Journal Article

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Agricultural Information Systems and Communication Networks: The Case of Dairy Farmers in the Samsun Province of Turkey
(2008) Demiryurek, Kursat; Erdem, Huseyin; Ceyhan, Vedat; Atasever, Savas; Uysal, Osman
"Agricultural information systems and communication networks: the case of dairy farmers in the Samsun province of Turkey We recommend that more functional cooperation between public and private information sources in the system is needed to motivate conventional dairy farmers to convert into modern dairy farming system. Analysis of the agricultural information systems and communication network used by members and non-members of the Dairy Cattle Breeders' Association provided a framework to identify the strength and weaknesses of the current systems and led to recommendations to improve their performance. Structured interviews were used to collect data from a randomly selected forty-three members and sixty-five non-members of the Association. Tests of association (e.g., Correlation Coefficient and Kendall's tau) and tests of difference (Student's t test) were performed using SPSS. The main function of the information systems was the dissemination of dairy-farming-related information. Association membership functions as a means to keep more European pure-bred cows and provide financial incentives, rather than developing a modern dairy sector. The non-members of the Association mainly used their current knowledge and traditional practices. The lack of information support from the institutional sources resulted in the development of personal information sources to exchange information and diffuse technology among the farmers themselves. We recommend that more functional cooperation between public and private information sources in the system is needed to motivate conventional dairy farmers to convert into modern dairy farming system."
Análisis de la Producción Agrícola Extensiva en Sinaloa: Alternativas para el Uso Sostenible del Agua
(2010) Norzagaray Campos, M.; García Gutiérrez, C.; Llanes Cárdenas, O.; Troyo Diéguez, E.; Muñoz Sevilla, P.
"Sinaloa has the highest percentage of agricultural land with irrigation systems in México, this activity is important by the economic contribution, but also there is environmental negative impact. Today the over-exploitation in the aquifers by percolation of pesticides and other remainders causes damages in the ecosystems, and to the human health. On the other hand, agriculture consumes 80% of the fresh water available in the region, by this reason Gulf of California land is consider as over-exploited region. Due to, is important provide conservation strategies to remedy future repercussions on the aquifers and to avoid contamination of fresh water by saline intrusion."
The Analysis and Estimation of Efficiency of Agroindustrial Formations of Holding Type of the Belgorod Region
(2012) Shedy, E.
"Socio-economic reforms carried out in the Russian Federation, led to the emergence of large agro-industrial associations - agricultural holdings, which differ in their structure, resource and investment potential, and able to make a significant contribution to solving the problem of food security, both individual regions and the country as a whole. The paper assesses the efficiency of agricultural holdings in the example of the Belgorod region and identify the prospects for their development."
A Breadbasket for Africa: Farming in the Guinea Savannah Zone
(2012) Morris, Michael; Binswanger, Hans; Byerlee, Derek; Staatz, John
"Over the past five decades, African agriculture has failed to meet the demands of a continent set to become the most populous region on earth by 2025. During that half century, two relatively backward and landlocked agricultural regions--the Cerrado region of Brazil and the northeast region of Thailand--have developed at a rapid pace and have become leading agricultural exporters. The success of these regions defied the many skeptics who had asserted that their challenging agroecological characteristics, remote locations, and high levels of poverty would prove impossible to overcome. Similar perceptions for many years also fueled pessimism about the prospects for African agriculture, although this may now be changing. During the past decade, strong agricultural growth has been recorded in several African countries, and recent increases in international prices of agricultural commodities have opened up new opportunities. Africa’s Guinea Savannah zone covers about 600 million hectares, of which about 400 million hectares could be used for crop agriculture. With sustainable and inclusive growth of commercial agriculture, this region has the potential to feed Africa and create a booming export business."
Computer-Aided Design Elements of Precision Farming Systems Based on the Principles Biologization, Resource and Environmental Safety
(2012) Plygun, S.; Lobkov, V.
"Development of practical methods of computer-aided design elements of precision farming systems on the basis of biological function, resource and environmental security for the producers of different specialization, ownership and financial security is the actual direction of development of modern agricultural science. Proposed development, which may serve as a basic programming model, allowing for expanded reproduction of soil fertility through the use of new ways to maximize the amount of phytomass in the agricultural lands, increase soil biological activity and reduce the costs of manufacturing nitrogen on yield formation of crops."
Economic Analysis of Functioning of the Orel Region Grain Market
(2012) Altukhov, A.
"In article analyzed the production and sale of grain in the Orel region, assess the market conditions of the grain market, justified factors constraining the development of the grain market in the region. Also impact on the firms and the holding companies in the Orel region is noted in supply of grain. The share of acreage data units in the total area sown grain is more than 20%. At the same time refining the grain is almost completely monopolized, which creates inherent difficulties in bringing agricultural products to the destination object."
Effectiveness of Radio in the Dissemination of Agricultural Information Among Farmers in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria
(2009) Gana, F.S; Umar, I.S; Ndanisa, M.A.; Peter, E.W; Olaleye, R.S
"The broad objective of the study is to determine the effectiveness of radio in the dissemination of agricultural information. Specific objectives are to examine the socio – economic characteristics of the farmers, their sources of agricultural information and effectiveness of radio in the dissemination of agricultural information as well as the related problems. The study was carried out in Edu local government area of Kwara state, Nigeria. A total of 150 farmers were randomly selected from different villages within the ten political wards of the local government. Interview schedule was used to collect relevant data from the respondents. The instrument for data collection was validated and subjected to reliability test .Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analysed data collected. Results showed that majority of the farmers were males, mostly 50 years and below in age with little formal education. Though most of the farmers got agricultural information through radio but some had to depend on friends / relations and Extension Agents(EAs) for agricultural information. Despite the advantages of the use of radio on this issue, 47.9% of the farmers considered it ineffective and some of the problems identified include language barrier, clarity of messages and improper interpretation of scientific terms / units of measurement as contained in the messages to be disseminated .In view of all these, more than one – half of the respondents did not record significant improvement in their farming activities. Furthermore, Chi Square analysis showed that only gender and level of improvement in farming had positive and significant relationship with the effectiveness of radio in the dissemination of agricultural information to targeted farmers. It can be concluded that radio is a useful source of agricultural information but it needs improvement in the areas of service delivery with a view to overcoming language barrier, poor presentation of key points and improper interpretation of scientific terms / units of measurements. It is recommended that radio station agricultural presenters should be trained, specifically on modern ways of presenting agricultural information to the rural people who are mostly illiterates."
Estimated Wind River Range (Wyoming, USA) Glacier Melt Water Contributions to Agriculture
(2009) Cheesbrough, Kyle; Edmunds, Jake; Tootle, Glenn; Kerr, Greg; Pochop, Larry
"In 2008, Wyoming was ranked 8th in barley production and 20th in hay production in the United States and these crops support Wyoming’s $800 million cattle industry. However, with a mean elevation of 2,040 meters, much of Wyoming has a limited crop growing season (as little as 60 days) and relies on late-summer and early-fall streamflow for agricultural water supply. Wyoming is host to over 80 glaciers with the majority of these glaciers being located in the Wind River Range. These 'frozen reservoirs' provide a stable source of streamflow (glacier meltwater) during this critical late-summer and early-fall growing season. Given the potential impacts of climate change (increased temperatures resulting in glacier recession), the quantification of glacier meltwater during the late-summer and early-fall growing seasons is needed. Glacier area changes in the Wind River Range were estimated for 42 glaciers using Landsat data from 1985 to 2005. The total surface area of the 42 glaciers was calculated to be 41.2 ± 11.7 km2 in 1985 and 30.8 ± 8.2 km2 in 2005, an average decrease of 25% over the 21 year period. Small glaciers experienced noticeably more area reduction than large glaciers. Of the 42 glaciers analyzed, 17 had an area of greater than 0.5 km2 in 1985, while 25 were less than 0.5 km2 in 1985. The glaciers with a surface area less than 0.5 km2 experienced an average surface area loss (fraction of 1985 surface area) of 43%, while the larger glaciers (greater than 0.5 km2) experienced an average surface area loss of 22%. Applying area-volume scaling relationships for glaciers, volume loss was estimated to be 409 × 106 m3 over the 21 year period, which results in an estimated 4% to 10% contribution to warm season (July–October) streamflow."
Factors Affecting Agricultural Land Fragmentation in Iran: A Case Study of Ramjerd Sub District in Fars Province
(2008) Kalantari, Khalil; Abdollahzadeh, Gholamhossein
"The objective of this study was to examine the factors influencing fragmentation of landholdings commonly regarded as a major obstacle to agricultural development in Iran. A sample of farmers was selected and household and village-level data from 12 villages of Ramjerd sub district in Fars province were used to test these factors empirically. Required data were collected by questionnaire from 151 farmers who were selected through a stratified random sampling design from 12 villages of Ramjerd sub District of Marvdasht County in South of Iran. The findings indicated that the fragmentation is the result of several processes (including social, culture, economic, physical and operational processes), working either together or independently. The influences of these factors on land fragmentation were calculated by linear regression model. Results indicated that household average annual income, per capita arable land, size of land rented by household, labour force of household, family size, number of crop planted by household and size of land rented out, contributing to land fragmentation."
Farmer Participation in Research: Implications for Agricultural Development
(1997) Monu, Erasmus D.
"Recently, there has been a great deal of attention devoted to the notion of farmer participation in agricultural research. In this connection, there has been a challenge to the conventional research model which conceives of the farmer as a passive partner so far as the identification of the problem, the conduct of the research and the development of the solution is concerned. This paper reviews a number of models suggested for agricultural research, noting the strengths and weaknesses of the models. Based on the author's experiences and other case studies, the implications of farmer participation in the development and dissemination of agricultural technologies are examined."
Food for a Rooted Future
(2011) Broad, Robin; Cavanagh, John
"Rice farmers in the Philippines go chemical free, community strong."
How Personal Judgment Influences Scenario Development: An Example for Future Rural Development in Europe
(2010) Metzger, Marc J.; Rounsevell, Mark D.A.; Van den Heiligenberg, Harm A.R.M.; Pérez-Soba, Marta; Hardiman, Paul Soto
"Scenarios of alternative plausible futures have been used extensively to explore the potential effects of socioeconomic and environmental change. The ultimate objective of any explorative scenario exercise is to assess the variation in possible futures to provide insights into the range of potential outcomes. These results provide stakeholders with guidance for policy development, planning, and management. We explore how personal judgment can influence scenario development. Scenarios for the future of European rural regions are used to explore alternative outcomes under a public interventionist future and a market liberalization oriented future. A transparent qualitative framework is used to identify differences in outcomes based on personal judgment. Results show that, for both scenarios, there are plausible mechanisms that can lead to similar positive or negative outcomes. Choosing a single process per scenario, based on personal judgment and interpretation, can therefore greatly influence scenario outcomes and limit the range of uncertainty that is covered by the scenarios. The exercise shows the importance of making these judgments explicit in scenario development, especially when exploring broad consequences of alternative policy directions that may be based in political worldviews."
Locally Grown Foods and Farmers Markets: Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors
(2010) Conner, David; Colasanti, Kathryn; Ross, R. Brent; Smalley, Susan B.
"Farm viability poses a grave challenge to the sustainability of agriculture and food systems: the number of acres in production continues to decline as the majority of farms earn negative net income. Two related and often overlapping marketing strategies,(i) locally grown foods and (ii) distribution at farmers markets, can directly enhance food system sustainability by improving farm profitability and long-term viability, as well as contributing to an array of ancillary benefits. We present results of a representative Michigan telephone survey, which measured consumers’ perceptions and behaviors around local foods and farmers markets. We discuss the implications of our findings on greater farm profitability. We conclude with suggestions for future research to enhance the contributions of locally grown foods and farmers markets to overall food system sustainability."
The New Green Revolution: How Twenty-First-Century Science Can Feed the World
(2011) De Schutter, Olivier; Vanloqueren, Gaëtan
"The combined effects of climate change, energy scarcity, and water paucity require that we radically rethink our agricultural systems. Countries can and must reorient their agricultural systems toward modes of production that are not only highly productive, but also highly sustainable. Following the 2008 global food price crisis, many developing countries have adopted new food security policies and have made significant investments in their agricultural systems. Global hunger is also back on top of the international agenda. However, the question is not only how much is done, but also how it is doneand what kinds of food systems are now being rebuilt. Agroecology, the application of ecological science to the study, design, and management of sustainable agriculture, offers a model of agricultural development to meet this challenge. Recent research demonstrates that it holds great promise for the roughly 500 million food-insecure households around the world. By scaling up its practice, we can sustainably improve the livelihoods of the most vulnerable, and thus contribute to feeding a hungry planet."
Paths to Attaining Food Security: The Case of Cameroon
(2010) Yengoh, Genesis T.; Armah, Frederick A.; Onumah, Edward Ebo
"This paper sets out to develop a framework for characterizing agricultural growth orientations. We identify four main components in the global food system (technology, institutions, people, and natural resources). Based on the extent to which any two of these components are important in driving the growth of agriculture, we distinguish four main orientations of agricultural growth: local food, high resource-technology driven, guided technology driven, and right-to-food growth orientations. Given the social and environmental challenges that agricultural growth has to meet in Cameroon, we argue that the local food orientation and guided technology-driven orientation offer better opportunities for meeting the problem of food security in this country."
Playing and Eating Democracy: The Case of Puerto Rico's Land Distribution Program 1940's-1960's
(2006) Colón, Ismael García
"In the early 1940s, the colonial government of Puerto Rico with the consent of the U.S. federal government began to elaborate a land reform. Under Title V of the Land Law of 1941, the government established resettlement communities for landless families. One of their goals was to transform landless agricultural workers into an industrial and urban labor force by teaching them 'democratic, industrial, and modern' habits. Government officials distributed land to landless families through lotteries, portraying the ceremonies as acts of democracy. Community education programs produced literature, films, and posters aimed at fostering development and political participation. The colonial state intended to mold landless workers into new citizens but land distribution and its effects over the population were uneven, disorganized, and sometimes contradictory. Landless workers and residents of land distribution communities maneuvered within, escaped from, and shaped those government policies."
Population Growth, Increases in Agricultural Production and Trends in Food Prices
(2009) Southgate, Douglas
"During the second half of the twentieth century, human numbers and food demand grew at an unprecedented pace, yet food supplies increased even faster. Demographic expansion is now slackening, due to dramatic reductions in human fertility in Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world. However, demand for edible goods will continue to go up, mainly because improved living standards are causing per-capita consumption to rise. To avoid mounting food scarcity, the geographic expansion of agriculture at the expense of forests and other habitats, or both, effective investment in research and development, especially in agricultural biotechnology, is needed so that per-hectare yields can continue increasing."
Present State and Problems of Forming an Effective Grain Market
(2012) Tsvyrko, A.
"The article deals with current issues of forming a highly grain market. Statistical data reflecting the current state of the problem. Based on studies of the current state of the grain market highlighted the main target indicators defined the conditions for achieving the projected performance of the grain market and its products and recommendations for further development and growth of grain production capacity in Russia."
Prospects of Open Access to Indian Agricultural Research: A Case Study of ICAR
(2009) Guttikonda, Aneeja; Gutam, Sridhar
"Historically, agricultural research and education in India have been in the public domain. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was established as an apex organization for effective research coordination among institutions and promotion of agricultural research in the country. Funds for public sector research institutes were channeled through the ICAR from the central government. For the dissemination of research output, the research journals publishing in India have been, for long, primarily a public funded activity and done mostly by Government agencies. In case of agricultural research, the journals are being published by ICAR and by respective professional societies. Many of these societies are receiving financial assistance partly from ICAR. Each discipline of agriculture is represented by some sort of professional society and for some disciplines, and each society publishes a peer-reviewed research journal. Though many of these journals are distributed for international indexing, full-text database services are very poor. Many of them are not even in the ISI Master Journal list for impact factor or science citation index analysis. The main objective of each author is to have more impact, visibility and readership for their work. These journals publish quality articles after stringent peer review process, but the time lag from submission to publication of an article or production of issue is long. There are instances where the articles sent for review were not returned back due to various reasons. The infrastructure for publishing online is also not available for these journals. Recently, a portal (http://www.indianjournals.com) had started providing free online access of some journals being published by professional societies. Under the National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP), ICAR is investing in making available of some fee–based online journals along with all open access journals. Now the time has come to think about the wider availability of scientific journals without any restrictions. The availability of open source software for the transformation of traditional journals into open access journals and the establishment of open archive online repositories for archiving research will eventually make agricultural research to much larger audiences. This will increase the visibility of research output and eventually lead to an enhanced impact factor for many Indian journals."
Think Again: The Green Revolution
(2009) Hazell, Peter
"Noble Prize-winning scientist Norman Borlaug died Sept 12, but his ideas and the green revolution they produced are still transforming agriculture in Asia. Next stop: Africa."
Ultra-Violet Radiation as the Way of Creation of the Initial Material for Selection of Highly Productive Grades of the Summer Barley Adapted for Conditions of the Amur Region
(2012) Kuznetsova, A.
"The article describes the use of materials on the ultraviolet radiation in barley breeding. The material for analysis were the irradiated forms of two-rowed barley varieties M1 Acha and Cupid."
The Water Connection: Irrigation, Water Grabbing and Politics in Southern Morocco
(2012) Houdret, Annabelle
"Water and land grabbing is often an indication of growing control by an elite group over natural resources for agricultural production, marginalising their previous users. It may drive and exacerbate social, economic and political disparities and so increase the potential for conflict. In Southern Morocco’s Souss valley, the overuse of water resources is causing aquifer levels to sink and agricultural land to be abandoned. At the same time, irrigated agriculture is still expanding, often permitting the lucrative growing of citrus fruits. This export-oriented agriculture mostly benefits the economic elite, increasing their political influence. Small farmers, on the other hand, face growing threats to their livelihoods. A public-private partnership (PPP) project reallocating water through a 90 km pipeline from a mountain region to plantations in the valley has been implemented to enhance water supply and save dying citrus plantations. However, it is accentuating disparities between farmers. We trace the dynamics of marginalisation linked to this PPP and use emerging water conflicts as a lens to analyse the appropriation of water resources and the underlying political and economic relationships and strategies. On the basis of the case study, we show that water conflicts are as much struggles over political influence as over the resource itself and, consequently, that the related phenomenon of 'water grabbing' is not only driven by economic interests but also determined by a political agenda of regime stability and economic control. However, we also point to the opportunities presented by recent social and political changes in Morocco, including the influence of the 'Arab Spring', and argue that such processes as increasing transparency, decentralisation and the empowerment of local civil society support the re-appropriation of water, livelihoods and power. We conclude by examining the limits of this PPP model, which has been internationally praised by financial institutions, and calling for a careful evaluation of its ecological and social impacts before such experience is replicated elsewhere."
Water Grabbing and the Role of Power: Shifting Water Governance in the Light of Agricultural Foreign Direct Investment
(2012) Bues, Andrea; Theesfeld, Insa
"In recent years, the trend for foreign actors to secure land for agricultural production in low-income countries has increased substantially. The concurrent acquisition of water resources changes the institutional arrangement for water management in the investment areas. The consequences of 'land-grabbing' on the local water governance systems have not so far been adequately examined. This paper presents an institutional analysis of a small-scale irrigation scheme in Ethiopia, where foreign and national horticultural farms started to use water from an irrigation canal that was formerly managed as a user-group common-pool resource by local smallholders. The study follows a qualitative case-study approach with semi-structured interviews as the main source of data. For the analysis we employed the Common-pool Resource Theory and the Distributional Theory of Institutional Change. We found that the former management regime changed in that most of the farmers’ water rights shifted to the investment farms. We found three key characteristics responsible for the different bargaining power of the two actor groups: dependency on natural resources, education and knowledge, and dependency on government support. We conclude that not only the struggle for land but also the directly linked struggle for water is led by diverging interests, which are determined by diverging power resources."

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