Agro-based Products Research Articles

A Comparative Analysis of Environmental and Social Practices in the Sugar Industries of Brazil and Southern Maharashtra, India

This paper reviews the worldwide sugar business, focusing on South Maharashtra in India and Brazil. The study employs a systematic approach to evaluate the environmental sustainability, as well as the social and economic impact of sugar production in these regions. Businesses are reassessing their tactics as people become more aware of social fairness and climate change, making the sugar industry an ideal subject for research due to its important environmental and social ramifications. While Brazil's sugar market has grown dramatically due to advances in farming methods and technologies, Southern Maharashtra continues to rely significantly on traditional agricultural practices, particularly sugar cultivation. The intent is to shed light on the contrasts between these industries by analyzing their environmental assessment methodologies, social responsibility efforts, and sustainable business practices. Furthermore, it attempts to add useful insights to the continuing discourse about promoting sustainable practices in the global sugar industry. The sugar industry has a lot of potential for growth due to its byproducts such as ethanol, biogas, and different agro-based products which further bolster the environmental sustainability potential.

Soil organic carbon stocks as driven by land use in Mato Grosso State: the Brazilian Cerrado agricultural frontier

To address national and global demand for agro-based products, agricultural expansion has rapidly become a norm in Brazil since 1950s to date. In recent decades, agricultural expansion and technological advancement have placed the country among the top producers and exporters of agricultural products. The paradigm shifts in farming system from conventional to integrated approach has brought significant changes in land use, which consequently influenced carbon sequestration and soil organic carbon (SOC). This is more prevalent in the State of Mato Grosso, one of the most producers of food in Brazil. On this background, we hypothesized that though forests have potential for SOC stock, which decreases due to conversion to cropland but in longer-term with sustainable management, carbon might accrual significantly in cropland. Therefore, this paper aimed to unveil the nexus between long term land use and carbon stock changes and estimate future SOC stocks in Mato Grosso State of Brazil. To achieve this aim, a hybridization of machine learning and the InVEST prediction models was applied to estimate the land use changes and the SOC stocks between 1990 and 2020 and estimate for 2050. The study revealed that between 1990, 2020, and 2050, croplands increased significantly by at least 78%, pastures decreased by 32%, while forests decreased marginally by about 4% due to agricultural expansions. However, in 1990 and 2020, the SOC stock was slightly up to 147.34 Mg ha−1, it recorded an increase after a longer-time (i.e., in 2050). This increase was substantially under the forests, and marginally in the croplands. Climate-smart agricultural systems such as crop-livestock forest, integrated crop-livestock, and other conservation agricultural practices have great potential to contribute to sustainable development by increasing the levels of carbon in agricultural soils especially, after a longer period. Therefore, agricultural policies geared towards low carbon agriculture should be fully integrated into the various government decision making processes as this will guarantee food security and maximize soil carbon sequestration and stocks in the long term. Simultaneously, it is crucial to promote the dissemination of best practices for implementing and sustaining conservation efforts, thereby safeguarding the carbon stocks established to prevent their depletion. This will also support the Brazilian government in achieving its Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) through agricultural soils.

International trade in food and agro-based products in the time of COVID-19

The aim of the study is to examine the regional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its individual waves on foreign trade in food and agro-based products in the world’s largest trading countries. The study was based on the statistical database of the International Trade Centre (ITC). In addition to the basic analysis, use was made of the auto- correlation method to detect special relationships between foreign food trade of different countries. The results show that the pandemic has had the greatest impact on agricultural and food trade in the United States, but it has spilled over to other countries as well, especially its two major trading partners, the European Union and China. Food trade stagnated in the initial period of the pandemic, but later recovered relatively well. The six examined regions can be divided into three groups based on the typical features of their autocorrelation.

Agricultural Output and Economic Growth Nexus: A VECM Approach on Bangladesh

Agriculture is the engine of an economy. In Bangladesh, 50% of the entire laborer force is employed in farming, and around 87% of rural families depend on agriculture for any part of their wages. Considering the importance of the agriculture sector in Bangladesh, the study examines the nexus between agricultural output and economic growth. In the finding of this causality, the VECM test has been applied and found the long-run relationship between variables where the rate of restoring the disequilibrium into equilibrium is 66.4%. The research applies the impulse response function and variance decomposition where in both cases, the result implies that the agricultural output is much more significant on economic growth than industrial output, meaning that to be a sustainable economy, the agriculture sector cannot be ignored. The study also provides insights to the policymakers that the agriculture sector should be given much more priority in terms of budget, and the academician should do more research to develop sustainable agro-based products.

Women empowerment through PRIs: Liberation from poverty and suppression

The Panchayatiraj Institutions (PRIs) are the instrument through which women's empowerment can be ensured. The PRIs are the grassroots administrative mechanism intended for the development of rural areas and their people. The people include both men and women. But whatever the arrangement prevalent in India creates more opportunities for women counterparts living in rural areas. Since the last 75 years of independence, the legislative obligations have initiated different women-friendly processes which assured the enhancement of women's empowerment. Different women-related schemes as well as laws were framed and passed to endorse women's empowerment. Further, women's empowerment is relatively interconnected with the development of the nation. Being an agrarian country, India needs help from almost half of its population to increase agro-based products. It is assumed that if women are empowered then the GDP will increase more. In regards to participation in socio-economic and political fields, it is expected that women will more vibrantly participate in the process and a modern society will be established. Considering all the above elements in mind, the researcher endeavours to analyze the PRIs which will provide opportunities to enhance the empowerment of women. The critical observations, pros and cons, limitations of PRIs, and prospects are the primary concerns of this paper. There are different research studies, journal articles, and books that deal with this subject but nobody has analyzed from liberation of women from a poverty and suppression point of view. It will provoke the upcoming researcher to justify the arguments empirically in different states and places of India.

The Challenges of Blockchain Technology Adoption in the Agro-based Industries

Blockchain is one of the latest innovations in information technology, bringing a digital revolution to many industries by increasing transparency. But this technology needs to be explored a lot as of now. Agriculture supply chain management distributes agro-based products like vegetables, fruits, pulses, and cereals. This research is conducted to identify the agro-based industries' adoption of blockchain in their supply chain for achieving sustainability. The next step towards sustainable agriculture is primarily seen as blockchain-enabled agriculture. By making supply chains transparent, technology can follow products from the point of manufacture and prevent waste and inefficiency. A structured literature review helped determine the barriers to blockchain adoption in agro-based industries. This research is unique as no survey-based research on blockchain in the agriculture supply chain using structural equation modeling has been found. The seven proposed hypotheses support the blockchain challenges for adoption in agro-based industries. The findings of this study suggest that the blockchain can bring transparency and traceability and will remove the agro-industry inefficiencies.

Availability and Potentiality of Markets for Agro-Based Products in Assam

Availability and Potentiality of Markets for Agro-Based Products in Assam

A Review on Agroforestry Practices for Improving Socioeconomic and Environmental Status

Agroforestry has been defined as a dynamic ecologically based natural resources management system that through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels. This paper highlights agroforestry practices for improving socioeconomic and environmental status. Agriculture sector has become a major contributor to the national gross domestic product and their high demand for agro-based products has increased the expansion of agricultural land through monoculture systems. However, as the land for agriculture is decreasing, due to converting more natural forests into agricultural land. The unstable nature of the world climate, attributed to human activities, depletion of forest cover due to increased hunger for forest and non-forest products has caused a lot of environmental problems such as, land erosion, flooding, frequent and severe storm, depletion of soil fertility, natural disaster as well as seasonal changes of world climate. The systems as the sustainable agriculture practices they contribute to the positive development in agriculture industry in terms of environmental, social, and economic aspects. It shows that agroforestry systems are performing better than monoculture systems as they are eco-friendly, socially reasonable and economically feasible through diversification of input and output.

Politics of Demonetization: Its effect on the Village Economy in India

The Government of India` s call for demonetization on 8th November 2016 banning Rs500/-and Rs1000/- notes was originally accepted as a positive step to discourage the black marketers and the rackets in hoarding to rule over the society. Unfortunately the long term effect of such a hurried decision became a boom to the agri-business based on soft cash. The agribusiness chain became the worst effected group. The chain included non-formal agricultural sector small earners in the agricultural field the farmers as the fragmented land holder and the producers thriving on the instant sale of their products and also those depending on middleman for the disbursement of funds and purchase of products for storage and dispersal of the same to the consumers` market for constant supply. Demonetization discouraged the middleman to put cash in the producing and disbursement. Thereby demonetization dismantled the overall economic chain of production and distribution resulting havoc in agro business market. The small farmers became the main victims of the circumstances. The banning of money economy on the one hand created scarcity in the families based on ancillary agro-production and it also hampered the family income of the rural farmers. Considering the boom in the village economy as an outcome of demonetization the present article makes an effort to gather firsthand information on the position of rural farmers and other non-formal rural occupation group as an outcome of demonetization announced by the Prime Minister of India. The focused area of the study include the selected villages in the northern part of West Bengal. They are rich in agro-based products run by the self-contended but marginal women farmers group thriving on export of their products to the Nepal Market. Their family males are involved in other ancillary employment like pendal making for marriages and other social gatherings running grocery shops and hawkers selling garments and cloths. The women in their families are involved in the varieties of occupation like working as Anganwari preparing mid-day mill working in the road side motels run by the Government (Pother Sathi ) and also working as a liaison of the Government Agriculture Department of the District through their Farmers` Club. The region marked as the second best agro-production area in West Bengal but their business thrives on cash transaction. Keeping in mind the PM`s speech on November 8th 2016 as a pro-poor program the present study focuses on the effect of demonetization on the poor women farmers by reaching out to the farmers families.The survey was done on December 2017 to observe the post demonetization effect in the reality scenario. Interestingly a similar survey was carried out by the researcher in 2015- 2016 and the field survey report was presented in the form of a research paper entitled ` the Role of Women in Agriculture ` in University of Vienna Austria under the International Sociological Forum in July 2016.This has enabled the researcher to gather knowledge on the economy of women community in the rural areas of North Bengal and a part of the West Bengal State. The life and living of these enthusiastic women community gave an impetus to the researcher to visit them and to learn the effect of demonetization in their life.2 The present paper is the outcome of the survey made by the researcher for the second phase in December 2017 during the post demonetization period.

Insight on the Realizing of Agro-Based Sustainable Low-Cost Fiber Particulate Composite for Thin Film Application in Biofouling Environment

Biofouling is a severe problem in the marine environment, as all hard surfaces, including some macroorganisms, mostly get colonized by microorganisms existing in the maritime. In the past, some substances such as tributyltin and mercury have been used to combat this problem. These substances are still toxic and harmful to aquatic lives and even human beings, leading to these substances being banned globally. It is then highly important to produce anti-biofouling substances from natural products, which are sustainable, economical, environmentally friendly and applied on surfaces conveniently. The inspiration for using these natural substances came from the fact that the microorganisms, which are biofoulers, do not get attached or colonized on marine animals such as whales, dolphins and shellfishes. This review highlights some of the advances in natural and agro-based products that have been used as anti-biofouling. These natural substances are corals, fermented milk, pepper, marine biofilms, seaweeds and shellfishes.

INCIDENCIA COMERCIAL DE LA LEY DE PROMOCIÓN AGRARIA Y LA DEMANDA MUNDIAL EN LAS EXPORTACIONES ALIMENTOS PROCESADOS Y AGROALIMENTARIOS, CASO PERÚ: 2001-2018

Faced with a context of global integration and growth of agricultural exports in Peru. The objective of the research was to examine the effected of the Agrarian Promotion Law (law 27360) and world demand during the period 2001- 2018 on the export of the food group of processed food and agro-based products in Peru. The methodology evaluated using the Johansen co-integration test and the Granger causality test: world demand (world Imports) and exports of processed food and agro-based products from the countries of the Andean Community (CAN), where only two members (Peru and Ecuador) had laws to promote the agricultural. Our results showed that there is no causality between the exports of each member of the CAN and world demand in the food group, meanwhile, existed a long-term relationship between exports from Peru and Ecuador with world demand in the food group. The research concluded that Law 27360 and world demand of food group affected positive in the long-term exports of processed food and agro-based products from Peru.

Effect of cold plasma pretreated hot‐air drying on the physicochemical characteristics, nutritional values and antioxidant activity of shiitake mushroom

Shiitake mushroom is one of the most popular delicious vegetables, although fresh shiitake mushroom has short shelf life as a result of biochemical degradation. Drying can prolong the shelf life of mushroom. Additionally, application of cold plasma pretreatments (CPT) before drying can preserve the product quality, processing costs and nutritional values. Therefore, we aimed to explore the effect of cold plasma pretreated hot-air drying at 50, 60 and 70 °C on the physicochemical characteristics, nutritional values and antioxidant activity of shiitake mushroom. Scanning electron microscopy micrographs showed that CPT induced the surface modification of fresh shiitake (such as cellular disarrangement, cellular shrinkages, disruption or break down of cell walls, and intracellular spaces and cavities) and facilitate the rapid drying than control samples. Furthermore, CPT improved the powder qualities (bulk density, water retention and swelling index) and preserved higher nutritional attributes (sugars, vitamins, phenolic acids contents and antioxidant activity) compared to the control groups. Conclusively, CPT could be a suitable alternative technique for improving drying characteristics and preserving nutritional attributes of agro-based products. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AMONG AGROPRENEURS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Social media has become one of the main platforms for businesses around the world to markettheir products or services. However, some entrepreneurs still feel doubtful whether social mediamarketing is effective enough compared to the traditional marketing on seeking attention fromtheir targeted audience based on the different generation. Besides, people still think that socialmedia is used as the medium for people around the world to socialize with everyone instead ofmarketing their product or services, especially agro-based products. Entrepreneurs also did not usesocial media marketing because they do not have the sufficient knowledge on how to fully utilizethe social media to market their product. This will hinder them from using social media marketingin their business because they might need more time and assistance to learn how to employ socialmedia marketing. Thus, the main objective of this study is to investigate the adoption of socialmedia marketing among agropreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia. Primary data was collected usingstructured questionnaire via online survey. The questionnaire have been distributed through socialmedia platforms and e-mailed to the targeted respondents using purposive sampling method. Atotal of 113 respondents from 12 states in Peninsular Malaysia was successfully participated inthis study. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive analysis, chi-square analysis and factoranalysis. The results of this study indicated that the adoption level of social media marketingamong agropreneurs in Peninsular Malaysia is on the medium high level and the highest socialmedia platform adopted is Facebook. Besides that, the results of chi-square analysis showed thatrespondent’s demographic and business profile including gender, age, education level and typesof agro-based business operated has an association with the adoption of social media marketingamong agropreneurs. The results of factor analysis discovered four factors that influencingadoption of social media marketing among agropreneurs namely; perceived usefulness, socialinfluence, perceived ease of use and facilitating conditions. Hence, entrepreneurs that alreadyadopted social media marketing should cooperate and create an association of online agropreneursto encourage other entrepreneurs so that they start adopting social media marketing.

Alternative Deicers for Winter Road Maintenance—A Review

The use of roadway deicers, typically made of sand or salt, is essential for achieving safe roadway conditions by reducing ice and snow. Unfortunately, deicers can have detrimental effects on the surrounding infrastructure and environment. Traditional inorganic deicers, such as abrasives and chloride salts, have the most widespread usage, but recent concerns of the negative effects of chlorides on the environment have led to emerging alternative organic deicers. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the effectiveness and impacts of organic deicers including agro-based products, acetates, formates, glycols, and succinates. The benefits and negative impacts on the road, environment, and infrastructure are reviewed, as well as the performance of each deicer for snow and ice control on roadways. The environmental concerns of the organic deicers are discussed, including the largest environmental concern: the increase in biological oxygen demand (BOD) to receiving water bodies. The impact of deicers on metals and infrastructure is presented as it varies considerably for each alternative deicer. Finally, opportunities and challenges to implementing alternative deicers in the field is discussed.

Nondestructive Food Quality Monitoring Using Phase Information in Time-Resolved Reflectance Spectroscopy

A rapid and affordable method is desired by the food industry to monitor the quality of the food. A nondestructive and noninvasive testing is desired to determine the optimum harvesting time, monitor changes during storage, and asses the internal quality of the fruits. Time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS) is used for noninvasive simultaneous measurement of the scattering and the absorption properties of turbid media. In this article, a time-resolved phase reflectance-based nondestructive and noninvasive method is proposed to monitor the internal quality of the fruits. The time-resolved reflectance is determined by the number of internal scatterers based on the mean-free path length of the incident light. The change in the mean-free path due to change in the pigmentation of the internal pulp changes the order of the scatters and, therefore, affects the scattering profile of the reflected light. The scattering profile is monitored using the Stokes degree of linear polarization. As an example, the Red Star and Granny Smith apples are considered, and the degradation in the apples due to storage is correlated with the changes in the degree of polarization (DoP). The change in the DoP after seven days is 0.26% and 11.4% for a time resolution of 300 ps, while for 500 ps, it is 2% and 2.3% for Red Star and Granny Smith, respectively. The differential variations in the DoP help in monitoring the internal pulp quality of the two variants of the apples considered. This proposed method can also be used in all agro-based products for internal quality monitoring.

Study on the performance and emission characteristics of a CI engine using diesel-calophyllum inophyllum blends

The limited supply of fossil fuels and modern emission norms necessitates the use of mixture of alternate fuels with fossil fuels. Bio-diesel is a renewable source of energy obtained from agro-wastes or agro-based products. Oils obtained from these products maybe edible or non-edible. In this study, the suitability of Calophyllum inophyllum oil (CIO), a non-edible oil, as a bio-diesel source is studied. The bio-diesel fuel is first synthesized from the oil obtained through various stages, including transesterification. The performance characteristics such as brake thermal efficiency (BTE), specific fuel consumption (SFC) and emission variables such as CO2, NOx, HC, CO and smoke are studied. The blend percentage by volume used in the investigation are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 100%. It is observed that HC and CO emissions are less for B10 blend. B10 blend has 20.3% less NOx emissions when compared to that of diesel fuel. BSFC is decreased by 8% and BTE is increased by 9.5% in B10 blend. Among all blends used, the lowest soot concentration is obtained with B10 blend. B10 blend provides the most suitable combination of characteristics to be used as an alternate fuel blend.

The Contributions of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in Rural-Urban Linkages in Wolaita Zone, South Ethiopia

Development Policies and strategies of Ethiopia envisage micro small and medium enterprises as a strategic tool for strengthening rural-urban linkages and for bringing overall economic development and poverty eradication. This is due to the role of the enterprises in bridging urban and rural areas and the interdependence of the rural and urban economies in developing countries. However, the Ethiopian micro, small and medium enterprises do not seem to be on the right track in their relationship to the agricultural sector as required by the government policy and strategies. Most Ethiopian micro, small and medium enterprises are known for their high dependence on imported raw materials. Past studies failed to realize the potential benefits of creating production linkages by reinforcing rural-urban links across the country. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the capacity of micro, small and medium enterprises to forge rural-urban relationships that will assist in towards achieving the goals of GTP. The methodology for putting the paper together is by drawing results from the ongoing doctoral research 1 by the author. The study is based on a concurrent triangulation mixed method approach using both quantitative and qualitative data with a questionnaire survey from 525 owners/managers of micro, small and medium enterprises as the main data collection tool. The study also collected qualitative data through informant interviews from 22 MSME owners/managers. The research question addressed in this paper is what contributions can micro, small and medium enterprises play to strengthen rural-urban economic linkages? There is every reason to believe that micro, small and medium enterprises have the capacity to expand their demand for local agricultural raw material. Rural areas, on the other hand, have an equally reliable desire for agro-based products such as fertilizers, pesticides, and farming equipment. Unfortunately, the paper finds from the study that as high as 53.1 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises in the three administrative towns of Wolaita in south Ethiopia are wholly or partially dependent on industrial products and that only 1.5 percent appear involved in the production and supply of agricultural inputs. Extraordinarily, however, as much as 57.6 percent of the study's respondents chose the main reason hindering linkages as the unavailability of preferred and quality raw materials in the local market. In order to promote the linkage between the two sectors and areas, both the agricultural and MSME sectors productivity should be enhanced through improved agricultural productivity and enhancing the performance of small business sector to provide agricultural inputs through all rounded support of the government. Keywords; Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Rural-Urban Linkage, Contributions, Wolaita Zone, South Ethiopia DOI : 10.7176/CER/11-4-01 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Promoting agro-based export as engine of local economy in North-Sumatra, Indonesia

In North Sumatera, Indonesia, exports made a contribution to Regional GDP of up to 40 per cent. Approximately 40 per cent of the export value was gained from agro-based products. In order to figure out the impact of agro-based export on local economy, this study pursued to investigate the contribution of agro-based export to: (i) local economic development, i.e. economic growth, (ii) employment creation, and (iii) poverty reduction, and to find out the causality among these variables. The results revealed that agriculture played a very important role in North Sumatra local economy, not only because it was a basis existence for millions households, but also because it is a strategic sector for economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction, mainly through export of agro-industry products.

Challenges of creating sustainable agri-retail supply chains

There is growing pressure on businesses and governments to pay more attention to the environmental and resource consequences of the ever-increasing production, distribution and consumption of agro-based products. Major issues in the sustainable development agenda include how to ensure the involvement of producers, particularly small farmers, in sourcing networks as well as in the institutional initiatives that help them to meet the stringent food safety and quality regulations. Corporates, especially in retailing, could play a critical role in creating sustainable agri-food chains.

Infrastructure Development for Agro-Processing Cooperatives in Maharashtra: An Ex-Post Evaluation

Although India is blessed with diverse agro-climatic conditions and so has the ability to produce a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers and a host of other agro-based products, a substantial quantity of horticultural produce of our country is lost due to poor post harvest processing, handling, transportation and storage operations. In order to curb these losses, some of the agencies like National Horticulture Board (NHB) and National Cooperative Development Cooperation (NCDC) are making sincere efforts to create adequate infrastructure facilities for horticultural crops. Among various schemes introduced by NCDC and NHB, the Soft Loan Scheme (SLS) of NHB is noteworthy. Under SLS, an assistance is provided to cooperative societies, public and private limited companies, and farmers association with a maximum limit of Rs.1.00 crore at 4 per cent service charges per annum with one year moratorium period to set up projects related to infrastructure development. Maharashtra is noticed to be the only state which has received about 52 per cent of the total soft loan distributed by NHB to 26 beneficiaries in the country. Majority of the beneficiaries of SLS in Maharashtra are processing cooperatives. The present study attempts to evaluate not only the NHB’s soft loan scheme but also the impact of the scheme on development of post-harvest infrastructure (PHI) for horticulture crops in Maharashtra. The focus of this study is on two processing-cum-export oriented grape growers’ cooperative societies. The study shows a positive impact of SLS towards development PHI facilities since such facilities have not only increased the export trade of the selected societies but they have also helped in increasing the productivity levels of the crops grown in the area, besides helping in reducing the post harvest losses of the produce. Nonetheless, with a view to further improve the efficiency of SLS, the study has made a few major suggestions, which mainly revolve around simplification of loan procedure adopted by the NHB, timely disbursement of the loan, financing of the entire comprehensive project rather than for certain specific components, subsidization of electricity tariffs for the processing units, subsidization of sea freight, provision of funds for setting up of Research and Development unit for the marketing of produce, provision of foreign market intelligence, etc. However, how best these suggestions are taken care of by the NHB and various other organizations will depend on their future strategies and policies relating to financing of PHI related facilities for horticultural crops.