Adoption Of Processing Technologies Research Articles

Up-scaling Social Innovations: The Eku and Implications for Enhancing Small-scale Palm Oil Production in Nigeria

The dearth of adoption of processing technologies by small-scale palm oil processors in Nigeria has resulted in poor quality of output and low extraction rates. This paper proposes that improved versions of the Eku, a community-based social innovation which enables the sharing of palm oil processing facilities can be up-scaled and diffused in the sector to improve the technological base of small-scale palm oil production in Nigeria. A framework, which emphasises removing constraints to the practicality and efficiency of social innovations with institutional and funding measures to create a prototype that will be up-scaled and diffused, is developed. The study reveals that only one of five unit operations of small-scale palm oil production is totally mechanised in the Eku and constraints affecting full mechanisation of all unit operations in the Eku include lack of awareness and funds to adopt processing technologies. The chapter recommends equipping prototype Ekus with innovations for all the un-mechanised stages of palm oil production and suggests its up-scaling and diffusion in the sector through small-scale entrepreneurs. The study concludes that the diffusion of the prototype versions of the Eku can enhance the diffusion of technological innovations in the sector.

Adoption of processing technologies and innovative food preservation techniques: findings from smallholders in the Lindi Region in Tanzania

Adopting processing technologies and innovative food preservation is crucial for improving the food security and nutritional status of rural populations in Tanzania and other countries in the Global South. However, low adoption rates among smallholders highlight the need for a better understanding of farmers’ decision-making processes. The aim of this study is to examine extrinsic and intrinsic factors influencing smallholders’ decision-making processes in the adoption of innovative food processing and preservation techniques (specifically, pigeon pea flour-based products, threshers, dehullers) in Mitumbati and Mibure in the Lindi Region in Tanzania. Primary data on 555 farm households were collected using a standardized survey. Extrinsic influential factors were analyzed using binary logistic regression analysis. The results on internal decision-making are based on an analysis of barriers and motivations identified by farmers in relation to the uptake of the different innovations. Training and awareness emerged as the most significant factors positively associated with the adoption of all innovative processing and preservation techniques. Moreover, the results show that the primary drivers for smallholders in the study region to adopt innovative technologies were the potential health benefits and time savings they offered. The main challenge they faced was a lack of knowledge about the innovations. The results indicate that disseminating knowledge is crucial for the successful adoption of innovative processing technology in the study region. Improving and expanding training programs to be more inclusive can help to create incentives and overcome barriers, leading to increased adoption.

Evaluation of the Carbon Footprint of Rubberwood Lumber Production in Ghana

A key source of wood for Ghana's timber sector is rubberwood. The characteristics and economic sustainability of rubberwood for the production of wood products with added value have been the subject of numerous studies. However, rubberwood and its environmental performance, as well as green labelling, which measures carbon footprint, are not well documented in Ghana. This study assessed the carbon footprint of timber production from rubberwood using the life-cycle approach. The cradle-to-gate method was applied where the study's key findings show that Ghana's production of rubberwood lumber has a carbon footprint of 158 kg/m3CO2-eq. This resulted from the adoption of processing technologies that were inefficient and produced significant waste and emissions both at the harvesting and in the milling stages. As a result, this study demonstrated that rubberwood timber has a significant carbon footprint, and efforts must be made to advance technology and reduce waste and emissions by considering rubberwood as a green material.

Gender Differential in the Intensity of Adoption of Oil Palm Processing Technology in South West,Nigeria

This research work investigated gender differential in the intensityof adoption of processing technology in South West, Nigeria. The primary data used for this research were collected using questionnaire. Multistage sampling method was used to pick 320, comprising of 160 each of both males and females oil palm processors.The information collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and double hurdle model. The findings of the study revealed that many of the male (89.2%) and female (89.6%) processors had knowledge of improved technology of processing oil palm. Also,77.4% and 89.0% of the both male and female processors, respectively uses the digester, semi mechanized method of processing. The impact of extension services was not really felt in the study area as only few (4.3% and 2.2%) of the male and female processors respectively sourced their information through extension agents. The Double Hurdle Model results revealed that factors affecting adoption of the oil palm processing technology were education, access to finance, extension services, association, and experience of the female respondents while for the male respondents it includes education, extension services and experience. The outcome of the second hurdle model showed that factors affecting the intensity or adoption rate of technology among the female were extension services, level of education, access to finance and experience while for male respondents were level of education, extension services and memberships of association. Therefore, one can deduce that most of the processors in the area of study were not privileged to benefit from extension education and training. This might have negative impact in their enterprise and as well deny them in terms of information and innovative technologies to take good decisions that will increase their production level. Extension service is a paramount factor influencing adoption of technology and adoption rate of processing technology by both male and female genders. It is therefore recommended that government should provide extension services for processors in South west, Nigeria to increase level of acceptability of processing technology.

Transforming Burundi’s coffee sector through strategic value chain investments

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the early stages of the transition to specialty coffee in Burundi and the role of an agribusiness support program as a catalyst for this transition.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses two years of panel data (2007 and 2012) to analyze changes in technology adoption among coffee washing stations (CWSs) and how the adoption of improved technologies affects coffee quality.FindingsProgrammatic investment in Burundi’s coffee value chain resulted in a significant shift in adoption of processing technologies by CWSs. Producers who processed at these stations saw a significant increase in the quality of their coffee and forged sustainable trade relationships with international buyers.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should investigate the incentives and barriers of producers to invest in production boosting practices.Originality/valueThis is one of the first empirical papers that analyzes Burundi’s transition from ordinary to specialty coffee and how programmatic investments in improved technologies has helped to make the change possible.

Entrepreneurship through EDP and Licensing of Post-Harvest Technology: An Impact Assessment

Entrepreneurship has been recognized as a vital tool for bringing rural prosperity. The impact study on entrepreneurship development programme (EDP) and licensing of post-harvest technology in terms of promoting agro processing was undertaken. Multiple regression and Garrett's ranking techniques were applied to understand the factors affecting the adoption of technology and prioritization of constraints (i.e., techno-economic, financial, market related, etc.), respectively. EDPs found to be effective towards encouraging and motivating potential entrepreneurs, resultant to establishment of economically viable enterprises. Market was found to be key driver, as it has positive and significant (p� 0.01) relationship with adoption of processing technology. Further, high cost of raw materials and competition among private companies were rated as top most constraints by the entrepreneurs.

APPROPRIATE ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY INTERVENTIONS IN HORTICULTURE FOR ENHANCED PROFITABILITY AND REDUCTION IN POSTHARVEST LOSSES

The post-production losses are enormous in horticultural crops due to their highly perishable nature. Since the fruits and vegetables are handled in the raw form in more than one stage, it leads to losses due to improper handling and storage. This happens due to a huge shortage of cold stores and processing facilities in India in production catchments. The establishment of modern agro processing industries can be achieved if appropriate and affordable cool storages and processing equipment and methods are developed. The adoption of processing technologies by entrepreneurs depends mainly on availability of raw materials, availability of technology, availability of skills and ease of implementation. Since no technology available in developed countries would meet the criteria or strategies mentioned above, the onus of developing the suitable technology in India is on the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology and its All India Coordinated Projects spread over 38 centers. The technologies developed for horticultural crops include process for pomegranate jelly and granadine, process technology for anardana and its powder, tomato grader, process of manufacturing ready to constitute makhana (Euryale ferox) kheer and sarson (Mustard) ka saag, non destructive technique to determine maturity of mango in tree, hand tool and motorized unit for easy separation of arils from pomegranate, porous bricks for cool chamber, low cost technique for enhancement of shelf life of tomato, strawberry harvester cum holding tool, beet root powdering technology, basket centrifuge for minimal processing of vegetables, evaporative cooled structures for storage of fruits and vegetables, dehydration and powdering technologies for fruits and vegetables, banana hand cutter, fruit saver for safe harvesting and handling of fruits, mobile cool chamber (transportation rickshaw), two stage evaporative cooler and technologies for value added products from anola, pomegranate, ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk) and guava. Based on these technologies developed entrepreneurship development programmes are offered at CIPHET Ludhiana so that upcoming entrepreneurs can get hands on experience on modern technologies to establish businesses for proper postharvest management and value addition.

Improvisation during Process-Technology Adoption: A Longitudinal Study of a Software Firm

Most software firms struggle to take advantage of the potential benefits of software process improvement (SPI) as they adopt this technology into the complex and dynamic realities of their day-to-day operation. Such efforts are therefore typically fluctuating between management's attempt to control SPI technology adoption and events that causes the process to drift in unpredictable directions. To further understand how management's attempt to control the process is complemented by drifting, this article investigates the role of improvisation in adoption of SPI technology in a Danish software firm, SmallSoft, over a 10-year period (1996–2005). We found that micro-level and macro-level improvisations interacted, often in uncoordinated ways, to shape SPI technology adoption at SmallSoft. The improvisations enhanced employee creativity, motivation and empowerment, created momentum in the adoption process despite constrained resources, and, most importantly, helped adapt SPI technology to the everyday practices at SmallSoft. However, we also identified un-called for improvisations and outcomes that were uncoordinated with SmallSoft's goals. Based on these findings we discuss how management in small software firms can exploit improvisations to facilitate adoption of complex technologies like SPI.

The Use and Deployment of Soft Process Technologies within UK Manufacturing SMEs: An Empirical Assessment Using Logit Models

This study assesses the adoption of different soft process technologies from a survey of 218 British engineering and electronics small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs). The new process (soft) technologies that were modeled included total quality management, Kaizan, and statistical process control. Logit models demonstrate that the determinants of soft process technology adoption vary significantly from technology to technology. The study questions a blanket approach to technology adoption. Firm‐specific factors make a larger difference to the adoption of process technologies than competitive factors. While on the whole small firms are slow to adopt new techniques, this does not hold for all technologies, and future research might investigate what technologies SMEs adopt and why. Benchmarking, suggestions schemes, problem‐solving techniques and ISO 9000 adoption was unrelated to firm size, which holds out the prospect of soft process technologies as an alternative technological path for small firm productivity growth.

Discovering models of software processes from event-based data

Many software process methods and tools presuppose the existence of a formal model of a process. Unfortunately, developing a formal model for an on-going, complex process can be difficult, costly, and error prone. This presents a practical barrier to the adoption of process technologies, which would be lowered by automated assistance in creating formal models. To this end, we have developed a data analysis technique that we term process discovery. Under this technique, data describing process events are first captured from an on-going process and then used to generate a formal model of the behavior of that process. In this article we describe a Markov method that we developed specifically for process discovery, as well as describe two additional methods that we adopted from other domains and augmented for our purposes. The three methods range from the purely algorithmic to the purely statistical. We compare the methods and discuss their application in an industrial case study.

The dynamics of process technology adoption and the implications for upgrade decisions

The need for fundamental, as opposed to incremental change, presents managers with major uncertainty. Such change is likely to involve significant capital cost, but may also bring significant collateral costsjom, for example, retraining, and plant downtime and customer supply disruption during change implementation. This article focuses on a gstem dynamics model that captures the situation of an industry experiencing the switching of competitors' production plants to a new process technology. The model is typical of industries in commodip chemicals or other bulk manufacturing, and enables the complexity of technology moves to be represented. This facilitates a clearer understanding of the expected industry dynamics. The results show that an individual firm facing the upgrade decision must consider the impacts of the change across a number of dimensions, and demonstrates that the point in time along these industries' typical endemic capacig-building/price cycle may haue an important impact on the economics of the decision. The article is also able to draw some comparisons between this and other approaches to modelling technology change decision-making.

The Strategic Management Paradigm and the Wood Building Products Industry: A Model of Strategies and Firm Profitability

Abstract A model of strategies and firm profitability was developed and tested for the North American wood building products industry. Five strategic variables (adoption of process technology, grade sector focus, investment intensity, forward integration, relative market share) were used to predict firm profitability as measured by return on sales for the largest producers of wood building products in North America. Adoption of process technologies, grade sector focus (i.e., product quality), and investment intensity all had significant positive impacts on return on sales. From a managerial perspective, this research shows no advantage in larger market share beyond a minimal efficient scale. However, superior firm profitability was linked to the application of new process technologies, investment intensity, and the production of higher grade products. For. Sci. 38(4):786-805.