Collective Action in the Management of Common-Pool Resources: Is There an Alternative to the Rational Choice Model?

The literature on community based natural resource management largely focuses on developing conditions that enable self-organized groups of resource users to collectively manage common pool resources. The analytical approach in most economic analyses is that of methodological individualism, where hypotheses are based on the representative, rational and self-interested individual who maximizes utility and on the basis of observed attributes of several successful case studies, the theory focuses on creating incentives for collective action through institutional design. This paper argues that an incentive based approach following the rational-choice model of human behavior is not sufficient to explain the success of voluntary groups in overcoming the free rider problem and seeks explanations from social and behavioral theories for a better understanding of the outcome of collective action efforts. Based on illustrations from experiences in the Joint Forest Management program in India, the paper suggests a direction for survey research to that would enable us to identify some relevant behavioral regularities, such as endowment effects, loss aversion and framing, among the group of resource users that can be helpful in explaining the outcome of collective action efforts and can inform policy makers to design the policy in a way that is more likely to reinforce desired behavior.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Self-Initiative and Michigan Poverty

Labor and Human Capital,

Exploration of Plant Growth-Promoting Actinomycetes for Biofortification of Mineral Nutrients

Mineral malnutrition, especially Fe and Zn, affects more than two million people around the world and increases vulnerability to illness and infections. These malnourished people live in developing countries and rely upon staple foods routinely with inability to either afford for dietary diversification or pharmaceutical supplementation or industrial fortification of minerals. Biofortification is a strategy that can tackle hidden hunger merely through staple foods that people eat every day. This strategy can be achieved through agronomic practices and conventional breeding and genetic engineering approaches, and each has their own pros and cons. The sustainability of such grain fortification with higher seed mineral concentration is soil health dependent, especially on the availability of mineral in the rhizosphere. Microorganisms, the invisible engineers in improving the soil health by solubilizing trace elements and by driving various biogeochemical cycles of soil, have the ability to serve as a key solution for this complex issue. In specific, plant growth-promoting (PGP) microbes reside in root-soil interface and employ the use of siderophores, organic acids, and exopolysaccharides for increasing the mineral availability and subsequent mobilization to the plants. Increasing the seed mineral density with the use of such PGP microbes, especially actinomycetes, is in its infancy. Hence, this chapter is aimed to bring a view on the role of microbes, especially actinomycetes, with metal-mobilizing and PGP traits for biofortification as this strategy may act as a complementary sustainable tool for the existing biofortification strategies

Utilization of actinomycetes having broad-spectrum of plant growth promoting and biocontrol traits in chickpea, sorghum and rice

Plant pathogens such as Sclerotium rolfsii (causes collar rot), Fusarium oxysporum (causes wilt) and Macrophomina phaseolina (causes charcoal rot/dry root rot) have a broad host range, affecting several agriculturally important crops including chickpea, pigeon pea, groundnut and sorghum, which are grown under rainfed conditions, leading to significant yield losses. Due to the broad host range of these fungal pathogens, it has become very difficult for the farmers to grow these crops profitably. Hence, there is a need to have broad-spectrum plant growth-promoting (PGP) and biocontrol organisms for use in different cropping systems for the control of multiple diseases in a single crop and there by the crop productivity can be enhanced in the dry-land agriculture. The main objective of the present study was to identify and evaluate broad spectrum PGP and biocontrol agents and their metabolites with multiple actions against different pathogens so that one biological treatment controls more than one problem apart from promotion of plant growth in chickpea, sorghum and rice

Plant Growth Promoting Actinobacteria : A New Avenue for Enhancing the Productivity and Soil Fertility of Grain Legumes

Global yields of legumes have been relatively stagnant for the last five decades, despite the adoption of conventional and molecular breeding approaches. The use of plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria for improving agricultural production, soil and plant health has become one of the most attractive strategies for developing sustainable agriculture. Actinomycetes are bacteria that play an important role in PGP and plant protection, produce secondary metabolites of commercial interest, and their use is well documented in wheat, rice, beans, chickpeas and peas. In order to promote legumes, the general assembly of the UN recently declared 2016 the “International Year of Pulses.” In view of this development, this book illustrates how PGP actinomycetes can improve grain yield and soil fertility, improve control of insect pests and phytopathogens, and enhance host-plant resistance. It also addresses special topics of current interest, e.g. the role of PGP actinomycetes in the biofortification of legume seeds and bioremediation of heavy metals

A Renaissance in Plant Growth-Promoting and Biocontrol Agents by Endophytes

Endophytes are the microorganisms which colonize the internal tissue of host plants without causing any damage to the colonized plant. The beneficial role of endophytic organisms has dramatically documented worldwide in recent years. Endophytes promote plant growth and yield, remove contaminants from soil, and provide soil nutrients via phosphate solubilization/nitrogen fixation. The capacity of endophytes on abundant production of bioactive compounds against array of phytopathogens makes them a suitable platform for biocontrol explorations. Endophytes have unique interaction with their host plants and play an important role in induced systemic resistance or biological control of phytopathogens. This trait also benefits in promoting plant growth either directly or indirectly. Plant growth promotion and biocontrol are the two sturdy areas for sustainable agriculture where endophytes are the key players with their broad range of beneficial activities. The coexistence of endophytes and plants has been exploited recently in both of these arenas which are explored in this chapter

Combining Property Rights and Landings Taxes to Mitigate the Ecological Impacts of Fishing

Economists have long promoted fishery rationalization programs, but ITQs may fail to address the ecological consequences of fishing. Of particular concern is that economic incentives to harvest larger fish (due to size-dependent pricing or quota-induced discarding) can destabilize fish populations or lead to evolutionary changes. A substantial theoretical literature in economics has explored incentive problems in ITQ fisheries but has treated highgrading as part of the stock externality. We provide an alternative viewpoint in that the stock externality and the size-based incentives are two distinct externalities and thus require two distinct policy instruments. In this paper, we show that if managers know the price-by-size distribution and the size distribution of the population, total revenues and total catch (in weight) by vessel are sufficient statistics to design a schedule of revenue-neutral individualized landings taxes that eliminate the incentive to highgrade in an ITQ fishery. That is, landings taxes can be used to address the ecological consequences of fishing while using ITQs to address the open access stock externality

Soil Microbes: The Invisible Managers of Soil Fertility

Soil health is represented by its continuous capacity to function as a vital living system. Since soil health is the major driving factor for sustainable agriculture, it has to be preserved. Microorganisms are an essential and integral part of living soil influencing various biogeochemical cycles on major nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorous and other minerals and play superior role in maintaining soil health than other biological component of soil. They also have the capacity to suppress soil borne pathogens and indirectly help in agricultural productivity. Besides contribution of specific microbes to soil health by participating on nutrient cycles, certain other microbes directly/indirectly promote plant growth through the production of phytohormones, enzymes and by suppressing phytopathogens and insects. The vast functional and genetic diversity of microbial groups including bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes supports in all the above ways for soil health. This book chapter gives an outline of such microbes and their contribution in promoting soil health and its role as soil health indicators

Extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Streptomyces griseoplanus SAI-25 and its antifungal activity against Macrophomina phaseolina , the charcoal rot pathogen of sorghum

Streptomyces griseoplanus SAI-25 isolated from rice rhizospheric soils with previously demonstrated insecticidal activity is currently characterized for silver nanoparticle synthesis using its extracellular extract. The synthesized particles showed the characteristic absorption spectra of silver nanoparticles at 413–417 nm. Spectral analysis by FTIR confirmed the presence of alcohols, amines, phenols and protein in the cell-free extracellular extract of SAI-25. These functional groups could have served dual roles in silver nanoparticle synthesis like reducing and stabilizing agents. Microscopic and spectroscopic analysis such as SEM, TEM, EDAX and XRD has provided the size, shape and composition of the synthesized nanoparticles. DLS and Zeta potential further confirms the size and characteristic negative charges of AgNPs respectively. The observed antifungal activity against charcoal rot pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina shows a base for the development of Streptomyces mediated nanoparticles in controlling this polyphagus pathogen and key role of biopesticides in improving agricultural economy

Formulation and Commercialization of Rhizobia: Asian Scenario

The symbiotic agreement of rhizobia with leguminous plants is making a valuable contribution to agriculture primarily as nitrogen fixers and secondarily as plant growth promoters by their key role as phosphate solubilizers, growth hormone producers, abiotic and biotic stress relievers, and host-plant resistance enhancer. In the so far identified 14 genera and 105 species of rhizobia, a huge number of research reports were reported in various aspects. Genetically modified rhizobia with desirable traits have also been surfed to a large extent. Besides their potentiality, the commercial success of rhizobia as a bio-inoculant is poor, because most of the inoculants produced worldwide are of poor or suboptimal quality. Though voluminous data and better understanding are available on various formulation technologies, longevity and efficacy of the final product are loosed at the farmer’s end. This book chapter is focused to address various types of formulations applicable to rhizobia, quality control for longevity, gaps in knowledge on bringing the native potential of rhizobia during formulation, and critical control points to be considered during its development. The chapter also shares ICRISAT’s experience in its rhizobial collection, formulation developments, and efficacy testing