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2013

Agriculture

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Articles 31 - 44 of 44

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Factors Inhibiting The Performance Of Agricultural Research Libraries And Information Services In Nigeria, Solomon Uganneya, Rebecca Ape (Ph.D), Nancy Ugbagir Mar 2013

Factors Inhibiting The Performance Of Agricultural Research Libraries And Information Services In Nigeria, Solomon Uganneya, Rebecca Ape (Ph.D), Nancy Ugbagir

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Agricultural Research Libraries have been established as information support system in recognition of the importance of information in agricultural research and development efforts of Nigeria. It is observed that agricultural sector has not been doing well in recent past and this has partly been attributed to the inability of the libraries to provide relevant and timely information services/resources to researchers and other stakeholders in agriculture and production: this paper stresses major issues, that indicate the performance of agricultural research libraries and information services in Nigeria, including: the nature of library professional, poor reward and accountability value, inadequate funding environment etc. …


Assessing Extension Education Efforts In Afghanistan Through The Eyes Of U.S. Agricultural Support Personnel, Seburn L. Pense, John W. Groninger Mar 2013

Assessing Extension Education Efforts In Afghanistan Through The Eyes Of U.S. Agricultural Support Personnel, Seburn L. Pense, John W. Groninger

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

Assessment of agricultural extension education efforts in Afghanistan was conducted through a qualitative case study of eight U.S. support personnel serving in the country. Security & access and provincial diversity were two overriding factors which determined how the three key attributes of assessment, content and process (Barrick et al., 2009) were able to function in an Afghan agricultural extension education program. Respondents indicated training should focus on young farmers and local farm demonstration sites should be essential program components. Respondents stressed recruitment of agents from local districts when this would not imperil the agents or their families. Respondents also insisted …


Nigeria 2002- 2012: High Economic Growth Rate, High Incidence Of Poverty, Why?, Mbutor O. Mbutor, Uba, I. Al-Hassan Mar 2013

Nigeria 2002- 2012: High Economic Growth Rate, High Incidence Of Poverty, Why?, Mbutor O. Mbutor, Uba, I. Al-Hassan

Bullion

Contrary to the widely held opinion that it is unthinkable that the Nigerian economy would have grown at the rate it did in the last decade and yet the incidence of poverty persisted, even grew higher, growth could actually occur without increasing employment or reducing poverty. This is possible if the economy were allowed to grow without a conscious effort to direct the direction of growth to the policymakers to make concerted efforts to smoothen the path of growth and introduce policies that will make growth pro-poor programmes is the one being currently pursued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, …


Private Agri-Food Standards: Contestation, Hybridity And The Politics Of Standards, Carmen Bain, Elizabeth Ransom, Vaughan Higgins Feb 2013

Private Agri-Food Standards: Contestation, Hybridity And The Politics Of Standards, Carmen Bain, Elizabeth Ransom, Vaughan Higgins

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Standards are an omnipresent yet generally taken-for-granted part of our everyday life (Higgins and Larner, 2010a; Timmermans and Epstein, 2010; Busch, 2011). Until recently, standards within the agri-food sector were typically dismissed (if thought of at all) by social scientists as rather benign, technical tools, primarily of interest to specialists concerned with facilitating markets and trade. Over the past decade, however, this assessment has changed considerably and many agri-food scholars now view standards as a useful entry point for analysing and understanding our social and material world. The degree of interest today is reflected in the fact that our call …


Componentes Sociais Da Migração: Experiências Da Província Sul, Zâmbia, Lisa Cliggett Jan 2013

Componentes Sociais Da Migração: Experiências Da Província Sul, Zâmbia, Lisa Cliggett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

As suposições comuns atribuem causas econômicas e ambientais às decisões de migração. Este trabalho revela a importância das estruturas do poder local – ao nível da comunidade e da família – para entender a migração. São examinados os processos migratórios na Província Sul da Zâmbia por meio do uso de informações coletadas de dois projetos de pesquisa qualitativa. Até recentemente, quando a seca e as doenças bovinas começaram a devastar a área, a Província Sul era conhecida por suas condições ideais para agropecuária. Até os últimos anos de 1980, os agricultores da Província Sul começaram a migrar para áreas da …


Science, Sentience, And Animal Welfare, Robert C. Jones Jan 2013

Science, Sentience, And Animal Welfare, Robert C. Jones

Ethics and Animal Welfare Collection

I sketch briefly some of the more influential theories concerned with the moral status of nonhuman animals, highlighting their biological/physiological aspects. I then survey the most prominent empirical research on the physiological and cognitive capacities of nonhuman animals, focusing primarily on sentience, but looking also at a few other morally relevant capacities such as self-awareness, memory, and mindreading. Lastly, I discuss two examples of current animal welfare policy, namely, animals used in industrialized food production and in scientific research. I argue that even the most progressive current welfare policies lag behind, are ignorant of, or arbitrarily disregard the science on …


Data Management And Sharing From The Perspective Of Graduate Students: An Examination Of Culture And Practice At The Water Quality Field Station, Jake R. Carlson, Marianne S. Bracke Jan 2013

Data Management And Sharing From The Perspective Of Graduate Students: An Examination Of Culture And Practice At The Water Quality Field Station, Jake R. Carlson, Marianne S. Bracke

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Libraries are actively seeking to identify and respond to the data management and curation needs of researchers. One important perspective in this area that is often overlooked is that of graduate students. This case study uses the Data Curation Profile Toolkit to interview six graduate students working for Agronomy researchers at the Water Quality Field Station (WQFS) research lab to understand the students’ practices with data, the challenges they face, and their attitudes towards managing and sharing data. Though a small study, this research could provide new insights for libraries creating data services, particularly in regards to graduate students.


How Population Density Influences Agricultural Intensification And Productivity: Evidence From Ethiopia, Anna Leigh Josephson Jan 2013

How Population Density Influences Agricultural Intensification And Productivity: Evidence From Ethiopia, Anna Leigh Josephson

Open Access Theses

We use household-level panel data to estimate how population density impacts agricultural intensification and farm income in Ethiopia. We hypothesize that increases in population density affect agricultural intensification and farm income directly through information flows, institutional development, and reduction in transactions costs. Increases in population density also affect agricultural intensification and farm income indirectly through farm size, agricultural wage rates, and staple crop prices. We find that increases in population density lead to lower farm sizes, which has major implications for agricultural intensification and household well-being. Our analysis indicates that increases in population density cause farmers to purchase more inorganic …


The Politics Of Transgenic Food: An Ethnographically Informed Analysis Of The Ban On Genetically Modified Crops In Bolivia, Kristin Gjelsteen Jan 2013

The Politics Of Transgenic Food: An Ethnographically Informed Analysis Of The Ban On Genetically Modified Crops In Bolivia, Kristin Gjelsteen

Summer Research

This research investigates a country that has recently committed itself to replacing all genetically modified crops with non-altered crops. Limitations and benefits associated with allowing or banning transgenic technology are examined through interviews with farmers, agricultural researchers, agronomists, biologists and environmental advocates in three diverse communities in Bolivia. This research explores how these stakeholders experience and understand the recent national rejection of this agricultural technology. Controversy surrounding development and use of transgenic technology illustrates moral, political, social and economic conflicts, presents risks and creates complex societal decisions with the potential to impact ecological systems, diversity of life, health (both natural …


The Human Transformation Of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Pacific Ocean), Terry L. Hunt, Carl P. Lipo Jan 2013

The Human Transformation Of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Pacific Ocean), Terry L. Hunt, Carl P. Lipo

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has become widely known as a case study of human-induced environmental catastrophe resulting in cultural collapse. The island's alleged "ecocide" is offered as a cautionary tale of our own environmental recklessness. The actual archaeological and historical record for the island reveals that while biodiversity loss unfolded, the ancient Polynesians persisted and succeeded. Demographic "collapse" came with epidemics of Old World diseases introduced by European visitors. In this paper, we outline the process of prehistoric landscape transformation that took place on Rapa Nui. This process includes the role of humans using fire to remove forest and convert …


Mine Action And Land Rights In South Sudan: Key Findings And Recommendations, Sharmala Naidoo, Francesca Marzatico, Lisa Monaghan Jan 2013

Mine Action And Land Rights In South Sudan: Key Findings And Recommendations, Sharmala Naidoo, Francesca Marzatico, Lisa Monaghan

Global CWD Repository

In March 2013, GICHD and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) undertook a joint mission to South Sudan on land rights and mine action in order to provide mine action organisations with analysis on land related conflict and practical guidance on how they can ensure their mine action operations “do no harm” and take land issues into consideration. This report summarises the key findings and recommendations from that mission.


Una Propuesta De Planificación Para Afrontar Los Efectos Del Cambio Climático En El Sector Agrícola De Jalisco, México, Isabelle A. Heilman Jan 2013

Una Propuesta De Planificación Para Afrontar Los Efectos Del Cambio Climático En El Sector Agrícola De Jalisco, México, Isabelle A. Heilman

CMC Senior Theses

Jalisco es un estado altamente vulnerable a los efectos del cambio climático. El estado es vulnerable a sequías en el norte e inundaciones en las costas. Jalisco también es un estado con un sector agrícola de alta producción. Los efectos del cambio climático ponen en riesgo esta producción agrícola, que en turno tendría efectos negativos en las familias agrícolas y la economía del estado. A través de varias estrategias de adaptación al nivel del agricultor y del gobierno, se puede crear un sector agrícola con posibilidades para afrontar los efectos del cambio climático con éxito. Para crear estas estrategias de …


Energy In The Corn Belt: Is Maize Production Sustainable?, Matthew Bernau Jan 2013

Energy In The Corn Belt: Is Maize Production Sustainable?, Matthew Bernau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technological and scientific innovation has transformed agricultural production. Corn production methods changed from a sustainable, nutrient recycling production system to one reliant on imported fossil energy inputs. Located in the Western Corn Belt, Union County, South Dakota was chosen as the study area. Changes in production methods are represented by four technological epochs: 1) The Draft Horse Epoch, 1890-1920; 2) The Tractor Epoch, 1920-1950; 3) The Fertilizer Epoch, 1950-1980; and 4) The Biotechnology and Precision Agriculture Epoch, 1980-2010. The energy budget method was used to measure the energy sustainability of corn production. The findings show that the volume of corn …


An Assessment Of Technology Adoptability In Sugarcane Burning Smoke Plume Mitigation, Sara Flecher Jan 2013

An Assessment Of Technology Adoptability In Sugarcane Burning Smoke Plume Mitigation, Sara Flecher

Theses and Dissertations

The adverse health effects of sugarcane burning emissions on surrounding communities are well documented. Sugarcane farmers in Louisiana, a major sugarcane producing state with 385,000 acres dedicated to sugarcane farming throughout, attempt to mitigate the effects of burn emissions by estimating the characteristics of the resultant smoke plume using meteorological variables as parameters. The current mitigation method designed by the LSU AgCenter, the American Sugar Cane League, and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry is a manual process requiring the tedious look-up of atmospheric variables from multiple sources and physically drawing a predicted smoke plume on a paper map, …