Socioeconomic Challenges of California Strawberry Production and Disease Resistant Cultivars

Strawberries are the 4th highest grossing crop in California and supply 90% of US strawberries. But the industry's long reliance on the use of chemical fumigants to control soil disease, nematodes and weeds is being threatened by increased regulation of these fumigants, leading to urgent efforts to develop and test non-chemical alternatives to fumigation, such as disease resistant cultivars. Many of these technologies are promising ecologically, but making them economically viable for growers is more challenging, especially in light of the socioeconomic context of strawberry production in California that has created a state of lock-in for a sustainability transition. This paper discusses how the challenges of land prices, labor shortages, marketing standards, and low prices bear on cultivar selection. Based on qualitative interviews, we corroborate that strawberry growers operate under significant socioeconomic constraints in California, many of which are beyond their control. In addition, we find that most growers see high-yielding varieties as crucial to their economic viability with regard to land, labor, and marketing intermediaries and yet recognize that the focus on individual farm productivity works at cross purposes to the problem of poor prices. Disease resistant varieties do not at face value address the concerns voiced by most growers. Our findings suggest, however, that if some of the other pressures were exogenously mitigated, growers might be more inclined to experiment with and adopt disease resistant varieties, in combination with other approaches. The most promising policy avenues seem to therefore lie with support of grower revenues.

The Role of Agricultural Extension Programs On Crop Farming Technical Efficiency

Extension services have become the gold standard for agricultural development programs to spur farm productivity and enhance farmers’ livelihood. Scholars from distinct strands of research have contested the virtues of these programs as systematic reviews failed to disentangle the different causal paths. We aim to unpack the relationship between these two constructs, and more specifically explore the main determinants causing systematic variabilities of the technical efficiency estimates from well-known published crop-farming studies. A meta-regression analysis is implemented by collating 335 observations from 199 farm-level studies to review the direct impact of agricultural extension activities on farming performance. While the implementation of expansion programs tends to be non-randomly distributed in our sample, we employ the inverse probability of treatment weighting to correct for potential selection bias. The absence of a publication bias in found studies our meta-analysis is empirically identified. Our empirical findings are robust when multiple imputation method is employed to mitigate the missingness of observations. Consonant with the theory of agricultural extension, we find that extension significantly improves technical efficiency by 4.8% to 7.6%. Farm productivity significantly differs in country level characteristics, type of crops and model specification.JEL Classification: Q16, O18, C14, C29

Happiness and farm productivity: insights from maize farmers in China

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between farmers' happiness and farm productivity, taking maize production in China as an example.Design/methodology/approachThe conditional mixed process model is employed to account for the endogeneity that inevitably arises in regression models studying happiness and estimate the 2015 China Household Finance Survey data.FindingsThe empirical results show that a higher level of farmers' happiness is associated with higher maize productivity. The marginal return in maize productivity changes unevenly with increments in farmers' self-reported happiness on a five-point Likert scale. Farmers' happiness is positively determined by their age, educational level, farm size, machinery ownership, access to agricultural subsidy and car ownership. Machinery ownership and access to credit are two important factors that improve maize productivity.Research limitations/implicationsThe finding suggests that promoting the subjective well-being of farmers is conducive to higher productivity and improved national food security. The results have implications for China and other developing countries aiming for sustainable agricultural development.Originality/valueFirm-level data show that workers' happiness improves productivity. However, it is still unclear whether farmworkers' happiness affects farm productivity. Thus, this study provides the first empirical analysis of the impact of farmworkers' happiness on farm productivity.

Vital Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolites in Serum Involved in Energy Metabolism during Pubertal Molt of Mud Crab (Scylla paramamosain)

Pubertal molt is a vital stage in the cultivation of mature female crabs in the aquacultural industry of Scylla paramamosain. Since fasting occurs during molting, which requires a large supply of energy, internal energy reserves are critical. However, the dynamics of energy supply during pubertal molt is not clear. This study focuses on the variations of carbohydrates and lipids in serum during the pubertal molt of S. paramamosain via a metabolomics approach. Eleven lipid or carbohydrate metabolic pathways were significantly influenced postmolt. A remarkable decrease in carbohydrates in serum suggested that free sugars were consumed for energy. A significant decrease in glucose and alpha-d-glucosamine 1-phosphate showed that chitin synthesis exhausted glycogen, resulting in insufficient glucose supply. An increase in l-carnitine and acetylcarnitine, and a significant decrease in 15 fatty acyls and 8 glycerophosphocholines in serum indicated that carnitine shuttle was stimulated, and β-oxidation was upregulated postmolt. In addition, astaxanthin, ponasterone A, and riboflavin in serum were significantly decreased postmolt. Eleven potential metabolite biomarkers were identified for pubertal molt. Taken together, carbohydrates and lipids were possibly major energy reserves in pubertal molt. This study suggests that an increase in carbohydrate and lipid levels in crab feed may alleviate the effects of fasting during molt and improve farm productivity in mature female crabs.

​Spermatozoa Sorting Techniques for the Sex Pre-selection: A Review

Furtherance of sex pre-selection techniques is extremely beneficial for the farm productivity and economic growth of the country. Several techniques such as flow cytometry, swim-up, percoll gradient centrifugation, lumisort and immunogenic spermatozoa sexing developed so far are reviewed with their principles, advantages, disadvantages and possible ways for developing a highly reliable and efficient technique to achieve success in obtaining offspring of the desired sex. Out of all these techniques available till now, sorting X- and Y- spermatozoa using fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) is the most successful and commercially available technique, which employs sorting of spermatozoa based on DNA content. Despite its effectiveness, there are disadvantages concerning cost, sperm damage, trained technical person, low conception rate, etc. An alternative approach that might have potential significance could be the identification of sex-specific membrane marker proteins for the immunological method of spermatozoa sorting.

Effects of Low-Intensity Conflicts on Farming Communities in Mindanao, Philippines

Low-intensity conflicts have often been afforded lesser importance than high-intensity conflicts. Yet, low-intensity conflicts can have impacts on the ability to farm, productivity, and income. We studied the effects of low-intensity conflicts on the farming communities in two conflict vulnerable areas in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. Following a review of the economic effects of conflict with a focus on Mindanao, we surveyed farmers in low-conflict areas to assess its impact on livelihood. In 2018, farmers in “peaceful” situation differed in income from those who are in “low-conflict” situations. The mean total household income for the “low conflict” (PHP8,360 or $US155) group was significantly lower by PHP13,060 ($US242) from the “peaceful” group (PHP24,433 or $US453). This findings suggest the need for further research regarding how villages resolve conflicts informally as a way of improve government-sponsored conflict resolution efforts.

Closing Time: The Local Equilibrium Effects of Prohibition

How do different local policies in a federal system affect local land values, production, and sorting? We study the question exploiting a large historical policy change: U.S. Alcohol Prohibition in the early twentieth century. Comparing same- state early and late adopters of county dry laws in a difference-in-differences design, we find that early Prohibition adoption increased population and farm real estate values. Moreover, we find strong effects on farm productivity consistent with increased investment due to a land price channel. In equilibrium, the policy change disproportionately attracted immigrants and African-Americans.