Carbon dioxide emission from brickfields around Bangladesh

The study was undertaken at six divisions of Bangladesh to investigate the CO2 emission from brickfields. to explore the rate of carbon emission over the last 10 years, based on existing technology for brick production. The finding reveals that there were more than 45,000 Brick kilns in Bangladesh which together account for about 95% of operating kilns including Bull's Trench Kiln, Fixed Chimney Kiln, Zigzag Kiln and Hoffman Kiln. These kilns were the most carbon emitting source but it varies on fuel type, kiln type and also for location. It has been found that, maximum carbon emission area was Chittagong, which was 93.150 with percentage of last 10 years and 9.310 per cent per year. Whereas Sylhet was lower carbon emission area indicating percentage 17.172 of last 10 years and 4.218 percent per year. It has been found that total annual amount of CO2 emission for 4 types brick kilns from Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulana, Sylhet and Barisal were 8.862 Mt yr-1, 10.048 Mt yr-1, 12.783 Mt yr-1, 15.250 Mt yr-1, in the year of 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2010 respectively. In Mymensingh district, the maximum CO2 emission and coal consumption was obtained in Chamak brick field, which was 1882 tons and 950 tons, respectively and minimum was obtained in Zhalak brick field, which was 1039.5 tons and 525.0 tons, respectively during the year of 2013. The percentage in last 10 years of CO2 emission was 72.784 and per cent per year 7.970, which is very alarming for us. The estimates obtained from surveys and on-site investigations indicate that these kilns consume an average of 240 tons of coal to produce 1 million bricks. This type of coal has a measured calorific value of 6,400 KJ, heating value of coal is 20.93 GJ t-1 and it produces 94.61 TJ t-1 and 56.1 TJ t-1 CO2 from coal and natural gas, respectively. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v4i2.22653 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 4 (2): 70-75, December, 201

Productive efficiency of tea industry: A stochastic frontier approach

In an economy where recourses are scarce and opportunities for a new technology are lacking, studies will be able to show the possibility of raising productivity by improving the industry’s efficiency. This study attempts to measure the status of technical efficiency of tea-producing industry for panel data in Bangladesh using the stochastic frontier production function, incorporating technical inefficiency effect model. It was observed that Translog Production Function is more preferable than Cobb-Douglas Production Function. The study estimates that the average technical efficiency of tea producing industries in Bangladesh is 59%. Therefore, the results indicated that there is a great potential exists fortea industry to further increase the value added by 41% using the available input, technology and efficiency improvement, thereby reducing the cost of production. The study identifies that the mean efficiency of tea industries for value added vary among the regions and year-wise mean efficiency seems to be unstable during the study period and therefore, continued efforts to update technologies and equipment are required in pursuit of efficiency in tea industry

System dynamics modelling and its implications for childhood obesity prevention: evidence from improving the consumption of portion size and meal frequency

The childhood obesity has rapidly increased, though little is known about the impact of frequency of meals and portion size on weight and obesity. The objective of this study is to compare and to determine the effective strategy for obesity prevention by improving the consumption of portion size and meal frequency. This study utilised the secondary data obtained from the Health Survey for England for the child population aged between 2 to 15 years in United Kingdom. This study combines the different strands of knowledge from nutrition, physical activity and body metabolism and synthesizing this knowledge into a system dynamics model which the model offers unique insights into the cause-and-effect relationships among the influencing factors. Findings from the simulation analysis demonstrated that reducing meal frequency is the most effective controlling strategy for obesity prevention. This is asserted by the fact that the highest reduction in average weight (3.14%-4.5%) and average body mass index (3.14%-4.5%) between 2020 and 2030 was observed by improving meal frequency. This paper concludes that system dynamics utilised in this study will be advantageous to guide the food stakeholder to gain insight into the complex of eating behavior and to experiment with various intervention strategies for obesity prevention

Changes in homestead biodiversity with modernization in the rural areas of Bangladesh

A study was carried out at selected villages in Gazipur district of Bangladesh during 2008- 2009 with a view to assess the changes in homestead biodiversity with degree of modernization in the rural areas. Three villages were selected purposively considering their degree of modernization e.g. traditional, semi-modern and modern village and biodiversity at 40 randomly selected homesteads from each of the three villages were studied. Species richness, interspecies diversity (Shannon-Wiener diversity index) and species evenness were considered for measuring the biodiversity. A total of 188 plant species belonging to 75 different families were identified in the homesteads of three study villages. The highest proportion (11%) of species found under the family Gramineae followed by Cucurbitaceae (6%), Compositae (5%), Solanaceae (5%), Leguminosae (4%), Amaranthaceae (4%), Rutaceae (3%), Euphorbiaceae (3%), Convolvulaceae (3%), and Cyperaceae (3%) and so on. Among the 188 plant species, 15% fruits species, 9% timber, 11% ornamental and medicinal, 14% vegetables, 4% spices and 47% weed species. The highest number (172) of species was found in traditional village and the lowest (126) in the modern village. Diversity index (H) value for traditional village (1.652) was statistically similar to semi-modern village (1.373) but significantly higher (t = 2.47*) than that of modern village (1.029). So, it can be said that plant biodiversity is decreasing with increase in modernization and/or urbanization. The diversity (H) decreased with decrease in farm size, in other words, species diversity increased with increase in farm size but there was no significant difference among the farm categories in this regard. The total evenness values against the three villages (0.741, 0.630 and 0.491 in Bhawal Gazipur, Hatiyabo and Mariali, respectively) indicate that the abundance of different species was very dissimilar and decreased with increase in modernization.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 7 (1): 32-37, June, 201

Factors affecting plant biodiversity in the homesteads of rural areas under process of modernization in Bangladesh

A study was carried out at selected villages in Gazipur district of Bangladesh during 2008- 2009 to assess the changes in biodiversity of rural homesteads with modernization and factors affecting the biodiversity. Three villages were selected purposively considering their degree of modernization e.g. traditional, semi-modern and modern village and biodiversity at 40 randomly selected homesteads from each of the three villages were studied. Shannon- Wiener diversity index (H) value for traditional village (1.652) was statistically similar to semi-modern village (1.373) but significantly higher (t = 2.47*) than that of modern village (1.029). It indicates that plant biodiversity is decreasing significantly with modernization and/or urbanization. For assessing factors affecting biodiversity in the homesteads, a total of 26 factors were considered of them 15 factors had significant relationship with biodiversity. Factors like, family size, establishment of homestead, agricultural knowledge, nutritional knowledge, primary health care knowledge, environmental awareness, innovativeness, homestead area, income from homestead, savings, access to credit, disturbance of theft and predators, and utilization of modern agro-technologies had significant positive relationship; while ‘fragmentation of homestead’ and ‘sanitation’ had significantly negative relationship with homestead biodiversity. Linear multiple regression analysis showed that eight factors such as, agricultural knowledge, nutritional knowledge, environmental awareness, homestead area, income from homestead, innovativeness, homestead fragmentation and sanitation had significant contribution to homestead biodiversity. These eight significant factors explained 75.2 percent (adjusted R2 = 0.752) of the total variation in the homestead biodiversity. However, stepwise regression analysis revealed that ‘homestead area’ had the largest possible contribution (55.7%) to variation in the homestead biodiversity, followed in descending order by agricultural knowledge (9.5%), income from homestead (5.0%), environmental awareness (2.9%), sanitation (2.3%), nutritional knowledge (1.6%), innovativeness (1.0%) and fragmentation of the homestead (1.0%).Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 8 (1): 44-54, June, 201

Changes in homestead biodiversity with modernization in the rural areas of Bangladesh

A study was carried out at selected villages in Gazipur district of Bangladesh during 2008- 2009 with a view to assess the changes in homestead biodiversity with degree of modernization in the rural areas. Three villages were selected purposively considering their degree of modernization e.g. traditional, semi-modern and modern village and biodiversity at 40 randomly selected homesteads from each of the three villages were studied. Species richness, interspecies diversity (Shannon-Wiener diversity index) and species evenness were considered for measuring the biodiversity. A total of 188 plant species belonging to 75 different families were identified in the homesteads of three study villages. The highest proportion (11%) of species found under the family Gramineae followed by Cucurbitaceae (6%), Compositae (5%), Solanaceae (5%), Leguminosae (4%), Amaranthaceae (4%), Rutaceae (3%), Euphorbiaceae (3%), Convolvulaceae (3%), and Cyperaceae (3%) and so on. Among the 188 plant species, 15% fruits species, 9% timber, 11% ornamental and medicinal, 14% vegetables, 4% spices and 47% weed species. The highest number (172) of species was found in traditional village and the lowest (126) in the modern village. Diversity index (H) value for traditional village (1.652) was statistically similar to semi-modern village (1.373) but significantly higher (t = 2.47*) than that of modern village (1.029). So, it can be said that plant biodiversity is decreasing with increase in modernization and/or urbanization. The diversity (H) decreased with decrease in farm size, in other words, species diversity increased with increase in farm size but there was no significant difference among the farm categories in this regard. The total evenness values against the three villages (0.741, 0.630 and 0.491 in Bhawal Gazipur, Hatiyabo and Mariali, respectively) indicate that the abundance of different species was very dissimilar and decreased with increase in modernization.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 7 (1): 32-37, June, 201

Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie