Search results for: farm competitiveness

Authors: Tefera Kebede Leyu

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The purpose of this study was to estimate the impact of LIVES project participation on the level of technical efficiency of farm households in three regions of Ethiopia. We used household-level data gathered by IRLI between February and April 2014 for the year 2013(retroactive). Data on 1,905 (754 intervention and 1, 151 control groups) sample households were analyzed using STATA software package version 14. Efforts were made to combine stochastic frontier modeling with impact evaluation methodology using the Heckman (1979) two-stage model to deal with possible selectivity bias arising from unobservable characteristics in the stochastic frontier model. Results indicate that farmers in the two groups are not efficient and operate below their potential frontiers i.e., there is a potential to increase crop productivity through efficiency improvements in both groups. In addition, the empirical results revealed selection bias in both groups of farmers confirming the justification for the use of selection bias corrected stochastic frontier model. It was also found that intervention farmers achieved higher technical efficiency scores than the control group of farmers. Furthermore, the selectivity bias-corrected model showed a different technical efficiency score for the intervention farmers while it more or less remained the same for that of control group farmers. However, the control group of farmers shows a higher dispersion as measured by the coefficient of variation compared to the intervention counterparts. Among the explanatory variables, the study found that farmer’s age (proxy to farm experience), land certification, frequency of visit to improved seed center, farmer’s education and row planting are important contributing factors for participation decisions and hence technical efficiency of farmers in the study areas. We recommend that policies targeting the design of development intervention programs in the agricultural sector focus more on providing farmers with on-farm visits by extension workers, provision of credit services, establishment of farmers’ training centers and adoption of modern farm technologies. Finally, we recommend further research to deal with this kind of methodological framework using a panel data set to test whether technical efficiency starts to increase or decrease with the length of time that farmers participate in development programs.

Keywords: impact evaluation, efficiency analysis and selection bias, stochastic frontier model, Heckman-two step

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Authors: Alemayehu Agizew Woldeamanuel, Mekonnen Maschal Tarekegn, Raj Mohan Balakrishina

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Composting is one of the conventional techniques adopted for organic waste management, but the practice is very limited in emerging cities despite the most of the waste generated is organic. This paper aims to examine the viability of composting for organic waste management in the emerging city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by addressing the composting practice, quality of compost, and application of compost in urban agriculture. The study collects data using compost laboratory testing and urban farm households’ survey and uses descriptive analysis on the state of compost production and application, physicochemical analysis of the compost samples, and regression analysis on the urban farmer’s willingness to pay for compost. The findings of the study indicated that there is composting practice at a small scale, most of the producers use unsorted feedstock materials, aerobic composting is dominantly used, and the maturation period ranged from four to ten weeks. The carbon content of the compost ranges from 30.8 to 277.1 due to the type of feedstock applied, and this surpasses the ideal proportions for C:N ratio. The total nitrogen, pH, organic matter, and moisture content are relatively optimal. The levels of heavy metals measured for Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Cr⁶⁺ in the compost samples are also insignificant. In the urban agriculture sector, chemical fertilizer is the dominant type of soil input in crop productions but vegetable producers use a combination of both fertilizer and other organic inputs, including compost. The willingness to pay for compost depends on income, household size, gender, type of soil inputs, monitoring soil fertility, the main product of the farm, farming method and farm ownership. Finally, this study recommends the need for collaboration among stakeholders’ along the value chain of waste, awareness creation on the benefits of composting and addressing challenges faced by both compost producers and users.

Keywords: composting, emerging city, organic waste management, urban agriculture

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Authors: Oladipo Joseph Ajayi, Yakubu Muhammed, Raufu Olusola Sanusi

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This study determined the perceived effect of livelihood diversification on welfare of rural household in Niger state, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for sampling the respondents. Data used for the study were obtained from primary source. Structured questionnaire with interview schedule was administered to 180 randomly selected rural farmers in the study area. Descriptive statistics analysis and z-test statistics were used to analyse the data collected. The study revealed the mean age of the household to be 43 years, mean years of schooling was 8.5, mean household size was 6 people, mean farming experience of 17.5 years and mean farm size of 1.8 hectares. The effect of livelihood diversification revealed that livelihood diversification had positive and significant effect on food security (65.6%) and income generation (66.8%) in the study area. The major constraints to diversification in the study area were poor infrastructure, unavailability of credit and climatic risk and uncertainty. The study, therefore, recommended that rural household should be sensitised to diversify their income source into non-farm activities.

Keywords: income, livelihood diversification , rural household, welfare

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Authors: Jolanta Brodowska-Szewczuk

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The article includes the results and conclusions from empirical researches that had been done. The research focuses on the impact of investments made in small and medium-sized enterprises financed from EU funds on the competitiveness of these companies. The researches includes financial results in sales revenue and net income, expenses, and many other new products/services on offer, higher quality products and services, more modern methods of production, innovation in management processes, increase in the number of customers, increase in market share, increase in profitability of production and provision of services. The main conclusions are that, companies with direct investments under this measure shall apply the modern methods of production. The consequence of this is to increase the quality of our products and services. Furthermore, both small and medium-sized enterprises have introduced new products and services. Investments were carried out, thus enabling better work organization in enterprises. Entrepreneurs would guarantee higher quality of service, which would result in better relationships with their customers, what is more, noting the rise in number of clients. More than half of the companies indicated that the investments contributed to the increase in market share. Same thing as for market reach and brand recognition of particular company. An interesting finding is that, investments in small enterprises were more effective than medium-sized enterprises.

Keywords: competitiveness, efficiency, EU funds, small and medium-sized enterprises

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Authors: Maxutova I. O., Bulatbayeva A. A.

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In modern conditions, the competitiveness of the military, a special educational institution in the educational market, is determined by the quality of the provision of educational services and the economic efficiency of activities. Improving the quality of educational services of the military, the special educational institution is an urgent socially and economically significant problem. The article shows a possible system for the formation of the competitiveness of military, the special educational institution through an assessment of the quality of the educational process, the problem of the transition of the military, special educational institution to digital support of indicative monitoring of the quality of services provided is raised. Quality monitoring is presented in the form of a program or information system, the work of which is carried out in a military, the special educational institution through highlighted interrelated elements. A result-oriented model of management and assessment of the quality of work of the military, the special educational institution is proposed. The indicative indicators for assessing the quality of the teaching and methodological activity of the teacher are considered and described. The publication was prepared as part of an applied grant study for 2020-2022 commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the topic "Development of a comprehensive methodology for assessing the quality of education of graduates of military special educational institutions" IRN 00029/GF-20.

Keywords: quality assessment, indicative indicators, monitoring program, educational and methodological activities, professional activities, result

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Authors: N. Viji, K. Siddeswaran

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Field experiment was conducted at Eastern Block farm, Department of Farm Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during winter season of 2011-2012 to evaluate potassium salt based glyphosate (Roundup Crop Shield 460 SL) with and without intercultural operations on seed cotton yield and weed nutrient removal in irrigated cotton. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with treatments replicated thrice. The treatments consisted of POE glyphosate (Roundup Crop Shield 460 SL) at 1350 (T1), 1800 (T2), 2250 (T3) g a.e. ha-1, 1800 g a.e. ha-1 + IC (T4), PE pendimethalin at 750 g a.i. ha-1 + IC (T5), HW at 35 and 70 DAS + IC (T6), HWW at 35 and 70 DAS + IC (T7), PWW at 35 and 70 DAS + IC (T8), HW at 25 and 45 DAS (T9) and Unweeded control (T10). Among the weed management methods, decreased nutrient removal by weeds were observed with POE glyphosate at 1800 g a.e. ha-1 + IC which was comparable with PE pendimethalin at 750 g a.i. ha-1 + IC. Higher seed cotton yield was obtained with POE glyphosate at 1800 g a.e. ha-1 at 35 and 70 DAS with + IC at 45 and 55 DAS which was comparable with PE pendimethalin at 750 g a.i. ha-1 + IC at 45 and 55 DAS. Comparing treatments without intercultural operation, intercultural operation carried out treatments performed better and recorded more seed cotton yield.

Keywords: cotton, weed, glyphosate, nutrient

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Authors: Danielle Katrina Santos, Koji Shimada

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Environmentally-friendly agriculture has been promoted for over two decades as a response to the environmental challenges brought by climate change and biological loss. Located above the equator, it is possible that Japan may benefit from future climate change, yet Japan is also a rarely developed country located in the Asian Monsoon climate region, making it vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this regard, the Japanese government has initiated policies to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change through the promotion and popularization of environmentally-friendly farming practices. This study aims to determine profit efficiency among environmentally-friendly rice farmers in Shiga Prefecture using the Stochastic Frontier Approach. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 66 farmers from top rice-producing cities through a structured questionnaire. Results showed that the gross farm income of environmentally-friendly rice farmers was higher by JPY 316,223.00/ha. Production costs were also found to be higher among environmentally-friendly rice farmers, especially on labor costs, which accounted for 32% of the total rice production cost. The resulting net farm income of environmentally-friendly rice farmers was only higher by JPY 18,044/ha. Results from the stochastic frontier analysis further showed that the profit efficiency of conventional farmers was only 69% as compared to environmentally-friendly rice farmers who had a profit efficiency of 76%. Furthermore, environmentally-friendly agriculture participation, other types of subsidy, educational level, and farm size were significant factors positively influencing profit efficiency. The study concluded that substitution of environmentally-friendly agriculture for conventional rice farming would result in an increased profit efficiency due to the direct payment subsidy and price premium received. The direct government policies that would strengthen the popularization of environmentally-friendly agriculture to increase the production of environmentally-friendly products and reduce pollution load to the Lake Biwa ecosystem.

Keywords: profit efficiency, environmentally-friendly agriculture, rice farmers, direct payment subsidies

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Authors: S. P. Singh, Priya, Komal Sajwan

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With the increasing spread of organic farming in India, costs, returns, efficiency, and social and environmental sustainability of organic vis-a-vis conventional farming systems have become topics of interest among agriculture scientists, economists, and policy analysts. A study on technical efficiency estimation under these farming systems, particularly in the Ganga River Basin, where the promotion of organic farming is incentivized, can help to understand whether the inputs are utilized to their maximum possible level and what measures can be taken to improve the efficiency. This paper, therefore, analyses the technical efficiency of wheat farms operating under organic and conventional farming systems. The study is based on a primary survey of 600 farms (300 organic ad 300 conventional) conducted in 2021 in two districts located in the Middle Ganga River Basin, India. Technical, managerial, and scale efficiencies of individual farms are estimated by applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. The per hectare value of wheat production is taken as an output variable, and values of seeds, human labour, machine cost, plant nutrients, farm yard manure (FYM), plant protection, and irrigation charges are considered input variables for estimating the farm-level efficiencies. The post-DEA analysis is conducted using the Tobit regression model to know the efficiency determining factors. The results show that technical efficiency is significantly higher in conventional than organic farming systems due to a higher gap in scale efficiency than managerial efficiency. Further, 9.8% conventional and only 1.0% organic farms are found operating at the most productive scale size (MPSS), and 99% organic and 81% conventional farms at IRS. Organic farms perform well in managerial efficiency, but their technical efficiency is lower than conventional farms, mainly due to their relatively lower scale size. The paper suggests that technical efficiency in organic wheat can be increased by upscaling the farm size by incentivizing group/collective farming in clusters.

Keywords: organic, conventional, technical efficiency, determinants, DEA, Tobit regression

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Authors: P. Okoro Ugo Chigozie, P. A. Igbojekwe, E. N. Ukabuilu

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Tourism and terrorism experiences are best viewed as dynamic, complex systems with extreme diverse consequences on any nation’s economy. Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world and one of the economical sectors which grows rapidly; tourism has positive impact on the nation’s economy. Terrorism is the method or the theory behind the method whereby an organized group or party seeks to achieve its avowed aims chiefly through the systematic use of violence; the consequences of terrorism on tourist destinations are inescapable and can be profound. Especially, it threatens the attractiveness of a tourist destination and strips the competitiveness of that destination. Destination’s vulnerability to politically motivated violence not only retracts tourists, but threatens sustainable tourism development. This paper examines the activities of the Jamaata Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati -an Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram – and its impact on sustainable tourism development in the Nigeria state. Possible triggers of this insurgency and potentially evolving measure against its influence on sustainable tourism including, strong image management of the tourism industry, feasible tourist safety policy, viable anti-terrorism measures, proactive respond to the challenge of terrorism, reinforcement of the legitimate frameworks and irrevocable penalty against menace of corruption; are discussed in this paper, as limiting the effects of insurgency on the attractiveness of Nigeria as safe tourists destination.

Keywords: Nigeria, terrorism, sustainable tourism development, corruption and competitiveness

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Authors: Waleed S. Alwaneen

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In many countries, cow dung is used as farm manure and for biogas production. Several bacterial strains associated with cow dung such as Campylobacter, Salmonella sp. and Escherichia coli cause serious human diseases. The objective of the present study was to investigate the use of insect larvae including fruit beetle, waxworms and tiger worms to improve the breakdown of agricultural wastes and reduce their pathogen loads. Fresh cow faeces were collected from a cattle farm and distributed into plastic boxes (100 g/box). Each box was provided with 10 larvae of fruit beetle, Waxworms and Tiger worms, respectively. There were 3 replicates in each treatment including the control. Bacteria were isolated weekly from both control and cow faeces to which larvae were added to determine the bacterial populations. Results revealed that the bacterial load was higher in the cow faeces treated with fruit beetles than in the control, while the bacterial load was lower in the cow faeces treated with waxworms and tiger worms than in the control. The activities of the fruit beetle larvae led to the cow faeces being liquefied which provided a more conducive growing media for bacteria. Therefore, higher bacterial load in the cow faeces treated with fruit beetle might be attributed to the liquefaction of cow faeces.

Keywords: fruit beetle, waxworms, tiger worms, waste conditioning, composting

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Authors: Chayakarn Bamrungbutr, James Sillitoe

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The term ‘shadow port’ is used to describe a port whose markets are dominated by an adjacent port that has a more competitive capability. Recently, researchers have put effort into studying the mechanisms of how a regional port, in the shadow of a nearby predominant port which is a capital city port, can compete and grow. However, such mechanism is still unclear. This study thus focuses on understanding the growth of shadow port and the type of shadow port by using the two capital city ports of Thailand; Bangkok port (the former main port) and Laem Chabang port (the current main port), as the case study. By developing an understanding of the mechanisms of shadow, port could ultimately lead to an increase in the competitiveness. In this study, a framework of opportunity capture (introduced by Magala, 2004) will be used to create a framework for the study of the growth of the selected shadow port. In the process of building this framework, five groups of port development experts, consisting of government, council, academia, logistics provider and industry, will be interviewed. To facilitate this work, the Noticing, Collecting and Thinking model which was developed by Seidel (1998) will be used in an analysis of the dataset. The resulting analysis will be used to classify the type of shadow port. The type of these ports will be a significant factor for developing a feasible strategic guideline for the future management planning of ports, particularly, shadow ports, and then to increase the competitiveness of a nation’s maritime transport industry, and eventually lead to a boost in the national economy.

Keywords: shadow port, Bangkok Port, Laem Chabang Port, port growth

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Authors: Ejoh Nonso Francis

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: Irrigation scheduling is a critical aspect of sustainable agriculture as it ensures optimal use of water resources, reduces water waste, and enhances crop yields. This paper presents a case study of a farm in Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria, where irrigation scheduling was optimized using a combination of soil moisture sensors and weather data. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in improving water use efficiency and crop productivity. The results showed that the optimized irrigation scheduling approach led to a 30% reduction in water use while increasing crop yield by 20%. The study demonstrates the potential of technology-based irrigation scheduling to enhance sustainable agriculture in Nigeria and beyond.

Keywords: irrigation scheduling, sustainable agriculture, soil moisture sensors, weather data, water use efficiency, crop productivity, nigeria, onitsha, anambra state, technology-based irrigation scheduling, water resources, environmental degradation, crop water requirements, overwatering, water waste, farming systems, scalability

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Authors: Urip Wahyuningsih, Indarti, Yuhri Inang Prihatina

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The current development of batik art has given rise to various batik industries. The emergence of the batik industry is in order to meet the needs of the increasing share of the batik fashion market. This gives rise to competitiveness between the batik industry to compete for a share of the existing batik clothing market. Conditions like this also occur in Klampar Pamekasan Maduira Village, as one of the Batik Tourism Villages in Indonesia, it must continue to improve by trying to maintain the characteristics of Klampar Pamekasan Madura batik fashion and must also always innovate so that it remains highly competitive so that it remains one of the places popular batik tourist destination. Ready-to-wear or ready-to-wear clothing is clothing that is mass produced and produced in various sizes and colors, which can be purchased directly and worn easily. Patterned batik cloth is basically batik cloth that has the pattern lines of the clothing parts arranged efficiently, so there is no need to bother designing the pattern layout of the clothing parts on the batik cloth to be cut. Quilting can be defined as the art of combining fabric materials of certain sizes and cuts to form unique motifs. Based on several things above, breakthrough production innovation is needed without abandoning the characteristic of Klampar Pamekasan Madura Batik as one of the Batik Tourism Villages in Indonesia. One innovation that can be done is creating ready-to-wear patterned batik clothing products using a quilting technique. The method used in this research is the Double Diamond Design Process method. This method is divided into 4 phases namely, discover (namely the stage of designing the theme of the ready-to-wear patterned batik fashion innovation concept using quilting techniques in the Batik Village, Klampar Village, Pamekasasan, Madura), define (determine the design summary and present challenges to the design), develop ( presents prototypes developed, tested, reviewed and refined) and deliver (selected designs are produced, pass final tests and are ready to be commercialized). The research produces patterned batik products that are ready to wear with quilting techniques that are validated by experts and accepted by the public.

Keywords: competitiveness, ready to wear, innovation, quilting, klampar batik vllage

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Authors: A. Ravinder Nath, D. Jaya Prakash, T. Venkateshwarlu, P. Raja Rao

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The introduction of novel practices in research and innovation management at the university are likely to make a real difference in improving the quality of life and boost the global competitiveness for sustainable economic growth. Establishment a specific institutional structure at the university level provides professional management and administrative expertise to the university’s research community by sourcing out funding opportunities, extending guidance in grant proposal preparation and submission and also assisting in the post award reporting and regulatory observance. In addition to these it can involve in negotiating fair and equitable research contracts. Further it administer research governance to provide support and encourage collaborations across all disciplines of the university with industry, government, community based organizations, foundations, and associations at the local, regional, national and international levels/scales. The partnerships in research and innovation are more powerful and far needed tools for knowledge-based economy, where the universities can offer the services of much wanted human resources to promote, foster, and sustain excellence in research. In addition to this the institutes provide amply desired infrastructure and expertise to work with the investigators, and the industry will generate required financial resources in a coordinated manner. Further it is possible to carryout high-end applied research and synergizes the research capabilities and professional skills of students, faculty, scientists, and industrial work force.

Keywords: collaborations, competitiveness, contracts, governance

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Authors: Showkat Ahmad Bhat, M. S. Bhatt

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The study evaluates the ex-post impact of institutional credit on agricultural output. It first examines the key factors that influence the accessibility of institutional credit by farm households. For quantitative analysis both program participant and non-participant respondents were drawn and cross-sectional survey data were collected from 412 households in Pulwama District of Jammu & Kashmir (India). Propensity Score Matching Method was employed to analyze the impact of the institutional credit on agricultural output. Results show that institutional credit has a positive and significant impact on the agricultural output measured in terms of farm income and crop productivity. To estimate the accessibility of credit, an examination of both demand side and supply side factors were carried out. The demand for credit was measured with respect to respondents who applied for credit. Supply side credit allocation measured in terms of the proportion of ‘credit amount’ farmers obtained. Logit and Two-limit Tobit Regression Models were used to investigate the determinants that influence the accessibility of formal credit for Demand for and supply of credit respectively. The estimated results suggested that the demand for credit is positively and significantly affected by the factors such as: age of the household head, formal education, membership, cash crop grown, farm size and saving account. All the variables were found significantly increasing the household’s likelihood to demand for and supply of credit from banks. However, the impact of these factors varies considerably across the credit markets. Factors which were found negatively and significantly influencing the accessibility of credit were: ‘square of the age’, household assets and rate of interest. The credit constraints analysis suggested that square of the age; household assets and rate of interest were the three most important factors that increased the probability of being constrained. The study finally discusses these results in detail and draws some recommendations.

Keywords: institutional credit, agriculture, propensity score matching logit model, Tobit model

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Authors: Nancy Ayman Kamal Mohamed Mehrz

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As the economies of other countries in the Mediterranean Basin, the tourism sector in our country has a high denominator in economics. Tourism businesses, which are building blocks of tourism, sector faces with a variety of problems during their activities. These problems faced make business efficiency and competition conditions of the businesses difficult. Most of the problems faced by the tourism businesses and the information of consumers about consumers’ rights were used in this study, which is conducted to determine the problems of tourism businesses in the Central Anatolia Region. It is aimed to contribute the awareness of staff and executives working at tourism sector and to attract attention of businesses active concurrently with tourism sector and legislators. E-tourism is among the issues that have recently been entered into the field of tourism. In order to achieve this type of tourism, Information and Communications Technology (or ICT) infrastructures as well as Co-governmental organizations and tourism resources are important. In this study, the opinions of managers and tourism officials about the e-tourism in Leman city were measured; it also surveyed the impact of level of digital literacy of managers and tourism officials on attracting tourists. This study was conducted. One of the environs of the Esfahan province. This study is a documentary – survey and the sources include library resources and also questionnaires. The results obtained indicate that if managers use ICT, it may help e-tourism to be developed in the region, and increasing managers’ beliefs on e-tourism and upgrading their level of digital literacy may affect e-tourism development.

Keywords: financial problems, the problems of tourism businesses, tourism businesses, internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management economic competitiveness, enhancing competitiveness

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Authors: Komala Arsi, Terrel Spencer, Casey M. Owens, Dan J. Donoghue, Ann M. Donoghue

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Organic poultry production is becoming increasingly popular in the United States with approximately 17% increase in the sales of organic meat and poultry in 2016. As per the National Organic Program (NOP), organic poultry production system should operate according to specific standards, including access to outdoors. In the United States, organic poultry farmers are raising both fast growing and slow growing genotypes for alternative productive systems. Even though heritage breed birds grow much slower compared to commercial breeds, many free range producers believe that they are better suited for outdoor production systems. We conducted an on-farm trial on a working pasture poultry farm to compare the performance and meat quality characteristics of a slow-growing heritage breed (Freedom Rangers, FR), and two commonly used fast growing types of chickens (Cornish cross, CC and Naked Neck, NN), raised on pasture, in side by side pens segregated by breed (n=70/breed). CC and NN group birds were reared for eight weeks whereas FR group birds were reared for 10 weeks and all the birds were commercially processed. By the end of the rearing period, the final body weight of FR group birds was significantly lower than both the fast growing genotypes (CC and NN). Both CC and NN birds showed significantly higher live weight, carcass weight as well as fillet, tender and leg yield (P < 0.05). There was no difference in the wing and rack yield among the different groups. Color of the meat was measured using CEILAB method and expressed as lightness (L), redness (a*) and yellowness (b*). The breast meat from FR birds was much redder (higher a* values) and less yellow (lesser b* values) compared to both the fast growing type of chickens (P < 0.05). Overall, fast growing genotypes produced higher carcass weight and meat yield compared to slow growing genotypes and appear to be an economical option for alternative production systems.

Keywords: fast growing chickens, meat quality, pasture, slow growing chickens

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Authors: Sahriye Sonmez, Sedat Citak

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different organic manures on antioxidant activity, vitamin C and nitrate concentrations of broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var italica) plants. For this purpose, broccoli plants were grown on open field conditions in 2 successive years (2011-2013) including 4 different seasons [(Spring 1 (March-June, 2011), Autumn 1 (September 2011-January 2012), Spring 2 (March-June, 2012), Autumn 2 (September 2012-January 2013)]. Organic manures (Farm manure (FM), vermicompost (VC) and leonardite (L) and its mixture (50 % FM+50% L, 50 % VC+50% FM, 50% L+50% VC and 33% FM+33% VC+33% L), one chemical fertilizer and one control, collectively 9 applications was investigated. The results indicated that the vitamin C concentrations of broccoli plants ranged from 31.4-55.8 mg/100 g, 43-631 mg/kg in nitrate concentrations and 11.0-56.7 mg/ml as IC50 inhibition values in antioxidant activities of broccoli plants. Also, it was determined that the effective applications were at the 50 % VC+50% FM for vitamin C concentrations, at the chemical fertilizer for nitrate concentrations and at the 100 % FM for antioxidant activities.

Keywords: broccoli, chemical fertilizer, farm manure, leonardite, vermicompost

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Authors: Mohammadreza Heydariazad

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Productivity growth of wind energy as a clean source needed to achieve improved strategy in production and transmission and management of wind resources in order to increase quality of power and reduce costs. New technologies based on power converters that cause changing turbine speed to suit the wind speed blowing turbine improve extraction efficiency power from wind. This article introduces variable speed wind turbines and optimization of power, and presented methods to use superconducting inductor in the composition of power converter and is proposed the dc measurement for the wind farm and especially is considered techniques available to them. In fact, this article reviews mechanisms and function, changes of wind speed turbine according to speed control strategies of various types of wind turbines and examines power possible transmission and ac from producing location to suitable location for a strong connection integrating wind farm generators, without additional cost or equipment. It also covers main objectives of the dynamic control of wind turbines, and the methods of exploitation and the ways of using it that includes the unique process of these components. Effective algorithm is presented for power control in order to extract maximum active power and maintains power factor at the desired value.

Keywords: wind energy, generator, superconducting inductor, wind turbine power

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Authors: Shamas Ul Hassan, Nasir Mukhtar, Sajjad Ur Rehman, Asghar Ali Mian, Iftikhar Hussain, Muhammad Safdar Anjum

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The Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is the major cause of economic looses in birds which is transmitted by free flying birds in the environment. These demands for improving the biosecurity measures at farm level including proper disposal of farm mortality and other wastes along with the inclusion of zoos and wild life parks in the MG surveillance programme. For the purpose of doing surveillance of MG in different pet, game and free flying birds a total of 12 samples each of peacocks, pheasants, ducks, pigeons, parrots, and house crows were included in the first ever study of its nature in Pakistan. During the study, the relevant samples along with recording clinical and postmortem findings were subjected to sero-prevalence, culture isolation and PCR system. Further PCR being more sensitive proves to be a better epidemiological tool. Seropositive findings revealed in peacocks, pheasants, ducks, pigeons, parrots, and crows were 66.7%, 58.3%, 41.7%, 41.7%, 16.7% and 16.7% respectively with some free flying birds giving ambiguous reactions. Whereas in the same order the culture/isolation positive results were recorded as 25%, 16.7%, 8.3%, 16.7%, 16.7%, and 25%. The samples were further confirmed on the basis of 732 bp product in PCR system. High rate of prevalence of MG in the pet, game and free flying birds regardless to their clinical findings demands to improve the biosecurity measures at the farm level with the minimum interaction of these birds with commercial poultry. Further the proper and timely disposal of all sorts of carcasses contaminated litter and wasted feed in such ways that the free flying birds are denied of picking up at those wastages. Moreover, MG surveillance system including the advances diagnostic techniques in wildlife parks and zoos be devised with proper timely preventive and therapeutic measures. The study proves that a variety of birds other then chicken either with or without clinical exhibitions carry MG organism which could be the potential source of infection for commercial poultry. The routine surveillance will be done to reduce the economic losses in poultry production.

Keywords: epidemiology, Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), free flying birds, surveillance, PCR

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Authors: Fabiana Lucena Oliveira, Aristides da Rocha Oliveira Junior

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This article discusses the dependence on air transport mode of agile supply chains. The agile supply chains are the result of the analysis of the uncertainty supply chain model, which ranks the supply chain, according to the respective product. Thus, understanding the Uncertainty Model and life cycle of products considered standard and innovative is critical to understanding these. The innovative character in the intersection of supply chains arising from the uncertainty model with its most appropriate transport mode. Consider here the variables availability, security and freight as determinants for choosing these modes. Therefore, the research problem is: How agile supply chains maintains logistics competitiveness, as these are dependent on air transport mode? A case study in Manaus Industrial Pole (MIP), an agglomeration model that includes six hundred industries from different backgrounds and billings, located in the Brazilian Amazon. The sample of companies surveyed include those companies whose products are classified in agile supply chains , as innovative and therefore live with the variable uncertainty in the demand for inputs or the supply of finished products. The results confirm the hypothesis that the dependency level of air transport mode is greater than fifty percent. It follows then, that maintain agile supply chain away from suppliers base is expensive (1) , and continuity analysis needs to be remade on each twenty four months (2) , consider that additional freight, handling and storage as members of the logistics costs (3) , and the comparison with the upcoming agile supply chains the world need to consider the location effect (4).

Keywords: uncertainty model, air transport mode, competitiveness, logistics

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Authors: Endalkachew Abebe Kebede, Bojin Bojinov, Andon Vasilev Andonov, Orhan Dengiz

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Remote sensing has a potential application in assessing and monitoring the plants' biophysical properties using the spectral responses of plants and soils within the electromagnetic spectrum. However, only a few reports compare the performance of different remote sensing sensors against in-situ field spectral measurement. The current study assessed the potential applications of open data source satellite images (Sentinel 2 and Landsat 9) in estimating the biophysical properties of the wheat crop on a study farm found in the village of OvchaMogila. A Landsat 9 (30 m resolution) and Sentinel-2 (10 m resolution) satellite images with less than 10% cloud cover have been extracted from the open data sources for the period of December 2021 to April 2022. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been used to capture the spectral response of plant leaves. In addition, SpectraVue 710s Leaf Spectrometer was used to measure the spectral response of the crop in April at five different locations within the same field. The ten most common vegetation indices have been selected and calculated based on the reflectance wavelength range of remote sensing tools used. The soil samples have been collected in eight different locations within the farm plot. The different physicochemical properties of the soil (pH, texture, N, P₂O₅, and K₂O) have been analyzed in the laboratory. The finer resolution images from the UAV and the Leaf Spectrometer have been used to validate the satellite images. The performance of different sensors has been compared based on the measured leaf spectral response and the extracted vegetation indices using the five sampling points. A scatter plot with the coefficient of determination (R2) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and the correlation (r) matrix prepared using the corr and heatmap python libraries have been used for comparing the performance of Sentinel 2 and Landsat 9 VIs compared to the drone and SpectraVue 710s spectrophotometer. The soil analysis revealed the study farm plot is slightly alkaline (8.4 to 8.52). The soil texture of the study farm is dominantly Clay and Clay Loam.The vegetation indices (VIs) increased linearly with the growth of the plant. Both the scatter plot and the correlation matrix showed that Sentinel 2 vegetation indices have a relatively better correlation with the vegetation indices of the Buteo dronecompared to the Landsat 9. The Landsat 9 vegetation indices somewhat align better with the leaf spectrometer. Generally, the Sentinel 2 showed a better performance than the Landsat 9. Further study with enough field spectral sampling and repeated UAV imaging is required to improve the quality of the current study.

Keywords: landsat 9, leaf spectrometer, sentinel 2, UAV

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Authors: S. Umar, B. F. Umar

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This study was conducted at Giron Masa village, located 30 km from Yauri town. The study determines the socio-economic factors influencing the use of coping strategies among farmers and herders during post-conflict situation. Simple random sampling was employed to select one hundred respondents (50 farmers and 50 herders) from the study area. Logistic regression analysis (LR) was used to ascertain the socioeconomic variables that influenced the use of the coping strategies. The results of the study shows that age, income, family size and farming experience were individually significant and thus influenced the use of POCS by farmers. Annual income and production system influenced the use of POCS by herders. Age, farm size and farming experience were found to be individually significant in influencing the use of EOCS among farmers. Specifically, years of occupation experience among the herders increased the use of emotion oriented coping strategies among herders. The use of SSCS among farmers was influenced by educational level; farm size and farming experience, while the variables are not collectively significant in influencing the use of SSCS among the herders. The research recommends a need to adopt the strategy of community coping to cope with stress.

Keywords: farmers, herders, conflict, coping strategies

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Authors: Gadisa Demie, Mesele Negash, Zerihun Asrat, Lojka Bohdan

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Deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics have led to significant carbon (C) emissions. Agroforestry (AF) is a suitable land-use option for tackling such declines in ecosystem services, including climate change mitigation. However, it is unclear how biomass models, AF practices, and socio-ecological factors determine these roles, which hinders the implementation of climate change mitigation initiatives. This study aimed to estimate the ecosystem C stocks of the studied AF practices in relation to socio-ecological variables in central Ethiopia. Out of 243 AF farms inventoried, 108 were chosen at random from three AF practices to estimate their biomass and soil organic carbon. A total of 432 soil samples were collected from 0–30 and 30–60 cm soil depths; 216 samples were taken for each soil organic carbon fraction (%C) and bulk density computation. The study found that the currently developed allometric equations were the most accurate to estimate biomass C for trees growing in the landscape when compared to previous models. The study found higher overall biomass C in woodlots (165.62 Mg ha-¹) than in homegardens (134.07 Mg ha-¹) and parklands (19.98 Mg ha-¹). Conversely, overall, SOC was higher for homegardens (143.88 Mg ha-¹), but lower for parklands (53.42 Mg ha-¹). The ecosystem C stock was comparable between homegardens (277.95 Mg ha-¹) and woodlots (275.44 Mg ha-¹). The study found that elevation, wealthy levels, AF farm age, and size have a positive and significant (P < 0.05) effect on overall biomass and ecosystem C stocks but non-significant with slope (P > 0.05). Similarly, SOC increased with increasing elevation, AF farm age, and wealthy status but decreased with slope and non-significant with AF farm size. The study also showed that species diversity had a positive (P <0.05) effect on overall biomass C stocks in homegardens. The overall study highlights that AF practices have a great potential to lock up more carbon in biomass and soils; however, these potentials were determined by socioecological variables. Thus, these factors should be considered in management strategies that preserve trees in agricultural landscapes in order to mitigate climate change and support the livelihoods of farmers.

Keywords: agricultural landscape, biomass, climate change, soil organic carbon

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Authors: Sunil Sangwan, Narayan Chandra Nayak

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Over the last few decades, Indian banking system has achieved remarkable growth in its credit volume. However, one of the most disturbing facts about this growth is the uneven distribution of financial services across regions. Having witnessed limited success from all the earlier efforts towards financial inclusion targeting the rural poor and the underprivileged, provision of microfinance, of late, has emerged as a supplementary mechanism. There are two prominent modes of microfinance distribution in India namely Bank-SHG linkage (SBLP) and private Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Ironically, such efforts also seem to have failed to achieve the desired targets as the microfinance services have witnessed skewed distribution across the states of the country. This study attempts to make a comparative analysis of the geographical skew of the SBLP and MFI in India and examine the factors influencing their regional distribution. The results indicate that microfinance services are largely concentrated in the southern region, accounting for about 50% of all microfinance clients and 49% of all microfinance loan portfolios. This is distantly followed by an eastern region where client outreach is close to 25% only. The north-eastern, northern, central, and western regions lag far behind in microfinance sectors, accounting for only 4%, 4%, 10%, and 7 % client outreach respectively. The penetration of SHGs is equally skewed, with the southern region accounting for 46% of client outreach and 70% of loan portfolios followed by an eastern region with 21% of client outreach and 13% of the loan portfolio. Contrarily, north-eastern, northern, central, western and eastern regions account for 5%, 5%, 10%, and 13% of client outreach and 3%, 3%, 7%, and 4% of loan portfolios respectively. The study examines the impact of literacy rate, rural poverty, population density, primary sector share, non-farm activities, loan default behavior and bank penetration on the microfinance penetration. The study is limited to 17 major states of the country over the period 2008-2014. The results of the GMM estimation indicate the significant positive impact of literacy rate, non-farm activities and population density on microfinance penetration across the states, while the rise in loan default seems to deter it. Rural poverty shows the significant negative impact on the spread of SBLP, while it has a positive impact on MFI penetration, hence indicating the policy of exclusion being adhered to by the formal financial system especially towards the poor. However, MFIs seem to be working as substitute mechanisms to banks to fill the gap. The findings of the study are a pointer towards enhancing financial literacy, non-farm activities, rural bank penetration and containing loan default for achieving greater microfinance prevalence.

Keywords: bank penetration, literacy rate, microfinance, primary sector share, rural non-farm activities, rural poverty

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Authors: Jeyarajan Sivapathasundram

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Knowledge management has been recognised as an emerging factor for being competitive among institutions and performances in firms. As such, being recognised as knowledge rich institution, higher education institutes have to be recognised knowledge management based resources for achieving competitive advantages. Present research picked result out of postgraduate research conducted in knowledge management at non-state higher educational institutes of Sri Lanka. Besides, the present research aimed to discover knowledge management for competition and firm performances of higher educational institutes out of the result produced by the postgraduate study. Besides, the results are found in a pair that developed out of knowledge management practices and the reason behind the existence of the practices. As such, the present research has developed a filter to pick the pairs that satisfy its condition of competition and performance of the firm. As such, the pair, such as benchmarking is practised to be ethically competing through conducting courses. As the postgraduate research tested results of foreign researches in a qualitative paradigm, the finding of the present research are generalise fact for knowledge management for competitiveness and performances in higher educational institutes. Further, the presented research method used attributes which explain competition and performance in its filter to discover the pairs relevant to competition and performances. As such, the fact in regards to knowledge management for competition and performances in higher educational institutes are presented in the publication that the presentation is out of the generalised result. Therefore, knowledge management for competition and performance in higher educational institutes are generalised.

Keywords: competition in and among higher educational institutes, performances of higher educational institutes, noun based filtering, production out of generalisation of a research

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Authors: Anna Dolinayova, Juraj Camaj, Martin Loch

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Presently it is necessary to ensure the sustainable development of passenger and freight transport. Increasing performance of road freight have been a negative impact to environment and society. It is therefore necessary to increase the competitiveness of intermodal transport, which is more environmentally friendly. The study describe the effectiveness of logistical centers realization for companies and society and research how the partial internalization of external costs reflected in the efficient use of these centers and increase the competitiveness of intermodal transport to road freight. In our research, we use the method of comparative analysis and market research to describe the advantages of logistic centers for their users as well as for society as a whole. Method normal costing is used for calculation infrastructure and total costs, method of conversion costing for determine the external costs. We modelling of total society costs for road freight transport and inter modal transport chain (we assumed that most of the traffic is carried by rail) with different loading schemes for condition in the Slovak Republic. Our research has shown that higher utilization of inter modal transport chain do good not only for society, but for companies providing freight services too. Increase in use of inter modal transport chain can bring many benefits to society that do not bring direct immediate financial return. They often bring the multiplier effects, such as greater use of environmentally friendly transport mode and reduce the total society costs.

Keywords: delivery time, economy effectiveness, logistical centers, ecological efficiency, optimization, society

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Authors: Kaushal Jha

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India is one of the major producers of pineapple contributing a significant part in terms of total world production of pineapple. It has spread throughout tropical and subtropical regions as a commercial fruit crop. In India, the cultivation of pineapple is confined to high rainfall and humid coastal region in the peninsular India and hilly areas of Northeastern region of India. Nagaland, one of the potential states of North-East India is basically an agrarian state having been endowed with favourable agro climatic conditions and a rich bio-diversity of flora and fauna. Agriculture contributes significantly to the state’s economy. Pineapple is an important fruit crop grown in Nagaland and has a very high potential for doubling the income of farmers in comparison to the traditional practices of rice cultivation. This requires improved farm management practices as well as a genre of entrepreneurial intentions and capabilities. The present study aimed at analysing the dimensions of entrepreneurial skill development among the pineapple growers of Nagaland. Medziphema block under Dimapur district is considered as the pineapple valley of Nagaland. Pineapple grown in this area is considered as one of the best in Nagaland in terms of its sweetness as well as quality. A multistage sampling was undertaken for conducting the present study. Medziphema rural development block was selected purposively for this purpose. The sample was drawn from three leading pineapple producing villages under Medziphema block. The respondents were selected based on random sampling procedure. Data were collected from the respondents using a pre-tested structured schedule. Major findings revealed that entrepreneurial skill development was one of the important factors to augment the increase in the sustained flow of income among the target farmers. Development of farm leadership, improving self esteem, innovativeness, economic motivation, orientation towards management of farm resources and value addition were identified as important dimensions for promoting entrepreneurial skill development and bringing prosperity to the farmers.

Keywords: skill development, entrepreneurial attributes, pineapple growers, Nagaland

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Authors: Adegoke A. Adeyelu, Adeola T. Adeyelu, S. D. Y. Alfred, O. O. Fasina

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This study examines the use of traditional medicines for the treatment of selected illnesses among crop-farming households in Edo State, Nigeria. A sample size of ninety (90) households were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire alongside focus group discussions (FGD). Result shows that the mean age was 50 years old, the majority (76.7%) of the sampled farmers were below 60 years old. The majority (80.0%) of the farmers were married, about (92.2%) had formal education. It exposes that the majority of the respondents (76.7%) had household size of between 1-10 persons, about 55.6% had spent 11 years and above in crop farming. malaria (8th ), waist pains (7th ), farm injuries ( 6th ), cough (5th), acute headache(4th), skin infection (3rd), typhoid (2nd) and tuberculosis (1st ) were the most and least treated illness. Respondents (80%) had spent N10,000.00 ($27) and less on treatment of illnesses, 8.9% had spent N10,000.00-N20,000.0027 ($27-$55) 4.4% had spent between N20,100-N30,000.00 ($27-$83) while 6.7% had spent more than N30,100.00 ($83) on treatment of illnesses in the last one (1) year prior to the study. Age, years of farming, farm size, household size, level of income, cost of treatment, level of education, social network, and culture are some of the statistically significant factors influencing the utilization of traditional medicine. Farmers should be educated on methods of preventing illnesses, which is far cheaper than the curative.

Keywords: crop farming-households, selected illnesses, traditional medicines, Edo State

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Authors: Nikola Radovanovic, Petros Gkotsis, Mathieu Doussineau

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Aeronautics is regarded as a strategically important sector for European competitiveness. It was at the heart of European entrepreneurial development since the industry was born. Currently, the EU is the world leader in the production of civil aircraft, including helicopters, aircraft engines, parts, and components. It is recording a surplus in trade relating to aerospace products, which are exported all over the globe. Also, this industry shows above-average investments in research and development, as demonstrated in the patent activity in this area. The post-pandemic recovery of the industry will partly depend on the possibilities to streamline collaboration in further research and innovation activities. Aeronautics features as one of the often selected priority domains in smart specialisation, which represents the main regional and national approach in developing and implementing innovation policies in Europe. The basis for the selection of priority domains for smart specialisation lies in the mapping of innovative potential, with research and patent activities being among the key elements of this analysis. This research is aimed at identifying characteristics of the trends in research and patent activities in the regions and countries that base their competitiveness on the aeronautics sector. It is also aimed at determining the scope and patterns of collaborations in aeronautics between innovators from the European regions, focusing on revealing new technology areas that emerge from these collaborations. For this purpose, we developed a methodology based on desk research and the analysis of the PATSTAT patent database as well as the databases of R&I framework programmes.

Keywords: aeronautics, smart specialisation, innovation, research, regional policy

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