Farmers In Rural Areas Research Articles

A GIS Assessment of the Suitability of Tilapia and Clarias Pond Farming in Tanzania

Aquaculture production in Tanzania has increased in recent years, responding to an increased demand for fish, but the scale and productivity of smallholder aquaculture remains below the level needed to support significant sector growth in Tanzania. This study assesses, through geospatial analyses, the suitability for freshwater pond farming of Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus in Tanzania, by assessing the geographical distribution of seven criteria (water availability, water temperature, soil texture, terrain slope, availability of farm inputs, potential farm-gate sales, and access to local markets) identified as important for fish pond farming. The criteria were developed and standardized from 15 sub-criteria, which were classified into a four-level suitability scale based on physical scores. The individual weights of the different criteria in the overall GIS suitability assessment were determined through a multi-criteria evaluation. The final results were validated and compared through field observations, interviews with 89 rural and 11 urban aquaculture farmers, and a questionnaire survey with 16 regional fisheries officers. Our results indicate that there is a good potential for aquaculture in Tanzania. Almost 60% of Tanzania is assessed as being suitable and 40% as moderately suitable for small-scale subsistence pond farming, which is the dominating fish farming practice currently. The corresponding figures for medium-scale commercial farming, which many regions expect to be the dominating farming method within ten-years, were 52% and 47% respectively. The availability of water was the most limiting factor for fish pond farming, which was confirmed by both farmers and regional fisheries officers, and assessed as being “suitable” in only 28% of the country. The availability of farm-gate sales and local markets were “moderate suitable” to “suitable” and were seen as a constraint for commercial farms in rural areas. The availability of farm inputs (agriculture waste and manure) was overall good (26% very suitable and 32% suitable), but high-quality fish feed was seen as a constraint to aquaculture development, both by farmers and regional fisheries officers. Soil, terrain, and water temperature conditions were assessed as good, especially at low altitudes and in regions close to the sea and south of Lake Victoria.

Between the city and the farm: food environments in artisanal mining communities in Upper Guinea.

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a widespread livelihood in low- and middle-income countries; however, many in ASM communities face high levels of poverty and malnutrition. The food environments in ASM communities have non-agricultural rural characteristics that differ from those in urban and agricultural rural areas examined in much existing food environment literature. We examine these complex external and personal food environments in ASM communities via a study using qualitative and quantitative methods. Market surveys and a cross-sectional household survey, plus qualitative mining site non-participant observations and in-depth structured interviews, were conducted in three waves. Eighteen study sites in ASM communities in northern Guinea. Surveys covered mothers in mining households with young children (n 613); in-depth interviews engaged caregivers of young children (n 45), food vendors (n 40) and young single miners (n 15); observations focused on mothers of young children (n 25). The external food environment in these ASM communities combines widespread availability of commercially processed and staple-heavy foods with lower availability and higher prices for more nutritious, non-staple foods. Within the personal food environment, miners are constrained in their food choices by considerable variability in daily cash income and limited time for acquisition and preparation. We demonstrate that ASM communities have characteristics of both urban and rural populations and argue for greater nuance and appreciation of complexity in food environment research and resultant policy and programming.

ANALISIS TREN NILAI TUKAR PETANI TANAMAN PANGAN PROVINSI KEPULAUAN BANGKA BELITUNG

The sustainability of rice or food crop farming depends on the level of welfare of the farmers. One approach to measuring the purchasing power of farmers in rural areas is the Farmer Exchange Rate (NTP). The purpose of this study was to determine the development of the achievement level of the Exchange Rate of food crop farmers in Bangka Belitung from 2013-2020 with the method of analysis using quantitative descriptive methods. The results showed that the average farmer exchange rate from 2013-2020 was 93.98 percent, still below the index value of 100, which means that food crop farmers in Kepulauan Bangka Belitung Province are still not prosperous.

Developing a data collection application for following up the small-scale dairy farms’ performance in rural areas

The mobile application is an effective tool for data collection of performance in agriculture, particularly for small and geographically scattered farms. This study aimed to develop an economical and straightforward application to monitor small dairy herds performance with the flexibility to collect data remotely. The developed mobile application was designed using the MIT App Inventor. Where, the application explores icons of different farm management practices that are reported by farmers through touching the screen. Each icon is linked with an informative SMS, which was received by the mobile phone of the collection technician. We randomly selected and followed 18 farmers to test the application for one year. The main results were recognized the false SMS decreased as farmers took enough time for training in the software. Furthermore, most of sent SMS were for milk yield event. Age, level of education and land size had no significant effect on correct SMS sent by farmers, while herd size showed a significant effect. In Conclusion, mobile application could be developed for continuous data collection and following up small dairy farms in rural areas. Also, the validity test for the developed mobile application confirmed that farmers were able to use the new technology regardless their age and educational level.

Розвиток фермерських господарств в організаційно-економічному забезпеченні зайнятості населення

The purpose of the article is to carry out the economic and institutional analysis of development of farms and to define prospects of strengthening of a role of this form of managing in organizational and economic maintenance of employment of the population in agricultural production. Research methods. In the process of research a number of general scientific and special methods were used, in particular: system-structural analysis and synthesis as the main methodological tool (for analysis of development and efficiency of farms in the context of employment performance evaluations); monographic (in determining the nature and methodological assessment of the priority of the role of farms as promising to ensure the socio-economic development of the territories); extrapolation (when substantiating the promising strategic priorities for the development of family farming as an entrepreneurial subsystem to ensure opportunities to solve problems of sustainable development of rural areas and employment of the rural population). Research results. The methodological context is outlined and empirical assessments of the role and trends in the development of farms in the organizational and economic support of employment are made. The specifics of characterizing the importance of farms as subjects of entrepreneurial activity in the agricultural sector of the economy, which have a special socio-economic significance in the status of implementation of the functions of the labor institution while ensuring its productivity and efficiency. A comparative assessment of the efficiency of production activities of agricultural enterprises and farms according to the product approach in the format of profitability estimates. The concept of perspective significance of family farms in the mechanism of their institutionalization into the market mechanism of agricultural employment is characterized. Scientific novelty. It is proved that in Ukraine farms, in particular family farms are extremely important in solving the problems of rural activity, are able to implement programs of mass development of agricultural employment, as well as contribute to the sustainable development of territories. It is established that farming gradually acquires efficiency that prevails over other forms of management, which is associated with the motivation of work on the basis of family employment, the personification of the results of employment on one's own farm. Theoretical and methodological assumptions are conceptualized and practical assessments of the exceptional importance of the priority of systemic support for the development of family farming in rural areas within the implementation of the global trend of promoting sustainable development as a priority model of entrepreneurial employment, a mechanism to improve welfare. Practical significance. The definition of the role of farms and family farms in the organizational and economic provision of employment of the population with a projection on the achievement of criteria for the sustainability of the development of the agricultural sector and territories is methodologically substantiated and conceptualized. Tabl.: 4. Refs.: 50.

Analysis of major factors effect on soil erosion in rural agricultural areas in Sri Lanka

Analysis of major factors effect on soil erosion in rural agricultural areas in Sri Lanka

The problems of women working in greenhouse agriculture in rural area in Turkey: A phenomenological study from health and social perspective.

Working in agriculture may cause serious health problems due to heavy working conditions and chemical exposure. This Husserlian phenomenological qualitative study was conducted with 22 women working in greenhouse agriculture to investigate the health and social problem(s). In the evaluation of the data, Colaizzi's seven-step content analysis method and thematic analysis were used. The Kappa analysis was performed with two independent experts to measure the reliability of comparative fit, and the value obtained in the analysis was 1.00 (perfect fit). Based on the content analysis, six themes were defined. All participants indicated that they had different reproductive health-related problems. Some participants stated that their children had respiratory system-related problems and that they were subjected to physical, verbal/emotional and sexual violence by their husbands. It is important to provide health education, counselling services and screening programmes for women who work in greenhouse agriculture and thus are in the at-risk group for poor health.

Kontribusi pendapatan usahatani terhadap ekonomi rumah tangga petani di daerah pedesaan : review

The majority of people in rural areas in their daily life work as farmers and rely on agricultural products to meet their daily needs. The problem is that the income from farming is not sufficient to meet daily needs. Therefore, it is necessary to study the contribution of farm income to total household income. The method used in this research is the literature review method. The results of several studies indicate that the characteristics of farmers in rural areas have an average primary school education (more than 50%), while the average age of farmers is still in the productive age. The average contribution value of rice farming from several studies with different areas from several research results is more than 50%, meaning that farmers depend on rice farming days to fulfill all their daily needs rather than relying on side jobs, while the contribution of tobacco farming from several research results from less than 50%. In calculating the contribution of many researchers who have not included time susceptibility, either yearly, seasonally, or monthly, this will affect the tabulation of the calculation of non-farm income.

Monitoring of heavy metal pollution in urban and rural environments across Pakistan using House crows (Corvus splendens) as bioindicator.

A widely distributed urban bird, the house crow (Corvus splendens), was used to assess bioavailable heavy metals in urban and rural environments across Pakistan. Bioaccumulation of arsenic (As), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), chromium (Cr), and copper (Cu) was investigated in wing feathers of 96 crows collected from eight locations and categorized into four groups pertaining to their geographical and environmental similarities. Results revealed that the concentrations of Pb, Ni, Mn, Cu, and Cr were positively correlated and varied significantly among the four groups. Zn, Fe, Cr, and Cu regarded as industrial outputs, were observed in birds both in industrialized cities and in adjoining rural agricultural areas irrigated through the Indus Basin Irrigation System. Birds in both urban regions accrued Pb more than the metal toxicity thresholds for birds. The house crow was ranked in the middle on the metal accumulation levels in feathers between highly accumulating raptor and piscivore and less contaminated insectivore and granivore species in the studied areas,. This study suggests that the house crow is an efficient bioindicator and supports the feasibility of using feathers to discriminate the local pollution differences among terrestrial environments having different levels and kinds of anthropogenic activities.

Usefulness of Seed Systems for Reviving Smallholder Agriculture: a South African Perspective.

South Africa is considered a food-secure nation; however, food insecurity is still a major challenge for many poor rural households that rely on cash incomes and government grants for survival. Furthermore, these grants are not always adequate to meet households' basic needs, and fail to provide them with the food required for food and nutrition security. Some of these households rely on agriculture to supplement their food needs, and an important aspect of this agricultural production is the seed system. Smallholder farmers in rural areas rely on informal seed systems, and use traditional knowledge and methods to produce, harvest, store, and sell their produce. This research combined quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the role of informal seed systems in promoting food production in rural smallholder agricultural households in South Africa. The narrative review showed reword that while smallholder farmers acquire seed from informal seed systems, they face numerous challenges that affect their production activities. These challenges include poor seed quality and assessment, poor storage and harvesting facilities, which limit proper seed production, and affect crop yield and marketing. Due to these challenges, the ability of rural smallholder farmers to access mainstream markets is limited and as a result, they are confined to local markets that offer lower prices. Moreover, South African policies do not recognize the informal seed system as one of the contributors to food security. This is a major limitation as farmers may not receive the support and assistance they require. Formal recognition and support for informal seed systems would go a long way in improving smallholder farmers' access to quality seed. This would have ripple effects on their yields and productivity. When properly implemented and given recognition by the government, informal seed systems have the potential to contribute to rural food security and livelihoods.

A Review of two Middle Jurassic Theropod Tracksites Discovered in the 1980s from Sichuan Basin

Tracks from two sites in the Middle Jurassic Xintiangou Formation in the Wuma Village area, Wuhuang Township, Zizhong have been known and intermittently studied and excavated since the 1980s. The track-bearing surfaces were exposed by a combination of natural weathering and deliberate excavation by residents in a rural agricultural area. The surfaces were used as “threshing floors” for the processing of agricultural crops in an area subject to weathering under a humid sub-tropical climatic regime. Despite the negative effects of weathering on the quality of track preservation, the sites are historically significant in Chinese ichnology as the type areas for many controversially named theropod ichnotaxa. Subsequent researchers challenged the ichnotaxonomy as provincial and over-split, suggesting that many of the tracks, belong to well-known Lower Jurassic ichnogenera. The present study reviews these two sites, providing new information, and confirming that the tracks belong to the ichnogenera Grallator, Eubrontes and Kayentpus which are typical of the globally widespread Lower Jurassic tetrapod biochron. This suggests the Middle Jurassic ichnofauna in Sichuan is like Lower Jurassic ichnofaunas elsewhere. Previous efforts to transfer the ichnospecies to globally, better-known ichnogenera were important in reducing ichnogenus diversity, but did not reduce ichnosepcies diversity. Herein the ichnotaxa are reviewed and it is shown that the ichnospecies names have no utility for comparative study or in assessing assemblage diversity, or biochron composition. It is therefore proposed that the multiple ichnospecies names proposed based on tracks from these two localities can mostly be accommodated under the labels Grallator isp. indet., and Eubrontes isp. indet.

Epidemiology of human leptospirosis in urban and rural areas of Brazil, 2000-2015.

BackgroundLeptospirosis is one of the most widespread zoonosis in the world and Brazil has the highest number of cases in Latin America. Transmission occurs mainly through exposure to water and soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals. The goals of this study are to describe the geographic distribution, demographic characteristics and exposure factors of urban and rural cases of leptospirosis, and identify spatial clusters in urban and rural areas of Brazil.Methods/resultsA retrospective epidemiological study was carried out using 16 years (2000–2015) of surveillance data from the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Cases were described by age, sex and race, and exposure factors were characterized in urban and rural areas. A spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted using local Moran’s I to identify urban and rural clusters of disease. On average 3,810 leptospirosis cases were reported annually with higher numbers in urban areas. National urban and rural incidence rates were the same (1.9 cases/100,000 population), however, regional differences were observed. Urban incidence rates were higher in the North and Northeast regions, while rural incidence rates were higher in the Southeast and South. The main exposure factor reported in urban and rural areas was exposure to places with signs of rodents, followed by flood in urban areas and agriculture and animal farming in rural areas. Clusters of leptospirosis were identified in densely populated urban areas of the North, Southeast and South regions, while rural clusters were concentrated in of the Southern region with large agriculture and animal farming practices.ConclusionsThis study highlights that leptospirosis is an important public health problem in both urban and rural areas of Brazil. The results provide decision-makers with detailed information about where disease incidence is high and can be used in the development of prevention and control strategies for priority areas and risk groups.

Farmer Perceptions and Economic Performance of Cocoa Agroforestry Shade Levels in Ghana

ABSTRACT Improving productivity of cocoa farms while ensuring forests sustainability through cocoa agroforestry is increasingly gaining the attention of policy makers. Using data from cocoa farmers in rural areas of Southern Ghana, the present study analyzes farmer perceptions on economic and ecological benefits of cocoa agroforestry shade levels with non-parametric tests, and economic performance of cocoa agroforestry shade levels with a cost-benefit modeling approach. The results from the study show that apart from market forces, farmers’ ecological perceptions play a crucial role in the establishment of agroforestry shade levels. There is also evidence to suggest that the medium shade cocoa agroforestry has a higher economic performance. Policies that promote awareness creation and increase knowledge on cocoa agroforestry shade levels are essential ingredients for forest sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa.

Low-cost Wireless Personal Weather Station for Rural Farmers

This document presents the design of a prototype of a low-cost personal weather station suitable for farmers in rural areas who are or may not be engaged in rudimentary agriculture. This prototype measure several weather data: temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall. For further data analysis, these are transmitted for recording to a remote server via wireless communication. The server offers data extraction possibilities in multiple file formats. A prototyping of the personal weather station is designed and commissioned. An extract of the results over two days is presented in the results section of this document

PERAN TEKNOLOGI INFORMASI DAN KOMUNIKASI PADA PROGRAM KEMITRAAN PT TANIFUND MADANI INDONESIA (TANIFUND)

The agricultural sector is one of the highest contributors to Indonesia’s GDP, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The irony is that based on Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics data, at least 25.14 million Indonesian were below the poverty line, with 15.15 million lives in rural areas and the majority of whom worked in the agricultural sector. TaniFund is a startup company with a vision to improve the welfare of farmers by utilizing information and communication technology (ICT). TaniFund builds partnerships with farmers in rural areas and opens access to capital through a peer-to-peer lending system. This study aims to describe the ICT in the TaniFund partnership program with farmers, using qualitative methods and a phenomenological approach through literature study, documentation, observation, and in-depth interviews. The results of the study identified the use of smartphones and internet access to support information and data exchange, communication applications, search engine sites, peer-to-peer lending systems, and long-distance remittances, as part of ICT. ICT plays a significant role as an enabler in this partnership, for TaniFund still uses several conventional approaches but it is ICT that allows the smoother, faster, more transparent, and accountable data and information exchange, also encouraging financial inclusion.

Collaborative Organization Models for Sustainable Development in the Agri-Food Sector

It is widely recognized that the adoption of collaborative organization models in the agri-food sector can help farmers in rural areas to reach sustainable development goals. In any case, a holistic and coherent view of sustainability, organizational models and supporting technologies in the agri-food sector is still not present in the scientific literature. With this paper, we aim to fill this gap and to propose a framework that is useful to help scholars and practitioners in analyzing and designing sustainable Collaborative Networks in the agri-food sector

Mitigation of land scarcity situation through tenure practices: a study on two selected villages in Jashore district of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries with immense pressure on agricultural land in rural areas. Mainstream of the rural households depend on either agriculture or its associated activities for their livelihood. However, rural land distribution is highly skewed, majority of them are landless. Under such a land scarce situation, farmers in rural areas have been gradually inclining towards land tenancy. Present study steered to explore the nature and volume of temporary land transaction through tenancy agreement in studied areas and to scrutinize its role in aligning land distribution. In 2017, a total of 166 farmers were randomly selected from two different villages in Jashore district for study. Result of the study administrated that land tenancy practice has been significantly mitigating land disparity among rural farmers. Study also explored that comparatively rich farmers are leaning towards tenant out land and most of these lands tenanted in by the landless and marginal farmers. Consequently, on an average landless farm could significantly increases their cultivable land from 0.01 acre to 0.98 acre compared to the marginal farm 0.31 to 0.73 acres. At the same time, cultivable land of medium farm has decreased as of 3.74 acres to 2.83 acres in studied villages.
 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 10(2): 164-169, December 2020

Effects of village savings and loan association on agricultural value productivity in Northern Region of Ghana

PurposeAgriculture in Ghana is dominated by smallholder farmers in rural areas. Majority of these farmers are resource-poor and faced with serious challenges in accessing formal financial services towards farming needs attributed to the stringent requirements. To bridge this gap, village savings and loan associations (VSLA) have been promoted in rural areas as an alternative to meeting the credit needs of smallholder farmers. Credit plays a vital role in input acquisition among farmers for improved agricultural value productivity. This study assesses the contribution of VSLA to agricultural value productivity in the Northern Region of Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is a primary cross-sectional data collected with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. This study, therefore, applied a propensity score matching (PSM) to assess the effects of VSLA on agricultural value productivity.FindingsResults from the PSM revealed that extension contact, contract farming, television set ownership, participating in “Planting for Food and Jobs” and nature of roads, including receiving VSLA information from members' increases participation decision of farmers in VSLA. Conversely, age of a farmer, household size, distance to output market and farmers in the Sagnarigu Municipality have negatively influenced VSLA participation. The propensity score matching estimates showed that members of VSLA obtained 38.2% higher agricultural value productivity than non-members.Originality/valueVillage savings and loans associations can be promoted among smallholder farmers as an effective alternative to formal financial service for inclusive development.

Smart agriculture – Urgent need of the day in developing countries

Smart agriculture is based primarily on three platforms, namely science, innovation and space technologies. These are considered as the three pioneer pillars of nation building. Space technologies play a vital role in improving soil quality, reducing the waste of water during irrigation and sharing agricultural information with farmers. With the help of terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial sensors, satellites and surveillance equipment, a large volume of geo-spatial data from diversifying sources is collected, analyzed, and utilized for smart farming and shielding of crops. The technology foresight will introduce innovations such as the use of drones in agriculture, precision gene processing in plants, epigenetic, big data and internet of things (IoT), utilizing efficiently all types of energy like smart wind and solar energy, artificial intelligence-based application of robotics, desalination technology in mega-scale and so on. Some of these innovations are already being used in developed nations. Agriculture plays an important role in developing economy so the use of digital farming in rural areas will be a boon for agriculture sector. By 2030, 85% of the world's population is expected to live in developing countries. In this context, data-driven technological development is urgently needed for developing countries to increase gross domestic product (GDP) and ensure food security for the population.

Challenges and potential to adopt biogas technology: A case study of Faisalabad, Pakistan

In the past few years, pertaining to energy shortage, Government of Pakistan promoted the biogas plants in specific rural areas. This study is an attempt to explore the success and failure adopted biogas plants by the farmers in rural areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan. In this study, the researcher selected tehsil Faisalabad of district Faisalabad based on the availability of biogas plants installed by the Government, NGO/INGOs and private contractors in the past few years. Snowball sampling method was used to identify the sample size. Total 51 biogas adopters participated in the study as respondents. Primary data were collected through face to face interviews on a structured questionnaire. Results shows that 33.3% of respondents were fully satisfied with their biogas plants. Close to one fourth (23.5%) of respondents were partially satisfied while 43.1% of respondents were not satisfied with their biogas plants. More than half (56.9%) of biogas plants were in working condition and 43.1% of biogas users abandoned for many reasons. The major reasons for the inspiration behind construction and installation of biogas plants were subsidy, cases of existing biogas plant owners, social advantages/reputation, motivation from construction/installation agency and conservation of time and energy. Whereas, for the reasons such as frequently come across technical problems, unavailability of technicians, difficulty in operation of biogas plant, insufficient gas for food preparation /lighting, escape of gas through joints/connections and extra workload were the reasons compelling farmers to abandoning the biogas plants. It was found that operation and maintenance of biogas plants is one of the major issues due to untrained, partially trained owners, unavailability of technicians and skilled operators.