Sample records for agricultural development projects

  1. 7 CFR 550.16 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project development. 550.16 Section 550.16 Agriculture... § 550.16 Project development. REE provides partial funding to Cooperators to support research projects... the REE Agency's ADODR shall jointly develop the following documentation: (a) Project plan. A plan...

  2. 7 CFR 550.16 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project development. 550.16 Section 550.16 Agriculture... § 550.16 Project development. REE provides partial funding to Cooperators to support research projects... the REE Agency's ADODR shall jointly develop the following documentation: (a) Project plan. A plan...

  3. 7 CFR 550.16 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project development. 550.16 Section 550.16 Agriculture... § 550.16 Project development. REE provides partial funding to Cooperators to support research projects... the REE Agency's ADODR shall jointly develop the following documentation: (a) Project plan. A plan...

  4. Annual Review of Selected Developments; Agricultural Education and Training.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome (Italy).

    This document is the second in a series designed to describe agricultural education projects and practices which have been successful in promoting agricultural change and improvement in areas of the world where subsistance agriculture predominates. The projects are included here because of their emphasis on development of human resources and…

  5. Mediterranean Agricultural Soil Conservation under global Change: The MASCC project.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raclot, Damien; Ciampalini, Rossano

    2017-04-01

    The MASCC project (2016-2019, http://mascc-project.org) aims to address mitigation and adaptation strategies to global change by assessing current and future development of Mediterranean agricultural soil vulnerability to erosion in relation to projected land use, agricultural practices and climate change. It targets to i) assess the similarities/dissimilarities in dominant factors affecting the current Mediterranean agricultural soil vulnerability by exploring a wide range of Mediterranean contexts; ii) improve the ability to evaluate the impact of extreme events on both the current and projected agricultural soil vulnerability and the sediment delivery at catchment outlet; iii) evaluate the vulnerability and resilience of agricultural production to a combination of potential changes in a wide range of Mediterranean contexts, iv) and provide guidelines on sustainable agricultural conservation strategies adapted to each specific agro-ecosystem and taking into consideration both on- and off-site erosion effects and socio-economics issues. To achieve these objectives, the MASCC project consortium gather researchers from six Mediterranean countries (France, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy, Spain and Portugal) which monitor mid- to long-term environmental catchments and benefit from mutual knowledge created from previous projects and network. The major assets for MASCC are: i) the availability of an unrivalled database on catchment soil erosion and innovative agricultural practices comprising a wide range of Mediterranean contexts, ii) the capacity to better evaluate the impact of extreme events on soil erosion, iii) the expert knowledge of the LANDSOIL model, a catchment-scale integrated approach of the soil-landscape system that enables to simulate both the sediment fluxes at the catchment outlet and the intra-catchment soil evolving properties and iv) the multi-disciplinarity of the involved researchers with an international reputation in the fields of soil science

  6. 7 CFR 985.31 - Research and development proj-ects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Research and development proj-ects. 985.31 Section 985.31 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING... Research § 985.31 Research and development proj-ects. The Committee, with the approval of the Secretary...

  7. 7 CFR 985.31 - Research and development proj-ects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Research and development proj-ects. 985.31 Section 985.31 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING... Research § 985.31 Research and development proj-ects. The Committee, with the approval of the Secretary...

  8. 7 CFR 985.31 - Research and development proj-ects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Research and development proj-ects. 985.31 Section 985.31 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING... Research § 985.31 Research and development proj-ects. The Committee, with the approval of the Secretary...

  9. 7 CFR 985.31 - Research and development proj-ects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Research and development proj-ects. 985.31 Section 985.31 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING... Research § 985.31 Research and development proj-ects. The Committee, with the approval of the Secretary...

  10. Agricultural Energy Curriculum Development Project. Research and Development Project in Career Education, Vocational. Final Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wacholz, Marlin

    A project was conducted to develop energy instructional units which would fit into each year of a three-year farm business management curriculum. Four curriculum units which focus on fertilizer management in crop production were developed. The first unit was designed to develop farmers' awareness of energy as a vital resource to their businesses…

  11. Environmentally Sound Small-Scale Agricultural Projects. Guidelines for Planning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mohonk Trust, New Paltz, NY.

    This publication is the first of a series of manuals that present environmental guidelines for planning and implementing ecologically sustainable projects. Attention is particularly directed to the agricultural situation and needs of developing nations. Subject areas discussed include: (1) users and uses (identifying the major purposes of the…

  12. The Agriculture Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosenzweig, C.

    2010-12-01

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a distributed climate-scenario simulation exercise for historical model intercomparison and future climate change conditions with participation of multiple crop and world agricultural trade modeling groups around the world. The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of risk of hunger and world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Historical period results will spur model improvement and interaction among major modeling groups, while future period results will lead directly to tests of adaptation and mitigation strategies across a range of scales. AgMIP will consist of a multi-scale impact assessment utilizing the latest methods for climate and agricultural scenario generation. Scenarios and modeling protocols will be distributed on the web, and multi-model results will be collated and analyzed to ensure the widest possible coverage of agricultural crops and regions. AgMIP will place regional changes in agricultural production in a global context that reflects new trading opportunities, imbalances, and shortages in world markets resulting from climate change and other driving forces for food supply. Such projections are essential inputs from the Vulnerability, Impacts, and Adaptation (VIA) research community to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment (AR5), now underway, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. They will set the context for local-scale vulnerability and adaptation studies, supply test scenarios for national-scale development of trade policy instruments, provide critical information on changing supply and demand for water resources, and elucidate interactive effects of climate change and land use change. AgMIP will not only provide crucially-needed new global estimates of how climate change will affect food supply and hunger in the

  13. The Role of Education in Agricultural Projects for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in Kenya

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Walingo, Mary Khakoni

    2006-05-01

    Agricultural development projects have been promoted in many places as a feature of poverty-reduction strategies. Such projects have often been implemented without a strong in-built education component, and hence have had little success. Agricultural projects seek to improve food security by diversifying a household's resource base and facilitating the social and economic empowerment of women. The present study presents a survey designed to assess the relationship between education level and ability to benefit from dairy-development projects in Kenya. Results reveal higher occupation and employment levels among beneficiary than non-beneficiary households. On the other hand, beneficiaries of poverty-reduction schemes require specialized training. Apart from project-specific training, the level of general education alone cannot predict the attainment of project objectives.

  14. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. Annual Report 1987.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology, Ames. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.

    This report describes the activities of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Iowa State University, for the year ending June 30, 1987. During this fiscal year, CARD conducted numerous projects including the following: (1) a policy evaluation on agricultural applications of pesticides and ground water quality for the…

  15. Implication of Agricultural Land Use Change on Regional Climate Projection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, G.; Ahmed, K. F.; You, L.

    2015-12-01

    Agricultural land use plays an important role in land-atmosphere interaction. Agricultural activity is one of the most important processes driving human-induced land use land cover change (LULCC) in a region. In addition to future socioeconomic changes, climate-induced changes in crop yield represent another important factor shaping agricultural land use. In feedback, the resulting LULCC influences the direction and magnitude of global, regional and local climate change by altering Earth's radiative equilibrium. Therefore, assessment of climate change impact on future agricultural land use and its feedback is of great importance in climate change study. In this study, to evaluate the feedback of projected land use changes to the regional climate in West Africa, we employed an asynchronous coupling between a regional climate model (RegCM) and a prototype land use projection model (LandPro). The LandPro model, which was developed to project the future change in agricultural land use and the resulting shift in natural vegetation in West Africa, is a spatially explicit model that can account for both climate and socioeconomic changes in projecting future land use changes. In the asynchronously coupled modeling framework, LandPro was run for every five years during the period of 2005-2050 accounting for climate-induced change in crop yield and socioeconomic changes to project the land use pattern by the mid-21st century. Climate data at 0.5˚ was derived from RegCM to drive the crop model DSSAT for each of the five-year periods to simulate crop yields, which was then provided as input data to LandPro. Subsequently, the land use land cover map required to run RegCM was updated every five years using the outputs from the LandPro simulations. Results from the coupled model simulations improve the understanding of climate change impact on future land use and the resulting feedback to regional climate.

  16. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP): Protocols and Pilot Studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosenzweig, C.; Jones, J. W.; Hatfield, J. L.; Ruane, A. C.; Boote, K. J.; Thorburn, P.; Antle, J. M.; Nelson, G. C.; Porter, C.; Janssen, S.; hide

    2012-01-01

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a major international effort linking the climate, crop, and economic modeling communities with cutting-edge information technology to produce improved crop and economic models and the next generation of climate impact projections for the agricultural sector. The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Analyses of the agricultural impacts of climate variability and change require a transdisciplinary effort to consistently link state-of-the-art climate scenarios to crop and economic models. Crop model outputs are aggregated as inputs to regional and global economic models to determine regional vulnerabilities, changes in comparative advantage, price effects, and potential adaptation strategies in the agricultural sector. Climate, Crop Modeling, Economics, and Information Technology Team Protocols are presented to guide coordinated climate, crop modeling, economics, and information technology research activities around the world, along with AgMIP Cross-Cutting Themes that address uncertainty, aggregation and scaling, and the development of Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) to enable testing of climate change adaptations in the context of other regional and global trends. The organization of research activities by geographic region and specific crops is described, along with project milestones. Pilot results demonstrate AgMIP's role in assessing climate impacts with explicit representation of uncertainties in climate scenarios and simulations using crop and economic models. An intercomparison of wheat model simulations near Obregón, Mexico reveals inter-model differences in yield sensitivity to [CO2] with model uncertainty holding approximately steady as concentrations rise, while uncertainty related to choice of crop model increases with

  17. 7 CFR 985.31 - Research and development proj-ects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ..., may establish or provide for the establishment of production research, marketing research and... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Research and development proj-ects. 985.31 Section 985.31 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING...

  18. Agricultural policy and sustainable livestock development.

    PubMed

    Schillhorn van Veen, T W

    1999-01-01

    Future agricultural and rural development is, to a large extent, influenced by the projected food needs of 2.5 billion people expected to swell the world population by 2020. This increase will require more food in general and, in view of recent experience in East Asia, more animal products. To achieve this increase will require judicious use of resources, and trade, especially in those countries where natural resources are insufficient to support food production. Achieving food sufficiency in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for farmers, agro-industries, researchers and governments. The latter play an important role as many of the farmers' choices are, to a large extent, directed by government or supra-government, often through macro- and micro-economic policy. In many countries the economic, environmental, trade and agricultural policies have not been conducive to an agricultural development that is risk-free with respect to the environment, animal welfare or public health. The recent decline of government support in agriculture forced farmers in Western countries to think about more risk adverse agricultural practices and more efficient production systems. On the other hand, many countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as other developing countries, are still going through a painful process of adjustment to new market conditions. International banks and development agencies have a mandate to help developing countries, but are somewhat restricted both by needing to work directly with governments and by their perceived dogmatic approach to development. Changing policies do, now and in the future, also affect the development of animal disease control programmes, including the control of parasitic diseases. On the one hand there is an increasing interest in risk-free control practices, and on the other hand a demand for greater regulatory control over the production process. As parasitic diseases of animals are closely linked to the

  19. A Study of Job Demands and Curriculum Development in Agricultural Training Related to the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System. Final Report. Volume I. An Overview of the Research Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fisher, Harold S.; And Others

    This volume is one of a four-volume final report of a research project developed to identify the jobs and training needs for the area of wastewater land treatment systems and related agricultural occupations. The overall purpose of the project is presented in terms of its six subobjectives: (1) To identify the agricultural occupations related to…

  20. An Evaluation of the Agriculture Science Project in Mauritius. African Studies in Curriculum Development & Evaluation No. 102.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jeeroburkhan, M. Fazal

    This study evaluated the Agricultural Curriculum Project which is being implemented in 16 secondary schools in Mauritius. Specific areas examined included: (1) the relevance, appropriateness, and practicability of the project's general objectives; (2) the relevance, balance, and organization of the course content; (3) the effectiveness and…

  1. Ameli-EAUR project: which lessons for the promotion of agricultural value chains?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Traoré, M. B.; Dakouré, M. S.; Maïga, A. H.

    2017-03-01

    Due to the lack of rain, dry spell and agricultural insufficient inputs, agricultural yields are very low and do not allow achieving food self-sufficiency in countries such as Burkina Faso. To fight against this situation in the context of climate change, several researches have emerged such as agronomic research with the promotion of crop varieties that require little water and short growth period. The Ameli-EAUR project is another example of research. This project aimed to promote hygiene and sanitation by the use of sanitation by-product in rural and sub-urban areas of Burkina Faso. Ameli-EAUR project was initiated and implemented within five years. Completed in 2015, it appears necessary to think over its impacts on production hence the question: which lessons for the promotion of agriculture, specifically for agricultural value chains“? Based on the result of a post-survey performed one year after the end of the project, the aim of this presentation is to show that project can support the promotion of agricultural Value Chains in spite of difficulties if we take into account some parameters. To do this, we will start by presenting briefly Ameli-EAUR; then we will take stock of the project; finally, we will examine the possibilities it offers for the promotion of agricultural value chains, taking as example the vegetable gardening. We will also try to show the limits of value chains which are presented nowadays as a solution to many problems of agriculture in Africa.

  2. An Early Historical Examination of the Educational Intent of Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) and Project-Based Learning in Agricultural Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Kasee L.; Rayfield, John

    2016-01-01

    Project-based learning has been a component of agricultural education since its inception. In light of the current call for additional emphasis of the Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) component of agricultural education, there is a need to revisit the roots of project-based learning. This early historical research study was conducted to…

  3. Collaborative evaluation and market research converge: an innovative model agricultural development program evaluation in Southern Sudan.

    PubMed

    O'Sullivan, John M; O'Sullivan, Rita

    2012-11-01

    In June and July 2006 a team of outside experts arrived in Yei, Southern Sudan through an AID project to provide support to a local agricultural development project. The team brought evaluation, agricultural marketing and financial management expertise to the in-country partners looking at steps to rebuild the economy of the war ravaged region. A partnership of local officials, agricultural development staff, and students worked with the outside team to craft a survey of agricultural traders working between northern Uganda and Southern Sudan the steps approach of a collaborative model. The goal was to create a market directory of use to producers, government officials and others interested in stimulating agricultural trade. The directory of agricultural producers and distributors served as an agricultural development and promotion tool as did the collaborative process itself. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Information for Agricultural Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kaungamno, E. E.

    This paper describes the major international agricultural information services, sources, and systems; outlines the existing information situation in Tanzania as it relates to problems of agricultural development; and reviews the improvements in information provision resources required to support the process of agricultural development in Tanzania.…

  5. Facilitating Integrated Agricultural Technology Development through Participatory Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Otte, Pia Piroschka; Bernardo, Ricardo; Phinney, Randi; Davidsson, Henrik; Tivana, Lucas Daniel

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: In this paper, we discuss the role of participatory research in integrated agricultural technology development using the example of a solar fruit drying project in Mozambique.Design/Methodology/Approach: We engage in seven participatory exercises with groups of farmers from two farmers' associations in Inharrime district in Mozambique to…

  6. Understanding the Reach of Agricultural Impacts from Climate Extremes in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ruane, A. C.

    2016-12-01

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) has been working since 2010 to build a modeling framework capable of representing the complexities of agriculture, its dependence on climate, and the many elements of society that depend on food systems. AgMIP's 30+ activities explore the interconnected nature of climate, crop, livestock, economics, food security, and nutrition, using common protocols to systematically evaluate the components of agricultural assessment and allow multi-model, multi-scale, and multi-method analysis of intertwining changes in socioeconomic development, environmental change, and technological adaptation. AgMIP is now launching Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) with a particular focus on unforeseen consequences of development strategies, interactions between global and local systems, and the resilience of agricultural systems to extreme climate events. Climate extremes shock the agricultural system through local, direct impacts (e.g., droughts, heat waves, floods, severe storms) and also through teleconnections propagated through international trade. As the climate changes, the nature of climate extremes affecting agriculture is also likely to change, leading to shifting intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extents of extremes. AgMIP researchers are developing new scenario methodologies to represent near-term extreme droughts in a probabilistic manner, field experiments that impose heat wave conditions on crops, increased resolution to differentiate sub-national drought impacts, new behavioral functions that mimic the response of market actors faced with production shortfalls, analysis of impacts from simultaneous failures of multiple breadbasket regions, and more detailed mapping of food and socioeconomic indicators into food security and nutrition metrics that describe the human impact in diverse populations. Agricultural models illustrate the challenges facing agriculture, allowing

  7. Certified organic farming research and demonstration project by Oklahoma State University and USDA's Agricultural Research Service at Lane, Oklahoma

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    In 2003, Oklahoma State University and USDA, Agricultural Research Service, South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory received organic certification for 8 acres at the Lane Agricultural Center, Lane, OK. The certified organic land was used to develop a cooperative project with a diversity of a...

  8. Opportunities and challenges of sustainable agricultural development in China.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Jingzhu; Luo, Qishan; Deng, Hongbing; Yan, Yan

    2008-02-27

    This paper introduces the concepts and aims of sustainable agriculture in China. Sustainable agricultural development comprises sustainability of agricultural production, sustainability of the rural economy, ecological and environmental sustainability within agricultural systems and sustainability of rural society. China's prime aim is to ensure current and future food security. Based on projections of China's population, its economy, societal factors and agricultural resources and inputs between 2000 and 2050, total grain supply and demand has been predicted and the state of food security analysed. Total and per capita demand for grain will increase continuously. Total demand will reach 648 Mt in 2020 and 700 Mt in 2050, while total grain yield of cultivated land will reach 470 Mt in 2010, 585 Mt in 2030 and 656 Mt in 2050. The per capita grain production will be around 360kg in the period 2000-2030 and reach 470kg in 2050. When productivities of cultivated land and other agricultural resources are all taken into consideration, China's food self-sufficiency ratio will increase from 94.4% in 2000 to 101.3% in 2030, suggesting that China will meet its future demand for food and need for food security. Despite this positive assessment, the country's sustainable agricultural development has encountered many obstacles. These include: agricultural water-use shortage; cultivated land loss; inappropriate usage of fertilizers and pesticides, and environmental degradation.

  9. [Overview of organic agriculture development.

    PubMed

    Liu, Xiao Mei; Yu, Hong Jun; Li, Qiang; Jiang, Wei Jie

    2016-04-22

    This paper introduced the concepts of organic agriculture as defined by different international organizations, origin and theoretical development of organic agriculture, as well as its developing trajectory in China (i.e. a late start followed by rapid growth compared to developed countries). The differences between domestic and international organic agriculture were illustrated by scale, crop types, production standards, inputs and planting techniques. Constraints limiting improvements to organic agriculture in aspects of standards, technology, marketing, certification, environmental pollution, enterprise reputation, and national policies were discussed. Future directions and strategies for developing healthy organic agriculture in China were provided.

  10. Evaluation of Projected Agricultural Climate Risk over the Contiguous US

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, X.; Troy, T. J.; Devineni, N.

    2017-12-01

    Food demands are rising due to an increasing population with changing food preferences, which places pressure on agricultural production. Additionally, climate extremes have recently highlighted the vulnerability of our agricultural system to climate variability. This study seeks to fill two important gaps in current knowledge: how does the widespread response of irrigated crops differ from rainfed and how can we best account for uncertainty in yield responses. We developed a stochastic approach to evaluate climate risk quantitatively to better understand the historical impacts of climate change and estimate the future impacts it may bring about to agricultural system. Our model consists of Bayesian regression, distribution fitting, and Monte Carlo simulation to simulate rainfed and irrigated crop yields at the US county level. The model was fit using historical data for 1970-2010 and was then applied over different climate regions in the contiguous US using the CMIP5 climate projections. The relative importance of many major growing season climate indices, such as consecutive dry days without rainfall or heavy precipitation, was evaluated to determine what climate indices play a role in affecting future crop yields. The statistical modeling framework also evaluated the impact of irrigation by using county-level irrigated and rainfed yields separately. Furthermore, the projected years with negative yield anomalies were specifically evaluated in terms of magnitude, trend and potential climate drivers. This framework provides estimates of the agricultural climate risk for the 21st century that account for the full uncertainty of climate occurrences, range of crop response, and spatial correlation in climate. The results of this study can contribute to decision making about crop choice and water use in an uncertain future climate.

  11. Teacher Development Program for ATP 2000. Project Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sutphin, Dean; And Others

    Agri Tech Prep 2000 (ATP 2000) is a 4-year tech prep program linking high school and postsecondary curricula designed to prepare New York students for careers in agriculture or acceptance into a college program in agriculture. Because teacher development was designated an integral project component for fiscal year 1991-1992, a weeklong teacher…

  12. Development of Competency-Based Vocational Agricultural Instructional Materials for Handicapped Students Enrolled in Regular Agriculture Programs Other Than Horticulture. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baggett, Connie D.; And Others

    This report includes a description of a project to develop and field-test competency-based instructional materials for handicapped students enrolled in regular vocational agriculture programs; a list of project advisory personnel; the clusters of skills identified as appropriate for handicapped students enrolled in courses in dairy production,…

  13. Development paths of China's agricultural Pharmaceutical industry under Eco-agriculture background.

    PubMed

    Li, Jinkai; Gong, Liutang; Ji, Xi; Zhang, Jin; Miao, Pei

    2014-07-01

    Using pesticides has double effects. On one hand, it contributes to pests control and regulates the growth of crops; On the other hand, it does harm to the environment. To develop ecological agriculture should not only emphasize the output level of agriculture to pursuit of economic efficiency, but also need to keep the ecological environment protected and focus on the social benefits during the development of the industry. As a large agricultural country in the world, China is vigorously promoting the development of ecological agriculture, which is bound to put forward to developing the pesticide industry and green ecological development requirements to promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural pharmaceutical industry. This paper discusses the mechanism of pesticide pollution on the ecological environment and analyzes China's agricultural problems in the pharmaceutical industry. Then study on the development of Chinese green pesticides and try to find the proper paths of agricultural pharmaceutical to achieve industrial upgrading.

  14. The management and design of economic development projects: A case study of World Bank electricity projects in Egypt

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    El Sabaa, S.M.

    1992-01-01

    This study is concerned with the efficiency of World Bank projects in Egypt. The study seeks improvements in the methods of evaluating public sector projects in Egypt. To approaches are employed: (1) project identification to optimally allocate Egypt's and World Bank's resources; (2) project appraisal to assess the economic viability and efficiency of investments. The electricity sector is compared with the agriculture sector as a means of employing project identification for priority ordering of investment for development in Egypt. The key criteria for evaluation are the impacts of developments of each sector upon Egypt's national objectives and needs. These includemore » employment opportunities, growth, alleviation of poverty, cross comparison of per capita consumption in each sector, economic rate of return, national security, balance of payments and foreign debt. The allocation of scarce investments would have been more efficient in agriculture than in electricity in meeting Egypt's national objectives and needs. World Bank lending programs in Egypt reveal a priority ordering of electricity over agriculture and rural development. World Bank development projects in Egypt have not been optimally identified, and its programs have not followed an efficient allocation of World Bank's and Egypt's resources. The key parameters in evaluating economic viability and efficiency of development projects are: (1) the discount rate (the opportunity cost of public funds); (2) the exchange rate; and (3) the cost of major inputs, as approximated by shadow prices of labor, water, electricity, and transportation for development projects. Alternative approaches to estimating the opportunity cost of public funds are made. The parameters in evaluating the efficiency of projects have not been accurately estimated in the appraisal stage of the World Bank projects in Egypt, resulting in false or misleading information concerning the economic viability and efficiency of the projects.« less

  15. Improved agriculture and forest management in Africa through the AGRICAB project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bydekerke, L.; Tote, C.; Jacobs, T.; Gilliams, S.

    2012-04-01

    Agriculture and forestry are key economic sectors in many African countries. A sound management of these resources, in order to ensure stable food supply, is key for development. In many countries in Africa both forest and agricultural resources are under stress due to, among others, a growing population, land reforms, climate variability and change. Sound information is required to efficiently manage these resources. Remote sensing contributes significantly to these information needs and for this reason more and more institutes and agencies integrate this technology into their daily work. In this context, there is a growing need for enhancing remote sensing capacity in Africa and for this reason the European Commission launched the AGRICAB Project, funded by the FP7 Programme. The main focus of AGRICAB 'A Framework for enhancing earth observation capacity for agriculture and forest management in Africa as a contribution to GEOSS', is to link European and African research capacity in the use of earth observation technology for agriculture and forestry. The project consortium consists of 17 partners located in 12 different countries (5 in Europe, 10 in Africa and 1 in South America) and has three main components. Firstly, AGRICAB aims to ensure satellite data access, partly through GEONETCast. Secondly, AGRICAB will enhance research capacity through partnerships between African and European institutes in the following thematic areas (a) yield forecasting, (b) early warning and agricultural mapping of food crops, (c) agricultural statistics, (d) livestock and rangeland monitoring, and (e) forest and forest fire monitoring. Thirdly, a significant part is dedicated to training and building awareness concerning the advantage and benefits of the use of remote sensing in forest and agricultural management. AGRICAB intends to allow African partners: (i) to get exposed to state-of-the art techniques and models for agricultural and forest monitoring, (ii) to discover these

  16. Evaluation of Historical and Projected Agricultural Climate Risk Over the Continental US

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, X.; Troy, T. J.; Devineni, N.

    2016-12-01

    Food demands are rising due to an increasing population with changing food preferences, which places pressure on agricultural systems. In addition, in the past decade climate extremes have highlighted the vulnerability of our agricultural production to climate variability. Quantitative analyses in the climate-agriculture research field have been performed in many studies. However, climate risk still remains difficult to evaluate at large scales yet shows great potential of help us better understand historical climate change impacts and evaluate the future risk given climate projections. In this study, we developed a framework to evaluate climate risk quantitatively by applying statistical methods such as Bayesian regression, distribution fitting, and Monte Carlo simulation. We applied the framework over different climate regions in the continental US both historically and for modeled climate projections. The relative importance of any major growing season climate index, such as maximum dry period or heavy precipitation, was evaluated to determine what climate indices play a role in affecting crop yields. The statistical modeling framework was applied using county yields, with irrigated and rainfed yields separated to evaluate the different risk. This framework provides estimates of the climate risk facing agricultural production in the near-term that account for the full uncertainty of climate occurrences, range of crop response, and spatial correlation in climate. In particular, the method provides robust estimates of importance of irrigation in mitigating agricultural climate risk. The results of this study can contribute to decision making about crop choice and water use in an uncertain climate.

  17. Collaborative Evaluation and Market Research Converge: An Innovative Model Agricultural Development Program Evaluation in Southern Sudan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Sullivan, John M.; O'Sullivan, Rita

    2012-01-01

    In June and July 2006 a team of outside experts arrived in Yei, Southern Sudan through an AID project to provide support to a local agricultural development project. The team brought evaluation, agricultural marketing and financial management expertise to the in-country partners looking at steps to rebuild the economy of the war ravaged region. A…

  18. Agriculture and Provincial Reconstruction Teams: Assessing the Effectiveness of Agricultural Advisor Projects in Afghanistan

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-06-11

    employment in nonfarm sectors of the economy. Thus, agricultural development can contribute to the education of a rural population and assist the movement...categorized according to the ANDS objectives. In the ANDS, the four expected outcomes of the Agriculture and Rural Development Sector Strategy are: (1...States (U.S.) government, the U.S. Army, and the international community have identified rural and agricultural development as key components of long

  19. A DSS for sustainable development and environmental protection of agricultural regions.

    PubMed

    Manos, Basil D; Papathanasiou, Jason; Bournaris, Thomas; Voudouris, Kostas

    2010-05-01

    This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) for sustainable development and environmental protection of agricultural regions developed in the framework of the Interreg-Archimed project entitled WaterMap (development and utilization of vulnerability maps for the monitoring and management of groundwater resources in the ARCHIMED areas). Its aim is to optimize the production plan of an agricultural region taking in account the available resources, the environmental parameters, and the vulnerability map of the region. The DSS is based on an optimization multicriteria model. The spatial integration of vulnerability maps in the DSS enables regional authorities to design policies for optimal agricultural development and groundwater protection from the agricultural land uses. The DSS can further be used to simulate different scenarios and policies by the local stakeholders due to changes on different social, economic, and environmental parameters. In this way, they can achieve alternative production plans and agricultural land uses as well as to estimate economic, social, and environmental impacts of different policies. The DSS is computerized and supported by a set of relational databases. The corresponding software has been developed in a Microsoft Windows XP platform, using Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, and the LINDO library. For demonstration reasons, the paper includes an application of the DSS in a region of Northern Greece.

  20. Peasant agriculture and global change: A maya response to energy development in southeastern Mexico

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Collier, G.A.; Mountjoy, D.C.; Nigh, R.B.

    1994-06-01

    This article combines data and perspectives from anthropology, agricultural economics, and landscape ecology to study how peasant activity mediates the influence of global economic driving forces on land-use patterns. Southeastern Mexico underwent rapid energy development during the 1960's and 1970's. The state used oil revenues to complete projects such as two major new hydroelectric power projects. As energy development went into high gear, the southeastern region, which had been primarily agrarian, began to supply Mexico with 50% of its energy and much of its export oil and the agricultural base declined. Discussed in this article are the following related areas:more » sectoral changes under the energy development boom; landscape dynamics; off-farm activities of peasants during the energy boom; Ainacanteco agriculture transformed after 1982; off-farm peasant production and agrarian transformation; peasant versatility and environmental policy. 28 refs., 7 figs.« less

  1. The National Agricultural Text Digitizing Project: Toward the Electronic Library. Report of the Pilot Project, Phases 1-2, 1986-1992.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eaton, Nancy L.; Andre, Pamela Q. J.

    The National Agricultural Text Digitizing Project (NATDP) began in 1986 with cooperation between the National Agricultural Library and the University of Vermont, and then expanded to include 45 land-grant university libraries and 1 special library. The first activity was to evaluate the new technology of optical scanning. The project was designed…

  2. INSPIA project: European Index for Sustainable and Productive Agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Triviño-Tarradas, Paula; Jesús González-Sánchez, Emilio; Gómez-Ariza, Manuel; Rass, Gerard; Gardette, Sophie; Whitmore, Gavin; Dyson, Jeremy

    2017-04-01

    The concept of sustainable development has evolved from a mere perception for the protection of the environment, to a holistic approach, seeking to preserve not only the environment, but also to achieve sustainability in economics and social wellbeing. Globally, there is a major challenge to face in the agricultural sector: to produce more food, feed and other raw materials to satisfy the increasing demand of a growing population, whilst also contributing to economic prosperity, climate change mitigation / adaptation, social wellbeing and preserving natural capital such as soil, water, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Nowadays, conventional approaches to agriculture are under threat. A more productive and resource efficient agriculture that integrates natural resource protection into its approach will help to meet all these challenges, enabling us to have more of everything - more food, more feed, more non-food crops, more biodiversity and natural habitats - while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, INSPIA is an innovative approach that has worked since 2013 towards demonstration that sustainable productive agriculture is possible thanks to the implementation of a host of best management practices (BMPs) capable of delivering the above achievements. The purpose on INSPIA is to make visible with European decision makers that a sustainable and productive agricultural model exists in a small scale in Europe and that wider dissemination is possible with enabling legislation. INSPIA is demonstrating sustainable agriculture through the implementation of BMPs and the measurement and monitoring of a set of defined indicators (economic, social and environmental ones). INSPIA promotes sustainable practices that protect biodiversity, soils and water and contribute towards maintaining ecosystems services. This holistic sustainable system of productive agriculture is based on the combination of Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Integrated Pest

  3. Impacts of Intensified Agriculture Developments on Marsh Wetlands

    PubMed Central

    Luan, Zhaoqing; Zhou, Demin

    2013-01-01

    A spatiotemporal analysis on the changes in the marsh landscape in the Honghe National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar reserve, and the surrounding farms in the core area of the Sanjiang Plain during the past 30 years was conducted by integrating field survey work with remote sensing techniques. The results indicated that intensified agricultural development had transformed a unique natural marsh landscape into an agricultural landscape during the past 30 years. Ninety percent of the natural marsh wetlands have been lost, and the areas of the other natural landscapes have decreased very rapidly. Most dry farmland had been replaced by paddy fields during the progressive change of the natural landscape to a farm landscape. Attempts of current Chinese institutions in preserving natural wetlands have achieved limited success. Few marsh wetlands have remained healthy, even after the establishment of the nature reserve. Their ecological qualities have been declining in response to the increasing threats to the remaining wetland habitats. Irrigation projects play a key role in such threats. Therefore, the sustainability of the natural wetland ecosystems is being threatened by increased regional agricultural development which reduced the number of wetland ecotypes and damaged the ecological quality. PMID:24027441

  4. A Project to Develop an Associate of Science Degree Curriculum in Renewable Energy Resources and Applications in Agriculture. Final Report, July 1, 1980-June 30, 1981.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allen, Keith; Fielding, Marvin R.

    A project was conducted at State Fair Community College (SFCC) in Sedalia, Missouri, to develop an associate of science degree curriculum in renewable energy resources and their application in agriculture. A pilot study, designed to verify and rate the importance of 138 competencies in fuel alcohol production and to ascertain employment…

  5. Developing Ubiquitous Sensor Network Platform Using Internet of Things: Application in Precision Agriculture.

    PubMed

    Ferrández-Pastor, Francisco Javier; García-Chamizo, Juan Manuel; Nieto-Hidalgo, Mario; Mora-Pascual, Jerónimo; Mora-Martínez, José

    2016-07-22

    The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water); however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of these main barriers are expensive equipment, the difficulty to operate and maintain and the standard for sensor networks are still under development. Nowadays, new technological development in embedded devices (hardware and communication protocols), the evolution of Internet technologies (Internet of Things) and ubiquitous computing (Ubiquitous Sensor Networks) allow developing less expensive systems, easier to control, install and maintain, using standard protocols with low-power consumption. This work develops and test a low-cost sensor/actuator network platform, based in Internet of Things, integrating machine-to-machine and human-machine-interface protocols. Edge computing uses this multi-protocol approach to develop control processes on Precision Agriculture scenarios. A greenhouse with hydroponic crop production was developed and tested using Ubiquitous Sensor Network monitoring and edge control on Internet of Things paradigm. The experimental results showed that the Internet technologies and Smart Object Communication Patterns can be combined to encourage development of Precision Agriculture. They demonstrated added benefits (cost, energy, smart developing, acceptance by agricultural specialists) when a project is launched.

  6. Developing Ubiquitous Sensor Network Platform Using Internet of Things: Application in Precision Agriculture

    PubMed Central

    Ferrández-Pastor, Francisco Javier; García-Chamizo, Juan Manuel; Nieto-Hidalgo, Mario; Mora-Pascual, Jerónimo; Mora-Martínez, José

    2016-01-01

    The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water); however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of these main barriers are expensive equipment, the difficulty to operate and maintain and the standard for sensor networks are still under development. Nowadays, new technological development in embedded devices (hardware and communication protocols), the evolution of Internet technologies (Internet of Things) and ubiquitous computing (Ubiquitous Sensor Networks) allow developing less expensive systems, easier to control, install and maintain, using standard protocols with low-power consumption. This work develops and test a low-cost sensor/actuator network platform, based in Internet of Things, integrating machine-to-machine and human-machine-interface protocols. Edge computing uses this multi-protocol approach to develop control processes on Precision Agriculture scenarios. A greenhouse with hydroponic crop production was developed and tested using Ubiquitous Sensor Network monitoring and edge control on Internet of Things paradigm. The experimental results showed that the Internet technologies and Smart Object Communication Patterns can be combined to encourage development of Precision Agriculture. They demonstrated added benefits (cost, energy, smart developing, acceptance by agricultural specialists) when a project is launched. PMID:27455265

  7. Modeling the determinants of the social impacts of agricultural development projects

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ahmadvand, Mostafa, E-mail: Ahmadvand_2000@yahoo.co; Karami, Ezatollah, E-mail: ekarami@shirazu.ac.i; Iman, Mohammad Taghi, E-mail: Iman@shirazu.ac.i

    2011-01-15

    In an attempt to help policy-makers improve the social sustainability of development projects, this study identifies the key determinants of farmers' attitudes relating to the social impacts of the floodwater spreading project (FWSP) on the Gareh-Bygone plain in Iran. In order to analyze the links between the various factors that affect the experience of social impact, a theoretical framework was developed. Stratified random sampling was used to survey 138 farm households from the four villages in the region. One male and one female from each house were interviewed face-to-face using a questionnaire, resulting in a total of 276 interviews. Structuralmore » factors were found to be the largest contribution to stakeholders' attitudes relating to the social impacts of the project. Results from a cluster analysis suggested that the level of floodwater information, level of participation, water access, ownership change, and environmental worldview were the most important factors explaining attitude towards social impact of the FWSP.« less

  8. Michigan's agricultural heritage: using historical data to develop authentic heritage attractions

    Treesearch

    Craig Wiles; Terry Shaffer; Gail Vander Stoep

    2003-01-01

    The Michigan Agricultural Heritage Project, a multi-disciplinary research effort at Michigan State University sponsored by the Michigan Department of Transportation, is currently completing a rural agricultural context document. While the main purpose of this project is to provide information, tools and resources for historic preservation consultants...

  9. Evaluating the use of Social Impact Assessment in the context of agricultural development projects in Iran

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ahmadvand, Mostafa, E-mail: ahmadvand_2000@yahoo.co; Karami, Ezatollah, E-mail: ekarami@shirazu.ac.i; Zamani, Gholam Hossein, E-mail: zamani@shirazu.ac.i

    2009-11-15

    The utilisation of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in Iran is analysed in terms of its policy context and its application in practice. Five case studies where SIA was employed in conjunction with Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for agricultural development projects are evaluated. In addition, the performance of the policy context is assessed. This research revealed that there are legal and institutional constraints to the effective functioning of SIA in Iran, and that there are deficiencies in the operating guidelines. There were serious problems associated with the way SIA was undertaken in all five case studies. Recommendations to improve the policymore » framework for the conduct of SIA are made. The recommendations advocate for a higher profile of SIA within legislation, for social issues to have greater emphasis in official guidelines for the conduct of EIA and SIA, and for a range of measures to increase the professionalism of SIA practice.« less

  10. Addressing Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Together: A Global Assessment of Agriculture and Forestry Projects.

    PubMed

    Kongsager, Rico; Locatelli, Bruno; Chazarin, Florie

    2016-02-01

    Adaptation and mitigation share the ultimate purpose of reducing climate change impacts. However, they tend to be considered separately in projects and policies because of their different objectives and scales. Agriculture and forestry are related to both adaptation and mitigation: they contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and removals, are vulnerable to climate variations, and form part of adaptive strategies for rural livelihoods. We assessed how climate change project design documents (PDDs) considered a joint contribution to adaptation and mitigation in forestry and agriculture in the tropics, by analyzing 201 PDDs from adaptation funds, mitigation instruments, and project standards [e.g., climate community and biodiversity (CCB)]. We analyzed whether PDDs established for one goal reported an explicit contribution to the other (i.e., whether mitigation PDDs contributed to adaptation and vice versa). We also examined whether the proposed activities or expected outcomes allowed for potential contributions to the two goals. Despite the separation between the two goals in international and national institutions, 37% of the PDDs explicitly mentioned a contribution to the other objective, although only half of those substantiated it. In addition, most adaptation (90%) and all mitigation PDDs could potentially report a contribution to at least partially to the other goal. Some adaptation project developers were interested in mitigation for the prospect of carbon funding, whereas mitigation project developers integrated adaptation to achieve greater long-term sustainability or to attain CCB certification. International and national institutions can provide incentives for projects to harness synergies and avoid trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation.

  11. The agricultural model intercomparison and improvement project (AgMIP): Protocols and pilot studies

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a distributed climate-scenario simulation research activity for historical period model intercomparison and future climate change conditions with participation of multiple crop and agricultural economic model groups around the...

  12. Agricultural aviation user requirement priorities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kaplan, R. L.; Meeland, T.; Peterson, J. E.

    1977-01-01

    The results are given of a research project pertaining to the development of agricultural aviation user requirement priorities. The raw data utilized in the project was obtained from the National Agricultural Aviation Association. A specially configured poll, developed by the Actuarial Research Corporation was used to solicit responses from NAAA members and others. The primary product of the poll is the specification of seriousness as determined by the respondents for some selected agricultural aviation problem areas identified and defined during the course of an intensive analysis by the Actuarial Research Corporation.

  13. Development, implementation and evaluation of satellite-aided agricultural monitoring systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cicone, R. C.; Crist, E. P.; Metzler, M.; Nuesch, D.

    1982-01-01

    Research activities in support of AgRISTARS Inventory Technology Development Project in the use of aerospace remote sensing for agricultural inventory described include: (1) corn and soybean crop spectral temporal signature characterization; (2) efficient area estimation techniques development; and (3) advanced satellite and sensor system definition. Studies include a statistical evaluation of the impact of cultural and environmental factors on crop spectral profiles, the development and evaluation of an automatic crop area estimation procedure, and the joint use of SEASAT-SAR and LANDSAT MSS for crop inventory.

  14. Enrolling Advisers in Governing Privatised Agricultural Extension in Australia: Challenges and Opportunities for the Research, Development and Extension System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paschen, Jana-Axinja; Reichelt, Nicole; King, Barbara; Ayre, Margaret; Nettle, Ruth

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Current developments in the Australian agricultural research, development and extension (RD&E) system exemplify the complex governance challenges arising from the international privatisation of agricultural extension. Presenting early challenges emerging from a multi-stakeholder project aimed at stimulating the role of the private…

  15. Recovery Act:Rural Cooperative Geothermal development Electric & Agriculture

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Culp, Elzie Lynn

    Surprise Valley Electric, a small rural electric cooperative serving northeast California and southern Oregon, developed a 3mw binary geothermal electric generating plant on a cooperative member's ranch. The geothermal resource had been discovered in 1980 when the ranch was developing supplemental irrigation water wells. The 240°F resource was used for irrigation until developed through this project for generation of electricity. A portion of the spent geothermal fluid is now used for irrigation in season and is available for other purposes, such as greenhouse agriculture, aquaculture and direct heating of community buildings. Surprise Valley Electric describes many of the challenges amore » small rural electric cooperative encountered and managed to develop a geothermal generating plant.« less

  16. Projected loss of soil organic carbon in temperate agricultural soils in the 21st century: effects of climate change and carbon input trends

    PubMed Central

    Wiesmeier, Martin; Poeplau, Christopher; Sierra, Carlos A.; Maier, Harald; Frühauf, Cathleen; Hübner, Rico; Kühnel, Anna; Spörlein, Peter; Geuß, Uwe; Hangen, Edzard; Schilling, Bernd; von Lützow, Margit; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid

    2016-01-01

    Climate change and stagnating crop yields may cause a decline of SOC stocks in agricultural soils leading to considerable CO2 emissions and reduced agricultural productivity. Regional model-based SOC projections are needed to evaluate these potential risks. In this study, we simulated the future SOC development in cropland and grassland soils of Bavaria in the 21st century. Soils from 51 study sites representing the most important soil classes of Central Europe were fractionated and derived SOC pools were used to initialize the RothC soil carbon model. For each site, long-term C inputs were determined using the C allocation method. Model runs were performed for three different C input scenarios as a realistic range of projected yield development. Our modelling approach revealed substantial SOC decreases of 11–16% under an expected mean temperature increase of 3.3 °C assuming unchanged C inputs. For the scenario of 20% reduced C inputs, agricultural SOC stocks are projected to decline by 19–24%. Remarkably, even the optimistic scenario of 20% increased C inputs led to SOC decreases of 3–8%. Projected SOC changes largely differed among investigated soil classes. Our results indicated that C inputs have to increase by 29% to maintain present SOC stocks in agricultural soils. PMID:27585648

  17. The Development Model Electronic Commerce of Regional Agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kang, Jun; Cai, Lecai; Li, Hongchan

    With the developing of the agricultural information, it is inevitable trend of the development of agricultural electronic commercial affairs. On the basis of existing study on the development application model of e-commerce, combined with the character of the agricultural information, compared with the developing model from the theory and reality, a new development model electronic commerce of regional agriculture base on the government is put up, and such key issues as problems of the security applications, payment mode, sharing mechanisms, and legal protection are analyzed, etc. The among coordination mechanism of the region is discussed on, it is significance for regulating the development of agricultural e-commerce and promoting the regional economical development.

  18. Farms and Learning Partnerships in Farming Systems Projects: A Response to the Challenges of Complexity in Agricultural Innovation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crawford, Anne; Nettle, Ruth; Paine, Mark; Kabore, Carolyn

    2007-01-01

    Managing the competing interests of productivity growth, environmental concerns, landscape change and societal expectations presents challenges for agricultural industries. Innovation projects supporting knowledge development to address these challenges often involve partnerships with commercial farms, a methodology which promises much but has…

  19. Agricultural model intercomparison and improvement project: Overview of model intercomparisons

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Improvement of crop simulation models to better estimate growth and yield is one of the objectives of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). The overall goal of AgMIP is to provide an assessment of crop model through rigorous intercomparisons and evaluate future clim...

  20. Agricultural Construction Volume I. Arc Welding Project Construction. Instructor's Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brzozowski, Dick; Admire, Myron

    This guide contains instructor's materials for teaching a secondary agricultural construction course consisting of instructional units on arc welding (8 lessons) and project construction (14 lessons). The materials for each unit include student objectives, a list of competencies from which the objectives were derived, suggestions for motivating…

  1. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project: Phase I Activities by a Global Community of Science. Chapter 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosenzweig, Cynthia E.; Jones, James W.; Hatfield, Jerry L.; Antle, John M.; Ruane, Alexander C.; Mutter, Carolyn Z.

    2015-01-01

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) was founded in 2010. Its mission is to improve substantially the characterization of world food security as affected by climate variability and change, and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. The objectives of AgMIP are to: Incorporate state-of-the-art climate, crop/livestock, and agricultural economic model improvements into coordinated multi-model regional and global assessments of future climate impacts and adaptation and other key aspects of the food system. Utilize multiple models, scenarios, locations, crops/livestock, and participants to explore uncertainty and the impact of data and methodological choices. Collaborate with regional experts in agronomy, animal sciences, economics, and climate to build a strong basis for model applications, addressing key climate related questions and sustainable intensification farming systems. Improve scientific and adaptive capacity in modeling for major agricultural regions in the developing and developed world, with a focus on vulnerable regions. Improve agricultural data and enhance data-sharing based on their intercomparison and evaluation using best scientific practices. Develop modeling frameworks to identify and evaluate promising adaptation technologies and policies and to prioritize strategies.

  2. Genetic Technology and Agricultural Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Staub, William J.; Blase, Melvin G.

    1971-01-01

    Examines the nature, application, limits and potential of applied genetics in plant breeding as a factor in South Asian agricultural development. Concludes other factors were also present in recent agricultural growth, and indicates some economic implications of continued growth, including problems of employment of displaced rural workers. (AL)

  3. Biodiversity Hotspots, Climate Change, and Agricultural Development: Global Limits of Adaptation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schneider, U. A.; Rasche, L.; Schmid, E.; Habel, J. C.

    2017-12-01

    Terrestrial ecosystems are threatened by climate and land management change. These changes result from complex and heterogeneous interactions of human activities and natural processes. Here, we study the potential change in pristine area in 33 global biodiversity hotspots within this century under four climate projections (representative concentration pathways) and associated population and income developments (shared socio-economic pathways). A coupled modelling framework computes the regional net expansion of crop and pasture lands as result of changes in food production and consumption. We use a biophysical crop simulation model to quantify climate change impacts on agricultural productivity, water, and nutrient emissions for alternative crop management systems in more than 100 thousand agricultural land polygons (homogeneous response units) and for each climate projection. The crop simulation model depicts detailed soil, weather, and management information and operates with a daily time step. We use time series of livestock statistics to link livestock production to feed and pasture requirements. On the food consumption side, we estimate national demand shifts in all countries by processing population and income growth projections through econometrically estimated Engel curves. Finally, we use a global agricultural sector optimization model to quantify the net change in pristine area in all biodiversity hotspots under different adaptation options. These options include full-scale global implementation of i) crop yield maximizing management without additional irrigation, ii) crop yield maximizing management with additional irrigation, iii) food yield maximizing crop mix adjustments, iv) food supply maximizing trade flow adjustments, v) healthy diets, and vi) combinations of the individual options above. Results quantify the regional potentials and limits of major agricultural producer and consumer adaptation options for the preservation of pristine areas in

  4. Emergy analysis of a farm biogas project in China: A biophysical perspective of agricultural ecological engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, S. Y.; Zhang, B.; Cai, Z. F.

    2010-05-01

    This paper aims to present a biophysical understanding of the agricultural ecological engineering by emergy analysis for a farm biogas project in China as a representative case. Accounting for the resource inputs into and accumulation within the project, as well as the outputs to the social system, emergy analysis provides an empirical study in the biophysical dimension of the agricultural ecological engineering. Economic benefits and ecological economic benefits of the farm biogas project indicated by market value and emergy monetary value are discussed, respectively. Relative emergy-based indices such as renewability (R%), emergy yield ratio (EYR), environmental load ratio (ELR) and environmental sustainability index (ESI) are calculated to evaluate the environmental load and local sustainability of the concerned biogas project. The results show that the farm biogas project has more reliance on the local renewable resources input, less environmental pressure and higher sustainability compared with other typical agricultural systems. In addition, holistic evaluation and its policy implications for better operation and management of the biogas project are presented.

  5. Development of an Integrated Agricultural Planning Model Considering Climate Change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Santikayasa, I. P.

    2016-01-01

    The goal of this study is to develop an agriculture planning model in order to sustain the future water use under the estimation of crop water requirement, water availability and future climate projection. For this purpose, the Citarum river basin which is located in West Java - Indonesia is selected as the study area. Two emission scenarios A2 and B2 were selected. For the crop water requirement estimation, the output of HadCM3 AOGCM is statistically downscale using SDSM and used as the input for WEAP model developed by SEI (Stockholm Environmental Institute). The reliability of water uses is assessed by comparing the irrigation water demand and the water allocation for the irrigation area. The water supply resources are assessed using the water planning tool. This study shows that temperature and precipitation over the study area are projected to increase in the future. The water availability was projected to increase under both A2 and B2 emission scenarios in the future. The irrigation water requirement is expected to decrease in the future under A2 and B2 scenarios. By comparing the irrigation water demand and water allocation for irrigation, the reliability of agriculture water use is expected to change in the period of 2050s and 2080s while the reliability will not change in 2020s. The reliability under A2 scenario is expected to be higher than B2 scenario. The combination of WEAP and SDSM is significance to use in assessing and allocating the water resources in the region.

  6. Landsat Image Analysis of the Rebea Agricultural Project, Mosul Dam and Lake, Northern Iraq

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Welsh, W.; Alassadi, F.

    2014-12-01

    An archive of 70 good-to-excellent quality Landsat TM and ETM+ images acquired between 1984 and 2011 were identified through visual examination of the GLOVIS web portal. After careful consideration of factors relevant to agriculture in the region (e.g., crop calendar) and associated image processing needs (e.g., preference for anniversary dates), the images deemed most appropriate were downloaded. Standard preprocessing, including visual quality and statistical inspection, sub-setting to the study area, was performed, and the results combined in a database with available GIS data. The resolution merge spatial enhancement technique was applied to any ETM+ imagery to improve visual clarity and interpretability. The NDVI was calculated for all images in the time series. Unsupervised classification of images was performed for dates ranging from 1987 just before the inception of the Rebea project in 1989 through 2011. In order to reduce uncertainty related to lack of detailed ancillary and/or ground reference data, simple land cover classes were mapped, specifically: surface water, agriculture, and other. Results were able to quantify and track areas of each class over time, and showed a marked decrease in agriculture between the Iraq invasion in 2003 to the end of the study period in 2011, despite massive efforts and capital by the United States and Iraqi governments to improve agriculture in the area. Complications to understanding the role of warfare and conflict on the environment in the Mosul region include severe drought and water shortages, including effects of the Turkish GAP water resource development project in the headwaters of the Tigris-Euphrates, as well as Mosul Dam structural problems associated with geologically-unsuitable conditions upon which the dam is constructed. Now, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) likely captured the Mosul Dam on the day this abstract was submitted. Our Landsat-based monitoring and analysis of the Rebea Project and

  7. "Intelligent Ensemble" Projections of Precipitation and Surface Radiation in Support of Agricultural Climate Change Adaptation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Taylor, Patrick C.; Baker, Noel C.

    2015-01-01

    Earth's climate is changing and will continue to change into the foreseeable future. Expected changes in the climatological distribution of precipitation, surface temperature, and surface solar radiation will significantly impact agriculture. Adaptation strategies are, therefore, required to reduce the agricultural impacts of climate change. Climate change projections of precipitation, surface temperature, and surface solar radiation distributions are necessary input for adaption planning studies. These projections are conventionally constructed from an ensemble of climate model simulations (e.g., the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5)) as an equal weighted average, one model one vote. Each climate model, however, represents the array of climate-relevant physical processes with varying degrees of fidelity influencing the projection of individual climate variables differently. Presented here is a new approach, termed the "Intelligent Ensemble, that constructs climate variable projections by weighting each model according to its ability to represent key physical processes, e.g., precipitation probability distribution. This approach provides added value over the equal weighted average method. Physical process metrics applied in the "Intelligent Ensemble" method are created using a combination of NASA and NOAA satellite and surface-based cloud, radiation, temperature, and precipitation data sets. The "Intelligent Ensemble" method is applied to the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 anthropogenic climate forcing simulations within the CMIP5 archive to develop a set of climate change scenarios for precipitation, temperature, and surface solar radiation in each USDA Farm Resource Region for use in climate change adaptation studies.

  8. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP): Progress and Preliminary Results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosenzweig, C.

    2011-12-01

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a distributed climate-scenario simulation exercise for historical model intercomparison and future climate change conditions with participation of multiple crop and agricultural trade modeling groups around the world. The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of risk of hunger and world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Recent progress and the current status of AgMIP will be presented, highlighting three areas of activity: preliminary results from crop pilot studies, outcomes from regional workshops, and emerging scientific challenges. AgMIP crop modeling efforts are being led by pilot studies, which have been established for wheat, maize, rice, and sugarcane. These crop-specific initiatives have proven instrumental in testing and contributing to AgMIP protocols, as well as creating preliminary results for aggregation and input to agricultural trade models. Regional workshops are being held to encourage collaborations and set research activities in motion for key agricultural areas. The first of these workshops was hosted by Embrapa and UNICAMP and held in Campinas, Brazil. Outcomes from this meeting have informed crop modeling research activities within South America, AgMIP protocols, and future regional workshops. Several scientific challenges have emerged and are currently being addressed by AgMIP researchers. Areas of particular interest include geospatial weather generation, ensemble methods for climate scenarios and crop models, spatial aggregation of field-scale yields to regional and global production, and characterization of future changes in climate variability.

  9. Study of agricultural waste treatment in China and Russia-based on the agriculture environment sustainable development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chernyaeva, Victoria A.; Teng, Xiuyi; Sergio

    2017-06-01

    China and Russia are both agriculture countries, agricultural environment sustainable development is very important for them. The paper studies three main agricultural wastes: straw, organic waste and plastic waste, and analyzes their treatments with the view of agricultural sustainable development.

  10. HANDBOOK FOR DEVELOPING AND OPERATING AGRICULTURAL OCCUPATIONS PROGRAMS.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    ANDERSON, HAROLD; LINSON, MARVIN G.

    THE RESPONSIBILITY OF VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE IN TRAINING FOR AGRICULTURALLY RELATED OCCUPATIONS IN ADDITION TO FARMING AND RANCHING PROMPTED THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS DETAILED GUIDE TO ASSIST ADMINISTRATORS, COUNSELORS, ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS, BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVES, AND TEACHERS IN DEVELOPING NEW AGRICULTURAL OCCUPATIONS PROGRAMS AND REVISING…

  11. The National Program for Occupational Safety and Health in Agriculture. 1992 Project Facts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health (DHHS/PHS), Cincinnati, OH.

    This book contains information about a project instituted in 1990 by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to prevent work-related diseases and injuries among agricultural workers. Included are facts about 25 projects within NIOSH and 42 cooperative agreements between NIOSH and institutions in 25 states. These…

  12. Minnesota 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge: Infusing Agricultural Science and Engineering Concepts into 4-H Youth Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rice, Joshua E.; Rugg, Bradley; Davis, Sharon

    2016-01-01

    Youth involved in 4-H projects have been engaged in science-related endeavors for years. Since 2006, 4-H has invested considerable resources in the advancement of science learning. The new Minnesota 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge program challenges 4-H youth to work together to identify agriculture-related issues in their communities and to…

  13. Projecting Agricultural Education Programs for the 21st Century Using a Modified Delphi Technique.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iverson, Maynard J.

    A modified three-step Delphi procedure was used to conduct a series of national studies of futurists regarded by their peers as top experts in agricultural education. The primary objective was to project enrollments in agricultural education programs for the 21st century. Other study objectives were to ascertain whether the Delphi technique could…

  14. Career Preparation in Agricultural Equipment and Mechanics: A Curriculum Guide for High School Vocational Agriculture. Test Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoder, Edgar P.

    This curriculum guide in agricultural equipment and mechanics is one of 10 guides developed as part of a vocational project stressing agribusiness, natural resources, and environmental protection. The scope of this guide includes two occupational subgroups: agricultural power service and repair, and the service of agricultural equipment. It is…

  15. Career Preparation Programs for Potential Agribusinessmen, Agricultural Agency Employees, and Agricultural Instructors. Final Report. July 1, 1976-June 30, 1977.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi State Univ., State College. Dept. of Agricultural Education.

    The purpose of the project was to develop innovative agricultural education programs within the comprehensive high school setting in selected school districts in the state of Mississippi, with the project's second year (described here) focusing on continuing existing specialized career preparation program in agriculture and continuing to orient…

  16. Natural resources evaluation by the use of remote sensing and GIS technology for agricultural development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pham Viet, C.; Nguyen Phuong, M.

    1993-11-01

    A multilevel Geographic Information System based on Remote Sensing and GIS-Technology is established to assess erosion susceptibility and select suitable land for soil conservation and regional planning, management. A cross analysis between the thematic maps and field data is done to examine the relationship between natural condition and land suitability for agriculture. The Land resources evaluation models are affective for understanding the cultivation possibility and can be used as a regional project to be applied in various Vietnam regions for agricultural development.

  17. Development of functional agricultural products utilizing the new health claim labeling system in Japan.

    PubMed

    Maeda-Yamamoto, Mari; Ohtani, Toshio

    2018-04-01

    In April 2015, Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan launched a new food labeling system known as "Foods with Function Claims (FFC)." Under this system, the food industry independently evaluates scientific evidence on foods and describes their functional properties. As of May 23, 2017, 1023 FFC containing 8 fresh foods have been launched. Meanwhile, to clarify the health-promoting effects of agricultural products, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) implemented the "Research Project on Development of Agricultural Products" and demonstrated the risk reduction of osteoporosis of β-cryptoxanthin rich Satsuma mandarins and the anti-allergic effect of the O-methylated catechin rich tea cultivar Benifuuki. These foods were subsequently released as FFC. Moreover, NARO elucidated the health-promoting effects of various functional agricultural products (β-glucan rich barley, β-conglycinin rich soybean, quercetin rich onion, etc.) and a healthy boxed lunch. This review focuses on new food labeling system or research examining functional aspects of agricultural products.

  18. Establishing Networks to Lever Investments in Developing Capacity for Agricultural Monitoring: A GEOGLAM Perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Whitcraft, A. K.; Becker-Reshef, I.

    2016-12-01

    Since 2011, the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) Initiative has been working to strengthen the international community's capacity to use Earth observation (EO) data to derive timely, accurate, and transparent information on agriculture. A key component of GEOGLAM is the development of individual and institutional capacity for EO-based agricultural monitoring at multiple scales, from national to regional to global, in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Despite the fact that the need for enhancing capacity is frequently acknowledged, there is little formal or informal literature documenting best practices for developing and implementing comprehensive capacity development strategies around Earth observations knowledge sharing. As a result, many projects and activities develop knowledge-sharing strategies on an ad hoc basis, and may be missing out on levering lessons, techniques, and toolsets already developed. In the past year, GEOGLAM has aimed to spur relationships and collaborations with capacity development initiatives and networks, toward sharing and documenting strategies and tactical experiences in this domain. This presentation will provide some perspective on challenges and opportunities encountered so far, from the GEOGLAM perspective, with the goal of continued dialogue and coordination with other session participants.

  19. Agriculture for improved nutrition: the current research landscape.

    PubMed

    Turner, Rachel; Hawkes, Corinna; Jeff, Waage; Ferguson, Elaine; Haseen, Farhana; Homans, Hilary; Hussein, Julia; Johnston, Deborah; Marais, Debbi; McNeill, Geraldine; Shankar, Bhavani

    2013-12-01

    Concern about food security and its effect on persistent undernutrition has increased interest in how agriculture could be used to improve nutritional outcomes in developing countries. Yet the evidence base for the impact of agricultural interventions targeted at improved nutrition is currently poor. To map the extent and nature of current and planned research on agriculture for improved nutrition in order to identify gaps where more research might be useful. The research, which was conducted from April to August 2012, involved developing a conceptual framework linking agriculture and nutrition, identifying relevant research projects and programs, devising and populating a "template" with details of the research projects in relation to the conceptual framework, classifying the projects, and conducting a gap analysis. The study identified a large number of research projects covering a broad range of themes and topics. There was a strong geographic focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and many studies were explicitly concerned with nutritional impacts on women and children. Although the study revealed a diverse and growing body of research, it also identified research gaps. Few projects consider the entire evidence chain linking agricultural input or practice to nutritional outcomes. There is comparatively little current research on indirect effects of agriculture on nutrition, or the effect of policies or governance, rather than technical interventions. Most research is focused on undernutrition and small farmer households, and few studies target consumers generally, urban populations, or nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. There is very little work on the cost-effectiveness of agricultural interventions. On the basis of these findings, we make suggestions for research investment and for broader engagement of researchers and disciplines in developing approaches to design and evaluate agricultural programs for improved nutrition.

  20. [Theories and methodologies of engineering designs on sustainable agricultural land consolidation project--a case study of Xuemeiyang land consolidation project in Changtai County, Fujian Province].

    PubMed

    Ye, Yanmei; Wu, Cifang; Cheng, Chengbiao; Qiu, Lingzhang; Huang, Shengyu; Zheng, Ruihui

    2002-09-01

    The concept and characteristics of engineering designs on sustainable agricultural land consolidation project were discussed in this paper. Principles, basic methods and procedures of engineering designs on agricultural land consolidation project were put forward, which were successfully adopted for designing agricultural land consolidation in Xuemeiyang region of Changtai County, including diversity designs of sustainable land use, engineering designs of soil improvement, roads, ditches, and drains for protecting existent animal environments, and design of ecological shelter-forests in farmland. Moreover, from sustainable economic, ecological and social points, the results of these engineering designs were evaluated based on fouteen important indexes. After carrying out these engineeringdesigns, the eco-environments and agricultural production conditions were significantly improved, and the farm income was increased in planned regions.

  1. Children and their 4-H animal projects: How children use science in agricultural activity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emo, Kenneth Roy

    Many children are introduced to science through informal educational programs. 4-H, an educational youth program, has a history of introducing scientific practices into agriculture. The purpose of this ethnographically-driven case study is to examine how science informs the actions of children raising market animals in a 4-H project. For two years the researcher collected data on 4-H children with market animal projects. Observations, interviews, and artifacts gathered are interpreted using the framework of activity theory. This study provides evidence for how the context of an activity system influences individual actions. Rules developed by the organization guide the actions of children to incorporate physical and psychological tools of science into their project to achieve the object: producing animals of proper weight and quality to be competitive in the county fair. Children learn the necessary actions from a community of practitioners through which expertise is distributed. Children's learning is demonstrated by the way their participation in their project changes with time, from receiving assistance from others to developing expertise in which they provide assistance to others. The strength of this educational experience is how children apply specific tools of science in ways that provide meaning and relevancy to their 4-H activity.

  2. Education for Rural Development: The Case of the UPCA/BNE Barrio Development School Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Contado, Tito E.

    The Barrio Development School, a 4-year action-research project which has been in operation for 2 years, is located at Masaya, Bay, Laguna, Philippines. Begun by the University of the Philippines, College of Agriculture, and the Board of National Education, it is a secondary school program for barrio youths who have decided to stay, live, and work…

  3. Food security in the 21st century: Global yield projections and agricultural expansion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davis, K. F.; Rulli, M.; D'Odorico, P.

    2013-12-01

    Global demands on agricultural lands are ever increasing as a result of population growth, changes in diet and increasing biofuel use. By mid-century, the demands for food and fiber are expected to roughly double with the population reaching 9.5 billion. However, earth's finite resource base places a ceiling on the amount of agricultural production that is possible. Several strategies have been widely discussed to meet these rapid increases and to extend the ceiling yet higher, including reducing waste, modifying diets, improving yield and productivity and expanding agriculture and aquaculture. One of the most promising of these is closing the yield gap of currently under-performing agricultural land that has the potential to be much more productive. With high inputs (e.g. irrigation, fertilizers), this strategy has real potential to increase food security, particularly in the developing world where population is expected to sharply increase and where a high potential for yield gap closure exists. Thus it is important to consider whether improvements in global yield can adequately meet global dietary demand during the 21st century. Constructing yield projections to the end of the century, we examine whether global crop production for 154 countries and 16 major food crops under selected agricultural and dietary scenarios can keep pace with estimates of population growth to 2100. By calculating the global production of calories, we are then able to examine how many people can be supported under future scenarios and how closing yield gaps can increase this potential. Our findings agree with previous studies that closing the yield gap alone cannot provide sufficient production by mid-century and that a heavy global dependence on trade will persist throughout the century. Using high-resolution global land suitability maps under a suite of climate models, we find that scenarios incorporating a combination of yield gap closure and agricultural expansion provide the most

  4. Development and Demonstration of Innovations in Adult Agricultural Education. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Persons, Edgar A.; And Others

    One of a series of related inquiries, this study focused on computer aided decision making and record keeping in farm management; and on instructional variables in adult agricultural education which affect the reception of agricultural innovations. Phases 1 and 2 of this project entailed use of farm record data in preparing concise summaries and…

  5. 76 FR 18581 - Correction; Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Standard Criteria for Agricultural and Urban...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-04-04

    ... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Reclamation Correction; Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Standard Criteria for Agricultural and Urban Water Management Plans AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation... notice in the Federal Register at 76 FR 16818 on the Central Valley Project Improvement Act Standard...

  6. The Development of a National Agricultural Extension Policy in Bangladesh.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walker, M.; Sarkar, A. A.

    1996-01-01

    The background of agriculture in Bangladesh and the process of developing a national agricultural extension policy focused on sustainable development are described. The policy explicates the meaning of agricultural extension, use of agricultural knowledge and information systems, and 11 core principles. (SK)

  7. Skill Sheets for Agricultural Mechanics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology, Ames. Dept. of Agricultural Education.

    This set of 33 skill sheets for agricultural mechanics was developed for use in high school and vocational school agricultural mechanics programs. Some sheets teach operational procedures while others are for simple projects. Each skill sheet covers a single topic and includes: (1) a diagram, (2) a step-by-step construction or operational…

  8. Agricultural development in a petroleum-based economy: Qatar

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hassan, M.F

    Developing countries, whose policies may have emphasized import substitution as a way to industrialize, now have incentives to stress agriculture. These new incentives are primarily the rapid increase in food prices, but also include the decline of foreign aid, particularly food aid. Qatar, a petroleum exporter, is examined to see if agricultural development is feasible, given the country's economy, which is lopsided with petroleum revenue and lacks modern accounting practices; constraints against agriculture, such as adverse climate, limited land used for cultivation, poor soil conditions, and a shortage of labor and equipment; the governmental role in agriculture; and the opportunitiesmore » for agricultural technology. Policies are needed to deal with questions of water use and resource allocation, with oil resources providing the financial means to overcome some of the constraints and with the government taking the initiative for modernizing the agricultural sector.« less

  9. Collaboration between nurses and agricultural teachers to prevent adolescent agricultural injuries: the Agricultural Disability Awareness and Risk Education Model.

    PubMed

    Reed, Deborah B; Kidd, Pamela S

    2004-01-01

    Nearly 2 million children live or work on America's farms and ranches. Despite the increasing mechanization of production agriculture in the United States, children still constitute a considerable portion of the work force on farms and ranches. When adjusted for actual work exposure time, adolescent injury rates on agricultural establishments surpass those of adults (Castillo, D. N., Landen, D. D., & Layne, L. A. (1994). American Journal of Public Health, 84, 646-649). This project, headed by two public health nurses, developed and tested an agricultural safety curriculum [Agricultural Disability Awareness and Risk Education (AgDARE)] for use in high school agriculture classes. Students who participated in AgDARE scored significantly higher in farm safety attitude and intent to change work behavior than the control group. School and public health nurses, working together with agriculture teachers, may make an effective team in reducing injuries among teen agricultural workers.

  10. "Development of an interactive crop growth web service architecture to review and forecast agricultural sustainability"

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seamon, E.; Gessler, P. E.; Flathers, E.; Walden, V. P.

    2014-12-01

    As climate change and weather variability raise issues regarding agricultural production, agricultural sustainability has become an increasingly important component for farmland management (Fisher, 2005, Akinci, 2013). Yet with changes in soil quality, agricultural practices, weather, topography, land use, and hydrology - accurately modeling such agricultural outcomes has proven difficult (Gassman et al, 2007, Williams et al, 1995). This study examined agricultural sustainability and soil health over a heterogeneous multi-watershed area within the Inland Pacific Northwest of the United States (IPNW) - as part of a five year, USDA funded effort to explore the sustainability of cereal production systems (Regional Approaches to Climate Change for Pacific Northwest Agriculture - award #2011-68002-30191). In particular, crop growth and soil erosion were simulated across a spectrum of variables and time periods - using the CropSyst crop growth model (Stockle et al, 2002) and the Water Erosion Protection Project Model (WEPP - Flanagan and Livingston, 1995), respectively. A preliminary range of historical scenarios were run, using a high-resolution, 4km gridded dataset of surface meteorological variables from 1979-2010 (Abatzoglou, 2012). In addition, Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5) global climate model (GCM) outputs were used as input to run crop growth model and erosion future scenarios (Abatzoglou and Brown, 2011). To facilitate our integrated data analysis efforts, an agricultural sustainability web service architecture (THREDDS/Java/Python based) is under development, to allow for the programmatic uploading, sharing and processing of variable input data, running model simulations, as well as downloading and visualizing output results. The results of this study will assist in better understanding agricultural sustainability and erosion relationships in the IPNW, as well as provide a tangible server-based tool for use by researchers and farmers - for both

  11. The United States Department Of Agriculture Northeast Area-wide Tick Control Project: history and protocol.

    PubMed

    Pound, Joe Mathews; Miller, John Allen; George, John E; Fish, Durland

    2009-08-01

    The Northeast Area-wide Tick Control Project (NEATCP) was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a large-scale cooperative demonstration project of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-patented 4-Poster tick control technology (Pound et al. 1994) involving the USDA-ARS and a consortium of universities, state agencies, and a consulting firm at research locations in the five states of Connecticut (CT), Maryland (MD), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), and Rhode Island (RI). The stated objective of the project was "A community-based field trial of ARS-patented tick control technology designed to reduce the risk of Lyme disease in northeastern states." Here we relate the rationale and history of the technology, a chronological listing of events leading to implementation of the project, the original protocol for selecting treatment, and control sites, and protocols for deployment of treatments, sampling, assays, data analyses, and estimates of efficacy.

  12. Tapping unsustainable groundwater stores for agricultural production in the High Plains Aquifer of Kansas, projections to 2110.

    PubMed

    Steward, David R; Bruss, Paul J; Yang, Xiaoying; Staggenborg, Scott A; Welch, Stephen M; Apley, Michael D

    2013-09-10

    Groundwater provides a reliable tap to sustain agricultural production, yet persistent aquifer depletion threatens future sustainability. The High Plains Aquifer supplies 30% of the nation's irrigated groundwater, and the Kansas portion supports the congressional district with the highest market value for agriculture in the nation. We project groundwater declines to assess when the study area might run out of water, and comprehensively forecast the impacts of reduced pumping on corn and cattle production. So far, 30% of the groundwater has been pumped and another 39% will be depleted over the next 50 y given existing trends. Recharge supplies 15% of current pumping and would take an average of 500-1,300 y to completely refill a depleted aquifer. Significant declines in the region's pumping rates will occur over the next 15-20 y given current trends, yet irrigated agricultural production might increase through 2040 because of projected increases in water use efficiencies in corn production. Water use reductions of 20% today would cut agricultural production to the levels of 15-20 y ago, the time of peak agricultural production would extend to the 2070s, and production beyond 2070 would significantly exceed that projected without reduced pumping. Scenarios evaluate incremental reductions of current pumping by 20-80%, the latter rate approaching natural recharge. Findings substantiate that saving more water today would result in increased net production due to projected future increases in crop water use efficiencies. Society has an opportunity now to make changes with tremendous implications for future sustainability and livability.

  13. Tapping unsustainable groundwater stores for agricultural production in the High Plains Aquifer of Kansas, projections to 2110

    PubMed Central

    Steward, David R.; Bruss, Paul J.; Yang, Xiaoying; Staggenborg, Scott A.; Welch, Stephen M.; Apley, Michael D.

    2013-01-01

    Groundwater provides a reliable tap to sustain agricultural production, yet persistent aquifer depletion threatens future sustainability. The High Plains Aquifer supplies 30% of the nation’s irrigated groundwater, and the Kansas portion supports the congressional district with the highest market value for agriculture in the nation. We project groundwater declines to assess when the study area might run out of water, and comprehensively forecast the impacts of reduced pumping on corn and cattle production. So far, 30% of the groundwater has been pumped and another 39% will be depleted over the next 50 y given existing trends. Recharge supplies 15% of current pumping and would take an average of 500–1,300 y to completely refill a depleted aquifer. Significant declines in the region’s pumping rates will occur over the next 15–20 y given current trends, yet irrigated agricultural production might increase through 2040 because of projected increases in water use efficiencies in corn production. Water use reductions of 20% today would cut agricultural production to the levels of 15–20 y ago, the time of peak agricultural production would extend to the 2070s, and production beyond 2070 would significantly exceed that projected without reduced pumping. Scenarios evaluate incremental reductions of current pumping by 20–80%, the latter rate approaching natural recharge. Findings substantiate that saving more water today would result in increased net production due to projected future increases in crop water use efficiencies. Society has an opportunity now to make changes with tremendous implications for future sustainability and livability. PMID:23980153

  14. Function-Task-Competency Approach to Curriculum Development in Vocational Education in Agriculture: Research Report No. 1. Project Background, Plan, and Model Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matteson, Harold R.

    The report explains the construction of the function-task-competency method of developing vocational education curricula in agriculture at the secondary and postsecondary levels. It discusses at some length five approaches to the development of vocational education curricula used in the past: the subject approach (which centers on subjects taught…

  15. Modelling analysis of water and land effects on agricultural development in the Heihe Agricultural Production Area, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, G.

    2017-12-01

    Water and land resources play vital roles in agricultural growth. They not only remarkably support overall economic growth, but may also restrict agricultural development. To document the influence of water and land on agriculture, we examined the "drag effects" of these two resources in limiting agricultural production. In this study, data from eight counties collected during 2000-2012 from the Heihe Agricultural Production Area in Gansu Province were used to analyze the drag effects of water and land resources on agricultural growth. These effects varied largely among the eight counties, which was consistent with the availability of these resources. This study will give scientific support to coordinating development with the availability of water and land resources in agricultural areas of China

  16. Toward a national core course in agricultural medicine and curriculum in agricultural safety and health: the "building capacity" consensus process.

    PubMed

    Rudolphi, Josie M; Donham, Kelley J

    2015-01-01

    ABSTRACT The agricultural industry poses specific hazards and risks to its workers. Since the 1970s, the University of Iowa has been establishing programs to educate rural health care and safety professionals who in turn provide education and occupational health and safety services to farm families and farm workers. This program has been well established in the state of Iowa as a program of Iowa's Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (I-CASH). However, the National 1989 Agriculture at Risk Report indicated there was a great need for agricultural medicine training beyond Iowa's borders. In order to help meet this need, Building Capacity: A National Resource of Agricultural Medicine Professionals was initiated as a project of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-funded Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health in 2006. Before the first phase of this project, a consensus process was conducted with a group of safety and health professionals to determine topics and learning objectives for the course. Over 300 students attended and matriculated the agricultural medicine course during first phase of the project (2007-2010). Beginning the second phase of the project (2012-2016), an expanded advisory committee (38 internationally recognized health and safety professionals) was convened to review the progress of the first phase, make recommendations for revisions to the required topics and competencies, and discuss updates to the second edition of the course textbook (Agricultural Medicine: Occupational and Environmental Health for the Health Professions). A formal consensus process was held and included an online survey and also a face-to-face meeting. The group was charged with the responsibility of developing the next version of this course by establishing best practices and setting an agenda with the long-term goal of developing a national course in agricultural medicine.

  17. Agricultural Development Workers Training Manual. Volume III. Crops.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leonard, David; And Others

    This training manual, the third volume in a four-volume series of curriculum guides for use in training Peace Corps agricultural development workers, deals with crops. The first chapter provides suggested guidelines for setting up and carrying out the crops component of the agricultural development worker training series. Included in the second…

  18. Genetic technology and agricultural development.

    PubMed

    Staub, W J; Blase, M G

    1971-07-09

    The genetic technologies being adopted in South Asia are significant factors in the agricultural development of the area. But, labeling them " miracle seeds," solely responsible for recent agricultural growth, is misleading. Certainly the introduction of new genetic technology has catalyzed South Asian agriculture and has instilled a new dynamism essential to economic development. Somewhat similar phenomena have, however, been observed in other parts of the world in other periods of history. The nature of these genetic technologies, how they are being applied, and their limits and potential have been explored above. Also, the effects of these varieties on the generation of employment, and the distribution of benefits accruing from them have been examined in preliminary fashion. Stemming from the preceding discussion, two areas of priority appear obvious. First, the close association of genetic technologies with irrigation suggests that irrigation should receive more attention than it has in the past. Large-scale public irrigation schemes are expensive and have tended to yield low rates of return. However, there appears to be room for marginal increases in, or improvements of, existing irrigation facilities. Second, even with a rapid spread of the practices associated with highyeild varieties, it may be too much to expect the farm sector to absorb the expected increases in the rural labor force. The generation of employment is a major problem in India as well as in most other developing countries. Hence, possibilities for expanding rural, nonfarm employment and controlling population growth should be sought vigorously.

  19. Interventions to reduce injuries among older workers in agriculture: A review of evaluated intervention projects.

    PubMed

    Nilsson, Kerstin

    2016-10-17

    The number of older workers is increasing throughout the industrialised world and older workers are known to be more frequent in the injury-prone agricultural sector. This paper sought to extend knowledge by reviewing evaluated intervention studies intended to decrease risks and work injuries among older workers in agriculture. A systematic literature review regarding: evaluated intervention projects on injury prevention, including participants aged 55 years and older, and working in agriculture. This review identified evaluated intervention projects regarding: i) intervention in injury prevention; ii) interventions to increase knowledge in health and safety tasks and practice; and iii) interventions to increase the use of safety equipment in work. The evaluations reviewed showed that the interventions were less successful in involving older agricultural workers than their younger counterparts. The evaluations also showed that the outcome of interventions was generally less positive or brought about no significant difference in risk awareness and behaviour change among older agricultural workers. Many articles and statistics describe injuries in agriculture. Especially older farm workers are one of the groups with most work injuries and deaths. Despite this, an important finding in this review was shortage of implemented and evaluated intervention studies orientated toward reduce injuries among older workers in agriculture. This review also found that no intervention project in the evaluations studied had a clear positive effect. Many intervention studies have problems with or lack of evaluation in the study design. Based on the results in this review, important future research tasks are to improve the design of interventions, devise implementation methods and formulate appropriate evaluation methods to measure the outcome of the interventions. Intervention programmes also need to involve older workers specific physical and cognitive age aspects in the design to

  20. Climatic Changes and Evaluation of Their Effects on Agriculture in Asian Monsoon Region- A project of GRENE-ei programs in Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mizoguchi, M.; Matsumoto, J.; Takahashi, H. G.; Tanaka, K.; Kuwagata, T.

    2015-12-01

    It is important to predict climate change correctly in regional scale and to build adaptation measures and mitigation measures in the Asian monsoon region where more than 60 % of the world's population are living. The reliability of climate change prediction model is evaluated by the reproducibility of past climate in general. However, because there are many developing countries in the Asian monsoon region, adequate documentations of past climate which are needed to evaluate the climate reproducibility have not been prepared. In addition, at present it is difficult to get information on wide-area agricultural meteorological data which affect the growth of agricultural crops when considering the impact on agriculture of climate. Therefore, we have started a research project entitled "Climatic changes and evaluation of their effects on agriculture in Asian monsoon region (CAAM)" under the research framework of the Green Network of Excellence (GRENE) for the Japanese fiscal years from 2011 to 2015 supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). This project aims to improve the reliability of future climate prediction and to develop the information platform which will be useful to design adaptation and mitigation strategies in agriculture against the predicted climatic changes in Asian monsoon regions. What is GRENE?Based on the new growth strategy which was approved by the Cabinet of Japan in June 2010, Green Network of Excellence program (GRENE) has started under MEXT from FY 2011. The objectives of this program are that the domestic leading universities work together strategically and promote a comprehensive human resource development and research of the highest level in the world while sharing research resources and research goals. In the field of environmental information, it is required that universities and research institutions, which are working on issues such as adaptation to climate change, cooperate to

  1. Introduction The Role of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Hillel, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Climate impacts on agriculture are of increasing concern in both the scientific and policy communities because of the need to ensure food security for a growing population. A special challenge is posed by the changes in the frequency and intensity of heat-waves, droughts, and episodic rainstorms already underway in many parts of the world. Changes in production are directly linked to such variations in temperature and precipitation during the growing season, and often to offseason changes in weather affecting soil-water storage and availability to crops. This is not an isolated problem but one of both global and regional importance, because of impacts on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers as well as consequences for the world food trade system. This two-part set the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP): Integrated Crop and Economic Assessments is the first to be entirely devoted to AgMIP (www.agmip.org). AgMIP is a major international research program focused on climate change and agriculture. The goal of the two parts is to advance the field by providing detailed information on new simulation techniques and assessments being conducted by this program. It presents information about new methods of global and regional integrated assessment, results from agricultural regions, and adaptation strategies for maintaining food security under changing climate conditions.

  2. Multi-disciplinary assessments of climate change impacts on agriculture to support adaptation decision making in developing countries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujisawa, Mariko; Kanamaru, Hideki

    2016-04-01

    Many existing climate change impact studies, carried out by academic researchers, are disconnected from decision making processes of stakeholders. On the other hand many climate change adaptation projects in developing countries lack a solid evidence base of current and future climate impacts as well as vulnerabilities assessment at different scales. In order to fill this information gap, FAO has developed and implemented a tool "MOSAICC (Modelling System for Agricultural Impacts of Climate Change)" in several developing countries such as Morocco, the Philippines and Peru, and recently in Malawi and Zambia. MOSAICC employs a multi-disciplinary assessment approach to addressing climate change impacts and adaptation planning in the agriculture and food security sectors, and integrates five components from different academic disciplines: 1. Statistical downscaling of climate change projections, 2. Yield simulation of major crops at regional scale under climate change, 3. Surface hydrology simulation model, 4. Macroeconomic model, and 5. Forestry model. Furthermore MOSAICC has been developed as a capacity development tool for the national scientists so that they can conduct the country assessment themselves, using their own data, and reflect the outcome into the national adaptation policies. The outputs are nation-wide coverage, disaggregated at sub-national level to support strategic planning, investments and decisions by national policy makers. MOSAICC is designed in such a way to promote stakeholders' participation and strengthen technical capacities in developing countries. The paper presents MOSAICC and projects that used MOSAICC as a tool with case studies from countries.

  3. A Spatial Data Model Desing For The Management Of Agricultural Data (Farmer, Agricultural Land And Agricultural Production)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Taşkanat, Talha; İbrahim İnan, Halil

    2016-04-01

    Since the beginning of the 2000s, it has been conducted many projects such as Agricultural Sector Integrated Management Information System, Agriculture Information System, Agricultural Production Registry System and Farmer Registry System by the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Turkish Statistical Institute in order to establish and manage better agricultural policy and produce better agricultural statistics in Turkey. Yet, it has not been carried out any study for the structuring of a system which can meet the requirements of different institutions and organizations that need similar agricultural data. It has been tried to meet required data only within the frame of the legal regulations from present systems. Whereas the developments in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and standardization, and Turkey National GIS enterprise in this context necessitate to meet the demands of organizations that use the similar data commonly and to act in terms of a data model logic. In this study, 38 institutions or organization which produce and use agricultural data were detected, that and thanks to survey and interviews undertaken, their needs were tried to be determined. In this study which is financially supported by TUBITAK, it was worked out relationship between farmer, agricultural land and agricultural production data and all of the institutions and organizations in Turkey and in this context, it was worked upon the best detailed and effective possible data model. In the model design, UML which provides object-oriented design was used. In the data model, for the management of spatial data, sub-parcel data model was used. Thanks to this data model, declared and undeclared areas can be detected spatially, and thus declarations can be associated to sub-parcels. Within this framework, it will be able to developed agricultural policies as a result of acquiring more extensive, accurate, spatially manageable and easily updatable farmer and

  4. Engineering Education for Agricultural and Rural Development in Africa

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adewumi, B. A.

    2008-01-01

    Agricultural Engineering has transformed agricultural practices from subsistence level to medium and large-scale production via mechanisation in the developed nations. This has reduced the labour force requirements in agriculture; increased production levels and efficiency, product shelf life and product quality; and resulted into…

  5. Representative Agricultural Pathways and Climate Impact Assessment for Pacific Northwest Agricultural Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    MU, J.; Antle, J. M.; Zhang, H.; Capalbo, S. M.; Eigenbrode, S.; Kruger, C.; Stockle, C.; Wolfhorst, J. D.

    2013-12-01

    Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) are projections of plausible future biophysical and socio-economic conditions used to carry out climate impact assessments for agriculture. The development of RAPs iss motivated by the fact that the various global and regional models used for agricultural climate change impact assessment have been implemented with individualized scenarios using various data and model structures, often without transparent documentation or public availability. These practices have hampered attempts at model inter-comparison, improvement, and synthesis of model results across studies. This paper aims to (1) present RAPs developed for the principal wheat-producing region of the Pacific Northwest, and to (2) combine these RAPs with downscaled climate data, crop model simulations and economic model simulations to assess climate change impacts on winter wheat production and farm income. This research was carried out as part of a project funded by the USDA known as the Regional Approaches to Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest (REACCH). The REACCH study region encompasses the major winter wheat production area in Pacific Northwest and preliminary research shows that farmers producing winter wheat could benefit from future climate change. However, the future world is uncertain in many dimensions, including commodity and input prices, production technology, and policies, as well as increased probability of disturbances (pests and diseases) associated with a changing climate. Many of these factors cannot be modeled, so they are represented in the regional RAPS. The regional RAPS are linked to global agricultural and shared social-economic pathways, and used along with climate change projections to simulate future outcomes for the wheat-based farms in the REACCH region.

  6. To establish pilot projects for agriculture renewable energy systems.

    THOMAS, 111th Congress

    Rep. Holden, Tim [D-PA-17

    2010-09-29

    House - 11/16/2010 Referred to the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

  7. Project CHOICE: #111-A. A Career Unit for Grades 3 and 4. Introduction to Fishing. (Agriculture and Ecological Studies Career Cluster).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Bakersfield, CA.

    This teaching unit, Introduction to Fishing, is one in a series of career guides developed by Project CHOICE (Children Have Options in Career Education) to provide the classroom teacher with a source of career-related activities linking third and fourth grade elementary classroom experiences with the world of work. Part of the Agriculture and…

  8. Molokai Farm Project. An Agricultural Training Program of the Maui Community College, University of Hawaii. Report for Fiscal Year 1982-83.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawaii State Dept. of Agriculture, Honolulu.

    The Molokai Farm Project at Maui Community College grew out of a grant for a Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Demonstration Program. The program, which can lead either to an associate degree or to a certification of completion for any number of smaller units of course work, is designed to develop students' managerial proficiency and the…

  9. Development of a global Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS) based on remote sensing data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Van Hoolst, R.

    2016-12-01

    According to the 2012 IPCC SREX report, extreme drought events are projected to become more frequent and intense in several regions of the world. Wide and timely monitoring systems are required to mitigate the impact of agricultural drought. Therefore, FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) and the Climate, Energy and Tenure Division (NRC) have established the `Agricultural Stress Index System' (ASIS). The ASIS is a remote sensing application that provides early warnings of agricultural drought at a global scale. The ASIS has first been designed and described by Rojas et al. (2011). This study focused on the African continent and was based on the back processing of low resolution data of the NOAA-satellites. In the current setup, developed by VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research), the system operates in Near Real Time using data from the METOP-AVHRR sensor. The Agricultural Stress Index (ASI) is the percentage of agricultural area affected by drought in the course of the growing season within a given administrative unit. The start and end of the growing season are derived per pixel from the long term NDVI average of SPOT-VEGETATION. The Global Administrative Unit Layer (GAUL) defines the administrative boundaries at level 0, 1 and 2. A global cropland and grassland map eliminates non-agricultural areas. Temperature and NDVI anomalies are used as drought indicators and calculated at a per pixel base. The ASIS aggregates this information and produces every dekad global maps to highlight hotspots of drought stress. New developments are ongoing to strengthen the ASIS to produce country specific outputs, improve existing drought indicators and estimate production deficits using a probabilistic approach.

  10. A better living. A small farmer development project benefits farmers and landless laborers.

    PubMed

    Molitor, C

    1992-12-01

    Nepal suffers from massive poverty. The efforts of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (AFAD) are directed to providing loans to small farmers for poverty alleviation. The 1st project between 1981 and 1987 and the 2nd project with closing loans in 1991 has assisted 88,000 rural poor in 41 districts, which is considerably more than the target of 58,000. A 3rd Loan Project funded just by ADB will benefit another 138,000 rural poor or 17% of eligible beneficiaries by 1995. Requirements for loans are income Rs2000, landless laborers, and farmers with .5 hectares of land. The credit limit is Rs30,000. An example of the improvement in standard of living of a mother and her 4 children is given; not only has her income increased form Rs2000/year to a potential Rs1800/month but her children are able to receive an education. She was 1 of 1550 participants in the subproject at Mahendra Nagar in the Dhanusa district. Another landless farmer joined an 8-person farmer group and the loan helped him establish a fishery which yields gross income of Rs7500/year. With an additional loan for expansion, he might be able to gross Rs15,000/year. The interest charge is 13% with repayment over 5 years compared with private moneylender charges of 60-100%. Support from the group organizer was needed, however, to encourage the fishery business, because the farmer's intentions were originally to buy a buffalo which other group members had done and then consumed, thus not providing for repayment of the loan. Organizers must not only direct farmers activities, but initially select suitable candidates, motivate them, and provide guidance. Organizers must have a certificate in science, social science, or agriculture. Loans can be obtained for agriculture, livestock and fish enterprises, cottage industries, and agricultural and retail trading. Group savings is encouraged through special meetings, as needed. 15% of the graduates have been

  11. Projections of atmospheric nitrous oxide under scenarios of improved agriculture and industrial efficiencies, diet modification, and representative concentration pathways (RCPs)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davidson, E. A.

    2011-12-01

    Atmospheric concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O), now at about 325ppb, have been increasing since the Industrial Revolution, as livestock herds increased globally and as use of synthetic-N fertilizers increased after WWII. The agricultural sector produces 70-80% of anthropogenic N2O. Significantly reducing those emissions while also improving the diets of the growing global human population will be very challenging. Increases in atmospheric N2O since 1860 are consistent with emissions factors of 2.5% of annual fertilizer-N usage and 2.0% of annual manure-N production being converted to N2O. These factors include both direct and indirect emissions attributable to these sources. Here I present projections of N2O emissions for a variety of scenarios including: (1) FAO population/diet scenarios with no changes in emission factors; (2) per-capita protein consumption in the developed world declines to 1980 levels by 2030 and only half of that is obtained from animal products, thus cutting global manure production by about 20%; (3) improvements in N-use efficiency and manure management reduce the emission factors by 50% by 2050; (4) same as 3 but industrial and transportation emissions are similarly reduced by 50% by 2050; and (5) all mitigations together. These projections are then compared to the four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) developed for the IPCC-AR5. With no further mitigation, the projections are consistent with RCP8.5, with atmospheric N2O at 368 ppb in 2050. RCP8.5 is a reasonable representation of N2O concentrations with growing agricultural production to feed a growing and better-nourished population, without improvements in agricultural efficiencies or changes in developed world diets. Major reductions in per-capita meat consumption in the developed world reduce projected 2050 N2O to 256 ppb, which is in line with RCP6.0. Cutting emission factors in half but without diet change would also lower projected 2050 N2O to 252ppb. Adding 50

  12. Adaptation to Climate change Impacts on the Mediterranean islands' Agriculture (ADAPT2CLIMA)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giannakopoulos, Christos; Karali, Anna; Lemesios, Giannis; Loizidou, Maria; Papadaskalopoulou, Christina; Moustakas, Konstantinos; Papadopoulou, Maria; Moriondo, Marco; Markou, Marinos; Hatziyanni, Eleni; Pasotti, Luigi

    2016-04-01

    Agriculture is one of the economic sectors that will likely be hit hardest by climate change, since it directly depends on climatic factors such as temperature, sunlight, and precipitation. The EU LIFE ADAPT2CLIMA (http://adapt2clima.eu/en/) project aims to facilitate the development of adaptation strategies for agriculture by deploying and demonstrating an innovative decision support tool. The ADAPT2CLIMA tool will make it possible to simulate the impacts of climate change on crop production and the effectiveness of selected adaptation options in decreasing vulnerability to climate change in three Mediterranean islands, namely Crete (Greece), Sicily (Italy), and Cyprus. The islands were selected for two reasons: firstly, they figure among the most important cultivation areas at national level. Secondly, they exhibit similarities in terms of location (climate), size, climate change threats faced (coastal agriculture, own water resources), agricultural practices, and policy relevance. In particular, the tool will provide: i) climate change projections; ii) hydrological conditions related to agriculture: iii) a vulnerability assessment of selected crops; iv) an evaluation of the adaptation options identified. The project is expected to contribute significantly to increasing climate resilience of agriculture areas in Sicily, Cyprus and Crete as well as at EU and international level by: • Developing, implementing and demonstrating an innovative and interactive decision support tool (ADAPT2CLIMA tool) for adaptation planning in agriculture that estimates future climate change impacts on local water resources, as well as the climate change vulnerability of the agricultural crop production in the project areas; • Evaluating the technical and economic viability of the implementation of the ADAPT2CLIMA tool; • Developing climate change adaptation strategies for agriculture (including a monitoring plan) for the three project areas and presenting them to the competent

  13. The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) Initiative: Developing methods and best practices for global agricultural monitoring

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Champagne, C.; Jarvis, I.; Defourny, P.; Davidson, A.

    2014-12-01

    Agricultural systems differ significantly throughout the world, making a 'one size fits all' approach to remote sensing and monitoring of agricultural landscapes problematic. The Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) was established in 2009 to bring together the global scientific community to work towards a set of best practices and recommendations for using earth observation data to map, monitor and report on agricultural productivity globally across an array of diverse agricultural systems. These methods form the research and development component of the Group on Earth Observation Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative to harmonize global monitoring efforts and increase market transparency. The JECAM initiative brings together researchers from a large number of globally distributed, well monitored agricultural test sites that cover a range of crop types, cropping systems and climate regimes. Each test site works independently as well as together across multiple sites to test methods, sensors and field data collection techniques to derive key agricultural parameters, including crop type, crop condition, crop yield and soil moisture. The outcome of this project will be a set of best practices that cover the range of remote sensing monitoring and reporting needs, including satellite data acquisition, pre-processing techniques, information retrieval and ground data validation. These outcomes provide the research and development foundation for GEOGLAM and will help to inform the development of the GEOGLAM "system of systems" for global agricultural monitoring. The outcomes of the 2014 JECAM science meeting will be discussed as well as examples of methods being developed by JECAM scientists.

  14. The PEDA Model. An advocacy tool modeling the interrelationships between population, development, the environment and agriculture in Africa.

    PubMed

    1999-01-01

    This article reports on the PEDA (population changes, environment, socioeconomic development and agriculture) model and its implication for policy-making in Africa. PEDA is an interactive computer simulation model (developed for a Windows environment) demonstrating the long-term impacts of alternative national policies on food security status of the population. The model is based on multistate demographic techniques, projecting at the same time 8 different subgroups (by age and sex) in the population, and based on 3 dichotomous individual characteristics: urban/rural place of residence; literacy status; and food security status. Through the manipulation of scenario variables, the model enables the user to project the proportion of the population that will be food secure and food insecure for a chosen point in time. This model developed by Dr. W. Lutz, Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, will serve as an advocacy tool to help convince policy-makers and country experts in Africa of the negative synergy arising from the interconnections of population growth, environmental deterioration, and declining agricultural production.

  15. Current and Projected Carbon Dynamics in US Agricultural Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ogle, S. M.; Paustian, K.; Zhang, Y.; Kent, J.; Gurung, R.; Klotz, R.

    2016-12-01

    Agricultural lands occur across a variety of landscapes in the United States, and carbon dynamics are largely controlled by management decisions along with edaphic characteristics, climate and other environmental drivers. Due to the influence of management, there is potential to sequester carbon in soils with adoption of conservation practices, such as setting aside degraded land from production, limiting tillage disturbance, enhancing crop production with higher yielding varieties, planting cover crops, and restoring wetlands where they have been drained for crop production. In 2010, the level of sequestration in mineral soils across US croplands was 48 million metric tonnes CO2 equivalent, which is down from the high during the past 25 years of 90 million metric tonnes CO2 equivalent. In contrast, drained wetlands that are used for crop production were emitting 22.1 million metric tonnes CO2 equivalent in 2010. In the short term, restoring drained wetlands would decrease CO2emissions to the atmosphere, and even with the additional CH4 emissions from restored wetlands, there would an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from these lands. In turn, this would make a significant contribution to the USDA Climate Smart Agriculture Plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 120 million metric tonnes CO2 equivalent in support of the Paris Agreement. The potential to sequester carbon in the future will also be impacted by climate change, in addition to the management decisions of land managers. We simulated future carbon dynamics through 2060 based on climate change projections for RCP 2.5, 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, with and without CO2 fertilization effects. We are using the results as input to a general equilibrium model for the agricultural economic sector to better understand the economic consequences of climate change and the potential for greenhouse gas mitigation. By evaluating the influence of climate change and economic welfare, our study is providing a

  16. Mediterranean California’s water use future under multiple scenarios of developed and agricultural land use change

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wilson, Tamara; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Cameron, D. Richard

    2017-01-01

    With growing demand and highly variable inter-annual water supplies, California’s water use future is fraught with uncertainty. Climate change projections, anticipated population growth, and continued agricultural intensification, will likely stress existing water supplies in coming decades. Using a state-and-transition simulation modeling approach, we examine a broad suite of spatially explicit future land use scenarios and their associated county-level water use demand out to 2062. We examined a range of potential water demand futures sampled from a 20-year record of historical (1992–2012) data to develop a suite of potential future land change scenarios, including low/high change scenarios for urbanization and agriculture as well as “lowest of the low” and “highest of the high” anthropogenic use. Future water demand decreased 8.3 billion cubic meters (Bm3) in the lowest of the low scenario and decreased 0.8 Bm3 in the low agriculture scenario. The greatest increased water demand was projected for the highest of the high land use scenario (+9.4 Bm3), high agricultural expansion (+4.6 Bm3), and high urbanization (+2.1 Bm3) scenarios. Overall, these scenarios show agricultural land use decisions will likely drive future demand more than increasing municipal and industrial uses, yet improved efficiencies across all sectors could lead to potential water use savings. Results provide water managers with information on diverging land use and water use futures, based on historical, observed land change trends and water use histories.

  17. Mediterranean California’s water use future under multiple scenarios of developed and agricultural land use change

    PubMed Central

    Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Cameron, D. Richard

    2017-01-01

    With growing demand and highly variable inter-annual water supplies, California’s water use future is fraught with uncertainty. Climate change projections, anticipated population growth, and continued agricultural intensification, will likely stress existing water supplies in coming decades. Using a state-and-transition simulation modeling approach, we examine a broad suite of spatially explicit future land use scenarios and their associated county-level water use demand out to 2062. We examined a range of potential water demand futures sampled from a 20-year record of historical (1992–2012) data to develop a suite of potential future land change scenarios, including low/high change scenarios for urbanization and agriculture as well as “lowest of the low” and “highest of the high” anthropogenic use. Future water demand decreased 8.3 billion cubic meters (Bm3) in the lowest of the low scenario and decreased 0.8 Bm3 in the low agriculture scenario. The greatest increased water demand was projected for the highest of the high land use scenario (+9.4 Bm3), high agricultural expansion (+4.6 Bm3), and high urbanization (+2.1 Bm3) scenarios. Overall, these scenarios show agricultural land use decisions will likely drive future demand more than increasing municipal and industrial uses, yet improved efficiencies across all sectors could lead to potential water use savings. Results provide water managers with information on diverging land use and water use futures, based on historical, observed land change trends and water use histories. PMID:29088254

  18. To and From the Field: Communications and Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Development Communication Report, 1978

    1978-01-01

    Information on current research and projects, as well as general suggestions and conceptual material, is presented in 11 articles related to communication in rural areas of developing nations. These articles deal with (1) how information flows to small Nepalese farms; (2) an overview of communication in agricultural development projects, with…

  19. Analysis of road development and associated agricultural land use change.

    PubMed

    Alphan, Hakan

    2017-12-05

    Development of road network is one of the strongest drivers of habitat fragmentation. It interferes with ecological processes that are based on material and energy flows between landscape patches. Therefore, changes in temporal patterns of roads may be regarded as important landscape-level environmental indicators. The aim of this study is to analyze road development and associated agricultural land use change near the town of Erdemli located in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The study area has witnessed an unprecedented development of agriculture since the 2000s. This process has resulted with the expansion of the road network. Associations between agricultural expansion and road development were investigated. High-resolution satellite images of 2004 and 2015 were used to analyze spatial and temporal dimensions of change. Satellite images were classified using a binary approach, in which land areas were labeled as either "agriculture" or "non-agriculture." Road networks were digitized manually. The study area was divided into 23 sublandscapes using a regular grid with 1-km cell spacing. Percentage of landscape (PL) for agriculture and road density (RD) metrics were calculated for the earlier (2004) and later (2015) years. Metric calculations were performed separately for each of the 23 sublandscapes in order to understand spatial diversity of agriculture and road density. Study results showed that both RD and PL exhibited similar increasing trends between 2004 and 2015.

  20. Environmental impacts of dispersed development from federal infrastructure projects.

    PubMed

    Southerland, Mark T

    2004-06-01

    Dispersed development, also referred to as urban growth or sprawl, is a pattern of low-density development spread over previously rural landscapes. Such growth can result in adverse impacts to air quality, water quality, human health, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, agricultural land, military training areas, water supply and wastewater treatment, recreational resources, viewscapes, and cultural resources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is charged with protecting public health and the environment, which includes consideration of impacts from dispersed development. Specifically, because federal infrastructure projects can affect the progress of dispersed development, the secondary impacts resulting from it must be assessed in documents prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has oversight for NEPA and Section 309 of the Clean Air Act requires that U.S. EPA review and comment on federal agency NEPA documents. The adverse effects of dispersed development can be induced by federal infrastructure projects including transportation, built infrastructure, modifications in natural infrastructure, public land conversion and redevelopment of properties, construction of federal facilities, and large traffic or major growth generation developments requiring federal permits. This paper presents an approach that U.S. EPA reviewers and NEPA practitioners can use to provide accurate, realistic, and consistent analysis of secondary impacts of dispersed development resulting from federal infrastructure projects. It also presents 24 measures that can be used to mitigate adverse impacts from dispersed development by modifying project location and design, participating in preservation or restoration activities, or informing and supporting local communities in planning.

  1. Environmental economics reality check: a case study of the Abanico Medicinal Plant and Organic Agriculture Microenterprise Project.

    PubMed

    Isla, Ana; Thompson, Shirley

    2003-01-01

    This paper presents a case study of the Abanico Medicinal Plant and Organic Agriculture Microenterprise Project in the Arenal Conservation Area, Costa Rica. Microenterprise is the Sustainable Development and the Women in Development model for gender equity and environment of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and large non-government organizations, like the World Wildlife Fund-Canada. The authors of this paper argue that debt-for-nature investment in microenterprise and ecological economic models are not distinct from neoclassical economic and development models that created the environmental, social and cultural crises in the first place. This case study shows that the world market accommodates only one model of development: unsustainable export-oriented production based on flexible labour markets, low wages, indebtedness and low cost production. Working standards in those micro-enterprises are eroded due to many factors,including indebtedness. What happened at a national level in non-industrial countries with the international debt crisis is now mirrored in individual indebtedness through microenterprise. Is current development policy creating a new form of indentured servitude? Medicinal plants, prior to commodification, were a source of women's power and upon commodification in international development projects, are the source of their exploitation.

  2. [Problems in development of agriculture-animal husbandry ecotone and its countermeasures].

    PubMed

    Baoyin, Taogetao; Bai, Yongfei

    2004-02-01

    Problems in development of Duolun, a typical agriculture-animal husbandry ecotone, and its countermeasures were discussed in this paper. Economic structure was not rational in Duolun, and it should develop industry and commerce, limit the scope of agriculture and animal husbandry, and actively increase efficiency of agriculture and animal husbandry. The structure of land use was not rational, and the main countermeasures were to increase area of forestland and grassland, and decrease cultivated area. On resources use, the main countermeasures were to exploit water resource rationally and bring into play resource superiority of mutually benefits on agriculture and animal husbandry. The ecological environment construction was the foundation of the national economy for sustainable development in agriculture-animal husbandry ecotone.

  3. Improving Agricultural Productivity in Tonga through Ensuring Data Availability and Enhancing Agro-meteorological Services

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, K. H.

    2015-12-01

    The project was first conceived in the Global Framework for Climate Services Regional Consultation in the Cook Islands in March 2014. In this meeting, key officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Forests, and Fisheries and the Tonga Meteorological Services had a meeting with the APEC Climate Center scientists with the idea to collaborate on a joint project. The project evolved to include the following components: assessment of users' needs and capacities, development of an agricultural database, research on the core relationships between agriculture and climate through modeling and field trials, and the development and delivery of agro-meteorological services. Envisioned outputs include a 2-7 day warning for pests and diseases, a suite of tools supporting decisions on planting dates and crop varieties, and other advisory services derived from seasonal climate forecasts. As one of the climate adaptation projects under its Pacific Island portfolio, the project will deliver urgent information services for Tongan agricultural growers and exporters. The project comes into greater importance and urgency, as the 2014 drought event resulted in the destruction of 80% of squash in Tonga, a main export crop from which the country derives foreign exchange earnings. Since 2014, some of the project achievements include the first agro-met data collection in Tonga, the development of an agricultural DB management system that houses archived agriculture data, and key meetings with stakeholders to ensure alignment of the project objectives and design with the interests of the Tongan government and other stakeholders. In addition, rigorous scientific research through modeling and field trials has been conducted to address the twin goals of supporting Tonga's economy as well as food security. Based on the findings from the research, tools will be developed to translate the science into knowledge that supports decisions on the farm scale.

  4. Project CHOICE: #170. A Career Education Unit for Grades 1 and 2. We Work with Animals. (Agriculture and Ecological Studies Career Cluster).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Bakersfield, CA.

    This teaching unit on working with animals is part of the Agriculture and Biological Studies Career Cluster included in a series of career guidebooks developed by Project CHOICE (Children Have Options in Career Education). The units are designed to provide the classroom teacher with a source of career-related activities linking first and second…

  5. Developing the 2012 national action plan for protecting children in agriculture.

    PubMed

    Lee, Barbara C; Gallagher, Susan S; Liebman, Amy K; Miller, Mary E; Marlenga, Barbara

    2012-01-01

    In 1996 the US launched a National Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative, guided by an action plan generated by a 42-member multidisciplinary committee. A major update to the plan was released following the 2001 Summit on Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention. From the year 2010 through 2011 a comprehensive assessment of progress to date was conducted followed by the drafting, review and finalizing of a new action plan-"The 2012 Blueprint for Protecting Children in Agriculture." This paper briefly describes the purpose and process for generating the new action plan then provides a listing of the 7 goals and 26 strategies within the plan. These goals and strategies account for trends in childhood agricultural injuries, changes in agricultural production and the demographics of its workforce, effectiveness of interventions, and the increasing use of social media, marketing and social networking. Primary funding for this project was provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which continues to serve as the lead federal agency for the national initiative.

  6. Projections of Virtual Water Trade Under Agricultural Policy Scenarios in China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dalin, C.; Hanasaki, N.; Qiu, H.; Mauzerall, D. L.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.

    2014-12-01

    China's economic growth is expected to continue into the next decades, accompanied by a sustained urbanization and industrialization. The associated increase in demand for land, water resources and rich foods will deepen the challenge to sustainably feed the population and balance environmental and agricultural policies. In previous work, Inner Mongolia was identified as a target province for trade or agricultural policies aimed at water-use efficiency improvements, due to its large production relying on particularly significant irrigation water use. In addition, water scarcity issues may arises in the greater Beijing area, which represents the largest urban area of arid Northern China. Increasing residential and industrial water demand in this region may lead to fewer available water for irrigation. For these reasons, it is important to estimate the impacts of specific policies aiming at reducing excessive water use for crop production in Inner Mongolia, as well as exploring ways to mitigate pressure on water resources in dry urban areas. In this study, we use socio-economic projections to assess the future state of China's virtual water trade (VWT) network. We then quantify the effects of agricultural policies on the national VWT system and on the efficiency of food trade in terms of water resources. This study addresses the following questions: (1) How future socio-economic changes will affect China's food trade and associated water transfers? (2) To which extent localized reductions of irrigated area can decrease agricultural water use while maintaining national food security? (3) How would these policies affect China's domestic and international VWT network and induced water resources savings (losses)?

  7. Ecosystem services driven by the diversity of soil biota - understanding and management in agriculture - The Biodiversa SoilMan-Project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Potthoff, Martin; Pérès, Guénola; Taylor, Astrid; Schrader, Stefan; Landa, Blanca; Nicolai, Annegret; Sandor, Mignon; Öptik, Maarja; Gema, Guzmán; Bergmann, Holger; Cluzeau, Daniel; Banse, Martin; Bengtsson, Jan; Guernion, Muriel; Zaller, Johann; Roslin, Tomas; Scheu, Stefan; Gómez Calero, José Alfonso

    2017-04-01

    Soil biota diversity is ensuring primary production in terrestrial ecosystems and agricultural productivity. Water and nutrient cycling, soil formation and aggregation, decomposition and carbon sequestration as well as control of pest organisms are important functions in soil that are driven by biota and biota interactions. In agricultural systems these functions support and regulate ecosystem services directed to agricultural production and agricultural sustainability. A main goal of future cropping systems will be to maintain or raise agricultural productivity while keeping production sustainable in spite of increasing food demands and ongoing soil degradation caused by inappropriate soil management practices. Farm based tools that farmers use to engineer soils for plant production depend as soil management factors on decisions by farmers, which are triggered by regional traditions, knowledge and also by agriculture policies as a governance impact. However, biological impacts on soil fertility and soil health are often neglected or overseen when planning and shaping soil management in annual cropping systems or perennial systems like vineyards. In order to get progress in conservation farming and in agricultural sustainability not only knowledge creation is in need, but also a clash of perspectives has to be overcome within the societies (generals public, farmers associations, NGOs) The talk will present the conception of the recently startet SoilMan-project and summaries selected results from current and recent European research projects.

  8. Landscape Analysis of Nutrition-sensitive Agriculture Policy Development in Senegal.

    PubMed

    Lachat, Carl; Nago, Eunice; Ka, Abdoulaye; Vermeylen, Harm; Fanzo, Jessica; Mahy, Lina; Wüstefeld, Marzella; Kolsteren, Patrick

    2015-06-01

    Unlocking the agricultural potential of Africa offers a genuine opportunity to address malnutrition and drive development of the continent. Using Senegal as a case study, to identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen agricultural policies with nutrition-sensitive approaches. We carried out a systematic analysis of 13 policy documents that related to food production, agriculture, food security, or nutrition. Next, we collected data during a participatory analysis with 32 national stakeholders and in-depth interviews with 15 national experts of technical directorates of the different ministries that deal with agriculture and food production. The current agricultural context has various elements that are considered to enhance its nutrition sensitivity. On average, 8.3 of the 17 Food and Agriculture Organization guiding principles for agriculture programming for nutrition were included in the policies reviewed. Ensuring food security and increasing dietary diversity were considered to be the principal objectives of agricultural policies. Although there was considerable agreement that agriculture can contribute to nutrition, current agricultural programs generally do not target communities on the basis of their nutritional vulnerability. Agricultural programs were reported to have specific components to target female beneficiaries but were generally not used as delivery platforms for nutritional interventions. The findings of this study indicate the need for a coherent policy environment across the food system that aligns recommendations at the national level with local action on the ground. In addition, specific activities are needed to develop a shared understanding of nutrition and public health nutrition within the agricultural community in Senegal. © The Author(s) 2015.

  9. Practicing Conservation Agriculture to mitigate and adapt to Climate Change in Jordan.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khresat, Saeb

    2016-04-01

    Climate change scenarios indicate that Jordan and the Middle East could suffer from reduced agricultural productivity and water availability among other negative impacts. Based on the projection models for the area, average temperature in Jordan is projected to increase between 1.2 and 1.6 °C by 2050. Projections for precipitation trends are projected to decrease by 16% by the year 2050. Evaporation is likely to increase due to higher temperatures. This is likely to increase the incidence of drought potential since precipitation is projected to decrease. The dominant form of agriculture system in Jordan is based on intensive tillage. This form of tillage has resulted in large losses of organic soil carbon, weaker soil structure, and cause compaction. It has negative effects on soil aeration, root development and water infiltration among other factors. There is a need to transform farming practices to conservation agriculture to sequester carbon so that climate change mitigation becomes an inherent property of future farming systems. Conservation Agriculture, a system avoiding or minimizing soil disturbance, combined with soil cover and crop diversification, is considered to be a sustainable production system that can also sequester carbon unlike tillage agriculture. Conservation agriculture promotes minimal disturbance of the soil by tillage (zero tillage), balanced application of chemical inputs and careful management of residues and wastes. This study was conducted to develop a clear understanding of the impacts and benefits of the two most common types of agriculture, traditional tillage agriculture and conservation agriculture with respect to their effects on land productivity and on soil carbon pools. The study results indicated that conservation agriculture contributed to the reduction of the farming systems' greenhouse gas emissions and enhance its role as carbon sinks. Also, it was found that by shifting to conservation agriculture labor cost needed for

  10. Barriers to Uptake of Conservation Agriculture in southern Africa: Multi-level Analyses from Malawi

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dougill, Andrew; Stringer, Lindsay; Whitfield, Stephen; Wood, Ben; Chinseu, Edna

    2015-04-01

    Conservation agriculture is a key set of actions within the growing body of climate-smart agriculture activities being advocated and rolled out across much of the developing world. Conservation agriculture has purported benefits for environmental quality, food security and the sustained delivery of ecosystem services. In this paper, new multi-level analyses are presented, assessing the current barriers to adoption of conservation agriculture practices in Malawi. Despite significant donor initiatives that have targeted conservation agriculture projects, uptake rates remain low. This paper synthesises studies from across 3 levels in Malawi: i.) national level- drawing on policy analysis, interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop; ii.) district level - via assessments of development plans and District Office and extension service support, and; iii) local level - through data gained during community / household level studies in Dedza District that have gained significant donor support for conservation agriculture as a component of climate smart agriculture initiatives. The national level multi-stakeholder Conservation Agriculture workshop identified three areas requiring collaborative research and outlined routes for the empowerment of the National Conservation Agriculture Task Force to advance uptake of conservation agriculture and deliver associated benefits in terms of agricultural development, climate adaptation and mitigation. District level analyses highlight that whilst District Development Plans are now checked against climate change adaptation and mitigation criteria, capacity and knowledge limitations exist at the District level, preventing project interventions from being successfully up-scaled. Community level assessments highlight the need for increased community participation at the project-design phase and identify a pressing requirement for conservation agriculture planning processes (in particular those driven by investments in climate

  11. Tuber resistance and slow rotting characteristics of potato clones associated with the Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project to the US-24 clonal lineage of Phytophthora infestans

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, is a devastating disease on potato worldwide and new lineages of the pathogen continue to develop in the U.S. Breeding for resistance is important for economic and environmental purposes. The Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project (SolCAP) focuses ...

  12. Agricultural Education for Sustainable Rural Development: Challenges for Developing Countries in the 21st Century.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Crowder, L.; Lindley, W. I.; Bruening, T. H.; Doron, N.

    1998-01-01

    Agricultural education institutions in developing countries must address immediate production needs as well as food security, sustainable agricultural, and rural development needs. This will mean moving to an interdisciplinary, systems approach that incorporates new topics. (Author/JOW)

  13. The System Dynamics Model for Development of Organic Agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rozman, Črtomir; Škraba, Andrej; Kljajić, Miroljub; Pažek, Karmen; Bavec, Martina; Bavec, Franci

    2008-10-01

    Organic agriculture is the highest environmentally valuable agricultural system, and has strategic importance at national level that goes beyond the interests of agricultural sector. In this paper we address development of organic farming simulation model based on a system dynamics methodology (SD). The system incorporates relevant variables, which affect the development of the organic farming. The group decision support system (GDSS) was used in order to identify most relevant variables for construction of causal loop diagram and further model development. The model seeks answers to strategic questions related to the level of organically utilized area, levels of production and crop selection in a long term dynamic context and will be used for simulation of different policy scenarios for organic farming and their impact on economic and environmental parameters of organic production at an aggregate level.

  14. Remote sensing advances in agricultural inventories

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dragg, J. L.; Bizzell, R. M.; Trichel, M. C.; Hatch, R. E.; Phinney, D. E.; Baker, T. C.

    1984-01-01

    As the complexity of the world's agricultural industry increases, more timely and more accurate world-wide agricultural information is required to support production and marketing decisions, policy formulation, and technology development. The Inventory Technology Development Project of the AgRISTARS Program has developed new automated technology that uses data sets acquired by spaceborne remote sensors. Research has emphasized the development of multistage, multisensor sampling and estimation techniques for use in global environments where reliable ground observations are not available. This paper presents research results obtained from data sets acquired by four different sensors: Landsat MSS, Landsat TM, Shuttle-Imaging Radar and environmental satellite (AVHRR).

  15. Training for Agriculture and Rural Development--1975.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome (Italy).

    Eighteen papers about education, training, and extension in rural areas of the developing world are presented in this 1975 journal published jointly by three United Nations agencies closely concerned with education and rural development: Food and Agriculture Organization; Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; International Labor…

  16. Agricultural Water Use under Global Change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, T.; Ringler, C.; Rosegrant, M. W.

    2008-12-01

    Irrigation is by far the single largest user of water in the world and is projected to remain so in the foreseeable future. Globally, irrigated agricultural land comprises less than twenty percent of total cropland but produces about forty percent of the world's food. Increasing world population will require more food and this will lead to more irrigation in many areas. As demands increase and water becomes an increasingly scarce resource, agriculture's competition for water with other economic sectors will be intensified. This water picture is expected to become even more complex as climate change will impose substantial impacts on water availability and demand, in particular for agriculture. To better understand future water demand and supply under global change, including changes in demographic, economic and technological dimensions, the water simulation module of IMPACT, a global water and food projection model developed at the International Food Policy Research Institute, is used to analyze future water demand and supply in agricultural and several non-agricultural sectors using downscaled GCM scenarios, based on water availability simulation done with a recently developed semi-distributed global hydrological model. Risk analysis is conducted to identify countries and regions where future water supply reliability for irrigation is low, and food security may be threatened in the presence of climate change. Gridded shadow values of irrigation water are derived for global cropland based on an optimization framework, and they are used to illustrate potential irrigation development by incorporating gridded water availability and existing global map of irrigation areas.

  17. Sustainable development in agriculture, food and nutrition--a patent analysis.

    PubMed

    Vani, Kohila P; Doble, Mukesh

    2011-05-01

    The paper discusses the patents that have been filed in the areas of sustainable development in agriculture, food and nutrition and use of natural resources in achieving this goal. A large number of patents deal with the production of fertilizers from animal manure, plant sources and other organic wastes, which are more sustainable that the chemical fertilizers that are being currently used. Sustainability in agriculture is achieved in developing processes for the manufacture of biopesticides/insecticides and bioactive agricultural products. Development of novel sustainable agricultural processes has also been the focus of researchers and technologists. Plant derived nutritious food products are sustainable and can cater for the growing population burden. This has been the focus of several patents. Processes for enhancing the nutrition in food also serve the purpose of catering for the under nourished population.

  18. Instructional Materials in Spanish for Agriculture. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mainous, Bruce H.

    A federally funded project to develop Spanish for Agricultural Purposes, a set of instructional materials for agricultural specialists planning to work in Latin America, is reported. The materials are intended for use by individuals with at least a year's college-level study of Spanish. They include: a series of authentic readings, each with an…

  19. Building capacity through urban agriculture: report on the askîy project.

    PubMed

    Martin, Wanda; Vold, Lindsey

    2018-01-01

    Many North American cities have a built environment that provides access to energy-dense food and little opportunity for active living. Urban agriculture contributes to a positive environment involving food plant cultivation that includes processing, storing, distributing and composting. It is a means to increase local food production and thereby improve community health. The purpose of this study was to understand how participating in urban agriculture can help to empower young adults and build capacity for growing food in the city. This was a qualitative study of seven participants (five Indigenous and two non-Indigenous) between the ages of 19 and 29 years, engaged as interns in an urban agriculture project known as "askîy" in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 2015. We used a case-study design and qualitative analysis to describe the participants' experience based on the sustainable livelihoods framework. A collaborative approach had a great effect on the interns' experiences, notably the connections formed as they planned, planted, tended, harvested and sold the produce. Some of the interns changed their grocery shopping habits and began purchasing more vegetables and questioning where and how the vegetables were produced. All interns were eager to continue gardening next season, and some were planning to take their knowledge and skills back to their home reserves. Urban agriculture programs build capacity by providing skills beyond growing food. Such programs can increase local food production and improve food literacy skills, social relationships, physical activity and pride in community settings.

  20. Progress and needs in agricultural research, development, and applications programs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moore, D. G.; Myers, V. I.

    1977-01-01

    The dynamic nature of agriculture requires repetitive resource assessments such as those from remote sensing. Until recently, the use of remote sensing in agriculture has been limited primarily to site specific investigations without large-scale evaluations. Examples of successful applications at various user levels are provided. The stage of development for applying remote sensing to many agricultural problems is assessed, and goals for planning future data characteristics for increased use in agriculture are suggested.

  1. Prospects of Russian Agriculture development under global climate and technological changes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Valentini, Riccardo; Vasenev, Ivan

    2015-04-01

    Despite the great progresses of the last century in the agricultural sector and food supply, still about 820 million of people in developing countries are facing food scarcity and malnutrition. More than 180 million children are underweight. Except in Africa, 80 percent of the production gains came from increased yields in major cereal crops. The area cultivated has actually begun to decline in some regions. From now on, however, even Africa, which has always relied on cultivation of new land for production increases, will have to count on yield gains or pay high financial and ecological costs for expansion into areas not yet cultivated. The global scenario is changing fast. The technological, climatic and human-induced factors are creating long-lasting effects on the lives of people and on economic activities around the globe. In particular, climate change and/or variability is exacerbating rural increasing heat stress to natural habitats and human settlements, increasing climatic extremes, including drought and impacting food production. Agriculture of any kind is strongly influenced by the availability of water. Climate change will modify rainfall, evaporation, runoff, and soil moisture storage. Changes in total seasonal precipitation or in its pattern of variability are both important. The occurrence of moisture stress during flowering, pollination, and grain-filling is harmful to most crops and particularly so to corn, soybeans, and wheat. Increased evaporation from the soil and accelerated transpiration in the plants themselves will cause moisture stress; as a result there will be a need to develop crop varieties with greater drought tolerance. These climate change effects are particularly harmful in tropical regions of South America, Africa and South East Asia where food production is feeding a large part of world countries and poses serious risks to global food security in the future. Despite global projected climate change will affect a general decline of

  2. North Carolina State Agencies Working to Prevent Agricultural Injuries and Illnesses.

    PubMed

    Langley, Ricky; Hirsch, Anne; Cullen, Regina; Allran, John; Woody, Renee; Bell, Derrick

    2017-01-01

    Over the past 25 years, the North Carolina Departments of Labor, Agriculture and Consumer Services, and Health and Human Services have worked with farmers, farmworkers, commodity and trade associations, universities, and cooperative extension agents to develop programs to decrease the occurrence of injuries and illnesses among agricultural workers and their families. The Bureau of Agricultural Safety and Health in the North Carolina Department of Labor helped craft the Migrant Housing Act, created the Gold Star program, and developed numerous projects promoting rural highway safety and farm safety. The Structural Pest Control & Pesticides Division in the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services administers programs funded by the Pesticide Environmental Trust Fund (PETF), including the Pesticide Container Recycling Program, Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program (PDAP), and Soil Fumigation Training. The Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services developed public health surveillance programs for pesticide incidents and carbon monoxide poisoning. These projects, programs, and policies demonstrate the work that North Carolina state agencies are doing to improve the health of agricultural workers and their families.

  3. Evaluating the utility of dynamical downscaling in agricultural impacts projections

    PubMed Central

    Glotter, Michael; Elliott, Joshua; McInerney, David; Best, Neil; Foster, Ian; Moyer, Elisabeth J.

    2014-01-01

    Interest in estimating the potential socioeconomic costs of climate change has led to the increasing use of dynamical downscaling—nested modeling in which regional climate models (RCMs) are driven with general circulation model (GCM) output—to produce fine-spatial-scale climate projections for impacts assessments. We evaluate here whether this computationally intensive approach significantly alters projections of agricultural yield, one of the greatest concerns under climate change. Our results suggest that it does not. We simulate US maize yields under current and future CO2 concentrations with the widely used Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer crop model, driven by a variety of climate inputs including two GCMs, each in turn downscaled by two RCMs. We find that no climate model output can reproduce yields driven by observed climate unless a bias correction is first applied. Once a bias correction is applied, GCM- and RCM-driven US maize yields are essentially indistinguishable in all scenarios (<10% discrepancy, equivalent to error from observations). Although RCMs correct some GCM biases related to fine-scale geographic features, errors in yield are dominated by broad-scale (100s of kilometers) GCM systematic errors that RCMs cannot compensate for. These results support previous suggestions that the benefits for impacts assessments of dynamically downscaling raw GCM output may not be sufficient to justify its computational demands. Progress on fidelity of yield projections may benefit more from continuing efforts to understand and minimize systematic error in underlying climate projections. PMID:24872455

  4. Biotech crops: imperative for achieving the millenium development goals and sustainability of agriculture in the climate change era.

    PubMed

    Husaini, Amjad M; Tuteja, Narendra

    2013-01-01

    Biotechnological intervention in the development of crops has opened new vistas in agriculture. Central to the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), biotech-agriculture is essential in meeting these targets. Biotech crops have already made modest contributions toward ensuring food and nutrition security by reducing losses and increasing productivity, with less pesticide input. These crops could help address some of the major challenges in agriculture-based economies created by climate change. Projections of global climate change expect the concentration of greenhouse gases to increase, aridization of the environment to increase, temperature fluctuations to occur sharply and frequently, and spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall to be disturbed-all of which will increase abiotic stress-related challenges to crops. Countering these challenges and to meet the food requirement of the ever-increasing world population (expected to reach 9 billion by 2030) we need to (1) develop and use biotech crops for mitigating adverse climatic changes; (2) develop biotech crops resilient to adverse environmental conditions; and (3) address the issues/non-issues raised by NGO's and educate the masses about the benefits of biotech crops.

  5. Improving World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates by Integrating NASA Remote Sensing Soil Moisture Data into USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board Decision Making Environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teng, W. L.; de Jeu, R. A.; Doraiswamy, P. C.; Kempler, S. J.; Shannon, H. D.

    2009-12-01

    A primary goal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to expand markets for U.S. agricultural products and support global economic development. The USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) supports this goal by developing monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) for the U.S. and major foreign producing countries. Because weather has a significant impact on crop progress, conditions, and production, WAOB prepares frequent agricultural weather assessments, in a GIS-based, Global Agricultural Decision Support Environment (GLADSE). The main objective of this project, thus, is to improve WAOB's estimates by integrating NASA remote sensing soil moisture observations and research results into GLADSE. Soil moisture is a primary data gap at WAOB. Soil moisture data, generated by the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM, developed by NASA GSFC and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and customized to WAOB's requirements, will be directly integrated into GLADSE, as well as indirectly by first being integrated into USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)'s Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) crop model. The LPRM-enhanced EPIC will be validated using three major agricultural regions important to WAOB and then integrated into GLADSE. Project benchmarking will be based on retrospective analyses of WAOB's analog year comparisons. The latter are between a given year and historical years with similar weather patterns. WAOB is the focal point for economic intelligence within the USDA. Thus, improving WAOB's agricultural estimates by integrating NASA satellite observations and model outputs will visibly demonstrate the value of NASA resources and maximize the societal benefits of NASA investments.

  6. 78 FR 13855 - Board for International Food and Agricultural Development; Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-03-01

    ... AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Board for International Food and Agricultural Development... meeting of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD). The meeting will be held... ``Globalization of agriculture and food research at land-grant universities: BIFAD public meeting at University of...

  7. Articulated Curriculum for Agricultural Occupations. 2 + 2. Second Year Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Daingerfield-Lone Star Independent School District, Daingerfield, TX.

    The Agriculture 2+2 Curriculum Development Project was an articulated training program linking the last 2 years of secondary and the first 2 years of postsecondary training designed to prepare students for employment in 3 or more agricultural technology occupations. The curriculum provided for the development of saleable skills after grade 12 and…

  8. Developing Attitudinal Metrics for Induction-Year Agricultural Education Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rayfield, John; McKim, Billy R.; Lawrence, Shannon; Stair, Kristin

    2014-01-01

    This study was part of a larger regional study of induction-year agricultural education teachers in three Western states. Studies have purported that attitude toward teaching is important for understanding and helping induction-year teachers. Thus, developing an instrument to assess induction-year agricultural education teachers' attitudes toward…

  9. Agricultural Intensification in the Brazilian Agricultural-Forest Frontier: Land Use Responses to Development and Conservation Policy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garrett, R.; Koh, I.; le Polain de Waroux, Y.; Lambin, E.; Kastens, J.; Brown, J. C.

    2017-12-01

    Agricultural expansion, extensive cattle ranching, and deforestation remain pressing challenges for sustainable development and climate mitigation throughout South America. In response to these challenges, national and local governments, as well as private and non-governmental actors have developed new forest conservation governance mechanisms. The objective of this study is to better understand how conservation policies interact with supply chain development to influence land use. In particular, we endeavor to understand the timing and spatial patterns of crop and cattle intensification, an understudied phenomenon that is critical to understanding the future of agricultural-forest frontiers and the impacts of conservation policies. We focus on Mato Grosso, the largest soy and cattle producing state in Brazil, which spans the Cerrado and Amazon biomes and has experienced higher levels of deforestation for agricultural expansion than any other state globally over the last decade. Using a newly created spatially explicit data set of land use intensity, supply chain development, and forest policy, we find that agricultural intensification is occurring rapidly in the region, but is only partially driven by changes in conservation policies. The intensification of cattle production is the result of improvements in deforestation monitoring, penalties, and enforcement, and increased land scarcity. Crop intensification, in contrast, preceded increases in conservation restrictions, and is associated with the positive spillovers resulting from agribusiness agglomeration and development. These results suggest that intensification is not a foregone conclusion of increasing forest conservation restrictions, but is highly dependent on wider development processes. A combined effort to direct agribusiness development away from forest regions via tax credits and subsidized credit, when applied in concert with stringent conservation requirements, could help promote intensification

  10. Source Units Developed as Part of an Internship Program in Agriculture/Agribusiness.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mannebach, Alfred J., Ed.

    This guide includes 12 source units of instruction developed by teachers of vocational agriculture who participated in an internship program in agriculture/agribusiness, which was designed to up-date the knowledge and skills of teachers of vocational agriculture in their areas of teaching specialization and to develop source units of instruction…

  11. Research on the development and preliminary application of Beijing agricultural sci-tech service hotline WebApp in agricultural consulting services

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Weishui; Luo, Changshou; Zheng, Yaming; Wei, Qingfeng; Cao, Chengzhong

    2017-09-01

    To deal with the “last kilometer” problem during the agricultural science and technology information service, we analyzed the feasibility, necessity and advantages of WebApp applied to agricultural information service and discussed the modes of WebApp used in agricultural information service based on the requirements analysis and the function of WebApp. To overcome the existing App’s defects of difficult installation and weak compatibility between the mobile operating systems, the Beijing Agricultural Sci-tech Service Hotline WebApp was developed based on the HTML and JAVA technology. The WebApp has greater compatibility and simpler operation than the Native App, what’s more, it can be linked to the WeChat public platform making it spread easily and run directly without setup process. The WebApp was used to provide agricultural expert consulting services and agriculture information push, obtained a good preliminary application achievement. Finally, we concluded the creative application of WebApp in agricultural consulting services and prospected the development of WebApp in agricultural information service.

  12. Environmental Protection Tools in Agricultural Management Works

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Glowacka, Agnieszka; Taszakowski, Jaroslaw; Janus, Jaroslaw; Bozek, Piotr

    2016-10-01

    Land consolidation is a fundamental instrument for agricultural management. It facilitates comprehensive changes in the agricultural, social, and ecological domains. Consolidation and post-consolidation development-related investments are an opportunity to improve living conditions in rural areas, and simultaneously ensure its positive impact on the environment. One of the primary goals of consolidation, directly specified in the Act on land consolidation, is to improve farming conditions. In Poland, consolidation is possible due to EU funds: RDP 2007-2013 and RDP 2014-2020. In order for individual villages to be granted EU funds for consolidation and post-consolidation development under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, their consolidation has to implement actions with positive impact on the environment and the landscape. The goal of this paper is to analyse documentation in the form of assumptions for a land consolidation project enclosed to an RDP 2014-2020 grant application and project information sheets as the basis for environmental impact assessment in the context of detailed presentation of environmental protection solutions that ensure a positive impact of the project on the environment and landscape. The detailed study involved 9 villages in the Malopolskie Voivodeship, which applied for EU grants for land consolidation in the current financial perspective. The paper specifies the existing state of the analysed villages as regards the natural environment, lists agricultural management instruments that have a positive impact on the environment, and demonstrates that planning of actions aimed at environmental protection is a necessary element of assumptions for land consolidation projects.

  13. Building capacity through urban agriculture: report on the askîy project

    PubMed Central

    Wanda, Martin; Lindsey, Vold

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Introduction: Many North American cities have a built environment that provides access to energy-dense food and little opportunity for active living. Urban agriculture contributes to a positive environment involving food plant cultivation that includes processing, storing, distributing and composting. It is a means to increase local food production and thereby improve community health. The purpose of this study was to understand how participating in urban agriculture can help to empower young adults and build capacity for growing food in the city. Methods: This was a qualitative study of seven participants (five Indigenous and two non-Indigenous) between the ages of 19 and 29 years, engaged as interns in an urban agriculture project known as “askîy” in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 2015. We used a case-study design and qualitative analysis to describe the participants’ experience based on the sustainable livelihoods framework. Results: A collaborative approach had a great effect on the interns’ experiences, notably the connections formed as they planned, planted, tended, harvested and sold the produce. Some of the interns changed their grocery shopping habits and began purchasing more vegetables and questioning where and how the vegetables were produced. All interns were eager to continue gardening next season, and some were planning to take their knowledge and skills back to their home reserves. Conclusion: Urban agriculture programs build capacity by providing skills beyond growing food. Such programs can increase local food production and improve food literacy skills, social relationships, physical activity and pride in community settings. PMID:29323865

  14. Representing agriculture in Earth System Models: Approaches and priorities for development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McDermid, S. S.; Mearns, L. O.; Ruane, A. C.

    2017-09-01

    Earth System Model (ESM) advances now enable improved representations of spatially and temporally varying anthropogenic climate forcings. One critical forcing is global agriculture, which is now extensive in land-use and intensive in management, owing to 20th century development trends. Agriculture and food systems now contribute nearly 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions and require copious inputs and resources, such as fertilizer, water, and land. Much uncertainty remains in quantifying important agriculture-climate interactions, including surface moisture and energy balances and biogeochemical cycling. Despite these externalities and uncertainties, agriculture is increasingly being leveraged to function as a net sink of anthropogenic carbon, and there is much emphasis on future sustainable intensification. Given its significance as a major environmental and climate forcing, there now exist a variety of approaches to represent agriculture in ESMs. These approaches are reviewed herein, and range from idealized representations of agricultural extent to the development of coupled climate-crop models that capture dynamic feedbacks. We highlight the robust agriculture-climate interactions and responses identified by these modeling efforts, as well as existing uncertainties and model limitations. To this end, coordinated and benchmarking assessments of land-use-climate feedbacks can be leveraged for further improvements in ESM's agricultural representations. We suggest key areas for continued model development, including incorporating irrigation and biogeochemical cycling in particular. Last, we pose several critical research questions to guide future work. Our review focuses on ESM representations of climate-surface interactions over managed agricultural lands, rather than on ESMs as an estimation tool for crop yields and productivity.

  15. Projections of Future Summer Weather in Seoul and Their Impacts on Urban Agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, S. O.; Kim, J. H.; Yun, J. I.

    2015-12-01

    Climate departure from the past variability was projected to start in 2042 for Seoul. In order to understand the implication of climate departure in Seoul for urban agriculture, we evaluated the daily temperature for the June-September period from 2041 to 2070, which were projected by the RCP8.5 climate scenario. These data were analyzed with respect to climate extremes and their effects on growth of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum), one of the major crops in urban farming. The mean daily maximum and minimum temperatures in 2041-2070 approached to the 90th percentile in the past 30 years (1951- 1980). However, the frequency of extreme events such as heat waves and tropical nights appeared to exceed the past variability. While the departure of mean temperature might begin in or after 2040, the climate departure in the sense of extreme weather events seems already in progress. When the climate scenario data were applied to the growth and development of hot pepper, the departures of both planting date and harvest date are expected to follow those of temperature. However, the maximum duration for hot pepper cultivation, which is the number of days between the first planting and the last harvest, seems to have already deviated from the past variability.

  16. Agricultural trade networks and patterns of economic development.

    PubMed

    Shutters, Shade T; Muneepeerakul, Rachata

    2012-01-01

    International trade networks are manifestations of a complex combination of diverse underlying factors, both natural and social. Here we apply social network analytics to the international trade network of agricultural products to better understand the nature of this network and its relation to patterns of international development. Using a network tool known as triadic analysis we develop triad significance profiles for a series of agricultural commodities traded among countries. Results reveal a novel network "superfamily" combining properties of biological information processing networks and human social networks. To better understand this unique network signature, we examine in more detail the degree and triadic distributions within the trade network by country and commodity. Our results show that countries fall into two very distinct classes based on their triadic frequencies. Roughly 165 countries fall into one class while 18, all highly isolated with respect to international agricultural trade, fall into the other. Only Vietnam stands out as a unique case. Finally, we show that as a country becomes less isolated with respect to number of trading partners, the country's triadic signature follows a predictable trajectory that may correspond to a trajectory of development.

  17. Agricultural Trade Networks and Patterns of Economic Development

    PubMed Central

    Shutters, Shade T.; Muneepeerakul, Rachata

    2012-01-01

    International trade networks are manifestations of a complex combination of diverse underlying factors, both natural and social. Here we apply social network analytics to the international trade network of agricultural products to better understand the nature of this network and its relation to patterns of international development. Using a network tool known as triadic analysis we develop triad significance profiles for a series of agricultural commodities traded among countries. Results reveal a novel network “superfamily” combining properties of biological information processing networks and human social networks. To better understand this unique network signature, we examine in more detail the degree and triadic distributions within the trade network by country and commodity. Our results show that countries fall into two very distinct classes based on their triadic frequencies. Roughly 165 countries fall into one class while 18, all highly isolated with respect to international agricultural trade, fall into the other. Only Vietnam stands out as a unique case. Finally, we show that as a country becomes less isolated with respect to number of trading partners, the country's triadic signature follows a predictable trajectory that may correspond to a trajectory of development. PMID:22768310

  18. Career Preparation in Agricultural Resources: A Curriculum Guide for High School Vocational Agriculture. Test Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Householder, Larry

    This curriculum guide in agricultural resources is one of 10 guides developed as part of a vocational project stressing agribusiness, natural resources, and environmental protection. The scope of this guide includes eight occupational subgroups: fish, forestry, mining area restoration, outdoor recreation, soil, range, water, and wildlife. It is…

  19. Considering Professional Identity to Enhance Agriculture Teacher Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shoulders, Catherine W.; Myers, Brian E.

    2011-01-01

    The professional identity secondary agriculture teachers display can affect their receptiveness and interest in different professional development events, yet is often overlooked when designing professional development because it is not included in the consensus of proven methods of professional development design and delivery (Desimone, 2009).…

  20. Agricultural Diversification and Marketing. Instructional Materials Developed for Secondary, Postsecondary, and Continuing Education Agriculture Programs in Iowa.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iowa State Dept. of Agriculture, Des Moines.

    These instructional materials on agricultural diversification and marketing were developed for use by Iowa's vocational and technical agricultural instructors and extension personnel. This document is one of three manuals making up a single package. (The other two are Christmas Tree Production and Marketing and Sod Production and Marketing). The…

  1. 7 CFR 1207.311 - Programs and projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Definitions § 1207.311 Programs and projects. Programs and projects mean those research, development, advertising or promotion programs or projects developed by the...

  2. Pedagogy for Addressing the Worldview Challenge in Sustainable Development of Agriculture

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jordan, Nicholas R.; Bawden, Richard J.; Bergmann, Luke

    2008-01-01

    Agriculture is offering new forms of support to society, as evidenced by rapid development of an agricultural "bio-economy," and increasing emphasis on production of ecological services in farmed landscapes. The advent of these innovations will engage agricultural professionals in critical civic debates about matters that are complex and…

  3. Which Advisory System to Support Innovation in Conservation Agriculture? The Case of Madagascar's Lake Alaotra

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Faure, Guy; Penot, Eric; Rakotondravelo, Jean Chrysostome; Ramahatoraka, Haja Andrisoa; Dugue, Patrick; Toillier, Aurelie

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To promote sustainable agriculture, various development projects are encouraging farmers around Madagascar's Lake Alaotra to adopt conservation agriculture techniques. This article's objective is to analyze the capacity of a project-funded advisory system to accompany such an innovation and to design and implement an advisory method aimed…

  4. Career Preparation in Agricultural Production: A Curriculum Guide for High School Vocational Agriculture. Test Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGhee, Max B., Comp.

    This curriculum guide in agricultural production is one of 10 guides developed as part of a vocational project stressing agribusiness, natural resources, and environmental protection. The scope of this guide includes four occupational subgroups: animal science, plant science, farm mechanics, and farm business management. It is meant as an aid to…

  5. 7 CFR 3430.704 - Project types and priorities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... Biobased Products Development. Research, development, and demonstration activities to support— (i) The....704 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD... ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS Biomass Research and Development Initiative § 3430.704 Project types and priorities. (a...

  6. Agricultural Mechanics Laboratory Management Professional Development Needs of Wyoming Secondary Agriculture Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McKim, Billy R.; Saucier, P. Ryan

    2011-01-01

    Accidents happen; however, the likelihood of accidents occurring in the agricultural mechanics laboratory is greatly reduced when agricultural mechanics laboratory facilities are managed by secondary agriculture teachers who are competent and knowledgeable. This study investigated the agricultural mechanics laboratory management in-service needs…

  7. CHP Project Development

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Access information and tools to support the CHP project development process, including identifying if your facility is a good fit for CHP, the steps involved with CHP project development, and policies and incentives supportive of CHP.

  8. Project-Based Module Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meel, R. M. van

    A project management design for modularizing higher education at open universities was developed and tested. Literature in the fields of project management and development of modular curriculum materials was reviewed and used as a basis for developing a project-based approach to the process of developing modules for self-instruction. According to…

  9. Agricultural SWOT analysis and wisdom agriculture design of chengdu

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Qian; Chen, Xiangyu; Du, Shaoming; Yin, Guowei; Yu, Feng; Liu, Guicai; Gong, Jin; Han, Fujun

    2017-08-01

    According to the status of agricultural information, this paper analyzed the advantages, opportunities and challenges of developing wisdom agriculture in Chengdu. By analyzed the local characteristics of Chengdu agriculture, the construction program of Chengdu wisdom agriculture was designed, which was based on the existing agricultural informatization. The positioning and development theme of Chengdu agriculture is leisure agriculture, urban agriculture and quality agriculture.

  10. Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries and their possible contribution to food security.

    PubMed

    Ruane, John; Sonnino, Andrea

    2011-12-20

    Latest FAO figures indicate that an estimated 925 million people are undernourished in 2010, representing almost 16% of the population in developing countries. Looking to the future, there are also major challenges ahead from the rapidly changing socio-economic environment (increasing world population and urbanisation, and dietary changes) and climate change. Promoting agriculture in developing countries is the key to achieving food security, and it is essential to act in four ways: to increase investment in agriculture, broaden access to food, improve governance of global trade, and increase productivity while conserving natural resources. To enable the fourth action, the suite of technological options for farmers should be as broad as possible, including agricultural biotechnologies. Agricultural biotechnologies represent a broad range of technologies used in food and agriculture for the genetic improvement of plant varieties and animal populations, characterisation and conservation of genetic resources, diagnosis of plant or animal diseases and other purposes. Discussions about agricultural biotechnology have been dominated by the continuing controversy surrounding genetic modification and its resulting products, genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The polarised debate has led to non-GMO biotechnologies being overshadowed, often hindering their development and application. Extensive documentation from the FAO international technical conference on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10), that took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, on 1-4 March 2010, gave a very good overview of the many ways that different agricultural biotechnologies are being used to increase productivity and conserve natural resources in the crop, livestock, fishery, forestry and agro-industry sectors in developing countries. The conference brought together about 300 policy-makers, scientists and representatives of intergovernmental and international non

  11. Contextualising Teaching and Learning in Rural Primary Schools: Using Agricultural Experience. Volume 1 [and] Volume 2. Education Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, Peter; Mulhall, Abigail

    This research project examined the potential role of agricultural experiences as a vehicle for meeting the diverse learning needs of rural primary students in developing countries. Volume 1 of the project report represents a literature review that investigated a "new role" for agriculture as a key element for developing rural students'…

  12. Contesting the Neoliberal Project for Agriculture: Productivist and Multifunctional Trajectories in the European Union and Australia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dibden, Jacqui; Potter, Clive; Cocklin, Chris

    2009-01-01

    The liberalisation of agricultural trade is strongly contested as an international policy project. In the context of the current World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha trade round, concerns revolve around the implications of freer trade for rural livelihoods and environments. Analysis of this complex and morally charged issue offers important…

  13. Maine Agricultural Foods. Project SEED.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beaulieu, Peter; Ossenfort, Pat

    This paper describes an activity-based program that teaches students in grades 4-12 about the importance of Maine agriculture in their lives. Specifically, the goal is to increase student awareness of how the foods they eat are planted, harvested, and processed. The emphasis is on crops grown in Maine such as potatoes, broccoli, peas, blueberries,…

  14. Empirical support for global integrated assessment modeling: Productivity trends and technological change in developing countries' agriculture and electric power sectors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sathaye, Jayant A.

    2000-04-01

    Integrated assessment (IA) modeling of climate policy is increasingly global in nature, with models incorporating regional disaggregation. The existing empirical basis for IA modeling, however, largely arises from research on industrialized economies. Given the growing importance of developing countries in determining long-term global energy and carbon emissions trends, filling this gap with improved statistical information on developing countries' energy and carbon-emissions characteristics is an important priority for enhancing IA modeling. Earlier research at LBNL on this topic has focused on assembling and analyzing statistical data on productivity trends and technological change in the energy-intensive manufacturing sectors of five developing countries,more » India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and South Korea. The proposed work will extend this analysis to the agriculture and electric power sectors in India, South Korea, and two other developing countries. They will also examine the impact of alternative model specifications on estimates of productivity growth and technological change for each of the three sectors, and estimate the contribution of various capital inputs--imported vs. indigenous, rigid vs. malleable-- in contributing to productivity growth and technological change. The project has already produced a data resource on the manufacturing sector which is being shared with IA modelers. This will be extended to the agriculture and electric power sectors, which would also be made accessible to IA modeling groups seeking to enhance the empirical descriptions of developing country characteristics. The project will entail basic statistical and econometric analysis of productivity and energy trends in these developing country sectors, with parameter estimates also made available to modeling groups. The parameter estimates will be developed using alternative model specifications that could be directly utilized by the existing IAMs for the manufacturing

  15. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) Town Hall

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ruane, Alex; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Kyle, Page; Basso, Bruno; Winter, Jonathan; Asseng, Senthold

    2015-01-01

    AgMIP (www.agmip.org) is an international community of climate, crop, livestock, economics, and IT experts working to further the development and application of multi-model, multi-scale, multi-disciplinary agricultural models that can inform policy and decision makers around the world. This meeting will engage the AGU community by providing a brief overview of AgMIP, in particular its new plans for a Coordinated Global and Regional Assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture and food security for AR6. This Town Hall will help identify opportunities for participants to become involved in AgMIP and its 30+ activities.

  16. Representative Agricultural Pathways: A Trans-Disciplinary Approach to Agricultural Model Inter-comparison, Improvement, Climate Impact Assessment and Stakeholder Engagement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antle, J. M.; Valdivia, R. O.; Claessens, L.; Nelson, G. C.; Rosenzweig, C.; Ruane, A. C.; Vervoort, J.

    2013-12-01

    The global change research community has recognized that new pathway and scenario concepts are needed to implement impact and vulnerability assessment that is logically consistent across local, regional and global scales. For impact and vulnerability assessment, new socio-economic pathway and scenario concepts are being developed. Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) are designed to extend global pathways to provide the detail needed for global and regional assessment of agricultural systems. In addition, research by the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) shows that RAPs provide a powerful way to engage stakeholders in climate-related research throughout the research process and in communication of research results. RAPs are based on the integrated assessment framework developed by AgMIP. This framework shows that both bio-physical and socio-economic drivers are essential components of agricultural pathways and logically precede the definition of adaptation and mitigation scenarios that embody associated capabilities and challenges. This approach is based on a trans-disciplinary process for designing pathways and then translating them into parameter sets for bio-physical and economic models that are components of agricultural integrated assessments of climate impact, adaptation and mitigation. RAPs must be designed to be part of a logically consistent set of drivers and outcomes from global to regional and local. Global RAPs are designed to be consistent with higher-level global socio-economic pathways, but add key agricultural drivers such as agricultural growth trends that are not specified in more general pathways, as illustrated in a recent inter-comparison of global agricultural models. To create pathways at regional or local scales, further detail is needed. At this level, teams of scientists and other experts with knowledge of the agricultural systems and regions work together through a step-wise process. Experiences

  17. Development of anti-slip sustainable tiles from agricultural waste

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zulkefli, Zainordin Firdaus; Zainol, Mohd Remy Rozainy Mohd Arif; Osman, Norhayati

    2017-04-01

    In general of 80% the human activities is located in the building. Buildings constructed should be in line with full functions and optimum safety features. Aspects to be emphasized is the slip on the floor of the building. The selection of tiles must have anti-slip characteristics and achieve standard strength stress. This study is conducted to develop anti-slip tiles modification using agricultural waste. The material used is agricultural waste such rice husks, palm fibre and saw dusk mixed into the clay and then baked at a temperature of 900-1185 C °. Agricultural waste mixture ratio is 5%, 10% and 15%. The samples of tiles are produced for experiments. The results of agricultural waste tiles show that the strength is higher than standard strength, the water absorption less than standard tiles and pendulum value test is exceeds 36.

  18. Description of historical crop calendar data bases developed to support foreign commodity production forecasting project experiments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    West, W. L., III (Principal Investigator)

    1981-01-01

    The content, format, and storage of data bases developed for the Foreign Commodity Production Forecasting project and used to produce normal crop calendars are described. In addition, the data bases may be used for agricultural meteorology, modeling of stage sequences and planting dates, and as indicators of possible drought and famine.

  19. Development of an Integrated Wastewater Treatment System/water reuse/agriculture model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fox, C. H.; Schuler, A.

    2017-12-01

    Factors like increasing population, urbanization, and climate change have made the management of water resources a challenge for municipalities. By understanding wastewater recycling for agriculture in arid regions, we can expand the supply of water to agriculture and reduce energy use at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This can improve management decisions between WWTPs and water managers. The objective of this research is to develop a prototype integrated model of the wastewater treatment system and nearby agricultural areas linked by water and nutrients, using the Albuquerque Southeast Eastern Reclamation Facility (SWRF) and downstream agricultural system as a case study. Little work has been done to understand how such treatment technology decisions affect the potential for water ruse, nutrient recovery in agriculture, overall energy consumption and agriculture production and water quality. A holistic approach to understanding synergies and tradeoffs between treatment, reuse, and agriculture is needed. For example, critical wastewater treatment process decisions include options to nitrify (oxidize ammonia), which requires large amounts of energy, to operate at low dissolved oxygen concentrations, which requires much less energy, whether to recover nitrogen and phosphorus, chemically in biosolids, or in reuse water for agriculture, whether to generate energy from anaerobic digestion, and whether to develop infrastructure for agricultural reuse. The research first includes quantifying existing and feasible agricultural sites suitable for irrigation by reuse wastewater as well as existing infrastructure such as irrigation canals and piping by using GIS databases. Second, a nutrient and water requirement for common New Mexico crop is being determined. Third, a wastewater treatment model will be utilized to quantify energy usage and nutrient removal under various scenarios. Different agricultural reuse sensors and treatment technologies will be explored. The

  20. Community Development Guide. "A Guide for Restructuring Community Development in Agricultural Education."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wagley, Leon A.; And Others

    Information designed to acquaint teachers, teacher educators, and state supervisors of agricultural education with the concepts, roles, and procedures for developing a community development curriculum is presented in this guide. The first section is concerned with suggestions for restructuring materials relevant to teaching community development…

  1. Personnel Training--Secondary Vocational Agriculture Teacher Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Herman D.; And Others

    This document consists of three parts. The first part is a report on a project conducted to develop computer software needed by vocational agriculture teachers in Texas. The report details the process used to assess and develop software, and provides guidelines that can be used by others in evaluating computer software for vocational agriculture…

  2. Agricultural biotechnology and smallholder farmers in developing countries.

    PubMed

    Anthony, Vivienne M; Ferroni, Marco

    2012-04-01

    Agricultural biotechnology holds much potential to contribute towards crop productivity gains and crop improvement for smallholder farmers in developing countries. Over 14 million smallholder farmers are already benefiting from biotech crops such as cotton and maize in China, India and other Asian, African and Central/South American countries. Molecular breeding can accelerate crop improvement timescales and enable greater use of diversity of gene sources. Little impact has been realized to date with fruits and vegetables because of development timescales for molecular breeding and development and regulatory costs and political considerations facing biotech crops in many countries. Constraints to the development and adoption of technology-based solutions to reduce yield gaps need to be overcome. Full integration with broader commercial considerations such as farmer access to seed distribution systems that facilitate dissemination of improved varieties and functioning markets for produce are critical for the benefits of agricultural biotechnology to be fully realized by smallholders. Public-private partnerships offer opportunities to catalyze new approaches and investment while accelerating integrated research and development and commercial supply chain-based solutions. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  3. Integrating NASA Satellite Data Into USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board Decision Making Environment To Improve Agricultural Estimates

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Teng, William; Shannon, Harlan; deJeu, Richard; Kempler, Steve

    2012-01-01

    The USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) is responsible for monitoring weather and climate impacts on domestic and foreign crop development. One of WAOB's primary goals is to determine the net cumulative effect of weather and climate anomalies on final crop yields. To this end, a broad array of information is consulted. The resulting agricultural weather assessments are published in the Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin, to keep farmers, policy makers, and commercial agricultural interests informed of weather and climate impacts on agriculture. The goal of the current project is to improve WAOB estimates by integrating NASA satellite precipitation and soil moisture observations into WAOB's decision making environment. Precipitation (Level 3 gridded) is from the TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). Soil moisture (Level 2 swath and Level 3 gridded) is generated by the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) and operationally produced by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GBS DISC). A root zone soil moisture (RZSM) product is also generated, via assimilation of the Level 3 LPRM data by a land surface model (part of a related project). Data services to be available for these products include GeoTIFF, GDS (GrADS Data Server), WMS (Web Map Service), WCS (Web Coverage Service), and NASA Giovanni. Project benchmarking is based on retrospective analyses of WAOB analog year comparisons. The latter are between a given year and historical years with similar weather patterns and estimated crop yields. An analog index (AI) was developed to introduce a more rigorous, statistical approach for identifying analog years. Results thus far show that crop yield estimates derived from TMPA precipitation data are closer to measured yields than are estimates derived from surface-based precipitation measurements. Work is continuing to include LPRM surface soil moisture data and model-assimilated RZSM.

  4. Northeast Texas Agricultural Literacy Network: A-Lit-NeT: A Rural College Partnership Project. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carnes, John

    In northeast Texas, 47% of the adults over the age of 25 have not graduated from high school. Area agricultural businesses are rapidly implementing new technologies and quality control measures, both of which require literate and highly trainable workers. To meet these needs, a partnership project was undertaken between Northeast Texas Community…

  5. A Professional Development Climate Course for Sustainable Agriculture in Australia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    George, David; Clewett, Jeff; Birch, Colin; Wright, Anthony; Allen, Wendy

    2009-01-01

    There are few professional development courses in Australia for the rural sector concerned with climate variability, climate change and sustainable agriculture. The lack of educators with a sound technical background in climate science and its applications in agriculture prevents the delivery of courses either stand-alone or embedded in other…

  6. Adapting Agriculture Platforms for Nutrition: A Case Study of a Participatory, Video-Based Agricultural Extension Platform in India.

    PubMed

    Kadiyala, Suneetha; Morgan, Emily H; Cyriac, Shruthi; Margolies, Amy; Roopnaraine, Terry

    2016-01-01

    Successful integration of nutrition interventions into large-scale development programmes from nutrition-relevant sectors, such as agriculture, can address critical underlying determinants of undernutrition and enhance the coverage and effectiveness of on-going nutrition-specific activities. However, evidence on how this can be done is limited. This study examines the feasibility of delivering maternal, infant, and young child nutrition behaviour change communication through an innovative agricultural extension programme serving nutritionally vulnerable groups in rural India. The existing agriculture programme involves participatory production of low-cost videos promoting best practices and broad dissemination through village-level women's self-help groups. For the nutrition intervention, 10 videos promoting specific maternal, infant, and young child nutrition practices were produced and disseminated in 30 villages. A range of methods was used to collect data, including in-depth interviews with project staff, frontline health workers, and self-help group members and their families; structured observations of mediated video dissemination sessions; nutrition knowledge tests with project staff and self-help group members; and a social network questionnaire to assess diffusion of promoted nutrition messages. We found the nutrition intervention to be well-received by rural communities and viewed as complementary to existing frontline health services. However, compared to agriculture, nutrition content required more time, creativity, and technical support to develop and deliver. Experimentation with promoted nutrition behaviours was high, but sharing of information from the videos with non-viewers was limited. Key lessons learned include the benefits of and need for collaboration with existing health services; continued technical support for implementing partners; engagement with local cultural norms and beliefs; empowerment of women's group members to champion nutrition

  7. Project AProWa: a national view on managing trade-offs between agricultural production and conservation of aquatic ecosystems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dietzel, Anne; Rahn, Eric; Stamm, Christian

    2014-05-01

    Swiss agriculture is legally committed to fulfill several, partially conflicting goals such as agricultural production on the one hand and the conservation of natural resources on the other hand. In the context of the research project AProWa ("Agricultural Production and Water"), the relationships between the production aspect and the conservation of aquatic ecosystems is analyzed with a holistic approach. Agricultural production and the protection of water resources have high potential for conflicts: Farmers use ground and surface water to irrigate their fields. On the other hand, drainage systems enable the production on otherwise unfavorably wet soils. These in turn often affect ground water recharge and divert precipitation directly into surface waters, which changes their hydrological regime. Typically, drainage systems also elevate the input of nutrients and pesticides into the water bodies. In general, applied fertilizers, plant protection products, veterinary drugs and phytohormones of cultivated plants are introduced into the ground and surface waters through different processes such as drift, leaching, runoff, preferential flow or erosion. They influence the nutrient cycles and ecological health of aquatic systems. The nutrient and pesticide loss processes themselves can be altered by tillage operations and other agricultural practices. Furthermore, the competition for space can lead to additional conflicts between agriculture and the protection of aquatic ecosystems. For example, channelized or otherwise morphologically changed rivers do not have a natural discharge pattern and are often not suitable for the local flora and fauna; but naturally meandering rivers need space that cannot be used for agriculture. In a highly industrialized and densely populated country like Switzerland, all these potential conflicts are of importance. Although it is typically seen as a water-rich country, local and seasonal overexploitation of rivers through water extraction

  8. Projecting water resources changes in potential large-scale agricultural investment areas of the Kafue River Basin in Zambia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Y.; Trainor, A. M.; Baker, T. J.

    2017-12-01

    Climate change impacts regional water availability through the spatial and temporal redistribution of available water resources. This study focuses on understanding possible response of water resources to climate change in regions where potentials for large-scale agricultural investments are planned in the upper and middle Kafue River Basin in Zambia. We used historical and projected precipitation and temperature to assess changes in water yield, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model. Some of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) climate model outputs for the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios project a temperature warming range from 1.8 - 5.7 °C over the region from 2020 to 2095. Precipitation projection patterns vary monthly but tend toward drier dry seasons with a slight increase in precipitation during the rainy season as compared to the historical time series. The best five calibrated parameter sets generated for the historical record (1965 - 2005) were applied for two future periods, 2020 - 2060 and 2055 - 2095, to project water yield change. Simulations projected that the 90th percentile water yield would be exceeded across most of the study area by up to 800% under the medium-low (RCP4.5) CO2 emission scenario, whereas the high (RCP8.5) CO2 emission scenario resulted in a more spatially varied pattern mixed with increasing (up to 500%) and decreasing (up to -54%) trends. The 10th percentile water yield indicated spatially varied pattern across the basin, increasing by as much as 500% though decreasing in some areas by 66%, with the greatest decreases during the dry season under RCP8.5. Overall, available water resources in the study area are projected to trend toward increased floods (i.e. water yields far exceeding 90th percentile) as well as increasing drought (i.e. water yield far below 10th percentile) vulnerability. Because surface water is a primary source for agriculture

  9. Resource Guide to Educational Materials about Agriculture. A Project of Agriculture in the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. Office of the Secretary.

    Designed to help teachers bring more information about agriculture into their classrooms, this resource guide provides a listing of materials relating to agriculture available from private and public sources. It describes materials available from more than 300 organizations and publishers who responded to a request regarding materials they were…

  10. Using historical and projected future climate model simulations as drivers of agricultural and biological models (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stefanova, L. B.

    2013-12-01

    Climate model evaluation is frequently performed as a first step in analyzing climate change simulations. Atmospheric scientists are accustomed to evaluating climate models through the assessment of model climatology and biases, the models' representation of large-scale modes of variability (such as ENSO, PDO, AMO, etc) and the relationship between these modes and local variability (e.g. the connection between ENSO and the wintertime precipitation in the Southeast US). While these provide valuable information about the fidelity of historical and projected climate model simulations from an atmospheric scientist's point of view, the application of climate model data to fields such as agriculture, ecology and biology may require additional analyses focused on the particular application's requirements and sensitivities. Typically, historical climate simulations are used to determine a mapping between the model and observed climate, either through a simple (additive for temperature or multiplicative for precipitation) or a more sophisticated (such as quantile matching) bias correction on a monthly or seasonal time scale. Plants, animals and humans however are not directly affected by monthly or seasonal means. To assess the impact of projected climate change on living organisms and related industries (e.g. agriculture, forestry, conservation, utilities, etc.), derivative measures such as the heating degree-days (HDD), cooling degree-days (CDD), growing degree-days (GDD), accumulated chill hours (ACH), wet season onset (WSO) and duration (WSD), among others, are frequently useful. We will present a comparison of the projected changes in such derivative measures calculated by applying: (a) the traditional temperature/precipitation bias correction described above versus (b) a bias correction based on the mapping between the historical model and observed derivative measures themselves. In addition, we will present and discuss examples of various application-based climate

  11. Remote sensing for developing world agriculture: opportunities and areas for technical development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jeunnette, Mark N.; Hart, Douglas P.

    2016-10-01

    A parameterized numerical model is constructed to compare platform options for collecting aerial imagery to support agriculture electronic information services in developing countries like India. A sensitivity analysis shows that when Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs, are limited in flight altitude by regulations, the velocity and altitude available to manned aircraft lead to a lower cost of operation at altitudes greater than 2000ft above ground level, AGL. If, however, the UAVs are allowed to fly higher, they become cost-competitive once again at approximately 1000ft AGL or higher. Examination of assumptions in the model highlights two areas for additional technology development: baseline-dependent feature-based image registration to enable wider area coverage, and reflectance reconstruction for ratio-based agriculture indices.

  12. Career Preparation in Agricultural Products (Food Processing): A Curriculum Guide for High School Vocational Agriculture. Test Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moore, Eddie A.

    This curriculum guide in agricultural products (food processing) is one of 10 guides developed as part of a vocational project stressing agribusiness, natural resources, and environmental protection. The scope of this guide includes three occupational subgroups: meat, fish, poultry; dairy (milk) products; fruits and vegetables. It is meant as an…

  13. Traditional Agriculture and Permaculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pierce, Dick

    1997-01-01

    Discusses benefits of combining traditional agricultural techniques with the concepts of "permaculture," a framework for revitalizing traditions, culture, and spirituality. Describes school, college, and community projects that have assisted American Indian communities in revitalizing sustainable agricultural practices that incorporate…

  14. Empowering Women in Agricultural Education for Sustainable Rural Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ugbomeh, George M. M.

    2001-01-01

    Discusses the concepts of agricultural education, women empowerment, and sustainable rural development. Suggests that, because women make up more than half of Nigeria's population, their empowerment would assist the efforts for sustainable rural development. (Contains 48 references.) (JOW)

  15. Agriculture in Africa: strategies to improve and sustain smallholder production systems.

    PubMed

    Jama, Bashir; Pizarro, Gonzalo

    2008-01-01

    Agricultural development lies at the heart of poverty reduction and increased food security of most developing nations. Sub-Saharan Africa (hereafter referred to as Africa) is, however, the only region in the world where per capita agricultural productivity has remained stagnant over the past 40 years. In Asia and Latin America, the use of tailored techniques and technologies has transformed agricultural practice and its productivity, leading to what has been called the "green revolution." The dissemination of uniquely African green revolution technologies has not occurred on the continent. This chapter will argue that the same results in increased productivity and food security can be achieved in Africa if the appropriate investments are made in key interventions: soil fertility improvement, improved seeds, water management, market access, extension services, access to credit, and improvements in weather forecasting. Where these have happened, even partially, the outcome has been remarkable. However, bringing them to scale in ways that sustainably increase agricultural productivity and alleviate poverty requires increased investments and innovative institutional arrangements. Fortunately, several research and development projects on the continent, including the Millennium Villages Project, are providing valuable insights. Finally, this chapter outlines the key remaining challenges.

  16. Impact of the agricultural research service watershed assessment studies on the conservation effects assessment project cropland national assessment

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    USDA initiated the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) in 2002 to analyze societal and environmental benefits gained from the increased conservation program funding provided in the 2002 Farm Bill. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and...

  17. Mathematics Efficacy and Professional Development Needs of Wyoming Agricultural Education Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haynes, J. Chris; Stripling, Christopher T.

    2014-01-01

    School-based agricultural education programs provide contextualized learning environments for the teaching of core academic subject matter. This study sought to examine the mathematics efficacy and professional development needs of Wyoming agricultural education teachers related to teaching contextualized mathematics. Wyoming agricultural…

  18. Probabilistic Decision Tools for Determining Impacts of Agricultural Development Policy on Household Nutrition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Whitney, Cory W.; Lanzanova, Denis; Muchiri, Caroline; Shepherd, Keith D.; Rosenstock, Todd S.; Krawinkel, Michael; Tabuti, John R. S.; Luedeling, Eike

    2018-03-01

    Governments around the world have agreed to end hunger and food insecurity and to improve global nutrition, largely through changes to agriculture and food systems. However, they are faced with a lot of uncertainty when making policy decisions, since any agricultural changes will influence social and biophysical systems, which could yield either positive or negative nutrition outcomes. We outline a holistic probability modeling approach with Bayesian Network (BN) models for nutritional impacts resulting from agricultural development policy. The approach includes the elicitation of expert knowledge for impact model development, including sensitivity analysis and value of information calculations. It aims at a generalizable methodology that can be applied in a wide range of contexts. To showcase this approach, we develop an impact model of Vision 2040, Uganda's development strategy, which, among other objectives, seeks to transform the country's agricultural landscape from traditional systems to large-scale commercial agriculture. Model results suggest that Vision 2040 is likely to have negative outcomes for the rural livelihoods it intends to support; it may have no appreciable influence on household hunger but, by influencing preferences for and access to quality nutritional foods, may increase the prevalence of micronutrient deficiency. The results highlight the trade-offs that must be negotiated when making decisions regarding agriculture for nutrition, and the capacity of BNs to make these trade-offs explicit. The work illustrates the value of BNs for supporting evidence-based agricultural development decisions.

  19. The prevention and control of avian influenza: the avian influenza coordinated agriculture project.

    PubMed

    Cardona, C; Slemons, R; Perez, D

    2009-04-01

    The Avian Influenza Coordinated Agriculture Project (AICAP) entitled "Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in the US" strives to be a significant point of reference for the poultry industry and the general public in matters related to the biology, risks associated with, and the methods used to prevent and control avian influenza. To this end, AICAP has been remarkably successful in generating research data, publications through an extensive network of university- and agency-based researchers, and extending findings to stakeholders. An overview of the highlights of AICAP research is presented.

  20. 7 CFR 1703.110 - Changes in project objectives or scope.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Changes in project objectives or scope. 1703.110 Section 1703.110 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant...

  1. 7 CFR 1703.110 - Changes in project objectives or scope.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Changes in project objectives or scope. 1703.110 Section 1703.110 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant...

  2. 7 CFR 1703.110 - Changes in project objectives or scope.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Changes in project objectives or scope. 1703.110 Section 1703.110 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant...

  3. 7 CFR 1703.110 - Changes in project objectives or scope.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Changes in project objectives or scope. 1703.110 Section 1703.110 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant...

  4. 7 CFR 1703.110 - Changes in project objectives or scope.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Changes in project objectives or scope. 1703.110 Section 1703.110 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RURAL DEVELOPMENT Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant...

  5. Learning and Innovation Competence in Agricultural and Rural Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pant, Laxmi Prasad

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: The fields of competence development and capacity development remain isolated in the scholarship of learning and innovation despite the contemporary focus on innovation systems thinking in agricultural and rural development. This article aims to address whether and how crossing the conventional boundaries of these two fields provide new…

  6. Career Preparation in Agricultural Supplies and Services: A Curriculum Guide for High School Vocational Agriculture. Test Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoder, Edgar P.

    This curriculum guide in agricultural supplies and services is one of 10 guides developed as part of a vocational project stressing agribusiness, natural resources, and environmental protection. The scope of this guide includes four occupational subgroups: feeds, fertilizers, seeds, and chemicals. It is meant as an aid to all who are involved in…

  7. Agricultural nutrient loadings to the freshwater environment: the role of climate change and socioeconomic change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xie, Hua; Ringler, Claudia

    2017-10-01

    Human activities, in particular agricultural production, interfere with natural cycles of nutrient elements, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), leading to growing concerns about water quality degradation related to excessive nutrient loadings. Increases in agricultural production in response to population growth and wealth generation further increase risks associated with nutrient pollution. This paper presents results from projections of nutrient exports from global agricultural crop and pasture systems to the water environment generated using a process-based modeling approach. Brazil, China, India and the United States account for more than half of estimated global N and P loadings in the base year. Each country boasts large agriculture centers where high calculated loading values are found. Rapid growth in global agricultural nutrient loadings is projected. Growth of agricultural pollution loading is fastest in the group of low-income developing countries and loading growth rates also vary substantially with climate change scenario. Counter measures need to be taken to address the environmental risks associated with the projected rapid increase of agricultural nutrient loadings.

  8. Instructional Materials Development in Agricultural Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Jasper S.

    Instructional materials development in agricultural education is part of the role of the faculty in the Agricultural Education Program Area at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The bases for instructional materials development must relate to the curriculum. Curriculum development is a moving circular process involving horizontal…

  9. Projection for household development in China.

    PubMed

    Guo, Z

    1991-01-01

    In traditional Chinese culture, marriage and setting up a new household is the most important event in life with the requisite purchases of real estate, furniture and other large items from years of savings. The development of the national economy depends on these households to as significant extent as they also provide microeconomic functions in society. The sex age-specific householder rate method was used for forecasting the number of future households. The UN medium projection of the population of China for the year 2000 indicated 1,285,000,000, the low projection showed 1,260,000,000 and the high projection came up with 1,300,000,000 with an essentially unchanged number of households and probably smaller average household size. The 1988, the China Population Statistics Almanac disclosed that in 1987 there was a total 258,340,000 households expected to increase according to the medium projection to 370,000,000 households expected to increase according to the medium projection to 370,640,000 by 2000. This annual growth rate of 2.8% exceeds the rate of 1.4% in the 1950s, 1.8% in the 1960s and early 1970s and 2.4% during 1975-87. The data of the Statistics Bureau and the Ministry of Public Security for 1985-89 yielded an annual household growth rate of 3.6%. This could be attributed to the increased number of births following the troublesome early 1960s who enter marriage age now. Based on the average household living space of 61.37 sq m there would be an additional 6,890,000,000 sq m of living space requirement for 112,300,000 new households. The proportion of urban population would rise from the level of 1987 when the agricultural population made up 80.1% and the nonagricultural segment comprised 19.8%. New household construction would require planning, raising funds, building materials, construction teams, and land.

  10. Off-farm applications of solar energy in agriculture

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Berry, R.E.

    1980-01-01

    Food processing applications make up almost all present off-farm studies of solar energy in agriculture. Research, development and demonstration projects on solar food processing have shown significant progress over the past 3 years. Projects have included computer simulation and mathematical models, hardware and process development for removing moisture from horticultural or animal products, integration of energy conservation with solar energy augmentation in conventional processes, and commercial scale demonstrations. The demonstration projects include solar heated air for drying prunes and raisins, soy beans and onions/garlic; and solar generated steam for orange juice pasteurization. Several new and planned projects hold considerable promisemore » for commerical exploitation in future food processes.« less

  11. Veterinary Pest Genomics Center | National Agricultural Library

    Science.gov Websites

    Skip to main content Home National Agricultural Library United States Department of Agriculture Ag Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The vision for this initiative is to collaborator for the Bioinformatics Education in Agricultural Sciences (BEAS) project funded by the Hispanic

  12. Women and agricultural productivity: Reframing the Issues.

    PubMed

    Doss, Cheryl R

    2018-01-01

    Should agricultural development programmes target women in order to increase productivity? This article analyzes the challenges in distinguishing women's agricultural productivity from that of men. Most of the literature compares productivity on plots managed by women with those managed by men, ignoring the majority of agricultural households in which men and women are both involved in management and production. The empirical studies which have been carried out provide scant evidence for where the returns to projects may be highest, in terms of who to target. Yet, programmes that do not consider gendered responsibilities, resources and constraints, are unlikely to succeed, either in terms of increasing productivity or benefitting men and women smallholder farmers.

  13. Project development process.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2007-08-01

    The following chapter explains the purpose of this document, outlines the essential elements involved in : the Project Development Process, describes the differences in the three main project classifications, and : provides the necessary background i...

  14. Rural Development and the Regional State: Denying Multifunctional Agriculture in the UK

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marsden, Terry; Sonnino, Roberta

    2008-01-01

    Under the emerging rural development paradigm, we argue that to be multifunctional an activity must add income to agriculture, it must contribute to the construction of a new agricultural sector that corresponds to the needs of the wider society and it must reconfigure rural resources in ways that lead to wider rural development benefits. By…

  15. DEVELOPMENT OF ADME DATA IN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL SAFETY ASSESSMENTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    DEVELOPMENT OF ADME DATA IN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL SAFETY ASSESSMENTS
    Pastoor, Timothy1, Barton, Hugh2
    1 Syngenta Crop Protection, Greensboro, NC, USA.
    2 EPA, Office of Research and Development-NHEERL, RTP, NC, USA.

    A multi-stakeholder series of discussions d...

  16. Psychiatric agriculture: systemic nutritional modification and mental health in the developing world.

    PubMed

    London, Douglas S; Stoll, Andrew L; Manning, Bruce B

    2006-01-01

    Modernization of agricultural systems to increase output causes changes to the nutritional content of food entire populations consume. Human nutritional needs differ from their "food", thus producing healthy agricultural products is not equivalent to providing agricultural products that are healthy for humans. Inclusion of the food production system as a factor in the increase of neuropsychiatric disorders and other chronic diseases helps explain negative trends in modern chronic diseases that remain unchecked despite stunning advances in modern medicine. Diseases in which our own technology plays a significant role include obesity and resulting disorders, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke and arthritis. Modernization's lure leads to importation of modern agricultural practices into a nutritionally vulnerable, malnourished and sometimes starving developing world. Wealthier nations hedge their food portfolio by having access to a wider variety of foods. The developing world's reliance on staple foods means even a minor widespread nutritional modification of one key food can have profound effects. New agricultural techniques may improve or exacerbate neuropsychiatric disorders through nutritional modification in regions where populations walk a nutritional tightrope with little margin for error. In most of the developing world western psychiatric interventions have failed to make inroads. People's consumption of fish has a demonstrated beneficial effect on their mental health and the omega-3 fatty acid content is a significant factor. Epidemiological, biological and agricultural studies implicate a lack of dietary omega-3s as a factor in certain mental disorders. Replenishing omega-3s has improved mental illnesses in controlled clinical trials. This article's detailed tilapia fish-farming model demonstrates how aquaculture/agriculture techniques can function as a public health intervention by increasing dietary omega-3s through creation of

  17. Regional Climate Change Impact on Agricultural Land Use in West Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ahmed, K. F.; Wang, G.; You, L.

    2014-12-01

    Agriculture is a key element of the human-induced land use land cover change (LULCC) that is influenced by climate and can potentially influence regional climate. Temperature and precipitation directly impact the crop yield (by controlling photosynthesis, respiration and other physiological processes) that then affects agricultural land use pattern. In feedback, the resulting changes in land use and land cover play an important role to determine the direction and magnitude of global, regional and local climate change by altering Earth's radiative equilibrium. The assessment of future agricultural land use is, therefore, of great importance in climate change study. In this study, we develop a prototype land use projection model and, using this model, project the changes to land use pattern and future land cover map accounting for climate-induced yield changes for major crops in West Africa. Among the inputs to the land use projection model are crop yield changes simulated by the crop model DSSAT, driven with the climate forcing data from the regional climate model RegCM4.3.4-CLM4.5, which features a projected decrease of future mean crop yield and increase of inter-annual variability. Another input to the land use projection model is the projected changes of food demand in the future. In a so-called "dumb-farmer scenario" without any adaptation, the combined effect of decrease in crop yield and increase in food demand will lead to a significant increase in agricultural land use in future years accompanied by a decrease in forest and grass area. Human adaptation through land use optimization in an effort to minimize agricultural expansion is found to have little impact on the overall areas of agricultural land use. While the choice of the General Circulation Model (GCM) to derive initial and boundary conditions for the regional climate model can be a source of uncertainty in projecting the future LULCC, results from sensitivity experiments indicate that the changes

  18. A Guide for Using Illinois Standards for Quality Agriculture Programs in Community Colleges.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois Univ., Urbana. Dept. of Vocational and Technical Education.

    As a result of a project to prepare standards for agricultural occupations programs in Illinois community colleges, this guide was developed to assist local community college instructors, administrators, and other local persons in the evaluation of local agricultural occupations programs. The first section of the guide explains (how standards…

  19. Community development and health project: a 5-year (1995-1999) experience in Mozambique, Africa.

    PubMed

    Ferrell, B J A G

    2002-03-01

    The Community Development and Health Project (1995-1999) in Mozambique, East Africa, was undertaken to help alleviate the dire circumstances of daily life following years of internal warfare. The project was supported by the International United Methodist Church and was administered by the Mozambique Conference of the United Methodist Church, Chicuque Rural Hospital and Cambine Health Center. The target population, whose daily survival depended on subsistence farming, lived throughout the country, in particular in rural areas, far from health care facilities. The Project Content included the following topics: basic education in personal and environmental hygiene; proper nutrition using locally available food products; methods of agriculture that would ensure the best use of the land for growing nutritious food; economic methods to guarantee a supply of safe drinking water; disease prevention/home treatment; maternal child health; self-esteem issues; and establishing a representatively inclusive community-development committee. Indigenous women, the 'promotoras/os', were selected from their communities, attended a 4-week training session and then returned to their homes as 'Promotoras/os of Community Development and Health'.

  20. The development and adaption of early agriculture in Huanghe River Valley, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, X.

    2017-12-01

    The expanding and developing of agriculture are the basic of population growth, the expansions of material cultures and civilization. The Huanghe River valley, as the origin center of millet agriculture, lies between the heartlands of wheat and rice, which gestates the flourishing Neolithic culture based on agriculture. Recent work using botanical remains has greatly expanded the knowledge concerning early agriculture. Here, we report the new progress on the development and adaption of early agriculture in Huanghe River valley and the surrounding areas. Based on the analysis of phytolith from 13 sites in middle reaches of Huanghe River and the survey of crop seeds from 5 sites in Guanzhong Basin, the rice have been cultivated around 7600 cal BP in semi-humid regions dominated by rain-fed agriculture. The mixed agriculture of common millet, foxtail millet, and rice continued to exist between 7600-3500 BP. In semi-arid region of Huanghe River valley, the agriculture was dominated by the production of common and foxtail millet and 3 major changes have taken place around 6500 BP, 5500 BP, and 4000 BP during Neolithic. The cultivating ratio of common and foxtail millet was adjusted by farmer for adapting the climate changes during Holocene. Approximately 5000 yr BP, the rain-fed agriculture continues to break geographical boundaries to expand to west and southwest from Huanghe River valley. Millet agriculture appeared in southern Ganshu and north eastern Tibetan Plateau. The common and foxtail millet spread to the arid-area of Hexi corridor, a major crossroad of the famous Silk Road, around 4500 yr BP. Wheat was added as a new crop to the existing millet based agricultural systems around 4100-4000 cal yr BP in Hexi corridor. Between 3800 and 3400 cal yr BP, the proportion of wheat and barley in agriculture was up to 90%,which have replaced the local millet and become the main crops. And now, some new evidences of wheat agriculture from NW Xijiang have been obtained and

  1. Why Do Smallholder Farmers Dis-adopt Conservation Agriculture? Insights from Malawi

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chinseu, Edna; Dougill, Andrew; Stringer, Lindsay

    2017-04-01

    International donors and advisory bodies, national governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are all actively promoting conservation agriculture (CA) as a route to sustainable agricultural development, recognising the importance of agriculture to the national economy and livelihoods of rural communities. CA is anchored in 3 principles: i) minimum soil disturbance, ii) continuous soil cover and iii) crop associations. It is advocated on the basis of improving crop yields, income and/or profits; reducing production costs; and conserving soil and water. Despite huge investments made by CA proponents, many farmers only practice CA for a short time. They subsequently dis-adopt (abandon) the seemingly appropriate innovation and revert back to conventional tillage practices. While factors affecting the (initial) adoption of agricultural technologies have been studied extensively, dis-adoption has rarely been investigated. Improving our understanding of dis-adoption of seemingly appropriate and sustainable interventions is vital for long-term sustainable land management, food security and for ensuring sustained impacts of agricultural development project interventions more broadly. This research investigates why smallholder farmers abandon CA practices in Malawi by exploring farmers' experiences of CA and their implications in dis-adoption. A mixed methods approach was used, involving household questionnaire survey and focus group discussions with smallholder farmers. Findings reveal that reasons for dis-adoption are multi-dimensional and multi-layered. While CA proponents are marketing CA as a time saving, labour saving and yield improving technology, many farmers report contrary experiences. Findings also showed that farmers lacked ownership of CA projects and encountered various social challenges, which coupled with unfulfilled expectations, led to dis-adoption. In sub-Saharan Africa, this suggests that there is a need to: (1) market CA as a climate

  2. Solar Project Development Pathway & Resources

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Local Government Solar Project Portal's Solar Project Development Pathway and Resources page details the major steps along the project development pathway and each step includes resources and tools to assist you with that step.

  3. A Proposed Educational Program for Agricultural Development in Iraq.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alsamarrae, Hatam Ali

    The general purpose of this study was to develop an educational program for agricultural development in Iraq, and to identify the best method for its implementation. The proposed program was based primarily upon relevant factors identified through data collection from the following sources: official records, current literature, and the writer's…

  4. Adapting Agriculture Platforms for Nutrition: A Case Study of a Participatory, Video-Based Agricultural Extension Platform in India

    PubMed Central

    Kadiyala, Suneetha; Morgan, Emily H.; Cyriac, Shruthi; Margolies, Amy; Roopnaraine, Terry

    2016-01-01

    Successful integration of nutrition interventions into large-scale development programmes from nutrition-relevant sectors, such as agriculture, can address critical underlying determinants of undernutrition and enhance the coverage and effectiveness of on-going nutrition-specific activities. However, evidence on how this can be done is limited. This study examines the feasibility of delivering maternal, infant, and young child nutrition behaviour change communication through an innovative agricultural extension programme serving nutritionally vulnerable groups in rural India. The existing agriculture programme involves participatory production of low-cost videos promoting best practices and broad dissemination through village-level women’s self-help groups. For the nutrition intervention, 10 videos promoting specific maternal, infant, and young child nutrition practices were produced and disseminated in 30 villages. A range of methods was used to collect data, including in-depth interviews with project staff, frontline health workers, and self-help group members and their families; structured observations of mediated video dissemination sessions; nutrition knowledge tests with project staff and self-help group members; and a social network questionnaire to assess diffusion of promoted nutrition messages. We found the nutrition intervention to be well-received by rural communities and viewed as complementary to existing frontline health services. However, compared to agriculture, nutrition content required more time, creativity, and technical support to develop and deliver. Experimentation with promoted nutrition behaviours was high, but sharing of information from the videos with non-viewers was limited. Key lessons learned include the benefits of and need for collaboration with existing health services; continued technical support for implementing partners; engagement with local cultural norms and beliefs; empowerment of women’s group members to champion

  5. Economic Drought Impact on Agriculture: analysis of all agricultural sectors affected

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gil, M.; Garrido, A.; Hernández-Mora, N.

    2012-04-01

    The analysis of drought impacts is essential to define efficient and sustainable management and mitigation. In this paper we present a detailed analysis of the impacts of the 2004-2008 drought in the agricultural sector in the Ebro river basin (Spain). An econometric model is applied in order to determine the magnitude of the economic loss attributable to water scarcity. Both the direct impacts of drought on agricultural productivity and the indirect impacts of drought on agricultural employment and agroindustry in the Ebro basin are evaluated. The econometric model measures losses in the economic value of irrigated and rainfed agricultural production, of agricultural employment and of Gross Value Added both from the agricultural sector and the agro-industrial sector. The explanatory variables include an index of water availability (reservoir storage levels for irrigated agriculture and accumulated rainfall for rainfed agriculture), a price index representative of the mix of crops grown in each region, and a time variable. The model allows for differentiating the impacts due to water scarcity from other sources of economic losses. Results show how the impacts diminish as we approach the macro-economic indicators from those directly dependent on water abstractions and precipitation. Sectors directly dependent on water are the most affected with identifiable economic losses resulting from the lack of water. From the management perspective implications of these findings are key to develop mitigation measures to reduce drought risk exposure. These results suggest that more open agricultural markets, and wider and more flexible procurement strategies of the agro-industry reduces the socio-economic exposure to drought cycles. This paper presents the results of research conducted under PREEMPT project (Policy relevant assessment of the socioeconomic effects of droughts and floods, ECHO - grant agreement # 070401/2010/579119/SUB/C4), which constitutes an effort to provide

  6. Forests on the Edge: A GIS-based Approach to Projecting Housing Development on Private Forests

    Treesearch

    Ron McRoberts; Mark Nelson; David Theobald; Mike Eley; Mike Dechter

    2006-01-01

    The private working land base of America’s forests, farms, and ranches is being converted at the rate of nearly 1,620 ha (4,000 acres) per day with tremendous economic, ecological, and social impacts. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service is sponsoring the “Forests on the Edge” project to develop a better understanding of the contributions...

  7. Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-Income Countries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barros, Vicente

    2008-09-01

    During recent months, another sign of the global fragility to sustain the increasing human demand for resources has appeared with merciless cruelty. Increasing food prices, paradoxically driven to a large extent by the rapid economic growth of vast regions of the emerging world, are affecting hundreds of millions of the poorest people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. As described in Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-Income Countries, most of the poorest people in these low-income countries live in rural areas and are engaged in agriculture or related activities. Because many people in these areas are engaged in subsistence agriculture, they do not share in the added income derived from higher market prices for food.

  8. Career Development Event Participation and Professional Development Needs of Kansas Agricultural Education Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harris, Clark R.

    2008-01-01

    Past studies have shown that agricultural education teachers perceive a need for professional development in Career Development Events (CDEs) preparation, but they did not identify the individual CDEs where training was needed. This study examined the CDEs that Kansas schools were participating in at the district and state levels and the CDEs…

  9. Land-Sparing Opportunities for Solar Energy Development in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study of the Great Central Valley, CA, United States.

    PubMed

    Hoffacker, Madison K; Allen, Michael F; Hernandez, Rebecca R

    2017-12-19

    Land-cover change from energy development, including solar energy, presents trade-offs for land used for the production of food and the conservation of ecosystems. Solar energy plays a critical role in contributing to the alternative energy mix to mitigate climate change and meet policy milestones; however, the extent that solar energy development on nonconventional surfaces can mitigate land scarcity is understudied. Here, we evaluate the land sparing potential of solar energy development across four nonconventional land-cover types: the built environment, salt-affected land, contaminated land, and water reservoirs (as floatovoltaics), within the Great Central Valley (CV, CA), a globally significant agricultural region where land for food production, urban development, and conservation collide. Furthermore, we calculate the technical potential (TWh year -1 ) of these land sparing sites and test the degree to which projected electricity needs for the state of California can be met therein. In total, the CV encompasses 15% of CA, 8415 km 2 of which was identified as potentially land-sparing for solar energy development. These areas comprise a capacity-based energy potential of at least 17 348 TWh year -1 for photovoltaic (PV) and 2213 TWh year -1 for concentrating solar power (CSP). Accounting for technology efficiencies, this exceeds California's 2025 projected electricity demands up to 13 and 2 times for PV and CSP, respectively. Our study underscores the potential of strategic renewable energy siting to mitigate environmental trade-offs typically coupled with energy sprawl in agricultural landscapes.

  10. Using the Illinois Core Curriculum for Developing Courses of Study in Vocational Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Osborne, Ed; Hemp, Paul

    This booklet is designed to serve as a practical guide to assist teachers in using the Illinois Core Curriculum in Agriculture to develop courses of study for local vocational agriculture courses. Provided first is an overview of vocational agriculture programs on the secondary-school level in the state of Illinois. The next section is a guide for…

  11. Toolbox for Renewable Energy Project Development

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Toolbox for Renewable Energy Project Development summarizes key project development issues, addresses how to overcome major hurdles, and provides a curated directory of project development resources.

  12. 7 CFR 924.45 - Research and development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... establishment of production research, and marketing research and development projects designed to assist... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Research and development. 924.45 Section 924.45 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing...

  13. 7 CFR 929.45 - Research and development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... establishment of production research, marketing research, and market development projects, including paid... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Research and development. 929.45 Section 929.45 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing...

  14. Feasibility Study for Paravetic Competency Development of Vocational Agriculture Teachers. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Evans, Donald E.

    A study was conducted to determine the feasibility of an animal health (paravetical) competency development inservice program for vocational agriculture teachers in Pennsylvania. Objectives were to identify the paravetic (paraveterinary medical) competencies needed by vocational agriculture teachers to teach high school students and adults via…

  15. Agricultural Research Service research highlights in remote sensing for calendar year 1980

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ritchie, J. C. (Principal Investigator)

    1981-01-01

    The AR research mission in remote sensing is to develop the basic understanding of the soil plant animal atmosphere continuum in agricultural ecosystems and to determine when remotely sensed data can be used to provide information about these agricultural ecosystems. A brief statement of the significant results of each project is given. A list of 1980 publication and location contacts is also given.

  16. Agricultural Development Workers Training Manual. Volume IV. Livestock.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bacon, Neil; And Others

    This training manual, the last volume in a four-volume series for use in training Peace Corps workers, deals with livestock. The first chapter provides suggested guidelines for setting up and carrying out the livestock component of the agricultural development worker training course. Included in the second chapter are lesson plans covering the…

  17. 7 CFR 1250.314 - Plans and projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EGG RESEARCH AND PROMOTION Egg Research and Promotion Order Definitions § 1250.314 Plans and projects. Plans and projects means those research, consumer and producer education, advertising, marketing, product development, and promotion plans...

  18. African land ecology: opportunities and constraints for agricultural development.

    PubMed

    Voortman, Roelf L; Sonneveld, Ben G J S; Keyzer, Michiel A

    2003-08-01

    Compared to other continents, the economic growth performance of Sub-Saharan Africa has been poor over the last four decades. Likewise, progress in agricultural development has been limited and the Green Revolution left Africa almost untouched. The question raised in the literature is whether the poor performance is a question of poor policies or of an unfavorable biophysical environment (policy versus destiny). This paper, with a broad perspective, analyzes adaptation of current land use to environmental conditions in Africa and compares the physical resource base of Africa with Asia. In doing so, we search for unifying principles that can have operational consequences for agricultural development. We argue that some specificities of the natural resource base, namely local homogeneity and spatial diversity of the predominant Basement Complex soils, imply that simple fertilizer strategies may not produce the yield increases obtained elsewhere.

  19. 7 CFR 947.47 - Research and development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... Secretary, may provide for the establishment of marketing research and development projects designed to... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Research and development. 947.47 Section 947.47 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing...

  20. Infusing a Global Perspective into the Study of Agriculture: Student Activities. Volume 1. Developed by the National Task Force on International Agricultural Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Robert A., Ed.

    The need to develop an awareness of the global nature of the agriculture industry is one of the major issues that students must begin to understand. A packet of instructional materials was developed to help teachers infuse a global perspective into units of instruction about agriculture and related topics. This document offers a series of…

  1. 23 CFR 660.112 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Project development. 660.112 Section 660.112 Highways... PROGRAMS (DIRECT FEDERAL) Forest Highways § 660.112 Project development. (a) Projects to be administered by... Program. Projects to be administered by a cooperator shall be developed in accordance with Federal-aid...

  2. 23 CFR 660.112 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Project development. 660.112 Section 660.112 Highways... PROGRAMS (DIRECT FEDERAL) Forest Highways § 660.112 Project development. (a) Projects to be administered by... Program. Projects to be administered by a cooperator shall be developed in accordance with Federal-aid...

  3. 23 CFR 660.112 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Project development. 660.112 Section 660.112 Highways... PROGRAMS (DIRECT FEDERAL) Forest Highways § 660.112 Project development. (a) Projects to be administered by... Program. Projects to be administered by a cooperator shall be developed in accordance with Federal-aid...

  4. 23 CFR 660.112 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Project development. 660.112 Section 660.112 Highways... PROGRAMS (DIRECT FEDERAL) Forest Highways § 660.112 Project development. (a) Projects to be administered by... Program. Projects to be administered by a cooperator shall be developed in accordance with Federal-aid...

  5. Examination of core competencies of agricultural development professionals in Cambodia.

    PubMed

    Suvedi, Murari; Ghimire, Ramjee; Channa, Ty

    2018-04-01

    This cross-sectional study examined perceived level of importance, perceived level of competency in extension core competencies, and whether and how perceptions of competency vary by respondents' demographics; ascertained gaps in competency, if any; and identified ways for agricultural development professionals in Cambodia to acquire core competencies. Data were collected using a group-administered survey among 39 agricultural development professionals participating in a national workshop in December 2015. The survey consisted of 48 competencies representing eight core competencies, and each competency had level of importance and level of competency parts. The findings show that extension workers in Cambodia deemed all competencies highly or very highly important to their extension work; however, their perceived level of competency in those competencies appeared not to meet the expectations. The level of competency in all but communication skills and diversity significantly differed by gender but not by age and experience. Respondents indicated all four methods-preservice, in-service, basic induction training, and participation in seminars, workshops, and webinars-equally appropriate to acquire core competencies. The findings imply that the agricultural development authority in Cambodia should review, update, or design extension education curricula incorporating the competencies highlighted in this study and train its extension cadres on those competencies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Secondary Vocational Agriculture Inservice Training.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Texas A and M Univ., College Station. Dept. of Agricultural Education.

    This document briefly describes the objectives, procedures, accomplishments, and findings of a project to provide inservice training for secondary vocational agriculture teachers in Texas. It then details a survey of the 933 teachers attending the resulting State Professional Improvement Conference for Teachers of Agricultural Science. The survey…

  7. The need for ergonomics considerations for the design and development of agricultural machinery in Thailand.

    PubMed

    Mamansari, D U; Salokhe, V M

    1995-06-01

    Agriculture plays an important role in developing countries which are mainly located in tropical regions. Agriculture is an industry with tremendous opportunities for the application of ergonomics principles. Working conditions are extremely difficult due to severe environmental conditions, long working hours, strenuous work and the use of mobile equipment. The ignorance of the majority of ergonomics principles in the design of agricultural equipment make the conditions more difficult. Thailand is one of the important suppliers of agricultural products in the world. Mechanization has expanded tremendously during the last 10 years and the number of agricultural machinery has rapidly increased. This paper looks at ergonomics principles which must be considered in the design and development of agricultural machines and equipment used in Thailand. It was identified that the common farming system in Thailand is rice-based cultivation, mostly in swampy conditions with heavy clay soil. It was also found that the most energy-consuming task in agriculture was primary cultivation. The most widely used machine is a power tiller which is suitable for the farm sizes available and can be operated easily. Most of the power tillers and other equipment were found to be locally made, with less than 5% imported. Unfortunately, there was no standardization in power tiller manufacturing which led to increasing farmers' strain. There is still a need to collect more ergonomics data of Thai farmers such as anthropometry, strength and physical work capacity for the design and development of agricultural machines and equipment used in Thailand. Different ergonomic consideration for the design and development of agricultural machinery have been suggested.

  8. Guidelines for CSM project development.

    PubMed

    1983-01-01

    This document summarizes guidelines for contraceptive social marketing project development prepared by the International Contraceptive Social Marketing Project (ICSMP) as an aid to consultants and technical assistance contractors. The ICSMP has developed a checklist to guide planning in 4 major areas: 1) project organization and management structure, 2) target market, 3) product line, and 4) pricing strategy and project costs. A clear statement of project objectives is essential, and these objectives must be internally consistent so that strategies to accomplish them can be unified. The position of each governmental entity and sponsoring agency involved in the social marketing project must be clearly understood. Projects receiving US government funds must have a mechanism for financial and programmatic reporting and accountability. Thorough knowledge of commercial rules and regulations in a country is necessary for planning. To ascertain whether the necessary resources are available, it is necessary to examine the existing marketing infrastructure in terms of distribution, advertising, market research, and packagaing capabilities. The target market should be specified in quantifiable terms; in addition, a consumer profile that defines the overall demographics of the country, the family planning environment, and potential social marketing consumers should be developed. The couple years of protection projection can be translated into the percentage of the target market that the project expects to capture. It is necessary to price products early in project development in order to assess program costs. Revenue projections should be based on previous calculations of couple year of protection goals, product line, product price, and price structure. Each element of the advertsing budget should be justifiable in terms of project objectives. Finally, positions and anticpated salaries for staff should be specified through the 1st 3 years of project implementation.

  9. Resource Guide to Educational Materials about Agriculture. A Project of Agriculture in the Classroom. 1996 Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. Office of the Secretary.

    This resource guide provides a list of materials available from public and private sources on agriculture and related issues. More than 300 organizations and publishers were asked what materials they were producing that could help regular K-12 classroom teachers incorporate more information about agriculture into their instruction. This guide is…

  10. 7 CFR 1944.670 - Project income.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Project income. 1944.670 Section 1944.670 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) HOUSING Housing Preservation Grants § 1944.670 Project income. (a) Project income...

  11. 7 CFR 1944.670 - Project income.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2011-01-01 2009-01-01 true Project income. 1944.670 Section 1944.670 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) HOUSING Housing Preservation Grants § 1944.670 Project income. (a) Project income...

  12. 7 CFR 1944.670 - Project income.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2014-01-01 2013-01-01 true Project income. 1944.670 Section 1944.670 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) HOUSING Housing Preservation Grants § 1944.670 Project income. (a) Project income...

  13. 7 CFR 1944.670 - Project income.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project income. 1944.670 Section 1944.670 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) HOUSING Housing Preservation Grants § 1944.670 Project income. (a) Project income...

  14. 7 CFR 1944.670 - Project income.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project income. 1944.670 Section 1944.670 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE, RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) HOUSING Housing Preservation Grants § 1944.670 Project income. (a) Project income...

  15. AGRICULTURAL BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE EFFECTIVENESS DATABASE

    EPA Science Inventory

    Resource Purpose:The Agricultural Best Management Practice Effectiveness Database contains the results of research projects which have collected water quality data for the purpose of determining the effectiveness of agricultural management practices in reducing pollutants ...

  16. Agriculture and Community Development Interface. Joint Meeting of the Southern Region State Leaders for Agriculture and Natural Resources and Community Resource Development Proceedings (October 8-11, 1989, Williamsburg, Virginia).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Warner, Paul D., Ed.; Campbell, Raymond, Ed.

    This document is a summary of remarks presented at a joint meeting of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Community Resource Development state leaders in 1989. The focus of the meeting was economic viability, rural extension and education, water quality, waste management, biotechnology, low-input sustainable agriculture (LISA), and rural…

  17. Environmental sub models for a macroeconomic model: agricultural contribution to climate change and acidification in Denmark.

    PubMed

    Jensen, Trine S; Jensen, Jørgen D; Hasler, Berit; Illerup, Jytte B; Andersen, Frits M

    2007-01-01

    Integrated modelling of the interaction between environmental pressure and economic development is a useful tool to evaluate environmental consequences of policy initiatives. However, the usefulness of such models is often restricted by the fact that these models only include a limited set of environmental impacts, which are often energy-related emissions. In order to evaluate the development in the overall environmental pressure correctly, these model systems must be extended. In this article an integrated macroeconomic model system of the Danish economy with environmental modules of energy related emissions is extended to include the agricultural contribution to climate change and acidification. Next to the energy sector, the agricultural sector is the most important contributor to these environmental themes and subsequently the extended model complex calculates more than 99% of the contribution to both climate change and acidification. Environmental sub-models are developed for agriculture-related emissions of CH(4), N(2)O and NH(3). Agricultural emission sources related to the production specific activity variables are mapped and emission dependent parameters are identified in order to calculate emission coefficients. The emission coefficients are linked to the economic activity variables of the Danish agricultural production. The model system is demonstrated by projections of agriculture-related emissions in Denmark under two alternative sets of assumptions: a baseline projection of the general economic development and a policy scenario for changes in the husbandry sector within the agricultural sector.

  18. Development of agriculture biotechnology in Pakistan.

    PubMed

    Zafar, Yusuf

    2007-01-01

    Agriculture plays an important role in the national economy of Pakistan, where most of the rapidly increasing population resides in rural areas and depends on agriculture for subsistence. Biotechnology has considerable potential for promoting the efficiency of crop improvement, food production, and poverty reduction. Use of modern biotechnology started in Pakistan since 1985. Currently, there are 29 biotech centers/institutes in the country. However, few centers have appropriate physical facilities and trained manpower to develop genetically modified (GM) crops. Most of the activities have been on rice and cotton, which are among the top 5 crops of Pakistan. Biotic (virus/bacterial/insect) and abiotic (salt) resistant and quality (male sterility) genes have already been incorporated in some crop plants. Despite acquiring capacity to produce transgenic plants, no GM crops, either produced locally or imported, have been released in the country. Pakistan is signatory to the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, and Cartagena protocols. Several legislations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights have been promulgated in the country. National Biosafety Guidelines have been promulgated in April 2005. The Plant Breeders Rights Act, Amendment in Seed Act-1976, and Geographical Indication for Goods are still passing through discussion, evaluation, and analysis phases. Meanwhile, an illegal GM crop (cotton) has already sneaked into farmer's field. Concerted and coordinated efforts are needed among various ministries for implementation of regulation and capacity building for import/export and local handling of GM crops. Pakistan could easily benefit from the experience of Asian countries, especially China and India, where conditions are similar and the agriculture sector is almost like that of Pakistan. Thus, the exchange of information and experiences is important among these nations.

  19. Project Management for International Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Axelrod, Valija M.; Magisos, Joel H.

    A project developed a content model for international project management training. It also compiled a bibliography of project management references, identified specific project management training needs based upon a survey of international sponsors and contractor personnel, and documented the training needs of international project managers. Data…

  20. Using logic models in a community-based agricultural injury prevention project.

    PubMed

    Helitzer, Deborah; Willging, Cathleen; Hathorn, Gary; Benally, Jeannie

    2009-01-01

    The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has long promoted the logic model as a useful tool in an evaluator's portfolio. Because a logic model supports a systematic approach to designing interventions, it is equally useful for program planners. Undertaken with community stakeholders, a logic model process articulates the underlying foundations of a particular programmatic effort and enhances program design and evaluation. Most often presented as sequenced diagrams or flow charts, logic models demonstrate relationships among the following components: statement of a problem, various causal and mitigating factors related to that problem, available resources to address the problem, theoretical foundations of the selected intervention, intervention goals and planned activities, and anticipated short- and long-term outcomes. This article describes a case example of how a logic model process was used to help community stakeholders on the Navajo Nation conceive, design, implement, and evaluate agricultural injury prevention projects.

  1. Guidelines for Development and Evaluation of Young Farmer and Adult Programs in Agriculture/Agribusiness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bundy, Clarence E.

    1974-01-01

    Guidelines developed at a national seminar establish goals and action steps for developing, expanding, and/or evaluating agriculture/agribusiness programs. America's role as a major food and fiber source for the world demands educated farmers. The guidelines apply to all levels of the agriculture education program. (AG)

  2. 7 CFR 3402.12 - Project summary.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project summary. 3402.12 Section 3402.12 Agriculture... AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES NATIONAL NEEDS GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM Preparation of an Application § 3402.12 Project summary. Using the Project Summary, Form NIFA-2003, applicants must summarize...

  3. 7 CFR 3402.12 - Project summary.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project summary. 3402.12 Section 3402.12 Agriculture... AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES NATIONAL NEEDS GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM Preparation of an Application § 3402.12 Project summary. Using the Project Summary, Form NIFA-2003, applicants must summarize...

  4. 7 CFR 3402.12 - Project summary.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project summary. 3402.12 Section 3402.12 Agriculture... AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES NATIONAL NEEDS GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM Preparation of an Application § 3402.12 Project summary. Using the Project Summary, Form NIFA-2003, applicants must summarize...

  5. 7 CFR 3402.12 - Project summary.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project summary. 3402.12 Section 3402.12 Agriculture... AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES NATIONAL NEEDS GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM Preparation of an Application § 3402.12 Project summary. Using the Project Summary, Form CSREES-2003, applicants must summarize...

  6. 7 CFR 3402.12 - Project summary.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project summary. 3402.12 Section 3402.12 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) COOPERATIVE STATE RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND EXTENSION... FELLOWSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM Preparation of an Application § 3402.12 Project summary. Using the Project Summary...

  7. Evaluation of Project Symbiosis: An Interdisciplinary Science Education Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Altschuld, James W.

    1993-01-01

    The goal of this report is to provide a summary of the evaluation of Project Symbiosis which focused on enhancing the teaching of science principles in high school agriculture courses. The project initially involved 15 teams of science and agriculture teachers and was characterized by an extensive evaluation component consisting of six formal…

  8. Climate Risk Management and Decision Support Tools for the Agriculture Sector in Lao PDR, Bangladesh, and Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allis, E. C.; Greene, A. M.; Cousin, R.

    2014-12-01

    We describe a comprehensive project for developing climate information and decision support / climate risk management tools in Lao PDR, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Mechanisms are developed for bringing the benefits of these tools to both policy makers and poor rural farmers, with the goal of enabling better management, at the farm level, of the risks associated with climate variability and change. The project comprises several interwoven threads, differentially applied in the different study regions. These include data management and quality control, development of seasonal forecast capabilities, use of dynamic cropping calendars and climate advisories, the development of longer-term climate information for both past and future and a weather index insurance component. Stakeholder engagement and capacity building served as reinforcing and complementary elements to all components. In this talk we will provide a project overview, show how the various components fit together and describe some lessons learned in this attempt to promote the uptake of actionable climate information from farmer to policy level. The applied research project was led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University with funding from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and in close collaboration with our regional partners at the Centre for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia Pacific (at Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia), Indonesia's National Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), Lao PDR's National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Laotian Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH), WorldFish Center, Bangladesh Meteorology Department (BMD), and CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

  9. Successes and challenges in a novel doctoral program in systems agriculture: a case example.

    PubMed

    Lust, D; Topliff, D; Deotte, R

    2010-01-01

    A doctoral program in Systems Agriculture was initiated at West Texas A&M University, Canyon, TX, in September, 2003. The stated objective of the program was "..to prepare leaders for the agricultural industry that are trained in a multidisciplinary, research-based curriculum that emphasizes a systems approach to problem solving". The program offers a single doctoral degree in Agriculture and accepts qualified students with a master's or professional degree in agricultural or related disciplines. Courses related to systems methodologies, leadership, agricultural economics, plant and soil science, and animal science are required. Additional program requirements include a systems research project and dissertation, leadership training, and written and oral exams. The program has exceeded enrollment and graduation targets, suggesting interest in this approach to a doctoral degree. Students have entered the program with M.S. backgrounds in education, traditional agricultural disciplines, veterinary medicine, business, and physics. Graduates have gained employment in industry, university teaching and research, government research/administration, and extension. Doctoral student projects in systems agriculture contributed to curriculum changes and to the conceptual framework adopted by a multi-state research group. Designing and teaching courses for students with diverse backgrounds has been challenging. Development of a common understanding of systems agriculture was identified by a third-party program review as an issue for faculty. Development and maintenance of program standards and administrative procedures posed additional challenges. Leadership, administrative support, and timely and continuing program assessment are suggested as necessary components for a nontraditional doctoral program.

  10. Development of a Low-Cost Attitude Sensor for Agricultural Vehicles

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The objective of this research was to develop a low-cost attitude sensor for agricultural vehicles. The attitude sensor was composed of three vibratory gyroscopes and two inclinometers. A sensor fusion algorithm was developed to estimate tilt angles (roll and pitch) by least-squares method. In the a...

  11. 7 CFR 632.18 - Special projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Special projects. 632.18 Section 632.18 Agriculture... AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL ABANDONED MINE PROGRAM Qualifications § 632.18 Special projects. (a) The NRCS State conservationist may approve the following types of special projects subject to the...

  12. 7 CFR 632.18 - Special projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Special projects. 632.18 Section 632.18 Agriculture... AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL ABANDONED MINE PROGRAM Qualifications § 632.18 Special projects. (a) The NRCS State conservationist may approve the following types of special projects subject to the...

  13. 7 CFR 632.18 - Special projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Special projects. 632.18 Section 632.18 Agriculture... AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL ABANDONED MINE PROGRAM Qualifications § 632.18 Special projects. (a) The NRCS State conservationist may approve the following types of special projects subject to the...

  14. 7 CFR 632.18 - Special projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Special projects. 632.18 Section 632.18 Agriculture... AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL ABANDONED MINE PROGRAM Qualifications § 632.18 Special projects. (a) The NRCS State conservationist may approve the following types of special projects subject to the...

  15. Agricultural Production and Business Management: Volume 2 (Livestock).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mercer, R. J., Ed.

    The curriculum guide is the second part of a two-year program developed as part of a revision of the total agricultural education curriculum in South Carolina. The project was designed to implement the following changes: (1) provide a more comprehensive vocational offering; (2) place a greater emphasis on behavioral objectives; (3) place a greater…

  16. Agricultural Production and Business Management: Volume 1 (Crops).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mercer, R. J., Ed.

    The curriculum guide is the first part of a two-year program developed as part of revision of the total agricultural education curriculum in South Carolina. The project was designed to implement the following changes: (1) provide a more comprehensive vocational offering; (2) place a greater emphasis on behavioral objectives; (3) place a greater…

  17. Ecological and economic dynamics of the Shunde agricultural system under China's small city development strategy.

    PubMed

    Lu, Hongfang; Campbell, Daniel E

    2009-06-01

    The agricultural and industrial development of small cities is the primary environmental management strategy employed to make full use of extra labor in the rural areas of China. The ecological and economic consequences of this development strategy will affect over 100 million people and change the organization of the Chinese landscape. In this study, we examined the agricultural development of Shunde, a small city in Guangdong Province, over the period 1978 until 2000. Our analysis of the ecological and economic dynamics of the agricultural system revealed the dominant role of labor in the intensification of agricultural production, even though the use of fuels, fertilizers and machines also increased during this time. The Shunde agricultural system was examined from both biophysical or donor-based and human utility or receiver-based perspectives, using emergy and economic methods, respectively. After 22 years of urbanization, the Shunde agricultural system was still able to fill 96% of the local demand for agricultural products using only 6% of its total yield compared to using 14% of the total yield in 1978. Aquaculture developed quickly during the study period as grain production decreased. In 2000, the production of fish, pork, and vegetables accounted for 92% of the total emergy output of the system; however, the emergy buying power of the money received in exchange was lower than the emergy contained in the products exported. The excess emergy exported is the basis for a high quality diet delivered to city dwellers at a relatively low price. In the 1980s, the productivity of both land and labor increased; but after 1992 the productivity of labor decreased, causing the efficiency of the whole agricultural system to decrease. We recommend that processing plants be established for the main agricultural products of Shunde to decrease the emergy loss in trading and to increase employment. The effect of including monetized ecosystem services in the balance between

  18. Investments on Pro-poor Development Projects on Goats: Ensuring Success for Improved Livelihoods.

    PubMed

    Devendra, C

    2013-01-01

    The elements that determine the success of development projects on goats and the prerequisites for ensuring this are discussed in the context of the bewildering diversity of goat genetic resources, production systems, multifunctionality, and opportunities for responding to constraints for productivity enhancement. Key determinants for the success of pro-poor projects are the imperatives of realistic project design, resolution of priorities and positive impacts to increase investments and spur agricultural growth, and appropriate policy. Throughout the developing world, there exist 97% of the total world population of 921 million goats across all agro-ecological zones (AEZs), including 570 breeds and 64% share of the breeds. They occupy a very important biological and socio-economic niche in farming systems making significant multifunctional contributions especially to food, nutrition and financial security, stability of farm households, and survival of the poor in the rural areas. Definitions are given of successful and failed projects. The analyses highlighted in successful projects the value of strong participatory efforts with farmers and climate change. Climate change effects on goats are inevitable and are mediated through heat stress, type of AEZ, water availability, quantity and quality of the available feed resources and type of production system. Within the prevailing production systems, improved integrated tree crops - ruminant systems are underestimated and are an important pathway to enhance C sequestration. Key development strategies and opportunities for research and development (R and D) are enormous, and include inter alia defining a policy framework, resolution of priority constraints using systems perspectives and community-based participatory activities, application of yield-enhancing technologies, intensification, scaling up, and impacts. The priority for development concerns the rainfed areas with large concentrations of ruminants in which

  19. 7 CFR 4280.29 - Supplemental financing required for the Ultimate Recipient Project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Supplemental financing required for the Ultimate Recipient Project. 4280.29 Section 4280.29 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... AND GRANTS Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Programs § 4280.29 Supplemental financing...

  20. Agricultural pathogen decontamination technology-reducing the threat of infectious agent spread.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Betty, Rita G.; Bieker, Jill Marie; Tucker, Mark David

    patented Sandia decontamination chemistry were developed and tested against a few surrogate pathogens under conditions of relatively heavy organic load. Tests were conducted on surfaces commonly found in agricultural environments. Wide spectrum decontamination efficacy, low corrosivity, and biodegradability issues were addressed in developing an enhanced detergency formulation. A method for rapid assessment of loss of pathogenic activity (inactivation) was also assessed. This enhanced technology will enable rapid assessment of contamination following an intentional event, and will also be extremely useful in routine assessment of agricultural environments. The primary effort during the second year was progress towards a demonstration of both decontamination and viral inactivation technologies of Foot and Mouth virus (FMDv) using the modified SNL chemistry developed through this project. Lab studies using a surrogate virus (bovine enterovirus) were conducted using DF200, modified DF200 chemistry, and decontaminants currently recommended for use in heavily loaded organic, agricultural environments (VirkonS, 10% bleach, sodium hydroxide and citric acid). Tests using actual FMD virus will be performed at the Department of Homeland Security's Plum Island facilities in the fall of 2005. Success and the insight gained from this project will lead to enhanced response capability, which will benefit agencies such as USDA, DHS, DOD, and the agricultural industry.« less

  1. Standards for Quality Programs in Agricultural Occupations in the Secondary Schools and Area Vocational Centers of Illinois. Phase II. A Progress Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stitt, Thomas R.; And Others

    The purpose of this project was to prepare materials to be used in the review and evaluation of an agricultural occupations program. Based on standards validated by Illinois agricultural occupations teachers, a standards workbook was developed that included standards specific to agricultural production, agricultural sales and service, agricultural…

  2. "Something good can grow here": chicago urban agriculture food projects.

    PubMed

    Hatchett, Lena; Brown, Loretta; Hopkins, Joan; Larsen, Kelly; Fournier, Eliza

    2015-01-01

    Food security is a challenge facing many African-American low-income communities nationally. Community and university partners have established urban agriculture programs to improve access to high quality affordable fruits and vegetables by growing, distributing, and selling food in urban neighborhoods. While the challenge of food security is within communities of color, few studies have described these urban agriculture programs and documented their impact on the crew members who work in the programs and live in the low-income communities. More information is needed on the program impact for crew and community health promotion. Using a survey and focus group discussion from the crew and staff we describe the program and activities of four Chicago Urban Agriculture programs. We summarized the impact these programs have on crew members' perception of urban agriculture, health habits, community engagement, and community health promotion in low-income African-American neighborhoods.

  3. Agricultural Development, Land Change, and Livelihoods in Tanzania's Kilombero Valley

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Connors, John Patrick

    The Kilombero Valley lies at the intersection of a network of protected areas that cross Tanzania. The wetlands and woodlands of the Valley, as well as the forest of surrounding mountains are abundant in biodiversity and are considered to be critical areas for conservation. This area, however, is also the home to more than a half million people, primarily poor smallholder farmers. In an effort to support the livelihoods and food security of these farmers and the larger Tanzanian population, the country has recently targeted a series of programs to increase agricultural production in the Kilombero Valley and elsewhere in the country. Bridging concepts and methods from land change science, political ecology, and sustainable livelihoods, I present an integrated assessment of the linkages between development and conservation efforts in the Kilombero Valley and the implications for food security. This dissertation uses three empirical studies to understand the process of development in the Kilombero Valley and to link the priorities and perceptions of conservation and development efforts to the material outcomes in food security and land change. The first paper of this dissertation examines the changes in land use in the Kilombero Valley between 1997 and 2014 following the privatization of agriculture and the expansion of Tanzania's Kilimo Kwanza program. Remote sensing analysis reveals a two-fold increase in agricultural area during this short time, largely at the expense of forest. Protected areas in some parts of the Valley appear to be deterring deforestation, but rapid agricultural growth, particularly surrounding a commercial rice plantation, has led to loss of extant forest and sustained habitat fragmentation. The second paper focuses examines livelihood strategies in the Valley and claims regarding the role of agrobiodiversity in food security. The results of household survey reveal no difference or lower food security among households that diversify their

  4. Assessing the Learning Needs of Student Teachers in Texas regarding Management of the Agricultural Mechanics Laboratory: Implications for the Professional Development of Early Career Teachers in Agricultural Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saucier, P. Ryan; McKim, Billy R.

    2011-01-01

    Skills needed to manage a laboratory are essential knowledge for all school-based, agriculture teachers who instruct agricultural mechanics curriculum (Saucier, Terry, & Schumacher, 2009). This research investigated the professional development needs of Texas agricultural education student teachers regarding agricultural mechanics laboratory…

  5. Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tam, A.; Jain, M.

    2016-12-01

    This research includes two projects pertaining to agricultural systems' adaption to climate change. The first research project focuses on the wheat yielding regions of India. Wheat is a major staple crop and many rural households and smallholder farmers rely on crop yields for survival. We examine the impacts of weather variability and groundwater depletion on agricultural systems, using geospatial analysis and satellite-based analysis and household-based and census data sets. We use these methods to estimate the crop yields and identify what factors are associated with low versus high yielding regions. This can help identify strategies that should be further promoted to increase crop yields. The second research project is a literature review. We conduct a meta-analysis and synthetic review on literature about agricultural adaptation to climate change. We sort through numerous articles to identify and examine articles that associate socio-economic, biophysical, and perceptional factors to farmers' adaption to climate change. Our preliminary results show that researchers tend to associate few factors to a farmers' vulnerability and adaptive capacity, and most of the research conducted is concentrated in North America, whereas tropical regions that are highly vulnerable to weather variability are underrepresented by literature. There are no conclusive results in both research projects as of so far.

  6. The Millennium Villages Project: a retrospective, observational, endline evaluation.

    PubMed

    Mitchell, Shira; Gelman, Andrew; Ross, Rebecca; Chen, Joyce; Bari, Sehrish; Huynh, Uyen Kim; Harris, Matthew W; Sachs, Sonia Ehrlich; Stuart, Elizabeth A; Feller, Avi; Makela, Susanna; Zaslavsky, Alan M; McClellan, Lucy; Ohemeng-Dapaah, Seth; Namakula, Patricia; Palm, Cheryl A; Sachs, Jeffrey D

    2018-05-01

    The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was a 10 year, multisector, rural development project, initiated in 2005, operating across ten sites in ten sub-Saharan African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this study, we aimed to estimate the project's impact, target attainment, and on-site spending. In this endline evaluation of the MVP, we retrospectively selected comparison villages that best matched the project villages on possible confounding variables. Cross-sectional survey data on 40 outcomes of interest were collected from both the project and the comparison villages in 2015. Using these data, as well as on-site spending data collected during the project, we estimated project impacts as differences in outcomes between the project and comparison villages; target attainment as differences between project outcomes and prespecified targets; and on-site spending as expenditures reported by communities, donors, governments, and the project. Spending data were not collected in the comparison villages. Averaged across the ten project sites, we found that impact estimates for 30 of 40 outcomes were significant (95% uncertainty intervals [UIs] for these outcomes excluded zero) and favoured the project villages. In particular, substantial effects were seen in agriculture and health, in which some outcomes were roughly one SD better in the project villages than in the comparison villages. The project was estimated to have no significant impact on the consumption-based measures of poverty, but a significant favourable impact on an index of asset ownership. Impacts on nutrition and education outcomes were often inconclusive (95% UIs included zero). Averaging across outcomes within categories, the project had significant favourable impacts on agriculture, nutrition, education, child health, maternal health, HIV and malaria, and water and sanitation. A third of the targets were met in the project sites. Total on-site spending decreased from US$132

  7. Development of a Global Evaporative Stress Index Based on Thermal and Microwave LST towards Improved Monitoring of Agricultural Drought

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hain, C.; Anderson, M. C.; Otkin, J.; Holmes, T. R.; Gao, F.

    2017-12-01

    This presentation will describe the development of a global agricultural monitoring tool, with a focus on providing early warning of developing vegetation stress for agricultural decision-makers and stakeholders at relatively high spatial resolution (5-km). The tool is based on remotely sensed estimates of evapotranspiration, retrieved via energy balance principals using observations of land surface temperature. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) represents anomalies in the ratio of actual-to-potential ET generated with the ALEXI surface energy balance model. The LST inputs to ESI have been shown to provide early warning information about the development of vegetation stress with stress-elevated canopy temperatures observed well before a decrease in greenness is detected in remotely sensed vegetation indices. As a diagnostic indicator of actual ET, the ESI requires no information regarding antecedent precipitation or soil moisture storage capacity - the current available moisture to vegetation is deduced directly from the remotely sensed LST signal. This signal also inherently accounts for both precipitation and non-precipitation related inputs/sinks to the plant-available soil moisture pool (e.g., irrigation) which can modify crop response to rainfall anomalies. Independence from precipitation data is a benefit for global agricultural monitoring applications due to sparseness in existing ground-based precipitation networks, and time delays in public reporting. Several enhancements to the current ESI framework will be addressed as requested from project stakeholders: (a) integration of "all-sky" MW Ka-band LST retrievals to augment "clear-sky" thermal-only ESI in persistently cloudy regions; (b) operational production of ESI Rapid Change Indices which provide important early warning information related to onset of actual vegetation stress; and (c) assessment of ESI as a predictor of global yield anomalies; initial studies have shown the ability of intra

  8. A Study of Agricultural Job Tasks and Implications for Curriculum Development in Agriculture and Agriculture Related Occupations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawaii State Dept. of Education, Honolulu. Office of Instructional Services.

    The study, based on a survey of agricultural industry in Hawaii, was conducted to obtain current job task information to be used as the basis for curriculum improvement in agricultural technology and ornamental horticulture. It determines the kinds and frequency of job skills and the importance of the accompanying knowledge required. A checklist…

  9. Integrating Cost-effective Rollover Protective Structure Installation in High School Agricultural Mechanics: A Feasibility Study.

    PubMed

    Mazur, Joan; Vincent, Stacy; Watson, Jennifer; Westneat, Susan

    2015-01-01

    This study with three Appalachian county agricultural education programs examined the feasibility, effectiveness, and impact of integrating a cost-effective rollover protective structure (CROPS) project into high school agricultural mechanics classes. The project aimed to (1) reduce the exposure to tractor overturn hazards in three rural counties through the installation of CROPS on seven tractors within the Cumberland Plateau in the east region; (2) increase awareness in the targeted rural communities of cost-effective ROPS designs developed by the National Institution for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to encourage ROPS installations that decrease the costs of a retrofit; (3) test the feasibility of integration of CROPS construction and installations procedures into the required agricultural mechanics classes in these agricultural education programs; and (4) explore barriers to the implementation of this project in high school agricultural education programs. Eighty-two rural students and three agricultural educators participated in assembly and installation instruction. Data included hazard exposure demographic data, knowledge and awareness of CROPS plans, and pre-post knowledge of construction and assessment of final CROPS installation. Findings demonstrated the feasibility and utility of a CROPS education program in a professionally supervised secondary educational setting. The project promoted farm safety and awareness of availability and interest in the NIOSH Cost-effective ROPS plans. Seven CROPS were constructed and installed. New curriculum and knowledge measures also resulted from the work. Lessons learned and recommendations for a phase 2 implementation and further research are included.

  10. Wastes and by-products - alternatives for agricultural use

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Boles, J.L.; Craft, D.J.; Parker, B.R.

    1994-10-01

    Top address a growing national problem with generation of wastes and by-products, TVA has been involved for several years with developing and commercializing environmentally responsible practices for eliminating, minimizing, or utilizing various wastes/by-products. In many cases, reducing waste generation is impractical, but the wastes/by-products can be converted into other environmentally sound products. In some instances, conversion of safe, value-added agricultural products in the best or only practical alternative. TVA is currently involved with a diversity of projects converting wastes/by-products into safe, economical, and agriculturally beneficial products. Environmental improvement projects have involved poultry litter, cellulosic wastes, used battery acid, ammonium sulfatemore » fines, lead smelting effluents, deep-welled sulfuric acid/ammonium bisulfate solutions, wood ash, waste magnesium ammonium sulfate slurry from recording tape production, and ammunition plant waste sodium nitrate/ammonium nitrate streams.« less

  11. Effects of agricultural management on productivity, soil quality and climate change mitigation - evaluations within the EU Project (FP 7) CATCH-C

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spiegel, Heide; Schlatter, Norman; Haslmayr, Hans-Peter; Baumgarten, Andreas; ten Berge, Hein

    2014-05-01

    Soils are the main basis for the production of food and feed. Furthermore, the production of biomass for energy and material use is becoming increasingly important. Goals for an optimal management of agricultural soils are, on the one hand, the maintenance or improvement of soil quality and, on the other hand, high productivity and climate change mitigation (reduction of GHG emissions and C sequestration). Thus, the EU project CATCH-C aims to evaluate current management practices concerning these three goals based on indicators derived from long-term field experiments of the project partners and from literature data. A maximum of 72 indicators for productivity, soil quality and the potential for carbon storage in the soil and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions were selected by the project partners. As indicators for productivity, crop yields are determined in almost all field trials. The content of soil organic carbon (SOC) is an indicator for chemical, physical and biological soil quality and was analysed in the topsoil in all field trials. Less data exist for SOC contents in the subsoil. An important physical soil quality indicator is the bulk density, however, it is not determined in all field trials of the project partners. Therefore, information on SOC stocks, with relevance to carbon storage and climate change mitigation, is not available in all field experiments. Other physical indicators, such as penetration resistance, runoff coefficient and soil losses are evaluated. Essential biological indicators are microbial biomass and the number and weight of earthworms, which have been tested in several field trials. The evaluation of all these indicators will help to select "best management practices" and to address trade-offs and synergies for all indicators under consideration of major European farm type zones. CATCH-C is funded within the 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration, Theme 2 - Biotechnologies

  12. FARMS: The Flexible Agricultural Robotics Manipulator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gill, Paul S.

    1991-01-01

    A technology utilization project was established with the Marshall Space Flight Center and the University of Georgia to develop an Earth-based, robotic end effector to process live plant (geranium) material which will improve productivity and efficiency in agricultural systems such as commercial nurseries and greenhouse systems. The aim is to apply this technology to NASA's presence in space, including permanently manned space stations and manned planetary communities requiring large scale food production needs.

  13. Agricultural Energy Practices. Agriculture Energy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crank, Ron

    This instructional unit is one of 10 developed by students on various energy-related areas that deals specifically with agricultural energy practices. Its objective is for the student to be able to discuss energy use and conservation of resources in the production of agricultural products. Some topics covered are basic uses of direct energy in…

  14. 76 FR 58767 - Board for International Food and Agricultural Development; Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-09-22

    ... International Food and Agricultural Development; Notice of Meeting Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, notice is hereby given of the public meeting of the Board for International Food and Agricultural... Moines Marriott located at 700 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa. ``The Next Generation: Global Food...

  15. Assessment of potential impacts of climate change on agricultural development in the Lower Benue River Basin.

    PubMed

    Abah, Roland Clement; Petja, Brilliant Mareme

    2016-12-01

    Agriculture in the Lower Benue River Basin faces several challenges which threaten the future of agricultural development. This study was an assessment of potential impacts of climate change on agricultural development in the Lower Benue River Basin. Through analysis of physical and socioeconomic parameters, the study adapted an impact assessment model to rank potential impacts on agricultural development in the study area. Rainfall intensity seemed to be increasing with a gradual reduction in the number of rainy days. The average discharge at Makurdi hydrological station was 3468.24 cubic metres per second (m 3  s -1 ), and the highest peak flow discharge was 16,400 m 3  s -1 . The daily maximum temperature and annual temperature averages for the study area are gradually rising leading to increased heat stress. Physical and chemical analyses showed that the soils are moderately fertile but require effective application of inorganic and organic fertilisers. The main occupational activities in the study area are agricultural based. The identified potential impacts of climate change on agriculture were categorised under atmospheric carbon dioxides and oxides, rainfall intensity, frequency of floods and droughts, temperature intensity and variation, heat stress, surface water trends, and soil quality and fertility. The identified potential impacts related to population dynamics on agriculture were categorised under population growth, rural-urban migration, household income and infectious diseases and HIV and AIDS. Community-level mitigation strategies were proffered. Policy makers are advised to promote irrigation farming, support farmers with farm inputs and credit facilities and establish active agricultural extension services to support the sustainable development of agriculture.

  16. Agriculture and development in Africa: the case of Kenya.

    PubMed

    Hyden, G

    1987-01-01

    The Government of Kenya has successfully developed macroeconomic policies that overcome constraints in the domestic and international environments and have a relatively well-functioning public sector. At present, the major challenge facing Kenya concerns the ability of the government to improve agricultural productivity given the weakness of its research services and peasant resistance to development. The response to the 1984 drought indicates that the Government of Kenya has the formal structures in place to deal with emergencies, yet the absence of reliable statistics on grain production, marketing, and on-farm storage led to serious miscalculations of the severity of the drought. Government of Kenya has been reluctant to experiment with institutional forms that reduce the opportunity for direct political control, especially over agricultural marketing. Privatization of the grain trade or the establishment of cooperatively owned local dairies has been proposed but rejected as too risky. New policies and concerted action, at both the government and community levels, tend to be in response to threat or hardship rather than a result of a dynamic strategy. Given this tendency to avoid experimentation with alternative political forms, socioeconomic development in Kenya may be limited in the years ahead.

  17. Agricultural production and water use scenarios in Cyprus under global change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bruggeman, Adriana; Zoumides, Christos; Camera, Corrado; Pashiardis, Stelios; Zomeni, Zomenia

    2014-05-01

    In many countries of the world, food demand exceeds the total agricultural production. In semi-arid countries, agricultural water demand often also exceeds the sustainable supply of water resources. These water-stressed countries are expected to become even drier, as a result of global climate change. This will have a significant impact on the future of the agricultural sector and on food security. The aim of the AGWATER project consortium is to provide recommendations for climate change adaptation for the agricultural sector in Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean region. Gridded climate data sets, with 1-km horizontal resolution were prepared for Cyprus for 1980-2010. Regional Climate Model results were statistically downscaled, with the help of spatial weather generators. A new soil map was prepared using a predictive modelling and mapping technique and a large spatial database with soil and environmental parameters. Stakeholder meetings with agriculture and water stakeholders were held to develop future water prices, based on energy scenarios and to identify climate resilient production systems. Green houses, including also hydroponic systems, grapes, potatoes, cactus pears and carob trees were the more frequently identified production systems. The green-blue-water model, based on the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach, has been set up to compute agricultural water demand and yields for all crop fields in Cyprus under selected future scenarios. A set of agricultural production and water use performance indicators are computed by the model, including green and blue water use, crop yield, crop water productivity, net value of crop production and economic water productivity. This work is part of the AGWATER project - AEIFORIA/GEOGRO/0311(BIE)/06 - co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation.

  18. An Evaluation Tool for Agricultural Health and Safety Mobile Applications.

    PubMed

    Reyes, Iris; Ellis, Tammy; Yoder, Aaron; Keifer, Matthew C

    2016-01-01

    As the use of mobile devices and their software applications, or apps, becomes ubiquitous, use amongst agricultural working populations is expanding as well. The smart device paired with a well-designed app has potential for improving workplace health and safety in the hands of those who can act upon the information provided. Many apps designed to assess workplace hazards and implementation of worker protections already exist. However, the abundance and diversity of such applications also presents challenges regarding evaluation practices and assignation of value. This is particularly true in the agricultural workspace, as there is currently little information on the value of these apps for agricultural safety and health. This project proposes a framework for developing and evaluating apps that have potential usefulness in agricultural health and safety. The evaluation framework is easily transferable, with little modification for evaluation of apps in several agriculture-specific areas.

  19. Developing Government Renewable Energy Projects

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kurt S. Myers; Thomas L. Baldwin; Jason W. Bush

    The US Army Corps of Engineers has retained Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to conduct a study of past INL experiences and complete a report that identifies the processes that are needed for the development of renewable energy projects on government properties. The INL has always maintained expertise in power systems and applied engineering and INL’s renewable energy experiences date back to the 1980’s when our engineers began performing US Air Force wind energy feasibility studies and development projects. Over the last 20+ years of working with Department of Defense and other government agencies to study, design, and build government renewablemore » projects, INL has experienced the do’s and don’ts for being successful with a project. These compiled guidelines for government renewable energy projects could include wind, hydro, geothermal, solar, biomass, or a variety of hybrid systems; however, for the purpose of narrowing the focus of this report, wind projects are the main topic discussed throughout this report. It is our thought that a lot of what is discussed could be applied, possibly with some modifications, to other areas of renewable energy. It is also important to note that individual projects (regardless the type) vary to some degree depending on location, size, and need but in general these concepts and directions can be carried over to the majority of government renewable energy projects. This report focuses on the initial development that needs to occur for any project to be a successful government renewable energy project.« less

  20. How could Mosan agriculture be impacted by climate change and future droughts ?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bauwens, A.; Sohier, C.; Deraedt, D.; Degré, A.

    2012-04-01

    Despite the great uncertainties regarding the future climatic context, lots of studies have focused on hydrological effects of climate change on the Meuse catchment. It appears that both winter high flows and summer low flows could be exacerbated. Climate change and its impacts on hydrology will thus affect various socio-economic sectors. High flows have been widely studied compared to low-flows. This poster will put the emphasis on a methodology developed in order to study impacts of droughts on agriculture. Agriculture is among the most impacted sectors due to climate change. The consequences could be both positive as negative in accordance with the range of predicted changes and the adaptation capacity of agricultural systems. Most of the existing studies related to climate change on agriculture focused on specific territory. Within the AMICE Interreg IVB project, a transnational approach has been developed to assess droughts impacts on agriculture through the Meuse basin. The project's previous works gave us a common scenario of climate trends and of the evolution of the hydrology in the Meuse basin. The methodology is based on the use of a physically-based model able to simulate the water-soil-plant continuum (derived from EPIC model). In order to be transferable from one country to another, the methodology proposed used data available at the basin scale. The UE soil data base was complemented with local information on agricultural practices and statistics. Three crops have been studied: maize, wheat and barley. The basic cultural calendar is supposed to be the same for the different countries. The methodology developed permits to study the evolution of yields, leaf area index, crops stress due to excess or lack of water through time under different scenarios build up in the frame of the project. It appears that corn is negatively affected by climate change, and thus despite the CO2 fertilization effect. Wheat and barley have similar behavior and are

  1. Winners and losers of national and global efforts to reconcile agricultural intensification and biodiversity conservation.

    PubMed

    Egli, Lukas; Meyer, Carsten; Scherber, Christoph; Kreft, Holger; Tscharntke, Teja

    2018-05-01

    Closing yield gaps within existing croplands, and thereby avoiding further habitat conversions, is a prominently and controversially discussed strategy to meet the rising demand for agricultural products, while minimizing biodiversity impacts. The agricultural intensification associated with such a strategy poses additional threats to biodiversity within agricultural landscapes. The uneven spatial distribution of both yield gaps and biodiversity provides opportunities for reconciling agricultural intensification and biodiversity conservation through spatially optimized intensification. Here, we integrate distribution and habitat information for almost 20,000 vertebrate species with land-cover and land-use datasets. We estimate that projected agricultural intensification between 2000 and 2040 would reduce the global biodiversity value of agricultural lands by 11%, relative to 2000. Contrasting these projections with spatial land-use optimization scenarios reveals that 88% of projected biodiversity loss could be avoided through globally coordinated land-use planning, implying huge efficiency gains through international cooperation. However, global-scale optimization also implies a highly uneven distribution of costs and benefits, resulting in distinct "winners and losers" in terms of national economic development, food security, food sovereignty or conservation. Given conflicting national interests and lacking effective governance mechanisms to guarantee equitable compensation of losers, multinational land-use optimization seems politically unlikely. In turn, 61% of projected biodiversity loss could be avoided through nationally focused optimization, and 33% through optimization within just 10 countries. Targeted efforts to improve the capacity for integrated land-use planning for sustainable intensification especially in these countries, including the strengthening of institutions that can arbitrate subnational land-use conflicts, may offer an effective, yet

  2. 7 CFR 4288.12 - Ineligible project costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Ineligible project costs. 4288.12 Section 4288.12 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE AND... Eligible Biorefineries § 4288.12 Ineligible project costs. Any project costs incurred by the applicant...

  3. 7 CFR 4288.12 - Ineligible project costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Ineligible project costs. 4288.12 Section 4288.12 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE AND... Eligible Biorefineries § 4288.12 Ineligible project costs. Any project costs incurred by the applicant...

  4. 7 CFR 4288.12 - Ineligible project costs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Ineligible project costs. 4288.12 Section 4288.12 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE AND... Eligible Biorefineries § 4288.12 Ineligible project costs. Any project costs incurred by the applicant...

  5. 7 CFR 622.11 - Eligible watershed projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Eligible watershed projects. 622.11 Section 622.11 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WATER RESOURCES WATERSHED PROJECTS Qualifications § 622.11 Eligible watershed...

  6. 7 CFR 622.11 - Eligible watershed projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Eligible watershed projects. 622.11 Section 622.11 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WATER RESOURCES WATERSHED PROJECTS Qualifications § 622.11 Eligible watershed...

  7. 7 CFR 622.11 - Eligible watershed projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Eligible watershed projects. 622.11 Section 622.11 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WATER RESOURCES WATERSHED PROJECTS Qualifications § 622.11 Eligible watershed...

  8. Systems engineering real estate development projects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gusakova, Elena; Titarenko, Boris; Stepanov, Vitaliy

    2017-10-01

    In recent years, real estate development has accumulated a wealth of experience in implementing major projects, which requires comprehension and systematization. The scientific instrument of system engineering is studied in the article and is substantively interpreted with reference to real estate development projects. The most perspective approaches and models are substantiated, allowing strategically to plan the life cycle of the project as a whole, and also to solve the engineering butt problems of the project. The relevance of further scientific studies of regularities and specifics of the life cycle of real estate development projects conducted at the Moscow State University of Economics and Management at the ISTA department is shown.

  9. Advancing agricultural greenhouse gas quantification*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olander, Lydia; Wollenberg, Eva; Tubiello, Francesco; Herold, Martin

    2013-03-01

    . 4. Current data infrastructure and systems supporting GHG quantification in the agricultural sector To understand the challenges facing GHG quantification it is helpful to understand the existing supporting infrastructure and systems for quantification. The existing and developing structures for national and local data acquisition and management are the foundation for the empirical and process-based models used by most countries and projects currently quantifying agricultural greenhouse gases. Direct measurement can be used to complement and supplement such models, but this is not yet sufficient by itself given costs, complexities, and uncertainties. One of the primary purposes of data acquisition and quantification is for national-level inventories and planning. For such efforts countries are conducting national-level collection of activity data (who is doing which agricultural practices where) and some are also developing national or regional-level emissions factors. Infrastructure that supports these efforts includes intergovernmental panels, global alliances, and data-sharing networks. Multilateral data sharing for applications, such as the FAO Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) (FAO 2012), the IPCC Emission Factor Database (IPCC 2012), and UNFCCC national inventories (UNFCCC 2012), are building greater consistency and standardization by using global standards such as the IPCC's Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (e.g., IPCC 1996, 2003, 2006). There is also work on common quantification methods and accounting, for example agreed on global warming potentials for different contributing gases and GHG quantification methodologies for projects (e.g., the Verified Carbon Standard Sustainable Agricultural Land Management [SALM] protocol, VCS 2011). Other examples include the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (2012) and GRACEnet (Greenhouse gas Reduction through Agricultural Carbon Enhancement network) (USDA

  10. Preventing Agricultural Chemical Exposure: A Safety Program Manual. Participatory Education with Farmworkers in Pesticide Safety.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC. Dept. of Family and Community Medicine.

    Preventing Agricultural Chemical Exposure among North Carolina Farmworkers (PACE) is a project designed to describe farmworker pesticide exposure and to develop an educational intervention to reduce farmworker pesticide exposure. The PACE project used a community participation framework to ensure that the community played a significant role in…

  11. 23 CFR 660.112 - Project development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Project development. 660.112 Section 660.112 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS SPECIAL PROGRAMS (DIRECT FEDERAL) Forest Highways § 660.112 Project development. (a) Projects to be administered by...

  12. Human Resource Development for Modernizing the Agricultural Workforce

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rivera, William M.; Alex, Gary E.

    2008-01-01

    Greater commercialization of agricultural systems and increasing trade liberalization dictate the need for better capacity on the part of the agriculture workforce in the 21st century. Global changes in the roles of the public and private sectors and the dramatic advancements in technology have also strongly affected agricultural workforce…

  13. Innovative type of Reproduction of Agriculture of the Komi Republic - the Basis of its Sustainable Development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ponomareva, Anna

    2013-04-01

    The necessity of transition of agriculture to sustainability is complicated by the necessity to increase production of local environmentally safe food, unemployment indigenous growth of living standards of the peasant community, stable and balanced nature management. Due to the difficult economic conditions of natural and agricultural development for the Komi Republic principle of food self-sufficiency is unacceptable, but the production of basic food products, for which favorable there are conditions, is objective necessity in the short term. Priority directions of development of the agricultural and fisheries sectors: the production of socially significant food products - potatoes, vegetables of the local range, milk, fresh meat, eggs, dietary, preservation and development of traditional industries, and collecting wild mushrooms and berries and its processing. Off forecast in the northern agricultural areas three scenarios selected: a base (slow), optimistic and pessimistic. For all versions of the forecast to be considered systemic crisis of the agricultural sector of the North is ongoing. Functioning of on sector under a particular scenario will depend on the factors and conditions that affect the stability of the agricultural enterprises and farms. At the base, especially under unfavorable conditions, negative external factors and conditions will prevail. The baseline scenario of recent years assumes the maintenance of the rate of change indicators of agriculture, of the levels of state industry conditions of interbranch exchange in agriculture, of access to economic entities in the financial markets, of the pricing and taxation policies, of relatively low investment opportunities to upgrade production capacity. In this embodiment the growth of agricultural production and its reduction will occur in suburban (peripheral areas). The optimistic scenario will be characterized by protectionist policies of the state, increase investment to improve soil fertility

  14. Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Capacity in Earth Observations for Agricultural Monitoring: The GEOGLAM Experience

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Whitcraft, A. K.; Di Bella, C. M.; Becker Reshef, I.; Deshayes, M.; Justice, C. O.

    2015-12-01

    Since 2011, the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) Initiative has been working to strengthen the international community's capacity to use Earth observation (EO) data to derive timely, accurate, and transparent information on agriculture, with the goals of reducing market volatility and promoting food security. GEOGLAM aims to develop capacity for EO-based agricultural monitoring at multiple scales, from national to regional to global. This is accomplished through training workshops, developing and transferring of best-practices, establishing networks of broad and sustainable institutional support, and designing or adapting tools and methodologies to fit localized contexts. Over the past four years, capacity development activities in the context of GEOGLAM have spanned all agriculture-containing continents, with much more work to be done, particularly in the domains of promoting access to large, computationally-costly datasets. This talk will detail GEOGLAM's experiences, challenges, and opportunities surrounding building international collaboration, ensuring institutional buy-in, and developing sustainable programs.

  15. Agricultural Occupations Program Planning Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hemp, Paul E.; Mayer, Leon

    The major program objectives of agricultural occupations courses are (1) to develop agricultural competencies needed by individuals engaged in or preparing to engage in production agriculture, and in agricultural occupations other than production agriculture; (2) to develop an understanding of the career opportunities in agriculture; (3) to…

  16. 77 FR 61378 - Board for International Food and Agricultural Development; Notice of Meeting

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-10-09

    ... International Food and Agricultural Development; Notice of Meeting Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, notice is hereby given of the public meeting of the Board for International Food and Agricultural... Feed the Future and the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and will present their findings...

  17. Test Item Construction and Validation: Developing a Statewide Assessment for Agricultural Science Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rivera, Jennifer E.

    2011-01-01

    The State of New York Agriculture Science Education secondary program is required to have a certification exam for students to assess their agriculture science education experience as a Regent's requirement towards graduation. This paper focuses on the procedure used to develop and validate two content sub-test questions within a…

  18. Proposal for Land Consolidation Project Solutions for Selected Problem Areas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wojcik-Len, Justyna; Strek, Zanna

    2017-12-01

    One of the economic tools for supporting agricultural policy are the activities implemented under the Rural Development Program (RDP). By encouraging agricultural activities and creating equal opportunities for development of farms, among others in areas with unfavourable environmental conditions characterized by low productivity of soils exposed to degradation, decision makers can contribute to improving the spatial structure of rural areas. In Poland, one of the major concerns are agricultural problem areas (regions). In view of this situation, the aim of this article was to characterize the problem areas in question and propose land consolidation project solutions for selected fragments of those areas. This paper presents the results of a review of literature and an analysis of geodetic and cartographic data regarding the problem areas. The process of land consolidation, which is one of the technical and legal instruments supporting the development of rural areas, was characterized. The study allowed the present authors to establish criteria for selecting agricultural problem areas for land consolidation. To develop a proposal for rational management of the problem areas, key general criteria (location, topography, soil quality and usefulness) and specific criteria were defined and assigned weights. A conception of alternative development of the agricultural problem areas was created as part of a land consolidation project. The results were used to create a methodology for the development of agricultural problem areas to be employed during land consolidation in rural areas. Every agricultural space includes areas with unfavourable environmental and soil conditions determined by natural or anthropogenic factors. Development of agricultural problem areas through land consolidation should take into account the specific functions assigned to these areas in land use plans, as well as to comply with legal regulations.

  19. 7 CFR 634.18 - Termination of project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Termination of project. 634.18 Section 634.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  20. 7 CFR 634.18 - Termination of project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Termination of project. 634.18 Section 634.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  1. 7 CFR 634.18 - Termination of project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Termination of project. 634.18 Section 634.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  2. 7 CFR 634.18 - Termination of project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Termination of project. 634.18 Section 634.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  3. 7 CFR 634.18 - Termination of project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Termination of project. 634.18 Section 634.18 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  4. Training for Agriculture: Annual Review of Selected Developments.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome (Italy).

    This review is a medium for dissemination of information and views on agricultural education and training, extension, and related subjects to the member governments and field workers of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The document consists of more than two dozen articles and comments on agricultural education,…

  5. A Study of Job Demands and Curriculum Development in Agricultural Training Related to the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System. Final Report. Volume IV. Career Awareness Information.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fisher, Harold S.; And Others

    This is the final volume of a four-volume report of a research project designed to (1) identify job needs for agricultural occupations which will result from the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System and perform a task analysis on each occupation, (2) develop instructional modules and determine their place in either high school or 2-year…

  6. A Study of Job Demands and Curriculum Development in Agricultural Training Related to the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System. Final Report. Volume II. Task Analysis Results.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fisher, Harold S.; And Others

    This is the second volume of a four-volume report of a research project designed to (1) identify job needs for agricultural occupations which will result from the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System and perform a task analysis on each occupation, (2) develop instructional modules and determine their place in either high school or 2-year…

  7. A review of theoretical frameworks applicable for designing agricultural watershed restoration projects

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Agricultural watershed restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of ecosystem structure and/or function within watersheds that have been degraded and damaged by agriculture. Unfortunately, agricultural watershed restoration is the rare exception within the Midwestern United States despit...

  8. Post-harvest entomology research in the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service.

    PubMed

    Throne, James E; Hallman, Guy J; Johnson, Judy A; Follett, Peter A

    2003-01-01

    This is a review of current post-harvest entomology research conducted by the Agricultural Research Service, the research branch of the US Department of Agriculture. The review covers both durable and perishable commodities. Research on biochemistry, genetics, physiology, monitoring and control of insects infesting stored grain, dried fruits and nuts, and processed commodities is reviewed. Research on development of quarantine treatments, particularly for fruit flies, is also reviewed, including research on thermal and irradiation treatments and a discussion of risk management for quarantine pests. Two areas of research are covered more extensively: a project to map the genome of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, and the use of near-infrared spectroscopy for detection of hidden infestations in grain, quantification of insect fragments in food, determination of quality in dried fruits, identification of insect species and age-grading insects. Future research directions are identified.

  9. Agricultural research and development: Public and private investments under alternative markets and institutions, May 1996

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Fuglie, K.; Ballenger, N.; Day, K.

    1996-05-01

    Empirical studies indicate high economic returns from the public investment in agricultural research. Yet, even as society is placing broader demands on the research system, taxpayer support for public agricultural research is unlikely to increase. Stronger ownership rights for intellectual property have increased incentives for private investment in agricultural research, but key elements still require direct public support. The USDA is developing new mechanisms to build a more effective public-private partnership in agricultural research.

  10. 7 CFR 1709.22 - Project changes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project changes. 1709.22 Section 1709.22 Agriculture... ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.22 Project changes. The Grantee shall... grant project. ...

  11. 7 CFR 1709.22 - Project changes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project changes. 1709.22 Section 1709.22 Agriculture... ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.22 Project changes. The Grantee shall... grant project. ...

  12. 7 CFR 1709.22 - Project changes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project changes. 1709.22 Section 1709.22 Agriculture... ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.22 Project changes. The Grantee shall... grant project. ...

  13. 7 CFR 1709.22 - Project changes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project changes. 1709.22 Section 1709.22 Agriculture... ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.22 Project changes. The Grantee shall... grant project. ...

  14. 7 CFR 1709.22 - Project changes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project changes. 1709.22 Section 1709.22 Agriculture... ASSISTANCE TO HIGH ENERGY COST COMMUNITIES General Requirements § 1709.22 Project changes. The Grantee shall... grant project. ...

  15. Agricultural expansion and its impacts on tropical nature.

    PubMed

    Laurance, William F; Sayer, Jeffrey; Cassman, Kenneth G

    2014-02-01

    The human population is projected to reach 11 billion this century, with the greatest increases in tropical developing nations. This growth, in concert with rising per-capita consumption, will require large increases in food and biofuel production. How will these megatrends affect tropical terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity? We foresee (i) major expansion and intensification of tropical agriculture, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America; (ii) continuing rapid loss and alteration of tropical old-growth forests, woodlands, and semi-arid environments; (iii) a pivotal role for new roadways in determining the spatial extent of agriculture; and (iv) intensified conflicts between food production and nature conservation. Key priorities are to improve technologies and policies that promote more ecologically efficient food production while optimizing the allocation of lands to conservation and agriculture. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Recent developments in nanotechnology transforming the agricultural sector: a transition replete with opportunities.

    PubMed

    Kim, Dae-Young; Kadam, Avinash; Shinde, Surendra; Saratale, Rijuta Ganesh; Patra, Jayanta; Ghodake, Gajanan

    2018-02-01

    The applications and benefits of nanotechnology in the agricultural sector have attracted considerable attention, particularly in the invention of unique nanopesticides and nanofertilisers. The contemporary developments in nanotechnology are acknowledged and the most significant opportunities awaiting the agriculture sector from the recent scientific and technical literature are addressed. This review discusses the significance of recent trends in nanomaterial-based sensors available for the sustainable management of agricultural soil, as well as the role of nanotechnology in detection and protection against plant pathogens, and for food quality and safety. Novel nanosensors have been reported for primary applications in improving crop practices, food quality, and packaging methods, thus will change the agricultural sector for potentially better and healthier food products. Nanotechnology is well-known to play a significant role in the effective management of phytopathogens, nutrient utilisation, controlled release of pesticides, and fertilisers. Research and scientific gaps to be overcome and fundamental questions have been addressed to fuel active development and application of nanotechnology. Together, nanoscience, nanoengineering, and nanotechnology offer a plethora of opportunities, proving a viable alternative in the agriculture and food processing sector, by providing a novel and advanced solutions. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

  17. Teachers' Use of Agricultural Laboratories in Secondary Agricultural Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shoulders, Catherine W.; Myers, Brian E.

    2012-01-01

    Trends in the agriculture industry require students to have the ability to solve problems associated with scientific content. Agricultural laboratories are considered a main component of secondary agricultural education, and are well suited to provide students with opportunities to develop problem-solving skills through experiential learning. This…

  18. 7 CFR 3565.351 - Project management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project management. 3565.351 Section 3565.351... AGRICULTURE GUARANTEED RURAL RENTAL HOUSING PROGRAM Project Management § 3565.351 Project management. As a... Agency and complies with an approved management plan for the project. (b) Management plan. The lender...

  19. 7 CFR 3565.351 - Project management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project management. 3565.351 Section 3565.351... AGRICULTURE GUARANTEED RURAL RENTAL HOUSING PROGRAM Project Management § 3565.351 Project management. As a... Agency and complies with an approved management plan for the project. (b) Management plan. The lender...

  20. 7 CFR 3565.351 - Project management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project management. 3565.351 Section 3565.351... AGRICULTURE GUARANTEED RURAL RENTAL HOUSING PROGRAM Project Management § 3565.351 Project management. As a... Agency and complies with an approved management plan for the project. (b) Management plan. The lender...

  1. 7 CFR 3565.351 - Project management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project management. 3565.351 Section 3565.351... AGRICULTURE GUARANTEED RURAL RENTAL HOUSING PROGRAM Project Management § 3565.351 Project management. As a... Agency and complies with an approved management plan for the project. (b) Management plan. The lender...

  2. 7 CFR 3565.351 - Project management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project management. 3565.351 Section 3565.351... AGRICULTURE GUARANTEED RURAL RENTAL HOUSING PROGRAM Project Management § 3565.351 Project management. As a... Agency and complies with an approved management plan for the project. (b) Management plan. The lender...

  3. Training for Agriculture and Rural Development--1976. FAO Economic and Social Development Series No. 2.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome (Italy).

    Focus of this 1976 journal on agricultural and rural development education is how to deal with the shortage of trained manpower which is an obstacle to large-scale rural development efforts. The journal's theme is that a broader approach must be made to generate adequate numbers of trained manpower--all types of nonformal education (agricultural…

  4. Marketing Agricultural Products. Curriculum Guide Developed for Secondary and Post Secondary Agriculture Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, W. Wade; And Others

    This curriculum guide can be used by secondary and postsecondary agriculture instructors for a semester course in marketing agricultural products or individual units can be incorporated in other courses. The curriculum guide consists of six units of study made up of two to eight lessons each. The units cover the following topics: (1) marketing…

  5. New Jersey Land-Use Planning Techniques and Legislation. Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin AE-338.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schneider, Lee D.

    In response to recent urban to rural migration trends and the development of rather piecemeal land use policies and practices by local, state, and Federal decision makers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has established a regional project (NE-78) and this report reflects the first of three major project objectives (to describe and appraise…

  6. Nanotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Perspectives

    PubMed Central

    Prasad, Ram; Bhattacharyya, Atanu; Nguyen, Quang D.

    2017-01-01

    Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture. PMID:28676790

  7. Nanotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Perspectives.

    PubMed

    Prasad, Ram; Bhattacharyya, Atanu; Nguyen, Quang D

    2017-01-01

    Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture.

  8. Investments on Pro-poor Development Projects on Goats: Ensuring Success for Improved Livelihoods*

    PubMed Central

    Devendra, C.

    2013-01-01

    The elements that determine the success of development projects on goats and the prerequisites for ensuring this are discussed in the context of the bewildering diversity of goat genetic resources, production systems, multifunctionality, and opportunities for responding to constraints for productivity enhancement. Key determinants for the success of pro-poor projects are the imperatives of realistic project design, resolution of priorities and positive impacts to increase investments and spur agricultural growth, and appropriate policy. Throughout the developing world, there exist 97% of the total world population of 921 million goats across all agro-ecological zones (AEZs), including 570 breeds and 64% share of the breeds. They occupy a very important biological and socio-economic niche in farming systems making significant multifunctional contributions especially to food, nutrition and financial security, stability of farm households, and survival of the poor in the rural areas. Definitions are given of successful and failed projects. The analyses highlighted in successful projects the value of strong participatory efforts with farmers and climate change. Climate change effects on goats are inevitable and are mediated through heat stress, type of AEZ, water availability, quantity and quality of the available feed resources and type of production system. Within the prevailing production systems, improved integrated tree crops - ruminant systems are underestimated and are an important pathway to enhance C sequestration. Key development strategies and opportunities for research and development (R and D) are enormous, and include inter alia defining a policy framework, resolution of priority constraints using systems perspectives and community-based participatory activities, application of yield-enhancing technologies, intensification, scaling up, and impacts. The priority for development concerns the rainfed areas with large concentrations of ruminants in which

  9. Proposal of optical farming: development of several optical sensing instruments for agricultural use

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saito, Y.; Kobayashi, K.

    2013-05-01

    We propose the use of "Optical Farming," which is the leading application of all types of optical technologies, in agriculture and agriculture-related industries. This paper focuses on the optical sensing instruments named "Agriserver," "Agrigadget" and "LIFS Monitor" developed in our laboratory. They are considered major factors in utilizing Optical Farming. Agriserver is a sensor network system that uses the Internet to collect information on agricultural products growing in fields. Agrigadget contains several optical devices, such as a smartphone-based spectroscopic device and a hand framing camera. LIFS Monitor is an advanced monitoring instrument that makes it possible to obtain physiological information of living plants. They are strongly associated with information communication technology. Their field and data usage performance in agricultural industries are reported.

  10. Environmental challenges threatening the growth of urban agriculture in the United States.

    PubMed

    Wortman, Sam E; Lovell, Sarah Taylor

    2013-09-01

    Urban agriculture, though often difficult to define, is an emerging sector of local food economies in the United States. Although urban and agricultural landscapes are often integrated in countries around the world, the establishment of mid- to large-scale food production in the U.S. urban ecosystem is a relatively new development. Many of the urban agricultural projects in the United States have emerged from social movements and nonprofit organizations focused on urban renewal, education, job training, community development, and sustainability initiatives. Although these social initiatives have traction, critical knowledge gaps exist regarding the science of food production in urban ecosystems. Developing a science-based approach to urban agriculture is essential to the economic and environmental sustainability of the movement. This paper reviews abiotic environmental factors influencing urban cropping systems, including soil contamination and remediation; atmospheric pollutants and altered climatic conditions; and water management, sources, and safety. This review paper seeks to characterize the limited state of the science on urban agricultural systems and identify future research questions most relevant to urban farmers, land-use planners, and environmental consultants. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  11. Simulation Of Research And Development Projects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Miles, Ralph F.

    1987-01-01

    Measures of preference for alternative project plans calculated. Simulation of Research and Development Projects (SIMRAND) program aids in optimal allocation of research and development resources needed to achieve project goals. Models system subsets or project tasks as various network paths to final goal. Each path described in terms of such task variables as cost per hour, cost per unit, and availability of resources. Uncertainty incorporated by treating task variables as probabilistic random variables. Written in Microsoft FORTRAN 77.

  12. Women’s empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya

    PubMed Central

    Seymour, Greg; Kassie, Menale; Muricho, Geoffrey; Muriithi, Beatrice Wambui

    2018-01-01

    This paper documents a positive relationship between maize productivity in western Kenya and women’s empowerment in agriculture, measured using indicators derived from the abbreviated version of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Applying a cross-sectional instrumental-variable regression method to a data set of 707 maize farm households from western Kenya, we find that women’s empowerment in agriculture significantly increases maize productivity. Although all indicators of women’s empowerment significantly increase productivity, there is no significant association between the women’s workload (amount of time spent working) and maize productivity. Furthermore, the results show heterogenous effects with respect to women’s empowerment on maize productivity for farm plots managed jointly by a male and female and plots managed individually by only a male or female. More specifically, the results suggest that female- and male-managed plots experience significant improvements in productivity when the women who tend them are empowered. These findings provide evidence that women’s empowerment contributes not only to reducing the gender gap in agricultural productivity, but also to improving, specifically, productivity from farms managed by women. Thus, rural development interventions in Kenya that aim to increase agricultural productivity—and, by extension, improve food security and reduce poverty—could achieve greater impact by integrating women’s empowerment into existing and future projects. PMID:29852008

  13. Shop Projects.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Patton, Bob

    Vocational agriculture teachers in Oklahoma prepared the shop project drawings which comprise the document. Seventy-one projects, with lists of required materials, diagrams, and measurements, are included. Construction projects fall into six categories (number of projects in parentheses): Trailers (5), racks (3), livestock production projects…

  14. A Study of Factors Associated with the Vocational Development of High School Agricultural Occupations Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Byler, Bennie L.; Hemp, Paul E.

    Among the most crucial problems facing young people today are decisions in the process of vocational development. This study was designed to determine if there are differences in certain aspects of vocational development among the groups of high school agriculture students who plan to enter on-farm agricultural occupations, those who plan to enter…

  15. Rural Development Reorganization Act of 1984; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Policy Report. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, and Rural Development of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-Eighth Congress, Second Session on H.R. 5024.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. House Committee on Agriculture.

    Testimonies were heard in reference to the administration's annual rural development policy report and H.R. 5024, the Rural Development Reorganization Act of 1984. The bill provides that the Department of Agriculture shall be known as the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, transfers the administration of certain conservation programs…

  16. Uncertainty in Agricultural Impact Assessment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wallach, Daniel; Mearns, Linda O.; Rivington, Michael; Antle, John M.; Ruane, Alexander C.

    2014-01-01

    This chapter considers issues concerning uncertainty associated with modeling and its use within agricultural impact assessments. Information about uncertainty is important for those who develop assessment methods, since that information indicates the need for, and the possibility of, improvement of the methods and databases. Such information also allows one to compare alternative methods. Information about the sources of uncertainties is an aid in prioritizing further work on the impact assessment method. Uncertainty information is also necessary for those who apply assessment methods, e.g., for projecting climate change impacts on agricultural production and for stakeholders who want to use the results as part of a decision-making process (e.g., for adaptation planning). For them, uncertainty information indicates the degree of confidence they can place in the simulated results. Quantification of uncertainty also provides stakeholders with an important guideline for making decisions that are robust across the known uncertainties. Thus, uncertainty information is important for any decision based on impact assessment. Ultimately, we are interested in knowledge about uncertainty so that information can be used to achieve positive outcomes from agricultural modeling and impact assessment.

  17. Missouri Agricultural Energy Saving Team-A Revolutionary Opportunity (MAESTRO)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    McIntosh, Jane; Schumacher, Leon

    The Missouri Agricultural Energy Saving Team-A Revolutionary Opportunity (MAESTRO) program brought together a team of representatives from government, academia, and private industry to enhance the availability of energy efficiency services for small livestock producers in the State of Missouri. The Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) managed the project via a subcontract with the University of Missouri (MU), College of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources, MU Extension, the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences, the MU College of Engineering, and the Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority (MASBDA). MU teamed with EnSave, Inc, a nationally-recognized expert in agricultural energy efficiencymore » to assist with marketing, outreach, provision of farm energy audits and customer service. MU also teamed with independent home contractors to facilitate energy audits of the farm buildings and homes of these livestock producers. The goals of the project were to: (1) improve the environment by reducing fossil fuel emissions and reducing the total energy used on small animal farms; (2) stimulate the economy of local and regional communities by creating or retaining jobs; and (3) improve the profitability of Missouri livestock producers by reducing their energy expenditures. Historically, Missouri scientists/engineers conducted programs on energy use in agriculture, such as in equipment, grain handling and tillage practices. The MAESTRO program was the first to focus strictly on energy efficiency associated with livestock production systems in Missouri and to investigate the applicability and potential of addressing energy efficiency in animal production from a building efficiency perspective. A. Project Objectives The goal of the MAESTRO program was to strengthen the financial viability and environmental soundness of Missouri's small animal farms by helping them implement energy efficient technologies for the production facility, farm

  18. Developments in Australian Agricultural and Related Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McSweeney, Peter; Rayner, John

    2011-01-01

    While the calm waters metaphor might explain the changes navigated by Australian agricultural education through most of its history, the last 20 or so years have been very turbulent. Now, the new millennium sees agricultural education in both Australia and the Western world facing a different and less certain future. This paper analyses some of…

  19. Renewable Energy Project Development Resource Directory

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Renewable Energy Project Development Resource Directory provides a curated list of solar project development resources for higher education and local government, including case studies, guidance, fact sheets, presentations, templates, and more.

  20. 7 CFR 550.32 - Project supervision and responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project supervision and responsibilities. 550.32 Section 550.32 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH... Management of Agreements Program Management § 550.32 Project supervision and responsibilities. (a) The...

  1. 7 CFR 550.32 - Project supervision and responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project supervision and responsibilities. 550.32 Section 550.32 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH... Management of Agreements Program Management § 550.32 Project supervision and responsibilities. (a) The...

  2. 7 CFR 550.32 - Project supervision and responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project supervision and responsibilities. 550.32 Section 550.32 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH... Management of Agreements Program Management § 550.32 Project supervision and responsibilities. (a) The...

  3. 7 CFR 550.32 - Project supervision and responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project supervision and responsibilities. 550.32 Section 550.32 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH... Management of Agreements Program Management § 550.32 Project supervision and responsibilities. (a) The...

  4. [Development of APSIM (agricultural production systems simulator) and its application].

    PubMed

    Shen, Yuying; Nan, Zhibiao; Bellotti, Bill; Robertson, Michael; Chen, Wen; Shao, Xinqing

    2002-08-01

    Soil-crop simulator model is an effective tool for providing decision on agricultural management. APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) was developed to simulate the biophysical process in farming system, and particularly in the economic and ecological features of the systems under climatic risk. The current literatures revealed that APSIM could be applied in wide zone, including temperate continental, temperate maritime, sub-tropic and arid climate, and Mediterranean climates, with the soil type of clay, duplex soil, vertisol, silt sandy, silt loam and silt clay loam. More than 20 crops have been simulated well. APSIM is powerful on describing crop structure, crop sequence, yield prediction, and quality control as well as erosion estimation under different planting pattern.

  5. Technical Update for Vocational Agriculture Teachers in Secondary Schools. Final Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology, Ames. Dept. of Agricultural Education.

    A project provided ongoing opportunities for teachers in Iowa to upgrade their expertise in agribusiness management using new technology; production, processing, and marketing agricultural products; biotechnology in agriculture; and conservation of natural resources. The project also modeled effective teaching methods and strategies. Project…

  6. How to Grow Project Scientists: A Systematic Approach to Developing Project Scientists

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kea, Howard

    2011-01-01

    The Project Manager is one of the key individuals that can determine the success or failure of a project. NASA is fully committed to the training and development of Project Managers across the agency to ensure that highly capable individuals are equipped with the competencies and experience to successfully lead a project. An equally critical position is that of the Project Scientist. The Project Scientist provides the scientific leadership necessary for the scientific success of a project by insuring that the mission meets or exceeds the scientific requirements. Traditionally, NASA Goddard project scientists were appointed and approved by the Center Science Director based on their knowledge, experience, and other qualifications. However the process to obtain the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities was not documented or done in a systematic way. NASA Goddard's current Science Director, Nicholas White saw the need to create a pipeline for developing new projects scientists, and appointed a team to develop a process for training potential project scientists. The team members were Dr. Harley Thronson, Chair, Dr. Howard Kea, Mr. Mark Goldman, DACUM facilitator and the late Dr. Michael VanSteenberg. The DACUM process, an occupational analysis and evaluation system, was used to produce a picture of the project scientist's duties, tasks, knowledge, and skills. The output resulted in a 3-Day introductory course detailing all the required knowledge, skills and abilities a scientist must develop over time to be qualified for selections as a Project Scientist.

  7. Lunar outpost agriculture

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hossner, Lloyd R.; Ming, Douglas W.; Henninger, Donald L.; Allen, Earl R.

    1991-01-01

    The development of a CELSS for a lunar outpost is discussed. It is estimated that a lunar outpost life support system with a crew of four that produces food would break even in terms of mass and cost to deliver the system to the lunar surface after 2.5 years when compared to the cost of resupply from earth. A brief review is made of research on life support systems and NASA projects for evaluating CELSS components. The use of on-site materials for propellants, construction materials, and agriculture is evaluated, and the use of microbes for waste decomposition and stabilization of ecological balance is touched upon. Areas for further investigation include the behavior of organisms in microgravity, genetic alteration, gas exchange capabilities of organisms, integration of biological and physicochemical components, and automation. The development stages leading to lunar deployment are outlined.

  8. Great Basin Native Plant Project: 2015 Progress Report

    Treesearch

    Francis Kilkenny; Fred Edwards; Alexis Malcomb

    2016-01-01

    The Interagency Native Plant Materials Development Program outlined in the 2002 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and United States Department of Interior (USDI) Report to Congress encouraged use of native plant materials for rangeland rehabilitation and restoration where feasible. The Great Basin Native Plant Project is a cooperative project lead...

  9. Comparative Assessment of Agricultural Literacy in Selected K-5 Classrooms Employing Agriculture in the Classroom Methodologies: A Solomon Four-Group Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fischer, Mary Margaret

    2017-01-01

    The significance of agriculture to future generations is unparalleled. The United Nations projects the global population to swell to 9.75 billion people by 2050, and to proliferate to 11.2 billion by 2100. The non-agricultural population has little to no understanding or comprehension of the complexities of sustaining a viable agricultural system.…

  10. Managing MDO Software Development Projects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Townsend, J. C.; Salas, A. O.

    2002-01-01

    Over the past decade, the NASA Langley Research Center developed a series of 'grand challenge' applications demonstrating the use of parallel and distributed computation and multidisciplinary design optimization. All but the last of these applications were focused on the high-speed civil transport vehicle; the final application focused on reusable launch vehicles. Teams of discipline experts developed these multidisciplinary applications by integrating legacy engineering analysis codes. As teams became larger and the application development became more complex with increasing levels of fidelity and numbers of disciplines, the need for applying software engineering practices became evident. This paper briefly introduces the application projects and then describes the approaches taken in project management and software engineering for each project; lessons learned are highlighted.

  11. Cost-effectiveness of environmental management for vector control in resource development projects.

    PubMed

    Bos, R

    1991-01-01

    Vector control methods are traditionally divided in chemical, biological and environmental management approaches, and this distinction also reflected in certain financial and economic aspects. This is particularly true for environmental modification, usually engineering or other structural works. It is highly capital intensive, as opposed to chemical and biological control which require recurrent expenditures, and discount rates are therefore a prominent consideration in deciding for one or the other approach. Environmental manipulation requires recurrent action, but can often be carried out with the community participation, which raises the issue of opportunity costs. The incorporation of environmental management in resource projects is generally impeded by economic considerations. The Internal Rate of Return continues to be a crucial criterion for funding agencies and development banks to support new projects; at the same time Governments of debt-riden countries in the Third World will do their best to avoid additional loans on such frills as environmental and health safeguards. Two approaches can be recommended to nevertheless ensure the incorporation of environmental management measures in resource projects in an affordable way. First, there are several examples of cases where environmental management measures either have a dual benefit (increasing both agricultural production and reducing vector-borne disease transmission) or can be implemented at zero costs. Second, the additional costs involved in structural modifications can be separated from the project development costs considered in the calculations of the Internal Rate of Return, and financial support can be sought from bilateral technical cooperation agencies particularly interested in environmental and health issues. There is a dearth of information in the cost-effectiveness of alternative vector control strategies in the developing country context. The process of integrating vector control in the

  12. 7 CFR 634.19 - Project completion and closeout.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project completion and closeout. 634.19 Section 634.19 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  13. 7 CFR 634.19 - Project completion and closeout.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project completion and closeout. 634.19 Section 634.19 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  14. 7 CFR 634.19 - Project completion and closeout.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project completion and closeout. 634.19 Section 634.19 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  15. 7 CFR 634.19 - Project completion and closeout.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project completion and closeout. 634.19 Section 634.19 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  16. 7 CFR 634.19 - Project completion and closeout.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project completion and closeout. 634.19 Section 634.19 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding...

  17. From subsistence farming towards a multifunctional agriculture: sustainability in the Chinese rural reality.

    PubMed

    Prändl-Zika, Veronika

    2008-04-01

    The rural economic situation in China-with a living standard mostly at subsistence level-lags far behind the prosperous development in the cities and coastal areas. To balance this disequilibrium, comprehensive concepts and endeavors are necessary keeping in view all-not just economic-interests and needs that contribute to lively rural identities. In this context the role of agriculture, where still 50% of the Chinese population are working, will be newly defined, and sustainability concepts can help to find a readjusted position within the Chinese economy focusing on environmental health and food safety as main targets of political and other supporting measures. Within the SUCCESS project, a Concept of Sustainable Agriculture was developed and it drafts one conceivable relation between the exposure to natural resources and economy and tries to find new answers to the broad range of rural challenges in China. It is a qualitative model and, therefore, not always fully applicable, but in the concrete situation of villages, it shows possible directions of sustainability-oriented development by considering the typical local potentials. In the Chinese context that means identifying the different functions of agriculture-the well-known and the hidden-to make them explicit for the Chinese public and therewith to give them new significance. The article is based on a 3-years study within the EU-China Project SUCCESS with field research in four Chinese rural communities. It analyzes the agricultural sustainability potential of these selected villages against the background of massive structural changes within the next 20 years in rural China. Starting from the current agricultural reality, based on a qualitative analysis of the actual situation, local potentials and needs towards sustainable production and marketing are identified, and possible functions of the Chinese agriculture are formulated for the future.

  18. Developing Curriculum Markers for Agricultural Extension Education in South Africa

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Worth, S. H.

    2008-01-01

    Sufficient changes have occurred in both the agricultural and educational sectors of South Africa to warrant a careful scrutiny of the agricultural education offerings in South Africa. Agricultural extension is identified as an important part of the intended transformation of the agricultural sector. Further, agricultural extension is essentially…

  19. Course of Study in Agricultural Occupations (Agricultural-Supply Businesses--Sales and Service) for Reidland High School, Department of Vocational Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Binkley, Harold

    This high school agricultural occupations teacher's guide was developed as part of a pilot program and tested at Reidland High School. The course objective is to develop skills and understandings needed in agricultural supply sales and service. Units are (1) Opportunities in Agricultural Occupations, (2) Orientation to the Training Program, (3)…

  20. Programs in Animal Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Herring, Don R.; And Others

    1980-01-01

    Five topics relating to programs in animal agriculture are addressed: (1) the future of animal agriculture; (2) preparing teachers in animal agriculture; (3) how animal programs help young people; (4) a nontraditional animal agriculture program; and (5) developing competencies in animal agriculture. (LRA)

  1. Building Better Rural Places: Federal Programs for Sustainable Agriculture, Forestry, Conservation and Community Development.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Berton, Valerie; Butler, Jennifer

    This guide is written for those seeking help from federal programs to foster innovative enterprises in agriculture and forestry in the United States. The guide describes program resources in value-added and diversified agriculture and forestry, sustainable land management, and community development. Programs are included based upon whether they…

  2. A Stochastic Climate Generator for Agriculture in Southeast Asian Domains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greene, A. M.; Allis, E. C.

    2014-12-01

    We extend a previously-described method for generating future climate scenarios, suitable for driving agricultural models, to selected domains in Lao PDR, Bangladesh and Indonesia. There are notable differences in climatology among the study regions, most importantly the inverse seasonal relationship of southeast Asian and Australian monsoons. These differences necessitate a partially-differentiated modeling approach, utilizing common features for better estimation while allowing independent modeling of divergent attributes. The method attempts to constrain uncertainty due to both anthropogenic and natural influences, providing a measure of how these effects may combine during specified future decades. Seasonal climate fields are downscaled to the daily time step by resampling the AgMERRA dataset, providing a full suite of agriculturally relevant variables and enabling the propagation of climate uncertainty to agricultural outputs. The role of this research in a broader project, conducted under the auspices of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is discussed.

  3. Building Interdisciplinary Research and Communication Skills in the Agricultural and Climate Sciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnson-Maynard, J.; Borrelli, K.; Wolf, K.; Bernacchi, L.; Eigenbrode, S.; Daley Laursen, D.

    2015-12-01

    Preparing scientists and educators to create and promote practical science-based agricultural approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation is a main focus of the Regional Approaches to Climate Change (REACCH) project. Social, political and environmental complexities and interactions require that future scientists work across disciplines rather than having isolated knowledge of one specific subject area. Additionally, it is important for graduate students earning M.S. or Ph.D. degrees in agriculture and climate sciences to be able to communicate scientific findings effectively to non-scientific audiences. Unfortunately, university graduate curricula rarely adequately prepare students with these important skills. REACCH recognizes the need for graduate students to have thorough exposure to other disciplines and to be able to communicate information for outreach and education purposes. These priorities have been incorporated into graduate training within the REACCH project. The interdisciplinary nature of the project and its sophisticated digital infrastructure provide graduate students multiple opportunities to gain these experiences. The project includes over 30 graduate students from 20 different disciplines and research foci including agronomy, biogeochemistry, soil quality, conservation tillage, hydrology, pest and beneficial organisms, economics, modeling, remote sensing, science education and climate science. Professional develop workshops were developed and held during annual project meetings to enhance student training. The "Toolbox" survey (http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/toolbox/) was used to achieve effective interdisciplinary communication. Interdisciplinary extension and education projects were required to allow students to gain experience with collaboration and working with stakeholder groups. Results of student surveys and rubrics developed to gauge success in interdisciplinary research and communication may provide a helpful starting point for

  4. Great Basin Native Plant Project: 2014 Progress Report

    Treesearch

    Francis Kilkenny; Anne Halford; Alexis Malcomb

    2015-01-01

    The Interagency Native Plant Materials Development Program outlined in the 2002 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and United States Department of Interior (USDI) Report to Congress encouraged use of native plant materials for rangeland rehabilitation and restoration where feasible. The Great Basin Native Plant Project is a cooperative project lead by the...

  5. Great Basin Native Plant Project: 2013 Progress Report

    Treesearch

    Francis Kilkenny; Nancy Shaw; Corey Gucker

    2014-01-01

    The Interagency Native Plant Materials Development Program outlined in the 2002 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and United States Department of Interior (USDI) Report to Congress encouraged use of native plant materials for rangeland rehabilitation and restoration where feasible. The Great Basin Native Plant Project is a cooperative project lead by the...

  6. 7 CFR 1778.7 - Project priority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project priority. 1778.7 Section 1778.7 Agriculture... (CONTINUED) EMERGENCY AND IMMINENT COMMUNITY WATER ASSISTANCE GRANTS § 1778.7 Project priority. Paragraph (d... to determine the proposed project's priority for available funds. (b) State Office review. All...

  7. 7 CFR 1778.7 - Project priority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2014-01-01 2013-01-01 true Project priority. 1778.7 Section 1778.7 Agriculture... (CONTINUED) EMERGENCY AND IMMINENT COMMUNITY WATER ASSISTANCE GRANTS § 1778.7 Project priority. Paragraph (d... to determine the proposed project's priority for available funds. (b) State Office review. All...

  8. 7 CFR 1778.7 - Project priority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project priority. 1778.7 Section 1778.7 Agriculture... (CONTINUED) EMERGENCY AND IMMINENT COMMUNITY WATER ASSISTANCE GRANTS § 1778.7 Project priority. Paragraph (d... to determine the proposed project's priority for available funds. (b) State Office review. All...

  9. Agricultural Education and Farming in Taiwan: A Study of the Graduates from Vocational and Technical Agriculture Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Dept. of Agricultural and Extension Education.

    A research project studied the accomplishments of 399 of the 3,780 1982 and 1984 graduates from 6 senior vocational agriculture programs and 500 of the 2,661 1984 graduates from 2 technical agriculture institutes in Taiwan. Information was also provided from the graduates' schools and about older graduates from a 1975 study. Data were gathered…

  10. Mainstreaming conservation agriculture in Malawi: Knowledge gaps and institutional barriers.

    PubMed

    Dougill, Andrew J; Whitfield, Stephen; Stringer, Lindsay C; Vincent, Katharine; Wood, Benjamin T; Chinseu, Edna L; Steward, Peter; Mkwambisi, David D

    2017-06-15

    Conservation agriculture (CA) practices of reduced soil tillage, permanent organic soil coverage and intercropping/crop rotation, are being advocated globally, based on perceived benefits for crop yields, soil carbon storage, weed suppression, reduced soil erosion and improved soil water retention. However, some have questioned their efficacy due to uncertainty around the performance and trade-offs associated with CA practices, and their compatibility with the diverse livelihood strategies and varied agro-ecological conditions across African smallholder systems. This paper assesses the role of key institutions in Malawi in shaping pathways towards more sustainable land management based on CA by outlining their impact on national policy-making and the design and implementation of agricultural development projects. It draws on interviews at national, district and project levels and a multi-stakeholder workshop that mapped the institutional landscape of decision-making for agricultural land management practices. Findings identify knowledge gaps and institutional barriers that influence land management decision-making and constrain CA uptake. We use our findings to set out an integrated roadmap of research needs and policy options aimed at supporting CA as a route to enhanced sustainable land management in Malawi. Findings offer lessons that can inform design, planning and implementation of CA projects, and identify the multi-level institutional support structures required for mainstreaming sustainable land management in sub-Saharan Africa. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Examining Oregon Agriculture Teachers' Professional Development Needs by Career Phase

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sorensen, Tyson J.; Lambert, Misty D.; McKim, Aaron J.

    2014-01-01

    Agriculture teachers face challenges at every stage of their career, creating a need for professional development to meet their individual needs. Additionally, research suggests the need for periodic needs assessments to be conducted within individual states. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe, using the Borich needs assessment…

  12. Development and Preliminary Application of Multi-channel Agricultural Science and Technology Consulting Service U Disk

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, W. S.; Luo, C. S.; Wei, Q. F.; Zheng, Y. M.; Cao, C. Z.

    2017-12-01

    To deal with the “last kilometer” problem during the agricultural science and technology information service, the USB flash disk “Zixuntong”, which integrated five major consulting channels, i.e., telephone consultation, mutual video, message consultation, online customer service and QQ group was developed on the bases of capital experts and date resources. Since the products have the computer and telephone USB interface and are combined with localized information resources, users can obtain useful information on any terminal without the restriction of network. Meanwhile, the cartoon appearance make it friendly and attractive to people. The USB flash disk was used to provide agricultural expert consulting services and obtained a good preliminary application achievement. Finally, we concluded the creative application of USB flash disk in agricultural consulting services and prospected the future development direction of agricultural mobile consultation.

  13. Corn Production. A Unit for Teachers of Vocational Agriculture. Production Agriculture Curriculum Materials Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grace, Clyde, Jr.

    Designed to provide instructional materials for use by vocational agriculture teachers, this unit contains nine lessons based upon competencies needed to maximize profits in corn production. The lessons cover opportunities for growing corn; seed selection; seedbed preparation; planting methods and practices; fertilizer rates and application;…

  14. Livestock Judging. A Unit for Teachers of Vocational Agriculture. Production Agriculture Curriculum Materials Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Anthony

    Designed to provide instructional materials for use by vocational agriculture teachers, this unit on livestock judging contains materials based on five competencies needed to be a livestock producer. The following competencies are covered: general preparation for livestock judging, selection, and evaluation; judging, selection, and evaluation of…

  15. Continuing education in physical rehabilitation and health issues of agricultural workers.

    PubMed

    Wilhite, Carla S; Jaco, Linda

    2014-01-01

    Limited attention has been devoted to the cultural and practice competencies needed by occupational therapy and physical therapy professionals who provide services to farming families impacted by chronic health or disability issues. Agricultural occupational safety and health should represent a continuum of services responsive to individuals, families, and agricultural communities across a life span and range of health status changes. Physical rehabilitation professionals have a key role in impacting an agricultural producer's sense of self-efficacy and capacities for returning to agricultural living and work. However, demonstration of competency is essential in providing person-centered rehabilitation services of assessment, evaluation, treatment planning, interventions, referrals, and discharge issues. The paper highlights methods utilized by a state AgrAbility program and a former National AgrAbility Project to develop a model of continuing education programming for occupational and physical therapists that evaluate and treat agricultural workers after acute injury or exacerbation of chronic health conditions.

  16. 7 CFR 1777.13 - Project priority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project priority. 1777.13 Section 1777.13 Agriculture... (CONTINUED) SECTION 306C WWD LOANS AND GRANTS § 1777.13 Project priority. Paragraphs (a) through (d) of this... applicant eligibility and the proposed project's priority for available funds. Applicants determined...

  17. 7 CFR 3430.57 - Project meetings.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project meetings. 3430.57 Section 3430.57 Agriculture...-GENERAL AWARD ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS Post-Award and Closeout § 3430.57 Project meetings. In addition to... facilitate communication and the sharing of project results. These opportunities also serve to eliminate or...

  18. 7 CFR 22.308 - Project approval.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project approval. 22.308 Section 22.308 Agriculture... Governments § 22.308 Project approval. State and multicounty jurisdictional planning is a State and local..., determination of eligibility and feasibility and final approval of individual projects involving Federal funds...

  19. 7 CFR 22.308 - Project approval.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project approval. 22.308 Section 22.308 Agriculture... Governments § 22.308 Project approval. State and multicounty jurisdictional planning is a State and local..., determination of eligibility and feasibility and final approval of individual projects involving Federal funds...

  20. 7 CFR 22.308 - Project approval.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project approval. 22.308 Section 22.308 Agriculture... Governments § 22.308 Project approval. State and multicounty jurisdictional planning is a State and local..., determination of eligibility and feasibility and final approval of individual projects involving Federal funds...

  1. 7 CFR 22.308 - Project approval.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project approval. 22.308 Section 22.308 Agriculture... Governments § 22.308 Project approval. State and multicounty jurisdictional planning is a State and local..., determination of eligibility and feasibility and final approval of individual projects involving Federal funds...

  2. 7 CFR 1777.13 - Project priority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project priority. 1777.13 Section 1777.13 Agriculture... (CONTINUED) SECTION 306C WWD LOANS AND GRANTS § 1777.13 Project priority. Paragraphs (a) through (d) of this... applicant eligibility and the proposed project's priority for available funds. Applicants determined...

  3. Development and application of modern agricultural biotechnology in Botswana: The potentials, opportunities and challenges

    PubMed Central

    Batlang, Utlwang; Tsurupe, Gorata; Segwagwe, Amogelang; Obopile, Motshwari

    2014-01-01

    In Botswana, approximately 40% of the population live in rural areas and derive most of their livelihood from agriculture by keeping livestock and practising arable farming. Due to the nature of their farming practises livestock and crops are exposed to diseases and environmental stresses. These challenges offer opportunities for application of biotechnology to develop adaptable materials to the country's environment. On the other hand, the perceived risk of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has dimmed the promise of the technology for its application in agriculture. This calls for a holistic approach to the application of biotechnology to address issues of biosafety of GMOs. We have therefore assessed the potentials, challenges and opportunities to apply biotechnology with specific emphasis on agriculture, taking cognisance of requirement for its research, development and application in research and teaching institutions. In order to achieve this, resource availability, infrastructure, human and laboratory requirements were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the country has the capacity to carry out research in biotechnology in the development and production of genetically modified crops for food and fodder crops. These will include gene discovery, genetic transformation and development of systems to comply with the world regulatory framework on biosafety. In view of the challenges facing the country in agriculture, first generation biotech crops could be released for production. Novel GM products for development may include disease diagnosis kits, animal disease vaccines, and nutrient use efficiency, drought, and pest and disease resistant food and fodder crops. PMID:25437237

  4. Development and application of modern agricultural biotechnology in Botswana: the potentials, opportunities and challenges.

    PubMed

    Batlang, Utlwang; Tsurupe, Gorata; Segwagwe, Amogelang; Obopile, Motshwari

    2014-07-03

    In Botswana, approximately 40% of the population live in rural areas and derive most of their livelihood from agriculture by keeping livestock and practising arable farming. Due to the nature of their farming practises livestock and crops are exposed to diseases and environmental stresses. These challenges offer opportunities for application of biotechnology to develop adaptable materials to the country's environment. On the other hand, the perceived risk of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has dimmed the promise of the technology for its application in agriculture. This calls for a holistic approach to the application of biotechnology to address issues of biosafety of GMOs. We have therefore assessed the potentials, challenges and opportunities to apply biotechnology with specific emphasis on agriculture, taking cognisance of requirement for its research, development and application in research and teaching institutions. In order to achieve this, resource availability, infrastructure, human and laboratory requirements were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the country has the capacity to carry out research in biotechnology in the development and production of genetically modified crops for food and fodder crops. These will include gene discovery, genetic transformation and development of systems to comply with the world regulatory framework on biosafety. In view of the challenges facing the country in agriculture, first generation biotech crops could be released for production. Novel GM products for development may include disease diagnosis kits, animal disease vaccines, and nutrient use efficiency, drought, and pest and disease resistant food and fodder crops.

  5. 7 CFR 622.11 - Eligible watershed projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Eligible watershed projects. 622.11 Section 622.11..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WATER RESOURCES WATERSHED PROJECTS Qualifications § 622.11 Eligible watershed projects. (a) To be eligible for Federal assistance, a watershed project must: (1) Meet the definition of a...

  6. Improvements in agricultural water decision support using remote sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marshall, M. T.

    2012-12-01

    Population driven water scarcity, aggravated by climate-driven evaporative demand in dry regions of the world, has the potential of transforming ecological and social systems to the point of armed conflict. Water shortages will be most severe in agricultural areas, as the priority shifts to urban and industrial use. In order to design, evaluate, and monitor appropriate mitigation strategies, predictive models must be developed that quantify exposure to water shortage. Remote sensing data has been used for more than three decades now to parametrize these models, because field measurements are costly and difficult in remote regions of the world. In the past decade, decision-makers for the first time can make accurate and near real-time evaluations of field conditions with the advent of hyper- spatial and spectral and coarse resolution continuous remote sensing data. Here, we summarize two projects representing diverse applications of remote sensing to improve agricultural water decision support. The first project employs MODIS (coarse resolution continuous data) to drive an evapotranspiration index, which is combined with the Standardized Precipitation Index driven by meteorological satellite data to improve famine early warning in Africa. The combined index is evaluated using district-level crop yield data from Kenya and Malawi and national-level crop yield data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The second project utilizes hyper- spatial (GeoEye 1, Quickbird, IKONOS, and RapidEye) and spectral (Hyperion/ALI), as well as multi-spectral (Landsat ETM+, SPOT, and MODIS) data to develop biomass estimates for key crops (alfalfa, corn, cotton, and rice) in the Central Valley of California. Crop biomass is an important indicator of crop water productivity. The remote sensing data is combined using various data fusion techniques and evaluated with field data collected in the summer of 2012. We conclude with a brief discussion on implementation of

  7. Agriculture Insurance: Adaptation to Vulnerability of Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ambarawati, I. G. A. A.; Hongo, C.; Mirah Adi, A. A. A.; Tamura, E.

    2014-12-01

    Bali province of Indonesia is worldwide known for its tourist destination and it contributes more than 60 per cent to the regional domestic product. Meanwhile, agricultural sector including rice production still plays an important role in the Bali economy because of its 30 per cent contribution. Rice production in Bali is not just susceptible to loss caused by flood, drought and pest and disease attack but also from the climate change. The impact of climate change on food production in Indonesia is expected to decline in 2050, ranging from 38 per cent to more than ten-folds of the current production (Syaukat, 2011). Accordingly, adaptation to climate changes is required to minimize the risk along with the plans and strategies for food security and sustainable development. The government of Indonesia (GoI) has launched several pilot projects including agriculture insurance program to minimize the risk in production failure particularly rice farming, unfortunately Bali was excluded from the projects. Implementation of agriculture insurance in Indonesia has the legal basis now after the announcement of the Farmer Protection and Empowerment Act (Law No. 19/2013). Agriculture insurance is seen better in mitigating farmer's risk than that of the other program in rice production. The GoI plans to implement the insurance scheme in the beginning of 2015. This scheme is something "new" to farmers in Bali and Indonesia. Considering the importance of crop insurance to agriculture, this study attempts to explore the potential of such insurance to reveal a clear picture of opportunities and challenges in agriculture insurance implementation in Bali. The study empirically presents awareness and perception of farmers towards the insurance and adaptation to vulnerability of climate change. The study concludes with various suggestions for increasing the awareness of farmers for ensuring better penetration of agriculture insurance in Bali. Key words: agriculture insurance, farmer

  8. 7 CFR 1955.132 - Pilot projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 14 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Pilot projects. 1955.132 Section 1955.132 Agriculture... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) PROPERTY MANAGEMENT Disposal of Inventory Property General § 1955.132 Pilot projects. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 may conduct pilot projects to test policies and...

  9. 7 CFR 1955.132 - Pilot projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 14 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Pilot projects. 1955.132 Section 1955.132 Agriculture... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) PROPERTY MANAGEMENT Disposal of Inventory Property General § 1955.132 Pilot projects. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 may conduct pilot projects to test policies and...

  10. 7 CFR 1739.11 - Eligible project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Eligible project. 1739.11 Section 1739.11 Agriculture... BROADBAND GRANT PROGRAM Community Connect Grant Program § 1739.11 Eligible project. To be eligible for a grant, the Project must: (a) Serve a Rural Area where Broadband Transmission Service does not currently...

  11. 7 CFR 1777.13 - Project priority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 12 2014-01-01 2013-01-01 true Project priority. 1777.13 Section 1777.13 Agriculture... (CONTINUED) SECTION 306C WWD LOANS AND GRANTS § 1777.13 Project priority. Paragraphs (a) through (d) of this... eligibility and the proposed project's priority for available funds. Applicants determined ineligible will be...

  12. 7 CFR 1739.11 - Eligible project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Eligible project. 1739.11 Section 1739.11 Agriculture... BROADBAND GRANT PROGRAM Community Connect Grant Program § 1739.11 Eligible project. To be eligible for a grant, the Project must: (a) Serve a Rural Area where Broadband Transmission Service does not currently...

  13. 7 CFR 3430.57 - Project meetings.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Project meetings. 3430.57 Section 3430.57 Agriculture... Post-Award and Closeout § 3430.57 Project meetings. In addition to reviewing (and monitoring the status... sharing of project results. These opportunities also serve to eliminate or minimize NIFA funding unneeded...

  14. 7 CFR 634.13 - Project applications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Project applications. 634.13 Section 634.13..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding § 634.13 Project applications. (a) The SRCWCC is to assure that a process exists to prepare the RCWP...

  15. 7 CFR 1955.132 - Pilot projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 14 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Pilot projects. 1955.132 Section 1955.132 Agriculture... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) PROPERTY MANAGEMENT Disposal of Inventory Property General § 1955.132 Pilot projects. FmHA or its successor agency under Public Law 103-354 may conduct pilot projects to test policies and...

  16. 7 CFR 634.13 - Project applications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project applications. 634.13 Section 634.13..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding § 634.13 Project applications. (a) The SRCWCC is to assure that a process exists to prepare the RCWP...

  17. 7 CFR 1739.11 - Eligible project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Eligible project. 1739.11 Section 1739.11 Agriculture... BROADBAND GRANT PROGRAM Community Connect Grant Program § 1739.11 Eligible project. To be eligible for a grant, the Project must: (a) Serve a Rural Area where Broadband Transmission Service does not currently...

  18. 7 CFR 3430.57 - Project meetings.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Project meetings. 3430.57 Section 3430.57 Agriculture... Post-Award and Closeout § 3430.57 Project meetings. In addition to reviewing (and monitoring the status... sharing of project results. These opportunities also serve to eliminate or minimize NIFA funding unneeded...

  19. 7 CFR 1739.11 - Eligible project.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Eligible project. 1739.11 Section 1739.11 Agriculture... BROADBAND GRANT PROGRAM Community Connect Grant Program § 1739.11 Eligible project. To be eligible for a grant, the Project must: (a) Serve a Rural Area where Broadband Transmission Service does not currently...

  20. 14 CFR 152.107 - Project eligibility: Airport development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Project eligibility: Airport development....107 Project eligibility: Airport development. (a) Except in the case of approved stage development, each project for airport development must provide for— (1) Development of an airport or unit of an...

  1. 14 CFR 152.107 - Project eligibility: Airport development.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project eligibility: Airport development....107 Project eligibility: Airport development. (a) Except in the case of approved stage development, each project for airport development must provide for— (1) Development of an airport or unit of an...

  2. Tobacco Production. A Unit for Teachers of Vocational Agriculture. Production Agriculture Curriculum Materials Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hughes, Mike; And Others

    Designed to provide instructional materials for use by vocational agriculture teachers, this unit contains forty-one lessons based upon competencies needed to maximize profits in tobacco production. The lessons in this unit cover such topics as the importance of tobacco, selecting land for tobacco, soil analysis and treatment, selecting tobacco…

  3. Feeding Livestock. A Unit for Teachers of Vocational Agriculture. Production Agriculture Curriculum Materials Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Boyd C.

    Designed to provide instructional materials for use by vocational agriculture teachers, this unit on feeding livestock contains nine lessons based upon competencies needed to be a livestock producer. The lessons in this unit cover the importance of good feeding practices, the identification of nutritional needs and the composition of feeds for…

  4. Sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and rural development: An analysis of bio-energy systems used by small farms in China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Aiming

    Renewable energy needs to be incorporated into the larger picture of sustainable agriculture and rural development if it is to serve the needs of the 3.25 billion human beings whose livelihoods and based on rural economies and ecologies. For rural communities, increasing agriculture production is key to raising income generation and improving social well-being, but this linkage depends also upon not harming natural resources. This dissertation provides an overview of recent Chinese agriculture history, discusses the role of energy in contemporary's China's agriculture and rural development, and introduces a new approach---the integrated agricultural bio-energy (IAB) system---to address the challenge of sustainable agriculture and rural development. IAB is an innovative design and offers a renewable energy solution for improving agricultural productivity, realizing efficient resource management, and enhancing social well-being for rural development. In order to understand how the IAB system can help to achieve sustainable agricultural and rural development in China, a comprehensive evaluation methodology is developed from health, ecological, energy and economic (HE3) perspectives. With data from surveys of 200 small farm households, a detailed study of IAB and conventional agricultural energy (CAE) system applications (in China's Liaoning and Yunnan Province) is conducted. The HE3 impacts of IAB systems in China's rural areas (compared to existing CAE systems) are quantified. The dissertation analyzes the full life-cycle costs and benefits of IAB systems, including their contributions to energy savings, CO2 emissions reduction, agricultural waste reduction, increased rural incomes, better rural health, and improved ecosystem sustainability. The analysis relies upon qualitative and quantitative modeling in order to produce a comprehensive assessment of IAB system impacts. Finally, the dissertation discusses the barriers to greater diffusion of the IAB systems

  5. Single Sheet Agricultural Mechanics Plans.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schumacher, Leon, Ed.

    This packet contains 25 single-page plans for agricultural mechanics projects. Each plan consists of a one-page set of drawings of the object to be made with a list of needed materials, a cut list, and step-by-step construction procedures on the back of the page. Plans for the following wood projects are included: bluebird house, lawn seat, dog…

  6. Development of a Global Agricultural Hotspot Detection and Early Warning System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lemoine, G.; Rembold, F.; Urbano, F.; Csak, G.

    2015-12-01

    The number of web based platforms for crop monitoring has grown rapidly over the last years and anomaly maps and time profiles of remote sensing derived indicators can be accessed online thanks to a number of web based portals. However, while these systems make available a large amount of crop monitoring data to the agriculture and food security analysts, there is no global platform which provides agricultural production hotspot warning in a highly automatic and timely manner. Therefore a web based system providing timely warning evidence as maps and short narratives is currently under development by the Joint Research Centre. The system (called "HotSpot Detection System of Agriculture Production Anomalies", HSDS) will focus on water limited agricultural systems worldwide. The automatic analysis of relevant meteorological and vegetation indicators at selected administrative units (Gaul 1 level) will trigger warning messages for the areas where anomalous conditions are observed. The level of warning (ranging from "watch" to "alert") will depend on the nature and number of indicators for which an anomaly is detected. Information regarding the extent of the agricultural areas concerned by the anomaly and the progress of the agricultural season will complement the warning label. In addition, we are testing supplementary detailed information from other sources for the areas triggering a warning. These regard the automatic web-based and food security-tailored analysis of media (using the JRC Media Monitor semantic search engine) and the automatic detection of active crop area using Sentinel 1, upcoming Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 imagery processed in Google Earth Engine. The basic processing will be fully automated and updated every 10 days exploiting low resolution rainfall estimates and satellite vegetation indices. Maps, trend graphs and statistics accompanied by short narratives edited by a team of crop monitoring experts, will be made available on the website on a

  7. 7 CFR 622.11 - Eligible watershed projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... benefits consistent with protecting the Nation's environment (for structural water resource projects... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Eligible watershed projects. 622.11 Section 622.11..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WATER RESOURCES WATERSHED PROJECTS Qualifications § 622.11 Eligible watershed...

  8. Agricultural Pesticides: An Instructional Unit for Teachers of Adult Vocational Education in Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harrison, Kenneth M.; And Others

    This unit was developed as a guide for use by Kentucky teachers in planning and conducting young farmer/adult farmer classes in the use of agricultural pesticides. The unit contains seven lessons covering the following topics: understanding the importance of agricultural pesticides; using and handling agricultural pesticides safely; developing a…

  9. Probabilistic estimates of drought impacts on agricultural production

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Madadgar, Shahrbanou; AghaKouchak, Amir; Farahmand, Alireza; Davis, Steven J.

    2017-08-01

    Increases in the severity and frequency of drought in a warming climate may negatively impact agricultural production and food security. Unlike previous studies that have estimated agricultural impacts of climate condition using single-crop yield distributions, we develop a multivariate probabilistic model that uses projected climatic conditions (e.g., precipitation amount or soil moisture) throughout a growing season to estimate the probability distribution of crop yields. We demonstrate the model by an analysis of the historical period 1980-2012, including the Millennium Drought in Australia (2001-2009). We find that precipitation and soil moisture deficit in dry growing seasons reduced the average annual yield of the five largest crops in Australia (wheat, broad beans, canola, lupine, and barley) by 25-45% relative to the wet growing seasons. Our model can thus produce region- and crop-specific agricultural sensitivities to climate conditions and variability. Probabilistic estimates of yield may help decision-makers in government and business to quantitatively assess the vulnerability of agriculture to climate variations. We develop a multivariate probabilistic model that uses precipitation to estimate the probability distribution of crop yields. The proposed model shows how the probability distribution of crop yield changes in response to droughts. During Australia's Millennium Drought precipitation and soil moisture deficit reduced the average annual yield of the five largest crops.

  10. Status of Job Motivation and Job Performance of Field Level Extension Agents in Ogun State: Implications for Agricultural Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fabusoro, E.; Awotunde, J. A.; Sodiya, C. I.; Alarima, C. I.

    2008-01-01

    The field level extension agents (FLEAs) are the lifeline of the agricultural extension system in Nigeria. Their motivation and job performance are therefore important to achieving faster agricultural development in Nigeria. The study identified the factors motivating the FLEAs working with Ogun State Agricultural development programme (OGADEP)…

  11. Accounting Training Module Development to Boost Agriculture Financial Literacy on Palm Farmers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hasibuan, Henny Triyana; Murwani, Danardana; Widjaja, Sri Umi Mientarti; Witjaksono, Mit

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to develop agriculture accounting training module in order to increase palm oil farmer financial literacy, in this case farmers in Donomulyo, Malang Regency, Indonesia. The method utilized in model development is Design Based Research using the following progression: problem identification, explanation of goals, design and…

  12. Development and prospect of unmanned aerial vehicles for agricultural production management

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Unmanned aerial vehicles have been developed and applied to support agricultural production management. Compared to piloted aircrafts, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can focus on small crop fields in lower flight altitude than regular airplanes to perform site-specific management with high precisi...

  13. [Ecological agriculture: future of Good Agriculture Practice of Chinese materia medica].

    PubMed

    Guo, Lan-ping; Zhou, Liang-yun; Mo, Ge; Wang, Sheng; Huang, Lu-qi

    2015-09-01

    Based on the ecological and economic problems in Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) of Chinese material medica, we introduced the origin, concept, features and operative technology of eco-agriculture worldwide, emphasizing its modes on different biological levels of landscape, ecosystem, community, population, individual and gene in China. And on this basis, we analyzed the background and current situation of eco-agriculture of Chinese materia medica, and proposed its development ideas and key tasks, including: (1) Analysis and planning of the production pattern of Chinese material medica national wide. (2) Typical features extraction of regional agriculture of Chinese materia medica. (3) Investigation of the interaction and its mechanism between typical Chinese materia medica in each region and the micro-ecology of rhizosphere soil. (4) Study on technology of eco-agriculture of Chinese materia medica. (5) Extraction and solidification of eco-agriculture modes of Chinese materia medica. (6) Study on the theory of eco-agriculture of Chinese materia medica. Also we pointed out that GAP and eco-agriculture of Chinese material medica are both different and relative, but they are not contradictory with their own features. It is an irresistible trend to promote eco-agriculture in the GAP of Chinese material medica and coordinate ecological and economic development.

  14. AR, HEA and AAS in Rural Development Projects--Benchmarking towards the Best Processes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Westermarck, Harri

    In most countries, agricultural research (AR), institutions of higher education in agriculture (HEA), and agricultural advisory services (AAS) function as separate agencies. So far, in most countries, AR, HEA, and AAS have not had a common vision for rural development. In Finland, domination of agricultural production in Finland has led to a lack…

  15. Hualapai Tribal Utility Development Project

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hualapai Tribal Nation

    The first phase of the Hualapai Tribal Utility Development Project (Project) studied the feasibility of establishing a tribally operated utility to provide electric service to tribal customers at Grand Canyon West (see objective 1 below). The project was successful in completing the analysis of the energy production from the solar power systems at Grand Canyon West and developing a financial model, based on rates to be charged to Grand Canyon West customers connected to the solar systems, that would provide sufficient revenue for a Tribal Utility Authority to operate and maintain those systems. The objective to establish a central powermore » grid over which the TUA would have authority and responsibility had to be modified because the construction schedule of GCW facilities, specifically the new air terminal, did not match up with the construction schedule for the solar power system. Therefore, two distributed systems were constructed instead of one central system with a high voltage distribution network. The Hualapai Tribal Council has not taken the action necessary to establish the Tribal Utility Authority that could be responsible for the electric service at GCW. The creation of a Tribal Utility Authority (TUA) was the subject of the second objective of the project. The second phase of the project examined the feasibility and strategy for establishing a tribal utility to serve the remainder of the Hualapai Reservation and the feasibility of including wind energy from a tribal wind generator in the energy resource portfolio of the tribal utility (see objective 2 below). It is currently unknown when the Tribal Council will consider the implementation of the results of the study. Objective 1 - Develop the basic organizational structure and operational strategy for a tribally controlled utility to operate at the Tribe’s tourism enterprise district, Grand Canyon West. Coordinate the development of the Tribal Utility structure with the development of the Grand

  16. User-tailored seasonal forecasts for agriculture - creating socio-economic benefit through climate services in the Andes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    De Ventura, Sara; Avalos, Grinia; Rossa, Andrea; Flubacher, Moritz; Gubler, Stefanie; Sedlmeier, Katrin; Dapozzo, Marlene; Garcia, Teresa; Quevedo, Karim; Liniger, Mark; Spirig, Christoph; Rosas, Gabriela; Schwierz, Cornelia

    2017-04-01

    The project Climandes is a twinning project between the Peruvian National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (SENAMHI) and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology of Switzerland (MeteoSwiss) aiming at improving climate services for the Andean Region. It was launched in 2012 as a pilot project of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) of WMO. In 2016 a second phase of the project has started. Until now, Peru as all the Andean countries has had only a limited access to climate services, and the few instruments already in place have mostly not been developed in concordance with the user needs. Due to this mismatch, the opportunity to achieve veritable socio-economic benefits (SEB) has been overlooked so far. An additional difficulty is the lack of trained and experienced climatology and meteorology professionals able to develop and provide high quality climate services. Furthermore, the importance of climate information and its far-reaching benefits has not yet been fully acknowledged and embraced by the political decision-makers. The overall goals of the Climandes project are the following:. • Provision of user-tailored climate services for the Andean Region to improve socio- economic benefits for the agricultural sector and for society at large. • Improvement of the capacities of the meteorological service of Peru to generate user-tailored climate services in the agricultural sector. These goals are elaborated within three mutually dependent modules: The first one comprises user-tailored climate products for the agricultural sector in the Peruvian Andes. This includes drought and precipitation monitoring as well as the development of a prototype seasonal prediction system for the region including indices tailored to the agricultural sector. The second module focuses on capacity building, enabling climatology-related professionals and students to develop high-quality climate services for Peru and the Andean Region. Training courses as

  17. Agricultural Occupations Programs Planning Guides

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stitt, Thomas R.; And Others

    1977-01-01

    A set of program planning guides that include seven areas (1) Agricultural Production, (2) Agricultural Supplies and Services, (3) Agricultural Mechanics, (4) Agricultural Products, (5) Ornamental Horticulture, (6) Agricultural Resources, and (7) Forestry, were developed and introduced to high school applied biological and agricultural occupations…

  18. Assessing Agricultural Literacy Elements of Project Food Land and People in K-5 Using the Food and Fiber Systems Literacy Standards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Powell, David V.; Agnew, David M.

    2011-01-01

    Agricultural literacy has been evolving as a discipline for over 25 years. In agriculture, as other disciplines of education, the body of knowledge can be identified and measured by a set of standards. The Food and Fiber Systems Literacy Standards, developed in the 1990s, have been widely accepted as the standards for agricultural literacy. Also…

  19. Biofertilizers: a potential approach for sustainable agriculture development.

    PubMed

    Mahanty, Trishna; Bhattacharjee, Surajit; Goswami, Madhurankhi; Bhattacharyya, Purnita; Das, Bannhi; Ghosh, Abhrajyoti; Tribedi, Prosun

    2017-02-01

    The worldwide increase in human population raises a big threat to the food security of each people as the land for agriculture is limited and even getting reduced with time. Therefore, it is essential that agricultural productivity should be enhanced significantly within the next few decades to meet the large demand of food by emerging population. Not to mention, too much dependence on chemical fertilizers for more crop productions inevitably damages both environmental ecology and human health with great severity. Exploitation of microbes as biofertilizers is considered to some extent an alternative to chemical fertilizers in agricultural sector due to their extensive potentiality in enhancing crop production and food safety. It has been observed that some microorganisms including plant growth promoting bacteria, fungi, Cyanobacteria, etc. have showed biofertilizer-like activities in the agricultural sector. Extensive works on biofertilizers have revealed their capability of providing required nutrients to the crop in sufficient amounts that resulted in the enhancement of crop yield. The present review elucidates various mechanisms that have been exerted by biofertilizers in order to promote plant growth and also provides protection against different plant pathogens. The aim of this review is to discuss the important roles and applications of biofertilizers in different sectors including agriculture, bioremediation, and ecology.

  20. 7 CFR 4280.15 - Ultimate Recipient Projects eligible for Rural Economic Development Loan funding.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... Agriculture (Continued) RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE AND RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... may only be used to provide the following assistance: (a) Start-Up Venture costs, including, but not... capital; (b) Business expansion; (c) Business Incubators; (d) Technical Assistance; (e) Project...

  1. 7 CFR 210.28 - Pilot project exemptions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Pilot project exemptions. 210.28 Section 210.28... AGRICULTURE CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM Additional Provisions § 210.28 Pilot project exemptions. Those State agencies or school food authorities selected for the pilot projects...

  2. 7 CFR 210.28 - Pilot project exemptions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Pilot project exemptions. 210.28 Section 210.28... AGRICULTURE CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM Additional Provisions § 210.28 Pilot project exemptions. Those State agencies or school food authorities selected for the pilot projects...

  3. 7 CFR 1948.78 - Growth management and housing planning projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Growth management and housing planning projects. 1948... Impacted Area Development Assistance Program § 1948.78 Growth management and housing planning projects. (a) Existing plans for growth management and housing may be used to meet the planning requirements of this...

  4. 7 CFR 1948.78 - Growth management and housing planning projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Growth management and housing planning projects. 1948... Impacted Area Development Assistance Program § 1948.78 Growth management and housing planning projects. (a) Existing plans for growth management and housing may be used to meet the planning requirements of this...

  5. 7 CFR 1948.78 - Growth management and housing planning projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Growth management and housing planning projects. 1948... Impacted Area Development Assistance Program § 1948.78 Growth management and housing planning projects. (a) Existing plans for growth management and housing may be used to meet the planning requirements of this...

  6. 7 CFR 1948.78 - Growth management and housing planning projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2011-01-01 2009-01-01 true Growth management and housing planning projects. 1948... Impacted Area Development Assistance Program § 1948.78 Growth management and housing planning projects. (a) Existing plans for growth management and housing may be used to meet the planning requirements of this...

  7. 7 CFR 1948.78 - Growth management and housing planning projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2014-01-01 2013-01-01 true Growth management and housing planning projects. 1948... Impacted Area Development Assistance Program § 1948.78 Growth management and housing planning projects. (a) Existing plans for growth management and housing may be used to meet the planning requirements of this...

  8. agINFRA: a research data hub for agriculture, food and the environment

    PubMed Central

    Drakos, Andreas; Protonotarios, Vassilis; Manouselis, Nikos

    2015-01-01

    The agINFRA project (www.aginfra.eu) was a European Commission funded project under the 7th Framework Programme that aimed to introduce agricultural scientific communities to the vision of open and participatory data-intensive science. agINFRA has now evolved into the European hub for data-powered research on agriculture, food and the environment, serving the research community through multiple roles. Working on enhancing the interoperability between heterogeneous data sources, the agINFRA project has left a set of grid- and cloud- based services that can be reused by future initiatives and adopted by existing ones, in order to facilitate the dissemination of agricultural research, educational and other types of data. On top of that, agINFRA provided a set of domain-specific recommendations for the publication of agri-food research outcomes. This paper discusses the concept of the agINFRA project and presents its major outcomes, as adopted by existing initiatives activated in the context of agricultural research and education. PMID:26339472

  9. Problems of Manpower in Agriculture. OECD Documentation in Food and Agriculture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France).

    Problems related to rapid reduction of the agricultural labor force were examined in the 21 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The size and changes of the agricultural labor force, economic forces tending towards change, technical requirements for labor in agriculture, and obstacles hindering economic adjustment of…

  10. Agronomic Challenges and Opportunities for Smallholder Terrace Agriculture in Developing Countries.

    PubMed

    Chapagain, Tejendra; Raizada, Manish N

    2017-01-01

    Improving land productivity is essential to meet increasing food and forage demands in hillside and mountain communities. Tens of millions of smallholder terrace farmers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America who earn $1-2 per day do not have access to peer-reviewed knowledge of best agronomic practices, though they have considerable traditional ecological knowledge. Terrace farmers also lack access to affordable farm tools and inputs required to increase crop yields. The objectives of this review are to highlight the agronomic challenges of terrace farming, and offer innovative, low-cost solutions to intensify terrace agriculture while improving local livelihoods. The article focuses on smallholder farmers in developing nations, with particular reference to Nepal. The challenges of terrace agriculture in these regions include lack of quality land area for agriculture, erosion and loss of soil fertility, low yield, poor access to agricultural inputs and services, lack of mechanization, labor shortages, poverty, and illiteracy. Agronomic strategies that could help address these concerns include intensification of terraces using agro-ecological approaches along with introduction of light-weight, low-cost, and purchasable tools and affordable inputs that enhance productivity and reduce female drudgery. To package, deliver, and share these technologies with remote hillside communities, effective scaling up models are required. One opportunity to enable distribution of these products could be to "piggy-back" onto pre-existing snackfood/cigarette/alcohol distribution networks that are prevalent even in the most remote mountainous regions of the world. Such strategies, practices, and tools could be supported by formalized government policies dedicated to the well-being of terrace farmers and ecosystems, to maintain resiliency at a time of alarming climate change. We hope this review will inform governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to draw

  11. Agronomic Challenges and Opportunities for Smallholder Terrace Agriculture in Developing Countries

    PubMed Central

    Chapagain, Tejendra; Raizada, Manish N.

    2017-01-01

    Improving land productivity is essential to meet increasing food and forage demands in hillside and mountain communities. Tens of millions of smallholder terrace farmers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America who earn $1–2 per day do not have access to peer-reviewed knowledge of best agronomic practices, though they have considerable traditional ecological knowledge. Terrace farmers also lack access to affordable farm tools and inputs required to increase crop yields. The objectives of this review are to highlight the agronomic challenges of terrace farming, and offer innovative, low-cost solutions to intensify terrace agriculture while improving local livelihoods. The article focuses on smallholder farmers in developing nations, with particular reference to Nepal. The challenges of terrace agriculture in these regions include lack of quality land area for agriculture, erosion and loss of soil fertility, low yield, poor access to agricultural inputs and services, lack of mechanization, labor shortages, poverty, and illiteracy. Agronomic strategies that could help address these concerns include intensification of terraces using agro-ecological approaches along with introduction of light-weight, low-cost, and purchasable tools and affordable inputs that enhance productivity and reduce female drudgery. To package, deliver, and share these technologies with remote hillside communities, effective scaling up models are required. One opportunity to enable distribution of these products could be to “piggy-back” onto pre-existing snackfood/cigarette/alcohol distribution networks that are prevalent even in the most remote mountainous regions of the world. Such strategies, practices, and tools could be supported by formalized government policies dedicated to the well-being of terrace farmers and ecosystems, to maintain resiliency at a time of alarming climate change. We hope this review will inform governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to draw

  12. Professional Development Needs of Mid-Career Agriculture Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smalley, Scott W.; Smith, Amy R.

    2017-01-01

    Nationwide, agricultural education faces a shortage of teachers (National Teach Ag Campaign, 2014; Foster, Lawver, & Smith, 2016). To remedy this, both recruitment and retention efforts are necessary. While extensive research in agricultural education has focused on needs of beginning teachers, less research has focused on needs of agriculture…

  13. Mechanisation of large-scale agricultural fields in developing countries - a review.

    PubMed

    Onwude, Daniel I; Abdulstter, Rafia; Gomes, Chandima; Hashim, Norhashila

    2016-09-01

    Mechanisation of large-scale agricultural fields often requires the application of modern technologies such as mechanical power, automation, control and robotics. These technologies are generally associated with relatively well developed economies. The application of these technologies in some developing countries in Africa and Asia is limited by factors such as technology compatibility with the environment, availability of resources to facilitate the technology adoption, cost of technology purchase, government policies, adequacy of technology and appropriateness in addressing the needs of the population. As a result, many of the available resources have been used inadequately by farmers, who continue to rely mostly on conventional means of agricultural production, using traditional tools and equipment in most cases. This has led to low productivity and high cost of production among others. Therefore this paper attempts to evaluate the application of present day technology and its limitations to the advancement of large-scale mechanisation in developing countries of Africa and Asia. Particular emphasis is given to a general understanding of the various levels of mechanisation, present day technology, its management and application to large-scale agricultural fields. This review also focuses on/gives emphasis to future outlook that will enable a gradual, evolutionary and sustainable technological change. The study concludes that large-scale-agricultural farm mechanisation for sustainable food production in Africa and Asia must be anchored on a coherent strategy based on the actual needs and priorities of the large-scale farmers. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

  14. Overcoming the risk of inaction from emissions uncertainty in smallholder agriculture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berry, N. J.; Ryan, C. M.

    2013-03-01

    The potential for improving productivity and increasing the resilience of smallholder agriculture, while also contributing to climate change mitigation, has recently received considerable political attention (Beddington et al 2012). Financial support for improving smallholder agriculture could come from performance-based funding including sale of carbon credits or certified commodities, payments for ecosystem services, and nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA) budgets, as well as more traditional sources of development and environment finance. Monitoring the greenhouse gas fluxes associated with changes to agricultural practice is needed for performance-based mitigation funding, and efforts are underway to develop tools to quantify mitigation achieved and assess trade-offs and synergies between mitigation and other livelihood and environmental priorities (Olander 2012). High levels of small scale variability in carbon stocks and emissions in smallholder agricultural systems (Ziegler et al 2012) mean that data intensive approaches are needed for precise and unbiased mitigation monitoring. The cost of implementing such monitoring programmes is likely to be high, and this introduces the risk that projects will not be developed in areas where there is the greatest need for agricultural improvements, which are likely to correspond with areas where existing data or research infrastructure are lacking. When improvements to livelihoods and food security are expected as co-benefits of performance-based mitigation finance, the risk of inaction is borne by the rural poor as well as the global climate. In situ measurement of carbon accumulation in smallholders' soils are not usually feasible because of the costs associated with sampling in a heterogeneous landscape, although technological advances could improve the situation (Milori et al 2012). Alternatives to in situ measurement are to estimate greenhouse gas fluxes by extrapolating information from existing

  15. The development of halophyte-based agriculture: past and present

    PubMed Central

    Ventura, Yvonne; Eshel, Amram; Pasternak, Dov; Sagi, Moshe

    2015-01-01

    Background Freshwater comprises about a mere 2·5 % of total global water, of which approximately two-thirds is locked into glaciers at the polar ice caps and on mountains. In conjunction with this, in many instances irrigation with freshwater causes an increase in soil salinity due to overirrigation of agricultural land, inefficient water use and poor drainage of unsuitable soils. The problem of salinity was recognized a long time ago and, due to the importance of irrigated agriculture, numerous efforts have been devoted towards improving crop species for better utilization of saline soils and water. Irrigating plants with saline water is a challenge for practitioners and researchers throughout the world. Scope Recruiting wild halophytes with economic potential was suggested several decades ago as a way to reduce the damage caused by salinization of soil and water. A range of cultivation systems for the utilization of halophytes have been developed, for the production of biofuel, purification of saline effluent in constructed wetlands, landscaping, cultivation of gourmet vegetables, and more. This review critically analyses past and present halophyte-based production systems in the context of genetics, physiology, agrotechnical issues and product value. There are still difficulties that need to be overcome, such as direct germination in saline conditions or genotype selection. However, more and more research is being directed not only towards determining salt tolerance of halophytes, but also to the improvement of agricultural traits for long-term progress. PMID:25122652

  16. Advances in the development of remote sensing technology for agricultural applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Powers, J. E.; Erb, R. B.; Hall, F. G.; Macdonald, R. B.

    1979-01-01

    The application of remote sensing technology to crop forecasting is discussed. The importance of crop forecasts to the world economy and agricultural management is explained, and the development of aerial and spaceborne remote sensing for global crop forecasting by the United States is outlined. The structure, goals and technical aspects of the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) are presented, and main findings on the accuracy, efficiency, applicability and areas for further study of the LACIE procedure are reviewed. The current status of NASA crop forecasting activities in the United States and worldwide is discussed, and the objectives and organization of the newly created Agriculture and Resources Inventory Surveys through Aerospace Remote Sensing (AgRISTARS) program are presented.

  17. The Potential of a Multimedia Open Educational Resource Module in Enhancing Effective Teaching and Learning in a Postgraduate Agricultural Program: Experience From AgShare Project Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hassen, Jemal Yousuf

    2013-01-01

    Graduate programs in agriculture in developing countries such as in Ethiopia are often designed in cognizance of the need for skilled manpower for agricultural development. In Ethiopia, the contribution of graduates of agricultural graduate programs to the attempt to transform smallholder agriculture has become a matter of urgency in the face of…

  18. Digital spatial soil and land information for agriculture development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharma, R. K.; Laghathe, Pankaj; Meena, Ranglal; Barman, Alok Kumar; Das, Satyendra Nath

    2006-12-01

    Natural resource management calls for study of natural system prevailing in the country. In India floods and droughts visit regularly, causing extensive damages of natural wealth including agriculture that are crucial for sustenance of economic growth. The Indian Sub-continent drained by many major rivers and their tributaries where watershed, the hydrological unit forms a natural system that allows management and development of land resources following natural harmony. Acquisition of various kinds and levels of soil and land characteristics using both conventional and remote sensing techniques and subsequent development of digital spatial data base are essential to evolve strategy for planning watershed development programmes, their monitoring and impact evaluation. The multi-temporal capability of remote sensing sensors helps to update the existing data base which are of dynamic in nature. The paper outlines the concept of spatial data base development, generation using remote sensing techniques, designing of data structure, standardization and integration with watershed layers and various non spatial attribute data for various applications covering watershed development planning, alternate land use planning, soil and water conservation, diversified agriculture practices, generation of soil health card, soil and land reclamation, etc. The soil and land characteristics are vital to derive various interpretative groupings or master table that helps to generate the desired level of information of various clients using the GIS platform. The digital spatial data base on soils and watersheds generated by All India Soil and Land Use Survey will act as a sub-server of the main GIS based Web Server being hoisted by the planning commission for application of spatial data for planning purposes under G2G domain. It will facilitate e-governance for natural resource management using modern technology.

  19. Training for Agriculture and Rural Development--1977. FAO Economic and Social Development Series No. 7.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome (Italy).

    Fifteen papers on aspects of education and training for agriculture and rural development are contained in this journal for 1977. Several deal with the rising need for more direct participation by the farmers, landless workers, foresters, and fishermen for whom rural education and training systems are designed to supplement traditional types of…

  20. A scientometric review of emerging trends and new developments in agricultural ecological compensation.

    PubMed

    He, Ke; Zhang, Junbiao; Wang, Xueting; Zeng, Yangmei; Zhang, Lu

    2018-05-08

    Agricultural ecological compensation has drawn an increasingly broad range of interest since early 1990s. In recent years, the volume of the literature grows rapidly. As a result, a systematic review of the diverse research field and its current trends becomes essential. This paper surveys the literature of agricultural ecological compensation between 1990 and 2016. Specifically, by employing CiteSpace information visualization software, we firstly identified the research hotspots and evolution path and then illustrated the frontier and developing trend of the domain in core and broader perspectives. It is found that the focus of the academic community has always been researches on the theoretical policy and application of the payment for agro-ecosystem services, agricultural ecological compensation based on contingent valuation method, and ecological compensation of farmland landscape and organic food production as well as willingness to accept/pay for land use and ecological protection. Meanwhile, we also found that, in recent years, qualitative research has received more and more attention in the field of agricultural ecological compensation, since global warming, agricultural carbon emissions, and other emerging environmental issues have aroused widespread concern of the people around the world. Moreover, we believed that more and more scholars will employ case study methodology to analyze agricultural ecological compensation in specific systems, regions, or circumstances in the future.

  1. A Program in Agricultural Education in Nevada Based on Off-Farm Agricultural Occupations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christensen, Howard Harward

    To investigate the further development of agricultural education in Nevada in light of current and future opportunities for employment in off-farm agricultural occupations, personal interviews were conducted with 363 agricultural firms and 30 agricultural agencies. Data were summarized for the 148 companies where some employees needed agricultural…

  2. Agricultural development and emigration: rhetoric and reality.

    PubMed

    Thompson, G; Amon, R; Martin, P L

    1986-01-01

    "The untested premise of trade liberalizing U.S. development programs such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative is that commodity trade can substitute for international labor migration. Analysis of U.S. tomato producing regions in Sinaloa, Mexico and Florida suggests that the effect of trade liberalization on international labor migration is uncertain." The emphasis is on how such development projects might affect the flow of illegal migrants to the United States. excerpt

  3. A New Trans-Disciplinary Approach to Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Impact and Adaptation in Agricultural Systems (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antle, J. M.; Valdivia, R. O.; Jones, J.; Rosenzweig, C.; Ruane, A. C.

    2013-12-01

    This presentation provides an overview of the new methods developed by researchers in the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) for regional climate impact assessment and analysis of adaptation in agricultural systems. This approach represents a departure from approaches in the literature in several dimensions. First, the approach is based on the analysis of agricultural systems (not individual crops) and is inherently trans-disciplinary: it is based on a deep collaboration among a team of climate scientists, agricultural scientists and economists to design and implement regional integrated assessments of agricultural systems. Second, in contrast to previous approaches that have imposed future climate on models based on current socio-economic conditions, this approach combines bio-physical and economic models with a new type of pathway analysis (Representative Agricultural Pathways) to parameterize models consistent with a plausible future world in which climate change would be occurring. Third, adaptation packages for the agricultural systems in a region are designed by the research team with a level of detail that is useful to decision makers, such as research administrators and donors, who are making agricultural R&D investment decisions. The approach is illustrated with examples from AgMIP's projects currently being carried out in Africa and South Asia.

  4. From LACIE to GEOGLAM: Integrating Earth Observations into Operational Agricultural Monitoring Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. O.

    2012-12-01

    Earth observation data, owing to their synoptic, timely and repetitive coverage, have long been recognized as an indispensible tool for agricultural monitoring at local to global scales. Research and development over the past several decades in the field of agricultural remote sensing has led to considerable capacity for crop monitoring within the current operational monitoring systems. These systems are relied upon nationally and internationally to provide crop outlooks and production forecasts as the growing season progresses. This talk will discuss the legacy and current state of operational agricultural monitoring using earth observations. In the US, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been collaborating to monitor global agriculture from space since the 1970s. In 1974, the USDA, NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) initiated the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) which demonstrated that earth observations could provide vital information on crop production, with unprecedented accuracy and timeliness, prior to harvest. This experiment spurred many agencies and researchers around the world to further develop and evaluate remote sensing technologies for timely, large area, crop monitoring. The USDA and NASA continue to closely collaborate. More recently they jointly initiated the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project (GLAM) to enhance the agricultural monitoring and the crop-production estimation capabilities of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service by using the new generation of NASA satellite observations including from MODIS and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments. Internationally, in response to the growing calls for improved agricultural information, the Group on Earth Observations (partnership of governments and international organizations) developed the Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative which was adopted

  5. Detection and assessment of land use dynamics on Tenerife (Canary Islands): the agricultural development between 1986 and 2010

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Günthert, Sebastian; Naumann, Simone; Siegmund, Alexander

    2012-10-01

    Since Spanish colonial times, the Canary Islands and especially Tenerife have always been used for intensive agriculture. Today almost 1/4 of the total area of Tenerife are agriculturally affected, whereas especially mountainous areas with suitable climate conditions are drastically transformed for agricultural use by building of large terraces. In recent years, political and economical developments lead to a further transformation process, especially inducted by an expansive tourism, which caused concentration- and intensification-tendencies of agricultural land use in lower altitudes as well as agricultural set-aside and rural exodus in the hinterland. The overall aim of the research at hand is to address the agricultural land use dynamics of the past decades, to statistically assess the causal reasons for those changes and to model the future agricultural land use dynamics on Tenerife. Therefore, an object-based classification procedure for recent RapidEye data (2010), Spot 4 (1998) as well as SPOT 1 (1986-88) imagery was developed, followed by a post classification comparison (PCC). Older agricultural fallow land or agricultural set-aside with a higher level of natural succession can hardly be acquired in the used medium satellite imagery. Hence, a second detection technique was generated, which allows an exact identification of the total agriculturally affected area on Tenerife, also containing older agricultural fallow land or agricultural set-aside. The method consists of an automatic texture-oriented detection and area-wide extraction of linear agricultural structures (plough furrows and field boundaries of arable land, utilised and non-utilised agricultural terraces) in current orthophotos of Tenerife. Once the change detection analysis is realised, it is necessary to identify the different driving forces which are responsible for the agricultural land use dynamics. The statistical connections between agricultural land use changes and these driving forces

  6. Landfill Gas Energy Project Development Handbook

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    View handbook that provides an overview of LFG energy project development guidance and presents the technological, economic and regulatory considerations that affect the feasibility and success of these projects.

  7. Deadly heat waves projected in the densely populated agricultural regions of South Asia

    PubMed Central

    Im, Eun-Soon; Pal, Jeremy S.; Eltahir, Elfatih A. B.

    2017-01-01

    The risk associated with any climate change impact reflects intensity of natural hazard and level of human vulnerability. Previous work has shown that a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C can be considered an upper limit on human survivability. On the basis of an ensemble of high-resolution climate change simulations, we project that extremes of wet-bulb temperature in South Asia are likely to approach and, in a few locations, exceed this critical threshold by the late 21st century under the business-as-usual scenario of future greenhouse gas emissions. The most intense hazard from extreme future heat waves is concentrated around densely populated agricultural regions of the Ganges and Indus river basins. Climate change, without mitigation, presents a serious and unique risk in South Asia, a region inhabited by about one-fifth of the global human population, due to an unprecedented combination of severe natural hazard and acute vulnerability. PMID:28782036

  8. Deadly heat waves projected in the densely populated agricultural regions of South Asia.

    PubMed

    Im, Eun-Soon; Pal, Jeremy S; Eltahir, Elfatih A B

    2017-08-01

    The risk associated with any climate change impact reflects intensity of natural hazard and level of human vulnerability. Previous work has shown that a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C can be considered an upper limit on human survivability. On the basis of an ensemble of high-resolution climate change simulations, we project that extremes of wet-bulb temperature in South Asia are likely to approach and, in a few locations, exceed this critical threshold by the late 21st century under the business-as-usual scenario of future greenhouse gas emissions. The most intense hazard from extreme future heat waves is concentrated around densely populated agricultural regions of the Ganges and Indus river basins. Climate change, without mitigation, presents a serious and unique risk in South Asia, a region inhabited by about one-fifth of the global human population, due to an unprecedented combination of severe natural hazard and acute vulnerability.

  9. Results of SEI Independent Research and Development Projects

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-07-01

    have established the following success criteria for our project : • developing a formal framework for systematically measuring a system’s attack...characteristics may change, depending on the current stage of the project development . During the initial stages of a project , one might see, for example...was based on the Siemens Global Studio project , which exists to provide a test bed for studying global development practices. The qualitative path

  10. Incremental development and prototyping in current laboratory software development projects: Preliminary analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Griesel, Martha Ann

    1988-01-01

    Several Laboratory software development projects that followed nonstandard development processes, which were hybrids of incremental development and prototyping, are being studied. Factors in the project environment leading to the decision to use a nonstandard development process and affecting its success are analyzed. A simple characterization of project environment based on this analysis is proposed, together with software development approaches which have been found effective for each category. These approaches include both documentation and review requirements.

  11. Agile Project Management for e-Learning Developments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Doherty, Iain

    2010-01-01

    We outline the project management tactics that we developed in praxis in order to manage elearning projects and show how our tactics were enhanced through implementing project management techniques from a formal project management methodology. Two key factors have contributed to our project management success. The first is maintaining a clear…

  12. A Study of Job Demands and Curriculum Development in Agricultural Training Related to the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System. Final Report. Volume III. Student Terminal Performance Objectives and Instructional Modules.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fisher, Harold S.; And Others

    This is the third volume of a four-volume report of a research project designed to (1) identify job needs for agricultural occupations which will result from the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System and perform a task analysis on each occupation, (2) develop instructional modules and determine their place in either high school or 2-year…

  13. 7 CFR 3405.7 - Joint project proposals.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Joint project proposals. 3405.7 Section 3405.7... AGRICULTURE HIGHER EDUCATION CHALLENGE GRANTS PROGRAM Program Description § 3405.7 Joint project proposals. Applicants are encouraged to submit joint project proposals as defined in § 3405.2(m), which address regional...

  14. Integrated Assessment of Climate Change, Agricultural Land Use, and Regional Carbon Changes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    MU, J.

    2014-12-01

    Changes in land use have caused a net release of carbon to the atmosphere over the last centuries and decades1. On one hand, agriculture accounts for 52% and 84% of global anthropogenic methane and nitrous oxide emissions, respectively. On the other hand, many agricultural practices can potentially mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the most prominent of which are improved cropland and grazing land management2. From this perspective, land use change that reduces emissions and/or increases carbon sequestration can play an important role in climate change mitigation. As shown in Figure 1, this paper is an integrated study of climate impacts, land uses, and regional carbon changes to examine, link and assess climate impacts on regional carbon changes via impacts on land uses. This study will contribute to previous research in two aspects: impacts of climate change on future land uses under an uncertain future world and projections of regional carbon dynamics due to changes in future land use. Specifically, we will examine how land use change under historical climate change using observed data and then project changes in land use under future climate projections from 14 Global Climate Models (GCMs) for two emission scenarios (i.e., RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). More importantly, we will investigate future land use under uncertainties with changes in agricultural development and social-economic conditions along with a changing climate. By doing this, we then could integrate with existing efforts by USGS land-change scientists developing and parameterizing models capable of projecting changes across a full spectrum of land use and land cover changes and track the consequences on ecosystem carbon to provide better information for land managers and policy makers when informing climate change adaptation and mitigation policies.

  15. Climate impacts on agricultural biomass production in the CORDEX.be project context

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gobin, Anne; Van Schaeybroeck, Bert; Termonia, Piet; Willems, Patrick; Van Lipzig, Nicole; Marbaix, Philippe; van Ypersele, Jean-Pascal; Fettweis, Xavier; De Ridder, Koen; Stavrakou, Trissevgeni; Luyten, Patrick; Pottiaux, Eric

    2016-04-01

    The most important coordinated international effort to translate the IPCC-AR5 outcomes to regional climate modelling is the so-called "COordinated Regional climate Downscaling EXperiment" (CORDEX, http://wcrp-cordex.ipsl.jussieu.fr/). CORDEX.be is a national initiative that aims at combining the Belgian climate and impact modelling research into a single network. The climate network structure is naturally imposed by the top-down data flow, from the four participating upper-air Regional Climate Modelling groups towards seven Local Impact Models (LIMs). In addition to the production of regional climate projections following the CORDEX guidelines, very high-resolution results are provided at convection-permitting resolutions of about 4 km across Belgium. These results are coupled to seven local-impact models with severity indices as output. A multi-model approach is taken that allows uncertainty estimation, a crucial aspect of climate projections for policy-making purposes. The down-scaled scenarios at 4 km resolution allow for impact assessment in different Belgian agro-ecological zones. Climate impacts on arable agriculture are quantified using REGCROP which is a regional dynamic agri-meteorological model geared towards modelling climate impact on biomass production of arable crops (Gobin, 2010, 2012). Results from previous work show that heat stress and water shortages lead to reduced crop growth, whereas increased CO2-concentrations and a prolonged growing season have a positive effect on crop yields. The interaction between these effects depend on the crop type and the field conditions. Root crops such as potato will experience increased drought stress particularly when the probability rises that sensitive crop stages coincide with dry spells. This may be aggravated when wet springs cause water logging in the field and delay planting dates. Despite lower summer precipitation projections for future climate in Belgium, winter cereal yield reductions due to drought

  16. Youth Leadership Development: Perceptions and Preferences of Urban Students Enrolled in a Comprehensive Agriculture Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, James C., II; Kim, Eunyoung

    2009-01-01

    This descriptive study explores the perceptions of and preferences for leadership development by students enrolled in a comprehensive urban agriculture program. A total of 284 students from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences participated in the study. The results of the study showed that the average respondent was involved in a…

  17. Agricultural Productivity Forecasts for Improved Drought Monitoring

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Limaye, Ashutosh; McNider, Richard; Moss, Donald; Alhamdan, Mohammad

    2010-01-01

    Water stresses on agricultural crops during critical phases of crop phenology (such as grain filling) has higher impact on the eventual yield than at other times of crop growth. Therefore farmers are more concerned about water stresses in the context of crop phenology than the meteorological droughts. However the drought estimates currently produced do not account for the crop phenology. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have developed a drought monitoring decision support tool: The U.S. Drought Monitor, which currently uses meteorological droughts to delineate and categorize drought severity. Output from the Drought Monitor is used by the States to make disaster declarations. More importantly, USDA uses the Drought Monitor to make estimates of crop yield to help the commodities market. Accurate estimation of corn yield is especially critical given the recent trend towards diversion of corn to produce ethanol. Ethanol is fast becoming a standard 10% ethanol additive to petroleum products, the largest traded commodity. Thus the impact of large-scale drought will have dramatic impact on the petroleum prices as well as on food prices. USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) serves as a focal point for economic intelligence and the commodity outlook for U.S. WAOB depends on Drought Monitor and has emphatically stated that accurate and timely data are needed in operational agrometeorological services to generate reliable projections for agricultural decision makers. Thus, improvements in the prediction of drought will reflect in early and accurate assessment of crop yields, which in turn will improve commodity projections. We have developed a drought assessment tool, which accounts for the water stress in the context of crop phenology. The crop modeling component is done using various crop modules within Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). DSSAT is an agricultural crop

  18. Economic Impacts and Program Involvement in Agricultural Mechanics Competition Projects in Texas

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hanagriff, Roger D.; Rayfield, John; Briers, Gary; Murphy, Tim

    2014-01-01

    Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) is a well-documented, valuable, and integral part of agricultural education programs (Bryant, 2003; Cheek, Arrington, Carter, & Randall, 1994; Deyoe, 1953; Dyer & Osborne, 1996; Moore, 1988; Roberts & Harlin, 2007). Cole and Connell (1993) found that there was little research regarding the…

  19. Emerging Agricultural Biotechnologies for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.

    PubMed

    Anderson, Jennifer A; Gipmans, Martijn; Hurst, Susan; Layton, Raymond; Nehra, Narender; Pickett, John; Shah, Dilip M; Souza, Thiago Lívio P O; Tripathi, Leena

    2016-01-20

    As global populations continue to increase, agricultural productivity will be challenged to keep pace without overtaxing important environmental resources. A dynamic and integrated approach will be required to solve global food insecurity and position agriculture on a trajectory toward sustainability. Genetically modified (GM) crops enhanced through modern biotechnology represent an important set of tools that can promote sustainable agriculture and improve food security. Several emerging biotechnology approaches were discussed in a recent symposium organized at the 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. This paper summarizes the innovative research and several of the new and emerging technologies within the field of agricultural biotechnology that were presented during the symposium. This discussion highlights how agricultural biotechnology fits within the context of sustainable agriculture and improved food security and can be used in support of further development and adoption of beneficial GM crops.

  20. Development and testing of method for assessing and mapping agricultural areas susceptible to atrazine leaching in the state of Washington

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Voss, Frank D.

    2003-01-01

    In a joint effort by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the Washington Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency's Pesticide Root Zone Model and a Geographic Information System were used to develop and test a method for screening and mapping the susceptibility of ground water in agricultural areas to pesticide contamination. The objective was to produce a map that would be used by the Washington State Department of Agriculture to allocate resources for monitoring pesticide levels in ground water. The method was tested by producing a map showing susceptibility to leaching of the pesticide atrazine for the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, which encompasses an area of intensive agriculture in eastern Washington. The reliability of the atrazine map was assessed by using statistical procedures to determine whether the median of the percentage of atrazine simulated to leach below the root zone in wells where atrazine was detected was statistically greater than the median percentage at wells where atrazine was not detected (at or above 0.001 microgram per liter) in 134 wells sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey. A statistical difference in medians was not found when all 134 wells were compared. However, a statistical difference was found in medians for two subsets of the 134 wells that were used in land-use studies (studies examining the quality of ground water beneath specific crops). The statistical results from wells from the land-use studies indicate that the model potentially can be used to map the relative susceptibility of agricultural areas to atrazine leaching. However, the distinction between areas of high and low susceptibility may not yet be sufficient to use the method for allocating resources to monitor water quality. Several options are offered for improving the reliability of future simulations.

  1. Concept of an innovative water management system with decentralized water reclamation and cascading material-cycle for agricultural areas.

    PubMed

    Fujiwara, T

    2012-01-01

    Unlike in urban areas where intensive water reclamation systems are available, development of decentralized technologies and systems is required for water use to be sustainable in agricultural areas. To overcome various water quality issues in those areas, a research project entitled 'Development of an innovative water management system with decentralized water reclamation and cascading material-cycle for agricultural areas under the consideration of climate change' was launched in 2009. This paper introduces the concept of this research and provides detailed information on each of its research areas: (1) development of a diffuse agricultural pollution control technology using catch crops; (2) development of a decentralized differentiable treatment system for livestock and human excreta; and (3) development of a cascading material-cycle system for water pollution control and value-added production. The author also emphasizes that the innovative water management system for agricultural areas should incorporate a strategy for the voluntary collection of bio-resources.

  2. Fertilizing growth: Agricultural inputs and their effects in economic development.

    PubMed

    McArthur, John W; McCord, Gordon C

    2017-07-01

    This paper estimates the role of agronomic inputs in cereal yield improvements and the consequences for countries' processes of structural change. The results suggest a clear role for fertilizer, modern seeds and water in boosting yields. We then test for respective empirical links between agricultural yields and economic growth, labor share in agriculture and non-agricultural value added per worker. The identification strategy includes a novel instrumental variable that exploits the unique economic geography of fertilizer production and transport costs to countries' agricultural heartlands. We estimate that a half ton increase in staple yields generates a 14 to 19 percent higher GDP per capita and a 4.6 to 5.6 percentage point lower labor share in agriculture five years later. The results suggest a strong role for agricultural productivity as a driver of structural change.

  3. 77 FR 17001 - Notice of Meeting: Board for International Food and Agricultural Development

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-23

    ... Meeting: Board for International Food and Agricultural Development Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, notice is hereby given of the public meeting of the Board for International Food and... the U.S. Agency for International Development, Ronald Reagan Building, Bureau for Food Security, 1300...

  4. 7 CFR 3430.57 - Project meetings.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Project meetings. 3430.57 Section 3430.57 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE COMPETITIVE AND NONCOMPETITIVE NON-FORMULA FEDERAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS-GENERAL AWARD ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS...

  5. A center for commercial development of space: Real-time satellite mapping. Remote sensing-based agricultural information expert system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hadipriono, Fabian C.; Diaz, Carlos F.; Merritt, Earl S.

    1989-01-01

    The research project results in a powerful yet user friendly CROPCAST expert system for use by a client to determine the crop yield production of a certain crop field. The study is based on the facts that heuristic assessment and decision making in agriculture are significant and dominate much of agribusiness. Transfer of the expert knowledge concerning remote sensing based crop yield production into a specific expert system is the key program in this study. A knowledge base consisting of a root frame, CROP-YIELD-FORECAST, and four subframes, namely, SATELLITE, PLANT-PHYSIOLOGY, GROUND, and MODEL were developed to accommodate the production rules obtained from the domain expert. The expert system shell Personal Consultant Plus version 4.0. was used for this purpose. An external geographic program was integrated to the system. This project is the first part of a completely built expert system. The study reveals that much effort was given to the development of the rules. Such effort is inevitable if workable, efficient, and accurate rules are desired. Furthermore, abundant help statements and graphics were included. Internal and external display routines add to the visual capability of the system. The work results in a useful tool for the client for making decisions on crop yield production.

  6. Testing Software Development Project Productivity Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lipkin, Ilya

    Software development is an increasingly influential factor in today's business environment, and a major issue affecting software development is how an organization estimates projects. If the organization underestimates cost, schedule, and quality requirements, the end results will not meet customer needs. On the other hand, if the organization overestimates these criteria, resources that could have been used more profitably will be wasted. There is no accurate model or measure available that can guide an organization in a quest for software development, with existing estimation models often underestimating software development efforts as much as 500 to 600 percent. To address this issue, existing models usually are calibrated using local data with a small sample size, with resulting estimates not offering improved cost analysis. This study presents a conceptual model for accurately estimating software development, based on an extensive literature review and theoretical analysis based on Sociotechnical Systems (STS) theory. The conceptual model serves as a solution to bridge organizational and technological factors and is validated using an empirical dataset provided by the DoD. Practical implications of this study allow for practitioners to concentrate on specific constructs of interest that provide the best value for the least amount of time. This study outlines key contributing constructs that are unique for Software Size E-SLOC, Man-hours Spent, and Quality of the Product, those constructs having the largest contribution to project productivity. This study discusses customer characteristics and provides a framework for a simplified project analysis for source selection evaluation and audit task reviews for the customers and suppliers. Theoretical contributions of this study provide an initial theory-based hypothesized project productivity model that can be used as a generic overall model across several application domains such as IT, Command and Control

  7. Administrative Problems of Technical Assistance to Community Development and Agricultural Extension.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Safa-Isfahani, Manouchehr

    An attempt was made to analyze the administrative problems of United States technical assistance to community development and agricultural extension programs in the Philippines, Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, and Nigeria, with emphasis on field problems and on the point of view of local administrators, field technicians, and local people. The concept…

  8. Project Development Model | Integrated Energy Solutions | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    . The five elements of project fundamentals are: Baseline: Analyze the current situation for the site . The two-phase iterative model includes elements in project fundamentals and project development based State and Local Energy Data (SLED) tool, developed by NREL for the U.S. Department of Energy, to get

  9. A summary of the history of the development of automated remote sensing for agricultural applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Macdonald, R. B.

    1983-01-01

    The research conducted in the United States for the past 20 years with the objective of developing automated satellite remote sensing for monitoring the earth's major food crops is reviewed. The highlights of this research include a National Academy of Science study on the applicability of remote sensing monitoring given impetus by the introduction in the mid-1960's of the first airborne multispectral scanner (MSS); design simulations for the first earth resource satellite in 1969; and the use of the airborne MSS in the Corn Blight Watch, the first large application of remote sensing in agriculture, in 1970. Other programs discussed include the CITAR research project in 1972 which established the feasibility of automating digital classification to process high volumes of Landsat MSS data; the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) in 1974-78, which demonstrated automated processing of Landsat MSS data in estimating wheat crop production on a global basis; and AgRISTARS, a program designed to address the technical issues defined by LACIE.

  10. 77 FR 19682 - Proposed Information Collection; Wolf Livestock Demonstration Project Grant Program

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-04-02

    ...-FF09E30000] Proposed Information Collection; Wolf Livestock Demonstration Project Grant Program AGENCY: Fish... Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a Wolf Livestock Demonstration Project Grant Program... of livestock loss due to predation by wolves; and Compensate livestock producers for livestock losses...

  11. Quality Assurance Project Plan Development Tool

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This tool contains information designed to assist in developing a Quality Assurance (QA) Project Plan that meets EPA requirements for projects that involve surface or groundwater monitoring and/or the collection and analysis of water samples.

  12. Urban Impact at the Urban-Agricultural Interface in Madison, WI: an Ecosystem Modeling Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Logan, K. E.; Kucharik, C. J.; Schneider, A.

    2009-12-01

    Global population and the proportion of people living in urban areas both continue to grow while average urban density is decreasing worldwide. Because urban areas are often located in the most agriculturally productive lands, expansion of the built environment can cause sharp reductions in land available for cultivation. Conversion of land to urban use also significantly alters climate variables. Urban materials differ from natural land covers in terms of albedo, thermal properties, and permeability, altering energy and water cycles. Anthropogenic heat emissions also alter the energy balance in and around a city. Preliminary analysis of urban impacts around Madison, WI, a small city located in a thriving agricultural region, was performed using the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), MODIS albedo products, ground-based observations, and a simulation of urban expansion, within a geographic information system (GIS). Population of the county is expected to increase by 58% while urban density is projected to decrease by 49% between 1992 and 2030, reflecting projected worldwide patterns. Carbon stored in the top 25cm of soil was found to be over 2.5 times greater in remnant prairies than in croplands and was calculated to be even less in urban areas; projected urban development may thus lead to large losses in carbon storage. Albedo measurements also show a significant decrease with urban development. Projected urban expansion between 2001 and 2030 is expected to convert enough agricultural lands to urban areas to result in a loss of 247,000 tons of crop yield in Dane County alone, based on current yields. For a more complete analysis of these impacts, urban parameters are incorporated into a terrestrial ecosystem model known as Agro-IBIS. This approach allows for detailed comparison of energy balance and biogeochemical cycles between local crop systems, lawns, and impervious city surfaces. Changes in these important cycles, in soil carbon storage, and in crop

  13. Developing an outcome-based biodiversity metric in support of the field to market project: Final report

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Drew, C. Ashton; Alexander-Vaughn, Louise B.; Collazo, Jaime A.; McKerrow, Alexa; Anderson, John

    2013-01-01

    depends on that animal’s resource specialization, mobility, and life history strategies (Jeanneret et al. 2003a, b; Jennings & Pocock 2009). The knowledge necessary to define the biodiversity contribution of agricultural lands is specialized, dispersed, and nuanced, and thus not readily accessible. Given access to clearly defined biodiversity tradeoffs between alternative agricultural practices, landowners, land managers and farm operators could collectively enhance the conservation and economic value of agricultural landscapes. Therefore, Field to Market: The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and The Nature Conservancy jointly funded a pilot project to develop a biodiversity metric to integrate into Field to Market’s existing sustainability calculator, The Fieldprint Calculator (http://www. fieldtomarket.org/). Field to Market: The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture is an alliance among producers, agribusinesses, food companies, and conservation organizations seeking to create sustainable outcomes for agriculture. The Fieldprint Calculator supports the Keystone Alliance’s vision to achieve safe, accessible, and nutritious food, fiber and fuel in thriving ecosystems to meet the needs of 9 billion people in 2050. In support of this same vision, our project provides proof-of-concept for an outcome-based biodiversity metric for Field to Market to quantify biodiversity impacts of commercial row crop production on terrestrial vertebrate richness. Little research exists examining the impacts of alternative commercial agricultural practices on overall terrestrial biodiversity (McLaughlin & Mineau 1995). Instead, most studies compare organic versus conventional practices (e.g. Freemark & Kirk 2001; Wickramasinghe et al. 2004), and most studies focus on flora, avian, or invertebrate communities (Jeanneret et al. 2003a; Maes et al. 2008; Pollard & Relton 1970). Therefore, we used an expert-knowledge-based approach to develop a metric that predicts

  14. Habitat and Biodiversity: One out of five essential soil functions for agricultural soils

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trinsoutrot Gattin, Isabelle; Creamer, Rachel; van Leeuwen, Jeroen; Vrebos, Dirk; Gatti, Fabio; Bampa, Francesca; Schulte, Rogier; Rutgers, Michiel

    2017-04-01

    Current agricultural challenges require developing new agricultural systems that can optimize the ecological functioning of soils in order to limit the use of chemical inputs (i.e. disease suppression) and maintain a high organic matter content. This implies our ability to evaluate the effects of management practices on immediate performance objectives (i.e. fertility linked to nutrient cycling) but also in longer-term objective (i.e. C cycling and storage) in a variety of agro-climatic conditions. These issues demand the development of systemic approaches for understanding the determinants of soil functioning. In ecology, it is generally accepted that there are many positive relationships between soil biodiversity indicators and the functioning of ecosystems. Indeed, soil organisms and their interactions are essential drivers of ecosystem processes and impact the response, resilience and adaptability of ecosystems to environmental pressures. Thus, maintaining soil biodiversity is a condition for the sustainability of cropping systems. In this new context, the European project Landmark considers soil functions as a key to the improvement of agricultural land management towards sustainable development goals, amongst the five functions is soil biodiversity and habitat provisioning. We propose to present how we manage within this project to deal with this challenging objective at three spatial scales : field, landscape (regional) and European (policy). We aim to define a link between the physical, chemical and biological soil properties and "habitat & biodiversity" soil function in order to identify key indicators which modulate biodiversity. This will allow us to quantify and assess this soil function, in order to provide insight in win wins and tradeoffs in soil functions to enhance management practices which optimise the biodiversity in European agricultural systems.

  15. Implications of Climate Mitigation for Future Agricultural Production

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mueller, Christoph; Elliott, Joshua; Chryssanthacopoulos, James; Deryng, Delphine; Folberth, Christian; Pugh, Thomas A. M.; Schmid, Erwin

    2015-01-01

    Climate change is projected to negatively impact biophysical agricultural productivity in much of the world. Actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate future climate changes, are thus of central importance for agricultural production. Climate impacts are, however, not unidirectional; some crops in some regions (primarily higher latitudes) are projected to benefit, particularly if increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is assumed to strongly increase crop productivity at large spatial and temporal scales. Climate mitigation measures that are implemented by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations lead to reductions both in the strength of climate change and in the benefits of carbon dioxide fertilization. Consequently, analysis of the effects of climate mitigation on agricultural productivity must address not only regions for which mitigation is likely to reduce or even reverse climate damages. There are also regions that are likely to see increased crop yields due to climate change, which may lose these added potentials under mitigation action. Comparing data from the most comprehensive archive of crop yield projections publicly available, we find that climate mitigation leads to overall benefits from avoided damages at the global scale and especially in many regions that are already at risk of food insecurity today. Ignoring controversial carbon dioxide fertilization effects on crop productivity, we find that for the median projection aggressive mitigation could eliminate approximately 81% of the negative impacts of climate change on biophysical agricultural productivity globally by the end of the century. In this case, the benefits of mitigation typically extend well into temperate regions, but vary by crop and underlying climate model projections. Should large benefits to crop yields from carbon dioxide fertilization be realized, the effects of mitigation become much more mixed, though still positive globally and beneficial in many

  16. Neighborhood Energy/Economic Development project

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Not Available

    1991-12-31

    Energy costs impact low income communities more than anyone else. Low income residents pay a larger percentage of their incomes for energy costs. In addition, they generally have far less discretionary energy use to eliminate in response to increasing energy prices. Furthermore, with less discretionary income, home energy efficiency improvements are often too expensive. Small neighborhood businesses are in the same situation. Improved efficiency in the use of energy can improve this situation by reducing energy costs for residents and local businesses. More importantly, energy management programs can increase the demand for local goods and services and lead to themore » creation of new job training and employment opportunities. In this way, neighborhood based energy efficiency programs can support community economic development. The present project, undertaken with the support of the Urban Consortium Energy Task Force, was intended to serve as a demonstration of energy/economic programming at the neighborhood level. The San Francisco Neighborhood Energy/Economic Development (NEED) project was designed to be a visible demonstration of bringing the economic development benefits of energy management home to low-income community members who need it most. To begin, a Community Advisory Committee was established to guide the design of the programs to best meet needs of the community. Subsequently three neighborhood energy/economic development programs were developed: The small business energy assistance program; The youth training and weatherization program; and, The energy review of proposed housing development projects.« less

  17. Yield model development project implementation plan

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ambroziak, R. A.

    1982-01-01

    Tasks remaining to be completed are summarized for the following major project elements: (1) evaluation of crop yield models; (2) crop yield model research and development; (3) data acquisition processing, and storage; (4) related yield research: defining spectral and/or remote sensing data requirements; developing input for driving and testing crop growth/yield models; real time testing of wheat plant process models) and (5) project management and support.

  18. A Guide for Developing the Instructional Program in Agricultural Mechanics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois State Board of Vocational Education and Rehabilitation, Springfield. Div. of Vocational and Technical Education.

    This bulletin contains materials suggested for use by agricultural teachers in the improvement of their agricultural mechanics programs. In its function as a guide to planning a teaching program in agricultural mechanics the document outlines the principles and procedures in course planning, 12 guiding concepts in the teaching of agricultural…

  19. Assessing the Vulnerability of Agriculture to Climate Change in Jordan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khresat, Sa'eb; Shraidaeh, Fadi; Maddat, Amer

    2015-04-01

    vulnerability. Based on the projection models for the area, average temperature in Jordan is projected to increase between 1.2 and 1.6°C by 2050. These upward temperature trends are projected to continue beyond 2050. Projections for precipitation trends are projected to decrease by 16% by the year 2050. Evaporation is likely to increase due to higher temperatures. This is likely to increase the incidence of drought potential since precipitation is projected to decrease. It is concluded that the Overall vulnerability of agriculture to climate change in Jordan is high, where impacts such as drought and increased temperatures and decreased precipitation will be more pronounced. Major implications on rain fed agriculture are possible shorter growing season, increasing moisture and heat stress to field and horticultural crops and eventually low income and food insecurity. There were different impacts among studied communities, which is related to the: economic capability, local knowledge, physical infrastructure, institutional capacity, modern technology used, age group of farmers and diversification of their income.

  20. 7 CFR 634.30 - Appeals in USDA administered projects.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 6 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Appeals in USDA administered projects. 634.30 Section 634.30 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) NATURAL RESOURCES... RCWP Contracts § 634.30 Appeals in USDA administered projects. The participant in a USDA-administered...