scholarly journals Precision agriculture technology adoption: a qualitative study of small-scale commercial “family farms” located in the North China Plain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Kendall ◽  
Beth Clark ◽  
Wenjing Li ◽  
Shan Jin ◽  
Glyn. D. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Family Farmers ◽  
The North ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
Support Mechanisms

AbstractPrecision agriculture (PA) technologies offer a potential solution to food security and environmental challenges but, will only be successful if adopted by farmers. Adoption in China lags behind that in some developed agricultural economies despite scientifically proven benefits of PA technologies for Chinese agriculture. Adoption is dependent on farmer attitudes and perceptions towards PA technologies. An exploratory qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted with Chinese arable farmers (n = 27) to explore their perceptions towards and adoption intentions of PA technologies in two Chinese provinces (Hebei and Shandong). A thematic analysis revealed five central themes to have emerged from the data, these were: “socio-political landscape”, “farming culture”, “agricultural challenges”, “adoption intentions (barriers/facilitators” and “practical support mechanisms”. All were likely to influence the level and rate of adoption of PA technologies amongst family farmers in China. The research revealed an openness to the potential of PA technologies amongst family farmers, although there was heterogeneity in the perceptions of PA technology and willingness to adopt. Improved rates of adoption will be achieved by reducing the barriers to adoption, including the need for low-cost PA applications that can be applied at small scale, improved information provision, financial support mechanisms including more accessible subsidies and credit, and reliable, regulated and affordable service provision.

scholarly journals Livestock manure as an alternative attractant for fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in guava tree

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Rosenya Michely Cintra Filgueiras ◽  
Francisco Roberto de Azevedo ◽  
Raul Azevedo ◽  
Ricardo Braga de Farias ◽  
Cristiane Ramos Coutinho
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Fruit Flies ◽  
Chicken Manure ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Cost Effectiveness Ratio ◽  
Livestock Manure ◽  
Family Farmers ◽  
Hydrolyzed Protein ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACT Fruit flies are typically managed using hydrolyzed protein, which is difficult for family farmers to obtain. This study aimed at assessing the efficiency of livestock manure for monitoring and/or controlling this pest in guava tree orchards. The first experiment tested the efficiency of guava juice and manure from cattle, sheep, pig, horse and chicken as attractants for fruit flies. Once the best bait had been established, a second experiment was conducted using guava juice and chicken manure extract at concentrations of 10 %, 30 %, 50 %, 70 % and 100 %. A third assay analyzed guava juice and chicken manure extract (10 %) at three attractant aging periods (3, 7 and 14 days after trap installation). The cost-effectiveness ratio between guava juice and extract was also analyzed. It was concluded that fruit flies prefer the chicken manure extract (10 %), with greater capture observed three days after trap installation, which can replace the guava juice in the agroecological management of fruit flies in guava trees in family farms, since it is low cost and efficient.

scholarly journals Biodiesel and social inclusion: a fuzzy set and regression analysis in the north of Brazil

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Vinicius Alves Finco ◽  
Werner Doppler
Keyword(s):  
Seed Production ◽  
Fuzzy Set ◽  
Jatropha Curcas ◽  
Ricinus Communis ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Family Farmers ◽  
Oil Seed ◽  
The North

After the launch of Brazilian Biodiesel use and production Program (PNPB) in 2004, the oil seed production became an economic alternative for family farmers since they might have the chance to improve their income and supply biodiesel enterprises with raw material. Theoretically speaking this picture is easy to draw, but few recent little scientific research was carried out aiming at identifying the socio-economic profile of farmers that are being included in the Brazilian biodiesel chain. Thus, this study aims to assess the links between the family farmers’ living standards and the adoption of oil seed activity. Thus, an analysis of Jatropha curcas and Ricinus communis small-scale seed production was done in the Tocantins state, located in the north of Brazil. A fuzzy set theory was applied to construct deprivation indicators based on living standard criteria and a nonlinear probit model was formulated to analyze the inclusion of poor families in the biodiesel chain. The preliminary results point towards a positive relationship between degree of deprivation and adoption of oil seed activity in the case of Ricinus communis system production and a negative relationship in the case of Jatropha curcas system.

scholarly journals MAGI: Multistream Aerial Segmentation of Ground Images with Small-Scale Drones

Drones ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Danilo Avola ◽  
Daniele Pannone
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Border Control ◽  
Control Precision ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Deep Learning Model

In recent years, small-scale drones have been used in heterogeneous tasks, such as border control, precision agriculture, and search and rescue. This is mainly due to their small size that allows for easy deployment, their low cost, and their increasing computing capability. The latter aspect allows for researchers and industries to develop complex machine- and deep-learning algorithms for several challenging tasks, such as object classification, object detection, and segmentation. Focusing on segmentation, this paper proposes a novel deep-learning model for semantic segmentation. The model follows a fully convolutional multistream approach to perform segmentation on different image scales. Several streams perform convolutions by exploiting kernels of different sizes, making segmentation tasks robust to flight altitude changes. Extensive experiments were performed on the UAV Mosaicking and Change Detection (UMCD) dataset, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed method.

scholarly journals Performance of the ATMOS41 All-in-One Weather Station for Weather Monitoring

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 741
Author(s):  
Olga Dombrowski ◽  
Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen ◽  
Cosimo Brogi ◽  
Heye Reemt Bogena
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Regression Function ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Reference Station ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Weather Station

Affordable and accurate weather monitoring systems are essential in low-income and developing countries and, more recently, are needed in small-scale research such as precision agriculture and urban climate studies. A variety of low-cost solutions are available on the market, but the use of non-standard technologies raises concerns for data quality. Research-grade all-in-one weather stations could present a reliable, cost effective solution while being robust and easy to use. This study evaluates the performance of the commercially available ATMOS41 all-in-one weather station. Three stations were deployed next to a high-performance reference station over a three-month period. The ATMOS41 stations showed good performance compared to the reference, and close agreement among the three stations for most standard weather variables. However, measured atmospheric pressure showed uncertainties >0.6 hPa and solar radiation was underestimated by 3%, which could be corrected with a locally obtained linear regression function. Furthermore, precipitation measurements showed considerable variability, with observed differences of ±7.5% compared to the reference gauge, which suggests relatively high susceptibility to wind-induced errors. Overall, the station is well suited for private user applications such as farming, while the use in research should consider the limitations of the station, especially regarding precise precipitation measurements.

Tools of Transformation: Appropriate Technology in U.S. Countercultural Literature

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Peter Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Environmental Transformation ◽  
Buckminster Fuller ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Second Wave

This essay takes its cue from second-wave ecocriticism and from recent scholarly interest in the “appropriate technology” movement that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in California and elsewhere. “Appropriate technology” (or AT) refers to a loosely-knit group of writers, engineers and designers active in the years around 1970, and more generally to the counterculture’s promotion, development and application of technologies that were small-scale, low-cost, user-friendly, human-empowering and environmentally sound. Focusing on two roughly contemporary but now largely forgotten American texts Sidney Goldfarb’s lyric poem “Solar-Heated-Rhombic-Dodecahedron” (1969) and Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip (1971)—I consider how “hip” literary writers contributed to eco-technological discourse and argue for the 1960s counterculture’s relevance to present-day ecological concerns. Goldfarb’s and Norman’s texts interest me because they conceptualize iconic 1960s technologies—especially the Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome and the Volkswagen van—not as inherently alienating machines but as tools of profound individual, social and environmental transformation. Synthesizing antimodernist back-to-nature desires with modernist enthusiasm for (certain kinds of) machinery, these texts adumbrate a humanity- and modernity-centered post-wilderness model of environmentalism that resonates with the dilemmas that we face in our increasingly resource-impoverished, rapidly warming and densely populated world.

scholarly journals Ritual Economy and the Organization of Scioto Hopewell Craft Production: Insights from the Outskirts of the Mound City Group

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-304
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Everhart ◽  
Bret J. Ruby
Keyword(s):  
Craft Production ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Structures ◽  
Production Site ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Ritual Economy ◽  
City Group

This article offers insights into the organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production and examines the implications of this organization through the lens of ritual economy. We present a novel analysis of investigations at the North 40 site, concluding that it is a craft production site located on the outskirts of the renowned Mound City Group. High-resolution landscape-scale magnetic survey revealed a cluster of three large structures and two rows of associated pits; one of the buildings and three of the pits were sampled in excavations. Evidence from the North 40 site marks this as the best-documented Scioto Hopewell craft production site. Mica, chert, and copper were crafted here in contexts organized outside the realm of domestic household production and consumption. Other material remains from the site suggest that crafting was specialized and embedded in ceremonial contexts. This analysis of the complex organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production provides grounds for further understanding the elaborate ceremonialism practiced by Middle Woodland (AD 1–400) societies and adds to the known complexity of craft production in small-scale societies. Furthermore, this article contributes to a growing body of literature demonstrating the utility of ritual economy as a framework for approaching the sociality of small-scale societies.

scholarly journals The Socio-Economics Factors in Family Farms with Different Economic Sustainability Levels from Central and Eastern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8262
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Smędzik-Ambroży ◽  
Marta Guth ◽  
Adam Majchrzak ◽  
Andreea Cipriana Muntean ◽  
Silvia Stefania Maican
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Small Family ◽  
Generational Changes

Economic sustainability plays an important role in shaping conditions for economic growth and social development. The importance of answering the question about the level of sustainability of family farms results from the fact that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, apart from exceptions (e.g. the Czech Republic and Slovakia), are characterized by a fragmented agrarian structure. Hence, the main goal of this article was to answer two questions: 1) whether the countries of Central and Eastern Europe differ in the level of economic sustainability of small family farms; and 2) whether the same socioeconomic factors impact similarly on the level of economic sustainability of small family farms from countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The study was based on surveys conducted in small family farms: in 2018 from Poland (672 farms) and in 2019 in four other countries (Lithuania; 999 farms, Romania; 834 farms, Serbia; 523 farms, Moldova; 530 farms). The publication includes a critical analysis of the literature, structure analysis and correlation analysis. The results show the occurrence of large differences between the economic sustainability of small family farms from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The research indicates that the larger the area of a small-scale family farm, the greater its economic sustainability. The productivity of these farms increases with their economic sustainability. The results also prove a negative relationship between the age of the farmer and the economic sustainability of their farm in all analysed countries. These trends were found in all analysed countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The results of the analyses support the conclusion that agricultural policy instruments aimed at increasing the economic sustainability of small family farms should lead to: land consolidation, a decrease in the age of farm owners through generational changes, and a decrease in employment in agriculture, which would lead to a reduction in labour input in the agricultural sector.

scholarly journals Development of a simplified gas ultracleaning process: experiments in biomass residue-based fixed-bed gasification syngas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Frilund ◽  
Esa Kurkela ◽  
Ilkka Hiltunen
Keyword(s):  
Activated Carbons ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Fixed Bed ◽  
Carbonyl Sulfide ◽  
Gas Analysis ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cleaning Process ◽  
Medium Temperature ◽  
Gas Cleaning ◽  
Adsorption Affinity

AbstractFor the realization of small-scale biomass-to-liquid (BTL) processes, low-cost syngas cleaning remains a major obstacle, and for this reason a simplified gas ultracleaning process is being developed. In this study, a low- to medium-temperature final gas cleaning process based on adsorption and organic solvent-free scrubbing methods was coupled to a pilot-scale staged fixed-bed gasification facility including hot filtration and catalytic reforming steps for extended duration gas cleaning tests for the generation of ultraclean syngas. The final gas cleaning process purified syngas from woody and agricultural biomass origin to a degree suitable for catalytic synthesis. The gas contained up to 3000 ppm of ammonia, 1300 ppm of benzene, 200 ppm of hydrogen sulfide, 10 ppm of carbonyl sulfide, and 5 ppm of hydrogen cyanide. Post-run characterization displayed that the accumulation of impurities on the Cu-based deoxygenation catalyst (TOS 105 h) did not occur, demonstrating that effective main impurity removal was achieved in the first two steps: acidic water scrubbing (AWC) and adsorption by activated carbons (AR). In the final test campaign, a comprehensive multipoint gas analysis confirmed that ammonia was fully removed by the scrubbing step, and benzene and H2S were fully removed by the subsequent activated carbon beds. The activated carbons achieved > 90% removal of up to 100 ppm of COS and 5 ppm of HCN in the syngas. These results provide insights into the adsorption affinity of activated carbons in a complex impurity matrix, which would be arduous to replicate in laboratory conditions.

scholarly journals NICU and postpartum nurse perspectives on involving fathers in newborn care: a qualitative study

BMC Nursing ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine W. Buek ◽  
Dagoberto Cortez ◽  
Dorothy J. Mandell
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Father Involvement ◽  
Perinatal Care ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Newborn Care ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Provider Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Sense Of Efficacy

Abstract Background Perinatal care nurses are well positioned to provide the education and support new fathers need to navigate the transition to fatherhood and to encourage positive father involvement from the earliest hours of a child’s life. To effectively serve fathers in perinatal settings, it is important to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of healthcare providers that may encourage and engage them, or alternatively alienate and discourage them. Methods This qualitative study involved structured interviews with ten NICU and postpartum nurses from hospitals in two large Texas cities. The interview protocol was designed to elicit descriptive information about nurses’ attitudes and beliefs, sense of efficacy and intention for working with fathers, as well as their father-directed behaviors. Nurses were recruited for the study using a purposive sampling approach. Interviews were conducted by telephone and lasted approximately 25 to 35 min. Data were analyzed using a qualitative descriptive approach. Results Overall, study participants held very positive subjective attitudes toward fathers and father involvement. Nevertheless, many of the nurses signaled normative beliefs based on race/ethnicity, gender, and culture that may moderate their intention to engage with fathers. Participants also indicated that their education as well as the culture of perinatal healthcare are focused almost entirely on the mother-baby dyad. In line with this focus on mothers, participants comments reflected a normative belief that fathers are secondary caregivers to their newborns, there to help when the mother is unavailable. Conclusions Nurse attitudes and practices that place mothers in the role of primary caregiver may be interpreted by fathers as excluding or disregarding them. Further research is needed to validate the results of this small-scale study, and to assess whether and how provider attitudes impact their practices in educating and engaging fathers in newborn care.

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