Modelling the Determinants of Organic Farming

Analysis of scientific literature lead to the conclusion that academic society, politicians and producers of agricultural products more and more realize the importance and significance of organic farming on the development of society through the prism of the sustainable development and understand that organic farming creates the preconditions for the solution of environmental, economic and social problems in agriculture. The analysis of the previous methodologies and results regarding the factors of organic farming has enabled the following conclusions to be drawn: • the quantitative researches based on the farmers’ opinions dominated. The opinion of consumers was used rarely, and the qualitative experimental researches were ever so seldom. It is likely, that the reason of such a situation was the said assumption that the decision to change the method of production was the prerogative of the farmer and his family; • already the initial period (until the seventies of the last century) of the studies on the factors of conventional farming has revealed that the respondents named many factors encouraging them to run the agricultural activity. This encouraged in later researches to classify the factors of organic farming by different characteristics. It should be noted that the conclusions of studies of the said initial period stressed the importance of the external factors such as the market of organic products, promotional policy, consumer opinion. In the results of slightly later studies the prominence was given to the personal characteristics of the farmers, and were stressed the elements of farming systems, the significance of their interaction and links with the external environment, i.e. it was an attempt to emphasize the significance of the factors of the farm internal environment. Eventually, the studies started to treat as significant both the internal and external factors. It all goes to cause the mixed matrix of the identified factors; • for quite a long time it was an attempt to identify the organic farming influencing factors analyzing the organic farmers as a homogeneous group, i. e. as an alternative to the conventional farmers. Only since mid-nineties of the last century it was started to search for the dividing line among the respondents farming organically classifying them by certain features, i. e. by different characteristics of the surveyed farmers or their farms. However, for this reason the matrix of the identified factors has become even more mixed, and the opinions of researchers on the factors’ significance to the farmers have divided even more. The analysis has showed and supposed the grounds for the classification of organic farmers into different groups by priority of activity independent of the duration of the development of organic farming and on this basis to identify the significance of the determinants of organic farming. The model for research of the determinants of organic farming includes two groups of factors (the external and internal) affecting the farmers’ decision to farm organically and four subgroups (respectively, the government and the market, and the farm and the personality of farmer). The research model was tested on the opinions of the respondents engaged in organic farming. The results of the empiric research proved the rightness of the theoretical model and enabled to clarify that in Lithuania under the present conditions the respondents engaged in organic farming assessed the groups of determinants differently. The cluster analysis of the empiric research enabled to identify two groups of organic respondents depending on statistically significant differences of activity priorities: profit-oriented and organic-oriented lifestyle (in the beginning of the clustering process 24 cluster groups of the respondents were formed). This shows that the clustering enabled the elimination of the socio-economic heterogeneity of organic farms while identifying the organic farming encouraging factors. The results of the empiric research have showed that in the opinion of the respondents engaged in organic farming the external factors are more significant than the internal; the external determinants are more encouraging but not limiting organic farming. The regressive analysis of the factors of organic farming has revealed that for both cluster groups of the respondents (profit-oriented and organic-oriented lifestyle) the external and internal determinants have different significance. The assessment of the determinants of organic farming depending on their importance and significance in the both identified cluster groups of the respondents has revealed the following differences: • the majority of the determinants encouraging organic farming the respondents of organic-oriented lifestyle assessed more favorably than the profit-oriented respondents; • the opinion of both groups’ respondents was the most different concerning the importance of the environmental issues (soil, water resources, etc.) on the farm

United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Kenya

The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2014-2018) for Kenya is an expression of the UN's commitment to support the Kenyan people in their self-articulated development aspirations. This UNDAF has been developed according to the principles of UN Delivering as One (DaO), aimed at ensuring Government ownership, demonstrated through UNDAF's full alignment to Government priorities and planning cycles, as well as internal coherence among UN agencies and programmes operating in Kenya. The UNDAF narrative includes five recommended sections: Introduction and Country Context, UNDAF Results, Resource Estimates, Implementation Arrangements, and Monitoring and Evaluation as well as a Results and Resources Annex. Developed under the leadership of the Government, the UNDAF reflects the efforts of all UN agencies working in Kenya and is shaped by the five UNDG programming principles: Human Rights-based approach, gender equality, environmental sustainability, capacity development, and results based management. The UNDAF working groups have developed a truly broad-based Results Framework, in collaboration with Civil Society, donors and other partners. The UNDAF has four Strategic Results Areas: 1) Transformational Governance encompassing Policy and Institutional Frameworks; Democratic Participation and Human Rights; Devolution and Accountability; and Evidence-based Decision-making, 2) Human Capital Development comprised of Education and Learning; Health, including Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Environmental Preservation, Food Availability and Nutrition; Multi-sectoral HIV and AIDS Response; and Social Protection, 3) Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, with Improving the Business Environment; Strengthening Productive Sectors and Trade; and Promoting Job Creation, Skills Development and Improved Working Conditions, and 4) Environmental Sustainability, Land Management and Human Security including Policy and Legal Framework Development; and Peace, Community Security and Resilience. The UNDAF Results Areas are aligned with the three Pillars (Political, Social and Economic) of the Government's Vision 2030 transformational agenda

A Planning Template for Nonwork Travel and Transit Oriented Development, MTI Report 01-12

The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University assigned a project team to design a planning template for transit-oriented development (TOD) that incorporates an understanding of nonwork travel, that is, trips for shopping, eating out, and engaging in recreational and cultural activities. Nonwork trips are growing in signifigance and now account for four of every five trips. At the same time, TOD has become a popular planning response to the impacts of metropolitan growth. Some planners believe that TOD will induce more pedestrian and transit trips and will reduce the average length and frequency of household auto travel. This effect is assumed to result from improved accessibility to employment and nonwork venues located in compact, mixed-use centers. Planning professionals in many MPOs also suggest that if multiple centers are linked by high quality transit, such as light or heavy rail, access is enabled to the broad range of nonwork activities. The project arrived at these essential findings: (1) Venues for nonwork activities are very numerous and geographically dispersed. 2) The spatial environment for nonwork activities is the result of growing prosperity, technical innovation, and a dynamic, competitive marketplace. (3) The consumer marketplace will provide many more places to go than mass transit can cost-effectively serve. (4) Current metropolitan planning methods and modeling tools focus on the work trip and do not adequately account for the complexity of nonwork trips and their linkage to work trips. These findings support the need for a new regional planning process to complement current methods. One recommended approach is that metropolitan communities establish a Nonwork Travel Improvement Planning Process using a multidisciplinary expert advisory group interacting with a core, Internet-enabled, professional transportation planning staff. An iterative interaction across varied but relevant skill sets could be achieved through a Backcasting Delphi process. The focus of the interaction would be on understanding the ramifications of consumer and retail industry behavior for TOD and other new transportation strategies, and then assessing the available strategies for cost-effectiveness in reducing the impacts of growth and automobility in a complex and uncertain metropolitan market