Assessment of sustainability in organic and conventional farms in Tunisia: The case of olive-growing farms in the region of Sfax

This research has been carried out to study the sustainability of the Tunisian olive-growing farms and to compare the sustainability level of organic with conventional farms. A survey was conducted with 62 olive growers in the region of Sfax in Tunisia. First, a diagnosis of the situation of the farms was undertaken comparing between organic and conventional farms. Second, an empirical analysis was achieved to asses the sustainability of organic farms versus conventional farms following the French “IDEA” method developed by Vilain [1] 1. The “IDEA” indicators showed a greater ranking for the organic farms. The analysis indicated the sustainability of organic farming on the three scales adopted; ecological scale, through the soil fertility and reduction of pollution, socio-territorial scale through employment creation, reinforcement of the spirit of collective work and the products quality, and finally on the economic scale by enhancing profitability, responding to demand and prices allowing organic farming adopters to reach better incomes.sustainability, organic farming, Tunisia, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Analyzing supply response of fruit tree products in Tunisia: The case of peaches

In Tunisia, peaches have a significant place in the fruit tree sector. Planted areas have been expanding ever since the eighties as a result of irrigation water extension and the use of better yielding varieties. These factors resulted in high production levels and fruit exports thereof. However, important seasonal and annual variation of fruit supplies continues to characterize prices at both wholesale and consumption levels. To study the response of peach production an econometric model was developed. Modelling was carried out in two stages. First area variation was explained through new plantings and removals and second yield variation was analyzed. The methodological approach followed takes into account the characteristics and specificities related to perennial crops. Weak response of supply to variations in expected prices was obtained. Supply price elasticity was estimated about 0.13 suggesting a high degree of inelasticity.Supply response, modeling, price expectations, peaches, Demand and Price Analysis,

La Micro finance islamique et l’Entrepreneuriat : Analyse Empirique (Cas de la Tunisie)

La microfinance islamique est considérée comme une opportunité en Tunisie sur le plan d’investissement puisque c’est un nouveau secteur qui cible la population Tunisienne et sur le plan économique vue sa contribution efficace à la réduction de la pauvreté.Cet article s’interroge sur l’opportunité d’une application de la micro finance islamique afin de revivre l'esprit d'entreprise en Tunisie.Pour savoir le réel de la micro finance islamique  en Tunisie  et pour évaluer son rôle dans la relance de l’entrepreneuriat en se basant sur une étude de cas  concernent une enquête par questionnaire.Nous avons développé des hypothèses qui ont été testées sur un échantillon de 50 personnes.Il a été sélectionné selon la méthode des quotas.Pour mener à bien notre enquête, un questionnaire a été élaboré et distribué à toutes les personnes de l'échantillon.  Plusieurs résultats ont été obtenus : d’abord, Manque de données sur le concept de microfinance islamique, car seuls 10% des enquêtés ont une modeste connaissance sur l’approche de la MFI. Ensuite, la plupart des clients des IMF ou des institutions financières bancaires préfèrent la micro finance islamique au lieu de la micro finance conventionnelle. Enfin, la micro finance islamique pourrait encourager l’entrepreneuriat en Tunisie. Ainsi, il semble que les défis de propagation de la microfinance islamique en Tunisie pourraient être surmontés grâce à l'amélioration de l'information, la sensibilisation des gens de l'importance de cette modalité de financement, la mise en place d’un cadre juridique approprié au développement des institutions de microfinance islamique en Tunisie

Analyse de la Reponse de l'offre des Pommes en Tunisie : Une Approche Econometrique

In Tunisia, the apples occupy a significant place on the sector of perennial crops. This crop covered expanded areas during the eighties following an extensive use of efficient water equipments. However, significant seasonal and annual variation of fruit supplies in the domestic market were frequently encountered affecting prices at both wholesale and consumption levels. To study the supply response of apples we carried out an econometric estimate of the model of supply response. Modelling was carried out in two stages: determination of the variation of the surfaces, on the basis of equation of news plantations and the equation of removals, and the variation of yields. The methodological approach that we followed takes account of the characteristics and specificities related to the perennial crops. Weak response of the supply to variations in the expected prices is obtained. Price elasticity obtained is about 0.13

Assessment of sustainability in organic and conventional farms in Tunisia: The case of olive-growing farms in the region of Sfax

This research has been carried out to study the sustainability of the Tunisian olive-growing farms and to compare the sustainability level of organic with conventional farms. A survey was conducted with 62 olive growers in the region of Sfax in Tunisia. First, a diagnosis of the situation of the farms was undertaken comparing between organic and conventional farms. Second, an empirical analysis was achieved to asses the sustainability of organic farms versus conventional farms following the French “IDEA” method developed by Vilain [1] 1. The “IDEA” indicators showed a greater ranking for the organic farms. The analysis indicated the sustainability of organic farming on the three scales adopted; ecological scale, through the soil fertility and reduction of pollution, socio-territorial scale through employment creation, reinforcement of the spirit of collective work and the products quality, and finally on the economic scale by enhancing profitability, responding to demand and prices allowing organic farming adopters to reach better incomes

Analyse de la Reponse de l'offre des Pommes en Tunisie : Une Approche Econometrique

In Tunisia, the apples occupy a significant place on the sector of perennial crops. This crop covered expanded areas during the eighties following an extensive use of efficient water equipments. However, significant seasonal and annual variation of fruit supplies in the domestic market were frequently encountered affecting prices at both wholesale and consumption levels. To study the supply response of apples we carried out an econometric estimate of the model of supply response. Modelling was carried out in two stages: determination of the variation of the surfaces, on the basis of equation of news plantations and the equation of removals, and the variation of yields. The methodological approach that we followed takes account of the characteristics and specificities related to the perennial crops. Weak response of the supply to variations in the expected prices is obtained. Price elasticity obtained is about 0.13.Supply response, modelling, expected prices, apples, Demand and Price Analysis,

Analyzing supply response of fruit tree products in Tunisia: The case of peaches

In Tunisia, peaches have a significant place in the fruit tree sector. Planted areas have been expanding ever since the eighties as a result of irrigation water extension and the use of better yielding varieties. These factors resulted in high production levels and fruit exports thereof. However, important seasonal and annual variation of fruit supplies continues to characterize prices at both wholesale and consumption levels. To study the response of peach production an econometric model was developed. Modelling was carried out in two stages. First area variation was explained through new plantings and removals and second yield variation was analyzed. The methodological approach followed takes into account the characteristics and specificities related to perennial crops. Weak response of supply to variations in expected prices was obtained. Supply price elasticity was estimated about 0.13 suggesting a high degree of inelasticity

AaN: Anti-adversarial Noise - A Novel Approach for Securing Machine Learning-based Wireless Communication Systems

Machine Learning (ML) is becoming a cornerstone enabling technology for the next generation of wireless systems. This is mainly due to the high performance achieved by these data-driven models in addressing problems in communication that are challenging to solve using the classical methods. However, ML models are known to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks; maliciously crafted lowmagnitude signals that are designed to mislead ML models. More specifically, the propagation nature of the electromagnetic signals makes the wireless domain even more critical compared to other applications like computer vision where the attacker is physically constrained by the victim’s immediate neighborhood to be efficient. While several works showed the practicality of these attacks in the wireless domain, the main countermeasure is adversarial training. However, this approach results in a considerable accuracy loss, which makes the very utility of ML questionable. In this paper, we address this problem with a new approach tailored to wireless communication contexts. Specifically, we propose a new defense that leverages the physical properties of the wireless propagation to enhance ML-based wireless communication systems against adversarial attacks. We propose Anti-adversarial Noise (AaN), where the Base Station (BS) broadcasts a carefully crafted defensive signal that is designed to counter the impact of any adversarial noise. We specifically focus on ML-based modulation recognition. However, the proposed method is not specific to this application and can be generalized to other ML-based communication use cases. Our results show that our proposed defense can enhance models’ robustness by up to 44% without losing utility.</p