Quality Improvement of Agricultural Products Supply Chain under Social Preference and CSR by Big Data Analysis

Purpose- The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social preference on quality improvement of the agricultural products supply chain composed of agricultural products producer and processor (A3P) and supermarket by theoretical analysis and empirical evidence. Methodology- This paper sets Stackelberg game model under A3P’s CSR by considering supermarket’s altruistic reciprocity and A3P’s fairness conern, respectively. By comparative analysis, we study the effect of CSR, altruistic reciprocity and fairness conern on the quality improvement of the agricultural products supply chain. Then, we adopt the empirical evidence to analyze the correlation between CSR, altruistic reciprocity (fairness concern) and quality improvement and the mediating effect of altruistic reciprocity (fairness concern) by investigating the agricultural enterprises.

Automation of monitoring of drying parameters in hybrid solar-electric dryer for agricultural products

ABSTRACT Increasing the efficiency of solar dryers with ensuring that the system remains accessible to all users can be achieved with their automation through low-cost and easy-to-use technique sensors. The objective was to develop, implement and evaluate an automatic system for monitoring drying parameters in a hybrid solar-electric dryer (HSED). Initially, an automated data acquisition system for collecting the parameters of sample mass, air temperature, and relative air humidity was developed and installed. The automatic mass data acquisition system was calibrated in the hybrid solar-electric dryer. The automated system was validated by comparing it with conventional devices for measuring the parameters under study. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance, Tukey test and linear regression at p ≤ 0.05. The system to turn on/off the exhaust worked efficiently, helping to reduce the errors related to the mass measurement. The GERAR Mobile App showed easy to be used since it has intuitive icons and compatibility with the most used operating systems for mobile devices. The responses in communication via Bluetooth were fast. The use of Arduino, a low-cost microcontroller, to automate the monitoring activity allowed estimating the mass of the product and collecting the drying air temperature and relative air humidity data through the DHT22. This sensor showed a good correlation of mass and air temperature readings between the automatic and conventional system, but low correlation for relative air humidity. In general, the automatic data acquisition system monitored in real time the parameters for drying agricultural products in the HSED.

Drivers of Long-Term Land-Use Pressure in the Merguellil Wadi, Tunisia, Using DPSIR Approach and Remote Sensing

Increasing land use pressure is a primary force for degradation of agricultural areas. The drivers for these pressures are initiated by a series of interconnected processes. This study presents a novel methodology to analyze drivers of changing land use pressure and the effects on society and landscape. The focus was on characterizing these drivers and relate them to land use statistics obtained from geospatial data from the important semiarid Merguellil Wadi between 1976 and 2016. Cause-and-effect relationships between different drivers of land use change were analyzed using the DPSIR approach. Results show that during the 40-year period cultivated land increased and wetland areas decreased substantially. Drivers for change were pressure from economic development, cultivation practices, and hydro-agricultural techniques. This leads to stress on water and soil resulting in soil erosion, poverty increase, and rural exodus. We show that hydro-agricultural techniques adapted to the semiarid climate, allocation of land property rights, resource allocation, and improved marketing of agricultural products can help rural residents to diversify their economy, and thus better preserve the fragile semiarid landscape. Results of this study can be used to ensure sustainable management of water and soil resources in areas with similar climate and socio-economic conditions.

OUR INDIAN SHOP – E-Commerce Website Interconnecting the Farmers, Shopkeepers, Delivery Personnel and Consumers

A system named ‘Our Indian Shop’ has been developed and presented in this paper. This system involves an android application, a website and an IVR system for online selling and delivery of agricultural products from farmers to the consumers directly at the market price without the involvement of any middleman. It provides facilities of online shopping of essentials from consumers’ nearby shops as the delivery options will be localized according to pin code to lower the risks of spreading of Covid-19. It also supports selling of groceries, vegetables, and medicines by relevant shop owners directly to the consumers. It enhances the employment as delivery personnel for economically backward people or daily wagers who have lost their livelihood due to the pandemic. The IVR system is to be provided to make all the above facilities available in the offline mode for technologically backward classes, for efficient working of the system in a digital divide environment. The prime objective of this development is to promote social distancing and provide efficient technical solutions for sustainability in the post pandemic world. Our Indian Shop is an all in one platform which provides the online facilities of shopping and selling as well as it will help to enhance the employment and prevent the brokerage charges.

The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' eating and purchasing habits of agricultural products in China: key determinants and policy implications

Background The study looks at a changed in consumer’s eating and purchasing habits during COVID-19 period. There are several modes of transmission but transmission through food as being speculated is one area that has not been confirmed through research. The study, therefore, looks at how speculations about COVID-19 spreading through food has affected consumers' eating and purchasing habits. This study through probit model analysed how consumers' eating and purchasing habits have been influenced. Results The result shows that age, gender and education have negatively influenced consumer’s eating and purchasing habits during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic period. The preference for imported food items, preference for frozen food, been infected or knowing someone who has been infected by the virus, and been infected through agricultural source or knowing someone who has been infected by the COVID-19 through agricultural source have negatively affected consumers' eating and purchasing habits compared to pre-pandemic period. The result, however, suggests that consumers who trust in the cold-chain food systems ability to limit the spread of the COVID-19 still maintain a positive eating and purchasing habits. Conclusions The study provides evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on consumer’s eating and purchasing habits. Therefore, there is the need to institute proper sanitary measures, especially at cold-chain food systems to help curb the spread and also boost consumers’ confidence.

Study on the extension evaluation of smart logistics distribution of fresh agricultural products based on the perspective of customers

The rapid development of the Internet has accelerated the expansion of e-commerce sacle of fresh agricultural products. The actual audience of smart logistics distribution of fresh agricultural products is customers, and customers enjoy the process and results of distribution services. However, the current research mainly selects indicators from the aspects of enterprise performance, cost and technical level based on the perspective of managers and technicians, which make it difficult to truly reflect customers’ feelings in the evaluation results. At the same time, the evaluation methods mainly focus on the comprehensive evaluation method and fuzzy evaluation method. These evaluation methods are greatly affected by subjective factors in the evaluation grade distribution, and the assignment is often relatively complete and inaccurate. To solve these problems, this paper constructs the evaluation index system of intelligent logistics distribution of fresh agricultural products from the perspective of customers, so that the selection of indicators is more in line with the real wishes of customers. And we use the extension function to construct the correlation function for multi-level extension evaluation to ensure the accuracy of the evaluation results. Taking X logistics enterprise as an example, this paper verifies the scientificity of the evaluation index system of intelligent logistics distribution of fresh agricultural products through empirical research, which has reference significance for further improving the intelligent logistics distribution of fresh agricultural products.

CIS: FREE TRADE MARKET AND FOOD SECURITY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The authors in the article analyzed the CIS customs legislation, particularly the provision of tariff preferences to declarants of food and agricultural products in the conditions of free trade of the CIS countries. The authors also evaluated the impact of the market of these goods on the food security of Russia. The authors highlighted fragments of the history of creation, development of the CIS, modern relations, strategy and prospects for improvement.

Supply Chain Governance of Agricultural Products under Big Data Platform Based on Blockchain Technology

The present work serves to improve the stable cooperation relationship among subjects of supply chain such as enterprises, farmers, intermediary organizations, and retailers and enhance the governance and optimization of agricultural product supply chain, thus strengthening the competitiveness of China’s agricultural industry. The supply chain governance of agricultural products is taken as the research object. Initially, the stabilities of two supply chain organization modes, “company and farmer” and “company, intermediary organization and farmer,” are analyzed by static game analysis. Then, based on the above analysis and the characteristics of blockchain institutional technology, a detailed analyzation is made on the mechanism of supply chain of agricultural products governance based on blockchain technology. Finally, the functional framework of agricultural supply chain governance is designed based on the basic framework of blockchain technology, and analyzation is made on the trust mechanism and contract mechanism of agricultural supply chain governance based on blockchain technology. The research results show that problems such as information and cognitive constraints in agricultural supply chain governance cannot be completely solved only through the evolution of blockchain organizational structure and the supply of governance mechanism, and speculative behavior will still appear. Optimizing the governance of supply chain of agricultural products based on blockchain technology can realize the transformation of its governance scenario. Meanwhile, the blockchain technologies such as deintermediation, demistrust, and intelligent contract play an important role in the process of agricultural supply chain governance, which can make it change in many aspects such as organization mode, application operation, and governance mechanism. The rapid development of new generation information technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, and computer technology makes it possible to comprehensively digitize economic activities such as production and transaction in the supply chain of agricultural products. The present work combines the technical logic of blockchain digital governance with the institutional logic of agricultural product supply chain governance and tries to solve the instability problems caused by imperfect organization, lack of trust, and incomplete contract in agricultural product supply chain governance with the characteristics of blockchain such as deintermediation, demistrust, and intelligent contract.