Contract farming and the remaking of agrarian landscapes: Insights from South India's chilli belt

This analysis of a backward integration traceability scheme for red chillies developed by a multinational food company in India emphasizes spatial integration and differentiation within contract farming. The scheme is premised on the procurement of identically credentialed produce from 10 different sites in two states and incorporates growers in highly flexible and place‐contingent modes. Interviews with corporate informants and farmers reveal this flexibility to be the result of a two‐way process of risk management between the company and growers. The company spread its geographical exposure by initiating production across a number of far‐flung cultivation sites, and growers cultivate chillies for the company within the context of diverse agricultural systems, thereby mitigating dependence. The scheme has had positive impacts for participants, but has more complex implications for the evolution of agrarian landscapes in India. The selective enrolment of participants through ‘progressive farmer’ networks acts to reorganize rural spaces by generating new geographies of advantage and opportunity.     

地理标志农产品种植户的生计脆弱性及影响因素研究————以陕西眉县、周至县为例

地理标志农产品可以促进农业绿色高质量发展,推动乡村振兴并改善种植户生计。气候变化和极端气候事件的增加可能会加剧地理标志农产品种植户的生计脆弱性。以地理标志农产品猕猴桃种植区为例,构建生计脆弱性评估框架,结合熵值法和自然断点法评估种植户的生计脆弱性,运用有序Logistic回归和夏普利值分解法探究种植户生计脆弱性的影响因素及其贡献度。结果表明：① 处于中、高度脆弱性等级的种植户所占比例较大,约占64.10%。② 猕猴桃的生产特征对生计脆弱性等级的贡献率最大为48.47%。是否采用地理标志商标、是否参与地理标志商标培训、是否采用合作生产方式生产对种植户的生计脆弱性有显著影响。③ 在猕猴桃种植特征方面,种植年限对种植户的生计脆弱性等级有显著影响,贡献率达12.20%。④ 在适应行为采用强度方面,秋季连阴雨适应行为采用强度对猕猴桃种植户的生计脆弱性等级有显著影响,贡献率达20.75%。     

Understanding grower demographics,motivations and management practices to improve engagement,extension and industry resilience: a case study of the macadamia industry in the Northern Rivers,Australia

Research and development programs for improved productivity and profitability in horticulture have focused largely on understanding biophysical factors and production and harvest technologies. By contrast, relatively few studies focus upon the existing status of a rural community in terms of demographics, rationales and motivations underlying current farm management practices. Understanding such factors is increasingly important as pressures from climate change, globalised market forces, land-use competition and ageing workforces intersect on farms and for farmers. This paper explores experiences among macadamia growers in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, with the aim to better understand and improve the targeting of development programs to meet grower needs and aspirations, for improved industry resilience. Results suggest that growers are a diverse, ageing demographic who came into the industry with a variety of skill sets. Noting a lack of previous farming experience for many growers, we highlight the need to consider information transfer and succession planning, along with aspirations to consolidate properties and skills. New engagement approaches are recommended, with tailored extension to different grower groups. To aid with this process, a classification tree was developed for the purposes of separating growers into groups with different support needs.     

Agribusiness and farmers in Mexico: the importance of contractual relations

In recent decades contract farming as a mechanism that integrates and subordinates agricultural production to export oriented agribusiness has expanded in Third World countries. In Mexico contract farming dominates the production of horticultural crops for processing and export. It is also used for barley and to grow some varieties of wheat for Cargill . The contract farming labour agreement represents an institution that links local and global processes where agribusiness is the key actor that integrates local farmers to national and world markets. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the implications of contract farming for productive relations by examining its impact upon farmers and firms. The study found that despite the disadvantages of contract farming for growers, and the disproportional risks born by producers, they enter into contract farming labour agreements because they lack alternatives for financing, technical assistance and access to markets. The experience of contract farming in Mexico and several Third World countries shows that its growth is related to the implementation of neo-liberal policies that are accompanied by the withdrawal of state support and regulation of agricultural production. In this context, contract farming represents a livelihood strategy for many Mexican growers.     

Winter mortality risk for American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) in Saskatchewan

North American ginseng is native to the deciduous forest region of eastern North America but is now cultivated in areas well beyond its natural range. In recent years an expanding market has attracted growers in climatically less suitable regions, including the Canadian prairies. The ginseng root requires at least four years to reach marketable size and is sensitive to injury when the temperature drops below about −4°C. Such temperatures are not unusual in the prairies; thus winter kill is a hazard that may limit ginseng production in this region of Canada. This study analyses the risks of winter soil temperatures falling below levels critical for the survival of ginseng in Saskatchewan. It appears that winter conditions may be too severe for reliable production of this lucrative crop, although application of straw mulch and additional benefits of trapped snow could reduce the risk of winter kill.     

The Ideology of U.S. Agriculture: How Are Integrated Management Approaches Envisioned?

The ease and affordability of the herbicide glyphosate and the development of glyphosate tolerant crops has encouraged a simplified weed management system in the U.S. However, the overuse of this technological package in recent years has led to an explosion in the number of herbicide resistant weeds and a decrease in the effectiveness of glyphosate. In addition to this bio-chemical problem, many growers appear to be stuck within a farming ideology that focuses on a reduction in time/labor, an increase in profitability and a vision of ever-increasing efficiencies of scale. This may prevent them from conceptualizing and implementing solutions that fall outside of a simple herbicide application plan. The objective of this paper is to begin describing the current ideology of industrial corn and soybean farmers in the United States, as well as how this ideology contributes to farmers’ resistance to complex weed management strategies.     

Biocultural nationalism? Bananas and biosecurity in Northern Queensland

ABSTRACT

The Cavendish banana is Australia’s most popular fruit and marketed as emblematic of Australian nationalisms. In July 2017, the disease-causing fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense was confirmed present on Australia’s largest Cavendish banana farm, in the worst disease incursion that Northern Queensland Cavendish monocrop plantations have yet faced. Confronted with the potential collapse of the industry, banana growers and Biosecurity Queensland officials have deployed a biosecurity response centred on measures of border control and containment. This paper examines the othering of the disease vector Panama Tropical Race 4, revealing biosecurity attempts as embroiled in cultural preoccupations with invasion. In so doing, this paper establishes that the biosecurity concerns regarding Northern Queensland bananas are not just with the economic and biological productivity of nature, but entangled in post-colonial anxieties over who belongs within the landscape. Following the entangled relations between the disease and Cavendish bananas reveals cultural nuances and multispecies relations. These shape and are shaped by industry and government efforts as experts attempt to maintain governance over entities as they appear to slip from human control. This paper finds that the anxieties and narratives of Australian post-colonial politics are deeply imbricated with the logics of ecological protection, agricultural productivity and the banality of everyday nationalisms.     

Tinkering at the Limits: agricultural shows,small-scale producers and ecological connections

Agricultural shows in Australia are typically depicted as celebrations of colonisation and scientific and technical modernisation in food production. The historical focus of shows is on competition to maximise perceived quality and yield of goods, from wheat to cattle. Through these frameworks, shows are often understood as supporting industrial-scale agricultural practices that promote an ecologically-blind approach to food production. However, we suggest that competitions in contemporary agricultural shows play a role in contesting the limits of such anthropocentric thinking. We focus on a hitherto unexplored aspect of agricultural shows: small-scale growers who exhibit produce in their annual local show competitions. Through a case study drawing on interviews with exhibitors and judges, combined with participant observation at the 2012 Royal Canberra Show, we highlight the complex relationships between people, place and more-than-humans in this unique cultural site. In so doing, we suggest that exhibiting in the show can intensify urban and peri-urban small-scale producer engagement in practices of ‘tinkering’. This facilitates embodied encounters with the limits of both human mastery and those of the materiality of non-humans involved in food production. Through the ongoing, adaptive processes of tinkering encouraged by such competitions, we suggest that exhibiting in agricultural shows can support the growth of ecologically informed, place-based understandings of the food system and challenge binaries of the rural/city divide.     

A conservative, unconditionally stable, second-order three-point differencing scheme for the diffusion–convection equation

A three-point differencing scheme for the diffusion–convection equation is presented that offers all the advantages of both the central and the one-sided ('upwind') differencing scheme without suffering from their drawbacks. Specifically, the scheme is conservative, unconditionally stable, and second-order-accurate in space. It is free of oscillations and over- or undershoots, simple to code, and requires essentially no more computing time than the one-sided scheme. Although known for a relatively long time in numerical mathematics, the scheme apparently has not received sufficient attention from modellers of hydrothermal systems or contaminant transport in the geosciences. In order to fill this gap a comparison is made between this scheme and the widely used one-sided scheme for the transient diffusion–convection equation in different time discretizations. The results are discussed taking into account other approaches towards minimizing numerical diffusion.     

Accelerating agent-based computation of complex urban systems

Despite its popularity, agent-based modeling is limited by serious barriers that constrain its usefulness as an exploratory tool. In particular, there is a paucity of systematic approaches for extracting coarse-grained, system-level information as it emerges in direct simulation. This is particularly problematic for agent-based models (ABMs) of complex urban systems in which macroscopic phenomena, such as sprawl, may manifest themselves coarsely from bottom-up dynamics among diverse agent-actors interacting across scales. Often these connections are not known, but treating them is nevertheless crucial in enabling prediction, in supporting decisions, and in facilitating the design, control, and optimization of urban systems. In this article, we describe and implement a metasimulation scheme for extracting macroscopic information from local dynamics of agent-based simulation, which allows acceleration of coarse-scale computing and which may also serve as a precursor to handle emergence in complex urban simulation. We compare direct ABM simulation, population-level equation solutions, and coarse projective integration. We apply the scheme to the simulation of urban sprawl from local drivers of urbanization, urban growth, and population dynamics. Numerical examples of the three approaches are provided to compare their accuracy and efficiency. We find that our metasimulation scheme can significantly accelerate complex urban simulations while maintaining faithful representation of the original model.     

Institutions, the governance of quality and on-farm value retention for Indonesian specialty coffee

Fluctuating global commodity prices affect the livelihoods of millions of tropical farmers worldwide. In recent years, systemic oversupply of many tropical agricultural products, grown in countries such as Indonesia, has meant that agricultural incomes have continuously fallen below subsistence levels. Within an increasingly open global trade regime, along with the limited ability of governments to protect domestic farm prices, quality-informed product differentiation appears to offer an escape route from the trap of low commodity prices. However, ownership and governance of quality constructions are fundamental to determining who benefits from such differentiation. This paper examines the use of geographical identities as a specific tool for value-adding in agricultural produce, presenting the case of specialty coffee production in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The potential for producer-driven geographical indications compete with corporate-driven quality constructions, where the latter are able to appropriate place-related quality associations by using trademarks, vertical integration and tightly coordinated supply chain controls. An emergent politic of quality governance and ownership in global commodity chains reveals the highly restricted institutional terrain within which growers of specialty coffee might attempt to retain a higher share of the economic rent associated with quality production.     

Comparison of global synthetic seismograms calculated using the spherical 2.5-D finite-difference method with observed long-period waveforms including data from the intra-Antarctic region

We have been developing an accurate and efficient numerical scheme, which uses the finite-difference method (FDM) in spherical coordinates, for the computation of global seismic wave propagation through laterally heterogeneous realistic Earth models. In the field of global seismology, traditional axisymmetric modeling has been used widely as an efficient approach since it can solve the 3-D elastodynamic equation in spherical coordinates on a 2-D cross-section of the Earth, assuming structures to be invariant with respect to the axis through the seismic source. However, it has the severe disadvantages that asymmetric structures about the axis cannot be incorporated and the source mechanisms with arbitrary shear dislocation have not been attempted for a long time. Our scheme is based on the framework of axisymmetric modeling but has been extended to treat asymmetric structures, arbitrary moment-tensor point sources, anelastic attenuation, and the Earth center which is a singularity of wave equations in spherical coordinates. All these types of schemes which solve 3-D wavefields on a 2-D model cross-section are classified as 2.5-D modeling, so we have named our scheme the spherical 2.5-D FDM. In this study, we compare synthetic seismograms calculated using our FDM scheme with three-component observed long-period seismograms including data from stations newly installed in Antarctica in conjunction with the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–2008. Seismic data from inland Antarctica are expected to reveal images of the Earth's deep interior with enhanced resolution because of the high signal-to-noise ratio and wide extent of this region, in addition to the rarity of sampling paths along the rotation axis of the Earth. We calculate synthetic seismograms through the preliminary reference earth model (PREM) including attenuation using a moment-tensor point source for the November 9, 2009 Fiji earthquake. Our results show quite good agreement between synthetic and observed seismograms, which indicates the accuracy of observations in the Antarctica, as well as the feasibility of the spherical 2.5-D modeling scheme.     

A multi‐dimensional analysis of the impacts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: A tale from Tamil Nadu

This paper provides a multi‐dimensional analysis of the impacts of the Indian Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme using a case study from rural Tamil Nadu. Drawing on structured interviews in households and semi‐structured interviews with local employers and officials, we analyse the effects of the workfare scheme when it is widely and properly implemented. We distinguish between different conceptualizations of the work scheme as a means of welfare provision, labour market policy and intervention directed towards other objectives. We found that the goals of the scheme were fulfilled unevenly in the given context. Among other findings, we show that positive effects on the welfare of participating and non‐participating households were accompanied by adverse effects on the local economy and negligible impact on out‐migration for work.     

Source mechanism of the deep Colombian earthquake of 1970 July 31 from the free oscillation data

Summary. The method proposed by Mendiguren to determine the source parameters from free oscillation data is applied to the 1970 July 31 deep Colombian earthquake. The results indicate a source propagating horizontally for about 150 km along the lithosphere and cutting across its width. The slab behaves as a guide for source propagation. The horizontal propagation velocity is determined as 3.8 km/s. The intensity of the source grew proportionately to the second power of the propagation distance. This rate of source intensity growth may be interpreted either by a fan-shaped fault model or by a cone-shaped volume source. The average slip and stress drop are estimated as 360 cm and 300 bar for the fault model. For the volume source model the transformational shear strain and stress are estimated as 11 × 10⁻⁵ and 160 bar. There is no evidence of a double couple radiation preceding the P origin time. It is shown that the isotropic and deviatoric components of the moment tensor cannot be uniquely resolved when only observations of a single mode are available. It is observed that, from a statistical basis, the available ₀ S_n data for Colombian shock can be equally well explained by a pure deviatoric source model or by a source model including an isotropic component. Numerical experiments indicate that the inclusion of higher mode data does not change this situation. But, on the other hand, numerical experiments show that the available data and the scheme used for the inversion would not result in a solution including an artificial implosive component if the actual source were pure deviatoric. If the departure from a pure deviatoric source is produced by noise, it has to be non-random, as it could be produced by lateral heterogeneities not included in the inversion scheme.     

南海珊瑚礁高分辨率遥感地貌分类体系研究

珊瑚礁遥感地貌分类体系在珊瑚礁遥感地貌制图中具有重要的指导作用。目前,珊瑚礁遥感地貌分类体系仍存在构建标准不统一、部分重要地貌类型不突出以及涵盖地貌类型不完备等问题,影响了珊瑚礁遥感地貌制图应用于珊瑚礁科学和管理。本文采用中国南海46个珊瑚礁(环礁、台礁)的高分辨率遥感影像(WorldView-2、Quickbird),并结合西沙群岛15个岛礁的地貌实地调查数据进行南海高分辨率遥感地貌分类体系的构建研究。以各地貌类型所处礁体位置、动力特征、出露程度和沉积类型为划分标准,将相似尺度和重要性相当的地貌类型归为同等级别,共构建了3级19类南海珊瑚礁遥感地貌分类体系。该分类体系划分标准统一、地貌类型数量最多且完备,新命名了内礁坪生物稀疏带、内礁坪生物丛生带,补充了水下礁脊、潮间带浅滩、浅水礁塘等地貌类型,便于直观理解和推断不同尺度的海洋生态相互作用及重要性。同时,其多等级多尺度性适用于分辨率由低到高的南海珊瑚礁遥感地貌制图,有助于珊瑚礁态势演变分析、管理和保护,为维护国家海洋权益作出应有的贡献。     

Location offarm woodlands in Denmark: a quantification of the results of the scheme for field afforestation in Ribe and Vejle counties

The article analyses the results of the scheme for field afforestation (EU-regulation 2080/92) in Denmark. The purpose is twofold, firstly to document the afforestation on arable land taking place both within the scheme and outside the scheme for field afforestation. The former is documented in Ribe and Vejle counties whereas the latter is documented in three smaller areas: Varde, Vorbasse, and Vejle. Secondly, the article argues that in order to evaluate the afforestation not only the location within designated areas hut also the spatial parameters and configuration of new woodlands must be considered. Two methods -'forest-pictures' and ‘gradient-pictures’-are presented and applied in order to quantify the spatial configuration of new woodlands in the landscape.     

支持向量机在供水方案综合评价中的应用研究

针对开始不能确定目标权重或隶属度的多方案综合评价的问题时,提出了一种支持向量机的学习算法实现多方案的综合评价。本文在电厂以中水作为水源的情况下,引入支持向量机算法,通过建立目标、综合属性的优化模型,再对建立的多种供水方案进行综合评价。计算结果表明,三种方案的综合评判值分别为:0.24、0.55和0.61,方案三为首选的供水方案,与实际首选方案和层次分析法确定的方案一样。将支持向量机算法应用于供水方案的选取,得到的综合效果评价是可行的。     

RegCM4.6两种积云参数化方案在东亚模拟结果的评估

新一代区域气候模式RegCM4.6引进了Mix积云参数化方案,可以将之前版本中的Emanuel和Grell方案结合在一起,以弥补单个参数化方案的不足。利用2016年MODIS(Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer)数据对RegCM4.6中Mix和Emanuel积云参数化方案模拟的东亚云量(Cloud fraction,CF)、冰水柱含量(Ice water path,IWP)和液水柱含量(Liquid water path,LWP)进行初步评估,计算了相关系数(r)、平均绝对误差(Mean absolute error,MAE)、平均偏差(Mean bias error,MBE)和均方根误差(Root mean square error,RMSE),以便为相关研究选取积云参数化方案提供参考依据。结果表明：(1)模拟的CF的MBE大致以胡焕庸线为界,西北部为轻微高估,东南部通常为低估。2种方案在夏季的模拟效果最好,冬季最差。Mix方案的MAE、MBE和RMSE的绝对值在四季普遍小于Emanuel方案。(2)模式明显低估了东亚的IWP,...     

欧盟排放权交易机制之立法解析

欧盟于2005年建立了世界上第一个跨国排放权交易机制,经过3年的发展时间,业已成为当今全球最大的碳市场.2008年年初欧洲委员会提交了修改排放权交易机制指令的提案,目的是进一步改善和扩大现行的排放权交易机制,此举势必影响未来全球碳市场的发展趋势.力图从法律的角度对欧盟排放权交易机制进行剖析,解析排放权交易机制的立法背景与主要的立法内容,希冀为我国应对气候变化政策法律的制定以及碳市场的建立提供一定的启示和参考.     

Retrospective validation of the time association of precursors

This paper examines the problems raised by the retrospective association of events, a process which underlies any search for precursors to geophysical phenomena. Association is analysed here with respect to time only, disregarding the spatial component, so the results are more readily applicable to volcanic eruptions than to earthquakes. Two sources of bias are examined, viz. the time lag between the precursor and event series, and the tolerance or time window accepted on that lag, which is also linked to the number of associated events. These parameters are typically chosen a posteriori to minimize the apparent probability of random association in the given series. In general, given different input data, optimal association of the two series will be achieved for different values of these parameters. Thus, any valid system of significance testing must include a step which estimates the effect of retrospectively choosing optimal parameters rather than fixing them in advance. This paper shows that, as long as at least one of the two time-series—either the precursors or the events—is Poissonian, the correction factors for the significance level can be written in a simple closed form. The correction scheme is applied to a proposed association between seismic clusters and flank eruptions of Mount Etna. Although the association appears to be highly significant when assessed using simple standard tests, this significance is not confirmed when the effect of retrospective parameter optimization is taken into account. The key point is that retrospective studies can be investigated using standard techniques, but where such techniques are employed, the threshold for significance of association must be greatly lowered in order to account for the bias due to the optimal choice of parameters.