Aspects Of Agriculture Research Articles

Perubahan Sosial Ekonomi Petani Agroforestri Berbasis Kopi di Kabupaten Jember Jawa Timur

This study aimed to explain the changing both in social and economic aspects of farmers as a result of forest conversion process to agroforestry system in Harjomulyo Village, Jember Regency. This study used qualitative research. The information gained from informans who were selected purposively through snowball sampling. Observation, interview and documentational study were methods which were used to collect information. Triangulation technique also used in this study to check the validity of information. This study used interactive model of Miles & Huberman which consists of data reduction to conlusion. The result of this study showed that socio change occured farmer coorperation with Perhutani. While in economic change showed that economic condition increase, saving insurance credit, and availability tuition fees for children.

Why small farms persist? The influence of farmers’ characteristics on farm growth and development. The case of smaller dairy farmers in NZ

Human capital is an important resource in primary production impacting on farmers’ decisions and actions. Given their current and expected economic environment, farmers must use their human capital in mapping out a trajectory for their farm. This study considers particular aspects of farmers’ human capital and its influence on farm growth, or lack of it. Farmers’ characteristics as expressed through their personality, intelligence and objectives are the main human capital aspects considered in a sample of smaller NZ dairy farms. They are somewhat typical of western farmers working on smaller farms. They can be broadly classed into Expanders, Maintainers and Retractors. It is hypothesised each group will have distinct and different personal characteristics and these influence the farmers’ choice of trajectory. This is in addition to purely economic factors. It is also hypothesised the characteristics influence the farmers’ choice of development strategy and how challenges to the strategy are viewed. The data collected from the small dairy farms support the hypotheses suggesting the design of policy and extension programs must allow for these human capital drivers. Using past data, it is also shown aspects of human capital are different in large farms emphasising the same conclusion.

Characterization and typification of coffee production systems (Coffea arabica L.), Andes municipality

La región del suroeste de Antioquia, se ha caracterizado por estar a la vanguardia en la producción de café en Colombia, con una alta diversidad de sistemas de producción. En la investigación, se caracterizaron y tipificaron 13 sistemas productores de café (Coffea arabica L.), bajo diferentes tipos de manejo, del municipio de Andes. La metodología consistió en la caracterización cualitativa de las dimensiones sociodemográfica, ambiental, económica y agrícola, seguido de una tipificación estratificada. Se realizaron análisis estadísticos de tipo factorial por correspondencia múltiple y el método del clúster. Los resultados destacan que en la dimensión sociodemográfica el 100% de los cafeteros son propietarios de la tierra, poseen formación primaria, presentan un área predial entre tres y cuatro hectáreas y poseen más de 10 años de experiencia. En la ambiental, el 100% poseen beneficios tradicionales y secan al sol el café y entre el 46 y 69% utilizan agroquímicos. En la económica, el 77% de los cafeteros comercializan con las cooperativas y poseen altos costos de producción sin ganancias. Por último, en la agrícola el 100% preparan los suelos con labranza mínima, compran las semillas, el 85% contratan mano de obra y el 46% presentan baja calidad del suelo y de biodiversidad. La tipificación arrojó que el 47% de los cafeteros presentan sistemas Convencionales (Utilización de insumos químicos), el 38% son sistemas en Transición I (Racionalización de insumos sintéticos) y sólo el 15% poseen sistemas en Transición II (Utilización de insumos orgánicos).

High Throughput Identification of Antimicrobial Peptides from Fish Gastrointestinal Microbiota.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a group of small peptides, which are secreted by almost all creatures in nature. They have been explored in therapeutic and agricultural aspects as they are toxic to many bacteria. A considerable amount of work has been conducted in analyzing 16S and metagenomics of the gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). However, these datasets are still untapped resources. In this present study, a homologous search was performed to predict AMPs from our newly generated metagenome of grass carp. We identified five AMPs with high similarities to previously reported bacterial toxins, such as lantibiotic and class II bacteriocins. In addition, we observed that the top abundant genus in the GI microbiota of the grass carp was generally consistent with the putative AMP-producing strains, which are mainly from Lactobacillales. Furthermore, we constructed the phylogenetic relationship of these putative AMP-producing bacteria existing in the GI of grass carp and some popular commercial probiotics (commonly used for microecologics), demonstrating that they are closely related. Thus, these strains have the potential to be developed into novel microecologics. In a word, we provide a high-throughput way to discover AMPs from fish GI microbiota, which can be developed as alternative pathogen antagonists (toxins) for microecologics or probiotic supplements.

DATA MINING TECHNIQUE TO ANALYZE SOIL NUTRIENTS BASED ON HYBRID CLASSIFICATION

Data mining methods are greatly admired in the research field of agriculture. The agriculture factors weather, rain, soil, pesticides and fertilizers are the main responsible aspect to raise the production of yields. The fundamental basic key aspect of agriculture is Soil for crop growing. Examination of soil is a noteworthy part of soil asset management in horticulture. The soil investigation is exceptionally useful for cultivators to discover which sort of harvests to be developed in a specific soil condition. The main target of this work is to investigate soil supplements utilizing data mining classification techniques. A large data set of soil nutrients status database was collected from the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare. The database contains measurement of soil nutrients for all different states. This work takes some district of Tamil Nadu in India to analyze the soil nutrients. Distinctive sort's soil has diverse variety of supplements. This paper chooses Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Iron, Zinc, and so forth, nutrients for investigating the soil supplements utilizing Naive Bayes, Decision Tree and Hybrid approach of Naive Bayes and Decision Tree. The performance of the classification algorithms are compared based on the following two factors: accuracy and execution time.

Frequency, duration and severity of drought in the Semiarid Northeast Brazil region

ABSTRACTDrought is the natural disaster that impacts the greatest number of people and produces the most significant economic losses. This work presents a quantitative assessment of drought events occurred in the Semiarid region of Northeast Brazil during 1981–2016. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of drought intensity for the last 36 years, analysing their severity, frequency and duration, considering hydro‐meteorological and agricultural aspects. To evaluate these two aspects, the 12‐month standardized precipitation index and the vegetation health index were considered to investigate drought characteristics. The definition of drought event for both these indices was performed regarding start and end month. In this context, drought duration is considered equal to the number of months of event, drought frequency is the number of events per time period and the drought severity is the absolute value of integral area below zero. Results show that the most severe and prolonged drought occurred in 2011–2016. In a clear contrast to previous droughts in past decades, during these last 5‐years period drought were more frequent, severe and affected a larger area with significant impacts for population, as well as economical activities.

Farmers’ rights, local food systems, and sustainable household dietary diversification: A case of Uttarakhand Himalaya in north-western India

ABSTRACTThe farmers and rural communities, world over, have contributed greatly in management of agrobiodiversity including plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA). It is well accepted now that the efforts of farming communities in creation, conservation, exchange, and enhancement of PGR should be recognized and strengthened. Farmers’ access and rights over seeds are considered an essential component of food sovereignty. In the present article, we discuss the aspects of farmers’ rights, the community level seed systems, food sovereignty and the potential of farmer household production and dietary diversification in combating malnutrition and community health promotion with regard to farming communities of Uttarakhand hills in north-western India. Salient findings of two case studies, on farmers’ varieties documentation and registration, and the potential of local food systems in addressing community health and nutrition were used to particularly showcase the nutritional contribution of native foods in the context of sustainable food-based approaches to community health and nutrition. Further, the need of a proactive alliance was suggested between local communities and their key allies collaboratively creating a research and advocacy agenda in support of agrobiodiversity and the revival of local food systems and landscapes within the broader framework of food sovereignty.

CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO CULTIVO E CONSERVAÇÃO DA AGROBIODIVERSIDADE EM LOTES URBANOS VAGOS EM DUAS PEQUENAS CIDADES NO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

<p>A agricultura urbana e periurbana (AUP) é um fenômeno mundial crescente e traz uma gama de benefícios, como a busca da segurança alimentar e nutricional, geração de renda e a possibilidade de conservação de agrobiodiversidade <em>on farm</em>. No Brasil, cidades de pequeno porte e zonas periféricas de metrópoles ainda apresentam características rurais, como espaços intersticiais desocupados, possibilitando a ex-moradores das zonas rurais a manutenção do hábito de plantar. O objetivo deste estudo foi descrever a agricultura urbana praticada nos lotes vagos em duas cidades do interior do estado de São Paulo, Charqueada (CH) e Santa Gertrudes (SG), abordando os seguintes aspectos: caracterização socioeconômica dos entrevistados; caracterização dos lotes quanto a posse, tempo de cultivo e manejo agrícola; e registro das plantas e variedades cultivadas, com ênfase nas raízes e tubérculos, com vistas a avaliar o potencial para a conservação de agrobiodiversidade <em>on farm</em> nesses espaços. Todos os lotes cultivados na malha urbana foram georreferenciados, para o estabelecimento de uma amostra geral (77 em CH e 43 em SG) para a caracterização da população quanto a aspectos socioeconômicos e relativos à agricultura praticada. Posteriormente, selecionou-se uma subamostra (30 em CH e 20 em SG), para inventário das plantas cultivadas. Os levantamentos foram realizados por meio de entrevistas estruturadas e semi-estruturadas, utilizando-se a turnê guiada nos lotes para o levantamento das plantas. Os agricultores são na grande maioria homens acima de 50 anos de idade, de baixa renda e baixa escolaridade; não há participação efetiva dos jovens. Há uma presença importante de migrantes de outros estados, nordestinos em CH e mineiros em SG. Levantaram-se 102 etnoespécies de plantas cultivadas, principalmente alimentares, sendo as mais frequentes (>40% dos lotes em ambas as cidades) mandioca, mamão e quiabo. Vários cultivos apresentaram etnovariedades, mas o conhecimento dos agricultores sobre as mesmas não é muito aprofundado. A agrobiodiversidade levantada atesta o potencial da agricultura urbana para conservação <em>on farm</em>, porém o desinteresse dos mais jovens e as pressões de ocupação imobiliária do solo urbano podem dificultar sua continuidade. Há necessidade de políticas públicas que ordenem a atividade e garantam um mínimo de estabilidade, bem como da conscientização da população em geral sobre o papel e a importância da conservação da diversidade agrícola. </p>

The Relationship between Paddy Zakat Accounting and the Social Wellbeing Aspect of Farmers in Perlis, Malaysia

This paper aims to examine and analyse the relationship between paddy zakat accounting and the social wellbeing of farmers in Perlis.The examination and analysis is based on a booklet detailing guidance and practice on agriculture zakat accounting in the state of Perlis. According to the Manual on Zakat Accounting Management published by the Department of Wakaf, Zakat and Haj (JAWHAR), the agriculture zakat is determined by deducting production costs from the gross income and the agriculture zakat is assessed on the remaining sum. One of the states found to be using the JAWHAR manual is the state of Perlis. Besides using this manual and deducting the production costs, Perlis also deducts the cost of living from the gross profit. The question is, why is Perlis practicing as such when the fatwa by most states in Malaysia does not allow the production cost to be deducted from the gross profit. And why is Perlis also allowing the living costs to be deducted as well. What is Perlis’s views and reasons for doing so? Are they considering the social wellbeing problems of the farmers? In order to anwer these questions, the discussion in this paper is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the views of the fuqaha’ on production costs and the living costs; the second section discusses the paddy zakat accounting practices in Perlis that are in line with the views of fuqaha’; and the third section discusses the relationship between paddy zakat accounting in Perlis and the social wellbeing of farmers. Hence, based on the content analysis of the primary and secondary data, this paper has found that the paddy zakat accounting practices in Perlis are in line with the views of the fuqaha’. The practices have strong basis for their arguments and had taken into consideration the social wellbeing of fellow farmers.

Implication of Sprayer Types Used by Farmers for Controlling Insect Pests and Diseases of Cocoa in South West Nigeria

Cocoa is vital in the economy of Nigeria and it has great potentials in the current economic diversification programme of the government of Nigeria. Pesticide application which involves the use of sprayers has been an important operation in cocoa production in Nigeria to ensure profitable yields. Due to paucity of information on this aspect of farmers’ attitude, a study on what informs the decision of cocoa farmers to select the right sprayers from the various types available for controlling pests and diseases has therefore become imperative because the success of Crop Protection Product (CPP) depends on the effectiveness of its application. This work involves collecting information from farmers on the types of sprayers they used to apply pesticides on cocoa trees and some relevant personal characteristics from two major cocoa producing States (Ondo and Oyo) in South western Nigeria through structured questionnaires. The data from the field survey was further investigated based on the existing sprayers in the market. The results from the analysis of data obtained indicated that though most of the farmers used the right sprayers for pesticide application, the sprayers are inadequate in one way or the other for effectively applying pesticides on cocoa trees. Farmers’ choice was mostly guided by affordability in cost term, and such factors as durability, ability to produce high pressure and weight. Thus, there is need for the improvement or development of sprayers to achieve better suitability for effective and efficient application of pesticides on the local breeds of cacao. It is noteworthy, that more educated youths should be involved in cocoa farming to sustain and boost production. Farmers’ capacity building, subsidized inputs (especially sprayers) and periodic enlightenment programmes such as on-farm demonstration, and evaluation of sprayers for this purpose are also highly recommended.

Spatial Constraints of Slovenian Farms: What Does Urbanization Have to Do with It?

Abstract The spatial constraints of farms in Slovenia have never been systematically studied before; however, this is an important developmental aspect of agriculture, as stated by experts in spatial planning, agricultural economics, and geography. This article presents the concept of farms’ spatial constraints within settlements and their effect on farms’ development potential, proposes a methodological framework for measuring them, and reveals the relation between farms’ spatial constraints and urbanization.

Impact assessment of climate change on poverty reduction: A global perspective

Climate change and its impacts are the biggest environmental problems the world is facing in recent decades. Climate-sensitive events have already been critical obstacles of poverty reduction and sustainable economic development. Assessing how climate change affects poverty reduction is of great significance to the comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts on social economy and mitigation of its negative impacts. With geo-spatially referenced malnutrition and infant mortality data as a proxy for poverty, focusing on the aspects of agriculture and human well-being that consist of physical health and personal autonomy. This study selects three countries, China, India and Senegal, to investigate the impacts of climate change on poverty reduction. Contrast to previous work when analyze climate changes’ impacts most concentrated on coastal urban areas, this paper is focused more on the rural poor areas and conduct a contrastive analysis of different income groups of countries. The correlation analysis results show the same is that the indicators of climate change are in significant correlations with indicators of poverty and that of agriculture and human well-being in China, India and Senegal. However, China performs poorly in terms of personal autonomy, while Senegal performs well, the correlations of forest area percentage (one indicator of climate change) with other variables in Senegal are absolutely opposite to that in China and India. We find the same influence factors have different effects on poverty reduction in these countries, the anti-poverty policies should be made according to local conditions.

The Revival of Sang Hyang Dedari Dance: A Phenomenological Approach To Social-Ecological Reconstruction in Bali

This research and community engagement investigates an ancient Balinese ritual known as Sang Hyang Dedari. The dance is interrelated to an agricultural aspect of the traditional Balinese living. As the Balinese struggle to maintain their values from the constant threat of modernization and industrialization, this dance reveals the powerful impact of creating an awareness of socio-ecological equilibrium. The effort made by the villagers of Geriana Kauh, Karangasem, displays how local community rebuilds its environment based on their traditional ecological value. Analyzing Sang Hyang Dedari dance through phenomenological approach, thus, it can be discovered how the ritual sustains the social relations. The bodies of the dancers are the center of an elaborate nexus between people, nature and god. To understand how the dualism of sacred and profane bodies, this research utilizes the body theory by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The importance of phenomenology as a theory relates to the understanding on how the ritual works as an event in its totality. Understanding the unity between the presence of the divine, nature and human. The output of this research and community engagement is a museum built in cooperation between University of Indonesia with the villagers of Geriana Kauh, Karangasem. As the performance and knowledge about Sang Hyang Dedari appeared to be scarce, this museum is a form of collaboration to retrace the history of Sang Hyang Dedari ritual, in an attempt to conserve the ancient knowledge.

The Revival of Sang Hyang Dedari Dance: A Phenomenological Approach To Social-Ecological Reconstruction in Bali

This research and community engagement investigates an ancient Balinese ritual known as Sang Hyang Dedari. The dance is interrelated to an agricultural aspect of the traditional Balinese living. As the Balinese struggle to maintain their values from the constant threat of modernization and industrialization, this dance reveals the powerful impact of creating an awareness of socio-ecological equilibrium. The effort made by the villagers of Geriana Kauh, Karangasem, displays how local community rebuilds its environment based on their traditional ecological value. Analyzing Sang Hyang Dedari dance through phenomenological approach, thus, it can be discovered how the ritual sustains the social relations. The bodies of the dancers are the center of an elaborate nexus between people, nature and god. To understand how the dualism of sacred and profane bodies, this research utilizes the body theory by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The importance of phenomenology as a theory relates to the understanding on how the ritual works as an event in its totality. Understanding the unity between the presence of the divine, nature and human. The output of this research and community engagement is a museum built in cooperation between University of Indonesia with the villagers of Geriana Kauh, Karangasem. As the performance and knowledge about Sang Hyang Dedari appeared to be scarce, this museum is a form of collaboration to retrace the history of Sang Hyang Dedari ritual, in an attempt to conserve the ancient knowledge.

INDEKS PENILAIAN PETANI PADA HUTAN RAKYAT DI KECAMATAN JABIREN RAYA KALIMANTAN TENGAH

This study aims to conduct quantitative assessment of farmers' performance in building community forests in terms of physical aspects of the plant (appearance) on the land in community forestry programs and assessing the socio-economic aspects of farmers (in this case the increase of farmer's resources, Acceptance of development funds for community forests and labor). This research was conducted in 2 (two) villages, namely Jabiren village and Garung village. Both villages are in Jabiren Raya District, Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan Province. The time required in the implementation of this research is effectively carried out for 4 (four) months is from March to June 2017. The general assessment of the farmer's performance success on the physical aspects of the plant is the failing classification (the result of poor judgment). In Jabiren village there are 12 farmers categorized as failing from 20 existing farmers (60%) while in Garung village there are 10 farmers fall into the failed category of 15 existing farmers (66.7%).

Aspectos socio-económicos influyentes en el sector agrícola y su relación con la creación de empresas populares y solidarias de Quevedo

El presente trabajo agrupa aspectos socio-económicos derivados de la agricultura en el cantón Quevedo, lo cual tiene estrecha relación con la creación de empresas populares y solidarias; cuyos resultados se ven reflejados en encuestas realizadas a agricultores de la referida zona, en la que se pudo precisar baja tasa de interés en la comercialización, insumos agropecuarios y préstamos. El objetivo de la investigación radica en evaluar los aspectos socio-económicos de la agricultura que están incidiendo de manera negativa en el sector agrícola a partir de la creación de empresas populares y solidarias en Quevedo. Los resultados obtenidos permitieron demostrar la necesidad del estudio para lograr los beneficios alcanzados respecto a la creación de las asociaciones, su estrategia productiva alcanzada y su capacidad de proyección hacia el mercado para el intercambio comercial su financiamiento, y la necesidad de generar ingresos para mejorar la calidad de vida del sector agrícola. Se realiza una investigación descriptiva - documental, a partir de la revisión de los referentes teóricos de investigadores, se aplica el método inductivo- deductivo con la finalidad de solucionar la problemática planteada

Strategies for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability of Potato Agriculture in Dieng plateau Central Java Indonesia

Environmental problems in Dieng Plateau area, Central Java, Indonesia have no longer conformed to the principles of ecology, in which the use of fertilizers and pesticides is very high and productivity has decreased. Potato farming system causes the land condition becomes critical which could negatively affect the system of sustainable agricultural development. This study aims to analyze sustainable agriculture management in Dieng Plateu using indicators of economic, environmental and social. This study employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative method. Quantitative method was used to answer questions regarding economic, social, and environmental aspects. The economic aspect of sustainable agriculture included income, productivity and calculation of return cost ratio, and technical efficiency. Calculations on the use of organic fertilizer and manure, erosion hazard level and quality of water were included in the environmental aspect. The social aspect included education level, and housing conditions. Qualitative method was used to analyze the institutional model related to the conditions of Dieng area. The findings showed that potato farming indicators index was 48.57 and classified as unsustainable.

Use of essential oils in broiler chicken production – a review

Abstract Biological activity of volatile plant metabolites is the property that can potentially find application in animal nutrition. Nowadays, the use of bioactive compounds is encouraged in many areas of industry and agriculture, since these substances have similar properties as withdrawn antibiotic growth promoters. Meat poultry production is focused on the maximization of performance parameters, namely rapid chicken growth with low feed consumption, and with the optimum health status of the flock. Essential oils can stimulate the growth and functioning of the body, which translates into both chicken’s health and enhanced production parameters. The substances are characterized by a range of effects, are easily biodegradable, and do not usually require a waiting period - hence they can be used in breeding broiler chickens. Given the increasing restrictions imposed on poultry production in terms of food safety and ethical aspects of husbandry, it seems appropriate to look for the use of new, natural substances to be applied in animal production. The article presents the characteristics of essential oils in this context, with a particular focus on their antimicrobial and immunostimulatory properties. The paper also describes production applications of essential oils tested in experiments on hybrid Ross 308 and Cobb 500 chickens.

A green supply chain network design framework for the processed food industry: Application to the orange juice agrofood cluster

Food production has put enormous strain on the environment. Supply chain network design provides a means to frame this issue in terms of strategic decision making. It has matured from a field that addressed only operational and economic concerns to one that comprehensively considers the broader environmental and social issues that face industrial organizations of today. Adding the term “green” to supply chain activities seeks to incorporate environmentally conscious thinking in all processes in the supply chain. The methodology is based on the use of Life Cycle Assessment, Multi-objective Optimization via Genetic Algorithms and Multiple-criteria Decision Making tools (TOPSIS type). The approach is illustrated and validated through the development and analysis of an Orange Juice Supply Chain case study modelled as a three echelon GrSC composed of the supplier, manufacturing and market levels that in turn are decomposed into more detailed subcomponents. Methodologically, the work has shown the development of the modelling and optimization GrSCM framework is useful in the context of eco-labelled agro food supply chain and feasible in particular for the orange juice cluster. The proposed framework can help decision makers handle the complexity that characterizes agro food supply chain design decision and that is brought on by the multi-objective nature of the problem as well as by the multiple stakeholders, thus preventing to make the decision in a segmented empirical manner. Experimentally, under the assumptions used in the case study, the work highlights that by focusing only on the “organic” eco-label to improve the agricultural aspect, low to no improvement on overall supply chain environmental performance is reached in relative terms. In contrast, the environmental criteria resulting from a full lifecycle approach is a better option for future public and private policies to reach more sustainable agro food supply chains.

Automated Method to Determine Two Critical Growth Stages of Wheat: Heading and Flowering.

Recording growth stage information is an important aspect of precision agriculture, crop breeding and phenotyping. In practice, crop growth stage is still primarily monitored by-eye, which is not only laborious and time-consuming, but also subjective and error-prone. The application of computer vision on digital images offers a high-throughput and non-invasive alternative to manual observations and its use in agriculture and high-throughput phenotyping is increasing. This paper presents an automated method to detect wheat heading and flowering stages, which uses the application of computer vision on digital images. The bag-of-visual-word technique is used to identify the growth stage during heading and flowering within digital images. Scale invariant feature transformation feature extraction technique is used for lower level feature extraction; subsequently, local linear constraint coding and spatial pyramid matching are developed in the mid-level representation stage. At the end, support vector machine classification is used to train and test the data samples. The method outperformed existing algorithms, having yielded 95.24, 97.79, 99.59% at early, medium and late stages of heading, respectively and 85.45% accuracy for flowering detection. The results also illustrate that the proposed method is robust enough to handle complex environmental changes (illumination, occlusion). Although the proposed method is applied only on identifying growth stage in wheat, there is potential for application to other crops and categorization concepts, such as disease classification.