Huge Financial Investments Research Articles

Communication for Development as a Strategy to Enhance Agricultural Extension Performance In Turkey

Turkey dating back to the 1930s, has experimented with varying agricultural extension models combined with huge financial investments, to transform her nearly four million smallholder farmers but with limited results. This study of 98 extension professionals in the East Mediterranean Region of Turkey found that many extension workers are primarily trained in the agricultural sciences. Their roles as facilitators of integrated rural development also require training in development and communication, otherwise known as “Communication for Development” (C4D) as it would strengthen their performance. The World Bank, in its 2007 report, World Congress on Communication for Development: Lessons, Challenges, and the Way Forward, strongly recommends C4D as a strategy for addressing human dimension concerns, such as local participation, interagency collaboration and capacity building, which are the main issues facing extension in this newly industrializing nation. Therefore, communication for development (C4D) is recommended as a strategy for improving extension performance in Turkey and offers a model for mainstreaming it in extension programming.Keywords: Agricultural extension in Turkey, Communication for extension Development.

Building the IJSO: An International Editorial Perspective

Building the IJSO: An International Editorial Perspective

The regulatory anticommons of green infrastructures

Development of green infrastructures (renewable energy plants and transmission networks) is urgently needed if significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are to be accomplished in the next few decades. But the huge financial investments required by these infrastructures will not be undertaken without a well-designed regulatory framework. This paper argues that barriers to the implementation of such a framework can best be understood by drawing analogies to the Law and Economics literature on anticommons. Although situations of ownership anticommons (many owners with veto rights) and regulatory anticommons (many regulators with veto rights) display some differences from the point of view of the preferences and the coordination costs, it is submitted that this analytic framework can be employed to assess and criticize recent EU and US proposals which try to improve planning and siting procedures for cross-border green infrastructures. The literature on anticommons also suggests that effective remedies to suboptimal resource use are directly dependent on the design of the coordination mechanisms among all the regulatory levels.

The Three Faces of Business Model Innovation: Challenges for Established Firms

OVERVIEW:Business model innovation represents a significant opportunity for established firms, as demonstrated by the considerable success of Apple's iPod/iTunes franchise. However, it also represents a challenge, as evidenced by Kodak's failed attempt to dominate the digital photography market and Microsoft's difficulty gaining share in the gaming market, despite both companies' huge financial investments. We developed a business model innovation typology to better explain the complex set of factors that distinguishes three types of business model innovations and their associated challenges.

The Regulatory Anticommons of Green Infrastructures

Development of green infrastructures (renewable energy plants and transmission networks) is urgently needed if significant reductions of greenhouse emissions are to be accomplished in the next few decades. But the huge financial investments required by these infrastructures will not be undertaken without a well-designed regulatory framework. This paper argues that barriers to the implementation of such a framework can best be understood by drawing analogies to the Law and Economics literature on anticommons. Although situations of ownership anticommons (many owners with veto rights) and regulatory anticommons (many regulators with veto rights) display some differences from the point of view of institutional and bargaining dynamics, it is submitted that this analytic framework can be employed to assess and criticize recent EU and US proposals which try to improve planning and siting procedures for green infrastructures. Finally, the paper suggests that two design principles (overlapping jurisdictions and alternative jurisdictions) which might help reduce coordination costs in regulatory anticommons.

Developmental challenges and opportunities in the goat industry: The Kenyan experience

Dairy goat development in Kenya started in the mid 1950s, with the introduction of exotic dairy goat breeds. Major projects to improve the dairy goat sector were not realized until the late 1970s under United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) funded and FAO executed projects, which lasted until the mid 1980s. The initial projects were mainly government station-based, and aimed at multiplying improved stock for distribution to farmers. Due to several technical, logistical and financial constraints the station-based projects failed to meet their objectives, and by 1996, despite huge financial investments in this endeavour, only a total of approximately 40,000 improved goats were available in Kenya. The farmers were not directly involved and genotype-by-environment interaction issues were not duly taken into account in designing and executing the projects. In early to mid 1990s, the German Development Corporation (GTZ) and FARM Africa initiated new approaches that were community-based and farmer-led in two regions of Kenya. Genetic improvement activities were now based on-farm, as opposed to government stations. Farmers and farmer-group members were rigorously trained on breeding programme designs and management, husbandry, including primary healthcare and were facilitated to run their show with frontline technical support from the NGO's and government officers. In just 7 years, the dairy goat population has risen to more than 90,000 head, hence doubled over the 7-year period. In addition, the improved goat technology is alive with many NGOs replicating the new approach. The community participation in the crucial areas of service provision, animal health delivery, marketing and quality control has strongly influenced this development. The challenges, successes and other experiences of these two Kenyan projects are presented and illustrated by way of a case study as to how simple participatory approaches can actually lead to significant improvement in the livelihoods of the rural resource poor families.

OTC Sessions Confront Technical, Human Challenges Facing Industry

A healthy oil and gas industry fueled by high commodity prices provided the backdrop to a record-setting Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston. The annual event posted a 20-year high in attendance at 51,320 and attracted more than 2,000 exhibiting companies (Fig. 1). Amid the upbeat mood of an industry enjoying profitable times, speakers at the conference offered a clear-eyed view of the challenges confronting an industry that needs to produce more hydrocarbons to satisfy thirsty global demand. Peter J. Robertson, Vice Chairman of Chevron Corp., laid out those challenges in his keynote address at the OTC Awards Luncheon, including surging demand Robertson growth, geopolitical instability, increasingly complex projects, and consumer demand for cleaner fuels with minimal environmental impact. “To me the interesting part is that none of these items are particularly new, but the volume on all of them has been turned up and the combined effects of all of them operating in unison is putting a strain on our collective capabilities,” he said. Those challenges will require huge financial investments. Robertson said that Chevron’s “big 5” upstream projects include three technically challenging deepwater developments in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), Nigeria, and Angola; the expansion of the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan; and the Greater Gorgon project in Australia that includes two 5-million-ton liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains and a carbon sequestration project. But the real test for the industry may not be in locating and developing hydrocarbons, but in finding and developing highly skilled technical people “to carry out all of this work,” he said. The average age of Chevron’s U.S. work force is 47, he said. “Just as more and more of our hydrocarbon resources are being sourced outside of the U.S. and Europe, in the future more and more of our people requirements will be sourced in other parts of the world where there are large numbers of talented, energetic, and interested young work forces—in Southeast Asia, the Former Soviet Union, Latin America, the Middle East, and in Africa,” he said. At the awards banquet, 2005 Distinguished Achievement Awards were presented to J. Kim Vandiver, to Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corp., and to Technip. The award recognizes individuals, companies, and projects that have made outstanding contributions to the offshore industry. Vandiver, a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at the Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, was honored for numerous technical breakthroughs in the dynamics of vortex-induced vibrations that have enhanced the design of structures to withstand high ocean currents. Kerr-McGee and Technip were cited for their successful global relationship that has pioneered and delivered three generations of spar floating production systems in the past decade.

Geometry content knowledge: Is pre-service training making a difference?

Huge financial investments are made annually in teacher training in order to prepare prospective teachers for a career in teaching. The impact of pre-service training on prospective mathematics teachers' (n=124) content knowledge (using the Van Hiele Theory) is investigated. Results seem to indicate that prospective teachers exit their school career with higher geometric understanding than after three years of mathematics content and methodology training or after four years of methodology training. The deterioration in prospective teachers' geometry content knowledge indicates that pre-service education does not assist in maintaining or improving levels of geometric understanding. Possible contributing factors are identified such as the fragmented nature of pre-service teacher education programme and the absence of a long-term strategy connecting teacher education to teaching practice in a meaningful way. The results have serious implications for pre-service mathematics education programmes and some suggestions on the features of an improved programme are made.

Bridging the Unbridgeable: Community and National Tort Laws afterFrancovichandBrasserie

It has been believed for many years, indeed centuries, that the Channel between Great Britain and Continental Europe could be crossed only by boat. This belief has come to an end, albeit—at least for the time being—at a price which does not allow huge financial investments to be turned into a profit. The belief that in the legal field differences between English or Anglo-American common law and French and German—or, rather, Romanistic and Germanistic—legal systems are unbridgeable (or should I say “un-chunnelable”?) is even more widespread. That is the subject of this article: to show that differences between legal systems may, as a result of the European Union, be less unbridgeable than before, at least in certain areas of the law.

River basin management and food crisis in Nigeria

River Basin Development is one of the key agricultural programmes embarked upon by Nigeria to meet the challenges of escalating import bills on food. This paper takes a critical look at the various efforts made by the management of the River Basin Authorities in responding to the current food crisis. The rationale for the huge financial allocation made to the Authorities is questioned, and the management lapses in their key areas of operation, such as irrigation, mechanization and extension services, are discussed. It is found that despite the huge financial investments made in the river basins, their impact is hardly felt, not only in terms of food production capacity but also in the production performance of the peasant farmers. The paper argues that the problem of food crisis in Nigeria could be solved by strengthening the ability of the peasant farmers and farmers co-operatives through financial aid and extension services, and not by huge financial investments on high technology agricultural projects, characterized by centralized administration and expatriáte management.