Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for organic apples

Cerda, AA (reprint author), Univ Talca, Fac Ciencias Empresariales, 2 Norte 685, Talca, Chile.This study provides marketing data regarding consumer preferences and willingness to pay for organic agricultural products in Chile. The main objectives of this study were to assess consumer willingness to pay for organic apples and to determine the main attributes that consumers look for when purchasing apples. The methodology applied to reach the first objective was the contingent valuation method using a logistic probability function and a single-bound dichotomous choice format. Additionally, this study estimates the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) of consumers for organic apples by using conjoint analysis with ranking procedures. This study was performed in the city of Talca, Chile, where a total of 400 individuals from a probability sampling were interviewed. The results of our study show that the estimation of part-worth utilities of each attribute confirms that the Fuji variety, organic method of production, sweet apples and lowest price are the most preferred levels of each attribute. However, an analysis of the relative utility index shows that price and variety are much more important to consumer choice and behavior than the method of production and flavor. Finally, our study shows a positive willingness to pay an additional 130 Chilean pesos per kilogram for organic apples and a greater preference for apples produced organically than by conventional methods. These results provide important information about market opportunities as well as policy implementation regarding the production of organic agricultural products

OMA orthology in 2021: website overhaul, conserved isoforms, ancestral gene order and more.

OMA is an established resource to elucidate evolutionary relationships among genes from currently 2326 genomes covering all domains of life. OMA provides pairwise and groupwise orthologs, functional annotations, local and global gene order conservation (synteny) information, among many other functions. This update paper describes the reorganisation of the database into gene-, group- and genome-centric pages. Other new and improved features are detailed, such as reporting of the evolutionarily best conserved isoforms of alternatively spliced genes, the inferred local order of ancestral genes, phylogenetic profiling, better cross-references, fast genome mapping, semantic data sharing via RDF, as well as a special coronavirus OMA with 119 viruses from the Nidovirales order, including SARS-CoV-2, the agent of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conclude with improvements to the documentation of the resource through primers, tutorials and short videos. OMA is accessible at https://omabrowser.org

DISTRIBUIÇÃO ESPACIAL DO BICHO-FURÃO,Gymnandrosoma aurantiana (Lima, 1927)(LEPIDOPTERA: TORTRICIDAE),EM CITROS UTILIZANDO GEOESTATÍSTICA

RESUMO O bicho-furão, Gymnandrosoma aurantiana (Lima, 1927), é uma das principais pragas da citricultura brasileira, pois os frutos atacados pelas lagartas tornam-se inviáveis para o consumo in natura e processamento industrial. Objetivou-se estudar a distribuição espacial dos danos causados por G. aurantiana utilizando geoestatística. Para tanto, foi conduzido um experimento em um pomar de laranjeira-doce da variedade ‘Valência’, enxertado sobre limoeiro ‘Cravo’, localizado em Taquaritinga-SP, Brasil. A área foi dividida em 88 parcelas, sendo cada parcela formada por 30 plantas dispostas em três linhas de 10 plantas, e em seguida foi obtido o número de frutos atacados para os anos de 2007 e 2008. A distribuição dos frutos atacados pela praga foi agregada ao longo das avaliações, com variância maior que a média para todas as amostragens. Os dados apresentaram ajuste adequado segundo o modelo esférico, e o alcance da dependência espacial (a) variou entre 40,66 e 135,40 m. A estimativa de frutos atacados nas áreas não amostradas foi obtida pela krigagem, e os principais focos da praga foram observados nas parcelas próximas aos limites da área experimental