Estimating the Implicit Value of Crop Stubble as a Barrier to Technology Adoption in Morocco

For mixed cereal-livestock farmers, cereal production provides a bundle of goods. Grain is consumed by the household or sold at market, and crop residues are used as livestock feed. The straw component of crop residue can be bought and sold at market and therefore has a well-established local market price. Crop stubble, the portion of the crop residue left on the ground, is generally not traded and therefore has no market price. Some agricultural technologies require farmers to forgo using crop stubble as feed, and cultivation of high value crops entails sacrificing residue production altogether. In this paper we apply a structural econometric model to household data from Morocco to estimate the implicit value of crop stubble. We use a sample splitting technique to investigate differences in the value of this resource and find that it is significantly higher for smaller farmers, who therefore face an even larger barrier to technology adoption.Mixed cereal-livestock systems, Non-market valuation, Land use, Technology adoption, No-till, International Development, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, O33, Q12, Q24,

Implementing Rural-Urban Disaggregated Food Demand in a Partial Equilibrium Model

Global general and partial equilibrium models focused on the agricultural sector can help policy makers do ex-ante analysis by providing a variety of macro-level outcomes, such as changes in flows of international trade, and changes in the supply, demand, and prices of globally traded commodities. IFPRI’s IMPACT model (International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade) model is one such model. Since its inception nearly 20 years ago the model has evolved to inform increasingly complex and nuanced policy issues, such as the explicit modeling of water use and the productive response of agriculture to climate change. However, on the demand side it has remained a fairly blunt instrument. One oft mentioned shortcoming of global food policy models such as IMPACT model is that they treat national populations as a single composite consumer. As (relatively) wealthier urban and poorer rural populations exhibit different demand characteristics, have different base levels of food consumption, and have different levels of wealth, assigning a single representative consumer for an entire country could result in misleading results regarding both global prices and consumption and the food security of the poorer segments of the population. In this poster we present a global partial equilibrium food security model with disaggregated demand. Working from the IMPACT model, we divided national populations into their urban and rural components. Studies have shown that rural and urban consumers, as well as poor and rich consumers, have structurally different food demands. Accordingly, we assign different demand elasticities (price and income), different base consumption (at the commodity level), and different incomes to sub-populations populations within each country.  We have completed an extensive study of the food demand literature, using the findings to develop parameters to represent the structural differences in urban and rural food demand (see right for explanation of this process). We use rural/urban population and income data and projections from the UN to complete the disaggregation.Partial Equilibrium Models, Disaggregated Food Demand, IMPACT model, Food Security, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Security and Poverty,

Gender dimensions of social networks and technology adoption: Evidence from a field experiment in Uttar Pradesh

The CSISA project was launched in 2009 with the goal of reducing food andincome insecurity in South Asia through accelerated development and deployment of new cereal varieties, sustainable crop and resource systems management practices, and better access to information. The project includes widespread delivery and adaptation of production and postharvest technologies to increase cereal production and raise income; and promotion of (i) crop and resource manag-ement practices, and (ii) high-¬yielding, stress tolerant and disease-and insect resistant rice, wheat and maize varieties and hybrids. GAAP looked at two different CSISA projects. This project focused on how gendered social networks affect how men and women within the same household acquire information about agricutural technologies, using the technology of laser land leveling (LLL) as an example

Drought Risk and Drought Response in Morocco: Vulnerability, Risk Perceptions and Drought Coping Among Rainfed Cereal Farmers

drought, coping, vulnerability, risk, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, Risk and Uncertainty,

A strategic framework for improving food security in Arab countries

In 2007 and the first half of 2008, a sharp rise in agricultural commodity and food prices triggered grave concerns about food security, malnutrition and increased poverty. While the threat of a prolonged food-price shock receded in the second half of 2008, many factors underlying the price volatility are likely to persist, and will require careful management if future food-price shocks are to be avoided. This paper suggests three strategies that, together, could reduce vulnerability to price shocks: (1) strengthen safety nets, improve access to family planning services, and promote education; (2) enhance domestic food production and improve rural livelihoods through increased investment in research and development to increase productivity; and (3) reduce exposure to market volatility through more efficient supply chains and better use of financial instruments to hedge risk. The challenge of food security will require a global response, involving governments, international and regional funding and lending institutions, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector

Evaluation of biocompatibility, osteointegration and biomechanical properties of the new Calcemex® cement: an in vivo study

The mixture of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and β-tricalciumphospate (β-TCP) is the most widely used bone graft. Common features of bone cement are the biocompatibility, bioactivity, mechanical stability and ability to fuse with the host's bone tissue. However, there are still few studies that have evaluated these characteristics in vivo. Our study aims to acquire these parameters, using an animal model with functional characteristics similar to those of humans. The analyzed cement is Calcemex®, evaluated both in compact and fluid formulation. The chosen animal models were 5 pigs, treated with femoral and tibial implants of Calcemex® samples. After one year, the pigs were sacrificed and the specimens explanted for morphological, histological, ultrastructural and mechanical evaluations. For both formulations, the investigation highlighted the absence of foreign body reactions in the host, the histological integration with the surrounding tissues and the preservation of mechanical compression resistance

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI