Case Study Of Farmers Research Articles

Business serves society: Successful locally-driven development on customary land in the South Pacific

This article examines how land under customary forms of tenure can provide the opportunity for a variety of different forms of economic activity that provide social, economic and cultural returns to communities in ways that other forms of tenure – particularly individualised title – simply could not do. Commentators have regularly asserted that customary practices around land ‘constrain’ economic development and impair investments in the Pacific. However the seven case studies of locally-owned agriculture and tourism businesses operating on customary land in Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Fiji which are profiled here demonstrate that customary forms of tenure can be the basis for highly effective forms of economic development. These businesses are characterised by production systems that reflect cultural and environmental connections to land, as well as a distributive politics that is strongly guided by social connections and custom. The research found that customary land has inherent value as a tool for self-determined forms of development that can produce a diverse range of inclusive and sustainable forms of development. Customary land ownership is not necessarily a barrier to economic development but, rather, an asset that can support culture, the environment and socio-economic needs of indigenous people. Surrendering or transacting away land for short-term gain certainly does not necessarily produce sustainable forms of business, development, or relief from poverty, in the way that these successful indigenous entrepreneurs have done. We conclude that locally-driven development based around customary resources can be a very effective approach to economic development in the rural South Pacific, and indeed a model for those seeking ‘alternative economic forms’ more broadly. This exploration of how land is successfully used for business in the Pacific thus helps to reshape understandings of economies in the Pacific, and beyond.

Total Brood Removal and Other Biotechniques for the Sustainable Control of Varroa Mites in Honey Bee Colonies: Economic Impact in Beekeeping Farm Case Studies in Northwestern Italy

Honey bee colonies are affected by many threats, and the Varroa mite represents one of the most important causes of honey bee disease. The control of the Varroa population is managed by different methods, and in recent years, biotechnical practices are considered preferable to chemical approaches in order to safeguard honey bee health and avoid residues in bee products as well as the appearance of acaricide resistance. However, little is known about the economic performance of beekeeping exploitations in relation to the methods used for tackling Varroa. This study aims to investigate the economic impact of total brood removal (TBR) as a biotechnique to keep Varroa mites under control, and compare this to other common biotechniques and chemical Varroa control in numerous Italian beekeeping case studies. A pool of economic and technical indexes was proposed. The proposed index pool can be included in the development of an expert system (such as a decision support system) able to address the optimal management of this very complex activity, which requires natural resources, land protection, capital and high technical skills. The result showed that the adoption of the TBR biotechnique vs. other biotechniques led to an increase in terms of total revenue (increase values ranging from 11% to 28%) even though more labor is needed (increase values ranging from 43 to 83 min/hive) and a loss of honey production could be recorded in some cases. Additionally, the total expenses, represented mainly by supplemental nutrition and treatments with oxalic acid, affected the economic results of the biotechnical practices. The use of biotechniques vs. chemical control resulted in decreased treatment costs and increased feeding costs. The advantages resulting from not using synthetic acaricides (which are dangerous for honey bee and human health as well as the environment) as well as the advantages linked to the production of new nuclei (which are involved in the maintenance of bee stock and counteract the decline in honey bee population) and pollination ecosystem services could make beekeeping farms more resilient over time.

Perception of Natural Hazards in Rural Areas: A Case Study Examination of the Influence of Seasonal Weather

A series of factors affect the social perception of hazards in a rural context. This article analyzes how weather conditions influence farmers’ perceptions of natural hazards. In order to understand the relationship between time of year/season and farmers’ concerns about hazards, this study was undertaken. The methodology was based on surveys done to obtain a base-collection of primary data, as well as a meteorological and production analysis using secondary data. A case study of small coffee farms was carried out in a Brazilian municipality with questionnaires applied during the dry season in 2016 and the rainy season in 2017. The results indicate that drought is the main hazard identified by farmers in both weather seasons. Although there were some changes in perceptions observed, the ranking order of the main hazards did not change over the dry and rainy weather seasons.

The power of the health belief model (HBM) to predict water demand management: A case study of farmers’ water conservation in Iran

The purpose of the present study was to explore the power of the Health Belief Model (HBM) to explain water conservation behavior in Northeastern Iran. The research population consisted of farmers who were farming in Neyshabur plain in Khorasan Razavi Province in northeast of Iran. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 235 farmers recruited using a multistage random sampling design. To collect data, the questionnaire was used which its validity and reliability were confirmed. The results of a structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and cue to action accounted for approximately 41% of the variance in farmers’ water conservation behavior. Moreover, the perceived benefit was the strongest predictor of water conservation behavior, while perceived severity, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and general beliefs not significant on behavior. These results confirmed the practicability and effectiveness HBM for examining water conservation behavior among farmers in Iran.

THE PROBLEM OF WEED RESISTANCE TO HERBICIDES AND THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF WHEAT PROTECTION ON THE EXAMPLE OF A LARGE-SCALE AGRICULTURAL FARM

The main purpose of the article is to assess the economic efficiency of wheat protection in conditions of the occurrence of weed resistance to herbicides in a selected large-scale farm (case study). In modern agriculture, especially in large-scale farms using monoculture, zero tillage and intensive chemical protection, the emerging phenomenon of weed resistance to herbicides is a cause of ecological and economic losses. In Poland, as well as the world, the problem of weed resistance is mainly noted in the case of wheat cultivation, which is ranked first in terms of sown area. Therefore, more and more often attempts are being made to answer the question, what is the profitability of performed weed control operations with the simultaneous occurrence of herbicide resistance. Empirical research was conducted on the basis of data recorded in the book of profits and losses recorded by the farm owner in 2014-2018. The collected data was developed using economic analysis and statistical methods. It was found that, in the examined period, due to the growing problem of the presence of resistant weeds, the use of products to control them increased and the costs of protecting wheat cultivation also increased. The low effectiveness of chemical weed control treatments resulted in a change in the structure of crops in the researched farm in the last year of the study.

Effects of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act of 2015 on the Financial Management of the State Corporations in Kenya: A Case Study of Agriculture and Food Authority

The objectives of the study were to find out the effects of Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 (PPADA) on financial management in Kenya's State Corporations, a case study of the Agricultural and Food Authority (AFA). The specific objectives were: cost of goods and services procured transparency in the procurement processes, lead-time of procured goods, quality of goods procured affects the financial management of Agricultural and Food Authority. A descriptive study design was adopted for this study. Stratified sampling was employed in the study to pick out the management and other staff at AFA countrywide offices where a total population study of 186 respondents working under Administration, Finance, Transport, Research and Production Departments were drawn from the study population. The primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. The study findings revealed that cost of goods and services procured, transparency, lead-time of procured goods and the quality of goods procured in State Corporations affect their financial management. The study recommends that State Corporations should efficiently implement Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 (PPADA) to improve their financial management.

Financial Viability of an On-Farm Processing and Retail Enterprise: A Case Study of Value-Added Agriculture in Rural Kentucky (USA)

Value-added processing and direct marketing are commonly recommended strategies for increasing income and improving the economic viability of small farms. This case study uses partial budgeting to examine the performance of an on-farm store in Kentucky (USA) over a six-year period (2014–2019), intended for adding value to raw farm ingredients through processing and direct sales to consumers. Three primary product supply chains were aggregated, stored, processed, and sold through the farm store: livestock (meats), grains (flours and meals), and fresh produce (fruits, vegetables, and herbs). In addition, prepared foods were made largely from the farm’s ingredients and sold as ready-to-eat meals. Whole-farm income increased substantially as a result of the farm-store enterprise but the costs of operation exceeded the added income in every year of the study, illustrating the challenges to small farms in achieving a sufficient economy of scale in value-added enterprises. By the final two years of the study period, the enterprise was approaching break-even status. Ready-to-eat items, initially accounting for a small fraction total sales, were the most important product category by the end of the study period. This study highlights the importance of adaptability in the survival and growth of a value-adding enterprise as well as the critical role of subsidies in establishing similar enterprises, particularly in low-income, rural areas.

Multivariate analyses to determine fungicide efficacy on Ecuadorian bananas for consumption

Half maximal effective concentration EC 50 is considered the main reference for evaluating the efficacy of the products in any plantation using doses and inhibition percentages from laboratory data. However, EC 50 is not the best representation when other relevant variables and their relationships could be involved. As an agricultural case study, fungicide sensitivity of Pseudocercospora fijiensis , the causal agent of black sigatoka, was evaluated on bananas’ plantations in three provinces of Ecuador. In this study, multivariate statistical process control was adjusted to a fungicide efficacy evaluation case considering multiple data tables from different locations and years at the same time. The threshold conveyed by inhibition percentages, related to the EC , along with locations and years allowed the multivariate analyses carried out in the proposal. The multivariate statistical control techniques applied were Multilinear Principal Component Analysis (MPCA) and Dual STATIS-Parallel Coordinates approach (DS-PC). A comparison was developed and showed that both methods discriminate correctly between the normal and anomalous conditions within plantations along years, validating the ability of the novel method DS-PC for exhibiting better signaling of anomalous plantations and performing variable-wise analysis to find out possible causes of this behavior in an easier time-saving graphical framework.

Potential of Horticultural Farming and Livelihood Sustainability: A Case Study of Plum Farming at Enhulumi Village of Phek District, Nagaland

Potential of Horticultural Farming and Livelihood Sustainability: A Case Study of Plum Farming at Enhulumi Village of Phek District, Nagaland

Improvement of the BSC model with KPI-tree method through a dairy farm case study

Improvement of the BSC model with KPI-tree method through a dairy farm case study

Drivers and Constraints to the Adoption of Organic Leafy Vegetable Production in Nigeria: A Livelihood Approach

Nigeria, the seventh most populous country in the world, is plagued by livelihood challenges such as poverty and food insecurity, which are more pervasive among farming households and rural communities. Organic farming is being promoted by some domestic non-governmental organizations as a means of addressing the problem of poverty and food insecurity among farming households and rural communities in the country. Promoters consider organic farming to be well-suited to smallholder farmers’ socio-economic conditions in Nigeria, and that it can help improve their livelihood conditions through increased agricultural productivity and farm income. However, the adoption of the technology by smallholder farmers has been underwhelming, for reasons yet to be studied. Using a livelihood framework and through a case study of farmers in Ibadan, Oyo State, this study qualitatively explores and provides insights into the factors that influence, constrain, and gender the adoption of organic farming in Nigeria. Overall, it was found that a mix of factors, which include institutional considerations, farmers’ livelihood assets and vulnerability contexts, their livelihood activities, and gender-related variables shaped adoption decision-making. The policy implications of the findings were outlined.

Case study of farmer’s problems crop production, dairy and nutrition through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

Case study of farmer’s problems crop production, dairy and nutrition through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

Global Optimization of Offshore Wind Farm Collection Systems

A mathematical program for global optimization of the cable layout of Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) is presented. The model consists on a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). Modern branch-and-cut solvers are able to solve large-scale instances, defined by more than hundred Wind Turbines (WTs), and a reasonable number of Offshore Substations (OSSs). In addition to the MILP model to optimize total cable length or initial investment, a pre-processing strategy is proposed in order to incorporate total electrical power losses into the objective function. High fidelity models are adapted to calculate cables current capacities, spatial currents. The MILP model is embedded in an iterative algorithmic framework, solving a sequence of problems with increasing search space size. The search space is defined as a set of underlying candidate arcs. The applicability of the method is illustrated through 10 case studies of real-world large-scale wind farms. Results show that: (i) feasible points are obtained in seconds, (ii) points with an imposed maximum tolerance near the global optimum are calculated in a reasonable computational time in the order of hours, and (iii) the proposed method compares favorably against state-of-the-art method available in literature.

Economic benefits of ENSO information in crop management decisions: case study of rice farming in West Java, Indonesia

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strongly influences rainfall extremes in Indonesia with major impacts on droughts and floods and potential consequences for rice production. The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is an indicator used to detect the occurrence of ENSO events. A consistently negative (phase 1) and a rapidly falling SOI (phase 3) (indicating an El Nino cycle) were related to high probability of below-average rainfalls in the Ciparay and Bojongsoang areas of Bandung District. Therefore, the use of SOI phase information prior to the planting season would assist farmers in making optimum planting decisions. This study attempted to evaluate the economic benefits of using SOI phase information in March/April to make informed agricultural decisions for the second crop planting (April/May). The use of the SOI phases in conjunction with a crop simulation model would facilitate an objective evaluation of other cropping options. The results indicated that farmers who switched from rice to soybean or maize for the May planting season, following the March/April SOI phase I and III, earned higher incomes. The cumulative net income differences over the 63 years for soybean was about USD 1700 (27% higher at Ciparay) and USD 2350 (45% higher at Bojongsoang) and for maize was about USD 1524 (19% higher at Ciparay) and USD 1970 (35% higher at Bojongsoang).

Case studies of female-headed farms and households in Liberia: a comparative analysis of Grand Bassa, Lofa, and Nimba counties

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study explores female-headed households in Grand Bassa, Lofa and Nimba counties to discern Liberia's smallholding, subsistence agriculture. Amid environmental and communal dynamics, addressing factors causing challenges of farming is imperative. Methodology: Using explanatory sequential methods this study collects, explains, and organizes farming and household situations qualitatively through field notes, observations, and extensive communications with 44 female farmers. Subsequently and quantitatively, Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) verifies aforementioned information, accompanied by 112 observations. Findings: Stories encapsulate female farmers in Grand Bassa, Lofa, and Nimba counties. They provide evidence of marginalized, progressive, and emerging farming in order. Children (n > 3) and inadequate support of Kuu (informal labor) and of community make food stability, availability and access insecure. Insufficient crop revenue further exacerbates the issues. Moderate- and mild food-insecure households need not worry about the problems above. However, their earnings notwithstanding, new challenges appear in credit practices and land conflict. Practical Implications: Extension agents should provide timely services for each community, with special attention to women-headed households. Findings imply ex-post evaluations to ex-ante extension services should be cyclical. Theoretical Implications: A gender-inclusive, gender-sensitive framework is vital to enhance food security and community resilience, transform subsistence agriculture into agribusiness and achieve fairness, gender equity and social justice for agrarian Liberians – especially women and children. Originality/Value: This study captures distinctive phases of farming and family life – yielding qualitative and subsequent quantitative validation of predictors of food insecurity in rural, women-headed farming households/operations. It should guide us to tailor ex-ante extension services.

The devaluation of female labour in fruit and vegetable packaging plants in Spanish Mediterranean agriculture

Based on the evidence found in two case studies of intensive agriculture in Southern Spain, this article analyses the impact of business strategies aimed at devaluing packaging plant work in the competitive integration processes currently taking place in the global agri-food value chain. The article explores three business strategies: the feminisation, segmentation and deskilling of labour, along with ethnic substitution and labour recruitment outsourcing mechanisms. Although it acknowledges the importance of the dynamics of global competition, the article focuses mainly on how firms articulate their strategies in packaging plants within the political, family and sociocultural frameworks of specific local contexts. The analysis uses a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews and participant observations.

Integrated Risk Assessment: Case Study of Lithuanian Family Farms

This study is designed to develop the tool for risk assessment under the integrated approach. Analyzing risk several problems are encountered: the first one arises at the farm level – assessment of risk in the whole-farm context rather than in a partial context, i.e. an integrated risk assessment tool is necessary. The second problem is related to the dynamic aspect when determining how the risk changes over time and what the main drivers of these changes are. All these problems are solved in the presented research, creating an integrated risk assessment index (IRAI) and testing it in Lithuanian family farms. This index assesses four types of risk: economic, financial, production, and political. The research methodology is developed to make sure that the data collected on the IRAI behavior is as diverse as possible. A model of IRAI variation by farm size illustrating risk evolution at the Lithuanian farms and, at the same time, enabling visual diversification of the dependence of integrated risk on farm size is developed. Hierarchical cluster analysis is applied for identification of the integrated risk evolution models. Assessment of the interaction between the IRAIand output and input using nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis testis used to find out whether the type of integrated risk is based on differential logic. IRAI was tested using official statistical data of 1300 family farms collected in 2004–2013 for institutional purposes. The testing revealed that the designed IRAI allows identifying types of farms by their risk evolvement profiles and the key risk (s) acting on the farm in the historical period. Four meaningful clusters representing the changing pattern of the risk are identified during the testing of IRAI: increasing risk farms; reducing risk farms; relatively constant risk farms; varying risk farms. IRAI can be applied both for macro analysis (at a national, EU or other levels) and microanalysis (at the level of a single farm).

Multi-Objective Predictive Control Optimization with Varying Term Objectives: A Wind Farm Case Study

This paper introduces the incentive of an optimization strategy taking into account short-term and long-term cost objectives. The rationale underlying the methodology presented in this work is that the choice of the cost objectives and their time based interval affect the overall efficiency/cost balance of wide area control systems in general. The problem of cost effective optimization of system output is taken into account in a multi-objective predictive control formulation and applied on a windmill park case study. A strategy is proposed to enable selection of optimality criteria as a function of context conditions of system operating conditions. Long-term economic objectives are included and realistic simulations of a windmill park are performed. The results indicate the global optimal criterium is no longer feasible when long-term economic objectives are introduced. Instead, local sub-optimal solutions are likely to enable long-term energy efficiency in terms of balanced production of energy and costs for distribution and maintenance of a windmill park.

Analyzing Textual Features of Excess-funded Agricultural Products——Case Study of Crowdfunding Website

Analyzing Textual Features of Excess-funded Agricultural Products——Case Study of Crowdfunding Website

Analisis Korelasi Perubahan Iklim Terhadap Kualitas Dan Kuantitas Hasil, Perubahan Teknologi Dan Pendapatan Petani Padi Di Kabupaten Manokwari (Studi Kasus Petani Di Distrik Prafi)

This study aims to analyze the correlation of climate change on the quality and quantity of yields, technological change, and rice farmers' income in Manokwari Regency (case study of farmers in Prafi District). This type of research is quantitative associative. The type of data used is primary data obtained through an observation and interview approach to rice farmers to explain the relationship of climate change to income, rice quality and technological changes made in the Prafi District of Manokwari Regency. And secondary data obtained from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the Agriculture and Food Security Agency of Manokwari Regency. The data collection method uses the method of observation, interviews, questionnaires and literature methods. While the analysis method uses crosstabs analysis (cross tabulation). With the significance test using chi-square analysis. The results showed there was no correlation of climate change on the quality and quantity of yields, technological change, and rice farmers' income in Manokwari Regency.