Advanced Agricultural Technology Research Articles

The adoption of conservation tillage in China

Conservation tillage (CT) has been recognized as an advanced agricultural technology that may reduce drought and improve the physical condition of soils worldwide. An increase in water infiltration and a reduction in water and wind erosion can be achieved through the use of no-tillage, minimum tillage, and residue cover. In China, CT research started with support from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), China and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research in 1992. By the end of 1990s, CT research had expanded across China and achieved several important results. In 1999, MOA established the Conservation Tillage Research Centre (CTRC) to lead the national CT research programs in China, and since 2002 some CT demonstration projects have been established in northern China. By the end of 2008, CT has been demonstrated in 226 national and 365 provincial demonstration counties, covering more than 3 Mha. The CTRC of the MOA has established 10 sites within those counties to monitor project results. Some sites have shown consistently that the use of CT resulted in higher yields and net incomes, reduced soil erosion, and improved soil conditions. CT has been widely accepted in China and will be further adopted over wider areas as the development and highbred of indigenous no-tillage seeders.

Behind the form: A historical analysis of the agriculture encouragement system in the Song dynasty

Using the political culture analysis method, this paper discusses the origin, contents and functions of the agriculture encouragement system of the Song dynasty, which originated from the pre-Qin period (221–207 BC). The main content of this system in its early stage is that in the early Spring days, the king symbolically ploughed a piece of land near the suburbs of his capital in order to send to his subjects a clear message of the importance he attached to agriculture. It was expected that peasants would be encouraged by his majesty's guidance, and thus agricultural production of the countryside would be promoted. With the rationalization of the political system since the Qin period, agricultural encouragement gradually became a routine work of the Chinese governments at different levels. Under the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), “agricultural encouragement envoy” was added to the official rank of heads of counties and prefectures. They each were required to take the responsibility of persuading peasants in their jurisdiction to work harder in the field. The actual work as an “agricultural encouragement envoy” in the Song dynasty was to go to the countryside to reward peasants with food and wine in early February, and to write an essay to express his encouragement, and to distribute it to the peasants. Formalistic as it is, the agricultural encouragement system is a typical manifestation of the traditional Chinese political culture. As one of its social impacts on the Song society, it helped the spread of advanced agricultural technology with

Global Sustainability of Population and Food

Since the publication of The Limits to Growth, there have appeared worries about the sustainability of the population growth, on the one hand, and food supply, on the other hand.Although the world food production per capita has been increasing so far, there remains a wide gap in consumption among countries, in particular between developed and developing counties.The reason for this gap is not the quantity of food supply, but its distribution.Developed countries are required to reduce, or even abandon agricultural protection whereas developing countries should increase food production, thereby improve economic conditions in poor rural areas.The actual“limits to growth”are rather environmental damages that are caused by the advanced agricultural technology.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE AND THE ORIGINS OF HORTICULTURE

Egyptian civilization dates back to the dawn of civilization and remnants exist in a continuous 6000 year-old record. The artistic genius engendered by Egyptian civilization, the superb condition of many burial chambers, and the dry climate have made it possible to reconstruct a history of agricultural technology. Ancient Egypt is shown to be the source of much of the agricultural technology of the Western world. INTRODUCTION The story of Egypt leads us to the dawn of history. Paleolithic-Neolithic artifacts (flint hand-axes, arrowheads, hammers) along the Nile date back 12,000 years. Nubian, Ethiopian, and Libyan populations fusing with Semitic and West Asian immigrants formed a people and created the Egypt of history (Durant, 1954). A continuous 6000 year record exists (Table 1) with a unique and productive agriculture at its base. From 4000 to 3000 BCE these mingled peoples of the Nile valley formed a government, constructed the first pyramids, and established a highly advanced agricultural technology. The ancient names for Egypt underscore the relation between the land, the people, and its agriculture (Khattab, 2000). These include Ta-meri, the beloved land cultivated by the hoe, Ta Akht, the land of flood and fertile soil, Kmt, the black soil, Tamhi, the land of the flax plant, Nht, the land of the sycomore fig tree, and Misr, the safe and civilized country. The name, Egypt, was derived from the name of the Earth God, Ge, or from Agpt, referring to the land covered with flood waters. Knowledge of the history of Egyptian agriculture and horticulture can be gleaned from the archeological record supported by surviving written Egyptian documents, temple inscriptions, as well as commentaries from antiquity including those of the Greek historian Herodotus (484–425 BCE), the philosopher Theophrastus (372–288 BCE), and the books of Genesis and Exodus in the Hebrew bible. The supporting technology can be vividly reconstructed from the artistic record, painted and carved in tombs and temples dating onward from 3000 BCE. Agricultural activities were favorite themes of artists who drew or sculpted lively scenes of daily life that adorn the tombs of the pharaohs. Illustrations of these artifacts and artistic works found in two key references, Food, Gift of Osiris (Darby et al., 1974) and Volume I of A History of Technology (Singer et al., 1954) have been used for this paper supplemented by other sources, as well as some personal photographs by the author. The development of Egyptian agriculture did not occur in a vacuum. Egypt was an aggressive culture and, at one time, Egypt ruled from present day Libya in the West, Syria in the Northeast, and Ethiopia and Somalia and, perhaps, portions of sub-Saharan Africa in the south. Egypt continuously incorporated technology as well as new crops from the Fertile Crescent (present day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq) as well as Africa. In addition

Education and Technical Efficiency during the Green Revolution in Pakistan

Previous articleNext article No AccessEducation and Technical Efficiency during the Green Revolution in PakistanRauf A. AzharRauf A. Azhar Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 39, Number 3Apr., 1991 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451894 Views: 55Total views on this site Citations: 21Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Iskid Jacquet, Jieyong Wang, Jianjun Zhang, Ke Wang, Sen Liang An Understanding of Education in Supporting Cotton Production: An Empirical Study in Benin, West Africa, Agriculture 12, no.66 (Jun 2022): 836.https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12060836Jacques C. Julien, Boris E. Bravo-Ureta, Nicholas E. Rada Assessing farm performance by size in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, Food Policy 84 (Apr 2019): 153–164.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2018.03.016, Kanyi Eing, Sanhei Nhor Determinants of Agriculture in Cambodia, Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies 6, no.22 (Jan 2019): 91–95.https://doi.org/10.18178/joaat.6.2.91-95Kirtti Ranjan Paltasingh, Phanindra Goyari Impact of farmer education on farm productivity under varying technologies: case of paddy growers in India, Agricultural and Food Economics 6, no.11 (May 2018).https://doi.org/10.1186/s40100-018-0101-9Cathal O’Donoghue, Kevin Heanue The impact of formal agricultural education on farm level innovation and management practices, The Journal of Technology Transfer 43, no.44 (Dec 2016): 844–863.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9529-9A. Narayanamoorthy, N. Devika Economic and Resource Impacts of Drip Method of Irrigation on Okra Cultivation, Journal of Land and Rural Studies 6, no.11 (Nov 2017): 15–33.https://doi.org/10.1177/2321024917731840Sean Ryan, George N. Curry, Emmanuel Germis, Gina Koczberski, Merolyn Koia Challenges to the Democratisation of Knowledge: Status Hierarchies and Emerging Inequalities in Educational Opportunities Amongst Oil Palm Settlers in Papua New Guinea, (Jun 2016): 123–139.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0216-8_9Abdul Jalil, Muhammad Idrees Modeling the impact of education on the economic growth: Evidence from aggregated and disaggregated time series data of Pakistan, Economic Modelling 31 (Mar 2013): 383–388.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.11.035Malte Reimers, Stephan Klasen Revisiting the Role of Education for Agricultural Productivity, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 95, no.11 (Jan 2013): 131–152.https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aas118Khalid Zaman, Muhammad Mushtaq Khan, Mehboob Ahmad, Rabiah Rustam The relationship between agricultural technology and energy demand in Pakistan, Energy Policy 44 (May 2012): 268–279.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.01.050Munir A. Hanjra, Tadele Ferede, Debel Gemechu Gutta Reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through investments in water and other priorities, Agricultural Water Management 96, no.77 (Jul 2009): 1062–1070.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2009.03.001Elan Satriawan, Scott M. Swinton Does human capital raise farm or nonfarm earning more? New insight from a rural Pakistan household panel, Agricultural Economics 36, no.33 (May 2007): 421–428.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2007.00217.xAriel Dinar, Giannis Karagiannis, Vangelis Tzouvelekas Evaluating the impact of agricultural extension on farms' performance in Crete: a nonneutral stochastic frontier approach, Agricultural Economics 36, no.22 (Mar 2007): 135–146.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2007.00193.xAbay Asfaw, Assefa Admassie The role of education on the adoption of chemical fertiliser under different socioeconomic environments in Ethiopia, Agricultural Economics 30, no.33 (May 2004): 215–228.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2004.tb00190.xJan P. Voon Measuring social returns to higher education investments in Hong Kong: production function approach, Economics of Education Review 20, no.55 (Oct 2001): 503–510.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7757(00)00021-2Theocharoula Magoula, George Psacharopoulos Schooling and monetary rewards in Greece: an over-education false alarm?, Applied Economics 31, no.1212 (Dec 1999): 1589–1597.https://doi.org/10.1080/000368499323111Kwasi Boahene, Tom A.B Snijders, Henk Folmer An Integrated Socioeconomic Analysis of Innovation Adoption, Journal of Policy Modeling 21, no.22 (Mar 1999): 167–184.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-8938(97)00070-7Richard V. Llewelyn, Jeffery R. Williams Nonparametric analysis of technical, pure technical, and scale efficiencies for food crop production in East Java, Indonesia, Agricultural Economics 15, no.22 (Nov 1996): 113–126.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.1996.tb00425.xGeorge Psacharopoulos Returns to investment in education: A global update, World Development 22, no.99 (Sep 1994): 1325–1343.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(94)90007-8Ricardo Godoy The Effects of Rural Education on the Use of the Tropical Rain Forest by the Sumu Indians of Nicaragua: Possible Pathways, Qualitative Findings, and Policy Options, Human Organization 53, no.33 (Sep 1994): 233–244.https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.53.3.e221170878h4701uBoris E. Bravo‐Ureta, Robert E. Evenson Efficiency in agricultural production: the case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay, Agricultural Economics 10, no.11 (Jan 1994): 27–37.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.1994.tb00286.x

The Benefits and Risks of Advanced Agricultural Technology

The Benefits and Risks of Advanced Agricultural Technology

The Roots of Indochinese Civilisation: Recent Developments in the Prehistory of Southeast Asia

I BEGIN WITH this quotation from Coedes because I believe it illustrates admirably the views held by most historians, epigraphers, geographers, and other social scientists on the nature of prehistoric Southeast Asia up until quite recently. Prior to about 1970 most scholars considered that Southeast Asian civilisation had no roots, and was purely a secondary development arising from the imposition of an advanced agricultural economy and technology, and subsequently of Indian and Chinese socio-cultural concepts, on the frizzy-haired, black savages of the Chinese chronicles. The operative explanatory concepts in Southeast Asian preand protohistory were simple and straightforward: diffusion and migration of a unidirectional nature from the more advanced centres of India and China into the backwater between. Thus, for example, Fisher's major geographical work, first published in 1964, explains Southeast Asian prehistory solely in terms of the migrations of Nesiots (roughly speaking, Malayan physical types) and later Pareoeans (southern Mongoloids) into an area previously inhabited by backward Australo-Melanesians. The first of these migrant groups brought agriculture, while the latter introduced metallurgy. Here again, we have a simple and straightforward picture which carries us up to the begin-