be premium food which is not as organic food, because organic food is food produced from OFS by applying processing practices to preserve the ecosystem of sustainable, control of weeds, pests, diseases, selection and crop rotation, water management, land preparation and planting and the use of biological materials. Thus the system of organic agriculture is a holistic management system to improve and develop the agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. The first step that must be done is the conversion of land for food crops from anorganic to organic farming for 2 years did not get the requisite amount of agrochemical applied to the soil for annual crop and 3 years for perennial crops. If agriculture in paddy soil can control the conventional farms into OFS, then the resulting rice is as an organic product.

  6. Valuing tradeoffs between agricultural production and ecosystem services in the Heihe River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Z.; Deng, X.; Wu, F.

    2017-12-01

    Ecosystem services are faced with multiple stress from complex driving factors, such as climate change and human interventions. The Heihe River Basin (HRB), as the second largest inland river basin in China, is a typical semi-arid and arid region with fragile and sensitive ecological environment. For the past decades, agricultural production activities in the basin has affected ecosystem services in different degrees, leading to complex relations among "water-land-climate-ecology-human", in which hydrological process and water resource management is the key. In this context, managing trade-offs among water uses in the river basin to sustain multiple ecosystem services is crucial for healthy ecosystem and sustainable socioeconomic development. In this study, we analyze the trade-offs between different water uses in agricultural production and key ecosystem services in the HRB by applying production frontier analysis, with the aim to explore the potential for managing them. This method traces out joint production frontiers showing the combinations of ecosystem services and agricultural production that can be generated in a given area, and it deals with the economic problem of the allocation of scarce water resources under presumed objective, which aims to highlight synergies and reduce trade-offs between alternative water uses. Thus, management schemes that targets to both sustain agricultural production and increase the provision of key ecosystem services have to consider not only the technological or biological nature of interrelationships, but also the economic interdependencies among them.

  7. Modeling and Optimization of Inventory-Distribution Routing Problem for Agriculture Products Supply Chain

    OpenAIRE

    Liao, Li; Li, Jianfeng; Wu, Yaohua

    2013-01-01

    Mathematical models of inventory-distribution routing problem for two-echelon agriculture products distribution network are established, which are based on two management modes, franchise chain and regular chain, one-to-many, interval periodic order, demand depending on inventory, deteriorating treatment cost of agriculture products, start-up costs of vehicles and so forth. Then, a heuristic adaptive genetic algorithm is presented for the model of franchise chain. For the regular chain model,...

  8. Gas production in anaerobic dark-fermentation processes from agriculture solid waste

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sriwuryandari, L.; Priantoro, E. A.; Sintawardani, N.

    2017-03-01

    Approximately, Bandung produces agricultural solid waste of 1549 ton/day. This wastes consist of wet-organic matter and can be used for bio-gas production. The research aimed to apply the available agricultural solid waste for bio-hydrogen. Biogas production was done by a serial of batches anaerobic fermentation using mix-culture bacteria as the active microorganism. Fermentation was carried out inside a 30 L bioreactor at room temperature. The analyzed parameters were of pH, total gas, temperature, and COD. Result showed that from 3 kg/day of organic wastes, various total gases of O2, CH4, H2, CO2, and CnHn,O2 was produced.

  9. analysis of the influence of agricultural and non-agricultural sectors ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    INIAMA

    agricultural GDP led to a 0.243% and 0.743% change in the economy respectively. It means that the economy is inelastic with respect to agricultural and non-agricultural sector performance. The economy is more inelastic with respect to agricultural production than non-agricultural production. In countries where economies ...

  10. Long-run effects of falling cellulosic ethanol production costs on the US agricultural economy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Campiche, Jody L; Bryant, Henry L; Richardson, James W

    2010-01-01

    Renewable energy production has been expanding at a rapid pace. New advances in cellulosic ethanol technologies have the potential to displace the use of petroleum as a transportation fuel, and could have significant effects on both the agricultural economy and the environment. In this letter, the effects of falling cellulosic ethanol production costs on the mix of ethanol feedstocks employed and on the US agricultural economy are examined. Results indicate that, as expected, cellulosic ethanol production increases by a substantial amount as conversion technology improves. Corn production increases initially following the introduction of cellulosic technology, because producers enjoy new revenue from sales of corn stover. After cellulosic ethanol production becomes substantially cheaper, however, acres are shifted from corn production to all other agricultural commodities. Essentially, this new technology could facilitate the exploitation of a previously under-employed resource (corn stover), resulting in an improvement in overall welfare. In the most optimistic scenario considered, 68% of US ethanol is derived from cellulosic sources, coarse grain production is reduced by about 2%, and the prices of all food commodities are reduced modestly.

  11. Radiation technology for enhancing agriculture productivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Souza, S.F.

    2016-01-01

    Radiations and radioisotopes are used in agricultural research to develop improved crop varieties, to manage insect pests, monitor fate of pesticides, to study fertilizer and plant micronutrient uptake and to preserve agricultural produce. This is one of the important fields of peaceful applications of atomic energy for societal benefit. Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has contributed significantly in this area especially in the development of new mutant crop varieties which are benefitting the farmers in enhancing their productivity. With an effective blend of induced mutagenesis and recombination breeding, 42 new crop varieties developed at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) have been released and Gazette notified by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India for commercial cultivation. These include 21 in oilseeds (15-groundnut, 3 mustard , 2 soybean, 1 sunflower), 19 in pulses (8-mungbean, 5-urdbean, 5-pigeonpea, 1-cowpea) and one each in rice and jute. Some of the desirable traits which have been bred through induced mutations in these crops include higher yields, improved quality traits, early maturity and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. Several of these varieties have high patronage from the farming community and are grown extensively across the country. Groundnut varieties have given record yields in farmer's fields. Pulses such as mung, urid and tur are popular among farmers in view of their disease resistance and suitability to rice fallow situations. Many of the breeding programmes in national/state systems have been utilizing BARC varieties as parental materials/donors and have developed several other improved varieties using them. (author)

  12. Typologies and Spatialization of Agricultural Production Systems in Rondônia, Brazil: Linking Land Use, Socioeconomics and Territorial Configuration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cláudio Almeida

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The current Amazon landscape consists of heterogeneous mosaics formed by interactions between the original forest and productive activities. Recognizing and quantifying the characteristics of these landscapes is essential for understanding agricultural production chains, assessing the impact of policies, and in planning future actions. Our main objective was to construct the regionalization of agricultural production for Rondônia State (Brazilian Amazon at the municipal level. We adopted a decision tree approach, using land use maps derived from remote sensing data (PRODES and TerraClass combined with socioeconomic data. The decision trees allowed us to allocate municipalities to one of five agricultural production systems: (i coexistence of livestock production and intensive agriculture; (ii semi-intensive beef and milk production; (iii semi-intensive beef production; (iv intensive beef and milk production, and; (v intensive beef production. These production systems are, respectively, linked to mechanized agriculture (i, traditional cattle farming with low management, with (ii or without (iii a significant presence of dairy farming, and to more intensive livestock farming with (iv or without (v a significant presence of dairy farming. The municipalities and associated production systems were then characterized using a wide variety of quantitative metrics grouped into four dimensions: (i agricultural production; (ii economics; (iii territorial configuration, and; (iv social characteristics. We found that production systems linked to mechanized agriculture predominate in the south of the state, while intensive farming is mainly found in the center of the state. Semi-intensive livestock farming is mainly located close to the southwest frontier and in the north of the state, where human occupation of the territory is not fully consolidated. This distributional pattern reflects the origins of the agricultural production system of Rond

  13. PROMOTION OF ECOLOGIC PRODUCT CERTIFICATION AS INSTRUMENT TO SPEED UP THE ECOLOGIC AGRICULTURE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    George MOISE

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper present a vision about the possibility to speed up the conversion process to an ecological agriculture in Romania. The link from ecological products consumer and ecologic agricultural producer is also explained from point of view of certification process. Presenting the consumer mentality and principles and rules of organic farming and certification can open the way to a sustainable and ecological agriculture.

  14. Probabilistic estimates of drought impacts on agricultural production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madadgar, Shahrbanou; AghaKouchak, Amir; Farahmand, Alireza; Davis, Steven J.

    2017-08-01

    Increases in the severity and frequency of drought in a warming climate may negatively impact agricultural production and food security. Unlike previous studies that have estimated agricultural impacts of climate condition using single-crop yield distributions, we develop a multivariate probabilistic model that uses projected climatic conditions (e.g., precipitation amount or soil moisture) throughout a growing season to estimate the probability distribution of crop yields. We demonstrate the model by an analysis of the historical period 1980-2012, including the Millennium Drought in Australia (2001-2009). We find that precipitation and soil moisture deficit in dry growing seasons reduced the average annual yield of the five largest crops in Australia (wheat, broad beans, canola, lupine, and barley) by 25-45% relative to the wet growing seasons. Our model can thus produce region- and crop-specific agricultural sensitivities to climate conditions and variability. Probabilistic estimates of yield may help decision-makers in government and business to quantitatively assess the vulnerability of agriculture to climate variations. We develop a multivariate probabilistic model that uses precipitation to estimate the probability distribution of crop yields. The proposed model shows how the probability distribution of crop yield changes in response to droughts. During Australia's Millennium Drought precipitation and soil moisture deficit reduced the average annual yield of the five largest crops.

  15. Urban and peri-urban agricultural production in Beijing municipality and its impact on water quality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wolf, J.; Wijk, van M.S.; Cheung, X.; Hu, Y.; Diepen, van C.A.; Jongbloed, A.W.; Keulen, van H.; Lu, C.H.; Roeter, R.

    2003-01-01

    This paper reviews water use and water resource issues in Beijing Municipality, the main trends in the agricultural production systems in and around the city with respect to land use, input use, production and economic role, and the impacts of agricultural activities on water quality. Rapid

  16. Improving food and agricultural production in Thailand

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snitwongse, P.; Lamm, C.G.

    1987-01-01

    In the early 1960s, the IAEA and FAO jointly initiated the first in a series of large-scale multi-faceted agricultural field projects using nuclear techniques in agricultural sciences. The first project, in Yugoslavia, served as a model for future ones in India, Brazil, Bangladesh, Republic of Korea, Venezuela, and Thailand. The Thailand project - for the time being the last one of this series - started in January 1986 for a 5-year period, the project carries major objectives centering on the use of isotopes, radiation, and related technologies in three particular areas: Mutation breeding. Scientists are aiming to generate new genetic sources of disease-resistant varieties of crops that are economically important; Soil Science. Aims are to help farmers make the best use of fertilizers, biofertilizers, and water, and to maximize biological nitrogen fixation and the use of local rock phosphates as sources of crop nutrients; Animal science. Project scientists are aiming to improve livestock productivity on small farms

  17. Landsat and agriculture—Case studies on the uses and benefits of Landsat imagery in agricultural monitoring and production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leslie, Colin R.; Serbina, Larisa O.; Miller, Holly M.

    2017-03-29

    Executive SummaryThe use of Landsat satellite imagery for global agricultural monitoring began almost immediately after the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972, making agricultural monitoring one of the longest-standing operational applications for the Landsat program. More recently, Landsat imagery has been used in domestic agricultural applications as an input for field-level production management. The enactment of the U.S. Geological Survey’s free and open data policy in 2008 and the launch of Landsat 8 in 2013 have both influenced agricultural applications. This report presents two primary sets of case studies on the applications and benefits of Landsat imagery use in agriculture. The first set examines several operational applications within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the second focuses on private sector applications for agronomic management.  Information on the USDA applications is provided in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Uses of Landsat Imagery for Global and Domestic Agricultural Monitoring section of the report in the following subsections:Estimating Crop Production.—Provides an overview of how Landsat satellite imagery is used to estimate crop production, including the spectral bands most frequently utilized in this application.Monitoring Consumptive Water Use.—Highlights the role of Landsat imagery in monitoring consumptive water use for agricultural production. Globally, a significant amount of agricultural production relies on irrigation, so monitoring water resources is a critical component of agricultural monitoring. National Agricultural Statistics Service—Cropland Data Layer.—Highlights the use of Landsat imagery in developing the annual Cropland Data Layer, a crop-specific land cover classification product that provides information on more than 100 crop categories grown in the United States. Foreign Agricultural Service—Global Agricultural Monitoring.—Highlights Landsat’s role in monitoring global agricultural

  18. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in China's agriculture: from farm production to food consumption

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yue, Qian; Cheng, Kun; Pan, Genxing

    2016-04-01

    Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture could be mitigated from both supple side and demand side. Assessing carbon footprint (CF) of agricultural production and food consumption could provide insights into the contribution of agriculture to climate change and help to identify possible GHG mitigation options. In the present study, CF of China's agricultural production was firstly assessed from site scale to national scale, and from crop production to livestock production. Data for the crop and livestock production were collected from field survey and national statistical archive, and both life cycle assessment and input-output method were employed in the estimations. In general, CF of crop production was lower than that of livestock production on average. Rice production ranked the highest CF in crop production, and the highest CFs of livestock production were observed in mutton and beef production. Methane emissions from rice paddy, emissions from fertilizer application and water irrigation exerted the largest contribution of more than 50% for CF of crop production; however, emissions from forage feeding, enteric fermentation and manure treatment made the most proportion of more than 90 % for CF of livestock production. In China, carbon efficiency was shown in a decreasing trend in recent years. According to the present study, overuse of nitrogen fertilizer caused no yield effect but significant emissions in some sites and regions of China, and aggregated farms lowered the CFs of crop production and livestock production by 3% to 25% and 6% to 60% respectively compared to household farms. Given these, improving farming management efficiency and farm intensive development is the key strategy to mitigate climate change from supply side. However, changes in food consumption may reduce GHG emissions in the production chain through a switch to the consumption of food with higher GHG emissions in the production process to food with lower GHG emissions. Thus, CFs

  19. Agricultural extension needs of farmers in Telfairia production and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study assessed agricultural extension needs of farmers in Telfairia production and marketing in Enugu State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 160 Telfairia farmers for the study. Structured interview schedule was used to collect data. Data was analysed by use of descriptive statistics and factor ...

  20. Analysis of Options Contract, Option Pricing in Agricultural Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Tamidy

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Risk is an essential component in the production and sale of agricultural products. Due to the nature of agricultural products, the people who act in this area including farmers and businesspersons encounter unpredictable fluctuations of prices. On the other hand, the firms that process agricultural products also face fluctuation of price of agricultural inputs. Given that the Canola is considered as one of the inputs of product processing factories, control of unpredictable fluctuations of the price of this product would increase the possibility of correct decision making for farmers and managers of food processing industries. The best available tool for control and management of the price risk is the use of future markets and options. It is evident that the pricing is the main pillar in every trade. Therefore, offering a fair price for the options will be very important. In fact, options trading in the options market create cost insurance stopped. In this way, which can reduce the risks of deflation created in the future, if the person entitled to the benefits of the price increase occurs in the future. Unlike the futures, market where the seller had to deliver the product on time, in the options market, there is no such compulsion. In addition, this is one of the strengths of this option contract, because if there is not enough product for delivery to the futures market as result of chilling, in due course, the farmers suffer, but in the options market there will be a loss. In this study, the setup options of rape, as a product, as well as inputs has been paid for industry. Materials and Methods: In this section. The selection criteria of the disposal of asset base for valuation of European put options and call option is been introduced. That for obtain this purpose, some characteristics of the goods must considered: 1-Unpredictable fluctuations price of underlying asset 2 -large underlying asset cash market 3- The possibility

  1. Implications of climate change for agricultural productivity in the early twenty-first century.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gornall, Jemma; Betts, Richard; Burke, Eleanor; Clark, Robin; Camp, Joanne; Willett, Kate; Wiltshire, Andrew

    2010-09-27

    This paper reviews recent literature concerning a wide range of processes through which climate change could potentially impact global-scale agricultural productivity, and presents projections of changes in relevant meteorological, hydrological and plant physiological quantities from a climate model ensemble to illustrate key areas of uncertainty. Few global-scale assessments have been carried out, and these are limited in their ability to capture the uncertainty in climate projections, and omit potentially important aspects such as extreme events and changes in pests and diseases. There is a lack of clarity on how climate change impacts on drought are best quantified from an agricultural perspective, with different metrics giving very different impressions of future risk. The dependence of some regional agriculture on remote rainfall, snowmelt and glaciers adds to the complexity. Indirect impacts via sea-level rise, storms and diseases have not been quantified. Perhaps most seriously, there is high uncertainty in the extent to which the direct effects of CO(2) rise on plant physiology will interact with climate change in affecting productivity. At present, the aggregate impacts of climate change on global-scale agricultural productivity cannot be reliably quantified.

  2. Food productivity trend analysis of Raichur district for the management of agricultural drought.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swathandran, Sruthi; Aslam, M A Mohammed

    2016-01-01

    Drought is an extreme climatic situation where there is a water shortage arising due to sub-normal rainfall, erratic distribution of precipitation, increased water supply demand, etc. India faced several years of drought in last six decades. As Indian agriculture is largely dependent on the monsoon, a slight change affects production as well as crop yield drastically. Statistical analysis is important for mapping the drought prone areas. Raichur district of the northern interior state of Karnataka is a drought-prone region where the economy is mainly based on agriculture. So, the uneven distribution of rainfall as well as the delay in the arrival of the southwest monsoon adversely affects the growth stage of crops which result in a decline in crop production. The effect of drought on the agriculture for the past decade has been analyzed using crop productivity data. When the production rate of Raichur district was studied for the years 1998 to 2009, it was seen that major crops like rice and jowar faced a decline in its production during the years 2002 and 2003, whereas bajra, maize, etc. mostly decreased in the year 2004.

  3. Final report investigation project agricultural products and environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loria, L.G.; Jimenez Dam, R.; Mora Rodriguez, P.

    1998-01-01

    The document presents the after-action report on six investigation projects: Thermoluminescence, Spectrometry gamma of low level, Agricultural products, Radon in the subsoil, Nuclear instrumentation, and X-ray fluorescence, executed between 1995-1997 by the Laboratory of Physical Nuclear Applied of the University of Costa Rica, in the which objectives are shown, applied methodology as well as the achievements and results each project. (Author) [es

  4. Probabilistic approach to the prediction of radioactive contamination of agricultural production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fesenko, S.F.; Chernyaeva, L.G.; Sanzharova, N.I.; Aleksakhin, R.M.

    1993-01-01

    The organization of agricultural production on the territory contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl reactor disaster involves prediction of the content of radionuclides in agro-industrial products. Traditional methods of prediting the contamination in the products does not give sufficient agreement with actual data and as a result it is difficult to make the necessary decisions about eliminating the consequences of the disaster in the agro-industrial complex. In many ways this is because the available methods are based on data on the radionuclide content in soils, plants, and plant and animal products. The parameters of the models used in the prediction are also evaluated on the basis of these results. Even if obtained from a single field or herd of livestock, however, such indicators have substantial variation coefficients due to various factors such as the spatial structure of the fallouts, the variability of the soil properties, the sampling error, the errors of processing and measuring the samples, and well as the data-averaging error. Consequently the parameters of the radionuclide transfer along the agricultural chains are very variable, thus considerably reducing the reliability of predicted values. The reliability of the prediction of radioactive contamination of agricultural products can be increased substantially by taking a probabilistic approach involving information about the random laws of contamination of farming land and the statistical features of the parameters of radionuclie migration along food chains. Considering the above, comparative analysis is made of the results obtained on the basis of the traditional treatment (deterministic in the simplest form) and its probabilistic analog

  5. Linking agricultural food production and rural tourism in the Kazbegi district – A qualitative study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Hüller

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available As in many transition countries, also in Georgia rural urban migration as well as migration from the agricultural sector takes place. This also applies to the Kazbegi district, a mountainous region in the Greater Caucasus of Georgia. The main activity in the district is subsistence farming, while only a few agricultural producers are commercially active. As the region offers beautiful nature, during the last decade tourism has been on the rise, while a dwindling interest in the agricultural sector can be observed. However, the growth in tourism also provides opportunities for small-scale agricultural producers to increase their income by marketing their surplus production to the local tourism sector and thereby improving their livelihoods. In turn, an increase in local agri-food products offered might have a positive effect on the tourism sector. Thus, establishing linkages of agricultural food production and rural tourism might contribute to the economic development of the district and even counteract migration to the capital and from the agricultural sector. Through a qualitative study, we aim at identifying local agri-food products suitable for being marketed to the tourism sector and efficient marketing options. In order to do so, we analyze local agri-food chains. Exploratory interviews, focus group discussions and expert interviews provide data for a qualitative content analysis. First results show that food products which require little technological equipment for processing and do not underlie strict food safety standards, like for example honey, seem to be adequate to tap marketing potentials with regard to rural tourism.

  6. Protection against radioactive contamination of food and agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabo, A.; Kovacs, Z.

    1977-01-01

    Due to contaminating effects from nuclear explosions and nuclear power plants, the systematic investigation of environmental radioactive contamination is absolutely necessary. In order to reduce the artificial radiation dose to which the human body is exposed, isotope content of foods and agricultural products should be known. The authors evaluate the decontamination possibilities of food produced from vegetable and animal products, starting from the contamination of some products. For vegetable product decontamination the use of suitable fertilizers, thorough scrubbing in excess water and, for cereals, milling is proposed. As the most effective preventive measure of radiation contamination of food products of animal origin, appropriate packing is proposed. The storage and preservation problems are emphasized for short half-life radiation contamination. (P.J.)

  7. Organic agricultural products in Europe and USA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Skrodzka Violetta

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In the most developed countries of Western Europe and North America, the share of organic farming in the food market is between 2% and 6%. The share of organic products on the Polish food market is only 0.33% (Dryjańska E. 2017. The aim of this article is to compare organic agricultural products in the US and EU. The scope of the comparison was covered by the legal regulations for organic production in the mentioned regions and the availability of organic products for customers. In order to highlight differences between the organic product and their traditional counterpart, selected meta-analyzes were conducted by authors in the field of medical and natural sciences. The possibilities of buying organic products are described on the basis of personal experiences of the author as a consumer. The offer of organic products was analyzed on the example of one European country (Poland and the example of several states of America (Colorado, Virginia, New York. The rules for producing organic food in the US are more rigorous than in the EU. The offer of organic and conventional food targeted to the American consumer is comparable. Although Polish consumers have a positive perception of organic food, its supply is significantly different from the US market. The main differences are in distribution channels, product range, price and visual design of organic products.

  8. Learning processes and productive modernization of learning in agriculture from northwestern Mexico: Cases of commercial agriculture of the coast of Hermosillo, Sonora and organic agriculture of the southern zone of Baja California Sur

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abel O. Villa Rodríguez

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The process of open markets has created import changes in the Mexican agriculture sector, very much noted in the so called crop pattern, the institutional frame that guides the agro–productive commercial relationships and trade organization. The agriculture in the Northwest region, particularly La Costa de Hermosillo in the State of Sonora and southern Baja in Baja Peninsula, shows a big transformation. This corresponds to Global Production Networks (gpn, a vertical integration with intensive extraterritorial interaction resulting in a process of productive escalation that favors; learning and the creation of new competitive capabilities indispensable to comply with high standards in international markets. These capabilities are reflected in improvements in product quality, productive efficiency and the development of new functions for the players involved in the production and trade of produce. It also reflects the transition to more sophisticated productive units where players are located in other territories. This study focuses on analyzing the roll of gpn in the transformation of the agricultural sector in the northwest region of Mexico, particularly the process that took place in modernizing both places.

  9. SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN THE STATE OF PARANA – BRAZIL (1970, 1996 AND 2007

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucir Reinaldo Alves

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This paper analyzes the spatial displacement of the productivity of Gross Value of Agricultural Production of the main activities and cultures of Parana’s State in 1970, 1996 and 2007. To this, we used a database of pre-existing on the Gross Value of Agricultural Production - the VBPA contained in the Agricultural Censuses (IBGE, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics and the SEAB (Secretary of Agriculture and Supply of Paraná. The results showed that the VBPA of Paraná State has a spatial displacement during the period, where it was concentrated in 1970 in the northern portion of the state, influenced mainly by coffee plantations. In 2007, the most visible concentration hovered over the West and Southwest regions, and motion to expand the activities poultry and swine in those regions as well as crop production technicality as soybeans and corn. The findings of this study confirm the dynamism of the regions, as well as the impact of modernization on the field, and also highlights the role that agricultural activities have on the economy of the state of Parana.

  10. Peering into the secrets of food and agricultural co-products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Delilah; Williams, Tina; Glenn, Gregory; Pan, Zhongli; Orts, William; McHugh, Tara

    2010-06-01

    Scanning electron microscopy is a useful tool for understanding food contamination and directing product development of food and industrial products. The current trend in food research is to produce foods that are fast to prepare and/or ready to eat. At the same time, these processed foods must be safe, high quality and maintain all or most of the nutritional value of the original whole foods. Minimally processed foods, is the phrase used to characterize these "new" foods. New techniques are needed which take advantage of minimal processing or processing which enhances the fresh properties and characteristics of whole foods while spending less time on food preparation. The added benefit coupled to less cooking time in an individual kitchen translates to an overall energy savings and reduces the carbon emissions to the environment. Food processing changes the microstructure, and therefore, the quality, texture and flavor, of the resulting food product. Additionally, there is the need to reduce waste, transportation costs and product loss during transportation and storage. Unlike food processing, structural changes are desirable in co-products as function follows form for food packaging films and boxes as well as for building materials and other industrial products. Thus, the standard materials testing procedures are coupled with SEM to provide direction in the development of products from agricultural residues or what would otherwise be considered waste materials. The use of agricultural residues reduces waste and adds value to a currently underutilized or unutilized product. The product might be biodegradable or compostable, thus reducing landfill requirements. Manufacturing industrial and packaging products from biological materials also reduces the amount of petroleum products currently standard in the industry.

  11. Analysis the Impact of Technology Spillovers on Total Factor Productivity of Agricultural Sector in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mostafa Baniasadi

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The growth of agricultural production and natural resources are from primary objectives of any political system, because this section has a vital role in providing food security. According to the production theories, production growth will come from two sources; more use of production factors within the framework of existing technologies and second, with using more advanced and more efficient production methods and effective use of production factors. In fact, the second one is tied to the concept of productivity. New and efficient technologies are the most important factor for productivity growth. Technology was enhanced through internal and external sources. External sources include spillover technology from developed countries into another country. Empirical evidence on the impact of spillover technology on productivity growth of indigenous producer is vague. One perspective proposes that FDI, technology transferred from developed countries has positive effects on developing countries and another perspective is against it. This paper explores the role of technological spillover on total factor productivity (TFP growth in agricultural sectors of Iran uses time series data during 1971-2011. Materials and Methods: In this study, Kendrick model was used to calculate total factor productivity. After calculating productivity, affective factors on it, were examined through ARDL model. The aim of this study is examination of technology spillover on the productivity of agricultural sectors. The degree of technology diffusion grows with increase in technology distance between the hosts and the foreign countries. The greater the technology distance, the more difficult it becomes for developing countries to boost independent innovation. To calculate the index of technology spillover, commercial partners should be considered that are more advanced in science and technology than Iran. For this purpose, commercial partners in this study are

  12. Application of nuclear techniques in improving agricultural productivity with particular reference to pasture management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Majid Ajorlo; Ramdzani Abdullah

    2009-01-01

    Nuclear techniques are appropriate tools to settle problems for agriculture or natural resources which cannot be solved using conventional agricultural techniques. In this paper, the research activities carried out and the achievements so far obtained in the agricultural specialties -all by using nuclear techniques- with particular reference to pasture management are discussed. Insect pest control by Sterile Insect Techniques (SIT); soil and water management using neutron moisture probes; determining N-fixation capacity of legumes using N-15 isotope and nuclear methods; soil erosion measurement using of fallout radionuclide such as Cs-137; monitoring the movement of saline water in salt-affected land using isotopes of chlorine; livestock production and health by RIA and ELISA are some of achievements so far obtained in improving agricultural productivity. The ultimate goal of the nuclear technique investigation in agriculture is to use the resources efficiently in obtaining higher plant and livestock yields while increasing the quality and protecting them against insects, diseases and weeds. (Author)

  13. Water and Land Limitations to Future Agricultural Production in the Middle East

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koch, J. A. M.; Wimmer, F.; Schaldach, R.

    2015-12-01

    Countries in the Middle East use a large fraction of their scarce water resources to produce cash crops, such as fruit and vegetables, for international markets. At the same time, these countries import large amounts of staple crops, such as cereals, required to meet the nutritional demand of their populations. This makes food security in the Middle East heavily dependent on world market prices for staple crops. Under these preconditions, increasing food demand due to population growth, urban expansion on fertile farmlands, and detrimental effects of a changing climate on the production of agricultural commodities present major challenges to countries in the Middle East that try to improve food security by increasing their self-sufficiency rate of staple crops.We applied the spatio-temporal land-use change model LandSHIFT.JR to simulate how an expansion of urban areas may affect the production of agricultural commodities in Jordan. We furthermore evaluated how climate change and changes in socio-economic conditions may influence crop production. The focus of our analysis was on potential future irrigated and rainfed production (crop yield and area demand) of fruit, vegetables, and cereals. Our simulation results show that the expansion of urban areas and the resulting displacement of agricultural areas does result in a slight decrease in crop yields. This leads to almost no additional irrigation water requirements due to the relocation of agricultural areas, i.e. there is the same amount of "crop per drop". However, taking into account projected changes in socio-economic conditions and climate conditions, a large volume of water would be required for cereal production in order to safeguard current self-sufficiency rates for staple crops. Irrigation water requirements are expected to double until 2025 and to triple until 2050. Irrigated crop yields are projected to decrease by about 25%, whereas there is no decrease in rainfed crop yields to be expected.

  14. PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCT RESIDUES IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF SLOVENE ORIGIN FOUND IN 2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helena BAŠA ČESNIK

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In the year 2008, 166 apple, bean, carrot, cucumber, lettuce, pear, potato and spinach samples from Slovene producers were analysed for plant protection product residues. The samples were analysed for the presence of 158 different active compounds using three analytical methods. In two samples (1.2% exceeded maximum residue levels (MRLs were determined which is better than the results of the monitoring of pesticide residues in the products of plant origin in the 27 European Union, Member States (EU MS and 2 European Free Trade Association (EFTA States: Norway and Iceland in 2008 (2.2%. The most frequently found active substance in agricultural products was dithiocarbamates. Products which contained 4 or more active substances per sample were apples and pears.

  15. Mushroom production in the faculty of agriculture teaching and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study was carried out in the Teaching and Research of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The main objective was to conduct an economic assessment of mushroom production in the farm. The study utilized secondary data generated from the farm record of the farm. Gross margin model was ...

  16. Market versus agriculture in Poland – macroeconomic relations of incomes, prices and productivity in terms of the sustainable development paradigm

    OpenAIRE

    CZYŻEWSKI, Bazyli; MAJCHRZAK, Adam

    2017-01-01

    In the article macroeconomic relations of prices, productivity and incomes in Polish agriculture in the context of changes in the EU Common Agricultural Policy were studied. The authors have developed a macroeconomic model which explains these relations and confirms the occurrence of market failures in agriculture in Poland. The developed model proves the existence of a puzzling exchangeable relation between the real productivity of production factors in agriculture, and agricultural incomes,...

  17. The central role of agricultural water-use productivity in sustainable water management (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gleick, P. H.

    2013-12-01

    As global and regional populations continue to rise for the next several decades, the need to grow more food will worsen old -- and produce new -- challenges for water resources. Expansion of irrigated agriculture is slowing due to constraints on land and water, and as a result, some have argued that future new food demands will only be met through improvements in agricultural productivity on existing irrigated and rainfed cropland, reductions in field losses and food waste, and social changes such as dietary preferences. This talk will address the central role that improvements in water-use productivity can play in the food/water/population nexus. In particular, the ability to grow more food with less water will have a great influence on whether future food demands will be met successfully. Such improvements can come about through changes in technology, regulatory systems, economic incentives and disincentives, and education of water users. Example of potential savings from three different strategies to improve agricultural water productivity in California. (From Pacific Institute).

  18. Wheat and barley exposure to nanoceria: Implications for agricultural productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    The impacts of man-made nanomaterials on agricultural productivity are not yet well understood. A soil microcosm study was performed to assess the physiological, phenological, and yield responses of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) exposed to nanoceria (n...

  19. Cultivated Land Changes and Agricultural Potential Productivity in Mainland China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linlin Xiao

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available With rapid and continuous population growth and the associated declining quality of cultivated land, food security in China has been attracting the attention of scholars both domestically and internationally. In recent decades, the implications of the cultivated land balance policy have promoted spatial changes of cultivated land. Estimating the agricultural potential productivity and assessing its response to cultivated land changes could provide a scientific basis for strategic decision-making concerning grain production and thus guarantee food security. In the present study, the Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ model was applied to estimate the agricultural potential productivity. Data from the second national land survey were first applied to characterize the changes of cultivated land (by comparing the cultivated land in 2009 with that in 2012 and their influence on potential productivity in Mainland China. We propose a utilization degree of total potential productivity (UTP and its ratio coefficient (RUTP to reveal the utilization status of potential productivity and its change characteristics at the provincial level. It was found that there was a trend for cultivated land to be shifted away from cities, and the average productive capability per hectare of cultivated land declined from 7386.5 kg/ha to 6955.2 kg/ha by occupying highly productive cultivated land generally near the cities and compensating less productive cultivated land in remote areas. UTPs and RUTPs indicate a significant difference in the utilization status of potential productivity among the 31 provinces of Mainland China. Grain production with the aim of sustainable development should be strategized according to the particular facts of each province. The methods we applied can mine the impacts of cultivated land changes on potential productivity and the utilization of potential productivity effectively.

  20. Status and Countermeasures for the Green Marketing of Agricultural Products Processing Enterprises in Yinchuan City,China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2010-01-01

    Based on the overview and characteristics of agricultural products processing enterprise in Yinchuan City,green marketing status of agricultural products processing enterprise in Yinchuan City is introduced from the aspects of product strategy,pricing strategy,distribution strategy and promotion strategy.Problems in the green marketing of agricultural products processing enterprise are analyzed,such as the obvious contradiction between the processing demand and the raw materials,low level of comprehensive utilization of resources,no common demand for green consumption in Yinchuan City,weak strength of enterprise and no concept of green marketing,poor macro-control and insufficient input,neglecting the environmental production of materials during marketing,and insufficient input of enterprises in professional marketing personnel.In order to improve the green marketing ability of enterprises and the development of agricultural products processing enterprise in Yinchuan City,the following countermeasures are put forward:green marketing strategy(mainly including cultivating the green marketing strategy for enterprises,gathering of green information,and strengthening the marketing strategy of target market)and green marketing policy(mainly including green products policy,green price policy,green channel policy and green promotion policy).

  1. Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural food production to supply Indian diets: Implications for climate change mitigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vetter, Sylvia H; Sapkota, Tek B; Hillier, Jon; Stirling, Clare M; Macdiarmid, Jennie I; Aleksandrowicz, Lukasz; Green, Rosemary; Joy, Edward J M; Dangour, Alan D; Smith, Pete

    2017-01-16

    Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. The growing global population is putting pressure on agricultural production systems that aim to secure food production while minimising GHG emissions. In this study, the GHG emissions associated with the production of major food commodities in India are calculated using the Cool Farm Tool. GHG emissions, based on farm management for major crops (including cereals like wheat and rice, pulses, potatoes, fruits and vegetables) and livestock-based products (milk, eggs, chicken and mutton meat), are quantified and compared. Livestock and rice production were found to be the main sources of GHG emissions in Indian agriculture with a country average of 5.65 kg CO 2 eq kg -1 rice, 45.54 kg CO 2 eq kg -1 mutton meat and 2.4 kg CO 2 eq kg -1 milk. Production of cereals (except rice), fruits and vegetables in India emits comparatively less GHGs with foods could greatly increase GHG emissions from Indian agriculture. A range of mitigation options are available that could reduce emissions from current levels and may be compatible with increased future food production and consumption demands in India.

  2. Antimicrobial peptide production and plant-based expression systems for medical and agricultural biotechnology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holaskova, Edita; Galuszka, Petr; Frebort, Ivo; Oz, M Tufan

    2015-11-01

    Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are vital components of the innate immune system of nearly all living organisms. They generally act in the first line of defense against various pathogenic bacteria, parasites, enveloped viruses and fungi. These low molecular mass peptides are considered prospective therapeutic agents due to their broad-spectrum rapid activity, low cytotoxicity to mammalian cells and unique mode of action which hinders emergence of pathogen resistance. In addition to medical use, AMPs can also be employed for development of innovative approaches for plant protection in agriculture. Conferred disease resistance by AMPs might help us surmount losses in yield, quality and safety of agricultural products due to plant pathogens. Heterologous expression in plant-based systems, also called plant molecular farming, offers cost-effective large-scale production which is regarded as one of the most important factors for clinical or agricultural use of AMPs. This review presents various types of AMPs as well as plant-based platforms ranging from cell suspensions to whole plants employed for peptide production. Although AMP production in plants holds great promises for medicine and agriculture, specific technical limitations regarding product yield, function and stability still remain. Additionally, establishment of particular stable expression systems employing plants or plant tissues generally requires extended time scale for platform development compared to certain other heterologous systems. Therefore, fast and promising tools for evaluation of plant-based expression strategies and assessment of function and stability of the heterologously produced AMPs are critical for molecular farming and plant protection. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Pricing Power of Agricultural Products under the Background of Small Peasant Management and Information Asymmetry

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Dexuan LI

    2016-01-01

    From the background of small peasant management and information asymmetry,this paper introduced the middle profit sharing model and discussed influence factors and ownership of pricing power of agricultural products. It obtained following results:( i) the transaction scale has positive effect on farmer’s pricing power of agricultural products,while the competitor’s transaction scale has negative effect on it,so does the cost for information search;( ii) under the condition of small peasant management system,farmer is in a relatively weak position in the distribution of pricing power of agricultural products,due to factors such as small transaction scale,information asymmetry and farmer’s weak negotiation ability;( iii) through cooperative game,farmer and buyers can share cooperative surplus at the agreed ratio;( iv) the introduction of self-organizing specialized farmers cooperatives is favorable for solving the problem of pricing power of agricultural products,and possible problems,such as " collective action dilemma" and " fake cooperatives" in the cooperative development process can be solved by internal and external division of labor and specialization of cooperatives.

  4. Regional identity can add value to agricultural products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bradley C. Christensen

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Regional identity creation is being recognized for its economic benefits and as a strategic resource for producer communities. A regional identity is not a brand; it is built through a complicated process of developing cohesion and sharing in the industry community and communicating outside the industry community to opinion-makers and consumers. The California fine wine industry has built successful regional identities and leveraged them to add value to their wines. As regional identities in the wine industry have strengthened, so has the industry, and a symbiotic relationship with other local value-added industries, such as tourism and hospitality, has emerged. Other agricultural producers can learn from the identity creation experiences in the wine industry. With the many challenges faced by California agriculture, identity formation may offer producers new ideas for adding value to their products and finding larger markets.

  5. The Growth Path of Agricultural Labor Productivity in China: A Latent Growth Curve Model at the Prefectural Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peng Bin

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Given the shrinking proportion of agriculture output and the growing mobility of the labor force in China, how agricultural labor productivity develops has become an increasingly attractive topic for researchers and policy makers. This study aims to depict the development trajectory of agricultural labor productivity in China after its WTO entry. Based on a balanced panel data containing 287 Chinese prefectures from 2000 to 2013, this study applies the Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM and finds that the agricultural labor productivity follows a piecewise growth path with two breaking points in the years of 2004 and 2009. This may stem from some exogenous stimulus, such as supporting policies launched in the breaking years. Further statistical analysis shows an expanding gap of agricultural labor productivity among different Chinese prefectures.

  6. Insect community composition and functional roles along a tropical agricultural production gradient

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bellamy, Angelina Sanderson; Svensson, Ola; Den Brink, van Paul J.; Gunnarsson, Jonas; Tedengren, Michael

    2018-01-01

    High intensity agricultural production systems are problematic not only for human health and the surrounding environment, but can threaten the provision of ecosystem services on which farm productivity depends. This research investigates the effects of management practices in Costa Rica on on-farm

  7. Nutritional Sustainability: Aligning Priorities in Nutrition and Public Health with Agricultural Production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finley, John W; Dimick, Dennis; Marshall, Elizabeth; Nelson, Gerald Charles; Mein, Jonathan R; Gustafson, David I

    2017-09-01

    Nutrition science-based dietary advice urges changes that may have a great impact on agricultural systems. For example, the 2016 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommends greatly increased fruit and vegetable consumption, but the present domestic production is insufficient to accommodate large-scale adoption of these guidelines. Increasing production to the extent needed to meet the DGA will necessitate changes in an already stressed agriculture and food system and will require nutrition and agriculture professionals to come together in open and collegial discourse. All involved need to understand the stress placed on the food system by increasing populations, changing diets, and changing environments, and recognize the major diet-based public health challenges. Furthermore, there is a need to understand the intricate interplay of the myriad parts of the food system and the vast amount of work necessary to make even small changes. New systems approaches are needed, especially at the research level, where nutrition, public health, agriculture, and the food industry work together to solve interconnected problems. Future well-being depends on a sustainable food system that continues to deliver optimal health with minimal impact on the environment. © 2017 American Society for Nutrition.

  8. Water footprint as an indicator of agricultural productivity in African countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chico Zamanillo, Daniel; Zhang, Guoping; Mathews, Ruth

    2017-04-01

    Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions with the largest scope for improved agricultural development that would contribute to global food security while respecting environmental boundaries. More importantly, undernourishment is a challenge for many African countries and needs to be addressed to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This study was conducted to support the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affair's Inclusive Green Growth aim of increasing water use efficiency by 25% in Dutch financed projects. A water footprint profile was developed for 7 Sub-Saharan countries; Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique and Rwanda. The profiles provide an overview of water use from the perspective of the goods produced within the country, the consumption of goods, in particular agricultural crops, whether these goods are produced domestically or imported from other countries and the level of blue water scarcity experienced in the country. Across all countries, key food crops such as maize, and sorghum have low water productivity relative to the global water footprint benchmark. Export crops such as tea in Kenya or cocoa in Ghana show a good performance over global production. Furthermore, the water footprint of crops over the period 2006-2013 was compared to data from the period 1996-2005. Changes in yield and the resulting changes in the water footprint were assessed for both food and export crops. Yields in food crops improved in some countries, and in some years, but not consistently across all countries and years. The greatest gains in water productivity were in key export crops. The results provide insights into whether improvements have been made in water productivity in recent years and through comparison with the global water footprint benchmark, remaining opportunities for further gains in water productivity were identified. Going forward, policies that will enhance further improvement in water productivity and support greater food and

  9. Life Cycle Based Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Agricultural Productions in the Mediterranean Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Tamburini

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA applied to estimate the cradle-to-grave environmental impact of agricultural products or processes. Furthermore, including in the analysis an economic evaluation, from the perspective of an integrated life cycle approach, appears nowadays as a fundamental improvement. In particular, Life Cycle Costing (LCC, is a method that could integrate financial data and cost information with metrics of life cycle approaches. In this study, LCA in conjunction with LCC methods were used, with the aim to evaluate the main cost drivers—environmental and economic—of five widely diffused and market-valued agricultural productions (organic tomato and pear, integrated wheat, apple and chicory and to combine the results in order to understand the long-term externalities impacts of agricultural productions. Data obtained in local assessment show a wide margin of improvement of resources management at farms level in the short-term, but also allow for the investigation of future effects of environmental impacts not expressed in product price on the market. Reaching a real sustainable model for agriculture could be a value added approach firstly for farmers, but also for all the people who live in rural areas or use agricultural products.

  10. The analysis of indiference and the price elasticity of demand between different categories of agricultural products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vukadinović Predrag

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the analysis of the price elasticity of demand of four different categories of agricultural products in the Republic of Serbia was described. Differentiating the price and demand of these products by sales points, and using the least squares approximation method, the elasticity for all different agricultural categories was expressed in the functional form. According to this, the coefficients of elasticity of the price and demand were computed and between different agricultural categories were analyzed. The results we obtained show that the market of agricultural products in Serbia is mostly inelastic because the coefficients of inelasticity and indifference of demand to change of prices, are dominant. The influence of factors on the elasticity of demand that are not of price character, proved to be very pronounced. The relationship of the two segments of agricultural market (markets and shops was also analysed and it was demonstrated that these two segments have a slight correlation.

  11. Project AProWa: a national view on managing trade-offs between agricultural production and conservation of aquatic ecosystems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dietzel, Anne; Rahn, Eric; Stamm, Christian

    2014-05-01

    Swiss agriculture is legally committed to fulfill several, partially conflicting goals such as agricultural production on the one hand and the conservation of natural resources on the other hand. In the context of the research project AProWa ("Agricultural Production and Water"), the relationships between the production aspect and the conservation of aquatic ecosystems is analyzed with a holistic approach. Agricultural production and the protection of water resources have high potential for conflicts: Farmers use ground and surface water to irrigate their fields. On the other hand, drainage systems enable the production on otherwise unfavorably wet soils. These in turn often affect ground water recharge and divert precipitation directly into surface waters, which changes their hydrological regime. Typically, drainage systems also elevate the input of nutrients and pesticides into the water bodies. In general, applied fertilizers, plant protection products, veterinary drugs and phytohormones of cultivated plants are introduced into the ground and surface waters through different processes such as drift, leaching, runoff, preferential flow or erosion. They influence the nutrient cycles and ecological health of aquatic systems. The nutrient and pesticide loss processes themselves can be altered by tillage operations and other agricultural practices. Furthermore, the competition for space can lead to additional conflicts between agriculture and the protection of aquatic ecosystems. For example, channelized or otherwise morphologically changed rivers do not have a natural discharge pattern and are often not suitable for the local flora and fauna; but naturally meandering rivers need space that cannot be used for agriculture. In a highly industrialized and densely populated country like Switzerland, all these potential conflicts are of importance. Although it is typically seen as a water-rich country, local and seasonal overexploitation of rivers through water extraction

  12. The Effects of Agricultural Raw Product Exports on Environment Quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    hosein mohammadi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The relationship between openness, trade and environmental damaging are the most important problems in the early 1990s. Some scientists assume the environmental quality is a normal good and increasing income increases demand for environmentally safe products. Therefore, Firms will be encouraging the using of safer and less polluting procedure. On the other hand other scientists assume international trade grows the environmental degradation through environmentally polluting industries and expand economics scales in developing countries. While environmental standards are low in these countries, the expansion of trade will lead to more pollution. Some experimental studies have confirmed a negative relationship between trade and environment. The effect of import and export of trade is not considered as important components of trade, despite very consideration of the relationship between openness, trade and environmental by researchers while in general part trade may have different effect on environmental. Materials and Methods: The base model is used to study the relationship between economic growth and environmental indexes and trade. Grossman and Krueger (1991 and Shafik and Bandvpady (1992 used the trade intensity variable, obtained from the ratio of exports plus imports divided by GDP as the World Trade openness of an economy measure. Grossman and Krueger (1991, the first person who developed environmental Kuznets curve (EKC used multiple versions of the model. Instrumental variable regression model has been estimated using panel data of period 1998 and 2009 for 73 countries, including 27 development countries and 46 developing countries. Countries with more than 0.9 Human Development Index eligible as developed countries and countries by Human Development Index between 0.7 to 0.9 considered as developing countries., based on the standard international trade classification. For exports of agricultural raw materials, 5

  13. The Effect of No Agricultural Productivity Growth on Future Land Use and Climate through Biogeophysical Mechanisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies-Barnard, T.; Valdes, P. J.; Singarayer, J. S.; Jones, C.

    2012-12-01

    Future land use and the consequent land cover change will have a significant impact on future climate through biogeophysical (albedo, surface roughness and latent heat transfer, etc.) as well as biogeochemical (greenhouse gas emissions etc.) mechanisms. One of the major determinants of the extent of land use induced land cover change is the agricultural productivity growth within the socio-economic models used for developing the RCP scenarios. There are considerable uncertainties in the size of agricultural productivity under climate change, as yields are projected to vary spatially in signal and strength. Previous climate modeling work has considered the impacts to the carbon cycle of different levels of agricultural productivity growth, but has failed to consider the biogeophysical effects of the land use induced land cover change on climate. Here we examine the climate impacts of the assumption of agricultural productivity growth and business as usual land use. The effects are considered through the biogeophysical land use induced land cover change, using the Hadley Centre climate model HadGEM2. The model simulations use the set biogeochemical climate forcing of the RCP 4.5 scenario, but the biogeophysical land use change specification is altered over a 100 year simulation. Simulations are run with combinations of no land use change; standard RCP 4.5 land use change; business as usual land use change; and zero agricultural productivity growth. The key effect of no agricultural productivity growth is that more cropland is required to feed the same population, necessitating cropland expansion. The expansion of cropland and consequent deforestation increases the albedo and gives an extensive cooling effect in the northern hemisphere (up to 2°C). Differences in global mean temperature between the zero agricultural productivity growth with business as usual land use change specified run and the standard RCP 4.5 run are -0.2°C by 2040 and -0.7°C by 2100. There is

  14. CO/sub 2/ emission and agricultural productivity in southeast asian region: a pooled mean group estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Islam, M.; Kazi, M.

    2014-01-01

    Frequent natural calamities, extreme climatic events and unexpected seasonal changes are the obvious examples of global warming. Carbon emissions by industrial units all over the world are believed to be the major contributor of the global warming that can lead to reduced agricultural productivity. This paper examines the impact of CO emission on agricultural productivity in Southeast Asian countries. It investigates the dynamic relationship between CO emission (along with other control-variables) and agricultural output using panel data set comprising data from Southeast Asian countries. Following the dynamic heterogeneous panel techniques developed by Pesaran and Shin (1999) for estimating the short- run and long-run effects using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model in the error correction form, the study then estimated the empirical model based on pooled mean group (PMG) estimator. The study found that increased CO emission resulted in higher agricultural productivity because of the fact that farmers around the globe quickly adapt to climate change. In addition, use of submersible pump and other capital machineries significantly increased agricultural yield and led to reduced dependency on human capital, while use of chemical fertilizers increased productivity in short-run but had a harmful impact in the long-run. (author)

  15. The impact of German biogas production on European and global agricultural markets, land use and the environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Britz, Wolfgang; Delzeit, Ruth

    2013-01-01

    As part of its climate policy, Germany promotes the production of biogas via its so-called Renewable-Energy-Act (EEG). The resulting boost in biogas output went along with a significant increase in production of green maize, the dominant feedstock. Existing studies of the EEG have analysed its impacts on German agriculture without considering market feedback. We thus expand existing quantitative analysis by also considering impacts on European and global agricultural markets, land use and the environment by combining a detailed location model for biogas plants, the Regionalised Location Information System-Maize (ReSi-M2012), with a global Partial Equilibrium model for agriculture, the Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact (CAPRI) model. Our results indicate that the German biogas production is large enough to have sizeable impacts on global agricultural markets in prices and quantities, causing significant land use change outside of Germany. While profits in the agricultural sector increase, food consumer face higher prices, and subsidies for biogas production are passed on to electricity consumers. The German biogas program, as long as it is almost entirely based on non-waste feedstocks, is probably not a promising avenue towards a GHG-saving renewable energy production, but a rather expensive one. - Highlights: • Recent changes to that program decrease green maize use but increase land demands. • The program could raise EU prices for cereals by 3%. • Agricultural land use expansion outside of the EU estimated at 1 Mio ha

  16. Ministerial Order concerning radioactive contamination of agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-01-01

    The purpose of this Order is to implement at national level Articles 1 and 3 of the Council of the European Communities' Regulation No. 1707/86 of 30th May 1986, as amended by Commission Regulation No. 1762/86 of 5th June 1986 (Official Journal of the European Communities 1986 Nos. L 146 and L 152), on conditions for the import of agricultural products from non-European Community States after the Chernobyl accident [fr

  17. Influence of predictive contamination to agricultural products due to dry and wet processes during an accidental release of radionuclides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hwang, Won Tae; Kim, Eun Han; Suh, Kyung Suk; Jeong, Hyo Joon; Han, Moon Hee; Lee, Chang Woo

    2003-01-01

    The influence of predictive contamination to agricultural products due to the wet processes as well as dry processes from radioactive air concentration during a nuclear emergency is comprehensively analyzed. The previous dynamic food chain model DYNACON considering Korean agricultural and environmental conditions, in which the initial input parameter was radionuclide concentrations on the ground, is improved so as to evaluate radioactive contamination to agricultural products from either radioactive air concentrations or radionuclide concentrations on the ground. As for the results, wet deposition is a more dominant mechanism than dry deposition in contamination on the ground. While, the contamination levels of agricultural products are strongly dependent on radionuclide and precipitation when the deposition of radionuclides occurs. It means that the contamination levels of agricultural products are determined from which is the more dominant process between deposition on the ground and interception to agricultural plants

  18. The association between chronic conditions and non-agricultural work productivity loss among the middle-aged Chinese population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wei; Sun, Huiying; Li, Xin

    2018-05-03

    To measure the association between different chronic conditions and non-agricultural work productivity loss among the middle-aged Chinese population. We used 2011, 2013 and 2015 data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The study focused on middle-aged respondents who had the potential to work in the non-agricultural sector. Work productivity loss was measured by non-agricultural work participation and number of absent workdays among those conducting non-agricultural work. Seven different chronic conditions were considered. Heart diseases had the strongest association with lower work participation for men and women. Stomach/digestive disease and arthritis/rheumatism were conditions with the largest incremental absent workdays for men and women, respectively. The associations with non-agricultural work productivity loss varied by chronic conditions, outcomes, and sex. The findings will help motivate chronic condition prevention/management programs and set priorities.

  19. Modeling Agricultural Crop Production in China using AVHRR-based Vegetation Health Indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, B.; Kogan, F.; Guo, W.; Zhiyuan, P.; Xianfeng, J.

    Weather related crop losses have always been a concern for farmers On a wider scale it has always influenced decision of Governments traders and other policy makers for the purpose of balanced food supplies trade and distribution of aid to the nations in need Therefore national policy and decision makers are giving increasing importance to early assessment of crop losses in response to weather fluctuations This presentation emphasizes utility of AVHRR-based Vegetation health index VHI for early warning of drought-related losses of agricultural production in China The VHI is a three-channel index characterizing greenness vigor and temperature of land surface which can be used as proxy for estimation of how healthy and potentially productive could be vegetation China is the largest in the world producer of grain including wheat and rice and cotton In the major agricultural areas China s crop production is very dependent on weather The VHI being a proxy indicator of weather impact on vegetation showed some correlation with productivity of agricultural crops during the critical period of their development The periods of the strongest correlation were investigated and used to build regression models where crop yield deviation from technological trend was accepted as a dependent and VHI as independent variables The models were developed for several major crops including wheat corn and soybeans

  20. Adapting Agricultural Production Systems to Climate Change—What’s the Use of Models?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annelie Holzkämper

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Climate change poses a challenge to agricultural production and its impacts vary depending on regional focus and on the type of production system. To avoid production losses and make use of emerging potentials, adaptations in agricultural management will inevitably be required. Adaptation responses can broadly be distinguished into (1 short-term incremental responses that farmers often choose autonomously in response to observed changes and based on local knowledge and experiences, and (2 long-term transformative responses that require strategic planning, and which are usually implemented at a larger spatial scale. Models can be used to support decision making at both response levels; thereby, different features of models prove more or less valuable depending on the type of adaptation response. This paper presents a systematic literature review on the state-of-the-art in modelling for adaptation planning in agricultural production systems, investigating the question of which model types can be distinguished and how these types differ in the way they support decision making in agricultural adaptation planning. Five types of models are distinguished: (1 empirical crop models; (2 regional suitability models; (3 biophysical models; (4 meta-models; and (5 decision models. The potential and limitations of these model types for providing decision-support to short- and long-term adaptation planning are discussed. The risk of maladaptation—adaptation that implies negative consequences either in the long term or in a wider context—is identified as a key challenge of adaptation planning that needs more attention. Maladaptation is not only a risk of decision making in the face of incomplete knowledge of future climate impacts on the agricultural production system; but it can also be a threat if the connectedness of the agroecosystem is not sufficiently acknowledged when management adaptations are implemented. Future research supporting climate change

  1. Construction of the All-region Linkage System for Emergency Management of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety in West China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Hua; YU; Yanbin; QI; Yubao; YAN

    2013-01-01

    Quality and safety of agricultural products are significant for national socioeconomic development,sustainable development,and vital interests of people.To safeguard quality and safety of agricultural products in west China is to safeguard economic safety and ecological safety of the country,public health and social stability,of which an important task is to properly handle emergencies concerning quality and safety of agricultural products.Considering actual conditions of west China,suggestions are given to construct the all-region linkage system for emergency management of agricultural product quality and safety in the local area,enhance the all-region linkage,and improve the linkage efficiency.

  2. 49 CFR 1300.5 - Additional publication requirement for agricultural products and fertilizer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... RAIL COMMON CARRIAGE § 1300.5 Additional publication requirement for agricultural products and....C. 75, and all products thereof) and fertilizer, a rail carrier shall publish, make available, and... identification of the changes, the nature of those changes and their effective dates. (c) A rail carrier must...

  3. Transfer of radionuclides into and their removal from agricultural products

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hisamatsu, Shun-ichi [Akita Univ. (Japan). School of Medicine; Takizawa, Yukio

    1996-12-31

    Transfer of radionuclides to agricultural products and their removal before ingestion are reviewed briefly. Ingestion of {sup 137}Cs through various food groups were intensively has been studied from 1960s. The results of these studies indicated that cereals were relatively important food groups in Japan, while dairy products were a critical food group in Western countries. However, Westernization of Japanese diet and other factors recently make dairy products more important. In the case of {sup 137}Cs ingestion from the Chernobyl accident, 43% of total {sup 137}Cs intake was ingested through dairy products. The removal of radionuclides from food by washing, preparing and cooking is also discussed. (author)

  4. Influence of radioactive contamination to agricultural products due to dry and wet deposition processes during a nuclear emergency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hwang, Won Tae; Kim, Eun Han; Suh, Kyung Suk; Han, Moon Hee; Choi, Yong Ho; Lee, Chang Woo

    2002-01-01

    Combined with deposition model onto the ground of radionuclides, the influence of radioactive contamination to agricultural products was analyzed due to wet deposition as well as dry deposition from radioactive air concentration during a nuclear emergency. The previous dynamic food chain model, in which initial input parameter is only radionuclide concentrations on the ground, was improved for the evaluating of radioactive contamination to agricultural products from either radionuclide concentrations in air or radionuclide concentrations on the ground. As the results, in case of deposition onto the ground, wet deposition was more dominant process than dry deposition. While the contamination levels of agricultural products were dependent on the a variety of factors such as radionuclides and rainfall rate. It means that the contamination levels of agricultural products are determined from which is more dominant process between deposition on the ground and interception onto agricultural plants

  5. Assessment of Agricultural Water Productivity for Tea Production in Tea Fields of Guilan Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    kourosh majdsalimi

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Water productivity index is one of the main factors in efficient use of water for agricultural products. In this study, the rate of water productivity (WP in six irrigated tea fields and three rainfed (no irrigation were assessed by farmer’s management for two years (2009-2010. Yield of each tea field in successive harvests, soil moisture monitoring by gravimetric soil and use of water balance equation was conducted during the growing seasons. Volume of water entered to irrigation system and amount of water reached to surface level were also measured. Tea mean yield in irrigated and rainfed field were 2843 and 1095 Kg. ha-1, respectively. Average of gross irrigation and effective rainfall (WP and irrigation water productivity (IWP in the irrigated fields were 4.39 and 4.55 kg (made tea ha-1 mm-1 and average of net WP (actual evaportanspiration and net IWP was 5.18 and 6.61 kg ha-1 mm-1, respectively. Average WP in rainfed tea fields was 3.4 kg ha-1 for each mm of effective rainfall. The most effective factors on WP reduction in tea fields were improper harvesting operations (un standard plucking and economic problems. Moreover, improper operation and maintenance and old irrigation systems and unprincipled irrigation scheduling in irrigated tea fields were also effective on WP reduction. Comparing the results of this study with other studies in past, showed that by implementing the proper methods in irrigation management and appropriate agricultural practices can improve water productivity in tea fields.

  6. Grassland-Cropping Rotations: An Avenue for Agricultural Diversification to Reconcile High Production with Environmental Quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemaire, Gilles; Gastal, François; Franzluebbers, Alan; Chabbi, Abad

    2015-11-01

    A need to increase agricultural production across the world to ensure continued food security appears to be at odds with the urgency to reduce the negative environmental impacts of intensive agriculture. Around the world, intensification has been associated with massive simplification and uniformity at all levels of organization, i.e., field, farm, landscape, and region. Therefore, we postulate that negative environmental impacts of modern agriculture are due more to production simplification than to inherent characteristics of agricultural productivity. Thus by enhancing diversity within agricultural systems, it should be possible to reconcile high quantity and quality of food production with environmental quality. Intensification of livestock and cropping systems separately within different specialized regions inevitably leads to unacceptable environmental impacts because of the overly uniform land use system in intensive cereal areas and excessive N-P loads in intensive animal areas. The capacity of grassland ecosystems to couple C and N cycles through microbial-soil-plant interactions as a way for mitigating the environmental impacts of intensive arable cropping system was analyzed in different management options: grazing, cutting, and ley duration, in order to minimize trade-offs between production and the environment. We suggest that integrated crop-livestock systems are an appropriate strategy to enhance diversity. Sod-based rotations can temporally and spatially capture the benefits of leys for minimizing environmental impacts, while still maintaining periods and areas of intensive cropping. Long-term experimental results illustrate the potential of such systems to sequester C in soil and to reduce and control N emissions to the atmosphere and hydrosphere.

  7. The production and utilization of by-product agricultural fertilizer from flue gases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frank, N.W.; Hirano, S.

    1992-01-01

    The electron-beam process is one of the most effective methods for removing SO 2 and NO X from industrial flue gases and producing a usable by-product. This paper surveys the potential for production and consumption of alternative, usable, commercial by-products, in conjunction with major reductions in the inventory of emissions of SO 2 and NO X . An examination is made of the important limitations in the annual consumptive use or price of and/or net revenues from commonplace, electric utility, by-product types such as gypsum, sulfuric acid, etc. A principal focus of the work is an analysis and quantification of the major large-scale, growing and profitable markets for utility solid wastes that can be generated in agricultural fertilizer forms, including ammonium sulfate and other compounds that are available through stack-gas cleaning operations at large, coal-fired boilers. Cost study data is arranged to define the impact of commercial by-product yield and revenue on the economics of full scale SO 2 and NO X emission reduction activity. (author)

  8. Environmental impacts of organic and conventional agricultural products--are the differences captured by life cycle assessment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meier, Matthias S; Stoessel, Franziska; Jungbluth, Niels; Juraske, Ronnie; Schader, Christian; Stolze, Matthias

    2015-02-01

    Comprehensive assessment tools are needed that reliably describe environmental impacts of different agricultural systems in order to develop sustainable high yielding agricultural production systems with minimal impacts on the environment. Today, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used to assess and compare the environmental sustainability of agricultural products from conventional and organic agriculture. However, LCA studies comparing agricultural products from conventional and organic farming systems report a wide variation in the resource efficiency of products from these systems. The studies show that impacts per area farmed land are usually less in organic systems, but related to the quantity produced impacts are often higher. We reviewed 34 comparative LCA studies of organic and conventional agricultural products to analyze whether this result is solely due to the usually lower yields in organic systems or also due to inaccurate modeling within LCA. Comparative LCAs on agricultural products from organic and conventional farming systems often do not adequately differentiate the specific characteristics of the respective farming system in the goal and scope definition and in the inventory analysis. Further, often only a limited number of impact categories are assessed within the impact assessment not allowing for a comprehensive environmental assessment. The most critical points we identified relate to the nitrogen (N) fluxes influencing acidification, eutrophication, and global warming potential, and biodiversity. Usually, N-emissions in LCA inventories of agricultural products are based on model calculations. Modeled N-emissions often do not correspond with the actual amount of N left in the system that may result in potential emissions. Reasons for this may be that N-models are not well adapted to the mode of action of organic fertilizers and that N-emission models often are built on assumptions from conventional agriculture leading to even greater

  9. Did the Establishment of Poyang Lake Eco-Economic Zone Increase Agricultural Labor Productivity in Jiangxi Province, China?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Wu

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we take the establishment of Poyang Lake Eco-Economic Zone in 2009 as a quasi-natural experiment, to evaluate its influence on the agricultural labor productivity in Jiangxi Province, China. The estimation results of the DID method show that the establishment of the zone reduced agricultural labor productivity by 3.1%, lowering farmers’ net income by 2.5% and reducing the agricultural GDP by 3.6%. Furthermore, this negative effect has increased year after year since 2009. However, the heterogeneity analysis implies that the agricultural labor productivities of all cities in Jiangxi Province will ultimately converge. We find that the lack of agricultural R&D activities and the abuse of chemical fertilizers may be the main reasons behind the negative influence of the policy, by examining two possible transmission channels—the R&D investment and technological substitution. Corresponding policy implications are also provided.

  10. Immobilizer-assisted management of metal-contaminated agricultural soils for safer food production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kwon-Rae; Kim, Jeong-Gyu; Park, Jeong-Sik; Kim, Min-Suk; Owens, Gary; Youn, Gyu-Hoon; Lee, Jin-Su

    2012-07-15

    Production of food crops on metal contaminated agricultural soils is of concern because consumers are potentially exposed to hazardous metals via dietary intake of such crops or crop derived products. Therefore, the current study was conducted to develop management protocols for crop cultivation to allow safer food production. Metal uptake, as influenced by pH change-induced immobilizing agents (dolomite, steel slag, and agricultural lime) and sorption agents (zeolite and compost), was monitored in three common plants representative of leafy (Chinese cabbage), root (spring onion) and fruit (red pepper) vegetables, in a field experiment. The efficiency of the immobilizing agents was assessed by their ability to decrease the phytoavailability of metals (Cd, Pb, and Zn). The fruit vegetable (red pepper) showed the least accumulation of Cd (0.16-0.29 mgkg(-1) DW) and Pb (0.2-0.9 mgkg(-1) DW) in edible parts regardless of treatment, indicating selection of low metal accumulating crops was a reasonable strategy for safer food production. However, safer food production was more likely to be achievable by combining crop selection with immobilizing agent amendment of soils. Among the immobilizing agents, pH change-induced immobilizers were more effective than sorption agents, showing decreases in Cd and Pb concentrations in each plant well below standard limits. The efficiency of pH change-induced immobilizers was also comparable to reductions obtained by 'clean soil cover' where the total metal concentrations of the plow layer was reduced via capping the surface with uncontaminated soil, implying that pH change-induced immobilizers can be practically applied to metal contaminated agricultural soils for safer food production. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Gender Differences in Access to Extension Services and Agricultural Productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ragasa, Catherine; Berhane, Guush; Tadesse, Fanaye; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: This article contributes new empirical evidence and nuanced analysis on the gender difference in access to extension services and how this translates to observed differences in technology adoption and agricultural productivity. Approach: It looks at the case of Ethiopia, where substantial investments in the extension system have been…

  12. How Could Agricultural Land Systems Contribute to Raise Food Production Under Global Change?

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    WU Wen-bin; YU Qiang-yi; Verburg H Peter; YOU Liang-zhi; YANG Peng; TANG Hua-jun

    2014-01-01

    To feed the increasing world population, more food needs to be produced from agricultural land systems. Solutions to produce more food with fewer resources while minimizing adverse environmental and ecological consequences require sustainable agricultural land use practices as supplementary to advanced biotechnology and agronomy. This review paper, from a land system perspective, systematically proposed and analyzed three interactive strategies that could possibly raise future food production under global change. By reviewing the current literatures, we suggest that cropland expansion is less possible amid iferce land competition, and it is likely to do less in increasing food production. Moreover, properly allocating crops in space and time is a practical way to ensure food production. Climate change, dietary shifts, and other socio-economic drivers, which would shape the demand and supply side of food systems, should be taken into consideration during the decision-making on rational land management in respect of sustainable crop choice and allocation. And ifnally, crop-speciifc agricultural intensiifcation would play a bigger role in raising future food production either by increasing the yield per unit area of individual crops or by increasing the number of crops sown on a particular area of land. Yet, only when it is done sustainably is this a much more effective strategy to maximize food production by closing yield and harvest gaps.

  13. Evaluating multiple indices of agricultural water use efficiency and productivity to improve comparisons between sites and trends

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, M. C.

    2012-12-01

    Approximately 70% of global available freshwater supplies are used in the agricultural sector. Increased demands for water to meet growing population food requirements, and expected changes in the reliability of freshwater supplies due to climate change, threaten the sustainability of water supplies worldwide - not only on farms, but in connected cities and industries. Researchers concerned with agricultural water use sustainability use a variety of theoretical and empirical measures of efficiency and productivity to gain insight into the sustainability of agricultural water use. However, definitions of measures, or indices, vary between different natural and political boundaries, across regions, states and nations and between their respective research, industry, and environmental groups. Index development responds to local data availability and local agendas, and there is debate about the validity of various indices. However, real differences in empirical index measures are not well-understood across the multiple disciplines that study agricultural water use, including engineering and hydrology, agronomy, climate and soil sciences, and economics. Nevertheless reliable, accessible, and generalizable indices are required for planners and policymakers to promote sustainable water use systems. This study synthesizes a set of water use efficiency and productivity indices based on academic, industry and government literature in California and Australia, two locations with similarly water-stressed and valuable agricultural industries under pressure to achieve optimal water use efficiency and productivity. Empirical data at the irrigation district level from the California San Joaquin Valley and Murray Darling Basin states of Victoria and New South Wales in Australia are used to compute indices that estimate efficiency, yield productivity, and economic productivity of agricultural water use. Multiple index estimates of same time-series data demonstrate historical spread

  14. The organic agricultural waste as a basic source of biohydrogen production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sriwuryandari, Lies; Priantoro, E. Agung; Sintawardani, Neni; Astuti, J. Tri; Nilawati, Dewi; Putri, A. Mauliva Hada; Mamat, Sentana, Suharwadji; Sembiring, T.

    2016-02-01

    Biohydrogen production research was carried out using raw materials of agricultural organic waste that was obtained from markets around the Bandung city. The organic part, which consisted of agricultural waste material, mainly fruit and vegetable waste, was crushed and milled using blender. The sludge that produced from milling process was then used as a substrate for mixed culture microorganism as a raw material to produce biohydrogen. As much as 1.2 kg.day-1 of sludge (4% of total solid) was fed into bioreactor that had a capacity of 30L. Experiment was done under anaerobic fermentation using bacteria mixture culture that maintained at pH in the range of 5.6-6.5 and temperature of 25-30oC on semi-continuous mode. Parameters of analysis include pH, temperature, total solid (TS), organic total solid (OTS), total gas production, and hydrogen gas production. The results showed that from 4% of substrate resulted 897.86 L of total gas, which contained 660.74 L (73.59%) of hydrogen gas. The rate of hydrogen production in this study was 11,063 mol.L-1.h-1.

  15. Vulnerability of Rehabilitated Agricultural Production Systems to Invasion by Nontarget Plant Species

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baer, Sara G.; Engle, David M.; Knops, Johannes M. H.; Langeland, Kenneth A.; Maxwell, Bruce D.; Menalled, Fabian D.; Symstad, Amy J.

    2009-02-01

    Vast areas of arable land have been retired from crop production and “rehabilitated” to improved system states through landowner incentive programs in the United States (e.g., Conservation and Wetland Reserve Programs), as well as Europe (i.e., Agri-Environment Schemes). Our review of studies conducted on invasion of rehabilitated agricultural production systems by nontarget species elucidates several factors that may increase the vulnerability of these systems to invasion. These systems often exist in highly fragmented and agriculturally dominated landscapes, where propagule sources of target species for colonization may be limited, and are established under conditions where legacies of past disturbance persist and prevent target species from persisting. Furthermore, rehabilitation approaches often do not include or successfully attain all target species or historical ecological processes (e.g., hydrology, grazing, and/or fire cycles) key to resisting invasion. Uncertainty surrounds ways in which nontarget species may compromise long term goals of improving biodiversity and ecosystem services through rehabilitation efforts on former agricultural production lands. This review demonstrates that more studies are needed on the extent and ecological impacts of nontarget species as related to the goals of rehabilitation efforts to secure current and future environmental benefits arising from this widespread conservation practice.

  16. A Grape Production Guide for Vocational Agriculture Instructors in Washington. Final Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padelford, Stewart L.; Cvancara, Joseph G., Ed.

    This curriculum guide is intended to provide vocational agriculture instructors with an up-to-date resource dealing with grape production in Washington. Addressed in the individual units of the guide are the following topics: the history of grape production; grape types important to Washington; site selection for a vineyard; establishment and…

  17. Evaluating and predicting the effectiveness of farmland consolidation on improving agricultural productivity in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Yeting; Jin, Xiaobin; Xiang, Xiaomin; Gan, Le; Yang, Xuhong; Zhang, Zhihong; Zhou, Yinkang

    2018-01-01

    Food security has always been a focus issue in China. Farmland consolidation (FC) was regarded as a critical way to increase the quantity and improve the quality of farmland to ensure food security by Chinese government. FC projects have been nationwide launched, however few studies focused on evaluating the effectiveness of FC at a national scale. As such, an efficient way to evaluate the effectiveness of FC on improving agricultural productivity in China will be needed and it is critical for future national land consolidation planning. In this study, we selected 7505 FC projects completed between 2006 and 2013 with good quality Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as samples to evaluate the effectiveness of FC. We used time-series Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NDVI from 2001 to 2013, to extract four indicators to characterize agricultural productivity change of 4442 FC projects completed between 2006 and 2010, i.e., productivity level (PL), productivity variation (PV), productivity potential (PP), and multi-cropping index (MI). On this basis, we further predicted the same four characteristics for 3063 FC projects completed between 2011 and 2013, respectively, using Support Vector Machines (SVM). We found FC showed an overall effective status on improving agricultural productivity between 2006 and 2013 in China, especially on upgrading PL and improving PP. The positive effect was more prominent in the southeast and eastern China. It is noteworthy that 27.30% of all the 7505 projects were still ineffective on upgrading PL, the elementary improvement of agricultural productivity. Finally, we proposed that location-specific factors should be taken into consideration for launching FC projects and diverse financial sources are also needed for supporting FC. The results provide a reference for government to arrange FC projects reasonably and to formulate land consolidation planning in a proper way that better improve the effectiveness of FC.

  18. Evaluating and predicting the effectiveness of farmland consolidation on improving agricultural productivity in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiang, Xiaomin; Gan, Le; Yang, Xuhong; Zhang, Zhihong; Zhou, Yinkang

    2018-01-01

    Food security has always been a focus issue in China. Farmland consolidation (FC) was regarded as a critical way to increase the quantity and improve the quality of farmland to ensure food security by Chinese government. FC projects have been nationwide launched, however few studies focused on evaluating the effectiveness of FC at a national scale. As such, an efficient way to evaluate the effectiveness of FC on improving agricultural productivity in China will be needed and it is critical for future national land consolidation planning. In this study, we selected 7505 FC projects completed between 2006 and 2013 with good quality Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as samples to evaluate the effectiveness of FC. We used time-series Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NDVI from 2001 to 2013, to extract four indicators to characterize agricultural productivity change of 4442 FC projects completed between 2006 and 2010, i.e., productivity level (PL), productivity variation (PV), productivity potential (PP), and multi-cropping index (MI). On this basis, we further predicted the same four characteristics for 3063 FC projects completed between 2011 and 2013, respectively, using Support Vector Machines (SVM). We found FC showed an overall effective status on improving agricultural productivity between 2006 and 2013 in China, especially on upgrading PL and improving PP. The positive effect was more prominent in the southeast and eastern China. It is noteworthy that 27.30% of all the 7505 projects were still ineffective on upgrading PL, the elementary improvement of agricultural productivity. Finally, we proposed that location-specific factors should be taken into consideration for launching FC projects and diverse financial sources are also needed for supporting FC. The results provide a reference for government to arrange FC projects reasonably and to formulate land consolidation planning in a proper way that better improve the effectiveness of FC

  19. Biodiversity of Aspergillus species in some important agricultural products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Perrone, Giancarlo; Susca, A.,; Cozzi, G.

    2007-01-01

    The genus Aspergillus is one of the most important filamentous fungal genera. Aspergillus species are used in the fermentation industry, but they are also responsible of various plant and food secondary rot, with the consequence of possible accumulation of mycotoxins. The aflatoxin producing A....... flavus and A. parasiticus, and ochratoxinogenic A. niger, A. ochraceus and A. carbonarius species are frequently encountered in agricultural products. Studies on the biodiversity of toxigenic Aspergillus species is useful to clarify molecular, ecological and biochemical characteristics of the different...... occurring in agricultural fields. Altogether nine different black Aspergillus species can be found on grapes which are often difficult to identify with classical methods. The polyphasic approach used in our studies led to the identification of three new species occurring on grapes: A. brasiliensis, A...

  20. Productivity of Premodern Agriculture in the Cucuteni-Trypillia Area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shukurov, Anvar; Sarson, Graeme; Videiko, Mykhailo; Henderson, Kate; Shiel, Robert; Dolukhanov, Pavel; Pashkevich, Galina

    2015-07-01

    We present paleoeconomy reconstructions for premodern agriculture, selecting, wherever required, features and parameter values specific for the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural unity (CTU; 5,400-2,700 BC, mostly the territory of modern Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania). We verify the self-consistency and viability of the archaeological evidence related to all major elements of the agricultural production cycle within the constraints provided by environmental and technological considerations. The starting point of our analysis is the paleodiet structure suggested by archaeological data, stable isotope analyses of human remains, and palynology studies in the CTU area. We allow for the archeologically attested contributions of domesticated and wild animal products to the diet, develop plausible estimates of the yield of ancient cereal varieties cultivated with ancient techniques, and quantify the yield dependence on the time after initial planting and on rainfall (as a climate proxy). Our conclusions involve analysis of the labor costs of various seasonal parts of the agricultural cycle of both an individual and a family with a majority of members that do not engage in productive activities that require physical fitness, such as tillage. Finally, we put our results into the context of the exploitation territory and catchment analysis, to project various subsistence strategies into the exploitation territory of a farming settlement. The simplest economic complex based on cereals and domestic and wild animal products, with fallow cropping, appears to be capable of supporting an isolated, relatively small farming settlement of 50-300 people (2-10 ha in area) even without recourse to technological improvements such as the use of manure fertilizer. Our results strongly suggest that dairy products played a significant role in the dietary and labor balance. The smaller settlements are typical of the earliest Trypillia A stage but remain predominant at the later stages. A larger

  1. Spatiotemporal Correlations between Water Footprint and Agricultural Inputs: A Case Study of Maize Production in Northeast China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peili Duan

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available To effectively manage water resources in agricultural production, it is necessary to understand the spatiotemporal variation of the water footprint (WF and the influences of agricultural inputs. Employing spatial autocorrelation analysis and a geographically weighted regression (GWR model, we explored the spatial variations of the WF and their relationships with agricultural inputs from 1998 to 2012 in Northeast China. The results indicated that: (1 the spatial distribution of WFs for the 36 major maize production prefectures was heterogeneous in Northeast China; (2 a cluster of high WFs was found in southeast Liaoning Province, while a cluster of low WFs was found in central Jilin Province, and (3 spatial and temporal differentiation in the correlations between the WF of maize production and agricultural inputs existed according to the GWR model. These correlations increased over time. Our results suggested that localized strategies for reducing the WF should be formulated based on specific relationships between the WF and agricultural inputs.

  2. Productivity limits and potentials of the principles of conservation agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pittelkow, Cameron M; Liang, Xinqiang; Linquist, Bruce A; van Groenigen, Kees Jan; Lee, Juhwan; Lundy, Mark E; van Gestel, Natasja; Six, Johan; Venterea, Rodney T; van Kessel, Chris

    2015-01-15

    One of the primary challenges of our time is to feed a growing and more demanding world population with reduced external inputs and minimal environmental impacts, all under more variable and extreme climate conditions in the future. Conservation agriculture represents a set of three crop management principles that has received strong international support to help address this challenge, with recent conservation agriculture efforts focusing on smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. However, conservation agriculture is highly debated, with respect to both its effects on crop yields and its applicability in different farming contexts. Here we conduct a global meta-analysis using 5,463 paired yield observations from 610 studies to compare no-till, the original and central concept of conservation agriculture, with conventional tillage practices across 48 crops and 63 countries. Overall, our results show that no-till reduces yields, yet this response is variable and under certain conditions no-till can produce equivalent or greater yields than conventional tillage. Importantly, when no-till is combined with the other two conservation agriculture principles of residue retention and crop rotation, its negative impacts are minimized. Moreover, no-till in combination with the other two principles significantly increases rainfed crop productivity in dry climates, suggesting that it may become an important climate-change adaptation strategy for ever-drier regions of the world. However, any expansion of conservation agriculture should be done with caution in these areas, as implementation of the other two principles is often challenging in resource-poor and vulnerable smallholder farming systems, thereby increasing the likelihood of yield losses rather than gains. Although farming systems are multifunctional, and environmental and socio-economic factors need to be considered, our analysis indicates that the potential contribution of no-till to the

  3. Agricultural Productivity Forecasts for Improved Drought Monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Limaye, Ashutosh; McNider, Richard; Moss, Donald; Alhamdan, Mohammad

    2010-01-01

    Water stresses on agricultural crops during critical phases of crop phenology (such as grain filling) has higher impact on the eventual yield than at other times of crop growth. Therefore farmers are more concerned about water stresses in the context of crop phenology than the meteorological droughts. However the drought estimates currently produced do not account for the crop phenology. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have developed a drought monitoring decision support tool: The U.S. Drought Monitor, which currently uses meteorological droughts to delineate and categorize drought severity. Output from the Drought Monitor is used by the States to make disaster declarations. More importantly, USDA uses the Drought Monitor to make estimates of crop yield to help the commodities market. Accurate estimation of corn yield is especially critical given the recent trend towards diversion of corn to produce ethanol. Ethanol is fast becoming a standard 10% ethanol additive to petroleum products, the largest traded commodity. Thus the impact of large-scale drought will have dramatic impact on the petroleum prices as well as on food prices. USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) serves as a focal point for economic intelligence and the commodity outlook for U.S. WAOB depends on Drought Monitor and has emphatically stated that accurate and timely data are needed in operational agrometeorological services to generate reliable projections for agricultural decision makers. Thus, improvements in the prediction of drought will reflect in early and accurate assessment of crop yields, which in turn will improve commodity projections. We have developed a drought assessment tool, which accounts for the water stress in the context of crop phenology. The crop modeling component is done using various crop modules within Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). DSSAT is an agricultural crop

  4. Mapping Drought Impacts on Agricultural Production in California's Central Valley

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melton, F. S.; Guzman, A.; Johnson, L.; Rosevelt, C.; Verdin, J. P.; Dwyer, J. L.; Mueller, R.; Zakzeski, A.; Thenkabail, P. S.; Wallace, C.; Jones, J.; Windell, S.; Urness, J.; Teaby, A.; Hamblin, D.; Post, K. M.; Nemani, R. R.

    2014-12-01

    The ongoing drought in California has substantially reduced surface water supplies for millions of acres of irrigated farmland in California's Central Valley. Rapid assessment of drought impacts on agricultural production can aid water managers in assessing mitigation options, and guide decision making with respect to requests for local water transfers, county drought disaster designations, and allocation of emergency funds to mitigate drought impacts. Satellite remote sensing offers an efficient way to provide quantitative assessments of drought impacts on agricultural production and increases in idle acreage associated with reductions in water supply. A key advantage of satellite-based assessments is that they can provide a measure of land fallowing that is consistent across both space and time. We describe an approach for monthly and seasonal mapping of uncultivated agricultural acreage developed as part of a joint effort by USGS, USDA, NASA, and the California Department of Water Resources to provide timely assessments of land fallowing during drought events. This effort has used the Central Valley of California as a pilot region for development and testing of an operational approach. To provide quantitative measures of uncultivated agricultural acreage from satellite data early in the season, we developed a decision tree algorithm and applied it to timeseries of data from Landsat TM, ETM+, OLI, and MODIS. Our effort has been focused on development of indicators of drought impacts in the March - August timeframe based on measures of crop development patterns relative to a reference period with average or above average rainfall. To assess the accuracy of the algorithms, monthly ground validation surveys were conducted across 640 fields from March - September, 2014. We present the algorithm along with updated results from the accuracy assessment, and discuss potential applications to other regions.

  5. 'Underutilised' agricultural land: its definitions, potential use for future biomass production and its environmental implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyake, Saori; Bargiel, Damian

    2017-04-01

    A growing bioeconomy and increased demand for biomass products on food, health, fibre, industrial products and energy require land resources for feedstock production. It has resulted in significant environmental and socio-economic challenges on a global scale. As a result, consideration of such effects of land use change (LUC) from biomass production (particularly for biofuel feedstock) has emerged as an important area of policy and research, and several potential solutions have been proposed to minimise such adverse LUC effects. One of these solutions is the use of lands that are not in production or not suitable for food crop production, such as 'marginal', 'degraded', 'abandoned' and 'surplus' agricultural lands for future biomass production. The terms referring to these lands are usually associated with the potential production of 'marginal crops', which can grow in marginal conditions (e.g. poor soil fertility, low rainfall, drought) without much water and agrochemical inputs. In our research, we referred to these lands as 'underutilised' agricultural land and attempted to define them for our case study areas located in Australia and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Our goal is to identify lands that can be used for future biomass production and to evaluate their environmental implications, particularly impacts related to biodiversity, water and soil at a landscape scale. The identification of these lands incorporates remote sensing and spatially explicit approaches. Our findings confirmed that there was no universal or single definition of the term 'underutilised' agricultural land as the definitions significantly vary by country and region depending not only on the biophysical environment but also political, institutional and socio-economic conditions. Moreover, our results highlighted that the environmental implications of production of biomass on 'underutilised' agricultural land for biomass production are highly controversial. Thus land use change

  6. Declining Global Per Capita Agricultural Production and Warming Oceans Threaten Food Security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funk, Chris C.; Brown, Molly E.

    2009-01-01

    Despite accelerating globalization, most people still eat food that was grown locally. Developing countries with weak purchasing power tend to import as little food as possible from global markets, suffering consumption deficits during times of high prices or production declines. Local agricultural production, therefore, is critical to both food security and economic development among the rural poor. The level of local agricultural production, in turn, will be controlled by the amount and quality of arable land, the amount and quality of agricultural inputs (fertilizer, seeds, pesticides, etc.), as well as farm-related technology, practices, and policies. In this paper we discuss several emerging threats to global and regional food security, including declining yield gains that are failing to keep up with population increases, and warming in the tropical Indian Ocean and its impact on rainfall. If yields continue to grow more slowly than per capita harvested area, parts of Africa, Asia, and Central and Southern America will experience substantial declines in per capita cereal production. Global per capita cereal production will potentially decline by 14 percent between 2008 and 2030. Climate change is likely to further affect food production, particularly in regions that have very low yields due to lack of technology. Drought, caused by anthropogenic warming in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, may also reduce 21 st century food availability by disrupting Indian Ocean moisture transports and tilting the 21 st century climate toward a more El Nino-like state. The impacts of these circulation changes over Asia remain uncertain. For Africa, however, Indian Ocean warming appears to have already reduced main growing season rainfall along the eastern edge of tropical Africa, from southern Somalia to northern parts of the Republic of South Africa. Through a combination of quantitative modeling of food balances and an examination of climate change, we present an analysis of

  7. Declining global per capita agricultural production and warming oceans threaten food security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funk, Christopher C.; Brown, Molly E.

    2009-01-01

    Despite accelerating globalization, most people still eat food that is grown locally. Developing countries with weak purchasing power tend to import as little food as possible from global markets, suffering consumption deficits during times of high prices or production declines. Local agricultural production, therefore, is critical to both food security and economic development among the rural poor. The level of local agricultural production, in turn, will be determined by the amount and quality of arable land, the amount and quality of agricultural inputs (fertilizer, seeds, pesticides, etc.), as well as farm-related technology, practices and policies. This paper discusses several emerging threats to global and regional food security, including declining yield gains that are failing to keep up with population increases, and warming in the tropical Indian Ocean and its impact on rainfall. If yields continue to grow more slowly than per capita harvested area, parts of Africa, Asia and Central and Southern America will experience substantial declines in per capita cereal production. Global per capita cereal production will potentially decline by 14% between 2008 and 2030. Climate change is likely to further affect food production, particularly in regions that have very low yields due to lack of technology. Drought, caused by anthropogenic warming in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, may also reduce 21st century food availability in some countries by disrupting moisture transports and bringing down dry air over crop growing areas. The impacts of these circulation changes over Asia remain uncertain. For Africa, however, Indian Ocean warming appears to have already reduced rainfall during the main growing season along the eastern edge of tropical Africa, from southern Somalia to northern parts of the Republic of South Africa. Through a combination of quantitative modeling of food balances and an examination of climate change, this study presents an analysis of emerging

  8. Vocational Agriculture Computer Handbook.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kentucky State Dept. of Education, Frankfort.

    This document is a catalog of reviews of computer software suitable for use in vocational agriculture programs. The reviews were made by vocational agriculture teachers in Kentucky. The reviews cover software on the following topics: farm management, crop production, livestock production, horticulture, agricultural mechanics, general agriculture,…

  9. World Bank and agricultural development: food production and rural poverty

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stryker, R E

    1979-03-01

    Over the past decade, the World Bank has become the leading international institution for development financing and for elaborating new development strategies. This has involved a major shift in lending toward agriculture and rural development. Explanations for the change range from more progressive expertise within the Bank to the shock of the 1972-74 food crisis and renewed penetration of Third World agriculture by capitalist agribusiness. Discriminating among these perspectives requires attention to the core issue of the relationship between increasing food production and reducing rural poverty. The author feels that the issue is irreducibly political and that the Bank's record is less encouraging than the reformist rhetoric. 33 references, 4 tables.

  10. [Development of APSIM (agricultural production systems simulator) and its application].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Yuying; Nan, Zhibiao; Bellotti, Bill; Robertson, Michael; Chen, Wen; Shao, Xinqing

    2002-08-01

    Soil-crop simulator model is an effective tool for providing decision on agricultural management. APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) was developed to simulate the biophysical process in farming system, and particularly in the economic and ecological features of the systems under climatic risk. The current literatures revealed that APSIM could be applied in wide zone, including temperate continental, temperate maritime, sub-tropic and arid climate, and Mediterranean climates, with the soil type of clay, duplex soil, vertisol, silt sandy, silt loam and silt clay loam. More than 20 crops have been simulated well. APSIM is powerful on describing crop structure, crop sequence, yield prediction, and quality control as well as erosion estimation under different planting pattern.

  11. A new look at the decomposition of agricultural productivity growth incorporating weather effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Njuki, Eric; Bravo-Ureta, Boris E; O'Donnell, Christopher J

    2018-01-01

    Random fluctuations in temperature and precipitation have substantial impacts on agricultural output. However, the contribution of these changing configurations in weather to total factor productivity (TFP) growth has not been addressed explicitly in econometric analyses. Thus, the key objective of this study is to quantify and to investigate the role of changing weather patterns in explaining yearly fluctuations in TFP. For this purpose, we define TFP to be a measure of total output divided by a measure of total input. We estimate a stochastic production frontier model using U.S. state-level agricultural data incorporating growing season temperature and precipitation, and intra-annual standard deviations of temperature and precipitation for the period 1960-2004. We use the estimated parameters of the model to compute a TFP index that has good axiomatic properties. We then decompose TFP growth in each state into weather effects, technological progress, technical efficiency, and scale-mix efficiency changes. This approach improves our understanding of the role of different components of TFP in agricultural productivity growth. We find that annual TFP growth averaged 1.56% between 1960 and 2004. Moreover, we observe substantial heterogeneity in weather effects across states and over time.

  12. Exposures from consumption of agricultural and semi-natural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strand, P.; Skuterud, L.; Balonov, M.; Travnikova, I.; Hove, K.; Howard, B.; Prister, B.S.; Ratnikov, A.

    1996-01-01

    The importance of food from different production systems to the internal dose from radiocesium, was investigated in selected study sites in Ukraine and Russia. Food products from semi-natural ecosystems are major contributors to the individual internal dose to rural population in areas affected by the Chernobyl accident. At the selected study sites it is estimated in 1995 that foods from private farms and forests contribute on average 35% to 60%, to the individual internal dose, variation relating to soil types and implemented countermeasures. The importance of food products from private farms and particularly forest products increases with time since Cs concentration in some of the natural food products have longer ecological half life than food products from agricultural systems. A significant relationship was observed between consumption of mushrooms and whole body content of radiocesium in rural people. The contribution to the collective dose of food products produced in the semi-natural ecosystems is less than the contribution to the individual internal dose for the local rural population

  13. Multi-Factor Impact Analysis of Agricultural Production in Bangladesh with Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruane, Alex C.; Major, David C.; Yu, Winston H.; Alam, Mozaharul; Hussain, Sk. Ghulam; Khan, Abu Saleh; Hassan, Ahmadul; Al Hossain, Bhuiya Md. Tamim; Goldberg, Richard; Horton, Radley M.; hide

    2012-01-01

    Diverse vulnerabilities of Bangladesh's agricultural sector in 16 sub-regions are assessed using experiments designed to investigate climate impact factors in isolation and in combination. Climate information from a suite of global climate models (GCMs) is used to drive models assessing the agricultural impact of changes in temperature, precipitation, carbon dioxide concentrations, river floods, and sea level rise for the 2040-2069 period in comparison to a historical baseline. Using the multi-factor impacts analysis framework developed in Yu et al. (2010), this study provides new sub-regional vulnerability analyses and quantifies key uncertainties in climate and production. Rice (aman, boro, and aus seasons) and wheat production are simulated in each sub-region using the biophysical Crop Environment REsource Synthesis (CERES) models. These simulations are then combined with the MIKE BASIN hydrologic model for river floods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Basins, and the MIKE21Two-Dimensional Estuary Model to determine coastal inundation under conditions of higher mean sea level. The impacts of each factor depend on GCM configurations, emissions pathways, sub-regions, and particular seasons and crops. Temperature increases generally reduce production across all scenarios. Precipitation changes can have either a positive or a negative impact, with a high degree of uncertainty across GCMs. Carbon dioxide impacts on crop production are positive and depend on the emissions pathway. Increasing river flood areas reduce production in affected sub-regions. Precipitation uncertainties from different GCMs and emissions scenarios are reduced when integrated across the large GBM Basins' hydrology. Agriculture in Southern Bangladesh is severely affected by sea level rise even when cyclonic surges are not fully considered, with impacts increasing under the higher emissions scenario.

  14. The Effectiveness of the Multilateral Coalition to Develop a Green Agricultural Products Market in China Based on a TU Cooperative Game Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mingjun Deng

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Green agriculture can improve biodiversity, increase farmers’ income, reduce agricultural non-point source pollution, solve food safety issues, and will be an important way to promote sustainable development in China. At present, the green transformation of China’s agriculture has encountered a bottleneck in the development of a green agricultural product market. How to develop a green agricultural product market has become an issue worthy of in-depth study in the academia. Previous studies have already given persuasive explanations for the inability to form a green agricultural product market, but few have explored its development path from the angle of cooperation. By employing the method of a Transferable Utilities (TU cooperative game, and based on theoretical analyses and hypothetical data, this thesis aims to prove the effectiveness of the multilateral coalition to develop the green agricultural product market in China. The results show the effectiveness of the developed model of the green agricultural product market in which producers, consumers, food safety inspection departments, and e-commerce platforms cooperate with each other. This model meets the objective needs of the times and that of the market economy. According to the marginal contribution value of participants in different coalition orders, this thesis finds 6 kinds of coalition orders. When producers and consumers of green agricultural products enter the coalition in the last place, the marginal contribution value is maximized, which reflects the importance of the supply side and demand side of green agricultural products. In other words, the development of the green agricultural product market is a dynamic process—determined by consumers and promoted by producers—in which both sides promote and restrict each other. Finally, this article presents two policy recommendations: at the national level, to clearly proposes a strategy to build a green agricultural product e

  15. The production and utilization of by-product agricultural fertilizer from flue gases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frank, N.W.; Hirano, S.

    1991-01-01

    The electron-beam process is one of the most effective methods for removing SO 2 and NO x from industrial flue gases and producing a usable by-product. This flue gas treatment consists of adding a small amount of ammonia to the flue gas and irradiating the gas by means of an electron beam. This causes reactions which convert SO 2 and NO x to ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. These salts are then collected from the flue gas by conventional collectors, such as a baghouse or electrostatic precipitator. This paper will describe the potential for production of the fertilizer and will analyze the market potential and consumption of the by-product. A principal focus of the work is an analysis and quantification of the major large-scale, growing and profitable markets for utility solid wastes that can be generated in the form of agricultural fertilizer. Cost study data is arranged to define the impact of commercial by-product field and revenue on the economics of full scale SO 2 and NO x emission reduction activity

  16. Analyses of radionuclides in soil, water, and agriculture products near the Urgeirica uranium mine in Portugal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carvalho, F.P.; Oliveira, J.M.; Malta, M.

    2009-01-01

    Analyses of soils, irrigation waters, agriculture products (lettuce), green pasture, and cheese were performed in samples collected in the area of the old Urgeirica uranium mine and milling facilities, Centre-North of Portugal, in order to assess the transfer of uranium series radionuclides in the environment and to man. Soils close to milling tailings display an enhancement of radioactivity. In the drainage basin of the stream Ribeira da Pantanha, receiving drainage from the tailings piles and discharges from the acid mine water treatment plant, there was enhancement of uranium series radionuclide concentrations in water and suspended matter. Agriculture products from kitchen gardens irrigated with water from the Ribeira da Pantanha show an increase of radioactivity, mainly due to uranium isotopes. Agriculture products from other kitchen gardens in this area, irrigated with groundwater, as well pasture and cheese produced locally from sheep milk did not show enhanced radionuclide concentrations. In the Urgeirica area, some soils display radionuclide concentrations higher than soils in reference areas and, in agriculture products grown there, 226 Ra was the radionuclide more concentrated by vegetables. Through ingestion of these products 226 Ra may be the main contributor to the increment of radiation dose received by local population. (author)

  17. Poultry Production for Agricultural Science I Core Curriculum. Instructor's Guide. Volume 19, Number 2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timko, Joseph J.; Stewart, Bob R.

    This unit is designed to aid teachers in lesson planning in the secondary agricultural education curriculum in Missouri. Intended to be taught to ninth-grade students of vocational agriculture, the unit contains six lessons for developing competencies needed in poultry production. The lessons are as follows: (1) the importance of the poultry…

  18. Lattice Boltzmann schemes for convection-diffusion phenomena : application to packages of agricultural products

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sman, van der R.G.M.

    1999-01-01

    Packaging is crucial for the control of quality of fresh agricultural products. How to optimise the packaging design for a particular product and distribution chain, is still not fully understood. Various empirical studies have shown that existing packaging designs can still be improved

  19. The International Comparison of Value Added, Productivity and Purchasing Power Parities in Agriculture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maddison, Angus; Ooststroom, Harry van

    1993-01-01

    This study is part of the ICOP (International Comparison of Output and Productivity) project of the University of Groningen. It presents international comparisons of levels of value added, productivity and purchasing power parities (PPPs) in agriculture for 13 countries for 1975. An early version of

  20. Global warming threatens agricultural productivity in Africa and South Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sultan, Benjamin

    2012-12-01

    The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC; Christensen et al 2007) has, with greater confidence than previous reports, warned the international community that the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions will result in global climate change. One of the most direct and threatening impacts it may have on human societies is the potential consequences on global crop production. Indeed agriculture is considered as the most weather-dependent of all human activities (Hansen 2002) since climate is a primary determinant for agricultural productivity. The potential impact of climate change on crop productivity is an additional strain on the global food system which is already facing the difficult challenge of increasing food production to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050 with changing consumption patterns and growing scarcity of water and land (Beddington 2010). In some regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia that are already food insecure and where most of the population increase and economic development will take place, climate change could be the additional stress that pushes systems over the edge. A striking example, if needed, is the work from Collomb (1999) which estimates that by 2050 food needs will more than quintuple in Africa and more than double in Asia. Better knowledge of climate change impacts on crop productivity in those vulnerable regions is crucial to inform policies and to support adaptation strategies that may counteract the adverse effects. Although there is a growing literature on the impact of climate change on crop productivity in tropical regions, it is difficult to provide a consistent assessment of future yield changes because of large uncertainties in regional climate change projections, in the response of crops to environmental change (rainfall, temperature, CO2 concentration), in the coupling between climate models and crop productivity functions, and in the adaptation of

  1. Grassland-cropping rotations: An avenue for agricultural diversification to reconcile high production with environmental quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    A need to increase agricultural production across the world to ensure continued food security appears to be at odds with the urgency to reduce the negative environmental impacts of intensive agriculture. Around the world, intensification has been associated with massive simplification and uniformity...

  2. Agricultural production and nutrient runoff in the Corn Belt: Assessing dynamic environmental performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agricultural production in the Corn Belt region of the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) remains a leading source of nitrogen runoff that contributes to the annual hypoxic 'Dead Zone' in the Gulf of Mexico. The rise of corn production, land conversion, and fertilizer use in re...

  3. The commercial use of gamma facilities in North and South America for agricultural product processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Butterweck, J.S.

    1993-01-01

    The treatment of agriculture and food products with ionizing radiation has been proven to be safe, effective, economical, and according to consumer surveys, the end product is better. However, commercial implementation of food irradiation has been slow because of the following: the lack of profit incentives; the failure of the political system to deal with antinuclear groups; the failure of public health authorities to actively support this technology. Food irradiation cannot be considered successfully implemented until the commercial industry is making a profit by the use of this technology. Use of this technology will: (1) reduce food borne infections (FBI); (2) decrease the hazards of the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry production; (3) reduce the need for agriculture quarantine procedures; and (4) increase shelf-life of perishable foods. However, only (1) and (3) are being considered as economic alternatives by the present day's food industry. Previously, agriculture has focused on technology that would increase production and reduce costs. Today this is rapidly changing to implementing technology that markets a product the consumer wants and is perceived as being safer and environmentally responsible. (author)

  4. The commercial use of gamma facilities in North and South America for agriculture product processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butterweck, Joseph S.

    1993-07-01

    The treatment of agriculture and food products with ionizing radiation has been proven to be safe, effective, economical, and according to consumer surveys, the end product is better. However, commercial implementation of food irradiation has been slow because the following: 1. The lack of profit incentives 2. The failure of the political system to deal with antinuclear groups 3. The failure of public health authorities to actively support this technologyFood irradiation cannot be considered successfully implemented until the commercial industry is making a profit by the use of this technology. Use of this technology will: (1) reduce food borne infections (FBI); (2) decrease the hazards of the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry production; (3) reduce the need for agriculture quarantine procedures; and (4) increase shelf-life of perishable foods. However, only (1) and (3) are being considered as economic alternative by the present day's food industry. Previously, agriculture has focused on technology that would increase production and reduce costs. Today this is rapidly changing to implementing technology that markets a product the consumer wants and is perceived as being safer and environmental responsible.

  5. Guide for dosimetry in radiation research on food and agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    This guide covers the minimum requirements for dosimetry and absorbed-dose validation needed to conduct research on the irradiation of food and agricultural products. Such research includes establishment of the quantitative relationship between the absorbed dose and the relevant effects in these products. This guide also describes the overall need for dosimetry in such research, and in reporting of the results. This guide is intended for use by research scientists in the food and agricultural communities, and not just scientists conducting irradiation research. It, therefore, includes more tutorial information than most other ASTM and ISO/ASTM dosimetry standards for radiation processing. This guide is in no way intended to limit the flexibility of the experimenter in the experimental design. However, the radiation source and experimental set up should be chosen such that the results of the experiment will be beneficial and understandable to other scientists, regulatory agencies, and the food and agricultural communities. The effects produced by ionizing radiation in biological systems depend on a large number of factors which may be physical, physiological, or chemical. Although not treated in detail in this guide, quantitative data of environmental factors that may affect the absorbed-dose response of dosimeters, such as temperature and moisture content in the food or agricultural products should be reported. The overall uncertainty in the absorbed-dose measurement and the inherent absorbed-dose range within the specimen should be taken into account in the design of an experiment. The guide covers research conducted using the following types of ionizing radiation: gamma rays, bremsstrahlung X-rays, and electron beams. This guide does not include other aspects of radiation processing research, such as planning of the experimental design. Dosimetry must be considered as an integral part of the experimental design. The guide does not include dosimetry for irradiator

  6. Innovative Equipment and Production Method for Mixed Fodder in the Conditions of Agricultural Enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabiev, U. K.; Demchuk, E. V.; Myalo, V. V.; Soyunov, A. S.

    2017-07-01

    It is recommended to feed the cattle and poultry with grain fodder in the form of feed mixture balanced according to the content. Feeding of grain fodder in the form of stock feed is inefficient and economically unreasonable. The article is devoted to actual problem - the preparation of mixed fodder in the conditions of agricultural enterprises. Review and critical analyses of mixed fodder assemblies and aggregates are given. Structural and technical schemes of small-size mixed fodder aggregate with intensified attachments of vibrating and percussive action for preparation of bulk feed mixture in the conditions of agricultural enterprises were developed. The mixed fodder aggregate for its preparation in the places of direct consumption from own grain fodder production and purchased protein and vitamin supplements is also suggested. Mixed fodder aggregate allows to get prepared mixed fodder of high uniformity at low cost of energy and price of production that is becoming profitable for livestock breeding. Model line-up of suggested mixed fodder aggregate with different productivity both for small and big agricultural enterprises is considered.

  7. On The Impact of Climate Change to Agricultural Productivity in East Java

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuswanto, Heri; Salamah, Mutiah; Mumpuni Retnaningsih, Sri; Dwi Prastyo, Dedy

    2018-03-01

    Many researches showed that climate change has significant impact on agricultural sector, which threats the food security especially in developing countries. It has been observed also that the climate change increases the intensity of extreme events. This research investigated the impact climate to the agricultural productivity in East Java, as one of the main rice producers in Indonesia. Standard regression as well as panel regression models have been performed in order to find the best model which is able to describe the climate change impact. The analysis found that the fixed effect model of panel regression outperforms the others showing that climate change had negatively impacted the rice productivity in East Java. The effect in Malang and Pasuruan were almost the same, while the impact in Sumenep was the least one compared to other districts.

  8. Agricultural production and stability of settlement systems in Upper Mesopotamia during the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BCE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalayci, Tuna

    This study investigates the relationship between rainfall variation and rain-fed agricultural production in Upper Mesopotamia with a specific focus on Early Bronze Age urban settlements. In return, the variation in production is used to explore stability of urban settlement systems. The organization of the flow of agricultural goods is the key to sustaining the total settlement system. The vulnerability of a settlement system increases due to the increased demand for more output from agricultural lands. This demand is the key for the success of urbanization project. However, without estimating how many foodstuffs were available at the end of a production cycle, further discussions on the forces that shaped and sustained urban settlement systems will be lacking. While large scale fluctuations in the flow of agricultural products between settlements are not the only determinants of hierarchical structures, the total available agricultural yield for each urban settlement in a hierarchy must have influenced settlement relations. As for the methodology, first, Early Bronze Age precipitation levels are estimated by using modern day associations between the eastern Mediterranean coastal areas and the inner regions of Upper Mesopotamia. Next, these levels are integrated into a remote-sensing based biological growth model. Also, a CORONA satellite imagery based archaeological survey is conducted in order to map the Early Bronze Age settlement system in its entirety as well as the ancient markers of agricultural intensification. Finally, ancient agricultural production landscapes are modeled in a GIS. The study takes a critical position towards the traditionally held assumption that large urban settlements (cities) in Upper Mesopotamia were in a state of constant demand for food. The results from this study also suggest that when variations in ancient precipitation levels are translated into the variations in production levels, the impact of climatic aridification on ancient

  9. Evaluating the incorporation of heavy metals to agroecosystem. Role of the productive practices executed by agricultural workers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia Cespedes, Damarys; Santana Romero, Jorge Luis; Olivares Rieumont, Susana

    2012-01-01

    Health risks associated to practical activities in farm and agriculture are increasing all over the world. These risks are depending from technology and chemicals substances abuse. Urban agriculture specifically constitutes a challenge for producers and researchers. Agricultural food production, held inside of the cities, looking for sustainable productions is developed in risky scenarios where it is possible to found environmental pollutants such as heavy metals. Environmental pollutants may to contaminate humans throughout different pathways. The analysis of factors related to agricultural working strategies of urban farm workers, the precedent knowledgement about production places and analytical data related to composition and properties of these sites, are significant criteria for proper management of ecosystems. Qualitative analysis research tool such as expert group criteria is a suitable method for field research in this area. It was determined that the precedent use of soil, the use of fertilizers and phytosanitary products are key elements to be taken into account for successful management of agroecosystems and for health risk prevention related to the possible influence of heavy metals in farm practice

  10. Energy in agriculture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Le Roux, E J

    1980-02-01

    Agriculture is an important component of Canadian energy policy. There are many opportunities for both the production of energy from agricultural processes and the conservation of energy in agricultural production. These opportunities, as well as current practices and research in progress, are outlined in this report. Energy sources in agriculture include biomass (straw and other residues), methane production from manure, and oil and alcohol from crops. Alternate energy sources such as solar and wind power conserve conventional resources, and additional conservation opportunities exist in the use of greenhouses, waste heat and energy-efficient farming processes. Research programs and possible trends are outlined. 10 figs., 3 tabs.

  11. [Characteristics of Phthalic Acid Esters in Agricultural Soils and Products in Areas of Zhongshan City, South China].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Bin; Wu, Shan; Liang, Jin-ming; Liang, Wen-li; Chen, Gui-xian; Li, Yong-jun; Yang, Guo-yi

    2015-06-01

    In order to investigate and assess the pollution level of phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in farm soils and products from typical agricultural fields in areas of Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, South China, 65 topsoil and 37 agricultural product samples were collected and contents of 6 PAEs compounds that classified by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as priority pollutants were determined by the GC-FID. The results indicated that total contents of the PAEs (∑ PAEs) in soils ranged from 0. 14 to 1. 14 mg x kg(-1), and the mean value was 0.43 mg x kg(-1), with the detected ratio of 100%. Various concentrations of PAEs differed in three land-use types were ordered by vegetable soil > orchard soil > paddy soil. Comparing with six U.S. EPA priority pollutants of PAEs, the contents of Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and Dimethyl phthalate ( DMP) in soils exceeded the control limits of PAEs in the American soil by 93.85% and 27.69% respectively, but the rest four PAEs compounds were lower than the control limits. Generally, the pollution level of soils contaminated by PAEs in agricultural fields of Zhongshan City was relatively low. The contents of 3 PAEs in agricultural products ranged from 0.15 to 3.15 mg x kg(-1) with the average of 1.12 mg x kg(-1), which was lower than the suggested standards in USA and Europe and with low health risk. Meanwhile, ∑ PAEs concentrations in vegetables were higher than those both in rice and fruits. DBP and DEHP were the main components of PAEs both in agricultural soils and products, with higher percentage contents and detected ratio. ∑ PAEs and DBP contents in various agricultural products-soils had a significantly positive correlation, with Pearson coefficients (r) in vegetables-vegetable soils were 0.81 (P = 0.000), 0.75 (P = 0.000), and corresponding r among rice-paddy soil and fruits-fruit soils were 0.74 (P = 0.036), 0.65 (P = 0.041) and 0.66 (P = 0.029), 0.78 (P = 0.045), respectively. Although there existed a

  12. 7. Food and agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Livernash, R.

    1992-01-01

    Global food production has increased substantially over the past two decades, but factors such as population pressures and environmental degradation are undermining agriculture's current condition and future prospects. This chapter discusses the following: global trends; production trends (livestock and fisheries); per capita production trends (population density and agriculture); environmental trends (soil degradation, inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and freshwater); economic trends (agricultural commodity prices, declining investment in irrigation, World Bank lending); trade liberalization and the Gatt negotiations; conventional agriculture and alternative agriculture; problems with the conventional model (on-farm impacts, off-farm impacts); agricultural policies - creating a new environment; policy impacts - distorted price structures; new policy options (reducing input subsidies, land conservation programs, management agreements, taxes, fees, and tax incentives, strengthening regulations, subsidizing conversion); the economics of alternative agriculture

  13. U.S. Agriculture, 1960-96 A Multilateral Comparison of Total Factor Productivity

    OpenAIRE

    Ball, V. Eldon; Butault, Jean-Pierre; Nehring, Richard F.

    2001-01-01

    This study provides estimates of the growth and relative levels of agricultural productivity for the 48 contiguous States for the period 1960 to 1996. For the full 1960-96 period, every State exhibits a positive and generally substantial average annual rate of productivity growth. There is considerable variance, however. The wide disparity in growth rates resulted in substantial changes in the ranking order of States by productivity. For each year, we calculate the coefficient of variation of...

  14. Impact of Agricultural Credit on Production of Wheat Crop: A Case Study of District Faisalabad-Pakistan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadia Asghar , Muhammad Waqas Chughtai

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture sector plays an important role in the economic development of Pakistan. Wheat is an important and most cultivated crop because it is an essential ingredient of food commodities. Credit plays a vital role in agricultural farming by indirectly participating in purchasing of agricultural inputs i.e. seed, fertilizer, irrigation, machinery and labor etc. Majority of the farmers are poor and they are not able to fulfill the cash requirement of farming, therefore credit has become their dire need. Due to credit farmers can timely purchase the agricultural inputs which resulting a bumper crop. The objective of this study is to depict the impact of credit on the production of wheat crop. Survey was conducted and random sampling technique was used to select the sample borrowers. The collected data was interpreted through “Cobb Douglas Production Function” by using statistical software (SPSS 16.0. The results showed that credit has positive and significant impact on wheat production. The values of R2 and F-statistics are found significant which represented that all selected variables are highly significant. The study not only shares the importance of credit to perform any agriculture activity but also helpful for economists and policy makers for designing agri financing policies.

  15. Nitrous oxide production and consumption potential in an agricultural and a forest soil

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yu, Kewei; Struwe, Sten; Kjøller, Annelise

    2008-01-01

    Both a laboratory incubation experiment using soils from an agricultural field and a forest and field measurements at the same locations were conducted to determine nitrous oxide (N2O) production and consumption (reduction) potentials using the acetylene (C2H2) inhibition technique. Results from...... measurements show that average N2O emission rates were 0.56 and 0.59 kg N ha-1 in the agricultural field and forest, respectively. When C2H2 was provided in the field measurements, N2O emission rates from the agricultural field and forest increased by 38 and 51%, respectively. Nitrous oxide consumption under...

  16. Utilization of agriculture wastes. part I. production of fungal protein from rice and wheat straws

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murtaza, N.; Hussain, S.A.

    2000-01-01

    Agricultural Agricultural waste of rice and wheat straws were studied for the production of protein and biomass. As these wastes have low protein contents as attempt is made to increase the protein and biomass content of these wastes so as to produce a better product for consumption as food. The studies were conducted using various media and various incubation periods. Some inorganic salts and molasses were added to improve the cultivation of fungi. Aspergillus oryzae produced the results due to its rapid growth which minimized the chance of contamination. Seven days incubation gave the most favourable results in both the agricultural wastes. The maximum production of biomass (33.33%) with a protein value of 20% was obtained with 450 g of rice straw in media no. 2 whereas 400 g of wheat straw on 6 litres of medium produced the best results with 20% biomass and a protein value of 20%. (author)

  17. Two agricultural production data libraries for risk assessment models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baes, C.F. III; Shor, R.W.; Sharp, R.D.; Sjoreen, A.L.

    1985-01-01

    Two data libraries based on the 1974 US Census of Agriculture are described. The data packages (AGDATC and AGDATG) are available from the Radiation Shielding Information Center (RSIC), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831. Agricultural production and land-use information by county (AGDATC) or by 1/2 by 1/2 degree longitude-latitude grid cell (AGDATG) provide geographical resolution of the data. The libraries were designed for use in risk assessment models that simulate the transport of radionuclides from sources of airborne release through food chains to man. However, they are also suitable for use in the assessment of other airborne pollutants that can affect man from a food ingestion pathway such as effluents from synfuels or coal-fired power plants. The principal significance of the data libraries is that they provide default location-specific food-chain transport parameters when site-specific information are unavailable. Plant food categories in the data libraries include leafy vegetables, vegetables and fruits exposed to direct deposition of airborne pollutants, vegetables and fruits protected from direct deposition, and grains. Livestock feeds are also tabulated in four categories: pasture, grain, hay, and silage. Pasture was estimated by a material balance of cattle and sheep inventories, forage feed requirements, and reported harvested forage. Cattle (Bos spp.), sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus), hog (Sus scrofa), chicken (Gallus domesticus), and turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) inventories or sales are also tabulated in the data libraries and can be used to provide estimates of meat, eggs, and milk production. Honey production also is given. Population, irrigation, and meteorological information are also listed

  18. Greater carbon stocks and faster turnover rates with increasing agricultural productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanderman, J.; Fallon, S.; Baisden, T. W.

    2013-12-01

    H.H. Janzen (2006) eloquently argued that from an agricultural perspective there is a tradeoff between storing carbon as soil organic matter (SOM) and the soil nutrient and energy benefit provided during SOM mineralization. Here we report on results from the Permanent Rotation Trial at the Waite Agricultural Institute, South Australia, indicating that shifting to an agricultural management strategy which returns more carbon to the soil, not only leads to greater carbon stocks but also increases the rate of carbon cycling through the soil. The Permanent Rotation Trial was established on a red Chromosol in 1925 with upgrades made to several treatments in 1948. Decadal soil samples were collected starting in 1963 at two depths, 0-10 and 10-22.5 cm, by compositing 20 soil cores taken along the length of each plot. We have chosen to analyze five trials representing a gradient in productivity: permanent pasture (Pa), wheat-pasture rotation (2W4Pa), continuous wheat (WW), wheat-oats-fallow rotation (WOF) and wheat-fallow (WF). For each of the soil samples (40 in total), the radiocarbon activity in the bulk soil as well as size-fractionated samples was measured by accelerator mass spectrometry at ANU's Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory (Fallon et al. 2010). After nearly 70 years under each rotation, SOC stocks increased linearly with productivity data across the trials from 24 to 58 tC ha-1. Importantly, these differences were due to greater losses over time in the low productivity trials rather than gains in SOC in any of the trials. Uptake of the bomb-spike in atmospheric 14C into the soil was greatest in the trials with the greatest productivity. The coarse size fraction always had greater Δ14C values than the bulk soil samples. Several different multi-pool steady state and non-steady state models were used to interpret the Δ14C data in terms of SOC turnover rates. Regardless of model choice, either the decay rates of all pools needed to increase or the allocation of C to

  19. Gender in crop agriculture

    OpenAIRE

    Food and Agriculture Organization; The World Bank; IFAD

    2008-01-01

    Metadata only record This is a module in the "Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook" published by the World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development. This module examines the role of gender in crop agriculture as an essential component of development and poverty reduction. Gender is an integral aspect of crop agriculture because women's roles in crop production and household subsistence, as well as their knowledge of complex production syst...

  20. State regulation of the biotechnology (GM agricultural products: analysis of different approaches in the world

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina Vladimirovna Yakovleva

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Although GM crops are cultivated on 175 million hectares in 27 countries, the regulation of agricultural biotechnology is in its becoming. In the future, many countries, of course, will lead to market biotech products, and the main focus will be biosafety issues for humans and the environment. Some countries have special regulatory mechanisms, others do not have the original national regulatory system, but their actions are under the provisions of international treaties for the production and handling of GM products. What are the main components of a strict but not stifling regulatory system? What are the disadvantages of existing systems? The article presents an overview of the state regulation systems of biotech agricultural products in the US, the EU, Argentina, South Africa and Brazil.

  1. EVALUATION OF NUTRITIVE VALUE AND IN VITRO METHANE PRODUCTION OF FEEDSTUFFS FROM AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD INDUSTRY BY-PRODUCTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Santoso

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this research was to evaluate the nutrient degradability, in vitro methane (CH4 production ofseveral agricultural and food industry by-products in relation to their chemical composition. Twenty-onesamples of 7 feedstuffs from agricultural and food industry by-products consisted of corn straw, potatostraw, rice straw, cocoa pod, sago waste, rice bran, soybean curd residue were evaluated by an in vitro gasproduction and nutrient degradability. The feedstuffs varied greatly in their crude protein (CP, neutraldetergent fiber (NDF and non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC contents. Crude protein ranged from 1.5 to 21.8%,NDF from 31.6 to 71.1% and NFC from 1.5 to 50.8%. Among the seven feedstuffs, soybean curd residuehad the highest CP content, on the other hand it had the lowest NDF content. Dry matter (DM and organicmatter (OM degradability were highest (P<0.01 in soybean curd residue among the feedstuffs. The CH4production was significantly higher (P<0.01 in rice straw, cocoa pod and corn straw as compared to sagowaste. There was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.60; P<0.01 between NDF concentration and CH4production. However, the total gas productions was negatively correlated (r = -0.75; P<0.01 with NDFcontent. The CH4 production of feedstuff is influenced by NDF content.

  2. Soil types and limiting factors in agricultural production in the San Fernando district, Tamaulipas, Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Espinosa Ramirez, M.; Garza Cedillo, R.; Andrade limas, E.; Belmonte Serrato, F.

    2009-01-01

    The limiting factors in agricultural production, defined as those properties and characteristics of the geographical environment that influence the development of crops, can be diverse and are grouped with the physical environment of soil. They are the result of soil characteristics and soil degradation processes by anthropogenic influence. Due to the above, the objective of this study was to identify and surveying the limitative factors to agricultural production, as well as to define its ability land use capacity in San Fernando district, Tamaulipas. (Author) 7 refs.

  3. Seasonal Forecasting of Agriculture Gross Domestic Production in Iran: Application of Periodic Autoregressive Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Ghahremanzadeh

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture as one of the major economic sectors of Iran, has an important role in Gross Domestic Production by providing about 14% of GDP. This study attempts to forecast the value of the agriculture GDP using Periodic Autoregressive model (PAR, as the new seasonal time series techniques. To address this aim, the quarterly data were collected from March 1988 to July 1989. The collected data was firstly analyzed using periodic unit root test Franses & Paap (2004. The analysis found non-periodic unit root in the seasonal data. Second, periodic seasonal behavior (Boswijk & Franses, 1996 was examined. The results showed that periodic autoregressive model fits agriculture GDP well. This makes an accurate forecast of agriculture GDP possible. Using the estimated model, the future value of quarter agricultural GDP from March 2011 to July 2012was forecasted. With consideration to the fair fit of this model with agricultural GDP, It is recommended to use periodic autoregressive model for the future studies.

  4. The influences of the cultural models on agricultural production structures in Romania and some EU-28 countries: A perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrei Jean Vasile

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy and the changing of its paradigm was a subject of extensive consideration in the literature, but never the implications of specific cultural aspects on agricultural performance and production structures were ever taken into consideration. The main aim of the paper is the analysis of the some aspects regarding the influences of the cultural models on agricultural production structures in Romania and some EU-28 countries, form a larger perspective, starting with the CAP transformations over the time and the European agricultural model, analysing the role of the multifunctional agriculture in shaping the holding's structure and performances, and in the last it is considered the role of agriculture and rural communities in promoting renewable including bio-fuels.

  5. Genetically Modified Crops: Towards Agricultural Growth, Agricultural Development, or Agricultural Sustainability?

    OpenAIRE

    Azadi, Hossein; Ghanian, Mansour; Ghuchani, Omid M.; Rafiaani, Parisa; Taning, Clauvis N. T.; Hajivand, Roghaye Y.; Dogot, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    The present debate on how to increase global food production in a sustainable way has focused on arguments over the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) crops. Scientists in both public and private sectors clearly regard GM technology as a major new set of tools, whereas industry sees it as an opportunity for increased profits. However, it remains questionable whether GM crops can contribute to agricultural growth, agricultural development, and agricultural sustainability. This review p...

  6. Agricultural productivity and greenhouse gas emissions: trade-offs or synergies between mitigation and food security?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valin, H; Havlík, P; Mosnier, A; Obersteiner, M; Herrero, M; Schmid, E

    2013-01-01

    In this letter, we investigate the effects of crop yield and livestock feed efficiency scenarios on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture and land use change in developing countries. We analyze mitigation associated with different productivity pathways using the global partial equilibrium model GLOBIOM. Our results confirm that yield increase could mitigate some agriculture-related emissions growth over the next decades. Closing yield gaps by 50% for crops and 25% for livestock by 2050 would decrease agriculture and land use change emissions by 8% overall, and by 12% per calorie produced. However, the outcome is sensitive to the technological path and which factor benefits from productivity gains: sustainable land intensification would increase GHG savings by one-third when compared with a fertilizer intensive pathway. Reaching higher yield through total factor productivity gains would be more efficient on the food supply side but halve emissions savings due to a strong rebound effect on the demand side. Improvement in the crop or livestock sector would have different implications: crop yield increase would bring the largest food provision benefits, whereas livestock productivity gains would allow the greatest reductions in GHG emission. Combining productivity increases in the two sectors appears to be the most efficient way to exploit mitigation and food security co-benefits. (letter)

  7. [Brazil: agricultural modernisation and food production restructuring in the international crisis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertrand, J P

    1985-01-01

    development in the mid-1960s which required insertion into the world economy, notably through a search for new export sectors. The agricultural sector was assigned 3 functions: producing food as cheaply as possible, increasing the proportion of exportable crops, and substituting some of the foods imported. Brazil evolved in 2 decades from a classic agroexporter to a more complex structure reflecting the semiindustrialized state of the economy. The share of processed agricultural goods increased accordingly. The foods produced for the internal market have been changing at the same time that a new hierarchy of exportable products has evolved. Agricultural policy involved recourse to market mechanisms and cheap credit focused on the south and southeastern regions, large and medium sized producers, and a few products including soy, coffee, sugar cane, and cotton. Just 3% of credits went to the traditional foodstuffs beans and manioc. The most serious consequence of the internationalization of the agricultural economy has been a dangerous increase in the vulnerability of low income groups to world food price fluctuations.

  8. Monitoring the impacts of weather and climate extremes on global agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Johansson

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB, under the direction of the Department of Agriculture's Office of the Chief Economist, employs a staff of agricultural meteorologists whose mission is to monitor and assess the impacts of weather and climate on crops in key growing areas throughout the world. The results of those analyses contribute to the deliberations conducted by the Interagency Commodity Estimates Committees (ICEC led by analysts at the World Agricultural Outlook Board. The results of those deliberations can be found in the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE report, one of the designated Principle Federal Economic Indicators issued monthly by the Federal Government (White House (Office of Management and Budget, 2015. The process used to develop those estimates each month requires the integration of an assessment of the current climatic conditions with knowledge of the agricultural practices and market conditions of a particular country. Weather and climate data are used in conjunction with information on when and where crops are planted, production practices including irrigation, which varieties are best suited for that particular climate, and what naturally occurring hazards can be expected in any given year. Being able to closely compare current conditions to historic observations of weather and realized output on a fine scale, temporally and geographically, is a key component of the international estimates in the WASDE process.

  9. 7 CFR 205.308 - Agricultural products in other than packaged form at the point of retail sale that are sold...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Agricultural products in other than packaged form at the point of retail sale that are sold, labeled, or represented as â100 percent organicâ or âorganic.â... Information § 205.308 Agricultural products in other than packaged form at the point of retail sale that are...

  10. [Research progress of Terahertz wave technology in quality measurement of food and agricultural products].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Zhan-Ke; Zhang, Hong-Jian; Ying, Yi-Bin

    2007-11-01

    The quality concern of food and agricultural products has become more and more significant. The related technologies for nondestructive measurement or quality control of food products have been the focus of many researches. Terahertz (THz) radiation, or THz wave, the least explored region of the spectrum, is the electromagnetic wave that lies between mid-infrared and microwave radiation, which has very important research and application values. THz spectroscopy and THz imaging technique are the two main applications of THz wave. During the past decade, THz waves have been used to characterize the electronic, vibrational and compositional properties of solid, liquid and gas phase materials. Recently, THz technology has gained a lot of attention of researchers in various fields from biological spectral analysis to bio-medical imaging due to its unique features compared with microwave and optical waves. In the present paper, the properties of THz wave and its uniqueness in sensing and imaging applications were discussed. The most recent researches on THz technology used in food quality control and agricultural products inspection were summarized. The prospect of this novel technology in agriculture and food industry was also discussed.

  11. Pesticide residue assessment in three selected agricultural production systems in the Choluteca River Basin of Honduras

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kammerbauer, J.; Moncada, J.

    1999-01-01

    There is a basic lack of information about the presence of pesticide residues in the environment in Central America. Over the period of February 1995 to June 1997, river, well, lagoon and spring water samples, as well as soil, fish tissue, lagoon bed sediments and some foodstuffs were taken from the greater Cholutecan River Basin of Honduras and analyzed for pesticide residues. These were collected at three separate sites (La Lima, Zamorano and Choluteca), each characterized by differing agricultural production systems. The main pesticide residues found in soil samples were dieldrin and p,p'-DDT, while river water samples were found to have detectable levels of heptachlor, endosulfan and chlorpyrifos, with lagoon and well water also being shown to contain heptachlor. These pesticides detected were in more than 20% of the samples assessed. In river water samples more pesticide residues at higher concentrations were found to be associated with areas of more intensive agricultural production. The fewest pesticides with lowest concentrations were found in the small subwatershed associated with traditional agricultural production. Although the pesticides found in the soils at the three sites were generally similar they tended to be higher in the southern part of the Cholutecan watershed, followed by the central zone, with the lowest concentrations being found in the more traditional production zone. In lagoon and well water samples more pesticides, but mostly in lower concentrations were detected at the traditional production site than at the others. Ten pesticide compounds were detected in fish tissue, mainly organochlorines, some of which were also found in lagoon sediments. In terms of food products, almost no pesticides were detected in vegetables, but the kidney adipose tissue taken from slaughtered cows was shown to have a tendency to contain some organochlorines. Spring water in the traditional agricultural production zone contained three organochlorine compounds

  12. Naturally occurring radionuclides in agricultural products: An overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanlon, E.A.

    1994-01-01

    Low levels of naturally occurring radionuclides exist in phosphatic clays, a by-product of phosphatic mining and beneficiation processes. Concerns about these radionuclides entering the human food chain were an immediate research priority before the phosphate clays could be reclaimed for intensive agricultural purposes. Efforts included the assembly of a large body of data from both sons and plants, part of which were produced by the Polk County (Florida) Mined Lands Agricultural Research/Demonstration Project MLAR/DP. Additional detailed studies involving dairy and beef cattle (Bos taurus) were conducted by researchers working with the MLAR/DP. A national symposium was conducted in which data concerning the MLAR/DP work and other research projects also dealing with naturally occurring radionuclides in agriculture could be discussed. The symposium included invited review papers dealing with the identification of radionuclide geological origins, the geochemistry and movement of radionuclides within the environment, mechanisms of plant uptake, entry points into the food chain, and evaluation of dose and risk assessment to the consumer of low levels of radionuclides. The risk to human health of an individual obtaining 0.1 of his or her dietary intake from crops produced on phosphatic clays increased by 1 in 5 x 10 6 /yr above a control individual consuming no food grown on phosphatic clays. Leaf tissues were found to be generally higher than fruit, grain, or root tissues. The natural range in radionuclide content among various food types was greater than the difference in radionuclides content between the same food produced on phosphatic clays vs. natural soils. 19 refs

  13. A technical selection of suitable agricultural products for the application of radurisation technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, N.D.

    1989-01-01

    The commercial utilization of radurization technology has not reached the levels expected due, predominantly, to two contributing factors. Over and above the suspicions held by the consumer towards food radurization, a dearth of information exists regarding the costs of applying this technology. It appears, therefore, that if the question of consumer acceptance is surmounted, an indication of benefit costs would be crucial to convincing potential radurization users whether or not this technology can provide any economic benefit. The range of food and agricultural products consumed in South Africa is very diverse. To determine the radurization benefit cost of each food product consumed in South Africa would, therefore, be a monumental task. As a result an investigation was commissioned by the Study Group for the Techno-Economic Aspects of the Steering Committee for the Marketing of Radurized Food Products. This investigation was aimed, in the first instance, at identifying those food and agricultural products best suited for the application of this technology, thereby creating a short list on which detailed benefit cost analyses could be performed

  14. Machine vision system: a tool for quality inspection of food and agricultural products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patel, Krishna Kumar; Kar, A; Jha, S N; Khan, M A

    2012-04-01

    Quality inspection of food and agricultural produce are difficult and labor intensive. Simultaneously, with increased expectations for food products of high quality and safety standards, the need for accurate, fast and objective quality determination of these characteristics in food products continues to grow. However, these operations generally in India are manual which is costly as well as unreliable because human decision in identifying quality factors such as appearance, flavor, nutrient, texture, etc., is inconsistent, subjective and slow. Machine vision provides one alternative for an automated, non-destructive and cost-effective technique to accomplish these requirements. This inspection approach based on image analysis and processing has found a variety of different applications in the food industry. Considerable research has highlighted its potential for the inspection and grading of fruits and vegetables, grain quality and characteristic examination and quality evaluation of other food products like bakery products, pizza, cheese, and noodles etc. The objective of this paper is to provide in depth introduction of machine vision system, its components and recent work reported on food and agricultural produce.

  15. Bridging environmental and financial cost of dairy production: A case study of Irish agricultural policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Wenhao; Holden, Nicholas M

    2018-02-15

    The Irish agricultural policy 'Food Harvest 2020' is a roadmap for sectoral expansion and Irish dairy farming is expected to intensify, which could influence the environmental and economic performance of Irish milk production. Evaluating the total environmental impacts and the real cost of Irish milk production is a key step towards understanding the possibility of sustainable production. This paper addresses two main issues: aggregation of environmental impacts of Irish milk production by monetization, to understand the real cost of Irish milk production, including the environmental costs; and the effect of the agricultural policy 'Food Harvest 2020' on total cost (combining financial cost and environmental cost) of Irish milk production. This study used 2013 Irish dairy farming as a baseline, and defined 'bottom', 'target' and 'optimum' scenarios, according to the change of elementary inputs required to meet agricultural policy ambitions. The study demonstrated that the three monetization methods, Stepwise 2006, Eco-cost 2012 and EPS 2000, could be used for aggregating different environmental impacts into monetary unit, and to provide an insight for evaluating policy related to total environmental performance. The results showed that the total environmental cost of Irish milk production could be greater than the financial cost (up to €0.53/kg energy corrected milk). The dairy expansion policy with improved herbage utilization and fertilizer application could reduce financial cost and minimize the total environmental cost of per unit milk produced. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Use of radiation hygienised municipal sewage sludge as a soil conditioner to enhance agricultural productivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shah, M.R.; Nareshkumar; Sabharwal, S.

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a report on the applications that have been developed and demonstrated in the radiation hygienisation of municipal sewage sludge for use in the agriculture as value added manure. Radiation hygienization process effectively eliminates the pathogenic bacteria present in the sewage sludge. Application of sludge to agricultural land enhances the yield and quality of agricultural products due to macronutrients and micronutrients present in the sludge. The process benefits municipal sewage treatment plant authorities as well as farming community. (author)

  17. Texting As A Discursive Approach For The Production Of Agricultural Solutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ronan G. Zagado

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper demonstrates how the short messaging service SMS popularly known as texting has facilitated production of solutions to farm issues using the Farmers Text Centre FTC of the Philippine Rice Research PhilRice as the case study. Text messages registered in the FTC database in 2010 covering one cropping season were discourse analyzed. Interpretive qualitative research particularly the Grounded Theory was employed to interprettheorize said data. Since texting is a new emerging discourse in agricultural development Grounded Theory allows the explication of theoretical accounts that explain its existence and impact. Results indicate that timing queries received within working days from 8am to 5pm get speedy response content the easier the question the faster it gets reply length the shorter the message the better and clarity of the querytext message as well as cultural factors such as greetings and terms of respect are all important governing factors in texting for farm use. Moreover analysis reveals that the series of text messages sent back and forth by farmers and agricultural specialist in FTC suggests a dynamic process of negotiation rather than passive information sharing. The analysis further reveals that texting has allowed farmers to have access to a negotiated knowledge rather than a standard scientific recommendation vis--vis the solution to their farm issues. The term negotiated implies that farmers are actively involved in knowledge production via texting. Textholder is coined in this paper to describe farmers and agricultural specialists as co-creators of knowledge in texting as opposed to their traditional role as knowledge generator and user respectively. From the analysis reflections implications and theoretical contributions are drawn in relation to the value of SMSing in agricultural extension and communication.

  18. Increasing the Value of Agricultural Products in the Face of Global ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The Paper examined the increasing value of agricultural products in the face of global economic recession in Anambra State. The paper revealed that Anambra State is endowed with human and natural resources and if properly harnessed, can go a long way in arresting the food insecurity in the State and alleviate the ...

  19. The health risk of the agricultural production in potentially contaminated sites: an environmental-health risk analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giovanni Russo

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Rural areas are often interested by pollution phenomena generated by agricultural activities with a high use of pesticides and/or by anthropic activities, such as industrial plants or illegal waste disposal sites, which may cause even long-range contamination. The risk for human health from the pollutants present in the environment can be quantitatively evaluated by the environmental health risk analysis set out in the Italian Legislative Decree no. 152/2006 (Italian Regulation, 2006. This analysis is the best technical-normative tool to estimate the health risks linked to the pollutants present in the environment but it does not consider the specificity of agricultural soils or the contamination of agricultural products. This study aims to provide this missing technical-normative data by identifying and applying a suitable methodology to evaluate the health risk caused by the ingestion of agricultural products grown in contaminated soils. The risk analysis was applied to two contaminated areas in southern Italy using an innovative methodology based on widely accepted parameters for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs soil-plant bio-transfer factor in the case of horticultural crops. In addition, some concentration limits of PAHs in agricultural soils are proposed that may be of help to the competent authorities (health agencies, local authorities in delineating the areas requiring strict health surveillance of the food products cultivated.

  20. Air gasification of agricultural waste in a fluidized bed gasifier: hydrogen production performance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wan Ab Karim Ghani, W. A.; Moghadam, R. A.; Mohd Salleh, M. A. [Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor (Malaysia); Alias, A. B. [Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, 54500 Shah Alam, Selangor (Malaysia)

    2009-07-01

    Recently, hydrogen production from biomass has become an attractive technology for power generation. The main objective pursued in this work is to investigate the hydrogen production potential from agricultural wastes (coconut coir and palm kernel shell) by applying the air gasification technique. An experimental study was conducted using a bench-scale fluidized bed gasifier with 60 mm diameter and 425 mm height. During the experiments, the fuel properties and the effects of operating parameters such as gasification temperatures (700 to 900 {sup o}C), fluidization ratio (2 to 3.33 m/s), static bed height (10 to 30 mm) and equivalence ratio (0.16 to 0.46) were studied. It was concluded that substantial amounts of hydrogen gas (up to 67 mol%) could be produced utilizing agricultural residues such as coconut and palm kernel shell by applying this fluidization technique. For both samples, the rise of temperature till 900 {sup o}C favored further hydrocarbon reactions and allowed an increase of almost 67 mol% in the release of hydrogen. However, other parameters such as fluidising velocity and feed load showed only minor effects on hydrogen yield. In conclusion, agricultural waste can be assumed as an alternative renewable energy source to the fossil fuels, and the environmental pollution originating from the disposal of agricultural residues can be partially reduced. (author)

  1. Air Gasification of Agricultural Waste in a Fluidized Bed Gasifier: Hydrogen Production Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. B. Alias

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Recently, hydrogen production from biomass has become an attractive technology for power generation. The main objective pursued in this work is to investigate the hydrogen production potential from agricultural wastes (coconut coir and palm kernel shell by applying the air gasification technique. An experimental study was conducted using a bench-scale fluidized bed gasifier with 60 mm diameter and 425 mm height. During the experiments, the fuel properties and the effects of operating parameters such as gasification temperatures (700 to 900°C, fluidization ratio (2 to 3.33 m/s, static bed height (10 to 30 mm and equivalence ratio (0.16 to 0.46 were studied. It was concluded that substantial amounts of hydrogen gas (up to 67 mol% could be produced utilizing agricultural residues such as coconut and palm kernel shell by applying this fluidization technique. For both samples, the rise of temperature till 900°C favored further hydrocarbon reactions and allowed an increase of almost 67 mol% in the release of hydrogen. However, other parameters such as fluidizing velocity and feed load showed only minor effects on hydrogen yield. In conclusion, agricultural waste can be assumed as an alternative renewable energy source to the fossil fuels, and the environmental pollution originating from the disposal of agricultural residues can be partially reduced.

  2. A study on the production of agricultural residues in Italy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Di Blasi, C.; Tanzi, V.; Lanzetta, M. [Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dip di Ingegneria Chimica, Napoli (Italy)

    1997-12-01

    The Italian production of agricultural residues has been evaluated with a view to energy recovery through gasification. Two main categories of residues have been identified: the first, (A) is associated with the growing and collection of products with a nutritional value, whereas the second (B) includes the residues associated with the subsequent processing in order to obtain final products for commercialization. Category A, which comprises three further sub-categories: straw (A1); woody residues (A2); and stems and leaves (residues from vegetables, tobacco, sugar beet, (A3)), results in about 16.5 mt yr. The average amount of straw (A1) is 11 mt/yr, of which about 60% is waste to be eliminated. Woody residues (A2) (mainly pruning off-cuts from vineyards and olive groves) are about 3.5 mt/yr (85% unused). Category A3 amounts to about 2 mt/yr (90% unused). Straw is available mainly in the northern part of the country, whereas the other two sub-categories are widely distributed in central and southern regions. The yields of category B are estimated at 4 mt/yr, of which more than 3 mt/yr are waste products from grape and olive processing. Other residues, such as rice, sunflower and soya-bean husks (about 0.65 mt/yr), almond and nut shells and fruit stones (about 0.2 mt/yr), although not widely available on a national scale, can be significant on a local basis. The total amount of unused agricultural residues is about 14.5 mt/yr, which, if completely exploited through gasification, can contribute as much as 7-10% to the current national electricity needs. The regions of Veneto, Puglia, Friuli, Lombardia and Emilia Romagna appear to be good candidates for electricity production, given the significant surface concentration of unused residues (105-55 t km{sup 2}). (author)

  3. Quarantine treatment of agricultural products for export and import by gamma irradiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kwon, Joong Ho; Roh, M.J.; Chung, H.W.; Lee, J.E.; Park, N.Y.; Kwon, Y.J.; Seo, S.J. [Kyungbuk National University, Taegu (Korea)

    1999-04-01

    To pre-establish an alternative technique to the toxic fumigant, methyl bromide which is the current quarantine measure of agricultural products for export and import, some selected agricultural products, such as chestnut, acorn, red bean and mung bean, were subjected to a preliminary study to confirm the comparative effects of gamma irradiation and MBr fumigant on their disinfestation and quality, thereby preparing the basic data for the practical approach. Current quarantine activities were examined and the related limitations were investigated. Quarantine-related pests were investigated on their radiosensitivity and disinfestation effects by both treatments. The pests in chestnut and acorn, Curculio skkimensis Heller, Curculio dentipes Roelofs, and Dichocrocis punctiferalis Guenee showed an increased mortality when exposed to above 0.5 kGy irradiation, resulting in 100% of mortality three weeks later. Callosobruchus chinensis Linne from both red and mung beans revealed a apparent mortality at around 10 days after irradiation of 1 to 3 kGy. Current fumigation was perfect in its disinfesting capability, but it caused the detrimental effects on physical quality of agricultural produce. Whereas, irradiation doses suitable for controlling the pests did not induce any significant changes in the quality of the samples. (author). 53 refs., 74 figs., 138 tabs.

  4. Agricultural Land Use in Ahlat District

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Necmettin ELMASTAŞ

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Ahlat district has suitable topography for growing of agricultural products. Almost half of Ahlat district is suitable for agricultural. Today, 32.7% of the land use in Ahlat is agricultural area. 90% of agricultural area is dry farming area. 10% of agricultural area is irrigated. 60.3%of land use in Ahlat district is pasturage area. The economy of Ahlat is based on agricultural and animal husbandry. Today, agricultural products such as wheat, potato and sugar beet are grown in agricultural areas. Ahlat district has some problems like unplanned production, irrigation and marketing.

  5. The source of productivity growth in Dutch agriculture: a perspective from finance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhengfei, G.; Oude Lansink, A.G.J.M.

    2006-01-01

    In corporate finance, the impact of capital structure on firm performance has been widely studied. This article extends the capital structure study to the situation in agriculture, explicitly addressing the difference between family farms and corporate firms. We use the Malmquist productivity growth

  6. Natural resources in the Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tovar B, Diana Alejandra; Zorro Z, Ricardo

    2003-01-01

    The objective of this investigation is identification the relation between the naturals resources degradation, and the Colombian agriculture productive. It's means a way to quantification the influence of a bad utilization in the water and land resources in the agricultural sector, to guide the sector in to a sustainable development. This objective is to make by an empirical exercise where we built four econometrics models (ordinary minims square) based in the Colombia's history statistic of the variables: land erosion, river sedimentation, plaguicides, Insecticides, Fungicides y Herbicides, agriculture productivity and agriculture yield. The resolute of this exercise is that an increase in the erosion area also the river sedimentation gives a decrease in the agriculture productivity. The same situation happens when it use the consumption of the insecticides and the fungicides which in the long time shows an opposite relation with the yield and productivity. At last we have that the aperture of the ninety's, bring to good changes for the agricultural productivity. So that, it concludes that the rivers and lands degradation affect in the long time the agriculture yield and productivity. The best use in the naturals resources, can help to increase the agricultural development, because it can increase the yield while it maintain for the future the possibility curve of production when it conserve the resources

  7. Accumulation of sucrose in irradiated agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayashi, T.

    1986-01-01

    Irradiation of agricultural products with ionizing radiation causes various physiological changes and one of the interesting phenomena is the increase of sucrose in irradiated potatoes. The relationship, however, between sucrose content and irradiation dose was not clarified. The author has made the relationship clear and found out that the sucrose content once enhanced by a high dose of irradiation does not lower during storage for a long period. It has been found that the sucrose accumulation caused by irradiation occurred in sweet potatoes and chestnuts as well as potatoes. In this article the effect of gamma-irradiation on the sucrose content of potato tubers, sweet potato roots and chestnuts will be reviewed and the mechanism of this sucrose accumulation will be discussed

  8. Accumulation of sucrose in irradiated agricultural products

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hayashi, T. [National Food Research Inst., Tsukuba, Ibaraki (Japan)

    1986-03-15

    Irradiation of agricultural products with ionizing radiation causes various physiological changes and one of the interesting phenomena is the increase of sucrose in irradiated potatoes. The relationship, however, between sucrose content and irradiation dose was not clarified. The author has made the relationship clear and found out that the sucrose content once enhanced by a high dose of irradiation does not lower during storage for a long period. It has been found that the sucrose accumulation caused by irradiation occurred in sweet potatoes and chestnuts as well as potatoes. In this article the effect of gamma-irradiation on the sucrose content of potato tubers, sweet potato roots and chestnuts will be reviewed and the mechanism of this sucrose accumulation will be discussed.

  9. An Analysis of the Impact of Heat Waves in Labor and Crop Productivity in the Agricultural Sector in California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castillo, F.; Wehner, M. F.; Gilless, J. K.

    2017-12-01

    California agriculture is an important economic activity for the state. California leads the nation in farms sales since 1950. In addition, agricultural employment in California reached approximately 410,000. Production of many fruits and vegetables is labor intensive and labor costs represent anywhere from 20% to 40% of total production costs. In additon, agricutlural production growth has been the highest for labor intensive crops such as berries (all types) and nuts. Given the importance of the agricultural sector and the labor component whithin it, the analysis of the impact of climate change on the agricultural sector of California becomes imperative. Heat waves are a weather related extreme that impact labor productivity, specially outdoor labor producitivity. We use crop production function analysis that incorporates socio economic variables such as crop prices, total acreage, production levels and harvest timiline with climate related variables such as an estimated Heat Index (HI) to analize the impact of heat waves on crop production via an impact on labor productivity for selected crops in the Central and Imperial Valleys in California. The analysis finds that the impact of heat waves varies by the degree of labor intensity of the crop and the relative intensity of the heat wave.

  10. DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOILER FOR COMBUSTION OF AGRICULTURAL BIOMASS BY PRODUCTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valentina Turanjanin

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Republic of Serbia consumes about 15 million tons of equivalent oil per year (Mtoe. At the same time potential of the renewable energy sources is about 3,5 Mtoe/year. Main renewable source is biomass, with its potential of about 2,6 Mtoe/year, and 60% of the total biomass source is of agricultural origin. Mainly, that type of biomass is collected, transported and stored in form of bales. At the same time in one of the largest agricultural companies in Serbia (PKB there are over 2000 ha of soya plantations, and also 4000 t/year of baled soya straw available, none of which being used for energy purposes. Therefore, efforts have been made in the Laboratory for Thermal Engineering and Energy of the "Vinča" Institute to develop a technology for utilizing bales of various sizes and shapes for energy production. Satisfactory test results of the 1 MW experimental facility - low CO levels and stable thermal output - led to the building-up of a 1.5 MW soya straw bales-fired hot water boiler, with cigarette type of combustion, for the purposes of greenhouse and office heating in the PKB. Further more, achieving good results in exploitation of that hot water boiler, the next step is building up the first combined heat and power (electricity production facility (CHP, which will use agricultural biomass as a fuel, in Serbia.

  11. Strategies for resource management to improve agricultural productivity in Bariarpur Tal area of Bihar (India)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khan, A.R.; Upadhyaya, A.; Bhatnagar, P.R.; Gautam, U.S.; Singh, S.K.; Singh, S.R.

    2002-06-01

    Water logged Tal area is termed as the stretch of land having bowl shaped depressions inundated in monsoon season due to spill/overflow from rivers or runoff from upstream end. A team of Agricultural Scientists studied and suggested a suitable plan to the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India for improving the agricultural productivity of 40,000 hectares land lying between Ghoraghat and Bariarpur and Prasando to Khand Bihari in Munger district of Bihar, which lies in eastern India. These lands remain inundated with water from July till January. Tal lands in Bariarpur suffer due to stagnation of water during monsoon period and delay in drainage thereafter. This is a late winter mono-cropped area with very low productivity. Though the fertility status of soil is good, the quantity and quality of produce is poor. The canal network is also not efficient and other parts face drought. It is expected that the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India will take up the action plan as per the recommendations of expert scientists' team to mitigate the sufferings and misery of the farmers and rural population of the area. The team of scientists had investigated in detail the genesis of the problem and suggested the appropriate management strategies to improve the agricultural production in this area upon the instruction of the Hon'ble Union Agricultural Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar. A reputed Journalist and dedicated Social Worker Mr. Dinesh brought the unbelievable misery of the rural population to the attention of the Agricultural Minister. The sufferings of the farmers of Bariarpur tal area thus cannot be mitigated without the implementation of recommendations suggested in the scientific report. It seems that a financial crunch is coming in the way for such implementation. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Water Resources, State Government, NGOs and Social Organizations should come forward to help the rural population otherwise the ray of hope for a better living

  12. Agricultural Overpopulation

    OpenAIRE

    Bičanić, Rudolf

    2003-01-01

    The author discusses three different approaches to agricultural overpopulation: from the consumption side, from the production side and from the aspect of immobility of agricultural population. In the first approach agrarian overpopulation is defined from the consumption point of viewas the number of people living from agriculture that can live from aggregate agricultural income at a certain standard of consumption. In this connection the problem of measuring total agricultu...

  13. Soil biota and agriculture production in conventional and organic farming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schrama, Maarten; de Haan, Joj; Carvalho, Sabrina; Kroonen, Mark; Verstegen, Harry; Van der Putten, Wim

    2015-04-01

    Sustainable food production for a growing world population requires a healthy soil that can buffer environmental extremes and minimize its losses. There are currently two views on how to achieve this: by intensifying conventional agriculture or by developing organically based agriculture. It has been established that yields of conventional agriculture can be 20% higher than of organic agriculture. However, high yields of intensified conventional agriculture trade off with loss of soil biodiversity, leaching of nutrients, and other unwanted ecosystem dis-services. One of the key explanations for the loss of nutrients and GHG from intensive agriculture is that it results in high dynamics of nutrient losses, and policy has aimed at reducing temporal variation. However, little is known about how different agricultural practices affect spatial variation, and it is unknown how soil fauna acts this. In this study we compare the spatial and temporal variation of physical, chemical and biological parameters in a long term (13-year) field experiment with two conventional farming systems (low and medium organic matter input) and one organic farming system (high organic matter input) and we evaluate the impact on ecosystem services that these farming systems provide. Soil chemical (N availability, N mineralization, pH) and soil biological parameters (nematode abundance, bacterial and fungal biomass) show considerably higher spatial variation under conventional farming than under organic farming. Higher variation in soil chemical and biological parameters coincides with the presence of 'leaky' spots (high nitrate leaching) in conventional farming systems, which shift unpredictably over the course of one season. Although variation in soil physical factors (soil organic matter, soil aggregation, soil moisture) was similar between treatments, but averages were higher under organic farming, indicating more buffered conditions for nutrient cycling. All these changes coincide with

  14. Urbanization and the Change of Fertilizer Use Intensity for Agricultural Production in Henan Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jiang

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available China’s urbanization has resulted in significant changes in agricultural land use. However, understanding of the linkages between urbanization and fertilizer use intensity is limited. Using county-level panel data for Henan Province, 1995–2008 and panel econometric models, we investigate the impact of urbanization and other socioeconomic factors on fertilizer use intensity, with a focus on the two key processes related to urbanization—shrinking agricultural land area and increasing urban wages. Our results show that declining agricultural land per capita is associated with greater fertilizer use intensity. Urban wages is positively correlated with fertilizer use intensity. We also find that GDP per capita and per capita expenditure of government for agriculture both positively contribute to the increase of fertilizer use intensity, which is consistent with expectations. Our results imply that other than land conversion, urbanization contains some positive influences on land use sustainability. However, on the other hand, urbanization contributes to agriculture-based environmental pollution by increasing the level of fertilizer use in agricultural production.

  15. Level of the farm intensity organisation as the index of environmental sustainable agricultural production

    OpenAIRE

    Józef Sawa

    2009-01-01

    Intensity of the farm production organisation in relation to soil organic matter balance in different degree of mechanization process of work for 42 farms situated in different regions of Poland was analysed. Coefficients agricultural production process in ecological, economic and social aspects were presented also. It was shown that indexes; intensity farm production organisation and soil organic matter balance are correlated.

  16. Development of Ethical Bio-Technology Assessment Tools for Agriculture and Food Production

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beekman, V.

    2005-01-01

    The objective of this project is to develop and improve tools for the ethical assessment of new technologies in agriculture and food production in general and modern biotechnologies in particular. The project thus responds to the plurality of consumer concerns that increasingly inform the European

  17. Vulnerabilities to agricultural production shocks: An extreme, plausible scenario for assessment of risk for the insurance sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tobias Lunt

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Climate risks pose a threat to the function of the global food system and therefore also a hazard to the global financial sector, the stability of governments, and the food security and health of the world’s population. This paper presents a method to assess plausible impacts of an agricultural production shock and potential materiality for global insurers. A hypothetical, near-term, plausible, extreme scenario was developed based upon modules of historical agricultural production shocks, linked under a warm phase El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO meteorological framework. The scenario included teleconnected floods and droughts in disparate agricultural production regions around the world, as well as plausible, extreme biotic shocks. In this scenario, global crop yield declines of 10% for maize, 11% for soy, 7% for wheat and 7% for rice result in quadrupled commodity prices and commodity stock fluctuations, civil unrest, significant negative humanitarian consequences and major financial losses worldwide. This work illustrates a need for the scientific community to partner across sectors and industries towards better-integrated global data, modeling and analytical capacities, to better respond to and prepare for concurrent agricultural failure. Governments, humanitarian organizations and the private sector collectively may recognize significant benefits from more systematic assessment of exposure to agricultural climate risk.

  18. Current State of Production and Finance Development of Scientific and Technological Progress in Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danil M. Matveev

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Poor efficiency in the use of land, labor, finance and other resources available is characteristic of Russia’s agriculture at the present stage. In most subindustries, the country has not yet achieved the production volume of the early 90s. In the last decade there was a positive trend marked to update logistics and intensify innovative advance in the agriculture, the processes being actively supported by the state, but this did not result in appreciable improvements of the agriculture competitiveness in the global food market. During the study it is revealed that the industry credit debt has gone up three-fold over the past 7 years that made up 1.43trillion rubles versus 112 billion rubles of revenue in 2012. The authors propose a technique to attract private investments in the agriculture of Russia and economic-organizing mechanism to realize it. Hereto, a considerable part is played by state regulation, particularly to provide investment-back guarantees in the event that a project-implementing agricultural organization goes bankrupt. To hold up, the authors consider a number of investment projects implemented by one of the Russian Federation entities which demonstrate their effectiveness both for the investors and the state. Employing the data obtained from the study will allow to largely increase the rates of technical and technological re-equipment of the industry, improve its investment attractiveness and competitiveness based on innovations and this will provide the country's food safety and gross domestic product growth.

  19. Identification of commercial circuits for marketing of organic agricultural products in Public Ministries at Machala canton

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Elena Estrada Martínez

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The identification of commercial circuits in the Machala canton contributes to the economic and social development of the members of the San José de Guartiguro agricultural cooperative located in the Guanazón parish of Zaruma canton. The purpose of this paper was to identify commercial circuits for the marketing of baskets of organic agricultural products in nine Public Ministries of Machala. An inquiry was carried out among 138 workers, and the distribution process of the baskets was observed. The program Microsoft Excel 2013was applied to organize data in tables and graphics. Results showed that 84.14% of the workers inquired agreed to purchase the baskets at the Ministries. The implementation of commercial circuits in Machala canton that will favor the access of the members of the agricultural cooperative to institutional markets is proposed. This measure will also enable the workers at the Ministries to acquire organic agricultural products at lower prices in their work place.

  20. Optimal Scheme Selection of Agricultural Production Structure Adjustment - Based on DEA Model; Punjab (Pakistan)

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Zeeshan Ahmad; Meng Jun; Muhammad Abdullah; Mazhar Nadeem Ishaq; Majid Lateef; Imran Khan

    2015-01-01

    This paper used the modern evaluation method of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) to assess the comparative efficiency and then on the basis of this among multiple schemes chose the optimal scheme of agricultural production structure adjustment. Based on the results of DEA model, we dissected scale advantages of each discretionary scheme or plan. We examined scale advantages of each discretionary scheme, tested profoundly a definitive purpose behind not-DEA efficient, which elucidated the system and methodology to enhance these discretionary plans. At the end, another method had been proposed to rank and select the optimal scheme. The research was important to guide the practice if the modification of agricultural production industrial structure was carried on.

  1. Investigation the Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on the Export of Agricultural Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Jamalipour

    2016-10-01

    coefficients. Results and Discussion: Main results showed that real exchange rate volatility and export value of selected commodities are Co-integrated. The coefficient estimation of FMOLS and DOLS methods are equal and statically significant; so, these methods aren’t statically different and they showed that real exchange rate volatility has a negative impact on exported value for whole panel. However, the specific coefficient for each commodity showed contradictory behavior in short run and long run; for example real exchange rate fluctuation has a negative and significant impact on all the commodities; but, in short run this variable has a positive and significant impact on exported value. Moreover, based on estimated results it seems that fluctuation in exchange market has a greater impact on more valuable commodities like date. Conclusion: Considering the importance of agricultural product trade and in order to overcome mono-product economy, this study investigated long term and short term relation between export of grape, orange, date and exchange rate volatilities. To this aim, first the index of exchange volatility using generated autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH was calculated. In order to investigate the relation between exchange rate volatilities and export value of agricultural product, unit root test and cointegration test related to panel data were used during years 1971-2013. The results of model estimation showed that exchange rate volatilities in short term and long term have respectively positive and negative effects on the export value of orange, grape and date. In long term, the negative effects of Exchange rate volatilities on high-export-value products are more than its effects on low-export-value products. Based on the estimation results we can conclude that, in short run, exporters are willing to increase their interchange and gain profits of the volatility in exchange market; however, in long run exchange rate fluctuation has

  2. The Assessment of Climatological Impacts on Agricultural Production and Residential Energy Demand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooter, Ellen Jean

    The assessment of climatological impacts on selected economic activities is presented as a multi-step, inter -disciplinary problem. The assessment process which is addressed explicitly in this report focuses on (1) user identification, (2) direct impact model selection, (3) methodological development, (4) product development and (5) product communication. Two user groups of major economic importance were selected for study; agriculture and gas utilities. The broad agricultural sector is further defined as U.S.A. corn production. The general category of utilities is narrowed to Oklahoma residential gas heating demand. The CERES physiological growth model was selected as the process model for corn production. The statistical analysis for corn production suggests that (1) although this is a statistically complex model, it can yield useful impact information, (2) as a result of output distributional biases, traditional statistical techniques are not adequate analytical tools, (3) the model yield distribution as a whole is probably non-Gausian, particularly in the tails and (4) there appears to be identifiable weekly patterns of forecasted yields throughout the growing season. Agricultural quantities developed include point yield impact estimates and distributional characteristics, geographic corn weather distributions, return period estimates, decision making criteria (confidence limits) and time series of indices. These products were communicated in economic terms through the use of a Bayesian decision example and an econometric model. The NBSLD energy load model was selected to represent residential gas heating consumption. A cursory statistical analysis suggests relationships among weather variables across the Oklahoma study sites. No linear trend in "technology -free" modeled energy demand or input weather variables which would correspond to that contained in observed state -level residential energy use was detected. It is suggested that this trend is largely the

  3. Virtual water trade of agricultural products: A new perspective to explore the Belt and Road.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yu; Zhang, Jin-He; Tian, Qing; Liu, Ze-Hua; Zhang, Hong-Lei

    2018-05-01

    The Belt and Road is an initiative of cooperation and development that was proposed by China. Moreover, most of the spanning countries faced water shortages and agriculture consumed a lot of water. Virtual water links water, food and trade and is an effective tool to ease water shortages. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the Belt and Road from the new perspective of virtual water trade of agricultural products. We considered agricultural products trade from 2001 to 2015. On the whole, the results indicated that China was in virtual water trade surplus with the countries along the Belt and Road. However, in terms of each country, >40 spanning countries were in virtual water trade surplus with China and eased water shortages. Russia had the largest net imported virtual water from China. Furthermore, the proportion of the grey water footprint that China exported to the spanning countries was much higher than that imported, no matter from the whole or different geographical regions. Moreover, more than half of the countries' virtual water trade with China conformed to the virtual water strategy, which helped to ease water crises. Furthermore, the products that they exported to China were mainly advantageous products that each spanning countries have. Virtual water trade is a new perspective to explore the Belt and Road. Agricultural products trade with China definitely benefits both the countries along the Belt and Road and China from the perspective of virtual water. The findings are beneficial for the water management of the countries along the Belt and Road and China, alleviating water shortages, encouraging the rational allocation of water resources in the various departments. They can provide references for optimizing trade structures as well. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Iron: the forgotten driver of nitrous oxide production in agricultural soil.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xia Zhu

    Full Text Available In response to rising interest over the years, many experiments and several models have been devised to understand emission of nitrous oxide (N2O from agricultural soils. Notably absent from almost all of this discussion is iron, even though its role in both chemical and biochemical reactions that generate N2O was recognized well before research on N2O emission began to accelerate. We revisited iron by exploring its importance alongside other soil properties commonly believed to control N2O production in agricultural systems. A set of soils from California's main agricultural regions was used to observe N2O emission under conditions representative of typical field scenarios. Results of multivariate analysis showed that in five of the twelve different conditions studied, iron ranked higher than any other intrinsic soil property in explaining observed emissions across soils. Upcoming studies stand to gain valuable information by considering iron among the drivers of N2O emission, expanding the current framework to include coupling between biotic and abiotic reactions.

  5. Level of the farm intensity organisation as the index of environmental sustainable agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Józef Sawa

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Intensity of the farm production organisation in relation to soil organic matter balance in different degree of mechanization process of work for 42 farms situated in different regions of Poland was analysed. Coefficients agricultural production process in ecological, economic and social aspects were presented also. It was shown that indexes; intensity farm production organisation and soil organic matter balance are correlated.

  6. Agricultural Technology, Risk, and Gender

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arndt, Channing; Tarp, Finn

    2000-01-01

    Interactions between agricultural technology improvements, risk-reducing behavior, and gender roles in agricultural production in Mozambique are examined. The analysis employs a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that explicitly incorporates key features of the economy. These include......: detailed accounting of marketing margins, home consumption, risk, and gender roles in agricultural production. Our results show that agricultural technology improvements benefit both male and female occupants of rural households. Due to economic interactions, agricultural technology improvements...

  7. Rainwater harvesting to enhance water productivity of rainfed agriculture in the semi-arid Zimbabwe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahinda, Jean-marc Mwenge; Rockström, Johan; Taigbenu, Akpofure E.; Dimes, John

    Zimbabwe’s poor are predominantly located in the semi-arid regions and rely on rainfed agriculture for their subsistence. Decline in productivity, scarcity of arable land, irrigation expansion limitations, erratic rainfall and frequent dry spells, among others cause food scarcity. The challenge faced by small-scale farmers is to enhance water productivity of rainfed agriculture by mitigating intra-seasonal dry spells (ISDS) through the adoption of new technologies such as rainwater harvesting (RWH). The paper analyses the agro-hydrological functions of RWH and assesses its impacts (at field scale) on the crop yield gap as well as the Transpirational Water Productivity ( WPT). The survey in six districts of the semi-arid Zimbabwe suggests that three parameters (water source, primary use and storage capacity) can help differentiate storage-type-RWH systems from “conventional dams”. The Agricultural Production Simulator Model (APSIM) was used to simulate seven different treatments (Control, RWH, Manure, Manure + RWH, Inorganic Nitrogen and Inorganic Nitrogen + RWH) for 30 years on alfisol deep sand, assuming no fertiliser carry over effect from season to season. The combined use of inorganic fertiliser and RWH is the only treatment that closes the yield gap. Supplemental irrigation alone not only reduces the risks of complete crop failure (from 20% down to 7% on average) for all the treatments but also enhances WPT (from 1.75 kg m -3 up to 2.3 kg m -3 on average) by mitigating ISDS.

  8. Agricultural production in the United States by county: a compilation of information from the 1974 census of agriculture for use in terrestrial food-chain transport and assessment models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shor, R.W.; Baes, C.F. III; Sharp, R.D.

    1982-01-01

    Terrestrial food-chain models that simulate the transport of environmentally released radionuclides incorporate parameters describing agricultural production and practice. Often a single set of default parameters, such as that listed in USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.109, is used in lieu of site-specific information. However, the geographical diversity of agricultural practice in the United States suggests the limitations of a single set of default parameters for assessment models. This report documents default parameters with a county-wide resolution based on analysis of the 1974 US Census of Agriculture for use in terrestrial food chain models. Data reported by county, together with state-based information from the US Department of Agriculture, Economic and Statistics Service, provided the basis for estimates of model input parameters. This report also describes these data bases, their limitations, and lists default parameters by county. Vegetable production is described for four categories: leafy vegetables; vegetables and fruits exposed to airborne material; vegetables, fruits, and nuts protected from airborne materials; and grains. Livestock feeds were analyzed in categories of hay, silage, pasture, and grains. Pasture consumption was estimated from cattle and sheep inventories, their feed requirements, and reported quantities of harvested forage. The results were compared with assumed yields of the pasture areas reported. In addition, non-vegetable food production estimates including milk, beef, pork, lamb, poultry, eggs, goat milk, and honey are described. The agricultural parameters and land use information - in all 47 items - are tabulated in four appendices for each of the 3067 counties of the US reported to the Census of Agriculture, excluding those in Hawaii and Alaska.

  9. Agricultural production in the United States by county: a compilation of information from the 1974 census of agriculture for use in terrestrial food-chain transport and assessment models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shor, R.W.; Baes, C.F. III; Sharp, R.D.

    1982-01-01

    Terrestrial food-chain models that simulate the transport of environmentally released radionuclides incorporate parameters describing agricultural production and practice. Often a single set of default parameters, such as that listed in USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.109, is used in lieu of site-specific information. However, the geographical diversity of agricultural practice in the United States suggests the limitations of a single set of default parameters for assessment models. This report documents default parameters with a county-wide resolution based on analysis of the 1974 US Census of Agriculture for use in terrestrial food chain models. Data reported by county, together with state-based information from the US Department of Agriculture, Economic and Statistics Service, provided the basis for estimates of model input parameters. This report also describes these data bases, their limitations, and lists default parameters by county. Vegetable production is described for four categories: leafy vegetables; vegetables and fruits exposed to airborne material; vegetables, fruits, and nuts protected from airborne materials; and grains. Livestock feeds were analyzed in categories of hay, silage, pasture, and grains. Pasture consumption was estimated from cattle and sheep inventories, their feed requirements, and reported quantities of harvested forage. The results were compared with assumed yields of the pasture areas reported. In addition, non-vegetable food production estimates including milk, beef, pork, lamb, poultry, eggs, goat milk, and honey are described. The agricultural parameters and land use information - in all 47 items - are tabulated in four appendices for each of the 3067 counties of the US reported to the Census of Agriculture, excluding those in Hawaii and Alaska

  10. Greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions and mitigation options from livestock production in peri-urban agriculture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wei, S.; Bai, Z.H.; Chadwick, D.; Hou, Y.; Qin, W.; Zhao, Z.Q.; Jiang, R.F.; Ma, L.

    2018-01-01

    Livestock production in peri-urban areas constitutes an important sub-sector of the agricultural production system in China, and contributes to environmental degradation and local air borne pollution contributing to smog. As a result, local policies are being implemented to safeguard the

  11. Productivity growth and technological progress in the Brazilian agricultural sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Farid Pereira

    2002-12-01

    Full Text Available Starting in the 1970's, the Brazilian agricultural sector has experienced an important process of modernization, whose principal effects include advances in technological progress and gains in productivity. The primary objective of this paper is to analyze technological progress and total productivity growth in the Brazilian agricultural sector during the period from 1970 to 1996. The methodology used here is based on the Malmquist productivity index and techniques in mathematical programming called Data Envelopment Analysis. The results show that significant progress was made in this sector of the economy but concentrated in only some regions of the country.O setor agropecuário brasileiro passou por um processo de modernização a partir dos anos 70, conseqüentemente, espera-se que exista uma contrapartida de progresso tecnológico e de ganhos de produtividade para o setor. Diante de tal fato tem-se como objetivo, neste estudo, avaliar o progresso tecnológico e o crescimento da produtividade total dos fatores (PTF do setor agropecuário brasileiro ao longo do período de 1970 a 1996. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada no índice Malmquist de produtividade e nas técnicas de programação matemática denominadas de Análise de Envoltória de Dados (DEA. Os resultados alcançados foram condizentes com estudos prévios e apontam para progresso técnico e ganhos de produtividade para o setor, porém concentrados em algumas regiões.

  12. Modeling and Optimization of Inventory-Distribution Routing Problem for Agriculture Products Supply Chain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Liao

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Mathematical models of inventory-distribution routing problem for two-echelon agriculture products distribution network are established, which are based on two management modes, franchise chain and regular chain, one-to-many, interval periodic order, demand depending on inventory, deteriorating treatment cost of agriculture products, start-up costs of vehicles and so forth. Then, a heuristic adaptive genetic algorithm is presented for the model of franchise chain. For the regular chain model, a two-layer genetic algorithm based on oddment modification is proposed, in which the upper layer is to determine the distribution period and quantity and the lower layer is to seek the optimal order cycle, quantity, distribution routes, and the rational oddment modification number for the distributor. By simulation experiments, the validity of the algorithms is demonstrated, and the two management modes are compared.

  13. Evaluating adaptation and the production development of Finnish agriculture in climate and global change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heikki Sakari Lehtonen

    2015-10-01

    on production, land use and farm income in Finland. The results suggest that falling crop yields, if realized due to low prices and restrictive policies, will result in decreasing crop and livestock production and increasing nutrient surplus. Slowly increasing crop yields could stabilise production and increase farm income. Significantly higher crop prices and yields are required, however, for any marked increase in production in Finland. Cereals production would increase relatively more than livestock production, if there were high prices for agricultural products. This is explained by abundant land resources, a high opportunity cost of labour and policies maintaining current dairy and beef production.

  14. Sustainability Organic Agriculture and Livestock Production with Respect to European Union in Eastern Anatolia and East Black Sea Regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vecihi Aksakal

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The majority of farm households in Turkey and especially the Eastern Anatolia are still based on low-input semi subsistence agriculture and livestock production. Despite a slow decline in recent years, agriculture and livestock production remains a major employer in Turkey and it is a significant contributor to the country’s gross domestic product, GDP. Whist Turkey is one of the EU candidate countries, is self sufficient in food production and Turkish agriculture is poorly structured inefficient, with farming in the Eastern Anatolia being mainly subsistence farming. Yet, these traditional rural structures combined with poor access to low level of education and low level of off-farm unemployment problem makes the situation more complicated and unsustainable. The best way to promote sustainability, better and higher production of Eastern Anatolian and rural Turkey is to invest in the local people, villages through improved, continuing and effective agricultural and livestock programs in particular. Investment in human capital especially in the rural areas leads to more employment opportunities through entrepreneurship and innovation in organic agriculture and livestock production. A holistic approach to developing and improving supply chains could unlock the potential for sophisticated, state-of-the-art organic agriculture and livestock producers and businesses in the region to become EU and global players. Eastern Anatolian livestock producers and the farmers have the ambitions to take part in future progress because the region is naturally organic not by design but default. It is for sure that present potential of the region has not been fully determined and utilized. EU has greatly benefited from previous enlargements economically, politically and socially. When European Union (EU and Turkish Government relations considered and accession of Turkey to EU would be the logical consequence of the previous accessions. The screening on chapter 11

  15. Assessment of abandoned agricultural land resource for bio-energy production in Estonia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kukk, Liia; Astover, Alar; Roostalu, Hugo; Suuster, Elsa; Noormets, Merrit; Sepp, Kalev (Estonian Univ. of Life Sciences, Inst. of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu (Estonia)); Muiste, Peeter (Estonian Univ. of Life Sciences, Inst. of Forestry and Rural Engineering, Tartu (Estonia))

    2010-03-15

    The current study locates and quantifies abandoned agricultural areas using the Geographic Information System (GIS) and evaluates the suitability of abandoned fields for bio-energy production in Tartumaa (Tartu County) in Estonia. Soils of abandoned areas are generally of low quality and thereby limited suitability for crop production; as a result soil-crop suitability analyses could form the basis of knowledge-based bio-energy planning. The study estimated suitable areas for bio-energy production using willow (Salix sp), grey alder [Alnus incana (L.) Moench], hybrid aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.Populus tremula L.), reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.), and Caucasian goat's rue (Galega orientalis Lam.) in separate plantations. A combined land-use strategy is also presented as these crops are partially suitable to the same areas. Reed canary grass and grey alder have the highest energy potentials and each would re-use more than 80% of the available abandoned agricultural land. Energy grasses and short-rotation forestry in combined land-use strategy represents the opportunity of covering approximately a quarter of county's annual energy demand. The study estimates only agronomic potential, so further bio-energy analysis should take into account technical and economic limitations. Developed framework supports knowledge-based decision-making processes from field to regional scale to achieve sustainable bio-energy production

  16. Radiation and agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamashita, Atsushi

    1982-01-01

    Radiation utilization in agriculture, forestry and marine product industry was reviewed. Agricultural examples were breeding with gamma rays and resultant plant breeding, and improvement of productivity and acquisition of resistance to disease were also explained. In relation to disinfestation, male sterilization of the melon fly was described. An example of utilization for the marine product industry was survey of salmon migration by the radioactivate analysis of Europium. (Chiba, N.)

  17. GLOBAL WARMING AND POSSIBLE EFFECTS ON FUTURE THE BRAZILIAN GRAIN PRODUCTION Hilton S. Pinto.State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). CNPq. Eduardo D. Assad. Embrapa Agriculture Informatics (CNPTIA). CNPq. Eduardo Pavao. Embrapa Agriculture Informatics (CNPTIA). Ricardo Luna. Embrapa Agriculture Informatics (CNPTIA)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinto, H. S.; Assad, E. D.; Pavao, E.; Luna, R.

    2012-12-01

    According to the Brazilian Government (CONAB, July 2012) the actual area of grain production in the country is close to 50.8 million ha and the perspective of production is 162.6 million of tons. Maize and Soybean are responsible for more than 83% of the total harvest. The area available for agriculture in Brazil is 282.2 million ha or close to 33% of the total land of the country. From 1991 until 2010 the agricultural technology was responsible for an increase of production close to 154% while the planted area raised only 25%. Considering this rate of production in the last 20 years the Ministry of Agriculture made an extrapolation for 2020, when the country can produce close to 176 million of grains being 65 million tons of maize, 86 million tons of soybean and 70 million bags of coffee. In this case, it was not considered any variation in the climate conditions. In 2002, in partnership with the British Embassy in Brazil, Unicamp and Embrapa published the study "Global Warming and the New Geography of Agricultural Production in Brazil" (Pinto and Assad, 2002) based on a Regional Climate Model PRECIS from Hadley Centre, where the grain production was estimated to decrease due to temperature rise. Without considering any mitigation or adaptation action, in the worst scenario (A2-IPCC) the principal crops to be affected will be coffee with 6.7% estimated production decrease until 2020, soybean 22% and corn 12%. On the other hand, sugar cane, as a C4 plant, will have an increase of production in the order of 170%. As suggested by the Word Bank, a new project was developed for a more detailed analysis of the influence of the global warming in the Brazilian agriculture, affecting temperature and water deficit in the years 2020 and 2030. It was considered initially 23 Global Climatic Models (GCM) defined by IPCC, that were separated in blocks of similar comportment using cluster multivariate analysis. Other 3 Regional Climatic Models (RCM) were also used to give more

  18. Effect of Gamma Irradiation and Chemical Process on Gas Production Parameters of some Agricultural By-products in in vitro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Sobhanirad

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was investigating the effect of gamma irradiation and NaOH treatment of some agricultural by products (tomato pulp, orange pulp, pistachio hull and wheat straw on fermentation parameters and gas production test. Treatments of gamma irradiation (50, 100 and 200 kGy and %5 NaOH was done on each source of by products. The results showed that gamma irradiation at the dose of 200 kGy numerically and %5 NaOH increased (P

  19. Conservation Agriculture Practices in Rainfed Uplands of India Improve Maize-Based System Productivity and Profitability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pradhan, Aliza; Idol, Travis; Roul, Pravat K.

    2016-01-01

    Traditional agriculture in rainfed uplands of India has been experiencing low agricultural productivity as the lands suffer from poor soil fertility, susceptibility to water erosion and other external pressures of development and climate change. A shift toward more sustainable cropping systems such as conservation agriculture production systems (CAPSs) may help in maintaining soil quality as well as improving crop production and farmer’s net economic benefit. This research assessed the effects over 3 years (2011–2014) of reduced tillage, intercropping, and cover cropping practices customized for maize-based production systems in upland areas of Odisha, India. The study focused on crop yield, system productivity and profitability through maize equivalent yield and dominance analysis. Results showed that maize grain yield did not differ significantly over time or among CAPS treatments while cowpea yield was considered as an additional yield in intercropping systems. Mustard and horsegram grown in plots after maize cowpea intercropping recorded higher grain yields of 25 and 37%, respectively, as compared to those without intercropping. Overall, the full CAPS implementation, i.e., minimum tillage, maize–cowpea intercropping and mustard residue retention had significantly higher system productivity and net benefits than traditional farmer practices, i.e., conventional tillage, sole maize cropping, and no mustard residue retention. The dominance analysis demonstrated increasing benefits of combining conservation practices that exceeded thresholds for farmer adoption. Given the use of familiar crops and technologies and the magnitude of yield and income improvements, these types of CAPS should be acceptable and attractive for smallholder farmers in the area. This in turn should support a move toward sustainable intensification of crop production to meet future household income and nutritional needs. PMID:27471508

  20. Conservation agriculture practices in rainfed uplands of India improve maize-based system productivity and profitability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aliza Pradhan

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Traditional agriculture in rainfed uplands of India has been experiencing low agricultural productivity as the lands suffer from poor soil fertility, susceptibility to water erosion and other external pressures of development and climate change. A shift towards more sustainable cropping systems such as conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS may help in maintaining soil quality as well as improving crop production and farmer’s net economic benefit. This research assessed the effects over three years (2011-2014 of reduced tillage, intercropping, and cover cropping practices customized for maize-based production systems in upland areas of Odisha, India. The study focused on crop yield, system productivity and profitability through maize equivalent yield and dominance analysis. Results showed that maize grain yield did not differ significantly over time or among CAPS treatments while cowpea yield was considered as an additional yield in intercropping systems. Mustard and horsegram grown in plots after maize cowpea intercropping recorded higher grain yields of 25 and 37%, respectively, as compared to those without intercropping. Overall, the full CAPS implementation i.e. minimum tillage, maize-cowpea intercropping and mustard residue retention had significantly higher system productivity and net benefits than traditional farmer practices, i.e. conventional tillage, sole maize cropping, and no mustard residue retention. The dominance analysis demonstrated increasing benefits of combining conservation practices that exceeded thresholds for farmer adoption. Given the use of familiar crops and technologies and the magnitude of yield and income improvements, these types of CAPS should be acceptable and attractive for smallholder farmers in the area. This in turn should support a move toward sustainable intensification of crop production to meet future household income and nutritional needs.

  1. Conservation Agriculture Practices in Rainfed Uplands of India Improve Maize-Based System Productivity and Profitability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pradhan, Aliza; Idol, Travis; Roul, Pravat K

    2016-01-01

    Traditional agriculture in rainfed uplands of India has been experiencing low agricultural productivity as the lands suffer from poor soil fertility, susceptibility to water erosion and other external pressures of development and climate change. A shift toward more sustainable cropping systems such as conservation agriculture production systems (CAPSs) may help in maintaining soil quality as well as improving crop production and farmer's net economic benefit. This research assessed the effects over 3 years (2011-2014) of reduced tillage, intercropping, and cover cropping practices customized for maize-based production systems in upland areas of Odisha, India. The study focused on crop yield, system productivity and profitability through maize equivalent yield and dominance analysis. Results showed that maize grain yield did not differ significantly over time or among CAPS treatments while cowpea yield was considered as an additional yield in intercropping systems. Mustard and horsegram grown in plots after maize cowpea intercropping recorded higher grain yields of 25 and 37%, respectively, as compared to those without intercropping. Overall, the full CAPS implementation, i.e., minimum tillage, maize-cowpea intercropping and mustard residue retention had significantly higher system productivity and net benefits than traditional farmer practices, i.e., conventional tillage, sole maize cropping, and no mustard residue retention. The dominance analysis demonstrated increasing benefits of combining conservation practices that exceeded thresholds for farmer adoption. Given the use of familiar crops and technologies and the magnitude of yield and income improvements, these types of CAPS should be acceptable and attractive for smallholder farmers in the area. This in turn should support a move toward sustainable intensification of crop production to meet future household income and nutritional needs.

  2. Towards Conservation Agriculture systems in Moldova

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boris Boincean

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available As the world population and food production demands rise, keeping agricultural soils and landscapes healthy and productive are of paramount importance to sustaining local and global food security and the flow of ecosystem services to society. The global population, expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, will put additional pressure on the available land area and resources for agricultural production. Sustainable production intensification for food security is a major challenge to both industrialized and developing countries. The paper focuses on the results from long-term multi-factorial experiments involving tillage practices, crop rotations and fertilization to study the interactions amongst the treatments in the context of sustainable production intensification. The paper discusses the results in relation to reported performance of crops and soil quality in Conservation Agriculture systems that are based on no or minimum soil disturbance (no-till seeding and weeding, maintenance of soil mulch cover with crop biomass and cover crops, and diversified cropping s involving annuals and perennials. Conservation Agriculture also emphasizes the necessity of an agro-ecosystems approach to the management of agricultural land for sustainable production intensification, as well as to the site-specificity of agricultural production. Arguments in favor of avoiding the use of soil tillage are discussed together with agro-ecological principles for sustainable intensification of agriculture. More interdisciplinary systems research is required to support the transformation of agriculture from the conventional tillage agriculture to a more sustainable agriculture based on the principles and practices of Conservation Agriculture, along with other complementary practices of integrated crop, nutrient, water, pest, energy and farm power management.

  3. Improving food and agricultural production. Thailand. Project findings and recommendations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-01-01

    This document is the terminal report of a United Nations Development Program project to improve food and agricultural production in Thailand by means of nuclear and related technology. The project resulted in improved mutant material to be made available to plant breeders as well as in reports and recommendations on soil-water-plant management practices and livestock management. An additional benefit has been the specialized training that has been provided to many researchers in the country through the project

  4. Professional risk of developing diseases of the peripheral nervous system in tractor drivers – machine operators of agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G.A. Bezrukova

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Based on the results of the hygienic assessment of working conditions in the domestic agricultural machinery of old and new models when performing the main types of seasonal agricultural work during the annual production cycle and analysis of accumulated occupational diseases’ nosology structure in agricultural workers of the Saratov region over the period from 2004 to 2014, the estimation of professional risk diseases of the peripheral nervous system in tractor drivers – machine operators of agricultural production is given. Professional risk assessment carried out under the procedure set forth in P2.2.1766-03 has shown that the category of a priori risk to their health during an annual production cycle ranged from high to very high (unbearable. It was revealed that the most important factors shaping the harmful working conditions when working on agricultural machinery that can act as a trigger in the formation of vertebral diseases of the peripheral nervous system, are general and local vibration, adverse micro-climatic conditions, long uncomfortable static working posture and physical stress. The risk of diseases in the peripheral uneven system in machine operators of agriculture was attributed to the high risk category with an index of professional diseases (IPD equal to 0,5 %.

  5. [Application of THz technology to nondestructive detection of agricultural product quality].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Yu-ying; Ge, Hong-yi; Lian, Fei-yu; Zhang, Yuan; Xia, Shan-hong

    2014-08-01

    With recent development of THz sources and detector, applications of THz radiation to nondestructive testing and quality control have expanded in many fields, such as agriculture, safety inspection and quality control, medicine, biochemistry, communication etc. Compared with other detection technique, being a new kind of technique, THz radiation has low energy, good perspectivity, and high signal-to-noise ratio, and thus can obtain physical, chemical and biological information. This paper first introduces the basic concept of THz radiation and the major properties, then gives an extensive review of recent research progress in detection of the quality of agricultural products via THz technique, analyzes the existing shortcomings of THz detection and discusses the outlook of potential application, finally proposes the new application of THz technique to detection of quality of stored grain.

  6. U.S.-State Agricultural Data. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 512.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Womack, Letricia M.; Traub, Larry G.

    This report presents agricultural information for each state and the United States as a whole for the years 1981-1985. Included are data on population, land use, agricultural production, farm income, value of assets on farms, and selected characteristics of farms. The primary data sources are the "1982 Census of Agriculture," the…

  7. Production of bioethanol using agricultural waste: banana pseudo stem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Snehal Ingale

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available India is amongst the largest banana (Musa acuminata producing countries and thus banana pseudo stem is commonly available agricultural waste to be used as lignocellulosic substrate. Present study focuses on exploitation of banana pseudo stem as a source for bioethanol production from the sugars released due to different chemical and biological pretreatments. Two fungal strains Aspergillus ellipticus and Aspergillus fumigatus reported to be producing cellulolytic enzymes on sugarcane bagasse were used under co-culture fermentation on banana pseudo stem to degrade holocellulose and facilitate maximum release of reducing sugars. The hydrolysate obtained after alkali and microbial treatments was fermented by Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3570 to produce ethanol. Fermentation of cellulosic hydrolysate (4.1 g% gave maximum ethanol (17.1 g/L with yield (84% and productivity (0.024 g%/h after 72 h. Some critical aspects of fungal pretreatment for saccharification of cellulosic substrate using A. ellipticus and A. fumigatus for ethanol production by S. cerevisiae NCIM 3570 have been explored in this study. It was observed that pretreated banana pseudo stem can be economically utilized as a cheaper substrate for ethanol production.

  8. Bioenergy in Australia: An improved approach for estimating spatial availability of biomass resources in the agricultural production zones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herr, Alexander; Dunlop, Michael

    2011-01-01

    Bioenergy production from crops and agricultural residues has a greenhouse gas mitigation potential. However, there is considerable debate about the size of this potential. This is partly due to difficulties in estimating the feedstock resource base accurately and with good spatial resolution. Here we provide two techniques for spatially estimating crop-based bioenergy feedstocks in Australia using regional agricultural statistics and national land use maps. The approach accommodates temporal variability by estimating ranges of feedstock availability and the shifting nature of zones of the highest spatial concentration of feedstocks. The techniques are applicable to biomass production from forestry, agricultural residues or oilseeds, all of which have been proposed as biofuel feedstocks. -- Highlights: → Dasymetric mapping appoach for producing spatial and temporal variation maps in feedstock production.→ Combines land use and crop statistics to produce regionally precise feedstock maps. → Feedstock concentrations and feedstock density maps enable identification of feedstock concentration spatially and comparison of yearly variation in production.

  9. Total factor productivity (TFP) growth agriculture in pakistan: trends in different time horizons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ali, A.; Mushtaq, K.; Ashfaq, M.

    2008-01-01

    The present study estimated total factor productivity (TFP) growth of agriculture sector of Pakistan for the period 1971-2006 by employing Tornqvist-Theil (T-T) index number methodology. Most of the conventional inputs were used in constructing the input index. The output index includes major crops, minor crops, important fruits and vegetables and four categories of livestock products. The study estimated TFP growth rates for different decades. The results showed that TFP growth rate was lowest during the decade of 70s (0.96 percent) and highest during the last six years of the study period (2.86 percent). The decade of 80s and 90s registered TFP growth rate of 2.24 percent and 2.46 percent, respectively. The results also explained that TFP growth contributed about 33 percent to total agricultural output growth during the decade of 70s and this contribution increased up to 83 percent during the last six years of the study period. The contribution of TFP growth to total agricultural output growth was 53 and 81 percent during the decades of 80s and 90s, respectively. The study observed that macro level government policies, institutional factors and weather conditions are the major key factors that influenced TFP growth. (author)

  10. AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN JAPAN - A MODEL FOR COOPERATIVIZATION OF AGRICULTURE FROM ROMANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Remus Gherman

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Japan's agriculture provides only a part from the population's needs, in caloric terms Japan must impute 60% of foods. Arable land are few, but are worked very performant, rice being the main crop together with cotton, citrus, sugarcane, wheat, potato, soybean, sugar beet, other vegetables. Widely is practiced sericulture and fisheries, Japan being one of the leading producers of silk from the world and having over 600 ports specialized for fishing. Japanese agriculture has remained behind the industry and services, this trend being manifested after the very high economic growth from 1960-1970. The main focus of the movements from the Japanese cooperative system is represented by the creation of large specialized farms through the replacing of the traditional ones. The most important task of agricultural cooperatives from Japan is meeting the consumption needs of its members. Integrated leadership of Japanese cooperatives of farmers act at all levels, primary, at prefecture level and at national level. Contractual relationships play a decisive role in the integration of Japanese farmers. In Japan there are about 840 agricultural cooperatives very well organized with a balanced planning and efficiently conducted, agricultural cooperative MIKABI being the most developed, mainly focused on the production of mandarins. In Japan there are three large distribution centers of agricultural products, 29 distribution markets controlled by the prefecture and 1,000 local markets. Organization of cooperatives is the pyramid system on three levels: local, prefecture and national (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives.

  11. Application of solar energy to agricultural production processes. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1986-01-01

    The presentations in this report were a result of research and development projects funded and managed by Interagency Agreements between the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture. The performing institutions were selected on the basis of peer reviews of invited and/or unsolicited proposals. During the time period covered, approximately 9 years, hundreds of technical reports and presentations have been made. The audience for these reports has included other researchers, manufacturers, sales people, contractors and end users of the information. As a result, thousands of installations have been made. Some of these have been highly successful, while others have been less successful, and some have failed. Nevertheless, these projects have shown areas where solar energy can be profitably applied to replace non-renewable forms of energy for agricultural production; areas where the use of solar energy is marginal; and areas where the use of solar energy is not profitable with current costs of non-renewable energy.

  12. Agricultural production - Phase 2. Indonesia. Methods for increasing ruminant production from available feed resources in Indonesia - Nutrition-reproduction interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Entwistle, K.W.

    1992-01-01

    Within the project ''Application of Isotopes and radiation to increasing agricultural production'' a mission was spent in Indonesia. This travel report provides details on the progress of studies on the effects of urea-molasses block food supplements on growth and milk production in cattle, sheep and goats and on reproduction in goats. Also discussed is the use of iodine-125 radioimmunoassay procedures to monitor progesterone levels. 4 tabs

  13. New concepts regarding the production of waterfowl and other game birds in areas of diversified agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, H.K.; Duebbert, H.F.

    1974-01-01

    Many concepts regarding breeding ecology of waterfowl and the influences of environmental factors on annual production have changed in the past 20 years. These influences are especially pronounced in the prairie region of central North America where agriculture becomes more intensive each year. The principal task assigned to this Research Center when established in 1965 was to determine the relative impact of these influences on production and to identify those facets of breeding biology, nesting habitat requirements and other factors that may be altered to increase production on lands dedicated for this purpose. A corollary objective was to develop methods for enhancing production of waterfowl and other ground-nesting birds on private lands in agricultural areas. Some of the highlights of our findings to date, together with the results from current work of others, provide new information on waterfowl that indicates: (1) homing instincts are not as specific as indicated by earlier workers, (2) there are differences in pioneering between species, sexes and age classes, (3) strength and duration of pair bonds vary by species and age classes, (4) territorial tolerances for most species are greater than previously indicated, (5) there is differential productivity by age classes in some species, (6) there has been a gradual decline in nesting success in the prairie region the past 30 years, (7) adverse influences of intensive agriculture are increasing, (8) mammalian predation is an important factor, (9) high quality, secure nesting habitat and a complex of wetland types are the essential components of an optimum production unit, (10) the size and shape of blocks of nesting cover are important management considerations, (11) overharvest of local breeding populations is becoming a serious problem in some areas. Each of these subjects is discussed as related to research objectives and current management problems. Recommendations are presented for obtaining maximum

  14. U.S.-State Agricultural Data. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 501.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Womack, Letricia M.; And Others

    This report presents agricultural information for each of the 50 states and the United States. Data are provided on population, land use, agricultural production, farm income, value of assets on farms, and selected characteristics of farms, such as size, tenure, and farm organization. Primary data sources are the 1982 Census of Agriculture and the…

  15. Study on the potential imports by member states of agricultural products containing radiocesium concentrations in excess of EC limits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weiss, D.; Feige, S.

    2013-01-01

    As a consequence of the Chernobyl accident, the European Commission maintains Council Regulation (EEC) number 737/90 which sets out the conditions governing the import of agricultural products originating in third countries and includes maximum permitted level (MPL) that shall be applied in respect of contamination with radiocesium. The main objective of the study was to identify agricultural products which might exceed the MPL of radiocesium. The results show that mushroom and berries from Norway or Russia or Belarus or Ukraine may exceed the MPL. Reindeer meat from Norway will stay suspicious for at least 30 years as well as meat from wild animals originating from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and some other countries. Some agricultural products like living cows or horses, poultry,... can be excluded from the list except for products issued from areas with strong contamination

  16. Biotechnology and Agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenney, Martin

    Even at this early date in the application of biotechnology to agriculture, it is clear that agriculture may provide the largest market for new or less expensive biotechnologically manufactured products. The chemical and pharmaceutical industries that hold important positions in agricultural inputs are consolidating their positions by purchasing…

  17. Natural radionuclides concentration in agricultural products and water from the Monte Alegre region

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gouvea, Vandir A.; Melo, Vicente P.; Binns, Donald A.C.; Santos, Pedro L. dos

    1997-01-01

    Measurements to determine the content of natural radionuclides were performed in agricultural products in the brazilian Central Amazon Basin Monte Alegre region, for the soil-plant transfer calculation. these measurements were concentrated in the Ingles de Souza agricultural settlement, were several uranium and thorium occurrences exist in geological formations called Monte Alegre and Faro. The values obtained in foodstuff cultivated in the anomalous region are 10 times higher than those ones observed in the Alenquer region, which is the chosen region due to its low level natural radioactivity and its proximity to the anomalous region. (author). 9 refs., 4 tabs

  18. Control Path of Pesticide Residual Under the System of Agricultural Products Supervision:A Case Study of A Village in Zhejiang Province, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    HUANG Wen-fang

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available There is relation between the pesticide application and quality of agricultural products. The paper explored the causes and ways to deal with it from the view of agricultural development on the case study of pesticide management and use in a village, Zhejiang Province on the basis of investigation of local government, agriculture technology service station and farmers. The paper pointed out that lack of supervi-sion in the pesticide use and result was only external; the true reasons were high supervise cost and limited service of agriculture technology service station. So the paper drew the conclusions that multifunction agriculture development, superior agriculture produce service system and the change of village committee's role and responsibility were the best answers to the agricultural products safety problem.

  19. Adaptation to Interannual and Interdecadal Climate Variability in Agricultural Production Systems of the Argentine Pampas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Podestá, G. P.; Bert, F.; Weber, E.; Laciana, C.; Rajagopalan, B.; Letson, D.

    2007-05-01

    Agricultural ecosystems play a central role in world food production and food security, and involve one of the most climate-sensitive sectors of society-agriculture. We focus on crop production in the Argentine Pampas, one of the world's major agricultural regions. Climate of the Pampas shows marked variability at both interannual and decadal time scales. We explored the scope for adaptive management in response to climate information on interannual scales. We show that different assumptions about what decision makers are trying to achieve (i.e., their objective functions) may change what actions are considered as "optimal" for a given climate context. Optimal actions also were used to estimate the economic value of forecasts of an ENSO phase. Decision constraints (e.g., crop rotations) have critical influence on value of the forecasting system. Gaps in knowledge or misconceptions about climate variability were identified in open-ended "mental model" interviews. Results were used to design educational interventions. A marked increase in precipitation since the 1970s, together with new production technologies, led to major changes in land use patterns in the Pampas. Continuous cropping has widely replaced agriculture-pasture rotations. Nevertheless, production systems that evolved partly in response to increased rainfall may not be viable if climate reverts to a drier epoch. We use historical data to define a range of plausible climate trajectories 20-30 years hence. Regional scenarios are downscaled using semi-parametric weather generators to produce multiple realizations of daily weather consistent with decadal scenarios. Finally, we use the synthetic climate, crop growth models, and realistic models of decision-making under risk to compute risk metrics (e.g., probability of yields or profits being below a threshold). Climatically optimal and marginal locations show differential responses: probabilities of negative economic results are much higher in currently

  20. Bayesian Networks to Compare Pest Control Interventions on Commodities Along Agricultural Production Chains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, J; Leach, A W; Johnson, S; Tu, D M; Nhu, D T; Anh, N T; Quinlan, M M; Whittle, P J L; Mengersen, K; Mumford, J D

    2018-02-01

    The production of an agricultural commodity involves a sequence of processes: planting/growing, harvesting, sorting/grading, postharvest treatment, packing, and exporting. A Bayesian network has been developed to represent the level of potential infestation of an agricultural commodity by a specified pest along an agricultural production chain. It reflects the dependency of this infestation on the predicted level of pest challenge, the anticipated susceptibility of the commodity to the pest, the level of impact from pest control measures as designed, and any variation from that due to uncertainty in measure efficacy. The objective of this Bayesian network is to facilitate agreement between national governments of the exporters and importers on a set of phytosanitary measures to meet specific phytosanitary measure requirements to achieve target levels of protection against regulated pests. The model can be used to compare the performance of different combinations of measures under different scenarios of pest challenge, making use of available measure performance data. A case study is presented using a model developed for a fruit fly pest on dragon fruit in Vietnam; the model parameters and results are illustrative and do not imply a particular level of fruit fly infestation of these exports; rather, they provide the most likely, alternative, or worst-case scenarios of the impact of measures. As a means to facilitate agreement for trade, the model provides a framework to support communication between exporters and importers about any differences in perceptions of the risk reduction achieved by pest control measures deployed during the commodity production chain. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

  1. Using a decision support system to optimize production of agricultural crop residue Biofeedstock

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoskinson, Reed L.; Rope, Ronald C.; Fink, Raymond K.

    2007-01-01

    For several years the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been developing a Decision Support System for Agriculture (DSS4Ag) which determines the economically optimum recipe of various fertilizers to apply at each site in a field to produce a crop, based on the existing soil fertility at each site, as well as historic production information and current prices of fertilizers and the forecast market price of the crop at harvest. In support of the growing interest in agricultural crop residues as a bioenergy feedstock, we have extended the capability of the DSS4Ag to develop a variable-rate fertilizer recipe for the simultaneous economically optimum production of both grain and straw. In this paper we report the results of 2 yr of field research testing and enhancing the DSS4Ag's ability to economically optimize the fertilization for the simultaneous production of both grain and its straw, where the straw is an agricultural crop residue that can be used as a biofeedstock. For both years, the DSS4Ag reduced the cost and amount of fertilizers used and increased grower profit, while reducing the biomass produced. The DSS4Ag results show that when a biorefinery infrastructure is in place and growers have a strong market for their straw it is not economically advantageous to increase fertilization in order to try to produce more straw. This suggests that other solutions, such as single-pass selective harvest, must be implemented to meet national goals for the amount of biomass that will be available for collection and use for bioenergy. (author)

  2. The application of GMOs in agriculture and in food production for a better nutrition: two different scientific points of view.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buiatti, M; Christou, P; Pastore, G

    2013-05-01

    This commentary is a face-to-face debate between two almost opposite positions regarding the application of genetic engineering in agriculture and food production. Seven questions on the potential benefits of the application of genetic engineering in agriculture and on the potentially adverse impacts on the environment and human health were posed to two scientists: one who is sceptical about the use of GMOs in Agriculture, and one who views GMOs as an important tool for quantitatively and qualitatively improving food production.

  3. Study of the transfer of accidentally released radionuclides in agricultural products with the aim of developing appropriate countermeasures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kirchmann, R.

    1993-01-01

    The objective of the project is to define the countermeasures to be applied in order to improve the radiological quality of agricultural products after a major nuclear accident at a PWR type nuclear power plant. The two main phases of the project are: identification of sensitive soils and agricultural products in the near and intermediate fields; and experimental research to define the parameters and the methods to reduce the transfer along the soil-plant-animal foodchain and to investigate the possible use of industrial processes to reduce the level of radioactivity in the end-products of the plant and animal production. (R.P.) 2 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs

  4. An integrated model for assessing both crop productivity and agricultural water resources at a large scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okada, M.; Sakurai, G.; Iizumi, T.; Yokozawa, M.

    2012-12-01

    Agricultural production utilizes regional resources (e.g. river water and ground water) as well as local resources (e.g. temperature, rainfall, solar energy). Future climate changes and increasing demand due to population increases and economic developments would intensively affect the availability of water resources for agricultural production. While many studies assessed the impacts of climate change on agriculture, there are few studies that dynamically account for changes in water resources and crop production. This study proposes an integrated model for assessing both crop productivity and agricultural water resources at a large scale. Also, the irrigation management to subseasonal variability in weather and crop response varies for each region and each crop. To deal with such variations, we used the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique to quantify regional-specific parameters associated with crop growth and irrigation water estimations. We coupled a large-scale crop model (Sakurai et al. 2012), with a global water resources model, H08 (Hanasaki et al. 2008). The integrated model was consisting of five sub-models for the following processes: land surface, crop growth, river routing, reservoir operation, and anthropogenic water withdrawal. The land surface sub-model was based on a watershed hydrology model, SWAT (Neitsch et al. 2009). Surface and subsurface runoffs simulated by the land surface sub-model were input to the river routing sub-model of the H08 model. A part of regional water resources available for agriculture, simulated by the H08 model, was input as irrigation water to the land surface sub-model. The timing and amount of irrigation water was simulated at a daily step. The integrated model reproduced the observed streamflow in an individual watershed. Additionally, the model accurately reproduced the trends and interannual variations of crop yields. To demonstrate the usefulness of the integrated model, we compared two types of impact assessment of

  5. Save production: a bottom-up energy model for Dutch industry and agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daniels, B.W.; Dril, A.W.N. van

    2007-01-01

    A new version of the model Save production simulates the development of energy use in the Dutch industry and agriculture, including combined heat and power generation. The model disaggregates national energy consumption into fuel types, industrial sectors, energy functions and energy technologies. Simulation is based on microeconomic investment behavior. Examples of model application show results on the penetration of combined heat and power in relation to policy instruments such as CO 2 prices, electricity price support and investment subsidies. Policies that discriminate on CO 2 emissions result in a slightly more efficient heat and power generation. Tailored to the Dutch situation, Save production is well equipped to generate outlooks for the Dutch industrial and agricultural energy use, and for analyzing the role of policies in detail. Its main strength lies in the middle term simulation of decision-making on energy saving technologies and analysis of policy effects. Specific precautions are required when the model is used for analysis on the longer-term, for simulating extreme policies or for the analysis of extremely fluctuating energy prices. (author)

  6. Torrefaction of agricultural by-products: Effects of temperature and time on energy yields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agricultural by-products, such as apple, grape, olive, and tomato pomaces as well as almond and walnut shells, were torrefied at different temperatures and times. Torrefaction of biomass involves heating in an inert atmosphere to remove volatile components for improved grindability and increased ene...

  7. PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Braide

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the potential of ethanol production from agro wastes. Agro waste from sugarcane Saccharum officinarum (sugarcane baggasse, sugarcane bark and maize plant Zea mays (corncob, corn stalk, corn husk was subjected to a pretreatment process using acid hydrolysis was applied to remove lignin which acts as physical barrier to cellulolytic enzymes. Ethanolic fermentation was done using Saccharomyces cerevisiae for 5days and the ethanol yield, specific gravity, pH and total reducing sugar were also determined. From the results, the specific gravity, sugar content and pH decreased over time while the Sugarcane baggasse, Sugarcane bark, Cornstalk, Corncob and Cornhusk gave maximum percentage ethanol yield of 6.72, 6.23, 6.17, 4.17 and 3.45 respectively at 72hrs Fermentation. Maximum yields of ethanol were obtained at pH 3.60, 3.82, 4.00, 3.64 and 3.65. These findings show/prove that ethanol can be made from the named agricultural waste and the process is recommended as a means of generating wealth from waste.

  8. The effect of rural road transport infrastructure on smallholder farmers’ agricultural productivity in Horro Guduru Wollega Zone, Western Ethiopia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sileshi Tamene

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This study was carried out to examine access to rural road infrastructure and its effects on smallholder farmers’ agricultural productivity in Horro Guduru Wollega Zone, Western Ethiopia. A three stage random sampling technique was employed to select 500 farming households in the study area and data was collected on their socio-economic and farm specific characteristics. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The result of multiple regression model used revealed that distance to major market is important in predicting agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers at 5% levels of probability in Abe Dongoro, Amuru and Hababo Guduru districts. Ownership of intermediate means of transport was also found to influence agricultural productivity in Horro, Amuru and Hababo Guduru districts (p = 0.05. Further analysis of the regression model showed a significant negative correlation between distance to nearest all weather roads and distance to zonal head quarter on one hand and agricultural productivity on the other hand in Abe Dongoro, Hababo Guduru and Amuru districts. Rural kebeles of Abe Dongoro and Amuru districts which has vast agricultural potential were found to be the most inaccessible in Horro Guduru Wollega Zone. It is therefore suggested that interventions in the transport sector should include provision of rural roads as well as measures that will help improve vehicle supply in rural areas. An attempt has to be done also to increase the use of intermediate means of transport to ease agricultural inputs and outputs mobility and farm access.

  9. New Research in Organic Agriculture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    1996-01-01

    The book is the proceedings from the bi-annual international scientific conference on organic agriculture. The chapters are: - plant and soil interactions, - animal production systems, - traditional knowledge in sustainable agriculture, - research, education and extension in sustainable agricultu......, - environmental impact and nature, - potentials of organic farming, - community, consumer and market, and - policy and financial strategies.......The book is the proceedings from the bi-annual international scientific conference on organic agriculture. The chapters are: - plant and soil interactions, - animal production systems, - traditional knowledge in sustainable agriculture, - research, education and extension in sustainable agriculture...

  10. Fuel gas production from animal and agricultural residues and biomass

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wise, D. L; Wentworth, R. L

    1978-05-30

    Progress was reported by all contractors. Topics presented include: solid waste to methane gas; pipeline fuel gas from an environmental cattle feed lot; heat treatment of organics for increasing anaerobic biodegradability; promoting faster anaerobic digestion; permselective membrane control of algae and wood digesters for increased production and chemicals recovery; anaerobic fermentation of agricultural residues; pilot plant demonstration of an anaerobic, fixed-film bioreactor for wastewater treatment; enhancement of methane production in the anaerobic diegestion of sewage; evaluation of agitation concepts for biogasification of sewage sludge; operation of a 50,000 gallon anaerobic digester; biological conversion of biomass to methane; dirt feedlot residue experiments; anaerobic fermentation of livestock and crop residues; current research on methanogenesis in Europe; and summary of EPA programs in digestion technology. (DC)

  11. Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    The report entitled Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation : A Canadian Perspective, presents a summary of research regarding the impacts of climate change on key sectors over the past five years as it relates to Canada. This chapter on agriculture describes how climate change will affect primary agriculture production in Canada with particular focus on potential adaptation options, and vulnerability of agriculture at the farm level. Agriculture is a vital part of the Canadian economy, although only 7 per cent of Canada's land mass is used for agricultural purposes due to the limitations of climate and soils. Most parts of Canada are expected to experience warmer conditions, longer frost-free seasons and increased evapotranspiration. The impacts of these changes on agriculture will vary depending on precipitation changes, soil conditions, and land use. Northern regions may benefit from longer farming seasons, but poor soil conditions will limit the northward expansion of agricultural crops. Some of the negative impacts associated with climate change on agriculture include increased droughts, changes in pest and pathogen outbreaks, and moisture stress. In general, it is expected that the positive and negative impacts of climate change would offset each other. 74 refs., 2 tabs., 1 fig

  12. The Role of Governance in Agricultural Expansion and Intensification: a Global Study of Arable Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Menno Mandemaker

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available In this research we studied empirical relationships between agricultural production dynamics and six quantitative World Bank governance indicators for 173 countries between 1975 and 2007. It is hypothesized that in countries with lower quality of governance, agricultural production increases are more likely to be achieved by area expansions than by increases in yields. We distinguished four groups of countries: those with both area and yield increases; those with increasing yields but decreasing area; those with decreasing yields but a growing area; and those with both declines in yields and area. We analyzed differences between these four groups, and also analyzed governance-production relationships within these groups. On average, quality of governance is low in countries with both area and yield increases and high in countries with increasing yields but decreasing area. Countries with declining yields were too few in number to allow for quantitative analyses. The analysis of governance-production relationships within the four groups suggests that countries with a lower quality of governance are more inclined to achieve production increases by expanding agricultural area rather than increasing yields. Additional explanatory value of governance indicators to agricultural production dynamics is generally small, but nevertheless significant in most cases. Our results suggest that, in order for agricultural production to increase without excessive expansions of agricultural area, governance issues should be resolved.

  13. Green Agriculture - features and agricultural policy measures for the transition to a sustainable agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cornelia Nistor

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in each country or area, as it is in close correlation with all other the other economic activities, in a whole which must be structured so as to achieve a more efficient planning and organization of the territory. The practice of a traditional agriculture, based on industrialization, affects the natural environment through emissions of pollutants, waste and deforestation which together affects biodiversity. Green Agriculture suppose to empower managers to widespread the use of fertilizers, to improve the crop rotation, to realize a more efficient water consumption, to improve the storage methods and the supply chain of products. Agricultural policies are closely interrelated with environmental policies as agricultural activities have a considerable influence on the environment. The efficiency of agricultural policies is reflected in monetary transfers between agriculture and other economic sectors, in the costs due to the reallocation of the resources between different agricultural and non-agricultural activities and in the realized gains. Currently there is a constant concern of the governments for the transition to a green agriculture, and most countries recognize the importance of achieving sustainable economic development.

  14. Radiation method for hygienization food and agriculture products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Migdal, W.

    1995-01-01

    The irradiation of food and agriculture products have been used for several goals. That are: disinsectization, disinfection, sprout inhibition and retardation of mattering. In the frames of the national programme on the application of irradiation for food preservation and hygienization an experimental plant for electron beam processing has been established in INCT (Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology). The pilot plant is equipped with a small research accelerator Pilot (10 MeV, 1 kW) and and industrial unit Elektronika (10 MeV, 10 kW). This allows both laboratory and full technological scale testing of the elaborated process to be conducted. The industrial unit is being equipped with e-/X conversion target, for high density products irradiation. On the basis of the research there were performed at different scientific institutions in Poland, health authorities have issued permissions for permanent treatment of spices, garlic, onions and temporary permissions for mushrooms, and potatoes. Dosimetric methods have been elaborated for the routine use at the plant. In the INCT laboratory methods for the control of e-/X treated food have been established. (author)

  15. Production of biodegradable plastic from agricultural wastes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N.A. Mostafa

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural residues management is considered to be a vital strategy in order to accomplish resource conservation and to maintain the quality of the environment. In recent years, biofibers have attracted increasing interest due to their wide applications in food packaging and in the biomedical sciences. These eco-friendly polymers reduce rapidly and replace the usage of the petroleum-based synthetic polymers due to their safety, low production costs, and biodegradability. This paper reports an efficient method for the production of the cellulose acetate biofiber from flax fibers and cotton linters. The used process satisfied a yield of 81% and 54% for flax fibers and cotton linters respectively (based on the weight of the cellulosic residue used. The structure of the produced bioplastic was confirmed by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR and gel permeation chromatography. Moreover, this new biopolymer is biodegradable and is not affected by acid or salt treatment but is alkali labile. A comparison test showed that the produced cellulose acetate was affected by acids to a lesser extent than polypropylene and polystyrene. Therefore, this new cellulose acetate bioplastics can be applied in both the food industry and medicine. Keywords: Cotton linters, Flax fibers, Cellulose acetate, Preparation, Characterization

  16. Research on Agricultural Development Based on “Internet +”

    OpenAIRE

    Feng , Wenjie; Wang , Lei; Zhao , Jia; Ruan , Huaijun

    2015-01-01

    International audience; Agricultural modernization is an important way to construct modern agriculture. The development of intelligent terminal, mobile internet, communication technology, internet of things is being applied to agricultural production. It will greatly improve the level and degree of agricultural informatization, promote agricultural informatization development, improve agricultural production efficiency and improve agricultural production efficiency and promote the development...

  17. Towards efficient bioethanol production from agricultural and forestry residues: Exploration of unique natural microorganisms in combination with advanced strain engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Xinqing; Xiong, Liang; Zhang, Mingming; Bai, Fengwu

    2016-09-01

    Production of fuel ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks such as agricultural and forestry residues is receiving increasing attention due to the unsustainable supply of fossil fuels. Three key challenges include high cellulase production cost, toxicity of the cellulosic hydrolysate to microbial strains, and poor ability of fermenting microorganisms to utilize certain fermentable sugars in the hydrolysate. In this article, studies on searching of natural microbial strains for production of unique cellulase for biorefinery of agricultural and forestry wastes, as well as development of strains for improved cellulase production were reviewed. In addition, progress in the construction of yeast strains with improved stress tolerance and the capability to fully utilize xylose and glucose in the cellulosic hydrolysate was also summarized. With the superior microbial strains for high titer cellulase production and efficient utilization of all fermentable sugars in the hydrolysate, economic biofuels production from agricultural residues and forestry wastes can be realized. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Climate change and agricultural production | Offiong | Global ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    From a policy viewpoint, however, it is also difficult to understand the level to which agriculturally related activities may contribute to global-scale environmental change and the extent to which policies to prevent, mitigate, or adapt to environmental change may affect agriculture and hunger. These issues are likely to become ...

  19. Land Use Change under Biofuel Policies and a Tax on Meat and Dairy Products: Considering Complexity in Agricultural Production Chains Matters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth Delzeit

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Growing demand for meat and dairy products (MDP, biofuels, and scarcity of agricultural land are drivers of global land use competition. Impacts of policies targeting demand for MDP or biofuels have only been analysed separately. We use the computable general equilibrium model DART-BIO to investigate combined effects, since MDP and biofuel production are closely related via feestock use and co-production of animal feed. We implement four scenarios: (a a baseline scenario; (b halving MDP consumption in industrialised countries by a tax; (c abolishing current biofuel policies; and (d no exogenous land use change. We find that a MDP tax and exogenous land use change have larger effects on land use and food markets than biofuel policies. International trade is affected in all scenarios. With respect to combined effects of a MDP tax and biofuel policies, we find decreasing biodiesel but increasing bioethanol production. In addition, the MDP tax decreases the impact of biofuel policies on agricultural markets and land use. Our results highlight the importance of a detailed representation of different vegetable oils used in biodiesel production and related by-products. Finally, since the MDP tax increases the use of fossil fuels, the net climate mitigation potentials of such a tax should be investigated further.

  20. Transfer of radionuclides from the environment to crops and agricultural products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Delmas, J.

    1977-01-01

    The transfer rates of 90 Sr, 137 Cs, 54 Mn, 65 Zn, 60 Co and 22 Na from the irrigation water to different crops, determined by means of experimental models, depend on the mode of conveyance, the water quality, and on the type and portion of the plant in question. In certain cases, the resulting contamination to foodstuffs undergoing irrigation is higher than that of the water. The contamination level of the consumed product also depends on the food processing technology. The monitoring of crops and converted agricultural products is thus of great use for the knowledge of the radiological state of the site. Measurements taken in the environment show that this contamination is very slight. This monitoring is very well accepted by farmers and managers of food product conversion companies, because it provides proof of the quality of their products from the radiological standpoint [fr

  1. Examining the Effect of World Price Transfer to Domestic Markets for Sensitive and Certain Agricultural Products in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. shabanzadeh

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Agriculture as one of old sectors of economy has been important role in the supply food for peoples and raw materials. Globalization causes rapid growth of world trade and reduces information and communications costs. Globalization and rapid growth of trade increases the potential benefits of trade for agriculture from various aspects. The potential benefits of trade for agriculture increases from three aspects. Direct increase in the domain of agricultural sector activities for competition in the global market results in the benefits of access to global markets. This is especially true in cases where there is comparative advantage and the indirect effects of increased global trade on non-agricultural sectors that cause the domestic demand for food change from qualitative and quantitative aspects, are the benefits of this event. However, during the process of globalization, how to influence prices in different markets, including the impact of world prices on domestic prices is an important issue in trade policy analysis. During this process domestic prices are directly related to world prices. With this approach, the main objective of this study is to examine the effect of world price transfers to domestic markets for sensitive and certain agricultural products in Iran during 1360-91. Materials and Methods: To achieve this goal in this study, the Armington and the foreign currency elasticity of ten selected agricultural products in Iran including wheat, barley, rice, corn, soybean meal, vegetable oil (soybean and sunflower, sugar, eggs, poultry and beef, have been estimated and examined using Autoregressive Distribution lag Model (ARDL. In order to investigate speed of adjustment or in other words the speed of movement towards equilibrium, typically the error correction model (ECM is used. Existence of cointegration or in other words, long term relationship between a set of economic variables provide the basis for the use of error

  2. Application of an experimental irradiation facility type K-120 for the radiation treatment of agricultural products in large quantity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stenger, V.; Foeldiak, G.; Horvath, I.; Hargittai, P.; Bartfai, Cs.

    1979-01-01

    During experimental and pilot irradiation carried out by the 60 Co irradiation facility type K-120 of the Institute of Isotopes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences an irradiation technology for the treatment of agricultural and food products of considerable density has been developed. Applying transport containers of commercial size the intermittent radiation treatment of great quantity products was made possible with homogeneous dose distribution. The radiation technical characteristics, the utilization coefficient and the capacity of the facility for every agricultural product were calculated. (author)

  3. Radiation processing of agricultural products: status and potential contribution to a cleaner environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lapidot, M.

    1979-01-01

    The current status of radiation processing of agricultural products is briefly reviewed with special regard to those processes which may contribute to a cleaner environment. Radurization of poultry feed and poultry meat is shown to be a major contributor to the reduction of a significant public health problem-salmonellosis. Radiation sterilized animal feeds can be produced by processing garbage - a major environmental pollutant. Radicidation and radappertization are effective processes in the treatment of sludges and waste water, to prevent pollution of seas or ground. Radiation processes can effectively replace fungicides and insecticides in the treatment of agricultural crops and thus reduce environmental pollution. (author)

  4. Voice-Based Marketing for Agricultural Products : A Case Study in Rural Northern Ghana

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dittoh, Francis; Aart, Chris Van; Boer, Victor De

    2013-01-01

    We present a study conducted in rural Northern Ghana about issues around the marketing of agricultural products and the need of mobile-based ICT solutions. The need for the spread of information and web access to communities in developing countries has given rise to the design and development of

  5. Remote Sensing Analysis of Malawi's Agricultural Inputs Subsidy and Climate Variability Impacts on Productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galford, G. L.; Fiske, G. J.; Sedano, F.; Michelson, H.

    2016-12-01

    Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by smallholder production and low yields ( 1 ton ha-1 year-1 since records began in 1961) for staple food crops such as maize (Zea mays). Many years of low-input farming have depleted much of the region's agricultural land of critical soil carbon and nitrogen, further reducing yield potentials. Malawi is a 98,000 km2 subtropical nation with a short rainy season from November to May, with most rainfall occurring between December and mid-April. This short growing season supports the cultivation of one primary crop, maize. In Malawi, many smallholder farmers face annual nutrient deficits as nutrients removed as grain harvest and residues are beyond replenishment levels. As a result, Malawi has had stagnant maize yields averaging 1.2 ton ha-1 year-1 for decades. After multiple years of drought and widespread hunger in the early 2000s, Malawi introduced an agricultural input support program (fertilizer and seed subsidy) in time for the 2006 harvest that was designed to restore soil nutrients, improve maize production, and decrease dependence on food aid. Malawi's subsidy program targets 50-67% of smallholder farmers who cultivate half a hectare or less, yet collectively supply 80% of the country's maize. The country has achieved significant increases in crop yields (now 2 tons/ha/year) and, as our analysis shows, benefited from a new resilience against drought. We utilized Landsat time series to determine cropland extent from 2000-present and identify areas of marginal and/or intermittent production. We found a strong latitudinal gradient of precipitation variability from north to south in CHIRPS data. We used the precipitation variability to normalize trends in a productivity proxy derived from MODIS EVI. After normalization of productivity to precipitation variability, we found significant productivity trends correlated to subsidy distribution. This work was conducted with Google's Earth Engine, a cloud-based platform

  6. Supporting food security in the 21st century through resource-conserving increases in agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Uphoff Norman

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The Green Revolution was accomplished under a set of demographic, economic, climatic and other conditions in the 20th century that have been changing and will surely be different and more difficult in the decades ahead. The suitability and sustainability of any given agricultural technology depends on factors like resource availability and productivity, energy costs, and environmental constraints. The achievements of Green Revolution technologies in the 1960s and 1970s came at a critical time of impending food shortages, and the world’s people would be worse off without them. However, the rate of yield improvement for cereal production has been slowing since the mid-1980s. Looking ahead at the foreseeable circumstances under which 21st century agricultural producers must try to assure food security, there will be need for technologies that are less dependent on resources that are becoming relatively scarcer, like arable land and water, or becoming relatively more costly, like energy and petrochemical-based inputs. This paper considers agroecologically-based innovations that reduce farmers’ dependence on external inputs, relying more on endogenous processes and existing potentials in plants and soil systems. Such resource-conserving production represents a different approach to meeting food security goals. While these innovations are not yet fully understood and are still being researched, there are good agronomic reasons to account for their effectiveness, and scientific validations are accumulating. Enough successes have been recorded from making changes in the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients that more attention from researchers, policy-makers and practitioners is warranted, especially given the need to adapt to, and to mitigate the effects of, climate change. The same agroecological concepts and management methods that are enhancing factor productivity in rice production are giving similar results with other crops

  7. Agricultural Capacity to Increase the Production of Select Fruits and Vegetables in the US: A Geospatial Modeling Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conrad, Zach; Peters, Christian J; Chui, Kenneth; Jahns, Lisa; Griffin, Timothy S

    2017-09-23

    The capacity of US agriculture to increase the output of specific foods to accommodate increased demand is not well documented. This research uses geospatial modeling to examine the capacity of the US agricultural landbase to increase the per capita availability of an example set of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. These fruits and vegetables were selected based on nutrient content and an increasing trend of domestic production and consumption. Geographic information system models were parameterized to identify agricultural land areas meeting crop-specific growing requirements for monthly precipitation and temperature; soil depth and type; cropland availability; and proximity to existing production centers. The results of these analyses demonstrate that crop production can be expanded by nearly 144,000 ha within existing national production centers, generating an additional 0.05 cup-equivalents of fruits and vegetables per capita per day, representing a 1.7% increase above current total F&V availability. Expanding the size of national crop production centers can further increase the availability of all F&V by 2.5%-5.4%, which is still less than the recommended amount. Challenges to increasing F&V production in the US include lack of labor availability, barriers to adoption among producers, and threats to crop yields from environmental concerns.

  8. The global view: issues affecting US production agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldsmith, Peter

    2010-07-01

    This paper discusses small events occurring among developing countries, particularly but not exclusively in Asia, and their subsequent large impacts on net food exporting countries in the world, particularly, but not exclusively, located in the Western hemisphere. A Green Revolution II is underway as a result where the world's agricultural system will produce more (output) with less (inputs). Agriculture will meet the rapidly growing demand for bio-based foods, fuels, feeds, and fiber while reducing input usage, preserving the natural environment, and maintaining native ecosystems. In turn agricultural workers will receive a health dividend as chemical usage falls, automation, metering, and sensing technologies rise, and exposure to harsh environmental, both natural and man-made, conditions is reduced. This paper was prepared for the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Conference, "Be Safe, Be Profitable: Protecting Workers in Agriculture," January 27-28, 2010, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

  9. Global economic-biophysical assessment of midterm scenarios for agricultural markets—biofuel policies, dietary patterns, cropland expansion, and productivity growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delzeit, Ruth; Klepper, Gernot; Zabel, Florian; Mauser, Wolfram

    2018-02-01

    Land-use decisions are made at the local level. They are influenced both by local factors and by global drivers and trends. These will most likely change over time e.g. due to political shocks, market developments or climate change. Hence, their influence should be taken into account when analysing and projecting local land-use decisions. We provide a set of mid-term scenarios of global drivers (until 2030) for use in regional and local studies on agriculture and land-use. In a participatory process, four important drivers are identified by experts from globally distributed regional studies: biofuel policies, increase in preferences for meat and dairy products in Asia, cropland expansion into uncultivated areas, and changes in agricultural productivity growth. Their impact on possible future developments of global and regional agricultural markets are analysed with a modelling framework consisting of a global computable general equilibrium model and a crop growth model. The business as usual (BAU) scenario causes production and prices of crops to rise over time. It also leads to a conversion of pasture land to cropland. Under different scenarios, global price changes range between -42 and +4% in 2030 compared to the BAU. An abolishment of biofuel targets does not significantly improve food security while an increased agricultural productivity and cropland expansion have a stronger impact on changes in food production and prices.

  10. Geographical patterns in climate and agricultural technology drive soybean productivity in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caetano, Jordana Moura; Tessarolo, Geiziane; de Oliveira, Guilherme; Souza, Kelly da Silva E; Diniz-Filho, José Alexandre Felizola; Nabout, João Carlos

    2018-01-01

    The impacts of global climate change have been a worldwide concern for several research areas, including those dealing with resources essential to human well being, such as agriculture, which directly impact economic activities and food security. Here we evaluate the relative effect of climate (as indicated by the Ecological Niche Model-ENM) and agricultural technology on actual soybean productivity in Brazilian municipalities and estimate the future geographic distribution of soybeans using a novel statistical approach allowing the evaluation of partial coefficients in a non-stationary (Geographically Weighted Regression; GWR) model. We found that technology was more important than climate in explaining soybean productivity in Brazil. However, some municipalities are more dependent on environmental suitability (mainly in Southern Brazil). The future environmental suitability for soybean cultivation tends to decrease by up 50% in the central region of Brazil. Meanwhile, southern-most Brazil will have more favourable conditions, with an increase of ca. 25% in environmental suitability. Considering that opening new areas for cultivation can degrade environmental quality, we suggest that, in the face of climate change impacts on soybean cultivation, the Brazilian government and producers must invest in breeding programmes and more general ecosystem-based strategies for adaptation to climate change, including the development of varieties tolerant to climate stress, and strategies to increase productivity and reduce costs (social and environmental).

  11. PERFORMANCE OF ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE IN ROMANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CIPRIAN APOSTOL

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The term ecological agriculture has been attributed by the European Union of Romania to define this system of agriculture and is similar with terms organic agriculture or biological agriculture, which are used in other member states. One of the main goals of ecological agriculture is the production of agricultural and food products fresh and genuine through processes created to respect nature and its systems. Thus, it prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms, fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, stimulators and growth regulators, hormones, antibiotics for livestock and the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, drastic interventions on the soil, the introduction of genetically modified organisms, in the case of the cultivated soil. The study aims to highlight the main features of ecological agriculture and its impact on the national economy. Through a descriptive and comparative analysis of specific indicators are surprising the main aspects of ecological agriculture performance in Romania and are identified investment opportunities in this sector of the national economy. Following this study, it was found that ecological agriculture in Romania is quite performant and recorded a continuous development, but mainly in the production, not in the processing and trading of natural products, which is why investment in these areas would be welcome.

  12. Studies on quality, storeability, cooking and processing for products of agricultural and livestock produced by natural farming

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cho, Han Ok; Byun, Myung Woo; Yang, Jae Seung; Jo, Sung Ki; Go, Youn Mi [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Heun Ja; Lee, Sung Hee [Ansung National University, Ansung (Korea, Republic of)

    1997-12-01

    The wholesomeness of agricultural and livestock products produced in contaminated natural environment and inactivated farmland are under apprehension. We have to produce foodstuff reliable high quality and wholesomeness in harmonizing with environmental condition and sustainable agriculture. All members of Korean Natural Farming Association are working at the self-managing natural farming field and has been developed steadily to village unit due to voluntary demanding and self-practicing more than 30 years. Agricultural and livestock products and its processed foods produced by member of Association are distributing in domestic and exporting to Japan and other country with recognition of its high quality and wholesomeness by consumer. In order to propagate the natural farming technology and to increase the consumption of its products and processed food in domestic and abroad, scientific approach and evaluation for their quality were carried out in field of chemical component and microbial activity of farmland(32 kinds), physico-chemical properties of cereals(7 kinds), fruits and vegetables(14 kinds) and meat processed foods (2 kinds). 51 refs., 29 tabs. (author)

  13. Agricultural net primary production in relation to that liberated by the extinction of Pleistocene mega-herbivores: an estimate of agricultural carrying capacity?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doughty, Christopher E; Field, Christopher B, E-mail: chris.doughty@ouce.ox.ac.uk, E-mail: cfield@ciw.edu [Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)

    2010-10-15

    Mega-fauna (defined as animals > 44 kg) experienced a global extinction with 97 of 150 genera going extinct by {approx} 10 000 years ago. We estimate the net primary production (NPP) that was liberated following the global extinction of these mega-herbivores. We then explore how humans, through agriculture, gradually appropriated this liberated NPP, with specific calculations for 800, 1850, and 2000 AD. By 1850, most of the liberated NPP had been appropriated by people, but NPP was still available in the Western US, South America and Australia. NPP liberated following the extinction of the mega-herbivores was {approx} 2.5% ({approx}1.4 (between 1.2 and 1.6) Pg yr{sup -1} of 56 Pg C yr{sup -1}; Pg: petagrams) of global terrestrial NPP. Liberated NPP peaked during the onset of agriculture and was sufficient for sustaining human agriculture until {approx} 320 (250-500) years ago. Humans currently use {approx} 6 times more NPP than was utilized by the extinct Pleistocene mega-herbivores.

  14. Agricultural net primary production in relation to that liberated by the extinction of Pleistocene mega-herbivores: an estimate of agricultural carrying capacity?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doughty, Christopher E; Field, Christopher B

    2010-01-01

    Mega-fauna (defined as animals > 44 kg) experienced a global extinction with 97 of 150 genera going extinct by ∼ 10 000 years ago. We estimate the net primary production (NPP) that was liberated following the global extinction of these mega-herbivores. We then explore how humans, through agriculture, gradually appropriated this liberated NPP, with specific calculations for 800, 1850, and 2000 AD. By 1850, most of the liberated NPP had been appropriated by people, but NPP was still available in the Western US, South America and Australia. NPP liberated following the extinction of the mega-herbivores was ∼ 2.5% (∼1.4 (between 1.2 and 1.6) Pg yr -1 of 56 Pg C yr -1 ; Pg: petagrams) of global terrestrial NPP. Liberated NPP peaked during the onset of agriculture and was sufficient for sustaining human agriculture until ∼ 320 (250-500) years ago. Humans currently use ∼ 6 times more NPP than was utilized by the extinct Pleistocene mega-herbivores.

  15. Comparing compensation mussel production costs and traditional agricultural farmers willingness to pay to reduce nutrient loads in the Limfjord

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frost, Hans Staby; Hasler, Berit; Hoff, Ayoe

    Nitrogen non-point pollution from agriculture is the dominating source of eutrophication of Danish fjords. Long-line mussel production is an alternative measure to costly agricultural measures to achieve good ecological status of fjords. This paper investigates farmers’ economic incentives to buy......-quotas between mussel farms and agriculture provides a potential for cost-effective mitigation of eutrophication in this type of fjords....

  16. Forages and Pastures Symposium: assessing drought vulnerability of agricultural production systems in context of the 2012 drought.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellner, O; Niyogi, D

    2014-07-01

    Weather and climate events and agronomic enterprise are coupled via crop phenology and yield, which is temperature and precipitation dependent. Additional coupling between weather and climate and agronomic enterprise occurs through agricultural practices such as tillage, irrigation, erosion, livestock management, and forage. Thus, the relationship between precipitation, temperature, and yield is coupled to the relationship between temperature, precipitation, and drought. Unraveling the different meteorological and climatological patterns by comparing different growing seasons provides insight into how drought conditions develop and what agricultural producers can do to mitigate and adapt to drought conditions. The 2012 drought in the United States greatly impacted the agricultural sector of the economy. With comparable severity and spatial extent of the droughts of the 1930s, 1950s, and 1980s, the 2012 drought impacted much of the U.S. crop and livestock producers via decreased forage and feed. This brief summary of drought impacts to agricultural production systems includes 1) the basics of drought; 2) the meteorology and climatology involved in forecasting, predicting, and monitoring drought with attribution of the 2012 drought explored in detail; and 3) comparative analysis completed between the 2011 and 2012 growing season. This synthesis highlights the complex nature of drought in agriculture production systems as producers prepare for future climate variability.

  17. Agriculture and environmental pollution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iqbal, M.M.; Idris, M.; Shah, S.M.

    1997-01-01

    Agriculture is a profession which is open both to natural conditions and intense human activity. This has brought it in direct interface with the environment. The activities related to agriculture can have favorable as well as unfavorable influence on environment. Pressure of burgeoning population in demanding increased production from agriculture to feed and clothe the teeming millions. This has resulted in excessive use of soil, fertilizers and pesticides. The paper describes the effect of these productive resources on environment and human health. (author)

  18. Production and characterization of xylanase from Bacillus thermoalkalophilus grown on agricultural wastes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rajaram, S.; Varma, A. (Jawaharlal Nehru Univ., New Delhi (India). School of Life Sciences)

    1990-10-01

    Bacillus thermoalkalophilus isolated from termite-infested mound soils of the semi-arid zones of India had the ability to produce good amounts of xylanase(s) from cheap agricultural wastes. Of the two hemicellulosic substrates tested, bagasse was found to be the better inducer for xylanase production. Alkali treatment of bagasse and rice husk had varied effects on enzyme production. The enzyme preparation had activity optima at 60deg C and 70deg C and a half-life of 60 min at 65deg C. The enzyme was stable for 24 h over a pH range of 4.0-6.0, while maximum activity was observed at pH 6.0-7.0. Enzyme production and activity were inhibited by the end-product of xylan hydrolysis, xylose. (orig.).

  19. Spanish for Agricultural Purposes: The Basic Manual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mainous, Bruce H.; And Others

    This manual, part of a one-semester course for North American agriculture specialists preparing to work in Latin America, is built around specimens of agricultural writing in Spanish. The manual contains 12 lessons on general agriculture, sugar production, grain production, geography, forestry, animal husbandry, soy bean production, agricultural…

  20. Evaluation of several microcrystalline celluloses obtained from agricultural by-products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Rojas

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Microcrystalline cellulose (MCCI has been widely used as an excipient for direct compression due to its good flowability, compressibility, and compactibility. In this study, MCCI was obtained from agricultural by-products, such as corn cob, sugar cane bagasse, rice husk, and cotton by pursuing acid hydrolysis, neutralization, clarification, and drying steps. Further, infrared spectroscopy (IR, X-ray diffraction (XRD, optical microscopy, degree of polymerization (DP, and powder and tableting properties were evaluated and compared to those of Avicel PH101, Avicel PH102, and Avicel PH200. Except for the commercial products, all materials showed a DP from 55 to 97. Particles of commercial products and corn cob had an irregular shape, whereas bagasse particles were elongated and thick. Rice and cotton particles exhibited a flake-like and fiber-like shape, respectively. MCCI as obtained from rice husk and cotton was the most densified material, while that produced from corn cob and bagasse was bulky, porous, and more compressible. All products had a moisture content of less than 10% and yields from 7.4% to 60.4%. MCCI as obtained from bagasse was the most porous and compressible material among all materials. This product also showed the best tableting properties along with Avicel products. Likewise, all MCCI products obtained from the above-mentioned sources showed a more rapid disintegration time than that of Avicel products. These materials can be used as a potential source of MCCI in the production of solid dosage forms.

  1. Agricultural Education: Key to Providing Broader Opportunities for Third World Women in Production Agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lelle, Mark A.; Holt, Barbara A.

    1987-01-01

    The authors focus on providing opportunities for women in Third World countries in agriculture. A review of the body of knowledge in agricultural development and of the issues surrounding current world food crises is included. (CH)

  2. Asymmetries of cattle and crop productivity and efficiency during Brazil’s agricultural expansion from 1975 to 2006

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerd Sparovek

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Brazil has global importance for food production and conservation of natural resources. The country has plans to increase yields and commitments to decrease deforestation that require higher productivity. Plans and policies for the growth of Brazilian agriculture, however, have been made without an integrated analysis of the harvest and not supported by a universal metric regarding its efficiency. Applying methods to model flows of energy and matter along food supply chains for agricultural production from 1975 to 2006, we found that crop and cattle harvests and their productivity have increased during the last four decades in consolidated and deforestation frontier regions. Yet in 2006, crop protein production was 20 times larger than cattle protein, using an area 2.6 times smaller than pastures. Crop protein productivity was 0.25 ton.ha–1 with emissions of 2 ton GHG per ton of protein, while cattle productivity was 0.01 ton.ha–1 with emissions of 283 ton GHG per ton of protein. From 1975 to 2006, the portion of crop protein and energy going to feed increased while the portion going to direct human consumption decreased. Our findings suggest that more efficient food systems would be achieved by a combination of intensification of cattle systems, optimization of feed-meat systems and an increase in the share of the consumption of crops as a source of protein. We suggest an initial road map to the expansion of the cultivated area and intensification of agriculture for zero deforestation, efficient and sustainable land use and food systems where cattle pasture intensification is a transition that will last until the expansion of crops replace all pasture present on suitable arable land. During this transition, pasture area will decrease until it is limited only to marginal non-arable lands. Such change could be achieved by a robust strategy that combines penalties and incentives and prevents the risks of a rebound effect for the

  3. CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    users

    www.globaljournalseries.com; Email: info@globaljournalseries.com. CLIMATE ... and hunger. These issues are likely to become especially important in making decisions not only about how to reduce .... Agriculture is the largest single consumer of fresh water ..... imply increased refrigeration loads at the same time that.

  4. Global Journal of Agricultural Sciences

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Journal Homepage Image. Global Journal of Agricultural Sciences is aimed at promoting research in all areas of Agricultural Sciences including Animal Production, Fisheries, Agronomy, Processing and Agricultural Mechanization. Related ...

  5. Localizing drought monitoring products to support agricultural climate service advisories in South Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qamer, F. M.; Matin, M. A.; Yadav, N. K.; Bajracharya, B.; Zaitchik, B. F.; Ellenburg, W. L.; Krupnik, T. J.; Hussain, G.

    2017-12-01

    The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identifies drought as one of the major climate risks in South Asia. During past two decades, a large amount of climate data have been made available by the scientific community, but the deployment of climate information for local level and agricultural decision making remains less than optimal. The provisioning of locally calibrated, easily accessible, decision-relevant and user-oriented information, in the form of drought advisory service could help to prepare communities to reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience. A collaborative effort is now underway to strengthen existing and/or establish new drought monitoring and early warning systems in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan by incorporating standard ground-based observations, earth observation datasets, and numerical forecast models. ICT-based agriculture drought monitoring platforms, hosted at national agricultural and meteorological institutions, are being developed and coupled with communications and information deployment strategies to enable the rapid and efficient deployment of information that farmers can understand, interpret, and act on to adapt to anticipated droughts. Particular emphasis is being placed on the calibration and validation of data products through retrospective analysis of time series data, in addition to the installation of automatic weather station networks. In order to contextualize monitoring products to that they may be relevant for farmers' primary cropping systems, district level farming practices calendars are being compiled and validated through focus groups and surveys to identify the most important times and situations during which farmers can adapt to drought. High-resolution satellite crop distribution maps are under development and validation to add value to these efforts. This programme also aims to enhance capacity of agricultural extension staff to better understand

  6. Agricultural science policy

    OpenAIRE

    Alston, Julian M.; Pardey, Philip G.; Taylor, Michael J.

    2001-01-01

    Technological advances developed through R&D have supplied the world with not only more food, but better food. This report looks at issues raised by this changing environment for agricultural productivity, agricultural R&D, and natural resource management.

  7. Profitability Analysis for Agricultural Investment Projects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florina Oana VIRLANUTA

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available In agriculture production is based on a process both economically as well as the biological one, the work results are influenced, more than any branch of economic, natural and climatic conditions are subject to higher risk and permanently. Due to the features of production in agriculture, we believe that it is necessary such as performance agricultural units to be assessed under a system of specific indicators. The correct assessment units are closely related agricultural economic-financial investment in agriculture. In the following we present and analyze a complex system of specific performance indicators of the extremely for assessing agricultural units.

  8. Climate Change and Agricultural Vulnerability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, G.; Shah, M.; Van Velthuizen, H.

    2002-08-01

    After the introduction Chapter 2 presents details of the ecological-economic analysis based on the FAO/IIASA agro-ecological zones (AEZ) approach for evaluation of biophysical limitations and agricultural production potentials, and IIASA's Basic Linked System (BLS) for analyzing the world's food economy and trade system. The BLS is a global general equilibrium model system for analyzing agricultural policies and food system prospects in an international setting. BLS views national agricultural systems as embedded in national economies, which interact with each other through trade at the international level. The combination of AEZ and BLS provides an integrated ecological-economic framework for the assessment of the impact of climate change. We consider climate scenarios based on experiments with four General Circulation Models (GCM), and we assess the four basic socioeconomic development pathways and emission scenarios as formulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Third Assessment Report. Chapter 3 presents the main AEZ results of the impact of climate change on agriculture. Results comprise environmental constraints to crop agriculture; climate variability and the variability of rain-fed cereal production; changes in potential agricultural land; changes in crop-production patterns; and the impact of climate change on cereal-production potential. Chapter 4 discusses the AEZ-BLS integrated ecological-economic analysis of climate change on the world food system. This includes quantification of scale and location of hunger, international agricultural trade, prices, production, land use, etc. It assesses trends in food production, trade, and consumption, and the impact on poverty and hunger of alternative development pathways and varying levels of climate change. Chapter 5 presents the main conclusions and policy implications of this study

  9. Determining and Accounting of Fair Value in Agricultural Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmet GÖKGÖZ

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Biological assets and agricultural products bring about the subject of agricultural production. Having biological transformation of biological assets and agricultural products via the cases such as growth, reproduction, deterioration, decay; makes the valuation of agricultural activities important. The Fair Value Approach is adopted in TAS 41, the Agricultural Activities Standard regulating agricultural activities, about the valuation of biological assets and agricultural products. In the study; determining process of biological assets and agricultural products’ fair value adopted by TAS 41 is explained. Afterwards; recording of increase and decrease, occured due to the valuation by the framework of TAS 41, through the accounts offered to the Uniform Chart of Accounts.

  10. Maize production and land degradation: a Portuguese agriculture field case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, Carla S. S.; Pato, João V.; Moreira, Pedro M.; Valério, Luís M.; Guilherme, Rosa; Casau, Fernando J.; Santos, Daniela; Keizer, Jacob J.; Ferreira, António J. D.

    2016-04-01

    While food security is a main challenge faced by human kind, intensive agriculture often leads to soil degradation which then can threaten productivity. Maize is one of the most important crops across the world, with 869 million tons produced worldwide in 2012/2013 (IGC 2015), of which 929.5 thousand tons in Portugal (INE 2014). In Portugal, maize is sown in April/May and harvest occurs generally in October. Conventional maize production requires high inputs of water and fertilizers to achieve higher yields. As Portuguese farmers are typically rather old (on average, 63 years) and typically have a low education level (INE 2014), sustainability of their land management practises is often not a principal concern. This could explain why, in 2009, only 4% of the Portuguese temporary crops were under no-tillage, why only 8% of the farmers performed soil analyses in the previous three years, and why many soils have a low organic matter content (INE 2014). Nonetheless, sustainable land management practices are generally accepted to be the key to reducing agricultural soil degradation, preventing water pollution, and assuring long-term crop production objectives and food security. Sustainable land management should therefore not only be a concern for policy makers but also for farmers, since land degradation will have negative repercussions on the productivity, thus, on their economical income. This paper aims to assess the impact of maize production on soil properties. The study focusses on an 8 ha maize field located in central Portugal, with a Mediterranean climate on a gently sloping terrain (<3%) and with a soil classified as Eutric Fluvisol. On the field, several experiments were carried out with different maize varieties as well as with different fertilizers (solid, liquid and both). Centre pivot irrigation was largely used. Data is available from 2003, and concerns crop yield, fertilization and irrigation practices, as well as soil properties assessed through

  11. Environmental marketing within organic agriculture system management

    OpenAIRE

    O. Shkuratov; V. Kyporenko

    2015-01-01

    This paper deals with economic content of environmental marketing in the management system organic agriculture that allows operators of organic market to effectively plan the production of organic agricultural products and ensure the optimal balance between social and economic indicators throughout the life cycle of the product. Structural-logical scheme on the formation of environmentally oriented motivation of organic agricultural products consumer behavior has been grounded.

  12. Dynamic integrated assessment of bioenergy technologies for energy production utilizing agricultural residues: An input–output approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Junnian; Yang, Wei; Higano, Yoshiro; Wang, Xian’en

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A dynamic input–output model is developed with bioenergy technologies complemented. • Availability of agricultural residues for bioenergy technologies is evaluated. • Trends in electricity and biofuel production are simulated dynamically. • Net profit and GHG mitigation contribution of bioenergy technologies are assessed. • Combustion power generation and briquette fuel are more advantageous. - Abstract: In order to facilitate regional agricultural residue utilization for energy production through bioenergy technologies, a dynamic input–output model is developed to estimate and assess the energy, economic and environmental performances of industrialization of five bioenergy technologies within a 15-year time horizon. Electricity and solid, gaseous and liquid biofuels are energy products of bioenergy technologies. Bioenergy technologies are complemented into regional input–output framework and combined with socioeconomic activities aided by their bottom-up economic and energy parameters. The simulation results for the target area indicate that the agricultural residues available for bioenergy technologies could amount to 55.16 million t, facilitating to 8.38 million t coal-equivalent bioenergy production by 2025. A 3.1% net reduction in accumulative greenhouse gas emission compared with the “business as usual” case could be achieved owing to substitution of fossil energy with electricity and biofuels produced by bioenergy technologies. From energy production, economic benefits and greenhouse gas mitigation three aspects integratedly, direct-combustion power generation and briquette fuel are more advantageous in the target area. The quantified energy, economic and environmental performances of bioenergy technologies are expected to give recommendations for their industrial development.

  13. MAPPING AND SCOUTING CORN PEST INFESTATIONS IN A PRODUCTION AGRICULTURE ENVIRONMENT USING REMOTE SENSING.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hyperspectral imagery was acquired three times during the 2006 agricultural growing season (late July to mid-September) over 35 corn fields in east central Illinois. The imagery was processed with an emphasis on rapid image product development (turnabround time of less than 24 ho...

  14. CREDIT RATIONING OF FARM HOUSEHOLDS AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IN THE RURAL AREAS OF CENTRAL SULAWESI, INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nunung Nuryartono

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false st1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} The agricultural sector provides the highest contribution to economic development in the Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. On average, the share of agriculture in the Product Domestic Regional Bruto (GRDP is more than 40% (2003. However, poverty is a widespread problem found in this area, as indicated by almost 46% of the total household are categorized as poor and most of them are farmers. Smallholders and poor farmers may perpetually be trapped in poverty due to lack of finance needed to undertake productive investment. This is indicated by lower rate of advance agricultural technology adoption, which results the productivity of some agricultural products in this area is lower compared to the national average.This paper addresses the question of whether greater access of financial services increase agricultural production. Specific research question addressed are as follow: (1 How many household have access to formal credit markets? (2 How many households are credit constrained? (3 What factors influence that households are credit constrained? (4 How does credit rationing influences agricultural production?As many studies have shown, many rural households lack access to either formal or informal credit institutions. In the rural areas of Central Sulawesi Province, particularly in the vicinity of the Lore Lindu National Park only 21.5% of the household have access to formal credits. The results also show that under certain conditions, only 18.1% of the households are not

  15. Virtual water flows and water-footprint of agricultural crop production, import and export: A case study for Israel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shtull-Trauring, E; Bernstein, N

    2018-05-01

    Agriculture is the largest global consumer of freshwater. As the volume of international trade continues to rise, so does the understanding that trade of water-intensive crops from areas with high precipitation, to arid regions can help mitigate water scarcity, highlighting the importance of crop water accounting. Virtual-Water, or Water-Footprint [WF] of agricultural crops, is a powerful indicator for assessing the extent of water use by plants, contamination of water bodies by agricultural practices and trade between countries, which underlies any international trade of crops. Most available studies of virtual-water flows by import/export of agricultural commodities were based on global databases, which are considered to be of limited accuracy. The present study analyzes the WF of crop production, import, and export on a country level, using Israel as a case study, comparing data from two high-resolution local databases and two global datasets. Results for local datasets demonstrate a WF of ~1200Million Cubic Meters [MCM]/year) for total crop production, ~1000MCM/year for import and ~250MCM/year for export. Fruits and vegetables comprise ~80% of Export WF (~200MCM/year), ~50% of crop production and only ~20% of the imports. Economic Water Productivity [EWP] ($/m 3 ) for fruits and vegetables is 1.5 higher compared to other crops. Moreover, the results based on local and global datasets varied significantly, demonstrating the importance of developing high-resolution local datasets based on local crop coefficients. Performing high resolution WF analysis can help in developing agricultural policies that include support for low WF/high EWP and limit high WF/low EWP crop export, where water availability is limited. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. The concept of in-house management of the formation of the cost of production in the agricultural enterprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bobrova Elena Aleksandrovna

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with modern methods of intra-formation control the cost of agricultural production, the composition of the costs of agricultural firms, the order of their control and optimization. A structural model, which is a technique of internal control and audit at the macro and micro level hierarchical control agricultural enterprise. The composition of the information required to implement a methodology in-house control, accounting and analytical procedures used to assess the cost items and management decisions.

  17. Optimal use of agrometeorological information for sustainable agricultural production in semi-arid regions of India

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Surender, S.; Diwan, S.; Rao, V.U.M.

    2006-05-01

    The concept of sustainable agriculture encompasses ecological, economic and social problems in which weather and climate can be of great importance. Despite considerable technological advancement and improved irrigation facilities, Indian farmers are still dependent on seasonal rains, which are highly variable both in time and space. Inclement weather events like droughts, floods, cold and heat waves, hails, squalls, tropical storms severely affect the agricultural production. Their harmful effects may be partially reduced if the occurrence of these events is predicted in advance and farmers are suitably advised to take preventive/corrective measures. With the objective to help the farmers maximize profits by decreasing weather related losses, increasing the timeliness of farm operations and to reduce environmental pollution through the optimal use of agricultural chemicals, the location specific/regional Agrometeorological Advisory Service was initiated in the year 1991. The forecasting skills of most of the weather parameters at Hisar have improved considerably over the years. Now, it is time to integrate and make use of vast agrometeorological information available online in preparing weather based advisories for in-season agricultural operations both for single locations and on a meso or regional scale as desired. This can be further strengthened through input from new technologies such as neural network, remote sensing, GIS, ground measurements and modeling applications along with traditional wisdom available with the farming communities should be integrated to further strengthen the location specific weather forecasting system for the development of sustainable and more efficient crop production systems. (author)

  18. A roadmap for production of sustainable, consistent and reliable electric power from agricultural biomass- An Indian perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singh, Jaswinder

    2016-01-01

    The utilization of agricultural biomass for production of electric power can help to reduce the environmental emissions while achieving energy security and sustainable development. This paper presents a methodology for estimating the power production potential of agricultural biomass in a country. Further, the methodology has been applied to develop a roadmap for producing reliable power in India. The present study reveals that about 650 Mt/year of agricultural biomass is generated in India, while about one-third of this has been found to be surplus for energy applications. The cereal crops have major contribution (64.60%) in production of surplus biomass followed by sugarcane (24.60%) and cotton (10.68%). The energy potential of these resources is of the order of 3.72 EJ, which represents a significant proportion of the primary energy consumption in the country. These biomass resources can produce electric power of 23–35 GW depending upon the efficiency of thermal conversion. The delivery of biomass to the plants and selection of appropriate technology have been found as the major issues that need to be resolved carefully. In the end, the study summarizes various technological options for biomass collection and utilization that can be used for producing clean and consistent power supply. - Highlights: •The production of bioelectricity in India is imperative and inevitable. •About one-third of the agricultural biomass is available for power generation. •The power potential of these resources is of the order of 23–31 GW. •The delivery of biomass to plants and technology selection are the key issues. •India should exploit these resources for producing clean and reliable power.

  19. Description of the production process - agricultural phase; Descricao do processo produtivo - fase agricola

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-10-15

    This chapter presents the description of the state-of-art of the production process of sugar cane bio ethanol in Brazil also denominated of first generation, involving the improvements in the agricultural phase and also the aspects related to the second generation technologies. The different aspects related do the use of sugar cane bagasse and straw cape.

  20. Reduction of radiation injury of fresh agricultural products by saccharide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayashi, Toru; Todoroki, Setsuko

    1998-01-01

    To establish irradiation technologies as one of alternative technology of methyl bromide fumigation, radiation sensitivities for each kind of fresh agricultural products and reduction of radiation injury were investigated. Fresh vegetables and flowers such as cabbage, sprouts, asparagus, lettuce, chrysanthemum, carnation, rose, etc. were used and irradiated with 750 Gy γ-ray. Flowers received radiation injury were soaked into various kinds of solutions for one night, then they were irradiated with 500 Gy γ-ray. They showed different radiation sensitivities. Cruciferae plant showed radioresistance and Compositae plant radiosensitivity. A keeping quality agent for cut flowers indicated protection effect on radiation injury. (S.Y.)