QUANTIFYING THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC INCENTIVES ON FIRMS' FOOD SAFETY RESPONSIVENESS: THE CASE OF RED MEAT AND POULTRY PROCESSING SECTOR IN CANADA

This study assesses quantitatively the economic incentives for firms to adopt food safety controls and the potential impact of a number of firm and market-specific characteristics on this behavior, focusing on the red meat and poultry-processing sector in Canada.food safety controls, economic incentives, adoption, food processing sectors in Canada, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Assessing Consumer Attitudes and Perceptions Towards Food Quality: The Case of Consumption of Tetra-Packed Fresh Milk in Sri Lanka

The objectives of this study are (i) to assess consumer perceptions on fresh milk that are stored in tetra-packs, and (ii) to determine the relationship between the perceptions and the socio-economic characteristics of the consumers. Using Caswell's four subsets of food quality (i.e. food safety, nutrition, value, and packaging) two indices, namely Mean Attribute Score (MAS) and a Food Quality Responsive Index (FQRI) were developed, which describe how important each of these four subsets and various attributes included in each subset for a consumer to be "loyal" with fresh milk in a tetra-pack instead of spending that part of money on close substitutes. A sample of 664 consumers were randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire at 10 different marketplaces in the Gampaha district in Sri Lanka from April to May in 2005. A subset of 100 consumers who consumes the product more frequently was considered for further analysis. Ordered Logistic Regression technique was used to estimate the coefficients of the model, to which five levels for the dependent variable was derived using the range of values of the FQRI. The results based on the MAS indicate that consumers tend to purchase tetra-pack considering the attributes included in value and package subsets mainly, including purity, appearance, size, convenience, and informational labeling etc. However, consumers did not believe that it enhances those attributes included in "food safety" and "nutritional" subsets. The statistical outcome shows that age, gender, level of education and income have a significant impact on this behavior. It suggests that the "market" can promote the consumption of fresh milk provided that a product complies with the safety and nutritional standards set by the "government".Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

VOLUNTARY ACTION OF A FIRM ON ENVIROMENT MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT ON SRI LANKAN FOOD PROCESSING FIRMS’ RESPONSE TO THE PRIVATE AND REGULATORY INCENTIVES

The effect of a set of private/market (i.e. financial implications, internal efficiency, market response) and public/non-market (i.e. government regulation, judiciary/legal system) incentives for a firm to act voluntarily on environmental quality is examined. It uses the levels of adoption of five solid waste management practices [SWMPs], namely: (1) 3R system; (2) Composting; (3) Good manufacturing practices; (4) Biogas unit, and (5) ISO 14000 by food processing sector in Sri Lanka in response to the prevalence of each incentive at the firm as the case. The data collected from 325 firms through in-depth interviews and site inspections and supported by a validated structured questionnaire were analyzed using the principles of Structural Equation Modeling. The “Analysis of Moment Structures” (AMOS) software was used to establish the relationships between the levels of adoption of SWMPs and the strength of each incentive. The results show that firms‟ response to environment is relatively low, i.e. 49.2% did not adopt a single practice, while only 28%, 12%, 7.4%, 3.1% and 0.3%, respectively, have adopted 1, 2, 3, 4 or all practices. Firms tend to adopt a higher number of SWMPs as the relative strength of an each incentive perceived by the decision maker of firm gets increases. Firms put a higher weight on the impact on regulation and legal system than the private incentives and the firm size has a substantial impact on its response to the environment. The results highlight the importance of bringing the current public regulatory regimes in developing countries like Sri Lanka towards co-regulation, which is practiced by developed countries like Australia and Canada to facilitate businesses to come up with own solutions for environmental and food quality, as the outcome of this analysis points out that firms‟ compliance to the recommended SWMP was not triggered satisfactorily by the private/voluntary action.Environment management, Food processing sector in Sri Lanka, Incentives, Regulation, Solid waste management, Voluntary adoption, Farm Management,

Effect of Urbanization on the Adoption of Environmental Management Systems in Canadian Agriculture

This study examines the extent to which farming practices have adjusted to the presence of urbanization in Canada. In particular, we compare the adoption rates for environmental management systems (EMSs) by farmers close to urbanized areas versus those in more rural, isolated regions. Using information from a national survey of 16,053 farmers, eight EMSs are considered. We find that farmers operating close to the urban milieu demonstrate strategic behavior by selecting more environmentally-friendly farm management practices to overcome social and regulatory pressures from such communities compared to those farmers that operate in rural communities.Farm Management,

Molecular Characterization of Macrophomina phaseolina, the Incitant of Coleus forskohlii Revealed by RAPD Markers

Coleus forskohlii belong to family lamiaceae is one of the commercial plants grown extensively in the country, the chemical found in the Coleus which has both medicinal application and gives great economy to the industrial organizations. Unfortunately, these plants are being highly succumbed to serious diseases like wilt and root rot caused by a fungus, hence the growers and industrialists are facing severe problem in safeguarding this crop in the field irrespective of the agro climatic conditions. Root rot disease, is one of the major diseases of Coleus forskohlii which, is caused by Macrophomina phaseolina , Pathogen variability was studied at both morphological and molecular level using cultural characteristics and Rapid Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis respectively. Totally thirty two isolates were isolated from roots of Coleus forskohlii . In RAPD 165 bands were obtained out of them 121 bands (73.3%) were polymorphic with a similarity coefficient of 0.48-0.66. Clusters analysis of RAPD data when Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) Tree constructed using NTSYS, it showed 6 groups. Among them two were major clusters and 4 were minor clusters with similarity coefficient 0.48-0.66. The pathogenicity of the isolates was tested on Coleus forskohlii plants. Analysis of the pathogenicity tests results revealed that the isolates grouped under two major clusters which were different from the one obtained using RAPD data. The results indicate that the data from RAPD analysis and Pathogenicity tests do not correlate with each other

EFFECT OF URBANIZATION ON THE ADOPTION OF AGRIENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES BY CROP AND LIVESTOCK FARMS IN CANADA

This paper investigates the extent to which agri-environrnental practices(AEPs) adopted by Canadian crop livestock farms were adjusted to thepresence of urbanization. Seven AEPs: (1) water management; (2) wildlifeconservation; (3) pesticide management; (4) fertilizer management; (5)manure management; (6) nutrient management; (7) grazing management,were considered.It was hypothesized that farmers close to urbanized areas are more likely toadopt AEPs to minimize any conflict with their non-farm neighbors. The keyexplanatory variables included in the seven empirical models, whichcomprised of level of adoption of an AEP as the dependant variable, toexplain the degree of urbanization were: (the distance (km) "as the crowflies" from the geographical centre of each Census Sub-Division to that of thenearest Census Metropolitan Area in Canada, and (2) population density(number of persons/krrr') in the locale of each farming operation. In addition,a number of other standard control variables influencing the adoption ofAEPs (e.g. type and size of farm, age of operator, ownership, income etc.)were also included.The data from the Statistics in Canada collected through the "FarmEnvironmental Management Survey - 2001" (n=16053) were used. Theresults based on Logit Regression analysis imply that there are significantdifferences with respect to the adoption of AEPs in crop and livestock farmslocated in low versus high population density regions. The results imply inturn that farmers in urbanized areas face greater social and economicconstraints, and thus likely higher costs, than their counterparts in more ruralareas .

An empirical investigation on factors affecting coconut growers in the Kurunegala district to adopt integrated pest management techniques

The Coconut Development Office Divisions in the Kurunegala district were in the process of introducingIntegrated Pest Management (lPM) techniques to the coconut growers in order to control the majorpest and disease outbreaks of coconut plantations in the district. This study assesses the factorsaffecting these coconut growers to be innovative in adopting these IPM techniques in the cultivation.The Choice Model used in consumer economics (McFadden 1974) was used as the theoretical baseto explain this behaviour. There were] 27 coconut growers belong to four regions, namelyDarnbadeniya, Kudagalgamuwa, Weerambugedara, and Wellawa who had received a formal educationon the use of IPM techniques in this respect from an Extension Officerls attached to the CoconutCultivation Board were selected to collect data during the April to June in 2005. The Ordered LogisticRegression techniques were used to estimate the coefficients of empirical model, in which fivedependentvariables were developed to reflect the time taken by each grower to adopt at least twoIPM techniques in the cultivation effectively, where the "least" and "most" time takers were namedas "innovators" and "laggards", respectively. The results based on Logits and Marginal Probabilitiessuggest that factors such as age, education, income, and time commitment to the land had a significantand relatively higher impact on grower to be an "innovator". It also revealed that land size, availabilityof credit and skilled labor have no significant impact 011 this behaviour.

FARMER ATTITUDES TOWARDS ADOPTION OF SUSTAINABLE PROTECTION TECHNOLOGIES: THE CASE OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT IN VEGETABLE CULTIVATIONS IN SRI LANKA

This study examines empirically the extent to which vegetable cultivatingfarmers in Sri Lanka are willing to adopt effective, economical andsustainable crop protection technologies such as Integrated Pest Management(lPM) instead of applying solely chemical pesticides to control pests. It usesprimary data collected through a series of personnel interviews with arandomly selected sample of vegetable farmers (n = 100) that practicechemical control measures in the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts in theWayamba Province from May to July in 2005.The behavioural change in farmer attitudes and perceptions towards adoptionof environmentally-friendly IPM techniques instead of applying chemicals onthe vegetable cultivation on a regular basis were captured by means of twoindexes - Additive Index (AI) and a Multiplicative Index (MI), which usedthe scores given by participants to the survey to a set of attitudinal statements(n = 17) explaining this behaviour on a Likert scale. The outcome of AI andMI were in turn modelled with the farmer's socio economic characteristics,including the age, sex, level of education, income, managerial time,experience in farming, extent of land allocated for cultivation, crop type,availability of credit and extension facilities etc. to test significance of thesefactors on this behaviour. The results suggest that many of these have asignificant impact on the farmer's degree of responsiveness towards adoptionof sustainable agricultural practices. The outcome of analysis highlights theneed of provision of appropriate private and regulatory incentives for farmersto change their behaviour in this respect

Household willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a better waste management system An empirical investigation in the. Mawanella Pradeshiya Sabha region

The Mawanella Pradeshiya Sabha in the Kegalle district that serves to a population of 100,280 hasintroduced a novel approach to manage its waste under its "Increased Public Awareness & LocalGovernment Capacity Building Program" in 2004. The key feature of this program was, educatingand encouraging households to collect and sort waste at its source, which was facilitated by distributionof plastic bags and waste bins with different colour codes designed for the purpose, and subsequently,treat the waste at specific dumping sites using the principles of recycling to produce marketableproducts. This study assesses the progress of this program, and in particular how much the householdsare WTP for continuation and advancement of the program, because the regulatory authorities insistthat it cannot run the program with taxpayers money for any longer time. A survey was conductedwith a help of a structured questionnaire with 120 households selected randomly to represent 31 %households joined to the pilot program in 2004. The WTP of each household was modeled with anumber of variables, includ ing age, income and education level, amount of waste production, distanceto waste collection centre etc. The Contingent Valuation techniques were employed to estimate thecoefficients of model. The results suggest that all variables, except the level of education. have apositive and significant impact on households' WTP for a better system. it was estimated that ahousehold, in general, would like to pay Rs. 39.05 per month to continue the program. The officialsfrom the Pradheshiya Sabha indicated that this is a rational estimate as it can cover the net operatingcost of about Rs. 25-30 per month per household, and the rest can be used to improve the system

THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENT REGULATION ON FIRMS’ PRIVATE ACTION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: CASE OF NON-ADOPTION OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES BY FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR IN SRI LANKA

The purpose of this study was to examine empirically extent to which the regulatory framework and the legal system on environment have an impact on firms‟ private action on environment quality using the case of Sri Lankan food processing firms‟ non-compliance to the 9 different solid waste management practices (SWMPs) recommended by the Ministry of Environment for a firm to adopt based on the production and processing activities it undertakes. The perceptions of managers of 160 firms that did not adopt a single SWMP were assessed by means of an index – “Environment Regulation Responsiveness Index” (ERRI) of which the values reflects the relative strength of the firm in concern perceived on the environmental regulation (i.e.  -1.0 the least to 1.0 the most responsive). The outcome of analysis highlights that the magnitude of ERRI of the majority of firms was relatively low (i.e. in between -0.5 to 0.5), especially for the small scale firms, suggesting that firms did not consider the government regulation as a promising factor to act on the environment. This calls for a critical revision and adjustments to the policy on environmental quality management both at the national and provincial level in order to promote voluntary action by firms