Determinants of farmers’ choice of coping and adaptation measures to the drought hazard in northwest Balochistan,Pakistan

This study identifies the coping and adaptation behavior of the farm households and also examines the factors that influence farmers’ choice for drought-induced adaptation strategies. The study employs a multivariate probit model on 215 farm households’ survey data from northwest Balochistan, Pakistan. The findings reveal that the farmers have shown considerable fortitude in coping with the impacts of drought on their agro-based practices and employed several adaptation initiatives both at on-farm and off-farm levels. These include crop management, water management, adjustment in agricultural inputs, income diversification, economization of expenditure and consumption smoothing, migrating to other places to seek alternative sources of income, assets depletion, and borrowing. Empirically, it is depicted that landholding, annual income, livestock ownership, credit access, farmer-to-farmer extension, GOs/NGOs support increase the probability of farmers’ decision to cope and adapt better with drought hazard. This study implies for specific policy and practice-oriented solutions in order to cope with and adapt in drought situation.     

Disaster risk management in agriculture: tragedies of the smallholders

Agriculture sector is exposed to a variety of risks and uncertainties which can lead to sizeable losses in crop yields and alter farm incomes. Risk management is, therefore, an essential element of the overall farm management process. Farmers have number of options in managing farm risks; however, smallholders, due to their small operations and limited financial capabilities, find it difficult to adopt sophisticated risk management strategies to overcome yield and income instabilities at farm level. This study is, therefore, designed to investigate the enabling environment for small farmers to manage climatic risks at farm level. A total of 330 sampled respondents from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan are randomly selected for the study using multistage sampling technique. Analysis of variance technique is employed to compare the risk management adoption decision of small, medium and large farmers. A post hoc analysis is also performed to highlight the difference in means and the magnitude of differences. The results indicate that smallholders have significantly lower access to credit (both formal and informal), formal information sources along with significantly higher perceptions of pest and diseases. Smallholders are also at the tail end in the adoption of precautionary savings and agricultural credit to manage climatic risk at farm level. The study urges for risk management policies particularly in favor of the small farmers and intervention in the existing information and credit provision programs to facilitate smallholders in managing farm risks.     

Part-time farming in Spain — a review

This paper is a review of statistical data and existing research on the part-time farming in Spain. The available data show an important level of development of the phenomenon: in 1965, 37.7 % of the earnings obtained by farm families are from jobs off the farm; in 1972, 48 % of the agrarian operators had main jobs off the farm. Most of the part-time farms are of small size although the phenomenon is also important on groups of farms of the largest size. The regional studies show a greater development of part-time farming in the Cantabrian coast, where the part-time farmer working in industry prevails, and in the E and S regions, where the jobs off the farm but within the agrarian sector (wage labour) are very important. Some studies on the stability of part-time farming show that this stability depends on the type of farming, the market of agricultural land in the area and the conditions of the jobs off the farm. In the present economic crisis the interest in part-time farming has been increased.Translated by Isabel Carbonell. Comments on earlier versions of this paper were provided by Prof. Josep Caries Genoves.     

Status of climate-smart agriculture in southeast Nigeria

This paper explored the status of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in southeast Nigeria using qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection. One hundred and sixty farmers were selected from the area. Also, focus group discussions were conducted. Data collected were subjected to qualitative analysis and logit regression. The study identified five broad and important practices relevant to CSA in southeast Nigeria, which include: adjusting agricultural production systems, mobility and social networks, farm financial management, diversification on and beyond the farm, and knowledge management and regulations. The determinants of CSA in southeast Nigeria include: education, income, credit, extension, livestock ownership, farming experience, land area cultivated, distance to the market and water resources, leadership position, risk orientation, gender, land ownership, household size, and mass media exposure. Government policies need to support research and development that develops and diffuses the climate-smart technologies to help farmers respond changes in climatic conditions.     

The impact of severe natural disasters on the livelihoods of farmers in mountainous areas: a case study of Qingping Township,Mianzhu City

The ‘5.12’ earthquake in 2008 and the ‘8.13’ debris flow in 2010 brought huge losses of life and property to Qingping Township. Farmers’ livelihoods assets were also seriously affected and damaged. These led to a change in farmers’ livelihood styles and reduction in their income. A study of the impact of natural disasters on farmers’ livelihoods in mountainous areas would have significant importance for policy making. Based on field survey data from sample households, this study comparatively analyzed the assets, livelihood styles and income of farmers over three periods—2007, 2009 after the ‘5.12’ earthquake, and 2 months after ‘8.13’ debris flows. It presents the following findings: (1) livelihood assets suffered heavy losses; (2) livelihood styles were significantly changed; and (3) the sustainability of farmer income was adversely influenced. These results suggest that, during the process of post-disaster reconstruction work, affected farmers’ security, the carrying capacity of livelihood assets, and the enhancement of employment and livelihood choice are worthy of much attention from policy makers.     

Risk,perception and adaptation to climate change: evidence from arid region,India

The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk and vulnerability, micro-level perceptions and adaptation decision-making in building resilience of farm communities to climate change in dryland region of India. To select a region for grassroots enquiry, spatial differential in risk to climate change was assessed in Rajasthan, using IPCC AR5 framework. Among the highly vulnerable and risky districts, Bikaner district was selected for elicitation of micro-level imperatives. Rising atmospheric temperature, inter-seasonal displacements of rainfall and recurrence of extreme events were perceived by the farmers resulting in resource degradation, production risks and erosion of households’ socio-economic dynamics. As risk preventive measures, suitable adjustment in agricultural practices, natural resource management, shift to off-farm activities and other relief measures were adopted by the farmers. Farmer’s choice of adaptation was influenced by several climatic, socio-economic and infrastructural & institutional factors in varying degree. Moreover, several financial, economic, infrastructural and informational bottlenecks to adaptations were reported during household survey and FGDs. The results suggest that capturing grassroots evidence is crucial for directing locally tailored adaptation strategies, along with the improving deficiencies in the developmental pathways for climate-resilient agriculture.

     

Assessment of agricultural groundwater users in Iran: a cultural environmental bias

Many environmental problems are rooted in human behavior. This study aimed to explore the causal effect of cultural environmental bias on ‘sustainable behavior’ among agricultural groundwater users in Fars province, Iran, according to Klockner’s comprehensive model. A survey-based research project was conducted to gathering data on the paradigm of environmental psychology. The sample included agricultural groundwater users (n = 296) who were selected at random within a structured sampling regime involving study areas that represent three (higher, medium and lower) bounds of the agricultural-groundwater-vulnerability spectrum. Results showed that the “environment as ductile (EnAD)” variable was a strong determinant of sustainable behavior as it related to groundwater use, and that EnAE had the highest causal effect on the behavior of agricultural groundwater users. The adjusted model explained 41% variance of “groundwater sustainable behavior”. Based on the results, the groundwater sustainable behaviors of agricultural groundwater users were found to be affected by personal and subjective norm variables and that they are influenced by casual effects of the “environment as ductile (EnAD)” variable. The conclusions reflect the Fars agricultural groundwater users’ attitude or worldview on groundwater as an unrecoverable resource; thus, it is necessary that scientific disciplines like hydrogeology and psycho-sociology be considered together in a comprehensive approach for every groundwater study.     

The impact of the nitrogen carryover effect on economic activity and the environment

 The economic and environmental consequences of soil nitrogen tests can have significant impacts on agricultural production. Some of these are explored here. The pre-side-dress soil N-test is evaluated for a hypothetical farmer growing corn at the ARS Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Farm site in southern Maryland. For a farmer not currently using a soil N-test, adoption of this technology can lead to the enhancement of net farm income and the reduction in nitrogen loss to the environment. This will transpire only if the farmer is currently underestimating nitrogen carryover by more than 25% or applying nitrogen fertilizer based solely on an expected plateau-yield goal. Received: 13 February 1997 · Accepted: 13 May 1997     

生态补偿方式对农户生计资本的影响分析

随着生态补偿研究的不断深入与生态补偿工程的广泛实施, 提高了人们对于环境问题的认识, 遏制了生态脆弱地区环境的进一步退化.实施生态补偿的环境保护作用显而易见, 不乏论述, 但对于改善农户生计水平, 提高生计资本的效用却鲜有论及.从农户生计入手, 评估农户的生计资本, 量化实施生态补偿对农户生计资本的影响, 分析生态补偿方式对农户生计资本的影响作用, 有利于揭示与评估生态补偿实施的有效性.对于地处黑河流域中游地区的张掖市来讲, 可以通过提高人力资本、 物质资本和金融资本的水平, 从而整体上提高农户的生计资本水平. 政策支持和资金支持两种补偿方式被多数农户作为首先的补偿方式, 而将物质支持作为首先的补偿方式人数较少; 技术补偿和物质补偿对物质资本、 物质补偿和政策补偿对社会资本显著, 且对于各生计资本的组份有正向拉动作用. 此外, 尝试分析了对各种补偿方式对生计资本拉动作用原因的推断.     

Groundwater pumping by heterogeneous users

Farm size is a significant determinant of both groundwater-irrigated farm acreage and groundwater-irrigation-application rates per unit land area. This paper analyzes the patterns of groundwater exploitation when resource users in the area overlying a common aquifer are heterogeneous. In the presence of user heterogeneity, the common resource problem consists of inefficient dynamic and spatial allocation of groundwater because it impacts income distribution not only across periods but also across farmers. Under competitive allocation, smaller farmers pump groundwater faster if farmers have a constant marginal periodic utility of income. However, it is possible that larger farmers pump faster if the Arrow-Pratt coefficient of relative risk-aversion is sufficiently decreasing in income. A greater farm-size inequality may either moderate or amplify income inequality among farmers. Its effect on welfare depends on the curvature properties of the agricultural output function and the farmer utility of income. Also, it is shown that a flat-rate quota policy that limits the quantity of groundwater extraction per unit land area may have unintended consequences for the income distribution among farmers.     

Afforestation of European landscapes: How do different farmer types respond to EU agri-environmental schemes?

This paper investigates how different types of farmers manage the landscape with primary emphasis on farmland afforestation, planned landscape changes, and the extent to which EU agri-environmental schemes take farm type specific characteristics into account in information strategies. The empirical data concern landscape practices of more than 2,000 landowners in 16 European areas in eight countries who were surveyed using quantitative questionnaires. Supplementary in-depth interviews were conducted for two case areas in Denmark to further investigate the role of the policy information environment. The analysis is based on a categorization of the farmers into hobby, part-time, full-time and retired farmers. This study shows that hobby farmers constitute a high proportion of landowners and manage a large part of the rural landscape. At the same time, hobby farmers are relatively more interested in landscape changes and differ from other landowners by considering farmland afforestation more often than full-time landowners, for example. Yet, 40% of the hobby farmers who are considering farmland afforestation are not familiar with the agri-environmental scheme for farmland afforestation. One reason may be their low membership rate in traditional information networks such as farmers’ or foresters’ associations, as revealed by the in-depth analysis of the cases in Denmark. Thus, it is proposed that policy impact may be improved if farmer type specific differences are explicitly taken into account in the scheme logistics for EU agri-environmental schemes.     

A reconsideration of the Afrocentric principle in Nigeria’s foreign policy framework

One of the principles guiding the conduct of Nigeria’s foreign policy is Afrocentrism. The concept of Nigeria’s Afrocentric policy embodies two intertwined ideas. First, it is designed to advance the interest and wellbeing of African countries through different intra and extra-African diplomatic channels. Second, the reason for embracing a representative function on behalf of Africa in global forums and the enormous sacrifices undertaken in the process is to enhance Nigeria’s status as Africa’s undisputed leader. The exploits and sacrifices in the pursuit of the policy notwithstanding, Nigeria has had to endure some disappointments and inconveniences. Going forward, this article contends that the philosophies underlying the policy must be reconsidered. In the uncertain world of diplomacy where empathy and benevolence are not always rewarded, Nigeria must embrace an ‘imperialistic’ agenda in its foreign policy calculations towards Africa.

     

Keeping the stress off the sheep? Agricultural intensification, neoliberalism, and ‘good’ farming in New Zealand

Under neoliberal schemes like audit systems, consumer demands born of concerns about food safety, the environment and animal welfare are theoretically poised to influence agricultural production systems (Campbell and Le Heron, 2007). Whether such influences might reverse or redirect the trend toward environmentally-damaging rampant productivism of the 20th century hinges in part on the subjective positions of farmers and the ways in which they inform how farmers respond to policy and market signals.In this paper we argue the need for a genuine engagement with both the complexities of farmer subjectivity and the interactions amongst farmer subjectivity and agro-ecologies, and animal bodies in particular. This paper presents a case study of sheep farmers on the South Island that reveals contestation and transitions in traditional markers of “good farming”, particularly animal health. We observe how such transitions arise from reconfigurations of the relationships between agro-ecological, political and social histories. In this paper’s formulation, neither state subsidies nor neoliberalism in agriculture is primary cause or ultimate effect of the transformation of agricultural practice. Rather, changes in the political economy expose contradictions in farmer subjectivities, the resolution of which may block or reinforce trends suggested by the political economy. We suggest that contested ideas about animal health within the social field of pastoral farming in New Zealand makes it possible that New Zealand’s sheep growers may take the high road of best environmental practice via highly audited environmental standards of production demanded by elite consumer markets, or that they may remain in the intensifying trajectory of continuing to drive the sheep’s body to its maximum possible intensity of production. The mixed legacy of neoliberal reform is that it has simultaneously enabled both of these contradictory trajectories in New Zealand pastoralism.     

Agricultural diversification and dietary diversity: A feminist political ecology of the everyday experiences of landless and smallholder households in northern Ghana

There is an emerging literature suggesting that when smallholder households diversify their agriculture, a wide range of food groups will be available, and consequently, dietary diversity will be improved. The present article brings this literature into critical conversation with research in feminist political ecology. Grounded in five years of repeated fieldwork, the article weaves together 70 in-depth interviews, and dietary as well as farm production diversity data from 30 households in northern Ghana. This dataset is analyzed by considering not only the diversity of farming systems, but also household headship, including male-headed, de facto female-headed, and de jure female-headed. Among other findings, the paper suggests that dietary diversity scores are lowest for households who have lost their farmlands to on-going land grabbing in Ghana. Furthermore, the paper suggests that while agricultural diversification is essential, it is not sufficient in itself to address nutritional challenges confronting smallholder households. In the contested and political arena of the household, the gendered politics of access to food can deeply shape how agricultural diversification contributes to dietary diversity. Overall, I do not wish to conclude that there are no benefits of increasing the diversity of farm production. Rather, I wish to stress that farm production diversity might not be the best or only strategy to improving dietary diversity among rural households. Through this case study, I also contribute to emerging research in new feminist political ecologies by demonstrating how the intersection of gender, seniority, marital status, and sexual politics shapes resource access and control.     

Prevention of well clogging during aquifer storage of turbid tile drainage water rich in dissolved organic carbon and nutrients

Well clogging was studied at an aquifer storage transfer and recovery (ASTR) site used to secure freshwater supply for a flower bulb farm. Tile drainage water (TDW) was collected from a 10-ha parcel, stored in a sandy brackish coastal aquifer via well injection in wet periods, and reused during dry periods. This ASTR application has been susceptible to clogging, as the TDW composition largely exceeded most clogging mitigation guidelines. TDW pretreatment by sand filtration did not cause substantial clogging at a smaller ASR site (2 ha) at the same farm. In the current (10 ha) system, sand filtration was substituted by 40-μm disc filters to lower costs (by 10,000–30,000 Euro) and reduce space (by 50–100 m²). This measure treated TDW insufficiently and injection wells rapidly clogged. Chemical, biological, and physical clogging occurred, as observed from elemental, organic carbon, 16S rRNA, and grain-size distribution analyses of the clogging material. Physical clogging by particles was the main cause, based on the strong relation between injected turbidity load and normalized well injectivity. Periodical backflushing of injection wells improved operation, although the disc filters clogged when the turbidity increased (up to 165 NTU) during a severe rainfall event (44 mm in 3 days). Automated periodical backflushing, together with regulating the maximum turbidity (<20 NTU) of the TDW, protected ASTR operation, but reduced the injected TDW volume by ~20–25%. The studied clogging-prevention measures collectively are only viable as an alternative for sand filtration when the injected volume remains sufficient to secure the farmer’s needs for irrigation.

     

Improved discrete element modeling for proppant embedment into rock surfaces

Brinell indentation tests were performed on Montney siltstone, and the results were compared with discrete element indentation simulations that use the micro-parameters calibrated using compression test data from the same siltstone samples. The simulated proppant indentation into the rock surface can be 15% less than the laboratory measurements. A lower effective particle–particle modulus and thus a lower Young’s modulus are needed in discrete element models for proper simulation of indentation. An equation to find the appropriate value of Young’s modulus for indentation simulation is proposed using Brinell indentation tests including 198 laboratory tests and 32 discrete element simulations. This equation can improve the prediction of Young’s modulus and thus the particle–particle effective modulus for indentation simulations to match the measured force–indentation depth curve in the laboratory. Using the improved micro-parameters, a parametric analysis of the influence of rock Young’s modulus and proppant particle size on proppant embedment was performed. An equation to estimate Brinell hardness as a function of Young’s modulus and closure stress was derived. A practical procedure was developed to predict proppant embedment from the estimated hardness. The predictions agree with the laboratory measurements in a case study on the Montney Formation.

     

New technologies, old divides: linking internet access to social and locational characteristics of US farms

Access to new information and communication technologies is widely viewed as a prerequisite for participation in the global economy, so that inequalities in such access have become a significant policy concern. Rural areas are especially underserved in terms of internet providers, and this is true in both developed and less developed economies. This article focuses on access to the internet within farming operations in the US as an important aspect of understanding the digital divide within rural areas. Using county level data from the 2007 US Census of Agriculture and multivariate regression analysis, our study examines the statistical relationship between farm internet access and a set of explanatory factors which include demographic characteristics of operators, economic characteristics of farms, and geographic location (region and metropolitan status) of the farm. Further, it seeks to understand whether access to the internet can be socially and locationally differentiated from access to high speed internet. Our findings indicate that existing social divides are replicated in terms of the digital divide, so that social inequalities are potentially a more pressing problem than infrastructural gaps in terms of rural access to the internet in the US.     

Integrating satellite soil-moisture estimates and hydrological model products over Australia

Abstract

Accurate soil-moisture monitoring is essential for water-resource management and agricultural applications, and is now widely undertaken using satellite remote sensing or terrestrial hydrological models’ products. While both methods have limitations, e.g. the limited soil depth resolution of space-borne data and data deficiencies in models, data-assimilation techniques can provide an alternative approach. Here, we use the recently developed data-driven Kalman–Takens approach to integrate satellite soil-moisture products with those of the Australian Water Resources Assessment system Landscape (AWRA-L) model. This is done to constrain the model’s soil-moisture simulations over Australia with those observed from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System and Soil-Moisture and Ocean Salinity between 2002 and 2017. The main objective is to investigate the ability of the integration framework to improve AWRA-L simulations of soil moisture. The improved estimates are then used to investigate spatiotemporal soil-moisture variations. The results show that the proposed model-satellite data integration approach improves the continental soil-moisture estimates by increasing their correlation to independent in situ measurements (～10% relative to the non-assimilation estimates).

Highlights

• Satellite soil-moisture measurements are used to improve model simulation.

• A data-driven approach based on Kalman–Takens is applied.

• The applied data-integration approach improves soil-moisture estimates.

     

Government assistance and the changing distribution of dairyfarming in Australia

An important proportion of Australian dairy production has been destined for export markets, where prices are below those received on the home market. This degree of dependence on international prices has adversely affected dairy farm incomes and thereby influenced both Government responses to the industry's problems and dairymen's decisions about levels of production and farm viability. Examination of the spatial impact on the now declining Australian dairy industry of Government-funded subsidies and of schemes for reconstruction of non-viable dairy farms, has indicated that withdrawal of farmers from the industry has not been areally uniform at the national level; but study of a major dairying region whose industry has undergone substantial decline suggests that this uneven pattern reflects industry and regional characteristics more than the deliberate or inadvertent results of Government intervention. Although Government policy has been broadly directed towards reducing the numbers of dairymen, and hence dependence on overseas prices for production surpluses, industry change has been greatest in regions where viable economic alternatives have been available for low-income dairymen.     

Modeling the effects of the variability of temperature-related dynamic viscosity on the thermal-affected zone of groundwater heat-pump systems

Thermal perturbation in the subsurface produced in an open-loop groundwater heat pump (GWHP) plant is a complex transport phenomenon affected by several factors, including the exploited aquifer’s hydrogeological and thermal characteristics, well construction features, and the temporal dynamics of the plant’s groundwater abstraction and reinjection system. Hydraulic conductivity has a major influence on heat transport because plume propagation, which occurs primarily through advection, tends to degrade following conductive heat transport and convection within moving water. Hydraulic conductivity is, in turn, influenced by water reinjection because the dynamic viscosity of groundwater varies with temperature. This paper reports on a computational analysis conducted using FEFLOW software to quantify how the thermal-affected zone (TAZ) is influenced by the variation in dynamic viscosity due to reinjected groundwater in a well-doublet scheme. The modeling results demonstrate non-negligible groundwater dynamic-viscosity variation that affects thermal plume propagation in the aquifer. This influence on TAZ calculation was enhanced for aquifers with high intrinsic permeability and/or substantial temperature differences between abstracted and post-heat-pump-reinjected groundwater.