Determinants of Nutrition Facts Table Use by Chinese Consumers for Nutritional Value Comparisons

The nutrition facts table is a nutrition labeling tool designed to inform consumers of food nutritional contents and enable them to make healthier choices by comparing the nutritional values of similar foods. However, its adoption level is considerably low in China. This study employed the Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) algorithm to explore the factors associated with respondents’ adoption of nutrition facts table to compare the nutritional values of similar foods. Data were gathered through a nationally representative online survey of 1500 samples. Results suggested that consumers’ comprehension of the nutrition facts table was a direct explanatory factor for its use. The usage was also indirectly explained by people’s nutrition knowledge, the usage of nutrition facts table by their relatives and friends, and their focus on a healthy diet. Therefore, to increase the use of nutrition facts table by Chinese consumers, the first consideration should be given to enhancing consumers’ comprehension of the labeling

Adoption level of integrated crop management practices among rice farmers: Does the adoption of production technology predict postharvest technology adoption

SAMARICA is the second district of Occidental Mindoro province in the Philippines having a vast land area for rice production. It supports the rice milling sector of the province with promising facilities for postharvest of rice. This study investigates the rice farmers’ adoption level of integrated crop management practices (ICMPs). The adoption ICMPs aims to promotes farm productivity and efficiency. A total of 404 rice farmers participated in this study selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. Quantitative data were generated from the survey questionnaire and were analyzed using Descriptive Statistics. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the relationship between production and postharvest practices. The results revealed that rice farmers have “very high” adoption of rice production technologies except for water technologies and intermittent irrigation with “high” adoption level. In terms of postharvest, there is “very high” adoption of mechanized harvesting and recommended moisture content for rice but “moderate” adoption for rice parboiler, dying machines, and threshing of rice right after harvest. On the other hand, a statistically significant evidence was found for production technologies as predictor of postharvest technologies, specific for the care and management of rice (β =0.55; P<0.01).

Adoption Behaviour of Sericulture Farmers Regarding Improved Technologies ofJorhat District of Assam

The research study was undertaken in the purposively selected Jorhat and Majuli(undivided) districts of Assam during the year 2018-19 with an objective to analyze theadoption behaviour of sericulture farmers regarding improved technologies and their socio-economic relationship with the adoption behaviour for enhancement of production andproductivity at farmers level. Sericulture has been practiced traditionally and a large portionof rural people earn their livelihood from sericulture sector in this region. The presentfindings revealed that adoption of improved sericulture technologies was in medium categoryfor majority of the respondents 76.67 per cent in eri culture, 66.67 per cent in muga cultureand 76.67 per cent in mulberry culture. Due to lack of awareness of improved sericulturetechnologies as well as poor living conditions the adoption level of sericulture technologiesamong the seri farmers of Jorhat district was very low. There was gap in disseminationand adoption of improved sericulture technologies in pre and post cocoon sector for growthand development of sericulture in acreage of food plants, rearing of silkworm and productionand productivity of cocoon and silk. Hence, the study recommends that adoption ofscientific technologies among the seri farmers has significant impact on growth anddevelopment of sericulture as well as economic benefit of the farmer.

Knowledge and Adoption of Drip Irrigation in Citrus Crops among Farmers ofWestern Haryana

Water is becoming increasing scare which limits agricultural development not only in Indiabut also in many parts of the world. Drip irrigation is an incredibly efficient wateringmethod that slowly delivers water directly to plant root system. The present study wasundertaken to assess the knowledge and adoption level of drip irrigation in citrus cropsamong farmers of Haryana state. Majority of respondents belonged to middle age group(51.67%), general castes (96.67%), joint families (68.33%) and having land between 4-10hectares (45.00%). It was found that majority of sampled farmers (61.67%) had high levelof knowledge while 31.67 per cent had moderate level of knowledge of drip irrigation.More number of farmers had high level of adoption (40.00%) whereas 35.00 per cent hadmedium and 25.00 per cent had low level of adoption of drip irrigation. Socio-economicfactors like income, landholding, mass media exposure, education and socio-economic statusof farmers were found significantly associated with the level of knowledge and adoptionof drip irrigation. It is concluded that more efforts are required to increase the knowledgeof farmers about drip irrigation for wider adoption of micro-irrigation technologies.

Adoption of Virtual Reality in Construction Projects

In recent years, virtual reality has emerged in various fields such as manufacturing sectors, construction sectors etc. Virtual reality technology has a wide variety of applications in various fields. Several applications of VR in construction sector are design review and support, construction support, operations and management, safety training, stakeholder management. Recent researches had shown that VR can also be used widely in decision making process. Despite the various applications of VR in construction sectors, the adoption level of the VR technology is comparatively very low. This study aims to identify the factors that are preventing the adoption of virtual reality in construction projects. The factors are identified through a wide review of literature survey and analysed by means of questionnaire survey with statistical methods. The factors are ranked through the analysis and the most affecting factors are found out. The findings of this study show that requirements of specialized high processing equipment, high investment in VR, lack of awareness about the technology, lack of client’s interest, limited finance of the organizations, existence of champions using VR are the most preventing factors for the adoption of VR in construction projects. To mitigate these issues, several possible mitigation measures has been suggested in this study.

FinTechs, BigTechs and Banks—When Cooperation and When Competition?

While there is a fast-growing number of studies on FinTech, the relationships between technology companies and banks have received only limited attention in the research literature. Most of the studies on FinTech-bank interactions conducted so far address the questions: why banks collaborate with FinTechs (reasons) and how they do it (forms of cooperation), whereas this paper aims at clarifying when the most likely form of their interaction is cooperation and when competition. To cover this cognitive gap, the conceptual framework to help explain which factors affect the type of interactions between technology companies and banks is presented in this paper. Based on extensive literature review and using the market-based approach, the external factors of the market position of banks and technology companies were examined. It was found that this position and therefore the basic type of interaction depends on the adoption level of FinTechs and BigTechs in individual countries/regions. The adoption of FinTechs and BigTechs turned out to be higher in EMDEs and lower in AEs, which makes it more likely that in the first group of countries tech companies would tend to serve as banks’ competitors, whereas in the second group they would rather collaborate with banks or choose the coopetition strategy. When analyzing internal factors, the resource-based approach and a slightly modified IO theory were applied. In this part, the strategic tool which enables the assessment of the extent to which assets, skills, and features of FinTechs, BigTechs and banks are complementary (which gives the rationale for cooperation) or substitutable (which gives the rationale for competition) was proposed. This study is a critical analysis based on desk research, that contributes to the existing literature by (1) providing a narrow definition of FinTech representing the subjective/institutional approach, (2) considering separately FinTechs and BigTechs, and (3) proposing the strategic tool which helps to assess comparative advantages of banks, FinTechs and BigTechs, and thus makes it easier to choose the most appropriate type of their interaction.

Analysis on Adoption of Blackgram Growers in Periyar vaigai Command Area of Madurai District

The IAM Project will bring the policy and institutional development achieved under IAMWARM project to a new level and will serve as the key vehicle for implementing the Tamil Nadu Government agenda in further enhancing water and agriculture productivity in a sub basin framework. Madurai District of Tamil Nadu was purposively selected for this study because Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project was conducted under Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The foremost objective of the study was to assess the adoption level of respondents in study area. Majority of the TN-IAMP beneficiaries (81.70% had medium level of adoption followed by nearly less than one-sixth of the total beneficiaries (15.80%) possess low adoption and only 2.5% of the beneficiaries had high level of adoption rate in this study.

A Study on Adoption of Indigenous Technical Knowledge Practices among Tribal Farmers in Kolli Hills

Objectives: To make a quantitative study of Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) practices pertinent to crops grown in Kolli hills tribes in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu, India. Methods: The attempt was made to study the adoption level of the interpreted ITKs among Kolli hills tribes. The Kolli hill was picked purposively for its uniqueness in continuing their traditions age old practices in farming practices by the tribes. The present study has been carried out in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu state. The Namakkal district was administratively divided into seven taluks and fifteen blocks. Among these seven taluks and fifteen blocks, higher populations of tribes were seen at Kolli hills. For the selection of the respondents based on the proportionate random sampling technique and the data were collected from each respondent through personal interview method. The study was carried during 2019 with 150 respondents in highly populated villages of Kolli hills. The Adoption index was used to analyse the adoption level of the ITK’s by the tribes. Findings: More than half of the respondents (55.56 per cent) had a medium level of knowledge followed by high (25.10 per cent) and low (19.34 per cent) levels of knowledge on indigenous cultivation practices. Conclusion: Indigenous technical knowledge has a substantial heritage in agrarian civilization. The findings highlight the effectiveness of indigenous technical knowledge above its modern equivalent. Thus, extension workers should identify and incorporate them in the technology transfer action in order to ensure long-term or sustainable agricultural development.

Knowledge and Adoption of Commercial Vegetable Growers in District Budgam, J&K

The study was conducted on 250 vegetable growers selected from ten villages of Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. The basic objective of the study was to ascertain the knowledge possessed and adoption level of growers as well as the economic status of vegetable growers. The result revealed that 50.80 per cent of the respondents had medium level of knowledge, 48.40 per cent of respondents belonged to medium adoption category and majority of 60.80 per cent of the vegetable growers belong to the middle economic status group.