Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Response To Climate Risks Among Smallholder Farmers In Malawi: A Multivariate Probit Assessment Of The Role Of Information, Household Demographics, And Farm Characteristics, Chalmers Mulwa, Paswel Marenya, Dil Bahadur Rahut, Menale Kassie

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Why do many smallholder farmers fail to adopt what appear to be relatively simple agronomic or management practices which can help them cope with climate-induced stressors? Using household and plot level data collected in 2011, we implement a multivariate probit model to assess the determinants of farmer adaptation behavior to climatic risks and the relative contribution of information, credit and education on the probability of adopting specific practices in response to adverse changes in weather patterns. We find that plot characteristics, credit constraints and availability of climate-related information explain the adoption of several of these practices. In relative terms, we …

Risk Mitigation Through Diversified Farm Production Strategies: The Case In Northern Mozambique, Olivia C. Caillouet, Lawton L. Nalley, Amy L. Farmer

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Mozambique, like many other parts of the low-income world, faces perennial challenges with food security. With a rapidly growing population and arable land on the decline, sustainable agriculture is vital to managing the already depleted natural resources of Sub-Saharan Africa more effectively while increasing food security. Food security issues for subsistence farmers in most low-income countries are a product of endogenous (crop yields) and exogenous (currency fluctuations as many agricultural inputs are imported) factors. In Mozambique the value of the local currency, meticals, has decreased by approximately 50% since January 2015 compared to the U.S. dollar. While this makes exporting …

State Failure In Venezuela, Marcus Littman

Master's Theses

The role of the state is to provide political goods such as security and an environment conducive to economic growth. The Venezuelan state is failing to provide both security and conditions capable of producing economic growth. The government has exacerbated both by enacting failed policies. I measure the economic crisis in Venezuela based on the rates of inflation, falling foreign currency reserves, the food and medical supply shortage, falling government spending, and negative GDP growth. I measure the security crisis based on the escalating rate of kidnapping, human trafficking, drug sales, smuggling, theft, gun distribution, and homicide. In this thesis, …

Evaluation Of Parasite Resistance To Commonly Used Commercial Anthelmintics In Meat Goats On Humid Subtropical Pasture, Megan K. Goolsby, Maria Lenira Leite-Browning, Richard Browning Jr.

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Anthelmintic-resistant gastrointestinal nematode parasites are a threat to small ruminant industry sustainability. Meat goat does were administered one of four anthelmintics orally (ivermectin (n = 18), moxidectin (n = 18), levamisole hydrochloride (n = 17), or albendazole (n = 19)) or water (n = 18). Fecal samples were collected pretreatment and 12 days post-treatment. Fecal egg counts (FEC) were determined by the modified McMaster technique. The FEC reduction percentages (FECR%) were calculated using three equations. Log transformed FEC means were analyzed by treatment, sire breed of doe, and doe age. Sire breed affected (P < 0.05) pretreatment FEC, but not post-treatment FEC (P = 0.12). Pretreatment FEC did not differ (P = 0.21) by treatment group. Posttreatment FEC varied (P < 0.05) by treatment. Anthelmintic resistance determinations were based on FECR% falling below 90% or 80%, dependent on equation applied. Resistance was detected to all four anthelmintics using each equation. These results suggest the need for alternative methods of internal parasite control in goats.

Who’S The Fairest Of Them All? The Fractured Landscape Of U.S. Fair Trade Certification, Daniel Jaffee, Philip H. Howard

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, consumers in the United States have been confronted by no fewer than four competing fair-trade labels, each grounded in a separate certification system and widely differing standards. This fracturing is partly a response to the recent split by the U.S. certifier Fair Trade USA from the international fair trade system, but also illustrates longstanding divisions within the fair trade movement. This article explores the dynamics of competition among nonstate standards through content analyses of fair trade standards documents from the four U.S. fair-trade certifications for agrifood products (Fair Trade USA, Fairtrade America, Fair for Life, and the …

Has The Usage Of Precision Agriculture Technologies Actually Led To Increased Profits For Nebraska Producers?, Michael H. Castle

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An ever-increasing global demand for food, coupled with increasingly volatile commodity prices have charged producers with the task of becoming more efficient. As such, technologies aimed at producing more with less are continually being developed and marketed to producers. However, whether or not these expensive new technologies have resulted in improved profitability is still unknown, as the vast majority of studies showing their impact on profitability have been performed using hypothetical farms and simulations. These studies have shown the potential for increases in profitability from use, but their impact in the real world is still uncertain.

This project uses various …

Restoring Relationship: How The Methodologies Of Wangari Maathai And The Green Belt Movement In Post-Colonial Kenya Achieve Environmental Healing And Women's Empowerment, Casey L. Wagner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The effects of the colonial project in Kenya created multi-faceted damages to the land and indigenous people-groups. Using the lens of ecofeminism, this study examines the undergirding structures that produce systems such as colonization that oppress and destroy land, people, and other beings. By highlighting the experience of the Kikuyu people within the Kenyan colonial program, the innovative and ingenious response of Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement proves to be a relevant and effective counter to women's disempowerment and environmental devastation in a post-colonial nation. The approach of the Green Belt Movement offers a unique and accessible method for empowering …

Perspectives On The Development Of A Local Food System: The Case Of Dayton, Ohio, Diana Cuy Castellanos, John C. Jones, Joanne Christaldi, Katherine A. Liutkus

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

Multiple sectors play vital roles in a community’s development and maintenance of a sustainable local food system. This study explored the perceptions of twenty-two representatives from the civil society, public, and private sectors in Dayton, Ohio, about the development of the region’s local food system. The researchers employed grounded theory methodology for data collection and analysis. Core themes from the participants of each sector group emerged from the data and areas of convergence and divergence among groups were reported.

Multiplex Social Ecological Network Analysis Reveals How Social Changes Affect Community Robustness More Than Resource Depletion, Jacopo A. Baggio, Shauna B. Burnsilver, Alex Arenas, James S. Magdanz, Gary P. Kofinas, Manlio De Domenico

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Network analysis provides a powerful tool to analyze complex influences of social and ecological structures on community and household dynamics. Most network studies of social–ecological systems use simple, undirected, unweighted networks. We analyze multiplex, directed, and weighted networks of subsistence food flows collected in three small indigenous communities in Arctic Alaska potentially facing substantial economic and ecological changes. Our analysis of plausible future scenarios suggests that changes to social relations and key households have greater effects on community robustness than changes to specific wild food resources.

The Village Market: New Columbia Goes Shopping For Food Justice, Jane Therese Waddell

Dissertations and Theses

The Village Market is a nonprofit Healthy Corner Store that has been open since May of 2011 in the mixed-use, mixed-income New Columbia housing development in Portland, Oregon's Portsmouth neighborhood. The venture began as a "community-led" effort in partnership with Janus Youth Programs and Home Forward. The project was conceived after a private enterprise in the small grocery space designed into the development failed, leaving the neighborhood without easy access to healthy foods. This dissertation is a case study of the development process, the operation of the market, and the degree to which it addresses food justice and health equity …

Experiencing The Culture Of Cap-Haïtien: A Trip To Haiti, Alacyn Cox, Kamille Brawner, Kylie Echard

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Alacyn Cox and Kamile Brawner, third-year students, and Kylie Echard, a second-year student, are in the College of Agriculture. In this article, they provide readers with a glimpse of their first impressions on the economy, traditions, and culture they experienced during a study abroad, service-learning experience in Haiti.

How Time And Social Awareness Affect Good Policy Councils And Food Democracy In Communities, Chloe Degitz, Jill Clark

Learning Showcase 2016: A Celebration of Discovery, Transformation and Success

The data was collected via a Survey Monkey survey with a series of questions that ranged from how FPC's categorized themselves to their connection to the government to their top policy priorities. The survey also asked about what the FPC's needed assistance in in terms of funding to community engagement to being able to get from just fundraising to actual policy work. The participants were chosen for the survey using a database from the government. After the survey was closed, the data was collected into an Excel spreadsheet, The data was then collated into graphs and put in a side-by-side …

1912 - Report Of The Conservation Commission Of The State Of California

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

The report prepared by the Conservation Commission of the State of California investigated and gathered data and information concerning forestry, water, the use of water, water power, electricity, electrical or other power, mines and mining, mineral and other lands, dredging, reclamation and irrigation, providing such information for the purpose of revising, systematizing and reforming the state laws pertaining to these subjects.

Assisted Tree Migration In North America: Policy Legacies, Enhanced Forest Policy Integration, And Climate Change Adaptation, Adam Wellstead, Michael Howlett

Department of Social Sciences Publications

The weight of much expert forest management opinion is that issues such as climate change can be effectively addressed only if forest policy-making moves from a purely sectoral focus and undergoes a shift to a more integrated multi-issue, multi-sector policy-making process. This is because credible adaptation policies in the sector require greatly enhanced multi-sectoral policy integration if they are to succeed. But this requirement may be beyond the capacity of many countries to deliver. This article explores the integration challenges faced by forest policy-making in Canada and the United States and uses the case of Assisted Tree Migration (ATM) to …

Problemas Con La Producción De Café En Los Yungas / Problems With Coffee Production In Los Yungas, Rob Hefferon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Bolivia tiene un de los mejores climas y alturas para la producción de café en el mundo pero sólo califica como el productor numero 36 del mundo con 89,000 sacos de café en los años 2015/2016.[1] Hay un grupo de problemas que afectan la producción a largo y corto plazo. Los problemas son complicados, pero no son nuevos y la comunidad de cafetaleros está introduciendo innovaciones creativas para enfrentarlos y elevar el nivel de producción de café en Bolivia. A largo plazo, los bolivianos intentan elevar el perfil y conocimientos sobre el café boliviano mundialmente y también enfrentar el …

U. S. Mushroom Import Demand Estimation With Source Differentiated Aids And Rotterdam Models, Jun Li

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While technically considered as fungi, mushrooms are often classified as vegetables because they provide many of the nutritional attributes of produce as well as meat, beans, and grains. The U.S. is the largest consumer of mushrooms and the share of imports in total consumption of mushrooms has been rising and will likely continue to rise as U.S. consumers increasingly adopt healthier diets. While most of U.S. fresh mushroom imports are from Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea, most of U.S. canned mushroom imports are from China, India, Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

The contribution of this thesis is to provide the …

Give A Man A Fish: A Narrative Approach To A Case Study Of Soup Kitchens In The Wentworth Community, Evelyn Shen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study uses a narrative approach to explore the role of soup kitchens in the predominantly Coloured and English-speaking Wentworth community. Many of the community’s churches1 and non-profit organizations host soup kitchens regularly, rotating so that there is a meal available each day of the week.

Qualitative data was gathered through volunteering with the soup kitchens as a participant observer and having conversations and open-ended interviews with soup kitchen guests and hosts. Institutional context was provided by interviews with the Convener of the War Room and the Ward Councillor, and representatives of three non-profits in the community. In order to …

A Road To Somewhere: Changing Trade And The Adaptation To Survive In Humla, Sophie Louaillier

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper is an investigation of the changing trade in Humla, one of the most remote regions in Nepal. I particularly focus on the road being built from the village of Hilsa, which lies on the border of China and Nepal, to Simikot, the main town. This road will be accessible by all the villagers who live on the link trail now – the trail they walk on with their animals in order to reach the border site. Trade is especially important in Humla; there are no roads available to get there from the Nepal side, so everything must be …

A Study Of The Integration Of Artificial Insemination Into The Dairy Sector Of The Alaotra Mangoro Region Of Madagascar, Tara Hammonds

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The region of Alaotra Mangoro in central Madagascar is one of the country’s focal points for the development of the dairy industry. The Coopération Décentralisée, a partnership between Alaotra Mangoro and the French department Ille et Vilaine, has since 2007 been offering and subsidizing artificial insemination (AI) services for increased dairy production and the amelioration of local breeds. The program benefits about 150 local dairy farmers, who have noted a significantly higher level of production than those farmers who have chosen to continue using natural service to inseminate their cattle. Artificial insemination use in the region has increased since the …

The Future Of Oregon’S Agricultural Land, Christy Anderson Brekken, Lauren Gwin, Megan Horst, Nellie Mcadams, Sheila A. Martin

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Sixty-four percent of Oregon's farmland is expected to change hands in the next 20 years, yet many Oregon farmers are unprepared for succession. Simultaneously, beginning farmers are finding it harder to start farmers because of dramatically increasing land prices. These distinct but interwined challenges are addressed in a new research report from the Oregon State University Center for Small Farms, Portland State University's Planning Oregon/Institute for Metropolitan Studies, and Rogue Farm Corps. The study examines trends in land tenure and the effects they might have on Oregon's economy, rural communities, and environment. The report was in many ways inspired and …