Family farming and rural society under the shadow of urbanization: A case study of agricultural business management in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qimin Han

Under the so-called ‘de-involution’ of the young leaving and women and elderly left behind in the countryside, how can the Chinese rural sector accomplish a structural transition and achieve large-scale agricultural production? This is the issue to be discussed in this paper. The conventional understanding is that large-scale production is about land concentration and scale management through agricultural businesses, family farms, or agricultural cooperatives. In our view, given the unfavorable Chinese land/people ratio, any attempt to eliminate household-based, small-scale farming is bound to fail. This study suggests that a paradigm shift is needed from ‘Scale Management’ to ‘Scale Service.’ Today’s agricultural production is no longer a ‘Pole-like Straight Way’ model. Different stages and processes of production have their own unique characteristics and functions. With the advancement of agricultural technology and the marketization of production factors, agricultural service has needed to catch up in scale. However, this development does not have to be based on land concentration and the elimination of household farming. On the contrary, it can be done through local social networks. Local social networks can significantly reduce the organizational costs of large-scale services without changing the current household-based small farming community structure. This will bring about a new system of ‘Agricultural Business Management’ that can both improve production efficiency and protect small farmers’ livelihoods. Such a model is a combination of tradition and market. It should play an important role in the rural reconstruction and urbanization of central and western China.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bùi Thị Bích Lan

In Vietnam, the construction of hydropower projects has contributed significantly in the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country. The place where hydropower projects are built is mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities - communities that rely primarily on land, a very important source of livelihood security. In the context of the lack of common productive land in resettlement areas, the orientation for agricultural production is to promote indigenous knowledge combined with increasing scientific and technical application; shifting from small-scale production practices to large-scale commodity production. However, the research results of this article show that many obstacles in the transition process are being posed such as limitations on natural resources, traditional production thinking or the suitability and effectiveness of scientific - technical application models. When agricultural production does not ensure food security, a number of implications for people’s lives are increasingly evident, such as poverty, preserving cultural identity, social relations and resource protection. Since then, it has set the role of the State in researching and building appropriate agricultural production models to exploit local strengths and ensure sustainability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 10008
Author(s):  
Thi Hoai Nguyen ◽  
Duc Luan Nguyen

In this paper, the authors analyze the current situation of agricultural production in Vietnam and affirm that fragmentation is one of the basic causes leading to ineffective potentials and low labor productivity. Based on this, the authors propose a number of solutions to convert small-scale production to large-scale production in order to improve labor productivity and optimally exploit resources in the agricultural sector in Vietnam today.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1218
Author(s):  
Yao Wei ◽  
Fanglei Zhong ◽  
Xijing Luo ◽  
Penglong Wang ◽  
Xiaoyu Song

Oasis agriculture in arid areas faces the constraints of scarce resources and a fragile ecological environment. Improving agricultural production efficiency is the key solution. However, there are few studies analyzing the relationship between farmers’ production efficiency and planting scale from a micro-empirical perspective. Herein, we study the seed-producing corn growers in Zhangye city, and supplement special survey data with national input–output survey data. We use data envelopment analysis to measure agricultural production efficiency, and tobit regression to calculate the marginal effects of factors affecting production efficiency on farms of different scales. The results show that production efficiency is greater for large-scale farmers than for small-scale farmers. Duration of technical training, education time of laborers, planting income, and productive expenditure are significantly positively correlated with production efficiency. Average age of farmers and the amount of pesticide and fertilizer use are significantly negatively correlated with production efficiency. Off-farm activities improve the production efficiency of small-scale farmers but inhibit it for medium- and large-scale farmers. Differences exist in marginal impacts for different scales of farmland. We conclude that expanding the scale of family farms and optimizing human capital are effective for improving agricultural production efficiency in arid oasis areas.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 757
Author(s):  
Ohchan Kwon ◽  
Yunkyu Choi ◽  
Eunji Choi ◽  
Minsu Kim ◽  
Yun Chul Woo ◽  
...  

Graphene oxide (GO) has been a prized material for fabricating separation membranes due to its immense potential and unique chemistry. Despite the academic focus on GO, the adoption of GO membranes in industry remains elusive. One of the challenges at hand for commercializing GO membranes lies with large-scale production techniques. Fortunately, emerging studies have acknowledged this issue, where many have aimed to deliver insights into scalable approaches showing potential to be employed in the commercial domain. The current review highlights eight physical methods for GO membrane fabrication. Based on batch-unit or continuous fabrication, we have further classified the techniques into five small-scale (vacuum filtration, pressure-assisted filtration, spin coating, dip coating, drop-casting) and three large-scale (spray coating, bar/doctor blade coating, slot die coating) approaches. The continuous nature of the large-scale approach implies that the GO membranes prepared by this method are less restricted by the equipment’s dimensions but rather the availability of the material, whereas membranes yielded by small-scale methods are predominately limited by the size of the fabrication device. The current review aims to serve as an initial reference to provide a technical overview of preparing GO membranes. We further aim to shift the focus of the audience towards scalable processes and their prospect, which will facilitate the commercialization of GO membranes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2115 (1) ◽  
pp. 012026
Author(s):  
Sonam Solanki ◽  
Gunendra Mahore

Abstract In the current process of producing vermicompost on a large-scale, the main challenge is to keep the worms alive. This is achieved by maintaining temperature and moisture in their living medium. It is a difficult task to maintain these parameters throughout the process. Currently, this is achieved by building infrastructure but this method requires a large initial investment and long-run maintenance. Also, these methods are limited to small-scale production. For large-scale production, a unit is developed which utilises natural airflow with water and automation. The main aim of this unit is to provide favourable conditions to worms in large-scale production with very low investment and minimum maintenance in long term. The key innovation of this research is that the technology used in the unit should be practical and easy to adopt by small farmers. For long-term maintenance of the technology lesser number of parts are used.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2S8) ◽  
pp. 1382-1386 ◽  

In today’s higher education institutions (HEIs), intelligentization and digitization of education process are greatly required. Production industries are presently making changes from large-scale production to specialized or customized production. The term Industry 4.0 (IR 4.0) represents the fourth industrial revolution; the present movement or inclination of automation and data exchange and sharing in manufacturing technologies with the main aim of satisfying the individual customer desire and needs. The quick progressions in production technologies and its uses in the industries enhance production efficiency and change the workplace from tasks-based to the human-focused features. Higher education in the IR 4.0 (HE 4.0) is a complex, intricate and intriguing opportunity which has the potential to change the society for the better. The convergence and integration of man and machine will decrease the subject distance between social science and humanity and also technology and science. This will definitely need in-depth and diverse interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation. Cloud computing (CC) as an IR 4.0 contributing technology, provides a novel means of educating people that will ultimately disrupt the present HEIs systems. Cloud-based education as a service in the era of fourth industry (CEaaS 4.0) can deliver education services in the shortest, most effective, and best affordability. The aim of this study is to propose a CEaaS system requirements specification (SRS) model that includes functional and non-fictional requirements; aligned with IR 4.0, the next industrial revolution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria L.A.D. Lestari ◽  
Rainer H. Müller ◽  
Jan P. Möschwitzer

Background: Miniaturization of nanosuspensions preparation is a necessity in order to enable proper formulation screening before nanosizing can be performed on a large scale. Ideally, the information generated at small scale is predictive for large scale production. Objective: This study was aimed to investigate the scalability when producing nanosuspensions starting from a 10 g scale of nanosuspension using low energy wet ball milling up to production scales of 120 g nanosuspension and 2 kg nanosuspension by using a standard high energy wet ball milling operated in batch mode or recirculation mode, respectively. Methods: Two different active pharmaceutical ingredients, i.e. curcumin and hesperetin, have been used in this study. The investigated factors include the milling time, milling speed, and the type of mill. Results: Comparable particle sizes of about 151 nm to 190 nm were obtained for both active pharmaceutical ingredients at the same milling time and milling speed when the drugs were processed at 10 g using low energy wet ball milling or 120 g using high energy wet ball milling in batch mode, respectively. However, an adjustment of the milling speed was needed for the 2 kg scale produced using high energy wet ball milling in recirculation mode to obtain particle sizes comparable to the small scale process. Conclusion: These results confirm in general, the scalability of wet ball milling as well as the suitability of small scale processing in order to correctly identify the most suitable formulations for large scale production using high energy milling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
Meena Maiya Suwal ◽  
Janardan Lamichhane ◽  
Dhurva Prasad Gauchan

Micropropagation is an alternative technique to propagate at large scale plants to meet global plant demand. Various researchers have worked on the micropropagation technique to regenerate bamboo species by using nodal segments from years. Contamination, browning, necrosis, and acclimatization with physiological stress are the extreme problems of the micropropagation technique. But, many numbers of papers have been published on micropropagation of the bamboo species through nodal segments as explants. The proliferation of the bamboo shoots is dependent on the season of collection, size of explants, the position of explants, diversity of plants, concentration and combination of plant growth regulators, most adequate culture medium, environmental condition of the equipment, handling, and individual species. Bamboo is a monocarpic fast-growing, tall perennial grass and having the high potential to generate economic and social benefits. It helps to maintain land patterns and control soil erosion.  The long life cycle of the bamboo produces a huge amount of seeds but unfortunately, mostly, they are non-viable. So, bamboos are propagated from vegetative by cutting and air layering. However, these methods are only for a small scale and they also tend to destroy large mother plant stocks and difficult to be transported. So, the in vitro propagation technique is useful to obtain large progenies from desired genotypes. Mostly, BAP and TDZ growth hormones are widely used for shoot multiplication and IBA, NAA and IAA are used for root initiation as per developed protocols in tissue culture for large scale production. This review intends to explore an overview of the recent literature reports to summarize the importance of micropropagation by using nodal segments of bamboo species and factors influencing it.


Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hani Z. Asfour ◽  
Zuhier A. Awan ◽  
Alaa A. Bagalagel ◽  
Mahmoud A. Elfaky ◽  
Reda F. A. Abdelhameed ◽  
...  

The diversity of symbiotic fungi derived from two marine sponges and sediment collected off Obhur, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), was investigated in the current study. A total of 23 isolates were purified using a culture-dependent approach. Using the morphological properties combined with internal transcribed spacer-rDNA (ITS-rDNA) sequences, 23 fungal strains (in the majority Penicillium and Aspergillus) were identified from these samples. The biological screening (cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities) of small-scale cultures of these fungi yielded several target fungal strains which produced bioactive secondary metabolites. Amongst these isolates, the crude extract of Aspergillus terreus strain S020, which was cultured in fermentation static broth, 21 L, for 40 days at room temperature on potato dextrose broth, displayed strong antimicrobial activities against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and significant antiproliferative effects on human carcinoma cells. Chromatographic separation of the crude extract by silica gel column chromatography indicated that the S020 isolate could produce a series of chemical compounds. Among these, pure crystalline terrein was separated with a high yield of 537.26 ± 23.42 g/kg extract, which represents the highest fermentation production of terrein to date. Its chemical structure was elucidated on the basis of high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS) or high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), 1D, and 2D NMR spectroscopic analyses and by comparison with reported data. The compound showed strong cytotoxic activity against colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT-116) and hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2), with IC50 values of 12.13 and 22.53 µM, respectively. Our study highlights the potential of A. terreus strain S020 for the industrial production of bioactive terrein on a large scale and the importance of future investigations of these strains to identify the bioactive leads in these fungal extracts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 5253-5262
Author(s):  
Xiaoxian Zhang ◽  
Jianpei Zhang ◽  
Jing Yang

The problems caused by network dimension disasters and computational complexity have become an important issue to be solved in the field of social network research. The existing methods for network feature learning are mostly based on static and small-scale assumptions, and there is no modified learning for the unique attributes of social networks. Therefore, existing learning methods cannot adapt to the dynamic and large-scale of current social networks. Even super large scale and other features. This paper mainly studies the feature representation learning of large-scale dynamic social network structure. In this paper, the positive and negative damping sampling of network nodes in different classes is carried out, and the dynamic feature learning method for newly added nodes is constructed, which makes the model feasible for the extraction of structural features of large-scale social networks in the process of dynamic change. The obtained node feature representation has better dynamic robustness. By selecting the real datasets of three large-scale dynamic social networks and the experiments of dynamic link prediction in social networks, it is found that DNPS has achieved a large performance improvement over the benchmark model in terms of prediction accuracy and time efficiency. When the α value is around 0.7, the model effect is optimal.


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