Neighboring Farms Research Articles

Smallholder Farmers’ Perception Of Sunflower Commercialization: A Case In Kimilili Sub-County, Bungoma County, Kenya

Low-income generation among Smallholder farmers could be attributed to their low sunflower commercialization with subsequent effects from their knowledge, entrepreneurial skills, commercializing efforts, and trust in critical stakeholders in the agricultural value chain. Thus, this study analyzed smallholder farmers’ perception of sunflower commercialization, which may contribute to improving sunflower commercialization. A pilot study was carried out in Kabuchai Sub-County before the Kimilili Sub-County, Bungoma County, Kenya survey. 288 sunflower smallholder farmers were interviewed using an open and close-ended questionnaire where a multistage sampling procedure was applied. The study used factor analysis and structural equation models to analyze the perception of smallholder farmers on sunflower commercialization. The factor analysis model reflected that smallholder farmers firmly trust agricultural cooperatives, media, and the national government in sunflower commercialization. However, they moderately trusted producer groups, farmer groups, and neighbour farmers. Smallholder sunflower farmers also strongly trusted different market outlets based on Factors 1 and 2. They strongly trusted exporters, producer groups, and neighbor farmers under factor 1 as their market outlets but lowly trusted brokers and supermarkets. Further, they highly trusted brokers and supermarkets under factor 2 as their market outlets and lowly trusted exporters, producer groups, and neighbor farmers as their market outlets. Additionally, smallholder farmers expressed their proactiveness strongly on commercial impact, commercial efficiency, and farmers’ view concerns about their sunflower commercialization. They lowly suggested marketing channels contracts, and commercial contributions to their livelihoods to shape their proactiveness on sunflower commercialization. An alpha reliability scale of over 0.79 per measurement variable and a KMO value of over 0.8 was obtained for this study, showing the internal consistency of the data. The SEM analysis showed that smallholder farmers’ entrepreneurship, trust in institutions, and market outlets influenced sunflower commercialization. However, their proactiveness negatively affected sunflower commercialization. The study recommends support of sunflower smallholder farmers in access to market information and strengthening their trust through institutions viable outcomes on them through the agricultural cooperatives, the national government, and coordination by the international markets.

History of Ambo Ambaa Lafaa of Western Shewa Zone of Oromia Regional State: The Heartland of Hero and Heroism

History is indispensable to understanding ourselves and the world around us. This study attempts to construct the history of Ambo Ambaa lafaa of western shewa zone of Oromia regional state. Its foundation, gradual change, economic activity, politico-administration and religion in different leaders. Further the study recognizes the problem which affects the development of Ambo town. In this study, the researcher utilized primary, secondary and pamphlet sources as well as oral information through interview in order to gather the data. The collected data was organized and analyzed using qualitative research methods. The study is based on historical and Ethnographic approach. The historical foundation of Ambo was not directly concern for the cause of military garrisons like many other Ethiopia Towns, its growth and internal character came to be closely connected with the mineral water, God Bridge and commercial activities. Ambo is town found in west shewa zone of oromia regional state. Ambo was known by pride of their nation in different era of various ruler of Ethiopia. They struggles for their right and know their responsibility simultaneously. Ambo known by patriots, hero and brave those who stand for the freedom of country in any controversy and pleasure time. The society of town needs peace, stability, truth, justice, equality, brotherly hood and fraternity with diverse nation and nationalities in the empire, because Oromo are founders of gada system that did for equality of human beings. Ambo town was established in late of 19<sup>th</sup> century. At the beginning the spatial size of Ambo town is small, it is around 1320 hectares and became expand to 8578 hectares after it makes gradual expansion to the neighboring farm land. As the result Ambo is very comfortable for different investment activities because of comfortable climate condition and stability (safety) in area, there is also different attraction site including Wanchi lake, Dandi Lake (it had number eight shape/symbol), Guder fall, obse fall, old palace of emperor Haile sillase and other different natural, cultural and ritual sites

Improving smallholders' capacity building by creating an enabling environment for sustainable crop production

CONTEXTSustainably improving food production to meet the needs of a growing population necessitates a dual-pronged approach involving both top-down policy support from governments and grassroots support from social organizations. The combination of these two elements can yield comprehensive and systematic solutions for sustainable crop production, particularly in smallholder-dominated agriculture. However, integrating these approaches to empower smallholders with advanced agricultural technologies and enhance crop sustainability remains a subject that warrants further investigation. OBJECTIVESWe explored collaborative practices for the integration of resources using a dual-pronged approach to empower smallholders for sustainable crop production. METHODSThe DPSIR framework was applied to our case study. Using stratified and random sampling, 258 farmers were recruited from Quzhou, China. We divided the participants into three groups: six farmers who had worked with China-founded Science and Technology backyards (STBs) for 15 years as leading farmers (LF), 90 neighboring farmers (NF) who were closely related to LF, and 162 traditional farmers (TF) from three villages in Quzhou who were not related to STBs. An intervention experiment focusing on the LF and NF was conducted. Interviews were conducted with 258 farmers after harvesting wheat. In addition, we used statistical analyses to examine the differences in yield and economic and environmental benefits among the different groups. Multiple linear regression was used to determine how different factors affected wheat yield, net profit, and technology adoption. We used a mediation model to analyze the mechanisms by which enabling environmental creation affects sustainable production by empowering farmers. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSCompared to TF, LF and NF increased social value by 31% and 25%, technology trust by 16% and 5%, and willingness to accept green production technologies and adoption behavior by 20% and 21%, respectively. In addition, LF and NF achieved wheat yield increases accompanied by net profit gains of 86% and 13%, respectively, and LF demonstrated 53% and 52% reductions in nitrogen surplus compared to TF and NF, respectively. The study found that the synergy of social organizations and government support promoted farmers' knowledge generation and sustainable agricultural production by increasing their social value and technology trust. SIGNIFICANCEThis study underscores the pivotal role of STBs in bridging these two approaches and facilitating an environment that empowers smallholders for sustainable crop production. This study provides initial insights into a multi-actor, co-participation-based approach to promoting farmers' capacity, which provides important information for future agricultural policy development and implementation.

A numerical analysis of wind farm wake characteristics in the southern part of the North Sea

The rapid expansion of wind farms in the North Sea requires a better understanding of the wind turbines’ wake effects. In this study, the classification of wake patterns under different atmospheric boundary layer stability conditions is investigated. For this purpose, the Weather Research and Forecast model is utilized to calculate wind farm wake effects over the southern North Sea for a year-long period. The atmospheric stability is characterized by the value of Monin-Obukhov length, and seven different classes are considered. The results have shown that the predominance of the stability condition depends on seasonality. In autumn and winter months very unstable conditions prevail, while in spring and summer periods near-neutral and stable events occur more frequently. The different atmospheric stability conditions have distinct effects on the averaged wind-speed deficits. Specifically, in near-neutral and stable stratification, wakes propagate further downwind of the wind turbines affecting neighboring wind farms, while in the case of unstable conditions, these effects are weaker.

A review of the Prevalence of Enterohemorrhagic E. coli in Iraq

Background: The Diarrhoeal illnesses were a serious public health issue and a main reason that increasing the newborn and young children morbidity and mortality in developing nations. In persons in Iraq and developing nations, Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli is a group of pathogenic E. coli that can cause diarrhea or hemorrhagic colitis. A significant contributor to pediatric acute renal failure, morbidity, and mortality in adults is hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which can occasionally develop from Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. Objective: This review focusing on the prevalence of Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli and their role in increasing the mortality and morbidity in children and adults in Iraq and developing nations. Discussion: Due to the last 30 years of surveillance, EHEC had consistently been one of the biggest dangers to foodborne pathogens globally. EHEC mostly colonizes the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of cattle, where it can spread to neighboring farms and endure for months. Generally the main reasons of the infection with EHEC were O157:H7 but later the infections caused by EHEC strains has been linked to anther serogroups than O157 like O26, O111, O103 and O145. Among the major causes of bloody diarrhea, which may resolve on its own or get complicated into (HUS), is E. coli O157.

Effect of Organic Farming Practices on Soil Chemical Properties

A survey was conducted in the Bellary district Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka (zone-3). Only those farmers who had been practicing it for more than five years were selected and information on the type and quantity of organics used by them in different cropping systems viz., Groundnut, Ragi, Onion, Drumstick and Maize was collected, Soil samples from the selected 30 organic farms and the neighboring conventional farms under the same cropping system were also collected. The results revealed that organic farming approaches enhance the chemical composition of soil, augment the availability of macro and micronutrients, and elevate the soil's organic carbon status—all of which are critical for sustainable crop yields. It is possible to draw the conclusion that organic agricultural practices positively impact soil characteristics and sustainable yield, hence improving soil health.

Spatial Spillover Effects of “New Farmers” on Diffusion of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Evidence from China

Sustainable agricultural development has been the policy priority for countries with limited natural resources. New farmers’ emergence and growth have not only helped to address the labor crisis in agriculture to some extent, but they have also improved, integrated, and expanded the agricultural sectors. However, less attention has been paid to the performance of new farmers in adopting sustainable agricultural practices and the related spatial effects. Also, few studies have combined the composite adoption intensity of sustainable agricultural practices with the effects of various specific measures. Therefore, this study constructed the Tobit MLE spatial cross-section regression models to empirically study a sample of 174 farmers. We attempted to analyze the impact of the new farmers group on the diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices as well as farmers’ influence on various sorts of sustainable agricultural practices. The results show that new farmers greatly enhanced the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, as evidenced by the fact that their adoption level was 69.9% greater than that of traditional farmers. However, they had statistically significant negative spillover effects on their neighboring farmers. For the composite adoption intensity of sustainable agricultural practices, there were also statistically significant negative spillover effects. Additionally, there were notable disparities among the factors influencing farmers’ decisions to adopt various types of sustainable agricultural practices and the spatial effects of those adoptions, particularly in the farm size, the number of plots, and the variety of marketing methods employed by farmers. Therefore, measures need to be proposed to address the barriers to the implementation and diffusion of various types of sustainable agricultural practices. This would increase farmers’ willingness to adopt sustainable agricultural practices and the effectiveness of their motivation to neighboring farmers.

Innovative agroforestry development in private forest through community partnership

Management of private forests in general is still traditional with various weaknesses of the farmers, including the limited area of private forests ranging from 0.25 – 1 hectare and in general they are not located in one stretch. Therefore, the results of private forest management have not fully provided proper income for farmers, namely in the range of 20-30 percent. Referring to an MTG (Master Tree Grower) approach, innovation was carried out in the development of agroforestry models in private forests by involving neighboring farmers in the form of farmer-to-farmer mentoring (F2FM) through community partnerships. The innovations carried out are in the form of implementing training results and increasing the capacity of private forest farmers to be market oriented in managing forests. Research was conducted in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi in 2018 which aims to find opportunities to increase farmers’ income through the development of innovative agroforestry. The research applied training, interview, observation and FGD (Focus Group Discussion) methods. The results of the research show that there is a change in the orientation of farmers in managing their forests and there are opportunities to increase income from these forests. Innovative agroforestry development can be an option for farmers to increase their income from private forest management.

The use of efficient Smart Agro 4.0 irrigation systems for cotton in Peru and its public policy implications

AbstractIn recent years, agriculture has been affected by the impact of climate change. Technological innovations are required to meet the different challenges regarding production, costs, and efficient management of natural resources. In Peru, there are 2.3 million agricultural producers, with around 10,000 family farmers currently dedicated to cotton cultivation, concentrated mainly in the coastal valleys of the Ica, Lima, Lambayeque, Ancash, and Piura. To address the climate change impact and improve cotton production and the use of resources, an efficient irrigation system pilot using the Internet of Things (IoT), tensiometers, and weather stations was implemented between Telefónica and FAO within the framework of the +Cotton Project. This study aims to analyze and compare the results of using this technology between 2018 and 2019 during three agricultural campaigns by measuring water use and yield compared with producers without this technology in three areas of Peru. As a result, cotton yields increased by 53% and beans between 18% and 29% compared with neighboring farms, and optimized water use, generating savings of up to 20% in irrigation water and profitability of 50%. It also enabled control of plant growth and thus planned farm harvest time. This technology proved helpful for farmers and innovative compared with the flooding irrigation techniques used in the Peruvian cotton sector. It can be helpful in the development of public policies for water management and cotton production. However, its high value makes it necessary for national institutions to incorporate financing, plans, and adoption strategies, for its sustainability over time. In this regard, the exchange of knowledge and the work of international cooperation can support the establishment of appropriate measures for implementing this technology.

Understanding vegetable farmers' adoption, dis-adoption, and non-adoption decisions of pest management by pheromone trapping.

The use of pheromone traps can minimize the excess application of synthetic insecticides, while can also benefit the environment. The use of pheromone traps has been promoted and suggested to vegetable farmers of Bangladesh for widespread adoption. However, the majority of farmers have continued to spray insecticides instead of using pheromone traps. The present study investigated the factors influencing farmers' adoption, dis-adoption, and non-adoption behavior of pheromone traps for managing insect pests. Primary data were collected from 438 vegetable growers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. About 27% of the farmers abandoned the technique shortly after it was adopted as it was time-consuming to manage insect pests. Marginal effect analysis revealed that the likelihood of continued adoption was 34.6% higher for farmers who perceived that pheromone traps were useful in controlling insect pests. In contrast, the likelihood of dis-adoption was 16.5% and 10.4% higher for farmers who maintained communication with private pesticide company agents and neighbor farmers, respectively. Extension services by government extension personnel might be encouraged and maintained as a key component in increasing farmer awareness regarding the use of pheromone trap. Strategies to promote pheromone traps in vegetable production should highlight the positive impacts to farmers and the environment, as this would most likely lead to their continued and widespread use after initial adoption.

A method to design coupled innovations for the agroecological transition. Implementation for soil health management in Provencal sheltered vegetable systems

CONTEXTTransition to sustainable agriculture is in many cases hindered by a web of interconnected barriers across agricultural system levels (cropping, farming and agrifood systems), involving a diverse range of stakeholders (e.g., farmers, marketing companies, input providers, R&D). This calls for the coordinated design of innovations across levels to bring about major changes towards agroecological practices. OBJECTIVEIn this study, we devised and tested a method for the design of coupled innovations on soil health management in sheltered vegetable cropping systems, in south-eastern France. METHODSWe developed a workshop-based approach grounded on 4 principles: (1) innovation design relying on generativity, combination of independent knowledge sources, and creation of open social spaces; (2) participatory design with researchers-facilitators and stakeholder-experts; (3) progressive exploration of the problem complexity; and (4) use of intermediary objects to facilitate linkages across levels and stakeholders, and the evaluation of the innovations. Following a 3-steps approach, we explored innovations at increasing levels of complexity and diversity in participants, with each step's outcomes feeding the next one. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSWith the participation of 34 stakeholders, we progressively designed three final coupled innovation prototypes targeting three key areas for innovation in our case study: (1) crop diversification; (2) application of biologically active amendments; and (3) integration of agroecological techniques and its optimization. We asked the participants to evaluate these three prototypes based on stakeholder criteria that we had previously characterized. We also produced complementary resources to move from the refined innovation concepts to their implementation: (a) 16 ‘simple’ innovations and 37 complementary ‘coupled’ innovations, both original and adapted to the context of our case studyand (b) knowledge gaps to be filled. Examples of designed coupled innovations are: (i) organic mulching cropping system combined with on-farm organic mulch production (farm coupled innovation); (ii) crop diversification combined with plot exchange with neighboring farmer (farmer-farmer coupled innovation); and (iii) making soil health status explicitly transparent in field transactions combined with agroecological soil health management (agrifood system coupled innovations). SIGNIFICANCEThis workshop-based method is the last component of an original approach to support the agroecological transition of agrifood systems, initiated by a sociotechnical analysis and a tracking for coupled innovation. It enables the coordination of the innovation design across system levels and the agrifood system's stakeholders.

Cumulative Impact of Wind Farm Noise

Although wind farms have an undeniable beneficial impact on the environment, certain negative environmental implications do appear as a consequence of their operation. One of them is the production of noise. The wind farm noise values decrease with distance, so that at a certain point they are within the legally prescribed limits. This is the case for individual wind farms noise impact assessments. However, with two or more wind farms in the same area, there is a superposition of noise and a consequential change in the noise value. The focus of the paper is on the results of modeling noise propagation in space in the case of the cumulative impact of two neighboring wind farms. The results are modeled during the process of strategically assessing the environment so as to determine territorial impacts and make informed decisions about future development. The paper presents the strategic answer to the model of the spatial propagation of noise in cases of cumulative impact with a view to including the preventive protection principle in the planning of several adjacent wind farms.

An investigation of spatial wind direction variability and its consideration in engineering models

Abstract. We propose that considering mesoscale wind direction changes in the computation of wind farm cluster wakes could reduce the uncertainty of engineering wake modeling tools. The relevance of mesoscale wind direction changes is investigated using a wind climatology of the German Bight area covering 30 years, derived from the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA). Furthermore, we present a new solution for engineering modeling tools that accounts for the effect of such changes on the propagation of cluster wakes. The mesoscale wind direction changes relevant to the operation of wind farm clusters in the German Bight are found to exceed 11∘ in 50 % of all cases. Particularly in the lower partial load range, which is associated with strong wake formation, the wind direction changes are the most pronounced, with quartiles reaching up to 20∘. Especially on a horizontal scale of several tens of kilometers to 100 km, wind direction changes are relevant. Both the temporal and spatial scales at which large wind direction changes occur depend on the presence of synoptic pressure systems. Furthermore, atmospheric conditions which promote far-reaching wakes were found to align with a strong turning in 14.6 % of the cases. In order to capture these mesoscale wind direction changes in engineering model tools, a wake propagation model was implemented in the Fraunhofer IWES wind farm and wake modeling software flappy (Farm Layout Program in Python). The propagation model derives streamlines from the horizontal velocity field and forces the single turbine wakes along these streamlines. This model has been qualitatively evaluated by simulating the flow around wind farm clusters in the German Bight with data from the mesoscale atlas of the NEWA and comparing the results to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements for selected situations. The comparison reveals that the flow patterns are in good agreement if the underlying mesoscale data capture the velocity field well. For such cases, the new model provides an improvement compared to the baseline approach of engineering models, which assumes a straight-line propagation of wakes. The streamline and the baseline models have been further compared in terms of their quantitative effect on the energy yield. Simulating two neighboring wind farm clusters over a time period of 10 years, it is found that there are no significant differences across the models when computing the total energy yield of both clusters. However, extracting the wake effect of one cluster on the other, the two models show a difference of about 1 %. Even greater differences are commonly observed when comparing single situations. Therefore, we claim that the model has the potential to reduce uncertainty in applications such as site assessment and short-term power forecasting.

Prevalence and associated risk factors for Lawsonia intracellularis infection in farmed rabbits: A serological and molecular cross-sectional study in South Korea.

Lawsonia intracellularis is the etiological agent of proliferative enteropathy, which is globally considered an important enteric disease in pigs and horses. Experimental studies suggest that the organism spreads by subclinical infection of many animals, including rabbits. Despite the importance of rabbits in the epidemiology of L. intracellularis, the extent of exposure to L. intracellularis in the rabbit population is poorly defined and remains unclear. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the seroprevalence and shedding of L. intracellularis in farmed rabbits. Furthermore, we aimed to identify risk factors associated with seropositivity. Sera from the rabbits were used to measure L. intracellularis-specific antibodies by immunoperoxidase monolayer assay, and rectal swabs were used to detect L. intracellularis DNA using a real-time PCR assay. Antibodies against L. intracellularis were detected in 12.3% of farms (20/163) and 6.3% of rabbits (49/774). Lawsonia intracellularis DNA in rectal swabs was detected in 3.8% of farms (6/156) and 1.2% of rabbits (8/667). The risk factor analysis showed that the presence of pigs or horses on the farm or the neighboring farm was associated with an increase in the risk of seropositivity (p < 0.05). We observed significantly increased odds of positivity for L. intracellularis in rabbits with a history of digestive trouble (diarrhea) on the farm during the 3 months before the samples were obtained (p < 0.05). Collectively, these findings demonstrated that L. intracellularis infection was evident among farmed rabbits and that rabbits might serve as an important reservoir for L. intracellularis epidemiology.

Do Information Networks Enhance Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices? Evidence from Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

The study aimed to analyze the perception of farmers towards sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) and identify social networks using primary data collected randomly from 300 farmers of the northern dry zone of Karnataka. Five-point Likert scale was used to analyze the perception of farmers towards SAPs and open-source software named “Gephi” was used to map farmers’ social networks. Farmers’ perceptions towards SAPs were poor and only one in eight respondents reported high perception towards SAPs. Comparatively, large farmers had better perception towards SAPs and had better access to capacity building (extension contact and farm events) than the small and marginal farmers. Social capital (neighbor, progressive and relative farmers) had also played an important role in spreading SAPs related information among the farmers. However, local input dealers failed to be key informants and hardly disseminated information regarding SAPs. Government extension officials were the dominant informants on SAPs. Given the low level of adoption of SAPs in the study area, exploiting the potential of ICTs, training local input dealers, capacity building of the farmers and effective utilization of social capital are the suggested policy options to enhance the adoption of SAPs.

The Ability of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli to Grow in Raw Cow's Milk Stored at Low Temperatures.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, some consumers assert that raw milk is a natural food with nutritional and immunological properties superior to pasteurized milk. This has led to the increased popularity of unpasteurized cow milk (UPM) and disregard for the risks of being exposed to zoonotic infections. Dairy cattle are healthy carriers of Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing E. coli (STEC), and contaminated UPM has caused STEC outbreaks worldwide. The association between STEC, carrying the eae (E. coli attachment effacement) gene, and severe diseases is well-established. We have previously isolated four eae positive STEC isolates from two neighboring dairy farms in the Southeast of Norway. A whole genome analysis revealed that isolates from different farms exhibited nearly identical genetic profiles. To explore the risks associated with drinking UPM, we examined the ability of the isolates to produce Stx and their growth in UPM at different temperatures. All the isolates produced Stx and one of the isolates was able to propagate in UPM at 8 °C (p < 0.02). Altogether, these results highlight the risk for STEC infections associated with the consumption of UPM.

Participatory Variety Testing to Replace Old Mega Rice Varieties with Newly Developed Superior Varieties in Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has released more than 100 inbred rice varieties. Still, an old mega variety BRRI dhan28 dominates the farmers’ fields during the dry winter (Boro season: November–June) season. This variety is very susceptible to different diseases and insects, causing lower yield performance than its potential. To replace this variety, current on-farm research was planned to evaluate the newly developed four superior rice varieties: BRRI dhan58, BRRI dhan63, BRRI dhan67, and BRRI dhan74 during Boro season in 2017 and 2018. The objective was to create data and popularize new varieties among farmers all over the country. We conducted 15 on-farm trials with farmers’ active participation at Senbag, Fulgazi, and Mirsarai Upazila of Noakhali, Feni, and Chattogram districts, respectively, in Bangladesh. The results demonstrate that BRRI dhan74 produced the highest grain yield among the tested varieties, followed by BRRI dhan67, BRRI dhan63, and BRRI dhan58, while BRRI dhan28 produced the lowest. However, BRRI dhan67 obtained the highest preference scores from the farmers and extension personnel due to its medium and slender grains, shorter growth duration, resistance to lodging, less disease, and less insect invasion. Moreover, stability indices for yield revealed that BRRI dhan67 was the most stable, adaptive, and appropriate variety, followed by BRRI dhan74, across the locations. Farmers showed keen interest to grow BRRI dhan67 by themselves instead of BRRI dhan28 all over the study locations. The neighboring farmers also expressed their curiosity about cultivating BRRI dhan67 over BRRI dhan28 by collecting seeds from the participating farmers. Thus, BRRI dhan67 could be a perfect replacement for BRRI dhan28. However, conducting participatory varietal evaluation trials across the agroecological zones of the country is recommended to validate the results of this study.

Village and farm-level risk factors for avian influenza infection on backyard chicken farms in Bangladesh

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 144 small-scale poultry farmers across 42 Bangladeshi villages to explore risk factors associated with avian influenza H5 and H9 seropositivity on backyard chicken farms. Using mixed-effects logistic regression with village as random effect, we identified crow abundance in garbage dumping places and presence of migratory wild birds within villages to be associated with higher odds of H5 and H9 seropositivity. At farm-level, garbage around poultry houses was also associated with higher odds of H5 and H9 seropositivity. In addition, specific trading practices (such as, purchase of chickens from live bird markets (LBM) and neighboring farms to raise them on their own farms, frequency of visits to LBM, purchase of poultry at LBM for consumption) and contact of backyard chickens with other animals (such as, feeding of different poultry species together, using pond water as drinking source for poultry, access of feral and wild animals to poultry houses) were associated with higher odds of H5 or H9 seropositivity. Resource-constrained small-scale poultry farmers should be able to address risk factors identified in this study without requiring large investments into poultry management, thereby reducing the likelihood of avian influenza virus transmission and ultimately occurrence of avian influenza outbreaks.

Working or not Working in Commercial Farms and Uptake of Agricultural Technologies in Rural Tanzania

Commercial farms investment plays important role in agricultural technology spillovers but less is known on specific channels influencing neighboring farmer’s uptake of agricultural technologies. This study analyzed the effect of farmer’s working in commercial farms on agricultural technologies uptake intensity. Multiphased study design was used to randomly and proportionately to collect a sample of 1,203 farmers from three independent samples in Karatu, Iringa and Njombe. Nearest neighbor matching estimator was used to estimate the effect of working in commercial farms after testing for a balanced matching and control samples. In Karatu the intensity of agricultural technology uptake of farmer worked in commercial farm was 0.28 larger but not statistically significant. But if the farmer had not worked uptake intensity is reduced to 0.27 which was statistically significant at 5% p-value. In Iringa the intensity of agricultural technology uptake to farmer working in commercial farm on average is 0.45(P&lt; 0.05) significantly large. In Njombe, on average agricultural uptake intensity is 0.20 not statistically significant compared to uptake intensity of 0.23 which is statistically significant at 5% p-value had he/she not worked in commercial farms. It implies in areas where commercial farm producing different crops to neighboring farmers uptake of technologies is more on soil conservation than growing new crop or seed varieties. But in areas without landscarcity and investor’s crop being similar to crops produced by small-holder farmer, it was found farmers grow new crops or new seed varieties, use soil conservation practices, tractor and ox-plough. It was concluded that commercial farms should be promoted while considering crops produced by neighboring smallholder farms and land availability to farmers, if uptake of agricultural technologies to neighboring farmers is the policy expectation. Keywords: employment, commercial farms, uptake of agricultural technology, matching estimation DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-14-08 Publication date: July 31 st 2022

Diurnal impact of atmospheric stability on inter-farm wake and power generation efficiency at neighboring onshore wind farms in complex terrain

Enhancing the power production efficiency of large-scale wind farms is challenging for onshore wind power due to the variability of atmospheric conditions. This work aims to study the impact of atmospheric stability on the inter-farm wake pattern, topographic effect, and power production changes at two neighboring wind farms in Hami City, Xinjiang of China over complex terrain. The results show a discernible diurnal cycle property. At night in a stable layer with hindered mixing, the inter-farm wake persists around 20 km downstream, and the greatest relative wind deficit increases by 8%. However, during the daytime unstable layer with elevated turbulence, shows a limited deficit and recovers about 6 km downstream. Accordingly, a mean relative power production reduction of 17% is subjected to the downwind farm at night, about a factor of 3 greater than that at daytime, when the mean value is only 6%. Interestingly, the largest power production losses are experienced with a larger range between maximum and minimum before dawn and after dusk due to the notable inter-farm wake with a streaky structure related to the large coherent buoyant caused by the tendency of heat flux over the complex terrain. Moreover, the topographic speed-up in the stable layer outperforms that in unstable conditions.