Evidence of women’s empowerment in India: a study of socio-spatial disparities

Various national and international communities have addressed women’s issues and taken various efforts to empower them so as to enhance their social and health status and involve them in developmental activities. The Indian DHS survey (National Family Health Survey, 1998–1999) provides an opportunity to study women’s empowerment in India. The survey collected information on several dimensions of women’s empowerment from 90,303 ever-married women (ages 15–49), from all the states of India. Utilizing these data sets, four indices – household autonomy index, mobility index, attitude towards gender index and attitude towards domestic violence index – are constructed to measure the different dimensions of empowerment. Using these indices, the spatial and socio-economic and cultural disparities that exist within India are analyzed. Finally, an attempt is made to identify some important determinants for women’s empowerment using multiple logistic regression analysis. The results show that at the national level, 43% of the women have high household autonomy; 23% of the women have high freedom to move outside their home; 40% of the women have no gender preference attitude; and only 43% of the women defy domestic violence. But there are significant divergences in these indices of women’s empowerment across the different states and socio-economic and cultural settings within India. Women’s educational levels emerged as an important predictor for all the four dimensions of women’s empowerment. Additionally, media exposure and age have emerged as the important predictors for some dimensions of woman’s empowerment. This paper was presented by Prof. Kamla Gupta at the International Geographical Union Conference (IGU), held in Canada, 2002.     

Impacts of payment for ecosystem services of mountain agricultural landscapes on farming women in Nepal

GeoJournal - This study assesses the potential impacts of Payment for Ecosystems Services (PES) of mountain agricultural landscapes, with a specific focus on the implications for Nepalese farming...     

Gender-based differences in flood vulnerability among men and women in the char farming households of Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Gender and vulnerability are important issues to examine in the context of flooding caused by climate change. Men and women around the world adapt differently to climate change...     

Part-time farming in Norway

Conclusion Despite changes during the part thirty years, part-time farming seems certain to remain a dominant feature of Norwegian agriculture well into the future. Environmental conditions and the size structure of Norwegian farms would alone be sufficient to guarantee this. But the survival of part-time farming is likely to be further assisted by an agricultural policy which seeks, inter alia, the continuing development of agriculture on small farms and in marginal areas in order to maximize the use of scarce resources of agricultural land and maintain population and settlement in the more peripheral regions.     

叠前地震全波形反演实际应用的关键影响因素

叠前地震全波形反演是利用波动方程正演模拟来描述地震波传播特征,通过非线性局部寻优方法来获取高精度反演结果的方法。与其他反演方法相比,全波形反演利用的是叠前炮域地震数据,没有经过叠加处理,更好地保留了振幅、相位、频率等波形参数随偏移距变化的特征。在反演结果中得到的不再是简单的界面和旅行时信息,而是反映地层速度和构造特征的深度域数据体,有助于对地质体的分析和认识。从叠前全波形反演方法的优势出发,通过理论模型的全波形反演,分析做好全波形反演的技术关键,然后将全波形反演方法应用于实际资料处理,并将反演结果应用于偏移处理和河流相储层识别中,取得了良好的应用效果。最后针对全波形反演实际资料应用中应该注意的问题进行了总结,为叠前全波形反演的进一步发展和应用提供借鉴。     

Urban influences on farming in Essex

The urban fringe is usually portrayed as a location of unrelieved adversity for farmers. It is rare for the costs of the urban fringe to be counterbalanced by an assessment of the opportunities that are also found there. This paper presents the results of a large scale farm survey in Essex which sought to examine the effects of urban proximity on farm management practices.The paper examines the nature and spatial extent of the following: conversion of farm land to urban uses (with special emphasis on the role of compulsory purchase orders); changes in farm labour; part time farming and the location of part time farmers jobs; vandalism and trespass damage and farmers response to this hazard; farm-based recreation and the sale of produce direct to the public. In general it is shown that the disadvantages of farming in the urban fringe have been overrated while the advantages have been underrated.     

Soils as a basis of farming in Slovenia

The great variety of natural factors of landforms, lithology, climate, water, and vegetation in Slovenia has also resulted in great variety of its pedosphere. During the pedogenetic process, 19 groups of soils have developed which in connection with other natural and social factors, influence the use of land for farming in Slovenia. The most significant for the agrarian activity are eutric and dystric cambisols on fluvial sediments on the bottoms of the basins and lowlands in central and eastern Slovenia. Meadows and pastures were arranged on rendzinas on calcocambisols in central and SW Slovenia. Orchards and vineyards are located on eutric cambisol on marl and flysch on the hills of NE and SW Slovenia. Meanwhile the distribution of forests which grow on rendzinas, calcocambisols, and dystric cambisols is influenced more by the landforms and higher altitudes, the inclination of slopes, and lithologic composition than by the soil.     

The production relations of contract farming in Honduras

Contract farmers in central Honduras have been producers of Asian vegetables for American markets since 1989. Contract farming holds the potential to provide benefits to small farmers who would otherwise be unable to access export markets but production relations between firms and farmers are often asymmetric and can be exploitative. Poor communication and legacies of mistrust between commodity agriculture and small farmers lead to ambiguities in the contracting system that are misinterpreted by both firms and farmers, creating social tensions between contracting parties. This article will consider how farmers’ navigation of the contracting system and competition between export firms has led to changes in the system. Through competition for a limited pool of outgrowers, firms adjust their policies in favor of farmers without explicit attempts of labor organization on the part of the farmers.

Part-time farming in the Federal Republic of Germany

Part-time farming has to be considered important in the Federal Republic of Germany. Only one half of the agricultural holdings are presently farmed as full-time farms, occupying 77 % of the farmed area. The importance of part-time farming is not associated with the production of agricultural commodities, but is connected with the combination of farming and non-farming activities.In the Federal States of Baden-Württemberg and Saarland there exists a traditional interrrelationship between industry and part-time farming. Other regions, predominantly peripheral middle-range mountain areas with small farms and less favored natural conditions, form other concentrations. As local job opportunities are often non-existant, it means that daily long distance travel to reach off-farm places of employment is necessary.The income situation of part-time farmers can be considered satisfactory. Only 14 % are unable to earn their living entirely from non-farm earnings and consequently depend upon agriculture. According to statements made by part-time farmers their motivation to remain in farming is influenced by the compensation of working in a more natural environment. In view of the present (unsatisfactory) income situation of many small full-time farms, part-time farming is likely to increase in the future and to form a stable element in the agricultural structure of the Federal Republic of Germany.     

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.     

The political economy of part-time farming

This paper seeks to root the analysis of part-time farming in the political-economic structure of agriculture and the larger economy. While part-time farming is not a new phenomenon, the growing prevalence of part-time farming in the US and other advanced industrial societies bears a strong relationship with the emergence of dualistic agrarian structures. Part-time farming has also been connected with the deconcentration of industry and employment. The political implications of the trend toward part-time farming are explored, with a conclusion that multiple jobholding, while nominally a proletarianization process, may in fact reinforce political conservatism in the countryside. The paper concludes by suggesting that future research on the political economy of part-time farming should place particular emphasis on the political implications of and sexual division of labour on multiple jobholding.     

夏季长江口水体可溶性有机质组成的空间分布特征及其控制因素

本研究通过测定有色溶解有机物(CDOM)的吸收光谱、荧光可溶性有机质(FDOM)的激发-发射-矩阵三维荧光光谱(excitation-emission-matrixspectra,EEMs)和稳定碳同位素组成(δ¹³C),系统探讨了长江口夏季水体可溶性有机质(DOM)的组成、来源、空间分布及河口混合行为等。研究结果表明,可溶性有机碳(DOC)浓度整体呈现由陆到海逐渐降低的趋势,表征有色溶解有机物含量水平的吸收系数a(355)与盐度呈负相关关系,指示可溶性有机质中荧光组分在河口的分布主要受稀释作用调控。利用EEMs并结合平行因子分析(PARAFAC)鉴定出代表陆源有机质的类腐殖质的荧光组分C₂和C3,以及代表原地生产力的类蛋白质荧光组分C1和C4。由近岸到外海,表征海洋藻类生产力的C1组分在水体荧光有机质中所占比例增高,陆源信号则呈现逐渐降低趋势,与此相对应,外海水可溶性有机质具有高的光谱斜率S275–295/S350–400比值和重碳同位素组成。基于盐度vs.可溶性有机碳浓度、盐度vs.δ¹³C值的河流-海洋双端元混合模...     

Influencing factors and significance of organic and inorganic nitrogen isotopic compositions in lacustrine sedimentary rocks

Comprehensive nitrogen biogeochemical cycle has been reconstructed for representative lacustrine organic-rich sedimentary rock in China, namely the Triassic Yanchang Formation (YF, 199–230 Ma) in Ordos and the Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation (QF, 86–92 Ma) in Songliao basins, by evaluating the organic and inorganic nitrogen isotopic compositions rather than only organic or bulk nitrogen isotopic compositions. The results indicate that the nitrogen isotope values of bulk rock (δ¹⁵N_bulk) in the non-metamorphic stage are significantly different from that of kerogen, which challenge the conceptual framework of sedimentary nitrogen isotope interpretation. The δ¹⁵N_bulk from the YF and QF were lower than their respective the nitrogen isotope values of kerogen (δ¹⁵N_ker), with offsets up to ～5.1‰, which have the inverse relationship for the metamorphosed rock. Thermal evolution did not significantly modify the δ¹⁵N of bulk rock and kerogen. The δ¹⁵N of sediments from the YF (δ¹⁵N_bulk, 1.6‰–5.6‰) were lower than that of rock from the QF (δ¹⁵N_bulk, 10.2‰–15.3‰). The nitrogen isotope values of silicate incorporated nitrogen (δ¹⁵N_sil) were slightly lower than those of the δ¹⁵N_ker in the YF and obviously lower for the QF. The fact that different nitrogen cycles occur in the YF and QF due to the different depositional redox conditions leads to different isotopic results. The YF water environment dominated by oxic conditions is not conducive to the occurrence of denitrification and anammox, and no abundant N₂ loss leads to the relatively light δ¹⁵N_bulk. In the stratified water for the QF, redox transition zone promotes denitrification and anammox, resulting in the heavy δ¹⁵N_bulk of rock and promotes the DNRA, resulting in heavy δ¹⁵N_ker and low δ¹⁵N_sil.     

Trends and characteristics of part-time farming in post-war Japan

Part-time farming is a wide-spread phenomenon in contemporary rural Japan. Characterized by an extremely small-scale rice farming and by a unimodal equitable rural development, most Japanese farm households have combined farming with off-farm employment. In this article, after an examination of the definition of part-time farming (farm household as the unit), the trend of and factors for part-time farming are described and analyzed. Growth and expansion of off-farm employment opportunities, continued small-sized farming, rapid increase in farmland prices and development and diffusion of labor-saving technology are among the major forces which encouraged part-time farming in Japan. Although the overall performance of part-time farms appears less efficient in the use of non-labor resources (e.g., land and machinery), part-time farms still occupy a significant share in the aggregate agricultural production and in the total farmland cropped. Various on-farm and off-farm adjustments are pointed out which have enabled dual employment patterns to be adopted by these people. In essence, due to the limited opportunities for farm-size expansion, part-time farming is considered a necessity, rather than a choise, for most Japanese farm families. But this has also caused some serious agricultural problems, especially with respect to its impact on farmsize structure and inefficient land use. At least for the purpose of maintaining a high income level and for equitable access to opportunities, part-time farming has seemingly contributed beneficially to the farming population of Japan.     

Part-time farming in Canada: Issues and non-issues

Part-time farming has always existed in Canada. Since 1941, about one-third of census-farm operators have reported some off-farm work. The structure of participation in off-farm work by type of farm remained relatively stable in the 1961 to 1976 period suggesting a stable relationship between the production of certain food commodities and off-farm work by farmers.Off-farm work can be considered to be one of the productive enterprises to which an operator may allocate his human and non-human capital endowment. There is no (economic) theoretical basis for policies to discriminate against part-time farmers — part-time farming is consistent with efficient food production.Off-farm work is one way to improve the welfare of farmers and rural communities. Off-farm work appears to aid the entry of many but not a majority of recent entrants to the status of full-time farming. Not many full-time farmers appear to use off-farm work as a mechanism to leave agriculture. Public policies should directly pursue their objectives of efficient food production, fair farmer incomes etc. regardless of whether the farmer is full-time or part-time.