Evaluating Changes to Prevented Planting Provision on Moral Hazard

Prevented planting provision in crop insurance protects producers from failure to plant attributable to natural causes. We determined the impact of this provision at various crop insurance coverage levels on prevented planting claims and ex post moral hazard. The moral hazard incentive in the prevented planting provision is stronger for corn than soybeans. Reducing the prevented planting coverage factor for corn could likely reduce moral hazard, but the degree of the reduction will likely depend on the revenue protection coverage level. Conversely, we found moral hazard is unlikely to occur for soybean production regardless of the revenue protection coverage level

Wyodrębnienie grup obszarów onw nie objętych płatnościami i ich przestrzenne zróżnicowanie w polsce

Przedmiotem badań była zbiorowość gospodarstw indywidualnych położona na obszarach ONW w Polsce. W pracy wykorzystano informację o liczbie złożonych wniosków o płatności ONW i JPO w latach 2004-2010. Do analiz wykorzystano także deklarowane powierzchnie użytków rolnych we wnioskach o JPO (2004-2010) i ONW (2004-2006). Celem pracy było oszacowanie obszarów ONW w różnych grupach gospodarstw i opisanie ich przestrzennego zróżnicowania w Polsce. Ze względu na charakter dostępnych danych, zastosowano najprostsze metody analizy szeregów statystycznych, metody analizy pionowej i poziomej, rachunek regresji, a także wizualizację za pomocą wykresów

Impact of “greening” the common agricultural policy on sustainability of European agriculture: from perspective of the Baltic Sea countries

This paper examines the potential impact of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) decision – for the budget perspective 2014-2020 – known as ‘greening of the CAP’ which aims to improve the environmental performance of agriculture and hence, its sustainability. The reform established environmental measures that European farmers need to introduce in order to receive direct payments under the CAP. Using the wellestablished CAPRI model with its new extension by regional Computable General Equilibrium models, the economic and environmental consequences of the reform on agriculture are estimated. The calculations are carried out for the countries which signed so called Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) – an ambitious programme to restore the good ecological status of the Baltic marine environment by 2021. The results are presented in form of agricultural, economic and environmental effects of the reform against a baseline scenario for 2020 in the analysed countries. They indicate that “greening” causes a decline in the area of the main crops, increase crop prices and slightly intensified production on the remaining areas. Farm income would increase, but due to the low intensity of agriculture in the Baltic countries this increase would be rather limited

EXPLORING DEEP LEARNING APPROACHES FOR DETECTING NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES IN CROP LEAVES: A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW

This research paper offers an extensive examination of diverse methodologies and computational approaches designed to identify deficiencies in critical plant nutrients, encompassing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, boron, sulfur, and iron. It systematically analyzes the diverse methodologies and strategies proposed by scholars, assessing their effectiveness, constraints, and precision. Plants demand 13 essential mineral nutrients for optimal growth, and any insufficiency or excess of these nutrients can critically disrupt growth or lead to plant mortality. Consequently, the establishment of a continuous monitoring system to oversee nutrient levels is imperative for the enhancement of crop yield and quality. Through diagnostic systems that utilize digital image processing, computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning frameworks (such as pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network models like InceptionV3, VGG16, VGG19, ResNet50, and ResNet152, along with Support Vector Machines), nutrient deficiencies can be detected significantly earlier than through manual methods, thereby allowing farmers to implement timely corrective actions. This article assesses the efficiency of these sophisticated methods in addressing the diagnosis of deficiencies in plant nutrients

Long-Term Trends in Ecological Systems: A Basis for Understanding Responses to Global Change

The EcoTrends Editorial Committee sorted through vast amounts of historical and ongoing data from 50 ecological sites in the continental United States including Alaska, several islands, and Antarctica to present in a logical format the variables commonly collected. This report presents a subset of data and variables from these sites and illustrates through detailed examples the value of comparing long-term data from different ecosystem types. This work provides cross-site comparisons of ecological responses to global change drivers, as well as long-term trends in global change drivers and responses at site and continental scales. Site descriptions and detailed data also are provided in the appendix section

Workforce diversity's Nexus on Ethiopia Universities Performance

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of workforce diversity management on organisational performance in the context of Bule Hora University, Ethiopia with a particular emphasis on management of age, gender, ethnicity, educational background, cultural diversity, and religion diversity. Data from a sample of 362 people with a response rate of 97.2% was collected using a questioner to fulfil the study's goal. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect primary data, while published articles, journals, and research documents were reviewed to gather secondary data. After that, the SPSS software version 26.0 descriptive was used to analyze the data. Inferential statistics were employed to show the link between the independent and dependent variables, and statistics like frequencies, means, standard deviations, and percentages were used to describe the sample. The results show that management of age diversity, gender diversity, ethnic diversity, educational diversity, cultural diversity, and religion diversity has a statistically significant relationship with organisational success. In order to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion, higher education institutions should have a clear policy that is communicated to all relevant parties including the general public

Analysing the determinants, constraints and opportunities of smallholder farmers’ access to input markets: evidence from northern Ghana

Smallholder farmers face multiple constraints in accessing input markets. This study seeks to understand the dynamics that influence input markets in northern Ghana and the opportunities that exist for smallholder farmers to increase their productivity and welfare. Using a random sample of 448 households, the study applied the probit and non-parametric methods in identifying the factors that influence farmers’ access to input markets and the key constraints faced by them. The results show that access to extension services, access to finance, distance to the nearest input market, and input source are significant factors that would be likely to influence farmers’ access to input markets. Lack of finance, poor road network, and low prices of output are the main critically ranked constraints limiting farmers’ access to input markets. Policy initiatives should be geared toward strengthening extension service delivery, farmer education on inputs, improving feeder roads, and encouraging private sector participation in input markets. Available opportunities to leverage on and improve farmers’ access to input markets include the governments’ input subsidy programmes, existing large-scale agricultural projects, private agricultural companies with contract farming models, and extensive network of input dealers and aggregators in the communities. These findings are relevant for farmers, input dealers and policy makers working to improve farmers’ access to input markets

Effect of market participation on household welfare among smallholder goat farmers in Botswana

Goat farming is a major livelihood activity for most smallholder farmers in Botswana. To ensure sustainable livelihoods for these farmers, a shift from the prevalent traditional and subsistence system to a more market-oriented one is considered necessary. Market participation is widely viewed as an effective means of addressing poverty which is particularly rampant in most rural areas of Botswana and other developing countries. Little evidence is however available on the link between market participation and household welfare, especially among livestock and, in particular, small stock farmers. This paper evaluates the effect of market participation on household welfare among smallholder goat farmers. Estimating an endogenous switching regression model, the results show a positive and significant effect of market participation on household income for both participant and non-participant farmers. This effect was found to be more pronounced among the non-participants had they decided to sell. The results suggest that goat farmers should be encouraged to engage in market participation other than their traditional ways of keeping goats. This implies that existing policies and programs that increase market participation and encourage market-oriented farming should be revised in order to provide efficient and sustainable support. Furthermore, the study recommends that information on goat markets should reach rural areas where most farmers reside and are unable to access technology

Ocena procesów reprodukcji w gospodarstwach rolnych w polsce po integracji z ue w świetle danych systemu rachunkowości rolnej fadn

Głównym celem artykułu jest ocena dynamiki procesów reprodukcji gospodarstw rolnych w Polsce po integracji z UE. Stwierdzono, że w okresie korzystnej koniunktury gospodarczej w Polsce (2004 i 2006-2007) gospodarstwa aktywniej modernizowały swoje potencjały produkcyjne. Wskazuje to na istotną rolę uwarunkowań ogólnogospodarczych w kształtowaniu procesów reprodukcji. W 2004 roku odnotowano reprodukcję rozszerzoną dla ogółu gospodarstw rolnych objętych systemem FADN, podczas gdy w 2007 prostą, a w pozostałych latach badanego okresu zawężoną. Istnieją jednak znaczne różnice w tym zakresie ze względu na skalę produkcji. Dostrzeżono, że w gospodarstwach rolnych o wielkości ekonomicznej powyżej 16 ESU procesy modernizacji zapewniały na ogół, w całym badanym okresie (2004-2009), reprodukcję rozszerzoną. Z kolei w jednostkach do 8 ESU mieliśmy do czynienia z dekapitalizacją majątku. Znaczne obniżenie dochodów w gospodarstwach większych, w latach 2008-2009, pomimo zawansowanych procesów modernizacyjnych, wskazuje jednocześnie na ich silną podatność na zmiany koniunktury gospodarczej