scholarly journals Redefining success: the political ecology of genetically modified and organic cotton as solutions to agrarian crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Flachs
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Organic Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Organic Cotton ◽  
Agrarian Crisis

The transnational spread of law and technology in Indian agricultural development has passed through three distinct phases since the mid-19th century. In each case, a narrative of agrarian crisis allowed for new state and corporate interventions, conceived by American and British agribusiness, within the existing logics of Indian smallholder agriculture. These begun with colonial British industrial cotton projects in the 1840s, continuing with Green Revolution agriculture, and on contemporary GM and organic cotton farms. In each case, farmers developed strategies through a frictive, contentious adoption of new technologies and built new avenues to success that worked for some farmers and failed for others. In this article I draw on ethnographic fieldwork and household surveys conducted in nine villages from 2012-2014 in Telangana, India. As with previous development initiatives, the US-born legal structures that defined high-tech GM and low-tech organic agriculture were adopted in India without major changes. I argue, however that their actual implementation by farmers has required a significant shift in the ways that people manage the agricultural economy.Keywords: Genetically Modified crops, organic agriculture, development, South India This paper was winner of the Eric Wolf Prize, Political Ecology Society, 2015.

scholarly journals Playing development roles: the political ecology of performance in agricultural development

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Flachs ◽  
Paul Richards
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Special Section ◽  
The Political ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
Farming Communities

Performance is a useful lens through which to analyze agrarian life, as performance illuminates the ways that farmers manage the complex socioecological demands of farm work while participating in social life and in the larger political economy. The dialectic of planning and improvisation in the farm field has produced scholarship at multiple scales of political ecology, including the global ramifications of new technologies or policies, as well as the hyper-local engagements between farmers and fields in the context of modernity and development. Political ecologists are also beginning to understand how affects, such as aspirations and frustrations, influence agriculture by structuring how farmers and other stakeholders make decisions about farms, households, capital, and environments. To understand farm work as a performance is to situate it within particular stages, roles, scripts, and audiences at different scales. The articles in this Special Section ask how farmers have improvised, planned, and performed in response to agroecological challenges, bridging scholarship in political ecology, development studies, and the study of agrarian landscapes through new empirical case studies and theoretical contributions. Agriculture both signals social values and fosters improvisations within farming communities' collective vulnerability to weather and the political economy. We argue that the lens of performance situates the political ecology of agriculture within the constraints of the political economy, the aspirations and frustrations of daily life, and the dialectic between improvised responses to change and planning in the field.Keywords: Performance, agriculture, planning, improvisation, agrarian studies

scholarly journals Perception and intention in organic agriculture cultivation in North Maluku Province

2021 ◽  
Vol 306 ◽  
pp. 02014
Author(s):  
Ikhsan Fuady ◽  
Mardianah ◽  
MA Syifaa Sutarjo
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Organic Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Farming System ◽  
New Order ◽  
Behavior Intention ◽  
Organic Farming System ◽  
Development Paradigm

The green revolution program during the New Order era has left various agricultural problems. Organic agriculture as the antithesis of agricultural development paradigm has long been echoed. However, the intention of farmers to do organic farming is still relatively limited. Many factors influence farmers’ behavior intention, one of which is the perception of agriculture towards the organic farming system. This study aims to describe farmers’ perceptions and intention in organic farming in North Maluku Province, using the UTAUT1 (Venkatest 2003) theoretical framework from venkatest. This study was designed as a quantitative study with a survey approach. The population of this study was vegetable farmers in North Maluku province. The sample of this study was 120 farmers spread across the city of Ternate and Tidore. This research data analysis used descriptive statistics. The results showed that the farmers’ perceptions about organic agricultural cultivation were generally categorized as quite good / moderate. Only 1 indicator of a high perspective, namely farmers’ perceptions of performance expectations or farmers believe that organic farming systems can improve their farming with a value of 3.38 ± 0.6. The intention or intention of farmers to do organic farming is relatively diverse. As many as 36.7 percent have a strong desire, but 33.3 percent have a low intention.

New Technologies to Combat Herbicide Resistance

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-92
Author(s):  
Rob Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Herbicide Resistance ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Cultural Control ◽  
Arable Farming ◽  
The Uk

Herbicide resistance in problem weeds is now a major threat to global food production, being particularly widespread in wild grasses affecting cereal crops. In the UK, black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) holds the title of number one agronomic problem in winter wheat, with the loss of production associated with herbicide resistance now estimated to cost the farming sector at least £0.5 billion p.a. Black-grass presents us with many of the characteristic traits of a problem weed; being highly competitive, genetically diverse and obligately out-crossing, with a growth habit that matches winter wheat. With the UK’s limited arable crop rotations and the reliance on the repeated use of a very limited range of selective herbicides we have been continuously performing a classic Darwinian selection for resistance traits in weeds that possess great genetic diversity and plasticity in their growth habits. The result has been inevitable; the steady rise of herbicide resistance across the UK, which now affects over 2.1 million hectares of some of our best arable land. Once the resistance genie is out of the bottle, it has proven difficult to prevent its establishment and spread. With the selective herbicide option being no longer effective, the options are to revert to cultural control; changing rotations and cover crops, manual rogueing of weeds, deep ploughing and chemical mulching with total herbicides such as glyphosate. While new precision weeding technologies are being developed, their cost and scalability in arable farming remains unproven. As an agricultural scientist who has spent a working lifetime researching selective weed control, we seem to be giving up on a technology that has been a foundation stone of the green revolution. For me it begs the question, are we really unable to use modern chemical and biological technology to counter resistance? I would argue the answer to that question is most patently no; solutions are around the corner if we choose to develop them.

Artificial Intelligence as a Technological Innovation to Accelerate Economic Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
S. V. Shchurina ◽  
A. S. Danilov
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Retail Trade ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Technological Gap ◽  
The Government

The subject of the research is the introduction of artificial intelligence as a technological innovation into the Russian economic development. The relevance of the problem is due to the fact that the Russian market of artificial intelligence is still in the infancy and the necessity to bridge the current technological gap between Russia and the leading economies of the world is coming to the forefront. The financial sector, the manufacturing industry and the retail trade are the drivers of the artificial intelligence development. However, company managers in Russia are not prepared for the practical application of expensive artificial intelligence technologies. Under these circumstances, the challenge is to develop measures to support high-tech projects of small and medium-sized businesses, given that the technological innovation considered can accelerate the development of the Russian economy in the energy sector fully or partially controlled by the government as well as in the military-industrial complex and the judicial system.The purposes of the research were to examine the current state of technological innovations in the field of artificial intelligence in the leading countries and Russia and develop proposals for improving the AI application in the Russian practices.The paper concludes that the artificial intelligence is a breakthrough technology with a great application potential. Active promotion of the artificial intelligence in companies significantly increases their efficiency, competitiveness, develops industry markets, stimulates introduction of new technologies, improves product quality and scales up manufacturing. In general, the artificial intelligence gives a new impetus to the development of Russia and facilitates its entry into the five largest world’s economies.

Tools for the development of innovative entrepreneurship in the region

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
V. P. Basenko ◽  
V. A. Dianova
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Economic Agents ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
New Organizational Forms ◽  
Innovative Solution ◽  
Public And Private Cooperation ◽  
Effective Use

The article is devoted to the problems of innovative enterprise development. Since the Russian economy is in a state of financial and economic stagnation, there is a need to apply radically new innovative directions of business activities that ensure the effective use of financial potential within the framework of national projects. Practice shows that today the business sector in Russia is not able to provide a full-fledged demand for new technologies. Therefore, there is a need for substantial state support to provide centralized orders for high-tech industries. There are already examples of combining the efforts of a number of Autonomous economic entities to implement innovative reforms, new organizational forms of interaction have been formed, such as: centers for the implementation of innovative ideas; centers for engineering services; business incubators, etc. The subjects of these organizational forms of cooperation developed and proposed measures aimed at innovative solution of technological problems relevant to the regional economy, as well as for the country as a whole. Link for the efficient interaction of economic agents becomes an inherent characteristic, is the need of implementation of mechanisms of coordination with “network interaction”. It is important to note the fact that the existing relations and forms of regulation of various systems are not permanent, there are no strategic concepts aimed at long-term public and private cooperation.

scholarly journals The Implementation of Spectral Element Method in a CAE System for the Solution of Elasticity Problems on Hybrid Curvilinear Meshes

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitriy Konovalov ◽  
Anatoly Vershinin ◽  
Konstantin Zingerman ◽  
Vladimir Levin
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Simulation ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Spectral Element Method ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Spectral Element ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Engineering Analysis ◽  
Elasticity Problems ◽  
Cae System ◽  
Element Method

Modern high-performance computing systems allow us to explore and implement new technologies and mathematical modeling algorithms into industrial software systems of engineering analysis. For a long time the finite element method (FEM) was considered as the basic approach to mathematical simulation of elasticity theory problems; it provided the problems solution within an engineering error. However, modern high-tech equipment allows us to implement design solutions with a high enough accuracy, which requires more sophisticated approaches within the mathematical simulation of elasticity problems in industrial packages of engineering analysis. One of such approaches is the spectral element method (SEM). The implementation of SEM in a CAE system for the solution of elasticity problems is considered. An important feature of the proposed variant of SEM implementation is a support of hybrid curvilinear meshes. The main advantages of SEM over the FEM are discussed. The shape functions for different classes of spectral elements are written. Some results of computations are given for model problems that have analytical solutions. The results show the better accuracy of SEM in comparison with FEM for the same meshes.

A critical review and re-assessment of theories of smallholder decision-making: a case of conservation agriculture households, Zambia

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Bwalya Umar
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Uncertain Environments

AbstractDifferent theories have been posited that try to explain the decision-making process of smallholders especially regarding the adoption of new technologies or new agricultural techniques. The objective of this paper is to review and re-assess the dominant household production theories to explain the decision making of smallholders practicing conservation agriculture (CA) in the southern, eastern, and central provinces of Zambia. It also discusses the potential role of CA toward economic development. It finds that the CA smallholders studied did not aim to maximize profits but tried to secure household consumption from their own production before any other considerations in risky and uncertain environments. Their response to economic incentives was contingent on minimizing risks associated with securing a minimum level of livelihood and investing into local forms of insurance. This paper concludes that the ability for CA to contribute to rural livelihoods and economic development would depend on how adequately the factors that hinder smallholder agricultural development in general are addressed.

BRICS Countries Possible Areas for Scientific Cooperation

2015 ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
I. Dezhina
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Preliminary Evaluation ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Scientific Cooperation ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
A Share

The article evaluates science sectors and effectiveness of scientific research in the countries forming the BRICS group, as well as the current state of scientific and technological cooperation among the group members. The science sectors of the countries under consideration differ markedly, while facing similar problems relating to government regulations and external environments. The differences exist in total expenditures on research and development (as a share of GNP), in the scope of governmental funding (large in Russia and India, but small in China), and in the distribution of allocations among various areas and types of R&D activities. China appears to have the most well-adjusted science sector among the BRICS members. It includes not only strong universities but also high-tech companies that invest actively into research and development. The overall impact (inferred from citation indexes) of fundamental and exploratory research performed in BRICS countries remains low. BRICS's scientists prefer to collaborate with their colleagues from the world-leading countries rather than with their fellows from BRICS. Yet, in contrast to the world trend, in all BRICS countries, except Russia, a share of internationally co-authored publications is now decreasing. BRICS members have more similar interests and priorities in technological development, including infrastructural and large technological projects, than in science. Currently, bilateral cooperation in technology prevails, while the projects involving all members of the group still remain at the stage of preliminary evaluation and discussion. Russia cooperates most closely with China and India, including joint projects in such high-priority directions as new materials, photonics, biomedical, space and information technologies. For Russia, cooperation in technological development appears to be of most interest because it can lead not only to introduction of new technologies but also help to create large Russian innovative companies. Development of successful multilateral cooperation in science and technology among the BRICS members is the key for this group, originally formed for geopolitical reasons, to evolve into an effective economic union.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document