Agricultural Information Needs and Food Access in the Stann Creek District of Belize

The purpose of this study was to describe agricultural information sources available to farmers and to describe food access and availability for the people of Dangriga, Stann Creek, Belize. This study used descriptive survey research methods with convenience sampling of the general public (n=22) and of farmers (n = 38) in the summer of 2017. Farmers use a variety of agricultural information sources with the extension service cited most often, followed by friends and fellow farmers. Weather, lack of information, pests, and inadequate access to capital were of primary concern for farmers. Face to face meetings were used most often by extension officers for disseminating agricultural information. Smallholder farmers and the general public have very similar levels of food access and availability. Using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), minimaldifference was foundbetween what the smallholder farmers and the general public selected for household food consumption. Both groups reported mild food insecurity, while a few individual respondents reported severe food insecurity. Recommendations of the study focused on practical operational strategies for the local Department of Agriculture, as well as the Belize Ministry of Agriculture. Additionally, development experts and nutrition specialists should review the results and findings and identify what can be done to further eradicate hungerand increase overall food access and availability throughout Belize

The effects of public funding on farmers' attitudes to farm diversification

The overall aim of this research is to provide the UK Government with an evidence base from which it may be established whether there is a rationale for continuing Government intervention to encourage farm diversification, in particular through making capital grant funding available to farm diversification projects. The project's findings will inform the future role of government support, including whether other forms of support (advice, guidance and training) may be appropriate.Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management,

Smaller scale New Zealand dairy farmers: long term plans and key challenges

Farmer wellbeing has been defined as “a dynamic process that gives people a sense of how their lives are evolving” (Nimpagariste & Culver, 2010). In order to support and enhance the wellbeing of farmers in New Zealand, the farmers’ goals, future plans and challenges to their plans all need to be understood. A particular group of interest is smaller scale dairy farmers. The average size of dairy farms in developed agricultural nations is increasing and New Zealand is no different. A high proportion (62%) of NZ dairy herds are smaller scale, milking less than 400 cows at peak. Their wellbeing, now and in the future, is important to the New Zealand dairy industry as a whole. Consequently, the aim of this study is to develop an understanding of smaller-scale dairy farmers’ future goals, plans and challenges so that recommendations can be made to enhance and support their wellbeing in the future. Farms who peak milked less than 400 cows were surveyed via telephone. A total of 346 surveys were completed, in Taranaki (n=103), the Waikato (n=144) and Northland (n=99). The majority of respondents’ were owner-operators (75%), male (67%), born and bred in a rural area (79%), and between 40 and 60 years old (57%). Overall, the mean farm size was 97ha, with 240 cows producing 86,789kgMS with 0.83 of a full time employee. Respondents’ had high (67%) equity levels in their businesses and a third (35%) had non-farming investments. Farmers’ most likely future investments were related to their current farming business, that is reducing debt to very low levels and increasing production by more than 10%. Based on farmers future plans and challenges reported and discussed in this study, it is clear the smaller scale dairy farmers would like knowledge and assistance in five key areas; succession, regulation and compliance, staff, technology and cash-flow/profitability. This report concludes with suggestions for each of these areas, which has the potential to maintain or increase the wellbeing of smaller scale dairy farmers in New Zealand. [Executive summary]DairyNZ Ltd, Ministry for Primary Industry (NZ

Presidents\u27 Perceptions of Entrepreneurial Strategies in Community Colleges: A Disruptive Innovation

The community college, like all of higher education, has been significantly impacted by a shifting business model and changes in funding. The purpose of this mixed methods, sequential study was to examine community college presidents’ perceptions of entrepreneurial strategies in the higher education industry. The shifting business model requires presidents to look for alternative ways to innovate and adapt as community college funding models change. Community college leaders have also been proactively seeking out alternative revenue streams in order to help offset decreased state funding. Findings of this study show that community college presidents perceive that they must be entrepreneurial in order to survive. There is some difference in the level of which these perceptions exist based on the age and tenure of the president. Community college leaders continue to forge new ground in unknown times as they continue to search for sustainable business models

Lincolnshire diversity in the arts: research and development

Lincolnshire Diversity in the Arts: Research and Development is an Arts Council England funded project, undertaken by the University of Lincoln, aimed at exploring ways to develop cultural/artistic diversity in rural England, by taking Lincolnshire as a case study. The project commenced on 01 April 2016 and completed on 12 November 2017. The project was co-directed by 1) Dr Arya Madhavan, Senior Lecturer, University of Lincoln and 2) Dr Sreenath Nair, Senior Lecturer, University of Lincoln. The project: 1. Produced and toured an Edinburgh Fringe Award-winning (1982) Indian play, Charandas Chor (Charandas Chor: The Honest Thief) in selected arts centres around Lincolnshire and studied its impact among the audience using qualitative and quantitative analytical methods. 2. Organised a one-day symposium bringing together cultural and community leaders as well as artists in an event of artistic exchange, around the theme of diversity. 3. Analysed the cultural strategies employed by Tara Arts, London; Black Country Touring, West Bromwich; Kali Theatre, London; Yellow Earth, London; as well as two artists, Shane Shambhu (a British Asian dancer and choreographer) and Ni Made Pujawathi (a South East Asian dancer and choreographer) in developing their rural audience

Community versus National Financing - How to achieve a sustainable agricultural policy?

Is the Common Agricultural Policy unsustainable? Is agricultural spending a major distorting factor in the EU economy and an obstacle to the implementation of the Lisbon agenda? To answer these complex questions, detailed analysis is required along the following lines of thought: 1. Exploration of factors justifying Community level intervention. – Is the ’theory of decentralization’ applicable to budgetary issues and the common agricultural policy? Our hypothesis suggests that it is. 2. Assessing CAP as it currently exists, including its ability to generate public goods at the level of the Community (multifunctional elements which are indeed cross-border externalities) and its ability to create added value at the level of the Community. 3. Making an attempt to redefine the Community’s agricultural policy by identifying goals which can be achieved more effectively at the supranational level rather than by involving secondary levels of decision making. – Making an attempt to outline a Common Rural Policy, a new policy intended to promote the creation of public goods required by the society by means of targeted and decoupled economic policy measures. The concept of the new policy – a new policy requiring both national and Community funding – is in line with the requirements of sustainable development, i.e. sustainable agricultural activities such as sustainable land use, food and feed production, biofuels, forestry and fishing. Additionally, the new policy we outlined may also be an effective approach to meeting challenges arising from globalisation, trade liberalization, climate change and structural reform issues. ----------------------------------------- Fenntarthatatlan a Közös Agrárpolitika? Torzítják a mezÅ‘gazdasági kiadások az EU gazdaságá¬nak fejlÅ‘dését, gátolják a Lisszaboni stratégia végrehajtását? Ezekre a bonyolult kérdésekre a követ¬kezÅ‘ pontok részletes elemzésével adhatjuk meg a választ: 1. A közösségi szintű beavatkozást igazoló tényezÅ‘k feltárása, rendszerezése. – Alkalmazható a „decentralizációs elmélet†a költségvetési kérdések, illetve a közös agrárpolitika vonatkozásában? Hipotézisünk szerint: igen. 2. A KAP értékelése – figyelembe véve az EU-szintű közjavak (a multifunkcionális elemek va-lóban határokon átnyúló externalitások) és EU-szintű hozzáadott érték előállítására vonatkozó képességet. 3. Kísérlet az EU agrárpolitikájának átalakítására annak segítségével, hogy felmérjük, mely cél-kitűzések valósíthatóak meg eredményesebben szupranacionális szinten, és nem pedig másodla¬gos döntési szintek bevonásával. – Kísérlet a Közös Vidékpolitika körvonalazására, amely új poli¬tika célzott és szétválasztott szakpolitikai intézkedések segítségével járul hozzá a társadalom által megkívánt közjavak előállításához. Az új politika koncepciója – annak az új politikának a koncepciója, amely mind nemzeti mind Kö¬zösségi szintű finanszírozást is igényel – összhangban van a fenntartható fejlÅ‘dés – azaz a fenntart¬ható mezÅ‘gazdasági tevékenységek: fenntartható földhasználat, élelmiszer- és takarmány-előál¬lítás, bioüzemanyag, erdészet és halászat – követelményeivel. Továbbá az általunk felvázolt új po¬litika megfelelÅ‘en kezelheti a globalizációval, kereskedelem-liberalizációval, klímaváltozással és strukturális reformmal kapcsolatos kihívásokat.public goods, fiscal federalism, new agricultural policy, közjavak, fiskális föderalizmus, új agrárpolitika, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance,

Evaluation of the Food and Nutrition Guidelines series

The Food and Nutrition Guidelines Series includes five population-specific documents that provide evidence based technical information on food, nutrition and physical activity for health practitioners. This report describes the independent evaluation of the Guidelines undertaken in 2011. The evaluation mainly involved key informant and stakeholder interviews and an electronic survey of health practitioners who are the target audience for the Guidelines. The evaluation findings indicate that the Guidelines are valued highly by the broad range of health practitioners who use them and are seen by many as essential to safe practice for all practitioners who provide advice or education in nutrition. Evaluation participants were unanimous in their view that the Guidelines need to be retained, albeit in a form that is more accessible to a wider range of health practitioners and others and updated more frequently

Understanding customer satisfaction based on the way they evaluate service delivery

With the development of society, the service industry has become the pillar of the world economy. People's demand for service products is getting higher and higher because people are becoming increasing lazy. Through this research, an immigration organisation showed most customers are not satisfied with the price of service, so the aim of the research is to understand customer satisfaction through their interaction with the service provider. This paper used qualitative method and unstructured interviews. Six interviewees obtained through email were used. The results showed that most customers are satisfied with member engagement in service delivery and credibility of the business, and that the organisation should improve staff response to customers’ questions. There are some recommendations. Firstly, that the company needs to have a strategy for training staff to improve customer satisfaction. Secondly, the organisation needs to think about how they can improve credibility because it is essential to customer satisfaction. Finally, the company needs to improve communication quality to reduce customer waiting time by increasing staff numbers for customer satisfaction

Health and safety in hospitality

Health and safety involves rules and regulations at the workplace. It is important at workplaces to protect employers and employees from accidents and injuries. The aim of this research project is to identify health and safety issues at motels, identify possible causes of those problems, provide some potential solutions to solve those problems, and suggest ways to develop a safe work environment. Observation was used as a primary research method. Results show that staff are not following the health and safety rules properly and managers do not inspect or observe properly. Common hazards in motels are slips, trips and falls, forceful exertions, and musculoskeletal disorders. Lack of health and safety education and training prior to commencement of work, carelessness, ignorance, lack of inspections, are some of the reasons for workplace accidents. Both managers and workers are responsible for keeping the workplace safe and healthy. Recommendations include frequent and timely inspections at the workplace, verbal warnings to workers, a health and safety meeting prior to starting work, and meeting to remind them every day, as well as motivating and rewarding employees to encourage them to develop a safe working culture