scholarly journals A Method to Quantify the Detailed Risk of Serious Injury in Agricultural Production

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3859
Author(s):  
Noha Mahmoud ◽  
Allan Leck Jensen ◽  
Cairistiona F. E. Topp ◽  
Claus Aage Grøn Sørensen ◽  
Michael Nørremark ◽  
...  

Agricultural injuries are a valuable social sustainability indicator. However, current methods use sector-scale production data, so are unable to assess the impact of changes in individual farming practices. Here, we developed a method that adopts a life cycle approach to quantify the number of serious injuries during agricultural production processes and assess the potential impact of changes in agricultural practices. The method disaggregates agricultural production into operations and estimates the contribution each operation makes to the frequency of different types of injuries. The method was tested using data collected by survey during an expert workshop in which sixteen participants were asked to estimate the parameters related to typical dairy cattle and pig farms. Parameter estimates for specific operations varied considerably between participants, so normalized values were used to disaggregate sector-scale statistics to production operations. The results were in general agreement with the results from other studies. Participants found it challenging to quantify the potential effect of new technologies. Provided suitable empirical statistical data are available, the method can be used to quantify the risk of injury associated with individual products and provide an ex-ante assessment of future developments in farming practices.

Author(s):  
Nwakor Flora Ngozi ◽  
Amadi C. Okey ◽  
Okwusi Moses Chukwunwike ◽  
Adiele Ezekiel Chinyere

Climate change is a global problem affecting agricultural production, a good adaptation strategy for this phenomena should be sought for increase agricultural production. The study was conducted in Nigeria to assess the Impact of Climate Change on root and tuber crops production among farmers in Nigeria. Secondary data were used for the study, they were collected from NRCRI Umudike and other individual publications. The result shows that climate change had negative impact on root and tubers crops production including potato. Adaptation of Agriculture to climate change in the areas of crop and animal production, post harvest activities and capacity building, divers friction of livelihood sources through the use of different farming methods and improved agricultural practices will help to reduce the impact of climate change. Examples are establishment of forestry, generation of improved and disease resistance crop varieties addition of value into agricultural products and post harvest activities for climate change adaptation and sustainable development.


Author(s):  
Alla Korotkikh

Over the past 30 years, a series of inter-related changes in land-use pattern, business arrangements, farm structure, and production practices combined to expand output without increasing the use of total inputs. Moreover, by allowing farmers to increase U.S. agricultural production through increased productivity instead of expanded land and chemical use, many of these innovations helped to limit the impact of agricultural production on the environment. Meanwhile, new technologies (such as precision agriculture) have required additional labor use, a differentiated approach to the specialization of production, and stimulated the concentration of resources, capital and efforts on the production of certain products, which allowed some farmers to increase the size of their operations. As a result, the number of large farms increased 8 times, and their share in the country's agricultural production increased to 62%. Although production has shifted dramatically to larger farms, 97 percent of all farms remain family farms, generating 82 percent of the total value of U.S. agricultural production.  


Potential influence of water stress, climate change, erosion of fertility, unorganized agro-financing practices in agricultural-yields espoused with incongruity in regulating and developing the credible distribution mechanism for the resilience of computable equilibrium in the supply chain have warranted the continuing negative economic implications relating to agricultural production-patterns as well as ensuring food security of the country. An authoritative introspection for the sustainability of agro-economic policy in consistence with the increasing population becomes the cry of the hour of the country. Sensitivity-variance of different crops to warming though confines the scopes and preferences of territoriality of productivity however, the complexity of impact of climate-change on agricultural productivity necessitates the appraisal and interrelations of physical, economic and social factors as well changing ecological imbalances. The attempt to bring structural reforms in the farming practices in weather variability context in the country requires financial support for the marginal and small-scale farmers as farming practices are predominantly adapted to local climates. The global character of atmospheric circulation and the impact of ecological and climate-changes encourage combined use of climate, crop, and economic models for sustaining growth of supply chain to market. In addition, the increasing deterioration of agricultural production due to the eventuality of climate-change and eventual ecological imbalance considerably would affect the trade balance of the country for the legislative mandate of food security. To transform the progressive move of LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) into secured and sustainable agro-economy to save our planet from the ravages of climate change, a comprehensive schematic approach involves configuration of legal and policy tools containing thereof: a) ‘spillover costs’ of agricultural productivity due to increased ecological and climate changes; b) coherent assessment of the modalities of agriculture to harmonize the present-day water-stressed; c) coherent financing mechanism for the farmers, in particular the small-scale and marginal ones who are not only being affected disproportionately rather the changes warrant them to be displaced internally. The present discussion reviews two prime factors: viz; a) Effects of Climate-Change upon agro-economy of the country; and b) Attenuation of Agro-financing measures in the regulatory mechanism for regulating and developing the vibrant supply chain to the market


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6875
Author(s):  
Nuray Cakirli Akyüz ◽  
Ludwig Theuvsen

Adoption decisions represent a crucial topic in sustainable agriculture research, particularly in the organic agriculture sector; to understand farmers’ decision-making, research has to delve more deeply into the influences of farmers’ behavior. The aim of this study, therefore, is to determine the behavioral intentions of Turkish sultana raisin producers toward organic farming practices. The proposed model integrates basic elements of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the technology acceptance model, which is then tested with survey data gathered from conventional and organic farmers by applying structural equation modeling, a powerful multivariate statistical technique. The results reveal that organic agriculture is perceived as a useful low-cost innovation by conventional farmers. Relating the results to group comparisons indicates that members of the conventional group are significantly more likely to have a positive intention towards adopting organic farming practices. Our results suggest possible interventions that policymakers should implement not only to stimulate adoption intentions of conventional farmers, but also to sustain continuance of organic practices by current operators.


Author(s):  
Cláudia Brazil MARQUES ◽  
João Armando DESSIMON ◽  
Kelly Lissandra BRUCH ◽  
Carlos HONORATO Schuch Santos ◽  
Fabrício Moraes de Almeida

The study analyzed the variables that interfere in the choice of the soil cultivation system, using conventional and/or biodynamic agricultural practices for the production of Vitis vinifera grapes. The method was an exploratory and descriptive quali-quanti analysis study. The intentional sample, for convenience and non-probability, included 26 vineyards of Vitis vinifera Chardonnay, 19 of which were conventional vineyards and seven in transition to the cultivation system using biodynamic farming practices. It was concluded that economic variables are the driving force in decision making, rather than environmental or social issues in the management of the cultivation system, as well it has also been noticed that some properties are seeking new cultivation practices. In the case of biodynamic agriculture, however, there is a faint signal that environmental issues may gain greater value in equalizing alternatives for decision-making in vineyard management and especially in soil care.      


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-175
Author(s):  
Shyam Prasad Wagle

 The study assesses the impact of using new technologies on crop production and marketing of selected crops particularly in the case of the Eastern hills. It also evaluates the role of governmental and non-govrnmental organizations to improve agricultural production systems too. Relevant data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data draws from the interview, key informant survey and field observation. For this, 30 percent sample households were selected from three altitude belts (upper, middle and lower belts) ranging from 300 to 2,250 masl along the Koshi-highway. It has a wide range of climates, ranging from sub-tropical to alpine with monsoon precipitation in the summer for three and half months and therefore it has diversity in flora and fauna, and people. Similarly, secondary data havebeen gathered from various books, journals and official records. This paper presented that the crucial impact of acceptance of innovative methods in agriculture in the study area is a combined effort of both local people and government. The government together with the development agencies and non-government organizations has contributed to impart knowledge of the agriculture innovative methods in the local farmers and at the same time, the farmers were enthusiastic to learn and adopt those methods. As a result, one can easily see the remarkable changes in crop production due to the impact of new technologies.


Author(s):  
Nwakor Flora Ngozi ◽  
Amadi C. Okey ◽  
Okwusi Moses Chukwunwike ◽  
Adiele Ezekiel Chinyere

Climate change is a global problem affecting agricultural production, a good adaptation strategy for this phenomena should be sought for increase agricultural production. The study was conducted in Nigeria to assess the Impact of Climate Change on root and tuber crops production among farmers in Nigeria. Secondary data were used for the study, they were collected from NRCRI Umudike and other individual publications. The result shows that climate change had negative impact on root and tubers crops production including potato. Adaptation of Agriculture to climate change in the areas of crop and animal production, post harvest activities and capacity building, divers friction of livelihood sources through the use of different farming methods and improved agricultural practices will help to reduce the impact of climate change. Examples are establishment of forestry, generation of improved and disease resistance crop varieties addition of value into agricultural products and post harvest activities for climate change adaptation and sustainable development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Loures ◽  
Alejandro Chamizo ◽  
Paulo Ferreira ◽  
Ana Loures ◽  
Rui Castanho ◽  
...  

While the world population continues to grow, increasing the need to produce more and better-quality food, climate change, urban growth and unsustainable agricultural practices accelerate the loss of available arable land, compromising the sustainability of agricultural lands both in terms of productivity and environmental resilience, and causing serious problems for the production-consumption balance. This scenario highlights the urgent need for agricultural modernization as a crucial step to face forthcoming difficulties. Precision agriculture techniques appear as a feasible option to help solve these problems. However, their use needs to be reinvented and tested according to different parameters, in order to define both the environmental and the economic impact of these new technologies not only on agricultural production, but also on agricultural sustainability. This paper intends, therefore, to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of precision agriculture through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)/remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) techniques in small Mediterranean farms. We present specific data obtained through the application of the aforementioned techniques in three farms located along the Portuguese-Spanish border, considering three parameters (seeding failure, differentiated irrigation and differentiated fertilization) in order to determine not only the ecological benefits of these methods, but also their economic and productivity aspects. The obtained results, based on these methods, highlight the fact that an efficient combination of UAV/RPAS and NDVI techniques allows for important economic savings in productivity factors, thus promoting a sustainable agriculture both in ecological and economic terms. Additionally, contrary to what is generally defended, even in small farms, as the ones assessed in this study (less than 50 ha), the costs associated with the application of the aforementioned precision agriculture processes are largely surpassed by the economic gains achieved with their application, regardless of the notorious environmental benefits introduced by the reduction of crucial production inputs as water and fertilizers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-230
Author(s):  
Alexandre Gori Maia ◽  
Gabriela dos Santos Eusébio ◽  
Rodrigo Lanna Franco da Silveira

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of a Brazilian rural credit program, The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF), on small family farming production. Design/methodology/approach The method is based on a quasi-experimental approach (propensity score matching) applied to 4.1m family farmers in Brazil. Findings Results show that farmers accessing PRONAF tended to be positively selected in terms of several observable characteristics, such as land size and agricultural practices. Moreover, PRONAF had positive and differentiated impacts on agricultural production. The impact was larger in the poorest region when compared to the regions characterized by intensive and commercial farming. Research limitations/implications The rural credit information was restricted to one crop year, making impossible to analyze the mid- and long-term impacts of the credit program on agricultural production. Practical implications The study provides some practical implications for policies of rural development. First, rural credit does matter for agricultural production of small family farmers. Nonetheless, since credit programs are large subsidized by the rest of the population, further studies are still needed the aggregate costs and benefits of these schemes. Results also revealed that PRONAF may have contributed to reduce regional inequalities, since the impact was larger in the poorest NE region. Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how rural credit has impacted small-farm agricultural production, using large and representative data – the whole population of Brazilian family farmers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 639
Author(s):  
Baglan AIMURZINA ◽  
Mazken KAMENOVA ◽  
Ainura OMAROVA ◽  
Galina PESTUNOVA ◽  
Ainur KARIPOVA ◽  
...  

In this paper it is noted that the important problem of the existing economic relations in the agrarian sphere is the choice of forms of management. The practice of reforms in agriculture has shown that more than 80% of gross output in Kazakhstan is currently produced by "households" and peasant (farmer) farms which provides further increase in the production of agricultural products namely crop production and increase its economic efficiency. Currently the agricultural sector has a tendency to small-scale production. As the situation has shown one of the main factors negatively influencing investment activity is financial instability of the majority of agricultural producers, low level of its profitability and significant risks.  Factors of low profit growth of the agricultural sector are related to the peculiarities of demand for agricultural products and seasonality of production in this industry. The analysis of the structure of gross agricultural production of the Republic of Kazakhstan by categories of farms, the returnability of agricultural production for 2012-2016 shows the impact of the price and yield of grain on the level of farm income. Proposals for further improvement of grain pricing are given.


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