Farmer evaluation of biocontrol methods against rootknot nematodes in tomatoes

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Root-knot nematodes in tomatoes cause financial loss to Kenyan smallholders. While soil fumigation appears to be losing effectiveness two bio-control agents (bcas), Pasteuria penetrans and Verticillium chlamydosporium, appear promising. Participatory budgeting is being used to compare the bcas with chemical and other biological controls on commercial and organic smallholdings

An Economic and Institutional Analysis of Maize Research in Kenya

Maize, the most important food crop in Kenya, contributes 44 percent of the per-capita, calorie intake. Increases in maize production over the past three decades have been attributed to the availability and adoption of modern maize techniques, especially fertilizer and hybrid seed. This paper estimates the rate of return to maize research to be 53 to 61 percent, and reveals that his impact was aided by complementary agricultural extension and seed multiplication and distribution programs. The paper describes the institutional framework that may have led to one of Kenya’s agricultural research success stories. It also poses challenges to the future of maize production in Kenya.food security, food policy, maize, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Downloads July 2008 - July 2009: 19, O18,

Who Should the Chief Information Security Officer Be Reporting To?

The last couple of years have witnessed a proliferation and embeddedness of IT resources into many organizations’ business processes making the reliability/security of these IT resources important in guaranteeing business continuity. Through organizational structures, firms usually delegate the decision making rights for the IT security activities and policies to an officer who in many cases is referred to as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). However, it is not very clear who the CISO should be reporting to. Using the agent-principal theory, this study seeks to investigate how the interest(s) of the CEO(s) affect the decision-making discretion that CEOs give to the CISOs. Using an objective data set of firms that hired a CISO between 2007-2014 this study seeks to find out if there are any significant differences in financial gains/losses and business downtime between firms that have their CISOs report to the CEOs or other non-CIO TMT member

The economic impact of climate change on Kenyan crop agriculture : a ricardian approach

This paper measures the economic impact of climate on crops in Kenya. The analysis is based on cross-sectional climate, hydrological, soil, and household level data for a sample of 816 households, and uses a seasonal Ricardian model. Estimated marginal impacts of climate variables suggest that global warming is harmful for agricultural productivity and that changes in temperature are much more important than changes in precipitation. This result is confirmed by the predicted impact of various climate change scenarios on agriculture. The results further confirm that the temperature component of global warming is much more important than precipitation. The authors analyze farmers'perceptions of climate variations and their adaptation to these, and also constraints on adaptation mechanisms. The results suggest that farmers in Kenya are aware of short-term climate change, that most of them have noticed an increase in temperatures, and that some have taken adaptive measures.Climate Change,Environmental Economics&Policies,Common Property Resource Development,Global Environment Facility,Crops&Crop Management Systems

Conflict Transformation and the Spiritual Practices for the Military Chaplain

No abstract is available