Economic Viability of Adoption of Automated Oestrus Detection Technologies on Dairy Farms: A Review

The decision for dairy farmers to invest in automated oestrus detection (AOD) technologies involves the weighing up of the costs and benefits of implementation. In this paper, through a review of the existing literature, we examine the impacts of investment in AOD technologies in relation to the profitability and technical performance of dairy farms. Peer-reviewed articles published between 1970 and 2019 on the investment viability of AOD technologies were collated and analysed. We capture the different measures used in assessing the economic performance of investment in AOD technologies over time which include net present value (NPV), milk production, Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period (PBP). The study concludes that investment in AOD technologies is not only worthwhile but also contributes to farm profitability.

An Economic Analysis of Traditional Agriculture Products: The Case of Chicken in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam

Agriculture and traditional agriculture products plays a significant role in the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in developing countries, including Vietnam. Cost-benefit Analysis and a mixed methodology were applied to evaluate the economic performance of traditional chicken production in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam by region and scale. The data were drawn respectively from 64 sample households in Huong Thuy and Nam Dong district in 2017. The Cost-benefit analysis shows that Huong Thuy tends to have a lower production cost and thus a higher production benefit as compared to those of Nam Dong district. This study also indicates evidence of the importance of veterinary, mortality rate, scale of production and region on the performance of chicken farmer in the province.

Optimization of irrigation cropping pattern by using linear programming: Case study on irrigation area of Parsanga, Madura Island, Indonesia

The irrigation area of Parsanga is located in Sumenep Regency, Madura Island of Indonesia. This irrigation area is 500 ha and the existing cropping pattern is paddy–paddy–second crop. There is water discharge deficiency due to the existing cropping pattern mainly in the dry season. Thus, this study intends to optimize the cropping pattern for 3 condition so that it can produce the maximum benefit of agricultural product. The first cropping pattern is paddy/second crop–second crop–paddy/second crop; the second proposition is paddy/second crop –paddy/second crop–second crop; and the third proposition is paddy–second crop–paddy/second crop. The optimization analysis is carried out by using the linear programming. The suggested three cropping patterns are not only able to solve the water deficiency; they can also present the more production benefit than the existing condition.

What Is Socialism for the Twenty-First Century?

Often the best way to begin to understand something is to consider what it is not. Socialism for the twenty-first century is not a society in which people sell their ability to work and are directed from above by others whose goal is profits rather than the satisfaction of human needs. It is not a society where the owners of the means of production benefit by dividing workers and communities in order to drive down wages and intensify work…. Nor is it a statist society where decisions are top-down and where all initiative is the property of state office-holders or cadres of self-reproducing vanguards.… Also, socialism for the twenty-first century is not populism.… Further, socialism for the twenty-first century is not totalitarianism.… [S]ocialism for the twenty-first century does not dictate personal belief…. Nor does socialism for the twenty-first century worship technology and productive forces…. Finally, contrary to its self-proclaimed inventor (Heinz Dieterich), socialism for the twenty-first century is not "essentially a problem of informatic complexity" that requires cybernetic calculation of quantities of concrete labor as the basis for an exchange of equivalents.&hellp; So, let us explain what socialism for the twenty-first century is. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.