Patrick Kavanagh

Patrick Kavanagh is unique among modern Irish writers in that he spent the first half of his life as a largely self-educated small farmer in Monaghan, while struggling to find a voice for that experience as a writer. In his early poetry and his autobiography, The Green Fool, he sought to render the realities of farming and to escape romantic literariness; ‘Inniskeen Road’ and ‘Shancoduff’ are key breakthrough poems in this effort. While he was later to reject the didacticism of The Great Hunger, the achievement of this extraordinary long poem is the combination of inside and outside perspectives on the stunted life of the bachelor farmer Patrick Maguire. Moving away from Monaghan to Dublin allowed Kavanagh to re-create his farming world in the comic novel Tarry Flynn and later lyrics such as ‘Threshing Morning’, ‘A Christmas Childhood’ and ‘Art McCooey’.

Small farmer’ planting confidence and willingness to pay for leguminous green fertilizer: environmental attributes perspective

To evaluate whether small farmers are willing to accept the policy of sustainable use of cultivated land such as green manure planting, we analyze the payment preference and the source of heterogeneity of small farmer’ environmental attributes of leguminous green manure. A choice experiment method is conducted to learn about small farmer’ preference toward green manure. The results suggest that small farmers with planting confidence are willing to pay for different environmental attributes of leguminous green manure. Among them, the willingness to pay (WTP) for the quality and fertility of cultivated land is the highest, and the WTP for air quality is the lowest. Small farmers who do not have confidence in planting are only willing to pay for attribute of natural disaster days. We identify key factors that might influence small farmer’s payment preference, including gender, age, education level, degree of part-time employment, and the trend perception of environmental change.

Analysis of “The Small Farmer” by Gastón Acurio: A case of poverty romance in organic discourse

En este estudio se analizará un breve texto del chef peruano Gastón Acurio, líder del llamado boom gastronómico peruano, para explicar cómo desarrolla una estrategia discursiva destinada a generar resistencia a los cambios tecnológicos especialmente en el campo de los alimentos transgénicos. Este análisis se hace necesario dado que las redes sociales digitales se han convertido en espacios muy influyentes para la formación de opinión. Al mismo tiempo Acurio no solo es un empresario influyente, sino también uno de esos nuevos personajes mediáticos que llamamos “influencers” y que tienen miles de seguidores.Su texto forma parte de una campaña contra el uso de organismos genéticamente modificados —OGM— en Perú. La estrategia textual de Acurio fue crear un personaje de ficción; un pequeño agricultor que vive en un mundo pobre, pero bucólico, alejado de las necesidades codiciosas de la ciudad, feliz con su modesta vida y sin necesidad de riquezas.

Participation of Farm Women in Dairy Management Practices in Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh in India

An investigation was conducted to study the participation of farm women in dairy management practices in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh .A total of 225 farm women were selected based on their land holding capacity. The study revealed that women from small farmer category had more participation in taking animals for pregnancy diagnosis (81.33%) and post calving care (77.33%).Women under landless category were more involved in regularly taking animals for grazing (45.33%), green fodder collection and feeding (68%) and feeding animals with concentrates (88%).Feeding of animals with dry fodder regularly was more in small women dairy farmer category (89.33%) and landless (86.66%) than that in medium (56%) farm women category. Cleaning of animal sheds regularly was high in landless (76%) and small (69.33%) farm women than in medium (44%) farm women. Majority of women under landless category were regularly using disinfectants for cleaning of animal sheds (49.33%).Regular involvement in disposing of dung and composting of dung is high in women under landless (69.33%) and small (65.33%) farm women categories. Feeding of Colostrum to the calves regularly is high in small (86.66%) farmwomen category and cleaning of calf after birth is high in landless (84%) women category. Women in landless (77.33%) and small (74.6%) farmer categories are regularly washing the animals before milking. It was observed that 12% of women under medium farmer category and 8% under small farmer category are engaging labour for milking of animals. Women under small (76%) and landless (73.33%) farmer category were regularly taking care of sick animals. Sale of milk regularly through cooperatives was observed to be high in landless (85.33%) and small (90.66%) farm women categories. More number of women under landless (21.33%) were regularly participating in insurance of animals than small (6.66%) and medium (10.66%) farm women categories. More number of medium (9.33%) women dairy farmers were regularly involved in purchase of animals compared to landless (5.33%) and small (1.33%) farm women.

Shame is the Spur

This chapter discusses key trends in the development of Irish Catholic fiction written between the 1870s and 1920s. During this period, novelists from the majority religiously-identified tradition on the island tested imagined future Irelands in their fiction. The realities to be tested were those within their own community, one dominated by a vision of a rural, small-farmer, family-aspirational, faith-sustained solidarity. Some late nineteenth-century Irish novelists cherished that solidarity, though they were not uncritical of it, while others critiqued its perceived darker side, a mean-spirited materialism and clerical authoritarianism. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a group of novelists emerged from an educated and generally urban context which valued liberal individualism. Working as priests, teachers, political activists, and journalists, they promoted an intelligentsia critique of the dominant communitarianism of the Ireland of their day. This chapter examines these developments with reference to a range of novels.

Profitability of green leaf cultivation in some selected areas of Panchagarh district in Bangladesh

The tea industry has the potentiality of the transform of socioeconomic conditions of rural Bangladesh which provides ample for self-employment of unemployed youth. The present study examines the socioeconomic characteristics, cultural practices and profitability of green leaf cultivation of the randomly selected 45 sample farmers from Panchagarh district in Bangladesh. Primary data were collected through field survey using an interview schedule. Some statistical measures like average percentage and ratios were calculated. The study showed that the average family size of the green leaf growers was 4.77. About 72 % of the respondents’ education levels were primary to higher secondary. On an average 100 % of the tea estates owners’ occupation was business while majority of smaller growers and small holder occupation was agriculture. The average size of land holding per family was 12.16 hectares. But on the other hand, area under tea cultivation was found to be 8.50 hectares. The number of bushes planted per hectare was 15218. The study showed that on average 71% farmers maintained the plant spacing (3 ft. x 2.5 ft.). It was found that 58% farmers plucked more than 3 leaves and bud. On an average, per kilogram cost of green leaf was Tk.11.60 ($ 0.137) and Tk. 13.15($ 0.155) on the basis variable and fixed cost, respectively. The cost was the highest in small holder while it was the lowest in the small farmer. The average per kilogram gross margin of green leaf was Tk.8.90 ($ 0.105). But on the other hand, per kilogram net benefit was Tk.7.35 ($ 0.087). The net benefit was the highest among the small farmer due to lower cost; while net benefit was the lowest in small holder due to higher cost of cultivation. The benefit cost ratio was 1.57.

Social Movement Consolidation and Strategic Shifts: The Brazilian Landless Movement during the Lula and Dilma Administrations

During the center-left Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2002–2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016), the Brazilian Landless Movement took advantage of particular governmental changes—increased access to education, improved small-farmer support programs, and expanded agrarian reform development policies—to strengthen its leadership and organization. Instead of expanding, the movement turned inward to address internal weaknesses. It benefited from the PT’s ambiguous position with respect to the politics of agrarian reform. Since each administration dedicated considerable resources to public policies that the movement favored, neither government engaged in significant land redistribution. Durante los gobiernos de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2002–2010) y Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016), ambos pertenecientes al centro-izquierdista Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), el Movimiento Brasileño Sin Tierra aprovechó cambios gubernamentales particulares, como mejores programas de apoyo a los pequeños agricultores, mejor acceso a la educación y políticas ampliadas para el desarrollo de reformas agrarias, para fortalecer su liderazgo y organización. En lugar de expandirse, el movimiento se tornó hacia sí mismo para abordar debilidades internas. Se benefició de la posición ambigua del PT con respecto a las políticas de reforma agraria. Y dado que ambas administraciones dedicaron considerables recursos a políticas públicas favorecidas por el movimiento, ninguno se abocó a supervisar una redistribución significativa de la tierra.